Work Text:
The body was a complicated machine, each part having its own function, its own needs. What worked fine the previous day could start having problems the next, a multitude of different kinds of pains, of sicknesses. The body was both strong and extremely fragile, a tricky game of luck in which it was difficult to win.
Nightmare woke up with a jolt of pain coming from his abdomen, making him groan as he turned in his bed, sitting up with clenched teeth, feeling as if he was being cut in half right under his lower ribs. He rubbed a hand on the area hoping it would lessen the sensation, but all he gained was a low growl in his belly that made him wince.
He laid back down with a sigh, ignoring the incessant and annoying rumble, the rest of his body didn't hurt, so it was probably nothing. He turned for a while, struggling to find a position in which he didn't feel like someone was pushing a stake through his ribs, and eventually fell back asleep after having curled in a ball.
Unfortunately, he was soon awakened again by another, louder, gurgle, accompanied this time by a very uncomfortable sensation of needing to throw up, a very strange feeling considering his stomach couldn't have been emptier and therefore didn't have anything to throw out. He sat again, chewing on his saliva to make the sensation go away, and pressed a hand on his stomach, as it seemed to be the source of his discomfort. Now, Nightmare wasn't a fool – a bit dumb sometimes maybe, especially when he was with his gang as they all seemed to have the capacity to supress any braincells they had when all together, but he wasn't a fool, none of them were – and what was happening to him wasn't a mystery, he had already heard the others complain about similar symptoms, especially Horror, so he knew for a fact what was bothering his body : he was hungry. Very hungry. It was a new feeling to him however, he had never been hungry before, it wasn't something he was supposed to feel, not as a guardian, not as a god, he was above these mortal feelings, these mortal needs. When he was starting to feel low on negativity the others would say he was « hungry », and he never corrected them because it was the easiest way to describe how it felt, but at this instant ? It was different, it wasn't the same sensation, he really was just... hungry.
A new twist from his stomach made him crounch on himself. He stayed like that for a moment, and decided to get up. He needed to do something about that hunger. He put on his slippers and pushed on his legs to stand up, almost falling over when his vision darkened and he felt the room spin around him. He brought one hand to his head, the second grabbing the wall for balance, and waited for the dizziness to pass. Was that caused by hunger too ? Or was he dying ? He wasn't sure if he could die, but if his body could suddenly be hungry, then maybe it meant that death was a possibility too... was he losing his powers ? Was he becoming mortal ? What was happening to him ? A new gurgle made him snap out of his thoughts. Overthinking now wouldn't be of any help.
He grabbed his jacket on the hanger, already feeling the chill of the castle now that he was out of bed, another strange thing as it usually never bothered him, and got out of his room. He made his way down the hall, stopping in front of the first bedroom on the path: Horror's bedroom, and stared at the door, hesitant. He wasn't used to being hungry, not like that, and while he was sure he just needed to eat something, he didn't know what. Would a box of biscuits be filling enough ? Could he just drink instead of eating or was eating absolutely necessary to calm his aching stomach ? How was he supposed to prepare the food ? He had no idea how to cook, he had never cooked, sometimes he would indulge and eat with them, but it was more to enjoy a moment with his gang rather than because he was hungry, so he never really paid attention to the details of the food, and he was now coming to the realisation that he had absolutely no clue how to feed himself.
He kept staring at the handle for a moment, he felt bad waking the skeleton up for a reason as stupid as « he was hungry », but he knew Horror would rather stab himself in his only good eye rather than learn that one of them stayed hungry for a whole night and he did nothing, even if he was sleeping and obviously did not know, so with a sigh Nightmare pushed down on the handle, and entered the room slowly. Horror was sleeping, if the snoring indicated anything, and Nightmare felt worse as he was about to disturb this peacefulness. He watched him for a moment, and put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him a little as he whispered his name, « Horror... ? ».
The bigger skeleton groaned, turning his head around with a frown, slowly emerging from sleep as he opened his eye to see who was in his room at this, surely, ungodly hour. He almost shot straight up when he saw Nightmare, his boss being the last person he expected to wake him up, especially while looking so uncomfortable and frail. Was his boss always this small ? He looked so fragile right now, holding his jacket closed in front of his chest, looking so unsure when he was usually the most assertive out of them all...
