Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You sit on the ground, breathing heavily.

Something is wrong, each part of your body is in pain. What is happening?! Where are you? You look down and see a familiar female body on the ground. You look closer. She’s not breathing, which isn’t surprising considering the amount of blood covering her and everything around, the pretty grotesque scene. You look around. It looks like some kind of city, and you are in the middle of the road. Everything around you is destroyed. It looks as if a massive blade cut through the roads and buildings during a battle. Why were you fighting?... It was something truly important.

To protect my friend.

To finish Nightmare's order.

What? Your head hurts. It feels like something is absolutely wrong. What kind of disaster happened here? Why did you think two things at the same time? You place your hands on your head to calm down. A skull? Where is your hair?! You look at your hands in horror, and... they are skeletal hands! You were never skeletal. You were always like this.

“Arghhh!” Closing your eyes, you frantically try to cover your 'ears,' a wave of panic washing over you. You try to calm down, taking shaky breaths. Do skeletons even need to breathe?! Well, at least it helps you calm down a bit, even though you are unsure where the air even going.

It takes you a few minutes to get a hold of yourself. You look at the body in front of you. It’s your body. The one you always lived in, it is you, now from third person perspective, lying right in front of you. A quiet, humourless laugh escapes you. It looks like your friend was right, you shouldn't had used the magic, you only mess things up. Not like they said it specifically like that. It more like, you can't use your own. Your magic is unstable, wrong, and chaotic.

You tried to kill this unknown skeleton, and here you are, having become him, what a mess. Or maybe instead of becoming this skeleton, you are inside his mind and controlling his body? Well, that's a question for the future you! Right now, you need to do something with your previous body. Perhaps you can ask your friend to create an artifact with her magic that would heal your dead body and bring you back? You always can try use your own power, but considering that it what brought you in this situation to begin with, the idea doesn't seem too appealing. You need Reishu. Her help.

That way, you won't be messing with your own magic to fix this shit! Yes, right now you're locked inside the enemy's body because of your own stupidity, but it gives you time to do something, and maybe get closer to this skeleton's leader to find out more. What a genius plan! you think to yourself.

Slowly getting up, you feel your entire being protest. Ugh, that hurts! But you need to go. Yes, this street is empty right now, but what about later? When people come out to see what happened, they'll see the remains of the battle, you, the skeleton, and your previous body lying dead on the ground. They will assume you're a killer! This is so wrong! Your mind is still alive! Of course, you are technically dead, but, geez, you can fix this… right? Of course, you can! Positive thoughts! Only positive thoughts!!

You hear the sound of sirens... oh, crap! It seems somebody saw what happened and decided to call the police. Well, of course. The battle was loud and in the middle of the street, of course someone would see and call the police!

You look down at your dead body. Can you lift that much weight as a skeleton? Well, he was a really good fighter, so his strength should be enough to lift the body! You try to lift it. Nothing happens, except your whole skeletal body hurts even more.

“Crap!” Your yell in the frustration, only to right away jump like some kind of spooked cat at the sound of your own voice. It’s deep and masculine. Ugh, you'll probably need some time to get used to it. Or, in the ideal world, you are gonna fix this shit so soon that no getting used to would be needed.

The sound of the sirens gets closer. You need to hurry!

He used some kind of magic to lift things before. You remember this very clearly, considering how this piece of crap used the said magic in the fight with you. You can try it. It should work! Calm down and close your eyes. Focus on your entire being, on your soul, your magic. You slowly open your eyes and lift your right hand. Red magic surrounds the body. You slowly try to lift it up, but something goes wrong. You just throw your body up into the sky with a burst of magic! The splashes of blood and small pieces of destroyed road fled with the corpse.

“AAAAAA!” You scream in horror and try to catch it using the same magic. You stop your corpse from falling just centimeters from the ground. Whoa, that was close! Maybe you can't use magic right now. Back to the previous plan, lift the body with your hands! You step forward, but a second later something grabs you around the middle. What the- a tentacle?! “Wait-”

Yoink!

You get pulled into some kind of black portal. It feels weird, like being weightless for a second, and… here you are in some new place. It looks like a dark castle. What a Goth teenager's wet dream this place is. It's too dramatic, with black and dark red colour themes. Though teen you probably would loved this place.

And now what? What will happen to your body? Maybe you can ask your friend to create a new one. Dammit! What if she’s not able to do that?! Maybe you could try to find your old one, though when you will be able to find it, it would be already buried somewhere. Lets hope you still have time before the corpse starts to rot.

“Cross.” A rough, deep voice pulls you from your thoughts. You look back at the ‘tentacled menace of a skeleton', the only description that feels appropriate to this... Nightmare. He looks a bit angry, probably because, as you now know, this skeleton was supposed to bring your friend to him, not lose a battle against some weak human mage.

“Yes, sir?..” Your unfamiliar voice sounds weird and absolutely unsure, even to your own ears. Nightmare just sighs.

“Report the situation.” Nightmare looks like he’s ready to smack you for taking so long to answer. But what should you say?! ‘Hi, tentacle menace, my name is Y/N. I’ve probably became a ghost haunting the body of your skeletal friend and can't answer anything! And I'm your enemy who ruined your plans!’ That's complete bullshit! Nightmare coughs to get your attention. You jump slightly. His tentacle around your middle tightens, making you wince in pain.

“Urgh, y-yes, sir! I, um.” You think about what to say, and then- wait! You have a brilliant idea! “I'm reporting that the mages in this universe are too strong to deal with. I almost died, even after a strong fight against one of them. I think we need time to create a new plan, its too risky to go against them right now.”

Your voice is harsh and stern, reminding you of the times you studied magic, which was rare for humans. You reported every time you failed at a magic practice, again and again, until you gave up… You feel a burning in your chest, like your very soul aches at the reminder of your failures.

“I see. I expect a proper report from you later.” Nightmare gets closer to your face, his expression unreadable. “With all the details. Understood?”

It looks like he bought it, yay. What a lovely boss you have here, wow, so stupid that he can't even see who is truly in front of him! Looks like the lady luck is on your side today. Well, if we overlook the fact of your death...

“Yes, sir.” Your answer is short and monotone tone. You can't be afraid of this big, powerful, evil, sadistic bastard! Okay, maybe a little. But you wouldn't act like someone spooked.

“Good.” Nightmare drops you on the floor- 'ouch!- and steps back. “Now go and do something about your appearance. You look like a punched puppy.”

Well, it looks like it’s your time to leave! What a shame! You 'really' wanted to just, lie on that cold floor, and do absolutely nothing. You slowly get up, and with a nod, you leave, closing the massive, impressive door behind you.

What now? You don’t know where to go. All of the corridors look the same! What the hell, who builds this goddamned labyrinth!?

You look around, moving through the corridors. This place is so empty and quiet. Uncomfortable and cold. I hope Cross at least has a home, like, some warm, comfy little house far, faaar away from this place. I mean, who would want to be here all the time? And who would want to live in the same place as their boss? Even thinking about it seems silly!

Something inside you hurts. Home. You don’t have one, not anymore.

You shake your head. What was that? You have a home! It's in another universe. It feels like some of these thoughts are not your own, but it makes sense! You are just haunting this body, maybe one day you will wake up and see the body doing things on its own. Like you're not in control anymore. Not like you supposed to be on control of this body to begin with, but still, scary stuff.

Cross is probably somewhere inside your mind right now. Well, he’s already inside your main body, since all humans have skeletons inside them, haha! Okay, that was an awful joke, but hey, maybe Cross's mind, wherever it is, found it funny? Who knows! It's not like you can ask him.

Each door you pass looks the same. Maybe you should just open a random one and find some info? Or maybe you can find somebody who will answer your questions! Like, 'Hello, mister another murderous skeleton, where can I heal? Oh! And also, I just randomly forgot how to use my own magic, please teach me.’ Sounds great.

You start opening random doors. Library, bathroom, empty room, empty room, another empty room!

“Why are there so many empty rooms? Why!?” you raise your voice in frustration, slamming your head against a door. Ouch! That was stupid. Now your head hurts even more. Maybe you should just end it?… Other guardians are more powerful than you, they can help your friend, Raishu, and protect her better than you can. Because others are always better. You were supposed to kill this skeleton with your magic, to protect your friend from him, not become him! Maybe taking him with you would have been the right decision. Just end everything...

“Cross? What are you do-” A new, raspy voice startles you. You jump and spin around with impressive speed.

“Aaa!” You scream from the fright, and your voice is so high-pitched it reminds you of your old feminine one. The skeleton with a hole in his head flinches, his big red pupil shrinking. “Geez, you scared me, dude! What the hell? Why are you moving so quietly!?”

The skeleton is silent for a few moments, as if choosing his words. You also keep quiet as your emotions calm down. This person seems dangerous. His look just screams 'murderer'. After just looking at each other for what feels like an eternity, he finally speaks up.

“You seem… in pain. Lose the battle?” the big guy asks, a hint of worry in his tone. Which is weird. Oh! You work for the same guy, it’s probably normal to worry about your colleagues. It does have sense, yes , this is a normal thing to do, worry about others. Not that you ever had a friendly ones… This spooky guy seems more polite than your previous colleagues. Huh, the world is full of surprises!

“I, y-yeah. Unfortunately, I lost the battle against a very powerful and ...beautiful mage! So I need to find a place to heal. That battle was so impressive I can't even describe it! The boss wants a proper report, but huh, I don’t even know how to put the words together, you know? Not after what happened today. Just so much happened at once. But anyway! That's not the main point right now. Where can I heal? There are so many rooms, and I just got out of a battle and can’t think straight."

You pointed at your injuries. "My head hurts, and I'm slightly confused. Which is absolutely okay because this fight was epic, you know?” you start rambling, saying much more than you planned. Sweat starts dripping from your forehead. You can sweat!? I thought a skeleton's body would have the benefit of being free from such things. Sad.

“Um…” The skeleton, you guess from some scattered pieces of memories that belong to Cross, that this one is Horror. Horror stares at you, his small pupil fixed on you. His expression is one of complete confusion, as if he's the one who just lost a battle and recovering. “What?..”

“Uhhh, heal. I need to heal,” you say slowly, and it looks like the big guy understands you this time. Maybe you were talking too fast and confused him? Or maybe it’s because of that big, spooky hole in his head. Probably the second one. Your great company can't be the problem, for sure, the problem is the hole in his head! There is no way that your actions that maybe the opposite to how Cross acts can cause the confusion, no way.

“Okay… follow me.” Horror says this and starts moving. You quickly close the door to the empty room and follow him. Maybe now you'll finally get some proper rest and be able to think straight. That would be great.

Chapter Text

You follow the towering skeleton, glancing around and trying to memorize the layout in case you need to make a run for it. Sure, the one with the broken skull had shown concern for your well-being, but it could easily be a trick.

"Sooo, how are you?" You decide to make a small talk. Everyone does it from time to time, so it probably wouldn't seem out of character for Cross, right? You're not sure. How much can you really know about the guy who was trying to kill you less than an hour ago?

Horror looks at you as if you've said something unbelievably strange. A few seconds of heavy silence pass between you.

"What? I didn't say anything," you blurt out, immediately denying you had spoken. Perhaps that would make the situation better? Foolish thing to believe in.

"...You're acting a bit odd today," Horror says, stopping in the middle of the corridor.

"No." Yeah, great, convincing answer! You're an idiot.

Horror takes a hand out of his pocket and points to the hole in his own skull. "Did you... damage your head?"

"I-... Maybe! The battle was so intense that I took a powerful punch to the skull." An idea strikes you. "And it damaged my memories, I think."

"Hmmm." The skeleton looks down, thinking. The silence that follows is loud and uncomfortable. "We... need to go to Nightmare. Now. He can look at the damage."

You pause, you just left this damn thing room, you aren't going back, nope!

"You know, maybe we just need to take care of the injuries! I'm sure time and effort will fix everything! Let's not rush things," you say nervously while stepping back.

"No. Skull damage is too risky... We need to go." He grabs you by the wrist. You try to jerk your hand back, but wow, this guy is strong. Or maybe you're just too weak right now, you aren't so sure about anything right now,

"I'm fine, let me go!" You struggle against his grip, but Horror is as unmovable as a solid wall. Then, everything around you dissolves into inky blackness. A nauseating lurch, a split second of disorientation, and you find yourself in what looks like an office. Nightmare sits at a large desk, wearing reading glasses and reviewing some documents, not even looking up. You gulp loudly, feeling more and more uneasy. What would they do if they discovered who you really were? Kill you? Perform some kind of exorcism to release Cross? You'd do anything to get back to your own body, alive and well, so it's in your best interest to keep your identity hidden.

"Nightmare... Cross is unwell. Got skull damage," the giant skeleton rumbles, pointing a finger at your head. You freeze completely, trying to shrink into your scarf. The thing, despite being a new piece of clothing feels strangely comforting and familiar.

Nightmare sighs, putting his papers and glasses down. He crosses his arms, looking you right in the eye sockets. "Wow, Cross. That sounds serious."

He has a small, unsettling smile on his face, and something feels very wrong. He doesn't look that much concerned. Perhaps he just dislikes Cross? If so, his attitude would make sense.

Horror slowly lets you go, and you jerk your hand back more harshly than you intended. You're slightly surprised at your own reflex. It was rude, the guy with the broken skull was just trying to help. "So-" before you can even apologise, something strange happened.

You're cut off by a short, guttural laugh from the large skeleton. The smile is back on his face. "It looks like... you're still you after all."

What does that mean? Is Cross some kind of jerk? If so, you probably need to lean into this attitude, even if this aren't something you are used to. "Who else would I be!? I'm Cross, and you're an... overgrown damn bear!"

Was that too impolite? The smile on Horror's face only widens, and another quiet laugh escapes him. He pointedly looks down at you. "Are you... short on insults, little guy? I've been called a lot of names, but that one's new."

Was that a compliment? In that case, wow! You are doing a fantastic job of pretending to be Cross, so far. Good job, me!

"Horror, can you wait outside while I make sure Cross is all right?" Nightmare says, his voice cutting through the moment.

'Crap', you think as Horror nods in agreement. The poor dude takes only one step before you instinctively clutch his jacket with one hand. You open your mouth to protest, but one of Nightmare's tentacles snaps out and pulls you off your feet. "Whoa!"

"Go," Nightmare says, glancing at Horror. The big skeleton just shrugs, giving you one last look before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. 'Nooooooo!' you scream in your head. But not like Horro would magically hear your thoughts, no one can.

Well, it looks like this is your fate...

Nightmare pulls you closer with his tentacle, looking directly into your eye sockets with a wide, malicious grin. "So, skull damage, hmm?"

"Y-yeah- NO! It's not. Horror got confused. My skull is totally fine, sir," you respond quickly, your gaze darting away. Wow, the ceiling looks incredibly interesting right now. If skeletons could sweat, you probably would look like a sweaty nervous mess rights now. You never was in a mission not involving just brutal force! How the hell you suppose to be a damn spy!?

"Oh? What kind of leader would I be if I didn't make sure you were okay? You agree, don't you, Cross?" One of his other tentacles begins to move around your skull. It's a truly bizarre sensation, cold, slick, and slightly warm when pressed more firmly, with a weird texture. Brrr! You try to move your head away, but it's hard to do when you're stuck in the air, held harshly by another tentacle. "Wow, you're fighting back quite energetically for someone who is so unwell. Poor thing."

After a few tense seconds, Nightmare puts you back on the ground. Your head is now covered in slimy tentacle goop.

"Oh, don't look at me with such empty sockets, Cross. I was just checking to make sure my employee was fine," he says with a deep chuckle. You just stand there and nod numbly. Then, you quietly leave the room without another word, feeling so damn violated.

The second the door clicks shut behind you, you grab the end of Cross's scarf and immediately begin to scrub your skull harshly.

"Ew, ew, EW!" you keep saying it, as if that would somehow improve the situation.

"Hey... Cross, are you okay?" Horror asks. You stop scrubbing and turn to look at him who is stands quietly right next to you.

You wanted to say so much, but it's not like anything truly awful happened, just some weird tentacle goo experience and it wasn't his fault after all. And, well, you need to gain their trust to get more information, so its not like you can even truly let him know that no, you aren't damn okay. "Let's just go. I need to heal."

"Is your head... is it alright?" He tilts his head slightly.

"Yes, yes, Nightmare checked it with his... things." Your face scrunches up in disgust just from saying that.

Horror looks at your skull with lingering concern.

"Is there any of that stuff left on me?" you ask, your expression pained.

"Nah... you're fine," he says with a shrug.

Well, suppose you can believe him, not like there are anyone else to ask, and frankly, you don't wanna to speak with anyone else. You cleaned yourself enough with your scarf, yep. But that leads to a new problem... The bottom of your scarf is now utterly disgusting, covered in goo. Ew. Even your blood-soaked uniform wasn't as gross as this tentacle slurry.

Chapter Text

Entering the kitchen, you made a little 'oh' sound. This kitchen appears quite ordinary. It is like something entirely out of this dark castle vibe. Just a completely typical kitchen, although it may be slightly too large for your personal preferences, but considering that it's for five people, or rather skeletons, the size is understandable. Horror pointed at the chair, and you just nodded and sat down.

Why are you even in the kitchen specifically? Yes, monster food can heal, but would it really help you that much? Your whole body really hurts, it doesn't feel like a proper meal would help you. But it wouldn't make things worse either. So…uh, why decline food? Go with a flow, as some might say.

There were some noises in the background, it looks like Horror took food from the fridge and put it together on a plate. You are unsure about the situation. He helped you, which is very considerate of him, since your entire body hurts, and you probably look like shit. But in the future, since you are a grown ass adult, you can make a meal all by yourself, or at least put everything together. There is no need for such help.You are not a child to help you with everything! Or, should you say, baby bones? No, nope, you can't think that! It sounds like accepting being stuck in this weird skeletal body. You are human and always will be, especially after turning back.

Horror put a plate in front of you. Wow! This food looks great. Who is the chef? Well, you hope that you will turn back into humans so quickly that you won't have time to find out, so why bother even thinking about it!

"Bone appetite!" You say and dig into the meal. Well, why not joke around a bit to lighten the mood.

Food just disappears after being put into a mouth. Well, it's not surprising to you, considering it's not your first rodeo with monster food. And wow, it's odd that you didn't need to chew, but eh, it's you live for the next… hopefully only a few days. Not eternity.

"Thanks for the food!" You say, probably too cheerfully for the Cross personality. Or maybe he's a jerk but a positive one? You need more information. And to begin all of that, getting to know where he lives would be nice, maybe he's the type of person who has a diary? 

Horror just smiled and sat quietly. It looks like no one knows what small talk is, huh.

You just eat in silence, feeling slightly better, but not good enough. "I probably need something else to heal. Would you-"

You can't say, 'Would you help me?' It felt pathetic. You need to be strong. "Never mind, it just… looks like I need some more sleep."

"No… finish eating first." Horror tapped his finger twice on the table. His expressions look tense for a moment, and it makes you feel more worried. Is it safe to be around this guy? You just nodded, finishing your meal so quickly that if you were still human, you would have choked. Putting the plate down, you look at Horror, and he seems unpleasant with you, but stay quiet. Perhaps it was rude to eat in such a rush?

You got up and took the dishes, then moved to the sink, starting to clean them. It would be just normal to clean up after yourself, isn't it? You just hope you don't look weird.

Finishing cleaning, dishes, you look at Horror. He is silent and tense. Hmm.

"Are you hungry?" You decided to ask. Maybe dude just really needs some food to be in a better mood.

Horror looks at you, slightly surprised. "You sure your head is…ok? You acting odd."

What's wrong now?! You just asked why he didn't eat anything while you were eating! Well, you had problems communicating with humans, so it's normal that with murderous monsters, it's even worse.

"… Yes, I'm ok." You need to put yourself together and act quiet now. It looks like with each word, everything just gets worse.

"Let me?" He stands up and holds out his hand for you to take. You look at the hand and then back at Horror, tilting your head slightly. "Shortcut you… in your room. You seem too tired to use… magic. Is it okay?"

You live here!? Nooo, all your dreams about a small, comfy house, far faaar away from this place, were shattered. Life is so cruel.

At least Horror suggested his help. No need to walk or try to find a room on your own! You take a giant hand without thinking twice. And right after that, the world started to spin around, you felt weightless, afraid, and surrounded in silence and darkness. After a moment, you were in the room. Your head spins slightly, ew. You forgot about that part! About everything making you feel like shit, filling you with the desire to puke. But, at least this time, it was slightly better. Maybe you just need time to get used to it?

You looked around, still holding Horror's hand. The room looks empty, white-colored walls and a single bed with white and black colors stand at the corner. Black closed stood in the opposite from the bed corner. The walls looked empty- only a few posters with some… anime characters? Huh. WTF, this room looks so boring, like, there is nothing! Why Cross?! Why! If … not, when! When you become you again, you will kill the guy not only because he was dangerous to your friend, and resulted in your death but also because his room sucks!

"Cross?…" Horror asked, and you looked back at him, noticing that he looked confused. Aaaah! You jerk your hand back like if this guy's hand were on fire. You started to feel like heat crept to your face, but you are a skeleton, so no blush!Yes?! You certainly hope so! It's probably just a feeling- not like it actually would be shown on your face, right?

"… goodbye." You pointed at the door that looked like an exit from the room. Horror looks at you more worriedly. You just wish he would leave you! You probably looked like some kind of weirdo with your reaction, but geez! Yes, you used to hold hands with your friend, they were your only friends, and honestly, you were too touchy around her (of course with boundaries and respect!). You didn't even notice that you were holding his hand for so lmg! That really sucks.

"Ok." The giant finally leaves you be, glancing at you before closing the door. Cool, you alone. Maybe you can find a first-aid kit somewhere?

You opened the closet. Only black and white clothes… why? "Cross, your tastes suck."

You muttered to yourself, hoping that somewhere inside you, there sits a mad Cross who hears all the trash that you are talking about his tastes. It would be funny! Like, 'You killed me, so I would be mean to you!'. 

Of course you aren't that mean. You can probably cut his poster, trash his room, or make his clothes rainbow colored just to mess with him. A little laugh escaped you. No, no, it would be childish to do such things. Even if the thought of Cross in pink made you giggle, it's probably better to just kill the guy, or if you're lucky, take some others with him too. The big fella, large and helpful, would die last. Nightmare… he's too powerful for you, so don't mess with the tentacle menace. They are definitely somebody else, right? Somebody who is weak enough for you to beat, yes?

You sigh, feeling uneasy with the situation. If you were still in your body, things would be much better. Easier. But hey! You were in an enemy team right now, there are so many opportunities! Like, not only kill some of them, but also maybe steal some info? Nightmare office had a lot of documents, there was probably something helpful! Of course your main reason is to protect your friend, maybe Cross was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was there not to kill Reishu? Then you can even deal with everything without killing! It would be nice, considering that you've never murdered before, even if your royal guard job needed that. It's just not your way of solving problems. Maybe because of this you put yourself inside this body instead of killing a guy?

"Argh!! Too much thinking!" You just take some clean black and white clothes and close the closet angrily.

Looking around, you found the bathroom behind the door on the left from the main door. Open it, you are so surprised by the colorful shower curtain. You were absolutely in shock with this shower curtain!! It looks like a rainbow with butterflies and flowers. Yeah, it's colorful, better than his clothes, but it looks tasteless. Something that even your grandma wouldn't put there.

"Ew" You just looked at the curtain for a few seconds, and decided to leave it be. Maybe it's not his, and some kind of prank? Or maybe Cross just hides his undying love for rainbows and butterflies, who know.

You put Cross's black clothes on top of the closed bucket for dirty clothes, and look around. Oho! Mirror! You can look at yourself now. You get closer, looking into an unfamiliar face in the mirror. Yeah, you look like shit, covered in blood and dirt, with tired eyes and no smile, and your scarf has holes and cuts in it. Not like you care much, this thing is now all in tentacle slur, you want to just put it in the trash bucket and forget it ever existed!

You started to undress yourself, which was painful. Your whole body hurts even after healing monster food. Fully undressed, you look at yourself in the mirror on the top of the sink. Ribs have a few cracks and cuts, but nothing deadly. Wow! You are happy that you at that fight didn't do this dude too much damage, otherwise the current you would have been in big trouble! Those thoughts feel kind of pathetic.. Sighing, you look closer at the reflection in the mirror. Those bones are thicker than usual ones, but that doesn't make you a big guy. Honestly, you're sure that Cross is a few inches smaller than your main body. Huh! Now you felt like you were winning something. You are so tall, haha. But... remembering Horror, uhhh, dude was god dammit wall! It is not surprising that his name is Horror- horror for all average and small people!

Opening a small place behind a mirror, you found a first-air kid. Well, firstly, you need to wash yourself! How do skeletons shower?... You pull the curtain and stand in the shower, looking at your ribs. How do I start? What water temperature should you use? So many questions...

"Boo!" Some unfamiliar voice said, making you scream and slip on the floor outside the bath, taking certain with you, ripping it off. Fall was painful and unpleasant, you tried to cover yourself with curtain. Oh wait, you are a male skeleton, should you even cover the chest part? Yes. Otherwise, you felt weird. "Phahahahaha! Cross, you so, ahaha!"

