The first few weeks are hard on them, but they get through it. Sebastian gets pissed about Kurt not telling him about New York, but after a couple of days of brooding and Kurt apologizing via text, Sebastian comes around.
"I missed you," he says, yawns, over Skype. "I don't like not talking to you." It's late, way later than what's good for Sebastian. Kurt had been surprised when he turned on his computer and got a skype call from him, and while he asked why, he didn't complain. Sebastian had said something about revising, but even via webcam, his eyes tell a different story.
"I don't like not talking to you, either," Kurt says, because he doesn't. Sebastian is on the other side of the Atlantic, but at least with frequent texts it didn't feel quite that far.
"So we agree that 'not talking' sucks," Sebastian says, then yawns again. Kurt smiles at him.
"Yes. And we also agree that you should go to bed. Sleep. I hear it's good for you."
"Mm, don't believe everything you hear," Sebastian mumbles, rubbing his eyes. "I think you might be onto something here, though. I guess I should try it out."
"You should do that. Goodnight."
"Goodnight. I love you."
"I love you, too."
x
They try skype sex, too, and they fail, miserably. It's Kurt's fault, but Sebastian-surprisingly-doesn't bring it up again. Not until Kurt is in New York and makes a plan to get Sebastian to bring it up again.
He times it carefully on a day when he's one hundred and ten percent sure Rachel will be out all day. He still hasn't found a job, so he doesn't have anywhere to be, and when Rachel slides the door shut, Kurt waits ten minutes before pushing the covers away and sliding a hand down his stomach. Sebastian will be online in about half an hour, which is enough time for Kurt to get properly worked up, and enough desperate that he won't hesitate on cam. Hopefully.
Kurt has his computer up and running on the floor while he, uhm, entertains himself, and when he hears a call coming through, he just wipes his hand on the sheet and picks up the laptop. He answers the call and tries not to look at the miniature of his own cam on the screen. He knows he's flushed and that his hair is messy, that's kind of the point.
"Hi," he says.
Sebastian stares back. "Did I...interrupt something?" he asks, sounding incredulous and maybe a little bit hopeful.
"Maybe?" Kurt says, shifting on the bed. "If you want to?"
"If I-Jesus fuck." Sebastian hurries to pull his shirt over his head, then rearranges himself and the computer on the bed. "God, I love you," he breathes out and starts to work on his pants. "Like, really, really love you."
"You only want me for my body," Kurt jokes, but he feels a thrill of mixed excitement and arousal at the prospect of finally seeing Sebastian naked again, even if it's just on screen.
"I wondered when you'd find out," Sebastian says, leaning back to take off his pants. He sits back up and palms his crotch and Kurt can actually see his cock growing bigger in his underwear, and thank god for technology. "Were you thinking about me?" Sebastian asks, and Kurt can practically feel Sebastian's eyes roam over his own body.
"Yeah," Kurt says, feeling his own arousal flaring up again. "Of course. What else would I be thinking of?"
"No one, preferably," Sebastian smirks. "I was just checking. So, wanna tell me more specifically?"
x
They fall into a rhythm, a routine that works for them, with texts and skype dates and skype sex dates and whatnot. It all works, until Kurt gets a job, and then it all goes to hell.
Kurt loses his phone and by the time he realizes, all his accounts have been hijacked and deleted. His email, skype, his fucking icloud account. He has no way to contact Sebastian, and Sebastian has no way to contact him. Kurt doesn't even remember Sebastian's email address; it was something with double letters somewhere and Kurt can't remember it. He's lost.
He's hyped with nervous energy during the week it takes for his cellphone provider to get him a new SIM card with his old number, and when he finally gets home from the store and plugs his new iphone into his computer, he can't stop bouncing while he waits for the backup to finish processing.
When he finally, finally has Sebastian's number, he sends a couple of quick texts, explaining everything. He doesn't get a reply. He waits for a few hours, sends another, but still-nothing.
After a night of tossing and turning, Kurt takes a deep breath and calls Sebastian, charges be damned.
I'm sorry, the number you have reached is not in service at this time. Please check the number, or try your call again.
Kurt knows it's the right number because he hasn't changed it since Sebastian programmed it into his phone. He tries again, just for the sake of it, but gets the same result.
