It was like they were little again, where all the feuds went no further than a broken action figure, or a stupid game, and they were more like friends than brothers. Blaine was practically curled in on himself, clenching his stomach in pain after having retched his insides raw. He swallowed the thick saliva filling his dry mouth down his burning throat, feeling the fire inside his oesophagus grow. Cooper watched his pitiful brother, wishing that there was something he could do to stop the pain.

"Blaine, I'll drive you down the doctor's office down the road. It's always empty, so they can file you in as an emergency case- which I'm pretty sure you are anyway. Get you some antibiotics or something." Cooper sighed, doing the only thing he could do.

"And what's that going to do? It's a virus. I'm sure it is. Antibiotics won't work, so it's a waste of time and money..." Blaine heaved himself into a sitting position, hugging his chest to a pillow.

"You're fever's higher." Cooper placed his hand onto his brother's forehead. "If it spikes tonight I'm dragging your sorry ass down to ER, whether you like it or not."

"I won't even be conscious if it gets worse, Coop. I won't have a choice."

"At least take something that'll take your temperature down a bit. Even if you can't really keep it down... well... a leaky dam is better than no damn at all."

"I miss when you were a twat."

"Oh I'm the twat am I-..."

" Blaine you told some stalkerish guy that you'd moved to the Netherlands just so he'd leave you alone once!"

"Poor old Chandler. I had a look at his facebook a few months ago and he's still in Amsterdam looking for me..."

"Just don't do that to Kurt."

...

Kurt's eyes fixated on his stepbrother Finn as he paced the floor, worrying about the close friend they'd almost lost the day before. Although things had been blown out of proportion, the girl was in pretty bad shape, enough for it to be an inconvenience for Kurt to leave just yet. His mind deviated towards Blaine, and how he must have been feeling. He hadn't been that sick when he'd left to stay with his dad for the week, and Kurt had just assumed that he'd have gotten over the cold or flu or whatever he had by the end of the week.

"You okay, kiddo?" his dad, Burt, noticed his chagrin as he glared at his phone, contemplating whether to call Blaine or not."

"Yeah. I'm fine..."

"I know you, Kurt. Something's bothering you."

"My boyfriend called about an hour ago. He was ill before I left to come here, but he's sicker now. It's just a cold or something, but I can't stop worrying about him."

"I can give you a lift back home, if you want."

"It's an hour and a half away, dad... And you're busy enough with all this drama as it is."

"Tell me about him. We haven't really spoken about any of this. What's he like?"

"He's... Dad I can't even explain how amazing he is. You think I'm intelligent? Wait until you meet Blaine. He's the smartest person you'll ever meet."

"So is he okay?"

"It was just a cold when I left. I mean, he was burning up, but he said he felt better and went to stay at his brother's while I was here, and since then his fever's gone up and he's not keeping food down. His brother said that if he got much worse, he'd be dragging him to a doctor."

"I'll give you the money for the train journey, Kurt. It's only a few dollars."

"Thank you so much dad."

"Hey no problem. I love you..."

"I love you too!"

...

Kurt sneaked through the door, stepping on his tip-toes just incase his poor little boyfriend was sleeping. He was met by Cooper's face, contorted with concern before he'd even managed to get to the 'dying' man. He asked him how Blaine was doing, but Cooper replied with nothing but a sigh and a shake of his head. He was in the process of cleaning up after Blaine's last gagging session, thankful that his brother hadn't inherited his projectile method and had only brought up a tiny bit.

"What's his temperature at?" Kurt asked as he placed his ice cold hand onto Blaine's head, which was a bit too warm for his liking.

"Last time I checked- which was about an hour ago- it was around 103..." Cooper ran his hand through his mop of greasy hair, placing the newly cleaned trash can beside his brother.

"If it gets any higher, we're driving him down to the ER, alright?"

"Trust me, I've been so close to it for the past hour or two. He's definitely not himself. Not one insult in the time he's been here...I'm surprised.

"Hey..." Kurt whispered. "How you feeling?"

"M'cold. Not shivery or anything. Just cold. Coop gave me his hoodie, which is helping but...yeah. I missed you."

"I missed you too. Not feeling so good, are you?"

"Nope."

"I'm going to take your temperature, if that's okay."

"S'fine."

"My dad let me borrow his electrical ear thermometer if you'd prefer that to the one you have to put in your mouth."

"Okay."

The thermometer beeped almost automatically once it was placed into the ear. Kurt stared at the numbers, trying to decide what to do.

"What is it?" Cooper looked over.

"104.4."

"What do you think we should do?"

"Considering the fact that I heard someone say fevers over 105 can cause seizures, and the fact that he seems pretty damn dehydrated... Blaine, honey?"

"Mmm?" he mumbled incoherently.

"I think you're a bit dehydrated, and Coop says that you haven't really been able to keep water down. We're going to take you down to the ER as a precaution okay."

He mumbled a yes, before babbling incoherently to get them to agree to change about their last names, and something about the case and the psychopathic Mr Rivers from Kurt's first case with Blaine. Kurt ignored the context of his rambling, assuming that it was just his fever talking, but they'd agreed to do what he'd said to keep him happy. They helped him out to Cooper's car, placing the trashcan on his lap just in case. Kurt sat beside him, placing a flannel dipped in cold water onto his boyfriend's head and nodding for Cooper to drive.