Your first scandal, Cory/Chris, PG-13
Title: Your first scandal
Author: Merle
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Chris/Cory
Word Count: 3000
Spoilers: none, really
Disclaimer: Glee belongs to FOX.
Warnings: RPS, slight angst, schmoop
Summary: There are a lot of things about their situation that Cory is less than happy with. Like the fact that the FOX guys have told him in no uncertain terms that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to come out as bisexual - much less gay.
A/N: For audaciously, whose prompt was: Glee RPF, Cory/Chris, snuggling in public. This is part of my "Instead of Hugs" campaign. The prompt got a bit away from me: for once, there's no public snuggling until the very end, and it's also much longer than the 500 words I promised. Consider it an early birthday present! You are awesome, and I adore you as much as Cory adores Chris!
Real life sources and references see below, at the end of the story.
Your first scandal
There are a lot of things about their situation that Cory is less than happy with. Like the fact that the FOX guys have told him in no uncertain terms that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to come out as bisexual - much less gay.
"I don’t care how many homoerotic fratboy thriller b-movies you’ve been in," the FOX PR guy says. "I don’t care that you Canadian boys are all so liberal that you think you have to sleep with at least one drag queen to become a real man. This is US-American network TV, and you are supposed to be the heartthrob of your little show, so I expect you to act accordingly."
It’s total crap, and Cory knows it, but what is he supposed to do? It’s different for Chris. Well, yes, he got a very similar speech back then when the show was just about to air (minus the part about transvestites). But Chris is small and fragile and pretty, he sings like a girl, and the character he plays could not possibly be any gayer even if he tried - of course there were going to be questions.
It probably also helps that at some point the network realized that millions of fangirls and -boys would be devastated if Chris actually started dating a girl - because fans are weird that way - and decided it would be best to just give the audience what it wants.
So Chris is the one who comes out on Chelsea Lately, and gets heaps of fan mail from gay men all over the world, telling him that they want to marry him and father his children, or cover him in melted chocolate and whipped cream and lick him clean - or sometimes both.
("What do you answer someone who tells you that he wants you to spank him with a cooking spoon while wearing a pink apron and high heels and nothing else?" Chris asked him once, chewing thoughtfully on his pen as if he was actually considering how to formulate a polite reply, and Cory gritted his teeth and then proceeded to distract Chris so thoroughly that he completely forgot about the pervert with the kitchen kink.)
And Chris is the one who has to endure questions about what he thinks of Justin Bieber (seriously, that dude is, like, five years old; so why would Chris be interested in him?), while Cory takes Taylor Swift to the bowling alley and tells that jerk from the Rolling Stones that no, he’s never made out with another guy, even when it feels like the words are getting stuck in his throat.
"It doesn’t matter, I don’t care," Chris says and cheerfully-sarcastically tells reporters that he celebrates February 14th as Single Awareness Day, while the media make up stories about how Cory sent Taylor Swift flowers and presents for Valentine’s Day. His smile makes Cory think of the way Kurt Hummel sometimes looks at Finn Hudson: with adoration, patience, and with the air of someone who’s completely safe in the knowledge that he’s smarter and superior in any way that counts.
It’s that smile that convinces Cory that Chris very well cares, because whenever Chris decides to cover behind the facade his character provides, he’s usually got something to hide.
The others found out more or less by accident, when Cory, still sleep-addled, forgot that he was at Chris’ place and picked up the phone on a Saturday morning. It was Jenna, who apologized profoundly for having called the wrong number and waking him, only to stop herself a second later and say: "Wait. I didn’t call the wrong number, did I?"
"“It’s just as well," Chris shrugged it off later, "they would have found out sooner or later anyway."
Cory got a few congratulations and shoulder-claps, one or the other conspiratorial wink, and the aforementioned stern lecture of a network guy that quickly digressed into a sermon about the sad state of Canada’s morals. Amber and Dianna didn't really say anything, but they made a point of giving him these looks that roughly translated into: "If you break him, we’ll make you regret that you ever set eyes on him."
Not that he blames them. Of course, hurting Chris is the last thing he wants. But Chris is so new to all this, new to the showbiz as well as the relationship thing (and Cory still goes hot and shivery all over whenever he thinks about the fact that he was the first one to touch Chris that way; even if he really wants to punch Mark in the face for quoting “where no man has gone before” and whistling the Star Trek theme whenever he catches them making out). And Cory just has to watch one of their video interviews or stumble across a picture where they stand next to each other to be reminded that Chris is basically half his size, and less than half his weight.
