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There is a smile playing on Dream's face as she watches Hob play around with her students, kicking a ball around. She laughs along them when one almost falls after tripping. They had been on a date when the little group appeared, calling them out surprised, as if they were surprised their teacher existed out of school grounds.
Hob was very offended when one of them whistled and said he thought Hob was like an old lady who didn't go out on weekdays and Dream laughed.
They are jovial, these kids, the type that Dream almost doesn't see anymore, the type that loves life and enjoys every part of it, even the bad ones. They remember her of Hob, when they first met, so young and clueless, but so full of life, so willing to live. It is clear how her partner - Because now they could call each other that - has influenced their minds.
At the beginning, her way of thinking had been a mystery to her and a motive of bafflement. After all, why would any sensible creature want an eternity of a human life who was filled with so much misery and plagues and sadness? There was no way that she could want that, but she did, oh, how she did. Hob had looked at life and said I'm never letting you go and never did.
And, though Dream doesn't fully understand yet, she did the same after meeting her.
Because Hob Gadling is just like that. She is a force of nature that no one can hold back, not even Death, not even Dream herself. Even in her worst moments when there was no reason left for her to live, when Dream would gladly spare her from the suffering, she still wanted to live.
There is no stopping her, there is nothing on the universe capable of holding her back. Constantly, she is baffled by her, by the way she moves around people, by the way she greets them and is friends with them, even if they are mortal. Everyone around them will die eventually, both of them know that, but that doesn't stop her from loving them, doesn't stop her from looking at them and saying You are worthy of knowing, you are worthy of love.
Doesn't stop her from looking to Dream and loving her.
"Ahh, those kids have a stamina of steel." Hob says, falling heavily beside her as the kids wave her to come back,. They are smiling, laughing and full of dreams.
" Are you saying you are getting old, dear? " Dream says, letting her make herself comfortable on her lap.
"Never." And after a deep breath, she adds. "But, boy, those kids are something to behold. They are unstoppable."
"We learned it from you, Prof!" Amelia Light screams, doing a blackflip and grinning proudly when one of them applauds her.
"Do not do that again, Ms Light!" Hob screams, shaking her head. "I swear to God, that one is a handful."
Amelia Sarah Light. Dream remembers that one well. She is the one that threatened hunting her down if she ever hurt Hob and put the blame on her friend. She is also the oldest one of five children from immigrant parents and she dreams of one day being rich enough to travel around the world and discover what life is really like.
" She reminds me of you. " Her hands find their way on her lover's hair as Amelia takes the hand of the quietest one of them, Terra Williams, and pulls her along to play. It reminds her of how Hob tried to do the same all those centuries ago by calling her friend and Dream had pushed her away.
Dream kisses her head.
"Are you saying I am a handful, duck?" Hob turns to her with a smirk on her lips and a mischievous glint on her eyes.
" Yes. " She replies easily and with the same smirk on her lips. " Yes, I am. "
"And how are you going to handle me, my lady?"
" Accordingly. " And she smiles when a sudder goes through Hob's body.
All of this is still new to her, this relationship between them. She has been on relationships before, she even had children, but this one? This one is something different and she feels like a newborn given their first steps, uncertain and unstable, waiting to fall at any minute.
But, at the same time, there's this excitement under the surface that threatens to explode and consume everything around her. Past experiences told her enough times how bad things turn when she lets her feelings unleashed, how bad her lovers react to it. Dream does not do things by half, she has told Hob that already, but she also doesn't let all of herself out.
The last time she did, she ended getting hurt and she does not wish for that again.
"What are you thinking about, duck?" Hob whispers, taking a stray lock of her hair between her fingertips. Her eyes are fixed on it, but Dream knows that she is attentive to every move she makes, every sound, every breath.
" Nothing. " She says, but Hob's eyes tell her that she is not believed and a hum tells her that she is letting it pass this once.
Dream is grateful for that.
"Sorry for the kids, I didn't know they would be here." She says, bringing the lock of hair to her lips.
