Title: The Secrets in the Telling

Fandom: Glee

Pairing: Rachel Berry and Blaine Anderson. Blainchelcest (which funnily enough happens to be the pairing of two non-canon related characters made to be related so that torturing said characters feelings is just that extra bit fun)

AN: I would like to emphatically thank berrywarbler (who for all those new to Blainchel is brilliance personified so you should all go to my favourite author tab and click on her) for being my beta and helping me out with this in more ways than I can list on here without making the authors note half a page.

His younger brother is out of the hospital maybe a little over two weeks when Cooper starts to notice that something's just not the same with him. The changes to his persona aren't obvious on first inspection, it's only when taking the time to really dig below the surface that nuances of his personality seem either to be amplified or missing all together.

Blaine pushed everyone away from him, everyone but his twin. While he kept his distance from everyone else around him, their parents when they decided to grace their children with their presence, his friends, Cooper, he only seemed to pull Rachel closer. He was barely without her, his eyes always on her and as their older brother-and for the most part their primary caregiver-he was actually really starting to worry about it.

It's not that he actually thought Blaine would do anything to harm Rachel, the idea was simply too preposterous to imagine, it's just that he seemed almost too wrapped up in her, too dependent and Cooper worried.

And he wasn't the only one. Mike and Kurt were starting to make remarks as well, although Mike was usually a lot more subtle than Kurt who tended to make his discontent known loudly. Whether it was bitching about the fact that he barely got to spend any time with his best friend without her brother breathing down their necks, or just flat out demanding Rachel's undivided attention by dragging her out of the house for a few hours.

He needed to step in, talk to Rachel about it maybe, but he didn't want to alarm her or make a big deal out of something that could very well be nothing at all. Besides, Blaine was the one whose personality had done the complete turnabout, so he was the one he had to try to reason with first.

Blaine's door is closed, and Cooper can faintly hear the strains of some sort of teenage angst anthem playing inside so he knows at least Blaine's not only home but still awake.

He knocks once, enters without waiting for a reply to find Blaine sitting on his bed, just staring off into space, with some sort of unreadable expression on his face. Cooper noticed he'd been doing that a lot lately, when he thought no one was watching, just shutting everything out, almost like he wasn't even really there.

He perches himself at the end of his younger brothers bed and clears his throat hoping to gain his attention "How are you holding up?"

Blaine looks up with something close to irritation in his demeanor, his hazel eyes pinning Cooper to his spot. "I'm fine."

Those orbs show a level of disdain that almost knocks the breath from Cooper's body, the look is fleeting, his brothers hazel eyes shutting off all emotions within a matter of seconds, his face becoming a blank canvas but Cooper catches it all the same.

He'd leave it at that if this were any other day or if Blaine had looked at him any other way, he'd chalk up all Mike's misgivings about Blaine's post recovery personality to the worry of a best friend, all Kurt's snipes about Blaine not being entirely with it any longer to the jealous ramblings of a teenage boy used to getting his own way. He'd talk himself into believing that his own fretting was just a reaction to his little brothers accident, he'd convince himself that Blaine was fine, he was perfect and there was nothing out of the ordinary going on with him.

But it's not any other day, and Blaine's not fine at all, so he has to continue this conversation, not just for his younger brother but maybe for Rachel as well, his little sister who doesn't seem to have noticed anything odd at all in the way her twin now behaves.

So he forges ahead.

"Are you sure?"

The sigh the younger man releases can only be described as exasperated "What is this about Cooper?"

"I don't know, you just seem different lately, distant," he's stalling, he knows this, but really he can't be blamed for being cautious about approaching the subject, he's not even a hundred percent sure he should even be bringing anything up to begin with. All he has to go on is gut instinct and some off kilter remarks from two high school boys, who he couldn't exactly consider the be all of knowledge "A lot has changed since the accident."

"If you say so."

