Blaine watched as his brother straightened his jacket in front of the mirror and frowned slightly at his reflection. Blaine didn't know why Cooper was frowning though, because he would give anything for it to be him standing there in that uniform. But, as his mom had told him every time he had complained about it to her, 'seven-year-olds don't go to high school, Blaine!'. It was very frustrating.

Cooper turned away from the mirror and saw Blaine standing in the doorway, staring longingly at his navy blazer. He chuckled and walked across the room to crouch in front of his baby brother.

"Trust me, Blainers, this is no where near as cool as you think it is." He said, ruffling Blaine's curls condescendingly.

Blaine glared at him and pouted, sticking his bottom lip out. Mom called it his 'puppy dog expression', and mentioned that she could never say no to him with that look on his face. So, Blaine figured, neither could Cooper, which meant that Cooper would stop calling him Blainers, and take him with him when he went off to Dalton! Right?

"Coooooper, please let me come with you! I promise I'll be good and everything, and I'll act like a big boy and I won't even bring my power rangers!" Blaine said. He thought it was a very good argument. And after all, why wouldn't Cooper want him there? Blaine had heard him saying loads of times that he would miss them all loads, so wouldn't it be so much better if Blaine was there with him?

Cooper sighed and ran a hand through his hair, the teasing expression no longer on his face.

"Blaine, you know I would give anything to have you come with me. But you can't. Maybe in a few years, when you're old enough, you can go as well. But not now, and there's nothing I can do about that. I'm sorry."

Cooper looked sad, so Blaine gave him a hug. Hugs made everything better, Blaine found. It didn't matter whether it was one of the mean girls pulling his hair at school because it 'looked like pasta' (Blaine disagreed), or because he wasn't allowed to go to the park with one his friends, a hug always made him feel loads better. So he put his little arms around Cooper's neck and hugged him tightly, hoping he was helping.

"Thanks, little bro." Cooper said, lifting Blaine off the ground and holding him close. They both heard their mother shouting from downstairs.

"Come on, Cooper. We need to leave now!" she yelled.

Cooper sighed and regretfully returned Blaine to the floor, turning and grabbing his suitcase before heading out the door. Blaine rushed to follow him out of the room and down the stairs, determined to be allowed to go in the car with their parents to drop his brother off at Dalton.

When he was a kid, it had been Blaine's dream to go to Dalton. His mom had been reading the Harry Potter books to him when Cooper had gone, and Hogwarts was all he could compare Dalton to at the time. That, added to the fact that it was where his brother was, meant that he was very keen to go indeed.

That had changed slightly when he had got to the point where he actually had to choose though. He had been given his options, but had chosen to stay with his friends and go to Westerville High. He'd thought he was making the right choice at the time, no matter how unhappy it made his dad. He'd thrown a fit, and said that Dalton was a school for 'respectable young men', whereas Westerville was 'a school for common youths'. The fact that his dad was unhappy with what he was choosing just solidified his decision. They'd never got on particularly well.

Around Christmas time, Blaine had worked out that he was gay. He'd been shopping with his brother for presents, and was noticing more and more that he just wasn't interested in any of the girls that Cooper was pointing out to him. No, he was much more interested in the cute salesman in the jewellers who'd helped him find a necklace for his mom...

So he'd told Cooper, who had said that he honestly wasn't surprised.

"How did you know?" Blaine had asked him.

"Honestly, Blaine, you're not exactly subtle. I saw you drawling over that guy when we went shopping."

And that had been it. He'd encouraged Blaine to tell their parents, and while his mom and been great and told him that she was proud of him for being brave enough to tell them, his dad had not been happy.

He'd said that maybe it was a good thing that Blaine hadn't gone to Dalton and been surrounded by so many boys, because at least now they still had a chance to make him 'normal'. That was the first time that one of his mom's hugs hadn't been able to make things better.

The end of Blaine's freshman year loomed, and whilst things at home hadn't been great, things at school were looking up. He'd come out to his two closest friends, and they'd been completely fine with it. Hadn't even batted an eye. This had installed false hope in Blaine's heart. He thought that if two people could be fine with it, then so would everyone else. Looking back on it, he knew that was extremely naive of him.

