Title: Opening Up 8/? (Part of: Cigarette burned Stars verse)

Pairing: blainchel

Summary: Weeks after his fight with Rachel, he runs into her after school. She's upset about something that has to do with her mother-and Blaine can't understand after all this drama why he can't just walk away from her like he's told himself he should.

Authors: civillove (Blaine) & berrywarbler (Rachel)

Rating: PG-13

Author's note: Like we have to explain who is who, but just in case :P Also blainchel written by blainchel means that it's the best blainchel xoxo
Author's note 2: This reads in RP format because…well it's basically an RP that we're posting as fic. You're welcome.

RACHEL BERRY:

The sting of rejection had hit her cold and hard the day Blaine walked away from her, leaving her absolutely no closure and therefore no way to really move forward with Jesse. He had understood, even when she broke down and explained what had happened - that Blaine was more than just some guy in her chemistry class, that before Jesse had come along they were bordering on almost dating, that she had tried to trust him enough with her heart to have a part of it splinter and break in his hands with his steadfast refusal to speak to her anymore.

Jesse hadn't been pleased at the admission, she was sure; she could see the way he glared in Blaine's direction sometimes when they passed one another in the hallway, could feel how much more possessive his kisses were when Blaine was walking by - but it had needed to be done. For the sake of closure, if nothing else, even if she still didn't feel like they'd gotten any. Despite his harsh words and the hurt they'd unintentionally inflicted upon one another, she didn't feel like they were as done as he claimed for them to be.

But her mind was quickly distracted when someone came to talk to the glee club about dreams a few weeks later, Jesse arguing that her dream of being on a Broadway stage was nothing more than an inevitability. And it had taken a lot for her to admit that there was another thing that nagged at her, in the dead of night if she couldn't sleep, that kept her wondering and wishing and hoping that one day she'd get answers to questions she wasn't sure how to ask.

"I'd like to know who my mom is," she had admitted with a careless shrug, as if it wasn't that important to her, but Jesse knew, just as he always did, that it was. That this was something big and scary and downright traumatizing if handled the wrong way, but he pushed her forward anyways, helping her rummage through old boxes from her childhood until he unearthed a tape with the simple label: to daughter, from mother.

Her stomach had dropped out of her abdomen at the simple script, her fingers running over the letters over and over even after she kicked Jesse out for the afternoon. Her mother was there, that close, and she couldn't seem to find a way to listen to it. Fears and paranoia swept through her; what if she sang? what if she was bad? what if she was better than her? what if the woman on the tape was everything Rachel would never admit she wanted in a mother, and she'd disappeared off the face of the earth for good?

It was all simply too much, and she had become determined never to listen to it until the day Jesse walked in, preparing the tape and forcing it upon her, reminding her that it was for her own good with a soft kiss, one that lingered on her lips with a sense of foreboding she couldn't quite place, her brow furrowed as she sank to the carpet of her floor, wrapping her arms around her knees as she listened and sang along to the woman's voice playing from the small speakers.

And she was good, so talented and Rachel couldn't do anything more than cry that this was all happening too fast for her - she didn't know how to cope, how to function and process all this, and the only saving grace was that she at least hadn't been confronted with the woman face to face -

Until she was.

Shelby Corcoran was nothing like she had imagined, but everything she could see in herself at the same time.

She was wildly talented, overbearingly demanding and despite Rachel's best efforts, emotionally unavailable. She had gone to her for help with her Lady Gaga outfit, spilled to her all of her secrets and wishes and dreams and hoped for even just a little bonding, for Shelby to open up to her as Rachel so desperately needed her to. But an entire afternoon together working and sewing together her costume and rendered her with nothing more than a black and white dress, ignoring the sting that was settling in already as she paraded around school in her costume.

The glee club didn't say a word about the situation when she was around, though she knew they were even more skeptical about Shelby than they were Jesse, but the intensity of it seemed to keep them quiet and all she really wanted was someone to confide in - someone she could trust with her innermost thoughts and questions about it, who wasn't involved in the situation at all -

Fate would have, of course, thrown her for a loop when she ran into no one other than Blaine loitering outside the empty hall where the entrance to the school stage was, her hands pulling absentmindedly at her costume as she tried to approach the doors he was sitting in front of without speaking to him, unsure if she wanted his help or not - if she wanted him to notice that she was running away to give her mind a few minutes rest from her unease or not.

