“I cannot believe you got your own son a fake ID. This is beyond everything, even for you.” David’s eyes flashed, but his voice already had a touch of resignation in it.

“Oh, come on.” Bryan rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’m sending him out to a strip club in West Hollywood by himself or something. It’s a tame little gay bar in small town Ohio, and we’ll be right there to make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble. It’ll be fine. Live a little!”

Blaine’s eyes darted nervously between his two fathers. He understood, thanks to his therapist, that these types of arguments were just their way of coming to agreements, but it still bothered him on an emotional level. He resisted the urge to smooth things over by saying he didn’t want to go. It wasn’t his job to fix things between his dads, his therapist would remind him. And besides, hedid think going to this Scandals place would be fun.

“We’ve only been here a week, and already you’re looking for trouble,” David said. “I knew this was a bad idea. I knew you’d be bored out of your mind in Lima with nothing to do. You should have stayed in L.A. while Blaine and I came to help my mother out.”

“For the whole summer? I would have missed you way too much.” Bryan gave him a goofy smile, and David relaxed for a moment. He never could resist Bryan’s sweetness. “Besides,” Bryan continued, “As I have told you over and over again, I’m not ‘doing nothing.’ I’m researching for my new show about a gay teenager growing up in Ohio.”

“And as I have told you over and over again, you are not writing a TV show about my childhood! And I will not let you redirect this conversation, either. We are not taking our underage son to a gay bar, and that is final.”

Bryan put his hands on his hips. “Fine, then, you stay here. Blaine and I will go. Come on Blaine, let’s get dressed.”

David took one look at Blaine’s deer-in-the-headlights stare and sighed. “I can’t let you two go without adult supervision. I guess I’m in.”

--------------------

Kurt took a sip of his club soda and watched the new guy dance with Sebastian. He was young, definitely under twenty-one, maybe even still in high school. Teenagers didn’t show up at Scandals very often. Plenty of kids in Lima had fake ID’s, but nobody other than Sebastian and Dave and himself would ever use them to get into a gay bar. Naturally, Sebastian had jumped all over the fresh meat before he or Dave had a chance to even catch their breath. The boy was seriously hot. Kurt hoped he had enough sense not to fall for Sebastian.

“Here’s to the end of another school year,” Dave said, raising his beer.

Kurt clinked his glass against it and they both drank, smiling at each other. “We made it,” he said. “Just one more year left to go, and then we both get out of this town, right?”

“Absolutely,” Dave said. He gestured to a group of three muscular young men in the corner. “Hey, I think those are the Ohio State baseball guys we met a couple of months ago. I’m going to go talk to them, okay?”

“Go for it,” Kurt said. “I’ll wait here.”

--------------------

“I got you a Coke,” Bryan said when Blaine returned to their table after extracting himself from Sebastian. “Looked like you’d need something after you got away from that kid. David wanted to walk up there and drag you away, but I told him you could handle yourself.”

“Thank you. Yeah, he was a bit … handsy,” Blaine said, balancing himself on the high stool. He took a sip and immediately started coughing, the unexpected rum in the drink burning his throat.

“You okay?” David asked, concerned.

“Yeah, Dad, just, um, swallowed wrong.”

Bryan tried to hide his grin.  “Yeah … thought you needed something …”

“What about that guy over there?” David asked, pointing to the tall, impeccably dressed boy at the bar. “He was watching you dance. I think he looks nice.”

“Gorgeous,” Bryan corrected. “He looks gorgeous. And he’s wearing Marc Jacobs, finally somebody with good taste in this town. Isn’t this supposed to be a gay bar? Why doesn’t anybody know how to dress themselves?”

Blaine knew without looking who they were talking about. He’d been stealing glances at the boy for the past twenty minutes. But he looked over to where he was sitting at the bar again anyway. “He came in with that really big guy, though.”

“I think they’re just friends,” Bryan said. “You should go talk to him.”

“And if you’re wrong, and his boyfriend is the jealous type, I could be in big trouble,” Blaine said. Any excuse to avoid trying to pick up a guy in front of his dads. Sebastian had walked right up to him and asked him to dance, but trying to start something himself was another level of embarrassing. Of course his dads were on his side, but they’d want to hear every detail of the interaction later, whether it went well or badly. Not worth it. Except, that boy really was gorgeous.

