Author's Note: This is the eleventh installment in the Not Words 'verse. Apologies for the delay; this installment has been giving me fits and I'm having a relapse of health issues. But here it is! Story title comes from the Michelle Branch song "Goodbye to You."

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

When the Stars Fall

Sebastian poured two glasses of wine as he watched Blaine look over some of Julia's finished paintings hanging on the walls. Over the last few days he'd noticed Blaine curiously eyeing some of the half-finished paintings that littered the apartment as well; Sebastian barely saw them anymore since he was used to the apartment being a partial studio—since Julia had quit her job as a paralegal to follow her passion (which had not included Sebastian's father) to France, it was like she'd been consumed by art, both her own and others'.

They'd had gone out to dinner earlier with Julia and Jean to commemorate their final night in Paris, but Julia and Jean had decided to go see a show—a transparent offer of an empty apartment for the evening, as though Sebastian didn't have his own place in New York for them to go back to the next day.

Sebastian had rolled his eyes but had accepted anyway. Blaine had been distant since arriving in Paris. He'd made all outward appearances of politeness to Julia and Jean; he'd seemed enthused by their various outings to both tourist attractions like the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower and local flavors like Julia's favorite boutiques and Sebastian's favorite spot along the Seine, but Sebastian knew Blaine well enough to recognize his stage smile.

He hadn't asked about it since that first night when Blaine said he was working through things, but Sebastian was getting worried—as he always did when Blaine had too much time to think, to reassess this thing between them—so he planned to take advantage of a few hours alone with Blaine to find out where his head was at before they went back to their routines in New York.

"Your mom's really talented," Blaine said as Sebastian walked into the living room and handed him a glass. Blaine brought the wine glass to his lips, hesitated a moment, then sipped.

Sebastian looked at the painting Blaine was studying—two ballet dancers in a studio, the male dancer holding his female partner up in a lift. The detail was incredible, from the pleats on the dancers' costumes to the strain of their muscles.

Julia painted all sorts of things, from people to nature and even the occasional abstract piece on commission, but she always seemed to come back to artists, whether dancers, singers, musicians, writers, or even other painters. Julia just loved capturing art of any kind being made.

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed, stepping up next to Blaine. Sebastian hadn't inherited his mother's knack for painting and he occasionally found himself jealous; his best attempts at drawing involved stick figures that were often twisted and bent in inappropriate positions. "She is. She's had some gallery shows and sells enough to afford this place."

Blaine nodded absently, eyes still focused on the dancers. Sebastian couldn't help but study him and wonder what he saw when he looked at the painting. The way Blaine needed music made him an artist in a way that Sebastian would never be. Sebastian loved that about him, but it was also one of the many ways that Blaine would probably always remain an enigma to him.

"She's so trusting," Blaine said quietly.

It took a moment for Sebastian to realize that Blaine meant the female dancer, whose expression was visible in the studio mirror; her eyes were shut and her face relaxed in complete faith in her partner.

"Blaine—"

"Kurt came to see me."

Sebastian's open mouth shut in surprise and his chest clenched ominously as the words registered. A number of responses flew through his mind, but all he managed to get out was a strained, "When?"

"The day before I left," Blaine replied without looking away from the painting.

Sebastian swallowed, considering. Was this why Blaine had been so distant? Was this what he had been working through? Sebastian had assumed it was the tape and the obvious betrayals by people he cared about. But Kurt visiting would explain a lot, too.

"Why?" he asked.

"To talk," Blaine replied, lips twitching wryly for a moment before he schooled his features again. "To ask why I'd been avoiding him."

Sebastian felt a moment's surge of victory at the thought of Blaine avoiding Kurt before reining himself in. This was not the time or place. "What did you tell him?"

"The truth."

"Good."

Blaine pressed his lips together into a thin line before turning to look at Sebastian. "Kurt said something…" He shook himself before asking, "Why did you give me the tape?"

Sebastian frowned. "We talked about this."

"Humor me."

Sebastian sighed. Blaine was clearly looking for a specific answer, but Sebastian had no idea what it was. "Because you needed to know—"

Blaine shook his head, visibly frustrated. Wrong answer, apparently. But the agitation was a departure from the detached façade he'd been wearing for the last week and a half at least, and Sebastian would take what he could get.

"No, I mean, why now? You've had it since junior year but waited until now to share."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. "Kurt said something," Blaine had muttered. Of course he had. Hummel was the type to see to it that if he couldn't have Blaine, no one could—most especially Sebastian.

"Blaine—" he started.

"It's because of Kurt, isn't it? Because we're becoming friends again." The words were said matter-of-factly, but they still felt like an accusation.

