A/N: Thank you so much to those who commented and favorited after the last chapter! I had an amazing time writing this fic, so I hope you all enjoy reading it. I anticipate it'll be about 7 chapters, but they all should be pretty long. I originally wrote this chapter in the summer, but I think it works great that I'm finally publishing it now that it's almost Christmas! I hope you enjoy! I always appreciate your reviews :)

Christmas couldn't come fast enough. Blaine spent the entire week panicking about what he should wear and whether this meant more than two lonely people spending Christmas together. He wasn't sure if he wanted it to or not, but that just made it even more confusing. He tried to justify it as something he was doing for Tracy; he wanted her to have a friend around so she wouldn't get bored of Blaine's plans. But even Blaine knew that was just an excuse. In reality, he was just eager to learn what Sebastian had been up to for the past 10 years. He wanted to see how he behaved around Adrienne. He wanted to feel that little spark he used to feel when they were together, the spark he'd felt again after their short conversation that day Blaine picked Tracy up from his house, the thing he'd been suppressing for the 12 years he'd known Sebastian but didn't have to anymore. It had been a long time since he'd felt anything like it, and he was most definitely in a rush to feel it again.

They'd made plans for Blaine and Tracy to arrive at Sebastian's house at five on Christmas Eve. After exchanging phone numbers (unsurprisingly, they'd both changed numbers at some point since high school), Blaine had argued that he didn't want to interfere with Sebastian's actual Christmas plans. Despite Sebastian's insisting that he didn't have any plans and he'd love the company, Blaine said he couldn't impose on a holiday that's meant for family.

In the meantime, Blaine sat at his piano while Tracy got dressed, panicking over whether he should bring a gift or something. He'd helped Tracy pick something out for Adrienne the day before, but he had no idea what the protocol should be for him and Sebastian. They'd only just reconnected, and they were spending Christmas together. If he didn't get Sebastian something, he'd probably look like an idiot if Sebastian happened to get something for him. But if it was the other way around, he'd look like he expected more out of their relationship. He didn't want either of those things to happen, but he eventually decided looking like an idiot was preferred to appearing entitled to something.

Then he went back on that decision and decided he'd stop at the liquor store on the way to Sebastian's to pick out a nice bottle of wine. It wouldn't be anything expensive, of course; Blaine wasn't by any means rich, and he knew he'd probably get the wrong kind and it would be an even bigger mess. But he did happen to remember a thing or two about Sebastian's taste in wine from high school, so he figured he'd pick out a medium-priced bottle and hope for the best.

Tracy held his hand while they sat on the subway on their way across Manhattan for the second time that week, two wrapped packages sitting on their laps. If Blaine's leg was shaking, Tracy didn't seem to notice. She was in her own little world, singing Christmas carols to herself. Blaine briefly considered taking a video for Rachel but ultimately decided not to bother her while she was with her family back in Ohio.

Tracy dragged Blaine off the subway and down the street before he figured out how he would behave once they arrived. Should he act like it's a date of some sort? Well, not a date, obviously, because there were kids involved. But was it more than just two people trying to make some kids happy? Overthinking was Blaine's specialty.

But when Sebastian answered the door with Adrienne by his side, Blaine's mind went completely blank. He was wearing a perfectly fitted burgundy sweater with a dark green collar tucking out the top paired with jeans that fit maybe a little bit too well. He looked perfect, like he'd tried on his appearance for the perfect amount of time. Blaine, with his ugly Christmas sweater and slacks, felt like he'd completely overdone it.

Adrienne and Tracy immediately ran off to the living room where Adrienne's dollhouse was sprawled across the floor next to a boombox, and that left Blaine alone with Sebastian again. His leg was still shaking until it started to slow down as Sebastian's lips turned up into a smile and he reached out his arms for a hug. A hug. So it was definitely more personal than just trying to make the kids happy…right?

"I'm glad you could make it," Sebastian said as he pulled away from the brief hug.

Blaine grinned in response and lifted the bag from his hand to give to Sebastian. "Thanks for inviting us. It means a lot to…Tracy. And this is for you."

"You didn't have to bring anything," Sebastian said with a sigh, reluctantly accepting the bag. But Blaine noticed a hint of a smile as Sebastian lifted the bottle of wine from the bag. "But damn, you have good taste. We might have to try a glass or two tonight."

"I was trying to remember what you used to drink," Blaine admitted, hoping it wasn't too incriminating. He didn't want to look like he'd been thinking about Sebastian since back then.

"Wow, I'm impressed," Sebastian replied, an edge to his voice that Blaine remembered hearing a lot at the Dalton coffeehouse.

