A/N: Hi everyone! So I'm not normally a fan of Parents AUs, but I decided to challenge myself with this prompt and the fic just kind of got away from me. As a result, it is now a multi-chapter fic that is fulfilling Day 2 & Day 4 of Seblaine week.
The fic is canon compliant and takes place roughly 10 years after Blaine proposed to Kurt which I think puts the Klaine child at, like, 6 years old? But the Glee timeline is bad so I'm just choosing to believe that's the way it works.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story! I'd love to hear what y'all think :)
p.s. you can now follow me on tumblr lusthurts
Co-parenting with someone you don't live with is a unique form of punishment. It's like a constant reminder that your relationship didn't work out, and it's filled with constant guilt that you couldn't make it better for the kid. At least that's how it had been for Blaine for the past couple of years. The divorce still felt relatively fresh, and Tracy still hadn't gotten used to it.
Logically, Blaine knew the divorce and living separate lives was better than exposing Tracy to the constant fighting they were doing before they finally agreed to split up. He'd given up on the relationship years before the divorce was official. But in his heart, he knew something entirely different. He saw Tracy staring longingly at the sky as he walked her to school in the mornings. He realized that even though she pretended to be happy, sometimes she was still hurting. And it had been that way already for two years, ever since Blaine moved out of the loft and into his own place. All he ever wanted was to make it better, but he was basically out of ideas.
He used to just send her to Rachel's if she needed to get out of a funk. Tracy loved Rachel and admired her in a way she probably never would her dads. Blaine knew it was because of the whole budding Broadway star thing and the way Rachel let Tracy run around backstage on her days off and introduced her to famous actors, but even that didn't work all of the time.
It was two days before winter break when Blaine approached the outside of Tracy's school, a small building sandwiched between two skyscrapers near Battery Park. Somehow, despite Kurt's best efforts, the school was closest to Blaine's apartment which meant Tracy spent more time with him than she did with Kurt. He was used to this whole drop-off-pick-up routine in a way that Kurt probably never would be, but he was okay with that. He loved this quality time they got to spend together.
When he stepped inside the building, he saw the rush of students running out of the classroom toward their parents. He searched everywhere for Tracy but couldn't find her in their usual meeting space until he noticed her standing next to her teacher with another girl her age and, presumably, that girl's mother.
Blaine walked toward them with a smile growing each second he got closer to hugging his daughter. It was Kurt's weekend, so he hadn't seen Tracy in a few days, and he missed her more than he would've cared to admit. This was especially true since nowadays Tracy was spending almost all of her time with him already; there was no reason why he needed to miss her. But still, he did.
He overheard the teacher speaking with the mother, then handing the mother some piece of paper to sign indicating that it's okay for someone else to pick her daughter up from school the next day. The mother quickly signed the paper, thanked the teacher, then turned around to leave the classroom with her daughter by her side. The girl's mother flashed Blaine a soft smile, and they locked eyes for just a moment before she was gone. He looked back at the mother for a second, certain he recognized her from somewhere. But before he could figure it out, Blaine was distracted by Tracy running toward him with open arms.
"I missed you, Daddy," she said before Blaine had a chance to say it first.
"I missed you, too, Trace," Blaine replied as he hugged her back, lifting her up and spinning her around enough so that he could guarantee she'd be happy for the entire walk home. "Was that girl you were waiting with your friend?"
Tracy nodded and started to walk back out onto the street, taking Blaine's hand in the process. "She's my best friend. Her name is Adrienne. Apparently, that's French!" Tracy exclaimed, practically skipping as they turned onto a new street. "Can I go play at her house tomorrow?"
Normally, Tracy told him everything, so it was weird hearing about a friend of hers that Blaine had never met. But he refused to deny her anything she asked for, so of course he nodded. "Of course. I just need to get her parents' phone number and address tomorrow morning when I drop you off."
When they finally reached Blaine's apartment, just a 20-minute walk away from school, Blaine typed out a quick text to Kurt. It wasn't like he needed Kurt's permission to make a playdate for Tracy. But he liked to at least give him the courtesy of a text so that Kurt would always know Tracy was in good hands. Kurt almost never replied, but Blaine didn't mind. That's not why he did it.
