#artist: | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lilyvandersteen · 1 year

Photo

Home Away From Home Chapter 6: Time To Go Home

Chapter summary:

Blaine turns the leisure centre into a success story. Will his brother ruin things? Not with Kurt around. (Warning: this chapter contains smut.)

Many thanks to my beta @hkvoyage!

You can also read this story on AO3.

~~~~~~

Chapter 6: Time to Go Home

“What am I going to do?” Blaine wailed.

“Do about what?” asked a very familiar voice, and Blaine wheeled around wide-eyed. Inspector Hummel! And Inspector Abrams! And here Blaine was making a scene in front of them. How unprofessional! Better get himself back under control.

While Blaine worked on appearing calm and unruffled, Tina told the inspectors about the bachelor party Blaine was organising for David’s brother. “And now the bride has decided she wants to have her bachelorette party there at the same time, so that she can keep an eye on her guy. Only there’s nothing for her to do.”

Inspector Abrams whistled low, and Inspector Hummel’s eyebrows went up. “Will this be here at the hotel?”

“No, no,” Blaine hurried to explain. “Remember we went to check out those industrial buildings?”

And he went on to tell the inspector all his plans for the buildings.

“We’ve been working so hard to get everything ready in time, and now Colleen goes and ruins it all,” he complained.

The inspector hummed. “So you didn’t plan on any activities more tailored to women, that’s the problem? And this Colleen and her friends are not into graffiti and escape rooms and the like?”

Blaine sighed and shook his head.

“Did you have any plans for the grounds in between the buildings?” Inspector Hummel asked.

Blaine shrugged. “Apart from a parking lot? Not really. Well, I was thinking of a karting track, but I’m not sure there’s enough space. Or padel courts?”

“No. No, no, no. You don’t want to do that. Too noisy. The mayor lives two streets away. If your new project bothers him in any way, he’ll put a stop to it. Better make sure all the buildings have top-notch acoustic insulation, so that the indoors activities don’t bother anyone either.”

Blaine grabbed his leisure centre checklist and jotted that down. “So what do you suggest for the grounds?”

What the inspector had in mind was nothing less than genius. The biggest building on the site had a huge carport attached to it, big enough for five or six trucks to stand under. This carport could be expanded and turned into a patio.

“Just add fairy lights, lounge furniture and some potted plants, and you’re all set. You can serve high tea, and you can give workshops. Accessorising like a pro. Quick and elegant hairstyles. Stress reduction techniques. How to create your own perfume. How to make your own face cream with all-natural ingredients. How to grow your own vegetables with minimal effort using the square foot gardening system. I’d be happy to help you make the raised beds for that, and you can turn it into another programme for school children.”

Blaine gaped at Inspector Hummel. “That sounds amazing! Only… Who’d give the workshops? I don’t know how to do any of that stuff!”

Tina laughed. “If she’s not too busy, Quinn could do the hairstyling workshop, she’s great at that. And I’d ask Unique for the accessorising workshop.”

The inspector’s mouth became a thin line and his eyes flashed as he told Blaine that he could give any of the workshops he’d enumerated.

“But… Why would you?” Blaine blurted out.

For the first time, he saw the inspector hesitate, his usual poise and self-assurance wavering, and then, haltingly, explain that he wanted some changes in his life. Maybe a career switch. And that he very much liked Blaine’s new project, and wanted to take part in it.

Wow.

You could have knocked Blaine down with a feather.

And yet, now that he thought about it, the inspector would make an excellent workshop manager. The guy was a perfectionist, yes, and maybe not the best team player, but his extensive practical knowledge and experience offset that.

So he was quick to say, “You are welcome aboard. Only, you might not want to give up your day job just yet. We’re only just starting out, and there’s no knowing if it will be a hit.”

“We’ll make a promo video!” Inspector Abrams suggested. “That will bring in customers all right.”

So instead of taking the inspectors on a tour around the hotel, Blaine took them to the soon to be leisure centre, and showed them around there.

Of course, that led Inspector Hummel to point out all the flaws he saw, but Blaine had counted on that, bringing his clipboard and jotting down the improvements the inspector suggested.

Inspector Abrams loved the parkour park and was quick to try out a ramp or two. He had suggestions, too, mostly about making the leisure centre accessible.

Blaine nodded and made a note of everything. It would mean more work, but the end result would be better, and he was all in favour of that.

Jeff and Nick were working on one of the escape rooms and were only too happy to show and explain everything. They got on with Inspector Abrams like a house on fire, and soon were discussing new themes and stories for more escape rooms.

“More?” Blaine squeaked. “We don’t have room for more!”

“Well, not here, no, but you’re not going to stop, right?” Jeff asked. “You’re going to buy more unloved buildings and give them a fantabulous make-over, right?”

Blaine frowned. “Jeff, I don’t have the money for that. This all belongs to Cooper, you know.”

“You can talk him into it, I know you can,” Jeff cajoled him.

