1997.

‘What about this?' Burt holds up a garish bright red fire engine for Molly to inspect. They're standing in the centre of crowded toy store, trying to find some sanctity in an almost deserted aisle. The world spins lazily around them, cocooning them in this- half frenzy, half dream as they tried to avoid the issue at hand. Tinsel hangs from almost every shelf, hiding most of the price tags from sight, and bad covers of Christmas songs play obnoxiously loudly over the PA. Everything is bright, too bright, painful and clinical and not at all what Christmas should be. The store is packed, filled with other couples like themselves, who are desperately searching for something their children will appreciate. It's times like this when Burt hates Christmas, when everything's commercial and fake and people care more about who has the biggest present than they do about the fact that someone cared enough to buy them a present in the first place. All he wants to do is make his son smile and watch Christmas movies with his wife and have dinner as a family where all three of them eat far more than they should. He wants to decorate a tree and make a snowman and he just wants his family to know he loves them. He doesn't want this, fighting with other angry shoppers and stressing over what his son will like.

‘Are we just going to keep ignoring this?' Molly looks fed up, she loves the holidays more than he does and this is clearly driving her insane.

‘What?' He tries to play it cool, tries to brush it off, tries to pretend that this isn't bothering him in the slightest.

‘He doesn't want a fire engine, he wants a doll's house and quite frankly I don't see what's wrong with that.'

‘Look around us Molly. Do you see any doll houses in the boy's aisle?' Burt lowers his voice, all too aware of the couple standing right behind them who are not so subtly listening in.

‘I don't see why it m-‘

‘I'm not saying it matters to me, I'm just saying that this is Ohio.' He whisper shouts, his voice straining with the attempt to make her understand him.

‘He's our little boy.'

‘I know and I don't want to deny him but...' Burt's voice trails off, even he's not sure what he's trying to say, but he's seen first-hand how cruel kids can be. He remembers how cruel he used to be to boys like Kurt.

‘So why are we? Who's going to care? Who's going to judge a four year old boy for wanting to play with a damn doll's house?' Molly throws her hands up in exasperation, clearly not bothered by the couple behind them and the dirty look they're shooting them both.

‘I'm just trying to protect him. I just think this.' Burt gestures to the entire aisle they're standing in ‘might be a better idea.' He sighs, even in his heart he wonders why he's still fighting it, who does care if Kurt wants to play with a doll's house? It's just that something about the whole situation is making him feel uneasy.

‘Fine! Whatever! Get him the fire engine, do what you like... I'm going to buy him that scarf he wanted.' Molly storms off, leaving Burt feeling lost and unsure in her wake, he knows she's left it in his hands, knows she wants him to make the right choice, but he just can't bring himself to do it. He wants Kurt to be happy, but he also wants what's best for him.

He picks up the fire engine and heads off towards the cash registers.

‘BLAINE! BLAINE! ARE YOU READY TO GO SWEETIE?' Blaine runs down the stairs as fast as his tiny legs will carry him. He crashes into the kitchen and grins at his mother like he's just been told he's going to Disneyland.

‘Where are we going?'

‘To see your brother in the school Christmas show, where are your shoes?' Blaine obediently goes and fetches his shoes from the shoe rack in the hallway and brings them over for his mother to do up. She buttons his coat up and wraps his favourite red scarf around his neck before walking him to the car. He's like a tiny ball of energy, skipping everywhere he goes and running circles round his parents excitedly.

He gazes out of the window as they drive, watching as the brightly lit houses flash past, his parents won't let him decorate the outside of their house so he has to make do with looking at other people's. It's only early December but almost the every street they turn down is covered in lights, green and reds hanging from trees and flashing Santa's dangled out of windows, Blaine wants to get lost in it, he wants to walk out into the snow and the lights and get engulfed by every little thing that makes him happy.

‘What's Coop doing?' He asks, never once looking away from the outside world, he has his nose pressed against the cold glass and his fingers are scrabbling at the window in an attempt to follow the lights.

‘He's singing.' His Mum answers him without turning around.

‘What's he singing?'

 ‘I don't know.'

‘Why's he singing?'

‘Blaine can you stop asking questions and wait until we get there please.' His father snaps, not bothering to take his eyes off the road or keep the irritation out of his voice. Blaine sulks, pulling away from the window, crossing his arms over his body and pouting in a way that he probably thinks looks angry but in actual fact is adorable. He spends the rest of the car ride in silence, clearly thinking ignoring his parents will achieve something, he doesn't even sing along when white Christmas comes on the radio and everyone knows that's his favourite Christmas song.

