"It's not working, Quinn," Sebastian snaps, pacing her office while she sits at her desk, with a less than thrilled expression on her face. She seems positively bored, though Sebastian is completely on edge.

"Lunch didn't go well then?" Quinn says. She lifts a hand and inspects her nails before taking a file off of her desk and beginning to smooth them.

"I think Kurt's onto it. And Blaine is still completely in love with Kurt, and he is very firm in his belief that I'm not his soulmate. The game's over."

"You could get a little bit more creative, couldn't you?"

"I don't want to be creative. I want to find out what the hell is going on with this damn soulmate thing so I can stop chasing after Blaine, who is evidently not my soulmate, and get back to whatever it was that was my normal lifestyle. I haven't had sex in three weeks, Quinn! I had to masturbate!"

"A hook up wouldn't kill you."

"I know, I have exclusively hook ups! I don't think I've ever slept with the same guy twice! That's my point exactly; I'm just not myself these days. I'm through with this- I want my best friend back without all the plotting against him and his boyfriend."

"Can't you just make new friends?"

"No! I'm terrible at making friends, because I'm a fucking asshole!"

"Ironic really, that you're gay and a 'fucking asshole'." She laughs at her own joke. Sebastian narrows his eyes at her. He shakes his head, and walks out of her office without saying anything further. Some people just weren't worth his time.

"How much work do you have to do before your deadline?" Kurt asks, as he enters the office and shrugs off his jacket.

"What, no hello?" Blaine replies, spinning his chair around to face the door. Kurt sighs but walks over and perches on Blaine's lap, looping his arms around his neck. Blaine smiles beneath Kurt's kiss.

"Hello," Kurt mumbles against his lips.

"Hey," Blaine replies, "how was lunch?"

"Interesting."

"How so?"

"I was hit on in song form."

"...by Sebastian?" Blaine clarifies.

"Yeah. But we kind of talked about it, and it really had nothing to do with me. I think it was some crazy scheme he had come up with to prevent us being together or something."

"Oh, wow. Okay. He's that convinced that I'm his soulmate?"

"Something like that. Which is why I asked the question... how much work do you have to finish?"

"Nothing that can't wait." Blaine says, aware that there are more pressing issues at hand.

"Want to help me with a little research?"

Sebastian S. We need to talk. Kurt too.

Blaine A. When works for you?

Sebastian S. Afternoon tea? Dinner tonight? Breakfast tomorrow?

Blaine A. We'll see you at seven at my place.

Sebastian S. Can Santana maybe not be involved today?

Blaine A. She won't be back by then. She doesn't even need to know that dinner happened.

Sebastian S. Thanks, B. Thank Kurt for lunch today, too.

Blaine A. He says you're welcome and not to worry about it.

Sebastian S. He's a keeper.

Blaine A. I count on it.

Kurt takes Blaine down to the lobby of the offices, which feels strange. Kurt explains that they aren't leaving the building, but that they can't get where they need to go by themselves. He walks up to the receptionist and places his hands firmly on the desk. "Can I help you?" She asks, though she doesn't sound enthusiastic or helpful.

"Yes, I need access to the tenth floor."

"Aren't you one of those fashion people?" She says, looking Kurt up and down judgementally.

"Yeah, which is why I need your help. Can you call Sam Evans for me, please?" He asks. The receptionist rolls her eyes but does as she is asked.

"He'll be down to meet you right away." Kurt thanks the receptionist and leads Blaine to the back of the lobby, waiting for the elevator to arrive. There is a familiar ding and the doors open, and a young blond man, who is more or less their age step out.

"Hey, man," Sam greets, pulling Kurt into a hug, "I thought it would be you. No one else visits our floor without an appointment."

"Sorry about that. Desperate times." Kurt replies.

"Who's this?" Sam asks, turning to Blaine, though he grins suggestively at Kurt.

"I'm Blaine," he introduces, offering his hand to Sam, "Kurt's boyfriend."

"And soulmate?" Sam asks. Kurt and Blaine both nod, smiling at each other. "Good, it shows. Then what's so desperate?" Sam steps back into the elevator and they follow. He swipes his card and hits the tenth floor button.

"I don't even know what's on the tenth floor." Blaine admits. His question goes unanswered.