" I do not mind. It was interesting seeing you interacting with them. "
"Well, I assure you that wasn't even half of what those kids make me pass every Tuesday. Last week Carol and Amelia put their minds into a bloody bet to see who could make me go in the longest rant about that Shaxbeard punk."
" I see it was a very easy bet, then. "
"Piss off. They spend the entire day following me around trying to make me fall into their traps."
" Who won, my love? "
"Carol, surpringly. Forty-seven minutes without stopping, according to them." She says, defeated and getting up. She, however, does not go very far, just enough to push Dream's legs slightly open and lay down between them. "Apparently, I also didn't breathe the whole time."
"You didn't!" Comes the scream from not much far away, quickly followed by laughter.
"Pay attention to the ball, Carol! Not to other people's conversations!" Hob screams back, making a face at the twenty-one years old.
"Can't help it, Professor!" Behind her, Amelia is teaching Terra how to stand on her hands. Laying down between her legs, Hob rolls her eyes and points to the ball energetically.
"Attention. To. The. Ball." The girl waves her off, kicking the ball away and running after it with her friends.
Anna Carol Whitman is the only child of an old-money couple that spent most of her childhood taking care of their estate and money and did not care for her. For that, the one that really raised her was their governess, Miss Rossi, and the person with whom she is currently living with. She dreams of sunny evenings with her friends in her childhood home and showing her parents she does not need them.
Terra Williams is the youngest child of a house that's always too full of people and problems. She learned how to be quiet and not burden her parents early on in her life, even though her parents always tried to be there for her. Her dreams consistently are those where she is alone in a cottage, painting or writing in her free time and being herself.
Lance McKellen is the middle child of his entire generation and the black sheep of the family. Between doctors, lawyers and priests, Lance chose to be a literature teacher, choosing to show the kids how the stories can cure and be their family. He often dreams of a classroom full of little children, laughing and playing and dreaming .
They are all kids with their own problems, but instead of worrying and gloating over them, they are here, playing football like a bunch of middle school students and talking about nothing. They are here, just enjoying life, and it's clear how Hob influenced them.
Around them, more families are arriving. There are small and big ones, with or without children, just talking and enjoying a nice sunny day out. When Hob called her to go to the park, to just sit there and watch the people around, she didn't really understand why, but now she does.
It has been a while since she allowed herself this, since she allowed herself to just sit and do nothing else than look around. See the humans and their interactions, see how they acted. Their ways have changed much ever since they were created, rules changed again and again - Sometimes to worse, sometimes to better - through times to follow as they grew up as a species.
Dream had forgotten how it is to be around them, to just stop for a moment and look. Her brother tried to show her the importance of it, to remind her that this is their job, to be there for them, to look out for them. They - And all the other species that were ever created - are their responsibility. Even the bad ones.
"You were strangely quiet at the park." Hob says once they get home, kissing her shoulder blades as she takes off her boots. Yes, she could just wish them away, but the more she passes time with Hob, the more she finds herself doing these human things, like taking her boots off at the door and breathing.
She did not know she would miss breathing.
" Was I? " Dream says, leaning back at her strong arms. This is a ritual they have done several times now, even before they declared their intentions with each other.
Dream would just sit there, coat gone, boots half-way done and Hob would pull her into her arms and hold her there for as long as she could or that Dream would let her. Soon, their breaths would come and go at the same time, in synchrony, and she would feel the add of another's body on her back, pushing her down, grounding her. It's a position that she thinks she can never get tired of, Hob on top of her.
"Yes. Your silence was heavy today, as if you were lost in unpleasant thoughts. Very, very unpleasant thoughts." She explains into her neck, her lips moving against her skin as her arms tighten around her. It doesn't take a second for her to discover what this is about.
It would be a lie to say that her time imprisoned on the underground did not play an act on her. She remembers everything vividly. Being stripped of all of her power, put on display for others to see and scream at like some kind of animal, being barely more than a human.
One hundred years were lost in that awful glass prison without air, without clothes, completed alone. Even her dear Jessamy was ripped away from her, killed by the boy who said would never hurt. Humans showed her no mercy nor compassion through her time there, but something brought her comfort in the darkest moments.