Chris doesn’t like to be coddled, or treated like a kid, though, so Cory keeps these thoughts to himself. Instead, he tries to make up for the fact that they can’t do all the stuff that other couples do: He makes sure to give him a back rub for every lie he has to tell. He buys tacky souvenirs for Chris’ sister in every town they pass through, mailing them to her together with snapshots of Chris that he knows she’ll enjoy, and he insists on going with Chris to the interview with Chelsea Handler.
Because if they won’t let them come out together, the least he can do is be there when Chris is supposed to confirm in front of thousands of people that he’s gay.
And for a while, he thinks it might be enough.
Things come to a head around the end of the first season.
"You’re getting careless," the FOX guy says. He has ordered them to his office like a principal telling off a couple of naughty schoolboys, and Cory is fuming.
"We’ve been doing everything you wanted," Cory snarls. "I’ve been going on dates, for God’s sake. With a country singer."
"She is very attractive," the Fox guy says. "And famous."
"She is a girl," Cory yells, and kicks the leg of the desk for good measure.
"Cory," Chris says quietly, putting a hand on his arm to calm him down. Cory breathes heavily and tries to get himself back under control.
"I’m sorry, Paul," Chris says apologetically. "He doesn’t mean it like that."
And of course Chris would be on a first name basis with the FOX PR guy, whose name Cory refuses to remember. FOX Paul’s face softens slightly, because even Lucifer himself wouldn't be able to stay mad in the face of Chris’ adorableness.
"People on the internet are writing stories about you," FOX Paul says, and Chris blushes.
Cory throws up his hands. "People on the internet write stories about Lindsey Lohan getting raped by tentacle monsters. I’m pretty sure they are smart enough not to confuse fiction with reality."
"Only that in your case, fiction and reality are starting to overlap," FOX Paul says, and sighs. "Look. I already told you, you have an image to protect. It’s okay for Chris to be out, because …"
"Because what?" Cory hisses. "Because, big surprise, people actually like him? So what, it’s okay for you to pimp him out like the gay network mascot, but it’s not okay for him to be in an actual relationship?"
"Cory," Chris says again, but his voice is louder now, and edgy. "Stop. You are out of line."
"And you?" Cory turns towards him, and he’s dimly aware that he’s being stupid, but he is too furious to care. "You just take it, do everything they say, like the good little boy you are!"
He wants to take it back the second he hears what he’s saying, but it’s too late. Chris stares at him, pale and horrified, while the FOX guy watches with a bemused expression, and Cory can’t take it any longer.
So he leaves.
A few weeks later, Chris and Amber leave for Spain, and Cory flies to Italy. While Cory shoots Monte Carlo, Chris explores London with Amber, Kevin and Jenna, and no matter how much he was looking forward to making that damn movie, now all Cory can think is: "I should be there with him."
They haven't talked at all since the day they fought, except for the occasional inevitable "Pass me that bottle, please?", and since they are both in Europe, the radio silence has been total. No phone calls, no tweets, no Skype chats, and Cory is starting to feel like a parched man in the desert, because he misses Chris like crazy.
It doesn’t help that Chris is all over the media: talk show hosts and journalists in Great Britain are lining up to get an interview with Chris, and Cory can’t say that he blames them, but he wishes he could boot up his laptop without being greeted by Chris’ sweet smile.
"What's going on with you?" Selena asks, when he declines yet another invitation to go out for drinks after dinner. "Are you homesick?"
"Yeah," Leighton says teasingly, "missing your girlfriend?"
"Something like that," he mutters and looks away, because he doesn’t like the sharp look Katie gives him. She's far too observant for her own good.
Eventually, Chris flies back home, suitcase full of souvenirs, if his twitter account is to be believed, and Cory flies to Paris, and gets terribly wasted in a bar in Montmartre. After the girls drag him back to the hotel, he empties the mini-bar until he literally can’t see straight, and drunk-dials Chris' number in a bout of insanity.
By the time Chris picks up, he is crying. "I miss you," he sobs and "I'm sorry," while Chris asks, through the crackling noises of a transatlantic cell phone call: "Cory?" and "Are you drunk?", and then, quieter: "Are you crying?"
