Devilc's Den 2.0

Title: A Midsummer Night's Dreamings
Fandoms: Sandman & Heroes
Rating: Teen
Pairing: n/a (okay, a touch of "mylar")
Dedication: Written for irisbleu in the Heroes Fic A Thon challenge.

Legalese: Sandman and Heroes are copyright their respective owners. This is a labor of love, not lucre.







Mohinder Suresh is a regular in the library. Dream (who was once Daniel) finds him often in the section of the stacks devoted to his father's (unwritten) manuscripts. In fact, he's such a regular that Lucien has taken to invitingMohinder to tea. As Dream nibbles a crumpet dripping with butter and cloudberry jam, Mohinder excitedly talks to him and Lucien of the future, of finding the key to his father's research, of the limitless potential of the human race.

His dreams aren't the most unfettered and fantastical that Dream has seen from humans (nor do humans have the most incredible dreams amongst those races that do dream) but they embody the best aspects of the things that Dream likes best about humans: their curiosity, their striving, their dreams of a different, better tomorrow.

After Mohinder returns to he waking world, Dream suggests to Lucien that he tell Mohinder that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", or in other words, an occasional visit to Fiddler's Green is never wasted time. Lucien chuckles knowingly and remarks that he could do with some time there himself.

~oo(0)oo~

Dream finds Claire Bennet riding with the Valkyries. Only, she doesn't call them Valkyries, nor do they have feathered wings, but Dream knows Valkyries when he sees them. They have great masses of tumbledown gold hair that gleams in the sun, and they are fierce, proud, fearless, and graceful.

True, they don't look exactly like the Valkyries of old -- few things are fixed in the Dreaming -- and Claire's wearing her cheerleading uniform, but they are still Valkyries, and Claire Bennet rides with them.

~oo(0)oo~

Niki/Jessica is a great coiled dragon, watching, waiting. She spies on Fiddler's Green where a young boy with a halo of inky curls and cafe-au-lait colored skin dances with his mother and father and splashes in the stream, and then they sit down on a red and white check blanket and have a picnic.

Micah is theirs, and their love for him is all encompassing. For him, they can and will level mountains. The dragon lifts her head and snorts a blast of steam at him. Dream knows he could destroy her in an instant, but she would not go quietly. He smiles at her and moves on.

~oo(0)oo~

Dream first sees the ghostly echoes of his siblings's touch in the dreams of Peter Petrelli. Desire is here, too, after a fashion.

Dream has little love for that particular sibling, though the nature of their dominions leads to a certain amount of overlap, an intertwining, a blurring of lines.

In Peter's dream he is, at last, enough. He no longer stands in the shadow of his brother, he never did -- and it's a strange sensation, Peter's almost a little frightened of it -- and he walks hand in hand with Simone across Strawberry Fields (which will not, by the way, be forever) in Central Park. It's a spring day where the sky is almost too blue, and later he takes her to dinner at Tavern on the Green.

Out of the corner of his eye, as he watches them linger over creme brulee, Dream sees The Corinthian crook his finger, and with a sigh, he follows, leaving the warmth and light of Peter's dream for something considerably darker. He ought not feel this way. He knows the function The Corinthian serves, understands that some dreams must be nightmares, and that The Corinthian is as necessary as Fiddler's Green or the Library, or Eve's Cave, or Merv Pumpkinhead, but still he is reluctant to follow.

(Perhaps this distaste is a remnant of his incarnation as Morpheus?)

~oo(0)oo~

The Corinthian takes him to where Gabriel sits behind a workbench, fixing an antique pocket watch, not a particularly rare or valuable one, but Gabriel enjoys the challenge of it, the order of the steps, the feeling of accomplishment as things click into place and a few twists of the nob produces a ticking. He studies the coiled spring and the gears for a moment before snapping the case shut.

The bell over the door dings, and in walks Desire Mohinder Suresh and ... everything changes. Gone is Gabriel the dutiful (but not quite good enough) son, and in his place is Sylar, who knows what he wants and will have it.

Sylar ... is almost a vortex. Dream's siblings pull at him so that he has become a sort of thinness in the Dreaming. As Sylar stands and walks towards Desire this beautiful man the forbidden fruit that he wants so badly but was too afraid to take before an impossibly perfect Mohinder Suresh, Death follows in his wake, while Desire and Despair walk hand in hand with him, and Delirium skips ahead, strewing the path with old fish scales (because she likes their iridescent glint in the light of the shop) and bits of orange peel (because their scent is pleasing to her for the moment).

Dream watches Sylar talk to his dream Mohinder and ponders the ways in which all of creation is, to some extent, twined into the affairs of the Endless ... or perhaps it's the other way around. And though Sylar has his own unique version of The Kindly Ones, Dream determines that there is no danger of a tear in the fabric of the Dreaming and wonders why The Corinthian called him here, except that this sort of thing is what The Corinthian loves best, and Sylar must be a gleaming jewel to him, one whose beauty he sought to share.

Dream nods politely then turns and leaves. He has an appointment to keep.

~oo(0)oo~

His paternal grandfather has entered the Dreaming, and Dream likes to look in on him from time to time, catch glimpses of the man he will probably never meet in the flesh, and never greet as Daniel. He dares not show too much interest (or even much in the way of affection); his grandfather's life is complicated enough as it is without being drawn into such games that are played amongst and against the Endless.

But.

Carter Hall, as he is named in his current incarnation, has had one of the most unique lives ever lived (and not just by a human), and Dream is always fascinated by the sheer variety and scope of Carter's dreams.

Tonight is no different. His grandfather is dreaming of a past life, one lived as a Samurai, and whirls through a series of complex moves, his blades whistling through the air as he spins and slashes.

Dream is not the only one watching in rapt fascination. There's been a merging ... it happens from time to time. Across the way on a grassy bank are two men namedHiro and Ando.

Dream studies Hiro for a moment (for it is his dream that has merged with Carter's). Despite the monotony and drabness of Hiro's life as a salaryman, he has never given into despair, always dreamed of a better future, always dreamed of the impossible becoming reality. And now, despite everything that's happening to him (andAndo -- Dream takes a quick glance at him) their dreams, grounded in love, devotion, and friendship, remind Dream of Mohinder Suresh's -- in their different ways, both of them dream of the best and noblest aspects of the human condition.

Ah! speaking of Mohinder, there's his sister just now, elusive, fleeting, the dream that comes to you only when you stop chasing it. Dream smiles at her and then turns his attention back to his grandfather, now barking orders atHiro and Ando as he leads them in a series of training exercises.

Dream blows out a long breath, all is as it should be in his realms, so he lies back on the grass in his grandfather's dream, and spends a moment as Daniel, smiling up into the sunny sky and daydreaming about what wonders tomorrow's dreamings will show him.