Okay. gosh. I've been looking up pictures of cute fuzzy baby kittens on tumblr so THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.
ANDERBROS + BRIEF ANGST + KITTENS
I have to say I started writing this in past tense for some reason, even though I am way more comfortable writing in present tense. So if I missed any tenses at the beginning please don't murder me in my sleep
It all started one day in early June.
Cooper, being sixteen now, had been charged with mowing the lawn before it could start raining. He's getting paid like twenty bucks for it. Thirty if he remembers to rake up the grass clippings. Aside from the roaring of the push mower, Cooper can't hear anything. He's too busy working on his strut, knowing he was in full view of the fairly busy road that runs just by their house. Any number of hot girls could be driving by and checking him out as he sweats profusely while doing big, manly work.
He's interrupted from practicing pick-up lines in his head by the storm door at the back of the house slamming shut, followed by someone shouting for him.
"COOPER...!"
Despite wanting to maintain his tough guy image, the sound of his little brother shrieking like that always makes him jump. Cooper cuts the engine and jogs around to the back yard, finding Blaine standing on the back porch, looking fairly miserable.
Cooper rolls his eyes dramatically. "Blaine, holy crap... I thought you were in trouble or something."
"No," Blaine says with a sniffle. "The kitty is lost. I was looking all over for you. You have to help the kitty!"
"What kitty?" Cooper asks, exasperated. Last week it had been 'my teddy bear fell down, kiss it better'. Before that, 'I accidentally spilled Kool-aid on my blanket and now it's mad at me'. Now, Cooper suspects Blaine is making the kitty up. He doesn't have a toy kitty or anything, but Blaine has always liked giving personalities to inanimate objects.
"The kitty over there," Blaine says, pointing at the clump of peony bushes growing next to the garage. "It's tiny and sad and it keeps meowing, I think it's lost!" While saying this, Blaine starts wringing his fingers together and bouncing on his feet, looking very upset.
Now, Cooper may be a tough sixteen-year-old, and Blaine may be a whiny little kid, but if there's one thing Cooper can't stand it's his little brother crying. Blaine's eyes are already starting to fill with tears, and Cooper knows he'll have to go with Blaine to find the damn cat.
Heaving a big, long-suffering sigh, Cooper walks over and grabs Blaine's hand. "Lead the way, squirt."
They walk over to the peony bushes, Blaine tugging Cooper along urgently. "Hurry, Coop, hurry, before it dies!"
"I really don't think it's going to die in two seconds," Cooper says dryly, but they pick up the pace and jog the last few feet over. Blaine immediately squats down by one of the bushes and peeks underneath it.
"Oh, poor kitty...! Cooper, lookit, it's so small..." Blaine says sadly. Cooper kneels down next to Blaine and takes a look for himself.
What he sees is a grey kitten, barely old enough to have its eyes open. It's mewing pitifully and nosing around in the dirt, probably trying to pick up the scent of its mother. Cooper has to admit that the sight of the thing tugs at his heart strings just a bit.
"What do we do, Coop? The kitty is lost and scared!" Blaine whines. He reaches out to grab it, but Cooper stops him.
"No, no, no, squirt, don't pick it up."
Blaine looks up at Cooper with wide, tear-filled eyes. "But, why not?"
"Its mama will come back for it. She left it here for a reason. But she'll come back here to find it, and if you move it, she won't know where her baby went," Cooper explains. "And if you touch it, the kitty won't smell like her baby any more and she won't take care of it."
Blaine stares up at Cooper with his big, watery eyes, looking heartbroken. After a moment, he looks back at the kitten. His lower lip starts trembling and he says, "If I were lost I wouldn't want to be all alone under a bush."
Cooper sighs again, trying not to get aggravated. Blaine is barely old enough to know that he would do more harm than good by picking up the kitten. "You have to just let it be. If we stay over here the mama cat won't come get the baby. Go inside and watch cartoons until Mom comes home, and I'll finish mowing the lawn while I keep an eye out for the mama cat."
"What if the mama cat doesn't come get her baby?" Blaine asks softly.
"There's nothing we can do, Blaine," Cooper says. "You know Mom and Dad won't let us keep a cat."
Blaine ducks his head down and sniffles. Cooper's heart drops to the pit of his stomach when Blaine's little shoulders start shaking. "B-but," Blaine chokes, "But, won't it... Won't it... d-die?" He says the last word so quietly that Cooper barely hears it. But he does hear it, and the fear in his little brother's voice is almost too much for him to bear.
He doesn't want to have to be the one to explain that sometimes, things die. Cooper always thought that that was why they owned a copy of The Lion King. But Blaine is looking up at him again, tears slowly falling down his face. He looks so upset at the thought of the little kitten dying that Cooper can hardly stand it. "Honestly," Cooper says, his tone apologetic, "It might, yes, but-" Cooper is interrupted by Blaine hiding his face behind his hands and crying openly but quietly. The way he cries when he's genuinely upset.
