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The first time Sebastian sees Kurt sick he has absolutely no clue what to do, except for the fact that he wants to make sure his best friend feels better.
Even if it's mostly because Kurt is annoying when he’s sick. He’s mean and whiny and refuses to go outside to play and it sucks.
So Sebastian grumbles to his mom that he wants to make tea for Kurt but he can’t reach any of the knobs on the oven to do it. (He doesn’t hear his mom murmur, “Thank god for that.")
Basically, he hates being seven years old because being seven means that you can’t do anything by yourself ever.
“Kurt’s really sick isn’t he, buddy? You sure you want to bother him right now? I’m sure Liz and Burt are taking really good care of him.”
“Moooom," He’s whining. He knows he’s whining but it’s been almost 3 whole days since he’s seen Kurt and he just wants to give him some tea like a grown up would because the TV says that tea makes people feel better.
His mom laughs at him and he pouts but she gives in anyway and he’s really excited.
He’s holding the mug of hot chocolate carefully (his mom convinced him that Kurt wouldn’t want to drink tea and she said he could put the marshmallows on top himself) when he knocks on the Hummel door.
Kurt’s mom opens the door and she looks kind of tired, so Sebastian smiles at her very very politely like his mother always taught him and says, “Hi. I brought Kurt a surprise!”
She grins at him, “Come on in, kiddo. Kurt’s been complaining about wanting to see you forever.”
Kurt looks pitiful when Sebastian goes into his room but he doesn’t say anything about that, just hands him the cup of hot chocolate and says, “I hope you feel better soon so you can be fun again.”
Kurt sniffles and Sebastian’s worried that he’s going to cry, but he sneezes once and then laughs out loud at the look of pure disgust on Sebastian’s face. That is the exact moment when Sebastian knows everything will be fine.
xxx
Kurt gets slushied and comes home early which Sebastian only finds out when he gets a text from Mercedes, Kurt’s best friend back at McKinley, he doesn’t think twice about driving home to see him. He doesn’t care if it means skipping classes, because Kurt has never skipped classes because of just a slushy. Plus, Kurt didn’t bother telling Sebastian about it, which means that something serious has happened.
So when he waltzes into the Hummel home (he knows where they keep their spare key), he’s met with Kurt in his bed, eyes red and puffy.
Sebastian doesn’t even have to ask what happened when Kurt whispers, “He kissed me, Bas. Karofsky fucking kissed me.”
Sebastian moves to sit next to Kurt and growls, “That Neanderthal that keeps shoving you into lockers? I’ll kill him, I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Stop. He’s scared and alone.” Kurt murmurs in a small voice.
Sebastian balks, “You’re not angry at him?”
“I am. But I feel more sorry for him than angry.”
Sebastian sighs, “You’re going to make him your new pet project aren’t you?”
“No, I just worry. It’s already hard enough being out in this cow town, I didn’t really have a choice; but, Dave…”
Sebastian doesn’t want to hear Kurt make excuses for Karofsky right now so he makes himself fully comfortable by laying back against the pillows, his feet up, and asks, “So why’d you come home and not tell your almost-brother slash crush about it? Isn’t he supposed to be protecting you or something?”
Kurt seethes, “Sebastian! Now is really really really not the time. And I did tell Finn, he offered to drive me home but I told him not to. He has class and he can’t miss any more or he’ll get kicked off the football team.” Sebastian just rolls his eyes.
They’re quiet for a moment, and Sebastian breaks the silence, “Why are you still at that awful school when you know I could put a good word in at Dalton for you?”
Kurt turns to look him in the eyes but Sebastian resolutely stares at the poster of Madonna on Kurt’s wall. Kurt sighs and replies, “You know why, Bas.”
“Your stupid friends?” he grumbles.
“Now is really not the time for your annoying jealousy issues. We’ve been best friends forever, I’m allowed to have other friends.”
“Yeah, whatever Mr. Popular. I still don’t get it. I mean, Dalton has scholarships, you’re smart.”
Kurt tenses and Sebastian knows he should stop talking about it, Kurt’s had a hard enough day. But he doesn’t want to give it up, especially now, knowing just how unsafe Kurt is at McKinley, so he presses on, “Come on, give me a real reason for once. This is serious, Kurt. Karofsky might pull some other shit, something worse. I get that you think he’s some confused little puppy but he still hurt you. And he’s been hurting you in other ways for a long time. Why don’t you get that your safety is more important than a few friends that you can barely tolerate most of the time?”
“Bas, please. Can you just order a pizza and watch movies with me? I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” And now Kurt’s the one refusing to look at Sebastian, a light blush on his cheeks.
Sebastian breathes out angrily, “Fuck off, Kurt.”
Kurt rests his head against Sebastian’s shoulder, “McKinley is where I fit, Bas. I could never feel comfortable in those uniforms. And okay, yeah, sometimes I get hurt, but at least I get to be me.”
Sebastian’s not buying it though, and he exclaims, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You can be you at Dalton, and you can be safe.”
