Work Text:
“I’m dead.” Blue looked down at his semi transparent gloved hands.
He couldn't understand it. He thought he had more time. Reaper said he did.
Blue looked up at the god of death himself. “You said I had more time” Blue accused, his voice was calm but had an undertone of despair and anger.
Reaper nodded. He looked at Blue with a solemn expression, as if regretful. “I know, I lied so you could live your life without the looming reminder. I thought-”
“I don’t care what you thought! I had plans! I had so much I still needed to do! My family! My Friends! Dream! Ink! I have to get back to them please” Blue pleaded. He knew begging was hopeless. The life and death cycle had been explained to him many times. If someone dies outside their AU there are no redos. No resets. They were gone, permanently.
Reaper sighed, using his scythe to pull Blue into a hug. “I know. I didn’t want to reap your soul.. But it was your time. I tried making a case for you. Due to your status as a Star. It didn’t matter. Mortals cannot escape death. No matter how much they mattered to the multiverse.”
Blue covered his face in defeat. Fighting the tears that came flooding. “I.. I just found the love of my life.. He and I were going to spend the rest of my life together. He was everything to me.”
Reaper patted Blue’s head. “You say this, though Ink never gave you an answer”
Blue shook his head “That doesn't matter to me. I still loved him, I cherished every moment. If we were lovers or stayed friends it would've made me happy. He.. He was everything to me”
Reaper pulled out of the hug, sighing. “Geno told me about that. Said he heard some gossip about you and Ink possibly being a couple. I thought he was full of it. I guess I just don’t understand what you see in him”
“A lot of people say that about you and Geno.” Blue mumbled crossing his arms as he avoided eye contact with the now offended god of death
“At least he loves me” Reaper bit back out of spite.
Hearing that Blue’s soul, or what was left of it, sunk.
.
.
Blue couldn't move on.
He had to stay around. Watch over Ink. Reaper had tried to talk him out of it years ago.
“Blue you do not want to stick around as a ghost. It’s quite literally hell. You're going to watch your friends and family get old and die. You won’t be able to join them. You can’t reunite with anyone. This is the worst fate imaginable. I’m sticking my neck out for you to be able to have a smooth transition. Don’t waste your one chance of a peaceful rest for some soulless asshole that doesn't love you”
Blue shook his head “I don’t care! He’s immortal. I want to watch over him. Protect him.. I can’t be at peace if he can’t join me..”
Reaper sighed “If you want to spend the rest of your existence in misery then go ahead. Watch over someone who couldn't care less”
It wasn’t that bad. Being a ghost.. Or spirit.. Whatever he was now he didn’t mind!
Blue spends most of his time following Ink around. Watching him create, watching him discover AU’s, pretending Ink knew he was there and would have conversations with him.
“OOOOO Ink! Ink! Look at that! That cloud looks like a heart! That's how I feel about you!” Blue laughed as he floated over Ink. Blue waited for a response. When he didn’t get one, which he never did he turned around to stare at Ink.
The protector had been laying in a patch of grass surrounded by a field of forget me nots. Blue thought it was sweet, His crush spending hours at a time in a field of his favorite flowers.
“Oh Ink you romantic” Blue joked softly and hovered closer to Ink’s head and planted a soft kiss on Ink's head. There was no reaction from Ink. So it was okay!
Blue knew Ink wouldn't normally let Blue kiss him, but Blue felt he had a pass since he was dead.
Ink looked.. Ink looked tired. Blue knew Ink hadn’t been getting any sleep the past few weeks. Blue wondered if it was because he wasn’t around to force Ink to sleep. Yes Ink was immortal but Blue would argue that immortals still needed time to rest and recharge for the next day. They had an eternity, they could spare a few hours to rest.
With Blue gone Ink and Dream took less and less care of themselves. Dream was lucky he had his brother. After the truce, Nightmare would occasionally check on Dream to make sure he ate and slept. When Nightmare caught Dream lying about his self care he’d send Horror to invade Dreams space and help Dream with a healthy eating schedule.
Blue hadn’t realized he and Nightmare shared similar values of self preservation. The reason was probably because Nightmare lived with a bunch of mortals and accepted and adapted to healthier habits.
Blue learned a lot about Nightmare and his gang. Whenever Blue got bored watching Ink breathe he’d go and see what the ‘bad guys’ were up to and it was always a joy.
