After a huge snow storm, Sebastian takes advantage of the vacant, iced-over roads to go skating down Main Street with his boyfriend.

Notes: This one-shot gives you more clues to the main story line ... which will go up. I promise xD

"This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!" Kurt chants through anxiously chattering teeth as Sebastian pulls the SUV in front of CVS and parks.

"It's not that crazy." Sebastian turns the tires towards the curb and engages the emergency brake, but he doesn't kill the engine to keep the heater running.

"We're going to get in trouble," Kurt laments, climbing over the center console and into the back seat.

"I'm not sure this is actually illegal," Sebastian says, following his boyfriend.

Kurt folds his arms across his chest as Sebastian leans over his lap to untie his boots. "You stole your uncle's SUV."

"Borrowed," Sebastian stresses, setting Kurt's boot aside and replacing it with a hockey skate. "I borrowed it. I have my learner's permit. Plus I'm an excellent driver."

"I think I know two jack rabbits and a squirrel that might disagree with you," Kurt mentions as Sebastian removes his other boot.

"Hey! That wasn't my fault. The roads are slippery. I lost traction." Sebastian tugs up Kurt's socks, tucking his pant legs inside. "Besides, you'd think they'd know to get the hell outta the way of a moving vehicle."

"Speaking of which, we're going to get hit by a car."

"No, we're not. No one's out here, babe." Sebastian stops fiddling with Kurt's socks to wipe down a fogged up window and take a look around. Beneath the orange glow of the street lamps, both boys can see nothing but snow. No cars. No people. Just a veil of flakes drifting down from the sky, pushed into swirls by the frigid wind. "It's three in the morning after one of the worst storms we've had in years. You'd have to be insane to be out here."

"My thoughts exactly," Kurt mutters. "We're going to hit soft spots."

"I don't know. It's still comin' down pretty good. I really don't think we'll find too many." Sebastian squints to see past the rapidly reforming fog and assess the thickness of the ice covering the asphalt. "If we steer clear of the manhole covers, we should be fine. But that's why I brought my beat-up old Bauers. So you don't nick your expensive competition blades."

"It's not my blades I'm worried about."

Sebastian turns away from the window steadily re-clouding from the heat inside the vehicle and throws Kurt a pointed look. Kurt rolls his eyes.

"Okay, yeah, I am, but right now, I'm more worried about my head."

"I brought helmets if you want." Sebastian grabs one off the seat behind him – a bright red snowboarding helmet he keeps with his hockey gear for just such an occasion - and holds it up. Kurt considers it, weighing the pros and cons of stuffing it on his head over his wool hat for the safety of his noggin against why he's even considering doing this at all!?

"Maybe …" He peeks past Sebastian's shoulder to get a glimpse out the window. "But what I want to know is why is this even necessary?"

Sebastian smirks. "To keep your brain from getting scrambled. Duh!" He puts the helmet down and returns to the task of getting skates on Kurt's feet.

"No. I mean, why is skating down Main Street necessary?"

"Because it's fun! Come on! Live a little!" Sebastian slides Kurt's reluctant left foot into its skate. "I can't believe you've never done this before!"

"Well, believe it, buddy. My parents and I aren't super big fans of needlessly putting our lives in danger."

"Me and the guys from Elite used to do this all the time." Sebastian tightens Kurt's laces. "Right down Main Street after every snow storm."

"Do you … do you think we'll run into them out here?"

"Nah. Doesn't matter if we do anyhow. We'll keep our distance." Sebastian goes silent. Kurt watches him. He's effortlessly tying Kurt's skates the way Kurt likes them – loose through the length of his foot and tight at his ankles – but his mind is definitely somewhere else.

"Do you miss it?" Kurt swallows hard, not entirely sure what answer he's hoping to hear. "Do you miss them?"

Sebastian finishes the knot on Kurt's right skate, then rests his palm on the toe cap with a heavy sigh. "Yeah," he admits, moving on to the left skate. "Sometimes. I mean, we were all sold on that whole band of brothers mentality. And we were brothers … sort of. We grew up together. We did everything together. They were my best friends all through elementary school, and middle school ..."

"But you gave them up … for me," Kurt says quietly.

"For me, too. I gave them up so I could be a better person, have someone worthwhile in my life who actually cares about me, not what they could get by knowing me." Sebastian finishes tying Kurt's skates and sits up, coming face to face with his highly skeptical boyfriend. "You don't look like you believe me."

"I'm sorry," Kurt says, lowering his gaze to the dingy, striped-white laces on his borrowed skates. "It's just not always easy to believe that being with me is better than being with your old friends. You guys always seemed so close. I rarely ever saw you apart. You seemed like you said – brothers. That must have been hard to give up."

"Well, as it turned out, my old friends were humongous jerks," Sebastian says, spitting out the word jerks. "I mean, if they cared about me at all, they'd be here right now, wouldn't they? They would have mended fences and all that shit? Accepted the fact that you're in my life, and things are different now?"

"I … I guess," Kurt says, folding his hands in his lap and idly pushing at his cuticles. Sebastian slides in close and wraps his arms around him.

"But you're here," Sebastian whispers. "Even after all of it, you stayed. So yeah, you are better. So much better." He leans his forehead against the soft ribbing of Kurt's knitted cap and lays delicate, barely-there kisses against his cheek. It's hard for Kurt to understand, Sebastian knows. Kurt has had to sacrifice so much for his friends, distance himself from them so that they wouldn't become targets for the same bullying he endured, but aside from his parents, he's never had anyone return the favor. He doesn't get that quality matters to Sebastian, not quantity. Perhaps that's Sebastian's own fault considering how overindulged he is, how often he had flaunted it while cutting Kurt down. "You know, if you don't want to go skating, that's fine. I know it's kind of risky. We can go back home and hang out. Make hot cocoa or something."

"The biggest risk I've taken is sitting right here in this SUV with me, and it's worked out so far. I don't mind taking another one. Just … try not to let me die? If at all possible. I'd really appreciate it."

"All you have to do is hold on tight," Sebastian says, closing in slowly on Kurt's mouth. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."