When they reach the age of ten all children are visited by The Matchmaker.

The Matchmaker takes the child's hand, looks deep into their eyes, and tells them a name.

One name.

The name of the one person who will love them above all others; the person whom they will live their lives with; the person they will marry and have children with; the person with whom they will buy a beautiful house, with a white picket-fence, and a people carrier so that they can drive the children to soccer games and dance recitals; the person that they will grow old with, who will care for them when they can no longer care for themselves; the person who will cry at their funeral, because they have no purpose in life higher than to love that one other person.

All of this, an entire future laid out, at ten years old.

On Kurt Hummel's tenth birthday, after all of the guests have gone home, and it is only himself and his father left, The Matchmaker arrives. She takes her seat on the old beaten-up couch in their living room and Kurt politely sits next to her. He knows why she is here, he has been told about this his whole life, he has been looking forward to it for years, to be able to know, right now, who he is meant to be with, who will love him forever and ever. To Kurt this is the most romantic thing ever. He can't even imagine what it must have been like before The Matchmakers, to have to live your life not knowing who you were going to be with, having to guess and try and fail to find your one true love with no clues at all about who it might be.

The Matchmaker smiles down at Kurt and holds out her hand. Kurt eagerly places his small hand in her much larger one and blinks up at her as she envelops that small hand with her wrinkled old fingers. She has a kind face, he notices, and he is glad that it was her who came to see him and not the other Matchmaker in the town, the scary old man. She looks down at him now and Kurt is transfixed by her pale eyes; looking almost lilac in the dark light of their living room.

Burt leans forward in his dusty old armchair, praying silently that she will say something, anything, any name at all, he doesn't care what it is just so long as it's a name. He has never met anyone yet who was not given a name, but he's heard stories, and he doesn't want that for his son. It's bad enough having to live the remainder of his years alone with his wife already gone, knowing that there will be no one else. At least he had a few good years with her. He'll always have the memories and the beautiful little boy in front of him. He can't even imagine what it might be like to live your whole life knowing that you will never have anyone at all.

Kurt's heart begins to beat a little faster as The Matchmaker looks at him. It feels almost as though she is looking straight into his soul and he's not sure that he likes that. He thinks he might throw up but it's probably just because he ate too much cake. On the other hand he can't shake the feeling that soon, very soon, he will know. He will know the name of the person that he is meant to be with and then he can finally get started on his real life, trying to find them. There is a brief moment, that lasts only a second, when he suddenly wonders if he really does want to know after all, but then it's too late to take his hand back even if he had wanted to because The Matchmaker opens her parched old lips and speaks at last.

"Tobias Green."

Blaine Anderson does not want to meet The Matchmaker. He has never wanted to meet The Matchmaker. He happens to think that the entire thing is a really stupid idea. Why would you actually want to know the name of the person you're going to marry? Surely that takes the fun out of everything? He wonders this again and again as he crouches in his hiding place in the garden. It is his tenth birthday and The Matchmaker is due to arrive any minute. He has not been allowed to have friends over today. He had to have his birthday party the day before because his parents have insisted that his tenth birthday is special and must be a family day. They have invited everyone to come and watch Blaine's meeting with The Matchmaker, even his stupid cousin Timothy who he sort of hates since he told on Blaine to his dad when he found him playing dress up with Natalie from next door last summer.

"Blaine!" He crouches down further to avoid his mother's gaze. "Blaine come on now darling, don't be so silly! The Matchmaker is here and it's incredibly rude to keep her waiting." Blaine holds his breath, not wanting to give her any sort of clue as to where he is. A few moments later however he is blinded by the sunlight as his mother pushes aside the branches above him to reveal Blaine squatting in the dirt in the middle of a hollowed-out bush at the bottom of their garden. "Come on Blaine," she smiles down at him fondly, "You're ten now, you have to be a big boy and come and meet The Matchmaker, just like everybody else."

"I don't want to." Blaine frowns up at her, "Knowing now would be no fun, I'm only ten, I don't need to know yet, tell them to go away."

Blaine's mother sighs and reaches out her hand to help her son stand up. "I know you think you don't want to know, but I didn't think I wanted to either." Blaine stands up and climbs out of the bush reluctantly, "I thought I wanted it to be a surprise like it used to be in old movies." Blaine's mother explains as she leads her son back towards the house. "But my mother made me see The Matchmaker, just like I'm making you, and when she told me your father's name I knew, I knew that I was wrong." She turns to look at her son and lays her hand on his chin, tilting his little face so that he is looking up at her. "It's a different kind of magic," she promises him, "But it's just as beautiful as the old movies."

Blaine sighs. "OK, I'll see The Matchmaker."

"There's a good boy."

"I still don't want to though."

Blaine's mother laughs. "I know."

The Matchmaker is sitting in the largest, most comfortable armchair in front of the television, where Blaine's dad sits when they watch football together.

"Take your time," Blaine's dad jokes, but it's one of those weird jokes that Blaine doesn't like very much because he's never quite sure if he should laugh or not.

Blaine shuffles towards the kindly old woman and she smiles down at him, holding out her hand. He looks at it reluctantly, and then back at her. She nods at her outstretched hand and there's a twinkle in her lilac eyes that somehow makes him trust her. Blaine lays his hand in hers and looks up at the old woman, his stomach doing these weird little flips that make him want to be sick. He silently prays that she won't say anything, that she will take her hand away and shrug and tell them all that Blaine Anderson has no soul mate and then leave his house and never come back. He would prefer that, he thinks. Plus it would probably be really funny to see the look on his dad's face.

But, of course, The Matchmaker does tell him the name. However it is not a name that anyone is expecting, and the look on Blaine's dad's face is not at all funny.

"Richard Matheson."

(A/N) Recently, there has been an accusation on this fic of plagiarism from the fic "but with a whimper" by of-a-crescendo, which can be found on livejournal. It can be concluded that any similarities (accidental or not) were not written with a mindset that is cruel, vicious or malicious in any way, shape or form. However, it has been left up to the reader to decide the level of coincidence and whether there is an apparent influence or not.