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I present to you: Blaine Anderson.

Chapter 2 – The chances are

Blaine was the first member of the band to arrive. Not that it surprised him at all, he just sometimes wished he wasn't the most organized one of the four. Too many things were left for him to sort out and as he cleaned up after last night's late jam session, he decided it was time to set things straight once the others came around. They were lucky for having the spot in the first place, and even though he was the one working here, it didn't mean the rest of the band should care any less.

Blaine had moved to New York three months ago and for now he was living with Cooper. It was just a temporary solution, they both kept saying, mainly because they didn't want to get in each other's way. But the truth was that they both enjoyed the arrangement much more than they had anticipated, so Blaine was in no hurry to move out.

Their rehearsal spot was nothing but a cluttered room in the basement of a music school. Blaine was giving piano lessons to some of the students that had been put on the admission waiting list. As soon as a spot in the program was available, he would have to pass his students on. He was mainly teaching children from 9 – 12 years old, but he had a few even younger than that, down to the age of 5.

It was meant to be a job just to give him some kind of income, but the more he got to know the kids, the more he enjoyed the lessons with them.

His biggest dream, however, would always be their band, "Sound Of Seduction". So far they mainly did covers, which had already earned them a steady gig in a small café in Lower Manhattan. But later on, Blaine wanted to sing his own songs and make it with the band, for real. He wanted to tour around the country doing endless rows of live concerts, putting a smile on people's faces; that's what he breathed for.

Megan was the first one to peek inside the messy room. "Hi Blainers," she said cheerfully. "Whoa, what happened here?" Her nose got all wrinkled and her brows furrowed.

Blaine shook his head. "Well you were here last night too, Meg, so you tell me."

"Oooh, yeah, you're right," she slowly admitted and put her hands on her hips. "But it was a great rehearsal; you have to give me that."

He smiled at her. It was hard to stay mad at Megan for very long, and she was right, it had been a great rehearsal.

"That song, "This Is Not Me" is one of your biggest so far," she said.

"You think?"

"Definitely."

"And you're not just saying that to avoid cleaning up the room with me?"

"Nope," she answered. "And to prove you are wrong, I'll start cleaning up right now."

"Well, that would be the first, wouldn't it?" Blaine chuckled.

"Am I really that bad?" she asked surprised.

"Um, Matt's worse, but honestly, you're coming in second."

"Wow, and here I thought I was being a fairly decent kind of person," she stated dryly.

"No, you're not," Blaine teased. "But you kill at the piano, and my love for you could cover the earth, so I will forgive your lack of cleaning skills."

Megan beamed at him and gave him a wet kiss on the cheek.

They started cleaning the room and kept the friendly banter going between them. Megan was a really sweet girl with ruffled blond hair and smiling eyes. She was a peace keeper in the band and made sure everybody felt happy and heard. She had been auditioning for her spot in the band, but Blaine had known after the first few chords that she was everything they had been looking for. Her father was a well known jazz musician and when the big names arrived to New York he was the one they called, for a fun night jam session.

Megan had very early on been attending the finest music schools in New York, starting out the classical way, but the pressure had almost crushed her, and after a time off from all kind music in three years, she had finally found her own way back.

The band was her motivation, and it provided a musical outlet for her that she so desperately needed. She had contributed with a jazzy pop edge to their covers and her way of harmonizing had inspired Blaine in his own songs as well.

The next band member to show, only 15 minutes late, was Josh. Josh was the son of one of Cooper's friends. He had been shoved down Blaine's throat at first, because Cooper owed his friend a favor, and as unprofessional as that had been, it had turned out that Josh, despite his young age at 17, was a very skillful drummer. He was eager to learn, and soon Blaine had learned that Josh had just as much to offer as the rest of the members; personally and musically.

Matt was an hour late, which was, even for his standards, too much. Blaine shot him a killer stare the moment his apologetic freckled face showed in the door.

"Okay, here's the thing, Blainers," the red haired friend started, "and I just know you're going to forgive me here."

Blaine let out a hiss through pursed lips. "This better be good Matthew, because an hour is close to inexcusable, especially when you don't call and tell me you're going be this late." Blaine couldn't hide his disappointment. Matt was a very dear friend, one of the closest at the time, but he shouldn't take advantage of that, and especially not when Blaine required the rest of the band to be there on time.

"I got us a gig." Matt burst out like Blaine was a bomb he could prevent from blowing up in his face.

"I'm listening," Blaine said tired.

"Great first step," Matt huffed out, "listening is good." He still eyed Blaine cautiously. "There is this jazz bar in Soho called "The Cavazz"; they have an opening spot on Saturday if we can make it."

Blaine frowned. "A jazz bar, we don't really do jazz, we do cheesy, funny, up-tempo rock and pop."

Matt tilted his head and grinned. "The bar has a night, once a month called: "It's Not All Jazz", and that's our gig; and besides, Meg can sneak the coolest jazz chords into any pop tune, I'm just saying." Matt winked at Megan and made a cute shrug. She blew him a kiss back.

