December - Part 2

Meanwhile in Kurt's bedroom

Kurt didn't want to wait any longer to give Blaine his present and he especially didn't want to do it in front of his family because what if his dad misunderstood or Blaine hated it?

So he asked Blaine to join him in his bedroom when it seemed that no one would miss them at their little party. Blaine wasn't exactly sober anymore and Kurt had to tell him multiple times that he hadn't asked him upstairs for sex, because for one, they were both a bit drunk – and stoned Kurt suspected – and two their families were just downstairs.

Blaine kept pouting until Kurt handed him the ring box. Then his eyes went wide. "Is this …? Are you…?," he stuttered and Kurt took pity on him. "Just open the box Blaine."

Inside was the ring Kurt had worked on earlier in December, a little bowtie on top of it. "It's a promise ring," he explained when Blaine gave him a puzzled look. "Do you like it?" Kurt asked anxiously but he shouldn't have been worried because Blaine tackled him into a hug before trying to suck the air out of his lungs.

"I love it. I love you," Blaine proclaimed once they came up for air. "But what are you promising?"

Kurt took Blaine's hands into his own before he started to recite the little speech he and Carole had worked on.

"To always love you and remind you of it. To respect you and to help you when you need me. To listen to what you are saying instead of jumping to conclusions. To give you the benefit of the doubt before letting my imagination run wild. To tell you when I'm upset and to not keep secrets from you. To be honest to you about anything and everything. To…"

Well, Kurt didn't get to finish his speech as Finn suddenly burst into the room destroying the romantic atmosphere immediately. Kurt turned around to face his brother and if looks could kill Finn would be no more.

"What did I tell you about knocking Finn?" he growled. "Do you really want a repeat of last time?" It was a low blow after shaking on never mentioning the incident again, but Kurt couldn't stop himself.

Finn raised his hands in surrender turning a little green at the thought. "Sorry dudes but it's really important." Kurt sighed because Finn's definition of important was not the same as his. "What is it now?" he asked trying not to sound too patronizing.

"There's a guy here who wants to see Blaine. Says he is his brother."

Kurt gaped at Finn. Apparently Finn had finally mastered figuring out what was important information that had to be communicated immediately.

The relaxed and happy atmosphere in their living room had been replaced by a tense silence as Burt and Carole were quietly observing the young man sitting in an armchair close to the fireplace trying to get warmed up. Tala was staring at him, a puzzled look on her face, but at least she seemed to know the stranger Finn had dropped off in their living room before running upstairs to get Kurt and Blaine. All Finn had said was that the man claimed to be Blaine's brother, but apart from telling him to sit down, they hadn't spoken yet.

"How have you been Cooper?" Tala finally broke the ice and Burt at least had a name.

"Good," Cooper answered rather unconvincingly. "Did some more commercials lately out in L.A.," he added. So the kid was some sort of actor, Burt thought though he was sure he had never seen him before. He did however looked similar to Blaine and Jarred Anderson, but both boys had kinder eyes than their father.

"What brings you to Ohio, Cooper?" Carole asked, apparently not wanting to wait for the kids any longer. Cooper stiffened before he put on what Burt recognized as Blaine's game smile.

"Just wanting to see my little bro," he told the group but Burt turned to Tala when he heard her scoff. "You haven't been around since he was ten, so what's really going on here?" she asked.

"I'd like to know that too?" Blaine and Kurt had entered the living room, Finn trailing behind them. "Squirt," Cooper called out to Blaine, but quickly shut up when he saw the look on Blaine's face. Burt thought that was a wise choice.

"I, uh tried to call you, but I think you thought I was someone else." Cooper continued then however when Blaine didn't say anything else.

"That was you?" Kurt exclaimed and Burt shot his son a questioning look. Something was going on here that he was missing.

Cooper nodded but before he could say anything else Blaine interrupted him. "Why are you here? You haven't bothered to visit since I was ten." Blaine looked angry and Burt understood because he would be pissed too if he hadn't heard from a hypothetical brother in nearly ten years.

"You know how dad is," Cooper told Blaine and Blaine gave him a tense nod.

I'm a little confused here," Finn broke another tense silence. "How can he be your brother when he is nearly as old as Blaine's mom?" Three occupants in the room tensed and Burt guessed that was a sore subject.

When it appeared that neither Blaine, who had sat down in the love chair with Kurt nearly in his lap, which earned them a raised eyebrow from Cooper, or Tala were willing to volunteer any information, Cooper took it upon himself to explain.

