Pain. Scorching pain. Pain like acid and hot tar and hellfire. One moment he was drowning in fire, and then suddenly, Kurt awoke with no breath left in his lungs and a searing, unfamiliar agony enveloping his forearm.

He thrashed with his sheets for a second, struggling to push himself up, and desperately lunged for his bedside light with his other hand, but his fingers couldn't seem to find the switch.

The intense pain was only building, and his body was trembling under its force; he tore up the sleeve of his pajamas to dimly see the red, puckering, skin underneath.

A strong, dull ache was punctuated by shooting pulses of profound agony. The fear ping-ponging in his chest kept tears from forming in his eyes. All he could do was rock back and forth, staring at the bubbling, red-raw skin of his arm, body tensing for the bolt of pain that he knew was coming again in a few seconds.

He was going to pass out soon. He was woozy and unsteady, his breath was coming in short, shallow gasps, and still the pulses of pain continued, like torturous clockwork through his arm. He squeezed his eyes shut, wishing his father was there, wishing his mother was there, wishing it would just stop.

This was not how he wanted to die; he wasn't ready to leave, alone and without any goodbyes or warning. Not in the middle of an empty night with a staring, indifferent moon.

The seconds trickled by, however, and he was still alive, and aware, and then finally, the next bolt of pain was the tiniest bit less intense, and the one after slightly less again, and Kurt, feeling faint with relief, could convince himself that the torture was finally ending.

He continued rocking back and forth on his bed as the spasms of pain slowly faded away, each of his breaths tasting like elixir. When the pulses stopped completely, only a low, thrumming ache was left in his muscle. The skin, no longer puckering, still looked red and irritated by the soft illumination of the moon, and almost blackened at some parts.

Kurt allowed himself to relax against his pillows, and now that it seemed everything was alright, felt the tears of terror and shock begin to roll down his cheeks.

Tentatively, he lifted the fingers of his other hand to the damaged skin, gently tracing over it to feel the disfigurement. His fingers stumbled onto thin lines that were slightly raised against the rest of his skin, and as he followed them, over and over again, he realized they were writing.

The feeling that something was horribly wrong shot through him, and when he finally turned on his lamp to see the name that was now written on his arm, he knew he had been right.

People never received exact timelines.

They only received approximate estimates of when they would learn the names of their soulmates, based on certain statistical analyses, database searches, adaptive sorting, and predictive models. The names of their soulmates would be revealed to them at the exact moment that the CODE decided that compatibility and probability of success were optimized, but that moment was always slightly variable, based on minor fluctuations or deviations from predicted life patterns.

All of this had been explained to them in their Introduction to Computational History class, and Kurt had privately always been of the opinion that, in addition to being deadly dull, it was also a very impersonal, emotionless way of describing how to find the love of your life.

He understood that the process of being matched with a soulmate had to do with unromantic things like numbers and models and calculations, but the ultimate goal of soulmate matching was contentment and harmony, and the teachers who taught the course refused to acknowledge that. Instead, they seemed to prefer robotically explaining the ideology behind the eight basic CR divisions (Compatibility Requirements) at the core of every soulmate matching.

Introduction to Computational History (called Com-Hist by students) was a course offered in every school, at multiple grades, and was designed to teach everyone the major advances wrought during and after the Informational Revolution.

What the steam-powered engine had been to the Industrial Revolution, the CODE was to the Informational Revolution. The global population, teachers explained, had for a very long time been on the brink of an Informational Revolution, but had been missing a vital catalyst to begin the process of reshaping the world's data systems. The trick, as it turned out, was not artificial intelligence, as many people had thought, but rather a solution to big data, to that major influx of information sitting on servers in large, unorganized heaps.

This grand solution, the one that finally brought the Informational Revolution to fruition, was to mass-compile and organize the world population's data into a single system, and a system that was designed to not only organize it, but also analyze it. It was developed by a prestigious team of computer scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and it was called the CODE – the Computational and Organizational Database of the global Ethernet.

Com-Hist always spent a large chunk of time teaching them about the significance and impact of the CODE – because of the CODE, a bespectacled old lady would tell them, the world today had improved diplomatic relations, better infrastructure, lower crime rates, and, most famously, the introduction of a worldwide soulmate system.

Kurt didn't pay may much attention in his junior year Com-Hist class, but that was because aside from more details on the basic algorithms, it was very similar to the versions of Comp-Hist they'd all had to take in first grade, and then again in third, and then again in fifth, sixth, and eighth.

