Title: Worth Fighting For
Author: an-alternate-world
Rating: M
Characters/Pairing: Sebastian Smythe/Blaine Anderson
Word Count: 3,507
Summary: Sebastian knows something is wrong with the way Blaine is glowering at him over the rim of his mug of eggnog. Once he discovers the reason why, he makes resolutions to plan something special with the help of some old friends. **Close to Nothing sequel**
Warnings/Spoilers: As a 'Close to Nothing' sequel, you really should have read the original already.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Glee, FOX, Ryan Murphy, or anything else related to the FOX universe.

By the time the sun has started to streak the clear sky on Valentine's Day, he feels like he's going to vibrate out of his skin with anticipation and anxiety.

He ensures that his routine is maintained to the highest degree to avoid arousing Blaine's suspicions. He leaves for his morning run soon after the sun has risen and it truly helps settle his nerves. He returns to make Blaine breakfast in bed, which is a little unusual, but he uses the excuse that it's the least Sebastian could do to start Valentine's Day when Blaine would be gone the whole day. They make out in the shower for so long Sebastian wonders if there'll be any hot water left for the neighbours and he kisses Blaine's temple when he leaves for Rachel and Jesse's place with the best fake-pout he can manage at seeing him leave for the day.

"I'd rather just spend the day in bed with you," he complains and Blaine giggles and kisses him.

"I think that's exactly why I have to spend the day babysitting," Blaine says and Sebastian wrinkles his nose, suddenly pleased Rachel had used such foul reasoning to get Blaine out of the apartment.

"And now that my boner is effectively killed and I will almost certainly gag next time I see Rachel and Jesse, you can leave and develop her kids into evil minions," he says and Blaine throws his head back and laughs. It's such a pure, beautiful sound that Sebastian's honestly delighted with himself.

Blaine gives him one last kiss and then he's gone, leaving Sebastian to clean up the breakfast dishes and straighten the bed and towels.

When he receives a text an hour later from Rachel that Blaine has been safely left with the children, he escapes the apartment and heads to where he'd planned to meet Rachel and Jesse: the theatre.

"This…seems like a lot," he says, his eyes wide as he observes the array of flowers filling Rachel's dressing room. He'd already seen buckets of flowers backstage and the perfume of this many roses is heady and almost sneeze-inducing.

Rachel bounces on the spot, her hands clasped in front of her chest. "Well, you said you wanted a lot," she says very matter-of-fact and though he has to agree, there are still far more flowers than he'd anticipated.

"You can never have too many flowers," Jesse says, leaning against Rachel's dresser with his arms folded over his chest. His smile and his words seem smug but the look in his eyes suggests he's as overwhelmed by the quantity of flowers as Sebastian.

And there are far more flowers than the three of them can carry, or feasibly set up before Blaine should hopefully arrive around three.

"Rachel, what on- Oh. Hi, Jesse and…someone."

Sebastian turns to see the stranger and Rachel springs past him to wrap the woman in a hug. "Hi, Maxine! You got my message?"

"No, I just knew you needed me to show up," Maxine says dryly and Sebastian vaguely recalls Rachel mentioning a Maxine in relation to…something crew-related in the show. "You sure ordered a lot of flowers, girl."

"Sebastian said he wanted lots," Rachel shrugs and looks alarmingly unrepentant for someone who probably ordered three times as many flowers as Sebastian had envisaged needing.

"And you're Sebastian, I presume?" Maxine says, turning her eyes on Sebastian and looking him up and down. He guesses she's in her fifties with fiercely discerning eyes and multicoloured hair woven into a complex braid that looks awesome. "You don't seem like a sap."

He blinks wide eyes at her and Rachel breaks into peels of laughter. When Sebastian shoots a glare at her, even Jesse looks amused.

"Love makes people do strange things, Maxi," Rachel chirps and Maxine rolls her eyes. Sebastian gets the feeling she's just like him when he was a cynical teenager. It's hard to believe he's been lucky enough to find two great loves since then.

