Chapter Text
“Ok, so discreetly check on the child in the waking world and make sure the over-enthusiastic nightmare didn’t do any damage. Report back. Got it, Boss.”
Lord Morpheus turned a page in the book. “Hm.”
“Hm?” Matthew took two steps closer, moving along the table he was standing on.
“The child is in London,” Lord Morpheus said. “I think perhaps I see the hand of my elder brother at work.”
Matthew cocked his head. “Destiny?”
“Indeed.” Lord Morpheus looked up at him. “Hob has asked if he might meet you.”
“Ho- your boyfriend? Wants to meet me?”
“He does.” Lord Morpheus looked down again, turning another page in the book. “Are you amenable?”
“Amenable? Shit, Boss, I’m thrilled!”
Lord Morpheus’s eyebrows shot up and he nearly smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah, I mean you never bring him to the palace. Lucienne and Gilbert only met him briefly before you were together. We all kind of thought you were committed to keeping him to yourself.”
“I suppose I was,” Lord Morpheus said quietly. “But he is too important to me to keep him away from those others who are important to me.”
Matthew preened. He knew he was important to Lord Morpheus. Of course he knew that. But hearing it was always nice.
“But you must promise me that you will not be impertinent, Matthew.”
“Impertinent? Me? Come on, Boss, I’m always pertinent.”
“Last week you called the Nameless God of the Exalted Dodecahedron a ‘whack job’.”
“The guy was gibbering on the floor of your throne room! I thought I knew what the word ‘gibbering’ meant. I did not until I saw the Nameless God of the Wassname.”
“The Exalted Dodecahedron.”
“Right. Those guys. And it’s not like he heard me. I just said that to you. He was too busy gibbering.”
“Regardless, he was my guest and it was not polite.”
“I promise not to call your boyfriend a whack job, Boss. Unless he starts gibbering.”
Lord Morpheus sighed and rolled his eyes, but Matthew could see the smile he was trying to suppress.
“Come then.” Lord Morpheus held out his hand and Matthew stepped onto it. “Do not make me regret this.”
He transferred Matthew to his shoulder and pulled out his sand.
They materialized on a university campus, and Lord Morpheus’s robe of shadows transformed into an overcoat, black jeans, and boots. A bit unseasonable for the warm spring day, but not likely to attract attention. Actually, Matthew realized, the thing most likely to attract attention was the large raven perched on his shoulder.
“Boss, should I get down? People might notice.”
“I am not perceived in the waking world unless I wish to be, Matthew. You may stay where you are.”
And it did seem like passerbys’ gazes just rolled off them.
Matthew started looking around for supermodel types. Whoever had caught Lord Morpheus’s eye had to be pretty spectacular. There were some good-looking people around but none of them seemed to fit the bill.
There was, however, one person who kept looking at them and smiling. He looked like a professor, and was talking to two students, but it was clear that he was being distracted by some combination of Lord Morpheus and Matthew.
“Hey Boss, I think your perception blocking might be off. That guy over there keeps looking at us.”
Matthew could hear the smile in Lord Morpheus’s voice. “My perception blocking is fine. He is the only person who can see us.”
“Wait, that’s him? That’s your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
The man was… fine? He had longish brown hair, and what Matthew supposed was a nice smile but… he was… ordinary. He was just some guy.
The Guy ended his conversation with the students and hurried towards them.
“Hello, love!” he said as he approached, then stopped and looked up at Matthew with a sunny smile. “And you must be Matthew!”
“Um, yeah. Hi.” This didn’t make sense. Lord Morpheus’s boyfriend couldn’t be just some ordinary college professor!
The Guy gave an awkward little wave, which Matthew suspected was a cover for going to shake hands and then realizing Matthew didn’t have any.
“I’m Rob Gadlen,” The Guy continued, “but you’re with Dream so you can call me Hob.”
“Matthew. Nice to meet you.” He had promised to be polite.
“Very nice to meet you too! I’ve heard so much about you!”
Matthew glanced at Lord Morpheus. What was happening here? How could he have been so wrong in what he was expecting? What else did he have wrong about Lord Morpheus?
“Uh, thanks.”
“And you’re American?”
Matthew suddenly, viscerally, did not want to talk about his life as a human with this guy. “I am a raven,” he said firmly. “From the Dreaming.”
