Archive of Our Own

Kurt stared into the mirror, studying the unfamiliar reflection. The walls of his apartment bathroom had been painted a calming gray-blue, and seeing the orange behind him made him frown almost as much as the bright yellow cabinets to his right. Blaine had assured him they would pick out colors and paint over anything they didn’t like, but for the first night he was doing his moisturizing routine with a citrus hell color scheme washing him out.

He jumped at the sound of knuckles rapping against the door, his hand covering his heart as he exhaled slowly. He hadn’t heard his new roommate’s footsteps, and pulled the door open to see Blaine’s sunny smile.

“Are you done yet? I have to piss, man.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, almost missing the stuffy politeness Blaine had stuck to when they’d first met. Truthfully he would never dream of wanting to go back to the days of pining over his imagined prince charming – they’d had a lot more fun together once he realized that Blaine was a real boy after all, and way more compatible as a friend than a love interest. Still, he was starting to question the whole roommate situation.

“You can’t rush perfection,” he quipped, but was already stepping out into the hallway. A creaky floorboard had him startled again, and Blaine chuckled.

“The place isn’t going to bite,” he teased, earning an icy glare.

“Shut up. It doesn’t freak you out at all?” Kurt asked, not wanting to be the only one. He didn’t think it was that abnormal to be scared, given the circumstances. Blaine just shrugged, which was not at all comforting.

“Nah. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it? The place has history.”

“History of suicides,” Kurt reminded him, still irked by how at ease Blaine was with the whole situation. He’d already agreed to go half in on the house and signed the papers when his horror movie junkie of a best friend had admitted why it was that they were getting the house so cheap. “Have your grotesque slasher films left you completely desensitized to real death?”

“People die all the time, Kurt. You can’t just go around avoiding everywhere a person has ever died,” Blaine reasoned. Again, Kurt wasn’t comforted.

“I can avoid living in a house where I know people have killed themselves in my bedroom,” he argued, and it was Blaine’s turn to roll his eyes.

“You don’t know where it happened. It was probably, like, the backyard or something.”

“Why would it be in the backyard?” Kurt demanded, frowning as Blaine closed the door in his face.

“Seriously, dude. Need to piss,” he repeated through the door, effectively cutting off Kurt’s bitching. Kurt huffed, heading back to his room and muttering under his breath about stupid best friends who talk him into wanting a dog and thus a house so they could have a yard for the dog and then end up getting him stuck in a creepy house with terrible wallpaper that’s supposedly haunted.

He knew he couldn’t sleep despite having spent hours unloading half of their belongings. His arms and legs were tired, but his heart still leaped in his chest whenever he saw shadows in his peripheral vision. He decided to spend his time productively rather than hiding under the covers with his light still on until he managed to pass out. He plugged his iPod into its dock and had the Wicked soundtrack playing softly while he cut open a new box. Finding a new home for everything he found inside kept his mind occupied and he felt more relaxed within minutes.

The bottom half of the box was filled with scarves and Kurt went to the closet to grab the scarf spinner he’d already unpacked. Blaine had made fun of him for buying it but Kurt knew that since scarves were a part of his daily wardrobe, it was perfectly reasonable to invest in their care. He paused when he caught a glint of metal peeking out from peeling wallpaper in the corner, just above the baseboard. He kneeled down, carefully tugging at the tacky pink flower pattern to reveal a razor blade.

“What the…” He trailed off, watching the blade clatter to the floor once he freed it from the wallpaper. Using one of his older scarves to protect himself, he picked it up and looked more closely at what he had initially hoped would be rust but was looking more like blood.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he breathed, a disturbed shudder shaking his entire body as his stomach turned. “What do I even-” He looked around the room, gingerly carrying the blade to his dresser to drop it in an empty drawer. He closed it quickly, wanting to block the bloodied metal out of his mind and fully intending to make Blaine deal with it the next day. He was traumatized now, and it was all that charming asshole’s fault.

He looked up when the music from his iPod skipped and was mostly drowned out by static, quickly followed by his light flickering. Faulty power was just what he needed when he was already trying to keep his cool. If they had a black-out, he was going to scream.

He turned back towards the closet and froze, power outages becoming the least of his worries. His eyes went impossibly wide and he wasn’t sure if the room had actually gotten colder or if it was just the fear sending chills through him as he stayed locked in a staring contest with a boy who definitely hadn’t been there a moment before. A boy who was pale with blank eyes and blood dripping down his wrists.

Kurt had no idea how much time had passed when the boy’s head turned to look at the dresser, and Kurt snapped out of it. He shrieked and ran for the door, wailing at the top of his lungs all the way down the hall and throwing Blaine’s door open. He dove onto the other man’s bed just as Blaine was flicking his bedside lamp on, frowning in sleepy confusion.

“Kurt? Wha’s goin’ on?”

“It- I- Ghost!” he finally shouted. He shook his roommate’s arm and turned to watch the door, terrified the man was following him. “I just saw a fucking ghost!”

Blaine looked at him like he was crazy, but Kurt couldn’t take note of his expression for long before his eyes were drawn back to the door, his shaking hands clutching Blaine’s bicep. “Kurt-”

“I’m serious, Blaine! I found this fucking razor in my closet and I saw a fucking ghost!”

“Kurt, calm down,” Blaine urged, gripping Kurt’s arms to try and steady him. “You know there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“But I saw him!” Kurt insisted, breathing quickly and starting to feel dizzy. Blaine pulled him closer.

“Kurt, stop. Look at me,” he ordered, gripping Kurt’s chin and ignoring his frantic whimpers as Blaine forced him to meet his eyes. “You’re hyperventilating. You have to calm down. Breathe with me.”

Kurt tried to copy Blaine’s slower breaths, choking out small sobs as he began to lower his heart rate. “Blaine, I really-”

“You’re tired and in a new place, and I’ve been teasing you too much about the whole haunted house thing. I know it’s a little freaky, man, but honestly, there are no ghosts. I promise, okay?”

Kurt swallowed hard, studying Blaine’s earnest expression for a moment before nodding. “O-okay,” he mumbled, still shivering. “I- Don’t make me sleep alone in there tonight, please,” he whispered, and Blaine nodded quickly.

“Of course, you can stay in here with me.” Kurt eyed the door again and Blaine got up, stretching briefly. “I’ll go check it out just in case, okay? So you can know for sure that nothing’s in there.” Kurt burrowed into the covers as Blaine left the room, holding one of the blankets up to his chin as though the single layer of fleece could shield him from harm. Blaine returned a minute later, switching the hallway light off and closing the door behind him.

“Lock it?” Kurt requested, and the other man patiently complied. He yawned and joined Kurt in the bed, offering a kind smile.

“I checked your room myself and it’s ghost-free. I made sure all the doors and windows were locked before I came to bed, so we’re totally safe here, okay? Guaranteed. Just get some sleep.”

Kurt nodded and moved to lay down, his body rigid for a few minutes while Blaine reached over to turn off the light. He finally calmed some, comforted by Blaine’s body heat and the sound of his even breathing. He had a mantra of his friend’s voice running in his head - no such thing as ghosts, totally safe here, no such thing as ghosts - and felt the exhaustion sink in.

When he finally succumbed to sleep, he still hadn’t fully convinced himself that what he’d seen hadn’t been real.

“I can’t slow down, I can’t hold back, though you know I wish I could. Oh no, there ain’t no-”

Sebastian hit the knob to silence the radio and for a few moments the only sound in the car was the wind whipping past the open window.

“Are you seriously still mad at me?”

Dave kept his eyes on the road and Sebastian started to think his cousin wouldn’t even acknowledge the question. He’d hardly said a word since the incident. “You just had to go back,” Dave finally replied. “Almost get us killed over some ass. Again.“

“It was a really fine ass,” Seb joked, receiving a glare for his troubles. “How was I supposed to know the guy would have a gun? Priests aren’t supposed to be packing.” Dave just grunted and Sebastian sighed. “I really didn’t expect him to catch us.”

“You told me you’d dropped your lighter inside, not that you were planning to fuck the guy’s son over the alter. What the fuck, man?”

“Okay, first of all, it was not over the alter. I do have some class.” He smirked, but the expression died when Dave looked over with fury burning in his eyes. “Secondly – dude, I’m sorry, alright? I really didn’t think it would go down like that.”

“That’s the problem, Seb. You weren’t thinking. You never think, and we’re both gonna end up in the ground because of you over something totally fucking stupid.”

Sebastian eyed the fragments of glass still littering the dashboard. The sharp pieces used to make up the driver’s side window until it had been shattered by a bullet four hours earlier. He knew he deserved the chewing out – screwing a holy man’s son in their place of worship really hadn’t been his brightest idea – so he let Dave seethe quietly for another fifty miles. He was just glad Dave was keeping a tight grip on the wheel. It kept his fist from reacquainting itself with Sebastian’s face as was typical for when he made spectacularly bad decisions.

Dave eventually broke the silence, jerking Seb out of a fantasy involving the pair of enthusiastic twins with the rippling abs he’d picked up in Colorado the week before. “What are the details of this case?” he rumbled, obviously still aggravated, and Sebastian quickly reached for the manila folder at his feet.

“House in Lima, Ohio. There have been four unusual deaths reported in the last thirty years. The last one was a little over a year ago. Guy was found with his wrists slit.”