You looked at the laughing skeleton with stern eyes. What a bastard! He made a move like wiping away tears, which was weird considering that guy looked like he was crying 24/7 with those black tears of his.

"What the fuck, dude!?" You screamed, looking at the smiling skeleton with the utter irritation.Though your anger quickly changed into the feeling of unease. Even with such a smiling face, his eye sockets looked uncomfortable to look at.

Chapter Text

Killer laughed so hard that he bent forward, holding his stomach. You just look at the new skeleton with disbelief. "Are you done with it?"

"Ah, man, it was funny!" He's finally standing up straight. "Crossy, if I knew that you like this curtain so much," He pointed at you, covering yourself in a curtain as if this were some kind of dress. "I definitely would give you more stuff like that! Maybe next time I should give you bedding with wolves and moon patterns, hahaha!"

You want to smack his skull, but at the same time, even cringe bedding is far more appealing than this black-and-white theme. So you decided to try something. "No! If you do this, I promise, I will smack you so hard that you will fly across the walls." You tried to make a really convincing angry face. Maybe if you show him how much you're against this idea, he will do it?

Killer smirked a bit more, putting his hand behind his head. "Suuure, I would never do such a thing. Cross, how can I do something against your wishes? You are my bestie!"

Killer steps closer, putting his skely hand on your shoulder. You cringe a bit, his hands are cold and uncomfortable. Why did he touch you? You became very aware of the fact that you were sitting naked ass there. You felt the warmth going to your cheeks, of course you are skeleton right now, but it's hard to feel that way. However, for you, you see yourself as your true body, and it's against all boundaries that this skeleton touches your shoulder.

"Fuck off!" You curse, smacking his hand as hard as you can. He put his hands up as a showing 'no harm' move and took one step back, still smiling.

"Oww, Cross, you have broken my heart with your harsh rejection!" He put his hands on the place where his heart would be.

"You don't have heart, dumbass!" You say it with a little smile.  Somehow, this atmosphere has become more friendly. But you're still naked, injured, and sitting on the floor. So you look right into the eyes of this skeleton. "Now, get out."

"Ok ok, no need to be so mean, Crossy~" Killer smiled, pointing at you. After that, the skeleton just disappeared using a shortcut. This time you felt in the air afterward of his magic. How did you miss it the first time when he teleported there? If you miss so important things, you really need some rest.

Slowly getting up, y/n still holding a curtain around herself, she looked at the bath. Now, without a curtain, there is no way she would be able to take a shower. But the bath is also cool! Yes, it takes more time, but also, with a bath, there is less confusion in understanding how to clean the skeletal body.

You put the curtain down, already feeling too exposed. What is the point of a locket in the room if anyone can welcome themselves into your space with teleportation? You slowly get into the bathtub, turning on the water and adjusting the temperature. Wow! This is really, really nice. Turning the water off, you slowly relaxed in a hot tub. It felt like all the tension from today had disappeared. You slowly closed your eye's sockets, only for a few seconds.

Open your eyes, you're yourself again. You can't hold back the laugh that escaped you from being you again. It felt so good to be able to hug yourself and feel something more than bones! However, despite your happiness, you were quickly pulled back into tension by a skeleton standing in front of you in the void that surrounds you two.

"Give my body back!" He screamed at you with such anger that you can't describe it. You tried to move away, but the distance stayed the same. He gazes upon you with astonishment. What did you do? It's not like you wanted to take his body! You tried to scream this right at his angry face, but everything disappeared. You wake up sitting in a cold tub.

With a shaky breath, you put your skeletal hands up to your face, touching it. You skeleton, still, you goddammit skeleton!  Not yourself! It felt like this dream teased you.

You sign, dropping your hand and splashing water a bit. "What was that..." you ask yourself, thinking about Cross. His anger is understandable, you would definitely be angry at somebody who would steal your body. But you don't want to feel bad for the guy who tried to kill you and was successful at some point. You get deeper into your thoughts.

Interesting… Would they put your grave close to your father's one? It would be nice… until you get back to dig your own grave in an attempt to take back your human body. It would be funny, you imagined a spooky skeleton digging graves in the middle of the night.

You slowly get up from the tub, looking at yourself. As good as soaking in the hot water was, you were still a bit dirty. For sure, you didn't do a successful job cleaning yourself. You look at the scrubbing tools and understand that you have no idea what to do with them. Yes, it makes sense to have tools for cleaning yourself, since cleaning with skeletal hands would be more like scrubbing rock against rock. But still, why more than 1 tool? There is a sponge, three special brushes—small, regular, and bigger ones—and also some tiny hook tool, probably for getting dirt out of joints or scars. You are not sure. But looking at all this, you feel uneasy. You used to use only soap and one brush. Maybe just taking the regular-size one would be the right choice?

You take the middle scrubber and try to clean yourself, but stop immediately. Its hurts! This brush is too harsh for such a job, so you put it back and tried a sponge. This is the right choice! Sponge is soft and good at cleaning. You spend some time making sure that every part of your body is clean, and it makes you more tired. 'I wouldn't shower as often as I used to', you think to yourself, getting out of the tub feeling much cleaner. Now the easy part! Get dry. It should be easy, right? You don't have hair, so it would be faster!

This was absolutely not as fast as you thought. Drying yourself was hard, especially joints, you also needed to clean yourself not only outside, but also inside. Going into the rib cage for cleaning felt too weird and a bit sensitive, so you spent a long time trying to be gentle. After what felt like forever, you were clean and dry! What a success! You looked at the first-aid kit. It looks like it's time for proper healing!

Now you look a bit like a mummy, but it's fine! At least you remember how to put on bandages and what medicine to use. Even with a skeletal body, you still managed to do everything right! You even found painkillers and took two pills, feeling much, much better without all this pain in the background.

Getting up from the floor, you put all the stuff back in the medicine kit. You felt the urge to put a med kit under your bed, just in case you would need it after Cross would punch you in the sleep. Not like you were sure he would be back in your dreams or if his attacks would have any damage in the real world. Anyway, you have some theories about possibly him damaging your soul in the sleep. How does your soul look now? After becoming one piece with somebody else?

You decided that you were not ready to see it yet.

Putting the medical kit back behind the mirror, you close the door, looking at yourself again. Tired but free from dirt and blood, good. Sighing, you turn back to the clothed backed where you put on your clean clothes. Just some baggy black shorts and a tight black turtleneck. Ew, Cross has only tight or baggy clothes—too baggy or tight for your liking. Not like you against his fashion choices, but it felt really weird to be skeleton in a mix of tight and baggy outfit. Something more general sized would be more familiar for you.

After getting dressed, you decided that it's time to get some well-deserved rest! You jump into the comfy bed, closing your eyes with a little yawn. Finally, rest!
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You can't sleep! After all that you were through, even being unbelievably tired, you can't manage to fall asleep. You stand up, feeling angry at yourself. What can you do? Going to meet others felt like too much stress. Especially if you accidentally bump into Nightmare. Maybe inspect Cross room again? Closet, nothing, bed, nothing, under bed, nothi- wait a minute! There was something covered and hidden. Book! Can it be!? Diary!? You look closer with a happy smile! It's some shitty romance. Your smile drops immediately. You want to smack this book against the wall and scream. You're holding the book tighter, raising it with your hand. But it wouldn't change anything. You lay back in bed, opening this shitty, typical romance book. Maybe some reading would help you sleep?

Reading this book, you felt like, at some point, you started to enjoy it. It looks like being here started to break you if this story about a poor woman and smart rich guy becomes interesting for you! Without noticing, you fall asleep.

Cross, again, standing in front of you with an angry grimace. You are otherwise trying to look serious, but you were so happy to be in your own body again! Even in a dream. You're not very good at holding your smile.

"When do you decide to stop playing around, and give me my body back?" Cross asked, crossing his arms. Phah. You found it a bit funny and decided not to hold it in front of your killer. "What's so funny!?"

"I just, huh, Cross- crossing arms, you know. Heh." You tried to describe why you suddenly started to giggle, but Cross looked only more unhappy with you. But surprisingly, he put his hands down.

"Listen, I want my body back. I don't know what kind of magic are you use, but you are unwelcome here. And I'm sure that I didn't absorb your soul to make you part of me, I had such an unpleasant experience and wouldn't make the same mistake twice. So I'm sure that it's your shitty magic." His voice became more tired than angry, making you almost feel bad for him, almost.

"And where is this mysterious soul now?" You looked around, it would be sad to be one piece, not with a skeleton, but also with some random soul. There is definitely not enough room for three people.

"Gone, thanks to the Nightmare help." Cross said, looking at the ground, after what again on you. "So now, give me my body back."

"Sure! We have one goal. But for that, I need to go back to my universe. So how can I do it? With your teleport magic or something like this?" You asked, tilting your head slightly. Of course, you don't want to let him know that you plan to be back in your body and then kill him, rather than just put everything in the right places. But he didn't need to know it.

"I already know what you are you planning to do." He was rubbing his eyes with a tired look. After what, he looked at you again. "I wouldn't help you if your goal is killing me."

"Said the guy who tried to kill me first!" You scream at him, feeling anger bubbling inside of you. How dare he be like this! Say such things as if you were a bad guy here.

"No!" He stepped closer, still keeping his distance from you. "My order was to make Reishu, work with Nightmare! Make her create a magic artifact for him!"

"And how attacking us in front of the cafe while we were resting would make her listen to you!?"

"Because I was supposed to scare her! I was supposed to capture you, and make her do an artifact by saying that if she wouldn't listen to Nightmare, you would die!" He said this, putting his hands up in anger. You're looking at him, too stunned to speak. And suddenly the dream ends, you were in Cross room again, resting in the bed, or more like, your legs resting in the bed and your head and hands at the floor. You look like you tried to fight your bed covers.

Slowly getting up from bed, and starting to make the bed, you think about a conversation with Cross. Was that… did that mean that you just killed yourself without real danger or reasons? You sit on your knees in front of the bed.

"No... his lying." You softly say it more to calm down yourself.
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With all this conversation with Cross, you didn't even noticed that in your dream, there was not only you and Cross, but also some small blue light dot in the dark.

Chapter Text

You get up and start thinking about changing clothes. Would it be weird to still wear this black turtleneck and black shorts with white lines after you slept in them? Well, not like you can smell. You are a skeleton!

You decided against changing clothes, of course, your body feels better, but also it still hurts to do too many movements. You still need to find a kitchen and get some food, so it is probably for the better to save energy.

Y/n did one step forward and stopped with feeling that something was wrong. Soul felt weird. Would it be because Cross did something while you slept? You look down at your skeletal hands… maybe it's really time to take a look at your soul? Sighing, you put one hand on your chest, and with a tug motion you feel like all your entire being has left you, you didn't feel whole anymore. It's odd and uncomfortable. In the past, when your soul was outside your body, it felt absolutely natural. But after one of your magic tricks, everything became worse. You become worse, your soul… You look at the purple heart with a big, ugly crack at the right, but something weird. Your soul is now upside down, with a white gradient down, and the crack looks worse and bigger. It's felt like even a light breath would end you.

"Great." You mumble angrily to yourself, carefully placing your soul back. "F*ck you, Cross."

You decided to put your frustration into energy and go get some run to get food, so you're going to the door. Opening it slightly, you look around. Wow! Same corridors and decor, you have absolutely no idea where the kitchen is or if you were ready to go outside with the possibility of meeting Nightmare or something even worse. It would be nice to walk with Horror, but also after last time when he got you to the tentacle menace, ugh, nope. You are not ready to meet Nightmare through Horror again.

You decide to be brave, so after a few seconds of putting yourself together, you slowly leave the room. Calm down, y/n! You are a brave part of the royal guard!! Even being a low-level guard, you still had enough experience to be proud of your abilities! So there is no room for panic!

Crack.

You heard a loud crack in the background, far, far away from your room, but it's still was loud enough to echoing through the entire corridor. NOPE. You get back to your room clothing door with a loud squeak.

Maybe some magic would help? Yes, you didn't use it for the last 10 years, if we don't count this disaster with body swap. But! Now you are in a new body that was born to use magic. It's really a great advantage and an opportunity in general! So why not try to use it?

You sit down in the middle of the room, facing the door, so if somebody gets inside, you will face them, and slowly you close your eyes to concentrate. You felt magic around, and honestly, it felt unusual, like dark, angry, and tired magic. Why is this place so sad?… Anyway, you need to use magic from this place because you're not entirely a monster, there are still you in Cross soul. Monsters create magic, but as a human, you use surrounding magic instead of one in your soul. So it would be best to use this body with a mix of surrounding magic and your own.

Taking a deep breath and concentrating, you feel something weird, like, your senses get stronger. You hear every small sound, and you can smell things—surely better than when you were a human. Wow! That's why this goddamn skeleton was able to know where you were hiding in the middle of the fight! Even with the fact that you are really good at hiding, a piece of sh*t probably smelt you or heard your breathing! What a cheater!

You decided to concentrate on the skeletal attack. Opening your eyes, in front of you, in the air, started to form a bone attack. You decided that using something closer to Cross attacks would be easier for this body. "Uhhh…" you look at the bone in front of you. It's weird-shaped and looks, at some point, ugly. Well, it's all probably Cross's fault, not yours! You decided to dismiss the attack, but instead, this attack got right in your face. Moving quickly out of the way, you hear a loud crash behind you. You stopped breathing and looked back. Oh! Damn! Bone got right through Cross closet and got stacked in the wall. Uh... maybe next time it would be better to practice outside.

From your thoughts, you get pulled out by the sound of… phone messages? It's muted, but you can hear vibrations after each message. Huh, maybe you can even call your friend from Cross's phone! The sound came from the bathroom. You opened the door and got inside, searching for a source of sound. Looking at the basket with dirty clothes, you reach for the shorts and finally find Cross's phone! Wow! There are messages from your hole-headed friend. In the messages from Horror, he says what is on today's menu and the time when you need to be in the kitchen. Maybe you can text him and ask him to bring food here? Or just to spend time together and walk to the kitchen with him. Of course, you know how to get there from the Nightmare office, and you can at some point understand the way there, but being so close to his room felt too much for you right now. You would prefer to know ways to avoid him as much as possible.

Tapping on the screen, nothing happened. F*ck! You are the skeleton, of course, this wouldn't work. But wait, Cross is used this phone, so he can use it somehow. Thinking and looking at the screen, you try to use some sort of warm magic that they're in body memories. It doesn't work. You didn't understand the concept of using such magic, which was weird. You can at some point use his attack, but not this? Why!? Oh! You're looking at Cross's phone. Of course, the body can't remember the magic that it uses without thinking! It's like, you can't remember how to breath because you do it all the time automatically. What a shame.

Ok, maybe your own magic in this body would work? And with you being a monster, it's supposed to work properly? You close your eyes and concentrate, and slowly, your hands start to feel warmer. Opening your eyes with enthusiasm, you tap on the screen, and this works! What a wonderful and pleasant surprise! You started to answer Horror. But with each second, your hands become warmer—even painfully warm. You send an unfinished message: 'Don't want to go together to the kitchen? I justaghdh-' and drop the phone in a pile of clothes, rushing to the sink and opening the cold water you put your hands inside. The water began to hiss and gradually turned into steam due to the heat of the hands. It felt like you were burning alive, but without real damage to your body or HP.

"Why do I used magic!? Why this body didn't helped me! Why, why, WHY I'M STILL USELESS!"

You cry out, punching the mirror with your fist. It's shattered but didn't turn into pieces, staying in place. Slowly, you put your painful hands down, looking at yourself in the mirror, or more like, at Cross that has become your trap. You feel miserable.

"Knock knock." You hear a familiar voice, Horror? It looks like a message reached him, huh? You turn the water down, looking at your still painfully burning hands. They look normal, but with the reaction of water, you need to make sure you don't touch anything to keep the magic in them hidden. Surprisingly, it didn't burn your clothes, even though your clothes felt too warm.

"Who there?" You call out, leaving the bathroom.

"Let's eat…"

Curiously, you continue, "Let's eat who?"

"Wow…man… I didn't know you were... ..a cannibal." After a small pause, you hear little chuckles behind the door. But you feel weird. This joke is really not your type of humor, like, at all. But you don't want to make him hate you, he's right now the only friendly guy there. So you laugh, opening the door to Horror. He looks pleasant with himself. Nice. You can still believably pretend that you laugh—just old habits from times in academia. People around you were harsh and rude, but it's better to pretend that everything is fine and that you're part of the company rather than get bullied. Not like it helped you in the long run, people started to see through you, and things got worse. And with the help of not being able to use magic, it's just combined at the worth period of your life.

"Hi-" You almost call him 'dear', because you call this most of your friendly people that. "Hi, Horror! It's good to see you." You can't hide warmth in your voice. Horror looks like pleasant company, even with this hole in his head, he still seems friendly and really cares about you! Or, more likely, care about Cross.

"I was.. surprised to see your… messages. You started to feel bonely?" He says looking right in your eyes, and honestly, this joke felt good. You started to laugh real this time. Laughing, you closed your eyes and didn't see that Horror's smile drop for a second. He felt surprised and puzzled at the same time, understanding that before it was a pretended laugh got right at his mind.

Laughing, you open your eyes and put your hand to the mouth to cover it, but your hand is too hot, it felt painful, so you jerk it down. The corners of your smile drop for a second, but you manage to keep smiling. Horror seems less happy. Was it because you laughed too weirdly? Was it your fault? You want to apologize for just laughing trustfully, but when you open your mouth, Horror first speaks.

"I was surprised to see.. your message.. on the cell-bone." He says it with a small smile, and you can't hold it. You laugh again, but you are trying to be quieter now. "Tibia honest, I felt … shocked to the bone, I thought you were bone tired and would not only not go to the ..kitchen, but also.... speak to someone."

You lose it, and start a fully loud laugh that echoes through the corridor. Bending forward, you're putting your hand on your stomach, but right after a few seconds, your laugh dies, and with a hiss, you put them down, straightening your spine back to look at Horror. "That was really good on- what are you?" Horror looked concerned, so he tried to reach your hands. "NO!" You slap his hand and take a quick step back. His eye's socket widens in surprise. You probably look the same—shocked. You murmur, looking guilty. "I'm sorry…"

You put your hand behind your back, careful not to touch your back. "My hands just still hurt after the battle, sorry. Everything alright." Your smile looks a bit forced, and you feel like if he decides to put there Nightmare again, you will lose it.

"I would like to.... look. closer." Horror said, stepping closer.

You hesitate for a few seconds, but decide that since your hands look completely fine, it's okay to let him look. He wouldn't see any problems. "Only if you wouldn't touch."

He thinks for a moment, after which he nods. You roll up the sleeves, showing clean hands that are covered in bandages and band-aids. They look rough, but they are also absolutely normal. He leans a bit closer, and his expressions soften, but only for a few seconds. Suddenly, he tried to touch your hands, panicking, you are stepping back. He gets closer. And after a moment, you stood against the wall, looking at Horror's chest. Guy looks too big to run, but you still tried. He put his big hand on your chest, stopping and kipping you in one place.

"I-im fine! I'm fi-fine!" You try to sound convincing, but your voice shakes. You think about holding his hand to burn him and run, but it's not the way you would choose so easily. It felt somehow wrong and unnecessary. Horror reaches his second hand, and you close your eyes, preparing for the worst. But instead, you feel a skeletal hand on your forehead. It's warm and calms you a little. You open your eyes, looking at the big guy. He looks surprised.

"No....temperature.. then." He looks down, at your hands, and reaches for your hand with hand that was on your forehead only a few seconds ago. You panic but can't do anything, his hand on your ribs just keeps you steady at place.

Horror touch your hand, and jerk it back. His eye pupil shrank to the size of a dot. His gaze snaps at you. "We need to go to the Nightmare."

You felt betrayed and disappointed, but surprisingly not angry. "No! No, I can't! I can't!! He -.....he is still waiting for the report, and I didn't write it yesterday. He would ask me about it if I went to his office. I can't!"

You look at Horror with a panicking expression, his gaze softens. "We... I, I can check you. See your.... stats"

"Yes, please!" You said it before thinking about it. But the realization hit you too late. You see how Horror's expressions change into an unreadable gaze. All you can think about now is defending yourself.

Status:

Name: Y/n&Cross

HP: *30error.not1error30error1* 31

LV:  *20error1error20* 21

*Feels scared and lost, everything hurts.
*Decided to kill you.

Horror blinks, looking at something, probably your status. You can't see it, but his expressions definitely show that now he knows what you are.

You didn't even had time to react, Horror summoned an axe, and slammed you right at the floor by holding your neck. You're beginning to feel dizzy, especially considering that you are still injured from yesterday. He slams the axe at the floor right in front of your face, only a few cm from your nose. Panicked, you summoned a bone attack. He gets up his axe to dodge, but pauses, looking at the bone. "What..the"

You turn your head a bit and see the most ugly, miserable, and weird bone attack that you can only imagine. It looks like the f*cking root of the tree, but even weirder. After a second, your attack just slams through the window. You tried to throw it at Horror, but it looks like ugly bone decided otherwise...

There is a silence for a moment, you look at Horror. He looks at the window and then at you with a curious expression. You open your mouth to say something.

Chapter Text

Being pinned to the ground is not a good feeling. But you need to be quick and say something! "Let's talk in Cross's room! Not here."

Horror's face is very skeptical. He let go of the axe, putting it on the floor. You felt relief that he was open to chatting. What absolutely surprises you considering that he's part of the Nightmares gang! But after a moment, all your relief just dies. Horror put his right hand at your neck, squeezing it, not painfully, but still uncomfortable. If you were still a human, then this grip would keep you breathless, but right now you are even glad to be a skeleton.  Awkwardly lying on the cold floor in such silence, all you can think about is how painfully hot your hands feel right now. You close your eyes, trying to accept fate and waiting for an attack. But instead, you hear shifting of the clothes and then typing sounds. Curiously, you open your eyes, trying to look at Horror, but he squeezes your neck painfully, making you stop. As soon as you stopped trying to take a peek at the big guy, his hold softened a bit. You really wonder who and what he is typing.

Horror looked at the message hesitantly before sending it, 'Cross feels unwell. I would bring him breakfast, so start eating without us'. Sending a message, he looks at something that was supposed to be his friend, not an unknown person. Horror felt disappointed in himself that he hadn't seen it earlier. Cross acted really odd, of course, it was not just tiredness! How did he misjudge the situation that much!? But he knew something for sure: no matter who this person is or how it becomes part of Cross body, Nightmare surely saw it the first moment he saw them. There's no way that Night would miss it, considering that he has so much power under emotions and an understanding of magic waves. If he didn't kill them, then it probably not that dangerous. But still, he needs to ask something.

"How did you…met .. Cross? And how…" he removes his hand from your neck and points at you. "How did that happen?"

"Please, not there. In Cross's room…" You whisper at him, closing your eyes. Suddenly, you finally felt like there was no more weight on you. Hesitatingly, you open your eyes and look at Horror. He just stands behind you, patiently waiting. You notice that there is still an axe in his hand. Urgh. Slowly getting up, you roll down your sleeves and look at the big guy.

"Go." That's all he says, stepping away and giving you space to go back in the room. Hesitatingly, you go inside. After a moment, Horror goes after you, closing and, suspiciously, locking the door. You nervously gulp, looking at him. You thought that he was just a big guy who somehow, even by being a nice guy, still got into the Nightmare gang, but now you can see that he is really powerful and scary. Only if you had your halberd. Your dear weapon that was created by Reishu would you use it with an artifact inside it to attack and burn him. You would probably even injure him really hard. But now you are the one injured here, without even a single weapon. Now it's even sad that Cross's blade disappeared after the body swap, you would definitely use it right now. You snap out of your thoughts by Horrors voice. "Answer me."

"Oh! Yes, I, well." Sitting on the bed, you started trying to think how present information. "I am friends with Reishu, a monster mage that can create unique artifacts. In the past, she declined Nightmare order. So I think he was angry and tried to pressure her so she would make an artifact for him. So he sent Cross to talk with her, and accidentally I was with her. We were just waiting for her…" You decided that you needed to mix lies and truth a bit more. There is no need to let him know too much. About a fight, about you being a part of the royal guard, and the fact that she was waiting for some guy named Blue to give him artifacts that his boss... 'you can't even remember his name' ordered. She has also wanted you to meet him since they started dating. You probably shouldn't mention him because they can use it against Reishu. "Not her, mine, my friend, to spend time together. And then Cross got here and tried to attack her! So I, like a good friend, used my magic to stop him. It was an absolutely awful idea since, as a civilian, I can't use it very well. Without any damage, just to stop the unnecessary fight. But, emm.." You looked away.

"We got our bodies swapped, and before I was able to do anything, Nightmare got me back. So I need- ... Wha! Dude, what the hell! Put the phone away! I'm telling you an important story!" You look at Horror, who had a phone in his hand to text somebody. He looked at you with an unreadable expression and looked down at the phone again, sending something.

"Why your... magic.. acted weird?" Horror says, continuing the conversation, but still looking at the phone. He didn't even answer anything about holding the damn thing! What makes you nervous. Sending his last message, and then looked at you. You felt nervous. Who is he even texting right now!?

