A/N: Why, hello there, dear Readers! Another oneshot (since I seem unable to come up with a storyline that would take more than one chapter. -.-')! Claire is Blaine's mom, Richard is his dad. It is Anderson-centric, but I just had to add a little Klaine-fluff in the middle (Yeah, I can't help it! I'm weak like that!)! Enjoy!
Claire Anderson loved her son more than anything. So the minute he had lost Regionals with the Warblers she had told him to come home for the weekend. A little cheer-up if you will. So there they were - sitting at the dinner table: Blaine, her husband Richard and herself on a quiet friday evening. Only it was too quiet. Something was off. It was like Blaine's brain was somewhere completely different and before dinner he had been staring at his cell as if he had developed some kind of secret obsession with the thing.
"So. How is everyone taking the loss at Regionals?", she asked desperately trying to make conversation.
"Well, some of us are really bummed but I'm sure we'll still get to perform.", he answered.
"I still cannot believe what the judges were thinking. You all have beautiful voices. You were absolutely right by the way - Kurt's voice is stunning."
Well, that seemed to get his attention. Blaine's face lightened up almost immediately and the enthusiasm she had missed returned to his eyes.
"Doesn't he? I mean he killed that song! You should hear him sing Blackbird, mom, it's mind-blowing!"
And then he tensed as if trying to keep himself together. Interesting. Blaine couldn't lie. Him trying to keep something from her always ended up with her questioning him until he gave up and spilled the beans about everything. And he was definitely hiding something. Right now, his attempt to cover up his secretive ways was to simply go back to eating... and apparently changing the subject.
"This is really good, mom!", he said pointing towards his food. She sighed.
"Blaine, honey, what's wrong?"
"What? Nothing! What should be wrong?", he asked and his nervous laughter followed.
"You're shifting in your seat, you are not looking at me and you're changing the subject." She raised an eyebrow. Her husband wasn't paying much attention to either one of them. Something had been on his mind for a week now as well. She looked at her boys and almost felt the need to sigh again.
"Blaine, just tell us what's going on. How bad can it be? Are you gonna fail French again?"
"What? No! No... that's not it... exactly."
"Then what is it?"
"I... you... you remember Kurt, right?", he looked at his plate. Yeah, Claire thought, Blaine's ability to keep things hidden from her definitely hadn't improved.
"I believe I just spoke of him, so yes, I remember him."
"Well, you see...", he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, "KurtandIarekindadating"
"Pardon?", she didn't catch the last part. He finally met her eyes.
"Kurt and I are together, mom." There was her explanation. She smiled. Blaine's first boyfriend. That also explained the sudden love affair with his phone.
Richard had decided to join their conversation that very moment.
"What do you mean, you're together?", he asked. Oh boy...
"I mean, he's my boyfriend, dad. Kurt Hummel is my boyfriend." There was a tenderness and happiness in his voice that she had never heard before.
Claire loved her husband dearly. He wasn't a bad man. He just couldn't wrap his head around Blaine falling in love with another boy. Actually she had the secret suspicion that he simply couldn't imagine his son falling in love with anyone at all since judging from the look he was giving him Blaine was still 5 years old in his mind wearing a life vest and sitting on the edge of a boat as the two of them went sailing.
But Blaine was a teenager. A teenager who fell in love with boys or rather one who had fallen in love with a particular one.
"Do you think that is appropriate at your age?", Richard asked.
"Dad, I'm 17, Yes, I do think it's okay for me to have a boyfriend. I don't think your trouble is my age.", her son said and his voice sounded almost bitter. This would end in another fight between them, but before she could say something to stop them, her husband had already started to yell back.
"What is that supposed to mean? And don't you talk to me with that tone, young man!"
"Oh please, don't act as if you don't have a problem with me being gay. We've had this conversation countless times and all you ever come up with is 'Blaine, I think you shouldn't rush into anything.' I've known that I was gay since I was 13, I kissed a girl, I kissed a boy and seeing as my dreams tend to circle very much around the latter and that I do very much enjoy kissing Kurt, I think it's save to assume that I am in fact gay."
