A/N: Written for the Hummel Holidays prompt 'sleighs/sledding'. AU where Kurt and Sebastian are high school boyfriends, with Kurt attending McKinley and Sebastian attending Dalton. Warning for anxiety and mention of an injury that includes a broken leg (nothing graphic).
Click…
The slight tap against Kurt's window causes him to flinch in his sleep, but is far from enough to wake him entirely, not at three in the morning, and not after a twelve hour mandatory play rehearsal.
Click-click…
This time, Kurt opens his left eye a slit, but he only has the energy to groan, "Go…away…"
Click-click-clack-click-clack…
Something hard pelts Kurt's window. His eyes pop open.
"Fuck! Fuck fucking kids," he mumbles, turning over in his bed, preparing to hide under his pillow, but then he hears it.
"Kurt! Psst! (Click-clack-click) Kurt! (Click) Come to the window, Kurt! (Click-click-click)"
"Grrr!" Kurt groans louder, pounding his pillow with his fists. "Goddamn fucking boyfriend!"
"Kurt!" Sebastian whisper-yells, hands cupped over his mouth as if Kurt can't hear him clear as a bell through the still quiet of the early morning. By the flickering of lights in a few other windows that Kurt sees when he approaches his, he knows that his neighbors can hear Sebastian, too.
"What is it?" Kurt's already growling before his window's even open.
Kurt spots Sebastian standing below his window, a handful of pebbles in his left hand, waiting for their turn to be tossed.
"Get dressed and come out here," Sebastian says, waving Kurt down. "I want to show you something."
"No," Kurt says, closing his window.
"Kurt!" Sebastian whines.
"No," Kurt repeats.
"Kurt, I didn't want to have to do this" – Sebastian smiles in a way that tells Kurt he totally wants to do this – "but if you don't come down here this instant, I am fully prepared to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight off-key at the top of my lungs until you come outside."
"Then I'll call the police," Kurt reasons, confident that he's won this argument.
"You could," Sebastian agrees, "but the streets are icy, visibility's low. They probably won't get here in time to stop me before every single neighbor you have comes to their window and sees me singing like a drunken sailor…in front of your house."
"Shit," Kurt spits. Sebastian would do that. That's all Kurt needs, his neighbors rioting because of the stupidity of his dickhead boyfriend. Kurt tries to come up with a comeback, an argument that will defeat Sebastian's threat, but he can't.
"Fine. I'll be right there," Kurt grumbles, closing his window and locking it at the sill. "I was asleep, you asshole. Happily asleep," he mutters while he puts on his sweater, his jeans, and his boots. "Completely asleep," he grouses as he throws on a coat and gloves, and heads downstairs. "I don't know what in the flippin' hell he thinks he's…"
Kurt steps outside his front door, greeted by a sharp wind and a flurry of snow. It had started snowing when he left the April Rhodes Auditorium for home, but it seems to have gotten stronger, mounds of it piled all around, covering bushes and fire hydrants, making the streets, the sidewalks, and the lawns crystal white. Kurt always loved the neighborhood after a snowfall, how it made everything clean and fresh and new. Ahead of him, in front of his cherry red Mustang covered in a thin sheen of white, stands Sebastian, something green and plastic propped underneath his arm.
"What is that?" Kurt asks, eying the thing up and down.
"It's a toboggan," Sebastian says proudly.
"That's not a toboggan," Kurt argues, looking at the flimsy, ancient contraption that Sebastian's passing off as a sled. "It looks like a broken piece off of someone's awning."
"I've had it since I was six," Sebastian says in its defense.
"And you never thought to buy a new one?" Kurt asks, covering a yawn behind his hand.
"Don't need to." Sebastian looks down at the scuffed, hard plastic. "This one's always worked like a dream. And besides, they don't make them like this anymore."
"Well then, let me be the first to apologize to the toboggan fandom," Kurt says, another yawn propelling him further awake. "But why did you drive all the way out here with a toboggan anyway?" Kurt looks from Sebastian, to his toboggan, and raises an eyebrow. "Is this some kind of kinky booty call? Because I'm not having sex with you on that thing, if that's what you're thinking."
Sebastian rolls his eyes.
"No," he says. "It's just…come with me and I'll explain." Sebastian picks up his sled and walks towards Kurt's house, grabbing his boyfriend's hand on the way and pulling him along when it's not guaranteed that he'll follow. "After you called me from play practice," he starts, "I noticed the snow falling, how it was getting harder and harder, and I knew that it would probably pile up enough to go sledding."
