It had all happened so fast and Blaine was still trying to wrap his head around it. There was more than one reason why he was suddenly in this situation.

Firstly, Blaine had endured countless harassment from Sebastian over the course of their freshman year of high school. The boy not only kept trying to get into his pants, but he kept trying to force the name of Blaine's soulmate out of him and Blaine didn't think he wanted to know why, though he had an idea that it had something to do with getting rid of the competition.

When Blaine's parents had learned what Sebastian was doing, they had taken legal action. Technically, trying to force someone to tell you who their soulmate was with both verbal and physical advances was against the law and since Sebastian was a Dom, his assertiveness was much more forceful.

In the end, Sebastian had been shipped back to his parents in France but Henry and Gillian still weren't sure about having Blaine continue school at Dalton, though he loved it, especially singing with the Warblers.

It seemed that Blaine was going to get his wish to stay, until his father suddenly fell ill. He got so sick over the summer, he had to quit his job and the Andersons were forced to move to Lima where living was cheaper. So, Blaine had to say good-bye to Dalton because without his father's income, his parents could no longer afford to send him there. It was back to public school for Blaine.

With his dad's health rapidly deteriorating, Blaine knew he couldn't complain. He held his head high. It was with this attitude that he arrived at McKinley High School for the first day of his sophomore year.

"Kurt!" Blaine suddenly heard someone shout. Wait, did they just say Kurt? The curly haired boy peaked under his wrist cuff at the name of his soulmate.

He looked up to see a dark skinned girl running toward a tall slender boy with pale skin and perfectly styled hair. He as impeccably dressed and Blaine felt his heart beat out of his chest. Could this be his Kurt? His soulmate? But then as the boy hugged the girl, Blaine caught a glimpse of his bracelet.

He was a Dom.

The fifteen year old sighed and glanced down at the ground. This Kurt couldn't be his Kurt. He was a Dom. And he was hugging the dark skinned girl. She was probably his Sub. How could he even have hoped that this beautiful pale boy was gay?

Scolding himself for jumping to conclusions, Blaine started toward the front of the school and as he passed the two of them, he caught a snippet of their conversations.

"I found him Kurt!" the girl squealed. Blaine could just make out the fact that she had her wrist cuff removed. She had found her Dom, her soulmate Dom. Once the cuff was on, one was not allowed to remove it permanently until they found their soulmate. It was at this moment that Blaine noticed Kurt still had his wrist cuff on. His heart leaped up into his throat. So he wasn't this girl's soulmate. Blaine stayed frozen to his spot.

"You did?" Kurt replied, slightly sad. Blaine found himself falling in love with the boy's high pitched angelic voice. But he hated that he sounded so sad. He wondered why.

The girl grinned, apparently oblivious to the slight hurt in Kurt's voice. "Yes! He's a year younger than me, Sam I mean. He's new to McKinley though. He and his family just moved to Ohio."

Kurt's eyes widened. "Your Dom was from another state?" he asked in surprise and the girl nodded her head vigorously. "Huh," he said to himself, clearly wondering if he might have the same situation.

Blaine finally snapped out of his trance, noticing how ridiculous he would look just standing there staring at them if they noticed he was there at all. He decided to throw caution to the wind and figured, what was the harm in getting to know this Kurt?

"Excuse me," he said, walking up to them with a bright smile. Kurt and the girl turned to look at them. "Hi," he went on, still smiling. "I don't mean to interrupt but I'm new here and I wondered if either of you might be able to show me around?" Well, that was random.

Kurt stuck out a hand for Blaine to take and smiled at him softly. Now that he was up close, he could see the bursts of color that swirled in the taller boy's eyes. A stunning mix of blue, green, and grey.

"I'm Kurt and this is Mercedes," Kurt said.

"Devon," Blaine said, wondering why the hell he'd just given his middle name. He cringed slightly, hoping Kurt didn't notice.

Kurt just smiled. He was about to ask if Blaine was a freshman when he noticed the wrist cuff that clearly indicated he was not. He was apparently just a new student, like Mercedes' Sam.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Devon." Blaine noticed the slightest spark in Kurt's eyes as though something clicked. He decided to throw caution to the wind.

