Sorry, guys! Got busy writing other fics and doing real life crap like uni and working :P Not to mention this chapter decided to repeatedly kick me in the balls… Hardest thing to write ever… Sorry if its still crap, I deleted the fucker no fewer than seven times and started again and I can't be fucked looking at it anymore :P So here! Have this shitty chapter! :P

Love your reviews, guys :D You're so lovely!

Mercedes was quiet in the car ride to the lake, and her silence continued as they got out of the car and headed toward the tree near the riverbank that they liked to sit under. Eventually Sam could take it no more and broke.

"I'm sorry, baby, I just forgot and I didn't mean to make you worry or upset you," he pleaded, and she smiled in response.

"Sammy, it's okay. I just feel like something happened to you and you're not telling me about it, and that makes me think that we aren't as close as I thought we were… You know?"

Sam wanted to correct her so badly. He wanted to bend down on one knee and profess his love, his devotion, his adoration for her; everything. But he couldn't. He'd reached the decision to make it seem less than it was so it wouldn't hurt her. But it didn't stop it from hurting him.

"We are pretty close though," Sam flirted and played with a lock of her hair. "Or don't you remember the other night?"

Mercedes watched him carefully. He was covering something, but she decided to let it slide. Kurt assured her that Blaine had spoken to him, and if Kurt and Blaine were satisfied with his guy-speak, then she really couldn't argue. Maybe he had just picked up a shift and let his phone battery die. But it seemed like a lot of convenient excuses to avoid her.

"You liked the other night then?" Mercedes heard herself ask, and Sam nuzzled into her neck to nip at her playfully.

"How could I not?" he wondered out loud, "You're so sexy, 'Cedes."

Mercedes tossed her head back and let him ravage her neck with his tongue and teeth.

"Ohhh," she moaned, "Keep that up and you'll get a repeat, Sam Evans!"

Sam moved his hand to stroke her thigh, fingers trailing higher on every stroke.

"And that's a bad thing because?" he whispered into her hair.

Mercedes pulled away from him. Sam wasn't acting right. Normally he would be fawning over her, trying to kiss her sweetly and make it up to her any way he could. Not feeling her up and coming on to her.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything, Sam?" she said firmly, "Because it seems like something's happened, and I want to know what it is so I can help you."

"You can't help me," Sam whispered so quietly that Mercedes asked him to repeat himself. "I'm just a little zoned from working all day yesterday and sleeping so late. I promise you that I'm okay, Mercedes. You don't need to worry about me."

"I can't help worrying about you," Mercedes said softly and ran a hand through Sam's hair. He nuzzled into her palm like a cat.

Sam was trying so hard to be normal and airy, but all he could think about was the fact that soon he would never see her again. He wanted to tell her he loved her and tell her what was happening, and beg her to commit to long-distance.

But none of that was fair, so he closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair, breathing in his last few moments of oxygen.

"Blaine!" Kurt hissed, "You have to tell me what you're doing!"

"I can't, Kurt! I promised!"

"Promised who? Because I'm your boyfriend and I think you should remember that we tell each other everything!"

"Not everything," Blaine muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! Just show me where Mercedes's room is then we can go!"

"Promise you'll tell me."

"I can't, Kurt!"

"Well, I can't show you her room!"

"I'll find it myself!"

"Tell me!"

"Fine!"

Blaine pulled Kurt onto the porch swing out the front of Mercedes's house. He was rough and frustrated, but Kurt was angry as well and it was going to be a heated topic.

"Sam asked me to get something he left behind," Blaine tried, attempting to keep the secret and placate Kurt.

"Nuh uh, Blaine. Tell me everything."

"God, Kurt! It isn't even about you!" Blaine fumed, "Sam's leaving, okay? His parents are moving the family to Tennessee because there's more work there."

Kurt didn't seem to soften with the news, instead he bristled up more.

"So why does he need you to steal something?"

Blaine took a deep shuddery sigh and closed his eyes.

"Sam left Mercedes a note the other night, which she apparently didn't find. He wants to get it back because now he's leaving; he doesn't want to tell her how he feels…"

Kurt narrowed his eyes.

"I don't agree with him!" Blaine insisted, "I think he should just tell her he loves her and spend whatever time they have left in love together, but he insisted…"

"- He's right," Kurt said coldly, "He can't put that kind of pressure on her when he's going to leave her." Kurt jangled Mercedes's keys in Blaine's face. "Third door on the right."

Blaine took the keys silently and stood up, opening the door and stepping through.

"I'll wait for you in the car," Kurt called.

Blaine had come with the intention of finding the note and destroying it or stealing it away, but something about his conversation with Kurt was upsetting him. Kurt was agreeing with Sam? Blaine had always thought Kurt was the more romantic of the two, but Blaine felt like he was the only one with a heart at the moment. Anyone could tell how Sam and Mercedes felt about each other. Blaine thought about Kurt and how he would feel if he had to leave him and never know if he loved him, just wait out the sadness and hope for some salvation.

He couldn't do it. He got to Mercedes's door and turned the handle. He stepped inside. He even went so far as to get down on his knees and spy the note under the bed against the wall in the dark.

Blaine read it.

He had told himself that he wouldn't do that – what an invasion of privacy! He'd die if someone read a love letter he'd written to Kurt.

But this wasn't even a love letter. It was sweet and tender and beautiful with the promise of more, but it wasn't a declaration.

And that decided it for Blaine.

He might not be able to make Sam tell her and he might not be able to tell her himself. But after Sam was gone, she would question what was real, Blaine was sure of it. And this tiny little note could confirm it.

Blaine left it where it was.

He walked back through the house and locked the front door, slipping Mercedes's keys through the mail slot on the door, and walked to Kurt's car. He jumped in.

