A/N: I have to apologize for this one because it ended up a little fluffier than I originally intended, but as you can see when you read it Sebastian objects to the fluffiness, too, so I think we're all good ;) Also in this AU, Rachel didn't quit NYADA. Warnings for mentions of anxiety and symptoms of PTSD. Brief mention of Kurt helping a guy being beaten, but nothing graphic whatsoever. Mention of Klaine.
Kurt is not okay. Sebastian can see it when he follows him (at a distance) to school. Kurt has been out of the hospital for more than a week, and to the outside observer Kurt looks completely recovered. He puts on a brave face that's only slightly clouded with fear. He smiles for his friends, but he doesn't quite share in their laughter, their carefree attitude as they walk down the street on their way to NYADA. His eyes dart around. He flinches inconspicuously when someone touches him unexpectedly. He walks more hunched over than usual.
His friends appear to dote over him. They laugh too loud, talk too animatedly, but there's an undercurrent of falseness to it, as if it's all a façade; a bit too forced. Sebastian walks closer and tries to listen in on the conversation going on around Kurt. Rachel rambles on about all important Funny Girl issues. Blaine has gained a few pounds. The blond boy with the big lips says something about Star Wars fanfiction. This inane jabber bounces back and forth, and not a single person cares that Kurt hasn't contributed to the conversation. He floats along, muttering here and there, nodding when it's expected, but otherwise he's locked inside his own head.
Sebastian knows a few things about the way Kurt reacts to things that bother him (having been one of those things for so many years), and one of them is that he tends to distance himself, but it kills Sebastian that not one of his friends has even looked Kurt in the eyes this entire time and ask him if he's okay, or…or something. Someone should do something. Sebastian isn't sure what either, and to be fair maybe his friends don't know what Kurt needs, but he doesn't need this…whatever it is. Surrounded by so many self-involved people that don't see how Kurt's hand trembles where it's wrapped around his coffee cup, or how his head pops up when someone in the distance hails a taxi or calls across the street.
Sebastian wants to reach out to Kurt. He wants to make a statement, open the door that's been closed between them for so long. He gets an idea and immediately cringes. It's not a bad idea. It's actually a good idea, if Sebastian was the corny, schmoopy, romantic type. He's not…he knows he's not. He runs away from any kind of sentiment. FTD commercials make him want to puke. But he could be the hopeless romantic if that's what Kurt needs. Sebastian sighs and pushes a hand through his hair, watching as the small mob enters the school with Kurt suspended in its midst, the nucleus of the group but oddly an outsider; the world of petty drama going on around him while he quietly clings to sanity.
Sebastian looks around and spots a flower shop across the street from the school. He hems and haws, but remembering that he swore at the hospital that he isn't above doing anything for Kurt now that he has a second chance, he finally decides to put his plan into action.
The roses start to arrive in the middle of Kurt's classes.
The first one shows up halfway through Cassie July's dance class. A student taps Kurt on the shoulder mid-tango and hands him a perfect white rose. Kurt's mouth drops, and Cassie rolls her eyes when she sees it.
"For Christ's sake, Hummel," she barks as she tries to get the class of swooning girls and their aggravated partners back on track. "You have three classes with your fiancé. Are the roses really necessary?"
"I don't have any classes with him today," Kurt informs his dance teacher coyly. She scoffs with a sarcastic smirk on her face, turning away so she doesn't have to witness Kurt fawning over his precious flower.
Kurt smiles, sniffing the perfect white rose before noticing a card dangling from a gold cord around the stem. Kurt picks it up between careful fingers and reads it.
"There is something you must always remember…"
Kurt furrows his brow as he reads it again, disappointed that the florist cut off the message.
That disappointment morphs into excitement when the second rose arrives in the middle of his Intro to Musical Theater lecture.
This rose is red; a bud that is days away from opening. He blushes as envious girls shoot him jealous looks. He finds the second card and reads it, eager for another piece of the puzzle.
"You are braver than you believe…"
Kurt gasps at the sentiment. He didn't think of himself as particularly brave when he ran to help the man being beaten in that dark alley. It just felt like the human thing to do. But everyone he loves had been lecturing him about 'being brave' as if it is a bad thing; he knows it comes from a place of fear and caring, a place of love that doesn't always express itself the way it should.
