Kurt and Blaine sat side by side in their chairs, both of them leaned forward, elbows on their knees, chins resting in their hands. The only difference between them was that Kurt's foot was tapping out an unsteady rhythm.
"Are you nervous?" Blaine asked quietly, sitting up a bit straighter so he could rest a hand on Kurt's knee.
"Yeah… Aren't you?"
"So nervous."
"Are you excited, though?"
"So excited!"
"Me, too." Kurt leaned over and pressed a quick, soft kiss to his cheek. Then, he sat back and let out a loud sigh that ended in a quick chuckle. "Why does this remind me of that day we met Elliot's little sister?"
"Because we were so excited and maybe a little nervous then, too?" Blaine chuckled, too. "Or is it because…"
"Okay, friends. I know we are all very excited," Ms. Fairy said, addressing everyone sitting on the circle time rug. "However, we have to be very quiet and very gentle when Mrs. Gilbert gets here. We need to put on our listening ears. Can we all do that?"
All of the kids nodded solemnly.
"Good. I know you all can do it, and when we're all done with Mrs. Gilbert's visit, we'll go outside and play."
Just then, there was a knock at the daycare door.
"That must be her. I'll be right back. Please stay in your seats, friends." Ms. Fairy walked to the door to let Mrs. Gilbert in, following her back to the circle time rug.
Kurt and Blaine could barely contain their excitement. They were bouncing on their knees, straining their necks for a look at Mrs. Gilbert.
"My Kurt, yook! Yook wha' she bwingeded!"
"I know, my Bwainers!" He gave an excited little "eeep." He just couldn't contain himself.
They watched Mrs. Gilbert walk over and set the baby carrier down on the floor beside Ms. Fairy's rocking chair. Then, she sat down, bending down to remove the carrier cover, revealing the tiny little baby in a cute pink sleeper resting inside the carrier.
Elliot ran up, wrapping his mother in a tight hug. "Hi, Mommy! You bwingeded Yucy?"
"Hi, sweetheart," she replied, bending to give him a kiss on his forehead. "Yes. I brought Lucy to meet Ms. Fairy and your friends."
"Yay!" Elliot knelt down in front of the baby carrier then and reached in, gently patting her cheek. "Hi, Yucy. You sweepin', bu' I fink you wake up soon acuz gottsa mee' my fwiends." Then, he leaned into the carrier and kissed her cheek sweetly.
"That's very nice of you, Elliot," his mother told him. "Thank you for being so sweet with her."
"Mrs. Gilbert, whenever you're ready," Ms. Fairy told her with a smile.
"Okay, Elliot. Go sit back down, sweetie. I'm gonna get Lucy out of her carrier now." She waited for her son to go back to the rug before taking the baby out of her carrier. She cradled her daughter in her arms, smiling at the kids. "So, this is my new baby—Elliot's little sister—Lucy. She was born three weeks ago, so she's very small. She sleeps a lot all day, and she drinks milk whenever she's hungry." Glancing at Ms. Fairy, she said, "Do any of you have any questions about babies? Ms. Fairy said a lot of you don't have little brothers or sisters."
Noah scoffed at that. "I havs a sis'er."
"Well, that's very special," Mrs. Gilbert said with a smile. "Does anyone have a question?"
A few of the girls raised their hands and asked some questions about whether or not babies had to take baths and how to put on their clothes. Rachel wanted to know if Lucy could sing. A few of the boys asked questions about whether or not babies were smelly and if they could play with any cool toys, like trucks or Legos.
Kurt and Blaine didn't ask any questions, too busy soaking up all of Mrs. Gilbert's answers and whispering to each other. "We gottsa fee' us babies yots and yots an' make 'em no' be stinky," Kurt told his Blainers.
"An' we gottsa pway an' wead to dem," Blaine told his Kurt.
Once they'd run out of questions, Mrs. Gilbert said, "Is there anyone that would like to hold Lucy?"
Immediately, Kurt and Blaine's hands flew up into the air along with Elliot's and Quinn's.
"Alright," Ms. Fairy said, stepping in. "Why don't the four of you that want to hold Lucy stay on the rug? The rest of you can put your shoes on to go outside."
Blaine and Kurt barely heard anything Ms. Fairy said. They were too busy staring at Lucy in Mrs. Gilbert's arms and whispering to each other again.
