Title: Friends and Brothers, Halloween Edition
Summary: Halloween, Anderbros style. Have a bit of angst, but mostly fluff.
Rating: PG/K
Category: Glee, Anderbros
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Belated posting of this story. I've been posting on tumblr lately, though I'm updating this site over the next couple days. Feel free to find me there under the same alias (jaylie12).
...
Growing up, Cooper enjoyed Halloween just like any other kid. Who didn't like getting candy and spending the next few months trying to sneak an extra piece out of the stash his parents insisted on keeping in the pantry and out of view? But it didn't enrapture him like Thanksgiving or Christmas did, with the family gathering, house warmed by the fire in the fireplace, and chilly weather that begged for layers of sweaters and snowball fights.
When Blaine came around, Halloween became Cooper's favorite holiday. He spent the evening with Blaine and no one else, his parent letting them stay up past curfew to sort through their spoils and play in their costumes. For seven years, it stayed his favorite holiday (though now Cooper liked to joke that "Talk Like a Pirate" Day was always his favorite).
It started when Blaine was just a year old and Cooper begged his mom to take his baby brother out with him.
"Don't you want to go with your friends?"
"I'll see them around. It's Blaine's first Halloween!"
"He's not going to remember it."
"I'll remember it."
Mrs. Anderson relented with one stipulation-Cooper had to take care of Blaine's costume. So Cooper spent the entire weekend before the big night cutting and painting cardboard, duct taping the pieces together. He found electrical tape in the garage and one of Blaine's onesies. He raided his school's drama club closet and fished out a plastic star from the back of his closet.
When the day came, Mrs. Anderson helped Cooper tuck Blaine into the little red wagon filled with blankets and toys. She watched fondly as Cooper fussed with the blankets so Blaine wouldn't fall over and made sure he had a toy in his hand. Then he taped the rectangular slatted box atop the wagon. Blaine looked on with curious eyes, laughing every time Cooper caught his eye and made a face.
Mrs. Anderson hugged Cooper when he had finished.
"He really is the cutest prisoner, dear," Mrs. Anderson complimented as Blaine waved his toy around happily, his black and white striped outfit complimented by the small beanie just barely covering his curls.
Cooper adjusted the star on his blue shirt with a smile, and tapped the brim of his police officer's hat in a salute. Mrs. Anderson laughed and with a wave, Cooper tugged the wagon down the drive, careful of its precious cargo.
Blaine was asleep before they reached the end of their street.
...
The second year, Cooper tried to ask Blaine what he wanted to be for Halloween.
"Oop!" Blaine cried happily, banging the stuffed dinosaur on the bed. Cooper shook his head, chuckling.
"You can't be Oop, B."
"Oop!" Blaine repeated loudly.
"What am I going to be then?"
"Oop!" Blaine exclaimed, now holding the dinosaur out in front of him. Cooper laughed.
Two weeks later, Blaine had on an orange jumper, felt circles affixed to the hood, and a newspaper stuffed orange felt tail that tied around his waist. Happy to stumble his way down the sidewalk, he held fast to Oop in one hand and Cooper in his other. Cooper, clad in a faux fur toga (his mom had had to help him with that one) and sporting a scraggly wig, held an inflatable bat in his other hand.
Blaine made it down three streets before he tugged tiredly on Cooper's hand and looked up with sleepy eyes. Cooper deflated his bat and tucked it into his bag of candy before hoisting Blaine into his arms and slowly making his way back home.
...
Year three was an easy one, costumes decided long before October when Oop had "mysteriously" gone missing. Cooper simply showed up in Blaine's room in a blue t-shirt and pants, a yellow cape tied around his neck. The letters S and C stood out boldly on his chest. Blaine's eyes lit up from where he sat on his bedroom floor, coloring book in front of him and Oop by his side. Cooper whipped out a matching outfit, this one with two B's clearly visible, and a red cape.
Blaine made it through the entire night, coming home with his own bag of candy. Dumping it out on Cooper's bed, the two sorted through the candy, trading Snickers bars for Kit Kats and Skittles for Reese's Pieces. Mrs. Anderson finally came to get Blaine when the two had fallen asleep, candy tucked back into their bags and costumes still on.
...
"Man, why don't you come with us this year?"
"You know I go with Blaine."
"Yeah, but he's a kid. How much fun is that?"
"A lot."
"What are you even going to dress up as? Barney?"
"It's a secret. What are you wearing?"
"We're totally going to wear our leather jackets and be biker dudes. It's going to be awesome."
"Sounds like it."
"Whatever. You're going to miss out."
That year they went as an Ewok and Han Solo. They won the school costume contest, and Blaine's first trophy. The principal would not let his friends in because they looked like "trouble."
