Kurt ushered Blaine into his house and helped him take off his coat. “Dinner’s nearly ready,” he said.

“Great,” Blaine replied, smiling widely.

Kurt had debated showing Blaine into the living room first so he could properly unveil the meal, but then decided against leaving Blaine alone in a room with his dad. For all he knew, Burt would give some sort of outrageous and threatening ‘if-you-hurt-my-son’ talk. No matter how many times Kurt assured his father that he and Blaine were just friends, Burt seemed to have a small smile that revealed his doubt about it. Kurt lead Blaine into the kitchen, just to be safe.

“You can sit down,” Kurt instructed as he cracked open the oven to check the entrée.

“You’re cooking?” Blaine asked, mildly surprised. Then he laughed. “I should have known, what with your expertise on tomatoes.”

Kurt smiled. “I’m an expert with many foods.”

“Then I’m in for a treat, aren’t I?”

“Indeed you are.”

Carole walked into the kitchen. “Kurt, when-“ she broke off when she saw Blaine sitting at the table. “Oh, hello!”

Blaine stood and extended his hand to her. “Hi! I’m Blaine Anderson.”

Carole smiled. “I’m Carole. It’s nice to finally meet you, Blaine.”

At the word ‘finally,’ Blaine’s eyes flickered to Kurt. Kurt quickly turned away and began wiping down the cutting board. Finally? That quite clearly implies that Kurt’s been talking about Blaine. Kurt could feel his face and neck reddening, and hoped he could attribute it to the warmth in the kitchen.

Burt, too, entered the kitchen. He said hello to Blaine, and Blaine responded that it was ‘a pleasure to meet again.’ Blaine always seemed so formal and polite. It wasn’t a bad thing, but Kurt noticed that it appeared to be a sort of façade. Blaine wasn’t perfectly proper when it was just the two of them talking. Only around other people.

They’d all sat down and Blaine was commenting on what a nice house the Hummels had(“This table is gorgeous,” he gushed. Blaine was a professional gusher. “Thank you!” Carole replied. “It’s mahogany!”), when Kurt placed down all the food. Wild rice with lemon, chicken breast with chives, and a salad decorated the tabletop. Kurt sat down and began serving food.

“This is incredible,” Blaine said, sounding astonished, as he took his first bites. “Kurt, you’re amazing.”

Everyone laughed. Burt and Carole, too, expressed their appreciation of the meal. Then, after a slight pause where everyone simply enjoyed their food, Carole spoke again.

“So, Blaine, you’re going to college here?”

Blaine launched into explaining his college life in Lima, detailing the classes he took and what majors he was looking at. Kurt smirked when Blaine caught his eye, and Blaine nodded back, acknowledging that he was rambling about school. Kurt stayed quiet as Burt and Carole asked various questions of Blaine. Kurt noticed how great Blaine was at holding up a conversation-he eloquently responded to all of the questions, sometimes gracefully avoiding answers he didn’t want to give and redirecting the discussion, and easily weaving in compliments and inquiries of his own toward the other person. It was almost artful. However, Kurt noticed something else, too. While his own conversations with Blaine had sometimes stuttered and gone off course and been peppered with silences, he’d always looked so engaged. His eyes had always lit up and he listened to Kurt or thought up a response. When Blaine spoke to Kurt’s parents, though, it seemed as though he had a mask. Like he was on autopilot, just making conversation because he was supposed to, not because anything he said mattered. Kurt chewed his food, observing and thinking.

Everything was going great, so far. Conversation was flowing, the food was delicious, they laughed and smiled constantly. Until Carole asked Blaine, “Do you like Lima? You think you’ll stay here?”

Blaine shrugged. “It’s a nice enough town. I might have to transfer to another campus, though, to complete my major.”

“Oh,” Carole said. “Is that difficult to do?”

Blaine swallowed some rice, shaking his head. “No, not really. I haven’t looked into the details too much, but my girlfriend, Maia, has researched it a bit more.”

Carole didn’t respond. When Blaine had said ‘my girlfriend,’ both Burt and Carole had turned to Kurt quickly, surprised, before turning back. Kurt’s face burned, his thoughts racing. Blaine raised his eyebrow at the silence. Kurt cursed his parents for not believing him when he’d explained that he and Blaine were only friends. He hadn’t exactly told them about the girlfriend, per se. It would have been rock-hard evidence against any of their suspicions, but…for some reason, Kurt had never brought it up. He tried not to think about the shameful, guilty feeling he got when he thought about Blaine’s girlfriend. He didn’t know what it meant and he didn’t want to.

“Anyway,” Blaine said, finally breaking the silence. “I will miss Lima. It’s a nice little town.”

Carole then began chattering about how she, too, liked the town, and how she’d moved to it in the first place. Kurt stared resolutely at his mostly-empty plate, hoping that Blaine couldn’t see his reddened face. He wondered what Blaine was thinking, but was also scared to know. Suddenly, he felt as though the dinner was a disaster.

When they’d all finished, Burt glanced at the clock on the wall above the sink. “Well,” he said. “You’ll have to excuse me, but there’s a Browns game that’ll be starting in a few minutes…”

Kurt rolled his eyes as his father stood up. “I’ll get the dishes,” Kurt offered.

“Let me help!” Blaine said, standing up.

“No, you’re a guest.”

“Please, I can’t stand by and not do anything,” he insisted.

Raising an eyebrow, Kurt nodded. “Okay.”

Carole went out to the living room to join Burt, and the two boys gathered up dishes from the table.

“So,” Kurt said as he rinsed a plate off, trying to rally what had so far been a less than satisfactory evening. “You told me you’re twenty, right?”

Blaine took the plate from him, loading it into the dishwasher. “Yeah.”

“Hmm.”

Blaine cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

“Nothing,” Kurt said lightly, handing him a serving bowl.

“No, not nothing. Why’d you ask?”

“Just curious. You’re not of the legal drinking age.”

Blaine narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Okay, where is this going?”

Kurt set down a handful of silverware and looked Blaine in the eye. “You want to experience more things, right? I mean, besides school. All you do is school. I just…had an idea to help you put yourself out there more. Or something.”

Blaine grinned slightly. “And what exactly is this idea?”

“Well…how do you feel about karaoke?”

Blaine left within a half-hour, after finishing the dishes, sitting in on some of the football game Burt was watching, and making plans with Kurt. The next night they were going to karaoke night at a local bar. Blaine was still a bit unsure about the whole thing, but Kurt had goaded him enough to get him to try. Kurt wiped down the table after Blaine left, humming to himself. He opted out of watching football and instead went upstairs to his room, skipping up the stairs and trying to ignore the list of flirty duets that was flickering through his mind.