They reach the school and walk into the crowded auditorium. There are people everywhere, older kids and adults whose legs seem to go on forever, all of them pushing and crowding together and chattering too loudly. It's so overwhelming to Blaine- who's tiny enough as it is- he steps closer towards his mother, clinging tightly to her hand and trying not to get trampled on. His Dad even softens slightly and extends his hand to him, Blaine takes it gratefully. They find their seats quickly and soon all of Blaine's anxiety is gone, he rocking back and forth in his seat, waiting excitedly to see his brother. Cooper's always putting on shows for him, acting out bedtime stories or dancing along to the radio on a Saturday morning, although he never really lets Blaine join in, he's always happy to watch. Blaine's never seen so many people come to watch Cooper before.

‘Blaine honey, are you going to take your scarf off?'

‘No, it's my favourite.' Blaine's hands immediately go to the bright red scarf wrapped around his neck; his grips it tightly and gives his mother a look similar to that of a puppy guarding a bone.

‘Blaine we don't wear scarves inside.' His Dad says from the other side of him, there's a warning tone in his voice but Blaine really likes this scarf so he just shakes his head resolutely.

‘Oh let him wear the scarf if he wants.' His mum saves him, grinning back at Blaine as he shoots her a grateful look.

‘Thank you.' He smiles, reminding himself to always remember his manners.

Cooper isn't in the show as much as Blaine thought he would be, he just sings one song with some girl who keeps singing over him and then dances in the background a bit, even so he's still the most handsome boy Blaine's ever seen and he's still the most talented person on stage. Blaine stands up to clap at the end like everyone else, but he's so small he can't see what's happening so his Dad picks him up and puts him on his shoulders. He definitely claps the hardest when Cooper comes onstage to take his bow.

***

Cooper rolls his eyes as he makes his way backstage to greet everybody, he can already see Blaine standing in the centre of a large group of parents, dressed in his reindeer sweater and that damn scarf that he never seems to take off. The small boy is talking animatedly, clearly having captured everyone's attention, and their parents are beaming down at him like he's just found the cure for cancer.

As Cooper approaches he can hear Blaine begin to sing white Christmas, my god does he ever stop singing it? Everyone's smiling and laughing and you can practically see the hearts in their eyes, it's as if they've all forgotten that their own children just put on a two hour long performance themselves. Blaine stops singing the minute he sees Cooper, immediately running towards his older brother and launching himself into his arms. Cooper scoops him up, momentarily forgetting that he's annoyed with him.

‘You were gweat Cooper.' Blaine smiles, he's been having trouble pronouncing his Rs recently, they all just come out as Ws. Cooper's been trying to teach him but to no avail.

‘Thanks Blainey.' Cooper can hear the collective awws the entire room lets out.

‘That other girl kept singing over you.' Blaine looks reproachful, like said girl has caused him some great personal offence. Cooper laughs.

‘That's how the song goes.'

‘Aww Cooper is this your baby brother?' A girl with long blonde hair curled perfectly into ringlets and big brown eyes that can't seem to leave Cooper's walks over to them, she smiles down at Blaine and then turns her attention to Cooper, and wow okay this is Frannie Fabray talking to him- the Frannie Fabray, the most popular girl in school. She looks expectantly at Cooper as a couple of her friends follow her lead and walk over to them as well. Cooper doesn't get the chance to answer.

‘Yes I'm Blaine, it's lovely to meet you, you all look vewy pwetty tonight.' Blaine extends his hand to them, just like he's been taught to and Frannie takes it while the other girls just aww at him. Of course everyone loves Blaine, with his nineteenth century manners and his fluffy sweaters and scarves and his inability to pronounce the letter R. Cooper rolls his eyes again. His brother can't shut up for even five minutes.

‘Well Blaine, would you like to come look at the costumes with me? I made a lot of them myself.' Frannie smiles again, clearly taken by Blaine, she extends an arm as the boy jumps out of Cooper's hands and begins to weave her way through the crowd. Blaine takes her hand and Cooper glares daggers at his back, he preferred it when Blaine was a baby and couldn't speak at all. At least then he would've attracted the attention of girls without stealing them from him.

‘Well, come on Cooper, aren't you coming?' Frannie turns around to fix Cooper with a suggestive look and a wink, and okay maybe Blaine isn't that bad after all.