Sebastian nodded toward the kitchen and started to walk toward it with Blaine following behind him. He used a bottle opener to remove the cork from the top of the bottle, then poured two glasses. "Cheers," Sebastian said as he lifted his own glass to clink with Blaine's. Blaine smiled because despite all of the chaos of the past two years, he didn't think there was anywhere else in the world he'd rather be. "Dinner should be ready in 45 minutes or so."

"Thanks again for doing all of this. I hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience," Blaine said, and he genuinely meant it. This did mean a lot to him.

"Of course not. For you, it's never been an inconvenience," Sebastian replied, the cutest and softest smile on his lips. "Besides, it's not like I'm suffering. I get to spend my Christmas Eve with you."

Blaine hoped he wasn't blushing as much as he feared he might be, but Sebastian never failed to flatter him. It felt good to be complimented like this by someone other than Tracy. By a guy, nonetheless, maybe even someone who was expressing some sort of interest in him that went beyond the surface. Maybe.

"So, catch me up. Where have you been the past 10 years?" He asked when the blush started to die down.

Sebastian shrugged, finishing off a sip of the wine before he spoke. "It's not very interesting. I did my undergrad at UCLA and then spent a gap year travelling in Europe and Northern Africa. Then it was law school at Harvard and bar certification in New York and here I am. I'm practicing at a small firm in Midtown now, but I only got here after selling my soul to corporate for a year."

"Well, you seem to be doing pretty well," Blaine said, and he didn't mean to look around the house when he said it, but his eyes did the work for him. It was just a fact that Sebastian's house was one of the nicest he'd seen in a long time.

Sebastian didn't seem to be offended by it. He just looked over at the girls playing in the living room before shrugging and taking a sip of wine. "I'm lucky. I managed to finish school debt free thanks to my dad, and now I'm pretty happy with where I'm at."

"I'm glad you're happy," Blaine blurted out with a genuine smile crossing his lips. Sebastian seemed grateful for the compliment, but it looked like there was a little bit more behind his always-tough exterior. "Still playing the field like you were in high school?"

They both shared a laugh at the reminder of Sebastian dragging Blaine along to gay bars and bragging about conquests, probably hoping it would make Blaine jealous. "I guess. Like I said the other day, I don't have a lot of time for anything serious. I tried that whole romance and settling down thing for a while in undergrad, and then again in law school. Didn't really work out."

"What happened?"

"Well, the first time around ended in me wanting to take a gap year to run away from my problems, and the second time I ran away to New York, so I'm sure you can guess how things ended," Sebastian answered. He didn't seem upset by it or even nervous talking about it which was more than Blaine could say about Kurt. "Workaholics that spend most of their free time partying don't make the best long-term boyfriends."

Blaine nodded, understanding all too well what it felt like to lose relationships to flaws in priorities. "Do you ever want to…I don't know, eventually settle down again? Like, did you like it?"

Sebastian looked like he was contemplating the question for a long time, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips unreadable. He took a long sip from his glass and looked down at his own hands. "I don't know. Maybe. Those were definitely the wrong guys, but I guess maybe if someone came along that would make it all worth it, I wouldn't be opposed."

Blaine thought about how it would feel for Sebastian to say he was the right guy, that he would make it all worth it. He even thought for a second that Sebastian might say it because that was just the kind of flattery Sebastian was famous for. But he didn't; he just stared at the granite countertop in front of them for a while before he snapped himself out of it and turned back to Blaine. "What about you? Have you been with anyone serious since Kurt?"

Hearing Sebastian say Kurt's name still felt sort of surreal. He hadn't talked about Kurt with anyone in a long time, and Sebastian didn't look at all turned off or annoyed by the mention of his name like he would have in high school. It was like he was looking at a completely different person. Well, the same person but so much more mature that he was barely recognizable.

"I guess not. I mean, there was a rebound guy almost immediately after, then a couple of other guys that lasted a few months each. But it was never serious enough that I'd introduce anyone to Tracy, and it's kind of hard to date with a six-year-old."

"Tell me about it. My sister's favorite part about me moving to New York is free babysitting," Sebastian joked, but something behind his tone indicated that he actually didn't mind spending all of this time with Adrienne. "But Kurt takes her half the time, right?"

Blaine sighed, not really sure if he was in the mood to get into the details of his parenting agreements with Kurt. "I don't know. At first, we both had her about half the time. But then she started school, and he started working more, and it just made sense for me to take her more because I mostly work from home. Last weekend was the first time he'd seen her in almost a month. I don't mind; I love spending extra time with her. But I never want her to feel like she's not loved by both of us, you know?"

