Sebastian is the youngest of six children. It's a nightmare having five insane, invasive older sisters. One mistaken admission has him stuffed in the backseat between Lena, whose newfound fascination is playing with Sebastian's hair, and Whit, who's forsaken the sensible option of gloves in favor of bunching her hands beneath his jacket sleeve. Thankfully, Mads hasn't finished her semester abroad or she'd likely be sitting across their laps, fishing for Bas's phone and calling Kurt to dig up dirt on their relationship. There may be some questions Bas would like answered about where they stand right now, but he sure as hell doesn't need his sister to go snooping on his behalf.
"This isn't exactly what I had in mind."
"Suck it up."
Sebastian groans. He hates – absolutely detests – when they speak in unison. He jiggles his leg unconsciously, wishing he could pull out his phone and text Kurt, but he knows better. Seventeen years with these animals is far past long enough to learn that you don't dangle a juicy tidbit like that in their faces and expect them not to bite.
If only he hadn't detoured to the kitchen before leaving. He'd already had his coat on and car keys in hand while he stumbled upon his sisters in various states of dress; there weren't supposed to be repercussions for answering honestly when Lexi asked where he was going. Until the word boyfriend was already out of his mouth and uncomfortably bright looks of pleasure stretched across all of their faces, Bas had forgotten what it's like to have them all here.
Since Mads left for college, Sebastian is the last of them. With his birthday, their parents' anniversary, and Christmas being the only times they're all in Ohio at once, Sebastian has let himself grow too comfortable with his relative solitude. He was not prepared for the frenzy of his sisters' excitement.
Lexi untied her robe and tossed it on the floor as she ran off to her room, holding up her glasses when they slipped down her nose. She was back a minute later in mismatched shoes, a puffed up winter jacket, a t-shirt, and sweatpants. Whit and Lena ran off to do the same, with generally better results in dress for the extra minutes they each took, though Whit's elastic is holding on to only just this side of enough hair to call it a ponytail and Lena must have picked through the clothes at the back of her closet because there's no other reason she'd be wearing a Hannah Montana "Best of Both Worlds" concert tee otherwise.
He could have run away while they were gone had Lady not put herself between Bas and the doorway.
"Let me go." He moved closer, hands linked and pleading. She shook her head and Sebastian sighed. "Please."
"Still no." She smirked. "Especially now that I'm dying to meet the boy who's taught you some manners."
"Oh, like I'm the one who needs etiquette lessons. I'm sure Miss Manners wouldn't recommend trapping people in their own homes."
"You're welcome to try and get past me."
Lady's laughter starts deep in her throat whenever she finds anything the slightest bit funny. She threw her head back and let the sound assault Sebastian as he tried to escape. She jumped on his back and they toppled over, landing with a thud. Not soon after, Lexi reappeared and dropped down into the pile to help overpower him. Sebastian's ticklishness is knowledge precious few are privy to – those few being his sisters. He surrenders seconds after their fingers burrow under his jacket and snake across his skin.
Their dad was no help. He'd just stepped over the mound of siblings, taking a look at the mischief in his daughters' eyes and saying, "Whatever you did, you're on your own kid," when Sebastian begged for a hand.
When Whit and Lena rejoined the trio, Sebastian ended up flanked by pairs as they ventured outside and packed into Lexi's rental.
Now, Sebastian's been tickled into setting Kurt's address in the GPS, and he has another forty-five minutes in the car with this gang of lunatics.
Lady turns in her seat and pokes at Sebastian's knee until he looks up at her. There's almost an exact ten-year age difference between them. Even though Lexi is the oldest, she's terribly irresponsible and it was always Lady who was left in charge while their parents were away or working late. Young Sebastian's inability to pronounce the entirety of Adelaide is the truth behind her nickname. Everyone she meets knows her as Lady, and some part of Bas feels a happy tug at his fault in that, feels closer to her for it.
