This is a slightly AU (alternate universe) one shot of the Anderson brothers just before Blaine transferred to Dalton Academy after his old school's Sadie Hawkin's dance. We don't know how Cooper Anderson will be introduced yet, do we? Therefore, this short one shot of sorts based on a GIF I saw on some Glee-related website [I'm sorry I can't find it; I've tried recalling it but to no avail. ):]
Isn't this spring break hiatus driving us all mad with the wait? God knows I'm stark raving mental right now!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Glee; make no money from the stories; the original characters belong to the creators, producers, and scriptwriters. Any events related to real life are purely coincidental.
Without further ado, I present to you Messing with the Anderbros.
"Coop."
"There he is: my baby brother, in the flesh!" cried the man in an orange jumpsuit. He raised his arms to hug his younger brother, who accepted the brotherly embrace with a tight hug of his own. Right now, the both of them looked extremely happy to see his each other; the lines on their faces crinkled in the way that both of them had grown to recognize over the years.
"What brings you to this dump, eh?" Cooper Anderson continued with a bright smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Has it been one whole week already? Man, the way time passes in here is like a year an hour. I swear to you, you do not want to be in here, ever," he laughed as he shook his head while ruffling his already mused up curly mop.
Silent, Blaine unknotted his scarf as he took a seat on the simple wooden chair behind the simple wooden table. He folded it neatly on the table in front of him, not replying his older brother. Currently, Blaine sported a healing cut on his bottom lip and a few yellowed bruises on his cheeks, but Cooper knew there were more wounds and injuries beneath his younger brother's clothes. He also knew that there was a bandage going around Blaine's torso; the doctor had said it was a fractured rib or two.
In attempt to lift up the mood in the rank air, Cooper asked, "So what do you think? Orange a good colour on me?" He raised his arms for Blaine to assess, but the younger Anderson simply kept his eyes trained on Cooper's own brown ones.
"How are you doing, Coop?" Blaine asked instead. His eyes housed sadness and anguish, and if Cooper had known his little brother any better, there was a hint of doubt and regret amongst the dying speckles of gold in Blaine's brown eyes. "How are you holding up in here? Are they- Are they treating you right?" Then his eyes travelled down to Cooper's clasped hands on the table. At a glance, Blaine noticed that his older brother's hands were rough and cracking, from the weekly chores he had to perform, he assumed, but the knuckles were raw and in an angry shade of red. Had he- had he been fighting in there?
Cooper just chuckled in response and lowered his hands beneath the table upon noticing Blaine's gaze. Then, "I've seen better days, believe you me, little brother." He absently shrugged. "Food sucks, but that's what you get from a lousy government that sucks the money out of hardworking Americans and puts them into their greedy pockets anyway," he laughed flippantly.
The joke was lost to Blaine, because he didn't even crack a smile nor showed a hint of humour in his sad brown eyes. "You look tired," he simply observed.
Nodding, "I am." It was true; Cooper Anderson is in his mid-twenties, twenty-four years, nine months and three days, to be exact, but time and experience in jail had worn him down to look about past thirty-five years old. The bottom half of his face were badly shaven, as if the blades on the prison-issued shavers and razors were purposely kept blunt to keep the detainees from performing self harm or harming others.
"Listen, Coop, I'm sorry-"
"What for?" the older Anderson cried, feigning ignorance. But he knew exactly what Blaine was apologizing for. Then his tone changed to a worried one as he frowned deeply. "You haven't done anything, have you? 'cause you know I can't help you from in here."
Blaine shook his head. "No, I didn't do anything-"
A sigh of relief escaped Cooper's lips. "Good, good." He rubbed his hands together, waiting patiently for his little brother to say what he already knew.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you're in here." He appraised the gray walls around them with sad eyes.
"What? No, baby brother, it's not your fault I'm in the slammers. I was just-"
Blaine slammed his fists angrily on the wooden table that separated them and stood up, the chair crashing onto the floor with a loud crash. He was frowning; a deep welt between his eyebrows was evident. "Dammit, Coop, it's my fault you're in this hell hole in the first place! If you hadn't beaten those guys up into bloody pulps-"
"Those bastards need to be taught a lesson."
"And you just had to be the one to do it?" He cried, fisting his curly mop of hair. He begun pacing the floor behind the fallen chair he was previously occupying. "Can you- Can you just imagine how I felt -for one second- when I wake up in the hospital, and Dad telling me you've been arrested for assault?" Blaine finally dropped unceremoniously back into his seat with a dejected sigh. He held his head in his hands, breathing heavily at the exertion.
"They hurt you, B," Cooper calmly said from his own seat as he watched Blaine walk back and forth. He had raised his eyebrows as he told his brother as-a-matter-of-factly, as though Blaine was supposed to understand Cooper's actions that night were self-explanatory in itself.
"The police-"
"The police weren't doing anything about it, were they? Just like the assholes in here that are getting paid to sit around, eating their weight in doughnuts and coffee. It's just freaking ridiculous!" Cooper hissed angrily with an angry thump of his fist of his own on the table. The gaze he held on his brother then slowly lowered to the floor by Blaine's chair and those dark brown orbs glazed over as he recalled the very memory that landed him in prison in the first place. His voice broke when he spoke. "That night at the Sadie Hawkin's dance- When I- When I saw you lying there; battered and bruised, I- I- I just- I just couldn't-" His eyes levelled, snapping back up to look into Blaine's eyes with a spark of confidence. "Something snapped in me that night when I saw you lying on the ground like that. I knew I had to do something."
"Coop. . ."
Cooper Anderson stared long and hard at his baby brother. "No one- and I mean no one messes with the Anderbros. You got that?"
I hope this one shot was of satisfactory to you. Do drop a review or two to let me know what you think of it.
Thank you for reading!
Love you lots, Kayy.