Kurt and Sebastian ordered dinner for carryout on their way down into the subway on the last leg of their trek from the airport and their apartment. They picked up their order and got home a little after 6:00.
Sebastian left his suitcase at the door and washed up and began to plate their dinner.
They had left the air-conditioning on low while they were gone and Kurt turned it up as soon as they came in. Since it was pretty stuffy, he stripped down to just his shorts while he emptied his luggage into the washer. He took his suitcase and put it under the bed. He left his shoes behind in the closet. He went out to grab Sebastian's suitcase and add his clothes to the load.
"You don't have to do that," Sebastian said, eyeing him up and down in just his shorts, struggling not to abandon his task and give into his urge to wrap his arms around Kurt and kiss him senseless.
"I know. But I want to. That smells so good. I'll be right back." He kissed Sebastian on the cheek as he walked past.
Sebastian smiled chuckled quietly. I'm a lucky man. He rinsed the containers and tossed them into the recycling and put their plates on the table.
Kurt came back in and washed up and sat down. He had his phone with him. He took a deep breath. "I'm turning this back on, even though I don't really want to. I only told my dad to call you. The shop could have called." He took a few bites before he brought himself to do it. "Hey, did you check your AP scores?"
"Oh! No, I didn't. I thought about it this morning, but then we got busy and went out on the airboat tour, which was so cool. It's weird that it was just this morning." He took his phone out and logged in to get his scores.
"It is. Here I go." He powered his phone back on and continued to eat while it restarted.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" He had a huge smile on his face. "I got all 5s."
"My boyfriend is so smart." Kurt winked at him.
"And I'm going to miss mine while he works all day tomorrow to make up some hours."
"I'll miss you too." He looked down at his phone. "Ugh. So many texts. I'm starting with…Marley?"
-You live here, right? Can I come to your place, please? And Unique too?
"Marley wants to bring Unique here."
"Why?"
"I don't know yet."
"Sure, I guess. They're your friends, right?"
"Well, I don't really know either one of them that well, but neither has ever done anything to mean to me."
"Yeah. Give them the address."
-Why do you need somewhere to go?
-Oh, never mind my texts from yesterday. I should have sent another one. We went to Santana's. That's where we're staying now.
-When is your flight back?
-Not until Sunday after lunch.
-Okay. I have to work all day tomorrow, but I'll talk to Santana and have her bring you two over here for dinner tomorrow evening.
-That sounds great. I'll see you then. I have to go. Our pizza's here.
He put his phone back down. "It turns out they went home with Santana last night. I invited them over for dinner tomorrow. I'll see if they want to stay here instead since we actually have room for them."
"That's fine. Mr. Softie." He winked at Kurt.
"Pot calling the kettle black."
Sebastian laughed. "I am not a softie."
"Ha!" Kurt retorted. "You let me live here without paying rent."
"You needed a place to go and I had one." He winked at Kurt.
"Mmm hmm. But lots of people have places sitting empty that they don't let people live in for free."
"It wasn't entirely altruistic though." He tried to hide the grin on his face.
"Is that so?"
He nodded. "I may have had ulterior motives."
"Only maybe?" Kurt got up and walked around the table and sat in Sebastian's lap, wrapped his arms around Sebastian's neck, and kissed him.
Sebastian wrapped his arms around Kurt.
"You lured me into your web and caught me in your trap of kindness." Kiss. "And generosity." Kiss. "And sweetness." Kiss. "And friendship." Kiss. "And love." He pressed in and kissed Sebastian until they were breathless.
When they pulled apart to catch their breath, Sebastian said, "I'll only confess to one or two of those. The rest are our secret."
Kurt pecked him on the lips. "I'm afraid you already showed your soft underbelly to Santana."
"Damn," he said in a mock-aggravated tone. He sighed. "You're rubbing off on me."
"Not yet, but in time…"
Sebastian cracked up. He reached up and wrapped his hand behind Kurt's neck and pulled him down for another searing kiss. "I love you," he said right before he kissed him.
When they broke apart again, Kurt hummed. "Mmm. You're a good kisser."
"Good to know," he teased.
Kurt ran his hand through Sebastian's hair and kissed him on the forehead. "I love you too." He went back to his own seat and began to eat. He opened his text messages again, looking through the list to read Santana's next. There were 12 in a row from the day before.
-I'm laughing so hard. OMG. She's ridiculous.
-You must have your phone off. Good for you.
