Chase the Stars (To Lose Our Shadows) (1/2)
Title: Chase the Stars (To Lose Our Shadows)
Author: whatfoolscallit
Artist: camillo1978
Art link: Here!
Rating: PG
Word count: 7200
Summary: When Ms. July tells her class that she has a surprise for them, Blaine certainly doesn't think that it's handsome Broadway star Kurt Hummel casting students in his newest original play, Hook.
Notes: This was written for the Glee Reverse Big Bang, please go and check out all the amazing talent over there.
I must express extreme gratitude to my beta gigi42. She is super amazing and thoughtful, and didn't laugh at me too much. She was really helpful in terms of cheerleading and being a sounding board and I am lucky she said yes when I asked her to be my beta.
As well, camillo1978 is an amazing artist who was great to work with and somehow understood my ramblings and half-baked ideas. She also provided this lovely inspiration of the harness that is used in this fic so you should definitely watch it to understand the idea better.
Title is from the song "Fly With Me" by Jonas Brothers.
Blaine followed Rachel through the halls of NYADA, clutching at his messenger bag nervously.
"Can you calm down?" Rachel muttered, narrowly avoiding some ballerinas performing arabesques down the hall. “I can literally feel the sweat dripping from your hair.”
Blaine instinctively ran his palms over his head, checking to make sure none of the strands had shifted from underneath his gel. “Why aren’t you more nervous? Ms. July says she has a surprise for us, Rachel. A surprise.” He reached in front of her to pull open a door, stepping aside to let her pass first.
“So?”
“So? Rachel, a surprise! It’s probably a quiz.”
As they reached the doors to their Dance 201 classroom, Rachel pushed one open and walked through it, holding it open with her jazz shoed feet until Blaine had passed. “Again, Blaine, so?”
“My piqué turns are so terrible Rachel. I will fail.”
Rachel seemed to consider this, pulling her arms above her head and stretching them back. “Maybe. But what if it’s the tango? You and I will kill it.”
Together they stretched, watching classmates trickle in while in various states of nervousness or confidence. Clearly they were all anxious for the surprise as well.
The door burst open, slamming against the wall, and all the students quieted, quickly falling into their lines. The Dance 201 students were arranged by height for easier partner selection and Blaine and Rachel had ended up together front and center.
"Hello once and future waitstaff!" their blonde instructor called, whisking into the room with a short flowing black skirt and a jazz cane in her hand.
"Good morning Ms. July," the class chorused, staring straight ahead.
She swept to the front of the room and leaned on her cane, looking at each of them in turn. “I’ve promised you a surprise and boy, schlepers, have I ever delivered.” She pointed the cane at door and all heads turned towards it. “Come in!”
The door opened and the first thing Blaine saw was blue eyes and coiffed chestnut hair. He felt Rachel grab his hand. "Oh my God!" she hissed, squeezing hand.
"Holy shit," he muttered back. "This is a good surprise."
The man made his way up to the front, back straight but his eyes flitted from face to face nervously. "Hello, Cassandra," he said softly, voice lilting, "thank you for having me today."
"It's no problem," she responded before turning to the class. "I assume everyone knows who this man is."
A voice piped up from his right. "Duh, everyone knows who Kurt Hummel is." Blaine closed his eyes, wincing in second-hand embarrassment. Stop now. Seriously stop. "He's only the most fashionable and talented Broadway leading man to have ever graced The Great White Way in the past decade."
Blaine chanced a look at Kurt's face, which was dark pink in embarrassment. "Yes," Ms. July said, rolling her eyes. "Thank you, Chandler."
The class broke out in snickers and Blaine and Rachel exchanged an eye-roll over their less-than-professional classmates.
"Well," Kurt shrugged with a small smile, "I don't know about all of that, but my name is Kurt and I am quite fashionable." He looked to the instructor who nodded her head and gestured for him to continue. Kurt took a step forward.
"Some of you may have heard this through the Broadway grapevine, but I have recently completed another play and it's been picked up. We're in the middle of casting but since it's pretty dance heavy, I thought I'd come back to my alma mater and workshop it." An excited murmuring broke through the crowd. "So," Kurt interrupted, waiting for the class to quiet down. "If it's alright with you, Cassandra has given us the rest of the block to work though some parts."
At Ms. July's double clap, the class hurried to the bars, lining up with their left hand gripping bars and their feet in first position. Blaine bowed his arm in front him, pressing his heels together so that his feet formed a V-shape. He looked to Kurt who was waiting for the rest of class to get settled.
