A/N: Chapter...? Seven! Booyah! I missed you, people! How are ya? Good, I hope. Did you watch last week's ep? Did you? I did, and I found it quite great! I don't really like the turn that Blaine and Tina's relationship is taking, but... We shall see.

Enough canon. Non-canon is here, and this chapter is quite bigger (evalilly, hide that grin, I know what you're thinking ;) ) than before, so take a deep breath and dive into a world of crazy acts, suspence and romance (sh*t, where does this insipration come from when I don't need it? Off to do mah homework!). Enjoy lovelings!

Chapter Seven – We All Need The Clowns To Make Us Smile

Kurt recognized the young man from the clown act before; he was a raven haired, Asian-looking man, lean as a stick. His face was distorted into a mask of anger, and Kurt finally grasped the concept of the act; this guy, who was as elfish-looking as the girl were some kind of fairies, while Blaine was a hunter, perhaps? Were the girl and the other guy betrothed or something parallel, were Blaine and the girl illegal lovers?

Kurt was intrigued, and stared with wide eyes at the stage to watch the rest of the story. The other boy stretched his hand towards the pair, who both snapped their heads toward him. The girl jumped from her place on Blaine's legs onto the trampoline below and then grabbed her own trapeze and stood up on it. Blaine's face expression was mirroring his enemy's when he stood up and fell from his trapeze, twirling around it and ending up hanging by his knees. Then, he completely let go, performing a somersault in air and landed on the trampoline, face to face with his opponent. The girl had vanished, and they stared at each other for a minute, and then they started jumping backwards and performing captivating figures, graceful and yet resembling a fight all the while. Kurt was left jaw dropped, eyes wide, because this was by far one of the most – if not indeed the most – amazing and well-done acrobatics show he had ever attended.

The battle on the trampoline was raging on, but suddenly they jumped towards each other and the other boy lifted up his arm, as in holding a knife, and pinned Blaine down on the trampoline. Kurt, along with the rest of the audience, gasped and covered his mouth, and by then the other boy had left the stage.

Only one spotlight was lit now, shining brightly on Blaine and painting the rest of the tent pitch black. The man's body was resting on the trampoline, still and lifeless, and Kurt could feel agony washing over him. Then suddenly, another spotlight was lit, and the fairy-girl came into view with her trapeze again, hanging by her knees, her face washed in grief. She gracefully jumped on the trampoline, a few feet away from Blaine, and then ran towards his body, where she brought her hands to her heart and fell on her knees, burying her face in Blaine's chest. And then, darkness.

Kurt was the first one to start applauding like mad when the lights turned down. When they came back on, the props were gone, and instead the entire company was standing in a row, taking bows and interacting with the audience.

He tried to leave as fast as he could, which was proving quite difficult, what with all the people wishing to do so themselves. The moment he stepped out of the tent, he left was quickly as he could, always stepping in shadow, trying not to be spotted by any member of the company.

He had covered a pretty long distance to where Sue's coach was waiting for him, until he heard voices. One voice in particular, and a well-known one, for that matter. He stood as closely as he could to where the deepest shadows would provide him coverage and searched the whereabouts of the voice.

As he was walking, he finally spotted him; still in his uniform, his hair free from the hair gel helmet he'd transformed in it for the show, fluffy and just so touchable. He was sitting on the ground, a tiny yellow bird hopping around him. He was talking to it, whistling at some points, and the bird travelled from his shoulder to his leg to his head. His face broke into a huge smile, and Kurt felt something tugging in his heart.

He gasped, and then quickly covered his mouth. Blaine had heard the sound and turned his head towards him. Even in the scarce light of the moonlight, his eyes seemed as big and pretty as in broad daylight. His brow had furrowed in confusion, and Kurt walked away as fast as he could while maintaining his hiding place.

Blaine shrugged and decided that he was probably just imagining things again. Canarino's chirping from the top of his head brought him back to Earth. "What is it? Oh, you want to go to the after-show? Well, I'd be glad to escort you there, dear sir" Blaine responded to his vibrant chirps, and stood up slowly and carefully, caring not to disturb the little animal. He walked back to where the laughter and voices could be heard.

He smiled as he walked past dozens of families, each with at least one small child that somehow always managed to tangle in his feet. He laughed whole-heartedly, always meeting the parents' apologies with a warm smile and a nod of the head, ad if saying "it's okay". He turned his gaze to the Puckermans, now playing with their knives and swords. A bunch of teen boys had gathered round them, barely younger than Jake. He never quite grasped that, how people his age from outside of the circus always looked… alien to him. He could have been like them, Will had asked him at least a zillion time if he ever wanted to study and leave the circus. He'd told him it would be natural to do so, but Blaine wouldn't change his life for anything.

