#klaineroadtrip2015

“Of course,” Kurt says, and waits for Blaine to pose in front of Smaug, taking a few steps back to get as much of the dragon into the frame as possible. Blaine bounces happily over to examine the pictures, collecting his bag from the floor.

“Sam is going to be so jealous,” he says with a grin. “Do you remember where the baggage claim actually is, or?”

***

Kurt snuggles up against Blaine in the back of the taxi. “Can’t we just go to the hotel now?” he whines. He doesn’t understand why Blaine has so much energy or where it came from. Traveling is exhausting. Blaine shakes his head.

“Nuh-uh. We’re going to Weta Workshop and then I won’t talk about The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit for the rest of the trip, I promise,” he assures his husband, “We’ll be there soon. That’s why we’re going now.”

Blaine had checked Google Maps on his phone in Auckland airport before their domestic flight to Wellington. Kurt had agreed that it seemed silly to go all the way into the city just to come all the way back out to Mirimar, the suburb close to the airport which is home to the Weta Cave.

They hadn’t booked a tour, but Blaine doesn’t mind that as he wanders around the shop. He stops himself from buying anything, as though anything is in his budget after international travel, but he feels just as at home as ever.

***

They make it to the hotel before 11am, one of the biggest pros of having had such an early flight down from Auckland. They can’t formally check in until the afternoon, but they leave their bags, freeing them up to get going with their day.

“So we’re going to the museum?” Blaine asks. He had dragged Kurt to Weta, so it is fairly enough his turn to choose after all.

Kurt pulls his jacket a little tighter around himself. It’s winter in New Zealand, and they are walking around the waterfront. The harbour is beautiful even for such a cloudy day. “Yeah,” he affirms, “Te Papa Tongarewa?” Kurt gives his best shot at pronouncing, with no real idea about if he’s even close, having never needed to encounter Maori words in his life, “it’s that building there.”

The foyer is in itself kind of empty, obviously ushering them up the stairs before they get to any information kiosk, but even for a weekday there are plenty of people around. There are a few pre-schoolers and their parents standing around a ball, all with their sleeves rolled up to keep them from getting too wet as they try to change the direction of it. Blaine very quickly beelines towards it, getting right into it alongside them. The kids are delighted that someone has the strength to push it where they want it to go, and Blaine perks up immediately after playing with the kids. Kurt feels like he’s done a lot of babysitting that day already. Blaine was lucky that he loved him so much.

 “Is this your first time here?” the girl at the information desk asks them as they collect maps.

“Yeah, what do you think we should see?” Blaine replies, well aware that they can’t fit everything in with the time they have, “we’ve never been to New Zealand before,” he adds.

“Are you doing a marae stay or anything while you’re here?” she is met with blank looks. “Okay, so that’s where you should go. Mountain to Sea and Awesome Forces will always be here for you to come back to,” she says gesturing to the entrances on the floor, “so animals there, and the earthquake house there. But if you want to do the typically Kiwi things, head up to level 4 and go to Mana Whenua and the marae. When you first get up there, go straight to Golden Days and book your seats, though. Trust me.”

***

“New World,” Kurt muses, as they make their way into the supermarket, “because that’s not an exaggeration or anything.” Blaine shrugs. They grab a basket each, the shopping in mind to match their planning to have a picnic dinner that night in the botanic gardens.

“I’m pretty sure supermarkets are a universal experience.” But oh, how wrong they were. They don’t make it out of the fruit and vegetables before they run into a Pikachu, and unicorn, and a dinosaur, heatedly debating how many carrots they need. “Kurt?” Blaine tugs on his husband’s sleeve to get his attention, lowering his voice, “why isn’t anyone surprised by that?”

Kurt doesn’t know what to say. Teenagers in sleepwear, even onesies, isn’t something he had ever come across in public before. He certainly hadn’t ever ventured from the house in pyjamas (and filming a commercial for a mattress store did not count). “I take it back. This is a New World.” Even for the supermarket being so close to city centre, no one other than them seems at all surprised by these people, nor does anyone seem to question a distinct lack of footwear. It’s winter, and yet they spot barefoot people, and, perhaps only one step better, people in flip flops (or “jandals” as they so charmingly call them). Having just come from the beach themselves (which they learnt was mostly imported sand, as though having a beach in almost the city centre wasn’t strange enough) they knew for sure that they hadn’t all been there just before.

“I’m cold just looking at these people,” Blaine notes, putting a bag of Pineapple Lumps into his basket. Kurt hums in agreement.

