Clubhouse

by civillove

Future AU: Blaine and Rachel's daughter wants a clubhouse built—and if his daughter begging wasn't enough, Blaine is somehow easily bribed with fake tears and giggles.

Title: Clubhouse
Pairing: blainchel
Summery: Future AU: Blaine and Rachel's daughter wants a clubhouse built—and if his daughter begging wasn't enough, Blaine is somehow easily bribed with Rachel's kisses and promises of snickerdoodle cookies.
Type: one-shot
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own anything yadaaaa. Otherwise Blaine would probably have a full head of curls and be straighter than he is.
Author's note: For Rachel. And because I like the idea of daddy!Blaine :3

Blaine should have known better to fall asleep on the couch, face pressed into the cushions with a pile of ungraded papers surrounding him. But being a full time parent and a high school Literature teacher, with the occasional sub-ins as a theater teacher, he found himself exhausted more times than not. He knew Rachel was just as tired with her role in Evita and that both of them were extremely busy during the week. He hated hiring a babysitter for Ella but it was impossible not to do so when both of them had full time jobs. Luckily, Blaine was done with school around three PM and brought most of his work home with him to grade so it didn't really matter that Rachel had to work late with her current shows. He did his best to make dinner for him and his four year old daughter and always made himself available to take baths with Rachel when she came home and her body ached from learning so many dance steps. He found himself having to remind her, very gently of course, that he knew Evita was one of her dream roles but…one of the many reasons he loved Rachel was because she was dedicated, passionate and enthusiastic about doing what she loved. But sometimes that meant she wore herself down working as hard as she could to be the best she could be for her Broadway role and she forgot to take care of herself and her health. Which was why he always tried to make sure he was available by the time she came home; to rub her shoulders and the tense muscles in her back and calves. And luckily Ella was usually in bed by then because…rubbing of tense muscles usually always led to something else which easily tired her out.

It was Saturday, so Blaine had time to lounge around the house as he watched Ella, lazily grading papers that were due back to his tenth grade class Tuesday while Rachel went to another practice in Times Square. So naturally, he had managed to grade six papers before conking out on the couch. He started to stir, however, when he felt something warm and solid settle onto his back and knew it could only be one of two things…and since one of those things were at work, no doubt making her voice and opinions clear while she instructed lightly (insisted passionately) that there were certain things done 'appropriately' and 'correctly' for Broadway…he knew it could only be one other person.

He grunted sleepily as he turned, his daughter crawling off his back to stand beside him as he woke up. He ran a hand over his face, ruffling his curls with his fingers as he blinked, looking down at her bright smile and wide chocolate brown eyes. She looked just like her mother (was incredibly stubborn like her too). Ella had his dimples when she smiled but…everything else looked like Rachel to him. Strong, determined, bright coffee colored eyes, the same distinctive nose, lightly freckled cheekbones and shoulder length, slightly curled (alright, so maybe that was from him…) brown hair to match her eyes.

"You okay?" He asked after a moment out of habit, his voice thick with sleep. Although, her bright smile and the mischievous glint in her eye told him she was quite fine.

"I drew mommy a picture!" She exclaimed, holding up the sheet for him. He raised his eyebrows as he noticed she had taken a piece of paper from the table…which…just so happened to be where his graded papers were… "She likes stars." Ella informed him, like he didn't know.

Blaine took the sheet of paper from her and turned it over where a student's writing was. Well, he hoped, he squinted at the name on the top of the paper; 'Jill Carvey' enjoyed stars as much as his wife did.

"I know she does, sweetie. But…" He shook his head, a small smile on his lips regardless that she had done something wrong.

He wasn't much of a hard-ass parent anyways. One lip wobble from his daughter and he was a pile of putty. He found it hard to yell at her or scold her in any manner, and Rachel was always less than happy that she always had to be the bad parent but…he couldn't help himself. Ella hadn't exactly mastered crying on command like her mother knew how to (Blaine still had yet to find a way to distinguish when Rachel was faking to get what she wanted and when she was actually upset about something…) but he was pretty sure she knew, even at four, that big fat tears rolling down her cheeks more than persuaded her father more times than not.

