#klainefeels

“No,” says Kurt quickly. Probably too quickly. But he’s heard horror stories of people coming off the drugs for wisdom teeth surgery that are too far gone and end up spilling secrets. He doesn’t need to go on talking about Blaine and how attractive he finds him. Or something else that is equally ridiculous.

“I mean,” he says. “Apparently I’m going to be out of it. I know after it gets started I’ll be fine. And my dad will be there, so.”

“Alright,” says Blaine. “But I’ll bring you anything you need. I guess you can’t really eat solid food after, so I’ll bring you jell or pudding or something.”

“Bring me a smoothie and we got a deal.”

“Deal.”

Going to the dentist the day of makes Kurt’s stomach fall upside down unpleasantly with nerves. He sits in the waiting room with his dad until his name is called.

Once in the room, laying back on the dentist chair, they set up an IV on Kurt’s right hand. He’s never had one before, but they find a vein easily enough and all Kurt feels is a cold sensation running up his arm.

“Okay Kurt,” says Dr. Howell, leaning over him with a dazzling grin. “You’re going to be falling asleep in just a few moments and we’ll get started.”

And stupidly, the last conscious thing Kurt things is: “I’m not even tired.”

Then he’s out.

Kurt’s heard you don’t remember anything during the surgery. That you are in a dreamless sleep until the edges start to come back into focus: the sounds first.

Kurt dreams, though.

Or at least, it has to be a dream.

If it is, though, it feels like the most realistic dream he’s ever had.

Kurt stands in a room, decorated with homey colors and tasteful wall art. He quickly realizes that it’s an apartment. Or really, a loft of some sort. The living room moves easily into a small kitchen, then there are curtains hanging up, blocking other parts of the house. Kurt stands there, looking around in confusion, for a few minutes before he becomes aware of someone else.

Kurt turns and stops short. Because standing just behind him is –

Well. Kurt is pretty sure it’s him.

It’s him, but taller. And with higher hair and sharper features and much, much more muscle mass.

“Oh,” says the other him. His voice is even a little different. “Well, that explains a lot.”

“What is going on?” asks Kurt, eyeing the other him. “Wow. Whatever Dr. Howell gave me really went to town on my subconscious. I can’t believe I could even dream up all this.”

The other Kurt smiles. “You’re not really dreaming. Or well. You are. But it’s real. I’m real, that is.”

Kurt just eyes him. “Yeah. Sure.”

“I’m serious,” laughs other Kurt. “I’m Kurt Hummel, but I’m 19. I’m in my first year of college and I live here. In New York. And this is going to be your life one day.”

“I – okay. Say I believe you,” says Kurt. Because okay, he’s curious. “Do you  - I mean, do I really live in New York City?”

“You do,” says other Kurt.

“I made it.”

Other Kurt laughs. “Yeah, you sort of did, didn’t you?” He gets this look on his face, like he’s remembering something nice.

“And I – wow. Okay. So I thought I grew up a lot between sophomore year and this year. But you…” Kurt looks at him for a long moment. “Well. I didn’t think I was going to get that much taller. Or buff. I’m buff. Okay.”

Other Kurt laughs again. “Yeah. I lost count of all the growth spurts I got. Blaine was so mad.”

“Blaine!” says Kurt. “We’re still best friends, right?”

“The best,” says other Kurt.

“And am I performing? I guess I survived high school. Oh! Do we ever win Nationals? The glee club?”

“Yes, you’re going to school right now. And somehow, we survived, yes,” he laughs. “And well. I’m not going to say anything for the last bit.” Other Kurt winks at him.

Kurt laughs. Other Kurt grins. “Why don’t you sit,” he says, motioning for the couch. “I don’t know how long we’ll be here.”

“Where is here exactly?” asks Kurt.

Then his eyes catch something glinting on other Kurt’s hand.

“Well,” Other Kurt begins as Kurt tries to see what it is on his hand again. They sit. “I guess it’s just our shared brain? I don’t know. But I guess I control the location.”

“Yeah,” says Kurt. He’s still looking down at other Kurt’s hand. “Wait, what’s that?”