Blaine saw everyone nod enthusiastically.

“Uhm… I’ll think about it,” he hedged. “Let’s first get this leisure centre up and running, okay? There’s still so much to be done!”

With the two inspectors on board, Blaine’s to do list kept getting longer, but fortunately, more and more people turned up to help out.

Some of them were sent his way by the hotel staff or by Tina’s friends and acquaintances.

Others came because they had heard about the good fortune of the former squatters and wanted to try their own luck.

The Warblers were a big help, too, as well as their parents.

David’s father, who ran a big chain of hardware stores, sold Blaine all the supplies he needed at cost. Wes’ mother, who had an insurance firm, advised Blaine on all the insurances he needed for his new venture, and made sure he got the best price.

Many Warblers lived in the neighbourhood and were only too happy to pitch in with whatever work needed doing so that Jim could have an epic bachelor party.

The day of the event itself dawned sunny and clear, and after helping with the morning run at the hotel, Blaine hurried to the leisure centre for the last check-up and some finishing touches.

Everything had come together wonderfully well, and Blaine was so happy about that he spontaneously started to sing as he put table cloths and vases with freshly cut flowers on the tables in the patio.

Suddenly, other voices joined in, and Blaine turned around and smiled at Jeff and Nick. They’d also brought Inspector Abrams, who explained he wanted to shoot more footage for the promo video during the bachelor party.

“That way, the viewers get to see people enjoying everything that’s on offer here. Do you think your friends would mind getting filmed?”

Blaine shook his head. “Nah. I’ll ask them, but I don’t think so. I don’t know about Colleen and her friends, though. They might mind.”

“Okay. I’ll focus on the guys today, and we’ll film the patio stuff some other time. I know a guy at the local TV station, and he’s agreed to use this footage in his weekend programme. He always talks about new places opening up – restaurants and bars and the like – and gives tips about what to do in the weekend – festivals and events. This place fits in perfectly.”

The bachelor party was an absolute hit, and on the bachelorette side, the ladies seemed content with the scrumptious food Millie Rose had prepared for them and listened raptly to what Inspector Hummel taught them.

Instead of checking on Jim every five minutes, Colleen stayed in her seat, gleaming with pride when Inspector Hummel praised the face cream she’d made as the smoothest one of the bunch.

After two workshops, lots of dainty finger food, tea and champagne, Colleen did venture inside, but mostly to gush to Jim what a wonderful time she’d been having.

“Sweetie, is there any way we could end the evening together?” she asked him.

Jim, who had enjoyed all of the activities Blaine and the others had organised for him and who was just about to sit down and have some wings and beer, shrugged good-naturedly. “The more, the merrier.”

Colleen beamed at him and puckered her lips for a kiss. “So what will we do?”

Blaine quickly suggested. “Karaoke? Wes was just saying all that this party lacked was some singing.”

“Perfect!” squealed Colleen, and ran outside to go tell her friends.

“Okay, does anyone know someone close by who has a karaoke machine and wouldn’t mind lending it to us?” Blaine shouted over the din at the bar.

“My friend Rachel has one,” Inspector Hummel said. “I’ll go get it. Be right back.”

And so the night ended with karaoke, and though everyone had fun, Blaine saw to it that Jim didn’t get too drunk, as per the bride’s instructions.

The next day, at the wedding, everyone who’d been at the joint bachelor/bachelorette party came to thank him and to tell him they’d certainly come back to his leisure centre. “And isn’t it great that we made it onto Gavin’s weekend show? My mom couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw me on TV!”

The father of the bride, Mr. Walters, also came to have a chat with Blaine. Apparently, he’d heard from Jeff that Blaine wanted to turn his new venture into a chain of leisure centres.

“If you want some help deciding on new locations and finding cheap buildings, come to me, boy. I’m in the real estate business, and nobody’s got a better eye for a bargain than me. Here’s my card.”

Blaine accepted the business card with a nod, and did not mention his lack of capital. For all he knew, Cooper might be persuaded, and then this connection could come in handy.

Mr. Walters now intercepted a tall and distinguished-looking grey-haired gentleman who’d been walking by.

“Hey, Smythe, come and meet Blaine Anderson, the guy who bought the industrial block that used to be yours and turned it into the leisure centre all the young ones here are raving about. I’m hearing good things about the hotel he’s bought too. That was yours as well, wasn’t it?”

Smythe? As in the father of El Jerk Supremo?

And yes, it was. Following behind his father, guzzling champagne, was Smythe Junior.

Blaine shot him a glare, but he didn’t even seem to notice.

In the meantime, Smythe Sr. acknowledged having owned the property. “Gave it to my son here, to make something of it, but he just let it all fall into ruin, and resented me for giving him such useless property. But you see, son, when you apply yourself, you can make something of it. Well done, boy. What was your name again?”

“Blaine Anderson, sir.”

“Anderson… Anderson… Are you related to George Anderson?” Smythe Sr. asked.

