It’s not a name on the Broadway marquee, but it’s good enough for Blaine. Blaine gets out of the subway and he walks home. He’s almost there and he’s itching to start practicing. During the subway ride, he was already playing air piano out of an old habit. He decides to call Wes to keep him updated and to thank him.

Wes picks up after the first ring.

“And?” he sounds eager.

“Hi, how’s your day?” Blaine says, just to piss Wes off. He knows Wes is impatient.

“Cut the crap, did you get the job?”

“I wouldn’t call it a job, per se,” Blaine says with a smile that Wes cannot see, “It’s still on a more freelance basis.”

“Blaine, I swear to God.”

“Yes, yes, I got the job,” Blaine finally relents and he then has to hold his phone at arm’s length to prevent Wes from shattering his eardrums with the cheering.

“Cool, cool, cool, so The Street, right?” Wes asks.

Blaine hums and nods. He’s indeed going to be part of the orchestra of The Street first. Hopefully he gets to play more shows, since he doesn’t get his hopes up about an actual contract.

“Yes, The Street. I’ll be in the orchestra for at least a week and then I will have to see,” Blaine says.

Wes also makes some affirming noises. It’s not glamorous, but it’s great on Blaine’s resume.

“We have to celebrate this, despite this not being a big break!” Wes exclaims, “Fuck, call David and Thad, we’re going out for dinner!”

“We are not going to your aunt’s restaurant, Wes,” Blaine says with a laugh. He opens the door of his building and the laugh immediately falls of his face when he sees Mr. 21 in the lobby. Mr. 21 and Blaine’s eyes meet and Mr. 21 immediately looks away.

Blaine sighs.

Mr. 21 passes him without another look. Blaine goes in the opposite direction towards the elevators. Wes heard his sigh.

“Come on, man, my aunt doesn’t use that much garlic, you guys are just haters!”

“It’s not that, Wes,” Blaine says, although he has to disagree with Wes on the garlic thing, “I just had another weird and infuriating encounter with the neighbour.”

“As Barbara Streisand would say, do not let that man rain on your parade, Blaine!”

Wes is right, of course. This is good news and Blaine shouldn’t care about what Mr. 21 thinks. Blaine and Wes decide to meet up later today with David and Thad and they say goodbye. Now it’s time for Blaine to practice.

Kurt and Blaine almost always talk daily. It doesn’t have to be a ground-breaking conversation and sometimes it’s in the LGBT Splatoon 2 Server they’re in, not in the DMs.

Still, Blaine couldn’t tell Kurt his big news yesterday, since Kurt wasn’t online and by the time that Kurt replied, Blaine was out with his friends.

Blaine’s already practising hard. He feels bad for his neighbours, except for Mr. 21, because he’s making a lot of noise. He’s tried to soundproof his little studio as much as possible, but it’s still a room in an apartment in New York, not an actual recording studio.

Well, it’s New York. This city is filled with people living too close.  

Blaine’s just finished another practice round and it’s time for a break. To Blaine, a break involves Splatoon 2. He starts his Switch and he’s very excited when he sees that Kurt’s online. He immediately grabs his phone to open Discord and Kurt’s also online there.

forabeatofadrum
I’m online. Want to VC?

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
yea!!!

Blaine clicks on ‘Start Voice Call’ and after a few seconds, Kurt’s voice fills the room.

“Hey! I saw your message yesterday,” Kurt says, “Sorry I couldn’t reply sooner.”

“It’s fine. We’re both busy,” Blaine says. They never have to apologise to the other for not being online all the time. There are set moments where they’re unavailable because of work, but of course they don’t have to share their entire agendas.

“Yes, you said you have big news?” Kurt says, “Rainmaker and talk? I know how much you love Rainmaker.”

“Ugh,” Blaine groans as he checks the stages. Rainmaker on Sturgeon Shipyard and Starfish Mainstage doesn’t sound too appealing, but if he ever wants to go competitive, he’ll have to be able to play all the modes. “You’re on. At least Tower Control is in half an hour.”

“Also, if you hear sudden music, my neighbour’s being really annoying,” Kurt says with annoyance, “He played a lot of loud music yesterday.”

“Was it good music, at least?”

“Yes, luckily. But also familiar and I couldn’t place it, which is fucking annoying. But I have my headphones on, so I am only hearing you and the Splatoon 2 soundtrack. So, what’s the big news?”

“Remember that music job thing I was talking about? Not the big job I applied for, but the other thing I’m trying out?” Blaine asks while the Rainmaker game is about to start.

“Yeah?”

“Well, I got the… gig. I can’t call it a proper job, so it’s a gig.” At moments like this, Blaine wishes they were less secure about their real lives, because it’d be so much easier to just explain how the whole orchestra subbing on Broadway works. “But basically, I get to play a lot of music and if the first thing still doesn’t work out, then I’m fine with doing this on a more freelance basis. I start next week and it’s only for a week, but if they like me, they can recommend me to similar gigs in the industry or I can stay on.”

“That sounds great!” Kurt says enthusiastically.

