Blaine and Sam are, after all, best friends. They're co-captains of the glee club. They're student body president and vice-president. They play Call of Duty online and fanboy over comic books and Dr. Who on Tumblr hashtags late at night when they should have been sleeping. Generally, what one loves, the other one loves - they're two sides of the same coin, they're Blam.
But Blaine never got the Game of Thrones thing. He's a busy guy now, and he can't sit and get lost in the books like he could have, and did, with other books as other friends; to help pass the time during lonely days and nights, years ago in a white hospital bed, in a room with blank walls and sterile smells.
"But man, you know, you don't have any excuses, it's on TV now, so you won't have to miss out."
They're bros, and Blaine can now say this to himself, with a soft, drawn out, puff of held-in air, falling out of his mouth like a ball rolling gently down a hill - it's such - a - relief - to not to hide or pretend anymore. It's gotten easier to think of Sam, and it's also gotten easier to think of Kurt. Kurt, who is another, entirely different, shade of being. He's love, and to Blaine, Kurt will always be love.
So it's definitely not awkward to hang out with Sam. And on a series of Saturday afternoons, Sam and Artie have, out of the goodness of their hearts, endeavored to sit through the series with him as a sacrifice because it's absolutely essential for Glee club bonding (a united glee club is a Regionals-winning glee club). Besides, Artie's parents have HBO Go and some cheddar popcorn that just begs to be eaten and it helps the American economy, right?
Tina's there, too, because she's always there, mostly to be lost with Blaine as he attempts to navigate the bewildering maze of relationships that is Game of Thrones, and roll her eyes because she's also really good at that.
Finn's there, too, because even though he's grown up a lot, been through personal crises of his own, and finally figured out his life direction - the popcorn is good. And he's heard about the boobs. He's new to the series too, like Blaine and Tina, but for him, TV is TV, so the storylines don't matter much as long as it's fun. Yeah, fun and boobs.
"Tina, you can't blame Finn for understanding that boobs are an essential part of the series. Many of the plot points are boobcentric. Indeed, the pursuit of boobs is a universal - "
Blaine's going to miss them when they're all gone.
Tina throws popcorn at Artie and it leaves orange crumbs on his shirt front. Blaine just concentrates on getting all the characters' names straight, grinning, as Sam and Artie chatter about winter coming and Peter Dinklage.
But this part happens over the ocean. Jorah is Daenerys' bodyguard and she's supposed to be the queen of Westeros, but she married a horse lord in a distant foreign land and she wants her throne back. Back at that crazy wedding, she got some dragon eggs as a gift.
It'd be amazing to fly away on a dragon. He could take Kurt with him and they'd soar against the summer winds through a pale cloud-dotted sky, a sky the color of Kurt's eyes.
They get to the scene where Jorah, who's Daenerys' bodyguard, catches Viserys, who's Daenerys' older brother, trying to steal the dragon eggs to sell.
Viserys, venomous, on the screen, spits, "I see the way you look at my little sister."
Blaine says, "So, uh, Jorah's in love with Daenerys?"
Artie nods, mouth full of popcorn: "Right. He's totally crushing on her, but he's never going to get her, because she just doesn't see him in that way. They're really good friends and they rely on each other. But -" he raises a cheesy finger - "later in the books, she's going to turn him down and it gets really awkward -"
There's a slight collective intake of breath and the room goes quickly pauses the show because -
Blaine shifts around uncomfortably in his chair.
Tina turns a very unbecoming shade of reddish-purple.
Sam notices that the tension in the room just turned up a million notches, and he reaches over and gives Blaine's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
They grin together sheepishly, and… still, oddly, awesomely… it's still okay. it's still o - kay.
Blaine's grin spreads into a smile, crinkling up at the corners, like a child. He turns and pats Tina on the knee, trying to be reassuring, because it's still awkward for her, and so embarrassing. She's a diva, yes, but she's still struggling with the years of not knowing that she was one. Blaine's going to keep on helping her with that, but first, Tina has to get through this moment,which is currently now the most embarrassing moment in the history of the world and Westeros, too.
Sam's summer eyes are bright with mischief. "Relax, Tina, they don't even have vaporub in this 'verse."
Tina doesn't say anything, but she dumps the bowl of popcorn over Sam's head, glaring, still red; half-annoyed, half - heck, this is Sam, you can't stay mad at him for long, so she gives him a rueful half-smile.
At least she's starting to laugh about it.
Artie, entirely composed, leans over and picks off a couple of kernels from Sam's shirt front and keeps eating.
Sam just waggles his eyebrows suggestively.
Finn glances back and forth at all the faces and the drama and says, "I think I just became a fan of Game of Thrones."
After the Blaine-and-Tina mediated popcorn cleanup, they all keep watching, because it really is a great show, and they won't have that many more Saturday afternoons together just to hang out before they all graduate.
They're beautiful, these dragons taking flight, ready to take on the world beyond. Blazing onwards and upwards, rainbowy scales rippling, alight with fire and possibility.
Kurt's a dragon. Sam is, too. They all are.
But Kurt's not here and Sam is. And, for right now, it's fun to be bros with Sam, even more so now that his guilty pleasure is out. Besides, Sam's so cool because he doesn't flinch or look away when those two guys Renly and Loras love on each other, so how can Game of Thrones not become another of their things?