Kurt seems to take the news surprisingly well, declaring that she obviously knows so they may as well just bite the bullet and get this dinner over with.

"What's the worst that can happen?" he asks as he loads all their bags into the trunk.

Blaine stares at him. "Are you kidding me? She could report you."

"She could. But she hasn't yet." Kurt says calmly as he starts the car and pulls out of the lot. "You said yourself she was suspicious, but she hasn't pushed any further. If she was going to inform the school board, then why didn't she say something when she found me at your house?"

"She's probably biding her time. Gathering evidence." Blaine sulks, sinking low in the passenger seat.

"Stop being so melodramatic." Kurt smiles. "Whatever happens, even if she grounds you until graduation, I'll still be here. Waiting for you."

"Would you?" Blaine asks, "Or would you get bored of hanging around waiting for your boyfriend to be a grown up and find a different one?"

"I don't want anyone else Blaine." Kurt says, a hint of annoyance in his voice at Blaine's pessimism. "I'll still be here when I'm forty, or eighty, or a hundred even. I love you."

"You mean that?"

"That I love you? Of course!"

"No...that you don't want anyone else." Blaine says nervously.

"Yes." he reaches across and takes Blaine's hand. "I just can't ever see my life without you in it, and I don't want to."

Blaine kisses the tips of Kurt's fingers. "I love you so much." He's satisfied after that, snuggling in as close to Kurt's side as he can for the rest of the ride home.

Kurt fixes his eyes on the road ahead and tries to calm his breathing. His heart is hammering in his chest, and his hands are slippery with sweat as they grip the steering wheel. It's not just that he's nervous about meeting Mrs. Anderson- he's terrified. He only met Richard's parents a handful of times, and never shared dinner with them, or any time at all really. It was more a case of a fleeting swap of hello's and how are you's coupled with polite nods and handshakes before Kurt would make his excuses and quietly slip away to while away the hours in a coffee shop or bookstore until they'd gone again. In fact, Kurt wasn't entirely sure they even knew Richard was gay, much less living with a partner. He had introduced Kurt as his roommate. That had stung at the time, but now Kurt finds himself wishing he could be properly introduced to Blaine's mom as anything other than his boyfriend. He swallows over his fears for the sake of Blaine though. He knows how worried and nervous he is, and doesn't want to add to it. But the simple fact is, if Blaine's mom chooses to report him, his career, reputation and relationship are all in tatters.

"Ok. We can do this." he whispers to a pale and frightened looking Blaine as they stand outside the front door. "I love you." he presses a soft kiss to Blaine's cheek, who nods slightly and opens the door.

"Mom?"

"In the kitchen."

They walk down the hallway together, Kurt letting go of Blaine's hand just before they go through. "Not yet." he mouths, before gently urging Blaine into the room.

Maria Anderson stands there, up to her elbows in flour as she kneads pasta dough on the work surface. She works it vigorously, stopping every now and then to push a stray curl out of her eyes. Kurt swallows as he realizes her aggressive kneading may be an indication of anger.

"I don't like being lied to, Blaine," she states, balling up the dough and setting it to one side.

"I know. I'm sorry." Blaine stares at the ground, unable to look up and see the disappointment registered on her face.

"It hurts. And to be honest, I find it harder to accept than whatever this is." She waves her rolling pin between the pair to emphasise her point. "Hello Kurt, by the way."

"What?" Kurt startles in surprise. "Oh, um...Hello again, Mrs. Anderson."

"Call me Maria. But don't think that means I'm ok with all this," she carries on, as she notices Blaine start to smile, "Because right now I don't know what to think or feel. Go wash up, both of you and then you can help prepare dinner."

Kurt follows Blaine down the hallway to the cloakroom, even more terrified than he was, if that's possible. "Jesus Blaine, she hates me." he moans as they wash their hands.

"No she doesn't. She just...well it's not easy for her to accept I guess. Give her time."

"Yeah, maybe on our wedding day she'll smile at me without so much venom in her eyes."

"Nice that you think there will be a wedding day, but I'm sure she will love you long before then."

The pair set to work, dictated to by Maria and they soon prepare a sauce for the pasta, while she rolls the dough out and then fixes a salad. She tells Kurt proudly of her Italian heritage, recalling long childhood summers spent in the tuscan hills with various cousins and other family members. She asks Kurt about his childhood, and listens attentively as he talks about growing up, his early memories of his mom and what life was like with his dad.

