A/N: For those of you following the Scion verse, anon prompted 'a little more about Kurt's powers'. So here is Sebastian training Kurt to use his powers to protect himself from danger. (Warning for mention of destroying an already dead pig so, blood, organs, a few gross descriptions. Also loose interpretation of religious themes.)
Kurt cleared his mind and concentrated on the body laid out before him a short distance away – dead, cold, and an unsettling shade of bubblegum pink. He focused on the inner cavity of the animal, pictured an empty space in its ribcage somewhere in the neighborhood of its lung and its heart. He tried to fill it with his energy, tried to ignite it with his fire…
…tried to combust it from the inside.
With his fingers pressed to his temples, he narrowed his eyelids and peered at the dead animal, expecting any minute that it would do something spectacular – explode, implode, maybe get up and tap dance. Either way, the only thing he truly succeeded in doing was giving himself a phenomenal headache.
Kurt dropped his hands to his sides and his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"I…I can't do it," Kurt muttered. "I can't destroy it."
"What's wrong, Scion?" Sebastian asked.
Kurt frowned.
'For one thing I wish you'd stop calling me that!' he screamed in his head. He couldn't really be angry with Sebastian. They had to distance themselves during Kurt's training. He needed to limit any sort of distractions. Kurt knew that. The logical side of his brain accepted it.
The rest of him, however, wanted to blow this all off and sit on the bed of their hotel room, wrapped in Sebastian's arms, and flip through the pages of the latest Vogue. Instead of taking out his frustration on his young protector, he took a deep breath in, closed his eyes, and let it out slowly through pursed lips.
"I can't kill that poor little piggy," Kurt said, opening his eyes and motioning to the carcass of the porcine lying about twenty feet away from them. Sebastian bought the animal from a butcher in the town over from where they were staying and on the way back he found an abandoned supermarket parking lot in the middle of scenic nowhere for them to practice in, miles away from prying eyes and far enough from the highway to insure their anonymity.
"First of all, you're not killing anything. It's already dead," Sebastian chuckled sarcastically. "Second of all, it's not a little piggy. That's a full grown hog. It weighs 250 pounds at the least. You saw us try to get that thing in the truck."
Kurt wanted to chuckle at the memory of Sebastian and an elderly butcher struggling beneath the weight of that huge pig, but one looked at the vulgar thing, decaying in the afternoon sun, slack jawed, sunken eyes staring, empty, vacant, made him want to vomit. His clammy hands shook, and he prayed to God that Sebastian didn't notice.
"Explain to me why you're teaching me to set pigs on fire with my mind again?" Kurt asked, stalling his lesson for as long as possible even though the sun burned hotter every second and flies had started to gather in droves. Something about trying to tap into his powers disturbed him. These powers he had, wherever they hid in his soul, felt like a living, sentient being that didn't belong inside him. They stripped him bare till he was cold and hollow, and when they filled him back up it was with something sinister and dangerous. The few times it had happened, Kurt didn't consciously call upon them. His body seemed to sense the danger around him and protect itself. It fractured him from his physical body; his spirit left and another consciousness took over. He didn't like the feeling. He didn't want to lose himself to it and not be able to find his way back.
"Look," Sebastian said, standing behind Kurt and putting comforting hands on his shoulders, "you need to learn how to protect yourself. You have to assume that your life is always in danger, alright?"
"So, you think I need to protect myself from an army of pigs?" Kurt asked, turning to look at Sebastian over his shoulder and arching an eyebrow in his direction.
"No," Sebastian laughed, but not sarcastically this time, "but pigs are physically similar to humans. They have a similar mass and muscle to fat ratio, a similar flesh density, and we decay at roughly the same speed."
Kurt's eyes went wide and Sebastian blushed.
"I'm not going to even begin to ask how you know all of that," Kurt teased.
"Shut up," Sebastian said, turning Kurt back toward his target, "I watch a lot of late night crime dramas. Besides, don't hate on pigs. They can be mean motherfuckers."
Kurt gasped quietly at Sebastian's language. He never heard any of the priests in the temple curse, and Sebastian always had a mouth on him, but away from the order and the rules that constantly burdened them day after day, Sebastian seemed to curse more.
Kurt swallowed hard thinking about it.
Honestly, it kind of turned him on, but that attraction was a feeling he couldn't afford to have, and it was definitely not something he should be thinking on when he was attempting to use his divine grace to light a pig on fire.
"B-but that's just humans…and humanlike creatures," Kurt pointed out. "What about demons?"
"Sorry, but Gil Grissom didn't quite clue me in as to what animal best represents a demon, so we're going to have to cross that bridge a little later."