Kurt regards his food uncertainly, he's sat opposite his mother at their new dining room table, it's bigger than last years, they've moved into the new house since then, this one has a bigger garden with trees and a swing set and he even has his own playroom.

‘Where's Daddy?' he asks, still not touching any of his food.

‘He said he's coming home late today. Come on eat up.' Molly takes a bite of her own dinner in the hopes that it will encourage Kurt. It doesn't.

‘I can't eat if Daddy isn't here, we have to wait until everyone's at the table.' Kurt's brow furrows in confusion.

‘Just this once we'll let you off, we can eat just the two of us today.' Molly smiles at Kurt until eventually he begins to eat as well, if anyone can convince him to do something, it's his mother. He's still taking small bites though, as if he doesn't want to eat too much in the fear that his Dad will come bursting through door and demand to know why they're eating without him. ‘Are you excited for Christmas Kurtsie?' She asks him, Kurt nods exaggeratedly and grins, of course he's excited for Christmas, Christmas is his favourite.

‘Can we bake cookies later?'

‘You bet, as soon as we finish dinner.' Kurt grins and goes back to eating his food with added haste.     

***

They're already well into their second batch of cookies when Burt gets in, they both have flour in their hair and on their cheeks and there's chocolate pretty much everywhere (word of warning, if you want to stay clean when baking, don't do it with a four year old.) of Course Kurt had to get changed first so he wouldn't ruin any of his clothes, he'd ended up in a pair of pyjama shorts that are a bit too small for him and one of Molly's old t-shirts that is too small for her but naturally drowns Kurt, it turns out all of his clothes are too good to be baking cookies in.

When Burt gets in the kitchen smells like cinnamon and chocolate, it's almost stiflingly warm, all the heat rising up and curling around the room, both Kurt and Molly are covered head to toe in flour, laughing as they mix their cookie dough and singing All I want for Christmas is you (Kurt's current favourite song) at the top of their lungs. Burt lingers in the doorway, watching Molly dance around the kitchen and Kurt laugh at her from the top of the kitchen counter, his chocolate covered fingers clapping excitedly and his little cheeks flushed pink from the warmth. He smiles; he doesn't really have a choice. He feels that festive feeling building up inside of him, bubbling to the point where he thinks he might burst because he's just so happy. His wife and his son are gorgeous and wonderful and they have the same heart felt laugh that they usually try hide, they laugh with their heads thrown back and their bodies shaking from the weight of their giggling. He loves seeing them when they think no one's watching -completely uninhibited- both of them are usually so reserved in public, then again that's not surprising, Kurt copies everything his mother does. They don't notice him watching them until the song has finished and Molly is trying to get the flour off of her face, she just ends up with more on there than she began with. Then they both look up and see him grinning from the doorway.

‘Daddy!' Kurt smiles even brighter than he was before, so bright it looks like his cheeks might split in two. He jumps down from the kitchen side and runs to Burt who picks him up without even a second thought of the flour that immediately ends up covering him.

‘Hey kiddo, what are you wearing?' He barely stifles a laugh at the sight of his son in what appears to be an old band T-shirt of Molly's, he's never heard of the band but then again he can barely tell the difference between a violin and a guitar let alone the multitude of artists that Molly loves. All he knows about music is that the minute Molly plays, everybody listens.

‘It's my old Bangles T-shirt, he refused to wear any of his own clothes.' Molly smiles fondly and rolls her eyes, her son has grown quite an affection for his clothes, he's probably one of the few children who are actually happy when they get jeans and cardigans instead of toys for presents. ‘Where were you? We've eaten dinner and everything.'

‘I'll tell you in a minute, hey Kurt I bought these candy canes for the tree do you wanna go put them on?' Kurt grins, grabbing the sweets from Burt's hand and rushing off into the living room. Molly smiles as her eyes follow him out of the door and then she moves to kiss Burt in greeting. He kisses her back, laughing when the flour that was originally on her nose ends up on his. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her to him tight.

‘I was at the toy store, taking back that damn fire engine.' He says it likes he's annoyed, trying to act as if it's no big deal, but the proud grin he gives Molly shows otherwise.

‘You bought him the doll's house?' She smiles up at him, pulling him back in for another hug before he even has the chance to answer.

‘I bought him the doll's house.' He repeats, hugging her back just as tightly. ‘It's in the car I'll bring it in when he gone to bed.'

