"So this new kid, is he any good?" Ian questioned as he quickly flipped through the script of 'The First Time', looking very pleased with the result.
"Yes. Trust me, this kid's got talent," Ryan answered, confident.
"If you say so, Ryan; we'd better get this first scene done. Has he arrived yet? I want to meet him before any filming is done." Ian seemed very hesitant about Grant, but really, the kid was pure talent.
"Yeah, he's just arrived. He's getting to know the cast members right now, but the first scene is all the New Directions anyway; it'll give you time to get to know him. Brad and I will take care of this first scene, seeing as he's already met him," Ryan said, sure that Ian would adore Grant as he and Brad did soon enough.
Ian was always stubborn when it came to new cast members; when he'd first heard that there was a new character being written into the show – namely the boy 'Blaine Anderson' – he'd said he would only agree to it if they could find someone perfectly suited for the role. Ryan had told him that they'd chosen Darren Criss, and at first Ian had been hesitant due to the way people had made him out to be. Since then, though, Ian and Darren had become like brothers. Literally.
Before Grant could make rounds to meet all of the cast members, it was time for them to shoot a scene. Grant sat down, examining all of their exceedingly professional expressions whilst filming, but he was forced to snap back into reality when Ian appeared standing above him. Grant quickly lifted himself off the chair and cleaned himself up in an attempt to impress Ian (which, quite frankly, was not an easy thing to do).
"Hey, you must be Ian. I'm Sebastian- well, erm, Grant. Nice to meet you!" Grant seemed at ease; better than when he'd approached Ryan, that's for sure.
"Yes, I'm Ian. So you're our new member? I'm sure you'll make a great Sebastian. This is how I pictured him to look… Sort of." Ian spoke in a hushed voice, trying not to interrupt any ongoing scenes.
"You mean handsome?" Grant joked. He'd never really been good with humor, or even approaching people at all, for that matter.
Grant immediately stopped laughing when he noticed Ian's expression, which was intensely opposite to what he'd expected.
"I- I'm joking" Grant mumbled as he sat down once again, intentionally avoiding eye contact.
Ian slowly walked away and made his way onto the set, still trying not to interrupt or distract the cast. Grant sat in silence with his head slumped down as he stared down at his feet in embarrassment; handsome? Honestly? His jokes really didn't get him far in life and really needed to start realizing this.
"Annnnd CUT, that was great guys; nice work! Chris, great choice of expressions in that scene. Keep it up, kiddo," Ryan shouted across the set as he made his way over to the services counter to get a well-deserved cup of coffee.
While most of the cast made their way back to their changing rooms and chairs to relax before the next scene, Chris and Darren simply approached Grant. Everyone else had met him already, but the boys hadn't had time to; it had seemed as though they had to go over their lines together.
"Hey, you must be Grant. I'm Chris, and this is Darren."
At the sound of Chris' voice Grant quickly lifted his head and held back his embarrassingly clichéd smile that he couldn't help but show when he saw Chris. Grant had always liked Chris; in all actuality, he admired Chris more than any other actor or actress on the set. Before Grant auditioned for Glee and he used to constantly watch, it, his favorite character had, hands down, been Kurt. He thought Kurt was just so inspirational for a variety of different people, and he thought Chris was a simply brilliant actor. He had been afraid this would happen, though; meeting Chris had been his dream for ages, and now here he is sitting down, completely lazy, with Chris standing right in front of him. He could barely find his words.
"Y- Yeah, I'm Grant. Hey Chris, Darren." Grant stuttered; suddenly, he couldn't find the right words to say.
Chris offered his hand to give Grant a proper greeting. It took him a while to react to this, but eventually Grant picked himself up and shook Chris' hand - as a professional would - before slumping himself back into his chair again. Darren had no interest in this conversation so far; it seemed like he simply wasn't involved and soon broke the awkward tension between Grant and Chris.
"So Chris, you coming for a coffee or…?" Darren asked as he crossed his arms in an impatient manner.
"You go, I'll catch up with you. I want to get to know Grant a little more first." Chris, totally ignoring his routine of getting a coffee with Darren every day, then continued his conversation with Grant.