***

“Wellington isn’t a big city, is it?” Blaine muses, as they walk the short distance from the waterfront to the cable car. Google Maps had told them that it took about as long to walk through the city as it did to walk around the harbour, and it had been obvious which made the better walk. In the late afternoon the harbour is all the more beautiful, the clouds having lifted, even when they were fighting against the current of business people going home.

“I think it’s just mostly suburban,” Kurt replies. The fact it only took them twenty minutes to walk this far along the length of the CBD wasn’t lost on either of them. “And the sanctuary is in a suburb, right?” Blaine nods.

“I think technically the botanic gardens are in a suburb too?” Kurt shrugs. Navigating the suburb divides in a city they’re visiting isn’t exactly something worth dwelling on.

The cable car itself isn’t anything new and exciting; it’s not as iconic as the San Francisco cars, but it gets them exactly where they need to go. A handful of university students hop off halfway up as they approached the campus, but it’s obvious that the cable car isn’t nearly the most popular means of traveling. They get off at the top, and head around to the lookout hand in hand.

“I never get sick of it,” a man says to a woman near them, “I’ve lived here all my life, and this is still my favourite view.”

“It’s the coolest little capital,” the woman says, and the man laughs, “so overused,” she emphasises. Neither of them really get what the couple is talking about, as they communicate when Kurt quirks an eyebrow at Blaine. He shrugs in response.

“It is pretty great,” Blaine says, squeezing Kurt’s hand.

“We’ve seen so many cities, so many skylines, but New York is home, you know?” Kurt replies with a dreamy sigh.

“Yeah, I know.”

“We’ve had a good run, but I think we’re due for a staycation soon.” Blaine grins.

“I can’t wait to stay in and scrapbook everything with you. Make notes about our favourite coffee shops and restaurants all over the world, our favourite skylines, and our must see locations from everywhere we’ve been. It might take a bit of work, but it’s going to be so worth it.”

“People aren’t going to believe us when we say we’re this well-travelled,” Kurt says, nudging Blaine in the side. He giggles, shaking his head lightly. They head off through the botanic gardens hand in hand, in search of a spot to sit.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it? How you can be in the city in one minute and in a place like this the next. There’s no one here,” Kurt says.

“Yeah,” Blaine agrees, “there were all those business people on the waterfront, but it doesn’t seem like people use this like a shortcut.”

They know that it’s still really early for dinner, but they have a night tour to be getting to, so they make quick work of their picnic before walking right to the other side of the gardens from where they came in (both glad that they ended up walking downhill most of the way) and out the main entrance gates. The public transport system gets them easily to their bus stop, and they need only walk a short way to the wildlife sanctuary.

“Okay, who’s on this night tour?” a tour guide says, and they go and join the circle that is being formed. “Tēnā koutou katoa, my name is Harry and this is Sophia, and we’re both volunteers here at Zealandia. Because there are quite a few of you, half will go with Sophia, and I’ll take the other half. Before we head into the valley, I’d just like to remind you that we try to do everything we can to make sure that we aren’t disturbing the wildlife. Please don’t use your own torches or phones, we will give you a red light torch each, and remember just to keep your voice down when we’re out there. In a minute we will ask you to self-check your bag in case you have anything in there. It sounds silly, but we really can’t even chance bringing mice and rats into the sanctuary, so it’s best just to make sure, you know?”

Kurt and Blaine end up going with Sophia, a girl who looks to be in about her early twenties. They collect a flashlight each, and check their bags at the station provided before going through the gates.

“The fence!” Sophia says excitedly (though quietly) to the group, “Essentially it needed to be built to keep out all the major threats, not just to the native wildlife but the native trees and plants, too. Stoats, cats, possums, rats, and mice were identified, and then a fence that kept them all out needed to be made. So things like jumping height, climbing ability, burrowing, and size of the animals were figured out, and then the fence was made to combat those. So that’s why it’s the height it is, and why there’s a cap on it, and the fence actually goes down into the ground to stop burrowing. Things like ease of installation and maintenance were taken into account too, and just general Wellington conditions. You guys don’t really seem like you want all the exacts, but there’s an infographic a little way up you can look at.”

They walk on further, the next stop at a reasonably average looking tree, though there are hinges in the side of it. “This is one of our weta motels. With any luck…” Sophia opens the door, revealing two halves covered by acrylic, with huge bugs inside. “Make sure everyone gets to see the weta, folks,” she says with a grin.

