"Bas, would you please, for the love of all things holy, stop messing with your NOS!?" Kurt grumbled from inside the boy's Nissan GT-R. "Unless you want to set your hair on fire."

And you would set your hair on fire, Kurt thought with a vengeful smirk. With all that product you use, it would go up like a Roman candle

"Well," Sebastian drawled, sliding up to Kurt and knocking their hips together, "it's the only way I can get you bent over my car, so I'm going to take advantage of it."

Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Well, whatever you did, you knocked the line completely loose," Kurt said, smoothly dismissing Sebastian's blatantly sexual remark. "I have to get you a new line before your next race."

Kurt stood up, raising his arms above his head and straightening his back until he felt it crack, sighing with relief at the release of tension in his spine. He heard Sebastian’s breath catch in his throat, and swallowed down hard to keep his loathing at bay. Kurt rubbed his sweaty hands down the pants of his overalls, feeling Sebastian’s eyes on him, following his every move. Kurt kept his face expressionless, but it was becoming more and more difficult. Sebastian’s leering made him feel so cheap, so dirty.

It’s almost over, Kurt chanted in his head. It’s almost over. The races will be done, school will start, and most of this will be a distant memory.

Kurt smiled secretly to himself.

Time away from the Dalton Crew meant more time he could spend with Blaine.

***

Blaine's skin crawled as he watched Sebastian run a hand over the seam of Kurt's overalls. He couldn't see Kurt's face, but he noticed his body language – he saw Kurt stiffen and then squirm to move out of reach, but Sebastian wouldn't let up. He put a hand on Kurt's shoulder, which the boy deftly swatted away. Sebastian only shook his head and laughed, putting the hand back in place. Puck climbed out of his Corvette and walked over to Blaine, following Blaine's gaze when he saw his leader seething. Puck watched Sebastian pursue Kurt, reaching out a hand and threatening to pinch him on the ass. Puck patted Blaine's back sympathetically.

"That sucks, man." Puck squeezed Blaine's shoulder reassuringly. "Sebastian's an ass, plain and simple. But Hummel over there's a big boy. I'm sure he can take care of himself."

Kurt had only briefly met the McKinley Crew a few nights before, in between races. Blaine had managed to drag Kurt away from Hunter’s Silvia in a rare moment when Wes and Sebastian were both nowhere to be seen and introduced him around. Kurt was a little hinky about meeting more new people, but Blaine used the excuse that he thought it might be nice for Kurt to have a few McKinley friends before the start of school. Regardless of him being a potential Titan, the crew still saw him as a rival. Kurt smiled and nodded politely as introductions were made. Finn seemed to have already heard a lot about him. He shook his hand, and gave him a lopsided but genuine smile. The rest of the group was fairly lukewarm about him, especially Santana, who made it more than obvious that she wasn’t interested in meeting Blaine’s new ‘boy toy’ and dragged a strangely awestruck Brittany away. The last thing Kurt could hear from the bubbly blonde girl was some senseless muttering about unicorns.

Puck, however, had warmed to Kurt almost immediately. He struck up a brief conversation with the mechanic about AMA Motocross and plans for aftermarket installs for his ‘vette. Kurt listened intently, and then gave him some unsolicited advice in that arena. Puck had tried to convince Kurt to part with some Dalton trade secrets, but Kurt simply smiled and twisted his fingers in front of his mouth, indicating that his lips were sealed. Kurt might have aligned himself with the wrong crowd as far as Puck was concerned, but he was loyal, and Puck admired that about him. After that, his opinion was that Kurt was pretty badass.

He had no problem with his best friend and leader developing the hots for Dalton’s new mechanic.

Puck knew Blaine probably better than anyone. Blaine didn’t talk all too often about his feelings, but without having to say a word Puck knew how Blaine felt about Kurt, how fast he had fallen for him, and how hard. He saw it when Blaine passed on a race just to watch Kurt fix cars. He saw his heart break every time the crew treated Kurt like dirt.

Puck knew that wherever Kurt went, Blaine's heart went with him.

Blaine sighed, preparing to get his Mustang ready for the next race, until he caught Sebastian running a hand over Kurt's ass. Kurt broke free with a yelp, scolding Sebastian loudly and hurrying away, but Blaine had had enough. He broke from his crew and stormed over to the pair, prepared to knock Sebastian into next week.

"Why don't you get your damned hands off of him!?" Blaine growled, stepping boldly into the taller boy's face.

Sebastian looked down at Blaine with a wolfish grin, barely moved by his rage.  

"You sure do spend an awful lot of time worrying about things that don't belong to you," Sebastian spat back, confident in his own superiority.

The Dalton boys took notice and hurried over to join the melee. At the sound of their leader arguing, the McKinley Crew rushed over as well, and suddenly both crews converged around Blaine and Sebastian.

"Blaine…" Kurt stepped in front of Sebastian, his shining eyes grateful but his voice a soft warning, "everything's alright. I was done with his car anyway.”