-I didn't know that Isabelle was Sebastian's aunt. OMG, this is great.
-Apparently, you're sleeping your way to the top at Vogue.
-I just saw several of the younger kids look up the word nepotism.
-She asked me if knew. I said no – which is true. I didn't know that Sebastian was Isabelle's nephew. Obviously that's not what she was really asking.
-Blaine looks like he swallowed turpentine. This is 11/10 fun. And here I thought I was going to hate this party.
-Kudos on being smart enough to stay far away.
-You better bring me something from Florida for not telling her the whole truth.
-You have no idea how much Snixx wants to cause her to go apoplectic by telling her the truth.
-You owe me a homemade dinner too. With something chocolate for dessert.
-Oh and I scored the two tickets you asked for. Text me back when you turn your phone on so I know what time dinner is being served. I'll bring your tickets then.
Kurt laughed and turned went back up to the top and turned the phone around to let Sebastian read the texts.
Sebastian's facial expression was hard for Kurt to read. He looked upset, but relieved.
"What's the look on your face? It's not one I've seen before." He reached out and put his hand on top of Sebastian's.
"Your friends hate me, but you laughed, so I'm not sure what to make of that."
"I laughed because they're ridiculous. Think about it, Bas. Rachel is trashing me and our relationship, all while having absolutely no idea that you're my boyfriend. Don't you see how utterly absurd the whole thing is? I'm a slut who's sleeping my way to the top. She is Team Blaine. The role of Rachel's 'best gay' is wide open, except that Blaine won't be here to take his rightful place at her side like she's been planning since Blaine's father is paying for him to go to Oberlin instead of coming here to NYADA. She's mad. I'm sure he's livid. He can't ride on her coat tails and possibly get a role on Broadway if he's in Ohio. I could be dating anyone and this would be the outcome. I'm supposed to be penitent and celibate until Blaine can convince his dad to let him come to New York. I'm supposed to be 'saving myself' for him. I'm his. In her eyes, it doesn't matter who you are. That's why this all such nonsense. She's never going to give anyone a chance. Adam and I weren't dating, but we could have been, meaning that there was nothing preventing us from it. We were both single. And it was just so weird because not long after I met Adam, she was all 'Being in love in New York is great. Go for it, Kurt. Live your life. Find someone new." But then, when she found out that Brody was an escort, she changed her tune. She lost her new man, so I guess I didn't deserve one either? I don't even know, like, at all. And then I was such an idiot at the wedding-that-wasn't. Maybe that was it. Maybe my stupidity made her think that I was still in love with Blaine. I don't know. I guess I need to talk to her. What a mess!"
The buzzer on the washer went off. Sebastian started to get up.
"I'll get it when I finish," Kurt said. "I can't talk to Rachel before opening night on Sunday. It doesn't matter how annoyed I am with her, I'm not going to do anything to throw her off her game on opening night. Monday. Just plan for Monday evening. Either I'll go to her place or invite her here." Kurt went back to eating and looking through his texts.
"If you don't want her showing up here unannounced, you might want to go there. I'll grab the laundry since I'm done." He put his plate in the dishwasher and went to work on the laundry. "You still have a lot of texts to look through probably."
He tossed the stuff that could be dried into the dryer. "Did you invite Sam for dinner and to stay the night too? I'm assuming you're going to have him sleep on the sofa."
"I didn't, but I could. It's comfortable. I slept on it when my parents were here for my birthday."
"You could have slept in my bed or let them sleep in there and slept in your own bed."
"I didn't want to presume and they showed up as a surprise." He looked back at his phone and opened Tina's text, knowing that he would delete it.
-Way to stay classy. Revenge sex. I didn't think you were the type.
"Tina thinks we're having 'revenge sex'."
Sebastian popped around the closet and looked at Kurt. "What?"
Kurt laughed. "She thinks I'm sleeping my way to the top at Vogue as revenge on Blaine for cheating on me."
"I must have missed the headlines of how the earth quit orbiting the sun while we were lounging around in Florida."
Kurt broke out laughing. "That's good one. I may steal it at some point in the next few days."
"Be my guest."
Kurt finished eating and helped Sebastian with the laundry. "We need to make our shopping list. We'll need extras for dinner tomorrow evening. I think maybe we need to consider get a set of sturdy folding chairs."
