Fic: Strangeness and Charm 1/5 (Kurtbastian, NC-17)

[tremlock]

Title: Strangeness and Charm
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Kurt/Sebastian (assorted background pairings)
Rating: NC-17 overall
Warning(s): homophobic bullying and slurs, violence in later parts.
Summary: [Hogwarts AU] Kurt Hummel never wanted to be a Slytherin--especially not when it landed him in the same house as Sebastian Smythe. 


"Stir six times, counter-clockwise..." Kurt muttered to himself as he scanned through the instructions in his tattered potions textbook. "Add diced valerian root and-" something flew past his face and landed with a thick-sounding splat in his cauldron. "What the everliving fuck was that?"

"Language, Mr. Hummel," Professor Schuester said idly as he trailed past his workbench. "Please refrain from swearing in the classroom."

At that moment, Kurt's potion suddenly decided to take the opportunity to blow up in his face, splattering him and various other classmates who had had the misfortune to have their surnames come near Kurt's in the alphabet in thick, putrid sludge.

Professor Schuester wiped his face with the sleeve of his robe. "Five points from Slytherin," he said, sounding tired. "Help him clean up here will you, Mr. Smythe?"

Sebastian Smythe gave him a lazy smile. "Of course, Professor." He sauntered out from behind his own desk-miraculously slime-free, Kurt noted-and grabbed the bucket and rags from where they were stored next to the cupboard. He tossed one to Kurt, smirking slightly as Kurt fumbled to catch it. "Surely you must be on the Slytherin Quidditch team, with moves like that, Hummel."

"Sod off, Smythe." Kurt dropped the sodden rag onto his desk, drawing out his wand and performing a levitating charm on the cauldron. "I don't need your help."

"Teacher asked me to, babe." Sebastian spread his hands, face the picture of innocent regret. "Now bare those pretty forearms of yours and let's get cracking."

Kurt gritted his teeth. "Fine. You do the floor; I'll do the bench."

"You want me to get down on my hands and knees?" Sebastian smirked. "My, you are a naughty boy, aren't you?"

"Shut your mouth before I hex you into next week," Kurt said, injecting as much venom into his voice as he could manage. The effect probably sounded closer to a cheesy Disney villain, but he didn't much care as long as it shut Sebastian up for a few blessed seconds.

And a few blessed seconds was all he got, before Sebastian said, "You don't need excuses to check out my arse, you know."

Kurt closed his eyes and prayed fervently to a God he didn’t believe in. "I told you, Smythe. I wouldn't be interested in you if you were the last other person alive on the planet."

Sebastian just chuckled delightedly, sitting back on his heels and looking at Kurt with a wicked grin on his face. "You'd rather be a necrophiliac than fuck me, then?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "You are really quite immature, you know that?"

"It's what makes me so loveable." Sebastian flicked his rag at Kurt's knees, leaving a wet stain. "Don't deny it."

Kurt sneered at him, curling his lip and giving him his best snooty glare. "It's hardly denying it if there's nothing to deny."

Sebastian pressed a hand to his chest in mock-pain. Kurt noticed with pleasure that he left a grimy smear on his crisp white shirt. "You wound me, Kurt. You really do."

"You don't get to call me Kurt. Only my friends call me Kurt."

Sebastian gasped, smirking. "Are you insinuating that we are anything less than BFFs for life?"

Kurt quirked an eyebrow before he could help it. "We are most certainly not 'BFFs', as you put it. Now hurry up before the bell goes-I don't want to be late to Arithmancy."

"So smart," Sebastian sighed, wringing out his cloth and soaking it once more-only to toss it at Kurt.

Kurt caught it and glared at Sebastian. "What are you, twelve?"

"Come on, Hummel, don't be such a stick-in-the-mud. Might as well have a little fun." Sebastian waggled his eyebrows, a wicked glint in his grey eyes.

Kurt wiped off the last few inches of the desk and dropped the cloth in the bucket. It landed with a satisfying plop. "Are you finished yet?"