He briefly wonders if Blaine is being so annoyingly laconic just to purposely piss him off or if this was another one of those nifty changes he had to add to the ever growing list. If he had to bet money on it though, Cooper would slap an even thousand on it being the first option.

Obviously playing it cool and taking things slowly isn't going to cut it, so Cooper digs deep into his repertoire and pulls out the one thing he knows has generally worked in the past.

"Look Blaine I know you and I have our differences, but I care about you," the words are true enough, the sentiment behind them too, but he makes sure to lay the emotion on slightly heavier, using the god given talent all the Anderson siblings seemed to possess in varying degrees and making sure he was the very picture of a concerned brother, "and I'm worried."

"You've got nothing to be worried about." It's almost like Blaine's humoring him now, his eyebrow raised and his lip twitching sardonically. "Like I said before, I'm fine."

"Still, I've noticed a few things," Cooper decides to go in for the kill so to speak, ready to broach the subject he is certain will get a reaction, "like how you are with Rachel now."

It's almost magical the way uttering their sister's name gets more reaction from his brother than anything else he could have said.

"You don't know anything." Blaine's nostrils flare momentarily, his hands clenching into fists at his sides, his whole body radiating some form of agitation, it's not a reaction that screams innocent and Cooper's unspoken fears are starting to seem that much more real.

If he left now he'd leave knowing everything he needed to know, but just knowing wasn't enough for him. There was something inside of him, that part of him that reveled in being right, that needed to hear Blaine say it, needed the verbal conformation.

"It's not just me; Kurt's been saying a few things, he's noticed something odd."

"Hummel needs to learn to keep his mouth shut," His younger brother snarls, an actual honest to goodness snarl and Cooper has a hard time believing he's actually seeing it with his own eyes, there's also a certain kind of controlled fury in Blaine's voice unlike anything he's ever heard. "And his nose out of other people's business."

"He's her best friend," Coopers struck a nerve, one he wasn't about to give up on just yet, "The boy can hardly be faulted for feeling put out that he doesn't get to spend much time with her without you around."

His brother is silent, long enough for Cooper to believe that maybe the conversation was over. He stands and smooths out imaginary wrinkles in his black cashmere sweater before walking towards the bedroom door.

His steps are halted however when Blaine's voice floats across the space that distances them. "Kurt doesn't own her."

"Neither do you."

Cooper opens the door intent on his being the final words on the subject, but as he leaves Blaine utters two words with such self-assuredness; his entire being is sent reeling.

"Don't I?"

He steps out into the hallway, closing his younger brother's door behind him, filled with more doubt than he had before he walked in and an uneasy feeling in his stomach he'll be hard pressed to shake.

Blaine was well aware of the changes that had occurred within him, the ones that had Cooper so worried; in fact if he was going to be entirely honest he welcomed them.

Before the accident, he'd struggled with everything. Jealous of Cooper and the fact that everything he did seemed to turn to gold, resentful of his parents complete and utter disregard of the fact they had three children, tired of trying to be perfect all the time but never really meeting everybody's expectations.

Then there was Rachel, his twin, his sister, his everything really. The way he felt for her, the way he loved her had for the longest time just about torn him apart inside, the constant struggle between being her brother and wanting so much more.

It's probably the main reason why when his car had slid off the road, that rainy Saturday night not two months ago, he hadn't fought harder, turned the wheel quicker, or done anything really to avoid the moment when his mini cooper hurtled towards one of the looming old oaks just off the incline on Jardine Road.

The last thoughts he'd had before the metal had hit against hard wood, making the most sickening of sounds-sounds he could still hear sometimes if he shut his eyes and listened, had been of Rachel and just how impossible his situation was.

Coincidentally she's the first thought he had upon waking two weeks later once he'd fought his way out of the grey and woken to see her curled up asleep in a chair next to his bedside and suddenly the impossible hadn't seemed quite so far out of reach, and for the first time he started to concentrate not on what was right or acceptable but more on what he wanted, on what would make him happy.

