A/N: This is a fic inspired by a gifset I saw on Tumblr. It's a Dalton!AU Seblaine, although not much of Dalton is mentioned. Please note that this consists of Blangst, Sebastiangst, and Seblangst. If you enjoy this, please rec and review it. Also, I have a tumblr where I post my drabbles and fanart that are not available here. I'd be honored if you can follow me at "rykerstrom . tumblr . com". Thanks.

LOVE HURT

Blaine felt like he was under the water, drowning and unable to breath. The throng of people that kept rushing into Lima Bean was of no help either. He gripped the paper cup in his hands tightly, using it as some sort of anchor. The drink that he had ordered – a non-caffeinated drink for once – had long been consumed. But Blaine held onto the cup, he had to keep his hands busy or else he would go crazy.

Blaine really didn't want to do what he was about to do. This wasn't him at all. Blaine Anderson was not a cruel person, yet what he was about to do would probably be the cruelest thing he would ever have to do in his young life. But he had no choice, because sometimes in order to love someone, it was best to hurt them so that the other could move on.

Blaine just wished that at some point in the future, Sebastian would understand. Blaine took a deep breath as he tried to remember what he was going to say. He had rehearsed the words for days now, ever since his meeting with Sebastian's mother two weeks ago.

"You must be surprised to see me." A tall woman sat down before Blaine at the restaurant. "I'm Sebastian's mother."

There were definitely strong resemblances between Sebastian and his mother. They had the same brown hair, the same shade of blue-green eyes and the same facial structure. Blaine surmised that Sebastian most likely took more after his mother in appearance than his father.

"Mrs. Smythe, pleased to meet you." Blaine extended his hand. "I'm Bl—"

"Blaine Anderson, yes I know. This will be brief; I still have other places to be." The woman ignored Blaine's outstretched hand. "Let's talk conditions."

"Pardon me?"

"I know about you and my son. His father and I have no problems with his being gay, but I will not allow you to ruin his life." The woman leaned closer, her eyes looking much greener in this lighting. "I've always known you're a bad influence on him. It's a good thing I grounded him for coming home late last month and took away his phone privilege."

The mention of last month made Blaine's face burn. He knew which day Sebastian's mother's was referring to. It was his almost-first-night with Sebastian, something that didn't happen because they were both too nervous to follow through.

"I have to say, I didn't expect you two to last this long. One year is quite a feat for fifteen-year-olds." Sebastian's mother leaned back against her chair. "But I think now is the time for you to be an adult and do the right thing."

"What do you mean?" It was strange enough that Sebastian's mother contacted him out of the blue, but now the whole situation just seemed eerily out of place.

"Sebastian is a very gifted young man. He's got a great future ahead of him because he'll be the best in everything he puts his mind to." Sebastian's mother reached for her purse and took out a piece of paper. "But he can't do that if his mind is preoccupied."

Blaine knew by preoccupied she was referring to him. It would seem that Sebastian's parents had deemed Blaine to be an unhealthy distraction for their son. The unfairness of the assessment made Blaine curled his fingers into fists in anger.

"Sebastian's been accepted at the most prestigious prep school overseas, his future is almost guaranteed." The woman eyed Blaine condescendingly. "Allow me to inform you that Sebastian's going to attend the best university in the world, which will promise him a great career and future. But he can't do that if he stays in a school like Dalton for a boy like you."

"To be fair, Mrs. Smythe," Blaine gritted his teeth as he tried to keep his temper in check. "I can't make Sebastian decide what he wants to do with his life."

"Of course you can't." Adeline waved her hand dismissively. "But Sebastian will never be able to dedicate to his studies if his mind is always on you."

"We love each other!" Blaine knew how childish it sounded. Sebastian's mother was right in saying that they were very young, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't last. "I—I—"

"You're far too young to know about love." The woman tilted her head up in disdain. "You seem like a bright young man. Why don't you think about this for a moment? How will Sebastian feel if he sacrifices his future for this relationship and it doesn't work out? Tell me, Blaine. How often have you seen a high school relationship last?"

