Mike's just finished doing the dishes when his phone buzzes with a text. He nearly drops the last plate fumbling for it, because Tina knows not to text him until at least an hour after his 'going to dinner, love you 3 3' text so it must be an emergency.
Except it's not Tina.
Blaine Anderson (6:53 pm)
can i come over
He's sending back yes before he can blink. Blaine's obsessive about using proper grammar in his texts, it's something they've bonded over (he'd had to train Tina out of using 'u' instead of 'you,' it made him feel queasy every time she'd send him a 'I love u' message).
Not even a minute later his doorbell rings. Blaine's standing there, soaked to the skin and looking entirely unaware of this fact. Mike's mom stares at him narrow eyed for a second before she recognizes him and waves them both up to Mike's room but he can't really blame her. The rain apparently washed away Blaine's gel, because it's he's starting to look a little like a poodle. Mike would laugh, but Blaine looks so broken that his hair is not only not funny, it's actually heart breaking. Like, he looks even more like a kicked puppy because of it. Mike kind of wants to offer him a chew toy or something, or at least a mic.
Blaine doesn't say anything, doesn't even say thank you when Mike hands him a towel. That lack of manners more than anything, more than the missing grammar in the text, is what tells Mike that something is seriously wrong.
They sit against Mike's headboard for a while, Blaine staring at his hands and Mike trying not to stare at where Blaine's dug little half moons into the thin skin of his palms.
Mike hums 'You Should Be Dancing' under his breath, because he's a little freaked out right now but he's not sure what he's supposed to do. He knows that if Blaine had gone to pretty much anyone else in Glee they would have already gotten him singing about his feelings by now. He's pretty sure that's why Blaine came to him though.
Blaine smiles a little and taps his fingers to the beat. Mike runs through every song the Glee Club's performed while Blaine was there, backwards, and by the end of it Blaine's laughing and singing along to Mike's accompanying hum on 'It's Not Unusual' as they bounce on the bed and make ridiculous faces at each other.
Blaine belts out "to find out I'm in love with you!" and accidently punches Mike in the face while gesturing wildly. Mike's still a little off balance from trying to moonwalk on his knees on the duvet and falls right off the bed in surprise.
"Oh my god Mike! Are you okay?" Mike just stares up at him, head on the floor while his feet are still resting next to Blaine on the bed. They look at each other open mouthed for a good ten second before they both start laughing so hard Mike has to put his head between his knees to calm down.
He sits back down next to Blaine, who's still shaking with laughter. Mike lays a hand on Blaine's shoulder, his face hurting from smiling so hard.
Blaine twists around and buries his face in Mikes shoulder and oh. He rubs circles into Blaine's back as Blaine sobs into his shoulder and tries not to cry. He fails miserably, and they end up eating his mom's homemade green tea ice cream puffy eyed while they watch So You Think You Can Dance.
Judging them is one of Mike's favorite ways to relax, and Blaine needs to be angry and cutting at something so they spend hours ridiculing the horrendous dance moves and chatting about what they would for those prompts. Mike starts to mention how horrible one girl's dress is (it's fuchsia and mustard and has so many ruffles that there is no way she can bend in it enough to dance properly) but Blaine's jaw tightens and he abruptly switches to commenting on how he can totally bend farther back than that. He shows Blaine, who agrees that he would win every So You Think You Should Dance ever in existence and then tells him that if he's hasn't shown Tina that move yet he better. Especially if he's going to wear a shirt that rides up and shows his abs during it like that.
Blaine looks away after he says that, hands clenching aimlessly. Mike wonders if guys at Dalton would get freaked out if he said stuff like that to them. He's pretty sure Blaine's never said anything like that to any of the guys in Glee.
"So I look hot doing it?"
Blaine looks back at him and he looks so honestly surprised that Mike kind of just wants to wrap him up in a blanket and feed him cookies. He breaks into a goofy grin as Blaine answers "totally Mike. Work those abs!" a little more enthusiastically than the reply really calls for. He lifts up his shirt and preens a little as Blaine falls back against the floor in a swoon, one hand fanning his face as he cries "my stars! Those abs!" and pretend to clutch at pearls.
Mike's not sure if Blaine's going to talk to him about what happened with Kurt (he's not stupid. He knows the only reason Blaine would come to him instead of Kurt is if it was Kurt) but for right now he's just glad that Blaine's smiling again. He'd never seen Blaine looking so broken, all the emotion just drained out of his face until he would have looked like a corpse if it weren't for his hands. He'd rubbed them over and over again, not even seeming to realize he was doing it.
