As a child, Kurt had used to love autumn.
Often, he and his mom had taken walks through the park and Kurt had loved the sound and feel of the leaves rustling beneath his small feet.
And no matter what, Kurt had always found something to take home with him, be it a whole bag of chestnuts or an especially big and colorful leaf.
Mother and son had loved to spend particularly rainy days with crafting, building a whole zoo of small chestnut animal figures or gluing one of Kurt's collected leaves onto a piece of paper, before Kurt had added more leafs, water-colored ones with the help of his Mom, who had held the end of the brush, he had grasped in his tiny fingers to keep it steady.
"Mommy you can look now!," Kurt shouts in his high-pitched, cheerful voice as he dives forward into the big pile of colorful leafs that someone had swept to the side of the path.
Elizabeth blinks her eyes open, blue and intense just like Kurt's.
"Oh god, where has my son gone?" Elizabeth gasps in fake-shock, "Did he fall into the rabbit's hole?"
Inside his small castle consisting of dry leaves that tickle against his skin, Kurt giggles. He waits until the heels of his mother's shoes come closer and then, with a loud shrill scream he jumps out, causing a dozen leafs to soar up from the ground.
"Oh look at that, there he is!" Elizabeth says, before her face scrunches up in laughter as she sweeps the three year old up into her arms.
"You found me, Mommy!" Kurt exclaims happily, digging his small fingers into the soft fabric of his mother's coat.
"Of course, I did, sweetheart," Elizabeth says, "I will always find you, that's what mommies do."
Later on, as they sit on a bench under one of the big oaks in the park, Kurt's face suddenly scrunches up in confusion as he sucks on the small apple-piece his mother had given him.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Elizabeth asks in a gentle tone, running her fingers through the soft, hazel locks on her child's head.
"Mommy who paints all the leafs?" Kurt asks, looking up at his mother with big, questioning eyes.
Elizabeth is surprised for a moment, but then a warm smile spreads over her face.
"Well, you know Kurt, a lot of people are really sad once summer is over, they miss the warm and sunny weather, they miss the scent of grass and flowers that lingers in the air and-"
"I miss ice cream!" Kurt interrupts her, his plump bottom lip sticking out in a small pout.
"Oh of course, ice cream is the best thing about summer, right?"
"Yeah and playing with the sprinkler!"
Elizabeth chuckles as the images of her little son running around in their backyard come rushing back to her mind, with Kurt is wearing his favorite pair of 'Minnie Mouse' trunks and squeaking every time the sprinkler sprays water on him, and it fills her chest with warm and tender love.
"And you know, the angels who live up there in the sky," she continues, pointing upwards where a couple of gray clouds begin to gather, "they wanted the humans down here on Earth to have something to be happy about, with summer gone and Christmas still far away. So one day, they decided to gather every single paint bucket and brushes they could find in their big workshop-"
"Is it made out of clows?" Kurt asks, blinking up at the sky.
"Yes, every thing up there is made out of clouds, darling. They live in huge cloud palaces, that look like the beautiful castles from the drawings in your fairy tale books, and they have cloud streets that feel like cotton beneath your feet and make you bounce with every step and they sleep in cloud beds that are so soft that you feel as if you're floating. And you know what's the best thing?"
"No," Kurt breathes out, scrunching his tiny reddened nose up as he sniffles a little from the cool breeze tickling his face.
"All they eat is candy cotton, and no one tells them to eat any vegetables, they just eat cotton candy the whole day," Elizabeth adds, a smile spreading on her lips as she sees the look of awe on her child's round little face.
"I wanna be an angel when I grow up, Mommy!" Kurt says, voice full of excitement as he sits up to kneel on the bench, his head thrown back to look up into the sky.
Elizabeth gives him a fond look, before she continues, "Well, where was I? Ah, so you know, they then decided to gather all their paint buckets and brushes and then one night, when everyone was tucked into their beds, heavily asleep, the angels decided it was time and they jumped off their clouds and flew down to Earth. They worked the whole night, hopping from one tree to another until every single leaf was glimmering in the most beautiful colors and then the next morning when everyone woke up, the whole world looked like it had been dipped into paint. And from that day one, the people had started to love autumn."
Kurt's bright blue eyes dart across the pile of fallen leafs scattered around the bench. "Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Why don't they paint them in prettier colors like pink or put glitter on them? Brown and yellow is boring," Kurt says as he leans down to examine the leafs on the ground closer.
"Well, glitters is more for Christmas, darling. Imagine if all the leafs had such bright colors, no one would be able to appreciate all the colorful Christmas lights the people put up on their houses during winter, right?," Elizabeth replies, pulling Kurt onto her lap.
"Right," Kurt says, nodding his small head, "but-but why don't they paint the leafs with muli- mullible colors, that would be pretty."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure there exist leafs like that, leafs in multiple colors, you just have to look really closely and believe in the angels, maybe then they'll make one just for you," Elizabeth says, cradling her son in her arms and planting a gentle kiss against the boy's temple.
"I believe in them, Mommy, I really do!" Kurt says, snuggling closer into the warm embrace, as the air around them starts to turn more chilly and more gray clouds darken the sky above them.
"I know you do, baby. And one day you'll find one, I promise," Elizabeth says with a smile, "And now let's head home and visit your Daddy in the tire shop, I bet he's gonna have a bit of time to drink a hot chocolate with us."
Central Park is beautiful at this time of the year.
It's now that Kurt suddenly becomes awfully aware of the fact that, ever since his mother's death he's never set foot into their favorite park back in Lima again. In fact, he has tried to ignore autumn as much as possible and it wasn't that hard back then in Lima.
But now, here, in New York, where he had sworn to take a stroll through the park at least once a week - be it with Rachel or alone, just like now - there is no way to ignore the row of golden trees or the road of colorful leafs scattered over the asphalt.
For the first time in years, Kurt allows himself to admire the beauty, the sheer beauty of what the world looks like during this time of the year.
Suddenly, he starts running.
The leafs rustle beneath his feet, some of them soaring up from the ground as he rushes through them and it's as if someone had lifted a heavy cloak off his shoulders.
He doesn't care if people look at him in a strange way as he, a young, grown-up man now, runs through the park with a broad smile on his face. He looks up at the trees, their branches swaying with the gentle fall breeze and letting more leafs fall down to the earth.
Eventually he comes to a stop, his face flushed from running and his chest rising quickly as he tries to catch his breath.
Out of a sudden a leaf falls down from the sky, landing on the ground in front of him.
Kurt's eyes widen as he bends down to give it a closer look.
It's a maple leaf.
A maple leaf with multiple colors.
He picks it up to examine it closer. The once completely green leaf is now covered mostly in red and yellow, each color starting out bright at the base before darkening as they reach the tips of the leaf but with the green still visible as it shines through in the middle.
It looks as if someone had painted the color directly onto the leaf.
Suddenly, Kurt feels a warm feeling spread inside of him.
"Thank you, Mom," Kurt whispers as he looks up at the sky, a single tear rolling down his cheek and a smile spreading on his lips.