Feb 1: Oh My Love (John Lennon)
I'm back! I was originally struggling to figure out how to write this because my original idea didn't fit the song, but in a way this might be better, who knows? This'll be a 14 chapter story instead of individual oneshots which is a change. Please read and leave a review!
Central Park was a very nice place to be in the winter. The snow on the ground was a foot deep or so, enough for kids to build snowmen and go sledding. The trees, though bear, were lined with snow and at night, some were lit up with twinkling fairy lights. It really was beautiful.
Every afternoon for as long as he could remember, Kurt Hummel bundled up and went for a walk around the park in the brisk, fresh air. Sometimes he stopped to watch the kids sledding down the hill, or to pet somebody's dog, or to start up conversations and make new friends. Sadly, he didn't know many people in New York.
On the first day of February, he went out for his walk as usual. The sun was shining and he could hear the sounds of children playing, which made for a nice environment. As he was walking, he saw a pink stuffed bunny laying on the ground just off the path, partly covered by snow. Poor kid who lost this, he thought to himself. I wonder if I can find the owner.
He picked it up and brushed it off with one gloved hand. Closer up he could see the bunny was old, fraying at some of the seams, and it had two glass eyes, black as coal. It was cute in a way, and a hot tear formed in his eye. Maybe it was thinking about the kid who dropped it, or maybe it was just the bite of the air, he didn't know. He wiped it away, feeling ridiculous. He had to find out whose stuffed bunny this was.
It took a while, and he was more attentive to the people around him, looking for sad or crying toddlers, or parents searching around exasperatedly. There were a few, but each time he asked if it belonged to them, the answer was no. He was ready to give up after an hour of searching, when he noticed a man comforting a little girl on a wooden bench. The girl had her little hands over her face, but Kurt could see she was only two or three years old. Her thick, curly locks fell around her head and stopped at her shoulders, and she had on a puffy green parka with fuzzy black boots. She was sobbing and saying "Where did it go?", to which she got soft but desperate replies of "I don't know sweetie, I don't… It must have dropped out of your backpack, baby girl. I'm sorry."
"Excuse me," Kurt interrupted, and both the girl and the man looked up at him questioningly. "Does this belong to you?" he asked directly to the girl. Her tear-streaked face lit up with surprised delight, and she gasped.
"You found him! Thank you thank you thank you!" she squealed and threw her arms around Kurt's neck.
Kurt froze in shock.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" The man beside them yelled. "Lily, we've talked about this!" the girl immediately let go and looked sheepishly at her dad.
"Sorry." She frowned and Kurt didn't think it was a big deal, but he could imagine the panic of your daughter hugging a strange man and he can't imagine the look on this guy's face—oh.
If someone had asked Kurt before if he believed in love at first sight, he would have replied with a snorted laugh and a solid 'no'. After all, everyone knew that only happened in fairy tales. And yet here, when he made eye contact with the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen, that's the only way he could think to describe the accelerating beat of his heart. It felt like for the first time in his life, his eyes could really see. And what he was seeing was super, super cute.
"Um," he rested in front of the girl, still crouched down. "It's fine, really. I'm Kurt by the way." He offered his hand out to the man.
The man smiled at him, expression unreadable, but still accepted the handshake. "I'm Blaine, and that's Lily." He gestured to the smiling girl on the bench, who was now kicking her feet back and forth contentedly.
"And this is Bunny." She exclaimed, patting the pink stuffy on her lap.
"It is very nice to meet you, Lily." He grinned subconsciously. "I already met Bunny a while back."
Lily just giggled, and looked at Blaine expectantly.
"Lily, sweetheart, we should get going now." Blaine said, glancing at Kurt. Automatically, he felt his heart sink. What could he have done so wrong to offend this guy?
"Can he come with us?" Lily asked innocently, and Kurt couldn't help but supress a giggle.
"Hmm, maybe another time." Kurt declined, not wanting to overstep his boundaries. "But maybe if your dad here would like to give me his number, I'd love to see you again," he hinted, more towards Blaine this time.
Blaine's eyebrows rose (wow, even his eyebrows were adorable) and he opened his mouth to speak, although no words came out.
"Um, or actually I should be going…" he looked down towards the ground embarrassed, not believing how forward he'd been, and to a guy with a kid and crap he was probably married—
"Wait, wait." Blaine called, just as he was about to turn around. Kurt was surprised and looked between Blaine and Lily, who was bobbing her head and looking curiously back at him. "I, um, I'd like to give you my number. You know, if that's okay."
Now there was a hint of franticness in Blaine's voice, the tiniest amount of anxiety showing in his golden eyes.
"Yeah, of course." Kurt said, trying to keep his voice casual. "Here," He handed his phone to Blaine with a blank contact already pulled up. Blaine typed for a few seconds and then handed it back to him.
"Thank you so much, by the way." Blaine said, as if remembering something. "For finding Lily's bunny. It… it's really special to us."
There was a heavy tone to the end of that sentence, and Kurt figured if they did meet again, he would ask about it.
"Really it was nothing, I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it there." He blushed shyly, which made him feel like an idiot.
"I—" Blaine started to say something, but then shook his head. "I'll see you around, yeah?"
"Of course." Kurt smiled, and Blaine did too, making his eyes crinkle at the edges.
"Come on, Lils." He prompted his daughter by holding out his hand and she grabbed it firmly, grinning up at Kurt.
As they started walking away, Blaine holding Lily's hand and Lily holding Bunny, Kurt stared after them, almost longingly. The relationship between Blaine and Lily was obviously strong, and God knows Blaine could be a single father which has got to be hard. There was an odd kind of sadness to them, even though Lily was such a ray of sunshine on her own.
He realized he'd been watching too long when Lily turned her head at him and then back at her father. She said something to him, and Kurt probably figured she was telling him how he was staring at them walking away. That was when he turned towards the path he had come from and started making his way home.
He really hoped he'd see Blaine again. After all, he'd hate to think he'd fallen in love for nothing.