Sebastian held Kurt tight in his arms and kissed him – kissed all over his face, his neck, nosing past his shirt to reach his collarbone, covering every inch of skin he could possibly reach with tiny pecks and nibbles. Kurt giggled as Sebastian lifted him up slightly and brushed his shoulder lightly with eager lips. Every touch of his lips against Kurt's skin seemed so precious to Sebastian now that he knew how easily it could be taken away.

"I thought…I didn't know when I would see you again," Kurt admitted, grabbing a hold of Sebastian's face and trying to get a good look at Sebastian's eyes. Sebastian wouldn't let him. He knew what Kurt was searching for, and only Sebastian's eyes would tell him. Those lightning bolt marks. But Kurt would have to wait. Sebastian wasn't about to let this moment end. He had his Kurt back for as long as fate would allow, and Sebastian wanted to take advantage of it.

"So, do I get to take you out of here yet?" Sebastian asked between sweet pecks around Kurt's jawline.

"Not just yet," Kurt answered, the smile on his face spreading wider with each touch of Sebastian's lips.

"Well, why the hell not?" Sebastian sucked on a sensitive spot on Kurt's neck. Kurt wiggled and squirmed, trying to pull away, a little self-conscious of making out with his boyfriend while another person lingered in the room.

"An arrest report has been forwarded to the prosecutor already," Lydia intervened, watching Sebastian assault his boyfriend with amusement. "We're just waiting to hear back from her."

"What's the worst case scenario?" Sebastian asked, taking pity on Kurt and halting his attack momentarily. He settled down into one of the wooden chairs, sitting Kurt in his lap. He refused to be far from Kurt. He had been fighting to get to Kurt all day it seemed. He didn't want to spend a single moment not touching him. He needed to keep Kurt close; he needed to keep him safe. Sebastian was afraid that if he let go of Kurt, even for just a second, someone might snatch him away again.

Lydia sighed, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

"Worst case scenario, the prosecutor ignores the mountain of evidence in favor of Kurt's innocence and chooses to indict."

"But, there's no way that could happen?" Sebastian looked from Kurt's downturned face to Lydia's concerned one. "Is there?"

"I don't believe so," Lydia said, though the statement sounded open-ended.

"Okay…" Sebastian said, hoping for an explanation. "What's the problem?"

"We're…uh…not getting much sympathy here," Kurt said, wrapping an arm around Sebastian's shoulders, using him as an anchor.

Sebastian looked at the two again, his head starting to pound as a new surge of adrenaline rose up and coursed through him.

"You guys are going to have to explain to me exactly what that means, because I'm a little bit lost here."

Lydia took the seat across from them, folding her hands on the desk in front of her and looking purposefully into Sebastian's eyes, flinching only a bit at the fading lightning bolt marks that still remained, evidence of his harrowing ordeal.

"If Kurt was a woman going through these same set of circumstances," Lydia explained, "then the case would have been referred to special victims, and most likely, we wouldn't be sitting here right now."

Sebastian sighed.

"Because they would have let Kurt walk already, is that what you're telling me?"

"In a nutshell, yes," she answered, gaze unwavering. "But right now, his case is being handled by criminal investigators, and even with everything we have here…" she gestured to numerous piles of manila folders sitting on the desk in front of her, "they're still digging. They want to find something to charge Kurt with on the very real chance that the prosecution throws out the case."

"But, they're not going to find anything," Sebastian argued. "Kurt hasn't done anything wrong."

Kurt looked down at his hand in his lap. He grabbed Sebastian's hand and laced their fingers together, locking them tight and squeezing, trying to find comfort.

Lydia opened one of the manila folders and pulled out a photocopy of a newspaper article. She slid it across the table to Sebastian. Sebastian recognized it immediately.

'Local Resident Dead After Tragic Hit and Run'

Sebastian didn't have the time to read the whole article word for word when his brother had originally sent him a copy, but he remembered that in general it identified Dave as the victim of a car accident which had never been solved.

"Yeah, and…" Sebastian prompted, still lost in the conversation.

"Read the highlighted portion," Lydia instructed.

Sebastian saw a few lines in the center highlighted in yellow. He read them over, mumbling over the words as he went.

"Witnesses reported seeing a man fleeing the scene. The suspect is said to be a tall, Caucasian male, in his early 20s, with overly pale skin, brown hair, and possibly blue or green eyes…"

Sebastian's head popped up from the article.

