The full title of this chapter is Surprises: The Good, the Bad and the Amazing, Part I
Summary: Blaine and Sebastian receive one surprise after another as their day begins, but what Blaine gives someone else might be the biggest surprise of all.
Warning: Threat of violence and brief mention of past self-harm
Buzz, buzz, buzz
"Blaine…Blaine, babe…Your alarm is going off."
"I didn't set an alarm. It must be yours."
Buzz, buzz, buzz
"Sorry B. That's your phone."
Buzz, buzz, buzz
"Noooooo. You're cuddly and smell good. They'll stop." Buzz, buzz, buzz Blaine reached over to his night table and sure enough it was his phone "Rachel Berry, it is 6AM! Somebody better be in the fucking hospital!" After hearing her voice for less than a second, he pulled the phone from his ear to see if he had accidently put it on speaker.
He had not.
"BlaineOhMyGodICan'tDoThisEmmaWantsMeToButICan'tICan'tDoItAloneYouHaveToSingWithMeOhMyGodOhMyGod…!"
"Rachel, slow down and take it down a notch, or ten. I can't understand what you're saying."
"I need to see you Blaine. I need to talk to you…" And of course, she started to cry. Damn it!
"Ok, ok. Give me a half hour and I'll meet you…"
"I'm in your driveway. Well, Sugar's driveway, but I'm here."
Seriously? He was going to have to speak with the guys "Give me a couple minutes and I'll be down." Blaine groaned as he leaned over and kissed Sebastian "Rachel's here. I promise I'll be back soon and then we can get back to snuggling."
Fortunately, Sebastian opened his eyes right as Blaine was about to leave "Um, babe. It's one thing to open the door naked to Santana, Rachel is another story." Blaine looked down and yeah, clothes would be a good thing.
When a now dressed Blaine opened the front door he found a puffy-eyed Rachel, but that wasn't the most noteworthy thing about her appearance "Rachel? Why are you still wearing the dress you wore last night?"
"I slept with Finn."
Not a big shocker there, he just wondered why he was a stop on her walk of shame. "Come on, I'm going to need coffee for this." He grabbed a throw blanket from the couch and put it around her shoulders as they walked toward the kitchen. As he made her a cup of tea, and that much needed cup of coffee for himself, he once again noticed the time. It was far too early for this shit, especially when a warm and naked Sebastian was upstairs in his bed "Tell me what happened."
She talked about how upset she's been since she found out Brody was a lying sack of shit, and how she and Finn had talked after Kurt slapped him...
"Excuse me? Kurt slapped Finn last night? Why am I only now hearing about this?"
"Can we focus on my issues for a moment, please?! Oh Blaine, I'm sorry."
"No Rach, you're right. Let's focus on you." So you can leave, and I can have some more hot sex with my gorgeous boyfriend before he has to go home. "What happened after Kurt slapped Finn?"
"You and I sang, which Finn found very sexy. He asked if I would sing a song with him…"
"We've Got Tonight? Didn't you realize that song was about two people that use to be in a relationship deciding that it was a good idea to have a one-night stand? I swear, nobody listens to lyrics anymore." Blaine felt bad when she began to cry again, but he really wanted her to get to the point "What happened next?"
"I don't know. Somehow we wound up at a hotel and had the best sex we've ever had."
"And I take it you don't want a Sex high-five? Never mind, it's a Puck thing. I still don't understand where I fit into this."
"You know how we found out everything the New Directions had ever performed had been recorded?"
"Sue wanted blackmail material in case any of us actually became famous. Right?"
"Right. Well, she let Emma see the videos of all of the song ideas we had for the proposal. She loved my Without You and asked me to sing it at the reception."
"Doesn't she know…" Then it hit him "You sang that song to Finn and then he asked you to marry him."
"Yes" Rachel practically collapsed with relief "Now do you see why I need you?"
"No, not really."
"I promised Emma that I would sing it, but now I can't because Finn might take it the wrong way. But if you sang it with me…"
"Why me?"
A tinge of guilt hit Rachel at that point "I was going to say you promised you'd owe me when you asked me to look into you being a NYADA finalist, but there's something I should tell you first. Before I found out Brody would lay for pay, I had asked him to help since he knew Madame Tibideaux's assistant. I'm sorry, I thought he could be helpful."