‘I'm so proud of you honey.' Molly leans back in his arms to give him a lingering kiss on the lips. Burt smiles sadly.

‘He shouldn't suffer because of my insecurities, he's my boy. I just want him to be happy. Besides, no one pushes the Hummels around.'

‘We'll always be here to love him.'

Their relatives start to arrive a few days before Christmas. Cooper's annoyed. It's not like they don't have the space or they're getting in his way, it's just that Cooper would quite like to have some time to himself and some time to go out with Frannie Fabray- she seems to have taken quite an interest in him as of late- without having to feel bad because he should be ‘entertaining the guests.' Blaine seems to be doing a perfectly good job of that himself.

Everyone piles in, Aunts and Uncles and grandparents, they all place their perfectly wrapped presents under the tree and laugh when Blaine spends hours organising them into individual piles and jumps in excitement when he realises that his pile is the biggest. Everyone compliments his mother on the decorations and she smiles and preens while Cooper knows for a fact that Blaine and a couple of maids did it all a few Fridays ago.

As it so happens Cooper is stuck inside entertaining his little brother.

‘No Blaine that's not how you tie a bow.' Cooper wrestles the present out of Blaine's hands and does it himself. ‘Watch me.' He snaps. Is there honestly anything Blaine can do well? Besides stealing his spotlight that is.

‘I'm sowwy Coop.' And Blaine looks so genuinely disappointed with himself that Cooper starts to feel a little bad, it's not Blaine's fault he's an incompetent four year old after all.

‘It's okay squirt, do you wanna try again on Mum's present?' he softens slightly and smiles down at his little brother. Cooper had taken Blaine out the week before to get presents for every one seeing as their Dad was too busy to take them. Naturally Blaine had been over excitable and charming and it had taken them twice as long to do anything because he'd kept stopping to talk to store clerks.

Blaine nods his head emphatically and watches Cooper redo the bow on the next present with so much concentration he looks like he might actually pass out. It's endearing how much Blaine will try to impress anyone, even If it's just through perfectly wrapped Christmas presents.

They continue to wrap their presents, or rather Blaine continues to try to wrap the presents and Cooper continues to rewrap the presents. Even so it's kind of... fun, Blaine can be quite good company when there's no one else around and they can both sing along to their favourite Christmas songs without being told to keep it down. They're in Cooper's bedroom, sat on his carpet with all their presents (that Cooper had paid for with his own money) spread out in front of them, their dressing gowns wrapped tightly around them and the radio Cooper had stolen from the kitchen blaring out all around them.

‘Hey B, you know how I always put on shows for you each year.' Blaine nods encouragingly but doesn't take his eyes away from the present he's currently wrapping, his little pink tongue sticks out with concentration as he tries to position the sellotape just right. ‘Well do you want to help me?' Blaine stops what he's doing, Cooper's never let him help before because ‘his timings all wrong' or ‘he just can't keep up with him vocally.'

‘Yes please.' Blaine grins like, well like it's Christmas morning, and throws his arms around Cooper. Cooper laughs and hugs his brother back.

‘Okay just let me get your costume.' It turns out that Blaine getting on the good side of Frannie hadn't been such a bad idea after all, she'd stolen Cooper a costume especially for the occasion. 

Cooper runs off and comes back a few minutes later with a mass of fabric in bright reds and greens.  He holds it out to Blaine who looks at it sceptically.

‘You're gonna be an elf, Blainey.' Cooper grins like it's the best idea in the world and Blaine can't help but smile back. ‘Now what song do you want to sing?' Cooper leads Blaine over to the Piano in the corner of his room and hands him his book full of sheet music to choose a song from. Cooper figures that if he orchestrates the whole thing then he'll have to get some of the credit too, not just Blaine and his impromptu I-want-to-jump-on-some-furniture-and-sing-really-loudly performances. Also Blaine will look really cute in that elf outfit.

A few hours, several rigorous rehearsals and a broken footstall later and Blaine and Cooper have perfected their performance. Cooper always puts on performances for the family at Christmas, they're usually plays of questionable merit that he's written himself or hour long concerts that are mandatory to attend, not forgetting that one time he acted out the entirety of a Christmas carol by himself. But this year-since his teachers are telling him he needs to learn to work well with others and everyone seems so intent on watching Blaine all the time- he is allowing Blaine to perform with him, he's well aware that Blaine isn't at the same level of talent as he is but he's prepared to lower his standards, just this once, for his baby brother.

