Hey all! So, for those of you who have been reading my 'Don't know where, don't know when' Klaine fic and are aware of the Bam (Sam/Blaine) relationship and love it as much as I do...well, this is for you!
Part of my inspiration for this fic was from my awesometastical friend, who goes by the name of NiryLae on this site (She's working on a Klaine fic herself, so once it's up you all should read it! :D). She mentioned a Bam fic idea involving a playground and Blaine just being...well, adorable Blaine. So I took that idea and then came up with a good storyline that would eventually include that scenario, and now we have this! So, please enjoy! I love the Bam relationship, and if Klaine wasn't endgame in 'Don't know where,don't know when' then I would totally have Sam and Blaine stay together, I swear.
Note: this is not a part of the 'Don't know where, don't know when' universe. I just wanted a separate fic for Bam. But I do plan on maybe writing a couple of Bam one shots later that would be an actual part of the 'Don't know where, don't know when' universe!
Sam Welson gave in to pretty much anything – all throughout his years at school, whenever his friends would want something or would beg him to do something for them, well, he would never say no. He could not. It was just how he was; always wanting to make everyone else happy, hardly ever worrying about whether things were making him, himself, happy. Things had changed since graduating college, having attended NYU to study for a career in music. He had grown up more, learned to stick up for his self and be more assertive, even if he still did give in to a lot of what his friends and family asked. All that was quite a few years ago. Now he was 28 and living in Westerville, Ohio, teaching music at the ever so impressive Dalton Academy. His friends had thought he was slightly crazy for leaving the dazzling city of New York to move to Ohio to teach, but Sam was not going to complain. Finding work as a music teacher in the city was not as easy as it sounded, so when his uncle – one of the only remaining relatives he had who was not currently still pretending he did not exist because he was gay – told him about the teaching job at Dalton, well, Sam was not going to pass the chance up.
The apartment he found on the outskirts of Westerville was a lovely little place. It was more a two person apartment, but Sam figured the extra bedroom could be used as a guest room. Some of his friends back in New York had promised to visit at some point, so he would have somewhere for them to stay then when they did. There was a nice open kitchen with plenty of counter space, which was good since he loved to cook, a pretty decent sized bathroom, and a living room. All in all a very good sized apartment for him, and there was a lovely view of the fields in the back. There was a playground down the street where the neighborhood kids liked to play; sometimes in the afternoon Sam could hear faintly hear the kids yelling and screaming.
On the day of the interview, Sam dressed nicely, wearing his favorite purple dress shirt in hopes that it would bring him luck. He really needed the job, so he could use all the luck he could get. When he got to the school he was quite impressed. It was a gorgeous campus and the buildings themselves made him stand in awe for a moment. It was two weeks before the new school year started so there were not a lot of vehicles in the parking lot.
He entered the building, pausing to take in the lobby for a brief moment before realizing he had no idea where this office was that he was supposed to be going to for his interview. Well...this should be interesting. If he was lucky maybe he would run into someone who could help him out, otherwise he would just have to wander until he found the room number he was looking for. Luckily he had gotten there early so he had plenty of time to search. He headed up a slightly spiraled staircase and started walking down a carpeted hallway, taking in his surroundings as he went. Sam was starting to hope he got the job just so he could spend so much time in the school; it was beautiful. It was not until he reached the end of the hall and turned the corner that he found an even better reason for hoping he got the job.
Going around the corner of the hall he found himself colliding with another person. Instantly papers flew everywhere, and he heard someone exclaim in surprise before suddenly feeling extremely hot liquid splashing against his chest and hearing a cup clatter to the floor.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" A man's voice shouted in horror. "Are you alright?" Papers were still slightly fluttering to the floor all around them.
Sam swore in pain, looking down to see coffee dripping off of his favorite shirt. At least it's good smelling coffee, he thought to himself. "I'll be fine; I hope..." He laughed lightly, finding it very uncomfortable to have an extremely hot, soaked shirt clinging to his chest. He looked back up to see the man he had ran into and felt his heart practically stop for a moment.
The other man was an inch or so shorter than him, wearing a very interesting plaid shirt, sporting a bowtie, paired with dark skinny jeans. His dark hair was gelled down neatly as well. It was his eyes though that really caught Sam's attention. They were soft, hazel, and just bore a friendly look, continuously drawing Sam's gaze to them. When Sam realized he had been probably been staring a bit too long his face reddened and he looked back down, hoping he had not made the man uncomfortable. He had never seen someone so attractive though.