"I, uhh, since I can't use magic because I'm as a normal citizen cant use magic perfectly, it was an accident, my magic acted weird and did not what I wanted." You felt embarrassed, looking away. Yeah, it's better to lie, because saying that there was an accident that turned you into a useless piece of crap, and you went from high-rating guards to the lowest one, it's just. Too much to let someone know. Especially your enemy.

"Ok. You need.. promise me that... you wouldn't even try to kill anyone here." Horror says, putting his hand up to hold your face and turning it so you can see his creepy gaze. You feel uncomfortable and are really starting to think about burning him. Your hand slowly moves closer to him, but you stop. Your hands were painfully hot, but unharmful, heat didn't melt your bones, so it probably would only hurt him, which would give him more motivation to attack you. He would probably just kill you with one smack. Horror made a snort. "It's not like someone like you would be able to kill."

"What, I'm strong!" Somehow, it just insults you.

"Nah, look." Horror points in the other direction, letting go of your face. Curiously, you move your head, and see that your ugly first attack still stuck in the wall. "You have... talent.. to create such awful attacks."

He starts chuckling slightly, but right now you want to just bury your face in your hands and disappear. You can feel overwhelmed embarrassment. "Shut up, at least I tried..." you murmur, covering your face. The answer to your words was only more chuckles.

"Huh, sure sure." He makes a small pause, and his smile drops. "You also can't leave your room alone."

"What!?" You put your hands down, looking at Horror with disbelief. "Why!?"

"Imagine like you would... meet someone. And he would ask.. something." He shrugs. "Bud, you are not a ... very convincing Cross."

You want to deny it, but he's right. You have no idea how to act like Cross. But wait, why is he... " Why are you helping me?"

Horror felt that y/n is absolutely naive if she sees that as help. He would watch her, while Nightmare would take his time and find out what to do with this situation. Through messages with him, Horror discovers that, as he predicted, Nightmare knew from the first moment of seeing it that it wasn't Cross. But this person inside has only 1lv, so they wouldn't be too dangerous. Horror felt like it would still be wrong to let it wander around. Even if Nightmare says that it's not a problem, Horror still determined to make sure no one gets hurt. Even Cross's body, which means also protecting it because it's inside his friend.

"Why not... help?" Horror says it nonchalantly with a shrug.

"And... uh, for how long?" You ask hesitatingly. Of course, you said that you wouldn't kill, but nobody said anything about snooping around to get some info and send it to Reishu. You need some alone time to find the weaknesses of your enemies.

Horror shrugs and sits beside you, dismissing his axe. There was silence for a few long minutes, and it felt like forever. You are uncomfortable sitting in silence like that.

He thinks about everything. After a moment, Horror knows what to say to you. He needs to convince you that you need to listen to him. Yes, he didn't know yet what Nightmare plans were, or if he even had one. But he needs to say the right words, and of course he cannot stop thinking about ways that they usually use with enemies. He would put you in the cage to keep you in one place, or beat sh*t out of you to make you sit still. What if you decide to hurt someone? Your soul looked like a human one. So maybe, with a mix of Cross lv and the fact that you are human, you can do a sudden attack and really injure somebody. So it's better to just say something to make you believe him. He meets your gaze with a shrug. "I don't know. Maybe until you would be able to be great at pretending that you are a Cross."

You just nod. You need more info, but... Later, you just need to ask him later to get more info about Cross and to be better at pretending that you were him.

Thinking about everything, you felt like Horror's weight on the bed shifts, and looking at a big guy, you see that he is lying with his back on the bed and covering his face with hands, groaning. You jump slightly, feeling afraid of what he is doing and why. Would he decide that you are not worth bothering and just kill you?!

"This is such a mess... is there a way to bring you back at... your.. body? Get Cross... back..." He asks you, still keeping his hands on the face.

"I... yes! I just need to go back to my native universe and ask Reishu to create an artifact for me that will switch us back. But...uh, it would be better to rush a bit, until my corpse would start rotting." You said, looking down with sadness. Maybe at some point, when you return to your own body, it will be so late that you become skeletal permanently? At least Cross's body was born this way, and it does not look that realistic. But your own body, ugh, become a skeleton it would look creepy as hell. Like from some sh*tty horror movie.

"Ok." It's all what he says. Putting one hand down, he still covers his other eye with the back of the hand. Horror looks seriously deep inside his own thoughts. Maybe you need to comfort him? How would Cross comfort somebody?... Ah! Now he knows that you are not the Cross, so you finally have the opportunity to act more open, showing your real personality. It's not like he can do much with such knowledge, so it's a great idea to act like you now!

"Well, when I would be back in my body, you would have your buddy back!" You tried to sound cheerful, but understanding that when you will turn back, you would probably try to kill everyone in the Nightmare team. That just gives you a sour taste in your mouth. Horror didn't react, still looking at the ceiling. You felt more uneasy. Oh! You can comfort with touch. Your hand is honestly much less hot right now. Still, there are higher temperature than they should be, but at the same time, it wouldn't hurt! You put one hand on your skeletal cheek to check, yeap, it's really warm but also ok. Slowly, you reached Horror's forehead and started to rub a bit. He looks at you, and there is clearly surprise in his gaze. "I'm just, well, trying to comfort you."

He didn't say anything, after that, he just closed his eyes. You decided to tease a bit.

"Is it working?" You ask with a small smile.

"Don't make me... say..it." He said that, and his grin returned, after which he closed his eyes again. You sit like this for a moment, thinking about life. He didn't killed you, didn't damaged you, and was trying to help, so maybe he is really nice? That moment in the corridor was spooky, but no harm was done! Or maybe... maybe he just wants to help Cross and didn't want to damage this body.

Your face fell, you don't want to think straight, it's just, it's just better to believe in something unreal, at least for now. You still have time. 

Chapter Text

Y/n felt uneasy. Slowly removing her hand from Horror's forehead, she lay down next to him on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.

"So, about the food," you decided to start talking about the lighter topics, which would also be more comfortable for your own mental state to be absolutely honest. Besides, you are really hungry, eating something delicious would be a great idea right now.

Horror turned his head to look at you, and you moved your head to look back at him. He opened his mouth to speak, looking like he had just remembered something. "Oh, yeah... I... came here so we could go together to the kitchen, to eat."

"I'm sorry for asking you to come. But you understand, I don't even know where the kitchen is." You turned away, looking at the ceiling. "Honestly, I don't even know where anything is in this huge castle. Like, man, everything does look the same here! Who thought this decor was a good idea?!" You looked at Horror with a smile on your face. He let out a small laugh.

"Nah, none of us... built this place... or chose the interior. Nightmare found... this abandoned castle... and since it's full of negativity, it became our home." Horror looked like he was recalling some very pleasant memories.

"Oh, you were with Nightmare even when there was no base?" you raised your bony eye brows in surprise. He hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, yes and no. At first, I was doing his... tasks while still in my world, just leaving it... from time to time. We got the food as a payment for that. But then when... the team started to grow... it became a problem to get everyone together," Horror said with a shrug. You had more questions but decided to focus on the main thing, information. At least some of your questions have an answers now.

"And how many members are on the team?" You tried to sound casual, but you actually felt nervous and uncomfortable asking for information instead of asking about Horror and his home. You've never been good at extracting the information, always felt guilty. But who else would do this right now? Only you in the heart of enemy's base to gather the information directly.

It took Horror longer to answer this question. "Not many... there are only five main ones... but there are also assistants."

You just hummed in return. To be honest, you weren't sure how useful this information was. They are kind of small organisation for someone that known. Not like you ever was too interested in the multiverse details to begin with, since you never left yours.  

"Uh, um, since you live here, don't you miss your home? Do you still travel back?... wait, how do you travel at all? Can you go to another universe with this dark magic that rips through reality? With this ‘reality-ripping ultimate dark magic power’?"

Horror started to laugh at your naming, moving his hand on the bed to lean on it while moving in the half sitting position. "Why... that name?"

You suddenly felt embarrassed. "Well, I just, what else I can call it then!? It's classified as dark magic because of the way the mana flows. It also tears reality apart and moves objects through space. It's very powerful interdimensional magic of rank S. How else would you call something so powerful?" you asked with a tone of complete surprise and slight anger, as if his reaction itself is an insult.

Horror laughed and closed his eyes, then turned on his side, looking at you once again. His smile dropped, and he looked with a serious expression right into your eyes, leaning closer. You felt uncomfortable. "A shortcut."

A pause.

"WHAT! You, you monster! What a terrible name for something so powerful! Are you serious?!" You looked up at Horror, who started laughing. "Please tell me this is a joke!"

"Nuh-ah."

"What do you mean, 'nuh-ah'?!"

"Nuh-ah," he just shrugged with a smile.

"Damn, dude, that's just violence against magic, you know?" you said, smiling and shaking your head.

"Nah, the main thing is... that the name is convenient," Horror leaned back, gaining a more comfortable distance. "So... how do you know so much about magic?"

Oh, shit. Quick, you have to come up with an excuse! "I just, um, I'm friends with Reishu, so I know a lot about magic, they always bubbling about it." You looked away, your tone becoming sadder. "She's always been there for me, always done her best to support me. I've gotten so much knowledge and help from Reishu... So, I just, I just can't understand something..."

You stopped talking mid-sentence, feeling warm tears slowly flowing down your cheeks. When you put your hand to your face, you saw purple tears.

"Wow, I can cry?" Your tone trembled a little due to the onslaught of emotions, but this unexpected surprise clearly knocked you out of your dark mood a bit.

“Um… you can also shape body parts,” Horror said, moving into a sitting position. “You... didn't know?”

“I'm learning, so don't criticize me!” you said jokingly, lightly kicking Horror's shoulder with your hand. He just let out a small huff.

“So… what did Reishu do?” Horro asked, and you looked at him in surprise, having slightly forgotten the course of the dialogue. “Well, who is she... him? They??”

“Her,” you clarified.

“Mhm… what did she do… why are you crying… because of her?” Horror asked, his head tilted slightly. To some extent, it was nice to discuss the situation with someone. Even though it is, generally speaking, your enemy,

“She escaped without looking back. Cross attacked. I told her to run away and find a safe place, but to be honest, when she just ran without turning back, I felt…. sad. She... she didn't even say goodbye! Just got up and ran.” You felt anger gradually rising inside you. You couldn't keep it in, so getting out of bed, you took a pillow and threw it with all your strength against the wall. “And now I'm stuck here! And she, she didn't even say goodbye! I died for her! And, I know that it's selfish, but she could have, I don't know! Created something to help me, done something when I fought for her! I just, its weird, and it does feels awful. I helped her, but now I'm just stuck in this stupid body… I just, I regret my decision and also feel shameful because of that. She is my friend, I knew what I am doing and why, but at the same time I just, Im unsure."

Horror stood up, putting his hand on your shoulder to comfort you, but you didn't feel better, continuing the monologue of bottled up emotions that ran wild right now. "And I don't even know if she will even come to my funeral, or if she will even remember me? Will she regret not saying goodbye? How long will I even be a part of her past, in her memories?"

You silently looked down at the floor, feeling terrible, regretting the decision, as well feeling guilty for those emotions. But Horror patted you on the head, catching your attention. "You're not dead yet... have time to... get back."

"I am, yeah, you're right..." you mumbled under your breath, feeling that with the situation around you, there was no guarantee that you would actually make it back. You didn't want to continue talking about yourself, but you also didn't feel like you could talk about Horror’s home after your temper tantrum. So you just wanted to stop the conversation. "Let's just go eat."

"Sure," Horror said, scratching his head. "I... I think you should stay in your room... so you don't run into anyone and arouse suspicion. I could... bring food here.”

"No, it's okay, I'll just keep quiet!" you answered the giant sharply. There was no way you would miss such an incredible opportunity! To learn all the inner most sacret secrets of your enemies! To see more in person. And also, Horror would save you if something will go wrong and you would be in the risk zone, or more likely, Cross’s body would be the thing that he would try to save. "Besides, you'll be there for me."

Horror hummed and after a couple of seconds nodded his head in approval. "Only... if you keep quiet."

"Of course, dear! Don't worry, I'm an expert at keeping quiet. I mean, phew, there's nothing easier," you said with great enthusiasm, proudly putting your hands on your hips. Horror looked puzzled.

"Dear?..." he asked, looking somewhat offended.

"Ah! Fuck. I'm sorry, I just, Reishu has been my only friend for the past 10 years. I just called her dear, and over time it became a habit to call everyone that, everyone I talk to regularly. I'm sorry, I won't call you that anymore."

"Please... when I look at you, I see Cross's face... and the idea that... he would call me that is too horrible." You saw Horror flinch with disgust at the thought, which made you feel even more embarrassed.

"I'm sorry about that, dude, but hey, with that, you would have even more motivation to help me get my body back! So maybe we can take a… shortcut to my universe? Only after breakfast, please, the food is too good to pass up." You scratched the back of your neck awkwardly, feeling embarrassed to admit that the food was better than anything you've ever eaten. Though your standards were incredibly low to begin with, so this was no surprise.

"I'm sorry... I can't," Horror shook his head.

"Why not?" you asked, feeling astonishment overwhelm you. He doesn't want to send you back? Does he not want Cross back, or has he realized that your plan is only half true?

"Magic isn't that... strong. I can't use it to travel between worlds."

"Then how do you travel through universes at all?” You just couldn't believe what he was saying. it was definitely a lie! It should be. They do travel across the universes! All the damn time!

“Nightmare opens… portals. And you can use… his magic when he gives you a bit. But you can only travel to places that he... chooses.”

“You're sure you can't shortcut me?” Thinking that only Nightmare could bring you back to your universe felt like too much.

Horror looked at you with frustration. "I told you, I just... can't."

"Sorry, you're right. You already answered me. Sorry." You looked at the floor, feeling uncomfortable. "But then how will I get my body back?"

The only answer was silence. You felt disappointed that he couldn't help you in any way, but on the other hand, you couldn't keep relying on others. First, your father supported you, then Reishu, and now what? You're trying to lean on a murderous skeleton who is basically your enemy? You want him to do something for you? It's just pathetic at this point!

"Okay, let's just go eat. I promise I will keep quiet," you said, walking to the door. After unlocking it, you walked out waiting until Horror followed you. Walking along the same corridors, you began to notice the differences in the interior, the pattern of the carpets, differences in vases and statues, as well as other small details that gave you a better understanding of the surrounding space. Next time you could even come to the kitchen by yourself! Not that it was a good thing, considering that Horror didn't want to let you go out alone. Maybe you should start going out at night to explore the place? You can't always wander around not knowing where things are. And technically its also your temporal home, so it aren't even snooping around. Its, uh, exploration of the property?

The walk was a quiet thing, but you didn't feel so stressed because your mind was racing with thoughts and plans. Once you memorized the path, you had to recognize the environment. Maybe it would be nice to get to the Nightmare's office when everyone would be asleep. There must be some important documents with the information, thats for sure. And if you got caught, you could just pretend you came to deliver a report. A win-win situation. It's a wonderful plan!

"Remember... be quiet," Horror said as he opened the door to the kitchen, you just nodded at him, letting out a small puff of air, feeling determinant in your role. It was time to be a convincing Cross!

Walking into the kitchen with a face full of confidence, you immediately noticed Nightmare sitting at the table. He looked at his phone in one hand and had a mug of coffee in the other. To his right was that prankster skeleton with the tear-stained face, leaning with his elbows on the table, while holding his head with his hands. He was saying something joyful to Nightmare. But Nightmare didn't seem to be really listening to him, only occasionally making a small noises to pretend that he was listening, or he was more of a listener rather than talker, and it is how he truly do listen others? Nah, not too interesting.

you look at the other side. On the other side of the table sat the other skeleton with a hood on his head. He had just put his head on the table, so you couldn't see his face. His clothes were slightly torn and covered with dust, blood, and dirt, he looked like someone who had just come out of some kind of heavy battle, or crawled out of the grave, ugh. Nightmare and the energetic skeleton each had a plate of delicious-looking breakfast, while the third skeleton had nothing, facepalming his face against the table.

You looked at Horror, silently asking where you should sit. He looked at you and then at the table, pausing as if he was thinking about options. But then, he took a step forward. "Dust... we discussed... no blood and dust on the table. Wash yourself and... change your clothes."

Dust slowly raised his head, looking at Horror in annoyance. "Fine."

Surprisingly, the skeleton's voice was very low with a slight huskiness. He looked as if all he wanted to do was lie back on the table and pass out. And, wow, how often did they come to the table covered in blood and dust that it became a rule? It was a surprisingly disgusting idea. Even you as a guardian in training, in your academia times, always found the time to clean yourself, meanwhile this guy just sit there covered in who knows what. Ew.

Dust slowly got up, mumbled something to himself, and then walked out of the room. You quickly stepped aside to not block his way out of the kitchen. Once he was out and the door was closed, you looked at Horror again, the question still, stands, you are unsure of where to sit. He just walked to the far side of the kitchen, seemingly looking for something to eat. When you tried to follow him, he just waved his hand in a motion that told you not to do so. Ugh. Thanks, very helpful.

You slowly approached the table, looking at the place where Dust had been sitting. It looked dirty and disgusting, and even sitting next to it felt awful, so you chose a seat that was further away from Dust's.

"Morning, Cross, did you have a good sleep?" Nightmare's voice made you flinch and look at him nervously. He looked smug. You weren't sure why, and that detail truly bugged you.

As you opened your mouth to answer, the tear-stained skeleton started talking first.

"Cross! I thought you wouldn't come here~ You are not feeling well, which usually meant you being closed in your room, all depressed and angry. So how come you are here instead, hm? Perhaps you missed me so much that you decided to come despite your condition? Wow, Im touched."

You wanted to answer, in a clearly rude manner, but Horror interrupted you by placing a plate in front of you with a loud sound that almost made you flinch. That's right, silence! You needed to keep quiet. But they were expecting at least some kind of answer. You had to say something neutral. "Morning."

The laughing skeleton simply turned his attention back to Nightmare as if he had expected that reaction from Cross. You sighed in relief, but Nightmare had no mercy. Putting his phone down, he still was looking right into your eyes with the uncomfortable amount of intensity. "If you are feeling better, I think you can help Dust with the mission tonight. It's not a hard one, don't worry." He shrugged. "Since he's tired from the last mission and you're beat up, I think it's better for you two to go together."

You awkwardly picked at your food with your fork, looking at Nightmare. "I don't really feel-"

Horror sat down to your right, setting down his plate and Dust's. "I guess... Cross would probably feel better after this mission. Stretch a bit." he said with a shrug.

Looking at him, you thought only one thing, 'Asshole! What the fuck!?', but Horror didn't even look at you. Then something clicked in your head. It would be suspicious if you didn't go, for sure! In your mind, you thanked Horror for his help. Not even considering that the help was meant not for you.

Chapter Text

You eat in silence, your gaze fixed on your plate. Drawing attention to yourself is the last thing you want right now. In the background, a skeleton whose name you don’t know is speaking to Nightmare. You feign disinterest, listening intently for any scrap of information.

"Boss, are we planning to hit that little world again? It was stupid to send just Cross alone," the skeleton says, leaning toward Nightmare with a mouthful of food. His manners are nonexistent, ew.

"We will discuss this later. In my office," Nightmare replies, his eyes glued to the phone on his desk as he takes another sip of coffee.

The skeleton, whom you now recognize as Killer, wiggles his fork in frustration. "Come on, let's just hash out the plan. Maybe if we grab—"

Nightmare's head snaps up. He lowers his mug, and his gaze cuts sharply to the other skeleton. "Killer."

The single word is enough. Killer immediately falls silent, lowers his fork, and resumes eating without another word on the subject. His abrupt submission only strengthens your resolve. You have to get into that office and find whatever records they have. There must be clues about their future plans!

You continue eating, enjoying both the food and the minor drama. It's a welcome change when Nightmare is stressing someone else out instead of you. Ha-ha!

After some time, Dust drifts into the room. He's wearing a black hoodie with intricate red line patterns tracing the back, a gray cap pulled low over his hood. A faded red scarf, old and worn out, is wrapped around his neck, and he has on some gray pants and dark red shoes. As he sits down and begins to eat, you notice he's also wearing dark red gloves. You wonder why. A peculiar fashion statement, perhaps?

Nightmare glances at Dust and offers a faint smile. "Dust, you're with Cross on today's mission. Before you protest," he adds, raising a hand, "you're tired and could use support. At the same time, Cross is too beaten up to go alone. Just be helpful and deal with it together. Also," Nightmare’s gaze slides to you, a smirk playing on his lips, "make sure nothing happens to him."

You meet his gaze, refusing to be the first to look away. A silent war is declared in that shared stare, and you know instinctively that breaking eye contact would be a surrender. Killer looks between you and Nightmare, his expression baffled, he is clearly confused by what is even going on, though it doesn't seem to make it less entertaining for the skeleton. "Are you guys having a staring contest? Can I join?" he asks with a small laugh, as if nothing in the world is ever serious to him. Or maybe he’s just pretending to not care.

Surprisingly, Nightmare chuckles, not looking away, but the intensity of his gaze softens slightly . "Are we done playing, Cross?" His tone is friendly, but a chilling subtext ripples beneath it. You don't understand his game, but a cold certainty settles in your gut, Nightmare probably already knows you aren't who you appear to be. You need a plan to get back to your own world, and you need it now.

"Mm-hmm," you mumble, forcing your eyes back down to your plate and shoving a large portion into your mouth, weary of the constant gaze fixed on you. This is truly just some kind of awful torture!

"What's wrong, Cross? You look sad," Killer taunts, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Is it because Dust has to babysit you? Beaten up so badly by some unknown, notoriously weak mage. Heh, I wouldn't even ever leave my room after a humiliation like that."

He keeps prodding, trying to get a rise out of you, but to his visible disappointment, you give him nothing. Abruptly, he pulls out a knife and flings it in your direction. In your periphery, you see Horror’s hand move to intercept it, but you're faster. You raise your fork with a sharp flick of the wrist. A shrill clang of metal on metal rings out as you deflect the blade, which embeds itself in the ceiling with a heavy thud.

Killer lets out an appreciative whistle, clapping lightly. "Not a bad move."

It was a strange, theatrical attack, but you knew it was never truly dangerous. Even if it had connected, it would have been a mere scratch. It was another one of his juvenile attempts to provoke you, and you refuse to give him the satisfaction. You offer a proud grin. "Of course. Pathetic attacks like that are nothing to me."

You weren't the best guardian, but you were the one who put your own blood and sweat into the training. Not so weak of a mage now, aren't you? He would see! Later on when you slay this place, Killer would see that you are not just some pathetic mage that someone needs to be ashamed of loosing to!

Horror chuckles, his hand covering his mouth. A hot flush of embarrassment washes over you as you recall how easily he’d slammed you to the ground the day prior. You're weaker without your magic, it’s true, but you remained in the royal guard precisely because of your physical powers! And hey, you were hurt and surprised when he attacked, and you just got in the new body, and... damn! Even the greatest warriors do make mistakes sometimes!! Especially when caught off guard.

You open your mouth to say something cutting to Horror, but the knife from the ceiling chooses that moment to fall. In one fluid motion, Horror snatches it by the handle, the blade stopping just centimeters from your head. Your face pales, and you shrink back in your seat. "Thanks..."

Horror just nods before tossing the knife back to Killer, who catches it effortlessly. "So, where's that big talk about my 'pathetic' attacks now, huh?" Killer sneers.

"Shut up," you hiss, glaring at him. That was uncalled for.

Suddenly, Dust stands and carries his empty plate to the sink. Shit! This is your chance. You need to get him alone, to learn something- anything. You'll be on a mission together, so it's best to be prepared. Shoveling down the last of your food, you quickly get up, picking up your own plate to place it in the sink, hating to leave a mess. But Dust is already opening the door to leave. You not place, but rather toss the plate aside, hurrying after him.

Horror stands, his large hand clamping around your wrist. Damn it. He’s not going to let you go alone, is he? The information... You glance desperately from Horror to the closing door. Just then, Nightmare speaks.

"Horror, I need a word with you. Privately." His voice is steel, leaving no room for argument. Horror's grip on your wrist gradually loosens. "And Cross," Nightmare adds, "I've sent the mission details to your phone. Don’t forget to check it."

You wait a beat for Horror to release you, not wanting another scene by pulling away in a harsh manner. As he lets go, you notice that Killer and his plate have vanished from the table. No time to dwell on that. You bolt for the exit, chasing after Dust. He says nothing as you fall into step beside him in the hall, ignoring you so completely it's almost am form of art. In a way, it works in your favour to be honest.

He stops abruptly, turning to face you with his hands shoved in his pockets. "Just so we're clear, I'm not babysitting you on this mission."

"Excuse me? I don't need a babysitter to make sure I don't get a boo-boo. I'm an independent adult and a strong wo- skeleton!" You cross your arms, huffing. Of course, you want help- in fact, you desperately need it. But admitting that would be pathetic by your standards. You would rather die. Years of being told you're useless have given you a hair-trigger reaction to implications of weakness. It's not accepting help that’s hard, it's being told you're nothing but a burden.

Dust just hums in response. After a moment, he turns and continues walking, you follow him while keeping some distance and staring at his back.

