Although Cooper liked to tease Blaine, which he did pretty often, he also liked seeing his brother’s sense of innocence, with the amount of time they spent apart, Cooper often forgot that technically Blaine was still a kid, and was certainly entitled to act like one every once in a while. So when Blaine sat up right, hair tussled slightly, with a few leaves stuck here and there for decoration, he couldn’t help the smile that pulled at his lips. Yeah, tease all he liked, but Cooper was happiest when he got to see Blaine happy.
His eyebrows shot up as Blaine tumbled back into the pile of leaves with a thud, craning his neck to take a better look, Cooper let out a sigh of relief as Blaine’s hand suddenly emerged from the leaves, and a fond laugh fell from his lips. Placing his hands on his hips, he rolled his eyes and stepped forward, peering down at his brother in amusement. “You didn’t need my help getting down there,” he grinned, shaking his head playfully as he leaned over to take a closer look at Blaine, mostly because he knew that if Blaine had somehow injured himself on Cooper’s watch, then it would definitely be his fault, and he hadn’t come all this way for that. “Fine…” Cooper said with an overly exasperated sigh, as he reached out and clasped his hand firmly around Blaine’s, “Up you get…”
Blaine couldn’t help himself. He grinned from ear to ear and waited for the sound of Cooper’s steps drawing near. Soon as his brother was within reaching distance, he lifted one hand and shook a leaf out from underneath the cuff of his black coat. Then, fingertips that jutted out from where his gloves ended halfway up his knuckles wriggled for the elder Anderson to take. Underneath the cover of the leaves he let himself sink into, his heels found a solid push against the dirt, grass and bed of what leaves he didn’t kick out of the way. He waited. Round, expectant eyes stared up at his brother. Their fingers laced together. His hand close enough to the ground that Cooper would’ve had to lean just a little. Which was all he needed.
His warning in the form of a toothy laugh came a split second too late. Light, carefree and so much outside of himself that it even broke into a completely unrestrained cackle. Something he’d always found himself always just a little bit apprehensive about truly letting go in Cooper’s presence. Always afraid that if he did? When Cooper left? He’d be left picking up the pieces of putting too much hope that they could be like they were years ago. After he stopped being so annoying and Cooper started to realize how much he meant to Blaine. He let himself steal that feeling all over again. Lived and breathed in it and with a sharp inhale, he used Cooper’s hand giving it a pull before his free hand grabbed his brother’s forearm and all his strength suddenly tugged Cooper right down into the pile not giving a damn if he ruined all his work if it meant Cooper was on the ground with him. Peals of laughter, scattered leaves and legs going all over. Best way to say hello ever, yeah? Much better than ‘let’s get coffee’!
Blaine’s teeth worried against his bottom lip as he slouched down in his chair and gave Finn a tilt of his head. “Sure. I can do that. What are we looking at here? Are you going to do this yourself? Or pitch it to Rachel? Because those are two different situations.” A smile followed his playful tease at poor Rachel’s expense. But? No one could argue that logic? Come at Rachel unprepared? And you were going to head right for disaster. In the best sort of way, of course. Right? Right. Or that would be his story if asked. One that he’d stick to until his last breath. Either way? This was a better distraction than stewing in his thoughts all night. Finn could always be relied upon for a distraction to get out of his head for a while. Something he was infinitely grateful for.
“um…” finn’s gaze fixated somewhere to the left of blaine, eyes getting slightly wider in thought as his eyebrows crinkled a bit. “well, maybe we start small. like… maybe you could gimme a second opinion on this glee assignment ” his expression relaxed and raised a bit as the mental lightbulb flicked on. “ for starters, before we start tackling, y’know, world peace, or something.”
GREEN EYES ADJUST to the shine of the ghost light on the stage, but just for a moment, before blaine has flicked on some of the lights, and stadium seating exposes itself at an entirely new angle. sure, she’d been in the auditorium countless times before, but usually her little butt was planted in one of the maroon folding seats. no, now she was standing on the stage with him, on the other end of the room she’d always seen without thinking twice. ❝ it’s so cool to just like… be on this side of it, y’know ? ❞ she crosses her arms, holding herself a little as she shrugs. ❝ i mean, i’m… an avid shower-singer. but… i dunno. i love music, all music, and… i guess i just can’t remember a time when i wasn’t interested. i just didn’t… think i’d be good enough to bother… ❞
Blaine stole a few seconds to glance out over the rows of seats that stretched up into the inky dark. “You know? Sometimes,” he paused and shook his head turning his attention to her and lifting his brows to stress his correction, “All the time, actually, being up here? Makes me feel like I’m in a different world. From the stage to the props and even if there aren’t any where and it’s only lights above and below?” His toe nudged at the row of footlights on the lip of the stage. “I think coming up here lets you be good enough no matter how much you might doubt yourself. Once you’re here? If you let it? The stage takes care of the rest,” he smiled warmly, “Sorry. That’s grossly poetic. So. Do you have questions about the New Directions? Or do you want to get down to the part where we sing right away? Cause, as of right now, this is your show.”
“you new here?” hopefully, she’s right, otherwise… this is awkward as hell.“this place isn’t too bad… well, for a high school. you could probably do way worse.”