Blaine had to admit that this was good news. "Okay, maybe this can make up for at least 45 minutes of being late, but what about the last 15 minutes?"

Now Matt looked sheepish. He had clearly counted all of his sins for forgiven.

"Um, right, I see your point there," Matt sighed. "Why don't you guys make up some sort of punishment? Just don't get money involved because I'm broke as a poet without pen and paper."

Meg and Blaine side eyed each other, and Blaine made up his mind. "We have just agreed on the punishment."

"But you haven't even talked about it yet," Matt objected. "Shouldn't you guys have some sort of meeting and talk about how my personal qualities might make up for some of my errors, and then vote to make sure the decision is based on democracy?"

"We don't have to, because we all just agreed to this, right Josh?" Blaine turned to the drummer, who had just taken a huge bite of a sandwich. God bless his soul, Blaine thought. He still remembered what it was like to be a teenager, and being hungry every minute of the day.

Josh swallowed his bite quickly. "I agree one hundred percent," he laughed and took another bite.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Okay, hit me with your best shot. What do I have to do?"

"You're going to clean up the rest of this mess when we are done rehearsing today."

Matt looked around a bit confused. "Um, what mess?"

Blaine winked at him. "You're a clever boy, Matt, you go figure it out, but you have to spend all 15 minutes doing the job, 5 minutes will not cut it."

Matt gave in. "Okay, I promise the room will be spotless when I leave." Josh laughed behind him, still chewing on his sandwich. Matt turned around and waggled his eyebrows before he faced Blaine again. "Can I now have my thank-you-for-getting-us-a-gig?" he asked with a smirk.

Blaine smiled this time. "Thank you for getting us the gig, Matt. It sounds really cool, and you did well."

Matt beamed. "Blaine likes me," he mouthed to Megan.

Megan bit her lips and took a seat behind the piano. "Well who doesn't?" she mumbled.

Ten minutes later, with Matt's bass in tune, everybody was ready to get started. They still needed a guitarist in the band, and they were on the look-out for one, but Blaine wouldn't just go with anybody, and Matt wouldn't either for that matter. The dynamics in the group was crucial; they both knew that, so they had decided to wait for the right guy.

Half way through the first song, Blaine's phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket. They had a no phone-calls policy during rehearsals, but the possibility of somebody calling to offer them a gig, ruled it out occasionally.

Blaine checked the display, but when he didn't recognize the caller he decided it was better to pick up the call.

He hushed the music before answering: "Blaine Anderson."

"Hi Blaine … it's Kurt."

Blaine took sharp breath of surprise. The voice was soft and light, but also hesitant. With eyes closed a huge grin spread across his face. "Hi Kurt … um wow, this is unexpected."

Blaine got aware of Matt's curious face as the conversation behind him silenced. He cleared his throat. "Um … can you hang on a bit, Kurt? I um …," he huffed out a laugh, "I have to go somewhere private."

"Sure."

Blaine heard the smile in Kurt's voice, and he couldn't help the bounce that snuck into his steps as he walked through the door and closed it behind him. He took a deep breath and centered himself before he put the phone back to his ear. "Okay, I'm back. It's really good to hear your voice," he stuttered. Blaine clenched his fist. What a stupid thing to say! They hadn't talked for years, and this was the first thing that came to mind.

"It's good to hear your voice too," Kurt replied. "I didn't know you had moved to New York."

"Well, I moved here in August, and so far I like it."

"I knew you would; even though some things take time to get used to."

"Yeah, I know. But I live with Cooper, and he is helping me out a lot."

"Cooper is living in New York too?" Kurt asked surprised.

"Yeah, who would have thought, right? But people change, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Kurt answered softly.

Blaine's heart started beating a bit faster. It felt almost unreal to finally talk to Kurt after all these years. "Um, do you still live in the loft with Rachel?" he asked.

"No, I've got my own place now. Both Rachel and Santana moved out awhile ago, and I needed something smaller. But I've kept the loft as an office, so it's still in good use."

"Well that's great to hear." Blaine bit his lip. "How did you know I had moved to New York by the way?" he then asked.

"Well, that's a pretty funny story," Kurt replied, "and I'm not sure if you will believe it right away."

Blaine hummed. "Well, try me, I'm usually easy to convince."

Kurt cleared his throat. "You have submitted a song to a company called "By Blackbird", right?"

"Oh, yeah, I was contacted by one of my teachers from college. She doesn't exactly work as my agent, but she looks out for different possibilities. They are looking for a composer, right? How do you know the company?"

"Well, it's my company, that's why I know," Kurt chuckled.

"Do you just like have your own company?"

"Now don't offend me by sounding so surprised, of course I have my own company." Some of Kurt's well known sass shined through.

"Wow." Blaine couldn't keep the outburst back. "That is so cool."

