Chapter Text
Dream was getting married.
Married .
Again.
His last marriage had ended millennia before, and even after telling himself he wasn’t going to do it again here he was. Getting ready to tie himself to someone else once more. Not a god or goddess. Not a deity, or other sort of powerful being.
A human. An immortal human, but still a human.
He wanted to whisk Hob off to the Dreaming the moment that the man had said yes. He wanted to perform the ceremony in Fiddler’s Green with only the dream as witness beneath the soft blue skies in a verdant field filled with all things beautiful and alive.
Unfortunately, that was not how this had to work. There were rules and protocols for such a thing, and truth be told, Dream hated every single one of them. He would have to inform all of his siblings. He’d have to make an announcement to all of the realms so they would know there was a new monarch in the realm of Dreaming.
He would have to invite other beings into the Dreaming to bear witness.
He had thought that being trapped in a glass and iron ‘hamster ball’ for one hundred years had been torture.
The easiest of these tasks was to inform his sister Death of the upcoming nuptials, so that was what he did first.
He found her as she was making her rounds, helping ferry souls to the Sunless Lands. He could have called her to his realm from his gallery, but it would be much less formal this way. It would also be harder for any of their other siblings to eavesdrop on the conversation. Except Destiny, of course. Their eldest brother would already know all about what was happening from that giant tome of his.
“ Greetings, my sister. How are you faring? ” Dream asked as he appeared next to her while she walked along a cobbled pathway somewhere in Paris. He was fairly sure it was Paris, anyway. They were definitely somewhere in France, by the looks and age of the architecture. The French writing over the doorways of various shops also helped with that assumption.
“Dream!” Death said with joy, and a little bit of shock. Her brother had gotten better at keeping communication open, but it was still surprising any time he just showed up to spend time with her. She stopped their walk and turned to give him a hug, which he returned, more warmly than he ever had in the past. “I’m doing as well as expected. Still worried about you, obviously. Big sister obligation. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
She turned and looped her arm through his, and continued walking towards her next appointment. The early afternoon sun was shining down over the white facades of the surrounding buildings, making everything gleam.
“ I have important news. I wanted to share it with you before the family dinner. ” Dream suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and let out a pained groan at the prospect. Destiny had insisted they have one when Dream had escaped from his imprisonment, but Dream had put it off until he’d gotten things back in order. Then Desire had revealed their hand in everything that had happened and Dream refused to be in their presence until he had a chance to calm down. He still wasn’t all that calm, but now he couldn’t avoid them.
“Oh? It must be very important for you to come to me instead of sending Matthew.” Death mused, her expression turning serious.
“ Matthew does not know of this, not yet. ” Dream supplied, his eyes looking down at the cobblestones beneath their feet for a moment before looking back at his sister. He looked back ahead of them to watch where they were going, atiny smile tugging up the corners of his lips. “ I am to be wed. ”
Dream felt his body jerk as he took a step forward, only to feel resistance as his sister - arm still looped through his - stopped dead in her tracks. He felt an insistent tug and his body was turned around to stand directly in front of her. She was only marginally smaller than he was, but infinitely stronger than him and used that to her advantage when he least expected it.
“You’re getting married? The moodiest, brooding anthropomorphic personification of a concept is voluntarily getting married?” Death said, shock and disbelief written all across her face as she clutched at both of Dream’s upper arms.
“ Yes? ” Dream asked more than said. He was a little confused. He had been very straightforward with his words.
“Does Hob know this? You’re not going to surprise him, or spring it on him unknowingly?” Death was only a little concerned. Her brother had a habit of just doing things without thinking of the potential consequences. He and Desire were alike in that way, though neither one liked to admit it.
“ I would hope so. He was there when I proposed to him. ” Dream answered, his lips turned up in a smile as he recalled the look of unfettered love and joy that had come upon his fiancé’s face when he’d finally gotten the words out.
Death let go of his arms and wrapped herself around him a hug that would have made an anaconda proud in its strength. Dream wrapped his own arms around her again. Two hugs in less than ten minutes, and he hadn’t rebuked either one. Progress.
“I’m so happy for you little brother!” Death pulled away from Dream, leaving her hands to rest on his shoulders. Her grin was wide, even as tears flowed down her cheeks. ‘Happy tears’ Dream had heard them called. “I’m guessing I’m the first to know. Except for Destiny, of course.”
Dream looped his arm with Death again and started walking. She still had an appointment to get to, after all.
“ I was hoping to inform the others at the family dinner. I would appreciate your support at that moment. ” They stopped outside of a small boulangerie where an old man was cleaning up the preparation area of the little shop.
“Of course I will. I’ve got to get on with my appointments, and you have a wedding to plan. I can’t believe I just said that.” Death gave Dream a pat on the shoulder, and a reassuring smile before walking through the door of the bakery accompanied by the tinkling sound of a bell.
The next item on his list was to inform Lucienne and Matthew.
It went as well as expected. Lucienne gaped in silence at him for an undetermined amount of time, while Matthew filled the silence with his congratulations and boasting about how his ‘pep talk’ must have done the trick.
“I’m very happy for you, my lord. I’m just.. surprised is all.” Lucienne finally spoke. “Shall I make an announcement of it to the realm?”
