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Blaine already regretted agreeing to this. Sure, Sam was his best friend, but that didn’t mean he had to let him break his hand. ‘Sam, I know it hurts but could you loosen the death grip?”
Sam looked over “Oh sorry buddy” Blaine just gave him his best smile and continued tapping his foot along to some beat in his head. They were here to get Sam a tattoo with the words “may the song be with you”(One of his favourite quotes for the glee kids) and an image of Yoda wielding a microphone. Of course it had to be one of the most painful places, and of course Blaine had been convinced to come along.
He was also now considerably rethinking the idea of offering his hand as a stress ball, as Sam was now clinging to it like a huge man baby. So, trying to take both their minds off the pain, Blaine began talking about the most recent Star Wars film and when they saw it together last week.
At first Blaine is confused by how the tattoo artist keeps glancing up at him and he tries to send her a message with his eyes, “he’s okay, just keep going and get this over with.” But then he realises what exactly she’s looking at, on his wrist is a rainbow bracelet, with P R I D E written across it – he and Kurt got matching ones at Pride last year – and then he looks just above the bracelet to where his and Sam’s hands are joined and...
Oh God. She thinks they’re together, and Blaine doesn’t know what to do, because, yes he is gay, but he’s also engaged, and not to Sam, this is just him being a good friend.
The tattoo artist, or Libby as she said when they were introduced earlier, chose that moment to finally speak up.
“So...are you two close?” she could be talking about the weather with the way she says it.
“Of course! That’s why I brought him!” Sam seems to have temporarily forgotten the pain, speaking with a bright smile on his face, and while Blaine is glad to see him smiling he is very aware of the fact that Sam loves to gush about how amazing his friends are, an endearing habit that could only worsen this situation. Thankfully Libby cut him off before anymore could come out of his mouth “Good for you.” she smiles and goes back to working on the tattoo.
Well hey, at least she isn’t about to throw them out the shop, so Blaine figures there’s no harm in letting her be slightly confused, it would only be more complicated to explain to them both by now.
Apparently the Universe has a different idea though, as five minutes later Sam lifts his head again and asks “Hey, can I have some water?’ and Blaine does what he would usually do and hands Sam his own bottle from his bag. Sam grins and practically downs the whole thing.
“You going to leave any for me there?”
“Ah sorry bud, there’s still some left,” Blaine just laughs and takes the bottle back, bringing it up to his lips and swallowing before he realises what this looks like. They’re drink sharing in front of the tattoo artist who already thinks they’re a couple. He splutters a bit at the thought, but there’s no going back now.
Just as they’re finishing up and Blaine is beginning to find the event more humorous than traumatising he finds the perfect opportunity to sort everything out. Sam and Libby are talking about her plans to get a small tattoo of the solar system on her back and Blaine thinks this could be a good time to bring up Kurt’s previous drunken mishap, casually mentioning the fact that they’re engaged at the same time.
“Hey Sam, remember when Kurt got that Bette Midler tattoo?” Sam snorts “Oh my god that was hilarious!”
Libby’s already giggling when she asks “What happened!”
Sam is almost struggling to breathe with his laughter but when Blaine goes to tell the story he puts up a hand, waving him away, “No, no. I want to tell it. You’ll get to tell it to all your kids one day, let me have this one.”
Libby has her eyebrow raised and to Blaine it’s obvious that she’s thinking something along the lines of “well that was a bit weird coming from his boyfriend”
Sam starts talking before she can enquire any further though “Ok so this one time, his fiance decided to be rebellious for once, and he- he – oh god” he starts laughing uncontrollably again. Blaine gives him a moment to straighten back up and he can practically see the cogs spinning in Libby’s head at the word fiance.
As far as she’s concerned he must have been engaged, called off that engagement and then got together with Sam all in a fairly short amount of time if he’s as young as he looks.
“I can’t do this, I’ll just skip to the best bit. Now he has a- a tattoo that says “It’s got Bette Midler” Isn’t that just hilarious?” And he goes back to struggling to stand with laughter.
“Come on Sam, you know it was supposed to be more sentimental.” says Blaine, feeling the need to jump in and protect Kurt “It was supposed to say “It gets better” but there was some, erm, confusion, and that was the best way to fix it.”
By now Sam has pretty much stopped laughing, sobering up at the memory of one motive Kurt had for getting those words. He starts smiling again quickly though “He’s my best friend and your fiance, we’re allowed to laugh.”
Blaine saw Libby’s jaw drop open, “Don’t you mean ex-fiance?” she asks carefully.
“What! No of course not. Blaine and Kurt are as together as they’ve always been, well, maybe not that time last year, but they’re still engaged, right Blaine?”
“maybe the ground will just swallow me up” but the time has come where he pretty much has to say something. “Alright, I think it’s time I said something.”
“Blaine! I know you’re my best friend but I swear to God if you cheated on Kurt again I-”
“Sam! You know I would never do that again. This isn’t about Kurt. This is about Libby here thinking you and I are a couple.” Libby blushes and ducks her head, trying to avoid the embarrasment of what a mistake she’d made.
‘What? But why whould you- Oh.” Something clicks in Sam’s brain and his head slowly turns from Blaine’s bracelet, to his hand and to his water bottle.
‘Guys I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say” Libby takes a step back, wiping her hands on her jeans and Blaine quickly steps in to reassure her.
“No, no. It’s totally fine. I should have said something earlier, I just thought it would be more confusing.” he shrugs helplessly and Libby gives him a small smile back.
“Well, unfortunately I have someone booked in in five minutes, for a,” she glances at her book “Oh a Robert Manion tattoo! That should be fun!”
‘We’ll just be going then. So sorry about that again.” said Blaine, already shuffling out towards the door. All he wants now is to make as swift an exit as possible, but Sam grabs his arm stopping him in his tracks. “Wait a second.”
The blonde walks back over to Libby “Um, I know this is a bit of a strange way to meet, but you’ve been great fun, and I was wondering if,” Blaine sighed, of course Sam had to get a date out of this. “Would you like to maybe grab some drinks later?”
Libby blushed and stuttered, but she grabbed his hand, smiling “Yeah, that would be great.”
Sam grinned and turned back to Blaine fistpumping. “I have to warn you, he’s a bit of a goof.” Sam pouts at his friends words and Libby just laughs more. “I think I’ll manage! Thanks Blaine, see you later Sam.” She flasshes a last smile at them before waving them out the door.
When they’re almost back at the loft Blaine turns to Sam “Well that was...intersting.”
“Yep. I can’t believe you never said anything to me!”
“Well I didn’t know what to say! Anyway you being so oblivious is always hilarious” Sam makes a face and sticks out his tongue, only further proving Blaine’s goof statement from earlier.
“Well I do believe you have a hot date later tonight, you should go get ready.” Blaine says with a wink.
“Wow, it doesn’t take me,” he cast a quick glance at Blaine’s watch, “six hours to get ready!”
‘I’m just saying you might want to make an effort with Libby, she seems really great, and we have to make up for earlier somehow.”
“Hey! I had nothing to do with earlier, all I did was hold my buddy’s hand.”
“Well that’s not exactly true, but you’re right it wasn’t your fault. Who knows, if things go well tonight you might be bringing her round to meet Kurt soon.” Sam face palmed groaning “You are way too excited to tell him about this Blaine.”
“Oh you bet I am!” He fished out his keys, and the pair of them barely make it up the stairs, a new wave of hilarity having hit them. “Hey Kurt! You’ll never guess what happened”