"Okay…" Kurt watches Sebastian leave his toboggan in the snow and head for his father's utility shed.
"On nights like this, my folks would wake us up at all hours, and we'd break out the toboggans and hit the hills on our property." Sebastian opens the shed door but doesn't go inside, finding what he needs right at the front – a telescoping extension ladder. He brings it back to where Kurt stands and sets it up against the house. "I used to love those nights."
"It does sound like fun," Kurt agrees, "but I still don't know what that has to do with…"
"I got to thinking," Sebastian cuts in, "that it would be great if you could do it with us, but you live so fucking far away." He grabs the toboggan in one hand, holding it over his shoulder by its rope handle, and leads the way up the ladder, a still tired and confused Kurt trailing behind. "I mean, we make this relationship work with texts and phone calls and Skype sex, and we're together for the big things like birthdays and holidays and choir competitions, but these little, spontaneous, off-the-cuff things…we don't get to share too many of those."
"Oh, Sebastian," Kurt sighs, surprised that his boyfriend, who never really seemed to care about the romantic details the way Kurt does, would feel like this. Apparently, he did, just in a different way than Kurt. "I never realized that…uh…what are you doing?"
Kurt's swell of emotion over his boyfriend's confession pales in comparison to the fact that they are standing on top of Kurt's roof, Sebastian setting up his toboggan on the edge before the incline so he can climb on board.
"I pictured this in my head, and it turns out I was right," Sebastian says, almost gleeful. "See, you've got this wide, flat ridge that's a perfect staging area, and the snow in your front yard should be deep enough to catch us when we ride off."
"Ride…off?" Kurt moves to take a step back, but stops when he realizes there's nothing behind him to step on.
"Yeah" - Sebastian chuckles with excitement - "it's going to be awesome!"
"Are you kidding me?" Kurt yells, and another light in another window flicks on.
"No, I'm not kidding. It's going to be excellent."
"You're insane!" Kurt looks behind him, trying to figure out how difficult it would be to climb back down to the ladder, but the incline on the rear side of the house is steeper than the front. He's not sure he can make it without slipping and breaking his neck.
"Do you trust me?" Sebastian asks, holding out his hand.
"Not in the slightest," Kurt answers, shaking his head.
"Then why did you follow me up here?"
"Because I'm sleep deprived, and therefore prone to bad decisions."
"Well, as long as you're here, make another one."
Kurt looks at Sebastian, sitting on his toboggan poised precariously on the roof, then at Sebastian's hand, extended out to him. But mostly, Kurt focuses on the smile on Sebastian's face, so genuine, carefree and happy. Kurt comes to the conclusion that this isn't his boyfriend. Sebastian doesn't do things like this. He always says that cutesy, sappy displays of affection are annoying and unnecessary. This, whatever this is, may never come around again, so Kurt decides he should take advantage of it.
Besides, Kurt doesn't know how he's going to get off this roof without Sebastian's help. If Kurt turns down this adventure, Sebastian will likely leave him up on the roof and toboggan away.
"I know I'm going to regret this." Kurt takes Sebastian's hand. Sebastian braces the toboggan with his feet flat on the roof as Kurt starts climbing on behind him, the stiff plastic teeter-tottering between Sebastian's legs.
"Easy, sweetheart," Sebastian says. "You're going to hit something important."
"I can't believe that you're thinking of your genitals at a time like this," Kurt says in a shaky voice.
"I'm always thinking about my genitals," Sebastian laughs, watching a frightened and stiff Kurt fight hard to keep his balance. "They're kind of important."
Kurt can't seem to slide his foot off the toboggan seat to stand astride the thing and sit down. He's scared out of his mind. He can't get his locked knees to bend. He can't make himself crouch down. Wind whips past his head, not too strong, but it feels like it's doing its best to shove him over.
"Come on, Kurt," Sebastian chides, tugging on Kurt's hand. "Today."
"I'm trying!" Kurt snaps. "This isn't as easy as it looks."
"I did it."
"Yeah, but you don't seem to possess the same common sense that intelligent people do."
"Just…sit your ass down, Einstein!"
Fueled by frustration and an intense need to shut Sebastian up, Kurt lifts his foot and places it over the toboggan, onto the roof. He hits a patch of ice and slips, landing on his tailbone on the hard plastic. The front flies up, lifting Sebastian into the air.
"Kurt!" he screams. "You…"
He doesn't get the chance to finish. The toboggan lurches, weight off kilter, and speeds backward down the steeper incline, both boys zooming down the roof off the back of the house instead of the front.
