“Go away, Blaine,” Sebastian snaps at him and the hybrid whines but still leaves his best friend alone.

He walks away and curls up on his doggy bed. Sebastian never wants to play anymore. Nowadays he prefers staring at this small version of television which makes a lot of loud noises that Blaine doesn't like. He also locks himself in his bedroom after kicking Blaine out and then makes weird pained noises. Blaine wants to help him but no matter how much he scratches the door, Sebastian suffers alone and doesn't let him in. Blaine tries to cuddle him afterwards when he is finally allowed to go in but he is usually told to go away.

Blaine misses playing with his best friend. They used to go everywhere and do everything together. His favourite game was hide-and-seek. Sebastian would hide and Blaine would try to follow his scent to find him. He always found him.

Now Blaine is usually left alone to mind his own business. The sad truth is that he has no business other than making his best friend happy. At home he has nothing to do. He tried staring at the television but the black screen bored him to no end. He tried staring at various papers that Sebastian and his family liked so much but he didn't see the appeal. He tried what was called cooking but it only resulted in him getting punished – he was forced to sleep outside, chained to his little doggy house.

Outside world was as fascinating as the inside world was boring. For days Blaine would look out of the window as there was nothing better to do. He would feel jealous of the neighbour cat hybrid who liked to sunbathe outside in summer. She was free to walk in the yard without supervision. Blaine was only allowed to go out with a leash.

Sebastian's mother comes in and Blaine looks up. He doesn't like her much. She never cuddles with him.

“Sebastian, take Blaine out for a walk,” the woman says.

A walk. Yes. Blaine's tail starts wiggling on its own record. He wants to go outside.

“I'm busy, mom,” the boy replies and his tone tells Blaine they aren't going outside. His tail stops moving.

“You should have thought about it when you asked for a pet.”

“I was like four years old.”

“You knew that hybrids lived for many years. You could have asked for a normal puppy which would have died in ten years or so.”

“So you should have gotten me one. It's not like you had to do everything I wanted.”

“You are impossible…”

“Mmhmm, I'm busy, mom.”

“I didn't think I would need to do this but… either you start taking care of your pet again or I'll have to take him to the vet to put him down.”

Blaine doesn't understand the conversation. It's too complicated. He knows phrases like ‘go for a walk' or ‘come cuddle' but it's not much. The neighbour cat hybrid can even talk like humans but all he can say is his name that sounds like a very strange bark to him. He wonders why he cannot make human sounds but then he sees a fly walking on the floor and forgets all about talking.

The woman leaves and while she walks passed him, the fly flies away. Now even more upset Blaine closes his eyes. Sleep sounds like a good idea.

“Blaine?” his best friend's voice brings him to reality. “Wanna go for a walk?”

A walk? A walk! Is he serious? He looks serious! Very excited Blaine gets on his knees and nods his head.

“Good boy,” Sebastian says scratching behind his ears. “Bring me your leash, alright?”

Leash. He knows that word. Looking around the room Blaine notices it on the floor under Sebastian's bed and quickly grabs it. He gives it to the boy so he can put it on him.

The moment they leave the house Blaine can no longer contain himself. He wants to run to smell the flower and bushes but Sebastian keeps him on a short leash so he walks next to him taking in every little detail he sees.

It's a bit chilly outside seeing how he is only wearing those things around his hips that Sebastian wears under other clothes but he doesn't care about the temperature.

The neighbour hybrid looks at him with jealousy this time. He is walking out of his yard after all!

“We'll go to that forest you like so much. Maybe we'll see some squirrels there, huh?” Sebastian talks to him.

He hears ‘forest' and then ‘squirrels' and he knows what that means – running around chasing those little animals! He had so much fun last time.

Sebastian helps him into the car and they start driving. Those metal cages are weird and Blaine doesn't like them much but it will take him to the squirrels so he patiently sits without whining.

Sebastian starts talking again. “I'm sorry for doing this, buddy,” he says. “You see, I have a more interesting life now so I can't take care of you anymore. You take too much time. You want to play and cuddle, and I have to take you out for walks and it's just so… urgh… boring. And time consuming.”

Blaine wonders if Sebastian knows that he can't understand.

“Mom wants to put you down but I can't let her do it. It's not your fault I don't have time for you anymore,” Sebastian continues without looking at him. “I'll tell her you ran away from me in the forest. You can live there with squirrels. And maybe someone will find you and adopt you, who knows? Still better than dying, huh?”

The car stops and they get out of it. It smells so good! Blaine's ears catch sounds of birds chirping nearby. He wants to catch all of them!

“Wanna play hide-and-seek?” Sebastian asks.

Blaine is conflicted. He wants to go play with birds and squirrels but he loves hide-and-seek. He doesn't know what he wants more.

“Let's play it,” the boy says and his fingers are on Blaine's neck.