Kurt frowns, “Did you come here to make me feel better or not? Because you’re doing a terrible job.”
“Fine. Let’s watch some stupid musical, and pretend that everything’s fine. And tomorrow you can go back to school where the guy that sexually assaulted you is free to do whatever the fuck he wants to you. But that doesn’t matter, right? Because you get to wear your tight girl-pants and your corsets, and obviously that is more important.” Sebastian’s being hurtful, he knows, and fuck he wishes he just kept his mouth shut when he sees Kurt’s face fall, but Kurt is being particularly infuriating because he doesn’t seem to get it.
“Get out.”
“Kurt, please,” he murmurs in what he hopes is a soothing tone.
“I’m serious Sebastian. If you came all the way here to talk shit about my clothing and be the most insensitive jerk on the planet then I really don’t need you here.”
Sebastian gets off the bed quickly, “Fine. Have fun getting yourself killed at McKinley! Hope those assholes that never even give you the time of day are worth it.”
He storms out of Kurt’s room and hates himself a little (a lot) when he hears Kurt sniffling, the biggest sign of him crying.
xxx
He’s on his couch, staring at the wall and trying to figure out how exactly he’s supposed to make it up to Kurt when he hears the front door creaking open, his mom’s heels clicking on the floor.
“So I got a pretty awesome call at work today! It turns out my truant son skipped his last three classes so he could…” she glances at him, briefly, “lay on the couch, apparently.”
“Mooom,” he whines, covering his face with a pillow.
“Nope.” She says, sternly, pulling the pillow off his face. “That was only cute when you were little, now it’s just annoying,” she explains, looking at him expectantly.
He pouts and he can see her eyes melt a little. She motions for him to move over and he does.
“Explain yourself, Seb.”
“Look, I can’t really tell you the specifics but Kurt needed me, so I wasn’t really thinking about classes that I’ll do well in anyway.”
She looks a little worried at that but she doesn’t press for details. He knows that she’ll probably call Kurt herself later, in any case. “Okay, then why are you over here looking like someone stole your kitten?”
“Because I was maybe a huge jerk and kind of made everything worse?" he replies in a small voice.
She groans, and he pouts again. “You’re supposed to make me feel better, mom.”
“Just go talk to him, Bas. I’m getting too old to handle another fight between you two, it just gets worse every time.”
“I said some pretty awful things.”
“You always do, but for some reason, Kurt still keeps you around.”
Sebastian feels a little betrayed that his very own mother is saying these things about him, even though he knows she’s right.
He grumbles, “I get it. I’m the worst person ever and I suck and nobody should ever associate with me. It’s a miracle I even have one friend, let alone a best friend.”
His mom frowns and she ruffles his hair a little, “Seb, you skipped your classes for him, out of concern for him and whatever happened. You’re clearly not a terrible friend, you just…have trouble expressing yourself, sometimes. Be there for him the way he needs, right now. Everything else can come later.”
He looks at her, and before he can say thank you, or anything else, she says, “I know. I’m a genius. I don’t know how exactly I have such an emotionally constipated son, but hey, we can’t all be perfect. Go make him some hot chocolate and tell him you’re sorry. It’ll be fine.”
He laughs, because his mother is completely ridiculous, but yes, also completely perfect.
xxx
Kurt opens the door glaring, “What do you want, Bas? Here to take a crack at something else in my wardrobe? Or maybe you just want to call me stupid outright.”
Sebastian just holds out the mug with a little smile and he can see Kurt’s resolve break. “Come in.”
Kurt sits at the kitchen counter, sipping the hot chocolate slowly and Sebastian didn’t really plan what he was going to say, which was perhaps a slight flaw in his plan.
He ends up not having to say anything, because Kurt murmurs, “Y’know the first time you gave me hot chocolate was when I had that awful fever.”
“I remember. I had to convince my mom to help me make it.”
“It was the first time I laughed the entire time I was sick.”
Sebastian doesn’t know what to say in response to that, all he knows is that it makes his heart flutter unbearably, and makes butterflies flutter gently in the pit of his belly. He ends up blurting, “I know I’m awful but I just wanted you to see that you had other options.”
“You’re not awful. You just have no tact. And I should have maybe tried to understand what your point was instead of kicking you out.” Kurt replies, staring at him, earnest.
“Yeah, maybe. I could have waited till you were feeling better to talk about Dalton though.”
“Probably would have ended better if you did that.” Kurt responds, smiling.
Sebastian grumbles, “Yeah, well. I apologized, so it’s fine.”
“Actually, you technically didn’t.” Kurt replies, smirking.
Sebastian narrows his eyes, “Shut up. Finish your hot chocolate so we can watch some dumb movie and I can make fun of all the characters.”
Kurt rolls his eyes, “Go make the popcorn, nerd.”
It’s as simple as that, Sebastian knows they’ll be fine. And if Kurt wants to stay at McKinley, maybe he’ll just have to make more surprise visits there, text Mercedes more often to see what’s going on.
xxx