"So, where are we heading ?" you ask, deciding to at least try to break the silence. It seems Cross already has a strained relationship with this guy, judging by his attitude, so its not like you can make it much worse. Dust continues to ignore you. You sigh and follow quietly.

You soon realise you walk in front of your room now, surprisingly, the window shattered by that pathetic bone attack some time ago is now perfectly repaired. The floorboards, previously splintered by Horror's axe, are seamless. Someone around here is clearly handy. You wonder who this magic repair master is,

You continue walking until Dust stops at a door and steps inside. Peeking in, you see something incredible. To the left, an entire wall is covered in shelves brimming with books. Opposite the door, a massive panoramic window is shrouded by a black curtain. The walls and floor are a stark black and grey, but the room is saved from monotony by a colourful wardrobe, the books, and a large beanbag chair in the corner. You watch as Dust plucks a book from a shelf and collapses into the beanbag, already lost in books pages.

With renewed confidence, you step inside, closing the door behind you. Then your eyes land on something to the right of the door that makes your soul sing a happy song. Oh my God! A console, a TV, and shelves packed with games! You can't believe it. The last time you owned a console, you were what? Fourteen, it was back when your father was still alive.

You stare at it all as if you've stumbled upon a dragon's hoard. The greatest treasure!!

You cross the room in a few sharp steps, and sit on the large, fluffy carpet laid out before the TV. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of games, you start sorting through them. Recognizing none of the titles, you create a pile of games with the most beautiful cover art. Finally, with a manageable selection, you organize them by genre. Still undecided, you lean forward, reading the back of each case, trying to get a feel for the story. Suddenly, a groan comes from the corner.

"ARGH! Just pick something already! Your indecisiveness is distracting me!" Dust’s voice makes you jump. He sets his book aside and stalks over, his expression soured. You shrink back slightly.

"Uh, sorry?..." you murmur. "Can you help me choose?"

He stares at you for a long moment, then stabs a gloved finger toward a random game. You're certain it was an arbitrary choice, but it’s better than nothing. You take the game, pop the package open, and slide the disk into the console. Dust retreats to his beanbag and his book, seemingly less angry and frustrated when you have something to do instead of not sitting in one place properly.

As the game boots up, you pick up the controller, a feeling of pure joy and excitement bubbling up inside you. This is going to be fun!

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.
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Thirty-five deaths later, your opinion has changed. The game is fun, yes, but this boss is pure torture. You groan in frustration and start your thirty-sixth attempt, so absorbed that you don't notice Dust approach until he speaks, making you flinch.

"You are so bad at it. This game is so simple. I can’t believe you’re this bad at it." He’s watching the screen, not you, and his tone is more observational than insulting. There’s no mockery, no smile. Still, the words sting.

"If you're so good, then you show me, oh great master," you retort, holding out the controller for him. A clear challenge on your face. Its easy to judge when you haven't tried to play it yourself! Jerk.

Dust takes it with a look of begrudging acceptance. You smile smugly, fully expecting him to fail. Instead, he achieves an instant, flawless victory, defeating the boss without taking a single hit.

You stare at the screen, then at Dust, then back at the screen, dumbfounded. He lets out a small, satisfied hum and hands the controller back to you. The energy to continue has completely drained out of you. You quit the game and set the controller down. As Dust starts to get up, you call out to him. He stops, looking back at you with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe we should do something productive instead of playing games and reading," you suggest.

Dust shrugs. "Check the mission details on your phone."

"You check them," you shoot back, trying to sound casual. You're terrified that fumbling with the screen will expose you.

"No." With that, he flops back into his chair. What a jerk! "Im too in a lazy mood for that right now."

You eye him strangely, while muttering to yourself . "You're pretty good at games for a lazy bag of bones." You eject the disk and put it back in its case.

"Playing games is being lazy," he says with a shrug, picking up his book again. You notice the cover art features slightly ridiculous-looking characters. This guy acts like a complete badass, but he's been reading comedy manga this whole time. Unexpected.

"No," you say, shaking your head as you stand up. "When you're good at something, it shows you've put in the work to get there. Enjoying the process doesn't make it lazy."

"Just go get the phone already." Dust lifts the book, hiding the lower half of his face, but not before you see a faint purple hue dust his cheekbones. Is that what skeletons look like when they're angry? Or flush with magic? Or... You grin.

"Oh, is someone feeling a little flustered by a compliment? Maybe when you said you wouldn't babysit me, you meant I , would have to babysit ,you?" You step closer, your smile widening. His response is to kick you squarely in the knee, right on your injury. You hiss and double over, clutching the joint.

"Okay, okay!" you gasp in pain, rubbing the place where he kicked . You want to stick your tongue out at him, but remembering that you don’t even have one, just grimace at him instead. You also always can flip him off, but that feels like life threatening choice. So nope!

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Leaving the room, you navigate the halls with surprising ease. Your bizarre ability to memorize your surroundings and notice meaningless details has finally come in handy. Reaching Cross’s room, you step inside. The first thing you see is that the closet has been repaired. You wonder if the contents are fixed, too. Cross’s fashion sense is questionable, but it's better than walking around in rags.

"Heya~"

You whip your head toward the bed and see Killer, lounging contentedly on his side. He’s propped his head up with one hand, the other resting jauntily on his hip. The bed is no longer covered in boring black and white sheets, instead, it sports a cringeworthy comforter with a giant wolf howling at the moon. Cross's shameful romance novel, the one he hid under the bed, is sitting brazenly on top. Killer looks immensely pleased with himself, clearly awaiting your reaction.

You just laugh and head to the bathroom to grab your phone. Killer's smile falters. It's still there, but it seems... brittle.

"Crossy, where’s your enthusiasm for the new decor?" he asks, pressing the back of his hand dramatically to his forehead. "I tried so hard to pick it out, and you say nothing. Ah, the cruelty!"

You pocket the phone and turn to leave, but he intercepts you, placing his hands on your shoulders, giving you a little shake. "Crooooss, anybody home? Hello?"

You pat his hand twice, a wide, placating smile on your face. "Thank you, Killer, for being such a good maid and making my bed. Next time, I'll let you bring me breakfast in bed and clean the whole room for me."

He drops his hands, his expression going blank for a few seconds. The air begins to thrum with magic. Fuck!

You leap back and yank the door open, slamming it shut. You expect a bang against the wood, but there's only an unnerving silence. Deciding it’s best to return to Dust, you take a few steps down the hall. The magic buzzes again, this time coalescing in a single point directly in front of you. You freeze. A half-second later, Killer materializes inches from your face. His smile is casual, but his eyes are anything but.

"So, Cross, quick question for you," he says, his voice deceptively light.

"Cool. Keep the question to yourself." You try to step to the side, but he moves with you. He pulls out his knife, tossing it idly from hand to hand.

"Why did you act so weird with Nightmare?" he asks, stepping closer.

"Why didn't you use your magic when I threw that knife at the table?" Another step. The knife flips again, catching the dim light.

"Why are you acting so weird, Cross?" He closes the remaining distance, the point of the knife now aimed at your throat. Raw fear lances through you. What do you do? What do you say?

Your breath catches in your throat. You’re frozen. No! You've had enough of these skeletons stressing you out. He's clearly more aggressive than Horror, talking won't work. You lash out, a sharp punch aimed for his nose, but he dodges with fluid ease, taking a couple of steps back.

"Fuck off!" you shout, a desperate urge to call for Horror rising within you. But you know he won’t help.

Killer throws the knife. Unlike Horror's axe, you can feel the magic woven into the attack, a tangible force guiding its path. It seems he enhances his throws, giving them extra speed and power. Well, two can play that game. You sidestep and snatch the flying blade out of the air. It tugs in your grasp, tethered to its master by an invisible thread of magic. You focus on that thread, sensing its structure. Killer's magic feels like... LOVE, sadness, and a deep, aching pain.

With a sharp, metaphysical wrench, you sever the connection. You feel the remnants of his power, that bitter cocktail of emotions, bleed into your own soul. It's an unexpected discovery. You knew human mages absorbed ambient magic, but you had no idea it applied to magical attacks as well. That was definitely not in the records.

"What the- " Killer’s eyes are wide with shock.

You don't give him a moment to recover. You lunge, driving the knife toward his chest as if aiming to plunge a stake through a vampire's heart. It's a nasty, underhanded trick, but effective against powerful monsters. Striking the soul, while a more protected target, is the surest way to end a fight instantly.

He tries to parry, but his own knife slips, allowing yours to slice a shallow gash across his lower ribs. He teleports away. You concentrate, trying to pinpoint his location by his mana flow, but it feels like he’s everywhere at once. Suddenly, bones fly at you from all directions. You dodge most of them, but a few find their mark. The next moment Killer is behind you, striking the back of your knees with his leg, forcing you to the ground. You twist, trying to stab him, but he deflects the blow and presses his own knife to your throat. He sits astride you, breathing heavily. He looks satisfied, you just feel disgusted.

"So," he says, pressing the knife a little deeper. "About my question. What's going on?"

You don't know how to respond. The nagging feeling returns: they all know. They're just toying with you. You've failed at everything in your life- magic, friendships, work. And now, you’ve failed at this, too, bringing yourself to the brink of exposure.

"What's going on is you can go fuck yourself!" With that, you slam your free hand, your left fist, squarely between his legs.

He jolts back, the knife slicing a thin line across your neck. You don’t care. You just want him off you. He collapses onto his side, clutching himself. Even for a skeleton, that had to hurt.

You scramble to your feet. Killer groans, "I thought you had some dignity. Didn’t peg you for a low-blow kind of puncher, fuck."

You grunt while walking over, and slam the knife you’re holding into the floorboards in front of his face. Then you drop to one knee. "Killer, does the fact I'm not playing along with your stupid pranks is so weird to you? So you can bug me out of the blue to gain the reaction from me? I don't think so. I’m in a bad mood. If you really want to know what’s up, ask me like a civilized person instead of acting like a tantrum ingrained child." You flick him on the forehead. The words are a carefully constructed lie, a distasteful but necessary manipulation. You just hopes this reaction would look satisfying enough to Killer while keepiNg your identity hidden.

"Urgh, you could have used magic to throw me, or teleported away," he complains, slowly pushing himself into the sitting position while you made a step back. "Why did you have to hit me there? And what about the magic? You still haven’t answered."

You let your gaze go unfocused, pretending to think. "Don't tell Nightmare," you begin, your voice low, thoughtful, you aren't the greatest actor, but you can at least try, "but after that fight with the mage, my magic... it isn't listening to me properly. I’m on edge about it, hence the bad mood and avoiding Nightmare." It's the most logical excuse you can conjure.

"Buddy, you should’ve taken the report to Error, to get yourself fixed immediately ," Killer says, his expression shifting to one of genuine annoyance.

"Later," you shrug. "I don't like Error."

You have no idea who Error even is.

After a beat, you reach for the knife on the floor. He slaps your hand away and snatches it himself.

"Don't touch my babies," he says, pocketing the weapon.

"Killer, you have dozens of knives, and my magic is shit right now. Give it to me," you demand, holding out your hand.

"Maybe I would’ve considered it IF YOU HADN’T PUNCHED ME IN THE CROTCH!" he snaps, getting to his feet and dusting himself off.

"Well, yeah, the 'dingas dongos' hit wasn’t my finest moment," you say with an awkward laugh, feeling slightly ashamed by the blow. "So, are we cool?"

"Yeah, whatever. Even though you acted weird, didn’t tell us about the mage who can break our magic-" You open your mouth to interject, but he waves you silent. "-and you didn’t appreciate my prank with the sheets, and you punched me in the crotch."

"Dude, you threatened me with a knife," you point out, raising an eyebrow. "And you said yourself that I lost to 'some weak ass mage and should be ashamed of myself'. You aren't a proper audience to went to."

He just snorts and teleports away.

"Damn," you mutter to the empty hallway. "Didn't even have time to tell him the mage was already dead." Though, technically, you're not dead. Not yet. But the information can make them lower their guard.

You gently touch the cut on your neck, the wound is minor, compared to the bruises covering the rest of your body, it's nothing. Sighing you just head back to the room with Dust

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Back in the room, you find Dust still on the beanbag chair, now lying on his stomach. Part of you, an old habit from your friendship with Reishu, wants to sneak up and smack his butt. But you’ve been beaten up enough for one day. As the door clicks shut, Dust sits up. He opens his mouth to say something, but his eyes catch on your neck, and he pauses, an eyebrow arching in silent question.

"What happened?" he finally asks.

"Killer," you say, as if that explains everything.

Surprisingly, it seems to explain everything perfectly, at least to Dust . He just mutters something under his breath about "not him again."

"Anyway, I brought the phone, so you can check the mission info," you tell him, pulling it out. The screen is now spiderwebbed with cracks. Thanks, Killer. You offer it to Dust, but he doesn't take it.

"You look at it," he replies, nudging your hand away.

"You know, after getting jump scared by Killer, I think some mysterious friend should at least help me out and get all the details about the mission for me." you say with a smile. To your astonishment, Dust actually laughs and takes the phone from your hand, you can't believe that this worked! Now you don't need to worry about exposing yourself with the fact of you not being able to use your own phone properly.

"And who is this mysterious friend?" he asks, a small smile on his face.

"Oh, you don't know him. Just some grumpy skeleton with a funny face." You shrug.

"A funny face?" Dust probes.

"Mhm. But at least he has a good sense of style," you say with a grin, slightly pointing at Dust with the bony hand. He lets out another small chuckle, walking past you to sit on the carpet in front of the TV.

"I think Killer poisoned you with his terrible sense of humour during your fight, and it affected your body language as well." Dust remarks.

You hum in agreement, sitting next to him but maintaining a respectful distance. "Yeah, I think my hand got poisoned when I accidentally punched his crotch."

Dust chokes on air, trying to hide a laugh behind his hand. "What?" He stares at you as if you’ve just told the world's most absurd joke.

"He was mad I wasn’t reacting as usually to his jokes, so he threatened me, one thing led to another, and... long story short, I hit him where it counts." you can't help but feel a little ashamed.

Dust starts laughing, a genuine, pleasant sound. "Why that place, of all things?"

You look at the floor, thinking for a moment, and decide to get ahead of the inevitable questions. "Honestly? After that fight with the mage, I can't really use my magic. Had to get creative. Throw my punches in the weak spots, or whatever."

The laughter dies.

You slowly raise your eyes to meet his. The smile is gone. "Dust?"

"You have to get that fixed. Is the mage still alive?" he asks, his tone suddenly serious, his gaze concerned.

"No, she's dead," you answer quietly, looking back at the floor. A wave of disgust and anger for your other self washes over you. "Died a stupid, miserable death. A complete nobody. I bet no one will even come to her funeral. Her body will probably just rot in the ground." The words are calm, but they land like stones in your heart, because you know they're true. You were a nobody with a worthless fate.

Dust is silent for a long minute. You have nothing more to say. Finally, he speaks. "Good. The main thing is that she's dead. You’ll get your magic back. Come on, Cross, you've been through worse shit than this. Don't let some pathetic human break you."

You manage a small smile. The words probably mean a lot to Cross, though it is hard to appreciate something when you trapped. "Yeah, you're right."

"So, the task," you say, straightening up. "Let’s see what we’ve got." Dust looks like he wants to say more but decides against it. He unlocks the phone and reads Nightmare's message.

"Hmm, classic mission. Go to an AU, walk around, ask the locals about the 'Star Sanses,' and report back. That's it." He hands the phone back, and you have to actively suppress the urge to ask who the Star Sanses are. You'll figure it out. Maybe they're rivals of Nightmare? Or maybe they're the good guys. You have no idea.

"Hey," Dust says, pulling you from your thoughts. "If you can’t use magic, you can’t use the phone, can you?"

"Uh, no, well, yes, but... it's complicated. I can use magic, but it doesn't feel right. It’s like I've forgotten how." You rub the back of your head. Then, an idea strikes. "Hey! Why don't you show me? Maybe I can re-learn."

He gives you an uncertain look, but you energetically shove the phone into his hands. Sighing, he pulls off one of his gloves. "Watch closely." You see his finger glide across the screen, which responds instantly. You don't understand it. But then, sharpening your senses, you perceive it, tiny, intricate threads of magic flowing from his body, down his arm, and concentrating at his fingertip. You can almost see a faint purple aura around it.

"Let me try," you say.

He nods and hands you the phone. You concentrate, trying to replicate what you saw, but nothing happens.

"Focus more on the process, less on the result," Dust advises. You try again. Still nothing. Frustration begins to build.

"Okay, uh... try imagining the magic as water," he says, surprisingly patient. "A current running down your arm to your fingertip."

You close your eyes and focus inward. You picture it: a liquid warmth, pooling at your collarbone before trickling down your shoulder. A slow, deliberate river flowing down your arm until it gathers at the very tip of your finger, a perfect, shimmering droplet.

"Well done," Dust's voice says softly.

You open your eyes and touch the screen. It lights up. A wave of pure elation washes over you, and on impulse, you throw your arm around him in a half hug. He shoves you away, harder than necessary. You stumble back, your bruised body protesting, and just stare at him. The silence is thick and awkward.

"I... um. Sorry. I was just-" You look away, scratching the back of your head. "I really thought I’d never get my magic right again. It's the first time it’s worked, so I... got a little emotional."

More silence.

"The first time since the battle, I mean," you quickly clarify, wanting to slap yourself. What was that? Too touchy. Get a grip.

"You should channel that energy into something more useful," Dust says finally, breaking the tension. "Like not sucking at video games."

You let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding. "Oh, I'll make you eat those words!" you declare, grabbing the game disk and sliding it back into the console. Out of the corner of your eye, you see him put his glove back on and set the phone on a shelf. He retreats to his beanbag and his manga, and you're immensely grateful that he dropped the subject.

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The rest of the day passes in a lazy haze of gaming. Your vow to impress Dust dissolves after another fifty-seven deaths, after which you switch to more casual titles. Dust remains engrossed in his reading. Horror stops by a few times to check in, bringing snacks and meals, but otherwise, you are left in peace, relaxing in the quiet comfort of the room. At some point, without even noticing, you drift off to sleep.

"Hello again."

You turn toward the familiar voice and see Cross standing before you.

Chapter Text

"Have a good day, Cross," you say grumpily to the skeleton as you lie on the floor in the middle of darkness and emptiness. "Or night, if that's more accurate."

Cross looks at you with the stern expression, You decide to glare back with a neutral one, the staring contest it is. 

"Give me back my body," he demanded.

"You know, I've been so tired for the past day and a half that I've even started to think about giving you your body back." You wave your hand in the air in frustration. "But I can't. I need my main body for that! What do you expect me to do, throw myself out into nothingness?"

"And why aren't you on your way to your main body yet?" Cross asks angrily, demanding the actions from you.

"Because I can't get back to my world, smartass!" You turn away from the skeleton. Suddenly, you see a small turquoise light in the distance, but a second later it's gone. Maybe it was just your imagination? That glimpse at something makes you feel the shiver running down your spine.

"Try to convince Nightmare to throw you into your world."

You turn back to Cross with a disgruntled face.

"I don't want to talk with him. He looks like he doesn't like me, and he gives me the worst vibes. He's just a... nightmare." You smirked a bit, but then your facial expression became more serious. You turn to face the skeleton. "Look, I'd like to go back, too, I really do, but things aren't that simple."

Cross looks puzzled, as if he wants to ask you something. But he just turns his face away, his mouth covered, and mutters under his breath. You can barely make out his words. "He...said...safe...why...was it still here then..."

"Hey, buddy, I appreciate you feeling so comfortable around me that you've started to talk to yourself, but let's move to the conversation about something, I don't know, more important. Like, you know, you." After you say that, Cross looks at you with a puzzled look. Oh jeez, you only hope that you can get at least some information from that skeleton. Maybe with that you can be better at pretending to be a Cross. Survive better with some extra knowledge. "Don't look so surprised. I'm interested in learning more about you."

"Why?" He asks a logical question. Of course he does bring the logic here, damn! Honestly, after today, you're not sure you have the energy to talk and try to get information. But you have to do this. You need to put all your remaining energy into this shit!

"You know, I took your body, it's unfair, and it's not cool. You're basically just locked in a cage while I roam around freely. It isn't a fair thing to do, and I should, I don't know, at least get to know who my 'roommate' is?" You say these words, and you're not sure how you feel about it. Even if your words are not the honest ones, you still feel bad about the whole situation in general. Maybe it was really unfair to him? No. Even if he was telling the truth, and his goal was to capture you during the battle instead of killing, he would still use you as a dirty manipulation trick against Reishu. Even though it was an order, it is a bad thing to do. Unfair.

Cross doesn't say anything and just sits down on the floor next to you. "Why don't you tell me about yourself first?"

You look at him silently with an open mouth. After a few seconds, you close it with an audible clack. "Oh, uh, yes I guess that would be fair. How about...you ask me one question and get one answer, and the same rules apply to me when I ask a question. And if you refuse to answer a question, can I ask two different ones?" That sounds fair enough. Also, because you don't have any information that would be useful anyway, there's no loss for you in this little questioning game. A win-win situation.

Cross thinks for a while and then nods. "I'll start. How did you meet Reishu?"

Ugh, the first question, and it's a painful one. Well, you can just keep to yourself the unpleasant details. Yes.
You move from the lying down to sitting up position, while scratching your arm awkwardly. Even in a dream, the feeling of flesh to the touch does feel unusual after being a skeleton. "Okay, well, around the time when my father...passed away, I lost the ability to use magic correctly, and then some people wanted to kick me out of the guardian academy because of that. Because a proper guardian should be able to use the magic, it's just a basic skill. And, well, because my magic just...became broken, there was a meeting discussing kicking me out. But Reishu intervened during a meeting, and thanks to her, I was able to continue my studies. And of course I also was allowed to stay thanks to my fighting skills!" You flex your arm, showing muscles, which aren't particularly noticeable given that your tactics rely more on speed and balance than brute force, but still you are a pretty fit person, all thanks to your hard work in the training ground of the academy. 

Cross only makes a small, weird sound while you flex. You're not sure if it was laughter or if he held back a sneeze. "I met Reishu personally, to thank her for her trust in me as a future guardian, and after that, we became friends! I was on the same level as her when I could use magic, we both were top tier students. So it's probably even logical that she saw in me good company, because of the similar experience that we had."

Of course the story is much more complicated than that, but it's not like you plan to spill all the beans. But now you're here, in a dream with Cross. You cough into your fist. "Now it's my turn! Let me think...Why do you work for Nightmare?"

"In the past, I had no choice, but now I do it because I want to." Cross’s answer does not feel that much complicated.

"That's not fair! I gave you a full answer, and you're giving me just some crumbs!" You slam the floor in frustration, but there is no sense of impact, no touch, no sound. It's as if the dark emptiness simply doesn't exist and yet somehow holds you in place.

Cross smiled. "You can always ask clarifying questions. Though they will count as the separate ones."

"Yeah, smartass, then  I'll answer like that too, will give you a half assed answers." You let out a disgruntled sigh.

"Suit yourself," Cross shrugged. "So, what was your magic like before the incident?"

"It was working." you answer in one word, then stick your tongue, childish, yes, but you are not afraid to seem immature, such actions can perhaps lower his guard?

Cross grumps in return, but finally gives you a proper answer.

"Huh, okay. I work for Nightmare because he helped me a lot in the past. I would even admit that... he helped me to find a new purpose in life. I owe him a lot, but I'm not sure I can even repay him properly." Cross's voice seem sad, he looked away in the distance of the darkness. "I even hated him before. I thought he was manipulating me, and I tried to work on another team. But, well, I realized that it's all the same, and at least Nightmare really does cares and isn't trying to fix me or judges me for my choices." Feeling uncomfortable discussing such topics, a small blush appeared on Cross's face as he cough awkwardly.

You feel that, in some ways it's even nice, a boss who cares about your health, who is really there for you when you need him. But then there is only one question left, does all this behaviour of Nightmare towards you mean that he knows something? His actions towards you specifically does not feel like an actions of a caring boss, more like a sassy one.

"Hey, Cross, did you had a fight with Nightmare before you started your last mission?" You tilt your head a little. Cross raises one eyebrow at that question.

"Um, no." He looks even surprised by the question, but after a second, his face goes neutral. "So, as for the magic, what was your magic like?"

"Hmm, my magic, it has the ability to change things. For example, it can turn an apple into a peach, turn a small wound into a healed scar, and so on. But the more I changed the structure of things, the harder it was. Ah! It was also very difficult with metals. Once when I was 8, I really wanted a beautiful toy. A very gorgeous doll in the form of a ballerina, if you turn the small key on her stand she would start spinning in one place and make wonderful music. But my father didn't have the money for such things, so I decided to try a trick that I saw in a cartoon." As you recounted the events of the past, your face was filled with joyful nostalgia. "I went to our garden and picked a bunch of leaves from my dad's apple tree. Focusing my magic on transformation, I tried to change the leaves into gold. And do you know what happened?" You looked at Cross with a smile.

"What?" he asked, and you could tell he was really curious.

"They just changed the color to yellow! It took me a while to realize it wasn't gold, so I took a handful of leaves and went to the store. You should have seen the poor seller's face when he had to explain to an 8-year-old me that they were just yellow leaves instead of a real gold." You started laughing. "I kept saying over and over that it was gold! I turned them into some, there was no even a thought about me failing to perform that magic."

