Blaine didn’t see his parents that night or the next morning. He was more relaxed at school on Friday than he had been all week, but he was still feeling anxious about his parents lack of reaction. At least today he actually turned in his homework, and his teachers looked relieved. New Directions was coming over again that night to watch The Two Towers, so Blaine had that to look forward to. Kurt kept a close eye on him all day, Blaine noticed, but never brought up the night before. The only allusion to it had been when Kurt asked if Blaine was sure he was okay to have everybody over that night. Blaine assured him that he wanted everybody over, and it was never brought up again.

            Mike was the first to arrive, and Blaine did a victory dance in his head—he’d gotten somebody as hooked as he was. This was going to be awesome. The others arrived soon after, toting junk food and pop for the group, and they all headed up to the media room, Mercedes mumbling the whole way about “that Gollum character.” Blaine chuckled, thinking the poor girl had no idea what was coming. He and Kurt took their place on the bean bag, Blaine lying behind Kurt as the hobbits traveled ever closer to Mordor. The night was much less eventful than the last, the only talking being Mike’s random outbursts.

            “Legolas is such a badass,” he’d shout. Or, “Frodo, what are you doing?” The rest of the group was interested, of course, but he knew he had a whole new friendship with Mike after this. Mercedes watched much of it from behind her pillow, shouting “why do they have to be so ugly? Why?” and “I’m gonna have nightmares, new boy, and it’s gonna be all your fault!” Blaine was relishing it.

            When the movie ended, the group again made plans to finish the series the next week, and everybody started packing up.

            “Hey, Blaine?” Mike asked.

            “Yes?”

            “Do you want to hang out tomorrow? Y’know, to talk about this stuff? I figure you’re probably a better source than the internet.” Blaine smiled. He’d never hung out with one of the glee club members without Kurt, and the thought of branching out excited him.

            “That sounds great, yeah! And yes, I am a much better source than the internet. Unlike most of them, I’ve also read the books.”

            “There are books?” Mike asked, his eyes widening.

            “Yeah, there are three. Plus The Hobbit, the prequel.” Mike hugged Blaine then, causing him to grin stupidly. When Mike pulled away, Blaine looked over at Kurt, who was holding a blanket and smiling in their direction. Blaine laughed out of pure joy and saw the group out of his house.

            The next day Blaine locked himself in his bedroom, playing World of Warcraft to pass the time. He was meeting Mike at 4 at the Lima Bean, a place he found he couldn’t stay away from since his first meeting there with Kurt. The longer he sat around, though, the more nervous he became. He knew Mike liked the movies and was interested to know more, but what if he thought Blaine knew too much. What if he thought Blaine was crazy or obsessive? What if Blaine went into a two hour long speech about the differences between the movies and the books? Oh god, he thought, I’m going to ruin this.

            Those were the thoughts crossing his mind as he sat nervously inside the coffee shop waiting for Mike. 4:01, his phone said. Mike wasn’t going to show. Maybe Blaine got the day wrong, or the time, or the place. Blaine was panicking by the time Mike walked through the door. When Blaine saw him he relaxed, scolding his own paranoia. Mike ordered his coffee and came to join Blaine.

            “Hey, man, how are you?”

            “Good,” Blaine replied. His voice cracked and he blushed. “Sorry,” he mumbled, “how are you?”

            “I’m good. Tina is out with Kurt and Mercedes, they went shopping. That’s why I love Kurt, man. He likes shopping, so Tina takes him instead of me.” Blaine had suffered through one of Kurt’s shopping trips once, and he never wanted to do it again. If he was being completely honest with himself, though, he knew there were probably many of those in his future. He hoped there were, anyway.

            “And that’s why I love Tina. Kurt takes her instead of me.” The boys laughed and toasted to their significant others’ mutual love of the chore they hated.

            “Besides, this gives us time to talk Lord of the Rings!” Mike exclaimed, and the boys hunched conspiratorially over the table to discuss.

            Two hours later Blaine walked into his house, a smile on his face. He had a really good time with Mike, and never once did he think he’d made a fool of himself. It turns out Mike was almost as big of a nerd as he was, he was just better at hiding it. He danced, too, which was of more interest to him and was therefore the part of himself he showed to people.

            Blaine was pulled from his thoughts by the smell of pancakes. Blueberry, he thought, or chocolate chip. Both? He wandered into the kitchen to see his mother flipping pancakes and his father setting out the peanut butter and syrup. He looked at the stack of ingredients littering the kitchen and saw both blueberries and chocolate chips.

            “Mom? Dad?” he said, taking a few tentative steps towards them.

            “Blaine, sweetie, you’re here!” His mother exclaimed, dropping her spatula and running over to hug him.

            “Grab a plate, son, and go ahead and serve yourself.”

            “We have both of your favorites, and we have some whipped cream and strawberries and bananas. We even bought chocolate milk.” Blaine picked up his plate suspiciously and started filling it up. Breakfast for Dinner was his favorite meal, but his parents hated it, said it was childish. But here it was, both of his favorite flavors, all of his favorite toppings, and chocolate milk. He sat down and waited for his parents to dress their food and join him.

            “Mom, Dad, what is this about?” he asked. His parents looked at each other before turning back to him. Blaine noticed tears in his mother’s eyes.

            “We’re sorry about Thursday, dear. About how we reacted when you told us that you’re gay.” His mother started crying and turned to her husband, silently asking him to continue.

            “Now, son, we know that that must have been hard for you to say and how we acted must have made it even harder. We were shocked is all, and needed some time to think about it. We knew you were never interested in girls, but we always thought you just weren’t interested in anybody, not that you’re gay.” Blaine looked from parent to parent, hopeful but unsure of where this was going.

            “We love you, sweetie,” his mother started again. “We don’t care if you like boys or girls or whoever. You’re smart and kind and you make the best red velvet cake I’ve ever tasted. The fact that you’re gay doesn’t change that and it doesn’t change how we feel about you.”

            “We love you, son. Don’t ever doubt that.”

            Blaine felt a small tear fall from his eyes, but he also felt a wide grin spread on his face. His parents still loved him; they weren’t going to kick him out. They made him freaking pancakes. This was better than Blaine could have imagined. His parents smiled back at him before digging back into their food. Blaine cut off another bite but stopped before putting it in his mouth.

            “I have a boyfriend. His name is Kurt. I really like him.” His father nodded, but his mother squealed in excitement.

            “Oh! Tell us all about him, sweetheart. What does he look like? Did you meet him at school? Does he know about those videogames you’re always playing because he probably should…” Blaine and his mother spent the rest of the dinner talking about Kurt, Blaine telling his parents everything he’d been wanting to for the past two months. He told them about Kurt’s fashion sense (“tell him I want to take him shopping!”), about Kurt’s smile, about the party (he left out the alcohol) and the consequent kiss by the pond. He told them about Mike and the rest of the New Directions. He told them about Burt and the musicals he’d watched at Kurt’s house. His mother was cheerful and his father smiled happily (which, Blaine thought, was a lot for him. He never showed much emotion). Blaine thought that this was the most fun he’d ever had with his parents. It was like this huge weight had been lifted off of them, a weight they never realized was there. Everything’s going to be okay.