How do you explain euphoria? Sometimes it's captured in feel good films or that one book that you love so much that you sometimes just pick it up and hold it close and remember every sentence you love, the characters that you cried over and the parts that made you hold your breath without even realising you were doing so. Some people believe it's the feeling you get in church when you can almost feel god's presence, others that it's standing in a concert, knowing that you are surrounded by people as in love with the band as you are, knowing that you are all joined by a singular thing, and then that one song begins to play and you're all screaming it at the top of your lungs like your life depends on it, and in that second you don't want to be anywhere else. Sometimes it's the first realisation that you are in love, the terror and the excitement and the sudden understanding that grabs you like two hands clasped together and clutches you tight. Sometimes all it takes is a song and a drive and someone that you love; it's the gasp of a swing set or the scream of an adrenaline rush. Sometimes it seems like you'll never reach that feeling and others it's like you'll never escape it. Quite often it can be described as a Child on Christmas day, but that can never really compare to a child on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is like the happy ending that goes on forever, it's your favourite movie that never ends and it's a battle that's never lost. You have all the excitement, all the enjoyment, all the pure unadulterated joy of Christmas without the distraction of materialism, it isn't tainted by humanity's love of possessions, it's trapped holding all that joy without ever having to lose it, it's spent with friends and family, and it's hesitant in a way, undermined by its shining older brother.

But nothing compares to a child on Christmas eve, anxiously waiting to go to bed, walking on tiptoes all day, buzzing with excitement, just waiting, waiting for something special, consumed by the joy of being lost in a moment, so caught up that you barely even remember the day after it's passed. The kind of happiness that flows through you for the entirety of Christmas Eve, that's euphoria.

And Kurt doesn't quite know how to handle it.

‘Kurt honey calm down.' Molly laughs at Kurt practically ricocheting off of the walls, he's been like it all day, singing and dancing and jumping around, habitually checking whether it's time to go to bed yet. They'd taken him for a walk, hoping it might drain some of his energy. The three of them had bundled up in their warm coats and gloves and scarves, Molly and Burt each taking a hold of one of Kurt's hands and half walking, half lifting him through the woods where they'd went walking, swinging him between them as they went. All that had happened was Burt and Molly ended up exhausted and Kurt was still as energetic as ever.

‘I'm excited.' Kurt replies, jumping onto the sofa next to her.

‘Well calm it; you have to go to bed soon mister.' She grabs him around the waist, pulling his wriggling body down on top of her and tickling him until he squeals.

‘Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!' he half gasps, half giggles, still squirming and trying to get away from his mum.

‘What are we doing here?' Burt asks, smirking as both Molly and Kurt land on the floor, still immersed in their tickle fight.

‘Just tickling my baby.' Molly pants out, her voice rising to a shriek at the end as Kurt goes for her neck, a spot Burt happens to know for a fact is extremely ticklish.

‘Okay, you hold him down and I'll tickle him.' He grins as Kurt's blue eyes widen and he starts squirm away even more. Molly giggles, pulling Kurt down so he's lying completely on the floor as Burt joins in on the tickling. Kurt screams and shrieks but to no avail, his parents continue to tickle at his skin until all three of them are a laughing, gasping mess on the floor.

‘That was mean.'  Kurt pants out, resting his head in his Dad's lap as he tries to even his breathing.

‘I know buddy.' Burt can't help but laugh a little as he runs his hands through Kurt's hair. ‘Are you tired yet?'

‘A little.'

‘Come on then, one last cuddle and then we'll put the cookies out for Santa.' Molly opens her arms wide for Kurt to crawl into her lap, Burt slides up next to her and wraps his arm around her shoulders. They sit together on the floor, their breathing still coming out a little ragged and their hands clasped together, lost in the joy of just being together. They cuddle up together for about five minutes before Kurt's jumping up again, just as hyper as he wants before.

‘Okay can I go to bed now?'

‘I think that's the first time you've ever asked that before.' Molly laughs but she gets up anyway. ‘Come on then, let's go get the milk and cookies.' She holds out her hand for Kurt to take and walks them into the kitchen, letting Kurt pour the glass of milk, only spilling it a little bit, and pick the two cookies he wants to go on the tray. They leave the tray on the end table by the Christmas tree so Santa will know where to find it and then go upstairs to get ready for bed.

‘Okay kiddo, we are ready for bed.' Burt tries to settle Kurt (who happens to be wide awake and jumping on his bed) down.