Blaine set the paper aside and picked Ella up to sit on his lap; he'd let her give Rachel the drawing when she got home and then steal it back to return to his student on Tuesday. At least Jill, if he remembered correctly, liked to paint so…maybe she'd appreciate the Starry Night-esque work done by a four year old on the back of her Literature paper on Poe.

He wrapped is arm around her and gently bounced her on her knee, making her giggle and hold onto his arm. "You know we were going to name you Star," He hummed softly. "But your mother was really rather adamant about Ella." He pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

Ella had been Blaine's grandmother who had taken care of him like a mother when he his parents had divorced when he was fifteen. She had met Rachel a few times, more once they had started dating in college, and had fallen absolutely in love with the girl. Blaine had smiled brightly because, naturally, who couldn't fall in love with someone so beautiful, passionate and determined? He had been away at college when she had died, heart attack Cooper had told him—and he forever regretted the fact that he hadn't been able to be there for her like she had been there for him his whole life (especially from fifteen on). So when Rachel discovered they were having a girl, Ella's name was instantly on the list and chosen by his wife (then girlfriend) the very next day. He was honored Rachel wanted to name their daughter after his grandmother; he wouldn't have been able to get through his parent's divorce if it hadn't been for her. The memory of her always stirring up emotions from her strength, beauty and warmth any time he thought about her—therefore, it really was a perfect name suited for their daughter.

He looked down as Ella said nothing to that but instead hummed a tune from Wicked (Blaine and Rachel were sort of guilty in the sense that they played an obnoxious amount of show tunes when either of them were home—it didn't matter if it was Rachel making breakfast, Blaine giving Ella a bath, one of their ipods hooked up in the car when they went to the park on Sunday's, or during puzzle nights where all of them sat in the living room and tried (and failed) to put together puzzles before Ella gathered too much energy to sit still and rounds of hide-and-seek were played before dinner time) as she tried to tie two strings from his sweatpants around her waist.

He knew she wanted something, he just wasn't sure what. Alike her mother, Ella usually had an important purpose to everything she did (determination and passion about that determination right out of Rachel's handbook) and she woken him up for a particular reason.

"Elly?" He tickled her affectionately, making her giggle and try to stop his hands. He smirked and stopped a moment later, turning her around to face him on his lap. She leaned her side into his chest and looked up at him. "Was there a reason you came to wake me other than mommy's drawing?"

She bit her lip, a curious wheel turning behind her eyes. Blaine watched her for a long moment, his nose picking up on her mother's perfume on her clothes from when she had hugged Rachel goodbye this morning. Her eyes flickered towards the kitchen, landing on the back door that led to their decent sized backyard and then connected eyes with him again, warm hazel ones trying to read her.

"Sally has a clubhouse." She stated quietly, her fingers playing with the bottom of his shirt.

Alright…so Blaine knew this already. Sally was the little girl who lived next store to them; her father and uncle had put up a clubhouse for her and her friends in the backyard last week. It was a simple, pink painted, wooden clubhouse settled in a strong, big oak tree that sat in the back of their yard. Ella and Sally had been friends for a while there; Ella used to love going over to bake cookies and watch Disney movies with the other little girl—but they had gotten into a huge fight recently, even got the parents involved, so they hadn't spent time together for a while now.

Ella had been holding singing competitions in Sally's tree house…and naturally insisted she was better and that she won mostly all (every one) of them. Of course, Sally hadn't taken Ella's superior attitude very well and had cried to her mother—who then talked to Rachel and Blaine had to listen to Rachel vent about how it wasn't Ella's fault that she clearly had better vocals compared to Sally. Blaine agreed, naturally, but mostly at the time it had just been to placate her (they were supposed to be doing otherthings that didn't include talking about their neighbors…or talking at all, actually).