Tracy sat on the floor in the living room playing with dolls while Blaine put a tray of chicken nuggets in the oven. He never claimed to be an expert cook, but Tracy never complained about the classic dinosaur nuggets and mac-and-cheese. Who was he kidding? It was one of Blaine's favorites, too. "What are you doing over there?" He asked Tracy, curious about whatever storylines she'd come up with for her dolls.
"They're doing a musical," Tracy replied, turning toward the speaker in the corner of the room to turn up the volume so Blaine could hear. It was Wicked, Rachel's most recent show. Ever since attending opening night of the show, Tracy was convinced she'd be Elphaba someday, just like Rachel. Jesse gave Tracy a set of Wizard of Oz Barbies for her birthday a few weeks after the show opened, and now it was all Tracy could talk about. "They need to practice because me and Adrienne are going to play the whole thing tomorrow."
It made Blaine smile again thinking about this new best friend of Tracy's. They clearly had a lot in common; most young kids didn't know all of the words to Wicked, much less want to act it out with dolls. Maybe they'd both be big Broadway stars someday like Tracy wanted. "That sounds like fun. You'll have to show me one of the songs when I come to pick you up tomorrow."
"I can do one right now!" Tracy said, immediately skipping a few songs until the soundtrack landed on "Dancing Through Life" and bursting into song. Blaine laughed to himself but took note of how Tracy's voice was abnormally good for a 6-year-old. Rachel must've been giving her impromptu voice lessons again.
After dinner, Blaine let Tracy watch a few episodes of one of her favorite shows while he snuck off to his office to play around with a new song he was working on. Selling songs was more lucrative than Blaine ever thought it could be, and even though in the past he might've wanted all of the spotlight on himself, he'd learned to love this just as much. He got to see famous singers performing his music while he could avoid the pressure of fame and spend all of his time at home with his daughter. Besides, he still found time for piano gigs on the side, and he had a small following that recognized him for writing Rachel's biggest hit to date in her small but relatively successful pop career.
This new song felt too personal to share with anyone, at least until he dealt with what it meant to him, but that was okay. He had a stack of sheet music waiting to be licensed sitting on his desk at all times. This song still needed time and processing and coming to terms with how he felt because it delt with things he almost never talked about. The divorce, parenting, growing older, that sort of thing. He didn't think he'd ever show it to anyone, but it was there if he ever decided he wanted to, even if it did function more like a diary for him.
He put Tracy to bed after that, and he knew the piano in the next room would be too loud for her to fall asleep, so he retreated to his bedroom to tie up a few loose ends in emails until he was tired enough to sleep himself. Something in him felt different today. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about Adrienne and her mother felt distantly familiar to him. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen those eyes before. A subtle but mischievous green hidden behind a warm smile. Inviting but terrifying, warm but mysterious. It was on the tip of his tongue, but for the life of him, Blaine couldn't figure out where he recognized her from. He brushed it off as nothing, assuming he'd just seen them around the school before, and eventually drifted off to sleep trying to place those eyes and wondering if he was just crazy.
The morning and the day that followed went by quickly. Blaine got a phone number and address from Adrienne that morning at school, and he went about his day without thinking too much about the familiarity of it all. He'd probably officially meet her mother when he went to pick Tracy up after the playdate, so he decided to not worry too much. Besides, that deep familiarity in her eyes told Blaine that he could trust her. He had no idea why, but following his intuition rarely led him astray.
He met Rachel for an early lunch while she was on her way to the theater for that evening's performance. He asked about the voice lessons and told her about Tracy's newfound obsession with Elphaba, and Rachel told Blaine about how she kept thinking she might want kids of her own someday, maybe when Wicked closed.
It was nice that they were still close after the divorce. For a while, he thought Rachel might take Kurt's side, but he always knew that fear was irrational. He'd always be close to Rachel even if they didn't agree on every little thing.
After lunch, Blaine occupied his time with a few virtual meetings before messing around with the song he was working on for another few hours. The apartment felt empty whenever Tracy was out, and these were the afternoons when he missed Kurt. Well, not Kurt. He definitely didn't miss fighting all of the time and feeling guilty every time he went out for a drink with a friend or getting mad every time Kurt treated Blaine's job like it was less important. It wasn't really that he missed their marriage or their relationship at all, more like the idea of Kurt. He missed having a relationship. An adult friend to have adult fun with. Yeah, he missed kissing and sex and everything that came along with it, but mostly he just wished he didn't feel so lonely whenever Tracy wasn't home.
