A/N: Hey guys! I decided to do POVs from both of the Anderson brothers after all :) It was too tempting to resist, I guess! What I had previously thought would be one chapter has been slipt into two, so here's the first part!

Enjoy!

(3:45 pm) Where are youuuuuuu?

(3:47 pm) In Columbus! Same place I was five minutes ago, as a matter of fact, the last time you asked me that.

(3:48 pm) Tell that cab to come faster…

(3:49 pm) Sure, I'll just touch my temple and Professor X the memo to him.

(3:49 pm) YES, DO THAT.

(3:52 pm) …where are you? O_O

(3:55 pm) You're paying for this phone bill.

(3:56 pm) I'm in the cab.

(3:57 pm) YAY YAY!

(3:59 pm) Should I be flattered that you're so eager to see me?

(4:00 pm) Sure, let's just say that.

(4:00 pm) Hmm?

(4:02 pm) …hmm?

(4:03 pm) HMM?

(4:05 pm) ;_; You see straight (ha) through me. Don't leave me alone with them any longerrrrrrr.

(4:06 pm) Omg, you are a child. It isn't my fault that my plane got delayed!

(4:06 pm) "How's the practice, Cooper?"

(4:07 pm) "You shouldn't be catering to movie stars, Cooper. You should be working as a real doctor somewhere where your talent can make a difference, not giving wannabe actresses boob jobs."

(4:08 pm) …Cooooopperrrr…

(4:08 pm) "I could have TOLD you that having a private practice in Los Angeles was a bad idea, Cooper. Why don't you listen to your parents?"

(4:09 pm) NOT EVERYONE HERE IS AN ACTRESS, BLAINE…AND I DO NOT ONLY GIVE BOOB JOBS.

(4:10 pm) Plastic surgery is really important!

(4:11 pm) I know! I'm making the world a more beautiful place. It isn't a sin!

(4:13 pm) Well, don't worry. In an hour I'll be home and mom and dad won't have a single thing to say about your sins anymore.

"Cooper!"

Cooper Anderson sighed and looked up from his phone as his mother called him. He'd gotten home over an hour ago. He was interrogated for forty-five minutes, he excused himself to unpack, and then he immediately texted his brother. They were supposed to get in at the same time, but Blaine's plane had been delayed.

He walked to his door and peered down the hall. He couldn't see his mother, which meant she was at the bottom of the stairwell on the other end of the hall. "Mom?"

"Can you come down here? Blaine should be here in half an hour or so, and your father and I need to talk to you."

"…Just a second." Shaking his head, Cooper walked back into his room and picked up his phone.

(4:17 pm) I'm being summoned. I'll see you when you get home, little bro.

Kurt trudged to the office of Sherri Harlan. He'd done a relatively good job of avoiding her, having had only two meetings since she saw him at the Laundromat. However, she'd insisted on seeing him once more before the offices closed for winter holiday.

"Hey Kurt!" said the chipper woman at the front desk. After two years, he knew every employee that worked there. She was Claudia, thirty-two, married to a man named Phillip, and six months pregnant. "You're ten minutes late!"

"Oh really?" Kurt asked angelically. He leaned over her desk and plucked one of her mini candy canes out of the mug they were in. "Wow, time does fly when you're walking down the street extra slowly." He unwrapped the candy and tossed the plastic wrapper in the trashcan.

"Ahh, those are my pregnant candies," Claudia complained. "No fair!"

Kurt leaned over the desk, placed a kiss to her forehead, and popped the candy cane into his mouth. "I'll by you five more boxes, when they go on extra clearance after New Year's."

"You do love me," she said with sarcastic playfulness. "A deal is a deal, Hummel. I want those candy canes. Oh, and she's waiting for you. Just walk in." She added the professional part almost as an afterthought. Kurt nodded at her and thought about how he wished Claudia was his shrink as he stepped into the room she had motioned to.

Doctor Harlan looked up and smiled at Kurt as he came in. "Traffic?" she asked brightly. "Go ahead." She nodded to the couch opposite her.

"Something like that," Kurt said dryly, "and I think I'll just sit."

"However you're most comfortable."

