Chapter 1: Well, this sucks.
Chapter Text
It was a peaceful day in Storyshift. That is, if you could ignore the massive fight between the Bad sanses and some of the Omega timeline. Debris and small fires were scattered around them.
Eh, can’t be helped. Error summoned a string to yank Ink’s brush out of the way before it could reach him.
On Ink’s face was a look of absolute disbelief. “Broomie!”
Broomie, huh?
“What k-kind of person names their paintbr-rush?” Error yelled while trying to wrap the strings around Ink. Unfortunately, he jumped out of the way and protectively clutched his paintbrush from the snowy ground.
He retorted, “What kind of person keeps people’s souls for fun?”
What an imaginative insult.
As usual, Ink and Error were yelling dumb insults at each other while sparring while the murder trio was taking on Blue and Fell somewhere within Grillby’s, judging the amount of cursing and crashes Error could hear from there. And of course, the Dreamtale brothers were up against each other.
Now back to In-
Whack!
Ow. While Error wasn’t paying attention, Ink had managed to smack him with the handle of his wooden broom. Rubbing his skull, he glared back at his smug opponent.
“Y-you are going to pay for that,” Error threatened coldly, raising razor-sharp bones out from the ground.
Ink propped up his brush against the floor. “Let’s see you try”
After a few minutes and copious amounts of ribbon, Error had Ink tied up from a pine tree with a pretty green bow.
“I hate you”
In turn, he replied, “Same”.
Ignoring Ink’s complaints, he dusted off his hands and turned back to Nightmare for confirmation of the end of the battle. But Error couldn’t find him. Maybe I ventured too far, he speculated. Teleporting back to Snowdin town, he found the others, apparently done with their fight as well.
“Have you seen the Boss?” Dust asked him immediately.
“You guys haven’t?”
“Nope. I think he’s still fighting with Dream somewhere”, Killer answered.
That… wasn’t good. Usually, they were the first ones done. Error felt a cold feeling up his back. Something was not right about this.
“It’ll be ‘right.”, Horror assured him, having noticed Error’s tense shoulders. “Boss can take care of himself”.
It was right after he said that when a battered Dream teleported in front of them, carrying an unconscious Nightmare. Choking on tears, words came pouring like a waterfall out of his mouth.
“I-I’m so… I didn’t mean to-”
This was when he noticed the golden arrow sticking through Nightmare’s chest. It could have pierced through his soul. And that was the last straw. Error’s icy voice cut through the rest of his sentence.
“Save it. We’re going back to the castle. And I never want to see your face again, unless it’s severed from your body.”
Dream paused. Face full of useless apologies, he set down his brother’s body in the snow and teleported away in a cloud of glitter.
Error scooped up Nightmare in his arms. It took everything the glitch had not to fall apart. But he had to be strong.
Everyone else stood still, frozen from the shock.
“Didn’t you hear me? We’re going home. NOW.” Error snapped.
That got them out of their daze. Dust summoned the portal while he stepped inside, the rest following. Trying not to jostle him, Error ran through the dark hallways toward the infirmary of the mansion. Black blood dripped onto the marble floors as they finally reached the room
Chapter 2: In which Nightmare tries to act normal
Summary:
Error PANIC. Horror heal. Error less panic.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Error nearly kicked down the door in his rush and immediately ran inside. His eyes scanned the glass cabinets, but couldn’t do anything because he didn’t know what the dang supplies were. Healing was more of Horror’s thing, so Error was useless without the others.
Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long. Without the word, the trio hastily entered the room, and Horror immediately went to the bottom cabinets and rifled through the various equipment. Error gently laid Nightmare on the white cot and Killer whipped out the extra glass vial of Negativity for situations like these and tickled it onto the wound to slow the effects of the arrow.
From the other side of the room, Dust got some sterile gauze, apparently under Horror’s instructions.
