Work Text:
Ink looked around as he hopped through a portal.
He felt an odd disturbance in the code, not like an Error disturbance but like someone wanting to block off an au. Nightmare did it here and there, but they were usually vanity aus, like Fluffytale for coffee and such.
He supposed he could go check and see if it was a Fluffytale situation or a Horrortale situation. Ink hummed a little jig as he carefully wiggled his way into the code. Nightmare usually had all these little chinks in his blocker code, so it was easy to get through.
He hopped out from a pool of ink and was immediately hit with humid air. "Oooo." Ink took a moment to bask in the warm air before going to find Nightmare. It was a pretty small au, as it seemed the rest of the world fell away just to make it this little pocket. Ink continued before he came upon a series of interconnected pools and a waterfall.
He spotted Sans clothes in all black folded neatly on the side. He looked around for Nightmare and turned his attention when he heard a sigh. Nightmare was under the waterfall, sitting with his head down, and all that goop washed off him.
Ink took a moment to look at the cracks he had in those bones(specifically the big one in his skull) and the magically charged water's effect on him. He watched for a moment more before yelling, "heya, Nightmare!" The younger skeleton yelped and threw himself into the water. "Ink?!" Nightmare's face just peaked out of the water. "Yeah, hey! I see you’re in one of your vanity aus. Is the water really good enough to summon ecto in?" Ink asked excitedly, and the dark lord stared at him in disbelief.
"What in the sweet name of Nim are you doing here?!" Nightmare screeched angrily at Ink as he usually was. "Oh, I was just checking the block out; your code is getting better." Ink commented and settled down at the edge of the pool. Nightmare looked even more befuddled than before. "Hey, can I get in?" Ink was already taking off his scarf and tugging at his overalls.
"NO!" Nightmare boomed and Ink vaguely wondered why he wasn't being thrown across the au. "Ohhh wait, big bad Nightmare doesn't have his tentacles anymore. That means you can't stop me!" Ink practically threw the rest of his clothes off, ignoring Nightmare's protest.
"Woohoo!" Ink jumped into the pool. "Cannonball!" He heard Nightmare's yelp as the skeleton-fae-tree thing scrambled away from Ink's flop zone.
Ink quickly surfaced with a giggle, and he immediately felt the magic power surge around him. "Ohhh. This is a really good quality pool, Nightmare." He complimented before looking at the skeleton that was glaring at him. Ink swam up to him, not realizing how embarrassed Nightmare was on top of his anger.
"So, how have you been, Cthulhu?" Ink sniggers, practically on top of Nightmare. "My day was amazing before you came here." Nightmare hissed, retreating further into the cove. "Well, my day was complete seeing your cute face!" Ink giggled and laughed hard as Nightmare's face turned from angry to constipated. Ink continued using one-liners on Nightmare, interjected between his babbling just to see the Dark Lord blush.
Eventually, Ink shifted the conversion to the light coating of ecto on Nightmare's bones. "I just realized you would be a really good reference for drawing someone curvy. Your ecto is undefined right now, but it would look nice. What body is that forming? Femme or male?" Ink prattled on, grating on Nightmare's nerves. "None of your business." Nightmare snarled, and Ink rolled his eyes. "You're so mean, Nightmare. I guess that bite you have is always there regardless of bodily state." Ink stretched before shuddering.
"Okay, this water is getting to me. It's so charged; how do you not only stand this but have minimal covering?" Ink started to swim to the edge where his clothes were. He pulled himself over the edge easily, ignoring Nightmare's spluttering. He began to get dressed after shaking himself off like a dog, careful of the water and his notes.
"Woo, that was fun, Nightmare. I should come to your vanity aus more often!" Ink smiled before painting a way out of Nightmare's au. Nightmare watched him leave with a sense of dread.
Nightmare grunted as he felt something come out of his back that was definitely not his tentacles. “Ink.” He grumbled as the protector solidified out of his back. “Heya Night-Night.” Ink hummed, towering over Nightmare with their currently shared body.
“Get off my back,” Nightmare groaned, shifting in annoyance. “You’re so heavy.” “Yeah, yeah…” Ink was humming to himself as he drew himself out of Nightmare. He pulled up a stool next to Nightmare. “So…this doesn’t look like your usual vanity aus…” Ink started in a questioning tone. “It’s not.” Nightmare hissed, drawing his shoulders up even higher.
“Then what is?” Ink questioned, looking around the dusty space. Right now, they were holed up in a dusty bakery in an abandoned au.
“This is, in fact, my home au Ink.” Nightmare said, and every social cue that Dream ever drilled into Ink failed right in that second, and he looked more like a fish than anything. He floundered for a second before enveloping Nightmare in his arms. He felt Nightmare tense for a moment before untensing.
“What is this.” Nightmare hissed in displeasure, and Ink nuzzled him slightly.
“It’s a hug. Dream told me that when something sad happens, you console them. Consoling comes in a lot of different forms, but this is the one I like most." Ink explained, still holding on to Nightmare. "...it can't be pleasant to touch me. My body is liquid negativity." Nightmare picked at Ink's sleeve, not pushing him away but not hugging him back either, which was a win for Ink.
"Mmm…it's actually…soft and squishy." Ink squeezed Nightmare's tentacles a little and watched the dark lord jump and glare, mostly as a warning.
Ink then proceeded to bully Nightmare into his lap with pure DETERMINATION. "You're horrible. How dare you make me conform to your whims." Nightmare grouched, just staring at the counter instead of doing anything violent.