Cross leaned over a little and put his hand on his forehead, and you heard a little laughter. "How did you not notice they were still just regular leaves?"

You raised your hands in the air. "I don't know! I was too confident in my magic." You lowered your hands and began to shake your head a little with a smile. "Dad was so mad at me, ugh. He always loved taking care of trees, the same trees that I robbed from the lower part of the leaves. I was grounded for a week!"

Cross looked at you with a smirk. "You deserved it. You cut off a bunch of leaves from his favorite trees. Why leaves though and not something else?"

"Because me and my friends used to use leaves as currency when we played outside! Plus, in this cartoon, a witch transformed a rose into the gold."

 You hummed and crossed your arms over your chest, thinking about the next question, you should be more tactical. "Now it's my turn to ask. What's your relationship with each of the team members?"

Cross lifted his head up slightly, as if thinking about the answer. "Well, I respect Nightmare. He is my boss and, to some extent, a friend. Killer and Dust... Killer always annoys me, while with Dust I rarely spend time one on one. And Horror, he is, to be honest, is the one I feel most comfortable with."

You interrupted Cross abruptly. "Hell, I agree, he's cool! Except for the time he almost killed me."

Cross's eyes widened in surprise. "He hurt you?"

"Well, he realized I wasn't you, and he grabbed me by the neck and slammed me right to the floor." You scratch the back of your head uncomfortably. "But it's okay. We talked it over, and it's fine."

Cross tensed up. "It's okay? He knows I'm locked up and it's okay?"

"Oh! No! More like- " You panicked. "He's sad that you're not here, I can tell, and he was very shocked by the situation. I just think since I control your body, he can't just kill me." You look down. "So it's more like he isn't okay, just there isn't much that he can do. Although I would like him to be more positive towards me specifically."

"Why? He's your enemy." Cross crosses his arms with an intense look.

"I know, I know. It's just that I feel lonely without Reishu. And without people around. It's too quiet and empty. It just reminds me- " It reminds me of the first months after my father passed away... "It reminds me of unpleasant things, okay? Like any normal person, I also want a little support. Even if I would need to fight him in the future, it wouldn't hurt to have some comfort, even temporarily."

"For someone who stole other persons body and was motivated to kill everyone, you're pretty weak mentally."

"Yeah." What else can you say? You already know you're clingy and pathetic right now.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Cross decides to continue answering the question. "So more about others... Dust, he also can be a good company or a good sparring opponent. Killer pisses me off with his constant pranks, but to be honest, sometimes his childishness cheers me up. Like, it makes days feel more normal, I guess."

"Childish? Is that what you call his behavior? He threw a knife at me at the table, and later he pulled a prank with the aura farming wolf sheets. When I didn't react to his prank, he attacked me!" You feel puzzled, this isn't a childish behaviour, it's a child maniac one.

"Well, it's his way of showing emotions, I don't know. Like how someone slaps another person on the back when they're laughing, and stuff like that." 

You stare at him, silently.

"Okay, yes, he uses knives to show his affection, got it."

Cross adds." Think about it. Why does Nightmare allow such behaviour? Because Killer never hits with full force, and he doesn't have a goal to kill when he acts like that. It's mostly just, childishness, and I've never gotten hit hard by his attacks. They're easy to dodge."

You immediately remembered the moment when you fought. You obviously got a few scratches from Killer's attacks, but thinking about it some more, there's not much damage. "Yeah, you're right, I easily dodged all of his attacks." A lie.

"Okay, as you say. My turn. What kind of incident happened that you can't use magic anymore?" Cross asked, and you froze, your eyes widening. It's a tough question, not something you're ready to discuss. You open your mouth to say that you would skip this question. 

But suddenly! 

You open your eyes, seeing that you are in the middle of a dark room. Abruptly, you sit up to see Horror leaning over you.

"You're finally awake." It looks like Horror woke you up, and this is a wonderful way to cut uncomfortable topics with Cross! What a saviour.

Slowly, you try to sit up, but your sleepy body just gives up and you lean back down, while Horror is still leaning over you, thinking about something. You look around to make out of your surroundings , games, TV, beanbag chairs. It looks like you are still in the game room. Dust isn't there anymore. You look down and see that someone has covered you with a blanket. Who was that? This blanket looks comfy, dark coloured with a star pattern. You wonder whose it is.

Horror starts talking again. "You...fell asleep here.You should go to your room...your back will hurt. And it's in general, unhealthy."

"Oh, mm..." You mumble back to Horror and try to get up, but frankly, your body and mind are too tired to do so. You keep lying on the floor and cover yourself with the blanket a bit more, giving up this fight. "It's okay dude. I'll just sleep here."

Horror looks at you with a disappointed look, but you just close your eyes ignoring this, preparing to go back to dreamland, hoping that this time there wouldn't be any Cross and darkness. Suddenly, you feel a big guy lift you up and throw you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Surprisingly, it didn't make you more awake, you just relax, a relaxed sack of potato it is. You didn't even try to protest as Horror carries you, you feel your body swaying a little, and somehow it lulls you to sleep. Looks like you were very tired.

When Horror saw the sleeping y/n, he was puzzled as to how she fell asleep in that position, and how bad it was for Cross's body. He felt like you needed to be more careful with it. It's not your home to act this way, not your body to just sleep on the floor. 

Horror spend some time, trying to remember how to carry somebody properly, but he can't remember anything other than how Papyrus carried him on his shoulder while he slept lazily enjoying the ride. Of course, it's not the usual and proper way of carrying a person, but he can't remember anything else. 

While carrying you on his shoulder, he felt the surprising sense of nostalgia. Remembering the times when Paps carried him like this. Although now Papyrus's back doesn't work properly, after all this hunger and surviving he can't carry Sans on his shoulder anymore, now that would hurt him. But his bro is still the best. He always makes Horror happy with delicious food and good company. There are plenty of precious things to do with his bro anyway, other than being carried. It feels weird to now be the one carrying.

Horror puts you in your bed, taking off your boots. He tried to take the blanket away to cover you properly, but your grip was deadly, so, he just gave up. "Good night, Cross...Hope to see you again soon," he said silently, leaving the room. The words and care that meant for the real Cross, not you. And here are you, sleeping peacefully, unaware.

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Going to the land of dreams, this time you see a real dream instead of Cross and the void. You run through the clouds with a big star-shaped butterfly net and catch soap bubbles that, no matter how you hold them, do not burst. It's a silly but pleasant dream, and you feel happy. You feel rested.

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At this time.

Cross stood in the darkness, looking at the Nightmare.

The skeleton opened his mouth. "Boss, I don't understand." he says, looking at his boss, shaking his head slightly.

"What exactly do you not understand?" Nightmare looked back at him, his facial expression calm.

"Why am I still stuck here? Why don't you bring her body back here so I can go back? If you say she's not a threat, then why am I still here? I just don't understand!" Gradually, Cross's frustration turned to anger. Nightmare hummed in response.

"I retrieved her body from that universe and placed it in a special place. My plan was to bring you back like I said on the first night. But I discovered that Error could not separate her soul from yours like he did with Chara's soul. This one, this human... Her soul is too weak, and if she dies during the separation, you will also turn to dust." Nightmare's voice was strained, and he kept looking straight in the Cross's eyes letting the words settle in . When the skeleton wanted to interrupt him, Nightmare continued. "But I plan to learn the essence of her magic to find a way to reverse the effect. Of course, we also can try to get an artifact from Reishu, but I prefer to put this plan aside as an emergency. Reishu isn't planning to work for me or with my people, so making her make a powerful artefacts that can separate a soul from a body is not an easy option right now."

Cross lifted his hood and lowered his head, sinking into his scarf, the gesture of self comforting. He already feels tired of all of this.

"Do we really need Reishu for that? She, in the first place, was the one who used the magic to put herself into that body, so even if her magic is broken, she still has a chance to bring everything back by herself."

"I can't. First of all, she doesn't even know how to use her magic properly, it's too risky. And we don't even know the full extent of it."

"She told me that her magic has the ability to change the structure of things, so I also think that it's not a bad option to train her to fix my situation ." Cross crossed his arms, letting out a tired sigh. All this is just messy and complicated, he can feel it, as something changes inside of him, of his soul, and just sitting and waiting is not an option.

"Yes, we can help her develop her magic, to bring you back. And who knows, perhaps that way there would be even no need for Reishu's artefact to help with our main goal." Nightmare looks at Cross with a smug smile.

"Though that way I'll be locked in there for probably a long time..."

"I'm sorry." That was all Nightmare said, laying a gentle hand on Cross's shoulder. "I wish there were more options, but it's hard to deal with something like this. Wild magic with unknown limits are hard to deal with. And your situation... Your soul is not possessed by her, it's more like she combined yours and hers souls. Though in theory p, you can try to gain control back."

Cross shook his head in agreement . "Okay, but I can't promise success. I wish we had more information. After the first day, I hardly see or hear her when she's not there. I don't know what she's  even doing right now at the day."

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out. You already got some useful information from her. Keep doing it, everything will be alright." Nightmare gave Cross's shoulder a little squeeze to show he was there for him.

Cross looked at Nightmare's eye. "Just really, please, make sure my body doesn't get dusted. I've already had enough stress from hearing about Horror, and Killer already attacking her."

"Don't worry, I've been keeping an eye on the situation. If anything goes wrong, I will be there to stop everything. Also, Horror has orders from me now and is watching her." At Nightmare's words, Cross let out a calm exhale.

"Thank you."

"Of course."

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You woke up full of energy. You had a wonderful dream! Having dreams really improved your mental well-being! You wonder why the sleep today was so good. Maybe it's the magic of Killer making your bed? Then you'll definitely have to use his maid service more often! Haha! ...No, probably that all because Cross just can't occupy your dreams more than once per night. 

Putting your feet on the floor while sitting on the edge of the bed, you take out your phone. At first, the screen doesn't respond, but as you concentrate a little more, trying to recall the past experience with magic. The screen reacts! Looking at the notification, nothing out of the ordinary. Horror wrote the menu for today, and looking at the time, you still have an hour before the breakfast. Maybe you should do something interesting? 

Suddenly, you receive a notification on your phone, and looking at the screen, you see that it's a photo from Killer. You feel that it might be something dangerous or something you don't want to see, but you still gather your will and open the message while bracing yourself. "Oh, my God!" You scream at a very high pitched voice. IT'S A PICTURE OF A CAT!!! A beautiful white cat with brownish-dark spots. The cat is lying on the bed, and even though he's sleeping, his tongue is sticking out a little bit. You can't help but giggle at this picture. It's just incredibly cute. The second photo made you almost die of cuteness. It's a small grey cat who yawns. His face looks funny and silly, and as a cherry on top, you can see Killer's finger that he put on the cat's tongue while the poor thing was still mid yawn . The next photo is of the cat with his mouth closed while holding Killer's finger in it. 

So cute! You can't help yourself. You feel like you need some cat therapy. So you do the most logical thing, text Horror.

[Hey buddy, how do I get to Killer's room? He has cats and I don't want to miss the opportunity to cuddle them! ;D] You hit send, your face almost cracking with joy.

Horror's reply comes after a while. He is probably busy with cooking. [No, you can't go alone. We had an agreement. The last time you went alone, you had a run-in with Killer, and it could have ended badly. And also remember,  Dust can have lv spikes. If he is very quiet and tense, do not be alone with him, don't speak with him, and never touch him. Stay in your room, I'll come get you when I'm done cooking.]

After reading this message, you stare at it for a couple of seconds. Not only will you not be allowed to have some truly needed cat therapy, but you've been given a lecture about wandering alone! No, don't give up, y/n. You'll definitely have time to get to the cat room later! Even if you don't know where to go, still, tonight you are determined to stay up and explore the territory! You send a short message back to Horror. [ok]

But now you have nothing to pass the time with. You should try texting Reishu. This phone can connect to the universe network, so it's possible to reach Reishu. You enter her number into your contacts and send a message. But unfortunately, you get an error saying that this is not a host-registered number. You try to go into the phone settings and find some information about registration of the number, or something of that sort. You notice that the phone's host is Nightmare...Urgh, thats just gives some parent control vibes. 

Okay, but Reishu still has a website open to all the multiverse to see! You can reach her here!!

After finding her website with information about the artefacts, you found how to arrange the meeting to custom created one. It re arranged you to some custom support assistants. You try to find how to contact her specifically. But sadly, there's only an ordering form that probably gets checked by assistants before reaching her. You send an order for an artifact that helps flowers bloom, a simple, inexpensive basic artifact for lazy gardeners. But this is something your father ordered in the past, not from her, but you always bragged about those artefacts to Reishu, so its a good personal hint. Also! in the order note, you put some extra text, [Reishu, I'll get back to you soon. Create an artifact that can swap a soul by moving it to another body. And also keep my body from rotting. - Your best friend, y/]. And send! A bit straightforward way, but hey, thats okay. 

Now that you've found a way to get back to her, everything will be ready to change back. Of course, if she believes an unknown message from someone who says they're y/n, her best friend that probably got buried already. It's not great. But better than nothing.

You look at Killer's message and decide to scroll up to see Cross's reaction to the cats so you can respond to his message in Cross's way, play a role as it says. 

God, that asshole just puts a thumbs-up emoji to everything, what a boomer. Such a cold reaction to something so precious! You decide not to push your luck with your own method of answering and just put a thumb up on the photos that Killer sent. Though you made sure ti save the photo of Killer sticking his finger in the cat's mouth and put it on your phone's screen. It's so much better than just a black background. Who puts a plain black background on their phone anyway?! 

You think about what else to do. Maybe try to go play something in the game room? But it would still count as wandering around on your own by Horror's standards. What else can you do to pass the time? Oh! Actually, you need to learn more about Cross's magic with the hope of getting back your own. This skeleton's powerful reality-reaping dark magic would be incredibly handy right now. Or as Horror said, a shortcut... After some thought, you decide to text Dust. 'Hey, are you busy?'

The answer comes in a couple of minutes. 'No, why?'

You wonder if it's really worth trying to go with Dust alone. But you can also ask Horror to keep you and Dust some company. Then it will be safer, that's for sure. You should be careful after all. You send a message to Dust. [Would you mind practicing my magic again after breakfast? I'm sure it'll speed up the process of getting rid of this magic spell that changed my magic control.]

[K] is his immediate response. You smile as you look at the phone and feel the tremors in your limbs. You can barely sit up straight considering how excited you are! Finally, more magic training!! A very helpful thing to do.

You sent a message to Horror saying that you were going to spend time with Dust, but if he was worried, he could join you. He predictably agreed. Thought you expected some more fight from him. Well, good for you that he is so agreeable, there is no point in questioning it.

The rest of the time you just watched some funny cat videos on YouTube, giggling. There was a knock on the door. You yelled to come in, not taking your eyes off the screen. Horror entered the room. "Morning..."

You put the phone in your pocket and got to your feet happily. "Morning, bud!" You get out of bed, coming closer with a smile. "Shall we go to have some breakfast? I'm so excited to go train after that!"

Horror looks around sniffing, then his eyes fall on you. You feel nervous and quietly ask, "What?" But he only silently leans towards you, sniffing again. If you had a heart, you would feel the sound of your heartbeat in your ears from nerves. Horror, slowly agonisingly straightens up, looking at you with a displeased expression.

"You haven't changed your...clothes? And you haven't bathed?" He asks, tilting his head slightly to the side and crossing his arms with a displeased face. But you don't understand what he means. What is the problem?

"Yes, and? I'm a skeleton, I don't need to wash." You look at him with one eyebrow raised. His pupil constricts, and he looks at you in shock.

"You stink. You really are... a stinker right now." He squints at you in displeasure.

"Are you serious?" You sniff yourself and then look up at him in confusion. "I don't smell anything! Lier, I don't stink!"

Horror growls, putting his hand on his forehead and closing his eyes, then lowering his hands. "It smells... try more like...a monster...not a human."

You sigh and concentrate your senses, and then suddenly you smell spoiled apples and rusty iron. Your face twists in disgust. "Woah! And I've been stinking like this? For how long?"

Horror looks away. "Since yesterday...but I thought you were going to take a bath...this morning. So I did not tell you anything about...the smell." he answers sheepishly.

You grump, looking at the floor. "I know we're supposed to go to breakfast now, but I can't eat breakfast while being such a stinker. I'm going to take a shower." You wave your hand and walk over to the closet. Picking up a white T-shirt and black pants, you walk to the bathroom but stop in front of the door. "Ah! Can you text Dust that you're coming with us and that I'll be late? You can use Cross's phone for that."

As soon as Horror nodded, you disappeared into the bathroom to clean yourself.

Coming out of the bathroom, you see Dust leaning against the wall, while Horror was waiting for you sitting on your bed. There was a cart with food in the room, probably for you. You didn't even realize you'd spent so much time in the bathroom that dinner was not only ready, but also brought here, hah... "Hi," you said, waving your hand a little.

Horror pointed to the food, two halves of sandwiches with a lot of ingredients inside, and there on the table also a glass of juice. Cool! You walked over to the cart, took the first half, and started eating, sipping a little bit of juice. After eating the first half, you're not so hungry anymore and you begin to realize that it's dead silent, and two skeletons are looking at you while you eat. "Um. How are you doing today?"

"Fine," both skeletons answer in unison, then look at each other. Dust shrugs and turns his gaze back to you. You feel the tension of keeping them waiting. Quickly finishing the second half, you gulp down the juice.

"Let's go!" You leave the room without waiting for an answer. And on the way out, you hit your nose on something dense and cold. Taking a step back, you rub your nose and close your eyes.

"Good...morning, Nightmare," Horror says, standing behind you, and you immediately turn your gaze to Nightmare.

"M-morning." Your eyes shot open, your voice is a cracky thing.  And wow, Nightmare looks calmer today. What a luck! Perhaps today would be a mental torture free day.

"Mm. I thought I'd watch you practice," he says in a calm tone, shrugging slightly. "If you don't mind."

You look at Dust and he looks tense. Still, the fact that you can't use magic is more of a secret. Why would he have told Nightmare about this? Or was it Killer? Horror? No, Horror would never. By the way Dust is reacting, it feels like he told him! He looks too stressed to be innocent. Okay, there you go, its not like you can do something about this situation anyway. You look at Nightmare who is patiently waiting for your answer. "Yes, sir."

Nightmare smiles a little and walks forward, probably to the training ground. You turn to the guys and give them a serious look. Horror holds your gaze, while Dust looks at you with raised eyebrows. You slowly follow Nightmare, feeling more tense. Who snitched?

Fortunately, the way to the training spot is calm and fast. Gradually, the feeling of tension disappears. Not like you can do more there. Thinking about everything, if one of these two gave him information about you, Nightmare would see this as a chance to tell him about your problems with magic. That way, maybe it wouldn't be so suspicious, like, it looks like you weren't trying to keep secrets. Plus! If Nightmare would think that your magic just needs time and training to be fully working again, he would start sending you on more missions, which might give you the chance to get your body back. So the fact that he knows such information is not that terrible, but you would still prefer to be the first one to tell him.

Thinking that the training room will be inside, you were surprised when he opened a door to the yard. The ground is raked, a couple of poles in the distance, targets, and that's it. It's hard to call it a training area, just a space to do whatever you want. Maybe that's all you need when you're using pure magic. No proper dummies, no stuff to pull the weight with. Not like skeletons can have muscles, yes?

Nightmare stepped aside with Horror, walking somewhere, and when you turned your gaze to them, you noticed two benches near the exit. Hmm, convenient.

"Let's start with stretching. You need to be in good form to use magic properly." Dust said, and you turned your gaze to him. But instead of going with him to train, you stopped and apologized, telling him that you needed to do something. So you walked over to Nightmare, yelling at Dust. "Sorry!"

You stopped in front of Nightmare. He looked up at you with a neutral expression. "Sorry to bother you, sir, but we need to talk. Can I have just a couple of minutes of your time?" You don't want to be alone with him, but you really need to tell him about the problems with the magic to look more honest in his eyes. You know he knows, he knows that you know about the magic problems, but still.

Nightmare gives you an unreadable look and then stands up. You expect him to say something like 'Okay' or 'Lead the way', but he just stares at you silently, his gaze feels uncomfortable. You start walking towards the garden near the training ground, not turning around to look at the Nightmare following you. Here you go, place to have some more privacy, and when you stop, you look back at Nightmare. He still doesn't say anything, so you decide to just start talking right away. "I'm having trouble with my magic, so I'm here to relearn it with Dust's help." You just spill it all out in one go.

Nightmare looks surprised for a second, but when he speaks, it looks like the fact that you told him surprised him, instead of such a blurt of information. "I know."

You nod slowly, as expected.

"Did you really think Dust wouldn't tell me something this important?" Nightmare raises one eyebrow, looking unsurprised.

"Well, I-" 'I thought Dust would understand that it's kind of a secret that shouldn't be told to anyone, especially you!' you wanted to say, but decided against it. You really wished that it was Killer who told him the info, that way you can went your frustration on him. "And everything's okay? You're not mad at me? No further questions?"

"If you can't get your magic back, I'm thinking of just asking Error to help you," Nightmare shrugs. Hah, looks like for him it wasn't such a problem after all. How convenient, some Error dude who can fix everything, the past you would love to meet him. Magic all fixing tool, though there is probably much more to that than this. Though right now you don't want to meet him, he would probably notice that something is wrong with you, your soul, so it's really a plan B for now.

You just nod to him and run back to Dust with mixed feelings from the conversation. But instead of returning to Dust right away, you've approached Horror while Dust is busy warming up his bones and Nightmare takes his sweet sweet time to get back. Dude looks like he is on the stroll or something.

You lean down to the Horror, who is staring at you.

"I told everyone that my magic doesn't work properly. Just letting you know, since you like, know the most about the situation, so it's probably right to let you know this detail." You speak so fast that it took Horror some time to realize what you just said. You weren't waiting for his answer, straightening back up, running over to Dust. 

The act of being in one team with Horror was made, even if that seemed clumsy, it's easier to gain the information while pretending to be friends with them. 

You were expecting some incredibly interesting magic lesson, but instead, the skeleton sternly ordered you to start warming up. "You shouldn't just wander around while we suppose to train." You started doing the exercises slowly, noticing how much your beaten body still hurt, but still, there was this feeling of excitement , one step closer to mastering magic! Re learning yours.

"Sorry, I just needed to discuss something with Nightmare. Let him know... about, you know." you say while also starting the stretching.

"Why? Oh, yes, since he and Horror will be sticking around while we train, it's probably for the best to let them know." Dust said, stretching his legs and not looking at you.

You suddenly stop, looking at him. "Dude, no need to lie. I know that you told Nightmare about my funky magic."

Dust stopped, looking at you, confused. "No? I thought it was like a secret. So I kept my mouth shut."

"But then who was it?.."

"Maybe Horror, or, I don't know, Killer?" He tilted his head a bit.

"I, let's just...Let's just focus on the training for now," you say, tense. Dust just nodded, continuing the training.

Nightmare specifically told you that Dust let him know, but at the same time, Dust does not seem to be lying. What is going on?

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Nightmare felt tense. Now he knows your magic works, but will bringing your magic back truly work properly? Would it be worth the risk? Will you cooperate with him? He has no room for mistakes, so for now, you'll only have simple missions that will give Nightmare a better understanding of your logic. He nee to focus on one plan instead of considering dozens of possibilities, which means he needs more data, information. 

While watching you practice, all he could see was that you were now training your body more than your magic. Is Dust teaching you the right way? On the other hand, Dust has so much training and experience that he should be able to figure out what to do. All that he can do for now is just watch.

Chapter Text

Dust's training has been mostly physical, and you don't understand what that has to do with magic. Yet here you are, sitting on the ground, breathing heavily while covered in a magical purple sweat. Not saying even a word of disagreement. He is the one who helped you to at least understand how to use your phone, which is somehow also required magic, so you decided to trust his judgment.

"Now we can focus on the second part of the training." Dust said calmly. You look at him with a displeased expression. The asshole only looks slightly tired, as if he'd just been on a long walk, not through a hard workout. On the other hand, ypu felt like shit. Though , you know that if it weren't for your wounds, you would feel great too, after all this body is stronger than your previous one, its a good trained one, thats for sure!

Nodding to Dust, you get to your feet, wiping the sweat from your face with your sweatshirt. "Finally, the fun part, magic." you mutter under your breath, feeling energized by the thought.

Dust smiles at you. "So enthusiastic to get the magic back to work. Can't wait to kick someone's ass?"

It's more that you want to experience magic without extra trouble, rather than learn how to kick someone's ass with it. But the thought of beating up Killer does sound sweet. You just smile silently, which Dust takes as an agreement.

"Well, repeat after me." Dust stands to your right, one arm stretched forward. At first, you don't understand what he's doing, but when you look closely, you see a small stream of magic around his hand. It flows from him- or more likely, through his body, from his soul, to his hand. Gradually, a bone attack forms in front of his hand, which he calmly picks, holding like some kind of stick. "See? Can you try to do the same?"

Dust really is a good teacher. His flow of magic was so slow and clear, it was as if he was showing you step-by-step how to focus and summon the same bone. You nod confidently, outstretching your hand and concentrating on the feeling of your and Cross's magic.