Blaine nodded. “That’s my father, sir.”

“His youngest, are you? You make your father proud. Chip off the old block, that’s what you are. You’ve got what it takes to make it far. Brains and guts and drive. Not like this one here!”

Smythe Sr. glared at his son, who shrugged, the very picture of boredom.

“You don’t care what I say? Well, maybe you will start to care when I cut you off! I’ve given you too much leeway for too long. You’re a lazy good-for-nothing, but if you think you’re going to sponge off me your whole life, you’ve got another think coming. You won’t get another dime from me, and as of last week, you’re written out of my will, too, so don’t count on getting an inheritance. The money will be going to charities.”

That woke Smythe up with a vengeance. “You can’t do that!”

“I can, and I have. I’m taking your Jaguar too, and your credit card has been cancelled. It’s past time for you to grow up, find yourself a job, and learn to make ends meet.”

Smythe looked like he wanted to throttle his father. Then he turned to Blaine and hissed, “This is all your fault! I’ll get you back for showing me up, I swear!”

Then he threw his champagne glass on the ground and stalked off.

Smythe Sr. sighed. “His mother always spoiled him rotten. Only child, you know how that goes. She died of cancer two years ago, and Sebastian took it hard. That’s why I gave him time to prove himself. But all he ever does is party with celebrities, drink and do drugs and get into trouble, and I’m so sick of it. At least without money, he will have no other choice than to sober up.”

Shaken by the scene he’d just witnessed and by the threat he’d received, Blaine politely excused himself and went outside for some fresh air.

Five minutes later, Tina found him there. He’d brought her along to the wedding as his date, but had lost sight of her once Mr. Walters started talking to him.

“Hey, are you all right? Wasn’t that Smythe I saw you talking to?”

“And his father.”

“Ugh.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“You want to get out of here?” Tina offered.

“Yes. Tina? I want to go back to New York.”

“We still have two weeks before the new school year starts.”

“I know. I just feel like it’s time to wrap things up and hand over the reins, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Evans can run the hotel, and Jeff and Nick can run the leisure centre.”

Tina put her head on Blaine’s shoulder for a moment. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Let’s wrap things up with a party. Artie can bring his friend Gavin from the TV station, so that we can plan the grand re-opening of the hotel with the Evanses, ‘cause we might not be around for that anymore. Ugh, I’m so going to miss everyone here!”

“Especially a certain inspector, huh?” Blaine teased her.

“We used to date, Artie and I. In high school. It didn’t last, but we’ve always stayed good friends. We’ve kept in touch. And now… Well… I think I’d like to try dating him again. And it’s not just me. He wants it too. Says he’s thinking about chucking in his job and going to film school, in New York.”

“Wow. I’m happy for you, Tay-Tay. He seems like a good guy.”

“The best. Hey, what do you think of his colleague? Artie says he’s got a crush on you.”

Blaine laughed. “Mr. Nitpicker? You must be joking.”

“We’ll invite him to the wrap-up party and give him some alcohol, that will loosen him up, and then maybe he’ll say he looooooves you!”

Blaine shook his head, chuckling. “Now who’s had a few too many? Come on, let’s go to the hotel and get some sleep.”

K&B

When the wrap-up party was in full swing, Blaine’s phone rang, and it turned out to be Cooper.

“So how are things going, squirt? Pretty well, I’d say. Wes sent me a link to that promo video you did for the leisure centre, and it was great! I can’t wait to come and test out your escape rooms!”

Blaine laughed and promised Cooper that he could come and try them out any time.

“Show me the hotel, would you?” Coop asked. “I’m sure you’ve worked wonders there as well!”

Blaine took the iPad through the whole building, showing Cooper everything they’d done and telling him about everyone who’d helped.

When Cooper had gotten the whole tour, Blaine went back to the lounge, where everyone was celebrating with a glass of bubbly and a scrumptious cake Marley’s mom had made.

“Doesn’t the hotel look fabulous?” Blaine asked his brother. “Now get your ass here pronto, our we’ll have the grand re-opening without you!”

Behind Blaine, everyone cheered.

Cooper laughed. “Well, you’ve certainly done a great job with the place. It looks amazing. No wonder Smythe asked if I’d sell it back to him.”

Blaine’s stomach plummeted. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

“Well, of course I didn’t, Smythe would only offer me half of what I paid him in the first place, so I said no dice!”

Blaine felt nauseous with relief, his knees going weak at the thought, at the very real possibility of Cooper selling the hotel again.

Then it began to sink in how close they’d come to losing everything they’d worked so hard for, and relief made way for anger thrumming through him so hard his hands started to shake.

“Also because you PROMISED not to make any more important financial decisions without consulting me first, right?” he yelled. “Not to mention that my friends and I have spent several months whipping this place into shape for YOU, not for that smirky meerkat Smythe!”

