morpheus x reader oneshots & headcanons

being the one who releases morpheus 1

To be honest, you didn't exactly think your plan would go past the very first stage of going down to the basement alone. It seemed to be the most difficult part of the entire endeavour as your father, Rodrick, wasn't keen on women meddling in his affairs. What you thought through your entire life was an obstacle now became your greatest advantage - after all, who would suspect a mere woman to burn the mighty Magus's plans into ashes?

When you offered to watch the captured man while the night shift was going home and the dayshift hadn't yet returned, they didn't need much coaxing to agree. From their reluctance, it seemed that they were more concerned with the abductee's, for the lack of a better phrase, absence of decency, rather that your hypothetical treason in peace of your own father. You were only a woman, a young one at that and so they were certain you did not have the intellect or the creativity to commit such a horrendous act of treachery. Maybe they wouldn't have changed their minds had they noticed the fireplace poker you were hiding behind your back. You could only hope it was sturdy and sharp enough to break through the thick glass.

"We haven't much time, Dream of the Endless," you spoke to him. Your voice was carried by the echo of the otherwise empty basement. There was no possibility that he simply didn't hear you, nevertheless, the man was yet to acknowledge your presence. "I do not know who you are, I do not know what you are but it matters not to me."

He's never seen you before, in the decade he had already spent in captivity but Morpheus didn't care. You were only a human, who probably came to plead on Roderick's behalf for things you did not deserve; gifts you were never meant to hold in your mortal hands. Yes, you had that charlatan's face... Were you going to beg him to succumb to your father's impertinence? His unfathomable greed, like Alex before you?

"All I know is that my father had made a mistake and it's my, blood of his blood, responsibility to make things right." Something about your sure tone, a voice reserved for unbreakable promises, made him look at you. His blue eyes were cold, unreadable as he studied your expression. "Should you wish to kill me once free, I shan't hold any grievances against you. Know that if you don't, my father surely will but yet again, it matters not what happens to me after we part ways." Was he seeing right? Were those... tears, in your eyes? Your trembling hand touched the wall of his glass prison. As if you could caress his pale, tired face, your thumb gently stroked the border separating the two of you. "What's alive must live, dear stranger, and this... is no way to live," you whispered to him.

You lifted your expensive skirt and rubbed one of the golden lines on the floor away with your dress shoe. Morpheus watched you with an unchanged, calm demeanour making you think, even if for a mere second, that your nervousness and fear were largely misplaced and that there was no danger coming after you, in fact. Despite that illusive hesitation that clouded your mind for a moment, even the smallest sound, the quietest of creaks that a settling house makes, had you looking over your shoulder.

When the binding circle was torn open, you raised the iron poker you had taken from the day room. Finding the strength and bravery to strike the glass orb with all of your might, you fixed your grip on the metal rod. And after letting out a heavy exhale, you hit the wall of the prison that held Dream captive a decade too long.

A crack.
Part of you was reassured - your fat-fetched plan filled with hopes and luck might just work out. Another problem, however, raised all the same: how many blows will it take? Both to set him finally free or to attract enough attention from the mansion staff to alert your father. And how poetic it would be! Your freedom for his.

Morpheus watched as your hit the glass wall time after time, your ferocity only growing as if you were being born again right before his eyes - not a human anymore but a vicious beast with a humane heart.

And then, with one decisive blow, a web of cracks sprawled around the glass prison. But before you could strike it the last time, Morpheus took control of the situation. A strange, blue-coloured energy filled his prison. Confused at his sudden agency, you shielded your face at the very last moment before he made the glass cell explode. Some shards nicked your skin and clothes but at the time you were a little too concerned with setting free one of the Endless to feel any pain.

You looked back at the stranger. He was walking out of what once was a glass orb; a prison he was once destined to rot inside. Quite obviously, he remained unclothed and only then did it occur to you that you could have brought him a change of clothes, even an old coat that no one wore anymore. Stepping his bare feet on the shards of broken glass, he slowly walked towards you. Dream's cold stare never left your face as if he was a startled animal wary of another creature's actions; like he couldn't honestly believe in selfless kindness and expected you to pounce on him at any given moment.

"What are you standing here for? Go!" you said a little louder while still doing your best to keep your voice down. Your trembling hand vaguely pointed at the door behind you as if you were expecting him to magically waltz right out the front entrance of the manor. "Somebody surely has heard us."

But he did not move - not yet. Morpheus tilted his head slightly while continuing to watch you. He knew you were hiding something, a tiny secret murmured into the aether with each beat of your heart, that he was yet to uncover. Morpheus was looking but he wasn't seeing and it unnerved him for what mysteries could a simple human keep away from the Lord of Dreams?

"Do you not wish to have your brother back?" he asked in a cold, low tone, rid of all urges and affections. You must have known that releasing him would prevent that pipe dream from ever becoming anywhere near close to true.

"Even if he was returned to us, the tears I've cried and the heartache I suffered would still be just as real. My grief wouldn't wonderfully turn into a silly nightmare that disappears at the break of dawn. I do not wish for you or anyone to bring my brother back. Instead, I wish he never had died." Frantically, you wiped your stray tears away with your trembling hand.

Morpheus never admitted it to himself but there was a burning desire inside his chest, a wildfire-like urge that warmed his cold skin, for his fingers to be the ones to brush away your sadness. He couldn't quite articulate it, even in his own mind but at the moment he began to see what set you apart from the rest of humanity; a secret spelt across your bones, whispered into your blood: a certain tenderness, agape, that humankind might one day strive to become.

"But that is a dream of the past and I should rather be dwelling on the hopes for the future," you added quietly. A sad smile appeared on your face and Dream couldn't find any reason for happiness in your current situation. Your father's anger, your brother's death, whatever he decides to do with you...

He didn't answer your words - he didn't quite understand them, the emotions and mercy that were woven into those few sentences. You toed the line between utter selfishness and selflessness. Still looking at you as if he couldn't quite decipher what manner of creature you truly wear, a whirl of sand gathered around him and soon, Dream of the Endless was gone as if he never stepped foot into your father's basement.

In the distance, somewhere above your head, you could hear the rushed footsteps of the dayshift guards - the first humans to witness your treacherous heart.

Dream didn't quite understand how grief and love could turn into such opposite afflictions. How come in one heart they rotted and became malice, while in the other flowers of kindness bloomed in the cracks they had struck? He will have to inquire about the lability and complexity of human nature. The notion itself sounded quite ridiculous: the child of his enemy was kind to him. Yes, Morpheus shall find you again to make you explain to him why you would ever risk your life to save someone you didn't know, someone who owed you nothing.