A/N: Hello lovely people :) I'm Roadrunner (honestly I've been gone so long that I'm sure no one knows who the hell I am) and I present you my new story! I'm excited because I've wanted to write this for so long and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity before life gets too hectic again to the point where I can't get on the computer to write a single sentence.
I hope you all enjoy, and I apologize for errors.
Blaine couldn't stop looking up at the clock hanging above the swinging door that lead to the kitchen. Of course Charlie, his manager, wouldn't let him leave his shift until five o'clock sharp. Every time Charlie caught him staring at the clock, he would begin to yell at him to "get the hell back to work, Anderson!" quite loudly for nearly the whole diner to hear.
He bit his lower lip as he continued to stack the dirty dishes in his arms that he just served to: a sweet elderly couple who left him a rather hefty tip that seemed to lift Blaine's moods. That was, until he tripped over the table's leg and dropped the two plates, a spoon, some forks, and bowl that were gathered up in his arms.
"Blaine, sweetie, are you okay?" A young woman in her early twenties approached him, bending down to help gather the pieces.
"I'm fine," Blaine mumbled, already on the floor scooping up the broken pieces. "No, Stacy, I got it."
"Too bad," she flipped her purple-streaked blond hair back as she proceeded to gather more shattered pieces with utmost care. "I'm gonna clean this up while you serve booth twenty-one in the back. They have two toddlers who won't shut up and I have a blistering headache."
Blaine nodded, standing up almost unsurely. "Thanks."
He began to make his way over, and his stomach churned at the sight of the two toddlers, sitting side by side, squealing and gurgling, while the parents attempt and fail to calm them down. Yet another glance at the clock told him that if he served this table, he would be able to leave and head back home.
Sucking in a deep breath, he surged forward, the sounds of the toddlers' obscene noises increasing with each step he took.
It wasn't like he disliked kids. Most of the time, it was the parents who couldn't control the kids. One of his biggest pet peeves is bad parenting. And as one of them, he constantly felt like he wasn't making the world's greatest choices for both himself and his own kid.
Unsurprisingly, the parents had given up to the point where they didn't even acknowledge their own kid. The toddlers were so unruly and the parents didn't care about how much of a scene they were causing and how much trouble they were giving Blaine. Once again, bad parenting seemed to really hit on with this generation.
When he finished with that table, there was more food splatters on the table and on the booth cushions than the amount of crumbled up napkins used to clean up the mess.
Once again, there was a tap on his shoulder as he was scrubbing hard on the table surface, and a hand reached out to snatch the wet rag away from his hands.
"Stacy, what is-?"
"It's five."
And Blaine all but bolted out of the Cardinal Diner, barely even hearing Stacy's laughter behind him and not even bothering to hang up his apron and instead keeping it along with him.
He pushed through the doors and set off on a quick jog, nearly bumping into other people walking around the sidewalks of downtown Columbus. He was so close to his apartment, it was just rounding the corner of the street of the Cardinal Diner and continuing down to the end of the road, at Catania Apartments.
Blaine was there in no time at all, pushing through the doors and said a quick hello to Natasha, the old, wrinkly receptionist with big, wide rimmed glasses that always glared at him with a scowl whenever he entered and left the building.
At two steps at a time, he hiked up the crummy metal stairs that clanged loudly with each step he took. Blaine never trusted the elevator here at Catania; it creaked and was always in repair. Not only that, but his apartment was only on the third floor. There really wasn't a need to take the elevator to go up or down only two floors.
His feet thumped when he reached the top step and he opened the door leading to a quiet and slightly chilly hallway filled with doors leading to other residents' homes.
Blaine's apartment was room number 305, three doors down of the stairs. Already he could hear the familiar music to the famous Nintendo game coming from his own home, and he couldn't help but smile as he approached the door. Just as he took out his key from his front pocket, he heard squeals of laughter and a groan, followed by cheering. He couldn't have slammed the key into the keyhole and unlock the door faster.
The door was pushed open and he walked inside, closing the door right behind him. Blaine's smile grew when he saw his daughter cheering and jumping up and down on the sofa while Sam was sitting with hunched shoulders on the arm chair, hitting his forehead with the Wii Wheel controller.
"I'm guessing you lost the race?" Blaine said, approaching his best friend from behind.
