Title: a storm whereon they ride

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Byron

Warnings: outside pov; bad things happening to animals

Pairings: Blaine's mom/Blaine's Dad; Cooper/OFC; Kurt/Blaine

Rating: PG13

Wordcount: 750

Point of view: third

When Blaine was three, he caught a butterfly. He was at pre-K and it was a Tuesday and Maria will never forget the phone call his horrified teacher gave her.

Blaine had no idea what the big deal was. A month later he caught a spider.

.

When Blaine was five, Cooper was watching him while Maria and Ethan went on a date. Cooper was on the phone with Emma, his girlfriend-of-the-week, and Blaine wandered into the backyard.

Maria and Ethan walked in the door laughing, only to freeze when they saw Cooper huddled on the couch, looking pale and sick. "Cooper?" Maria called, hurrying over. "Are you okay, baby? What's wrong?"

"I can't – Mama, there's something wrong with him, and I can't – " Cooper said, pressing into her arms.

Somehow, Blaine had caught a baby squirrel. Ethan dealt with the remains. Maria sat Blaine down for a long talk about good and bad little boys, and he listened with wide eyes, and a week later, the next-door neighbor's cat went missing.

He was five. He couldn't have. Maria shook her head and refused to believe.

.

When Blaine was eight, Maria sat him down for another long talk. Ethan had spent hours telling him about right and wrong. Blaine was so charming, so adorable. His teachers loved him; he was popular with the students.

Cooper told Maria, "Mom, all he's done is learn how to not get caught." He still refused to babysit, and he was about to leave for college, and Maria had no idea what to do. What she'd done wrong.

Her little boy was a monster and she didn't know why.

.

The Walkers' beagle vanished in August. She found the dog's collar in Blaine's dresser, and when she confronted him, her eight-year-old darling, her baby, swore he'd be good.

She never found trophies again, but pets kept disappearing. Soon enough, even though he was popular, a few kids pulled away. Always kept their eyes on Blaine during school trips and parties. Amy Fairton's mother tried to subtly ask if Blaine would be sent away somewhere, and Maria wanted to lash out at her, wanted to make her hurt - and that frightened her.

Maybe there was something wrong with her, and that's why Blaine was the way he was. Ethan assured her it wasn't, but she wondered.

Elementary turned into middle school and Blaine became ever better at hiding in plain sight, and Maria knew she needed to get him help, but she didn't know what was wrong. Middle school became Dalton, and Dalton brought Kurt.

.

Maria had thought Blaine was doing better. She read the paper every morning and nothing jumped out. Blaine was busy with fencing and singing and boxing and classes; he didn't have time to search out animals to hurt. (Didn't have time to upgrade to people.)

And then a whole bunch of boys ran away from Lima, and Maria had no idea how Blaine could be involved, or why he would be, but Kurt was from Lima, and Kurt's father gushed to Maria and Ethan about how Blaine had saved his son's life, and Maria wanted to like Kurt, she really did, but she looked at him and saw Blaine looking back.

Blaine, all of three years old, with butterfly wings crushed in his hands.

Maria wanted to cry, smiling at her son and his best friend. At her son and his boyfriend. At her son and his fiancé. At her son and his husband.

All she will ever know for sure is that Blaine used to torture animals to death.

And she loves him. He's her baby boy.

Her baby boy is a monster, and she greets him with a hug and a kiss every time he visits, and Kurt is so charming, so kind, so wonderful for Blaine.

The night Kurt and Blaine leave to return to New York, Maria buries her face in Ethan's shoulder and sobs, and she can feel him crying, too.

She has no idea what she did wrong, and she has no proof, and she loves her son.

So she pulls back from Ethan, wipes her eyes, and tells him, "Our younger son is a good man."

Ethan doesn't argue. Maria goes up the stairs, and then into the attic, and to the corner where there's an old wooden box and a faded dog collar. She holds it for a long time and then lets it fall back into the box.

What's done is done, and she loves her son.