Sebastian clasped his hand over Blaine's mouth as he shoved him back against the wall. The latter struggled slightly, his eyes narrowing in confusion as he resisted the urge to bite into the hand covering his mouth. Sebastian huffed in annoyance and shoved Blaine again, this time harder. It was at that second that the bedroom door swung open. Both boys froze instantly.
Blaine shut his eyes tightly as fear swept over him. He tried to control his rapidly beating heart; the citizens of Canada would be able to hear it at this pace. His efforts were all in vain though, since the more he tried to slow it down, the more it would retaliate and do the exact opposite. And it certainly didn't help that Sebastian's warm body was so far pressed into his own, he could no longer tell where one began and the other ended. Blaine felt a steady rhythm playing against his chest and mentally glared at the taller boy for being better at controlling his fear.
"Do you see anything?" One of the voices asked.
"Would you be quiet and give me a second?" The other snapped.
"Get ready to run," Sebastian whispered softly. So soft in fact, that it took Blaine an additional two seconds to figure out what he had said.
Blinking, he replied with, "What?"
"Me distract, you find 5-0." Sebastian's breath tickled his neck.
At first Blaine thought that the Warbler was mocking him, but then suddenly realized that he was saving his words. Only speaking the ones that were necessary, in case the intruders heard him. Blaine shook his head. "No."
Sebastian growled in his ear. "Blaine..."
"Not leaving you."
"Both need not die." He responded. Now he was definitely mocking him.
"You need not be martyr, asshole." Blaine almost hissed. He couldn't believe that Sebastian expected him to turn his back and walk out the door, ignoring the fact that the latter could get seriously injured if not worse. What was even more surprising was that Sebastian would do something so selfless...and stupid.
"What was that?" The higher of the two voices asked. The boys tensed up.
"What was what?"
"That noise. It sounded like...I don't know. But it was definitely suspicious."
"You really ought to stop watching those Law and Order marathons." He mumbled.
"I'm telling you there is someone in this house. Beside us, I mean."
"Whatever." The skeptical one rolled his eyes and exited the room. The other remained paranoid, casting suspicious glances at all corners of the room. That is, all but one. The boys were hiding in the corner that was located directly behind the bedroom door. The wall arched, leaving a barely noticeable dent in the wall.
After another minute or so, the second intruder gave up and evacuated the room also, but made very sure to keep the door open just in case.
Blaine breathed out in relief when he was certain they were now successfully out of earshot. "What do we do now?" He whispered.
"We wait."
He nodded and pushed Sebastian off of him. For reasons unknown to him, he suddenly felt angry. And that anger was directed at his taller peer, who was eyeing him in what could have been confusion, annoyance, or both.
Blaine knew that none of this was technically Sebastian's fault, but it bothered him immensely that the latter had been so willing to pointlessly sacrifice himself. A sacrifice that would have served absolutely no purpose, except maybe to break the heart of his father.
Sebastian, who was completely oblivious to the back-and-forth thoughts swimming around the mind of the McKinley student, stepped forward yet again to close the distance between the two of them. Blaine wasted no time in shoving him away. Also again.
"What the fuck is your problem?" Sebastian asked, "If I don't move forward, they are going to see me, dumbass. So would you please cut it out already?"
Blaine eyed him angrily, saying nothing. The Warbler took this as a surrender and repeated his previous action of pushing the shorter teen against the wall in an attempt to make the two of them as small as physically possible. Blaine did not push him away, but instead turned his head to the side so that he would no longer have to look Sebastian in the eye.
Sebastian noticed this and it pissed him off. He had no idea what had suddenly gotten into Blaine, but he didn't like it. "Cut it out."
"I'm not doing anything."
"Yes, you are."
"Oh really? Then tell me, what exactly am I doing that bothers you so damn much?"
The two bickered back and forth, but took extra care to not speak anything above a barely-audible whisper.
"Bite me."
Blaine chuckled humorlessly at Sebastian's obvious irritable state. "Would you just shut up and stand still already? You are going to make them hear us."
"Says the one is clearly incapable of whispering!"
"I said shut up!"
The footsteps in the hallway returned and no one had to tell them to be quiet. Since they couldn't see what was happening, they were forced to guess. To them it seemed like the man was just standing there, waiting to hear something that would give their location away. Without even noticing that they were doing it, both teens stopped breathing at the exact same moment.