BLAINE ANDERSON:

He hadn't spoken to Rachel in weeks and everything had, really, gone back to the order he was used to. He skipped class, especially Chemistry, and only attended the bare minimum when Luci would get on his ass about it. One of the perks of being a pretty good student was that he could skip classes more times than not and the one time he'd show up it was like he had never left in the first place-he had an uncanny ability to pick up where he'd left of, easily filling in the ground work of the classes he had missed in a single bound. The look of shock on teacher's faces who wanted to fail him when he easily completed work he missed and managed to end up ahead of the class the one day he showed up was more than worth it.

He spent more time with Luci. Like that was even a surprise, but ever since he didn't have to worry about Rachel's jealousy with his best friend or planning his next move or next fucking date left him with a lot of free time-which Luci gladly soaked up like a sponge. The only thing that was honestly disappointing with his countless hours of new free time was that Luci refused to go the distance with him-he supposed he thought that would change eventually but apparently she was on the bandwagon that if he wanted to have sex with her that it'd be her and only her.

And how could he honestly fucking do that, didn't she understand that the prospect of remaining a duo with someone (even if it had been just for a date) had blown up in his goddamn face?

"I'm not sucking your cock unless I know no one else is, that's fucking disgusting, Blaine."

He had rolled his eyes and shot her the finger...and then tried to get into her panties ten minutes later. So close to that end goal he could practically taste it but every damn time she threw a flag on the play, and stopped him.

Which he supposed, when he wasn't being an impatient horny asshole, he could understand.

The last thing he wanted to do was fuck up their friendship, because apparently Luci was the only one who was going to stick around and be there for him no matter how much he didn't deserve it and no matter how many countless times he fucked up. He had to learn how to appreciate that and appreciate her-he knew he wasn't doing the best bang up job of that lately, and no matter how much he hated to admit it but Rachel was sort of right. He was using Luci just to fill the empty spaces that Berry had ripped out of him. He had been embarrassed and ashamed and hurt and making out with Luci sometimes made him forget that, made him forget how much he had humiliated himself in admitting that he might actually have true feelings and care for someone other than himself. He'd argue that he cared about Luci, which he did, but he really had a hard fucking time at showing it.

He had to work on that or something.

The longest part of his day was waiting for Luci to get done with her extra curricular painting class and he waited lazily against the auditorium doors, throwing a hacky sac up in the air and catching it between his fingers. He hummed a slow tune, glancing up as he saw a rush of black and white start past him, eyebrows raising as he realized it was Rachel Berry in that short provocative dress combo. Some kind of mask was on her face, sort of a crazy design...no doubt something for that damn glee club and it's debacle song assignment for the week.

"You look like a walking, talking checkerboard." He smirked, smile fading slightly from his lips as he took in her face. "What's the matter?" -not that he cared or should be confused with caring...honestly. He didn't...he was just curious.

RACHEL BERRY:

She paused slightly, her fingers curled around the handle that let her into the auditorium as she glanced over at him, and for a second she thought - maybe. Maybe she should have given him more of a chance, let him in, not given into the rumors and assumptions when he'd done nothing but prove them wrong over and over as it was.

Maybe, just possibly, they could start over - as friends, if nothing else - but his mask slipped back into place and the hint of concern she'd seen was gone before she could really pin it down to anything. And it was so dumb, really, because she knew just as well as he did that she wasn't any other girl to him, and while she might not have been Luci - the girl he was still, continually, constantly making out with anywhere Rachel would run into them - she was still Rachel, and she was still important, and all she ever wanted was for him to acknowledge that for her.

"Nothing," she lied instead, because he shouldn't get to know every little detail of her life if he wouldn't put forth the effort into proving himself worth her time anymore, and she tried to walk into the wings of the stage alone but she heard him trail after her anyways, though he refused to say anything and it only infuriated her even more.

"Why do you even care what's wrong?" she snapped without turning to look at him, turning on enough lights that the stage was visible while the rest of the auditorium was shrouded in darkness, "you haven't said a word to me since you left me in that stairwell, and you've made your point that I wasn't that important in the first place."

