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AN: I did say this was a short. Shorts for me tend to have very specific scenes in mind that go together and have to be written without dragging it out and going through every moment that gets you there, just a gist. :) I could see expanding this and adding more drama too, especially the last chapter into several and drawing it out. But I'm going to leave it as is.

Thanks Lucandy for your support in this story!

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5

Realignment

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"Ok, I'm going to call it off." Blaine stated without preamble as he stopped by Sebastian's table at lunch. Kurt was due any moment and Sebastian eyed him wearily.

"Call what off?" They hadn't talked about anything substantial for months now. Sebastian knew where he was going but wanted Blaine to say it.

"You can't dump him and break his heart. It has to be a more gentle let down so I can be there to pick up the pieces." Blaine explained, sliding into the chair next to Sebastian.

"Why would I do that?" Sebastian asked idly, curiosity was the only thing keeping this conversation going.

"Because, I'm going to date him instead." Blaine said it like it was going to be a given. "I've realized I like him now." Sebastian knew nothing Kurt did was a given and he almost laughed, almost. He wanted to hear more, this had gotten interesting.

"Right." Sebastian shrugged. "You're welcome to try and take him from me." He didn't add what he was thinking, good luck with that, asshole. He was pretty sure the silence spoke for him. Blaine was just deaf in all ways, especially subtext, it seemed.

"Come on Sebastian, this game has gone on long enough." Blaine whined. "We'll go out and fuck this weekend and then when we come back, Kurt will be mine."

Now, Sebastian did laugh, it was a dry laugh but Blaine still didn't pick up on it. "Why the hell are you so bent on getting him now? You don't date private school boys."

"I underestimated how well dating him would increase your influence around here." Blaine glanced around. "It's my turn to have mine bumped up."

"It doesn't work like that, Blaine." Sebastian suddenly felt like Blaine was a toddler and trying to explain the simplest of math but Blaine viewed it as an intangible topic like quantum mechanics. He almost didn't bother, but this was amusing.

"Sure it does. Kurt's hot commodity, and he'll be my hot commodity."

"It might have boosted your standing among our peers if you'd dated him first, what with him being a shut-in mid-semester public school transfer and you could be seen as the hero bringing him out of his shell." That was never Kurt, there had been fear and unease but he'd also been confident in the areas that he felt that he could be. He knew Blaine viewed him that way, a project that he had to spend time coaxing out but gotten bored halfway there and let Kurt scurry back to his shell and left it for someone else to pull him out of.

"Right, see, even you agree."

"I said it might have back when he first joined us. That's not how it would work now."

"Ok then, oh great Soothsayer, how would it work now? I bow to hear your wondrous wisdom." Blaine mocked and held Sebastian's bored eyes. Ok, so this wasn't as amusing anymore, it had gotten old the second Blaine started trying to antagonize him. There was a fine line between flirtatious banter, friendly banter and just being a jackass. He had the first two with Kurt and Santana (after he met her and assured her that he wouldn't hurt Kurt and would she just put her claws away?). Blaine always veered dangerously close to the third.

"First you have to understand why it's done such wonders for my reputation." Sebastian began but Blaine waved him off.

"Right, right, you got to bed the new transfer, I get it."

"No, because Kurt captured me. I stopped being the fuck-boy that everyone viewed me as and while that makes me more tempting in some eyes, it's also gained me a lot of respect in others'. The fact that it's Kurt was just icing on the already delicious cake. It would never have worked that way for you, you were both viewed as relationship guys and you'd have only gotten a mild bump. Maybe some would resent your relationship, that's a question mark because it hadn't come to pass."

"Not yet, but it could." Blaine insisted, not really listening.

"If it did, we'd all be tarred with the events that passed. I'd be considered a cheat, you'd be considered a home-wrecker and Kurt a dunce. If you managed to sway Kurt to be your boyfriend and break up with me, he'd be considered a cheat and I the dunce. People may feel sorry for me since I risked going against my norm and was trampled on."

"But if you cheat?" Blaine was tuning back into the conversation. "No one would feel sorry for Kurt?"

"Maybe a few, hard to tell, won't be finding out any time soon. Most would probably be like 'what did you expect?' and not feel all that sorry for him since he fell into the trap that he was well aware was there."

"Pretty hypocritical." Blaine muttered and rethought things. "Either way though, your popularity dips."

"Kurt's popularity dips, so does yours." Kurt would survive it all though, just a bit of hardship first but then persevere to the very end. He would always have a lasting effect on everyone and no one had the ability to survive and do it with such grace like him.

"Ah, but you miss the finer point, I would have stolen him from you. I would get a lot of points there." Blaine was beaming. "I pulled one over on the Great Sebastian Smythe."

"Don't bother trying." Sebastian was starting to feel flickers of anger scale up his back. He did not want anything coming to harm Kurt, in any way even if he could survive it, he didn't have to and he shouldn't have to.

