Blaine had to admit he was happy to hear from Sebastian, even if he was wasted. He was trying so hard to put off this confrontation, the moment when he'd see Sebastian again and be unable to stop himself from confessing that he finally knew how he felt. It was too soon to start anything with someone else, of course, but why? Shouldn't that be up to him to decide? And wasn't he ready until Kurt walked back into the picture on Christmas Eve? Blaine decided he wouldn't say anything to Sebastian about this epiphany until the morning. After all, he had no idea what condition he'd find the boy in when he arrived at the unknown location and he definitely didn't want this memory to be spoiled by the smell of liquor on Sebastian's breath or the inevitable exhaustion that would hit Blaine like a brick any minute. Still, he was so close to figuring out exactly what he wanted, and at this point, he knew that was Sebastian. Even seeing his name on Blaine's phone gave him a glimmer of hope.

A little less than an hour after their phone call, Blaine parked his car on the side of the road near the location Sebastian sent him. He looked around a bit, expecting to see the other boy in an obvious location waiting for him, but Sebastian was nowhere to be seen. It was a little outside of Columbus, so there weren't many cars nearby or large buildings. Just lots of trees and browning grass. For a moment Blaine considered that Sebastian sent the wrong location, or that his phone brought him to the wrong place. But he double checked, and this was definitely right. He just couldn't figure out how the hell Sebastian ended up in the middle of nowhere, wasted and with no way to get home. It was a troubling thought, and Blaine's heart ached as he worried for the boy's safety.

After wandering around for a while, Blaine's eyes finally landed on Sebastian lying against a tree about a block away from where Blaine parked his car. The entire area was covered in a thin layer of snow and Blaine was instantly concerned when he noticed Sebastian's hand on the ground holding a flask and the other wiping sweat from his forehead. He'd been lying outside in the snow for over an hour in no condition to take care of himself. At first, Blaine rushed to his side, concerned that he might've passed out or gotten some sort of alcohol poisoning. But when he realized Sebastian was still mostly conscious and sipping out of the flask, he let out a sigh of relief and rolled his eyes. "I'll take that," Blaine said as he took the flask and reached for Sebastian's hand.

"Don't you have a boyfriend to fuck tonight?" Sebastian muttered. He pulled his hand away from Blaine to stand up on his own, stumbling a bit in the process.

Blaine frowned at the reaction. He turned around abruptly and started to walk back to his car. "I'm ignoring that because you're way too drunk to have a real conversation right now." He needed to stick to his plan: no serious talk, at least until tomorrow.

Sebastian chuckled and helped himself into the passenger seat of the car. "And you're way too sober to have any fun. Such a buzzkill."

Blaine tried his best to ignore him. He kept reassuring himself that Sebastian was just drunk and not intending to be mean, but he knew better. Normally, Sebastian was an obnoxious flirt after a few drinks. This was so much worse than that. In fairness, Sebastian clearly had a lot more than just a few drinks. "I drove an hour at one in the morning to pick you up so you could be a little bit more grateful."

Sebastian's head collapsed against the window as he stared out of it and Blaine started driving. "Where are you going?" Sebastian asked when he noticed Blaine driving north.

"I'm bringing you to my house. You need clean clothes and someone who will make sure you get some water and sleep," Blaine replied, not bothering to look at Sebastian for approval.

Sebastian's head immediately turned to Blaine. "Take me home."

"Why? You hate it there."

"You know what I hate more? Being ditched so you can spend time with your ex-boyfriend," Sebastian replied, bitterness in every word.

Blaine's frown grew larger with every word as he continued driving toward his own house. "We're not talking about this right now. You clearly need someone who's going to look out for you, and I've heard enough about your family to not trust them to do that." He glanced over at Sebastian and noticed how terrible he smelled. It was like a mixture of sweat, tequila, and sewer water. "You smell like shit."

"I spent half my night in a bathroom, so that makes sense," Sebastian replied. He ran a hand through his wet hair and Blaine couldn't help but sigh a little at how attractive the motion was. Out of the corner of Blaine's eye, he noticed Sebastian's arm flex as he reached up to fix his hair. Despite the horrendous smell, he could've kissed him right there, giving up on his whole no moves until the morning rule. The sweat dripping from his forehead and his stupid cocky smile drove him insane.