"I said do not speak to me with that tone of yours! I don't understand why you are rushing things with this boy. You hardly know him!"
"His name is Kurt, dad, and believe me, I know him better than you think I do."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" (A/N: Yes, that is Richard's catch phrase ;) )
"He's my best friend, dad! He has been since he transferred from McKinley and he is so different from anyone I've ever met. He is compassionate and strong and witty." He didn't even notice the soft look on his face and how his voice regained its warmness as he spoke about Kurt. Claire however noticed. Richard didn't. Blaine laughed quietly. "And he gets snarky when I mess up his hair and-"
"Now what opportunity could you possibly have to mess up his hair, huh? That's what I would like to know!"
Blaine stopped short and his face hardened.
"You will never accept me fully, will you? Mom, that was a lovely dinner. May I be excused?", he asked and with that he put down his napkin and left the room. He didn't even wait for an answer.
In retrospective, Blaine had maybe overreacted a little, he thought, but then again, this hadn't been their first conversation of that kind. As a matter of fact, it was only one of countless discussions about his sexuality and how his father refused to react to it. At all. He showed little interest in anything that Blaine told him, but especially when he talked about something that would even remotely be related to him being gay. And so Blaine stopped telling him things. Then they fought about Blaine not telling him things. And Blaine would yell. And his dad would yell. And they would go back to not talking at all. This had been their situation for the past years. Blaine honestly couldn't recall a single situation with his dad that hadn't escalated since he'd come out to his parents. Not a single one.
"Kurt?"
"Hi.", Kurt's voice was making Blaine feel infinitely better in an instant. He was currently sitting in his room leaning against his bed. After rushing out of the dining room he had immediately grabbed his phone and called his boyfriend.
"Hi.", he said and felt himself smiling. 'Boyfriend' - that sounded pretty good.
"How's your weekend with the parents going so far?", Kurt asked.
"Not well. I just had another fight with my dad."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How bad was it?"
"Ugh. Just really. Tiring. As usual. They know... about us now. I told them and he was just... I don't know. He was... my dad. I don't know what I expected. How is your weekend? I take it the New Directions have claimed you to still celebrate their win?"
He heard Kurt's laugh through the phone and it was like sunshine. His heart felt lighter. His worries almost forgotten.
"Yes, they did. They know about us as well. I told them. They're all very happy, although I honestly can't tell whether they're happy for us or simply stoked because they're going to New York."
"We should go." There was a silence.
"What do you mean?"
"One day, I mean. We should go to New York. I haven't been there in forever. I would love to show you some places there."
"I'd like that.", Kurt said and he could hear him smiling, even through the phone. Blaine hummed happily.
"Yeah. Me too." Blaine let his head fall against his bed. He felt even more tired all of a sudden. He wished Kurt was in his room with him right now. Or better yet he wished they could be at Dalton just sitting somewhere, maybe cuddling or just holding each other until curfew and then they would see one another in the morning. It would be nice. But he had to come home for the weekend. How ironic that sounded. Home. Right...
"I miss you.", he told Kurt and he heard that laughter again, the sweetest sound in the world.
"We saw each other this morning."
"All the same. I won't see you till monday and that just makes me sad. Instead I'm staying here with my father who wishes I would magically turn straight and my mom who will probably interrogate me about you tomorrow."
"You love your mom.", it wasn't a question.
"Yeah, I do."
"And you love your dad.", Neither was this.
"Yes.", Blaine said, "Yes, I do. Which is why it hurts so much more. If I didn't care about his opinion it would be so much less painful that he obviously hates who I am."
"Maybe you shouldn't have told him.", Kurt said.
"No, that wouldn't have done. This isn't about you Kurt - at all. It's about me. Plus my mom always knows when something's up. I couldn't lie to her if my life depended on it." He laughed a little.
"It'll be alright. I'm sure your dad will come around eventually. He just needs time to adjust." But Kurt's voice didn't sound as sure as he might have wanted it to.
"Maybe." There was another silence. "When are you getting back to Dalton?"
"Sunday at about 8-ish. Wanna watch a movie then? I'm sure we'll have time for Mulan or something before curfew.", Kurt suggested.