"The rest of the crew is on the stage awaiting your orders. Should we get this show on the road, Berry?" Maxine says and Sebastian is bewildered by the request as Rachel slips into high gear and exits the dressing room with Maxine, rattling off demands and suggestions as they go.

He feels dazed, and only part of that is because of the scent of all the flowers assaulting his olfactory system. "Jesse, I- I just wanted to say thank you," he says, his eyes skipping around the room before settling on the other man. He suddenly feels as awkward and shy as he did the first time he proposed, like he's losing the wisdom of age and returning to a skittish child. "I imagine you've had to deal with a lot of Rachel's energy the past month and I… I'm really grateful to you, to both of you, for helping me with this today."

Jesse smiles, looking so calm and composed that Sebastian's a little envious. "Anything for you, man. You know that." He claps Sebastian on the shoulder as he approaches the exit, squeezing some strength into his bones and withdrawing some of his nerves. "But you owe me big time for taking over my Valentine's Day with Rach."

"Don't I know it," he murmurs as Jesse flashes him a congenial smile and leaves to find his wife.

It almost, almost, feels like his proposal has been hijacked by Rachel but he also knows that none of this would have been possible without her. Her determination and control of a small army of people reminds him of the formidable New Directions leader she'd once been. In the ensuing years, what happened to the guy that tried to manipulate her by Photoshopping inappropriate pictures of Finn Hudson?

"No no no, George! You have to take those over there!" she shouts from a stool that someone had brought with them and Sebastian wonders if Rachel will ever decide to step onto the other side of the spotlight and direct something. She certainly has the stubbornness to pull it off. "Sebastian." She waves him over and he dodges all the people he doesn't know who have been constantly moving around him, creating patches of flowers in line with where Rachel, Jesse, Maxine or Charlie pointed. For a proposal plan he'd devised, it feels very much like he's taking a backseat to the overall execution of it. "So I hope you still feel like this is your thing but I also had this idea because there are just so many flowers…"

She details her thoughts and he obliges the idea with a nod because why the hell not go all out? Maxine mightn't think he was a sappy romantic but Blaine absolutely was and when he had this many people he didn't know helping out? Why the hell not, indeed.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and a grin spread across his face at the message on the screen.

Blaine
These excitable munchkins are *demanding* we go to the Natural History Museum and then walk along 79th through CP and I'm terrified they'll get sick and Rachel will blame me for not dressing them in a fifth coat and a third scarf.

"Well?" Rachel interrupts and he holds up the message for her to read. Her smile is almost as blinding as his own. "Excellent and perfectly according to plan."

He nods and starts composing a response that's filled with reassurances and teasing.

"By the way, if they get sick, I will totally blame him," she sasses before flouncing off to give orders to some other unsuspecting crew lackey.

Sebastian
Make sure *you* have a fifth coat too so you don't get sick or I'll blame Rachel for roping you into babysitting on today of all days. Also if you're walking 79th, I hope you'll show them our favourite Gardens and Castle ;)

The speech bubble and three dots erupts almost immediately, followed by Blaine's brief response. It's exactly what he'd needed Blaine to say to confirm that Sebastian's plan to involve the kids dragging Blaine around, and to his current and final destination, was the right one.

Blaine
What sort of godfather do you think I am? Of course I will!

He pockets his phone and turns to help some of Rachel's theatre friends organise the flowers among the specific garden areas they'd picked out a couple of weeks ago. Getting Blaine here without suspicion was always the riskiest part of the plan. It relied wholly on a pair of children who were as stubborn and determined as their mother but they were also too young to be told why they had to keep demanding Blaine take them to the Museum and then through the Park. If Sebastian had simply texted and said to meet him at their favourite spot on Valentine's Day?

Yeah, Blaine would've known what was up immediately.

Definitely a wise choice to use the kids.

Hours gradually drift by and workers gradually drift away as the volume of work gradually reduces. As they leave, Sebastian takes the time to thank all of them individually even though their names rapidly escape him because he's not fully concentrating on anything other than how every second that ticks by magnifies his anxiety further. He's pretty sure the only reason he can't feel the biting cold is because he has so much restless energy that he keeps pacing around and around the gardens and his fingers keep fidgeting with the ring box in his pockets.

