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Hob was finishing drying his hair in the bathroom when he heard Dream's voice coming from the living room, "Hob, what is this?"
He walked out of the bathroom, confused, and headed for the living room.
On the doorstep, he stopped and swallowed.
Dream was leaning over a corner shelf on which was a top hat and a pair of gloves lying next to it.
Hob had no intention of hiding it, but he didn't expect Dream to find out so quickly.
He chose to answer simply, "A hat and a pair of gloves."
Dream turned to him and, placing his hands on his hips, he admonished Hob, "Robert Gadling, it's obviously more than that, I can see they look vintage but perfectly in good shape and moreover the gloves are artistically placed on the hat brim. Hm?"
Hob blushed slightly, and, his eyes shifting from the hat to Dream's inquisitive face, he could not help but blush slightly.
"Ha!" interjected Dream, "I knew it! There's a story behind these objects."
Hob muttered, " Hell yeah, there's a story. You can tell."
He let himself fall back onto the couch as the emotions from that day came flooding back threatening to overwhelm him.
With his eyes closed, he felt Dream sit beside him before taking his hand and saying, "Hey, it's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I was merely curious."
Hob opened his eyes to look at him and chuckled softly, "You really have no idea have you?"
This time Dream really looked puzzled and asked, "Why? Should I?"
Hob chuckled softly, "It's true that it's a little hard to remember everything you wear when you're billions of years old. I can understand that."
Dream raised an eyebrow and asked, "You mean these are mine?"
Hob simply shrugged.
Dream's expression changed as he seemed to realize when exactly.
The memories were vivid in Hob's mind.
"I'll tell you what, I'll be here in 100 years' time."
Hob tried to run after the stranger whose name he still didn't know, and continued shouting, "If you're here then too, it'll be because we're friends. No other reason, right?"
But his stranger disappeared into the night without looking back.
"Fuck!"
Hob turned his head toward the tavern, rain dripping from his hair onto his neck, onto his suit.
He was going to have to go back into the tavern, if only to get his things.
When he entered and approached the table, he swallowed.
On the chair next to the one where his stranger had been sitting was the hat and gloves he had arrived with. Hob put on his own cloak and hat, then took the stranger's hat and gloves before walking over to the tavern keeper.
He asked her, "My friend just left suddenly and it seems to me that he had a cloak with him. Do you know if-"
The tavern keeper replied immediately, "Yes my good man, it's hanging here."
She pointed to a black cloak, the only one with this color. Hob walked over to it and draped it over his arm protecting the hat and gloves then went out to face the rain once again.
Protecting his precious burden in his arms.
"All this time?" asked Dream gently, snapping him out of his reverie.
Hob nodded, refusing to meet Dream's eyes, feeling even more embarrassed. Dream would probably find this extremely creepy. It was after all.
Who kept this kind of thing after all?
Dream gently grabbed his chin and, turning Hob's head to force him to look at him, he asked, "But why?"
Hob swallowed several times before answering in a voice from which he could not hide the emotion, "Because it's yours."
Dream let go of his chin and pushed back a damp lock that fell on Hob's forehead and let his hand linger on his lover's cheek.
There was like a glint of wonder in his eyes as he said with a soft voice, "You kept that hat and those gloves, like this here, all this time because they were mine, despite the way I was cruel to you and despite the way I left."
Hob leaned his cheek into Dream's hand and replied, "You know I never blamed you for what happened that time. Even I could see how much pain you were in. Until that day when sometimes I had tough things to go through in the hundred years between us, I only had the idea of finding you to keep me going. But after that fateful night, I had something. Something physical that reminded me that the moments we shared were real. Tangible proof that it had actually happened. So that's why they're there in plain sight."
Dream said to him softly, wonder not hidden in his voice, "Every time I think I know you, every time you reveal something new and surprising to me."
Then Dream threw his arms around Hob's neck and pulled him against him as he crushed his lips to his lover's in a passionate kiss.
Much later, as they caught their breath, entwined together on the couch, Dream asked, "Hob, now that I recall, didn't I also have a cloak that night?"
Hob refused to look at him and muttered, "Please don't ask me that."
Dream chuckled softly, "But now I want to know, Robert Gadling, because obviously you know something about that cloak."
Hob buried his face in the crook of Dream's neck and shook his head, refusing to answer.
"Please..." said Dream in a pleading voice.
Hob didn't look up and simply said, "Read it in my thoughts, I don't have the courage to tell you."
"Are you sure?"
Hob nodded his head against his neck so Dream just closed his eyes.
Hob closed the door of his apartment, and with a jaded expression, carelessly threw his bag and shoes in a corner. He did not turn on the lights.
Then he went to a chest of drawers in the living room and opened the first drawer from which he took out a piece of black cloth carefully folded.
Then he lay down on the sofa and unfolded the black cloth which was a cloak.
He covered himself completely with it and buried his face under it.
He stayed a long time like that before getting up, folding it with reverence and putting it back in the drawer where he had taken it.
Dream saw several similar scenes, always when Hob seemed to have had a difficult day or moment. He would get the cloak from the drawer and wrap it completely around himself, sometimes sitting on the couch. Or in an armchair. Or on his balcony. And always afterwards he looked less distressed as he carefully folded the cloak and put it back in the drawer.
Dream came out of Hob's mind and said nothing.
"Dream?"
Dream did not answer and Hob looked up, worried about what he would read on his lover's face.
What a surprise it was when he saw the lord of dreams blushing.
He asked softly, "You're not grossed out?"
Dream tightened his arm around his shoulders and replied, visibly moved, "how could I be disgusted? All these years you found comfort in a cloak just because it belonged to me. There's nothing disgusting about it, on the contrary, it's rather humbling to me."
He gave Hob's temple a lingering kiss and resumed, "However, promise me that from now on, instead of seeking comfort from my cloak, you will seek it in my arms."
Hob chuckled at him and replied, "Deal."
Dream kissed his hair then cradled Hob's head under his chin before tightening his embrace around him.
Hob finished by whispering, "I wouldn't have it any other way anyway."
He didn't need any more memories to remind him that this was real because reality was Dream and he was holding him in his arms.