Yay, next chapter :) Sorry it took me so long, I have to study for tons of exams lately and didn't have that much time to update my stories.
And nope, I still do not own anything.
Kurt gathered his things and started putting on his shirt. "Things cannot continue like that. I will go to Vince and break up with him."
Blaine propped up in his bed and rubbed his head. "Do you think this is a good idea?"
"It's not fair to lie to him and to ourselves" Kurt rushed to the door and grabbed his coat on the way.
"Why don't you just call him?", Blaine asked him with a frown, propping himself up on the bed. "That would spare you a lot of drama."
Kurt shook his head fervently. "Breaking up over the phone is the most gutless way to end a relationship. No, I have to jump in at the deep end, drive to his place and tell him the plain truth."
"About you being a Sensate?" Blaine cocked his eyebrows skeptically. "Is this a good idea?"
"I didn't mean that", he answered him back while he searched for his keys in his drawers. "I will just tell him I caught him with Harmony and that I was unfaithful because I slept with another man."
"Another more attractive man" Blaine wiggled his eyebrows. "And strictly speaking, you weren't."
Kurt rolled his eyes. "This is serious, Blaine. I'm about to break another person's heart. I feel like the most horrible being on this planet."
"Hey, don't forget that he cheated on you first", Blaine pointed out. "If something, he has to feel bad, not you."
"Thanks, Blaine." Kurt smiled faintly before he went out of the door. "I guess I needed to hear that."
…
When Kurt once again got out of the car of another Uber, he watched how Vince was about to leave his apartment and hail a cab.
Where was Vince driving now? Back to work? Kurt initially planned to break up with him privately, but if he had an audience where he could humiliate his fiancé, why not? After all, Vince didn't deserve any better after he cheated on him. Kurt imagined how he would act up at the office, angrily slam the engagement ring at him and shout profanities at him. Yes, that was a great plan.
So he hailed a cab as well, telling him to follow Vince's cab without him noticing.
Kurt cocked his eyebrows when Vince's cab drove past his workplace. What else was supposed to be his destination? Was he on his way to Harmony to sleep with her again? Kurt angrily clenched his fists. That son of a…
Vince got out of the car, and Kurt told his cabdriver to pull over as well. He noticed how his fiancé paranoidly looked around and quickly hid behind the cab before Vince could spot him. After a while, Vince quickly started walking towards a forest, and Kurt followed him, hiding whenever Vincent turned around.
Kurt cursed when he noticed that his shoes were going to be dirty because of the muddy ground. Dammit, if he had known this was going to be a walk in a forest, he would have put on his least favorite ones. He quickly hid behind a fir tree when Vincent looked around and retrieved his phone. "Hello, boss? I will be there in five."
Boss? Why should Mrs. Wright, a woman Kurt had never seen without high heels and glamourous clothes before, meet him at a muddy, dirty forest? Weird. When Vince quickly continued walking, Kurt followed him, careful not to make any noises. Finally, they arrived in front of a seemingly abandoned brick building.
What was Vince doing there?
Kurt quickly took cover behind a tree when Vince turned around once again to check whether no one had followed him. After he had done that, he entered the building, closing the door behind him.
Why all the secretiveness? Did Vince have something to hide? Maybe another affair he didn't know about? What a douchebag. For some reason, Kurt was keen on finding out what exactly his fiancé was up to, so he waited a couple of seconds before he sneaked to the door as well, slowly opening the door.
And was surprised to look into an empty room. Where did Vince go?
Hold up – did he just hear voices coming from the basement?
On the tips of his toes, Kurt slowly sneaked to the staircase. It was not necessary to go down the stairs, the voices were loud enough for him to hear from were he was standing.
"Did you already find out about Isobel's-"
"Her name is Isabelle, boss", someone corrected the other person.
"-Isabelle's protegés?", the male voice asked.
Who was Isabelle?
"No, Sir. I was so close, but then, she wanted me to do that job in Russia. I couldn't say no, or else, she would have found out. That woman was already skeptical because I showed up half a year ago, out of nowhere, and applied for a modelling job even though she wasn't even searching for new models. It was hard convincing her to employ me anyway."
Kurt recognized Vince's voice. What the hell where they talking about? Vince had never told him about that. Suddenly, he heard how someone smashed something to the floor that shattered into thousands of pieces, and Kurt flinched.
"How long were we working on that plan? For five years, or seven? And what do you do? Mess everything up! You are a disgrace for this organization, Slatter. A total failure."
"I'm sorry, Sir."
"For how long have I been trying to find out who the leaders of the Sensates are? Or whether they even exist? Ten, maybe eleven years?!"
What did he just say?
"Isabelle Wright was our first trace, and our only one, and you messed everything up. You freaking son of a bitch."
Kurt's eyes went wide. Did they…did they just talk about his boss? His boss had those powers as well? Why didn't he know? And besides, his fiancé was working for a man who tried finding Sensates? He didn't need to be a genius to know that they were up to no good.
