A/N: Dalton AU, mention of Klaine/Blaine, angst, description of effects of extreme cold. Written for the Kurtbastian Hiatus Project prompt 'cold'.

Kurt slams the hood to his Navigator down with a sharp thwack and immediately gets a face full of icy snow. The metal hood standing upright while he looked over his engine had been the only thing blocking him from the frigid air, but now he feels his body shoved back by the strong gale.

Kurt holds a hand to the scarf around his neck to keep it in place while he uses his other hand to fight the wind, swimming against the pushing of the air to make it back to the driver's side of his vehicle. He plants his feet in the snow and twists his boots in to keep his balance. He blinks his eyes as he peers with narrowed eyelids into the swirling vortex of snowy clouds blocking his view, whitewashing everything around. Thank whoever-never that his father insisted on buying him a black SUV instead of the white one he wanted, or else he might get lost a foot from his own vehicle.

Step by step, Kurt battles the wind cutting into his raw skin, searing his cheeks, until he reaches the door handle, and with slippery, numb fingers, pulls the door open.

"For fuck's sake, Hummel," Kurt hears a voice hiss. "Get in and close the door quick. You're letting the heat out." As cold as he is, nearly paralyzed by the beating wind, he takes a moment longer to spite Sebastian Smythe, sitting warm and dry in the passenger seat of his Navigator. Kurt lunges for his chair, his legs refusing to bend, and slides into his seat. He sits up straight, swinging his trembling feet into the foot well. Breathing heavy with the weight of the cold pressing in on him and the exhaustion of carrying a frozen scarf around his neck, he leans out the door and grabs the door handle, pulling the door closed as the wind tries to force it open. The wind shifts direction and the door slams shut. Kurt locks it, and there he sits, sweating beneath his drenched clothing, struggling with shaking fingers to unwrap his scarf that has started to strangle him.

"Well, that's just great," Sebastian says, wrapping his arms around his torso, a tiny shiver running down his spine. "You let all the heat escape. Could you have gotten into the car any slower?"

Kurt slowly turns his head on his aching neck to face the asshole sitting beside him.

"You know…" Kurt pants, tossing his soaked scarf onto the floor behind his seat, "you could have…maybe…helped…"

"I was helping," Sebastian says. "I was keeping the car warm with my body heat, but you just killed it."

Kurt raises his fingers to the buttons of his coat at his neck, but he can't make them stop quivering enough to behave and unbutton his coat.

"How…the fuck…did I get stuck…with you?" Kurt moans, giving up on the buttons and wrapping his arms around his body instead. "You're…completely useless…do you know that?"

"I'm completely useless?" Sebastian scoffs. "Who here is supposed to be Captain Super Mechanic?"

"We slipped a belt," Kurt says, his breathing more under control as he starts to warm up. "I can't fix that out here in the snow. Besides, aren't you supposed to have more money than the Vanderbilts? How come you don't have a cell phone that can use secret communication satellites to contact the department of transportation and get us out of here?"

"I'm not getting any bars out here in this blizzard," Sebastian admits grimly, tossing his expensive yet worthless phone into the back seat. "But, I do have something that might help us keep warm. Something I carry around for just such an occasion." His suggestive tone doesn't go unnoticed and Kurt rolls his burning eyes.

"I think I'll pass," Kurt says, turning his face away while Sebastian undoes his coat buttons.

"Calm down, princess," Sebastian scoffs, pulling out a silver flask from an inner pocket and unscrewing the cap. "It's just Courvoisier. To take the chill off."

Kurt looks back over at Sebastian, unimpressed.

"Ugh!" Kurt groans. "Get over yourself. You're only eighteen."

"I'm eighteen and warm," Sebastian says through a grimace after he takes a long gulp of the alcohol.

He holds the flask out to Kurt, shaking it a bit, trying to encourage Kurt to take a swallow. Kurt glares at the monogrammed brushed-silver flask as if the thing has personally offended him somehow, but then Kurt's whole body shudders and he changes his mind. He reaches out for it, wipes the mouth, and takes a drink. The alcohol burns, scorching his throat doubly since the entire inside of his throat is still recovering from the cold, and he almost chokes.

"That's foul," he says, handing the flask back to Sebastian, not willing to admit that he feels much warmer after taking a drink.

"You're welcome," Sebastian says flatly, taking another gulp before screwing on the cap and stuffing the flask back in his coat. "So, what do we do now?"