"Our friend Sebastian is completely misguided and I need some help to figure out what's going on, and you seemed like the most logical and useful source." Kurt explains. The elevator doors open and they all step out. The general layout of the floor is similar to that of the Mode D'Etoiles levels, though it seems totally different. Sam leads them through to his office and they sit down.

"So," Sam starts, "I'm Sam Evans, I went to high school with this one," he gestures at Kurt, "and now I work here at the SSF." Blaine looks no less puzzled, so Sam continues, "Soulmate Services Foundation, that is. You two are lucky in that you found each other with relatively few problems, considering you're here together, but not everyone is like that. We try to fix as many of those problems as we can." Blaine nods, thinking that he probably won't understand any more than that.

"Sebastian, our friend, he thinks that Blaine is his soulmate." Kurt says.

"His countdown had a couple of years on it left, and then suddenly it just... dropped. It just hit zero, with no warning. He thinks that I'm his soulmate, because I was entering when he noticed it had stopped. He has gone through some... interesting schemes, recently, and we just want some answers so he can move on. I love the guy, he's one of my best friends, but I can't be what he's looking for." Blaine elaborates.

"How do you two feel about the idea that every day events can influence a countdown?" Sam asks.

"I totally agree with it. I've watched it happen. When I began planning to introduce my dad to Carole, his countdown restarted, set for a half hour later. It ended when they met, as I expected, and they're married now." Kurt recounts.

"Good. Because it happens, and I think it happened here. I don't really like personifying the universe, but sometimes she just hasn't considered certain possibilities, and when you nudge her in the right direction all kinds of things happen."

"But if I were Sebastian's soulmate, wouldn't his countdown have ended when we met back in high school? And why is Kurt my soulmate, but I'm Sebastian's?" Blaine asks.

"A, yes, and B, no. The soulmate thing? It only works as a pair exercise. You can't have a one sided soulmate relationship, it defeats the whole purpose. But an everyday event did influence his countdown. The most solid information we have indicates that in these scenarios their soulmates have died, somehow, all very tragically. Sebastian is currently soulmateless."

"Currently? He could still have one?" Blaine questions, squeezing Kurt's hand.

"Now, I'm not making promises, but countdowns have been known to start again, like Kurt said happened with Burt. You can have more than one soulmate, but not at the same time."

"So say, for some reason, though I really, really don't want to bring this up, something happened to Kurt. Could I potentially be Sebastian's soulmate then?" Blaine asks, squeezing Kurt's hand again and trying to flush the thought of anything happening to him from his mind.

"Theoretically. But the universe doesn't always work that way. We don't really have all the answers, which is why we're in a constant state of researching. If you want to send Sebastian here for an appointment, I think we would all benefit from it. I need more case studies." Sam smiles. Blaine is pleased that Kurt had the connections to drag him along, because he really felt like he learnt from it. It helped to him that Sam seemed so genuinely nice, and wanted to help put Sebastian on the right track without even knowing him. "Do you have any more questions?" Sam asks, and the others shake their heads. They need to speak to Sebastian before that happens.

"Thanks, Sam." Kurt says, as they all stand up. Sam walks them back to the elevators. Blaine shakes his hand politely, thanking him for everything, affirming again that it was nice to meet him. Kurt hugs Sam another time. "We really need to catch up more, since you're in the city," Kurt says.

"I know," Sam agrees, "Rachel, too. And Finn, when he visits next."

"The next time Mercedes is in town you two have to have dinner with us, okay? I feel like I haven't seen her in forever. How is she?" Sam grins like an idiot at the mention of his girlfriend.

"She's great. She loves LA, and I'm so proud of her, even if it means she lives all the way across the country." The elevator arrives, Kurt and Blaine say goodbye to Sam again, and they descend to the fifth floor.

"So is he your ex, or..?" Blaine asks. Kurt laughs.

"Oh, god, no. I mean, I totally thought he was gay when he started at McKinley, but no. He lived with us for a while, so he became like another brother, too. It feels silly that we work in the same building and yet we hardly see each other. You aren't jealous, are you?"

"I'm forever jealous of anyone who has known you since high school. It's not fair."

"Hey, high school was crappy for me and you should be pleased you know me now and not then. I've done a lot of growing up." Blaine looks him up and down.

"You mean you got hot?" He replies. Kurt blushes.