Sebastian stood up-as always, Kurt privately revelled in the fact that he was a good inch taller than Sebastian-and wiped his hands on his robe. His green-and-silver striped tie was loose, Kurt noticed. His fingers itched with the urge to straighten it-and goddamn it, why couldn't Sebastian just dress tidily for once-but he stuck them in his pockets instead.

"I was wondering," Sebastian asked, his tone casual, "if you possibly wanted some tutoring in Potions. I mean," he gestured at the workbench, "it looks like you could do with it."

Kurt blinked at him, insulted. He shook his head in disbelief. "I don't need help from you, thanks. Last time I checked you weren't any great shakes at Potions either."

Sebastian’s eyes hardened, his voice becoming decidedly cool as he said, "At least I don't blow mine up," before turning on his heel and marching back to his own desk, where he collected his things with a wave of his wand

Kurt gaped after him.

*

"I'm like ninety-five-percent certain that Brittany Pierce is going to ask me out," Rachel said at dinner, dropping down into the seat next to Kurt. Her face was flushed with excitement and her eyes were sparkling.

Kurt frowned. "Who's she? I thought it was Quinn Fabray you were interested in?"

"Hufflepuff, in my Charms class-she's the cutest thing ever, I swear. And Quinn got herself a boyfriend, so." Rachel helped herself to his mashed potatoes, not bothering to load up her own plate. He slapped her fork away and she pouted at him. "What? I'm hungry."

"Get your own," Kurt said, pouring her some pumpkin juice. "This is mine. I deserve it-I just had to suffer through an entire Potions class with Sebastian."

Rachel snorted. "I still think you two should just get together and get it over and done with."

Kurt gave her his best poisonous look. "You're such a traitor," he accused, stabbing at his cabbage. "I support you through everything, and you suggest I get together with Sebastian, of all people." His fork screeched on his plate as he speared a particularly malevolent-looking cabbage leaf. "He is repulsive. He repulses me. He's repulsive."

"So you've said," Rachel said dryly, stealing one of his sausages. "If he annoys you so much, why do you talk to him?"

"I don't," Kurt insisted. "He talks to me. He won't leave me alone. He offered to give me Potions tutoring, for Merlin's sake."

"Sounds like you've got yourself a creepy obsessive stalker," Rachel said brightly.

"Yay for me." Kurt prodded at the cabbage again. It lay there, limp and unappetising on his plate. "You know what? I'm just going to go to the library."

"I'll meet up with you later, then." Rachel leaned back to check the Hufflepuff table. "Should I go and say hi, do you think? Or would that be weird?"

Kurt shrugged as he stood up. "You'll never know if you don't try," he said, patting her on the shoulder before wandering off.

*

"Hey, Kurt!"

Kurt very pointedly didn't look up from his Transfiguration essay as he said, "I thought I asked you not to call me that?"

Sebastian shrugged as he flopped into the seat next to Kurt. "If you say so, babe."

Kurt resisted the urge to smack him over the head with one of the heavier books in the stack next to him, if only for the book's sake. "Unless you've got something useful to say, then sod off, will you?"

Sebastian just chuckled. "I was wondering if you could help me with my Transfiguration essay?" he said, reaching into his bag and drawing out his own scroll. "I was wondering if you knew anything about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

Kurt frowned, setting aside his quill-carefully, so as to not drip ink on the table. "Why are you asking me about it? I'm not even in your Transfigurations class."

Sebastian smirked-Kurt fucking hated that smirk-and unrolled his own essay. "But you're the best at Transfiguration, and you're all brainy." He reached out and rapped on the side of Kurt's head before Kurt could smack his hand away.

Kurt gave him a death glare.

"I might as well learn from the best," Sebastian said, shrugging. He reached out and stole Kurt's quill, dipping it in the inkwell before turning to Kurt with an expectant look. "Well?"

"Well what?" Kurt leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "What makes you think I'm going to help you?"

