“Hello?” he murmured quietly into the phone, not wanting to wake Blaine, who was currently wrapped tightly around him.

“Kurt, it’s Cooper.” Blaine’s brother’s voice greeted him. He blinked sleepily. “Did I wake you?”

“How did you get my – never mind,” Kurt managed. “And yes.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Cooper apologized. “Can we talk?”

“We are talking,” Kurt replied.

“No, I mean in person. Can you meet me? Alone?” Kurt glanced at Blaine, still sound asleep. He hesitated. This wasn’t his place. Just because he and Blaine had taken steps toward something… more last night, did not entitle him to meddle in Blaine’s life.

“Please?” Cooper pleaded. “I don’t know what else to do. I need your help.”

“Where?” Kurt finally said.

Cooper rattled off the address of a diner nearby and Kurt promised to meet him in a bit before hanging up. He slowly pried Blaine’s arms from around him, intent on slipping out of bed without waking Blaine.

“No,” Blaine whispered, pulling Kurt close again.

“Blaine, I have to go out for a bit,” Kurt told him quietly. “I’ll be back with breakfast.”

Blaine made a grumbling noise but let go, rolling onto his back. Kurt stared at him, smiling at how young Blaine looked while he was sleeping. Impulsively, he leaned down and pressed a soft, quick kiss to Blaine’s lips, before heading off to the shower.

Breakfast with Cooper was something Kurt was not likely to forget anytime soon. Cooper was waiting for him when he arrived, already seated at one of the booths. Kurt sat down, a little out of breath from his hasty walk.

Kurt had barely slipped out of his coat when the waitress appeared. Cooper immediately launched into his order, only he was suddenly speaking with an atrocious French accent. The waitress smiled at him, batting her eyelashes. Kurt resisted rolling his eyes as he ordered a coffee and an omelet with bacon on the side.

“What’s with the accent?” Kurt asked when she was gone.

“Good practice,” Cooper replied. “Never know when you’re going to have to pull an accent out of your back pocket for a part.”

“Ah,” Kurt murmured, trying not to stare at Cooper like he was insane. “So… what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Blaine,” Cooper said, suddenly all serious. “It might shock you, but Blaine and I aren’t that close.”

“I noticed,” Kurt replied. “He doesn’t talk about you much.”

“I realized that I should have called or come home or something, but you know how LA is…” Cooper trailed off.
“I need him to talk to me.”

“Why now?”

“My parents called and asked me to talk to him,” Cooper began. “They said he was making bad decisions and maybe I could get him to get his life together.”

Kurt stared at him open mouthed. “I’d ask if you were serious, but I’ve met your parents.” He paused. “Do you think he’s made bad decisions?”

“I think my parents are homophobic and don’t know how to deal with having a gay son,” Cooper said after a moment. “I think that I don’t remember Blaine ever being as happy as I’ve seen him with you. Last night, he just had this… expression on his face every time he looked at you.”

“What do you want me to do?” Kurt asked. He wasn’t sure that butting in here was the right thing to do but he wanted to help and Blaine needed someone that wasn’t his parents to be on his side.

“Get him to talk to me.”

“I’m his husband, not a miracle worker,” Kurt muttered. “I’ll see what I can do.”

The waitress came back with their orders and Cooper thanked her, mangling actual French this time. They dug into their food; Kurt enjoyed his eggs while Cooper regaled him with more stories of the Anderson brothers terrorizing the neighborhood as kids.

He ordered a couple of donuts and a hot coffee to go for Blaine and headed home once Cooper had insisted on paying the bill.

*

Blaine sighed, putting down his book. He was trying to get a jumpstart on his reading for when classes started (the reading list was already up) but he couldn’t concentrate. Kurt wasn’t home and he had no distraction from his thoughts.

His mind kept going back to all the times he needed Cooper to be there for him and Cooper hadn’t been: when Blaine was thirteen and in the hospital after being beaten at a school dance, when he got caught with Sebastian, when their parents cut him off – to name a few. He’d longed for a relationship with Cooper over the years but eventually had decided that if Cooper wanted one, he would have to come to Blaine.

Blaine felt something on his cheek and wiped it away, startled to realize he was crying.

Kurt came in then and Blaine sniffed, wiping quickly at his cheeks. The smell of coffee hit Blaine’s nose and he rose as Kurt walked over to the kitchen with the styrofoam tray in one hand and a “to go” box in the other.

“Is that breakfast I smell?” he asked. Kurt smiled.

“Yep,” he answered. “Two jelly doughnuts and a medium drip.”

“You are actually the best,” Blaine replied, his stomach rumbling. Kurt blushed. Blaine thought he looked the most adorable when he did that.

“Come here,” Blaine took his hand, pulling him close.

“What?” Kurt asked, sounding breathless.

“I want to kiss you,” Blaine told him. “Is that okay?”

Kurt nodded, his eyes wide. Blaine leaned up and brushed Kurt’s lips lightly with his own. Kurt took a shaky breath and Blaine smiled at the reaction. He loved that he could literally take Kurt’s breath away.

“Thank you for breakfast,” Blaine murmured.

“You’re welcome,” Kurt mumbled, sounding breathless.

Blaine gave him one more kiss and then pulled away, heading for the doughnuts and coffee. He’d just take a bite of the delicious powered, jelly filled goodness when Kurt nearly ruined his appetite.

“I went to meet Cooper this morning,” he said. Blaine chewed slowly, staring at Kurt in surprise.