"Wait a minute," he said, the surge of adrenaline causing his bruised heart to pound painfully in his chest, "they don't think…"

Lydia pulled another sheet of paper from the file and slid it across the table.

"This is the original sketch the police in Chicago comprised from witness statements after the accident."

Sebastian had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he moved his eyes from Lydia's drawn face to the sketch in front of him.

A crude sketch of a young man's face stared back at him.

A face that could have been Chandler.

A face that looked a lot like Kurt.

Sebastian had to close his eyes to hold on to his sanity, which had slowly started to slip the moment he laid eyes on that sketch. The image swirled in his mind, features dividing, blending, melding, until Chandler's face and Kurt's face blurred, ceasing to be individual and becoming one.

"But…but they can't think…I mean Kurt was here when…"

"If they wanted to make a case, even a circumstantial one, they could." Lydia spoke plainly, laying out details that broke Sebastian's heart, but her voice never lost that tone of superior confidence that he had started to depend on. "Kurt had problems with Dave. He took out a restraining order. He was abused, frightened for his life. At the time of Dave's death, Kurt was pretty much off the radar. Yes, he bought the house, and we can get evidence of that timetable, but he didn't have a 9 to 5 that he went to every day, and with no friends and no one to account for his whereabouts…it could be enough to get an extradition order at the very least."

Kurt stayed quiet, focusing on the tangle of his fingers with Sebastian's, glossing over words he had already heard.

Sebastian shook his head, at a loss for an appropriate reaction.

"I just don't understand…" he said.

Two sharp knocks sounded, and the door to the office swung open.

"Oh good, the boyfriend's here," a surly voice muttered. Lydia breathed a long, frustrated sigh at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. Kurt didn't move, but Sebastian looked up and locked eyes with a husky man dressed in a suit and tie, thinning black hair combed fruitlessly over an obvious bald spot, dark brown eyes glaring at him and Kurt. Flanking him on both sides were two uniformed officers, a tall man and a shorter woman, who took places at the door as the man continued to enter the room. "Maybe we can wrap a few things up so I can get my office back."

"It's not your office, Lieutenant Hornsby," Lydia said flatly. "It belongs to the captain, and you know full well that I have permission to use it until the prosecutor arrives."

"Yeah, about that," the unpleasant man said with a smirk, "she just called. She's running a little late. So, I thought maybe Mr. Hummel here would be willing to talk to me…"

"He has nothing to say," Lydia interrupted. "We already told you everything you need to know."

"I'm not talking about the shooting," the man said, sitting next to Kurt and Sebastian, turning on them with a strange, inexplicable grin. "I'm talking about the mess in Chicago."

"It doesn't matter what you're talking about…" Lydia leaned across the table, her voice low and stern, "he has nothing to say. He's already made a statement about the shooting, which has been entered into record, and we have no intention of discussing a crime that he hasn't been charged with, or that you can even prove he had any involvement in."

"You see, Mr. Hummel," the lieutenant continued, talking to Kurt's bowed back and hanging head, heedless of Lydia's protests, "truthfully, you'll probably be walking out of this office today…Scott Free…"

That comment captured Kurt's attention. He turned in Sebastian's arms to meet the eyes boring holes into his back, muddy dark eyes filled with disdain.

"Really?" Kurt asked quietly.

"Yup," the officer said in a clipped tone. "There's more than enough evidence here to exonerate you." The lieutenant turned to one of the folders on the table and picked it up. He opened it, fanning through the pages casually. "You have statements galore from neighbors, transcripts of several 9-1-1 calls, and if I'm correct, two character witnesses sitting in the waiting room right now ready to attest to your utter and total innocence."

The information was reassuring, but the man's acerbic tone alarmed Kurt on an almost primal level.

"Lieutenant," Lydia said, moving to the opposite side of the table and standing protectively behind Kurt and Sebastian, "I don't know what you're getting at, but I'm warning you…"

The man's eyes left Kurt to meet Lydia's even stare.

"What?" he said in mock offense, eyes opened wide in an attempt to look innocent, mouth slightly agape. "I'm just asking for a little help here…"

"Lieutenant…" Lydia repeated.

"Just tell me why, Kurt," Lieutenant Hornsby persisted.

"He's already told you everything you need to know." Lydia put a hand on Kurt's arm, which still rested on Sebastian's shoulders. She held onto him securely as she stared the officer down with a look of fire and venom.