“And that can’t be your run-of-the-mill suicide in a creepy-ass house because…?” Dave trailed off, fishing for more information.

“Same cause of death for all four victims and they’ve never found what they used to do it. Absolutely no blood found on anything sharp in the entire house,” Sebastian told him, and Dave nodded.

“Suspicious enough to be worth checking out, definitely. If the last one happened a year ago, why is Lopez just now sending us this?”

“Brittany noticed the pattern and then got distracted by a vamp nest in Boise. File got lost,” Seb explained with a snort and Dave shook his head. He wasn’t genuinely surprised – he’d never met anyone so ditzy, but she’d saved his life twice and easily earned his respect. He’d seen her take down vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, and anything else she came across so gracefully that it looked more like a dance than a hunt.

“House is still empty?”

“Apparently so. My money’s on ghost. We check it out, put a couple more research hours in, and it should be a cut-and-dried case,” Seb proposed, getting a nod out of his cousin. Dave’s lips were still pursed, his fingers tight around the steering wheel, but at least he wasn’t shouting. Sebastian counted that as a win. “How far to Lima?”

Dave checked the GPS, which had a strict Sebastian-isn’t-allowed-to-touch policy after he’d played with it and it somehow got confused and thought they were in Scotland. “We’re close. Another half hour or so.”

“Home sweet home, huh?”

Dave raised his eyebrows, feeling a sharp sting where a shard of glass had sliced his forehead. “I only lived there for two years when I was a kid.”

“Longer than you’ve ever lived anywhere else,” Seb pointed out, and Dave couldn’t argue there. The thought made him want to find the closest bed and sleep for a month or twelve.

They stopped for gas when they rolled into Lima, following the GPS’ spoken directions to McKinley Road. Dave slowed the Mustang to a stop across from the house with ‘2402’ printed on a shiny plaque next to the garage. The two hunters stared at the U-Haul parked in the driveway, watching a short man with dark curls carry a barstool inside.

“Thought you said the house was empty.”

“It was recently,” Sebastian noted, nodding towards the moving truck. “Not anymore.”

“Fucking fantastic,” Dave muttered, putting the car in park. “You’d think after that many people bite it here, they’d condemn the place or something.”

“Not like they’ll really suspect an angry spirit. They just tell themselves it’s a freaky coincidence and try not to think about it, you know how it is.”

“Bunch of morons.” Dave climbed out of the car and slipped his hands into his pockets, missing his cousin’s rolling eyes.

“Nothing we can do about it now, grumpy. Come on.”

“Wait, what are you – Fuck,” Dave swore, having no choice but to trail after Sebastian, who was already heading for the house. Sebastian knocked and the door was already opening by the time Dave caught up, revealing a lithe brunette who eyed them curiously.

“Hi!” Sebastian put on his best ‘I’m friendly and totally normal’ smile that always seemed to work on strangers, despite Dave thinking it made him look certifiable. “I’m Sebastian, and this is Dave. We live just down the street.”

Dave watched the man’s face closely, used to that moment of waiting to see if someone had swallowed a lie.

“Kurt.” He smiled and Dave’s twinge of nervousness dissipated. “It’s great to meet you. Blaine!” he called over his shoulder. “Come meet the neighbors!”

They got a closer look at Blaine than they had from the car, and Dave fought an eye roll when Sebastian looked him up and down like he was a particularly delectable dessert. Blaine held out his hand and Sebastian shook it enthusiastically.

“Blaine, is it? Sebastian, Dave,” Seb introduced, pointing between himself and his cousin. “Are you two just rooming together, or are you, you know, together?”

“Just roommates,” Blaine clarified quickly, and Dave exhaled slowly to keep himself together. The two were practically eye-fucking right there, and his patience was stretched thin enough already. “And you two…?”

“Cousins!” Sebastian grinned and Dave stepped on his foot with as much subtlety as he could manage. He caught the quirk of lips that told him Kurt had noticed. “Just cousins. We were going to bring some cookies to welcome you to the neighborhood, but Dave forgot to go to the store. Maybe we could offer some extra hands instead. You need any help moving in?”

“Definitely.” Blaine jumped to accept before Kurt could even open his mouth, and Kurt and Dave shared a look, already allies against their horny companions. “We still have some of our bigger furniture on the truck since we’ve been putting off unloading it ourselves. You guys look strong, though.” He winked at Sebastian and led the way to the truck, Kurt shaking his head as he followed. Dave held Sebastian back, glaring at his cousin.

“Dude, it’s been what, six hours? Really?”

“It’s not like I got to finish,” Sebastian defended, and Dave’s lip curled.

“I didn’t need to know that, and it doesn’t do a whole lot for your argument. Just – the case comes first, alright?”

“Not an idiot,” Sebastian reminded him, heading over to join Kurt and Blaine in the truck before Dave could object. Dave looked over at his Mustang and thought the hole where his window used to be was pretty good evidence to the contrary.

Working together, the four of them emptied the U-Haul in just under an hour. Sebastian and Dave carried furniture like the couches and the table, and Dave had to smack his cousin upside the head to stop him flexing for Blaine. They helped bring in the last of the boxes, and Kurt offered to make them lunch inside while Blaine left to drop off the truck.

“Could I use your bathroom?” Dave asked, and Kurt looked up from where he was preparing sandwiches.

“Yeah, it’s just down the hall, a quick left. I think the door’s open so you shouldn’t miss it.”

“Thanks.” He smiled and shot Sebastian a pointed look, silently communicating to him to keep Kurt occupied. He could hear him start up a conversation with Kurt while Dave slipped away. Dave retrieved the EMF meter from the pocket inside his jacket and switched it on, watching the display panel labeled one through fifteen and listening to the near-silent crackle. He checked what he knew to be Blaine’s room first, heading for Kurt’s when he didn’t get any electromagnetic frequency readings there, indicating a lack of ghost or demon activity.

The device buzzed and the pointer jumped the moment he stepped through Kurt’s doorway, shooting up to the middle of the spectrum when he reached the opposite corner and was tilting into the red high zone as he neared the dresser. He sniffed the air and checked the nearby surfaces for anything out of the ordinary before shutting off the meter and returning to the kitchen when he didn’t find anything else.

Sebastian was still chattering to keep Kurt distracted from Dave’s absence and they both glanced over when he rejoined them. “You’re back!” his cousin exclaimed with fake cheer. “Kurt was just telling me about a trip he and Blaine took to Yellowstone last year. He says he has some great pictures and I know how you love that kind of thing. Dave takes loads of nature pictures wherever we go,” he lied to Kurt, that falsely bright smile still on his face. “Do you think you could get them for him?”

“Oh… sure.” Kurt smiled and nodded as he stood. “I think I know what box they’re in. I’ll be right back.”

They waited for him to be out of earshot before Sebastian murmured, “Find anything?”

“Yeah. EMF meter went crazy in Kurt’s room.”

“So you know which room is Kurt’s, huh?” Seb wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Dave fixed him with a warning glare. Dave wasn’t about to let Sebastian project his lack of professionalism when it came to his dick onto him.

“Their rooms are full of boxes with their names on them, dumbass. But seriously, there’s definitely been something in there recently. And no sulfur, I checked.”

“Not a demon, then. We’ve officially got ourselves a vengeful spirit. Good times,” Sebastian murmured. Dave huffed a laugh and nodded, and put on his best faux-interested face when Kurt came back with a scrapbook in hand to show them all the nature shots and photo-ops from his and Blaine’s vacation. Dave had to admit that it was interesting to hear about it from a tourist perspective – the last time he’d been in the wilderness of Wyoming, he’d been tracking a Wendigo. It had been odd to see one so far west, but the thing had found itself a very convenient hunting ground with its pick of the hikers and sightseers. Sebastian had nearly started a forest fire lighting the thing up.

By the time they reached the end of the book, Blaine had caught the bus back and was adding to Kurt’s stories with embarrassing tidbits that Kurt was purposefully leaving out. Dave found it genuinely amusing to watch the friends bicker and talk over each other, and even Sebastian’s attempts at brushing up against Blaine weren’t scratching at his nerves. Dave eventually had to stir himself out of the happy normalcy of the day and remember that they were on a case.

“So how are you guys liking the new place so far? These houses aren’t all that new, but we love ours. Sometimes have some trouble with the wiring and the heating though. Any problems like that for you so far?” he prompted, and Blaine shook his head but Dave noticed Kurt pause and zeroed in on him. “Kurt?”

“I had some electrical problems last night,” Kurt confirmed. “My iPod dock went a little staticky and the lights flickered for a second. I think it might have gotten colder, too. The heating, like you said,” he added quickly, and it seemed like he was trying to convince himself more than them. Dave felt grateful when Sebastian stopped making any excuse he could to have skin-to-skin contact with Blaine and instead focused on the lead right in front of them.

“Kurt thought he saw a ghost last night.” Blaine glanced at Sebastian as he tried to get his attention back. Dave looked to Kurt, who shook his head and blushed.

“No, I just- I was tired, we’d spent the whole day packing and driving and unloading the truck. When the lights flickered, I thought I saw something for a second. But it was nothing, obviously.”

“You were scared out of your mind,” Blaine teased, squeezing Kurt’s arm like he realized belatedly that he should feel bad for mocking his friend in front of near-strangers. “It was my fault, though. I put the thoughts in his head. There were some suicides here, and I was telling him about them. He’s not so impressed by creepy horror shit like I am.”

