Blaine's apartment was unlike anything Kurt had every seen. It was, of course, designed to look like a typical New York City apartment, which was the size of a shoe box. But it had warm features and hospitable decor, something Kurt was never used to. All he could really do at first was stand in the door way, dripping wet, and stare. It wasn't until he heard Blaine say his name for the third time in a row that he realized he was just standing there.

"...Kurt?" Blaine said, and Kurt's eyes stopped being fixated on what was in front of him.

"Jesus, it's cold..." Blaine half-whispered, taking off his coat and hanging it on the coat rack near the door. Kurt watched in silence as Blaine unbuttoned the buttons on his coat with ease. Kurt had never gotten the privilege of wearing a coat with buttons. Kurt stood in his place, shivering.

"You're soaking wet," Blaine said as if it wasn't obvious. "Do you want to take a bath? It'll help warm you up."

Kurt stared at the floor. "Am I allowed?"

"Of course you are," Blaine said in a voice that sounded like he couldn't believe what Kurt was asking. "Kurt, you can't expect to sit here like that all night, can you?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Blaine told him, suddenly feeling sorry for making Kurt feel bad. "Come on, I'll get the bath running for you."

Kurt stood still at first, looking down at his wet feet and crossed his arms over his chest. Blaine smiled warmly at him.

"What's the matter?" Blaine asked him.

"I don't want to get the floor wet..." Kurt said in a small voice. "You've already done so much by inviting me here. I don't want to get everything wet."

"Oh, It's alright," Blaine told him kindly. "It will dry. It's just water. Besides, you have to come inside sooner or later, right?"

Blaine tried to make the situation lighter, but instead Kurt just nodded solemnly. Blaine felt bad for the hybrid. He had no idea where he came from or what he was doing out so late in a storm. It must have been terrifying to be lost and then suddenly in a stranger's house.

"Kurt," Blaine said, putting an emphasis on the t sound, which made Kurt's head snap up. "It's alright. Here," Blaine offered his hand and a smile to Kurt's again. "Come on."

Kurt accepted the hand as Blaine led him to the bathroom. It was a short walk, but Kurt's eyes were darting all around the apartment. There were so many colors and pieces of furniture to see. Once they were in the bathroom, Blaine leaned over to the inside of the tub and turned the taps on, hot water starting to rush out into the porcelain tub and steam rising above. The loud sound of the rushing water hitting the tub made Kurt cringe.

"Just wait here," Blaine told Kurt. "I'll go get you some clothes."

Blaine left for a moment, and Kurt sat on the bare bathroom floor, staring at the wall. The bathroom smelt clean, almost too clean that it was making Kurt's head hurt. Blaine returned with some fabric balled up under his arm, and he looked to Kurt.

"Why are you sitting on the floor?" Blaine asked, slowly kneeling down so that he didn't scare Kurt.

Kurt's left ear twitched. "Because I'm supposed to?"

"On the floor?"

Kurt nodded slowly, like he wasn't making something very clear.

"Kurt, you don't have to sit on the floor, alright?" Blaine told him. Kurt immediately stood up and tried to move as little as possible. He didn't want more water going everywhere. Blaine thought Kurt was strange, but he didn't want to insult the hybrid or make him uncomfortable. After all, he didn't know Kurt's back story or what made him so fidgety and nervous.

"I'll set the clothes right here, okay?" Blaine placed the clothes on a towel rack near the side of the small bath tub.

"Thank you," Kurt half-whispered. His ears relaxed a bit when Blaine twisted the taps off and the loud noise of the water stopped.

"Alright," Blaine said, "the bath is ready. The shampoo bottles are right here, alright?" Blaine pointed to the side of the tub where his shampoo, shaving cream and body wash was. "You can use as much as you want."

"Thank you," Kurt repeated. He wasn't used to having so many things given to him all at once, and especially not from a handsome, young, kind guy. Kurt dipped his face down to hide his blush.

"You can take as long as you need," Blaine told him. "I'll be outside. You can call me if you need me, okay?"

Kurt nodded. "Thank you."

Sitting in warm water with nothing to do felt foreign to Kurt. In fact, he couldn't really remember the last time he took a proper bath.

He couldn't remember much, to be honest.

Mostly, his baths consisted of heating pots of water on a stove and waiting for them to cool down just enough for him to dump it over his messy hair and work a bar of soap into his skin. It wasn't always effective, but at least it was better than sitting in filth.

The water felt overwhelmingly amazing, like it was too good to be true. It had been so long since Kurt sat in warm water with real shampoo and soap that it was like he was having an out of body experience. As if there was no way it could really be his own body being engulfed by sweet smelling soap suds and bubbly water. He stayed inside the tub until the water turned flat and cold, and he pulled the plug out of the tub, watching the water slide into the drain, gone forever.