Eventually Katie comes and takes Cory's phone from him, talks to Chris briefly before she ends the call. Cory begs her to give the phone back, because at this point, he is not concerned anymore about keeping the last pathetic shred of his dignity, but Katie just shakes her head and pockets the phone.
"No," she says sternly, and Cory glares.
"You don't scare me," she says. "I worked with Jared Padalecki."
"So did I," Cory sulks, and Katie raises a brow.
"Yes, back when he was still doe-eyed and scrawny. That doesn't count."
"Give me that phone, please," he tries again, desperately, not above wringing his hands.
"No," Katie says. "Whoever that was, you can call her tomorrow when you're sober."
He laughs at that, hollowly, and slightly hysterically, and she actually starts to look concerned.
"He hates that," he says, and Katie frowns.
"Who hates what?" she asks, and Cory isn't quite sure anymore is he's still laughing or crying again.
"He hates when people think he's a woman," he says, and Katie stares at him in confusion before her eyes go wide and she drops onto the bed next to him.
"So Chris is …. wait, that girlfriend you were pining for is actually ... oh my God, did I just talk to Chris Colfer?"
He doesn't even try to deny it. He feels miserable and queasy, and the room is still spinning madly.
Katie lets out a breath. "Oh boy," she sighs, and that's all she manages to say before Cory groans and makes a run for the bathroom.
Chris calls him back the next day around noon. It’s about five or six in the morning where Chris is now, and if he's already awake, it's probably because he didn’t sleep very well last night.
Cory would feel guilty if he wasn’t so hung over and terrified.
“Cory?” Chris asks, when Cory answers the call, and he sounds wary, and almost shy. “Are you sober now?”
“Sort of,” Cory croaks, and Chris actually chuckles at that.
It’s a weak, nervous chuckle, but Cory takes it as a good sign. He starts to talk before Chris can decide that he wants to break up with him after all.
“I’m so, so sorry, Chris,” he says. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. And I should have apologized ages ago. I miss you so much, I don’t even know what do to with myself anymore. But I just - it kills me that I can't tell people that we are together. I hate having to lie about this.”
Chris is quiet for a minute, and then he says softly: “No. No, I’m sorry, Cory. I should have … I don’t know, I just didn’t realize that the situation bothered you too. I thought you’d be relieved that they didn’t want you to come out. I didn’t think …” he laughs quietly. “I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that you’d actually want to come out because of me.”
Cory swallows. “There’s a lot more I’d do for you, Chris,” he says.
“Oh,” Chris says, and he sounds choked up, as if he’s trying not to cry. “Okay. Cory, I -“
“I need to see you,” Cory interrupts, urgently. “Right now. I can be at the airport in two hours. I’m going to take the next flight back to the States.”
“What? No!” Chris shouts, appalled. “Cory, you are in the middle of doing a movie. You can’t just drop everything and run away.”
“I don’t care about the movie,” he says roughly. “I haven’t talked to you in weeks, I need to see your face.”
“You are not flying out,” Chris says. “I’m not going to let you screw up your job. I’m - coming to see you. Okay? I've got a week off until I need to go back to work."
"I thought you wanted to visit your parents," Cory says weakly.
"They'll understand," Chris says firmly.
Cory wants to say no, he really does - he wants to take a cab to the airport right this minute and not wait for Chris to fly down. But as embarrassing as it is that Chris apparently turns out to be the reasonable one in their relationship, Cory has to admit that he is right. He'll get in enough trouble as it is about this, he doesn't need to mess up the job as well.
"Okay," he finally says. "Just - hurry."
He picks Chris up from the airport in Nice the next morning. Despite the heat, he's wearing a baseball cap with his sunglasses; but reporters have been hanging around the film set all week, and he can't know for sure that nobody followed him here.
He doesn't care.
When he spies Chris coming towards him, shirt rumpled, hair sticking up, small overnight bag over his shoulder, his heart beats so hard he thinks it's going to jump right out of his chest.
"Hey," Chris says when he comes to a halt in front of him, face tired, smile bright, and gives a little awkward wave.
And Cory knows he should wave back, slap Chris' shoulder in greeting, but oh, it's been so long. So he reaches out instead, pulls Chris against him, wraps him up in a tight embrace, presses kisses on every inch of skin he can reach without undressing Chris right now and here.
Chris laughs at him, a panicked, breathless little laugh, but he doesn't complain, lets Cory squeeze the air out of him, presses his face against Cory's chest, right over his heart.
