"Thanks again, little brother," Zack said, patting Blaine on the shoulder.
"No problem," Blaine said, "I love little Allie."
"Cool," Zack said as he was backing out the door, "so we'll be back around 11-ish? Is that okay?" It was just before 5 o'clock.
"It's cool, have fun!" Blaine yelled to his brother and Heather, his sister-in-law, waving enthusiastically.
He closed the door and locked the dead bolt before turning to go find his niece. It didn't take long, though, because she was right where he left her: in her playroom watching "The Lion King." When Blaine walked through the door, the curly-headed little girl noticed and squealed happily.
"Uncle Blaine!" she squeaked. "Come watch with me, come watch with me!"
"Only if you'll sing along with me!"
He picked her up from the floor swinging her around once before sitting down on the couch, pulling her into his lap. When "I Just Can't Wait to be King" came on, Blaine sang loudly and off-key, making the little girl giggle.
"Uncle Blainers, you can't sing good!" she exclaimed, "let me try!" So she sang the rest of the song, Blaine smiling widely at her the whole time.
"That was great, Allie," he said, "you could be a famous singer one day!"
"Like Katy Perry?" she asked, her eyes wide and smile big.
"No," Blaine said, and the little girl frowned. "You would be so much better." At that Allie jumped up and wrapped her arms around Blaine's neck, pulling him into a tight hug.
When she finally let go, the doorbell rang.
"Allie, one of my friends came over to meet you," he said, "would you like to meet him, too?" he asked.
"Yes!" she said, jumping from Blaine's lap and running to the door and wrenching it open. "Hi! I'm Allie!" she squealed as she threw her arms around her guest's knees.
Blaine was coming down the stairs when this happened, smiling to himself as he saw his boyfriend hugging her back.
"Allie, this is my friend, Kurt."
"Hi, Kurt!"
"Hi, Allie," Kurt said, "it's nice to meet you. That's a very pretty dress you have on."
She looked up at Kurt and smiled before thanking him and giving him another hug.
"Do you want to come watch 'The Lion King' with me?" she sked.
"Only if you'll promise me something," he said.
"What?" she asked.
"You have to help me sing along!"
"You're just like Uncle Blaine!" she squealed, "I just hope you can sing better than him."
"Hey!" Blaine said.
"Don't worry, Allie," Kurt leaned down and whispered to her, "I can sing much better than Blaine." With this he winked at his boyfriend and followed the little girl to her playroom.
The three sat down on the couch, Allie electing to sit in Kurt's lap this time, and continued to watch the movie. They all sang along to the rest of the songs, Allie deciding that, "Yes, Kurt does sing better than you, Uncle Blaine!"
When the movie was over Blaine picked Allie up and gave her a piggy-back ride down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Allie," Blaine said, "what do you want to have for dinner?"
"Can I have chicken fingers, Uncle Blainers?" she asked sweetly.
"What do you say first?"
"Please?"
"There you go," he said, smiling down at his niece. "Why don't you climb up in your chair and I'll go make them?"
"Can Kurt help me get in my chair? Pretty pretty please?"
Before anybody could answer, Allie started giggling because Kurt had picked her up and started tickling her. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" she squealed while trying to break free. "Kurtie, that tickles!"
"Well that's the point, silly!" he said to her before helping her into her chair.
He turned to look at Blaine who was just standing across the room, watching the two interact. He walked over to the pair and leaned down kissing Allie's curls before turning to Kurt and taking his hand and squeezing. The couple just stared into each other's eyes, smiling.
"Uncle Blaine?" Allie asked.
He turned away from Kurt to look at her. "Yes, Princess?"
"Are you and Kurt married?"
"W-what?"
"You two should be married," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What makes you say that, Allie?"
"Kurtie looks at you the way Daddy looks at Mommy and Daddy and Mommy are married so that means you should be married to Kurt."
"I- uh, no, sweetie, we're not married," Blaine told her.
"Are you getting married?" she asked again. "If you are can I be the flower girl and wear a pretty dress and skip down the big row and throw daisies everywhere?"
Blaine looked to Kurt, a little apprehension in his eyes, hoping for a little back-up. However, he didn't need it. As if on cue, the timer for the chicken went off.
"Dinner's ready!" Kurt exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Are you hungry, Allie?"
"Yes!"
Blaine turned to go pull her chicken out of the oven while Kurt went to get her a plate and some ketchup. Blaine let the chicken cool off a little before putting it on her plate and bringing it over. He and Kurt both sat down on two stools at the kitchen counter and waited for her to finish eating.
When she was done, Blaine put her plate in the sink before walking over to her and picking her up.
"Uncle Blaine, can Kurtie carry me?" she looked up at him through her eyelashes and stuck out her lower lip. "Please?"
"Kurt?" he turned to ask his boyfriend.
"Sure, sweetie," he said, holding his arms out to accept the little girl from Blaine. "Where to?"
"Uh," Blaine said, "it's about bath time."
Kurt began to walk up the stairs towards the bathroom while Allie twirled her fingers in Kurt's hair.
When they had reached the bathroom, Blaine flipped on the lights and turned on the water in the bathtub, making sure it was just the right temperature, before turning back to Kurt and Allie.
"I can take it from here," he said, holding his arms out for his niece.
He quickly helped her undress and get in the bath tub, pulling out a few toys and playing with her.
Kurt watched from the doorway, smiling to himself.
When Blaine had finished washing Allie's hair, he drained the bath tub and wrapped her up in her bath towel (pink ducks), before carrying her into her bedroom. She helped him pick out her pajamas before running back into the bathroom to get her comb, and turning to Kurt.