From behind Kurt, Sebastian scoffed.

"I don’t think so, princess." Sebastian grabbed Kurt's hips and pulled the boy back against him. "You're done when I say you're done." Sebastian shoved Kurt roughly behind the shield of his body. Kurt tripped and would have fallen straight to the asphalt if not for Jeff, who rushed up quickly and caught Kurt in his arms.

"Are you okay?" Jeff whispered. He helped Kurt stand and set him back on his feet, walking him away from what promised to turn into a fist fight.

"Yeah," Kurt said, breathless with shock. He held Jeff's arms tightly, trying to regain his balance. He smiled, his cheeks red, thankful that Jeff had rescued him from an embarrassing tumble. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."

"Yeah, Jeff. He's fine. You can totally let go now," Nick mumbled, one arm wrapped across his chest, looking around awkwardly to see if anyone noticed him grumbling.

Blaine pushed further into Sebastian's face, and with both hands planted on his chest, shoved him back full force. Sebastian skidded back a few steps then stopped.

"He's not a thing, he’s a person," Blaine growled, “and he’s not yours.”

"Fun." Sebastian smirked, straightening his clothes and advancing back up toward Blaine. "He's not yours either."

"He works for your crew, but you don't own him." Blaine's hands balled into fists and hung at his sides; the skin pulled so tight around his knuckles they turned white.

"Neither do you." Sebastian stalked Blaine, pushing him backwards toward his crew. "All this time you've been crushing on him hardcore, watching him all moony-eyed, how come you haven't asked him out? How come he’s not your boyfriend by now?" Blaine stopped dead in his tracks and his face immediately lost all its color. Sebastian came right up to Blaine's ear so that only he could hear. "At least we pay him to get felt up."

Blaine launched himself at Sebastian. Sebastian bobbed backward quickly, barely missing a fist impacting with his nose. His eyes went wide, but he recovered quickly. He rushed at Blaine, grabbing the sleeves of his leather jacket and throwing him to the ground. Blaine grabbed Sebastian's arms as he fell and managed to take the boy down with him. Puck and Finn stepped up out of the crowd and grabbed Blaine's arms, lifting him off the ground and away from Sebastian. Sebastian lay sprawled on his back, his chest heaving as he breathed. David stepped up to him, offering Sebastian a hand, but Sebastian swatted the boy away angrily.

A crowd of other crews and onlookers gathered, and Wes, otherwise occupied with some girls from a local high school when the fight started, made his way through them. People cleared a path for him as he stepped up to the scene.

"Come on, boys," Wes said diplomatically, though his condescending smirk was more amused by the fight than concerned. He walked up to Sebastian and gave him a hand up, not giving him the choice to refuse. Sebastian wouldn’t dare swat Wes away. "Let's break this up now. I think we can all agree that we don't want this to turn ugly."

"Too late," Puck murmured from behind Blaine. A few people in the crowd heard his remark and chuckled, whispering behind their hands and shooting mocking looks in Wes's direction.

Wes heard the whispers, saw the stares, and his amicable façade faded. He could see the group gathered behind the McKinley Crew, the lemmings that supported Blaine and his amateur band of riffraff wannabe-drivers, and he scowled. It seemed that ever since Blaine had returned from his 'sabbatical', he had become top dog again. That pissed Wes off to no end. The bastard barely even raced, but that didn’t seem to matter. The other crews idolized him, girls swooned over him. Everybody loved him. That's what Wes despised most about Blaine. It didn't matter if Blaine left for 6 months or 60 months. It seemed like the place of honor always sat empty, waiting for him, even if he didn't really deserve it.

But now Wes saw a chance to turn the tide in his favor, because it seemed Wes had something that Blaine really wanted.

Kurt.

Blaine wanted Kurt.

The great Blaine Anderson finally had an Achilles heel.

Wes hadn't really been all that excited about hiring Kurt on as a mechanic. Sure, Kurt worked hard, and he knew more about custom tuning and NOS injection systems than anyone Wes had ever met, but Kurt didn't fit the overall image Wes wanted for his crew. But seeing the daggers in Blaine's eyes, Wes realized that having Kurt around was definitely money well spent, especially if it threw Blaine off his game. Besides, even though Wes wasn't even remotely bi-curious, he could appreciate a thing of beauty, and Kurt was definitely beautiful.

Wes wanted to be done with this – done with Blaine and his annoying crew of misfits.

"Let's say we finish this once and for all?" Wes walked in a circle as he talked so that everyone gathered around could hear.

"What did you have in mind?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How about a race?" Wes offered. Wes smiled at his own cleverness. He was confident that his Toyota Supra could spank Blaine's Mustang any day of the week. "Are you willing to wager your pretty little Mustang?"

"That depends," Blaine said skeptically, "what do I get if I win?"

"Anything you like." Wes opened his arms wide and gestured around him. "Anything you see is up for grabs."

