Title: Heartache, Beer and Bonding

Author: blaineandsamevanderson

Paring: Blaine/Sam

Rating: R

Warnings/Tags: Underage drinking

Summary: Prompt: S3 AU ~ Blaine and Sam bond when Kurt continues seeing Chandler. Not a Kurt friendly story!

Notes: Sorry for any typos. My transcription software doesn't always understand what I say and I don't always catch the mistakes. I have trouble typing things by hand since I suffered an injury last year to my right hand and it seizes up if I try to do too much.

Late April 2012

As April crept ever closer to May and the weather cleared, Blaine found his spirits improving. Yes, Kurt was still planning on leaving for New York soon, but after their recent argument they were stronger than ever. Blaine knew he'd been jealous (with some reason) of Chandler and Kurt understood how his flirtation over texts had hurt Blaine.

He was sure that if they communicated and were honest with each other than they be able to handle spending a year apart.

Mr. Hummel (who Blaine thought was probably the most awesome dad ever) was having some separation anxiety of his own, which was why Kurt was spending the day with him instead of going to the movies with Blaine as they had planned. He thought it was sweet and didn't begrudge the father/son bonding time.

They could see a movie next weekend.

After lolling around the house for a while, Blaine decided it was time for a trip to the Lima Bean to indulge his coffee habit.

Everything was great until he stepped into the shop, inhaling the wonderful aromas, and looked around…which was when he saw Kurt sitting at a small table, chatting happily with another boy who was visibly fawning.

Blaine knew exactly who he was, as he wasn't above a little Facebook espionage.

Kurt was having coffee with Chandler Kheil, he of the flirty texts and, apparently, flirty touches. His hand kept wandering over to brush Kurt's arm as he nodded eagerly at whatever was being said….

Turning on his heel, Blaine bolted out of the coffee shop, wanting to get away, get away fast….

Colliding with someone only a few steps outside didn't help and he almost fell, kept upright by big hands grabbing his shoulders.

"Dude, where's the fire?" Sam asked, because, of course, he had to run to someone he knew. "Whoa, you okay?"

"No," he heard himself reply, grabbing Sam's wrists like some sort of life support. He knew he shouldn't latched onto the other boy, who he wasn't sure liked him much after the unfortunate comments shortly after Sam's return, but he was upset, sad, angry and hurt and Sam was at least a familiar face. "Kurt said he was spending the day with his dad."

Sam's face crumpled and confusion. "Huh? When I left, Burt and Finn were watching ESPN classic. Kurt…."

He trailed off and Blaine saw him looking into the coffee shop, clearly having seen Kurt and Chandler through the window. It took a few moments, but he seemed to work out what he was seeing. "Oh. Oh…."

"Yeah," Blaine murmured, releasing Sam's arms. "I have to go. I can't deal with this…."

While he'd clearly been unable to think of what to say, Sam wasn't shy to act. Surprise actually overpowered Blaine's other emotions when Sam pulled him into his chest for a tight hug, arms strong around Blaine. "Sorry," he said gently as he released him, then waved of a vague hand. "C'mon."

With no destination in mind himself, Blaine silently followed Sam to a nearby park.

The blonde saying: to the damp grass close to the small duck pond. Blaine joined him, hugging his knees to his chest and resting his chin on them.

Sam studied him. "Cry if you gotta, dude, but I'm warning you, my big brother instincts might kick in."

Grasping at any possible distraction so you didn't have to think about Kurt having coffee with another boy and lying about it, Blaine snorted. "You've met Cooper, so you can imagine the sort of big brother-ing I've seen."

Smiling ruefully, Sam replied, "Yeah, well, my usual response to someone sitting like that and looking like that is hugs and ice cream. Just to warn you."

"At this point I wouldn't complain," he sighed into his knees. "Why are you being nice to me? I know you don't like me."

Okay, maybe that was a little abrupt.

Blinking, Sam asked, "What? Of course I like you!"

"But I said…what I said and there was the shoving…."

Sam let out a huff. "Everyone in glee has said terrible stuff. Besides, Mike told me that I came in at a bad time…said something about Finn being territorial and trying to shut out your ideas and then I showed up…It's so old news."

"I'm sorry for saying that to you."

"Yeah," Sam said, frowning. "Well, I reacted like I did because your kinda right. I mean, I was selling myself, getting paid because people wanted to look at my body. It's not exactly something I'm proud of, but I know my limits. I'm 16 and not real smart. It was good money and my family needed it, so I used what I had."