There was always something happening or someone was getting in trouble. Usually Killer. His most recent offense was putting heavy weights in the middle of some of Error's balls of yarn that he left all round the castle. It angered the destroyer immensely. Killer was quickly put on dish duty for 2 whole weeks.
Error moving in with Nightmare was something Blue had been ecstatic about. The ship has sailed! Man if Blue could talk to Error he’d congratulate his buddy. Blue always found himself smiling whenever he followed the two around. They were such sweethearts! Nightmare was so caring with Error. Making sure he was comfortable, being attentive and aware of Error's haphephobia. It was just adorable! Though Blue had to stop following them for a while when he walked in on them trying (and failing) to flirt with each other, It was cute but really really cringy.
Blue didn’t stalk them for a week after that. He wanted to give them space.. And he felt bad for watching them.
Blue was happy he didn’t have to worry about that with Ink. One Blue would be extremely jealous and heartbroken. Two Ink didn’t seek that kind of activity out.
Blue watches as Ink reaches over and grabs a flower. Ink held it up, looking like he was admiring it. Blue smiles “Oh Ink” Blue mumbled as he floated down and laid next to Ink. “I wonder what you're thinking about. Surely you now realize how pretty these flowers are now. They are my favorite after all. As I, the magnificent Sans, always pick the best flowers!” Blue boasted loudly for no one to hear.
It sucked not being able to actually talk to anyone. Blue was able to speak for hours and hours without interruption. He could say all the things he wanted to say to his friends. There would be no consequences! But that was the problem. There was nothing in return. No one to tell him to be quiet. No one to praise him for his accomplishments. Blue missed posing for Ink’s drawings. It was sad to watch Ink draw him from memory. Overtime Ink was getting less and less accurate. Ink seemed to realize this as he would ask Dream for pictures he took of the three of them.
Dream always liked taking selfies on their group outings. They once went to a new years festival in a true pacifist AU where Dream took hundreds of photos of everything they did together. When Blue asked why, Dream told him it was because of the hundreds of years he spent in stone. Dream wanted a record of the fun times he spent with his friends. Dream hated the idea of missing out. So when he did have the chance to experience something fun he wanted to immortalize the feeling forever so he could always keep that moment with him.
For Dreams birthday Blue had gotten Dream a beginners guide to photography along with a nice camera. That was the biggest hug Blue had ever gotten from Dream. That was a good day.
Blue missed Dreams hugs. Dreams hugs were always so warm and comforting. Whenever Blue would check to see how Dream was doing he’d always get worried. Without his brother's interference, Dream didn’t take breaks. There was always someone to help, someone to inspire. Blue imagined Dream was still trying to distract himself from the fact Blue was gone.
Dream spent most of his days in the omega timeline. Helping those who lost their homes adjust to their new life. It was something Blue had wanted to do, but never had the time due to his responsibilities as a royal guard in his AU along with being a Star sans. It was nice to see Dream do what Blue couldn't do anymore. It was sad too. Blue wished Dream would continue photography.
Time passes as Blue starts to dissociate and only comes back to the present when Ink suddenly sits up. Error was there. How long had Error been there? Didn’t matter, his best friends were talking! Blue was overjoyed!
Early on when Blue had first started wandering around as a ghost he worried about how Ink and Error had been handling his death. With Nightmares help, Error was doing incredibly well! Better than Blue had expected. Before Nightmare stepped in Error just sat in the void in silence. Talking to himself and sleeping. He had even stopped destroying AU’s. Something Blue never thought he would see.
Ink on the other hand.. Ink was worse. The protector was depressed. Recently all ink would do was lay there in the flower field. Sometimes Ink would draw but inevitably get upset he couldn't get Blues face right and give up. Blue hadn’t expected Ink to take his death this hard.
Ink didn’t love him so what was the point of all this?
Blue floated around Ink and Error while they talked. He wasn't really paying attention. It was the same conversation the two had with everyone else. How they felt about Blue being dead.
It was fun to float around, sometimes he’d get enough momentum to fly around a bit faster and pretend to be a super hero. Which is what he was doing right now. Flying circles around Ink and Error. They were just probably talking about how cool he was! Until suddenly..
“Did you love him?”
Shocked, Blue stopped flying and looked at Ink. Why would he ask something like that? Error was so obviously in love with Nightmare, Why would Error.. Why would Ink care who loved him?
