Kurt came into the house, tears dripping down his face. He knew that his dad was coming home the following night and Carole had gone to her sister’s place, not knowing about the shenanigans her children were up to. Kurt had persuaded Finn to go to Puck’s place, as he knew that he wanted privacy. Kurt actually had mixed feelings about that. Even though all his body wanted was to prepare a bath and forget the world for some time, his heart wanted his dad to be there, so he could hug him and somehow make him feel all better.

And so, he was shocked when he saw the lights on in the living room. His dad was waiting for him with a smile on his face so bright, but it crumpled on seeing the tear-stricken face of his son. Kurt could not do anything but run into the arms of his daddy, trying to protect himself from the world.

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Burt couldn’t believe it. He had entered the house sneakily, just to find that no one was there. He figured that Kurt had gone over to Mercedes’ place to have fun, or Rachel’s to sing. He knew that his son would most likely be with his loving boyfriend, but his brain refused to compute it. Finn would be at Puck’s place as usual and Carole had called to tell him that she was going out. As he put some leftovers he’d found in the fridge in the microwave to heat up, he heard the click of a key unlocking the door. He decided to just pose with a big smile and find out who it was. He saw that it was his son, and was shocked when he saw that Kurt’s face was totally pale, and his eyes were red.

As he hugged Kurt, his mind rapidly went through various forms of torture for the person who had made his son cry. And Kurt rarely ever cried. He then brought Kurt to the table where they sat down and he held hands with him. He asked, “What happened to you? Tell me, and I’ll go hunt down the asshole who hurt you!”

The tears had finally stopped as Kurt laughed a little hysterically at his dad’s angry outburst, and then started speaking, “There’s a new guy at Dalton. He somehow ripped off all their terms and conditions about a council decision and is the sole deciding factor right now. They and the New Directions had a sing-off,” he then started sobbing again as he continued, “And that guy tried to throw a slushie in my face but Blaine jumped in and I don’t know what crap he put it in. Now Blaine’s in the hospital and his parents told me to go home.”

The Congressman, who was first and foremost a father, was pissed. He had already made it clear to Figgins that putting up the Slushie machine was a big mistake, no matter how much money it brought in. But this wasn’t a school fight that he could go and complain about to the authorities. And at the same time, he knew he had to let his son grow up and face conflicts on his own and this was the first step to letting him learn how to fly. So he just continued hugging his son, as he mentally freed some time the next day to visit the boy who saved his son.

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When Burt got up the next day, Kurt was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in his hand. He asked him why he hadn’t bought his usual coffee from the Lima Bean when Kurt said, “If I go there, I am a regular. So everyone will be asking me about Blaine, and I don’t want that at the moment. So I’m having coffee here and going to school directly. What are you gonna do?”

Burt switched on the kettle for his own coffee and said, “I’ll just lounge about, Carole is coming back at noon. You don’t worry about me. Go have fun.”

As Kurt left, Burt didn’t know what to do. But as he thought about it, he had the perfect idea.

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Three weeks later.

Burt called up the hospital and asked if Blaine Anderson was up for having visitors. When he got a yes from the receptionist, he decided to wear his usual jacket-and-cap combo and got into his truck. As he reached the hospital and got out of it, he was bombarded with memories of his wife as well as himself in there. He mentally shook off the memories and walked in. He wrote his name in the register and walked till he reached the door to Blaine’s room. He braced himself, and walked in.

Blaine was rocking out in his bed to some pop music which Kurt always played. Come to think of it, he started playing those songs after he met Blaine. Maybe it was his favourite singer. He coughed a bit to show that he was there. As soon as Blaine saw him, he blushed and switched off the music system. He looked at his boyfriend’s father and smiled awkwardly. He said, “Hey, Mr. Hummel.”

Burt smiled and said, “It’s okay. And remember, I told you to call me Burt. Tell me, how’s your eye?”

Blaine shrugged and nonchalantly spoke, “The surgery was successful. I don’t like the patch as well as the fact that I missed Michael week.”

Burt laughed, “Yeah, sometimes I wonder what Schuester is trying with a theme per week. Why can’t you just sing whatever you want?” Blaine laughed along as he agreed with him. The smile suddenly came off Burt’s face as he looked at Blaine with slight awe.

He breathed, “This could easily have been my son in your place. Why did you take the slushie for him?”

Blaine knew that this was an important question to answer, if the promise ring was of any importance, it made sure of the fact that they both were gonna stay together for the rest of their lives. Blaine stated, “I love Kurt.” He then elaborated, “It wasn’t only about the love, though I have that in spades. I knew when Sebastian was speaking to me that he liked me. I thought it was a passing crush which would go away. He was jealous of the relationship between me and Kurt and I didn’t help it by speaking about how much I loved Kurt half of the time. That is why he decided to take revenge on Kurt, instead of me.” As Burt started to shake his head, Blaine continued, “It was the right thing to do. That, and it was a reflex action to protect him, just like he’d do for me.”

Burt proclaimed, “I don’t know what kind of reflexes you had, but you put your love in before your own needs, and that is always good. Just remember to not let yourself down all the time to keep your boyfriend happy, okay? I know my son very well and I’d like to think I know you well somehow. So don’t put your needs and wants on the lower scale, okay?”

Blaine just looked happily at Burt as he asked, “Can I please have a hug? I know it’s dumb, but-” he was stopped by Burt’s arms wrapping around his shoulders, hugging him tightly for a moment before he pulled back.

“Don’t ever stop yourself from asking me for what you want, Blaine.”

After the small moment they had, Burt stood up as he grumbled, “My flight is in three hours. I have to go say bye to the family and get back. You take care of yourself, and my boy, alright?”

Blaine just nodded, “Right.”

And as Burt walked out the room and heard the music playing again, he knew what Blaine had done would definitely go into the speech he made during their wedding.