Kurt sat, plopped his bag next to him, and tucked his legs under him Indian style. He looked at Harlan, and she observed him. "Well?" Kurt asked finally. "No questions for me?"

"Tell me about how your week has been," she said patiently. "Just talk."

"It's been…fine…I guess."

"How's work?"

Kurt shrugged. "Same as always. David asked me if I could work up until Christmas. We'll be really short-staffed, as usual. A lot of dancers are taking their vacations early."

"Why so?"

"To visit family or something. Shit, I don't know."

"So you volunteered?"

Kurt fixed her with a direct gaze. "Why not?"

She nodded but didn't answer. "What about the man from the Laundromat? Blaine?" Kurt rolled his eyes. He'd told Harlan about his and Blaine's 'relationship' two weeks ago. He wouldn't have, but despite her annoying qualities, he knew that she was there to help him. Also, he knew that she'd pester him about it until he exploded from frustration if he didn't tell her outright. "You don't have holiday plans with him?"

Kurt tried to refrain from picking at his nails. Instead, he rubbed at his cuticles. "He's gone to visit his family in Ohio."

At this, Harlan's eyebrows rose. "You didn't mention that Blaine was from Ohio."

"I didn't think it was important."

"Isn't it? Does he know that your backgrounds are so similar?"

"I didn't think it was important," Kurt repeated pointedly. He looked up from his nails and glared at her. "Our backgrounds are nothing alike."

Harlan leaned forward onto her elbows and held his gaze. "How would you know," she started, "if you've never bothered to find out?"

When Cooper went downstairs, he found his parents sitting side by side on a couch. Across from them was a plush chair, obviously meant for him. Refraining from rolling his eyes at the drama of the moment – barely refraining – Cooper sat.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before, "So, Cooper, how is that lovely girl you've been seeing? Cynthia? She's so lovely – such a lovely girl…but awfully young."

"Quinn," Cooper corrected after a pregnant pause. "She's good. And she isn't young, mom. She's twenty-four."

"Blaine is almost twenty-four," his mother continued.

"Yes, and he isn't very young either. He's a gown man." Cooper sighed. "Quinn and I have been together for more than four years, okay? We're good. I don't need you to analyze our relationship."

"Four years and we still haven't met her," she said, undeterred. "And she was a patient of yours, Cooper, isn't that a bit strange? Well, you should have brought her here for the holiday. We want to meet this girl."

Cooper was running out of excuses. He'd met Quinn after she'd been in a bad car accident. After her life was out of imminent danger, she'd needed minor reconstructive surgery. After she continued booking appointments for menial things, Cooper had told her that he couldn't in good faith date a patient, but if she stopped doing so, he'd gladly take her to dinner. For the first two years of their relationship, he'd gotten out of introducing her to his parents by telling them that it was still "too soon to tell". That didn't continue to work. He didn't doubt that if it was just his parents and the two of them, the meeting would go smoothly. The problem was that Blaine was also always summoned home for their holiday visit, and everything was not fine around Blaine. He didn't need Quinn to see the full extent of his family's dysfunction.

"Maybe I'll fly you out to LA this summer," he offered, "and you can meet her then."

"Meet her, not meet her, at least she is a 'her'." His father started talking and Cooper grimaced. "We're proud of you, Coop. She's a catch! But we wanted to talk to you about Blaine."

"I'm not doing this," Cooper said, moving to get up.

"Sit your ass down on that chair," his father said sharply, pointing. Cooper's legs went weak and he plopped back down. He was ashamed that he was going on twenty-eight years old and he could still be cowed by his father. He would listen, but he didn't have to be happy about it. With no one to see him but his parents, Cooper didn't feel even a little bit guilty when he sank down into the chair unhappily and crossed his arms over his chest like a sullen, pissed off teenager. "You'll sit and listen, because Blaine will be here soon and he always listens to what you tell him."

Cooper looked away from his father. "I'm not going to tell Blaine anything but the truth," he started. "'Your music is cheesy.' 'When your hair is long you look like a hobbit.' 'LA is far superior to New York.' If those happen to be on your list, awesome. If not, count me out."

"Be serious," his father said sternly.

"Oh, I'm serious," Cooper said. "You always, always do this. God, if I had a dollar for every time, I wouldn't even need a job."