"My mom and dad split up when I was nine. I wanted to stay with my mom, but my dad had made her sign a prenup that stated that any children they might have would stay with him in case of a divorce. When I was twelve, he brought home his brand new eighteen-year-old wife, and apparently he didn't like how well we got on, because before I knew it he finally let me move in with my mom. Two years later Blaine was born and I got to see him from time to time when my father ordered me to visit. There wasn't much we could do together because I was so much older and being a teenager I wasn't really interested in having to spend time with my baby half-brother. My dad forced me to attend U Michigan but as soon I was done with that I was ready to move as far away from him as possible."

Everyone was listening with rapt attention by now and Finn, who must have gone to the kitchen at some point, was munching popcorn while he listened.

"I went to Chicago at first trying to get gigs at some theaters there, but I soon realized that theater was dead and moved out to L.A when I was twenty four. Dad didn't like that and threatened to cut me off. I didn't care though because I knew I would get my trust fund as soon as I turned twenty-five and when I told him that he told me not to come back until I cleaned up my act. That was the last time I saw Blaine."

"As much as I enjoy being on the Cooper memory lane, you still haven't told us why you are here?" Blaine asked once his brother had finished his story. That was something Burt definitely wanted to know as well.

"Fine. My girlfriend kicked me out a few days ago and I didn't want to be alone for Christmas. So I drove up to Michigan but when I got to the house you and Tala weren't there and when I asked dad about you he told me to get the fuck out. I got on Facebook, found out Blaine was going to school in Lima now and drove down here after looking up your address and went to your house. No one was home, but your neighbors told me I could find you here. End of story."

Burt raised an eyebrow at him because he recognized a defiant tone when there was one.

"Or maybe not end of story. Who are you people?" Cooper suddenly seemed to have realized that they hadn't introduced themselves yet. Carole chuckled next to him before giving Cooper the cliffnotes version.

"I'm Carole Hudson-Hummel, Burt's wife. Burt is Kurt's father and Finn's stepfather. That's Finn," she pointed at her son "and that's Kurt" she pointed at Kurt who was still sitting in Blaine's lap pointedly ignoring Burt's stares as always.

"We met Blaine through Kurt and he stayed with us for a bit until he was reunited with his mother last year."

Cooper looked confused now and Burt wasn't surprised. "I'm assuming Tala finally divorced the jerk, but why was Blaine staying with you? I'm sure dad would have forced him to stay with him as well in case of a divorce."

"He kicked me out when he found out about Kurt and I," Blaine spoke up, not looking at his brother though and judging by Cooper's surprised expression he hadn't known about his brother's sexuality. Then again, he hadn't seen Blaine since he was ten.

"Uhm that's cool dude, I guess. I live in L.A so I see that all the time." Burt could see his son wasn't too happy with Cooper's wording but he refrained from saying anything to Burt's surprise. Carole's mom had long gone to bed but Burt suspected she had something to do with Kurt's calm demeanor.

"Where are you staying Cooper?" Carole asked another question Burt was dying to get answered. "Does your mom live around here somewhere?"

Cooper shook his head. "She died two years ago. Cancer." Both Tala and Blaine looked surprised so Burt assumed the older Anderson hadn't mentioned the death of his ex-wife to his family.

Burt didn't know what to do. Apparently the kid – who really wasn't a kid anymore - had no place to stay in the middle of the night on Christmas eve and judging by Tala and Blaine's expressions they weren't too keen on having him stay with them. They didn't really have the space either with Santana living in their guest room.

Carole must have read his mind once again. "You can stay here for a couple of days if you like. We have a guest room or you can sleep in Blaine's room," she offered and Burt glared at her. "Relax, honey," his wife turned to him. "We both know that Blaine won't be staying in his room anyway."

Burt of course knew that this was true but he liked to pretend his son's boyfriend didn't sneak into said son's bedroom whenever he was spending the night. They had developed their own don't ask, don't tell policy in regards to those things.

Cooper looked grateful though, as Tala stood up to say good night, but he frowned when Blaine stayed seated on the couch. "Aren't you going with your mom?" he asked his brother.

Carole saved Blaine from having to answer. "Oh no. Blaine stays with us. Can't have him miss his second Hudmel Christmas," she explained before hinting that it was time for all of them to head to bed as well if they wanted to get up early for presents.

Not wanting to appear rude, and saving Blaine from having to do it, Burt offered Cooper to help him carry his bags in from the car and showed him to the downstairs guest bedroom, before joining his wife in the master bedroom.