Darren really didn't like what was happening; why was Grant such a magnet to Chris? Even though Chris and Darren didn't speak much about relationships, Darren knew Chris' type and Grant definitely wasn't that.
"So, how do you like working on Glee so far?" Chris questioned, looking genuinely curious as he took a seat next to Grant.
Grant couldn't believe Chris turned down Darren - Darren freaking Criss - to spend time with him. As soon as Chris sat down Grant was beginning to find it really hard to control himself. Why was he so shy? He was never shy. But around Chris he was different; he felt really nervous, and on edge but not in a bad way. After all, he had loved Chris since Glee had first begun, and who'd of thought he would be sitting next to him now speaking casually and trying not to have a nervous breakdown?
"W- Well I haven't really had any scenes yet, but I should be on in an hour or so…" Grant spoke in a crackling tone, pausing every few seconds to stop catch his breath.
"You should be practicing your lines, mister," Chris laughed as he placed his soft, comforting hand on Grant's shoulder.
Chris threw a little smile at Grant and walked over to Darren to get his coffee, and with that little smile Chris had Grant whipped. Grant was completely enraptured with and in the whole vibe that was Christopher Paul Colfer. Grant didn't actually realize that he was sitting there with his jaw basically hanging off with all the amazing feelings that were going through his body; he'd never felt like this about anyone before.
"And there's Chris Colfer for you." A voice spoke softly into Grant's ear.
He turned around to see Ashley giggling at the facial expression Grant had been pulling since the minute Chris approached him.
"He's amazing, isn't he?" Ashley said as they both stared at Chris, basking in his perfection.
"He sure is." Grant spoke softly still admiring Chris from a far.
"Don't drool, now." Ashley joked as she walked towards Chris.
Grant couldn't bear to look away; his eyes were glued to Chris' amazing figure and perfectly shaped porcelain face. As he watched him closely, he saw Ashley whispering something into his ear, and within seconds Chris was walking towards Grant with that sway of hips that Grant always replayed when he saw him doing it on Glee.
"Have you practiced your lines yet?" Chris asked as he took a sip from his favourite coffee order.
"I, um, already know my lines," Grant answered, still taking in all of Chris' facial features in close detail.
Every time Chris spoke to him he'd watch his lips move, all the while wishing he could get a chance to feel those lips on his one day. Grant had been openly gay since he was 15 and got a lot of grief from boys in college for it; he'd only had a boyfriend once.
His name was Tyler Edwards, and he was all kinds of perfect - almost as perfect as Chris, really, until one night when they'd decided to go for a walk to the park together. They weren't in an official relationship; they hadn't been seen together in public as a couple simply because no one knew Tyler was gay. He took a sport course so he was surrounded with meat heads and jocks, and if you were gay it didn't really go down well when you were showering because they'd think you were staring at them and being generally creepy. Grant had been fine with meeting Tyler at night time and after school, but it all changed when one of the guys from the sport course saw them in the park. They noticed Tyler's face and walked up to him; Tyler panicked and acted like an absolute asshole. He pretended he was being followed by Grant because he was, apparently, a 'dirty little faggot that perved on him after school'. After that, they beat Grant up. Badly. The next day Tyler came around to apologize to Grant, but it was far too late for that; Grant was already heartbroken and didn't ever want to speak to him again. And that was the end of any and all relationships for Grant for a long, long time.
Before Chris or Grant could say anything else, Ryan appeared from the set.
"Grant, you're on in 5. Ready?" Ryan asked, grabbing the props they needed.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Grant answered confidently as he threw a smile Chris' way and followed Ryan onto the set.
Chris watched Grant closely as he performed Uptown Girl with the Warblers and Darren, but something was off about the scene; Darren wasn't connecting with Grant at all.
"Darren! What's wrong?" Ryan shouted as he stopped filming. Darren sat there, a blank expression on his face, and kept forgetting his lines throughout the whole scene.
"Dude, you're supposed to look happy, not like someone's just killed your dog!" Chord shouted from his chair, just as concerned as to why Darren was acting so strangely.
