Kurt took a deep breath. "You want us to sleep in the same bed?"

"I don't have cooties, Kurt. You're starting to give me a complex. I showered this morning, but I'll shower again tonight because we've been moving furniture. It's not like I'm going to get in your bed all disgusting and sweaty."

Kurt just stood there for a minute before his brain re-engaged. They didn't have time for this. "We need to get the rest of the stuff up here." He headed for the door and went down the stairs. He had the back of the truck unlocked by the time Sebastian got there.

They grabbed the lower section of the large wood unit that Kurt had been using as a room divider and locked the back and went back up. They continued the process until they had the truck empty.

Sebastian stopped on his way out to return the truck. "I'll have a pizza delivered. What do you want or what do you absolutely not want?"

"All veggies on my half. Any. Thanks."

Sebastian left. Kurt was left in the apartment alone.

He decided to start unpacking his things. He started with putting the hanging clothes in the closet and then stood in the middle of his new room looking around. He liked the walls. He loved the open feel of the loft, but he had desperately missed real walls. He also realized that Sebastian had failed to mention that there were no curtains.

He went out into the main area and peeked into Sebastian's room again. No curtains anywhere. And no curtain rods. Just great. His mind flashed to the bathroom. He opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief. There was a permanently installed shower rod. He went back to his room.

He was too stressed out to think, so he grabbed the ironing board and found his iron. He went and sorted through the Ikea bags and pulled out the shower curtain. He took it back to his bedroom and ironed it. The smooth repetitive motions calmed him some. Once he finished, he grabbed the liner and hooks and hung them up.

"At least we can shower now," he thought.

He went into the kitchen and opened the boxes and began to put what he had brought with him out on the counter. He could at least sort through what he had and make a shopping list. He had intentionally not gone shopping the week before he left, so there wouldn't be much sitting around for the ten days he was gone, tempting his roommates to help themselves to his food while he was gone. He got his notebook out of his satchel and made a list.

He went back to his room and started to unpack his less personal items. By the time Sebastian came back, he had gotten everything back on the wood unit and his desk was ready to use again.

"Looks good." Sebastian said as he walked into the room.

"As good as it can."

"Why are you always being so hard on yourself? I said it's great."

"Thanks. Let's go eat that." He got Sebastian to leave his room and take the pizza to the kitchen. "We can at least sit down. Rachel used money her dads gave her to buy the table, but the chairs are mine. I'm assuming you have a kitchen table and chairs coming tomorrow."

They each took a slice of pizza and started to eat.

"Actually, I don't. Just the living room and bedroom furniture. I didn't really care for the tables at the place we went to to pick out the furniture. I figured I could eat sitting on the sofa until I found something I liked. I wasn't in a rush since I'm not moving in until the middle of June."

"Makes sense." Kurt filled his Brita pitcher with water and sat it on the counter to let it filter.

"Oh, I didn't even think about drinks. Sorry."

"It's fine. I have glasses. We can drink water."

Now that the frenzy had died down, neither one of them really knew what to say. They ate in silence.

For some unknown reason, Sebastian flashed back to hearing about Dave's attempt. He thought back to when he looked up Karofsky's number and called after Dave had gone home from the hospital. He hadn't gotten up the nerve to go see him, but he wanted to apologize. Dave had rebuffed his apology and told him that he didn't have anything to do with his decision. He mentioned deserving what had happened to him at Thurston. He hadn't pushed him to explain. Kurt knew Dave from McKinley. Kurt was surprised to see him at Scandals, but not surprised like he didn't know that Dave was gay, but like he didn't expect to see him there. Something about it seemed odd. When he had talked to Dave, he had mentioned things being bad at McKinley, but that didn't make sense either since he knew that being outed was what had caused him to react the way he had. He hadn't been out at McKinley. Why would he transfer schools at the start of his senior year?

"Can I ask you something?"

Kurt hummed.