Blaine smiled. How had he missed out on this for so long? "That would be nice."
"You can make it till sunday. It won't be that bad. And I promise to bring you some of the cookies I baked for New Directions. Just think about Mulan and cookies! That should get you through the weekend... Call me tomorrow?"
Blaine couldn't help but smile. "Definitely. Goodnight. I miss you." And it sounded like 'I love you'.
"I miss you too." And it sounded like 'I love you too'.
"But we just saw each other this morning.", he reminded him teasingly.
"Oh, shut up, you.", and after a pause, "Goodnight."
"Night." Blaine sighed contently. Everything would be alright. Who cared what his dad thought? His boyfriend simply couldn't get any more perfect. Another smile crept onto his face.
What Blaine didn't know was that his dad had heard most of the conversation. Richard Anderson really didn't want to fight his son. But within those last few years they'd had so many conversations about sexuality that he was tired of it. Sexuality. The word alone didn't make any sense to him in regards to a 13-year-old. And he had never thought of it as 'being in love' because that was not what the word sexuality implied. Orgies. That's what he had been thinking about. And he really didn't want his son at orgies. Or parties. Or having sex. Or thinking about sex. So the talk about his sexuality had always made him uncomfortable. At some point Richard had decided that Blaine may just deal with his hormons by theoretically dealing with sex. Which was hard enough for Richard to accept - that his son was thinking about it that is - but he had come to terms with it. By completely ignoring it. Now the Hummel boy had changed everything. And although his wife had thought her husband was completely oblivious, he wasn't. He had seen the boys' flirty glances on that stage. He had gotten the meaning of them probably even earlier than his wife. Kurt Hummel was trouble. Kurt Hummel could turn theoretical into practical. And his son practicing his sexuality led his thoughts to orgies. He didn't know why. It just happened. Love had never been part of his thought process. But standing in front of Blaine's door as he was obviously talking to the b - Kurt, he reminded himself - threw him off balance. Almost every word he uttered into that phone sounded as if he was truly home. And that hurt but it also made something abundantly clear - love was probably part of this equation.
"No, that wouldn't have done. This isn't about you Kurt - at all. It's about me. Plus my mom always knows when something's up. I couldn't lie to her if my life depended on it." He heard him laugh a little. That was true.
Richard couldn't hear what Kurt answered.
"Maybe. When are you getting back to Dalton?"
"That would be nice.", he heard his son say tenderly.
"Definitely. Goodnight. I miss you." And it sounded like 'I love you'. That's when it really hit him. His son, his 17-year-old son wasn't just thinking about hooking up with anybody. He wouldn't be going to any wild parties. He was in love. In love with one Kurt Hummel. A boy who was probably also in love. And didn't plan on going (or taking Blaine) to any sex parties.
They had apparently hung up because Richard didn't hear anything else. So he knocked. And walked in only to find Blaine on the floor leaning against his bed, having his knees pulled against his chest and his phone in his hand. His head was leaning against the bed as well. He looked tired. He looked older. He wasn't five years old anymore. When did this happen? When he met his gaze they were hard and defensive somehow. Richard could still recognize them as the same eyes that had shined so brightly when he had taken him sailing all those years ago. Why had they stopped going anyways? Oh. Right. They had stopped talking. They had started fighting.
"You're in love with him.", he said matter-of-factly.
"I am.", Blaine said almost as if he was testing out the words.
And then Richard sat down next to him on the ground. Blaine looked at him curiosly.
"I'm sorry.", he told him and realized it was the first time he had ever apologized to his son.
Blaine didn't answer. He still just looked at him.
"I'm sorry, I said those things. All of them. I just-", he was fighting with the words, "-I didn't know.", he ended lamely. Blaine still wasn't answering. A moment of silence passed.
"I love you. And I will always love you no matter whom you love." Richard smiled and kissed Blaine's forehead, "You know, maybe you should invite Kurt to dinner some time. I have a feeling he'll be sticking around for quite a while."
And then Blaine started to cry. Just a little. But Richard sat there and held him. He was being a father for the first time in years.
A/N: I'd love to hear from you! :)