Work Text:
Even the swish of Brittany’s Cheerio skirt has lost its bounce after the series of disheartening Glee breakups. She takes her seat in the second row in the choir room and looks around. Finn is sitting in his old chair on the far right and Blaine is right in front of her next to Tina, who gently rubs her hand in a circle on his back.
Brittany sighs. They’ve already done Britney week again and that was really the only good idea they’d had all year, in her opinion. No one could top the queen of pop so there was no use in planning a big tribute week to lift anyone’s spirits. It’s hopeless really. Her break-up with Santana really took the life out of her.
When Mr. Schuester walks in the room, Brittany is already lost in counting the tiny polka dots on Blaine’s shirt to pay attention. She doesn’t even get excited when Finn suggests they do Grease in a super sad voice. She already knows she’s the hottest bicorn in the room and the best dancer in Glee club so she’s got the part of Cha Cha in the bag.
She needs to get away from all the sadness. Just as soon as Glee is over, she grabs Blaine and Tina, hops in her car, and drives straight to the beach. It’s the perfect place to get away from the crushing depression that is the Glee club and she knows that Blaine Warbler needs this too. She and Tina take turns covering each other while they change into their bikinis before walking towards the water. They all lay out their towel and sit, staring out into the blue water.
The break-ups had been hard on everyone in Glee. She and Santana had an “unofficial break-up,” whatever that meant. It seems like a real break-up to Brittany. She sang a sad song and they cried and stopped Skype scissoring. Finn and Rachel apparently yelled at each other on stage, which if you thought about it, was totally a Finchel thing to do. And Blaine had cheated on Kurt. Brittany had noticed how sad Blaine had been after he and Tina beat her and Artie in the Presidential race because Kurt didn’t really care that Blaine had won.
Kurt hadn’t been a very good unicorn boyfriend to Blaine since he moved away from the beach and to the big city. Everyone knows that. And since Blaine is a unicorn and special like Brittany, she sees it as her duty to help him get happy again, even though she totally needs to get happy too.
“I’m going to swim. Want to come?” She towers over the besties who both shake their head at her.
“Be careful.” Tina squints up at her before turning her attention back to Blaine.
Brittany trudges through the sand toward the surf. She shivers as the water laps up her legs and pushes her around. Being in the ocean is a little like dancing. Sometimes it’s fluid and calm, other times it’s jerky and rough. Either way it’s beautiful.
She shuts her eyes and lets herself get pushed around by the waves.
“Hey, are you okay?” She hears a voice call out to her.
Her eyes snap open and she spots a blond boy wading a little further out.
“Yeah. I’m okay.” She says, squinting out at the boy.
He moves a little closer to Brittany, even though he’s still a good 15 feet away. It doesn’t look like he’s touching the bottom. He’s a great swimmer.
“Fact: you’re not supposed to swim alone. It’s dangerous.” His mouth curls into a friendly lopsided smile.
She pauses and stares at him. She had not been aware of the danger. She assumed Tina was just being weirdly controlling when she told her to be careful. She wonders if it’s as dangerous as the mama human cannon that Coach Sylvester tried to shoot her out of that one time.
“I left my friends on the beach…they didn’t want to swim.” She looks nervous. “I’m too young to die.”
“Well, you have a new friend, and he’s blond.”
Brittany looks even more confused.
“I’m taking about me. I am Sam, Sam I am.” He grins at her.
She giggles and wades toward him, holding a hand out. “I’m Brittany!”
He shakes her hand. “Nice to meet you—”
He’s cut off by Brittany’s gasp. “You’re…you’re a mermaid!” Her blue eyes are huge.
“I prefer merman…” He frowns and looks down at his fin. “And I wish I wasn’t.”
Her mouth makes a perfect O as she gathers her thoughts. “Lord Tubbington owes me $50. I told him merpeople were real.” She rambles on.
“Wait, why don’t you want to be a mermaid? Mermaids and unicorns are only the coolest, most magical of all fantasy creatures.” She says matter-of-factly.
“Merman. Because I can’t walk on land! I can’t do all of the things you do, like dance and make friends who aren’t fish!” He gazes towards the beach where Blaine and Tina are laying on their towels, soaking up the sun. He leans in closer and half-whispers to her. “I knew I could trust you with my secret though. I can always tell when someone is special.”
Brittany smiles. “Of course, you can trust me, Sam! But how do we turn you into a human with two legs and not a totally magical fin that probably sparkles in the sun?”
“I have to say the magic words.”
Her eyes get wide again. “Then say them!”
“But if I say them, then I won’t be able to talk. I have to give up my voice in exchange for legs. And if I can’t talk, then I can’t say the magic words to get them back. Unless the person I love kisses me before one month is up. But if no one kisses me, then I go back to the sea, without my voice.”
“Mermaids have calendars?”
“What’s a calendar?” He looks confused.
