Blaine rolled over on his bed and growled at the offending noise across the room. When he had learned that he could program different ring tones according to the time of day, he had been absolutely thrilled, and gone, as Cooper liked to say, 'bizzzzerk' in his quest to find the perfect ring tones to score his day.

At nine in the morning on a Saturday when he'd been up long past midnight the night before, the thrill factor was a little lacking.

"Make it stop..."

He swore to himself that if he made it across the room to where his phone lay chirping on top of his desk that he would never again listen to a single word that Santana had to say. Somehow she had convinced him to leave the room last night and go to that basketball party, spouting off some nonsense about how they needed to strategize if they were gonna get what they wanted--and he had never exactly been clear on what she wanted in the first place, though apparently helping him get Kurt helped her--and instead had then proceeded to drape herself over every available guy at the party, with Jake blissfully unaware of her frivolous behavior, and Blaine stuck in a corner with one of the physics majors that would just not shut up about kinetic energy.

In a desperate attempt to get away from the guy, or at least to block out his obnoxious rant, Blaine had grabbed a glass from a table and chugged what he thought was a mix of vodka and tomato juice. He had nearly vomited at the odd combination, but had forced it down when an instant haze came over him, and he went back to the conversation all smiles.

He felt like anything but smiling right now. What had he been thinking with that song? Though Singing in the Rain was great, you had to be some sort of manic depressive idiot to think that song was appropriate for any type of sound effect. Though what that said about himself, he didn't know, but as he pushed himself from the bed, he decided he was an idiot, and he was changing that ring-tone asap.

He was also never going to a party with Jake and Santana ever again.

Pale winter sunlight flickered through the blinds of his window as he stumbled over to the desk, and he winced and answered the phone without bothering to see who it was on the other end.

"'llo?"

"Blaine? It's Kurt."

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

"Do you believe in soulmates, Kurt?"

Kurt tore his gaze away from where Blaine sat on the floor putting together a puzzle with Sunny and looked at Rachel curiously.

"Thinking about Finn again?" he hazarded and she scowled.

"Don't be ridiculous."

He sighed and shook his head. When he had gone to call Finn last week to let him know about Rachel, she had grabbed the phone in desparation and begged him not to. She wanted to do it herself, she said, but she needed time. Giving her time, though, meant that Finn was getting more and more worried, and he had been bombarding Kurt's phone with more messages than normal, with only a percentage of them sounding anywhere near to calm.

"You need to talk to him, Rach," he said gently, grabbing her hand before she could pull it away and looking at her earnestly. "He's freaking out, and if I didn't keep telling him not to call the cops, because 'I'm sure you'll hear from her,' you would be officially classified as a missing person by now. Plus you've missed a week of rehearsals, so they've changed the signs to say that your understudy is playing Maureen instead of the great Rachel Berry."

Her scowl deepened at his words, but she said nothing and he sighed.

"You're not some teenage drama queen anymore, Rach," he whispered, and she sighed in return.

"I don't want to talk about this right now, Kurt."

He just barely resisted rolling his eyes, and instead nodded, and asked, "So who is your soulmate?" He paused at her silence and said slowly, "I hope you're not talking about me and Blaine, because that is just a little crazy, considering we haven't known each other long, and we're hardly even real friends, yet."

"It's not about the length of time, Kurt. Sometimes, you just know."

He laughed a little and settled back into the chair.

"So who did you meet when I wasn't looking this week?"

She looked uncomfortable, fidgeting in her seat, and twirling a strand of hair around her finger, and he sat up in surprise.

"Oh my god, you did meet someone. Tell me everything."

She flushed and shook her head.

"It's not like that, Kurt. I didn't--"

"Don't bullshit me now, Berry. You talk of soulmates and have the gall to keep yours from me?"

"No, no." She shook her head vehemently and met his gaze earnestly. "I just...it's difficult, Kurt."

"What? Is he married? Too old? Too young?" He inhaled sharply and leaned toward her, eyes wide as he asked, "You didn't fall for another gay, did you?"

"It's not like that at all, Kurt."

"Then what? Why is it so difficult for you to tell me?"

"You'll think I'm crazy," she pouted prettily and he rolled his eyes.

"That ship has long-since set sail, Rach."

"Hey!"

"So dish. What's wrong with your soulmate?"

She murmured something low under her breath and he sighed in exasperation.

"Was that even in English?"

She scowled at him before saying more clearly, "I think my soulmate is a figment of my imagination."

"A figment of your--"

It took him a second and then he could only stare.

"No."

Rachel bit her lip, but didn't turn from him, and nodded as her cheeks flushed prettily.

"Rachel, what did I just say about you not being a teenage drama queen anymore? You can't just let yourself--"

"Kurt. I know. I'm not...not stupid," she added on a whisper, wincing as he did at the word. He was more sensitive to that insult than any other, thanks to Brittany, and had banned the word from his own vocabulary long ago. But he could see why Rachel would use the word in this context, so he let it slide.

"Maybe not," he began slowly. "But you're certainly being unrealistic. As far as we know, Lucy really is just a figment of your imagination, Rach. How can she be your soulmate? Not to mention Finn."

"I don't know, Kurt," she moaned, and her head fell back on the couch. "It's all just a big mess. But she's just...there. Always. And she understands me."

