A/N: This is something I've thought about for quite a while, and I have no idea if you'll like it, but, hey, a girl's gotta try, right?

Just a quick explanation: When I mention ears, it's not human ears. It's something that resembles cat ears. And they're positioned like a cat's too.

Thank you, and I hope you'll enjoy!

Blaine was waiting for Aldigree by their usual place when he heard the first voices.

"Where is he?" Someone whispered and he moved closer to the tree to hide himself. "Aldigree said he'd be here." When he heard his lover's name, Blaine froze.

"Are you sure he didn't lie?" Another voice asked.

"Of course I am! He said that little midget would be here, waiting for his dearest lover to come." There were laughs as Blaine slid down the tree and sat on the ground. Aldigree had lied to him. He'd sold him out to the soldiers. Tears started flowing and he choked out a broken sob.

"What was that?" Blaine covered his mouth with a hand. Then he slowly rose from the ground and found his bag in the nearby bushes; careful of every movement he made. He took one step to the left and a loud crunch sounded.

"Did you hear that? Where is he? Which way did he go?" There came yelling from all sides of him, and he fell to the ground again, crawling on hands and knees to the nearest exit of the garden. He followed the northern wall and finally got out of the castle. When he felt it was safe he turned around to look at his childhood home one last time.

Tears still running down his cheeks, Blaine ran out of the city, clutching his bag to his chest.

He reached a village on his fourth day on the road. His feet were killing him and he really needed some sleep. Sleep and food. He hadn't had a decent meal in three days - his money hadn't gotten him far, and wild berries just weren't enough for a grown man to live on.

"Excuse me?" Blaine hoarsely asked a man who walked by him.

"What'd you want?" The man - he didn't have ears - growled and Blaine was almost backing out when he thought to himself, that he had to find a place to sleep, or he'd drop dead in the next few hours.

"I'm looking for a place to stay," he said and the stranger suddenly looked a bit nicer. He nodded at the curly haired boy and gestured for him to follow.

The tall man walked through the doors to a dirty-looking inn. Blaine had to stop himself from cringing and took a deep breath as he walked inside.

Before he even got the chance to thank the man, he saw him. His hair was a light brown color as was his ears (how in the world could such a beauty still have his ears?), his jaw squared but had soft edges, his nose straight, his lips full and pink and his eyes… His eyes. They were nothing like Blaine had ever seen before. At the first look (yes, he did look more than once) they were blue. Light blue. With green around the iris. And around the edges. And then again, maybe they were more grey than blue. Or even light green. No, it was glasz, Blaine suddenly realized. And it was like they changed color every time he- Then the boy turned around and all he could see now was his back. Not that he minded.

"Who's that?" He breathed and made a gesture to the left. The stranger followed his eyes.

"Nobody knows his name, even though everybody wants to," he said and laughed a little as if he'd just told an intern joke.

"Why doesn't anyone know?" Surely such a beautiful man would have plenty of followers.

"He doesn't speak."

"Why?" Blaine asked, confused. He'd never met a person who didn't speak before. It was normal human behavior to talk as much as possible.

"You ask an awful lot of questions, don't you, kid?" The man sighed at him. "He's never spoken. That's just how he is. Silent - but beautiful." So the stranger did see how beautiful the boy was.

"Is that his friends then?" Blaine had to ask something. He wanted to know the boy. Even if it was just a little.

"Friends? I don't think you'd call 'em that."

"But they're talking to him?" Blaine frowned.

"I'm surprised they still dare." The stranger shook his head but didn't explain any further.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not from around here, are you kid?" He was beginning to sound annoyed at all the questions.

"No. I just got here today," Blaine explained.

"Oh, that's why." The stranger didn't say anything more, but Blaine still thought of his statement.

"So why are you surprised?" Maybe the boy was already into someone and the men around him were only there to get his attention. A twist of pain shot through Blaine. What…?

"Because Karofsky nearly killed the last guy who laid his eyes on the boy."

"Karofsky?"

The stranger sighed at him. "You see that man over there?" He pointed and Blaine looked to his right. Up in the bar stood a big, scary-looking man. He was about twice Blaine's size; both in height and width. As he was about to ask the man who this giant was - other than Karofsky - the said man walked out from the bar and straight to the boy and the men surrounding him. What Blaine hadn't expected was that the broad man - he didn't have ears either - grabbed the collar of two of the men and swung them out of the door. Then he took the next couple of guys and did the same, and then he ran out after them and all that could be heard after that was yelling and whining and punches being laid out.

The large man rushed into the inn again a few minutes later, looking even grumpier than before. He stalked over to the beautiful boy and grabbed him by the collar of his cream colored shirt. Karofsky whispered something into his ears and released him. Just when he turned around the slim boy's lips crawled back into a snarl and Karofsky snapped back, having reached for a glass on his way. Blaine took a step forward, but the stranger held him back by placing a hand on his shoulder, making him look up at the man.

As he looked up at the stranger, a terrifying sound reached his ears. It was the sound of water splashing into something. Or someone. Blaine turned his head and saw the boy standing with wide eyes and a shocked expression on his face. There was water dripping from his hair, down his face and onto his clothes.

The boy narrowed his eyes and shook his head, making the water sprays off his soft-looking ears, which suddenly had a red-ish look to them. He looked like he was around Blaine's age, and he had just turned nineteen - not many teenagers still had their ears these days. He lightly touched his own ears and blushed. He just hadn't met the right person yet, he reasoned himself. Then the boy - Blaine really wanted to know his name, so he didn't have to call him that in his mind - whirled around on his heel and disappeared out the back of the bar.

"Yeah, just get the hell out of here!" Karofsky yelled after him and kicked the nearest chair. Blaine flinched. The stranger next to him paled and walked out the door with his head lowered. Blaine hurried after him and thought to himself that he'd find another place to sleep. When they got outside, he tugged the stranger's shirt.

"Maybe there's somewhere else to stay?" He asked and licked his suddenly dry lips. He didn't want to go back in there with such a violent man. It reminded him too much of home.

The stranger looked down at him and sighed. "Where you from, kid?"

"Western Litera," Blaine answered without thinking. Maybe this village hated people from the west?

"Hm. You'll stay here long?"

"I don't know yet," Blaine said. He really wanted a place to stay. "Maybe if there's somewhere that needs help. If not I'll have to move on to another village." The stranger seemed to think this over, before he spoke again.

"We do need help in the kitchen," he mumbled.

"Really? You'd let me stay with you?" Blaine was shocked. Nobody in his hometown would ever have offered this kind of favor to a complete stranger - unless said stranger had bags of gold with him.

"Sure kid. I'm Mervalu by the way. You can just call me Merv."

"I'm Blaine!"