The way Blaine responded, his body language — it was painfully obvious how little he enjoyed the male’s presence. Hunter felt a tinge of annoyance. Even though the circumstances made sense; to be unwanted was not a nice feeling. Therapy helped him in many ways. One of which was how to catch onto everything. Each tone, each movement — told a story. && Blaine was much too easy to read. Not that he tried very hard to hide his displeasure.
“I’ve moved here, actually.” He was irritated now, but he still wore that fake ass smile. Pretending was his specialty. “Needed a change of scenery,
&&
I’ve always been drawn to this place. Stars, good coffee, open brick apartments. What about yourself?” He wanted to think he didn’t care, but one part of him was genuinely interested. Though he hated it, Hunter was fond of Blaine at one point. He was a brilliant leader, and never backed down. He was an admirable man once. Now Hunter just saw a shadow of a man, clearly not living up to his full potential. Typical. “Doing anything SPECIAL? Or just getting by?”
Moved here? Great. Then again? New York City was a big place. Big enough that a chance meeting like this wasn’t bound to happen too often. That fact alone made the news more digestible once Blaine thought it over. Where Hunter was fond at him at one point? The feeling was never mutual. Not upon first meeting down to the last nitty, gritty pencil shaving embarrassment that he brought on Dalton and the Warblers for no reason other than his own idiotic mistake in thinking they ever needed a leg up–and an illegal one at that–to win. Hunter was a creep by the definition of the word and Blaine never shed a single tear at the idea of never seeing him again.
Yet–here they were. In a coffeeshop and Blaine won himself the fantastic opportunity of doing exactly that. All for the want to get his morning medium drip. Could a year or so do Hunter any favors in making him a more tolerable person? Hazel eyes flicked a measuring, thoughtful stare across Hunter’s. Debatable. But why not stick around, talk, and see if he could be proven wrong. Honestly? Blaine hoped he would be and that Hunter became less psychotic matured since he found himself tossed out of Dalton. We’ll see? “Me,” he asked with both brows lifted up, “Oh! Going to NYADA and dabbling in some performances here and there. When I have the time. Doing much better than getting by. Thanks. Have you made any decisions on what you’ll be doing now that you’re living here? Or just trying to figure that out once you get settled?”
“Get the dark chocolate— it has more serotonin, if you’re looking for that extra touch.”
“Hey? Thanks for the advice. Seeing as how this is to appease the angry roommate who got stood up on Valentine’s Day? I think you might’ve saved my life. Or my sanity.”
he feels faint, knees weak, head heavy. because he can’t control his breathing, and with each passerby walking behind or in front of him, he begins to feel surrounded. like the walls are closing and there’s no direct exit. so he’s trapped, not only in his mind, but physically too. in order to protect himself, he closes his eyes. tries to block out the world in order to focus on him — to focus on blaine and his voice. tries to assure himself that blaine’s nearby and that he’s SAFE, even though drifting in the fog of his mind, he’s certain he’s not. despite no one touching him. despite no one acknowledging he’s there, he still feels crowded. he feels claustrophobic.
❛ i’m …❜ his voice sounds light, as if breathless. ❛ i’m on a street corner. near angry dave’s convenience store. i can’t — i’m just a block away from my apartment. ❜
“I’m coming. I’m almost there. Breathe for me, Kurt. Remember? Tell me five things you can see right now. I want to know every detail, okay? Open your eyes if they’re closed and tell me what you see.”
Oh God–this was killing him. Blaine’s heart rushed the blood through his body in deafening thuds with each step he took. After having a destination to go to, Blaine bounded off in a full out run weaving through shoulders and backs or anything else that got in his way. Including a car that barely missed him as he bolted across Kurt’s street with a slew of curses being thrown at his back from a pissed off driver. Blaine could barely breathe by the time he saw Kurt and bolted to his side careful not to touch him. “Kurt? Kurt, honey,” his lungs fought for air between his soft, breathless words. “It’s me. Blaine. I’m here.” His eyes burned and his heart broke seeing Kurt like this and not being able to fix it all. Right now. “You’re safe. I promise.”
Mike smiled at Blaine glad to see his old friend. He allowed the other to lead him with a laugh. “No, well you know this place better then I do.” He replied. “And of course, I have so much to tell you, B.” He told him excitedly.
The decision was made then. They were heading to Rockefeller Center and Mike was going to get a taste of New York Italian the way it should be on the way there. Dropping his arm from Mike’s shoulders once they were on their way, Blaine looked up blinking curiously and nudged him lightly with his elbow. “No time better to start talking away than now. If you have so much to tell me,” Blaine stuffed his glove covered hands in his pockets and arched a brow trying to encourage Mike to spill the beans. “I’m all ears.”
“Of course not, everyone has just been busy but I’m glad we are all in the same city but maybe we can remedy this by maybe grabbing lunch and catching up.”
Blaine nodded glad that apparently there was no need to apologize for falling out of touch the way he had. He’d promised himself that he wouldn’t do that to anyone after knowing what it felt like. Yet, he was standing beside someone who he did exactly what he said he wouldn’t to. “I like the sound of that. Hey, I know the perfect place,” an arm was slung around Mike’s shoulders as Blaine pivoted them in the direction of one of his favorite restaurants on this side of town. “Unless you have somewhere else in mind? We can catch up on the way there.”