He wasn't stupid, he knew he still had to keep his feelings under tight lock and key at least around the general population, but he no longer saw the harm in testing out the waters so to speak or subtly dropping hints to see if Rachel may take the bait.

Only after the talk he'd had with Cooper he was starting to think he hadn't been as low key as he had hoped. Not that it bothered him all that much, but if people started to notice it would complicate things and make everything more difficult than it needed to be. If there was one thing Blaine was sick of, even more so than interrogations and people who couldn't keep out of things that they had no actual concept of, it was complications.

What he may have unintentionally let slip to Cooper weighed heavily on his mind, so much so that Rachel had noticed something was up earlier that afternoon as the two of them sat side by side on her bed going over their homework.

He'd waved her off with an excuse of a headache and when she'd made him rest his head on her lap so she could rub his temples, he tried to feel guilty about lying to her but as her petite hands caressed soothingly at his temples he really just couldn't find it in himself to care, especially because every touch of her fingertips sent his body into overload in the most pleasant of ways.

He'd taken a walk after that, to clear his head and get his thoughts in order. He'd told Cooper he was going to see a movie, but he'd ended up just idly strolling the streets of Lima for a few hours, returning home an hour or two after dark.

It's while he's quietly walking up the stairs to his room that he hears the murmur of voices coming from behind Rachel's still half opened bedroom door, and even though it seems like they're halfway through their conversation, it's not exactly difficult for Blaine to pick up the general gist of it as he presses himself against the wall and just listens.

"Coop, I would know if something were really wrong with him."

"You don't know that Rach." Cooper talks over her and Blaine has to hold himself back from going into the room and telling him to shut up and let her say her piece, because their older brother always did that, always talked at them more than he'd talk with them. Never acknowledged that they had things to say that were just as important as anything he had to blurt out.

"No I would know. He'd tell me." There's such a quiet assurance in his sisters voice as she says those words that he does feel those slight pangs of guilt he'd been trying to feel earlier, because there had been something very wrong with him, for such a large number of years but he'd never had the courage to really face it, let alone confide in her. "Or if he didn't, I'd like to think I'd feel it."

"Don't you see? This is exactly why I worry!" his brothers voice is slightly raised, shaking slightly with agitation "When you two say things like that…Rachel it's not right, you're too close."

"We're twins; it's an absolute given that Blaine and I would feel a deep connection to each other." He smiles a little at her logic, can almost picture exactly how she looks as she states this to Cooper like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

There's a masculine huff of annoyance next that does make him smile because anything that disrupts Cooper, or flips him on an axis, is pretty great in Blaine's books.

"I swear talking to the two of you is like talking to thin air, it never gets me anywhere." His brother sighs in that over dramatic fashion only Cooper is truly capable of before he continues "Look just do me a favour, spend time with other people, go out and have some fun."

This time the huff of annoyance has a decidedly female lilt to it. "I spend time with Kurt on a fairly regular basis Cooper, and Tina and I have a weekly coffee and discussion session after our shared dance lesson every Sunday." She almost sounds like she's explaining herself in the way one does to a child and Blaine derives a certain amount of pleasure from that, because it's a tone he's heard her use on many people before, usually when she finds them ridiculous, but never one she uses with him.

Besides he can't really blame her for speaking to Cooper like that, especially when he's starting to sound just a tad petulant. "Not what I meant."

Blaine is pretty sure he can hear the pout in his older brother's voice.

"When was the last time you went out on a date?"

"The night of Blaine's accident," his twin's voice is shaky now and he hates Cooper not only for asking such a pointless question but for also dragging up memories that are obviously painful for her.

"With Finn Hudson."

The name alone is enough to make his hands shake; he'd never liked Finn, not before the brief relationship Rachel had with him, definitely not during and especially not now that it was over.

It wasn't just jealousy either, not just the fact that for a short time Finn had probably gotten to do things with Rachel that Blaine could at that point only ever dream about, that spurred his dislike for the overly tall teen, it was so much more than that.

