Blaine left Saturday night, Rachel early Sunday morning; and Kurt moped all that day.  He knew he was being ridiculous throwing a pity party because he had the apartment to himself, but he wished he could have gone too. Things did not seem any brighter when Blaine called.

“Hey Sweetheart, how’s your trip?” Kurt answered the phone, suddenly happy when he saw Blaine's name on the screen.

“Hey,” Blaine replied sounding tired. “Um- I don’t know, things are weird and now I wish I hadn’t come.”

A flare of panic and a need to protect shot through Kurt, “What happened honey? What is it?”

“God, I don’t want to talk about it, not over the phone.” Blaine sighed and then lowered his voice to whisper. “I wish you were here.”

“Me too Sweetie.” He wanted to leap through the phone and hold Blaine. He sounded so worn out and sad. “If there is anything I can do please let me know.”

“Can you make it be Friday yet?” Blaine asked.

“If only I could.”

The week crawled by, Kurt grew more worried as the week progressed, Blaine always sounded as if the weight of the world were upon him and he hadn’t heard from Rachel at all. He did practice, needing something to help distract him.  When Elliot called asking him to be his wingman for yet another of Draco’s shows though Kurt begged out. The only thing keeping him from running to Ohio was Blaine’s promise that he would come straight to Kurt’s from the airport.

When Kurt open the door he couldn’t resist the urge to pull Blaine into his arms. His hair was loose and tangled as if he had been running his hands through his curls and his eyes were sad and tired.  He only pulled away long enough to bring in his suitcase and pull Blaine to his bedroom.

“Come here and let me hold you” Kurt said sitting against his headboard.

Blaine fell into his embrace snuggling down and clutching on to Kurt as if he were a lifeline. “Do you want to talk about it now?” Kurt asked after he could bear the silence no longer.

“My mom found her soulmate,” Blaine mumbled into Kurt's chest.

“What?” Kurt asked not sure he had heard correctly.

“My mom found her soulmate because she and my dad weren’t.  Dad he- I grew up knowing they weren’t and my mom said she loved him so it didn’t matter to her, but I always thought she said that for my sake. I have a half brother, my dad's son, and he used to come stay with us for the summer and I don’t think she wanted me to grow up fighting for my dad’s affection like Copper felt he had to. I think she was happy and my dad was always working so it was just us anyway- except when Cooper was around. You know he hated my dad for leaving his mom, they weren't soulmates either, but Cooper wanted him to love him.”

Blaine shifted and Kurt just held on to him.

“When I came out, my dad was pissed at first and then he just ignored it, like if he didn’t acknowledge it was a thing it wouldn’t be.  When I was marked the summer after I turned 16. He said- he said he wouldn’t have some faggy sub for a son. Said I couldn’t be a real man if-” Blaine shuddered and fell silent.

“Oh Blaine, that’s awful. I’m so sorry.” Kurt said soothing circles on Blaine's back.

“My mom left then. She said she wouldn't have him speaking to me that way. He still paid her alimony and child support like he did for Coop and his mom, but he refused to pay for private school anymore. I haven't seen him since.”

Blaine kept his face buried in Kurt's chest but was quiet.

“Blaine honey, you know that none of that is your fault. Right? I mean no offense, your dad sounds like an asshole but you didn't make your mom stay. There had to have been something that kept her there and not just you. If anything it sounds like you gave her the courage to leave.”

Blaine looked up at Kurt with wide sad eyes, “What if she could have found her soulmate before, what if she could have been happy years ago.”

“They say we meet our soulmate when we are supposed to. I wish like hell I could have found you before anyone could have hurt you. If I could have saved you from him I would have.  We always want to save the ones we love from mistakes and being hurt, but sometimes that is what makes us grow.”

Blaine’s breath hitched. “I guess you're right.”

“So what did your mom say?  Did she blame you for this?”

“No,” Blaine gave a sad laugh, “she said she wanted to tell me something, said she had met a man. They actually met online on one of those dating websites.” Blaine laughed again. “They had been talking for a while and he flew out to meet her a couple of weeks ago. She said it was love at first sight and before the end of the week they had shown each other their marks. She’s moving in a couple of weeks.”

Kurt rubbed Blaine's back soothingly. “Sweetie, this is a good thing, you know?  I mean unless she is moving to like Siberia”

“New Haven, he’s a professor at Yale.” Blaine said.

