Here's a slightly late Christmas present, guys. I hope it was happy for all of you. And to my non-Christian people out there: I hope your holidays were very happy as well. :D

"So you told him?" Sebastian asked, licking the side of his hand where some of his ice cream had melted off the cone. Kurt tore his eyes away from his tongue as it retreated back behind those devilishly kissable – stop it, Kurt, stop it – lips. He swallowed and nodded, looking away. "And what did he say?"

Kurt cleared his throat and said hoarsely, "He needed time to think." Sebastian side-eyed him as they walked. Still resolutely looking forward, Kurt scooped more of his Italian ice into his mouth.

"That's it?" he pressed insistently.

"Yup," Kurt replied, trying to sound decisive.

"Mhm," Sebastian huffed out doubtfully. Kurt continued his silence on the subject and they shuffled over to a bench to sit down. He watched Sebastian out of the corner of his eye as he rubbed the back of his neck briefly before focusing on the stray rivulets of ice cream melting on to his hands again.

"How's Lance?" Kurt asked.

"Same as yesterday, Princess. They say he's cleared to go, though, so he'll be getting out tomorrow," Sebastian told him distractedly as he concentrated on doing damage control to the ice cream cone.

"That's good," Kurt replied. He had avoided going back to the hospital after that first day, admitting to himself that Lance had kind of scared him. Even though Sebastian hinted that his brothers would like to see him, he'd plead out of it with excuses about work or Rachel being clingy.

"Yeah. But kind of unfortunate, too, because all their vacation time was spent in the hospital. They head back home in a couple days so it's like I barely saw them," Sebastian continued, huffing triumphantly when the cone was controlled again.

"Are you thinking about visiting them this summer?"

"Maybe. I'm staying here in the city of the summer, I'm sure of that. I'd rather not hear lectures from my father about me turning down the generous scholarship from Columbia Law for English literature. What are you doing?"

"Staying here," Kurt said automatically. Lying to Blaine in person would be a lot harder than holding off the questions over Skype.

Unable to resist hanging out together, he and Sebastian hadn't stopped seeing each other after their little blip a week and a half ago. There had been a moment of awkwardness in their first encounter after Sebastian had sent Kurt home to tell Blaine, but the barista at their café had made a joke that had gotten them back on comfortable footing. And since seeing Sebastian, Rachel had even begun making an effort to try to like him. She and Santana had come out with them the previous weekend when Kurt had coerced Sebastian into shopping with him and they'd all had a laugh making fun of Sebastian's clothing choices. Being Rachel, she'd immediately gone home to post pictures on Facebook which prompted a barrage of questions from Blaine.

"I assumed you'd just seen him that one time and been done with it," he'd seethed that night.

"I never said that," Kurt had insisted.

"You never said you guys hung out all the time, either!" Blaine had snapped.

"I'm sorry, really."

"Yeah, sorry you got caught and didn't tell me," he'd muttered.

"That's not fair, Blaine," Kurt had snapped back, just as angry as he was now, "You want to talk about not tell each other things, let's talk about you singing to Sam. Finn told me all about that. After what you already did, you go and cheat on me emotionally, too? And you think you have the right to be mad at me for making a friend." He'd been angry enough to ignore the little voice that said he had cheated on Blaine.

"We agreed we were past that, Kurt! You said you forgave me! I thought you were over it. I guess not. You're just too immature to get past it, I guess," Blaine had shot back condescendingly. "You're going to hold that over my head forever, aren't you? We'll be in our sixties and you'll still bring it up in every argument."

"I did forgive you, Blaine," Kurt had changed tact, "It just still hurts sometimes. Especially when you go and sing some hugely romantic song to Sam, who's just supposed to be your best friend. Sebastian is my best friend and I'm not out serenading him."

"I thought," Blaine had begun, suddenly looking at Kurt like he'd kicked his puppy, "I thought I was your best friend."

Biting back the new rush of anger, Kurt had quickly replied, "You are, of course you are. You're not here, though. Sebastian is."

"So," Blaine continued, "when I get there we'll be best friends again?" Kurt bit the inside of his cheek and swallowed his frustration.

"We're still best friends," he had assured him, "I'm just also best friends with Sebastian. You understand?" Blaine had, at that point, the gall to look insulted.

"I'm not an idiot, Kurt. You can have multiple best friends. Don't talk to me like that," he had snapped before promptly hanging up. Kurt had nearly thrown his laptop through the window.

"You okay, Twinkle Toes?" Santana had asked and Kurt had assumed then that she had heard most of the conversation. He growled at her and she held up both hands in an appeasing gesture.

"Calm down, Kitty Cat, put the claws away, I was just asking," she'd told him. Kurt had sighed slowly and she had taken that as an invitation to sit down next to him on his bed. He'd buried his face in her shoulder and told her everything. She hadn't had a reply. She'd sat silently and petted his hair as salt water soaked into her dress.

Sebastian was scrutinizing Kurt as he licked his ice cream pensively. He caught a stray drop before saying, "I'm losing you here, Princess." Kurt shook himself.

"Sorry, sorry," he said quickly, he swirled the half melted Italian ice in his hands and looked up at Sebastian, "what were you saying?"

"I was asking if you wanted to make some plans for this summer. My parents have a house down on the shore in Long Island, we could go there for a week. I was even going to let you drag me to a Broadway show. But since you weren't listening," he paused to shrug and lick his ice cream, "I guess the offer's off the table." Kurt punched his arm lightly.

"I'm taking you to a show," he said, "And you can take me to Gatsby's house for a week." Sebastian grinned.

"Well, gee, Hummel, if it's going to be such a chore I'll take it back," he said, taking a large bite of his cone and grinning over at him. Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I have to get back to work," Kurt sighed. Sebastian stuck out his tongue.

"Loser." Kurt shoved him back to the bench as he tried to stand and Sebastian's laugh followed him out of the park.

He was so screwed. He was too excited to be going to Long Island this summer with Sebastian. Just picturing a huge empty house, probably equipped with a private beach, just him and Sebastian made him happier than every date with Blaine ever had. Just thinking about it. There was still a huge part of him that couldn't stop being in love with Blaine – a part of him that was forcing himself into feeling things for his boyfriend that had long ago been transferred to his best friend. This part of him made it difficult to finally break Blaine's heart. And even more difficult to admit that he wanted to be with Sebastian.

But, God, a smaller and louder part of him couldn't deny his attraction. Every sweep of that tongue reminded him of what it felt like on his skin. And every look that Sebastian slanted him was an invitation to interpret him, to read his thoughts, something that was frighteningly intimate. He wasn't brave enough to listen to this little voice, but he couldn't ignore it forever. Eventually, he wouldn't be able to any longer.