A/N: Please excuse Sebastian's language ;)
Madeline smiled in her sleep, warm and content, wrapped up in the peace that came with sleeping in Justice's strong arms. Her head of untamed, fire-engine red curls spilled over his bare chest, covering numerous Maori inspired tribal tattoos. The one she lay her head over was a souvenir from the first vacation they took together to the coast of Alaska, to the small village where Justice was born and lived for the first half of his life. She liked to imagine him as he must have looked as a little boy, racing around shirtless, even in the bitter cold, wrestling with his friends, attending the one room school house in the town square with all the other grades.
That's where Madeline's sleeping mind was now, sitting in a circle with the rest of the village women, sharing potlucks and sewing furs for the upcoming winter. She swore that's where they belonged. That's where they would get married and start their family.
If Justice didn't propose by the time he earned his fifteenth title, then she would for sure.
In her dream, she looked over her shoulder at the analog clock on the wall, its circular face displaying the time as wobbly hands traveled around it, mercilessly ticking off the amount of time she had left. She sighed with needle and thread in hand. An older woman, nearly blind, her arthritic fingers curled over her sewing, tapped Madeline on the shoulder. Madeline turned to her and smiled, returning to the conversation at hand about limitations on whale hunting, and the coming early frost.
Madeline was not a morning person. Even though she was technically an 'on call' driver, and could be asked to pick up clients at any time during her assigned work days, her supervisor usually knew better than to call her before eight…and even that was pushing it. Except in the case of Kurt Hummel. She never really understood why – he must be an exceptional employee at whatever it was he did – but they gave him quite a hefty allowance to put toward the use of a town car. In all the years since he had moved into his little town house, Madeline had only been called to pick him up a handful of times. She knew him through Justice, and that was pretty much her only association with the extremely private man.
Until recently, she wouldn't even go so far as to say they were acquaintances, but here she was, sleeping on an inflatable air mattress in his living room. She considered it a strange turn of events, to say the least. To think of all the threesomes she daydreamed about having with Justice and Kurt. She felt a little guilty about that…but not much.
Justice caught the alarm before it went off, with barely seconds left on the clock to spare. He slid himself carefully from beneath his girlfriend's all too tempting body, and smiled at the expression of peace on her angelic face. He knew where she was in her dreams - in her tiny sewing circle with the elders of the village of his birth. He knew she had fallen in love with his home the moment she set eyes on it. When they stepped out of the bush plane and walked out onto the icy land, he knew she had found a new home. He was going to marry her, he thought with a smile. He had bought her a ring on that first trip, and kept it with him ever since. He just needed to find the right time.
Justice found Kurt and Sebastian sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and eating pancakes. He watched them, so comfortable with each other, like an old married couple, but still blissfully in love. Kurt's eyes fought to stay open, but he would look over his newspaper from time to time to watch Sebastian enjoy his breakfast, Kurt's lip trapped between his teeth as he smiled, feet tapping lightly beneath the table. Sebastian stole glances at Kurt as well, but his were often accompanied by a sly, devious-looking grin. Justice laughed quietly. He knew exactly what Sebastian had in mind. If the noises that came from their room at night were any indication, Justice was amazed that either of them got any sleep.
Or that either man could walk straight, for the matter.
Justice felt bad for interrupting such a cozy and intimate moment, but the moment Kurt saw him, he smiled brightly and waved the man over, fixing a plate for him from the platter of food warming on the stove top.
Justice took Sebastian to work in the town car. It wasn't even a question. Sebastian offered to take the bus, but Sebastian wasn't immune to the stalker's attentions. The first time the attacker only pelted him with pebbles. Who knew what the sick bastard had in mind, or how far he would amp things up? Justice wanted this man, whoever it was, to know that Kurt and Sebastian were not alone.
Sebastian looked out the car window, watching Kurt's silhouette in the bedroom window gazing down at them as they drove away. The ride was quiet, both men occupied with their own troubling thoughts. Justice knew the trip would be quick, and he needed to broach an uncomfortable subject while they were alone, before it was too late.
"Hey, Bastian," Justice began, giving Sebastian a side-long glance, "have you ever given any thought to getting a gun?"
Sebastian's head turned quickly to look at his burly friend.
