Work Text:
The Dreaming welcomed his ruler home. Morpheus had been away for some time, completing an important task in the waking world with the help of a semi willing Johanna Constantine, and now he was returning to his castle, slowly walking up to the entrance and being greeted by the gatekeepers.
“Welcome back, my Lord!”, the wyvern bowed its head, “While you were gone, a visitor has arrived.”
“A visitor? Who is it?”
Dream didn’t get a lot of guests. Of course, every living being visited his kingdom in their sleep, but few of them requested an audience with him and had therefore to be announced by the gatekeepers.
“We did not find out, she did not introduce herself, my Lord,” the hippogriff said and stretched his wings, “Her Ladyship has invited her in on your behalf.”
“I believe they are drinking tea in the sitting room, my Lord”, the griffin contributed, shifting in her place.
Morpheus nodded and opened the door to his castle.
“Thank you. Continue with your good work now, gatekeepers.”
Inside, Lucienne greeted him, but his trusty raven was nowhere to be found.
“Welcome back, Lord Morpheus,” his librarian folded her hand behind her back, “How was your trip to the waking world?”
“All went well,” he gave her a slight nod and started to walk down the hall, “Where there any incidents in my absence? Anything that I should know?”
“No, everything was quiet”, Lucienne moved on his side, “Your sister is visiting, the Queen is drinking tea with her.”
Death was here? Strange, she was very busy and usually announced her visits beforehand, and his gatekeepers knew her, why did they not tell him that she had arrived?
“Thank you, Lucienne. I will join them now, to see how my sister is doing and what brings her here.”
She nodded, “I will be in the library if you need anything.”
They parted ways and Dream soon arrived at the sitting room he had created for his wife. She very rarely asked him for anything material, but he knew of her dreams and wishes and had gladly remodelled the castle according to them. He went to enter the room but stopped when he heard two voices from inside the room.
“And what happened next?”, that was his wife, laughing in a way that still made his heart jump.
“I don’t know… wait, now I remember! We went to a beach, and I started collecting seashells, I still have some of them, somewhere in my realm…”
It wasn’t Death, instead it seemed like Delirium was paying him a visit. He could have guessed that when his gatekeepers hadn’t recognized her, as she had only recently started to come to the Dreaming more frequently. Dream did not mind, because the Queen enjoyed her company, and the happiness of her and his sister was important to him. And he, too, liked talking to her once in a while outside of family dinners that had a habit of descending into chaos.
“So, anyways…” inside the sitting room, Delirium had lost her train of thought, “How are you and Dreamy? Is being married fun?”
“We are well, thank you for asking!”, his wife answered, “Being married is…”
He could hear her giggle and the fabric of her dress rustle.
“Can I tell you something?”, another, conspiratorial laugh, “It’s wonderful! It just is. I don’t think I have ever been so happy in my life! In the beginning I had my doubts if I would make a fitting queen, but…”
“I think you are a great queen!”, Delirium interrupted, “The people here love you! And Dreamy loves you too, I know that because Desire told us, and I can see it too. He is always so happy since you moved here, when I see him, he just thinks of you, all the time! And I know that you think of him too, and that you love him a lot…”
“I do. He really makes me happy; I don’t think anybody who isn’t me can understand how I feel. I know he seems broody, but behind closed doors he is… he is really sweet, and so loving, I all I can do is to show him everyday that I feel the same.”
“You know, I always found him a bit scary… and I thought he didn’t like me very much, but now I think he does, and he is nice to me, you made him this way, I really like having you as a sister!”
“I didn’t. He has always been this way, he just… seems to show this side of him more ever since I entered the picture. And I am glad that you two are getting along better, I also like having you as a sister.”
Dream had been quietly eavesdropping from behind the door, but when he leaned forward to understand them better, he accidentally touched the wood, and the voices went silent.
“Yes?”, his wife must have heard him knock, “Come in.”
Realizing there was no way to turn back, he entered the room and found the Queen of the Dreaming with a teacup in her hand, sitting across from his youngest sister, who wore a buzzcut, a big coat and a long skirt, and in her lap sat Matthew, his trusty raven, with his eyes closed and head nuzzled against Deliriums stomach, while she was petting his wings.
“Morpheus!” his wife gave him one of her smiles that made him weak, “We were just talking about you. How was your trip?”
“All is well, my love”, he leaned down to give her a small kiss and sat down next to her, before addressing his sister, “Hello, Delirium. How are you?”
“I’m good! Kind of, you know how it is. What did you do in the Waking World? I go there a lot because humans call me all the time these days… Are you busy too?”
Matthew noticed his master but remained in Delirium’s lap and she started scratching his head. The three talked for a good while, Dream’s sister was telling various stories that seemed disorganized but also strangely interconnected and he and his wife listened and made small comments every now and then. His hand found hers and the feeling of her skin on his calmed him and made him forget the tension from his encounter in the Waking World. The words he had overheard from behind the door still echoed in his head, and he had to confess to being moved by them. It pleased him that he made his wife happy, because every so often, he worried that she might become unhappy and leave their marriage, just like so many others had left him. From the moment she had entered his kingdom a little under three years ago, he had wanted her, desired her, and now that he had her on his side and in his bed, he wanted to keep her there forever, hoping to give her the same happiness and pleasure that she was giving him by virtue of her pure existence in his life.
After some time, Delirium finished her tea, to which she had generously added cream, sugar, and honey, gently pushed Matthew of her lap, and stood up.
“That was fun, but I have to go now and do my work, but I will be back soon. If I’m allowed to, that is…”, she said, while curving her body in a slightly inhuman way.
