"Hi," the boy replied. "I'm Kurt."
"I'm Blaine," he said, smile never leaving his face.
"Do you know anyone else?" Kurt asked him. It was then that Blaine could see that Kurt was acting shy and didn't seem to know anyone else in the room.
"My cousins are in this class," Blaine said. "Over there. They're all sitting together. That's Quinn, Santana, and Brittany. I'll introduce you to them later if you want. They're all super nice."
"I'd like that," Kurt replied. "I don't really have any friends, so meeting some nice people sounds good."
"Why don't you have any friends?" Blaine asked, his heart breaking for his soulmate.
"I just…" Kurt said and was interrupted by the teacher calling the classroom to attention.
For the rest of the day until recess, Kurt and Blaine listened to the teacher and began really getting to know each other. If Kurt had a question, Blaine rushed to answer it. If Kurt needed something, Blaine got it for him.
At recess, Blaine introduced Kurt to his cousins who all took an instant liking to him and basically hijacked him away from Blaine to play with. This did not make Blaine happy at all. He'd gone years, hundreds of years, without Kurt, and now was his time to spend with him, dammit.
That night when they got home and Sebastian had reversed the aging of the apparent six-year-olds, they all ate and then had a family discussion. Since coming to Ohio and not knowing how long they would be here, they had decided to take a page from Matthew's book and hire donors to be in their service for as long as they wanted to be. They were all compelled during feeding times and were very well taken care of afterward.
"Why did you guys do that today?" Blaine asked once they were all sitting down. His anger had been building all day, and now that they were all fed, it was time to release it.
"You have knowledge that Kurt doesn't," Santana began. "You can't force him to fall in love with you, and by trying to keep him to yourself like you were, it seems like maybe you were doing just that. And, I get the sense that there's something he's hiding, but I can't figure it out."
"He's sad," Brittany replied.
"Why is he sad?" Blaine asked, his heart breaking for his soulmate and not knowing how to fix it.
"I don't know," Brittany said. "I just sense that he is."
"So, you keep him away from me to make him less sad?" Blaine asked, trying to figure out his family's motivations.
"No," Quinn replied. "Blaine, none of us know what you two have gone through. We don't know the loss or the heartbreak. There is no way that we can possibly understand it. What we do understand, though, is that this bond with Kurt hasn't formed yet. Once he was reborn, the old one was severed, and the new one now has to form organically, just like it did the first time. And for that to happen, it can't be forced or coerced or tampered with. It can't be influenced one way or another."
"What are you saying?" Blaine asked, his eyes filling with tears. "You know what? I don't want to know. I finally found him again and can actually sit and talk with him. We knew he was here, but I could never find him before today. For 342 years, I've been in agony over not being with him. I've had to sit and watch while all of you found your soulmates and fell in love and got to actually fucking be together. I know I was connected to Kurt while he was gone, and for that, I will eternally be grateful. We all know, though, that it's not the same thing as being able to reach out and actually touch someone. And today, when I finally, finally found him again in a way that really matters, you want to take him away from me?"
"We don't want to take you away from him," Santana interjected. "I think that maybe he needs to have more than just you in his life, though. You both know-well, you know for sure, and he will know once your soulmate bond is reformed and you can tell him-how your story ends. He showed you while he was gone. For as long as you guys will live, you'll be together."
"You will," Brittany interjected. "You'll have so many happy years and lots of babies."
"And, Kurt seems like he needs people in his corner," Quinn added. "Let us be in that corner with you."
"Son," Josiah said, "I don't pretend to know much about Fate or how it works. What I do know is this: You can't intervene or fight it. Your story, it would seem, is meant to go on and on and on. Don't force this one to happen faster than it's meant to. And, think about it this way: for as long as you two were apart, there will be an infinite number of years that you'll be together in this lifetime and the next. Do you think that's something you can do? Can you let Fate take the reins and lead?"
"I think… I think I need to have some time alone," Blaine said. "I understand everything you all are saying, and I get it. Excuse me, please."
Blaine walked out of the room and up to his bedroom. He knew his brother would be following him, so he didn't close the door all the way. Moments after he sat down, he spoke. "Come in, Elliot."
"Hey," Elliot said after he'd closed the door once more. Before Blaine could say anything else, Elliot walked over to his brother and wrapped him in a hug.
"I know what I think I need to do, and I don't want to do it," Blaine said into Elliot's neck.
"Do you want to sit down and talk about it?" Feeling Blaine's head nod, Elliot brought his arms down and took his brother's hand, leading him over to the love seat that was in his bedroom. "Talk to me, Blaine."