"What happened between you and Dave?"

"What do you mean?" Kurt asked, not wanting to give away anything.

"I know you went to school together but it seems like there's something more to it. He wasn't out, but you weren't surprised that he was gay from what I saw. You looked surprised to see him in Scandals. It seemed like you already knew he was gay."

"I did. Actually, Blaine and I both knew."

"How? Did he come out to you? He doesn't strike me as the 'sharing my sexuality' with people type."

He told the truth, but not the whole truth. "He did come out to me." Kurt was still trying to avoid explaining what had happened.

Sebastian looked sceptical. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Hiding things. Telling half-truths."

"It's personal."

"Well, I did share some personal sh… stuff with you today."

"You told me stuff about yourself. This involves stuff about someone besides just me. Plus, I never agreed to tell you anything personal. You were the one on a mission to prove to me that you've changed. Have you worked enough to pay the Andersons back yet?"

"Almost. The rest I'm taking out of my personal savings. I missed my last this afternoon, so I'll be about $75 short, but I'm okay with that. My being confined to campus punishment ended this weekend. I've been working as a filing clerk every weekend working 8-hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday. But lacrosse is going to have Saturday games starting after spring break."

"You called out from work yesterday?"

"I did. I was supposed to fly out tomorrow morning. Thus the lack of furniture today. Someone needs to be here for it to be delivered."

Kurt looked puzzled.

"When I was standing in line at the coffee shop, I called in sick. When you were talking to your dad, I changed my flight to this afternoon, hoping that we'd end up on the same flight, but I didn't know what airline you were flying on. When you were zoned out in the car on the drive to my house, I set up a taxi to pick us up. I originally had one set up for tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I had already packed. So, I just ran in, changed, grabbed my bags, and came back out."

Kurt was floored that Sebastian had done so much to make himself available to help him. "I didn't realize. Thank you."

Sebastian nodded and stuck another bite of pizza in his mouth. He still wanted to understand what had gone on between Dave and Kurt. He continued to eat and it dawned on him. Dave said that he deserved what happened to him. Dave had bullied Kurt.

Unaware of Sebastian's thoughts, Kurt continued. "I'll repay you for the moving truck. You just need to let me know how much it was. And the plastic wrap and packing supplies. And half the pizza. I still have some money in my savings for 'rainy days' and it's been a tsunami-level storm today."

Sebastian only half heard what Kurt had said. "It has been. You can pay me back whenever." He knew that telling Kurt that he didn't need to pay him back would just get Kurt angry again. He went back to thinking about Dave while they continued to eat.

"Why did you go back to McKinley instead of staying at Dalton where you wouldn't get bullied?"

"I missed my friends." he replied curtly.

"That seems unlikely, given the state of their self-centeredness." He had irritated him despite not trying to.

"Fine. I missed my clothes."

Sebastian snorted. "That sounds closer to the truth."

"I went back because I wasn't happy at Dalton. I wasn't happy at McKinley, but at least my unhappiness was free at McKinley. And the bullying was reined in under the leadership of Santana."

"So, the head bully bullied the rest of the bullies into behaving?"

"I'm assuming she has dirt on all of them. She just used her HBIC powers for good, just that once."

Sebastian stared at him in confusion. "But they're both gay."

"You don't say?" Kurt said sarcastically, but quickly changed his tone. "They were each other's beards. You know, they pretended to be in a relationship so nobody would find out they were gay. Haven't you ever had one?"

"No. Have you?"

Kurt smiled a little. "Does the football team count?"

"I don't think so, but please tell the story."

"I thought I was supposed to tell you about Dave?"

"Fuck. Yes, tell me about Dave and then about your affair with the football team." Sebastian paused. "Now I'm imagining you having an affair with the entire football team. At once."

"Wouldn't work. Finn was on the team. Although I would have probably liked that back then." Kurt scrunched his nose. "Another story."

"You sure seem to have a lot of those."

