Chapter Text
The box is on the conveyor belt before anyone notices.
It isn’t Blaine’s fault, really. When Cooper asked to go look at the Super Soakers, he was told to take his little brother with him. They ran across the interior of Meijer, from the seafood department where Mark and Lina were debating what kind of fish to pick out for dinner that evening, to the toy section. The looming threats of water bombs and Cooper drenching him all weekend already terrify Blaine, so he toddles off to the next aisle where the dolls are located.
It doesn’t take long for Blaine to pick out the one he wants. His eyes land on the Baby Alive, with her cherries and bottle, and he grabs her immediately. He’s already infatuated with her blonde hair and blue eyes, so different from his own. She probably wouldn’t need her hair tamed down by Mama every morning. Blaine wants to spend his saved-up allowance--sitting in a tiny wallet inside Lina’s handbag--to give her a good home in his bedroom and take care of her, like his daddy does with him.
A pair of sneakers squeaks across the laminated floor. “There you are,” Cooper says exasperated, new Super Soaker in hand. “Come on, Blainey, let’s go back.”
“Okay,” Blaine replies. He hurries behind Cooper as quickly as he can without dropping the doll.
They find their parents in the produce department and throw their choices into the shopping cart. Lina casually glances in. “Blaine, dear, are you sure you have enough money to buy that?” she asks.
“Yeah, Mama.” He bounces up and down on his toes, which makes Lina smile and turn back to the display. As his parents bag up bananas, apples, and broccoli, Blaine picks out a name for his Baby Alive--Ariel, after his favorite Disney princess. If he isn’t allowed to become a mermaid and have a handsome prince save him, he’ll let it happen for her.
The Andersons make their way up to the checkouts, and Lina puts the doll up on the belt first, before Cooper’s squirt gun and the groceries. The cashier smiles at Blaine as she scans the box. “Is this for your girlfriend?” she asks.
Blaine shakes his head. “No, it’s for me,” he says proudly. “Her name’s Ariel.”
Mark finally notices the item and bites his lip. “Blaine, are you sure that’s what you want? We can put it back and get a Lego set to build together.”
“No, Daddy, I want her!”
“I don’t know if it’s really…”
Lina cuts him off. “Mark, honey, let him buy the doll before you cause a commotion. We can discuss this later.” She fishes Blaine’s wallet out and hands it down to him. “Okay, do you have twenty dollars in there?” she asks.
Blaine stares at the green bills trying to remember. “That’s the two and the zero, right?”
“It is,” she nods. He takes it out and gives it to Lina, who in turn hands it over to the cashier.
The cashier rings in the amount and gathers up the change to hand to Blaine. “Here you go, sweetie,” she smiles. “And I think Ariel is a lovely name for her.”
“Thank you!” Blaine exclaims as he tries to force paper and coins into the wallet at once. Lina sorts it out for him, placing the coins in the zipper pocket, and she puts the wallet back into her purse.
“Honey, I’ll take him out to the car while you wait,” Mark says to Lina as the cashier rings up Cooper’s toy.
“Alright,” she nods, and Blaine is suddenly whisked away from the registers with Ariel peeking out of the bag in his hand. Mark walks him outside, down the long aisle to where their minivan is parked, and opens up the sliding door. Blaine scrambles into his booster seat and waits for Mark to buckle him in.
Mark’s eyes darken as he speaks. “Blaine, why did you want that doll?”
“Because I want to take care of her,” he replies.
“Well, don’t you think that’s more of a girl’s job than a boy’s job to take care of her?”
Blaine shakes his head. “You take care of me and you’re a boy.”
Mark chuckles. “That is true, but these kinds of things? These dolls and the movies you watch with the prince and the princess marrying? Aren’t those more girl things, don’t you think?”
“Why would they be girl things?”
“Son,” Mark begins, “there are certain roles in life that boys and girls each take care of. Boys play soccer, and climb trees, and work all day. Girls, they cook, they clean, and they take care of the kids.”
“But Missy plays soccer,” Blaine counters, bringing up his ten-year-old cousin whose game they attended last week. “And daddies take care of the kids too.”
“Is that what you want to do when you’re older? Take care of kids?”
Blaine nods fiercely. “I want to be a daddy just like you.”
“Okay, then.” Mark ruffles his gelled-down hair and slides the door shut. When he gets into the driver’s seat he turns around and stares at Blaine. “You better take good care of Ariel,” he says.
“Okay, Daddy.”
Cooper rushes into the car and slams his door shut. “Hey, squirt, wanna play cops and robbers when we get home?”
“No, I wanna play with Ariel,” Blaine says.
“Okay, fine. I was going to give you my old Super Soaker, but if you’d rather have the girly toy…”
“Cooper Michael, stop that,” Lina calls out from the tailgate as she sets a case of Coke in the back. “Let Blaine be.”
The ride home is quiet, and as soon as they’re home and the groceries are put away, Mark cuts Ariel out of her old home and hands her to Blaine. He runs upstairs to his bedroom and crawls onto his mattress with her.
“Don’t worry, Ariel, I’m going to be the best daddy ever,” he says to her, hugging her close.
