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2

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"Have you lost weight?" Rachel asked highly concerned as her eyes skated over Kurt's face and form. They were eating dinner and Kurt kept glancing at his phone. The dinner started far later than he'd planned. "You didn't have any weight to lose. You're looking gaunt."

Sebastian had complained about something similar just the other night and mentioned it again last night, less of a complaint and more of a concern like Rachel's face was betraying when her tone didn't let you know that. Kurt frowned at her. "Just having a lot of sex, it burns off the calories like you wouldn't believe."

It was a bit rude since she was in the middle of a dry spell herself. Rachel wasn't thrown off. "Seriously Kurt, there are dark circles under your eyes that not even your expert skill at makeup can hide."

"It's just worn off." He winced as he realized he'd walked into that one. Rachel was crafty. "I'm fine."

"Is it on purpose?" Rachel pushed. "Or stress? Or... when's the last time you went to the doctor?" Her voice was sharper toward the end, fear making it that way.

Kurt shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know, I don't have a lot of spare time and the times that are available for routine physicals are at the worst possible times for me to go."

"They're important." Rachel insisted. "Especially with your family history."

"I'm not sick, Rachel." Kurt responded dryly and looked for the waitress, it had been too long since they were seated and given menus. He had to get going, he'd planned on 2 hours with Rachel but she'd squandered about half of that with her lateness. He tracked her movements and waited until she turned toward them before he waved her over. He let Rachel order first and then ordered himself a salad and another water.

"Aren't you hungry?" Rachel was frowning over his food choice.

"Salads are huge and filling." Kurt frowned at her right back. "And they're incredibly healthy. Weren't you just concerned about that?"

"Yeah but that's something for people trying to lose weight. You're too thin."

"It's not for people trying to lose weight. Some salads have more calories than the unhealthy meal options."

"But that's in the dressing, you asked for it to be kept to the side." Rachel frowned at him. "Is Sebastian mocking your weight? Is he making you feel badly about yourself? You don't have to listen to that jerk. I don't get how you started up with him."

"Yeah..." Kurt didn't get how it started either. "I don't know, five years since the last time you've seen someone can change how you view them. Chance encounters and all that." Both were kind of closed off in their own ways and it just kind of worked for them. He supposed he had wanted a bit more than what he had with Sebastian but it was enough at the same time. He was given more in some ways than he'd had with his other relationships and he was calling it a relationship even if all they did was hook up. "And no, Sebastian isn't making me feel badly about my body. Well, he hadn't been until last week when he was as tactful about my weight loss as you are."

"I don't get why you don't get together with Elliott. He's hot, sweet, outgoing, cares deeply about you and is perfect for you." She totally ignored the fact that Kurt told her that Sebastian thought the same way about his weight loss, was also concerned about it when Kurt wasn't.

"And Sebastian is totally baseless when he says that my friends are trying to push me into Elliott's arms." Kurt drawled.

"Sebastian isn't good for you." Rachel gave a pointed look over Kurt once more. "Elliott would be, and Sebastian's right, we are trying to hook you up with Elliott."

"You have to decide which it is, am I sick or am I with someone making me that way?" Kurt threw it right back at her. "You can't have it both ways."

Their food came and they ate in relative quiet, the tension between them greater than earlier as they both held to their opinions. There was a little annoyance at the other for not budging and what was said. Kurt because it didn't matter who he was sleeping with as long as he was ok with it and Rachel because she couldn't believe he couldn't see how ridiculous it was.

Kurt only ate half of his salad before he asked for a box. Rachel watched him do so with a clear expression on her face. "I'm full." Kurt bit out and watched her eat for a little while longer. He played with his water glass and took sips on occasion. "I didn't criticize your relationship with Brody, even after everything came to light."

"Well you should have. Besides, Finn put a stop to that, thanks to Santana's interference. I didn't want the risk of the STDs that he could have given me if he wasn't so careful." She let that hang in the air between them, nodding at the similarity she viewed between Sebastian and Brody even though she was way off the mark. Then reinforced it in case he wasn't smart enough to infer what she was saying. "If Finn were to find out... or happened to be in New York one of these days..."

"Ok, Rachel, enough. I'm tired of you and Santana telling me your opinions on Sebastian. That was far enough but I put up with it. I should have ended it ages ago though. Threatening to tell Finn who would come here and do what? Hit Sebastian and threaten him? Keep him from seeing me? Is that really the path you want to take? Besides, Finn was never good at scaring Sebastian. Sebastian always got the upper hand in their arguments."

"Just because Sebastian was a bully and put out that horrible picture – doesn't mean that he won or that Finn wouldn't be able to scare him off. Finn's so much bigger than Sebastian and even bigger than he was in high school."

"Sebastian's attack was a lot more effective than you're giving him credit for. He totally derailed Finn's mental and emotional balance for awhile with that terribly fake picture. Finn fell for the attack easily. His self-confidence was still floundering then. Going to military camp, shooting himself in the foot and traveling for awhile toughened him up in a good way."

"So you just admitted that Sebastian acted poorly when it came to Finn and is capable of mental warfare."

"Uh... yeah, that was always his forte." Kurt shook his head. "Rachel, just drop it."

"But-"

"Drop. It."

"Fine." Rachel pushed her food around a little more and Kurt glanced at his phone. "Who are you waiting to text you?"

"I'm not. I'm watching the time. My band has a gig that I have to go help set up for and then perform at the show tonight."

"You never invite me."

"They're not very big venues." Kurt gave a small shrug. "I'll let you come when it's something bigger."

"Is it really all the sex?" Rachel asked softly and Kurt looked at her and smiled broadly, letting her off the hook. They could never stay mad at each other for long.

"It's definitely a big part of it."

"Wow." Rachel was floored by the sheer amount of sex and quality of sex it was to have lost those rightly stubborn pounds.

A smirk crossed Kurt's lips at that. "Yep."