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Assistant: Title: The Arrangement
        Author: 27dragons 27dragons 
        Chapter: 7/7 
        Summary: Hob got the first 100 years free. But when they meet for the second time, now that Hob is fully convinced of the stranger's power, the stranger offers a different bargain...
  "You will live your life as you choose. Once each hundred years, we will meet, here, in this tavern, and you will tell me of your experiences.”“That’s it?”“Within the Waking world, yes. The rest of our bargain is thus: Once per year, I will come to you in your dreams, and you will present yourself to me, to do with as I wish.”
        Contents: Chapter 7: 2022
    

    


      
        
          Tags for this chapter: Kissing, BDSM, Dom/sub, Oral Sex, Tender Sex, Love ConfessionsThanks to Dira and starsniper for talking me through my dilemma and helping me come to the conclusion that I could eat my cake AND have it!
            
            (See the end of the chapter for  more notes.)
            
      
  

  
  
    
     If Hob had a nickel for every time he’d daydreamed about his stranger finally coming back to him, he’d be even richer than he already was. But he absolutely wasn’t expecting his stranger to return, not after this long; or even particularly hoping for it, this far from the next 100-year mark. Anyway, he was hip-deep in exams to mark, the papers spread out over the table.Most professors wouldn’t do their marking at a pub, probably, but Hob found it soothing. He didn’t live there -- Hob was a silent partner, but he’d ceded the proprietor’s flat to the manager who did most of the actual work. His own flat was only a few blocks away, but the bus he took home from the university stopped just across the street from the New Inn, and Hob had gotten into the habit of stopping in for a pint most nights before walking the rest of the way home. And he liked listening to the conversations as he did his work, smiling at the way people were still people even after some six hundred and fifty years of his life, one of very few constants he’d found.He was deeply engaged in trying to imagine how such a bright student could have come to such an utterly wrong conclusion when he became aware that someone had approached his table. He looked up, thinking perhaps that the server had come to refresh his pint or the manager had come to discuss his ideas for the summer menu.Never in his wildest dreams would he have expected to see his stranger.But there he was. Tall and thin and black-clad, hair an unruly mess, seeming somehow paler than he’d ever been before, which Hob wouldn’t have considered even possible. And yet also, somehow, more... human?Hob swallowed his first impulse, which was to leap up and throw his arms around the man. That didn’t seem likely to end well. So he sat back in his chair and looked up, soaking in the stranger’s mere presence, like a flower opening in the early morning light, and said, “You’re late.”“It seems I owe you an apology,” the stranger said, and was he actually smiling? “I’ve always heard it impolite to keep those whom one cares for waiting.”Warmth swelled and spread through Hob’s body. He hastily gathered up his marking as his stranger sat across from him, and waved for the server to bring a round. “I’m just glad you’re here now, old stranger,” he said, and it was entirely the truth. The smile grew, just slightly. “I would wish not to be a stranger to you, Hob Gadling. I know you have sought to understand what manner of being I am, and I do not know if I can properly explain it to you in the words of mortal men. But my name -- one of my names, the one I most prefer -- is Dream.”Hob had to swallow around a knot in his throat. “Dream,” he whispered, and then laughed weakly. “It suits you.”  His room in the Dreaming hadn’t changed. Hob almost wept when he found himself there, for the first time in more than a century.They had talked for hours, far longer than any of their previous visits in the waking world. And it had been a proper conversation, too, both of them contributing, even if Hob had talked more than Dream. Which was fine, because Hob liked to talk, and also he had more to talk about, not having been fucking imprisoned for most of the century.But Hob had learned Dream’s name, or some of them at any rate, and something of what he was. And that Hob’s immortality was not after all Dream’s doing, but his sister’s, at no risk from anyone or anything other than Hob’s own decisions. And what had happened to him to keep Dream away for so long.“In truth,” Dream had said, “if I had not been captured, I might have stayed away. At our last meeting, it became clear to me that I had unfairly trapped you. However I... felt. It seemed the only honorable course was to return your life to you. But during my confinement, I became aware that, however ill I have treated you, we are. Friends, if not more. And that as such, I owed you much more.”Which was bollocks, and Hob had told him so. Perhaps at first, Hob had felt obliged. But it had been centuries since he’d come to not only enjoy but to crave their time together. “I need it,” he had said. “I want it. And I think you do, too.”Dream hadn’t answered that directly -- his time as a prisoner hadn’t made him any less of a squirrely git, even if it had altered his outlook somewhat.But Hob was here now, wasn’t he? In his room. Their room. And that said more than Dream could ever have with mere words. Hob had missed this room, this dream, desperately. He all but threw himself onto the bed, reveling in the softness of the sheets and the thickness of the pillows.