Author's Note: Just a cute little one-shot about our boys' first Halloween :-) Because 'tis the season... Enjoy!
Many thanks to my beta, hkvoyage. You're the best!
First Halloween
"Mommy! Mommy, come look!" Kurt tugged at his mother's sleeve where she was stocking up on breakfast cereal.
Elizabeth laughed. "What is it, Kurtiepie?"
"Costumes, Mommy, for Halloween," Kurt announced happily. "I can go trick-or-treating this year. You promised. When I was five, you said. And now I'm five."
Kurt beamed, so glad that he had reached that exalted age, and Elizabeth laughed again and ruffled his hair affectionately, bracing herself for the indignant "Mo-o-om, don't!" that was sure to follow.
Elizabeth let herself be led to the Halloween section of the store and smiled as Kurt prattled on about how pretty the costumes were and how he wanted to be a princess for Halloween, with a wig and everything, pretty please, Mommy?
They came home from their grocery shopping with two princess costumes: one for Kurt and one for Elizabeth. Elizabeth had chosen a glittery green princess dress to complement her fiery red hair. Kurt had a poufy pink dress and a blonde wig. He'd asked for high-heeled sparkly pink shoes, too, but his mom had told him to please be practical, seeing as they'd be traipsing from street to street for quite a while, "so it's best to wear flat shoes. You can put on your ballet shoes. Those are pink."
"Daddy!" Kurt shouted. "We bought Halloween costumes! Cause I'm big enough to go trick-or-treating now!"
Burt looked up from his newspaper and grinned. "Sure thing, kiddo! After dinner, you can put it on and show me, how's that?"
Kurt scarfed down his dinner at record speed and rushed to his bedroom to put his costume on. "Mom, can you help me with the wig?"
"Coming," Elizabeth called, and she fixed Kurt's wig for him and put her own costume on. Together, they went to the living room, where they twirled around and curtseyed for Burt.
"Lizzie…" Burt said softly, an undecipherable expression on his face.
"Isn't Mommy pretty, Daddy?" Kurt asked, twirling again to make his dress swish.
"Hmm?" Burt hummed distractedly. He looked his wife up and down lingeringly. The dress clung to her in all the right ways, making his hands itch to run over every curve, and the saucy grin on her face told him she knew that all too well. "Yes, yes, she is."
Elizabeth plopped down on Burt's lap, taking his cap off to kiss him sweetly on his forehead. She threw a look over her shoulder at Kurt, who was now doing a dance he'd learnt in his ballet classes and paying no attention to his parents whatsoever, and said softly, "Sweetie… Let Kurt be who he is. Please. I know you worry, and yes, so do I, but if he wants to be a princess for Halloween, why not? If our neighbours ask Kurt for his name, he can just say, "I'm Princess Aurora", which is the truth."
"But what if they recognise him?" Burt asked, frowning.
Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't think they'll recognise him, and if they do, they won't say anything to him. It's me who'll get the concerned looks and the serious talk later, like when I enrolled him for ballet. And I really don't care. I love my son just the way he is, and I wouldn't change him for the world."
Elizabeth turned to Burt, her expression now earnest and determined. "Don't censure him, please. He'll get enough of that at school. Here, at home, he needs absolute acceptance and unconditional love. We owe that to him. Promise me you will NEVER make him hide his true self, even if that would be easier sometimes. He's the brightest, sweetest, most wonderful little boy in the world, but he'll need our full support not to lose his spark."
"I know," Burt agreed. "And yes, I promise."
Elizabeth sighed, cuddling a bit closer to Burt, who automatically tightened his hold on her. "There are so many bigoted people out there. Kurt's teacher, for one. Kurt's only just started kindergarten and I can't tell you how many times Miss Turner has called me in for a talk when I go pick Kurt up. She's CONCERNED. Because he plays with dolls. Because his favourite colour is pink. Because he draws butterflies and rainbows instead of dinosaurs or cars."
Burt chuckled. "Well, there I can help. What if I go pick him up on Wednesdays from now on and take him to the garage with me? He'll love that. He'll be drawing cars in no time."
Elizabeth smiled. "Yes, I'm sure he'll love that. Make sure Bill and Jay don't spoil him rotten - you know they'll be handing him candy on the sly."
"Will do," Burt promised. "And all right, I won't say anything about Kurt's princess dress. He's only five, after all. Might be just a phase, right?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him in exasperation, and Burt threw his hands up defensively. "Or not. Whatever floats his boat."
"That's more like it," Elizabeth approved, and she kissed Burt before taking Kurt to the bathroom to put his pyjamas on and brush his teeth.
K&B
"But, Mom, you PROMISED!" Blaine insisted. "You said you'd take me trick-or-treating this year!"
Pam sighed. "I know, but I forgot Dad had that dinner with his associates tonight. And I really must go with him, so your grandma's coming to babysit. You could ask her if she wants to go trick-or-treating with you?"
Cooper and Blaine rolled their eyes in unison, and Cooper said, "Mo-om… You know Grandma's going to sit down on the sofa, switch the television on and fall asleep five minutes later."
"Well, then, why don't you and your friends take Blaine along?" Pam asked hopefully.
Cooper's eyes widened. "Because he's still a baby, that's why!"