"My life is not as boring as you might think."

"I'm sure that 'interesting' is a better description, as long as it's said with the right inflection."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Okay, so you've never had a beard. Have you ever been in a relationship?" He tried to redirect the focus back onto Sebastian, but he got no answer. He got up and got another slice of pizza. "So, it's okay with you if I leave the big wood unit in the living room along that wall?"

Sebastian looked up and across the room. "Oh, yeah. It's fine. I was going to put the sectional along that wall, but we can just put it in front of it for now. That unit is too big to fit in your room. The bedrooms here aren't all that big. My mom had the place gutted and reframed and everything when the building went co-op. It originally just was, well that doesn't matter. She asked what I wanted, which was a large functional kitchen with full-sized appliances, a washer and dryer of my own, and a second bedroom. I gave her my requests and the architect she hired did what he could with the 500 sq feet. I got everything I asked for, but the bedrooms are pretty small. Sorry, I got off track. You can leave the unit there. It won't be in my way since I won't even be here."

"Right. Thanks."

"Sure." Sebastian shrugged. "You distracted me again. Tell me about Dave, please."

He nodded, but finished his slice before he started to talk. "Dave and I have known each other since middle school. We didn't go to the same elementary school. He wasn't a fan of my change in wardrobe from more 'normal' in middle school to dressing the way I liked in high school. He made his dislike of my wardrobe choices quite clear by attempting to ruin as many outfits as he could with slushies. Him and a good number of the other jocks. He was on the hockey team my freshman year, so he wasn't part of the daily dumpster tosses that were part of the football team's bullying repertoire or part of the lawn furniture being nailed to our roof or the pee balloons. His specialty was locker shoves. That's where someone comes alongside you in the hall and shoves you and you lose your footing and get slammed into the locker banks. That was the source of most of the bruising and the cuts. Some of the vents on the lockers are sharp along the edges. And of course all of the jocks, regardless of their team affiliations, participated in the verbal bullying and throwing slushies. That's it. The McKinley jocks bullied the losers."

"Fuck. That sounds so terrible. Not like the Dave I know at all."

"Yeah, he changed when he was helping Santana with the Bully Whips." Kurt changed the subject. "Now, you know about Dave. Back to you. You've never been in a relationship?"

"Depends on your definition."

"Um, dating someone, exclusively."

"Is sex dating?"

"Were you friends with the person or …"

"Yeah. That's why it's called friends with benefits."

"Are you not into romance or…? Sorry, I've never understood friends with benefits. Why not just date?"

"Well, specifically back then I knew that I had to go back to Ohio for the next school year and I wasn't interested in a long-term, long-distance relationship. I only spent about two and a half months in Paris each year. But honestly, I was 16 and wanted to explore my sexuality."

"I get that. The long-distance relationship thing. Been there, done that. Do not recommend."

"I can see why. He cheated on you after two weeks. I just didn't want the emotional attachment and heartbreak, but like I said, I wanted to explore my sexuality safely. Hooking up in bars didn't appeal to me. Plus, I was trying to stay under the radar with my fake ID. I was living with my aunt and uncle. I couldn't just take someone back to their place and I sure as hell wasn't going to go back to someone else's place and end up in pieces in their freezer."

Kurt laughed, but then stopped abruptly. "What do you mean you don't like hooking up in bars. That was your shtick. Remember, the man of your dreams and your 20-minute relationship at Scandals?"

"The love of my life. That's what I said."

"Same difference."

"I practiced hard on those lines. Don't misquote me," he teased. "That was the problem when Dave approached me to help him learn how to get a guy. I blew him off and insulted him to cover over the fact that I didn't know how to answer him."

"Wait, what?"

Sebastian blushed. "I already told you I'm not experienced."

"Yeah, but I thought you were just yanking my chain."

"I wasn't. I don't really know how to flirt with guys. All the things I said to Blaine? Practiced in front of a mirror."

