Author's Note: Oh my Gosh I'm so sorry. I've had a rough time of it the past few months and writing wasn't something that I could focus on. I actually started this chapter almost two months ago and it sat. If you're still reading this thank you so much. I'm thinking of having one more chapter of this story and then starting a sequel with a fairly large time jump. The reason I want to do this is because this one is getting long in terms of number of chapter.
December 6th 2013
"So Cooper's coming next week." Kurt said. We were walking though Millennium Park sipping go cups of hot coco and holding hands. "Yeah, he gets in next Wednesday."
We got out of school at 11:30 for winter break and we didn't go back to school for almost a month. Kurt and I were having a date night in down town and doing some Christmas shopping.
"Are you excited to see him?
"I-I'm excited yeah, but kinda nervous. He says he's gonna fix things and I don't know what that means."
Kurt just linked our arms together and rested his head on my shoulder.
"I'm not leaving you. I-if he tries to make me go to Ohio I'm not going." I stated.
"Good, because I'm not letting you go." Kurt said kissing my cheek.
I smiled and looked up at the sky. It was almost black out and was dotted with stars and big snowflakes dropping.
"It's so beautiful out." I whispered. I stuck my tongue out and caught the flakes in my mouth.
"What on earth are you doing?" Kurt laughed.
"Try it." I smiled.
He laughed and stuck his tongue out. "I feel so stupid."
"You kinda look stupid too." I snickered.
"Oh, shut up." Kurt said shoving me playfully.
"Let's make snow angels." I said pulling Kurt to the field.
"I'm not rolling around in the snow in this coat Blaine!"
"Seriously? It'll wash."
"No way."
"Fine, take my jacket then." I said. I pulled off my McKinley letterman jacket and handed it to Kurt. He looked at it for a minute then handed me his jacket and put it on him.
"You so owe me for this one Anderson." Kurt said. I took off my hoodie and let it on the bench with Kurt's coat.
"I'm not letting you lay in the snow in a t-shirt Blaine, it's freezing out!"
"I'm fine Kurt." I said pulling him onto the ground with me.
"Fuck! It's freezing!" Kurt shouted.
"Don't be a baby it's not that cold." I said waving my arms back and forth in the snow.
Kurt groaned and quickly made his snow angel and got off the ground.
He pulled me off the ground and threw my hoodie at me.
"They look so cute." I said pulling out my phone and taking a picture.
"Let's go, I'm freezing to death." Kurt said. I put my letterman jacket back on and wrapped my arm around Kurt's waist. "I love you." Kurt smiled. "I love you too. And I love that you'll do stupid crap with me too." I laughed and let him kiss my hair.
December 8th 2013
"Oh my God I'm so tired." I moaned.
I was walking into church with my head dropped on Kurt's shoulder.
"I told you that you shouldn't have gone to guy's night on a Saturday. Finn didn't even make it up stairs ya know, he's laying on the floor in the living room."
"I would take anything to be laying on the floor right now." I yawned. We stepped into the church and made our way to or usual pew.
"Morning boys." Frankie smiled.
"Morning Frankie." Kurt said sitting us down. I dropped my head onto Kurt's shoulder and said good morning to Will and Frankie.
"Somebody looks tired." Will laughed and patted my knee.
I nodded and yawned again.
"Party to hard last night Blainey?" Frankie asked. People at church had taken to calling me Blainey, I'm not sure how but they did.
"Too many video games and not enough sleep." I said rubbing my eyes.
Frankie and Will just laughed and smiled. Kurt and I both agreed that they reminded us of grandparents. "I don't get the point of those video games. Why play basketball in front of a TV when you could play it outside?" Will said.
"I know!
Kurt and Will started to ramble about how bad video games are and Frankie and I started talking music. Frankie has the best taste in music. He and Will live in Nashville and Memphis every winter when it gets cold up here after Christmas. They do the whole music scene down there and go too little bar shows. They want to take me and Kurt down there after Kurt graduates in the spring.
After the service and coffee (Kurt made me stop eating donuts every Sunday because he says in getting a donut belly.)Kurt and I headed home.
I toed off my boots in the entry way and hung up my jacket on the hooks. I gave wearing my suit to church, it gets really stuffy in there and I felt like my tie was smothering me. I usually just wear button downs now and jeans. Kurt still dresses up but he wears things that are a little more 'Kurtish' than just a suit and tie.
