It was such a little thing, small and unobtrusive, but it held so much weight and importance. Kurt remembers when his mom first told him what it was for. He had been so young he hardly understood.
  
"Everyone has someone in the world that they are suppose to love." His mom had explained. "Someone who will love you back no matter what."

"The way you love me?" Kurt had asked, fingers brushing against the timer implanted into his wrist. 

"I will always love you no matter what, but this." She said tapping the timer with a finger. "This is someone who will love you the way I love your daddy and he loves me. This number right here?" She said and Kurt stuck out the tip of his tongue as he gazed at the steady light. "It gets littler and littler until it goes away, and thats when you meet..."

"Your soulmate." Kurt finished feeling proud that he knew the answer. 

"Thats right." His mommy smiled. "The person you are made to be with."

He had been five when his mom explained, and he knew then that it was important. 

Sometimes he would lay in bed at night, not able to sleep and he would sing songs to his timer. The kind of songs his mommy sang him to help him fall asleep. 

Some of the kids at school said that it was silly to talk or sing to your timer. Your soulmate couldnt hear you, but that never stopped Kurt. He didnt know if his soulmate could hear him or not, but he knew his soulmate could feel him. He knew it before anyone even told him that part of things.

"I dont feel good." A seven-year-old Kurt said one morning as his parents made breakfast.

"Whats wrong bud?" His dad asked. 

"I dont know." Kurt whined. "I feel sick."

His dad came over and placed a hand on his head. "You dont feel warm." He said. 

"Yes I do!" Kurt protested, "I feel hot all over and my throat hurts and and tummy aches."

They took him to the doctor who said that Kurt was fine, not sick at all. 

Kurt was upset, did the doctor think he was lying? 

"But I do feel sick." Kurt said near tears. 

"Oh sweetie." He mom said and pulled him into her arms. "We believe you, the doctor is just saying you dont have a virus or anything... Your soulmate might be sick and so you dont feel good either."

"My... my soulmate?" Kurt asked. 

"Sometimes when your soulmate feels something really strongly you can feel it to." His dad said. 

"Is my soulmate going to be okay?" Kurt asked wide-eyed and a little scared. He didnt want his soulmate to not feel good. 

"Im sure theyll be fine." His mom answered with a smile. "Their parents are probably taking them to the doctor too."

Kurts mom never called his soulmate "him" or "her". Sometimes his dad woulds slip and say something to indicate his soulmate would be a girl, but he mostly kept with the more neutral terms as well. Kurt knew that the other kids in his class all assumed that Kurts soulmate would be a girl. 

"Youre a boy." One of his classmates had said. "So your soulmate will be a girl. Silly."

But Kurt wasnt sure, and his parents didnt seem to be either. But he wasnt worried about it. Whoever they were, they would love him no matter what. 

It wasnt until Kurt was eight-years-old that he learned something else about your soulmate timer. They could stop before you met your soulmate. 

His mom and dad both had blank timers on their wrist. Kurt knew they had counted down until the moment his mommy and dad had met. But when his mom passed away he would lay in bed at night, crying and holding onto his wrist with all of his strength. 

Nothing seemed definite anymore. Nothing certain. He had always known that he would meet his soulmate someday, just like he knew that his mom and dad would always be there for him. But now his mom was gone. 

He climbed into bed with his dad one night and felt his strong arms wrap around his little frame. "I miss mommy." He said through tears, and could feel his dads body tense. 

After a long moment his dad spoke, tears in his own voice, "I miss her too."

"I don want to lose anyone else. Not you or... or my soulmate or anyone." Kurt hadnt met his soulmate yet, according to his timer he still had around 3000 days left, but he felt like his soulmate was a part of him and the fear of losing someone else was too much. 

"People dont ever lose their soulmates before they even meet them do they?"

His dad let out a soft sigh and then answered, "Yes, sometimes." 

Kurt scooted back and looked his dad in the face. He looked tired and sad. 

"No. But the timer!" 

"Sometimes bad things happen and they can make your timer go blank before you met your soulmate, when that happens it means... it means they died."

"No." Kurt repeated and started to cry. 

His dad pulled him close, his big hand rubbing back and forth across his back. "Hey buddy, dont worry. Your soulmate is fine, youre going to met them. Its okay."

"I... I dont want to lose anyone else." 

"You wont" His dad said with so much determination that Kurt had to believe him. 

Kurt came out to his dad when he was 13. It was an accident. They were on the couch watching High School Musical when Kurt let it slip by mistake. 

"I wonder if my soulmate likes musicals." Kurt said as he ran a finger over his timer. "I hope he does." Then he froze. "I mean... I mean they. My soulmate. Her... or whatever..."

He looked up at his dad with his heart in his throat. His dad just chuckled. 

"Im sure if he doesnt like musicals you can change his mind." His dad had said, and that was that. From that day on they both said "him" instead of "them".

Having a soulmate that was your same gender wasnt unheard of, but it was still looked down on by some of the more conservative areas. Lima, Ohio being among them. But Kurt held his head high, even though the teasing grew as he did. 

People made fun of him for being gay, told him that his soulmate wasnt a real soulmate if it was another boy, that his timer was just counting down to an abomination. 

The words hurt, but Kurt didnt let them get him down.

Somewhere out there was a boy who was going to love Kurt unconditionally, a boy who was made to love Kurt. 

He would rub his thumb over his timer or hold it close to his heart and ignore the hateful things people said. They didnt matter anyway.