A/N: First time in this fandom and I think, for now, it will be a one off. It feels like it's creativity is now in stasis, and I will miss the direction the books were running in, but never mind! So for now, have this nugget of Raven x Dexter!
Enjoy!
It was one of Raven's biggest fears. She had always feared that she would end up like her mother, but since Dexter had stumbled into her life and into her heart, she was now terrified that he would take the role that her father had suffered. The role of The Good King. The Evil Queen had had a Good King and Raven's Father had accepted his legacy without a complaint, showering love on his only daughter when his wife would not accept it.
She woke in a cold sweat, the nightmare tickled the edges of her thoughts, images of Dexter being trapped in their home by angry mobs seemed to be etched onto her eyelids and she rubbed hard, hoping to erase the images with little success. Her breathing was hard, chest heaving as the nightmare ran circles around her head, threatening to overwhelm her while she was awake until she felt Dexter move beside her. His arm came out from the covers to stroke the parts of her body he could blindly feel. His touch sent relief flooding through her. He was not under house arrest while she resided in a mirror prison, he was next to her, he was with her, he was there. Her breathing calmed, the anxiety started to disperse, the nightmare fleeing from her mind as Dexter brought her back to the real world. To their real world. She was not the Evil Queen, he was not the Good King, they were just Mr & Mrs Charming living out in her kingdom as villagers.
Sure the villagers didn't entirely trust her, and they were living on her father's land in one of the smaller holdings but it was an almost normal existence. Many of her people had attended many normal schools rather than Ever After High – EAH students were those that had Legacies and things to live up to, titles and inheritances etc. Many of her people didn't understand what it meant to be bound to a Legacy, they had sneered at her father, young Raven hadn't been blind, she had seen their withering looks, renaming the Good King as the Mad King for staying with such a vicious woman; they didn't understand that the Good King had to stay until the story was written out. They knew enough to treat Mr & Mrs Charming with suspicion but as Raven patiently explained to the various councils she had visited, she had broken the Evil Circle. There would not be another generation of Evil Queen.
In her nightmares though such logic did not exist. Her greatest fears danced through her skull and took control and it would be Dexter that would drag her feverish mind from the dark places it conjured. He could soothe the anxiety without saying a word and Raven would fall into an uneasy slumber as he curled around her like a strand of possessive ivy.
"Hey beautiful." He said sleepily, sitting up next to her, handing her the glass of water he kept on the side. She made a soft noise in response and shivered as he shifted to pull her into his embrace properly. "Raven." His sleep husky voice sent waves of calm through and he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "Come here." He hummed, pulling her flush against him. He could feel her tremble and he pulled the blankets around them and held her. "It's okay, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here." His soft words brought her back slowly, piece by piece.
Dexter knew the nightmares that caught his wife in their snare were dangerous and vicious. He was determined to fight them when she was too weak to do so. It was why he would spent hours awake, watching her as her brow furrowed, he would feel her start to shake in her sleep and he would cling to her fiercely whispering protective words until she would relax somewhat. The nightmares were not frequent but they were intense and he was having none of it; he loved Raven Queen and he would always love Raven Queen. She fought her legacy and while he never got to know what his future was, he made his own choice in Raven. They chose their own future, and they chose it together. This was his mantra and he didn't believe that Raven was entirely capable of evil magic. She was capable of magic, like many in the kingdoms and sure she had a temper but so did he, only Dexter's temper usually meant he hurt himself in some way or another and Raven would end up patching him back together. Like the time he got angry at the carriage when the engine wouldn't tick over, and he threw the spanner at it, only for it to rebound off and catch him in the shin and then the foot. Two bruises and a broken toe, all because he got mad.
Right now though, he wasn't mad, he was worried. He knew Raven fretted about him and his place in a story that no longer existed. She had spent so long, under so many different directions of pressure to accept her legacy, that she was almost constantly paranoid of messing up and becoming the Evil Queen. In moments when nightmares warped her logic and reason, Dexter would remind her that she had chosen not to follow her mother's footsteps.
"Mrs Charming." Dexter murmured as she curled into him.
"Yes?" Her voice was barely audible, her fingers knotting in his sleep shirt, winding and unwinding the fabric regularly.
"We're going to lay down, you're going to be the little spoon and you are going to dream of cupcakes and cookies." He heard her soft chuckle and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Can I dream of dragons instead?"
"Yes you can. Now come on, let's get you all comfy." He pulled her slowly into position, allowing her to move as close to him as possible, swept her tresses out of the way so he didn't wake up with a mouthful of hair and the pair cocooned themselves in together.
"Goodnight Mr Charming." He heard her say sleepily before she drifted off into hopefully nicer dreams.
"Sweet dreams Mrs Charming." He pressed a kiss behind her ear and after a few minutes of watching his wife slip into the arms of Morpheus, he closed his own eyes and slept.