Chapter Text
No-One But You (The Path Knowers Coven) - Part 2
Chapter 1: Asrun Dream (Part 1)
...
Victor Von Doom was standing in a place he didn't recognize.
...
The air around him was thick, but not with smoke or any sort of mist...
It was thick with something older.. or something that felt heavy against his skin like... a mask.
A narrow path was stretched ahead of him, but it vanished into the horizon as if it was daring him to follow.
To his left, a small figure moved slowly.
Mateo. His son was no more than six years old in that moment, and his stride was uneven.
Mateo moved as though every step forward required permission.
Victor noticed that he glanced over his shoulder often.. and Mateo's eyes were wide and uncertain.
His son was waiting. Waiting for him.
Victor’s gaze lingered on Mateo longer than he meant to.
The boy’s expression was hesitant, yet... the tilt of his chin held a stubbornness already.
His mother’s smile was there... Wanda’s smile.
The curve of it was unmistakable... dominant, and unyielding.
Mateo paused after some time, then he turned around and looked.
The voice that reached Victor was small, but steady.
...
“Do you think she can see us, Father?”
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She?
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
He pivoted, then he searched the shadows toward his right.
A presence should have been there, or someone meant to complete the scene... but there was no one.
Only a silence that stretched too long, and it was thick enough to choke.
Victor wanted to demand clarity, and hear his son’s voice again, but the moment in front of him dissolved...
...
Someone's arm tugged at him.
Not in the dream... outside of it.
Something warm and restless was wrapped around Victor's chest... and it pulled him upward and out of the fog.
Victor’s eyes snapped open as soon as he felt it.. and the dark ceiling of a bedroom replaced that path.
The silence in that room was also broken by a very different sound...
The sound of someone breathing loudly... and close, too close.
Victor realized he was not in the dream anymore, and he quickly understood that he was in one of his many beds...
Reed bigmouth Richards was the noisy person sleeping beside him, with his limbs tangled in ways that would shame any dignified arrangement.
The man’s grip was a vice... and his arm was hooked across Victor’s chest.
Reed's over-stretched leg was thrown over Victor’s as well.
The forever bothersome Mister Fantastic was presently reduced to a restless knot of heat and weight.
Victor scowled faintly when it all registered, then he roughly pressed a hand to Reed’s shoulder.
The semi-sorta ruler of Latveria was attempting to pry himself loose, but Reed’s unconscious hold tightened up in response.
Every move Victor made only dragged him back into the tangle.
Victor muttered under his breath eventually, because Mateo’s voice still lingered.
The remnants of his dream were dominating his thoughts... so Victor shifted again and tried to pry Reed’s arm from where it had somehow hooked beneath his ribs.
It was absurd and undignified... like trying to free himself from a net woven in his own bed.
Reed finally stirred around, then he let out a muffled laugh against Victor’s shoulder.
His eyes blinked open, then his demeanor immediately became mischievous.
...
“You’re so.. icy.”
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Icy? Victor’s jaw tightened.
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“And you’re such a worm.”
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Hah. That only made Reed laugh harder, and it also made him wriggle even closer.
In fact, Mister Fantastic started deliberately winding his arms and legs tighter around Victor like he was some determined parasite.
Victor grunted again, then he started tugging at Reed’s elbow and nudging at his knee with his own leg.
...
“We both know you like to cuddle.”
...
Reed had to tease him.. and he also ignored Victor's attempts to free himself.
They had a good date, for once, so his grin slipped open wide in the dark.
It started feeling warmer too... and intimate, so Victor’s voice went flat, with a warning.
...
“Don’t.”
...
Don't?
Oh, Reed’s grin really widened.
He adjusted his weight and loomed over Victor, then he tucked his head almost smugly against the man's chest.
The silence between them stretched, then it filled with Reed’s quiet laughter and the steady rhythm of his breathing.
Victor gave a defeated sigh, mainly because his thoughts drifted back to Mateo’s small voice in his dream.
It was the first time he heard him speak.. so he had to talk to Wanda about it...
And.. that uncertain question was echoing louder than Reed’s movements and teasing.
Who was Mateo talking about? Victor didn't feel the presence of his wife at all...
On top of all that... Victor let Reed cling like a worm without any further protest.
Yeah. He let him... because his mind was elsewhere. On his son.
Victor's mind was also focused more on that unknown path.. and on the question he hadn’t been able to answer.
...
Chapter: END
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