“ No, not yet, Lucienne. I must attend a family function in a few days time, and I will inform them first. When that is done, we will let the Dreaming know. ” Dream instructed his Royal Librarian/assistant. She nodded her head in assent, and went back to her duties. Matthew however, perched on Dream’s shoulder and started to suggest wedding ideas.
Dream wasn’t proud of it, but he did need to ‘psych himself up’ as Hob called it, before entering the place where the family dinner would be held. He kept repeating that everything would be fine. He was marrying Hob , and that every step up to that point would be worth it. He just wished that it was over already.
He was the last of the siblings to arrive, save The Prodigal who would most likely never show again. Everyone else was seated around the large table, Destiny at the head, with Death to the right of him. Dream took his place across from Death, and was happy to see that Delirium was occupying the seat next to his. She was his next favorite sibling after Death. She was always happy to see him, she generally minded her own business, and came to visit him in his realm just to give him company and propose new ideas for nightmares and dreams occasionally.
“Lovely of you to finally join us, brother dear.” Desire said from their seat across the table and two places down. Physically as far away from Dream as they could get. Their gold eyes flashed, and Dream pointedly tried to ignore them.
“Before we get started, Dream has news to share with us.” Death said before Destiny could open his mouth to begin whatever long lecture he would inevitably go on about their places in the universe.
Dream narrowed his eyes on his elder sister. She was barely clinging to her title as favorite sibling after that. ‘Traitor.’ He mouthed at her.
“ As most of you know, I have become romantically entangled with Robert Gadling- ”
“Ah yes, your little experiment-turned-lover. Such a juicy tale.” Desire practically purred as they spoke, the sound of their voice grating under Dream’s skin.
“His despair has been less lately, because of you.” Desire’s twin spoke in that soft, morose voice of hers.
“He’s really happy, sometimes he slips into my realm you know.” Delirium said from her spot next to Dream, her body turned sideways in her seat so that her legs dangled over one arm and her head over the other.
Dream fought down the rush of embarrassment at the memory of just when Hob might have had cause to slip into moments of disconnection from his mind’s reality.
Desire perked up, their red lips stretching wide and showing off their pearly white teeth.
“Share your news, little brother.” Destiny intoned from his seat at the head of the table, his eyes obscured from view as always by that hood.
“ I am getting married to Robert Gadling. In the Dreaming and in the Waking. You all know what this means. ” Dream looked around the table, locking eyes with each of his siblings in turn.
“Awwwh, Your little pet human is off limits now?” Desire pouted in an exaggerated way.
“ He always was off limits, sibling mine. ” Dream cast his stare around the table again. “ When he joins with me in the Dreaming, he shall gain a title and become part of our family. ” Dream suddenly remembered what that meant, and almost regretted his decision to ask such a big thing of Hob. Internally, he shook off that thought. Hob was the most resilient and adaptable creature Dream had ever known.
“So, when should we clear our schedules?” Desire said, leaning forward over the table, more cat-like than Dream wanted to compare them to.
“I need to find a good outfit. Hob likes rainbows right? Because black would be so dreary, just like you big brother!” Delirium piped up from her seat, a wide smile on her face as she looked at Dream upside down. Dream gave her a soft, indulgent smile. Unlike other siblings of his, when Delirium called him dreary and dark, he knew it was with fond affection.
“ You may wear whatever you wish, Delirium. ” Dream looked over the table at Desire, and Dream could already see the gears turning in their head about that statement. “ And you, Desire, will wear clothing. ”
“You’re no fun.” Desire slumped back in their seat, pouting all the while.
The rest of the family dinner went about as well as could be expected, which wasn’t saying much. No one maimed each other, Destiny was his usual cryptic self, Death tried to keep the peace, Despair stayed mostly quiet, Desire and Dream sniped at each other, and Delirium interrupted with her usual non sequiturs every so often.
Telling his own realm had been much easier, and Dream was glad for it. His denizens had seen the ways that their ruler had changed since his absence, and knew that it had to do with the curiously immortal human that they had been instructed to handle with care. The news traveled like wildfire through the Dreaming on the wings of Gargoyles and ravens, whispered in the fields of Fiddler’s Green, and carried through the shores of Nightmare on the snarls and growls of monstrous creatures.
The Dreaming was to have another monarch at the side of their King, and the denizens would be expected to show the same amount of respect and deference to him as they were to Dream himself.
The news had traveled farther than even Dream could have ever expected.
Dream stood upon the shore of the Dreaming, his hands busy as he crafted a new dream built on hope and love and possibility. He sensed a presence next to him, one that he hadn’t felt in so long, he had nearly forgotten how it felt to stand beside it.
“I hear congratulations are in order.” A deep voice spoke next to him. Dream did not look away from his creation to see who stood next to him. Plausible deniability was the name of the game.
“ They are. ” He kept his voice level, even as he wanted to break down at hearing the voice he wished he could have heard for so long.
“You understand why I can’t be there?” The voice asked, and Dream felt a sadness settle into his heart. He knew it had to be that way. If he showed up to the wedding, then there would be questions, and he may not escape his fate.
“ Of course. I wouldn’t expect you to give everything up. I do not blame you. ” He didn’t. He understood very well, and would not breach this trust.
“…Love you, big bro.” The voice spoke again, tinged with sadness.
“ And I you, little brother. ” As soon as the words were finished, the presence next to him disappeared without a hint that they had ever been there.
Dream went back to crafting his newest dream, and this time he added just a little bit of tempered joy.