Kurt leaned towards Blaine as he walked the tea tray into the living room, smiling. "Stop it," he sang under his breath. "I know what you're doing."

                "What am I doing?" Blaine whispered back, straightening his shoulders self-consciously. Kurt plopped down next to him on the couch and linked his arm with his boyfriend's.

                "You always go all stiff when you meet someone new. Just be yourself. You don't have to be perfect."

                Blaine just stiffened even more, his voice tense as he replied, "This isn't just ANYBODY, Kurt! It’s your DAD--I'm meeting YOUR DAD (Kurt nodded, yes, Blaine, I get the significance). What if he doesn't like me? That would suck, and—and I do not do that," he finished lamely, crossing his arms, unlinking them from Kurt's.

                "Yes, you do." Kurt extracted a piece of biscotti from the tea tray and pushed it to Blaine's mouth. "Now, eat this. And be yourself. God knows I love you, and my dad will already love you just for that."

                Blaine crinkled his nose up indignantly but he bit a piece of the biscotti off anyway. He bit it so ridiculously primly that Kurt pushed the rest of it further into his mouth, but it just clinked against his already closed teeth and crumbled onto Blaine's lapel. For a second, the whole scene in the living room slowed down comically--Kurt and Blaine awaiting Burt's entry from the kitchen, Blaine's tension palpable, the biscotti breaking and crumbs scattering across Blaine's blazer, Kurt freezing for the love of fashion and Blaine freezing for the love of making a perfect first impression--and then Kurt saw Blaine's face, frozen in horror, and he burst into laughter. Blaine looked up at Kurt, further distressed by Kurt's amusement, before dissolving into giggles himself. They both brushed furiously at Blaine's jacket but they were laughing too hard to actually get any of the crumbs off.

                Of course, Burt walked in the living room at the exact moment that Kurt had fallen onto Blaine, completely incoherent and red-faced, pressing on Blaine's chest with both hands for support. Blaine was gripping Kurt's left elbow with one hand and his other hand was completely unintentionally brushing by Kurt's crotch, making its way to his hip to hold him up so that, as Blaine said later, Kurt wouldn't crush him ("How much do you think I WEIGH?!" Kurt shrieked, and they proceeded to test how much of Blaine Kurt could actually crush, which inevitably resulted in some writhing and some kissing and the very abrupt cessation of both).

                Both Kurt and Blaine tried to pause to look at Burt, but pausing meant that Blaine's hand didn't quite make it to Kurt's hip. Kurt fell forward without the support, pressing into Blaine and trapping his hand between them. All three men flushed red. Burt put his hands up and started to back away. "Okay," he said, possibly sensing the absolute terror that was now emanating from Blaine. He cocked an eyebrow in a way that struck Blaine through the fog of his humiliation as very Kurt-like. "I'm going to come back in one minute.” Kurt nodded as enthusiastically as he could without moving any part of his body that was touching Blaine.

                Burt turned and walked back into the kitchen.

                Kurt crawled off of Blaine and grinned at him despite himself.

                Blaine scooted away from Kurt on the couch, his face deepening in color, and stared intensely at his knees. But he put his hand out far enough to brush his fingers with Kurt's so that he knew he was okay.

                Burt came back in exactly one minute later, carrying an extra pitcher of tea. He set it down awkwardly on the already-full tea tray and sat on the loveseat across from Kurt and Blaine. He looked at them expectantly.

                Blaine spoke first.

                "Sir, I wasn't--I'm Blaine, sir, Kurt's boyfriend, and--but I didn't, we weren’t--I mean, we haven't even done--not yet, anyway," he stammered out, his face getting steadily redder as he half-followed his original introduction plan and half-mangled it. Burt stopped him.

                "Kid." he said, seeming amused (Kurt wondered briefly if Blaine had ever been called "kid" before--he imagined not). "Consider this our first introduction." He smiled kindly but winked in Kurt's direction. Kurt smiled back. He knew his dad understood. Burt was like that.

                 Blaine flushed easily for the rest of the afternoon, but he laughed loudly when Burt told the story about Kurt's first tea party and he linked his hand with Kurt's without even thinking about it after Kurt poured his tea. Burt did not miss this detail and, although his fatherly instinct made him defensive, he could not help but smile slightly.

                Kurt would not tell Blaine later that a few crumbs stuck to his blazer throughout lunch or that his hair was a bit mussed the entire time that Burt saw it. He would tell Blaine truthfully that Burt very much enjoyed his company; that he was impressed by Blaine's conversation; and that--I told you so!--Burt approved of Blaine so long as Kurt approved of Blaine.

                Blaine still saw it as mildly disastrous. His first "bad" first impression. Only much later in life, after many years with Kurt and a hilarious retelling of the event in the speech that Burt made at their wedding (“I knew right then that it would take more than a 12 inch frying pan to knock the hearts out of his eyes, so I’d better just get used to ‘em”), did Blaine realize that laughing with his boyfriend was probably the best first impression he could make. It was certainly a truthful first impression. And because this is the way with growth and because Kurt gave him a confidence that Blaine could not have imagined without him, Blaine slowly found himself more and more comfortable with people and less concerned with making an impression over the years.

                After all, he didn't need to impress anyone anymore. He was happy.