"That's right," Lieutenant Hornsby agreed. "He was abused, right? Abused and beaten by a man who conveniently ends up dead at the same time you disappear for three years…"

Kurt drew in a breath to argue, but Lydia got to it first.

"Kurt has already told you in his statement that Chandler admitted to that crime…"

"That's what Mr. Hummel says," the officer countered. "But we can't question Chandler ourselves, can we?"

The lieutenant shot Kurt a look that froze him from head to toe. It didn't matter what Kurt said in his own defense, Kurt realized. This man wanted Kurt behind bars, and he was willing to do or say anything to see that happen.

"But I was there," Sebastian spoke up, his own green eyes hard and set like ocean colored glass. "I heard Chandler admit to it."

Sebastian hadn't actually heard a thing over the ringing in his ears, and his body's constant attempts to keep him blissfully unconscious, but with his poker face in place, he made a convincing enough admission to make the lieutenant stop in his tracks and take a pause.

Just as quickly, though, he brushed it aside.

"You're his boyfriend," Lieutenant Hornsby reasoned. "You could be making that up. Besides, from what I hear, you were fairly incapacitated. You're unreliable as a witness."

Kurt ducked his head, but Lieutenant Hornsby still managed to catch and hold his gaze.

"You, see, Mr. Hummel, everyone keeps telling me how you had no choice, how you did the right thing, but I need you to tell me that letting you go would be the right thing to do."

"Again," Lydia intervened, taking Kurt's arm and pulling him from Sebastian's lap out of the chair, "he doesn't need to tell you anything. This little interview of yours is over, and I'm moving my client to a different office."

Sebastian stood, following Kurt and Lydia, staying close behind Kurt to block the lieutenant from further interacting with his boyfriend.

"Tell me, just to clear my conscience, Mr. Hummel. So I can sleep at night…"

"Your sleeping habits are not my client's concern," Lydia shot back, quickly collecting the files on the desk and shoving them into her bag.

Sebastian held both of Kurt's arms as he stood behind him, keeping him grounded while Lieutenant Hornsby railed on. The man tried to lean in closer, around Sebastian's shielding body. "Say something…anything that tells me that you had no other recourse in this world than to empty an entire clip full of bullets into a man that I have no evidence of doing anything worse in his life than getting a parking ticket."

Lydia rounded on the lieutenant.

"Lieutenant Hornsby," she said, fighting now to keep that even, practiced tone of complete and utter control, "I advise you to stop talking to my client right now. I have more than enough from this conversation alone to file a suit against this whole department for harassment, discrimination…"

Kurt flicked his eyes up to the officer's face, and for the first time, the expression on the older man's features shifted as he caught sight of the pain in Kurt's blue eyes.

"Three years ago," Kurt said quietly, turning to walk past Sebastian and face his accuser more fully, "I was living with a man I thought cared about me…" Kurt swallowed hard, pushing away the bitter taste that talking about those memories conjured. "But I was wrong. He raped me, beat me, controlled my life." Kurt didn't realize he was walking slowly as he spoke, backing the officer towards the wall. "He put me in the hospital, and I almost died. I ran away from him and never looked back. I hid, and every night I was afraid that he would find me. I never got a good night's sleep…I saw him in every shadow…and Chandler, he knew all of this. He knew this was the way to get to me. He almost broke my ankle. He stalked me. He destroyed my peace and solitude. He was going to take me away from everything I had built for myself, from the man that I love…"

Lieutenant Hornsby spared a glance from Kurt's eyes to the officers at the door, both looking enthralled and amused at the pale, frail man backing their superior into a corner.

The officer considered his next move carefully, hoping to disarm Kurt, or at the very least, get him to back down.

He raised his hands in surrender.

"Please forgive me if I say that I'm not really convinced," he said with a cruel smirk on his thin lips. "I mean, you're a strapping young man. You don't necessarily strike me as a victim of abuse."

Lydia gasped, horrified by the man's gall. The officers at the door lost their amused grins, and to their benefit they seemed affronted that their lieutenant would make such a statement, regardless of his personal beliefs or not.

"That's it!" Lydia roared, her calm façade shattering. "This is over! I hope you enjoyed having this job, lieutenant, because in five minutes you're about to be unemployed!"