"Besides, don't you have a girlfriend or a class to skip to get to?" she said in a mocking tone, throwing his own words back in his face as she spun on her heel to face him.

BLAINE ANDERSON:

Blaine sighed as Rachel opened fired on him, not letting him get a word in edgewise for the five minutes straight that she spoke to him. He should have seen that one coming-she looked pissed off, upset to say the least, and of course she was going to explode on the one person who asked her if she was alright. Typical that it had to be him. Although knowing Rachel it was probably his fault that she was upset in the first place.

He put his hands up in front of his chest like that alone could protect him from her words (or maybe if she started throwing punches) and let her finish snapping at him before he tried to talk.

He bristled at what she had said about that day on the abandoned staircase and he wanted to defend himself, to say that he never would have stopped talking to her if it wouldn't have been for her jumping when that bag of dicks held a treat above her nose. That she was the one who gave up on them first, on him. He didn't owe her shit and he sure as hell didn't owe her an explanation. She was done with him the moment something shinier walked through those doors, the moment someone more put together than Blaine, more talented, more caring, more everything.

He clamped his mouth closed, not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. No. This wasn't about him, this was about something else. If he had learned anything about Rachel it was that she lashed out at other people when she felt backed into a corner-even if she was mad at him about the past week she was just attacking him because something was wrong with her. He took in her appearance, the ridiculous dress, her tired watery eyes and fuck no-no, he didn't have time for this.

Blaine scoffed at the final blow, oh so original of her. "My so called girlfriend is in a painting class right now. I got no classes to skip, I'm all yours." He smiled slowly, though that just seemed to piss her off more so than before.

She was facing him now and he could see her resolve crumbling as he stepped closer, trying to figure out how close he could actually get without her hitting him. He managed to move right in front of her, reaching up to take these black and white square glasses off her face, smiling softly at the curls in her hair, touching one with his fingers.

"You look pretty." He said softly, licking his lips. "What's wrong?" He asked again. "If I didn't care I wouldn't bother asking you." He pointed out.

RACHEL BERRY:

Rachel watched him move apprehensively, her arms crossed over her chest as he slowly walked towards her as if she would lunge and break him the second he moved even an inch too close. She wouldn't, of course - she wasn't really upset with him, not at the moment. Not even at all, really, because she could understand why he had been avoiding her, why they had stopped talking as soon as Jesse came around. But that didn't mean she had to like it, that she hadn't missed him. That she hadn't wanted him around to talk to.

Her eyes opened wide at his compliment, his fingers brushing against brunette curls before he withdrew his hand, just enough to tap the bottom of her chin and force her to look up at him, and she could feel herself breaking. Blaine didn't care about anyone, not really, not outside of Luci but she could see in his eyes that he was concerned about her, more concerned than Jesse seemed to be with all his pushing of helping her find her mother, and she couldn't help but break as it all seemed to push her over the edge.

If he had been anyone else, her instinct would have been to wrap her arms around him, to hide her face in his chest and cry until she couldn't remember what it was she was even crying about. But things were still so hesitant between the two of them that she couldn't seem to do it, instead hiding her face in her hands as the tears started to fall, shaking her head as if that would stop the inevitable as he said a quiet, "Whoa, hold on, talk to me" the words beginning to pour out before she could even stop them.

"My mom - my birth mom - she found me, or I found her or - I don't even know, but she's here now and I've wanted to know her for so long, to learn from her and she's perfect, Blaine, she loves Broadway and she's talented and she's running Vocal Adrenaline and there's so much that only she can teach me and I don't think - "

She was only cut off by the need for air, her breath gasping as his arms wound around her, pulling her against him so that she could lean on him physically, her eyes squeezing shut tight as he ran a gentle hand down her back, trying to quiet her.

"I don't think she wants me," she admitted quietly, the words finally escaping her with a choked off sob, the very thing she was terrified of admitting to lest it come true, the very thing she couldn't stop thinking about with every moment of silence Shelby met her with.

BLAINE ANDERSON:

He wasn't prepared for her to actually tell him what had happened.

