A/N: I'm constantly blown away by how many people are reading this, every notification email makes my day so much better and I hope I don't disappoint you. There should be lots of Avengers/Iron Man in the next one or two chapters and plenty more Klaine in the next few. Thank you all of you who read, review, favourite and follow this, and a special thank you to Kieran/darklordduckie for beta-ing and helping this make any sense.

Chapter 7

Blaine tried to ignore the Iron Man T-shirt Sam was wearing when he sat beside him in English on Wednesday.

"Hey Blaine," Sam greeted him but Blaine snubbed him like usual, focusing his attention on Kurt entering the room. Kurt blushed slightly when he noticed Blaine's eyes on him and took his seat.

"Blaine?" Sam tried to get his attention again.

Blaine smirked and gently ran his fingers up and down Kurt's thigh, enjoying watching the other boy blush deeper.

"What's your problem with me, man?" Sam burst out, noticing Blaine's obvious disregard of him.

Blaine turned around and said simply, "I don't like you."

"What did I ever do to you?" Sam voice held a mix of anger and confusion.

Blaine looked pointedly at the shirt Sam was wearing, red and gold with the arc reactor on his chest. "You're a fan of my father. I'm not," Blaine said coldly.

"So you just mindlessly dislike anyone that likes Iron Man?" Sam asked incredulously.

Blaine shook his head and clenched his jaw, "Not necessarily, I just don't like you."

"So you just hate me for no reason?" Their raised voices were attracting the attention of most of their classmates.

"I never said hate, and don't take it too personally," Blaine chuckled humourlessly, "I dislike most of the people here."

The laughter had driven Sam over the edge and he stood up, Blaine copying him on instinct.

"Boys, sit down," Mr Smith requested sternly.

"You may say you don't like your Dad being Iron Man, but we can all tell you think you're better than us because of it. Maybe we're not all rich and this isn't New York or LA, but get your head out of your ass and get over yourself, Anderson," Sam shoved Blaine on his last word. "Or should I say Stark?"

Blaine shoved Sam back. "Don't talk about things you don't know, Evans," Blaine spat.

"What don't I know? How hard it is to be slumming it in little Lima without your butler?"

"I'd shut up before you say something you regret," Blaine curled his fists by his side, restraining himself from hitting Sam.

"Suck it up Princess," Sam realised he should have heeded Blaine's advice when Blaine grabbed his shirt and pulled him down so their faces were only inches apart.

"Give me one good reason not to–" Blaine began threatening until Sam shoved him away hard and their classmates restrained them.

"Principal's Office, now – both of you," Mr Smith glared at the boys.

Blaine shook off Kurt and the other boy who had hold of him, slung his bag over his shoulder and trudged the familiar path to Principal Figgins' office.

He didn't try to get in fights, but trouble seemed to find Blaine no matter how hard he attempted to avoid it. He knew there would be no way of hiding it from his mother this time, she would be called in to speak with Figgins and find out about his other two fights. He knew she'd be disappointed in him but he didn't know what she would do to punish him – if she even did anything. Moving to a quiet little town had seemed like Meredith's last attempt at taming her son.

Blaine slumped into a chair in the waiting area and glared at Sam as he took the seat opposite. Figgins gave them the usual "I'm going to have to call your parents…" speech but Blaine barely paid attention, clicking his tongue piercing against his teeth and dreading his mother's reaction.

Meredith entered the office looking disappointed in her son. Blaine was glad, disappointment was an emotion and anything's better than nothing when it comes to his mother's emotions towards him.

Blaine remembered countless meetings like this from his old schools, from when he was getting beat up, then later when he learnt to defend himself and was no longer seen as the victim. The meetings with his Principals were the only times Meredith showed much emotion during those years. The worst time was when everything seemed to be falling apart in Blaine's life: his father was missing in Afghanistan, he was getting bullied and beat up regularly at school for being gay, and then things got taken too far and he ended up in hospital. But even that wasn't enough to get Meredith to wake up from her haze. Blaine didn't know what he would have done without his brother, even if he wasn't one of the most competent people he was better than being completely alone.

The meeting with Figgins was brief but thorough: this was Blaine's third offense which meant a suspension, not that Meredith helped dissuade the principal at all, she seemed nothing but supportive of the idea.

"You've spent too much time alone, Blaine," Meredith said to him once they were alone in the waiting area and Figgins was speaking with Sam and his parents.

"There's nothing wrong with being alone," Blaine grumbled.

"In small doses, yes, but honey we need to spend more time as a family. When was the last time we spent more than a few hours together?" she soothed.

"Dad came home for a whole weekend the other week," Blaine argued.

"But Cooper wasn't there, it wasn't our whole family," Meredith countered. "We're going to spend your suspension and the weekend in New York with your father." Blaine groaned in protest. "It'll do us all some good, family bonding time is exactly what we all need. Cooper's coming here tonight before we leave tomorrow."

