With preschoolers it seemed that their life was always full of surprises. Lizzie announcing that she was going to be a fairy when she grew up, Luke somehow managing to hurl things across the room when he could barely sit up by himself- but nothing could prepare Kurt and Blaine for the surprise they were about to receive. Not even the surprises that came with preschoolers.
Blaine opened the front door on a Friday afternoon. The school was closed for the afternoon because of an unfortunate incident in the science labs. He had spent his time in front of the TV, watching whatever was on and considering grading some assignments. Kurt had taken the kids out shopping with him to give Blaine some space, clearly thinking that he planned on working.
To anyone who hadn't heard about the school closing for the rest of that day might have expected for just Kurt and the kids to be home or maybe no one at all.
Their visitor seemed to think the latter.
A little bit shaken that the front door had been answered, the visitor smiled slightly.
"Mom?" Blaine barely managed to squeak before wrapping Marie in his arms.
"Honey, I…" she stopped. Blaine invited her in, and she graciously stepped inside. It was almost as though she had expected him to be so mad about the fact they hadn't seen her in almost five years that he wouldn't let her in.
"Your house is lovely," she complimented nervously, as though Blaine would've eaten her alive if she said something wrong.
"Thank you," he said, thinking that now probably wasn't the time to bring up Kurt, or how he was the one who had insisted on every single decoration. Blaine served Marie a coffee and cleared some of the mess off of the table, as so that they could sit there to talk. There was some small talk, which eventually led to Blaine asking, "Where's dad?"
"He… he decided not to come and visit you." She replied. Blaine wasn't upset to hear that his father hadn't accompanied his mother. Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to turn him straight, his father had changed his tactic to pretending that he wasn't gay to begin with.
Marie was a small and aging woman. With her dark curls and brown eyes it wasn't hard to find similarities between her and Blaine. Although having only met her once, Kurt knew straight away who it was that that Blaine was chatting politely with. "Mrs. Anderson," Kurt greeted, "it's lovely to see you…" Lizzie had raced off as soon as she had gotten inside, not even stopping to say hello to Blaine. She had been wrapped up in her game of Barbie's for days now. Kurt passed Luke over to Blaine, who cuddled him enthusiastically.
Marie stood and gave Kurt, who was much taller than her, a hug. Marie was not the sort to show affection physically. Blaine had hardly ever hugged her- after doing well on a couple of tests, and around his birthdays….but of any of the times she had hugged anyone, this time had surprised him the most. Kurt didn't stop her, and it ended up being just a little bit too long to be comfortable. Kurt raced off to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, ready to join Blaine in chatting to Marie.
Blaine moved across the room towards Marie, Luke in his arms. "Mom…. This is Luke." He said, and passed him to Marie- the grandmother he'd never met. She took him and smiled. This was her first grandson, after all- and it was time she started acting like a grandparent. She wasn't going to let her grandkids slip away like she seemed to have let her own children.
It wasn't long before Lizzie made her way to the kitchen, looking for something to eat. It was coming up to dinner time, which meant that now was not the time to request a cupcake or a cookie. Seeing her dads at the table with a strange woman she had never seen before in her life, she decided that, although she knew she shouldn't interrupt, that she would just sit at the table too, pretending to be a grown up for a little while. She made her way into the dining room.
"Liz!" Blaine exclaimed, "Nice to see you out of your room for a change."
Lizzie giggled. "I wasn't in there that long!"
"Are you sure about that? You missed dinner!" Kurt joined in.
"No I didn't! It's day time still, silly!" She said.
"That's because you were in there so long you missed breakfast too!" Blaine teased.
Lizzie looked worried. "I only played two days of game time!" Blaine chuckled lightly under his breath, and Kurt let a smile slip across his face.
"Come here, Liz," Blaine said, "We have someone for you to meet." Lizzie made her way over to the table, and hopped up onto Blaine's lap. "Sweetie, this is my mommy." He introduced.