“Yeah, I’d heard about those,” Dave said, offering his most comforting smile. Kurt smiled back, seeming to appreciate it. “But nothing to really worry about, right? It’s not like ghosts are real.”

***

“He totally wanted me.”

“That’s great, Seb.” Dave kept his eyes on his laptop and concentrated on his search while Sebastian jammed more fries in his mouth and thought out loud.

“Did you see how fuckable he was?”

Dave glanced at the clock in the corner of his computer screen. “Not even ten hours, man. And don’t say it,” he added quickly when Sebastian opened his mouth to protest. “I don’t need to hear about your bodily fluids. You’d think you could keep it in your pants for a day or two after you fucked up my car.”

Sebastian sighed, slouching dramatically. “I’ll pay for a new window if you’ll quit bitching about that.”

“Quit- You- What?” Dave spluttered. “It hasn’t even been a full day since it happened! And you’re fucking broke.”

“I prefer to look at it as being a poker game away from adequate funds. You’ll get your damn window. Eat your burger and stop being so cranky.” Sebastian thought for a moment. “Maybe you just need to get laid. Kurt’s pretty much exactly your type and I think he was checking you out while you were doing all that heavy lifting. You should hit that. And since I’m such a nice guy and a seriously awesome wingman, I’ll keep Blaine busy while you swoop in so you can’t get cockblocked by the B-F-F.”

Dave clenched his fists and took a few deep breaths, reminding himself that knocking out his cousin in a diner could only complicate things and they had a case to finish. He went back to his laptop, taking occasional bites of his food while he focused on research. He made a triumphant noise when he found what he had been searching for and Sebastian looked up curiously.

“Jesse St. James.” He turned the laptop around to show Sebastian the old photograph on the web page before pulling it back. “Fourteen year old kid, committed suicide in 1974. Wrists slit with a razor blade.”

“Say where he’s buried?”

“Carmel Cemetery. Just a few minutes from their house.”

Seb grinned. “What did I say, huh? Cut-and-dried. Now seriously, finish your food so you can get your strength up. I’m not doing all the digging by myself.”

“When have you ever had to do all of the digging by yourself?” Dave demanded, paying more attention to his sandwich now as he bit into it. “You always make me dig.”

“Not always. Remember that time you broke your arm? I totally did most of the digging for weeks after that.”

Dave stared at his cousin, trying to work out whether or not he was making a joke. He seemed disturbingly serious. “Yeah, Seb, you’re a real hero.”

Sebastian puffed his chest out and finally allowed a smirk, reassuring Dave that he hadn’t really meant that he should get credit for digging more when Dave had been almost incapable of it. When he’d broken his radius, though, he’d been wishing he could dig if it meant his damn cast was off. Broken bones were a hindrance to hunting.

He had to order another drink before they left as Sebastian had finished most of his while he was researching, but then they were off. Every time Dave got a glimpse of the broken mirror he sighed, but Sebastian was set on ignoring his depression over the injury to his precious car. When Dave sighed for the third time on their short drive, Sebastian snapped.

“You should really clean all this glass out,” he said, and Dave knew instantly that Sebastian was just trying to get under his skin. Knowing about it didn’t help, though – Sebastian was family, and family could always push somebody’s buttons better than anyone else. “Someone could get hurt.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Dave growled, but he kept his disappointment to himself.

They each grabbed a shovel out of the trunk when they reached the graveyard, glad that the sun was starting to set. Digging in the daylight was always way more uncomfortable than digging at night, even if night digging required the use of artificial lighting. They each took a flashlight and Dave grabbed a shotgun that had shells full of rock salt – the ultimate ghost repellent.

“Jesse St. James, here we come,” Sebastian murmured, and they followed a path through some gardens towards the headstones. They turned their flashlights on and split up to search for the corpse of their ghost. “Over here!” Sebastian called when he found it, waving to Dave. Dave trotted over to his side, shining his light down to read the name ‘Jesse St. James’ carved into the stone.

Dave broke the ground first, and he and Sebastian worked together to expertly shovel away the first few feet of dirt. Dave couldn’t even guess how many times he’d done this – or how many times it had taken before digging up a body felt like second nature to him.

When it got too deep for them both to shovel side by side, Dave got in the hole and displaced the dirt while Sebastian held the flashlight over him. Even being used to it, it was tiring work and he was covered in a thin layer of sweat by the time he hit what he was looking for.

“Yahtzee,” he announced, wiping the sweat from his brow and raising his shovel above his head.

He brought it down with force, cracking open the rotting wood of the casket and releasing the stench of death into the air. Sebastian poured salt and lighter fluid over the skeleton as Dave heaved himself up onto the grass, reaching in his duffel bag until he found a matchbook with
‘Figgins Motel’ printed on it. He lit the entire row of matches in one swipe, dropping it into the grave and watching as flames engulfed the rotted corpse.

“Young Mister St. James is now at rest,” Sebastian announced to the otherwise empty graveyard. They grabbed their shovels and flashlights when the fire went out, walking back towards the car. Dave checked his phone and found a voicemail waiting for him, listening to it until they reached the Mustang.

“That was Beiste. Says she’s caught wind of some mysterious deaths going on in Indiana and she wants us to check it out.”

“Sounds good. But first: we saved lives tonight. I say we celebrate.”

“And what would your idea of celebration be?” Dave wondered, loading up the trunk.

Sebastian’s answer came instantly. “Blaine Anderson.”

“Naturally,” Dave grumbled. “You’re not going to give this up, are you?”

“Not a chance.”

“Fine,” Dave acquiesced. He started the car when they were both buckled in, driving through the neighborhood towards the house on McKinley Road. “If you can live with the fact that people might be dying because you’re too busy getting your dick wet…”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Dave snorted, shaking his head. “You’ll get your chance at Blaine, if he even wants you. But we’re not staying overnight. I’ll wait out in the car for you and we’ll head to Indiana when you’re done. And shower while you’re in there, please.”

“I’ll think about it,” Sebastian agreed with the shit-eating grin that never meant good things.

“If you get in my car smelling like sex, I’ll leave you on the side of the road and you can walk to Indiana,” Dave warned as he parked against the curb in front of Kurt and Blaine’s place. “And don’t take too long, Romeo. Places to go, evil shit to kill, people to save.”

“Aye aye, Captain. Don’t have to worry about me!” Seb promised as he climbed out of the car, closing the door behind him and jogging up to the house. Dave snorted – when did he ever not have to worry about Sebastian? – and watched his cousin knock, waiting until Blaine came to the door. It took all of a minute before Seb was being led inside, turning to offer Dave a quick thumbs up before disappearing from sight.

“Unbelievable,” Dave muttered, but he couldn’t help but laugh. Really, it was hardly a surprise based on the way Blaine had been looking at Sebastian all day. Dave pulled out his phone to try and keep himself entertained with a few games of spider solitaire while he was letting his cousin do what he had to do. He had to support whatever it would take to keep him focused on their next case.

He jumped – but certainly did not flail – when Kurt knocked on the passenger side window. Dave’s hand flew instinctively to his gun but luckily didn’t draw it out before he realized who it was, and he cursed himself for not noticing the footsteps approaching the car. Maybe a few hours of sleep before they left for Indiana would be a smart idea after all.

He rolled down the window and leaned across the center console. “Everything okay?”

“The walls are thin and my roommate is getting laid – and not at all quietly – but otherwise I’m alright. Mind if I wait out here with you?” Kurt opened the door at Dave’s permissive nod and slid onto the leather seat, glancing past him. “Something happened to your window.”

Dave turned to look at the space where the glass used to be. “My idiot cousin happened to my window.”

“I see. So… do you always creep outside when he’s hooking up?”

That startled a laugh out of Dave, who shook his head. “Definitely not. We had some, uh, family business suddenly come up,” he invented, “and we’ve got to split tonight. Seb didn’t want to miss his opportunity.”

“Oh, I’m sure Blaine’ll still be easy when you guys get back,” Kurt joked, his smile telling Dave he wasn’t actually bothered by his roommate’s seemingly active sex life. “He was very taken with Sebastian today.”

“People seem to find him pretty damn charming. Personally, I don’t see it. Maybe you can enlighten me.”

“Can’t say I really noticed. He’s not exactly my type,” Kurt explained, and Dave’s eyebrows rose. He was used to Sebastian being everybody’s type, as aggravating as it was to admit that – even to himself. Kurt met his gaze head on. “I like bigger guys. The real man’s man type, you know?”

Kurt’s eyes traveled down Dave’s chest and arms, and Dave realized after a brief delay that he was being flirted with. Apparently Sebastian had been correct in his observations of Kurt, which would have annoyed him more if Dave wasn’t so distracted by the hot guy in his car showing a blatant interest in him. That didn’t happen every day.

“That’s… very interesting,” Dave commented. It had been a long while since he’d flirted without a few shots in him, and Kurt had caught him off guard. “What else do you like?”

It wasn’t exactly smooth but Kurt didn’t mind, and Dave smiled as Kurt’s hand rested lightly on his arm. A little human touch was always nice, and something Dave never realized how much he needed until he got it.

“I like this car,” Kurt started, and Dave full-on grinned at that.