He hears some rattling and soon the leash falls down. Together with his collar! It's a very rare occasion.

Blaine moves his hands to his neck and scratches everywhere he can reach. It makes Sebastian laugh and Blaine imitates his laughter.

“Come here,” Sebastian opens his arms and Blaine immediately falls into them. He licks the boy's neck furiously out of gratitude. “I'll miss you, boy,” they part. “This time you hide, I seek.”

Blaine looks at him with confusion. The phrase is ‘I hide, you seek'.

Sebastian points at him, “you hide,” he points at the forest, “I seek,” he says covering his eyes. Blaine understands now. An excited smile appears on his face. Sebastian will be following his scent to find him! They have never played like this before and it only makes Blaine more enthusiastic about the game. He will have to hide very well.

Blaine runs into the forest ignoring the uneven surface hurting his bare feet but only makes it passed a few trees when he hears the car door slamming and then the growling drowns the sounds of nature. He takes a few steps back and sees the metal cage leave. The cage left. That means, Sebastian left.

Blaine barks and follows the metal cage but it's too fast. Seconds later he can no longer see it. He tries to follow the scent but it's no use. He can't feel Sebastian and there are too many different smells around for him to recognize the one of the metal monster.

The hybrid stands on the gravel road shifting his feet when one of them gets too sore. He doesn't know what to do. He thinks that maybe Sebastian will come back so he waits. When it gets too painful to stand Blaine moves onto the mossy side where the trees are growing and coils up. He sees a squirrel on the other side of the road but he doesn't care about it anymore.

He wants his best friend back.

He feels tired and soon he falls asleep.

A loud howl wakes him up. Startled Blaine sits up and looks around. It's dark now. He's never been outside when it was dark except for those times when he was forced to sleep in his doggy house. Now he is alone in a forest and the moon is the only source of light. He has never felt so scared before.

Another howl breaks the silence and Blaine is on his feet before he can even think about it. His sensitive ears tell him that the creature or the thing that's making the sound is very close and so he runs into the forest. The creature is seeking, he needs to hide, his instincts tell him.

He can't see where he is running. The moonlight is not bright enough so he bumps into trees and branches more often than he would like to. There are roots and tree stumps everywhere and he falls down on more than one occasion. Every now and then he hears the howl and it makes him run faster even though he feels dead tired already.

He doesn't know how long he's been running but soon his strength leaves him. His pace slows down and not long after that he starts walking instead of running. It's not as fun as chasing animals, not even close.

Blaine leans on a thick tree and listens carefully. He can't hear the howl anymore but he can distinguish a sound that makes him hopeful. He hears human voices somewhere not far away from him. He starts walking towards the sound. The humans could help him find Sebastian and then he would apologise for whatever he did to deserve being left behind.

When he gets closer the humans hear him. Suddenly there is a commotion and he can hear them whispering.

“Heard that? It might be a wolf or a bear,” someone says and Blaine feels fear in their voice.

“It's probably just some harmless bird, stupid. All sounds seem louder at night,” someone else says.

As Blaine gets closer he can feel more and more fear in those humans' voices. Are they afraid of him? That's silly.

Blaine can see fire and suddenly he feels very cold. He remembers how nice it felt to sleep by the fireplace at home. Maybe these humans will let him do that.

As he enters the campsite the hybrid hears some shouts and covers his ears from fright. Why is everyone screaming? Why are things flying his way and hitting him? Why is someone kicking him?

He constantly whines and barks. They should recognize that he is a hybrid, not a wild animal. And yet, the kicking doesn't stop.

The pain gets too much and Blaine loses himself in it.

Next time he wakes up it's not from a scary creature making loud noises, it's from a wonderful smell. For a moment Blaine thinks he is back home and Sebastian's mother is making those long meat things that they call ‘sausages'. Blaine is not allowed to have human food, he never had it, but it still makes his mouth water.

The hybrid opens his eyes and tries to move towards the smell. He immediately regrets it. His body is hurting everywhere. One of his eyes can't properly open and it hurts as well so he closes it. With one eye open he inspects his body. He has never seen himself so blue or purple or any other colour. He has had a few bruises here and there when he bumped into some furniture due to his enthusiasm but never like this. He simply doesn't understand why those humans wanted to change his skin colour and why they chose such a painful way.

Blaine's stomach growls and he jumps at the sound. He almost laughs from relief when he realises it's him making noises.

The smell of sausages is becoming stronger and stronger with every passing second and Blaine contemplates his options. He could ignore the pain and go to beg for food or he could ignore the pain and go steal it if possible. There is no option of staying where he is because no matter how afraid he is his instincts are telling him that he needs food and water to survive. So he gets on his feet and starts walking towards where the smell is coming from, trying to be silent this time.

He can almost taste the sausage.

Blaine knows he is getting closer to humans but from the smell and the voices he knows they aren't the same that hurt him. He is just hoping they are nicer than the ones from the previous night.

