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It wasn’t usual for a sudden loud noise to be heard so late at night. Nightmare felt a jolt in his body that prompted him to quickly sit up from his bed. What was that? Not wanting to risk letting whatever could potentially be lurking around in the castle, he gave himself a bit before letting his feet touch the floor.
As he opened the door to the hallway, he was expected to be met with one (or sometimes all three) of his boys to be complaining about their sleep being disrupted by night terrors or another causing a stir at such a late hour. Night terrors were quite a common occurrence. The most common one Nightmare would get from them would be their brothers dusting away on a windy cold day or how Chara would kill them again in the Final Judgement Hall (well, that was rather more of Killer and Dust than Horror). When that happens, he would take them to his office and would either give them some warm tea or distract them for how long it was needed. Sometimes when that doesn’t work, Nightmare would use his magic to give a calming aura in order to chase away any lingering troubles they may still have. However, that sometimes takes a toll on him, as it takes up a lot of energy, so he does his best to calm them down as much as possible.
To his surprise, there was no one in the hallway. The only things he was met with were the soft candles illuminating the darkest parts of the hallway and the distant noises coming from the kitchen. Wait, the kitchen? Perhaps one of them was hungry for a snack. Still wanting to check what was going on, he turned his attention to where the noise was originating from.
The kitchen wasn’t really a place that Nightmare knew a lot about, despite him having this castle for centuries. Even with the number of cookbooks that he had acquired and read, cooking wasn’t really an expertise of his. That was more of Dream’s thing, mostly because the villagers weren’t as reluctant to interact with him, compared to Nightmare. He still cringed at the memory of him trying to make a simple soup for his boys (before Horror joined the team) but ended up burning the poor thing, leaving them no choice but to just steal food from a Tea House. If he can recall, that owner put up a good fight despite not having any of the usual powers that a regular Sans would have, which were Gaster Blasters and blue magic.
Suddenly, another loud clunking sound interrupted his train of thought as he turned his attention to a small red light coming from the fridge. His tentacles tensed into a battle position ready to attack who or what the intruder was doing in his castle. The light seemed to be staring back at him, with a hint of fear knowing that he had been caught red-handed.
“O-Oh, hey Boss. Didn’t expect you to still be up.” The voice sheepishly called out, hand still firmly grasped on the fridge handle. “Did you need something?”
Nightmare sighed in relief, knowing whose voice it belonged to. It was easy to distinguish which voice fit who: Killer’s was raspy but childish, Dust’s was monotone but calm, and Horror’s was just low.
“I heard a noise coming from here and I wanted to check if everything was alright,” Nightmare responded. “I’m relieved to see it was just you, Horror.”
Horror gave a small chuckle and closed the fridge, holding a couple of ingredients. Nightmare took note of what the other was carrying in his arms: Eggs, baking powder, milk, etc.
“Mind telling me what you are doing awake late at night?” Nightmare asked, arms crossed. It was way too late for someone to be doing activities such as cooking, but his boys never failed to surprise him with new things.
“I, um,” Horror started out. “It’s nothing really, don’t worry-”
“Horror.”
Silence was all that could be heard between the two. Something was clearly wrong, but the other was attempting to hide it. That’s what ticked Nightmare off. He may be “evil” to some, but he wasn’t heartless . In order to be able to have good working employees, you have to make sure that they are in tip-top shape not only physically, but mentally as well. Understandably, the four of them still needed to work on that.
“You’re stress baking again, aren’t you?” He pointed out, breaking the silence. That was always a habit of Horror whenever something was on his mind. As much as he appreciated the fact he was able to find a coping mechanism that wasn’t dangerous or addicting in a harmful manner, it was an annoyance to have to constantly go on supply runs due to the amount of ingredients that go to use. There was one time when Horror had to be dragged out of the kitchen before he used up all of the ingredients in one day. Luckily, his outburst that day was able to be resolved quickly.
Horror’s smile then shifted to a mellowed look.
“Can’t sleep…” Was all he could say in defeat.
“Would you like me to make some tea and talk about it?”
A silent nod. Small, but the answer was big enough for Nightmare to understand.