“Of course, you can!”, Dream’s wife stood up too and gave her a tight hug. Morpheus saw his sister burry her face into the other women-shaped being’s shoulder, longing for connection not unlike he had when he couldn’t stop visiting her dreams. When they parted, he smiled gently and kissed his sister’s temple.
“Come back anytime you want. You know that my realm is always open to you”, he said, earning a big smile from her. Instead of an answer, she turned to Matthew, who had perched on Dream’s shoulder.
“Goodbye, Matthew!”, she stood in her tiptoes to give him a small kiss on his beak. Then she gave all of them a small wave and disappeared before their eyes. When Morpheus turned his head, his wife was looking up at him with a knowing smile on her face.
“What?” he asked and slid his hands around her waist.
“Nothing,” she giggled and stole a kiss, “I am just happy to have my husband back.”
“Yes, nice to have you back, Boss.” Matthew hopped from his shoulder onto the sofa.
“Seemed to me like you had quite enjoyed my sister’s company”, Dream remarked and, when his loyal raven looked away in embarrassment, kissed his wife again.
*
A few weeks later, his gatekeepers alerted him of another visitor. Morpheus was sitting in his throne, reading in a book by a Dreamer that had been doing strange things as of late. There seemed to be nothing wrong with his realm, the young person was just stressed, so then the wyvern stuck his head trough the window, he was eager to put his work to rest for a moment.
“A guest for you, my lord.”
“Who are they?”
“The immortal by the name of Hob Gadling, my lord. The Queen has invited him in.”
Dream nodded and dismissed the creature before rising from his throne. Normally, he met his friend in the Waking World, in their pub, but since he had revealed his identity to him, Hob occasionally visited him and his wife in the castle, and he was happy about this development.
He did not need to ask a servant where the Queen had led the guest. He could hear their voices and laughter echoing through the halls, clearly coming from the sitting room where she had been sitting a few days earlier with Delirium. His wife and his best friend got along very well and had become friends themselves. When the Queen was still living in the Waking World, they had met often in pubs, afterwards joking to him that they had been gossiping. Dream was not jealous, not at Hob at least, he knew that his partner and friend would not betray him, he was so sure of this that the thought had never even crossed his mind. Instead, he was happy about their bond, because they were both important to him, and he would not have been able to deal with the potential fallout had they not gotten along this well, and he would have been pressured to decide between them.
When Dream entered the sitting room, the two humans almost didn’t notice him, that’s how entranced they were in their conversation. Hob was telling the Queen something, and it made her whole body convulse with giggles, but when her eyes found him standing in the doorway, she scrabbled to compose herself.
“Morpheus!”, she rose to press a quick kiss on his lips, “Hob has come to visit us.”
“And your wife seems to be enjoying it,” Hob winked and smiled his signature smile when he took Dream’s hand to greet him, “Enjoying it a lot, I must say.”
“Oh, shut it!”, she playfully slapped him, and he stuck his tongue out at her, both still laughing when they sat down.
“I must say that I like your castle, Morpheus. Real shame that you didn’t invite me here sooner.”
“You are in this realm every night, you just do not remember when you wake again”, Dream placed his hand on his wife’s knee and looked at Hob, “And would you have believed me if I told you what I was had I told you when we first met?”
“Your Queen believed you and you still were afraid to approach her,” Hob turned to her, “Did he ever tell you how he refused to ask you out, and I had to practically force him to do it? Was almost painful to witness.”
“I can imagine!”, next to him his wife laughed and placed her head on his shoulder.
“Y’know, when the Queen slept…”
“The Queen of England slept at your house once?”, she spoke in a gently mocking tone, “How have I never heard about this? Please tell me all about it, it sounds so interesting!”
Dream couldn’t help but smile as Hob pulled a face at her.
“Well, your dear husband didn’t care about that story either, he promptly deserted me to talk to some talentless poet. I don’t even remember his name,” Hob acted all serious, but smiled shortly after, “But anyways, I’m here because I wanted to invite you out. My new partner wants to meet the two of you after I brought you up some time ago. I had to promise to ask you when I see you the next time.”
“Sounds great, doesn’t it?”, the Queen looked at Dream, “Looks like you are going to make the acquaintance of a third human.”
“I have existed for a time longer than even your immortal minds can conceptualise, trust that I have met many humans and met quite a few acquaintances”, absentmindedly, his fingers started to play with the fabric of her dress, producing a small rustling noise, “But if my dear friend invites me, I shall come.”
Hob gave him an honest, disarming smile, which his partner probably loved, as all of his exes had.
“I’ll set something up. It’ll be fun, trust me. They work in a library, so you should get along fabulously.”
“Oh, is that the one you told me about? I’m so happy that that worked out for you, they seemed so nice when you described them,” the Queen gently squeezed Dream’s hand and stood up, “Speaking of Libraries: I promised Lucienne I would help her reorganizing the geology section. So, I’ll leave you boys alone, I’m sure you have a lot to talk about.”
Hob rose too and let his friend kiss him on the cheeks, “Have a nice day, Queen of the Dreaming.”
“You too, Hob Gadling. And say your partner Hi from me, and that I’m excited to meet them.”
Hob promised and, once she had left the sitting room, shot Dream a look.
“We are two lucky fellas, aren’t we? Immortal, cool houses, great jobs, and lovely, lovely partners.”
What had always fascinated Morpheus about Hob had been his relentless will to life on and capacity to find hope and happiness in every situation he found himself in. It was an ability that he had always secretly admired and wished for himself, and it had been what continuously brought him back to the London Pub where they had first met. Over time, he had stopped to care about his and Death’s little game, something that he suspected had been her intention in the first place, he had only wanted to meet his friend so that some of his optimism might rub off on him, all things that he wasn’t quite ready to admit to himself.
“We are, Hob Gadling”, he smiled, “We truly are.”