AN: So my apologies for forgetting to add a note in here like a did on ao3, this is part of a personal challenge/project filling all the prompts of past Kadam weeks, and posting one every day from March 29 to May 8th, 7 prompts per year 5 previous rounds (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 last two managed by vcg73) the first week of May 2-8 will present to you the offering for the Kadam Week 2021 you can search for more on tumblr
This is the offering to Kadam Week 2013 prompt 2:a kid fic where either Kurt and Adam were kids together or they had kids of their own...
Once upon a time the Hummels were happy. Elizabeth, Burt and their son Kurt were a lovely and content family, not the richest of folks but happy and still able to take a vacation at year, little Kurt was not yet six year old, but his passion for musicals was already prominent and his mother was more than happy to patiently nurturing it.
Lima was a rather small town, there weren't many opportunities to take a kid to the theatre without it becoming a constant fight with the lady at the box office, that yes they were sure they wanted to take a kid to a two hour show, and no he wouldn't make a fuss, and yes of course the personnel was free to ask them to leave should they make too much of a fuss… Not that it never happened, Kurt was just enraptured by the productions as any other spectator.
But for his sixth birthday the plan was something special, a coalition between the majors symphonies and broadway's theatres were organising for that summer a children theatre camp, twelve weeks in which children were nurtured in the many aspects pertaining to the performing arts. The camp not olny was rather expensive but it did require passing an audition to enter, however Kurt was determined and desired the chance to prove himself.
The brochure described not only the camp's many educational activities, it made clear that the children were going to be fully immersed in the program, being taken care of by the camp's counsellors, while most of the downtime was to be spent into preparing for the end of the summer show and attending matinee shows of many of the productions available to the public, all kids were required to send a letter back home weekly.
It took a great deal for Kurt to convince his parents that it was something he really wanted to do, even if it meant skipping on the yearly camping trip. It took all of Elizabeth and Kurt's grandparents' persuasion to convince Burt that it was good for Kurt to spend the summer with other kids who shared his same passions.
Once Burt and Elizabeth delivered a young bright eye Kurt to his dorm Burt's parting words were "Buddy if for any reasons you want to get home first just call us ok?" Kurt promised, he kissed his mother goodbye and walked into the camp, Kurt wouldn't admit it to his parents, but it took very little for him to feel at home and welcome there. In the following weeks things were wonderful, Kurt met a blond kid that was very kind to him, it took him two days for them to be partnered up in one of the dancing lessons, and he discovered his name was Adam.
From then on the two were almost inseparable every time they had a shared activity. And they both made a conscious effort to seek each other out in their non educational periods. Despite the three years gap between them Kurt was able to follow all the things Adam was saying. On the other hand Adam found Kurt fascinating, the kid had the most beautiful voice Adam had ever heard, in fact the first time he heard Kurt sing he thought an angel was singing. And Adam thought he was very lucky that it was just a boy instead, because then they could be friends forever.
For Kurt Adam was everything that any of the other boys weren't back at home. Adam was kind, sweet, willing to play out scenes together and didn't make fun of him when Kurt turned the afternoon snack into a tea party. To Kurt's delight Adam was more than willing to actually make them real tea parties with cookies, apple tarts and iced tea poured from a small kettle into teacups, talking about which shows' costume was the prettiest and which one role they would love to play.
But time passed fast while they were having the best summer of their lives. It came to an end sooner than either boy thought possible and after they had their moment to shine at the end of the summer show, despite sadly not being allowed to perform together due to their age difference, the two parted way before either of them could remember to ask their parents for a way to stay in contact.
The school year was a drag, neither boy could forget the other, and both regretted their inability to remember asking for something, anything that could help to stay in touch, maybe sending letters as pen pals did.
When the time came around again Kurt was allowed to audition for entering the second year of the New York theatre camp.
Like the year before he did get it, and he was super excited about going, hoping secretly to meet his friend again. Unlike the year before though Kurt's mom didn't come up to New York to leave him there, and his dad's smile seemed a little more tired than before. Still Kurt planned to do as his mom said, make friends, have fun, and bring home many many new stories to tell her.
Returning back was a great experience, Adam was able to meet again the friends he made the previous year, and gladly Kurt was among them as well. Kurt's voice's still sounded like an angel, and Adam silently prayed for it to stay the same, especially after hearing Aidan Miller, one of the oldest boys in the camp, who was one of the returning kids around the age of fourteen and who, after a couple of weeks since the beginning of the camp, started sounding like a sick frog, quickly and easily becoming the butt of many jokes made by most of the other kids.
Adam prayed then that Kurt would never end up learning on his own skin just how cruel other kids were capable of be. Despite being a year older than the last time they were able to be together, Adam still indulged in Kurt's desire for tea parties, and they alternated those with karaoke matches.
