Title: Misery Loves Company

Paring: Blaine/Sam pre-slash

Rating: PG

Summary: Sam sees how unhappy Blaine is about being blackmailed into rejoining the Cheerios, so he tries to intervene… Only to wind up on the team himself!

Notes: Sorry for any typos. My transcription software doesn't always understand what I say and I don't always catch the mistakes. I have trouble typing things by hand since I suffered an injury last year to my right hand and it seizes up if I try to do too much.

Sitting at the piano in the empty auditorium, Blaine plucked morosely at the keys and tried to pretend he wasn't once again wearing a Cheerio uniform, tried to pretend that Coach Sylvester hadn't won.

Being a cheerleader was nothing like performing on stage. When he sang, it was for himself and for the audience, but the Cheerios were all about what Coach Sylvester wanted and cheering for jocks who spent most of their time trying to torture guys like Blaine….

A hand landed on his back between his shoulder blades and Blaine knew instantly that Sam had found him. "Cheerios gotcha feeling down?" he asked and Blaine sighed.

"I only joined the first time because Tina suggested it and now I'm basically being presented as a walking stereotype," Blaine mumbled. "She keeps calling me Non-Flaming Gay during practice and Kitty keeps glaring at me and threatening to set my hair on fire if I drop her."

"Plus you're gonna be crazy busy trying to learn all those routines," Sam said sympathetically, sitting on the piano bench beside Blaine, facing out will he faced in. "What am I gonna do? You know The Blond Chameleon needs Nightbird."

Smiling slightly at Sam's melodramatic complaint, Blaine said, "I'm sure you'll find some way to occupy your time."

"Yeah," Sam drawled, stretching and arm out along the top of the piano, "about that…."

One of Sam's beautifully defined biceps was presented right in front of Blaine and he took a moment to appreciate the tight curve of muscle, the taut golden skin that disappeared up under a short, white, polyester sleeve….

Wait.

What?

Head snapping around, Blaine gaped at Sam, who smiled brightly and said, "I'm not entirely sure what happened. I was trying to convince Coach Sylvester not to make you be at Cheerio, because she already has Kitty and Brittany, two girls who can sing, so having you on the team would mean only one boy was singing and that wouldn't be balanced and then…."

Sam was wearing a Cheerios uniform, making tightly stretched polyester look far better than it should.

Still, Blaine couldn't help but snort. "Oh God!"

Right before he burst out laughing.

Grinning, Sam exclaimed, "I know! She called me sturdy and checked my teeth and told me I better not try to catch any of the girls in my mouth during tosses and boom! I'm in this. The woman is some kind of crazy ninja!"

Still giggling, Blaine sputtered, "Are you okay with doing this? I mean, you could decide not to join the team. She can't actually force you to do it."

Sam gazed evenly at him. "You say that, but then you let her make you rejoining. What is going on? Is it about ending her weird, psychological warfare? Cuz I'm pretty sure we could report that someone and make her stop…."

"No…Well, yes, but no," Blaine hedged, tensing slightly. The whole reason he was back in uniform was so Sue wouldn't go blabbing about his crush on Sam.

"What is it then?" Sam pushed in his painfully sincere tone made Blaine's resolve crack a bit.

"I still love Kurt!" he blurted, staring down at the ivory keys. "I always will…but I'm trying to respect his decision that he wants to be friends. He's moving on and I should too…but I have a crush. A silly, fruitless crush on a straight boy that I don't want anyone to know about and Sue found out and is threatening to tell if I don't cheer for her!"

Sam blinked. "Oh," he said softly, then placed a big hand on Blaine's shoulder. "I know."

Blanching, Blaine asked, "You know what exactly?"

"I never said anything, cuz I didn't want to make you uncomfortable and you didn't seem to want me to know, but I figured it out a while ago," Sam admitted with a shrug. "I don't mind. It's really flattering, but I get that crushes just happen whether we want them to or not."

"You know!" Blaine yelped, voice hitting an unfortunately high note. "That… I… How?"

With another little shrug, Sam replied, "You have super expressive eyes and you look at me a lot…which I see because, to be honest, I look at you."

"You look at me? Oh God, are you worried that I'm going to do some…."

"No! No," Sam was quick to assure him. "I watch you because I like to see you. You're my best friend and I'll admit to having a little crush on you too, cuz who wouldn't? None of this changes anything. You're you, I'm me and together we are awesome."

Relief flooded through Blaine, loosening the knot in his stomach. "You're really not bothered at all?"

"Nope," Sam told him cheerfully. "C'mon, let's go tell Coach Sylvester that were both off the team."

Blaine cringed. "But she'll still tell everyone! Then whenever we hang out people will…What are you laughing about?"

Sam was biting his lips, not quite holding in his chuckles when he said, "Uh, dude, like half the school already thinks were doing it, so…."

"What?"

"You didn't know?"

"Apparently I've been oblivious," Blaine commented, barely able to wrap his head around the fact that Sam was okay with him having a crush on him, had crush in return - a platonic, man crush, Blaine told himself that was what Sam clearly meant - and was fine with half the student body thinking they were involved. "But…you were dating Brittany until recently."

"Threesome," Sam said blithely. "Tina gets tossed into the mix sometimes too."

Rubbing his neck, Blaine let out a huff. "I'm surprised we haven't been drowned in Slushees."

"Sugar has been threatening to six her dad's friends on anyone who messes with the glee club."

Blaine wasn't exactly sure what Mr. Motta did, but everyone seemed to agree that he was terrifying. "Let's go quit the Cheerios."

Thirty minutes later, they left Coach Sylvester's office, each holding a list of songs she wanted them to be able to sing while dancing, jumping and tumbling through acrobatic routines.

Neither of them knew exactly what it happened, but they were both still Cheerios.

"She Jedi mind whammied us!" Sam said, sounding more than a little awed. "I mean, how else do you explain it?"

Shaking his head, Blaine sighed, "She's a Sith Lord. Has to be… Mariah Carey! Okay, neither of us have a chance in hell of hitting the notes in the song!"

"If we drop it two octaves and throw in a lot of bass beats, maybe…."

"Make it work," Sue barked, then aimed a finger at them. "And I want both of you to start eating more red meat. Rare! It'll help with your serious lack of aggressive tendencies. I want my Cheerios bloodthirsty and both of your weak. You sicken me."

With that, she slammed her office door.

Not wanting to risk angering her further, they hurried out quickly, Sam muttering, "But I don't eat red meat!"

"Somehow I think that's going to be the least of our worries," Blaine sighed, then glanced at Sam. "You do look good in that though."

"You too…really good. Tina was totally right about your butt."

The saying was misery loves company, but Blaine thought that perhaps with company maybe he simply wouldn't be miserable.