A/N: Yeah, yeah, it's been done to death, but here's another one xD With a little bit of a twist, so I hope you can forgive me. Written for the Hummel Holidays prompt 'unexpected'.
AU that assumes that Kurt, Sebastian, and Blaine all went to Dalton at the same time, and are all the same age. Warning for mention of Blaine and Klaine, but Blaine and Klaine friendly. (Please read the notes at the end of the story.)
"I thought I'd find you here."
Kurt doesn't glance up as Sebastian strolls up his walk, but he gives his new friend a smile all the same.
"That's because I live here, doofus," Kurt says.
"Except that you also live at Dalton, princess." Sebastian stops at the foot of the porch. Kurt scoots over to give him space to sit.
"How long you been out here?" Sebastian asks, climbing the two short steps and sitting down.
"Since third period let out," Kurt admits. "When I saw…" An unwelcome pressure forms in Kurt's chest when he starts to talk about it. It turns into a sharp pinch above his heart with every breath he takes, and he stops.
"So, are you dropping out of Dalton?" Sebastian asks, brow wrinkling with worry.
"No. No, I'm staying." Kurt's eyes flick up from his wrist, and his brand spanking new soul mate mark, to the hills towards the horizon.
Every seventeen year old got their mark today. That's the way it goes.
Blaine got his.
Sebastian got his.
Kurt got his.
None of them were even close to what they'd expected.
"I needed to think," Kurt explains. "Talked to my dad. Watched the sunset. You should have seen it."
Sebastian nods. "Are you upset?" he asks, staring down at Kurt's wrist, and the familiar name written across it in neat, black script.
"Well, I have to say, I didn't expect this" – Kurt chuckles lightly – "but now that I've had the day to get used to it, I have to say no, I'm not upset. As a matter of fact" – Kurt looks into Sebastian's eyes – "I'm glad. I think…this couldn't have ended up any better."
"Good," Sebastian says. "That's good to hear."
"What about you?" Kurt asks. He should have asked earlier, but he was just so stunned. "How do you feel?"
Sebastian's smile for Kurt becomes shy.
"I'm happy," Sebastian says, turning his wrist over and examining his own soul mate brand for the hundredth time since he got it. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay with it."
"There's nothing I can really do about it if I'm not," Kurt sighs.
"True," Sebastian agrees, "but I'd like to think we could let bygones be bygones? Start over?"
"Of course," Kurt says. "We had no control over this. It's all biology and scientific mumbo-jumbo. It's just nice to know there's actually a human being underneath all that sarcasm and those snarky remarks."
"Likewise," Sebastian says, bumping Kurt's shoulder with his own. "You know, getting your soul mate mark is supposed to change you, smooth out the edges, calms your mind and your soul, reveals who you truly are."
"So what you're saying is you were this nice, sweet, polite person all along? You were just acting like an ass?" Kurt shakes his head. "Too bad this day didn't come along sooner."
"Again," Sebastian says, giving Kurt another, harder bump, "likewise."
Kurt lets his laughter die down as other thoughts, lingering thoughts, sneak back in and take over.
"I just wonder why it all turned out this way, you know?"
"Yeah," Sebastian says with a half-shrug, "but you know what they say."
"The body knows," they recite in unison the mantra that's been beaten into their skulls their entire lives.
"Yup." Sebastian runs a finger subconsciously over the mark on his inner wrist. "Your soul mate is the one person in the world who will always have your best interests at heart, who knows you better than anyone, who sees the wonderful, beautiful things in you that no one else does."
"If that's true, then, when you think about it, I should be really pissed," Kurt says, "all things considered."
"I know," Sebastian says, his voice a singular chord of regret, pulled infinitely tight. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry" – Sebastian turns to face Kurt, hoping Kurt will see the sincerity in his words - "about everything I ever did or said..."
"You've apologized about a hundred times," Kurt cuts in, putting a hand over his, "and I believe you. I do. I understand, and…it's okay."
In some ways, it's still not okay, but it will be soon, so there's no need dwelling on it.
"Okay," Sebastian says, finding closure in Kurt's reassurance, but it's not enough to completely annul everything he's done. Kurt may have forgiven him, way too easily, but it's going to take Sebastian longer to forgive himself. "Well, I'm going to go grab a burger, meet up with the Warblers, maybe hit a movie. You wanna come with? All the guys and their soul mates are going."
"Is…is Blaine going to be there?" Kurt asks with a tiny, sad hiccup.
"Yeah," Sebastian says, dropping his eyes. "Yeah, he is."
Kurt nods. He wishes Sebastian would gloss over it, that there wasn't such a pregnant pause between them because of it. That part of Kurt's life is over. He has to get used to it. Mourning it every time someone mentions Blaine's name doesn't do anyone any good. Kurt looks at the name on his wrist one more time. This is what's important. This is the sole focus of his new life. Now all he has to do is live it.
