Blaine was awakened by something hard pressing into his arm. He feigned sleep while he tried to think of where he might be. It was warm, overheated almost, what with the weight of the blankets he could feel and the crackle of the fireplace he could hear. Other than the lack of a shirt he seemed to be dressed in what he'd been wearing yesterday. That's good. He opened his eyes. The hard object was Sebastian's knee, he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, reading a book. That was good, kind of. He was also totally naked. That was bad, very, very bad.
"Good morning!" Sebastian leaned over for a kiss.
Blaine rolled away and jumped off the bed. Sebastian shrugged and turned back to his book.
"Where's my stuff?"
"Where ever you dropped it." he said without looking up. "There's food over there if you're hungry. For food. If you're hungry for something else..."
"No, thank you." Blaine said, buttoning his shirt and reaching for the doorknob.
"Fine by me. By the way, three things. Thing one, can I borrow this book?" He held up the Blaine's copy of Frankenstein, the book he'd been reading by the fireplace yesterday. "I should have read it last year instead of paying somebody to write the report. I thought the monster was all monosyllabic grunts, like the movie. It's fascinating."
"That's why they call it a classic. Keep it, I can get another."
"I'll treasure it always. Maybe you'll sign it for me, something more interesting than Property of McKinley High School." He smirked at Blaine. "Thing two, Kurt called. He sounded angry. Probably something I said."
Blaine took a deep breath. This was not unexpected news. "Third thing?"
"Huh?" Sebastian asked, looking up from the book as if he's forgotten Blaine was still there.
"You said you had three things to say."
"Oh, yes. Happy Birthday!"
Blaine slammed the door behind him.
"You look..." Santana cast through her mind, carefully selecting the word that best described Mercedes right now. Radiant, glowing, ecstatic, "satisfied." was the word she settled on.
Alice looked between the young blond boy behind the counter and her friend opposite her. "Isn't he kind of young?"
"He's eighteen, same as you." Mercedes answered.
"Sorry, I like college guys. Technique." Alice winked at Santana.
"Sam was trained by a master." Santana boasted. "And he's young enough to be trained. College guys! How a guy could get so many bad habits in such a short period of time." she shook her head in disgust. "But catch 'em when they're young?"
Sam was well-trained, Mercedes could attest to that. But on the other hand "That's my boyfriend you're talking about, not some puppy you found in a parking lot." A blushing Mercedes redirected the conversation. "Besides we're here to cheer up Kurt."
"No, I'm here delivering an order." Alice said, placing the fruit salad Santana ordered on the table. "Gotta get back to work."
"Hands off my man!" Mercedes said with a laugh, her new deep and sexy laugh Kurt noticed she used whenever the topic was Sam Evans. "Don't even think about what Santana just put in your head."
"There's so many strays hanging around this place, I don't have to steal the ones that are taken." she said, eyeing a guy sitting alone at the counter.
"Feeling better today?" Mercedes asked.
"Yes. Sorry for barging in on you yesterday but I was in shock. Should have seen it coming, a guy like Blaine couldn't really be interested in me."
"You mean a guy dumb enough to cheat on a prize like you?" Mercedes asked.
Kurt's phone vibrated. He glanced at the photo id. Blaine. He turned the phone off.
"Not speaking to him?"
"I want to say it in person. Breaking up over the phone seems tacky."
"And you're sure you're breaking up?"
"Unless his story involves a drugged abduction I'm breaking up with him. Sebastian of all people! The only way this would be worse is if it was Rachel."
"Why would Rachel be worse?" Santana asked.
"One, she's a girl. Two, then they'd both be cheating on me."
"How well do you know Blaine?"
"Evidently not at all."
"Suppose the drug in question is alcohol?" Mercedes said. "I mean, you complained about how he gets when he drinks. And you said Sebastian's a heavy drinker. Maybe Blaine's got a drinking problem."
Blaine was sitting in his hotel room, half a world away, staring at a half-empty bottle of wine and wondering the same thing. All the wine in the world's not going to solve his problem. He put down his glass and walked into town, headed for the stationery shop he'd passed on his way to the wine store earlier. Writing in a journal had helped enough to get him out of that treatment center years ago, maybe it would help now.
When he got back he was shocked to find Sebastian in his room, sitting at the desk by the window, writing a letter on hotel stationery.
"How did you get in here?" he asked, stopping near the still-open door.
"Like I do everything. I paid somebody." Sebastian answered, folding the letter he was writing and putting it in an envelope.
"Well, what do you want?"
"Three things."
Blaine sighed. "You're still playing that game?"
"Thing one," he ignored Blaine's statement "thank you for the book. It changed my life."
"Too bad I didn't get it to you earlier."
"Thing two – this is for Kurt." He held up an envelope. "You can read it, you probably should because it describes our little..." he paused "encounter, in excruciating detail. You probably don't remember much of it. I want him to know that I initiated everything, it wasn't your fault what happened, which wasn't much as it turns out."
