On the anniversary of a horrible day in Kurt's life, his sub shows up at his house so he doesn't have to spend it alone. But Sebastian ends up nursing something other than Kurt's broken heart ...

... his own.

Notes: Okay, just so you guys know, I love this concept, but I don't like this one-shot. But I couldn't get it to where I did like it, so this is literally the best you're going to get xD Hope you enjoy it :D

"Mrr ... am … jilnt … crck … miop ..."

"Uh ..." Sebastian, approaching his Master's bed with a bottle of water and some Ibuprofen, snickers over the man in the torn, black, AC/DC t-shirt lying face down in his pillow. "What was that, Master? I didn't quite catch it."

"I said you don't have to play nursemaid for me," Kurt grumbles, rolling over slowly so the world doesn't suddenly upend and toss him into the stratosphere. "I'm a big boy, preppy. I can take care of myself."

Sebastian stares down at his Master, looking like he drank his way through an entire keg to see what's on the other side, and grins in amusement. "Really."

"Really," Kurt mimics, pulling the covers over himself, then tossing them off immediately after when they become unbearably hot.

"Ok, then." Sebastian foreseeing a long evening of this, crosses his arms over his chest, cocks his hip, and makes himself comfortable. "Get up."

"What?" Kurt glares at his snarky submissive, throwing around commands like he has any power to.

"If you can take care of yourself, Master, then you can get out of bed. I mean, you're going to have to eventually to go to the bathroom and stuff. So, show me that you can do it."

Kurt's upper lip curls, baring his top teeth – fangs in particular. "I don't have to prove nothin' to you!"

"Well, I'm not leaving till I see you get up and walk across this floor …" Sebastian knows he's playing a risky game, calling Kurt out. His Master is already snarling like a wild animal, his fever-red eyes burning into Sebastian's neck, out for blood. Even so, he takes it one step farther to goad Kurt into proving his point "... old man."

And with those two words, something behind Kurt's eyes snaps.

"You're going to pay for that one, preppy!" he growls, lurching up on his palms, ready to leap to his feet and bring his sub to his knees. But he stops. His face turns olive green. A second later, he's leaning over the edge of his bed, losing every lunch he's ever eaten into the waste paper basket.

"Yeah, no," Sebastian says, trying not to sound too conceited even though he was right. "You're in no condition to take care of yourself, Master, so I'm not going anywhere." He drops a tissue box on the bed next to Kurt's hand so his Master can wipe his mouth. He tries to hand him the medicine, but Kurt turns his nose away. Sebastian sighs. Stubborn. So damned stubborn.

"Cooperate, please. I don't want to have to tie you down to get you to behave." Sebastian is employing every dirty tactic he can think of to get Kurt to comply, though he doesn't know if that's helping or hurting since, as infuriated as Kurt looks, something at the mention of being tied down sparks a granule of excitement in his eyes.

Regardless of what he may be thinking, after a brief standoff, Kurt snatches the bottle of water and the pills, downing them begrudgingly.

He doesn't say thank you. Sebastian hadn't expected him to.

"I don't like people seeing me when I'm sick," he divulges, so quietly Sebastian isn't sure he meant to say it at all.

"Not people." Sebastian sits gingerly on the edge of Kurt's bed while his Master retreats under the covers. "Just me."

"And what do you consider yourself?" Kurt mutters from beneath his comforter. "An elephant seal?"

Sebastian rubs Kurt's curled spine, its outline visible through his blankets. "Something like that."

When Sebastian arrived at his Master's house and found Kurt passed out on the sofa, he assumed Kurt was either drunk or high. But the second his fingers made contact with his skin, he knew his Master had a fever. He picked him up off the sofa and carried him to the bedroom, sure that Kurt would sleep through seeing as he didn't wake when Sebastian called, or when he knocked, or when he finally unlocked the door. But he woke to the sensation of being carried, and like the surly man he can be, he was pissed Sebastian was there.

Kurt shouldn't have assumed otherwise, since Sebastian goes over to his place nearly every day after school. It's the rare occasion when he doesn't stop by.

Sebastian had gotten the key to Kurt's place, ironically enough, from Elliott. At first, Sebastian objected to having it. He strenuously objected. Even with the relationship he and Kurt had cultivated, having the key to his house, given to him by anyone other than Kurt, felt like an invasion of the man's privacy.

It felt like the kind of thing Kurt might end their relationship over.

