To Mercedes:
so babysitting is actually kinda borin
From Mercedes:
whatre they doin?
Not Spidey's MJ
To Mercedes:
theyre watching some movie, i didn't want to watch it. u remember the spy kids movies? its kind of like that
From Mercedes:
stupid if u didnt watch it when u were little?
Not Spidey's MJ
To Mercedes:
exactly
To Mercedes:
so whatre u doin tonight? wanna come visit me?
Instead of a text response Kurt's phone began ringing. "Hello?"
"Hi, Kurt." Mercedes answered. "Um, I was actually going to tell you at work tomorrow but… I'm going out with Sam tonight."
"WHAT?" Kurt yelled. "What?"
"Yeah," Mercedes giggled.
"How did this happen, you're telling me right now!"
"Okay, so after you left today Sam came by with the mail. He was a little later than usual, if you remember?" Kurt made a noise of agreement.
"Daddy? Are you okay? I heard yelling." Mary poked her head in, George right behind her.
"Well," Mercedes continued.
"Hold on, Mercedes." Kurt interrupted her. "I'm fine, Mary. You can go back to your movie, thanks for checking in on me."
"You're welcome, Daddy." Mary smiled. "C'mon, George." She grabbed his hand and pulled him back out of the kitchen towards the living room.
"Alright, Mercedes, you can continue now."
"Alright, so where was I? Oh, so he came by and gave me my mail and then he left, same as usual. Except when I went through my mail there was this letter from him."
"What did it say?"
"It was a superhero quote that I didn't actually recognize, but he was asking me out and that's the important part. After I got that I called him and he was so shy." Mercedes sighed. "So we're going out in a little bit, I'm meeting him for dinner."
"Aww, that's so cute." Kurt purred. "When do you have to go?"
"In about ten minutes, actually. I was going to just tell you I was taking a shower, but now I'm just going to let you go."
"Have fun, and debrief me tomorrow. I want to hear all about this." Kurt ordered.
"You will, I promise." Mercedes said and Kurt could easily picture her nodding enthusiastically. "I gotta go, baby."
"Bye." Kurt said with a sigh. He slumped against the kitchen island. He'd already channel surfed, there was nothing good on. "Bored." Kurt whined to himself. Normally he'd have Blaine on a Monday night, but he'd gone to visit his friends, something about girlfriend problems…
A loud laugh from the living room startled him. "Must be something funny." Kurt mused. He hated being bored… Maybe he should just go in there and watch it with them… "What did I used to do without Blaine?"
Cuddle up with Mary and watch TV, or help her with her homework, or just sit in the same room with her. Maybe they would put on a fashion show or Kurt would teach her how to use the curling iron, with strict observance so she didn't hurt herself, of course.
All things that he could technically still do with George there, but he didn't want to. On nights Mary had friends coming over he usually brought some work home, or saved up a marathon to watch in the kitchen so she could play with her friends without her Daddy around. It was nights when he wasn't expecting Mary to be occupied that he ended up like this. Sitting in the kitchen bored out of his mind.
Another laugh rolled over him. At least she was happy. He could be bored forever if she was happy. Kurt sighed and readjusted his slump, nuzzling his head into his elbow.
George was a good kid, a bit quiet sometimes, but definitely a good kid. Actually he was a bit like Blaine. That made sense though, given the relation. They both had this genuine charm about them, a spirit that demanded that they give out and not take in return. The first day he'd met them, George bought Mary's friends food at the pool! Albeit with Blaine's money, but he was ten, allowance could be made.
Kurt sighed again. George would be leaving soon, three days. It was going to crush Mary. Kurt really wished she didn't get so attached to people sometimes, but then… well then she wouldn't be Mary and he immediately took that thought back. He didn't want some imitation of his daughter.
Kurt sighed yet again; he really needed to stop doing that. George would be leaving soon, and then Mary would be going off to visit Brittany. Oh crap, if he was this bored, now what would he do when Mary was on the other side of the country?
Winter in New York City was a lot different than winter in Ohio. Even after living in New York for a few years, Kurt still couldn't get over how the same season could be so different in separate places. He was used to snow on the ground, piled up on the side of the road in banks like the buffers in bumper cars. In New York there was no room for that. He wasn't sure where the snow went, but it didn't go where he was used to. People walked around in the wildest range of clothes, from stylish winter wear to random rags, not the almost uniform puffy jacket he'd been used too in Lima. There were still a shit ton of those around, but the extremes were so strongly represented here.
