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Lotor startled awake, full of fear. Even as he saw his bed and bedroom and knew that he was safe, he still felt tears welling up in his eyes and spilling over as he blinked. It all felt so real. He'd... he'd...
"Babe? Babe, what's wrong?" The bed dipped behind Lotor's back as his boyfriend, Lance, scooted in closer.
Rolling over to face him, Lotor looked at his boyfriend apologetically. "Sorry. Just a nightmare."
"Must have been a pretty bad one to shake you up like this." Lance reached over to wipe the tears from Lotor's cheeks with a gentle, soothing brush of his fingertips. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," Lotor answered immediately, shaking his head for further emphasis. "It... I have certainly had worse, but..."
"Shh, it's okay. You don't have to talk about it." Lance wrapped an arm around Lotor, pulling his face into Lance's chest. Although he was the shorter of the two, he knew how to make Lotor feel protected. "We can talk about something else."
Lotor breathed with Lance, letting the steady rise and fall of his boyfriend's chest soothe his anxiety from the dream. "I know that it wasn't real, but it was still..." He paused, struggling to find a way to explain. "I still feel upset that things... turned out the way they did within it."
"Like a story with an ending you don't like."
"Exactly."
Lance ran his fingers through Lotor's hair soothingly. "Then what if we write our own story? We can give it any ending we want."
Lotor smiled lightly. "I suppose that would be nice."
"How about this? 'Once upon a time, there was a very sexy prince.'" Lance smiled back at him and winked, making it clear that Lotor was the 'sexy prince' in question.
Chuckling a little, Lotor commented, "I'm quite certain that's not how fairy-tales traditionally begin."
"Well, I want to make up a story about you, so that's how this story is going to begin."
"I think you're the type of person more people would enjoy a story about, love." He brought a hand to Lance's face, cupping it gently as he looked into his lover's rich blue eyes. "The dashing, courageous hero, ready to save the day."
Lance hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe. But I happen to be the type of person who would very much enjoy a story about a sexy prince." He kissed Lotor's forehead. "Especially a sexy prince who gets together with the dashing hero as they save the day."
Lotor couldn't hold back a very amused and fond smile. "That sounds like a story that I might enjoy as well."
"Alright, then close your eyes and listen." Lance ran his fingers through Lotor's hair again, helping him to relax and to start to drift off again. "Once upon a time, there was a very sexy prince, and there was also a dashing, courageous hero. This is the story of how they fell in love and saved everyone..."
~*~*~*~
He opened his eyes, smiling even as tears came to him. He could remember the nightmare he'd had within the dream, but he mostly remembered Lance. He'd dreamed of Lance so often for so long now. It felt like he was embodying another person, living someone else's life, someone named Lotor, who had a loving boyfriend named Lance and a convoluted life with so many ups and downs. In reality, his name wasn't even Lotor. He was just another ordinary person with another ordinary life...
As he got up and got ready for the day, he thought about Lance's words to him in the dream. Perhaps he would write his own story, a story where the prince of the enemy kingdom managed to lead his people out of the dark with the love and help of the dashing hero. Not a princess, though he had no doubt many people would like that. Not a rogue knight, not a brave soldier, nor any of the others who might seem better suited to help or 'redeem' such a man. Stories like that already existed in many forms, and he liked them, and he knew others did too, but he wanted to see the dynamic between the adventuresome hero and the dark prince. He could write that story, just as others could write the stories they wanted to see.
The nightmare within the dream haunted him, but the dream gave him hope. He would write the story he wanted, with the ending he wanted. And, perhaps, he could bring a little joy not only to himself, but to others.
To those who wanted to see the story of a love between a hero and a prince.