The smile faltered. “Ah,” The Guy said with a glance at Lord Morpheus. “Got it. Sorry.”
“Boss, I should probably go do the thing. Check on the kid.” He wasn’t sure if Lord Morpheus could read his mind in the waking world but Matthew silently begged him to permit an end to this awkwardness.
“Kid?” The Guy asked.
“One of my nightmares was overly enthusiastic with a child a few nights ago. I’ve asked Matthew to go check on the child to see if there seems to be any damage in the Waking, since they have been hesitant to enter the Dreaming ever since.”
“Yeah, so I should probably get on that.”
Lord Morpheus turned to him, his mouth tightened in what Matthew normally read as concern. “Thank you, Matthew. I shall return to the Dreaming no later than tonight. You may give me your report there.”
Matthew would normally brush his beak against Lord Morpheus’s shoulder or his head or something before he left, especially with the Boss looking worried, but with The Guy watching he settled for squeezing a little tighter with his talons. “Sure, Boss. Nice to meet you,” he said to The Guy, then took off.
Matthew gained elevation quickly. The last thing he wanted to see was them kissing.
Matthew needed to talk to someone. Lucienne would tell him to mind his own business. Gilbert liked literally everyone who wasn’t evil. And Mervyn would probably make an off-color joke about Lord Morpheus that would make Matthew uncomfortable.
So the next time Lord Morpheus was absorbed in his work on the Shore of Creation, Matthew flew to the waking world.
Rose was working on her laptop at her desk when Matthew tapped at her window. It took a few taps to get her to look up, but when she did, she opened the window for him.
“Matthew, I need to get this chapter to my editor by tomorrow morning and I still have a ton of work to do on it,” she said by way of greeting.
“Rose, I met him.”
“Met who?”
“The boyfriend.”
“What boyfriend?”
“Rose. His boyfriend! Lord Morpheus’s boyfriend!”
“Oh!” She sat back down and Matthew hopped onto her desk. “Well?”
“He’s… he’s just some guy! He’s totally normal!”
“I thought he was immortal.” Rose’s brow furrowed.
“Yeah he doesn’t die, but he’s just some guy who doesn’t die!”
“Ok… so what’s the big deal?”
“Because Dream of the Endless is not supposed to be with some guy! His exes include a muse and literal Satan.”
“That seems like a really good argument for him to date someone normal and boring.” Rose leaned back in her seat. “Besides, Gilbert told me that Morpheus is happier than Gilbert has ever seen him. Haven’t you had good weather in the Dreaming for months?”
“He asked me if I’m American!”
Rose frowned. “So?”
“I’m a raven!”
“Matthew, you’re a raven who speaks English with an American accent. It seems like a reasonable question. What did you want him to ask you?”
“I don’t know! Something less awkward!” A thought suddenly occurred. “Maybe he’s a wizard or something and he has Lord Morpheus under a spell!”
“Wouldn’t that make him not ordinary?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time Lord Morpheus had been ensnared by a human!”
Rose shook her head. “How do you not know if he’s a wizard or not? How long did you talk to him for?”
Matthew ducked his head. “I dunno… not that long,” he mumbled.
“How long?” Rose asked, in her most no-nonsense tone.
“Just… like, a minute.”
Rose sighed. “Did you consider that a minute-long conversation might not be enough to judge someone who Morpheus has known for hundreds of years?”
“It’s long enough to know that he’s just some guy!”
“Just some guy who might also be a wizard?” Rose leaned forward to put her elbows on the desk and brought their faces close together. “Matthew, buddy, as your friend, I need to tell you that you’re being weird about this.”
“No, Rose, if you saw him you’d agree with me. What’s weird is Lord Morpheus being with this guy.”
“Because he’s so normal.”
“Yes!”
Rose sat back again. “The King of Dreams and Nightmares, who constantly sees all the weirdest shit that all beings that dream can conjure up, wants to settle down with a normal, boring human who he’s known for centuries?” She shrugged. “I dunno, that sounds pretty reasonable. I think you need to give him a chance, Matthew.”
It was probably in the seventeenth century, Hob reflected, that he got really good at knowing when he was being followed. Being able to tell when someone looked at him a bit too long, or was still there after one too many turns was an important skill in the immortal business. And while he excelled at losing a tail, there was also value in knowing when the right move was to turn around and talk to his pursuer. He wagered that since his pursuer was avian instead of human, this was one of those times.