"My nana, then?" She asked. She knew how grandparents worked. Everyone had a grandma and a nana. That was something that she just knew. Kurt's mommy- Carole- was grandma. That meant that Blaine's mommy had to be nana. That was just how things were.
"Yes," Marie said, "Your nana." She smiled proudly, pleased that she had been given a name by Lizzie. It would have been disastrous if she hadn't decided to call her anything.
Lizzie grinned. She had another grandparent. Did that mean that nana would babysit sometimes? Would she take her to the movies for her birthday? She wasn't sure, but she hoped so. It was great to have two grandparents, and now she had three. She must be the luckiest four and half year old in the whole universe. It certainly was a nice surprise.
Marie decided it was time to leave- she needed to get settled into the hotel, after all- and so Blaine walked her to the door, while Kurt kept Lizzie occupied in the kitchen. "Her middle name's Marie, you know." Blaine said, pulling his mom into another hug. Marie smiled.
"I thought you might have chosen something like that. You've always been fond of names that run in the family." Maybe because Cooper got the family name out of the two of us, he thought, but kept the thought to himself, knowing how things were. It wasn't the time to start an argument with his mom, even a jokey one.
Kurt tucked Lizzie into bed that night. Getting her that far was a bit of a battle- but after the promise of bubbles, they persuaded her to take a bath. After the promise of bubbles, the promise of hot chocolate meant that they got her into her pajamas, and after the hot chocolate, the promise of a story got her to get into bed. Sometimes it was easiest just to let Lizzie get her way, even if it meant one crazy evening- it was worth it for all of the quiet ones that followed.
Kurt sat on Lizzie's bed. "Which story are you going to choose?" He asked, while she looked at all of her story books.
"None of them," she said, "Can I hear a story about when you were a kid? What about when you were four and a half? Did your daddy tell you stories?"
Kurt took a deep breath. "Well, sometimes. Only when my mom was out- usually she liked to tell me stories, and then my dad would come in to turn off the light."
"What kind of stories did your mommy tell you?"
"She told me all kinds of stories. She was a great storyteller… she didn't just read stories from books. She would tell me stories about people she made up herself. Princes and princesses, superheroes, and sometimes she would tell me stories about when she was little…. Sort of like how I'm telling you now."
"Princesses?" Lizzie sat up a bit. It was clear what parts she was paying attention to.
"Oh yes. She told me stories about a princess called Lizzie, actually."
"Lizzie?" her eyes widened. "That's my name, too!"
"Is it?" Kurt teased, "Isn't that funny!"
"What kinds of things did Princess Lizzie do?"
"Well, sometimes Princess Lizzie would help her friends with their problems," all of which Kurt seemed to be having trouble with himself, at the time, "and sometimes she would sing. She liked singing."
"Was Princess Lizzie a good singer?"
"She was. In fact, I think that's how I learned to sing. I would listen to my mom, and we would sing together once I knew the song."
"Dad…. Was Princess Lizzie your mommy?"
Kurt laughed. "She was. And she was a very good princess and a very good mommy."
"Can I be Princess Lizzie too, dad? Please?"
"Of course. But there is one thing that all good princes and princesses need to learn."
"What, daddy? What? I really want to be a princess, please!"
"You need to learn the secret of being a princess. Can you keep a secret, Liz?"
"Oh, yes!"
"Okay…" Kurt leaned in close, "The secret is that you need to a good girl. You need to be friendly and nice to everyone. And you need to try really, really hard before you say that you can't do something. A good princess can always do whatever she wants to do."
Lizzie mimed zipping her lips. "The secret is safe with me."
Kurt smiled. "I think it's time for you to go to sleep now, hun."
"Okay, dad," she said through a bit of a yawn, "wait… okay, prince dad."
"Good night, Princess Lizzie." And with that, the newest Princess, Princess Elizabeth Marie Hummel Anderson, drifted softly to sleep.
