"Cooper, why are you leaving?" A teary eyed seven year old Blaine Anderson stood holding on to his big brother's hand for dear life.

"Daddy doesn't want me here anymore, Blainers." Cooper knelt down and put his big hands on Blaine's small shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"When will you come back?" Blaine let a small tear slide down his cheek.

"I don't know. I'm going to go to school for a while..." Cooper stopped, thinking about if Blaine would be able to understand what he so dearly wanted to tell him.

"What is it Coop?" Blaine asked looking at his brother, knowing that something wasn't quite right.

"Blainers, I'm going to tell you a secret. Do you think that you can keep it safe for me and not let anyone else know about it? Not even Mommy and Daddy?" Cooper cringed thinking about Blaine not being able to look at the people that he looks up to and loves so dearly.

"I'll do whatever you want Coop." Blaine said huffing out his chest, trying to be a big boy like his brother.

"Well, then come here." Cooper sat down on the corner of his bed and brought Blaine to sit beside him.

Blaine looked up at him with a questioning look on his face.

"Ok, so, Blaine, you trust me right? You know that I would never lie to you?"

"Of course." Blaine said in a hushed tone.

"I want you to always be able to trust me, and that is the only reason I'm telling you this. I don't want you to be afraid."

"Why would I..." Cooper cut in before Blaine could finish.

"Daddy isn't good, Blainers. He hurts Mommy, and that is why I have to go, I tried to stop him from...hurting her."

Blaine's mouth gaped open. Cooper saw the horror in his eyes. Blaine had no idea the terror that his father brought to there seemingly normal family.

"Daddy won't hurt you if you don't make him mad. Do not, Blaine listen to me, do not tell him about your crush on Michael, okay. That will make him mad. You wait until I come back to you, we will tell him together." Cooper had known. He had always known that Blaine was different. Ever since they were young and Cooper would sit with his arm wrapped around blaine as the younger boy sat on his lap as they watched Disney movies an blaine would say how handsome the prince was and how lucky the princess was that she got to marry him and kiss him. He had been skeptical but when his baby brother had come home and told him about his crush on a boy in his class, he knew that he was right. He also knew that he was right about another thing, their father wouldn't like it, and he would do everything in his power to protect his baby brother.

"You'll come back?" Blaine asked wrapping his small arms around Cooper's waist and squeezing him tightly.

Cooper returned the hug saying, "I'll come back for you, Blainers. I'm going to get through school and get a big house and a job and then I will come back, and I'll take you with me. I will give you everything that you deserve."

"But what about Mommy?" Blaine worried about his mother, his care for others was one of the things that Cooper most admired about his brother.

"Mommy will be fine, Buddy. She knows how to handle all of this. I made Daddy angry, it was my fault that he tried to hurt her. Don't be like me. Don't make him mad Blaine."

"But...I want to be just like you Cooper. I love you."

"I love you too, Blainers. Just...be good. Be careful." Cooper lifted Blaine off of his bed and stood him up on the floor as he left the room.

Blaine didn't know what he was going to do. He stood in the silence of the room before realizing that he was losing his entire world.

"COOPER! NO! DON'T LEAVE! DON'T MAKE HIM LEAVE!" Blaine yelled as he ran down the stairs to catch up with his brother.

Cooper had his hand on the doorknob, about to shut the door on his old life, and with one last glimpse at his brother, he said, "I'll be back." And he shut the door, leaving Blaine to collapse on the floor, tears falling like rain onto the floor beneath him.

"Blaine? Blaine!" Mr. Sollano was staring at Blaine who had his head on his desk with his eyes shut tightly.

He felt tapping on his shoulder blade. As he brought his gaze up he saw his teacher with a hardened expression resting upon his face.

"Did you have a nice nap, Mr. Anderson?" Mr. Sollano asked before returning to the board to finish writing the homework.

"Blaine? What did you think you were doing? You can't sleep in here!" Kurt said, whispering as to not draw Mr. Sollano's attention back to them.

"I...I was tired." And he had all the right to be tired. Ever since he had come out to his parents, his home life had been nothing less that hell. His dad wouldn't even look him in the eye when he was talking to him, which was rarely once a week. His mother came and spoke to him when his father was out, but other than that, she had nothing to do with her son. But, the previous night, Blaine's father had everything to say. Blaine had mentioned Kurt's name, which was practically forbidden in the Anderson household, his father raised his hand and in one swift motion struck Blaine's cheek, full force, which was explanation to the large dark mark on Blaine's left cheek. His father kept him up, telling him to take his car's engine apart and put it back together, yet another attempt to make his son straight.

Blaine obviously knew by now how horrible his father was, it had been ten years since Cooper had told him the truth, the truth that he had never let out of his min since. He could still feel the pain that the words caused as Cooper held him on his bed.

Don't make him mad. Don't be like me.

Blaine remembered everything that Cooper had told him to not do. Both he did, and both ended the same way that Cooper said they would.

Even though all of the things that Cooper told him not to do stuck to the front of his mind, there was one thing that Blaine could never forget. He would find himself thinking about it late into the night. Cry about how it never happened until he fell asleep with red eyes.

I'll be back.

'It's been ten years, if he was going to come back, he would have done it already. He left his old life behind and is probably married with kids and a big apartment in a nice city and here I am. Not able to escape.'