He examined his naked body. Bruises patterned up his legs and onto his stomach, but he didn't mind them as much anymore. What marveled him was that all the dirt and grime collecting onto his body was now gone and he could actually see the proper color of his skin now that it was. He shivered in the empty tub, the water droplets gathering onto his bare skin, but a small smile twitched onto his lips before going away. He felt slightly refreshed.

Kurt carefully climbed out of the tub on wobbly legs and grabbed the clothes that Blaine had left for him. There was a pair of grey sweatpants, boxers, socks, and an oversized green t-shirt. After running the towel through his hair, he put the clothing on and noticed that Blaine had a mirror in his bathroom. Kurt stepped timidly into view of the mirror.

He'd had almost forgotten what he'd looked like, really. He'd never seen a mirror so big and clean before, only small or broken ones that he could only look into for short amounts of time. He saw the damp, messy hair, the blue eyes, the brown ears nestled softly in the hair. Kurt almost didn't know what to think. He could have believed this reflection was someone else.

He stepped out of the bathroom and found Blaine in the kitchen standing at the stove. Kurt stared at the curly hair, the broad shoulders, the shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Blaine suddenly turned around, and Kurt nearly jumped.

"Sorry!" Blaine told him, holding his arms up to show that he meant no harm. "I didn't know you were finished. Sorry if I scared you."

"It's okay," Kurt told him, his bangs flopping down into his face.

"How was your bath?" Blaine asked. "Was it okay? Do you need anything else?"

"It was lovely," Kurt told him. "I...don't really remember the last time I had a bath like that...so thank you."

"I'm glad," Blaine grinned. "Are you hungry at all?"

Kurt looked up with wide, bright eyes at the mention of food. "Um..."

"I didn't really go grocery shopping yet, so there's not much, but I was just making noodles."

As if on cue, Kurt's stomach took that moment to growl loudly. Kurt crossed his arms over his stomach, his face flushed pink, and looked down. "I'm sorry."

Blaine laughed softly. "It's okay, Kurt, there's nothing to be ashamed of. You must be starving. I'll make you some too."

"Are you sure?" Kurt said. "I'm sorry, I know it must be such a hassle to-"

"Nonsense," Blaine said, and guided Kurt to sit down at the small kitchen table, which was circular and could only have 2 people sitting at it without being squished. "Don't worry about it, alright Kurt? It's perfectly fine, trust me."

Blaine's warm eyes and smile put Kurt in a trance for a minute before Blaine turned back to the stove and stirred something inside a little pot. Soon, the smell of instant noodle spices from the grocery store began to fill the room and Kurt's mouth practically watered. His stomach let out another unforgiving growl, and he grumbled, wishing it would shut up. It wasn't often that he got to smell, let alone taste, delicious food. Even if it was cheap and came in a small package with japanese lettering all over it.

Kurt watched curiously as Blaine placed a bowl on top of the boiling noodle water. He turned away from the stove for a moment and caught Kurt watching, so he smiled and moved to sit down next to him at the table, but he also made sure to keep his distance. He saw the look of curiosity in Kurt's eyes when he kept staring at the bowl on the pot.

"It keeps the steam inside," Blaine explained, "so that it can cook better."

Kurt nodded, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. In all honesty, he felt shy around Blaine. The initial shock of a human letting a dirty hybrid like himself into his home was starting to wear off a little, and instead of being straight up frightened by Blaine, he now felt a little insecure. Blaine was a very handsome man, that was for sure. He had hazel eyes that almost looked entirely gold with hints of green in it, short, dark curly hair, thick eyebrows, and full lips. He focused his eyes on Blaine's forearms resting on the table poking out from his dark purple sweater.

Blaine stared at Kurt. He felt incredibly rude, but he couldn't get over Kurt's ears. They stood perfectly still atop his head and matched the color of his chestnut brown hair. If he flattened them completely, they could almost look like they were apart of his hair. He wondered what it would feel like to touch ears like that, to see if it would have any effect on Kurt...

Blaine snapped back to reality. Why was he thinking things like that? He smiled when Kurt looked up at him in the eyes, but felt a little guilty for suddenly having thoughts about Kurt's ears. It wasn't every day that you saw a human body with animal ears.

Blaine got up from the table awkwardly and went back to the stove. He got out two bowls and began filling them with the noodle soup. Suddenly, Kurt was at his side.

"Let me help you," Kurt insisted. "You've already made the food for me, it wouldn't be fair."

