"So, what did you think of Delaney?" Kurt asked, meeting Blaine's eyes again in a more relaxed and conversational manner.

Blaine frowned in confusion. "Who?"

"Our professor."

Oh, right. They were just in class. Where he was supposed to have been paying attention and not living off in la-la land imagining his and Kurt's life together, getting married and having kids and taking said kids to the pool, and oh why did it have to be the pool because now all Blaine can think about is a shirtless Kurt, throwing his head back and shaking out his wet hair, water droplets rolling down his bare chest, hand bringing a popsicle to his mouth as he closed his lips over it—

"Blaine?"

Blaine shook his head, trying to focus on what was actually happening, and not on how that image affected certain parts of his body. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Wow," Kurt laughed, smiling amusedly at him. "You are something else. Do you always drift off to other places in the middle of conversations?"

"Not really," Blaine muttered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Only when my soulmate is sitting across the table distracting me.

"So it's just me then. Do I bore you?"

Blaine's eyes widened, staring at Kurt dumbly, because that was the furthest thing from the truth. "No, not at all." Kurt didn't say anything just looked at Blaine with a studious expression like he was trying to understand him. Good luck. I don't even understand myself right now. "It's just that…well, to be honest, you're horribly distracting."

God, Blaine couldn't believe he'd just said that out loud. He ducked his head down, grasping his coffee cup by the lid and swirling it around across the table. Maybe if he just stopped looking at Kurt altogether the problem would solve itself. Out of sight, out of mind.

Though if Blaine had looked up, he would have seen the flattered and flirtatious smile playing Soulmate's features. "Oh, I see. My good looks and charisma are too much for you to resist."

The black-haired boy smiled, still not tilting his head up. "You caught me."

This is nice, he thought to himself. It was nice to be able to sit in a coffee shop across from a cute boy and have witty, flirtatious banter. This was one of the many scenarios he'd pictured in his mind for when he finally managed to find himself a boyfriend.

Whoa, slow down there, Sparky. You just met the kid today, don't jump the gun.

"In that case, daydream away. Just please check in every now and then to make it seem like you're at least half-listening. I may not be as needy and whiney as a girl, but I do enjoy having more than a one-sided conversation every once in a while. You know, I ask questions, like how you liked our professor, and you respond coherently. Simple human stuff."

Blaine chuckled, finally daring to look Kurt in the eye again.

And crap.

No! Focus, Blaine. It's game time. If you want Soulmate to actually be with you at some point, you gotta step your game up.

"I think I can handle that."

"Good." Kurt was still smiling at him, the light catching in his eyes and making them shine beautifully, like a stained glass window.

I could see myself staring into those eyes every day for the rest of my life, Blaine found himself thinking. It was that moment that Blaine realized just how perfect his nickname, Soulmate, really was for Kurt. Day one, and he was already starting to fall.

…

"Blaine, is that you?" a familiar voice called from the kitchen.

He shut the door behind him and kicked off his shoes on the mat, dropping his backpack down next to them. "Yep. You in the kitchen?"

"Yes, now get your butt in here and help me. I've been slaving over a hot stove all day." Blaine shot Laurel a disbelieving look as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, hugging her in greeting. "Alright, maybe not all day. I might have just been boiling water and stirring the spaghetti noodles and sauce occasionally for the past 10 minutes."

"Sounds more like it."

Blaine rested his head in the crook of her neck and closed his eyes, sighing contentedly. Biology was just as much of a drag as English, and still just as distracting with Kurt sitting directly beside him. Increasingly so every time Kurt decided to slip him little notes commenting on the strange things their professor was doing or the heinous outfits various other students in the classroom were wearing. The remainder of the conversation in the coffee shop had flowed easily, the two chatting amicably as if they were two old friends reuniting. Which, in a way, Blaine supposes, they kind of were. The more he spoke with Kurt, the more he began to remember tidbits of information about him from the intel Wes insisted on gathering on their competition before he graduated.

When they had run out of time at the coffee shop and needed to go to class, it only made sense that since they knew each other now, they'd sit next to each other. Blaine had to admit, he was kind of super thrilled that he'd met Kurt that day. Now he had someone to talk to during his summer classes to make them interesting. And Kurt? Yeah, he'd definitely make things interesting.