Immediately the young girl squealed and attempted to launch herself into Blaine's arms. "Daddy, I missed you," the girl said, clutching tightly on Blaine's legs instead. She was only so small for a first grader.
Blaine hoisted his daughter so she was being supported on Blaine's hip. "I missed you too, Kelly. How was school?"
"It was awesome," Kelly replied, her green eyes twinkling. "Mr. Hummel taught me how to take away numbers from each other and we learned about frogs!"
"Frogs are totally awesome," Blaine said, still paying attention to his excited daughter.
"Yeah, an' during sing-a-long Mr. Hummel played the piano," the young girl sighed and leaned her head on Blaine's shoulder. "Mr. Hummel sings like an angel."
Blaine couldn't help but chuckle at his daughter's admiration for her new teacher of the school year. "So you really like Mr. Hummel, huh?" he asked, adjusting Kelly on his other hip.
"You bet she does," Sam cut in. "She wouldn't shut up about him ever since she came home."
"At first he was kinda weird with such a high voice and really pricey looking clothes," Kelly said, "but he is so amazing and…" she shrugged.
"He's just that amazing?" Blaine said.
"He is."
"That's great to hear, pumpkin," he then set his daughter back onto the couch. "Would you mind heading to your room and cleaning up? I can see it from here and it looks like a tornado went right through it."
Kelly sighed exasperated and hopped off the couch and waddled off to her bedroom to do what she was told.
Once Kelly was out of ear shot, Blaine collapsed on the couch face first
"How was your day?" Sam asked, picking back up the gaming controller.
"Awful." His response was muffled by the pillow his face was resting on.
"That's better than yesterday." Sam selected the weird looking purple dinosaur and a cool bike to go along with the character.
"What did I say yesterday?" Blaine asked.
"You said, and I quote, 'shitty'."
"I only said 'awful' so that way you wouldn't be so sympathetic to me. For god's sake, yesterday you had Quinn deliver me one of her homemade cakes."
"She felt bad for you, bro! Oh, and she wants a turn babysitting Kelly Cake."
"I bet she does. You always hog Kelly, especially on weekdays."
Sam nodded and bit his lip as he avoided a vicious racer nearly jostling him off -the course. "I do and I have no regrets and- oh, shit why did Yoshi had to do that?"
Blaine just sighed and buried his head deeper into the pillow. It was silent between the two of them, and the weariness had finally caught up to Blaine and he suddenly woke up with a start when he felt someone poking his stomach repeatedly.
Groggily, his eyes adjusted to see his daughter already in her Spiderman pajamas, a gift from Sam, and her hair was dripping wet. She was still poking Blaine while the other hand was at her mouth.
"Kelly, sweetie, please stop sucking your thumb." Blaine mumbled, tossing himself over so he was lying on his back.
Kelly yanked her thumb right out of her mouth with a pop. "Sorry daddy. And dinner's ready. Sam made noodles! With meatballs! And the noodles are bowties."
"Mm, bowtie spaghetti, huh," Blaine said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, what you said. C'mon daddy," Kelly began to tug Blaine's arm rather viciously for a first grader, "you're dinner's gonna get cold!"
"Yeah, and I hate for a good meal to go to waste," Sam interjected from the kitchen. "Get your as- I mean butt, in here mister!"
Blaine groaned as his daughter continued to tug relentlessly until finally Blaine launched at Kelly unexpectedly and swooped her up so she was being carried on his shoulder.
"Daddy, put me down," Kelly shouted, followed by giggles as she began to pound her fists onto Blaine's shoulder. "Don't kidnap me; I'm too pretty to be taken by my own daddy!"
Sam burst out laughing as he set another plate out for Blaine. "Are you guys going to stop fooling around and eat my world famous bowtie spaghetti and meatballs? Or am I going to have to eat it all?"
"We're here, Uncle Sam," Kelly said with a grin as Blaine set her down in her chair with a quiet grunt.
"And gosh, Kelly Cake, you're getting really heavy and much taller," Blaine told her once he was seated right across from her. "Sooner or later you'll be the one carrying me around on your shoulder!"
Kelly cocked her head curiously as Sam went up to her plate and scooped bowtie noodles onto her plate. "Blaine, that won't be happening for a long while. And besides, Kelly's not growing, you're shrinking."
"Hey, I am not shrinking," Blaine cried out on top of Kelly's giggles. "Stop with the short people jokes. You're being a bad influence in front of my daughter."