...
Kindergarten started rough for Blaine, so Cooper wanted to make sure Halloween was extra special. But when he asked Blaine what he wanted to be this year, Blaine had shrugged his shoulders and went back to his spelling worksheets.
Sitting on Blaine's bed a few days later, having finished a bedtime story, Cooper asked again. Blaine shook his head, hugging Oop closer to him and shrinking under the covers.
"B, come on! Think of the candy!"
"You go with your friends," Blaine said seriously, much too seriously for a five-year-old.
"I want to go with you."
"Why?' Blaine asked timidly.
Cooper scooted down so that he was lying facing his little brother.
"What's going on?"
Blaine's eyes watered and he rubbed his face against the worn orange fabric of his stuffed dinosaur. Cooper waited patiently.
"No one wants to go with me."
"No one who?"
"At school. The teacher asked who we were going trick-or-treating with."
Cooper did not ask any more questions, did not need to know anything else. He tousled Blaine's hair affectionately and swiped his thumb gently underneath Blaine's eyes to wipe away the tears that trickled down.
"Well, I want to go with you," Cooper repeated. "And besides, Halloween's our thing, isn't it?"
Blaine nodded hesitantly.
"So, we're going to go and we're going to have a great time. And eat too much candy and stay up late, okay?"
Blaine nodded again. Cooper messed with Blaine's hair until Blaine swatted at his hand, an exasperated but happy expression on his face.
Cooper had no ideas. He fretted over it for the next week, but it wasn't until Blaine was watching Mulan again, as he had every Friday night since it came out, that Cooper had an idea. So, he dipped into his saved allowance and convinced his mom to take him to the costume store at the mall.
Blaine came home from school on Halloween to find Cooper already there, holding an enormous fuzzy brown and black costume in his arms. Blaine promptly burst out laughing, and kept giggling as they playfully argued over which part they would wear. Blaine's smile crinkled his eyes and his laughter echoed loudly when Cooper lost at rock, paper, scissors. It was music to Cooper's ears.
When they got home, sweaty and exhausted, and so breathless from all the laughter, they fell onto Cooper's bed. They abandoned the now routine candy sorting and trading when Cooper turned on the CD player. Dancing around the room, they sang Disney tunes at the top of their lungs well past midnight.
That was the year they went as Shang, the horse from Mulan.
...
"I want to be Batman."
"You are so Robin."
"Why?"
"Remember Super Coop and Bionic Blaine. Bionic Blaine was the sidekick."
"I was three! I'm six. I'm big now."
"Not really, squirt."
"Coop!"
"I'm Batman."
Blaine folded his arms across his chest, pouting and stamping his foot. Cooper could not hold back his laughter, his little brother's ire completely lost on him, what with Blaine's curly hair all messy and his blue Thomas the Tank Engine bowtie askew.
Blaine stuck his tongue out and stormed out of Cooper's room.
Two days later, Blaine found two costumes on his bed-a Cooper-sized Batman and a Blaine-sized Superman.
...
The fall of Blaine's seventh year was filled with news reports and memorials, and quiet conversations that stopped as soon as children entered the room. Halloween was almost forgotten as Cooper heard about children two states away being kept inside for fear of the dangers wandering their neighborhoods might possess.
But Blaine was too young to fully understand, and for the first time, he came to Cooper with costume ideas. Cooper loved the ideas, thought they it would be perfect to see two enemies walking together down the street as friends. Sure, they were just Halloween costumes, but to Cooper it meant something he could not quite name.
Together, they scoured the costume shops and Goodwill. They took a broken down wheelchair to a bicycle repair shop. They sat on Cooper's bed sewing opposite ends of a large black cloak.
When Halloween came, Blaine put on his little three-piece suit and gelled his hair down, placing a beige cap on his head and tucking his hair under. Cooper dressed in all black, flinging the cape around his shoulders and pulling on his helmet. And when they headed down the street, there was no doubt who they were. They won the school costume contest again that year.
That night, as they sat cross-legged on Cooper's bed organizing their treats, Cooper asked, "Why'd you choose Magneto and Professor X?"
"I don't like when people fight," Blaine answered as he tossed a Kit Kat on Cooper's pile. "They were friends first. They should be friends always. Just like us."
Maybe Blaine understood more than Cooper realized. Cooper grabbed as much of his candy as he could, leaned forward, and dumped them on Blaine's lap.
"What was that for?" Blaine asked, equal parts shocked and pleased. Cooper sat back down, smiling.
"You're an awesome little brother."
Blaine's lips quirked up in a smile.
"Thanks, Coop. You're an awesome big brother."
...