Chapter Text
Once Dream and Hob had finished their kiss at the end of their waking wedding ceremony, they walked hand in hand back down the aisle until they were inside of The New Inn. Hob dragged Dream through the space and to the private stairwell that led up to the flat above where Hob lived, and Dream resided when spending time in the Waking.
“ I know that you are eager to get me out of this outfit, ” Dream teased as Hob closed the front door of the flat behind them. “ But I was led to believe there would be some sort of celebratory function afterwards. ”
The wedding in the Dreaming had not had an official reception. Many of the dreams and nightmares had to return to their duties, and many of the visiting gods and goddesses returned to their own realms to spread the news of the Endless matrimony. Destiny, Desire, and Despair all left after congratulating Dream and expressing welcome to Hob as part of the family. That had been mildly disconcerting in its own way.
“I just wanted a moment alone with you before the party begins.” Hob said as he tugged Dream in close to himself so that their chests were pressed flush against one another. “It’s going to take a few minutes for the dance floor to be set up, so we have a bit.” Hob moved in and ran the tip of his nose along the column of his husband’s throat before pressing a light kiss against his pulse point.
“ Mmm.. ” The Dreamlord purred and tilted his head back to allow his consort more access to his throat. His hands slid up along Hob’s arms, tracing the muscles there beneath the brown tweed until both hands were buried in the hair at the back of his neck. Hob mouthed at his husband’s neck, and gently scraped his teeth along the cool alabaster skin. He was careful to not leave any marks behind, even though Dream could will them away with little more than a thought. Dream knew how much Hob loved seeing the red and purple bruises he’d left on his skin like a claiming mark, and would not want to disappoint him.
Hob gently pressed against Dream’s hips, guiding him back until his back was pressed against the wall in the small foyer. He connected his lips to Dream’s, whose mouth opened eagerly to allow Hob to brush tongue gently against his. He tasted like crisp winter evenings spent next to a fire. It was an oasis of warmth when everything else outside was freezing and dark. Their suits were getting rumpled by the activity, but neither man cared. They were sure that all of their guests had some inclination as to where they had disappeared off to.
Hob had just pulled a delicious little sound from Dream by nibbling at his plush lower lip when a knocking sound at the door startled both men from their reverie. Hob let out a put upon sigh and rested his forehead against Dream’s thin shoulder, as his husband ran his elegant hands up and down his back in a soothing gesture.
“Robert and Morpheus King-Gadling!” the sound of Death’s amused and annoyed voice was muffled through the door. “I’ve waited over six hundred years for this day, and I will not be cheated out of watching you two dance while staring at each other with hearts in your eyes because you couldn’t keep it in your pants for a few hours!”
“ We will be there soon, my sister. ” Dream answered for the both of them, since Hob was too busy blushing and trying to not voice his displeasure at the interruption.
“You had better be, or else I shall send your other sister in attendance to retrieve you!” Death threatened before the sound of the high heels she wore clicked away on the wooden floor, growing quieter as she moved down the stairwell. Being in such close proximity to so many mortals meant that the three Endless in attendance had to behave as humanly as they possibly could. Even Delirium had done her best to not pop around and transform leaves into butterflies all for the sake of her favorite brother. He knew it pained her to do so, and had told her that she should not do such things to herself on his behalf. She’d argued that this was all about Dream and Hob this day, and did not want to cause any problems he would have to fix.
She liked her new brother-in-law. He was kind to her, and never admonished her whimsical non-sequiturs the handful of times they had met.
Hob sighed and pulled back from Dream. His husband looked lovely with his lips slightly swollen from their kisses, and a very light flush high in his cheeks.
“We should go. Delirium is lovely, but I’d rather none of your family see us in the act.” Hob said with a grin stretching across his lips. Dream’s lips turned up ever so slightly at the joke, and slotted Hob’s hand with his own before leading him back out of the front door and down to where an Inn filled with people awaited them.
There were many back slaps and hugs for Hob, and polite handshakes for Dream who was well known to Hob’s colleagues to not be a fan of touching people he did not know very well. The sun had fully set by now, and the back garden was still quickly being rearranged for the reception. Most of the guests had a drink in hand, wine or champagne mostly, but there were some who preferred a pint.
“So, Morpheus.” Katya, one of Hob’s fellow history teachers, said when she had managed to make her way to the couple. “Rob here has never really told us what you do for a living. He always talks about you being away for work, but never said what it was.”
Morpheus allowed his lips to curl up at the corners as Hob’s arm wrapped around his waist, gripping hip beneath his suit jacket.