Kurt was still very stale-faced. His lips were pursed and his brow was wrinkled in deep thought.

He reversed out of the drive and Blaine picked up his own phone from the console. He rang Sam. Kurt drove in silence.

"Hey, Blaine!" Sam's voice came with fake happiness.

"It's done," Blaine said simply.

"Dinner with you and Kurt sounds tempting! But I'm going to have a little quiet time with 'Cedes this evening! Maybe spoil her a bit so she understands that I didn't mean to forget her!" Blaine could hear Mercedes tittering at him in the background.

"Make the most of it," Blaine told him darkly.

"Will do! You too, man!" Sam fake-laughed and hung up.

The silence in the car was palpable. Blaine didn't understand why Kurt was so angry.

"You didn't do it did you?" Kurt asked in a knowing way.

Blaine shook his head.

"Nope."

"I'm glad," Kurt sighed and Blaine peeked at him. He was smiling weakly.

"I thought you'd be mad," Blaine was confused.

"I was just grumpy today. I'm really mad at myself."

"Why?" Blaine asked.

"I'm angry that I keep pressuring you to transfer," Kurt admitted guiltily. "I shouldn't do that. You're safe at Dalton and your parents are willing to pay for your education there, you should stay. I'll miss you when school goes back, but it was my decision to go back to McKinley and that shouldn't affect where you go to school. I'm sorry."

Kurt took a hand off the wheel to stroke Blaine's thigh momentarily.

"Kurt, I miss you too," Blaine said softly, "And there's nothing I would like more than to see you every day. It's not a huge leap that I would transfer to McKinley. I'm friends with your whole glee club, and it would probably be good for me to try to face the real world rather than be caged in safety at Dalton. But it's a big decision and it is something I have to think about."

"Don't make it about me," Kurt said firmly, "Blaine, you can do whatever you want and go to school wherever you like. Don't make any decisions based on how much I want you there, okay? Promise?"

Blaine smiled. "Promise. I will decide by the time school goes back, okay?"

"I love you," Kurt reminded him, "And that's not going to change based on where you spend your days."

"Nights are yours, regardless," Blaine winked and Kurt groaned.

"What a cheesy line!" he scoffed, but grinned.

"I mean it though, Kurt," Blaine said seriously, "Even if I decide to stay at Dalton, we'll be fine. You're not getting rid of me that easily!"

"Damn!" Kurt said with a grin. Then his face fell.

"What's wrong?" Blaine demanded. Kurt pulled into his driveway and turned off the engine.

"I'm just sad for Sam and Mercedes. We think being at different schools is bad. They'll be in different states! Long distance is going to be really hard on them, especially since Sam doesn't have the money to drive back and forward."

Blaine bit his lip.

"Sam's making it a clean break," he confessed, "He doesn't want to even try that. He says it's just a fling, but it's obvious he's in love with her. I guess he knows it'll hurt too much and he wants her to be happy."

Kurt looked outraged but reached over to cup Blaine's cheek and pull him forward for a kiss.

"I'm glad you left that note," Kurt said fiercely, "Those two need all the help of fate that they can."

"Don't tell her, will you?" Blaine said urgently, "Sam will kick my ass."

Kurt scoffed.

"He wouldn't dare touch your ass," he grinned, "I won't tell."

"Speaking of touching my ass…" Blaine hummed as Kurt fiddled with his sleeve.

"Oh, Blaine! What's wrong with you?" Kurt laughed.

"No?" Blaine asked with a grin, "I thought that one was a good one!"

"Inside, Anderson," Kurt ordered, "I think I need to show you how it's done."

"You can do it to me all you like, gorgeous," Blaine cooed.

Kurt snorted, "Charming! Inside, you buffoon!"

Kurt's door had a new handle. Blaine was horrified to notice a sign taped to the door.

ONE LOCK – AS PROMISED.

GO NUTS, BOYS.

BURT.

"Oh my god," Kurt moaned, ripping the sign off the door. "Thank god he's not home right now; he probably would have waited with a video camera for us to see that."

Blaine was red in the face and he felt random bouts of the giggles coming on.

"He…" he giggled, "Kurt, he wrote…" he giggled again, "Kurt! He wrote 'Go nuts'!" Blaine exploded into hysterics.

Kurt tutted and shook his head.

"You're so weird," he smiled in amusement then kissed him slowly.

"Mercedes, slow down," Sam muttered, "We don't have to do anything tonight."

Mercedes froze with her hand resting on Sam's stomach and lifted her lips from the hickey she had been working on placing on his neck.

"What is up with you?" she demanded, "First you're all over me and suddenly you don't ever want to do it again? Did I turn you off or something?"

"Don't be stupid!" Sam exclaimed and grabbed her hand, pressing her palm to his fly. "You can feel that! I think you're even more gorgeous now than I did before! I just – can we just savour being together? We've been in a hurry to see each other naked and now we have, we can just really enjoy each other's company?"

Sam hoped she bought it. He wanted her so badly, but sleeping with her, or even touching her or letting her touch him would hurt too badly when he was gone. He understood that. He was protecting her.

"When did you get so romantic?" Mercedes smiled and kissed him, leaning against him and sighing deeply. "You're right. We don't do this stuff enough."

The moon was in the sky now and its reflection was shining on the ripples of the lake. The stars appeared one by one at first, then ten by ten, and then all of a sudden there were trillions in the sky. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness gradually. They lay little kisses against each other's skin and brushed fingertips over goose bumps.

As they lay back on the grass watching the universe, Mercedes turned to Sam and spoke for the first time in hours.

"Couldn't you just lay here forever?" she whispered and pressed a kiss to his lips that gradually became deeper and needier.

Sam felt like sobbing with the desperate desire to do just that.

Lalalalala… Poor Sam :(