It was everything about the other boy really, his lack of goals, his listlessness, the feeling Blaine got from him that given half a chance he'd grab onto Rachel like she was some sort of lifesaving device and use her as a means to escape his inevitable future among the ranks of the Lima losers that almost every teen in the town tried to avoid becoming.

"Don't you think it's time you went on another one?"

He's never wanted to murder someone as much as he wants to murder his own brother as soon has he speaks those words.

"With Finn? No I don't think so; he and I are at two completely different stages in life." Blaine breathes a sigh of relief as Rachel utters what could possibly be the truest statement to ever pass from her beautifully shaped lips.

"Besides I think Kurt may have had some slight issues with his best friend dating his brother and I would hate to make things awkward between us."

"It doesn't have to be Finn, I'm sure there are guys lining up to take you out on dates, after all you're an Anderson and we're nothing if not highly sought after people."

Blaine actually has to physically smother the chuckle that threatens to erupt from within him, because the words are so thoroughly Cooper, who it seems, is incapable of giving a compliment to someone if he's not propping up his own ego at the same time.

He's also a little put out though, because what kind of older brother tries as hard as Cooper seems to be trying to pimp out his baby sister.

Not that he really has any right to judge, considering the thoughts and images that seem to be on twenty four hour rotation in his own mind when it comes to said sister.

He can hear movement in Rachel's room, footsteps slowly making their way towards him and then the sound of her voice again, but figuring it's better not to be caught lurking outside of her bedroom like some kind of depraved peeping tom, he makes his way quietly across the hall and into his own room, missing whatever it is his twin responded with.

She'd said yes to Noah Puckerman's date proposal not out of any real attraction to him but more because of the conversation she'd previously had with Cooper. She wanted to ease the worries he seemed to have if only just a little, so when Noah came up to her locker and suggested she join him for dinner and a movie she'd accepted, albeit reluctantly.

He was a decent date, even though he hadn't held the door open for her when they got to Breadstix and he ate half her popcorn and drunk half her diet soda while they were at the movies. He made her laugh though and the conversation wasn't stilted.

He actually seemed like he listened to her when she spoke, which was a rarity, Finn always seemed to get this far away look in his eye whenever she mentioned Broadway, or really anything to do with herself. Even Kurt, her best friend would roll his eyes sometimes if she waxed lyrical about a song or a film for longer than a five minute period, but Noah seemed to almost enjoy hearing her speak, even if he did interject to call her crazy once or twice.

The only other person in her life that had ever offered her that level of attention was Blaine, in fact truth be told she had always felt slightly spoilt by the level of time and attentiveness he's always bestowed upon her, liked the way it made her feel special and worthy.

There'd been a kiss, just after Noah pulled into her driveway and she'd tried to enjoy it, after all he was an attractive looking boy and she had the same hormonal urges as every other girl her age, but something hadn't felt completely right about it, and when his hands had started to wander to places she wasn't completely comfortable with them wandering to, she'd pulled away, uttering an awkward good bye as she all but raced out of his car and up to the security of her front porch.

The door swung open as she searched her handbag for her keys, the shrill squeak of the hinges startling her as she looked up into the stormy expression of her twin.

He doesn't say a word to her as she squeezes past him to make her way inside, in fact the only noise she hears is a second later when he slams the door closed behind her. The racket it makes is enough to startle her slightly, the frame trembling with the force he had used.

She turns quickly around, looks up at him ready to ask what's gotten into him, but he beats her to the punch.

"How was your date?" It's uttered almost spitefully, the word 'date' spat from his tongue like it was the filthiest word ever to grace the English language.

"It was…pleasant I suppose" she answers, watching as the muscles in his face twitch as his glare deepens. "Blaine are you…are you angry with me for some reason?"

His chuckle lacks humour as he stares holes deep into her soul "Yeah Rach, that'd be one way to put it."