The two of them then focus on playing a round of Rainmaker. It really isn’t Blaine’s favourite mode and the two other team members aren’t the best players, but it’s always fun. Their team has the lead and there are only a few seconds left, so Blaine grabs the Rainmaker and takes it back to their turf, so that even if the other team gets their hands on it and forces overtime, it’s more difficult to win.

As expected, Kurt and Blaine’s team win. They play a couple of Rainmaker rounds – and one of them ends in a minute, since the other team absolutely obliterates them – before playing a round of Tower Control. Blaine switches to the Glooga Dualies as a weapon.

“Only one round,” Blaine says, “I have to go back to my job preparations.”

“Understandable. I also have some errands to run.”

They lose their Tower Control game, but that’s how it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Kurt and Blaine say their goodbyes and it’s time for Blaine to continue his work. He now wants to work on the violin parts of the songs, since he’s also subbing that.

He starts to play and he does feel a sense of satisfaction when his neighbour bonks on the wall, probably asking Blaine to lower the volume. Blaine knows he should feel bad, but he tried to apologise to Mr. 21 for video game related noise disturbance and Mr. 21 was an ass, so he has no qualms about annoying Mr. 21 a bit more with his violin.

forabeatofadrum
OKAY I HAVE BIG NEWS

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
???? 👀👀👀

forabeatofadrum
I told you that my brother lives in LA, right?
Hes been asking me to visit him during the summer
I just realised I can visit him and possibly go to the Splatoon 2 world championship

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
!!!!!!! Blaine that’s perfect!!!

forabeatofadrum
Like I obviously have been following the continental competitions
But this is a new level
If I can I should definitely go and see it in real life

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
It’s a great opportunity
And if your brother lives in LA it saves hotel costs and what not
If you go there you might even find a team

forabeatofadrum
I still wish I could convince you to also look into competitive Splatoon 2

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
😞😞😞😞
You know how I feel about that, Blaine
Gaming became a fun outlet after everything I’ve been through
I want it to remain fun

forabeatofadrum
No no no I get it
Like you obviously do not play with a competition in mind
You don’t even know how to properly use abilities, you just wear gear for aesthetic reasons instead of play reasons

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
LOOK you have your music, I have my fashion, and Splatoon 2 just happens to cater perfectly to both of that with all the in-universe stuff
Anyway, I gotta run.
Talk to you later??

forabeatofadrum
🤗

The week of preparations flies past. Blaine’s working very hard on learning all the tracks. When he’s not doing that, he’s giving his weekly piano lessons or he’s playing Splatoon 2. The 3.0.0 update has been released, but he hasn’t had much time to play video games.

Blaine arrives at the theatre and luckily some others know that he’s filling in, so a violin player gives him a small tour of the theatre. Blaine has to keep the excitement down. Everyone in this production is already used to being on Broadway, so Blaine doesn’t want to look too unprofessional by walking around with a big grin on his face.

He knows that he won’t be fully part of this show, since he’s only here for a week. Many people pass him and some stop to say hi, but everyone’s busy. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes for a Broadway show, and The Street is no exception. He knows he will not see everyone involved, since there different groups are scattered across the theatre.

After all the administrative things have been arranged, Blaine is ready to go to work. He follows his temporary colleague to his place and they pass the wardrobe crew.

Blaine stops in his tracks when he sees Mr. 21 sitting at a table, sewing some extra beads to a costume.

“Hey, you coming?” the colleague asks when she realises Blaine’s standing still.

Mr. 21 hears the colleague talk, so he looks up from his work and his eyes widen when he sees Blaine. The two of them stare at each other for a few seconds before Mr. 21 goes back to his work.

Blaine didn’t expect Mr. 21 to talk to him, but it still feels impolite. Blaine knows that he can be the one to at least say hi to Mr. 21, but if Mr. 21 decides to ignore Blaine in favour for work, then so can Blaine.

“Coming,” he says to his colleague and the two walk to the pit.

When he gets home, he’s surprised to see that he’s gotten some messages from Kurt. Kurt works most evenings and even though Blaine obviously doesn’t know what Kurt’s job entails, Kurt’s said several times that he prefers to go to bed after work. He’s still getting used to working again, so he’s tired.

Now, Blaine has eleven new messages.

someonetocrowdyouwithlove
I think I’ve found the first flaw of the job
Kinda.I think it’s weird
although I cannot really call it a flaw idk I have no idea what is going on
But Blaine, Blaine, The Guy was at my work today
THE GUY!!!
And he saw me too!
I obvs immediately looked away because what the hell??
What is The Guy doing at my workplace???
Well, I do know now. I asked around.
Turns out he’s filling in for anther colleague for this week
*another
Like… he’s actually here???
Okay okay I am going home now but what the hell!!!!!

forabeatofadrum
I just got home
you still here?

Blaine gets ready for bed, but Kurt doesn’t reply. That’s fine. It can wait. Besides, Blaine’s never really interested in talking about The Guy. There are better things to talk about.

He falls asleep, thinking about Kurt and The Guy. He doesn’t sleep well.