"It's ok. You didn't know this would happen."
"Thank you, but what I haven't told you was the next day in Cassie July's dance class everyone, and I mean everyone, had already heard about that guy who was a finalist without applying. Evidently, it was all over NYADA. Brody said the assistant had no idea how it got out or how you were a finalist. But Blaine, that's not the worst of it."
"What does that mean?"
"When people showed Brody the video of you and me from last night, he told them that you were that guy. I have over 200 messages. I'm so sorry."
So what? He didn't care if people at NYADA…wait a minute..."A video of Don't You Want Me? is online?"
"Oh, Blaine" Rachel pulled out her phone and showed him the video and number of views.
"How the hell does this have 93,000 views already? Fuck! The guys are going to give me so much shit for this!" And then he realized his true nightmare "No, no, no! Santana is going to give me so much shit for this. Fuck!" From the look on Rachel's face, Blaine could tell she wasn't the one that had posted it. He'd deal with that person later. "Ok, whatever, its fine (Not really). Back to you. I'll agree that I owe you a favor, but I'm not going to the reception. I only agreed on the wedding."
"Not a problem, Blaine Warbler. I'll ask someone else. Just name one person that saw me sing that version of the song and has identic musical memory. Hold on, I can name someone…You. I bet you don't even need to rehearse."
Damn it! She had him there "Alright, I'll do it. The wedding starts at 4PM. Why don't we meet up a half an hour before and work out the arrangement?"
They talked a few minutes longer and then he walked her to her car. Once she drove off, Blaine hurried back into the house because it was freezing outside. He probably should have worn more than just pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. When he got back to his room, he started to strip off the clothing but then had a different idea. An evil idea. He very gently crawled back into bed and then snuggled into his boyfriend's side.
Sebastian couldn't have scrambled away any faster "What the fuck?! Blaine, seriously. What the fuck?!"
"I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not." Blaine said when he was finally able to stop laughing. "Oh, stop pouting. You have to leave in two hours and we didn't get around to giving gifts last night because you were too excited that Cooper had gotten everyone out of the house."
"Correction, we were excited."
"Yes, we were. Several times. Now go put something on because we will never get through this with you naked."
He grumbled a little, but Sebastian agreed with Blaine's point. He had to go to his drawer (yes, Blaine had given him one) to get his gift anyway "Ok, I suppose you want your gift first again?"
Blaine held out his gimme hands "Duh, have you met me?" They had already given each other cards, so Blaine immediately started tearing away the paper. He smiled when he saw a leather cuff in the box. He had hoped Sebastian would replace the one he had ruined as his gift "You got me a new cuff."
"No, that's your old cuff."
Blaine dropped the box in disbelief "How? I ruined my old one when I got blood all over it that night when, you know."
"Did you know that there are businesses that can clean anything off of anything?" Sebastian picked up the cuff and started to point at different markings "While they couldn't take away all of the stains, the blood is gone. I actually think that's better. Whenever you think you can't do something all you have to do is look at your wrist and know you've survived much worse. Now, I know you can't fight…"
Predictably, Blaine had turned into a blubbering idiot "As much as I love my bracelet, it's easier to wear the cuff when I play instruments. This way I'll have you with me when I play, no matter what."
"What do you mean No matter what?" Sebastian wiped Blaine's tears, but he was pretty sure they were no longer happy ones "Blaine, what's going on?"
"This way I'll have you with me when you go to California." Blaine whispered, no longer able to face Sebastian. The thought of losing him was ripping him apart, which is why it totally pissed him off when the bastard started laughing. "What's so fucking funny?"
"I have to call the Blonde Chameleon because Nightbird's investigative skills are shit right now. This was the second time he overreacted when he only knew half of a story. I'm not going to Stanford you idiot. I'm going to Columbia. I've always said I wanted to go to New York and the fact that it's my dad's alma mater pretty much sealed the deal. Don't tell me if you weren't destined for Julliard your dad wouldn't be pushing Michigan."
"It does have a highly rated Theater Arts Department." His father had only told him that a few hundred times until his mom made him drop it. "If you were set on going to Columbia, why did you even apply to Stanford of all places? It's on the other side of the country."
