When Kurt was young he had an imaginary friend, like most children do. His imaginary friend was different, though: he insisted that she was a spirit.
"She's here to help me and when I'm grown up and don't need her anymore she'll get her wings!" he would say cheerfully, and his parents would smile indulgently at him.
But when he announced that his friend's name was Anna, both Ellie and Burt Hummel winced. The name brought with it too many painful memories.
When he was young, Anna could be written off to Kurt's overactive imagination. But Kurt grew older, and although he stopped mentioning Anna around the time all the other kids abandoned their imaginary friends, Burt would still pass by Kurt's door and hear him talking to her.
Anna became more prevalent when Ellie died four months before Kurt's eighth birthday, give or take a few days. Burt didn't say anything; he figured it was Kurt's way of dealing with the tragedy and he kind of wished he had an Anna of his own.
Sometimes Burt would find pictures when he was cleaning Kurt's room. They were often of Kurt and Anna together, with Burt occasionally making a guest appearance, but there were a lot of just Anna. Burt saw the first drawing and knew immediately who she was: Kurt was quite the talented artist for his age.
The drawings were just one of many hints that pointed to Anna perhaps being more than just imaginary.
After Kurt entered middle school there were no further mentions of Anna, but Burt knew she was still there. Whenever Kurt had a particularly rough day he would go to his room and Burt would hear him talking quietly to a girl only he could see.
When Kurt entered high school, though, he no longer talked about his day to Burt or even to Anna, which deprived Burt of his nightly eavesdropping. Burt knew how rough high school was for a kid like Kurt, both from his own memories and from what he'd overheard about Kurt's struggles in middle school. Burt had always known Kurt was different; he was just waiting for confirmation.
He got it one night after Kurt's first— and last— football game. The kid had turned to him and said something about not wanting to hide who he was or whatever and then he just said it. 'I'm gay.' And the fear in his eyes was enough to make Burt wonder exactly what Kurt thought he would do. Burt loved his son, though, and would never do anything to hurt him. So he replied with 'I know', and when he had pulled his son into a tight embrace, he looked over Kurt's shoulder and could swear he saw a teenage girl watching them and smiling. But then he blinked, and she was gone.
TBC.
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