A/N Time!
Oh my god it's been a while hasn't it? I'm super super sorry! I got major writers block on this and decided to go back to another fic in the meantime so if you do like fics that update fairly regularly Called Out In The Dark should update every week or so. Gaahh here we go, it's review time!
ImJustDefyingGravity - Oh it's Santana and Cooper, clearly the most embarrassing things they could think of - a huge box of condoms, lube and other various sex related things! :P
OhhhSkyler - Emm... well... hold onto your hat and try not to faint or die please! Yay for Tangled! It is pretty awesome isn't it? (Also yay that you like the story!)
xLizziexLupinx - It will be super, super soon! (I hope). Basically (MAJOR SPOILERS HERE) once Blaine gets back from LA he and KURT (YES KURT) will have like, a big sit down and talk. Blaine explains his side of the story and Kurt his own. AAAnnd that's enough spoilers! SOrry!
Charmedmich - Hi Honey! I'm glad you liked the emails, I think they'll return in the next chapter, again to be between Blaine and Santana. That would be awesome but I'm not sure it would work :/ Kurt's still in Ohio so :( I would love to see them sings something disney together, maybe I'll write something in later? I son't know, I'll see how it fits.
kawaii01 - I'm glad you like it! He did but he was drunk and Kurt can keep secrets and kinda already knew so... *shrugs* I don't really know.
I really hope y'al like this next chapter! It runs from shortly after Blaine's b-day to New Years Ever (I kinda skipped Christmas, I'm sorry, it wasn't really much of an event that was important and I wanted to give you some stuffs to hopefully flail over and New YEars was full of it.
Chapter 24
"Blaine?"
"Two minutes Cooper," Blaine said, scribbling furiously onto his music sheets.
"Blaine, take a break. You've been working on this for four days now. You need to get out of this room," Cooper sighed, leaning against the doorframe.
"Cooper it's almost finished!" Blaine said, somewhere between annoyance at his brother and excitement that it was all coming together.
"Really?"
"Yes!" Blaine smiled. "I'm just fiddling with it but it's almost done. Of course I'll want to run through it a couple of times with Alan to check he likes it and stuff but Coop it's essentially finished!"
"You... you are a massive workaholic dork. But you're an amazing workaholic dork," Cooper smiled proudly at Blaine when he finally looked up.
"Cheers Coop," Blaine laughed as he put his pencil down and stood up from his desk to stretch out his arms, wincing as they clicked loudly.
"Now come 'ere and let me hug my cray-cray brother." Cooper said, holding his arms out. Blaine laughed loudly but obliged as he stepped through the mess of first drafts that had tumbled to the floor and into his brother's arms for a bone-crushing bear hug.
"-Mphff. Coop, I would like to breathe you know," Blaine laughed breathlessly.
"Sorry Bee," Cooper laughed, slackening his grip a little.
"Also, you need to lessen up on the Tumblr usage. You're turning into a teenage fangirl,"
"Shut up. You love me for it,"
"I love you when you make sense," Blaine countered.
"You love me because of reasons," Cooper laughed.
"Again, I love you when you make sense." Blaine laughed too, shoving his brother in the shoulder as he pulled back.
"Oh shut up." Cooper said, stretching an arm out to ruffle Blaine's hair but the smaller of the Anderson brothers ducked quickly in anticipation. "Anyway. Come out and eat something, Mom's just finished cooking lasagne and if you don't hurry up the twins will nab your plate,"
"Okay I'm going, geez Coop," Blaine laughed as Cooper all but dragged him from the room. He was quickly pulled down the long hallway and into the open plan dining room and kitchen and spotted the twins, Mrs Hartman and Reed already sat with plates of food as Michelle Anderson continued dishing up plates.
"He's alive!" teased Evan, pointing at Blaine who rolled his eyes as most of the others in the room turned his direction.
"Yes, I am alive Evan. Well spotted," Blaine said sarcastically as he slipped over to his mother at the kitchen counter.