Cooper’s smile slid off his face, and he was quick to nod. “Right. Yeah, yeah, sure.”

“Bet that never crossed your mind, did it?”

Icy venom dripped off Blaine’s words, and finally, it seemed to sink in for Cooper that he had something to apologise for. “Sorry, bro. I didn’t think…”

“You never do,” Blaine interrupted him, “that’s how we got here in the first place. And as usual, I bust my ass trying to fix the problem you’ve caused, and instead of thanking me, you almost sell the now completely renovated building again for a pittance. This is the last straw. I swear, Coop, this is the LAST time I’ll ever help you out. From now on, you can fix your disasters all by yourself. Maybe that will teach you to think before you do something.”

For a minute, you could hear a pin drop. Nobody spoke or so much as moved a muscle. Even Quinn and Puck’s daughter Beth, who had been dancing around minutes ago, waving a brightly coloured flaglet and singing at the top of her voice, was now looking at Blaine’s iPad as though Coop had kicked her puppy.

Cooper’s face in the Skype window was the palest and the most serious Blaine had ever seen it.

Then Coop said, “Blaine… Little brother…”

“Spare me your brother spiel,” Blaine snarled at him. “You always conveniently forget you have a brother, except when you need me to bail out your ass! When have you ever helped me out in return, huh? You know very well Father has cut me off ever since he found out I was gay. I’ve told you time and again I have to work three jobs to be able to study in NYC and to pay my share of the rent in a tiny apartment, and that living like that is gruelling. Has it ever occurred to you to give me some money to make things easier for me? No, it hasn’t. You’ve made millions, so you should have plenty to spare. But you’ve never given me a dime. You know I dream of becoming an actor, and have gone to plenty of auditions. Have you ever thought of putting in a good word for me? No, you haven’t. You only ever think about yourself, and I’m sick of it.”

Cooper looked stricken. Clearly, the idea that he could do something useful for Blaine had never occurred to him.

“You have one week, Cooper. One week to get here and take over. I need to get back to New York, and whether you show up or not, I’m going. So sort out your stuff there, wherever you are at the moment, and come home. Bye.”

Blaine closed the Skype window and switched off the iPad, his hands still shaking slightly as he struggled to keep his temper under control.

“He always was an idiot, wasn’t he?” David laughed, clapping Blaine on the shoulder. “Remember that time he sold his whole Star Wars collection to Wes for just fifty dollars?”

Blaine squared his jaw and glared at his friend. “Vividly, yes, ‘cause it was MY Star Wars collection he sold. Not his.”

David took one look at Blaine’s murderous expression and stopped laughing. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh! When Coop makes a mess of things, the one who tends to bear the consequences is me. He’s always screwing up my life one way or another, and then he walks away whistling while I get to pick up the pieces.”

Blaine took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but it didn’t work. He was so angry he saw red.

“But this time, he didn’t mess up, right?” David said. “He didn’t sell the hotel back to that asshole.”

“This time, we escaped by the skin of our teeth, because that slimy miser offered him too little money. But he very well might have sold the place again without consulting me first. Even though he PROMISED to do so. And even though he knows we’ve been working our asses off for over two months to turn this place into a decent hotel. Ugh. This is the last time I ever sort out one of Cooper’s mistakes. Finito. When I think of all the effort we’ve made here, getting constant criticism and having to bend over backwards so as not to lose our hotel licence for good, and he could have thrown that down the drain and given it all away again for peanuts… Aaaargh, it makes my blood boil. He’s so lucky he’s still at the other side of the world right now.”

“I’m sure he meant well,” Wes said.

If Blaine could have breathed fire, he would have done so at that point. Instead, he just looked down at his toes, clenching and unclenching his fists and telling himself not to yell at his friends, who’d helped and supported him with everything they had, and who deserved better than to bear the brunt of Blaine’s anger.

Why did it always go like this? Any time Coop did something unforgivable, everyone went out of their way to come up with excuses for him, and told Blaine to forgive and forget.

Well, this would be the last time. From now on, Blaine had no brother. He’d block Cooper’s number, and he’d never speak to him again.

He felt a soft pressure on his arm, and looked up. It was Inspector Hummel.

“Come with me for a moment?” the inspector said, his voice softer than Blaine had ever heard it.

Uh-oh, now what?

Blaine followed him into the hallway.

“Is there any place we could talk without being overheard?” Inspector Hummel asked.

“Uhm, the room I’m staying in, with Tina. But that one hasn’t been renovated yet. I mean, there’s new windows and a better bed and all the big stuff has been done, but the old wallpaper is still there, peeling off the wall, and the adjoining bathroom hasn’t been spackled or painted yet, because we were focussing on the rooms where the hotel guests would be staying. But we will get round to it, I promise. It’s on the planning.”

Inspector Hummel nodded and followed Blaine.

Once they were in the room, the door firmly shut and locked, Blaine turned to the inspector. “What did you want to discuss? If this is about the leisure centre, Jeff and Nick have agreed to keep you on board for the workshops.”