Kurt and Blaine walk up to the tree and look at them. “This is what the film company named themselves after?” Blaine says. He squeezes Kurt’s hand extra tight. The weta are some of the biggest insects he has ever seen in his life; if not the biggest.

“They’re not exactly pretty, are they?” Kurt says, “Okay, I’m done looking at insects, let’s move away and let someone else see.” The others in the group aren’t as shocked as they are.

 “You two are American, right?” Sophia asks them as they step away from the tree. Was it really that obvious? Having clearly heard them talk, their accents were a giveaway, but Kurt suspects that there was more there from her asking.

“Yeah, we live in New York,” Kurt responds.

“You can tell you aren’t kiwis. You were surprised to see weta. Most of these guys will have had one in their gumboot before.”

“Do they always get that big?” Blaine asks, his skin crawling.

“They can get bigger than that. We mostly get tree weta in the motels, but there are also giant weta out there. You can imagine. We’ll probably see some cave weta in the mine.”

Once everyone has happily seen the weta, which as Sophia pointed out was the least scary way to see them up close, they continued on through the valley. “This is my favourite part of the whole sanctuary,” she says, “This is the tuatara nursery. I think they’re adorable.”

In several glass tanks are exhibits, each holding tiny lizards. “They are pretty cute,” Blaine says to Kurt.

“Small doesn’t equal cute,” Kurt reminds, though the tuatara are quite cute. Blaine nudges him with his elbow.

“Hey, what are you implying about small people?”

“You are cute. Happy?” Blaine nods, grinning at Kurt.

Eventually they walk on far enough to get to the mine, like Sophia promised. “I’ll take you in smaller groups, because there isn’t heaps of room in there. We will probably see some cave weta, and there should be some glow worms too. If anyone wants to talk about the history of the gold mine we can do that in a bit, but let’s just go in, huh?”

As the pair enter the mine with the group, Kurt wraps his arms around Blaine’s chest, walking pressed close to him. He ducks more than he needs to, paranoid that he will brush a weta or something on the walls. “There’s a really big weta up here!” Sophia says, perhaps more excitedly than she would ever need to be.

“Blaine? Do you want to just get out of here?” Kurt asks, and Blaine nods. They walk back out of the mine quickly, Kurt unwilling to fully straighten his posture until they’re a good few metres clear of the entrance. “Okay, that’s enough weta for me for a lifetime,” Kurt says.

“I guess you’ll never watch any of the Lord of the Rings movies with me ever then, will you?” Blaine teases.

Of course, there was one thing everyone who wanted to the night tour really went in for; in hopes of seeing a kiwi. Sophia checked the time and the group decided that they didn’t want to walk too much further into the valley, so she only took them a short way in. “Okay, I’ve just checked, there is a kiwi in this burrow here,” she says, and the group cycles round so everyone can see the bird in the burrow. “It’s a shame he hasn’t come out for us, but you can all at least say you’ve seen one now, yeah?” There’s a scuffling from the bushes a little way up. Sophia gestures to them all to be really quiet, and she sneaks over, turning back to the group to nod excitedly. “Red light only,” she reminds them, and points her flashlight at the bird as he walks out from the bushes and crosses the path right in front of them, before disappearing again. “Right, yeah, so that was a little spotted kiwi, which are slowly gaining their numbers back after being significantly threatened by mammals. That’s why we have the fence though, luckily. They’re breeding pretty well in here.”

The walk back out to the visitor centre is pleasant, just Blaine and Kurt walking hand in hand through the dark. “Thank you so much,” Blaine says to Sophia as they approach the gate.

“You’re welcome! Did you two have a good time?” she replies.

“We did,” Kurt says, “but I’m not upset that there aren’t wetas in our apartment.”

“There aren’t weta in my flat either, thanks,” Sophia says with a laugh, “maybe my garage. Most of them are pretty harmless, and well, the reactions of people like you make it all worthwhile.” They call a taxi, neither of them keen to work out which buses will get them across town to the hotel, and finally make it into their room. They had only spent a short time there in the afternoon to get their bags in place.

Blaine stands by the window, admiring their harbour view. Kurt comes up behind him and wraps his arms around him, resting his chin on his husband’s shoulder. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Kurt says, “I am very tired, but it’s nice.”

“Do you want to take a bath to warm up?” Blaine suggests. Kurt hums in agreement.

“That sounds wonderful. And then we can get desserts from room service, and…. Then it’s time for bed. I’m exhausted.”

“You’ve been tired since we landed this morning and we’ve had a big day. You deserve to have a good night’s sleep.”

“I’m wearing Armani pants, Blaine, they’re not meant for going down slides.”