“You look comfortable,” Dream said.“Fuck!” Hob gasped. He propped himself up on an elbow to look at Dream. “I’d forgotten what a sneaky bastard you are.”Dream granted Hob a hint of a smirk as he came to sit on the side of the bed. “I detoured,” he said. “You mentioned, as we were talking, that relationships such as ours, of lord and thrall, had. Matured over this last century. I wished to educate myself.”“You saying that while I was washing up for bed and trying to fall asleep, you were scouting out kinky dreams?” Hob grinned. “Learn anything good?”“Indeed. And so before we begin, I will have your safeword.”Hob grinned even wider. “Pineapple.”Dream blinked at him. “Truly?”“Not something I’m likely to say in the moment, is it?” Hob pointed out. “But we can use the stoplight system if you’d rather, I’m familiar with that, too. If I’m not going to be able to speak, I can use a bell or a hand signal.”“Understood. Of limits and preferences--”“Anything,” Hob said. “Everything. For you.”Dream frowned. “That is not how it should be done, as I have learned it.”Hob smiled. “Yeah, I know. But this is the Dreaming, and you’ve always been a special case,” Hob said, and tacked on a slightly cheeky, “my lord.”Dream gave him a stern look that didn’t quell Hob’s cheek so much as fan the flames, but he fought down the urge to be a wanker about it and respond seriously. “Dream, listen, right? As long as you’re with me here,” he stressed, “my will is yours. You won’t damage my waking body, and if you were going to traumatize me mentally, it would’ve happened some four hundred years ago. The very worst pain you’ve ever given me, love, was when you walked away from me in anger. Anything else, I’m willing -- probably even happy -- to take.”“Will you use this mistake against me in perpetuity?” Dream wondered petulantly.“Nah, I’m sure you’ll fuck up something else soon enough,” Hob said, and laughed at the sour look Dream gave him. “Or I will,” he amended cheerily. “I’m only human.”“You are far more than merely human,” Dream corrected with a hint of a smile that Hob decided to call fond. Dream’s hand cupped the side of Hob’s face. “Before we begin,” Dream said, and leaned close to kiss him.That was so startling that it took Hob several seconds to realize what was happening and respond. But the instant Hob’s lips parted, Dream’s tongue slipped between them, taking control of Hob’s mouth.How many times had Hob fantasized about a kiss from his stranger? He’d imagined it soft and luxurious or fast and hard or deep and possessive. This was all of those and none of them, and so, so much more than Hob could have hoped for. He clutched at Dream desperately, needing it to last so that he could savor every detail.He didn’t need to breathe in the Dreaming, and over the years, he had acquired some skill at suppressing the urge, but when, long minutes later, Dream gently withdrew, Hob was panting and already achingly hard. “Was, uh. Was that a one-time thing, or do we kiss now?”Dream smiled, tracing the line of Hob’s jaw with his thumb. “Be very good for me tonight,” he said, “and you may have all the kisses that you desire.”Hob laughed weakly. “I’m not sure you fully grasp how many kisses you’re signing on for, my lord, but I will do my utmost to win that privilege.”“Good.” Dream gently untangled himself from where Hob was still holding on. He pointed at the floor. “Knees.”“Yes, my lord.” Hob slid off the bed and onto his knees. The polished stone of the floor was an unforgiving comfort. He let out a slow breath and closed his eyes, relaxing into it. Christ’s cup, but he had missed this.Thin, cool fingers threaded into Hob’s hair, and he leaned into the touch. “My faithful Hob. Come, I will have your mouth as I did during our first encounter.”And numerous others since, but it sent a bolt of heat into Hob’s balls to realize that his master even recalled that first night.Hob opened his eyes to watch Dream sit, just as regal as ever. Hob crawled, then, as he knew was expected, and with far less reluctance than that first encounter, to take his place between his master’s knees. He lifted his arms away from his sides in anticipation of the tendrils’ coils.But they did not appear. Dream’s clothing was gone, his cock standing proud enough to make Hob’s mouth water, but Hob was not bound. “My lord?”“You will restrain yourself,” his master instructed. “Show me that I need not compel you. That you will do as I wish of your own conviction.”Hob had set similar tests for his own subs, over the last decades; he found that he was eager to meet the challenge. “As you will,” he agreed. He lowered his hands to feel the legs of the chair, the rungs that kept it sturdy, and found a set of curves that seemed to fit the shape of his fingers. He took firm hold and then lowered himself onto his master’s cock, groaning at the taste and scent that had been seared into his memory, that he had missed so much.