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Cooper was sleeping soundly, so much so that he didn’t hear the faint knocking on his door or the patter of tiny feet running up to his bed. He didn’t notice as a small body climbed up next to him, or the small arms that shook him as a little voice called, “Coop!”
What he did notice was the orange stuffed dinosaur that smacked him across the face.
“OOF. Wha-what?!” Cooper sat up, rubbing a hand over his face. “What’s going on?”
“Coop, it’s time ta get up!” Cooper looked down to see his baby brother frowning impatiently at him.
“Blainey. What time is it?” Cooper turned to look at his alarm clock, groaning when he saw the time. “It’s 8am on a Saturday. Can’t you let me sleep in?”
Blaine shook his head. “Nuh-uh, Coop. Mama and Daddy went out to go to a lunch party in Clebland-“
“Cleveland, B.”
“An’ they won’t be back ‘til dinner. That means we can wrap their presents now!”
“At 8am? Can’t we wait until lunch? Or after?”
“No!” Blaine hit him with Oop again. “There’s only a week until Christmas and we gotta do it now! Santa only brings gifts for kids, we need to wrap Mama and Daddy’s gifts so they’ll get some!” Blaine’s hazel eyes grew large. “They’d be so sad if they didn’t get gifts on Christmas. So we gotta wrap them with bows and ribbons and other special stuff. ‘Kay?”
Cooper sighed. “Okay, fine. Let’s go.”
Blaine grinned, his eyes crinkling with the weight of his chubby cheeks. He jumped down off of the bed, Oop in hand, and ran out the door. “Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”
Cooper grabbed his robe and followed his little brother downstairs, just at a much slower pace. He turned to make a pit stop in the kitchen, only to find Blaine in the doorway, his hands on his little hips.
“The presents are in the livin’ room.”
“But the coffee is in here, squirt.”
“Nuh-uh, you’re too little.”
Cooper reached down and picked his brother up, carrying him into the kitchen and setting him onto the counter by their parents’ state-of-the-art coffee maker.
“I’m 15, I’m old enough to drink coffee, B. You’re the little one here.”
Blaine wiggled in his seat, narrowing his eyes at his brother.
“Not little. Just littler. Hurry up so we can start!”
Cooper ruffled his little brother’s curls, which were left gel-free without their mother there to help him. Blaine may have loved making his hair straight and flat like his older brother’s, but Coop loved Blaine’s curly locks, even if he’d never admit it.
After Blaine waited impatiently for Coop to get his coffee, the two walked into the living room to the small pile of presents and their mother’s box of wrapping supplies that Blaine had painstakingly pulled out that morning. Cooper, his mug in his hands, could just imagine his tiny brother carrying the gifts down from where he’d hidden them under his bed, then attempting to pull the box from its spot in their mother’s craft closet, all in the early hours of the morning. He must’ve had to pull a chair over to reach the box, and Coop had no idea how he’d carried it all the way over. He had to have pushed it, an image that made Cooper laugh into his coffee.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, Blainey. Now, where do we start?”
Blaine pushed at Cooper to sit down next to him before handing him the tie they’d picked out for their father the week before.
“Here. Wrap this for Daddy. What’s his fav’rite color?”
“I don’t know… blue?”
Blaine dug through the box before pulling out some blue wrapping paper covered in snowflakes and a spool of blue ribbon.
“Here ya go! I’ll wrap Mama’s new scarf!”
The brothers got to work, Oop watching them from his position in Blaine’s lap. Neither brother was particularly adept at wrapping, both of them warping the scotch tape and getting it stuck everywhere but the paper. Blaine made up for it by covering every inch of his gifts with bows, while Coop liked to make elaborate ribbon patterns to cover the gaps between the paper. By lunchtime, most of the gifts had been somewhat wrapped and the living room looked like their mother’s craft closet had exploded inside.
“I guess I know what we’re doing this afternoon…” Cooper lamented, knowing that if his parents came home to this mess that he’d never be allowed to go to Emily James’ Christmas party. He looked over at his brother, who was starting to wilt as his boundless energy reached a down point in the day. Blaine yawned, hugging Oop, who was covered in tape and bows. Even though Coop loved when his baby brother was running around on his constant sugar highs, always happy to follow Coop and dance around with him, his heart couldn’t help but melt a bit at the sight of a sleepy Blaine.
Cooper grinned, grabbing a big red bow from the box and sticking it onto Blaine’s head.
“Hey!” Blaine squealed, reaching up to pull at the bow. “Why’d ya do that?”
“No, Blainey, keep it on!”
Blaine pouted up at him. “Why?” he whined.
Cooper smiled down at his brother, pointing at the bow as he answered, “‘Cuz you’re my favorite present.”
Blaine blinked his giant eyes before breaking out into a smile. He pulled a blue bow off of Oop’s back and smacked it onto Cooper’s forehead with a high-pitched giggle.
“You’re mine, too, Coop.” He replied, reaching up to hug his brother, who pulled him up into his lap and squeezed him tight.