I recently re-read Fathers by Onceinyourlife and just could not resist /o\ So yes, it's best if you read that wonderful, wonderful fic first before reading this, because – though it'll still make some sense – it won't be as funny until you realize how this story fits in with the Fathers verse. Basically though, Blaine is retelling an infamous story from his days in the Hummel-Hudson home to his daughter.
ENJOY! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Fathers (or the references to it in this fic), nor do I own glee. I'd probably die from the amount of love I'd receive for either. Luckily, I'm not dead yet.
"Daddy, please! Pleeeease, Daddy, please?" a six (and a half!) year old Caroline asked, her blue, owl eyes staring up at her father as her bottom lip jutted out. Her little, dimpled hands were clasped together, pleading as she sat up on her purple bed and begged her daddy for one more story.
Blaine smiled, unable to resist how tightly his daughter had him wrapped around her little fingers. He brushed a curl away from her face and tucked it behind her ear, conceding.
"Fine, fine. Just one more story and off to sleep. Alright, Caroline?"
He arched one brow, and his daughter nodded. Caroline squealed, jumping out of her seat to wrap her arms around Blaine's neck.
"Thank you, Daddy! Thank you!" she squeaked, pressing sloppy kisses all over Blaine's cheeks with loud mwahs. Blaine laughed, pulling the little girl away from his neck and pushing her down in her bed.
"Alright, alright. Settle down first," he asked gently, and when Caroline finally settled in, he smiled once more. "So, we just finished Rapunzel – again – what do you want to hear now, sweetie?"
"Ummm," Caroline hummed quietly, her pink lips tucking into her mouth. Blaine couldn't help but smile even more at the sight; the way she tucked her lips in reminded Blaine a lot of his own husband doing the same. "You pick, Daddy!"
Blaine raised his brows, surprised at the request.
"Alright then. What about –" he started, looking around the room for ideas, "– Cinderella?"
Caroline shook her head in the negative, a slight frown etching at the corners of her mouth. "No, Daddy. Papa read that one last night!"
"Right," Blaine agreed when he remembered, looking around again for a story to tell his little angel. "Snow White?" he asked, but Caroline just shook her head again.
"I want a story about a prince, Daddy," Caroline requested. "All you and Papa read about are princesses. I wanna hear a story about a prince."
Blaine looked into his daughter's eyes, opening his mouth to ask why before remembering one particular story. He chuckled, dropping a kiss to Caroline's forehead before sitting back into his seat and getting comfortable.
"A prince?" he confirmed, and Caroline nodded excitedly. "Well," Blaine began, "once upon a time, not so long ago, there were two princes who lived in a tiny village."
Caroline's clear blue eyes brightened, the concept having never been told before. "Two princes, Daddy?" she asked, unbelieving that she was actually getting two princes in this one story.
Blaine nodded, smiling softly. "Yes baby, two princes. Two princes who loved each other very much."
"Like you and Papa?" Caroline inquired, and Blaine chuckled again.
"Just like me and Papa," he answered with a smile and nod. "Now, are you going to stay quiet and let me finish the story? Or are you going to keep talking, and then we'll never get to see how the princes end up?"
Caroline lifted both her hands to cover her mouth, shrinking into her bed as she let out a quiet "sorry". Blaine shook his head, a goofy grin on his face.
"Okay… where were we? Right, they loved each other very much," he continued, watching his daughter's reactions carefully. "They had many beautiful adventures together. They sang songs, and held hands, and kissed a lot too."
Caroline giggled. "Eeew, Daddy!" she squealed quietly, and Blaine couldn't help himself, he ruffled his daughter's fluffy curls.
"Shh!" he reminded, "I'm telling a story!" Caroline nodded, an unending smile plastered onto her face as she listened contently. "The princes loved one another more than the whole world, just as much as they love you really," he continued, "but, one day, an evil wizard tried to break them up."
Caroline gasped and she just had to ask, "But why, Daddy? The princes loved each other lots! Why did the wizard want them to break up?" She pouted, her brows furrowed when she realized the wizard didn't want the princes together.
Blaine sighed solemnly. He couldn't just bring up what he and Kurt had to go through to get to this point, not yet anyway. He reached for her hand, a comforting gesture, he knew, because Caroline immediately relaxed as soon as her little fingers held on tightly to Blaine's.
"Well, the wizard just didn't like that two princes were together," he tried explaining, "instead of a prince and a princess."
The small girl made a face, one that surprisingly looked a lot like Kurt's infamous bitch face.
"Well, that's not fair!"
"I know, baby, I know," he agreed quietly, his free arm reaching to smooth her hair down. He shook the memories off, getting back into the story. "Anyway, the wizard did everything he could to be mean to the shorter prince. Until one day, the prince ran away and left the evil wizard to his scotch and his sorrows."
"What's scotch, Daddy?"
"Uhh… it's a drink that only grown ups can have, baby."
Caroline nodded, the information making sense to her six-and-a-half year old mind.
"So, the prince found a new wizard," Blaine went on. "One with less hair, admittedly, but one who helped the two princes stay together and one who didn't want anything bad to ever happen to them."
Blaine paused for a little while, letting the information sink in.
"Daddy," Caroline began, "that wizard sounds a lot like Grandpa Burt. He doesn't have any hair at all!" She giggled, and Blaine joined in with the laughter as well.
"Yeah," he sniggered quietly, "he does sound like Grandpa Burt."
"If he's like Grandpa Burt, he must be a very nice wizard!" Caroline rationalized. "I like this wizard lots, Daddy."