He headed to a low-traffic area behind a building, and turned to the large black bird that had alighted on a branch in a tall tree.
“I’m 90% sure you’re a raven and not a crow,” Hob called up. “I’m 40% sure that you’re the talking raven I met the other day. And I am 100% sure that, whoever you are, you’re following me.”
The raven cawed and ducked its head in a gesture that looked distinctly embarrassed.
“Why don’t you come down and we can have a chat?” Hob called.
The raven leapt off its perch and glided gracefully down to the back of a nearby park bench.
“You know I’m usually pretty good at not being spotted,” Matthew said when Hob joined him.
Hob shrugged. “I was just introduced to you the other day, which is probably not true of most people you follow. And you probably don’t follow too many 667-year-olds with a serious interest in protecting their privacy.”
Matthew just cawed.
Hob leaned back and crossed his ankle over his knee. “I'm pretty sure Dream isn’t here. I usually feel it when he crosses into the Waking in my vicinity.”
Matthew flapped his wings once. “No, just me.”
Hob frowned, not liking the next question he had to ask. “Did he send you? To… watch me or something?”
“No, he - uh - doesn’t know I’m here. He’s working.”
Well at least it wasn’t as bad as Hob had feared. But Matthew didn’t seem too eager to say more. Hob had a sneaking suspicion and decided to take another tack.
“You know, I’m glad you’re here,” Hob said. “I wanted to apologize for opening with a question about a sensitive subject when Dream introduced us. You’re the first raven I’ve met, and I haven’t even met that many dreams.”
“Oh, um, it’s okay.”
Shit, Matthew thought. This was already awkward again and he hadn’t really had time to observe the guy before he was spotted.
“Dream talks about you all the time, you know,” Hob said.
“Really? You guys must not have much to talk about,” Matthew muttered.
Hob chuckled at that. “We have a lot to talk about, but you’re prominently featured in a lot of the things he’s told me. Like how you refused to leave Hell without him. How, when his ruby was corrupted and knocked him out of his corporeal form, the only way he found his way back was because you kept trying to wake him up.” Hob shrugged. “You’ve been there for a lot of important stuff, and I know you mean a lot to him. He really cares about you.”
Matthew knew that. Of course he knew that. But, he supposed, it did mean something that Hob knew it too.
Hob was looking at him. “You know, what Dream and I have, it’s new but it’s also old. And it is absolutely no threat to you.”
The realization hit Matthew like a two-ton truck. “Wait, are you giving me the stepdad talk?”
“Isn’t that what you came here for?”
It wasn’t. Was it?
“I - no! I wanted to know what your deal is!”
Hob raised an eyebrow. “My deal?”
“Yeah. Immortal human who is dating my boss. What’s your deal?”
Hob gave a grin that other people probably found charming. “My deal is that I love Dream with every fibre of my being.” He shrugged.
Matthew managed to keep his eye roll internal, but could not stop himself from voicing one objection. “Do you have to keep calling him that?”
“What? ‘Dream’?”
“Yeah. It’s so… personal.”
“Dream is the name he gave me to use. What do you call him?”
“‘Boss’, mostly. Or ‘sir’. Or ‘my lord’ if I’ve fucked something up.”
Hob chuckled. “What do other people call him?”
“Most dreams call him ‘my lord’ or ‘your majesty’ to his face. When we’re talking about him we usually call him ‘Lord Morpheus’. Rose just calls him ‘Morpheus’.”
“Rose Walker the no-longer-a-dream-vortex?”
“Yeah, she’s a friend.”
Hob seemed to file that away. “Would you be more comfortable if I called him ‘Morpheus’ while we’re talking?”
“Kinda, yeah.”
Hob nodded then stared off into the distance for a moment before speaking up again. “You know I’ve been a servant.”
“Really?”
“Sure. 667 years, I’ve done most things. Served a baron for a while. Was a butler for an American industrialist in New York in the 1910s. That bastard loved having an English butler. His wife and son were good people. I liked them.” Hob rubbed his forehead. “It’s a weird relationship, isn’t it? The master-servant thing? It’s both really intimate and really distant. At least in my experience.”
Matthew opened his mouth to object but stopped himself. “Yeah… I guess it sort of is like that.”
