"Mom, Dad. This is my friend Kurt." Blaine introduces. Mr. Anderson glances up, assesses Kurt, and returns his gaze to his paperwork while Mrs. Anderson smiles knowingly at Blaine, whose hand remains on Kurt's shoulder.

"Nice to meet you, Kurt. You boys have fun." she nods her head toward Blaine's room.

"Dinner's at 6:30, and you're welcome to stay Kurt." 

"Thank you Mrs. Anderson." Kurt smiles and the boys head to Blaine's room.

About two hours later, Mrs. Anderson is knocking on Blaine's door. 

"Come on in," Blaine says.

"Sweetie, can you help me with this recipe? I can't figure it out." She fumbles with the pages of a recipe book.

"Mom, I suck at cooking." he glances at Kurt, who bounces willingly out of his chair to offer up his cooking cervices. 

"What are you having trouble with?" 

"Well, I can't seem to get the uh..." she points to the page, confusion staining her features.

"Oh! Yeah, that's tough. It'd be easier if I could show you." Kurt offers, pointing to the kitchen.

"Thank you! I'm pretty much a lost cause when it comes to anything harder than a simple pasta."

Mr. Anderson, it seemed, had escaped to his study as Kurt helped finish preparations for dinner. 

"Oh, by the way, I know about you two." Mrs. Anderson states in a moment of silence. Kurt nearly drops the knife he's holding and feels her eyes on him.

"I'm okay with it. I always knew Blainers was a bit different, and I never had any troubles accepting him for who he was. Honestly, I'm glad he has you." she smiles brightly and Kurt feels his cheeks heat up.

"Thanks, Mrs. Anderson." 

"Amanda," she corrects. "and you're quite welcome."  Before Kurt can come up with a logical answer, the timer goes off and Amanda scurries over to the stove. 

"Figured I'd find you here still." Blaine chuckles, appearing behind them suddenly.

"Oh, good! Sweetheart, could you go get your father?" Amanda asks as she sets out plates.

"Yep. Be right back."  As Amanda finishes setting up the table, Kurt pulls out his phone.

Your mom knows.

Did you tell her?

Mr. Anderson walks into the dining room, followed by a concerned looking Blaine.

No, she figured it out.

Yeah, she kinda has a sixth sense. She considers herself a match-maker.

They both let out a small chuckle, grabbing Amanda's attention. 

"You two really are as cute as a box of kittens, but put the phones away and come eat, would you?" she interrupts quietly enough so that only they will hear. With another small laugh, the boys tuck their phones into their pockets and walk into the dining room. 

"This is a great dinner, Amanda." Mr. Anderson comments, taking another bite.

"Thank you, honey. Kurt here helped a lot." she gestures to Kurt, smiling humbly.

"Really? Is one of your parents a chef or something?"

"Quite the opposite, actually. My mom died when I was young and my dad's cooking skills are pretty basic, so I took over the cooking in the house." Kurt explains with a polite smile.

"Oh," Mr. Anderson doesn't seem to have a good enough response for this so they all sit in an awkward silence for a few seconds before Amanda breaks the tension.

"So, Blaine. Is McKinley as good as Dalton was?"

"Yes and no. The classes are a lot more boring. But there's an air of freedom that I didn't feel at Dalton. I don't have to conform here." Blaine rambles, trying to fill up the silence for as long as he can.

*****

huh. That was interesting.

Yeah, sorry. My parents are weird.

Your mom's cool. I felt like your dad was judging me though.

Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me. He's not as accepting as Burt.

anyway. I heard about a gay bar that opened a couple months ago and I was thinking I could get us fake IDs and we could go check it out next weekend?

I don't know...

Please? It's not even an hour away!

FINE! But I'm not drinking. In fact, I'll drive so I won't even be tempted.

YAY!!

You're cute.

you're beautiful.

Hah! We should sleep, there's school tomorrow.

Aw. Okay. Night!! Xoxo

Really, B?

Yup!! Good night! Sweet dreams, Kurt!

Sweet dreams, Blaine.

*****

According to their normal schedule, Kurt and Blaine go to the Lima Bean after school for an afternoon-pick-me-up-coffee. After having shared a couple of worthy moments from their classes, Kurt glances down at his messenger bag.

"So, Marc Jacobs has a new messenger bag and I really like it! I need a new bag anyway, mine's awful. So I was thinking I could flip a pair of my Doc Martens and maybe sell off a couple of last season's pieces and save up for a bit." Kurt rambles, sipping his coffee.

"I love you." Blaine says suddenly, a mix of hope and bashfulness on his face. Kurt almost chokes on the coffee in his mouth. After a few painful seconds of composing himself, he studies Blaine and before he even has time to think it over twice, the words are out of his mouth.

"I love you, too." and once he's said it, he knows it's true.

*****

"I wish you could've seen it 'Cedes, his smile could have cured cancer!" Kurt gushes over the phone that night.

"Oh, boo! I'm so happy for you. You two really do deserve each other. You've had so much shit thrown at you. And I'm sure he's got his share of skeletons in his closet as well." 

"Everyone does. Anyways, how are you? Are you and Sam back together yet?" Kurt changes the topic, not wanting to think about regrets and thrown-shit.

"No, I need some time alone. And I'm still not sure whether or not I should get together with him again." Her unsure tone backs her up.

"I think you should. You guys are sweet together. And whenever he and Finn are gaming, I always get an earful of 'I wish Mercedes would take me back.' and 'Rachel hasn't got anything on 'cedes.' it actually gets annoying."

"Hold up! really? He's straight up said I'm better than Rachel to Finn!?" 

"Yeah. That surprises you?"

"Just the fact that he'd say it to Finn."

"I suppose so. Rachel has him pretty whipped." they both chuckle and a door slams in another room, followed by muffled shouting.

"Speak of the devils. I'm gonna get of hear and make sure Rachel doesn't brutally murder Finn."

"Okay, you do that. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, 'cedes!" Kurt hangs up the phone, jogging downstairs. 

"FINN! SERIOUSLY! HOW COULD YOU THINK THAT WOULDN'T UPSET ME?!" Rachel shouts, placing her hand on her forehead in exasperation.

"I don't know, I just figured that maybe you'd--"

"MAYBE I'D WHAT, FINN?!" Finn cowers back as though he's been physically struck. 

"I don't know. Not be totally pissed?" he asks hopefully.

"Okay. Yeah, not be pissed. Sure, Finn. You cheat on me with Santana and expect me to not be pissed." Rachel rebuts sarcastically.

"I DIDN'T CHEAT ON YOU! I told you, Santana kissed ME!" 

"Oh my God, Finn! Literally EVERYONE told me differently!"

"That's because Tana tol--"

"TANA!?!? SHUT THE HELL UP FINN! JUST SHUT UP!! WE ARE DONE!" With that, Rachel stomps away, slamming the door behind her.

"That was harsh." Kurt speaks up, making his presence known. "Did you really cheat on her with Santana?"

"No, Santana's a bitch." Finn defends, practically fuming.

"Whoa, okay. Just give Rach a few days to calm down. She'll see sense eventually."

"I hope so. I don't know how long I can deal with her being angry at me." Finn sighs, plopping into one of the dining room chairs.

"SO whipped." Kurt mumbles to himself as he walks back up to his room.