"I think the short prince liked this wizard a lot too." He smiled at Caroline, going forth with the fairy tale. "Anyway, the two princes who loved each other very much were suddenly met by a village idiot –" He paused again, his eyes widening at the slip. "Whoops! I mean… dumby, don't tell Papa I said that word… trying to woo a fair maiden. And one day, the dumby convinced the two princes that going to a lute performance would be a great idea and wouldn't get them into any trouble, even though the wizard had strictly forbidden it."
"Why did the wizard not allow the princes and," she lowered her voice, "dumby, to go to the performance?"
"Well," Blaine thought, trying to come up with the simplest answer, "the performance was in another kingdom, and the wizard didn't know if the princes and village dumby would be safe in there because it was too far."
Caroline nodded again, the information processing into her brain easily. "That makes sense. I'd want the two princes to be safe too."
"Yes, well the village dumby was very convincing. So the two princes went along with his plan, going to the lute performance anyway."
The little girl furrowed her brows again. "But the wizard said they couldn't go!" she pointed out. "I don't like this dumby, Daddy, he's making the princes do things they shouldn't do," she whined, and god, did she remind Blaine a lot of a seventeen-year-old Kurt right now.
"No, I don't like him either, baby…" he replied, biting back a smile. "But I suppose we can't really blame the village idiot entirely, now, can we? Those two princes really loved lutes. It was pretty much their favourite instrument."
"Oh, really?"
"Really."
Caroline's brows furrowed once more, confusion clear on her face while she thought about who to agree with now. So Blaine continued with the story, snapping her out of her dilemma.
"Anyway, the village dumby was really bad at being clean, and the wizard caught the dumby with a particularly green hand."
"The wizard caught the village dumby being… dirty?" Caroline asked, clearly confused.
"Well… yes, I suppose if you put it that way."
"The dumby got in trouble for being dirty?"
Blaine turned the accusation over in his mind.
"… yes."
"Why'd he get in trouble for being dirty? And for having… a green hand?" she pressed, her tone making it clear that nothing was making sense.
"Well, does Papa appreciate it when you get dirty? Especially with your new dresses?" Caroline shook her head, knowing clear well how upset her Papa could be when he saw her dresses dirty. "Well, it's sort of the same thing here. And when the wizard saw the green hand, he knew that the princes and the village dumby went to the lute concert."
"But how, Daddy?"
"Because the wizard knew that the performance had everyone who watched get their hands painted green. It seemed the village dumby forgot to clean himself properly and left his hands dirty with green paint," he tried explaining.
There was a pause, but before long Caroline shook her head. "Whatta dumby," she commented.
Blaine guffawed, nodding. "Whatta dumby, indeed!" He met Caroline's gaze before continuing. "So, the green handed village dumby and the two princes were promptly banished from the outside world, and forced to hand over the reigns to their horses for the rest of their days."
Caroline pouted, her jaw dropping slightly and a frown clear upon her face.
"No – !" she gasped, but Blaine let his index finger silence her lips.
"Shh!" he hushed, smiling softly. "But, fear not! Because the two princes still had each other, all because of the wizard who still loved the princes… even if they acted like village dumbies sometimes too."
Caroline nodded with a smile, satisfied at the turn out. "That's good. The princes really love each other, don't they, Daddy?"
Blaine nodded too, grinning down at his little girl. "That's right, sweetie."
"So, did they live happily ever after?"
"Well, eventually, the princes escaped their tiny village and went to the most perfect city on Earth, the very newest of Yorks."
There was another long pause, but then a look of despair shadowed Caroline's face.
"Wait, did the princes still love each other in the new Yorks, Daddy? Did they? I hope they did. It would be sad if one of the princes found another prince to love…" she trailed off, her face upset at the possibility.
Blaine shushed her quietly, his hand letting go of Caroline's and his arms wrapping around the little girl's frame gently.
"Of course the two princes still loved each other in the new Yorks, Caroline. And they loved each other a long, long time after that too."
"Always?" she asked, looking up at him with big, blue eyes.
"Always," he confirmed, kissing her hair once more.
Caroline hugged Blaine tightly, whispering, "That was a good story, Daddy."
She barely got to finish her sentence when a large yawn escaped her mouth. Blaine chuckled, helping her lay down again.
"Looks like someone's ready for sleepy-time," he pointed out. His daughter just nodded, little fists coming to rub at her tired eyes. Blaine kissed Caroline's cheek, tucking her in one last time for the night. "Good night, baby."
"G'night, Daddy," Caroline whispered, her voice trailing off into deep, steady breaths.
Blaine smiled sweetly at his daughter, placing one more kiss to her forehead before standing up, turning off the lights and exiting the room. The moment Blaine stepped outside, he found Kurt smiling by the door with his arms crossed, smiling sweetly.
"Did you just tell our little girl about that time we listened to Finn – oh, excuse me, village dumby – and went to that stupid Gaga concert?" Kurt asked with amusement laced in his voice. He closed the distance between him and Blaine, wrapping his arms around Blaine's shoulder while resting his head against Blaine's shoulder.
"Yes?" Blaine whispered, his lips brushing Kurt's earlobe.
Kurt chuckled. "You know, with how enthusiastic Caroline was about that story, she's going to ask for it again."
"That's okay," Blaine admitted with a soft smile, "I don't mind telling her."
-v X v-
Kurt was proven right when Caroline asked for the Tale of the Two Princes (Papa helped me come up with that title Daddy!) the next night. And the night after that. And the night after that. And the night after that…
But neither Blaine nor Kurt ever got tired of telling her.
YAY FLUFF? /o\ idk, this story has been begging me to write it since I reread fathers.
(I miss this verse so much. Why isn't season 3 like this fic?)
But yeah, reviews are forever lovely and I really hoped you enjoyed! :D
x o x o bjaarcy
PS For those who recognized it, yes, a good chunk of the fairy tale is the original dialogue from Fathers. If you don't recognize it, you should go read that fic now and get familiar ;D