“The play is called Hook. It’s an adaptation of Peter Pan but I wanted to tell the story of Captain Hook. Who was he before? Why does he hate Peter so much?” He started to walk down the lines of students, observing form and making notes on his pad of paper. “I confess that I find villains quite interesting because no one seems to explore them thoroughly. Anyway, please just work through your exercises for now."
Blaine swept his arm out beside him and raised his foot in front of him, then swung it back, tapping it against the ground before bringing it back. He watched as Kurt started to talk to various students, nodding at what they had to say and making notes on his pad. He couldn't decide if he wanted Kurt to come over to him or not because, seriously, his piqués were not in good shape. Unfortunately, or maybe not, after two more sets, Kurt wandered over to him. “Hi, I’m Kurt.”
Blaine let out a chuckle and stopped his exercises. “Um, I know. I’m Blaine. Blaine Anderson.” He turned fully towards the other man, offering his hand. Kurt took it, eyebrows raised and a small pleased smile a light on his lips.
“It’s nice to meet you, Blaine.”
“You as well. I’m a big fan. Jackson was the first Broadway show I ever saw.”
Kurt’s cheeks bloomed red like roses. “Well, thank you very much. Do you mind if we had a little chat?”
“Not at all,” Blaine replied, shaking out his arms and clasping them in front of him.
“You have very nice form.” Blaine smiled and nodded in thanks. “What’s your major?”
“Musical theatre.”
“Do you have any credits?”
“I was in the lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers in Westerville, Ohio for two years, and McKinley’s New Directions for one. I was also Tony in West Side Story my senior year and I participated in the “Act-Out-In-One-Act” festival here at NYADA last semester as an actor and a stage manager.”
Kurt made notes on his pad before looking up at Blaine. “That’s very impressive, Blaine. And what’s your schedule like this semester? Any part-time jobs?”
“I’m only taking four classes this term. And no, I don’t have a job, but I was planning on getting one in the summer.”
“Great.” Kurt checked a few things on his notepad and smiled up at Blaine. “I’d like to invite you to audition for a role in Hook, if you want to.”
Blaine’s jaw dropped open. “Really?”
“Really,” Kurt responded, giggling a little bit. “It’s nothing fancy, it’ll be right here after class. It’s a cold read and I’ll ask you to sing something. That’s it. Are you interested?”
Blaine’s head was nodding before his mouth caught up to it. “Yes, yes, definitely, I am very interested.” Blaine grabbed Kurt’s hand, shaking it as he grinned. “Thank you so much!”
“No problem,” Kurt replied, extracting his hand slowly. “It’s my pleasure. I’ll see you after class.” He hitched his notebook higher in his hands and waved, walking backwards towards Ms. July.
Soon after, class ended and Blaine pulled his water bottle out of his bag. He saw Rachel making her way over to him, bouncing on her toes with every step. He chugged the whole bottle quickly before she could get to him.
"So?" she asked, using her pointer fingers to poke him repeatedly in the stomach.
"So what?" he countered, twisting away.
"I saw Kurt talking to you. What did he want?"
Blaine tried hard to suppress the grin that was overtaking his face, but found that his news was too exciting to do it. "He asked me to audition for his show, Rach!"
"Oh my God!" Rachel grabbed his hands and started to jump up and down excitedly. "Oh my God, when?"
Blaine shrugged, glancing at the clock at the back of the hall. "Soon, I guess. He said after class."
"I'm so happy for you!"
Blaine smiled again, slow and wide as he trained his gaze on Kurt at the front. He was still talking to Ms. July, arms moving in sweeping gestures. "Thanks."
"And see? You didn't even need your piqués."
**
Blaine's audition was far more relaxed than he thought it'd be, even after Kurt's reassurance. After class, all the students filed out except for Blaine, a blonde girl that he was pretty sure was called Andrea and, to Blaine's dismay, Chandler Kiehl.
Chandler waved at him and he gave a tight-lipped smile back but before Chandler could approach him, Blaine faced Kurt, watching him pull sheets of paper from a messenger bag that was off to the side. Smiling at them before making his way over, Kurt passed a pack to each of them. “Before we do this, I have to ask you not to reveal anything from the script regardless of if you get the part or not. Do you agree?”
The three of them nodded.
