Chapter 17: The Past Comes Back to Haunt

"Perhaps, while I was asleep I had returned without the least effort to an earlier stage in my life, now forever outgrown; and had come under the thrall of one of my childish terrors... Still, as a measure of precaution, I would bury the whole of my head in the pillow before returning to the world of dreams."

-Marcel Proust

The world has now officially turned over and fucked itself, Blaine thought as soon as he realized he was in the same room as the Valmont-Merteuil stepsiblings and they weren't trying to murder each other.

" Blaine? Have you been swallowing too much cum lately that you've forgotten how to speak? The beautiful albeit very, very dangerous dark haired woman smiled evilly as if she'd read his thoughts, which, knowing her, wasn't really all that impossible.

"Guys, if you're going to throw things at each other, at least get the ones that aren't newly bought." He warned, knowing their tendency to smash, thrash and fuck up everything in sight when they were angry, and from his experience, everything just seemed to get fucked up more if they were angry at each other.

Valmont just chuckled, those adorable baby blues crinkling. Wait a second. It's been a while since he smiled like that, in fact… Hold on. Their gay friend glanced from Kathryn to Sebastian who was both seated stoically next to each other, years of being brought up by nannies and the pedigree of their upbringing showing in their posture. Were these two actually together? True, she wasn't doing anything so obvious like sitting down his lap, but there was just something different about them. For one thing, they both looked openly relaxed, and for another, like he said, there was still the absence of yelling and flying objects hitting the walls.

"Are you going to stand there and openly leer at Sebastian or are you going to get me the goodies you promised?" she interrupted his train of thought.

"Be right back, princess bitch." He huffed, going into the next room to retrieve the brand new shipment of cocaine. As he was about to go back to his room, he saw something that made him almost drop the plastic baggie he was holding.

Sebastian had pulled her into his lap, his intense blue eyes only staring at her while he gently pushed back a lock of brown hair from Kathryn's smiling and still ever so mischievous face

Holy shit.

"Tell me again why we're doing this." His voice especially calm as he fought to bite back a groan as soon as that naughty smile of Kathryn's came into view and she started grinding her lower body against his lap.

"Because." She replied, her own breaths becoming faster. She wrapped her fingers around his hair, truly looking like she'd missed playing with his soft golden curls, "I believe there's still the matter of retribution against Court Reynolds and we're going to pay him a little visit."

"Why should I come with you?" his reply was not of protest but of curiosity.

Their drug dealer confidante watched in sick fascination as Kathryn's hand snaked down to Valmont's pants and Blaine had to keep himself from either laughing out loud at the obvious fact that they were indeed Kathryn and Sebastian again or to cry out in horror at the idea that they would be having sex on his bed. He knew he'd prayed for Sebastian Valmont to be naked and somewhat sweat on his sheets, but he'd always specified that it would be because of Blaine, not Sebastian's stepsister. He heard the now panting Sebastian catch his breath sharply while his zipper went down, "If you don't come with me, you'll never come…" her hand moved slowly, torturing Sebastian at each languid movement until he looked like he was about to tear her clothes off. "…again."

"Bitch." He groaned, tilting his chin to kiss her smooth neck.

"Asshole." She murmured in reply, quickening her pace while he nipped at her softly.

"Whore." Sebastian shot back, his hands resting on the small of her back while she practically dry humped him.

She gave a little purr in the manner of a very fierce and horny lioness (Come to think of it, if Kathryn did become an animal, that would be her chosen species. That or an especially fierce female dog.), her long hair brushing against his face as her teeth bit his lip gently, "I love it when you talk dirty."

A slow grin crept lazily over his perfect mouth. "How dirty are we talking about?"

"Pretty." She allowed him to kiss her, their mouths almost swallowing each other whole and their hands unable to touch anything else but each other, "Fucking." Their eyes met for the millionth time since Kathryn returned from Paris as they pulled away. "Dirty."

The Greek Carved Upper East Side Sex God Turned Pussywhipped and Now Back In All His Glory looked hopeful, "Think Blaine might take half an hour to get those drugs?"

"If you're lucky…" she whispered wickedly, and even though Blaine might have loved to see Sebastian in his naked splendor, he was in no mood to have his sheets filled with their disgusting fluids.

"Congratulations, Kathryn. You just about did what every other female wanted to do since the Annette Period in New York."

The two turned their heads at Blaine's smirking voice, not one of them blushing from embarrassment at having been caught in a compromising position. Sebastian only smiled coolly as he tucked himself and zipped up his pants while Kathryn's shining green eyes looked vibrantly alive as she resumed her seat earlier. "You mean what you wanted to do ever since you met Sebastian."

Her stepbrother groaned, "Can we not talk about that?" He turned to Blaine, shrugging as he pulled out a cigarette. "No offense."

She snatched the stick from his hand and proceeded to break it in half, throwing it carelessly away while he gave a loud protest. "Fuck, Kathryn that was my last stick! Now I have to get another pack!"

"Not if you want to kiss me you won't." she smiled sweetly at his annoyed reaction.

"What makes you think I want to kiss you, you narcissistic bitch?" he snapped, glaring at her.