"We are so fired," he murmurs, and Cory eventually pulls back slightly, taking in Chris' flushed face and his tousled hair.
"I love you," he says. Chris' eyes widen.
"Love you too," he whispers, and Cory kisses him. He thinks he sees the flash of a camera from the corner of his eye, but Chris' mouth is addictive, and he can't bring himself to look up.
Cory has got the day off, and they spend it exploring Monte Carlo. Cory has already seen all there is to see, but it's so different with Chris at his side, who is excited and cheerful and keeps smiling at him in a way that makes Cory's toes curl.
"I'm glad you came," he says when they sit outside a little café, resting their feet and drinking Pastis.
Chris smirks at him, a mischievous tiny grin, and says: "To tell the truth, I was just glad to have an excuse to go back to Europe."
Cory laughs, and puts his arm around Chris' shoulders to pull him close, and Chris just freezes for a split-second before he relaxes against his side, snuggling up to him with a content little sigh. The waitress smiles at them, obviously not a Glee fan but definitely a supporter of young love, and Cory smiles back at her, widely, happily, and that's when his phone rings.
He fumbles for his cell and sighs when he sees the screen. "It's FOX Paul," he says. "That was fast."
"FOX Paul?" Chris asks, raising a brow, and Cory shrugs.
"It was that or Heartless PR Guy," he says, and then: "Do you think I could just let it ring?"
Chris chuckles, with exasperation and fondness. "You know that he's just doing his job?" he says. "And if you don't pick up, he'll just keep calling us the whole day."
Cory takes a breath. The phone is still ringing. "Alright," he says. "Are you ready for your first scandal?"
There's fear lurking in the depth of Chris' eyes, but his smile is confident and wide. "I'm ready," he says, and Cory nods and presses the phone against his ear.
Sources:
Cory Monteith's homoerotic frat boy thriller b-movie: Bizutage Mortel
Chris Colfer on Chelsea Lately: Video clip
Chris on Justin Bieber: zap2it interview
Cory and Taylor Swift at the Bowling Alley: justjared article
Chris Colfer on Single Awareness Day: Video clip
Cory Monteith's movie "Monte Carlo": Report on Cast
Author: Merle
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Chris/Cory
Word Count: 3000
Spoilers: none, really
Disclaimer: Glee belongs to FOX.
Warnings: RPS, slight angst, schmoop
Summary: There are a lot of things about their situation that Cory is less than happy with. Like the fact that the FOX guys have told him in no uncertain terms that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to come out as bisexual - much less gay.
A/N: For audaciously, whose prompt was: Glee RPF, Cory/Chris, snuggling in public. This is part of my "Instead of Hugs" campaign. The prompt got a bit away from me: for once, there's no public snuggling until the very end, and it's also much longer than the 500 words I promised. Consider it an early birthday present! You are awesome, and I adore you as much as Cory adores Chris!
Real life sources and references see below, at the end of the story.
Your first scandal
There are a lot of things about their situation that Cory is less than happy with. Like the fact that the FOX guys have told him in no uncertain terms that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to come out as bisexual - much less gay.
"I don’t care how many homoerotic fratboy thriller b-movies you’ve been in," the FOX PR guy says. "I don’t care that you Canadian boys are all so liberal that you think you have to sleep with at least one drag queen to become a real man. This is US-American network TV, and you are supposed to be the heartthrob of your little show, so I expect you to act accordingly."
It’s total crap, and Cory knows it, but what is he supposed to do? It’s different for Chris. Well, yes, he got a very similar speech back then when the show was just about to air (minus the part about transvestites). But Chris is small and fragile and pretty, he sings like a girl, and the character he plays could not possibly be any gayer even if he tried - of course there were going to be questions.
It probably also helps that at some point the network realized that millions of fangirls and -boys would be devastated if Chris actually started dating a girl - because fans are weird that way - and decided it would be best to just give the audience what it wants.
So Chris is the one who comes out on Chelsea Lately, and gets heaps of fan mail from gay men all over the world, telling him that they want to marry him and father his children, or cover him in melted chocolate and whipped cream and lick him clean - or sometimes both.
("What do you answer someone who tells you that he wants you to spank him with a cooking spoon while wearing a pink apron and high heels and nothing else?" Chris asked him once, chewing thoughtfully on his pen as if he was actually considering how to formulate a polite reply, and Cory gritted his teeth and then proceeded to distract Chris so thoroughly that he completely forgot about the pervert with the kitchen kink.)
