Authors' Note: This is a collaboration fic between Starlight_Daylight (who started the prompt on tumblr), SilverGreyAndMauve (who picked it up) and me :)

"No, you can keep it," Sebastian softly said, clasping his hand around Kurt's when he noticed the latter about to remove the ring, "You can do whatever you want with it. Sell it, give it away, I don't care. I bought it for you."

Kurt stared at the hand around his, shaking his head slightly, "No, you bought it for the man you were going to marry." Gently pulling his hand free, Kurt slipped off his engagement ring from his finger. He allowed himself to stare at it awhile longer, memories of the proposal rushing through his mind. It was everything anyone could have dreamed of, the romance, the grandness of gesture. But what does it matter in the end?

With a sad smile, Kurt held it out for Sebastian to take it back. With a sigh, he did, the cold metal feeling slightly heavier than he remembered.

"And I'm not him."

Sebastian swallowed, his heart beating faster as he tried to muster the courage to voice the thought that hadn't stopped clattering around in his head since Kurt had arrived and awoken him to drop this bomb in his lap.

"You still could be," he said slowly, "if…I went with you."

Kurt shook his head. "No," he said firmly, even as his eyes misted over, soft and filled with affection for Sebastian for even suggesting it. "That's out of the question. I can't drag you into this–not any more than I already have. If you go with me, then they'll just be after you, too. You still have a life here, Bas, I'm not gonna let you throw it away to be with me."

There was a part of Sebastian that knew, instinctively, that Kurt was right. Maybe it would be easier to accept once he had had time to really think about it, after the shock had worn off, and maybe he would come to be grateful to Kurt for refusing him after he had taken the time to appreciate everyone and everything in his life that he so often took for granted. But at this moment, all he could think about was the horrible fact that the time he had left to spend with Kurt was running out fast, and it seemed worth giving up anything just to be able to hold on tight and refuse to let him go anywhere without him.

Sebastian opened his mouth to speak, not even sure what he was going to say, but was cut off before he could even begin when an earsplitting noise rang out, shaking the ground beneath them and startling them both.

Kurt turned his head in the direction of the noise, looking shaken, and Sebastian felt a chill run through him.

"Is that…" Sebastian started after a moment's hesitation. "Was that, y'know…you?"

Kurt just nodded, and for a moment, he didn't say anything. Sebastian knew without having to ask that he was imagining the state of his home right now, and thinking about the fact that he was supposed to be in it.

Snapping himself out the trance he had slipped into, Kurt turned back to Sebastian, his eyes filling with tears. "I have to go," he said softly. "I've already been gone too long, and Dad and the Marshal assigned to us are gonna freak if they wake up and find me missing."

"Kurt," Sebastian started.

But Kurt just shook his head. "I'm so sorry," he choked. "I shouldn't have come at all, I just–I just couldn't bear to let you think that–"

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sebastian soothed automatically. "I understand."

But he really didn't understand at all. He had known of course that something was wrong, ever since Kurt had failed to meet him for dinner Friday night. When he had subsequently failed to answer any of Sebastian's calls or texts, a visit to his home had found Kurt curled up on the couch, shaking and insisting that he was fine but that he must be coming down with something.

In the days that followed, Kurt had been withdrawn and jumpy, always looking like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and never relaxing even for a moment. Whenever Sebastian had questioned him about it, Kurt had brushed it off, claiming that he still just wasn't feeling well. Sebastian had never fully believed him, but he had given him his space, trusting that whatever was troubling him, he would eventually tell him about it when he was ready. He never thought he would be standing here having this conversation; being told that they had to break up and could never see each other again, because whatever had happened on Friday was so terrible that Kurt couldn't tell Sebastian about it without putting his life in danger.

The look in Kurt's eyes now was of defeat as he stared longingly at Sebastian, a world of unspoken thoughts and feelings passing over his face. "I couldn't leave without saying goodbye," he finished at last in a small, guilty voice.

Sebastian just nodded numbly, as there didn't seem to be anything else he could do.

Repressing a sob, Kurt moved forward and threw his arms around Sebastian, holding him in one last, tight embrace like he never wanted to let go.

"I love you," Kurt whispered brokenly. "I always will."

Before Sebastian could say anything in return, Kurt promptly pulled away, giving him a parting kiss on the cheek, and then he turned on his heel and ran.

Sebastian sighed heavily as he watched him disappear into the night, a cold, churning feeling in his stomach that he knew was his body's way of taking in the news that his mind was still struggling to process. He wasn't heartbroken yet–he was still too stunned, too utterly overwhelmed to let himself believe that this could really be happening–but he could tell that he would be when the reality of the situation finally sank in. He subconsciously closed his hand over the ring, which was all he had left of the future he and Kurt had planned together.

Sebastian didn't know how long he stood there, but he continued to stare after Kurt even long after he had disappeared from his sight.

Eventually, Sebastian returned to himself enough to be able to move, and he retreated through his window, closing it behind him, and got back into bed. Not that he was going to be able to sleep, knowing now that he was likely never going to see his fiancé–his ex-fiancé, he reminded himself–again.

In the morning, it would be all over the news: Gas Line Bursts, Congressman Hummel and Son Killed in Explosion. But Sebastian knew the truth. Tomorrow, Kurt and his father would begin a new life in a different city, under different names, never to be seen or heard from by anyone from their old life again. And the people who had tried to take them out would think that they had won.