"Shut up." Kurt mumbles. Blaine just laughs and takes Kurt's hand, leading him down to their office. He didn't care who saw them, PDA be damned.

The first thing that happens when Sebastian arrives at Blaine's apartment is Sebastian launching himself into Blaine's arms, mumbling apologies. Blaine is sincerely shocked by the action, considering the most physical contact he has ever been offered by Sebastian has been had shakes, discounting every time Blaine turned down a sex offer. "So where are we going for dinner?" He asks, after he lets go of Blaine, who laughs softly and leads the way out of the apartment.

They end up at an Italian restaurant, upmarket enough to please Sebastian and his huge income, but casual enough in presentation that they fitted in without dressing to some code. They sit at a round table, which avoids awkwardness in choosing who sits across from the other two. Conversation seems to stop entirely until the waiter is long gone with their orders.

"Blaine isn't my soulmate," Sebastian starts, "it's the most I have to work with, but I just know it's not the case, and I'm sorry."

"We think we know what happened." Kurt says. He recounts what Sam had told them earlier that afternoon to the best of his ability; that his soulmate had died, whoever they were; that there was every chance his countdown could start again. Blaine helps him out when it comes to rationalising why Blaine can't be his soulmate, though Sebastian already seems to have accepted that for himself. Sebastian is quiet and pensive through the whole explanation, and when Kurt suggests that he goes to talk to Sam for himself, he agrees.

"But seriously guys, I'm so, so sorry." Sebastian apologises again.

"It's okay. I don't think you exactly set out to improve our relationship or anything-" Blaine says.

"It was attempted sabotage, Blaine. I can't even justify it."

"Right, but in the last couple of weeks the whole dynamic of our relationship improved- that's the wrong word, really, but it grew."

"That's not the only thing that grew, hm, Blaine?" Sebastian teases, "About two seconds after I saw Santana calling me I knew you had finally swiped the V card. It's not exactly subtle, Killer. You two can't keep your hands off each other." Blaine and Kurt look at each other for a moment before both smiling down at the table, blushing deeply. Their hands were entwined under the table, after all. Sebastian sighs. "Can we keep our focus on the issue at hand? I'm buying dinner, because it's the very least I can do after... everything. Has Quinn been a little odd lately, or is she always a super bitch? Like, more than me?"

"In all the time I've known her she's been like that, but things got worse after her husband died." Kurt says with a shrug.

"Is that why she wants to split you up?" Sebastian asks.

"Wait, she wants to split us up?" Blaine says.

"Calm your tits, she just thinks you two would work better if you weren't dating or something. But she got involved and facilitated everything she could in order for me to get between you two. And I've quit, now."

"So you were working with Quinn?" Kurt clarifies.

"To begin with she seemed to genuinely care about the soulmate thing, but she just... deteriorated. I don't even know what to think. I wouldn't be surprised if she cancelled my guest pass."

"She was like that with me and Blaine, too," Kurt explains, "I told her I was having coffee with my soulmate and she shut up about it but she just stopped coping, with having a pair of soulmates in her office."

"You should just leave. I could find you a job designing menswear pretty pronto." And he honestly could, in many respects. He was a valued customer, what with all the expensive suits he bought.

"My line is being released in a week, Bas, I can't leave."

"Well that sucks."

"Except for the part where Defying Gravity isbeing sold in a hugely popular E-Boutique, and I get a fabulous launch party." Blaine beams proudly at Kurt.

"Okay, you win, you're successful and it would be stupid to leave when you're about to get a sudden influx of cash."

"Not to mention that this is the first time Quinn doesn't take credit for something I've designed. If I leave now, I contractually leave my line, too, and then she will claim it as her own because she has no morals about that. I've seen it happen to someone else." Kurt says.

"Have you ever reported it to the CEO of the company?" Sebastian suggests, "We could sue her."

"You mean her daddy? That would work so well."

"Oh," Sebastian says, "Well that explains a lot."

"It really does. She is actually fit really well for her position, because she's a good spokesperson and she keeps people on task, but she has very little fashion talent of her own. That's why she needs me." Quinn remains a high point of their conversation, because it is suddenly evident that she is a very large part of the ever growing puzzle. Blaine dreads going in to work the next morning and having to face her, knowing that she tried to break them up. Without Sebastian acting as her puppet, things could only get worse from there.