They talked, about life and about them. They talked about marks for days and stopped mentioning it, sometimes for days and sometimes for weeks. It was a running conversation, something that was never over. They needed to discover each other and to give each other some time.

They asked and answered, smiled and cried. But even a year after Blaine's hospitalisation Kurt still had to ask the question he was fearing the most and Blaine knew what it was, of course he did.

"You should ask me the question, you know." Blaine said one day, Kurt tilted his head to the side and looked over to his boyfriend who was spread over the couch, lazily watching some Italian channel.

"What question?" Kurt wondered, he had some idea what his boyfriend was talking about but he wanted to be sure.

"The question about how I was dead and then I was alive."

"Oh," Kurt simply said, putting his book down, "that one?" The man shrugged like it had not been in the back of his mind for years now.

"Yep. And guess what? I would even answer!" Blaine grinned and scrunched up his nose cutely. Kurt moved to the couch and sat next to him.

"That's very kind of you. "

"I know." Blaine answered, waiting for Kurt to ask or even to look like he wanted to know. "Want me to tell you even though you look like you're about to pass out?"

"I... yeah, please?" Kurt whispered, barely looking at Blaine. The smaller man grabbed Kurt and laid him on himself so they were both lying on the couch. Blaine started to run his hand through Kurt's hair. He was probably the only person that had the right to do that, but he knew that it was a soothing movement and his man needed that.

"It's a little bit complicated but to make it simple I did die, sort of. It's calling brain death. You're technically dead but you are connected to a machine that helps you breathe so your organs still have what they need to survive. The machine helps blood to go through your veins. It's not a coma, it is real death but it's a medical state when doctors can still use some of your organs if you're a donor. You can't wake up from that state. You're not supposed to. But I did, I woke up. "

Kurt frowned and shook his head.

"How?"

"The mark, it saved me." Blaine answered, eyes going to his finger instinctively, where his mark had been before.

"My doctor told me that the mark is the representation of our bond. And that night, after being attacked it saved me. Because we were making our bond strong even before knowing each other. Apparently when I felt it warm, it was not just a dream, it was actually you, touching it or thinking about me or I don't know, taking care of me? I felt it for years, I felt you for years before the accident happened. The doctor said that you saved me by caring so much for that mark and for me. That the fact that we sort of communicated with each other through the mark made our bond grow and it saved me by using whatever power it held. I guess I asked a little too much of it, which is why it got crossed. Because I died and used it all to survive."

Blaine finished in a whisper. The doctor that had saved him back then had had a big interest in soulmates and the bond that was created between two people, what it held and what power it had. At that time it was still just a hypothesis but Blaine had read about it years later in a scientific paper. His doctor back then had always said to Blaine that he had nothing to do with his recovery, that he did not save him but his soulmate did.

"You..." Kurt started, not moving and not even looking at Blaine. The musician felt his boyfriend's confusion and incredulity.

"Wait a minute here, okay?" Blaine didn't really wait for an answer and moved off the couch to his room and came back with a big file, papers almost falling out of it.

"What is this, Blaine?" Blaine grinned broadly at him.

"This," Blaine pointed proudly at the files, "is all the scientific evidence that I found about our case. Actually it's mainly research I found in specialized magazines, interviews with professors who have been working on bonds and their effect for years. There is a lot of interesting stuff and among them there are results that show that the stronger the bond is, the more likely it is to save one of the people in the bond when their life is threatened. It also says somewhere that sometimes when the shock is too violent or that the energy needed is too much at once it might have a physical impact. Some people got scars, in some heavy cases one of the two soulmates became deaf or blind and there is a mention of someone getting his marked crossed. Not necessarily because his soulmate was dead but because the bond had to close itself to prevent it from using too much energy from the bond and the other soulmate and kill them both. Apparently it's a way of protecting the two people in the bonding."

Kurt didn't say a thing and took the offered files, he looked through all the articles, barely reading it and mainly just looking at the title.

He would have trusted whatever Blaine had told him but having scientific proof that it had happened to other people, that it was somehow almost rationalized made him feel better. He felt a little less alone. It was still big and scary and Kurt would probably need a few days to get his head around it but it was a start.

"When did you research all that?" Kurt wondered in confusion. He knew Blaine's room, he knew where the man stocked his socks and underwear, where he tried and failed to hide his toys but Kurt had never seen the file before. Blaine smiled shyly and wiggled his finger.

"I... I started the day after I got out of the hospital? Adam was a great help though, I would've never been able to find all this by myself." Blaine rushed out, afraid of what the designer might say.