It was a required and standardized course. Since the CODE was an immense, unavoidable part of everyone's lives, there was a general consensus that ample resources and information about it should be provided to students and anyone else who wished to learn.

The only problem with that idea was that middle and high school students weren't particularly interested in being taught the matching algorithms or sorting procedures for finding hypothetical soulmates. Rather than listening to the tedious, jargon-heavy lectures, Kurt preferred to daydream about the life he would lead with his actual soulmate.

The time that Ms. Crup spent describing adaptive classification techniques was the time Kurt spent picturing the cozy interior of a chic New York apartment, the intimate moonlit dinners on their balcony, lazy mornings of warm embraces in bed, hours of running his fingers through dark, soft curls.

Kurt knew that he was lucky, because unlike most other people his age, he actually knew who his soulmate was.

True, it wasn't an official match, as he didn't have a name imprinted on his arm yet, but if Kurt was certain of anything in this world, it was that Blaine Anderson was his one, true soul-mate.

Kurt just knew. He knew it in his bones, in his blood, in his heart of hearts. He didn't need to fill out the CR forms they had to update every half-year. He didn't need the biochip implanted in his forearm at birth to upload information about him into the CODE. He didn't even need to see a name imprinted onto his skin. He just knew it was Blaine, knew it with the certainty he knew the sun was going to appear every morning and disappear every night.

And it was a relief, too, because if he didn't know, he would have had to spend a long time waiting to find out – the CODE gave the estimate that he would only be given his soulmate name around the age of 30 (give or take a few years in either direction).

He wasn't sure if Blaine knew yet that they were soulmates; they were only friends, and he had never broached the subject with him (long-term relationships were advised against before a soulmate match was revealed). But they finished each other's sentences, and they knew each other's coffee orders, and they could sit in the Lima Bean with twenty minutes of silence and still have it be comfortable, and goddammit, Kurt just knew Blaine was his soul-mate.

His "happily ever after" was right in front of him, and he was willing to wait until he was thirty to admit it, so long as he could still have Blaine in his life. After years of being afraid he was never going to match with anyone, he was happy and grateful and secure in the knowledge that he had someone, for now and forever.

That all changed the night he received his soulmate mark, thirteen years ahead of schedule.

Kurt wasn't sure what one was supposed to apply to a healing soulmate mark.

From what they had been taught in Com-Hist, there wasn't supposed to be any pain involved in getting a mark aside from a slight burning or stinging. When the biochip activated nerves in the arm and skin in order to imprint the name, it was meant to release numbing and soothing agents as well.

What he'd had last night had been transcendentally painful, more painful than any broken bone or injury he'd ever had. Clearly, something had gone horribly wrong in his imprinting.

However, asking someone about it would mean he'd also have to reveal that he'd received his mark, and, considering the name currently sitting on his arm, he wasn't certain he wanted anyone to know yet. He could feel it in his bones that there'd been a grave mistake, but part of him was still hoping that it would disappear of its own accord, and he could pretend that it had never happened.

Because Sebastian Smythe was just not an option.

Not in any universe, not in any life. Sebastian Smythe was not meant to be his soulmate – was not meant to be anyone's soulmate. If he wasn't describing in grotesque details his most recent sexual encounters, he was insulting anything and everyone that entered his sphere of contact. Kurt had never once allowed Sebastian to win a mouth-off with him, but he knew there were many other boys who were too scared to defend themselves. If there was one thing Kurt hated with a passion, it was a bully.

In a sense, Kurt was grateful that it was Sebastian's name. If it was anyone else, he'd be less certain. He might have begun to question himself, wonder if he'd made a mistake. As it was, though, Kurt was more convinced than ever that Blaine Anderson was his soulmate, and even if he wasn't, was at least confident that Sebastian Smythe was the last person on this earth with whom he wanted to spend his life. There was a glitch in the CODE – that was all. And either it would right itself, or in a few days he would report it, and everything would be fixed.

As Kurt carefully pulled his dress shirt over himself, he was glad for the thick protection of the Dalton uniform. When he'd first transferred from his old school, it had hidden his landscape of bruises, and now, it hid and cushioned his sore, traitorous forearm.

He didn't share any classes with Sebastian until after lunch, and that gave him time to think about how to broach the situation, assuming there even was one (the fact that it was a glitch might have meant that Sebastian hadn't gotten his mark).

As he was settling into a contemplation of his best course of action, the intercom buzzed, interrupting first period.

"Students 32561 and 32742 to Ms. July's office, students 32561 and 32742 to Ms. July's office immediately."