He stares down at his phone. After the summer, and making good with the whole long distance, it ends like this. With Sebastian just cutting off all contact, after just a week of Kurt being MIA.
Sebastian had wanted to know if he was good enough for Kurt, but apparently, Kurt isn't good enough for Sebastian. A week of no contact, and Sebastian jumps at the chance to just cut everything off.
It's not fair.
x
During the next few weeks, Kurt throws himself into his work. It's not hard; he's new at the job, there's a lot to do, and he has a need to prove himself. He tries telling himself that this is for the best, that Sebastian would've been too distracting if they'd kept on being together. That Kurt never would've been able to focus on his career, that the lack of sleep would eventually catch up with Sebastian.
It works for a while, the denial and convincing, until the day when everything comes crashing down. Kurt is at work, like usual, spending the morning in the printer room. There's an old radio there, crackling with static, tuned into some 90's channel. Kurt enjoys the brief moments of nostalgia that hits him when he runs in to get a printout, but today, when he has to listen to it for hours, he's not as pleased. Especially not when, in the middle of it, fucking Barbie Girl comes on. Not only because it's a really shitty song and the shrill voices always give Kurt a headache, but also because it's Aqua and Sebastian likes Aqua, and Kurt can't get these pieces of information out of his mind, no matter how hard he tries. It doesn't matter that the rain is pouring down outside and that he's stuck in the printer room making three hundred copies of design drafts, he still can't help to think about that warm summer day when Sebastian's car broke down.
It doesn't get better when he gets home. It's something about the day's date that's been nagging him, but he hasn't been able to figure it out. He has checked his calendar multiple times, even asked Isabelle if there's anything he's forgotten, but no. He's just about to call out to Rachel and ask her, when he glances over at the kitchen table and sees the printouts of her flight tickets to Lima.
Printouts. Flight tickets.
It's the date when Kurt was supposed to go to Paris. The realization hits him hard and he sits down heavily at the table, pulling the sheets of paper towards him to have something to do with his hands. They'd talked about it, him and Sebastian, when he first got to New York, and decided that they'd wait and see if Kurt got a job, and then change the dates if they had to. Kurt had still taken note of the original dates, though, just to make sure they didn't pass and they missed them. Which they, obviously, did anyway, and it makes Kurt want to bang his head against the table and never stop. He ends up staring unseeingly at the wall, and he doesn't know how long he sits there, but when Rachel waves a hand in front of his eyes and he looks up at her, she looks worried.
"Are you okay?" she asks. She's basically been waiting for him to have a breakdown over Sebastian, and this seems to be her lucky day.
Kurt opens his mouth to snap at her, but he can't get a sound out. He closes his mouth, swallows, then shakes his head.
He's not okay at all.
x
In June, when Kurt is clearing out his things before going back to Ohio for the summer, he finds something in the bottom of his nightstand drawer. It's pushed into a corner, and he probably would've missed it if he wasn't looking for the missing bead on one of his brooches.
It's a necklace charm of the Eiffel Tower. Sebastian had sent it just after Kurt had arrived in New York, and Kurt had worn it all the time. Until Sebastian decided to cut him off, that is. From then, it's been laying in the bottom of this drawer. Kurt stands up and walks over to his dresser, pulls out the thin gold chain he'd had it on before. He threads the charm on the chain and puts the chain around his neck. The metal is cold against his skin for a few seconds before it warms up, and it feels...good. Comfortable.
Kurt still hasn't talked to Sebastian since then, and Sebastian hasn't talked to him, either. He realizes now, when he's standing in front of the mirror, staring at himself, that Sebastian has had Kurt's address the whole time. He could've sent a letter.
Kurt fiddles with the charm, entertains the thought of taking it off and putting it back in the nightstand to forget about it for another year, but...This feels okay. He's been pretty broken up all year, but he's finally getting over it. It's been-an experience. He knows it's done him good in the long run, and the relationship was probably doomed anyway, and now the charm is mostly a pleasant reminder of a great summer.
He takes another look at his reflection, then glances around at his curtained partition of the apartment again. A bit more cleaning up, then it's back to Ohio for the summer.
He can do this.