"That's a good idea. We can look online and figure out where to get them from and I'll get them tomorrow. We can hang them behind the clothes in the closet in the spare room to keep them out of the way. We'll just have to get some hooks and install them. I can do that tomorrow too."
Kurt turned and kissed him. "Thank you."
"Sure. When we finish this, let's shower early and snuggle. I know you have to get up early."
"Sounds perfect. I'll go through the rest of my texts and messages while you're in the shower."
Kurt crawled across the ottoman and climbed into the corner and curled up in Sebastian's arms when he came back from showering.
"Were there a lot of bad ones?"
"Not really. Mercedes is still here in town and wants to see me. Tina's wasn't polite, but I didn't expect it to be. She's been in love with Blaine for quite a while, so since she's so head-over-heels for him, she can't see why I would ever let him go. She chewed me out at the wedding back in February."
"She knows he's gay, right?"
"She does, but that hasn't stopped her from wishing that he's secretly bi. If he were, Tina wouldn't have had a chance anyway. She was dating Mike when Blaine and Rachel made out at her party. If Blaine had been bi, I'm pretty sure that they'd still be dating. He was manly. She saw him as leading man material, but never me. Anyway, the texts. Artie – not supportive. Tina – obviously not supportive. Santana expects a homemade meal for keeping her mouth shut. You saw that."
"Stop for a minute. I want to make sure that you know that Rachel is wrong. You are leading man material. You might have to dress differently than you normally do and you might have to act very un-Kurt-like to do it. But that's just it. You don't want to get up on the stage and be yourself. You want to be an actor."
Kurt took a deep breath. "Deep down I know that, but having never lived it yet makes it harder to believe." He picked Sebastian's hand up and started tracing patterns on his palm. "Mercedes just asked if I wanted to meet up. She didn't say anything else, so I don't know where she stands. I wasn't really close enough to anyone else for them to feel the need to text me about their opinion. Puck, Mike, and the new members from this year – none of them texted me. Oh, and Brittany wants to meet up."
"Okay."
"Let's see. They're all going sightseeing tomorrow. Marley and Unique would like to spend the night tomorrow. I didn't end up asking Sam. I figured that two extra people here would be enough. We can invite him over once he moves here."
"Okay."
"Maybe we could invite Mercedes and Brittany to the flea market with us. That way I can spend a little time with each of them without it being super awkward by having Sam, Brittany, Santana, and Mercedes together here in the apartment."
"Sure. I don't know why it would be awkward, but we can do whatever you think will work."
"Awkward means Sam dated Mercedes first, then Santana, and then most recently Brittany. They broke up at spring break when she left for MIT. And Santana and Brittany dated until last October when Santana broke up with Brittany because she felt that she couldn't be a good long-distance girlfriend to Brittany."
"Awkward doesn't even begin to cover that."
"I don't know why no one ever dated anyone outside the Glee Club." Kurt chuckled. "Five more minutes of snuggles, and then I'll grab my phone and send the texts so we can get in bed and snuggle."
Sebastian kissed him.
The next morning, Sebastian pushed Kurt against the wall near the door, leaning into him kissing him passionately. They broke for air. "You're nearly as tall as me those 'fuck me' boots. So hot."
"You like me in my steel-toed work boots?" Kurt took the opportunity to flip their positions and started kissing down Sebastian's neck. "I really have to go. I can't be late."
Sebastian whimpered and tried to catch his breath. "Yes, I like you in your work boots and the loose-by-your-standards jeans and your hair not fixed. And I like you in your swim trunks and your tight-as-fuck pants. I'm 100% certain that I'm going to love your birthday suit." He flipped them again and started kissing Kurt.
"Bas, sweetie," Kurt said as he pushed Sebastian back just enough to look into his eyes. "I'm not going to the moon. I'm just going to work. I'll be back around 4:30."
Sebastian took a deep breath. "I know. I'm going to go through withdrawal," he teased. He kissed him once more. "I love you."
Kurt squeezed him. "I love you too." Kurt pulled the door open and hurried down the stairs.
Sebastian put his pent up energy into cleaning the apartment. He was ready to do their shopping by the time the grocery store opened. He brought back everything that they would need for dinner and breakfast the next morning. He followed Kurt's recipes and made a loaf of banana nut bread and a second loaf of apple cinnamon bread. He prepped everything he could for dinner before heading back out to buy the silver chairs he had found online. He took a taxi back to the apartment. When he stepped inside, he washed his hands and pre-heated the oven.