"I get it," Sebastian said. And it actually seemed like he did.

Dinner was ready soon after that, and they all got to eating pretty quickly. Tracy and Adrienne sat beside each other with Blaine and Sebastian next to each other on the other side of the table. It felt weirdly intimate, like they were playing house or something domestic like that, and Blaine realized how much he'd missed family dinners.

Even when he and Kurt were still married, they almost never had dinner together. Blaine spent a lot of evenings at home with Tracy while Kurt worked, and on the nights while Kurt wasn't working, Blaine usually found some way to occupy himself so he wouldn't have to be there.

The food was incredible. Sebastian never said anything about his master chef capabilities, but he was clearly skilled in a way Blaine's chicken nuggets could never compare to. Sebastian had apparently planned a three-course meal, all with options that appealed to the kids and the adults. It was perfect and considerate and comforting, and it almost made Blaine melt in his seat at seeing how great at all of this Sebastian seemed to be.

The girls got into a heated discussion about the best Disney princess during dinner, and Blaine was shocked at how quickly Sebastian jumped on the opportunity to give his own opinion.

"Tiana is the only correct answer," he said between forkfuls of turkey. "She's hardworking and goes for what she wants. Plus, she gets Prince Naveen."

Tracy practically gasped in shock, as if she was personally offended. "But what about Moana?"

"Uncle Sebastian is always wrong," Adrienne reassured Tracy. "It's Rapunzel."

Blaine couldn't stop smiling for the entire meal, and he dreaded the moment he'd have to bring Tracy back home and take her away from her best friend again. And okay, maybe he was enjoying his time with Sebastian a little bit too much.

"So, Tracy, you never told us how you and Adrienne became friends," Blaine commented, part of him eager to hear more about his daughter's life but a secret part of him longing to know any new detail about Sebastian's life.

Tracy smiled as she swallowed a huge bite of turkey. "We met on the playground at recess."

"Well, we met in school," Adrienne corrected, a bit of milk dripping from her chin. "But then I saw that Tracy looked sad one day at recess, so we started playing musical."

Blaine's grin quickly turned to a frown as he pictured his daughter sitting on a swing, probably upset about something going on with her dads, no one to talk to. A new school with new kids she didn't know, new teachers she wasn't sure if she liked yet, a new part of Manhattan. Blaine knew she'd been going through something, especially now that she was old enough to understand what "divorce" meant. But he didn't know it was bad enough to affect her life at school.

"Why were you sad?" Blaine asked, his eyes focused only on Tracy sitting at the table across from him.

Tracy's cheeks turned red as her eyes darted away from Blaine's and toward the food on her plate. She looked ashamed, like she knew better than to be sad in front of Blaine. It broke his heart.

"Trace, what's wrong?" Blaine repeated. He didn't bother to shoo Sebastian's hand away when he felt it land comfortably on his leg beneath the table. Without turning to look, he could imagine the sympathy in his eyes. Adrienne just stared at Tracy.

"It was the day Daddy said we weren't going to see Aladdin anymore," Tracy mumbled quietly.

Blaine's stomach dropped as he remembered that day. Kurt had called him in the morning when Blaine was walking Tracy to school. Originally, the plan was for Kurt to pick her up after school and take her out for a fancy dinner before they went to see Aladdin starring one of Kurt's former NYADA classmates. He cancelled for a last-minute audition.

Blaine offered to take Tracy out for the night instead, but she insisted that she wasn't upset, and that Jasmine was her least favorite princess anyway. He should've known it was a lie.

"I'm sorry," Blaine found himself saying before he'd even processed how he felt about it all. Guilty, for one. He should've known she'd be upset. Angry, because Kurt always did this, got her excited about something just to ruin everything right before he actually followed through. Most of all, he just felt sad. All he could see was Tracy sitting there at the playground, tears in her eyes with no one to talk to. He felt responsible, and he wanted to fix it.

"It's okay, Daddy," Tracy said, and suddenly she was just as happy as ever, a smile on her lips that flowed all the way up to her eyes. "If I wasn't sad, I wouldn't have been friends with Adrienne."

God, she was wise beyond her years.

The girls were back in the living room shortly after dinner, leaving Sebastian and Blaine to clean up the kitchen. Sebastian was standing over the sink lathering dishes with soap and water, and Blaine was drying the ones Sebastian had already cleaned, eventually figuring out where everything belonged within the cabinets. It was funny because Blaine couldn't remember a single time he and Kurt had made dinner and cleaned up together while Tracy was home. He wasn't sure if that was because it never happened or because he replaced the memory with something else, but either way, it was a confusing image.