"Oh, but this was all a game to you to start with." Blaine hummed and got to his feet, a cocksure smile on his face. "What will happen when Kurt finds out what you did? He'll come running to me. Last chance to get original terms out of this." He had a small hand flick toward himself, not wanting to draw others' attention to it, even though they were basically alone in the room and whoever else what there couldn't hear them.

"I never actually agreed to those terms." Sebastian reminded him. "I just said that I would seduce Kurt, nothing else. Whatever else you thought I was agreeing to was just in your head. I didn't want any of the rest of it." It had given Sebastian a reason to go after Kurt though other than just pursuing him. It gave him a blanket of cover with Blaine too. Had he just gone for Kurt, the little shit across from him would have thought he was playing a game and would have joined in, made it more complicated. Thinking Sebastian was playing Blaine's game and by his rules made it that much easier to go after what he really wanted. By the time Blaine asked him to go after Kurt, he'd already decided on it himself.

"We'll see what he thinks about it." Blaine's grin was too wide and Sebastian knew he could haul out and punch Blaine in his smug face. There were rules and that was the chief among them.

"See what who thinks of what?" Kurt asked as he pressed a kiss to Sebastian's cheek and slid into the seat that Blaine just vacated. His hand finding Sebastian's instantly without even looking. His head was tilted up toward Blaine, waiting for an answer.

"The fact-"

"Blaine, don't." Sebastian growled, Kurt's hand tightened around his and he squeezed back.

"The fact," Blaine emphasized. "That your boyfriend is only with you because of a bet."

Kurt's lips twisted and glanced over at Sebastian who gave him a helpless look back. Kurt started laughing and Blaine looked put out and confused. "Oh, you two were so not subtle, besides, Sebastian told me all about that conversation. We're dating, you idiot, do you think we're just fucking? We tell each other things, especially things that can come back and bite us in the ass if we don't get ahead of it."

Sebastian grinned, glad that Kurt had remembered that, they'd been a few glasses in on his latest stash of wine when he'd admitted to that. Kurt had been patient and waited him out and his explanation. He'd been surprisingly cool with it then too.

"Don't think I didn't catch you flirting with me in the hallways the last couple of days either. I let it go, thinking it was just more of your typical bullshit but in light of what you just said, wow, you're an asshole."

"Flirting?" Sebastian's tone was rough and Blaine straightened, knowing what it meant, the way that people and animals just instinctively always knew when they were about to be attacked. The tone, the posture, the sharpening of green eyes narrowing in on the prey.

"It was harmless, honestly! I was just trying to lay a foundation." Blaine held his hands up in peace. "I didn't realize you two were the real deal. Had I known this wasn't just a front or not just pretense on your side, I wouldn't have done it."

"Yeah... ok, whatever." Kurt rolled his eyes. "Sit down, Bast." He tugged on his boyfriend's arm and Sebastian reluctantly took his seat again. "Honestly, what's your damage?" His eyes were on Blaine again but his hand was still firmly linked with Sebastian's.

"Oh, I can tell you that one." Sebastian said silkily and Blaine glared at him this time. "He was a public school boy himself and was turned down by the only boy he liked there. Then he was beat up and came crawling to Dalton with his tail between his legs. Now he only wants to date public school boys, lord his superiority over them, make them regret not choosing him when he was one of them."

"You went to public school?" Kurt asked the same time that Blaine said.

"That's totally false, I just think private school boys are pretentious."

"You're a private school boy now, as is Kurt." Sebastian countered.

"Pretentiousness doesn't end just because you are in a different type of school." Kurt added and Sebastian winced because that one was pretty well barbed. So maybe he wasn't quite as ok with the original agreement? Hadn't he explained it was only so he could pursue Kurt under the guise that Blaine wouldn't look too deeply at? Or was that directed solely at Blaine or even himself? "Look at Rachel." He scoffed. "She loves public school because she thinks she's so much better than everyone else, she thinks she's better than private school people too, they have to conform, she doesn't have to."

Sebastian breathed a little easier knowing it wasn't directed at any of them now. He lifted Kurt's hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. "Do we have to entertain his presence anymore?"

"Nope." Kurt turned to Sebastian and went in for another kiss, this time, his lips lingering over Sebastian's. "Let's get out of here."

Kurt didn't need to suggest it to Sebastian twice.

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THE END

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EAN: Like I said, a short. :D but yeah, this one is now over. :)

EAN2: OMG I just saw it, the most amazing thing EVER! Chris Colfer singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow THIS YEAR (well, 2022, but whatevs on PBS) He sounds so good still! And it's a bit more of a jazzy version, and a bit deeper but still so him and unlike his Glee days and SO GOOD. I'm Staning, a bit, I know, but YES! I love that he's performing more, even if it's just stage performances, WE GET TO SEE HIM ACT AND SING AGAIN! (rarely, but still!)