AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thanks for being patient between uploads! I wanted to shout out gigundoly for supplying the idea for this chapter! Head over to her account and read her story "The Rest of the Journey"!

Chapter 9: Piano Man

SEBASTIAN

Sebastian and Ella stayed at the café until they'd finished their drinks because they couldn't very well bike home with hot beverages in their hands. Sebastian bit his tongue instead of pointing that out to Ella, resisting the urge to remind her why she shouldn't have been so stubborn about the bicycles and just let him drive them both there instead. However, having no choice but to finish the drinks in the cozy café had allowed them to spend more one-on-one time together as she finished telling him the story of the time Griffin and Artie had taught her how to ride a two-wheeler.

The whole 'being a brother' thing was new to Sebastian, and he was determined to figure it out with ease. He'd already mentioned– more than once– to the Abrams kids that he'd always wanted siblings, so he didn't want to mess it up now that he had them (even though his relationship with Artie had gotten off to a rocky start already… He was working on that!). Seb had always wondered what it would be like to have a little sister, but he never could have guessed his sister would be someone as funny and refreshingly blunt as Ella Abrams. He liked that she didn't hesitate to say whatever was on her mind and that she was more than willing to put him in his place– he was beginning to think he needed that in his life. While Sebastian had spent some individual time with Artie (being that they were the same age and had similar interests where show choir was concerned), he hadn't spent much time with Griff or Ella at all before this weekend. Save for a few Dance Dance Revolution tournaments, this morning was the first real time he'd ever hung out with Ella, and he'd had a lot of fun.

As they went to deposit their bikes in the garage when they arrived back home, Sebastian noticed Griffin's truck was back in the driveway, meaning that he'd returned home from his morning workout while they were gone.

"Where the hell were you two?" Griffin wanted to know when Sebastian and Ella appeared in the kitchen, slightly red-faced and panting a bit from their trek. He was standing at the stove, making his breakfast with what little was in the fridge. His burned toast, runny eggs, and microwaveable bacon didn't look all that appetizing. Seb was glad that he and Ella had opted to go out. "I saw Sebastian's car in the driveway, so I know you couldn't have gone far."

"El took me to a breakfast place nearby," Sebastian said as Ella slid into one of the seats at the kitchen island. "We rode the bikes."

The surprised look that Griffin shot Ella– and her smug shrug in response– did not go unnoticed by Sebastian. Did everyone assume he thought he was too bougie to ride a bike?! Suddenly he was self-conscious about the way he presented himself. He didn't want the others to think that he thought he was above them.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Artie rounding the corner just then, coming face-to-face with the small party in the kitchen. The room was spacious, but with four bodies milling about, it could easily begin to feel cramped.

"Hey, Art, how ya feelin'?" Griffin asked as Artie surfaced from his bedroom for what was, presumably, the first time that day.

"Better. Thanks."

Artie's response was curt as he pulled a travel mug out of a low cabinet and set it on the tray of the Keurig coffee maker. His back was to the others as he popped in a K-Cup, clearly not wanting to elaborate any further about the night before.

"Bacon?" Griffin offered, holding out a piece to Artie who glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. Instead, he opted to grab an apple from the fruit basket on the counter, setting it in his lap as his mug was being filled.

Subconsciously, Sebastian must have been looking at Artie a certain way, but he didn't notice until Artie seemed to have felt himself being watched. Artie glanced up and narrowed his eyes in Sebastian's direction when he caught him staring, and Sebastian instantly snapped back into reality, suddenly very keenly aware of how he was awkwardly standing in the middle of the kitchen. He quickly sat himself down in the seat beside Ella at the island.

"So what do you guys want to do today?" Griffin asked the younger ones, taking a bite of his eggs before washing them down with a sip of orange juice. "It's almost ten-thirty now. It's supposed to warm up a little later, so I was thinking we could try to take advantage of the nice weather. Maybe we could play some mini golf? Try the batting cages?"

