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Hob Gadling bore the mark of his soul mate since before he could remember. Her parents always believed it was because he would find her one day and that person would be maybe a couple of years older than little Robert.
But then Hob grew up and became immortal. and over the years, that mark did nothing but stagnate there, like a lost stain on his chest. Of course, he never really cared so much about serious relationships, he preferred to be a free soul because he had so much to live that he didn't think his curiosity and admiration for the world would ever end.
Of course, over the years he had lived he had met thousands of people from almost all parts of the world, but none compared to that stranger who visited him every hundred years. He and only he managed to generate in Hob that small flame, that hope, that indefinite feeling that had bothered him so much when William Shitspeare stole the attention of the Gothic in the last decade of the 1500s. The only thing that could comfort him was knowing that within others a hundred years he would be the one who would be at the table with the dark-haired man again.
By the year 1889, Hob began to wonder what the hell was going on with him. In belief, it is assumed that you were born with a mark or the mark was assigned to you when your soulmate came to this world and it was erased when your soulmate died. But that tattoo was still there. Five hundred years later. Over there.
"You know...?" he began, fiddling with his wine glass and shaking it back and forth. he cleared his throat before speaking. "Humans... we- have this thing-" he let out a heavy sigh, searching for the right words for the situation. "It's a mark, ya know? It's... when you have a soulmate you have this mark and when your soulmate dies it disappear" he explained, avoiding the stranger's gaze at all costs. "Well-- maybe it's stupid to you--" the goth interrupted him.
"It is not, Hob Gadling. I know what it is, I have one too" the stranger smiled weakly, making a gesture for the brown-haired man to continue speaking.
"You do? Oh yeez-- okay, okay. Look what I'm trying to say it's that-- Mine. It doesn't disappear and it's weird because I been lived for five hundred years now aaand--" Hob made a pause, as if having a revelation. "perhaps my soulmate is immortal too, can she?" The dark-haired man gave him a look.
"She?" he asked, arching an eyebrow curiously.
"Yeah, well-- I don't really think it can be a man. I mean- I don't know but-- immortality" he finished, smirking.
"Perhaps" the stranger pronounced, cold and distant.
"Perhaps I can show you mine and- you can show me yours" Hob proposed after a good sip of wine. "I don't mind" he took off his tie, undoing the buttons of his shirt enough so that the tattoo of a small sandbag shines on his skin. "I don't even know what it means"
The stranger drew his eyebrows together seriously, his body tensing at the proposal. He was silent looking at the tattoo, omitting that it was literally the same as the one he himself had. "Why should I show you my mark?"
"Because we are friends, Saint Martin! And I don't really mind" Hob's drunken smile could be seen on the corner of his lips as he buttoned his clothes again.
"Friends? We are not friends, Hob Gadling" Hob's expression trailed off slowly, looking at the stranger in confusion.
"We're not friends? Then why would we reunited here every century if <we are not friends>? It doesn't make any sense" and he was certainly right, there was no point in continuing to meet Hob Gadling after he made it clear hundreds of times that he had no intention of dying.
"Because--"
"Because what? I think I already know that answer" Hob scoffed, sipping his wine slowly and giving him an amused look.
"And what do you think it is?" The Goth looked at him, stern and profound, with eyes so light blue that they shone at a certain point. Or maybe Hob was already drunk.
"I think you're lonely. And you need a friend" the stranger stood up, letting out some kind of indignant comment.
"You dare? You dare call me lonely? You dare imply that I might befriend a mortal? That one of my kind might need companionship?" Hob stood up too, following the stranger of his friend almost at a run.
"Yes, I do! I do!" the rain hit his face and the few streetlights on did not help him see in the direction where the stranger was going. "I will be here in one hundred years. And also you- that will mean that we are friends!" he couldn't even tell if the stranger even heard it.
2022.
Of course. Of course Hob would build a new Pub for himself and the stranger, even if he missed their last date. Okay, he deserved it, he had been a complete idiot. He had automatically regretted it after the dark-haired man left, and he too had caught a cold that lasted about two weeks from staying in the rain, but that was another topic.
He was reading the answers of his students, correcting an exam that was quite sad when a shadow fell in front of his table, and for god sake. It was him.
"You're late" was the only thing he could say, squeezing the pen between his fingers.
"I have always heard it was impolite to keep one's friends waiting" the stranger smiled, small and soft, only as he knew how to do it.
Hob was silent, just looking at him, until he thought he was seeing too much and concentrated on the exams he had to mark.
"Hello, Robert Gadling" the stranger called, cocking his head from his spot.
Something about him looked or looked different, but Hob couldn't tell what it was.
"Hello, my friend" and Jesus, Hob was bisexual, but he had never felt as gay as he did at that moment, totally and foolishly in love with a person he didn't even know. "It's a little bit unfair, don't ya think?" he asked, looking at the stranger as he put the pen aside.
"What's that?" he asked with genuine curiosity.
""You know my name, my age, my birthday, my whole life. You even know my mark! But I don't know anything about you" the dark-haired man smiled.
"Ask me nicely, Hob Gadling" he proposed, keeping his hands on the table.
"Uh-- What is your name, my dear strange friend?" he asked, with the politeness that he would ask a seven-year-old new to his class.
"Dream" he just said.
"Dream?" Hob frowned curiously.
"I have so many names, Hob Gadling. Dream it's one of them" Hob could feel the relaxation finally reaching him without even having drunk a single drop of beer and sighed. "Morpheus, if you prefer" he finished.
"Dream, I like it" he said softly. grabbing his cup of tea and drinking it.
"Talk me about you, Hob Gadling" and jesus christ. the way Morpheus said it. Hob doesn't even know if he can recovered from that.
"I missed you the last time. I waited for you, of course. Then I discovered that they would close the white horse and I built a new one" his cheeks shining in red. "My mark. Still there, I hope my soulmate is doing well--" he laugh softly. "I became a history teacher, the kids are so sweet" he keep silence wondering if he forgot something. "Aaaand that's all. I mean I don't do too much the last century. I think that's all"
Dream smile.
"I want you to know that I wasn't mad at you, Hob Gadling. I lose our meeting because I been locked" Hob expresion went from warm to worried in a second. "I'm fine now, and my kingdom is too" he moved his head up and down.
"Dream I-- I'm sorry. The last time I been a douchbag and didn't think very well. But I'm glad you're here now and you and your kingdom are fine too" Hob touch his hand softly and Dream smile. Comfortable.
"I forgot, Robert Gadling. The last time you asked me to show my mark" Hob denied, moving his head in a -no- definitly.
"Dream you don't have to do that--" Dream laugh slowly while pulled his t-shirt up.
"I want to, my friend" and there it was. that stupid bag of sand just exactly like his.
His eyes looked down and then looked at him again to his stupid blue eyes like the sky.
"Dream..." he just said.
"I was afraid at that time. I'm not anymore. Also my sister call me an idiot sandwich when I told her, so yes" Hob smile just softly as always with him. grabbing his hand and kissing it carefully.
"You are an idiot sandwich. And I fucking love you"
Morpheus smile. They will be fine.