Filming the season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had been bittersweet. True, the idea that they had been in LA for nearly a full year was amazing, but it also meant that they were done filming their first season. They were no longer going to be the new kids….
Of course, that was made less traumatic by the fact that their contracted been renewed and they were going to be regulars next year. Kitty had taken them out to celebrate when she told the news. It was during that dinner when she had told them she was moving out to LA as well. They'd suspected she would, but until that night it had not been confirmed. Sugar was delighted to offer a spare room at her beach house and Kitty took her up on it.
Two weeks into their summer hiatus from the making the trek back to New York City. Artie had one of his student films accepted into a small festival and they wanted to be there to support him. The movie itself had been pretty good. Sure, Sam had been confused by a few things, but Blaine's whispered explanations helped with that. Artie was over the moon and it even won an award at the festival, which was awesome.
The night after Artie's film screening, Kurt and Rachel hosted a dinner at their loft. Initially, they only invited a few people, but as word spread to the assorted members of New Directions present to support Artie, the party grew in size.
It was great to see everyone again and Sam thought it was really nice of Kurt and Rachel to throw the party. They were both acting very sweet and he figured they must've realized they had been kind of out of line when they had come to LA. This, he figured, was their way of apologizing and Sam was okay with that, cuz people make mistakes and if they had learned from it, well, then all was forgiven.
To absolutely no one's surprise, Jake, Marley, Ryder and Unique all chose to attend college in the same general part of California. Even Kitty was taking part-time classes at UCLA, though she was also considering taking on new clients.
"You guys must be thrilled about having your contracts renewed," Marley said Sam with a grin. "Your fans online are going nuts."
"Yeah and that douche bag Turk seems to finally shut up," Ryder added. "That dude was seriously cracked."
Kurt was setting out a new tray of… Sam actually didn't know what the appetizers were, but he thought he could see suction cups like you'd see on the tentacles of an octopus, so he was gonna pass on that. Overhearing their conversation, Kurt offered, "You shouldn't be so judgmental. Just because a person has a different opinion does not mean they are…cracked, as you put it."
"The guy was a nasty, deluded troll with a creepy obsession who must've finally realized he was universally hated," Jake snorted. "I'm gonna judge the fuck out of him."
"I think he was just strong in his convictions," Kurt said, his voice getting high in that way it did when his temper flared. "Perhaps the rabid fan base bullied him to the point where he retreated out of fear."
"Seemed to me he enjoyed the fights he got into and was always far more aggressive than anyone he argued with," Quinn said. "I remember reading his posts and think he was a classic bully pretending to be the victim type, taking out his own feelings of inadequacy on others."
"I am not bully and I'm certainly not inadequate!" Kurt more or less shrieked and happy chatter in the room faded. "How dare you come into my house and belittle me like that? I demand an apology!"
In the heavy silence, Sam looked at Blaine, hoping he'd misunderstood, but from the look of betrayal on Blaine's face, he clearly hadn't.
In a tone laced with ice, Quinn said, "Kurt… I was talking about Turk McKinley. Is there some reason you took that to heart?"
"Well, I'm feeling kind of stupid for not figuring that one out," Mike murmured as Kurt sputtered denials, but it was too late.
Sam wrapped an arm around Blaine, who leaned into his side. "I can't even say I'm shocked really," Blaine sighed, shaking his head. "Just hurt and disappointed."
A flush colored Kurt's face. "You're hurt and disappointed?! What about me? I need…."
"You need to shut the hell up," Santana snarled, inserting herself between Kurt and Blaine. "None of us need to hear your weak and moronic justifications for your awfulness. In fact, I don't think the boys need to be subjected to you at all right now. Party's moving people. Across the hall."
Sam was more than happy with the change of venue, though he was pretty sure they were all little shaken for the rest of the night.
How could Kurt do that?
It took a few hours with the baby goats at the Central Park petting zoo the next day for Blaine's smile to fully return and that made Sam even madder than finding out that the troll been Kurt initially.
No one got to steal Blaine's smile, not when Sam was around!
After Kurt's revelation in New York, it was especially sweet to return home to LA. A little TLC from their pets had them both in high spirits by the time July and the San Diego Comic Con rolled around. It was no less thrilling than the first time, though they had a bit more experience getting used to the idea of having fans as well as being fans.
Once again, Artie flew out to join them, though this year he had plans in addition to geeking out. Earlier in the year he'd begun a blog for posting his short films and other little videos and he wanted to film Blaine and Sam walking around Comic Con interacting with fans.
Only the fans wouldn't know was them, as they'd be in the costume of another masked or cowled hero.
Blaine thought it was a darn cool idea and after a little finagling by Kitty, a deal was worked out for Artie to produce and film segments with financial backing from Marvel TV and they would air on both Artie and Marvel's websites.
A win win situation.
On the first day of the con, they had no panels to participate in, so that seemed like a good time to start. The costumes they got to wear were amazing.
"You know, I love you and your Hulkling uniform, but…," Blaine said, staring at a red, white and blue clad Sam. "I think I need a kiss from Captain Samerica!"
That made Sam grin and set down his prop shield. "You make a pretty darn awesome Iron Blaine yourself," he replied, bending down for a kiss.
Artie rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Just don't do that out on the convention floor… At least not until we finished the segments and you've done the big reveal. Then you can totally throw the Stony fans a bone."
"Probably not the only bones being thrown," Sugar teased, making Kitty snicker.
"C'mon boys, helmet and cowl on! Let's go talk to the fans!"
The interview surprises went over even better than expected. Everyone was delighted and they took so many pictures with excited fans. Kids in particular were a riot and Blaine adored a picture of Sam holding a little girl dressed as The Winter Soldier in one arm.
At the end of the day, Blaine took off his mask for the last time and Sam pulled him in for a kiss. In most photos, there wasn't a great angle on their faces, so it did look like Captain America was smooching Iron Man in the middle of the San Diego Comic Con!
The next day, during the Marvel panel, the other actors teased playfully.
"Well, you had to go unspoiled big romantic surprise from the next Avengers movie!" Robert Downey Jr. joked, causing the crowd to go nuts. Five minutes later, when some order was restored, he quirked a brow at Chris Evans. "They really want to see us kiss."
"And the ones that don't want to see me and Chris make out," Sebastian Stan replied, making everyone scream again.
Joss had to step in then to wrangle the crowd. "Now, now, I know we all like to speculate about Cap's love life, but we can't spoil everything. I do have a few things about the new movie I can say though…."
He talked for some time, quite masterfully giving away very little. It was really impressive Blaine thought, eager to hear about the movie himself.
"… And toward the end of the film, were introducing a character from the comics who will play a role in the Marvel movie/TV/Netflix universe… America Chavez!"
Everyone cheered and Sam's hand tightened around Blaine's.
"All you Young Avengers fans know her and cince of bringing America in, of course Billy and Teddy will be there," Joss said turning to them with a smile. "We kind of figured you two would like this surprise."
Like was putting in a little mildly.
Tiny guest roles are not, they were going to be a part of the next Avengers movie!
TBC...