"Thing three." Sebastian continued. "I want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for crashing through you life like Prometheus here." He waved the copy of Frankenstein. "Just because I'm..." he paused again "unhappy, is no reason to destroy any glimmer of happiness I stumble across just to prove I can." He stood up and looked down at the book. "It's funny, he was mad at Victor, for creating him and abandoning him, and Victor was totally clueless." He looked at Blaine. "Goodbye Blaine, I need to go home and talk to my parents. I'm truly sorry for what I did to you."
"Is Kurt home?" Blaine asked, standing on the front porch of the Hummel/Hudson household several days later.
"Nope." Finn looked at his nails. He stood in the doorway, making no effort to let Blaine in.
"Do you expect him home soon?"
"Nope." He leaned against the door frame.
"Do you know where he is?"
"Maybe." He smiled vaguely.
"Who is it, baby?" a female voice called from the other room.
"Blaine." Finn yelled back to the living room.
Rachel materialized at his side. "Come in!" she said, her voice and manner on the sympathetic side of neutral, as opposed to Finn who was definitely on the hostile side. Finn disappeared deeper into the house and left the two of them alone in the living room.
"How is he?" Blaine asked, turning over the envelope in his coat pocket.
"I was out town when he found out. We all were, so he went to Mercedes. By the time I got back he'd calmed down. A lot." Rachel seemed concerned about how calm Kurt was. "I don't know, he's in the "I'm young, I'll get over it." phase, which I guess is good."
"Do you know where he is?"
"Yes, I'll take you there."
Kurt was at McKenna's, which appeared to be a hippie coffee house, one of five kids squeezed around a table for four. Kurt, Mercedes and Santana he expected. Santana was sitting on Mercedes' lap, which was unexpected and the other two people at the table were total wild cards. Dave Karofsky and an unknown black guy with Dave's same stocky build. The black guy and Dave were sharing an order of fries in a very couple-like manner. All five of them were laughing, especially Dave and his date, those two in a very new-couple kind of way. None of them noticed Blaine and Rachel walking in.
"Kurt!" Rachel said as she reached the table. "How are you?"
"I'll live." he said standing up and hugging her. Over her shoulder he saw Blaine standing near the door. Everyone at the table turned and looked. "I wish you had warned me."
"You're going to see him at school tomorrow. This is a better place, don't you think? You feel safe here."
"You know me too well." he said with another hug. "Give me a few minutes." He walked towards Blaine, who hadn't moved from the doorway.
Rachel sat in Kurt's vacated seat. "Rachel, Rachel Berry." she said thrusting her hand at Dave's date when the others neglected their host duties in favor or staring at Kurt and Blaine.
"Steve. Steve Jackson. From Dave's new school."
"And you and Dave hang out here?"
"Sometimes." Dave answered. "It's nice here, comfortable."
They were still watching Kurt and Blaine standing near the door. Blaine took one step forward, Kurt took one step backwards.
"Ouch!" Mercedes said. "Between that and your boney butt I don't know what's more painful."
"People like my ass just fine!" Santana said.
"Well, what else are they gonna say when they're trying to get a piece of it?" Mercedes said jokingly.
"What'll you have?" Alice asked Rachel. Rachel stared at the waitress, trying to figure out how she knew her.
"It would be obvious if I were holding a guitar. Band, TroubleTone?" she said with a laugh. "Now, I have to say the curried chicken salad is great. Tim's finally found the right recipe. And Sam's cream-sickle frozen yogurt? Awesome. It's new, not a lot of demand for cold desserts this time of year but come summer? Anyway, it's healthy, yogurt instead of ice cream. Good for your New Years resolutions and all that. So what'll you have?"
"Get the frozen yogurt." Mercedes recommended. "Sam's been testing it on me all week." Santana giggled lustfully. "Can you get your mind out of the gutter for 10 minutes?" Mercedes asked, bouncing the Latina on her lap.
"I'll bring you a sample." Alice said before she walked away.
Kurt came back, dropped an envelope on the table and picked up his coat. "We're just going for a walk around the block. Back soon." Of course nobody heard him, they all stared at the envelope, wanting to touch it but afraid to at the same time.
"I guess it would be terribly rude..." Rachel started.
"Unfortunately." Mercedes said. "What did Blaine have to say for himself?"
"Not much. He's not much of a talker, really. He didn't deny anything, just said it wasn't as bad as it looked."
Steve and Dave reached for the last fry at the same time. Then they laughed at each other. "Damn, look at the time!" Dave said standing up.
"Yeah, we've got...stuff..to do before it gets late." Steve said, also standing up.
"Stuff, huh?" Santana asked, before being tossed from Mercedes' lap.
"Yeah, stuff!" Dave said, grinning at Santana. "Tell Kurt to call me if he needs somebody beat up. And tell Blaine not to worry, Kurt's the forgiving type. Look at what I did and he forgave me."