A/N: It's un-betaed again. I'm trying to do at least one of these everyday for as long as I'm unemployed … The work situation that Blaine is experiencing in this fic actually has happened to me in real life (like 2 jobs ago) before except I didn't have my own Sebastian. Lastly, Astridr was the name of my Pomeranian who passed away at 13 months due to negligence on the part of a pet hotel in Singapore. This is also in memory of my little Astro-girl. I have a Tumblr account where I talk about my SeBlaine WIP. I'd be honored if you can follow me: rykerstrom(.)tumblr(.)com


CONSULTING PROJECT

Sebastian tried to busy himself with something to do, but he had been petting Astridr for the past half an hour and the poor Pomeranian could only take so much cuddling. It was already past midnight on a Thursday night and while he did not have any graduate school classes for Friday, he could not say the same for his workaholic boyfriend.

It was not that Sebastian really wanted to spend the past half an hour petting the dog. Oh no, he was fond of Astridr all right, but Sebastian really wanted to just go to bed and spend some quality time with his boyfriend, but he could not do it when Blaine was still on the phone at this time of the night.

From his vantage point, Sebastian could see Blaine flinched as the person on the other line yelled at him. Even from ten feet away, Sebastian could make out a few of the words that were coming out of Blaine's boss' mouth. Unfortunately, this had been a regular occurrence ever since Blaine got put onto his current project four months ago; which, by the way, was also when their sex life grounded to an abrupt halt.

"But Anthony—" Sebastian could hear Blaine making another failed attempt at explaining as he was cut off by his boss again. "Yes, I understand. Oh! Please wait, I need to pull up the documents." Sebastian saw Blaine turned around on his chair and put his boss on speaker phone with the mute button on.

"Really, Anderson! What part of this are you not getting? I thought I gave you feedback a million times already!" Anthony had a scratchy voice that reminded Sebastian of someone scratching their nails on the chalkboard. "You never, and I mean never, say to the client 'you think so'. Client did not pay us to say we think so. We tell them so! You said you wanted to prove yourself, that's why I let you onto this project. And I swear to God, if I don't see a drastic improvement by the next meeting, we are going to have a very different conversation!

"Damn it, Anderson! What's taking you so long? Are you so disorganized that you don't even know where your files are? Jesus Christ! I won't even have to be giving you detailed instructions at this time of the night if you would just get it right." Anthony's rant continued. "Just because you graduated from a top university doesn't mean that you are special. I have to talk to the HR director about this, we need to stop with the mediocre hiring. Anderson! Where the hell are you?"

"I'm here!" Sebastian saw Blaine pressing the unmute button and took his boss off the speaker phone. "I just sent you the files. I'm so sorry, I have some … formatting issues."

Sebastian grabbed the dog leash and put it on the dog. It looked like Blaine would be on the call for a while. If the past months were anything to go by, chances were that Blaine's asshole of a boss would not be finished with his verbal abuse for a while.

When Sebastian came back from the walk, he found Blaine sitting at the edge of the bed. His boyfriend's shoulders were hunched in what appeared to be defeat.

"Blaine?"

"Oh, hi." Blaine rubbed his eyes and looked up. "I'm sorry, I was going to walk Astridr."

"It's okay." Sebastian shrugged and sat down next to Blaine. "We all know Anthony happened."

"I'm probably going to stay in again this weekend. I have to work." Blaine sighed. "I just don't understand why I can't seem to get this right."

"Because Anthony is a dick?" Sebastian offered. "Pricks like him make the rest of we gay look bad. I don't even think it's possible for anyone to be this bitchy."

Well, at least he got Blaine to laugh at that.

"I just feel like I'm failing at everything again. Maybe I should've gone to graduate school like you did, then I wouldn't be in this situation, failing at such a simple job!" Blaine ran his hand through his curls in frustration.

"You're not failing." Sebastian shifted on the bed and sat behind Blaine as he rubbed his boyfriend's shoulders. "You are way too hard on yourself."

"Remember John from my organic chemistry class?"

"The straight one or the gay one?" There were way too many Johns out there.

"The straight one. He graduated two years before I did." Blaine leaned into the massage. "Got into McKinsey, somehow managed to fast track himself and got promoted within a year. Last I heard, he jumped ship right after he got promoted and now he had already made junior partner at a competing firm."

"So?" Sebastian knew where this was going already, and he did not like it. It was never a good sign when Blaine started to launch into a tirade of self-loathing.

"I literally killed myself in school trying to graduate two years early. I got good grades and everything but I still couldn't get into a tier 1 consulting firm. Sure, I still got into consulting but this is not even a well-known firm. What's worse is that after working here for three years, I'm still not getting promoted." Sebastian heard Blaine's voice waver. "I don't get it. I am nice to everyone. I work harder than everyone, but I'm still stuck as an entry level analyst. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

"I don't … I don't think I suck! I know I'm no genius but I can't be stupid, right? But if I'm not stupid, then how come I'm not getting this? Maybe I do suck and I just don't know it. Maybe I just—"

"Hey, stop!" Sebastian wrapped his arms around Blaine's waist from behind. "Don't you start going there."

"It doesn't make sense." Blaine said quietly, defeat and frustration evident in his voice. "I'm so stressed out. I know it's silly but I'm actually afraid to go to work tomorrow. If I screw up at the meeting, Anthony might yell at me again."

