Kurt was standing in front of his mirror, putting on the different choices of outfit he had in front of him to examine them, switching between two pants or two shirts, until something caught his eyes. He was used to it by now, used to the dark and angry line on his chest, looking like a tattoo that had gone wrong. The line was so thick that the name underneath was completely unreadable. It had been four years since the fateful night, four years of feeling helpless and hopeless when no other name had appeared on his body. Kurt knew that when something happened to your soulmate, when they died, another name was supposed to appear somewhere else on your body. The name of another soul that was bonded to you, that would complement you and was made for you, not as perfectly as your first but still. Kurt didn't have that chance.

All he had was that ugly line on his body. The proof that it didn't matter who he was or how hard he tried he would never be somebody's first choice. He would never be somebody's perfect match. He wasn't made for someone and would never have the possibility of something. Kurt knew he was bound to be left in the morning and that he would never experience the thrill of the first date or the dizziness of a first kiss with his soulmate. He'd had years to come to terms with that. It didn't mean that it didn't sting though.

Angrily he shoved a shirt on himself and stormed out of his room.

"Hey, Pea Brain could you cover yourself? I don't need to see your balls that early in the morning or at any time of the day or night now that I'm thinking about it!"

"I'll put some pants on if you stop bringing some cheap fuck here! I don't need to hear that, man!"

Kurt rubbed his face and made his way to the kitchen, listening without interest to the bickering between his two flat mates. He had no idea how in the world he had found himself in that position but by some really twisted opportunity Puck had become his first flatmate and sometime after that a boy named Sebastian Smythe from Westerville had come to live with them to share the rent. From Kurt's point of view they were both insufferable: bickering all the time, having no sense of privacy and being obnoxious pricks.

Puck was a long-time friend, well if you could call him that. After bullying him for most of his freshman year the man had decided that since his best friend was now Kurt's brother it made Kurt his best friend as well or something along those lines and ever since Puck had made sure to take care of the man. Unfortunately Puck was just like Finn: a big child, and most of the time he just ended up being offensive.

Sebastian, on the other hand, was offensive on purpose. It was his way to communicate with other people. He would call you names, working on your every nerve, and pushed until you wanted to punch him. Those three shouldn't have been paired to live together, to be safe they shouldn't even have been in the same city but they actually managed to share the place without creating too much damage.

Kurt grabbed a mug and tried to pour some coffee into it. When after five minutes his mug remained empty Kurt looked into the pot only to find that not only had his flatmates made coffee but drank all of it.

"Puck, Bas, did you save me any coffee at all?" The two men looked over to Kurt who wore a questioning and desperate look on his face.

"No sorry, dude. I thought you were out already." Puck answered sheepishly.

"Uh oh. K is about to throw a bitch fit, just wait for it!" Sebastian whispered to Puck, warning the other man.

"You've got to be kidding me, Puck! Every Monday and Wednesday I leave the house after you! It's been like that for, what, four or five months now? I make sure that you have some coffee left whenever I know you'll be up after me. Is it that hard for you to use your memory?"

"Look man, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you."

"Fine, whatever. I'll just go to the coffee down the street and grab something before my first class." Kurt closed the cupboard angrily and turned around to exit the room. He put his jacket on and left the two men, who had gotten back to their previous discussion about some non-existent pants.

Kurt walked to the coffee shop, it was a cold and fresh day, people were all wearing beanies and scarves, some fog coming out of their mouth when they were talking. Kurt entered the little shop and placed himself in line to get his drink, once again something caught his eyes. But this time it was a name on the barista's neck.

Most of the time people hid the mark under clothes if they could or covered it with make-up. It was something private and personal. No one was supposed to see the name of your soulmate on your body but him or her. And then again, sometimes when two soulmates found each other they would just leave the mark for everyone to see. It was proof that they had found each other. A pang of jealousy hit Kurt, he didn't know the man and certainly didn't know the name of his soulmate but once again it was something that reminded him that he would never have the chance to discuss the possibility of leaving his mark uncovered because he would never have someone to discuss the topic with.

Kurt bit his lip at that thought and, without a second glance to the barista, placed his order and moved down the line to grab his coffee, a deep frown on his face. Kurt was still deep in thought when he spun around to exit the coffee shop only to violently collide with a strong body.

"Oh for fuck's sake! You've got to be kidding me!" Kurt furiously cursed while trying to wipe the coffee and cream that had ended up on his jacket.

"Can't you just look where you're going? Is it that difficult?!" Kurt spat before looking up to meet deep brown eyes. The man in front of him had yet to say something and looked frozen on the spot. Kurt, startled, stopped cursing for a second and examined the man. He had curly hair and some ridiculous triangle eyebrows; he was barely smaller than Kurt and had his mouth wide open.

"You might want to close your mouth and start apologizing." Kurt snapped the man out of his reverie and immediately the stranger grabbed some tissues to wipe the remaining coffee off Kurt's jacket.

"Oh my god. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going and then you were just here and you just turned around so quickly that I didn't have time to move and..."

"Yeah, okay. Whatever, you're rambling." Kurt pointed out and the man looked down, a small blush creeping on his cheek.

"I'm sorry. Can I offer you another drink?" The man proposed, looking at Kurt through his eyelashes.

"I don't think so, no." And then added, "But, hum, thanks for the offer." knowing he was being rude with the man.

He didn't look at the other person again and instead stepped outside quickly, not noticing the surprise and puzzled look on the other man's face.

