Notes: THANK YOU for all the reviews, follows, and favourites. You ar amazing, there's nothing more I can say.
Also, I hope you remember the moment to wich Hunter will make reference later on, something about a dance ;)
The song is The boys of Fall by Kenny Chesney, I just think it really suits the Warblersl.
7. The boys of fall
They didn't let just anybody in that club
Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood
Maybe this is not the place Blaine would have chosen to be on a Friday night. Maybe he doesn't enjoy the beer or the loud music or all the people dancing like it's the last night of their lives, but maybe he does. Maybe this is what he's wanted all along, having fun and letting go. Maybe he's not made to mope around and cry in corners and feel sorry for himself, maybe he's not made to be that guy who's never good enough, maybe he's not made to be just the other half of someone else, instead of the whole two halves of his whole self. Maybe he's made to be someone's beginning of the night, not their morning after.
And this is what he's thinking about, while he sits on a table with Nick, Jeff, Flint and Thad, silently, just taking in the sight of the four boys laughing and joking and not giving a dam about the fact that it's been more than a year since the last time they were like this. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be with people, maybe you just have to forgive and move on, and everyone else will do the same with you.
"You should have seen Sebastian." Jeff is saying, between laughs. "He was so nervous, he almost tripped over himself."
"He spent the rest of rehearsal pouting!"
And they all laugh, and Blaine just stares at them, and he can't stop his lips from curving upwards.
"What's with you?" Thad asks, elbowing slightly in the ribs to get his attention. "You're awfully quiet."
"I'm just remembering how much I liked to listen to you guys talking."
"You'll have to come visit more often, then, we talk a lot." Flint says.
Blaine stays silent for a second, but realizes that if he doesn't say it now, he probably never will, and it will haunt him forever.
"I don't know how we ended up in the same bar at the same time, the same night." He begins. "But I think it might be a sign."
"A sign of Sebastian liking only two bars in all Westerville?"
"A sign for me...for us." He looks around, nervous, and when he manages to bring his eyes back up, and look at them, they're all smiling. "You're not mad at me." It's a statement, not a question. "You don't blame me."
Jeff laughs, takes a sip of his beer and looks at him, and it shocks Blaine, like it used to shock him every time, how transparent Jeff's eyes are.
"We all mess up sometimes, Blaine. There's nothing to blame you for."
"You'll always be one of us, Blainers." Ads Nick. "We don't get mad at our people."
This is how belonging feels like. Blaine thinks. I almost forgot.
.
The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes are Hunter's.
His breathing catches in his throat, his mouth goes dry, something flutters in his stomach, and he's completely unable of looking away.
This must be how it feels like. He thinks. This must be how it feels like to belong.
"Morning." Hunter's voice is hoarse and deep, and it sends shivers down Sebastian's spine.
"Morning." He whispers back, afraid that if he speaks just a little bit louder, he might wake up, or Hunter might wake up, and this would all end up being a dream.
They stay silent; staring at each other, like they're both scared of looking away.
Hunter shifts a little, and Sebastian instantly tenses, scared, but the other boy only moves closer, pressing his palm flat on the curve of his abdomen. It's not tender, and he makes no move to bring him close, but his hand is firm and steady, and the whole gesture has an air of possessiveness that makes Sebastian relax instantly.
"We might burn in hell." Hunter whispers.
"You're too smart to say shit like that."
Hunter smiles and shakes his head.
"That's how they raised me."
Sebastian wishes it was easier, but he knows it'll never be like that with them.
"Give me one reason to not give up, and I promise I won't."
Hunter's fingers press a little harder, and he leans forward until their lips are almost brushing, and they stay there, exchanging breaths, and then Hunter kisses him, soft and slow, and his eyelashes flutter against Sebastian's skin, tracing invisible patterns, and leaving a hundred invisible little scars.
"Dance with me, Seb." He whispers, and he hopes Sebastian doesn't hear the utter desperation in his voice.
Sebastian's lips break into a grin, green eyes sparkling like a thousand little champagne bubbles.
"I thought you'd never ask, Clarington."
.
Sebastian calls an emergency Warbler meeting Sunday at 11 am.
They all look bad, most of them look hangover, but Sebastian is smiling so hard, his lips are about to reach his ears. This is the first time that it's not him the one who looks like he hasn't slept in weeks.
