The doorbell filled the halls. Blaine got up from the bed, telling Kurt that he'd be back in a minute, and made his way down the stairs through the empty house. His mother and father were out for the weekend on a conference of his dad's. When he was at the bottom of the stairs, he skidded down the hallway to the door, loving how it felt like he was ice skating (pretending they were ice skating, when really they were just sliding around in their socks, was one of Kurt and Blaine's favourite things to do), and unlocked the door, pulling it open. “Hey, how can I-” Blaine's question caught in his throat as his smile fell from his lips. It had taken approximately half a second to recognise the dark hair, the piercing blue eyes, the set jaw. “Cooper.” Blaine's voice was hard and stony.

“Blaine! Boy, have I missed my little broth-”

“No!” Blaine clenched his fists, “No! You don't get to call me that! I... I don't have a brother – you stopped being that a long time ago.” Blaine looked at Cooper Anderson, and saw no semblance to his brother. This man could hardly even call himself an Anderson – he didn't!

“Blaine...” Cooper looked hurt. “Don't... don't say that. Please. Blaine, you've always been my little brother, you always were. I never stopped thinking about you.”

Blaine exhaled, “It seems like you never stopped thinking about yourself! You left!” Angry tears gathered in Blaine's eyes, “You left me! You left me here to deal with...” One tear escaped, “him.”

Cooper ran a hand through his hair, sighing, “Can we... can we at least do this inside? Please? I... I don't want everyone to see this.” He stepped through the door after Blaine had exhaled and stepped aside. Once he was inside, Cooper closed the door behind him, and breathed in and out heavily before looking to his brother with grief-stricken eyes. “Blaine, I... I'm...”

“Don't say it, Coop. Don't you fucking say another word – you don't get to!” Blaine all but screamed, his eyes brimmed heavily with tears. “You can't apologise for what you did. Leaving me to deal with our- with my dad...” He saw how Cooper's face crumpled as he corrected himself, “that's unforgivable!”, and he was glad that he had hurt the bastard.

“Blaine, I... you can't blame me...” Cooper stammered out, taking a deep breath, “I know, I know it hurt you, but it was my only chance. I mean, how often does Hollywood come knocking on your door?”

“One time too many.” Blaine said, hurt, anger, and annoyance in his tone. He wanted Cooper to know how much he had hurt him. He wanted him to know that he couldn't just brush this off, that it would stay with him, and he would never let him forget it. Not ever.

“Blaine, it doesn't come very often, and you have to just at an opportunity like that.”

“You're a very talented actor, Cooper – you know it – and if they came for you once, I can bet that they would have come for you again. You could have said no.”

“I couldn't...”

“You could! You could have said no! You could have stayed, and you could have helped me! He... he blamed me!” Tears were openly falling down Blaine's cheeks as he clenched his fists. A puzzled look crossed Cooper's face. “After you left... he blamed me... for everything.” Blaine took a deep breath, “He blamed me for you leaving, said that you'd left for fear of... getting infected; he said you'd gone for your own good. He blamed me for Mom... it wasn't my fault! I swear it wasn't!” Blaine crumpled to the floor, holding his face in his hands.

“Mommy?”

No reply.

“Mommy?!” Blaine shook his mother's arm, his bottom lip trembling. “Mommy!” Tears started to fall down his cheeks as he sat next to his mother at the bottom of the stairs. He wouldn't have found her if he hadn't heard the door slam. Hadn't heard the car start up. But he didn't tell people that – he couldn't.

“Blaine, I...” Cooper put a hand on his brother's shoulder, flinching a little when Blaine shrugged it away. “If I'd have known... I'm sorry.”

“SHUT UP! Cooper, you can't just fucking waltz on in here, say sorry, and expect it to make everything better! It doesn't work that way... not any more...”

“Blaine?!” Kurt shouted, coming down the staircase and going to Blaine's side. He knelt down, putting his arms around his boyfriend and saying “Baby, what... what is it? Wh... who is that?”

“I'm Cooper. I'm his brother.”

“No! Shut up! I already told you, you don't get to say that! You lost that right eight years ago. You, Cooper Andrews, are a selfish bastard who deserves to rot in a hole!” Blaine wrenched himself out of Kurt's hold and ran up the stairs. And then all that could be heard was the slamming of a door, and Blaine's enraged screams that followed.

Turning to the other Anderson – Andrews? – Kurt glared at him. “What did you do?”, he all but growled.

Cooper was shocked in to silence. What could he say? He thought about it for a few moments, and when he finally found the answer... he wasn't proud of it. “I... I let my baby brother down when... when he needed me the most.”