"I—"

"You said you loved him, didn't you? If you love a person, wouldn't you want the best for them?" Sebastian's mother pressed on. "Do you love Sebastian enough to sacrifice your love for him so that he can live a happy life? This impacts Sebastian's future. I'm sure you know that."

Blaine closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew Sebastian's mother was right. Both Sebastian and he were still too young to be making decisions about the rest of their lives. Blaine knew how important Sebastian's parents were to Sebastian, just as he knew that Sebastian was probably the smartest person Blaine had ever met. To hold Sebastian back would be doing Sebastian a big disservice.

"What do you want me to do?" Blaine felt as though his heart was being torn out as he said those words, knowing fully well that whatever he set out to do would most likely have serious repercussion for their relationship.

"Break up with my son. I don't care how you do it; just make sure it's a clean break." The woman took a sip of her wine and slid the piece of paper to Blaine. "You have two weeks. In return, you can cash this check and do with it however you see fit."

"I—I can't just—" The thought of breaking up with Sebastian was too much for Blaine. To make this a clean break, it would mean that Blaine had to find a way to hurt Sebastian.

"If you love him, you'll do what's best for him. Do the responsible thing, Blaine Anderson."

Blaine knew the woman was waiting for his answer. From where he was sitting, Blaine could see the figures written on the check. It was a hefty amount, enough to pay for the remainder of his tuition at Dalton.

"I'll do it."

"Then it's settled." Sebastian's mother's lips twitched up in a smirk. It was strange how while Blaine loved it on Sebastian, he absolutely hated it on this woman.

"Wait, you can have this back." Blaine put his hand over the check and pushed it back toward its owner. "I'm not for sale."

"Fine. This is another reason why you're not fit for my son." There was a smile playing on the woman's face, but it held no warmth. "You'll learn as you grow up that you should always take advantage of something that's freely given to you. We're done here. Remember, you have two weeks."

It had been exactly two weeks since Blaine met with Sebastian's mother. He was quite certain that the past two weeks had been the worst weeks of his life. It was difficult to be with Sebastian and pretend that everything was fine. But Blaine knew that he had no choice, because he had to play everything just right for this to work.

"Hey babe, sorry I'm late." Sebastian gave Blaine a quick peck on his cheek before sitting down across from him. "Do you want another coffee? I'm about to get mine."

"No, no coffee." Blaine forced out a smile. He prayed that he could pull this off.

"Really? Blaine Anderson doesn't want caffeine?" Sebastian had an amused smile on his face. "Don't tell me you've turned Catholic and this is your way of getting through Lent."

"Sebastian …"

"Or …" Sebastian leaned in conspiratorially. "Are you trying to atone for our sins last night?"

Blaine could feel that familiar heat creeping up from the back of his neck to his face. Now was not the time to be thinking about last night.

"Listen," Blaine took a deep breath. It was now or never. "We need to talk."

"Sure, we can talk after I get my caffeine fix." Sebastian shrugged as he dug for his wallet.

"No, I mean we need to talk, now." The paper cup finally gave in and crushed under Blaine's grip.

"Blaine, are you okay?" Sebastian eyed the crushed paper cup.

"I'm breaking up with you." Blaine bit his lip as soon as the words slipped out. This was not how he had planned it. It wasn't supposed to be this abrupt.

"What—" Sebastian blinked at the words. "I think I misheard you, because I swear you just said you want to break up."

"That was what I said. I think we should break up." It was a little easier to say this the second time around, but Blaine knew the painful part had yet to come.

"If this is a joke, it's not funny."

"It's not a joke." Blaine readied himself as he launched into his rehearsed speech. "I mean, look at us. We're not even adults. We're a bit too young to be exclusive, don't you think?"

"What the hell are you on, Blaine?" Blaine knew that Sebastian was getting angry when he started to swear. "I thought you said you loved me. You've been saying it for months. Hell, you said you loved me last night!"

Blaine wanted to push away the memories of last night from his mind, but he couldn't.

Fingers gliding over heated skin, wet kisses being placed everywhere that could be reached. Blaine dove forward and ghosted his lips over Sebastian's throat before biting down lightly, searing marks that would surely be visible the next day.

