Spoilers: I'm mostly ignoring everything that happens on Glee when it comes to this story as of the newest episodes, but there may be the occasional tidbit that slips in from the newest episodes.
Rating: PG-13, I think there's some cursing somewhere… maybe.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Kurt was awake painfully early the next morning. He had always been an early riser, his somewhat OCD love affair with hygiene and skin care demanded it. This was pushing it, even for him, especially with the unusually small amount of sleep he had gotten all week.
Though he would have loved to just lounge in bed, or better yet, go back to sleep; he eventually got up and shuffled into the bathroom. Using his time in the shower to attempt to wake up fully even with the knowledge that that wouldn't be happening until he consumed at least three cups of coffee. It was easy to get lost in his thoughts under the warm spray, especially with as sleep addled as he was. He was still having a hard time convincing himself that everything from the past four days, or even the past four weeks was real. Part of him still felt like he might go downstairs and find that Sebastian wasn't actually there and that he had made the whole thing up in his head.
Ignoring the somewhat childish desire to run downstairs, just to make sure that Sebastian was still asleep on the couch, he slowly worked through his morning routine. He had given himself more than enough time to get ready, and he highly doubted anyone else in the house was awake yet.
At 5:10 AM he finally made his way downstairs, already dressed and prepared for the undoubtedly long day ahead.
His plan to quietly slip through the living room and into the kitchen, hopefully not waking up Sebastian in the process, was completely ruined the second he walked into the room.
Sebastian must have fallen asleep with the TV on the night before because the room was illuminated by the periodically flashing glow of the screen, which also meant that Sebastian was illuminated by the glow of the screen.
The fact that he was sleeping on someone's couch, in their living room, where anyone could walk in at any time, obviously didn't mean much to him. At least, he hadn't allowed it to force him to do anything ridiculous, like wear a shirt to sleep in.
Kurt knew this because the blanket that he had brought down from the linen closet for Sebastian to use had slipped down just below his hips. Thankfully, this also made it obvious that he was wearing pajama pants of some kind. He wasn't really able to think much past that because there were abs and chest and perfect collar bones. All with the most confusingly adorable, yet sexy, freckles he'd ever seen dotting those abs and collarbones and chest.
His head was pillowed on one arm while the other was thrown haphazardly over the arm of the couch, which subsequently drew Kurt's attention to Sebastian's biceps. Suddenly Sebastian made a small sound, something between a sigh and a groan, Kurt jumped, attention torn from the blatant objectifying he'd been doing of his friend dammit, Sebastian was supposed to be his friend. At least until they talked, but still perving on the guy while he was innocently trying to sleep was just not okay.
Like Sebastian would mind, an absolutely terrible voice from somewhere deep, deep in the recesses of his subconscious whispered, He would probably encourage you.
His eyes darted to Sebastian's face and he was struck by how much younger he seemed to look. His expression was slack with sleep and his mouth slightly opened; it was the first time Sebastian had actually appeared to be innocent to him. At this point the room would probably be illuminated by the red glow of his face alone if the TV were to be turned off.
Another soft sound from the couch sent Kurt practically running for the kitchen; the last thing he wanted was to be caught watching Sebastian sleep. He would never hear the end of it. Never.
He flipped on the coffee maker on first thing then went about digging through the fridge hoping to find something quick and simple to make for breakfast.
"Morning, Princess."
Kurt jumped, managing to smack his head against the refrigerator in the process, at the sound of Sebastian's sleep roughened voice.
He turned to face the other boy, his own greeting falling short when he realized that Sebastian still hadn't put on a shirt.
Sebastian's hair was adorably sleep ruffled and his eyes were only open enough to allow him to see where he was going, squinting against the bright lights in the kitchen. He blinked at Kurt, who was now rubbing at the small bump on his head. "You okay?"
"Umm, what?" Kurt asked sounding a little dazed as he watched Sebastian walk over to the kitchen table and plop down onto a chair. "Oh, yes, I um, I'm good. Good morning!"
Sebastian shot him a bewildered look, "Yeah, okay. Is there coffee yet?"
Kurt turned to face the coffee maker and was more than a little relieved to find that the pot was full. "Yes, there is, and there are several different kinds of flavored creamer in the fridge, some kind of peppermint mocha, some caramel thing, and I think something with vanilla in the name. Which kind do you want?"
Sebastian had laid his head down on his folded arms, "Caramel."
Kurt's lips twitched and he went about pouring two cups of coffee, pulling the caramel creamer out of the fridge for Sebastian and the peppermint mocha for himself. "I was going to make omelets for breakfast, are you awake enough to eat? If you don't have something now you'll probably regret it before we make it to Columbus."
