When he arrives home, as soon as Blaine steps across the threshold, a voice calls out from the living room.

"Nice of you to finally come home," says Senator Anderson sternly.

Blaine freezes in the middle of toeing off his shoes. Of course, he had been trying to prepare himself for this moment the whole way home, but that didn't make him completely void of fear. He takes a few seconds to compose himself, before walking across to the living room. His father sits in a beige armchair, flipping through a newspaper, still dressed in his shirt and slacks from the day's work.

"Hey, dad," Blaine greets him, attempting nonchalance. "How was your day?"

"Good," says Senator Anderson flatly, eyes glued to his paper, "until I came home to find that my son wasn't home yet. " He looks up at Blaine, eyes running up and down his frame. "And you're out of your uniform. Don't tell me you skipped school completely."

"I came home and got changed, actually," says Blaine, somewhat defensively.

"Blaine, it isn't good if I don't know where you are," says Senator Anderson, setting aside his paper. "Just yesterday they found some vandalism about the Hummel boy and they're thinking it was one of our supporters."

"You know I would never do anything like that, dad," says Blaine, almost pleadingly.

"I know, Blaine, I raised you right," says Senator Anderson, and Blaine resists the urge to roll his eyes. "That's not necessarily what the media's going to think, though." On seeing that Blaine seems unperturbed by this, Senator Anderson gives a sigh of resignation. "Where were you, anyway?"

"I-" Blaine hesitates. For a moment, he contemplates lying. But he has enough to hide already, and no way can he bear hiding any more secrets. Besides, his father is bound to find out about him and Kurt sooner or later. "I was meeting up with Kurt."

"Kurt?" Senator Anderson repeats, eyes widening in surprise. "You mean the Hummel boy?"

"Yeah," says Blaine. "I- we've just talked a bit." He stammers over his words, despite the fact that he has nothing to hide. "I thought I should go see him, after what happened with the billboard; see if he's okay."

Senator Anderson stares at Blaine thoughtfully. The long silence begins to make Blaine uncomfortable, and he's just wondering if he should explain further when his father speaks up.

"This is good."

Blaine blinks. For the second time that day, he's sure he's completely misheard.

"This is perfect, actually," Senator Anderson muses aloud and yes, Blaine's heard correctly. "They've been trying to do damage control all day, and what better way to fix up this whole mess than to have my son be friends with Hummel's gay son?"

"Kurt and I were pretty low profile about the whole thing, though," says Blaine. "And whoever recognised us wouldn't really tell anyone."

"Hmm, let's hope someone leaks a story," says Senator Anderson. "The media will buy into anything political these days. Not to mention it could do wonders for bipartisanship later down the track."

"Right," says Blaine uncertainly, feeling uncomfortable now given his promise to Kurt to keep their friendship quiet. "Um, anyways, I have a lot of homework I have to get started on, dad."

"Of course," says Senator Anderson, and Blaine can tell he's in a much better mood by the way he doesn't even take the opportunity to reprimand Blaine once more. "Your mother's making Adobo for dinner, by the way, so make sure you're ready to eat in an hour or so."

"Sure," Blaine calls back.

As soon as he has retreated to his room, Blaine's phone buzzes in his pocket. He retrieves it to find a text from Kurt.

Kurt; 6:45pm: I never properly thanked you for today. I didn't realise how much I needed it. Mercedes has been so preoccupied lately, and Finn's always busy with football, it was nice to have someone to talk to.

Blaine smiles to himself, before typing out a reply.

Blaine; 6:47pm: Don't mention it. If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here. Even if I may secretly be spying on you :P

Kurt; 6:50pm: Haha thanks. And, ah, I'm sorry if I made it seem like I was dismissing your problems today. I want to be there for you too. You mightn't have people hating you for who you are, but that doesn't mean this isn't going to get lonely for you.

Blaine; 6:53pm: No, it's okay! Besides, you just had that whole billboard thing happen, I'm pretty sure it would have been selfish of me to focus on my problems

Kurt; 6:56pm: Aw, thanks. Um, by the way, I kind of told dad that we met up. I hope that's okay. He actually thinks that if it gets out it wouldn't be so bad. Probably good for bipartisanship, he said.

Blaine; 7:01 pm: Already worth telling your parents about, am I :P But no, that's fine. You actually kind of came up in conversation today too, and Dad agrees. He was still kind of upset that I was home late. I swear they don't like me going anywhere these days.

Kurt; 7:04pm: Ugh, tell me about it! And I just know it's going to be even harder to get out now given the billboard incident. Dad's already trying to tighten security.

Blaine: 7:05pm: That sucks. I guess that means I won't get to see you for a while, hey?

Kurt;7:07pm: You guessed correctly. Which is annoying :( And I have a pile of homework I should probably get started on, so I should probably head off. Night Blaine!

Blaine; 7:08pm: Same. Night Kurt :)

Blaine stares at his phone, rereading his and Kurt's conversation like....well, like a teenage boy in love. He's not, though, of course not. But he isn't going to deny that Kurt's sad face at not being able to meet up regularly does give him hope. But ask him what it gives him hope for, and he wouldn't know what to tell you...