Sebastian reached out for Blaine's hands and made sure he was looking at him "I want to get this all out before you say anything. No matter what, ok?" Blaine nodded, but he sure didn't like how that sounded "Stanford was my Run away from Blaine school…uh-uh, you said you would hear me out. I know you have forgiven me, but you hadn't last year at this time. I was in love with you Blaine, yet I left you on the ground, screaming because of something I'd done. I had to turn in my applications the week after and I knew you planned on going to NYADA to be with Hummel. So, I talked with my parents, and while my dad was pissed, they agreed to Stanford. That was if I could even get in with what I had done on my permanent record, but that's not an issue anymore thanks to you. I'm going to Columbia, Blaine. I promise."
"Oh, thank god!"
The force of Blaine jumping into his arms pushed them back onto the bed. After a rather intense kiss, Blaine started kissing down his neck (after a particularly embarrassing family dinner with his grandparents and Cooper asking why Blaine was wearing a turtleneck, visible marks were forbidden). He knew if he licked right behind Sebastian's ear he would… "Hey stop…um, wow…ok, that feels good…No…No! I want my gift then we can go for round four. Or is it five?"
"Fine" Blaine grumbled as he pulled the both of them back up and then reached into his night table for the gift. When Sebastian seemed confused by the shape of the box, he said "Let's just say that once again we have similar tastes in gift giving."
Inside the box was a silver linked ID bracelet like the one he had given Blaine for Christmas, with one exception "It says You + Me forever."
"When you lent me your cuff, I wanted you to have something as well. And since our cuffs matched, it only made sense that our bracelets did too. And by Forever, I didn't mean…"
Sebastian ended his boyfriend's blabbering with a kiss "You don't have to explain. It's perfect. But…"
"But, what?" Blaine tried to fake being offended, but it didn't last long "Oh, you were expecting a song."
"Well, yeah…kind of." Blaine gave him a wink, but instead of getting his guitar he picked up a remote and pressed play. When the song began it was just piano. The tempo was fun, which also became flirty when a guitar came in in response. The two instruments played off of each other and Sebastian finally realized that this wasn't a song, it was a composition. He started to smile as a signal to Blaine that he had figured it out when…
Crash
The music stopped abruptly and then there was silence, which seemed like minutes to Sebastian but was probably only seconds. When the music came back the tempo was completely different. It was dark with a hint of sadness. The piano and guitar were joined by more instruments. Each time a new one came in it seemed to layer on top of the others, until you couldn't hear the piano or guitar any longer. Sebastian was floored by the intensity, but then he heard it. The guitar was back. It was faint, but it was there and as it became louder the layers of darkness faded. When the piano joined in, the other instruments didn't go away, they accompanied the piano and guitar in their original melody. At some point a choir came in, no words, just harmonies which sent the crescendo to its apex then…flirty piano and guitar played the song out.
Blaine hit the stop button on the remote and then turn his attention back to Sebastian "Bas?"
"What's it called?"
"Excuse me?"
"What's the title?"
"Sebastian's heart."
After Sebastian left for home, Blaine headed to Breadstix. Cooper had asked him to come so he could explain his trip to New York, but Blaine hadn't realized there was more going on.
"Why am I not terribly surprised by this?" Blaine asked, but didn't actually expect an answer from the three guys sitting across from him.
"You're not mad at me, are you dude?" Puck asked. "I mean, I agreed to help you first."
"No, not at all. You've been great. I can't thank you enough."
"What about me?" Cooper had been nervous, but Blaine seemed to be ok with things. So far.
"What about you? The fact that you are taking over Al Motta's quote/unquote investigation and security business or that you hired these two?" Ok, so he did have a problem that Cooper had hired Finn, but they could talk about that in private.
However, Finn knew he was the real problem. Blaine didn't trust him and he had every right not to "Blaine, again, I'm sorry man…for everything. I know I've been a dick, but didn't realize how big of one until Puck and Cooper explained Alpha Gay. But, I've got to know man, was I really the reason you stayed at McKinley?"
Blaine took a deep breath. What he was about to say could never, ever, become common knowledge and he had to get that point across. "Before I answer, I want the three of you to understand something. If this gets out, I am willing to forego any music career and beat the shit out of whoever said anything. I am willing to go to jail for this, do you understand? Cooper, I love you, but that means you too. I'm serious. This never leaves this room. Now Finn, would you like me to answer your question?" The other two guys gave Finn an It's up to you look, but he nodded for Blaine to continue.
