Blaine got home from his lunch at Breadstix with Cooper and immediately went upstairs to his room. Sure, his brother was home from Los Angeles, but that didn't mean that Blaine was required to spend all of his time with his brother. Especially if all Cooper was going to do was point out what Blaine was doing wrong. But maybe it wasn't that bad. Cooper's comments at Breadstix gave Blaine something to work on.

"You were a little pitchy on 'Rio', and your moves lacked a theme, though."

Cooper's comments replayed over and over in Blaine's head. They weren't encouraging comments by any stretch of the imagination, but they did give Blaine motivation. Once in his room, Blaine immediately sat down at the keyboard and began working on some vocal exercises, hoping that the next time Blaine performed with his brother, Cooper would have nothing bad too say.

Blaine didn't know when he would be performing with Cooper next, but he had to be ready. He focused all of his energy on making himself better, even if that meant that he had to make some sacrifices. Unfortunately, those sacrifices included Blaine's sleep. Sure, he wasn't getting much sleep, but he felt that he was improving and that was the important thing.

A few days later, Blaine and Cooper got called on to sing another duet during glee club because apparently they had done so well the first time. The performance was going well, but part way through, Blaine started to feel a little light headed. Against his rational judgment, Blaine decided to power through the performance and keep going. Besides, Cooper would never let Blaine live down the fact that he had stopped a performance. Blaine had to prove to Cooper that he had improved.

Blaine felt himself stumble a little and mentally kicked himself. This was definitely not the way to show Cooper that he had improved. Now Cooper would probably think that Blaine got worse. Although, maybe if he did a spectacular finish, Cooper wouldn't say anything. Or maybe Cooper didn't even notice Blaine's stumble at all. But that was probably really unlikely. Cooper always saw everything.

Unfortunately, Blaine didn't get a chance to see Cooper's reaction to Blaine's improvements at the end of the song. Near the end, Blaine started seeing black spots and eventually Blaine passed out entirely.

"Everybody just needs to back up and give him some room," Blaine heard a voice say. Wait, he knew that voice. That was Kurt. Blaine blinked a few times and groaned.

"Blaine?" Kurt asked again, concern clearly evident in his voice. "Are you ok?"

"Kurt?" Blaine groaned. "What happened?"

"You passed out, Blaine. Don't worry. Sam already went to go and get the nurse."

Blaine shook his head and tried to sit up. "Don't need the nurse."

"You just passed out, Blaine. Just let her make sure you are ok," Kurt pleaded.

Blaine was about to continue to protest until he looked up at Kurt and saw Kurt's worry all over his face. Wow, he had really screwed up this time. He had never seen Kurt looked this scared. Well, Kurt probably did look this scared and worried during the whole slushie incident, but Blaine was so hyped up on pain medication that he didn't really remember much of that.

Blaine decided to just remain silent and let the nurse look him over. After answering some of her questions, she decided that the best thing would be for Blaine to go home and actually rest, which Blaine had to admit sounded like a fantastic idea.

Before Cooper could say anything, Kurt volunteered to bring Blaine home. Blaine was so tired, he wasn't even sure if Kurt and his brother argued at all about whether Blaine should go with Kurt or Cooper.

Kurt grabbed his and Blaine's things and helped Blaine out of the choir room, down the hallway, and out of the school. Kurt eventually got Blaine situated in his car and the next thing Blaine knew, he was being shaken awake by Kurt.

"Blaine, honey, we're here," Kurt said as he gently shook Blaine's shoulder.

"What?" Blaine asked.

"We're at your house. Let's get you inside so you can actually sleep in a bed." Kurt got out of the car and went around to help Blaine get out.

Once Kurt had Blaine laying comfortably in his own bed, Kurt took out his phone to send a quick message to his dad that he would be late tonight because he wanted to make sure that Blaine was ok. Although Finn would probably tell Burt that Blaine passed out anyway and Burt would probably figure that Kurt was with Blaine, Kurt knew he should still let his father know what was going on.

While Kurt was sending the message, Blaine mumbled out, "Don't leave."

"What?" Kurt asked as he hit send.

"Don't leave me," Blaine said a little louder.

"I'm not going anywhere," Kurt said as he slid into the bed and wrapped his arms around Blaine.

Blaine woke up a few hours later, feeling a lot better. "Kurt?"

"I'm right here," Kurt said. "How are you feeling?"

"Better. I'm still tired though," Blaine responded.

"That's good. Um, so, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Kurt asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?"

"You passed out from exhaustion in glee club today. Something's going on. I'm just really, really worried about you."

"Oh. It's nothing. I'm fine," Blaine said, although he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince Kurt or himself.

"That's a lie," Kurt said. "Please just tell me what's going on. I just want to help."

There's nothing you can do, Blaine thought. "Look, Kurt. It's really not a big deal. I promise I'm dealing with it. Don't worry about it."

"Blaine, I'm begging you. You just passed out a few hours ago. What is going on?"

Kurt looked like he was on the verge of tears and Blaine decided that he should probably just tell him.

"It's Cooper," Blaine said simply.

"What about Cooper?" Kurt questioned.