“Why?” Blaine couldn’t fathom what the two of them could possibly have had to say to each other.

“He wants me to convince you to talk to him.”

Blaine set down the doughnut. “When I saw him standing on the doorstep last night I – I got hopeful. I mean, here was my brother, looking me up after ten years and maybe that meant something, you know?”

Kurt nodded, so Blaine kept talking.

“But he’s still the same – everything’s always about him and I’m never good enough.”

“Blaine,” Kurt spoke softly. “I really think he wants things to be better between you. I just don’t think he knows how to get there.”

“Well, that’s his problem, isn’t it?”

“So you’re going to throw away his attempt at friendship?” Kurt countered, giving him a look. “Finn and I didn’t always get along, you know. There were lots of issues, but he’s my brother and I love him.”

Blaine sighed. “Well sure, if you’re going to use logic.”

“So you’ll talk to him?” Blaine nodded. Kurt clapped his hands lightly and bounced on his feet, and Blaine couldn’t help but smile.

*

When Cooper showed up that afternoon, Kurt made himself scarce. He disappeared into his room, trying to settle down with his sketch book and plan out a few things. He knew he wouldn’t be doing anything special for Vogue anytime soon (he’d be getting coffee, but still, it was Vogue), but it couldn’t hurt to have a portfolio ready.

The problem was that he couldn’t concentrate. He wondered what Blaine and Cooper were discussing, if it was going well or if he’d be comforting an upset Blaine after Cooper left.

He had just bent over his sketches again when he heard Blaine shouting.

“I needed you, Coop!” Blaine’s voice was loud. “I needed you and you weren’t there and I didn’t know how to reach you.”

“Blaine,” Cooper said, his voice just as loud. “I’m sorry. I just… I figured you were better off without me.”
Kurt bit his lip and then got up from the bed. He crept over to his door and opened it, listening. He knew he shouldn’t but he justified it to himself that he couldn’t be there for Blaine if he didn’t know the whole story. Blaine tended to keep a lot of things to himself, at least where his family was concerned, and Kurt wanted to help him.

“Maybe I am!” Blaine shouted again. “If that’s the case, then why are you here?”

Kurt listened as Cooper talked Blaine into sitting back down and repeated the story he’d told Kurt about Blaine’s parents.

“So Mom and Dad sent you here to straighten me out,” Blaine muttered, his tone thick. Kurt heard him sniffle and realized he was crying. His heart ached and he wanted nothing more than to go out into the living room and hold Blaine.

He refused to examine that thought any further though. In fact, he was kind of not dealing with anything where his feelings for Blaine were concerned. Their relationship had taken a turn physically and it was something Kurt had definitely thought about since he and Blaine had gotten married – but he wasn’t sure he could give Blaine everything he needed for this to be a true marriage.

Kurt didn’t think he could bring himself to love anyone.

It hurt too much.

The voices in the living room quieted and Kurt went back to his sketches when he couldn’t make out anything else.

*

“I’m not here to straighten you out,” Cooper lowered his voice. “I’m here to see how you are. I was worried about you.”

Blaine laughed bitterly. “You were worried.” He’d kept his feelings bottled up for too long. They were flying out now, in words he’d hidden deep inside. “Where were you when I was gay bashed at my Sadie Hawkins dance? Yeah, that attack was because I was gay – I just didn’t tell Mom and Dad that. Or when I switched schools but was still terrified that someone might attack me? Or when Mom and Dad figured out that I was gay and cut me off?”

“I had no idea about any of that, Blaine,” Cooper replied, looking torn up.

“You would have if you’d bothered to call or come home once in a while.” Blaine lowered his head. “If you’d been there then maybe Kurt and I wouldn’t have…”

“Wouldn’t have what?” Cooper prompted.

“Gotten married,” Blaine answered. “We got married so I could claim my inheritance from Grandma Anderson.”
Cooper stared at him for a long moment.

“Don’t look at me like that, Coop,” Blaine mumbled. “I did what I had to do.”

“So you and Kurt…”

“Are a marriage in name only,” Blaine answered. Of course, he was hopeful that was changing. “But it’s more than that.” Blaine sighed. “He’s my best friend, Cooper.”

Cooper seemed speechless and Blaine couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a conversation with his brother that hadn’t been all about Cooper or tearing Blaine down or when Cooper had used so few words.

“You say the word, Blaine,” Cooper replied, “and we can undo this.”

“No!” Blaine exclaimed. “No. Kurt needs the money too, and he really is my best friend and I…” he trailed off before he spilled out that he was in love with Kurt. That was a little too much sharing for a brother he hadn’t really spoken to in ten years. Besides, he didn’t want to tell anyone until he’d worked up the nerve to tell Kurt first.

“Can you forgive me?” Cooper whispered, meeting Blaine’s gaze. “I just got so caught up in my own stuff that it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t be fine.”

“I’m working on it,” Blaine replied softly. “You’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

He and Cooper exchanged phone numbers and addresses and made promises to call. Cooper was due to fly back to LA the next day for a new commercial shoot; otherwise Blaine would have begged him to stay longer.

The door shut behind Cooper and Blaine felt hopeful for the first time in a long time where his brother was concerned. Kurt came into the living room as he was turning around. Blaine couldn’t help smiling when he saw Kurt, crossing the room and gathering Kurt into a tight hug.

“Thank you,” he murmured into Kurt’s neck. “Thank you.”

Kurt patted his back lightly. “You’re welcome.”