“My pride and joy,” he murmured, rubbing an affectionate hand over the steering wheel.

“You must have been pretty angry about the window then.”

“Sebastian got the silent treatment for most of the morning,” Dave affirmed with a chuckle. “And I already told him he has to pay for it.”

“But you’re still waiting for him so he can have fun, when I know just looking at you two that you could physically force him into this car if you wanted to. You’re kind of a softy, huh?” Dave blushed but Kurt continued before he could say anything. “You’re sweet, I think. And a little mysterious. There’s just something about you I can’t quite put my finger on… And I think I’d like to try.”

Dave felt that old pang of desire – not purely for sex, but for stability. He pictured himself actually living on McKinley Road, having the chance to meet people and then the time to get to know them and maybe connect with a guy like Kurt and be happy. He forcefully reminded himself that he couldn’t, because he was a hunter and he had a responsibility and he saved lives and all that other shit that got him to sleep at night, alone and in cold, unfamiliar, dubiously hygienic motel beds.

A scream sounded from the house and they both turned, recognizing it as Blaine’s voice. The sound was terrified rather than pleasured and the two men scrambled out of the car, Dave reaching for his duffle bag in the back seat to grab a sawed off before he joined Kurt in running for the door. He nearly trampled Kurt when the smaller man stopped short in the entryway to the living room. They had arrived just in time to see a very naked Sebastian swing an iron fireplace poker through a ghost, particles spreading where iron touched it as it dissipated.

“Dude, put on some pants,” Dave complained, and Sebastian rolled his eyes. Blaine was equally bare and shivering behind him.

“We got a little interrupted,” he complained, and Dave had to smirk at that.

“That seems to keep happening to you today,” he teased.

“Excuse me,” Kurt interrupted, looking back and forth between them with an incredulous expression. “Aren’t either of you bothered by the fact that there was a ghost right there a second ago?”

“Right, we should get out of here,” Dave agreed, glancing at Sebastian and keeping his eyes up. “But seriously dude, pants.”

“Our clothes are all in the room. Blaine ran out here when the thing showed up,” Sebastian said, placing his hand on Blaine’s lower back to push the stunned man towards the bedroom. “What’s this fucker still doing here after we toasted him anyway?”

“That wasn’t the kid,” Dave pointed out. “He looked at least forty. The Jesse kid died at fourteen.”

“So, what? Two spooks?”

“Or he was never the ghost in the first place.” He turned to make sure a wide-eyed Kurt had followed them to the bedroom while Sebastian gathered up his clothes, and when he faced his cousin again he saw the spirit just behind him. “Seb, drop!” he demanded, raising his shotgun as his cousin instantly fell to the floor. He blasted it back, keeping his gun up in case it returned. “Hurry up and get dressed.”

Sebastian straightened up again and yanked on his jeans, shoving clothes at Blaine so he could do the same. Blaine’s hands visibly shook but he managed to cover up.

“You lead, I’ll stay in the back,” Sebastian suggested, gripping the iron poker with both hands. The spirit appeared when they reached the foyer, reaching out for Blaine until Dave shot at it again.

“Get in the car,” Sebastian directed as he shut the door behind them, placing his hands on Kurt and Blaine’s back to keep them moving. Dave peeled out as soon as all of their doors had closed with them inside the vehicle and they rode with only their heavy breaths and the hum of the engine breaking the silence.

“What the fuck?” Blaine’s voice was wrecked, and Dave sighed. He’d really thought they had taken care of this one and could leave without Kurt or Blaine being any the wiser. Now they had to do the big truth speech, keep the civilians safe, and figure out where they’d gone wrong.

“So much for cut-and-dried,” he muttered, glancing at their passengers through the rear-view mirror and then over at his cousin. At least Sebastian looked slightly apologetic.

“Total bonerkill. The universe just does not want me to get laid today,” he decided sadly, turning in his seat so he could address the whole car. “How about we go to the diner, huh? Get some food and coffee, make sure no one’s about to go into shock, have a little chat? That sound good to you guys?” The only answer he got out of Blaine and Kurt was a pair of blank stares. “Okay then. I’ll just take that as a yes.”

“Diner’s good,” Dave agreed. “The sign on the door said they were open until midnight, and they had wifi. We can figure out where we went wrong on this.”

“Where you went wrong on this, Mr. Research.”

“Don’t make me hit you.”

Sebastian wisely kept his mouth shut until they reached the diner, and he took charge of coaxing Blaine and Kurt out of the car. Blaine’s shirt was both inside out and backwards, but he didn’t appear to notice or mind.

They found a tall-backed booth in the corner where no prying ears would overhear them, and Dave powered up his laptop. Sebastian nudged Blaine and Kurt’s menus across the table towards them when they didn’t reach for them right away. “If you don’t order, I’ll do it for you,” he warned, and Kurt weakly gripped the corner of his menu.

“What was that thing?”

“A ghost,” Sebastian told him, always a better candidate than Dave for this kind of talk because he could be honest and direct. Dave always felt guilty for having to shatter their worldview and tended to beat around the bush, which never actually helped in the long run.

“No,” Blaine denied, shaking his head. “No, ghosts aren’t real. They’re in books and movies and – they’re not real.” He looked between Dave and Sebastian with wild eyes. “This is like a hazing thing, right? To mess with the new neighbors?”

“Blaine, I want you to look at me and listen very closely, because every word I’m about to say is true,” Sebastian began. “What you saw was the ghost of a person who died in that house. They are real. You know what you saw, so somewhere inside you, you know what I’m saying is true. We aren’t messing with you or trying to upset you, but we do want to help you, so we’re going to take care of this so you can be safe. Understand?”

Blaine swallowed hard and nodded after a moment’s hesitation, and Sebastian beamed at him.

“Great! That’s out of the way, then. Now seriously, pick something to order.”

Kurt still didn’t look at his menu. “How do you know about this stuff?”

Dave answered before Sebastian could, taken by the urge to be the one to help Kurt understand this. He didn’t stop to analyze why that was. “This is what we do. Sort of like our job.”

“A dangerous job with no salary or health benefits,” Sebastian interjected, and Dave nodded.

“But we help people. People like you guys, who are in danger.”

“In danger because of ghosts,” Kurt clarified.

“Among other things,” Dave confirmed, and chuckled when Kurt eyed him curiously. “Don’t ask. I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna know.”

“Okay,” he said after a pause. “Okay, so you hunt ghosts. How did you miss one living on your own street?”

“We aren’t actually neighbors,” Dave confessed, wincing. He knew this part of the truth wasn’t going to help their credibility, and he hurried to explain. “We only got here this morning, but we needed to check out the house. I found evidence of ghost activity in your room and then Blaine told us you’d seen him, and that sort of confirmed everything we’d been figuring out. We thought we’d found who it was and we took care of it, but I guess we got the wrong guy.”

“So, assuming I trust you and don’t just go with the reasonable explanation that you’re freaky weirdos-”

“You know what you saw,” Sebastian repeated. “You saw him last night and then again tonight; you know we’re telling the truth.”

Kurt frowned, shaking his head. “I didn’t see him last night. Not that same guy. The one I saw last night was younger.”

Dave blinked, pulling up the article he’d found that afternoon from his browser history and turning the screen towards Kurt to show him the old photograph of Jesse St. James. “Is this the guy you saw?”

Kurt nodded slowly as he studied the picture. “Yeah, that was him. He’s dead?”

“Since the seventies.”

“So it is two ghosts?” Sebastian asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Apparently. Or, was two ghosts. We took Jesse out of the game,” Dave reminded him. “Now it’s just this other guy.”

“So the one I saw last night is gone now? For good? How can you kill a ghost?” Kurt wondered, seemingly caught between dubious and interested.

“You pour salt on their bones and then burn them,” Sebastian explained, and Kurt’s lips twisted in disgust. “It lets them pass on, and then they’re not around to haunt people. Or kill people. Not as fucked up as you think.”

Kurt just shook his head. “Why salt?”

“Salt’s a symbol of purity, so ghosts can’t touch it. Neither can-” Sebastian stopped when Dave elbowed his side to keep him from admitting the existence of demons. It would lead to a slew of new questions and Kurt and Blaine had enough to deal with without that knowledge. “Neither can other… creatures,” Seb amended, glaring at his cousin and rubbing his bruised ribs.

“It’s what was in the gun,” Dave added, and Kurt raised his eyebrows.

“You burn human bones and shoot salt out of shotguns. Okay.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sort of expecting to wake up any second and realize this was all a really fucked up dream, but other than that, I think I’m following so far. Where do we go from here?”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“I want to help. Get rid of the ghost, make it pass on,” Kurt said, making finger quotes. “That thing was trying to hurt us, or kill us-”

“Definitely kill you,” Sebastian clarified, receiving another forceful nudge from Dave.

“Trying to kill us, and… It’s what killed those other people, isn’t it? So we need to stop it.”

Sebastian leaned back in his seat and smirked at Dave. “I like him. He’s got spunk.”

Dave shot him a withering look and turned to Kurt, licking his lips as he thought about the best way to tell him abso-fucking-lutely not. “Kurt, this sort of thing can get dangerous. We’re just going to take you to a motel while we get it all sorted, and when we know for sure that it’s safe, then you can go back home, okay?”