"It took a lot of therapy to get me to this point, but no, you were not the reason I stayed at McKinley. I was pissed at you Finn, justifiably so, and I talked myself into believing you caused me to stay. Kurt had nothing to do with my decision either. I stayed for Sugar and only Sugar. I knew when the New Directions won Schuster would never let her come over with the rest of the girls. I put the idea in Quinn's head to invite all of the TroubleTones to join us and not just the girls that left."
"Ok, so what was with the threat if we tell someone?" Finn asked. Puck made a mental note to tell Finn that there was one rule when dealing with the Anderson brothers…do not underestimate their love for their baby cousin, or the lengths they would go to protect her. Hell, Blaine had just threatened to beat the crap out of Cooper.
"Sugar blames herself for my depression. My therapist and I had to develop this mantra for her to repeat when she starts berating herself for asking me to come to McKinley in the first place. If she knew that she actually was the reason I didn't go back to Dalton, it would crush her. And Finn, that wasn't a threat, it was a promise. Now, can I talk to my brother alone please."
Puck thought it was a good time to have that chat about Sugar with Finn, so they went back to the kitchen. Once they were gone, Cooper asked Blaine "Are you sure you're ok with this?"
"We can talk about you hiring Finn later, but Coop, you taking over Dmitri and the guys? Are you out of your fucking mind? How did you ever talk Uncle Robert into that? Mom and dad are going to fucking kill him when they find out! And then they're going to fucking kill you!"
"They know, Squirt. Honestly, and Uncle Robert offered me the company. Blaine, I'm good at this and feels good to be able to say that."
That calmed Blaine down, a little bit. "Breadstix isn't some money laundering business, is it?"
"No, I'm really enjoying the restaurant too. I'm happy kiddo and it's all your fault." Cooper reached over and messed Blaine's hair "God I'm glad you got rid of the helmet. So, was that what you wanted to talk about or is there something else?"
"Uncle Al got them to agree."
"Who? And why did you call him…Oh, shit! Seriously? To everything? Are you ok?"
"Let me see, seriously, to everything, and it was my idea so yeah, I'm ok. I couldn't have this hanging over my head, Coop."
"I know, but I thought you were going to stop protecting everyone and focus on yourself for a while."
"I am, I promise. While I will help and support the people I care about, the only people I will protect anymore are my family and these two guys, even if one of them will never know."
"You won't protect Sebastian?"
"No, we wind up pissing each other off when we do that. From now on, instead of trying to protect each other we're just going to love each other."
"Oh my god, you two make my teeth hurt. Now, let's talk about you coming to the Grand Reopening on Tuesday."
Meanwhile, Mr. Motta sat in the Nixon's living room having explained to Doug the plea deal his brother was offered. The boy was having difficulty comprehending everything. "Doug, I promise all of this was Blaine's idea. He doesn't want this to affect his life, or yours, any more than it has."
"I can't believe he agreed to this. More than that, I can't believe my parents agreed to letting their precious son do actual jail time." His foster mom squeezed his hand while her husband studied the deal. There was one other person in the room as well "Trent, are you sure you're ok with your parents adopting me?"
"No Doug, but I am ok with our parents officially making you my brother." Trent smiled as he watched his soon-to-be brother and mother hug each other and cry. It was just like Blaine to put the needs of Doug and the other victim ahead of his own. Mr. Motta said that Blaine would explain everything to the guys on Monday, but he couldn't help but wonder how Sebastian felt about all of this. Although, his best friend may not have had much time to reflect on what Blaine had done. He was on his way home to deal with his own family issues and from what Sebastian told him yesterday, there was a lot to deal with.
Sebastian had made it home, but he had gotten on the road a little later than anticipated because…well, Blaine. Or more precisely, one last round with Blaine. Only this time it hadn't been the hot and oh so dirty sex they had been having, they had made love. He still couldn't believe how perfect Sebastian's Heart was (or how it was already on his Blaine I-Pod. Evidently Doug really was a computer genius). He had played it on a loop the entire drive back to keep his mind on what was good in his life. How Blaine loved him and how amazing their two days of comfortable had been. How he was only months away from moving to the city he had always wanted to live in. How despite everything, he would go to his school of choice even if he didn't have a clue of what his major might be. How for the first time in his life he had a true best friend in Trent. How he enjoyed spending time with the guys, as well as some of Blaine's friends, and didn't just put up with them because he had to.