“You know, the thing that tells you what day it is. I don’t know how to read one, but I know that one month is on one page.” She shrugs. “If you don’t have calendars then how do you know what month it is?”
“Dude, the moon!” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Last night was the last night of the waxing gibbous, so tonight is a full moon. One month from now will be another full moon.”
“I have no idea what that means Sam Merman, but I do know that I could find your true love in one month. I’m like an awesome matchmaker. Like I’m pretty sure the only person better is the robot that runs Christian Mingle, but they don’t like unicorns or bicorns so that makes me the best.”
“You’d really help me with that?” He looks at her skeptically.
“Of course! Plus it would totally help me get over missing my sweet lady kisses. Do you need to say goodbye to your fish family or pet trout?”
He nods. “I have to tell my parents that I’m getting my legs. It’s kind of a traditional thing for merteens to do if they find someone special enough to help them. Can you come back here tomorrow night at midnight?”
She nods her head excitedly before saying goodbye and fighting the waves back to the shore.
“Brittany, who was the guy you were talking to?” Tina asks. “He looked super cute.”
Brittany’s eyes widen, but she smiles. “Just some guy. He’s really nice. Maybe you can meet him soon.”
~*~*~*~
The next night Brittany creeps out silently of her bedroom so Lord Tubbington doesn’t wake up and worry about her and climbs in her car. She sings along to The Little Mermaid soundtrack, a movie that she always knew was a completely factual account of mermaid lives. She hopes Sam can introduce her to Ariel.
She puts her beat up little car in park and slips off her shorts so she’s in her bathing suit again.
“Brittany, you came!” Sam gives her a lopsided grin as she wades into the water.
“Yeah, I’m here, but I watch Shark Week and I know that midnight is when sharks have their dinner and I’m not ready to die.” She says nervously. “Are you ready to say the magic words and become a normal, boring human teenager?”
He looks out at the open sea one last time before nod tentatively. “Yes, I’m ready.”
He takes another deep breath as Brittany watches him with wide eyes. In a funny voice, he starts speaking. “Great Poseidon, God of the sea, I long for my legs, so I call upon thee. To walk amongst humans, I must give up my voice; but for the gift of two feet, I have made my choice.”
The wind and water seem to move together and nearly blow Brittany over. Lightning cracks in the sky sending sharp zigzags down to the water. She holds her breath and watches as Sam’s face contorts with pain.
“Sam!” She yells in horror, but after a few agonizing seconds, everything is calm. Eerily calm.
She watches Sam’s face to see if it worked. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Instead, he grins and holds up a leg.
“Oh my gosh, Sam it worked! You can walk!” She grabs his hands and hugs him, excited for her new blond friend.
~*~*~*~
Brittany’s mother doesn’t take to Sam as easily as she had hoped.
“He’s like Rory, Mom. A foreign exchange student with magical powers. But not leprechaun powers. His name is Sam and he’s mute.” Brittany explains over breakfast. She made Lord Tubbington Google the word for when a person couldn’t talk so she would sound smarter.
“Well, we’ll need to take him shopping. He can’t wear your Cheerios sweats. They’re way too small for him. When did he even get here?” She asks her daughter.
“Last night. He just hopped a redeye. No big deal.” Brittany shrugs and takes another bite of her cereal. Sam’s eyes are big, but his mouth falls open in a big grin.
The pair of new blond besties show up at school a little late after stopping to get Sam a pair of jeans that fit and a bright blue t-shirt.
“This is going to be great. You’re going to meet everyone and we’re going to find your true love.” They exchange smiles and Sam inhales nervously as he pushes open the door.
She watches Sam as he walks down the hall, eyeing everyone who might be his true love. She first spots Tina, who as a single girl in Glee club seems like a good candidate.
“Tina! Hi!” Brittany makes the shorter Asian girl jump.
“God, Britt, you scared—oh, who is this?” She asks, eyeballing Sam up and down with a smirk on her face. She’s practically drooling.
“This is Sam, the new kid. But he can’t talk. He lost his voice in a horrible accident when his home was invaded by aliens.” Brittany says in all seriousness.
Tina looks from one blond to the other with her eyebrows furrowed. “Very, um, nice to meet you Sam.” She finally says, offering the tall, hunky boy her hand.
He smiles as Tina hurries off, grabbing Marley by the elbow and whispering to her. They both turn back to glance at Sam before disappearing. Sam looks down at Brittany and shakes his head vigorously.
“Not Tina? Yeah, I figured. She never gets picked for anything.”
She introduces Sam to a few more people. Kitty wrinkles her nose and comments on his giant lips, and Unique scares him. Sam makes a face at Stoner Brett, so they move on.
She watches Sam survey more students in the hallway until his eyes fall on Blaine. She grabs her new friend by the hand and pulls him toward the short boy, who she’s pretty sure is actually an elf. It would be a perfect romance. Mermaid and elf. They could have mer-elf babies.
