A/N: Not exactly sure what happened with this one. It's one of those situations where it started as a fic about one thing and ended up being another. That said, I think the situation depicted here is very true for those of us with close ones who have to travel most of the time. I also want to show that Sebastian is not immuned to worries. I have a Tumblr account where I talk about my SeBlaine WIP. I'd be honored if you can follow me: rykerstrom(.)tumblr(.)com


OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD

Blaine knew something was wrong, and he knew that it had been wrong for several weeks now. There was something definitely off about Sebastian. It was in the way that Sebastian would hug Blaine more frequently than usual, the way the touches would linger longer than usual, the slightly longer Skype chat sessions, and the increased frequency of text messages.

Something was not right.

So when Blaine flew back Thursday night from his assignment, he was somewhat surprised to see Sebastian waiting for him at the airport. It was not the first time that Blaine had to travel for an assignment; he had been on other projects before that required him to spend most of the week on client site. It was decided that since Blaine could charge back the client for the cab ride from the airport back to the apartment anyway, there was really no point in incurring additional personal expense by having Sebastian come pick him up.

"How long have you been waiting here?" Blaine's mobile phone had ran out of battery during the day. With the storm that was coming in from the south, his flight ended up being delayed for two hours.

"Not that long." Sebastian was still hugging him. "I checked the flight status."

"I'm glad to see you." Blaine smiled gratefully at his boyfriend.

"Let's go home." Sebastian picked up one of Blaine's luggages while his other arm wrapped itself around Blaine's waist protectively. "They say it may storm tonight."


Dinner was quick and simple. Blaine liked to buy food in bulk for convenience and savings. Occasionally, Blaine would buy some of the ready-made ones that either he or Sebastian enjoyed tasting at the sampling sessions. After a travel day like this, it would just be much simpler if they heat up the pesto tilapia in the oven and steam some cauliflowers. The fancier dinners could wait till the weekend or the next special occasion.

In the back of his mind, Blaine could not seem to remember when was the last time either of them ate out or gone on a date night. Blaine made a quick mental note that they should schedule a date soon, perhaps after Sebastian's midterms and on one of the weekends.

Dinner was quieter than usual. There were the sounds of utensils being used and the occasional pattering of Astridr's paws as she ran around the dining room trying to beg for table scraps. Blaine knew that something was eating at Sebastian when Sebastian once again asked about the duration of his assignment.

"I thought you said this is your last week?" Sebastian downed his wine in one gulp, something that was extremely uncharacteristic of him.

"Client extended the project." Blaine started to clear the table. "The analyst that's supposed to take my place will be back from vacation next week."

"So you're going to keep flying in the meantime?" Sebastian dropped the dishes into the sink.

"I don't really have a choice." Blaine turned on the water faucet and started to wash the dishes. "We're required to be on site most of the time. Eric is already making an exception for me by having me on-site for three days out of the week as opposed to four."

"Tell Eric that you want to find a local project so you can work from home." Blaine felt Sebastian pressed against him from the back, his arms now around Blaine's waist.

"You know I can't do that." Blaine sighed. "It'll be unprofessional of me to just walk out on a project."

"They're the ones who didn't keep their words." Sebastian was murmuring against Blaine's neck. "I don't want you to travel anymore."

"Sebastian—" Blaine turned around to explain and found himself pressed against the counter. "I can't just—"

The rest of Blaine's sentence was cut off as Sebastian grabbed his face and kissed him, hard.

Blaine's eyes widened in surprise. It was not that Sebastian had not kissed him hard before, but this was different. There was a sense of urgency and desperation behind it. Sebastian's hands were busy unbuttoning Blaine's shirt, pulling it off quickly before they started to work on taking off his pants as well.

"Sebastian, the dishes-" Blaine gave a little shout of surprise as Sebastian suddenly lifted him up. Instinctively, Blaine threw his arms around Sebastian.

"Can wait." Sebastian all but growled into Blaine's ear, nibbling at it before working his way down Blaine's exposed throat. "I want you, now."