“Like you knew for sure that it’s safe before you came to the house tonight? If he,” He paused to point at Sebastian, “hadn’t wanted to get his dick sucked, we’d be ghost chow.”

“Ghosts don’t actually-”

“Irrelevant,” Kurt interrupted, his mind made up. “We’re helping.”

He stared Dave down until the hunter finally shrugged, not knowing how to argue with that. He couldn’t blame Kurt for not trusting them to get the job done, even if he couldn’t see how Kurt or Blaine could help them. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Sebastian asked, surprised.

“He’s right, man. We fucked up. If he wants to oversee everything so he can know he’s safe, I get that.”

“Well, yeah, but I expected you to do that woobie ‘protect the civilian at all costs’ crap.” He chuckled when Dave shrugged. “Okay then. You two can come along, if that’s what you want.”

“I think I’ll just stay at the motel,” Blaine offered quietly, his face still ashen, and immediately found himself at the end of Kurt’s glare.

“Hell no. You’re helping. Living in Haunted Mansion was your dumb idea so if I’m in then you’re definitely in.” Kurt looked down at his menu when Blaine nodded, the smaller man fearing the immediate threat of his roommate more than the ghost. “Good. I think I’ve found my center, and now I’m starving. Who’s going to take our order?”

“That’s the spirit.” Sebastian leaned out of the booth and waved to a waitress, who hurried over to their table.

“I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, pulling a notepad out of her apron. “You guys were so tucked away back here that I didn’t even notice you! Are we all ready to order?”

Sebastian and Dave placed their own orders while Kurt ordered for himself and for Blaine, who still hadn’t touched his menu. The waitress – a middle-aged woman whose name tag read Carole – jotted it all down quickly. She looked up with a bright commercial smile, which faltered when she caught sight of Dave’s laptop screen.

“Why are you all looking up Jesse St. James?” she wondered, blinking when she seemed to realize how invasive her question was.

“You knew him?” Dave asked quickly, not wanting her to feel embarrassed and make a quick exit if she was a lead.

“I knew of him,” she admitted, biting her lip.

“We just moved into his old house,” Sebastian lied smoothly. “And we were looking into the history of it, since we’ve heard a couple of ghost stories. Do you know about what happened?”

“I was just a kid when he passed,” Carole told them. “But I lived in the neighborhood at the time, and I heard things.”

“What did you hear?” Dave asked, schooling his face so he would look curious but not desperate for information. He knew from years of experience that it made people nervous if they were too obviously interested.

“Some people said that he might not have done it himself – that it was his father who set it up to look the way it did – but they couldn’t prove anything. The rest said that even if Jesse did do it, his father was probably the one who pushed him to it.” She shook her head. “Tragic, him being so young.”

“Why would his father do that?” Kurt asked, and his carefully controlled expression and tone had Dave and Sebastian exchanging impressed looks.

“He didn’t approve of Jesse’s, ah – alternative lifestyle, if you know what I mean.” Sebastian quirked an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. “He wasn’t exactly… straight.”

“His father killed him because he was gay?” Dave asked, and she frowned.

“That was one of the stories,” she confirmed, holding up her notepad when they all paused to take it in. “I’ll just go put your orders in, alright boys?”

She left the table and Dave’s fingers immediately went to his keyboard. “Let’s see what we can find on Daddy St. James,” he murmured, pulling up an article in under a minute. “Got it. Robert St. James, father of teen suicide victim Jesse St. James, takes his own life five years later.” He skimmed the article before turning it towards the rest of the table. “Died in the house. Razor, just like Jesse.”

Sebastian scanned the text, resting his chin on his hand as he considered the information. “Do you think the kid’s spirit killed him, then?”

“Or haunted him until he did it himself,” Dave assumed. “Dad makes him off himself for being gay, he comes back for justice.”

“Almost poetic,” Seb mused. “He did seem really pissed about what we were doing.”

Dave snorted, shaking his head before turning to Kurt. “When you saw Jesse last night, did he try to attack you?”

“No. No, he just stood there and stared at me.”

“So he probably wanted revenge on Daddy but wasn’t overall a vengeful spirit, killing just anyone. Bob the homophobe was behind all of the other murders,” Sebastian deduced.

“And he might have even been trying to warn Kurt.”

“How sweet of him,” Kurt murmured sarcastically. They all sat in silence until Blaine started shaking his head.

“I still can’t believe this is real.”

Sebastian reached across the table to take his hand, patting it lightly. “It’s okay, puppy. It’s a lot to take in. You’ll feel better once it’s all taken care of.” He glanced at Dave. “Did they bury him in the same cemetery?”

Dave pulled his laptop back and read the article more closely, groaning and rubbing his eyes.

“Don’t say it,” Sebastian begged, knowing it was useless.

“Robert St. James was cremated,” Dave confirmed.

“Motherfucker.”

“What does that mean?” Kurt asked, leaning forward across the table. “Wouldn’t he already have burned up? Shouldn’t he be gone?”

“He should be,” Dave agreed. “But since he’s not, there has to be something tying him to the house. Something that has his DNA on it somewhere.”

“And it could be anything and anywhere on the property.” Sebastian huffed, flicking a salt shaker to make it topple over in a controlled expression of frustration. “Probably hidden, if that many people have lived there and not thrown it out. So now we have to find it and burn it while trying not to get killed while we’re in there.” Seb looked from Blaine to Kurt and back. “Maybe you guys really should stay at the motel. This could get messy.”

“I want to help,” Kurt insisted again, cutting Sebastian off when he opened his mouth to argue. “I think I know what it is we’re looking for.”

Kurt was interrupted before he could elaborate. “Here we are!” Carole announced her presence with a tray of food, and Dave fidgeted as he waited for her to distribute the plates and finally leave. He leaned closer to Kurt, his eyes bright with interest.

“What do you think it is?”

“I found a blade in my closet, tucked up underneath the wallpaper. I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure it had blood on it. That’s what it looked like and I don’t know what else it could have been. I put it in my dresser to make Blaine deal with it and that’s when I saw Jesse.”

“That would do it,” Sebastian confirmed, taking a bite out of his sandwich. “Le’s go t’morrow,” he suggested as he chewed, and Dave nodded.

“Might as well get some shut-eye before we take him on again. You guys okay with staying at a motel tonight? We’ll take one bed, you take the other?”

“Anywhere but the house,” Kurt agreed, gently encouraging Blaine to eat so they all could refuel.

***

“So this is what you guys do? Just live in different motels?”

Dave glanced over at Kurt from where he was packing his duffel bag. Kurt leaned against the side of the Mustang, eyeing the contents of the trunk.

“Basically, yeah.” Dave closed the trunk and hitched the duffel over his shoulder, heading towards the room Sebastian had checked them into. “Sometimes we sleep in the car, or squat in an empty place. Or we stay with Beiste when we need a place to hole up for a few weeks at a time. She’s another hunter, and an old friend.”

“So there are more people who do this? Kill ghosts?”

“Oh yeah. There are dozens of us,” Dave told him, opening the door to room 103 when they reached it and waiting for Kurt to go in first. They could hear the shower running and exchanged amused looks – neither Sebastian nor Blaine were on their side of the bathroom door. “Jesus, he’s insatiable.”

He set his bag on the small wooden table, opening it to pull out some clothes. “Here, I know you don’t have any other clothes I’ve got these sweatpants if you want to wear them to sleep in. They’re Sebastian’s so they should fit, and they’re clean, I promise.” Dave tossed them into Kurt’s open hands. “I don’t think he’s ever even worn them. I bought them to try and get him to stop sleeping au naturel, but it hasn’t worked. He can be a persistant fucker.”

Kurt laughed, and Dave kept his back turned as he heard the rustle of clothes and knew Kurt was changing into the more comfortable pants. “Like I said earlier, though, you’re obviously close with him. I guess you have to be, if you’re literally responsible for each other’s lives.”

Dave shrugged and turned when he could tell Kurt had stilled, seeing his slacks folded on the nightstand. “He’s family. Our dads were both hunters and they didn’t team up all that often, but we still got dumped together a lot. Grew up together, and we’ve been hunting together for years. We have our problems, but we work well together.” He had a sudden thought and checked his pockets and then the duffel. “Shit, I left my wallet in the car. I can’t leave it out there with the window busted up. I’m gonna go grab it.”

“I’ll come with,” Kurt offered, following him back out to the parking lot. Dave found the scrap of leather under the driver’s seat while Kurt stood by with his hands in his pockets. “Don’t you ever get… scared?”

Dave straightened up. “Scared of what?”

“It’s dangerous, right? What you do? Aren’t you ever scared you’ll get hurt, or… you know, killed?”

“Getting hurt is just part of the job,” he explained, knowing that he saw danger differently than normal people did. “And – well, when you become a hunter, you know that you’re stamping a pretty early expiration date on your forehead. Me and Seb both watched our dads die young, but we grew up in the life. This is kind of all we know.”

“You never wanted to do anything else?”

“I did – do – sometimes,” Dave admitted. “Sometimes it’s like all I want in the world is to settle down and live a normal life. Help out other hunters like Beiste does, sure, but have a home at least. Have a life apart from hunting. Nothing has ever made it worth it, though. Not when I know that quitting means people getting hurt.”

Kurt sighed softly, shaking his head. “It’s like you’re seducing me without even trying. Or is this how you pick people up? Playing the lonely hero card?”