“Around the wound. Gentle pressure. No matter what, do not take it out, “ Horror commanded, taking out pills and some metal tools.
While Dust did just that, Nightmare regained consciousness. And judging by the tightness of pain in his cyan eyes, he was not having a good time.
But through gritted teeth, he managed to speak. “I- I apologize for this. I should have b-been more careful”
Error wanted to laugh. Here was their Boss, severely injured from an arrow sticking out of his chest, and he was apologizing for that?
Nightmare tried to prop himself up, and Error not-so-gently pushed him back down. Killer let out a quiet ‘dang’ at this.
“Y’know, moving around while a golden arrow’s embedded in your chest isn’t doing you any favors, Boss.”
“I-I am perfectly fine! This is j-just a physical wound.”, Nightmare stated firmly, coughing blood.
Error deadpanned, “Getting sliced by any regular weapon isn’t the same as an arrow of positivity, Boss. And speaking of positivity, I’m going to kill that little-”
Just then, Horror’s head poked over the counter and spoke.
“He needs a quick procedure. With anesthesia”, he informed them.
A surgery? Error’s never had one of those. In fact, he didn't think any of the gang had one. Though he faintly remembered reading something about it in his textbooks a long time ago, he sure as heck wasn’t qualified to be in the operating room when it happened.
“So do you want us to clear out or..?” Killer asked Horror, leaning against the far side of the wall.
Horror answered, “Yep. Except Dust, since he has magic.”
“Alright. Bye, Boss”.
Despite the incredible pain he must have been in, Nightmare sighed. “For the last t-time, do not call me-”
He walked out of the room and into the hallway, with a smirk that only Error could see.
Error hesitated, not sure if Nightmare would be fine. Not that he didn’t trust Horror and Dust, but just the fact that for once, the Destroyer was afraid of losing someone. Another immortal, no less.
“You heard the doctor, out”, Dust commanded, though not unkindly. He pointed toward the exit door.
“Wait, give us a moment.” Error asked, surprising himself. “Ple@se?”
Dust glanced at Horror, who tilted his head down. They both went outside and talked in low voices about how the surgery would go.
He sat down at the edge of the cot, not quite meeting Nightmare’s eyes. There was no doubt the empath could feel the jumble of emotions in his soul. Not really knowing how to start, he began.
“So I-”
“Are you-”
They looked at each other.
“Talk l-later?”, Error offered.
The goopy skeleton subtly nodded.
“Very well”
He got up and slowly shuffled his way to the door. Upon reaching the frame, Error paused. Still facing away from Nightmare, he asked something.
“Will you be okay?’
He knew it was a foolish question, but it was what Error wanted an answer to.
“I promise I'll be alright.” came a surprisingly soft voice from behind.
Taking in a slow breath, Error got out of the room, Horror and Dust entering it at the same time. Quickly, Error teleported to his room in the castle. Everything was as he left it before all that had happened that day. There he sat on his carpeted floor, wondering when those tears started flowing from his eyes.
Notes:
I'm updating this from school, guys-
Feel free to comment any thoughts!
Chapter 3: See you tommorow
Summary:
Things get better (?) And ✨️flashback✨️.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Later, Killer found Error crashed on the floor of his room. When he regained consciousness, he didn’t crack any jokes or try to lighten the mood. Instead, Killer pulled out his phone and turned on some instrumental music. They sat like that for a while, just existing. Then, when the silence became suffocating, Error started to talk to Killer. Not about anything meaningful, really. Just random things.
Sometime later, long after the sun had set, both of the skeletons started feeling drowsy. Wordlessly, Killer got up from the floor and slowly walked out of the room. “G’night.” he told Error, waving a hand.
‘Goodnight.” Error murmured back. The door creaked shut.
He wanted to stay awake to wait until Dust or Horror had finished, but his mind had other plans. After all, all beings needed to sleep. On the floor drifting into sleep, Error just wished that everything would be okay again.