He looked pointedly at Artie as he said that and wiggled his eyebrows, causing Artie to smirk and roll his eyes, unable to keep a straight face. Leave it to Griffin to be the one able to get Artie to snap out of whatever funk he was in that morning.

"Sounds good to me," Ella said. "As long as we can get ice cream afterward."

"I like the way you think," Griffin told her, holding his hand up for a high-five.

"Yeah, I'm good with that," Sebastian agreed.

All eyes turned to Artie then, who had finished securing the lid on his mug of coffee and placed it between his knees so that his hands could be free to push his chair.

"Art? What about you? Are you on board?" Griffin asked as Artie pivoted his chair and headed back off in the direction of his bedroom. The three others were close behind him.

"I don't know," Artie sighed as he looked over his shoulder and realized that his plan to escape off to his bedroom by himself hadn't worked out the way he hoped. "I guess so."

It hadn't taken Sebastian long to figure out that Artie was an exceptionally private person, and in the four months since Sebastian had moved in, he'd only been in Artie's room a handful of times (and none of these times had been by invitation).

"Well, is there anything you'd want to do instead?" Griff asked, as it was apparent that Artie wasn't all that pleased with the idea. He sat down on the edge of Artie's bed as Ella took a seat on the hardwood floor. Sebastian stood awkwardly in the doorway.

Artie set his mug and his apple on the nightstand before seamlessly transferring from his wheelchair to his bed, pulling his legs up so that he was sitting criss-cross-applesauce and leaning against the headboard. He reached for his coffee and breakfast, taking a sip out of the mug before responding to his older brother.

"No," was Artie's reply, and Sebastian realized that Artie was just being difficult for the sake of being difficult. This was a page out of Sebastian's own book, he realized, and it was just another reason why he and Artie had the potential to get along very well.

Sebastian had never really taken the chance to look around Artie's room on any of his previous visits, but now he took it all in. You could tell a lot about a person by taking a look at their childhood (or in this case, teenage) bedroom, Sebastian concluded.

Artie's room was much bigger than the other bedrooms in the house– probably because Sebastian had learned that this room was once a second living room– but it was also necessary so that Artie was able to move around easily in his chair. The walls were plain white, but they were covered with posters from various movies and musicians that Artie liked: Lawrence of Arabia, Top Gun, The Beatles, Michael Jackson… Sebastian noticed that Artie seemed to like movies and music that were much older than he was. There was a queen-sized bed with a white headboard and navy blue comforter, where both Griffin and Artie were currently sitting. Artie's desk was neatly organized with his homework for the weekend, some textbooks and sheet music, and a couple of scripts he was in the process of reviewing and annotating (for fun, Sebastian assumed, unless Artie was in the process of directing a production that he didn't know about). Built-in bookshelves lined his walls, filled with books, DVDs, gymnastics trophies, the autographed baseball bat that Sebastian had learned he'd received while he was in the hospital, and other little knickknacks. Beside his bed and across from the TV that was mounted to the wall, there was a small futon, offering another place for Artie and his friends to sit, since there were– noticeably and understandably– no other chairs in the room. The door to Artie's closet and his bathroom always remained closed. In one corner, there was some funky equipment that Sebastian assumed served some sort of physical therapy purpose, and Artie's red bass guitar rested on a stand next to a keyboard.

This piqued Sebastian's interest and he walked over to the keyboard, unable to stop his fingers from dancing across the keys as he effortlessly played one of the songs that were ingrained in him from childhood.

"You know piano?" Artie asked curiously, swallowing the bite he'd just taken of his apple, apparently beginning to creep out of the mood he'd been in so far that morning.

Sebastian shrugged. "I used to take lessons. I don't play often anymore, obviously, but some songs are just drilled into my head, of course. You know, like Kabalevsky's 'Clowns', de Lulli's 'Chopsticks', and stuff like that. I stopped playing after we moved to the U.S. I stopped doing pretty much anything musical, actually, until last year, when I joined The Warblers…"

Westerville, Ohio

September 2010

"Thinking of joining?"

