Blake laughed from behind closed lips as Blair nearly licked her bowl after finishing her meal.
"Don't laugh at me." She whined. "It was freaking amazing, you were right."
"I wouldn't steer you wrong." He said seriously. Blair knew he was talking about the food, but the way he said it made her question if that was the only subject he was referring to.
When the waitress came with the check he grabbed it quickly, not allowing her the opportunity to protest as he paid for her meal.
"I'll get it next time." She promised.
He smiled at that. His face teasing as he said, "Oh, so you're telling me you want there to be a next time."
"Well, yeah." She said her eyebrows furrowing. "Don't you?"
"I think I would like that very much."
•
"Hey!" Blair called to Blake a few weeks later as she walked into he and the band's studio space, waiting for him to step through to the sound room so she could hand him the herbal tea she had picked up for him on the way to the studio this morning.
"Thanks." He said hoarsely.
"You feeling any better?" She asked, knowing he'd been feeling under the weather the past few days.
In the time she had known him, she and Blake had made lunch together a frequent occurrence . Practically every day she joined him and over that time she had learned so much about him. He had two brothers, both younger, one was in the Air Force and the other was studying to be a doctor. His mom lived on the beach, down in San Diego and surprisingly, he was incredibly close to her. She hadn't expected him to be a momma's boy but then again he had already proven to be full of surprises. He hated avocado and was obsessed with breakfast foods. His last relationship had ended badly. They had dated for two years and she completely broke his heart when he found her cheating on him. She had been a key part of him grieving his father and the loss of her had been an extra punch in the gut. His band had been on tour for the majority of the last few years and his biggest secret, he had told her, was occasionally wishing things could go back to how they were before his band took off. Before he had a reputation.
She'd learned enough about him and spent enough time with him to consider him a good friend. Probably the best she had made since moving to LA.
"My voice is shot to hell. Is that a medicine ball?" He asked her.
She nodded as he took a sip of the tea. She'd told him once it was her secret weapon to singing with a cold and she hoped it would work for him too.
"Thank you." He said quietly pulling her to his chest for a hug quickly before heading back in to the booth. She smiled and waved through the divider to the his bandmates. She had only met them briefly, before heading off for her own session.
•
"Shut up!" Blake said once the door was closed behind him and Blair had disappeared down the hall.
"Blake and Blair sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" Blake quieted Rian by grabbing him in a playful choke hold.
"C'mon man." Kace added "You're always with her when you aren't with us. She's bringing you gifts now."
"It's just a tea" Blake spoke over his meddling friend.
"It's been weeks, what are you doing?" Kace said, ignoring the interruption.
"I don't know" Blake started but Dex came to his defense.
"Lay off him guys. He's been less of an asshole than I knew was possible for him for weeks now. Let's not ruin that. The girl is good for him and now I'm even more happy that she's gonna be on tour with us when we leave in two weeks."
Blake stayed quiet. He knew if he tried to explain what was going on with Blair he would overthink it. They were friends. They went to lunch. She made him feel like a better person than he was. Hell, she made him act like a better person than he really was.
He was falling for her. It was ridiculously fast and the thought of that scared him senseless. It had been years since he had let anyone in and when he had, she had wrecked him. In his mind he had always thought it would take someone years to find a way to breakdown his barriers but Blair was working her way through his defenses in record time. He could only hope that this time when he played with fire, he wouldn't get burned.
"Let's just work on the song, yeah?" He croaked, his throat still dry and achey. The others all gave him a doubtful look but assumed their places so he could track the vocals.
The soft notes of the piano played through Blake's headphones and he waited for his cue before starting to sing.
The moment you arrived they built you up
The sun was in your eyes you couldn't believe it.
Riches all around you're walking
Stars are on the ground you start to believe it
Every face along the boulevard is a dreamer just like you
You looked at death in a tarot card and you saw what you had to do
But nobody knows you now
When you're dying in LA
And nobody owes you now
When you're dying in LA
When you're dying in LA
When you're dying in LA
The power, the power, the power
Oh the power, the power, the power of LA
He finished out the take and then looked over to his band mates trying to gauge their reactions.
"So, I know my voice is a hot mess right now, but do you guys like it, or? We don't have to use it, I know we already have a ballad for the album that we're all happy with but this seemed to go with the mood of it. It's just about feeling kind of lost, the other one is about feeling lost because of a relationship, this is more me finding myself as an artist. Like I said we don't ha-"
"It's brilliant Blake." Dex stopped him. "This is just, it's really different from the old stuff and I know it's gonna be a risk for us but the stuff that's been coming out of you lately has been amazing. The song we've been working on the past few weeks will satisfy our longtime fans and I think this could help us reach new audiences. The stuff you're saying Blake, it's important. We gotta make the best music we can make and leave the rest up to fate but I, for one, loved it."
Blake looked to Dex and Rian for their assessment. They both nodded and offered varying words of agreement.
"I figured this would also serve as a kind of break for you guys during our live show. Let it be just me and a piano basically while you guys take a breather."