“Great! Blaine, right?” he asked, pointing at him. Blaine nodded with a grin. “You’re reading for Peter.” Kurt wanted Blaine to be Peter Pan? A leading character? His eyes flew up to Kurt’s, who was smiling encouragingly. “He’s not the Peter Pan you know, though. He’s just Peter, still a lost boy. Alright?” Blaine nodded again and started to skim his lines.
"You both," Kurt said, motioning to Andrea and Chandler, "will be auditioning for Tinkerbell." Andrea clapped excitedly, while Chandler grimaced.
"A fairy?"
"Boys can be fairies too. Just look at me!" Blaine snorted with laughter while Chandler stared blankly back at Kurt. "That was a joke. I'm not..." Kurt shook his head. "Anyway, let's begin. First Blaine and Andrea will read together and then Blaine and Chandler. After that, I'd like to hear you guys sing - preferably a song from a musical."
They all nodded their assent. Chandler stood off to the side as Blaine and Andrea stood face-to-face. They looked to Kurt who swept his hands towards them. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Andrea smiled at him and Blaine took that as his cue to start. “Who are you?” he asked her, in a small voice. The scene continued from there with Blaine, as Peter, tried to figure just what exactly Tinkerbell was. There was lovely emotion in the scene, full of pain and confusion but also the hope of a new life. When Blaine redid the scene with Chandler, he already knew who Kurt would pick. While Andrea was good, Chandler played the scene with enough sass to counter Blaine’s innocent Peter. He snuck a glance at Kurt as he circled Chandler curiously, who had one hand on his hip and was looking right back at him confidently.
Kurt looked impressed, arms crossed, a small smile on his face. He was nodding along to their lines and Blaine noticed that he even mouthed a few in time with them both and when they finished their scene, Kurt applauded all three of them, laughing.
“Great! All of you were fantastic! If I could just hear your songs now... I’ll give you a few minutes to prepare.”
Blaine sang second, after Andrea. He shook his wrists out and aimed a grin right at Kurt.
Could be...
Who knows...
At the end, Kurt wished them all good luck and told them he’d be in contact with them all either way. Blaine put out his hand as he said good-bye; Kurt grasped it tightly.
“It was good to meet you Blaine,” he murmured.
“It was an honour, Kurt. And a pleasure.”
With one last look at Kurt, who was listening to Chandler chatter excitedly while still shaking his hand vigorously, he gathered his belongings and made his way out of the classroom.
“You were great!”
Blaine jumped, almost dropping his bag. He spun around to see Rachel grinning wide and bright. “Jesus, Rachel! You can’t just-”
“You’re going to get it for sure,” she interrupted, linking their arms together and pulling them down the hallway.
“How do you know?”
“I heard your audition of course,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
“Rachel! That was a closed audition!”
She shrugged as they made their way down the stairwell to their next class. “I only heard your song. You projection is getting much better.”
“Thanks? Rach, did you skip class?”
She waved a hand in annoyance. “Doesn’t matter. Now, what are you going to wear to the first production meeting?”
It turns out Rachel was right; Kurt did call him the very next day. The phone rang right after his last class of the day.
“Hello?” he answered, dodging Rachel’s hands grabbing for his phone in excitement.
“Hello, is this Blaine?”
“This is he, who may I ask is calling?”
“It’s Kurt. Kurt Hummel. I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time. Cassandra said that all second-years get a break right now.”
“Kurt! Hi! No, it’s a perfect time. I just got out of class.”
Rachel started to smack his arm. “Kurt!” she shrieked. “Kurt Hummel! I told you! I told you!”
“Blaine?” Kurt’s voice resonated through the phone. “Are you okay? What is that?”
“Oh nothing,” Blaine replied, wrapping a hand around Rachel’s mouth. “Just some crazy person, I don’t know her. You were saying?”
“I was calling to offer you the part of Peter Pan in my production of Hook. Are you interested?”
“Yes! Of course I’m interested!” Blaine spun in a circle and pumped a fist in the air. “Yes, thank you so much, Kurt.”
He could hear a laugh on the other end, “Great. You also probably should know that Chandler has been cast in the role of Tinkerbell.”
“Oh really?” Blaine grimaced a bit at the thought of having to see the other boy in class and at work now. He turned to Rachel, who would share his displeasure, but she was writing furiously in her scribbler. “That’s great.”
Rachel held up the notebook. Keep him on the line!!
Blaine pulled a confused face and Rachel nodded emphatically at him and kept writing. “Hey Kurt, could you hold for a second? I’m just... um, I’m just getting into an elevator.” As Kurt murmured an affirmative response, Rachel gave him a thumbs up and finished her sentence.
