As the oldest in the house, Blaine took it upon himself to keep his younger cousins entertained. After the passing of his aunt and uncle two year old Nick and five year old Jeff had come to live with the Andersons. He was nine at the time and only just getting over the abandonment of his own brother leaving for college. While Nick and Jeff would never replace Cooper, the responsibility of caring for them gave him an irreplaceable sense of pride and importance.
He had been the one to suggest they convert the attic into a room big enough for the three of them to share. It was unconventional, he knew, most boys his age would hate having to share a room but the boys were young and were struggling to understand why their entire life had suddenly been changed and they needed someone there for them.
Not that Blaine cared for them alone, not with Nana there to help. Nana was a Newfoundland, three months older than Blaine and trained by Cooper. And, of course, being Cooper she hadn't been trained to sit or roll over but rather to fetch food and clean the room (inasmuch as a dog could) and to do whatever other household tasks the older Anderson brother hadn't wanted to do. So, while she cocked her head at the command 'stay', she could make a bed in under three minutes, seven if she needed to put the fitted sheet on.
Between the two of them they kept the boys well looked after as Mr. and Mrs. Anderson wondered bemusedly how they ended up with two more children.
The fourth sleepless night in their shared attic (that their grandmother had teasingly nicknames 'the nursery'), Blaine had let a sobbing Nick and a sniffling Jeff crawl in his bed and racked his brain for a story to tell.
Blaine knew a lot of stories. When he was younger his family had often been too busy for him; Cooper had school and friends and theater things and both his parents worked full time and thus Blaine was frequently left to his own devices, which mostly involved going into his father's library. Most of the books were too complicated for him to understand- thick tomes about law and finances with too long titles. But one shelf was filled with fairytales and fables, and that was Blaine's favorite. He could (and did) spend hours curled up in that big leather chair, just rereading them.
Jeff liked the ones about lost loves and faraway lands while Nick preferred the ones with swords and lots of fighting. But their absolute favorite were the ones about Sebastian Smythe, the boy who didn't grow up, his merry band of lost boys, and all of their adventures.
Even five years later, Nick and Jeff still refused to go to sleep without hearing one of Blaine's stories and he made sure to always have all of his homework done by nine so he could be upstairs to tuck them in for the night and regale them with another tale.
Officially, he had moved down from 'the nursery' back into the room he lived in before Nick and Jeff moved in with them; his father insistent that 'people would talk' if they found out. Who would talk, he wasn't sure. It wasn't like he had an overwhelming number of (or any) friends who came over. But more nights than not he ended up drifting off upstairs only to be woken up by Nana in the early morning to sneak downstairs before his parents got up.
That night was one of those night. His parents had left hours ago for a benefit and he knew they wouldn't be home for hours. Since it was a warm summer's night, Nana was out in the yard until Mr. and Mrs. Anderson came home. After Blaine turned twelve his parents had pushed her from the role of nursemaid to family pet, although the cousins refused to treat her as such.
"-and so the Indians let the boys go and they ran home to their hollow tree," he concluded. Jeff, already so big at seven had fallen asleep at the end of Blaine's bed about ten minutes prior and Nick was struggling to remain upright. Nudging Nick back to his own bed, Blaine gently picked up Jeff and carried him over to his.
"Another?" The youngest boy mumbled.
"Not tonight, kiddo." Blaine leaned down a kissed Jeff's forehead. "You can barely keep your eyes open."
"Can too," Nick mumbled sleepily.
"You staying tonight, Blainey?"
"Nowhere I'd rather be," Blaine replied, climbing into his own bed and switching off his bedside lamp. The light of the full moon rippled across the floor as a gentle breeze caused the curtain to dance.
"Not ev'n Neverland?" Nick slurred, already well on his way to sleep.
"Well, maybe Neverland." Blaine smiled as the quiet snores of two little boys filled the room.
Two hours later, he was not smiling as the unmistakable sound of someone tripping through the room startled him awake.
"What the-?" He sat up abruptly and flipped on the light to the lowest setting, not wanting to disturb the sleeping boys, even with their miraculous ability to sleep through anything.
"Hello," the random boy standing in the middle of his room said cheerfully.
"Do I know you?" Blaine asked. There was something very familiar about the boy, although Blaine was sure that he had never seen him before. He wouldn't forget eyes like that. Or someone prancing around Ohio in an outfit made of leaves and what looked suspiciously like brown tights.
"Blaine Anderson? Sebastian Smythe," he pointed to himself before sauntering over the Blaine's bed and holding out his hand for a handshake.
Part of Blaine's mind was saying oh, of course while the other part of his mind was screaming at him that this was impossible.
"Hi," he all but stuttered, feeling a hot blush creep up the back of his neck. "Are you from around here?" because he still couldn't entirely wrap his head around the fact that a character from one of his stories was standing in the middle of his room.
"Do I look like I'm from around here?"
The blush spread across his face and he was glad for the dim lighting that hid it. Mostly. "What are you doing here?"
"I come by every night to listen to your stories." Sebastian perched himself at the edge of Blaine's bed. "Or, every night the window is open. It's hard to hear when it's closed. You should really reconsider that."
"You like my stories?"
"Not all of them. Only the ones about me," he scoffed. "But the boys like hearing the rest."
"The boys?"
"Yeah." Sebastian eased himself into a reclining position, like he was in his own bed and not a strangers. "The Lost Boys, or whatever it is you call them," he waved his hand dismissively, like the terminology was of no consequence to him.
"So you really are him then? Sebastian Smythe?" Blaine breathed out.
"Who else would I be, killer?"
"But what are you doing in my room?"
"Your mutt stole my shadow last week," Sebastian said, suddenly springing up from the bed to stalk the perimeter of the room. "Tonight seemed as good a time as any to get it back."