"I really am sorry about this." The man spoke again, still watching him with a concerned look. "That coffee had to be really hot; I just made it. And- oh shit, my papers!" He laughed, crouching down to start gathering all the papers up.
"Let me help you with those." Sam responded, crouching down as well to help. "And I can't let you take all the blame for this; I should have been watching where I was going too."
They both leaned over to reach for the same paper at the same time and accidentally bumped their heads together. The other man apologized loudly again as they both rubbed their foreheads. Then they looked up at one another and laughed.
"Sorry." Sam grinned, reaching over to get the last piece of paper and handing it to the man. His heart seemed to be racing in his chest over how close he was to the attractive fellow. "I'm Sam Welson."
"Blaine Anderson." The man responded, reaching out to shake Sam's hand. The contact sent a soft shiver down Sam's spine and he was rather disappointed when Blaine let go of his hand far too soon. "I've never seen you around here." Blaine commented as they both stood back up.
Blaine. Sam liked that name. He smiled at Blaine's comment. "Oh, well, I'm here for an interview. My uncle lives around here and knew I was looking for a music teaching position. They're surprisingly harder to come by in New York than I thought, so when he told me about the opening at Dalton I couldn't pass up the chance."
Hearing Sam mention New York seemed to change something in Blaine's expression. Sam could not tell, but it was almost as if Blaine went from looking surprised, to sad, then back to a faint smile. "You lived in New York?"
"Yeah." Sam replied; nodding as he bent down to pick up the coffee mug they had both forgotten about. "After high school I...left Alabama and attended New York University to study music, because I've always wanted to teach and I love music. Figured it'd be a good combination. Did you used to live there?"
"Ah, I did, actually. I went to school there as well, though I graduated from high school here in Ohio." Blaine replied. "You don't have much of a southern accent, for someone from Alabama."
Sam laughed, shrugging. "My family originally used to live here actually. Which is why my uncle still lives in Ohio, but my parents moved to Alabama before I was born. I sort of grew up with a slight accent, but it wasn't very strong. Plus then I was away in New York since leaving high school and I haven't been back there so I must have grown out of it or something? I don't know. Er, I should probably get going to my interview..."
"You're not going in that shirt." Blaine told him, indicating to the rather big coffee stain. Sam bit his lip, knowing Blaine was right. He did not have time to go home and change his shirt though. "Here, I keep a spare shirt in my office, just in case. Follow me." Blaine turned and headed back the way he was coming from before Sam ran into him. Sam followed along down the hallway until they reached a door on the left. Unlocking the door, Blaine opened it and stepped to the side so Sam could go in first. Once Blaine was in the room he set all his papers and his coffee mug down on his desk and went over to a cupboard. "Here we go...it should fit, and I think you'll look good in this color." Blaine grinned, pulling out a dark forest green shirt. "It'll match your eyes."
Sam blushed at Blaine's remark, not sure what to think. Should he feel weird knowing that Blaine had obviously noted his eye color and was thinking what color he would look good in? Maybe it was just something Blaine did and he should not think anything of it. Sam did not know. "Thank you..." Sam replied softly as Blaine handed him the shirt. "Um...will you be here later? I can return this after my interview."
"Oh, probably not." Blaine replied, shutting the cupboard. "I was heading over to the library when I ran into you, but I'll probably just head home now."
"Oh." Sam hoped he did not look too disappointed at the realization that he would not be seeing Blaine again today.
Blaine shrugged, smiling at him. "Don't worry about it. Once you become a teacher here you can return it then."
"If I become a teacher here." Sam replied, laughing.
"Oh, you will." Blaine grinned. "Mr. Henricks is just going to love you. I know it. I'll step outside for a second so you can change and then I'll show you where the room is." And with that Blaine stepped out of the room and shut the door, leaving Sam to change into the green shirt.