Blue listened more closely now. If there was a chance Ink loved him back..
Blue watched as Error explained to Ink how he loved Blue. in his own way.
This.. was a development. Did Ink actually.. Blue shook his head and left.
.
.
Despite being dead Blue could still travel the AU’s.
The easiest way to do it was to latch onto someone while they were traveling.
The other way was less than appealing. He would just walk with a destination in mind. It just took a really long time and he missed out on what his friends were doing.
To Blue it had only felt like a few hours, but when he arrived at the Star Sanses base he looked at the cat calendar to see it had been a month. Blue shivered. “I must have taken a wrong turn.”
Not much had changed since the last time he visited. His room had remained untouched aside from the flowers that were regularly rotated out. Dream had made it a point to leave a vase of flowers right outside his door. Blue thought that was nice.
Blue ventured downstairs. The living room was the same too. Ink had taken charge of decorating when they all first moved in so the furniture and wall decorations were all a different theme and style. For some reason the color theme was the same. Earthy tones, mostly green and brown. Ink was quickly banned from decorating Dream and Blue’s room.
For being all about art and creation, his decorating skills were all over the place. Blue thought it was charming despite Dream's judgment.
Speaking of Dream, Blue found him on the couch with a pint of mango ice cream. Poor Dream.. He was eating his feelings again.. At least he was eating.
“Dreammmm” Blue wined like he used to and crawled over the couch to sit next to Dream.
“Dream you get sick when you eat too much ice cream!” Blue warned. Blue breathed in, about too lecture Dream when..
“What's the point?” Dream murmured, lolling his head to the side and sunk further into the couch. He held onto the ice cream pint a little too tight, as it almost spilled out of the top of it.
Did Dream just respond to him?.. Blue leaned a bit closer till he heard another voice.
“The point is to go to bed and not get drunk on ice cream!” It was Cross. Blue looked at the side table tucked right next to the arm of the couch. Where other small pints of empty mango ice cream piled up.
“It’s not aloholiccccc.. It’s just cold on my tongue.. And I'm sad.. And tired.” Dream protested, weakly.
Blue relaxed some.. Though the thought of Dream being able to hear him did give him some hope, this was probably better.
A long tired sigh left Dream's phone. “Dream it's 3am in the god damn morning.. Go to beddd.. Please. I can come over tomorrow and we can talk about it. You should sleep.” Cross pleaded, sounding exhausted himself.
Blue leaned on Dreams free shoulder, as much as he could without phasing through too much. “I didn’t know you and Cross talked.” Blue hummed as Dream murmured more nonsense that probably neither Blue nor Cross could understand.
Blue looked over at Dream’s phone hearing Cross’s voice, he was talking but not directly into the phone.
“Dream.. This is really hard for you, losing someone close sucks. I get it. I've lost so many friends and it takes time to heal, but you can’t just sulk every night and eat ice cream. You need to get out more, not working but just- Just relaxing, pick up a hobby. I know you were really into photography for a while, maybe you can pick that back up? Or maybe I could.. Uhm. I could take you out somewhere.. We can eat food or something?..?” Cross’s voice wavered towards the end, Blue picked up on Cross’s nervousness and smiled. That was adorable! So many relationships had been forming lately and Blue was all for it!
Blue looked at Dream to gauge his reaction. To only see that the positive guardian was very much asleep.
There was a long silence.
“Drea-”
Dreams' loud snore cut Cross off and there was loud laughing from the Dreams phone. Sounded like Killer. In seconds the call ended.
Blue laughed a little, finding the moment humorous.
Though going back to the moment. It saddened Blue to see Dream still struggling with his death. “I know you can’t hear me Dream.. But I hope you move on from me soon. You look like you're in so much pain.. You're tired.. Cross seems so worried about you, and a crush! Don’t deny it but I know you used to sneak pictures of him. Which, creepy but I guess it was sweet? Just don’t tell him.” Blue shook his head “Back to my point! Dream please move on, I want the best for you” Blue leaned in hugging the sleeping guardian.
After a moment Dream jolted awake. Standing up. “Wait!” Dream shouted, breathing heavily. Dream looked around at the empty space confused.. “Why is it so cold in here? Should be room temperature..” Looking down, Dream whined loudly “Not again!” He’d spilled melted mango ice cream on his clothes. Grumbling, he cleaned up his area, throwing his empty cups into the trash before heading up stairs.
