After Santana heard about the incident at the news studio. Or rather after she saw it blowing up Twitter, she hired double the security. She insisted that Blaine cancel the open soundcheck, but he adamantly refused. So long as Kurt was protected, he said, let the crazies come after him he could take care of himself.
"Tu, chico estupido." She mumbled at him as she stormed off and assigned the guards their positions. She, Jeff, and Kurt were to attend everything Blaine did including the soundcheck, VIP meet and greet, and standing just backstage during the concert.
Blaine didn't argue this point. He thought it was best Kurt remain in his line of vision anyway. They had been back in New York for a week and he hadn't let Kurt out of his sight yet. Every time Kurt went to work, Blaine was there. Anytime Kurt asked for alone time, Blaine gave it to him, by sitting in the other room with the door open. Burt had gotten it right when he said they were going to look after each other.
"I'm going to ask one more time, and I strongly advise you change your answer." Santana sighed and glared at Blaine through his dressing room vanity. "Will you please cancel the open soundcheck?"
Blaine allowed Kurt to adjust his bowtie as he looked through the mirror back at his exasperated manager. "Absolutely not. It is a really cool thing we are doing. It's the last US concert and I wanted to do something special. It's a very select group of individuals and they have already been vetted upon ticket purchase."
"If people couldn't hide things from a criminal background check then I wouldn't have a job." Santana smoothed her hands over her skintight dress and grinned.
"Is Kitty on her way? I want to get a lot of coverage of this for my social media. I invited a lot of people that deserve a thanks and this was the only way I could think to give it."
"Most people just send a fruit basket." Jeff laughed from the corner where he was lying across the couch.
"Giving himself to them is like giving them a fruit basket." Santana mumbled.
"That was a poorly constructed insult even by your standards." Kurt glared up at Santana before smoothing Blaine's hair and giving him a kiss on the forehead.
"At least someone sticks up for me." Blaine smiled at Kurt then turned and made a face at Santana. She bared her teeth at him and left the room.
"She will calm down once everything goes smoothly." Jeff assured.
"Yeah, then she will claim it was her idea all along." Kurt added, walking across the room to sit on the armrest of the couch by Jeff's feet.
"Hey while we're all here and we have a few minutes. I wanted to ask you something, Jeff."
"What is it Blaine?" He quickly sat up and leaned forward, giving his boss his full attention.
"So Kurt and I are going to get married right before the European tour. In just a few weeks." Blaine was getting more nervous with each word he spoke. Jeff raised his eyebrows. In all honesty, he was the first of their close friends. (Aside from Mercedes of course) that had been told the date. They were planning on sending the invites out the next day. "And I was wondering, if you would be my best man?"
Kurt smiled and clapped his hands excitedly. Jeff looked between them a little puzzled. "Do you want me up there in case someone crashes and you need help?"
Blaine laughed. He left the vanity and plopped down on the table right in front of Jeff. "No. Jeff I want you to be my best man. Not my bodyguard. Your only duty for the day will be to make sure I make it there on time and don't forget the ring."
"What about like Rachel or even Sam. Maybe Santana would be a better choice." Jeff was nervously rambling. Listing everyone else he could think of that came in contact with Blaine more than once.
"Jeff." Blaine put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I want you to be my best man. We've been friends since Dalton. We were roommates. Study partners. Dance partners." Blaine chuckled at a memory. "There is no one I can think who I trust more to stand beside me as I marry the love of my life."
Jeff smiled at him, still a little confused but ready to accept the request.
"Plus, you do know Karate, which may come in handy during the bachelor party." Jeff and Kurt both tilted their heads at Blaine's strange vision for what his bachelor party was going to look like.
"I'm not so sure I should let you have a bachelor party anymore." Kurt raised his eyebrows at him.
"I would love to be your best man, Blaine." Jeff shot up and Blaine followed after him. They gave each other a sturdy hug before pulling away. Blaine nodded over at Kurt.
"Alright now we just need to invite everyone else."
"Yeah. But I think you have other things to worry about right now." Kurt laughed and pointed at his wrist. Blaine checked his watch and scrambled out of the room, with Kurt and Jeff in his wake. They ran smack dab into Santana and Kitty in the hall.
"Alright gang, everybody ready for hell?" Santana took a headcount and looked each of them in the eye.
"If by hell you mean an exciting night full of fun activities then yes." Blaine was bouncing up and down as everyone else watched with solemn expressions. They loved Blaine. But he was really the only one that loved the stuff before the concert.
Kitty pushed Blaine through the stage door and everyone followed them out. Blaine was met with cheers as he began the soundcheck with all his fans on stage.
He let a few of them strum his guitar. He showed the nurse that had helped Kurt a few chords. He held it out for her to take but she shook her head, he laughed and pushed it closer toward her. She finally held it and giggled toward the friend she had brought along.
