Fic: You're Young Until You're Not (7/7)
Title: You're Young Until You're Not (7/7)
Fandom: Glee
Characters: Blaine, Kurt, Rachel
Rating: PG 15+ (occasional language)
Word count: 707
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. Except a few OCs.
Summary: In which Blaine loses somebody close to him and must face the grim reality of death.
A/N: Thank you for those who have followed this, and I hope you've enjoyed it.
Previous chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Part Seven
Blaine was unable to make his way back to the little bookstore that had brought him joy. Family duties were required of him, and no sooner than they had arrived, of they were, back to Ohio. Back to normality.
Three weeks. That's how long Cooper had been gone. Blaine still awoke sometimes hoping that everything had been a nightmare. But he was never that lucky.
'I think you should go back to school,' his father said to him on a dull Saturday morning. Blaine took a deep breath, sighed, and then nodded. He couldn't cut himself off from reality forever.
'Yes, father,' Blaine mumbled, sitting where the family portrait had once been. His father had taken it down upon their return from New York.
'Memories' had been his reasoning. Blaine had argued until he was out of breath, but it was all to no avail. The portrait was removed and placed into storage, and the wall now looked frightfully empty.
His mother was not home. She had thrown herself into work as soon as she settled back into Ohio. If she worked enough, the pain would disappear. Blaine knew this wasn't true, and he suspected she did too. But that hadn't stopped her.
***
All of Cooper's belonging had ended up in his old bedroom, and Blaine felt himself gravitated towards it. He spent the rest of the weekend sat on the bed, looking at his surroundings.
His music collection had been incredibly large. And eclectic. Queen, P!nk, Alanis Morissette... Blaine grinned. Soundtracks from Disney movies and the occasional Judy Garland compilation were hidden at the very bottom.
He looked in boxes that had been thrown together. There was no order. Photos mixed in with appliances, books and clothing. Blaine smiled as he pulled a photo frame out of one of the boxes. It was a photo of the two of them. It had been taken on the day of Cooper’s graduation, only weeks before he left Ohio to make it big.
His parents had shown up late. They’d just arrived back from Australia, or Austria. Something like that. Cooper had been disappointed. Blaine could remember the look of sadness on his brother’s face when he looked out into the audience and saw the two empty seats next to him.
‘Fuck it,’ Coop had announced just before the photo was taken. ‘At least you were here for all of it.’
Blaine slid the photograph into his pocket. The more boxes he went through, the more emotional he got. He found himself crying yet again. He rolled his eyes. He’d hoped he’d have stopped the crying, at least.
***
It was Monday. It had come quicker than Blaine had hoped. He awoke feeling anxious, worried and unsure. He wanted to go back. He wanted to be with his friends. He wanted to be with Kurt. Yet he had an overwhelming feeling of doubt.
His father knocked loudly on the bedroom door.
‘You’ll be late,’ was all he said. Blaine listened as he walked back down the hall and down the stairs. He sighed, reluctantly climbing out of bed. His morning routine went as it always did. Like normal. Like nothing had happened. The only difficulty was choosing clothes to wear.
He had nothing subdued to wear. All his clothes were bright, tight and cheerful. Not appropriate, he thought. He rummaged through everything, finding the least cheerful outfit he could, even if it didn’t match.
The drive to school was hard. Entering the building too. He and Cooper had repaired their relationship here. And now he was returning, alone.
McKinley High was bustling with life. People rushing in, rushing out. The football team walking in a pack, the Cheerios stood by lockers gossiping about the latest hook ups. It was a normal day at McKinley.
Blaine came to a stop outside the choir room and hesitated. He didn’t know if he could do it. To return to normality. Before he knew it, Rachel and Kurt were at his side, each grabbing a hand.
‘Together?’ Rachel asked, smiling at him, Blaine nodded and squeezed Kurt’s hand.
With his best friends either side of him, he walked into the choir room, determined to make it through the day. To carry on. For Cooper.