He hadn't really dated since the divorce. Sure, he went on a couple of dates his friends set up. There was a costar of Rachel's, an ex-boyfriend of Tina's, and one singer that almost went platinum with one of his songs. But other than that, he stayed away from dating. The idea of it was almost exhausting. Besides, he didn't want to confuse Tracy or have to explain why someone new was around all the time. She already had to adjust enough after the divorce.
Basically, Blaine was aware that he was relatively boring and that he was lonelier than he would've liked, but he never found a reason to actively seek out a relationship.
But despite all of those reservations, Blaine sat at his piano writing about how it felt to see his daughter getting older and making friends and going off on playdates with kids Blaine barely knew, and he wished he had someone to share this feeling with.
Just as he was about to text Sam and suggest they get a drink before he had to go pick up Tracy, he realized he'd zoned out for long enough that he needed to leave already. Tracy would be ready to be picked up any minute now and he had a half-hour-long subway ride to look forward to.
Stepping onto the subway, Blaine considered how odd it was that he needed to take the train halfway across Manhattan to pick up his daughter when her friend attended the same elementary school as her. The Upper West Side was way outside of Tracy's school district, and Blaine definitely wasn't complaining about the fairly nice neighborhood he was lucky enough to afford, but this address only a few blocks away from Central Park was next level expensive. Adrienne either came from a very wealthy family, or she'd messed up writing her own address.
Despite his doubts, Blaine arrived at the allegedly correct address and found himself standing outside of a decent-sized townhouse, knocking with his fingers crossed that he didn't have the wrong house. If he did, Tracy would be stranded at someone's house for a lot longer than she expected.
He stood at the door in fear for a few long minutes while he waited for someone to answer it, silently panicking about who would answer the door, if anyone did at all. And just as he was about to give up and call the phone number Adrienne had written down for him or panic some more about where the hell his daughter was, the door swung open.
It wasn't Adrienne or Tracy or the woman he'd seen with Adrienne the day before. And Blaine had to practically pinch himself when he realized who it actually was. He was certain his eyes were wide enough to fill his entire face as he considered his luck. He'd shown up at the wrong house all the way across Manhattan and somehow that wrong house belonged to the person he hadn't seen since high school, someone that unlocked an abundance of memories Blaine had stuffed away to some place he tried to never think about.
"Blaine?" The voice attached to the man he was standing in front of asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Sebastian," Blaine's voice volunteered as he gulped back a million questions. He definitely had the wrong house, and he needed to find the right one. But what were the chances that the wrong house belonged to Sebastian Smythe of all people? And when Blaine finally returned to his own mind, he took a second to lock eyes with Sebastian, remembering the memories he'd shared with them and realizing these were the eyes that had been in his head all night while he was trying to sleep. He couldn't place them before, but these were definitely it.
Now the questions were different. It shifted from "when did you move to New York" and "how are you even here right now" to "are you Adrienne's dad" and "who is her mother", all questions that gathered in Blaine's throat thick enough to almost make him choke.
"Did you hear me?" Sebastian repeated, clearly surer of himself than Blaine because of course he was. He was always more confident than Blaine. "What are you doing here?"
Blaine stared at him, still in shock. He had no idea how to explain himself, but he figured starting with the truth before he launched himself into a series of unanswerable questions was his best bet. "My daughter was having a playdate this afternoon and she…well, her friend wrote down this address…your address as the place I should pick her up. It must've been an error or maybe I read the numbers wrong or…"
But before he could finish, Tracy and Adrienne came running to the door, and Tracy threw her arms around Blaine like she always did. It was very surreal, like an out of body experience, and suddenly all of those questions Blaine had managed to choke down didn't seem so ridiculous anymore.
