Kurt was entirely grateful for the unusual amount of warm weather they were getting lately. And by warm, he meant that he didn't have to wear thermal underwear and scarves that covered half of his face. It was very hard to make the harsh winters of New York look cute without sacrificing some if not all of the warmth puffy jackets provided him. Today he was sporting a pair of not-at-all-weather-proof knee high boots, a peacoat and a blissfully light scarf that wasn't rubbing his neck raw. Being able to dress like this and not have to worry (too much) about the weather really lightened his mood, more than he ever thought being in the situation he was in.

Of course dealing with a breakup of this proportion and having on top of that to deal with the normal stress of the holidays was excruciatingly emotionally exhausting in itself. But he was sure now, as the sun started to peek through the clouds and a chilly, but not unbearable breeze blew his bangs from his forehead that a good part of his bad mood was attributed to the blistering winter they had been experiencing.

Maybe he mood was also lifted a tiny bit by the shopping bag sitting next to him, filled to the brim with baby clothes. Mary Ann was initially hesitant, which Kurt totally and completely understood, but after consulting her husband and taking a week to think about it she decided that she was still on board to let them adopt her baby. Of course, this was going to set the process of getting their divorce finalized back a little bit since they had to wait for him to be born to add him to the ever growing pile of paperwork, but he didn't mind. He was having another baby and he couldn't be happier.

Well, he could. But he wasn't going to think about it.

Kurt loved this part of the having-a-baby process. And not just because he loved shopping and babies needed a lot of things, though that was a big part of it. He enjoyed the excitement that came with it. It thrummed through him. There wasn't a moment he wasn't thinking about little toes and nursery themes. Closer to the due date he would go into a panic (he threw up almost every day for a week leading up to Lulu's birth) pretending to worry about insignificant things like whether or not this onesie was the right choice for when they brought her back from the hospital or second guessing his choice of bottles when he was really worrying about whether or not he was going to be a good father.

This time, he knew, it was going to be a lot worse. This time he wasn't going to have Blaine there talking him down and kissing his worries away. That and his fears were going to be intensified times two because he didn't have someone to lean on if he screwed up. If the baby started screaming and he couldn't figure it out, if it wasn't Blaine's day to help (two times a week until he was a year old, they decided), he couldn't just hand him off to his husband to let him soothe him and vice versa.

Kurt wasn't going to be completely alone. Blaine would take them during the days Kurt was working, Kurt all day he wasn't working and the nights when Blaine was at the show (god, that was going to be hectic) and there was always Rachel and Jesse. His dad and Carole, too, if it came to that. But still.

It was going to be hard. But Kurt Hummel was a fighter. He was going to make it through this. He had to.

Cheating husband be damned.

Kurt was enthralled in an article in his magazine (Vogue, of course. It was the only company he still supported through this dying medium) and casually sipping at his coffee when a sudden shadow was cast over him. He glanced up to see none other than Sebastian sitting in front of him, a coffee of his own in hand.

Add that to the list of things to put Kurt in a bad mood: cold weather and that stupid meerkat.

Ohio was a small place. Constantly seeing Sebastian at the Lima Bean wasn't really that crazy in the scheme of things. But New York City was fucking huge and he somehow he had managed to run into Sebastian Smythe three times in the matter of two months. Not even at the same place. Three separate locations.

Now that was crazy.

"You didn't answer my text." Sebastian said, the very picture of nonchalant. Kurt's brows furrowed a bit and his eyes moved back to the page.

"I've got a life. You should get one, they're pretty nice."

Kurt had almost immediately regretted sending that text the day of the doctor's appointment. There was a reason he didn't want Sebastian to know that he was getting a divorce. Or really anyone that wasn't near and dear to him until it actually happened. Not that he was banking on them getting back together and having to awkwardly inform people that "nope, I was just kidding, not happening, check back in a few years."

Being this person, the guy who was only thirty with a kid and another on the way and was about to be a divorcee… it was never someone he thought he'd be. Those were the people who got stuck in Lima. He made it out, he was supposed to have a different ending. He knew that the more he told people, the more people would start getting ideas in their head of him and the more he might start to embody those things.

He was still the same Kurt Hummel who made it out of Ohio. Maybe even a little bit better than that starry eyed kid. Now… he was just a little bit broken. But nobody needed to know that.

Especially not the guy who used to terrorize him in high school. Someone who, if something like this was going down way back then would have torn him to shreds. He didn't need that potential looming over him.