"Please don't vomit in my car," Blaine requested. He assumed Sebastian's bathroom comment meant he'd been throwing up based on the awful smell and how wasted he seemed. Why else would he have spent the night in the bathroom of a bar? Unless…

A smirk spread across Sebastian's lips as he turned to Blaine. "That is not what I was doing in the bathroom."

As Blaine finally realized what Sebastian meant, he made a desperate attempt to conceal his disappointment. He reminded himself that he ditched Sebastian first. He bailed on the one day they'd been looking forward to for weeks. He left Sebastian to spend the day comforting his ex-boyfriend, someone Sebastian never truly believed Blaine was over. Even then, it felt horrible knowing that they were supposed to spend the day together for the first time in almost a month and yet, Sebastian spent the entire night in the bathroom of a bar with some other guy. He wanted to ignore it and pretend it didn't bother him, but it clearly did. And Sebastian knew him too well. "What? Are you jealous or something?" Sebastian asked. But there was a suspicious hint of a scheme present in Sebastian's voice, just hidden enough that Blaine probably wouldn't have noticed it under any other circumstance. But the liquor and the tension in that car joined forces to tell Blaine exactly what he already suspected: Sebastian wanted him to be jealous.

This realization upset him even more as he tried to shake his head. It either meant Sebastian was even more upset than Blaine anticipated, or, and this was the option Blaine preferred, Sebastian had real feelings for him that he didn't know how to express. Or maybe both. "You're insufferable," Blaine mumbled under his breath, incapable of expressing how he really felt about all of it.

"That's not what John thought. Or Jack. Or the three other guys that bought me drinks tonight." He glanced at Blaine to make sure he was listening. He knew exactly what to do to push Blaine's buttons.

Blaine tried not to react, kept his eyes on the road and turned up the music so that maybe Sebastian would stop talking. Every word the other boy uttered hurt, and Blaine didn't have the energy to try to explain himself. He was overwhelmed with emotions and Sebastian was probably too drunk to understand any of them.

It was one of the most uncomfortable car rides of Blaine's life. He figured Sebastian eventually fell asleep after they stopped talking; it was a pretty long drive back to Lima. But after an hour of Blaine pretending to focus on the radio rather than this boy he liked, possibly loved, passed out in the seat next to him, he finally pulled the car into his own driveway. Somewhere along the way Sebastian must have woken up because he barely waited for Blaine to put the car in park before he unbuckled his seat belt and stumbled out. He almost face planted as he crawled his way out of the car, barely catching himself before Blaine grabbed his arm to help him get into the house. Sebastian reacted by lightly shoving Blaine away, causing him to stumble a few feet backward. "I'm just trying to help you," Blaine justified. He stepped toward Sebastian again and tried to grab onto his arm one more time.

At the hint of another touch, Sebastian stumbled backward a few feet and tried to stabilize himself. Any hint of a smirk disappeared from his lips as Sebastian stared back at Blaine. "Don't fucking touch me," he snapped.

Blaine thought he was joking at first but as he looked at the expression in Sebastian's eyes, he could tell this was serious. "What the hell is going on with you?"

Sebastian looked into his eyes, his walls breaking down only for a moment. He looked like he was in physical pain as the bags under his eyes grew larger and the green hues started to fade. But just as quickly, he returned to refusing to let Blaine see any sign of weakness. "I don't know what you're talking about." He turned around and walked toward the door to Blaine's house.

Blaine followed him, refusing to give up on finishing this conversation. "You're getting drunk and yelling at me and hooking up with random guys. I thought we were friends." It wasn't exactly what he wanted to say since "friends" wasn't exactly what they were at all, but it just came out. If Sebastian wouldn't give him anything more, then they needed to at least have that.

"If we're just friends, then I can hook up with whoever I want," Sebastian replied, leaning against the wall to Blaine's house.

