Blaine shivered as he walked hurriedly along the footpath. The autumn evening itself was relatively mild, but the icy fangs of wind devouring his ears made the oil-black air feel that much chillier. And then there was the whole atmosphere. Blaine's apartment was in quite a quiet part of New York. He would usually refer to it as peaceful, although tonight it seemed to be verging on sinister.

Sporadically-placed streetlights spilt their artificial sunshine on to the pavement, and twisted trees cast spooky shadows. The entire effect was that Blaine felt as though he had somehow been transported back to the early 1900s, when gangs roamed the area and muggers lurked in darkened alleys, just waiting for an unsuspecting victim to come along. Like Blaine, for example.

"Why didn't I just hire a cab?" he thought irritably. "Idiot. It's not far to the restaurant. It wouldn't have cost that much."

Blaine surreptitiously glanced around for potential muggers, pulling up his scarf as he did so. Attempting to take his mind off the nightmarish creatures his brain was turning every half-concealed rubbish bin into, Blaine started singing softly:

Let's go all the way tonight

No regrets, just love

We can dance until we die

You and I, could be young forever...

The stupid song had been playing at the party last night, and had been stuck in Blaine's head on and off ever since.

He chuckled softly as he thought of the party. It hadn't been just your... usual party. Mind you, no party involving the Warblers ever was. They had seemed to have decided that because a large swathe of their number was missing, the Warblers who were in attendance had to somehow make up for the others' absence. Unervingly, this they had almost accomplished.

Blaine had enjoyed the party, he truly had. It had been great to see at least some of his friends again, and he had certainly had fun. It was just that whilst watching Nick and Jeff together, as well some of the other couples, Blaine had realised that he felt rather lonely. And now here he was, going out to dinner on his own. By himself. Blaine sighed. He hated the fact that he was so dependent on attention, but it was true.

"Oh well," he murmured to himself, "Soon I'll be starting at NYADA. Maybe I can make a few new friends there? That would be nice. And who knows? Maybe I'll meet that 'special someone'?

The thought of this put a small, but sunny, grin on his face. It also, however, reminded him of 'Teenage Dream'. Damnation. Yeah, the song was old, but he had to admit it wasn't too bad. Not like that 'Call Me Maybe' song. Urgh, now that was running laps around a racetrack in his mind! Blaine tried frantically humming 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' to get it out. He had read somewhere that that worked. Just as long as 'Twinkle Twinkle' didn't get stuck in his head too!

'Argh! Don't think of the song! Argh! No!Think of what you're humming! Twinkle, twinkle, little sta... what's that? It sounded like...'

Blaine jogged around the corner and his worst suspicions were confirmed. A slim, rather elfin-looking man had just been pushed violently against the brick wall of an apartment building, hence the sound that Blaine had just heard. He was now stuck there like a post-it note, held down by two other men who both reminded Blaine rather forcefully of pugnacious pitbulls. Oddly enough, their victim didn't appear too frightened. Instead, when his (rather gorgeous, Blaine noted) aquamarine eyes met Blaine's own hazel, they simply looked resigned, as well as the slightest bit... irritated?