You close your eyes for better concentration. Focusing on the sensation of magic flowing through you, you guide it to your hand. Your fingertips tingle as the energy gathers. In your mind, you picture the bone forming, a magical attack taking shape. But something seems to be blocking it, like an itch deep inside your soul.

Suddenly, you feel yourself being grabbed by your clothes and pulled back. With a small gasp of surprise, you open your eyes to see something incomprehensible in front of you. It's like dozens of bone attacks mixed together, resembling some kind of grotesque blob. Some of the bones are melted, mixing with the others. The thing is taller than you, but not excessively large. "What the..."

"Try to cancel the attack. Focus, Cross." Dust's voice snaps you out of your thoughts. You try to look at him, but his hand gently yet firmly guides your face back toward the ugly thing that should have been a single bone attack.

'Cancel the attack. Okay, yes, I can do this!' As you concentrate, you feel a faint connection to the magic in front of you, and gradually, the bone amalgam disappears. You look back at Dust. His face is unreadable.

"Can I try again?" you ask uncertainly. He doesn't answer, looking right past you, at the place where spooky attack was. It seems as if he's lost somewhere in his own head.

You take a step to turn, to face him completely. "Hey? Dust?"

Dust flinches, clenching his hands into fists before sighing and shoving them back into his pockets.

"Ah. Yeah, yeah, try again." The skeleton finally comes out of his trance to look at you. "But this time, don't close your eyes. Try to focus not only on the result but also on how much energy you're putting in. You overdid it, and that's why the bones kept piling on top of each other. Your magic is simply got overwhelmed." He mimics a tangled ball with his hands. "It's tangled in on itself."

You nod slowly and turn away from the skeleton to try again.

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After a dozen more terrible and pathetic attempts, you manage to create something that looks more like an attack, if three bones melding into a single vampire stick counts. Now you can go hunting on some abominations or something...

"Good job," Dust encourages you with a thumbs-up. You glance at the skeleton, who looks more neutral than pleased, then back at your latest creation.

"Well, it's better than nothing. At least it looks like it was made to attack, not to humour enemies." you say, disgruntled, dismissing the attack with a flick of your hand.

"Nah, its ok you're like a baby bones, it's normal to need time to summon attacks," Dust shrugs, then looks away. "If a baby bones had a lake of energy to create some weird ass attacks..."

"I hope I will get better eventually. I'd like to have full control of my magic," you say with an unhappy sigh, looking at your hands and then back at the skeleton. "I mean, get back the full control."

You don't even remember the last time your magic worked properly, or rather, the feeling of it, as a limb that refuses to work after too much rest.

"You'll get to that point, with time and practice. That's all for now. Get some rest, we have a mission today." Reminding you of your mission to meet the Star Sanses, the skeleton disappears in the blink of an eye.

You just shrug and look over to the bench, surprised to see that Nightmare is still sitting there. Horror, however, is gone, and in his place sits Killer, wearing a smug expression.

Even from this distance, you can tell he's going to make fun of your lame attacks. You turn away and look at the training field. Maybe you should practice on your own. Dust is gone, but it's not like you can't practice by yourself. There's no reason to stop so soon, you still have the strength! It always was like that, tons of hard work to forge your strength.

You extend your arm, summoning a new attack. It's still made of a few bones, but it's sharp enough to be a proper weapon. You have to try again, persevere until the attack is complete, until your magic is normal, until you are normal.

"Hey, buddy- " Hearing a voice behind you, you let out a high-pitched scream. Without thinking, you spin around, grab the skeleton by the scruff of the neck, and knock him to the floor. It feels surprisingly easy. "Ouch, buddy. If you wanted me underneath you, all you had to do was ask."

Ugh, Killer and his stupid jokes. You grimace as you let go of him. "You shouldn't sneak up on people if you don't want to get kicked." Thinking back to the fight in the corridor, you realize Killer felt much heavier then. Something is weird about how easily you lifted him this time. Thought the explanation would be just, magic. But something is still bugging you...

After staring at Killer for a moment, you reach down and pick him up princess-style. He makes a surprised sound but doesn't protest, though you can see the question in his eyes. He opens his mouth, but you speak first. "Why are you so light?" To prove your point, you shift him slightly in your arms. No, he's definitely weightless.

Killer raises an eyebrow and then laughs. "Thanks for noticing I lost weight for you, dear~ There is this new diet, you know, only for the best lads." he says dramatically, putting one hand to his forehead and tilting his head back. You grimace and drop him, but instead of landing hard on the ground, he teleports above you, slamming you to the floor. For some reason, he's no longer lightweight, and his full weight crushes you down.

"Killer, if you don't get off me right now, I'm going to kill you!"

He just laughs, resting his elbow on your head. "But I'm so comfortable~"

You try to throw him off, but he's too heavy. Your face is practically in the mud. "What is your problem, dude?!"

"You're just lying on the ground, relax. You know, a clay mask is good for your bones." You hear him laughing and feel your patience wearing thin. Why does he have to act like such a child? You summon a bone attack, aiming it at Killer. Surprisingly, this time the attack obeys you, firing in the right direction.

Killer dodges and jumps off you. You get up, dusting yourself off, and you just about to summon another attack when he sticks his tongue out at you and disappears. What an asshole! Now you're all dirty and can't continue your training. Even if you technically could, there's no way you're doing it while looking like a ball of dirt. Not like the dirt usually bugs you that much, but this time its just feels different.

Now that the adrenaline has worn off, however, you realize how exhausted you feel. Maybe Killer was bugging you to get you to stop your training? No, he's probably just an asshole. It's Killer after all, the dude who throws knives at people for fun.

You walk away, glancing out of the corner of your eye at Nightmare, who is still sitting on the bench, seemingly busy with his phone. When he looks up at you, you just nod and quickly enter the castle.

' I need to wash up', you think to yourself, moving forward.

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After a shower, fresh bandages, and a change of clothes, you feel much better. Fresh and energetic! But something is missing... Hearing a notification, you turn your attention to your phone and read the message, though stull cracked phone, thanks to Killer, makes reading the said message noticeably harder.

Looks like it's time to eat. Oh! That's what was missing, food. Fuel for the body. Energy from a good meal!

You hurry to the kitchen to thank Dust for his help. Of course, the results could have been better, but you've already made some great progress, thanks to him. With time, you'll even learn how to control your own personal magic! Though just time is not enough, there would be a lot of long, exhausting training, of course, but that's not important right now. Who knew summoning a pair of bones could be so exciting?!

When you get to the kitchen and sit down at the table, you're surprised that Dust and Nightmare aren't there. That's strange. Looks like you'll have the company of Horror and Killer for dinner. That's not such a bad combination, right? Right...?

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"KILLER, IF YOU DO THAT ONCE AGAIN, I'M GOING TO THROW YOU OUT THE FUCKING WINDOW, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" you shout, wiping the water Killer splashed on your face. Dinner itself was a nice thing- good small talk and comfortable silence from time to time. But then you offered to do the dishes, since Horror cooked, and Killer asked if he could help. Why did you agree? You knew Killer is a walking disaster! You regret all your life choices right now. First, he told horrible jokes to distract you, then he started poking you, throwing water in your face, and so on. You've only managed to wash half the dishes, and you're already plotting how to kill the asshole and wash his dust down the sink to hide the evidence.

You pick up a dishtowel and throw it with a powerful 'SMACK' at Killer's face, who doesn't have time to dodge. He makes a disgruntled sound, takes a step back, and peels the wet towel from his face, raising it as if to hit you. You freeze, a glass in your hand. As he swings, you manage to grab the towel with one hand and splash water from the glass in his face with the use of your other hand. He lets go of the towel and stumbles back, water dripping from his eye sockets and down his front. A victorious grin is about to split your face when you hear someone clearing their throat. Flinching, you almost drop the glass as you turn around to see a very, very displeased Horror. He looks like some kind of mom finding out a mess made by two naughty siblings.

Oh. You thought he had gone to rest. Uh oh. Now he is here, and here we have?... Looking around, you see the sink is covered in water and bubbles that are dripping onto the floor. Everything around you and Killer is soaked, and the towel you accidentally tore earlier lies on the floor.

"...I can explain," you say, slowly lowering the glass while turning off the water. You glance over your shoulder, but Killer is gone. Traitor! He ran away!!

Horror approaches, arms crossed the very unhappy look is clear in his eyes. You feel a pang of nervousness. "I swear, it wasn't me! It was Killer!"

Horror shakes his head, then points to the mess. "You... have to clean up... I'm going to go look for Killer. He'll get... the talk too."

With that, Horror leaves, and you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. Ugh, he looked very unhappy. Rest in peace, Killer. You clap your hands together, then abruptly raise your head. Wait, rest in peace? He's the one who started all this! Burn in hell dude.

As you clean the kitchen, you feel the fatigue from your workout returning. It's hard to continue when you feel dizzy, but some things just have to be done.

When you're finished, you look at your work with satisfaction. It's great! The kitchen looks cleaner than it did before all the troubles with Killer. Pleased with yourself, you left the kitchen.

"Don't you want to watch TV?" Hearing the familiar voice, you turn your head in one sharp motion to see Killer standing by the door with a satisfied smile, leaning against the wall.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting punished for the mess in the kitchen right now?" At your question, the smile slips from Killer's face. He comes over, puts a hand on your shoulder, and pulls you into a friendly half-hug. Suspicious.

"Don't worry, he got to me, even though I hid very well. The basement is no longer a safe hiding place..." Killer whispers, then smiles again, shaking your shoulder a little. "Never mind! Let's go watch some TV."

You think about refusing, but honestly, sitting in a room by yourself sounds boring. You just shrug and finally nod to the proposal. Moments later, you're sitting in a soft, comfortable, dark-colored armchair with a coffee table in front of it and a large TV a little further away. Killer lets go of you, you're relieved when he doesn't sit too close to you. This skeleton is clearly a tactile person with no understanding of the boundaries. Usually, you are too not so good at the whole boundary thing, but with him, it feels like too much, even for you!

You settle back, starting to watch the TV with that clingy skeleton. He turns on a show about energetic antiheroes. Hah, a comical choice for a bad guy. Although, it does make sense, after all it suits him.

Watching the series in a slightly tense silence, you gradually begin to relax. It's quite nice to sit like this with someone. Not to be alone... You feel a touch on your shoulder and look over to see Killer looking right at you, he paused the show.

"What?" you ask, tilting your head slightly. Killer looks like he's thinking about something, his leg bouncing nervously even though he is still smiling.

"You'd better not practice by yourself," he finally says, which is not what you were expecting.

"Why?"

"Your magic is unstable. You probably did not felt it, but you started using your reserves. If you overdo it, your soul could be harmed." Killer's words are serious, his usual smile gone. "I understand you want to regain control as soon as possible, but you don't have to turn yourself to dust over it."

You freeze, not knowing how to answer. Was your body and soul that exhausted from training? It's hard to tell when everything already hurts from your last battle. Perhaps if it weren't for the wounds you'd already inflicted on this body, you would have a better sense of your condition. But you don't feel regret in harming Cross in your fight, after all the fight ended literally with you dead.

Realizing that Killer is waiting for an answer, you nudge him lightly in the side. "I'm fine. But yeah, you're right. No more training on my own. I just, uh, got a little carried away."

Killer looks you in the eye for a moment, then nods. You think you're about to continue the episode after that strange conversation, but instead, the damned skeleton throws his legs over yours, sprawls across the couch with a pillow under his head, picking up the remote.

"Getting comfortable, huh?" you ask, trying to sound annoyed, but the way he's sprawled out is too funny. He looks silly in that position.

"Yes, very~" Killer almost purrs, pressing play. You let out a laugh and focus on the screen. But despite the relaxed atmosphere, somewhere in the back of your mind you're still thinking about his words. Did you really overdo it that much without even noticing?

"Listen..." you say to Killer. He only makes a small sound to show he's listening, his eyes still on the TV.

"Where did Dust and Nightmare go?" He doesn't answer right away, and you consider asking again in case he didn't hear you. But before you do, he answers with a shrug. "Dust had an episode after training. I think your bones reminded him of something from his past, maybe amalgams? So Nightmare is helping him to calm down." Killer shifts to get more comfortable. "Best not to bother him today."

This raises more questions. How can Nightmare help Dust? Why did he have an episode? Does this mean he can't train you anymore? And what is this amalgams thing?

You feel Killer nudge you with his foot. You shoot him an annoyed look, and he just raises his hand in a peace sign, as if forcing you to focus on the show instead of your own thoughts. You sigh and turn your attention back to the TV, focusing on the show instead of your questions. It's not like you're going to get any answers soon. It's better to just try and get some rest.

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Surprisingly, you like the series. The action and unexpected plot twists evoke a huge palette of emotions! It's not for sure how, but looks your tastes and Killer's are similar. You weren't sure at first, but later, when Horror joined you, Killer chose a movie for the three of you to watch. And damn, it was also the best movie you've ever seen, with everything you like! Even though Killer is an asshole, he has good taste. And, well, to be honest, today he is might less annoying than usual.

You managed to forget your problems while spending time with the skeletons. But later, before going to bed, you change into your pajamas, it's an Horror suggestion to not sleep in the same clothes you walk around during the day. A simple, logical thing, and something as relevant as shower in your current state of mind. Lying down on the bed, you look at the ceiling.

Tomorrow, with the last update the mission will happen tomorrow. There's no telling how it will go. Maybe today you wouldn't be able to get even a wink of sleep with how much is on your mind at the moment...

You fall asleep quickly and peacefully, which isn't a surprise considering how busy today was. Finding yourself back in the black space with the familiar skeleton, you greet Cross as you sit on the floor, making yourself comfortable before another round of questions and answers.

Chapter Text

When Cross sits down across from you, you notice that he looks more tired than he did last night. At first, you consider ignoring his ill appearance, but you're not sure how that would affect your own soul. If his part of the soul dies, you would probably die too. You are not too excited to double kill when it involves yourself.

"How are you doing? You look, uh... well, to be honest, you look like shit." At your words, Cross rolls his eyes, which you don't comment on, after all your choice of words wasn't the best here.

He looks like he hasn't slept in a week. There are dark circles under his eyes, and his pupils are a little less bright while fuzzy on the edges.

"I'm fine," Cross answers, his arms crossed in annoyance. Yes, that's definitely not true, people who are feeling 'fine' don't look this shitty. Normally, you might not push the subject, but you feel something is wrong, and this 'wrong' could affect you.

"Just tell me what's wrong with you. C'mon, we're in the same boat right now, and we have to cooperate, dude. Or our boat is gonna sink to the button ." At this, Cross sighs. At first, you think he's going to keep quiet, but then he speaks up. "I just feel more exhausted. At first, I was fine, but at some point, I felt like my soul was itching, like my strength started to leave me. Has something happened to you?"

"Oh, oh!" It's definitely because of your training. When did this happen? Did you really use that much magic, enough to tap into the body's internal reserves as Killer said? "Well... yeah, maybe, just maybe, that's because of me."

"Of course it's you, who else?" He scratched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. "Okay, what did you do?"

You looked away. It felt like you were being scolded and needed to come up with an excuse for your problematic behaviour. "Practiced using my magic and, well, went a little overboard?" you nervously chuckle.

"Idiot." Cross sighs heavily with frustration. Well, at least he looks much less enraged than you were expecting.

"Look, I didn't know that using a lot of magic could affect you like that! Dude, I'm human. When I use all my magic, I just, like, sleep like the dead for a couple of days straight, and that's it! Not getting closer to becoming dust!"

"What are monsters made of again? Just remind me." Cross shouted angrily. You looked at him with a 'what's the point of this question?' expression. They're made of magic, of course...

Their bodies and souls are made of magic! You slapped yourself, growling into your hands. Cross huffs, seeing that you are at least not that stupid and understood your mistake. "Looks like you finally got it."

"Yes... Yes, I did," you said quietly into your hands, not wanting to look at Cross. Ashamed of yourself.

"Yes, yep, yeah, I got it. I know it was stupid," you groan. "I'm sorry, dude. I really am. So, what now? How do I restore you?" you asked, looking up at the skeleton while lowering your hands down in your lap.

"Just eat more magic infused food, especially monster candy." Oh, that makes sense. Monster food has magic in it and restores strength. But imagining the process of getting everything. First asking Horror for a double portion, making some stupid excuse for it, and then actually having to eat it... What if you eat too much? "Are skeletons even able to puke?"

You and Cross both look surprised at your question- you, because you didn't think you'd say something so boldly, and Cross because of the question itself. You rush to clarify. "I-ah! Well, I just... you don't have a stomach, but I know that monsters without stomachs absorb food just like everyone else, but into their soul. So, I just... well. I'm just curious, cut me some slack!"

Surprisingly, Cross gave a small laugh. "Yeah, we can puke. And we do it out of every hole in our faces."

You stare at him for a while as the meaning of his words sinks in. "Even from the eyes?"

"Especially from the eyes."

"...." You stare at the skeleton as if it were a long-stretched joke, but he just stares back. Shit, that answer was a serious one. Gradually, you truly lose it starting to laugh while covering your mouth with one hand. "I would give anything to see Killer throw up!" Your words make Cross laugh with you, but your next words made him shut up quickly. "Or even better, Nightmare! A puking Nightmare, just imagine that picture!"

Cross nervously looked away. What the? Why?

"What? Imagine if he threw up that black substance! It would be pretty funny, no, even hilarious! Don't tell me you've never wanted to see something like that. Or, or imagine if he drank strawberry milk and started vomiting pink stuff out of his eyes! That would be just perfect! The mix of pink with his dark appearance- a perfect combo!" You notice that with every word you say, Cross looks more tense, and, if he's looking ... away from you? Something behind you?

You turn your head around but see nothing. When you turn back to the skeleton, you're no longer in the black space but on a ship in the middle of the ocean. It looks like you're dreaming now. Huh, you wonder why your time with Cross ended so quickly. You didn't even have the opportunity to wake up on your own!

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Waking up in the morning, you don't feel that great. And you think you forgot something... Ah! You'd planned to stay awake and explore the castle. Well, to be honest, it would have been hard to stay awake after your hard training, and frankly, it would have been irresponsible of you. It would have definitely sabotaged your future mission! Not that you care much about the mission itself, more about the information it can give you.

After getting up and changing, you wanted to go out on your own, but you remembered what Horror said about not going out alone. Of course, you could disobey him, but after yesterday's scolding for the mess in the kitchen, you wouldn't dare to ignore him. You survive only that much nagging so far…

Picking up your phone, you text Horror a good morning, and surprisingly, he immediately replies, saying that he would be there soon to accompany you to the kitchen. Haha, you could feel like a queen, sitting in a castle, having food prepared for you, being escorted everywhere. But in fact, you are a loser and technically a prisoner. Fantastic. Though the real Cross is in a much more shitty situation right now, haha, serves him right!

After scrolling through photos of cats that Killer sent, you decide to text Dust to find out how he's doing, but you're interrupted by a knock on the door and a familiar voice. "Knock... knock."

"Who's there?" you ask as you approach the door.

"Hawaii."

"Hawaii?"

"I'm good. How are you?" You open the door to Horror, he can see as you giggle at his joke. That was a fun one. Not a bad way to start the day!

"I'm tired to the bone. And I really want some breakfast! I'm so damn hungry. Look at me, I'm all bones." You look down at your hands letting out a small 'ohh' and 'ahh' sounds with a hint of drama in it, as if only now seeing your bony appearance. "There, too late, now I'm all bones."

Horror laughs as he walks away from the door, and you follow him, closing the thing on your way out.

"I'm serious, I plan to eat as much as I can today!" you say confidently, walking next to the big guy.

"Are you sure? You might... throw up." Horror looks at you suspiciously. "Did you get hurt during training? Need... healing?"

You shake your head. "Oh, no, I just used more magic than I should have. I need to replenish my strength, you know, get some fuel. Regular stuff after the training." you say, flexing your bony arms as if there were any muscles.

As you say that, you see Horror rummage through his pockets to pull out something... Candy! Monster candy! Awesome.

You thank him and immediately pop a couple of candies in your mouth. That feels so good! You had a few candies last night but munched them like your life depended on how quickly you could eat them. At the moment you thought that you were just craving some sweets, but after talking to Cross, you realize your body was reaching for something to replenish its energy. Good thing this body is smarter than you at least.

"Horror, honestly, you're a walking surprise!" you say happily to the skeleton as you pop the last of the candy in your mouth. Yes, maybe it's a little too much sugar for you in one go, but you clearly don't want Cross to turn to dust and take you with him. And not like you have a blood to have a high level of sugar!

Horror smiled at you. "Of course one must always be... prepared for anything."

"Especially prepared to make me happy with some candies. That's the number one priority for every member of the Nightmare team, you know." You nodded resolutely, crossing your arms. You feel much better now, more alive. And speaking of living... "Listen, have you heard from Dust? How is he doing?"

Horror stops, and you stop too, looking at him with a surprised expression. "Dust... he's not feeling well. He won't be at... breakfast today."

Oh, shit. It looks like it's worse than you thought. But he's got Nightmare at his side, so he'll be okay. Cross always speaks highly of his boss, so that must mean something, right? Right! You just hope your mission won't be affected by this situation.

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While eating breakfast, you notice that Nightmare is here and not with Dust. That probably meant that Dust was feeling better and didn't need extra help. Or perhaps things were so bad that Night didn't see the point in helping and abandoned him to go grab some breakfast. You hope it's the first reason.

As you eat, you notice that Nightmare has been looking at you out of the corner of his eye more often than usual. Maybe he's worried about how your mission with Dust is going to go, or he is probably thinking about sending you alone, which would be a bad option considering your condition. Not like there's much you can do about it right now... except maybe- you look down at your doubled portion of breakfast. You're already a third of the way through finishing it, but you're not sure if you can handle it all, you already feel pretty full.

Pull yourself together, y/n! This is for your own survival!

When you finish your breakfast, you feel like your non-existent stomach is overflowing with food. You wanted nothing more than to go lie on the couch. But your dad didn't raise you to just lazy around and not help with the dishes!

"Hey, Horror, I'll do the dishes again." you call out to the giant as he picks up the empty plates. He stops and looks at you with a displeased expression. Oh, right. Yesterday. "..."

"Oh, oh! I'll help you!" Killer abruptly jumps up from his chair, almost knocking it over.

You give Killer a dirty look. "Only over my dead body!" Not after yesterday's incident with the dishes!

Killer puts his hands behind his head with a smile, his tone teasing. "Come on, Cross! I'm such a great help. Four hands are better than two."

"After the mess you made yesterday, I don't even trust you to stand around the sink!" 

Killer only smiles more at your words. "Oh, don't be like that, Cross. I'm a master at helping others!"

"If your 'help' means destroying everything around you! You're a useless asshole." As soon as the words leave your mouth, Killer's gaze changes for a split second, his smile replaced by a more neutral one. Oh, it looks like you were too harsh with your choice of words this time, but it's not like the asshole who constantly pranks deserves an apology anyway. He'll probably just make a mess again if you let him help. And he's constantly teasing you, it's not like he'd make a big deal out of you being harsh in return, right? Though you still feel uncomfortable about the situation.

You just stare at Killer, who stares back.

Horror touches your shoulder lightly, pointing to the pile of dishes, then walks to the sink. At first, you think he wants to make sure you wash everything, but then he hands you the towel to dry the dishes. Without waiting for you to speak up, he already starts washing the plates, handing them to you. It looks like today you're the one in the role of a helper. You silently wipe the dishes and put them back in the cabinet. It seems that deep down, you're even getting used to living with these skeletons. When you get your body back and get rid of them, what will your life be like? Well, less drama at least. And …

Will you be recognized as a worthy person after you punish evil? Will you make new friends, perhaps find a partner or partners? Will your life feel less empty? Is it even normal to feel ashamed of yourself as you begin to get used to these skeletons? It's only been a couple of days, but they worry about each other, they care about each other's mental and physical condition. Heck, even their boss, Nightmare, is concerned about their health! They feel less like a picture of pure evil, and more like just, people.

And yes, these guys are bad, but… What does their crime sheet even consist of? Yes, they attacked Reishu and you with the intention of using you as a hostage, the leverage, but that's something your fellow guards do as well. As well as some vandalism and fights here and there. It's more of a regular stuff and some political moves rather than a direct crime against humanity, you heard about worse crimes. 

Maybe this mission will help you understand more? You certainly hope so.

After putting the last plate back in its place and adjusting the position of a frying pan in the cabinet, you put the towel down and look at Horror. What should you do next? Do you have to go to your room, or can you go for a walk by yourself? Or at least sit in the game room until it's time for the mission? But before you can ask, you turn and see that Killer is gone, but Nightmare is still here, reading a newspaper at the table while drinking his coffee. Huh, is that... glasses? He looks quite domestic, especially since he's wearing this black sweater that adds to the glasses. He looks like some kind of grandpa.

You turn back to Horror, who tells you to follow him. Well, not that you're picky about what you do next. You just nod and follow the skeleton, glancing at Nightmare out of the corner of your eye, to check on him.