She approaches Blaine and taps him on the shoulder. He glances up from his locker and looks at Sam, then at Brittany.
“Blaine Warbler. I have someone I want you to meet, but he can’t talk.”
“Oh!” He starts to sign and Sam’s eyes widen. He looks at Brittany with an anxious look on his face before she steps in.
“He doesn’t know sign language. He only just lost his voice. A family of raccoons took over his house and one of them slashed his voice box. It was really tragic. There were no other survivors.”
Blaine stares at Brittany incredulously before turning his attention back to Sam.
“I’m sorry to hear about the accident. I’m Blaine.” He offers Sam a hand and a smile. “Brittany, what is his na—”
But she’s gone. A rainbow poster on the wall caught her attention and she disappeared. Or at least that’s what she wanted them to think. She peeks out from behind her own locker door at the dynamic duo who are just smiling at each other.
Sam bites his lip and looks at Blaine. Unlike the other girls he met this morning, Blaine seems the least intimidating. He’s tiny and compact with crazy black hair that has so kind of goop in it. Sam just watches him.
“I’m sorry. I…um…maybe she’ll be back.” Blaine looks around and Brittany ducks to hide. “I feel really bad not knowing your name. Maybe I can guess.”
Sam gives his a lopsided smile that makes Blaine duck his head with a grin. “Um…Ryan?”
Sam shakes his head.
“Kyle?” Another shake. “Trevor?” shake “Isaac?” shake “Charlie?”
“It’s Sam.” Tina says in a bored voice as she walks by. Sam looks at the scary girl and shudders but then nods rapidly.
“Sam.” Blaine smiles at the blond boy again. “I like that. It suits you.”
Sam beams at him, making Blaine blush again. “Come on, I’m headed to Glee club. We have practice in the mornings some days. You don’t have to sing to be a part of it. I’m sure they’ll love you.”
Brittany can’t contain her grin as she skips off after the boys to the choir room. The Glee kids were a little skeptical at first about having a mute student in Glee club. It’s not like he can sing. But Brittany and Blaine stand by him. Sam looks around at all of the new faces wearily. Who knew being a human teenager would be so scary.
“Guys, come on, he’s new here and doesn’t know anyone.” Blaine argues with the few who seem opposed to him joining.
“But Mr. Schue, everyone has to audition. That’s always been the rule.” Tina says.
“Tina, might I remind you that I’m in a chair, so I know what it’s like to have a disability at this school. It’s hard and there aren’t many people who are willing to welcome people with open arms. Maybe you could be a little more sensitive.” Artie says, throwing Tina a face that says ‘girl, please.’
She sighs and crosses her arms over her chest. “Can we at least see if he can even dance?”
“The family of vocal chord eating leaches didn’t get his ear drums, you know. He can hear you.” Brittany speaks up, glaring at Tina. She’s definitely not Sam’s true love.
“I’m sorry, Sam. Can you dance?”
Everyone turns to look at the blond boy whose eyes are big. He tosses a nervous look at Brittany as she grabs him by the hands. He sucks in a deep breath. Now or never. He has to do this. His true love is probably in this room right now!
“Blaine Warbler, can you help us?”
“Of course.” He smiles at Sam, reassuring him that he can do it.
“Dancing is just like swimming. You can do it.” Brittany whispers to Sam as Blaine hands the band sheet music.
Well…
You know you make me wanna…Shout!
Kick my heels up and…Shout!
Throw my hands up and…Shout!
Throw my head back and…Shout!
Sam struggles to keep up with Brittany and Blaine as they form a tight circle of the three of them and move their feet really fast. He just got these feet and they’re still a little wobbly, but he does okay. Who knew he’d have to dance on his very first day with feet?! The hand movements are easy. Brittany takes over singing so he looks to Blaine for dance cues.
They both gesture for Sam to dance by himself. He’s nervous but he remembers what Brittany says and moves his body like he’s swimming. The other students are impressed when he rolls his hips and shakes his shoulders. The fluidity of his movements is not lost on Brittany and Blaine. When the song ends they both clap and wrap Sam up in a hug. His cheeks turn pink and he looks down bashfully, his mouth pulled wide in a big grin.
“Dude, okay, that was really good when you danced by yourself. A lot better than what I could have done.” Finn speaks up with a smile, clapping his hands a couple times.
“I agree. Jumping straight into choreography is hard, but your improvised moves were great. Guys?” Mr. Schue looks at the rest of the Glee club. Brittany and Blaine hold their breath and wait for the verdict.
One by one the rest of the club either nods or gives a thumbs up, some quicker than others. Tina is the last to finally grin and give Sam a few words of encouragement. Blaine claps him on the back and they all sit down.
Brittany peeks over at the boys. Blaine looks a lot happier than he did yesterday and Sam is grinning ear to ear. Maybe the post-break-up Glee club would be okay after all.
