They didn't talk about the 'shower incident' for the following weeks, acting like nothing had ever happened. Kurt noticed the way Blaine got more and more nervous as Christmas approached, though. Their conversations never deviated from their usual happy chatter about their days and Kurt didn't dare to bring his observation up in case it would cause tension between them they had so far avoided. But it was still there and he was determined to find the source of it somehow.

He didn't get the hint until the last day of school shortly before Christmas. Kurt was just returning to his locker after an extraordinarily exhausting hour of Calculus when he practically walked into Rachel and Blaine talking to each other animatedly. Blaine looked slightly uncomfortable, blushing bright red when he caught sight of Kurt. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to see her friend and waved enthusiastically until Kurt smiled back.

"And I'm telling you," Rachel continued, turning back to Blaine as if they were still alone "there's no need to be nervous. Sure, you're going to see your brother for the first time in eleven years, but I'm certain that he hasn't changed too much from the Cooper you know and I know you've kept up with what he's doing via all those magazi-" At this point, Blaine had enough and simply shut her up by pressing his hand to her mouth.

"Thanks, Rachel, I appreciate your concern but didn't you have somewhere to be?" he asked, trying to stay as polite as possible while at the same time trying to signal her with his eyes to shut up and leave.

Rachel took a step back with an exasperated sigh, throwing a pointed glare in Blaine's direction before disappearing with a quick kiss to Kurt's cheek and a mumbled 'I'll see you around'. Eyebrows raised in question, Kurt turned to Blaine only to find him staring at the floor sheepishly.

"Can I ask what was so important you had to offend Rachel? Because we both know that's never the wisest course of action."

"Oh, it was nothing. She won't even remember it by tomorrow, I'm sure," Blaine uttered, more to himself than for Kurt to actually hear it. This got Kurt's eyebrows to almost disappear into his hairline.

"Excuse me, are we talking about the same Rachel Berry? Because if we do I don't really see her forgiving you for shutting her up like that within the next five years, no matter why you did it," he stated, incredulous look still fixed on Blaine.

"Well, maybe she won't have forgotten by tomorrow," Blaine relented "But I'm sure she's going to understand. I've been telling her that I didn't want to talk about this for weeks now, after all."

"And what exactly is this?" Kurt inquired. "I think I heard Cooper's name somewhere in there. Is this about him coming back for Christmas? Is that why you're so nervous? Because you're going to see your brother again?"

Blaine shifted on his feet, ignoring Kurt's questioning looks and thus basically answering without words. "It's not so much about Cooper..."

"Really now?" Kurt hadn't thought it possible for his voice to take on an even more incredulous tone, but obviously he'd been wrong. "And why is it that you never really told me anything about him? Or your family in general? Blaine, you know I need to work with that information and I've always accepted that there were parts of your past you didn't want to tell me about just yet but I really thought we were good enough friends by now-"

"Kurt," Blaine's tone made him shut up mid-sentence. "You know this isn't about me not trusting you, so don't try making it about that. There are just... some things I'd prefer not to talk about, okay? I promise I can handle Cooper's arrival on my own. No need to worry."

"If you say so," Kurt muttered under his breath, already forming plans in the back of his mind on how to get at all the information Blaine wouldn't give him without him finding out about it. The easiest way to go was probably finding one currently pissed off Rachel Berry. "I should head back, I think I forgot my book in Calculus. I'll see you in the afternoon?"

"Actually, no. I'm going to visit my parents. Maybe tomorrow?"

Usually, Blaine would come over after he'd come back from Westerville, but he didn't sound particularly eager to be alone in a room with Kurt right now. Which just encouraged Kurt's curiosity further. "Tomorrow, yeah."

Whit that, they parted. The minute Kurt was sure Blaine wouldn't see him anymore even if he decided to turn around, he sped up his steps, deliberately avoiding his Calculus classroom - he knew for sure that he wouldn't find Rachel there. Thanks to weeks of learning literally everything about Rachel Berry there was to know, Kurt knew exactly where to look. It was only minutes later that he stepped onto McKinley's roof - and he wasn't disappointed.