Sebastian turned around, coming face-to-face with Nick Duval, the boy who sat behind him in chemistry class. Sebastian had been so engrossed in reading the flyer advertising the upcoming auditions for The Warblers that he hadn't heard him approaching.

"Um, I don't know. Maybe. I don't really sing," He lied, hoping it would get Nick off of his back.

Dalton Academy liked their students to be well-rounded, so the school made every boy take part in at least one after-school activity each semester. Last year, Sebastian had been a part of the school's academic decathlon team in the fall and the lacrosse team in the spring. He knew he wanted to continue with lacrosse, as he'd found that he was pretty good at it since his long and lean legs were perfect for booking it up and down the field. But he was looking for a new activity to take part in during the fall, and The Warblers seemed kind of fun. They were like rockstars at the school, always putting on these impromptu performances that tended to shut the school down for a while.

Nick was nice enough, but they were more acquaintances than friends. The last thing Sebastian needed was Nick spreading a rumor around that they should be expecting his tryout. After all, Seb wasn't totally sure he wanted to join The Warblers anyway. He was just entertaining the idea. And only because of Jeff.

Sebastian had spent the better half of freshman year falling for Jeff Sterling. He was the class clown, and while Sebastian usually found himself attracted to older, much more mature guys, Jeff had caught his eye. His naturally bleach-blonde hair and goofy grin had a hold on Sebastian for reasons he couldn't quite pin down. They'd hooked up a few times last year, and, while Sebastian wasn't looking for anything serious, he definitely hoped Jeff hadn't forgotten about him during summer vacation.

"Well, you don't have to sing," Nick told him, and Sebastian plastered a fake smile on his face to prevent him from rolling his eyes. "You see, The Warblers are an a capella group," Nick explained. "That means we use our mouths to make the background beats too. Can you beatbox?"

Sebastian opened his mouth to say no (a polite-but-firm 'thanks, but no thanks' would do the trick), but as if he was just waiting for his cue, another Warbler appeared next to Nick and demonstrated his beatboxing skills, much to Sebastian's dismay.

Sebastian held up a hand to put a stop to this madness. "Uh, yeah, no. I think I'm good. Thanks for the… very personal recruitment, though."

"Well, hey! We're about to perform in the senior commons. Come check it out!" Nick called after him as Sebastian attempted to head off in the other direction, but it was like he was swimming against the tide, as other students pushed past Sebastian left and right, scrambling to get to the senior commons so that they could have a good view of whatever musical number The Warblers were going to do this time.

Eventually, Sebastian gave up trying to fight the sea of onlookers and joined them in heading to the senior commons, just as the opening notes of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' were being sung.

The room was so crowded that Sebastian couldn't even fit inside. Instead, he was forced to stand on the bottom stair in the area between the hallway and The Warblers' practice space. Luckily, he was tall and still had a pretty decent view.

The performance was entertaining, sure, with their in-sync choreography and interesting vocal arrangements. And their frontman… Blaine something… was full of charisma and was definitely easy on the eyes. Sebastian was so distracted by Blaine's smooth moves up front that he hardly noticed how Jeff and Nick were taking every chance they could to flash each other flirty glances during the number. It didn't take Sebastian longer than the two-minute song to figure out that something was going on between the two of them.

That was the final push that Sebastian needed to decide to audition for The Warblers. But he didn't want to join because he wanted to sing Katy Perry or Lady Gaga songs, he'd continue to tell himself. Absolutely not. He was only auditioning because he wanted to rekindle his chemistry with Jeff… and maybe see what this Blaine kid was all about.

"I heard about that performance," Artie cut in. "Kurt was there. He was spying on The Warblers for the New Directions when we heard that you guys were going to be our competition for Sectionals later that year. That was when he met Blaine."

"Hold up. You only joined the club out of spite, because you wanted to make sure that those two guys weren't getting together?!" Ella clarified from where she was still sprawled out on the floor.