Sebastian let out a jaw cracking yawn as he poured creamer into his coffee before pulling the cup closer, leaning over the mug and seemingly just inhaling while he waited for it to cool. "Sounds good, you're gonna put something besides rabbit food in mine, right?"
"There's nothing wrong with vegetables, Sebastian." Kurt rolled his eyes and pulled a carton of eggs and some milk out before examining the contents of the fridge. "We have plenty of leftover ham, or there's sausage or bacon."
"Ham is fine, thank you, Sweetheart."
"No problem, Honey," Kurt huffed. "After all, I live only to cater to you and provide you with coffee and omelets with some form of meat in them."
Sebastian snickered into his coffee.
"Now would you please go put a shirt on before my dad or step-mom come down here? Or even worse, Finn or Sam."
Somehow, saying goodbye to his dad on the front lawn with Carole, Finn and Sam all standing next to them, and Sebastian hovering somewhat awkwardly closer to the car, was harder than it had been in the airport when he had first left for New York.
"I know it wasn't easy for you to get the time off to come down here, so don't worry about Christmas," Burt told him.
Kurt's eyes widened, "Dad, of course I'm coming for Christmas, I'll just have to—"
Burt laughed and hugged him a bit tighter, "Stop freakin' out, I just meant that Carole and I are planning to come to you, Finn hasn't made up his mind yet."
"You mean it?" Kurt grinned, turning his eyes to a broadly smiling Carole; he couldn't help but tease a bit, "I'm actually going to get to show you two around the big city? Drag you out to shows, walks in Central Park, all the exhausting, touristy, Christmas in New York type things I can possibly think of?"
"I don't know about all that, but we'll be there." Burt told him, eyebrows drawn together in what might be worry. "Your old man has a bad heart, remember? I can't be runnin' around big cities doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I'll leave some of that for you and Carole to use as bonding time or something."
Carole laughed at her husband and wrapped Kurt up in a hug, "You bet! We'll be there with bells on."
Kurt laughed and hugged her back before turning to Finn and Sam, who had been patiently waiting their turn. "Alright you two, hug away."
Sam was first, with a hug that, quite literally, swept Kurt off his feet.
"Alright! Alright!" Kurt laughed and then laughed even harder when he caught the dirty look Sam was getting from Sebastian. "I said hug, not maul! Evans, put me down!"
His feet were returned to the ground and Sam tightened his grip briefly before letting go, "It was really good seeing you, Kurt. It's pretty boring around here with just Hudson around, especially now that he's practically a teacher."
To his, and Sebastian's he was sure, surprise once Sam let Kurt go he wandered over and gripped Sebastian in a quick one armed hug. "Look after my boy, Smythe! You two have a safe trip, I'm going back to bed, I should not be up this early on a weekend. Hasta la vista, dudes!"
Sebastian might have worn a similar expression if he had been assaulted, Kurt, somewhat used to the insanity, just snorted as he watched the blond walk back into the house.
Shaking his head Kurt turned to Finn with open arms, "Alright, come here and hug me so we can go, there's no possible way Sebastian and I will be able to be in a car for two hours without stopping for coffee, so we need to leave now to make sure we stay on schedule."
Finn laughed but still moved forward to practically crush Kurt with a hug. "I'll miss you bro!"
Kurt groaned when he was released, "I swear, all you boys, it's like if you have to hug then you have to prove your caveman-like masculinity when you do it."
Sebastian snorted.
"Don't say a word." Kurt glowered at him.
"Wasn't going to."
Kurt rolled his eyes and turned back to his dad to give one final hug, "So, Christmas then?"
"Definitely, bud." Burt turned to Sebastian after that, offering a hand to shake, "It was good meetin' you, kiddo."
Sebastian smiled and took his hand, "You too, sir. Hopefully I'll see you when you're in the city for Christmas."
Burt smirked, casting an amused glance at his son, "I'm sure you will."
Sebastian was once again surprised when Carole came over and wrapped him up in a hug, "It was wonderful to meet you, Sebastian. I hope Burt didn't mentally scar you too badly."
That got one of those adorable and genuine laughs that Kurt loved so much, "I appreciate you letting me stay, especially since it was so last minute, and I've had worse mental scaring, much worse, you don't have to worry about me."
With that and a few more "I love you's" exchanged among the Hudmels, Kurt and Sebastian were finally packed into the car and heading out on the road.
Even with Kurt's prediction about a necessary coffee detour, they still made good time getting to Columbus. It helped that Sebastian drove like someone demon possessed, something that Kurt hadn't been made aware of until they were on the interstate.
