The next day was different for both Kurt and Blaine. It was the first time Blaine was awake before his alarm went off at 3:30 am and it was the first time Kurt didn’t text Blaine after his shift at Starbucks.
Blaine strolled on the set of Transplant a half hour before his call time, making his costar, Christian, look up surprised.
“Well, well, well, the infamous Blaine Anderson is actually early for once.” Christian chuckled from the chair where he was getting his hair done for that days taping.
“What a concept” Blaine retorted with a fake smile, running a hand through his ungelled curls trying as hard as he can to not think about Kurt and sat down in his respective styling chair.
“You’re done. Get changed.” Christian was told by his hair stylist and getting swatted on the head simultaneously.
“I’ll see you on set. I have to get changed and work on my part of the Elephant Love Medley or else Katrina will kill me. You know how much of a perfectionist she is.” Christian told his both on screen and off screen friend before getting out of the chair and heading to the wardrobe trailer.
“Huh, you’re early for once? I guess I won’t be rushed for the first time since the pilot was being taped and you were worried you would lose this job.” Natalia, Blaine's sarcastic hair stylist, said in her heavy Russian accent as she came up behind him examining his fine curls.
“Yea, something like that.” Blaine said quietly as Natalia started on his hair.
“You okay? You seem unusually quiet, and on time.” Natalia said taking a comb and worked on smoothing out Blaine's curls. Blaine didn’t respond to Natalia, he just nodded unconvincingly to get her to drop the subject. He couldn’t talk about Kurt and how Blaine felt he was dying inside. Not now, it was too soon. Blaine watched in silence as Natalia transformed his unruly curls into Matt’s sophisticated gelled style, not much different from Blaine's preferred type of gelling.
“I’m done. Now get to wardrobe and don’t take your dear sweet time like you usually do.” Natalia told Blaine with a sweet smile, knowing something was bothering him. Blaine did as he was told, and slid out of the styling chair and walked to the wardrobe trailer. He grabbed that day’s costume which consisted of navy blue pants that hit above the ankle, a light blue polo shirt and to both Blaine's surprise and dismay, no bowtie.
‘Great’ Blaine thought changing quickly, ‘this is yet another thing to make this day even more horrible than it already was.’ He walked out of the trailer and onto the sound stage set up to look like a 17 year old boy’s bedroom. He sat on the ground and let all the hurt and pain surrounding Kurt out. He was thankful he didn’t cry for the first time in 12 hours, but grabbed the acoustic guitar off the bed and started strumming the first notes of the only song that described how he had spent the previous night.
“2am, where do I begin” he stared singing; wishing Kurt could see what the fight had done to him.
“Crying off my face again
The silent sound of loneliness
Wants to follow me to bed
I'm the ghost of a boy
That I want to be most
I'm the shell of a boy
That I used to know well he kept singing, then hit a note higher then was written on the sheet music he had in his room in Ohio.
“Dancing slowly in an empty room
Can the lonely take the place of you
I sing myself a quiet lullaby
Let you go and let the lonely in
To take my heart again”. The next verse was interrupted by his phone vibrating. Silently hoping it was Kurt; he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned when he saw his publicists name on the text alert. He read the text message quickly and called Lacie back as he was instructed.
“Aren’t you supposed to be taping?” he heard the shrill voice on the other line. Blaine answered faking happiness.
“Nah, I got like 15 more minutes. I was pretty early.” Blaine told her, praying his publicist wouldn’t comment about his issues with time commitments and alarm clocks.
“Huh, that’s a new concept for you.” Blaine was told. ‘Goddamn, I'm tired of all the comments about my punctuality, or lack thereof.’ Blaine thought. “Well Ellen DeGeneres’s show producer called. Ellen specifically asked to get you on her show next month. Also, be prepared to sing. You okay with that?” Lacie continued without skipping a beat.
“Yea, that would be great.” Blaine said with the first real smile in what seemed to him like an eternity. He hung up afterwards so Lacie could call the producers and both confirm and get the details to email to him
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Kurt's shift ended that day, he felt lost. He couldn’t call Blaine because of the fight they got into the previous night and he didn’t want to go to his apartment and deal with Puckerman, so he wandered into the music store he had neglected to visit in previous months because he always had plans with Blaine. Kurt walked inside the quaint store and half smiled at the familiar and calming scent of freshly printed sheet music and wandered the aisles, stopping in front of a display of the new counter tenor music and one song in particular stood out to him. He plucked the music of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ by The Beatles and started singing imagining Blaine was standing in front of him.
“Yeah, I'll tell you something” he began holding back tears and focusing on the notes.
“I think you'll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

Oh, please, say to me
You'll let me be your man
And please, say to me

You'll let me hold your hand
Now let me hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand” he sang, ignoring the voice singing an unwritten harmony with him.
“And when I touch you I feel happy, Inside” he continued with silent tears running down his face.
“Yeah you, got that something
I think you'll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy, inside
It's such a feeling
That my love
I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide

Yeah you, got that something
I think you'll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand” Kurt stopped singing and wiped his eyes quickly when a blonde boy walked up.
“Was that you singing?” the boy asked enthusiastically causing Kurt to blush.
“Yea, that was me.” Kurt told him, trying to stop blushing.
“That sounded absolutely amazing! I’m Chandler, Chandler Kiehl” Kurt was told.
“Thanks, I’m Kurt Hummel.” Kurt replied with a smile.
“Um, can I get your number?” Chandler asked Kurt, obviously lacking subtly, but somehow Kurt found it charming and punched his phone number into Chandler’s waiting LG Octane. Chandler smiled at Kurt, his dark blue eyes twinkling from behind the clear lenses of his black prescription Ray-Bans.
“Was that you singing harmony with me?” Kurt asked, using a flirtatious tone that he would have previously only use on Blaine.
“Yea, it was” Chandler said blushing as he took off his navy blue beanie and ran a hand through his blonde hair nervous at what Kurt was going to say.
“It sounded absolutely perfect. Our voices didn’t clash at all and that doesn’t happen very often. The last time my voice didn’t clash with someone was back in high school.” Kurt told the blonde boy, putting the sheet music back on the display.
“You're right. My voice usually clashes with counter tenors, but we didn’t” Chandler replied with a flirty smile.
“Wanna get lunch or something?” Kurt asked, surprising both himself and Chandler with the date proposal.
“Do you mean now?” Chandler asked with a crooked smile, which on Blaine would have caused Kurt’s heart to melt.
“Yea now, unless you have plans or someone who wouldn’t approve,” Kurt said not recognizing his own voice.
“I’m free, and I don’t have a boyfriend, if that’s what you meant.”
“That’s exactly what I meant. C’mon. I know a great Chinese food place a few blocks away.” Kurt smiled seductively, and grabbed Chandler’s hand leading him out the door, not thinking about Blaine for the first time all day.