~*~*~*~
So maybe they didn’t think this all the way through. Sam has yet to be actually enrolled as a student and he can’t even read or write in English, other than the few words and phrases he knows from reading things that got thrown into the ocean.
“You can’t read or write?” Blaine glances between him and Brittany with a confused look on his face. “What do you mean he’s not enrolled?”
“He’s dyslogic.”
“Dyslexic?”
“Isn’t that what I said?” Brittany gives Blaine a look.
“I…um…I don’t want to offend you, Sam, but how have you been communicating if you don’t know sign language and you can’t read or write?” Blaine is seriously concerned about this boy. And no offense to Brittany, but she’s not exactly the most qualified person to be helping him out.
“This.” Brittany grabs the black sketchbook out of Sam’s arms and flips it open to the first page. Blaine looks at intricate pictures of everything in the school, from the choir room, to the astronomy classroom, to the lunar cycle all drawn by hand.
“Wow, Sam, did you draw all of these?” Sam nods. “These are incredible.”
He flips through a few more pages to see beautiful portraits of all of the Glee club members with their names written out in Brittany’s loopy handwriting beneath all of them.
“Sam, these are amazing. You have a real gift.” He says, finally closing the book and handing it back to the blond boy. One corner of Sam’s lips curl up into a bashful grin. He feels a growing sense of pride with Blaine’s compliments. “But that doesn’t really solve the enrollment issue. What do you mean he doesn’t have any sort of identification?”
“When his house exploded because of the radioactive fireworks, all of his stuff was burnt up.” Brittany says, matter-of-factly.
“Brittany, you’ve told me a lot of ridiculous stories about how Sam lost his voice and ended up here. What’s the real story?”
Sam’s eyes grow wide and he shakes his head really quickly at Brittany.
“He’s an orphan. The state’s award or something. But he doesn’t have papers. Come on.” She drags both boys by the arms to Sue’s office.
None of the four people in the room believe a word of Brittany’s tall tale about Sam being an orphan from the North Pole who was raised by polar bears, but to Blaine’s disbelief, Sue arranges for Sam to be enrolled, as a senior no less.
~*~*~*~
He’d been on land for a week now and he and Brittany had made almost no progress in finding his true love. They’d both managed to get awesome parts in Grease, but Sam didn’t have to kiss anyone for his part.
She had turned her room into a detective’s office, much to the disliking of Lord Tubbington, with photos pinned up everywhere and a long list of names. It hadn’t taken long for Brittany to realize that Sam is a super awesome bicorn like her, even if he didn’t know it, but that made the pool of possible true loves even bigger and harder to narrow down.
“So definitely not Tina, we established that the first day. And not Marley or Kitty since they’re both dating Puckermans, not Unique, and none of the taken Glee club boys. And black Cheerio and neck brace Cheerio are also out.” She points to a corkboard with pictures of students pinned all over it. “That leaves Sugar, Jim, Artie, Ryder, Blaine and me…and a lot of other students.”
She sighs. “How are we ever going to figure this out?”
He gives her a pleading look, looking deep into her eyes. “I know. It’s harder than that time Santana wanted to try a new sex position where we scissored upside down.”
Sam raises his eyebrows. He has no idea what she’s talking about. Scissors are definitely the things they use in art class to cut up paper.
“Wait! Me! It could be me!” She says excitedly. Sam tilts his head, his mouth opening slightly, considering it.
He nods slowly as she approaches him. “Sammy Evans,” the last name they decided on, “I’m going to give you a taste of everything my sweet, sweet lady lips have offer to your gigantic ones. Just please don’t suck my head off with them.”
He smiles and puckers his lips, waiting for her to meet his. He’s thought about it. Brittany is really pretty and she’s been so good to him this past week. Slowly, she leans in and presses their lips together. She deepens the kiss ever so slightly, since after all, neither of them know what kind of kiss will give Sam his voice back.
After a few seconds she pulls away and looks at him expectantly. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out. He shakes his head with a sad look.
“That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to rule it out. But Santana’s my soul mate so there was no way that was going to work out.”
He grabs his sketchbook and opens to the last page he had been working on and shows Brittany a portrait of her ex-girlfriend he’d seen in various pictures around her room as a gift of sorts for all of her help. She smiles a sad smile and runs her fingers over the page.
“Almost as pretty as the real Santana.” She’s quiet for a moment before she speaks again. “You know, Santana’s going to be in town tomorrow…”
Sam’s eyes widen. He wants her to go win her girl back! He gestures wildly with his hands and nods vigorously.
“But Sammy Merman, who’s going to babysit you? I mean no one else understands how much Chapstick you need to keep your fish lips moist when you’re out of the water.”
Sam shrugs and starts flipping through his sketchbook looking at various members of the Glee club until he stops on Blaine’s pictures. It’s a good one of him. Sam captured Blaine looking happy, something Brittany hasn’t seen in a while. But somehow having Sam around, even though he doesn’t do any talking, makes Blaine perk up. The wheels in her head start turning.