(Mike had seen Macbeth once. He'd gone with Tina when the Columbus Players covered it and had nightmares for days about the emptiness of Lady Macbeth's eyes as she rubbed her hands raw, begging for the pain and guilt and fear to just go away. Out out damn spot)
"Can I stay over tonight?"
Mike starts to ask him if he needs to call his parents but stops when he looks up from the TV. Blaine's looking back at his hands. They're going over and over each other.
(out damn spot)
"Sure man. I think you left a cardi here when you practiced You Should Be Dancing anyway."
"Thanks." Blaine's smile is blinding and Mike thinks that if he weren't so very very in love with Tina his heart would probably skip a beat. As it is, he's mostly just angry with Kurt. "Good thing we have the same taste in clothes huh?"
"Yeah. Too bad you're a hobbit."
"I am not a hobbit, you just have stilt legs."
"Hobbit."
"Stilt legs."
"What color hobbit?"
"We could be Christmassy stilt legs. I'll wear red and you wear green."
"Christmas was months ago."
"Christmas is forever man. It could be 110 degrees in the Sahara in August and the magic of Christmas would still be there."
Mike scrunches up his nose "I think the equator means that August actually is cold in the Sahara. I mean, comparatively."
"Oh yeah, you're right. Uh, it could be November?"
"Okay, that works."
"So yeah. It could be 110 degrees in the Sahara in November and the magic of Christmas would still be there."
Mike nods. Christmas love and all that. He can dig it.
He's a little surprised though, when Blaine picks out the hot red pants that Tina bought him at Hot Topic instead of the dark raspberry ones he and Blaine had bought together at the Gap (they'd also gotten matching mustard ones after finding out that yellow was both of their favorite color). It's a bright, shocking shade of red that demands attention and Mike's never worn them before. Mike looks side ways at Blaine and wonders what he's trying to prove.
"Okay." He reaches out and touches Blaine's hands, which have started their twisting again. Blaine jolts, as if Mike woke him up from a deep sleep. Mike's pretty sure he knows what Blaine was dreaming about.
"I'm singing 'It's Not Right, But It's Okay' tomorrow." Blaine says out of the blue, right after he spits out his toothpaste in Mike's sink. Mike just nods, because Blaine gripping the spare toothbrush (with BLAINE written on it in big red letters. He has one for each of the New Directions kids, just in case) so hard it's in danger of breaking.
Blaine's face uncrumples a little, and he leaves to let Mike change into his pajamas.
Mike's spent the last hour struggling to stay awake, watching Blaine's profile out of the corner of his eye. They're both on the floor and it makes watching him breathe in and out feel a little less creepy.
("The guest gets the bed Blaine."
"No, no, Mike I don't want to put you out of your bed!"
"It's no trouble. Blaine, seriously, I'll take the floor."
"Oh no, I'm fine on the floor, really I'm already inconveniencing you enough."
"It's no inconvenience! I'm fine with the floor, it's good for my back."
"You need your rest, you're a senior, I'll take the floor."
"You need your rest, you're singing tomorrow."
"You boys better have stopped talking and gone to bed by the time I get up there."
"Yes Dad!"
"Of course Mr. Chang!")
"Kurt cheated on me."
Blaine's voice is so quiet that for a second, Mike's sure that Blaine actually did fall asleep and he's imagining it. And then he's sure he imagined it because Kurt would never do that. And who would he even cheat with? Mike's not exactly keeping a list, but he thought that the only out gay kids around were Kurt, Blaine and that horrible Sebastian. And Kurt would rather rip his own tonsils out than kiss him.
He can feel Blaine shaking next to him. He moves a little closer and Blaine curls into the warmth of his body gratefully.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No."
"Okay."
They don't talk for a while, but Mike can feel how difficult it is for Blaine to keeping his breathing steady. He's known Kurt for a long time, and seriously respects and likes the guy, but right now Mike could probably punch him in the face if he showed up at that moment.
"My mom's making red bean ice cream tomorrow. She always makes way too much. It's like, an Asian mom requirement to make too much food."
Blaine lets out a watery laugh. Mike feels Blaine press the signs for thank you against his chest and smiles. Words are difficult sometimes. He can understand that.
(he wonders if Kurt was the one to teach Blaine those signs. He wonders where Kurt learned those signs)