Lydia grabbed her cell phone, fingers dialing furiously as she dropped her messenger bag along with her other files and paperwork absently to the desk. Sebastian rushed to Kurt, preparing to pull his boyfriend away. The officer's eyes bore down on Kurt smugly. Kurt matched his smug stare, refusing to yield to another man who seemed so determined to put labels on him, to look at him incredulously, or consider him weak. Kurt gently shrugged out of Sebastian's grasp. He confronted the officer silently, eye to eye, searching out any small glint of compassion or understanding in their cynical depths. When he didn't see any he unbuttoned his shirt, quickly pulling the tails from his waistband and shrugged it off his shoulders. Sebastian caught it before it hit the floor.

"No, Kurt," Sebastian said, eyes wide as he watched Kurt pull his t-shirt over his head, "you don't have to…he's not worth…"

But the deed was done. He had turned his back to the officer. The lieutenant's smug smile disappeared. His face lost all of its color. He swallowed hard and tried to take a step back. Lydia hurried over to Kurt as well, cell phone still in hand as she talked animatedly, but stopped mid-sentence when she caught sight of Kurt's back, the mass of scar tissue outlining old burns and bruises.

No one in the room moved. No one spoke. Lydia and the other officers barely breathed. Eyes wide and unblinking, they took in the spectacle that was Kurt's pain. His alibi.

The door opened suddenly, breaking through the silence. A statuesque blond woman in a gray suit entered the room.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the woman said, dropping her briefcase on the desk, a file in her hands, "but I…"

She stopped at the scene before her. The male officer standing guard at the door had joined the lieutenant, stunned and speechless at the menagerie of marks on Kurt's back. The female officer with hidden marks of her own left the room, a hand pressed to her quivering lips. Sebastian started to feel the weight of several eyes staring at his boyfriend's bare back and he became incensed. He wrapped himself around Kurt, shielding him with long arms over damaged skin.

"Now you've seen it," Sebastian said through gritted teeth as he fumbled with the blue shirt, trying to cover Kurt completely from their judgmental eyes. "Does that look abused enough for you?"

"I…" the blond woman stuttered, trying to recover her composure, "I'm A.D.A. Simpson," she said, her eyes still focused on the blue fabric where the marks had been. Kurt huddled close to Sebastian while Sebastian slid the shirt over Kurt's arms, buttoning the shirt quickly as he continued to stare down the admonished-looking lieutenant.

"I came to tell you that we will not be pursuing your case, Mr. Hummel," Ms. Simpson continued. "In light of new evidence, you are cleared of any and all charges. You are free to go."

Sebastian's eyes met hers.

"What do you mean, free to go?" he asked skeptically.

"New evidence?" Lydia stepped forward, reaching for the folder A.D.A. Simpson held out to her.

"Chandler Kiehl wasn't just any average lovesick stalker," Ms. Simpson explained. "After a little extensive digging we found he was wanted in connection with almost twelve different cases of torture and murder. It was hard connecting him to these crimes because until recently there were no witnesses."

"Until recently?" Kurt parroted softly, turning to face Ms. Simpson for the first time.

"A thirteenth case," Lydia explained, reading over the documents. "A little over a month ago. The victim survived and gave a full statement. Apparently, Chandler confessed his crime spree to this man, too, just like he did to you."

"B-but he's okay?" Kurt stuttered, turning to Lydia with a tiny glimmer of hope in his voice, hope that he could wash away a drop of the blood that stained his hands.

"Yeah." Lydia closed the file, handing it back to Ms. Simpson. "But he'll never walk again."

Kurt's face crumbled as he turned back into Sebastian's embrace.

"Can we please go now?" he muttered, his voice muffled by Sebastian's shirt. Sebastian ran a soothing hand up and down Kurt's spine, folding him into his arms.

Lydia shot a questioning look to the A.D.A. Ms. Simpson watched Sebastian hold Kurt for a moment longer. She nodded, her soft expression sympathetic to the two men who held each other quietly.

"There's some final paperwork that needs to be signed, but after that you are free to go."


Document after document dropped in front of Kurt, one after the other, each replaced with immediately the moment he scrawled his name with another…then another…and another. Lydia tried to explain the contents of each document quickly in an effort to get Kurt released, and for that he was grateful. After the tenth piece of paper was shoved in front of him, Kurt wasn't even sure it was his name he was signing. He knew for sure he had added an extra 'm' to his last name somewhere along the line, and hoped that wouldn't bite him in the ass later on.

By the time he finished signing and initialing every piece of paper they could think of to throw at him, Kurt could hardly believe they would actually let him just go.

