Brave Little Heart
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of it's characters and I am not making any profit off of them.
This is Klaine, Burrowers (little people three inches tall who live under the floorboards at Dalton) style. With a bit of adventure and a bit of comedy and of course lot's of fluffy Klaineness. And I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that this time Blaine isn't the short one.
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Blaine looked around his new bedroom. It had wooden floorboards with a blue rug covering the small area between the door and the single bed. There was a desk on one side of the wall overlooked by a small window. There was a tiny bathroom connected the room, it only contained a sink and toilet Blaine would have to shower in the communal showers down the hallway. It was a prospect he was not looking forwards to.

"Well, this isn't so bad." His mother said placing the last box on his bed. Blaine dropped his duffle bag down.

"No." He said thoughtfully looking out the window at the well manicured lawn out back. Blaine had spent all week thinking about what Dalton boarding school would be like, he had reached a simple conclusion; as nobody here knew him he would not get bullied, at least for a while. The bad point once they did start to bully him then he had nowhere to escape his bullies, they would be living in the same building as him.

His mother started to make his bed as Blaine dumped his clothes into the chest of draws provided. He hadn't brought many clothes; he had been brought the uniform and would wear that most days. On the weekends he could go home, it was only a few hours drive. Though, he had no plans to go home the first weekend, things had been a little uncomfortable the last few weeks. Finally his mother sighed and looked over at him.

"Blaine, I've got to go to miss the rush hour."

"Yeah." Blaine nervously ran his hand up through his curly hair. "Thanks for the lift Mom."

"You're going to be fine, ring twice a week remember?"

"I'll remember." Blaine promised accepting an awkward hug from his mother.

"Bye darling. I'll tell your Dad that you seemed to be settling in alright."

"Yeah." Blaine said trying not to feel angry at the mention of his father. His mother kissed him briefly on the forehead and then she turned and left Blaine on his own.
He sighed looking around the room then pulled the slightly squashed Katy Perry poster out of his duffle bag and dug out a bit of blue tack to hang it up on his wall over his bed. He hoped down and looked at it, damn, he was going to need some more posters if this place was ever going to look comfortable. He sorted through his duffle bag and found the blue plastic tub that he dumped his pencils in. He put his few books on the little shelf and finally took the bag of bathroom supplies into his little bathroom.

He caught his reflection in the mirror, there were dark circles under his hazel eyes from the sleepless nights he had thinking about his move to Dalton. He took a step back from the mirror and raised the hem of his shirt. Underneath his skirt the skin of his stomach was a hideous blotched yellow and purple color from bruises caused a week before. He pressed his fingers lightly to the bruises and hissed in pain reminding him how he got them. He closed his eyes for a second wishing the images of jeering jocks staring down at him would go away.
He sat down on his bathroom floor and reached for his phone. He typed a quick message to his one remaining friend. Gregory had been the one to persuade him to come out the closet two months ago. The boy had held his hand as he had cried after his father had shouted at him and told him he was no longer his son. He had made him laugh at the boys who had bullied them in the hallway and he had accepted when Blaine had invited him to the Sadie's Hawkins dance. Blaine could admit to a little crush on Gregory but he knew the other boy just thought of him as a friend.

It was after the dance that things went wrong. It was after the dance that the six hockey players had cornered them and beat them up. Blaine had got off lightly with bruising all over his body but Gregory who had always talked back and always fought back had his ribs broken and had been knocked unconscious. He had a ruptured spleen and he had been rushed to hospital.

I'm here. Blaine typed.

The response came almost immediately.

I got out of hospital today. I miss you already.

I'm sorry I wasn't there. I miss you to.

We'll see each other soon.

Promise?

Promise.

He heard a quiet little knock coming from the bedroom door. He got up form the floor and curiously opened the door. A tallish Asian boy, probably a year older then him and dressed in the Dalton uniform, black trousers and black jacket with red piping and red tie.

"Hi." The boy said holding his hand out. "I'm Wes. I'm here to help you unpack and officially welcome you to Dalton with the Dalton tour."

Blaine looked at the boy, he was smiling in a friendly manner but Blaine knew he was being forced by one of the teachers to be nice to the new kid. He probably wished he was off with his friends chatting happily on that well manicured lawn.

"You really don't have to bother."

Wes gave a little laugh.

"Come on, you need to be able to find your way around. Besides I do a wicked tour, it contains a ghost story and a rude antidote about a certain president of the united states."

"Oh, okay." Blaine agreed. He'd given the boy a way out but he was still here so perhaps he really was just being nice.
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Blaine locked the door behind him. He gave a deep sigh. Wes had been nice but Blaine got the feeling that the stories of Dalton life that Wes told him were a kind of perfected version. Like that was what Blaine's life would be like if he were popular and good at everything. As it was Blaine wasn't really good at much. Of course his studies were never a problem; his marks were always some of the best in his classes, at least at his old school. Here there were higher standards. Blaine had never been good at making friends or football though he enjoyed watching it or flirting or telling jokes. He was just himself. He had leant to keep his head down and not to talk to people because people made fun of him, they made fun of him for being short and for have thick curly hair and for always having the right answers in class. Instead of going out he spent his time studying, or watching Disney movies or singing in his bedroom.