"Sleep now, talk tomorrow," Carole mumbled sleepily as Burt joined her and he couldn't agree more. Before he fell asleep he wondered if they would ever manage to have normal holiday celebrations.

"Is this your not so subtle way of reminding me I'd be homeless right now if it weren't for your family?" Cooper asked her as she handed him an apron at the Lima homeless shelter.

"Because I wouldn't. I have tons of friends I could stay with in L.A. I choose to be here because I want to get to know baby bro a bit better," he continued, but he couldn't fool Carole. She had been a single mom long enough to call bullshit on a lying kid.

She didn't say anything however, letting him believe she bought his lie because she didn't know him well enough yet to call him out on it. Cooper had slept in while the rest of the family had exchanged presents and had only joined them once Carole had woken him up for breakfast – which had been awkward.

Blaine clearly didn't know how to handle having his brother in the house and Cooper either didn't realize that Blaine was uncomfortable or didn't care. She really hoped it was the first one.

To ease up the tension she had asked Cooper to tag along to one of her errands, which had brought them to the shelter where Carole now was explaining what to do to Blaine's brother – who was only three years younger than herself. She had to admit it was a bit weird, especially because Burt kept referring to him as kid in private.

"Blaine and Kurt, have they been dating for long?" Cooper suddenly asked. Carole nodded. "They just had their two year anniversary."

Cooper looked surprised before muttering something that sounded suspiciously like baby bro is freaking better at relationships than I am. "Is that how long you've known him?" he asked then.

Carole shook her head. She wasn't sure how much she should tell him, but she figured he would find out one way or another anyway. So she told him about the past two years, about what Kurt and Blaine had told her about their past and about meeting Blaine one and a half years a go. This time it was Cooper who was listening attentively.

"Wow, I really missed a lot," he finally said. "Why did you never try to contact Blaine then? From what I know your father was away on business trips a lot." Carole just had to ask.

"I thought Blaine would be better off without me. Our father hated me, and back then, Blaine was his favorite. His second chance at a better son, he once told me. I didn't know what my father told him about me and I didn't want to be called a failure by my kid brother as well. I do regret it now especially after hearing how he treated Blaine. I should have been there for him."

"You couldn't have known," Carole tried to comfort him. "It's not like you grew up together and you abandoned him," she added and Cooper smiled at her tentatively.

"Thanks Carole. I'm glad my brother has you in his life."

They handed out food silently for the next few minutes until Jennifer came up to talk to her.

"Hey you came back," she greeted before pointing at Cooper. "And you brought a friend." Carole introduced Cooper to Jennifer who managed to make the older woman blush as he winked at her. Cooper definitely knew how to be charming.

"Have you talked to your husband already about signing up for the program?" Jennifer asked after talking to Cooper briefly. Before Carole could answer, Jennifer's phone rang and she excused herself.

"What program?" Cooper asked now that he was back next to her. "Foster care," Carole explained as she handed out another bowl of soup.

"Oh you should totally do it. You'd be a great foster mom," Cooper told her and Carole smiles because it was nice that he was so enthusiastic about it.

"I mean, you took Kurt and my brother in and now you're letting me stay and your making sure that I'm comfortable. Any kid would be lucky to stay with you. You should tell Jen right now."

Carole thought for a moment. Cooper was right. There were so many kids out there who could find a home in their house and signing up right now wouldn't hurt because it would probably take ages to get approved as foster parents. If she started the process now they might get a kid as soon as the boys graduated. She'd just have to convince Burt that it was a good idea along the way.

It was with a new lightness in her heart that Carole strode over to Jennifer and informed her that she and Burt had decided to sign up. Jennifer to her surprise told her to wait a second and only a few minutes later came back with a pack of forms for Carole to fill out. With the help of the social worker she was done soon, and she was smiling happily when she signed her name on the dot.

"I or another social worker will come by in a couple of weeks to inspect your home, and if we deem everything alright you'll just have to wait for the paper work to come through before you'll be getting assigned your first child," Jennifer explained what would happen next after Carole had signed all the forms.

After everything was taken care of with Jennifer, Cooper and Carole stayed for another hour at the shelter before it was time for them to head home for a belated lunch. She didn't know what to expect once they got home, but for now nothing could dampen her spirits because in only a few months she would have a child to take care off when her own boys didn't need her any longer.