He pulled the drop-leaf sides up, wiped the table and the new chairs down. He pulled the table out into the space they usually left open and put the chairs around it. The oven beeped, indicating that it was preheated, so he put the pans of lasagna in to bake.
Kurt came in just as he was closing the oven door. Sebastian stepped closer and pecked him on the lips, knowing that Kurt's immediate goal was the shower.
"It looks amazing in here. Thank you, sweetie. I didn't mean for you to have to be the one to meet Santana's demands for a home-cooked meal."
"It's fine, babe. You had to work. I can cook. I'm not the least bit upset."
Kurt took a few steps in and looked at the chairs. "Oh, wow. Those are amazing. Where did you find chrome chairs? They're not folding chairs though."
"I know. All I could find were grayish-silver, not anything like what I was looking for, but I found these and I thought they would look really good and they're actually comfortable to sit in, unlike folding chairs. They stack, so we can just hang something short above them in the closet if we have to. Plus, the majority of the time that anyone would need to put more clothes in that closet would be when we have people over and we'd be using the extra chairs."
"Good thinking."
"Plus, we can use them for extra seating in the living room if we ever have a larger group of people over since they're comfortable. I'll work on the salad while you're in the shower."
Kurt stepped close enough to kiss him, but not touch. "You're amazing. Thank you."
Dani, Santana, Marley, and Unique showed up about 10 minutes after Kurt had gotten out of the shower. He had just barely had time to get dressed and blow his hair dry and style it. He opened the door and let them in, hugging each one as they walked past.
"It smells fantastic in here," Dani said.
"It really does," Marley agreed.
"Well, it will be done in about 10 minutes, which gives us just enough time to let you get your stuff settled in the guest room."
Sebastian came out of their room right as Marley made it around the end of the kitchen wall. "Hey." He pointed to the other bedroom. "You two ladies can sleep in here. There's some room in the closet if you need to hang anything up for tomorrow. Otherwise, you can just put your suitcases in there for now." He walked out of the alcove and back into the kitchen where Santana and Dani had sat down on the side of the table closest to the wall.
Kurt followed Unique and Marley in.
"You're dating Sebastian?" Unique asked very quietly, obviously confused.
"I am. He's sweet, loving, and kind. I know you've probably heard stories otherwise, but he apologized for all of the nonsense over a year ago and he's walked the talk ever since then. He welcomed the two of you without qualms. Please be kind. Judge for yourselves what kind of man he is. Don't base your view of him on information that's a year and a half old and told by a potentially unreliable source."
Unique raised her eyebrow. "You do have a point."
"We'll judge for ourselves," Marley agreed. She followed Kurt back out in the living room. "I like this place. It's not big, but it feels comfortable and cozy."
Unique was right behind her. "I like the vintage vibe. Clean lines, but with personality."
Sebastian said, "Dinner's just about done."
They sat down to salad, traditional lasagna, and a white vegetarian lasagna.
After dinner, Santana and Dani took their dessert with them because they were too full to eat it. Santana hugged Sebastian on the way out. She spoke quietly where no one else could hear her. "You're a good guy and a good cook. I know Kurt worked late. You're a keeper."
He chuckled and closed the door. He put the leftovers in the fridge while Kurt loaded the dishwasher. Once everything was put away, they put in a movie and relaxed before they ate the chocolate pie that Sebastian had made that morning.
Sunday morning, they ate the banana and cinnamon bread and drank milk and coffee with Mercedes and Brittany before heading out to the flea market. Unique and Marley stayed close together on the subway. Mercedes pulled Kurt away from the others and Brittany did the same with Sebastian.
"Why are you dating Sebastian?" Mercedes started off with a very interrogational, confrontational tone.
"Because I love him."
"Love him? It's been what? Four months since Blaine proposed to you?"
"Yes. But I wasn't in love with Blaine then. I have been in love with him since last November."
"That's not how it looked at Mr. Schue's bomb of a wedding."
"I realize that, but I'm telling you the truth."
"So you and Blaine are over for good?"
"Permanently. Once I finally had some support and got some counseling, I was able to stick to my guns. He cheated on me. I deserve better than that. I deserve a boyfriend who won't have sex with someone else when I've been gone two weeks."
"Say what now?" She lowered her voice. "Sex?"
"Yes. And then blamed me and said it was because I wasn't around when he needed me. I'm not his personal dildo, and he knew I was going to be in New York, so he should have planned appropriately." He tipped his head and raised an eyebrow. "He had a ticket and changed it to fly in two weeks early. Why not just come to me for what he couldn't seem to live without instead of going to a random?"