Rachel hopped behind him, twirling in her lovely skirt. "Blaine, I've been looking everywhere for you!" she chirped, jumping up and down from joy. "What is it, Rach?" Blaine asked her, used to her enthusiasm by now. "Oh, why the long face?" she teased him, poking at his side. He squinted his eyes and fake-glared at her, so she mirrored him. This had been the signal for a stare contest, one that Blaine was fairly sure that Rachel would win.

"Damn!" he said when he blinked. Rachel whooped and started jumping up and down again. "What is it you wanted me for anyway?" he asked her, trying to change subjects.

"Well, the after-show is over soon enough, so we will all meet at the big tent" she began, until Blaine cut her. "Yes, as we do after every show; is this going somewhere, Rachel?"

"Well, you will probably shout at me for what I did, and you'd be right, but I said that you are going to sing as well with the rest of us tonight" she said quickly, stepping away from him. "You did what?" "Come on, Blaine, how bad could you possibly be? You can't be worse than Mike!"

He sighed, mostly because she had a point. "Very well, miss Berry, I will sing tonight." She clapped her hands, a giddy smile on her face. "Next time, just smile like that and ask me, I will surely accept" he told her smiling and he tapped her nose.

After a few hours, when every patron of the circus had gone away, the small group of the New Directions had gathered in the big tent, others sitting on the plush carpet and others at the bleachers. Blaine was sitting between Quinn and Rachel, not paying attention to the scathing glares the two girls were exchanging. When the last person – Sam – came into the tent, Rachel stood up and cleared her throat, grabbing the attention of everyone.

"Good evening, everybody! First of all, I would like to offer my congratulations to each and every one of you; I think I am speaking for both us and the audience when I say that this was one of our best shows, although I of course was by far the greatest star of it…"

"Rachel, some of us don't exactly enjoy sitting here and listening to your self-adoring speeches, so if you please, just get on with it?" Quinn shouted at her, leaning in Blaine's side, her eyes drooping.

"Very well, your Highness. Tonight, I would like to introduce one of my closest friends to the stage, mister Blaine Anderson!" she cheered, making the rest of the tent clap with her. Blaine stood up, partly because he was pushed by Quinn, who had somehow woken up again, and walked towards Rachel. "Forget what I said, don't ever ask anything like this again!" he whispered, motioning for her to sit down. She winked at him and went to sit by Finn's side.

"Hey everyone! Um, I guess I should repeat what Rachel said, it was indeed an amazing show, so congratulations to us all!" he started, cut by the encouraging applause coming from all his friends. "Huh, I guess I can't really step back now, can I? Well, you all know that this is the first time I've ever performed in front of any body, unless you count my pet" everyone laughed. "So, here goes!"

He walked to the piano, which had been transferred to the centre of the stage, and sat. He closed his eyes, forgot where he was and just started singing:

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,
Lulled by the moonlight have all passed away…
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life's busy throng,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me…
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me…

It was a beautiful song, a song that Emma used to sing to him when he was younger; she still did sometimes, he loved listening to her voice. The notes always calmed him down and gave him a feeling of belonging, of home; and that's what it felt right there and then, with all his friends that he felt like family. He smiled and carried on with the song:

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chanting the wild Lorelei
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
Even as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me…
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me…

As the song came to its end and his voice faltered, no sound was heard in the big tent. But suddenly, a loud thunderstorm of applauding and cheering sliced the silence in half, catching Blaine off his tracks and startling him.

The first thing he felt was being tackled by someone. "Oh my, Blaine, why didn't you say? It was a crime that you hid your voice away for so long, an entirely punishable action!" Rachel said in one breath, her voice louder than usual. "So, does that mean you liked it?" Blaine asked, still unsure. "Are you joking? Man, you truly have an amazing voice!" Finn said, trying to pull Rachel off of him.

Blaine's blood rushed to his cheek, as every single member of the New Directions had some compliment to make. Even Puck said, "Well, I might not be all that into girly songs like that, but Blaine, your voice is awesome, man!"

When he sat back down, a little further away from before, and gave the floor to Artie, that had prepared an all new song for them, he felt oddly relieved; he hated being forced by his insecurity to hide parts of himself, but then he was fairly sure they wouldn't embrace his differences. Their reaction to his singing was a pleasant surprise, and put him into thinking that maybe, someday, when he mastered up the courage, he could tell them about his biggest secret…

He shook his head, deciding that no hard thinking needed be done that moment. For the time being, he looked all around, and all he could see was love and affection. Smiles, hugs, familiarity, comfort, support and care. All he could see was family.

No, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, Blaine thought.

A/N: The song is called 'Beautiful Dreamer' (you don't say!), and it's an actual song from 18-something. It's quite pretty, check it out! But before that... You guessed it... Review? No? Okay. Just... Be ready for next chapter, it's gonna be good! Klisses everyone, Kleenex evalilly ;*