A/N: So, this story is a heck of a lot shorter than I wanted it to be, but five is a nice round number, so that makes up for it.

Thank you so much for all your amazing reviews. I keep meaning to thank you and I keep forgetting to. I'm super sorry.

Love you all! Hope you enjoy this :)

Sebastian had been all for giving Dave the space he needed over the next few weeks. If it meant they ended up together, Sebastian was willing to wait months. In any case, it would give him time to be the guy that Dave needed and deserved.

Sebastian had never experienced this before – wanting someone else's happiness more than his own. Wanting someone else to be proud of him instead of intimidated by him. Wanting someone to like him for who he was and nothing else. He wasn't sure he completely liked it, but he was definitely sure that he didn't hate it. He just had to get used to putting someone else's feelings ahead of his own. He was getting pretty good at it too.

That is, until Valentine's Day.

He couldn't believe it when he heard it - the lengths Dave had gone to for Kurt (A gorilla suit? Really?), the things he had done even though Kurt and Blaine were so in love it made Sebastian want to puke everytime he looked at them. How could Dave be so stupid? How could he do that after what he had admitted at Scandals?

Sebastian was okay with giving him space to sort out his feelings. He definitely wasn't okay with giving him space to make his move on another guy.

Dave tried to call him several times through that week, but Sebastian ignored them. He didn't give a damn. He wasn't going to be the agony aunt who patched up his heart because he was too much of an idiot to realise that it would never work. And he definitely wasn't going to help mend the heart of the guy who got it broken by breaking his in the first place.

Besides, Sebastian had Regionals to worry about.

His favourite way of taking out his anger was definitely by messing with the New Directions. Nothing made him happier than when they all despised him. Of course, he wouldn't get the Warblers involved this time. They no longer trusted him and though he was still head of council, they fought him on every single thing he suggested anyway.

No, he had his own plans and he wouldn't need the Warblers.

He knew the pictures were badly photoshopped. He knew that no one in their right mind would look at them and seriously think anything of them. That didn't stop Rachel and Kurt having a small freak-out. Their reaction was hilarious because it was so over-the-top. So New Directions. So McKinley.

They deserved it though. If it wasn't for them, he wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. He had every right to take out his pain and frustration on them. And it wasn't like he was hurting anyone this time. Really, this was just a harmless prank. The fact that they were reacting this strongly was insane and had everything to do with their mental and hormonal imbalances.

Dave's calls grew more and more frequent over the next few days and Sebastian carried on ignoring them, to the point where he would shove his phone under one of his pillows and just forget about it. He couldn't deal with those emotions yet.

He would probably never really know what it was that made him check his phone that last time, but he would be forever grateful that he did.

Sebastian could never forget the way his heart seemed to stop, the way his blood ran cold and the way his whole body went numb as he read that text from Dave.

Seb, I can't do it anymore. I'm not tough like you or Kurt. I can't handle their words or the looks they give me. What's even worse is that I used to be one of them. The guilt and pain are too much for me. I know you aren't talking to me and I don't blame you after what I did. I just wanted you to know, before I escape this world, that you meant so much to me. Goodbye and thank you for everything. All my love – Dave.

He couldn't remember how he got to the car or how he got to Dave's house (though he had never been more thankful for that night he insisted on giving him a lift home), and before he knew what was happening, he was banging on the front door of the Karofsky's home.

A man, who could only be Dave's dad, answered with a puzzled expression.

"Hi, can I help you?"

"Please, Mr Karofsky, is Dave home?" Sebastian all but shouted in a panicked and choked tone that he had never heard on himself before.

"Yes, he's upstairs. But he told me he's not feeling great today, so I don't think –"

Sebastian didn't give him a chance to finish before pushing past him and running upstairs. Dave's dad followed him and tried to block his way.

"Okay, I don't know who you are, but you can't just barge into my house like this. I know you must be friends with David, but I've never met you before. There are certain social rules and –"

"Dave sent me a text saying he was going to kill himself!" Sebastian yelled, interrupting Mr Karofsky for a second time.

"David? No... h-he wouldn't," he replied, though his voice shook.

"What? You think I would lie about something like this?" said Sebastian, knowing he probably looked and sounded crazed, but none of it mattered. Dave's life was on the line here and Sebastian wouldn't let it happen. He couldn't let it happen.

Dave's dad was suddenly sprinting to the door at the end of the hallway and Sebastian followed, anxiety burning a hole in his stomach. He had never been so scared about anything in his life.

A scream told Sebastian all he needed to know. His legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground. Dave had done it. He had taken his life and there was now nothing Sebastian could do about it.

If only he had answered those calls! If only he had taken his head out of his ass for one moment, he would have been able to help Dave! He was sure of it!

Instead, he had ignored him and now his dad was screaming at the sight of his body.

Except that Sebastian could now hear that he was screaming words. Words directed at him.

"Kid! Kid! Call 911! Call 911! He's still breathing!"

Hope hit him from out of nowhere. There was still an overwhelming anxiety hanging over him, but Sebastian pushed through it. He had to, if he wanted to have any chance of keeping Dave with him.

