Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 33rd cycle. Now cycle 34!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"Step Seven, Show Kindness"
Kurt & Brittany, Santana, Brittany/Santana
Paper Heart #8 (sequel to 'Step Six...')

She had gotten out of the shower that morning, started getting ready for school. She brushed out her blonde hair, blow dried it before willing it into the high Cheerio ponytail, and she had started getting dressed. The last part, before her socks and her sneakers, was the uniform. She reached for the skirt, slipped it on, pulled the zipper… It felt tighter, like it wasn't quite in place and she had to adjust it, so she did… Her hand brushed the skin of her stomach and she stopped. She unzipped the skirt again, enough to pull it away and look down.

It wasn't a lot… it wasn't much of anything… But she could tell; she could see that she had begun to grow, not even round yet… It wouldn't be long now before resettling her skirt would only do so much, and then she wouldn't be able to hide it anymore.

She reached for her phone, quickly dialled up Santana, who was already supposed to come pick her up to drive them both to school. She asked her if she could come a little earlier… now, preferably. Santana asked if she was alright, Brittany said she had to talk to her, and that was all it took; Santana was on her way. When she arrived, she found Brittany in ponytail and the bathrobe she had gotten her, saying she would need something comfy to grow into. Now apparently she'd put it on for that very reason. Before Santana could even ask what was happening, Brittany had shut the door and she dropped the robe. It threw Santana for a moment, having the girl standing there in her underwear, but then she noticed what Brittany herself had noticed right before she'd called her.

"Woah…" she stepped up, like she was tempted to touch her stomach. "So… yeah…" she looked back up into the blue eyes. "Don't worry about it, your uniform will still fit."

"I know. That's not why I called." Santana nodded – go on. Brittany sat down on the edge of her bed, after slipping the robe back on, though she made no effort to close it. "I've been thinking…"

"Right?" Santana frowned, sitting next to her. Brittany took a moment to speak again.

"Everyone's going to know about me at some point, I can't change that."

"The first one to make comments is going to have to deal with me," Santana vowed, pulling a smile out of the blonde.

"But they don't have to know about him," she made her point. "Kurt's gay. Everyone knows that. They wouldn't even know he could be the father unless someone told them." Santana looked at her, understanding what she was getting at.

"Brittany, are you sure…"

"You know the truth, and he does, and I do, and both our parents… If it stays like that, then he doesn't have to go through anything…"

"Yeah, but you will. Why should he get to hide?"

"It's not hiding, just… Everyone already says and does things because he's gay, now they'd have this, too? They'd never leave him alone. You see how it is with Quinn…"

"What are you going to tell people? They'll talk, about who's the f…"

"Let them talk," the blonde shrugged, and there was so much sadness in her. Santana put an arm around her shoulders first, then used her other arm to bring her friend into a hug.

"It's not right. You hear me? You're worth more than that. If you don't want them to know about Kurt, I get that, I'm all for it…" Brittany nodded. "But that doesn't mean they need to think you just slept around and…" Brittany was giving her a look like she was about to say 'but I kind of do.' "Beside the point," Santana insisted, and Brittany smirked. "Just… I don't know, invent someone," Santana shrugged.

"Can I call him George?" was Brittany's response.

"You can call him whatever you want," Santana had to smile at that. She looked better now. "Now come on, you need to get dressed so we can go."

Brittany got dressed – with the uniform on, her discovery of that morning disappeared completely – and they were off. When they got to school and Brittany spotted Kurt, Santana told her not to be late to Cheerios practice and then she walked away. Brittany took a breath, gathering up courage, then walked up to him, standing at his locker. "Hi, Kurt." He looked at her, and he still had that same look he would get now, when he looked at her. She wasn't just Brittany, his Glee Club co-member, Cheerio, and so on… not anymore… Now she was the mother of his child… no matter how strange their situation was.

"Hey, how are you…"

"I'm fine," she promised, just like most mornings. "Can we talk?" He nodded, looking around and indicating for him to follow into the Glee Club room.

"Brad, can you excuse us?" Kurt asked the pianist when they found him sitting there. He quietly got up and left the room. Kurt closed the door. When he turned around, he found Brittany in the process of unzipping her uniform skirt. "What are you doing?" he blinked.

"It's okay," she promised, tugging it down just enough to show him. He stared, unsure.

"I don't…" he couldn't see it. She pointed her finger, really showed him where to look.

"It's not much but…" His eyes grew wide; now he saw it.

"Oh…" his voice faltered, stepping up to her, much like Santana had, though in his case he did tempt reaching out very carefully, touching the spot where she'd pointed. "It's really in there…" he mumbled under his breath, amazed.

"Yeah…" Brittany smiled. Kurt looked back up at her, and Brittany almost thought he was going to cry.

"Thank you." She nodded, fixing up her skirt again.

"Kurt… when they find out about me, I'm going to protect you," she started, and after what she'd just shown him, it took a moment before he got what she was saying.

"Protect me how?"

"No one needs to know that it was you that got me this way," she explained.

"If you're worried that I'm going to walk away…" he started, and she shook her head.

"No, I know you won't," she promised before explaining to him her reasoning, the way she had explained it to Santana. He could see her point, but at the same time…

"I can take it. I just can't see myself standing there, pretending like I'm not part of this. I said I'd stand by your side, and having to deal with what those guys throw at you, that's part of it."

"They're going to throw stuff at me?" she blinked. He looked her in the eye.

"It's both of us, okay? I'm not letting you take it all upon yourself," he told her, showing how he was both thankful for the thought she'd had and needing to show her, as always, that he was speaking truth. She nodded, now just as close to tears as he'd been earlier, throwing her arms around his neck. He hugged her, closing his eyes.

"Guess I won't need George then…" he heard her say.

"Who?"

"Nothing, never mind…"

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!