Sebastian's fingers tightened around the wine glass in his hand as a wave of irritation flashed through him. "Of course it is, Blaine," he snapped. Blaine had loved Kurt—still did, by admission—so would never see straight when it came him, no matter the evidence presented to him. "But you knew that already, didn't you? So why ask?"

Blaine looked a little pale, but he met Sebastian's eyes. "I needed to know for sure."

"What was I supposed to do? You stood me up, Blaine, to spend the day with your ex and his family." Sebastian put his half-full wine glass down on the coffee table before he broke it. "Your ex, who clearly wants more from you than friendship."

"I—" Blaine cut himself off as he registered those words and blinked. "What?"

Normally Sebastian found Blaine's apparent obliviousness endearing—there was just something about a guy who didn't realize just how sexy he was—but in that moment it was just frustrating.

"He wants you back, Blaine," Sebastian replied, crossing his arms.

Blaine frowned. "No, that's not… It's over between us. We're just trying to be friends again."

"Maybe you are," Sebastian said coolly. "But it's pretty obvious what Hummel is angling for."

Blaine was silent for several moments before he threw back the rest of the wine in his glass. He took a few steps backward and put the glass down on a table with a thunk. Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the distance but Blaine's frown just deepened.

Sebastian ran a hand through his hair as Blaine remained silent. "What do you want me to say here, Blaine? You should know what kind of person he really is."

"He always said the same thing about you," Blaine said, voice a little wobbly.

That stung, but it wasn't exactly uncalled for. Sebastian licked his bottom lip, contemplating his next move as Blaine stared at him from across the room, only feet yet miles separating them.

After a long moment, Blaine's expression twisted into something resigned that Sebastian wasn't entirely sure what to do with. "What are we doing here, Bas?"

Sebastian's guard went up at Blaine's change in tone. Something had changed in those last seconds, leaving Sebastian off-kilter. "What do you mean?"

"It's like a dance, isn't it? Every time we do this. Different song, same steps."

Sebastian frowned. "What?"

Blaine shook his head and stuck his hands into his trouser pockets. "I wasn't mad at you, you know," he said rather than clarify what he meant. "About the tape."

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow. "Could've fooled me."

Blaine rolled his eyes but didn't rise to the bait. "We're past that. I've just been trying to deal with the fact that I was apparently the only one who didn't know. It's… hard," he said with a brief hesitation, "realizing someone you love went behind your back like that. And that other people you care about were in on it, even if unknowingly."

"If you're mad at Hummel, why are we fighting?" Wasn't that just giving him what he wanted? And Sebastian had no intention of giving Kurt Hummel a damn thing.

"When someone you love breaks your trust like that, it makes you wonder."

Sebastian could read between the lines. "So because he went behind your back, you think I might now?"

"It took me a long time to move past our breakup. You know that," Blaine replied with a helpless shrug. "I'm not the same person I was when he and I cut ties, but something like this…" He shook his head with a grimace. "It's not just going to go away. And I can't deal with the two of you trying to out-scheme each other or whatever you're doing behind my back on top of everything."

"Out-scheme?" Sebastian echoed. Is that what Blaine thought was going on? "Really?"

Blaine sighed and ran a hand over his face. He looked tired, and Sebastian briefly wondered how he hadn't noticed it sooner. This had clearly been weighing on him for a while now.

"I can handle myself when it comes to Kurt," he said. "I don't know why people seem to assume that I can't. You have to trust me, Bas."

For a moment, Sebastian couldn't find the words. Of course he trusted Blaine; he would always trust Blaine. If one of them had reason not to trust the other, it was Blaine in Sebastian.

And yet…

Kurt Hummel would always represent something that Sebastian could never be for Blaine—his first in so many things. That meant something, and Blaine was nothing if not a romantic. Anyone who knew anything about Blaine would be aware of that and could take advantage of it.

And Kurt Hummel had proved himself manipulative on more than one occasion. Sebastian could spot his own kind a mile away in that regard.

There was a reason Blaine's earnestness was so attractive to him.

"Blaine—"

Blaine raised a hand and Sebastian stopped. "I love you, but I can't keep fighting about the past when I'm trying to look to the future. Our future, I hope," he added with a brief twitch of his lips. Sebastian's breath caught in his throat, but Blaine was speaking again before he could respond. "But if this stuff with Kurt continues…" He trailed off, but Sebastian got his meaning loud and clear.

There was a reason Blaine's earnestness terrified him, too.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked finally. He knew he'd gone into this whole relationship thing completely blind and had to trust Blaine. He could do that, surrender control and let someone else lead.

He could.

