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“Knock knock..”, came the low quiet voice from the doorway. When no response came from the other, Horror sighed, cracking the door just slightly more open to obtain a better view of the depressing lump in the mess of pillows. They were just laying there in the dark, with his head turned away from the monster.
“You really not even gonna answer?”
Nothing.
“I said ‘Knock, knock’ ...?”
Still Nothing.
“That’s kinda rude..”
Horror watched in abstract fascination as they lifted a hand and fidgeted with the fluff of his hood in a quiet fit of silence. But even with how stubborn they were, even they knew they had to acknowledge him at some point. “So is entering someone’s room without permission, hypocrite .”
Horror would’ve flinched at the tone, if this had been two years ago. Two years and a half , a voice in the back of his head that sounded strangely similar to Nightmare’s corrected. But he knew Killer and Dust well enough to know when it was time to give them space, as opposed to when they needed him to step in; regardless if they wanted him there present in the room, or not.
And humans, as he was learning, were no different.
He was busy trying to wrack the emptiness in his skull for a response, when they decided to provide an answer for him. Much to his distaste. “Ah. Well, I guess that only really applies when you’re a someone though, doesn’t it?” Even though Horror hadn’t been speaking, it still felt like he’d been cut off, somehow. “My bad, really.” A hand was waved around like they meant to add another sarcastic comment, but it must’ve been lost somewhere along the way out. They never said anything after that.
The hand that hung in the air absently had fallen shortly after, and they both sat in a tense silence. It had been awhile since Horror had spoken to anyone who weren’t any of his teammates, or his brother. Figuring this new person out was going to be harder than what he was normally used to. Mainly, he felt out of practice, even though this sort of thing was typically his field.
“Look, I ain’t.. gon.. ‘nna make you talk about it.. ‘f you really don’t.. wanna .” He finally struggled, earning their attention. “Jus’..” He lifted his hands, trying to move them, as if to express what he was trying to say without speaking. But even his hand movements were jerky, and it wasn’t like the kid knew him well enough to stop him before he ‘hurt himself’, as Killer often referred to it as. “You looked like.. Yo.. uh..”
At the corner of his eyesocket, he thought he saw them tilt his head, and Horror’s hand movements became more erratic. Though he missed the way Killer’s shoulders tensed, as he moved his hand up- only to grip his forearm. Pain. “You looked like you were in pain.”
Chara stared at Horror with Killer’s two empty eyesockets before bursting into a near violent fit of laughter, tugging at the fluff of the dumb jacket harder. “You serious?!” They shouted. “I mean- Wow. Like - I knew you were stupid - I mean I know you’re pretty fucking stupid - but– HA!” They were curled up at this point, hunched forward as corruption leaked freely from his face. His stupid skeletal face that wasn’t their face. That wasn’t theirs. “I didn’t think it was that fucking bad!”
Horror didn’t really mind the comments. Well maybe he should’ve. Dust and Cross often expressed how his and Killer’s usual indifference was weird to them. But really, it looked to him that the kid was just hurting themselves at this point. Scratching at the sides of his skull like that, punching his arms - that weren’t their arms - hard enough to leave dark bruises had they any skin like that. It looked painful. It was probably what they were going for. Yeah; Killer would probably have to deal with the aftermath, but he’d dealt with much worse before.
They were both pretty aware of that.
“Damn- the rest of yous this dumb too?” They cheered through Killer’s hoarse voice. “I got to beat that hooded sans up again, I was having fun!” They were yelling again, and Horror could only stand there and take it. “He didn’t even wanna fight me! He was being such a damn wuss about the whole thing- you should’ve heard him!!” He had. It’d been pretty ugly. Even when Nightmare was forced to step in; the whole thing was just still very ugly.
“Kidd..”
“ ‘Killer stop doing this!’, ‘Kills, I said I was sorry! Killer, I didn’t mean to’ !!” They mocked.
“.. Kiddo.”
Even still, they continued. “ ‘Killer, you’re just making this worse! Killer, why are you like this? Killer!! Hey Killer- Hey what the hell is wrong with you Killer’ ?!”
“Chara!”
Finally. Finally , when Horror ran low on patience, they quieted again. He stared them down with his single red eyelight, though they refused to return the favor. There must've been something fascinating in those blankets they seemed to rather stare at. Horror had to stay silent himself for a minute or two, because he knew how he also had his own limits. It’d have done neither of them any good if he also completely lost his cool.