"You knew I was going to be up here, didn't you?" she sighed, sensing his presence in her back. Kurt didn't hesitate to sit down next to her, for once not caring about his designer jeans.

"Of course I did. I knew you were going to be upset over Blaine shutting you up like that. And this is where you go when you're upset. Would you care to tell me what that was about?" Kurt tried not to sound too eager, knowing it would just make Rachel suspicious.

"It's not really my place to tell, since Blaine obviously doesn't want anyone to know," she sighed, looking at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, Kurt, but that's all I can tell you."

"But you could at least verify that this is indeed about Cooper and his parents?" he couldn't help it, he just needed to know what would possibly make dapper gentleman Blaine this nervous.

Rachel just grinned at him knowingly. "Well, I'm pretty sure you heard that part, anyway. But even if I wanted to, I can't really tell you more than that. He wouldn't tell me what was bothering him exactly, either."

"But I thought you guys were best friends and knew basically everything about each other." Kurt frowned, already guessing where this conversation would go. He couldn't honestly say he liked this development. He had hoped Rachel could give him some solid information.

"That's what I thought, too." Rachel shook her head, blankly staring across the courtyard. "But he won't talk to me anymore. Ever since he found out about Cooper returning to Westerville for Christmas he kept to himself. I have no idea why it's bothering him all of a sudden, he seemed so happy when he first found out."

Kurt didn't say anything in response, just followed her gaze and tried to think of a way to get whatever he wouldn't tell them out of Blaine. And what could he have said? He didn't know more than Rachel and, considering the amount of time they spent together, he had to admit that it scared him a bit. Blaine always seemed to be such an outgoing person (even though he was much more tactful about it than Rachel) and if he was withdrawing into himself that certainly wasn't a good omen.

They sat like that, in complete silence, until Kurt had to leave for his next class. He still had no idea what he wanted to do about the Blaine situation, but he still had a few hours to think of something. By the time last period was finally over, Kurt had a plan.

Admittedly, he wasn't completely comfortable with that plan, but since Blaine wouldn't talk to them he simply saw no other way. So he would wait out at the Andersons' house and wait for Cooper to arrive. Then he could watch Blaine's reaction and maybe find out what exactly the problem was. He just hoped Blaine would forgive him when he'd bring it up and would have to explain how he knew about it in the first place.

Thus Kurt found himself hidden away in the bushes behind the Anderson residence, positioned so he could keep an eye on the driveway but wouldn't be visible to the Andersons - or Blaine, hopefully. Without Kurt around there was no need for him to hide between trees and plants, so he hopefully wouldn't feel the urge to do so today.

Since Blaine had never mentioned when exactly his brother would arrive, Kurt prepared himself for a long wait. His fear of spending hours in the Andersons' shrubbery turned out unnecessary, though, since no more than half an hour had passed since his own arrival when a very expensive-looking car pulled into the driveway. He couldn't really tell what brand it was from where he stood, but it was definitely clear that Cooper Anderson was anything but poor.

That impression was only reinforced when the door opened and Blaine's mysterious brother stepped out of the car: It was no other than the Cooper Anderson, famous, award-winning, unbelievably sexy actor Cooper Anderson. Why Kurt had never made that connection before would forever remain a mystery. But now Rachel and Blaine's conversation this morning made a lot more sense.

Kurt watched, fascinated, as Cooper made his way up to the front door - holy sweet Jesus, did that man have a fabulous ass - where his parents already waited for him. For a moment, Kurt wondered where Blaine was - until he saw him standing right next to his mother. Kurt didn't even need to see the tears on his cheeks to know he was crying. There was a smile on his face so huge that Kurt couldn't doubt they were happy tears. With a relieved sigh - maybe he had made it all up in his head and Blaine just hadn't known how to feel about seeing Cooper again after so long, now that he was a huge star? - Kurt waited until the door closed, then snuck out of the bushes and returned to the bus stop so he could go home. Obviously, there was nothing left for him to do.

Just as expected, Rachel was already sitting on his bed when Kurt came home, anxious for news.

"And? What did you find out?" She literally bounced with excitement and Kurt couldn't help but laugh a bit at her enthusiasm.