Sam watched Blaine go then took a second to look about the room. Everything was pretty much kept neat and orderly, which was something Sam could always approve of. He tended to air on the side of neat freak himself. There were some pictures hanging up on the one wall and Sam could not help taking a second to look at them as he worked on changing into the shirt Blaine had handed him. Some of the pictures seemed to be from when Blaine spent time in New York and some of the pictures were of a seemingly younger Blaine, possibly high school age. The younger pictures showed Blaine with plenty of other people; so he, unlike Sam, must have had lots of friends while growing up. Well, Blaine did seem like the friendly, sociable type. He saw a picture of Blaine with a group of boys and they were all wearing the Dalton uniform. Blaine had attended Dalton? He would have to ask him about that if he got the chance. There was a picture of Blaine out of the Dalton uniform, wearing some sort of performance attire, hanging with a different group of kids. It looked like they were on a school bus. A girl with long brown hair who was holding a trophy sat near the front next to a seemingly very tall boy, and a younger looking Blaine sat in the seat behind them surrounded by a whole bunch of other kids. Sam thought Blaine's smile then was different than the one he had shown him just a few minutes ago. Blaine was sitting with one arm around the shoulder of a girl with short blond hair, and his other arm around the waist of an extremely attractive boy who was quite pale and had perfectly styled hair. Blaine's smile in the picture was stunning; he looked truly happy, like he was on top of the world. Sam found that he really liked that smile.
Sam quickly finished getting changed and grabbed his stuff, leaving the room and smiling at Blaine. "Thank you again, so much. You really didn't have to do this."
"You're welcome, Sam." Blaine grinned, locking the door up behind them. "And I had to do something! It's partially my fault you got coffee on you, remember? Now let's get you over to the office."
Blaine led Sam down a few different hallways – leaving Sam quite confused and wondering how he was ever going to find his way back out later – until he finally stopped outside a closed door. "Here we go. Mr. Henricks' office is this room. Again, I really am sorry about the coffee incident..."
"It's okay; don't worry about it, Blaine." Sam laughed, shrugging. "Look at it this way, we both met someone new thanks to it and I can honestly say that's not a bad thing at all."
"I'll agree with that." Blaine grinned. "Good luck in there. It'll be nice having you around, I can tell."
Sam felt his face redden and he looked away slightly, hoping Blaine was not able to see. "Thanks. I definitely don't think I'll regret coming here." Oh goodness, did that sound weird? What if it sounded flirty? Ack. Sam did not want to scare Blaine away. Maybe it would be better if he did not get the job, because he had a feeling he was going to have trouble keeping his cool when around Blaine.
Blaine said farewell and waved, heading back off in the direction they just came from. Sam let himself watch Blaine go, not sure if this would be the last time he saw him or not. After all, if he did not get this job then he was going to have to look elsewhere, which meant moving again.
Later, coming out of the interview, Sam felt like his chances of getting the job were pretty good. Blaine had been right; Mr. Henricks had indeed liked him quite a bit, plus he had been impressed with Sam's references and experience. Now Sam just had to wait a day or two because there was apparently two other people the school was interviewing for the job.
When he got home later in the afternoon he went online to talk to some of his friends from back in New York. Getting on Facebook he smiled when he saw his friend, Jackson, had finally gotten around to posting the vacation pictures from two months ago. Sam had gone with a small group of friends to the beach. It was the best vacation Sam had ever gone on, though it also had had its awkward moments. Sam and Jackson had been the only two guys on the trip, considering it was sort of a girl's trip. The three girls of their close group of friends considered their two "best gays" as honorary girls, which meant they were included on the vacation. Of course this meant that Jackson and Sam had ended up sharing a hotel room together while the girls shared a room right across the hall from them. This would not have been a problem – Sam and Jackson had known each other since freshman year at NYU, having shared a dorm room together until graduation – but Jackson had decided during the trip he would finally come clean about his feelings towards Sam, something Sam was definitely not ready to deal with or reciprocate. It really had been a surprise, considering Sam had never even thought Jackson could think of him of anything more than just a friend. Well, actually, Sam just never really considered the possibility of any guy actually developing feelings for him – one, he was not ready for a relationship, and two, he knew relationships evolved feelings and getting hurt, something he knew he was not prepared for. Sure it was taking him longer than normal, compared to other people anyway, but Sam knew that when he was ready for a relationship then he would know it. Until then he focused to taking care of himself and trying to keep the close friendships he had as strong as possible. In the end, Jackson had been Sam's first kiss, having thought that kissing first talking later was the best way of dealing with things. Sam had let him down gently, but thankfully Jackson was truly understanding of Sam's feelings and did not make a huge deal out of the situation. Things were slightly awkward after that, but by the middle of the week they realized that nothing had really changed and they could still just act like their normal selves without having to live with the awkward. So they laughed it off and enjoyed the rest of their vacation with the girls.