"Here's my card," Lydia said, handing Kurt a small, light blue colored business card with an ornate D covering one side. "If you ever need anything, feel free to call me, day or night."

Kurt looked the card over completely before sticking it deep into his pocket, making sure he kept it safe. "And this," she said, handing him another less elaborately decorated business card, "is the number to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. They have counselors who can help if you need to talk to someone."

Kurt looked the card over.

"I'm amazed that this town would even have a place like this," he said, sliding the card carefully into his pocket with the first.

"Well, we manage to survive thanks to generous private donations," Lydia said smiling with a wink aimed in Sebastian's direction. Kurt looked up at him, and Sebastian rolled his eyes, his cheeks coloring slightly. Lydia offered Sebastian her hand, and he shook it.

"I meant to say," Sebastian started, "I'm sorry I interrupted your conference with…"

Lydia waved a hand in front of her face.

"It was actually just lunch with my girlfriend. She works in my office, so we do it every day. I guess I could afford to miss one for a good cause. "

Sebastian nodded, holding Kurt tight in his arms from behind.

"Tell her we say thank you," Kurt offered, and Lydia winked at him as well.

"Will do. Come on…" Lydia waved them on, "let me walk you out to join your friends. Last I checked, they were still sitting out there."

"Oh no," Kurt gasped, glancing at the clock on the wall and noticing just how late it was. "Poor Justice and Madeline. They've been here forever."

"I'm sure they'll forgive you," Sebastian said with a laugh.

"Well, I just hope they didn't have the coffee," Lydia commented, "because the stuff out there's horrible."

Lydia shook hands with the prosecutor, making a promise to grab drinks together later in the week. On the way out the door, they passed Lieutenant Hornsby, gathering papers together, and stamping them with the date along with block letters which read 'CASE CLOSED'. She leaned down close when he caught her eye.

"This isn't over between you and me," she promised darkly. "Not by a long shot."


By the time Kurt and Sebastian met up with Madeline and Justice, the sun had long set, and a new collection of officers were working the desks and manning the phones. Madeline wrapped her arms around Kurt, her perfectly lined eyes smeared and bloodshot from crying. Justice clamped a hand on Sebastian's shoulder, pulling him into a half hug. There they stood in the waiting area, locked in one another's arms, breathing together a collective sigh of relief.

Justice led the tired group to the car, still locked together with arms looped through arms or draped across shoulders. Everyone climbed inside, buckling their seat belts quietly – Sebastian and Kurt done with talking for a while, Justice and Madeline with nothing they could think of to say.

They stopped at a steak house a few miles from the police station. The tired and hungry troupe tried their hands at normality – a nice dinner and a little friendly small talk, but the events of the day loomed over their heads, and no matter how hard they tried, they would inadvertently fall silent, consumed by their own individual thoughts. Several times in the middle of eating dinner, Kurt would come to a full stop, often times with his fork poised in the air on the way to his slightly open mouth, his eyes suddenly clouded over, his lower lip trembling. A gentle pat on the shoulder or Sebastian's hand on his knee was enough to snap Kurt back to the present, but halfway into the meal Sebastian noticed that Kurt drifted away more times than he ate.

They packed up their meals half-eaten. Justice and Madeline drove Kurt and Sebastian back to the extravagant hotel where a room still waited for them.

"Call me up when you want to go pick up your car," Justice offered before bidding Sebastian goodbye, driving away with an exhausted Madeline already asleep in the front seat.

Sebastian led a dazed and drowsy Kurt through the lobby and up the elevator. Kurt trudged along on heavy feet down the carpeted hallway to their suite. He was almost asleep on his feet as he stood swaying in the doorway. Sebastian took Kurt's hand and gently snaked an arm around his waist. He pulled Kurt inside and locked the door behind them. Sebastian led his boyfriend to the bathroom and undressed him. He turned the hot water and the jets on, and helped Kurt into the tub. Sebastian quickly stripped off his own clothes, tossing everything aside and out of sight, then joined Kurt in the filling bath.

Kurt said nothing. He barely moved. He simply sat in Sebastian's lap, surrounded by the steaming water, and succumbed to Sebastian's attentions. Sebastian washed him carefully, kissing him tenderly on the face and neck, not pushing, not asking Kurt for anything in return.

After the bath, Sebastian dried him, covered him in lotion, and put him to bed. Sebastian climbed beneath the covers behind him, wrapped his arms around him, and held him.

