When the boys came back to the villa, they fixed a simple lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and veggies. They took their time eating and enjoying each other's company. Every so often, one would feed the other bits of fruit, inevitably followed by sweet kisses.
After they had finished eating, they adjourned to their respective rooms to change into the swimwear. Neither felt the need to jerk off beforehand, knowing that if the mood struck them, they would take care of each other. They met back by the pool after selecting a bottle of wine and a few light snacks. Since they had just eaten lunch, neither really thought they'd need anything, but they didn't want to have to leave the pool if they did get hungry.
They spent a couple of hours just lounging in the pool and hot tub. Neither wanted to talk about anything life-changing, both being somewhat emotionally exhausted from their talk near the palace doors.
"I'm getting pruney," Kurt complained as they finished their bottle of wine and got out of the hot tub.
"I have an idea of what we could do after we get cleaned up," Blaine offered.
"What's that?" Kurt asked with a sly look on his face.
"Not that, love," Blaine answered. "It's something I think you'll like it though."
"Alright," Kurt conceded.
They went and got showered and dressed again, Blaine moving quickly through his routine so he could get everything set up in the living room. While he was putting on his swimsuit earlier, he had texted Liliana and asked if she had a copy of The Sound of Music that they could borrow. Luckily, she was a musical theater enthusiast and had the movie in both English and Italian. Blaine had asked her if they could borrow her English copy that afternoon. She had said she would bring it by and slip it in the mail slot after she finished her lunch. When Blaine got to the mail slot, he was happy to find the movie along with a note: "Enjoy! It's one of my favorites!"
Kurt finally joined Blaine in the living room, curious to see what his soulmate had planned. "So, what're we doing?"
"Well," Blaine said, hoping his plan wouldn't backfire, "tomorrow is Christmas, and, since I didn't really plan on meeting you, I don't have a gift for you."
"You don't need to give me anything, Blaine," Kurt said. "Finding you is the best gift I could ever receive."
"Ditto," Blaine said with a blush high on his cheeks. "Anyway, I wanted to give you something, and this is the only thing I could come up with on such short notice." He pulled out the copy of the movie he had borrowed and watched as the realization came over Kurt's face.
"You…how...where…?" Kurt stammered, not quite sure which question he wanted to ask.
Sensing that he needed a little help, Blaine decided to rescue him. "I was really, really touched by your story earlier. And I want you to take the time to connect with your mom again. If anyone knows how important that is, it's me. So, I sent Liliana a text when we got back from our outing, and she said she had a copy of it that she'd let us borrow."
"You…" Kurt started to say but choked on a sob. "Are the best, most amazing soulmate in the history of soulmates." Little trickles of tears began to leak down his cheeks, and he swiped at them with the backs of his hands.
"Is that a yes then?" Blaine tentatively asked.
"Yes!" Kurt answered. "A thousand times, yes!"
"Okay," Blaine said. "We need to figure out one more thing."
"And what's that?" Kurt asked while drying the tears that had fallen, giddy at the thought of watching thismovie with his soulmate.
"Shall we remake our nest or cuddle on the sofa?"
"Nest! Definitely, nest," Kurt answered eagerly.
For the next three hours, the boys got lost in the magic that was The Sound of Music. They sang and laughed and cried together. Both were surprised that they had any more tears left to cry by the end of the movie.
"Thank you for my gift," Kurt said after the closing credits had finished. "I'm not sure when the last time I watched that was."
"I'm glad I got to experience it with you," Blaine said and placed a kiss on Kurt's lips.
The boys kissed for several minutes, needing to feel the connection between them.
"What do you say I go and make us some supper, and then we can decide what to do for the rest of the night?" Kurt offered.
"That sounds great, baby," Blaine answered. "Only if I can help, though."
"How about you get our little love nest all picked up, and then come join me," Kurt offered.
"Okay."
Kurt went to the kitchen and found all of the ingredients he would need for his mother's lasagna recipe. When Blaine joined him, Kurt suggested that he cut up the fixings to make a salad. They worked in tandem and sang together, mostly songs from the movie they had just watched. When they sang "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," they danced around the kitchen. Kurt was pleased to see that his soulmate knew how to do more than just sway back and forth. After their song and dance, they got back to work on the food.
Their meal was delicious, and Blaine found the perfect wine to pair with it. As they ate, they talked about their coming out stories and when they figured out they were gay. Blaine had figured it out when he was nine. He told Kurt about how he talked to his dad about a new boy in his class that he found pretty. He recalled happily that his dad didn't bat an eyelash. Kurt told Blaine about his dad finding him dancing to "Single Ladies" and then his stint on the football team before he finally dredged up the courage to tell his dad when he was 15.
After they had finished and cleaned up, the men decided to go to bed early. They were both mentally and emotionally exhausted from all of the memories they had shared that day. Blaine went into his room and changed into his pajamas then joined Kurt in his room. Neither man wanted anything more than just cuddling that night, longing to feel the comfort and closeness only their soulmate could offer. They lay together, face to face like koala bears, sharing chaste kisses and whispering sweet nothings into the air.
The last thing Kurt remembered before falling asleep was Blaine placing a kiss in the middle of his chest. That kiss made him feel more cherished and loved than any other kiss ever had. He wasn't quite sure what it was about it, but he knew in the depth of his soul that something big was going to happen that night.
Both boys were in each other's dreams again. But something was different. They were just standing there, almost like they were waiting for a show to start.
"I wonder why nothing is happening," Kurt asked, thoroughly confused.
"I was thinking the same thing," Blaine replied.
Just then, something started to happen. It was like a fog was lifting from the earth, revealing bits and fragmented parts of dreams they had both had before.