“So your mom is going to be just a train ride away?  All the comfort food your could ever want? And I am sure this guy is going to love you, not only because it is impossible not to, but because you are your mom’s son and no soul mate of hers wouldn’t accept you. I speak from experience remember.”

Blaine sounded so small,  “But my own dad didn't even like me, why should some stranger.”

“As I said your dad is an asshole, and if he didn’t love and accept you, then he wouldn’t be your mom's soul mate. It doesn’t work that way.” Kurt paused waiting to see if Blaine was going to protest anymore, but he seemed to have accepted what he had said, then he asked, “What else did you do all week?”

Blaine sighed again, but this time it wasn’t the heart wrenching sigh from earlier, just tired. “I helped my mom pack and went through my stuff in the attic. It was hard, I forgot some of the things I had put up there. I found a box of pictures and things from Sebastian, the guy. Looking back I don’t know why I let him treat me the way he did.”

“Sounds like you were going through a tough time, we all do things we regret when we are hurting. ”Kurt said thinking back to his own destructive behaviour.

Blaine kissed Kurt’s chest. “I think I just wanted so desperately to be loved that I didn’t let myself see him for what he really was. I just- I didn’t know things could be like this.”

“I love you,” Kurt whispered kissing the top of Blaine’s head tenderly. “So what did you do with the stuff?”

“Burned it,” Blaine laughed genuinely. “I think my mom thought I was crazy standing in the back yard laugh-crying next to a flaming box- once I explained what it was she took the lighter fluid from me and gave it another squirt.”

“I think I like your mom already,” Kurt chuckled.

“I told her about you,” Blaine admitted. “She wants to meet you.”

Kurt smiled, “Well it’s a good thing she is moving so close. My parents know all about you too and can’t wait to meet you. My dad said May can’t come soon enough.”

“When-” Blaine started.

“They are coming for the Senior Showcase and staying until after graduation.” Kurt could feel Blaine’s nervous tension. “They will adore you, they already do; you make me happy and that is enough for them.”

“Good,” Blaine breathed, “You make me happy too Kurt.”

When Rachel returned the next day, she didn’t speak about her week back in Ohio . Kurt didn’t want to push.  He did notice that she carried herself with more ease than he had seen in almost three years.

Blaine couldn't put the ring on his finger yet, he just sat staring at the beautiful blue lines entwining round his finger.  He belonged to someone, with someone, someone was going to love him more than anything else.

He heard a door slam downstairs and knew his dad was home.  More and more often his parents fought, usually his name being thrown in.  He hated it.  He didn't know how his mom could stand staying with him knowing her soulmate was out there somewhere, waiting. It was all his fault, he knew it, even if his mom always assured him it was her choice.

Blaine stroked lightly at the mark vowing to his Dom, wherever he was that he would find him and never commit himself to anyone that wasn’t him.  His bedroom door burst open and his father stood there looking ready to actually compliment him until his eyes fell on the blue mark on his finger.

“Your mother said you were getting your mark.  She called me home from the office.  For this? You going to fall to your knees for some girl?”  He asked, annoyance clear in his harsh voice.

“No,” Blaine said feeling defiant tired of his father’s refusal to acknowledge his sexuality. “I will be falling on my knees for some man.”

The rage on his father's face morphed to disgust, “I will not have a filthy cocksucker, a faggy sub as a son. Real men don't take it up the ass , real men aren't fucked, they fuck. I don’t care what you have to do but it isn’t going to happen.”

“I’ll tell you what isn't going to happen,”  Blaine’s mother’s voice said quietly from behind him before stepping in the room, “You are not going to talk to my son that way. I have waited hoping that you would come to your senses about everything, but this is the last straw, I don’t know how I used to love you. You will leave this house and never come back.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” His dad seethed.

“I am the woman who has stayed by you for the last eighteen years and the woman who will gladly take you to court just like the last woman you fathered a child with. You will provide for me and your son until he has graduated college. Or we could let the courts decide.”

“Fine, have it your way,” he said making it out the door, “but I refuse to send him back to that homo boarding school. Public school is good enough for him.”

Blaine slipped the ring on his finger.  How could anyone love him, cherish him, own him like he yearned for if his own father didn’t even like him?

His mother held him as he cried, her tears wetting his hair.