Blaine whimpered as Sebastian's lips latched onto a sensitive spot. Dishes be damned.

"Bedroom."


Blaine felt himself being thrown onto the mattress. Sebastian was absolutely feral by this point, as he all but pounced onto Blaine, locking him securely under him. The kisses were hungry, urgent, and rough. Blaine buried his hands in Sebastian's hair as he felt Sebastian sucked hard at a particular spot on his chest. He arched up in surprise when Sebastian all but bit down.

"Hey, go easy on me, tiger!" Okay, so that one bite actually hurt, but it was also kind of a turn on. Blaine had no doubt that by tomorrow morning, he would be getting hickeys and possibly bruises everywhere.

Sebastian was kissing him again. It was tongue, teeth, and everything in between. Blaine tangled his hands in Sebastian's hair as he tried his best to reciprocate but Sebastian was going so fast this time that it was almost impossible to keep up. Blaine threw his head back against the mattress to stifle a moan as Sebastian suddenly ground their erections together.

"I'm going to fuck you." It took Blaine a few moments to register those words in the midst of his haze. There were fingers and lube as Blaine felt himself being stretched, but all too soon the fingers were gone. He heard the sound of a wrapper opening and then his legs were being pushed apart. "And you're not going to get away."

The entry was rougher than what Blaine was used to, but it was bearable and almost apt in this case considering the urgency that seemed to be behind what Sebastian was doing. Blaine leaned up the best he could to try to kiss Sebastian given the awkward position he was in, and Sebastian met him half way. Blaine tried to wrap his arms around Sebastian but instead found his wrists pinned down by his head. Sebastian was kissing him again, tongue thrusting in and out his mouth in an imitation of the activity that was currently joining their bodies together. The thrusts were coming hard and fast by this point, drawing a gasp out of Blaine every time Sebastian pushed into him. Blaine thought he heard Sebastian murmuring something in his ear between the thrusts and grunts, but whatever sounds he could hear was suddenly drowned out as he climaxed.

Blaine felt Sebastian kissing his temple and the side of his face tenderly before pulling out and collapsing next to him. They laid there in silence as they caught their breaths. And then surprisingly, Blaine found Sebastian inching close to Blaine.

Sebastian was not the type to cuddle usually. He would pull Blaine to him and hold him, but Blaine could only count maybe once or twice where Sebastian chose to cuddle up. Now would be the time to talk about whatever that was eating his boyfriend.

"Do you want to talk?"

There was a sigh.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah." Blaine turned to his side and propped himself up on one elbow. "Considering you literally manhandled me in here and I couldn't really get a word out. Yeah, very."

"I just don't want you to travel anymore." Blaine could tell that Sebastian was trying to be careful with the way he worded his sentence, and Sebastian only did that when there was another underlying reason for what he just said.

"C'mon." Blaine ran his hand up Sebastian's side gently. "You can tell me. You need to tell me."

Sebastian opened his mouth and closed it again. Blaine could tell that his boyfriend was trying to make up his mind on whether he wanted to share this piece of information with him. One of the things Blaine had learned about Sebastian over the years was that behind the collected exterior were often undercurrents of turmoil that could spill over at the most inopportune moments.

"I hav-had an ex-classmate called 'Ashlynn.'" Blaine winced inwardly at the use of past tense as Sebastian continued. "She was the daughter of a family friend. We went to the same elementary school but we had only spoken once and it was exchanging hellos when we were nine.

"From what my parents told me, she went into auditing after uni. Apparently she went on an overseas assignment earlier this year for a big client."

Blaine saw Sebastian swallowed audibly.

"She didn't do weekly flybacks; she did the monthly ones instead. And I found out … " Sebastian took a deep breath at this. "I found out from my parents the other day that she died."

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry."

"Plane crash. Some combinations of pilot error and inclement weather." Sebastian's voice was leveled and clinical. "Her client flew her on a chartered flight and it crashed. She was a bit older than you but the fact remained that she died at twenty-eight, young by most standards."

