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Nightmare sighed and pressed his forehead against the door. Fear, confusion, regret.
Little Crescent tugged on his clothes.
“Is Cross okay?”
Nightmare sighed again, “ I don’t know.”
Still, better to get this over with.
He gently pushed the confused toddler towards Hatchet before entering the room.
Cross laughed, before wincing in pain, “I probably look pretty stupid, right?”
“Why?” Nightmare looked down at the wounded skeleton with no remorse.
“I wanted to understand.” Cross tried to sit up, half failing, and hurting himself more.
“I would have told you.”
Cross looked down at his lap, “I know.”
“So why?”
“I wanted to hear from Dream’s point of view. And before! Before you say anything, I trust you. I just… different people interpret things differently. And I thought, maybe if I heard his side of things, I could convince him you aren’t so bad!”
“Dream is very stubborn and-”
“You’re stubborn!” Cross paused to catch his breath and his thoughts, “You’re both stubborn. Nightmare... I’d follow you to certain death if you asked me.”
Nightmare sighed. He could feel the honesty in Cross’ words. “I wouldn’t ask that of you.”
“I’d do it anyway.”
“I wouldn’t let you.”
“Don’t care.”
“No.”
“I love you.”
Nightmare smiled softly and slowly sat down next to Cross on the bed, to avoid irritating his injuries. Right, his injuries.
“You’re right, you are stupid.”
Cross laughed. “Fair.”
“Crescent wants to see you.” The implications were obvious. So they were left unspoken.
“I think I can handle that?”
“Does Dream know about him?”
“Nightmare.” Cross sat up, grabbed Night’s face, and pulled him in for a kiss, “I wouldn’t tell him.”
Nightmare nodded. A moment passed.
“I was scared.”
“You weren’t shot-” Cross tried to hold back more laughter.
“And you weren’t scared.”
“I was. I was very scared. But you were there.”
“If you don’t stop being mushy I swear-”
“Boss, I nearly died, let me be mushy.”