Chapter Sixteen
"Welcome back to KPHO, channel five. We're going live to Talking Stick Resort Arena, where Haily Cashner is covering Blaine Blackwell's magic tour. Blackwell will be in town from tonight through Saturday night, and for the first time since making Phoenix a tour stop three years ago, will have two eighteen and over shows here. Haily?"
"That's right, Lee. Last year he wasn't in Phoenix on a night when he performed an adult after hours show, which he had only just introduced. We've heard a lot about the more risque shows this time around, and from the few leaked photographs and talk on twitter, those shows are very daring, not only for their sensual nature, but for the more dangerous illusions.
"Now, if you are coming to either the family friendly shows or the more provocative after hours shows, you will notice heightened security to get into the arena. This is in part due to the ongoing investigation into whether or not someone tampered with the rigging during a show in Texas last week, but also because of the recent threats to assistant Kurt Hummel on Social Media. The threats, which have since been deleted, came from different usernames, but investigators believe they are all the same person.
"I did get a chance to speak with both Kurt Hummel and Blaine Blackwell separately about the threats. Kurt simply stated that he was confident that the matter was being handled by security, and that he was not overly worried about them. Blackwell suggested we speak to the head of his security detail, Sheldon Beiste, only stating that they take every threat seriously, and that the safety of his cast and crew was his top priority.
"The fans seem to be taking the raised security measures in stride, more concerned, it seems, with the rumors flying about surrounding Blackwell's announcement earlier this week that he was currently in a relationship, but refusing to name his paramour at this time, requesting privacy for their relationship until they are ready to go public. Back to you, Lee."
…
Blaine never started a show late, never missed a cue. He was always amazingly on time, despite the fact that he probably always had the shortest amount of time for a costume change. After all, he was on stage for every illusion.
The first show in Phoenix of course was no exception and Blaine had always prided himself on never making his audience wait. Even Broadway actors didn't always hit their mark or start on time.
Intermission was winding down and Kurt was offstage prepping Raja for tonight's big tiger illusion. He often would play a little catch with the tiger to get his adrenaline pumping and Raja loved it. He loved being in the show and he loved his little one on one warmup time with Kurt.
"Good boy, Raja!" the blue eyed assistant said, crouching down to scratch the big cat behind both ears. The tiger purred and licked a stripe up Kurt's face, causing the man to laugh. "You are certainly in a very playful mood tonight, aren't you?" Raja just purred again and nuzzled his head further into Kurt's hands.
"Five minutes to curtain!" Kurt heard Artie shouting. "Five minutes to curtain!" Raja was up to open the second half of the show, something that he also enjoyed doing. Kurt turned to see Artie wheeling towards him. "Kurt, have you seen Blaine?"
The taller man frowned. "No, why?" he asked.
"We can't find him backstage anywhere," Artie admitted.
"That's not like him," Kurt said, frowning even more. "I know he went for a quick dry towel in his dressing room when intermission started, but I don't know what else he planned to do before we had to be back."
Adam, who was nearby checking off a few props on the table that were needed for the second half of the show, let out a scoff, his eyes never rising from his clipboard. "He probably went to have a few drinks so he could deal with your unwanted advances," he quipped.
Artie narrowed his eyes and before Kurt could say anything, rolled closer to the other man. "Actually, I think you have it wrong. I think it's way more likely that Kurt would be having a few drinks so he could deal with your unwanted advances. And frankly, your pushiness and persistence is getting on my nerves. You are walking a fine line, Crawford!"
"How dare you! You're just a little four eyed geek who doesn't know what he's talking about!"
"I'm also technically your boss back here. And I will not hesitate to report your attitude to Wes. You've seen what bad attitudes have been getting the other cast and crew lately. Don't let yourself be next!"
Kurt stood there a moment, stunned by Artie's authoritative stance. He'd never seen the man act that way before, and he'd never seen him stand up for him, either.
Artie suddenly cursed as his eyes fell back to his watch. "Two minutes to curtain and no one knows where Blaine is!"