"I didn't know. No one told me. You didn't tell me."
"I didn't tell anyone. I accepted the blame. I was ashamed. I wasn't enough. I was never enough, but it's not like that with Sebastian. He loves me and I love him."
"Alright. Alright. Don't be keeping secrets like you did. I would have never backed his proposal idea if I had know he had slept with someone else." She pulled him into a hug.
While Kurt and Mercedes were talking, Brittany was talking to Sebastian.
"You know, Kurt was the sweetest boy I ever dated, even though it was for just like three days. Santana pulled me aside at Rachel's party and told me what Blaine Warbler had done. I didn't know until then. You better not hurt Kurt like he did. You weren't a nice person, but Santana used to be a lot more mean too. She said you changed. I hope so because Kurt deserves a good boyfriend this time, not a cheater."
"I agree, Brittany. I completely agree." He looked over to where Kurt and Mercedes were talking.
"You love him."
"I do."
"Good. Why are there markets for fleas in New York City and why are we going to one? I used to take Lord Tubbington to the vet for flea baths. I don't want any fleas. Do they sell other stuff like ticks and roaches? I don't want any of those either, but I just wondered."
Sebastian smiled and answered her kindly. "I'm honestly not sure how the name came into being, but a flea market is just like a giant yard sale, but it's in the street and they block the streets off so no cars can drive down them during the sale."
"Well, that makes sense about having the yard sale in the street because I haven't seen any yards here at all."
"Very true. I think you'll like it there. Kurt loves it."
"And you love it because he does?"
He was struggling to keep up with how intuitive she was, yet how she asked the most basic questions. "That's true, but I also like it just because it's fun."
"Did you really live in Paris?"
"I did."
"We went there the summer after sophomore year. I got lost in the sewers. It was really creepy."
"In the catacombs?"
"Yeah. Except I always forget that word. I liked the really amazing churches and museums."
"Me too." Sebastian saw Kurt moving towards the door and he took Brittany's hand and pulled her gently towards the same door.
Marley and Unique saw them and followed them.
No one left the flea market empty-handed.
Later that evening, Kurt and Sebastian dressed up to attend the Funny Girl opening. They met up with Dani, Santana, and Isabelle to have dinner before Santana and Isabelle needed to be at the theater for the red carpet entrance. Dani talked the two of them into letting her take a few photos of them dressed up in their suits before they went to the theater. They weren't that are to convince. She took several and they said their goodbyes.
Kurt and Sebastian went inside the theater, found their seats, and sat down.
"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked.
"Not really, but a promise is a promise. And nothing is hurt but my pride. I'll live."
Sebastian reached over to take Kurt's hand. He adjusted the small bouquet he had in his hands so that he could hold Sebastian's hand.
"I told you about beating her at Midnight Madness."
"Yeah."
"Well, afterwards, she was devastated. She was moping through the halls near where I was standing, talking to Adam about something. I went over to talk to her, to try to encourage her to audition for Fanny. Her response was, direct quote, 'You should try out, Kurt. You'd be an amazing Fanny Brice."
"What the hell?"
"Exactly. I know I sing a lot of songs traditionally sung by women, but I am a guy. I am not interested in playing a woman in a production. Anyway, she knows just how to hurt me. I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm her to keep my word."
Sebastian squeezed his hand once more. They sat in silence waiting for the show to start. Once it finished, they met up with Santana. Sebastian stayed behind while Kurt went with Santana backstage.
Santana knocked on Rachel's door and waited just a few seconds and opened it. "Rachel?"
"Yeah, what? Is Sidney looking for me already?"
"No. Can I come in?"
"I guess."
She stepped inside and Kurt followed her.
"Kurt," Rachel said flatly.
"I promised to be at your opening on Broadway years ago. And I keep my promises. These are for you." He stepped forward enough to hand her the flowers and stepped back again. "You were fantastic, Rachel. Really amazing. I won't keep you. I know people are waiting to see you. We do need to talk, though. So, unless you have pressing plans tomorrow evening, I'd like to bring dinner to your place when I get off from work."
She nodded. "Alright."
"I'll see you then." He turned and walked away. He managed to make it down the stairs before he started to cry. He wiped the few tears that had escaped and made his way back to where Sebastian was waiting.
