When Blaine got to daycare one bright spring morning, he was not in the best of moods. When he walked in, he had his arms crossed over his little chest, and his eyebrows were knitted together in the middle of his forehead, a big pout on his lips. Usually, he was one of the first ones to arrive, so he was surprised when Kurt came running up to him.
"Bwainers!" Kurt cheered, wrapping the boy up in a hug, not caring at all about the fact that his arms were in the way. "I is here a'weady, Bwainers! My mommy dwoppeded me off earwy acuz she an' my daddy hasta go to a very 'portant 'pointment. Wanna pway?"
"Hi," Blaine said shortly, keeping his arms crossed and shaking his head at his friend. "Don' wanna pway."
That made Kurt frown. "Why? I getted out aww da dollies so we could pway house togevver."
"No."
"Blaine, remember that you should still be nice to your friends, even if you're upset with your daddy and me," Pam Anderson told her son.
"Bwainers, why is you—"
Ms. Fairy interrupted them then, walking over. "Kurt, please go play. I'm going to get Blaine all settled, and when he's ready, he can play with you."
"Don' wanna pway," Blaine repeated, looking even sourer now that Ms. Fairy had come over.
"You don't have to," she assured him, looking up at Blaine's mother with a soft smile. "I've got it from here, Pam. You can go ahead and take off if you want to." Then, she glanced over at Kurt. "Please run along and play, Kurt. I promise that I'll let you know when Blaine's feeling ready to play with you. I think he might just need a little bit of quiet time right now."
"...kay," Kurt answered quietly, going off to the play area where he'd already set out all the dollies and the kitchen stuff to make a little home for himself and Blaine. Playing house was one of their very favorite things, and he had a story already planned out for them. Lovingly, he went to each of the dollies lying on the floor and stroked a finger over each of their cheeks. "You name is Jamie acuz my Bwainers yikes dat name. An' you name is Baiwee. An' you name is 'Lisbeth acuz is my mommy's name an' my name. An' you is our kids. We is apposed to take care of you. Your daddy Bwainers is vewwy, vewwy sad wight now, dough." He glanced over in Blaine's direction then.
Ms. Fairy had put Blaine in one of the time out chairs that they had in the room. She'd turned it to face the rest of the playroom instead of facing the wall of calm down time activities they had, so Kurt was pretty sure that his Blainers wasn't in time out. He still looked grumpy and upset, though, and Kurt didn't really like that his Blainers wasn't playing house with him. He just wanted him to be the daddy to their dollies, and he couldn't do that from all the way over there.
"I wish I coul' go ova dere an' tawk to Bwainers," he muttered to himself. "I c'n make hims feew better." He was pretty sure Ms. Fairy wouldn't like him going over there to bother Blaine, though. So, he'd have to wait.
He looked around the room to see what else might be fun to do, seeing that Quinn was playing with the playdough, and Finn was zooming cars and trucks around on the floor. Neither of those things looked like fun, though. Ms. Fairy had set out some coloring pages and a sensory bin full of rice and farming toys, but he didn't want to do those things either. So, he sat dejectedly on the floor, pulling Jamie into his lap to feed him with a tiny bottle while he thought about what to do.
"Wha' you fink I should do, Jamie?" he asked the baby as he fed him. "Your daddy Bwainers is sad. Should I go see him? Wha' if Ms. Faiwy is mad at me?"
Jamie didn't have anything helpful to say, and that was okay. He was just a hungry baby. About the time Jamie was done eating, Kurt spied Ms. Fairy headed toward the doors to welcome Brittany and Tina, so he zoomed over to Blaine to take advantage of the opportunity.
"Hi, my Bwainers," he whispered as he got closer, careful in case Blaine was still mad. "You is in time out?" He knew the rules surrounding other people in time out, and he would leave Blaine alone if he was in trouble.
Blaine shook his head. "Nuh-uh."
It was then that Kurt realized his friend was crying. That made his tiny heart feel like it was breaking, and he knelt down beside Blaine's chair and grabbed onto his hand. "Why you is sad, my Bwainers?"
