Chapter Text
Felix was almost certain his research would be rejected.
As a psychiatric researcher, he had taken the burden of studying the psychology of dreams. So much so, that out of sleep deprivation, he had started to see a dark figure out of the corner of his eyes whenever he was walking somewhere. A lean, dark figure with a coat, and messy hair. This figure never spoke to him, just stood in the corner of his room, as if waiting to be noticed. Felix didn’t mind it, he even tried to make it go away with antipsychotics. After it didn’t work and the side effects made him feel like shit, he decided to actually go get some sleep. Like a person that cares about his own brain, and not just his patients’.
However, this annoying hallucination appeared in his dreams too.
This time, he even had a face.
“Great, now I see my hallucination in my dreams.” Felix turned away from the looked around in his dream, seeing his old childhood house, with gray walls and two, rusty swings. It made his heart ache with something akin to yearning.
“Do not ignore me, Felix Minogue.” The figure said, he had a rich, deep voice and a royal manner of speaking. Felix turned to him.
“What are you going to do, guy in my dream,” Felix taunted, “if I ignore you?”
“Then I shall curse you for the rest of your life.”
“Curse me with what? More hallucinations?”
The dream guy didn’t respond to that.
“Huh. Strange,” Felix tilted his head, looking at the pale face of the stranger. “I don’t remember ever seeing your face before, so how come I see you in my dream? Sure, the brain stores everything it has seen, and yes I could see it in my dream, however if I were to see you while I was awake, I’m fairly certain I would have remembered you.”
“That is because I am no regular dream. I am the King of Dreams.”
“I wonder why this dream is so lucid?” Felix started to look around.
“Are you hearing me, Felix Minogue?” The dream sounded pissed.
“Increased prefrontal brain activity? I should definitely put this in my dream diary...”
“DO NOT IGNORE ME.” The stranger’s voice rang through his dream, muffling every other sound in Felix’s dream, making his hair stand up.
This felt too vivid to be a dream. Still, Felix chose not to believe him.
“Perhaps this is… A nightmare instead…” He backed up.
“Now, Felix Minogue, I will say this once and you will listen.” The dream started getting closer, each step measured, absolute. “You will not stick your nose into my realm. You will cease this research at once. My realm is not your test subject open at your operating table. You want to look at the psychology of dreams? Very well. But you, Felix Minogue, have taken it way too far.”
The King was getting even closer now, and Felix had to keep walking backwards to avoid him.
“Still not believe me? Then I shall bestow upon you one of my ideas, in the shape of a domesticated feline. It shall remind you that I am always watching, and very real.”
Before Felix could react, a big, black cat materialized in his arm.
“Hello mortal,” the cat said, in the deep voice of his master.
“What the fuck.” Felix jolted, nearly dropping the cat.
“Time to open your eyes, Felix Minogue.”
“Wait-”
Felix opened his eyes with a loud gasp, the world pinning around him. When he felt something shifting beneath his feet, he realised the cat came with him.
He didn't have a cat, until now.
****
Days passed with the mysterious, talking cat.
Felix decided to name it Anubis, since it was a large, fluffy black cat, with the strange ability to speak and to stare into his soul menacingly.
Felix was pretty sure the cat did this because he didn't want him to keep going with his research. So the solution was to stare him down until he got away from that specific file. At least, Felix was able to sidetrack it with treats (strangely, since Anubis always claimed he had no business with such mortal food and toys, yet still got himself occupied with everything Felix bought him, so was the feline of a monarch) so he could proofread it.
However, it didn't last too long until Anubis leaped onto his table and started scratching his hand away from the keyboard.
So, Felix just focused on his patients, and asking them about their dreams, documenting each and every single one. Different disorders each had a different pattern of dreams, Felix found. Certainly, he would have to ask this dream lord, or whatever the guy was.
So, Felix's next step was looking at every single mythology book until he found the god of dreams- Morpheus.
From what he read, Felix could only tell that this guy could shapeshift into whatever he liked, and was the weaver of dreams and nightmares. This was a very real mythological being that Felix could not have known, had he not read it.
He was so, so fucked.
That night in his dreams, Felix saw the dark stranger -Morpheus- again.
“I know who you are.” He said to him, standing in the same dreamscape. Strange, it was almost as if the home was the same as he first left it. He could even smell his mom's cooked lasagna from the inside. But it was barren, and the neighborhood was empty too. It left a dull ache in his heart.
“Have you finally realised?” Felix turned back to him, now finally inspecting his facial features. He had never before realized how ethereal this man looked. Raven black hair, on pale, clean features. There were the slight creases age gave him, but he still looked youthful and very handsome. He had the sharpest facial features Felix had ever seen on a man, with no beard whatsoever and he was now even more sure that this man was not a mortal, but rather a king.
In contrast, it made Felix's light brown hair and 5 o'clock shadow look like actual hot trash.
“I have.” Felix found himself at a loss for words in front of such ethereal beauty. How had he not noticed before?
“Good. Take a walk with me, Felix Minogue.”
Felix started following him, and realised he was actually taller than Morpheus's human form. This amused him slightly, bringing a smile to his face.
“I will now be accompanying you for a walk in my realm. Wandering, if you will.”
Felix found his feet obeying. Maybe it was the ethereal company, or just his quiet crush on the king, but resisting was impossible. And somehow, Felix liked that.
“Do you know why I have called you tonight?”
“You want me to stop meddling in your business?”
“No.” The man turned to look at him, those ice blue eyes catching his. Felix's heart did a slight jump. “You now know too much, certain things that a mortal mind should not know. You are now an important individual. And I have decided not to let you out of my sight. From now on, we shall see each other quite often, Felix Minogue.”
As they walked, Felix witnessed the slight change of dreamscapes, his eyes catching many different dreams and nightmares. He was not even in his old neighborhood in Australia anymore. This was different, one moment he saw a modest neighbourhood in Brazil, the other he saw a recreation of Hell. Finally, they arrived at a vast, green valley with flowers.
“It is only proper that you get familiar with my realm.”
“So, can I keep going with my research the same way I have done?”
“No.” The king looked at him, as if trying to decipher something eccentric. “Your conviction rather baffles me, Felix Minogue.”
Felix shrugged. “I am a man of science.”
“You shall keep going with your research, without meddling in this realm. You shall not monitor my dreamers. And most importantly, you shall not ask for my help.”
All of Felix's previous questions died in his throat.
“As you wish, my lord.”
Felix bowed to him, and in the corner of his eye, he could almost see a satisfied curl on the lord's lips. He didn't comment on it.
“Time to open your eyes. Felix Minogue.”