Minutes passed and still the man remained standing just outside the door. Just when it seemed like he was inevitably going to re-enter the room, they heard shuffling and someone descending the staircase.
"There are three. Where are the other two?" Blaine wondered.
"Do I look like I know?"
Blaine rolled his eyes. "Next time someone asks me who I would take with me to a deserted island, I'll make extra clear to point out that it wouldn't be you. You are beyond useless."
"Oh, like you're one to talk."
"I would like to remind you that it was me who snuck back into my room and called the cops while you waited here and silently prayed that they would kill me." Blaine mumbled.
"If I really wanted them to kill you, trust me, I would not be praying silently."
"Asshole."
"Hobbit."
"Twink."
"Jackass."
"Douchebag."
"Moron."
"Brat."
"Faggot." It slipped out of Sebastian's mouth before he could even register what he was saying, but he could tell by Blaine's sudden intake of breath that it had been the wrong thing. They both went silent again and Blaine tried desperately to squeeze himself through the wall behind him in a futile attempt to get away from Sebastian.
Loud noises could be heard from downstairs, but there wasn't much they could do but ignore it.
"Have you considered that maybe it's in the kid's room?" The voice appeared so suddenly that Blaine almost jumped.
"We already checked it out, remember? There was nothing useful in there."
"Do what you want, but I'm going to double check."
"You do that."Another pair of footsteps descended the stairs. Two down, one to go, Sebastian thought.
"You might have them fooled, but I know better. You may as well just come out now and save me the trouble; I'm going to find you anyway." The man announced with a cruel smile.
Blaine's throat involuntarily made a sound and that was it. It didn't take the intruder a moment to find them and grab Sebastian's shoulder, throwing him backwards onto the floor. Before he even took a step towards Blaine, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Up here! We have some company!"
Blaine took the man's momentary distraction into account and delivered a punch to his jaw. He staggered slightly, but was otherwise seemingly unharmed. The man turned back to Blaine with a vehement glare and moved to grab him, but Sebastian grabbed onto his legs first, sending him tumbling to the floor.
Just then the other two intruders showed up and, as if the three of them had a psychic connection, grabbed Blaine by the hem of his shirt and dragged him over to the other side of the room. Blaine struggled and attempted to fight them, but not only were they bigger and taller, but they had obvious fight training under their belts.
Meanwhile, Sebastian and Intruder #1 were wrestling on the floor, too evenly matched to inflict any kind of real injuries.
Blaine, however, was not so lucky. Intruder #2 had him pinned up against the wall, whilst Intruder #3 used every trick known to him to inflict as much pain as possible upon the helpless teen. He used his elbow to strike Blaine's jaw and used the boy's scream as encouragement to land another blow to the gut. He waited until Blaine looked like he was barely conscious before he pulled out his pocket knife. Blaine's eyes widened and his struggling became desperate.
Intruder #3 grinned maliciously as he slid the cold metallic blade against the surface of Blaine's neck, barely breaking skin. The teen whimpered and thrashed in the strong arms of Intruder #2, who didn't even seem to notice.
"You really chose a crappy night to be home, kid." He traced his previous cut with the knife, this time applying more pressure. Blaine screamed as the blood stained his shirt.
Sebastian lifted his head at the sound of the scream, and thus lost the edge in his own fight. Intruder #1 grabbed him from behind in a rear-naked choke, barely managing to wrap his legs around Sebastian's waist, therefore securing the position. The Warbler thrashed and squirmed with all of his might, and although he did a good enough job of preventing the blood-choke from being effective, it wasn't quite enough to release himself from the grip.
Sebastian was on the verge of tears. He could hear the cries of pain being emitted by Blaine, but since the intruders were obscuring his view of the boy, there was no way for him to see what they were doing to him. "Stop it! Please! Just leave him alone!" He found himself yelling.
The Universe heard his plea and came to his rescue. The sudden arrival of a police siren caused all three men to curse simultaneously and let go of their respective teens. Sebastian choked and gagged, his throat burning from the extended constriction. He was vaguely aware of the intruders fleeing the room, but was more concerned with getting to Blaine. He crawled over to the motionless body in the opposite side of the room and gasped when he saw that barely any features were visible beneath the blood that covered his face.
"Blaine? Blaine, talk to me. Blaine!" Sebastian shook his shoulders violently. Nothing. "Help! Would somebody please just come help me!?" He was freaking out on the inside (and the outside) and was on the verge of having a panic attack. He couldn't understand why the police weren't coming to help him; they'd been here a minute ago.