His mother shifted uncomfortably and his father glared. "If you wouldn't cater to his whims, we wouldn't even have this problem, Cooper. He looks up to you! You're his big brother. He wants to do what you would do."

"Wow," Cooper said slowly. "You don't even realize how contradictory that was, do you?"

"The point is that he's only still in this phase because you're so enthusiastic about it."

Cooper cocked his head sarcastically. "Gee, a twenty-three year phase, how do those work?"

"You know very well that he hasn't always been like this," his father said, shaking his head.

"No, no Dad, I don't know that." Cooper waved his hands back in a 'no' motion and stood up from his chair. "I know that you think it's a phase, because for all those years, he went out on dates with girls to try and make you proud of him. I also know that I was always the one he came to for romantic advice because you couldn't actually give two shits about his feelings. You just want him to be normal, whatever that is. I also know that I was the one he came to when he was eleven and confused about why he didn't like girls, because he'd just seen you cuss out a newspaper that had reported about Ellen and Portia starting to date, and he was scared to death of what you'd to do him."

The eldest Anderson huffed and rolled his eyes. "This is your –"

"No, Dad, it isn't my problem." Cooper shook his head. "It's not yours either. God, just leave well enough alone. I'd like to have a normal winter holiday for once. I know that's a lot to ask. You expect us to keep coming over here every year, you too, Mom. Is it just to have yearly interventions? That's an awesome way to alienate both of your sons even more than you already have." He waved his hand in dismissal and walked away, ignoring his father's calls.

He didn't go back to his room. Instead, he went to Blaine's. For a minute or so, he just lay on his brother's bed and took a few deep breaths. He knew what to expect every year and he still got worked up. His parents would take him aside every year and ask him if he could talk to Blaine about his sexuality. They'd ask him to suggest to his little brother that his interest in men was fabricated, or that it was a phase he had to pass to properly grow up.

Cooper was five years older than Blaine. When he'd come crying to Cooper after hearing his father explode over Ellen DeGeneres, Cooper had only been sixteen. He'd just gotten back from the Winter Formal at his high school. He'd asked Lucille Barton, a cheerleader, to be his date. She'd been his second kiss – the first being Katie Cooper, on the preschool playground, when they'd gotten married and he'd taken her last name to become Cooper Cooper. He'd been in post-dance euphoria and Blaine had come to his door nearly crying. He'd only been in sixth grade.

Thinking of that now, Cooper squeezed his eyes closed and tried to remember how the interaction had gone.

"Cooper?"

"Hey, bud. I'm kind of tired…do you think this can wait until tomorrow?"

Blaine looked up at him with large, wide, amber eyes which then skittered to the side. "Oh…I – I guess."

He began to walk away, but his slumped shoulders and bowed head caught Cooper's attention. "Blainers?" Blaine turned around. "Come on in. You can talk while I brush my teeth, okay?"

Blaine's face lit up and he hopped onto Cooper's bed. For a long while, in fact for as long as it took Cooper to brush his teeth, Blaine silently fiddled with the hem of his shirt. When he was done, Cooper went and sat down on his bed. He leaned back on his headboard and looked at his little brother expectantly. "Buddy?" Blaine looked away as Cooper spoke. "Hey, Blaine. What's up? Are you alright?"

"Dad was yelling something earlier today," Blaine started. "About these two girls. They started going on dates, like a boy and girl would. Do a lot of people do that?"

Cooper shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know, Blaine. Who cares?"

Blaine looked uncertain. "I kind of care. Billy said he asked Savannah to go to a movie with him, and they held hands, and afterward, she kissed his cheek."

"Alright…"

"And everyone talks about which girls they think are the most pretty."

"Everyone does that in middle school, Blaine," Cooper explained patiently. "You don't have to feel weird about it. If you don't want to talk to your friends about girls yet, just don't." Blaine raised his eyes to the ceiling and Cooper was shocked to see that his eyes were bright with held back tears. "Whoa, Blaine. Seriously, what's wrong, buddy? You can tell me."

