The Best Laid Plans

Summary:

Blaine had a plan for the future, but when his chance for success interferes, nothing is the same. When one of Artie's projects starring Blaine leads them to Hollywood, Blaine has to learn that you can't control everything, especially the future. Sam, who also makes the move, must learn that you can't change who you are and you can't really choose who you fall for, no matter how much you try. A story told from Sam's point of view, about his struggles with bisexuality, his evolving relationship with a best friend in love with someone else, and what making it big can really mean.

Notes:

While a story from Sam's POV, this is also Blaine's story as seen from someone else. Artie, Santana, Rachel, Kurt, and Jesse St. James also play a large role. Though this is essentially a Blam fic that involves a Klaine break up, there is not Kurt-bashing here. Canon to at least 5x05. The filmed portion of the story is partially based on the N's Instant Star.

Prologue

It all started…well it is difficult to point out exactly when it all started. Maybe it was when Sam transferred to McKinley, or when he first joined the New Directions. Or maybe later when Sam and Blaine got into that stupid fight about dance moves. No, the start was probably closer to senior year and the campaign for class president. That was when Blam really started. But the thing, is, Sam was pretty sure that might be some other story. The development of an epic bromance born out of a bad break-up, comic books, super heroes, and glee clubs. That story would have led to years of being roommates, being each other's best men, maybe being Uncle Sam and Uncle Blaine to each other's children. But that's not what happened. Something changed. And, well, that all started that first year in New York, but neither Sam nor Blaine would have any idea at the time.

Their first year out of high school, Blaine, Artie, and Sam all moved out to New York. Blaine had NYADA and a fiancé. Artie had the Brooklyn Film Academy. And Sam had a modeling contract. Naturally, they all decided to room together, getting an apartment in Brooklyn, close enough to Artie's school to make traveling around New York City in a wheelchair less daunting. At least it seemed like a natural decision to Sam. For Blaine, it was a decision arrived at after long discussions with Kurt. A discussion Sam wouldn't even know happened until years later. Kurt wanted him to move into the loft with him, Rachel, and Santana. Blaine didn't want to live in an overcrowded loft with the only privacy in the form of a bathroom without a lock and curtains as room dividers. Especially not as a couple. But Kurt wanted to continue rooming with Rachel and Santana. This lead to further discussion about what they were doing with their relationship, how they were going to handle their engagement and eventual marriage. Eventually, they decided on a long engagement, waiting to get married until they were finally both financially independent from their parents, something that wouldn't happen until at least after college. This led ultimately to Blaine's five year plan that Kurt watched his fiancé draw up half-fondly and half-exasperatedly over skype. Three years living separately until Kurt graduated, one year living together and establishing themselves, and one year to plan the wedding and grow into adults.

It made perfect sense to Blaine and Kurt figured it at the very least to be a guideline for their future. But none of their friends knew about the weeks on the phone and skype figuring this out. Some continued to dub them as that too young couple rushing into things or that they clearly didn't think through what it meant to be fiancés. Sam and Artie didn't think about it. It just seemed like the natural choice that Blaine would room with them. Santana and Rachel were just relieved not to have to battle for the shower with another roommate or to have to spend every night with ear plugs.

So in that first year, Sam, Blaine, and Artie adjusted to New York, school, and careers. Like any other young high school graduates, they balanced friendships, work, school, and relationships. They had Thursday movie marathons. Blaine had Friday date nights. Artie had his film craze of the month. It was actually on one of Blaine's Friday date nights in the middle of February when Sam figures the story really started.

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Sam had just finished pulling on his jeans after a long day of shooting when one of the models approached him.

"Hey man," Jim greeted.

"Hey dude," Sam pulled on his t-shirt. He paused in pulling over his flannel. "What's up?"

"A bunch of us are going clubbing," he gestured to the small group of girls and guys behind them. "Do you want to come?" The guys had cleaned off their make-up already while the girls had only wiped off the most dramatic of it. All of them looked ready to club.

Sam glanced down at his flannel and jeans. "Ummm…" he trailed off.