Sebastian was beautiful like this, with his neck stretched taut and his lips parting in a slight gasp as Blaine marked him. Blaine interlaced his fingers with Sebastian's as he tried to get closer. Placing his other hand next to Sebastian's head to use as leverage, Blaine raised himself up as far as he could go before dropping down onto Sebastian again, feeling Sebastian's cock inside of him, stretching and filling him.

Blaine had always wondered why people made such a big deal out of sex, but at that moment, he finally understood. It wasn't the very act of sex itself; it was the fact that he was sharing this part of him with someone he loved, with someone who also loved him back. It was surreal how the two of them fitted together so well, how they seemed to know what made each other feel good. Whatever awkwardness that they had experienced at their initial fumbling and uncertain touches had dissipated quickly; and when the moment came for them to consummate their relationship, Blaine knew without a doubt that Sebastian was the love of his life.

And that to love someone was to love them unconditionally; even if it meant letting them go.

"What I said before about love, it—it didn't mean anything." Blaine hated himself for saying these words. These words were lies, and he wanted nothing more than to take back everything that he had already said, but he couldn't.

"It didn't mean anything?" There was a tremor in Sebastian's voice. "And what about last night?"

Blaine clenched his jaws tightly as he tried to regain his composure and keep his voice steady. "Nothing happened last night."

"Nothing? Really, Blaine. You're just going to deny that nothing happened last night? I'm sure you can still feel it!" Sebastian looked as though he had been punched in the guts. He shifted his glance away for a moment, something that Sebastian tended to do when he was trying to compose himself. Blaine could see the way Sebastian's jaw and neck muscles tensed up as he did so. "You're really a nasty piece of work, Blaine Anderson."

Those words stung. The fact that none of these were true only made everything hurt worse.

"I never promised you that we're going to stay together forever." Those words sounded hollow to Blaine's ears, but he hoped that he was putting up a convincing act. Blaine had to make sure that Sebastian gave up on them completely, so that there would be no attachments when he went overseas. "If you think that this high school romance means we're going to get married then you need to seriously grow up."

"So this is just all one big joke to you?" Sebastian narrowed his eyes in anger. "You were dicking around with me this whole time?"

"I don't know what you're expecting out of all this. We had fun, we learned a lot of things together, it's not entire bad, don't you think?" Blaine wished that their positions were reversed, and that it was Sebastian who was breaking up with him. "At least now we both know what we should be doing if the occasions come up again in the future with other people."

"I never knew you're that kind of person. You're a liar and a user, Blaine Anderson." Sebastian seethed as he gathered up his things. "Well, congratu-fucking-lations! I'm out! Have fun getting fucked by other people and I hope you get what's coming to you!"

Blaine remained where he was as Sebastian left their table, fighting for the urge to run after Sebastian. Every cell in Blaine's body was screaming for him to stop Sebastian, to tell Sebastian that he didn't mean any word that he said, and that they could work through everything together; but Blaine did nothing. He did nothing except keeping his eyes focused on the crumbled cup before him.

Blaine flinched when Sebastian front door slammed behind him just a bit too hard, causing the glass to rattle. And while the shop patrons carried on around him as though nothing had happened, Blaine could feel his vision slowly going out of focus. At that moment, Blaine knew that Sebastian was out of his life, possibly forever. As the tears started to fall, Blaine found that he had learned more thing about love.

Love hurt.

(END)

Addendum: In case anyone's interested, I just want to add that in this particular universe, Blaine's breaking up with Sebastian ended up being the reason that Sebastian refused to do relationships anymore. To make a clean break, Blaine realized that he had to sleep with Sebastian and then break up with him to make it hurt more, even though in reality, he really did love Sebastian and if the whole thing with Sebastian's mother hadn't happened, Blaine still would've slept with Sebastian anyway. It's just that in this particular case, the reason behind sleeping with Sebastian had become tainted. Timeline-wise, after this incident, Sebastian went overseas to attend the prep school that his parents wanted him to attend because he couldn't stand to be in the same school with the boy who allegedly broke his heart.