He starts pacing, his body visibly coiled tight, his shoulders tense, he reminds her momentarily of a caged lion, hungry and ready to attack. It baffles her a little, the scowl on his handsome face and the frown lines crinkling his usually smooth forehead. She hates when he's cross with her, especially because it happens so rarely and particularly when she has no idea why he's so furious to begin with.

"I don't understand why you're acting this way, why are you so angry about this?"

He rolls his eyes at her as he continues pacing backwards and forwards, his fists clenching and unclenching as if in time to music only he can hear. "Because Puckerman's a fucking sleaze and everybody knows it!"

"It was one date," she replies gently, although she's trying really hard not to let this somewhat new side to Blaine get to her, she's so unsure of how to act right now and she doesn't want to agitate him any further. She searches for something to say, anything to make him happy with her again. "And Noah was a perfect gentleman."

It's a tiny lie really, one he sees through almost instantly as he stalks over toward her, crowding into her personal space "Not calling him Puck anymore are you?" he's mocking her, managing to make her feel so small and insignificant as he glares down at her that she almost wants to shrink away, her heart hammering in her chest like it just might break through.

"Tell me Rach, did you fuck him in the back of his truck like all the other cheap sluts he bangs or are you saving that for the next date?"

She doesn't think before her hand shoots out, slapping him across the face, the echo resounding around their foyer. He stares at her his expression dark and unreadable and she's just about to stutter out an apology when he does something she'd never in a million years think him capable of.

His hands wrap around her wrists as he slams her back, her head hitting the wall with a thud as he pins her arms above her head, but she's too shocked to register if there's any pain or not. She hasn't even got time to take a breath before his mouth descend on hers, claiming her lips possessively.

Instinctively she falls into the kiss, and even though somewhere in the back of her brain she knows that she shouldn't want this she can't really will herself to pull away, not when she can feel thousands of little electrical currents racing across her skin and as he lets go of her pinned hands she finds that instead of stopping him, she merely pulls him closer.

She's never been kissed quite as intensely before-not by Finn Hudson on the few dates they'd been on before Blaine's accident, and not even just a little bit ago by Noah Puckerman, who had a reputation for being well accomplished in kissing, as well as a variety of other activities of the sexual kind.

But being kissed by Blaine was completely different. The contrast between how one of his hands gripped her hip almost punishingly while the other stroked her cheek in such a soft and gentle manner it tingled. The way he nips at her bottom lip before soothing it over by running his tongue slowly across it, all of it is enough to make her lose her sense of time or reason.

She's not sure how long it's been but when she hears faintly in the distance the sounds of keys jangling coming from behind the front door, she crashes back down into herself, what she's doing, with her twin brother hitting her with crystal clear clarity.

She pulls away, her head reeling and risking a look into Blaine's eyes she can't see anything but dark lust swirling in his hazel orbs and a lazy smirk quirking his lips, and the fact that he doesn't appear to feel guilty, that he appears to not care at all that they were almost caught in the most compromising of positions, sends her flying up the stairs to the safety of her bedroom before he has half a chance to stop her.

She can faintly hear Cooper and Blaine exchange a few words as she closes her door hurriedly and sinks down onto her carpet, her body slumping against her bedroom door, but their voices are muffled and she can't make out what they're saying, only that the conversation appears to be short.

Feet pad up the staircase quickly and she can see through the bottom of her door as a shadow descends, darkening the sliver of light slightly.

"I know you probably want me to say what just happened was a mistake," his words are said in the same soothing tone she's always associated with him, gone is the harshness of earlier, replaced by her gentle and reassuring Blaine, "but fuck it Rach, we both know it's not."

"I can't…I don't-" she can barely form sentences, the simple act of speaking seeming to have fled her body.

"We're supposed to be together. I realized that a long time ago." He continues as if she hadn't spoken and although his tone may be everything she finds safe and loving in the world, his words confuse and stun her, the way he seems to give life to all the things one can think about but never ever speak aloud "I can wait for you to realize it too."

The trouble is she thinks she might be realizing it already.

And now that I've conquered my first blainchel fic hopefully the next one is easier to write.