It still hurts.
When the third rose arrives, Kurt spins around beside his seat, trying to find Blaine in the gathering crowd. Kurt knows that Blaine is obviously dropping the roses off and then racing to get to class, but he wants a glimpse of him to hold on to. He doesn't see his fiancé's familiar head of gelled hair anywhere.
He sighs at his lavender rose, immediately searching out the card.
"…stronger than you seem…"
Kurt finally begins to recognize the passage, and groans to himself.
"Winnie-the-Pooh?" he mutters with a huge grin on his face. He rolls his eyes, but bites his lip, bouncing in his seat. Maybe it is a little campy, but Kurt can forgive campy since Blaine is trying so hard.
Kurt doesn't want to seem greedy, but he secretly hopes that another rose will arrive.
And it does. A pink rose, right at the beginning of his individual voice training lesson.
Kurt knows what the card will say even before he reads it.
"…and smarter than you think."
Kurt's heart swells, honestly elated for the first time since he's left the hospital.
After school he'll see Blaine, and he'll make sure to thank him properly.
Blaine is late, and Kurt waits outside with his colorful bouquet clutched to his chest. Kurt bends down and sniffs the flowers, letting their sweet scent fill his nose and tickle his head. Blaine can be prone to large, sometimes uncomfortable displays, but this…this was what Kurt needed; a constant stream of support; something special, something private, something thoughtful.
Something for the two of them to share.
When Blaine finally walks through the glass doors, Kurt attacks him with abandon, wrapping his arms around him and pecking kisses all over his face.
"Well hello to you, too," Blaine chuckles through the veil of kisses. "What's gotten into you?"
"What's gotten into me?" Kurt says breathlessly. "Oh, just the greatest fiancé in the world showering me with roses all day, that's what."
Blaine pulls back from Kurt enough to look into his eyes.
"What…"
"Oh, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," Kurt says, smacking Blaine lightly on the shoulder. "The gig is up. I know it was you. I mean…Winnie-the-Pooh, Blaine? You really are sappy."
Blaine looks at Kurt and notices for the first time the roses clutched in his grasp.
"I…they're beautiful, Kurt," Blaine stutters, his hazel eyes going dark with confusion, "but I didn't send them."
Kurt pulls out of Blaine's arms completely, stepping back, thoroughly unamused.
"I wish I had sent them," Blaine says, trying to find a way back into Kurt's arms again.
Blaine doesn't have another chance to comment. Rachel joins them and immediately monopolizes the conversation with furious commentary about how unfair Carmen Tibideaux is acting lately. Sam shows up, seemingly from nowhere with Artie in tow, and they start off again. Blaine seems to forget the mysterious roses altogether as he gets wrapped up in the saga of Artie's newfound popularity at his own school. Kurt sighs down at his roses, once again feeling completely alone.
They trundle along, and Kurt doesn't bother to watch where he's going. Why should he, when Blaine and Rachel and Sam and Artie and eventually Mercedes will shuffle him around to the loft, or the diner, or wherever else they want to go.
"Watch it!" Rachel hisses as a tall stranger pushes his way into their group, scattering everyone for a second. The oddly familiar looking man in an ankle length, dark grey cashmere coat brushes past Kurt, pausing long enough to hand Kurt another rose and bustle away into the oncoming crowd. Blaine dotes over a flummoxed Rachel while Sam gives Artie a once over for any damages, leaving Kurt to turn and lock eyes with the stranger, who isn't a stranger at all.
"Sebastian?" Kurt mutters at the man with the crooked yet sympathetic smile who gives him a subtle wave before hopping on the nearest bus stopped and before Kurt knows it, Sebastian is gone.
Kurt looks down at the orange rose in his grasp, a card hanging from a thin, gold cord, just like the rest, and it clicks. Sebastian sent the roses, all of the roses, but Kurt doesn't know why. Why would Sebastian spend the day sending him roses?
He fumbles for the card, reading the quote over and over.
The line on the card solves part of the riddle, and even though he's thoroughly bewildered, Kurt finds himself smiling.
"Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them."