It wasn't that Sebastian disliked Hunter. Not exactly.

Yes, he hadn't been thrilled when he was informed that he would be receiving a middle of the year transfer student into his up until now private room. He couldn't really fault Hunter for that development. He suspected the school was still subtly punishing him for the Slushee Debacle. Hunter was just the student they were using to teach him a lesson. It was the school's idea of poetic justice to force him to room with the boy who stole his title. It hurt, but Sebastian couldn't blame that on Hunter.

And it wasn't as if Hunter was a bad person, or a horrible Captain. Well, maybe he was a rather horrible Captain, but Sebastian had too much experience with bad decisions made in an honest effort to do the right thing not to see his potential.

It was true Hunter was too strict and rigid with everyone, but he was with himself as well. He had a need to excel that bordered on unhealthy.

Sebastian knew there had to be more to Hunter than a simple need to overachieve. In his experience, students did not suddenly decide mid-semester to transfer to a school like Dalton without some sort of backstory. If he had showed up at the beginning of the year like every other new student, sure.

But mid-year transfers generally meant something had gone wrong somewhere else.

Of course, he could be reading too much into it. Maybe Hunter's family had simply had to move due to a job change or something.

But Sebastian doubted it.

Not the way Hunter was so tightly wound, like a spring that would explode at the slightest release of pressure.

So it wasn't that Sebastian didn't like Hunter.

He just wondered how he managed to focus on anything properly with that stick shoved so far up his posterior.

Because what did frustrate him to no end, was that Hunter refused to listen to him.

He knew Hunter had come from a military background. What he seemed to fail to realize, was the Warbler's were not troops. And they weren't preparing for battle.

It was a singing competition, for god's sake.

So when Hunter barked orders, and made decisions without consulting anyone, and got frustrated when they didn't seem to magically understand his choreography or song arrangements, Sebastian found himself scurrying around behind Hunter doing damage control.

He knew his constant barrage of insults and sarcasm was annoying Hunter, but at least it kept things lighter than they would have been had Sebastian allowed Hunter to just take over completely. And the Warblers were used to him by now. He didn't have to worry that Jeff would take offense at his well meaning teasing. Jeff was more than able to laugh at himself. And they were close enough that Jeff wouldn't take his words to heart the way he seemed to be taking Hunter's.

Now that did frustrate and anger him.

Jeff should have been the choreographer. Jeff had never let them down so far, and Jeff had a far better understanding of each of the boys, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they could best contribute to the numbers.

Hunter hadn't been there long enough to know anything, really. And had been too focused on winning to get to know anyone. But Hunter refused to delegate even a tiny bit of his authority to anyone. He was too much of a control freak for that.

So Sebastian ignored Hunter as much as possible and spent his free time settling Jeff down and quietly reassuring the other Warbler's behind Hunter's back that they were perfectly capable of winning, even in their current situation.

Sebastian knew things couldn't continue like this forever. He could only do so much. Particularly with Hunter undermining him constantly. And he suspected his attempts to help were putting him on Hunter's bad side.

It hadn't been intentional. He couldn't quite read Hunter. But he wasn't about to slink back into the closet because he suspected Hunter might not be thrilled his roommate wasn't straight. So if he increased his level of constant flirting and innuendo even more around Hunter, it was the boy's own fault for acting like Sebastian was doing anything wrong when he wasn't in the first place.

Right?

Still, Sebastian had to wonder if maybe he had overplayed matters at least a little. Hunter seemed to be of the opinion every time he left the room he was off hooking up with some other student.

Which kind of stung a little, actually. He didn't know where Hunter got the idea he was so easy. Yes, he liked to have a good time. But that didn't mean he went around screwing anything that moved. But if it meant Hunter would leave him alone, instead of questioning him and leaving him forced to either dodge the question or admit he was trying to keep the Warbler's together behind Hunter's back because his overbearing control was ultimately hurting them, then Sebastian would let him assume that he was that easy.

It didn't mean he liked it though.

Hunter had better settle in and relax soon. Sebastian wasn't exactly that good at keeping things together himself. It didn't escape him the irony of being the one trying to fix things instead of breaking them like he usually did.

But if Hunter didn't ease up soon, Sebastian didn't know how much longer it would be until it all fell apart.

Again.