Suddenly, Raja started nosing at Kurt's leg, trying to get him to walk, and the man looked down at the tiger. "What is it, buddy?" he asked. Raja let out a series of growls and again, nudged Kurt forward, before walking around him and proceeding to trot away. "I think he might know something," Kurt said to Artie. "I'm going to follow him."
While everyone at the immediate backstage was starting to get frantic because the magician was nowhere to be found, said magician was in one of the above wing bathrooms, pounding on the door.
"Hello?!" Blaine called out. There was no reply, which he probably should have been expecting. Few people came up this way during show hours and he was regretting not using the main bathroom on the stage level, but that one had been crowded.
After he'd toweled off and changed his costume for the next part of the show, and touched up his curls, he'd needed to use the restroom because he had no time to pee during the show, and he had an annoying habit of drinking plenty of water in the short downtime between illusions. Unfortunately, the bathroom in his dressing room was out of service, and he'd had to find an alternative.
But that had been a full ten minutes ago. And when Blaine had attempted to leave the bathroom, he'd found the door wouldn't budge. Something must be blocking it, he was shut in. He'd spent the last several minutes, trying to ram the door open with his shoulder to no avail and was now banging on it as loud as he could, hoping the sound would travel down to the stage.
He could faintly hear the announcement to quiet down as the show was about to resume and cursed under his breath. It never crossed his mind that this might have been an accident. If not for the prior incidents so far on the tour, he might have considered it, but there was something in his gut that told Blaine somebody might have shut him in there on purpose. He tried to remember if anyone had been following him when he made his way to the bathroom, but was pulling a blank.
Blaine groaned and slid down against the door, dropping his face into his hands. He had never been late for a cue in his entire career, and now someone was messing with that. Why was someone so hellbent on embarrassing him, and possibly destroying his legacy? What had he done to deserve that?
He was silently cursing the fact that his cell phone was back in his dressing room when he thought he picked up the sound of growling, and he jumped quickly to his feet again. "Hello?!" he tried again.
There was no mistaking the loud growl that responded to him, and he was familiar with it enough by now to know who it was coming from.
"Raja!" Blaine shouted through the door. "Raja, good boy!"
"Blaine?" he heard Kurt's voice next.
"Kurt!" the magician called. "Kurt, I'm in here!"
"Well, that's not obvious," Kurt said sarcastically, glaring at the push-broom that had been shoved up underneath the door handle and then duct taped to said door handle to prevent it from easily falling over. He knelt on the floor and inspected the job before turning to the tiger. "Raja, go find Elliott and make sure he brings his pocket knife," he said.
The large feline began trotting back the way they'd come, but stopped when the other assistant appeared at the top of the stairs. "Kurt?" Elliott called out. "I saw you following Raja up the stairs. What's going on? You're supposed to be on stage in thirty seconds!"
"We couldn't find Blaine, but Raja seemed to know something, so I followed him," Kurt replied. "Do you have your pocket knife?" he asked. "Someone seems to have trapped Blaine in this bathroom."
Elliott pulled out the pocket knife he kept on him at all times in case of emergency as he moved towards Kurt. "Why didn't he just use the bathroom in his dressing room?"
It was Blaine who answered him from the other side of the bathroom door. "It was out of service. And the main one on the stage floor was overcrowded."
Frowning, Elliott sliced easily through the tape. "There's no way this was accidental. Whoever did this is an idiot. Anyone know where Adam was when this happened?"
Kurt grunted. "No, but he did have the nerve to suggest that Blaine had gone out for drinks to deal with my unwanted advances just now," he said.
The taller man let out a snort. "You're the one who needs a drink to deal with that jerk."
"Funny, Artie said pretty much the same thing, right to Adam's face," Kurt grinned.
They sprung the door open, and Blaine stepped out. "We'll all go out for drinks later, but for now, we need to hustle! That's the music to cue up Raja's illusion!"