Ask him to meet you for coffee.
What? Blaine mouthed at her. No!
Rachel flipped to the next page. To talk about the production.
Blaine was impressed that she already had that prepared, and his eyebrows rose higher as she flipped again. Trust me. Do it.
“Hey Kurt,” he began before his common sense could catch up. “Would you meet me for coffee? This is the first production I’ve ever been in, in a professional context. I’d love to pick your brain.”
Rachel nodded approvingly, shutting her notebook with a snap.
“Of course,” Kurt replied, voice high and bright. “I’m holed up for the rest of the day, but you have my number now. Why don’t you text me a time and place later?”
Blaine’s mouth dropped open for a second before his mouth scrambled to reply. “Sure.”
“Great.”
“I’ll text you later.”
“Okay.” Somehow he could tell Kurt was smiling on the other end of the line.
“Good-bye.”
“Bye Blaine.”
The line clicked and Blaine looked up from the blinking screen to Rachel, who was pressing her grin into her her hands. He grabbed her elbows and she gripped his arms and together, in the middle of the hallway, they jumped and laughed together.
**
Kurt and Blaine met for coffee later that week because rehearsal was due to start that Saturday. Blaine suggested a café close to NYADA so that he could arrive on time, but when he got there, Kurt was already in line for a drink.
He hurried up to him, taking in his shoulders beneath his lapis lazuli coat, his tight jeans tucked into white Doc Martens. "Hey," he said, nudging Kurt's shoulder with his own. "Sorry I'm late."
"Oh, you're not!" Kurt moved over so they could stand together in line. Blaine flashed him a smile as he scooched in. "I was early, believe me."
"Thanks for meeting me."
"Oh, it's no problem," Kurt said as they moved forward together in the line. "In fact, I think it's good for you to be forewarned before you come to rehearsal on Saturday. The rest of the show was already cast before I decided to go to NYADA. Most of the cast and crew have done other shows on Broadway. It's completely natural to feel nervous. But you shouldn't be," he advised Blaine, turning to grin at him. "You're really good."
Blaine ducked his head, feeling his blush burn up his ears. "Thank you, Kurt."
Finally, they reached the counter. The barista reached for a paper cup. "What can I getcha?"
"A medium drip," Blaine rushed to say, "and a..." He turned to Kurt who was looking at him with his eyebrows raised.
"Grande non-fat mocha, please.”
Blaine turned back to the barista. “A grande non-fat mocha for my friend here.”
She punched in the order, and Blaine preemptively reached for the ten dollar bill in his pocket. “That will be eight dollars and thirty-seven cents.”
As Blaine pushed the bill towards her, he saw Kurt rummaging through his bag. “Don’t even worry about it,” he said, pushing Kurt’s wallet back to him. “It’s on me.”
“Oh.” Kurt closed his bag. “You really don’t have to do that.”
“Nonsense,” Blaine waved his hand dismissively, “You came out of your way to help me. It’s the least I could do.”
Kurt led them to the end of the bar, turning his head to smile at Blaine. “I told you, it’s no problem. I live nearby here, anyway.”
Blaine shrugged. “Still, I appreciate it.”
A male barista placed their drinks on the little counter and they nodded their thanks.
“Where you from?” Blaine asked as they found an empty table. Kurt draped his bag over the back of his chair and Blaine sat, cradling his coffee in his hands.
“New York. Well, Ohio originally, but New York is my home.”
Blaine beamed up at him. “Me too!”
Kurt sat, pulling his scarf off his neck. It swept off the long column of pale skin, separating and intertwining in his hand. “You said. The Warblers, right?”
“You remember that?” Blaine asked, pulling his gaze from Kurt’s adam’s apple.
“Of course, it was a memorable audition. And then the New Directions?” Blaine nodded. “I went to public school in Columbus. We didn’t have a show choir, but we did have a theatre department.”
“Our Glee club was the theatre department.”
“Really? What was that like?” Blaine furrowed his brow in confusion, and Kurt clarified, “Glee Club I mean.”
“It was great! I mean, the glee clubs that I was in were quite different from each other, but in both of them I found a family that supported me and helped me grow.”
Kurt placed his chin in his hands. “A family of friends. You guys were close?” Blaine nodded enthusiastically. “Are you still in touch?”
“Well, Rachel and I came to NYADA together. And we all try to get together at holidays when we all travel back to Ohio. I mean, our whole group seems to revert to their high-school incestuous selves when we get together, complete with spin the bottle, but we all love each other. High school was good for me because of the New Directions, and of course, the Warblers. How about you? What was theatre like?"