Figuring it was time for a profile picture change, Sam chose a picture of him standing between Jackson and Addie – the girl member of their best friends trio. Their trio had been dubbed 'the Golden Trio' after their entire group of friends had a Harry Potter marathon night. Sam had never understood how that all made sense – Addie, for some reason not being a Hermione fan, hated being the Hermione member of the group – but the name had stuck so he just went with it.
Sam was still looking at pictures when a notification popped up that he had a new friend request. When he checked it he saw it was from a 'Blaine Anderson'. He felt his heart rate speed up when he clicked on the name and saw a charming picture of the man he had met earlier that day. Sam was just about to accept the friend request when he started to panic slightly. Maybe he should wait till the morning to accept it, because Blaine had just sent the request. It might seem a little weird if he accepted it right away.
Then Sam had another thought. He should probably try not focus too much on Blaine, stop thinking about him so much already, because that was pretty much bound to get his hopes up and he did not even know if Blaine was gay or not. Granted, Sam did not know many straight guys willing to wear bowties just for everyday wear, but there were probably some exceptions out there. Sam just knew he did not want to build this whole thing up in his head and then have everything come crashing down around him. So he would stop this whole 'getting his hopes up' nonsense before it even started. He probably did not have much of a chance anyway. Blaine was way beyond attractive and Sam, well, he was okay looking at least. They had only met once too, so it was not like either of them had much of anything to go on. Sam had always told himself that once he knew he was ready for a relationship then he would not just date someone for their looks. Personality and interests were a much bigger factor for him than appearances. Not everyone shared the same point of view as he did, but that was something he just had to accept.
So Sam decided to wait until morning. He went to bed and laid there for a while, singing softly to himself before finally drifting off.
The next day though, Sam did not get a chance to get back online until mid-afternoon. He was woken up early, around nine in the morning, by a phone call. Not having installed a phone in his own bedroom yet, Sam tumbled out of bed trying to get to the kitchen where the phone was. By the time he reached it the answering machine had already picked up. When he heard Mr. Henricks' voice speaking he knew he should pick up the phone, but he had frozen, anxiously wanting to know if it was bad news or good news. When he realized the Mr. Henricks' was calling to let him know he had gotten the job, due, not only to the amazing interview he had had, but also to the fact that the other two applicants had one, not shown up to his interview that was right after Sam's, and two, the other one had called to explain she had gotten a job elsewhere, Sam just about jumped for joy in his kitchen, unable to suppress a shout of joy. He had gotten the job!
Before calling Mr. Henricks back, Sam called up his uncle to let him know. They spoke for a while before Sam figured he better get to calling Mr. Henricks up. So right after getting off the phone with his uncle he called and spoke with Mr. Henricks. The new school year did not start for two more weeks, but of course he was welcome to come in like the other teachers normally did to get prepared for the new school year.
After getting off the phone with Mr. Henricks, Sam did a happy spin in his kitchen then laughed at how silly he was being. He went back to his bedroom to get ready for the day and then went back into the kitchen to make lunch. It was not until after he was finished eating that he remembered Blaine's friend request on Facebook. Just thinking about the other man made his face heat up a bit. Sam cleaned up the kitchen then went to his computer to get online. After accepting the friend request he immediately got offline again so he would not be tempted to creep on Blaine's page. It was probably too soon for that.
The rest of the day was spent with papers spread all over the floor with Sam's work supplies. He figured he should do as much as he could now to start on lesson plans and figuring out his office arrangement. Once he saw his office he could figure out how to arrange and decorate it sure students felt comfortable coming to visit him if they needed help. Sam sighed halfway into the evening, taking a quick moment to drop his pen and stretch his arms and legs. Seeing all the work he had gotten done made him smile. Things were going to work out; he could do this.