Dave laughed nervously, shaking his head. “I- No. When I try to pick people up, I deliberately don’t tell them about the freaky ghost stuff. Crazy isn’t a turn-on for most people.” He smirked, slipping his hands in his pockets. “You’re flirting with me again.”

Kurt tilted his head innocently. “I’ve no idea what you mean,” he protested, drawing out a laugh.

“You’re not very subtle.”

“So I’ve been told,” Kurt mused, smiling and offering an unapologetic shrug. “I know what I like.”

Dave smiled back, somewhat sadly. “Trust me, it’s not a hunter.” He nodded his head back towards the motel. “Come on, let’s go before they lose us our security deposit.”

Kurt chuckled, following him back to the door. They both stopped when they noticed the hand towel wrapped haphazardly around the doorknob. “Is that what I think it is?”

“The doorknob signal,” Dave confirmed with a sigh. “The only ties we have are usually kept in the trunk. Seb’s learned to get creative.”

“Looks like we have some time to kill.”

“Looks like.” Dave looked back at the car. “We could drive around for a while, if you’re up for it. Park somewhere.”

Kurt’s eyebrows shot up. “How forward of you.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of hanging out on the car and stargazing or something.” He shrugged when he realized how lame that could sound. “It’s something me and Seb do sometimes. It’s calming. You can ask more questions, and I might even answer honestly.”

Kurt’s smirk softened into something a bit fond and he nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

***

“If you could go anywhere in the world – like on vacation – where would you go?”

Dave considered it, pulling the checkered blanket further over to cover more of his leg, only to have Kurt tug it back playfully. Kurt chuckled and slid closer so they could share the blanket more easily, with the added bonus of shared body heat. They were sitting on the Mustang’s hood, legs parallel to the orange racing stripes as they enjoyed what warmth was left from the engine running on their way over.

“A vacation anywhere would be great,” he admitted. “We don’t get many. Seems like whenever we even try to take some time off, we end up stumbling onto a hunt.”

“If there was nobody in danger and wherever you went was totally ghost-free,” Kurt clarified.

“Alright. Well, I’ve been pretty much everywhere in the continental United States, so probably somewhere different. Australia, maybe? Spend some time on the beach, learn to surf or scuba dive or whatever it is normal people do.”

“I would pay to watch you learn to surf,” Kurt admitted, making Dave laugh.

“Thank you, that’s very encouraging.” He nudged his knee against Kurt’s, thinking. “What’s your favorite color?”

Kurt snorted. “Seriously?”

“Perfectly valid question. You have to answer, that’s the rules.”

Kurt huffed, but his smile didn’t fade. “Blue, generally. But with clothes, it depends on the season.”

Dave quirked a teasing eyebrow but didn’t comment on the second half of his answer. “Blue. Very manly choice.”

“Actually, blue used to be thought of by some as the girl color. Red was the fierce manly color, and pink was just a faded red, so that wasn’t associated with girls until later.”

“Huh. I stand corrected. How stereotypically girly of you,” Dave teased, earning a punch to the arm that wasn’t intended to hurt but he rubbed it like he was wounded anyway. “Your turn.”

“Alright. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever hunted?”

Dave sighed, his mood darkening. “You really don’t want me to answer that question, Kurt. You’re better off not knowing what’s out there. I don’t want to be the reason you can’t sleep at night.” He rolled his eyes when Kurt snickered. “Not like – shut up.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Perv.”

“Seriously, though. How am I supposed to be safe after you guys leave if I don’t know what’s out there?”

“I can tell you how to protect yourself without telling you what it is you’re protecting yourself from,” Dave pointed out. “Just watch out for the signs – temperature drops, weird weather patterns, flickering lights or other electricity going haywire – and you can just lay down salt lines at all the doors and windows if you think there might be something trying to get you. Other than that, stay away from anywhere that’s haunted and try not to piss anybody off if there’s a possibility that they’re not, you know, human.”

“Duly noted.” Kurt leaned into him and Dave smiled. “You know, for someone who hunts monsters, you’re surprisingly easy to talk to. You’d think you’d be totally insane. Which, I mean, you sort of are for continuing to fight things that want to kill you, but you’re also a cool, normal guy. And prime dating material, if you weren’t running around all over the country all the time.”

“You’re flirting again,” Dave accused lightly.

“You’re easy to flirt with. Probably the whole ‘being super hot’ thing.”

Dave snorted, feeling the flushed warmth as it spread over his cheeks. “Ah – right back at you,” he admitted. “But if we run into each other in twenty years, you’ll want to reconsider the ‘cool, normal guy’ thing. Sanity goes bad pretty quick in this business.”

“You think you’ll still be doing this in twenty years?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I’d like to think not, but it’s hard to get out of the life. Not many hunters do it.”

Kurt nodded, his head resting against Dave’s shoulder as he tilted it back to look at the stars. “Well,” he finally said, “if you ever decide to slow down for a while, you should think about coming back here and having a drink with me. Or if you’re in the area. Or if you just need a booty call.” He snorted when Dave turned to him with wide eyes. “I’m joking. But seriously, consider dropping by again? Seems like Blaine and Sebastian are having fun together, so I bet he’d be agreeable.”

“We can’t just invade your lives whenever we want,” Dave protested. “It’s not fair to you to pop in unannounced and expect you to be accommodating just to have us leave again. Hunters can’t do the whole dating thing.”

“So, what? You’re all alone your entire lives? Hunters aren’t allowed to get married or have kids?”

“I know some who are married, but only to other hunters. Never met one who’s married to a civilian.”

“Jesus, it’s not like we’re a different species,” Kurt reminded him, and Dave could read the irritation all over his pinched face. “And I’m privy to all of this supernatural stuff now, right? I’m unattached, I’m not exactly in love with my job or the area, and I don’t mind traveling. What if I decided to start hunting?”

“No, Kurt. That’s not even funny, man.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. I could look around in the papers for something that sounds off – you just told me the signs to look out for – and when I get there, all I have to do is wait for a hunter to show up and ask them to show me the ropes. Then I wouldn’t be a civilian.”

Dave didn’t think for a second that Kurt actually wanted to do any of that. “First of all, I can tell you’re still freaked the hell out over this one ghost. There’s a lot worse out there that hunters deal with. And you think you could find one who would just take some time off to train you? Hand over all their secrets?” Dave asked, and Kurt’s confidence faltered. He cleared his throat, trying to fake it.

“Why not? An extra pair of hands, one more person helping to get the job done. Even if I had to start small, I’d be doing something and that can only be beneficial, right? They’d teach me,” he insisted, and Dave couldn’t stay annoyed when Kurt pointed his nose up in the air. Something about it was too endearing.

“Kurt,” he began patiently, “I know it’s frustrating. Trust me, I’ve grown up in this, and I know. But what do you want me to do? Try to date you? Be okay with the idea of you waiting around in case I have time to show up? Do you really want to know that every time you hear the phone ring it could be me finally checking in, or it could be someone telling you something went wrong and I didn’t make it through our last case?” he asked, frowning. “I think you can see why this sort of thing doesn’t work out.”

“You have to make this difficult, don’t you?” Kurt accused, but there was no fight left in him. He ran his hand through his hair, just staring at Dave. “I feel like there could be something here. And I don’t get that feeling very often, and you won’t be around for long, so I want you to know. Do you not get that too?”

Dave wanted to lie – wanted to shut Kurt down so he wouldn’t keep asking. It was hard to keep saying no when he was just as interested. “I do,” he admitted. “But I don’t know what that something is. You know it could just be a hero complex thing, right? If we got to know each other, you might find out you can’t fucking stand me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. My instinct says not.” Kurt looked around the field they’d parked in, the moonlight showing him the outlines of the trees. “You said you hadn’t found anything that made it worth it.”

Dave glanced over, curious. “And?”

“Maybe it could be me. I’m really awesome after all,” Kurt confided, and he could feel the rumble in Dave’s torso as he threw his head back and laughed.

“I believe you.”

“Think about giving it a shot,” Kurt requested. “That’s all I ask.”

Dave didn’t respond, but he knew he would consider it. It was too tempting not to. He sat on the hood with Kurt pressed against his side until the cold air biting his nose and cheeks was verging on painful and he knew it had to be even worse for Kurt. He checked his watch, seeing that they’d given Sebastian and Blaine plenty of time to do anything and everything twice.

“We should head back,” he suggested, and Kurt kept the blanket wrapped around him when he got into the car to stay warm on the leather seats until the heater kicked in.

Sure enough, Blaine and Sebastian were totally out when they reached the motel. They didn’t even stir as Dave and Kurt took turns washing up for bed, or when Dave pulled their comforter further up their bodies to ensure he wouldn’t get flashed in the morning. Sebastian was on his stomach with his arm draped across Blaine’s chest, and Dave realized when he looked at the other bed that this messed up their intended sleeping arrangements.

Kurt was already slipping under the covers and Dave cleared his throat. “I’ll, um, sleep on the floor,” he offered, and he could imagine Kurt’s eye roll as he snorted even while he couldn’t see him in the dark.

“Seriously? The bed will fit both of us, and I trust you won’t try to steal my purity in the middle of the night.” Some light filled the room as Kurt’s phone lit up and he checked the time. “Especially since it’s the middle of the night. Just get in, you need to sleep and that won’t be easy on the floor.”