So he told everyone. He didn't make a big deal of it, he just stopped making it a secret. He told people the truth when they asked about the rumours circulating about him, and that was that. And in fact, it had been fine, for a week or so. The rumours were still rumours, and Blaine had actually been approached by another boy, Matthew, who'd admitted that he was gay as well, but didn't have the confidence to come out like Blaine had. The two of them hit it off immediately, and became close very quickly.

But then the jocks had found out the truth, and Blaine's happy little world was over. He got picked on every day. He had food thrown in his face, got deliberately tripped up in corridors, got obscenities thrown at him both outside and inside the classroom, got locked in janitor's closets, and once, horrifyingly, got jammed into a locker for half a day. It all came to a head at the end of the year, at the Sadie Hawkin's dance that the school was holding.

Matthew had asked him if they could go together. He had decided that he was ready to come out, and figured that doing it at the end of the year was the best time, so the scandal could die down over the summer and then maybe things wouldn't be so bad when they all went back school. Blaine, of course, had said yes, and was honestly excited to be going on his very first date with another boy. He knew his dad was far from happy, but his mom was proud of him. Cooper was hesitant, obviously, being the only person privy to all the torment that Blaine had been subjected to for the past months, but grudgingly accepted that Blaine was going to do this whether he liked it or not.

He knew he'd made the wrong decision in agreeing to let Blaine go as soon as he received the phone call.

"Cooper Anderson?"

"Speaking. Who is this?"

"Mr Anderson, I have to inform you that your younger brother, Blaine, was brought into the hospital earlier this evening. He was involv-"

"Where is he?"

"He's been taken to St. Ann's Hospital, but I-"

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes, thank you."

Cooper knew instantly what had happened, and immediately started berating himself for letting Blaine go in the first place. How could he be so stupid?

Blaine's injuries consisted of three broken ribs, a fractured left arm, a sprained left ankle from where he'd fallen over trying to run away, a deep cut above his right eye, and a broken heart. Matthew didn't fare so well, and had sustained a serious head injury that the doctor's suspected would leave him with lasting brain damage. His family had decided it was time to move away at that point, and had relocated to California.

Cooper never stopped feeling guilty for letting Blaine go, even though blaming him was the last thing Blaine would ever do. So, Cooper decided, he would just have to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again, and that started by getting Blaine transferred to Dalton. Cooper knew he'd be safe there.

It didn't take long to convince their father that Blaine needed to move schools. He may not like or accept the fact that Blaine was gay, but he was still his son and he still loved him. So Blaine would transfer and start his sophomore year at Dalton Academy. A fresh start.

Blaine was, overall, happy with this decision. Summer passed quickly, and Blaine recovered almost entirely from the attack. He still had a small scar above his eyebrow, but that was nothing he couldn't deal with.

He straightened his new blazer and looked at himself in the mirror, frowning at his reflection. It wasn't that he didn't want to go to Dalton, he just hated the reason that was forcing him to transfer there.

He hated that he couldn't stay at Westerville High with his friends, just because of a few bigoted homophobes that the teachers were afraid to stand up to. He hated that he had gotten so badly beaten up that his brother had moved back home in fear of his safety.

But he tried to ignore all that for the time being, and just focus on the present. The attack was his past now, and he needed to start moving on.

There was a quiet knock at the door, and Blaine didn't have to ask to know who it was.

"You can come in, Coop."

His brother entered the room, and came to stand next to him in front of the mirror, reaching over to straighten Blaine's tie which had been knocked crooked.

"Are you ready?" Cooper asked, looking him in the eye.

"Yes," Blaine replied, knowing that his answer was truthful. He was ready to start again

"I think Dalton's gonna be good for you, Blaine. I know you can sing, so try and join the Warblers. If they're anything like they were when I was there, they'll make for some good friends. Try and stay out of the way of Mr. Croft, he's nasty. He'll give you detention over nothing. But most of all, don't forget to be yourself, okay? I know you're gonna be scared, but I'm here to help you, and I know you'll make some amazing friends who'll do the same."