Sebastian left a single light on so that they wouldn't be entombed in total darkness as they drifted off to sleep. He thought for sure that Kurt would knock out immediately and sleep for the whole night, but neither man was so lucky. Sebastian became immediately locked in his own nightmare of trying to get to Kurt before Chandler could hurt him…and failing. But he was jarred from this agony abruptly by the sound of Kurt screaming his name. Kurt clawed at the blankets, trying hard to pull away from Sebastian's arms, eyes wide with panic as he tried to reach a phantom image of the man he loved, lying paralyzed on the floor.

"Kurt," Sebastian whispered as he shook his boyfriend gently. "Kurt, wake up."

Kurt heard Sebastian's voice and became still. He turned his head, confused by the closeness of the sound.

Kurt attacked him, flailing with his fists, pounding at his chest, screaming like someone being stabbed repeatedly in the heart.

"Kurt!" Sebastian whispered directly into his ear. "Kurt, baby, wake up. It's me. I'm right here."

Sebastian held Kurt tight, trying to stop the swinging of his fists, and the way his whole body twisted unnaturally in Sebastian's arms.

"Please, baby," Sebastian murmured, trying to keep his voice calm and soothing, "please, I need you to wake up."

Kurt began losing steam. His fists ceased to connect with Sebastian's chest and he dissolved into wracking sobs in Sebastian's arms.

Kurt's eyes fell closed, but he blinked them open a short time later, and without a word Sebastian knew that Kurt wasn't going back to sleep, which suited Sebastian just fine. After just two hours of solid nightmares, he felt he had slept enough.

For the next few days they stayed like this, wrapped up in each other's arms, lying in bed, only getting up when room service brought them their food or they needed to use the bathroom. They barely slept during the night, opting instead to nap for a few hours in the afternoon, since the light of day shining on their eyes seemed to keep the terror at bay.

During one of Kurt's naps Sebastian managed to use his iPhone to text his brother, letting him know about the horrible attack and the criminal investigation that ensued. Richard called back immediately, eager to hear the whole story from beginning to end from Sebastian's own lips. It felt good to have his brother available to confide in. He knew Justice and Madeline would talk to him about anything, but they were almost as involved in this situation as he was. His brother was an outside party. Reliving the details with Richard was painful, but cathartic. He talked with his brother for hours over the phone. Afterward, he felt healed in a way that he hadn't before, almost renewed.

Now he could work on mending Kurt.

Richard told Sebastian not to worry about a thing, the he had managed to smuggle a little more money into his account without their father being any the wiser. Sebastian had a suspicion that Richard might be paying back Sebastian's inheritance with money from his own trust fund, but he didn't say a word. He knew that even if it were true, Richard would just deny it. He hoped to someday find a way to pay back his brother's undying support and overwhelming generosity.

Sebastian didn't mind spending the day with Kurt cradled in his arms, but Kurt refused to speak, and the quiet started to get to him. It began to feel a little too reminiscent of those last few days he spent with his mother; too much time sitting in silence because he was a stranger to her, and her sometimes adolescent mind remembered that she shouldn't talk to strangers.

So his attempts to bring Kurt back started with stories – anecdotes, fairy tales, anything he could think of.

"When I was seven," Sebastian divulged, "my father bought these two champion Siamese cats…really beautiful animals. They were special. They had this really pale, creamy fur. God, he spent so much money on those little motherfuckers…" Sebastian chuckled, nuzzling his nose into the back of Kurt's neck, inhaling the vanilla scent of his soft, chestnut-colored hair. "Well, one day I got pissed at my dad. I had this big championship soccer tournament…my first one ever and he missed it to go to some lunch meeting or something…something stupid and unimportant to kids. There were always so many of them, and they always got in the way of him spending time with us." Sebastian adjusted his arms around Kurt's body. "So, I caught those stupid cats and I shaved curse words into their fur. I shaved 'fuck you' onto one cat, and 'shit' onto another."

Sebastian paused, seeing if Kurt might respond. When he didn't, Sebastian continued.

"The shaved hair grew back in black, and man, was my dad mad! Like, fire breathing mad." Sebastian gathered Kurt closer to him.

"But he didn't ground me. He just…he just didn't talk to me for a long time. The cats shed, and their fur came back all perfect, so you know, no harm done. I just never realized that I was less important than a cat."

Sebastian sighed into the back of Kurt's neck, and deep inside his chest, Kurt's heart, frozen in fear and weighed down by inconsolable sorrow, began to melt.