"Dad, we're having so much fun! Can I please stay for a little bit longer?" Tracy asked, tugging on Blaine's shirt in a way that she knew would convince him it was a good idea. Damn she was good at this. He worried about whether that would still work when she was a teenager.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow, his eyes still staring at Blaine with a hint of disbelief Blaine was sure he'd never seen on him before. But then he shrugged, as if to say Tracy could stay as long as she wanted. And Blaine didn't have the heart, or the strength honestly, to go home. "Sure, honey. But only for a little bit…"
Tracy ran off before he could give her a specific time, but at that moment, Blaine didn't really care. He had a lot of questions to ask, and Sebastian looked almost as dumbfounded and starstruck as Blaine felt. "Adrienne's new best friend is your kid?" Sebastian finally asked when the silence started to feel suffocating. "With Kurt, I presume?"
"Yeah, she's ours," Blaine said. At least it was an easy question, not like any of the ones Blaine wanted to ask.
He was about to ask about Adrienne when Sebastian spoke again. "Here, come inside," he said, gesturing for Blaine to follow him to the kitchen. "Can I get you a cup of coffee?" He nodded toward the espresso machine sitting atop gorgeous granite countertops, but his eyes never left Blaine's. It felt like Sebastian was examining him, trying to understand everything that had happened since the last time they spoke way back in high school. "Or a beer?"
Normally, Blaine wouldn't drink around Tracy's friends. He tried to avoid it altogether when Tracy was in his custody. But seeing Sebastian for the first time in 10 years combined with the rush of confusing feelings he felt at being here justified one beer. "Actually, a beer would be great," he eventually said, reasoning with himself that one beer would be fine. He was much better at holding his liquor now than he was in high school.
Sebastian handed Blaine a beer from his fridge and opened one for himself, and Blaine could've sworn that even now, even when a million questions sat between them, Sebastian still smirked like he'd accomplished something by getting Blaine to his house. There was something so familiar about it that Blaine quickly realized he'd actually missed. "What about Adrienne? I guess I never saw you as someone that would have kids," Blaine volunteered.
It was true; his image of Sebastian was one of partying and promiscuity and messing around with whoever and whatever he wanted. Kids didn't really fit into that lifestyle. He was quickly realizing whenever he'd pictured Sebastian over the past 10 years, he'd never considered how much Sebastian could've matured since then. Now, he was wearing a nice suit and living in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in New York with a kid. Things had clearly changed a lot since the day Sebastian had reluctantly helped Blaine plan his proposal to Kurt.
"Oh, Adrienne isn't mine," Sebastian responded, practically laughing at the idea. "Don't get me wrong, I love the kid. But she's my sister's."
Blaine hated himself for the sigh of relief he felt at hearing Sebastian wasn't Adrienne's father. It answered a lot of the other questions Blaine didn't even want to think about asking, like whether Sebastian was married and if he wasn't, how he ended up with a little girl Tracy's age. "That makes more sense," Blaine eventually said, hoping it didn't come across condescending.
"My sister is away on business, and her ex is off on some rendezvous with his new wife. Inconvenient timing, right? But yeah, Adrienne is spending Christmas with me," Sebastian explained, probably realizing his previous explanation didn't do quite enough to satisfy Blaine's curiosity.
The idea of both of Adrienne's parents leaving her for Christmas was sadder than Blaine could accept, but he found himself smiling as he realized how sweet it was for Sebastian to put aside any of his own plans to spend time with a kid that wasn't even his. This was definitely a different Sebastian than the one he used to know. Different, maybe better, but still with that same gorgeous smile and those daring green eyes that said a million different things that his voice never would.
"You're not wearing a wedding ring," Sebastian acknowledged after a prolonged period of silence. Of course, Sebastian would notice something like that. Some things never change.
Blaine looked down at his own ring finger, as if he was shocked to see it bare even if it had already been that way for two years. "I'm not."
"What happened?"
"We've been divorced two years now," Blaine replied. Normally he wouldn't volunteer any more information than that, but this was Sebastian. Sebastian, who was there for Blaine's proposal. Sebastian, who listened to Blaine talk about Kurt for years in high school. Sebastian, who was the one friend Blaine had way back then who wasn't also friends with Kurt. Sebastian, whose green eyes showed he cared, even now, even after 10 years of nothing. Needless to say, words came quickly spilling out of him. "It just kind of fell apart. We both cared more about our careers than we did about each other, and Tracy was the only thing that kept us from ending it sooner."