"I know she does…" Blaine trialed off, not really sure where she was going with this.

And then it happened, almost out of no where—Ella's lip wobbled and her eyes instantly filled with bright, shiny, droplets of water and something sharp and hard squeezed his chest, panic welling up from his stomach.

"Oh, Elly," He pulled her close and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Don't cry baby." He bounced her on his thigh again, gently rubbing her back as she pushed her little face into his chest, her tear drops seeping into his t-shirt.

"I w-want a clubhouse tooooooo." She wailed, her fists squeezing fistfuls of his shirt.

Oh, God. "I don't…" He tried but a loud cry tumbled from her lips and she shook her head, her feet kicking slightly as this crying jag was developing into a full blow temper tantrum.

He didn't know the first thing about building a clubhouse…he wasn't even sure if he had enough supplies in the basement to start such a thing (but it really didn't seem like Ella was going to take a 'no', or 'maybe later' for an answer)—he had never once had a clubhouse built for him. Even Cooper, the epitome of every father's dream son, hadn't wanted a clubhouse while Blaine had been busying himself with bowties and Frank Sinatra songs. So he didn't even have the slightest idea where to start—but he was certain of one thing, he had to get Ella to stop crying like that. He was pretty sure his eardrums were going to have holes in them if she didn't let up.

"Okay, okay," He hushed, running his fingers through her hair while he pressed circles into her back. "Shhh, I'll uhm, I'll build you…a clubhouse okay?" He wasn't sure what this damned thing would look like but he'd try nonetheless.

And just like that, like a switch being flipped off, Ella's tears dried up, her lower lip stopped wobbling and a bright smile quickly replaced her distraught frown as she pulled back from him.

"I'll go put my pink yard shorts on!" She exclaimed, humming softly as she jumped off his lap and ran to the stairs to her bedroom.

Blaine sat there for the longest moment, his mouth opening and closing as a dumbstruck expression passed over his face. His daughter really was the clone of Rachel sometimes, it was utterly ridiculous the amount of similarities. And like any other time he fell into the trap of fake tears, he did exactly what was asked of him and he ran his hands through his curls as stood to go to his laptop, typing into Google 'how to build a clubhouse for dummies who can't say no'.

000

So. With a long and hard look throughout their basement and even checking out the shed near the back of the yard...he had managed to acquire: a giant square wooden board, twelve long planks of wood, buckets of blue and white paint, paintbrushes, a navy blue tarp, nails and a hammer. Well. It didn't look too promising even though Ella had the widest grin on her face that he'd ever seen. Even wider than the time they told her they were going to visit her uncle Cooper for Christmas.

He didn't even have the heart to tell her that this wasn't going to produce much of a clubhouse…but he spread the wooden planks out on the grass and opened the cans of paint, letting her paint all of them blue so he could add puffs of white clouds on top when they dried. Her face was covered in streaks of blue paint by the time she had finished and Blaine had haphazardly managed to gather her hair into his hands so he could pull it back into a messy ponytail so she wouldn't dip the ends of her hair into the paint bucket.

By the time the planks had dried well enough that Blaine could handle them without getting paint all over himself, he had just finished eating dinner with Ella (which consisted of Mac n Cheese and Grilled cheese—their little secret that there was not one green part of that dinner) and headed back outside with her to start putting together some sort of…frame for her clubhouse. It was starting to get dark, the Fall season falling upon them with the hours of sunlight growing shorter and shorter, but he was determined to at least finish a small part of this so Ella could at least have something to brag about tomorrow when Sally and her mother stopped over to catch up with Rachel (because even though Sally and Ella had had a fight and weren't friends anymore…it was always better to be civil with your neighbor rather than mortal enemies. Otherwise it turned into one of those strange dramatized movies where neighbors got into petty back and forth fights because someone borrowed the lawnmower or a package of sugar and forgot to return it).