"You're making me nervous," Jesse says at one point and he smiles weakly, forcing himself to stillness. It only lasts a few minutes and then he's moving and shifting again, the cold against his face maybe the only thing that keeps him present and alert rather than thinking thoughts that are too painful and dark for a day filled with so much light and colour in the dead of winter.

Honestly, Rachel is incredible.

She hugs him a few times throughout the day when, her bright eyes and smile a pleasant distraction from the tired expressions on most of the faces of her crew friends. A few of them had gone to pick up hot dogs and nuts and pretzels and hot chocolates from one of the many food trucks in the Park. The drink had temporarily thawed Sebastian's fingers and the food had temporarily eased the nausea in his stomach, but his anxiety is a tricky beast to manage the closer he gets to knowing Blaine is on his way.

It's approaching three when he gets the text he'd needed from Blaine, but it's not quite as enthusiastic as he'd hoped and he panics at how to respond and calls Rachel over.

Blaine
Longest. Museum. Trip. Ever. I think I might b regretting agreeing to that walk thru the park :/

"He has to go for the walk, right?" he says to Rachel, uncertain how to word a reply that ensures the plan doesn't fall apart in the final moments.

"Give it here," she says, her fingers tapping at the keys and he peers over her shoulder, grateful once again that she'd agreed to get involved with his plan. He's definitely put more thought and organisation into this than with Andy but he also almost feels like he had to, like he and Andy were such a foregone conclusion but Blaine and he have had so many stumbles and hurdles that Blaine deserves to know, and see, how important and valued he is to Sebastian.

Sebastian
You know those kids will never stop hounding you until you do what they ask. Better get a move on!

Blaine
Ugh. Ofc you're right. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

"Problem solved," Rachel says, handing back his phone and glancing around them. "Which also means it's my cue to clear everyone out, grab Jesse and find the spot we'll intercept the kids." She rises on her tip-toes and kisses his cheek. "Blow him away, Smythe. You both deserve to be happy."

She winks before spinning on her heel and shouting at the handful of people still milling around to head for the Castle. Jesse gives him a thumbs-up and a wink, and then Rachel loops her arm through his and they depart.

And then Sebastian's just left with an endless silence.

Except, he realises, it's not really silence. He can hear the faint chirp of the occasional bird braving the freezing cold. There are rustles every now and then from squirrels racing through the gardens or up trees. The sound of New York traffic is hushed – it always is in the Park during winter, like the cold slows the sounds – but it's still inescapably present. Something about the normality of engines and honks and sirens of New York is comforting.

Rubbing his thumb over the velvet-covered box, he releases a misty white breath and starts his own short trip to the bridge that leads towards the Castle. It's at the end of the floral path Rachel and her team had created and he knows Blaine will know what's happening as soon as he starts along the path. The flower choices had been too deliberate to be a mistake.

And it's still too cold for anything to bloom anyway.

Oddly enough, he starts to feel more and more peaceful as he stands there gazing across the vista they'd created. He'd assumed the anxiety would ramp up once he was left alone with only his thoughts and the nervous anticipation for company, but instead...

"I miss you, Andy," he whispers into the air, his eyes drifting skyward as his breath swirls in front of him. "I miss you, and I love you, and I'm not trying to replace you with Blaine. I could never do that. But I… I hope that if your…spirit or whatever is still around and I'm not just talking to myself then… Then I hope you're okay with this and you know that I will always be grateful to you and I'll always love you."

Despite his inner peace, a single tear slides down his cheek as he closes his eyes and inhales slowly and deeply and exhales slowly and deeply several times to ensure he doesn't break down completely.

That was most definitely not part of the plan and he's almost certain Rachel would kill him if that happened.

He glances at his watch and straightens his shoulders, knowing Blaine should appear at any moment.

Blaine's certain that Rachel has lost all babysitting privileges for at least three months after he's dealt with Alison and Luca for the day. It's not that they're bratty or needy or whiny – they're remarkably well-behaved for a four-year-old and a seven-year-old who are biologically related to Rachel Berry – but they are a handful and it confirms Blaine's belief that he doesn't want any such thing as a 'brood' of children with Sebastian. They can't afford to be outnumbered by children.