"It's moving too fast for me to piece the parts together," Kurt panicked. "This seems important! I felt it before I fell asleep." He turned wild, anxious eyes to Blaine.
"Love," Blaine said, trying his best to calm Kurt. He reached out, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"What if the universe is trying to tell us something, and we mess this all up?" Kurt asked, beginning to spiral.
"LOVE," Blaine said a little louder. He patted at Kurt's arm.
"We can't fuck this up, Blaine. I refuse to lose you right after I found you," Kurt sobbed. I can't! I ju-"
"KURT, TAKE A FUCKING BREATH," Blaine yelled, finally able to break through the thoughts that were clouding Kurt's mind.
Kurt listened, taking a deep breath. "Thank you," he said. "I told you you might have to do that."
"Yes, you did," Blaine replied. "Okay, let's look at what we are seeing. There are what appear to be parts of several different dreams that I've had with you. I also recognize some of yours that I've visited."
"I see that all now, too," Kurt said. "The villa keeps getting interspersed in there, too. Is that…?" Kurt stopped and took a closer look. "Is that us here, under the gazebo, when we were younger?"
"There we are again as teenagers," Blaine observed, pointing to another dream fragment. "I don't remember having those dreams, the ones that take place here."
"I don't either," Kurt confessed. "But, when I was talking with Santana the night that she found the website for this place, I could see it clear as day. I described it to her perfectly, and she was able to find it. How did that happen if I don't actually remember the dream? And how did we both know that it was because of our dreams that we booked this place? It's like, we remembered a dream about being here but not the actual dream. Does that make sense? How is that even possible?"
"Fate?" Blaine guessed. "It happened similarly to me, though I wasn't planning with anyone else. I was just browsing, and something compelled me to click on the site for this villa. Once I saw it, it felt like home, and I knew I had to come here."
"Alright," Kurt said, taking another deep breath. "So, we have all of these dreams that we're a part of, and they're just playing on repeat now it seems. What's the commonality? There has to be something there that we are missing."
Blaine started thinking about everything they had shared with each other since they met, both in and out of their dreams. "Baby?" Blaine asked hesitantly, starting to come up with something that might be a solution.
"Yeah?" Kurt answered, still trying to figure out what they were missing.
"You were 10 when your mom died. I was nine when I figured out I was gay," Blaine explained.
"Correct," Kurt said, turning toward Blaine, sensing he was on to something but not knowing where this train of thought was headed.
"That was the first time we showed up in each other's dreams," Blaine stated. And, just like that, the scrolling dreams went to those exact moments, putting them side by side. One was Kurt's dream, one was Blaine's, and a third one showed the boys under the gazebo.
"When is the next time you remember seeing me in your dreams?" Blaine asked.
"I think it was when I finally came out to my dad," Kurt guessed. That dream showed up right next to the one of Blaine in the hospital. Again, there was a third dream of the boys under the gazebo.
"From then on, we got to see each other a little more frequently than we had been," Blaine pointed out. "My guess is that I showed up somewhere in your dreams around the time my dad died."
"My dad had a heart attack," Kurt breathed, amazed at the pattern they were discovering as those dreams appeared. "He was in a coma for two weeks, and we weren't sure if he was going to make it." Again, there was a third dream sequence of the boys under the gazebo, though this time, they were hugging instead of just sitting next to each other.
Two more dream triads appeared as the boys stood there and watched in complete awe. Burt's cancer diagnosis and Blaine's rejection to Columbia appeared together, and then Burt's remission and Eric cheating flashed next.
"Whenever something huge has happened in either other our lives, something just as big happened in the other. And somehow, we knew that this would be the place we'd figure it all out," Kurt said, finally being able to put all that he had seen and figured out into words.
"This can't be real," Blaine murmured, missing the look of hurt on Kurt's face. "This is…it's just…I don't understand how this can be real, love."
"Do you not want it to be real?" Kurt whispered, afraid if he spoke any louder, he would break.
Blaine sensed the tension in Kurt's words and finally tore his eyes away from the dreams that kept cycling through in their completed triads. When he saw the unshed tears in Kurt's eyes, he hugged his soulmate in the tightest embrace he could. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it the way it sounded. All I meant was this seems so surreal, beyond anything I've ever heard of or could ever imagine, and I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that you've always been there for me. I've always been there for you, and, I think, we were always meant to be here. In this moment, right here, right now."
"Can we wake up?" Kurt pleaded. "Please? I need to see you, the real you. I need to know that this is real and not another dream where I wake up, and you aren't really there."
Blaine was able to pull himself out of sleep first and spent a couple of minutes trying to wake Kurt. It was breaking his heart to see the tears streaming down his lover's face.
"Kurt," Blaine said. "Baby, wake up. I'm real, and this is real. I'm right here. You just need to open your eyes."
Kurt shook his head no, not sure who to believe. Was the 'real' Blaine the Blaine who was talking to him in his dream or the one who was slowly but surely pulling him out of that dream and back into reality? He finally gasped awake and frantically searched for his soulmate.
Blaine grabbed Kurt's face and forced him to focus on him, to look directly in his eyes. "I'm right here, baby," Blaine repeated. "I have always been right here, and I always will be. I'm not going anywhere, and the only way I will is if you send me away."
"I love you," Kurt whispered, still staring into those golden pools of love. "I love you so much, Blaine. I won't ever send you away. I promise."
"I love you, too, Kurt," Blaine said and dove in for a kiss that felt like the promise of forever to Kurt.
They fell asleep quickly after that, arms twined around one another, dreaming that they were walking through Central Park, seeing the Eiffel Tower and skydiving somewhere warm.