Blaine had slept in his car that first night, and every night after that for the next week. He pulled the sim card out of his phone without ever turning it on again and broke it in half and sold the phone itself to get some money for food. He was pretty much living off gas station dollar hot dogs.

It was nice in Telluride Colorado, the town was small and since it was off season for tourists there weren't many people around. There was always a chill in the air and every now and then you would wake up to frozen dew glittering off the blades of grass. The whole town seemed to be locked in its own little time bubble, everyone moving at their own pace, and coexisting with the simplest of ease, really there where a lot worse places to get stuck.

Blaine had looked around quite a few places asking for work, but they either weren't interested in hiring an "out of towner" or weren't hiring at all. Which is why he made the decision, as he aimlessly walked down a little street, to turn into a little out of the way bar, called Toni's.

Blaine pushed through the door and saw the place was empty, his steps echoing off the wooden floor, the lights over head were off and the place was dimly lit by what little sun filtered through the windows and came from some kind of room behind the bar, and a thick smell, that could only ever be associated with a pub, hung in the air. A man who looked to be in his late fifties walked out from the door behind the bar, wringing a glass with towel, "We don't open for another thirty minutes" he said with a kind smile "But if you're just look'n to escape the cold, you're welcome to sit a spell" his light drawl made Blaine smile and he took a tentative step forward.

"Um, no... I was just, uh, looking work... You wouldn't be hiring would you?" Blaine's voice was a little hopeful, although his brain was warning him not to be "Well, no.." the man answered honestly "Ya, nobody is..." Blaine said with a light chuckle rubbing the back of his neck "Sorry to take up your time" he said politely and turned to head for the door "Now, I didn't say you had to leave" the man's voice stopped him and Blaine turned back around, clearly at a little bit of a loss, and the man just looked at him for a moment, seemingly sizing him up.

"Tell you what" he said suddenly with a snap of his fingers "Wait right here!" he dropped the glass and dish rag on the bar before disappearing through the door once again, after a moment he reappeared with a plate and a glass of water in his hand "C'mer, have a seat" he waved toward one of the booths that lined the wall, Blaine cautiously walked over and slid in to the opposite side of the booth, he raised his eyebrows when the man pushed a plate with half a submarine sandwich on it toward him "Hungry? I made too much for myself, help yourself" he said with a grin and Blaine just blinked at him.

He looked down at the sandwich and back up at the stranger, it did look delicious and he hadn't eaten since around eleven o'clock the day before, but, "Oh no, I haven't got any money" Blaine said letting his eyes fall a little and the man let out a full chested laugh "I wouldn't charge ya if you did!" he said continuing to laugh and Blaine was more than a little confused "Don't worry about it son, go on, you look hungry"

The sincerity in his voice and the smile in his eyes pushed Blaine to grab the sandwich, he took the biggest bite he'd ever taken in his life and it only took a second for it to be completely chewed and gone and he was going for another bite "Well I see I wasn't wrong" the man said with amusement as he watched him eat. Blaine suddenly froze and gulped down the rest of the bite in his mouth "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, that was so rude..." he apologized quickly dropping the sandwich back to the plate "god what's gotten into me?" he muttered as he took as sip of water "Don't worry about it, I had three brothers and raised four boys of my own. I'm used to it" he smiled warmly at Blaine and Blaine gave him a small one in return.

"Now, keep eating, but tell me your story" the man said leaning forward on the table a bit "What?" Blaine's brow furrowed at him, how did he even know he had a "story", "Well, you're not from around here, you're not vacationing, you're not visiting family, you've got no money, and you're looking for work! So why are you here?" he smiled again and for some reason his smile was so comforting it just made Blaine want to trust him, maybe its because it was so warm and inviting.

"Well, I'm actually on my way to California, but this is as far as I got... I need to get a job for a while so I can make enough money for the gas to get me out there, but..." Blaine shrugged and the stranger nodded "No one wants to hire an outsider" he supplied and Blaine answered with a simple "ya"

He seemed to get lost in thought for a bit and then realized Blaine had stopped eating "Have some more sandwich kid" he said absent mindedly waving a hand at him, as embarrassed as Blaine had been about his manners, he was even hungrier that, so they sat in silence for a moment while Blaine chewed and the man thumbed at his chin.

"Wait, how long have you been in town?" he asked suddenly "Right at a week" Blaine answered around a bite of sandwich "Where have you been staying?" he asked eyebrows raising into his hair line "My car..." Blaine answered quietly, finding himself once again embarrassed "You've been sleeping in your car? For a week?" his voice was softer as he looked intently at Blaine, who just nodded and again they lapsed into silence.

