“That was amazing,” Blaine said, loosening his tie as they re-entered their hotel room late in the evening. “I had no idea that Rachel was so talented.”

“Oh, God, please don't tell her that when she gets here. This town isn't big enough for her ego as it is.”

“I like her.”

“Me, too. I love her, in fact, but just…oh, Hell, gush all you want. She deserves it.”

“When did she say she would be here?”

“Within the hour, I think. Let me call down to room service and have some wine bottles and some food sent up. I have orders from her majesty, but she also said I could charge it to her room, so I'm not complaining.”

As Kurt called room service, Blaine stripped off his tie and hung his sport coat back in the closet. He kicked off his shoes and placed them on the closet floor. Then he crossed the room to where Kurt was clearly on hold, and he worked Kurt's suit coat off of him, while Kurt moved the phone from hand to hand to assist. “Thank you,” Kurt mouthed.

Blaine hung up Kurt's jacket in the closet and then returned to remove Kurt's tie, while Kurt placed his order with the voice on the phone. When Kurt's tie was off, Blaine unbuttoned the first two buttons on Kurt's shirt, then he went a little mad and pressed his lips to the warm skin on Kurt's neck. As he moved to step away, Kurt's free hand shot out and grabbed Blaine by the wrist, effectively stopping his retreat. “Yes, that will be all. Thanks so much. Goodbye.” Kurt replaced the receiver on the cradle, still holding Blaine's wrist in an iron-like vise.

Straightening, he tugged Blaine to him and captured his lips in a heated kiss. Blaine hesitated for a second, then he was kissing Kurt back, putting a hand to Kurt's neck, thumb by his ear, and pressing closer. Then it was all tongues and teeth and gasping as they suddenly couldn't get enough of each other.

The need for oxygen finally forced them apart, and Blaine panted teasingly, “Is this your way of pushing me away, Hummel?”

“Don't overthink it, Anderson,” Kurt growled, pulling Blaine back to him and closing his mouth over Blaine's again.

Just then there was a knock on the door and Rachel's voice called out, “It's me.”

Kurt groaned, “Why can't she be fashionably late like every other diva?” Then he gave Blaine a quick peck on the lips and warned, “We're finishing this.”

Kurt pulled the door open to Rachel, who was freshly scrubbed and dressed in street clothes that included a glittery “Diva” t-shirt and white pants. Blaine thought she looked sixteen and very pretty. After standing on tiptoes to kiss Kurt on the lips, she raced over to Blaine and threw her arms around him.

Rachel was tiny, and she made Blaine feel really tall. He decided he liked her even more now.

“You were amazing,” he said, releasing her from the hug. “I can't believe how good you are.”

“Thanks,” she said, eyes bright, “it was a great night.” She went over and dragged Kurt to the sofa with one arm, collecting Blaine with the other as she went. She plopped down in the middle and patted the open seats on both sides. “So, boys, sit down and tell me how fabulous I was.”

They both sat and heaped praise on Rachel until room service arrived, then they poured glasses of wine and began picking at the various plates of food, talking about a lot of nothing in between mouthfuls.

“You should hear Kurt sing,” said Rachel mouth around a piece of apple. “His voice is so beautiful.”

“I've heard it. It is beautiful.”

“Blaine sings, too,” Kurt chimed in, “and he plays the guitar.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Rachel bounced in her seat, “Get it! We'll have a sing-a-long.”

“Don't you need to save your voice?”

“Pish,” said Rachel, waiving a dismissive hand in the air, “I've got tomorrow off, and then the next day we're traveling to…I don't know…somewhere, so I've got loads of time to recover. Besides, if my voice is gone, I've got an understudy.”

“Rachel Berry!” scolded Kurt, “It's not like you to relinquish your part to a lowly understudy.”

“Yeah,” said Blaine, “I always thought that the goal was to never let your competition get a leg up on you.”

Rachel collapsed down on the sofa, rubbing her full belly with a hand, “I used to be like that, but, I don't know, I've gotten mellower in my old age. Being with Sam helped a lot.”

“Sam? Deliverance Sam?”  Blaines eyes went wide.  

Kurt laughed, “Didn't I tell you that Sam and Rachel used to date?”

“Noooo,” said Blaine, “You said that Sam used to date one of your friends and it didn't work out. You never said it was Rachel.” Blaine turned to Rachel, “Why didn't it work out?”

Rachel smiled wistfully, “Life,” she said vaguely. “He was a great guy, and I learned so much from him, but we just wanted different things.” She got a far away expression for a moment, “That seems to be a pattern for me.” She sighed, and then she sat up, “But, enough of that; get your guitar.”