"He sounds like a good man." She says, with a small smile in his direction.

"He is. He's just the best dad anyone could wish for."

"Does he know you're involved with a teenager?" she asks, and suddenly the carefully crafted and already fragile truce is shattered.

"Mom!" Blaine admonishes.

"What? I'm just curious. Blaine, I am trying, very hard to get my head around all this. I just need to know some background to all of it for that to happen."

"It's ok Blaine." Kurt says quietly. "He...uh...I think he does, yes. He certainly knew when it started, and he told me to end it for Blaine's sake."

"Why for Blaine's sake?"

"He had already met him, when I moved house. He likes Blaine, a lot. He felt it would be unfair of me to um...to take all his firsts from him, was how he put it."

"But you didn't end it."

"I did. I stayed away. I really tried...but something kept pulling me back. I love your son, Mrs. Anderson. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I had fallen in love with him, and maybe I was weak to allow things to happen, but I just couldn't stay away any longer."

Maria stares at him for the longest time, her expression completely unreadable. "Dinner." She states, "And I told you, call me Maria."

"Mom!" Blaine calls as she heads toward the door, "We can just eat in here."

"Nonsense. Kurt is a guest. We'll eat in the dining room."

Kurt shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Not only has he been placed in exactly the same seat his lover tied him to, Blaine is opposite him, trying not to smile. Kurt fails to find the humor in the situation.

"So...your brother dates Rachel?" Maria asks as they begin to eat.

"Yes. They met when I was moving."

"She's a sweet girl. Her and Blaine have been friends since middle school. And your brother is the same age?"

"Yes. He's my step-brother."

"So, why did you move, if you don't mind me asking? You said you moved from New York over the summer, so why move again so soon?"

"Just leave it mom." Blaine snaps.

"No really Blaine, it's ok." Kurt tries to offer a reassuring smile in his direction, but it comes out more like a trembling grimace. "I uh...I was in a relationship. I moved back to Ohio with him, for his work. When we split up I moved out."

"Well this just gets better and better." Maria says, pushing her unfinished dinner to one side. "I don't know where to start with all this. The age difference, the teacher thing, the lying, and now I learn that you were living with someone?"

"It's...um...well..."

"It's a mess, is what it is." she snaps. "Look. I'll be honest Kurt. I actually like you. Putting everything else aside, if Blaine had brought you home and introduced you as his boyfriend, I'd be thrilled. Any fool can see you're besotted with him. But there are too many external factors here. The biggest being that you are ten years older, and his teacher. You must know how wrong that is."

"I do." Kurt mumbles. "Can I ask you a question though? If I wasn't Blaine's teacher, if we were in the same situation that Finn and Rachel find themselves in, would you let me date him?"

"Probably." Maria sighs. "I would be worried, I'll admit. Ten years may not seem like much, and at various points in life it won't matter, but I feel that Blaine is- or was- still innocent, with no experience of any kind of relationship, much less an adult one. You've quite clearly felt committed enough to someone to live with them, you have experienced a much wider range of emotion and feeling than he has, or could hope to have at his age."

"Still here." Blaine mutters darkly.

"With all due respect, I think you'll find Blaine is a lot more mature than you give him credit for. I'm sorry if that sounds rude..."

"It does."

"Oh. Right. Well, like I said, I don't mean to be rude, but I think that when I was seventeen I was nowhere near ready to deal with any kind of relationship, I was still struggling to come to terms with my sexuality. Blaine is confident in who he is, he is used to looking after himself, and dealing with life's problems on his own. You have raised him to be an exceptional young man, and he loves you so much- you should be proud."

"I am...which is why I don't want to see him get hurt."

"I promise you, I will never hurt him."

"I AM STILL HERE!" Blaine suddenly yells, startling both his mother and Kurt. "Does anyone care what my opinion is on all this?"

"I really want to say no." Maria says with a smile playing on her face. "But go on."

"I love you. Both of you. I didn't go looking for Kurt, mom. It was just a spark that couldn't be ignored. You said you like him, and I'm glad. Because I don't intend on being with anyone else, ever."

"Blaine..." his mom begins.