"Nice to see you out of there." Michelle smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she dished up a place for him. "I was starting to think you'd found Narnia in there,"
"Nope," Blaine laughed. "But I'm basically finished on the song. I'm gonna call up Alan after we've eaten and tell him because I want to run through it with him and tweak it first before we record it," he then explained proudly as he picked up the plate he was offered.
"That's fantastic Blaine," Michelle smiled as she grabbed her own plate and followed Blaine to the table to take a seat between him and Reed.
"Blainers is actually going to be in a Disney movie to match his Disney prince face!" chirped Ethan and Blaine rolled his eyes.
"I don't look like a Disney prince Ethan," Blaine said as he tucked into his food.
"If anything I'm the real Prince Eric here," Cooper said, flashing an over the top grin and pulling a heroic pose.
"No, you're the airhead Prince Derek," Blaine said, poking his brother in the side.
"Swan Princess isn't Disney Blainers," Cooper pointed out.
"Still fits your personality though," Blaine shrugged, shovelling a forkful into his mouth with a grin at Cooper's mock hurt expression.
"You're just jealous because people on Tumblr love me,"
"Cooper you have like, 30 followers," Blaine said through his mouthful.
"Boys. Manners," Michelle said pointedly. Blaine held up a hand in admittance and swallowed his mouthful.
"Sorry Mom," he said. "But in my defence even you said that Cooper still acts like a child,"
"Hey! Mom!" Cooper whined earning a laugh from all of those around the table.
"Hello?"
"Alan? It's Blaine, Blaine Anderson." Blaine said nervously into the phone later that night.
"Blaine! How's it going man?" Came Alan's enthusiastic voice through the speaker.
"Good; great even! I finished writing the duet this evening." Blaine said happily.
"No...? Seriously? But it's only been four days! How... you are good,my man."
"Thanks," Blaine laughed happily, giddy on the praise coming from a guy like Alan Menken. "Of course, I'd love to go through it with you first to check it's okay and edit it a little to get it just perfect."
"Why of course! Of course! Is tomorrow okay? We have a fair few of the musicians in tomorrow as well so if we finish tweaking it we can get started on recording it. Oh this is just perfect Blaine! I can't believe you've managed to finish the song in four days, though, do tell what it's called,"
"Tomorrow would be perfect actually, and I decided to call it 'I See The Light'." Blaine explained.
"How fitting, what with the lanterns all around in the scene. Oh, I am very excited to see how it all comes together."
"I really hope you like it sir," Blaine said, his insides squirming
"How'd it go?" Michelle asked as Blaine flopped onto the sofa next to her no more than five minutes later. She held a large mug of hot chocolate complete with marshmallows between her hands, letting the heat radiate through her hands as she watched the peacefully sleeping form of Reed who was curled up on the other sofa.
"Awesome," Blaine smiled shyly. "He's excited to hear it,"
"That amazing baby," she smiled, sipping her hot chocolate as Blaine sunk happily lower into the sofa cushions.
"I thought we agreed 'baby' was Reed," he huffed playfully.
"I thought we agreed you three are all still my babies," Michelle countered.
"Touché," Blaine laughed. "Either way then, can I steal one of your marshmallows?"
"If you can get it without burning your fingers," Michelle laughed, holding the mug out slightly.
"Challenge accepted." Blaine smirked as he leaned forward. The marshmallow unfortunately thought it was game on too as the moment it came into contact with Blaine's fingers it slid under the surface of the almost boiling liquid and Blaine let out a small growl of annoyance until his finally grabbed it. "Ha-HA! Blaine 1 - Marshmallow 0" Blaine smiled proudly as he threw the marshmallow in his mouth to the sound of Michelle's laughter.
"You're such an idiot sometimes Blaine," she smiled.
"Yeah, well. Can't all be perfect," he shrugged as he wiped his fingers on his jeans and she rolled her eyes. They fell silent for a moment, Blaine ignoring the tingle in his fingers from his fight with the marshmallow and Michelle sipping at her hot chocolate once more, sighing contently.
