Reparations
(a Corintheus RP | chapter masterlist )
In the months that Dream convalesced, his realm continued to be battered with vicious weather. When it did not storm, it hailed, and the younger dreamscapes bore the worst of it. Many were destroyed, others disappeared entirely. The denizens of the Dreaming did their best to adapt, and under Lucienne’s oversight, all the major arcana took in the displaced dreams and nightmares into their own lands.
The Corinthian kept the Haunted Woods to the best of his ability, though great fissures had appeared in the middle of it. It didn’t look so bad from an aesthetic perspective, though he did lose a dreamer or two before he’d realized what the cracks were.
Haze complained incessantly about the weather, the overcrowded woods, and the fact that Lord Morpheus was taking forever to heal, but now that the Corinthian had his memories back, he didn’t dare say any of it to his face, which suited the nightmare just fine.
It took six months before Dream recovered completely, and in those six months, the Corinthian visited his lord’s vessel periodically. It was mostly empty, just the shell of him with barely a flicker of life, but it was enough to see to his condition.
The nightmare was still conflicted about what Dream had done, but time had worked in their favor. It had given him pause enough to reflect on his own wrongdoings. He could admit how monumentally stupid it had been to try to remake the waking world in his own image, and it had given him time to forgive Dream’s own equally stupid plan to block his memories of it.
On the sixth month, Dream’s vessel appeared nearly pristine again, the cracks all but gone from his porcelain skin. The Corinthian sat by his bedside, holding his wrist in a loose grip. He wasn’t there, not really, but sometimes the nightmare just liked to hear himself talk.
“It’s been ages and the weather’s almost back to normal,” he said. “I know you’re somewhere in there, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would say to you when you came back. I’m still pissed that you took my memories, by the way, but I think... maybe. I can see why you did it.”
He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. “Matthew said I was an asshole, and he’s not wrong. Maybe that’s why we deserve each other. Who else would put up with your bullshit?”
He brought Dream’s hand to his mouth, pressed a kiss on the palm of it. “Please wake up.”