“... Look.” Someone here had to be the one with the clear head right now. “I’m not blind; I know you were scared.” There was a reason Nightmare let him go; instead of sending Cross and their kid; or just going himself. Which probably would’ve been more plausible of a decision anyway. “You were jus’.. protecting yours..lf.”
Killer’s posture sagged, loosening up like a wave of exhaustion just crashed down on both of them. Chara turned his head over to look at the older quietly, teeth turned down into a small frown. There was no face-splitting grin, no other nasty commentary that fell from their shared face. They were just… there.
“I bet you think you know everything about me, don’t you.”
It wasn’t a question.
“I don’t.”
It wasn’t framed like a question. But Horror took it like one anyway.
“But I know how scary it is.. Wakin’ up, not recognizin’ yourself.” He didn’t miss how Killer’s face twisted into an unimpressed look. “An’ you got it even.. Worse. Right? Mean- everyone in that room fuckin’ hates you.” God, it really didn’t feel like anything he was saying was helping the situation at all.
“I’d probably freak out if I was surrounded by a bunch of Undynes too after waking up like that.. All abrupt, and shit?” He said with a shrug. Thinking he heard movement in the hall, he cautiously stepped inside, closing the door behind himself.
The kid shifted their legs to move the blanket to cover whatever had been in their lap. For now, however, Horror decided to pay it no mind. Even when the smell of dust and magic sharpened his senses momentarily, he said nothing, sitting on the edge of the bed, turned away from them. It wasn’t really any of his business.
“I don’t even know what any of that means.”, Chara said with a smile, but now that he was closer, Horror could hear the unbridled rage just under the statement.
Having a gigantic hole in the side of the head makes it sort of hard to pick up on things like tone, and often the importance someone holds to something; among other - more obvious - things. Killer’s breathing was unsteady, quiet as it were, and the light their conjoined shared soul shifted. An undefined shifting shape, would’ve been Horror’s best guess.
Horror just chucked, and nodded sadly, trying to ignore the persistent shifting of the light in the dark room. “I know.” He said softly, tilting his head back in thought. “My uh.. ‘dyne didn’t really ah.. Like.. me.” He struggled. If only the curtains were open, he’d at least feel less distracted. “We’d butt heads a lotta the time. Sorta used my eye to fix.. Um.. to fix…” He trailed off, losing whatever string of words he had going, and they lapsed into another shared silence yet again.
“I’m sorry your life sucked.”, They forced, voice lower and more rough. “You could’ve just killed her.” It would have been really easy. “You’ve done it before.” Many times, apparently. “It wouldn’t have been hard for you.”
“I didn’t want to.”
Maybe that was the moment Horror realized why Nightmare often stressed to him that they needed someone with his lack of knowledge on ‘cannon-based timelines’ and ‘routes’. Because he was the only one who’d ever made either of the other two, in their downwards spirals and lv rushes pause for thought.
Chara stared at him in confusion, completely unable to rationalize his thought process. “I don’t understand”, the dead human mumbled. And then they laughed. “She probably tried to kill you.” She had. “She probably did something really messed up to you.” Also true. “I can’t- I can’t understand your logic - so I guess there is none. It’s a head-empty kind of situation, isn’t it?” The light from the not-target-shaped soul flickered. “Skull, my bad.”
Horror shook his head, turning to face the kid with a frown, leg hanging off the bed. “My bro’s real optimistic, kay?” He asked. “I can’t just kill someone, ‘f it ain’t for him.”
“I fail to see how one has anything to do with the other, but go on.”
Okay. Rude. “I swear to god these correlate to each other.” They did not look too convinced. “It gonna make sense, it will.”
“Mhm. I’m waiting.”
Horror had to stop, and backtrack to what he’d said earlier, before Chara interjected. “He.. he believes.. That..”
“Everyone deserves a second chance.”, they interrupted again, saying some of it with him. “I know. I’ve seen it over and over again. And I’m gonna be honest, it just gets old after awhile.” Extremely old.
“So does getting interrupted every five fucking seconds, but I’ve been letting it slip so far, bud.” Horror nearly snapped, red eyeball slipping out his eyesocket and rolling to the floor. “Mean, I get you like results, ‘n all, but at least have the patience to let me fucking finish.”
Now Horror, having just lost his eyeball to some dark corner of the room, missed the way the other skeleton stiffened, and tensed up. But there was no jump, no scream, not even a gasp heard from them.
They didn't say anything at first, so he turned to stand up, before he thought better of it. “Can you get my eye, now, please? His room’s too messy to walk ‘round blind tryna look.” He asked them, rubbing the back of his neckbone.
“... Why don’t you just use blue magic?” They asked.
