Chapter Here, There and Everywhere
Blaine looked up at Sam beside him as they filed out of the cinema, the smile on his face wide as he gazed affectionately at his best friend. He felt happier than he had in a long time and it was all because of this person standing beside him. His heart fluttered slightly when the blonde turned to him, his eyes shining brightly, his beaming face warm and kind. Sam had been taking him out so often lately that Blaine had not had time to mope about Kurt at all, despite the fact that Kurt was completely ignoring him at school. He couldn't have been a more grateful recipient of Sam's outings. They had been close friends for some time now, but their mutual break ups with their other halves had drawn them even closer together. They seemed to spend almost all their free time with one another. Today had been no exception. They had just finished watching a movie marathon of the first three Star Wars movies, something that both Blaine and Sam loved.
“Dude I can never watch those films too many times.” Sam told him with an eager innocent excitement that was fast becoming the most endearing thing to Blaine in the world. Chuckling, Blaine thought back wistfully to when he had been a child, begging his parents for a Jedi robe and lightsabre. Something he had never gotten, much to his dismay.
“Me either. I used to wish I could be a Jedi when I was a kid.” He sighed as nostalgia took over. If he were really honest he still wished he could be a Jedi, a little bit at least.
“We still could you know. Get the robes and the lightsabres.” Sam smiled wickedly down at Blaine and then placed his hand over his mouth to breath in the way Darth Vader did in the movies. If there was one thing Sam loved to do it was impressions. “Blaine, I am your friend.”
Blaine played along with Sam, trying not to giggle as he did so. He turned to fully face Sam and shouted loudly. “No!” Both boys looked at each other and buckled over in fits of laughter which took almost five minutes to die down completely. When they had finished, Sam, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes and sobering up, slid his arm around Blaine's shoulder, making the smaller boy blush faintly as his heart pounded slightly faster in his chest.
“You know what they should do?” Blaine watched absorbed as Sam's wondrous blue eyes sparkled with mirth at his idea.
“What?” He returned a little breathlessly, edging closer to his blonde friend who squeezed his arm more tightly around Blaine's small frame. He couldn't stop himself from gazing tenderly into the sky blue eyes of his handsome friend before they lingered downwards to his lips. Those soft, kissable...
“Make a musical version of Star Wars and then you could play Luke and I could play Han Solo and some hot chick could be Leia.” Sam had completely killed any sort of romantic feelings Blaine may have been having right at that precise point. Of course he wants a hot chick to play Leia, he's straight Blaine. Stop being such an idiot. Blaine rolled his eyes to stop Sam from recognising his pathetic, sappy musings of his friend and his dreams of becoming something vaguely more than friends.
“You just want to see her in that bikini again, don't you Sam?” The dark haired boy sighed but couldn't stop himself from chuckling lightly at his friends completely predicable behaviour. Sam was nothing if not predicable. Unfortunately for him.
Sam looked at him as if he were the most idiotic person on the planet. “Err, duh! Of course. She's totally hot in that scene.”
“...Whatever.”
Sam, looked at him intensely for a few seconds and Blaine could feel his stomach lurch apprehensively as he shifted under his friend’s gaze. “Oh come on, you told me once that you appreciated the female form. You seriously have never wandered what boobs feel like? Ever?” Sam asked him, looking curiously at Blaine, clearly wanting to know his inner most thoughts on the subject. Blaine knew he would disappoint his friend. He really didn't think about women or their breasts at all, especially when Sam was right beside him. I mean, why would he?
“Not really Sam, No.” Sam looked a little disappointed to know that he would never be able to talk with his bestie about parts of the female anatomy in the why he had with people like Finn or Puck and Blaine started to feel a little bad. But not enough to talk about breasts with Sam.
“Tina would let you feel her boobs if you wanted to know what they felt like you know.” He pushed the prospect out there and it was all Blaine could do to glare darkly at his friend without hitting him hard on the arm with his fist. That had to be the worst idea he had ever heard Sam come up with. If he felt Tina's boobs he would never get her to stop crushing on him. Ever. “They're pretty good you know, only don't tell her I said that.”