The three men and the tiger rushed down the stairs, and as Blaine rushed on stage, Kurt got the tiger settled in his cage.
Blaine ran a hand across his forehead, trying to think quickly. "Sorry, everyone! I'm a bit behind because apparently, our stash of peanuts attracted the elephants at the zoo down the street. And I thought we were already enough of a stampede."
The audience laughed, and Blaine smiled as Raja was wheeled out on stage. "Speaking of elephants, you've all seen an elephant fly, haven't you?" he asked, referencing one of his favorite Disney films, Dumbo. "Well, now I'm going to make a tiger fly!"
The music changed, and Blaine moved to the cage, slowly spinning it so the audience could see that you could see all the way through the bars, and positioned it just so. He then stepped back, still facing the cage, and raised his arms in the air. Slowly, the cage seemed to rise. Tina and Mike brought out a large metal ring, and passed it around the cage, showing that there were no wires attached, nothing holding it suspended in air.
Raja let out a little playful snarl as the cage rose higher still, and then curtains dropped down on all four sides of the cage, hiding the tiger from view. Blaine rotated his arms slowly, and the cage began to spin very slowly, showing that the curtains covered all four sides. And then suddenly all four side panels fell away, revealing an empty cage.
Blaine moved across the stage to a raised platform, and once again, raised his arms. Curtains rose to hide the platform, then Blaine dropped his arms, and the curtains fell away once again. There, in the center of the platform was Kurt, holding Raja's leash.
The audience screamed and cheered. After taking his bow, Kurt began leading Raja off stage, waving as they went.
"You know," came a voice as Kurt knelt to detach Raja's leash and let him loose a bit before getting his treat. "You look even sexier when you are brandishing that tiger." Kurt could feel himself tense up. He didn't need to look up to know who it was.
Adam moved forward, reaching out a hand to run down Kurt's bare arm and the assistant clenched his jaw. He hated when Adam spoke to him like that, but he hated it even more when he decided it was his god given right to touch Kurt in any way.
"I think your biceps are getting even bigger." Adam let out a small groan. "I would love to lick and bite and nip all along them."
The only warning was a small hrunging sound, and then the large cat swiped out his paw, knocking Adam's hand away from Kurt, causing the Brit to cry out in pain at the impact. Raja continued to let out a low snarl.
"Don't ever touch me again," Kurt hissed. "You're very lucky. Raja kept his claws sheathed. He could have detached your arm from your body."
Adam's eyes darkened. "That is exactly why wild beasts should not be allowed to roam free!" He glared at Kurt.
"And yet they let you walk around without supervision," Kurt spat out.
"You should be the lucky one! If I didn't like you so much, I'd have that animal reported to animal control! And then it would be bye bye precious kitty. This show would sink like the Titanic!"
Tina, who happened to have witnessed the incident, moved to stand in front of the stagehand. "I'm pretty sure there are at least three dozen witnesses here who will say that Raja was nowhere near you all night. It would be your word against all of us. You're just lucky Blaine didn't see it. He'd have fired you on the spot."
Adam snorted and crossed his arms, giving Tina the stink eye. "Right, the stage crew is going to back up someone who doesn't get along with the rest of the cast, because that sounds like exactly how things would go."
"I'm pretty sure the stage crew is on Kurt's side in this," Sam said, appearing from nowhere. "Kurt has never disrespected any member of the crew. Unlike you, who seems to think you're way too good for the rest of us."
Kurt was still crouching beside the tiger, and was hugging him, nuzzling his face in Raja's fur, whispering about what a good boy he was.
"This isn't over. Pretty soon, this show will be all washed up anyway," Adam retorted, turning and marching away from the three of them.
Kurt stood slowly, once he was gone. "Thank you. Both of you. Raja was just trying to protect me. He never would have reacted like that with anyone else. He's not dangerous." He sounded worried that the others might now be afraid of the beautiful animal.