"Sure," Kurt says. "Sounds like fun. Let me go grab my cuff."
"You're…you're wearing a cuff?" Sebastian asks, frowning. "But I thought you said you were happy?"
"I am. It's just easier than explaining it over and over. A lot of people, my friends even, they still don't understand."
Sebastian seems satisfied by that answer. "Fair enough," he says, getting up off the porch. "I'll go wait in the car."
Kurt watches Sebastian walk away, shoving his hands into his pockets as he heads to his Porsche. Sebastian's arm turns, exposing the name of his soul mate, the mark so dark black on his skin that Kurt can see it as clear as if it was made of neon lights flashing purple – Blaine Anderson.
Kurt sighs. No. He hadn't expected that at all, but in retrospect, it makes sense.
After Kurt found out about Blaine and Sebastian, after he saw his own mark on his wrist, he jumped into his Navigator without saying a word to anybody and drove straight home. He sat down at his computer, and after five hours of Google searches, he didn't have the answers to every one of his questions, but he'd discovered the reason why Sebastian was always such a jerk to him - why the constant drive to steal Blaine, the over-the-top intimidation tactics, the blackmail. Kurt was dating Sebastian's soul mate. Sebastian didn't know it yet, and neither did Blaine, but on a primal level, their bodies knew. It explained Sebastian's aggression towards Kurt, how the ways he tried to sabotage their relationship escalated to bizarre catastrophic levels.
Sebastian felt backed into a corner. He was fighting with all he had to get the person he was meant to be with.
It also explained Blaine's undeniable attraction to Sebastian, regardless of how vehemently he pledged his love and devotion to Kurt; why he continually stayed in contact with Sebastian no matter how many times Kurt said it bothered him, claiming that Sebastian's obvious advances and disrespect for Kurt were harmless, that they meant nothing to him.
Kurt smiles. He never thought the idea of Blaine Anderson, the boy he fell so hard in love with, and Sebastian Smythe, the criminal chipmunk, ending up together would make him happy. But seeing them together this afternoon, smiling at each other, looking so...complete, he has to admit, they're a near perfect match, height differences notwithstanding.
Besides, Kurt can't complain, not when he ended up with a fabulous soul mate of his own - someone he can love, cherish, and spoil to his heart's content. Someone he can spend the rest of his life making sure ends up with the best the world has to offer.
He gets up, brushes off the seat of his jeans, and heads into the house for his cuff. He grabs the plain black leather wrist band from the coffee table, where he left it beside his laptop, but before he slips it on, he traces the name of his soul mate with his fingertips.
Kurt Hummel.
It hit Kurt like a sledgehammer when he saw it. He thought, considering he had just found out about Blaine and Sebastian, that somehow it was a huge cosmic prank.
But after a lot of thought, a lot of searching, and a lot of crying, he realized that he wouldn't want it any other way. It's super rare, happening in only one out of about every billion soul mate matches, and Kurt figures those odds suit him perfectly.
There's still a chance that there's another Kurt Hummel somewhere in the world, and that that boy is his soul mate, but Kurt doubts it. In Kurt's mind, there's only one Kurt Hummel that's ever mattered. Now he has his whole life to prove it to himself.
And the sooner he starts, the better.
A/N: I have been lambasted quite a bit over this story. Many readers are upset, and in some case infuriated by the idea that Kurt "ends up alone". In truth, that's not how I see this story at all. I don't understand how finding out that the person who loves you and who you should love most in the world is you is a sad thing. This doesn't mean that he won't have friends and family. He's not going to wander the world alone. What it means is that he's responsible for his own happiness, and the only person whose happiness he needs to care or worry about is his own. I see that as extraordinarily liberating. There is sometimes an extreme amount of guilt and compromise that goes along with having to balance what you want and what someone else wants. It's very easy to say that with the right person all of those things are possible, but there's so many times that we saw Kurt get short-sheeted trying to balance what other people wanted along with what he wanted, and how many times did he lose out? Being in a relationship is not the end-all be-all of things in life, and way too often do I see people pick another person over an incredible opportunity and regret it later. The dystopia in this story isn't that Kurt is his own soul mate (and by the way, that was the distinction - not that he didn't get a soul mate, but that he himself is his soul mate), it's that teenagers become forcibly attached to another human being at a young age, and are expected to stay with that person for life. This is a 1,000+ word story that shows just a window into a society that could actually contain many layers and dynamics. I see Kurt moving on from here, planning his future, traveling the world, maybe eventually running in to one of those other one in a billion people and falling in love, without the need or stress of having a soul mate thrust on him. He gets to fall in love when he decides. Or not. Personally, I think he won :)