Nightmare watched him sit up, and the two looked at each other for a few seconds before he explained why he was here, « I... I'm sorry to bother you at this hour but... I have that strange feeling that I'm hungry and I thought that maybe you cou- », but before he could finish his sentence, Horror was already up and heading towards the hallway. Nightmare quickly followed, alarmed, « you don't need to get up ! You can just tell me what to do and I'll figure it out myself ! », he tried to argue, his guilty feeling returning, he didn't want to force Horror to cook in the middle of the night, some advice would have been enough ! But Horror didn't listen, and instead went straight to the kitchen, Nightmare following close behind. « You really don't have to, I would have jus- » « sit. », Horror cut him off, and Nightmare knew there would be no use insisting, so he sat down at the small table, defeated, and watched Horror take out a pan.
None of them talked at first, the smaller one simply looked at the castle's chief as he was putting two slices of ham in the pan before breaking three eggs on top and adding seasoning. It looked so easy when watching him do it, but Nightmare was almost sure that if he tried it himself he would manage to burn everything and have half of the eggshells in the pan with the eggs, so in the back of his head, he was kinda glad Horror got up... The cook was the first to break the silence as he looked through the cabinet for the bag of soft bread, « since when... hungry... ? », he asked, his speech was getting a bit better, but he still had troubles with complex sentences, not that the others minded, they always gave him time to get his thoughts in order. « A few hours I would say... it started hurting and then I felt nauseous, I almost lost balance when getting up », he explained, and heard Horror hum dissaprovingly as he shoved two pieces of bread in the toaster, « should have come... earlier... », he reprimanded. Nightmare nodded, though Horror couldn't see him as he was turning his back on him. He knew playing with hunger was something Horror absolutely hated, that no matter the hour of the day, or night, he wanted them to tell him if they needed to eat instead of stupidly starving themselves. They had food here, there was no excuse to be hungry.
Nightmare almost flinched when a plate was put in front of him, jolting him awake after he had seemed to doze off for a moment. He looked down, Horror had folded the ham and eggs and put it between the slices of toasted bread, making it into a quick and warm sandwich, before sitting on the chair accross from Nightmare - who was almost salivating from the smell alone - clearly not decided to go back to bed before the plate was empty. Nightmare thanked him, and rolled up his sleeves before grabbing the sandwich and taking his first bite, letting out a small pleased sigh at the sensation of filling the empty space in his stomach. Horror didn't look away once, his gaze planted on his boss, but Nightmare didn't mind, he knew he was just making sure everything was fine.
« Low... negativity... ? » Horror asked when Nightmare reached the first half of his snack, to which the guardian answered with a shrug, « I'm not sure... I mean, with the truce I have been getting less negativity, but it's not like before when Dream would spread too much positivity and we would need to go on emergency missions, it's actually balanced this time, so I'm not supposed to be too low... plus this one is clearly a different sensation than being low on negativity, and I'm not sure why... ». He heard Horror hum in understanding as he took another bite. He would have never thought that a simple sandwich could taste so good, but then again, he had never eaten out of hunger before, so maybe anything would have tasted amazing in this situation. Horror talked again after a moment, « think... your body... finds new way to... make energy... ». Nightmare looked up, swallowing another bite, « what do you mean ? ». The taller one shifted on his chair, frowning as he searched for his words. Nightmare didn't rush him. « Before... had lots of negativity... to feed you... but not now... so I think... you're making up... for the lack... » he finally managed to say.
It was Nightmare's turn to frown, thinking about the theory ennonciated. « You think... my body is filling the gap left by the negativity by asking for real food ? I guess it would explain why I never felt hungry before, since I always had enough negativity... » he thought out loud. Horror nodded before concluding, « there's less now... so the hole... needs to be filled... differently... ».
It was rather logical when put that way - Horror had always been quite smart after all, it was a shame people mistook his speech problems for him being dumb when he clearly wasn't - and Nightmare mentally slapped himself for not having thought of that sooner. Of course his body still needed energy to function, and before the truce he had plenty of negativity to make that energy, but he was forced to regulate it now, to produce less than he used to, but his body still needed the same amount of energy, so it ended up creating a gap between the energy he needed and what he actually got, and now he was hungry and needed to eat to make up for it. And to say he thought he was dying... he felt quite silly now. « Well... I guess you will have to cook for one more person then » he sighed, already knowing he would have to re-arrange his schedule to fit dinner in it...
« Two times... a day... », Horror almost ordered, to which Nightmare shook his head, « only one time would be enough, don't worry- », « two. Times. », « Okay... », he capitulated, making Horror chuckle, quite pleased to have won the argument so quickly knowing how stubborn his boss was, « now... finish your food... », he then added, stern but with obvious care in his voice, and Nightmare did as told without complaining, knowing that it was for his own good, and because the sandwich was frankly tasty...
« Thank you, Horror... »
« Any time... »