"You love me," Sebastian said confidently. "Now, you're meant to be helping me, not gawping at me like a stupefied grindylow." He flicked his-Kurt's-quill and Kurt winced as a couple of inksplots appeared on the parchment.

He resisted the urge to perform a quick scourgify and instead tipped his chair onto its back legs. "I don't love you. I hate you," he said, speaking as if to a very slow, and very emotionally-stunted three-year-old. "Therefore, there is very little chance that I'm going to help you write your Tranfiguration essay."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "But there's not no chance, is there?"

"Double negative."

"What?"

"You just used a double negative. You should have said 'there is a chance', not 'there's not no chance'." Kurt felt his cheeks flush. "Um. Not that it really matters. My point was that I'm not going to write your essay for you. Go find somebody else to cheat off."

Sebastian looked insulted. "I'm not cheating," he said. "It's more like a study group."

"A study group with two people."

"Tutoring then, if you like." He shrugged. "You help me with Transfiguration; I'll help you with Potions. It's a fair deal."

Kurt tugged Sebastian’s parchment towards him, scanning down it even as he spoke, "I don't need help with Potions."

Sebastian grinned and propped his chin up on his hand. "Okay. If you say so."

"I say so. And I'm not helping you cheat on this essay, by the way. I just can't allow an essay this terrible to go uncorrected."

"It's not terrible," Sebastian said, a crease appearing between his eyes and his mouth pulling down at the corners. "It's imaginative."

"It's terrible," Kurt corrected, "and written in bright green ink." He held out his hand for his quill, wrinkling his nose slightly when Sebastian managed to drip even more ink on the table. "Did you even read page sixty-one of Elemental Transfiguration?"

Sebastian raised his eyebrows, pursing his lips. Kurt's eyes flicked down to them, looking away in haste as soon as he realised what he was doing, heat prickling the back of his neck.

"I'm sure I did, but refresh my memory, will you?" Sebastian sounded lazily amused, Kurt thought, as if was merely toying with Kurt-a snake with a baby vole.

Kurt had to stifle a groan. "I can't believe this. How haven't you been kicked out of Transfiguration class yet?"

"I have a very charming personality," Sebastian said, smile smug. "It's surprisingly handy."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Okay," he said, dipping his quill in the inkwell and explaining as he wrote, "Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration is to do with how magic can create or destroy matter. There are five principle exceptions to this law-food and love being the two most important."

"But food is created every day." Sebastian leaned back in his chair, flipping a galleon between his fingers. Kurt had to resist the urge to knock it out of his hands-such a flamboyant display of wealth was hardly needed; everybody knew that Sebastian had money. "It appears on our plates every meal time."

Kurt shook his head. "The house-elves make the food and it's summoned to the Great Hall," he said. "Food can be moved from one place to another by magic and can be transfigured into different food, but it can't be created out of thin air."

"What about love potions? They create love." Sebastian tipped his head to one side and looked at Kurt with darkened green eyes, his expression unreadable.

Kurt shifted uncomfortably in his chair, hyper-aware that he was doing something he swore to never do in any shape or form-helping Sebastian Smythe. "It's not real love." He pulled Elemental Transfiguration towards him and flipped through it to page sixty-one, running a finger down the page until he got to the part on love charms and potions. "Here, it says that the semblance of love can be created through various love charms, potions and, on occasion, the Imperius Curse, but it is never true love despite what the victim might believe-it is merely an obsessive, lustful infatuation." He pushed the book towards Sebastian. "Here; you read it for yourself." He smirked, and added, "And maybe you'll actually learn something for once."

"I learn plenty of things," Sebastian said, giving the paragraph a cursory glance, "just maybe not the sort of things you'd want to hear about."

Kurt snorted derisively. "What, different ways to cheat first years out of their pocket money? I'm happy with my own, guilty-free, penniless state, thanks."