Inspector Hummel shook his head. “No, no. It’s not that. I wanted to say… I’m sorry.”

That was the absolute last thing Blaine had expected to hear, so his answer was less than polished. “Uhm, what?”

“I misjudged you. In the beginning.”

Blaine continued to stare at Inspector Hummel in undisguised bafflement.

“I overheard you talking to your brother. And your friends.”

“Okay?”

“And it actually went as you said. Your brother who bought this on a whim and you who had to come here and get things in order.”

Blaine nodded warily, sure that there would be a “but” following any second now.

“I’m sorry I ever accused you of not taking this seriously. That may apply to your brother, but it has never applied to you. You’ve been compliant and hard-working from the start, doing everything you could to get this place up to par. I’m so glad Artie managed to convince me to give you and your team a second chance, and I must congratulate you on doing a fantastic job in so short a time.”

Blaine blinked a few times in quick succession.

Wow. A compliment from Mr. Nitpicker. Who’d have thought?

“Thank you,” he said.

“I hope your establishment will do well, from now on. Let’s hope your brother won’t interfere too much.”

Blaine smiled sourly. “Oh, he will. He’s sure to screw it all up royally as soon he sets foot in here. That’s the sad truth. I won’t be able to stop him. It’s his hotel, after all. When he arrives, I’ll hand the keys to him, and that will be that.”

“Après moi le déluge?”[1]

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re washing your hands of it?”

Blaine shook his head. “That’s what I would do if I didn’t care what happened to the hotel. But I do care. I’m dreading Coop taking over, because he’s just going to ruin everything I worked so hard for.”

Inspector Hummel bit his lip, looking like a bashful schoolboy all of a sudden. “And I made your job so much harder still, by constantly harassing you.”

Blaine shrugged. “No-one can blame you for doing your job. We had the same goals: making this hotel safe and healthy for the guests.”

“Exactly. But I treated you like an enemy that had to be battled at all costs.”

Blaine chuckled. “You were tough, no doubt about that, but I’ve never resented you for that. I’m just as much of a perfectionist as you are. Also, your advice helped me out a lot. You pointed things out that I would never have thought of, so I’m glad you took so much time to make sure everything here would be perfect.”

Now it was Inspector Hummel’s turn to look astonished. Soon, though, that expression melted away into a breath-taking smile.

“You’re much kinder than I would be were our roles reversed,” the inspector admitted. “And I may have spent more time here than was absolutely necessary, because… Because I like you.”

Before Blaine could react to that, the inspector was right in front of him, one hand gently cupping Blaine’s head.

“May I kiss you?” Inspector Hummel whispered.

Blaine’s mouth fell open.

Oh. Oh!!

“Y…Yes,” was all he managed to say before his mouth was claimed.

Inspector Hummel kissed like he did anything else: thoroughly and fervently.

Blaine had no idea how much time had passed when they resurfaced to take a breath.

“I thought you hated me!” he said to Inspector Hummel. It sounded more accusing than he meant it to come out.

The inspector dropped his gaze, and… Was that a blush?

“I felt attracted to you,” Inspector Hummel whispered, “right from the start. And I knew that if I let myself give in to that, I’d be less strict than I have to be. So I overdid it a bit. Was tougher on you than on anyone else.”

“Same here,” Blaine admitted. “I mean with the attraction, you know. I saw you, and bam, I wanted you. You are so hot. And you being so strict only made me want you more. I’ve had several dreams about you grabbing me by my tie and having your wicked way with me.”

Inspector Hummel grinned – actually grinned! – and grabbed Blaine’s tie, pushing Blaine softly but firmly against the wall. “Like this?”

Blaine felt his knees go weak and grabbed the inspector’s arms to stay upright, managing no more than a squeak in answer.

The inspector’s brows knitted together. “Was that too much?”

“No,” whispered Blaine, and he surged in for another kiss.

He felt hands slip beneath his shirt, exploring his back and caressing the tender skin there.

It made his body arch and his legs become jelly.

Blaine threw his head back and moaned when that led to soft lips mapping out his neck, because aaah, that was another sensitive area!

His hands grappled, trying to trace his partner’s torso and get under the layers to the skin.

“Tsk, tsk, no rumpling my clothes!”

His hands were taken in a strong grip and placed over his head.

“Keep them there!”

Blaine, his eyes glazing over as he thrilled to this display of dominance, panted, “I will.”

Hot breath washed over his ear. “Good boy.”

His dick instantly went from half-hard to straining against his jeans.

He closed his eyes and moaned again.

He felt wet heat on his earlobe, then a little nip that made him squeak, and a whisper. “Let me take care of you.”

“Please.”

The warm weight that had been holding his body against the wall disappeared, and Blaine whimpered as he sagged down a bit, his legs struggling to hold himself up.

“Patience!”