Blaine gave him a wan smile. "Just, no more ulterior motives. Please. We did that dance in high school and it didn't end well."

Sebastian clenched his jaw, the sounds of Blaine's screams from that parking garage echoing faintly in the back of his mind.

But he couldn't help remember the way Hummel looked at Blaine that day in the theater—or the way he'd looked at Sebastian and Blaine together either. Or the way his stomach had dropped when Evans told him that Blaine was spending the day after Christmas with Hummel's family.

"I'm not going to make any promises I can't keep, Killer," Sebastian said at last. "You know who I am."

"Sebastian." Blaine's expression shuttered.

But Sebastian, moving on instinct, crossed the room and stepped into Blaine's space. Blaine tried to shift away, but Sebastian put one hand on his hip and used the other to tilt Blaine's chin up to look at him. Once Blaine lifted his eyes to meet Sebastian's, Sebastian dropped his hand.

"I won't make a promise I can't keep," he repeated, "so I promise to trust you. And I promise to try to be a man that you can trust in return."

A promise to try was a promise Sebastian knew he would not break. Not when he had Blaine looking at him like he was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Blaine swallowed and searched Sebastian's face. Finally he nodded. "Okay," he breathed, resting his head against Sebastian's chest.

Sebastian wrapped his arms around Blaine's back, pulling him close. "Okay."

A week and a half after getting back from Paris, Blaine and Sebastian sat at their usual table at Aroma with coffees in hand and textbooks spread between them. At random intervals, Sebastian's foot would slide up Blaine's leg, usually making him start since Sebastian would wait until Blaine had become fully engrossed in his music theory reading. Blaine's meager glares each time just earned self-satisfied smirks in return.

Blaine got his revenge by waiting until he knew Sebastian was looking at him instead of the homework he was supposed to be doing and licking his lips deliberately or sucking on the cap of his highlighter. He never looked up, but he could hear Sebastian's breath hitch as he shifted in his chair.

Tina, who had kept her job at the coffee house and worked a few days a week, rolled her eyes at them from behind the counter between customers.

All in all, it was a normal Wednesday afternoon.

That is, until—

"Blaine Warbler."

Blaine looked up in surprise as Sebastian's foot fell away from his calf to see Rachel standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face. She stalked over to their table, all five-foot-nothing of her towering over them as they looked up at her. Blaine shot a glance toward the counter, but Tina was ringing up an order.

"Rachel," Sebastian greeted, seemingly unconcerned as he dropped his pen on the table and leaned back in his chair. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company today?"

But Rachel ignored him, focusing completely on Blaine. "So you are back," she said, accusingly. "You've been ignoring Kurt's calls."

Blaine sighed and capped his highlighter, letting it roll into the crease of his textbook. Since returning, he'd had a number of ignored calls and texts from Kurt taunting him on his phone. Each time he saw the familiar number with no name attached come up, he was reminded of their conversation from before Blaine had left for Paris and, still feeling the betrayal acutely, let the calls go to voicemail.

"Rachel—"

"He's upset, you know."

"He's not the only one," Blaine replied wearily.

"I don't see why you should be so upset."

Sebastian snorted and Rachel glanced at him, which was all the opening he needed. "No, it's not like Blaine had his trust betrayed or anything."

Rachel looked nonplussed at that. "What?"

"I have the tape. Of Sebastian admitting to tampering with the slushie that almost blinded me," Blaine said. It was almost as though the words had lost meaning at this point, he'd said them so many times.

Rachel's brows furrowed. "I don't understand."

"I didn't know it existed until about a month ago."

It took a moment, but Blaine could see the moment Rachel connected the dots. "You didn't know?"

Blaine shook his head.

"Oh." Rachel opened her mouth a couple of times but she seemed to think better of whatever she was going to say each time and shut it again.

"I'm not ready to talk to him," Blaine said into the quiet that had fallen.

"When do you think…?"

"I don't know. Maybe next week," Blaine said, earning a look from Sebastian that he ignored. "Maybe never."

"Never?" Rachel echoed. "Blaine, he loves you."

"I think we know better than most that that's not always enough, Rachel," Blaine said gently.

A pained look crossed Rachel's face before she schooled her expression. "He's my best friend, Blaine," she said, as though pleading with him to understand. And Blaine did.

He smiled thinly. "I know. Just, can you tell him to stop pushing? I'll let him know. When I'm ready."

Rachel studied Blaine for a moment before nodding. "I'll tell him," she said, then turned on her heel and was gone.

Tina came up to the table moments later, wiping her hands on a towel. "Are you okay?" she asked, glancing between Blaine and the empty door.