"I don't cheat them out of their pocket money," Sebastian said, sounding like he couldn't really quite dredge up the energy to be indignant about it. "It's their own stupid fault for agreeing to play chess with me." He waved a lazy hand. "They were hardly going to be able to do anything with it, anyway. Why their parents sent them to school with it burning a hole in their pockets I'll never know."

Kurt tapped the book in front of Sebastian. "Back on track. Read me the next paragraph."

Sebastian’s eyebrows leapt up his face. "Oh, I do like it when you get bossy, babe."

"Read it. And call me babe one more time and I'll stick your wand where the sun doesn't shine."

"Like it rough, do you?" Sebastian sounded delighted; he merely smirked when Kurt gave him his best 'I'll-hex-you-within-an-inch-of-your-life-unless-you-do-as-I-say' glare. "Fine, fine. Why I have to read this when you already know it, I haven't the slightest-"

"Do you want my help or not?" Kurt's left eye twitched, involuntarily.

"If you hadn't interrupted me, I was coming to it-"

"And if you didn't keep screwing around then maybe this would be finished already so I could get back to my own-"

"I'm not screwing around!" Sebastian’s back was stiff, his eyes black ice. "I should have known better than to ask you for help, Hummel-I might as well have just read the entire set reading list-"

"Maybe you should have done-then I wouldn't be wasting my time trying to teach something to an imbecile who simply can't be arsed with actually trying to do something for once in his goddamned life because he's too rat-arse lazy to actually put what little brainpower he has to achieving something other than fraud!"

Silence.

Kurt's words rang impossibly loud in the domed space; around them, students were staring at them with wide eyes. A tiny Hufflepuff first year looked on the verge of tears and the sixth-year librarian was red in the face and possibly about to explode.

"Well, then," Sebastian said, in a voice that was entirely too controlled and calm, "if that's what you think, then we're clearly wasting our time here." He ripped his parchment out of Kurt's grip, stuffing it into his bag and stalking off.

Kurt sat there, frozen to his chair. When he finally managed to look down, his hand had smeared ink all over the table and on his previously-clean cuff.

He got to his feet, not bothering to stack the books neatly as he usually did, swept his things into his bag before leaving the library, carefully avoiding the eyes of the rest of the students.

*

"I heard that you and Sebastian had a fight in the library yesterday," Rachel said casually as she tossed her bag onto the table next to Kurt at breakfast. She swung her legs over the bench and sat down, helping herself to his toast.

"Yeah, well, it's the talk of the school, apparently." Kurt pushed a bowl of fruit salad towards her and ignored her squawk of protest as he stole his toast back.

"I was eating that." She gave the fruit salad a baleful glare. "And I'm not eating salad for breakfast. Pass me the bacon, will you?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I can’t believe you actually like the vegan version of bacon," he said her, even as he passed the platter of bacon over.

Rachel shrugged. "At least I’m not killing poor defenceless animals just to satiate my own urges," she said as she forked crispy rashers onto her plate and doused them liberally in brown sauce.

Kurt wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting, you know that?"

"So's the fact that I had to hear about this argument of yours through my potential girlfriend." She shook her head, finishing her mouthful before continuing, "I mean, she's not even in the same House. Can you imagine how embarrassing it was when I didn't know about this event in my best friend's love-life?"

"I don't think it counts as a love life when both people involved hate each other's guts," Kurt said dryly, refreshing his pumpkin juice. "Juice?"

Rachel shook her head, chestnut curls bouncing everywhere as she did so. "My point is, why didn't you tell me about what happened with Sebastian?"

She fixed him with an intent brown-eyed stare.

Kurt took a sip of his pumpkin juice, buying time.

Rachel was still staring at him. Damn it.

"It just didn't occur to me," he said finally. It wasn't all that far from the truth; when he'd returned to the Slytherin common room he'd had little in mind other than going to bed and pretending Sebastian didn't exist. Needless to say, that hadn't worked all that well; he'd spent the entirety of the night replaying the argument in his head and becoming gradually more convinced that Sebastian was an even bigger dick than he had thought originally.