"Hello? Earth to Blainers?"

Blaine grumbled, nudging his cousin's head not-so-gently with his own.

"A-ha, that got your attention. Stop sleeping on me while I'm trying to cook."

"There are other ways to get my attention than using that awful nickname."

"Please enlighten me, then. While you're at it, though, make yourself useful and shred the Parmesan cheese."

"No."

"Don't make me say it again."

Blaine instantly perked up, disentangling himself from his cousin and moving to the counter next to the stove. He picked up the block of cheese and grater already set out and began shredding onto the plate previously placed right below them.

"That's what I thought. Now, tell me about your first day of college classes."

He had to think about how to answer this question. It seemed simple enough, he could just say boring and move on with the conversation, but his day had been anything but boring. Kurt turned what would have been a horrible day into an intriguing one. The question was, did he want to tell Laurel about Kurt already?

Laurel had always been okay with Blaine's sexuality, that wasn't the issue. The sheer fact that she'd taken him in when no one else in the family wanted to when he came out was evidence of her acceptance. She'd provided him with a roof over his head, food in his stomach, a second chance. She had stuck by him throughout the whole Trevor Incident, when even his own parents didn't. In short, if there was anyone Blaine would tell about Kurt, it would be her. So why was he hesitating?

Because they hadn't talked about boys in this light since the Trevor Incident.

Well, Blaine figured, now was as good a time as any to start. "I met a boy."

Laurel's eyebrows shot up and she dropped the little spoon in the pot of spaghetti sauce. "Shit," she mumbled, reaching in with just her index finger and thumb and plucking it out delicately, reminding Blaine of the way Kurt had picked up his pen earlier, twirling it effortlessly. The blonde turned around to the sink to rinse the spoon off and spoke again. "You met a boy."

"I did."

The cheese was fully grated now, so Blaine set the grater down on the counter beside the plate and started grabbing pinches of it off the mountain, dropping it into his mouth to eat. Luckily, Laurel was otherwise engaged, or she would have swatted his hand away.

"Does this boy have a name?"

And this is where it gets tricky.

"Soulmate," Blaine said instantly. Crap.

Laurel turned slowly, eyeing Blaine suspiciously. "You met a boy…named Soulmate."

"Or, you know, he also goes by Kurt. Probably more Kurt. In fact, when you meet him, you should probably refer to him as Kurt. And not mention the Soulmate thing."

Blaine could tell by her face that if his cousin had been eating or drinking something at that moment, she would have choked. "I'm sorry, when I meet him?"

At first, Blaine didn't see the problem. Then he thought about it, and realized the implications. That, on top of the fact that this was the first boy he'd felt the need to tell Laurel about in years, and that he'd accidentally let his special nickname for him slip, and Blaine was digging himself a mighty deep hole. Curse Cady Heron's word vomit.

"Okay, dinner is almost ready, so we're going to finish it up, get our plates, sit down at the dinner table, and you're going to thoroughly explain the Kurt Situation to me."

He grimaced, not liking the parallel between the names of the Trevor Incident and Kurt Situation, but nodded anyway. While Laurel finished with the noodles, doing last minute stirring and draining them, then adding butter, Blaine got down two plates for them, setting a fork down on each. They moved around each other in the kitchen and dining room in silence, fixing up their plates with their spaghetti exactly how they liked it.

By the time they were both seated at the table, ready to dig in, Blaine was suddenly nervous. Why? he asked himself. It's not a big deal. He's just telling Laurel about the events of the day. That's all he has to do. If he refrains from letting his inner monologue spill out, then he's in the clear.

"Alright, start."

"So I get to my class and start doodling on my paper waiting for the professor when I drop my pen. Before I can even move, this boy—"

"Soulmate."

"Kurt, leans down and picks it up for me. He gave it back to me, but he recognized me from the Warblers because he was in the show choir at McKinley."

"The school with the kickass cheerleading team?"

"The very one. We got to talking, realized we had some things in common, so we grabbed coffee after class. It turns out, we both had biology together too, so we sat by each other in that class and passed notes all hour."

"How mature of you." Blaine rolled his eyes, finally twirling the spaghetti on his fork to take his first bite, finished with the conversation. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy. "Uh, hello? Continue, please? If you're calling him your soulmate and already introducing him to me in your mind, obviously there's a lot more to the story than that."