Blaine looked at Cooper, who was looking resolutely at the wall, and he felt a surge of affection for his brother. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around him, in a sort of sideways hug that left Cooper's arms pinned to his body.

"Thank you," Blaine mumbled into Cooper's shoulder.

They heard their mom calling from downstairs, and Blaine broke the hug. But before they could walk out of the room, Cooper grabbed his shoulder.

"Just remember one thing for me, Blaine. Have courage." he said, and Blaine knew that he always would, if only for the sake of his brother.

It was Kurt's first day at Dalton today. He couldn't deny that he was scared, but there was definitely a hint of excitement underneath the anxiety. Something that most definitely did not have to do with Blaine Anderson.

Of course not.

He was currently headed to Blaine's house actually, since it had been decided that Kurt might feel better turning up at his new school with someone he actually knew. It was weird, because he'd only known Blaine for a few weeks, but it felt like so much longer. It was probably premature, but he already considered Blaine to be one of his closest friends. In fact, if he was being honest with himself, Blaine was more than just a friend to him, but Kurt pushed those thoughts from his mind. He had more important things to be worrying about today.

He parked his car outside the Anderson house, which Kurt still thought looked more like a mansion than a house, but this was only his second time seeing it. He knocked on the door, and couldn't hold back his smile when Blaine opened the door.

A smile that only got wider when he realised that Blaine had not yet gelled down his hair. Kurt loved Blaine's normal look, all sleek and refined, but the boy looked so much more relaxed with it loose and curly.

"Hey, Kurt! I'm almost done getting ready, so you can just come up to my room and wait if you want?" Blaine asked with an excited grin.

"Um, yes, of course," Kurt replied. He'd thought they'd be leaving straight away, but he couldn't deny he was excited to get the chance to see Blaine's room. The last time he'd been round Blaine's dad had been home, and having been told what the man was like Kurt had thought it best for the two of them to stay in the living room, so as not to cause any trouble. Blaine hadn't argued with him.

They made their way upstairs, and entered the third door on the right. The one with a curly blue 'B' on the outside.

"Cute," Kurt commented, enjoying the blush that stained Blaine's cheeks.

Kurt looked around the room, taking it in. It was very Blaine. The walls were navy blue with grey stripes, and the furniture all looked expensive. There were little things dotted around the room that made Kurt smile, like all the trophies, and the small toy robot, and the model cars...

"I'll just be a sec, okay? Make yourself comfortable." Blaine said, gesturing to his room as a whole.

Blaine left through a door that Kurt figured led to a bathroom, so he took the opportunity to look slightly more closely around. After a second he caught a glimpse of himself in Blaine's mirror, and turned to face his reflection.

He didn't look like himself. The uniform was not something he would ever voluntarily wear, and that just reminded him that he wasn't there voluntarily to begin with. Forced into a uniform to go to a school he was being forced to run to. He was sure Dalton was a perfectly nice school, and their zero tolerance bullying policy did sound extremely appealing, but McKinley was his home.

If he didn't know Karofsky was still there, he'd be back in a heartbeat. The regular jocks he could deal with, just like he'd been able to deal with Karofsky until things had got more complicated.

A throat being cleared behind him made Kurt jump as he was jolted from his thoughts. He could see in the mirror that Blaine was standing behind him, his normal dapper self once more.

"Are you okay, Kurt?" he asked, looking slightly apprehensive.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. It's just weird seeing myself like this. I never thought I'd end up in a uniform, you know?" he replied, laughing weakly.

Blaine walked over and hugged him tightly, not giving Kurt a chance to protest that his blazer might get creased.

And he couldn't deny, it was rather nice being wrapped up in Blaine's stronger-than-they-looked arms...

They broke apart slightly, and Blaine just looked at him. The gaze was intense, and Kurt had to look away after a moment in fear of getting lost in the other boy's eyes.

"Just remember: courage." Blaine told him quietly.

"Yeah, courage." Kurt repeated, more for his own benefit than Blaine's.

But, as anxious as he was, for the first time in while, standing there in Blaine's arms in the middle of his bedroom, he truly believed that everything would be okay.