Author's Note: I'm not entirely sure what this is, other than something I needed to get out, so take that as you will. Spoilers, obviously, through 6x01.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

See

When Blaine tells Kurt that he's seeing someone, there is the briefest of breaks in Kurt's otherwise schooled expression that tells Blaine exactly what his ex is thinking: "Please don't say Sebastian Smythe."

He knows because the ghost of Sebastian has lingered over their relationship since the day Kurt and Sebastian met in the Lima Bean, always a specter that Kurt believed he needed to live up to no matter how many times Blaine assured him otherwise—"I wanted to be your gay bar superstar."

He knows because there has always been something magnetic about Sebastian, something charged on the air whenever they were together, something itching just under Blaine's skin at his proximity. "It was Sebastian, wasn't it?"

And, honestly, there were more times than Blaine would like to admit after the breakup that he pulled out his phone and scrolled to the S's, his finger hovering over Sebastian's name. He knew Sebastian was in New York as well for college and would have picked up if Blaine had called.

As Blaine's finger would hover over Sebastian's name, he could picture that familiar smirk over a coffee cup, softened by affection in his eyes. He could feel a slightly too large jacket draped over his shoulders on a chilly afternoon. He could envision tipsily recreating Warbler dance combos to the pulsing music at a club before falling into bed, bodies pressing together and declarations whispered into skin. He could imagine waking up with limbs tangled together under wrinkled sheets as late morning sunshine streamed through a bedroom window.

Blaine could see a future.

Blaine could see.

Instead, Blaine moved back to Ohio and ran into Dave Karofsky at Scandals.

Second chances, it seemed, had a way of finding Blaine.