Blaine honestly figured it would have been like any other conversation between them during the past week; her death glaring at him like she wanted him to burst into flames on the spot or telling him to kindly fuck off. He wondered why she wasn't telling Jesse all of this, wasn't this supposed to be his job now or something to be there for Rachel? Not that he didn't mind, gladly, taking his place...but he guessed he just wondered what had happened with Rachel to allow her to open up to him like this when she hadn't been giving him the time of day. Didn't she have anyone to confide to? Was he her last choice? Or was he the only one she felt like she could go to.

Whatever the reason, he pulled off his sweater and wrapped it around her slender and bare shoulders before tugging her into his chest when she started to cry around her words. Her body was shaking with the force of sobs building in her chest that she refused to release, his hands rubbing her spine trying to coax her into just letting them go. Blaine sighed softly and closed his eyes, resting his chin on top of her head as she cried into his neck, talking about her birth mom. He bit his lip, body absorbing her cries as best as he could, the force of them shaking his own body. He stroked her hair and played with the curls between his fingers, pulling her closer to lean against him as it felt like her legs might give out from under her.

He knew he shouldn't have, based on principle alone and the fact that her damn boyfriend should have been doing this, he kissed her head, pulling back a little so he could look at her face.

"Listen to me," He said calmly, hands cupping her face to remove tear tracks with his thumbs. His heart clenched in his chest at seeing her so broken, a crack in her unbelievably strong armor, something he honestly admired her for but would never tell her. "I know something about parents who don't care about their kids." He bit his lip and shook his head. "That's not what's going on here, understand?"

He waited until she nodded and smiled a little when a hiccup sounded from her pretty pink lips. He sighed and dug in his back pocket for a tissue, handing it to her while he adjusted his sweater tighter around her body.

"She may have given you up when you were little but I'm sure she had a good reason. And the point is to not...think about then but worry about now. She's your mother," He squeezed her shoulders. "There's no way that she wouldn't want to get to know you. She may be hesitant but..." He curled her hair around her ear. "She wouldn't pass this up...unless she was incredibly stupid...which I doubt, seeing as how you're kinda smart." He winked, making her smile.

He tapped her nose with his finger. "Now stop crying, you're breaking my heart." He said playfully, stroking her collarbone with his thumbs.

RACHEL BERRY:

She couldn't stop the tears from falling once they'd started; she simply buried her face in his chest and let out everything she had, incoherent mumbling against the fabric of his teeshirt while he wrapped his sweater around her. He was more comforting than she had given him credit for; it took a few minutes, of course, but soon enough she was at least subdued enough to stop sobbing, his palms cradling her face while his thumbs tried to erase her tears.

"Thank you," she said quietly, her fingers pulling lightly at the hem of his teeshirt before she rested her head on his shoulder, taking advantage of the affection he was showing her while she could. She didn't know how long it would last, after all, and while she should rightfully be running into Jesse's arms, there was something about Blaine that centered her. Even when he was pulling her out of her carefully constructed bubble, he steadied her and she wasn't about to question it.

"I didn't mean to cry all over you," she said after a minute, his fingers tugging lightly through her curls as he hummed, the vibration ringing through his chest where her palm lay innocently, "but I appreciate that you let me - that you were there for me. Even after - "

"Don't worry about it," he cut her off, before she could really address the very reasons they shouldn't have been standing as they were at the moment. She would worry about it though, eventually - when Jesse came around again and she had to figure out why she couldn't open up to him the way she had Blaine, why she couldn't cry on his shoulder like she was with Blaine, but for now she could put all those questions to the side.

"Regardless," she said quietly, pulling back enough to try and wipe her face clear of the tears that still gathered, albeit silently, at the corner of her eyes, trying to take a breath deep enough to steady herself once more.

"Why don't I take you home?" he offered, and it was like seeing an entirely different person in front of her, someone she could trust and lean on and all the various sides of Blaine she'd never given him a chance to show her before she ran off with Jesse. She nodded, a weak smile on her face and his lips brushed against her forehead in a soft kiss before he linked his arm around her waist, her eyes fluttering closed at the brief contact before letting him lead her to his car and away from the school, away from the stress, away from all the things she didn't want to think about.