"Kurtie!" she yelled. "Kurtie! Will you comb my hair? Pretty please with cherries and sugar on top?"
He laughed quietly before nodding his head and taking her comb. "Where to?" he asked her.
She lead him to her bedroom and plopped down on her bed before patting right behind her signaling for him to sit.
As he combed through her curls, she started humming to herself.
"What are you humming, Allie?"
"Just a song Uncle Blainers used to sing to me," she said. "It's Katy Perry! He said I could sing like Katy Perry. No, he said I could sing gooder!"
"He would," Kurt muttered to himself.
"What?" she asked.
"I said, will you sing it for me?"
"Okay!" she squealed, "but Uncle Blaine has to come help me!"
"Did I hear my name?" Blaine asked as he walked through the door.
"Uncle Blaine!" she jumped off her bed and ran to give him about the fiftieth hug since he had come over today. He picked her up gently and hugged her right back. "Kurtie wants us to sing to him!"
"Oh, really?"
"Allie was humming along to a song," he said, "I asked her to sing it to me but she said only if you would sing with her."
"And what song were you humming?" he asked.
"That one about being pretty and funny and dancing by Katy Perry!" she said. "You used to sing it to me all the time, do you remember, Uncle Blaine?"
Kurt and Blaine shared a look with each other, both clearly recognizing the song by the little girl's description. When Blaine turned back to look at Allie, he smiled and said, "I think I can remember the words. Why don't you go crawl in bed and start us off?"
"Okay!" she said as she jumped down from his arms and ran to tuck herself in bed.
"You think I'm pretty without any make-up on.." she sang.
"You think I'm funny when I tell the punch line wrong.." Blaine chimed in.
"I know you get me so I let my walls come down..doooooown!" Allie sang.
The pair kept singing to each other until they had finished the song. Kurt clapped generously.
"Wow!" he cried, "that was fantastic! You really are better than Katy Perry, Allie!"
"Thank you, Kurtie!" she said, reaching out for a hug from both boys.
When Blaine finally got Allie to settle down, he turned on her night light, turned the overhead light off in her room, and walked out, closing her door behind her. Checking his watch, he saw that it was 8:30 exactly.
"Perfect," he said.
"She is such a sweet little girl," Kurt told him, grabbing Blaine's hand and linking their fingers. "Your brother sure got lucky."
"Yeah," Blaine said, smiling again, "I love her so much."
Kurt and Blaine walked down the hall towards her playroom and sat down on the couch. Kurt pulled Blaine against his chest and started running his fingers through his boyfriend's curls. They both laid there, not talking, just enjoying being together. It was a few minutes before either of them broke the silence.
"You're going to make a great dad, Blaine."
Kurt was freaking out to himself when Blaine didn't respond immediately, hoping he hadn't overstepped. He opened his mouth to fix whatever the problem was, but he was cut off.
"You think so?" Blaine asked, turning his head slightly and looking up into Kurt's eyes.
"I do," Kurt told him, and leaned down to press his lips to Blaine's in a chaste kiss. "You are so great with her, I don't see how you could be anything but."
"Thank you," Blaine said, "that really means a lot."
Kurt kept running his fingers through Blaine's curls, sighing contentedly. He quickly fell asleep on the couch, Blaine not far behind him.
—-
Something was wrong. Blaine's eyes opened and he looked around trying to figure out what was going on. He looked down at his watch and saw it was barely 10 o'clock so Zack and Heather wouldn't be back yet. It wasn't long before he heard the sniffling noises coming from down the hall. He eased himself out of Kurt's arms and walked down the hall to Allie's room.
He pushed the door open quietly, poking his head inside.
"Allie?" he whispered. The only response he got were a few more sniffles. "Allie, what's wrong?"
"Uncle B-Blaine," she cried, "you left me."
Blaine crawled into bed beside her and pulled her tight against him. "Shhh, it's okay, Princess, I'm right here."
"B-but you left me," she cried again.
"I didn't leave you, sweetie, I was just down the hall," he explained, rubbing circles on her back.
"N-no, in m-my dream," she whimpered, "you and K-Kurtie left m-me."
"Shh, Allie, it was just a dream," he cooed, "I'm right here, I'm not leaving, Kurt's not leaving."
"But you did!" she cried. "You left me and I never saw you again!"
"Allie, listen to me," Blaine said, turning her to face him. "I will never ever leave you, okay? I will always be here for you, no matter what. Do you understand?"
"Y-yes," she said, wiping at her tears.
"Come on, sweet girl," he whispered, "let's get you tucked back in and to sleep."
After he had tucked her back into her sheets, he leaned down to kiss her cheek.
"Good night, Allie," he said, heading for the door.
"Uncle Blaine?" she called.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"I love you."
Blaine's heart swelled at those words. He stood in the doorway for a moment before saying to her, "I love you, too, Allie."
He could see her tiny form snuggling into her sheets, so he turned around and closed the door behind him.
When he got back to the playroom, he found Kurt sitting up looking concerned.
"Is she okay?" he asked.
Blaine walked back over to the couch, this time pulling Kurt into his arms.
"Just a nightmare," Blaine assured him, "she's gone back to sleep now."
Kurt turned himself around in Blaine's arms and reached up to put his arms around Blaine's neck. His thumbs played with the loose curls there. He leaned up to press his lips to his boyfriend's, lingering for just a moment.
"I do too, you know," Kurt whispered against Blaine's mouth.
"Hmm?"
"Allie said she loves you," Kurt told him, "I love you, too, you know."
Blaine's mouth curved up into a smile before saying, "I love you, too," and kissing Kurt to show him just how much.