She nods quickly. “You could hang out with Blaine! Maybe he could help you find your soul mate.”
Sam puts a finger up to his pouty lips and shakes his head.
“Fine, I won’t tell him that you’re searching for a mystery person, but Blaine’s really smart. He could help you. His hair is so hard because he uses it to protect his brain so the smart doesn’t leak out.”
Sam would stare wildly at the girl, but he’s lost in thoughts of getting to hang out with the other boy. Out of everyone in Glee club, Blaine has been the nicest to Sam, other than Brittany. The tall, ditzy girl is sweet, but a little hard to follow at times. And all of the Glee kids are great, but Blaine goes out of his way to make sure Sam feels included and part of the group.
~*~*~*~
The following afternoon after the Glee club’s Grease rehearsal, Blaine leads Sam out to his car. Blaine hadn’t taken any convincing at all to take Sam under his wing. In fact, he seemed excited by the idea of hanging out with the mute blond boy.
Sam climbs into the car feeling nervous for some reason. Blaine clears his throat as he puts the car in reverse and eases out of the parking spot.
“So, um, I guess we can just go back to my place?” He glances at Sam out of the corner of his eye. Sam just shrugs and gives the shorter boy a soft smile.
It only takes a few minutes before Blaine pulls into the driveway in front of a large two-story brick house. Sam looks up at it wide-eyed. It’s very nice.
“My parents aren’t home. They never really are, so we have the place to ourselves for the evening.” Blaine tells him as he enters the house and makes a beeline for his upstairs bedroom.
“So this is my room. Make yourself at home. I’ll go get us some snacks.”
Sam paces around the large bedroom, decorated in dark hues of green and blue, before stopping to look at the DVD collection on the shelf below the TV. A movie with weird looking creatures on the front immediately catches Sam’s eye and he pulls it out, looking over it. If he could read, he’d find out that it says Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Blaine comes back in carrying a tray of various snack foods and a couple of waters.
“Star Wars, huh? Aren’t you excited about the new one? Oh, I can’t wait. George Lucas is a god. He created perfection. Disney has big shoes to fill.” Sam gives him blank stare. “Wait, have you never seen Star Wars?”
He shakes his head no. He’s never seen any movies, just a couple of weird TV shows since moving into Brittany’s house.
“Oh my god, Sam. We’re having a movie marathon right now. I suggest you get comfortable.” Blaine’s thick eyebrows are nearly touching his gelled hair. He nods towards the bed, indicating for Sam to take a seat.
The shorter boy unties his bowtie and gracefully sits next to Sam on the bed after popping in Episode 4. He’d already explained the correct order of the Star Wars films to Sam, who had been a little confused by the whole thing. Why didn’t they just make the movies in the right order?
Blaine presses play on the DVD remote and Sam picks up a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. He gasps after tasting one of them. Blaine looks at him with an amused face.
“I’m guessing you like Doritos.”
Sam grins and nods his head frantically. The boys enjoy the movie with Sam occasionally gesturing wildly at the TV and wiggling with excitement when he especially likes a scene. Blaine just watches him contently. When the movie is over Sam jumps up and looks around Blaine’s room again, this time stopping at his comic book collection. He pulls one out and starts flipping through it.
“Oh that’s a good one. Batman. DC comics are my favorites.”
Sam gives him a weary look and frowns, holding the book out to Blaine.
“Do you want me to read it to you?” Blaine tries.
The blond boys face lights up in a smile that could surely light up a room. Sam likes Brittany a lot, but Blaine seems to have a lot of things that he really finds interesting. The idea of superheroes and galaxies far, far away are fascinating to Sam. After all, that’s kind of what he’d always imagined when he thought about life on land.
Blaine takes the comic and lies down on the bed again, this time on his stomach. He pats the spot next to him gesturing for Sam to join him. Sam grins and leans in close so he can see the pictures. Blaine studies him closely with a funny look on his face before starting to read, using funny voices for the different characters. Sam loves it.
When they finish Batman, Sam immediately picks up another—Captain America—and points at it excitedly. Blaine grins, making his eyes crinkle at the corners. He flips open the next comic and reads to Sam, pausing every time he gets excited pointing to different scenes and gesturing. After spending a few hours alone with Sam, Blaine starts to understand some of Sam’s crazy hand movements.
At some point in the later part of the evening, Brittany calls Blaine asking when she should pick Sam up.
“Brittany’s asking if you’re ready to go back to her house now. Or you know, if you want to finish this, you could just crash here. If you’re comfortable with that…” Blaine trails. Sam gives him a huge grin and a thumbs up.
“He’s just going to stay here…okay…thanks Britt. Bye.” He hangs up and grins at Sam. “Brittany said she would come by in the morning with your clothes. I’m not sure that you’ll be matching tomorrow though.”
Sam just gives him a breathy laugh and nods for Blaine to keep reading the Marvel comic.
