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

Future Promises (Nov, 2013 / Feb 2021)

"I'll come over for dinner tomorrow," Sebastian says, standing outside his car door. "Just let me know if your dad says it's all right. And don't forget the Warblers want to get together again over the weekend, before we all have to leave."

Kurt shuts the door and rolls the window down, smiling brightly up at him. Sebastian's eyes are shot red still, but Kurt thinks he's rarely seen Sebastian more beautiful.

"I will," he says, reaching through the window for a last kiss.

Kurt wonders if Sebastian's parents are at the window, cooing at them and feeling weird about being in sync about this, but he doesn't let that stop him. It's hard to feel embarrassed, when he's glad that they're the world's most unsubtle meddlers.

When Sebastian and Kurt had come in from the cold so Kurt could say goodbye, with both their faces chapped red by the wind, Sebastian's parents were sitting together and watching TV peacefully, and Sebastian had muttered, "That's fucking weird, it's like the Twilight Zone," at Kurt.

It makes Kurt feel blessed, really, to have this, among all the other gay boys in the world—supportive parents, and each other.

Sebastian gives him another hard, intoxicating kiss. When they break apart, he's staring at Kurt.

"You'll tell me, won't you?" he says, soft and serious. "If you were unhappy? Too unhappy for this?"

"I will," Kurt says, and means it. But he also knows, deep in his bones, that a time like that won't ever come for him. New York beckons with the future, and he can't wait to take it on now, with Sebastian firmly by his side. "And next time when you go on a crazy trip about breaking up, you have to ask too."

Sebastian huffs. "Yeah, I will," he says, and gives Kurt one more kiss for the road.

"Thanks for meeting me, Kurt," Blaine says, earnestly, and Kurt thinks with some despair that he really is as adorable looking as he remembers from several nights ago.

Kurt shrugs, as Blaine looks down as his black coffee, biting his lips.

He hears rather than sees Blaine inhale deeply, and then he's raising his head to meet Kurt's eyes straight-on, so brave.

"I know—" he says, wetting his lips. "I know you're dating someone, but I would never have forgiven myself if I didn't at least try."

Blaine drops his coffee spoon against his cup with an off-tune clang.

He says, all in a rush, "I'm really attracted to you, Kurt. I'm single, and it's been a year since I've really dated, and I haven't had anyone serious in a long time, if ever, and— I can't remember ever feeling this way before. That night, on stage, my eyes kept being pulled again and again to the corner of the room where you sat. You shined all the way to the stage, and I kept being caught by your smile and your laugh. It was like I'd been hypnotized. We can be friends first, if you would rather, if you need the time. But"—his eyes slide to his white ring, and then back to—"Don't you want to see where this goes?"

Blaine keeps looking at Kurt, his eyes wide and pleading for understanding. He's got great eyes, Kurt notes, fringed with dark curled lashes like he belongs in a mascara commercial, brown and soft eyes, the definition of puppy dog.

Kurt does remember.

He remembers thinking Blaine was very attractive, remembers noting he had a natural charisma on stage, a more demanding presence than you'd expect from someone who was actually on the short side standing up.

A/N: Remember—keep the faith (Drift says through her tears)