It was turning out to be another thrilling day at McKinley High. Kurt got to school that morning and immediately got called names and slushied when he walked through the front door; no matter how irrelevant calling him "fag" was, the jocks still insisted upon that as their go-to name for him. Since Fate chose who you were bonded with, most kids grew up not having a preference of one gender over another; they just got along with everyone. However, in very conservative areas like the one he lived in, some parents taught their kids that being in a same-sex relationship was 'unnatural' and 'against the laws of the creator.' They thought that, no matter what their marks said, their kids should keep looking for someone of the opposite gender with a matching or complementary mark, even after bonds had been formed.

Kurt reminisced later that day about his soulmate as he switched his books out for his second to last class of the day. He had always guessed that his soulmate would be a boy, but there was honestly no way to know for sure until they met. He just had never gotten those warm and fuzzy feelings from looking at or thinking about girls. Sure, they were beautiful and fun to be around, but it never did anything for him when he thought about kissing them or, you know, doing anything further with them. Just to try things out, he had kissed Brittany before either of them got their marks, and he felt nothing. Damn, the girl could kiss, though! There was no doubt about that. But, he just didn't feel anything other than a good kiss. It didn't make his heartbeat quicken or make him want more.

As he was thinking about his kiss with Brittany, he suddenly felt pain as his whole body collided with his locker. When he looked up, he saw Dave Karofsky, his biggest tormentor, looking back at him with a "what in the fuck are you going to do about it?" look on his face. The bully turned and walked away, and Kurt was struck with indecision. He wanted to follow Karofsky, to ask him what the fuck his problem was. But, he was afraid to at the same time.

Right at that moment, Kurt looked down at his hand and saw one word: "Courage." How his soulmate knew he needed that exact phrase in that exact moment, he would never know. Kurt closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to follow Karofsky. I'm done being pushed around, he thought as he saw that Karofsky had gone into the boy's locker room.

"What in the hell is your problem?" Kurt yelled after he burst through the locker room doors, not caring at all who heard him.

"Other than worrying about you sneaking in here to try and peek at my junk?" Karofsky said, looking around to see who else was with them. He was relieved that nobody was. It was getting harder and harder to control his urges every day. Especially when Kurt wore sinfully tight skinny jeans every day that accentuated each and every inch of his lower body.

"Yes," Kurt said exasperatedly. "You've found me out. I have been pining and hoping to get a look at your dick. Because I'm sure it's different than every other dick on the planet. News flash, asshole! I'm not interested in anything about you other than your apparent problem with me."

"Get out of my face, lady," Karofsky sneered. He felt hurt at Kurt's words but didn't quite want to let himself believe what it meant. Not yet, at least.

"What are you going to do? Hit me?" Kurt taunted. "It won't change anything about me if you do. It will only prove that you're intimidated by me, and for what reason, I will never know. What is it, Karofsky? What are you so fucking afraid of?"

There was no answer. There were only lips crashing into his. By the time his mind caught up with what was happening, Karofsky had pulled away. When he saw that there was no reaction, he went in for another kiss. That woke Kurt up, and he shoved Karofsky away and ran out of the locker room. He headed straight to the music room where Glee was held, and he just sat there, singing a ridiculously catchy tune he'd heard Brittany listening to the other day.

"Is there something in your eye, oh
Wait, it's just a sparkle
Can you get a little closer
And help me out a little bit
I scraped my knee fallin' for you
But baby a kiss will do
I'm singing Fa la la la la la"

He hung out in the room and sang a few other songs until it was time for Glee, trying to elevate his mood before everyone came in. He knew he was likely to be in trouble for skipping his last class, but he didn't care. He couldn't handle anything at all right then.

His clubmates and Mr. Schue came in just as the last bell rang for the day. Nobody, save one person, noticed how distraught Kurt was as Mr. Schue started talking about their upcoming competition and their assignment challenge this week: Boys vs. Girls. When Kurt tried to go sing with the girls, he was automatically shot down.

"Kurt," Mr. Schue said without even turning around from the whiteboard he was writing on, "boys."

"My voice doesn't match with the boys," Kurt said calmly.

"Doesn't matter," Schue answered. "You're a boy, and that's who you will sing with, no matter what."

Kurt found that he didn't have it in him to argue anymore. He was completely drained from everything that had happened today.