“So, Marvel or DC? Which is better?” He asks Sam seriously when he finishes Captain America. “You have to choose. It’s kind of nerd law.”
Sam furrows his brow in concentration before pointing to Captain America.
“Oh a Marvel man, are we? Well, let’s hope we can still be friends after that.” Blaine says seriously, but the smirk on his face tells a different story.
And that was the beginning of Blam.
~*~*~*~
Brittany lets herself in Blaine’s house the next morning to find the two boys looking awfully cozy in the brunette’s bed. Blaine is curled up on his side facing Sam, while the blond is sprawled on his back with his head tilted towards Blaine, their hair nearly tangling.
She smiles to herself as she watches them for a moment. Maybe Sam’s true love wouldn’t be too hard to find after all. She reaches down and gently shakes Blaine’s shoulder.
“Huh?” Blaine grumbles a bit before realizing what’s happening and sitting up in surprise. “Oh Brittany! Hi. Um, how did you get in?”
“I picked the lock. Santana taught me how in case I ever have to rescue a little old lady who’s home alone at night.” She says with a sincere look.
Blaine looks slightly uncomfortable as he scoots away from Sam, who is stirring.
“Did you guys have fun last night?” She asks them with a curious smile.
Blaine nods feebly, still looking unsure. But it’s Sam who claps his hands and grins, indicating his enjoyment of spending the night with Blaine. Blaine blushes and runs a hand through his wild curls before taking off for the bathroom.
Sam looks at Brittany sheepishly as she hands over his clothes, that sure enough don’t match at all, but he doesn’t care. He has a new best friend and he couldn’t be happier.
Pretty much everyone in Glee club notes Sam’s change in demeanor over the following days. But they’re even more surprised by Blaine’s changes. He’s happy again, especially when Sam is around. Somehow in the following week between Grease rehearsals, they manage to get everyone dressed up in superhero costumes and doing fun duets, or in Sam and Blaine’s case, a Blaine solo with an accompanying Sam dance number to Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.
The pair is inseparable, which works out fine for Brittany since Santana has been in town and they’ve started repairing their relationship. She needs time away from mermaid-sitting to get her sweet lady kisses on and, the way she figures it, Blaine needs time away from mourning the loss of his super unicorn romance to have fun with a new equally nerdy bestie.
And for the next two weeks, that’s how Brittany finds them. Waking up together in Blaine’s bed, closer and closer together each day, with the remnants of last night’s adventures scattered around them: comic books strewn about, empty DVD cases, video game controllers, and superhero costumes threatening to take over Blaine’s bedroom.
Sam and Blaine bound down the hallways of McKinley like they own the place, and really, they basically do. Blaine is a Cheerio now, so he’s basically on top of the high school pyramid and Sam, with a nudge from Blaine, decided to try swimming and ended up excelling in synchronized swimming. Brittany, of course, was not surprised since he’s had plenty of practice with his mer-siblings.
They’ve even come up with their own version of sign language. Blaine high-fives Sam as he sits down next to him in the choir room. He makes a funny gesture with his hands that makes Sam laugh.
“That is definitely not sign language.” Artie says, squinting at the pair as they silently chuckle at their own private jokes.
Blaine turns to him and shrugs. “We made up our own signs.” He turns back to Sam with big heart eyes and grins. “It’s so cool, like a secret language, almost like Na’vi if Sam could speak.”
Sam gives Blaine a lopsided grin in return. Artie and Tina exchange a look that says ‘are they serious?’ Sam just fist bumps his best friend.
Everything seems to be going so well that he almost forgets about needing to find his true love.
~*~*~*~
But Brittany hasn’t forgotten. She’d had to clean up her room a little since Santana was frequenting her place more often and Sam would not be okay with letting that catfish out of the bag. But she hasn’t forgotten that Sam’s days are numbered.
She’s been trying to get Sam to come over and work on figuring that out, but he would rather spend his time with Blaine. Which, duh, makes sense, but Sam hasn’t figured out that he loves Blaine yet. Even though she’s pretty sure that Blaine’s figured out that he loves Sam. She can tell by the big heart eyes he gives Sam all the time and the way he stares at Sam’s pillow-soft lips that are surely filled with salt-water taffy. But Brittany can’t figure out how to tell Sam that without it scaring him. She knows from her experience with Santana that some bicorns and unicorns can be tricky. They would only hear what they wanted to hear and so far, Sam had shown no interest in any boys in the Glee club or on the swim team.
“Sam! Wait up!” She calls after him one afternoon. The countdown is on. He only has one week left on land before he has to join his fishy friends in the ocean again if he doesn’t find his true love.
Sam smiles brightly at Brittany. She notes the extra spring in his step. He’s heading to his math class with Blaine.
“So Sam, we have to find your true love. You only have a week. Lord Tubbington helped me mark my calendar since the moon doesn’t talk to me like it talks to you.”
He shuffles his feet and stares at the ground before looking back up and shrugging indifferently.