His need to not be scrutinized weighed way more than his need for a texting buddy right now. No matter how entertaining and distracting their conversations were.

"Only if I can get a money back guarantee." Sebastian retorted, leaning back in his seat. Kurt didn't dignify him with a reply. Just intently stared at the page and silently hoped he would get the message and just go away. And delete his phone number while he was at it.

He could feel Sebastian's eyes boring into him, like they had every time they unexpectedly run into each other so far. What was this guy's deal with staring at him like that? Was he expecting lasers to come out of his eyes and obliterate Kurt on sight.

Now Kurt sort of wishes that he was living in a comic book world like that. It would be a lot better than sitting here with a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Subtext by Calvin Kline." The other man said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Excuse me?" Kurt finally made eye contact with him.

"Subtext… by Calvin Kline. It's the scent sample in this month's edition." Sebastian replied, nodding towards the magazine in his hands. Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"You sure that's not just a Legally Blonde reference?" He said, casually flipping the page, pretending like he wasn't looking for the sample Sebastian was talking about.

"Mm, I think I would remember that. I've seen that movie at least twelve times."

"It's from the musical."

"They made a musical?!" Kurt snorted… against his better judgement.

"And you call yourself a law student," Kurt glanced back up at him and caught Sebastian shrugging, a smile playing at his lips. He moved to take a sniff, wincing as he pulled the magazine away from himself. "God, that smells awful."

Sebastian leaned forward and Kurt offered him the page, watching as he sniffed and crinkled his nose in distaste.

"You would think with a name like Subtext it would be a little more… subtle." Sebastian quipped, leaning back again.

"Maybe that's the point. Maybe at first whiff it's bad, but you gotta go in again and take in the hints of," Kurt took another sniff. "Eucalyptus?"

"Damn," Sebastian chuckled. "Maybe you should be the one working at Macy's." Kurt scoffed, setting the magazine down.

"I'm good."

"Are you?" Sebastian asked, suddenly getting serious. The look the other was giving him made him shift uncomfortably in his chair. This was another reason why he wanted as few people to know as possible. These types of conversations, where the other looked at him with pity and gave him those pathetic pats on the back and half-hearted words of encouragement made him want to crawl out of his skin.

The silence loomed over them for a few moments. Kurt wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't feel like giving the typical answer when people asked him that. That didn't feel appropriate, for whatever reason. He didn't want to tell him the truth either which was "absolutely fucking N.O."

"Working on it." Kurt settled, offering him a shrug. Not accompanying a meek smile like he did for the rest. He kept his face schooled and his shoulders loose. He wasn't going to put on a mask any more, it was exhausting. He was just going to let Sebastian read him however he wanted to and not worry about the repercussions of that.

"You don't have to talk to me about it," Sebastian said, adjusting his own expression to match Kurt's. He couldn't tell if he was being transparent as well or putting up his own walls. "But like… if you need to. You know I'm always on my damn phone." The corner of Kurt's lip twitched up a bit at that.

"One of these days Grandma Macy is gonna find out about that and I doubt she's gonna be happy." He was glad that some of the tension had dissipated now.

"Fuck that old coot. She gets to sit in a cushy apartment on the Upper East Side and get her rocks off with Orville Redenbacher, or whatever, while I —"

And for the first time in a very long time, Kurt laughed so hard that his sides hurt.

At first Sebastian just stared at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion. Like he hadn't expected his comment to get this reaction. But somehow it hit Kurt's funny bone just right and he was doubled over with laughter. It didn't take long for Sebastian to follow suit and for the rest of the people in the outdoor seating to gawk at them.

People in Manhattan just really didn't have a sense of humor.

"Fuck, Kurt," Sebastian spoke up in between wheezes, "If I had known that I could make people laugh like that, I would have ditched law school and tried my hand at becoming a comedian." Kurt shook his head, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He watched as Sebastian did the same, the smile lines by his eyes softening a bit but not disappearing completely.

"Thank you," Kurt said without thinking. Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him. "I haven't laughed like that in a long time." Sebastian's entire face softened at that for a brief moment before he was back to the smirking and eyebrow wiggling.

"Glad to be of service."

The next day at the store, he made sure to snap a silly selfie of him and the box of popcorn he was purchasing and sent it to Sebastian, receiving a text back that read:

Forget Klaine. That right there… is a match made in heaven.

Months ago, seeing or hearing that stupid couple name would have made his chest hurt a little bit. But today as he got received an equally stupid selfie of Sebastian flipping off his Macy's name tag… he felt absolutely nothing. And that… that was a big something.