When he woke up the next morning he got ready, packing his work stuff up, because he was going to go back to Dalton to set up his office and better acquaint himself with the school. In the last minutes before leaving his apartment, Sam remembered the green shirt he had borrowed from Blaine. He packed it up with his stuff, hoping he would run into Blaine again so he could return it...and maybe just talk to Blaine more.
Unfortunately Sam did not see Blaine around Dalton that day, nor the next few days either. He did however familiarize himself with the school and finished setting up his office. A few of the other teachers who were preparing for the school year stopped by on occasion to introduce themselves. The art teacher, Abby James, was an immediate favorite of Sam's. She would stop by a lot every day, just to talk and ask him questions in attempt to get to know him better. Sam found out that Abby was actually a long term close friend of Blaine's, having known him since he was around the age of six. Not wanting to come off as too interested or creeper-ish, Sam did not ask too many questions about Blaine, just enough to find out that, yes, Blaine had indeed attended Dalton for a while, but had transferred to attend McKinley High for his junior and senior years of high school. Abby would not explain why, but Sam did not pressure her to do so anyway.
Sam did not get to see Blaine again until about two days before the school year started. He was going into his classroom when he heard piano music a few rooms down the hall. Curious – he knew that the room was where the school's choir, the Warblers, practiced after school – Sam went down the hall and peeked into the room.
Blaine was sitting at the piano, eyes closed, as he played the soft, flowing piece of music that Sam did not recognize. He looked relaxed, peaceful, and just...gorgeous. His hair was not gelled down like it had been the first time they saw each other, so curls were unrestrained and every which way. Sam found himself wanting to reach out and run his fingers through them – they looked really soft – and his gaze drifted slightly down to Blaine's face, watching his lips move slightly as if he was mumbling words or phrases to himself silently.
Feeling like he should somehow announce his presence, Sam lightly knocked on the door, startling Blaine out of his music induced trance. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt..."
"Sam!" Blaine grinned, waving a hand dismissively. "No worries! I was just messing around, I guess. Nothing important."
"What were you playing?" Sam asked, wondering if it would be too forward if he went over and sat down next to Blaine at the piano. "It was beautiful."
Blaine smiled at the compliment and gestured for Sam to join him. Once Sam had sat down, Blaine placed his hands back on the piano keys and started playing again, the same piece as before. "It doesn't really have a name yet. It's something I created a while ago for...someone, and, well, things happened and I just never finished it. Now I don't think I ever will, but sometimes I just find myself playing what's already been written, just...because."
"Oh..." Sam glanced up at Blaine, wondering about the parts of the story he was obviously missing, "well, you're pretty talented; this is lovely. Maybe some day you'll get to finish it."
"Who knows..." Blaine replied, a faraway look in his eyes. He stopped mid-way through a musical phrase then turned his head to look at Sam. "So, I was right, wasn't I?"
Sam gave him a confused look. "About what?"
"About getting the job, silly!" Blaine replied, grinning.
"Oh, yes!" Sam laughed, nodding. "You were right. I was really excited when Mr. Henricks called to let me know. Now I just hope I can make sure he doesn't regret hiring me."
Blaine shook his head, patting Sam's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. You'll be fine, trust me. The students here are great and tend not to give the teachers a hard time, so teaching them is pretty easy."
Sam felt his face reddening at the contact when Blaine touched his shoulder. Looking down at the piano keys in front of him, Sam smiled at the positive reassurance Blaine was giving him. "Thank you. I'm feeling a bit more confident now." Then he remembered he still had Blaine's shirt in his office. "Oh! Your shirt!" He got up from the piano bench. "I have it in my office. If you wait here I can go get it-"
"I'll just come with you." Blaine interrupted, smiling as he stood from the bench as well. "I should be getting back to my office soon anyway. Been procrastinating on my lesson plans..." He laughed, shrugging as he followed Sam out of the room and down to Sam's office.
"Oooh, I like how you've decorated your office!" Blaine commented, glancing about the room as they went in. "You really have an eye for decorating, don't you?"
Sam laughed, shrugging and going over to grab Blaine's shirt where he had sat it the other day. "I like to think so. Doesn't help with the stereotyping, but it comes in handy when you spent your college days with a roommate who had no clue what the hell he was doing and just sort of tossed furniture every which way. I did not enjoy walking into a dark apartment late at night and tripping over old wooden coffee tables."