"We know that, Kurt," Sam said. "If Raja had intended to harm anyone, he would have done it a long time ago. Besides, we all know how you raised him from a baby. That animal is the most civilized tiger in the world. And we all love him. None of us want to see anything bad happen to Raja anymore than you do, right Tina?"
Tina was nodding. "I admit, I was terrified of him when you first brought him in, but he's kind of grown on me. He is so protective of you, Kurt. We won't let anything happen to him."
Kurt couldn't fight the tears that brimmed in his eyes. "Thank you," he said, quietly. "I need to give Raja his treat, and then work on his penmanship."
"Penmanship?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Kurt said with a smile. "Raja is a very smart tiger and we've decided with his fan base growing, he wants to be able to sign his own autographs."
Tina and Sam exchanged a look, as if trying to decide if the other man was pulling their legs, but Kurt just turned and walked away with the feline at his side.
…
klainedreams34: Just over two weeks until my boyfriend and I see BBlackwell in Vegas! I can't wait!
lucy8675309: I've got tickets for Vegas too! It should be exciting, seeing Blaine return to where it all started, and to be a judge for the season finale of The Illusionist season four!
coffeeorderwrites: I remember when he won season one! He's still the most successful of the winners, too! I heard that this tour has already grossed more than Criss Angel's last tour!
grlnxtdr29: I wish I could go see him in Vegas, but I'll be watching it live on TV.
IheartBlaine: That was an amazing show tonight! And thank you for the wedding gift, BBlackwell! We'll add it to the funds for our honeymoon! You really didn't have to do that!
IShipBlina: I'm really happy for everyone who is happy tonight. I made an appointment with a therapist today. Maybe one day I'll find someone to make me happy.
KurtHummelRockstheMagic: Am I the only one who drools everytime Kurt struts around with that magnificent beast? No? Okay, good.
lestersbonnet (Formerly Kina4eva): {(HUGS)} IShipBlina! We're all here to love and support each other. DM me if you need someone to talk to.
WildeKitty: I just won tickets for Wednesday night's show in LA! My boss raffled them off as a reward for our office having zero absences this past month! I'm so happy!
Kurtisastar: The show would be nothing without Kurt. He doesn't need any of the others, not even that flea infested, pathetic excuse for a tiger!
yadivagirl: Wow, Kurtisastar, picking on a tiger that can't speak for himself? What, are you compensating for a microscopic appendage?
RajasRagina: Lord Tubbington is putting a curse on you for daring to disrespect his friend!
KingRaja: Hrumf (Translation; I'll show you mine if you show me yours.)
BlackbirdTears: I think you're just jealous because Kurt won't give you the time of day.
…
"Cheers!" Elliott said, raising his glass. "Another disaster averted by Blaine's quick thinking, and Raja's curious nature."
Kurt sipped from his glass and shook his head. "What bothers me now is what reason Kurtisastar has to insult my sweet baby, Raja."
"I have a theory," Quinn said, stirring the cherry in her diet cherry coke. "I think it's Adam. Tina told me about what happened between tricks tonight. I think Raja pissed him off. And he's too obsessed with you to focus his anger on you, so is directing it at everyone else."
Blaine looked confused. "What happened between tricks?"
"Adam was hitting on me again, and Raja swiped at him with his paw, bruised his hand up pretty bad. Adam told me I was lucky he liked me so much, or else he would be calling animal control."
Blaine frowned. "I'm really starting to hate that guy."
"I've been watching him," Sam said. "Unfortunately I can't keep my eyes on him the entire night. I don't have the seniority to slack off to find proof that he's the one causing problems."
Kurt, who had rested his head on Blaine's shoulder, suddenly shot straight up. "I've got an idea. Adam is on the same bus as Tina, Rachel, and Mike. Maybe either one of them, or you if you offer to drive their bus, can check his bunk for duct tape."
Sam shook his head. "That wouldn't be proof enough. We all carry duct tape for emergencies."