"Like, a hand gun?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah, you know, for personal protection…to keep around the house?"
"Yeah," Sebastian admitted. "I've thought about it. I just don't know how cool Kurt would be with having a gun in the house. I don't know if his ex…"
Every time Sebastian tried to voice his thoughts about Kurt's abusive ex, he found himself falling short, getting choked up. Justice kept his eyes on the dark road, waiting patiently for Sebastian to continue.
"I don't know if he had a gun in the house, and, you know, threatened Kurt with it…or something. I don't want him to shut down on me, knowing that I have one." Sebastian breathed in deeply, letting the brisk, morning air fill his lungs. "I was originally thinking about a taser…"
Justice nodded.
"I looked up a couple online. Taser has a home protection model. Shoots up to 15 feet."
"Yeah, that's a good option," Justice agreed, "but what about when you go to work in the morning? Those tasers are pretty bulky. You need to weigh all your options."
"I know." Sebastian ran a hand through his hair. "It's a lot to think about, and to tell you the truth, I don't know where to start."
"Let's start with this," Justice said, turning down the street that led to Fed-Ex, "we're all going dancing tomorrow night? Let me loan you my old service weapon. It's a Glock. Gen 4. I'll write you a bill of sale for it, just to be on the safe side. We'll arrange getting you a license to carry it. In the meantime, just don't let anyone know you have it, ok? You can talk about it with Kurt when you think he's ready."
Justice pulled up to Sebastian's Fed-Ex truck, and cut the engine. Sebastian reached for the door handle, ready to leave. He stopped, his thoughts wandering to their double-date to the movies, and the look on Justice's face when he kissed his girlfriend.
"You know, Justice…" Sebastian turned back to his friend, "I don't think I've thanked you for everything you guys have done for Kurt…and for me."
Justice raised an eyebrow, the edges of his mouth curling up into a small smile.
"You know, my Madeline has had the hots for your boyfriend for a long time."
Sebastian laughed. It was unconscious. The words registered in Sebastian's still tired brain, and he couldn't help himself. Justice shook his head.
"It's true." Justice's friendly voice cut through the sound of Sebastian's laughter. "Man, when she first met him, all she could talk about was how much of a bitch he was…"
Sebastian couldn't breathe. He couldn't stop laughing. He wondered if everyone who met Kurt had that same reaction.
"But, she's got a soft spot for gay men." Justice shrugged. "She felt the same way about you, too, Chuckles."
Sebastian stopped laughing, his face drawn and pale as he stared at the Herculean wrestler sitting not a foot away.
Justice chuckled, shaking his head.
"I didn't mind. I knew she wouldn't do anything. She flirts a lot, and she likes to talk, but that's about it. The point is, she didn't really have any friends…and now, she does."
Sebastian blinked in astonishment. Justice made it sound so simple. He was literally willing to put his life on the line…because they were friends. Sebastian couldn't remember feeling that way about anyone until he met Kurt, and now he had three people in his life whose lives had become as important as his own.
Justice's eyes flicked past Sebastian's shoulder.
"You better get to work, man. I think we have an audience."
Sebastian looked over his shoulder. Louis and Debbie watched them with narrow eyes and curious expressions. Sebastian groaned.
"Yeah. I'll see you later."
Sebastian climbed out of the town car, shutting the door and giving Justice a wave before hiking up to the office.
Debbie's judgmental eyes followed him.
"Stepping out on your man already?" she sneered.
Sebastian turned his head and eyed the town car pulling out of the lot.
"Never," Sebastian said nonchalantly. "The more the merrier." Sebastian winked, pushing past the two. Louis followed him with a smirk, laughing at the offended gasp that escaped Debbie's lips.
Sebastian measured time by the moments when he saw Kurt. He started the day by Kurt's side, managed a quickie with his boyfriend at two, and then got the whole evening with him after work at five. Sebastian loved the thought of coming home to Kurt after work; loved knowing that this small house, with its wrought iron fence and its perfectly manicured garden, was the place where he belonged, because the person that resided inside loved him.
He did, however, need to talk to Kurt about getting a key.
Sebastian rang the doorbell, bouncing up and down as he waited. He started humming a song that had gotten stuck in his head, groaning after the first strain.