Blaine clicked his tongue ring against his teeth, trying to think of a way to get out of it. Family bonding time was low on his list of priorities, especially now that kissing Kurt was on that list. Maybe he could use this situation to his advantage, Meredith wanted him to spend less time alone and he wasn't alone when he was with Kurt. He could try to befriend some of the other people in glee club to get her off his back, the guy with the Mohawk didn't look too bad and the tall Asian kid looked friendly enough.

Blaine sighed, "Fine. New York's better than this dump anyway."

OoOoOoO

"How did things go with Figgins?" Kurt timidly approached Blaine as he went to his locker.

"Suspended for the rest of the week," Blaine said flatly. "My Mom found out about the other fights and I think she helped convince Figgins to suspend me," he shook his head to clear it then smirked, "It was much more fun with you in there with me, you make everything much more enjoyable. Anyway, I'm off to New York, apparently my trouble is due to lack of family time and I need to visit my Dad. I won't be around to defend your honour so try not to get into too much trouble when I'm gone?" Blaine snuck a quick peck on Kurt's lips making the other boy blush. Blaine was getting into the habit of telling Kurt more than he normally told people, telling him things that someone would tell a friend, but maybe that's what Kurt was: his friend.

"It'll be good though, won't it? Going to New York and seeing your Dad?" Kurt asked.

Blaine shrugged, "It's better than staying here. But you in New York with me – well that'd be something great." Kurt blushed deeper and Blaine grinned, grabbing Kurt's hand. "You're so cute when you blush."

"I'm not blushing," Kurt denied.

"Whatever you say," Blaine laughed. "I've got to go."

Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand, "have fun in New York."

OoOoOoO

Blaine couldn't sleep when he was upset or worried, but his mother was somewhat of a heavy sleeper so he often spent his nights either boxing or, more commonly, playing guitar and singing softly, finding the right song to sum up his emotions and spending the hours of darkness attempting to perfect them, allowing himself only those hours to cry. Only when in the company of the moon and when everyone else was asleep did Blaine ever let him emotions show.

That night he was both upset and worried – upset that he had let himself get into more trouble, and worried about his mother's proposed 'family bonding time'. They had never been a normal family and hadn't spent longer than a few hours all together in a very long time so Blaine had good reason to worry. He was also worried about his brother coming to Lima before they left for New York to spend time with their father. Cooper was nowhere near as famous as their father but his commercial had still gathered many fans and was just something else that would overshadow Blaine.

People say that Blaine got his father's intelligence, but Cooper got the ego. Even so, Blaine would much rather live in Cooper's shadow in the Californian sun than continue living his dreary existence in Ohio, even with the ray of sunshine that Kurt provided.

A song came to mind and Blaine rummaged through his folder of guitar tabs for the one he'd printed off long ago.

He laid the sheet music on his bed and began strumming the opening chords, wishing he didn't have to limit his volume – this was a song best played loud.

"Where I come from isn't all that great, my automobile is a piece of crap, my fashion sense is a little whack, and my friends are just as screwy as me."

Blaine was too focused on the song to hear the taxi pull up or the sound of the front door opening. He didn't hear the footsteps that lead to his room as Cooper leant on the doorjamb and listened to Blaine sing, "I didn't go to boarding schools, preppie girls never looked at me, why should they? I ain't nobody, got nothing in my pocket."

Cooper joined in when they reached the chorus, startling Blaine who was oblivious to his presence.

"Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be, livin' in Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, rollin' like a celebrity, livin' in Beverly Hills."

Blaine frowned but kept playing as Cooper took the lead through the next verse – typical of him, taking over whatever Blaine was doing.

"Look at all those movie stars, they're all so beautiful and clean, when the housemaids scrub the floors, they get the spaces in between."

Blaine glared at his brother and cut him off with the other half of the verse, singing stronger and with obvious feeling.

"I wanna live a life like that, I wanna be just like a king, take my picture by the pool, 'cause I'm the next big thing."

They sang the chorus together again but Blaine stopped strumming before the bridge.

"What are you doing here, Coop?" he asked, sighing and running a hand through his hair.

"Mom asked me to come for some "family bonding time" and I don't have any work lined up for a while so I got on the next flight I could," Cooper answered. "What did I hear about you getting into more fights?"

"A couple of guys were beating someone up so I intervened, and then today a guy was pissing me off." Cooper raised his eyebrows at his brother's words. "I didn't hit the guy today though," Blaine defended, "he shoved me first and I'm the one that gets suspended."

"It seems you got Dad's strong sense of justice, though I got his looks," Cooper grinned, then sighed and sat down on Blaine's bed. "We both know by now that life isn't fair, but at least you get to New York and spend time with our family."

Blaine scoffed, "because spending time with our family is the bright side of this."

"It could be worse," Cooper shrugged. "Mom's right, you have been spending too much time alone. Maybe a bit of bonding will do us all some good."