And Chris is the one who has to endure questions about what he thinks of Justin Bieber (seriously, that dude is, like, five years old; so why would Chris be interested in him?), while Cory takes Taylor Swift to the bowling alley and tells that jerk from the Rolling Stones that no, he’s never made out with another guy, even when it feels like the words are getting stuck in his throat.
"It doesn’t matter, I don’t care," Chris says and cheerfully-sarcastically tells reporters that he celebrates February 14th as Single Awareness Day, while the media make up stories about how Cory sent Taylor Swift flowers and presents for Valentine’s Day. His smile makes Cory think of the way Kurt Hummel sometimes looks at Finn Hudson: with adoration, patience, and with the air of someone who’s completely safe in the knowledge that he’s smarter and superior in any way that counts.
It’s that smile that convinces Cory that Chris very well cares, because whenever Chris decides to cover behind the facade his character provides, he’s usually got something to hide.
The others found out more or less by accident, when Cory, still sleep-addled, forgot that he was at Chris’ place and picked up the phone on a Saturday morning. It was Jenna, who apologized profoundly for having called the wrong number and waking him, only to stop herself a second later and say: "Wait. I didn’t call the wrong number, did I?"
"“It’s just as well," Chris shrugged it off later, "they would have found out sooner or later anyway."
Cory got a few congratulations and shoulder-claps, one or the other conspiratorial wink, and the aforementioned stern lecture of a network guy that quickly digressed into a sermon about the sad state of Canada’s morals. Amber and Dianna didn't really say anything, but they made a point of giving him these looks that roughly translated into: "If you break him, we’ll make you regret that you ever set eyes on him."
Not that he blames them. Of course, hurting Chris is the last thing he wants. But Chris is so new to all this, new to the showbiz as well as the relationship thing (and Cory still goes hot and shivery all over whenever he thinks about the fact that he was the first one to touch Chris that way; even if he really wants to punch Mark in the face for quoting “where no man has gone before” and whistling the Star Trek theme whenever he catches them making out). And Cory just has to watch one of their video interviews or stumble across a picture where they stand next to each other to be reminded that Chris is basically half his size, and less than half his weight.
Chris doesn’t like to be coddled, or treated like a kid, though, so Cory keeps these thoughts to himself. Instead, he tries to make up for the fact that they can’t do all the stuff that other couples do: He makes sure to give him a back rub for every lie he has to tell. He buys tacky souvenirs for Chris’ sister in every town they pass through, mailing them to her together with snapshots of Chris that he knows she’ll enjoy, and he insists on going with Chris to the interview with Chelsea Handler.
Because if they won’t let them come out together, the least he can do is be there when Chris is supposed to confirm in front of thousands of people that he’s gay.
And for a while, he thinks it might be enough.
Things come to a head around the end of the first season.
"You’re getting careless," the FOX guy says. He has ordered them to his office like a principal telling off a couple of naughty schoolboys, and Cory is fuming.
"We’ve been doing everything you wanted," Cory snarls. "I’ve been going on dates, for God’s sake. With a country singer."
"She is very attractive," the Fox guy says. "And famous."
"She is a girl," Cory yells, and kicks the leg of the desk for good measure.
"Cory," Chris says quietly, putting a hand on his arm to calm him down. Cory breathes heavily and tries to get himself back under control.
"I’m sorry, Paul," Chris says apologetically. "He doesn’t mean it like that."
And of course Chris would be on a first name basis with the FOX PR guy, whose name Cory refuses to remember. FOX Paul’s face softens slightly, because even Lucifer himself wouldn't be able to stay mad in the face of Chris’ adorableness.
"People on the internet are writing stories about you," FOX Paul says, and Chris blushes.
Cory throws up his hands. "People on the internet write stories about Lindsey Lohan getting raped by tentacle monsters. I’m pretty sure they are smart enough not to confuse fiction with reality."
"Only that in your case, fiction and reality are starting to overlap," FOX Paul says, and sighs. "Look. I already told you, you have an image to protect. It’s okay for Chris to be out, because …"
"Because what?" Cory hisses. "Because, big surprise, people actually like him? So what, it’s okay for you to pimp him out like the gay network mascot, but it’s not okay for him to be in an actual relationship?"
