"Hey hobbit!" Cooper smiled. "What 'cha need?"

Blaine swallowed thickly. "Can I talk to you?"

Cooper frowned. "You're gonna have to speak up, bro. Humans need to be able to hear you, too."

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." Cooper stepped back and motioned for Blaine to come in. The younger brother perched himself on the edge of Cooper's insane, unmade bed. He waited for his brother to turn down the music even more. Cooper sat in his desk chair and waited for Blaine to start.

After a long minute of racing heartbeats and dry mouth, Blaine murmured, "Cooper, do you love me?"

Cooper laughed. "Of course I do, Blainers! What kind of dumbass question is that?"

Blaine shook his head. "No, I mean...if I'm...if I'm not exactly who you think I am...would you still love me?"

Cooper strode over to his bed and sat down next to Blaine. He took his little brother's right hand in his left and squeezed. "You are my brother. I don't care who you are or what you've done, that will never change and I love you. Okay?" Blaine nodded. "Good. Now, tell me what's on your mind."

This is it.

Now or never.

My life changes right here, right now.

"Coop...I'm gay."

Cooper took a minute to process that. It wasn't as though the news came as a surprise or anything—God, how many thirteen-year-old boys owned more bow ties than video games, or sang and dance like they were cursed, or spent an hour and ten minutes every day gelling their hair, or memorized every line in West Side Story and Funny Girl? Despite that, it still wasn't every day your little brother told you that he was into dudes.

When he stopped thinking about it, he noticed that Blaine was looking up at him, face pale and hazel eyes filled with terror. He quickly wrapped him up in a tight hug. "I am so proud of you, Blaine. I really, really am."

Blaine was confused. He tried to speak, but the sound was muffled by Cooper's Dalton shirt. Laughing lightly, the two pulled apart, and Blaine tried again. "So...you're not freaked?"

"Of course I'm not, hobbit!" Cooper ruffled Blaine's hair, successfully freeing some curls from their prison of gel. "I'm proud of you for coming out, I'm honored that you came out to me, and I'm excited for you to start discovering this part of yourself."

Blaine flushed again. He was thoroughly shocked by Cooper's reaction. He had mentally steeled himself for revulsion, for yelling, for pain, for tears. Instead he got laughter and hugs and acceptance and by God he was not going to cry—

"Blainers." Blaine looked back up at Cooper, not even realizing that he had look away in the first place. He saw that his brother's face had grown serious. "Look, I said I'm proud of you, and I am, but...I think we should keep this from Dad for a while. I know asking you to continue hiding who you are seems like the last thing I should be doing, but...I think we should arm ourselves with more knowledge and facts before we try to convince Dad that being gay isn't an abomination, you know?" Blaine nodded. "I think the same goes with your school. I went to the same middle school you do, Blainers, I know how close-minded those students can be, so I think for the time being—hey, wait, why are you crying?"

Blaine tried to fight the tears, he really did, but they came out in sobs, each one louder and heavier than the one before. He clapped a hand over his mouth and buried his face in Cooper's chest. Cooper immediately pulled his little brother in tight, completely at a loss as to why he was breaking down. He ran over the last bit of what he had said before Blaine's breakdown until it hit him. Cooper gently gripped Blaine's shoulders and pushed him back so he could look him in the eye. "Blaine, tell me, why did you choose to come out to me today?"

Eyes and nose still streaming, Blaine answered, "They know. Adam...Adam Collins, he...he caught me staring at him in the locker room." Blaine voice trembled. "I couldn't help it, I didn't mean to, but he saw me, and he c-cornered me after school, and he t-told me that he k-knew, and that he was going to tell everyone what a—what a faggot I am—"

"Stop right there." Cooper tucked his brother's head under his chin and let him sob, silently seething. He knew the Collins kid. This was the same punk who stole Blaine's glasses back before he switched to contacts, who held him up by scruff of his shirt just to see his legs kick in the air, who grabbed his books and set them atop tall bookcases and cabinets because he knew Blaine couldn't reach them. He'd been tormenting Blaine for years, and Cooper never found a way to stop it—and now he was going to out his baby brother in front of a school full of narrow-minded, Midwestern preteens who espoused everything their narrow-minded, Midwestern parents did. He knew that if anything was going to break Blaine, this was it.

And that terrified Cooper.

"Hey Blainers?" Sniffling, Blaine looked up at his brother. "I know this is hard, and I can't imagine how scared you are right now, but I need you to promise that no matter what, no matter how tough things get, no matter how impossible life seems, no matter what they throw at you, that you will never, ever give up, and that you will never let them drive you to the point where you want to hurt yourself, okay? Okay? Do you promise?" Cooper waited, staring intensely until Blaine gave a shaky nod. "Good. I love you, Blainers. You're the best person in my life, and I would go apeshit if anything happened to you. We can get through this, okay? No matter what, we'll get through this, because we're brothers, and that's what we do?"

Blaine smiled and wrapped his arms around Cooper's neck. "Thanks," he whispered.

"Anytime, bro," Cooper replied with a smile of his own. "Anytime."