A/N: Here's a one-shot for the anon prompt 'water'. Kurt and Sebastian meet during summer vacation on the beach as children, and start a relationship. Eventually, they fall in love. But are they too different to be together? It's a little different, but I hope you like what I did with it. Romance, fluff, with one NC17 moment.

"So, what's your favorite color?" Sebastian asked, jabbing the hard-packed sand with the edge of his shovel.

Kurt bit his lip, looking up and down the beach.

"Okay," he said, pointing out to where the ocean stretched into the horizon. "Do you see that shade of blue out there? It's not exactly the water, and it's not exactly the sky?"

Sebastian scooched closed to Kurt to try and see what he saw.

"Do you mean, that blue that shimmers with just a little bit of silver?"

"Yup." Kurt confirmed with a nod of his head. It's the color that's made when the sky touches the water.

Sebastian giggled, looking back down at his shovel as he continued to dig into the sand, hiding the flush that rose to his cheeks.

"It's the same color as your eyes," Sebastian said quietly, careful not to look back at his new friend.

Kurt turned his head in surprise.

"Really?" Kurt said. He smiled a little bashfully. "I didn't know that."

Sebastian nodded, trying to look disinterested.

"Can you guess my favorite color?" Sebastian asked, looking up at Kurt through the sandy bangs that fell in his face. Kurt examined the boy from head to toe. He wore red boat shoes. His socks were white with red stripes. His red denim shorts matched his red windbreaker perfectly. He fidgeted, shoveling wet sand with his red shovel into his red bucket.

"Uh…red?" Kurt ventured.

"Yeah," Sebastian said, his jaw dropping a bit in awe. "How'd you guess?"

Kurt shrugged.

"Sebastian!" A woman walked onto the beach, scanning the shoreline with her hand shielding her eyes. Kurt fled behind the safety of some large, black rocks jutting up from the sand. When she turned, she caught sight of her son building sand castles just out of reach of the waves. "Sebastian! It's time to go!"

"Come on, Kurt!" Sebastian said, beckoning with a wave of his hand. "Come meet my mom."

"I…I can't." Kurt stayed close to the rocks, trying to make himself smaller and unnoticeable. "My dad…he wouldn't like it."

"Oh." Sebastian's face fell, his bright smile slipping. "Well, when will I see you again? We're leaving the beach house tonight."

Kurt's own face fell.

"Well, I live not far from here," Kurt said. "I guess…will I see you next summer?"

"Yeah." Sebastian nodded glumly. "That's an awfully long time."

Kurt didn't want to cry, but he had never had a real friend, and he felt like he was losing the only one he would ever have.

"You won't forget me?" Kurt asked.

Sebastian held up his pinkie and tried to smile.

"Pinkie promise I won't…if you don't forget me."

Kurt linked pinkies with the boy and offered a sad smile back.

"I won't forget you, Sebastian. I promise."

"So, there I was, running down the field, my ankle screaming in agony when I saw my chance…" Sebastian bounced on the balls of his feet, recreating the epic, game winning goal while Kurt sat in the sand, fascinated by Sebastian's story. "That fool of a goalie thought I was going to shoot to the left, but then I faked him out and shot to the right and…"

"Score!" Kurt cheered, laughing, with his hands thrown triumphantly in the air. "Wow! I wish I had been there to see it!"

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed, plopping down beside his friend. Sebastian picked up a handful of stones and started throwing them absentmindedly into the ocean. "After, there was this big party, with music, and dancing…and girls…"

"Girls?" Kurt's eyes opened wide. In the last six summers, Kurt had never heard Sebastian mention girls. Kurt had quietly hoped that Sebastian wasn't interested in girls, but he knew that the chances of a handsome boy like Sebastian, with his piercing green eyes, his increasingly muscular build, and his devil-may-care attitude, being interested in someone like him was unrealistic.

"Yeah." Sebastian didn't look at Kurt while he spoke, just followed the trail of the stones as they skipped across the water.

"Well…uh…was there anyone…you know…in particular…you liked?" Kurt asked, trying to sound unconcerned as he picked up his own handful of stones and started tossing them in the water.

"There was this one girl," Sebastian started. Kurt noticed the next stone that left Sebastian's hands didn't skip. Instead, it landed in the water with a plop and sank straight to the bottom. "She's pretty…blonde…all the boys like her. She developed really early…"

Kurt nodded while he listened, gripping on to one of the stones in his hand until he thought his skin would bleed.