“Oh my God, stop Sam. I am never going to feel Tina's boobs.” Blaine indignantly replied. Sam snickered at his response and he suddenly realised that Sam was making fun of him and hit him lightly and playfully on the arm, causing Sam to howl out loud in great guffaws.
“Dude, you should have seen your face.” Sam doubled over and Blaine folded his arms across his chest, arching one eyebrow pointedly before his annoyance faded away. He couldn't help it; Sam's impish grin was too much for Blaine to handle.
“Come on, let's go get something to eat.” He grabbed Sam's hand and felt the taller boys hand slide firmly into his own, tightly grasping his hand as their fingers interlocked with each other’s. Blaine gulped slightly but could feel the slight curl at the corners of his lips as they tugged upwards into a small smile whilst they walked down the busy New York streets hand in hand.
Blaine stood in front of the painting he was looking at, a puzzled expression on his face. Sam had taken him to visit the Museum of Modern Art since they had a new exhibit on, but he had to admit he was a little flabbergasted at why Sam had taken him to see this exhibit in particular. He turned his head to the side to try and figure out what the hell the picture might actually be but all he could see were blobs. Big blobs, small blobs, round, long, they were all just blobs of colour. He couldn't make head nor tail of it. Blaine didn't dislike art in theory but this was way beyond his comprehension.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, coming up behind Blaine and he shrugged his shoulders at the blonde next to him.
“Trying to work out what this is...” Blaine tapped his finger on his chin and lifted his head, frowning as he tried to work out what it might be. Sam gave him a look of bewilderment as he bit his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing out loud.
“Um dude, really? I totally thought you would get it straight away.” His shoulders shook as Blaine's frown deepened, his mouth curving downwards as he squinted but then threw his hands in the air, clearly giving up.
“Why?” He asked, frustrated.
“Look at it.” Sam cupped his hands on both sides of Blaine's face, the smaller boy’s eyes widening as Sam's calloused hands lay gently on his skin, twisting Blaine's flushing face back up to look at the picture once again. “With your head straight Blaine. Maybe we need to step back a little so you can take the whole picture in...” They both stepped back in sync with each other until it became obvious to Blaine what the picture's subject was now about. His eyes got larger in recognition as he took in all the blobs as one.
“Ooooh, um...yeah. I think I get it now.”
“My junk looks way better than that. This artist sucks. Please tell me yours doesn't look like that because I think I might worry if it does.” Sam scoffed at the painting and Blaine silently agreed that this artist was not one of the greats. It was a mishmash of colours and textures all colliding to create a smallest semblance of the male genitalia. Blaine realised with a start that Sam was waiting for an answer and so fumbled the next words out of his mouth.
“Err no... my 'junk' as you put it does not look like that.”
“Thank God. I think the model may have had something wrong with him.” Sam winced and his hand slowly ghosted over the front of his pants and Blaine couldn't help but giggle at Sam's sympathy with the model in question.
“This is modern art right? It probably looks nothing like the original.”
Sam thought about what Blaine had chuckled in reply to him, his expression pensive. “Oh... yeah you're probably right.”
“Can we talk about something else now?” The dark haired boy pleaded with his friend, his puppy dog eyes gazing up hopefully at the blonde next to him.
“Yeah, can we go? Cause this is really boring. I heard it was about the intimate parts of the human body but it's just a load of...” Blaine cut Sam off sharply, his hand flying up in a stop signal at his friend. It's not that he minded Sam talking about that, but in such a public place... Blaine knew he would blush so red that he could have passed as the stop section in a set of traffic lights.
“Sam!”
The curator turned around at the noise, looking primly down her hooked noise at the both of them as she glowered silently. “Uh yeah, let’s go.” Sam mumbled quietly to his friend. They both hurriedly raced out of the museum with their heads down, the curator looking unpleasantly at them as they almost ran out to get away from her wrath. Neither of them wanted to know what that might have involved...