"Oh, Sebastian …" Blaine pulled his boyfriend close. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. That's just horrible."

"No, I think you'd actually find that what's horrible was the fact that I didn't mourn over her. I should, since she was a person and all. But I really didn't really know her all that well." Sebastian forced out a laugh. "But anyway, that wasn't my point, Blaine."

Sebastian closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"You. You fly every week. You fly every week for two hours each way to go to client site. You spend another two hours commuting from airport to wherever the hell the client is. Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

"I—"

"I have nothing against flying for vacation, but that's different. It's not a frequent thing. Ashlynn only did monthly flyback and her chartered plane fucking crashed!" Sebastian kept talking. "You fly even more often and you spend even more time on the road than she does. I can't … I—I just …"

Blaine heard Sebastian letting out a shuddered breath. He knew that his boyfriend was trying to keep his composure, Sebastian hated to come across as vulnerable.

"It's all right." Blaine hugged Sebastian tightly and rested his head on Sebastian's shoulder the best he could, given their positions on the bed. "I get it."

"I started to look up statistics afterwards, on occupational hazards." Sebastian's voice was low, Blaine could detect a hint of tremor. "Every time you fly, I wonder if that would be the last time I'd see you again."

Blaine's heart ached at pain behind those words. He had no idea this had been weighing on Sebastian's mind in the past weeks. Blaine had been so consumed with his work, with the desire to do a great job at the project in order to get a good review to help his case for promotion, that he had completely overlooked everything else.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea." Blaine did not know what else to say. He felt like the most conceited and oblivious boyfriend in the world.

"I know it sounds pretty dumb. I know it's your job and everything." It was rare to hear Sebastian being so self-deprecating. "Ashlynn hit close to home for me. I've heard about these things before, but she was the first person that I knew."

"No, it's not dumb." Blaine gave Sebastian a soft kiss on the lips. "I'm really sorry I made you worry."

"Don't apologize. Not your fault." The arms around Blaine's waist tightened a bit. "I'll get over this … funk or whatever the hell they call it."

"I really don't want you to worry." Blaine chewed on his lower lip. "I know what I signed up for when I got onto the project. But if I had known I would've applied for another project."

"Must be the fucking hormones, you know. I don't get that worked up over people I'm not close to. Ashlynn, I mean. But I think I'm allowed to be temperamental once in a while."

"Yes, you are." Blaine reached down and held Sebastian's hand. "And it's okay to tell me as it is, regardless of how stupid you think it is because nothing you say can ever be stupid."

"About earlier …" Sebastian looked a little uncomfortable at what he was about to say. "I knew I was a bit rough with you."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you talked to me." Blaine moved a little to avoid the cramp that was starting to form in his arm. "You know what I'm going to do?"

He saw Sebastian raising his eyebrows at him questioningly.

"I'm going to talk to my scheduler tomorrow morning. I'll tell her to change my project preference to 'local' going forward. That way I won't have to fly for future projects."

"Won't that affect your review?"

"I doubt it. There're a lot of local projects they're desperately trying to get local resources to save cost." Blaine smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure they'll be okay with it. I'll get to see you more too."

"All right." Blaine felt Sebastian shifting beside him so that his boyfriend was leaning above him again. Blaine ran his hand through Sebastian's messy hair and stroked his face affectionately. Sebastian leaned into Blaine's touch briefly before bending down for a kiss before resting his forehead against Blaine's. "Now, I'm going to say something really morbid."

"What is it?"

"It's just that … " Sebastian paused as though he was trying to find the right words. Blaine saw Sebastian leaning up slightly so that his green eyes were locked with his own hazel ones. "It's just that if the plane is going to crash, I want to make sure that I'm there with you when it does."

Blaine felt his breath caught in his throat as the enormity of the meaning behind those words hit him.

"You're right, it is morbid." Blaine pulled Sebastian down and hugged him tightly. "But if it comes to that, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"To the end it is then."

"To the end it is."

(END)