A/N: Inspired by the Klaine Advent Drabble prompts 'ache' and 'balance'. High school/soulmate/dystopian AU with D/s elements, bonding, slight mind control, mention of anxiety, mention of Blaine/Klaine, and with a twist.
Sebastian leaned his head against Kurt's front door, sighing all of his defeat and anxiety into the grain of the hard, uncaring wood. He knew what he was about to do – understood it, had come to terms with it – but in his mind he still denied it to the point that he could not force himself to ring the doorbell.
I am not a sub, he repeated in his head. I am a Dom. I've always been a Dom. I'll always been a Dom.
Unfortunately, that's not what his DNA seemed to believe, or else three weeks ago on his seventeenth birthday he would have never received the crescent moon mark on his neck that denoted his sub status, nor would he have the name of his Dom emblazoned across his collarbone for the entire world to see – Kurt Hummel.
The very idea of being a sub disgusted Sebastian to his core. Giving up his plans, his ambitions, his dreams, with his only purpose from now till death being to serve someone else, made Sebastian boil with hatred. It made him feel that his entire life had been a lie. But Sebastian might have been less upset learning that he was a sub if he had gotten any other Dom – one more complimentary to his upbringing and lifestyle.
Not a pathetic Lima Loser.
Why couldn't he have gotten someone like Blaine Anderson?
Blaine was a Dom, and hot as fucking hell, with what was probably one of the finest asses in all of North America. Blaine would definitely make a better match for Sebastian than Hummel, and Blaine went to Dalton to boot. If Sebastian had gotten Blaine as a Dom, he wouldn't have to switch schools.
With Kurt calling the shots, he'd probably be forced to transfer to public school. Looking up from the door and running his eyes over the modest two-floor family house, Sebastian realized that public school definitely seemed like a foregone conclusion. There was no way Kurt's family would be able to afford to send Sebastian to Dalton, and considering the fact that his parents had disowned him…
Sebastian leaned forward and rested his head against the cold door again, closing his eyes to block out the truth a little while longer.
Sebastian couldn't understand why he would get paired up with Kurt anyway. They'd only met each other a handful of times, and in every way, shape, and form, they despised each other. It probably didn't help that Sebastian laid it on thick with his attempts at stealing Kurt's boyfriend, but it served Kurt right. Kurt was soft and simpering, with no style sense and a hard luck case of the gay face. Kurt and Sebastian had nothing in common, and they had never traded anything but insults with one another.
Still, when the announcements went out in the paper that Sebastian's marks showed up and Kurt raced from Lima to Westerville to claim him, he seemed different. Almost excited.
But Sebastian didn't care. He would not be owned. He turned Kurt down hardcore - embarrassing Kurt in public, which he had no right to do. The laws that governed Dom/sub matches were absolute. There was no legal way that Sebastian knew of to break those bonds. Kurt could have demanded that Sebastian come with him. Hell, Kurt could have forced Sebastian to his knees and made Sebastian lick the soles of his Doc Martens, but he didn't. He simply dropped his head, turned on his heel, and walked away.
After that display, Sebastian resisted the pull of his sub side reaching out to his Dom for weeks. He was upset and confused. At Dalton, surrounded by other Doms, he was shunned by people he thought were his friends, whispered about behind his back, and demoted from co-captain of the lacrosse team to second string.
Sebastian had never seen another sub at Dalton. As far as he knew, he was the only one, and he had gotten a sinking feeling from the way even his favorite teachers glared at him that his days at Dalton were numbered.
Out of desperation, Sebastian went home for the weekend to talk to his father about it. His father was a state's attorney. Maybe he knew of some legal recourse that might fix this – something they didn't teach subs in high school because it would cause mass chaos to a system that had worked relatively fine for hundreds of years. If there was one thing that society seemed to fear more than anything, it was change.
Sebastian was more than willing to become that change.
But his father wouldn't even look at him.
"You know," the man had said, motioning for the butler to open the door for his son and dismiss him from the house permanently, "the world is made up of Doms and subs. That's how it works. It's necessary to maintain a certain balance in the universe, if you will. But Smythes have never been subs, and they never will be subs. You are no longer a Smythe."
Sebastian was stunned. He knew his father hadn't been thrilled with his sub assignment, but he hadn't expected to be tossed away so coolly, so emotionlessly.