"Cut-throat. I didn't make very many friends. We were a small department so we were all competing for the same parts. It would have been nice to have a family to support me."
Blaine couldn’t imagine high school without glee club. Impromptu performances, learning about music, but mostly having an amazing time with best friends in a safe space. "I would have been lost without glee club. What about your parents? I hope you had someone at least. "
Blaine watched as Kurt straightened his shoulders, a smile blooming on his lips. "My dad is fantastic and very supportive of me and my choices. He just... Doesn't understand the 'gay thing'. He'll defend me until his last breath and fight for my rights and all that, but I can't exactly go to him to complain about boy troubles."
"You're gay?" Kurt raised a thinly arched brow at that. "I didn't want to assume."
“I’ll be the first to admit I fit a lot of the stereotypes,” Kurt confessed, wrinkling his nose at Blaine.
Blaine smiled back. “Well. You are very fashionable and apparently famous for it if certain classmates are to be believed…”
He laughed, burying his face in his hands. “Don’t remind me, how embarrassing. I’m not nearly that famous for any of those things.”
“In any case, Kurt,” Blaine said, and Kurt looked back up at him. “I think it’s amazing that your dad is so supportive of you. I’m sure your relationship with him is amazing.”
"It is. I… take it yours isn’t as good."
Blaine shrugged. “Let’s just say that I wasn’t too sad to cut ties with Ohio. My parents aren’t very happy with my sexuality.”
Kurt didn’t say anything but he reached over and patted Blaine’s hand. He looked up into Kurt’s wide earnest eyes as he shot him a sympathetic smile and Blaine squeezed his hand once before they let go of each other.
“So...” Blaine said.
“Let’s talk about something else,” Kurt announced before sipping his coffee. “Favourite Vogue cover on three.” He looked straight at Blaine who nodded eagerly. “One. Two. Three!”
“Marion Cotillard!” Blaine squawks, pleased when Kurt’s said the same thing.
Kurt hummed happily, before raising an eyebrow. “Jersey Shore or The Real World?”
Blaine paused. “That’s a tough one. I guess... Well, The Situation probably pulls it in for the win. Jersey Shore.”
“Blaine Anderson,” Kurt said, smiling over the rim of his cup, “It seems we have a lot to discuss.”
Blaine was pleased but not very surprised at how much he had in common with Kurt. Both of them grew up with a love for musicals, especially Rent and Wicked. Both had been eager to escape the midwest as soon as possible, drawn in by the bright lights of the big city. Conversation flowed easily between the two of them, and after getting over the awkwardness of meeting a new person, time flew.
Eventually a barista came up to their table, a dish rag in one hand and an apologetic look on her face. “I am so sorry, you guys, but Thursday is our early close day. I need to ask you to leave.”
Blaine and Kurt started at the barista, and Blaine began to gather his stuff together. “Of course, we’re so sorry.” The girl left, and Blaine looked up at Kurt from where he was stuffing papers into his bag. “How did time fly by so fast?”
“And we didn’t even talk about the play!”
“Ah, oh well,” Blaine shrugged.
“No, I feel bad. Listen,” Kurt said, checking the time on his phone. “Do you have dinner plans?”
“Besides trying to stomach whatever NYADA’s meal plan has to offer tonight? No.”
“Why don’t you come over? I’ll make dinner and I promise we’ll talk about the show.”
Blaine’s eyes widened. “I don’t want to impose.”
The older boy reached towards Blaine. “It’s not an imposition, Blaine. I’m inviting you.”
Blaine hesitated for a moment, thinking it over. “Okay, sure, just let me wash up before we go.”
Smiling, Kurt nodded and sat back down. “Great. I’ll wait here.”
Miraculously, Blaine made it to the washroom before the cleaning crew blocked it off. He washed his hands and, in order to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, splashed a little water on his face. Nope, this wasn’t his imagination. He was really going to go over to Kurt’s house, and Kurt was going to cook for him and they were going to have a great time. They were going to discuss the play and well, Blaine thought, grinning at himself in the mirror, we’ll see where the night takes us. He sprinkled some water into his hair to reset his gel before spinning in front on the mirror to make sure nothing else was out of place.
Blaine sent a quick text to Rachel, letting her know where he’d be and to not wait up, before he left the bathroom and met Kurt at the table.
“Ready to go?” Kurt asked.
“Ready.”
Part Two