This week I gave the prompt. It was very simple, but hard to write ;-) Write a cliff-hanger
My one-shot is connected to a multi chaptered fic I'm currently writing, but haven't published yet. So I need to give a quick background for this setup.
Kurt and Blaine never got together after the break up and things were never settled between them. They lose track of each other when Blaine decides to go to college in Chicago instead of New York. Kurt graduates from NYADA, but the classical Broadway roles don't suit him and he stays unemployed. Together with a costume designer, Ally, whom he met during a NYADA project, he starts a company named "By Blackbird". They are now writing a musical together, with a lead that would fit Kurt perfectly.
Kurt has been in New York 5 years.
How you remind me
"Have you received any new submissions from song-writers today?" Kurt asked, reaching out for his glasses before he could scan his own incoming e-mails.
Ally threw the rest of her apple in the trashcan and wiped her hands in a napkin. "Yes, I actually have." She touched the mouse to bring her computer back to life, "twenty eight submissions to be accurate."
"Really?" Kurt asked and stared at her over the rim of his glasses.
"Yes," she said with a smile, "and I bet the perfect composer to write our songs will be amongst them."
Kurt shrugged. "We'll see about that," he replied dryly. He felt a head ache sneaking up on him. He refused to compromise on the issue. He had rejected a lot of composers, and even some promising ones, just because it hadn't felt right. "Look Ally, it's more than talent, we both know that," he reminded her. She just nodded as he rubbed his temples. "It has to be someone we like, and someone we trust with our dream."
"And I'm sure we'll find just the right person," Ally added. She walk around the tables and sat on his desk. "This will work Kurt." She nudged his foot with her shoe. "We're going to write this amazing musical, with these fantastic songs, and we're going to sell it to an off-Broadway theater, and we will succeed."
Kurt met her green eyes with gratitude and he nudged her foot back. Expensive Italian leather meeting orange tied up boots made of a questionable material. He smiled at her. "I promise I will keep an open mind."
"You do?" she asked seriously.
He winked at her. "I promise."
She jumped down from his desk again and went to the two boards hanging on the wall in their office. The first board contained the storyline. Not in a neat chronologic from-A-to-B kind of way, more like this-is-beyond-brainstorming-even-though-it-still-looks-like-it.
She hummed. "A song-writer would not know what to make of this twirled around story anyway. We should start making the hard decisions. I mean, at least sort out the first couple of scenes and then go from there."
Kurt got up and tucked in the sleeves of his shirt before he joined her. "I agree," he said and took the board in view. It was pinned up with post-it's, little pieces of paper, a napkin,(don't ask), and several long descriptions of characters, from the lead to the smallest extra.
The second board was completely empty, divided in two, one for the first part of the play, and the other for the second part. This board was meant for the real thing. When a note about a person, or a scene, or a song went to the blank board it had to make chronological sense.
"I'll try to get some headliners on the final board today," Kurt said with crossed arms. It was an intimidating process and he realized he had been putting it off for a while. Everybody could do a brainstorm and have different ideas, but it took some talent to make it into a play.
Behind him Ally began to listen to the different song submissions, as he started to look out for the bigger lines in the play. The climax had to be in part two, so he moved everything connected to that scene to the second half on the final board. From there he would build the settings around that particular scene.
So far none of the submissions Ally had been playing had really caught his attention. A lot of the songs people had written seemed unpolished. Besides, writing a couple of songs could not really be compared to writing 10 – 12 songs, all connected to a story line.
Kurt was lost in a detail about the lead characters introduction in the middle of scene one, when the room suddenly vibrated with a familiar voice. He froze in his motion and just listened with every fiber in his body.
He would have recognized that voice among thousands of voices. The deep soft base mixed with a more raw unpolished higher pitch that made it unique and complex.
Kurt closed his eyes and listened to the lyrics and caught the nature and temper of the melody; the rise and fall of the voice that pulled him back to something that had made his world complete 5 years ago.
"Wow, are you listening to this, Kurt?" Ally pulled him right back to reality with her excitement.
Kurt managed to center himself again before answering. "Yes," he said softly, "I'm listening."
"He is good, Kurt, and it's a beautiful song," she stated, "by far the best we've heard! Let me just check out who he is."
He could hear her tap away on her computer as the song continued in the background.
Kurt let the vibration in his soul settle before he turned around and looked at her. "His name is Blaine Anderson," he said and tried to make the world stop spinning. The engagement ring on his finger suddenly felt heavier than a rock.