"And you can shoot me down all you want for that, say I'm too young or naive to know- whatever. I know he's the one for me just as I've always known I was gay. You were so supportive over that. I was so scared to come out to you- I didn't even know what your opinions were about gay people. But you just...accepted. And it didn't change anything, only made everything better. I've been honest with you about everything ever since then. And I'm sorry I lied to you over this, and maybe led you to believe something else. But I just wanted...to give us a chance I guess. Kurt says he will wait for me until I graduate, and for that I am truly grateful, but I don't want it to be necessary."

"Go through to the living room." Maria says quietly, blinking back tears at her son's heartfelt confession. "I'll bring in some coffee."

Kurt and Blaine are completely silent as they sit side by side on the couch. Both are too petrified to even look at one another. Kurt finds himself grateful for Maria's reappearance with a tray of coffee, at least it gives him something to do with his hands, other than wringing them nervously.

"I'm going to talk now, and I want both of you to hear me out. You'll get your chance to respond when I'm finished." Maria states calmly but firmly as she sits in an armchair opposite. "Firstly Kurt, I want to say that I will not be reporting you to the school board over this. But if you ever hurt my son, I will hunt you down." Kurt nods wordlessly, while Blaine tries to suppress a smirk at his mom's melodramatics. "I can't pretend to be one hundred percent behind this. But my experience with teenagers tells me it's pointless to forbid them to do something, because they'll only go behind your back and do it anyway, and honestly I don't think you'll be strong enough, Kurt, to resist Blaine if he comes calling- and I don't think it would be fair to put you in that situation. So I guess what I'm trying to say is... you can date. But there will be rules," she adds quickly as she sees their faces light up. "You can see each other on weekends and once during the week. That's it. And I'm not being unfair, it's your senior year Blaine, and it's important that you study hard. And you're not sleeping over until after graduation."

"WHAT!" Blaine thunders, as Kurt looks to him in surprise- he had thought Maria was being more than reasonable."You leave me alone for weeks at a time, and expect me to look after myself like I am an adult, then when you return I'm back to being a kid again?"

"I know." Maria says quietly, "I've been quite neglectful in that, and I'm sorry. I think I have been too focused on my career, and I've just left you to your own devices. You were so much more sensible than Cooper, you were almost too easy to look after. But I can't overlook the fact that if you were dating someone your own age, they would also be living with parents, and you wouldn't even be contemplating staying overnight."

"She has a point." Kurt says softly, turning to Blaine. "I can remember Finn being grounded so many times for sneaking out to see some girl, or breaking curfew. Your mom isn't being unkind, or really strict at all. She's just putting you first in all this."

"It sucks." Blaine pouts. "And it's not putting me first at all. What I want doesn't come into it. Because what I want is to be able to sleep at yours whenever I choose."

Kurt laughs softly and takes his hand as he looks at him tenderly. "It will be fine. It will do us good. We can spend more time just...being together. When you sleep over you know what happens. We get in bed and don't surface again."

"Do you mind?" Maria says, and a hint of annoyance mixed with amusement flashes over her features as she takes in the sight of Kurt's horrified face.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't think...it's not what..."

"It's exactly what I think. And while we're on the subject, I hope you two are being safe."

"Oh we are." Kurt says as Blaine stares at the floor, blushing to the tips of his ears.

"Blaine, sweetie." his mom goes to him and kneels on the floor. Taking his hand in hers, she tries to make eye contact as she speaks. "I know you're mad at me about the whole sleeping over thing, but I hope you can see past that and realize that I honestly have tried to be as accepting as I can about this."

"But you're not happy about it." Blaine points out.

"I'm not happy about the situation, no. But I am happy that you have found someone who makes you so happy, and who you feel is worth taking a risk for. I just don't want you to get found out. It would mean dire consequences for both of you."

"We won't."

"I hope not. Now go upstairs to your room for a while. Watch a movie, listen to music, do whatever normal teenagers do. Kurt has good bone structure, he could pass for nineteen or so." Maria jokes as she pulls Blaine to his feet and into a hug. "And leave the door open."

"Thank you." Blaine says simply, as he kisses her cheek. "Come on Kurt."

"Hey. You don't get away that easily." Maria says, and gives Kurt an unexpected but decidedly warm hug too.

"Thank you, Maria." Kurt says, pulling back and blushing slightly. "You've been more reasonable than I ever thought possible."

"I know true love when it smacks me in the face." she says and smiles at them both.