Blaine's lower lip protruded, and he yelled, "I'm nearly five!"
Cooper glared at him. "Well, I'm sixteen, and I want to have fun with my friends this Halloween, and that's not gonna happen if there's an annoying little brat tagging along with us and whining that he's cold or tired or wants to be carried or needs to go potty."
Now Blaine's lip trembled, and Pam's eyes flashed. "Cooper Staton Anderson! Don't be so mean to your brother!"
"It's nothing but the truth," Cooper muttered sullenly. "Blaine always ruins EVERYTHING."
"That's enough!"
There was steel in Pam's voice now, and Cooper knew better than to argue further.
"Okay, here's what's going to happen. This afternoon, you're taking your brother shopping for a Halloween costume, Cooper, and tonight you go trick-or-treating with him for at least an hour. You can do that before you meet up with your friends, if you think they'll mind Blaine coming along. If you don't do as I say, I'm taking away the keys to your car for a month."
Cooper gasped. "You can't do that! How will I get to school?"
"Same as before you got your licence," Pam shrugged. "Dad will drive you, or I will."
"But, Mom, everyone will make fun of me!" Cooper protested.
Pam raised one finely pencilled eyebrow. "Not my problem."
She turned on her heel and click-clacked to the kitchen.
Cooper let out a loud frustrated growl that had Blaine running to hide behind an armchair. From that safe spot, he heard his brother fall onto the sofa, sigh loudly, and then tap furiously on his phone. Moments later, Cooper's ringtone went off.
"Hey, Jace," Cooper said.
There was silence for a beat, and then Blaine heard Cooper's voice again. "Yeah, I know... Listen, man, I'm really bummed out about it too, but my mom's making me babysit my baby bro. Wants me to take him trick-or-treating before I go with you guys. So I can't meet you all at the mall for dinner. I'll have to join you later."
Jace's answer made Cooper chuckle. "What? Now you're just yanking my chain!"
Apparently, Jace wasn't. "Seriously? Okay, then you can come to the mall with us this afternoon to help my brother find the perfect costume. Around two? Great, see you then!"
Cooper got up from the sofa. "Squirt? Jace and I are taking you shopping for your costume this afternoon, and tonight you're coming with us!"
Blaine peeked from behind the armchair and saw his brother smile at him. "Really?"
"Really, really!" Cooper confirmed. "Jace says we'll get a lot more candy if we go trick-or-treating with a cute little kid, and he also says that Melissa's going to melt into a puddle when she sees me looking after you."
"The girl you like?" Blaine asked.
"Yep," Cooper grinned. "We're going to ring her doorbell and I'm going to be the caring big brother, you know. That'll totally make her want to go out with me."
"Okay," Blaine said.
"So you get to go out with us, and you get to eat as much candy as you like," Cooper promised. "All I ask is that you don't mess things up for me. Be cute, be sweet, smile prettily and bat your girly eyelashes at everyone who opens their door for us and especially at Melissa. Can you do that?"
Blaine's face broke into a grin. "Yes."
"All right!"
Cooper held up his hand for a high-five, and Blaine slapped it enthusiastically.
That afternoon, the two brothers and Jace found themselves in the kid Halloween costume aisle, debating the merits of a dinosaur onesie for Blaine versus a Gruffalo one.
"You know, it's too bad Blaine's a boy," Jace remarked conversationally. "If we brought along a cute little princess with a tiara, you can bet everyone would coo and give us tons of candy."
Cooper cocked his head to the side. "Blaine, you love Beauty and the Beast, right? And Aladdin? Why don't we take a look at the Belle and the Princess Jasmine dresses?"
Barely a quarter of an hour later, Blaine, who couldn't believe his luck, was a fabulous Belle dress, costume shoes, a tiara and a wig richer, and was enjoying a milkshake and a cupcake with Cooper and several of Cooper's friends.
When they came home and Blaine proudly showed his purchases to Pam, she shook her head and tutted playfully at Cooper. "Better make sure your dad doesn't find out about you dressing up your little brother as a girl for Halloween."
"Blaine chose this costume," Cooper defended himself.
"Sure, honey," Pam laughed. "Blaine, if you want me to do your make-up before I have to leave, come to the bathroom with me now."
K&B
Kurt had a blast trick-or-treating with his mom. Everyone complimented his dress and told him he was such a cute little girl. That never failed to make him smile from ear to ear. He didn't think to correct them. He was Princess Aurora, and she was a girl.
Occasionally, they came across other trick-or-treaters. One group that stood out for Kurt had lots of older boys - fifteen or sixteen maybe? - and one girl of Kurt's age, in a beautiful yellow princess dress.
The girl smiled at Kurt when they crossed each other. "You look really pretty. Princess Aurora?"
"That's me," Kurt confirmed, beaming. "You're Belle?"
"Yes. Look, I even got the slippers to match!"
Kurt admired the slippers. "I like them. I'm just wearing my ballet shoes."
One of the older boys looked back and shouted at Belle, "Keep up, Blaine! We're nearly at Melissa's!"
"Bye!" Belle/Blaine said with a wave and another smile.
"Bye! Have fun!"
Kurt slipped his hand into his mother's again and sighed happily.
I wish every day were Halloween.
