Blaine returned home after cleaning up his classroom, grateful to find that the house was empty. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and made his way up to his room, closing the door behind him. He haphazardly tossed his bag on his desk and then threw himself on the bed, staring at the ceiling as if it held all the answers to his now numerous unanswered questions. He'd left the house that morning feeling great, feeling empowered, feeling like his life was finally going in the direction that Blaine wanted it. But now he was filled with so much uncertainty. It was like he was hanging in limbo, numb to everything, unable to find footing on solid ground.

Because the universe had found a way to fuck him over yet again.

Maybe he was angry. But he wasn't angry at Kurt. He couldn't be angry at Kurt for not telling him that he had a daughter, right? They'd known each other for less than a week. Why would Kurt need to tell Blaine more than his name? Because there had been a promise made. They'd promised each other tomorrow. And now tomorrow was here and it didn't look a thing like Blaine had imagined. Tomorrow had been overshadowed by a five year old who looked very much like her daddy.

No, there wasn't a specific person to blame; it was just Blaine's cruel fate. He'd lost his job, his ex-boyfriend turned out to be a cheating bastard, and the second that he felt himself open his heart again, he was knocked down by fate's vindictive hand. Just when he'd finally put his life back into focus, everything was blurry again.

Despite all the uncertainty, Blaine knew one thing. There was no way he could date the parent of one of his students.

Blaine was just beginning to think about what that meant when his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and, seeing that it was Kurt, he hesitated for a moment. He could ignore the call, and the text messages and voicemails that would certainly follow. But he told himself that he couldn't run from this problem, there was nowhere else for him to go. And he reminded himself that he wasn't really angry with Kurt. And Kurt deserved more than to be ignored. Still, he reluctantly accepted the call and placed the phone against his ear, offering a weak hello.

"Hey," Kurt's voice was low and hesitant, as if he was expecting Blaine to react violently.

There was silence. Blaine wasn't sure what to say.

"How mad are you," the unsteadiness of Kurt's words growing.

"I'm not mad," Blaine did his best to keep his voice steady. He wasn't mad, he was just confused.

"Then you're a better person than I am."

Blaine couldn't find the words. Were there words?

"Maybe if you're not mad," Kurt asked cautiously, "then you'll meet me somewhere. Let me explain."

Blaine contemplated it for a second. Maybe he deserved an explanation. Maybe Kurt deserved the chance to explain, "I-I-Sure."

"Great, thank you," the relief was dripping from his words, "Alcohol or coffee?"

"Coffee," Blaine said despite the appeal of the sting of a glass of whiskey, "I can put a pot on if you want to come here. My brother and his wife won't be home for a little while."

"Perfect," Kurt said, "Santana is on her way over to watch Kadie and then I'll be on my way. I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay," Blaine said and hung up the phone.

The nervousness began building inside Blaine the second he started towards the kitchen. He turned the coffee pot on, watching as it began to drip drop by drop into the pot, trying to distract himself from the truth. The truth that once Kurt arrived, things would have to change. There was a line that had been crossed, one that he'd seen crossed many times before when teachers dated the parents of their students. A line Blaine promised himself a long time ago that he would never cross.

His heart raced a bit faster when he heard the doorbell. Once he answered the door there was no turning back. Once he saw Kurt again, it would be different than it had been yesterday; different than it had been when he'd woken up that morning. But he did it because he had to, because regardless of how much he didn't want any of what was about to happen, it had to. For the two of them, and for Kadie. With only a quiet greeting, Blaine let Kurt into the house, asked Kurt how he took his coffee, and disappeared into the kitchen, unable to really look at Kurt just yet. When he came back and finally forced his eyes to really see Kurt, he found him standing in the middle of the room, looking just as unsure as Blaine felt. One of the things Blaine had loved about being with Kurt was that Kurt never made him feel nervous or afraid; not in a bad way. But now standing in front of him he was terrified.

Blaine handed Kurt the coffee mug and gestured for him to sit down at the couch, Blaine took the chair adjacent. It was usually a very comfortable chair, but now it gave no comfort.