"Because she's part of your subconscious. Of course she understands you. That doesn't mean you can just start living in a fantasy world."

"And I'm not going to," she countered, sitting up again, her gaze earnest as she met his. "But I really don't think I'm going to find anybody else."

"Leaving aside the fact that you might be into a girl," he shook his head, "If she is your soulmate, and only lives in your dreams, why leave Finn?"

"I told you I'm not getting into that right now, Kurt. I'm too stressed as it is."

"Sure," he sighed. "So tell me, then, what is Lucy like these days? Has she grown anymore, or does she still look sixteen?"

A look of surprise crossed her face, and Rachel said slowly, "Kurt. You haven't wanted to know anything about Lucy in years."

"You haven't really wanted to talk about her except in passing for years," he shrugged, and settled back to watch Blaine and Sunny on the floor again. "So? Tell me what's new."

"Well..."

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

Blaine cast a glance toward the couch where Rachel and Kurt sat talking, and a small smile curved his lips. Kurt was so animated when he talked that Blaine thought he could just watch him for hours.

"Blaine, Blaine! Where does this piece go?"

He snapped back to reality at Sunny's voice and smiled at the toddler sitting in front of him as she held out a piece of the puzzle they were working on. When Kurt had called him that morning, he hadn't expected to be spending his evening working on a thousand-piece puzzle of the Eiffel Tower with a three-year-old. Of course, he hadn't exactly expected Kurt to call, either, and it had taken him a moment to break through his hangover to realize that Kurt was asking him if he wanted to hang out. He had jumped on the chance, though, and his hands had been shaking as he fixed his hair before coming over. He had spent a good deal of time wondering if they would being going out or staying in, and what they would talk about, and if this counted as a date or not.

And then Kurt's daughter had answered the door and before he could even say hello, she had picked up a puzzle box from the floor beside her and pushed it at him, asking, "Play with me?" and looking down into those earnest blue eyes of hers, how could he say no?

So here they sat, half of the Eiffel Tower completed, and Blaine mused that the little girl was better at putting the picture together than he was.

"Let me see," he began as he took the piece she was holding and rubbed his hand along the edges. "Well, look, Sunny. See this flat edge?" She nodded, curls bouncing as she did so, and he tried to reign in his grin as he continued. "Well, you know what that means, right?"

"It's a end piece," she nodded slowly, and he nodded in return.

"That's right. So where are we missing an end piece?"

She frowned a bit, staring down at the puzzle before them, and Blaine found himself caught by how much she looked like Kurt in that moment. He knew she took after Brittany more than Kurt; when the two of them stood side by side, Sunny could pass for Brittany's little sister. Yet even though he hadn't known any of them long, he was already starting to see aspects of Kurt in the toddler's personality.

"I found it!" she cried out, jolting him from his reverie, and he couldn't hold back the grin this time as she slapped the puzzle piece in place.

"Nice job, Galinda. You're good at this."

She grinned in return, at both the praise, and the reference to the last time he had been over when they sang together, before returning to peruse the pile of unplaced pieces, and he grabbed a handful for himself and started to sort through them. He really had to contribute more to this masterpiece they were working on, he told himself, and set to work on finding where the pieces he held might go.

He had placed three of them, all grassy bits at the bottom of the tower when he was interrupted.

"Blaine?"

"Yeah?" he asked, wondering if the piece of tower he held in his hands could be found without filling in some other gaps first, when she continued.

"Are you and Daddy boyfriends?"

He dropped the pieces he still held and snapped his gaze over to Kurt, but apparently Rachel's conversing was enough to keep him from hearing the innocent bombshell of a question his daughter had asked. He slowly turned his gaze back to her, and hoped that the smile he gave her was convincing.

"Um, that's kind of..." Her eyes were so bright, so focused, and even though he knew them to be an exact match of Brittany's rather than Kurt's, he couldn't help but feel as though he was speaking to the latter, and a slow flush burned over his skin. "Um, do you want us to be?"

He squeezed his eyes shut as soon as the words left his mouth, and the burn increased. Damn him and his lack of filter.

"Would you play with me?"

Blaine opened his eyes again, and a small chuckle escaped at the hope in the little girl's eyes.

"If I was your Daddy's boyfriend?" he asked, trying to get a feel on how much she understood, and she nodded in response. "Of course, Sunny. I would play with you every day if I could."

A wide grin split her face, and he suddenly found his arms full of three-year-old girl. He was still for only a few seconds before he returned her embrace whole-heartedly, and he inhaled the sweet strawberry scent that he assumed was her shampoo.

"You're my favorite, Blaine."

He couldn't help his own grin at her words, and set her back from him to push a strand of golden hair out of her eyes.

"You're pretty up there yourself, Galinda." If possible, her grin widened, and he returned it before sighing. "Though I'm not your Daddy's boyfriend."

The immediate disappointment on her face almost made him laugh, but he had to admit, if only to himself, that the thought depressed him, too.

"But I am his friend," he went on gently. "And I'll be coming over a lot, and I'll play with you as much as you want, okay?" If her smile wasn't quite as bright, he soothed his conscience with the fact that he hadn't lied to her to make her happy. "Now, what do you say we get back to this puzzle? We can't visit the Eiffel Tower if it's only half built."

She giggled, the sound warming his heart, and they both returned to the task at hand.