Blaine barely gave his response a second thought.

"Good," Blaine said, his eyes dark, his smile menacing. "Then I want him."

All eyes turned, following Blaine's gaze, landing on Kurt, who looked back at the crowd around him. His mouth hung open and he tried to object, but he was at a complete loss for words.

"No," Sebastian sputtered, stepping out in front of Kurt, trying to block Blaine's view. "No, that's not what Wes meant."

"You can't do that," Kurt agreed, pushing Sebastian bodily out of the way. "He meant a car. Any car, right Wes?” Kurt glanced toward Wes for help, but Wes didn’t offer any. “He had to mean a car,” Kurt argued. “You…you can’t bet a person!"

"But he didn't say that," Blaine said smugly before Wes could respond, shoving aside the hand that squeezed at his heart when he heard the despair in Kurt’s voice. "He said anything I see is up for grabs. And I definitely see you." Blaine’s smile of conceit turned Kurt’s insides to ice. He shook his head slowly, eyes wide with shock. He turned back to face Wes, expression imploring the Dalton leader to reconsider. When Wes still didn’t say a word, Kurt felt his heart race and his throat tighten.

"You can't do that!" Kurt said, almost begging. "You can't wager me!"

Wes's eyes narrowed to slits, calculating the odds. If he lost Kurt, he could always get another mechanic... but that Mustang. Blaine’s black GT - it was like his signature. If Wes drove that Mustang, everyone would know that Wes had won; that he had beaten the legendary Blaine Anderson. That Wes was the better man.

Kurt looked from Wes to Blaine – each staring the other down like apex predators.

Two more people dictating the direction of his life without his permission.

Wes’s devilish grin burned bright on his face, and Kurt started to lose hope.

"I want that Mustang," he growled under his breath.

Kurt's mouth dropped further. It was all too surreal for him to get a grasp of.

Wes stepped past Kurt and right up to Blaine, looking at the rival leader with a nearly evil grin.

"Done," Wes announced dramatically. "Your super charged Mustang for our...” Wes gestured to a mortified Kurt, “pretty mechanic..."

Wes's words sent up a general murmur of laughter around the group. Kurt blushed to his roots, his eyes boring holes into Blaine’s skull, but Blaine, hyped up on adrenaline and righteous indignation, didn't seem to notice.

"So, I assume I'm racing against your little toy Supra?" Blaine jeered.

"No," Sebastian said, weeding his way back into the dispute. "No, you'll be racing my GT-R." Wes shot Sebastian a look, but it lasted only a second before his self-assured smile returned. Wes might not have liked Sebastian interfering, but the GT-R was definitely a game changer. Maybe Wes wouldn’t beat Blaine personally, but it didn’t matter. Sebastian was a member of Wes’s crew, so Sebastian’s win was Wes’s win. The GT-R in a street race against a Mustang was pretty much a sure thing. Sebastian turned to look at Kurt, shooting him a wink and a wide, toothy grin.

"Now, you just sit tight and look pretty, Kurt, because you're not going anywhere."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Blaine snarled. Sebastian turned back. Staring down into Blaine's eyes, Sebastian grinned.

"Oh, but I just did." Sebastian snaked an arm around Blaine's neck and wrenched him around to look back where Kurt sat. Blaine could tell that Kurt was trying with every last bit of strength to keep himself calm – back tight and rigid, hands clasped around his knee, eyes shut in angry concentration. He felt for Kurt – he really did. Blaine only wanted what was best for Kurt and that’s why he had to win this.

He just had to.

He had to get Kurt out of the hands of Wes and Sebastian for good.

"I know you've got some little crush on my boy Hummel, Blaine," Sebastian taunted, toying with him. "But, I've got this on lock. And I have to admit, I thought fucking him in the front seat of my car was going to be hot, but it's going to be so much hotter when I have him bent over the hood of your pretty little Mustang."

Blaine's eyes almost glowed red when he spun out from beneath Sebastian’s arm and shoved him hard. Sebastian stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet, and struggled briefly to maintain his balance. The crowd around them roared, hungry for another fight, and they almost got it until Puck stepped in between them. Puck's hands held Blaine's shoulders securely. He caught Blaine’s gaze, not easy to do when his eyes darted up to meet Sebastian’s and then craned beyond to catch sight of Kurt, but eventually Blaine’s eyes drifted to meet Puck’s, and he let them anchor him in place. Puck nodded, quietly asking his leader if he was okay, and Blaine nodded back.

"Save it for the race, preppy," Puck called over his shoulder, not even turning to see what Sebastian would do in retaliation. Sebastian watched the thug with the Mohawk lead his pathetic leader away. He spit after them in disgust. Then he turned, walking swiftly to his car, ready to squash this shit. Kurt opened his eyes as the fight died down and saw Sebastian blow a kiss his way.

Kurt felt the cold fingers of foreboding crowd around him, and he closed his eyes again.