"Sebastian isn't a dick," Rachel said.

Kurt choked on his pumpkin juice. "Don't do that," he complaining, wiping his chin with a napkin.

"Do what?" Rachel widened her eyes innocently.

Kurt waved a hand in the air, making a face. "Know exactly what I'm thinking," he said, when her expression remained blank. "It's creepy."

Rachel shrugged and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about all the filthy things you'd love to do to a certain prefect."

"I don't think about that sort of thing!" Kurt protested in a heated tone. "And certainly not about Sebastian. He-"

"Repulses you, yes, I know." Rachel sighed and propped her chin up on her hand, gazing off into the distance. "The amazing sex you two would have..."

Kurt felt mildly nauseous at the very thought of it. "Please stop," he groaned, sinking down in his seat and wishing he could simply Obliviate both himself and Rachel and forget that they ever had this conversation. "I think I'm going to puke."

Rachel glared at him. "Ruin my fantasies, why don't you."

"You don't even like guys," Kurt said exasperatedly, "where do you get off on this?" He slapped a hand over her mouth before she could answer. "Actually, no, don't answer that. I've decided that I don't want to know."

"Your loss." She shrugged.

Kurt nodded and got to his feet, hefting his bag over his shoulder. "I'm going to head off to go pick up a book from the library, 'kay?" He patted her on the head. "See you in Charms."

"Sure thing." Rachel was already decanting Kurt's left-over food onto her own plate, drowning the lot in brown sauce before digging in with relish.

Kurt was walking out of the Great Hall when he collided with Sebastian. Wind-milling his arms as he lost his balance, he came crashing down onto the hard stone floor, his bag splitting open and all of his books and papers falling out. He heard a sickening crunch as he landed on something round and hard; when he sat up, his ink pot was smashed into bits, black ink leaking out across the flagstones and staining his hands and clothes.

Sebastian helped him up with wide green eyes. "Sorry." He toed at Kurt's broken ink pot, eyebrows raised and biting down on his full lower lip. "I don't think that can be resuscitated, I'm afraid. I can lend you one of mine, if you like-"

"I don't need your help, thanks," Kurt said. He could hear the coolness in his own voice; the dangerous creaking of thin ice just before it cracks open and sends the unsuspecting skater into freezing black depths.

Sebastian frowned. He obviously didn't hear the frost in Kurt's tone-or did and was simply ignoring it-because he knelt down to start gathering up Kurt's books. "I'll just get these for you, then."

"I think you've done enough, thank you very much." Kurt carefully didn't touch Sebastian as he crouched down and examined the seam of his bag.

"Can you fix it?"

Kurt gave him a desultory stare. "Of course I can." He took out his wand from his pocket, careful not to smudge ink along the polished beech wood, and pointed it at the split seam. "Reparo."

The stitching wriggled back into position, lacing the two parts of the bag together once more. Kurt slung it over his shoulder and took the books and papers from Sebastian, groaning internally when he saw the blotchy ink stains spreading across the pages like arterial blood. "Thank you," he said reluctantly, giving Sebastian a nod and starting to turn away.

"Wait, Kurt-"

Kurt turned back to Sebastian and raised what he assumed to be a sufficiently cool eyebrow. "What?"

Sebastian bit down on his lower lip again, worrying it between his teeth. "I'm sorry for walking into you," he said, after a long pause in which Kurt nearly walked away, manners be damned. "I wasn't looking where I was going and that was my fault."

"Too right it was." Kurt glared at him. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to go back to the dungeons to get changed."

And with that, he turned on his heel-careful not to slip in the pool of ink that he had pointedly left Sebastian to clear up-and marched off.

*

"Hey, Hummel."

Kurt turned around, raising an eyebrow coolly as he looked down his nose at the three sixth-year boys standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Yes?"