"You don't? Okay, I'm leaving." She grabbed the bag from Blaine and gave him a couple of hundreds. "See you around, Tuttle."

Seriously. They were too cute it was almost nauseating. Blaine was about to quip another sarcastic remark about Sebastian preferring virgin blondes as he thought Valmont would just let Kathryn leave when, to his surprise, the curly haired sex god man of his wet dreams stood up and grabbed his stepsister's wrist, that unmistakable look of apology in his damn charming eyes.

"You need me, remember?" he said, now oblivious to the fact that their friend was in the room. Of course, Blaine had been used to this. Whenever Sebastian argued with Kathryn, the entire universe melted away, with the exception of a few fragile antiques that remained for the sole purpose of being thrown at each other.

"I don't seem to recall making that statement." Replied Kathryn with a frosty tone, tugging her hand back. "Now let go."

"Well, I do."

"What?"

He seemed to hesitate before answering since they rarely expressed their feelings (except of course for lust) to each other. "Need you." Sebastian continued in a low voice that sent chills down both Blaine and Kathryn's respective spines.

"HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING!"

Blaine found himself the target of two very intense and annoyed glares coming from a pair of slitted emerald eyes and the other coming from the cocky son of a bitch who had just uttered two words that made him both nauseatingly pathetic and indescribably sweet.

"Can you make it louder? I don't think the entire block heard you!" Kathryn snarled, her gaze looking particularly dangerous yet there was that half smile on her face that came from her stepbrother's reply earlier.

"Since when?"

"None of your business, you fairy." Valmont interrupted, his jaw clenching as his cell phone rang.

She gave him a sympathetic and mocking look, "Mrs. Cleaver?"

"Yeah, I promised her I'd pick her up to take her to the rehearsals."

"Poor pussywhipped Sebastian." Kathryn cooed to his face disdainfully, "When are you going to dump the psycho blonde?"

"For some of us who actually have a conscience, I feel sorry for her, okay? Can't you treat her better? She's been going through a rough time lately."

"Sure, defend the missus."

"Like you didn't defend Mathieu when I made fun of his accent."

Round two, here we come. Blaine seriously considered carrying one of those big cards with the number on it like the ones those slutty girls carry in boxing matches. However, he did know Mathieu and he knew that Kathryn had a deeper attachment to him than Sebastian might think.

"Eat me."

"Blow me."

"Oh, let your faggot friend here do that." She shot back, once again glaring him and his admission earlier completely disappearing from her thoughts.

He finally smiled and Kathryn found herself smiling back despite the harsh volleying of words. "Call me later?"

He smirked at Blaine, who was struck speechless at their exchange before kissing her quickly. "Kay."

"Tell me if I've taken a particularly large dosage of that new drug and I'm hallucinating or if that just really happened." Their mutual friend spoke slowly as soon as he and Kathryn were left alone.

"No, you're not. However, if Sebastian did come in and you both fucked like bunnies, that would be when you'd need to stop those damn pills." She replied, picking up the credit card on his table to snort a line.

"So I guess that trip he made to Paris after graduation wasn't a complete and utter waste like he said. You did get back together."

Her dark head shot up, the high immediately disappearing at Blaine's reply. "What?"

Shit. He cursed himself for being in a position to have to lie in front of Kathryn Merteuil, who read people so well it scared even him.

"I need you to cover for me." Valmont announced, throwing a thick wad of bills in front of Blaine.

He would have made a clever quip when he realized how serious Sebastian looked. "Where are you going?"

" Paris." He might as well have said 'To her' and Blaine Tuttle would've understood better. So, after making some bullshit lie about Sebastian heading off to a photography convention in Italy, he found the usually arrogant Sebastian Valmont weeks later in the very same room, his clear blue eyes clouded over.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." He snapped, "What's the strongest shit you have right now?"

His forehead wrinkled in confusion, Kathryn may have had a penchant for drugs but her stepbrother, aside from the usual pot, never did. "Come on, Valmont. What's wrong?"

The way he glanced at Blaine, so oddly disappointed and accepting of the circumstances, the frustration in his tight jaw line, made him take out the new batch of crack he'd recently purchased and was saving for a particularly fun night. A few minutes later, Sebastian lay sprawled on the couch, tufts of dark blonde hair falling gracefully on his smooth forehead. His eyes were half closed, his words slow and somewhat sleepy. He was speaking in strange murmurs, but the last thing he said and the only thing Blaine ever understood that ever came out of his pale mouth before Sebastian fell asleep were:

"Don't tell Kathryn."

"Err… Nothing."

"Sebastian came to Paris?" she glanced at him sharply, her eyes speaking the threats her mouth didn't have to.

He forced a strangled laugh, "Did I say that? I meant, Sebastian hooked up with Paris as a dare. You know, one of those party things that happened during the graduation party some guy threw in his loft…"

" Blaine."

"Yeah, it was really funny, you see, 'cause he was drunk and Annette was with her family so Valmont decided to go and there was this blonde skinny chick who kept staring at him so I dared him to go fuck her and he was really drunk and stoned so he did."