Cooper reaches over and carefully tugs Blaine's hands away from his face. "Hey, hey, c'mon, squirt, listen. It's okay." He awkwardly starts rubbing Blaine's back in an effort to soothe him, but Blaine just keeps crying, his eyes shut tight. "Blaine, come on. That's just how it is sometimes. I know it's really sad, but it's part of life."
They sit there in silence for a few minutes, Blaine sniffling and the kitten mewing and Cooper wishing he could just rip his heart out of his chest, just to stop feeling so guilty.
Eventually he leads Blaine, who is still crying, into the house, and Cooper feels like leaving the little kitten outside under the peony bush may just be the most cold-hearted, evil thing he's ever done.
Once he's gotten Blaine situated in front of the television with a plate of apple slices and an episode of Spongebob, Cooper goes back outside and resists the strong urge to go back over to check on the kitten again. Instead, he walks up to the lawn mower and stands in front of it. He grabs the handle, but doesn't lean down to pull the cord and start the engine again. He just stares down at it, his mind racing of all the things that could happen to the kitten.
It could get eaten by stray dogs.
It could starve.
It could work its way out into the street somehow and get run over.
The mother might not come back for it, and it would have to sit outside, all alone, hungry and cold, crying for its mother.
He looks back up, over to the bushes. If he tries, he can just barely hear the small, high-pitched cry of the thing.
He bites down on his bottom lip, torn between what he wants to do and his parents' 'no pets' rule.
After a long inner-debate with himself, Cooper decides to abandon the lawn. He isn't as excited about the twenty dollars, because he has to do something about this.
It's after dinner when Cooper finds his parents sitting at the kitchen table. The two of them are having their usual post-dinner chit chat about their respective days, and Cooper has always considered it the best time to approach them. They aren't stressed and tired from work, they're content from having just eaten, and they haven't gotten to looking over bills and balancing the checkbook yet.
"Mom, Dad," Cooper says, trying to sound serious and business-like. His parents look up from their quiet discussion of politics or whatever, their eyebrows raised.
"Yes?" his father says, looking wary.
"I have a big favor to ask you."
That night, after many promises and lots of bargaining, Mr. Anderson stays home to keep an eye on Blaine, as well as to get him into bed, while Mrs. Anderson and Cooper both head out to the 24-hour Wal-Mart. Mrs. Anderson goes in to get kitten formula and a bottle, as well as a litter box and a cat bed and all the other necessities for owning a cat.
The whole time she's in there, Cooper stays in the car with the tiny kitten wrapped up in a towel. He smiles down at it, because it's cute. But also because he can't wait until tomorrow morning.
The next day, Blaine wakes up feeling miserable. He wants to run outside, barefoot and in his pajamas and everything, and see if the kitty is still there. But Cooper said it might die. Or it's mama might come for it. But it might have died. All alone.
He couldn't stop thinking about it. He was up here in his nice, comfy bed, all warm and snuggly. And that poor kitty had to sleep under a bush, calling for its mama. More than anything, Blaine just wanted to sneak outside and, at the least, cover the kitty up. It was so tiny he could've given it a washcloth to use as a blanket.
Before he can dwell on it much longer, though, he hears the sound of footsteps approaching in the hallway. They stop just outside his door. There is a soft knock, and Cooper's voice follows after. "Hey, squirt, you awake yet?"
Blaine sits up slowly. "Yeah," he says. The door to his bedroom opens slowly, and Cooper peaks in. He has that look in his eyes, when he's done something kind of bad but got away with it.
"Can I come in?" Cooper asks, and Blaine is thrown off a bit. Cooper never asks to come in, especially not so nicely. He frowns, but nods anyway.
Cooper slowly walks into the room, carrying a bundled up towel. He has a badly-hidden smile on his face as he stops right next to the bed. Blaine just stares up at him.
Neither of them say anything. The silence doesn't last long, though.
It is quickly interrupted by a tiny little mew coming from the depths of the towel.
Blaine's eyes widen. Cooper's smile grows so big Blaine can almost see all of his teeth at once. Without a word, Cooper hands the bundle to Blaine, who takes it in his arms so carefully. He turns back a corner and finds the same little kitty from yesterday blinking sleepily at him.
Cooper sits carefully on the edge of Blaine's bed. "Mom and Dad said we could keep the kitten."
Blaine snaps his head up. He can't believe it! "Really?" he breathes. Cooper nods, and Blaine's heart starts thumping really hard in his chest.
"Mom says we have to be really careful, though," Cooper says. "Kittens aren't supposed to be away from their mama so young, but Mom knows how to take care of it. She'll feed it kitten milk and stuff, and we'll take it to a kitty doctor to make sure it's healthy. She said you could hold it sometimes, but only if you're really careful."