"Who said I went to find something out?" he asked, trying to tease her just that little bit longer. He was rewarded with a pout and bambi eyes.

"Kuuuurt! I know you! Of course you went to investigate! Now stop being such a tease and tell me what you found out!"

Sighing in resignation, Kurt turned away from his reflection in his vanity to let himself sink down on the bed next to her. There was no escaping Rachel - literally. After all, she could follow him everywhere; and she didn't need sleep. Kurt was predestined to lose this battle of wills.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Everything, of course! Come on, Kurt, don't be such a tease."

And then Kurt might or might not fell into a detailed description of the dreaminess that was Cooper Anderson (more or less) up close. They giggled together and spent much longer than they probably should have on analyzing his (very favorable) physical features.

They were in the middle of dreamily sighing over his blue eyes when an unexpected noise caused them to focus their attention on the door to Kurt's bedroom. Where there stood Blaine, looking at them like they had just betrayed him in the worst way possible. Before either of them could say anything, Blaine had turned around and disappeared through the door that had fallen closed behind him when he had entered - because, usually, Blaine was way too polite to just walk through closed doors like Rachel tended to do.

Stunned, they shared a look. By the time they had overcome the initial shock and finally moved, Blaine was long gone.

The next week passed in a blur for Kurt. He tried to talk to Blaine every opportunity that presented itself, but this time around Blaine was outright avoiding him. Kurt had no idea what he had done to deserve the silent treatment (apart, maybe, from following him to his family home when he had clearly, for some reason, not wanted Kurt to know about Cooper) and in his helplessness, he turned to Rachel.

"Do you really not get it, Kurt? Seriously, I would have expected you to catch on a bit faster," she tried to brush him off as he, once again, tried to interrogate her during lunch (why she even accompanied him when he annoyed her that much was a riddle to him).

"No, I don't get it, Rach. That's why I keep asking you," Kurt uttered mostly to himself, annoyed with both himself and the world that he obviously should.

"Kurt," she sighed. "Try to see this from Blaine's point of view. Can't you really think of any reason why Blaine would be uncomfortable with you knowing about his world-famous, very attractive big brother?"

A little voice in the back of his head seemed to be able to make sense of Rachel's words, but before it could make it to the front of his mind Kurt had already silenced it. Whatever that voice had to say - if it shared Rachel's opinion, then whatever it had to say was far-fetched at best. So he just shook his head, which led to Rachel rolling her eyes at him in that exasperated manner which in turn inevitably caused their conversation to end.

Since he obviously wasn't about to get anything useful out of Rachel, there was only one person he could turn to to clear the matter - and that was the person constantly avoiding him at all costs. Luckily for Kurt, he was by now familiar enough with Blaine to be able to outsmart him. So when Kurt cornered him in the auditorium between History and Calculus on the last day of school before the holidays, there really wasn't anywhere Blaine could go without walking either through Kurt or the very thick outside walls. And while that was no problem for a ghost, it wasn't exactly comfortable - and moreover very impolite.

Upon realizing that he was more or less trapped, Blaine turned to Kurt with an exasperated sigh.

"Fine. What do you want, Kurt?"

"I want to know why you keep avoiding me. I know I had no right to- to spy on you like that even though you told me you didn't want me to know about Cooper. But Blaine, I had to. How am I supposed to help you move on when you won't tell me such basic information?"

"What basic information are we talking about?" Blaine snapped, looking angrier than Kurt had ever seen him. "How dreamy his 'gorgeous blue eyes' are? What a nice butt he has? Because that's obviously all the information you have gathered going by your conversation with Rachel!"

For a moment, Kurt just stood there, unable to form words and say anything in his defense. He moved his mouth but nothing came out. He was pretty sure he looked like a fish.

For Blaine, that was a moment too long.

"You know what?" he spat out, words so bitter and cold Kurt wouldn't have believed they came out of Blaine's mouth if he hadn't seen it himself. "That's fine. Just keep gushing over him with Rachel. Don't let me bother you."

"Bl-"
"Forget it, Kurt. Just forget it."

And with that he left, walking straight through the wall separating the auditorium from the courtyard, leaving behind a deeply confused, teary-eyed Kurt.