"D'you think I'm doing the right thing mom?" Blaine blurted out after a minute, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.
"Of course you are sweetie. What would make you think otherwise?" she asked.
"Well, just... this was meant to be a family holiday and it's nearly Christmas and I've spent the past four days locked away in my room writing music." Blaine explained, his brow furrowing in worry too.
"And I wouldn't have it any other way." Michelle added. "Blaine you are getting an amazing chance here with this, and I'll be damned if you don't get everything you can out of it. Yeah, I'd like to see a little more of you, but this is your dream and who am I to stand in front of it because I miss you? It's huge and amazing and Disneyfor Christ's sake Bee. This is the sort of thing I'd hoped you might one day get to do when you were older anyway. Instead you race ahead of my hopes for you and do it when you're my little seventeen year old genius Bee,"
"I'm not a genius mom," Blaine shrugged.
"You are a little. And you are a lot in my eyes. And, though Cooper would pull a sulk if he heard, you're cleverer than him."
"I won't tell him," Blaine laughed quietly, careful not to wake his little brother. "But like, really? You really want me to do this?"
"Yes Blaine. I want you to do your best so that you're proud of this. I want this to be the first thing on your undoubtedly soon-to-be impressive résumé of all sorts of crazy things I'm sure you'll do. I want this to be a huge 'fuck you' to all those assholes at Carmel High,"
"Mom!" Blaine hissed, "Reed's only on the other sofa,"
"He's asleep honey, he can't hear me. But I mean it. I am so, so proud of you honey and I always will be," she said putting down her mug on the coffee table and wrapping her arms around Blaine's shoulders.
"I love you mom," Blaine smiled into her shoulder, sinking down in his seat and relaxing.
"I love you too Blainey," she smiled back, hugging him tight.
The next day Blaine spent nearly 8 hours in the recording studio. The first 2 were running over final tweaks to the music, the rest was all recording the backing track. All of the musicians were amazingly kind and picked up their parts easily. Blaine was honestly surprised how quickly everything pulled together. He was overwhelmingly flattered when Alan insisted he record the guiding voice for the track for the next day's recording with Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi. He sort of knew there would be a sort of example voice on the track for when they recorded so they had someone to follow as such, but he'd never expected them to ask him. So by the time Saturday rolled around, and he was being introduced to the stars of the film Blaine was very, very nervous.
Also, very star struck.
In retrospect he needn't have been so worried about making a good impression on the two of them.
Zach was just this ball of praise as soon as he heard the backing track for the first run through, saying; "Wow, you wrote this? This is awesome man!"
Mandy was a gushing ball of excitement. She was very like her character in that aspect as she spent forever talking to him as Zach recorded his part. She was so excitable she was comparable to the twins or Cooper and she was so easy to slip comfortable into conversation with. So easy that her and Blaine spent the hour and a half that it took to get Zach's part perfected talking non-stop. They were so absorbed in conversation they nearly missed Mandy's call to start recording her part. They made a good pair and by the end of the day Mandy insisted she get Blaine's number and told him she was already looking forward to seeing him on the red carpet come the premiers.
"It's an amazing track Blaine," congratulated Alan, clapping Blaine on the shoulder.
"Thank you sir. That means a lot to hear it from you," Blaine blushed with pride.
"D'you reckon you'd be up to writing another song for us? Everyone here's loved your work and the final product for I See The Light is just amazing." Alan propositioned.
"R-really?" Blaine stuttered in surprise.
"Of course, we'd hate to steal you over the holidays, so how about after the new year we get you back to watch some more footage and hopefully start working on another song?" asked one of the music editors -Brian, his name's Brian, you idiot thought the teenager.
"Really? I'd love to come and work for you again," Blaine beamed.
"Excellent!" beamed Alan, clapping Blaine's shoulder once more.