Blaine was avoiding Kurt as much as he could at school, mostly because seeing him caused pain to blossom in his chest. Unfortunately avoiding the lean boy that was now his ex was harder then it sounded. They shared most of the same classes thanks to Blaine's manoeuvring his timetable around at the beginning of the year. He sat waiting for his fighting skills class to start, sitting in the corner alone. He watched as Kurt flirted with some of the other boys in class and he could feel the squeeze as his insides tightened and the tears stung his eyes. How could he do this right in front of him? Kurt laughed and batted his eyelashes at a taller boy with grey eyes and a shock of deep auburn hair. He was everything that Blaine wasn't. Tall, handsome, fit. A smile full of white teeth, none of which were crooked. His nose didn't have a little dent in it like his either. He immediately hated this boy. Who was he anyway? Some jumped up, arrogant jerk, that's who. All through class he watched as Kurt giggled and smiled at this boy, completely ignoring Blaine in the process.
After the class was over he couldn't get out fast enough, flying to the patisserie down the street from the college. Before he could think any further he bought himself a cronut, stuffing it down his throat. Guilt blossomed in his chest at having eaten the fattening food and he walked back home very much ashamed of himself. Going up the stairs and through his front door he felt a huge sense of relief when he saw Sam in the living room playing on his video games.
“Sam...I...” As the sobs erupted from his chest, Sam paused his game and looked up, worry evident on his face and Blaine ran over, falling into his friend’s arms.
“Oh Blaine, what happened?” Sam asked as his arms wrapped themselves tightly around the smaller boy who was loudly weeping into his arms.
“Kurt was flirting with someone in school and he was enjoying it. I know it sounds stupid, but I... guess I felt so invisible to him. He didn't look at me once during class today, not once and was flirting outrageously with him. So I bought a cronut... I feel so stupid Sam. What's wrong with me?” Sam hushed him gently, rocking him back and forth till his sobs died down to hiccups.
“Hey, there is nothing wrong with you. You're still hurting from your break up of course it's gonna hurt you seeing Kurt that way. I can't believe he was being so insensitive. The cronut was no biggie alright? I tell you what, we'll start jogging in the mornings too. Kick our healthy living pact up a notch. Yeah?”
Blaine looked up at his friend, his eyes large and filled with sorrow. He knew that no amount of exercise was going to help him to shake this pain from his heart. But at least Sam was trying and that meant more then he could ever describe. “...Ok.”
“Hey, it'll be alright. You know what, one day you're gonna meet someone totally awesome who loves you just the way you are and understands you like no one else does. Apart from maybe me. Then you'll wonder why you ever liked Kurt in the first place.” Blaine chuckled a little at Sam's absurdity as the blonde hugged him tightly. Leaning his head against the larger boy’s chest, listening to the soothing beats of Sam's heart, he couldn't help but wish that the person Sam had just described was actually Sam himself...
Sam stood in the kitchen with a cardboard box in hand shoving all manner of junk foods into it to take to his friends and share it out. He was determined not to have any unhealthy food available for his best friend in the house and that meant getting rid of it all. Even the cool ranch Doritos he had been hiding on the top shelf so neither Mercedes or Blaine could reach it without a chair. He wanted to get rid of everything. Blaine had been doing so well until this episode with Kurt and Sam didn't want him to slip up again just because it was there to taunt him. Some of the stuff was Mercedes though so he knew he was going to have to talk to her about keeping her junk food to herself. He had been giving the girl some space since they had split but he knew she wouldn't mind him asking this favour for Blaine. When he heard the front door go he hoped it would be the diva and not his best friend. When she appeared he let out a puff of relief. She looked at him strangely, obviously wondering what was in the box he was holding.
“Mercedes hi, um... I was wondering if you could do me a favour?” He blurted out and she folded her arms across her chest, looking at him wearily.
“What is it Sam?” She asked coolly, not moving from the spot in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Could you possibly keep your junk food in your room? It's just that Blaine's kinda trying not to eat any right now and I wanna keep temptation out of arms reach, so to speak.” Mercedes face softened when she heard the explanation and Sam was hopeful of a positive response.
“...Sure, I can do that. Is Blaine ok? You two have been spending quite a lot of time together recently.” She inquired as she started taking her own food out of the cupboards to take upstairs into her room. Blaine would never go in there so it wouldn't be a problem with her having her snacks in her room.
“Yeah, he's gonna be fine. I'm just cheering him up, you know how it is.”