"Tell me the truth."

He was spinning the lie so easily now, having had years of practice in the lying department. "I caught him in the bathroom with her and they were going at it in the tub. You should've seen him Kathryn, he was so wasted he couldn't even remember his name and what went where."

"If you don't tell me the truth I'll cut off your balls and feed them to the homeless."

"My, aren't we charitable."

She threw the credit card down and gave him the most threatening, conniving evil look she'd ever given Blaine. "I don't make idle threats, Tuttle."

"Okay," he threw his hands up in surrender, preferring to move away from her just in case. "A year after you left, he tried to go after you."

"Why?" she asked quietly.

"He was rambling about some letter he'd written and how he was going to give it to you personally. He wasn't sure where you were so he decided to go there to make sure you got it." He glanced at her questioningly, "You did get it, didn't you?

She paused, "No."

"Well, you're going to have to talk to him about it. I'm in enough deep shit as it is, he told me not to tell you. Of course, this lessens the complications, right? Now you know he did try to come back to you."

Kathryn stood up to get her purse, "Trust me, Blaine. This new piece of information has done quite the opposite."

---

Belinda was not having the time of her life. So far, her thoughts alternated from strangling those incompetent stylists to the insipid ugly waifer thin socialites who constantly sucked up to her and name dropped just about every damn model in the industry, most of which, they claimed, were their 'best friends since high school'. To make things worse, her head hurt like hell and it wasn't even a hangover. She'd had to call the damn phone company to temporarily block Trevor's calls, listen to Annette's pitiful woes, and she was running out of her pills, the ones only Mathieu could get for her and he wasn't even in the same time zone.

"Can you please move that fucking ladder away from me?" the beautiful model snapped and all the other participants of the charity event except Kathryn, who was too busy avoiding Sebastian for some reason and making sure the wardrobe was set, quickly backed away. Those tabloids featuring her gray eyes narrowed with rage came to their mind and thankfully, they left her the fuck alone.

"Sorry, Ms. Van Ryan." One of those moronic losers quickly apologized and she turned her furious gaze away, just in time to lose sight of the man accidentally trip and the ladder came crashing down on her.

"Fuck!" Kathryn jumped as she heard the loud crash and screamed even louder when she realized that Belinda had a trickle of blood running down her forehead. Her first thought should have been if her sister was okay, but the one that did come to mind was how she was going to replace her if she had to go to the hospital or broke one of her legs.

Sisterly love at its finest, of course, Belinda would've probably thought the same thing if she'd been in Kathryn's shoes.

Her eyelids fluttered open and her unfocused gray eyes saw something at the distance that made her skin crawl. He was dressed in his gray suit, thick shock of brown, black hair and those green eyes Kathryn had inherited, and he was watching her. That handsome, grim face of the monster in her childhood nightmares.

"Kathryn." Belinda gasped, uncaring if she looked stupid grasping on the petite woman's arm while her entire head throbbed in pain.

"What is it?"

Their eyes met and Belinda watched as the color drained from Kathryn's face as she said the words she never thought she'd say.

"It's Papa." She whispered, looking as frightened as Kathryn had ever seen her. "He's alive."

A/N: Okay, I know I should be studying, but I love you guys so much. Maybe someone will hire me as a freelance writer if I get kicked out for bad grades. –hint- hahaha. But if you'll notice, this is a slightly short chapter compared to the others, so you know. I'm doing my best to try to stop writing. For those of you who are wondering, the next chapter's going to be about Belinda and Kathryn's childhood and why they are the way they are. Mathieu might be mentioned as well (for Katie, who wants a couple of reasons to hate him. You won't get any. Lol) And no, I haven't started writing that yet. I might not be able to stop.

Katie: So I'm crazy, huh? Hahaha maybe, maybe not. About Sam's threat. Grr. Don't like Mathieu! I want to see how BtB ends! Oh, and she also told me your werewolf theory. Pretty odd. Want me to make that come true though? Maybe we can even bring Buffy in and she can mistake Annette for a vampire and accidentally stake her. Hahaha!

Kerimack: Woah. That's pretty high praise coming from you, especially since you're like one of the veterans with the CI fics. Regarding those flaws, don't worry I'm planning to remedy them in due time. I promise you that everything has a reason for why they're acting the way they are in this story. Hahaha and on the risk of sounding like a moron fan, I've read the majority of your fics even before I decided to write my own. I hope you continue writing because I'd like to continue reading your work. ;-)

Nicole: Aww. Don't you feel bad for poor Belinda? At least in this chapter? Hahaha

Sam: Just reviewed your chapter. Loved the little girl, maybe I'll give her a cameo here too. Hahaha, and okay, after I've posted this, I will be taking a break. Thanks for the shoutout. I needed it.

WashedOut: Yep, I'm in college. Does my apparent use of psychobabble show how old I am? Lol, here's a funny thing though. My initial course was Creative Writing at this kickass school but I didn't pursue it so now here I am venting that frustration out. I still have the course syllabus for that course. (And the sad part of this tale is that I did get into that school. That's why make the right choice, my friend. Especially when it comes to college.)