Break Hiro's little shipper heart, it would serve him right. Make him suffer for his sins. But yes, Newt wanted the kid there, for one, because he was their friend, but also because he was probably the first to express actual investment (however teasingly) in them being together, as opposed to just trying to speculate or win a JTech bet...and there was something very valuable about that.

But Hermann's next words made Newt stop short and frown. A short engagement was fine and dandy and he was quite okay with being courted and doing courting and making this take a while, but what the hell did Hermann mean when he said they'd averted disaster? Really, was Newt's proposal that unwelcome without forewarning? Did Hermann think Newt would have fucked it up? He would have done just fine, okay, down on one knee and everything and--yes, okay, it was very good they had this talk because he might not have ever actually proposed otherwise (except ...he wouldn't have been able to not... not with Joaquin and Hiro breathing down his neck to do so, but...)...but a right mess? They would have sorted themselves out. They always did.

They did...

Shit, thanks a lot, Hermann, now he was getting paranoid.

"Why would it have been a mess? What, you wouldn't have said 'yes'?"