"Taking precautions for you not to kill yourself," the annoyance in Cooper's tired voice was clear.

"Cooper," their mother reprimanded him sharply. "Just making sure there aren't any dangerous things for you to hurt yourself with in the house, honey," she continued in a gentler, more subtle way.

Blaine frowned at the idea of his mother considering anything dangerous for Blaine. He was Nightbird, for Batman's sake's! Nothing in the world was dangerous for Nightbird. But just when he opened his mouth to talk, he remembered the only two people who knew about his secret identity were his brother and himself; so he gave his Mommy a break, just for once.

"Okay, I'm done," the eldest boy exhaled as he threw himself on a chair next to the new table. "We have been moving stuff around the house all day long. This is not how I expected to spend my Saturday."

"But you are the most darling son and you helped your mother when she needed it the most," Mom established as she laid a hand on Cooper's shoulder and pressed a gentle, loving kiss on his hair. "And the most darling brother too, because you're doing this for him," she raised her eyebrows and glanced gratefully at the sofa.

"C'mere, Blainers," the blue-eyed brother sighed as he patted his own thighs.

Mom left the room with a satisfied grin on her face as the small one timidly toddled towards his sibling.

"Are you angry at me?" he finally let out the words that had been bubbling inside him since Cooper started ranting.

"What? No!" He laughed warmly and lifted him up to sit him on his lap, face to face. "I'm just tired. I know we had plans to... you know..." he looked around suspiciously and leaned forward. "Save the word."

Blaine nodded vigorously without saying anything, eyes open wide and lips pressed tightly together. If they didn't talk much about it, nobody would ever listen.

"But I'm really worn-out, mind if we leave that for tomorrow? We can watch a movie instead," he hinted with a growing grin.

The kindergartener nodded once more, this time with a smile on his face and much more relaxed than before. "But
you choose, it's your reward for your work today."

"Okay, then we shall watch... Small Soldiers?" A smirk appeared on his face. That movie was his guilty pleasure, since it was a children's one but he seemed to enjoy it as much as his baby brother.

"There will be no mercy!" Blaine quoted with excitement as he jumped off his brother's lap and started running around the room, pretending to be part of the Commando Elite.

----------

"If we hide, we will still lose. No more hiding." Cooper couldn't help mouthing the dialogue, completely focused on the screen. It wasn't until then, when he looked down and realized that his little brother had passed out against him. Probably he had fallen asleep long ago, but he was just too into Small Soldiers to notice.

He picked up the remote control and paused the movie. He had watched it a hundred times before and probably would watch it a hundred more, so he didn't mind missing the ending this time.

It was already dark outside, but most probably not late enough since their mother hadn't called them to dinner yet. Coop took Blaine in his arms carefully not to wake him up and walked up the stairs towards his brother's bedroom. He was mostly sure both his parents would appreciate him sleeping early and not having to go through the long routine of putting the boy to sleep.

Cooper had just finished changing the sleeping boy into his pajamas when he was surprised by a breathy, sleepy voice in the night, muffled by the pillow.

"How I end up in here?" He could see his brother rubbing his eyes with this little fists through the darkness. "We were watchin' Small Soldiers..."

"Yeah, but then you fell asleep and as soon as you did I realized it was like, 3 a.m." A little white lie that would make his brother happy for staying up so late and keep him from trying to wake up once more seemed more than fine.

"Really?" He seemed more than simply amazed. And sort of proud. "I stayed up until then?"

"Sure you did, so now you better drift off again because
mom and dad are gonna kill us if they find out," he finished secretively as he tucked the boy in.

"Yeah, yeah..." Blaine closed his eyes, and in less than thirty seconds, he was out once more.

Cooper didn't leave the room right away, though. He sat right next to him and run his hand through his brother's soft curls. He loved that kid to death, and all the hard work in the world was completely worth it if it meant that his Blainers would be safe. How was he supposed to have fun or whatsoever without him? Or to spend his days at all, for that matter?

"I would die without you, bro," he whispered and pressed a kiss on his forehead. The toddler squirmed and hummed in his sleep, only to make the other boy smile.