"He is going to die! Someone better fucking help him!" Sebastian demanded, raising his voice to its maximum capacity. He pushed himself up off the floor and left the room, ignoring the feeling of wanting to pass out. He searched the rooms and then the hallway, but found nothing. He heaved a sigh and ventured downstairs. It was quiet; absolutely no sounds could be heard beside the loud thumps of his heart. Peering outside the windows, he noticed that there was no police car in sight. What the hell? Sebastian wondered.
Realizing that no one was on their way to help, he ran back upstairs and retrieved the first-aid kit from his father's bedroom. Sebastian forced himself to remain calm, mentally reprimanding himself for wanting to puke when he was once again exposed to Blaine's bloody face. He ran back down to the kitchen and grabbed a jug, filled it with warm water, and located a cloth before rushing to his bedroom.
Blaine mumbled as Sebastian lowered the wet cloth onto his face, doing his best to wipe away all the blood that prevented him from identifying the actual wounds. After all the blood was finally gone, Sebastian realized that the extent of the injuries were not as bad as he had originally feared. He gave a silent thank you to anyone who might have been listening as he disinfected the incisions.
Blaine mumbled again and Sebastian figured that the disinfectant was probably burning him. Ten minutes, three plasters, and four bandages later, the taller teen was content that Blaine wasn't actually in any danger of dying like he had originally predicted. His features were perfectly visible and the only traces of remaining blood was located on their clothes, or as spots on the floor.
Sebastian was suddenly overcome with fatigue. His eyelids threatened to close and the effort of keeping them open felt like most difficult thing on earth. But there was no way he could sleep now. Not when those men could still be out there somewhere. Not when the police didn't give a crap whether or not the two of them were still breathing. Not when Blaine was hurt, and it was all his fault.
He briefly wondered if he could have a concussion, but quickly dismissed that thought, since he couldn't remember sustaining an injury to the head. Sebastian's worn out limbs and mind quickly got the better of him as he felt his body sag into a lying position on the floor. Using his right arm as a pillow, he extended his left hand until it was resting on Blaine's abdomen. It soothed the paranoia in his mind to know that Blaine was nothing more than half an arm's length away. If someone tried to hurt him again, then Sebastian would be right there to stop them.
"I'm sorry," Sebastian whispered as consciousness threatened to leave him, "You should never...never have been involved in this. They-they weren't here for you. I'm sorry that they hurt you."
Blaine remained motionless with absolutely no signs to indicate that he had heard a word of what the other boy had said. Sebastian's last memorable thought was My dad is going to kill me.
~4~
"Blaine!" Sebastian exclaimed as he awoke from his nightmare. Looking to his left, he noticed that the aforementioned teen was nowhere to be found. Rubbing his temples, Sebastian got up off the floor and squinted against the light of the sun streaming through the windows. It took a few moments for the memories of the previous night to seep in. The blood drained from his face as he exited the room in search of Blaine.
"Blaine? Where are you?" Sebastian all but yelled. Fear was clouding his judgement, making him believe that the men from the previous night had returned. They came back and took him, he thought in momentary panic.
"I'm down here." The voice came from the living room. Sebastian rushed downstairs and found Blaine sitting on a small sofa and hugging himself. He purposely avoided meeting the former's gaze.
Sebastian resisted the urge to grimace when he noticed the fresh scars across Blaine's face. They weren't hideous or disconfiguring, but they were painfully noticeable in the eyes of the current beholder. "Are-are you okay?" He asked hesitantly.
"Peachy." Blaine mumbled, still not looking up.
"How long have you been down here?"
"I don't remember."
"Do you want me to call your parents?" Sebastian offered.
At these words, Blaine's eyes increased in brightness and he buried his face in his arm, shaking his head slightly. "No. They'd want to come back. I can't do that to them."
"They're your parents. They need to know." He insisted, taking a seat next to his peer.
"Says the guy who treats his father like crap. Stay out of it."
"I'm just trying to help." Sebastian said defensively.
"I don't want your help. You're a mean jerk who calls people offensive things and then let's them get attacked by even meaner people." In that moment, Blaine reminded Sebastian of a little boy. A little boy who was scared and had no one to turn to.
"I tried to stop them, I swear! But I-the second I let my focus slip, the other guy started choking me. I could barely breathe, never mind get to you. I'm sorry, Blaine." He replied earnestly.