It had been 10 years since Blaine even considered comparing Sebastian to Kurt. Suddenly it was like any of those reservations and excuses and constant denial from high school didn't matter anymore. Sebastian was a new person, someone fun and exciting that actually made him feel things again. He liked kids or at least tolerated them enough to spend who knows how much time with Adrienne. He was supportive, more so than Kurt ever had been, at least at the end. And he actually wanted to spend time together, even if it was just drinking a glass of wine while they listened to little girls butcher Defying Gravity.

Maybe he was wrong to read too much into it or to have hope that there could still be something there. But something about the way Sebastian smiled at him with a soft, genuine smile every time he handed over a pan for Blaine to dry told him that he was right.

Adrienne and Tracy were almost passed out on the couch watching an updated version of The Grinch by the time Blaine and Sebastian finished the dishes. That meant Blaine awkwardly standing at the island in the kitchen, watching his daughter with her best friend and glancing nervously at Sebastian, wondering if he should gather his things and head home or stick around for a while longer.

As if on cue, Sebastian turned to Blaine and slowly approached him, his body getting close enough to Blaine's that they were almost pressed together. His voice was quiet when he spoke, and Blaine wondered if it was just to avoid waking up the girls or if there was that same hint of seduction that was always present in Sebastian's voice.

"I almost forgot," Sebastian started, reaching for a small box in his pocket. He placed the box in Blaine's hand and watched as Blaine took it all in, the green and red wrapping paper, the tiny bow on top. "It's not much, but I thought you'd like it."

Blaine blushed as he glanced down at the box, every voice in his head screaming that he couldn't remember the last time he'd received a gift combined with all of the butterflies in his stomach reminding him how close they were standing. "You didn't have to get me anything," Blaine said, remembering his own panic that day over whether he should bring something for Sebastian. Part of him wondered if Sebastian had the same internal debate. "But thank you."

"Open it," Sebastian insisted with a subtle nudge and a smile.

The heat in Blaine's cheeks returned as he removed the bow from the package and started to unwrap it, revealing a small key chain engraved with two birth stones, a diamond for Blaine and a sapphire for Tracy. Simple, but an entire story all wrapped into a tiny piece of metal, and one that Sebastian already understood more than Blaine could've ever thought possible. He briefly wondered how Sebastian could've gotten something like this customized on such short notice, but he didn't dwell on it. It was the sweetest gesture anyone had given him in god knows how long.

"Sebastian, I…" Blaine began, but the words weren't there.

And Sebastian understood because he pressed a finger to Blaine's lips and smiled again. "Like I said, it's not much. But I figured with the divorce and everything you probably didn't have much to show for your family that's just you and Tracy. I know that my sister's relationship with her ex is very different, but she's always said it's nice to have parts of her relationship with Adrienne that are just for the two of them."

Just when Blaine was certain the night couldn't have gotten any better, Sebastian went and said all of this, and he felt like his heart might explode. "I don't know what to say," Blaine said, his voice a soft whisper, so quiet he wasn't sure Sebastian would be able to hear it. "Thank you, Sebastian. This is…I mean, it's perfect. Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

The silence between them lingered for a while, Sebastian's knee leaning gently against Blaine's lower thigh and his eyes burning a hole through Blaine's with their deep focus and seductive charm. Was it too soon for Blaine to say he was falling for Sebastian all over again? Yes, but hormones don't care about logic.

"We should do this again," Sebastian said. One of his hands rested on the island behind Blaine, his wrist gently brushing against Blaine's waist. It was a small touch, but after so long of nothing, that small touch was everything.

"Yeah?" Blaine whispered, the word half a question and half a word of affirmation. He wholeheartedly agreed, but what exactly did "doing this again" mean? It's not like they could have Christmas all the time.

"Adrienne is with me until New Years," Sebastian said next.

Vagueness was his specialty, Blaine decided. That little panicky voice inside of him that liked to ruin good things with overthinking started to take over, battling the butterflies and the internal screaming over the simple touches and soft smiles. Was he telling Blaine how long he'd have Adrienne because that was their only reason to hang out? Or was he telling him so that they could plan something for when they were both kid-free? So far, Blaine couldn't find any reason to believe one way over the other.

"We could have a movie night," Blaine blurted out in a cracked whisper. It was safer than any other suggestion. At least he wouldn't have to face rejection if Sebastian wasn't interested in him for anything more than that. "At my place this time. There's that new Pixar movie…the one about elves or something? Rachel said she watched it with Jesse, and it made both of them cry."

A smile crossed Sebastian's lips, if only for a second. "I'm in. How about Thursday?"

And just like that, one little piece of Blaine's life felt like it had fallen into place.