"Cory," Chris says again, but his voice is louder now, and edgy. "Stop. You are out of line."
"And you?" Cory turns towards him, and he’s dimly aware that he’s being stupid, but he is too furious to care. "You just take it, do everything they say, like the good little boy you are!"
He wants to take it back the second he hears what he’s saying, but it’s too late. Chris stares at him, pale and horrified, while the FOX guy watches with a bemused expression, and Cory can’t take it any longer.
So he leaves.
A few weeks later, Chris and Amber leave for Spain, and Cory flies to Italy. While Cory shoots Monte Carlo, Chris explores London with Amber, Kevin and Jenna, and no matter how much he was looking forward to making that damn movie, now all Cory can think is: "I should be there with him."
They haven't talked at all since the day they fought, except for the occasional inevitable "Pass me that bottle, please?", and since they are both in Europe, the radio silence has been total. No phone calls, no tweets, no Skype chats, and Cory is starting to feel like a parched man in the desert, because he misses Chris like crazy.
It doesn’t help that Chris is all over the media: talk show hosts and journalists in Great Britain are lining up to get an interview with Chris, and Cory can’t say that he blames them, but he wishes he could boot up his laptop without being greeted by Chris’ sweet smile.
"What's going on with you?" Selena asks, when he declines yet another invitation to go out for drinks after dinner. "Are you homesick?"
"Yeah," Leighton says teasingly, "missing your girlfriend?"
"Something like that," he mutters and looks away, because he doesn’t like the sharp look Katie gives him. She's far too observant for her own good.
Eventually, Chris flies back home, suitcase full of souvenirs, if his twitter account is to be believed, and Cory flies to Paris, and gets terribly wasted in a bar in Montmartre. After the girls drag him back to the hotel, he empties the mini-bar until he literally can’t see straight, and drunk-dials Chris' number in a bout of insanity.
By the time Chris picks up, he is crying. "I miss you," he sobs and "I'm sorry," while Chris asks, through the crackling noises of a transatlantic cell phone call: "Cory?" and "Are you drunk?", and then, quieter: "Are you crying?"
Eventually Katie comes and takes Cory's phone from him, talks to Chris briefly before she ends the call. Cory begs her to give the phone back, because at this point, he is not concerned anymore about keeping the last pathetic shred of his dignity, but Katie just shakes her head and pockets the phone.
"No," she says sternly, and Cory glares.
"You don't scare me," she says. "I worked with Jared Padalecki."
"So did I," Cory sulks, and Katie raises a brow.
"Yes, back when he was still doe-eyed and scrawny. That doesn't count."
"Give me that phone, please," he tries again, desperately, not above wringing his hands.
"No," Katie says. "Whoever that was, you can call her tomorrow when you're sober."
He laughs at that, hollowly, and slightly hysterically, and she actually starts to look concerned.
"He hates that," he says, and Katie frowns.
"Who hates what?" she asks, and Cory isn't quite sure anymore is he's still laughing or crying again.
"He hates when people think he's a woman," he says, and Katie stares at him in confusion before her eyes go wide and she drops onto the bed next to him.
"So Chris is …. wait, that girlfriend you were pining for is actually ... oh my God, did I just talk to Chris Colfer?"
He doesn't even try to deny it. He feels miserable and queasy, and the room is still spinning madly.
Katie lets out a breath. "Oh boy," she sighs, and that's all she manages to say before Cory groans and makes a run for the bathroom.
Chris calls him back the next day around noon. It’s about five or six in the morning where Chris is now, and if he's already awake, it's probably because he didn’t sleep very well last night.
Cory would feel guilty if he wasn’t so hung over and terrified.
“Cory?” Chris asks, when Cory answers the call, and he sounds wary, and almost shy. “Are you sober now?”
“Sort of,” Cory croaks, and Chris actually chuckles at that.
It’s a weak, nervous chuckle, but Cory takes it as a good sign. He starts to talk before Chris can decide that he wants to break up with him after all.
“I’m so, so sorry, Chris,” he says. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. And I should have apologized ages ago. I miss you so much, I don’t even know what do to with myself anymore. But I just - it kills me that I can't tell people that we are together. I hate having to lie about this.”
Chris is quiet for a minute, and then he says softly: “No. No, I’m sorry, Cory. I should have … I don’t know, I just didn’t realize that the situation bothered you too. I thought you’d be relieved that they didn’t want you to come out. I didn’t think …” he laughs quietly. “I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that you’d actually want to come out because of me.”