Being then ten years old Adam was able to attend the introductory lessons on how stage costumes were made, when he excitedly shared with Kurt how for the next lesson they had to think on which material to choose to make specific parts of a costume and pick between a dozen or so of different pieces of fabric "Swatch Adam, those are swatch, you need 'em to get the right fabric for the pieces you make"
Adam discovered then that Kurt's mom usually made all of Kurt's halloween costumes and his friend had started learning how to do just that by himself since last year. However Kurt had been involved in the picking of just the right fabric for way longer, in fact Kurt's mom had taken him to the fabric shop and allowed him to choose since he was three.
It was a mix of seeing his friend genuinely interested in the subject, his own desire to spend more time with Kurt and noticing the longing looks Kurt sent to the little shiny swatches, that convinced Adam to suggest they'd try to change the teachers' mind. Especially when he saw Kurt's frown deepen at discovering the costume lessons were overlapping exactly with the one artistic activity Kurt despised the most, finger painting and pasta drawing.
Together they came up with a reasonable solution, going together to the teacher running the costume lessons and demonstrating that Kurt would be far more suited to be in there than spending time getting paint under his nails.
To do that Adam suggested they both completed the same homework, and then when it was going to be the time to turn it up Kurt could ask for a bathroom pass and turn his in.
In the end their plan worked, and as the adults realised they had been persuaded by the two of them, there were appreciative comments on how astute both Adam and Kurt were. It came to no surprise at all that Kurt took to the new class with his friend with happiness and enthusiasm, nor that he was pretty good at it, especially considering he was surrounded by older kids.
At the end of that second summer together neither Adam nor Kurt was willing to repeat the same mistake of the previous summer and pass another miserable year until they could be reunited. They both scribbled their full names and address on a piece of papers before returning home with their parent.
Unfortunately life wouldn't be fair to the two friends. Once at home Kurt discovered his mom was sick, she had started spending more and more time in the hospital, and that made it so that by the time Kurt managed to post his first letter to Adam, the Crawfords had already changed address and his letter never reached his friend.
As it happened Adam's younger sister spilt her drink on Adam's lap, making the tiny piece of paper in his pocket soaked in the sugary liquid making the address on it completely unreadable. And to add to Adam's distress, his mom Helaine was taking him and his siblings back to Essex in the UK, while his dad had to move around the US with his touring company.
Years later when the two met again, it was once more in New York, Adam had vague and faded childhood recollections of an astute young boy that sang like an angel. He was pretty sure his friend's name was Kurt, but when Kurt didn't react at all about being called astute during his recruitment speech, Adam wasn't too inclined to dig up those memories and risk to make more a fool of himself with someone he was interested in. There was also the fact that at that point, over half of their lives had already passed by, and he had never been able to keep up with his promise to keep in touch, so it was best to leave the past in the past where it belonged.
Childhood memories were soon set aside in favour of making new memories of their relationship. A sentiment shared by Kurt as well.
Adam had reminded Kurt of the first boy friend he ever made, but his memories were quite blurry, especially because they were right before his mom passed, and life in the Hummel household became harder after that. Kurt had always loved his dad, but it was no secret that it had been his mom who he could relate to, losing her had hit both of them really hard, and many of the happier things were lost when they buried her.
The suspect that his boyfriend might have been the same boy he knew when he was little had crossed Kurt's mind. Especially during his senior year at Nyada, when Adam had been cast as one of the main lead in a reimagining of fairy tales, in which he played the Fairies' King, and returned home after the first day of dressed rehearsal complaining about the costumers choice of believing satin covered in tons of glittered glue would be a good choice.
Kurt cringed and commiserated with his boyfriend, offering his support as they snuggled before finally commenting that probably under the lights of the stage it would have been a more comfortable choice obtaining the result using layers instead. After all a solid coloured base and glittered crusted organza on top of it would have kept the final effect and given the costumes a free and fluid look more in tune with the fairies.
At that point they had been together for the past four years, neither had raised that set of memories, for various reasons, one of which being the fact that both Kurt and Adam had learnt to live in the present and enjoy what they had, instead of rehashing things that were long time past.
They wouldn't realise their shared past until they went to collect their own six years old daughter, from a summer camp that had sounded very similar to the one both had attended in their youth, if not a little better as lessons grouping were based on the kids' knowledge and level rather than age. That had pleased and delighted their daughter, her obvious excitement about the whole experience was still running high, despite being time to return home and say goodbye to her new friends.
The family was almost ready to leave when one of the camp senior teachers came forward. "Ah the Hummel-Crawfords I'm glad I could catch you all before you left. I had my suspects when I read your names, but seeing you two standing here once more it's all the confirmation I needed. I still remember you two, you know? Your tea parties remained the tale of wonders for years, to the point they had been installed into recognised social activities in only a couple of years. It was a pity neither of you returned after your second year with us, after all it was thanks to you that from the third year forward we started dividing activity by skills and knowledge. How does it feel seeing your own kid enjoying the changes you two personally responsible for?"