"Kurt," Blaine told him, "it's alright. I've already made the food."

"Oh," Kurt said, his ears flattening a little bit, and Blaine's heart sank at the sight.

"...You could set the table for me," Blaine said quickly. "There are place mats and napkins in the drawer over there. Wanna get some for me, please?"

Blaine usually never set the table when he ate dinner and the place mats were unused housewarming gifts from a friend before he moved to New York, but watching Kurt's ears sit up straight and his eyes become more alert made Blaine want to smile.

"Yes, of course," Kurt said in a little, determined voice. Blaine had to admit that this boy was pretty strange, but adorable.

Kurt did just that and arranged the place mats neatly on the circular table. The table was so small that the ends of the place mats drooped over the ends a little bit and they were touching each other across the table, but it seemed to make Kurt happy that he could help. He also placed the napkins on the sides. Blaine brought the two bowls over and stuck a pair of chopsticks into Kurt's. Kurt stared at them.

"Do you know how to use chopsticks?" he asked, and Kurt shook his head.

"Don't worry, it's easy once you get the hang of it. Here, let me show you."

Blaine took his own chopsticks and held them like two pencils in his hand. Kurt copied him until he could move the chopsticks a little clumsily, but still efficiently.

"Good," Blaine said, and Kurt beamed at his new skill. Blaine noticed so far that Kurt really seemed to be amused by small things. Maybe this was because Kurt was so used to doing work, but Blaine couldn't be entirely sure. He sat across from Kurt and they began to eat.

For a moment, it was silent because Kurt could only concentrate on eating. He was ravenous, there was no denying it. Though Blaine was happy that Kurt was eating something, he felt sorry for him at the same time. When was the last time he had eaten?

"Kurt?" Blaine said, and Kurt looked up, a noodle hanging out of his lips. Kurt bit it off and it fell back into the bowl.

"I'm sorry," Kurt told him, looking down at his soup. "That was so rude of me. I normally don't eat that fast, I'm-"

"Kurt, it's alright," Blaine smiled at him, coming so close to resting his hand on the other boy's. "You don't need to keep apologizing. I eat like that pretty much everyday."

Kurt gave a small smile. "I just wanted to ask you something," Blaine said.

"Yes?"

"Um, I hope you don't mind, I don't want to make you uncomfortable by asking you this, so you don't need to tell me anything if you don't want to, alright? Just tell me if it's too much."

Kurt nodded, his round eyes fixated on Blaine.

"When was the last time you ate?"

Kurt's left ear twitched and Blaine saw his tail swish once from behind the chair. "I believe...it was maybe two days ago."

"Oh," Blaine breathed out, because what else could he say? Kurt had gone without food for two days for reasons Blaine had no idea about.

"Kurt," Blaine said softly, "if it's alright for me to ask...what happened to you? Why were you out there all alone?"

Kurt sat in silence for a moment. Blaine was afraid that he'd crossed a huge line and he brought some not-so-nice memories back for Kurt.

"I'm sorry," Blaine told him. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that. I'm so stupid, that was selfish of me to a-"

"I don't quite remember," Kurt told him in a half whisper. "E-everything was a blur. It all happened so fast...too fast. I don't-"

"Kurt," Blaine said. It looked like Kurt was going to start shaking and crying if he kept on talking. "Hey, hey. It's okay, Kurt. Kurt?"

Blaine gently placed a hesitant hand over Kurt's. He noticed how Kurt didn't flinch away like how he did when he was outside. There was a look of surprise on Kurt's face, however. Kurt's bright blue eyes looked into Blaine's, really looked into Blaine's, for the first time that night. Blaine stared back, like he was looking straight into a bright tunnel. There were hints of green and grey in Kurt's eyes, a color almost unfamiliar to him. It looked like there was a light switch in Kurt's eyes that just never switched out. They were quite mesmerizing.

"Kurt," Blaine said. "You can stop, it's okay. I'm sorry I forced that question out of you, I didn't mean to. You don't ever have to talk about it if you don't want to, okay?"

Kurt nodded, sucking his lips in for a moment. He closed his eyes for a brief second before opening them again to see Blaine. He almost forgot his hand was there, until he remembered, and flushed.

"Come on," Blaine said. "You should finish eating. You'll need it."

AN: I saw Les Mis in Toronto :) It was really cool because Ramin Karimloo, who played Enjolras in the 25th anniversary, played Valjean! He was really amazing and he blew me away. It was really cool especially because I had seen several versions of les mis before, but this was the first time I had seen it on a live stage, so I'm glad I finally got to do that. Anyway, I'm going to continue this scene in the next chapter.