‘I changed my mind, I don't wanna go to sleep yet.'

‘Do you want Santa to come?' Molly asks. She manages to get him to sit but still has some trouble getting him under the covers.

‘uh huh, but I want to see him.'

‘He won't give you presents if you see him.' Burt manages to coax him under the covers but he still looks just as bright eyed as ever, it's always a problem getting him to go to sleep.

‘Why?'

‘Because.'

‘That's not a real answer.'

‘Kurt sweetie just trust me you won't get any presents if you don't go to sleep so you better lie down and close your eyes.' Kurt gives his mum a dubious look but she just raises her eyebrow at him and he slinks under the covers and lets them tuck him in.

‘Do you want a bedtime story?' Kurt shakes his head vigorously.

‘No I think I'll just go to sleep because then it will be Christmas quicker.'

‘Okay well we'll see you in the morning then.' Burt leans down to kiss Kurt on the cheek.

‘Night night sweetheart.' Molly kisses him as well, making sure that the covers are pulled up extra tight and that he has his teddy bear.

‘Night night, love you.' Kurt calls out as they head for the door. He hugs his teddy close and smiles as his eyes slide shut.

‘Love you too.' They whisper as they leave the room.

‘I think we have enough time to watch it's a wonderful life before we go to bed.' Molly closes Kurt's door and turns towards her husband grinning.

‘Really Mol?'

‘It's a tradition.' She says incredulously, her eyes going wide and pleading.

‘Come on then.' He grins, taking her hand and leading her back downstairs. ‘If it's tradition.'

‘Oh Cooper you're such a wonderful big brother, little Blainey's lucky to have you.' Cooper positively preens from his aunt's words. His plan had gone well, extremely well. Blaine had messed up a couple of times but he let it slide since everyone was clapping and telling Cooper how wonderful he is. Of course they'd told Blaine he was good too, but it's different with Cooper, they know he's the mastermind behind it all, they give him all the credit.

‘Thank you, I know.' Cooper grins as he settles himself down on the couch between his aunt and uncle.

Blaine sidles up to them and sleepily crawls his way into Cooper's lap, he yawns softly and nestles himself further into Cooper's chest. He tries to keep his eyes open but every few minutes they slide shut. Blaine yawns again.

‘Are you tired?' Cooper smiles down at his brother gently, it's not often that Blaine sits with him, he's usually all over their mum. Blaine nods his head groggily and presses his face into Cooper's shirt to hide his blush; he doesn't like being seen as a little boy. ‘Do you want to go to bed?' Blaine wraps his arms around Cooper's waist and then doesn't do anything for a while. He sits still for so long that Cooper thinks he might have fallen asleep but then he nods again shyly, blinking his big brown eyes up at Cooper and still struggling to keep them open.

‘Come on then.' Their Mother says, she pulls herself out of the arm chair in the corner and walks over to where Blaine and Cooper are sandwiched into the middle of the sofa, but as she approaches Blaine shakes his head and wraps his fingers around Cooper's shirt.

‘Want Coop to do it.' Blaine's words slur together in his exhaustion, his entire body slumping against Cooper's.

‘He really does love you doesn't he?' Their Grandmother asks, looking between Cooper and Blaine.

‘I guess so.' Cooper says, looking down at his brother surprised.  He lifts Blaine up anyway and carries him all the way up the stairs, managing to coax him into standing long enough to brush his teeth and then changing him into his pyjamas and tucking him into bed.

‘Night B.' he leans forward to kiss Blaine on the forehead but his brother grabs a hold of him and pulls him down on to the bed. Blaine isn't actually strong enough to drag him all the way down but Cooper goes compliantly.

‘Stay with me.' Blaine opens his eyes to blink hopefully at Cooper a few times, his little pink lips curled up into a dreary smile and his hands still clinging on to Cooper's shirt.

‘Okay.'

Blaine nestles into Cooper once more, his eyes closing again and a contented smile pressed into Cooper's side. Cooper brings his arms round to rub soothingly at Blaine's back and pull his brother just that little bit closer.

‘It's Christmas tomorrow.' Blaine sighs, already half asleep.

‘Yeah, are you excited?'

‘Yeah, you're gonna love your present.'

‘You got me a present?' Blaine nods his head sleepily and then stops moving all together. Cooper stays with him for another five minutes to make sure he's definitely asleep before he pads quietly to the door.

‘Night Blaine.'