"Mama!" Luca shouts and Blaine looks up from where he'd been pointing out the Park's features on the map to Alison. Rachel is strolling towards them, arm-in arm with Jesse, and she looks so radiant and Jesse has this grin on his face that makes Blaine's eyebrows unsure whether they want to frown in confusion or rise in surprise.

"Hey guys," he says as he lowers Alison to the ground and she runs into the outstretched arms of her father. Jesse sweeps her into a hug and spins her around with some sort of helicopter noise and she squeals and giggles for more.

"Hey. Fancy meeting you here. We were just enjoying a nice walk," Rachel says as Luca wraps his arms around her waist and starts rattling off all the things they'd done for the day. That was definitely a Rachel Berry trait.

"Must be a day for it. The kids were very insistent." They grin innocently at him like they haven't terrorised him with endless demands to go to the Museum and the Park in frigid temperatures. He tucks his fingers into the pockets of his coat because his mittens aren't doing enough to keep him warm. "I was going to show them Shakespeare's Gardens but I guess now that you're here, I should head home. Sebastian's probably bored out of his mind."

He's known Rachel long enough to tell from her expression that she's hiding something but she's also spent too many years on all sorts of stages, portraying all sorts of characters and situations, that she's become an incredibly accomplished and enormously successful actress. It's probably only because he's known her nearly twenty years that the twinkle in her eye betrays something he can't place. And Jesse… He hasn't known Jesse as long or as deeply, but he still knows him well enough that there's something curious in his smile.

"Maybe you should visit the Gardens anyway," Jesse says, bouncing Alison in his arms.

"Yeah! I mean, t's Valentine's Day after all and I know how much you both like the place. You could dream up some romantic evening plans with Sebastian there before you go home. At the moment, you look like you'd just complain to him about taking care of the kids all day."

He sort of nods and shrugs because Rachel has a point, and he doesn't feel like returning to Sebastian just to complain about the tiny tearaways that have left him fatigued beyond words. Rachel suggests Alison and Luca should hug Blaine goodbye and thank him for the wonderful day and they comply, although Alison also gifts him a slightly slobbery kiss that makes him wrinkle his nose. Then Jesse is lifting Alison onto his hip and taking Rachel's arm to lead them east out of the park while Luca scrambles ahead.

It's strange to see them out and about so casually. He knows Rachel has been slammed with the final rehearsals of her latest show at the Music Box Theatre which was due to begin previews next week and she usually becomes very reclusive around showtimes, wanting to preserve her voice and avoid getting sick or running into people hopeful for an autograph or a selfie. At their regular weekend lunches or brunches, she's seemed more tired and drawn with this production and he's been wondering if raising two children and starting another new show is wearing on her. He's considered suggesting she take a vacation to restore her energy because as a Two-time Tony winner, she can afford to take a break and step into any role she wanted upon returning, but he knows now isn't the time when she's about to headline a new show.

As he looks around himself, at the empty and isolated Gardens in the dead of winter… He doesn't really want to visit the Gardens without Sebastian. It feels awfully strange and lonely to be left to walk Central Park alone and it's not something he thinks he's ever done. He's always had Kurt or Sebastian or Rachel or someone with him to keep him company, to point out a bird he's missed or to change the direction of the path they're on until they lose track of where they are and have to get to the east or west edges to find street signs and gain their bearing again.

But now that he's here come all the way here with the kids, Rachel has a point. Why pass up the opportunity when it's Valentine's Day and he's in a bad mood after babysitting, rather than spending it with Sebastian? When he's sorted out his emotional balance, then it's only a fifteen-minute walk back to the subway at the Museum and he can be back at their apartment in an hour. He can afford a brief detour in the cold to gaze at some of the Shakespeare quotes he and Sebastian have deconstructed over the years before he needs to pick out his outfit for their dinner reservations.

He glances over his shoulder to where Rachel had gone with her family, his last chance to back out…

Before stepping towards the Gardens.

~TBC~