"It's New Years Eve at the Hartman residence and this is what I have to deal with," Blaine laughed as he pointed the handheld video camera at the scene before him. The twins were practically bouncing off the walls (someone had given them copious amounts of sugar and that alone was a recipie for disaster), Reed was running around with the small air guitar toy he'd received for Christmas, strumming wildly through the air and giggling at the various notes it played him, Cooper was currently on the phone to one of his friends, bottle of beer in hand as he laughed loudly, Mr. and Mrs Anderson were chatting happily along to the Hartman's parents as they awaited the countdown to new years, and Blaine stood somewhere in the midst of it all, filming his surroundings and avoiding narrowly the twins running madly around the house.
"Blaine! Blaine! Watch me play!" Reed smiled happily as he bounded up to his brother, strumming through the air and playing something that sounded almost like a tune.
"That's awesome Reedles! You gonna be a rockstar when you're all grown up?" Blaine asked.
"Maybe. But I'm goin' a be like you Bee!" he beamed, dimples showing as he pushed his curly hair out of his eyes.
"It's nearly new years people!" Called Rachel drunkenly, raising her drink high as the group around the room cheered. The New Directions members sat in various states of drunkenness, some sprawled over sofas or dancing around the stage area in Rachel's basement. Sam sat sullenly though in a corner, away from the fray as he looked over jealously at his supposed girlfriend who was lip-locked with Puck.
"Hey Sam," Mercedes said with a smile as she took a seat beside him. "You okay?"
"Not really," he sighed, nodding in the direction of Quinn and Puck.
"Oh. That's... that's rough honey." Mercedes sighed sadly, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"I thought she liked me," he said, leaning his head back against the wall.
"It's nearly time Britt," Santana smiled as they sat cuddled together on Brittany's sofa, the TV on watching the countdown.
"I bet next year is going to be just the best," Britt smiled, leaning into Santana's shoulder.
"I bet it is." Santana smiled. "Britt do you know the special New Years ritual?"
"No. There's a ritual?" she asked, sitting up a little straighter in confusion.
"It's this thing where, when two people love each other, they kiss right as it turns New Year and it's meant to be good luck." Santana explained a little nervously.
"Oh! Mom and Dad do that every year," Britt smiled in understanding.
"Well, I was hoping to get to kiss the person I loved this year on New Year." Santana hedged, wondering if Britt would understand where she was heading.
"Oh! That's awesome. But you haven't got much time left Sannie," Britt said. "Who were you hoping to kiss?"
"Urgh, and there I was hoping someone would kiss me on new years," Sulked Sugar slightly.
"Hey, you still got time yo," Artie smiled, pulling her into a hug.
"I just, I've never had anyone kiss me on new years before. I kinda hoped this year would be different," Sugar sighed.
"C'mere girl," Artie smiled, beckoning her to sit on his lap. She did so carefully so as not to tip his chair. "Someone'll get you this year girl. I know they will."
"FIVE!"
"To 2012 guys!" Called the twins, glasses raised as they stood in front of the fireplace in the living room.
"FOUR!"
"I was hoping on kissing you Britt," Santana smiled nervously. "You're the person I love,"
"THREE!"
"I was hoping to kiss her at midnight. All romantic and stuff," Sam sighed.
"You could kiss someone else...?"
"Like?"
"TWO!"
"Me?" Brittany asked.
"Yeah," Santana smiled sheepishly.
"ONE!"
"How do you know Artie?"
"I just do," he smiled.
"ZERO! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
"I'd like that," Brittany smiled and Santana beamed back at her, swooping in for a kiss as the clocks chimed on the TV screen before them.
Mercedes leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Sam's lips. He gasped slightly but rested his hand on her cheek, keeping her there and drawing her closer. When they finally pulled back, Mercedes was having trouble keeping control over her blush.
"Happy New Year," she smiled at him.
"It is, isn't it?" Sam smiled back, a little giddy as he dove in for another kiss.
Sugar giggled happily when Artie drew back from their kiss, a blush high on her cheeks but a smile on her face.
"Happy New Year Artie," she smiled.
"Happy New Year Sugar," he smiled back, brushing her bangs gently out of her eyes.