"We don’t like fags in our House, you know,” Dave Karofsky said, leering and folding his bulky arms across his chest. His Slytherin tie hung loose around his neck. Behind him, his two friends glowered at Kurt and flexed their biceps, their shaved heads gleaming slightly in the light from the gas-lamps.

"Very nice for you, I’m sure," Kurt said, trying to keep his voice mild even as his pulse started to jump at the base of his throat. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to go get changed." He gestured to his front with ink-stained hands, forcing a wry tone into his voice as he continued, "Had a bit of an accident with an ink bottle."

The boy that had spoken looked slightly wrong-footed, but as Kurt turned on his heel and continued up the stairs he found his tongue again and called, "Where do you think you're going? We're not finished with you quite yet."

Kurt's shoulders stiffened. He turned around again-slowly, this time-and slipped a hand inside his robes to grip the smooth wood of his wand. "I know a particularly good Bat-Bogey Hex, just so you know," he said, adopting a conversational tone. "I'm sure the teachers will be sympathetic when I tell them that it was in self-defence."

"You won't be telling the teachers anything," one of the other two goons said, cracking a wide smile that sent shivers down Kurt’s spine.

Kurt swallowed. "Physical fighting isn't allowed at Hogwarts." His voice sounded weak to his own ears. "You'll get in trouble."

"We'll 'get in trouble', will we?" the shortest boy mocked, cocking his head on one side and narrowing his eyes at Kurt. "Like Karofsky said, you won't be telling the teachers anything."

Kurt's wand felt slippery in his hand. He readjusted his grip on it, wondering if he should simply hurl a hex and run. "And how are you going to stop me?"

Karofsky leered. "Your little friend is very pretty," he said, malicious delight inherent in his voice. "It'd be a shame to ruin that pretty face of hers."

Kurt's stomach clenched, his breath catching in his throat and his mouth suddenly as dry as if he had been licking sandpaper. "If you hurt her I'll-"

"You'll what?" the third goon, who had until then remained silent. Kurt recognised him as Rick Nelson, one of the Slytherin beaters.

Kurt opened his mouth to reply with a suitably cutting retort, but found himself coming up short. He closed his mouth again.

Azimio smirked, taking the steps two at a time until he came to stand almost nose-to-nose with Kurt. "Exactly. Nothing."

Kurt barely had time to register that Azimio was moving before a fist struck him right in the face, snapping his head to one side; his vertebrae creaked and his cheek throbbed. He could taste blood where he'd bitten the inside of his cheek; an iron tang that caught at the back of his throat and made him want to gag.

"What the bloody fuck do you think you're doing?" a familiar voice demanded from behind Kurt. A hand landed on his shoulder, broad fingers digging in just this side of painful. "Get away from him before I hex you into next week."

Kurt gritted his teeth. "I don't need your protection, Sebastian," he said shortly. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Of course you are, babe," Sebastian said, tone deceptively lazy. "That would explain the lovely shiner you're going to have there in a few days."

Kurt raised a hand to it self-consciously, wincing as he pressed a little too hard. "It was a misunderstanding."

Sebastian looked mildly irritated. "You really are the stubbornest bastard I've ever had the misfortune to meet, I hope you realise."

"Glad to be of help," Kurt said, glaring. He stowed his wand back inside his robes and narrowed his eyes at Azimio and his friends.

Sebastian turned to them too. "Fuck off," he said-quite eloquently, Kurt thought.

Azimio took a step forward, seeming as if he was going to attempt to hit Sebastian too, but Sebastian planted a hand in the middle of Azimio's chest and, with a slight shove, sent Azimio sprawling head over heels down the stairs. Kurt winced at the sick-sounding thud that Azimio's head made on impact with the stone wall at the bottom.

"Fuck off," Sebastian repeated, "and this time for real." He turned to Kurt and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"What?" Kurt asked, defensive.

Sebastian’s lips twitched in amusement. "You've got ink all over you," he said, by way of explanation.