"Tables, as in plural?" Blaine laughed. "Why would you need more than one? And do I detect someone was a party animal in their college days?"
"My roommate, Jackson, liked to collect furniture other people tossed out. I never knew what I'd find when I came home." Sam laughed, leaning back against his desk. "And no, I was most definitely not a party animal. I just did a lot of late night tutoring for night class students. Being a student in New York I really needed the extra money some times." He shrugged. Considering the lack of familial help when it came to paying for further education past high school, Sam had done all he could to get financial help, which included working at a small café and doing some tutoring. All very tiring of course, but he had survived.
"Ah, makes sense to me." Blaine nodded in understanding. "And...what did you mean by 'stereotyping'?"
Sam's face reddened and he looked anywhere but at Blaine. "Er, well, being gay where I came from was not readily accepted, so...you know, bullying, harassing, that sort of thing." He shrugged, not exactly ready to get into that whole topic with someone he had just met, even someone as seemingly nice as Blaine. That part of Sam's life had not been pleasant, not something he wanted to think about a lot. "Apparently the guys at school saw my interest in decorating as stereotypically gay, considering they started bullying me before I even came out."
"Oh..." Blaine sighed softly, "Sam, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked, or something."
"Don't worry about it." Sam shrugged, giving Blaine a weak smile. "As it is, I'd just prefer not talking about it anymore, if possible. It's something I'd rather just forget about." He handed Blaine the green shirt.
Blaine took the shirt slowly from him, an unreadable look upon his face. "Say...I'm out of here around five, do you want to go get coffee or something?"
Sam looked back up at Blaine and his green eyes locked on Blaine's gorgeous hazel ones. He felt his heart practically stop again at the connection. "What? Oh, coffee...okay. That'd be great."
"Awesome." Blaine smiled, heading back for the door. "I'll meet you here beforehand."
Sam waved farewell then waited until Blaine was gone to shut his office door. Feeling his face still warm, he smacked himself lightly and silently told himself to get a grip. It was just coffee.
Around five Sam was halfway through one of his class' seating chart when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" He called, still looking down as he wondered where he should place a 'Marks, Henry'.
"Wow, papers everywhere." Blaine laughed, flopping down in the chair that was on the other side of Sam's desk. "Looks like how my office gets about two weeks into the school year...sadly it stays like that too."
"How sad." Sam laughed, placing Henry in the second seat back from the row closest to the door. Seating charts were never really his thing, but he figured he should at least try to set it in some way that would help him remember as many names as possible. "Your office looks nice when it's all neat and organized. I'll clean all this up tomorrow, cause I'm somewhat of a neat freak myself."
"For now, take a break." Blaine grinned, reaching over to yank Sam's pen from his hand and chuckling at the surprised look Sam gave him. "Let's get coffee. I need it so badly."
Sam was not going to say no to coffee, especially coffee with Blaine. So he packed up the stuff he needed to take home and locked up his office as they left.
Blaine explained that even though the place they were going to was a bit further out it was the best coffee place he had ever been to, which was saying something considering he had been living in New York for a while. He insisted upon driving, even though Sam protested – "Really, Sam, I'm the one who asked you to coffee, so I'll drive!" – and it did take a while before they finally reached the coffee shop. Sam saw the sign for the shop, labeling it the 'Lima Bean', and could see that it was indeed quite popular. There were quite a few people inside when they walked in the door.
"It smells really good in here." Sam remarked, relaxing as the comforting scent of coffee surrounded him.
"I agree." Blaine replied, leading the way to the counter. "Trust me; after you try the coffee here you'll be hooked. It's totally worth the drive. I've been coming here since I was in high school."
Sam wanted to ask Blaine about his high school days, but they had reached the counter. His face went a bright red when Blaine informed him that he would be paying for their coffee as well. "You don't have to do that, Blaine!"
The barista seemed quite amused at their little argument. Sam continued to protest against Blaine paying for him until he found himself being dragged away from the counter. "Sit." Blaine ordered, pushing Sam down onto a chair at a table by the window. "Now tell me your coffee order, silly. And no 'buts'!" Blaine told him sternly as Sam had just been about to protest again. "I invited you to coffee, so I'm paying and that's that."