"She wanted to kiss me." Sebastian turned to look at Kurt, taking in his profile in the light of the setting sun. Sebastian swallowed hard, a little confused by how he felt for his beautiful, elegant friend, who looked like he would be just as much at home in Sebastian's rich, gated neighborhood, in some of the finest houses in Ohio, as he did sitting on this quiet beach.

"Did you kiss her?" Kurt finally turned to look at Sebastian, sighing in despair at the thought of Sebastian's plump, rosy lips kissing some over-developed preteen tart.

"No," Sebastian admitted.

Kurt's heart leapt in his chest, but he fought the urge to cheer, to laugh, to let Sebastian know how he felt.

"Why not?" he said instead.

"Because…because I didn't want to." Sebastian's answer was so simple, but Kurt could tell there was so much more behind it…so much he was leaving unsaid.

"Oh." Kurt's answer felt the same.

Sebastian moved closer to Kurt, looking out at the darkening water before he spoke again.

"Would it be weird," Sebastian said, his voice quivering slightly, "if I wanted to kiss you instead?"

Kurt took a sharp intake of breath and held it, barely believing that this moment was real.

Sebastian turned to face Kurt when Kurt took too long to answer.

"No," Kurt said quietly, but shaking his head for emphasis. "No…I don't think it's weird."

Sebastian and Kurt didn't move for a long time, staring deeply into each others' eyes, almost daring the other to lean in first. But a moment came when kissing each other simply seemed the only option, and both boys moved together slowly. Sebastian tilted his head to the right, keeping his eyes locked on his friend, wondering if he would balk, and turn away. Kurt was filled with so much joy that he knew that the moment Sebastian's lips touched his, his head would simply explode. The sun barely glowed over the calm horizon when Sebastian's lips finally met Kurt's. Sebastian's lips slid slowly against Kurt's, just barely separating to accommodate Kurt's mouth. Kurt felt his cheeks glow red and wondered if Sebastian had thought about this moment as much as he had.

Kurt didn't want Sebastian to pull away. He didn't want the beautiful moment to end, just like their summer together was quickly ending. But all moments pass away, good and bad. Sebastian looked into Kurt's face, his smile warm, his eyes shining in what was left of the sunlight reflecting off the water.

"That was…nice…" he said, straightening up and returning back to his spot.

Kurt sighed. "It was."

Sebastian turned his face to the water and watched the light creep away.

Kurt couldn't turn away.

"Sebastian?"

"Yeah, Kurt?"

"I'm going to miss you."

Sebastian reached an arm around Kurt's shoulder and pulled him close, shifting to let Kurt rest his head on his shoulder.

"I'm going to miss you, too."

"Sebastian!" Kurt moaned when eager lips latched onto his neck and sucked mercilessly. "Sebastian! We can't do this."

Sebastian ran his hands down Kurt's sides, traveling lower, barely asking for permission to be bold. Kurt grabbed Sebastian's hands quickly before he went too far.

"Don't worry," Sebastian whispered against Kurt's heated flesh. "No one's going to see."

"No, Sebastian," Kurt whined, trying to squirm away. "I mean, we can't do this."

"Come on, Kurt," Sebastian pleaded, getting his hands free just to have them blocked again. "I've been a good boy. I'm seventeen. I graduate high school next year. I don't want to go to college a virgin."

Kurt gasped, shoving at Sebastian hard, pushing him on his back in the sand.

"So that's what this is about?" Kurt said, folding his arms over his chest. He held himself tight, shivering with anger and humiliation. "Not because I'm special? Just so you can get this out of the way?"

"You are special," Sebastian sighed in frustration, trying to ignore his throbbing erection long enough to placate his friend. "I waited for you. All year I waited for you!"

Kurt frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean you waited?" Kurt asked, hoping for an answer more romantic than what he had heard so far.

"Don't you think I had offers?" Sebastian argued. "Guys in my school – gay, straight – were lining up to try and get with me, but I waited. I waited for you." He put his hands on his hips and shook his head with a condescending laugh. "I was such an idiot to come here this summer."

Kurt's eyes went wide, his face paler than Sebastian had ever seen. He felt repulsive.

"What do you mean?" Kurt whispered, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"My parents wanted to take me to Paris this summer, Kurt," Sebastian said. "But I said no. I said I wanted to come here, and they went without me. Now here I am, trapped here for the summer, when I could have been in Paris."