Mads is closest to Sebastian in age, the amount of late night marathons and gossip they've shared about classmates bound them together past their diaper days. Lena and Whit were his experts on boys, but more often than not they were off in their own world with their own friends. Lexi was his guide through France during the year he spent living with her and running around a Parisian boarding school. She bought him his first drink and nursed him through his first hangover. She's his sister, but we're like bros she always says. He loves them all. Their co-dependency on one another, the amount of group chats, the skyping, and endless stream of texts and Snapchats and notifications he's been subject to or initiated make their family ties stronger, however suffocating they may sometimes feel.
Still, it's Lady who he bonded with at a young age and has never stopped relying on. She's the one who already knew about Kurt. The one who encouraged him and held through on her promise not to tell the others. She's the one he's been desperate to tell that he and Kurt are finally official, that he has a boyfriend.
Sebastian sucks in a breath through his teeth, rolling his eyes and slapping away Lena's hands to stop her messing with his hair. Lena pulls away, but she hauls his arm toward herself and buries her hands up his sleeve, mirroring Whitney.
Lady pokes at him again. "C'mon Bas. Tell us about him."
Bas pouts, stubbornly drawing out the last bit of his resolve though he knows the rest of the ride will be an embarrassing amount of gushing about meeting Kurt in a coffee shop, the Montague and Capulet of show choir rivalries that threatened to erupt when the pair grew close, and the ultimately inevitable – and impressive – verbal smackdown Kurt laid on their respective glee clubs when an impromptu Jet vs. Sharks style dance off occurred in the parking lot at Sectionals. It's all fairly ridiculous but, after ripping all those involved a new one, Kurt had said the exact words, "Act like imbeciles if you please, but leave me and my boyfriend out of it."
"That's the first time he ever called me his boyfriend," Sebastian admits when the story is told.
Lena has a hand back in his hair, Whit has her phone on her lap and Mads on the line, Lady has her shoulder straining against the seatbelt to face him and her cheek pressed into the headrest. They have their moments of crazy, but they're attentive. They let Bas tell his story with only minor interruptions, only the occasional oohs and aahs and short interjections.
"Bas!" Lexi squeals suddenly. "Look at me. Look at me, Bas. I can see you not looking at me."
Bas locks eyes with Lexi in the rearview. "Eyes on the road."
"Eyes on me."
"My eyes are on you. Yours should still be on the road."
Lexi smirks, but makes her return to responsible driving. "I think it's so cute – are you still looking at me?"
"Oh my god, yes! Jesus. Not in the mood to die right now, Lex." They all snicker as Lexi purposely swerves the car on the isolated stretch of highway, though Lady quietly reaches out to steady the wheel. "Hag."
"Yeah, well. As this hag was saying, I think it cute as frick that you missed us so much you went out and found yourself someone just like us."
Mads snorts first, and then they've all got the giggles. Except Sebastian. He yanks his arms away from Lena and Whit, crossing them and glaring straight ahead. "Kurt is not like you," he mutters.
Whit pulls at his arm until Bas gives and lets her loop hers through. She snuggles up against him, head on his shoulder. "Did you, or did you not, just tell us that this kid, your sweet little elfin prince –"
"I did not call him that."
"It was implied," Lena insists and Sebastian sighs heavily.
"Ok," Whit continues. "You totally just said that Kurt opened up a can of whoop ass –"
"Did not…"
Lady pokes again at his knee. "She's paraphrasing, sourpuss."
"Can it. Let the woman speak," Lexi says as she pulls off the highway. They're minutes away and Bas is kind of freaking out, which his sisters have all caught wind of by now.
Lena twists a hand in his hair and forces him to look at her. "Bas, we already like him. From what we can tell, he likes you. So take a breath." She waits impatiently for Sebastian to make a show of it, urging him on with a flapping free hand. "Good. Keep doing that and you'll be fine. Also, it might help if you grow a pair."
Sebastian slinks down in his seat while their laughter reverberates through the vehicle all the way to Kurt's house.
Kurt knew Bas was on his way, it's probably why he's waiting on the porch when they pull up. The sisters Smythe have made Sebastian late thanks to a pre-highway stop for coffee and bagels, and Lexi's delaying habit of flirting with everyone she encounters. A habit Bas picked up from her somewhere along the way, but one he's not very appreciative of when it keeps him from Kurt.
