“Hey Coop?”

Cooper Anderson looked up from his homework to find his little brother at his doorway staring at the floor.

Cooper gave a non-committal grunt and went back to his Physics book. He felt a brief pang of guilt when remembered that he was supposed to pick up Blaine from school and drive him home but Katie Newman had hinted on a post-practice hook up under the bleachers and no way was he going to pass that up.

Besides, the kid got home fine.

“Coop,” came his brother’s voice again. “I – I need your help.”

Sighing, Cooper faced his brother and gaped when he finally saw the state that he was in. A large purple bruise was forming on his right eye and blood was running down his nose.

Cooper scrambled off his chair. “Shit, Blaine! What the hell happened?” He gently grabbed the boy’s arm and led him into the bathroom. Pushing the toilet seat down, he dropped Blaine on it.

His mom was going to go ape-shit. Cooper wondered briefly if he was going to get grounded for this. Senior prom was coming up and damn he was not going to miss that.

He wet a towel and started cleaning up Blaine’s face. The boy sniffled and Cooper could see he was holding back tears.

“Peter McPherson was calling me names so I shoved him and he hit me.”

“Yeah, well that guys huge and you’re kinda small for your age.” He had to give Blaine his props that guy really was huge. Even he would have thought twice before taking him on.

“But he was being mean, Coop. And not just to me. He was called me and Jeff a fairy and a – a faggot.”

Cooper stopped and stared at his brother seriously. “Do you even know what that word means?”

Blaine looked down at the tiles, pushing his shoe against them. “Yes.” Then taking a deep breath, he looked Cooper in the eye. “And I think maybe I am.”

Cooper couldn’t help his reaction, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Oh?”

It wasn’t that he hadn’t suspected it of Blaine once or twice in his life, but it was different when your 11 year old brother was coming out to you after being beaten up by some homophobic bully.

“Yeah,” Blaine said quietly. “Dad’s not going to like this is he?”

�“Dad doesn’t like a lot of things, kid,” Cooper replied not unkindly.

Blaine furrowed his brows and went back to staring at the floor tiles. “Is it wrong that I don’t care?

“You’re just going to have to give him time to get used to it, I guess.” Cooper sighed. He knew Blaine would need to give their dad a lot of time to get used to this. He wasn’t a bad father, he was just… set in his ways and having a gay son was going to be a difficult adjustment for him.

He didn’t say that out loud though. Instead he opted to give his brother a small smile. “Aside from the show tunes you haven’t exactly given us any hints that this was coming.”

Blaine looked up at him, furious.� “I wasn’t sure until recently. I didn’t want it to be true but I can’t make it go away anymore and I want to stop pretending to be something I’m not!”

Cooper’s eyebrows shot up again at that. So this was a long time coming then. Maybe he really needed to do the big brother thing more often.

He continued just staring at his little brother a little at a loss for words. Blaine’s small hands were clutching the toilet seat like it was a lifeline. He was blinking away angry tears but he wasn’t looking at Cooper, he was looking at his reflection. He wasn’t mad at Cooper he realized, he was mad at himself.

Blaine was mad at himself for being gay. For being someone who he knew would be bullied and harassed and that their own father wouldn’t be able to accept right away and yet he was still willing to admit it to himself, to Cooper, to their parents.

Cooper let out a small chuckle. “You’re a lot tougher than you look, you know that?” When Blaine still wouldn’t look at him he continued, “And hey, whatever, dude, you’re still my little brother. Just means you won’t have to worry about me stealing your girlfriends.”

Blaine laughed at that but winces immediately, the movement hurting his eye.

“C’mon, kid, let’s get some ice for that eye of yours. Mom’s going to throw a fit.”

He stood up and reached out his hand to Blaine. Blaine stared at it for a second then fit his hand into his.

“Don’t - don’t tell them, okay? I want to be the one to tell them myself.” The quiet determination in Blaine’s eyes made Cooper’s heart swell with pride.

“Sure kid, no problem.”

He wanted to say more. He wanted to say that Blaine would be able to talk to him from now on if he needed someone. That his door would be wide open when Blaine finally does tell their parents because they both know it wasn’t going to go well. That if he needed Cooper to be there when he did then he would be.

Instead he just gave his brother a one armed hug and the smile that Blaine gave him in return tells Cooper that he understood everything that Cooper wanted to say but couldn’t.