"At the rate this snow is falling, any imprints the tires or my footprints left in the snow will be gone within the hour," Kurt says, his jaw chattering slightly, "but we're facing the road, so we keep the lights on in the hopes that someone driving by spots us, and we keep the heater on to stay warm. Until the battery dies, that is."

"When we don't show up at Dalton by dessert, the Warblers are going to realize we're missing and call the cops…or come looking for us," Sebastian adds, but his voice doesn't sound as confident as his words, especially with the way that Kurt has started shivering again.

"Yeah," Kurt says, closing his eyes. "Yeah…you're p-p-probably r-r-ight."

Kurt's lips tremble uncontrollably. Sebastian looks out the window and notices that the bright HID headlights are already starting to dim. They've used so much of the car's battery since they were forced off the road hours ago. Sebastian hadn't realized it, sitting inside the warm vehicle while Kurt suffered out in the elements trying to fix the engine. Watching Kurt's whole body shake, Sebastian feels like an ass.

"Here," Sebastian says, taking Kurt's hands in his and bringing them up to the vent. His skin is rough and red, and his fingers won't stop shaking. Sebastian knows that Kurt needs to warm up before the battery dies and the heater cuts out. "You know…" he starts, "the best way to stay warm would be to share our body heat."

Kurt doesn't even cock open an eye when he says, "I'd-d-d r-r-rather gnaw of-f-f a f-f-finger."

"Well, it wouldn't necessarily be a picnic for me either," Sebastian jeers, trying to goad Kurt and keep him awake. "Now, if you were Blaine…"

Kurt pulls his hands out of Sebastian's hold and turns his body away.

"F-f-fuck you, Sm-smythe," he grumbles, sinking down into his coat, which is no warmer or less wet than his hands at this point.

Sebastian knows he fucked up. He didn't think that Kurt would do anything other than defend his relationship with his boyfriend, but now he's shut down on him completely. The headlights outside continue to flicker, and the heater putters a bit. He reaches out to touch Kurt's coat. It's still frozen.

"Kurt. Come on, Kurt…" Sebastian says, tugging a bit at the shoulder. Kurt yanks back, leaning his whole body against the door to get away.

Fine. Fucking freeze. See if I care, Sebastian thinks, settling into his own seat and breaking out his flask of Courvoisier, hoping someone finds them before the battery dies. He takes a long sip, then puts the flask away and closes his eyes.

When Sebastian opens his eyes, everything around him is dark.

Cold and dark.

They fell asleep. Evening came but they didn't sense the change in light. The falling snow encapsulates the vehicle, blocking their view to the outside. All of Sebastian's exposed skin feels like ice, and it hurts to raise his head, his neck screaming with the effort. He spots a dark, huddled lump sitting across from him, leaning against the driver's side door, completely unmoving. Sebastian strains to see if the lump is breathing. From where he sits, he can't really tell.

"Kurt?" Sebastian calls, his voice rough from the dry state of his mouth and sinuses. "Kurt?" Sebastian coughs, his breath forming a fog of vapor in the air. "Kurt? Wake up. For fuck's sake, please don't be dead."

"Urgh…" Kurt groans, making an effort to move, but stops when he realizes it's not going to happen.

"Kurt," Sebastian says again, unwinding stiff limbs and climbing across the seat to where Kurt sits in a tightly curled ball. "Kurt, wake up. You have to stay awake, Kurt." Sebastian extends a hand and touches Kurt's coat, recoiling immediately as the intense cold burns his skin. "Fuck, Kurt." Sebastian reaches past Kurt's coat to touch his skin, which is both burning with fever and shaking violently from the cold. "Nope, Kurt. We've got to get you out of these wet clothes," Sebastian decides, starting with Kurt's coat, undoing the buttons and peeling it away from Kurt's skin.

"No," Kurt moans, trying to bat Sebastian away with weak hands, "g-g-get off m-m-me, you cr-cretin."

"Not a chance," Sebastian says, managing to remove Kurt's coat, and then clumsily dragging him toward the back seat. "We're both in danger of hypothermia here, and if I'm going to die, it's going to be naked next to a sexy man."

Kurt's eyes flutter open, unfocused but staring at Sebastian, hazy with exhaustion and disbelief.

"Y-y-you th-think I'm sex-sexy?" Kurt asks, not contributing at all to the effort to get him into the drier chair.

"You're passable," Sebastian comments, working on Kurt's shoes and socks. "Jesus Christ, Kurt. Everything you're wearing is soaked. How much of an idiot are you?"

"F-f-f-fuck…y-y-you," Kurt mutters, kicking out of his shoes while he tries to kick Sebastian away.