Sebastian looked genuinely sympathetic, if a little happier than he should've been at news like this. "I'm sorry," he said. "You seemed so sure of it lasting back then."
Blaine shrugged, trying to conjure up an image of his 18-year-old self standing in front of Kurt and calling him his soulmate. He could barely remember how he'd felt at the time, or why he'd chosen to propose so early. Looking back, he knew it was ridiculous, but he wouldn't change any of it. That would've meant erasing Tracy, and he could never give her up. "Plans change," he replied after a while. "People do, too, apparently." He gestured at Sebastian's whole body, smiling to himself as he tried to imagine all of the things that landed Sebastian here.
"I told you; it all started way back in high school when I told you I was done with the bullying and blackmail," he shrugged, taking a sip of his beer and nodding toward Blaine's to remind him it was there. "I guess I should thank you for that."
Blaine smiled when he thought about it, those last few times he'd seen Sebastian and how genuinely kind he'd been. He wondered now why they'd ever lost touch. "Well, I'm super interested. You have to tell me everything. What are you up to now? Are you with anyone?"
"I always knew you were into me," Sebastian half-joked. Blaine's cheeks turned red in a way they hadn't in 10 years. "But no, I'm definitely single. I'm trying to make partner at the law firm I'm at and that tends to mean I don't have a lot of time for all of that relationship shit. You know, the kind of garbage you always wanted."
Blaine thought back to earlier that day when he'd started coming to terms with how lonely he'd felt the past few years, how he'd imagined just for a moment how nice it would be to be in a relationship again. It was entirely possible that Sebastian was right and all of that stuff that Blaine would probably never have again wasn't worth longing for. That didn't stop him from wanting it.
"What about you? I hope you're going crazy now that you're finally experiencing what it's like to be single," Sebastian said, looking Blaine up and down in that all-consuming way he always did. "How's it feel to finally sleep with someone other than Kurt?"
That was one thing that Blaine was completely unsure of how to answer. There had been a couple of guys since Kurt; it's not like the divorce made him into some undatable spinster. But it was rare and probably nothing like the kind of fun Sebastian was having. "Good, I guess," Blaine said, because he wasn't sure how else to answer that question. "But tell me about you. I'm so curious."
"What do you want to know?"
The thing is there was so much that Blaine wanted to know that he couldn't possibly ask everything. And it's not like asking about Sebastian's dating life could be played off as normal. That only left him with one option. "What are you doing for Christmas?"
Sebastian watched Blaine's eyes as the question slipped from his lips. Yes, Blaine knew it was a weird thing to ask, but he was curious. Sebastian's sister was out of town and from what he knew, it seemed like Sebastian would be spending Christmas alone with Adrienne. Blaine was in a similar boat with Kurt away directing a Virginia Woolf tour.
"Christmas?" Sebastian asked, presumably to clarify that Blaine did ask that ridiculous question. "Adrienne and I were gonna watch movies all day on Christmas Eve and have a turkey dinner. Probably go to bed early so I can figure out how I'm going to handle the whole Santa situation."
As Blaine had suspected, Sebastian was going to spend Christmas alone with Adrienne. It made him a little bit sad to think about. He'd spent two Christmases without Kurt now, and that meant two Christmases without Kurt's family. One of those years he celebrated Hannukah with Rachel and her dads instead, and the other was spent back in Ohio with his parents desperately trying to avoid any controversial dinner discussion topics. This time around, Tracy would spend Christmas with him, and he had absolutely zero plans.
And all of those thoughts are how Blaine eventually ended up blurting out, "Why don't we have dinner together?"
"Are you asking me out on Christmas?" Sebastian asked with a smirk. The question made Blaine almost immediately regret asking. Of course, he'd look desperate and pathetic and stupid. But it was already out there now, so he might as well go with it.
Sebastian looked at Blaine with an overwhelming sense of doubt that made Blaine want to retract the suggestion. He could've blown it off as a joke or some stupid passing thought that didn't mean anything. But then Sebastian's eyes shifted from doubtful to considering, and his smirk shifted into a smile. "You could come over here if you want. I can cook."
Blaine wasn't sure why the image of Sebastian cooking put butterflies in his stomach, but he tried to internally punch them away before Sebastian read his mind. "Yeah, that sounds nice."