A few days later Kurt was working on an online article for Vogue. He had managed to negotiate working there half time so he would be able to follow his course at NYU in fashion. It often meant that he had to work at home and during the weekend to be sure to complete everything but Kurt was glad to be able to do both. He was sitting in the couch, typing like a madman on his keyboard when Sebastian growled, rolled his eyes and bent his head against the cushion of the sofa in a very Gollum style.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." The man repeated, looking anxiously at his phone. Kurt crooked and eyebrow and waited to see if anything else would happened. Barely a minute later another text popped up on Sebastian's phone. It immediately generated another sequence of pleas and growls from the man at the other end of the sofa. Kurt giggled at the sight only to catch Sebastian's attention.

"Stop laughing, Martha Stewart. If I have to suffer so will you!"

"In your dreams, Smythe. Now tell me what this was all about." Sebastian straightened himself on the couch and turned himself to face Kurt.

"You know I was in that preppy school back in Ohio? I was part of the show choir group, the Warblers. Now an old Warbler is trying to guilt trip me into going to see a concert of him and his band in some tacky pub. I hate those guys, they're obnoxiously happy all the time, break into song for no apparent reason and are all too co-dependant on each other. "

"Now I know why you had no friends in high school." Kurt stated before going back to his previous occupation.

"Because I was surrounded by idiots! Thank you, finally someone who gets me, as weird as it is."

"No, because you are a prick. I'm sure they are nice and you're just being condescending as always."

"Oh Betty White, you are so going with me!" Sebastian said typing his answer to the text he had just received.

"You're not going to drag me into some smelly pub where all the men have beer bellies and putrid breath. I have standards, thank you very much." Kurt argued, not looking at his flatmate.

"The only standard you have is that they have to breathe. You're going with me since you seem to think they must have been really nice people in the first place."

Two days later Kurt found himself in a surprisingly not smelly bar with rather good looking people. Kurt looked around, and made his way to his friends who were already taking bets on who Kurt was going to take home that night. He wasn't really proud of it nor was he ashamed. He had learned a long time ago that the only way for him to have a warm body to sleep with was to drag somebody home for a one night stand. Puck and Sebastian had their fair share of it but it was nothing compared to Kurt's.

"So, Bas, where are your friends?" Kurt asked, stopping his friend's conversation about someone in the crowd.

"I don't know, and they are not my friends, they are just ex-classmates that I can't get rid of. I'd be very happy if I didn't have to talk to them at all." The taller man answered.

"You are such a social person; it's heartwarming to see that." Kurt joked as he turned around to see the stage when the lights went out. Seconds later bright projectors lighted up the stage, engulfing the band in a bright light from behind. From the crowd, people were only able to see the silhouette of every member of the band. It was quite an entrance for such a small place.

"Hello people of New York, we are W.A.D and we'll play for you tonight. We hope that you'll like the set. If not, it's alright, we love no matter what." What seemed to be the shadow of the leader said and turned his back to the crowd to say something to his band. Kurt smiled a little at the dorkiness and cheesiness of the introduction and waited to see what kind of song the band had chosen to play. In all honesty Kurt couldn't wait to hear the man sing, the sound of that man's voice was soothing and charming.

All the lights switched on violently and the band immediately started to play, the band members jumping and smiling like crazy.

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want

Fortunately they quickly moved on from the corny songs of old girl bands, playing alternatively some covers or their own songs. Kurt was almost certain that Sebastian had been muttering curses during the whole set, cursing his old classmates. Kurt hadn't been able to look away from the singer, he was oddly familiar and the man had something, beside his stage presence that made him stand out. Kurt brushed that thought away and started to think about how he was going to make a move on the man to get him into bed.

"Stop drooling, K. He won't sleep with you." Kurt looked over at Sebastian who had stopped insulting the band only to pointedly look at Kurt with an evil smirk plastered on his face. "I know what you are thinking, pretty hot, right?" The taller man continued, tilting his head to the stage and to the singer.

"Don't bother, I tried countless times when we were in high school together. He's waiting for his soulmate to show up to pop his cherry. Pity." Kurt frowned and looked back to the stage, he examined the lead member of the group and turned back to his friend.

"I love challenges." Kurt answered, a knowing smirk on his face. Kurt sat on his stool, put his forearms on the counter to lean on it, gazing at the man on stage.

After a few seconds the singer looked over, locked eyes with Kurt and choked a little on his lyrics. Kurt tilted his head and crooked an eyebrow at the man, showing him that he was listening attentively. A blush creeped onto the man's cheeks and once again he missed his cue. The group ended the song and the leader, after taking a gulp of water,started speaking.

"You've all been amazing tonight. It's a pleasure to be here with you!" Kurt rolled his eyes at the politeness but then if the man had been with Sebastian in a prep school it wasn't all that surprising. "I'm Blaine Anderson..."

Kurt didn't hear the rest of his speech, the noise of the bar suddenly stopped and his head started to spin. He had met people before that were called Blaine or Anderson, he had once saw an ad for some doctor called Blaine Anderson. So it wasn't the first time that he had met someone with his name. He didn't want to know anyone that was wearing his name. He couldn't.

Kurt stood up quickly and grabbed his coat, muttering bitterly, "For fuck's sake, what a fucking joke." and then stormed out of the bar.

The man on stage hadn't looked away from him since they locked eyes earlier. The singer had recognized the man from the coffee shop, the one he had spilled coffee on and hadn't been able to stop dreaming of. The man he had talked about over and over again in the past few days. The man he wasn't able to get out of his mind. So when the singer saw Coffee Man storming out of the bar he looked over at his friend, only to see Sebastian shrugging at him like it was nothing.