"Tell you what!" the man suddenly slapped the table and Blaine jumped a little "I'll hire you to work the bar Sunday nights" he said with a smile and Blaine's eyes snapped up to look at him "I thought you said you weren't hiring?" Blaine asked confused "I'm not! Don't mean I can't hire you!" he laughed "I could use a day off"

Blaine's grin lit up his whole face "Oh god, thank so much!" he extended his hand and the stranger shook it "And as for the living situation..." he grabbed a napkin and pulled a pen out from behind his ear, scribbling something down then pushing it at Blaine "Go to this address, the guy who owns the place is renting it out and he owes me a favor. I'll give him a call and by the time you finish this and get over there, he'll probably already be there" the man stood up "Oh, names Don by the way" he said with one of his smiles "Blaine" he supplied and Don nodded "Well, nice to meet you Blaine"

He turned to head behind the bar and stopped at the edge of it "Be here at seven tomorrow morning, we'll go over the ropes before we open!" he called "Will do!" Blaine responded before scarfing down the rest of his sandwich and hurrying out the door. He entered the address into his GPS and found out it was only about five minutes away, he drove there quickly but double checked the address when he pulled up. Down a small stone path set back in the tall thin aspen trees, was a little log cabin, it looked like it could be on a post card.

Blaine slid out of his car and started up the path, an older man with a plain shirt and cowboy boots came walking around the corner of the porch. "You must be Blaine" he said with a cheery tone in his voice, he was tall and wiry and his legs a bit of a bow to them "Um, y-ya" Blaine stuttered, surprised at the use of his name from a total stranger "Well come on in" he gestured toward the door as he unlocked it and walked inside. Blaine was quick to follow him but stopped dead in his tracks when he got through the door.

He was staring at a large, fully furnished living room, with one of the biggest brick fireplaces he'd ever seen in the far corner, it was all very rustic and cliché for a log cabin but it fit perfectly "Now it's not much" the old man was talking as he walked through the living room and around a corner "It's only got one bedroom and this here's the kitchen" Blaine was right behind him now taking in the quaint little kitchen "Down that end yonder there's a dinning table" he explained and walked back passed Blaine "It's got a heater but it don't work the best so you'll probably wanna keep a fire go'n, there's plenty a wood out back and if you run out you're welcome to as much as you want from my place long as you come haul it off. And here's the bedroom" he pushed open the door to let Blaine see inside

"This place is amazing but..." Blaine started but the old man held his hand up to stop him "Now, Dons a good friend and I owe him a favor, so, I'll let you stay the first month for free and three hundred dollars a month after that" the man offered and Blaine's mouth fell open, he couldn't believe this was happening "I, uh, ya, yes! Thank you! Thank you very much" he suddenly started to grin and the old man nodded "Alright then. And like I said Dons a good man, you work hard for him and he'll treat ya right"

~//~

The old man Blaine rented the cabin from, who turned out to be named Horas, was right. Blaine busted his ass for Don from the very beginning, and it turned out he was a very fast learner, and the longer Blaine worked for him the better friends they became. By the time he'd been living there just over five months Blaine was closing the bar every Friday and Saturday and working miscellaneous ones in between, he also found himself working the slow parts of most weekday afternoons, but Sunday was always his day off. Which was ironic since that was the one day he was hired to work.

He enjoyed working there but the money wasn't all that great, his patrons were mostly older hard working men that had been frequenting the bar for well over a decade and college age kids with too much of daddy's money, who wanted to come and get a look at the "local color", the regulars didn't tip that much because well, they'd be back tomorrow to tip you again and the rich kids basically thought anyone working in the service industry didn't deserve their money. But it was ok, Blaine was enjoying living in this town, with these people, who seemed to accept him just the way he was and loved him anyway.

He had never hidden the fact that he was gay, it just didn't come up for the first few weeks, not until one slow night when he and Don where behind the bar talking. "So, you leave a girl behind in Ohio?" Don asked off handedly, Blaine had told him where he was from, but not the logistics of why he left and Don hadn't pushed it "Um, no" Blaine stifled a laugh and Don looked at with raised eyebrows "And why is that such a funny question?" he asked clearly amused "Oh, um... I'm gay" Blaine said without apprehension as he looked up at Don, he was done hiding who he was "Ah" Don nodded as a lot started to slip into place for him "So a boy then?" he asked as if Blaine's confession was the most normal thing in the world, and Blaine couldn't help but smile "Nope... Couple a few good friends though" Blaine's eyes dropped a little.

"Well" Don clapped him on the shoulder "When the tourist season starts we get all types, you never know, you might find your type!" Don smiled at him and Blaine looked back at him in of bit of awe "But you better watch some of these old women out here, they'll try to set you up with every guy out there! Match makers the lot of them" he laughed and Blaine just nodded.

And that was it, Blaine was out, the rest of the locals slowly found out but Blaine never caught any flack for it, not one cross word or homophobic look. In all honesty Blaine was more than a little surprised, but somehow in this little town, so far above the rest of the world, trapped in its own slow way of life, it's inhabitants had managed evolve enough to just see people as people, no matter who they are.

And now it was just another Friday night, somewhere past midnight. Blaine was wiping up a spill on the counter behind he bar when the door slowly pushed open, his eyes flicked up and somehow managed to catch those of the stranger walking in. Blaine's hand stilled against the counter and his breath caught in his throat and he really thought his heart may have stopped, and the bar and the town and it's people and everything else on the planet simply disappeared and it was just him and the most beautiful man he'd ever seen, locked in eye contact, across a little bar in a little town in Colorado.