"Yeah, Uncle Sam," Kelly echoed in an accusing tone. "You're being a bad in… uh-"
"Influence?" Sam offered, finishing serving Blaine and currently serving himself.
"-yeah, you're a bad influence on me, Uncle Sam."
Sam laughed and Blaine nudged his shoulder. "She's got a point there. Next thing you know, the two of you will be robbing banks and holding people hostage."
"Like Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story 2?" Kelly asked through a stuffed mouth.
"That's right, sweetie," Blaine said. "And please don't talk with your mouth full of food and don't take too big of a bite," Blaine added, pointing at her with his fork. "And what do we say to Sam for cooking our meal?"
Both adults looked at Kelly expectantly as she finished chewing as quickly as possible. When she swallowed, she bellowed "thank you!" with a proud smile like she won the lottery.
Blaine couldn't help but smile to himself as he took his first bite of his dinner.
xXxXx
After dinner, there was cleanup that required a bigger job of wiping down the floor (Sam, being immature in front of Kelly as ever, had nearly started a food fight when he launched a meatball at Blaine's hair and thankfully for Blaine he missed). While Blaine was doing dishes, Sam was in the bathroom with Kelly drying her still damp hair from her bath and would soon tuck her in and say farewell and leave for the night.
Blaine was nearly done rinsing a pot before he saw Sam gather up his possessions and made his way out with a "see ya later, bro" and a "expect Quinn tomorrow to pick Kelly up from school". And Blaine couldn't have been more happier that Hawkins Elementary, Kelly's school, had pulled some strings due to Kelly's lifestyle and allowed both Sam and Quinn, and only Sam and Quinn (and of course himself) to pick her up after school.
When Blaine began to run the dishwasher, he made his way over to Kelly's bedroom to read her a bedtime story and kiss her goodnight before turning off the lights.
What had him standing in the doorway, frozen in place, was Kelly, reading the first book of the famous Harry Potter series. Not only that, but it was Blaine's copy of the book that was kept in his bedroom bookcase, and he could tell by the missing corner that was ripped from years of reading and the worn out spine that was barely holding the pages together.
"Kelly, what are you reading?"
It took his daughter a few moments before lowering the book and looking at Blaine. "I'm reading Harry Potter and the," she turned the front cover so she could see it, "and the Sorcerer's Stone. Uncle Sam helped me read the word right."
"He did a fantastic job, but why are you reading that book? Won't it be a little challenging for you?"
Kelly shrugged. "I dunno. I was thinking you could read it to me at night."
Blaine couldn't help but grin. His daughter was finally following his own childhood and was going to read his favorite book series of all time. It was surely a dream come true.
"Of course, Kelly Cake," he said, walking over and sitting on the bed next to her legs. "May I see the book?" Kelly then handed him the book with the first page bookmarked with a piece of tissue that wasn't used. "How far are you?"
"I only got to there," she pointed at the second page, her finger on top of the first sentence.
Blaine ruffled his daughter's hair, which she squirmed at the action. "That's pretty far, princess. Do you understand what's going on?"
Another shrug. "Kinda."
"Well, here, how about I start over and add voices?" Blaine offered.
"Yeah, do that."
Blaine shifted on the bed, holding the book carefully in his hands and began to read. *"'Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.'"*
Blaine took a quick pause to check on Kelly, who was still raptly into the book and by Blaine's words. Without further ado, Blaine continued.
*"'Mr. Dursley was the director of a film called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck-'"*
"How could he not have a neck?" Kelly asked with wide, innocent eyes.
"Because of how… big he is, it looks like he doesn't have a neck," Blaine explained.
"So he does have a neck."
"Yes."
"Okay. I'm good."
Blaine smiled, and continued. *"'Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.'"*
"That's very rude, why would she do that?"
"She just… does. That's her personality; she's very nosy on other people."
"Mr. Hummel should read this book to my class for story time."
Blaine hummed in agreement and was just about to start the next sentence, when…
"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Hummel is having a confence with all of the other mommies and daddies tomorrow."
That stopped Blaine short and he looked up at Kelly, shock overcoming his face. "You mean conference, right?"
Kelly nodded, not catching her mistake. "Yeah, a confence. It's in my backpack. And the paper's pink!
Blaine groaned and got off the bed and went over to Kelly's The Avengers backpack (yet another gift from Sam) sitting by the door and began to dig through her things. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier, Kelly?" Blaine asked through the rustles of papers and books.