“Cause that would be a waste.. of magic.” Right. Chara didn’t really know anything about his au, so he’d have to explain. “Because my eye is gone. The glowy one.”
“Oh.”
It didn’t have to be a long elaborate explanation. This was good enough.
“O..kay.” Chara turned to cover whatever was in their lap over with the blanket more, moving to get up to walk over to go get it. Blood and magic ran down from their hands, smearing into the sheets as they moved to get up. Horror could feel the shifting on the bed from them wincing a few times on their way to the edge of the bed.
“But why don’t you?”
“Hm?” They froze.
“Use.. magic. Blue stuff- why not?” Horror asked, as fluently as he could.
“I don’t think I can.” The floor creaked everywhere they stepped. But Horror felt like his mind was shifting. “Our souls never really fuse.” By the time they were across the room, Horror could barely hear them.
He wasn’t really aware that he’d even spaced out until suddenly something was dropped into the palm of his hand, startling him back to full consciousness. When he struggled to figure out what to do with it, he heard Killer sigh, and helped him move his hand to drop the thing into his skull. It took a minute for his magic to reconnect, before he could see again.
They were frowning at him.
“That makes sense, I guess..” He mumbled. “Doubt he’d want you to anyways.” Honestly he was still amazed he agreed to have a human join him - or joined a human in the first place. He could see why Killers hands had blood and magic leaking everywhere now that his eyeball was where it was supposed to be again. They seemed to notice his glance, however, and quickly stuffed his hands into Killer’s pockets.
“You still haven’t told me what your brother’s belief system has to do with Undyne.” They commented, dragging his attention away from the situation with Killer’s hands.
“...Right.” Horror rubbed the back of his skull again, pausing when his hand met one of the edges of where his skull was supposed to be. “I just.. I feel like..” Horror could’ve sworn it felt like someone else was in the room with them, or just eavesdropping on them. “I feel like I’d be.. Disrespecting him somehow.”
“Huh.” Horror turned just in time to see their frown turn up into a mocking grin again. “Well I can’t relate.”
He had a feeling they’d say that.
“Okay, look. You know what.” Chara lifted Killer’s sliced hand, as if to inspect the magic stuff leaking from it. “I’m assuming people must still be alive in your au or something; so you’re probably a little sappy from it, even though you don’t look like you would be. So here, I’ll make it really tupid easy for you..” They wiped his hands on his shorts, trying to rid themself of the excess before opening his item menu. “I don’t really give a flying fuck about what your stupid baby brother thinks..! He’s too optimistic- I think he needs a bit of a kick in the face anyways.”
“...” Horror didn’t know what to say to that at first, and said nothing.
They didn’t seem to find what they were looking for, so they closed the menu at that. “Besides,” they continued, “life’s too short to worry over what’d make other people happy. Especially if it kills you a little every time you do it.. Just do whatever you wanna do.”
“But I do wanna do this.” He argued, a little dumbfounded. “Ain’t the first human, probably ain’t gonna be the last..” He had human friends. He could make more. It wasn’t a huge deal for him particularly; he just had to be careful not to talk about it around the others so much. “I mean you’re a part a Killer; much of a choice, or not.” He tried to explain. “I mean I.. I-I ain’t gonna ask for.. F’r tea parties ‘n shit, but.. Don’cha think just tryna kill each other all the time’s kinda counterproductive, at this point?”
Chara stared at him, with that blank expression again. He had no idea what they were thinking, but the soul’s flicking changed in pace, and silently became more unstable than it already had been. He might’ve been making it worse.
“I’m not really alive, though.” They argued, in a near monotone voice. “I’m not really a “human”, either.”
“Kiddo,” Horror laughed, “None of us ain’t really “monsters”, neither!” With a face splitting grin, he held up his soul for them to see; which made them nearly fall over with how they jerked backwards. That was fun to watch. “We’re all kinda fucked. That’s what makes it fun.” He told them, putting it back away, since they seemed to be startled by his action. “We don’t gotta be the only one who’s fucked.”
Horror sighed, standing up and stetching his arms forwards. It’s hard to sit still for long; he’s usually helping with construction, or guarding around for town accidents, and stray humans for meals back home. Or well he used to. He didn’t need to anymore, under Nightmare’s watch, of course. “Come on. I know he’s outta food. Bitch never carries any..”
Chara stiffened, sulked from behind him.