"Aw, c'mon, Nightlight. You're like a teddy bear!" Ink giggled, and that seemed to be the line for Nightmare as he fought his way out of Ink's hold and left, leaving Ink on the floor. Ink watched him go with a soft, fond smile on his face.
He watched the air swirl as Nightmare summoned one of his portals and couldn't help but think it was adorable. Ink continued that for a good while before he was suddenly hit with the need to vomit. He flipped over to all fours before puking on the ground.
"Ugh." Ink wiped his mouth before realizing that intertwined with the ink was a shimmery light pink, a new color the creators gave him? He couldn't wait to see what it did!
Nightmare grunted as he dropped himself into the emptier part of the doodlesphere. He remembered Ink rambling about his “workshop” where he collected the colors that made up his false emotions.
After awhile of walking past all of the waterfalls of colors, trying to ignore their stink of emotions, he finally saw Ink. Ink was sitting with his legs crossed, staring blankly into the nothingness of his realm. Broken vials were all around him, and a color Nightmare had never seen before was on the floor.
“Ink?” He questioned, glancing around and noticing how his sash was thrown to the side, and only one unbroken vial remained within it. Black(Or brown considering the light you saw it in). Which was a disgusting mix of all the emotions that he used most of the time.
“Ink, what the hell.” He demanded after a moment of silence, both the silence and the feeling of Ink’s “emotions'' setting him on edge. If he thought that his emotions were blank before, this was an entirely different level. However, Ink didn’t even turn towards him, so instead, Nightmare stomped to his front to check out what he suspected.
He made Ink look at him only to see white slits. Nightmare growled and got his tentacles to grab the last remaining vial. Nightmare took a moment before kneeling in front of him. Nightmare shoved his fingers into his jaw and hooked his finger against the coronoid process to forcefully open his jaw. Then, he used his tentacle to pour it into his mouth.
“This better work.” Nightmare growled and watched light return back to Ink’s eyelights. “Night…mare?” Ink stared at him before his coronoid process pitched at Nightmare’s fingers before he started to backtrack.
“Ink? What’s wrong?” Nightmare’s voice was soft and shocked. “W-what are you doing here?” Ink looked so scared of him that it made Nightmare’s soul shudder.
“What happened to the pink vial?” Ink’s voice was so shaky that it made Nightmare confused; he wasn’t scared of Nightmare himself, but pink? What the hell? “Ink? Ink, what happened?” Nightmare crawled closer; appearances be damned. Ink needed help. Ink glanced around before looking up at Nightmare; his eyelights turned into distressed swirls.
“T-the creators gave me a new color…” Ink reached for the sash and somehow produced a vial with cracks in the surface.
It was a simple and pretty shimmery pink. He remembered that Ink had another pink vial, but this one was much lighter, a different variant, perhaps?
Nightmare raised his brow, he didn’t recognize this emotion, but it wiggled at memories from childhood.
“What did it do that had you so much in a tizzy?” Nightmare asked as he shifted into a comfortable sitting position. Ink glanced at him and then the vial like he was debating on whether or not to tell him. Now Nightmare understood why he didn’t drink the black vial under any old circumstances. It made him feel too much.
“W-when…when I drank it…it consumed me. There was only one thing I could think about, and the feeling hurt so badly knowing that what I wanted was just so far out of my reach…he was so far out of my reach.” Ink explained to him, fidgeting non-stop with the pink vial.
“Ah, so it seems to be some sort of affection paint.” That was why he didn’t recognize it. It was a paint of affection. Well, at least he could identify the watery jealousy coming from himself.
“Who is the pink for? Dream? Blue? Error??” Nightmare asked, slightly interested yet hurt at the same time. Ink stared at him but then glanced at the vial. Then before Nightmare could do anything, Ink popped the cap and downed the vial. Nightmare stared before Ink surged and knocked him over.
“Hey!” Nightmare managed to hiss before being kissed roughly by the skeleton above him.
Nightmare squeaked into Ink’s mouth, and finally tasted the condensate. He finally realized what this emotion was.
Love. Not LoVe. But pure-tasting love.
The love that young lovers nurtured in the hot months of summer and the love that elders have, has long blossomed, wilted, and bloomed again every season—the love he had for his mother, brother, and beloved homeland. Nightmare felt tears collect in his remaining eye as Ink kissed him with nothing but love.
Ink pulled back, leaving Nightmare cold yet warm at the same time. Ink was also crying, and his tears were splashing on his face. “I-it was you, Nightmare! You were all I could think about! I love you!” Ink sobbed and stared Nightmare down.
Nightmare was frozen before grabbing at his scarf and yanking Ink down to kiss him again, but that didn’t work too well, and their skulls collided. “Agh!” Nightmare yelled and squinted in pain before focusing on Ink, who was staring at him.
“Do…do you want to try that again?” Ink asked softly, his face having nothing but love written on it. Nightmare flushed and nodded carefully.
They carefully came together in a kiss before they parted yet again.
“Nightmare? Does this mean you accept my feelings?” Ink asked meekly, and Nightmare didn’t answer but pulled him into another kiss, hoping his own love could be conveyed through the kiss. But, in all truth, this was an emotion that he would be happy re-familiarizing himself with.
(Bonus: Ink stiffened before grabbing the back of Nightmare’s head and holding it to his chest before throwing up.)