Jim followed his gazed before shooting him a smile. "You're fine, man. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be looking to attract most of the clientele anyway." At Sam's confused look, he clarified. "We're going to a gay club. I mean, if that makes you uncomfortable…"

"Nah," Sam said. "My best friend is gay and another one of my friends is a lesbian. A gay club is nothing new." He thought it over for a moment. He wasn't actually prepared to go clubbing, but he at least had his fake id and a credit card on him. And Blaine did have his date night that night. Not to mention if he went home, Artie would probably make him watch another artsy foreign film he couldn't understand. And the subtitles didn't help his dyslexia. "You know what, why not?"

"That's the spirit," Jim clapped him on the back. One of the girls, Melanie, grabbed Sam's other arm as he collected his personal items.

"Next time we'll probably go to a straight club," Melanie informed him on their way to the club. "We tend to switch it up when we go out."

"That seems fair," Sam commented. "Besides I'm not looking for a hook-up. I just got out of the weirdest relationship of my life."

Jim snorted. "Yeah, man, we should've warned you about Carol. It's just kind of a rite of passage for every straight guy in the agency to go through it."

"Don't get me wrong, she's all kinds of sexy, but the thing with the food," Sam suppressed a shudder. The group laughed before moving on. They gossiped for a while and Sam tried to keep up but he was still the new guy and he didn't know a lot of the names, especially since he tended to hang out with Blaine, Artie, and the others more than his fellow models. Sam figured that was probably a little weird. New people didn't seem to last among the graduated New Directions.

His confusion didn't matter once they hit the club as the music was too loud to hear much of what people were saying. It was one Sam had not been to. He gaped a little at the strobe lights and the amount of different colored beams bouncing from one wall to the next. He even tried not to stare at the two dudes making out on the dance floor. And he definitely tried not to stare at the girls doing the same at the bar. Both Santana and Blaine had whacked him in the back of the head the last time he looked too long at Santana making out with her new girlfriend.

Jim and Melanie quickly dragged him off for shots. Then spent most of the night making him try different drinks. They were pretty awesome and he decided he liked Jim and Melanie too. The rest of the night blurred together in a mess of sound and color. Then lips, and skin, and sweat.

*******************************************************
Sam groaned as he opened his eyes to the bright sunlight. His head was pounding and his body quite literally felt like lead. Or that time he ate too many Cool Ranch Doritos and spent a whole evening working it off. At least then he didn't have a headache and didn't feel like everything in his stomach desperately wanted to come up.

Slowly but surely, Sam was able to pry open his eyes. He waited as his eyes adjusted to the light. He blamed the headache for why it took him so long to realize he wasn't in his room. Or Blaine's. Or any other room he might recognize. Sam shot up. "Ow, ow, ow," he complained, grabbing at his head.

"Hung over?" a masculine voice asked. Sam quickly looked towards the door where the voice was coming from, ignoring the dizzy spell that hit him as he did so.

Sam blinked. "Jim?" Sure enough, there was Jim leaning against the door frame, shirtless and holding a cup of coffee. He looked a little hung over himself. Sam's eyes drifted away from the hickey on Jim's collar bone, before he froze. He looked down at his own naked chest before slowly lifting the blanket. Yep, naked. His eyes darted towards Jim again. "Is Melanie here?"

"Melanie went home with her girlfriend pretty early on," Jim told him, turning awkwardly away from him. "Do you…can you not…" Jim let out an uncomfortable laugh.

His laughter jiggled something in Sam's memory. Lips, skin, sweat. Blue eyes. A firm body. Too firm to be female. Oh, god, it felt incredible. "Oh crap, we—" Sam gestured between the two of them frantically. He paused. "I thought you were straight."

"Well, that's what I thought about you," Jim said, eyebrows raised. "And I'm very gay. Everyone knows that."

"I am straight," Sam insisted, before realizing how ridiculous that sounded given the events of that night. "I mean besides last night. I don't know what last night even was. Not that I have anything against being gay. My best friend is gay. I'm going to be his best man at his wedding. I didn't even care that he wanted to do me for a while last year. I mean—"

Jim stopped him. "I get it, man. I get it." He approached Sam slowly as if afraid Sam was going to do something stupid. Which was just ridiculous. Sam was down with the gay. Apparently more down than he had realized. "Listen, I think there are some things you have to figure out." Jim picked up what Sam recognized as his clothes from the floor. "Here. I'll let you get dressed."