And finally, other Kurt moves his hand closer. And he realizes – it’s a ring.

“Wait, that’s a –“

“Engagement ring,” says other Kurt with a small smile. “Yes, it is.”

“You’re engaged?” asks Kurt.

“Don’t you mean ‘I’?” says other Kurt.

“But – engaged. I haven’t even had a boyfriend yet,” says Kurt. “Who is it?”

Other Kurt plays with the ring absently. “He’s your best friend,” he says after a moment.

“My best friend?” asks Kurt. He thinks for a moment. “Wait. You don’t mean –“

Other Kurt just smiles at him. He opens his mouth again, but Kurt can’t hear it. Instead, he hears the sounds of scratching and metal instruments against metal tables. Then the familiar sound of Dr. Howell.

“Wait,” says Kurt. “I need to know if it’s really –“

But then the loft is disappearing around him. Other Kurt is gone and Kurt finds himself back in reality, lying on the dentist chair, his mind fuzzy with sleep and medication.

“You did great,” says Dr. Howell. Kurt can’t answer due to the puff balls stuffed into his cheeks.

His dad leads him out to the car later and he’s in a daze. He feels sluggish and sleepy and he doesn’t remember his dream until later that night, after he’s napped and woken up again.

Blaine has been texting him, asking if he wants that smoothie now or later.

Kurt declines the offer tonight, due to the fact that his cheeks have swelled up like a chipmunk. It’s not until after he’s sit his phone back on his bedside table that he remembers.

Blaine can’t be the person Other Kurt was engaged to, right?

Kurt finds the whole thing laughable, once he comes down from his high. It was just a dream, brought on by all the medication he was under. It’s not like it was real, after all.

So it becomes a dream in the back of his memory. He never really thinks about it consciously.

There’s the déjà vu, of course. But that’s not really thinking about it.

When he moves into the loft and starts decorating it, it tugs at his memory somewhat. Like he’s been here before.

He chalks it up to having a design for his future New York apartment in his mind since he was 13.

When he calls Blaine on Thanksgiving and says the words, “You’re still my best friend,” something else tugs at his memory, too. But he’s so emotional, tugged so many ways, that he can’t even think straight.

When Blaine proposes, he doesn’t get that rush of déjà vu until later, when he’s on the plane back to his apartment and staring down at the ring on his finger. It looks familiar, like he’s seen it before, too.

It’s not until he trips and falls the day Blaine moves into the loft and hits his head that he remembers his dream again.

Kurt’s vision swims in front of him, looking up at Blaine’s concerned face. “Kurt!”

His voice dims and the next thing Kurt knows, he’s waking up in his loft again and he thinks everything is okay.

Then he realizes that he’s staring at someone’s back. Someone who looks familiar.

The person turns and suddenly, it all rushes back to him.

It’s him, from junior year of high school, looking young and baby faced.

“Oh,” he says. He thinks back to the dream, what he’d heard from his other self and how…it’s all come true. “Well, that explains a lot.”

And so he goes on to tell himself everything he remembers ‘Other Kurt’ telling him (and wow, now he’s the Other Kurt in this situation). He thinks back to how…comforting it had been to hear these words back then. How much he’d wished they could be true; that one day he’d marry Blaine, his best friend, and have finally made it in the city of his dreams.

When he feels himself slipping, he knows the end of his conversation has come. Kurt, too, looks to be fading away. He’s waking up, Kurt thinks, just like he himself is.

Kurt becomes aware that he’s laying down on the same couch he’d been sitting on in the “dream.” That Blaine is knelling down at the side of the couch and looks relieved when he finally opens his eyes.

“Oh god, you’re awake,” he says, smoothing back Kurt’s hair.

“I love you,” says Kurt suddenly and Blaine looks taken aback. Then he relaxes.

“I love you too?” he says with a laugh. “You scared me.”

Kurt just smiles up at him. He reaches and cups his cheek. He remembers when they couldn’t do this – didn’t do this – because they were just best friends. Now, they’re best friends and fiancés.