“W-what are you doing here?” Walter asked, shocked. He wasn’t expecting Blaine. Actually, the middle aged man couldn’t even remember the last time his son had been in his apartment. What Walter did remember was that his son didn’t wear a leather jacket or have a cocky attitude implied in every move and every word in those times. And Blaine certainly hadn't had a series of cuff earrings in his left ear.

“I missed you too, Walter,” Blaine said ironically, cracking a mocking smile before entering his dad’s apartment. The place hadn’t changed at all since the last time he had been there. The same old red couch was still there and the walls were the same, all that same horrible shade of green they had been two years ago. Blaine could almost swear that even the empty box of Chinese food above the coffee table was the same box that he had left there two years ago.

"Well, it certainly looks gross enough to be", the hazel eyed boy thought, looking at the disgusting box and considering swearing off Chinese food for a while.

“This place still has the same cozy atmosphere that it had two years ago,” Blaine said sarcastically, before sitting on the red couch and placing his feet on the coffee table.

“S-sorry… you just caught me at a bad time and-” his flustered father tried to explain, feeling ashamed of his own mess before he was interrupted again.

“Walter,” a feminine voice spoke. A woman with a slim figure stood at the door of the apartment.

“Barbara?” Walter gasped, turning around. He recognized the pair of blue eyes in front of him. They belonged to his ex-wife, those crystalline pools of icy blue. Walter still could see all the wounds, all the pain and suffering that his abandonment had caused.

“We need to talk,” the brunette said dryly, entering Walter’s apartment even before being formally invited.

Barbara had her dark hair cut short and was wearing a black dress with matching pair of high-heeled shoes and a pearl necklace. She was beautiful, no one could deny that, but if you asked Walter, he would guiltily say that her beauty wasn’t the same. The brunette woman didn’t glow anymore like she did before Cooper’s death. In those times, her beauty could be compared to the splendor of a nymph or a fairy. She had this flame in her eyes that illuminated everything around her, but now that flame was gone. Anyone that looked close enough could see that her beauty wasn’t that of a fairy anymore. Now she was a like marble angel, amazingly beautiful, but cold.

“Blaine! Feet!” the dark haired woman hissed at the sight of her son with his two feet on top of his father’s coffee table.

“Hands! Fingers! Head!” the boy mocked before he received a repressive glare from his mother and flashed another playful grin. “Sorry. I thought we are playing a game of who could say the most body parts,” he said, taking his feet off the messy coffee table.

“Blaine, will you excuse us? I need talk to your dad…in private,” Barbara said, sighing heavily.

“Well, it’s not like I have a choice or anything. I’ll just explore this wonderful place, then,” Blaine said, standing without noticing the panicked expression that crossed his dad’s face.

“Wait!” Walter hissed, unable to think of a proper excuse to stop his son. Blaine couldn’t explore, he would probably end up finding Kurt walking around the apartment.

“What?” Blaine asked raising an eyebrow, confused by his dad's behavior. Was Walter hiding something?

“We need talk, Walter. Alone.” Barbara spoke, making it clear that the subject of their conversation would be serious.

“B-but,” Walter tried to make an excuse, but was interrupted by Blaine.

“Calm down, Walter. It’s not like I’ll find anything worse than this gross box of Chinese food,” his son said, leaving the living room.

“See? That's exactly the reason why I’m here,” Barbara murmured, massaging her temples. Blaine’s behavior was becoming unmanageable and she didn’t know what to do anymore.

“Blaine needs you,” she told Walter, sighing.

“What you m-mean?”

“His behavior is unmanageable, Walter. I can’t control him anymore! He is getting piercings, skipping school, calling me Barbara! And that’s not even the worst part,” Barbara confessed, sitting in the red couch. She was exhausted, hurt and worried because of Blaine’s behavior. She just didn’t even recognize her little boy anymore. Blaine used to be so polite and kind, but somehow her dapper little boy had changed. He began to skip classes, act ruthless, and spend his nights out. Barbara was certain that he was smoking. The smell of his clothes made that pretty obvious.

The exhausted woman was desperate. The only thing that she wanted was her Blaine back, not that angry teenager that disappeared for days and came back with his ears and tongue pierced.

“What happened?” Walter asked.

“Everything, Walter! Everything! He doesn’t respect me anymore, he's getting in trouble at school and he is hanging out with all these weird people. Our little boy who used to sing and smile all the time has changed into this angry, self-destructive teen, and I don’t have control over him anymore!” Barbara snapped, not fighting against the tears that burned her eyes.

“W-what you expect me to do?” Walter asked. He didn’t know what do in that situation. He could see that Blaine had changed, but he thought that the hair, all that leather and the piercings were just part of an act, a phase. The man didn’t have any idea that things were that bad.