A man about Blaine's age was also there. Blaine was testing the mic and saw the guy mouthing along to the words. Blaine held the mic out and the guy closed his lips and stared wildely at him.
"Oh, come on. Please." He wiggled the microphone between them. "We can sing it together." Blaine began singing again and stood closer to the boy. He grinned then started singing with Blaine, their voices ringing through the stadium seating. Everyone clapped for them after they sang a few bars together. Kurt wooed and gave the guy a thumbs up.
Blaine took everyone on a quick tour through the backstage area. Jeff and Santana demanded they do a count every time they stopped. And luckily no one in the group understood her, when Blaine decided to let everyone peek inside his dressing room.
"Do you actually even dress in there?" An older woman asked.
"No mostly I just use it to take naps and make out with Kurt in between sets." A few of the fans cackled and Kurt blushed wildly. "I'm just kidding. It just depends on the show. I didn't want you guys to see me in my usual lazy soundcheck outfit, so I came here dressed like this."
"Is that what you always do during soundcheck?"
"In LA I actually let my friend Sam make Darth Vader noises to make sure the mic was working. In one of the southern states, I was going to be performing on an outdoor stage and I didn't want my hair to frizz up in the humidity, so I sent my social media director out to test everything."
"Why do we never get photo evidence of your frizzy hair?"
"Because as Kurt so lovingly might say, I look like Borat."
They all whipped their heads toward Kurt to see his reaction. "I'll snap a picture of him leaving the shower sometime and post it so you can all witness the full fro." A few of them laughed and some of the younger people fanned themselves at the thought of post-shower Blaine.
"Do I need to take away your phone privileges in the bathroom?" Blaine made a tsk noise and Kurt just shrugged.
"If you take away my phone privileges, I will take away your gel privileges."
"You wouldn't dare!" Blaine gasped and threw a hand over his heart. The crowd was loving their playful banter.
"Alright everybody time to head back to the stage." Santana called out as Jeff ran a headcount gesturing with his arm the direction everyone should head.
Blaine put an arm around Kurt's waist and they followed behind the group.
"Do you go to every show, Kurt?" A person toward the back asked over their shoulder.
"Only the ones that are located conveniently close to me."
"Doesn't it get boring watching the same show?"
"Nothing about Blaine Anderson could ever be boring." He grinned over at him.
"I just want you to know that I've shipped you guys since the beginning. Since the boat picture. Since the mystery camera man fiasco. I've been a Klainer from the start." The boy had pushed through the crowd behind him, so he could walk backwards directly in front of Kurt and Blaine. "My best friend Savannah kept telling me you and Sebastian should be together because it makes for a cuter story, but I told her absolutely not Sebastian is a piece of shit and you two belong together."
Blaine tried not to laugh at his obsessive fanboy.
"You got that right." Was all Kurt said in response to the boy calling Sebastian a piece of shit.
"Thank you for your devoted shipping." Blaine nodded his head. "Please tell me there was no fan art."
"There was so much fan art."
"Did you at least give us abs." Kurt asked morbidly. The mere thought of people drawing him and manipulating pictures of him that he would never see gave him the creeps.
"Oh yes." The boy nodded his head and offered them both a sultry smile. Him being only fifteen they awkwardly laughed and shook their heads as opposed to continuing the conversation.
Once everyone was out of ear shot, Kurt turned to Blaine and whispered. "Does it weird you out that we are kind of like porn for gay teenagers?"
"If it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure it's not just the gay kids." Blaine laughed and gave Kurt a kiss on the cheek.
Once they were back onstage. Blaine thanked them all for coming to the first ever open soundcheck. They all voiced their love of him, Kurt, and the opportunity to do such an up close and personal meet and greet. Kitty swiftly handed out free swag and Blaine signed it for everyone. They were all shown out of the stadium until it was officially time to let people in to sit down.
"That was awesome." Blaine smiled and waved as the last people left. The last people just so happened to be Joseph, his mother, and the nurses that had been with Kurt and Blaine in Ohio.
"It was actually pretty interesting." Kurt grinned.
Everyone looked over to Santana whose mouth was shut as she actively avoided making eye contact with everyone. Blaine smiled at her expectantly until she reluctantly gave in.
"Okay fine. I'm glad you didn't cancel it. Luckily, no one tried to kill you and the people that were here were all devoted fans and very much deserved that experience. Is that what you want to hear from me?"
"Yes. Very much. Thank you, Santana." He batted his eyelashes at her. She just rolled her eyes and walked away.
"15 minutes before doors open. Hour and 45 until show time. Stay out of trouble." She waved a hand for Kitty to follow her. She skipped after her, her eyes glued to her phone.
"I have a few ideas on what to do until then." Kurt nudged closer to Blaine.
"Santana told me I'm not to leave you guys whatsoever tonight. But if you're doing that, then I'm at least standing outside the door."
"See you're going to be the perfect best man." Blaine laughed and punched his shoulder as Kurt dragged him backstage.