So Blaine retrieved his guitar from the case and began tuning it, while Kurt and Rachel reminisced about all the horrible songs they were forced to sing in high school Glee club. “How many Journey songs were there, do you think?” asked Kurt.

At that, Blaine began strumming and singing, “Lying beside you, here in the dark, feeling your heartbeat with mine.”

“Oh my God you found a Journey song we never performed!” exclaimed Rachel.  “How is that possible?” Blaine had stopped playing, so Rachel waved him on, “Keep going!”

At the chorus, all three harmonized on an over-the-top rendition of “So now I come to you, with open arms, nothing to hide, believe what I say,” until they were giggling too hard to continue. After that, they sang one cheesy song after another, Blaine accompanying them on the guitar, all of it interspersed with laughter and banter. Kurt let it slip that Rachel had tried to change her good girl reputation her sophomore year by making a video of “Run Joey Run,” which had Blaine doubled over with laughter until tears were streaming down his face.

Eventually the conversation devolved into what decade had the cheesiest love songs. “It has to be the eighties,” asserted Kurt. “There was Bryan Adams, ‘Heaven,' and ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You,' and ‘You're the Inspiration,' and let's not forget Kenny Rogers singing ‘Lady.'”

“No way,” argued Blaine, “how can that possibly beat the seventies with ‘Baby I'm a Want You' and ‘Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me,' and, well, anything by Wayne Newton. Oh, and then there's this one…” Blaine paused to pick up his guitar. Looking down at the strings he began singing, “I know it's late, I know you're weary; I know your plans don't include me. Still here we are, both of us lonely; longing for shelter from all that we see.”

When he heard a gasp, Blaine looked up from his guitar, and to his astonishment, he saw tears coursing down Rachel's face and Kurt staring at him, mouth slightly open.

Blaine looked puzzled, “What? Do you both just really, really hate Bob Seger?”

“No,” Kurt started, but then his voice cracked, and then he was crying, too.

Blaine was dumbstruck. Not knowing what else to do, he slipped his guitar back in the case and pulled a sobbing Rachel into his arms. She melted into him, soaking his shirt. Blaine wrapped an arm around her to hold her close, and with his other arm he reached out and took Kurt's hand, and Kurt entwined his fingers with Blaines, still crying silently.

Kurt recovered first. “It was Finn,” he hiccupped. “There was a wedding. It was the last time I saw him perform. He did that song as a duet with Rachel. And then afterward I think they…” Kurt's voice trailed off, but Rachel nodded into Blaine's shirt and sobbed harder.

“Were Rachel and Finn…?”

Kurt nodded. “They were engaged once, but Rachel was destined for New York, and Finn wasn't really a New York kind of guy.”

“What kind of guy was he?”

“He was a regular guy, but so much better. One time he said, ‘The show must go all over the place or something.' That was Finn in a nutshell.”

Blaine chuckled, “I think I've been in that show.”

“He never remembered to take his socks off first,” said Rachel after a time, seemingly apropos of nothing, gasping for air and fighting to get herself under control.

“What?” asked Kurt.

“Finn. Every time he got undressed he would take his socks off last. A naked guy wearing socks; it's never sexy, except it kind of was on him.  You have to take your socks off first,”  for some reason, Rachel looked at Blaine when she said the last bit.  

“Uh, good to know,” said Blaine.

They all giggled.

“Tell me some more about him,” prompted Blaine.

“You would have loved him,” sighed Rachel.

For the next three hours Rachel and Kurt regaled Blaine with Finn stories. Eventually they were all hoarse and their jaws were cracking from suppressed yawns.

“Let me use your bathroom and then I'll let you two get some sleep or whatever,” said Rachel. She stood up and went into the bathroom.

Kurt stood, too, and walked over to the window overlooking the city to stare out. Blaine walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around Kurt from the back, turning his head to rest his face against Kurt's shoulder blade. Kurt reached up his hands to wrap them around Blaine's arms.

“You really miss him, don't you?”

Kurt nodded, “He was my best friend, and when he left me, I had Rachel, which was kind of a little part of him, but now I'm moving away and Rachel's on the road. It's like I'm losing that little part of him, too.”

Blaine gave Kurt a squeeze and then turned to see Rachel emerging from the bathroom. “Rachel,” said Blaine, holding out a hand to her, “Why don't you spend the night here with Kurt and me? I think you could both use it.”

“Do you mean it?” Rachel asked as Kurt turned from the window and gave Blaine a look full of gratitude.

“I really do. We'll lend you some pajamas.”

Thirty minutes later they were all in their nightwear, tucked into the king-sized bed, Kurt spooning Rachel and Blaine spooning Kurt, his arms reaching across Kurt to rest on Rachel and Kurt's interlocked hands. They all fell into a dreamless sleep.