Author's Note: If you're seeing this story for the first time, Should Be An Interesting Year is the Kurtbastian WIP I started in January of 2012 as ilovethesoundofviolins on this site (and cross-posted to Archiveofourown and Tumblr). It is canon up until the West Side Story performance episode in Season 3 and the rest drivels off into an AU until we meet Kurt again starting college. At the time I was watching Season 3 live so had decided to ignore some of the canon, but not all of it.
Back then I was working on graduating from college and the story was so much fun (and people drew me things!), but too large. Ended up taking me two years to almost-finish and then I graduated, and had to stop writing fanfiction at all pretty much. Lost track of even my own notes for the story at some point? It's all a blur lol. The point is, about a year ago I got curious as to whether or not anyone wanted to find the story again, and a few still did! I tracked down a pdf file of it from an old reader and realized I still kind of loved Glee and creating in its universe. And Kurt and Sebastian.
So, I'm attempting to rewrite/repolish all ~200,000 words of my old Kurtbastian romance. It's been five years, so I think the improvements in my editing and writing will allow me to pretty easily finish this thing (and add the short sequel I'd always wanted to!)
P.S. If you read this before, many things will be different about this SBAIY, mostly that I'm going pretty AU in this. Kurt and Finn are still stepbrothers as we know it, but for the purposes of this AU, Kurt has never met Rachel Berry. The plot will remain largely the same, but I may add another twist or two~
Ok, enough of me. Here's the thing, chapter by chapter as before. Updates will be approximately a week apart!
Kurt walked down the hall of his new, all-male dorm. It was early September and the move-in day of his first semester in college had finally come after a long, pleasant summer. Sure, so this place was no NYADA—it wasn't any college in New York and it was just an hour from home in fact—but Ohio State had a theater program, and Kurt planned on performing at his best no matter where he landed.
Plus, he thought as Burt and Finn followed behind, carrying boxes and talking of football, he was really happy to be getting a new start. He was nervous too; it was kind of scary, living on his own,fending for himself, starting his real life, but he couldn't help but feel excited as he dropped the box at his feet and slid the key card through the handle.
He couldn't help but feel like, after a senior year of losses, battles, and changing course, he'd finally made it to the next part of his life.
Kurt opened the door, however, picking up the box and taking it a few steps inside the double room, and found himself staring at the sight of his apparent new roommate. He knew this guy. Tall, slender dirty blonde dressed in a shirt so v-necked and fitted, you know he's gay. Leaning back in a desk chair legs propped on the desk, reading some kind of manual and a terribly distinguishable, mischievous smile painted across his snarky face. Directed at Kurt.
Sebastian Smythe. His new roommate for the Fall 2012 semester.
Sebastian was one person that Kurt certainly hoped he'd seen the last of last year, the heated lead Warbler who hardly took no for an answer when it came to stirring Kurt's anger, and trying to steal Kurt's boyfriend, among other things. This was who was going to be sharing this space with him, raining on his brand-new parade. Great.
"Kurt," Sebastian said. His voice was like liquid going down Kurt's back. "It's good to see you again."
Kurt was about to ask what kind of strings Sebastian pulled to manage this, how he found out—but Burt and Finn walked in, causing the tension in the room to break and settle, causing Kurt to resume his movement and drop the first box of many on the only spare bed in the room, pensively.
Burt looked over at Sebastian expectantly.
"You two know uh, each other?" he said then, to his son.
Kurt flushed at the question.
"We, uh," he stammered. Then, whispering, "He's, you know. That guy. With Blaine."
"Oh."
"Sebastian Smythe—" Sebastian cut off their whispering by suddenly appearing, tall and grand in their faces. He forwardly held a hand out to Burt. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hummel, I was a—friend of Blaine's, back at Dalton."
'Friend' is far from the correct terminology, Kurt thought. He watched their handshake, scowled internally at the meeting of those hands with his father's. Who knows where they'd been, from Grindr to the nearest bathroom stall, in the last day?
Burt nodded at Sebastian, and did that thing men do when appreciating the firmness of each other's handshakes. Kurt rolled his eyes.
"Did you two, uh," Burt said, flickering his eyes between his son and this taller boy, "go to school together, when Kurt was there?"
"Unfortunately, no," Sebastian replied, flashing his gaze over at a very tense-looking Kurt, "I transferred for my last year, but, of course, I heard all about him. Your son was quite the countertenor for the Warblers, and everyone knew that he and Blaine were very, very close."