"Why don't you make yourself useful and go spy on the Garglers," Puck said to him when Kurt wandered toward the boys' group. There was no real malice behind his words. Noah Puckerman had become somewhat of a protector of Kurt's and could tell that something was wrong with his friend. Asking him to do this would give him an out for the rest of the day, and he could go home. Puck would make sure to check on him later. Noah hated that he didn't have any classes with Kurt and couldn't be there to protect him as much as he wanted to.

"They're called the Warblers, Noah," Kurt said, thanks shining in his eyes.

"Whatever, Pretty Boy," Puck said. "Just go see what you can find out about them." He fixed Kurt with a look that said, "I'll call you later, 'kay?"

"Alright," Kurt said out loud, both responding to his request to go spy and the unspoken understanding about the phone call.

When Kurt got home, he noticed that the message from his soulmate, his "Courage," hadn't been erased and decided to look up information on the Warblers until his soulmate would be able to chat. He found out that the singing group was about two hours away from Lima in Westerville, and that they were the Glee Club for an all-boys prep school called Dalton Academy. Kurt scoured the photos, trying to find a good one of their uniform. Apparently, these people don't want anyone to know what they look like, because there's nothing close-up of their clothes, Kurt thought after he had been searching for several minutes.

At 4:30 on the dot, Kurt got his pen and wrote to his soulmate, "I'm free when you are." He got his rubbing alcohol and cotton balls ready, hoping that they would be able to have a long conversation. While he waited, he decided to go through his wardrobe and find something acceptable to wear to Dalton the next day.

About 10 minutes later, Kurt got his response. "Sorry. My club meeting ran over. How was your day?"

"Uggg," Kurt responded. "Does that work?"

"I'm sorry," his soulmate replied. "Is it because it's getting closer to Valentine's Day? The kids at my school are going crazy!"

Kurt erased the messages on his arm and wrote, "The kids at my school will start going crazy soon. I mean, they're always crazy, so it will just be their regular crazy on steroids."

"You made me spit out my soda," his soulmate said.

"I'm sorry," Kurt said, a small smile on his face. "I will try to keep my snark to a minimum. Thank you, by the way, for the message earlier. I really needed it."

"Don't tame your snark for me," his soulmate answered. "I quite enjoy it. And you're welcome. It's something I tell myself daily and thought I would share with you."

Kurt took a deep breath to really let the messages his soulmate sent coalesce in his mind before he erased them to write something new. "I might have to adopt it, too. How was your day?"

"It was terrific, actually!" The response came almost immediately. "My friends embarrassed the hell out of me all day long, which isn't really that abnormal. Today, it was just a little more frequent since it's my birthday and all. They did let me pick the song we're going to sing tomorrow for our impromptu concert."

Giggling and loving the knowledge that his soulmate liked to sing also, Kurt responded, "You sound like you have some really great friends."

"I do," his soulmate responded. Several minutes went by with no words before they were all wiped clean, and his soulmate said, "My friends have decided to take me out to supper, and I'm not sure how late we'll be out. Would it be alright, though, if I checked in before I went to bed, just to say good night?"

"I'd really like that," Kurt responded. "Have fun with your friends, and I will talk with you later."

Kurt had just gotten his outfit finalized for his trip to Westerville the next day when his phone rang. "Hey, Noah," Kurt said as he picked up.

"Hey, Princess," Noah replied. "What was going on earlier today?"

"Umm…" Kurt started not wanting to tell Noah what happened in the locker room. He knew that his friend would force him to tell his father once he heard.

"I'm coming over," Noah said and then hung up the phone before Kurt could respond.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the front door. Kurt came downstairs and answered it. "Come on in," Kurt muttered and gestured to the living room. "I know that after I tell you this, you'll just make me tell my dad, so I'm going to tell both of you at the same time." Kurt had honestly contemplated lying to his friend, but he knew it wouldn't work. For starters, Noah could always tell when Kurt was lying. Additionally, Kurt was tired of the bullying and felt like right now something he couldn't explain was pushing him to tell someone about it.

Noah sat down on the sofa in the living room with a nod to Burt, and Burt turned the TV off after hearing what his son said. Their home wasn't that big, and the front door was right by where Burt was sitting. He figured if Kurt hadn't wanted him to hear what he was saying, he would have lowered his voice more. Kurt sat down next to Noah. He knew he would need the close proximity of his friend to get through everything. He also figured he would need to stop Puck from leaving to go kick the shit out of Karofsky after Kurt relayed what had happened.