“I expect you be there, Walter. I expect you do exactly what you haven’t done in the past ten years!” Barbara shouted, giving voice to all resentment in her heart. Walter left her in the most painful moment of her life. He just ran away, leaving all the responsibilities to her. She was the one who had to explain to Blaine why his big brother wasn’t coming back. She was the one who held Blaine while he cried for Cooper.

Walter had forced her to be something that she couldn’t be. He had forced Barbara to be strong when she didn’t have any strength left.

In the most hurtful moment of her life, when she was in need of the most support and protection, she had been left alone. She had to raise her head and fight because she couldn’t show weakness. Blaine needed her, and Barbara had decided to do her best and act strong, even if acting like that meant crying alone and hiding at night while Walter took the easy way out.

“I…What you want me to do, Barbara?” Walter asked, feeling his ex-wife’s words ripping his heart in two. It hurt so much because it was the truth. Walter knew that he had not been there for Barbara or Blaine. Sure, he called Blaine once a while and sometimes he visited his son, but it wasn’t enough, it had never been enough. He couldn’t even remember the last time that his son had been in his apartment! How could he have let things reach that point?

“I want you to do the only thing you’re good at, Walter. Teach our son discipline. That is something you are capable of doing, right? After all, you’re such a good detective aren’t you? The star of the department, always following the rules, the protocols…” Barbara trailed off bitterly, remembering how proud Walter used to be of his status in the Homicide department, sometimes too proud actually, forgetting his obligations to her and their sons.

“So teach our son that, teach Blaine discipline. I can’t do it. I've tried, I really have, but I just can’t anymore,” she concluded, breaking the eye contact and resting her face in her palms. Barbara was tired, so, so very tired.

Pulling the strong woman act isn’t working anymore, Barbara thought. She couldn’t lose another son, and that was what was going to happen if Blaine didn’t change his behavior. He would end messing up with the wrong people and getting into big trouble. She didn’t want to have to bury another son, she would never survive that.

“Sure. I’ll visit him more and talk to him-”

“I am not talking about visits, Walter. I am talking about Blaine moving in with you.” Barbara raised her icy blue eyes again to meet Walter’s hazel and shocked ones.

“He can’t move with me!” The middle aged man cried, remembering the android hidden in his apartment. He didn’t realize that he had just involuntary broken the hearts of two people already too wounded by his past mistakes. His wife’s heart, that broke hearing her ex-husband words and the heart of their son, who had hidden behind a wall, listening in on his parents’ conversation and once more feeling rejected by his father.

“How surprising! He doesn’t want me, either,” Blaine bitterly thought, fighting off the tears that burned his eyes. Hearing his parents talk, he had become certain that no one wanted him. That whole conversation had proved it.

There was no surprise in there, why would Walter want him anyway? Why would any of them want him? He wasn’t Cooper.

Blaine just couldn’t avoid the thought that his parents wouldn’t be doing this if he was Cooper. No, if the subject of that conversation was his big brother, they probably would be fighting for the right to be with him. Not to get rid of him. Because Coop wasn’t like Blaine, the broken and useless son. Cooper was the perfect son, the loved one.

Ever since Blaine was little, he had always had the feeling that his big brother was the favorite son, but in those times he didn’t mind. Because Coop had been there for him, making him feel special; making the dark feelings go away. But things weren’t like that anymore. His brother wasn’t there for him anymore, and there wasn’t anyone to make him feel special. The only thing that was left for Blaine was the feeling of not being good enough, always still living in his older brother’s shadow, being haunted by his perfection.

Cooper Anderson was perfect, and that was the reason why his memory was kept alive and worshiped, in every room, every wall and in every corner of his mother’s house, hurting Blaine in so many different ways. The hazel eyed boy loved his brother and missed him, and that one of the reasons why it hurt so much. But mostly seeing Cooper’s face in every frame and picture hung on the walls hurt Blaine because that reminded Blaine how his brother’s death had ruined his life.

Blaine used to be happy. He had a perfect family and an amazing brother, but then everything changed without a warning or explanation. Suddenly, his brother was gone and his mother was losing her warmth and happiness, trying to act strong as his dad had left home. All that was because his brother didn’t want give his precious gold watch to a robber.

Why didn’t he just give the guy the fucking watch? That was the logical thing to do, not play the hero. But no, the strong and perfect Cooper had to fight, playing the hero. And what had that led to? Death. He had been stupid, leaving Blaine alone.

Because that was the truth. Most of the time, Blaine felt dreadfully alone. His dad wasn’t there for him, and his mom, even though she lived under the same roof, also hadn’t really been there for him either. His mother had been in too much pain and missed Cooper too much to be really there for her younger son. She just kept acting strong and assuring him that things were going to be alright when the truth was, things weren’t getting better. They were just getting worse.