Since he was too perplexed about the information he had just learned, he didn't notice that someone was standing behind him now.
"Well, look at that", this someone said sneeringly before he knocked Kurt down from behind and everything went black before he could even call for help mentally.
When Harmony entered Finn's apartment, she was whistling good temperedly, carrying a box in her hands.
"Hey, baby, I got us cronuts with chocolate", she chirped while she put down the box with the treats, not noticing that Finn was looking at her with a scowl.
"You cheated on me." It was no question; it was a statement.
Harmony blinked when she looked up. "Wha…What are you talking about?" Even though she tried sounding calm, her voice was wavering a bit.
"Don't try to deny it." He crossed his arms, his gaze on her was cold. "Kurt has seen you yesterday when he went to Vincent's apartment."
"You mean your stepbrother who had been drunk yesterday evening?" She crossed her arms as well. "He could have just imagined things as intoxicated as he was, right?"
Finn bit back the comment that he had access to Kurt's memory as well, and that he had practically seen it with his own eyes. "Why the hell should he lie, Harmony?", he hissed irritatedly.
His girlfriend avoided his glance and rubbed her neck. Lying was pointless, she knew it. Besides, she always had been a horrible liar. "I'm sorry, Finn."
"I can't believe it. I can't believe you cheated on me, with my brother's fiancé of all people. Why?"
"To begin with, I didn't know it was Kurt's fiancé! And I thought you ditched me for another woman", she defended herself with tears in her eyes. "But then, there was this attractive guy who came over and consoled me…"
"With his balls?", Finn snapped, eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you can go so low just because I didn't turn up to our date!"
"And why didn't you?" Harmony looked at him challengingly. "Because of another woman, right?"
"Harmony…"
She furrowed her eyebrows. "Go ahead. Tell me you didn't ditch me for another woman."
Finn sighed, opened his mouth, just to close it again. Why couldn't he just lie?
Harmony seemed to know what that silence meant and nodded sadly. "I knew it."
For a while, no one dared to say anything.
"Is she at least a good person?", she finally broke the silence.
Finn needed to smile faintly when he nodded. "Oh, yes", he muttered. "She's an important part of my life."
"Sounds great.", Harmony said quietly, her voice cracked. A single tear was running down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. "So I guess what we are doing now is pointless."
Were they about to break up? Finn gulped. "I'm sorry, Harm."
"Hey, it's okay." Even though another tear was running down her face, she smiled at him valiantly. "We are just not meant to be with each other." She turned on her heel and wanted to leave, but Finn grabbed her hand, turned her around again and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Thanks for awesome two and a half weeks", he whispered into her hair.
She pulled away and looked at him, her eyes were watery. "No, I need to thank you", she smiled. "You changed me to the better. Thanks to you, I think twice before I yell at a terrible barista."
They both needed to laugh.
Harmony leaned over and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Goodbye, clumsy barista." With that, she turned around and left.
Finn just stayed behind, staring at the spot where she had stood a couple of seconds ago, not quite knowing how to feel about what had just happened.
"You still didn't talk to Mike?", Artie asked Tina, surprised, when they were sharing a pepperoni pizza while watching To All the Boys I've Loved Before, part two.
The author shook her head fervently. "He published my book without my consent, Artie", she explained huffishly. "Even though I told him a couple of days before that I didn't want to publish it. Now, everyone knows about the existence of Sensates!"
Artie shrugged. "So? People also know about the alleged existence of witches, vampires, and mermaids. That doesn't make them less fictious. Point is that they will all think it's pure fiction, nothing more."
"And what if they won't?" Tina pushed the pause button of her remote and looked at Artie, serious. "This is no game, Arts. I got gifted with those extraordinary powers, and what did I do? I totally abused them, and I pissed off nine of my closest friends!"
For days now, none of the others wanted to talk to her, and Tina could even understand. After all, she shared all of what had happened to them to the entire world without leaving out a single detail. Dammit, what was she thinking when she wrote that stupid novel?
"They will calm down eventually", Artie reassured her and bit into a pizza slice. "Everyone makes mistakes. And what do you do? You learn from your mistakes and do it differently next time."
"If there is a next time, Arts", Tina said sadly. "I don't think they will ever forgive me. That mistake is way too grave for that." She leaned her head against Artie's shoulder, sighing.
"Oh, T...", Artie muttered, softly caressing her temples.
At that moment, her phone rang, and the duo startled. Tina reached out for her phone and accepted the call.
"Hello?"
When the person on the other end of the line was talking, she was paling visibly. "I understand. Thanks for telling me. Have a nice day."
She hung up, staring at her phone for a while.
Artie looked at her expectantly. "Who was it?"
"My publisher", Tina answered, still looking stunned. She didn't continue talking what drove Artie crazy.
"And why do you look like you have just seen a ghost? What did they want?", he asked insistently.
"NBC called them", she muttered. "They want Vivian Kennedy to come to Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show and talk about her latest novel."