Sebastian got in his car and drove – and drove and drove and drove – almost all the way to friggin' Indiana, hoping against everything he had read about Doms and subs that time and distance would break his bond with Kurt, but the pull only got stronger. It wore down his body until he was so exhausted from need of physical contact with his Dom that he could barely drive his car. He fought to keep going, to keep driving, to make this separation complete, but no matter how far he ran, no matter how hard he tried, the ache that rose up in his body remained. It encompassed him completely. It attacked him on several levels – it weakened his body, muddied his capacity to think, slowed his reflexes. It had started to paralyze him.
He pulled over miles from the border and parked on the shoulder of the highway, lying down in the front seat of his Mustang. He had no choices. He couldn't drive any farther, but he couldn't stay where he was. Eventually a police officer would come by, scan his finger prints, and find out who he belonged to.
Even against his will, he would have to go back to Kurt anyway.
Before leaving Westerville, Sebastian had spoken to Blaine about all of this – about his theories and his plans to try and escape being owned. Blaine was the only Dom left at Dalton who would still talk to him. Seeing as Blaine was the boyfriend he had tried to steal from Kurt, their friendship started off awkward, but they had managed to segue into a quasi-comradery.
"If you want my advice," Blaine had said, "go to Kurt. Ask for his forgiveness. Tell him you want to do the right thing."
"Do the right thing," Sebastian had scoffed. "You mean basically give up the rest of my life for him?"
"Think of it this way," Blaine had said, "what would you have done if he had been the sub? Your sub?"
Sebastian had already given that some thought, but only vengefully. When Blaine said it out loud, it really gave Sebastian a moment of pause.
"Give him a chance," Blaine had said, interrupting Sebastian's thoughts. "He might surprise you."
Sebastian nodded.
"Thank you," he had said, "…uh, sir," adding the title through partially gritted teeth since now he was required to address all Doms that way.
Sebastian thought about Blaine's words, but he wasn't too convinced that Blaine was right. Regardless, he gathered up all the strength he had left to sit up and restart his vehicle, though making the decision to return to his Dom had started to fill him with strength. He drove straight through the rest of the day and overnight, only stopping once for gas, lucking out since he was sure that his parents would cancel his credit cards any day.
Sebastian would probably be expected to return his Mustang as well.
He was Kurt's responsibility now. Kurt's family would have to start taking care of him.
He parked his car outside Kurt's house and looked at himself in the rearview mirror. He hadn't shaved, and his hair was a mess. He had worn his Dalton uniform a few days past its prime, but he had no other clothes. He did his best to tidy up, and felt he looked fine enough provided that Kurt lowered his expectations. He walked to the front door but stopped at ringing the doorbell, and there he stood for over an hour, forehead pressed against the door, preparing to say good-bye to his freedom.
He thought things over one more time, everything that brought him to this point, trying to find one last-minute loophole.
But there was none.
Sebastian finally gave up, and reached out a hand to ring Kurt's doorbell.
A few seconds of silence, and then the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door.
"Coming," he heard his Dom's light, airy voice sing out as Kurt approached. His face peeked through the sheer curtains, and when his eyes took in the sight of his sub leaning against the door, his face lit up.
"Sebastian!" he cheered, his voice audible through the glass. Sebastian smiled weakly and gave a slight wave. Kurt seemed excited to see him, but Sebastian couldn't make himself feel the same. This whole arrangement would have been easier if Kurt and Sebastian had started out as friends first, but Sebastian couldn't change that. Maybe they could start from here and work their way through this uncomfortable situation.
Sebastian needed to have a little faith in his Dom. He needed to let Kurt surprise him.
Kurt unlocked the door and threw it wide open.
"Blaine told me that you would be coming back," he said, stepping aside and gesturing for Sebastian to walk in.
"Yeah…" Sebastian said, his voice raw and broken. "I'm here…sir." Sebastian struggled to remember that he must always refer to his Dom as sir. He could be punished if he didn't, though Kurt didn't seem to Sebastian to be the heavy-handed type.
Kurt locked the door behind them and took Sebastian's hand, leading him through the living room. Sebastian had never been inside Kurt's home before. It was nice – small and cozy, nothing like the huge, empty house Sebastian had grown up in. He might be able to consider this home after a while. Like everything in his new life, he just needed to give it a chance.
"So, you're willing to accept your place as my sub?" Kurt asked, looking back at Sebastian with sympathetic eyes as he led him down a set of stairs – stairs that led from the main floor to below the house. Sebastian thought he remembered Blaine saying something about Kurt's bedroom being in the basement. "Because, unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to change that for you."
"Yes, sir," Sebastian replied, feeling stronger, more secure now that he was in the presence of his Dom. The dark staircase let out into a softly lit room, with muted grey paint covering the stone walls and vintage dark wood furnishings. Colorful Moroccan-inspired fabric hung from every piece of furniture - draped across his chairs, a futon, a Victorian settee, and his bed, where five other McKinley High students sat, all Doms that Sebastian could see, all watching them with a peculiarly amused interest.