As Burt asked some other surface-level questions about the Dalton show choir which then turned into football – come on, Dad, stop having 'bro' talk with the enemy, Kurt wanted to tell him – Finn raised a clueless eyebrow at the growing discussion, glancing over at his brother.
When the light bulb clicked on, Finn cupped a hand around his mouth.
"Wait a sec, this is that guy." He was recalling that day during one of their West Side Story rehearsals, when Kurt had finally realized and told Finn: there seemed to be some "competition" for Blaine.
"Yeah." Kurt nodded. "This is the guy."
"Y'know I could'a sworn they went all-league this year," Burt was saying to Sebastian now, on some other note. "But I'm no good with remembering stats anymore, not since the heart attack–Kurt?"
Kurt smiled and perked up at his father. He could feel Sebastian's stare was on him; he really didn't want it there.
"We still have a couple of trips to make," Burt said. "'xcuse us, Sebastian, we're runnin' a little short on time here—"
"No, it's no problem." Sebastian grinned.
"Of course, right," Kurt quipped, as Finn and Burt walked towards the door.
"I'll just—I'll be out to the car in a minute, Dad," Kurt attached, breathlessly. "I'd just like to say a little something to my good old best friend Sebastian here, if you don't mind." He clasped his hands colloquially, and Sebastian looked amused. "Roommate agreements, general catching up, what have you. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be quick."
Burt raised an eyebrow, gave him an amused, "Okay," Finn's eyes grew a bit wide; the two of them left the room.
Soon as the door shut, Kurt whipped his eyes back 'round toward Sebastian.
"Well if this isn't a fantastic 'welcome home' present than I don't know what is," Kurt said. Sebastian laughed.
"I meant it when I said that it's good to see you, Kurt," he said through his smirk, leaning against the post of his newly-claimed bed.
"Really," Kurt droned.
"Really," Sebastian repeated, giving him a small wink.
"And why would there be anything good about seeing me?" Kurt asked.
"You know how badly I get a kick out of watching you squirm," Sebastian returned, biting the inside of his cheek. "Living together, sharing close quarters with you and that steadfast gay can't possibly imagine my excitement."
"It's great to see that your leaky little brain still hasn't come up with any better insults for me than 'gay face'—"
"Ohio State?" Sebastian spoke again, rising and walking predatory levels of close to Kurt. "Guess your big New York dreams crashed and burned?"
"And what of yours? They didn't crash or burn," Kurt replied swiftly, turning up his nose. "They just changed. Change is a part of life."
"And Blaine?" Sebastian prompted.
"We're still together," Kurt fired back.
"Cute."
"It is."
"Your disillusionment with how tied you two are is adorable."
"And your jealousy of the fact that Blaine never wanted you is so pungent that I could smell it from the parking lot."
Sebastian chuckled. "Blaine is irrelevant."
"Yes, he is now, isn't he?" Kurt sang.
"Here's the thing," Sebastian said, squaring off with Kurt before him. "Apparently we're going to be spending a lot of time together—"
"As little as I can stand," Kurt cut in.
"I plan on having sex," Sebastian told him promisingly. "On the bed, on the floor, in the shower, and probably on top of that pretty little windowsill, right next to your bed—"
"Well it's a good thing STDs aren't transferable through air contact."
"I know that you're about as prude as they come, so I'm just letting you know now, that this is a warning. I'm not up for compromise."
"Do whatever, or whoever, you want," Kurt said with a haughty flick of his hand. "And when Blaine comes to stay the night I'll make sure to fill you in."
"Fine," Sebastian said. "Should be an interesting year, then."
"Enthralling," Kurt returned.
"Can't wait."
"Oh, neither can I."
And that was when Burt and Finn stepped in again, rapidly dissolving the tension. Carrying a full sized mirror, a foldable bookshelf, and several bags full of the contents of Kurt's armoire.
Kurt smiled and Sebastian moved away from his side, returning to the back half of the room and the chair he'd been fixed in before.
"Figure out some ground rules?" Burt asked, piling things on the bed, his back to the two of them.
"I think so," Sebastian said, nodding at Kurt from behind his book.
Kurt glared at him.
"Very much so."
"Good," Burt said, hands on his son's shoulders, walking him away from the fight. "So that means you can come back down, 'n help us get all of your things out from that trunk—"
Sebastian leveled his eyes at Kurt soundly, then once he was gone, smiled widely into the pages of his book.
This really was going to be an interesting year.