He turned to leave but Sam stopped him. "Jim, can you not…"

"I won't tell anyone," Jim promised, giving him a small smile. "You know it's always different when you might be the one who's gay."

"But I like girls," Sam muttered as Jim finally left. He really needed to get out of there. He quickly pulled on his clothes and practically tore out of the apartment, barely managing a "see you at work" to Jim. He just really needed to get home.

But nothing was that easy. First, he got lost because he wasn't completely sure where he was and by the time he got himself to the subway and a map, because of some earlier incident the trains were delayed. When he finally got home, all he wanted to do was throw himself into bed. But he didn't even get to do that. Once he finally got home, he ran into Blaine who was watching t.v. in the living room, legs folded up underneath him and a bowl of cereal on his lap.

"Hey, Sam," he chirped, sparing him a glance.

"Not so loud," Sam groaned.

Blaine managed to hold in the laughter over Sam's hang over but couldn't hold back the smirk. "Come on, Mr. Hang-Over. The first Rocky is on. Come watch."

And Sam did really kind of want to watch the movie. Plus, Blaine and he had been really busy lately and hadn't had the chance to hang out, just the two of them. Sighing, he threw himself onto the other end of the couch, causing Blaine to bounce a little and make a grab for his tipping bowl. He sent Sam one of his unimpressed looks before his eyes froze on Sam's neck.
"Nice hickey," he commented lightly. Or at least Blaine's trying to be light voice which always sounded a little judgmental.

Sam groaned again. "Not now. I get it. You found the love of your life. One night stands are cheap, blah, blah, blah."

"Hey, I never said that," Blaine responded, placing his bowl on the side table, now speaking in that do-we-need-to-have-a-serious-conversation-about-this voice.

"But I know you think that," Sam argued. He sighed. "Sorry, I'm just really cranky. I'm hung over. I can't even remember how I ended up sleeping with J…Joan." He furtively glanced at Blaine to see if he noticed the slip but Blaine was now looking at him with sympathy.

"Maybe you should just get some sleep," Blaine suggested as he stood. "Go. I'll bring you some water and advil."

It was moments like this, Sam thought as he headed for bed in relief, that he wouldn't trade Blaine for anything. As Blaine basically fussed over him, he figured Kurt was a lucky guy.

Sam did end up taking Jim's advice. He tried to figure things out. But it wasn't that easy. He liked girls. He had no doubt about that. But did he like guys too? How could he take hooking up while drunk as a sure sign? Blaine of all people made out with Rachel while drunk. Maybe that was just it. Sam was drunk and it felt good because he was drunk. He couldn't even remember most if it anyway. And when he was sober, it wasn't like he was attracted to guys. If he was, wouldn't he have done something with Blaine when he had that crush on Sam? Blaine was smart, charming, and good-looking. If he hadn't been attracted to Blaine, that must've meant this was all a fluke.

But the next time he went out with some of the models, it happened again. It wasn't Jim this time. Sam had started hanging out with a totally different group of models after that one. This time around he wasn't even trashed. He was a little drunk but he could remember everything. He remembered meeting the guy at the bar, the way he started flirting with Sam, looking up at him through his lashes. And Sam had thought: why not. The thing about being less drunk this time around was that Sam remembered little things. He remembered not only enjoying the sensations, the kissing, the hand on his dick. He remembered the flare of lust that drove through him as the other man stripped out of clothes, all flat planes and muscle. The feel of stubble against his skin. Watching the guy fall apart as Sam worked his own hand over his dick. This wasn't about being drunk.

After that, Sam really thought about it. He thought about the little things. How he looked when another attractive guy passed him. Before he had thought that was just appreciation. He noticed the times that his sex dreams featured another man, the rate of which increased since the second hook-up. He noticed that sometimes he paid closer attention to the male lead than a female lead in a movie or show.