"Because I forgot," Kelly said from her bed, like it was the most logically thing in the world.
Blaine's eyebrows furrowed deeper as he finally found the bright pink sheet of paper that Kelly told him of wedged between a pack of colored pencils and a folder filled with worksheets. He pulled it out from the depths of the bag, carefully so he didn't damage it. "Is this it?" he asked, waving it for Kelly to see.
"Yeah, that's it. Are you in trouble, daddy? Are all of the other mommies and daddies in trouble too?"
"No sweetheart," Blaine answered, not really paying to his daughter. He scanned over the paper, telling him that the conference were for all parents and just to tell them what to expect for the course of the year and just to meet the parents. "Your teacher wants the conference so he could meet with all of the parents. It's nothing to worry about."
"Okay. Can we continue reading now?"
"Sure, if you're not tired yet," Blaine said, folding up the paper and shoving it in his pants pocket and heading back to Kelly's bed. He picked up the book and scanned the page to find his spot.
"You ready?"
Kelly nodded, and Blaine began to read once again.
*"'The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.'"*
Just as Blaine finished the sentence, he was expecting for Kelly to ask the obvious: what was the secret? But one glance away from the book to his daughter showed that she was peacefully asleep, quietly breathing in and out of her mouth, which was slightly agape.
The sight of Kelly was so precious Blaine had to smile fondly at her, despite her being sound asleep. As quietly as possible, without even rustling the pages of the book, Blaine closed it and slid it on top of her bedside table. He snapped off the bedside lamp, and leaned down to kiss Kelly softly on the forehead. Kelly squirmed slightly and rolled over just as Blaine pulled away, and he began to inch his way out of the bedroom, shutting the bedroom door behind him with the softest thud possible.
Once Blaine let go of his tight grip on the doorknob, he whipped out his phone and called the last number that he used as he made his way over to the sofa in front of the television set. It only was half past eight and Blaine expected Sam to answer almost immediately. He wasn't surprised when Sam answered on the first ring.
"Bro, whatever Kelly said, I didn't do it."
Blaine crossed his arm. "Really? Well, too bad. She told me everything."
"Wait, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I was messing with you," but the silence on the other line said enough. "Hold on, what did you do?"
Blaine could hear the very audible gulp, although it was slightly muffled. "I may or may not have given Kelly more than just an apple for snack after school."
"I'm guessing Oreos, right?"
"Dude, she had begged me for five straight minutes. If it got her to be quiet for the rest of the night, then it was like, a no-brainer."
"Look, I'll settle the scores later with the two of you," said Blaine, "but I need to ask you something, and you're going to have to repeat some of this to Quinn yourself later."
"Sure, what's up?"
"Did you know that Kelly's teacher had scheduled a conference for all of the parents of his students tomorrow?"
"Nope. Kelly never told me that. Why?"
"Well," Blaine pulled out the sheet of paper, "I need Quinn to stay a little longer with Kelly. Apparently, the meeting is at five and doesn't end until six. And I guess I have to figure out a way to get out of work a little earlier so I can drive there in time, but can you ask Quinn if she could do it?"
"Of course, hold on." There was silence and murmurs from the other end and Blaine waited patiently for Sam to come back on the line.
After a few more moments, Sam came back. "Good news! Quinn can make it. Bad news, though. She has a meeting at six thirty with one of her bosses and she needs to leave as soon as possible. Do you think you could do that?"
"I'll do my best, even if it means leaving halfway during."
"Don't worry; it's only a five to ten minute drive for her."
"Then yes, that sounds perfect."
"Excellent! Quinn will see you tomorrow and tell the little brat that I said hi."
"Of course. I'll see you."
"See ya, man."
Blaine was first to end the call and slipped the phone back in his pocket along with the pink slip of paper. Looking over at the oven clock told him that it wasn't even nine yet. With a defeated sigh, Blaine trudged over to his bedroom and got ready for his own night's rest. Might as well, especially that he has a bright and early day tomorrow filled with interesting events.
**= the following quotes don't belong to me and are used for story purposes. All respectful characters, places, and storyline belong to their rightful owner and not me.
A/N: I'm also looking for a beta! If anyone's interested let me know because I need one (but ps, I'm terrible with technology and I have very little awareness of how to work the beta reader). Just talk to me to let me know!
