Burt looked back at the clock on the microwave again. He had received a call earlier in the afternoon that Kurt never made it to his last class. It is very unlike him to cut class and now he was late. Kurt was never late. His son was always so punctual and if he was ever in risk of being tardy, there was always a call or sometimes a confusing text message. (How do those things work?) Now Kurt was now three hours late and he’s concerned.

Actually passed concerned, Burt’s mind was already racing to all of the horrible things that could of possibly happened to him. Car Problems? No, Kurt’s car was in tip top shape thanks to him. Wardrobe Malfunction? He never quite understood how something happening to your clothes being a cause of concern but when it came to Kurt’s wardrobe, a thread out of place meant mass chaos.

The click of a key turning in the front door broke Burt from the dangers of his own brain. The sound of the door creaking open (note to self, buy WD40 to fix that) made him smile. His boy is home. Burt pushed his chair back from the table and got to his feet.

“Kurt?”

Kurt entered the kitchen and had a wide dopey grin across his face. “Hmm, yeah Dad?”

Burt scrunched up his nose, something was wrong with his boy.

“Kurt….I got a call from your school today.”

Kurt walked past him and placed his school bag on the kitchen table. “Uh huh.”

“They said you never showed up to your last class. Can you explain to me why that was?”

There was a long pause as Kurt played with the strap to his book bag with his back to his father.

“Can you?” His raised his voice. It was a good thing Kurt was turned around because Burt was not very good at discipline. He was trembling and was trying hard to not let it show. This was a skill that he had to teach himself after his late wife’s passing but was not commonly used because his son stayed out of trouble.

Kurt slowly turned and the smile had faded from his face. His lips were now pressed together into two thin lines as his eyes looked past him. “I went to Westerville.”

Burt leaned forward a bit. Had he heard him correctly? Westerville? That is a two hour drive. “What were you doing there?”

“Glee club stuff.” His voice was growing softer and softer.

“Who went with you? Finn? Porshe? That loud girl?”

“Dad, it is Mercedes and the loud girls name is Rachel.”
For the first time during this conversation their eyes met but only briefly. “And no, I went alone.”

“I am not following you.”

Kurt looked at the floor. “I went to go spy on another Glee Club. They are our competition for Sectionals.”

Burt stuck his hands into his pockets. “Okay…”

“We were working on an assignment for Glee Club and the guys did not like my input and Puck,” Kurt rolled his eyes before continuing. “thought that I would be more useful spying on the All Boys School Choir called the Warblers. Probably because I am gay or something. I don’t know… but I went.”

“Uh huh.”

“I was so upset at Puck and his lack of creativity. They all shot down my idea Dad, it was flawless. We would of crushed the girls with the routine I planned but they would not know what real talent was if it came up and bit them in the ass!” He rubbed his fingers into his eyes. “Sorry I am rambling, the boys can be so infuriating some times that I want to pull out my hair and you know how I feel about my hair.”

Burt nodded. He has seen the wrath first hand when he patted Kurt on the head and he locked himself in the bathroom for a half hour because apparently he had “ruined everything”. Kurt was never short on the dramatics when it came to his looks.

“Anyway, I decided to go I guess to prove my place in this club and… and… and…” Kurt sighed and the smile returned to his face. “It was amazing.”

Burt furrowed his eyebrows.

“The Warblers are like rockstars Dad. They are an Acapella group, that means they don’t use any instruments, just their voices. Their voices!”

Kurt’s eyes dazzled and his face lit up. Burt has not seen his face like this in a long time. It was becoming harder and harder to remain stern when he looked like that.

“The lead singer, Blaine, well he knew I was a spy and we got coffee after and talked about our Glee club. ” Kurt turned his gaze back on his father. “Dad, he is gay too. He wants to hang out sometime so he gave me his number.”

Burt heard nothing after that. A red flag went off in his head. The boy is gay, he gave his number, Kurt looks like a lovesick puppy….wait, lovesick. His boy had a crush. Oh no no no, this was something he was not ready for.

“He even gave me this brochure on the Warblers. I guess the school makes them up to advertise to incoming students.”

He pulled a long, thin brochure from his bag and Burt took it with shaky hands. Kurt was practically bouncing up and down next to him as he opened it. One of the inside folds had portraits of what Burt guessed were the members of the glee club.

“That’s him! That’s Blaine.” He pointed to a boy on the second row.

Burt’s eyes focused in on this boy. The boy that made his son act this way. This “Blaine” was pulling that prep school boy look but he did not trust him, not yet. Especially around his boy, his whole world. He looked back at Kurt who was looking down at the picture longingly and gave a small sigh. Burt could not help but smile. As much as he tried to fight it, his boy was growing up and love was a part of the teenage experience. Whether Kurt was in love with a girl or a boy, it did not matter to him. He just wanted to see his boy happy.

Something inside him told him that he was going to be hearing a lot about this Blaine boy and he was okay with that. Burt handed the brochure back to Kurt who closed it carefully before returning it to his bag.

“I better umm, go do my homework now. Just call down when it is time for dinner.”

“Sure thing kid.”

Kurt picked up his bag and headed toward his room.
Burt opened the fridge and looked around for something to make before he remembered that he forgot to punish Kurt. He turned back to the place where Kurt had just stood. He’ll let this one slide. Just this once because he wanted to hold on to that look on Kurt’s face a little while longer. It had been awhile since he had seen him that happy and it was an image he wanted to hold on to as long as he could.

“You should see him now Liz, our boy is all grown up.”