Blaine chanced a look at Sebastian, who wore an impassive look. "Surprisingly, yes."

Sebastian slowly woke up to the sound of a hushed voice. He blinked, taking in the dim living room, one lamp and the muted television providing the only light. He was lying on his couch with the Jane Austen novel he had to read for Brit Lit on his chest. And Blaine sat in the adjacent arm chair, his phone held to his ear as he stared at the far wall, his face shadowed.

"—eed to stop calling me, Kurt." He sounded drained. "Like I told Rachel, I don't know when. There's no timetable."

It looked like Rachel either hadn't told Kurt to back off or her message had gone unheeded. Probably the latter, Sebastian figured. Still, ignoring the familiar jealousy churning in his gut, he couldn't help but wonder what had prompted Blaine to answer his phone after ten days.

But that wasn't really a mystery: seeing Rachel. Sebastian knew that Blaine and Rachel had been good friends before the split and, for reasons inexplicable to Sebastian, Blaine still cared about her.

There was a long pause and then Blaine's breath hitched. He shut his eyes. "I know," he said quietly. "Me too. But that doesn't change anything."

Sebastian clenched his jaw and Blaine opened his eyes again. He wrapped his free arm around his middle protectively, curling into himself the way he did when he was upset.

"No. I think we need to go back to how it was. Before. No contact."

Ha.

Blaine listened and then let out a shaky, wet laugh. "Yeah. You too." He swallowed hard. "Goodbye Kurt," he murmured almost reverently then hung up.

For a few moments he just stared at his phone, then looked up and started when he saw that Sebastian was awake.

"Hey," he said. His eyes were red and his smile tremulous. "I didn't realize you were awake."

"Just woke up."

Blaine nodded mutely before glancing back down at his phone. "I guess you heard that."

"I heard enough."

As much as Sebastian hated the love in Blaine's voice for his ex—and the way it made him feel like he would somehow always be competing with Hummel's shadow—the firm goodbye was enough. Blaine had asked Sebastian to trust him to handle this and he'd done just that. The strength it must've taken…

Well, there was a reason Sebastian had never been interested in a relationship before Blaine.

"Sebastian—" Blaine sounded a bit wary, like he still had his guard up after that call.

Sebastian grabbed his book and marked his spot as he sat up. He wasn't itching for a fight, not when he'd just listened to Blaine close a huge chapter in his life because he wanted to focus on the future—their future, he'd said back in Paris.

"You're amazing, you know that?" he said.

Whatever Blaine had been expecting him to say, it wasn't that. "What?" he breathed, eyes widening.

Sebastian shook his head. "Nope, that's all the ego boost you get for one night."

Blaine let out a startled laugh and tossed a throw pillow at Sebastian. "You're an ass."

Sebastian batted it aside with a smirk. "Guilty."

Blaine smiled, his expression softening before he checked his watch. He grimaced and pushed himself to his feet. "I should probably head home. It's late."

Instead of replying, Sebastian held out a hand and when Blaine took it, he pulled Blaine on top of him. Blaine yelped and tried to wriggle free, but Sebastian held on tight.

"Stay."

"It's late," Blaine argued, "and we both have class in the morning."

"Mm, so sleep here," Sebastian said, tipping his head up to kiss Blaine on the lips before trailing down to that spot beneath his ear that had Blaine breathless in moments.

"You still have to read," Blaine protested, though it was feeble as Sebastian's hands drifted to untuck Blaine's shirt and roam his hands over Blaine's back.

"I know how it goes," Sebastian murmured. "They fight and they flirt and they get together in the end."

Blaine made a pleased sound and arched up into the touch. Sebastian smirked into his skin before shuddering as Blaine ran his hands up and down Sebastian's side. They traded slow kisses for a while—a practice Sebastian had never had much use for until Blaine, who'd he'd learned to take things slow with, whether just kissing without urgency or spending time worshiping him because he could—until Blaine pinched him in the side. Sebastian squirmed away with an undignified squawk. Blaine laughed as he rolled off of Sebastian. They ended up sitting side-by-side as Blaine checked his watch again and sighed.

"Okay, you win. I'll stay." He pulled his phone out of his pocket, presumably to text his roommates. "But a real gentleman would take the couch," he said, raising a teasing eyebrow as he finished his message and pocketed the phone again.

"Oh really?" Sebastian asked, lips twitching as he was struck once again by just how lucky he was to have this.

Blaine opened his mouth to respond, but he squeaked when Sebastian surged forward to tackle him back into the cushion. He shifted to straddle Blaine's waist.

"It's a good thing I'm not a gentleman then," he murmured before pressing his lips to Blaine's.

fin