Title: Like A Shooting Star
Author: little-miss-choc
Rating: PG
Characters: Burt Hummel, Kurt Hummel
Genre: Family
Warning: Mild language
Spoilers: Up to S1 Wheels
Disclaimer: Not my sandbox, I just play in it.
Word Count: 700 ish
Summary: Fill for this prompt on the fluff meme. Burt hears Kurt sing Defying Gravity, and he nails the F5.
Author Notes: This is what happens when I'm allowed to trawl the fluff meme instead of doing my calculus.
Set shortly after Wheels.
Burt walked through the front door and hung up his coat and hat. It had been a long day - there were a lot of potholes in the roads, and it seemed that the world and his wife had been driving straight into them at 40 mph. This meant that he got a lot of business, but also a lot of hassle from irate car owners waiting for their new tyres to come in.
"Kurt, I'm home!"
Burt heard an indistinct greeting from Kurt's basement and headed into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the fridge (Kurt had been hassling him recently about the dangers of soda drinks, so he decided it was easier just to go along with the kid on this one) and flopped down on the couch in front of the TV. Some show about a monster truck rally was on, so he settled down to watch.
After about fifteen minutes, he heard the sound of Kurt's shower turning on. He looked at the clock. Seven forty five. Regular as clockwork, that boy was. Something to do with his skin moisturising routine – Burt hadn't really been paying attention when Kurt had been excusing himself for using up all the hot water four days running.
Gradually, over the roaring of the monster trucks, Burt heard Kurt's voice rising from the basement. He was singing something, something pretty high. He sounded damn good.
Kurt often sang in the shower, but he usually stuck to the mid-range kind of stuff after Burt had once made a passing comment about yowling cats. And while Burt knew in principle that Kurt could hit the higher notes, he'd not heard him do it for years.
Burt turned down the volume on the TV to listen.
"I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost.
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!"
Wow. That was high. He didn't think he'd even heard the Ronettes sing that high.
Burt smiled. The song seemed to sum Kurt up perfectly. His expression changed, however, as Kurt moved on to the chorus.
"I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity."
Shit. That was the song that Kurt had wanted to sing. The one he'd blown the note in.
"Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity!
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!
Bring me down!
Ohh ohhh ohhhh!"
Kurt hit the note with ease, not wavering even slightly as his voice climbed and climbed the scale. That must have been the high F he'd been talking about. He sounded amazing. He was good enough to sing that song in front of an audience of hundreds. Thousands, even.
And he'd given that up. Because of one stupid, ignorant, cruel phone call, he'd turned it down. He'd blown the note so that his dad wouldn't have to hear more abuse about him.
It just wasn't fair. Burt should be the one protecting Kurt, not the other way round. Kurt shone like a star, and he had to hide that light away from the world because the world around him was too pig headed to realise just how brilliant he was.
Kurt's words came back to him, echoing in his head – "I love you more than I love being a star." Burt's hand curled in to fists in anger. Kurt shouldn't have to choose between the two. His son shouldn't be held back by those cowardly idiots on the phone.
He remembered the power in Kurt's voice as he'd sung the last line – "And you won't bring me down!"
But they had. Those people who couldn't see past the fancy clothes and girly voice had brought him down and hurt him.
Burt heard the shower turn off and he turned up the volume of the TV with a determined expression on his face. One day, Kurt would get out of this hick town. Burt was going to make sure of that. It would kill him to be parted from his son, but Kurt deserved to be somewhere he was appreciated, somewhere his light could shine and shine, somewhere where nobody would ever bring him down.