Blaine linked his fingers together and pushed them out until his knuckles cracked, then wiped his palms on his jeans. Cooper bet him five dollars he couldn't make it all the way across the monkey bars at the park. Blaine agreed, but didn't see how an eight year old was expected to make it all the way across the fifteen narrow poles. Cooper was eleven and was so tall his feet touched the ground when he tried them, but Blaine could only dangle down and hold on for dear life.
His older brother sat on a bench to the side of the playground, and his two-year-old sister wandered around, grabbing handfuls of woodchips and then throwing them down. Blaine took a deep breath, trying to build up the courage to go.
"Hurry up, Blaine! There's a kid waiting behind you!" Cooper yelled. Blaine turned around, and a boy the same size as him stood with his hands behind his back.
"Sorry," he apologized. "You can go." The boy had brown hair, but it wasn't as dark as his. His eyes were a weird color, like blue and green and gray mixed together. They weren't ugly though. No, Blaine decided they were pretty, at least to him. He had on khaki shorts and a red and white striped T-shirt.
"It's okay," he said. "You were here first." Blaine smiled at him, trying to stall so he wouldn't have to do the monkey bars. He was just going to wind up owing Cooper five bucks anyways.
"I'm Blaine," he him. "I'm eight."
"I just turned eight! My name's Kurt Hummel," he said. Blaine turned around so he could get out of Kurt's way, and he jumped onto the first monkey bar without any hesitations. Don't look down, don't look down, he told himself. Blaine grabbed the next bar, but his fingers started to slip. He reached for the third one, but only grabbed it with one hand before he fell.
When he hit the ground he didn't care that he had lost the bet. Something sharp hit his hand, and he cried out. He heard Cooper laughing and tears came to his eyes.
"What's the matter?" Blaine looked up, and Kurt was standing in front of him. "You don't look like you hurt yourself." Blaine held up his hand, still unsure what was causing him pain. "Ooh, you got a splinter!" Blaine sniffled and looked at his hand. Sure enough, there was a little piece of a woodchip embedded in his palm.
"Mommy!" he called. His mom could fix it. She would pull it out and make it stop hurting. Kurt helped him stand up and held onto his good hand.
"Where's your mommy?" he asked. "I'll help you find her." Blaine looked around and saw her pushing Sydney on the swings. It was far away, so that's why she didn't hear him call. Blaine pointed at her, and Kurt led the way to the swing set.
"Baby, what happened to you? Why the tears?" she asked as he approached her.
"He fell off the monkey bars," Kurt explained. "He has a splinter in his hand." Blaine held his hand up to prove it.
"It doesn't look too bad." She bent down by him and cupped his hand in hers. "I'm going to pull it out, okay? It might hurt for one second, but then it'll feel better."
"You can hold my hand," Kurt offered. Blaine took his hand and squeezed his eyes shut. His mom counted to three and then pulled it out. Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand, but the sharp pain went away just as quickly as it started. He looked down at his hand, and it was bleeding, but his mom handed him a tissue from her purse.
"There you go, honey. Throw that away when you're done with it. Do you want to go play with your friend some more, or are you ready to go?"
"I want to play with Kurt," he told her. "Thank you, Mommy."
"You're welcome, love. Go play." Blaine turned around with Kurt and they ran off to go play on the seesaw together.
Author's Notes:
It would be so cute if Kurt and Blaine met when they were little, and then wound up getting married. Yes please.