He told Ella to run inside and go to his bedroom to look in his nightstand drawer on his side of the bed (he made her repeat it back to him three times; his nightstand on his side of the bed…because Rachel's nightstand drawer had…adult themed things that Ella wasn't ready to see or know about yet (or ever was fine with Blaine too as a parent point of view)) for a tin with Disney princesses on it that held a lot of band aids and Neosporin for the cuts and bruises he was most likely going to get trying to hammer this frame together.

After hammering a few boards into place and successfully injuring seven out of his ten fingers (they were all decorated with multi-colored, neon band aids now) he asked Ella to stand still and hold onto the bottom of the board so he could hammer one into place. It wasn't that heavy and the paint had made the wood smooth so he gently leaned the tall wooden plank against her chest as she wrapped her arms around it and grinned at him while he smirked, shook his head, and paid attention to what he was hammering…unless he wanted to up the count of his injured fingers. Of course, that was when Rachel had decided to come home—and he heard the back door open, but before he could even tell Ella not to move she was sprinting towards her mother—and the board she had been holding quickly tumbled down…onto his head.

The loud thump made Rachel gasp (and wow, his head wasn't as hollow sounding as he thought it would be?...was that a concussion speaking or who thought about if their head sounded hollow) and she picked Ella up and rushed over to him as Blaine groaned and felt his forehead. He definitely had a large bruise forming near his hairline but…no blood, no swearing (he had managed to hiss out something that sounded a lot like 'cupcake') so therefore he'd be fine.

"Ow, baby." Rachel knelt next to him, setting Ella down—who blushed and looked very sheepish as she seemingly remembered the board she was supposed to be holding up for him. "Are you okay? That looked like it hurt."

He made a face at her because, yeah, it not only looked like it but it had actually hurt. Rachel smiled softly at him and leaned closer to kiss the corner of his mouth, sitting in the grass before looking up at the sky.

"It's getting dark…" Blaine nodded softly at her words, glad she put the flood light on before she stepped out and distracted their daughter from doing her job. He focused on the nail he was pounding into place and licked his lips, repositioning the last board and grabbed a few nails. "And I think it might rain…it kind of smells like rain, don't you think?"

Blaine shrugged. "Your point being?"

"You should come inside," Rachel huffed. "I want to take a bath and…" She leaned closer and nipped at his ear while Ella wandered over to the tarp and tried to unfold it. "I don't just have bath beads at my disposal…if you know what I'm saying."

Blaine was pretty sure if he had been drinking something he might have choked on it. But instead a dark pink blush spread over his cheeks and his eyes nearly widened out of his head as he turned his head and looked at his beautiful wife smiling slowly at him, her eyes swirling with suggestive lust before biting her lower lip.

He cleared his throat before speaking so his voice wouldn't squeak. "I want to finish this, I'm almost done."

Rachel sighed, but she didn't look upset. She actually looked rather amused that he was out in the yard trying to build a clubhouse out of misfit parts from their basement. "You're almost done because you have three non-injured fingers left?" She teased, running her fingers through his hair.

"Haha." He muttered, standing up to flip the frame over so it was standing upright. He brushed his hands off his pants, licking his lips as he tilted his head at the…uneven looking cube he had managed to build.

Rachel stood along with him, pulling her navy blue t-shirt over her jeans, poking the one board and making the thing creek as it shifted on the grass.

"Uh, very nice…Blaine." She looked over at him. "Really, I'm impressed."

He glared at her, making her giggle. He playfully poked her in her side and bit his lip as he heard a rumble of thunder in the distance, making Ella squeal and run over to him, grabbing onto his leg. He ran a hand through her hair and picked up the large, flat piece of wooden board and set it on top of the frame, making a makeshift roof.

He bit his lip. "Uhm…"

Rachel scrunched her nose and tilted her head. "Is it supposed to be so uneven?"

Blaine sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Not exactly."

Blaine picked Ella up and shifted her into Rachel's arms, taking the tarp and opening it to settle ontop of the frame so it created some sort of canopy looking effect—like when they gathered all the chairs from their kitchen and dining room and set them up in the living room to put blankets over them to create a fort. Another loud crack of thunder made Ella whimper and reach her arms out to him.