“My own vassal,” Dream murmured, his fingers teasing through Hob’s hair. “My chosen thrall.” His hand tightened into a fist and Hob moaned again, ready, willing, and needing to be used however Dream desired.There was no rush, no urgency. His master’s cock pushed into his throat and fucked it in short, shallow thrusts that were punctuated with longer, slower slides. When the inevitable moment of animal panic arose from being unable to breathe, Hob tightened his grip on the chair’s wood, made himself focus on the feel of it under his fingers, the subtle texture of the grain, the perfection of the carved curls.Then it passed, replaced with the sense of being wrapped in cotton wool, a gray halo surrounding everything. Everything seemed very far away and unimportant, aside from his master, who was brighter and closer than ever, the very center of Hob’s universe. Like a child learning to swim, Hob let go of his control and trusted his master to carry him, to be his control.Hob belonged to his master utterly. His body, his will, his very breath -- all of it belonged to his master, to be touched or used or hurt or held. It seemed impossible that he had once feared this, dreaded it.His jaw ached. His arms hurt, his shoulders. His throat was bruised. His prick throbbed with need. None of it mattered. Everything paled in significance next to the way his master’s breath hitched softly, the softly whispered praise, the feel of his master’s hand at the back of his neck.His master came down his throat and then stayed there, Dream’s cock resting on Hob’s tongue as it softened. Hob waited. His master would move him, or command him to move, when he should move. Until then, he would hold his position.After a time, his master pulled Hob’s head back, and he gulped in deep, heaving breaths of air. His lungs felt like crumpled crisp bags being straightened again, but he was grateful for each painful gasp.His master bent to nuzzle gently at Hob’s temple. “My faithful,” Dream murmured. “So good for me.”Hob couldn’t speak yet, but he felt each touch, each word of praise like dry ground soaking in a fresh rain. His master wiped carefully at the corner of his mouth -- spit or come or blood or some combination, Hob wasn’t sure -- and then delicately tipped Hob’s face up, and Hob realized that his eyes were still closed, so he opened them.His master was smiling at him, and Hob couldn’t help but smile back, his big grin that was nothing like his master’s subtle curve of the lips.“You may release your hold now.”Hob blinked in momentary confusion before realizing he was still holding on to the chair to keep himself restrained and in place. It took him some few moments to remember how to unclench his fingers. His knuckles and wrists creaked, protesting the movement, but eventually relaxed enough to let him pull his hands free and sit back on his heels.“You have done well so far,” his master told him, “and now I would have you.”“Please,” Hob breathed. He ached with how much he needed his master in him.His master brushed cool fingers through Hob’s hair. “But not here.”“Where?” Hob asked because his master wanted him to, but he didn’t particularly care about the answer. Here, the dragon’s cave, the meadow by the stream, the bottom of the ocean, the stage of an amphitheater, the very throne in his master’s palace. Anywhere. Everywhere.Dream leaned close, setting his lips against the shell of Hob’s ear. “I would have you,” he whispered, “in the Waking world.”“Wh--”“Wake up, Hob Gadling.”  Hob jolted awake. “Fuck, what just--”And then he registered the body behind him in the bed, the long arm slung over his hips.He flailed and twisted, straining to look and--There was Dream, lying on Hob’s pillow, as beautiful and ethereal as ever, almost luminescent in the dim light. His eyes were open, watchful.“Is this real, or am I still dreaming?”Dream’s mouth curved a fraction. “As I have told you, dreams are real. But you are presently awake.”Hob considered that, looking around the room. It certainly looked like his own. “If I’d known you were coming, I’d have tidied a bit.”“I have seen much worse,” Dream said. His arm tightened, pulling Hob closer and alerting Hob to the certainty that they were both definitely naked under the blankets, and Hob was hard enough to pound nails. “Do you recall your dream, my faithful one?”“Mostly?” Heat flushed his cheeks and the back of his neck. “You... fucked my throat, and then...” Hob paused, frowning as he chased after the details.“And then I said that I would have you here in the Waking world.”Hob’s skin flushed so hard it felt like it was on fire. “Fuck yes.” He scrabbled for his nightstand, the bottle of lube, and froze just as he managed to snare it between two fingers. “You, ah. You know about this?” He held it up. “In the Waking, you can’t just-- I mean, you can, I’ll heal, but--”“I am aware of the practice,” Dream said. He plucked the bottle from Hob’s fingers. “If not this specific product.”Hob grinned. “When I think of all the junk we used to use. Spit. Oil. Rendered fat. Petroleum jelly -- that’s more recent -- but this stuff puts it all to shame.”“We shall see.” Dream’s arm hooked around Hob’s waist again, and Hob suddenly found himself flat on his back, Dream snugly situated between his knees.