"Well, to be honest, I didn't really care about whether or not they were hooking up," Sebastian replied before he could stop himself from oversharing. "I cared more about the fact that I wasn't receiving an invite…"

At that, the three Abrams kids all groaned.

"Oh my God."

"Ew, Seb."

"TMI, dude."

Sebastian had a good laugh at their reactions before answering Ella's original question. "Originally, yes, I did kind of only join The Warblers out of spite, but I also needed a fall extracurricular, and I did have a background in music. Getting easy access to Jeff and Nick and… and Blaine… was just an added bonus. So, I tried out."

Sebastian had performed in his fair share of piano concerts as a kid, so he was familiar with the unique type of nerves that tended to set in before a musical performance. But, then again, sitting at a piano in a suit was drastically different than standing before the Warbler Council and the rest of the team's current members after school, trying to prove that he would be a good addition to their group.

Sebastian wasn't an idiot– he knew that he had talent. He used to sing all the time with his mother as a kid, and he'd even had a brief stint in their church's children's choir back in the day. He was a bit out of practice, however, because he hadn't really sung since back then. It was just another bullet on the long list of things that reminded him of everything that had been lost when his mother passed away.

That's what was on his mind as he wiped his clammy hands on the charcoal dress pants of his Dalton Academy uniform. All of the current Warblers staring back at him as he prepared to sing was kind of unnerving. As was knowing that he wouldn't have any instruments to hide behind. It was just him, his voice, and the echoey practice space.

"Okay, Sebastian, you can begin whenever you're ready," Wes, the Head Warbler, told him from his spot behind the desk where the Warbler Council sat.

Sebastian took a deep breath. He'd spent longer than he'd care to publicly admit carefully choosing a song for his audition. Finally, against his better judgment, he decided to go with what his heart was telling him: 'Sweet Child O' Mine' in the style of Sheryl Crow, but with the song's original pronouns. It was a song his mother used to sing to him when he was little, and it felt right. However, now that he was actually about to begin singing it, he was second-guessing his choice. He silently pleaded with himself to make it through the song without tearing up.

"She's got a smile that it seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories…" Sebastian sang, wincing as his voice cracked on the first note.

Keep going, He told himself. Recover. They'll only notice if you draw attention to your mistake.

And recover, he did. He finished the song without making another mistake, and he actually thought that it was a pretty solid audition. The Warblers seemed to think so too, because they were all on their feet clapping for him by the time it was over.

"Thank you, Sebastian," Wes said, as David– one of the other members of the Warbler Council– stood up to show Sebastian to the door. "We'll put the decision to a vote and then we will be in touch."

"They let me in, obviously, and the rest was history," Sebastian joked as he played a few notes on the keyboard again.

"Damn, y'all take Glee auditions a lot more seriously than we do over at McKinley," Artie noted. "Tina and I auditioned on a dare. We both liked to sing, but at the time, the New Directions were lamer than we are now, and that's saying something. T and I made a pact to choose the most outrageous songs we could think of with hopes that it would scare Mr. Schue away from letting us in: she sang Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' and I sang 'Pony' by Ginuwine."

"You did not sing 'Pony' to a teacher!" Griffin laughed in disbelief as Artie nodded his confirmation, a proud smirk on his face. "Man, you're funnier than I thought you were."

"Yeah, well, our plan backfired because we didn't know about Mr. Schue's 'everyone gets in' policy," Artie added. "But both of us were secretly kind of happy about joining, I think. We just needed the extra push to get us to actually try out."

Sebastian walked away from the keyboard finally, beginning to move along the perimeter of the room, inspecting the framed photos that hung on his walls as Artie kept talking.

"Naturally, I'm pretty extroverted, which I guess most people don't expect. For some reason, people tend to assume that everyone with a disability is shy, but not me. Serious or focused, maybe, but not shy. Still, Glee Club was a whole new experience for me because I had to advocate for myself in that kind of environment for the first time in my life," Artie explained. "Before that, my mom or Griff were the vocal ones on my behalf, and my 504 plan that was registered with the school outlined all of the accommodations I'd need from my teachers. But that didn't exactly extend to after-school clubs."