Two weeks. That’s how long Nightmare was asleep so far. Horror reported that he and Dust got the arrow out, but also that it grazed his soul. So they would be waiting for quite a while. In between that time, they all didn’t do much of anything. They played board games, read in the library, and even attempted to learn how to cook from Horror (Error was wildly unsuccessful). That being said, Error visited Nightmare as much as he could.
Still comatose from healing, as Horror had warned, he wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon. Despite this, Error was not swayed. He spent a good part of each day talking about how the day went for the gang to Nightmare’s unconscious state in the white room. Sometimes, he even tried to read some books out loud to him, even though the words looked all jumbled from his dyslexia.
Once, Dust walked into him talking to Nightmare about what he was missing during the afternoon. Not much if a talker, he simply stated,
“Back when he got hurt…you picked him up.”
He was confused. Of course he had picked him- oh. His haptophobia wasn’t triggered at that moment. And perhaps most surprising, Error hadn't noticed.
His hands set down the book on the counter.
“I guess saving him was more important to me than my fear”
Dust crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, expression unreadable under the shade of his hood.
“Not just that. How many days did you come here to visit Nightmare?”
Trying to remember, he said. “Since the beginning”
“You really care for him”, Dust commented. Tilting his head in confusion, Error couldn’t get where Dust was getting at.
He uncrossed his arms, glancing between Error and the asleep Nightmare. “Think about it.”
Footsteps echoed in the outside hallway, getting fainter and fainter. Think about it. These words stuck with Error for the rest of the day.
He found himself sitting in the chair next to Nightmare, he asked something he'd never thought about: Do I care for him?
The Destroyer wasn't used to such emotions, or what the implications meant. But all he knew was that his soul felt a bit lighter whenever he was near Nightmare. The way it did around no one else.
…
How pathetic. He'd grown attached to the one person that he could never repay. The day Nightmare found him in the Anti-Void could be remembered as clear as day.
(Flashback~)
He was alone with the voices. Endless white stretched on all sides, littered with unfinished crochet projects. In the middle of it all was the Destroyer himself, lying down on his back, feeling terrible.
He'd eliminated three anomalies (or their more common name, AUs) but still did not feel any satisfaction. Crocheting didn't bring him any joy either. So he'd resigned himself to nothing.
‘This is borrrinng’ one of the Voices complained.
‘You can't just be grumpy all the time. I think having a love interest would help’ another chimed in.
Loss in former interests is one of the major warning signs of depression~, the final Voice sang.
“Shut up Shut up SHUT UP!”
At the last word, Error ended up standing and screaming into nothingness. It didn't do anything. The Voices got even louder and louder, until Error ended up curled up in a ball, covering his nonexistent ears
“Please” he whispered.
Then, all was quiet. There was a presence of another being. A very powerful one at that. Hesitantly, Error looked up, hands lifting off of his ears. Suppressing his panic, he faced a skeleton covered in ink black goop. This could be no other than the Guardian of Negativity himself: Nightmare.
Not going to lie, kinda cute
Standing up and ignoring the fact he had an almost-mental breakdown, he demanded, “Why @re you here?”
“I felt Negativity. I come to help”, Nightmare cooly responded.
“I don't need help”, Error answered, edging away from him. He didn't want to be mixed up in the affairs of the bad sanses and the Stars. It was way too early in the morning for that.
Nightmare took a step forward, intensely looking straight into Error's eyes. “You do. And don’t try to deny it.”
It would be foolish to try and argue with him. So Error did exactly that.
“I'm n-not coming with you”
“You really do not have a choice in that matter.”
He let out a small laugh. “W-what, are you goi-ing to kidnap me or s0mething?”
The goopy skeleton seemed to think about it. “It'll certainly be easier than trying to argue with you. So why not?”
“Wait whut-”
Darkness engulfed him.
(End of Flashback~)
Notes:
Errormare? What do you mean? [nervously laughs]