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Blaine was early for glee rehearsal, sitting alone in the back corner, definitely not sulking.
He huffed out a breath.
He was sulking a little.
Things had been… weird between him and Sam since the not-an-actual-shooting-but-still-a-traumatic-experience. Or more specifically, since Sam started putting on glasses and pretending to be his own twin.
Or, even more specifically, since Sam had started trying to set him and “Evan” up.
~*~
“I think you might be in with a shot. Y’know, if you were interested… he might be too.”
“I thought you- I mean, I assumed Evan was straight.”
“Yeah, me too, but… I don’t know, I think he might be kind of into you.”
~*~
If it had been anyone else, he’d have assumed it was a cruel joke, and done his best to laugh it off, but Sam… Sam would never do that to him. And he’d seemed so earnest, maybe even a touch shy, like he was afraid Blaine would laugh him off.
So he’d let himself hope…
He sighed.
~*~
“God, he’s so embarrassing, I can’t believe he told you that.”
“Look, Evan, obviously I’m flattered, but you’re… you’re Sam’s brother. He’s my best friend, and I’d never want anything to jeopardise that.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, I promise. Whatever happens with us, Sam will still be your friend.”
~*~
He really had planned to turn him down. He didn’t want to risk their friendship with this, didn’t want to be a straight guy’s experiment. But faced with the intensity of Sam’s gaze, his insistence that it would be okay, seeing the eager hope glittering in his eyes… he found himself flustered, and hadn’t been able to say no.
They never actually went on A Date - Blaine suspected that Sam hadn’t been prepared to be alone with him in that context, and he hadn’t pushed - and they couldn’t even text, as “Evan” didn’t have a phone, but every time Sam would walk into the choir room wearing Evan’s glasses, Blaine would feel his heartbeat quicken.
His crush had returned in full force, which was exactly why he shouldn’t have let any of this happen, but it was so easy to not worry about that when Evan was touching him.
~*~
“Say cheese!”
“You’re such a dork.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“…”
“You look beautiful.”
~*~
It’s not like Sam never touched him - he was a very tactile person, an arm slung across his shoulders or a hug was not unusual - but Evan’s touch was more purposeful, softer, and crucially, existed with the unspoken understanding that this could potentially lead somewhere, where everything with Sam was safely platonic.
Evan always pulled his chair closer to Blaine’s so their knees would press together. He always shared Blaine’s lyric sheets and rested his hand on the small of his back.
Sometimes he held his hand. Briefly, after a lingering goodbye hug or pulling him up to dance. Once under the cafeteria table as they ate lunch, causing Blaine to not take in a word anyone said.
And then sometimes he was just Sam, and everything was exactly the same as it used to be.
~*~
“Hey B.”
“Hey Ev- hey Sam.”
“You going to secret society of superheroes later?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Cool. See you there, buddy.”
“…yeah.”
~*~
It had been frustrating, having to modify his behaviour based on whether or not Sam currently had a sweater hung round his shoulders or not. He was grateful the rest of the glee club had apparently decided en masse to not question it - though he suspects Kitty may have had to threaten Tina to keep her from getting involved.
Then suddenly it ended.
~*~
“Spending time with you these past two weeks has been… incredible.”
“Then stay. How am I supposed to go back to normal? How can I-”
“I can’t stay. This isn’t fair on you, or Sam. I’m sorry.”
“You promised it wouldn’t change anything, you said-”
“Blaine…”
~*~
And he’d kissed him, for the first and only time.
It was tender, soft, almost cautiously gentle, and it had broken Blaine’s heart.
He’d kissed him goodbye.
He hadn’t spoken to Sam yet, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to handle that. Were they just going to go back to normal, pretend this whole thing had never happened?
He could live with that, he supposed. Better that than their friendship being ruined.
He blinked back tears as the rest of the glee club started filtering into the room, steadfastly not looking up at any of them.
“Hey B.” Sam greeted him softly as he took the seat next to him.
Blaine frowned and just hummed in response.
“Sucks about Evan leaving.”
Blaine let out a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, it does.”
“And you can’t even call, right, because-”
“No phones in Alaska.” Blaine finished with him, laughing softly despite himself. “Yeah, he told me about that. I’m gonna miss him.” He paused, took a breath, and turned to face him. “I’m gonna miss what we could have had.” He added, voice carefully level, looking Sam directly in the eye.
Sam said nothing to that, just a soft ‘hmm’ as he sat back in his chair, and Blaine returned to looking at his phone to distract himself from the straight boy he fooled himself into thinking he’d had a shot with.
He ignored the chatter of everyone else settling in, and didn’t look up until Mr Schue arrived to start the rehearsal.
A familiar pressure shook him from his thoughts, and he looked down to see Evan’s knee pressed against his.
No. Sam’s knee.
As he watched, Sam’s reached over and rested his hand – warm and strong as always - on Blaine’s thigh. He looked up at Sam, who looked back at him, smiling at him affectionately, and just a touch shyly.
“I lied when I said it wouldn’t change anything between us.” He whispered, with a soft laugh.
Blaine didn’t say a word - they could talk later - just smiled back, and placed his own hand on top of Sam’s, squeezing softly.
Maybe he wouldn’t miss Evan that much after all.