It had been a few hours when the two bands decided to head over to Puck's garage to jam and fool around. Blaine had taken a seat next to Brittany in one of their vans and listened to her mindless babble. She told him about her pet cat, and his 'palace'. Most of the time all he needed to do was nod and smile, and sometimes adding in a comment that would fuel more conversation from her.
"Look, we're at Puck's magic studio!" she clapped, his lip quirked up in amusement, seeing the speakers and instruments strewn around the spacious garage. Brittany climbed over his lap to get out of the van and ran straight to the keytar leaning against a stool.
He saw Tina and Mike coming out of the second van behind theirs, and then he saw Finn trailing behind them along with Kurt smiling up at him fondly. Santana nudged Blaine by the shoulder and smiled.
Wow that was a foreign expression on her, but it was nice.
"Britt's cute don't you think?" Blaine chuckled at the question and stretched his back before replying, "She's adorable." Santana smiled again, before glancing out the window and looking at the others flooding into the garage.
"You know, Jasey Rae is pretty cute too, he blushes really easily." She winked, before opening the car door and stepping out. Blaine smiled softly to himself, before following behind Santana.
The first thing he saw when he walked into the garage was Kurt sitting on a wooden stool behind a mike with a wide grin on his face. Then he saw Brittany and Santana surrounding him with papers and muttering things to him. In the corner of the garage he saw Finn and Puck sharing tricks with their drumsticks, the other corner with Tina, Mike, and Sam messing around. He decided to succumb to Santana's stare, walking towards the three.
"I'm about to teach Kurt some parts to our songs." She showed him the papers, and he saw his own lyrics scribbled on it with blue ink.
"Why?" he raised a brow before leaning over Kurt's shoulder and reading them over. Kurt stiffed beneath him and Blaine realized how much he had invaded into Kurt's personal space. He leaned back and looked at Santana again.
"Because, if we have another singer with us who can sing, why should I have to sing the songs with you, Will said Kurt could sing it if he wanted to. Kurt said he's down with anything." She shrugged, before pointing at a few words to Kurt and muttering more things.
"Go get your guitar, Blaine. Let's show Hummel how it's done." She grinned proudly, pulling up two other stools for herself and Brittany. He sighed defeatedly at her order and went over to the corner with Tina and the guitars to grab a random one hanging on the wall. Tina looked at him curiously.
"Santana wants to try out Remembering Sunday with Kurt." He shrugged. She nodded and went back to her bass.
"Alright Blaine, let's just skip to the hook?" Blaine pursed his lips and began to strum the guitar.
"You follow after me." He bantered. He ignored Kurt's eyes and began singing.
"The neighbors said she moved away
Funny how it rained all day
I didn't think much of it then
But it's starting to all make sense"
Kurt looked at him with wonder, and Blaine forced himself to keep focus. Kurt's eyes were following his hands strumming the guitar with fascination before glancing up at him. Blaine looked away and cued Santana with his eyes, telling her to be ready. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder confidently and squeezed Kurt's thigh, telling him to pay attention. Blaine continued the verse,
"Oh, I can see now that all of these clouds
Are following me in my desperate endeavor
To find my whoever, wherever she may be"
He smirked as Santana began the hook easily, swaying back and forth, she had a unique voice.
"I'm not coming back
I've done something so terrible
I'm terrified to speak
But you'd expect that from me…"
Kurt was smiling at her with admiration, tapping his foot along with the guitar.
"I'm mixed up, I'll be blunt, now the rain is just
Washing you out of my hair…."
She pointed right in time on the paper resting on Kurt's lap before belting out the next part of the song powerfully.
" …and out of my mind,
Keeping an eye on the world,
From so many thousands of feet off the ground, I'm over you now
I'm at home in the clouds, and towering over your head"
Blaine stopped the song there and didn't continue, they heard clapping coming from all around the garage, but Kurt looked too dumbstruck to function.
"Um, Santana, I don't want to disappoint your fans by ruining the song." He bit his lip worriedly.
"I'm sure you'll sound perfect," Blaine couldn't stop the comment from falling out his mouth, and he noticed Santana's amused grin as Kurt reddened on the spot.
"I don't have that special, gritty something Santana has in her voice, I'll come off too weak, and it won't be as powerful as a whole song." His knee bounced up and down, as he explained things with his hands. Santana looked up from her hands and narrowed her eyes in thought at Blaine.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked, and he sucked on the inside of his lip.
Kurt had a real smooth, soft voice, it was fairly high and could be the best for –
"Yeah, Always Attract?" he smirked victoriously as she nodded back. Kurt watched the small interaction in confusion, voicing his concern. "What's Always Attract?"
"That, my precious dumpling, is the perfect song for you to sing. With Blaine." She smiled, rubbing his shoulder and smirking when he wore a foul expression at the nickname.
"Can I hear it?" he asked, and they were interrupted by Sam's voice.
"Hey, Kurt! Tina here wants to hear something? Up for it?" Kurt nodded in agreement before turning back around.
"I guess I'll just listen to the album version online, you think you can help me practice before we perform it on tour?" he looked pointedly at Blaine, and Blaine nodded immediately. "That's not a problem at all."
Kurt smiled before walking to the corner with the bassists and Sam, and then Santana clapped her hands delicately.
"Well played, Blaine. You don't really plan on only practicing the songs right? Maybe practicing some specific… vocal techniques? I wonder how high his voice could go while you'r-"
"Santana, stop." He interrupted gruffly. Santana and Brittany began a conversation, Santana ducking her head bashfully when Brittany compared her voice to an angel, and Blaine took a few steps away with a smirk.