There was no way things could ever be alright for Blaine when he couldn’t even make his mother smile anymore. And Blaine did miss Barbara’s smile. Remembering how her red lips twisted happily, showing those white, polished teeth hurt Blaine. It awoke all the dark feelings in his chest that just grew bigger and bigger with time.

Hate, anger, guilt and envy. Those feelings had always been there, but most of time, it was envy that dominated Blaine’s chest.

The curly haired boy envied his brother and he wasn’t even sure why. He didn’t know if he envied Cooper for who he used to be, the perfect and loved son, or if he envied the fact that Cooper was the one who died; the one who got away not having to deal with a broken family and painful memories.

The entire situation was too agonizing, too fucked up. And thinking about that began to upset Blaine already. He was beginning to feel sad and alone, and he didn’t want feel that way or think about those feelings. Acting ruthless was his escape. But everyone in this family has their own way of escape, don’t they? He thought. Why was he the only one that couldn’t? Why he was the only one being judged by it?

His parents were judging him without looking at their own mistakes, and that was making Blaine feel like shit. And when Blaine Anderson felt like that, he usually did something entertaining and fun, at least to his standards. For most people, what Blaine called “fun” was pure self-destructiveness.

He looked around and considered all he could do to have some fun in his dad’s apartment, and ended up deciding that the fun/self-destructive action of the day would have to be something simple, such as smoking.

Blaine usually wouldn't do such a simple thing trying to feel better, but Walter’s apartment didn’t give him much choice. His dad didn’t drink, so there wasn’t any way Blaine could get some alcohol there, and Walter certainly wouldn’t have some hot guy hiding somewhere there that he could use to get a good, meaningless fuck. Sure, the curly haired boy could run away; jump out a window or something like that and go find those things, but his mother had his keys and Blaine wasn’t in the mood for walking.

So, at least for now, Blaine would have to content himself with smoking. His mother wouldn’t approve, or be happy about that, but he wasn’t the perfect child anyway, so why not? Besides, Walter smoked too, and she married him, so they couldn’t lecture Blaine at all.

The boy didn’t even care if his parents kept talking in the living room, he had already heard enough. Now he would try to find a place where he could get some alone time. He also was planning to do something that would piss off Walter and give him a something to remember his younger son by, since Blaine probably would be going back to that crappy apartment sometime soon.

But first, he needed some nicotine. He found this to be a surprisingly difficult quest.

“Shit! Where the hell does he keep the cigarettes?” the boy cursed, rummaging through his father’s messy apartment. The place smelled like nicotine. Walter had to have some cigarettes somewhere. Blaine continued his search, opening all the drawers and cabinets that came into view, looking for cigarettes. He even looked behind the weird porcelain cat figurine over his dad’s dinner table.

Why did Walter have those things? Blaine had no idea, but they were awful and didn’t match the rest of the neglected decoration of Walter's apartment at all. And thinking about the crappy place, he realized something.

Walter‘s room! His father had to have some cigarettes there! Grinning at his own clever thinking, the hazel eyed boy began to picture all the cigs that would be on his dad’s nightstand, all alone and waiting to be smoked. And the best part of it all was that Walter would be furious when he found out.

It would be perfect, just perfect.

Smirking mischievously, Blaine made his way to his father’s room, confidently thinking that he would just walk in there and steal all of Walter’s cigarettes, but when he grabbed the door handle and tried to open it, it wouldn’t budge. The door was locked.

“What the hell?” he cursed, furrowing his eyebrows in a confused look. Why had Walter locked his room? That didn’t make any sense at all, unless he…

“Oh God! Walter is hiding something! Please be something really, really embarrassing. Please!” the boy mentally begged, already thinking about how he would be thrilled to destroy whatever Walter was working so hard to hide.

Taking his pocket knife out of his jacket, Blaine attempted to open the door, smiling at Walter’s naivety. A weak lock like that wouldn’t stop anyone from finding out whatever he was hiding inside of his room. It wasn't like Blaine hadn't already broken thousands of locks just like that one. That model was probably one of the most easily breakable ones.

“Really, Walter? And think that you used to be a cop,” Blaine smirked as the lock broke with a loud cr-r-rack!

As he entered his dad’s room, Blaine hoped to find something really embarrassing, like a collection of porn magazines or maybe some cheesy romantic books made to entertain teenage girls. He would even be content with more of those weird cat figures that decorated his dad’s kitchen. Blaine just wanted find exactly what it was that was awkward enough to be worth being hidden in a locked room and do some damage on it.

What Blaine didn’t ever think he’d find in his dad’s locked room was a pale boy, who had his hands handcuffed and a scared expression on his face.

The boy was standing in front of Blaine with scared, red rimmed, blue eyes.

“What the fuck…” Blaine breathed, shocked.

What the hell had Walter been doing there?