"The two of us, well, we don't really have a good relationship. I mean we're ten years apart so it wasn't like we were really close growing up. There was a ton of criticism growing up. I know criticism is supposed to help you and stuff, but with Cooper it was always just pointing out what I was doing wrong and no matter what I did or how hard I worked, it was never good enough for him." Blaine paused and took a deep breath to try and calm himself down.

"After that first performance we did, we had lunch at Breadstix and as always he just went on about how fantastic he was and how bad I was and I just thought that maybe if I worked hard enough, then maybe I would be good enough for him. Just once maybe I would be good enough for him. But I guess I kind of blew it now," Blaine sighed. "Now, none of it matters. I just proved to him that I'll never be good enough for him."

"Blaine, that's not true. You know that's not true," Kurt pleaded.

Blaine just remained silent. He wanted to tell Kurt that he knew it wasn't true, but it wasn't that easy. After all of those experiences growing up, it was hard to accept that.

"Blaine?" Kurt tried again. "You don't believe that, do you?"

Blaine swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "I want to believe it, Kurt. I really do, but I just can't."

"You don't need Cooper's approval, or anyone's approval for that matter."

"You don't get it, Kurt!" Blaine said loudly as he sat up and pulled himself out of Kurt's arms. "My entire life, all I've ever tried to do is get Cooper's approval. Just once, I wanted to be good enough for him. Just once. And I can't even do that."

Kurt scooted forward to pull Blaine into a tight hug. "Blaine, I know it's hard, but you have to believe me. You can't just keep comparing yourself to Cooper. You are absolutely perfect. You don't need his approval."

"He's always been better than me, Kurt," Blaine sniffled. "My parents constantly reminded me of that. I just want him to be my brother and love me instead of only beating me down for what I don't do right."

"Why don't you talk to Cooper about all of this?" Kurt asked.

"I've tried. He just doesn't want to listen."

"Well, why don't you try one more time? It can't hurt, can it? Just tell him what you told me."

Blaine sighed. "I guess," Blaine said as he got off the bed and moved toward the door. He figured that it would be best to just get it over with already. Blaine opened the door and went downstairs to try and find Cooper.

Cooper was sitting on the couch in the living room, flipping through the channels on the TV. Blaine guessed that he was probably trying to find his commercial somewhere. Knowing Cooper, it probably made him feel better when he saw his face on TV, even if it was just some stupid commercial, but then again, Cooper wouldn't think it was a stupid commercial. Cooper loved those commercials.

"Coop?" Blaine asked shyly. Maybe now wasn't the best time to do this.

Cooper's head whipped around. "Blaine? How are you feeling?" Was that actual concern in Cooper's voice? Did he really want to make sure that Blaine was actually okay?

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Could we talk for a minute?"

"Sure, Blainey. Come have a seat," Cooper said motioning to the empty spot on the couch as he turned off the TV.

Blaine slowly made his way to the couch and sat down. He tried to get the words out, but he just couldn't.

"Blaine, what's going on? You passed out during my performance," Cooper said. Cooper probably didn't even realize what he said, but Blaine certainly did and if Blaine was going to tell Cooper everything, he might as well tell Cooper about everything, even if that meant he had to call Cooper out.

"Your performance? I thought it was our performance. It was a duet."

"Oh right. Anyway, what happened?" Cooper asked again, not really caring that he had just referred to his and Blaine's duet as solely his performance.

"I just – I just spent a lot of time working on everything trying to make sure that the next time we performed, it would be perfect."

"Well that's good. Although there's still a few things you could work –"

"JUST STOP IT!" Blaine yelled. "JUST STOP!"

"Blaine? What's going on?"

"You! You are the problem! You always constantly tell me how much I need to improve on things and be better. Guess what, Cooper? I tried. I tried so hard and gave up sleep so I could be better for you! And guess what, it didn't work! I passed out because I worked so hard. And even after all of that, you still tell me that I need to work harder!" Blaine yelled as tears started streaming down his face. He always tried to not try in front of Cooper, but he just couldn't help himself this time.

"Blaine, just calm down."

"I can't just calm down. You just don't get it."

"What don't I get, Blaine?"

"Everything! Why can't you just be my brother and support me?"

"I do support you."

"No you don't. Support means you do more than just tell me what I'm doing wrong. That's all you ever do and all you've ever done," Blaine explained.

"It's called constructive criticism, Little Brother. It's supposed to help." Cooper said as he rolled his eyes indicating that he thought Blaine should just grow up and accept the criticsm.

"But, I don't want your help, Cooper. I want your love. Why can't you just love me?"

Author's Note:

I had totally intended to update around Christmas, but my parents surprised my brother and I with a trip to Mexico for Christmas, so I was away from internet for the week. I would love to say I'm going to get back on a schedule, but I'm making no promises, especially because I may have to send my computer in to be fixed. The next part will be up as soon as I can get it done.

Thank you to Rachel and Ari for their help with this.

Thank you for all the reviews and favorites. And thank you so much for reading. I know I say this all the time, but please consider leaving a review. I'm always really interested to hear what you guys think.