“I live in my car half the time. Sleeping on the floor doesn’t trouble me all that much,” Dave told him, but he still cooperated and climbed into bed.

He got comfortable on his side, and he hadn’t yet dropped out of consciousness when Kurt shifted and cuddled into his chest a few minutes later. He couldn’t fight the smile, and fell asleep with it still on his face.

***

Dave slipped his freshly cleaned shotgun into the duffel bag, wiping his hands on his jeans. “You’re sure you want to come along?” he asked Kurt, who huffed at hearing the question for the seventh time.

“Yes. I want to help.”

“Staying here with Blaine would be helping,” Sebastian muttered. “Having two civilians to protect? Not so much.”

“I don’t want to be left here alone,” Blaine insisted, having already made his position on that clear. He wasn’t quite as freaked out after having time to sleep and adjust, but he’d still been quiet through breakfast.

“You won’t be.” Sebastian made no attempt to hide how displeased he was with their situation, but he wasn’t fighting it. “We ready?”

Dave nodded and they checked the motel over one last time to ensure they weren’t leaving anything behind. Dave dropped off the room key before joining the rest of the group in the car, rolling out of the parking lot and taking them to back to McKinley Road.

“Maybe we won’t see him,” Dave said hopefully, not actually expecting it to be true. Some ghosts they encountered weren’t as active during the day, but it wasn’t common.

“Sure,” Sebastian grumped. “Or maybe he’ll help us burn his remains, or bake us cookies!”

Dave smacked his arm. “Don’t be an asshole. You’ll cover Blaine and I’ll cover Kurt while he goes for the razor. It won’t be that hard.”

“Just remember that I was against this,” Sebastian told him, but luckily stayed quiet until they reached the street. Dave parked against the curb in front of the house, taking the shotgun his cousin handed him and double-checking it was loaded. He turned to face the back seat where his passengers were unbuckling their seatbelts.

“Remember to stick close to us, guys. Don’t lose it if you see him. It’s really important that we stick to the mission. I’m trusting you here.”

Kurt nodded, putting on a brave face, and Blaine just swallowed hard. They all climbed out of the car, Kurt and Blaine dutifully sticking to their respective protectors and holding canisters of salt and lighter fluid.

“Godspeed, men,” Sebastian said as they approached the door, flashing his usual smirk as his mood was brightened. Dave was feeling the same rush of adrenaline as his cousin was, just like the start of every hunt.

Sebastian pushed open the door and led them in, Dave closing it as he brought up the rear to avoid the attention of any curious neighbors. He made sure he was nearly pressed against Kurt as they trekked into the house, alert despite the quiet calm.

Goosebumps rose on Dave’s arms when they reached the living room and he looked around wildly as he felt the temperature drop. “He’s here,” he warned, spinning around when he heard Sebastian fire and seeing the ghost dissipate. He caught it appearing in the corner of his eye and swung back, gun raised and ready as he aimed and repelled it with a fire-powered spray of rock salt. “Go, go-” he started as he faced the group again. Sebastian had his back to Blaine with his gun at the ready, so he didn’t see the spirit pop back in at Blaine’s side, reaching for him. His hands were nearly closed around Blaine’s wrists when Dave took him out, fumbling in his pocket for more shells to reload.

“This fucker’s fast,” Seb complained, his eyes darting around as he moved in circles to try and guard in all directions at once. “We can’t hold him off like this. Blaine, make a circle with the salt, big enough for a few of us to stand in. Now!” he commanded when Blaine froze, making him jump and hurry to follow the direction, making a wide and more or less circular salt barrier around himself in the corner of the room. Sebastian stepped inside, blasting the spirit when it appeared just outside the ring next to Blaine. He turned to nod at Dave. “You guys go, and we’ll stay here. Hopefully he’ll be more interested in us than in you.”

“Come on,” Dave urged, grabbing onto Kurt’s arm to keep him moving. “We need to get the razor.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s in my room.” Kurt reminded him, turning and letting out a quiet shriek when he came nose to nose with the ghost.

“Get down!” Dave ordered, grazing Kurt’s hair with the salt as he shot the moment Kurt dipped down. “Keep moving.”

“Hey, douchewad!” they heard Sebastian calling as they moved down the hallway. “Remember me? You saw me fucking this hot piece of tail over here the other night? Come and get me!”

“He’s not leaving the circle, is he?” Kurt asked, worry furrowing his brows as they heard more gun shots, but Dave lightly pushed him forward.

“He can take care of himself. Stay focused.” Kurt nodded and ran the last few feet to his room, going straight for the dresser. Dave was three feet behind him and pulling out his lighter when Robert St. James took an interest in them again and sent him flying back against the wall. It knocked the gun and the Zippo out of his hands and he strained against the supernatural power that held him there like shackles. The spirit turned to face Kurt, and Dave started to yell, “No!” when Kurt straightened up with the shotgun in his hand and fired.

Dave fell to the floor as he was released and wobbled for a moment as he pulled himself up, taking the gun from a wide-eyed Kurt to start reloading again. It shook Kurt back into focus and he yanked the dresser drawer open, grabbing the blade and holding it up. “Here.”

Dave looked around quickly, not seeing where his lighter had landed and not wanting to waste time searching. “We gotta get back to Seb. I need his lighter.” Dave wrapped his arm nearly all the way around Kurt’s waist to get him moving again. “Go, before he gets back.”

They made it down the hallway without seeing the apparition, and were faced with the ghost popping up rapidly around the salt ring while Sebastian swung wildly at it with the iron fireplace poker like he was playing whack-a-mole. Blaine was ducking down and covering his head to stay out of the way while Sebastian kept the spirit busy, and he frowned when he saw Dave and Kurt hurrying to join him in the protection of the circle.

“What the fuck? Did it not work?”

“I lost my lighter,” Dave explained quickly, taking the lighter fluid from Blaine and the razor from Kurt. Sebastian dug his Zippo out of his pocket and handed it over, turning and swinging again when he heard the, “Faggots in my house!” from behind him.

“Toast this piece of shit, would you?”

Dave dropped to the wooden floor and felt an unnaturally strong wind as he unscrewed the cap on the canister. Blaine whimpered next to him. “Seb! The salt!” Blaine cried, and Dave saw out of the corner of his eye as the crystals started to scatter.

“Fuck, I hate when they do that.” Sebastian groaned, glancing at the window that the ghost was drawing the wind in through. Kurt kneeled down next to Dave, taking the lighter and sparking a flame while Dave doused the blade in butane and lighting it as soon as Dave pulled his hand away. They all looked up to see the advancing spirit stop and scream as paranormal flames engulfed and destroyed it.

Sebastian panted and dropped back on the floor, barely bothering to hold himself up on his elbows. “Homophobic ass,” he griped, finally giving up and slumping onto his back while he caught his breath. Kurt and Dave kneeled side by side as they watched the small fire flicker and quickly start to die.

“You cut your hand,” Dave realized when he saw blood drip from Kurt’s fingers, catching Blaine’s attention. Kurt looked down as if he hadn’t even noticed.

“When I grabbed the blade, I guess. I wasn’t trying to be too careful. It’s fine, though, I don’t think they’re deep.” He examined the small cuts closely, holding his fingers against the hem of his shirt to stem the blood flow. “I’m up to date on my tetanus shots, I’ll be fine.”

Blaine was mollified and leaned down next to Sebastian, still showing signs of his fear in occasional tremors. “It won’t come back now, right?”

“Nah, he’s taken care of,” Sebastian assured, breathing more evenly. “He can only come back now if somebody summons him. So, uh, don’t.”

“Not a problem,” Kurt promised, sniggering as he looked at Blaine. “He probably won’t even be able to watch his scary movies for a while.” He pushed his sweaty hair out of his face. “And I think we’ve definitely learned our lesson about staying away when something’s said to be haunted.”

“Always a good choice,” Dave approved, and a calm silence settled over the group. He picked up the blade and tossed it to the side, a small black mark from the flame left behind as the only evidence that the home had ever been haunted.

“A day in the life of a real Ghostbuster,” Kurt mused, and Dave looked at him incredulously before they both started laughing.

It was a few minutes before they could stop.

***

Dave directed the Mustang into her spot on the driveway. It had been two weeks and he already felt more relaxed just seeing the house. His house.

Sebastian climbed out through the passenger side door. Okay, their house. But after living in motels with his cousin for so many years, it would have felt wrong to not end up under the same roof.

Dave had the keys so he was still walking up when Sebastian rang the doorbell. The door opened and a bundle of curly-haired energy practically launched itself into Sebastian’s arms, and Sebastian squeezed Blaine until he grunted in protest.

“Can’t breathe!” he complained, and Sebastian set him down with a grin. Their lips locked and Dave slipped past them into the house, knowing they might be there for a while.

“David!” He turned when he heard Kurt’s happy exclamation and their embrace was equally joyful as the one outside had been, though a lot less forceful.

“Told you we’d be back today,” Dave reminded him, not planning to release his hold on Kurt’s waist any time soon.

“Last time you said you’d be back on a Saturday and didn’t show up until Tuesday.”

Dave laughed at the familiar argument, capturing Kurt’s lips with his own. “We’d only been away for a few days last time. Two weeks is too long. We could have run into a werewolf trail on the way back and I wouldn’t have stopped.”