"I'll be careful," Blaine says through his big smile. He looks back down at the kitty, and he's filled up with so much warm, bubbly happiness that he thinks he might just burst. "Are we gonna give it a name?"
Cooper hums thoughtfully. "We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet," he says. "We won't know 'till we take it to the kitty doctor. But if you want to give it a name, you can."
"Me?" Blaine says, a bit louder than he meant to. He checks that he hasn't startled the kitty, and when he's sure it's okay, he looks back at his brother. "I've never named anything before!"
"Oh, it's easy. You know how Mom and Dad picked out your name?"
Blaine shakes his head. "Huh-uh."
"They picked a name out of a book that has a big, long list of names," Cooper says.
"Oh..." Blaine says, and he looks around his room, as though expecting such a book to magically appear. "I don't have a book like that, though." He keeps looking around, though, trying to find something to inspire him.
He catches sight of his most favorite book, the one he likes his mom to read to him before bed. And then it hits him. He looks back over at Cooper, who is smiling fondly at him. "How about Wendy?"
"From Peter Pan? What if the kitty is a boy?" Cooper asks.
Blaine shrugs. "Can't we still call it Wendy?"
Cooper laughs quietly, then reaches over and musses up Blaine's hair. "Whatever you want, squirt."
It's years later, and Blaine and Cooper are both so big and grown up now. Cooper is gone a lot. Sometimes his voice still echoes around the house, and it throws him off because he goes looking for Cooper. But he isn't there, only his voice. Sometimes Cooper appears on the strange light-up box in the room with all the nice couches and the best sunlight, but he knows now that those are just pictures. Like in the books Blaine used to show him.
Blaine used to be around a lot more. Nowadays he's gone sometimes, but he always comes back eventually. Nothing makes him feel safer or more content than curling up on Blaine's lap, because unlike Mom or Dad, Blaine doesn't shove him off or tell him to 'shoo'. Blaine does the best job of scratching lightly under his chin, and it feels so nice. He pets him slowly and even lets him climb on his shoulder while Blaine walks around the house.
There is a new boy, though. He can tell Blaine likes the new boy. He's called Kurt, and when Blaine introduced them, Kurt was appropriately smitten.
"This is our cat, Wendy," Blaine had said, leading Kurt over to where Wendy had been snoozing on the window sill. Wendy remembers looking up, feigning disinterest in this new person. But all that stopped pretty quick.
"Oh, what a pretty kitty!" Kurt had said, his smile bright. "Aren't you just the cutest little thing?" And then he reached out, and let Wendy sniff at his fingertips before petting him.
Wendy likes the way Kurt smells. He smells like good things, and he makes Blaine very happy. Wendy likes it very much when Blaine is happy.
That's why they're here, now, in Blaine's room. Blaine is upset, Wendy can already tell. He's very sad. Wendy just sits on the floor, close enough to be seen but far enough away to not intrude. He wants to go make Blaine feel better, but Blaine has to make the first move.
Blaine looks up, and he and Wendy make eye contact. "Hey, Wendy," he says, and his voice cracks and he starts crying, which is a strange thing humans do.
Wendy jumps up onto the bed as Blaine cries. It's not as easy to get up here, now that he's getting older, but he makes it nonetheless. Blaine barely notices as Wendy settles right next to him and starts to purr.
"I'm going to miss him so much," Blaine chokes, trying to wipe away tears even though more keep falling. "Kurt's going to be all the way in New York City and I'm stuck here without him."
Wendy doesn't understand human words. He knows his name. He knows 'dinner'. and he knows 'shoo'. He knows who Blaine and Cooper are, and he knows who Mom and Dad and Kurt are. But he doesn't know the words coming out of Blaine's mouth. What he understands, though, is the sound of heartbreak, the sound of crying, the sound of being helpless and hopeless and crying out for anyone to help. Anyone at all.
Wendy knows that sound, because he can sympathize. He may not really remember being a tiny little baby kitten, left under a peony bush by a mother cat who wouldn't have come back for him. He may not actually remember being cold and hungry and scared, not knowing what was going on, where he was or what was going to happen.
But he does remember being picked up, very carefully. He remembers being held, he remembers being fed. He remembers being petted and spoken to in soft voices.
Now Blaine is crying, and he's lost and scared. Wendy doesn't quite understand what has happened, he doesn't know that Blaine's boyfriend has left for college and that Blaine won't see him for a long time. He doesn't even understand that, though they parted ways only a few hours ago, Blaine is already missing him. All Wendy understands is the sound of heartbreak.
So he climbs into Blaine's lap, rubbing his head against Blaine's chin, purring loudly. Blaine cries harder, and Wendy doesn't mind when the tears drip into his fur. Instead, when Blaine lies back on his bed, Wendy settles down on his stomach and tries his best to return the favor.
end
D'AWWW KITTIES
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Let me know what you thought of this. It's not my very best, but. Yeah. I just wanted to write about Blaine having a kitty :3