"Blaine, you have to learn to filter out stupid comments coming from jerks like Anthony." Sebastian pressed a kiss to the side of Blaine's neck. He wished he could do something about this. "You can't keep working long hours like this. You're going to get burnt out."

If anything, Sebastian knew that Blaine worked hard at his job. Blaine might not tell him, but Sebastian was not stupid. He knew it had been months since Blaine had gotten over four hours of sleep per night. Hell, it had been months since they had sex. Blaine had been too stressed out to even go for a hand job. This had to stop.

"But I need this job." Blaine protested. "None of my leads have come through."

"No, you don't. This apartment is paid for, and I get enough monthly allowances from my parents for us both to live extremely comfortably." Sebastian slipped his hands under Blaine's shirt. "You need a vacation. Roll off the damn project and take a vacation. Didn't you say that it is an option?"

"I don't think Anthony would be pleased. He's really senior in the firm." Sebastian frowned at that comment. Anthony could go fuck himself for all he cared. Nobody should make his Blaine felt so inadequate. It was heart-breaking to see what this job was doing to Blaine. Sebastian decided to change tactic and brushed his fingers against one of Blaine's nipples, smirking when he heard a gasp.

"Sebastian, I can't … Not tonight."

"Blaine." Sebastian slipped his hand into the waist band of Blaine's pants. "I think this is precisely what you needed. An honest-to-God mind-blowing orgasm to help you relax."

"Sebastian, I have work tomorrow." Sebastian could feel Blaine's erection against his hand.

"I'll make it quick and worth your while."

Sebastian was a man with many talents. At this moment, his talent of removing multiple pieces of clothing at one go was definitely a useful one. He urged Blaine to stand up as he rid himself and Blaine of their clothes. Sebastian then settled back a little further on the bed and pulled Blaine along. Sebastian was happy to note that he was not the only one who was hard by this point.

After all, four months was a long time.

"Get up on your knees, and face away from me."

"Okay." Blaine sounded a little breathless by this point, his face flushed a light shade of pink. Sebastian ran a hand comfortingly up Blaine's side before reaching over to the bedside drawer for what Blaine had referred to as their "supplies". He made quick work of the condom and lubed himself up.

"I know I said quickie but I think you'd prefer to be prepped?" Sebastian's finger found its way to the rim, tracing the entrance lightly.

"Sebastian …" He could feel Blaine stiffened slightly at the unexpected touch. "If you're trying to embarrass me, you're succeeding."

"I'll take that as a yes then." Sebastian had always found it incredibly adorable that Blaine would seemingly get embarrassed at the smallest things when it came to being intimate. He prepared Blaine thoroughly; making sure his boyfriend was sufficiently stretched, before smearing on a second coat of lubricant onto himself just in case. "Lean back and sit down slowly."

Sebastian guided Blaine gently as the latter lowered himself slowly onto his cock. Even from this angle, he could see that Blaine had his eyes closed.

Oh yeah, it was definitely good to have sex again.

Sebastian laid feathery kisses along Blaine's shoulder blades, lapping at the sweat that was forming there as he ran his hands comfortingly up and down Blaine's sides. Sebastian saw Blaine turning his head around and he leaned forward to capture his lips in a kiss. Once he felt Blaine's breathing evened out, Sebastian placed his hands on Blaine's hips and thrusted up.

It was quicker than their usual pace, and Sebastian knew that neither of them was going to last long this time. Sebastian relished the small gasps and moans that he managed to extract from his boyfriend as he drove himself into Blaine time and again. Feeling himself getting close, Sebastian wrapped one arm around Blaine, pulling his boyfriend to him tightly while the other hand reached around and started to pump Blaine's cock in time with the thrusts.

Sebastian bit down on Blaine's shoulder as he felt himself coming. He could hear Blaine whimpered at the sudden sting before being pushed over the edge as well.

They collapsed onto the bed afterwards, sated but a little too exhausted at the moment to clean up. So instead, Sebastian rolled off the used condom and tossed it into the waste basket next to the bed and let Blaine cuddled up to him. He planted a small kiss on top of Blaine's messy curls and simply held him.

Suddenly, Blaine's mobile started ringing.

"That would be Anthony." Blaine commented flatly.

"His special ringtone is 'Mr. Personality'?" Sebastian looked at the clock – 2:14am.

"Yeah, but my phone is always on silent mode when I'm at work." Blaine explained. "It just makes me feel a bit better. Call it passive aggressive."

The mobile phone stopped ringing. A few minutes later, the same ringtone played again as Anthony attempted another call. This time, Blaine reached over for his mobile and shut it down. Sebastian raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Anthony can shove it for all I care." Blaine shrugged. "And … I decided that I'm not going to be working this weekend, and starting tomorrow I'm going to start looking for another job. As soon as I find something else, I'm quitting."

"Good on you." Sebastian could not have felt more proud of Blaine. "So what changed your mind?"

"Someone important to me has just made me realize what my priorities are."

Blaine gave Sebastian a smile as he said those words. And Sebastian swore that he had never seen anything so beautiful.

(End)


A/N: One last thing ... The ringtone Blaine has for his douchey boss is from the song "Mr. Personality" by 20 Fingers.