Kurt gasped in amazement seeing the beautifully decorated garden; banners, streamers and balloons had been hung everywhere. Lanterns and fairy lights covered the full length of the tall wooden fence and Kurt supposed they'd be turned on once it got dark, at one end of the garden a seating area had been placed and at the other end stood tables full of gifts, party foods and sodas. The smell of freshly cut grass and food being grilled filled his nose. Turning he tried to take it all in, it was then that Kurt's eyes landed on a makeshift dance floor, that could fit at least thirty people, that had been set up on the grass under Blaine's old tree house and a huge grin spread across his face.

He couldn't be mad at his Dad. This was gonna be the best birthday party ever.

"Happy Birthday!" Blaine beamed, a huge smile on his face, as he came bounding over like a puppy.

"Happy Birthday" Kurt laughed hugging his best friend.

"Happy Birthday Kiddo" Burt smiled ruffling Blaine's dark curls before his expression changed and he sternly told his son to behave himself, before heading off towards the barbecue area, probably to go talk sports with Blaine's Dad, William. Kurt couldn't help but grin as he took in Blaine's outfit, noticing that they had unknowingly colour co-ordinated.

"Did you know about this?" Kurt asked excitedly gesturing wildly around the yard. "It looks amazing!" he gushed

"Not until this morning" Blaine shook his head in reply "We don't keep secrets from each other remember?" he added in a sing song voice "Come on, there's someone who wants to see you" Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand and dragged him through the open french doors and through to the living room, but before Kurt had a chance to ask who he was grabbed from behind and he let out a small squeal of fright

"There he is!" A happy voice called out "My favorite adopted little brother" strong arms had suddenly wrapped around Kurt's waist and he found himself being lifted into the air and span around. "Happy Birthday Scamp!"

"Cooper" He grinned recognizing the voice "Put me down" Kurt demanded as he pretended to be annoyed despite his giggling.

Cooper.

Blaine's older brother. He's twenty two now and lives alone in L.A, meaning they don't get to see him that often, as soon as the older boy had graduated from High School he had moved to the other end of the country to be an actor. Blaine always looked forward to the holidays when the older boy would come back home to visit, because he was always tons of fun to have around. When they were all a lot younger Cooper had spent almost all of his spare time with his baby brother and his baby brother's best friend.

As the oldest Cooper had usually been the one to initiate most of the pretend games they'd played growing up, always finding them the best costumes. He had also been the one to spend every summer in the playground either holding the boys up as they pretended to swing like monkeys on the climbing frame or pushing them back and forth on the swings and despite Kurt's hatred towards sports he'd even shown them how to correctly catch the ball so that he'd have someone to play football with. Cooper had even been the one to take both boys swimming at the local pool every weekend where he taught them both to swim and of course as every big brother does he showed them how to dive bomb into the swimming pool, which neither one of their Mom's had been very happy about, but Kurt and Blaine had found it amusing seeing Cooper getting into trouble because it didn't happen often.

And every Sunday he would race them on their bikes across town to Grandma's, she lives in a little cozy apartment right at the top of the tallest tower block so when you look out of the window you can see the birds flying right past and on really clear days you can see for miles and miles across town. The view is always so pretty. When they were younger Kurt and Blaine used to think it was almost magical and Grandma happy to tell the boys stories would joke that she was the poor Princess that had been locked away and forgotten about.

But all that was long before Cooper met his latest girlfriend Jenny, once he met Jenny he didn't seem to have time to do anything else but hang out with her and all they ever seemed to do was look into each others eyes and go kissy-kissy. Kurt and Blaine thought it was yuck, and so one day when Cooper had yet again chose his girlfriend over his brother Blaine decided they should play spies and they followed Cooper and Jenny to the park, unfortunately though Cooper had caught them unsuccessfully hiding behind a tree and had grabbed them both by the ankles, holding them upside down as he shook them until they felt sick.

Having Cooper as his older brother sometimes became annoying for Blaine because his parents, especially his Mom, expected him to be just like his brother. And she liked to remind him about it a lot too, "For heaven's sake Blaine! Why can't you be more like Cooper?" His teachers at school were much the same, they assumed he'd be as smart as his brother and expected him to get top marks all the time. It's not that he's bad at school, he always gets the best ideas for projects and can work math problems out in his head as quick as lightning, it's just that he usually gets really bored easily. He did manage to make it onto their school's Junior football team last year though.

Kurt was so happy for his friend even though he doesn't like sports very much at all, he and Blaine have totally different hobbies. Kurt prefers to sketch and sew and play with his Mom's old jewelry, that his dad let him keep. It's in this special soft white jewelry box that has lots of compartments and secret drawers. Elizabeth used to have heaps of jewelry, Blaine's favorite is an old necklace that Kurt's Mom used to wear all the time, it's a long silver necklace with a little Noah's Ark charm dangling from it and you can see all these tiny elephants and giraffes. On rainy days when they have nothing else to do Kurt and Blaine spend hours making up stories about all the animals inside. Kurt love the broaches the most and the rings of course. There's hundreds of them, he's even started to collect some of his own even though most are just pretend ones from Christmas crackers. He gave one to Blaine once, as a friendship ring, it was bright blue and silver, Blaine had loved it. Only he forgot to take it off when they went swimming with Cooper one weekend and the silver went black and all the little blue gems fell out. He was devastated even though Kurt told him he'd give a new one.

Feeling slightly dizzy from being spun around Kurt managed to keep his balance as his feet touched the ground again.

"And I am not little" Kurt huffed looking up at the taller boy

"Teenagers" Cooper sighed "I forgot, that means you're both grown-up's now right?" He teased

"Shut it, Coop. You were a teenager too not long ago" Blaine reminded him from where he was stood watching

"Details" Cooper said waving his hand "Come on, I heard we're missing a party out here" wrapping his arms around both boys' shoulders he led them back into the sunny garden.

Before long members of both families, as well as some of the kids from school, had began to arrive. Gifts were exchanged, food was ate, games were played, songs were sung, music was played loudly and people danced until their legs ached. Everyone seemed to have had tons of fun and things couldn't have gone better, except for maybe the part where Finn, a tall gangly boy who usually plays football with Blaine at school, managed to drop trifle all down the front of his striped t-shirt. Although it had been kind of funny to watch really.

Suddenly the music went down low and Grandma's voice could be heard calling over everyone's groans.

"Where's my two birthday boys?"

Linking hands Blaine and Kurt made their way past all their party guests and towards her as Burt carried a huge cake with thirteen lit candles sticking out of the top of it. Everyone began to gather round before singing Happy Birthday to them both. Cooper making up his own version and singing it louder than everyone else, which earned him a smack 'round the back of the head from him Mom.

Kurt and Blaine smiled at each other for a second before leaning forward and together they blew all the candles out in one go. Everyone cheered as the cake was placed onto one of the now half empty food tables. Pam handed the two boys a big knife with warnings to be careful with it and as was now tradition together they made the first cut into the cake making their special birthday wish.

"Best Friends."

"Forever."