'Stupid truck,' he thought as he pressed the doorbell again. This time the radio had gotten stuck on some lame soft rock station that seemed to recycle the same five songs over and over. One of them managed to stick around. Worst of all, he couldn't turn the radio off, so he knew getting one, if not all, of those horrendous songs stuck in his head was inevitable.
Sebastian heard a thud, a pause, and then a series of thuds. Something fell to the ground and shattered. Kurt's voice slurred.
"Aw, shit…"
Sebastian stepped back a bit, confused. He heard Kurt fumble with the locks on the door. The dead bolts slid in and out of place numerous times, several unsuccessful attempts punctuated by Kurt pulling hard on the door, and then more slurred cursing.
Finally, the door flew open, knocking Kurt backwards into the wall. He slid to the floor, landing unceremoniously on his ass. Kurt shifted on the floor, trying to climb to his feet. Sebastian walked quickly inside, shutting the door and locking it, before turning to help his boyfriend.
Sebastian saw Kurt, awkwardly sprawled on the floor, and froze.
Kurt wore the same clothes Sebastian had seen him dressed in when he delivered Kurt's packages that afternoon – a pair of indigo skinny jeans and a dark green Henley. Sebastian had smiled when he first saw it, knowing it was new. Sebastian couldn't help being flattered by the amount of green Kurt had been wearing lately. Kurt's hair stuck up in all directions, as if he had spent the last few hours trying to pull it out in clumps from his head. Kurt's beautiful transcendent eyes were a steely gray that sparkled with the remnants of constantly falling tears. His swollen face was red and splotchy. In his right hand he clutched a cream colored piece of card stock paper. Sebastian could barely see that one side was carefully decorated with pictures and covered over with a sheet of powdered vellum. A message, printed in gold calligraphy, stayed hidden from Sebastian's eyes as Kurt's hand curled around it, his fingers digging into the delicate paper.
His other hand clutched a mostly empty bottle of Cuervo Gold.
"Muthafucker…" Kurt muttered, not able to get to his feet with the bottle he held tight in his hand, but not willing to set it down either. He decided that the floor spun less while he was sitting, and leaned back against the wall, draining more of the tequila from the bottle.
"Rough day?" Sebastian asked, watching as his boyfriend got more and more drunk. In all the time they had spent together, Sebastian had never seen Kurt drink anything stronger than a Shirley Temple, and here he was swilling a bottle of tequila. Sebastian didn't even know Kurt kept alcohol in the house.
Maybe he hid it upstairs with the ghosts.
Kurt looked up, following the sound of Sebastian's voice with unfocused eyes. Kurt smiled when he finally noticed him, as if forgetting he had just opened the door to let him in.
"Hey, baby," Kurt said, waving Sebastian down and patting at the floor beside him. "Guess what UPS brought today?"
Sebastian slid down the wall to sit beside Kurt, reaching out a hand to pry the well-throttled piece of paper from Kurt's long fingers.
"We've been invited to a wedding." Kurt smiled a goofy grin that didn't reach his eyes, didn't light his face, didn't do anything but make him look ruined, broken.
Sebastian uncurled the invitation and stared down at the gold lettering. He read over the words several times to make sure he understood.
Fearlessly and Forever
The pleasure of your company
Is cordially requested
To witness the union of
Blaine and Eli
Sebastian swallowed hard, shoving the invitation into the pocket of his shorts. Kurt had gone quiet. He had drawn his knees up to his face, his arms folded over them, holding them tight, hand still gripping the neck of the bottle. His head buried, he sobbed quietly.
"Oh, Kurt…" Sebastian put an arm as best he could around Kurt's shoulders, wedging the limb painfully between him and the wall. "I'm so sorry. I…I don't even know what to say…"
"He said it was a one-time thing!" Kurt screeched. "But, it wasn't. They were in love! He cheated and lied to me! And now, they're getting married!"
Kurt lurched to his feet, stumbling to the staircase, tripping and falling several times on his way up the steps.
Sebastian followed him, his mind and body numb – numb for Kurt for feeling so heartbroken, numb for himself for having to watch the man of his dreams pine so hard over another man.