“But it’s a slide.”

“Blaine.”

“Slide.”

“You’re really not budging are you?” Kurt sighed, “Okay fine, but if my pants get ruined…”

“I’ll buy you a new pair.” He pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, “C’mon before the line gets any longer!”

They moved as quickly as they could with their suitcases to join the queue, leaving their baggage with the attendant at the entrance.

“Just come back up to get it later.” She said with a smile, gesturing for them to move forward once the little boy that was in front of them hopped into the slide.

Blaine sat at the edge, turning back to look at Kurt with a bright smile and yelling “see you downstairs!”, before pushing himself down. Kurt rolled his eyes but chuckled anyway, moving to sit down when the attendant told him to.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it was pretty fun and he found himself laughing the way down. Before he knew it, he was out of the tunnel and slowing down to a stop. Blaine stood by the side, helping him up, a knowing smile plastered on his face.

“Fun, right?”

“Oh shush.”

*

It was late afternoon when they made it to the Marina Bay Sands hotel, and their tummies were grumbling by the time they reached their room.

“I’m hungry, but I don’t want to move,” Blaine huffed, flopping down on the bed and rolling over to look at Kurt as he untied his shoelaces. “should we just order room service?”

Kurt shook his head, “the weather is beautiful today, we should go out to eat. You had a list of places you researched on right?”

“I’ve got a number of places. Let’s see…” He trailed off, eyes scanning through the list on his phone. “Should we just eat something small now so we’ll have an appetite for dinner?”

“Fine with me. Where should we go now?”

“Joo Chiat, it’s known for being rich in heritage, plus there’s a lot of food there.”

*

Rows of conserved shophouses lined the roads of Joo Chiat, painted in a multitude of colours, bringing lots of colour to the street. Some shop houses were turned into cafes, selling a whole range of different food; from upscale high-tea dainties to traditional old-school treats and desserts.

“They’re so colourful!” Blaine said as he peered into the display case full of traditional nonya cakes, or kueh as the signs put.

“I can’t pronounce that. Kueh?” He tried to say it out.

“Like koo-eh.” Kurt said, trying not to laugh at Blaine’s attempts at pronunciation.

“I want this one.” Blaine pointed to the box of green sphere lookalikes covered in coconut shavings.

“Can we have two orders of the ondeh ondeh?” Kurt gave a shot at pronouncing the food and the shopkeeper nods, getting their kueh for them.

“Have a seat, I’ll bring them over in a moment.”

When the kueh finally comes, Kurt placed a whole ondeh ondeh in his mouth and Blaine tuts, about to tell him to eat slower when Kurt suddenly squeals and claps a hand over his mouth.

“What is it?” Blaine frowned and rose from his chair, afraid that his husband was choking, but Kurt just motioned for him so sit back down.

After a few more moments of chewing, and nervous twitches on Blaine’s part, Kurt finally spoke, mouth still chewing on the kueh. “There’s liquid inside; exploded in my mouth.”

Blaine snorted at him, biting back the innuendos already on the tip of his tongue.

*

They spent the rest of their evening at East Coast Park, surrounded by the sand, sea and greenery. But before the could run over and enjoy the warm sand under their toes, Blaine spotted an inline skates rental shop suggested that they go do that first.

“Blaine, you know that I have terrible balance, and the sun is setting, it’ll get darker.” Kurt huffed, crossing his arms and giving him a pointed look.

“But you can try. C’mon it’ll be fun! Just like that time we ice skated on Christmas, but on land this time.” Blaine nudged him.

“And if I fall?”

“I’ll be there to catch you.”

Fitted into their rollerblades, they practised skating around the open space in front of the rental shop. Kurt flailed around, trying to get his balance and true to his word, Blaine was there to help steady him before he fell each time.

“Blaine, I feel like Bambi trying to walk on ice!”

“But it’s land.”

“Not the point.”

When he finally got his groove, they skated along the path, laughing and snapping goofy photos of each other, trying to avoid the other skaters and cyclists. Tired, they decided to stop at a pavilion and Kurt was proud to say that he only fell two times, and Blaine, a grand total of none. That well-coordinated idiot.

“You know, I was thinking,” Blaine gasped out after a long drink of water, “we sang White Christmas when ice skating, so we should sing something now too. Something with a summer vibe.”

“Got my mind on your body and your body on my mind…” Kurt sang, giving him a sultry smirk.