The look Blaine was giving him made Sam finally give in. Not that he wanted to. He told Blaine his coffee order then sat back to wait as Blaine went back to the counter, having instructed him to not get up from the table or else. When Blaine returned he sat their coffees down and then sat down on the chair across from him.
Sam thanked him shyly before taking a sip of his coffee. "Oh!" He exclaimed in surprise, looking down at the drink he held in his hands. "This is really good..."
Blaine laughed, taking a sip of his own drink. "I told you so! I haven't really tried any of their other drinks, so I don't know how they taste, but I've been getting the same thing since high school and I just love it."
"You went to Dalton, didn't you?" Sam asked, setting his drink down as he watched Blaine. "I saw a picture of you in your office; you were wearing the uniform. Plus Abby told me."
"Oh boy," Blaine laughed, looking slightly embarrassed, "you spoke with Abby. Yes, I did attend Dalton for a bit. She must have told you that I transferred to a different school though to graduate high school."
Sam nodded. "McKinley, correct? I checked it out online. It's...an interesting school."
"Interesting is...putting it lightly, I think." Blaine gave a short laugh.
"Why did you transfer there?" Sam asked curiously. "If you don't mind me asking, I mean, from what I could tell Dalton just seems like a much better school, for several reasons." Blaine's face seemed to fall at the question and Sam immediately backpedaled. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer. I was merely curious."
"No, it's alright." Blaine smiled lightly. "Like yourself, I've had to deal with...bullying, harassment, for things I've had no control over. I transferred to Dalton to escape the torment. In my sophomore year I met someone who would later become very important to me. He was originally from McKinley, having transferred to Dalton to get away for pretty much the same reason I had. In the end he went back to McKinley and being apart was...not enjoyable at all."
"So you transferred there to be with him?" Sam asked quietly. His heart was practically jumping at the confirmation that Blaine was, indeed, gay as well.
"Oh, no...Well, I mean, yes, in a way, that was a contributing factor: being able to spend more time with him, but, no. The main reason I transferred was because I didn't want to hide anymore. I wanted to face that of which I had run from, even if the people involved were different given a different school environment." Blaine shrugged. "So, yeah, that's about it."
"And that guy you wanted to be near..."
"Was my boyfriend; yes." Blaine smiled, nodding slightly. "I was bullied for being gay as well, just like you. So I can understand what you must have gone through when you were in high school."
"Maybe..." Sam replied quietly, glancing out the window to watch a few cars pass by. Sure Blaine may have been bullied and harassed as well, but what about his family? How had the fact that he was gay affect Blaine's family? Sam could not ask without probably causing Blaine to be curious enough to ask about Sam's own family, and that was not something Sam wanted to get into. Even though it had been about ten years ago that he had graduated from high school and kicked out of his home, the wounds still hurt just as badly as they had the day he first heard his parents tell him he was no longer welcome in their home. The familiar rise of nausea and panic rose in Sam's chest as the thoughts and emotions bombarded his mind, but he fought them back, not wanting to have a panic attack right there in the coffee shop.
"Sam?" Blaine asked, concern etched over his features.
"I'm alright." Sam replied hastily, tearing his gaze from the window. "Sorry. I blanked for a second."
Blaine laughed weakly, running a hand through his curls. "No, I'm sorry. Here we are, only seeing each other for the second time, and already we're talking about super personal things. How about we stick with simple, regular pleasant conversation topics for now?"
Sam felt his face reddening again at the implications of Blaine's words. For now? Did that mean that Blaine maybe wanted to spend more time with Sam, eventually getting to know him on a more personal level? He mentally smacked himself again. Things were getting a bit out of control in his head; he was letting himself over think things, letting his imagination run away with its self. Surely Blaine just hoped to become better friends with him over time; that was all.
"I think you're right." Sam chuckled lightly, sipping at his coffee. "You should tell me about the Warblers. I've heard quite a bit about them, but it might be more insightful hearing about them from someone who actually used to belong to the group."
So Blaine told Sam all about the Warblers and what he remembers about the time he spent at Dalton. They spoke for a few more hours until they realized how late it was. When they got up to leave, Blaine grinned and told Sam that if it would make him feel better then he could buy their coffee the next time.
Sam's face had definitely reddened then, but he agreed and hoped it was not totally obvious how thrilled he was that there was going to potentially be a next time for them to have coffee together.