Actually, that in general was something Kurt had trouble getting used to at first. In some ways New York City was no different than Lima, the same shit for brains people walking around. Yet the people at the ends of the spectrum were much easier to spot. He often wondered where he sat on this stupid little scale.
He'd always saw himself as near the top fashion wise, but Mary had stripped him of his ability to easily keep up. He'd made an effort when he'd went for employment, and he did manage a modicum of the wardrobe he'd always dreamed of having, but it was never on the same level the extremes pulled off.
Then there was Mary's existence. A high school kid having a kid screamed of the lower quadrant of people he experienced. Yet he hadn't let himself fall into a welfare dependant mess like others before him had.
It all hurt his brain to think about, and he didn't like it. It was just one of those thoughts that wouldn't let up sometimes.
He'd much rather think about winter. At least that difference was easily definable.
"You're not going to play tonight?" Kurt asked. Usually when Blaine got home from work on his gig nights he'd shower and immediately change into his 'going out' outfit. He'd start packing his keyboard and then come over to Kurt's to have dinner and chat. Then he'd be gone.
That night came from work, showered, and come over in lounge clothes.
"Nope." Blaine shook his head. "George leaves on Thursday, early Thursday, I want to spend some time with him. It feels like he barely just got here and now he's going."
"I know what you mean." Kurt agreed. "It also feels like he's been here forever."
Blaine made a face. "I don't know about that." Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Alright, it does." Blaine laughed. "It's so different having a kid around."
"I wouldn't know." Kurt shrugged. "I've never lived by myself."
"I haven't really either, but I've been without kids." Blaine nodded. "I guess you wouldn't know that feeling." Kurt shook his head.
"What do you want for dinner?"
"Maybe hamburgers, we haven't had those in a while." Blaine suggested.
"No, they had those at the pool, I'm sure of it. Someone keeps giving his nephew money." Blaine just shrugged. "Besides, I don't have hamburgers in the freezer; I used all the chop meat we bought on quesadillas the other day."
"Let's ask the kids then, unless you got something you want."
"Mary! George!" Kurt called out the open kitchen window. They'd disappeared outside right after walking in.
"What?" They answered at once.
The back door opened, Blaine being the culprit, and Kurt abandoned what he'd been about to say to go join Blaine there. "What do you want for dinner?" Blaine asked just as Kurt stepped up beside him.
They were playing on the swing set Burt had bought for Mary. Swings tangled up like they'd grabbed onto each other's swings to try and come to a quick stop. Kurt winced, they'd probably hurt themselves with a move like that.
They had their head bent together, cooking up an idea. It was cute, how close they'd gotten so soon. "Pizza!" Mary and George answered together.
"With tomatoes!" Mary added.
"And jalapenos!" George chimed in.
"Oh, that sounds good. I want black olives." Blaine was nodding. Kurt rolled his eyes.
"Alright, pizza it is, one half tomatoes the other half tomatoes, jalapenos, and black olives. Any objections?" Nobody spoke up. "Alright, half an hour."
"Gonna pay for it today?" Blaine asked as they closed the door and left the kids alone.
"If they're on time." Kurt smirked.
"Got a hot date for Valentine's day?" Mercedes asked, elbowing him playfully. Instead of reminding her that he didn't date, Kurt just shook his head. "Me neither. I guess you'll just have to do."
"Me?" Kurt asked.
"Yup. We'll commiserate our lack of love together." Mercedes nodded sagely.
"Like a Lonely Hearts Club?"
"Exactly." Mercedes said. "Now, my place or yours?"
"You really want to do this? What would we even do?" Kurt grimaced. He really hoped she didn't want to watch romantic tragedies and eat tubs of ice cream…
"We'd watch action movies with little to no plot and lots of things being blown up." Mercedes smirked. "Then we can order some pizza and soda. Maybe we can get some pie or something too."
"Oh." Kurt nodded. That, that wasn't anything horrible like he'd been expecting. "I like that actually. My place so we can just have Mary with us."
"You're going to let her watch action movies and eat her weight in junk food?" Mercedes raised an eyebrow, a move she'd totally learned from him.
"No, I'm going to set her up with my laptop and we're going to watch." Kurt shook his head. "Oh, and not at all sure how that reminded me, but I need to book that flight."
"What flight?"
"I finally have enough money for a flight to Ohio, we're going for my Dad's birthday."
"That's so sweet." Mercedes cooed. "Tell him I say happy birthday."
"Will do."
AN: I'm sorry for the late update. My only excuse is that college steals all my time from me.
Read and Review please.