Before Cooper could say anything else, Kurt was running up the stairs and opening Blaine's bedroom door, only to see a bomb site. “Blaine?” He walked farther in to his boyfriend's room, “Baby?” Kurt waded through the piles of clothes, bed sheets, and numerous objects that had made their way on to the floor. Kurt was honestly shocked at how much mess Blaine could make in such a short span of time. Making his way to the corner of Blaine's room, he saw the inhabitant tucked up against the side of his chest of drawers, tears streaking his face. Kurt knelt beside him and pulled him against his chest, “Come here, baby. You're okay.” he whispered in to his ear, stroking his fingers through his unkempt hair.

“He... he doesn't just get to do that! He can't, Kurt! He can't.” He took a deep breath, trying to hold back more sobs, “He can't just leave and then come back and try to pretend like nothing happened.”

“I know. I know, baby, but... sitting in here isn't going to help anything. You guys need to sit down and talk, you need to try and sort this out. He knows he did wrong, and I think... I think he wants to try and make it right.”

“He can't!”

Kurt sighed, moving to look Blaine in the eye, “Blaine, look, I know he hurt you, but you don't want to lose him. And, I know that what he did mustn't be something that you can forgive easily, but I'm sure it isn't worth losing him over. Blaine, you guys just need t-”

“No! Kurt, don't you get it, I was really hurt by what he did.” Blaine stared in to his boyfriend's eyes, his own full of anger, “He left, and I got the brute of it. You know my dad gets really angry...” Kurt nodded, “he, umm, he hits me (but I guess you already thought that), and... he, well... once Cooper left, he got a lot stricter, a lot more brutal, and he found a lot more things to blame me for – a lot more reasons to... to try and... beat the gay out of me.

“When he was here, Cooper used to help me; Cooper had this way of sweet-talking my dad, and he always used to be able to calm him down, so he wouldn't hit me. Of course, when Cooper wasn't there, Dad would always make sure he made up for what Cooper had stopped.” Blaine bit back a whimper.

“I didn't, Blaine.”

Blaine's head whipped round. He saw Cooper standing in the doorway of his room, his arms folded across his chest. “What do you want?” Blaine snarled.

“Blaine, you have to understand... I cared about – I still do – but I couldn't stay here. You know all of those times I sweet-talked Dad? I didn't. I would let him hit me instead of you. I didn't want you getting hurt; you were so young. But, Blaine, there's only so much I can take physically, emotionally, and mentally. After a while, Mom took me to the hospital 'cause I passed out, and... he screwed me up. I wasn't staying at Aunt Marge's, like Mom told you, I was having my kidney removed; you're good at Biology, you know how much the kidney's protected, and how hard it is to damage. Well, I had a bruised kidney, thanks to Dad hitting me, and it was so bad that they had to remove it to stop the bleeding. I couldn't take that again, Blaine, I didn't have another kidney to spare. When I got that offer, Mom encouraged me to take it, she said she'd take care of you. I... I didn't want to leave you, but... what other choice did I have?”

From when Cooper had first spoken, Blaine had stared at him with an expression of betrayal, but now he looked at him with confusion filling his features. “W... we could've worked it out, I...” Fresh tears began to fall down his face as he saw the look of guilt on his brother's face. “I don't know...” He took a deep breath, “Coop, why didn't you come back?”

Cooper walked towards his brother, crouching down beside him and his lover, “Because I was scared. Do you... can you ever forgive me?”

Only now that Cooper was so close could Blaine see the tears that brimmed his eyes, “Are you just visiting? Are you going to leave me again?” Blaine couldn't put his trust back in to someone that would only leave again. He couldn't let Cooper become his light again, and then have the power cable suddenly yanked from the socket.

Kurt felt Blaine tense up, and squeeze his hand a little tighter. He felt the curly haired boy emit his fear, and worry.

“I will never leave you again, Blaine. I promise.”

Blaine nodded his head lightly, tears blurring his vision. And then he felt Kurt moving, and looked to him with confused eyes, to be told that he was only going downstairs to give them some time, and that he'd be there if Blaine needed him, but he thought it would be best for the two of them to have some time alone.

Cooper sat on Blaine's mattress, patting the spot beside him. He smiled when Blaine came and sat next to him. “I knew that my leaving hurt you, Blaine, but... I never imagined he would be like that to you. I promise I didn't want you to get hurt; please, tell me you understand why I left?” Blaine nodded, staring down at his hands in his lap, “Good. I'm here now though, and I'm not going to let him hurt you,” Cooper pulled Blaine in to a hug and held him as he cried, “not any more.”