“Got a taste for the cherry, I just need to take a bite…” Blaine continued without missing a beat, moving closer to him from where they were sitting on the bench. “Take me down into your paradise, don’t be scared ‘cause I’m your body type.”

“Just something that we wanna try, ‘cuz you and I, we’re cool for the summer.” Kurt leaned over to peck him on the cheek. At Blaine’s displeasured whine, he laughed, “not here, people might skate past. I promise, when we get back to the hotel.”

Blaine pouted, but it quickly changed into a grin, “do you remember what I said to you that Christmas?”

“That no matter what or where we’re always going to be here for each other. How could I forget?” Kurt smiled at him.

“Always here for each other.” Blaine repeated, holding Kurt’s hand in his, “for better or for worse.”

*

“Blaine… Blaine, wake up.”

“Wha…” Blaine shifted awake, narrowing his eyes at Kurt who was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Good morning, love.” Kurt chirped, smacking a wet kiss on him, “now wake up! We’re going to Bugis Street to shop today.”

“I’m sleepy.” Blaine frowned, already burrowing back under the covers.

“Blaine… wake up!!” Kurt poked at Blaine’s sides until he came out from below the blankets.

“I’m Sleeping Beauty, you have to kiss me awake.”

“You haven’t even brushed your teeth yet.”

“Then I guess I’m going back to sleep.” He was about to hide under the blankets again,but Kurt pulled them back.

“The things I do for you, Anderson.” Kurt rolled his eyes, leaning down to rest his arms on either side of Blaine’s pillow.

“That’s Anderson-Hummmmm”

*

They didn’t really know what to expect when they first got off the bus, directly in front of Bugis Street. The afternoon sun was beating down on them, and the boys heaved a sigh of relief that they decided to change into shorts before leaving the hotel. Crowds of people were bustling about, many walking around holding shopping bags.

“Oooh bubble tea.” Kurt tugs on his hand, leading him to one of the food stores by the entrance, “looks nice. Let’s get something.”

“Hazelnut milk tea sounds amazing.” Blaine said, looking through the menu, “you?”

“I think I’ll get the honey milk tea plus pudding.”

Blaine repeats the order for the person by the counter, and a while later they got their drinks.

“This is the best thing ever.” Kurt managed to say with a mouthful of pudding, “perfect for this weather.” Blaine who was busy chew the pearls in his tea nodded, and they walked into the busy entrance of the street.

As they joined the crowd, Kurt immediately reached for Blaine’s hand and brought him closer, not wanting to lose him in the sea of people. With people shuffling around them, they couldn’t help but let the atmosphere seep in. Rows upon rows of stores sold items ranging from clothes to shoes to accessories to food and even oh hello some adult things. Music blared from some stores and others had bright signs lighting up the area around them.

Kurt aimlessly lead them to a row of stores where there were lesser people and they walk into a shop selling casual menswear.

“Oh my god.”

Blaine just smiles and tries not to laugh at Kurt who was rifling through racks of clothes, his eyes wide with wonder as he took a button up shirt off the hanger and turned to the shop assistant, “how much for this?”

“Twelve dollars. Buy two for twenty.” She replies and Blaine was pretty sure that his husband would be jumping in excitement if he could.

Kurt whipped around to grin at him, “I’m in heaven.”

And this time, Blaine couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

They jumped from shop to shop, browsing and buying anything that caught their eye.

“Kurt! Look at this red polo I found!”

“You’ve already got too many of those, Blaine.”

“But it’s only nine bucks!”

“… okay.”

The rest of their time in Bugis Street happened in a similar fashion.

“They’re selling four pairs of earrings for ten bucks!”

“Kurt, my love, your ears aren’t pierced.”

“But they’re so cheap.”

However, Blaine had to draw the line somewhere because honestly, they’ve been shopping for at least four hours and he needed a break. He looked down at the many bags he was carrying and couldn’t help but give his husband who was still shopping an affectionate smile. They were going to need to buy a new suitcase to fit everything.

“Blaine, there’s a shop selling solely bowties!”

Scratch that, they’ll need to buy two new suitcases.

*

“My arms are sore.” Kurt groaned as he waited for Blaine to fish out their hotel room key. He slotted it in and pushed the door, holding it open for Kurt to lug their shopping haul back into the room. “I think we bought too much.”

“You think?” Blaine laughed, grabbing the other bags by the door and bringing them in.

“Hey, we bought souvenirs for the others too.” Kurt hummed. “We should go back one more time before we leave.”

“I’m pretty sure we already bought everything there.”

“But we could have missed something.” Kurt pouts.