Fortunately, the boss doesn't seem to be paying much attention to you. Leaving the kitchen, you silently follow Horror down some new paths in these similar corridors. So exciting! You don't know where you're going, but there's something good about walking down new hallways. In the past, you would have felt afraid walking down these dark and scary corridors next to this big guy with a gaping hole in his head. But now it feels nice, in its own, unique way. Dark corridors with a dark, spooky fella, hah.

You stop in front of a large, pale green door that clearly stands out from the black and red interior. Where does this door lead? Narnia? Wonderland? Lulu-land?

Behind the door is just an ordinary room, though it's bigger than yours. The walls are a nice combination of brown and white shades, and there are shelves with lots of trinkets. Dried flowers, an animal skull, crystals, books. It looked like the collection of some forest witch from a fairy tale rather than the room of a big spooky skeleton. On the other side is a large, double wooden bed with a comfortable mattress and a green checkered bedspread. The rest of the room is blocked from your view by the door itself. You decide to wait for Horror outside, as it seems more polite. It didn't look like he was planning to invite you in anyway.

You hear some rustling, and after a couple of seconds, Horror comes out wearing a different dark gray sweatshirt, a straw hat on his head, and gardening gloves on one of his hands. He hands you a similar hat and gloves. You look at them, then at the skeleton, then back at them.

"..." Horror, tired of waiting for you to realize what to do, just puts the hat on your head and places the gloves in one of your hands. "Let's go."

As soon as the skeleton closed the door and started to move down the hall, you hurried after him. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful for your... gifts? Things? But what's this for?"

Horror waved one hand without stopping. "The garden... You'll be helping."

"Oh. Oh! But I don't know how to take care of plants, and to be honest, I don't really want to do anything with physical activity. Can't I just go play video games?" you ask awkwardly. Horror stops, and you almost crash into him, stopping only inches from his back.

"You... don't want to help me?" He looks at you and raises one eyebrow. Well, looking into that eye, you realize you can't say no. This big dude definitely has a puppy-dog eye, even without trying. Or maybe you're just too soft inside. Those kinds of tricks are unfair!

With a sigh, you accept defeat and put on your gloves. "It was just a joke. Let's go dig in the mud, yey." you mutter under your breath, lowering your head a little. Horror lets out a deep laugh. Damn! You can't shake the feeling that you've fallen for some kind of trick. Well, there's nothing you can do about it. It seems that digging in the dirt today is your fate!

It's not that the big guy's company is bad, but you're more in the mood to be lazy than to do something in the garden. And considering the size of the castle, it's scary to imagine how big the garden is. Urgh...

As you walk out of the castle and to the right of the training area, you see a beautiful garden filled with flowers, berry bushes, fruit trees, and even a small, separate area for vegetables. Wow! It's very overwhelming, but in a good way. You even forgot you're here to help, not just to look at the beauty around you. You didn't even notice the big guy went somewhere while you were looking around.

When Horror came up to you again, holding a trowel and a big bag of fertilizer, you realized that you would have to suffer in this beautiful garden. Taking the trowel, you looked uncertainly at the large skeleton. "What do I need to do exactly? What should I help with?"

Horror pointed to the vegetable patch. "You... have to dig a few small holes... be careful not to go too deep. Also, if you see... small plants that look out of place, just... pull them out and put them in a separate pile, because it must be... weeds. Is that clear?"

You nod and hurry over to the vegetable area.

Poor Horror, he doesn't even know that during your time at the academy, you were simply kicked out of the plant care class. Back then, you accidentally pulled out all the useful herbs on your plot, leaving only weeds... But they really had shitty instructions! Sometimes you think that maybe it wasn't just your fault, considering the people who also took that gardening exam saw what you were doing and no one said anything. 

You must have looked incredibly stupid and ignorant... Well, it doesn't matter now! Shaking your head, you adjust your straw hat and get down on one knee to begin the work. This time, before pulling something that looks like a weed, you pay attention to its location, whether there are similar plants nearby, and so on.

Considering how well-made the garden is, you feel like you're doing everything right, removing only the weeds and keeping all the important plants safe.

After about an hour, you stop and look around for Horror and his approval, but he seems to be busy with the flowers now. You can only see part of his back and head behind a bush. For some reason, this makes you feel sad. Not that you need to be praised for every little thing, but for some reason you are eager to just, to just get the approval of the work being well done. Only yesterday, Dust complimented you for your training results, even though they were worthless, and hell, even Killer was worried about your physical condition, also he was making some good comments when you made neat jokes while you were watching the TV together. For some reason, you just want to hear a damn compliment for how great you are at helping with the garden!

You squeeze the weed in your hand and feel a change. Looking down at your left hand, you see the plant's roots start to grow and wrap around your hand. Holding back a scream, you try to pry the damn thing off, keeping an eye on Horror, who is far away enough to not see what's happening here. This battle with the unknown monstrosity.

The plant falls to the ground, its roots moving creepily, digging into the dirt. You swing your trowel and pierce the middle of the thing. At first, it actively raises its roots, then it relaxes and looks pretty dead. Ew, fuck. What the fuck was that? You grimace as you lift the plant by the edge of a root and examine it. Looking closer, you notice... remnants of your magic? Hmm, that's strange. You've never had a problem with the uncontrolled use of magic. It was either complete control or no control at all when you used it, not the magic deciding on its own when to be active. The fact that it did something on its own? That's pretty creepy. It might make sense to ask Cross about it. Maybe it has something to do with him, his body, or whatever else? It'd be nice to know the details before the mission, but it's not like you can just lie down in the middle of the garden to meet your body's roommate to gather some information.

"What is that?" Hearing Horror's voice so close to you, you scream and turn around sharply, accidentally hitting one of the vegetable sprouts, but thankfully not damaging the stem.

"Lord in the name of the Dreemurs, you scared me so much that my soul almost left my body!" You put a hand to your chest, breathing heavily. Horror covered his face with one hand and let out a small snort. You straighten up, putting down the trowel, handing the weed-thing to Horror. "It seems I accidentally used my magic, and this weed decided to 'hug' my hand."

The skeleton carefully took the weed and began to examine it. While he's doing so, you quickly add as if it's something you messed up on your own will.

"Just so you know, this is not normal for me. I've never used my magic unconsciously before."

You got to your feet, shaking the dirt off your knees, and walked closer to the skeleton, looking at the weed in his hand.

"Do you think it could happen again?" When you asked, Horror just shrugged and threw the weed into the pile with the other weeds. You sigh. Of course, as soon as your magic is active again, something is bound to go wrong! Your mood drops, and you already half turned back to the garden. But then, after some thought, Horror starts to speak.

"That's... normal for monsters." Hearing that, you looked at him with wide eyes. Horror seemed a bit uneasy, you don't even know what thoughts are in his head. He just thinks how he definitely would let Nightmare know about this later. Yes, this is normal for monsters- for baby bones, not for someone Cross's age.

"But I'm not a monster," you said confidently, and then you realized. No, but you are in the body of a monster now. A monster's body is made of magic, so of course, their emotions will affect their magic. But why did it only affect you now? This body has never done this before, even when you were feeling strong emotions. Could it be that emotions of a specific spectrum are affected, or was it a one-time problem? What if… you need to check the status of your soul later on.

Horror pulled you out of your thoughts by putting a hand on your shoulder. "Don't worry..."

You felt a bit better. He's right. It's not like you can continue training now, given yesterday's workout and the fact that you have a mission today, there is a need to save your magic. Sure, you could eat more food to replenish your energy, but after that breakfast, the thought of eating more food makes you shiver.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess I shouldn't think about it too much, not right now anyway." You tried to sound positive, but your voice sounded small, even to you. Horror looked like he wanted to say something else but was at a loss for words. You decided to stop standing there doing nothing, so you walked away from Horror, back to the garden. Back to work!

One weed, two weeds, and now another area is clean.

Horror decided to continue his usual garden routine. Your powers are acting exactly like baby bones one would, your magic so unstable that with powerful emotions, it leaks out on its own. Such things wouldn't be a big problem if you were a child with a small source of magic, but you're an adult, a mix of a human mage and a powerful monster. It's dangerous. For now, all he can do is try to calm you down.

"You know... magic is... part of you. It won't hurt you. Everything will be fine." Hearing the words of reassurance, you turn back to the skeleton but all you can see at the moment is his back. He said this without taking his eyes off the flowers. Strangely, his words made you feel a little better. You hum in return, acknowledging what he just said.

You returned to work, though now with more enthusiasm and renewed strength. He probably knows better, he is a born monster after all with more knowledge and experience, it would only be logical to believe his words. To trust in them.

After a while, you have removed all the weeds from the vegetable area of the garden. Not as scary and hard as you had expected! It seems that Horror takes great care of his garden. It even feels like a universe separate from the dark castle, everything here is so pretty and bright.

After putting all the weeds in one pile, you approached Horror, who was pruning one of the flowers.

"Why cut off the healthy part of the flower?" you asked as he snipped a small bud from the main stem.

Horror looked at you. "Regular pruning stimulates the growth of young... shoots, also reduces susceptibility to disease and… increases resistance. So it's good for the flower."

You nodded your head as you looked at the cut parts. After a couple of minutes of silent observation, you spoke up again. "I finished the task you gave me. Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"If... you could fetch some water... that would be great." Not a particularly active task, great. Maybe after this, you can finally go play video games or watch some TV? The activity wasn't bad, you were just still tired and hurt.

You nodded and immediately walked toward the training area and the back door. As you grabbed the door handle, you realized that your gloves were really dirty, covered in mud. Taking them off, you shoved them in your pocket, not caring much about your clothes. Shaking the dirt off the handle, you went inside. Hah, wait. Horror sent you to wander around by yourself. Before, he insisted that every breath be taken with him, so what had changed?

You took a step away from the door and walked a little closer to the garden, peeking at Horror. He is just crouching here, busy gardening, humming a tune to himself. Okay. You go back to the door, open it, and step inside, heading towards the kitchen. But without the skeleton watching you, you decide to try turning down other corridors, drawing a map of the manor in your mind. Maybe you even have a chance to quickly get into Nightmare's office and look for important documents before bringing Horror the water? Well, only if you can get to the third floor in five minutes... Next time. Yes, you'll definitely do it next time!

Using your memory of the way you came and the paths inside the mansion you've already walked, you find the kitchen without any problems, entering from another door.

Taking a bottle of water from the fridge, you calmly walked back the way you had come. But you had a feeling that something was wrong.

It's very quiet, and you haven't met any of the skeletons, which is a good thing of course, but also it does feel strange. Maybe no one's home, which would explain why Horror let you wander alone this time?

You decide to check your phone to finally ask Dust about his mental state, and maybe that way you can find out if he and Nightmare are home. Maybe Killer left, and now it's just Dust and Nightmare in Dust's room?

Putting a hand in your pocket- nothing. In the other pocket- nothing but gloves. Hell, you left your phone in your room! Pretty irresponsible, dammit.

Wandering back to Horror, you see a familiar skeleton standing next to him in the garden, his hood covering his face as usual. Dust. Cool, looks like the mission is about to start. You can't wait! At last, you'll find out who those Star Sanses are and also if your training with the skeleton will continue later on.

"Hi. Dust, how are you doing?" you asked, looking at the tired skeleton while handing the water to Horror, who surprisingly took off the lid and drank the entire liter and a half in one gulp. Without waiting for Dust's answer, you looked at the big guy in shock. Uh, maybe you should have brought two bottles? Or three? Ten?

Horror, seeing your look, lowered the empty bottle and smiled. He seems to be well aware that his water-absorbing superpowers have clearly surprised you. While you stood here in shock like an idiot, Dust yawned, and you looked back at him.

"I'm fine," was all he said, and urgh, his voice sounded so rough and tired. How bad was his health right now? As selfish as it sounds, the only thing you can think about is keeping your training going, and you hope his condition also wouldn't affect the mission. "Let's go on our mission."

You nod and reach for your hat, but Dust just grabs you by the front of your shirt, and you feel the familiar sensation of weightlessness. You let out a high squeak. In the blink of an eye, you are in a semi-dark place. Looking around, you see you are surrounded by glowing blue flowers, and you can hear the sound of water in the background. At first, you feel very disoriented, but then you look at the skeleton with a disgruntled face.

"Dude, I didn't even- I didn't even change my clothes, and I didn't bring my phone!" At your indignant tone, the skeleton hissed “Quite.”. At the same moment, the flowers around you began to repeat the words, with each flower making them gradually quieter and less clear. 

Oh, echo flowers. You remember reading about them at the academy. Unfortunately, these flowers don't grow in your city, so you've never seen them in person. What's more, you haven't even seen a picture, only a description. And damn, now all your desire to see them someday seem foolish, because of how creepy they are.

"We should split up and see if there are any Star Sanses around. I don't need your help, Cross. I know Nightmare sent us together because he thinks I don't have enough magic to fight, but he's wrong. I'm fine." Dust's voice was disgruntled and quiet, he was looking directly into your eyes as he said it, but you felt like he was looking more through you instead. What is even going on in this skull head of his?

"What? No, Dust, you can't just decide to split up like that. And I told you, I'm without my phone. I can't even get back if I'm separated from you," you dropped to a whisper, feeling irritated. Dust's words make no sense. If we're going to scout the surrounding enemy territory, how else is he going to do it if we're not together? What nonsense! You are wounded, he has too little magic after the last mission. You were sent together for a specific reason damnit!

At your words, Dust rolled his eyes. "Just, if anything happens, you know where to find me. In this direction."

He pointed to the right, and a second later, he simply disappeared. Why does his behavior feel so uncaring? Maybe he's angry with you for something? Could it have something to do with the episode he had after your training? Not that you can ask him now. But his behavior towards you is unfair! Only yesterday, he acted like everything was okay and he just needed a moment for himself, but now he's acting like an ass. Or perhaps he's just grumpy because he's tired? No point in overthinking it right now.

With a sigh, you put your gloves back on, adjust your straw hat, and head to the left.

After a while, you notice that there are a lot of flowers around, but as you walk, they become less frequent, and the air gets colder. This place is very weird, full of magic and mystery. You never saw anything so dense in the magical level. Looking up you notice that you aren't even outside, it's some kind of cave.

While walking, you also look around. All the monsters look quite typical. On your walk, you gather your thoughts, Star Sanses, what do they look like in general? Given the logic that everything has followed up to this point, you can say with almost one hundred percent certainty that they are skeletons. You need to be wary of skeletons and generally be on the lookout!

You notice that the monsters around you are whispering to each other, peering at you. Huh, that's pretty weird, but okay. Maybe you look suspicious? That would be strange, as all the monsters around you seem to have a similar style to yours, black and red clothes and something resembling a rock aesthetic. You're wearing black yourself, so you shouldn't stand out too much.

Oh! The hat! Maybe it's the straw hat? It clearly doesn't fit the rock vibe. But you're not going to take it off. You just don't have anywhere to put it, and you absolutely don't want to throw away any of Horror's stuff. That's just a rude thing to do.

Moving on, the surrounding atmosphere changes from watery, floral landscapes to snow and fir trees. Hah, as a skeleton, you feel the cold, but not as much as you would if you were human. It's comfortable! Damn, once again, you see the advantages of this stolen body.

You suddenly stop and slap your cheeks, scaring a couple of monsters around you. "Pull yourself together!"

With this confident shout, you keep walking, looking around. It looks like some kind of small town. Nice. You've always liked small towns, big cities have a lot of hustle and bustle, but here you feel a quiet atmosphere. Except for the strangely and edgily dressed monsters who keep peeking looks at you as they walk by. You have a feeling it isn't just your hat that's getting their attention. 

"Hey bud, don't you know how to greet a new fella? Turn around and shake my hand." You heard a deep male voice behind you and froze in place, then very slowly began to turn around.

Chapter Text

After you and Dust went on the first mission that Nightmare initiated, you, of course, split up. You would prefer to stay together like Nightmare said, since neither you nor Dust are in the best fighting condition right now, but it doesn't seem like your mission partner cares about that.

As you walked into the snowy village, you heard an unknown deep voice behind.

“ Do you not know how to greet a new friend? Turn around and shake my hand.”

This voice gave you goosebumps, as if this person was deliberately trying to make you uncomfortable.

Regardless of what your insides are telling you, you turn around to meet a skeleton in a black jacket, a red sweater, and black shorts. But what catches your eye the most is his big red eye and sharp smile with a gold tooth. You look at his hand and immediately notice something tied to it. Does he really think you're going to fall for this? Ha, no thanks!

" No, thank you, I'm paaaasss!!! " You weren't even able to finish your sentence when the skeleton grabs your hand in a forceful handshake, and you feel a wave of electricity pass through your body. It hurts! And this damn stranger just starts laughing at you!

" Ahahahahaha! Haaaah, the old electric shock trick. I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton. " With these words, the satisfied skeleton let go of your hand, wiping away an invisible tear from his face.

Wow, you just see this guy and you already feel the urge to punch him. He annoyingly reminds you of Killer.

"I'm going to tear your arm out and shove it up your ass! " You bark at the skeleton, whose smile turns into something more serious.

"What did you just say, garbage can?" The threatening Sans asked, taking a step forward.

"What you heard, you asshole." You said confidently, straightening up, absolutely not backing down. Yes, you hurt and are low on magic, the same magic you can't even use properly, but still, that's the spirit that matters!

There was a magical tension in the air, and you could see the monsters in the background begin to gather from a distance to watch the spectacle. But you just ignore them.

Sans's eye lit up bright red, while at the same time you summoned two crooked, pointed bones that would have been suitable as daggers. But a second later, the skeleton laughed seeing your ‘attacks’.

"What's so funny? " You exclaimed in frustration, and the skeleton pointed to your crooked weapon.

" Hahaha, what is this? Damnit, haha!" The skeleton clutched his stomach, still laughing. Looking around, you could see that the monsters nearby also found your magic weapon ridiculous.

You feel your cheeks flushed with shame. Although your magic may not be at its best, laughing at it is rude! You are trying your best right here!!

You look at the skeleton and dismiss your weapon, feeling the tension disappear. What actions would you take in such a scenario? Not only does this skeleton laugh at you, but everyone around you does so too. Kicking everyone's ass would be a hard task, and it would generally come across as childish.

You need to focus on the mission, and get out of here as soon as possible! The only thing this place reminds you of is your horrible days in the academy. This skeleton stated that his name is Sans. It's possible that he's one of the Star Sanses! Then it makes sense to immediately go to Dust and let him know that they are here. But wait... It seems that in your world there was also a skeleton named Sans, Sans Sheriff, brother of the famous Papyrus… Given the similarity of the skeletons with each other, perhaps this is only one of the variations of Sans of this universe, and not the Star Sanses team? Yes, looks like it.

Argh, this is all because of your lack of experience in the au travelling! You should have studied harder in the academy, what a shame. If only you chose the lessons about the multiverse, but since you never had plans of leaving your home au, you never ever considered doing so.

"Phah, don't cry bud. Maybe you got off on the wrong foot today and that's why your bone attacks look so terrible." The skeleton said while still snorting at the memory of the shape that your bony attack had.

"I'm fed up with that." As you said that, the skeleton, Sans, straightened his back, as if he was expecting you to attack, but you only walked away.

Surprisingly, Sans did not follow you. There was something in his eyes as if he wouldn't let you go. Maybe you were just imagining this?

After a couple of minutes, you felt the familiar type of magic in front of you, so you quickly stepped back. Sans teleported in front of you, damn it, of course he wouldn't let you go so easily.

Feeling the tension of his presence, you asked the skeleton. "What?"

"I know who you are." The skeleton answered darkly, looking as if right through you.

You felt a drop of sweat on your forehead. Did he truly comprehend that you are a human being encased in the body of a monster? No, that is impossible! It seemed as if all the sounds in the background went quiet, you heard the beating of your heart, or rather, the pulsation of magic in the middle of your soul.

Sans opened his mouth, and you swallowed the air in preparation for what he would say.

"You're Sans too, right? How did you get here? Through the machine?" You were swept away by a stream of questions. Hah?...

What machine? Or maybe he means just any technology, like your phone? Although it's not like you have it with you to show him anything. And not like you would have done so, there is no point in intervening. Does this mean that this world is not part of the social network of the multiverse? According to the academic rule, interference in such universes is forbidden because it disturbs the balance. It's a straightforward formula, communicate with those who are knowledgeable about alternative universes and stay away from those who aren't.

“Listen, I'm here for a short time, and I can't answer your questions.” Before the skeleton could say anything, you added. “Please don't take it personally if I speak too much, it could cause a skewed balance”

As if understanding what you meant on some deeper level, Sans speaks up, his gaze is burningly intense. “Tsk, not even a hint?” 

“I can give you some information, but...” You lean closer, getting serious, your face is now closer to him, causing him to tense up. Although you're uncertain about your exact expression, you make an effort to appear as serious as possible. “In exchange for this, I'd like to know if you've seen any other skeletons here besides me. Sans-like ones.”

Sans nudged your shoulder, forcing you to take a couple of steps back. To which you just smiled and raised your hands in the air. Your task is to show that you are serious, not to start a fight. Though to be honest, this is so out of your element that you're not even sure what the hell you are even doing right now.

“This is not the place for such conversations. But I know where we can continue our small chat.” Skeleton said with a disgruntled expression, and then a grin appeared on his face. You looked at him as he stretched out his hand to you, but you didn't understand what he wanted. "Can you lend me a hand? I know a shortcut."

Oh no, it's going to be a teleport, isn't it? You grimace a bit as you put your hand on top of the skeleton's, but he changes position to take your wrist instead of your hand. Suddenly, you find yourself in a booth in a bar, and despite the surrounding noise, you feel like this area is indeed more private.

Sans drops your hand and turns his attention to the purple fire element behind the bar, exclaiming something to the fire monster, “Two usuals” without delay. You decide to sit down at this moment.

This place looks... Weird. It's like a mix of a bar and a club. The black and red colors throughout made you feel uncomfortable, the feeling of being out of place is truly strong right now, especially when you look at your dirty gardening gloves and fix your sunny hat. You look like a goth gardener.

When the skeleton sits down across from you, you take off your gloves, fold them carefully, and put them in your pocket. Stay safe here, gloves. After all, you still need to return them to Horror. Although you briefly considered taking off the hat and placing it aside, the fear of accidentally forgetting it here prevented you from doing so. Or worth, the fear of it getting damaged, which is so much more likely than forgetting the thing.

Tap, tap, tap. You glared at the grimy skeleton who was staring at the bar while tapping his finger on the bar table. Maybe you should initiate a conversation?

You open your mouth to recall your topic of conversation. But Sans manages to interrupt you, the food is here.

“Thanks, Grilbs, you're the best. Put it on my tab.” Said the skeleton, winking at the fire elemental who silently placed the trays of food in front of you.

You unwillingly focused on the food. After helping Horror in the garden for a few hours you got tired, and you hadn't eaten any lunch, so looking at that burger and fries, you felt your mouth water with metaphorical drool. At this time, Sans took a swing of mustard from the bottle in his hand, drinking it, which made you cringe.

“Mustrell” Did he really just combine mustard and must tell right now? Stupid, yet funny.

"I saw another skeleton here, but it was only briefly." Sans shrugged, taking another sip of his bottle of mustard.

It could have been Dust, hmm, you should find out more information. But right now... You have other important things to deal with first! You grabbed the burger, taking the biggest bite possible, almost half of it, and instantly fell in love with the flavor. It's divine! 

“Mmm, these burgers are to kill for! It's amazing!" You complimented with satisfaction, even though you felt odd because you were speaking with a full mouth of food while it did not affect the sound of your voice, like, at all. But maybe it was simply… magic or something? Sans responded with laughter.

“Were you starving? What are you, a multi dimension hopping beggar? Although to be fair, Grilby's does serve some pretty good food here.” Skeleton admitted, also taking a bite of the burger.

"What was the appearance of the skeleton you saw?" You decided to go straight forward.

“Tsk, I already told you gardener, I only saw a glimpse of him.”

“Yes, did you see something else? At the least, what was the color of his clothes? Any weapons or armour?" You insisted.

Sans attempted to recall the details and began tapping his finger on the table again, while gazing at an empty space. At that moment, you decided to give him some room to think. If he doesn't give you the information you need, you at least had a meal which gives you more energy to go searching by yourself, so it's not a waste of time!

“А!” Skeleton suddenly exclaimed with a click of his fingers, which startled you, so much so that you jumped a little, hitting your knees on the table. Which made you make a strangled 'urgh' to which Sans snorted.

“Huh, you're so easy to spook. That's hilarious.” Sans chuckled, holding his fist to his mouth to keep his laughter from being too loud.Urgh, you suppose there's something funny about seeing an alternate version of yourself almost hit the table because of a simple snap of the fingers. Which is probably bizarre, you can't even imagine the feeling of seeing the alternative version of yourself. But still, laughing is not too appropriate.

You glared at the skeleton, which caused him to wave his hand and continue chattering. “Okay, okay. The one I saw was wearing blue clothes, I think. It's hard to tell since I saw him briefly.”

You recall what Dust was wearing today. Nothing blue.Those were definitely not his clothes.

“Okay, thanks for the information, I appreciate it.” You said taking another bite of your burger, then looked around and leaned a little closer to the skeleton lowering your tone. It's time to give him the payment with some info about how you traveled here. “I came here thanks to a phone that contained strong magic capable of passing between dimensions. Some neat stuff.”