“I made.. Lasagne.. earlier.” He explained. “You’re gonna have some.. it’lll.. heal your hands up nice ‘n normal ‘gain.” He turned to look at them over his shoulder with a huge smile, flashing the knife he pickpocketed from their bed minutes ago. “...Doing your sheets.. in the wash.. next.” He nodded for them to follow, before heading towards the door. “Movies after. Your pick. Killer’s.. Either one of you’s ‘s good. Don’t matter either way.”
“What if.. I don’t want to?” They asked, still getting up anyway.”
Horror shrugged, letting them follow him from behind. “Have to. We got all day, kid.” Whatever ghost of that paranoid feeling that someone had been watching them vanished sometime around then. Honestly, Horror was just happy he managed to talk to them. Getting them to eat was just a bonus for him. “So because we gotta full ass day.. we gotta do somethin’ with it.”
…
“Come in.”
Cross frowned hesitating before he caught a glimpse of cyan staring him down from across the dimly lit office room in the crack of the doorway. He straighened himself up, before walking inside to address Nightmare properly. “I’m sorry for lurking, Nightmare.” He apologised.
He was still getting used to names. Nightmare had expressed he didn’t want Cross to ever call him ‘sir’, but just his first name felt… personal. A little unnatural. But Horror kept promising he’d ease into it, so he flat out refused to mention anything about it.
Nightmare sighed, placing his pen down, and folding his arms across the table, so he could turn his focus onto Cross again. “This is about Killer, still, I take it?”
Cross felt like he wanted to sink and melt into the floor, at that particular moment. He hated the eyecontact. But Nightmare was very insistent on the habits he wanted Cross to practise, so while he kept his gaze, it didn’t stop him from sinking his skull into his cowneck. “Was I that obvious?” He mumbled, knowing Nightmare was stong enough with his magic to still be able to hear.
“Well,” He said, tentacles rearranging the mess of his desk away, so they wouldn’t be a distraction. “I am made of pure negativity, to be fair. It’d be embarrassing if I couldn’t tell.”
That made no sense about as much as it did make sense. And Cross had no retort to it; but when a tentacle waved to motion him to come forward, he didn’t hesitate to walk over and sit across from the other.
Cross assumed, for some reason, Nightmare would just address it right away, but after a few minutes of silent staring he realized that he was waiting for Cross to say something first. He was too fidgety to be embarrassed about it yet. “I-I don’t.. I don’t really know what happened..” He mumbled, even quieter still. “But it looked really..” He waved his hands about, looking for the right words. “It was violent.”
Nightmare nodded, still silent, so he felt pressured to continue. “Do you think.. Is Killer.. Is he really going to be okay? You only sent Horror up there, and..” He frowned, sitting up more. “I’m worried about him.”
Nightmare smiled then, leaning his chin into the palm of his hands, and closing his eye momentarily, before glancing away. “They’ll be fine.” He said, though it felt unclear at first, on who he was talking about. “They all will.” He clarified. “... Something I’ve noticed about Horror.. Is his fascinating way with personal conflicts.” The goopy substance covering the guardian from head to toe was strangely stable. He was hardly dripping anywhere, indicating he felt absolutely fine about his choice.
Cross was silently amazed. Nightmare wasn’t someone who just handed out compliments. It was hard to believe that Horror was capable of solving anything, like a simple word puzzle for example. But if Nightmare, of all people, was giving his praise over it.. It must’ve been something special.
“You have nothing to be worried over.” Nightmare affirmed, sitting back. “In fact; I believe they’re setting up a movie night of sorts downstairs.” His gaze flickered to the door, and back over to Cross. “You’d be best to go snatch Dust on your way down. But be careful; he’s still mildly injured.” He explained.
Cross stiffened in his seat. Already? But that nasty fight was only a few hours ago. Usually if someone was hurt - at all - Nightmare wouldn’t even think to let anyone else in their room. He couldn’t refuse though; it was Nightmare’s words, therefore he nodded, standing quietly. “Will you be… us down there, then?” He asked hesitantly.
“No.” Nightmare droned, turning a dull gaze back to the stacked papers at the corner of his desk. “I have other matters to attend to.” He waved a dismissive hand, as though to shoo him away. “Go. And make sure the injured one eats something before he falls back asleep again while you’re at it. He won’t be able to heal up very quickly if he has no fuel do it with.”
“Oh- right. Understood, Nightmare.” Cross said firmly, turning towards the door.
“Cross?”
He stiffened, turning on his heel to face him again from across the room. “Yes Nightmare?”
Nightmare watched him quietly, before sitting up more, and picking up the pen again. “Bring back a plate if there are any leftovers by the time you four are done.” After that, he resumed the paperwork, as though he’d never been disturbed.
“Understood, Nightmare.”