Cory swallows. “There’s a lot more I’d do for you, Chris,” he says.
“Oh,” Chris says, and he sounds choked up, as if he’s trying not to cry. “Okay. Cory, I -“
“I need to see you,” Cory interrupts, urgently. “Right now. I can be at the airport in two hours. I’m going to take the next flight back to the States.”
“What? No!” Chris shouts, appalled. “Cory, you are in the middle of doing a movie. You can’t just drop everything and run away.”
“I don’t care about the movie,” he says roughly. “I haven’t talked to you in weeks, I need to see your face.”
“You are not flying out,” Chris says. “I’m not going to let you screw up your job. I’m - coming to see you. Okay? I've got a week off until I need to go back to work."
"I thought you wanted to visit your parents," Cory says weakly.
"They'll understand," Chris says firmly.
Cory wants to say no, he really does - he wants to take a cab to the airport right this minute and not wait for Chris to fly down. But as embarrassing as it is that Chris apparently turns out to be the reasonable one in their relationship, Cory has to admit that he is right. He'll get in enough trouble as it is about this, he doesn't need to mess up the job as well.
"Okay," he finally says. "Just - hurry."
He picks Chris up from the airport in Nice the next morning. Despite the heat, he's wearing a baseball cap with his sunglasses; but reporters have been hanging around the film set all week, and he can't know for sure that nobody followed him here.
He doesn't care.
When he spies Chris coming towards him, shirt rumpled, hair sticking up, small overnight bag over his shoulder, his heart beats so hard he thinks it's going to jump right out of his chest.
"Hey," Chris says when he comes to a halt in front of him, face tired, smile bright, and gives a little awkward wave.
And Cory knows he should wave back, slap Chris' shoulder in greeting, but oh, it's been so long. So he reaches out instead, pulls Chris against him, wraps him up in a tight embrace, presses kisses on every inch of skin he can reach without undressing Chris right now and here.
Chris laughs at him, a panicked, breathless little laugh, but he doesn't complain, lets Cory squeeze the air out of him, presses his face against Cory's chest, right over his heart.
"We are so fired," he murmurs, and Cory eventually pulls back slightly, taking in Chris' flushed face and his tousled hair.
"I love you," he says. Chris' eyes widen.
"Love you too," he whispers, and Cory kisses him. He thinks he sees the flash of a camera from the corner of his eye, but Chris' mouth is addictive, and he can't bring himself to look up.
Cory has got the day off, and they spend it exploring Monte Carlo. Cory has already seen all there is to see, but it's so different with Chris at his side, who is excited and cheerful and keeps smiling at him in a way that makes Cory's toes curl.
"I'm glad you came," he says when they sit outside a little café, resting their feet and drinking Pastis.
Chris smirks at him, a mischievous tiny grin, and says: "To tell the truth, I was just glad to have an excuse to go back to Europe."
Cory laughs, and puts his arm around Chris' shoulders to pull him close, and Chris just freezes for a split-second before he relaxes against his side, snuggling up to him with a content little sigh. The waitress smiles at them, obviously not a Glee fan but definitely a supporter of young love, and Cory smiles back at her, widely, happily, and that's when his phone rings.
He fumbles for his cell and sighs when he sees the screen. "It's FOX Paul," he says. "That was fast."
"FOX Paul?" Chris asks, raising a brow, and Cory shrugs.
"It was that or Heartless PR Guy," he says, and then: "Do you think I could just let it ring?"
Chris chuckles, with exasperation and fondness. "You know that he's just doing his job?" he says. "And if you don't pick up, he'll just keep calling us the whole day."
Cory takes a breath. The phone is still ringing. "Alright," he says. "Are you ready for your first scandal?"
There's fear lurking in the depth of Chris' eyes, but his smile is confident and wide. "I'm ready," he says, and Cory nods and presses the phone against his ear.
Sources:
Cory Monteith's homoerotic frat boy thriller b-movie: Bizutage Mortel
Chris Colfer on Chelsea Lately: Video clip
Chris on Justin Bieber: zap2it interview
Cory and Taylor Swift at the Bowling Alley: justjared article
Chris Colfer on Single Awareness Day: Video clip
Cory Monteith's movie "Monte Carlo": Report on Cast