When Burt and Carole first started house hunting for their newly-blended family, there was one main thing they disagreed about: whether or not they should look for a home with a pool. To Carole, having a pool in Ohio, where they could only use it for a quarter of the year, maximum, was beyond ridiculous. To Burt, a pool, while frivolous, decreased the amount of grass in the backyard that he would need to mow during those three months, not to mention providing a new family activity. Ultimately, they decided to pick whichever house suited their family the best, entirely ignoring the backyard. The house that they bought did, in the end, have a pool. By the time of the heat wave in July, even Carole viewed the pool with unadulterated adoration. Most of the month is passed with the family in the pool, lounging on a colourful selection of inflatable rafts.

     By the time August rolls around, Burt can barely remember Kurt and Blaine’s fight or how they managed to resolve it. Blaine offered to ask the guys if Kurt could come along – once a Warbler, always a Warbler, after all – but Kurt rejected that offer gracefully. Blaine needed to spend time with his friends, Kurt had decided. He would see Blaine when he got back. Blaine reserved the next few weekends for Kurt and Kurt alone. Having said that, Burt often joked that Blaine was merely coming over for the pool.

     One particularly hot day in August, Burt comes home to find the house empty. Carole is working and Finn is over at Rachel’s. Burt doesn’t think too much about Kurt not being there – he was probably just making a run to the store for groceries for dinner or something like that. Burt puts on his swim shorts, excited to be able to cool off in his own pool, with no noisy family to disrupt his hour or so of much needed serenity.

     Burt is so caught up in his mental recitation of “I have a pool. A pool of my own. Isn’t that nice? My own pool,” that he didn’t notice his company until he was just a few feet away from the diving board.

     Blaine and Kurt are wrapped completely around each other in the deep end, making out desperately as Blaine presses Kurt into the pool’s wall. Burt has seen the boys making out before, but something about this is so much more intimate than the other times. It might be the fact that they are both soaking wet or the fact that they are so very close to naked, but Burt doesn’t let himself analyse it.

      “Hey! Get out of my pool! ” The words are out of Burt’s mouth before he can even think them.

     Kurt and Blaine jolt with shock verging on panic, and are out of the pool in the blink of an eye.

      “Dad, I - ” Kurt begins, trying to defuse the tension.

      “Go inside the house. Put your clothes on, and wait for me at the kitchen table.”

     And then, since Burt has learned how things work, he adds:

      “Everything’s okay, Blaine. I’m not mad at you. There’s just some things we have to talk about.”

     Blaine nods, his eyes wide. The boys hurry into the house. Burt dives into his pool, trying to clear his head.

     Fifteen minutes later, the three men are all sitting at the kitchen table. Kurt looks annoyed and Blaine still looks anxious. Burt sighs. He’d probably over-reacted.

      “So, um, I think it’s about time we had the second part of The Talk.” Burt begins, scratching the back of his head.

     The looks on the boys faces is enough to tell Burt that they disagree.

      “Sir, we haven’t – “ Blaine says.

      “Oh my God, Dad!” Kurt interrupts.

      “Done anything yet. Well, then again, there was that one time – “

      “BLAINE!”

     Kurt’s eyes widen. Blaine seems to realize what he just said. The boys look at each other for a moment. Burt doesn’t try to figure out what the look means.

      “Whatever.” Burt says. “I don’t want to know. I really don’t. I’d told you to come talk to me when you were thinking about becoming intimate, and whether or not you think it’s time, we’re going to talk now. I’d love for you to wait for a good long time, but since you’re sharing a bed under my roof, I have to make sure that whatever happens, whenever it happens, you’ll both be safe.”

      “You two are going to go to the free clinic tomorrow to get tested. You will go together because I’ve heard it’s nerve-wracking, even if you don’t have cause for concern. So you’re going to support each other. No matter what the results are, we’re going to be talking about them when you get home.”

      “I’m sure that between the two of you, you know everything you’ll need to know about the logistics, so I’m just going to skip over that part. Whatever happens, whatever you do, you need to know how important all this is. It means stuff. I’m sure by now you’ve figured that out to an extent. So whatever happens, you need to make sure that you’re on the same page for things. Communication is so important. Anything happens, you talk before, during and after.”

      “You two are the only two people in this world who have the right to know anything about what you do, or decide what it is that you do. You two are making all the rules for this. As long as you’re being safe and you both want it, no one else has any right to say anything about it, ever. It’s not about anyone else but you two. Just keep in mind that it will change your relationship. You might not notice the changes at first, but they will be there. It shifts your focus a bit, changes your priorities some and makes you more connected to each other. So I guess what I’m saying is just to really take care of each other through everything, and just let yourselves have a wonderful, special experience. Whatever you decide to do or not do.”

     Kurt and Blaine have been entirely silent through the one-sided conversation. They both look thoughtful and vaguely uncomfortable.

      “Thanks, Burt.” Blaine finally says. “We’ll remember that.”

     Kurt nods.

      “Oh, about the pool!” Burt adds, having completely derailed his own train of thought. “Just keep in mind that the fence isn’t that tall. Any of our neighbours could look out their second floor windows and see whatever you’re doing. Anyone could come home at any time, too. Also, you share that pool with the whole family. So don’t do anything there that you wouldn’t want, say, Finn to do with Rachel.”

     The scandalized looks on the boys faces is enough to tell Burt that his message hit home.

      “Now go on, get out of here.” Burt concludes, waving his hands in a shooing motion.

     The boys jump up from the table and hurry out of the room. Burt knows that they’re about to have a long talk to their own. He hopes it goes well.

     Two days later, Burt and the boys are back at the kitchen table. Kurt and Blaine had got tested, and, as was expected, both boys are clean. They’d had a fairly traumatic experience waiting for their results: although both boys were fairly confident in their status, the knowledge of how important the tests were really got to them. Kurt had mentioned, face bright red, that they’d both burst into tears when they got their results. Burt was encouraged by how seriously they were taking things. He felt sure that that moment alone would serve as a life-long reminder of the importance of protection.

     Burt didn’t have all that much more to say, having covered it all in the days before. He congratulated both boys on being clean, told them to remember everything he’d said, and reminded them that they could come to him at any time if they needed help or advice of any kind, and that he would do anything he could to help. Both boys let Burt hug them, and as he kissed Kurt on the top of his head, Burt couldn’t believe how quickly his son had grown up.