'Hey Anderson, you wanted to speak to me.' Burt smirks, walking into the tyre shop to see Blaine jump and turn on the spot, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

'Hey, yeah- um… so I guess you know that Kurt and I are officially back together.'

'Yeah I may have noticed that.' Burt chuckles, the two boys had spent the entirety of the previous night cuddled up on Burt's couch, texting everyone they could possibly think of to tell them the news and updating their facebook statuses simultaneously.

Blaine seems uncharacteristically nervous right now though, his hands are clenched tight and pushed steadfast into his pockets, and his eyes are wary as they survey Burt.

'What's wrong Blaine?'

'Well… I know that you don't exactly approve… but I still want to ask Kurt to marry me.' He pauses, as if waiting for Burt to say something, but Burt just sits there, head cocked slightly to one side and eyes studying Blaine with a curious fascination. When Blaine makes no move to carry on, Burt nods once, an unspoken sanction for Blaine to continue.

'I love him and this isn't some grand gesture to get him back, this isn't some rash decision. I love him. And I want to love him for the rest of my life, this is just a promise, this is me laying my heart on the line and asking to love him forever. I'm not asking for your blessing or your approval or anything else, all I want is for you to drive him to Dalton tomorrow before his flight leaves, and not let on to what's happening, could you do that for me? I know that you don't think this is a good idea and honestly, he might not even say yes, and that's fine, that's his choice, but I have to try. Please, I love him so much and all I want to do is continue loving him for the rest of my life, starting now.' Blaine seems to get more confident with each word he speaks, like this confession is a sudden realisation as to why he's doing this, a reminder of everything he feels and how much he truly does love Kurt.

By the time he's finished his eyes are blazing a passionate, fiery hazel that almost seems to be scorched from the fire behind his words. But he's smiling, sure of himself and yet so cautious of Burt. He looks so hesitant, so hopeful, like everything depends on just one word from Burt. And then Burt realises that it does, that Blaine is completely dependent on him for this, and suddenly Burt has far more power than he really wants. He doesn't want to make decisions in this relationship, they need to do that themselves, all he wants is for his kid to be happy. And if he's honest he'd quite like to see Blaine happy too.

Burt thinks for a while, trying to figure out what Kurt would want him to do, what Kurt's mother would want him to do, what he should do, but when he looks in Blaine's eyes, sees the trepidation and the hope and the raw, undeniable love there, he knows there's only one thing he can do: let them figure this out on their own.

'Listen kid, I'm not going to pretend I'm completely on board with this idea, but to be honest my opinion doesn't matter. Kurt's does, and lord knows it's hard enough to predict that boy's actions at the best of times, so I hope you realise that there is a very real chance he'll say no, that's not to say he doesn't love you or want to marry you at some point, It's just that at this point in time he could very well say no, and I think you need to be aware of that going into this…'

'But?'

'But I'll do it, you love him and he loves you and if you feel like this is something you need to do then do it, life's too short to be cautious. Besides it may be the first time anyone actually manages to surprise Kurt.' Burt smiles fondly at Blaine, the gruffness in his voice replaced with something almost akin to affection, and Blaine's eyes light up like early morning sun, a smile erupting onto his face as he leans up to throw his arms around Burt.

'Thank you! Thank you so so much Burt.'

Burt's taken aback by Blaine's sudden forwardness and for a second he hesitates unsure what to do as Blaine's arms circle around his neck, but then he smiles and pulls Blaine into a tight hug. 'This better be worth it.'

'Oh it will.' Blaine smiles proudly. 'I'm not saying he'll say yes, and I'm not saying we'll get married straight away, I'm just saying this is something I need to do. All I want to do is spend the rest of my life with him, and I want to start that immediately.'

'Then I will have him there on time.' Burt grins at Blaine, a strange sort of camaraderie hanging in the air between them, and Burt is cast back, to a time when he was desperate and in love and felt as if he were running a race against time, battling a concept, an Illusion. He remembers the heady, giddy, curling of the toes sensation of loving someone as incredible as he knows his son is, the constant hunger for more time they'll never have and an out of place nostalgia for time they never spent together.

He thinks he knows how Blaine feels, and even if this is ridiculous and over the top and maybe not exactly conventional, he doesn't mind, because all of those things are Kurt, and all of those things are Blaine, and this isn't him marching his son off to get married, this isn't Blaine suggesting they run away and elope today, this is them giving Kurt a choice, and he's always trusted his son to make the right judgement.