“Is it that obvious?” Blaine’s smile tints a faint crimson as he nudges his satchel further up his shoulder. Two days in and he’s managing not to get too lost. Celebrate the small miracles, right? “You like it here then? It still feels like a mixed bag to me. Don’t tell anyone I said that though,” he grins trying not to sound too negative but..he’s homesick. Very homesick.
Cooper had known that something was up with Blaine, he’d seen him growing more and more distant, but he hadn’t known that things were this bad. Mostly because Blaine seemed to refuse to let him in, opting instead to suffer in silence. At first Cooper had thought that Blaine would eventually come around on his own, open up and Cooper would be there to offer some solace, but it hadn’t come. Now he was worried. He watched as Blaine seemed to crumble in front of him, and silently Cooper shifted a little closer to his kid brother, slipping his arm around Blaine’s shoulder and giving him a little squeeze, letting Blaine finally talk.
The silence lingered around them for a little while, Cooper taking a few minutes to gather his thoughts, not wanting to accidentally make things worse. “You know that’s okay, right Squirt?” he finally said, his voice soft as he spoke, his thumb gently rubbing against Blaine’s shoulder, “No one has all the answers, and everyone goes through a tough time every now and then. You might feel lost right now, but you’ve got people around you who care about you, you know that, right?” he turned his head to the side, studying Blaine for a moment, not entirely sure where he was going with this. He wasn’t exactly known for giving profound advice, Cooper was the fun brother, not the serious well spoken one. But he knew that he had to try something, anything that would potentially help Blaine through whatever was going on in that head of his.
“This isn’t just about the competition tomorrow, is it?”
Blaine’s knee began to bounce against the lip of his chair once Cooper’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. The stoic expression he was doing his damnedest to keep began to dissolve and the crinkle between his brows was the first sign of how hard he was fighting to keep so much inside. Swallowing around the rock in his throat, he cautiously let his head rest against the inside of Cooper’s shoulder. Without any hesitation he might’ve had before because he knew Cooper didn’t particularly do the whole moments like this thing and his sophomore year before Dalton, no doubt, cashed a lot of those in–his fingers wrapped around Cooper’s wrist keeping his arm and hand right where they were. “Is it though? Is it okay? I’m not sure. I’m just expected not to be,” he shook his head the best he could given his position. “I’m not sure how to fix everything. One huge mistake and everything feels so..different.” Blowing it beyond repair? Wow. He never knew he’d be so good at it.
“No. It’s not only about the competition. It’s about everything.”
Shutting his eyes, he blew out a breath and ignored how his eyelids felt like they were on fire. Or how his breath would only come in short jerks that barely gave him enough air. “I don’t know where to go or what to do.” Licking his lips, he glanced up at the line of Cooper’s jaw with blood shot eyes but at least he was breathing deeply and his voice only cracked a little bit. “Why did I do that, Coop? Why’d I ruin everything?” Cooper didn’t have to answer. How could his brother know why when he could only chalk it up to having himself to blame? “Sorry. You didn’t sign up for this. I’ll be okay,” he shrugged and gave Cooper a wobbly smile. “Always am.”
“Please don’t THANK me.” Not for this – never for this. Thanking implied so many things to him; and it said so much about how Blaine viewed their relationship, how he viewed ELLIOTT himself.
It wasn’t how he wanted to be seen – Elliott didn’t want to be glorified or seen as anything but an equal partner. An equal man on equal FOOTING.
He had a lot of feelings about this, okay? About partners in which one was treated as so much more than the other, where one was more of a achievement being followed by a disposable lap dog, and Elliott had no wish to go back to such a thing any time soon.
Scratch that, any time EVER.
One arm snuck more firmly Blaine’s waist as they were talking, hand splayed under the shirt as it moved further – only to grip tightly in a SUDDEN movement, pulling Blaine. It was a sharp motion, tugging him right back into Elliott’s chest; a giggle elicited from him in the process. Breaking the softness of the moment before it broke itself.
“So, I actually wanted to talk to you about something – but I don’t want you to feel like you HAVE to say yes, yeah? There’s no pressure about it.” Now seemed as good a time as any to bring up the whole ‘My family want to meet you’ thing, and Elliott couldn’t help but see it as a fitting topic to move into.
He loved Blaine deeply, and what was a better way to show that, and that he considered Blaine a half of this pair, than to ask him about it?
“Okay, sorry.” He’d only said it because it felt it. Elliott had no idea how grateful he was for him, for them, for moments like this. Blaine was so convinced he was going to simply give up. Tell himself that maybe he needed to forget about having someone for a while. Then Elliott was there and look how far they came.
So what if he was grateful for it all? Grateful was such a good feeling to be. Considering how many darker emotions he had to sift through to get there.
Elliott’s hands always helped guide the way.
Just like now. As the arm wrapped around him, sending a ripple of goosebumps out from underneath Elliott’s touch that tickled their way up his spine–Blaine staggered towards where he was pulled. Their bodies met and he was in heaven. A perfect break-up of his apology and Elliott’s giggle brought one of his own to life.
Talk to him about something? Jerking up a dark brow, hazel eyes turned quizzitive. Better be a good talk. Cause he was about two seconds away from blatantly stealing a kiss. Doing so, now, would be very out of place if it wasn’t. Just to make sure? He gave Elliott a peck anyway. There. Preemptive smooches just in case.
“Sure. Is it a good talk slash question? Cause..I mean. Saying no to you is practically impossible.”
pianokeysandbowties back up 