Basic premise of this AU: you have two pulses - your heart and your soulmate's pulse in your wrist. Once you get close to each other, your wrist pulse speeds up until you actually meet, and then they synchronize.
Thanks to Caroline thehouseofthebrave for giving me this setting idea!
Kurt loved his best friend. Really. Honestly! But he also cursed the fact that somehow he had saddled himself with the only person on Earth who was more stubborn than he was.
"I don't see why you're being so unreasonable," Rachel lectured as they strode down the hall to their next class - well, Kurt was striding. Rachel had wrapped one of her arms in his and was basically being pulled along like a very loud balloon. "It's not like anything could go wrong with this plan!"
"Have you been to this school?" Kurt asked, incredulous. "It's like an interactive exhibit on Murphy's Law. Buses lose wheels mid-drive. The actual nutritious food they buy us somehow goes bad overnight, sticking us with mystery meat. Mr. Schue teaches every single one of our classes, yet is only certified in Spanish. From the Sesame Street online Spanish courses."
"Okay, yes, McKinley High is a little subpar," Rachel said, waving her free hand dismissively. "But that doesn't mean its students are! I've heard about other schools doing things like this, and no one there has ever died."
"But what have the success rates looked like?" Kurt asked suspiciously. "So you line up a bunch of kids in the gym and parade another line of people past them in the hopes that their soulmate wrists start pulsing. There's no guarantee that anyone will meet their soulmate, much less you, and much, much less that it will be Jesse!"
"Shhh!" Rachel hissed, whipping her head to look down one side of the hall and back up the other. "He could be listening!"
"He's not even in this hallway," Kurt said. "Besides, wouldn't you know already if it was him? You walk by each other at least twice a day."
"Yeah, but I always cross to the far side of the hall," Rachel said. "I don't want our meeting to happen surrounded by insignificant teenagers. I want it to be special, or at least a little less crowded. And you know I've felt my pulse go up before when I've been in school! He's here, I know it."
"Doesn't mean it's Jesse," Kurt antagonized, more out of habit than genuine spite.
"It has to be," Rachel said, squeezing Kurt's arm painfully. "He's the only guy here who shares my interests and isn't gay."
"If I agree to help you set up this - I dunno, Soulmate Cakewalk, will you finally stop trying to include me in your crazy schemes to get Jesse's attention?" Kurt asked. He could see the longing in Rachel's eyes, and overbearing as she was, she was still his best friend. If he could do something to help her meet her soulmate (and it wasn't illegal or appallingly tacky), he would.
"I swear," Rachel said seriously, eyes sparkling with hope.
"Fine. Fine, I'll do it," Kurt said, huffing out a surprised oof when Rachel squealed and flung her arms around him in delight. "But you owe me so big."
"I'll get you that signed Patti LuPone biography we saw online for Christmas," Rachel promised, and Kurt had to keep himself from doing some squealing and flinging of his own as they walked into their classroom and took their seats.
Even with his misgivings, though, Kurt found it hard to keep himself from daydreaming about his own soulmate as Ms. Hagberg started lecturing. He knew the boy didn't go to McKinley, because he'd never felt his wrist pulse increase anywhere in the building, but he still hoped his soulmate was nearby and happy.
Someday, Kurt thought, rubbing his wrist unconsciously. I'll get Rachel hooked up with her person first, and then I'll come find you. If I find you before then, I won't be able to say goodbye to you long enough to help.
"Okay, everyone, one last explanation of the rules," Rachel said, projecting her voice easily over the hubbub that was 180 teenagers in one gymnasium. "Half of us will line up and wait, and the other half will walk down the line somewhat slowly, so you can easily tell who your match is - if they're here, at least. But I have faith!"
The crowd was silent as Rachel paused for effect.
"Anyways, form your lines!" she continued, unfazed. "Kurt and I are the head, so whoever else is staying in place can just align with us!"
Kurt peoplewatched idly as everyone figured out where they were supposed to go, overhearing snippets of conversation that ranged from interesting to obscenely dull.
"Yeah, so my mom said-"
"He wants to get a tattoo where?!"
"You seriously think a replacement cast can outperform the original? Are you stupid?"
"GO!" Rachel yelled, almost deafening Kurt's right ear permanently, but at least saving him from listening to more of Jesse St. James' ridiculous opinions.
If he's actually Rachel's soulmate, I'm gonna have to hurl myself into the Ohio River, Kurt thought, unsurprised as his soulmate pulse didn't change when the first few people started walking by. He's insufferable, Jesus Ch-
"What?" Kurt mumbled, looking down at his wrist in shock. His soulmate pulse had actually quickened.
"It's happening?!" Rachel said, instantly changing her focus from watching for Jesse to Kurt's wrist. "But who-"
"I dunno," Kurt said, flustered. "This has never happened - oh my God, it's getting stronger. It feels like my heart's about to come out of my wrist, holy shit."
"You too?" an unfamiliar boy asked softly, stepping in front of Kurt. When Kurt tore his gaze from his wrist to look at the boy's face, he felt his jaw pop open, overwhelmed by the sight of dark hair and gorgeous, hope-filled hazel eyes and a lush, tender mouth. They both stood there dumbstruck until Rachel started shoving them backwards.
"Get out of the way and get to know each other!" she prompted, flapping her hands impatiently. "Some of us still have to meet our person - but you'd better tell me everything later, Kurt!"
"Kurt?" the boy asked, looking awed. "Is that your name?"
"Wh - yeah, yeah, that's me. Kurt," Kurt babbled, feeling like he'd lost all control of himself.
"I'm Blaine. I just - I've been looking for you forever. Is that weird? Like, not actively searching for you - I'm not a stalker - but I've wanted to find you for so long now, and okay, I'm gonna shut up now."
"Blaine," Kurt breathed, needing to say it out loud, make it real. Then he leaned in and kissed Blaine sweetly, cupping Blaine's cheeks in his palms. "It's not weird. I get it. I just don't get how we go to the same school, yet didn't meet until right now."
"I just transferred," Blaine said, not moving his arms from where they'd wrapped around Kurt's waist mid-kiss. "This is my first day here."
"And you decided to give our soulmate finder a go? That's optimistic thinking," Kurt teased, feeling his real pulse stutter as Blaine grinned bashfully.
"Uh, no, I wasn't exactly looking for this," Blaine said, blushing. "I got a little lost taking what I thought was a shortcut to my study hall."
"Sounds like you could use a tour guide. Mind if I volunteer my services? You won't be able to lose me," Kurt said, moving his wrist from Blaine's shoulders to press against his heart. "We're already synched."
"I'd like nothing more," Blaine said. He leaned in for one more kiss, a move Kurt gladly accepted. He was vaguely aware that going in for more than one kiss in the first ten minutes was generally seen as risque, but he wasn't concerned. McKinley's gossipmongers moved quickly, and they'd be old news by the weekend.
It turned out that they were old news before they even left the gym, thanks to Rachel and her soulmate's epic fifteen-minute makeout session. Any worries Kurt may have had over the reveal that her soulmate wasn't Jesse, but, in fact, quarterback Finn Hudson was allayed by that "little" liplock.
"He just looked at me, and I knew that I was home," Rachel told Kurt on the phone that night. "So he's not into everything I like. We can make it work."
"Very mature, Ms. Berry," Kurt teased. "On the other hand, Blaine makes me as giddy as a little kid feeling his wrist pulse for the first time. I can't believe I found him so soon, Rach."
"I need to meet him properly! Double date this weekend?"
"Sounds perfect."