How none of the crap with his parentage mattered. His mom and dad were his mom and dad. Period.
Sebastian was so caught up in his thought bubble, that he was startled when he heard a sound that in no way belonged in his home…a baby crying. He entered the living area to see his extremely frazzled parents, his mom bouncing a baby in her arms and his dad making shushing noises. It took a moment for him to grasp what was going on "Izzy!" He went to his mother and took his niece out of her arms. As if on cue, the baby immediately stopped crying and gave her uncle a look of undying love. "Izzy-wizzy bear, what are you doing here? Did you come to see your Uncle Sebby? Huh? That's why you are happy baby now, isn't that right, precious. Your uncle Sebby gots you."
"Her name is Isabella, jack ass." Sebastian's sister Sierra came into the room, holding a bottle and looking even more frazzled than his parents.
He took the bottle and then stuck his tongue out at her "First, do not say that donkey word around my niece's delicate ears. Second, I called her Izzy and she stopped crying…just saying. And last, what the fu..fudge are you doing here?"
"Can't a person and her daughter fly across the ocean just because?"
"A person, yes. You, no. What's going on guys?"
The way his parents and sister kept eyeing each other, it was pretty clear what was happening. His mother sat next to him and smiled "Darling Boy, can't we stop and visit for right now? Maybe save the hard stuff for when this angel decides she wants to take a nap?"
Sebastian was about to say something that he would probably regret later, when Isabella laughed and smiled up at him. His heart completely melted and suddenly something totally off topic made perfect sense "Sugar."
"Sugar?"
"Yes, mom. Sugar is Blaine's cousin…"
His dad jumped in "Isabella is your niece, not your cousin." Then he realized that Sebastian was talking about his boyfriend's cousin "I'm sorry, son. I didn't mean to snap like that."
"I know Izzy is my niece dad. What I wanted to say is that Blaine would do anything for his cousin Sugar. When her mom died, he played his guitar for her every night for months so she could sleep. She is the real reason he transferred to McKinley. He is ridiculously overprotective of her. Every time she goes on a date with Nick, you know Nick Duvall from the Warblers, I think I'm going to have to sedate him. I always thought his relationship with her was a little over-the-top. Ok, a lot over-the-top, but I get it now. I would do exactly the same thing for this princess right here. I will do exactly the same thing for this princess." He scanned the room and the rest of his family was crying, but that could be because Izzy had worn them out before he got there.
It took another 20 minutes for her to fall asleep. Once she was tucked into her portable crib, Sebastian wasn't going to wait any longer for answers "Now will you tell me why you left your husband in Paris and flew here?"
"Sebastian…"
"Dad, you promised when I talked to you at breakfast yesterday that you would not hide what's going on with Julien from me. Why is Sierra here?"
"Julien came to my house three days ago." Sierra admitted. "He was looking for you, Seb. One of his old buddies saw you when you came for the holidays, so he thought you still lived in Paris."
"Oh." Why would his sperm donor, and that was all Julien was, want to see him? It didn't make sense.
"Son, I know you and Blaine planned on going to Paris for Spring Break, but we're asking you not to. It would be best if you stayed in the states for now."
"What's preventing him from coming here?"
"He's on parole for the next two years and cannot leave France."
That was comforting "Ok, I'll talk to Blaine. I won't tell him the whole story, but like I told Dad, I'm pretty sure he knows at least part of it." The expressions of the others didn't change even though he agreed with their request. "What else is going on?"
Juliette Smythe started to push her son's hair away from his face like she had done when he was a little boy. All she had ever wanted for him was to be safe and happy. However, in order to keep him safe she was going to have to break his heart "Darling Boy, we need to talk to you about Stanford."
TBC…
Notes:
So begins a three chapter arc where a lot of questions will be answered to only have new ones take their place ( *evil writer laugh*). There will also be many more surprises (at least I hope they are).
Thank you for reading. I would also like to thank those of you that share your comments. They always welcome.
