Skin On Skin

Chapter 8

The sun had already moved past its highest point in the sky by the time they left Las Vegas, and from the scenery and the highway signs they passed, Blaine assumed that Santana and Rachel were taking him straight back to LA. They drove in silence. The radio had been on when they started out but Blaine's head had started to pound before the song had even made it half way through. At least Rachel had come prepared this time, and the two Advil and bottle of water helped to ease his discomfort. For the rest of the journey, Blaine was content to just rest his head in his arms on the backseat of their car and let the hum of the engine lull him into a much needed sleep.

"You should wake him up," he heard Santana say. "We're nearly there."

Blaine wanted to pretend that she hadn't spoken. This new concept called sleep that he had just discovered was actually quite a good thing. But it was too late, the more he tried to hold onto it, the quicker it left him. Blaine lifted his head and blinked sleepily at his surroundings. Surprisingly, they were in the middle of the LA, he wasn't too sure exactly where, but definitely back in LA. He had slept the entire journey.

"Do you remember Kurt Hummel?" Rachel suddenly asked sweeping round to look at him from the front seat.

Did she just say the name Blaine thought she had just said? "Kurt Hummel?" he asked.

Rachel nodded her head impatiently, "Yes."

Blaine's heart did a mini spin inside his chest. "Of course I remember Kurt Hummel," he replied with a cracked laugh.

"You know," Rachel began eyeing him closely, "those couple of days that you were with him, I hadn't seen you that happy since, since," Rachel thought for a moment, "well I can't remember since when, but you had a smile on your face that no one could wipe off and that same devilish twinkle in your eyes that used to sweep everyone off their feet when we were kids. It was there and I haven't seen it again." Rachel gave him a warm smile as she remembered. "You were happy. Look Blaine, I know before you lost your phone, you were afraid to call Kurt, which means I know you really liked him because you are not a man who is usually afraid of talking to other men when you're just picking them up. Heck, I've seen you in action and..."

"What's the point to all this, Rachel?" Blaine asked cutting her off. He crossed his arms over his chest. Yeah, so he had liked Kurt, but as usual, he had been an idiot and now he had no way of contacting him.

Santana pulled the car up to a stop and Blaine looked about uncertainly. He didn't recognize the street and there was nothing striking about it for him to want to remember it.

"Where are we?" He was starting to feel frustrated. The four or whatever hours sleep he had managed to grab in the car had been far from enough, and it teased Blaine promising him more where he could hide from the world, and yes, dream of a place where he and Kurt Hummel could lie in each other's arms.

Rachel flashed Santana a smile and she turned to face Blaine again unable to hide her excitement any longer. "The building across the road is where Kurt lives."

Blaine's face dropped and he quickly sat up, "What?! How?! What the hell Rachel?"

Rachel quickly explained, "Santana and I went back to the bar where you picked him up from five months ago. I remembered that you said it was close to his home. We were just really lucky. The day we went he was in the bar with some of his friends."

Blaine couldn't speak. He just sat there staring at her in stunned silence.

"Mercedes was spot on with her timing," Santana quipped. She pointed down the road and Blaine quickly spied Kurt walking with two other people.

KURT!

Blaine leaned forward and rested his arms on the front seats to get a better look. Nerves shot through his stomach as he drank in the sight of the tall, slender man. This was happening all too fast. Was Kurt really just that short distance away from him?