“Who taught you to be so dramatic all the time?” Bryan said in his best drama queen voice. David laughed so hard he had to put his head down on the table.

“Go on, Blaine,” David said when he recovered. “Fifty bucks says he’s under eighteen.”

“And fifty more says he’s not dating that other guy,” Bryan added.

Blaine let out a sigh, screwed up his courage, and walked over.

--------------------

“Hi, excuse me, is th—” Blaine’s voice caught in his throat as the boy looked up at him. “Wow, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen,” he said before he could stop himself. He knew he was blushing as he realized what he’d just said.

Kurt’s lip curled up, suppressing a giggle. “I could say the same thing about you, actually,” he said. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, settling onto the barstool next to Kurt’s. “My name’s Blaine. I’m from Los Angeles, just here in Lima while school’s out for the summer. My grandmother broke her hip.” Blaine could have smacked himself. Worst pickup line ever.

“Oh no, I hope she’s okay!” Kurt seemed genuinely concerned, Blaine thought.

“Yeah, she’ll be all right. See those two guys at that table behind me?” Blaine inclined his head in the right direction, but didn’t turn around. “The one who’s dressed better than anyone in this place except you, and the one who looks like an older version of me? Those are my dads. We’re all here until she’s back on her feet and everything.”

“You grew up in Los Angeles with your two gay dads? Ohio must be quite the culture shock for you.” Kurt took another sip of his soda. “What’s life in L.A. like? I’ve never been there.”

“It’s pretty much like anywhere else, not as exciting as you’d think.” It was a lie. His life was not normal by any definition of the word. But he’d learned that if he wanted a real friendship instead of star-struck hangers-on, he had to hide the fact that his father was a well-known TV showrunner at least for a little while. “Just as lonely as any other place,” he added. “Unlike you, I don’t even have a boyfriend.” Blaine glanced at Dave, who was now dancing in a group with three other guys.

“What?” Kurt looked confused, and then recognition hit and he laughed. “Oh, you mean Dave? He’s not my boyfriend, never has been, never will be. We’re just friends. He’s the only other gay guy in my high school. He’s not even out, I’m the only one who knows. We just come here together because it’s safer that way. I don’t know what Sebastian is thinking, coming here by himself all the time and drinking, he’s such a—” Kurt stopped himself quickly.

Blaine smiled. That was all good news, but he hoped his dads weren’t planning to collect on those bets. “I go to school with dozens of guys just like Sebastian. You seem much more interesting. And I’m guessing you’re a better dancer than him, too.”

Kurt licked his lips. “Is that an invitation?”

“Well, now, I don’t know,” Blaine gave him a coy look. “I don’t like to dance with a boy if I don’t even know his name.”

“I’m Kurt.”

Blaine stood up and held out his hand to escort Kurt to the dance floor. As he turned, he saw his fathers high-five each other. He did his best to ignore them.

--------------------

Bryan put his elbows on the table, hands clasped together, and rested his chin on his hands. “Look at them, look at them, David! They are so cute together! All of America is going to ship that. I mean, aside from the homophobic assholes, but definitely all of the rest of America.”

“Bry, honey, live in the real world for a few minutes, could you? That is your son, not some fictional character.” David signaled the waiter for another beer.

“What’s the difference?” Bryan quipped. “Anyway, he can’t possibly be my son, I’m much too young to have a teenage son. He must be my slightly younger brother or something.”

“You’ve been saying that since he was eleven, babe, and it’s still not true.”

“Whatever,” Bryan said. The music switched to a slower song and he watched Kurt put his hands on Blaine’s shoulders and draw him closer. “Aaaaahhhhh, do you see that?” he said excitedly.

David frowned. Blaine was seventeen, slow dancing with a boy was perfectly appropriate, but it was still not exactly something that makes a father feel comfortable, much less excited. Unless that father was Bryan.

“Maybe I could cast the two of them to play themselves. They have so much chemistry together! Do you think that kid can act at all?”

“Do you even hear what you’re saying?” David said, exasperated. “Do you have any idea how insane you sound right now?”

“Blaine is a great actor, hon,” Bryan said. “And he can sing and dance. At some point you’re going to have to let him use those talents for the good of the world.”

“And we’ve had this discussion too,” David reminded him. “He can be an actor if he wants to, after he graduates from high school. Preferably after he graduates from college. He cannot be one of those child actors whose life gets irrevocably screwed up. His life is already screwed up enough just from being our kid. Thank god we can afford a good therapist for him.”