Blaine nodded. "You did it to provide for your brother and sister. It's noble."

That earned him a rueful smile. "I don't think noble should be applied to any situation that involves G strings, body glitter and scary soccer moms with grabby hands. It was what it was. Not noble, but not a sin."

"That's a pretty well-adjusted point of view," Blaine commented. "Anyone ever tell you you're a deep thinker."

"If you mean I have to dig through lots of confusion before I find whatever thought makes sense, sure," Sam replied easily. "It took me a while, but I'm pretty okay with myself. I know who I am. I'm not the best looking guy, not really smart and I'm not the leading man. But I'm a hard worker and I try really hard to be a good person and, when I mess up, I tried to make amends. As long as I stick to that path, I'll be okay."

"Is that your duck pond philosophy?" Blaine asked, looking out at the still water. "What would a good person do in my situation."

"I…" Sam began, then paused and restarted, "Quinn cheated on me with Finn and it hurt, but then I tried to get Mercedes to leave Shane for me and I kiss her, so I've been you and Chandler…Sorta. I dated Mercedes last year, but that's not the point. How do you feel?"

"Betrayed, angry, sad, hurt," Blaine reeled off. "He knows how I felt about him texting Chandler and then he lied to sneak off for coffee date. How am I supposed to ignore that…or even respond without getting mad that he doesn't seem to understand why I have a problem or sad because he's leaving and Chandler is going to New York and I'll be here alone! I came to McKinley for Kurt. He's the only reason…."

Shit. He hadn't meant to get weepy. True to his word, Sam silently slung an arm around him and tucked him into his side. "Okay, so I'm not good at relationships stuff," Sam said, rocking slightly. "Do you want me to call someone? Mike, maybe, or Tina? They're like the best couple ever."

"No," Blaine muttered. "I just want to pretend I never went to the Bean today… At least for a while."

"Puck will have booze."

Which was how they wound up drinking in a slightly more secluded part of the park with Puck and Rory (whom Puck had apparently been trying to teach 'game' without any luck). The Mohawked boy brought with him a big backpack that contain shot glasses, whiskey, tequila and vodka.

It had actually been amusing to see Rory's eyes light up when he was handed a shot of whiskey, knocking it back neatly. Then he cringed and scowled. "Me mammy's cat pisses stronger drink than this!"

Puck blinked at him. "Dude, I only understand about half of what you say, but yeah, cat piss is pretty close to the shit."

"It's disgusting," Blaine agreed, holding up his glass. "Another!"

Sam snorted. "Sure thing, Thor."

"If there's a Thor here, it'd be you," Blaine replied, downing another burning shot. "Or Captain America. You're so Steve Rogers!"

"Captain America is awesome," Sam said with a pleased smile. "You'd totally be Tony Stark."

Blaine nodded. "Iron Man. I can't wait for the Avengers to come out!"

"I know!"

"Oh fuck, are you a comic nerd too, Anderson?" Puck said, clearly amused by the whole situation, even as he wrestled the ball away from Rory, who looked ready to start drinking directly from it. "Cuz Sam practically has a fit every time the commercial comes on the TV."

Sensing an ally, Blaine turned to Sam. "Midnight premiere?"

"Yes!" Sam agreed immediately. "I didn't think anyone would go with me!"

"I always liked Banshee," Rory opined with a shrug. "Not exactly a dearth of Irish superheroes, you know?"

"Magneto," Puck said with a smirk and somehow Blaine wasn't surprised that Puck chose an antagonistic character to latch onto. "He's a badass Jew. And that movie last summer was awesome. Fassbender was kick ass."

"And so fucking hot," Blaine said without thinking, then froze, unsure how the comment would go over with three other boys. Clearly the alcohol was hitting his system.

Puck merely raised an eyebrow. "You can have him, gimme Jennifer Lawrence."

"Rose Byrne," Rory breathed, red cheeked and smiling.

Sam was contemplating his drink, but knocked it back before clearing his throat. "Can I have all them?"

Both eyebrows migrating toward his Mohawk, Puck said, "Well, if you're having a man crush, I guess he's not a bad choice."

"Just call me Captain Jack."

Blaine's eyes widened and he turned to look at Sam as Puck said, "From Pirates of the Caribbean?"