Nimble fingers undid the buttons of his shirt and then took it off. Blaine shivered a bit as the cold air hit his bare chest, and then felt a warm mouth tease his nipples until they pebbled, while the fingers made their way down, down, down, and cupped his dick, which was rock hard and desperate to be freed by now.

“You like this, don’t you? Me taking charge.”

It sounded both awed and smug.

Blaine whimpered again, hoping that he’d get some relief soon.

“Look at you, just begging for it…”

The pressure on his dick was featherlight and nowhere near enough, so Blaine pressed closer and bucked up against the hand holding him.

“Stay still, or I won’t let you come.”

Blaine locked his muscles in place and did his utmost not to move.

Another whisper in his ear. “Good boy.”

The button of his jeans popped, the zipper went down, ever so slowly, and then his jeans were tugged off.

Hands cupped his backside and fondled it, while a hot tongue licked a stripe on his boxers, and then another, wetting the fabric and making him tremble.

“You’re so beautiful like this.”

Now his boxers were tugged off, too, his dick springing loose, and aah, that felt good!

After a few lazy licks, his dick was enveloped in hot wet bliss, and Blaine had a hard time not bucking up because he needed to come and he needed it now.

He controlled himself, though, keeping still, and was rewarded with an expert blowjob that soon had him panting, “Please, please, please!”

The mouth on his dick was replaced with a hand, and a hoarse voice said “Come for me, babe.” That was all he needed to fall over the edge.

When his orgasm had ebbed away, he opened his eyes and smiled. “Your turn now.”

He crawled onto his bed on all fours, spreading his legs wide, and waited.

Behind him, he heard frantic rustling, and then a click and a squirt. A hand spread his ass cheeks open and lubed-up fingers reached inside.

At first, Blaine winced a little from oversensitivity anytime his prostate was hit, but soon, his dick sprang to attention again and he was more than ready for round two.

“May I…?”

For the first time, it sounded uncertain, and Blaine was quick with his reassurance. “Yes, yes, please!”

And then a warm weight pressed him down as he was slowly filled to the brim. He focussed on relaxing his muscles as much as he could.

“You okay?”

“Never better.”

A chuckle reverberated through him, and then a slip-slide movement started up and increased in pace until it was all Blaine could focus on, making him burn hotter and hotter and his panting come faster and faster.

A hand reached for Blaine’s dick, and it took only a few tugs for Blaine to come again. Behind him, he heard a bitten-off moan and all movement stilled.

Then they both flopped down on the bed, exhausted, their legs tangled and their noses touching, smiling at each other.

Blaine trailed his fingers over the inspector’s chest, chuckling to himself when he realised that he knew the man so intimately now yet he still didn’t know what else to call him than inspector.

“So…”

The inspector quirked an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“What’s your first name? I can’t keep calling you Inspector. Or, well, I can, if you’re into that, but…”

“It’s Kurt. Kurt Hummel.”

Blaine tried out the name. “It suits you.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “So glad you approve.”

“So…”

“My middle name is Elisabeth,” Kurt said.

Blaine laughed. “That’s not what I was going to ask. But okay. Mine is Devon, by the way.”

“I know. I made you show me your ID, remember?”

“Right.”

Kurt started playing with Blaine’s hair, and it made him want to curl up in a ball and purr.

“What were you going to ask?” Kurt asked.

Blaine bit his lip. “Please don’t bite my head off for asking, but… Was this supposed to be a one-time thing? ‘Cause I’m headed back to New York City, and your work is here, in Ohio.”

Kurt leaned up on his elbow and looked at Blaine, his eyes intent. “There are other jobs, but there’s only one you. Just say the word and I’ll come to NYC with you.”

Blaine sucked in a sharp breath. “You’d do that? For me? You barely know me!”

“I know enough,” Kurt said softly. “I know that you are hard-working, talented, kind and more loyal than your brother deserves. I know I’d be a fool to let you go. If you’ll have me, I’ll hand in my resignation today.”

“Well… I only have one more year to go before I graduate. So… You could wait? And I could come back? I was already planning on coming back during my Christmas break.”

“And fix what your brother has messed up in the meantime?” Kurt surmised.

Blaine let out a deep sigh. For a moment there, he’d forgotten all about Cooper. “Let’s hope he’ll get bored after a day or so and go off to New Zealand again.”

Kurt laughed. “That’s your best case scenario?”

Blaine glowered at the iPad on his nightstand. “You don’t know Cooper. Whenever he can mess things up, he will.”

“I got an inkling of that, yes,” said Kurt. “Still, I’m here to keep an eye on things. And I will, I promise.”

K&B

It took Cooper only two days to turn up. Miracle one.

And when he did, he pulled Blaine into a big hug and thanked him. Miracle two.

It wasn’t until Cooper handed him papers that said Blaine was the owner of the hotel and the leisure centre now that Blaine got an inkling there was another hand at work here.