Blue had jumped behind the couch. Dream yelling was always a scary thing. “Must have had a bad dream..”
.
.
Blue was watching his Brother.
Stretch was at Muffet's. Again. Seems his brother spent even more time there now that Blue wasn't there to pull him away.
“Dearie.. You should go home and go to bed..” Muffet suggested as she set down a freshly cleaned glass.
Stretch only made a noise in acknowledgement.
Blue walked over, climbing into the bar stool next to his brother. (He could've just phased through but this felt more natural)
Stretch and Blue never got along when it came to Blue being involved in the multiverse. Blue got fulfillment from helping and saving others. While Stretch wanted a quiet life in their own universe. They argued many times about Blue being in the Star Sanses, too many times to count. Blue would never admit this to anyone, but sometimes he wished he would've stayed in his universe. Perhaps he would've lived longer.. Or at least been able to die in his universe, and more peacefully at that.
Blues death was not a pleasant one. He didn’t like to think about it.
“I miss my bro..” Stretch mumbled.. Lifting his head up a bit to take a drink of honey.
Blue rested his head on the counter. “I miss you too brother..”
.
.
Blue was hanging onto Ink’s scarf as he walked up a grassy hill. Blue had missed another month of watching his friends when he went to go find Ink again. Ink was always hard to find, Ink was always hopping from one AU to another. He was so rude! Ink never waited for Blue to catch up. Reading Inks' reminder to himself (“Blue is dead”) Blue sighed. At least Ink was starting to remember more often that Blue was dead. It was jarring to see Ink think he was talking to him. Sometimes Blue would respond and hope there was some miracle that Ink heard him. Ink never did.
Blue let go once Ink reached his destination. Blue’s grave.
If Blue hadn’t already wanted to spend more time with Ink he would've left. Blue didn’t like seeing his grave. It was.. Blue couldn’t place it.. It felt bleak. Standing next to his own grave.
He watched Ink sit down next to his grave. Blue floated over and put his back to the engraving of his headstone. Blue thought Ink was just going to sit there in silence, That's usually what he spent most of his time doing, But Ink surprised him.
Ink started talking. “I wish I could take you to the flower field, You would've loved it. A whole field of your favorite flowers.. Too bad I found it after you died..”
Blue smiled warmly “I saw Ink. Don’t worry I saw. I love it so much.” From there Ink just kept talking and updating Blue as if he’s just gotten back from a vacation. It was nice to feel like things were normal. Dust and Horror getting together.. Error and Nightmare in a fresh relationship, Ink doubted the rumors that the two gods might already be married but Blue was in full support!
Then Ink looked at him and it made Blue feel like he died again. Blue froze. The two seemingly stared at each other for a good minute until..
“Right.. Dead as dust..” Ink sighed, and turned back around. Blue watched as Ink held his knees to his chest. Blue relaxed and moved to lean against Ink, cuddling him in a way.
“Oh Inky.. You must miss me a lot if..” Then, Ink surprised Blue again.
“I miss you Blue.. I think.. I think I love you.. I’m sorry I never told you.. I’m sorry you had to die in order for me to figure that out.”
Blue was absolutely ecstatic. “He loves me. He loves me! Ink loves me!” Blue stood up cheering and singing a happy celebration. “My Ink loves me! Now we can-” Blue stopped and looked at Ink.. He was crying.. “Right.. We can’t be together.. But I’m happy that I know now..” Blue sat back down, excitement and love still buzzing in his soul.
“I love you too, Ink.”
.
.
Hours passed, Blue stayed by Ink’s side while he cried until Ink eventually fell asleep. To pass the time Blue rambled on about all of the date ideas he could think of, and the ones he had planned before his passing.
“Oh! I also thought we could've gone on a picnic.. Well a second one. I know our first one ended badly but I figured if we got together we could go on a better one. Not in my AU since Papy doesn’t like you-” Blue suddenly felt cold.
Great, his favorite god of death.
The god smiled watching Blue look up at him in annoyance. “You got what you wanted, Bluebird. Are you ready to go now?” Reaper asked, twirling his scythe in his hand.
Blue reluctantly nodded “Yeah.. Oh one last thing though” Blue moved to be in front of the sleeping Ink. He held the guardian's face and kissed him gently, their teeth softly clacking together.
“Bye Inky!”
Blue smiled and got up to follow Reaper. Just as Ink was waking up.