"I'd noticed." Kurt straightened his robes, grimacing at a rip in his sleeve. "Be seeing you, then."

Sebastian reached out and grabbed his shoulder again, although his grip was gentler this time around. "Where do you think you're going?"

Kurt held up his hands, which were no less inkstained than they had been when Sebastian had commented on it. "To clean up, surprisingly enough."

Sebastian frowned, letting go of Kurt's shoulder but taking a step closer and peering at his cheek instead. "You need to get some ice on that," he said, his voice surprisingly soft and intimate. "You might manage to stop the worst of the bruising." He grinned, then, and added, "Don't want to spoil that pretty face of yours."

Kurt rolled his eyes and stepped away, picking up his bag from where it had fallen on the floor when Azimio had pushed him over. "Shut up. Why were you following me, anyway?"

Sebastian’s eyebrows leapt up, his forehead crinkling in surprise. "You think I was following you?"

"And you weren't?" Kurt challenged, folding his arms across his chest.

"No." Sebastian frowned. "If I had been, do you really think that I would have left it that late to intervene?"

Anger stirred in Kurt's gut. "I didn't need you to intervene in the first place," he said waspishly, giving Sebastian a poisonous glare. "Like I said, I had it all under control."

Sebastian took a step forward again, backing Kurt up against the wall. The light from the gas lamps lit his face harshly and highlighted his hair like a furious halo. He jabbed a finger at Kurt's chest, his voice low and fierce as he said, "When will you bloody learn to accept help when people offer it? Would it kill you to say thank you once in a while?"

Kurt tried to pull away, but Sebastian grabbed his shoulders to keep him in place, fingers digging bruises into Kurt's flesh. Kurt swallowed, instinctively pressing himself back against the wall. Sebastian’s face was mere inches from his own, his chest heaving with what seemed to be pent-up frustration as he pushed forward, even closer to Kurt.

"Probably," he said, for want of something better to say, distracted by the tight grip Sebastian had on his biceps.

Sebastian made a low growling sound in the back of his throat, his expression conflicted. He flexed his fingers around Kurt's arms, tightening his grip even as he pulled away slightly. His eyes were dark in the half-light, his cheekbones gilded with liquid fire and his lips slightly parted.

Kurt opened his mouth to say something, but then Sebastian was kissing him, hot and heavy, pressed up against Kurt and his large hands curled around Kurt's biceps as he hungrily pressed his mouth to Kurt's and-

Kurt wrenched himself away, mind reeling. He stared at Sebastian in shock. "What the fuck?" he demanded, hand flying to his tingling lips. "What the actual fuck was that?"

Sebastian looked shell-shocked-his mouth hung open slightly, his cheeks were flushed and his hair was mussed. He shook his head, holding his hands up in a defensive motion. "I...I don't know," he said, wide-eyed. "Sorry."

"I can't believe you just did that," Kurt said, crossing his arms and glaring at Sebastian. "I thought you were better than that. I don't know why, seeing as you repulse me in every other matter and I wouldn't put it past you to kiss a thestral on a dare-"

"What, you think that that was a dare?" Sebastian demanded, waving his hands abstractly as if trying to indicate what had happened a moment ago. "You really think that I would kiss you because some prick dared me to?"

"It's the only logical reason, by process of elimination," Kurt said stiffly, hyper-aware of the heat in his cheeks and the memory of Sebastian’s lips on his.

Sebastian stared at him for a moment, mouth still hanging open slightly. Kurt sort of wanted to-no, he didn't. He hated Sebastian. Sebastian was repulsive. Kurt would just as soon make out with a...hippo, or something. Yes, a hippo. Provided it didn't eat him first.

Sebastian shook his head. "I'll see you in Potions," he said, his voice flat as he turned and walked away, shoulders hunched.

Kurt watched him go, a sinking feeling in his stomach and his heart thumping at the base of his throat. He touched his fingers to his lips and sighed, turning around and making his way in the opposite direction to the way Sebastian had gone. 
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