"I'm sorry," Kurt said in a rushed breath, like he couldn't hold it in any longer. The hitch not going unnoticed by Blaine, "I should have said something the night we met."

"Why didn't you?" Blaine's question wasn't accusatory. He just wanted to know.

Kurt shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I was hoping that you were feeling the same way that I was and thought that you wouldn't feel the same way if you knew I came with a five year old."

"I wouldn't have."

"I didn't know that then," Kurt said, "I didn't know what I was doing that night any more than I know what I'm doing now. Being a single and a dad was never part of the plan. And I don't have a clue how to make both of those things work together."

"What was the plan?"

Kurt shifted uncomfortably on against the couch cushions, "I don't know how to tell this story," He said, "Can I just start from the beginning?"

Blaine nodded.

"His name is Daniel," Kurt explained, the present tense of his words sticking uncomfortably in Blaine's throat, "and he was my high school sweetheart. He was the first boy to love me and I was sure he'd be the last. After high school, we both decided to stay in Lima, go to OSU. While I was in school I ran the bar at night and on the weekends and once I graduated I threw myself into making sure that my dad was only running the books. I was at Hummel's every spare second, making sure it was running the best it could. Like something my dad could be proud of, you know? Daniel had a job at the newspaper before he even had a diploma. Then we got engaged, despite the lack of legality in it all, and when we were twenty-six I decided I wanted a baby; and he didn't tell me no. We hired a surrogate and then we had Kadie.

"Then," he took a deep breath before continuing, "A little over a year ago, he left. He was there when I went to sleep and he was gone when I woke up. Do you have any idea how hard it is to tell a four year old that her daddy just up and left her in the middle of the night? And that all he left was a note that said he needed to find himself? Explaining that was by far the most difficult thing I've ever done in my entire life."

"Where'd he go?" Blaine asked breaking his silence.

"No idea," Kurt shook his head, "His sister is still in town so if something happened to him I assume she'd tell me. However, I don't think she ever liked me. She actually works at the school. Claudia Valente."

"I met her yesterday."

Kurt scoffed, "Lucky you. I'm sure she was charming."

"I'm the first person you've gone out with since then," Blaine asked bringing them back from their tangent.

"You saw how hard Santana was pushing me to ask you out," Kurt said looking at Blaine, and then directed his eyes towards the carpet, "Yeah."

"Would you have asked me out if she hadn't said anything in front of me?"

Kurt shrugged, "I don't know."

"And Daniel," Blaine questioned, "Is that finished?"

"I haven't heard from him in over a year. I really have no idea where he is."

"But if you did," Blaine prompted.

Blaine needed to know where Kurt's heart was and when Kurt didn't immediately respond, Blaine had his answer.

"I think," Blaine said before Kurt found his words, "I think that maybe it's not a good idea to continue this relationship. Romantically, I mean."

Blaine felt the pieces of himself that had begun to mend back together start chipping away again. It wasn't just as bad as Kurt being the parent of one of his students. Kurt had a fiancé out there...somewhere. They'd had a good time, a great time, but some things just weren't meant to work out.

"Oh," was the only thing Kurt said, his shoulders slumping. Blaine hated seeing the defeat in Kurt's body; but he knew it was for the best.

"There are a lot of ways this could get messy very quickly. And I'm Kadie's teacher. I don't think I could date a parent of a student in the best of situations."

"Maybe you're right," Kurt said looking crushed. Blaine wished he could take Kurt's hand or hold him tight, something that would comfort him. But he couldn't, not today. Not when the reality of the situation was still so raw.

Kurt was already standing up and reaching for his coat before Blaine heard the voices coming from the other side of the front door. He couldn't ask Kurt to stay, but there weren't any more words to say. Not tonight.

"I'll see you," Kurt said.

"Yeah," Blaine said as the front door opened and Cooper and Allison walked in.

Kurt rushed out the door, muttering a goodbye as he pulled the door shut behind him.

"Everything okay," Cooper asked.

"Yeah," Blaine said grabbing his coffee cup, and Kurt's, and headed towards the kitchen.