He couldn't watch the man he loved struggle, no matter what the reason, and as Kurt began to surrender and abandon himself to a night spent sleeping on the stairs, Sebastian lifted him up in his arms and carried Kurt's quickly slackening body to his room. Sebastian lay Kurt down gently on the bed. Kurt curled into a tight ball, hiding away again, folding in on himself in an effort to look small, to disappear. Sebastian kicked off his shoes and lay in beside him, wrapped around Kurt's body, feeling Kurt sob against him, until Kurt let go of the bottle and fell into a troubled sleep.
Sebastian covered Kurt in the comforter from the bed, still numb and slightly fractured, but even more than that, burning with rage. He looked at Kurt, wrapped around himself, whatever peace he had gained over the last few days, even while fighting with a faceless enemy, gone. Sebastian wanted to find Blaine and beat him within an inch of his life. He pulled the invitation back out of his pocket and read it again, memorizing the words, memorizing the date. He flipped up the vellum to look at the cheesy pictures printed on the card stock underneath. Just typical, staged engagement photos – the two men walking through some park, a canopy of trees sheltering them; and another picture of them sitting on a bench, probably feeding the fucking birds. The photo was kind of blurry.
Asshole and cheap.
Sebastian heard a faint buzzing. He patted down his pockets, looking for his phone. He pulled it out and looked at it. No incoming call, and the ringer turned up full blast. Sebastian tried to track the buzzing down, realizing it was Kurt's phone, ringing somewhere in the room. He slipped his hand beneath the bed, groping around until he found it. He just missed the call, but looked at the alert on the screen.
Eight missed calls, all of them from Blaine.
Sebastian looked at Kurt's call log. Before the eight missed calls was one call made to Blaine, just about an hour ago, which lasted for roughly fifteen minutes.
Just enough time for Kurt to rip him a new one, Sebastian hoped.
Sebastian looked at Kurt's phone in his hand. He hated to intrude, hated to invade Kurt's privacy. On the other hand, the man he loved had just cried himself unconscious after drinking almost an entire bottle of tequila.
Oh yeah...he was calling Blaine.
He considered dialing the number from his own phone, but he wanted to make sure that Blaine picked up the call. Sebastian hit re-dial on Kurt's phone. It picked up on the first ring.
"Kurt?" a frantic voice answered. "Thank God you called back! I was so worried."
"If that's your little high school whore," a high pitched voice sneered in the background, "you can tell him to fuck off and never call again."
"Back off, Eli," the man on the phone growled before returning to the call.
"Kurt?" the voice said again.
"Uh, not Kurt," Sebastian said. "My name's Sebastian."
Silence.
"Are you...are you Kurt's boyfriend?"
The man sounded hurt.
"Yes. Yes, I am," Sebastian replied confidently.
Sebastian waited, wondering what Blaine might have to say for himself, but instead the silence only got longer and more awkward.
"So, I take it he called." Sebastian wanted to move things along, maybe start out diplomatically before he offered to tear out Blaine's spine and hand it to him, seeing as he obviously wasn't using it.
"Yeah." Blaine sighed. "He did. Uh…just how much tequila did he drink?"
Sebastian looked at the sleeping body of his boyfriend. Kurt relaxed in his sleep, stretching out onto his stomach on the bed.
"Well, I see one mostly drunk bottle," Sebastian said. "I think that might be it."
"Okay," Blaine said softly, sounding relieved. Sebastian wondered if this wasn't Kurt's first drunken dial.
"Look," Sebastian said, his anger ebbing annoyingly at the sound of genuine concern in Blaine's voice, "I don't know what's going on. All I know is I have a drunk Kurt passed out over here. In a few hours, he's going to be awake, and he most likely won't clue me in, so can you do it for me, please? Save me some trouble?"
"What do you want to know?"
"Well, first of all, why did you send him that invitation, man? That was cold."
Blaine made a frustrated noise.
"Like I tried to explain to Kurt," he said calmly, "I didn't send him anything. How can I? I don't know where he lives."
"You have his cell phone number."
"Yeah, uh…" Blaine stuttered, sounding a little guilty, "his, uh, his dad gives that to me. He's changed it three times."
So, Kurt's dad is tight with the ex. Great.