The utter terror he had felt being in the car with Sebastian as a driver paled in comparison to the nerves he was working up now that the inevitable Rachel/Sebastian meeting was upon them.
"Where did Young Barbra say she was going to meet us?" Sebastian asked.
Kurt ignored him momentarily in favor of retrieving his jacket and carry-on bag from the hideous, beige, plastic bin he had been forced to place them in in the name of airport security.
Once he had made a show of dusting off his belongings, he turned back to Sebastian, "Um, I think she said that there was a Chili's right next to our gate, and she said she would wait for us there."
Sebastian glanced down at the ticket in his hand, "So, we just have to find our gate, joy. Airports are the most ass-backwards thing that has ever been created."
Kurt snickered and tugged at Sebastian's sleeve, steering them to the right, "I'm pretty sure it's this way."
"You're real cute, smartass."
"We've already established," Kurt sing-songed, "You're the cute one!"
Luckily, it wasn't near as difficult to figure out where they were supposed to be as Sebastian had made it out to be. Of course, the big, glowing red Chili's sign helped a little.
Rachel spotted them before they could spot her, made blaringly obvious by her practically screaming Kurt's name from across the little airport sized restaurant.
"Kurt!" She shouted again as she flung herself at him, "I missed you!"
"Would you calm yourself? It's barely been three days!"
Rachel pouted and pulled away from him, only to intertwine their fingers together in a tight handhold, "Three incredibly long days in which we had almost no contact at all!"
Sebastian snorted and her eyes were immediately drawn to him. "You."
Kurt groaned and Sebastian's eyebrows shot up, lips quickly turning up into a smirk, "Me?"
"Oh God!" Kurt muttered under his breath, "Please don't embarrass me in the middle of a Chili's in the freaking Port Columbus International Airport."
Rachel simply patted his hand, in what he assumed was meant to be a comforting gesture, before letting go and linking their arms instead. "Don't worry, this won't take long."
She turned to face Sebastian directly, making sure to pull a resigned Kurt with her, "I'm not sure if I like you, Sebastian. Kurt obviously does though, and somehow, you seem to make him happy and I for one, believe that he deserves to be as happy as humanly possible. I know you two aren't actually dating, but we'll see how long that lasts now that certain things have been taken care of, and when it happens I expect you to treat him like a prince! Understood?"
"Princess."
Kurt groaned inwardly and Rachel slipped bemused looks from one boy to the other, "Excuse me?"
"You said treat him like a prince, but he's my Princess." Sebastian was grinning at her now.
Rachel turned to Kurt, "Is that meant to be an insult?"
He sighed, "Surprisingly, no, it's not."
She faced Sebastian again, and for a split second Kurt thought she might throw some kind of tantrum. "Fine, however it works for you two, I don't want to know, as long as Kurt finally being treated the way he should be. You've been shockingly adept with your romantic gestures, Sebastian; don't think you can start slacking when you two actually start dating."
"I feel like you just made some kind of allusion to the sex we aren't having," Sebastian told her, looking pleasantly surprised.
Rachel just smiled at him.
"See, this is why I didn't want the two of you anywhere near each other," Kurt bemoaned. "I hate you both."
"Oh sweetheart, you love us." Sebastian grinned at him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close.
Rachel giggled at them, "I have to admit, you do make a pretty adorable couple."
Kurt scowled, "He's the adorable one."
A/N: Ughh, it's short, but… I'm so tired… and these little fuckers just didn't want to leave Ohio. I SWEAR that the next chapter they will be back in NYC and things will actually happen, like actual story progression or something… crazy talk, I know. Especially considering I planned on that happening like, two chapters ago. This is what happens when a chapter just doesn't want to be written and I end up doing a crap ton of retarded stuff to procrastinate instead of write.
My brain isn't actually functioning very well right now, and I haven't decided if I like this at all or not, but I guess it's better than nothing… hopefully? xD
ALSO, MY Papa Hummel DOES NOT HAVE CANCER! I just… why would they DO that? Kurt's face still hurts me… Chris Colfer is flawless. Not even going to go into all the other ways that episode was jacked up six ways from Sunday. Except for… why the hell didn't they just stick with the It's a Wonderful Life thing? They could have actually gone somewhere with that. I'm not even sure anyone involved in writing that episode ever actually saw the movie Love, Actually, because I don't see how that episode actually differentiated from any other multi-story line Glee episode. Ughh, this is what happens when no one I know actually watches Glee, I end up bitching in my A/Ns. xD
Anyways, I should be back to regular Thursday posting now, so look for the next chapter then. Much love as always, the reviews and whatnot warm my heart greatly, for reals! I heart you all!