Without needing to be told twice, he hastily dialled 9-1-1 on his phone and went to join Mr Karofsky in Dave's bedroom. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight. Dave unconscious, face paling as oxygen found its way around his body again, breathing shallow and the tie that he had clearly used to try to hang himself was lying on the floor next to him. Mr Karofsky was holding him, begging him to stay with him and Sebastian found himself gasping for breath through tears that threatened to suffocate him. Dave had to survive this. He just had to.

The ambulance was there within ten minutes and before Sebastian could really process what was happening, Dave was being rushed off to hospital. He stayed standing outside of Dave's abandoned house for a long time before forcing himself to drive home, all the while hoping and praying that by some miracle, Dave would make a full recovery.

From this point on, he thought to himself as he pulled into his driveway, things change.

Sebastian, under normal circumstances, would have found the sight of Kurt and Blaine and the New Direction lesbians (whom he had never bothered to learn the names of) completely hilarious. But he couldn't smile. Not with Dave still in hospital. Not after what had happened.

So he apologised to them. He apologised for his spiked slushie and the inappropriate and ridiculously photoshopped pictures. He told them about his ideas for the Warbler performance – how he planned to dedicate it to Dave and how they planned to take donations for the Born This Way foundation.

He didn't care if none of them believed him – it was just important for him to do it. As they stared suspiciously at him, the memory that had haunted his every thought since the incident flashed across his mind. Him standing by jukebox... Dave coming up to him and asking him so sincerely and earnestly... trying his hardest to flirt... Sebastian ripping him apart... telling him to stay in the closet...

Everything that had led Dave to do what he did was just as much his fault as it was the idiots at his school's and Sebastian was determined to do what he could to make things right.

The Warblers did dedicate their performance to Dave – the first time they had ever done such a thing since their beginning in the 1800s – and though they didn't win, they managed to raise a substantial amount for the foundation.

But Sebastian knew that there was still one more thing he had to do before he could make any kind of peace with the situation. He had to see Dave.

He waited until he had been discharged because he really couldn't handle hospitals since his mother died. Besides, Sebastian didn't want the chance of being overheard.

He didn't understand the nerves he felt walking into Dave's room, but they were there and they were strong. In the short moments before Dave noticed him, Sebastian seriously considered slipping out so that Dave wouldn't even know that he had been there.

But Dave had looked up and given him such a look of surprise and embarrassment, that Sebastian couldn't find it in his heart to go anywhere. Instead, he crossed quickly over to Dave's bed, set down the enormous bouquet of flowers he had brought him and grabbed his hand tightly.

"Hey," was all he could find to say.

"Seb, I –"

"Shh," said Sebastian with a smile. It was as if nothing had changed between them, though he knew that everything had. He was just so happy to have Dave staring back at him, even if it was with a completely broken expression. Although, now Sebastian noticed it, the look worried him. "What's wrong?"

"You... you saved my life, Seb," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Your dad got you down," said Sebastian.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't have found me until it was too late unless you... unless you hadn't..." Dave seemed at a loss for what to say. "I wasn't expecting you to read that text. You were ignoring my calls all week."

"Look, Dave, I'm so sorry I –"

"Don't apologise," said Dave softly. "I was stupid and I hurt you. If I was you I would have done the same thing."

There was a brief silence as Sebastian tried to process everything that was happening, still completely overwhelmed to be holding Dave's hand as they stared at each other.

"Why did you do it, Sebastian?" asked Dave.

"Well, call me selfish... and cheesy, come to think of it," said Sebastian, raising Dave's hand and placing a soft kiss on his knuckles, "but I honestly didn't want to think of living in a world without you."

There was no way Sebastian could have ever prepared for what happened next, because suddenly Dave was kissing him. Deep and desperate and grateful and so full of so many different emotions that Sebastian couldn't stop the tears that trailed down his cheeks.

"You really do care about me then?" asked Dave when they pulled apart. "I'm not just some random hook-up at a gay bar?"

Sebastian's heart broke at the hopeful look in his eyes and for the first time he really understood the damage he had done that night all those months ago – why Dave had left the way he did and why he had been so reluctant to open up to him in the months after that. He understood how much he had hurt Dave, more than Dave had ever hurt him.

"I love you, Dave," said Sebastian earnestly. "It's taken me a while to fully realise it, but when I thought I might lose you the other day..."

"I'm still here," said Dave with a small smile, placing a soft kiss on Sebastian's lips. "I'm not going anywhere."

"You better not," said Sebastian, pressing his forehead to Dave's, feeling happier than he had in years.

In the weeks that followed Dave completely opened up to Sebastian. He told him about his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, how he had bullied Kurt to the point where he had to transfer to Dalton, how some of the people he cared most about didn't accept him for who he was, how he was terrified of going back to school and about how, despite all this, he was now letting himself dream about a future with someone. With a family.

Sebastian told Dave about how his mother had overdosed on anti-depressants, how his father hated him because of his sexuality but couldn't kick him out because it would cause too much of a scandal, how he never let himself feel anything more than the physical when it came to guys, how he had liked Dave since he saw him and how it had taken that night on the dance floor to make him realise what he really felt for him.

Sebastian didn't know if they would last. He didn't know if Dave was his forever. But he was his for now and that was all he needed to know.

A/N: Epilogue to follow! Thank you so much for reading!