“I know that you’re having fun and stuff, but time is running out. You’re going to lose your voice and your legs.” She says very seriously. “Can you come over this afternoon? Santana said she has to go shopping for new weave and razor blades for her hair.”
Sam shakes his head apologetically and makes a gesture that Brittany now recognizes as his sign for Blaine before waving and running off. She sighs. She might be losing her blond friend for good.
~*~*~*~
Finding his soul mate in high school seems about as farfetched as it gets, and that’s coming from Sam, who is technically still a merman until the end of his month. Even though Brittany keeps nagging him, he’s pretty much given up hope of finding his person and wants to enjoy his last few days with Blaine. He’s all Sam really cares about. Blaine. Sam stops dead in his tracks. It’s silly, but Sam hadn’t even considered the fact that his true love might be a boy. Brittany did, but Sam had just assumed it would be a girl. After all, he’d only been attracted to mermaids and the occasional dolphin at his home under the sea. But merpeople are gay sometimes too!
He marches up to Brittany in the hallway and opens his sketchbook frantically and points to Blaine’s picture with wide green eyes. Then he points to the heart that she’d drawn on another page representing his soul mate. Brittany’s eyes only get slightly bigger.
“Duh, Sam Merman. Blaine Warbler is a super cute elf who bakes delicious cookies in trees. He’s a unicorn like Santana and you’re a bicorn like me. But like Santana, sometimes unicorns and bicorns have to take a little bit of time to figure it out on their own or they get scared.”
Sam can’t decide if he wants to hit or hug Brittany. She knew this whole time and didn’t say anything. He opts to hug her, since even merpeople are taught to never hit women, or any person in general. Brittany squeezes Sam back and grins at him.
“You’re a bicorn like me, so now we need to make a plan to get Blaine to kiss you. I can tell he likes you. He stares at your pillow lips all the time and if he had a tail, it would wag when you walk into the room.”
Sam’s cheeks turn pink as he smiles sheepishly. He feels the same way. So he and Brittany try to come up with several ways to get Blaine to kiss him, because mer-law says that it has to be a kiss received that will break the mute curse.
And Sam tries hard. He makes sure to lean in extra close to Blaine and stare at his lips when they’re alone in Blaine’s room. He watches as Blaine licks his own lips and his breath hitches at Sam’s nearness, but he doesn’t ever kiss him. Sam even tries accidentally running into him, but he ends up with a mouthful of hair gel since Blaine is a little bit shorter than him.
Brittany’s ideas aren’t exactly very good. Creative, yes, but not effective. So Sam tries one of his own. He pulls out a special pack of colored pencils that Brittany had gotten him and starts on his masterpiece. He doesn’t want to scare Blaine with some of Britt’s crazier ideas and he’s still afraid that it might not even work. But this is his last chance. Tonight at midnight he’ll turn into a merman again if it doesn’t work.
So Sam arrives at Blaine’s house around 8 to join him for some pizza and a DC versus Marvel “debate” of sorts. It’s hard to have a full-blown debate when one of them can’t speak. Brittany agreed to let him go as he did his best to assure her that he was going to make it happen.
Blaine answers the door with a bright smile and hug for Sam.
“Come on in. I’m going to call for pizza now.”
Sam’s heart is beating like wild as he watches the shorter boy walk away from him. His newfound love for the brunette boy caught him off guard and now everything he does makes the butterflies in his stomach flutter.
Blaine strolls back in the room holding a new comic book in hand.
“Want to read this while we wait for pizza?”
Sam finds himself nodding. He glances at the clock. Blaine helped him learn how to read it last week. He has three hours to get Blaine to kiss him or back in the water he’ll go.
It doesn’t take much for Sam to get lost in the sound of Blaine’s voice as he reads the comic to him and soon the pizza arrives. They sit next to each other on the floor in front of the coffee table with pizza in one hand and the comic in the other. Sam sits on Blaine’s left with his sketchbook so he can draw things about when he needs to. He carefully skips over the special page for Blaine to get to a fresh sheet. His stomach flip-flops as he thinks about what he needs to do.
He watches Blaine talk animatedly about the comic when he finishes reading. Between bites of pizza, Sam can’t take his eyes off of Blaine’s lips. Honestly, he has no idea what the comic was even about, which isn’t so bad considering he can’t actually talk about it.
“Hey…Sam? Are you okay?” Blaine dips his head down so that their eyes make contact for the first time in a few minutes. Sam had seriously zoned out thinking about kissing Blaine and his time is running out. He only has about an hour left.
Sam gulps. He starts to pull his sketchbook out but he chickens out. What if Blaine doesn’t really want to kiss him?
But Blaine’s eyes are on Sam’s lips now, or at least they keep flickering from his green eyes to his full lips. After all of their fun with superheroes last week, Sam really wishes he could read minds, even if it’s just Blaine’s mind. He needs to know.