“ I create stories. ” Morpheus said. It was not in his nature to ever tell lies, and the cover story that the pair had come up with was as close as they could get without lying outright. “ I weave dreams and nightmares from nothing but thought. ”
“What my dramatic husband means to say,” Hob said with an affable, put upon sigh, “Is that he’s an author. He writes under a pseudonym, so don’t bother asking to see his work.” The words came smoothly from Hob’s lips, used to the falsehoods he's created throughout the centuries as a means of survival.
“You must be quite successful, if you can travel the world.” Lyle, from the Maths department added.
“ My work is my calling, my purpose. ” Dream said, and Hob was surprised but elated that Dream was being this chatty. He was half afraid he would need to intervene more on his husband’s behalf. “ Traveling is a way for me to gain insight, perspective. ”
The conversation was cut short when Delirium skipped over to the small group and wrapped her arms around her older brother in a tight hug.
“ Hello, little sister. ” Dream said as he returned the affection. The two other teachers looked perplexed. Hob had never mentioned his boyfriend-fiancé-now husband having any family. Especially not one who looked barely of age, with wild colorful hair and mismatched eyes.
“Hey Del. Did you like the ceremony?” Hob asked as she turned to grip him as well. She was wearing the same sort of outfit she’d donned for the Dreaming wedding, full of bright colors and clashing patterns of stripes and spots and tartan.
“I turned to Delight when I saw you kiss.” She said as she pulled back from Hob. Dream gave a soft, affectionate smile to her. One of those rare ones doled out only to those whom he loved most. Hob felt lucky enough to be one who earned them. “Death says that it’s time for you to dance. I haven’t seen you dance in millennia, big brother!”
More confusion passed over the mortals' faces at those words.
“ We shall see if I have not lost my touch, then. ” Dream answered and held out his arm for Hob in order to lead him out to the back garden where many of their guests had begun to gather.
A large wooden square had been laid out over the grass in the center of the space under the densest concentration of twinkling fairy lights. They had no formal band or DJ set to do music, just a playlist carefully crafted by Hob. After that, algorithms would choose what would play, but Hob was sure that by that time, he and Dream would have long absconded on to their honeymoon.
Dream would have liked to skip the dancing part of this. He did not like to dance, and had gone to great pains throughout his existence to avoid the act. He didn’t even dance when Orpheus and Eurydice.. but that was ancient history, at least in this world. Right now, for Hob, his husband, his Prince Consort.. he would make an exception.
One time.
He and Dream made their way to the center of the makeshift dance floor, and their guests gathered around on the grass surrounding it to give the couple room.
“Everyone!” Hob spoke loudly to gain the attention of their guests. “Morpheus and I would like to thank you all for coming to celebrate our marriage with us.” A round of cheers went up through the space, whistles and shouts of ‘It’s about time!’ Hob chuckled at this before continuing after looking over at Dream to see him smiling fondly at him. “Morpheus and I had two different ideas of what we wanted our first dance to be. If you will indulge us, we would like to dance to both.”
As if there was a chance that anyone would protest watching Hob and Dream being lovesick fools. It was a novelty for everyone involved. Hob raised his arm in a signal for the employee in charge of the sound system to begin the music.
Hob and Dream turned toward each other just as the low sound of strings began. Hob placed one hand on Dream’s thin waist, while the other clasped his hand. Dream’s pale hand rested on Hob’s shoulder as a few notes of a piano joined the strings.
“ I’ll use you as a warning sign/ That if you talk enough sense then you’ll lose your mind.
And I’ll use you as a focal point/ So I don’t lose sight of what I want.”
The pair began to move in a graceful, yet casual, version of a waltz. They floated around the dance floor as if on clouds. Dream was cat-like in his movements, each step fluid and never a single faltering step. Hob was no slouch either, having centuries of experience behind him. He wasn’t as swan-like as his husband, but he made up for it in enthusiasm and joy.
“And I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be/ Right in front of me.
Talk some sense to me.”
It was Dream who had chosen this track for them to dance to. It had been a song playing from Hob’s computer in the background of one of their dates in Hob’s little flat above the Inn. When Dream had heard it, it had struck something deep inside of him. The sense of yearning and desperation. Of finding love where it should not have been, but now that it’s there, using it to know oneself.
If Dream and Hob had eyes for anything for each other at that moment, they would have seen how many eyes had started to glitter with tears as they made their circles around the dance floor as the beat of the song stayed steady, growing from just piano and strings to a stomping of feet that built in intensity as the song progressed. They did not stop their dance as the song flowed into the next.
More piano filled the air, the beat a little quicker than the song before, and the husbands picked up the pace of their dance just a little bit to match it. A high female voice began to sing, airy and ethereal.
“Love of mine, Someday you will die/ But I’ll be close behind, I’ll follow you into the dark.
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white/ Just our hands clasped so tight waiting for a hint of a spark.”