"She so yittle, my Kurt. She tiny, tiny, tiny, an' she jus' sweepin'. An' we gon' get ho'd her!"
"She so cute, my Bwainers! She has wittle nose an' smaww smaww fingers! Ho'din' a baby!"
Seeing how excited both of the boys were, Mrs. Gilbert invited them up first. "Why don't you sit down here?" she said, standing up so that Blaine could sit in the rocking chair instead of her. "Now, I need you," she said to Kurt, "to stand right over here by her head so you can help support her neck. You two can switch in a few minutes."
Blaine's eyes were wider than Kurt had ever seen them, full of wonder and excitement, when Mrs. Gilbert placed Lucy in his arms, helping him cushion her head with his arm and guiding Kurt's hands to her head and neck to help hold it up.
After a few long moments of just staring at her, Blaine breathed out, "I ho'din' tiny baby, my Kurt. Yittle, yittle baby. I gots her."
"Her head so soft," Kurt whispered. "She has soft hair."
"She does have really soft hair, doesn't she?" Mrs. Gilbert said with a smile on her face. She was so happy to see these two little boys who loved babies and enjoyed holding them.
After a few minutes, she helped them to switch, putting Kurt in the rocking chair and Blaine standing beside Lucy's head. With a tentative finger, Blaine reached out to brush over Lucy's hand before replacing his hand by her head. "I yike feew baby. She feew nice."
"I'm so glad," Mrs. Gilbert said with a smile. "You two are doing great and are so sweet with her."
Kurt leaned down and brushed a quick kiss on Lucy's forehead. "Nice, sweet baby," he whispered to her.
It was almost too cute for Mrs. Gilbert, and she didn't want to force them to give Lucy back. However, she knew they needed to go outside, and she did want to give Quinn and her son a chance to hold Lucy, too. So, after a few minutes, she said softly, "It's time to go outside, boys. Thank you for being so gentle and sweet with her."
"Fank you f'yetting us ho'd her!" they both whispered, racing as quietly as they could over to find their shoes and get ready to go outside.
"My Kurt, we gon' has yittle tiny babies yike dat," Blaine informed his best friend as he tugged on his shoes.
"Uh-huh, my Bwainers. We have yots an' yots of dem. So smaww babies."
"We has 10?" Blaine asked, scooting over to sit closer to Kurt so he could tie his shoelaces.
"Um, I fink we has twen'y ten," Kurt said, hurrying to tie both their shoes. Then, he stood up and grabbed Blaine's hand, pulling him outside to play. "Yets pwan baby names," he told Blaine as they tiptoed out the door.
"Kurt Hummel? Blaine Anderson?"
Both of their heads snapped up at the same time, looking in the direction of the voice.
"You can come back now."
The boys followed the nurse back to a small room with tiny footprint wallpaper on the walls, each print in a shade of pink and blue. When they walked in, there was a small bassinet in the middle of the room, a hospital bed against one wall, and a rocking chair beside the bed. Both of them stopped short, reaching for each other's hand and squeezing tightly. This was the moment they'd been waiting for.
"I'd like you to meet your son," the nurse told them with a smile. "There is another nurse bringing you a reclining chair, and we encourage you to do skin-to-skin time if you'd like. We will leave the three of you to get acquainted, but we'll be right out here at the nurse's station if you need anything at all."
"Thank you," the boys whispered, walking slowly over to the bassinet and peeking down at the tiny little blue bundle tucked inside.
"Is he ours?" Blaine asked quietly. "Really ours, my Kurt?"
"He looks just like you, my Blainers," Kurt whispered back. "He's really ours." Then, he reached into the bassinet, trailing one finger down the baby's cheek lightly. "His skin is so soft… I-I can't believe he's really here. We've waited so long."
"Want to hold him first?"
Kurt blinked at his husband. "Really? Is that okay with you?"
Blaine kissed Kurt's cheek. "Absolutely. I'll check on that chair. You get your shirt off and get our baby."
And so it was that, about 10 minutes later, Kurt was reclined in a chair with their son on his bare chest, his lips pressed against the baby's head, murmuring to him as he traced little patterns over their son's skin. Blaine was perched on the arm of the recliner, one hand running over his husband's collarbone and across his shoulder repeatedly. His other hand traced lines up and down one of their son's legs.
And when the nurse who'd ushered them back peeked in to check on them, she couldn't resist pulling out her phone and snapping a quick photo, their first family portrait.