"Come in here boys." Burt yelled from the living room.
I followed Kurt to the couch and sat with him. "What's up Burt?" I asked.
"Just want a rundown of this week. When's Cooper getting here?"
"Wednesday, Kurt and me are going to pick him up for the airport at 11 and taking him to lunch before we come back here.
"Then he's staying until New Years right?" Carole asked.
"That was his plan but if you'd ra-"
"No no no, we're excited to meet Cooper. He's welcome to stay." Carole said.
I nodded.
"Alrighty, now that that's settled let's so see if we can wake Finn. He barely made it up the stairs a bit ago." Burt laughed.
December 11th 2013
"Excited I take it?"
Kurt and I were standing at O'Hare waiting for Cooper to get off his plane. I was rocking back on my heels and standing on my tiptoes to look over the crowd.
"I haven't seen him since summer and things have changed. I have a right to be excited."
We could see a crowd of people headed toward the gate from the outside but I couldn't see Cooper. I grabbed Kurt's hand and squeezed it tight.
"I don't see him." I frowned.
"Just calm down Blaine."
I stated jumping up and down trying to see over other people. God I hated being short.
"I see him!" I shouted and took off toward Coop.
"Blainey!" he shouted and dropped his bag. I flung my arms around his waist and sobbed into his shoulder.
"Shhhh, Blaine. It's okay, I'm here." Cooper sighed.
"I missed you so much Coop."
"I missed you to Blainers."
"I'm fuckin' starving. What's good here?" Cooper asked.
"It's a hot dog place Coop, you order a hotdog and tell them what you want on it." I said.
"Oh Blainey, you're so naïve. A hot dog is much more than what you think."
"That's so disgusting." I said shaking my head.
"It's good, isn't it Kurt?" Cooper laughed.
"As bad as this is for me and the fact that I'm probably going to have to do a billion crunches to work it off, yes it's good." Kurt smiled.
"But how do you like onions, bacon, and mustard together? I'm not kissing you until you brush your teeth."
"I'll kiss him then." Cooper said leaning across the booth and pecking Kurt on the cheek. Kurt laughed and shoved Cooper away. "Get off me you freak."
"Hey!" I shouted. "Kiss him again and I'll beat your ass."
"I'm sorry, calm down. And I'm very appalled by your language young Blaine! What has the big city done to you?" Cooper laughed.
"Blame Finn."
"Let's finish and get home, I've got presents to wrap and you have a tree to pull down from the attic." Kurt said pointing at me.
"Um wait, you guys don't get a real tree?" I frowned.
"Nope." Kurt shrugged getting up and putting his jacket back on like it was nothing. I just nodded.
Kurt hailed us a cab to take us back to the airport to get his car.
I was quiet the whole way home and I could tell Cooper noticed. He kept nudging me and giving me questioning looks from the back seat. I just ignored him and laid my head against the window.
When we got back to the house I took Cooper's bags down to be basement and went back to the living room where everybody was. Carole was hugging Cooper and Burt was standing there awkwardly. "It's so nice to finally meet you Cooper! Blaine hasn't told us a thing about you." Carole laughed. Cooper just smiled and reached to shake Burt's hand.
"Okay, now that we all know each other when have business to attend to!" Kurt grinned pointing to the empty corner of the living room we cleared out to put the tree. "Fine but you and Finn are dragging the damn thing out of the attic." Burt said. "Hey Blaine, wanna do me a favor?" Kurt asked sticking out his bottom lip and leaning his head on my shoulder. "You want me to get in the attic don't you?" "Please, I love you." Kurt said kissing my cheek. "Fine, but you owe me." I said following Finn to the garage.
"It looks great guys." Kurt smiled. Finn, Cooper, and I had dragged the tree down from the attic and put it together in the corner. "Now all we have to do is decorate it and we'll be set." Kurt said digging into the boxes of ornaments. Finn and Cooper knelt beside Kurt and started helping him unwrap. I curled up in the recliner and pulled my knees to my chest.
It doesn't feel like Christmas. Sure there are decorations and stockings hung on the fire place but it's not the Christmas I love. The tree's plastic and there's no snow on the ground, Grandma isn't here to bake cookies and none of my cousins are here or my Aunts and Uncles. It's great that Cooper's here but I want more, which is selfish I know. I want the house to smell like a pine tree and fresh baked cookies. There should be little kids running up and down the stairs and having snow ball fights in the yard and tracking mud back into the house on their boots. I feel empty and sad. Like I lost the Christmas spirit.