Hob let go of Dream’s waist, and the king of dreams moved out from him and slowly turned into Hob’s arms so that they were back to chest with hands clasped over Dream’s chest and on Dream’s waist, Hob’s chin resting on Dream’s shoulder with his forehead pressed to his husband’s temple as they swayed to the music.
“If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied/ Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs.
If there’s no one beside you when your soul embarks/ I’ll follow you into the dark.”
They stayed that way through the next two verses and chorus, dead center on the little dance floor, before Dream spun out and back in again so that he and Hob were face to face again. Hob placed both hands on his husband’s waist, and Dream wrapped his arms around Hob’s shoulders, still swaying in place. Unending love poured from their eyes in the form of tears as they smiled at each other, oblivious to the audience surrounding them.
“And if heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied/ Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs.
If there’s no one beside you when your soul embarks/ Then I’ll follow you into the dark.
Then I’ll follow you into the dark.”
As the female voice let its final notes ring out, Hob pressed his forehead against Dream’s, and sang along with the final line. Another vow was made on that night. Not only eternal love, but the assertion that where one would go, the other would follow. Even if it was the end of the universe.
*~*~*
The evening wore on, the stars in the sky seeming to shine brighter than usual, unencumbered by the lights of London. Hob had tried to get Dream to dance with him more, but had only succeeded when it was a slow song that allowed him and Dream to be pressed up against one another. It wasn’t as if he expected the Dreamlord to twerk or bump and grind, but maybe a silly little twist or even just clap along to the beat.
Maybe he could get him to do so later, when they were alone.
Hob had been pulled out on the dance floor by his youngest sister in law a couple of times with the more upbeat songs. She twirled and bounced along to the beat of the song, her colorful skirts flaring out as Hob spun her around. It was pure Delight as she sang along to the music, wildly out of tune but with unmatched enthusiasm.
Hob eventually joined Dream on the sidelines, a glass of champagne for each of them, but it was possible that his husband would only take his glass out of politeness and then discreetly discard the beverage when Hob wasn’t looking. He had to try anyway.
They were joined by Death after the soft sound of fluttering wings reached their ears. Unfortunately, her duties did not take a break for a wedding reception, and she had been quietly popping in and out for appointments. She smiled at the two men, happy to have found them in a much less compromising position than she had before the festivities.
“It was wonderful to see you dance Dream.” She said with a smile. “I can’t believe Hob talked you into it. You didn’t even dance at-“ She cut herself off from that sentence when she saw the way her little brother’s eyes tightened at the corners. Hob gave an almost imperceptible squeeze to Dream’s waist as he notes the small change in his husband’s demeanor.
“ I believe he would have liked to see it. ” Dream finally answered after a moment, his voice barely above a whisper, and thick with regret.
“He knows.” Death said in her gentle way, as if Dream were one of her charges. Her gaze moved to Hob then. “They both do.” And she turned to look towards a corner of the garden hidden in shadow. Hob and Dream followed her eyeline and saw a strange window there, floating at around chest height.
Within the square of space was a softly lit room, and two figures clapping their hands along to the beat of the song that was currently playing. Dream felt his eyes begin to burn with welling starlight tears as the dark curly hair, and angular face of one of the two young men became clear to him. He had not seen that face in thousands of years, but would know it anywhere.
Next to him, Hob gasped and then whispered. “Robyn.. my boy.” As he studied the other young man intently.
The two young men were smiling wide, and laughing at each other as they attempted to dance along to the music. A second later, Orpheus and Robyn Gadling looked through the window and right at their fathers, grins still in place.
And then with a single blink, the window was gone.
There was the fluttering of wings once more, and the presence of Death was gone.
Hob and Dream looked at each other, wearing matching looks that cycled between joy and grief before a couple of tears escaped their eyes.
“That was..” Hob said, but was unable to put words to what had just happened. His son was through that window, with someone else. Dream’s cool hands rested on each of his cheeks, and he brought their foreheads together gently. It had become their gesture of comfort, of a way to say ‘I love you’ without words.
“ A window into the Sunless Lands. Death’s wedding gift to us. ” Dream whispered as Hob’s hands clasped his forearms. “ What else could she give us, but a peek into her realm. To let us know that.. our sons are not alone and that they are happy . ”
Hob sniffed deeply after a moment and gently pulled away from Dream. He brought his hand up to gently rub the fallen star-like tears from Dream’s cheeks, and then his very human ones from his own. He took a deep breath, and allowed a smile onto his lips.
“Let’s go, love. It’s time for us to leave. Our honeymoon awaits.” Hob said as he took Dream’s hand in his own, and tugged him towards the crowd that was starting to gather around with small bottles of bubble solution to blow over the couple as they made their way from the festivities and into the next part of their life together.