Okay, reuploading this. I added the little bit with Kurt at the end because I did not like where this ended. Anyway, a little bit of angst due to the fluff we've had for the last two chapters :)
Blaine arrived at work twenty minutes later than he intended, repeatedly going back to Kurt for 'just one last kiss' before finally pulling himself away and getting down to the theatre with just under an hour until the curtain went up.
"Hey Hobbit," Santana greeted from the doorway as Blaine passed her dressing room, and although there was a slight teasing in her voice her expression didn't match it. She looked… not sad, but almost pitying, and Blaine stopped abruptly in the corridor, frowning at her.
"What's up, San?" Blaine stepped over to her, gently placing his hand on her elbow and searching her face with his soft yet concerned gaze.
"Not me, Stupid," She smirked, shrugging Blaine's hand off and shifting so that she was leaning against the doorframe with the arm Blaine had held. "I'm fine."
"Well what is it then?" Blaine's brow furrowed even deeper, trying to understand what was going on with Santana today. But Santana didn't reply; she merely raised her eyebrows and nodded down the hall, indicating to the door next to Blaine's.
Thad's room.
"Ah," Blaine winced. He stared at Thad's door, wondering how his best friend was coping, but more importantly just how Blaine was going to tell him that he had been the one Kurt had left Thad for.
"Do you know what happened?" Santana's voice snapped him out of his troubled reverie. Blaine shook his head numbly, his eyes being drawn back to Thad's door. He didn't actually know what had happened in that hour he had been out, or what had been said between his two friends. He only knew that Kurt had told Thad that they 'weren't working', and that Kurt didn't want to 'lead Thad on' any longer; there was no mention of a 'someone else', a particular 'Thad's-best-friend-and-Kurt's-roommate-who-he's-in-love-with someone else'. "Are you ok, Hobbit?"
Blaine realised he'd been staring at Thad's door for the past few minutes, still stood in front of Santana who was now watching him carefully. "Yeah, I'm... I…" Blaine turned to face her. "I'm fine. I'd… better go and make sure he's okay." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Thad's room and Santana nodded, smiling softly before watching Blaine walk down the corridor. Blaine glanced nervously at her as he knocked on Thad's door, just managing to catch her wave slightly before disappearing into her dressing room.
"Blaine?" Thad's watery voice made Blaine's head snap round to see his best friend stood red-faced with tear-stained cheeks. Blaine didn't say anything, just silently stepped forward with his arms out to pull Thad into a hug. Thad fell into his arms, sobbing into his shoulder as Blaine tried to shuffle him into the room far enough so that he could close the door behind him.
Blaine finally had Thad calmed down ten minutes later. "So, how are you doing, T?" Blaine asked gently, a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Better," Thad sniffed. "How's Kurt?"
"He's… okay," Blaine hesitated, his heart rapidly increasing as he tried to keep conversation off of Kurt just in case he slipped up and told Thad everything. "But I'm more worried about you right now," Blaine squeezed Thad's shoulder, making him look at him. "You're my best friend, and you know I'll always be here for you." If Blaine had felt bad before, he felt terrible now; Thad smiled up at him and hugged him, whispering a 'thank you' in his ear, leaving Blaine stinging with guilt. "No problem."
Thad pulled away and glanced up at the clock on his wall, now grinning rather than sobbing. "Oh shit, B, you better go get ready!" Blaine looked up at the clock to see that he only had 10 minutes until curtain call and jumped up off of the sofa and out of the room. Much to Thad's amusement he reappeared seconds later, scrabbling to grab his bag before running back out the room and down the corridor to his own dressing room.
Kurt couldn't help it; he skipped down the corridor to his room, skipped back down again and then launched himself onto the sofa, giggling gleefully as the pillows broke his fall.
He'd done it. He'd finally been honest to Blaine – and himself – and admitted his feelings out loud. Obviously he was a little dejected that he couldn't go and scream if from the rooftops, but he was never really one for attracting a lot of public attention to himself, especially after the way he was treated in high school. Rachel would probably kill him for not telling her straight away, but Kurt had made a promise to Blaine that they would keep this quiet until they were ready to tell everyone.
The morning kept replaying in Kurt's head; how he'd sat with Thad for at least half an hour before finally building up the courage to tell Thad the fact that he wanted to end whatever it was that was going on between them. It took him another ten minutes to actually bring it up and say it out loud, and the discussion had then only lasted ten minutes before Thad left, crying and sobbing but reassuring Kurt he understood. Kurt had spent the next ten minutes on his own, thinking over what he had just said to Thad and what he now wanted to say to Blaine, each of them making him equally as nervous.
But now he'd told Blaine, and Blaine had felt the exact same way. And even though they were keeping quiet about it, they were together, and Kurt didn't want that to ever change.
Things were perfect.
Blaine didn't think about telling Thad about him and Kurt for the whole of the first half – there was no point. When they broke for the twenty minute intermission, Blaine headed back to his dressing room to call Kurt and tell him that Thad was doing much better now, as had been Kurt's request.