"I think he meant Jack Harkness," Rory elaborated, the logical part of Blaine's brain that had yet to be pickled in cheap booze thought that it made sense that Rory would know a hit BBC show. "Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff."

"That tells me nothing other than the fact that I'm drinking with nerds," Puck said without venom.

"He's pansexual," Sam said, flopping onto his back on the grass. "If you gotta use a label. I don't."

For a moment, Puck was silent, then he snorted. "Dude, that has to be the geekiest coming-out ever!"

"Age of the geek!"

And that was that. Blaine spent the rest of the day getting tanked in the park and was only vaguely aware of Mike, Tina and Joe arriving later and dragging them home.

He woke up the next morning with the hangover from hell (but somehow a full recall of the Kurt/Chandler coffee shop incident) and Sam snoring on the couch opposite him.

Trying to get up proved a bit beyond his capabilities and Blaine fell onto the floor. The thumps and groans woke Sam, who winced and grumbled, "Dude, if I feel like this, you must be dying."

Blaine grunted in agreement. "What happened?"

"Mike brought us here. I stayed to make sure you didn't choke on your own puke," Sam said simply, crawling off of his couch with more grace than Blaine had managed. It took some effort, but he hauled Blane upright. "Ugh. We smell like a brewery."

"Shower," Blaine agreed and let Sam lead him up the stairs to his bathroom and push him, clothes and all, into the shower. Leaning heavily on the wall, Blaine felt himself begin to slide slowly toward the floor.

Strong hands caught him and Sam mumbled, "Okay, guess we're gonna try something else."

Something else was apparently Sam getting into the shower with him and efficiently stripping them both down. Turning on the water, he let Blaine lean heavily on his chest and Blaine mumbled, "How come you're not as…."

"You were way more drunk," Sam assured him, hands busily working shampoo into Blaine's hair, massaging his scalp.

It felt nice. Outside of the salon, no one had washed his hair since his nanny had stopped giving him baths….

The combination of warm water in the bracing eucalyptus scented shampoo finally managed to penetrate the haze of hangover and a thought formed in Blaine's mind.

He was in the shower. Naked. With Sam Evans. Who was also naked and washing his hair while Blaine leaned against him.

Impulses warred as he took stock of the situation. His face was pressed into Sam's shoulder, so it wasn't like he was peeking at the other boy. One of his arms was looped around Sam, palm planted right where his trim waist curved out to a pert bum. The other arm hung loose, knuckles brushing a firm thigh. His torso pressed against Sam's ridiculously perfect one and…Oh.

Sam's cock, not hard but not entirely flaccid, was bumping against Blaine's belly while his own cock, erect and far more alert than the rest of him, slid against Sam's thigh.

How awkward.

"Time to rinse, dude," Sam said, clearly choosing to ignore wayward body parts, something Blaine was grateful for.

With an efficiency that reminded Blaine of the fact that Sam was a big brother, he finished helping Blaine wash up and then deposit him on the built-in bench before conducting his own ablutions.

Blaine slumped back against the tile and watched the water course over Sam's fair skin, watched the bunch and flex of his muscles as he washed his hair and then his body.

It really didn't help with Blaine's problem downstairs, but he just folded his hands over his laugh and told himself it was a purely physiological response.

Eventually, Sam turned off the shower, hung their sopping clothes over the shower rod and then wrapped towels around the both of them.

"There's some stuff in Cooper's room that might fit you okay," Blaine said, still achy but much better after the shower. "Across the hall."

When he ducked out in search of clothing, Blaine let himself fall face forward onto the bed.

Alcohol was evil.

Hangovers were worse.

That shower was a study in masochism.

From downstairs, the doorbell rang and Blaine groaned.

"Want me get to it?"

Blaine turned his head slightly to see Sam, and a pair of Cooper's basketball shorts, tugging a T-shirt over his head. His chest and shoulders were broader than Cooper's, but it fit well enough, snug in a good way.

"Yeah. Thanks."

Again, Sam disappeared and Blaine hauled himself into a sitting position.

Clothes. Clothes would be good.

Trotting down the stairs toward the Anderson's front door, Sam ran a hand through his still damp hair. He felt way more alert after the shower, which had been refreshing but a little odd.

Not a bad way, just unexpected.

Given the situation, ignoring seemed to be the best path.

Sam was good at denial.