"Acuz my mommy an' daddy wouldn't yet me be Spidewman. I jus' wan'ed wear my Spidewman cwothes an' pwetend shoot webs outta my han's. When I getted up an' dwessed, Mommy sayed she an' Daddy 'acided I can't."
"Why?"
"Dey finked I would get Sidewman all dirty, but I won't!" A few fresh, frustrated tears fell down his cheeks. "I be careful!"
"I know you is, my Bwainers," Kurt told him, reaching up to wipe away his tears. He'd seen his daddy do it for his mommy before.
"Is not fair," Blaine pouted.
Kurt nodded sympathetically. Then, he had an idea. "My Bwainers, wanna come pway some pwaydough wif me? We can make spidew webs!"
"No… Jus' wanna be Spidewman."
"Wanna dwaw wif me? Ms. Faiwy putted out cwayons."
"Uh-uh."
"Wanna pway house wif me?" he asked, hoping maybe that would get Blaine's mind off of the whole thing. They loved playing house.
"No…"
"You could be da daddy Spidewman."
Apparently, that was the right thing to say because Blaine's face lit up a little at that. "Weally?"
"Uh-huh. Dat could be you job! You could be Spidewman an' save da whole wide world—" He stretched out his arms to show Blaine how big the world could be, "—afore you has supper wif me an' our babies!"
"I don' has a Spidewman outfit," Blaine pointed out, his face falling a little bit. "I tan't do da fings dat Spidewman can do wifout it."
"Ummm," Kurt thought. "Maybe we could start pwaying before you acome Spidewman. We c'n has to have a vewwy, vewwy wong talk 'bout it an' make a incision 'bout it yike mommies an' daddies do 'fore you c'n become Spidewman. Acuz can be vewwy, vewwy dang-wuff, my Bwainers."
"We c'n 'acide dat I hasta save da world?"
"Uh-huh."
"What I wiww wear for savin'?"
"You c'n be a dapper Spidewman. My mommy says dat dapper boys is da bestest kind, an' Spidewman has to be da bestest boy."
"You fink it wiww work?"
"Uh-huh! Yook! You even has on a wed bow tie an' wed shoes!"
"Yeah!" Blaine agreed, suddenly excited by the idea. "Wets go!"
Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand and hurried back across the room with him to where Jamie, Bailey, and Elizabeth were sleeping. "Dis is da kids, my Bwainers," he said, introducing them. "Now, wets 'acide if you c'n be Spidewman."
A few minutes later, when Ms. Fairy walked by, she smiled, seeing that Blaine had finally been pulled out of his bad mood and was playing with his friend. She was surprised to hear them having such a frank discussion, though.
Kurt was saying, "—'an if you gets hurted, I be vewwy, vewwy sad. So, you hasta be safe so you don' get a boo boo while you is savin' people, my Bwainers."
Blaine, for his part, was sitting across from Kurt, nodding very seriously at everything he was saying.
"Are you feeling better, Blaine?" Ms. Fairy asked with a warm smile.
Blaine glanced up at her, nodding. "Uh-huh! My Kurt sayed I c'n be dapper Spidewman!"
"That sounds wonderful," Ms. Fairy replied. "Have fun, boys." She walked away to check on the rest of the kids that had arrived, and when she glanced back over at the boys, she just had to take a quick picture. One of Blaine's hands was over his heart, the other one in the air, and he was repeating something that Kurt was telling him. Kurt was standing off to the side, one hand on his hip, the other arm cradling a baby doll.
Ms. Fairy snapped the picture and sent it to Pam and Elizabeth with a caption that read, "Kurt is instructing Blaine on how to be Dapper Spiderman. And possibly also how to be a good dad."
Elizabeth replied with a few heart emojis, and Pam replied, "I'm so glad he has such a sweet friend."
And if Ms. Fairy thought that was cute, she hadn't heard anything until she walked back by the two of them a few minutes later.
Kurt was saying, "Don' fo'get to kiss da babies bye, Bwainers. I mean, Spidewman. An' me, too."
Blaine replied, "I tan't fo'get you, my swee' Kurt."