“My relationship with Dre- Morpheus has some of that to it. I’ve been telling him about my life for 600 years. He’s seen me at my highest and my very, very lowest. And I know more about him now than I’ve ever known.” Hob sighed, a faraway look overtaking him. “But he’s Endless. I’ll never truly know him. I’ll never truly understand.” He shook his head and turned back to Matthew. “I’m more than happy to take what he feels like he can give me. What he wants to give me. I push a little -” he smiled, “but ultimately it’s up to him. That’s my deal. Sound familiar?”
Matthew cawed. “Yeah. It does.”
They sat in silence for a time.
“How long did you live in New York?” Matthew asked.
“I was there for about a decade in the 1910s and another in the 1950s. I’ll probably go back again sometime after I leave here. Seems like a good city to get lost in.”
Matthew chuckled. “You’re right about that.”
“Hey, Boss.” Matthew landed on the work table Lord Morpheus was sitting at.
“Matthew.” Lord Morpheus did not look up from the basketball-sized iridescent beetle on the table in front of him. “Mervyn completed the new forest as I ordered?”
“Yep.” Matthew watched as the beetle lifted one wing and its shape changed, becoming thinner and sleeker. “Do you want me to come back when you’re done with this?”
“No,” Lord Morpheus said, “I have already created it. I am simply refining it now and it does not require much concentration.”
The beetle lifted its other wing and it shifted to match the first.
“It’s really pretty,” Matthew said with a nod towards the beetle.
“It is.” Lord Morpheus acknowledged. He glanced at Matthew. “Have any dreams taken up residence in the forest?”
“Uh, one. It’s like a giant sloth man thing? It was changing colors and eating bananas when I was there.”
“Ah. Ergillapid.” Lord Morpheus touched one of the beetle’s antennae and it became much longer, then quickly shrank back.
Matthew cocked his head. “Erg-a-wah?”
“Ergillapid.” Lord Morpheus said, more slowly. “And she previously informed me that she is female. ‘She’, not ‘it’.” He gestured with one finger, and the beetle levitated off the table and began to rotate slowly in the air. “Ergillapid is a fine addition to that forest. Please ask her if she has everything she needs for her particular brand of nonsense dreams, and tell Mervyn to make any adjustments that she requires.”
“Sure thing, Boss.”
Matthew had spread his wings to take off when Lord Morpheus spoke again.
“Before you go, Matthew.”
Matthew turned back to him. “Yeah, Boss?”
Lord Morpheus frowned at the beetle and it turned belly-up, then the plates of its carapace began to change shape.
“When we were last in the Waking together… things did not go exactly as I had hoped.”
“Oh! Um, with Hob? Yeah, um, that wasn’t - I mean - I’m sorry, I should have -”
“Matthew.” Lord Morpheus cut him off, and finally looked at him with shining eyes. “There is no need for you to apologize. In fact I owe you an apology for placing you in an awkward situation. I want you to know that you need not have any further interaction… of that sort. I had no intention of putting you in an uncomfortable position and you have my word that it will not happen again.”
Matthew shook his head. “Wait, Boss, you didn’t put me in an uncomfortable position. It’s fine. I - uh - I actually went back and talked to Hob.”
Lord Morpheus’s eyebrows shot up. “You did?”
Matthew looked down at the table. “Yeah. He just wasn’t what I expected and I… didn’t give him a fair shake at first.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot. “But he’s important to you. So I went back.”
“And?”
Matthew looked up to see Lord Morpheus’s eyes wide. Shit, he was really worried. Matthew took a breath. He couldn’t have that.
“He tells really good stories.”
Some of the tension left Lord Morpheus’s shoulders. “Yes, he does.”
“He makes you happy.”
Lord Morpheus was suddenly very interested in the beetle again, returning it to the table and flipping it right side up. “Yes. That is true.”
Matthew took a breath and continued. “And he loves you.”
Lord Morpheus froze for a moment then turned away from the table. He cleared his throat before turning back to Matthew. “He does,” he said softly.
Matthew shrugged his wings. “That’s all that matters to me.”
Lord Morpheus stared at him for a moment, then held out his hand. Matthew stepped onto it and was quickly brought in for a hug.
“Thank you, Matthew,” Lord Morpheus murmured, before releasing him.
“Sure, Boss. I’ll - uh - go see Erg…”
“Ergillapid.”
“Right. Ergillapid.”
Matthew took off, repeating Ergillapid, Ergillapid, Ergillapid to himself as he flew.