"Okay." He begins, walking from one Warbler to another and giving them each a sheet of paper. "This is how we're going to win Nationals."
"Uh...Sebastian. What is this?" asks Thad, staring at the piece of paper in his hand with a raised eyebrow.
Sebastian jumps on the back of one of the velvet sofas.
"This is how we're going to make Ren understand everything, and join us."
"Understand everything?" Laughs Jeremy, a freshman with little talent but great enthusiasm.
"Understand everything." Sebastian repeats. "Since your captain here failed to impress our new potential recruit, we'll have to resort to drastic measures."
Nick crosses his arms over his chest.
"And you consider this a drastic measure?"
Sebastian smiles and Nick realizes for the first time just how old he seemed before, and how young he seems now, and it scares him a little, to imagine what kind of life Sebastian lived before he came to Dalton. He finds himself imagining all the possible things that might have happened to make Sebastian smile like that.
"Be thankful, my Captain, that I'm not blackmailing him, or something worse."
Nick shrugs and laughs.
"Good enough for me."
"Does anyone have anything to say about my song choice?" Sebastian asks, looking at the rest of the Warblers.
Nick notices, almost instantly, that Sebastian's truly just looking at one person.
"Not bad, Smythe." Hunter nods.
Nick looks from Hunter to Sebastian, and then to Jeff, who's looking at them, too, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, and then he looks at Nick, and he raises his eyebrows, and his lips move exaggeratedly, silently saying something Nick can't quite understand, but they keep alternating between looking at Hunter, and then at Sebastian, and then back at each other, and the whole thing doesn't really make any sense.
Nobody says anything about Sebastian's choice of song, because really, Sebastian might me a scheming bastard, but when he has a good idea, it usually is a really good idea.
.
When Ren walks into the rehearsal room, the Warblers are waiting for him; Hunter's sitting on a chair at the corner of the room, a fluffy white cat in his lap. Sebastian's seated in the arm chair, absentmindedly running his fingers through the cat's silky hair. Jeff's sitting at the piano next to the French windows. Nick's sitting on the back of the sofa, surrounded by other kids, some of whom Ren's seen around the school, some of whom he's never seen before.
"You ready to join us?" Sebastian asks, smiling at him like he knows he'll say yes.
"That's all you got?" Ren retorts, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You said." Sebastian begins. "That you don't do show choir, but you do country. You do football, and team play, and brothers in arms and all that crap you country people do, am I wrong?"
Ren shakes his head, suddenly intrigued.
"Well, we're going to show you that we can do all of that, and if after you still don't want to join us, then I'll just have to think of a way to bribe you."
"Go ahead." Ren says, staring at all those preppy kids, with their lives all mapped out for them, and he just knows that they're not capable of doing what Sebastian says they'll do. He knows that all they do is talk, but they understand nothing.
The first notes of the piano rise and fill the room and the Warblers begin to harmonize like only he Warblers know how, and then Nick starts to sing, and his voice is deeper and softer than Ren remembers.
"When I feel that chill, smell that fresh cut grass, I'm back in my helmet, cleats, and shoulderpads. Standin' in the huddle, listenin' to the call, fans goin' crazy for the boys of fall."
Sebastian stands, walking up to Ren, smile never leaving his lips, as he sings with the huskiest of whispers.
"They didn't let just anybody in that club, took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood, to get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall. Kings of the school, man, we're the boys of fall."
And they all do look like kings.
"Well, it's turn and face the Stars and Stripes, it's fighting back them butterflies." Hunter's deep voice rises above the others in perfect harmony. "It's calling in the air, "Alright, yes sir, we want the ball" And it's knockin' heads and talkin' trash, it's slinging mud and dirt and grass. It's I got your number, I got your back when your back's against the wall."
Ren takes a step backwards as all the voices rise together, like just one person with eleven different voices, all in one.
"You mess with one man, you got us all. We're the boys of fall."
Ren's surprised at how much they can show him, with just one song, and how much he can understand by just listening to their voices melt into each other, as they form the perfect sounds.
"It's I got your number, I got your back when your back's against the wall. You mess with one man, you got us all. We're the boys of fall."
He understands. He has no idea how this happened, but he understands. And he wishes he could just give in, he wishes it was easier, but it's not.
And not even the Warblers can change that.