"So, how do I know his dad didn't give you his address, too?" Sebastian went back to losing his patience with this guy, which he preferred to sympathizing with him.
"Because his dad doesn't know where he lives. Kurt won't tell him."
Sebastian sucked in a sharp breath. Kurt was protecting his dad. He couldn't imagine anything in his own life being so bad that he wouldn't tell his parents and his brother where he lived. Not until recently, at least.
"So, spill."
Sebastian ran a hand through his hair. He heard Kurt whimper. Kurt rolled onto his side away from Sebastian, putting a hand over his ear. Sebastian stepped out into the hallway, sitting on the floor just outside Kurt's door where he could watch him.
Blaine released a long breath, like he was just about to confess his deepest secret.
"Kurt graduated the year before I did," Blaine explained. "He decided to stick around for a year and wait for me. But he had such big dreams, and, I couldn't hold him back. I convinced him to leave, to go to New York. He was attending NYADA, and he got a job at Vogue, and I thought he didn't have time for me anymore."
"Yeah, it's called growing up and being responsible, dingus," Sebastian interrupted, sighing. He was suddenly exhausted. "You should have just trusted him."
"That's the thing," Blaine said. "This guy from his work started texting me, telling me that Kurt was cheating on me. He sent me pictures of Kurt with other guys…"
"What was he doing in those pictures?" Sebastian crossed his legs, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.
"Now that I know better, nothing really." Blaine sounded disgusted. "Talking, laughing, drinking, there was one where he was hugging a guy from his office. I was hurt…and jealous. I thought we were over, and he just hadn't told me yet. So, I…"
"You cheated on him." Sebastian felt heat rise up his neck.
"Yes, I cheated," Blaine said plainly, matter-of-factly, knowing he wasn't gaining any friends right now. Blaine dropped his voice, almost to a whisper. "With a guy who friended me on Facebook."
"I assume by your drop in volume that the fuck-tard in question is in the room with you?"
Blaine made a small noise of affirmation. Sebastian could hear him shifting, probably moving to another room. The sound of a door opening and closing confirmed it.
"After, I did it, I felt…"
Sebastian huffed, not particularly interested in how he felt, and Blaine knew it.
"I flew out to New York to see him, and I told him the truth. I'll never forget the look on his face…and his tears. That night, we slept next to each other, but he wouldn't look at me. He never spoke to me again."
"At least he let you sleep in the bed next to him, you lucky fuck." Sebastian ran a hand down his face. "I would have made you sleep on the floor…or the fire escape."
"Yeah," Blaine agreed. "I would have deserved it if he did."
Sebastian rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, the next day I was in the airport, checking Kurt's Facebook status to see if he changed it from 'in a relationship' to 'single', and I saw the pictures…"
"The pictures the guy sent you?"
"Yeah, only these were the real versions."
Sebastian scrunched his nose.
"Real versions?"
"That fucking snitch only sent me the parts of the pictures with Kurt and other guys in them. They were cropped from larger pictures, mostly taken at office parties. I saw those, the whole thing, and I realized I'd been played."
Sebastian was angry, but again, he discovered to his great regret, he couldn't exactly hate the guy.
But he wanted to hate him. Oh, God, did he want to hate him.
"Do you remember who sent you the pictures?"
"Like I said, some guy from his office…uh…Chester? Charlie?"
Sebastian searched his head for a name. Something about this sounded familiar.
"Chandler?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah, that's it," Blaine said. "Chandler."
Sebastian's laugh was humorless, dry.
"Kurt said that he used to dress like him, or something."
"Yeah," Blaine chuckled. "From what I heard, he was quite the little stalker."
Sebastian shook his head, rolling it back and forth tiredly on his shoulders as he eyed the unmoving body of his heartbroken boyfriend.
"Dude, why didn't you talk to him?" Sebastian whispered in disbelief.
"Don't you think I tried?" Blaine sounded agitated, like he had to defend himself about this before. "Don't you think I tried to explain..."
"No, douche nugget!" Sebastian found it hard to contain his anger. "BEFORE you cheated on him?"
Blaine sighed.
"I realize that now," Blaine said softly, voice thick with regret. "I lost the best thing that ever happened to me, and believe me, I pay for it every day."