"What if I don't want to talk to my friends about girls ever?" Blaine asked, his voice thick with restrained emotion. "I don't have anyone that I like how Billy likes Savannah. Then Dad was saying all those curse words when he found out about those two girls." Blaine reached up and wiped away tears. "I don't like girls like all of my friends do. I'm broken, Coop."

Cooper sat silent for a few seconds, trying to process what he was supposed to say to something like that. After a moment, he nudged Blaine until he looked up. "Hey, which movie is better: The Phantom Menace or A New Hope?"

Blaine frowned. "A New Hope, Cooper, God. What does that have to do –?"

"You're not broken," Cooper interrupted. "That was a test, and you passed." He shrugged. "Don't ever listen to Dad if he tries to tell you anything different. Who you like doesn't matter. That girl Dad was talking about has a girlfriend, and the two of them aren't any different than Billy and Savannah. If you end up liking girls when you're older, that's fine. If you never like girls," Cooper continued delicately. "If one day you maybe decide that you like boys how your friends like girls, that's fine too." He smiled at Blaine. "You're still Blainers, my little brother, and whoever complains can stuff it up their…well, right." He cleared his throat and looked away.

He was still looking away when he felt Blaine lean over and hug him. He felt the residue of Blaine's tears soak into his thin shirt, and he lifted a hand to pat his brother's back. "Coop? Since you brought it up and all…can we watch A New Hope?"

"…Uh, no," Cooper answered, pulling out of Blaine's grasp. He walked over to his DVD collection and pulled out three cases. "But we can watch all three of the original movies."

Cooper came back to the present and opened his eyes. Not much had changed since that night. Blaine had come to him when he'd had his first real crush. Blaine had come to him when he'd asked a girl to the 8th grade graduation dance just to see how he'd felt about it. Blaine had come to him when he'd come out and when he'd asked another out friend to a Sadie Hawkins dance. Cooper had been the one to drive Blaine to the hospital after he'd gotten a hysterical call from Blaine's date's parent about his nearly passed out and severely beaten brother. He had been the one to take a week off of university to feed Blaine soup while he recovered. He had. Cooper didn't regret a second of it, but he did resent his parents slightly for forcing him to raise Blaine on his own and then trying to get him to change who he had become.

He rose off of Blaine's bed and looked around at all of his brother's medals and trophies that he'd collected after transferring to Dalton. Cooper smiled and bent to examine some of them. A few minutes later, he heard the door open. "Wha – Jesus. Cooper, holy shit, you almost sent me into cardiac arrest." Cooper smirked and leaned against the dresser that he was standing next to. "You know that this is my room," Blaine continued, peering around.

"Yeah, yeah," Cooper said with a wave of his hand. He beamed at Blaine, who looked happier than he had in a long time. "Nice to see you too, Blainers."

"Maybe you should try returning to Ohio for a time too?" Harlan suggested.

Kurt shook his head. "No. Why would I – no. I couldn't."

"It might do you good. You could see old friends who still live there."

Kurt squeezed his eyes closed. "I can't, okay? I can't go back to where I grew up. I'll only think of them."

"Is that such a bad thing?" she asked quietly. "What's so bad about thinking of your family during Christmastime, Kurt? You should always remember the good things."

"Yeah well, those are kind of overpowered by the bad things," Kurt said shortly. "One day later or sooner. One hour. A different airport. A different airline. So many things could have gone differently. If just one of them had…" He trailed off.

Harlan was quiet for a moment as she let Kurt collect himself. "Our hour is up, I'm afraid," she said.

None too soon, Kurt thought as he grabbed his bag and hastened away. "Kurt, wait." He slowed. "When you're ready, you should try and tell Blaine a little more about yourself – your true self, the part you're keeping hidden away. Baby steps are all you need, but if you never start taking them, you won't get anywhere."

"I appreciate that lesson in common sense and general knowledge," he said, not looking toward her.

"Merry Christmas, Kurt."

"…Merry Christmas, Doctor Harlan. Thank you."

A/N: I decided to cut it off here, because I thought that Kurt's scene with Harlan was a poetic parrallel to Cooper's with his parents. Next chapter, I do believe that unless I change my mind again, we'll get one section from Blaine's POV, then one from Cooper's again, then one from Kurt's :D

Leave a review and let me know what you thought! :3