"Good job guys, that's good for today," Blaine says, with his thumb on the mike button before falling back in his seat and scribbling down a few notes in his notebook. He shuts the notebook and stands up with a yawn as he pushes back his chair. "Okay, Jaime, I'm going to go. I have Amelia today, so I have to pick her up from school," he says, as he takes his books off the counter of the recording booth.
Blaine turns to leave before a familiar brunette steps in front of him, a nervous expression on her face as her hands tighten around a manila envelope in her hands. He pauses, his eyebrows knit together slightly before exhaling quietly. "I'm sorry B...but it came when you were recording," Jaime says as she holds out the envelope.
"Oh um, thank you," Blaine says, quietly, as he takes the envelope and bites his lip. How had it come to this? When he'd gotten married nine years earlier he hadn't particularly anticipated signing divorce papers less than a decade later. He takes a few steps back from his assistant and turns on his heels before opening the metal clasp and slipping the envelope open. Blaine bites the inside of his cheek as he pulls out the perfectly crisp white packet out of the envelope and slides it onto the counter, grabbing the nearest pen as he quickly flips through to the marked pages. His hand moves on autopilot, signing his name on the respective lines, trying to keep himself from reminiscing about the past ten years of good memories with his ex. In the end, he knew the divorce was the right decision for all of them, however that didn't make it any easier. "Okay, signed," he says, as he shuts the thick packet and seals it shut, "sealed." Blaine picks his dark grey blazer off the back of his chair and pulls it over his navy button down before walking back to Jaime and holding out the envelope. He smiles hopefully, and sings, "Now can you please deliver?"
Jaime laughs and rolls her eyes as she takes the envelope out of his hand, crossing her arms over her chest as she shakes her head in amusement. "Yeah, I got it, now you get out of here and go get that beautiful little girl of yours. Tell her I say hi," she says as she shoos him out of the room.
"Thank you, you're a life saver," he says with a grin as he walks out of the room quickly, chuckling quietly. Blaine pulls his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it, taking his time as he scrolls through his playlists before stopping on the right one with a smile on his lips. He plugs in his headphones before popping them in his ears and pressing play, shoving the door open and stepping out into the cool air of the usual New York autumn day. The opening melody of "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles filled his ears as he begun to make his way to Amelia's school. Each step he takes is in step with the music, letting the light hearted tune lift his spirits.
Going through a divorce is notoriously known for being one of the most painful emotional experiences you can go through. However, Blaine didn't know whether or not he completely agreed with that. The painful part was watching your relationship fall apart at your fingertips, knowing that no matter how hard you try, you're most likely never going to be able to fix it. No matter how positive he tried to be, or how many nights he'd cook a nice dinner or bring home flowers, their underlying issues were still there. If both men weren't set on the notion to make sure the relationship would survive, then it would just never work out. So no matter how much he wanted to fix it, he couldn't. Their decision to go their separate ways was ultimately his only choice, it was the only way they could both be on at least decent terms for the sake of their daughter.
"Blaine, did you know they were doing sex education in fourth grade now?" an angry voice yells loudly. Blaine shakes his head quickly and refocuses his eyes on his surroundings. He hadn't even noticed that he'd made it to the school, let alone that he was in the hallway filled with angry parents and children, yelling, crying, and reasoning. "Blaine Anderson, are you listening to me?" the voice says again as Blaine pulls out his earbuds.
He looks around to find the source of the voice to see the one and only Rachel Berry making a beeline to him from a few feet away. "Rachel! Hey, sorry, but what?" he asks, caught completely off guard by her words. Blaine wasn't entirely sure he heard her correctly, and he wanted to make sure he knew, one way or the other.
"They taught sex education to our nine year olds!" she hisses out angrily before bending down to her son that was angrily pulling at her arm. Blaine grimaces and mutters that he has to find his own daughter, before side stepping Rachel and looking around the crowded hallway.
"Amelia! Lia!" he calls out as he cranes his neck slightly to tries to see a familiar face. Blaine's stomach churns slightly as he thinks of the possibilities of tonight's conversation. There was no doubt in his mind that Amelia would be reeling with questions for him, and he wasn't quite sure he was going to be able to answer all her questions. The one thing he was absolutely certain of was that there was no way he was going to explain the intricacies of gay sex if she asked, because he couldn't imagine a more terrifyingly awkward conversation as that. Suddenly someone grabs the sleeve of his jacket and begins to pull him toward the door. Blaine looks down to see a familiar mop of dark curls that was pulling him to the door. "Hey there, kiddo," he says as with a nervous laugh as he lets his daughter lead him out.
The young girl's silence catches him slightly off guard as they weave their way through the hallway of screaming children. Blaine tries his best to ignore all the conversations going on around him, hoping that the same questions wouldn't be yelled at him as well. When the pair finally stumbles out the front door Amelia drops his hand and runs down the stairs before turning and staring up at him with her hands in her pockets. "We need to talk," she says firmly as Blaine slowly walks down the front steps
"About what," he asks warily, deciding to play dumb so he would only answer the questions he needed to. Blaine gets to the bottom of the steps and holds out his hand for Amelia to take before they begin to walk down the sidewalk, making their way home.