"That's wonderful," Kurt sighed, turning to face Sebastian with a relieved expression on his face. Kurt stared at Sebastian and Sebastian stared back, waiting for whatever command Kurt decided to give him. Kurt pulled away a bit, and before Sebastian could blink, he slapped Sebastian hard across the cheek. Sebastian's head snapped to the side with the power behind that hit – much stronger than Sebastian would have ever imagined. When Sebastian came back to his senses – when the stars cleared from his vision and he could see again – he looked back at his Dom. Kurt's sympathetic eyes were gone, replaced by something much darker, much less forgiving.
"That was your first lesson," Kurt said. "Don't ever humiliate me in public again."
Sebastian nodded, needing the movement of his head to remind him to breathe.
"Yes…" Sebastian muttered, his jaw still reeling from the sting of that slap.
"Yes, what?" Kurt bit out.
"Yes…sir," Sebastian said quickly. "Yes, sir."
Sebastian felt himself change. Deep inside his mind, something bobbed to the forefront – something that seemed to sap all of his will. He wanted to say something. He wanted to defend himself. Mostly, he itched to slap Kurt back and harder, but he couldn't. He physically couldn't. Something about being in the presence of his Dom prevented his body from doing so.
Outside he was the picture of perfect obedience, but inside his head, Sebastian was screaming.
"Now, I know your parents sent you to Dalton because that's where all the wealthy Doms send their kids and you…" Kurt emphasized, prodding Sebastian's shoulder with his index finger, "were expected to be a Dom. But you're not." Kurt closed the gap between them, stepping into Sebastian's personal space and speaking straight into his skin. "You are a sub – my sub – and you will do as you're told. Do you understand?"
Sebastian opened his mouth, his first instinct to tell Kurt exactly where he could shove his little speech, his posturing, his big boy act for all his friends, but all that came out was, "Yes, sir. I understand, sir."
These submissive phrases came out more fluidly now, and Sebastian hated them. He longed to spit in Kurt's face, but his mouth went dry at the thought.
Kurt continued to stare into Sebastian's eyes while Sebastian thought these things, and it unsettled him. Kurt crinkled his brow and scrunched up his nose, a slight frown turning down the corners of his mouth, and it struck Sebastian that Kurt seemed to be reacting to Sebastian's thoughts – as if he were reading Sebastian's mind.
"Sebastian, as punishment for running away, you will start out as a dog," Kurt said, turning away from his sub to check the reaction of his audience, "and dogs do not wear clothes. So you will need to take yours off."
"You…you want me to undress, sir?" Sebastian asked, glancing with only a flick of his eyes at the other Doms seated on Kurt's massive bed, all with smug grins or different varying levels of laughter in their eyes. "Here? Now?"
"Yes, here," Kurt said, approaching his dresser and opening one of the drawers, addressing Sebastian dismissively while he rummaged through the contents. From the murmur of laughter that rose from the audience of Doms, they seemed to know what Kurt was looking for. Sebastian would be the last to be let in on the joke. "Yes, now." He lifted his eyes from the drawer and stared at an unmoving Sebastian, his eyebrow raised. "And don't just take them off. Shred them."
More laughter rose up, and Sebastian's cheeks began to glow.
"Shred them, sir?" he repeated.
"Yes," Kurt said with a tone of put-on irritation. He reached out a hand, grabbing hold of the button that joined his blazer, and gave a sharp tug, popping the button off and sending it bouncing to the floor. "I want you to rip them off your body."
Sebastian raised his hands to the collar of his shirt, somewhat out his own control. He grabbed both sides of his white button-down and tugged. The buttons flew one by one as Sebastian tore his shirt open, revealing his bare chest to the group, and inspiring a polite round of applause.
Applause for his obedience, his submission, or for his humiliation? He might never know.
"That's more like it," Kurt said with a smile. He lifted a large apparatus from the drawer – conical in shape and smooth, tapered at the rounded tip - that made Sebastian's eyes grow to the size of saucers. Sebastian had seen vibrators like this one before, but this was much more intimidating. It attached to a wire that led to a voltage meter. Kurt switched it on high and took a swipe at Sebastian's chest, the resulting electrical charge zapping his skin, causing Sebastian to jump back at the shock.
Sebastian swallowed hard.
"I think it's time," Kurt said, his grin growing wide as he saw Sebastian's eyes shimmer with fear, "that I taught you how things are going to be from now on."