"Well, you've only been here a few hours. Maybe you can call them back. Tell them you changed your mind. I'm sure they'll have no problem getting you a ticket," Kurt spat out sarcastically. Kurt didn't care that tears had started to run down his cheeks. He had only cried in front of Sebastian once – when his father had died. Kurt remembered it as the worst summer of his life. Sebastian had sat on the beach with Kurt every night, watching the sun set, their arms wrapped around each other, while Kurt cried until there were no tears left. He swore he would never cry in front of Sebastian again.

Kurt wanted to cry. He wanted the tears to fall and never stop. He wanted to make Sebastian uncomfortable. Let Sebastian see them. Let Sebastian know he caused them.

Sebastian barely looked repentant. They had fought before, but this was different. Kurt had never seen Sebastian's eyes look so cold and cruel. Sebastian came up close to Kurt, a calculating smirk on his usually gorgeous face.

"You know," he whispered into Kurt's ear. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

Sebastian left Kurt on the beach. He walked away from where Kurt sat within reach of the water, looking out at the ocean, his shoulders trembling with sobs. Sebastian turned back to look at his friend, his stomach twisting with revulsion, furious with himself for how he acted but too far gone to apologize. He started up the beach, but something tugged at him; a feeling that one of the few good things in his life was ending.

It felt too much like good-bye.

Sebastian turned back around, hoping he could figure out something to say that would make everything all right again.

But Kurt was gone.

"Sebastian! No! I…I can't. This will never work. You know it won't."

Kurt buried his head in his hands so he wouldn't have to see the beautiful ring Sebastian held beneath his nose, or the look of love and hope glowing in his green eyes.

Sebastian heard Kurt's words, but he refused to accept no for an answer. He took Kurt's hand and pried it from his face, trying to catch a glimpse of those silver-blue eyes that had captured his imagination so long ago, when Sebastian was seven and Kurt was six, and everything seemed simple – life, friendship, happiness, and love. It was out there for them; Sebastian knew it. Even if it didn't exist anywhere else in the world, it was there for them on that beach. It had blossomed every summer, even after that one horrible moment when Sebastian left and didn't come back…not for six long years.

"Tell me you don't love me," Sebastian said, holding Kurt's hand over his heart. "Tell me you haven't thought about me every day that we've been apart. Tell me you didn't come up to this beach every summer, hoping I'd be here, and I'll leave now. I'll leave and never come back."

Kurt's eyes tried to focus past Sebastian, but when they did they fell back on the platinum ring, three perfect diamonds winking at Kurt in the setting sun. Kurt sighed.

"But we're so different," Kurt said with regret. "So much more now than we used to be."

"I don't think so," Sebastian countered. "I don't believe that at all."

"But, you have dreams," Kurt argued. "Big dreams. Dreams you deserve. Dreams I can't be a part of."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, kissing Kurt gently on the lips before he had a chance to turn away.

"The biggest dream I have, Kurt, has you in it."

Kurt dropped his hand from his face, looking at Sebastian with the full force of both prismatic eyes, needing to find some way to object, to push Sebastian away. But the more Sebastian pressed his lips to Kurt's, the more he ran his fingertips lightly over Kurt's shoulders and up the nape of his neck, the more he whispered, "Kurt, I love you. Marry me", the more Kurt's resolve started to slip. Suddenly, Kurt could see what Sebastian dreamed possible – a life for the two of them, and whatever the future held. Nothing else mattered. As long as they loved each other, the rest was just details.

Sebastian raised a questioning eyebrow and Kurt nodded, this time letting Sebastian slip the extravagant ring onto his finger.

Kurt gazed at the metal band.

Sebastian wrapped his arms around his fiancé and held him tight, lacing their fingers together.

"Do you think this will really work?" Kurt asked, deciding to be doubtful for just a little while longer.

"Kurt," Sebastian said, "I finally have my trust fund. We'll want for nothing. There are millions of places in the world where we can go, and no one will ever have to see us. Or we can just stay here, on this beach. Whatever you want. As long as we're together, fuck everything else."

Kurt laughed, loving it just a little when Sebastian cursed.

Their eyes met again.

"As long as we're together," Sebastian repeated.

Kurt finally knew for sure. He tucked his tail beneath him, shimmering blue scales catching the last of the late afternoon sun. The rising tide surrounded them, offering his smooth skin relief from the grit of the sand. The wide ocean sang to him, but he wouldn't be returning home tonight.

"As long as we're together." Kurt sighed. "As long as we're together."