"Kurt left in a hurry," Cooper said, Allison next to him trying to shush him.

Blaine dropped the mugs into the sink, his back still to his brother and just quietly shrugged.

"Did you guys break up already?"

It didn't matter that Blaine had never told Cooper the truth about Kurt. Because now there wasn't anything to tell.

"Cooper," Allison scolded, "Leave him alone."

Blaine wanted nothing more to crawl into his bed and wait for tomorrow. A tomorrow that would be different from today, but not entirely unfamiliar. Tomorrow he would have to go back to what life was like before Kurt. Before the promise the universe had made him had been shattered. Feeling exhausted, the weight of the day pressing down on him, Blaine went wordlessly from the room, ignoring Cooper calling behind him.

When Kurt came in the door, feeling completely exhausted, and found Kadie and Santana at the kitchen table coloring; he couldn't help the way his heart swelled just a tiny bit. He could always bank on the sight of his girls making him feel a little bit better. Santana looked up from what looked like a picture of Belle—taking in Kurt's downtrodden expression—then whispered something to Kadie who nodded wordlessly as Santana got up from the table.

"You want to tell me why exactly I had to run over here for an emergency that didn't have to do with the restaurant. Is your dad okay?"

"My dad is fine," Kurt said taking Santana by the arm and leading her into the living room, out of Kadie's ear shot, and threw himself on the couch.

"It was Blaine," Kurt said closing his eyes like if that would block everything that had just happened, so that for a moment he could stop thinking about. But it was no use.

"Blaine," Santana said quizzically, "oh, the short guy from the restaurant?"

"Yes. Him."

"Did you finally decide you needed to get on that?"

Kurt opened his eyes and glared at his best friend.

"I didn't tell him about Kadie."

"Oh," she said stunned, "why the hell not?"

"A bunch of reasons that don't matter anymore," Kurt said, "and then I showed up to pick up Kadie from school today, and the teacher that they hadn't hired yet, it was Blaine."

"You mean to tell me that you went out with him—more than once—and you didn't even know what he did for a living? You didn't ask and he didn't tell? Jesus, Kurt. He could have been a serial killer."

"Well it turns out he's a kindergarten teacher."

"And," Santana prompted.

"And, we decided that it would be a good idea to not see each other anymore."

And maybe that was mostly true. Blaine was Kadie's teacher and that meant everything had changed. And Kurt surely couldn't force Blaine into seeing where their relationship could go. But now that Blaine also knew about Daniel, he was certain that Blaine's decision may have been less about Kadie and more about the man who'd abandoned him.

"You told him about the scum bag."

Kurt signed in response.

"So that's it," Santana questioned, "I mean, it's not like he hates kids. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened in the history of the world."

"He said he can't date one of his student's parents," Kurt said, "So yeah, that's it."

"Should I hate him?"

"No," he said quickly managing a fraction of a smile. He was glad to have Santana by his side but he also knew how she treated those who were unkind to those she loved, "He wasn't malicious and his points are valid. It's not the right time. I'm not ready."

Santana sat down on the couch next to Kurt, tugging at him arm until Kurt went willing into her arms, resting his head on her shoulder.

"It's out there," she whispered, "that love we grow old with. It's out there for both of us."

Kurt nodded, but kept his gaze forward, staring at the mantle which had been once filled with pictures of his family. Of his dad, his mom, of Kadie, of Santana, of him and Daniel. But the pictures of Daniel had been long removed by Santana, hidden in a box in the basement. To anyone else, the empty space was just that, empty space. But for Kurt they were the holes in his life. The ones he was trying to fill the best he could. The ones he thought would just stay unfilled forever. But maybe he just needed to fill them with different things and let that be enough.

"Stay for dinner," Kurt said looking up at Santana, wondering for just a moment how he could have done the last year without her.

"Only if you're showing Disney princesses afterward."

Kurt smiled and he can hear Kadie singing softly in the kitchen, still coloring, "I think that can be arranged."