After roughly 20 takes they finally got the scene perfect, and all involved took a well-deserved 15 minute break to go over lines and socialize. As soon as the scene ended Grant walked towards Chris, with a bright grin on his face.
"That was great, Grant; well done," Chris said, placing both of his hands on Grant's broad shoulders and staring into his gorgeous eyes. He'd never really noticed before, but looking at them now, they were awfully pretty.
"Thanks. How'd you like my dancing?" Grant asked, out of breath from how much they'd had to repeat the choreography thanks to Darren.
"Yeah, it was great. I'm going to check on Darren. See you in the next scene? I'll try not to scare you will my sassy gay attitude," Chris joked as he gave Grant a heart stopping wink and walked over towards Darren, who was still getting fixed up in hair and makeup.
"Darren, what even was that?" Chris asked, still very shocked that Darren had messed his scene up. He was the one person who never forgot his lines; he quite literally spoke them in his sleep.
"I'm having a bad day, okay?" Darren snapped, avoiding all eye contact with Chris.
It was clear to Chris that Darren obviously needed time alone, so he made his way back to hair and makeup himself and got ready for his next scene with Grant and Darren. Oh, how interesting that was going to be.
"Right guys, next scene! We need Chris, Grant, and Darren now," Ryan announced.
As the boys made their way to the set Darren walked ahead of Chris and Grant, still in the stubborn mood he'd been in all afternoon.
"Annnnnnd ACTION," Ryan shouted, seeing the boys all were in their positions for the short scene between Blaine, Sebastian and Kurt.
"Who's amazing?" Kurt asks, giving Sebastian a look of disgust.
"Wha- you!" Blaine replies, panic evident in his voice.
Kurt sits himself next to Blaine, wrapping his arm around Blaine's.
So far Ryan seemed pretty impressed by how the scene was going, until something odd happened.
"Yeah, Kurt… He's my boyfriend," Darren – still playing Blaine – said as he cuddled up to Chris and nuzzled his nose into his neck.
Chris knew he had to stay in character, but what was Darren doing? This wasn't in the script. Why was he acting like this?
"I'm sure this isn't in the script," Brad whispered over to Ryan, who was sitting with a very confused expression on his face.
"Yes, and we love each other a lot!" Blaine shouted as he kissed Kurt's neck lightly and added a little bite every now and then.
"WAIT." Chris yelped as he pulled himself out of Darren's grasp.
"Is this even in the script?" Grant asked, holding back his urge to laugh.
Darren didn't speak, just sat by the coffee table with his head plunged into his hands while the cast and crew tried to figure out what was wrong with him.
"Dude, are you okay?" Grant asked, putting one hand on Darren's shoulder.
"Do not touch me," Darren hissed, moving his shoulder away from Grant's touch.
"Right, let's try this once more. Darren, please stick to your character and express yourself after the scene." Ryan spoke with a sharp edge to his voice; Darren had been very unprofessional today, and it was a lot of work for Ryan to have to keep shooting scenes.
Ryan's words had worked, and with a little more work the scene was finally over and done with. Chris and Grant walked over to their chairs to get water whilst Darren stayed on the set, covering his face in shame of what he'd done.
"Is Darren always like this?" Grant laughed.
"No, he's is normally the most professional out of us all. We all joke and he takes it very seriously, but today… I don't know what's gotten into him," Chris said, examining Darren from a far.
"Darren, what's going on with you today?" Ian asked as he approached the man with his head still cradled in his hands.
"Ian, I… I don't like Grant" Darren whispered, keeping his head hung low.
"Why? You barely know him!" He asked, rather confused; nothing seemed to be wrong with Grant in anyone else's eyes.
"There's no specific reason, but I just… I don't want to be in any scenes with him." Darren replied.
"Well, Darren, that's going to be a bit hard seeing as he has a whole lot more scenes with you through this whole episode," Ian said as he leant down so he was at eye level with Darren.
"Well, then the only solution is to find yourself a new Sebastian!" Darren said sharply.
"We can't; it's too short notice." Ian laughed, knowing it would be simply impossible to cast a new Sebastian in such a short amount of time.
"Well I guess you're going to have to find yourself another Blaine then, aren't you?" Darren spat as he stormed out of the studio.