He was about to step out for some fresh air when the sound of a guitar and a voice interrupted him.
"Left your t-shirt in my room
Still smells of you
And the picture you hung on the door
Lay smashed, picture perfect"
He turned slowly to see Kurt with his eyes closed, head rocking up and down, foot tapping lightly against the floor. Sam was next to him with a smug smile directed towards Tina, who was clapping inaudibly with a happy smile.
"Explains now
Clearly nothing left but a memory
We only made out
You never kissed me
That's how I learned to hold back all feeling"
Blaine wet his lips and slowly walked across the room and sat in a small couch behind Tina and Mike. Kurt's face was scrunched up, a beautiful, raw voice coming from his mouth.
" 'Wait, please don't go
I won't stay'
All these words on replay
I'm okay
It's all right
Good to know that you're fine."
Sam was smiling proudly at Kurt, strumming lightly and nodding along. Kurt's eyes had opened slightly, but they were focused at his feet. From the angle Blaine was sitting at, he could see Kurt's eyes fairly well. And they were wet.
"Somehow you have managed to get under my skin
More than anyone ever did
And if every hole makes a scar
And every scar marks its place
Then I will never live freely without your trace
And it'll never be fair
I wrote my songs for you and you never even cared
So I'll forget you,
I'll wash your t-shirt and kill the pillow
And cut you out of pictures"
Kurt's eyes had closed once more, and Blaine wondered if he was the one that had inspired this song.
"This drama sat shotgun
My eyes rained like autumn
Only the glove box knows how the story goes
Now that this bandage is broken
And the cuts left in open
I'll tell you just one thing
This wasn't worth the sting."
Tina clapped excitedly, Mike and Sam sharing knowing glances, proudly smiling at Kurt.
"That was awesome!" She exclaimed with a smile.
"It was the first song I wrote," Kurt smiled, scuffing the soles of his shoe on the stool shyly.
"You have to help me with this song I've been thinking of. It's about time that more people than Blaine write for our band." Tina looked back at Blaine with a teasing grin. Blaine only replied with a half-assed smile, his eyes trained on Kurt.
Mike and Sam started messing around with chord progressions, and Tina had struck up a conversation with Kurt. That is, until Blaine gripped Kurt's elbow tightly, pulling on him lightly out the garage. Tina's protests called out from behind him, and he heard Kurt stumbling and muttering in outrage. He pulled him out the door and around the corner of the house, away from their peers.
"What was that? If you wanted to talk, you could've asked." Kurt mumbled as he pulled his arm back from Blaine's grip.
"I just- I don't get- I want to- Well, did you write that song because of me? Of what happened?" He forced himself to ask the question that had plagued his mind from the start of the song. Kurt gave him a questioning look, before looking away with a grumbly sigh.
"I thought we agreed on not speaking of this again." Kurt said with crossed arms.
"Well, we can't just brush it off," Blaine explained.
"Well, it's not of importance to speak of," Kurt replied with the same amount of stubbornness in his voice.
"Well, it should be up for discussion because it's been bothering me ever since you've appeared back in my life and I think I will go insane." Blaine gripped the ends of his hair tightly in frustration.
"Why does it matter to you anyways?" Kurt muttered with an annoyed frown, Blaine pursed his lips for a moment before replying, "Your lyrics…" Kurt only narrowed his eyes slightly at Blaine's dumb response. His eyes scrutinized Blaine's expression before he sniffed lightly.
"What's up with you anyways? One second you're some silent guy who barely says a word, and it's written all over your face that you're still wallowing in guilt. Next, you're jumping through hoops to talk to me as if a friendship with me would have some value to you. And now, you're being forceful and pulling me out of garages to try to get me to talk, well guess what, it's a bit too late for any talking. And see, I told you just to leave it alone, we're already arguing now." Kurt trailed off, mumbling some things under his breath and speaking louder at other parts. Blaine felt like it would be inappropriate to point out that Kurt was doing most of the arguing.
"We can't just ignore this Kurt, and I'm sorry my… emotions go a bit crazy sometimes, I'm not angry at you or anything, I want to be friends, okay? And it's nearly impossible when I can't just forget what's happened." Blaine trailed off, trying not to raise his voice.
Kurt's fingers traced his own elbows lightly, his teeth tugged at his bottom lip as his feet twisted uncomfortably.
"Next week." Kurt says, "Next week, tour starts, come to our bus that morning and we'll talk. But we have to practice for- um-"
"Always Attract." Blaine finishes.
"Yeah- Always Attract. I'll try and… learn the lyrics on my own for now. But we'll talk okay? So… calm down." Blaine released a short laugh at Kurt's last words.
"You promised, alright? I'm gonna hold you to it." Blaine holds out his pinky finger expectantly like a child making a promise with a friend.
"Really?" Kurt snorts, Blaine only nodded and pushed his finger forward."
"Okay!" Kurt laughed as Blaine's finger pushed against his chest repeatedly.
"Next week." Kurt forces a small smile.
"Next week."
A/N: Okay, yup, this chapter was horrid, I know I know, because I'm going a bit crazy with all this because Blaine is so different in all of my stories and his emotions were just in turmoil and one second he's happy and the next he's angry and I'm having difficulty adjusting with his different personalities – CHRIST.
Songs used in this were:
Remembering Sunday by All Time Low
Make up Smeared Eyes by Automatic Loveletter
Also I thought it was a bit ironic or s/t cause the female vocals in Remembering Sunday is the female lead in automatic loveletter and I made kurt contradict himself technically; but the lyrics are good, so.