"Okay," Kurt started with a sigh. He tried to keep himself calm and rational. "I'm going to need both of you to not talk until I'm done. Can you do that, please?" Seeing both of them agree, Kurt told them first about getting his soulmark and then about all of the bullying, ending with what had transpired in the locker room that afternoon. He had been right; Noah tried more than once to get up off of the couch and go after Karofsky. It took both Kurt and his dad to stop him, not wanting to see Puck go back to juvenile detention. He had been in there once before Kurt and he became friends, and none of them wanted to see him back in there.

"You're not going back to that school," Burt declared. "Don't think that I haven't noticed that you come home in different clothes than you go to school in. Don't think that I haven't seen the way you move like you're in pain. I was hoping that you'd come to me sooner, but I know better than to push you into anything."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Kurt said, finally letting his tears fall. He had been holding so much in and away from his dad that he just let it all go. It felt good to be honest about what was going on at school. The overwhelming weight he'd been carrying around nearly disappeared.

Burt came over and hugged his son. He had calmed down a little bit from the news of what that neanderthal had done to his son. "I did some research a couple of months ago on other schools when you came home and could barely move without grimacing. There's one, Dalton Academy in Westerville, that has a no-bullying policy that is strictly enforced."

"Kurt?" Noah said from behind Kurt. "I don't want to see you go, but you gotta check that school out. I can't be around to protect you all of the time. And Karofsky's crazy enough to take it further if he gets a chance. Go where you can be happy and safe, and we'll figure the rest out later."

"Dad," Kurt said, "I was actually going to spy on the Dalton Academy Warblers tomorrow and cut class. I know. Don't start with me; I know. But, when I was on their website trying to match something I had to their uniforms, I stumbled across the no-bullying policy and thought it sounded like heaven. I also came across the tuition, and, Dad, it's really expensive."

"I would say to let me worry about that part of it, but I know you, kid," Burt said with a smile on his face. "I've been saving up, not sure what it was supposed to be for exactly, but I've been saving nonetheless. The money isn't something you need to worry about, okay?"

Kurt was nodding his head. He sincerely couldn't believe what was happening. He had woke up that morning, dreading the thought of even a few more weeks in that hell hole. Now, he was done there. For good.

Noah stayed for supper and then went home after giving his friend a huge congratulatory hug. "Your mark is really cool," he said as Kurt opened the door for him. "Call me tomorrow after you get back, capiche?"

"Capiche," Kurt said and hugged Noah again. "Thank you, Noah." His eyes said more than his words could.

"Anytime, Princess," Noah said and got in his truck to leave.

Kurt spent some time with his dad that evening, just lounging and watching TV. They talked about how the next day would go and what time they would leave. It was decided that Burt would call Dalton first thing in the morning to see if they could get a meeting with the headmaster and then go from there. He planned to call McKinley and tell them Kurt was home sick, and then after the meeting with Dalton, he would deal with Figgins.

Later that night, while he was watching reruns of Friends on his laptop and trying to get his mind to calm down from the day, Kurt noticed a new message on his left forearm. "I'm exhausted."

"Oh yeah?" Kurt replied. "Fun night, then?"

"Sort of," his soulmate said. "My friends thought it would be hilarious to set me up with someone, so I had to let them know that that wasn't possible anymore. And, they figured out that I had gotten my mark."

"That's alright," Kurt said. "I had to tell a couple of people today, too." It wasn't that talking about your soulmark was taboo or anything like that, but they were a special thing between couples.

"So, you're not mad?" his soulmate asked, wanting to make sure.

"Not at all," Kurt replied and then cleaned his arm off. "Some really great things came from talking about it tonight, and, uggg, I wish I could tell you more. But, I really enjoy being able to talk to you this way."

"I understand and don't want to jinx it, either," his soulmate responded. "I'm going to get to bed, though; school starts early for me, and it takes me about an hour to get ready in the morning."

Kurt cleaned his arm again and replied, "Sleep well, and I will chat with you tomorrow."

"Sleep well, too."

Kurt felt the urge to draw a heart on his arm in response, but he didn't think they were quite ready for that. He fell asleep softly singing that damn song he'd had stuck in his head since before Glee.

"I'm falling in love and wouldn't I like to think so
And every night I look at the stars out my window
And I hope I can see
The one that we saw together
It was just you and me and honestly
I'll look for that star forever"

A/N: My muse ran away with me. My original plan was to have the boys meet today...and it just didn't happen. Tomorrow...I PROMISE...they will meet.

*The song is "Cute" by Stephen Jerzak. It's one I had never heard before, and it's really catchy!

*I took liberties with some of the dialogue and events from "Never Been Kissed," so none of that content is mine.