Sebastian wanted to laugh when he realized what Blaine meant.
"That's why you stayed with that guy?" Sebastian snickered. "That's how you chose to punish yourself? By staying with the tramp you cheated on him with?"
Blaine didn't answer, but he didn't have to.
"It's going to happen though, right?" Sebastian asked.
"What's going to happen?" Blaine started to sound tired of talking to Sebastian, but Sebastian wasn't quite done with him yet.
"You marrying your little whore…it's going to happen. I mean, you've been together for what…three years or something?"
"No," Blaine said in a low, dangerous voice. "No, it never will."
Sebastian's jaw dropped.
"You still love him, don't you?"
Blaine swallowed, hard enough for Sebastian to hear.
"I never stopped."
Sebastian looked up at Kurt, who rolled back over to face Sebastian, eyes still shut, face thankfully calm. He listened for any sign that Kurt had woken up before returning to the man on the phone.
"Blaine," Sebastian started, breathing in deeply to steady his voice, "I know you don't know me from Adam, but I love Kurt."
Sebastian heard the man's voice hitch on the other end of the line.
"And Kurt loves me," Sebastian confirmed.
This time, silence. He was sure Blaine had held his breath.
"Someone out here is after him…"
"Oh my God…" Blaine breathed.
"A man is stalking him," Sebastian clarified. "I think it's the guy he dated after you…"
Sebastian heard Blaine fidgeting, changing positions, maybe even walking, Sebastian didn't know.
"Kurt won't tell me who he is. He thinks he needs to protect me..." Sebastian huffed a laugh. "So, I'm asking you. Who is it? What's his name?"
"If…if Kurt didn't tell you," Blaine stuttered, "then I don't think he would want…"
"Man, I need to know what I'm up against here!" Sebastian hissed into the phone, getting pissed that this man in particular would want to keep the monster's identity hidden.
Blaine spoke so quietly that Sebastian almost didn't hear him.
"Dave. Dave Karofksy. That was his name. Kurt met him in New York. He was going to NYU."
D.
Dave.
Sebastian finally knew the name of the man he hated. The man he was going to hunt down.
"Did you know?" Sebastian gritted through clenched teeth. "Did you know what Dave was doing to him?"
"Yes," Blaine admitted. "I knew. I was in a completely different state, and I knew. It killed me, every day, knowing what was happening to him and not being able to do anything about it. I tried to get him to talk to me, tried to get him to come home, but he wouldn't. Until tonight, I hadn't heard from him since we broke up. But all I wanted was to get him back…to keep him safe…"
"Then…then why didn't you go after him?" Sebastian's voice softened. He didn't know why he could feel compassion for this guy. He had already come to terms with the fact that he couldn't hate him.
"After I graduated, I followed him to New York with Eli..."
"You chased after Kurt with your little slut in tow?" Sebastian shook his head. "That was a dick move, man."
"I wasn't thinking about that, alright? I…I didn't deal with it well. None of it. I built it up in my mind. I was going to rescue him. I wanted to be his savior. But by the time I made it there, they had already gone. I didn't find out till about a year later where he went."
Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head at the utter ridiculousness of this man.
'I wanted to be his savior…'
'Well, bravo, Blaine,' Sebastian thought. 'Savior…well, you certainly do a great job of crucifying yourself and acting like a martyr.'
"You know," Sebastian began, "I really want to hate you right now. I should hate you right now."
"I know," Blaine answered quietly.
"No," Sebastian laughed humorlessly, "I don't think you do know."
Sebastian huffed, visualizing Blaine on the other end of the line, hunched over, defeated, looking for a lifeline to hold onto in this conversation with the person he probably felt had usurped his claim to the man of his dreams.
"Your little tale is remarkably self-serving, Blaine. If I was you and had a man like Kurt to call my own, I wouldn't have stepped out on him for any reason. I would have bypassed some cheap whore in a second rate hotel, and flown to New York to hash things out with my boyfriend."
Sebastian heard Blaine sniffle uncomfortably. Sebastian had to admit, at least to himself, that cheating on Kurt was exactly what the old Sebastian would have done, and for less of a reason.
That's why old Sebastian had been given strict orders to sit down and shut the fuck up.