Kurt's heart began to beat double-time at hearing his student number announced. He prayed that the second number wasn't Sebastian's but knew deep down that it was. He stood up reluctantly, gathering his things slowly as the class half-heartedly watched him.

Walking down the empty hallway gave him a strange sense of foreboding, like the calm before the apocalyptic storm. The dull ache in his arm was still there, reminding him of the horror of the night, and he shifted his shoulder bag to his other arm, rubbing gently at his skin through the blazer.

When he arrived at the front office, he was sent through immediately by a stern-looking receptionist to Ms. July's room, where Sebastian Smythe was already sitting in one of the two chairs, reclined into its back with his legs crossed.

"Ah, Kurt Hummel, please sit."

Ms. July was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the desk, in what Kurt guessed was a burgundy cashmere sweater. Her blonde hair was swept into a side chignon as usual, and her black-rimmed eyes had the intensity of a cat's. He'd once been called into Ms. July's office to retake a CR form that had not been properly logged, and he had been both in awe of her and intimidated by her at the same time.

Kurt placed his bag gently to the side and sat down gingerly in the remaining chair facing Ms. July's desk.

"Now," Ms. July began. She was looking at two tablet screens before her, on one of which Kurt could vaguely make out his school picture.

"You both received your soulmate marks last night. May I see them?"

Kurt felt caught off-guard with the lack of preamble and looked over to Sebastian's reaction. His face was completely expressionless as he began to tug off his blazer, laying it neatly on the chair's back, and then rolled his left sleeve up to his elbow, revealing perfectly smooth and undamaged skin imprinted with Kurt's name in elegant, cursive script.

Seeing his name imprinted on someone else's arm sent an unexpected shiver down his spine, even if it was Sebastian's. The idea of someone being marked as his soulmate was something Kurt couldn't help but find mesmerizing, despite the circumstances.

"Kurt, would you mind?"

Tentatively, Kurt pulled off his blazer, attempting to neatly fold it for several seconds until it slipped to the floor. His goddamn hands were shaking, and he hated it, hated how calmly everything had been done by Sebastian, how little pain he'd probably felt when he was being imprinted.

"There's no need to be nervous, Kurt," Ms. July said gently, and that just made it all the worse. He felt his cheeks reddening furiously, and he struggled at the button of his sleeve until it finally came undone and he was able to tug it up.

Ms. July's eyebrows raised, and Sebastian hissed with a sharp intake of breath.

"What'd you do, try to burn it off?" he asked, staring at Kurt's mottled flesh, across which Sebastian's name was visible.

"May I?" Ms. July softly said, extending her hand. Kurt reluctantly placed his forearm in it, letting her examine it closely. "I see," she finally murmured, and allowed him to return it to his side.

"I'm afraid there's been a mistake," she said.

"Oh, thank God!" Kurt exclaimed unwittingly, feeling the purest sense of relief he'd ever felt. He looked over to see if Sebastian was experiencing the same euphoria, but instead caught a pained scowl crossing his face before an expressionless look took over once again.

"As you have probably learned, no computer is flawless, and all large data systems have glitches, even ones as sophisticated as the CODE. I'm afraid your painful imprinting," she nodded at Kurt, "was a side effect of that glitch. Imprinting is meant to be painless, causing minimal alteration to the skin, but this was clearly not the case for you. We can only apologize for that."

Kurt nodded to show understanding, feeling heady from the relief.

"You are meant to be matched at around the age of thirty; the CODE determined that would be the optimal timing for your soulmate. A glitch in the system has prompted the imprinting to occur much earlier, and clearly, there were side effects with your biochip owing to this. The skin should mainly heal, but there might be some light scarring."

"Will it affect how my soulmate's name will show up?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt could tell that Sebastian had turned to look at him, though he couldn't tell with what expression.

Ms. July stared at him blankly for a moment. "I'm sorry?"

"The – the name," Kurt said, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "When the right name shows up, will it…be…" He trailed off as Ms. July began to primly shake her head.

"I'm sorry, Kurt, but you've misunderstood. The timing is the mistake. Your soulmate is still Sebastian."

Kurt felt the full weight of disappointment settle on him, and a lump immediately formed at the back of his throat.

"I – no, I don't think so. I'm fairly sure that…" Kurt's voice was unsteady and uncertain as he tried to stumble through an explanation of how Sebastian was most definitely not his true love. He stared unhappily down at his arm, at the black, graceful lettering, and suddenly felt a droplet of hope.