"Thank you very much," Kurt said solemnly.

"And you need a composer?"

"Exactly, I'm currently writing a musical, but my composing skills leave a lot to wish for, and my "partner in crime" is a costume designer, so she doesn't know how to write songs either."

"Did you heard my song?"

"Yes," Kurt said softly, "and I liked it … a lot."

A proud feeling rushed through Blaine's chest. People often praised his songs, but it was still something special coming from Kurt, even after all this time. "Thank you. Wait you're not just calling because you know me, right? It's not some kind of let's-give-Blaine-a-good-start-in-the-big-city, because I'm not interested in anything like that! And I swear to god that I didn't know you owned that company."

"No, Blaine," Kurt reassured calm. "I'm calling you because you're the best we've heard by far. And Ally, my business partner, picked you out even before I told her I knew you."

"So, this Ally, who is a costume designer, picked me out? Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Blaine teased.

"Hey, costume designers can know about music too!" Kurt said friendly.

Blaine laughed. "Touché"

"Look, I promise you, that I'm only calling you because you're the best."

Blaine felt relieved. He wouldn't take charity from anybody concerning his music. It had to be earned fair and square. "So, do I come to some sort of audition, or do you have a specific song in mind that you want me to write first?"

"We would like you to come to the loft, maybe tomorrow, or the day after. I can tell you something about the storyline and what kind of music we are looking for, and then we'll take it from there."

"I would love that, Kurt. You just have to promise me that you'll be brutally honest, that's all."

"Well honesty is my middle name, just ask anybody at NYADA."

"Ha," Blaine huffed out, "you know I will if I sense foul play."

"Deal, so do you want the job?"

"Are you kidding me? I would love to do something like that!"

"Great," Kurt said. "Now I better stick to the honesty thing right away."

"Sure." Blaine waited for whatever might come and tried to prepare himself.

"Can we meet for coffee first?" Kurt asked. "I kind of need to know if we can work together; and I promised Ally I would make sure of that … you know because of our … history."

"So Ally knows about our relationship in high school?" Blaine asked, as thousand pictures from the halls of McKinley qued up in his mind.

"Ally knows about everything. And I might as well warn you. It's impossible to lie to her. She can detect it like a Geiger counter in a radioactive environment, or a dog sniffing blood. But the upside is that she can keep a secret like her life depends on it."

Blaine frowned, not sure if he should be intimidated by this Ally-girl or excited to meet her. "Okay, I'll stick to the truth then."

"So, what do you say? Are you up for it?"

"Yes, of course. Let's meet for coffee. I'm free around 3, how about you?"

"That'll work. There's a coffee shop down on 58th street. Not the Starbucks, but the one further down. Best coffee ever."

"I'm in … 3 o'clock."

"Okay, see you then."

"Yeah, see you."

Blaine meant to hang up, but he couldn't, so he just waited in silence. "Kurt, are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here, Blaine," Kurt said quiet.

"Thanks for calling … I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, and I'm … looking forward to see you again."

"Me too. Bye."

"Bye."

Blaine leaned back against the wall and slide down until he sat on the floor.

He needed a minute.

Getting over Kurt had been the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. The guilt had been eating him up and when Kurt had been too hurt to offer him any kind of closure it had hurt just as bad as the break up itself. Sam had been the one picking him up. He had seen through all the ways Blaine wanted to punish himself, and made him believe that he was still one of the good guys.

Maybe this was lifes way of giving him a second chance for having Kurt as a friend again. He would never dare to hope for more, but they had started out as friends, and maybe they could get there again somehow.

He had been dating guys at college. Nothing too serious until he had met Mitch, but still then it hadn't been this consuming overwhelming love that knocks you off your feet. He and Mitch had never made plans for the future anyway. They'd had a silent agreement that their relationship was for college and then they would go their separate ways.

Blaine got up and took a deep breath. The band was waiting and soul searching was for night times, lying in his bed, surrounded by darkness. He made sure to put on an indifferent expression on his face and stepped back to the rehearsal room

"Okay, let's try the next number on our set list," he shouted over the chit-chat and the music. "Let's take it from the top." They rehearsed the intro in a loop as Matt stepped closer, still playing the bass.

"So, Blainers," he said and waggled his eyebrows. "Was that Kurt, as in your Kurt?"

Blaine shook his head. He didn't really need this right now. "Nope, because he is not my Kurt."

"Okay, I can rephrase it if that's what you need. "Was that Kurt as in Kurt Hummel?"

"It was," Blaine now admitted. "And don't start with me, okay. Just play your intro like you're supposed to."

Matt smirked. "I just thought the name "Kurt" rang a bell, that's all."

Blaine rolled his eyes and cued the rest of the band to the first verse.

Matt had helped him through college in so many ways, and he had witnessed on first hand, how Blaine had fought with the shadows of his one true love from high school. But this was different, and he didn't need any advice, not even from Matt about how this could potentially be a bad idea.


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Love Melissa