"You can't steal a shadow, Sebastian. And even if you could, yours is still attached to you." Blaine pointed at the floor. Although the light was dim, Sebastian's shadow was clearly following him as he prowled around the room.
"Caught me," Sebastian replied shamelessly. "I just wanted to see what you looked like." He winked. Blaine choked.
"Why tonight?"
"I heard your parents fighting." Sebastian was now opening and closing drawers. "Your father thinks the boys are too old for 'such foolish stories' and that they'd both be moving to their own rooms next week. Didn't want to miss my chance."
Blaine had heard that fight too, it had been going on for weeks and it seemed like his father had finally won. It was why he had been extra adamant about being in there every night. Nick and Jeff still didn't know, but he doubted they were going to be happy about it; neither of them liked change, especially if that change would lead to them being separated.
"I wish that we didn't have to grow up," Blaine sighed sadly, looking around the room that now held no traces of him having lived there except for the bed.
Growing up was an idea that he became disenchanted with the moment that Cooper started bossing him around instead of playing with him and he became thoroughly disinterested in it the day Coop packed up all of his bags and moved out to LA without a second thought or backward glance to spare for his little brother.
"You don't." Sebastian was grinning wildly now.
"If you could make that true, I'd probably give you a kiss." It took him a second to realize what he said before he was blushing beet red again. He was not the type of person to just offer to kiss people. Not that he was completely inexperienced in the realm of kissing. There was the Rachel disaster. She had insisted that the date for three weeks after that until an eighth grader caught her eye and she had dramatically dumped him during lunch. Never had he been so relieved to be so publically humiliated.
And more recently there had been Tyler, whom he had kissed behind the bleachers three times. That experience had been much more enjoyable, even if they had to keep it secret. And maybe if he was to kiss someone, maybe someone like Sebastian would be high on the list.
"Do tell," Sebastian looked interested.
"Have you never received a kiss before?" Blaine tilted his head.
"Kind of hard to tell when I don't even know what it is, killer." Sebastian sauntered closer to where Blaine was kneeling at the end of his bed. "Care to show me?"
"O-oh. I mean. Well. I guess, it's like this," Blaine closed his eyes and pushed himself forward, lips puckered outward. He could feel Sebastian's breath ghosting against his lips when his head was suddenly yanked backwards and the sound of a furious chiming tinkling filled the room. "Ow!" He cried out.
"Something that matter?" Sebastian smirked.
"Something just pulled my hair." He lifted his hand to rub at the sore spot at the back of his head. Hair pulling was the primary reason he always wore his hair slicked back during the day.
"It's just Sugar."
"Sugar? Oh!" Blaine's eyes lit up. "Your fairy!" He clapped his hands gleefully.
"A fairy. Not mine, certainly, although she certainly thinks she is," he added, because the tinkling sound increased in furor. "She can't be mine though because she's a lady and I'm a gentlemen."
Blaine was almost positive that Sugar was now laughing, although he wasn't sure what was funny. An irrational part of his mind told him that he was the one being laughed at. Hastily he glanced around the room for a distraction, eyes landing on the blue and red stripped bowtie the boys had been using for one of their games earlier.
"Here," he said, lunging for it and stuffing it into Sebastian's hands. "Your kiss."
Sebastian looked at it perplexedly, letting the silk fabric run through his fingers as he tried to figure out what, exactly, it did.
"Like this," Blaine mumbled as gently took it from Sebastian's hands and tied it around his neck. It looked a little ridiculous, clashing horrible with Sebastian's foliage attire, but there was something about the red and blue that just looked right on the other boy.
In the air above them the tiny fairy continued to circle, chattering away.
"Do you know what she's saying?" Blaine asked curiously.
"Of course I do," Sebastian laughed. "She's listing all the ways that I am not a gentleman. She's cheeky like that."
"Like what?"
"Well, for one, I thought a kiss would go a bit more like this." Without any more warning, Sebastian cupped Blaine's face in his hands and pressed their mouths together. When Blaine was too shocked to immediately respond, Sebastian took that as an invitation to playfully bite at his lower lip until Blaine was hungrily responding. It wasn't until he realized his hips were starting to desperately press against the footboard of his bed that he tore himself, panting, away, casting a nervous glance at the other two beds in the room.
"There are kids in the room, Sebastian," he hissed. "My cousins."
"And?" Sebastian smirked and leaned forward to pepper kisses up and down Blaine's neck. "So how does Cinder-ella end?" Sebastian abruptly asked, pulling back and looking suddenly serious. "The guys have been dying to know."
"Hmm? What?" Blaine shook his head to clear his mind. "Oh. She, umm. She marries the prince. And they live happily ever after."
"Of course they do. Trent'll be pleased, at least." Sebastian hopped back from the bed and flew over to the windowsill.
"Where are you going?"
"Someone has to tell them how it ended," he rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh. Well. Umm. It's been nice meeting you." Blaine plastered on his brightest smile to hide how disappointed he was at the fact that Sebastian was leaving.
"No one's stopping you from following." Sebastian lounged against the window frame and looked critically at the shorter boy.
"Thank you for the offer. That's very nice of you but," he was back to stuttering his way through the conversation. "But, I can't just leave the boys behind."
"So bring them too."
Blaine couldn't help but wonder what it was like to be Sebastian Smythe and live a life where everything was so simple. Where he could just up and flit away, without looking back and without thought to the consequences. A life with no responsibilities other than the ones he assigned himself. The idea was oddly attractive.
"We can't fly."
"I'll teach you."
Blaine smiled and bound across the room, flipping the overhead light on. "Wake up, boys. We're going to Neverland!"
And if that didn't wake them up, Sebastian's triumphant crowing certainly did.