It had been two weeks since the conversation in Blaine's living room. Two weeks of Kurt doing his best to avoid seeing Blaine when he picked up Kadie from school. But Blaine had gained a fan in Kurt's daughter—from the entire class, really—according to Kadie's lively retellings of her day during dinner. Of course Blaine would be the teacher that everyone loved.

Kurt flipped through the folder of reminders that had been sent home with Kadie. There was a letter informing parents that a student teacher would be joining the classroom in a few weeks until Christmas, the flyer for the bake sale, and the reminder that Monday was Open House.

Two weeks ago, Kurt had been positively giddy at the idea of going to Open House. Not that the night would be particularly exciting, but because it was the first school event that he could attend as a parent. He'd been waiting for this since the moment Kadie had been born.

You see, Burt Hummel, Kurt's father, was the greatest dad. For as long as he could remember, and especially after his mom died, Kurt's dad had been Kurt's hero, his role model, the person he strived to be in every aspect of his life. If Kurt could be even the smallest fraction as great of a father as Burt was, then he was doing alright. And Kurt couldn't remember a single school event, big or small, that his father hadn't attended.

All of Kurt's excitement had been before he'd met Blaine. And now, he wasn't go eager to go. But he'd made the mistake of telling his father about it, as excited as he had been in a pre-Blaine world, and now all of Kurt's excitement had transferred to his father.

"It was my duty as a father," Burt had said, "And it's going to be my duty as grandfather."

It was moments like this that made Kurt love his father just that much more. He knew that the only reason that his father was putting in so much effort was because this was something he was supposed to do with Daniel. It was one of those things that parents do. Together. But if he wasn't going to get the chance to do this the way he'd planned, he was certainly glad that it was his father by his side.

And Kadie was just as excited as Burt.

She led them into the school, guiding her father and grandfather through the halls of the school, talking a mile a minute about how these were the bathrooms and these were the second grade classrooms and down there was the lunch room. She was the ever-so-pleasant hostess. Kurt beamed at his daughter, grateful that still remained so alive after everything they'd been through. She was the light in the darkness that had surrounded him for the last year.

"In here daddy," Kadie said tugging at Kurt's hand, "In here, grandpa."

Kadie led them through the door of her classroom. Of Blaine's classroom. Where Kurt couldn't hide any longer.

There were already a dozen or so students are parents inside. Some were talking amongst themselves but he did see a glimpse of Blaine talking to a group of parents.

"This is where I sit," Kadie announced, excited to show her dad and her grandpa her chair and the nametag that she'd written that was tapped to the top of the table.

"It's the best seat in the house," Kurt said looking away from the desk and at the rest of the classroom.

They'd only been in school a few weeks, but the walls were covered with primary colors, letters, and numbers as a demonstration of how much they'd learned already, and how at that age, you're only limited by your imagination. The true tolls of life were still unexperienced and life was about coloring books and crafts with way too many sequins.

Kurt looked back at his daughter who was about to tell Burt something—a secret for only his ears—when the sound of the piano rang through the room, commanding everyone's attention with the quick run through the scale. And in a moment, Kadie was going, hurrying to the corner of the room. A moment later the piano was accompanied by a small choir of voices. Blaine's voice and the voices of all his students.

By the time they were half way through the song, Blaine had the enter room, including the adults, mesmerized. It was a ridiculous children's song, Old MacDonald, but there wasn't a single person in the room who wasn't turned into Blaine. The kids sang along and clapped their hands, expressions of joy on their faces. There was no way Kurt could suppress the smile that lit up his face when he looked over to see Kadie—happy—as she sang along. When the song was over the entire crowd broke into applause. It's the standing ovation Blaine deserved.

The crowd of five year olds shouted for an encore, but Blaine only promised something special for them in the morning. Now he has to meet all of their parents.

Kadie returned to Kurt a moment later and grabbed onto Kurt's hand tugging him through the crowd, towards Blaine.

"Daddy, you've got to meet my teacher."

Blaine looked up as another family walked away and this was when things were going to get interesting.

"Mr. Anderson," Kadie said grabbing his attention, "This is my daddy."