But Elliott insisted; said he'd be willing to take the heat if Kurt got angry at Sebastian for having it, but that it would become necessary. Then he clued Sebastian in to all of the big "anniversaries" coming up, the ones that Kurt gets self-destructive over – the death of his mother, his father's heart attack, the death of his stepbrother, the day that he left Blaine, the day his father was diagnosed with cancer, the day his father's cancer came back …

Tonight is anniversary number three - the death of his stepbrother, Finn, who was too many wonderful things rolled up into one human being, according to Elliott. He was Kurt's first real crush, then he became his best friend, then his superhero, and finally, his brother.

His death, which happened too quickly and too soon to make any sense, took a chunk out of Kurt that no amount of Elliott's submission could fix. So he hit the bong and the bottle pretty hard, passed out for about a week, and when he woke up, he started all over again.

From the look of the set-up beside the sofa, it seemed that Kurt may have had something along those lines in mind – two bottles of whiskey, a plate of edibles, and a new, geode pipe, unopened and untouched because the flu got to him first.

Sebastian has never known someone whose departure from his life affected him this badly. He still has his parents, and one set of grandparents, so he's lucky there. He'd loved his mom's folks, but he didn't really know them too well before they died.

But, Kurt – Kurt could leave a dent in him like this. Sebastian can see a future of nights spent on his sofa, alone, with a collection of empty bottles littering his coffee table while he dreams of the nights they spent together drinking, fucking, going to Kurt's club, making out in Sebastian's car …

… or just sleeping. Sleeping together has been one of the most intimate things they've done together. Sebastian will miss Kurt's body lying beside his for the rest of his life if Kurt doesn't agree to go to New York with him. He can't imagine anyone in the world taking Kurt's place in his life, or in his heart.

Sebastian massages Kurt's back until he thinks he's fallen asleep. He has a few things he needs to do before he undresses and kneels at the foot of Kurt's bed, where he'll wait until his Master needs him, but just as he's about to get up, he hears Kurt mumble again.

"Are you for real, preppy?"

Sebastian's hand stops at Kurt's shoulder, and his brows pinch. "What do you mean, Master?"

"I mean, are you really here?" Kurt rolls back around to look at Sebastian. He makes it to his back and stops, his eyes struggling to focus on his submissive's face. "Do you exist?" He reaches a hand out from underneath the blanket. Sebastian takes it. "And if you do, why are you wasting your time taking care of me? You're smart, you're funny, you're sexy, you're young. Don't you have anything better to do than to sit vigil on the bed of an old man?"

Kurt sounds so extremely childish in his bitterness that Sebastian wants to laugh, but he can't because he's stuck on Kurt's question. He has a dozen answers for it, but he chooses the one Kurt is least likely to argue over.

"Because you take care of me," he says, squeezing Kurt's hand. "I owe you one."

"Hmm." Kurt nods weakly, his eyes drifting shut. He sighs deep, his breathing evening out, and with that, he's asleep. It happens so fast, Sebastian wonders if he was even awake a moment ago holding that conversation with him. Will he remember it later on, or will it seem like a dream?

On the off chance Kurt will write it off as a dream, Sebastian decides to go for broke. After all, what will it hurt if Kurt doesn't remember?

"And because ..." Sebastian runs his thumb over Kurt's knuckles, taking his time tracing every rise and fall, "I love you."

Sebastian holds his breath for the aftermath, for Kurt's eyes springing open, for the dizzy smile lighting his face or, more likely, the scowl, since he's told Sebastian numerous times that no matter what they feel for one another, what they have has to end.

Because Sebastian is smarter than this, and he'll eventually have to leave.

An I love you wouldn't change anything. It would simply make things more painful when the time came.

When Kurt doesn't react, Sebastian knows he's asleep. Sebastian has made several subconscious professions to a sleeping Kurt before, and received the same response. He's not sure why he thought this time would be different. But he held on to the hope that Kurt might change his mind. That it might solve everything. And then the revelation of the warehouse would be the cherry on the cake, the thing that puts it all into perspective.

That proves how much Sebastian believes in them, and that them staying together could be doable.

But that realization isn't going to come today, not on Kurt's part anyway. And besides, any decision Kurt makes while delirious is probably not one that will stand in the morning.

Sebastian sighs. He stands, slipping his hand from Kurt's grasp, but Kurt's hand holding his tightens. Sebastian pulls, but Kurt, in the dead of sleep, refuses to let go. And Sebastian can't make him. He lifts the edge of the comforter and slides underneath, scooting in close to his Master. The second Sebastian puts an arm around Kurt, Kurt snuggles into his embrace, cheek pressed against his chest, and he snores … loudly. Sebastian smiles. It touches him that this tough, independent man would seek him out for comfort. It's a special moment. He doesn't want it to pass.

Maybe Sebastian doesn't get forever, but he has now.

And that has to matter for something.