The hybrid gets as close as he can and takes in the campsite. There is one big tent there and a campfire. He can't see any humans, the only living creature is a male cat hybrid sitting by the fire. He is holding several sausages over the fire. They look so beautiful that Blaine is transfixed by the little drops of oil falling into the fire.

Soon the hybrid puts the sausages away. “I can smell you, dog,” he says angrily looking at his hiding spot.

Blaine starts to whimper and the sound catches the other hybrid's ears. His eyes suddenly become gentler.

“I'm not gonna hurt you,” he says softly. “Come here, I'll give you a sausage,” he says waving the meat in front of him.

The offer is so tempting and the stranger's face is friendly now so Blaine leaves the tree he has been hiding behind and slowly walks towards the hybrid. Upon seeing Blaine his eyes turn sad and the dog hybrid feels the need to cuddle his sadness away.

“Please, sit down,” the hybrid speaks again and pats at the spot next to him. Blaine gingerly sits where directed and his uninjured eye goes straight to the sausage again. “Are you hungry?” he asks but gets no answer. “Can't you speak?”

Blaine barks at the hybrid. He has promised him a sausage then why isn't he giving it to him?

“Alright…” is the response Blaine gets and soon he is handed a long thick sausage. “Careful, it's hot.”

Blaine can feel that it's too hot so he tries to blow at it the way he had seen Sebastian and his family do. Unfortunately, his mouth doesn't cooperate with him.

“Let me,” the hybrid says extending his arm and Blaine growls at him. “Fine, sorry for wanting to help you.”

It takes time and Blaine's tongue hurts afterwards but finally he manages to eat the sausage. His tummy feels much better now.

“Did you like it?”

Blaine understands the question but he doesn't know how to answer. It smelled good and filled his tummy but it was hot and he couldn't taste it properly. The question is left unanswered.

“Um, what is your name?” the hybrid tries again, this time slowly, the way Sebastian used to talk to him when he wanted him to understand something.

Finally, a question he can answer. “B-bl-aine,” he barks out proudly. He likes his name.

“Kurt,” the hybrid says, pointing at himself. “Do you have a family?” Blaine only stares at him. “Are you alone?” Nothing.

Kurt reaches out and scratches behind his ear. Saturated and warmed up by the fire Blaine leans into the touch. “You must be alone. No collar, all bruised and dirty, unable to talk… poor thing, how did you survive?”

Blaine doesn't understand the question. Suddenly he feels embarrassed – why can so many hybrids understand humans and speak while he can't? He doesn't think he is stupid, he learns new games exceptionally quickly.

Kurt starts picking small branches and grass out of his hair with his free hand. Blaine didn't realise there were so many things in his hair.

“Got more dry wood,” someone else says and it scares Blaine so much he wraps his arms around Kurt and presses his head just below his chin.

“Dad, you startled Blaine,” Kurt scolds the man. When he peeks Blaine can see it's a human. “It's alright, Blaine, no need to be scared,” Kurt says softly and Blaine feels Kurt's hand playing with his hair. It's comforting.

“Who is this?” the man asks.

“It's Blaine, he came to our campsite, I think the smell led him,” Kurt explains. Blaine stops listening because he can't understand anyway. He focuses on the feeling of Kurt grooming him. “Poor thing, all bruised…”

“Did he tell you what happened?”

“He can't speak… Must have lived away from civilisation for a very long time.”

“I don't think so… His boxer briefs look new and there is a mark of collar still fresh on his neck. I think he has been out here for a few days tops.”

“Then why is he not talking? He only barked his name… And he didn't know how to blow at hot food.”

“His owners must have neglected him pretty badly. That's the only explanation.”

“They were probably abusive and he ran away.”

“That's possible…”

“Dad…”

“Let me guess, you want to keep him?”

“Hear me out before you say no! He needs a home and there is enough space in our house. He already likes me. I promise to take care of him. I will help him to catch up with everything he missed out on. He will be speaking in no time.”

“I thought you hated dogs and dog hybrids?”

“I do because they are annoying but not Blaine. Look how adorable he is. Please, I'm sure he won't cause any trouble.”

“Kurt–”

“I'll clean after him if he breaks anything, I promise. We can't just leave him here!”

“And I wasn't planning to. I was about to suggest we take him home and look over missing hybrid posters or post one ourselves.”

“But his owners abused him!”

“We don't know for sure, Kurt. I only know that we can't leave him here. And we can definitely give him a temporary home.”

“Thanks, dad, you are the best!”

“I know. Let's pack things up and go home. We need to start treating Blaine's bruises as soon as we can.”

“Blaine,” Kurt calls out and Blaine looks up at him. “We are going to your new home.”

‘Home' always meant Sebastian's house but for some reason Blaine doesn't think Kurt is taking him to his former best friend. And Blaine doesn't mind it at all.