Dally eyed him over for a second before just laughing under his breath and shaking his head. “Nothin’, man. Nothin’. You look great. Really.” God, the sarcasm was just dripping from the hood’s words. He looked behind him and across the street, mostly out of habit; These weren’t safe streets. “Hey, so, man. You’re eighteen, right? You wanna do me a solid and buy me some cigarettes?” He gave the stranger his best smile. “I ain’t allowed in the corner store anymore cause they always think I’m stealin’. Crazy, right?”
Dallas recanting the jab he gave Blaine’s fashion was going to take more than a cop out to smooth things over. Blaine eyed him suspiciously as they walked trying his best to look curious when he was two steps away from making an excuse to politely ditch him. He traced Dallas’s line of sight, wondering if he was missing something, but met the stranger’s eyes when they were back on him. “About–yeah, why?” His suspicion worsened. AH! Truth revealed! Did he actually ask him to buy him cigarettes? That’d be breaking the LAW. Blaine huffed an uncomfortable laugh and tried to skip the question by agreeing. “Completely crazy. I mean, you look like an honest guy. What are they thinking?” Laying it on thick? Only a tad.
It had been months since he’d last seen anyone from Lima, Ohio. After the drug scandal it was all jail time, father drama, and isolation. Finally he was moved out, in New York, but he hadn’t decided what for. All the rich boy knew was where he was drawn to. What he wanted. Even if he didn’t know why he wanted it. Getting his latte was almost surreal. Every time he went into a coffee shop it was like reliving the incident in his head. && the world knew that hadn’t gone down very smoothly. It’s not his fault that the coffee tasted like PENCILS. Luckily in New York, they know the difference between their sugars.
Of course, it should of been obvious that he’d meet someone from his past. The Warblers, the New Directions, everyone seemed to gravitate towards New York after graduation. As he turned around he was met with a familiar face that he wasn’t so keen on meeting again. “Blaine.” His voice wasn’t as cold as it once was, and it seemed far less cocky— but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still VENOMOUS. “It’s been a long time” the words passed his lips with a bitter smile. He didn’t know how this would play out, but it wouldn’t be all chocolates and roses.
Blaine was full of grins and smiles as he hurried down the sidewalk in the direction of the coffeeshop closest to the switch of trains that’d take him back to the townhouse he shared with Mercedes and Sam. The day spent running to classes didn’t seem to damper his momentum. A sugar high he was riding from the lollipop sticking out of his mouth might’ve had something to do with the pep to his step too. If he was a ball of energy? That’s all that mattered. After tossing the treat in the trash and making his order, he moved to stand with the people waiting. His not-so-complicated compared to the usual ten item checklist lattes most customers ordered medium drip was called out quickly.
Almost left in blissful ignorance! Almost! Blaine barely caught sight of an unfortunately familiar profile on his way out. Why did he stop? He could’ve kept on going and pretended this didn’t happen and cringed about the fact Hunter was–apparently–in New York City once he was back outside. Hunter spotted him before he could cut and run. “Hunter,” he groaned inwardly through his forced smile. “Yes it has.” Not long enough in his book. –Damn it why? There went his happy buzz.– “Wow. New York City, huh?” His nose wrinkled and he did his best to look oh-so-happily-curious. “What brings you here? Just visiting?” –Please let that answer be a yes.–
“Where do you want me to start, huh?” Dally jogged a few feet to catch up with the stranger, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking alongside. “You’re wearin’ a bowtie, man. That pretty much says it all.”
Blaine kept walking not expecting the guy to make the effort to catch up and answer his question. Not everyone fully appreciated his dapper style. He totally got that. Few stuck around to point out it’s ‘flaws’ however. Blinking, he tugged the corner of his bowtie and glanced down in it’s direction. Uh oh. Dallas insulted the bowtie? He did! Blaine pouted thoughtfully looking like he was finding a way recover from a slap to his dignity. “Uhm.. What’s wrong with the bowtie?”
“ hey, i may be dating santana, but if you think i have ANY sway on that woman, you are m i s t a k e n. “
like hell she’s going to risk being caught on fire by rachel’s death glare. “ how am i the mutual party? i’m unwillingly biased. literally – santana made me sign a contract. if i go in there, she’ll have my head. my SEX LIFE is on the line, blaine. “
“ i suggest we get a kitten. that’ll distract her, right? “
Coming between Dani and Santana’s sex life wasn’t a situation Blaine wanted to be remotely the cause of. He’d take a moody, stubborn diva any day rather than a sexually frustrated Santana who, unlike Rachel, might actuallystab him if she threatened to.
Time to rethink this whole situation.
“IF I come home with a kitten, KURT will have my head because with kittens comes hair and that’s MY sex life on the line. Compromise time. I buy the flowers, honey and her weird organic tea I’m SURE I have to take four trains to get and YOU distract Santana from making this worse. If that doesn’t work? Plan E is a hotel room to hide in.”
pianokeysandbowties 