"That makes sense." Kace nodded. "We've got two weeks until we head out. Do you think we can finish this one by then and get it tour ready? We've got a few more days of studio time and we still have to finish up that song you haven't named yet."
"I think we have time. I'm gonna head home and try to rest my voice the rest of the day, see if Blair's secret concoction here can save my vocal chords and then we can get this shit done before we break for the holidays."
"We'll work on tracking the instruments. Feel better dude!" Rian called after him as Blake headed out into the hall.
He hadn't lied per se. He was going to go home and rest his voice, it would just be after he made a short pit stop at the room Blair was in first.
He grabbed the door handle and pushed in trying to stay as quiet as possible since she was in the middle of recording.
This night's a perfect shade of Dark blue. Have you ever been alone in a crowded room? When I'm here with you I said the world could be burning down. Dark blue, Dark blue, Have you ever been alone in a crowded room? Well I'm here with you. I said the world could be burning dark blue.
Every time he heard her voice she blew him away. How could someone possess so much potential. The lyrics were abstract and yet they felt deeply personal, like she could be singing about his own life. He'd learned in the past few weeks of spending time with her that though they had very different backgrounds they shared a lot of similarities. She had grown up in a small town always feeling isolated. Music had been what she clung to. It helped her cope when everything around her became too much. She found solace in writing lyrics and discovered that she often couldn't say the things aloud that she could put in her songs.
He had learned other things about her as well. She was fiercely independent and incredibly loyal. Her eyes were technically green but faded to blue when the sun was bright out. She laughed like a child, loud and without reservation. She got overly excited by simple things like ice cream and bubbles in a way that was adorable and always made him wish he could see things the same way she did. Her dating life had never been anything serious and had been nonexistent since she had moved out to LA nearly three years ago at eighteen. He loved spending time with her and as his friends had noticed, he had been doing an awful lot of that recently.
Leaving for tour the past few times had been hard for Blake. It always reminded him of what he had come home to before with Ashley. This time though, his excitement was beginning to seep from his pores with the knowledge that Blair would be coming with them. He would get to experience it all with her around and maybe the time on the road would help him distinguish exactly what it was he was looking for from this. From her.
Blair noticed him through the tinted glass, a smile filling her face as she removed her headphones and headed out to the waiting area.
"Hey! You all done for the day already?"
He nodded and pressed the microphone button on his phone app that he used when he was on vocal rest.
"Done for the day. How much more do you have? Want to grab lunch and talk about an idea I had?" He waited for the phone to finish and then added. "Oh, also I am vocal resting and talking through this app."
She giggled and reached her hand out to touch his forearm.
"I see! And sure, that sounds great! I'll have to come back in like an hour or two but they can work on mixing what we have until I get back, right Taylor?" Her sound engineer flashed a thumbs up and Blair followed Blake out to the parking lot.
"So, I was thinking about that song you were stuck on." Blake said through his app. "The one we talked about last week. I have a lyric I've been unable to work into anything we've been working on and I think it might work well for you and help finish what you've got."
"Seriously? You'd help me finish it?"
"One catch." Blake smirked at her and she tilted her head awaiting his terms.
"We perform the song together, as a duet, on the tour."
•
Blair's mouth fell open and Blake's face was smug.
He wanted to help her finish her song? He wanted to sing with her?
Her head bobbed furiously as she agreed without a second thought. She trusted him, he was an amazing songwriter and she didn't hate the idea of working with him even more closely one bit.
Blake put his phone down and dug into his breakfast bowl as it was placed in front of them and Blair smiled as she did the same. A duet, with one of the hottest artists in music right now. It felt like a dream.
"So what's the lyric?" She asked looking to him as they each finished up their meals, Blake snatching the check, always refusing to let her pay.
"It's hard to dance with the devil on your back." He typed and his phone said for him.
She pondered the words and typed them into a note on her phone where the bones of the song she'd been struggling with resided and tried to place them into the words she had. It would take some work still but she loved the idea of getting to sing with him every night.
She stepped into the brisk, mid-December air and shivered. The typical heat of LA had been cooled off by the wind whipping through the city.
Blake shrugged off his jean jacket and draped it around her arms, not caring the slightest bit about who might see his kind gesture.
Blair smiled, her cheeks turning a deep red color and pulled the jacket tighter around her. Thankful for the protection from the strong breeze.
"Thanks." She smiled up at him.
•
Blake just shook his head to tell her it was nothing and followed slightly behind her. He smiled at the sight of her in his jacket and at the realization of how much better she looked in it than he did.
AN: All the cute fluff
Song credits: dying in LA - panic at the disco
Dark blue - Jack's mannequin
What did you think about the songs I chose for them?
What about the possibility of their duet?
How do you feel about all the developments in their friendship?
What's gonna happen next?
I decided that Christmas should have its own chapter so that will be in the next chapter!
I'm ready for them to be on tour so we can really get things going in this story!
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I love you!
Sav!