"No, you're not. You hate me. Why should you care what happens to me?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I don't hate you."
"Oh really? Last I checked people didn't use the term 'fag' to describe someone they're particularly fond of, but you know, maybe that's just me." Blaine sounded tired and sad. Sebastian felt like crap,
"I didn't mean that. I was just scared and angry, but not at you," He explained.
Blaine said nothing.
"Do you think we should try calling the police again?" Sebastian decided to change the subject.
"I don't know. But I'm not going to stay here another night. I'm going home." He said softly.
"You-you can't do that."
"Watch me." Blaine mumbled, his voice neutral.
"You'd leave me here alone?" Sebastian blinked.
Blaine looked up at him for the first time that morning. Different emotions flashed across his features, causing his eyes to acquire an intensity that made it hard for the Warbler to not look away. Blaine sighed. "I assumed that you were going to call your father and ask him to come back."
"I can't do that. He'd be really disappointed in me."
"Actually, he wouldn't, and I don't see why you'd even care, but I'm not going to have this argument with you. Look, you might be the world's biggest jerk, but I can't leave you here on your own. Stay with me in my house until Mr. Smythe gets back. If you don't want to, well, I tried."
Sebastian frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"And why not? Would you rather stay here and wait for those guys to come back?"
"Obviously not..."
"Then what exactly is the problem?"
Sebastian didn't know how to explain the reason behind his hesitancy. He felt like he didn't deserve Blaine's kindness in offering the safe interior of his house. It senselessly felt mean to accept the offer, yet at the same time, it would be very rude to decline. And factor in the three criminals who obviously had no moral issues with torturing teenage boys... "Fine. I'll go with you." He said.
"Don't do me any favors." He mumbled, abandoning his position on the sofa.
"Where are you going?" Sebastian asked.
"To get my phone. We still need to call the police, you know."
~4~
Sebastian scowled upon entering Blaine Anderson's home for the first time. Blaine noticed this and glared at him. "Not all of us have millionaires as fathers, okay. So I'm sorry if it doesn't quite meet the standards of Sebastian Smythe, but I'm afraid that you have no option besides getting over it."
Sebastian rolled his eyes. It wasn't the size of the house that he had a problem with. It was the decoration. One would literally have to close their eyes to not notice the array of pictures that lined the walls, desks, bookcases, shelves, counters, and bedrooms. Sebastian recognized a younger Blaine in most of them, usually with two older people he assumed to be his parents. But a lot of them also contained an unfamiliar man with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. Sebastian wasn't going to ask, but guessed that he must be Blaine's older brother.
"We have a guest bedroom, you can put your stuff down there."
"It's pretty convenient that your parents left you the spare key." Sebastian tried to cut the tension that seemed to be present whenever the two of them were in the same room.
"Uh-huh." Blaine replied half-heartedly. Clearly his effort was pointless.
"What did the police say?" Sebastian inquired, putting his backpack down by his feet and ignoring the scathing look from the other male.
"The siren we heard last night was just a neighborhood check-up rookie who was experiencing problems with the wiring in the car. So basically they never showed up last night. If that guy's car hadn't chosen that exact moment to be faulty, well…" He trailed off.
"Why didn't they believe you? Why didn't they come?"
"Apparently they recognized the address and knew that the house belonged to state's attorney, Michael Smythe. They figured that someone like him would have twenty-four hour watch or something and that I was some friend of his kid who was trying to prank them. They kept apologizing for their mistake and gave me their word that the house would be under constant surveillance until your dad gets back. I told them to not contact him about this. They didn't even ask why, I think they're afraid that we're going to sue them." Blaine explained as he sat down on the couch and pulled his knees up to his chest. Despite the comforting feeling that being home gave him, he couldn't stop the images that haunted him every time he closed his eyes. The first thing he would see were portions of a man's face, then came the unmistakable silver glint of a blade being reflected in the moonlight. And lastly, the wet dripping sound of what he assumed could only be blood. His blood.
"We should sue them."
"Why? It wasn't their fault." Blaine's mind was elsewhere and he barely payed attention to his own words.
"But you got hurt and that's not okay with me." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. At first Sebastian thought that the shorter male hadn't heard him, but he quickly realized that this was not the case when Blaine's eyes abandoned their staring at the floor and instead chose to stare at Sebastian.
"They hurt you too." He pointed out.