Wes took a sip of his coffee. He never drank alcohol. "I'm working on a solution for that. Unfortunately Beiste just hasn't had the chance to implement it yet. I'll see if I can get him to set it up before the shows tomorrow night."
Blaine wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist and started rubbing soothing circles into his side. "While you're at it, Wes, might be a good idea to have Beiste look into the Kurtisastar account. I don't doubt Quinn's thoughts, but mere speculation is not enough for confirmation."
"I'm having our SM specialist vet all the accounts that post under the BBlackwell tag. You'll be happy to know we've dealt with KelliotStalker already. We've hit a bit of a snag with the Disillusioned account, though. Our hacker seems to think they've hired a hacker of their own, because the URL has been redirected to six different routers in Europe."
"What makes you think they aren't a hacker themselves?" Elliott asked.
"Because we think we know who they are, and they aren't that smart," Wes said. "And don't bother asking who, I won't tell you until we catch them."
Kurt let out a sigh and dropped his head back onto Blaine's shoulder. "This is all so complicated. I feel like I'm being attacked from all sides. Adam might be trying to ruin Blaine because he thinks I'm pining over him. Chandler was stalking Elliott and me, which is freaking creepy as all hell. And now I've got this Disillusioned person sending threats they may or may not be intending to actually act on." He wrinkled his nose, thinking of the rancid meat. "When did everything turn into a farce? I just want to help Blaine make magic and live happily ever after with him."
Blaine kissed his temple. "It's the price of being famous, I'm afraid. But Wes and Beiste will keep you safe, and by the end of the tour we'll go public with our relationship, and the rest of the world can go to hell."
"I love you so much, Blaine," Kurt said, nuzzling his head impossibly more into his shoulder.
"Aww, you two are so cute sometimes. Makes me want to vomit rainbows," Quinn quipped.
Blaine looked over at her. "You've been having late night phone calls with Santana again, haven't you?"
The blonde woman shrugged. "She called when we were on the bus today, and you two were too busy making moony eyes at each other to notice. She was worried after reading some of those tweets and hearing about all the drama. She'll be at the Ellen show on Monday, by the way."
"Good," Kurt replied. "I feel like we haven't seen her in forever and I need her snark in my life."
Wes let out a put upon sigh. "She better behave herself. Last time the five of you hung out, she almost got you all arrested for drunk and disorderly behavior."
Sam looked confused. "Who is Santana?"
Blaine and Elliott both did a spit take and stared at Sam incredulously.
"Seriously?" Elliott asked. "How is it you of all people, haven't met her yet?"
The younger man still looked confused. "I only joined the crew last year. I just keep my head down and get my work done. I can't afford to lose this job. Two thirds of my paycheck goes to my parents to help them with my younger brother and sister."
Blaine reached out his free hand and patted Sam reassuringly on the shoulder. "Sam, I promise you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You are not now, nor will you ever be, in danger of losing your job. In fact, if we can find a reason to do so, I'd like to offer you Adam's job, once he's gone. It will mean higher pay and responsibilities that come with great trust, which you've already earned. Right, Wes?"
Wes nodded his head. "You've more than proven your trustworthiness, and you've also shown you are a hard worker, dedicated to doing things the right way the first time. If I had enough proof, I'd fire Adam tomorrow and hire you on the spot."
Sam blushed. "Thank you. But I still don't know who Santana is."
"Oh we must make sure Sam is with us at Ellen's studio then. If she gives you a nickname, it means you're officially one of us by her standards," Kurt said.
Quinn laughed at the still obviously clueless expression on Sam's face. "Santana, Blaine and I all grew up together. I was the quiet one who had a brief rebel phaze, Blaine was the smart one who had all the charm, and Santana was…" she paused searching for the right words.
"Santana was the spawn of Satan who got us all in trouble," Blaine said.
Kurt grinned. "She's like the Latina version of Paris Hilton, but with a better reputation and a higher IQ."
"Oh, well," Sam said. "She sounds…"
"Exactly!" Elliott, Quinn, and Kurt all said.