In her darkest moments, when hope of ever getting out was leaving her, Hob's memories warmed her in that cold glass. More than once, she remembered the encounters with that curious human to make sure she would not fall in her brothers' realms. Her laughs, her reasons of being amazed, her love for life kept her company, even after the time to meet her had passed.
She wished several times for Hob to find her and take her away from there, even though it was herself that advised the woman to be careful to not be captured. And, when the memories were not enough anymore, she imagined what could have happened. She imagined the two of them becoming closer, becoming friends and her presence being missed enough that Hob would look out for her, that she would have found her.
"Dove?" Hob says, starting to move away from her. "Alright, not moving." She adds when the air around moves to press her down. "Not moving."
" When I was imprisoned, I had time to think about many, many things. Mainly, I thought about vengeance. " If she could dream, she would have dreamt about it. About killing every single one of them, pulling them to Delirium's realm slowly and horribly until there was nothing left of their sanity. " Vengeance upon those who dared to pull me down and strip me from my power, vengeance upon those who dared to think they could hurt me and, when they noticed they couldn't, they found a way to hurt those who tried to save me. " She remembers how bravely Jessamy tried to free her, how smart and brave she was, how loyal. " But, in some moments, all I wished was to sit besides you once again and just hear you talking about your chimneys and cards. Just to see and share, for a single moment, your will to live. "
"Oh, dear." Hob says and her hug is close to crushing her ribs.
" I wanted you to come and take me out of there, Hob Gadling. I wanted for you to come and pull me into your human life, I wanted you to show me how to love the human kind again. " Once, she would have not admitted to missing the woman. Now, however, she has no such qualms. " I missed you, my love, and the few moments we shared. I imagined what all of them could be like if I was a little bit more open to the friendship you offered me. " At this point, Hob has moved from her to her front, kneeling down and there's a dangerous expression on her face.
"If I had known back then, if anyone had warned me, I would have come to your rescue. I would have ripped Roderick Burgess' throat apart with my teeth and opened him up with my own hands if it meant you would be satisfied and safe." Hob says and a shiver goes down Dream's spine as she kisses behind her knee. "I would have torn your prison apart and freed you even if it meant my death, I would have found you, I would have taken care of you and killed all of your captors."
" I would have accepted your care... " Dream says as she moves from her knee to the inside of her thigh kissing it over her jeans. " As I accept it now as well. "
"Good." She says, looking up from between her thighs and heat rushes up Dream's neck as she keeps going. "'Cause I'm not stopping this now." She whispers on the low of her stomach and smiles up at her reassuringly. "Unless, you want me to stop."
" Do not stop, Hob Gadling. " She says and the reassuring smile turns on a cocky smirk.
One last kiss on her belly and Hob is going on, pushing her shirt up as she goes. A shaky breath leaves Dream's mouth as her hot tongue licks at her now exposed skin. She bites and sucks from one place to another, leaving marks on her skin. Claiming her.
A moan leaves her mouth as Hob finds her right breast, blowing over her lace bra, and a satisfied smirk appears on the other's face. Her hands keep going until her shirt is holding her arms back and rendering them useless. She is sitting on Dream's legs, smiling over her as her thumbs dig on the sides of her torso.
"Don't move." She whispers against her skin, breathing in her neck. Dream lets her head fall back, giving her girlfriend more space to work, and moaning loudly when she bites the side of her neck hard.
One of her hands is under the bra now, holding her breast tightly while the other travels down in search for the buttons of her jeans. She kisses under her jaw before sucking at her earlobe, moaning along as her hand finally finds her core.
" Kiss me, Hob Gadling ." Dream says after she takes too long to do so.
"So impatient." She says and pulls her closer, her tongue invading her mouth while she grinds against her leg unconsciously. "Let me take you to bed, love." She says and then gets up, scooping her in her arms easily.
Later, when they are finished and Hob is breathing heavily next to her, Dream curls up around her and kisses the scars that still persist. She does not know if there are new ones or if they are all from before she became immortal, but they have time. A whole eternity ahead of them and she is ready to spend it all besides Hob.