"Sebastian!" Kurt claws at Sebastian's shoulders in terror, twisting halfway around so he can see death as it barrels towards them at record speed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sebastian screams. He digs his heels into the roof, unable to find purchase on the tar and shingles covered in a thick layer of ice beneath the snow. He grabs at the rope and yanks hard, trying to spin the toboggan around, but it's too late. The toboggan jettisons off the roof, flips over once, and all three land in a sizeable snow bank, a foot shy of the retaining wall.
"Kurt!" Sebastian screams, kicking the toboggan aside and rolling off the flattened body of his boyfriend, moaning in pain underneath him. "Kurt! Oh my God! Are you alright!"
Kurt, eyes closed, head buried in the snow to his ears, moans louder.
"Kurt?" Sebastian digs around Kurt's head with careful fingers, feeling around underneath Kurt's skull, and then his body, to see what he landed on, to make sure he didn't impale himself of a gardening tool or some part of the herb garden fence. Sebastian tries to picture Kurt's backyard in his mind, and from what he can remember, and what his hands can feel, there's nothing underneath Kurt but snow and ground, but mostly snow. "Kurt, open your eyes," Sebastian commands, pulling his key fob out of his pocket, a small flashlight hanging from its silver ring. "Open your eyes, Kurt. I need to see your eyes."
Kurt's eyelids flutter open, and Sebastian immediately shines a light in them, checking for reactivity in Kurt's pupils.
"Oh, God," Kurt groans, turning his head away. "Stop that. Haven't you done enough?"
"Well, your eyes look good," Sebastian sighs with relief.
"Fuck you," Kurt mumbles. "My eyes are gorgeous."
"How do you feel?" Sebastian asks, chuckling at Kurt's sass.
"How do I feel?" Kurt repeats. "I feel like I fell off my roof and got crushed by a 190 pound moron, that's how I feel."
"Hey, I'm only 185."
"Again, fuck you."
Sebastian looks up at the roof they just came from, and then down at his boyfriend lying in the snow.
"Wow. I really saw that going differently."
"Good to know that you didn't intentionally try to cripple me," Kurt mutters.
"Will you forgive me if you never walk again?"
"Not on your life" - Kurt chuckles darkly - "but you're rich and you're hot, so we'll work something out."
Sebastian shakes his head. "I love you."
Kurt's eyebrows rise up his forehead.
"Really?"
"Yeah," Sebastian says, smile dropping, suddenly uncomfortable. "What? Why is that so hard to believe?"
"Well, this is the first time you've said it," Kurt says, goofy grin lifting his lips.
"That can't be true," Sebastian remarks, more relaxed the wider Kurt's smile becomes.
"It is."
"Well, you haven't said it either," Sebastian argues.
"That's because I was waiting for you."
"Oh." Sebastian hadn't thought of it that way, didn't consider that all the times he waited, all the times he called himself stupid for loving someone who obviously didn't love him back. "Well, I'm going to say it again."
"Okay."
"Kurt" – Sebastian brushes a lock of hair off Kurt's forehead – "I love you."
"I love you, too," Kurt says. He leans up to give Sebastian a kiss, but then stops, his face twisting. "Sebastian?"
"Yes, Kurt?" Sebastian asks, still moving forward for a kiss.
"I think you broke my leg."
Sebastian stops, lips puckered. He looks at Kurt's legs, the right one bent slightly at sort of a strange angle, and hisses in sympathy.
"I think I broke your leg, too," he agrees. "Is your dad home?"
"No." Kurt shifts in the snow, but he can't do it, several individual sprays of stinging pain shooting up his shin from his ankle to his knee. He tries not to panic, but thankfully, his leg's too numb from the cold for him to feel any real pain. "He's in D.C. for the weekend."
"And your stepmom?"
"She went with him," Kurt says through teeth clenched.
"Great," Sebastian says, forcing an eye roll. "I guess you're expecting me to get you to the hospital then?"
Kurt stares at Sebastian, incredulous and straight-faced. "That would be nice."
Sebastian thinks quickly how best to get Kurt to his Mustang, considering lifting Kurt on to his toboggan and dragging him there, but decides that moving him might be a bad idea.
"I'm going to call 9-1-1," Sebastian says, digging in his pocket for his phone.
"Good idea."
"So, bearing in mind the possible broken tibia, do you still love me?" Sebastian asks, pausing mid-dial to wait for Kurt's answer.
Kurt tries to shake his head in disbelief, wincing with the first movement.
"Get me to the hospital in one piece, Smythe, then we'll talk."