Bryan was barely listening. “The show is still in the early planning stages. He’ll graduate from high school before it’s in production.”

David made a strangled noise and drowned himself in his new beer.

--------------------

Blaine couldn’t believe how long they’d danced and talked before Kurt led him back to the bar. He ordered another Coke—plain this time—and Kurt had a club soda again. Blaine actually found himself a bit jealous of Kurt, based on what he’d told him about his life. It sounded so much simpler than Blaine’s own life. Kurt had a relatively normal family, actual friends at school who liked him for who he was instead of who his father was, and dreams of going to Broadway with his best friend next year. And he was gorgeous. So gorgeous.

Blaine was still standing, lost in thought. Kurt smiled up at him from the barstool. “What’s on your mind?”

“I was just thinking I want to kiss you,” Blaine blurted out. He wanted to smack himself. Why did he keep saying these things?

Kurt blushed and gave him a flirtatious look. “Why don’t you?”

“I’m guessing my dads are still watching,” Blaine said, relieved that he hadn’t messed everything up by being too forward. “I’d never hear the end of it.”

Kurt glanced over Blaine’s shoulder, and sure enough, Bryan and David were looking their way.

“Wait here,” Kurt said. “I’ll be right back.”

--------------------

“What is happening?” Bryan muttered to himself, his eyes darting back and forth between Blaine, sitting at the bar, and the boy he was already referring to in his head as ‘the David/Blaine character’s boyfriend,’ walking quickly away.

“I don’t get it? Did Blaine make him angry? After dancing for an hour? What could he have possibly said?” David was just as confused.

‘Boyfriend’ stopped where his friend ‘Football Player’ was sitting, across the room from Blaine’s place at the bar. Bryan watched as the two boys spent a few moments in quiet conversation. ‘Football Player’ glanced at Blaine, then at his watch, and nodded. Bryan puzzled over all this as ‘Boyfriend’ walked back to rejoin Blaine. He looked questioningly at David.

David shrugged. “Something is up here. I don’t know what it is, but something is up.”

--------------------

“There’s going to be a loud noise behind you,” Kurt warned Blaine. “Don’t look at it.”

“Wh—” Blaine startled as a huge crash of wood resounded through the room. And then he startled again because, before he realized what was happening, Kurt’s hands were on the sides of his head and Kurt’s lips were pressing against his, and Kurt’s tongue was licking at his mouth. Blaine barely had time to kiss back before Kurt was pulling away.

Blaine looked down at his hands and smiled, embarrassed. He felt the heat rising in his face. He glanced up, meeting Kurt’s eyes for a moment, and found Kurt looking back at him, eyes flashing with excitement but much calmer than he felt.

“Give me your phone,” Kurt said.

It seemed like an odd request after that, but Blaine handed it over. Kurt pressed a few buttons and handed it back. “Call me, okay?”

“Okay! I will. Yes.” Blaine didn’t usually get flustered like this over boys. He didn’t know what had come over him.

“I have to go,” Kurt said, disappointment evident in his voice. He gestured to something behind Blaine, and Blaine finally turned to look. Kurt’s friend Dave was picking himself up off the floor, three barstools and a table collapsed on their sides around him. Blaine looked back at Kurt, who winked at him. “Looks like Dave has had one too many, don’t you think?”

Dave walked up and clapped Kurt on the shoulder. “Takin’ one for the team,” he said, grinning.

“You and your sports references.” Kurt smiled back, then shot a last look over his shoulder at Blaine as they left.

--------------------

Blaine walked back to Bryan and David’s table slowly, controlling his facial expressions and his body movements to project an image of nonchalance. “It’s getting kind of late,” he said.

“Blaine?” Bryan drew out the word with a teasing tone. “Did your new friend create that diversion on purpose?”

Blaine raised one eyebrow and smiled mysteriously. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Just tell me you got his number,” David said.

Blaine blushed, but he couldn’t hide his grin. “I got his number.”

“Yes!” Bryan shouted, at the exact same time as David shouted “Score!” All three of them laughed, and David gave Blaine a high-five.

“It is kind of late,” David said. “Let’s go, guys.”

“Tell me everything,” Bryan said as they walked to the door. “In excruciating detail.”