"About sex and my Dad, Dad," she says as she looks up at him, squinting slightly as Blaine keeps his expression carefully unsurprised. "We learned that to have a baby, a man and a women have to have 'sex', which is when a man thrusts his penis into a vagina. Then the sperm go into an egg and then you have a baby," she rambles on, causing Blaine's eyes to widen slightly as he begins to walk a little faster. Although he knew they were going to have to have this discussion he was really hoping they could do so in private. "I know that you don't have a vagina and my Dad doesn't have one, so I don't get how I'm here," he explains looking back up to him again, her dark eyebrows pulled together slightly over her curiosity filled blue eyes.
Blaine lets out a low whistle as he tries to think of how to explain it to Amelia in the best way possible. He'd always planned on explaining this to Amelia on his own terms with his husband at his side. However, it didn't seem like that was going to happen, and he knew he was on his own. "Well see...Your Dad and I love each other a lot, and when we decided to get married we knew that we wanted kids. We'd always wanted kids, it was something we were really looking forward to," he explains as they walk down the street, nearing the familiar apartment building that would hopefully make this situation a little less awkward by at least making their conversation private. "And because we can't physically have kids together, we decided to try a surrogate, which um...they use...well, basically they take a man's...sperm, and they medically use to fertilize an egg before putting that into a woman who then carries the baby and then gives birth...and then, you get the baby. So, that's what we did with you," he explains, wrinkling his nose slightly as he explains, irritated with his own description of it. Amelia doesn't respond right way, she walks in silence, trying to turn over the new information in her head to make sure she understood it. It was almost ten minutes before she spoke again, just as they were about to enter the apartment building.
"So whose sperm was it? Yours or my Dad's?" she asks, swinging their hands between them slightly as they walk through the doors of the building. "Hey, Maurice," she waves with a smile as she drops Blaine's hand as she skips toward the elevator and hits the up button before looking back to her father expectantly.
"It was mine, why do you think you have all that hair?" he says with a smile, before messing up his daughter's hair slightly. "We chose an egg that came from a woman who looked like she could be related Dad so you'd look like both of us," he explains as he wraps his arm around his daughters shoulders and brings her to his side as the elevator opens.
They step inside the elevator and hit the correct button before leaning almost simultaneously back against the elevator wall. "So you guys got married and then you decided you wanted a kid so you had a baby because you're in love?" she asks, pushing herself up on her toes and then back on her heels a few times as she waits impatiently for the elevator to open.
Blaine looks down at his daughter with a slightly puzzled expression as the door opens, following her out as he speaks. "Yeah, we were married, we were ready for kids. We loved each other and having a child was finally something we were ready to do," he explains with a smile. He watches as Amelia takes careful steps down the hall, clearly lost in thought, a smile on his lips as he pulls his keys out of the pocket of his jeans. "You okay there, Squirt?" he asks with a smile as he slides the key into the door before pushing it open.
"Yeah...just thinking," she says as she walks through the door and kicks off her shoes. "Tell me when dinner is ready," she says as she turns around and hugs her father tightly around his stomach. Blaine bends slightly to hug her as best he can, mumbling an 'of course' before the little girl is running off to her room. Blaine watches as she runs off, eyebrows pulled together slightly in confusion before he makes his way to the kitchen to start making dinner.
FOUR HOURS LATER
Blaine knocks quietly on the door before poking his head around Amelia's door to make sure she was getting ready for bed. "Hey, kiddo, are you ready for bed? You have school tomorrow," he says as he pushes open the door the rest of the way when he sees the girl is pacing the room in her pajamas. Amelia turns to the door and puts her hands on her hips and squints at her father for a moment.
"No...I'm not ready to go to bed. I want to know how you met my Dad." she says as she moves to sit on the edge of her bed, dangling her legs over the edge. Amelia looks over to him expectantly, her eyes filled with worry and confusion.
"Why do you keep calling him 'my Dad', like I've never met him," he asks with a sigh as he follows in suit, sitting on her bed as well and looking down at her. Amelia rolls her eyes and falls back on the bed with a groan. "Besides, I'll tell you that story-" he begins before she cuts him off.
"When I'm older, yeah I guessed." she says in an annoyed tone before sighing, and taking a deep, setting breath as she continues. "Because you're getting divorced...so then he won't be yours anymore. He'll just be mine," she says as she looks up at him with a raised eyebrow, giving him the signature look that his husband gave him saying 'Well, duh'. Amelia looks at him, for a second in silence before sitting up quickly. "But stop changing the subject. I need to know how it happened, Dad, I need to know. You guys loved each other so much, I want to know how that happened. Please," she pleads as she juts out her lip in a trademark pout.
Blaine quirks an eyebrow slightly and blows out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He turns on the bed so he's facing her. "Okay, so this is the deal. I'm going to tell you the story about how I met your Dad, but I'm changing all the names, and I'm not telling you which one is your Dad, you have to figure that one out," he says as he leans forward on his hands, raising an eyebrow, daring her to argue.
"That works for me," she says with a smile, bouncing on the bed slightly in excitement.
"Okay, you ready?" he asks with a smile as he moves to sit cross-legged on the bed as he looks at her. She says no and pushes her way across the bed to her headboard, meticulously arranging her pillows and crawling under her blankets. Blaine reaches over and helps her pull the blanket up as she reaches to the bedside table to grab her notebook and the box of markers she'd obviously prepared for the story. "Now?" he asks again with a smile as he sits back, trying to keep back his laughter as she prepared to take notes.
"Yes, I'm ready," she says with a serious expression on her face as she focused her attention on her father.
"Okay, so I had two serious boyfriends...and then some smatterings of men that I dated..." he begins, his mind raking over his past to find the beginning of this unavoidably long story.