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The emerald eye slowly surveyed the skeletons in front of him. Error looked a little more displeased than usual today, but at the same time confident and even somewhat determined. Then Nightmare's gaze lifted just above the Destroyer's eye sockets, where the small hands of a five-year-old skeleton that sat on the shoulders of an unflappable father lay on the dark skull. PaperJam. This fusion of two opposites, which, to Nightmare's surprise, Error and Ink decided to really keep an eye on and even raise, now occupied a place on the shoulders of the haptophobe, no less, and looked at the Keeper of Negativity, exactly copying the Destroyer's expression, the same displeased but confident.
The mucus-covered phalanges rubbed the bridge of Nightmare's nose, his single eye closed, and Nightmare sighed heavily, trying to find the right words. You always had to be careful when talking to Error, especially when it came to his relationship with Ink.
“Why?” releasing the bridge of his nose and opening his eye, Nightmare uttered.
“Because Ink is an asshole,” the skeleton opposite stated, as calmly as ever.
The child on Error's shoulders nodded in agreement, not even really understanding the point. The important thing is to be like his dad.
“What did he do this time?” a more specific question, in response to which Nightmare would like to get more specifics.
"Completely forgot that I should be busy right now, left this small natural disaster at home alone and went somewhere with Dream,” Error nodded weakly at the child, who began to agree with every word again.
"And why did you come here?" Nightmare continued to interrogate the same unflappable comrade.
"You said you needed backup, so I came. I'm not enough of an asshole to leave him there alone like Ink did, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. In addition, with your help, I will ruin his little happy outing and remind him of his responsibilities," the answer did not particularly please Nightmare, although everything was not as bad as it might seem.
Killer had been recovering from injuries for days, so he definitely wouldn't be able to be distracted by the child during the fight, and the rest didn't really care about him. He could only hope that his "safety net" would not be lost at the most unnecessary moment because of this little ink skeleton.
“Okay, okay, you talked me into it. Just make sure he doesn't get in the way or distract," Nightmare surrendered.
The answer was a positive nod from Error and a quick nod from PJ.
Only the goo that covered them for teleportation made Dust and Horror look away from the child and stare at the boss. Nightmare inhaled and exhaled several times, gathering his thoughts, and then began to repeat the plan of action he had already told several times. Error teleported to a place where it would be easiest to observe the universe and the gang raging in it, knowing his duties perfectly.
Blue strings stretched between the trees, weaving into a small hammock, on which Error sat down. Glitch put his elbow on his knee, resting his fist on his chin, and PJ folded his hands on his father's skull and lay down on them, also watching the universe. The colorful spots of the gang had been flashing before the eyes of the Destroyer for several minutes when the child raised his voice:
“What are they doing?”
"They kill and torture,” Error replied shortly.
"Isn't killing bad?" There was genuine interest in the kid's eyes.
“Bad.”
“Does that make them bad?”
“They are bad.”
"Then why are you with them?" PJ was already almost waddling over his father's skull in an attempt to look him straight in the eye.
"Because I'm bad too," Error replied, looking straight into the bright pupils of the child, as calmly as before.
“Father says it's bad to be bad," PJ still wouldn't calm down.
“Ink is not your dad anymore,” Glitch decided to remember exactly why he was still mad, to which he received a surprised look from the child.
“Why?”
“Because he's an asshole.”
"Asshole?" PJ carefully pronounced the new word, looking at his dad in surprise.
He didn't doubt the correctness of what Error said for a single second.
Next to Error, forcing him to look away from the child, Nightmare appeared from a puddle of slime, clearly having come to his "safety net" for a reason.
“Dream appeared at the entrance to the Ruins. Alone. Hold him for a while, we'll be done here soon and we'll be ready to move on to the next universe," Nightmare said rather quickly, and after receiving a brief nod in response, he disappeared again.
Immediately after that, Error also teleported. The surrounding area was now densely packed with trees of a dense forest on the border of the winter location and the ruins location. His gaze quickly found Dream walking purposefully towards his rowdy brother.
“Do you see Uncle Dream?” kid responded with a short confident nod.
“Do you want to play catch-up with him?” the nods have become less patient and more energetic.
“Then come on, make Uncle Dream run,” tricolor palms lifted PJ from Error's shoulders, and then the child disappeared, teleporting right behind the Keeper of the positive.
“Caught up!” Not at all lost due to the sudden teleportation, PJ touched Dream's hand “You’re it now!"
Error, who was hiding, could barely contain his laughter at the sight of the shocked Dream, who was watching the child running away from him. And then, changing course, he ran after PJ, who had disappeared into the trees. He didn't think long and quickly came to the conclusion that his parents' anger at his failure to bring the runaway child home was more dangerous to him now than the threat to the universe from Nightmare's actions.
PJ, making his dad proud, ran quite fast and chaotically, which made Dream even pretty out of breath. But still, the adult skeleton was faster. Dream was already reaching for PJ, ready to catch him, when a blue string stretched under his foot after another step. A fastly set trap instantly hung Dream upside down, and the child jumped into Error's arms, who appeared out of nowhere.
“I didn't want to do anything to him, honestly. He just offered to play catch-up, and I couldn't refuse such a charming creature,” Dream explained, laughing nervously, while Glitch approached him with a confident step.
"Where's the flask you use to summon Ink?" Error asked, standing at arm's length.
Dream hesitated a little, but quickly handed Glitch a flask of ink, which immediately flew to the ground at high speed. Ink quickly appeared from the dark spot on the ground. His gaze clearly spoke of the Guardian's displeasure, but before he could even open his mouth, a child appeared in his arms, he found himself at home, and a clear threat reached him through a buggy portal:
“Don’t you dare just take off again.As soon as I get back, I'll fucking kill you, and if I don't find you again, I'll fucking kill you twice.”
Then the portal closed leaving Ink with child in his arms.
“Hi, asshole! I've missed you!” the child said joyfully, immediately leaning on Ink with his arms.
One second, two, three.
"I have a child?!" a sudden realization hit Ink.
Now he understood exactly how big a scandal awaited him when Error returned.