He decided to test the waters one day when he, Blaine, Artie, Santana, Rachel, and Kurt were watching Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles at the loft, a choice that only really left Kurt disappointed. Even Rachel was on board, needing something very different from Broadway after both classes at NYADA and shows for Funny Girl. While the action drew Blaine, Sam, and Artie in, Santana just wanted to watch hot girls kick ass.

So in the middle of watching an episode, he turned to Blaine. "So Derek Reese is kind of hot, huh?"

"Kind of?" Blaine raised his eyebrows. "Look at those arms, the tattoos…" he trailed off when he saw Kurt watching him in amusement.

"Do you have something to tell me, Blaine? First Adam Levine now Brian Austin Green. Should I be getting a new tattoo?" Kurt teased as Blaine blushed. The others giggled.

"I know after banging any girl that would have you, you're running out of options, but turning to the other team, Trouty?" Santana commented. Sam knew she was only teasing, but it hit a little close to home.

But before he could defend himself, Blaine cut in again. "Please, like I can't notice how hot Sarah Connor is? Doesn't mean I would ever go for it," Blaine rolled his eyes.

"She would eat you alive," Santana grinned.

"You know what I meant," Blaine turned back to the screen.

"Derek Reese is kind of sexy man candy. Just saying," Artie inserted.

"And Blaine's right about Sarah Connor," Rachel giggled.

With that they turned back to the show. So noticing another guy didn't make Sam gay. But that didn't explain his hook-ups. He figured maybe he was just experimenting. People said girls do that in college. Sure he wasn't a girl and he wasn't in college, but this could just be an experiment too, right?

By the third time, experimenting became even less of a plausible explanation. By the time his second year in New York arrived, he had hooked up with a guy when completely sober. But in that time he had also had short-lived girlfriends that he knew, without a doubt, he was attracted to. Maybe he was like Brittany. He could be bisexual. Eventually he figured that was the only explanation.

That didn't make it any easier to tell anyone. In fact, he avoided it at all costs, especially his friends. Blaine had told him once what Kurt had said about bisexual guys. He had heard Santana's less than stellar remarks on Brittany and bisexuality himself. He didn't want those words directed at him, especially with what Santana had already said about his track record with girls or with what Sam just knew Blaine thought of his one night stands, at least the ones he knew about. It hit him that he didn't even know what Blaine thought of bisexuality. He had never said anything about it. And Kurt was his boyfriend. Did that mean they shared their views? That didn't seem like something Blaine would do, but given what Blaine had said to him about his stripping when Sam first returned to McKinley, Sam didn't want to risk it. It wasn't anyone's business whether he sometimes hooked up with guys. He had only dated girls. He never had any interest in dating a guy. So he was bisexual. That meant he had a choice over who he fell for right? He could just choose to be with a girl, to not have to go through the homophobia he saw directed at Kurt or Blaine or Santana. Forget about what people said about bisexuals. Plus, Sam saw the way Kurt reacted when Blaine talked to other gay guys. Would he let Blaine be friends with Sam if he knew Sam liked guys too? As much as he loved Blaine, Sam knew that Blaine always gave in to Kurt. Always. Sam didn't want to lose his best friend.

So by the time of their third year in New York, Sam had figured out his sexuality, just as Jim suggested. And he had decided it didn't matter. He had a plan. His life in New York hit a rhythm. All of their lives did. His modeling life stayed separate from his home life. Blaine and he were best friends and Blaine knew everything about him. Except this one thing. Artie, meanwhile, was killing it at film school. Funny Girl was getting some good reviews from the Broadway world. Santana was continuing to book commercials. Kurt booked some small parts here and there while also getting a paid position at Vogue. Blaine was doing well at NYADA, choosing instead to book gigs with Sam then audition for any roles, and doing favors for Artie by, more often than not, acting as his leading man. Everything was going well. Nothing had to change.

Except one day it all changed. They say success changes everything. Whoever they were had it absolutely right. They also say change is hard. Sometimes Sam still wonders if Blaine wished things never changed. Sometimes he wonders if Blaine wished his five year plan didn't blow up in his face.