Sandman ficlet, "New," Daniel/Corinthian
This was written for Porn Battle VII
Once the funeral guests were sent home, once the Family got feasted and fare-welled, the new Dream of the Endless took a private audience with each and every one of his subjects.
All things are possible in the Dreaming.
The Corinthian was called last. The young nightmare washed the blood-tears from his face and eyes. The Fashion Thing kissed his cheek, and provided him with a clean white shirt.
The new lord favored the color white.
The Throne Room had the form of a densely overgrown garden, sweetly scented, and open to a twilit sky. The last time the Corinthian stood in this room, there was blood on the throne. He oriented himself to the spot where it should stand. Instead, there was an alcove holding a white marble bench, twisted with morning glories. The seat was empty.
Daniel, the albescent lord of the Dreaming, was suddenly standing before the Corinthian, putting proprietary hands on him, his arms, shoulders, chest, a lord inspecting his property, a craftsman admiring another’s work. The nightmare shivered under the touch.
Not Daniel, the Corinthian reminded himself, not any more, but the name itself had already taken root.
"Merciless," Daniel mused, as if to someone else. His face was unreadable.
"I understand merciless," the Corinthian replied. He fought to keep his voice steady. "You’ll tear me down, like before, and remake me. Your predecessor---"
"I'm still me," the Dream King reminded him. "I’ve brought back so many in these last hours. I made you." The Dream King gentled his touch. "But these particular hands did not do the work." He ran a soft thumb across the Corinthian’s mouth, and stroked long, pale fingers down his throat.
"Those other hands. You were their final masterpiece." And here, the Dream King's mask gave way to naked longing, just for a moment. "How could I destroy you," he whispered, his lips brushing the shell of the nightmare's ear, "when both you and I are so recently...reborn?"
"Anything for you," the Corinthian said fiercely, thrilled and terrified when his master's hands traveled downward, touching his erection. Before, his hard cock meant the delicate pop of ocular flesh, the vitreous slide down his throats. Now it was tangled up with...feelings, that had once only been ideas.
The Corinthian followed his master to his bed, laid him down on his own white sheets and worshipped him, hands and mouths pressing and sliding until he was tumbled over onto his back and taken so slowly, so sweetly, he had to ask why.
"For the dreamers," Daniel told him.
The world became sharp then, for the Corinthian. "You love them."
The Dream King smiled. "And now you understand love." He branded the nightmare's face with soft kisses as he explained. "You understand love, and you’re still a monster. You’ll give them hope, and then you’ll snatch it away. You will be the most terrifying creature ever encountered in dreams. My masterpiece."