“Hot,” Hob opined. “I like a little manhandling, me.” He paused, suddenly. “Wait, if we’re in the waking world but doing this...” Dream’s eyebrow rose imperiously as if to say get on with it. “Should I, uh, be calling you my lord?”Dream hummed as he flicked open the bottle and dribbled a tiny bit onto his fingers and rubbed them together, testing the feel of it. “No,” he decided. “Our bargain was that you would submit to my will within the Dreaming, and we are not there.”Hob smiled and stretched to feather his fingers through Dream’s flyaway hair. “No. And yet I am yours, there or here.” He couldn’t resist a little chuckle as he added, “Though maybe a few extra constraints would be good, out here in the waking world. I can’t die, but recovery isn’t as quick here as it is in dreams, and I have class to teach in the morning.”“I do not believe much recovery will be required for this.” Before Hob could answer, he twisted two fingers into Hob’s arse.Hob groaned and threw back his head, letting the sensation wash over him. Dream had known him, known the contours of him, every curve and crevice of his body, for hundreds of years. That they were now in the waking world altered the game only slightly.And if a mistake was made... Well, Hob would heal; pain and pleasure were very much the same thing when he was with Dream.So Hob lost himself in the push and pull and pressure, the stretch and burn. Those little electric jolts from brushes against his prostate, the luscious drag of fingers against his inner walls. He sighed and then moaned, groaned and then cried out as pleasure washed over him in wave after wave of sensation.His hands clenched and twisted in the sheets, but the rest of him was nearly limp, accepting and welcoming every touch that Dream granted him, every unbearably sensual caress. Words fell from his lips, and he wasn’t entirely sure what they were. Praise and pleading and begging and cursing, all mixed together. Finally he was reduced to reciting a litany, over and over, like a prayer, of “Dream” and “please” and “yours” and “love.”Then Dream’s cock was pressing at his entrance and his gasps morphed into desperate sobs until Dream slid all the way in, leaving Hob feeling more full, more satisfied than he’d ever felt before.“Fuck, oh fuck, Dream, I--” Dream bent low to capture Hob’s mouth with a kiss, a panting, messy, hungry thing that belied the slow, almost leisurely thrusting.“My beloved,” Dream sighed against Hob’s mouth. “My Hob. Give yourself to me. Give me your pleasure, let me feel you.”“Always, Dream, my Dream, my lord, I’m yours, I--” Hob panted. His hands closed on Dream’s shoulders and back, and if it were a human lover, Hob would surely be leaving bruises and scratches.Dream’s hand wriggled into the purely theoretical gap between their bodies and closed on Hob’s prick with a gentle squeeze. Hob’s world dissolved into fire and light as he came, several waves of release and relief that surged with each thrust Dream made.It was so overwhelming that Hob nearly missed Dream’s own climax, which would have been a shame. Dream’s reactions were so much quieter and more controlled than Hob’s, one might almost think it brought no real pleasure, but whenever Hob was able to watch, it was a delight to see his delightfully cruel master lose himself, for a few seconds, in that simple bliss.Dream went lax, dropping his head so that his forehead rested against Hob’s. He wasn’t quite panting, but his breaths were a little more obvious than usual. After a few moments, he pulled his softening prick out of Hob, but made no move otherwise to get off.Hob risked tracing the shape of Dream’s shoulder blade, the too-prominent bumps of his spine.When that earned him no rebuke, Hob gave in to the grin that had been tugging at the corners of his mouth. “So. Beloved, then?”Dream’s eyes flew open, only to narrow. “You are mocking me.”“I wouldn’t go all the way to mocking,” Hob protested. “Just a little teasing.” He lifted his head to nuzzle at the point where Dream’s jaw met his throat. “I love you too, you know.”“I suspected that might be the case,” Dream said, and smiled. “It is still nice to hear it.”“Then I’ll say it often,” Hob promised. “And if we’re admitting to feelings, maybe you could come ‘round the pub more than once a century? Pop into my dreams a little more? I’ll kneel for you any time you want, you know that, yeah?”Dream rolled off and stretched, looking like nothing so much as a giant cat, before settling down again at Hob’s side. “I will take your suggestion into consideration,” he said solemnly, though Hob didn’t miss the faint gleam in his eyes that meant he, too, was capable of teasing. “You should rest now,” he told Hob. “You have a class to teach in the morning.”“Yeah,” Hob agreed, though part of him didn’t want to sleep, lest he wake up in the morning to find the whole thing had never actually happened. Still, it was quite late (or possibly quite early) and he was tired, so he snuggled in against his pillow, humming happily when Dream put an arm around him again.He was just on the edge of sleep when he thought he heard Dream murmur, “Perhaps next time, I’ll kneel for you, instead.” 
  
  

    
      
        
        
          This chapter fills square A2: Dom/Sub for my 2023 Dreamling Bingo.And that's a wrap on this! This kind of fic is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, so I'm particularly grateful to those of you who came along for this ride with me!'
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