When he pulled open the door, he wasn't sure who he'd expected to see, but Kurt wasn't it. And Kurt was just as surprised to see him.

"Sam?" He asked slowly, looking over Sam's still damp, borrowed clothes. "What are you doing here?"

Having no idea how Blaine wanted to deal with the Kurt/Chandler situation, Sam fell back on a clueless response. He knew his strengths and one of them was that most people assumed he was stupider than he was. "I stayed over."

"You slept here?" Kurt sounded shocked.

Shower damp and barefoot, Sam wondered what else Kurt might've thought he meant. "Yeah. I called Carole."

"She thought you were with Mike and a little drunk," Kurt told him, stepping around Sam and peering around in search of Blaine.

"Oh," Sam nodded. "Mike dropped us off here. I wanted to make sure Blaine was okay."

That got Kurt's attention. "Blaine went drinking with you and Mike?"

Shaking his head, Sam said, "No. We drank with Puck and Rory."

"Then how was Blaine involved?"

Okay, they were communicating well.

"Me, Blaine, Puck and Rory were drinking were drinking. Mike and Tina came to haul us out of the park."

"Blaine got drunk with Puck, Rory and you?" Kurt asked, voice unpleasantly high to Sam's still slightly hung over ears. "What was he thinking?"

"Maybe I was thinking, 'Gee, getting drunk sounds good. Maybe I'll forget that I saw my boyfriend having coffee with another guy when he told me he was spending the day with his dad'!"

At some point, Blaine had appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in sweats and a hoodie, hair wild around his pale face. He held onto the rail as he descended the stairs, but his steps were steady, a vast improvement over the trip up, when he'd more or less just hung onto Sam and tried to fall in the right direction.

"What?" Kurt said, voice ratcheting up again.

"I saw you. Sam saw you," Blaine replied unhappily. "How could you lie to me like that?"

Kurt was even paler than usual. "Well, I was going to spend the day with dad, but Chandler texted and you were being unreasonable about our friendship…."

"He was flirting and you liked it!"

"I'm going to make coffee," Sam interrupted, fleeing to the kitchen before either boy could comment.

He hated to hear couples fight.

Even in the kitchen, as he busied himself making coffee and frying up some eggs, he could hear the muffled argument, which ended with a slammed door as he played the eggs.

That didn't sound good.

Turning off the burners, Sam made his way back up to the foyer, peering around the door cautiously.

Blaine was seated on the stairs, hunched over with his face pressed against his knees.

Setting the coffee down on one of the steps, Sam sat down beside Blaine. "You okay?"

"Not really," Blaine mumbled, then turned damp eyes to look at Sam. "What was in the texts that Kurt showed you? I saw that during glee and I… I just want to know. There were only a couple from that day on his phone when I saw it."

Sam cringed. "He only showed me the screen for a few seconds… I don't know."

"Please don't lie, Sam," Blaine pleaded and Sam shook his head.

"Dude, I'm not, I just…I'm dyslexic. I don't read very fast…and text speak is evil. He seemed happy, so I smiled. You learn tricks real fast, ways to get by so people don't think you're super dumb."

Blaine was staring at him and Sam flushed, grabbing his coffee so he had something to do.

"I didn't know that," Blaine said softly, picking up his own mug. "This sheet music give you trouble too, or is it just words and numbers?"

Wrinkling his nose, Sam nodded. "I can read sheet music, but it's just like any other kind of reading. Usually I don't bother."

"You learn by ear?"

Sam nodded, figuring Blaine was trying to focus on something non-Kurt related. "Yep, just need to hear song a few times and I'm usually good to go."

Sipping his coffee, Blaine considered this. "When my hangover finally goes away, would you consider helping me with a performance? I'm going to sing out my feelings again."

"Sure," Sam agreed, then prodded Blaine's side with his elbow. "Please no Taylor Swift heartbreak songs."

With a tiny smile of his own, Blaine nodded. "I'll keep that in mind…and thank you again for being here."

"No problem, Dude," Sam said easily. "Now that you've revealed a hidden love of comics, you're never going to get rid of me."

For a moment, Blaine was quiet, then he asked, "Wanna see my collection."

Nothing was better for an aching heart/head than coffee and geeking out with a bro, Sam thought and grinned, "Make it so!"

"I love Star Trek."

"Oh yeah, we're gonna get along just fine."