Sebastian smiled smugly but Kurt's blank expression killed that smile pretty quick.
"Moving on…okay," Sebastian said, running his hands down Kurt's arms in an attempt to get him to relax. "Let's try this again. Now, you need to find your center."
Kurt sighed.
"You keep saying that," he complained, "but I don't know what my center is!"
"That's alright," Sebastian encouraged. "It's different for every Scion. Pick the emotion in you that's the strongest."
"But how do I do that?" Kurt groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. He felt like he was running around in circles, trying his hardest and getting nowhere fast.
"Calm down, first of all…" Sebastian pressed his chest against Kurt's back so Kurt could feel the rhythm of his breathing. "Breathe in…and out…and in…and out…"
Kurt concentrated on the movement of Sebastian's body behind him, following the ebb and flow of Sebastian's breath against his neck. His entire body responded to Sebastian, every cell seeking him out, letting Sebastian lead him from his distress and anxiety into a place of soothing calm.
"Now close your eyes," Sebastian whispered, "and try to find a thought, a memory, anything that evokes a strong feeling. Some Scion's tried to be warriors and thrived on a thirst for vengeance, some tapped into the deep despair of everything they lost, but I don't think either of those emotions are in you."
Kurt tried to conjure the most powerful memory he could.
He started with memories of his mother – baking in the kitchen on Sunday mornings, having tea parties in the front yard, playing dress up with her favorite blue sundress and a pair of sensible shoes. He thought of the day she died, the way his father's face crumbled when he got the call, and how he packed up everything they owned and left without even saying goodbye.
"That's it," he heard Sebastian's excited voice clearly against his ear, his warm breath tickling Kurt's skin, making him feel alive. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up."
From somewhere in the quiet distance he heard a vague sizzling sound, and when the wind shifted he smelled the pungent odor of burning pork.
Kurt delved deep, opening doors in his memory that he had tried to keep locked – long afternoons with his father fixing cars, eating cucumber sandwiches on the front lawn when Burt Hummel tried to make up for the loss of Kurt's mother, that fateful day when the demons invaded their tiny farmhouse and took his dad away from him.
Tears poured down Kurt's cheeks as the memory of that night flooded his mind. Shadowy creatures dragged his father away and somehow Kurt's divine light managed to decimate them. Kurt's chest tightened, his breathing stopped, and the effect was instantaneous. The skin of the dead animal lit into flames, crackling with the heat, popping and sizzling as it shriveled up and peeled away.
"Yes!" Sebastian crowed. "Yes! You did it!"
Kurt felt Sebastian's lips touch his cheek; a gentle, tender press, nothing more.
"You did it, Kurt," Sebastian whispered into Kurt's ear, and all of a sudden, everything changed. The images in his mind shifted to thoughts of Sebastian.
"I'm here to protect you."
"It's okay, Kurt. It'll be okay. I'm here, and I'm not going to leave you, okay?"
"I could just call you gorgeous. I think it suits you better."
"It'll be you, Kurt. It doesn't matter who I'm with. It will always be you."
"…I rolled you over on your stomach, and kissed you over your shoulders…"
"It's important to keep you safe."
Suddenly, Kurt wasn't controlling the fire that made the pig's flesh burn.
He was the fire.
His eyes snapped open, everything from the whites to the pupils filled with a pure, blue flame. It encased his body, made his alabaster skin glow. He barely focused on the pig, his mind simply identifying its location and the grotesquely burnt thing exploded from within, pieces of flesh and charred organs shooting out in all directions, missing Kurt and Sebastian but drenching everything else around it in putrid blood.
Filled from head to toe with this extreme power Kurt knew he could pinpoint anyone, anywhere in the world…and eliminate them. Kurt's conscious fought to take over and push the blue flame away. As quickly as the power came, it dissolved away, leaving Kurt drained. He swayed on his feet, his knees buckling slightly. Sebastian grabbed him from behind and spun him around; when he did Kurt could clearly see the remains of the creature he had destroyed, the black asphalt parking lot painted red with its blood.
"This is great, Kurt!" Sebastian cheered. "This is amazing!"
It took several long moments for Sebastian to finally realize that Kurt wasn't celebrating with him. He set Kurt down on his feet and turned the young savior to face him. His heart melted when he saw the fresh tears in Kurt's eyes.
"Kurt," Sebastian said softly, "why are you so upset? You did it! You learned the secret to tapping into your powers. You can protect yourself."
"No, Sebastian," Kurt said through his heartbreak, "I learned to destroy." Kurt sniffled, dissolving into his own sorrow, falling into Sebastian's arms, and in his head he cried, 'I learned to channel my love for you into a power that can destroy.'