Kurt picked up after the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kurt, it's me." Blaine made sure his door was closed over – there was no way he wanted anyone to overhear this.
"Oh, hey Blaine! How is he?"
"Better. He was still crying when I arrived earlier-"
"Still?"
"Yeah. But he's okay now. He's all smiles again after the first half." Blaine heard Kurt chuckle softly on the other end of the phone.
"That's good – as long as he's okay."
"Yeah." There was a small pause between them, and Blaine moved over to his dressing table and sat down, eyeing the picture of him and Kurt as kids that still sat in the corner of his mirror. "So, how are you?" Blaine asked in a sing-song voice.
"I'm good," Kurt giggled in reply. "Not to sound horribly cliché but… I miss you."
"I miss you, too." Blaine could just imagine Kurt sat on the sofa right now, his phone pressed to his ear as he hugged a cushion to his chest with a wide smile on his face, eyes twinkling. "I still can't believe it, y'know."
"What do you mean?"
"Us," Blaine said simply in reply, and heard Kurt sigh softly in his ear. "I just can't believe I can finally tell you that I love you." A slight colour rose on Blaine's cheeks at saying it even though Kurt couldn't see him – those three little words still gave him huge butterflies. He leant forward, resting his hand against his forehead as he closed his eyes, just listening to Kurt's voice on the line.
"Blaine!" Kurt hissed, although Blaine could practically hear the massive grin on his lips.
"What?"
"What if someone hears you?"
"No-one will hear me, Kurt, I'm in my dressing room-"
"Kurt?" Blaine jumped in the chair where he sat and span round to see Thad standing in his doorway, bottom-lip quivering and eyes welling up again.
"Blaine? What's- What's going on?" But Kurt's voice fell on deaf ears as Blaine froze in his seat, a deer-in-the-headlights look plastered across his features.
"You- You're the reason, aren't you?" Thad whispered, his voice breaking as Blaine's brain decided on that moment to give up on him. "Aren't you?" Thad asked again, his voice stronger now as his fists clenched by his sides. Blaine could hear the whispers of other cast members starting out in the hallway, and as he stood he could see Santana gaping at the exchange between the two friends over Thad's shoulder.
"Thad, I-" Blaine started, but Thad turned and pelted down the corridor, pushing through the crowd that had accumulated around Blaine's dressing room. Blaine could still hear Kurt's panicked voice coming from down the phone.
"Thad? Blaine, what happened? What's going on?"
"Sorry, babe, I gotta go." Blaine hung up and threw his phone back down onto his dressing table, rushing out into the corridor to try and follow after his best friend. He could just see Thad's mop of black hair disappearing around the corner at the end of the hallway and took a few steps forward to chase after him before a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. He struggled against the grip, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he desperately tried to break free and call after Thad, but whoever it was holding onto him, they were holding fast.
Blaine span around to see Santana gripping his wrist and glaring at him with a stern expression. "I wouldn't bother, Blaine," She said softly, and that made Blaine instantly stop struggling; she never called him 'Blaine', or at least very rarely. "He won't want to talk to you right now." She continued. "Just let him vent on his own and he'll come back soon enough."
"He better do," Sue's voice shocked them all – she never came backstage during a show. She was staring at the corner where Thad had disappeared round, her face contorted in a horrible scowl. "Curtain call is in TEN MINUTES!" She screamed before glaring at the rest of the cast, her gaze hovering on Blaine, before turning on her heel and stalking off.
Everyone stood frozen where they were for the next ten seconds before everyone began scampering around, most surrounding Blaine and pressing him for what had happened. Santana, who was still tightly holding Blaine's wrist, stalked to her dressing room with Blaine in tow. She threw Blaine into the centre of the room before turning back to the crowd outside.
"Don't you guys have something better to do?" She growled, prompting everyone to stop mid-sentence and scurry away. Santana slammed the door shut, making Blaine jump, and then turned to lean on it. "Bloody animals." She muttered, shaking her head to herself before sighing heavily and moving over to the sofa she somehow had in her room. For a second Blaine thought she had forgotten about him as he stood fiddling with his fingers in the centre of the room, but as soon as she sat down she looked up at him expectantly.
"So, come on, Pretty Pony, tell Aunty 'Tana what happened." She patted the seat next to her and Blaine frowned; Santana was known for her love of gossip, harvesting it from anyone she could, but Blaine was vaguely aware of a softer side to her – a caring side – that not many people saw. Was this it?
He shuffled over and sat down, curling his knees up to his chest as he sighed heavily. "Well, you see it all started about five weeks ago…"
"Sorry, babe, I gotta go." And then the line went dead.
Kurt stared at his phone in disbelief and fear. What had just happened? One moment he'd been chatting happily to Blaine, jokingly scolding him, and the next Blaine was silent with mumbled voices in the background. And then Blaine had been talking to Thad and he'd disappeared. Had Thad overheard him? Had he found out about Kurt and Blaine merely hours after Kurt had ended things with him?
"Oh shit…"