Gregory had told him that he was locking himself away from everybody because he didn't want to tell them he was gay. If he just came out of the closet then he would start letting people see the real him and they would all love him. It hadn't been true. Things had got worse and Blaine had locked himself even further away.
Blaine washed his face and brushed his teeth changed his clothes and slipped into bed. It had been a long day and he knew that tomorrow would be even longer, he was joining significantly harder classes in the middle of the syllabus. He also had to try finding the classes because even though Wes had given him the tour Dalton was like a labyrinth. Still after an hour he found that he couldn't sleep. He got out of bed, he knew that he would get in to trouble if he was caught out of his room after 10pm but maybe as it was his first day he would just say he was sleepwalking or something.

There was one place in the whole tour that Blaine had been sure to memorize. Dalton had he most beautiful library he had ever seen. Blaine had always loved books, as a child they had seemed to contain all the knowledge in the world. All those things that adults seemed to know and that he didn't. He used to think they contained the answer to everything. Now he was older he still loved books, especially stories that he could escape into or old diaries and biographies of people how live hundreds of years before he was born. It was to the library he headed to creeping on bare feet through dark corridors and down the huge sweeping staircase.
He felt a rush of adrenaline when he pushed the thick oak door of the library and found it was unlocked. He quickly ducked inside and took a deep breath smelling that wonderful musty smell of old paper. He leaned against the door and felt the tension flood from his body. He always felt safe in a library, the jocks from his school never bothered him when he was in the library. He opened his eyes to look through the fuzzy darkness at the long rows of sweeping bookshelves, the old kind made out of wood and not metal. Thousands and thousands of books then there were the big old arm chairs to sit in or the big oak tables surrounded by heavy chairs. Right at the back of the room there was a row of desks each with little patricians so you could sit there and not see anything except the book in front of you. He had seen little reading lamps in those patricians and that's where he headed to now.

He tried the first lamp and switched it on. A soft glow lit up a few meters around him. Smiling contentedly he went to the nearest shelf and ran his fingers lightly over all the spines of the books not even reading there titles. He looked up at the little metal plate on the top shelf 'zoology'. He loved animals, loved all the amazing things that they could do, especially birds, birds could escape anything, after all they could just fly away. But he wasn't really in the mood for birds tonight.

He had just turned to walk between two shelves when a sound came that made his heart feel like it was jumping up to his throat. The door to the library had creaked open. He had ducked low to the floor before he had even realized he was doing it. He held his breath and listened. Footsteps light and slow as if the person making them didn't want to be heard. Then there was a bright beam of light from a torch casting harsh shadows across the floor. He swore softly to himself as he remembered the lamp. Whoever it was must know there was somebody else in the library. A student out of bed, he stood up hanging his head in shame and embarrassment. Caught breaking the rules on the first night, what was he thinking? Did he want to make a bad impression on his first day? Why could he not have just read one of his own well thumbed stories?

He stepped out into the torch beam momentarily blinded by the light.

"Whose there? Who are you? Speak up child."

The voice was old and wispy and as his eyes recovered from the sudden light he saw a tiny figure less than five foot tall. The old ladies skin was all papery as if the years had thinned it. She had long white hair and wore a nightdress that fell to the floor.

"Blaine Anderson." Blaine answered quietly suddenly realizing he had seen the lady before. Except when he had seen her earlier that day she had wore little glasses and had her hair up in a tight bun and had worn a plaid cardigan. She was the school Librarian. Though here at night she looked like something out of a old fairy tale.

"Blaine Anderson." The Librarian said as if thinking carefully. "A new boy?"

"Yes Mam, I am sorry. I know I shouldn't be out of bed. I just couldn't sleep and I love libraries I didn't have much of a time to look around earlier." Blaine said knowing that his excuses would probably mean nothing to the old lady but being so shocked by her appearance that he could not stop himself from talking.

"You'd better watch out." The lady said dreamily her eyes no longer on him but looking around the room.

"I know, I'm not meant to be out of my room after lights out."

"No, you'd better look out for the little people, they come out at night and you wouldn't want to stand on one. "
Blaine looked at the old woman confused. He had to admit the dazed look in her eyes and the way her voice sounded as if it were coming from far away made her seem rather insane.

"The little people?" Blaine said cautiously hoping it was all a joke.

"Aye, the little people. They live under the floorboards and come out at night to get food." The ghost of an accent tinged the odd statement.

"You mean, mice?"

"No, people little people are you daft boy? You'd better go back to bed."

"Yes Mam." Blaine said happy to be able to escape the strange conversation. He walked to the door of the library turning back to see the old Liberian sitting on bended knees near the desks. He could hear her whispering quietly to herself. Shacking his head he closed the library door quietly then he ran back to his room breathing heavily by the time he got back.