“It’s sweet to know you’d ignore a monster on a killing spree for me,” Kurt said sarcastically, but he was still grinning. “Where’s Seb?”

“Here!” Sebastian announced, tugging Blaine past them towards the hallway. “We’ll be in our room!” He wiggled his eyebrows and Dave just rolled his eyes. For a split second he had the perfect view of Sebastian’s besotted expression as he focused on Blaine.

“He’s got it bad for that kid,” Dave noted when they were out of earshot. “The way he looks at him alone… but I was keeping an eye on him when he was hustling pool at this bar the other night. All these guys flirting with him, and he played it up so he could get their money – he knows how to charm a crowd – but he wasn’t the slightest bit interested. Didn’t even bother looking at any of them, really. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Somewhere in all of that very noisy sex, they found love. I think it’s beautiful.” Kurt smiled up at him as Dave laughed and then poked his boyfriend in the chest. “You better not have been flirting either.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Dave promised, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’ve been tamed.”

“You’re damn right.” Kurt pushed with his finger until Dave allowed himself to be moved backwards. He only went a few feet before his back was pressed against the side of their large mahogany bookcase and Kurt’s lips were suddenly on his.

The shelves next to them held a slowly growing collection of lore. With advice from Beiste they knew what essentials had been needed to start them off, and from there they’d been gathering anything that proved useful until their collection was up in the hundreds. The bookshelf was the only piece of furniture that Dave and Sebastian had needed to add to the house when they moved in, and they had positioned it directly over the black burn mark that they’d left behind six months earlier.

Dave hadn’t been able to resist Kurt, as hard as he’d tried. It had started with exchanging texts – just little things, like if he wanted to share something funny he’d heard about while out on a job or send a picture of the hilariously bad interior decorating disasters they were exposed to in their various motel rooms. What started as an every-few-days occurrence eventually became every day, which then quickly evolved into almost all day, to the point where Sebastian sometimes had to take his phone away to get Dave to focus on a job. Kurt had gotten under his skin and it had made him happier than he’d expected it to.

So they’d danced around each other for months, meeting up whenever Dave was anywhere near Ohio. Sebastian had no objections to those stops since it gave him the opportunity to hook up with Blaine again, but he got more of a fight each time they had to leave and Dave couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than to go off and fight some nasty thing when Kurt’s company made him feel so good.

It had taken him a few months and a lot of help from Kurt, but Dave had eventually realized he didn’t have to search for something or someone that would make settling down worth it anymore. It had fallen right in his lap.

Dave had time to get some groping in before Kurt was done with him, their open-mouthed kisses slowing to affectionate pecks. “I was waiting to start dinner a little later in case it took you longer to get here, but you made good time. Come on.”

Kurt led him to the kitchen and Dave perched on a barstool, content to watch as Kurt pulled ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry. When he or Sebastian or Blaine were in charge of cooking it was often a group affair with everybody pitching in, but Kurt took cooking very seriously and would chase them out of his kitchen when it was his turn.

“So how was your trip?” Kurt asked as he grabbed a knife to chop vegetables. “Kick ass, take names?”

“Always.” Dave chuckled and tilted his head as Kurt bent over. He’d learned he didn’t have to feel sleazy if it was his boyfriend he was checking out. “It was good. The things were a bitch to track, but eventually we caught up to the nest. With Finn and Puck, we took every last bloodsucker down then and there.”

“I’m sure they appreciated your help. May the city of San Francisco rest safely tonight. And may monsters stop popping up across the country and making hunters call you guys in as reinforcements.”

Dave risked Kurt’s wrath and invaded his cooking space to wrap his arms around him from behind. After two weeks apart, Kurt prefered being held over dominating his food preparation space.

“It’s only happened four times in six months,” Dave pointed out, pressing light kisses to Kurt’s neck. “Not too bad. They know not to call unless it’s an emergency and no one else is available. We’re practically civilians now. Plus, if we miss too much work, we’ll get fired.”

“That is how that works in the real world,” Kurt agreed, stilling his hand and tilting his head to make room for more kisses.

“Speaking of, I wonder what normal guys talk about when their loved ones ask about their business trips.”

Kurt laughed, shaking his head and going back to the food. “If you came home and started talking about profit margins or whatever else those people have meetings about, you’d bore me to tears. I’d much rather hear about vampires.”

“Good to know.” Dave rubbed his hand up Kurt’s side before pulling away, doing the only helpful thing he knew he would be allowed to do and setting the table.

Thirty minutes later found Dave knocking on Sebastian and Blaine’s door, luckily not exposing himself to any scarring noises. It opened just enough for him to see half of his cousin’s face, eyebrows raised.

“What’s up?”

“Kurt made dinner.”

Sebastian glanced back into the room before facing Dave again. “We’re a little busy. We can reheat the leftover’s later, yeah?”

He didn’t wait for an answer before shutting the door, and Dave rolled his eyes as he went back to the kitchen. “They’re catching up on two weeks of missed naked time. Looks like it’s you and me for dinner.” Dave kissed Kurt’s cheek and put the extra dishes back in the cabinet before sitting down across from his boyfriend.

He could feel Kurt’s socked foot rubbing against his ankle while they ate, distracting him enough that he didn’t even mind that Kurt had put cauliflower in the steamed vegetable medley. It wasn’t even all sexual tension – the overwhelming feeling of comfort he got with Kurt was just as powerful. Though, after two weeks off their usual schedule, he was wound a little tight when it came to his sex drive also.

Kurt insisted on taking Dave’s plate for him so he wouldn’t have to get up when they had finished eating, and Dave quirked an eyebrow when he came back out with a thick slice of cheesecake for Dave and a thinner one for himself.

“I made it today,” he explained, setting the plate and a clean fork in front of him. Dave took a bite, not allowing himself to be thrown off by how the sweet flavor exploded across his tongue. Kurt definitely knew what he liked.

“So waiting on me, making cheesecake… If there’s something you want, you can just tell me.”

Kurt’s chewing slowed and he looked at the table, revealing his guilt in an instant. He left the room for a moment and returned with a newspaper, which he laid down in front of Dave. It was a local area paper, and a headline reading ‘Freak Accident!’ was circled in sharpie marker.

“I looked into it and it’s the third one this month. I think something might be going on. Your kind of something.”

Dave skimmed the article, surprised. “You found a case?”

“I might have. I think it’s worth checking out, is all.” Kurt bit his lip and Dave chuckled.

“I’ll put some calls out and get someone on it.” He eyed his boyfriend for a moment and reached for his hand. “You don’t have to be scared. I’ll get it taken care of.”

Kurt scoffed, shaking his head. “I’m not scared. And it’s in the next town over, like twenty minutes away. You don’t need to call anyone.”

Dave was starting to feel like he must be missing something. “You want us to take the case?”

“Yes,” Kurt confirmed, nodding quickly. “But not us as in you and Sebastian ‘us’. Us as in us,” he explained, pointing between himself and Dave. “And Sebastian can come too, I guess.”

“You… want to go on a hunt.” Dave blinked, waiting for the words to start making sense. They didn’t. “Kurt, no.”

“Why not?” he asked, caught between affronted and disappointed.

“You’re not a hunter,” Dave reminded him slowly, staring at Kurt as if he might sprout a second head at any moment.

“I could be! What’s a hunter, huh? Somebody who hunts. Well, look.” He traced the circle he’d drawn on the paper with his finger. “I’m hunting.”

“Kurt-”

“Don’t just write me off on this,” Kurt ordered. “You taught me how to shoot and I’ve read all the books and heard all the stories. I’m not saying I would take the lead, but I could be part of the team.”

“You could get hurt.”

“So could you! You were just chasing fifty vampires around San Fransisco!”

“There were fourteen of them,” Dave protested. “Kurt, why are you doing this? Why do you want to do this?”

“I’m not saying we pack up and do what you were doing before, living on the road and going clear across the country every week for a hunt. But if we find something close by, we should check it out, right? Whatever it is that’s killing people could come here next. We have to keep ourselves safe from this sort of thing.” Kurt nodded, seeming pleased with his argument, and Dave sighed.

“But why do you specifically want to be involved in that? Why not just me and Seb?”

Kurt stared at his cheesecake, slowly piercing it to get another bite on his fork. “You’ve been hunting your whole life, right? Or at least preparing to hunt, when you were too young. When we met, I don’t think you really believed that you could ever get out; it’s been so much a part of you. I want to share it with you, even if it won’t make me understand completely. Probably not even close. But just let me try, okay?”

“I’m really fine with it if you don’t understand,” Dave promised, but Kurt’s determination didn’t waver. “I’m happy here with you, Kurt. If you think I have some itch to get back out there like we were, I don’t. We’re both happier here with you guys, actually learning what happiness and stability mean. I’m more than just a hunter.”

“I know you are. And like I said, I don’t want to take off in your car in the middle of the night to hunt ghosts in Nebraska. But when it’s small stuff in Ohio, I’d like to be there. So… think about it, okay?”

Kurt smiled sweetly and inched Dave’s plate closer to him until Dave gave in, picking up his fork and continuing to eat his cake. His thoughts were jumbled, not knowing what to think about Kurt’s request. He had time to consider it and time to work out how to tell Kurt ‘no,’ but he had a nagging feeling that he might not turn his lover down in the end.

Kurt had a history of making him change his mind.