"The day after you... Blaine, you were weak and tired and... Blaine!" Kurt argued weakly. It was no use saying anything now, it had been a year since Blaine had been out of the hospital and obviously he had recovered just fine.

"I thought it would help you see that you were never alone in this, no matter how you felt, there was always someone, somewhere, that was going through the same thing and understood you, someone that was thinking about you even if you couldn't feel me anymore."

Kurt looked down, overwhelmed. It was too much and almost perfect. It was Blaine being Blaine and Kurt wouldn't want to have it another way.

Kurt read through the article all day long, still spread over Blaine on the couch, asking them here and there if he had more information about an article.

"I think it's time we moved in together." Kurt blurted out at the end of the day, surprising them both. They had decided to give themselves time, back to their first conversations. They had decided that they had so many things to sort and to learn about each other but also themselves that they needed a little space, not too much, but still. And so they did, they had found out a little more about the other, they had driven each other crazy and screamed at each other about how infuriating he was only to call him hours later sheepishly or to pop up uninvited with a big bouquet of flowers.

"I... I have a key for you. For when you'll be ready." Blaine admitted, blushing furiously at the admission. Kurt chuckled, of course Blaine would've been ready for him, ready and waiting. It was a theme for them apparently.

They still hadn't gotten any mark back. It was still lingering in the back of their minds but they never brought it up. They were together, they loved each other and it was all the proof they needed.

"Daddy! My bow is falling! Look, it's not pretty at all." The little boy yelled through the apartment, pointing furiously at the bowtie that was hanging limply around his neck.

"Come here, Jules. What did Papa do to you? He helped you with it, right?"

"Yeah he said that it looked cool on Uncle Blaine and that I should have one too for today but now I look like a clown and I don't like clowns. They're scary. "

Nick kissed his son's forehead and adjusted the bowtie so he would look as cool as his uncle. The brunette put his son in front of the TV and made his way to the bedroom. And just like he had predicted Jeff was struggling in front of the mirror with his own bowtie.

"Nicky! These things are evil! Like pure evil, it's a spawn of Satan!" The man furiously said just like his son did before, and pleaded with a pout. "Please help me?"

They all had to meet up for Adam and Sebastian's monthly brunch. Sebastian hated having people over but Adam loved it so god only knew why Sebastian agreed just for the sake of making his soulmate happy. This time Jeff had decided that his son and he had to wear bowties. He couldn't pull it off to save his life but Nick found it cute that he tried.

When they finally fixed the bow and got their son into the car they drove to the house where all their friends were waiting. Jules was fidgeting in his seat and whining and little, but the two parents only thought it was because he wanted to get out of it and go play with the other children.

When they finally got to the house they were greeted by an already bored Sebastian and a chuckling Adam.

"Apparently Kurt's spawn decided to get her mark today. She is louder than her dad, and Kurt is a screamer." Adam shook his head a little at his husband's words and put a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"I thought that Lizzie was Blaine's biological daughter?" Jeff asked, a little confused.

"They had to mix things up!" Sebastian added angrily.

"Love, you'll see when our baby gets her mark." Sebastian looked sharply at his soulmate and pointed furiously at nothing in particular.

"She is never getting a mark, she is not allowed to grow up, she is a little princess and she is staying like that! Vic, you're not allowed to grow up." Sebastian ordered a little too passionately to his daughter who just rolled her eyes and answer with a Smythe branded smile.

"Yes, Daddy!"

The four adults openly laughed at that and finally Blaine and Kurt entered the room, Lizzie in tow. Jules immediately beamed at her and scooted closer to kiss her cheek.

"'Lo Lizzie." Jules greeted shyly and the little girl blushed furiously.

Blaine took Kurt's hand and brushed his fingertip over the mark, Kurt's mark. When they had finally got them back, when life finally accepted to give them back what should've been theirs for years, well let's say that life once again decided to change things a little. Blaine got Kurt's name on his chest above his heart when Kurt got his on his wedding finger. At the exact same place the other had had his mark previously.

Blaine looked up to Kurt and squeezed it gently, knowing perfectly what was going to happen next.

"Nick, Jeff. Lizzie just got her mark." Kurt started. Jeff didn't let him finish. Apparently saying soulmate's names was his thing.

"Does it say Jules Sterling-Duval?" The blond yelled, looking between the Hummel-Anderson members of the family.

"Oh for fuck's sake, boys. Kids, don't say that!" Suzie warned, waving her hand in the air, "Just give me some alcohol, this brunch is too boring to stay sober!"