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It had been a long few weeks for the Star Sans’, fighting left and right. With the upcoming holidays, one would think that times would be happier, festivities left and right, all people happy. The Council even made sure that as less harm could happen as possible, roaming timelines and being on the watch for anything.
Unfortunately, this has the exact opposite result. People are fretting over nothing, fearful of an upcoming attack, and stressed by the constant surveillance. For such a happy time of the year, the mood was way more sore than what one would think. And it gave Dream absolutely no reprieve since the rise in positivity was tamed by the constant restlessness of the people.
He was currently in one of those timelines, called for some meager altercation between some “Karen” and someone just searching something to eat for the day. The time it took the get the woman on her way and help the poor citizen definitely wasn’t worth the full headache he now have.
Deciding that he has nothing more to do around, Dream opened a portal back to his room in the Council’s castle, ready to just pass out after the long and stressful weeks he had. As he bounced on the bed and stared at the ceiling, he begrudgingly realized that he would definitely not be able to find sleep anytime soon.
He left his mind roam free, thinking of the past few days, the conversations he had with others, everyone problems, the fact that he nearly didn’t see Blue nor Ink in nearly a week with how much people kept him occupy.
He also recalls that one time were he was being criticize once again by some uname person. He is pretty sure he saw some of his brother’s gang members sneak past him, eagerly debating on what to eat for Christmas. They disappeared from view pretty fast but if he was being honest, their energy was at the time the hugest source of positivity he could latch to. And he still had kinda been blocked by people anyway.
Now that he thinks about it, the gang are generally not up to much mischief at this time of the year. Obviously, Error is as always on his destroying spree, with often the help of Nightmare to overthrow Ink, but the others are more in the sidelines, messing around to distract.
He wonders if it has to do with the preparations they were talking about. The more he thought about it, the more he wonders. He sat up straighter on his bed, looking at his bony palm. He knows he shouldn’t do this but like they say, curiosity killed the cat.
Focusing on Cross and his positive memories, he managed to summon the or corresponding for the other’s happy moments. It was surprisingly big. There was no going back now, so better see for himself the why. He activated the orb, thinking of a few days prior, when he Cross and the others.
He found himself in the same timeline, Cross, Killer and Horror in front of him, bickering among themselves.
“Okay guys!” Killer said brandishing some piece of paper. “Here is the list of everything Nightmare told us to get. I propose that we speedrun this and then go find as many gifts as we can!”
“But Nightmare is home. If we comes back with gifts he will see it right away.” Horror argued with him, eyeing the list and all they needed.
“Oh yeah, right.” Killer seemed to think for a moment. “Oh I know! When we go back to the castle, two of us go first, distract Nightmare by saying stupid things or arguing while the last one sneak out to go hide the presents! It’s the perfect plan!”
Cross looked at the ground, hiding a grin at the stupidity of the proposition “There’s no way that will work…”
“Seconded” agreed Horror.
“Aww come on guys! It’s for the sake of presents! Have faith in me!”
“Faith and you seem like two things that definitely don’t go with each other in the same sentence.” Cross laughed out, Horror chuckling besides him.
“Ouch! I’m wounded, how dare you!”
The three continued to casually banter with each other, Dream laughing at the normalcy of the conversation. He had realized before, but the more he looks at it, the more the gang seems like a huge happy family. It makes him smile, even if he can’t really be a part of this. One day, maybe, they will be able to find a standing ground, everyone happy.
He follows them as they went on their way, probably to get what is on that god forsaken list. He sees them pass by his past self being yelled at, looking at each other with an emotion he can’t quite place.
In the store, they continue to argue on the list, Cross whining at how imprecise the list is because of Dust since “Nightmare would never have done the mistake of not putting the exact quantity needed” while Horror just took the whole stock of eggs “Just to be sure!”, Killer doing absolutely nothing to help.
It went on for a good time, the gang still brainstorming ideas for presents and dishes, going in and out of stores with often way much more articles than what they paid for. Dream laughed unbelievably as they hid a whole lighted garland inside Killer, the later stating that this was his ‘brightest’ idea yet.
It was a good time later, back at arguing at how they were going to hide the presents they bought from Nightmare that they received a call from that very one.
Killer responded, trying to be as casual as possible “Hey Boss, how’s it goin’?”
“What are you three doing, you left four hours ago. It should not take that long to get exactly what was on the list.”
“Uuuh yeaah, exactly what was on the list. Nothing more, nothing less, roger that!” Killer was fidgety, the others already sweating.
“Killer.” There was the knowing tone of Nightmare, underline with fondness. “What did you stole this time?” The smirk could be heard at this point and Killer was definitely sweating now.
“Mee? Stealing? Come on, that’s definitely not my style!”
“Ah yes, it sure is not.”
“Yep, as clean as light!” Cross and Horror snickered at the obvious pun, definitely not discreetly enough for Nightmare to not overhear, Killer trying to shush them.
Nightmare was about to argue when the sound of something breaking followed by loud glitchy screeching echoed in the background. Nightmare sighed defeatedly. “Stars what am I going to do with you all… Killer, send me your exact coordinates, I’m going to open you a portal.”
The phone hanged up, Killer doing exactly what he was asked while the two others tried to hide presents and decorations in various place of their outfits. Dream watched as a portal opened, seeing a glance of his brother before a loud knocking sounded, disturbing the memory. This was coming from his bedroom door.
The memory dispersed as Dream heard the sound of Ink’s voice, seemingly panicked. Fighting the dizziness from getting up of his bed so fast, Dream opened the door, coming face to face with a very fidgety Ink, looking as concerned as excited. The mix was definitely worrisome.
Not giving Dream any time to ask anything, the fellow guardian grabbed him by the wrist and bolted out of the open corridors, trying to not be seen by anyone on his way out. The guardian of positivity let himself be dragged, knowing that he wouldn’t get any answer out of Ink in this state, just hoping that it was nothing to awful.
The two of them traversed the Council’s Gardens, making their way to a hidden entrance way that dream knew to well. It led them under the Castle, to a peaceful place, created by Ink, where the three of them often hang out while knowing they wouldn’t be found.
The greenery field hasn’t changed since the last time he came, the pound as clear as always, flowers and bushes growing left and right, definitely needing some cutting. The only thing out of place was the huge Christmas tree at the center of it all, not yet decorated but by the look of all the boxes at its feet, it probably won’t be that way for long.
As Dream made his way towards the tree, Blue ambushed him form behind, sliding a white and red hat over his eyelights, the bell at the end jiggling as he pushed up the hat. He looked as Blue finally appeared in his field of vision, a similar hat sitting proud on his skull, while Ink has some reindeer circlet with way too many bells to be normal.
“Dream! Happy Holiday my Friend! Up for some Bounding Decoration Time?”
Dream laughed as Ink excitedly opened the boxes. “Just say decorating the tree geez! Come on let’s get to it!”
The three of them spent the whole afternoon laughing and playing around the tall tree, throwing decorations and garland left and right, yelling at each other like some ten-year-old kids, completely ignoring their obligations for the time being, just existing in this moment.
Later in the week, after a lot of searching in stores, Dream finally fond exactly what he was searching for. And if both twins found a little gold and black mysterious package under their respective trees at Christmas day, well it will just be some unsolved mystery.