"Alright," he sighed. "We flirted a little."

"You flirted? You, Blaine Anderson, flirted?"

"He started it."

"Oh, did he now?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I barely knew the kid two seconds before he was turning on the moves. In fact, I hadn't even spoken yet."

Laurel choked out a laugh around her mouthful of noodles. "I'm sorry, how does that work? Did he just lean over and say, 'Hi, my name is Kurt, I'm gay and you're cute.'?"

"No," Blaine retorted, slightly indignant. "I was caught off guard, okay? It took me a second to…collect my thoughts, before I could remember speech."

"Wow, the boy must've been hella-cute."

"Oh, you have no idea." He sighed dreamily, closing his eyes and conjuring a mental picture of Kurt in his mind, not nearly as beautiful as the real deal. "He's the most gorgeous person I've ever met. Sorry, Laurel, but he's even got you beat. And you know you're the looker in the family. God, he has these eyes, and at first glance, they're just this electric blue. But then you look closer and you see all these random flecks of so many other colors. Brown, green, gold, all swirled in there, looking like one of those paintings you like.

"And his voice. Laur, I swear, it's the most perfect sound I've ever heard in my life. I could listen to him talk all day long. I can only imagine what his singing voice is like. Even his laugh is musical, and it gave me chills just to have a simple conversation with him. His face is flawless, too. His bone structure is just to die for, and his skin is this lovely pale shade. Not in a bad pasty way, though, but in a porcelain doll way. That's exactly what he is. A perfect porcelain doll. It has to be biologically impossible for someone to just naturally be born that way."

By the time he's finished, Blaine doesn't even realize that he's started rambling, and he's more talking to himself than his cousin.

When he remembers that he was still supposed to be interacting with another person, he's a little hurt by the expression on said person's face. Laurel isn't smiling sweetly at his lovey-dovey rambling, and she isn't laughing softly at his silliness; instead, her eyebrows are knit together, and her mouth is pulled in a sad, taut line.

"Whatever it is you have to say, I don't want to hear it."

She sighs. "Blaine—"

"No. Don't. I won't let you ruin this for me. I only just met him today, it's not a big deal. You know me, I blow everything up in my mind. This really is not that big of a deal. We'll probably just keep each other company in our horrible classes this summer and part ways, then never see each other again…" Blaine trails off, realizing mid-way through how untrue that would be.

"Spill." Darn. He was so wishing Laurel hadn't caught that.

He squirmed a little in his chair. "He, uh…He's a music major, like me."

"That doesn't matter at community college, Blaine. You guys are just taking basics."

"At NYU," Blaine clarified. "He's a music major at NYU, starting in the fall. Like me."

Laurel sucked in a breath. "No, he's not."

"I swear to whatever you believe in that he is. And I know what you're gonna say, Laur, I know it, but just wait. Look at what's happening. Take out your own biased opinions based on my past and just look at the facts of today. What are the odds that we would both go to the same community college in Ohio to take the same summer basic classes before both going to NYU in the fall, both in the music program? Think about it." He paused a minute, letting his cousin and himself absorb the true value of the situation. "Do you not see what's happening? I know why you're skeptical, but come on. This is different. This is so clearly meant to be. Stuff like this doesn't just happen."

"No," she whispered. "It doesn't."

They sat in silence again, staring at their plates but not eating. Who could eat at a time like this?

Blaine's entire body was humming with energy. Nervous energy, excited energy, anticipatory energy. His being was absolutely thrumming with so many emotions all running together in a way he'd never felt before. This felt big, like something was coming.

Yes, Blaine thought, something's coming.

He just hoped it turned out to be good.

…

It wasn't until later that night that Blaine finally cracked his notebook open again. He'd been planning on taking the syllabi out of the pocket and copying the schedules of assignments for his two classes in his planner so he'd always be on the same page in class, regardless of whether he was there (physically or mentally) or not. Then, something caught his eye.

He looked at the first page, tracing his fingers over the music notes he'd doodled in the corner, then trailed over to the other side of the page. Somehow, after he met Kurt, his absent-minded doodles had transformed themselves from music notes, to hearts.