“Of course.” Mercedes nodded sympathetically. This break that Kurt and Blaine were on had really seemed to affect Blaine and although she was closer friends with Kurt she didn't want to hurt her other friend either, which was why she was doing this for him. As she took her sweets and snacks upstairs she pondered over the fact that the dark haired little pocket rocket and Sam were spending so much time together. They seemed to be doing everything together and she thought that it was becoming a little weird the amount of time they were spending with each other. It seemed the only time they weren't together was when they were sleeping. But then they were best friends so she felt she shouldn't be that surprised really, not in the whole scheme of things. Shrugging all thoughts of the boys off she entered her room and closed the door to relax in solitude.
Sam bought Blaine to a small café looking place on the corner of a block not too far from their apartment. Blaine looked around at the bright interior with the different coloured chairs. It looked just the type of place that Sam would love with its sunny looking walls and its colourful furniture. “So, I am bringing you here for a treat dude because you have been really amazing over the past couple of weeks and losing five pounds? That's really good going B.” He clapped the smaller boy on the back and Blaine looked over at the counter where what looked like ice cream was being sold. He really didn't want to eat any ice cream, if he did then he wasn't sure he would be able to stop. He hadn't had any for so long and it tasted so good.
“Thanks Sam, but I don't know whether I should be eating ice cream...” He told his friend hesitantly as he looked at the counter, his hunger starting to seep in. Sam chuckled at Blaine's mistake.
“Oh this isn't ice cream Blaine. This is the single most amazing thing ever. This is frozen yoghurt. Trust me, you are going to love it.” Sam went up to the counter and Blaine shuffled alongside him and watched as his friend ordered two medium sized cups, one raspberry flavour with real raspberries on top and one vanilla for Sam. Blaine was almost salivating as Sam handed him the cup. It looked delicious. Once they had taken a seat, the smaller boy took a big spoonful of the treat and moaned in pleasure, his eyes closing at the sensational taste exploding in his mouth. Sam was the best friend he could ever have. This was almost like a taste of heaven.
“Wow! This is really good! Thank you so much Sam.” His heart leapt at Sam's easy smile as he watched his friend devour his treat. He was the most thoughtful person in the world and it made Blaine's insides hum from happiness. No one else would ever have thought to treat Blaine with something like this because he was doing so well at something. His whole life he had tried to be good at as much as possible so that he would be noticed, gain attention and affection and yet he more often than not wasn't given any. Not by his family, his teachers, even sometimes his friends and, dare he say it, Kurt. He tried so hard to make people see him. But with Sam it was different. Sam saw him for who he was, he didn't need to try vying for his affection. He could feel the little pitter patters in his heart as he sat in companionable silence beside his good friend.
“Don't mention it. It's better than ice cream and as I said you deserve a treat. You've been doing so well. I'm really proud of you B.” Blaine flushed and slight tears pricked into the corners of his eyes. He had been so kind to him recently and he knew that his heart strings were being pulled. He couldn't help but gaze softly at Sam for the rest of their time in the yoghurt shop listening to his friend chatter away about this that and all manner of things.
Blaine ran on the treadmill, sweat trickling down his face but his concentration wasn't in what he was doing right then. Across the gym sat Sam on the rowing machine. The way that his biceps rippled as he pulled back on the machine caused Blaine's throat to go dry. He absent-mindedly took his water bottle up from the holder at the side of the treadmill, taking a large sip. The way the sweat was pouring down Sam's face and sliding down his chest as the boy furrowed his brow in concentration caused all kinds of emotions to go through the boy. Bewilderment, apprehension, lust, desire, hunger. Love.
He realised without a doubt that he was beginning to have serious feelings for Sam despite his attempts not to. His eyes lingered over Sam's plump, full lips, his heart racing inside his chest and not because of the exercise. He had been having dreams of kissing those soft, delectable lips. He felt his eyes close, his lips curling up into a smile as he gave in to his thoughts of kissing his friend. How Sam's tongue would rake over his lips to part his tenderly, how they kissed slowly and deeply in the most loving and intimate way. God how much he wanted Sam to kiss him. To hold him close so that his head lay on his chest. To spend his days in Sam's strong arms. He couldn't think of anything he wanted more...