Blaine could not accept that as an answer; it didn't explain any of this. "We're not just friends, Sebastian. Not anymore."

"Maybe you should tell your boyfriend that."

"He's not my boyfriend anymore!" Blaine practically screamed. He was so sick of every part of their relationship revolving around Kurt. Kurt had nothing to do with this fight and he didn't want Kurt stopping them from having something great.

Sebastian didn't seem phased in the least by Blaine's anger. He crossed his arms, barely keeping himself upright as he supported himself with the wall. "Tell him that. Better yet, tell yourself that."

"What the hell does that mean? It's over. It's been over for a long time. You know that," Blaine insisted, reaching out for Sebastian's hand one more time.

Like clockwork, Sebastian pulled his hand away. "It sure doesn't look like it when you go on your stupid little ice-skating dates and share hot chocolate and kisses for the whole world to see. Or when you drop everything because he's having a bad day." Sebastian grabbed the keys from Blaine's hand and searched for the one that fit the front door. "Jesus, Blaine, just open the damn door so we can stop having this pointless conversation." He forced the key into the doorknob, aggressively shoving the door open.

Suddenly Blaine was reminded of the Warblers who saw Kurt and Blaine together when they kissed on Christmas Eve. He could see the pain in Sebastian's eyes as he listed off all of the recent events with Kurt. "It's not like you're not doing the same thing. You had sex with some guy you don't even know in a public bathroom tonight."

Sebastian ignored him, refusing to take part in this argument. As much as Blaine knew there was no point when Sebastian was in this condition, he couldn't help himself. He was too upset and worried and nervous about what this all meant. "I'm sleeping in your guest room," Sebastian muttered, making his way upstairs. He'd probably only walked past the room once, but Blaine didn't question how he could possibly remember its location. "Just leave me alone."

"I thought there was something going on with us. Something real," Blaine explained, his voice breaking as he followed Sebastian upstairs and tried to get him to talk. So much for nothing serious that night. "It was just one day, and you hooked up with someone else."

Sebastian rolled his eyes and finally locked eyes with him. He was clearly still struggling to get words out. "You can't tell me what to do. I'm not your boyfriend." He took a step toward him and Blaine could feel the anger radiating off of his body.

"Yeah, and you never will be if you keep having sex with everything that moves," Blaine snapped back. He took a step backward when he felt Sebastian getting closer. He was a little bit afraid of what this Sebastian might be capable of. He didn't think he would hurt him, but he knew Sebastian had a tendency to lose it and say things that he might later regret.

Sebastian finally backed Blaine against the wall in the hallway outside the guest room, staring down at him with fiery eyes and clenched teeth. Blaine stared up at him, hopeless and completely at his mercy as Sebastian said his most coherent sentence of the night. "I'm not just going to sit around and wait until you wake up one day and realize you're in love with me."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and stormed across the hall and into the guest room, slamming the door behind him and ignoring any protests from Blaine, not that Blaine had any left in him. He stood alone in the hallway of his own home in shock. Tears filled his eyes as he tried to process what happened and how things spiraled out of control so quickly. His mouth hung open as he tried to wipe the tears from his eyes. Sebastian could come back at any moment and he wouldn't let him see him cry. He couldn't believe he screwed all of this up so quickly. He was finally free of feeling like he was tied to Kurt and now he couldn't even do anything about it because he already messed everything up with Sebastian.

Blaine didn't know what else he could do other than leave. Sebastian was probably already passed out and there was no use trying to take care of him when that was obviously not what Sebastian wanted. He made his way back into his own room, wishing he could redo this day, make everything go back to how it was before. He remembered smiling as he woke up that morning, picturing how wonderful his day with Sebastian could be. Now that was all gone, and all that remained were the lingering tears in Blaine's eyes and the feeling that he messed everything up. Even worse was the realization that Sebastian just might not want him anymore.

As Blaine crawled into bed, unable to stop himself from spiraling into a place he hoped to never find himself in again after the breakup with Kurt, he finally started to drift off to sleep, searching for any glimmer of hope that the Sebastian he woke up to in the morning would be the one he'd grown to love.