"You know, that would actually be a decent way for us to warm up," Sebastian says with a smirk. Sebastian pulls off his own coat and yanks off his sweater, setting it on the cold seat for Kurt to sit on. He pulls off his t-shirt next, putting that on the seat back.

"Wh-what are you…" Kurt's eyes open wider as he watches Sebastian undress. "Oh, n-n-no," he mumbles, shaking his head, "I s-s-said I'd r-r-rather gnaw off a f-f-finger."

"Well, pick one and start chomping because you're going to die if you don't warm up soon."

Sebastian manages to strip Kurt of the rest of his clothes, and pulls off his own as well, putting his warm socks on Kurt's feet and slipping his feet back into his boots. He wraps his cashmere coat around the two of them, tucking it tight to eliminate any gaps.

It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot warmer than it was before.

Kurt continues to shiver and Sebastian wraps his arms around him, smiling when he feels Kurt's quivering arms find his torso and loosely snake around it.

"See?" Sebastian says, unable to keep the smug tone from his voice. "Isn't that better?"

Kurt moans with his head against Sebastian's bare chest.

"What was that?" Sebastian asks, leaning his ear down to catch Kurt's words.

"God, I hope nobody sees us," he says, adjusting to scoot closer to the source of the heat regardless of his own objections.

"Again, you're welcome," Sebastian grumbles. "You know, you sure are ungrateful for a guy who's freezing to death. Didn't they teach you anything about manners in that public school you went to?"

"Didn't they teach you not to be an asshole at that private school you went to?" Kurt rebuts, his body heavy with sickness and sleep.

"You don't make money by being nice to people," Sebastian says with a heavy swallow.

"Yeah?" Kurt slurs. "But if you were nice, we could have been friends."

Sebastian has a comeback ready for him, but Kurt drifts off to sleep and Sebastian bites his tongue.

"Why would I want to be friends with you?" was waiting to be uttered. But Sebastian waits until Kurt is snoring softly before he says, "Yeah? I would have liked that."

He can't chance Kurt hearing, because that might mean admitting to Kurt that Sebastian did actually feel bad for the things that he had done and said. It might mean telling Kurt that he had connived the Warblers to get Blaine into the first of the two carpools so he could have a moment with Kurt to himself, to give him over an hour's worth of time to find a way to apologize, but he chickened out, regardless of the liquid courage he had brought along to help.

And all of that might have boiled down to Sebastian admitting that the more they butted heads, the more he has begun to admire Kurt. They are so much alike, he and Kurt. Had they met at another place and another time, they might have even been the best of friends – kindred spirits. As it is, if they get out of this all right, Kurt may never forgive him for this situation they're in.

Sebastian may have just dug himself into a deeper hole than he was in before this stupid field trip.

By midnight, the air around them is so frigid, it feels like inhaling pure ice, but beneath the coat, their bodies are nice and warm. Sebastian's dreams bounce back and forth between being back at Dalton, chiding Kurt for being naked with him in the snow; being back at Dalton, but with Kurt on his arm as his unlikely boyfriend; and the memory of being nine-years-old and falling on his ass while ice-skating, the cold and wet seeping into his clothes when he couldn't get up right away. He had pneumonia for over a week after.

They sleep and sleep and sleep, and because they can't see the rising sun, the night seems to stretch on forever.

Clank.

Scrape.

Clank-clank.

Growl.

Sebastian wakes with a start to a clamoring outside – scraping and snarling, clanging against the side of the vehicle that sounds like a bear trying to claw its way inside. The Navigator rocks from side to side, and sunlight starts to stream in through the ice coating the windows, filling the vehicle with a diffused light and a touch of warmth. Sebastian starts to laugh, the thought of being naked and eaten by a bear seeming so absurd that he can't help himself.

What the fuck else could possibly go wrong?

"Kurt?" the gruff voice of an older man calls in through the window – a voice Sebastian assumes is Kurt's father.

Sebastian laughs louder.

Well shit. Ask a stupid question…

"Kurt? Sebastian?"

Another voice joins the first, and Sebastian laughs so loudly that he's surprised poor Kurt doesn't jump up, except his fever is still keeping him down.

Sebastian is actually grateful, regardless of the amount of explaining he's going to do in the next ten minutes. Sebastian looks out through the window closest to them, where a pair of surprised hazel eyes stare at the naked couple cuddling within.

"Hey, Blaine," Sebastian says, with a smile and a nod. "I swear, this isn't what it looks like."