"So, you acted like you were a player, but you're not." He sighed. "Go on."

"Okay. Here's where I completely humiliate myself. I had the friends with benefits arrangement with Jean. I had known him for several years from hanging around with Henri's friends in the summers, but I didn't know him well enough to know that he was gay. He was in a few of my classes and we paired up for projects since I already knew him. We hit it off. After a couple of months, he told me that he knew I was leaving, but he was interested in the friends with benefits. I took him up on it. I had been to his house before. I was fine with the idea. And that was that. When I came back to Ohio, I didn't want to do the friends with benefits thing again, so I decided to give hooking up a try. I saw Scandals when I got turned around in Lima on the way to my aunt and uncle's place not long after I got back. I went back there one evening and hooked up with a guy." He looked away, unable to maintain any type of eye contact and still speak. "It felt good when he blew me, but I just didn't enjoy it at all otherwise. I thought maybe I just couldn't relax and enjoy it because he was older than me and I was too tense, so I tried one other time with a guy about our age. I still didn't care for it. That's it. Two blow jobs for randoms at Scandals."

Kurt turned his head to the side and looked at Sebastian in consideration. "That's not what I expected."

"What did you expect?"

"I always thought that you made it your life's mission to collect all the STDs. You know, like Pokémon."

Sebastian stood up and put his glass near the sink to use later. He grabbed the Ikea bags on the way to his room and shut the door behind him.

"Well, that can't be good." Kurt said to no one, after Sebastian shut his door.

After finding the pack of hangers, Sebastian started hanging up the clothes he had brought with him, and then put the other items in the built-in drawers and on the shelves in the closet. The suitcase fit up on the top shelf. Once that was out of the way, he plopped down on the floor. He looked through the bags and saw that the stuff for the bathtub was missing. He put all of the towels in a bag together and stepped out of the closet to wash them and remembered that the appliances hadn't been delivered yet. He lay down on the floor and used the bag of towels as a pillow. He crossed his arms over his chest and willed himself to go to sleep.

Kurt didn't know what to do at that point. Sebastian had never been mad at him before, at least not in his presence, plus Kurt had never cared before. He didn't know how to fix whatever had gone wrong. He figured he shouldn't disturb Sebastian and just let him have some time alone. That's what Kurt would have wanted in this situation.

Kurt's eyes roamed the empty apartment and he sighed. He walked over to the windows in the living room and looked outside. The far left of the three windows had access to the fire escape. He considered opening the window and climbing out, but he reconsidered when he remembered that it was Saturday. That meant baking bread, which was something he could do despite the lack of appliances.

He quickly whipped the batter together for cinnamon raisin bread since he didn't have much else. He used a little less oil than the amount of butter called for and hoped for the best. Once the batter was in the bread machine, he cleaned up what he had gotten dirty and stacked everything back with his stuff.

He went into his room and put the rest of his clothes away. When Sebastian still hadn't come back out a half-hour later, he opened the box with the bed frame and began to lay the pieces out so he could assemble it. He made it as far as emptying the box before he ended up sitting against the wall and pulling his knees up to his chest. He rested his forehead on his knees and started to cry as the memories of walking down the circular staircase just nine hours before filled his mind.

All you need is love, love, love

"If that were only true," he thought. "If that were true..." he stopped. "No," he said out loud. He took a deep breath. "I don't have time for a break down." He wiped his eyes on his hoodie sleeve and got back up.

He looked at the directions and realized that it was really a job for two people. He was going to either spend all night doing it by himself or he was going to have to go apologize to Sebastian and hope that he'd be willing to help. He was realizing how much easier it had been to just be mean to Sebastian and pretend that he wasn't human. He was ashamed of himself. Sebastian had a point about it being him who started it with the insults.

He left his room, took the two steps needed to be in front of Sebastian's door, and knocked lightly. "Hey, Sebastian, can I come in?"