Kurt was unsure how to react. Do they shake hands? Pretend they don't already know each other's name? Do they pretend like they know each other but forget about the dancing and the kissing? Whatever it was, Kadie wasn't going to stick around and see it. She'd done her work and now whatever the little boy across the room was doing was more important.

Blaine laughed, "Sometimes kids have no attention spans at all."

"You can sing," Kurt said because it was the first thing that popped into his head.

"I can," Blaine responded with a bashful smile, 'Though, admittedly, m y audience as of late has consisted of five year olds. But they seem to love me, so I can't complain."

"Hummel's hosts karaoke night once a month. You should try your hand at a more mature audience."

"We'll see." Blaine had tried to hide the moment of hesitation, but Kurt spotted it.

Burt cleared his throat.

"Oh," Kurt said turning his attention to his father, "Dad, this is Blaine Anderson, Kadie's teacher. Blaine, this is my dad, Burt Hummel."

Kurt watched as Blaine and his father shook hands an exchanged pleasantries. His eyes met his father's, but he ignored the questioning looking in them. But despite Blaine's slight hesitation early, Blaine seemed completely unaffected by the situation they'd found themselves in. Maybe Blaine had completely moved on already. They were never actually dating to begin with.

"Don't you agree, Kurt?"

His father's voice pulled Kurt from the overwhelming what ifs and maybes that had congested his thinking into the conversation that was happening with Blaine.

"I was just telling Mr. Anderson here about how Kadie's been trying to read on her own a lot lately."

"I have some excellent recommendations if you're looking to accelerate her reading."

"That'll be great," Kurt said.

"I'll send a list home with Kadie tomorrow," Blaine said, "It was good to meet you Mr. Hummel. Kurt it was good to see you."

And then he excused himself to go talk to another family. Kurt couldn't help put follow Blaine with his eyes as he greeted a couple with a five year old at their feet and a newborn in their arms.

"Are we going to talk about this?"

Kurt's attention snapped back towards his father, "Talk about what?"

"What just happened?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Kid, you're no good at lyin' unless you want something," Burt said, "I was standing right here. You can't deny anything."

Kurt sighed, "I don't want to talk about this."

"But there's something to talk about?"

"Not here," Kurt said, "Definitely not here."

Burt dropped the subject and they drove home with Kadie telling her father and grandfather all about the different things they do every week in school. Like she didn't tell them every day. They ordered pizza and sat around Kurt's kitchen table just talking. Kurt caught his dad up on some of the stuff that was happening at Hummel's, Kadie listening like it was important to her. When it was time for bed, Kurt tucked his daughter in and kissed her goodnight. And when he went back downstairs he found his father still sitting at his kitchen table.

"Spill," Burt said gesturing at the empty chair across the table, a steaming mug of tea sitting in front of it.

Kurt slumped into his chair and wrapped his fingers around his mug, "The guy from Labor Day."

"Blaine?"

"Blaine."

"What happened?"

"I-I didn't tell him about Kadie. I know I should have, but I didn't. It had been so long since I'd been out with anyone; I just wanted to see what happened before I dropped all of our drama on his lap. And it came back to bite me in the ass. I showed up to pick Kadie up for school on the first day, and there he was."

"Then what happened?"

"We talked. I told him about Daniel and he—we—decided that it would be best if he didn't continue to have a romantic relationship."

"Is that what you really wanted?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Yes. I thought I was ready to jump into a new relationship head first, but maybe Blaine being Kadie's teacher was a sign that I need to slow down. Maybe as much as I think I'm ready, the universe just trying to tell me I'm not."

"This year has been hard on you, Kurt. You and Kadie. I'm so proud of you both. But just remember," Burt said, "everything happens for a reason."

A tiny laugh escaped Kurt, "That's it? That's your sage advice? No offense Dad, but I expected better from you."

Burt let out a hearty laugh, "That's what I got, bud. And you might not understand it today, or tomorrow, or a month from now. But eventually it'll all make sense."

AN: Thanks for reading and thank you for your patience as I try to get these up as soon as possible! My goal is to continue with an update every 2 weeks!

Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Our boys are in for a little drama!

Have a great day!