"Not like they did you. I mean, I couldn't exactly see what they were doing, but your screaming contained pretty much everything I needed to know. I thought-I mean, there was so much blood. At least, it seemed like there was."
"What do you think they were looking for?"
"I wish I knew," Sebastian heaved a sigh, "whatever it is, I'm going to make sure that my dad gets rid of it. Next time it could be him that gets hurt."
"Or you."
He snorted. "That would be a godsend, wouldn't it? Me, dead? Yeah, some people's lives would definitely be a heck of a lot easier."
"Maybe. But there are also two people whose lives would be completely ruined. Your parents."
Sebastian went quiet and started playing with the rubber bracelet on his wrist. This subject always made him uncomfortable. He hated talking about his parents, especially his mother. In fact, he pretty much avoided mentioning anyone in his family. "Are you still mad at me?"
"Huh?" Like Sebastian, Blaine had been caught up in his own thoughts.
"About the word that I called you last night. I know that it really hurt your feelings."
Blaine studied him for a moment. "It's not like I'm not used to being called that; it was like the nicest word the kids in my first high school called me. It wasn't so much the word that bothered me, but the person saying it."
"Me?"
"Yes you. I never imagined that another gay guy would ever say that to me. It surprised me…and maybe confused me slightly."
Sebastian felt himself getting annoyed. "I told you yesterday, I'm not like you."
"What does that mean, 'not like me'? Obviously you're not like me. We have very different backgrounds, families, morals. You're going to have to be more specific." Blaine rubbed his eyes.
"There's no way for me to be more specific. I. Am. Not. Like. You."
It hit him like a slap in the face. He blinked. "What? But I thought-"
"Everyone thinks that. It doesn't make it true." Sebastian felt like banging his head on the counter. He really needed to learn how to keep his mouth shut.
"But you hit on me; more than once I might add. You tried to get me to cheat on Kurt. You tried to get me to sleep with you!"
"I am not gay, Blaine! Yes, I hit on you; yes, I wanted you to cheat on your boyfriend; and yes, I wanted you to think that I was interested in having sex with you. But notice my use of the words 'wanted you to think'." Shut up, shut up. Stop talking. Now! Sebastian thought to himself.
"I am so confused right now. Why would you do that? Make people think that you're something you're not just to mess with their minds. What kind of sick, twisted satisfaction do you get from that?" Blaine felt oddly betrayed. It hurt to know that Sebastian had been messing around with his feelings and laughing about it behind his back.
"Me, sick? Me? Really?" Sebastian's anger was surfacing again. "You wanna know what's really sick? You. And that faggy ex-boyfriend of yours. You queers all go around claiming to love each other, but in reality it's just a pathetic excuse to fuck anything on two legs!"
Blaine was stunned, but the momentary shock didn't last for long. With slow and precise movements, Blaine walked over to where Sebastian was eyeing him in disgust. The shorter teen didn't hesitate to pull his elbow back and punch the Warbler across the jaw. "Get the hell out of my house," He stated calmly.
Sebastian was just about to return the blow, but stopped himself when his eyes once again found the scars on Blaine's face. Growling, he spun around and exited the house, slamming the door behind him.
Blaine watched him go. He didn't want to be alone right now, but he much less wanted to be in the presence of someone who clearly despised him. Glancing at his surroundings, he realized that he had been alone in this house plenty of times before, but never had it made him feel so…afraid.
He thought about calling one of his friends to come over and keep him company, but decided against it. They would ask what had happened to him, and he didn't think himself capable of reliving the events of the previous night just yet.
Instead, he went into the living room and sat down in front of the piano. He closed his eyes as his fingers automatically started playing a sad melody. After a few more minutes of indulging his sadness, he finally broke down and began to cry.
~4~
A/N: Hiya people! Sorry for the delay, but daaammmnnn, things have just been so busy. I swear I'll try to update as soon as possible. If I'm any later than two weeks, I give you permission to track me down and yell at me :p
I just have to thank each and every one of you awesome people that continue to read/review/follow/favourite this. It honestly means everything to me to know that people actually like this story.
I have to apologize if there are any mistakes in this chapter, grammatical or otherwise. I'm sorta suffering from Writer's block right now, so yeah...probably not my best work, but at least the story's progressing.
In case any of you are confused, I did not change Sebastian's sexuality. He is really gay in this story, but is also kind of in denial about it. Things will become clearer as the story progresses... : )