On the first day of Christmas...

[anotherusedpage]

So. Here's the first of my Advent fics. It's rated G and it has no questionable content at all whatsoever. :p


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‘WiLL yOu pLaY a GaME wIth mE, bROtheR?’ Delirium asked. Dream smiled. The games of the younger three were usually best left alone, but Delirium very rarely meant any harm.

‘What sort of a game?’

‘The uSUaL sORt.’ Delirium leaned back in her chair and drummed her heels on the floor, sending multi-coloured sparks flying around the room.

Dream caught one on the tip of his finger. It flickered pink and green and orange, before settling down to a more sedate dusky blue glow. The sparks became rose-petals, floating gently downwards. Delirium cocked an eyebrow. Dream snapped his fingers, feeling like a cheap conjurer, and the ball of light at his fingertips was a single blue rose. Delirium laughed with delight and wriggled her nose, reaching out to take it from him. In her hand, it became crystal. Dream took it back, turning it over between long, pale fingers.

‘YoU pLaYeD a gAmE wiTH HeR, oNCe,’ Delirium said. The crystal became liquid, flowed through Dream’s fingers like proverbial blue blood.

‘Desire? I will play that kind of game no more,’ he said. Delirium laughed.

‘No, nOt hEr. WiTh d-E-a-T-h.’

‘ When have I ever played games with Death? ’ Dream said, remembering Hob Gadling and wondering if that counted.

‘ONce uPOn a TiMe,’ Delirium said. ‘LoNg, lOnG aGo aND fAr, FaR aWAy.’ It was almost an answer. ‘NoT eXActLy a gAMe. ThE wOrD bEGinS wiTh doUBle-yoU. LiKe wORmS aNd WoLVeS anD ThiNGs.’

Dream pondered for a moment. ‘Wager?’ he asked. It had been a wager of sorts, he supposed

Delirium nodded, sending ripples through her pink and green hair. The liquid crystal had set like jelly on the floor. She prodded it with a cautious foot, and it began to crawl up her leg.

‘FoR A tHoUSanD niGHtS,’ she said.

‘A thousand and one,’ Dream corrected her absently, remembering.

‘A thOUsaNd anD OnE NiGHts.’ Delirium shook her leg. The jelly-creature clung. With a sigh, Dream knelt down by her side and prised free its grip. It sat in the palm of his hand, quivering slightly.

He remembered the wager. The stories alone had been enough to keep her alive, the stories that were in her head all along. All he’d had to do was prompt her; once she’d started, no one had been able to stop her. He had been left, the few times he had listened, desperately craving the end of the story, and knowing that he could not let her finish. After a thousand days, Destiny had put a stop to it. She’d saved the kingdom and lived happily ever after – because these things have to have a pleasant narrative shape to them – and she’d died soon after that. Suddenly, of natural causes, and still with all those innumerable untold stories burning away inside of her.

The crystalline jelly had wrapped itself around his wrist. Dream stood up slowly. ‘You want me to make such a wager with you?’ he asked, a little incredulous.

Delirium nodded. ‘BEt thERe AreN’t eNOugH StoRiES iN tHe wHOle wORld To keEP hER fRoM Me!’

‘Because stories are a gateway between our realms, little sister. How could I win such a wager?’

Delirium only smiled. She unclasped the crystal bracelet from his wrist, and threw it into the air. It hovered above her head, halo-like.

‘BUt YoU nEVeR TeLL stORiEs,’ she said. ‘HOw dO yOu kNoW wHEre tHey lEAd?’

Dream shook his head thoughtfully.

‘A thousand and one nights is too long,’ he said after a moment.

‘I dOn’t liKe NuMBeRS,’ Delirium said. She stood up, and the crystal halo burst into tiny pieces, surrounding her in an iridescent cloud. She shone with a thousand and one colours that gradually coalesced into a shining mass held in her left hand.

‘HeR,’ she said.

The tiny figure walked across her palm and into Dream’s cupped hands. He looked it up and down, considering.

‘Her,’ he agreed.

And so it began.

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Fandom: Sandman
Disclaimer: Dream and Delirium belong to Neil Gaiman and the nice people at Virtigo, along with the rest of the Endless - Destiny, Death, Destruction, Desire and Despair. I'm making no profit apart from enjoyment value, and I'll return them in the condition I found them, I promise. The Arabian Nights I believe are common intellectual property.

Comments

[shoolessdwarf.livejournal.com]

my silly sister has JUST told me that this even exhisted, so here i am, a year late, reading and squeeing.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

heee why thankyou.