“Alright, stop pouting.” Blaine pecks him on his pouty lips and Kurt immediately grins back.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

*

Dinner was a quiet affair, both exhausted from their mega shopping trip, so they opted for room service and whatever movie that was on tv. But as they cuddled on their bed, finishing the last few bites of their dessert, Kurt perked up and suggested that they go swimming.

“But I’m dead tired.” Blaine complained, leaning over to place the empty dishes on the table beside them. “Can’t we just cuddle and sleep?”

“We can just go to the pool and soak and relax. Please?”

“You just want to try on the new swim shorts you bought just now, don’t you.” Blaine gave him a knowing look and at Kurt’s sheepish smile he laughed, “knew it.”

“Come on. My ass looked fantastic in it and you can’t argue.” Kurt smirks, already hopping off the bed to search for the shorts in the many shopping bags.

“Your ass looks fantastic in anything. Or you know, without anything on too.”

Kurt who was bending down and searching  through the bags wiggled his butt, throwing Blaine a saucy wink over his shoulder as he throws both their new swim shorts back onto the bed. “Get changed, sweetie.”

*

The air was crisp and chilly when the doors to the elevator opened to the rooftop Skypark. They giggled and shivered, clad in their swim shorts and wrapped up only in robes from the hotel.

“Oh wow…” Kurt trailed off as they set their stuff down on the chairs, “the city skyline is beautiful.”

“Quite a lot of people up here though.” Blaine scanned the pool, seeing quite a lot of people at the edge of the infinity pool.

They hurried into the pool, not wanting to stay in the chilly air, but as they waded to the vanishing edge, Blaine suddenly steps back, holding Kurt’s hand tightly. “I think I’m a little scared.”

“Of the edge?” Kurt asked, turning to look at the edge of the pool, “sweetie, it’s not really vanishing, it just looks that way. I’ll be here with you.”

“You won’t make fun of me?”

“Course not. Now c’mon, before all the spots by the edge are taken.” Kurt tugs him close and they shuffled over to the edge, and finally with some persuasion, Blaine dared to place his hands on the glass and stare out at the skyline.

Kurt loops his arms around Blaine’s torso from behind him, nuzzling the side of Blaine’s face as he pressed a gentle kiss to his temple, “feeling better?”

“Much. It’s so pretty.” Blaine’s eyes twinkled in the city lights, and Kurt couldn’t help but give him another peck. His husband was just too cute.

“Mama, how long more?” A small voice caught their attention, and they notice a boy next to them talking to his mother.

“Just a little longer.” She answers him, “they must be getting ready.” The boy nods and turns to look at the skyline, seeming to be looking for something.

“Excuse me?” Blaine asked, and the mother and son turned to them. “Is everyone waiting for something?”

“The fireworks!” The boy grinned and hopped excitedly, making the water around him slosh around.

His mother chimes in, “it’s the weekend of Singapore’s National Day so there’s going to be fireworks from today till next Monday. Everyone’s really excited since it’s our Golden Jubilee.”

“Oh, fifty years?”

She nods, and at that moment, a burst of colour flashes around them, a muted boom sounding off.

“The fireworks, Mama, the fireworks!” The boy gasps and claps happily just as another one went off, exploding into sparks of red and yellow.

“Golden jubilee, huh?” Blaine sighed, leaning back against Kurt’s chest.

“We’ll have our golden celebration too.” Kurt hugged him close, “our 50th wedding anniversary will be spectacular.”

“Already planning so far into the future?” He laughed, looking up just as gold sparkles filled the sky.

“Of course.” Kurt scoffed, “it’s definitely going to happen so we can just start planning now.”

Blaine just chuckles, turning in Kurt’s arms to press a kiss on his lips. Pulling away with a soft smack and leaning their foreheads together, “I am so in love with you.”

“Well you better be, we’re married.” Kurt frowned and Blaine splashed water at him.

“This is the part when you’re supposed to say you love me too.”

“Alright, alright.” He cradles Blaine’s face close, “I love you too.”

They basked in the moment, tilting their heads to watch as the fireworks continued, lighting the sky with bursts of light and sparkles before they slowly died down and came to an end.

“Is that your hand on my ass, Blaine Anderson-Hummel?” Kurt leaned in, lips so close to Blaine’s that they were brushing when he spoke. From the corner of his eye, he could see the some people in the pool start to swim away, leaving the both of them alone by the edge.

“And if it is?” His voice was low and raspy when he spoke, his fingers gently massaging the muscle on Kurt’s ass while he looked at his husband from under his lashes.