Kurt had taken him back up to his room after a rather uncomfortable brunch, where they spent the rest of the morning cuddling in bed and avoiding talking about his brother. Blaine was grateful Kurt was giving him time to work things out on his own before they talked about, because he wasn't sure what he was feeling. True, Cooper was his half-brother but they had never been close so Cooper wasn't more than an acquaintance actually. On the other hand, he was family and he didn't have too many family members who actually wanted to spend time with him.

"You ready to talk about it?" Kurt asked a few hours later when they heard Carole's car coming up the driveway. Blaine shrugged, before telling Kurt what he had been thinking about during the morning.

"You know you don't have to make up your mind right now. You're right he is family, but you have no obligations to him. Just talk to him and see how it goes," Kurt advised and Blaine agreed that would be a good idea.

Before he could add anything else there was a knock on the door and Cooper's head poked in. "Carole asked if you could help her with lunch," he told Kurt who leaned in and whispered, "I'll let you two talk," before leaving the room.

There was an awkward silence at first until Blaine pointed to Kurt's desk chair. "Do you want to sit down?" he asked Cooper who looked anxious as well.

Cooper nodded and crossed the room to the chair. Neither of them spoke as Cooper looked around until Blaine cleared his throat.

"Kurt's room?" Cooper asked and Blaine nodded. God, why was this so awkward?

"What did you want to talk about?" Blaine asked then when it appeared that Cooper wouldn't start the conversation.

"I don't know. Tell me about yourself I guess. I really don't know you very well," Cooper shrugged. Well whose fault was that, Blaine thought but refrained from saying it out loud.

Instead he told his half-brother about getting beat up in Middle school, transferring to Dalton, the Warblers and New Directions and about meeting Kurt at Dalton and what had happened since.

Cooper looked sad once he finished but he didn't need his pity. "I'm sorry I missed all that and I know I already said that but it's the truth. I should have tried to spend time with you, at least once we both got older," he said, but Blaine just shrugged.

"I get it. If I was a teen and suddenly had a baby brother I probably wouldn't know what to do with him either. And I do understand wanting to get away from dad. I just wish I'd have the chance to do it on my own terms as well."

Cooper looked like he wanted to say something but Blaine plowed on because he needed to get it out. "It wasn't like I missed you or anything. We weren't close and I only saw you a handful of times growing up. We were never brothers and if that's what you came for I'm sorry to disappoint you. We are basically strangers at this point, related or not."

Blaine expected Cooper to not take what he was saying well, but instead he was faced with an expression he was very familiar with, something Kurt called his game face. It was odd seeing Cooper look so familiar and still feel nothing for the older man.

"Then let me be your friend," Cooper offered. "We've both been dealt a shitty hand when it comes to our family and I think we could both need some extra support. We could spend some more time together to get to know each other better."

Blaine frowned. Did that mean Cooper had plans to stay in Ohio for a while longer? It wasn't his place to kick his brother out of his boyfriend's house, but he'd rather Cooper was staying somewhere else.

"What are your plans? Are you going back to L.A soon?" he asked, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. He wasn't sure what he preferred – Cooper to leave or stay. Because Cooper was right. It would be nice to have more supportive family members around.

"Thought I could look for a job and stay for a while. Your mom told me you're graduating soon so I kind of want to hang around for a bit before you leave town. What are your plans by the way?"

"New York," Blaine answered immediately. "I want to study composition and compose my own musical one day." He usually left out the details when he talked to people about his college plans because it was still possible he didn't get into a school with a good music program he could afford. Only Kurt knew all the details of his own dreams and he had already promised his boyfriend to make sure his first musical had a killer role for him in it.

Cooper looked impressed but told Blaine to forget about New York because Broadway was dead and if he wanted to make it as a musician he had to come out to L.A. Blaine didn't tell him he had applied for schools in California as well, because Cooper also believed college was a waste of time and because Blaine didn't have the heart to tell Cooper that a good college education was vital and he – as a pretty much failed actor – should know that.

Before Blaine could say something insulting, he was saved by Carole calling them down for lunch and Blaine was grateful for the interruption. It had been nice to have a grown-up conversation with Cooper, but he wasn't ready yet to spend more than an hour at a time with him.

He just hoped Cooper would get a job soon, because he didn't need the additional stress at the moment.

Blaine's older brother was awesome, Finn thought as he jugged another beer. When they had told Cooper about the New Year's Eve party they had planed to have with the glee club while their parents were out of town for their own celebrations, Cooper had gone out and brought back tons of booze and junk food for the party, insisting they didn't have to pay for it because he was doing it to show his brother how to have a good time.