"Blaine, she wants you." Rachel said softly, gently bouncing Ella in her embrace to try and calm her.

He knew both Ella and Rachel hated thunderstorms (he had always been sort of fond of them) but usually when it rained hard and loud they all cuddled up around him in their bed—Rachel molded into his side as Ella snuggled on top of his chest.

Blaine licked his lips and made sure the tarp was securely settled on top of the frame and board, luckily it wasn't very windy, and turned to take his daughter into his arms. "Okay," He hummed, holding her close to his chest as she pushed her face into his neck and shoulder. He smiled softly and pressed a kiss onto her forehead, whispering a few things in her ear to make her smile. He went to take Rachel's hand to go inside but….then got an idea as he looked back at the frame of the clubhouse.

"You know…I think we'd be safer inside the clubhouse." He stated, looking over at Rachel, who raised her eyebrows and stared at him skeptically.

"What?"

He grinned at her and turned to look at Ella, who was still hiding her face in his neck. He pressed a few kisses to her shoulder, getting her attention.

"Don't you think Elly?" He asked as she looked up at the clubhouse. He bounced her up and down and she giggled softly. "It looks so much safer than Sally's clubhouse, doesn't it?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded like 'so that's what this is about?' as Ella's eyes suddenly brightened as she nodded enthusiastically.

"My clubhouse is better than hers just like my voice was." Ella huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as giant raindrops started to fall, plopping onto skin, clothes, the tarp and grass.

Blaine grinned at Rachel and snorted as she gave him a look that said she was anything but pleased at what he was doing. "Well, we can't argue with that logic now can we?"

The clubhouse was just a smidge taller than he was, luckily Rachel and him weren't very tall, and he held onto Ella as he ducked under the tarp, sitting on the dry grass underneath the wooden board roof that was covered with the tarp. Ella squealed as she sat down on Blaine's lap, clapping her hands as she looked around the clubhouse, like she could even see anything with the dim glow that the floodlight was offering her from their backdoor.

"Mommy, come seeeeee!" She exclaimed and Blaine smiled slowly, shaking his head.

He lifted the tarp slightly to see the rain starting to come down more heavily, Rachel still standing outside of the clubhouse with an indignant look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, mom, come see." He stuck his tongue out at her and she huffed. "Get in here!"

Rachel finally let up, probably because the rain was coming down in sheets now, and rolled her eyes, crouching down to crawl under the tarp. Blaine muttered something about her being stubborn, which instantly got him tickled in the side as Rachel took a seat next to him. He grinned at her as Ella turned around on his lap to face her mother.

"Look what daddy made me." She pointed, like Rachel couldn't see for herself. "We put clouds on them."

Rachel smiled despite the fact that he knew she wasn't happy to be outside in a rainstorm and he wrapped an arm around her, creating a warm cage of his body as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. He felt her relax under his touch and rubbed circles into her back as she nodded at Ella, complimenting the little girl on the expertise clouds on the blue painted boards.

Rachel pushed her face into Blaine's neck for a moment as thunder once again rumbled through the atmosphere and he smirked slightly as Ella looked unphased, obviously feeling very safe in her wobbly clubhouse. He turned his head and tilted Rachel's chin, placing a long and soft kiss on her lips before kissing the bridge of her nose.

Ella giggled as she watched them, pushing her face into Blaine's shoulder and muttering something about 'kwisses!'. Blaine then attacked her with kisses at such a statement and both of the girl's giggles easily drowned out the next bought of thunder as rain pattered against the tarp.

And even though the clubhouse wasn't painted pink…or very sturdy and it would probably fall down if a slight wind blew through the yard and it wasn't in a tree or anything or didn't have little seats to sit on or decorated walls (or walls at all)—it was still ten times better than Sally's clubhouse. Because it had two very special things that hers didn't.

It had Rachel and it had Ella. And that easily made it the best clubhouse compared to anyone else's.