"I hope you don't mind my giving you my middle name. I don't normally use my first," he said, cringig slightly at the lie. Why did he just lie like that? "I mean, I do but…um…I don't know," he tried to fix. This was already a disaster and Blaine wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there. If this Kurt was his soulmate - which was unlikely seeing as he was also a Dom - he had just made a fool of himself in front of him.

To his surprise, Kurt chuckled. "Let me guess, bad history at your old school do you needed a fresh start?" he asked. Blaine hadn't even thought of that but Kurt had just saved him by presenting an excuse for him.

"Something like that," he replied with a smile. Relief older through his very being.

Mercedes, who had remained quiet through the exchange, whispered something in Kurt's ear, smirking slightly and Kurt's eyes went wide. Blaine didn't miss the unmistakable glance to the cuff on his wrist and watched Kurt's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed slowly. Did that mean something? What had Mercedes whispered to him? Blaine would be lying if he said he wasn't curious.

"Well, I better go," the girl said. "Us Subs get a lot more hash if we're late." She rolled her eyes, gave Kurt's hand a squeeze and walked off.

Blaine frowned. He was not liking the even lower pedestal Subs seemed to be on in public school. Dalton had done everything in its power to make the Subs feel equal to the Doms, while still minding the law that Doms were of a higher priority. McKinley it seemed, didn't have the same concerns.

"Why can't there just be balance?" he asked, without realizing he was speaking aloud as he watched the girl walk off.

Kurt quirked an eyebrow. "Not too big on the non-equality act either?" he asked. Blaine looked at him.

"I have friends who are Subs and yes, they may not be as strong as I am but that doesn't make them any less a person," he said.

Kurt could tell that he was already going to like this boy. They had similar views after all. He had friends that were Subs too. Mercedes being one of them. And then there were his other friends in the Glee Club.

"I agree. I have plenty of friends who are Subs." He shouldered his bag and started heading into the school, gesturing for Blaine to follow him. "Granted, I really only get to see them in Glee Club."

"You're in Glee Club?" Blaine asked, his eyes lightened up as he and Kurt walked on into the school. Kurt gave him another fleeting closed mouth smile.

"Yes. I take it you like singing?" he asked.

Blaine beamed at him. "Love it!" he cried.

Kurt continued smiling. "Great! Meet me after school and you can join me for the first meeting of the year. Maybe audition to get in," he told him. Blaine's smile was so wide, Kurt could see all his pearly white teeth and he had to admit, the boy had a really nice smile. Maybe having a little dating fun before he found his soulmate - as Kurt refused to designate this Blaine Devon Anderson a Sub - wasn't such a bad idea after all. "I'll take that as a yes," he said.

"So, why is Glee Club the only time you get to see your Sub friends?" Blaine asked with a slight frown.

Kurt sighed, and skimmed a hand over his perfectly coifed hair. "Because at McKinley, they even separate us for lunch." Blaine's frown only increased. "Doms have first lunch and Subs have second. It just kind of bothers me because my two best friends are both Subs," he went on. Blaine gave him a sympathetic look.

After the fiasco at the marking ceremony in freshman year, Kurt and Rachel had been walking on pins and needles around each other. Or more like, Rachel had been walking on pins and needles around Kurt. It took some time, but the two of them finally fully reconciled and she and Mercedes were now both his best friends.

Blaine was thoughtful for a moment. "My old school did everything in their power to make us all feel equal while still abiding by the law. Doms and Subs had separate assembly halls. Meals were mixed affairs but Doms were to be served first."

Kurt looked at him for a moment. "Meals?" he asked quizzically.

"Oh! Sorry. I went to a private all boys boarding school," Blaine explained. Kurt was taken aback.

"Wow, isn't it kind of downgrading to leave that kind of environment for a public school?" he asked, stopping at his locker. At McKinley, Doms and Subs had separate halls for lockers so every locker in the hallway they were in right then, belonged to a Dom. The Doms' lockers were kept in mint condition while the Subs had more battered lockers, that were only polished maybe once every couple of years if they were lucky.

Blaine looked at the locker next to Kurt's for a long moment before realizing it was actually his. How lucky was that? "It's really not that simple Kurt," he finally said. Kurt gave him an apologetic look.

