"Kurt!" he finally heard when he reached a dead end. He spun around, panic in his eyes, and prepared himself for the worst.

Soulmate or not, I'm sure he's going to hurt me. They all do at some point, Kurt thought, cowering in fear. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he said over and over again as he curled in on himself, ready for fists to start hitting him.

Blaine raised his hands, showing Kurt that he meant him no harm. "Please, don't be scared of me." He felt an immense sadness at seeing this boy so afraid of someone he'd only just met.

Somehow, the calm tone of Blaine's voice was enough to break the cycle of negativity in Kurt's mind. His head snapped up, and he looked at Blaine like he was seeing him for the very first time. He said the first thing that popped into his head: "Do you have a pen?"

Blaine nodded. He took one out of his pocket and slowly handed it to Kurt. Kurt gently took the pen in his right hand and began to write something on his left forearm. When he was done, he looked at Blaine with big eyes, begging him to understand what he had done.

There must really be something to the soulmate bond because Blaine got the hint. He pulled up his left sleeve and saw the words, "I choose you, too," written in Kurt's elegant handwriting. Blaine's head snapped back up, and he looked at Kurt like he was seeing him with brand new eyes, eyes that were filling with tears. "Why'd you run away if you knew?" Blaine murmured emotionally, trying to grasp what had just been brought to his attention.

"Everyone was looking at me," Kurt whispered, almost too quietly for Blaine to hear him. "At my old school, whenever I sang outside of Glee, really bad things would happen." He shook all over, remembering the fists that would come flying at his torso and back and the hands that would push him into the closest hard object. Kurt was glad that it was no longer his reality.

"Nothing is going to happen to you here, Kurt," Blaine said, stepping toward him slowly. He was still somewhat afraid he would scare the pale boy standing in front of him away if he moved too fast.

Kurt just nodded his head. It was going to take some time for his head to understand that he was going to be safe here at Dalton, but hearing the words repeated aloud by his soulmate definitely helped.

Blaine was finally close enough to Kurt to touch him. "Can I hug you?" he asked in a whisper, not as afraid as before that Kurt would bolt but still wanting to be cautious.

"Please," Kurt whispered back and before he could finish the word, Blaine's arms were around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. Neither one of them were aware that they had an audience.

Headmaster Kent, Burt, Wes, and David had followed the boys after they ran out of the room. They had all witnessed what had happened, both in the Common Room and in just now in the hallway. The pure terror in Kurt's eyes wasn't anything new to any of them, they'd all seen it before, though maybe not all of them had seen it on Kurt. Not all of them had seen two soulmates meet for the first time, and they were all very happy about it.

Maybe it was the oldies they had listened to on the drive to Westerville, or maybe it was because he was thinking about the songs that his mom and dad used to sing when he was really little. Kurt honestly wasn't sure where the song came from, but sometime during their hug, he started to hum out a tune.

When he got to the chorus, Blaine began singing softly into Kurt's ear, a message meant for his soulmate's ears only:

"We're in this love together
We got the kind that lasts forever
We're in this love together
And like berries on the vine
It gets sweeter all the time"

The boys sang the last two lines of the song to each other, smiling the whole time.

"Thank you," Kurt whispered, smiling.

"Kurt," Burt said, officially interrupting their first real moment as soulmates, "wanna fill me in, bud?"

Kurt had a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. He had completely forgotten where he was and who he had come with, so Blaine answered for him. "Sir, I'm Blaine Anderson, and, if it's alright with you and Headmaster Kent, it might be better if we all go to his office and talk?"

"That's fine with me," Headmaster Kent agreed, and the group went to his office, Kurt and Blaine hand-in-hand. Wes and David were both confused, but Blaine just nodded to them. It was a sign that he would explain later after they had talked to the adults.

After the four sat down in the headmaster's office, Kurt blurted out, "We're soulmates."

Burt had unshed tears in his eyes at this news. He didn't want to think of his little boy growing up, not at all. However, if his son was going to meet his soulmate so young, he was damn glad that it was this young man. Somehow, call it intuition or simply knowing the kind of soulmate his son deserved, he knew that this boy would love his son with every fiber of his being. This boy would all but worship the ground Kurt walked on and would push him to be the best version of himself he could be.

Burt got up, went over to stand in front of Blaine, and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Burt Hummel." He offered his hand for Blaine to shake.

Blaine stood up and shook Burt's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

"Stop with the 'sir,' kid," Burt chuckled. "You can call me Burt." He clapped the boy on the back before returning to his seat.

"Well, Kurt," Headmaster Kent started, "what do you think? Can you see yourself being here at Dalton?"

"I'd love nothing more," Kurt answered honestly. He felt like he had been run through the emotional gamut today and it wasn't even lunchtime. Even with the emotional rollercoaster, though, he still felt safer than he ever had at McKinley.

"That's excellent news," Headmaster Kent replied. "Unfortunately, you and Blaine won't be able to room together. Our policy here at Dalton is that soulmates, if both of you are boarding, can only room together after they've both been enrolled here for a year. The good news, though, is that you will be rooming right next to him. We know that, especially during the first weeks in your bond, being close to each other is beneficial. You will be rooming with David Thompson in Ellsworth Hall, Room 333. Blaine and his roommate, Wesley Montgomery, are in room 331."

"Could I see my room before we leave today?" Kurt asked. "I'd like to know what it looks like and get an idea of what all I will need to bring."

"You absolutely can," Headmaster Kent replied. "Blaine, could you show him to the room and then come back here? I'll have Burt fill out some of the paperwork to get the transfer process going."

"I'd be more than happy to," Blaine answered standing up. He hadn't once let go of Kurt's hand, and he wasn't intending to do so until he had to leave.

A/N: The song in this chapter is "We're In This Love Together" by Al Jarreau.