Kurt Hummel had not texted in a very long time, he realized.

It wasn't just that he was so used to using the speech-to-text capabilities on his phone instead of typing with his fingers, though that was certainly something that was going to take some getting used to. But he had absolutely no recollection of texting etiquette. You would think that after so many teenage years spent successfully navigating the ins and outs of digital communication, it would have been forever engrained in his brain. Like knowing how to ride a bike or being able to believably pretend to enjoy sporting events.

Maybe he knew how to text loved ones. He could craft a dozen texts to Rachel about his feelings on a particularly offensive outfit he saw or freshman who pissed him off and how he desperately hoped that they weren't like that when they went to NYADA. Or regaling a tale of toddlerhood to his dad and Carole with an attached picture. Or twelve.

All without the use of emojis, mind you.

But the last two people in his recent call list... those were the communications that stumped him the most, for two very different reasons.

He used to know how to text Blaine. Hell, he used to know how to navigate the entire world with Blaine. But the thread between them had started to wear thin and when it finally snapped it was like he didn't know the person on the other end anymore. It was like he was communicating with a stranger every time they shared a terse phone call to let the other know that they were outside with Talulah, waiting for the trade off.

Kurt had always been the first to text in their relationship. But back when Blaine was just his blazer baring high school sweetheart and not his soon-to-be-ex-husband, he would answer promptly. It was like he was waiting on those stupid texts, looking forward to them. Like a puppy waiting patiently by the door for their owner to come back. He used to think it was cute. The Blaine attached to a seemingly endless mountain of legal paperwork would take hours to reply. Not that that wasn't to be expected. They were adults now, with jobs and lives and other things to attend to. But these weren't just silly pick-up lines or heart emojis that could be blown off. They were urgent. They were about "meeting the lawyer" and "when can you take Talulah" and "you left this here do you still want it?"

It wasn't just that Blaine wouldn't reply. Sometimes he would, during the chunk of the show that Blaine wouldn't be onstage or during warm-up. But he'd say "let's talk about it later" or "can't we just wait until the weekend when I see you next?" The Kurt that was married and comfortable and knew his husband, understood him would have tried to fight it. "No, I need to know now," "your daughter misses you," "if we don't do it now it'll never get it done," "let's just rip off the bandaid, shall we?" But this Kurt was cautious and nervous and… submissive.

Kurt Hummel. Submissive. Who would have thought he'd see the day where that happened?

Texting Sebastian was strange on every single level. It wasn't just the smirk that made Kurt feel like he was transported back to high school. Having actual conversations only through text and not calling was very 2011 in itself, but the way he talked, spent his time crafting the perfect comeback or wording something to make a very specific impact instead of just the throwaway "wanna grab lunch?" text was very reminiscent of who he used to be.

Back then, Kurt was very deliberate in everything he did. He was trying to figure out who he was and once he found that out, he tried to assert that in every interaction. He was special and he needed everyone he came across to know that to an extent.

Kurt was so settled in where he was now. He had had the same friends, coworkers, connections and reputation for years and years. It wasn't often that he met someone new and had to pull out the version of himself that he wanted that person to see and introduce them to him. And it was even more rare to meet somebody like Sebastian who kind of knew him, kind of didn't. Only knew him as the flamboyant dreamer from Lima, Ohio (who was stood in the way of what Sebastian really wanted and was probably seen as more of a nuisance than anything else Kurt may have wanted to be seen as) and not the fabulous and settled New Yorker that he was today.

Trying to learn who he was without Blaine and tangling that into who he was before all while trying to create a pretty version of that person was proving difficult. Plus, he didn't know whether or not it was appropriate to triple-text. Last he thought it wasn't, read it in a magazine somewhere, but Sebastian did it quite often. Sebastian wasn't a thirty year old father, though. He worked at Macy's and lived in a Berry-Hummel-Lopez-esque loft with three other guys who, no doubt, were fun, young and knew when it was appropriate to send tongue-sticking-out emojis or how long of a space to leave in between messages.

It wasn't like Kurt and Sebastian texted every single hour of every day. After they initially got each other's numbers, there wasn't a single text exchanged for weeks. Neither of them had extended an invitation for lunch, so there was no point to be communicating with each other. But out of the blue Sebastian had sent him a link to an old video of James Corden doing a production of Mary Poppins on the streets of London and they soon launched into easy conversation.

After a certain point, though, their correspondence did become fairly frequent. Well, frequent for someone who usually only texted Uber drivers and babysitters. And for two working adults, really. But it was fine.

It wasn't all consuming, didn't take too terribly much of Kurt's time or brain power, even if he did spend the occasional couple of minutes figuring out the right wording for something. It was just a fun distraction. Something to keep his mind off of everything going on around him. Harmless exchanging of stories from their respective days at Dalton and the occasional banter about something that really didn't matter in the scheme of things.

For every ignored text from Blaine, he'd get three or four from Sebastian that kept the ever-growing feeling of throwing his phone at a wall or doing something stupid like making a surprise visit to Blaine's new apartment or the theatre at bay.

But today, no number of texts he got about the weird things Sebastian's roommates did or his crack-up of a manager was going to put him in a good mood. Or a relatively decent mood, for that matter;

Blaine was running late and Kurt was freaking out. He was sitting with Mary Ann (the woman carrying their child) in the waiting room of the OB-GYN and he swore he was going to have a panic attack. They were planning on finally telling her about the divorce today. They had made a plan to take her out to a nice restaurant after the appointment and tell her then, but Kurt didn't know how much longer he could keep it in. He needed to know what he was going to do. He needed to know if he was going to be having another little baby to throw his everything into in a few months or if he was going to have to cling on to only one little one for comfort as the divorce was finalized.