They’re sitting really close together. Sam’s leg tingles where Blaine’s thigh his pressed against his. He takes a deep breath and pushes his plate away to make room for his sketchbook.
Blaine eyes it curiously before looking back up at Sam.
“Do you want me to look at something?”
Sam takes another shaky breath and opens it to the page that he’d been working on. It’s a comic, without words, of course. It’s of Nightbird and the Blond Chameleon—the superhero name Blaine had given Sam.
Blaine smiles and starts to look at the comic, starting at the beginning. In the first few panels are of the two of them when they first met in the hallway at McKinley. They shake hands and then dance for the Glee club. Sam watches as Blaine runs his fingers over it smiling.
“Is this us?” He asks. Sam gives him a lopsided smile and nods.
The next few panels take place in Blaine’s room where they play video games, read comics and fan fiction together, and dress up as superheroes. Then there is a panel that shows the two of them pouring over Sam’s sketchbook just like they are now.
Blaine glances up at Sam with a half-smile before flipping the page to see the last row of panels. Sam holds his breath. This is it.
Blaine’s lips part slightly as he inhales sharply. The last panel shows the two boys kissing. Sam watches Blaine as he stares at the picture for a few seconds. It’s not graphic in the slightest. It’s a sweet and chaste kiss between two people that really like each other.
He closes the book and Sam holds his breath again. Slowly, Blaine’s eyes meet Sam’s. They’re wide and nervous-looking.
“Is…um…is this what you want?” Sam can hear his voice shaking.
He lets out a shallow breath and nods, moving slightly closer to the shorter boy. Blaine tentatively reaches out and touches Sam’s jaw. His touch feels sends shivers down his spine. Blaine studies him for a few moments. Sam can practically hear the clocking ticking away too many agonizingly long seconds.
Slowly, Blaine closes the space between them and their lips press together. Fireworks. Sam has seen them on many holidays as they’ve been shot over the ocean.
Blaine’s eyes are dark and his pupils are fully dilated when he pulls back to look at Sam.
“You…you did it.” Sam tries and then smiles and starts talking really fast. “You did it! I can talk! Oh my God, dude! I can talk again!”
“What?! You can talk? You’ve been able to talk this whole time?” Blaine’s mouth falls open and he actually looks a little angry.
“I can explain. You won’t believe it, but I can explain.” Sam says and animatedly dives into his story. Blaine watches him intently, his eyes rarely leaving Sam’s lips. “…and I saw you that day on the beach. That’s when Brittany found me and helped me out.”
“So you were a mermaid?”
“Merman.”
“Sorry, a merman?” Blaine asks skeptically. “You realize that even if I might believe you a little bit, no one else will.”
“Yeah, I know.” He says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess I can say that I went to see a doctor?”
Blaine is quiet for a minute before he looks up and puts his hands on Sam’s shoulders. “Okay, here’s what you do. Tell them your voice came back and the doctor said that happens sometimes after a serious accident. If they ask what really happened, because Brittany’s stories are ridiculous, tell them you’d rather not talk about it.”
“Good thinking! You really are the smart one.” Sam smiles. Blaine ducks his head, his cheeks turning pink.
“So this means you’re my soul mate?” He says slowly.
Now it’s Sam’s turn to look bashful. “Yeah…it does. I hope that’s okay.”
“I mean, I can’t really argue with the universe.” Blaine smiles.
Sam grins and smashes their lips together again, already missing the way Blaine’s mouth feels against his own.
They spend the entire rest of the night talking, only pausing to kiss some more and call Brittany to tell her the good news. They even come up with some new Nightbird and Blond Chameleon superhero stories for their comic.
~*~*~*~
“I don’t know. The doctor said it was a miracle.” Sam tells the Glee club the next day in the choir room. They all stare at him incredulously until Finn finally speaks.
“All right, dude. That’s kinda crazy, but like crazy awesome. Can you sing for us? Because if you can, we really need a new Kenickie in Grease because the other guy keeps bailing.”
Sam grins and pulls Blaine up out of his chair by the hand.
“Blaine taught me all the words last night. This is all about a new start for me and him, and for me and him.” They lace their fingers together. Tina’s eyes nearly bug out of her skull and Brittany cheers.
Blaine takes the first verse, with Sam joining in at the chorus. The Glee club claps along and dances to the beat. Then Blaine takes a step back holding an arm out for him to take the lead just like he did a few weeks ago.
I howled at the moon with friends
And then the sun came crashing in
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Sam’s voice is met with loud cheers from the other kids. Brittany jumps to dance around him. She’s so excited that Sam embraced his awesome and he’s here to stay.
But all the possibilities
No limits, just epiphanies
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
I'm never gonna look back
I'm never gonna give it up
Just don't wake me now
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe
The song ends with Blaine and Sam falling into a hard embrace and the rest of the kids piling on, all exuding happiness for them.
Sam grins down at Blaine. This really is the start of something awesome.