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder at Artie and gave him a nod to show him that he was still listening.

"At first, Rachel Berry implied that I didn't fit her vision for a leading man in the club and said my chair threw off the visual composition of the numbers, which caused Mr. Schue to put me off to the side, playing guitar with the band for the first couple of weeks," Artie explained. "Don't get me wrong, I love playing bass, but not as much as I love really performing. So I had to learn to speak up for myself. I offered to modify all of the moves myself if Mr. Schue would consider working me into the choreography before we went to Sectionals, and he agreed, though I think he only did it to be nice. It was trickier to pick it all up than I expected. I definitely ran over lots of toes at first."

"Bullshit," Griffin said. "I don't believe that for a second. You've always been able to dance."

Artie smirked and shrugged, appearing to know that that was true, to some extent.

"I didn't realize how much I missed music and singing until after I joined The Warblers last year," Sebastian said, having migrated all the way around the room and taken a seat on Artie's futon. "I remembered how much I love being on a stage and having everyone watching you and the adrenaline that comes with that."

"Yeah, that's the narcissism talking," Artie quipped without missing a beat. Sebastian didn't even totally mind the dig, since it seemed that this was a sign that Artie was feeling better and getting back to his usual quick-witted self.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Sebastian waved his hand in Artie's direction. "Regardless, getting back to it has been… really therapeutic, I think."

For the first time that morning, Artie didn't have a snarky response. Instead, he was nodding, and it appeared that he related.

"Music was really healing to me too," He agreed. "Especially when I was spending so much time in the hospital, rehab, and at home after the accident. Music was an escape from all of that. Dad taught me guitar and played me a lot of his favorite artists, which is why I tend to like soul and rock music," Artie said, gesturing to the posters that decorated his walls, before proudly adding: "Though the good taste in R and B was my own doing, thank you very much."

"What about your dad?" Ella asked Sebastian then, standing up from her seat on the floor and coming to sit by him on the couch. "What did he think when you decided to audition for The Warblers?"

"Well, he definitely preferred going to my lacrosse games over my show choir competitions, that's for sure," Sebastian laughed. "And for a while, my sexuality was kind of just the elephant in the room that we didn't address. Which, like, fine."

"Was your dad not supportive? Of your coming out, I mean," She asked, apparently very invested in that particular part of the story.

"I wasn't actively hiding anything, but I wasn't super open about any of it either," Sebastian admitted. "I think telling your parent about the person you're hooking up with is awkward anyway, regardless of your sexuality, so it didn't really bother me that he didn't want to talk about it. But, at the end of the day, he wasn't homophobic or anything. And I actually think that my getting back into music helped to rekindle everything between us that was still kind of in shambles after my mom died. We're a lot closer now than we used to be."

Briefly, Sebastian had forgotten how they'd even gotten to this conversation, and then he remembered that it was all because Artie'd been impressed by his intermediate piano skills.

"So, to make an unexpectedly long story short, yeah, I know piano," Sebastian laughed, wrapping it all up. "But that doesn't really do much for anyone, since The Warblers only sing a capella."

"Well," Artie began, adjusting the way he was sitting on the bed. "We could always use some of that talent on the New Directions, if you're ever looking to abandon the dark side and play for the other team."

Sebastian caught the way that his joke referenced the situation that had gotten them into this whole step-brothers-to-be mess in the first place: the idea that either of them would ditch their own respective team for the other's.

"Nice try, Hot Wheels. Not happening."

As you can see, I played with canon (again) and wrote that Sebastian joined The Warblers during what would have been the show's Season 2 (meaning that he would have been on the team with Kurt and Blaine). It makes more sense for the story that way, and I hope nobody minds this little change too much! Please leave a review if you're enjoying this fic so far! I'd love to hear from some readers!