Cooper would never have thought of that on his own.

When Blaine started prodding, Coop shuddered – actually shuddered – and told him his boyfriend was scary.

“My boyf… Oh! You mean Kurt? What did he say?”

Cooper shrugged. “Nothing that I didn’t deserve. Let’s say he opened my eyes, and told me if I wanted to keep my brother, I had some debts to pay. I’m sorry about your Star Wars collection, man. I tried to get it back from Wes, but he refused to sell it back to me.”

“Of course he did. I had some really rare collectibles. I’m sure they’re worth a fortune by now.”

Coop winced, but then relaxed his posture and pasted a bright smile onto his face again as if he were in a commercial, tapping the papers Blaine now held. “So you get the hotel and the leisure centre instead. They’re yours. And when you find another property you want to have to expand your business, I’ll buy it for you. We’ll be a team, but you get to make all the decisions and run things. Is that all right with you?”

Blaine felt his eyes prickle. “Perfect. Thank you, Coop.”

“It’s me who should say thank you. For always having my back, even if I didn’t half realise how much I owed you. You deserve this. And you’re right, I have money and connections enough to help you in return. Just say the word and I will.”

Blaine nodded, too overcome to speak.

Coop’s grin got wider and more natural. “Now show me the leisure centre, bro, especially the escape rooms!”

Blaine’s answering grin was blinding.

As Coop drove to the site, Blaine remembered Harmony Brentwood, and sent her a quick e-mail.

By the time Coop had been shown around all the buildings and had been introduced to everyone – except Jeff and Nick, whom he already knew – Miss Brentwood and a dozen or so of her friends had arrived and made a big to-do about their idol.

Cooper smiled and posed for selfies and said all the right things, and then proclaimed that he was here to do an escape room.

Nick and Jeff told Cooper that their escape rooms required at least two participants, and with a fat wink, Coop asked his fans who would want to come along.

Harmony Brentwood was quickest to raise her hand, and followed Jeff down the corridor chattering a mile a minute to Cooper.

“How much is she going to regret this?” Blaine asked Nick in an undertone.

Nick grinned evilly. “So much. Come with me to the control room, I don’t want to miss this. Seeing as Artie is around, can we film this? It’s going to be epic. We’ve designed an escape room especially for Coop. He’s going to the Himalayas, and he’s getting electroshocks and will have to dive into ice-cold water. Among other things. Ha, I can’t wait to hear him squeal like a little girl.”

Blaine followed Nick and okayed filming Cooper on his adventures. From the control room, it all looked very amusing, but Blaine knew that he wouldn’t enjoy the experience if he had to go through it himself. Cooper didn’t seem to mind at all. He never lost his smile, from the beginning until the end, and his enthusiasm never seemed to wane. His companion, though, screamed her head off as soon as she saw a fake eyeball, shrieked when she felt an electric shock go through her, had half a dozen temper tantrums about her hair, her clothes and her nails, and came out of the escape room looking like a drowned rat and with her eyes narrowed and flashing like lightning.

Uh-oh…

Jeff and Nick, far from feeling repentant, congratulated both participants and told them their performance had been stellar. “Come and look! You might want to use this footage as a pilot for a TV show. People are going to love this so much!”

Harmony Brentwood, who’d been about to give them a piece of her mind, Blaine had no doubt, tilted her head to the side and got a shrewd look in her eyes.

Probably thinking that this was worth it if it brings her fame and fortune…

And yes, she was all for the TV show idea, angling to get a permanent role in it.

“What I was thinking was having two teams of celebrities tackle the same escape room, competing against the others,” Artie suggested. “The team that gets out fastest, wins.”

“And what prize do we get when we win?” Coop wanted to know.

“Eternal glory,” said Jeff solemnly.

Everyone laughed.

K&B

With Cooper’s backing, the TV show soon became a reality, and Blaine soon had over a dozen leisure centres and hotels.

Unlike other chains, the Anderson leisure centres weren’t identical. They all had a different range of escape rooms and other entertainment, so that people who wanted to try everything, had to travel to each individual centre and of course stay the night at the Anderson hotel nearby.

The TV show, which became hugely popular, drew fans from all over the world, which boosted tourism and employment in all of the locations Blaine had chosen, and made Cooper and his co-host Harmony big stars.

At the start of every new season of the show, they still took on an escape room themselves, and Jeff and Nick delighted in finding new ways to make Harmony scream – insects! Snakes! Jump scares! Icky goo falling on her hair!

Blaine, rather to his surprise, became quite famous himself, for having such a natural flair for business.

He patched things up with his father, who was very proud that his son was following in his footsteps and even surpassing him.

He married Kurt, who helped him scout locations, renovate and fit out buildings and turn each new leisure centre into a huge success. They were, in all respects, a perfect team, and not a day went by without Blaine thanking his lucky stars that Coop had sent him to Ohio.

