Blaine's fascination with becoming a doctor begins when he's five.
Everywhere he goes, he insists on bringing a little plastic medicine box alongside him, and for a little kid, it's pretty cool. His grandfather (a big doctor, unlike Blaine, who is still just practicing) bought it for him, and when Blaine isn't practicing on his reading and writing, he's tending to his overly feverish Teddy Ruxpin bear or sticking bandage tape all over his G.I. Joes. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.
That one day at the park, his mom doesn't let him bring the medicine box. Blaine thinks he'll be okay, and despite his youth, he's well-mannered enough to not throw a tantrum. She lets him bring his plastic stethoscope at least, and as he toddles over to the sandbox, he immediately takes one of the plastic shovels and begins to rake it through the sand, eventually sliding his fingers through the cool grains.
"What's that thing do?"
He looks up at the sound of a small, melodic voice from only a couple of inches away. Blaine has been so anxious to start playing that he doesn't even notice another little boy, probably his age, sitting at the edge of the sandbox, playing with a small heap of wild daisies growing from underneath it.
Blaine is instantly confused.
"What does what thing do?"
"That thing around your neck, that funny necklace."
Blaine glances down toward his chest and back at the stethoscope, and in perfect childhood innocence, his mouth forms around a soft gasp before he bounces up enthusiastically.
"Do you like it? It's a st-st-stettostope. My grandfather got it for me. Do you wanna see?"
The little boy looks a little bit unsure. "I dunno, what's a…" He tries to sound out the word. "St-st-stetto… whatever you said?"
"You can listen to your heart!" Blaine demonstrates by placing the soft rubber ear pieces into his ears and placing the chestpiece to his own heart. Of course the plastic stethoscope wasn't actually equipped to pick up a heartbeat, but Blaine likes to pretend it does. "Boom-boom, boom-boom."
The little boy gasps in complete amazement. "Whoa! You can really hear it? Let me see!"
Blaine steps closer and presses the chestpiece in the general vicinity of the boy's heart, imitating the "boom-boom" sound between his lips once more. Once again, the boy was completely and utterly amazed.
"That's a strong ticker, all right," Blaine says, imitating his grandfather who had said the same thing just the other day when he checked Blaine's pulse for pretend.
The boy looks back up at Blaine, his nose crinkling in complete confusion. "What's a ticker?"
"It's another word for your heart."
"Whoa, you really know a lot about this stuff."
"That's because I'm a doctor! Or… well…" Blaine glances back down to the sandbox, gently pushing his velcro shoes into the dirt. "Some day I'm going to be a doctor. Grandfather is a doctor. He's a gooddoctor. Mommy says if I study hard enough, I'll be a good doctor like him, too."
The boy beside him blushes, his cheeks turning extra pink as he smiles back at Blaine. "I think you'll be a good doctor, too."
Blaine smiles back, feeling a soft thump in his chest as he begins to fidget with his own fingers anxiously. He then brings his hand up to give a small wave. "My name's Blaine."
Five fingers wave back at him. "Kurt."
Blaine crinkles his forehead as Kurt also gives a slight curtsy, and before he can ask why he did that, Kurt is pummeled to the ground by a boy a little bit bigger than the both of them put together. Kurt falls to the grass with an oof, and it all happens so fast that neither Blaine or Kurt's mothers stop to look up and address it.
The bigger kid manages to tell Kurt to "get out of my sandbox, little queer" before Blaine takes Kurt's arm and pulls him a few feet away to a nearby tree. Blaine has only heard that word once before, but being a kid, he hadn't understood the meaning behind it or why his daddy had gotten so much weird amusement out of saying it.
All he knows is that it gives him a bad feeling, and he doesn't want the big kid to hurt Kurt. He wants to protect him and keep him safe, even if that means running away from his bullies.
Both of them sit down underneath the tree.
"Thanks. Sometimes that guy can be a real jerk."
Blaine shakes his head. "It's okay. Has he bothered you before?"
Kurt bites down on his lip and doesn't say anything for a minute. "Sometimes."
"Does your mommy know?"
Kurt shakes his head, his bottom lip trembling slightly. "No, Davey acts really nice to my mommy's face, and sometimes he leaves me alone when he knows the grown-ups are watching."
A few tears tease at the corner of Kurt's eyes. Blaine's voice gets smaller as he sits a little closer.
"Are you crying?"
Kurt doesn't answer as he wipes his cheek with the center of his palm and sniffles. Blaine takes in a sigh and adjusts his stethoscope to press it to Kurt's heart. He doesn't hear anything; not the pounding in his chest or a steady beat, but Kurt is trembling.
"If I'm going to be a good doctor when I get big, I want to make you better. Where does it hurt?"
This time, Kurt closes his eyes stubbornly, allowing the tears to slide down his cheek before he stares into his lap. When he looks back up at Blaine, he finally relents. Blaine does seem like a very good doctor, and he had pulled him under the tree away from Davey. Obviously he can be trusted.
Kurt taps his finger against his heart and doesn't say anything, and it's only then that Blaine remembers that he doesn't have his medicine box.
"Oh… I don't…"
Blaine stops himself as Kurt's eyes fill back up with tears. Kurt is just on the cusp of getting up and running back to his mommy when Blaine wraps his small palm around Kurt's wrist and presses a perfectly chaste, short kiss to Kurt's chest, right against his trembling heart.
Kurt doesn't say anything at first. He's honestly a little shocked, to say the least. He's never been kissed by a boy before. He doesn't even know if boys are allowed to do that.
"That's what my mommy does when I have an owie, so I thought it would help your owie, too."
Blaine smiles slowly and nervously, and for a few agonizing moments, Kurt just stares back at him, contemplating what he should say and do next. A few more seconds pass before Kurt's emotions catch up with him, and when unabashed relief finally hits him, the corner of his lips upturn into a grateful, elated smile. And before Blaine can even utter another word, Kurt throws his arms around Blaine's neck and pulls him in for a hug.
"You're already a great doctor, Blaine."
Blaine grins wider, his heart skipping a beat as he embraces him just a little closer.
From that day forward, he never forgets about that afternoon in the park, not when he becomes reacquainted with the boy from the sandbox on a staircase in Westerville, not when he marries that same boy at a ceremony in New York in 2014, not when he's burning the midnight oil to cram for the MCATs alongside a supportive - if not patient - husband, not when he's doing a coronary artery bypass on his father-in-law at the tender age of thirty-three and praying to every deity in the world to let him pull through, not when he's giving their squeamish fourteen year old daughter sutures after a bad fall on a failed camping trip.
He never forgets, not even when he puts down his scalpel for good and picks up his pen to write about his life and all the lives he touched and saved in his forty year medical career.
When he does forget, Kurt is there to brush his fingers through his soft, silver hair, holding his frail and overtaxed body and reminding him of all the good times and all of the memories encapsulated within eighty years.
And this time, Kurt is the one to kiss his heart and put him at peace.