#uhhh.....

I’m sorry to bother you with everything that’s happening

But I want to check on you

On you especially

I’m kinda checking on everyone but I have a feeling you’ve been hit the hardest

Please say your coping in a healthy way

Not just exercising and training until you forget about it…

Under the cut cuz I’m talking about medical stuff and alcohol

A Klaine Drabble-ish for the July 2021 @todaydreambelieversfic Tan Hands and Tan Lines Summer Fic Challenge

Link to all the tumblr entries

Day 9: hubris

Rated: G

Word count: 468

Warnings: mention of vomit

This work is unbeta’d at the moment, but I plan to clean it up when it’s posted to AO3.  Thanks for reading!

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It’s not long into the afternoon before Kurt begins to regret his morning hubris. It turns out five-year-olds are a little young for the climbing wall, and half of the kids in the post-lunch group are too small to reach the hand and footholds, so Kurt and Peter spend most of the allotted time catching little humans when they lose their footing and hang in the air shrieking in a mix of excitement and fear. One ambitious little one makes it all the way to the top, then pees himself before he can get down.

The second group are older kids, eleven and twelve, and things start out well enough. They get about halfway through the bunch without incident. Kurt watches one of the boys reach the top, and he’s getting ready to pull the rope tight so the boy can belay down the wall and turns to glance at Peter’s progress fixing the next kid with the harness. When he turns back to his charge everything shifts to slow motion; the rope goes tight, the boy kicks away from the wall clutching his stomach, throwing up all over the floor below him, narrowly missing Kurt’s shoes. 

“Fuuu -” Kurt slaps a hand over his mouth, and he and Peter together get the kid down and hand him off to one of the parents who came with the party. Peter calls the maintenance crew, so luckily Kurt doesn’t have to do any clean up. Peter does give him five minutes to run to the locker room and do a clean up check on himself. After confirming that he isn’t covered in anything disgusting, Kurt heads back to the climbing wall. They have three more parties to do. 

Kurt walks past the concession, it’s busy but not insanely so which makes him feel less guilty about ditching for the day. He notices The Cute Guy sitting alone at one of the tables and stops to watch him. Kurt contemplates just walking over and saying hello, introducing himself and letting something happen. It was something he had just started doing in New York, to mixed results, but in New York he knew the guys he approached were gay; he’s entirely not sure about this one.  And he doesn’t want to be late getting back to help Peter. Kurt takes a deep breath, and heads back to the climbing wall..

The maintenance guys are leaving when Kurt arrives, so he’s not late, and at least now the mats smell like bleach instead of the alternative. Peter is talking to a guy who looks familiar, and when Kurt gets closer he recognizes him as one of The Cute Guy’s friends. The short dark one, not the blond.