Blaine was Kurt's one chance to avoid abuse. Had Blaine been more of a man, Kurt might have gotten his happily ever after instead of a nightmare.
Even if that meant never meeting Sebastian.
Sebastian looked at his own cell phone in his hands. He opened the photo gallery and scrolled through the photos. There were literally hundreds of shots of the two of them together – smiling, laughing, kissing. Feeling vengeful and bitter, he started texting some of them to Blaine as he spoke.
"Though, I guess I should thank you," Sebastian said with venom in his voice. "If you had managed to grow a pair and go after what you really wanted, I wouldn't have the incredible honor of having Kurt as a boyfriend. My kind, compassionate, adventurous, sexy-as-fuck boyfriend."
Sebastian heard Blaine whimper. Sebastian realized that he might have been crueler than necessary. Blaine wasn't much different than Sebastian. Back in the day, the two of them could have called each other friends…probably even the kind with benefits. The difference was that Sebastian had grown up – even if circumstance had forced that maturity on him, it was still there. Sebastian had found something that Blaine severely lacked…clarity.
Sebastian heard Kurt murmur, gently mumbling his name.
"S'bastian? 'bastian?"
"Look…" Sebastian stood, his knees creaking as he stretched to his full height, twisting his torso left and right to crack his stiff back, "as fun as this has been, I've got to go take care of Kurt."
"Of course," Blaine said quickly, maybe even sounding a little relieved. "Could you do me a favor and tell Kurt that I lo-"
Blaine stopped short. He sighed a long, painful sigh. Sebastian sat on edge, waiting.
"Tell him if he needs anything…anything at all…I'm here for him."
"Right." Sebastian tried his hardest not to sound too sarcastic.
"And Sebastian?"
"Yeah?"
"Please...take care of him."
Sebastian bit his tongue.
"I will…and thanks…you know…for the information."
Blaine didn't say good-bye when he hung up the phone.
Kurt had drifted back to sleep by the time Sebastian made his way back into the bedroom. He stood and watched Kurt, his chest rising and falling deeply as he slept, his mussed hair finally settling around his head, the trails of tears dry on his cheeks. Sebastian considered for a moment taking a shower, washing off the remains of the day before crawling into bed beside Kurt, but he decided to wait in hopes that Kurt would wake up and shower with him.
He didn't like showering alone. Not anymore.
Besides, he didn't want Kurt to wake up without him.
Sebastian went downstairs quickly to check on the door locks, and the security panel, making sure the alarm had engaged when he shut the door earlier. He grabbed the UPS envelope from the small table on his way back up the stairs.
Sebastian looked at the envelope and scowled.
'UPS,' he joked to himself, not entirely convinced that Eli didn't pull this stunt, the vengeful bitch. 'The fucker sent this UPS. Almost like he knew I worked for FedEx.'
It was an idle thought, a ridiculous notion, but something about it struck a chord. If Blaine or Eli had sent the invite FedEx, or by regular snail mail, Sebastian would have seen it. He had taken to bringing the mail from the mailbox to the door when he showed up at two o'clock. Had he seen the envelope addressed from Blaine, he might have intercepted it. At the very least, he would have been with Kurt when he opened it. Sebastian pulled the invite out of his pocket and looked it over. The supposed wedding was scheduled for close to a full year from now. Why send it overnight? For that matter, who sends a wedding invitation UPS?
Sebastian flipped the vellum up again, fingers trembling as adrenaline pumped through him. Something about the photos had bugged him, but he couldn't put his finger on it until he looked again, especially after hearing Blaine talk about Eli on the phone. They were both blurry, and not just from being reprinted. The image itself was out of focus. Also, Blaine and Eli didn't really look like a couple in love. In the first picture, Blaine was walking almost a full foot ahead of Eli, back rigid, arms straight down his sides. From the back, he actually looked kind of pissed, like maybe the two of them had just had a fight. In the second picture, the two men sitting on the park bench were about as far away from each other as two people could be, no part touching, bodies angled slightly away.
Add that to the weird New York Times with the obscurely circled obituary, and all these things seemed a little too coincidental.
Sebastian bit his tongue again in anger to keep from exclaiming out loud.
'Shit!' he thought. 'Blaine was telling the truth…that motherfucker.'