He sighed again and brought himself to the cabinet. Even though he couldn’t cook well, he could at least make tea (despite it not being actual food). Inside, there was a variety of different teas. His favorite go-to drink was lavender since it always left a calming sensation as well as a nice aroma. As much as the boys didn’t admit it out loud, they really enjoyed the tea and Nightmare would silently chuckle to himself when he caught them trying to sneak another cup.
After getting the water boiled from the stove, he took the tea kit and placed it down on the dining table. The steam of the hot water seemed to have calmed Horror just a bit from how nervous he looked earlier. He handed the now tea-filled cup to Horror, he gave a small “thank you” and accepted it.
“Now, what made you want to stay up this late?” Nightmare started, slowly blowing the steam away so as to not burn his mouth. Horror looked down at the cup in front of him, feeling guilty for having the boss do this for him.
“Night terror,” Was all he could mumble in reply. “I’m really worried.”
Ah, another case of the nightmares. He noted to himself, slowly taking another sip.
“Ever since I had to leave my AU to join you guys, I keep worrying that if I mess up, you’ll just-” Horror choked. “Just take me back there and I won’t be able to help out my brother.”
Horror’s eyes then started to swell up with tears.
“I’m so scared that you guys will think that I’m not doing enough.”
Nightmare’s eye widened from his response. He knew that Horror had some insecurities about his performance, but he wasn’t aware that it was this bad. Had he not been paying attention enough to notice this?
“I don’t want to see my bro dust because I failed to do my job ri-”
“Horror,” Nightmare interrupted. “Listen to me very closely.”
The bigger skeleton sniffed and mustered up the courage to look at his boss.
“We are not going to dispose of you just because you think you’re not ‘doing enough’.” He started. “You’ve always done enough for everyone and you do a fantastic job at it. Understand that we are all here to make you and your home AU comfortable.”
Another silent pause. Suddenly, the sounds of sniffling from the other skeleton once again broke the quietness. Horror did his best to wipe as many tears as possible.
“You really mean that?” His voice trembled from the amount of stress that built up in his body. Nightmare gave a nod to confirm what he said.
“Of course, I meant it. Always have and always will stay true to my words.”
There, that’s what made him let it all out. Nightmare went up to Horror and allowed him to give him a hug in case he needed it. Luckily, Horror noticed and gladly accepted it, tears now staining each other’s jackets. Though neither of them seemed to mind that.
After a long amount of time not moving from the same spot, Horror was comfortable enough to break the hug. Nightmare smiled as he was able to successfully calm him down.
“Thanks, Boss, I really needed that.” Horror sniffled.
“You’re welcome. What kind of Boss would I be if I failed to check in with my employees?”
“You kinda treat us like your own, rather than ‘employees’, in my opinion.”
“Is that so?”
Horror happily nodded, leaving Nightmare feeling both intrigued and confused by the feedback. Has he really grown close to them? Did they think of him as a parental figure? He thought what he was doing was how employers would regularly treat their workers, based on the books he had read. It was strange, yet comforting to think about if they were truly comfortable being in the castle with him. Nightmare gave a chuckle and picked up his cup to finish the rest of the tea (despite it being cold now). Once the cup had been free of leftover tea, Nightmare took another look around the kitchen to see that the ingredients that were from the fridge earlier were still there. His mind then thought up an idea to help cheer his employee up.
“Since you still have those ingredients out, would you still want to make something?”
The question seemed to flicker a light in Horror’s face, as his shoulders perked up with excitement.
“Really?”
“Of course, you make the best meals here, so I don’t see the problem.”
And in an instant, the taller skeleton rushed out of the dining area to the kitchen countertop to start working on his next culinary masterpiece. Even though positive emotions were not one of Nightmare’s favorite things, he found pleasure in seeing that his boys were warming up their new home and Boss. Even if it meant that Nightmare had to deal with their shenanigans 24/7.
Despite all of that though, he took a deep breath and smiled; knowing that he made the right choice.
“Hey guys, I heard you’re gonna make something in here. Can I join-”
“Killer, you’re still banned from the kitchen. Get the hell out!”
“DAMMIT!”
Okay, maybe he did regret it a little.