"I think that the girls are right," Blaine said. "I think that if I stay around him, I'm going to push him and sway his decisions, intentionally or not. I'll be jealous and protective and not let him be his own person."
"So, what's your plan?" Elliot asked. He wasn't going to argue with his brother.
Blaine told Elliot and his family what he wanted to do and why. None of them stood in his way, knowing that if this was the path he needed to take, there was nothing they could do to stop it.
The next morning at school, Kurt was sad when his new friend didn't show up. When he asked the girls at recess, they simply told him that Blaine wouldn't be coming back to school. Kurt was sad and cried himself to sleep that night. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about Blaine made his heart happy and feel whole in a way it never had before. He was happy to at least have the girls as his friends.
Over the next few years, Kurt grew to love the girls like sisters. They helped him to feel secure in a way he never had, though he still felt like something-someone, even-was missing.
"He's fine," Elliot told him one night. "I think maybe he felt the slightest beginnings of your bond, and without it... I don't know. It probably just scared him. He's too young to understand it all. And as much as I hate it, you're doing the right thing."
"What if I'm not, though?" Blaine asked.
"When you left, did it feel wrong?" Elliot asked in response.
"Every second I'm away from him is wrong," Blaine replied flatly.
"You know what I mean," Elliot said. "Your powers are strong, and they've never been off. If you were supposed to stay here, they would have let you know."
"I know," Blaine whispered.
"You'll know when it's time to come home permanently, too," Elliot said.
"I know that, too," Blaine agreed. "I just wish it was now."
When Kurt was 10, tragedy struck his family.
"Blaine, you need to come home," was all that Josiah had said, and Blaine was on the first flight back to the US. He had been staying with Matthew since he'd left Ohio, and he knew it was-in the long run-for the best, even though it felt like he was dying each and every day he was separated from Kurt. His family would call him each week and tell him what they'd been up to and how Kurt had been doing. He almost lost his resolve when Elliot had told him that the boy had cried himself to sleep for a month after he'd left, asking the dark room what he'd done to drive Blaine away, somehow thinking it was his fault that his friend had left, not understanding the abruptness of his departure.
When Blaine touched down in Columbus, he rented a car and drove as fast as he could without getting pulled over to Lima. He went to Kurt's first and hid behind his house in the trees. It shouldn't have surprised him at all to see Elliot there.
"I should have known you'd find me first," Blaine said and hugged his brother.
"I knew you'd come here before coming home," Elliot said into the hug.
"What happened?" Blaine asked as he looked back at the house.
"His mom is paralyzed," Elliot said. "Hit by a drunk driver. Josiah… He was working that night when they brought her in. But by the time she got there, it was too late. Not even he could mend her."
"When did it happen?" Blaine asked.
"Three days ago," Elliot replied.
"And, how's Kurt been?" Blaine asked.
"He's been about as you'd expect him to be," Elliot answered. "Burt's been about the same. They're having to learn what their new normal will be like. They have to rearrange their entire lives, and I think they're okay with that in lieu of what could have happened. It was almost like there was someone watching over her that night, because from what Josiah said, she should have died, Blaine."
"I can't go back," Blaine said. "I won't interfere in his life until I know it's time, but I can't go back. I'll stay out of sight and guard him from the shadows." It was really hitting Blaine once again just how fragile the human life was. And, he would be damned if anything else happened to the love of his life.
"He's grown really close to the girls, as you know," Elliot said. "Josiah is bringing them over and is going to offer to help Burt however he can."
Blaine just nodded as a fierce protectiveness settled in around him. Nothing is going to ever hurt you again. Not while I'm around.
That night, after Kurt had gone to bed and was deep in his sleep, Blaine climbed in through his window and knelt down by Kurt's bed. He took in the soft features of his form, and the spark of love that had never left intensified.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't here," Blaine whispered. "I promise I'll be here from now on. You won't know I'm here, but I'll be here. I'll protect you and make sure you don't lose anybody else. In all of those dreams I had while you were gone, you always made it seem like we'd be okay in the end, that once you got back, we'd be able to be together. Maybe that was just my wishful thinking, though. I know now that you won't just automatically love me, that we have to fall back in love with each other like we did so many years ago. So, I'm going to step back and let Fate do just that. We're going to eventually fall in love with each other again. Until then, my love, I'll be here."
Blaine kissed Kurt's forehead and then slipped back out of the window. After he made sure Kurt wasn't stirring in his sleep, he went home and was greeted by his family. They were all happy to see him, though nobody really knew what to say to him. Instead of speaking, they hugged him and waited for him to be ready to talk to them. After Blaine showered and ate, he felt like he was ready to do just that.