"I – I'm sorry, but I think it's the wrong Sebastian," Kurt said, looking up at Ms. July. "See, here," he thrust his arm towards her, "Sebastian's spells his name with an 'a' at the end, but this says Sébastien, see, with an 'e' at the end, and there's that little tic at the start." Kurt sat back triumphantly. The CODE would never have a misspelled soulmate name. It was the wrong Sebastian, that was all, and Ms. July was probably about to laugh and –

"It's French," Sebastian broke in flatly. "I was born in Paris. That's how my name was logged on my birth certificate." Kurt thought that Sebastian meant for his voice to be emotionless and cold, but he could hear a distinctly bitter edge to it.

"The CODE has extensive files on every person, Kurt. There is no way that we would have been able to confuse the identity of your soulmate," Ms. July added, shutting off the two tablets in front of her.

So that was that. There was no mistake, or at least if there was, no one was planning on admitting to it.

"Now, soulmates matches are rarely done this young, and as you both understand, yours was meant for much later. That being said, the two of you should not in any way feel obligated to immediately enter into a relationship. Even in normal matches, soulmates oftentimes choose to have a trial period before beginning to date. You are more than welcome to remain as friends and allow it to progress more naturally. And may I say, in your case, that it might even be the more prudent option."

Ms. July looked meaningfully between the two of them, and Kurt felt his cheeks begin burning. He decided he'd rather die than look at Sebastian at that instant, though he was fairly certain he'd see the same blank stare he'd worn through the entire meeting.

"Now, for matches this young, the procedure is to always provide counseling and guidance, and for now, I will be the person providing it. If either of you have any questions or worries, things you would like to discuss either together or separately, do not hesitate to reach out to me. Soulmate matching, particularly when you are unprepared for it, can be a painful and tricky process, but so long as you have faith in the CODE, you will understand that everything is for your ultimate happiness in the end."

"When does the CODE say you'll match, Cassandra?"

It took Kurt a few seconds to realize that Sebastian was talking to Ms. July; he'd never heard her addressed by her given name before. The resentful edge to his voice was still there, but now it was also laced with mocking and contempt.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian," Ms. July said after a beat of surprise, "but I don't discuss personal matters at – "

"But you're discussing our personal matters, aren't you? So, what about you, Cassandra? When is yours set for? Thirty-five? Forty? I'd hope it's soon. You're getting a bit long in the tooth, if you don't mind me saying."

Kurt barely held back an audible gasp. To terrorize Dalton's student populace was one thing, but to speak so disrespectfully to Dalton's assistant principal and CODE overseer was another matter entirely. Did the boy have a death wish?

Ms. July stared intently at Sebastian. Her expression, rather than being angry, as Kurt would have imagined, was instead incredibly tranquil – deadly so, Kurt couldn't help but think. As the silence stretched, he was again reminded of the calm before the storm. Sebastian held her gaze with an air of nonchalance, as if all he'd done was remark on the weather.

Kurt was about to begin talking about the weather himself, if only to break the tension, when Ms. July finally spoke.

"Thirty-eight, actually. So it'll be soon, I expect," she replied, stacking the two tablets and sliding them into a drawer on her right.

"Well, here's to hoping it'll be in time for a June wedding," Sebastian said sardonically, pushing himself up from the chair and slinging his blazer over his arm. "Anything else?"

Ms. July opened a drawer to her left and pulled out some papers. "In case you'd like more information on soulmate matching or general procedures, these pamphlets have – "

"I think I'll pass," Sebastian said, cutting her off. Standing up, he towered over her and Kurt, and he was staring down at Ms. July with a contemptuous expression.

Instead of reprimanding him, Ms. July simply nodded.

"Kurt?" She proffered the pamphlets to him. Kurt looked uncertainly at Sebastian, who was staring at him with a slight scowl.

"I, uhh… thank you," he muttered, sliding the stack of pamphlets across the desk and into his messenger bag, blushing intensely again. He heard Sebastian's snort.

"Can we go?"

Ms. July glanced down at her Co-phone as it blinked green. "Yes, Sebastian, Kurt, you are free to go."

Sebastian unceremoniously shoved his way past Kurt's messenger bag and, swinging the door open, strode out. Kurt stared at Ms. July for a second, frozen, before scrabbling for his things and hurrying towards the door. "Thank you," he threw over his shoulder as he rushed through the front office and into the empty hallway, where Sebastian was just about to turn a corner.

"Hey! Hey! Sebastian! Would you – wait up, please?"

Sebastian paused mid-step and seemed to be deliberating whether or not to keep walking, but ending up turning around to face Kurt, who caught up to him breathlessly.