Everyone in the car stares at the boy coming down the stairs with a look of cautious amusement on his face. Sebastian has talked about his sisters, explained that he they were left on this planet by aliens who didn't want them, surrendered to the cynical look on Kurt's face, and told tales of his childhood and the pampered misadventures of the Smythe children. Sebastian has insisted time and again that they are nuts, but Kurt has assured him they sound great.
Whit lets herself out first, standing by the door as Sebastian crawls out next.
"Hi." His voice is small and his accompanying wave is awkward and, "You know what – fuck this."
Sebastian grabs Kurt's hand and pulls him far across the lawn and out his sisters' earshot.
"Hey," he says more confidently.
Kurt looks past Sebastian's shoulder, giddy like the pack of fools Bas left behind him, straining to see them. "Are those your sisters?" He claps his hands together at Sebastian's nod, pouting when Sebastian takes him by the shoulders and spins them around so Kurt's back is to them.
"Let them say hi, and then please turn them away."
"But I want to meet them."
"Not today. Please. I'm not above getting down on my knees and begging."
"Don't make promises you can't keep," Kurt deadpans.
Sebastian drops his head forward, chuckling under his breath. He sighs and looks up. "I just wanted it to be us today."
Kurt shuffles his feet. "Is this because I called you my boyfriend? Should I not have? Is that why… you don't want us to meet?" he asks, gesturing behind him. "Because I thought it was obvious and –"
"No! No way. I – yes. Boyfriends. Also, yes, that's kind of what I wanted to talk about, but mostly they are just a massive fuckload to take in all at once and just – maybe we should start small. One at a time."
"I'm going to assume you think they'll embarrass you and not the other way around, but really, Bas. I think I can handle it."
"You're like that guy who thought he could live amongst the grizzlies. Grizzlies that later killed him."
"Sebastian." Kurt snorts. "They cannot be that bad."
"Your butt is so cute!" Lexi calls out, leaning over Lady with her head at the window. Sebastian understands immediately and throws his head back in exasperation, but Kurt is unprepared and the words fly over his head.
"What was that?" Kurt asks Sebastian, then turns toward the carful of his sisters and cocks his head to the side. "Huh?"
"Your butt is cute," they all yell together.
Kurt blush a furious shade of red, but laughs and gives them an enthusiastic thumbs up before turning back to Sebastian.
"I'm sorry. They're home for the holidays. That's – that's not even – there's still one missing." Kurt pulls down Sebastian's hand to uncover his face. Up on his toes, Kurt is Sebastian's height. He lets Kurt kiss him knowing the cheer squad will be quick to react.
Lena reaches them first, her dance-trained legs carrying her further faster, but one by one, they slam themselves into a group hug with more force than at all necessary.
"Guys, back off."
None of them do.
"Which one you has the hand on my ass?" Kurt laughs.
"I do," they all say.
Kurt bites his lip and hugs Sebastian closer. "I like them," he whispers.
Lady sighs. "We like him, too."
"I hate you all."
"You love us, Sebbykins," Lexi says, pinching Sebastian's cheeks.
"No." He swats her away. "Hate you."
"Hey Kurt," Lena says as they've all drawn back. "Your boyfriend's a big fat liar."
Kurt smiles and looks at Sebastian, then around at his sisters. "You guys will just have to tell me everything now, so I know what to believe. I've been dying for all the embarrassing baby stories."
Lexi slings an arm over Kurt's shoulders, pushes her glasses up, and walks with him toward the house. "It's cute that you think all of the embarrassing stuff happened when he was a baby. Did you know he recently spent a year with me in Paris? That's the good stuff."
"No," Sebastian says, held back by a sister on each arm. "This is exactly what I didn't want."
Lexi whispers in Kurt's ear as the pair turns to look back at him. "Suck it up, Bas."
Ignoring the echoing laughter of his sisters and Kurt, Sebastian smirks at the swift realization that Kurt really is one of them. Somewhere deep down, Sebastian is grateful for his sisters' approval, for Kurt's approval as well, but today's already been long and it's just getting started, so he grits his teeth and accepts the insanity soon to unfold.