Blaine was good at conversation. He could fill any awkward silence and diffuse most any tension in the air. He should be here to take the brunt of the small talk while Kurt took calming breaths and sang "My Favorite Things" on loop in his head until they went in. His phone started ringing and he startled, scrambling to fish it out of his bag, not looking at the caller ID as he put it to his ear.

"Where are you?!"

"Hello to you too, princess."

Kurt sighed. Sebastian.

As soon as he was about to reply, Blaine ducked into the room and Mary Ann's name was called.

"Hey. I'm at the doctor's. Can I get back to you?" Blaine rushed to help Mary Ann out of the chair and Kurt trailed behind them as they made their way back to the doctor's office.

"Uh. Sure." Kurt didn't bother saying goodbye, just hanging up and catching up to the others.

Kurt tried his hardest as they sat down and waited for the nurse to set up the ultrasound equipment not to shoot Blaine his dirtiest, "where the fuck were you?" look. He managed to catch Mary Ann's eyes and return the smile she gave him, making the bad feelings in his gut simultaneously go away and come back full force. The two of them stayed silent as the nurse asked the girl the basic questions about how she was feeling, rubbing gel over her protruding belly.

Kurt glanced in Blaine's direction, gauging his reaction. He wondered if he was nervous about telling Mary Ann about their situation. Was the thought of not getting to adopt this child they hadn't met but were already so connected to as heart wrenching for him as it was for Kurt? If he had any negative emotions about any of that, it wasn't plainly showing on his face, which was surprising as his husband was usually a very expressive person, wore his heart on his sleeve. He wondered if he ever remembered their plan since he didn't really seem to care about what time the actual appointment was at.

Suddenly the sound of a heartbeat filled the room and he couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed at the man beside him.

"There he is." The nurse said and Kurt's head whipped around.

"Wait… he?"

Kurt figured this would be the right time frame to find out the sex and he was intending to tell the nurse that they wanted to wait to find out. But he was a bit… distracted. And still, she should have asked anyway. He couldn't really fault her for blurting it out like that, but… it really wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"A little boy." Blaine whispered beside him, clasping onto Kurt's hand without hesitation. Kurt bit his lip, images of those stupid onesies with phrases like "daddy's little rockstar" and "stud muffin" on them and baby suspenders flashing through his mind. He and Lulu having matching "big sister" and "little brother" shirts. A blue and yellow color scheme for the nursery with dark wood furniture and a son to teach how to become a man like his father had done for him.

It was a little bit easier to detach himself when he hadn't known details like that. And he knew that the sex didn't matter, wasn't something that was going to be strictly enforced in his household, but it made things so much more real. This blob of cells was going to become a person with thoughts and feelings and a personality. He yearned not only for the small pleasures in coming up with a cute outfit to put him in but for the big things like watching him take his first steps. Learning his quirks and his personality traits, seeing the person he was growing into. Those were his favorite things about watching Talulah grow up the past three years and he longed for it again.

But in a matter of hours, he may not have it.

He had him now, though. And he would take advantage of that fact while he could, sitting in this doctor's office on a cold January day, holding his almost ex-husband's
hand and blinking back tears as he watched the image of his son wiggle on the screen.

Kurt checked his phone when they got out of the office, seeing that Sebastian had texted him pretty soon after he had initially called.

From Sebastian Smythe (11:13am)

Why are you at the doctor? Is everything okay?

Kurt smiled sadly at his screen. It was crazy how Sebastian Smythe of all people was the only one to text him asking how he was and he didn't even know why he was at the doctor and how that could be affecting him.

Right now, even though he didn't know the proper etiquette and was frankly not very good at it, he was thankful for the ability to text. It was easier to hide the pain and nerves bubbling up inside of him as they waited for their ride to the restaurant.

To Sebastian Smythe (11:58am)

I hope so.

From Sebastian Smythe (11:59am)

That's not cryptic.

Kurt sighed. He wished he could just spill his guts without the other two knowing how he was feeling. They could eat complimentary bread and chit chat while he sent all of his worries into the digital ether.

From Sebastian Smythe (12:01pm)

Is it about Talulah?

Rachel would be too busy to reply. He didn't want to stress his dad out before he knew all of the answers himself. Most of the other people in his contacts didn't even know that he and Blaine were having another child. They were even a little cautious before the break-up, just in case something happened and Mary Ann changed her mind.

From Sebastian Smythe (12:09pm)

Hello?

As his name flashed across his screen for a second time, Kurt wondered if maybe… No, he couldn't. Their relationship wasn't serious enough for this. Sebastian didn't even know that he and Blaine were getting divorced. Even though they were occasionally friendly over text, they weren't nearly close enough to be sharing the kind of information that Kurt needed to share.

But maybe that was the perfect situation. There was nothing to lose from Kurt ranting about this. If Sebastian got scared off and they stopped texting, nothing of value would be lost from Kurt's life. And he really needed something in his life with low stakes right about now. As he climbed into the front seat of the car and Blaine and Mary Ann the back, Kurt took in a deep breath and started typing away. He read over the word vomit briefly and let out the breath as he sent it.

To Sebastian Smythe (12:11pm)

No, it's not about Talulah. It's about my unborn son who shortly may or may not be my son anymore because Blaine and I are about to tell the woman carrying our baby that we're getting a divorce. So, yeah. I hope everything's okay.

From Sebastian Smythe (12:12pm)

…Shit.