"I think – look, no offense, but I think they've made a mistake."

Sebastian gave a bitter laugh. "How could I possibly take offense at you almost crying tears of relief?"

Kurt studied Sebastian's expression, which was perfectly casual, but betrayed a sense of insincerity, and for the first time he felt a swirl of guilt. He hadn't expected Sebastian to be offended by Kurt being against the match, but now, as he imagined their positions switched, he couldn't quite fathom how horrible it would feel if his soulmate had tried to get rid of him. Sebastian had actually reacted quite well, considering.

Kurt wanted to sink into the floor. "Look, Sebastian, I – "

"Of course, it's a mistake, Powerpuff," Sebastian interrupted him, shoving his hands into his pockets and surprising Kurt again.

Instead of relief, he felt a spark of irritation. "Well, then - why didn't you say anything about it back there?"

"I'm not talking about our match, Casper. This whole fucking system is a mistake. It's all complete bullshit. There are no such things as soulmates, or compatibility ratings, or whatever other names they come up with. It's all just bullshit they feed to us to keep everyone happy and distracted. You don't actually believe all this crap, do you?"

"I – what do mean, do I believe it? Of course, I believe it, the soulmate system is – is – I mean, it's a real thing. It – it works, people are happy."

Sebastian stared at him, eyes widening in bitter disbelief. "God," he breathed, "you actually think it's all real."

Kurt felt his guards rise like they normally did with Sebastian, but he felt off-balance. Usually he knew that the venom Sebastian spewed was just hot air, but the things he was saying now seemed to be sincere.

Sebastian shook his head, almost with disappointment. "You're so fucking naïve," he said, frowning. "And to think, I actually thought you might be one of the smarter ones. Let me guess, you think we're a mistake because you wanted to get matched with Anderson?"

Kurt gaped at him, mouth opening and closing, unsure of how to respond to a person he barely knew being privy to one of his most-guarded secrets.

"I – I – "

"Look, Hummel, I never plan on having a soulmate, you understand that? I don't want a partner, I never have, and I never will, not when I can already get sex whenever I want. I have needs, I've found ways to take care of them, and settling down for some monogamous, picket-fence relationship is just not on my to-do list."

Kurt felt as if Sebastian had just placed a puppy in front of him and shot it. He couldn't wrap his mind around how Sebastian could reject the entire idea of a soulmate. He must have known he would get matched one day, that he would eventually be paired with someone.

"What were you planning on doing when you got matched, then?" Kurt said numbly. "You were going to get matched with the love of your life and then just – just ignore them?"

Sebastian gazed at Kurt with something that now looked closer to pity than to contempt.

"You – you really don't understand, do you?"

"Understand what?" Kurt said, almost desperately. He felt like he was missing some obvious piece of the puzzle that Sebastian had taken for granted years ago, and he needed to know what it was.

Sebastian stared at him with a mixture of indecision and frustration. "Just – it doesn't fucking matter," he finally said, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder and turning to leave.

"No, wait," Kurt said, feeling like nothing at all had been resolved. "We're still – we're matched, officially. What – what are we supposed to do?"

Sebastian frowned. "What do you mean? I don't want a soulmate, and you don't want me as your soulmate. As far as I can tell, neither of us wants to be in this. So, why don't you just keep on eye-fucking Blaine, and I'll keep on fucking my way through Ohio."

"But – but don't you want them to admit it's a mistake? We need – we need evidence of some kind, you know, and we need to go to them, because if they don't take our names off, that means we don't get our actual soulmates' names, and – "

"Hummel, I couldn't care less if it was your name or Elton John's on my arm – it doesn't fucking mean anything. You want to get an upgrade, fine, but that's your problem, not mine. Don't drag me into your Cinderella-syndrome delusions, alright? Deal with it on your own, Princess."

And with that, Sebastian turned on his heel and disappeared behind the corner, and Kurt, listening to his steps fade away as he stood alone in the hallway, felt more abandoned than he had in a long time.

If anything, though, he was convinced now more than ever that Sebastian's name wasn't meant to be sitting on his arm. Someone who slept around for fun, someone who insulted people with no provocation, someone who didn't even want a soulmate – that wasn't the person with whom Kurt was meant to spend the rest of his life.

He was going to take Sebastian's advice, though. He was going to deal with this on his own. He was going to get the evidence, build his case, convince Ms. July or whatever official he needed to, and, if it was the last thing he did, he was going to get the right soulmate's name on his arm.