He went down to the music room, not at all surprised that his family was there, waiting for him. Blaine went and sat beside Elliot, Seb on his other side, and started talking.
"I'm staying here from now on," Blaine said. "I can't be away from him anymore, even if I can't be right with him. My powers have never, ever led me down the wrong path before, and being here feels right. I think, too, that I'll know when it's time for me to re-enter the picture and how to do that. I want to thank all of you for watching over him while I was away. It means more to me than I can say."
"It's been our pleasure," Santana said. "He's quite extraordinary."
"He always has been," Blaine said with a smile.
"The bond is there, you know," Santana said. "It's faint and barely there, though it's not a soulmate bond. And, to be quite honest with you, it's not a bond I've ever seen before. Something, though, is there. And, I wonder if it's your past bond trying to reconnect itself somehow."
"I'll take it," Blaine said. "Anything that links me to him, I'll take."
For the next few years, Blaine did what he had promised Kurt the night he came back. He guarded and protected him from afar, never once interfering in his day to day life. Blaine loved to see the relationship Kurt had with the girls and was thankful that he had them in his life.
The year Kurt turned 13, Blaine got a feeling, a pull from his power. He wasn't sure what it was until it happened; he just knew something was going to happen that year. It was the day of Kurt's birthday that he finally figured it out.
Blaine was sitting in his room, getting ready to go wait behind the trees and watch the little get-together Kurt was having from afar when everything came together. He had been thinking and thinking about something that he could give his soulmate and was coming up blank. Nothing fit. Nothing was good enough or seemed to be the 'right' thing to get for him. As he sat there, looking over the copy of Nothing Can Keep Us Apart Kurt had gifted him on his 17th birthday, the feeling he'd had at the beginning of the year coalesced.
He wrapped up Kurt's gift and wrote a letter, wishing he could be there to see him open it and knowing that he'd have to settle for watching from the window. That evening, while Kurt was enjoying his birthday meal with his dad and best friends, Blaine snuck into Kurt's room and laid the gift on his pillow.
After the guests had left, Kurt went to his room to set his gifts down and noticed a small, wrapped package on his bed. He went over and sat down, picked it up, and wondered who had left it there. The thought that someone had been in his room didn't even cross his mind. He opened the letter attached to it first.
"Kurt,
A very important person in my life told me this story when I was very young. When he died, he left me his copy of it, and now, it's something that I want you to have. It's special in ways that I hope you will someday figure out. Until that day can come, though, I hope you will learn to love it as much as I have.
B"
The writing wasn't from anyone he knew, yet he felt like he did know them, like he'd seen it at some point in his life and just couldn't figure out where. Kurt could feel that whatever the gift was, it was monumentally important to him somehow. It was then that he realized that someone had been in his room without him knowing, and for some reason he couldn't explain, it didn't bother him the slightest bit. The familiar yet unfamiliar writing and the gift he knew wasn't from anyone who had been at his party helped him to deduce at least that much. He took a breath and laid the letter down like it was the most precious piece of paper he'd ever held.
When he unwrapped the book, a feeling of déjà vu washed over him as he took in the cover. There were no words on the cover, and when he flipped it open to the first page, he read Nothing Can Keep Us Apart. As he looked through the worn book, that sense of déjà vu got even stronger somehow, especially when a particular name caught his attention: Blaine.
"Blaine, I don't know where you are or what you mean to me," Kurt whispered out into the room. "I dream about you all of the time, and I've been told in those dreams that I'll meet you when the time is right. I keep hoping that every morning I wake up after a dream, the time for us to meet will be today. And every night I go to sleep, I do so with a smile on my face, knowing that I'm that much closer to us finding each other."
When Blaine heard this, his soul rejoiced. On some level, Kurt remembered him. Now, it would just be waiting until the right time to reconnect.
Kurt closed the book and put the letter inside of it, wanting to keep it safe. Whoever had sent him this book, whoever B was, he knew that they were important in ways his mind couldn't understand. When he laid down for bed that night, he started to read his new book.
"Blaine stood with his back pressed against the solid wood of his wardrobe. He tried to quiet his breathing and heartbeat as he strained to hear what was going on outside of his room. He could hear the sounds of swords clashing as his father's knights fought against the invading cavalry. He wondered where his father, mother, and older brother were. He wished he could be with them, but it was too risky to try to leave the safety of his wardrobe. His father had told him to hide, so he was going to be a good boy and follow directions."