"Please tell me," he said, the natural assertiveness accompanied with being a Dom drifting into his words, though he was no less gentle. Blaine looked at him. Being a Dom himself, he had ever right to deny the other boy's request. It was within his power to refuse an order, no matter how gently it was given. He was a Dom, he didn't have to follow orders.

But he decided that he trusted Kurt and he wanted to get closer to him. Was that weird?

"My dad's ill," he said finally. "Too sick to work so he lost his job. And without the well to do money that came from his job, my parents couldn't afford to keep sending me to private school, or keep our house. So we moved here because it's cheaper." Kurt nodded, feeling the bit of sympathy in him grow. "My dad's the Dom so my mom has always taken her rightful duty as the trophy Sub wife. So, she's never worked a day in her life."

Kurt's eyes went wide. It wasn't that Subs weren't allowed to work. They were offered the same job opportunities as Doms but it was more expected of them to just stay home and take care of the house. Most Subs only entered the working world if it was absolutely necessary, like of their Dom had passed away. A prime example of that was Carole Hudson, Finn's mother. Kurt knew this because she was currently dating his father.

Finn's dad, Carole's soulmate Dom, had died not long after Finn was born. Carole had needed to get a job to make ends meet and raise Finn. She was a nurse. She was also very sweet.

"So is your mom going to enter the world of working Subs?" he asked. Blaine shrugged.

"I don't know. I know she knows there might not be any other choice but my mom has never thought she would have to work a day in her life," he admitted. Kurt placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as he grabbed his books and shut his locker.

"Come on, let's go to class. I'll show you how to get to your first one," he told Blaine. Blaine was immediately relieved for the fact that Kurt had dropped the subject.

They walked in comfortable silence for a bit, after Blaine had told him what he had first. Like the locker assignments, there were specific halls for Doms and Subs. Of course the halls for Dom classes were in nicer condition than those for Subs.

Blaine bit his lip. He was still wondering if this was his Kurt. Even though he knew Kurt was a Dom. Hadn't Eric and the Human Relations text said it was possible for two Doms or two Subs to be soulmates? The point was Blaine had felt an immediate connection to the boy. He couldn't explain it and it was just screaming at him that maybe, just maybe, this was Kurt Elizabeth Hummel.

"So um…Kurt," he started.

"Yes Devon?" Kurt replied, looking at him for a moment. Boy did it sound weird to be called by his middle name.

Blaine bit his lip again. "Do you have a middle name?" Kurt was a little caught off-guard by the question. Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been that.

"Oh, um, yes, I do. It's Elizabeth, after my mother," he admitted, suddenly strangely shy. He knew it was weird that his middle name was that of a girl but it had sentimental value to him, especially now because his mother was no longer in his life. "She died when I was eight," he told Blaine quietly.

Blaine, though his heart was now beating rapidly in his chest, managed to look at him with a soft expression. "I'm really sorry to hear that Kurt," he said. His mind was racing a mile a minute. There was no way there could be more than one Kurt Elizabeth in the world, right? Certainly not within five years age difference of himself.

"Don't be. If was a long time ago. I've learned to cope," Kurt replied, pulling Blaine from his thoughts. "And my dad always says no one pushes the Hummels around," he added with a chuckle.

If Blaine's heart had been beating rapidly before, it was stone dead still now. Hummel? Did he just say Hummel? Oh God, oh God, oh God! This boy was Kurt Elizabeth Hummel. This beautiful boy was his soulmate! And he wasn't even a Sub! He was a Dom, just like Blaine. What were the chances?

"Devon?" Kurt questioned, snapping Blaine out of his stupor. "You all right?" He looked genuinely concerned. He was standing in front of a classroom doorway, where certain other kids were pushing past him to get inside.

"I'm fine," Blaine managed to croak out. Kurt looked unsure but decided to let it go.

"Well, this is your first class," he said, indicating the door behind him. "Mine's just down the hall so I'll see you later?"

Blaine nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, see you later," he said, Kurt threw him one more fleeting smile as he turned and strolled down the hallway. Blaine couldn't help but allow his eyes to linger for a moment on the taller boy's ass before he turned to enter the classroom. That was his soulmate. And he was a Dom. Blaine was overwhelmed with emotion.