"Blaine, Blaine, hey Blaine."
"Hu?' I said jolting back.
"Let's go talk bud. Where's your room." Cooper said guiding me up stairs. He followed me to my room and shut the door behind us. I flopped on my bed and Cooper say back in my desk chair.
"What's up?" I asked.
"What's up? Seriously Blaine, you get fucking kicked out and I don't hear about it for months. You're my baby brother; I'm supposed to take care of you! Look what a shitty job I've done, hum? I let you get kicked out and didn't even know it because I was so preoccupied with my own life to take a minute for you."
"This is my issue Cooper. I don't need you to be the hero like you were when we were little. I can take care of myself thank you very much." I said without sitting up or looking at him.
"I get that you're grown up but there's a difference in being grown up and being okay to be on your own in a st-"
"If you haven't noticed Coop I'm not on my own. I have a family and a boyfriend I love that has done a hell of a lot more than my actual family has in the past few months."
"That's because you didn't give me a chance to help. I thought you were at home not in Chicago playing house with another family. You know that I would have been here the next day if you had called earlier." He shouted.
"Whatever." I said and curled around my extra pillow (aka Kurt's pillow when we have sleepovers).
"Look I'm proud of you Blaine. But I wish you would have called me sooner." He said sitting on the bed next to me.
I wiped my teary eyes on the pillow. "Sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry"
I just shrugged and wiped my nose on my shoulder.
"What's the matter Blaine?" Cooper frowned.
"It doesn't feel like Christmas." I whispered.
"What do you mean? There's a tree and decorations."
"The tree's plastic, the ornaments are all store bought, Grandma's not here. Mama's not here either." I whispered the last part.
Cooper leaned over and pulled me into a hug. "I know Blaine, I know you miss her."
"I want our kinda Christmas. I want to go pick out a tree and eat cookies that grandma makes, we should be singing Christmas carols by now around the tree."
"Then go sing, there's a piano down there. Like you said, you live here go use the piano. I know you love it."
I sat there for a moment and then nodded. Copper walked over to my dresser and pulled out a clean t-shirt and tossed it to me. "Change your shirt, you got snot on your shoulder." He smiled and walked out of the room.
I changed my shirt and splashed cold water on my eyes to make them seem less red. When I got down stairs everybody was sitting around and eating sweets that Carole made. I went and cuddled up next to Kurt. I dropped my head on his shoulder and he kissed my cheek. Burt, Finn, and I were watching a basketball game when Cooper butted in and said, "You know what we should do? We should sing Christmas carols?"
"Coop." I snapped.
"That's a great idea Cooper! Do you want to go first?" Carol asked.
"Actually I think Blaine should go." Copper smiled and started to pull me off the couch. I let him and went and sat at the piano.
I played a couple notes while I decided on a song.
Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?
Why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter you used to bring me?
Why can't I hear music play?
My world is changing
I'm rearranging
Does that mean Christmas changes too?Where are you Christmas? Do you remember
The one you used to know?
I'm not the same one, see what the time's done
Is that why you have let me go?
I felt Kurt's hand lay on my shoulder and him standing behind me.
Where are you Christmas
why can't I find you
why have you gone awayMy world is changing
I'm rearranging
does that means Christmas changes tooWhere are you Christmas
do you remember
the boy you used to know
You and I were so carefree now nothings easy
Did Christmas change or just me?
My fingers rested lightly on the key and my head was drooped.
Kurt pulled me up off the bench and wrapped his arms around me. I tucked my head under his neck and let him hold me. I flinched and another pair of arms around my back. "It's okay Blainey." Cooper whispered. Then I felt another, and another, and another person surround us. "Family hug." Finn laughed. We all giggled.
Yeah, family hug I thought to myself. This right here, the people in this house are my family. My father is not my family; Clayton is not my brother like I thought him to be. Finn, Puck, Sam, Mike, Artie, and Copper are my brothers, Burt is like my dad, Carole is going to treat me like her son like she did for Kurt, and Kurt is my best friend and the love of my life. I'm going to have this family forever. Yeah definitely a family hug.