“Hello?” he called out.

“In here, Dad!” came a surprisingly cheerful voice. As Burt walked in, he began to notice more than one scent of cookie.

“Geez kiddo, how many of these did you bake?” he joked.

“Three dozen chocolate chip, two dozen pomegranate white chocolate chunk, and two dozen oatmeal,” Kurt replied as he scraped the last of the oatmeal onto the cooling tray. “These are for you,” he stressed.

Rolling his eyes, Burt said, “Yeah, yeah,” and reached to grab one. Kurt smacked his hand away with the spatula. “They’re still hot!” he exclaimed.

“I think I’ll live,” said Burt as he took the coolest cookie from the back of the tray. Kurt in turn rolled his eyes but continued to smile.

Burt sat down at the island. “So what’s this all about?”

Kurt shrugged his shoulders. “Just felt like it.”

“Oh come on, Kurt. You know I know you better than that. When you won that white jacket on e-bay you made three cakes and a pan of Frankish Delights!”

“Turkish Delights, Dad.”

“Ok, well, my point is, something’s got you in a good mood. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re not taking this Nationals thing too hard, I’m just kind of curious.”

Kurt hesitated before taking the seat next to Burt. “Today, when Blaine and I went for coffee as usual, and I was telling him all about New York, he-” Kurt chuckled as if in disbelief- “he said he loved me. And I said it back.”

Kurt was beaming as he said the last bit. Burt stumbled for words.

“Wow Kurt, that’s, that’s really great!”

Kurt’s smile faltered enough for Burt to notice. “I know we’re young, Dad, but you don’t have to worry. We’re not going too fast.”

How could Burt explain? Love hurts. It takes control of your heart and makes you slave to it. It throws out every sensible thought and replaces them with near manic feelings. It turns you into a different person. It hurts. But the look in Kurt’s eyes, Burt knew, was the other side. The na�ve side. Where one could explore and grow with another in new ways. Where hearts were exposed enough to be crushed but handled more carefully than anything in this world. And there was nothing wrong with that. He smiled.

“I’m happy for you, Kurt. Really.”

Kurt’s face reassembled itself into a grin like Burt had never seen before. Burt knew Blaine was important to Kurt but this- this was whole new territory. And honestly? Burt was thrilling Kurt was living this experience.

“So do I get a second cookie or will that throw me out of whack?”