The party was in full swing two hours after it had started and most members of their club were well on their way to being wasted. Cooper was the life of the party and Finn had caught Blaine glaring at his brother more than once already, but he certainly wasn't complaining. It had been a while since he had that much fun and everyone was partying hard because they knew they only had a few months of school left after which people would move away for college.

"How about some truth or dare?" Finn heard Cooper shout as he got himself another beer and he hurried to joint he rest of the group in the living room where Blaine was telling his brother that that was not a good idea.

"Oh come on, squirt. What better way to get to know your brother a little better," Cooper argued and Blaine was quickly out-voted, even by Kurt who was beyond tipsy at this point and kept telling everyone how handsome Blaine's brother was.

Half an hour later, Finn had to agree with Blaine though. There were just some things you didn't need to know about your brother and Kurt always chose truth. They switched to spin the bottle soon after and he and Sarah followed Blaine and Kurt who were dragging Cooper with them into the kitchen to order some food, so Cooper didn't play spin the bottle with a bunch of teenagers.

If Finn hadn't known how old Cooper was, he'd have assumed he was one of their peers because of how well he got on with all the high schoolers. He hoped that he would also be that cool when he got old.

They watched the ball drop on Times Square on TV before all the couples paired off for New Year's kisses and Finn was happy to have someone this year he could kiss. In the corner closest to him and Sarah, Kurt and Blaine were making out and in another corner Brittany was down to a skirt and bra while sucking face with Santana.

It was a perfect party – at least it was until their parents came home unexpectedly half an hour later. Mike and the new kid Ryder had volunteered as DD and they immediately started driving everyone home when they saw his mom's expression.

Finn gulped because his mom looked pissed. It usually was okay for them to have a glass of wine with the adults for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, or a glass of champagne for New Years, but the amount of booze that was still spread over their living room was probably not what his mom wanted to see.

He brazed himself for a lecture and being grounded till he graduated high school, but his mom turned on Cooper as soon as all their friends were gone.

"I can't believe you'd act so irresponsible. Most of these kids are minors and you thought it was okay to turn our house into a bar. I thought I could trust you to keep an eye on the party but I'm not so sure you should be staying with us much longer if you are a bad influence on the kids," she accused Blaine's brother who looked rather uncomfortable.

Finn really wanted to come to his defense because even if Cooper hadn't brought the alcohol someone else would have but he didn't want to experience his mom's anger right now.

Blaine looked uncomfortable as well before he squared his shoulder and walked over to Finn's mom.

"Carole, this is all my fault. I bought the alcohol with my fake ID and asked Cooper not to tell you. We thought you wouldn't be back till tomorrow morning and by then we would have cleaned up. We had designated drivers and had also offered people to stay, so we thought it wouldn't hurt anyone if we had some drinks," Blaine lied to his mom.

Kurt gaped at his boyfriend but when Burt looked at him, Kurt looked contrite. "I'm sorry dad. I know we shouldn't have, but that was kind of our last new year's party together and we wanted it to be memorable. This is really not Cooper's fault," he told Burt.

Finn was stunned because if he was being honest, he wasn't sure if he would have done the same for Kurt if the situation were reversed. Did that make him a bad brother? Blaine didn't even seem to like his brother that much and still he had taken the blame to keep his brother from getting kicked out of the house.

He watched as Blaine handed over his fake ID to Burt while trying to convince himself that he had done plenty in the past to prove his was a good brother.

A little later Finn found himself on his way to the kitchen for a last snack when he overheard his mom and Burt talking.

"You do know Blaine was lying, right?" Burt told his mom. "Fake ID or not, no store would have let him walk out with this amount of booze."

His mom chuckled. "I know, but seeing Blaine stand up for his brother like this proved to me that Blaine does want him around so I decided to play along. This way we got his ID and we both know the kids aren't innocent in this because they were all drinking. Besides it could have been worse. At least no one got pregnant at this party."

Finn nearly choked on a piece of chips he had found on the coffee table, before he smirked. He couldn't wait to tell Kurt about the awesome blackmail material he had discovered, even though he could have lived a long and happy life without ever finding out when he was conceived.

AN: Not to happy about the ending, but this chapter was getting out of hand and I had to stop it somewhere.

And here are my predictions for the episode on Thursday (they were made before listening to the songs though)

Finchel+ Brittana break up so RIB can pair Rachel with Brody and Brittany with Sam. Klaine and Wemma get into a fight and it ends on a cliffhanger so people will have to come back after the 5 week hiatus to find out how it ends. What do you think?