It's Hard To Be The One Who Stays [Kurtbastian]

Faith (October, 2013)

Hunter steps directly into Kurt's path the moment he steps outside his dorm.

He attempts to loom over him, his wool coat whipping menacingly around him in the brisk fall breeze and a dark look on his face.

But he's only a scant inch taller than Kurt, and still has that terrible 60s hair, and Kurt no longer feels like wasting headspace or time on any spoiled rich brats.

Kurt rolls his eyes in his face.

"Thank you for this dubious honor, Hunter. But get out of my way. Unlike people who got into college on legacy admissions, I actually have to attend my classes," Kurt sneeres, and neatly sidesteps him.

Maybe Hunter is here to yell at Kurt about Sebastian, or maybe he's just here to gloat that he was right about their doomed romance, but Kurt doesn't want to hear it.

He makes it two steps before Hunter swerves right to block him again, even throwing up an arm in front of Kurt's chest.

"What is wrong with you?" Kurt snaps, at the same moment as Hunter shouts, "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Kurt raises his eyebrows at the audacity.

"I'm not here stalking someone who has avoided seeing me for the past 3 months, even when—" he starts, and then cuts himself off.

"When Sebastian hung out with me at NYU, yes, yes," Hunter says, waving a dismissive hand. "And it broke his tiny heart into tiny pieces to see his boyfriend refuse to step near his best friend for him. Whatever, we all know that you're a bitch. But I didn't know you were a vicious little bitch. "

He stares Kurt down. "Why the fuck haven't you called Sebastian?"

Kurt's face contorts, and he looks away, because Hunter doesn't deserve to see his face when he thinks of Sebastian

"I'm not talking about this with you. Excuse me, " Kurt says shortly. He pushes through the arm in front of him hard enough that Hunter actually stumbles, more out of surprise than any real strength on Kurt's part, and begins to walk away rapidly.

"You're an ungrateful asshole, Hummel!" Hunter shouts after him. "If you were going to be too selfish and bloodless to work for it, you could've told him straight up, so Sebastian wouldn't have sat through all the fucking times your manic girlfriend and cast of misfits were shitty to him, and then made excuses for you when you wouldn't even come to his fucking dorm party because I was going to be there!"

And that—Kurt thinks his mind literally whites out with rage for a moment, because the next thing he knows, he's the one pushing into Clarington's personal space.

"Don't overestimate yourself, Clarington," he hisses, "I might not like you because, oh right, you're an idiot with a substance problem—" At that, Hunter's face goes slack with shock, and then red with anger, or maybe humiliation, and Kurt thinks he should feel bad about using that time Sebastian spoke to him over Skype with sunken eyes and rehab pamphlets splayed out on his bed this way.

Except Hunter is right. Kurt is a vicious little bitch, and so he continues blithely on, "—But why I didn't attend that day had nothing to do with you. If you can't sew up your ignorant mouth, I can do it for you. Who are you to tell me I didn't work for it? When every single fucking day of the last two years, every single time we fight and I look at my hand and choose to go back to Sebastian—"

And horrifyingly, his tongue, always loose in anger, turns against himself, and he's revealing terrible vulnerabilities, things he hadn't even said in front of Rachel or his dad, no matter how many worried looks are gentle encouragementss they gave him. He bites down on the words tumbling out and turns, before Hunter sees the sheen in his eyes, and there's no way he's having a meltdown in front of Hunter.