THE END

[1] After me the flood, a saying attributed to Louis XV of France, meaning he didn’t care what happened after he was gone

#klaine fanfiction #klaine prompt reverse bang #enemies to lovers #artist: justgleekout #i hope you enjoy this story

3 notes · View notes

jcmarchi · 4 months

Text

A flexible solution to help artists improve animation - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-flexible-solution-to-help-artists-improve-animation-technology-org/

A flexible solution to help artists improve animation - Technology Org

Artists who bring to life heroes and villains in animated movies and video games could have more control over their animations, thanks to a new technique introduced by MIT researchers.

Their method generates mathematical functions known as barycentric coordinates, which define how 2D and 3D shapes can bend, stretch, and move through space. For example, an artist using their tool could choose functions that make the motions of a 3D cat’s tail fit their vision for the “look” of the animated feline.

Many other techniques for this problem are inflexible, providing only a single option for the barycentric coordinate functions for a certain animated character. Each function may or may not be best for a particular animation. The artist would have to start from scratch with a new approach each time they want to try for a slightly different look.

“As researchers, we can sometimes get stuck in a loop of solving artistic problems without consulting with artists. Artists care about flexibility and the ‘look’ of their final product. They don’t care about the partial differential equations your algorithm solves behind the scenes,” says Ana Dodik, lead author of a paper on this technique.

Beyond its artistic applications, this technique could be used in areas such as medical imaging, architecture, virtual reality, and even in computer vision as a tool to help robots figure out how objects move in the real world.

Dodik, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student, wrote the paper with Oded Stein, assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering; Vincent Sitzmann, assistant professor of EECS who leads the Scene Representation Group in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL); and senior author Justin Solomon, an associate professor of EECS and leader of the CSAIL Geometric Data Processing Group. The research was recently presented at SIGGRAPH Asia.

A generalized approach

When an artist animates a 2D or 3D character, one common technique is to surround the complex shape of the character with a simpler set of points connected by line segments or triangles, called a cage. The animator drags these points to move and deform the character inside the cage. The key technical problem is determining how the character moves when the cage is modified; this motion is determined by the design of a particular barycentric coordinate function.

Traditional approaches use complicated equations to find cage-based motions that are extremely smooth, avoiding kinks that could develop in a shape when it is stretched or bent to the extreme. But there are many notions of how the artistic idea of “smoothness” translates into math, each leading to a different set of barycentric coordinate functions.

The MIT researchers sought a general approach that allows artists to have a say in designing or choosing among smoothness energies for any shape. Then the artist could preview the deformation and choose the smoothness energy that looks the best to their taste.

Although flexible design of barycentric coordinates is a modern idea, the basic mathematical construction of barycentric coordinates dates back centuries. Introduced by the German mathematician August Möbius in 1827, barycentric coordinates dictate how each corner of a shape exerts influence over the shape’s interior.

In a triangle, which is the shape Möbius used in his calculations, barycentric coordinates are easy to design — but when the cage isn’t a triangle, the calculations become messy. Making barycentric coordinates for a complicated cage is especially difficult because, for complex shapes, each barycentric coordinate must meet a set of constraints while being as smooth as possible.

Diverging from past work, the team used a special type of neural network to model the unknown barycentric coordinate functions. A neural network, loosely based on the human brain, processes an input using many layers of interconnected nodes.

While neural networks are often applied in AI applications that mimic human thought, in this project neural networks are used for a mathematical reason. The researchers’ network architecture knows how to output barycentric coordinate functions that satisfy all the constraints exactly. They build the constraints directly into the network, so when it generates solutions, they are always valid. This construction helps artists design interesting barycentric coordinates without having to worry about mathematical aspects of the problem.

“The tricky part was building in the constraints. Standard tools didn’t get us all the way there, so we really had to think outside the box,” Dodik says.

Virtual triangles

The researchers drew on the triangular barycentric coordinates Möbius introduced nearly 200 years ago. These triangular coordinates are simple to compute and satisfy all the necessary constraints, but modern cages are much more complex than triangles.

To bridge the gap, the researchers’ method covers a shape with overlapping virtual triangles connecting triplets of points outside the cage.

“Each virtual triangle defines a valid barycentric coordinate function. We just need a way of combining them,” she says.

That is where the neural network comes in. It predicts how to combine the virtual triangles’ barycentric coordinates to make a more complicated but smooth function.

Using their method, an artist could try one function, look at the final animation, and then tweak the coordinates to generate different motions until they arrive at an animation that looks the way they want.

“From a practical perspective, I think the biggest impact is that neural networks give you a lot of flexibility that you didn’t previously have,” Dodik says.

The researchers demonstrated how their method could generate more natural-looking animations than other approaches, like a cat’s tail that curves smoothly when it moves instead of folding rigidly near the vertices of the cage.

In the future, they want to try different strategies to accelerate the neural network. They also want to build this method into an interactive interface, enabling an artist to iterate on real-time animations easily.

Written by Adam Zewe

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

1 note · View note