You answered the skeleton honestly. It's not enough details for him to recreate all the conditions and change his world with this technology, but it's also useful enough information to make him think about the possibilities. It's ok if this world would develop such things, but if this would be too soon because of your words, that can cause disbalance.And, judging by Sans's face, he's not completely satisfied with the answer. Even so, he quietly nods at your words and accepts them.

“Well, listen, sooner or later you will get the knowledge you want. Life is constantly evolving, people will come up with incredible discoveries with time. “ You tried to support the skeleton, while taking the mustard that was standing next to you to add to your fries. 

You notice out of the corner of your eye that Sans is looking at you strangely, but with the thought that he's probably just unused to someone using sauce as... sauce and not a drink, you tilt the bottle, and at the same moment the lid falls off, leaving your poor potatoes literally drowning in mustard.

You exclaim "WHAT THE HELL!" as you look at this picture with shock.

“I can take it then.” Skeleton said with satisfaction, taking your fries. Although it's now more mustard than fries, you're still actually surprised he's going to eat it....even given that he's been drinking mustard before, enough is enough isn't it? where is the line for the love of condiments. At some point, perhaps you can understand it? Although it's not like you would pour your favorite hot chocolate on a cookie, turn it into a complete mess, and still eat it. No matter how much you love chocolate and cookies. There's still a line for such things… ok, you can't understand this skeleton, not at all.

You cringe as you watch the skeleton eat it, to which he just laughs, unbothered by your judgment.

“Okay, thanks for your help, but I'm going to go.” You get up from your seat, skeleton wavers his hand lazily at you. Neither of you have any more information to exchange anyway. It’s time to leave.

As you leave the bar, on your way out you can see that many locals are glancing at you. Feeling uneasy, you quickly shut the door behind you as you leave.

Now, where should you go? Since Dust went in the other direction, it's obviously not an option to go there. Perhaps it makes sense to look at the area between this bar and the place where you and Dust appeared? Check the missing piece of territory, considering that skeleton teleported you here, making some of the walk a blank unchecked spot.

You look around, and realize that even from here you can see where the village ends, after which right away would be the place that you came from. There's hardly any point in going to look for an unknown skeleton there, it's literally what, around 20 steps? You can see this area without even walking closer.

And if you truly missed somebody, Dust can deal with it. After all, how else could things turn out, considering that he just gave up on you and went off on his own? Let this independent asshole deal with everything himself! He probably didn't even get anything worth reporting. While you did a pretty awesome job, you've already gotten a piece of information that only needs to be confirmed! It's simple, you find those Star Sans, and you run quietly back to Dust. Which would definitely be a challenge. The bastard probably did not consider the fact that you cannot teleport to him if something happens! But what can you do, sigh.

Walking towards the snowy forest, you let out a heavy sigh and look around. The buildings look a little worn out and unfriendly, but the place still has a pretty decent vibe.

There are houses with broken Christmas lights, and one even has a snowman nearby! Well, more precisely, its ruined remains symbolize that the snowy friend was once here. But still! It's some kind of decoration. Perhaps the locals are celebrating Christmas? Actually, no, it's Giftmas in monster culture. So perhaps there's a Giftmas time? You can't tell for sure, and the fact that you're underground doesn't help either. 

As you move forward, you experience a sense of sadness towards this place. In your world, monsters have been on the surface for a long time, but here they are still sealed by a barrier. This is both cruel and unfair. And the fact that in your world there are all those rules about the balance that prevent you from breaking the barrier, that is just sad.Techically your world has all the tools to save those folk, yet the rules forbid it.

As you depart from the city and enter the forest, you experience a sense of strangeness. Something about this place strains your inner senses.

Upon taking another step, you hear a slight click, and just before a bear trap breaks your leg, you are able to jump back. What the hell!? Why are there traps in the woods!? This is some kind of battlefield, not a forest!

You glance at your leg, which has barely survived, and even though it's not your body, you don't want to get hurt. Leaning down, you lightly patted the spot that almost fell victim to the trap. Damn… that was close.

How many traps are there in this forest? It's possible that the Star Sans has become dust and you're putting your safety at risk for nothing?

Maybe you shouldn't go any further.

It would be nice to know how Dust is doing..

If you could just finish this mission as soon as possible, go back home.

You wonder what Horror is cooking for dinner tonight...

.
.
.

You let out a big sigh and decide to keep going. It's too late to turn back anyway. Stretching out your hand, you summon a thin, long bone that is so crooked that it looks more like a wooden stick. You can move forward by using it in a way that is similar to a blind person's cane. Now you wouldn't fall for the bear trap. Although given how seriously dangerous it is here with those bear traps, you also keep an eye on the environment, there's for sure something else. It would be sad to fall into a tripwire or a ground dug trap.

Surprisingly, after some walking, you notice that there is nothing but a couple of bear traps on this piece of road. Wait! But what is this? You see a wooden sign with a trap painted in bright red paint indicating their presence here. What kind of genius thought of putting this sign on only one side of the road?! What kind of sick joke is this!

Sighing heavily, you head on. The deeper you go into the forest, the more you wonder when it makes sense to stop and go back to Dust. You're looking forward to getting this over with. Besides, this night after the mission, you will definitely get out of your room and sneak into Nightmare's office to find something interesting. By being on this mission and succeeding, you will have a much better chance of gaining the trust of the tentacle menace and sneaking into the office without any issues. And the most important part, information! Considering that Dust ruined every chance of asking anything by splitting up, you can’t get more info, but still, you gained at least some intel.

Suddenly, you sense something, and without any thought, you jump to the side and throw a crooked bone in the direction of what caused you to feel disturbed. Wow! Seems to be Cross's body reflexes! Neat!

Clack!

Your bony attack was easily deflected by an unknown skeleton. He looked exactly like a non-native with his light colored outfit. This is a Sans-like skeleton monster in blue and grey clothes, with a noticeable blue scarf that honestly compliments his look. As he stands, you notice that he is holding two bones in his hands in a defensive position. After making eye contact for a moment, he lunges forward to attack, and you summon a new bone to deflect his blow.

The sound and pressure of bones grinding causes you both to step back, but then both of you rush forward with great determination.

Damn Dust! 'If you see Star Sanses, you know where to find me.' Hell yeah! It's easy, but there's one small problem. How the heck do you get away from him to contact you!

“What are you doing here, Cross?” The stranger asked, deflecting another one of your blows.

Damnit. Your wounds are still healing, so you're uncertain about how long you'll be able to keep going. And it seems that this skeleton clearly sees that you are not in good shape. You sensed something, you are pretty sure that he is giving in, which just damages your pride. You're supposed to be enemies, aren't you? Why go easy?

“I went on a picnic! You see what a. Shi-!” You interrupted to dodge a bone flying in your direction.

“SEE WHAT A LOVELY WEATHER WE HAVE, JUST PERFECT FOR A PICNIC!” You exclaim irritatedly, moving more and more into a defensive stance, which is clearly not a winning one in this situation.

Skeleton just frowns and increases the pressure. Damn it! You decide to give it your all, so you make a confident dash at the skeleton, you strain the magic that formed like a stream of water from your soul to your fingertips, you sharply shoot out a dozen crooked bones, while creating a thick bone to attack with like a hammer.

While the skeleton deflected some of the flying bones, he also created something that reminded you of an animal skull. Where was the last time when you saw something like this? Oh! Oh no, when you were fighting with a Cross in the past. Annoying thing.

Your bone hammer smashed against this unknown head, not even scratching it, and then the eyes of the magical thing turned to you.

“Shit.” You saw it open its mouth, and felt a huge stream of magic that was ready to shoot at you right then and there.

BANG.

Jumping to the side, you feel weak in your legs, and stumble. At the same moment, an unknown blue skeleton shortens the distance, and the very next moment you feel yourself pinned to the ground. There is a sharp bone pressed against your throat.

Shit, shit, SHIT!

“Don't move, Cross,” the skeleton says confidently. “I don't want to hurt you.”

You just let out a small ''ugh'' , stopping the resistance. Well, you're fucked. To say the least, this skeleton beat you like a baby, and he did it while given in. You're so damn weak right now! All because of your unusual body and lack of normal weapons! If you had known that you would have such an experience, you would have added more types of weapons to your training. Although who knew that someday you'd be fighting with crooked bone-like things? Urgh. The proper guardian would be prepared for this…

You heard a noise in the background like a body being thrown to the ground, you tried to look in the direction of the noise, even though you were faced down on the ground and being held by a skeleton. At your actions, this blue guy pressed the bone harder, making you stiffen.

Then, you heard another unfamiliar voice.

“Oh, Blue, did you manage to catch Cross?” The unknown voice asked happily. “I just got a new addition.”

“Urghh, damn inkwell...” A familiar voice muttered hoarsely. Dust. Great, just great! You both got your asses kicked. Split up split up, I don't need a baby sitter my ass! If he acted cool he shouldn't have been caught.

“Yeah, I'm not sure if there's any more of them here. Ink, have you contacted Dream?” Blue asked.

“He's patrolling Hotland, but I think there is no point in doing so, it's just these two today.” Ink replied. In a situation like this, you're clueless about what to do.

...Damn it

”To hell with that!“ You shouted, closed your eyes, straining your magic, you felt it. Your body felt a sensation like an electric shock and water splashing through you. The pain was so intense, it pierced your bones, though you didn't stop. The only thing you could think of was to teleport Blue away from you, to somewhere else. Anywhere.

You don't trust your magic enough to teleport yourself, so this has to be the best option!

You can hear someone shouting in the background, but it's hard to identify them. Everything around you became colder. For the first time in a long time, you felt so piercingly cold, as if you had been thrown into icy water. You attempted to scream due to the overwhelming emotions, but no sound came out. Your jaw just stayed open, unable to get a word out, just gasping the air.

Gradually, everything began to calm down. You slowly opened your eyes, no longer feeling the pressure on your back. And surprisingly, both unknown skeletons disappeared from your field of vision. The only one who was still there was Dust, lying on the ground unconscious.

Did you genuinely teleport both of those enemy skeletons to another place? Oh, no, wait. Considering the sense of magic around, it appears that you only sent Blue. It's possible that Ink had to run to retrieve Blue from the location you transported him to?

Regardless, now is not the right time to contemplate any of that.

“Hey, Dust, are you okay?” You asked a skeleton, moving to a sitting position. Your whole body is tensed up,  Dust,  he did not answer, didn't move, didn't do anything while lying face down in the snow. Damn.

In your attempt to get up, you were knocked back to the floor by a wave of dizziness.”Urgh.”

Taking a deep breath and holding it, you crawled over to Dust, slowly your hands reched out, and you began to shake him by the shoulder. He showed no signs of life. But fortunately, he hadn't become dust yet, so he was still alive.

Though, It would be nice to be able to check his HP. And yours… this battle seems to have opened up some of your old wounds, as you are clutching the sore side. You turn Dust over to inspect his condition.

“What the-” This forest silence is interrupted by your loud laughter. Dust's face is drenched in ink, almost like he had irritated an octopus!Thought…  Even when unconscious, the skeleton is squinting in pain, which immediately prompts you to stop laughing. He seemed to have suffered a serious injury.

You started going through his pockets looking for his phone. Where is it? It's not here, it's not here. Oooo! You found it!! Pulling the phone out of Dust's pocket, you notice one small detail. The phone is broken into two pieces...

“OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!” That's too much. This is what happens when you are told to stick together and you split. What the hell was Dust thinking!? You're both in no condition to split up after the last missions. What would you do now?

“Cross.” A familiar voice made you flinch, and you turned around to see moody Blue covered in water and algae, and Ink stood silently next to him, smiling, clearly amused by the situation.

“Yo.” You answered casually, while moving yourself as a barrier between Star Sanses and Dust. In the other situation you would have been happy to see those two, they fight those evil guys, they are supposed to be good, on your side. But right now everything is so different, your life just turned upside down, the same way your soul did.

Focus! Fight, battle, enemies. Even if you can't get back on your feet, you might still be able to send Blue to who knows where again, right? Unless he or Ink would manage to turn you into dust before then.

"Do you have any idea where you had sent me? How did you even do that-" Suddenly everything went dark, and Blue's voice cut off. You initially thought you'd fainted, but a moment later, you found yourself in the middle of one of Nightmare's mansion's rooms instead of snowy landscapes. Night himself was standing in front of you with an unreadable expression.

Behind him, you saw Horror and Killer. Your heart stopped for a second, and you turned around to check something-! Phew, Dust is still here, right there with you. Thank the Dreemurrs, that was terrifying. Not like Nightmare would leave him behind, but for a moment you were spooked.

You looked at Horror, taking off your hat. “Hey, I got your hat back."

You said, releasing a weak laugh. Although it doesn't seem like anyone's mood has lifted... Well, that could have gone better.

Chapter Text

After giving the short report to Nightmare, you were feeling, well, like shit. That's the main reason why you aren't even sure about the quality of the said report , and if it matched Cross's personality even in the slightest. But given that you gave the most concise and informative answer you could, everything should be fine! You did your best after all.

After that moment, everything is just a blur. You seem to have been taken to another room by Nightmare and then fell asleep. A few moments later, you feel a shift of something that you are laying on, which almost wakes you up. Whose shoulder are you sleeping on? Horror's? Killer`s?  Or… no, definitely not Nightmare`s. Anyway, It doesn't matter. You feel that something is going on in the background, but find yourself drifting back to sleep not caring even in the slightest.

When you open your eyes and come to your senses, you're surprised that you hadn't dreamed a thing. Normally, you would have already had a chat with Cross, or there would be regular dreams, it's strange to sleep without him haunting your subconscious.

As you look around, you notice that you are in a room that feels like a hospital ward, though slightly more empty and darker.

“How are … you feeling?” a familiar voice asks. You turn your head to see Horror sitting in a chair next to your bed. Looking down, you notice that Horror is peeling apples, putting them on a plate for you. Nice and caring, wow.

But this place feels weird. Are you really in a hospital? You look around and notice Killer sitting on the edge of the bed, at your feet. There's somebody else, too, behind Horror, against the far wall opposite of you, is another bed with Dust sleeping on it. Lastly, you look back, and seeing the view outside the window, you realize that you are still in Nightmare's Castle. Hmm. Figures, not like any of you truly can go to the regular hospital.

You notice that Horror is still waiting for your answer, so you finally open your mouth to respond.

"Tired, but I'm fine. Still alive at least." Unfortunately, you have no particular desire to discuss what happened. You're still tired after reporting to Nightmare. What else is there to say? Blue kicked your ass while giving in, he punched so gently, as if too strong of a blow would kill you immediately? While that might be nice in some cases, you are alive thanks to that mercy after all, it still does hurt your pride right now.

"..." Horror doesn't say anything, handing you an apple slice. You reach with your left hand to take it, but notice something connected to your wrist. What is it? A dropper? Um, maybe it's filled with some monster medicine. You do feel that your magic is more stable right now, as well as your HP does not feel like a dropping mess. So it's all good.

You take a slice of apple with your right hand instead and pop it into your mouth. "Thank you."

Horror simply nods back, turning his eyes away to continue peeling the apple. You feel movement at your feet and, looking down, you see Killer shifting from side to side while leaning on your blanket-covered legs.

"Don’t you have anything better to do?" you ask the skeleton, trying to free one of your legs from under the blanket to push Killer off the bed. In response, he presses your legs down onto the bed, making your attempts to kick him harder.

"Whoa, Crossy, don’t kick me in the face! It’s very precious- after all, such a beauty shouldn’t be harmed," the skeleton joked, his grin growing even wider with this self loving sentence.

"Stop leaning on my legs, and then I’ll think about it! And add, 'I’m sorry, Cross, oh great one, for annoying you while you’re feeling awful and lying in bed after a tough mission!' I'm a patient after all. Then your chances of not getting foot punched in the face will be much higher!" At this, Killer chuckled but obeyed, raising his hands in surrender, letting go of your legs.

"Well, at least you’ve come back to life. You looked like you were about to dust."

"If you want to make me even livelier, bring me some chocolate or candy. That’s the number one way to revive a person. Source? Me and my perfect judgment and experience." you reply, raising an eyebrow at the skeleton, as if you stated the most obvious fact. 

It’s not that you’re in such bad physical shape after the battle- it’s more that you reopened old wounds, which, combined with the mental toll, makes you feel worn off. You really want to have some chocolate, or a bucket of ice cream and eat it sadly while wrapped in a blanket. That would be nice.

"Wow, what next, you’ll ask me to pole dance for you and tell you a bunch of stand-up jokes, huh?" Although Killer’s tone sounded annoyed, his smile and body language made it seem like he was just teasing.

"Huh, that would be a great bonus, thank you." You drag out the 'thank you' as if deliberately trying to tease the skeleton.

"Should I address you as ‘Your Majesty's high standards and unbelievable demands Cross,’ then?"

"No need to be so formal. `Your majesty` will do. And as your first offering to my greatness, you can bring me some chocolate."

"Oh wow, somebody really wants that chocolate, huh?"

"...Yes," you confirm, wanting to say more, but Horror hands you another slice of apple, and you simply open your mouth, letting him toss it in. Chewing the apple and closing your eyes, you let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, let me rephrase that. Killer, could you , please, bring me some chocolate?"

You finally ask politely, looking at the skeleton. Killer tilted his head, staring at you for about a minute, to which you just raised an eyebrow and stared back.

"You know, I might’ve agreed, Crossy, if someone hadn’t been rude to me today." And there it is, Killer brings up the incident at breakfast this morning. You thought he had forgotten about it already! Yes, telling him that he is useless and a mess was too much, especially considering that all he did was goof around while cleaning some dishes, splashing the water and all, nothing deserving of such harsh words. But you were tired, your body was in pain, everything just was so damn awful, and to be honest, the one truly being a mess here, it's you.

You refuse to admit your fault and just snort, turning your gaze to Horror instead. You want to start a conversation with him instead of the annoying Killer, but the skeleton’s gaze is so... He doesn’t approve of your rudeness toward Killer, and it’s not an angry or harsh look- more like the one that is staring straight into your soul.

"Tsk. I-” You turn your head to look at Killer. Apologizing seems like a difficult task. But maybe you should set things right.

"Go on, keep going," the skeleton says smugly, stretching out on the bed, propping his elbows on your hip bones and resting his head on his hands. Surprisingly, you don’t feel any pain from his weight- just mentally annoyed by his smug face, that makes the task of saying sorry so damn harder.

You glance back at Horror, and one second is enough to make you frown and look back at the satisfied Killer before continuing where you left off. There is no turning back now. "I... want to apologize for the rude words I said earlier today."

"Which words exactly?~"

Tsk.

"The words about how... you ruin everything you touch, and that you’re useless." Saying it out loud, you realize your words were harsher than you thought, and your expression softens as you turn your gaze toward the wall instead. "It was wrong of me to say that. I don’t actually think that, and I’m really sorry..."

Killer straightens up, moving away from your legs and closer to the edge of the bed.

"Alright, Crossy, I forgive you. But I’m still not bringing you any chocolate." After saying this, Killer sticks out his tongue. You just roll your eyes with a small smile. It’s fine- you’ll find chocolate later. How hard can it even be? It would be easy. Definitely easy.

You sighed, turning away. Do they even have chocolate in the kitchen? Every decent home should have some, so let’s hope for the best!

You turn your head to the right, looking behind Horror, at the still-unconscious Dust. He clearly got it worse than you did. The poor dude got beaten really hard, that Ink dude did not hold any punches, that's for sure.

He is definitely tougher than Blue. You'll need to be more careful with him, he clearly won't give in to you too. Ink seems like a dangerous guy. Let's hope you won't need to fight him in the near future… or, well, ever. You are supposed to be on the same team after all, against all the bad! 

"Why do you think Dust didn't want to be on the team with me? I just don't understand why he decided to split up when we're both weak at the moment. It just doesn't make any sense." You ask Horror honestly, he knows Dust longer than you have. Maybe he has an answer for you. Of course you probably should include Killer's opinion too, but you feel like he will just joke instead of saying something useful.

Horror paused, lowering the apple. "Maybe... he wanted to show that… he can handle it himself?"

What the- that doesn't make any sense! Who refuses help so easily, at a moment of desperation, it is especially stupid since his ass got beaten so easily! At least be capable of defending yourself when you do such things.

Killer chimed in, "Just ask him when he wakes up."

You turned to Killer, an unhappy look on your face. "And how am I supposed to start that conversation, genius?"

"I don't know~ 'Hey Dust, how'd you sleep after your ass got kicked by the inkster? Gloomy? By the way, why did you decide to go off on your own like an idiot?”

Horror raised an eyebrow at Killer, while you let out a small chuckle. "Thanks, great advice, I will take it to heart, or, rather to soul."

Horror slowly shook his head, looked at you, he put down the knife, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Not with those... words, but I think you really should talk to him."

You nod slowly. "Okay, I'll ask him later. For now, let's talk about something positive instead, please?."

Killer immediately perked up. "You know, I recently watched a show, and you won't believe what the guy said to his wife after cheating on her!-”

.
.
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After a while, Killer finally leaves, leaving only you and Horror in the room. Horror looks back at the sleeping Dust, his usually unreadable face filled with concern. After some silence, he leans over to you, whispering, "When you're going to... talk to him, be careful,  don't give yourself away. And next... time be more cautious with your actions.”

Is he blaming you for what happened to Dust!? You turn your head to look at him, but at that moment, the skeleton teleports out of the room, leaving you alone with Dust. You have a lot of thoughts in your head that need to be processed…

You said that splitting up was a bad idea, but he didn't listen to you. Why are you the one to blame?! And in general, you were beaten up too. But these thoughts were a dead end. You need to talk to Dust, sort things out, right now you are supposed to be in one team, it's a matter of safety. Understanding his reasons is important, and you can gather some information. Yes, you truly should talk things through for the sake of the information!

How are you supposed to start that talk with Dust when he wakes up? Could you truly be the one at fault? No… It's not like you did something to upset him earlier. All you've really done is train together, and he was nothing but supportive, so he wasn't angry with you then.

But... wait! There was that moment that even Killer talked about yesterday. How could you forget?! After the summoned attack turned into that strange, white, melted mess, Dust looked troubled and left quickly.

You have to ask him about it specifically. Killer mentioned it reminded him of something., some amalgamation , amalgam, thingies? But how could a memory possibly drive him to do something as irrational as splitting up when he's weaker than usual, when he's vulnerable? It's just too stupid. What kind of trauma does that dude even have!?

"This is giving me a damn headache!" you scream, covering your face with your hands, muffling the sound of your frustration.

No matter, Dust is asleep. You won't be able to have a dialogue with him right now.

Lowering your arms, you close your eyes. You need to sleep, rest, and recover. Slowly, darkness absorbs your mind, and you delve into the depths of sleep. This is the second time you did not see Cross in your dream. You don't see anything at all, the hella lot of nothingness and the darkness, you sleep like the dead.

Opening your eyes, it takes you a couple of seconds to remember where you are and what you were doing. Looking around, you see that it's already a night. Dust is gone from his bed, and your arm is free from the IV drip. You are alone and slightly confused, but on the bright side, you feel much better! 

At first, this body's dependence on magic level seemed like a big disadvantage, but frankly speaking, the recovery rate is so impressively fast that this disadvantage is no longer that bad! Especially with bonuses like a good sense of smell and good endurance.

You get up, stretching your body. The absence of the usual crunch of joints feels strange, but oh well, there are many unusual things in this body, and the cracking satisfying sounds is the least of your concerns.

Letting out a small sigh, you approach the window, looking at the beautiful night view of the garden. Pretty, and quiet… Maybe now would be a good opportunity to sneak into Nightmare's office? You can always pass it off as if you were looking for Nightmare himself to write a proper report.

Or! Or if you look suspicious, you could act like you came for advice about Dust. That seems reasonable. Because of him, you got your ass kicked, so using him as an excuse to visit the office is the most logical solution right now.

Leaving the medical office, you are greeted by empty corridors. It's unknown which part of the mansion you are in, but you still have all night to find Nightmare's office!

Surprisingly, in only just about an hour, you find his office. The way was not so difficult, you quickly came across familiar paths, but the size of this place made it a long walk, which combined with your attempts in being sneaky made the walk much longer. But it doesn't matter, now the most important thing is to see if there is anything interesting there! You are unlikely to find anything useful, but it still counts as an attempt in something good, isn't it?

Slowly opening the large door of the stern office, you walk to the table filled with some documents. Lifting paper after paper, you find nothing interesting. The condition of various AUs, information, and reports. Nothing too interesting, except... a document about your native AU!

Holding your breath, you reach for the document, slowly reading the contents. 'Oh...' You realize that someone is leaking the information to Nightmare. There is too much specific information written here regarding Reishu and artifacts. So, if you get into your world while still in Cross's body, you must be careful, someone might recognize you and report to Nightmare. 

Though not only this spy is a problem. In general you will need to hide your appearance and try to reach Reishu directly without being caught. It sounds like you are some kind of criminal! Although, in fact, you are now a criminal, you are in Cross's body, the dude who wanted to kidnap you to use as leverage with Reishu.

Which is dumb, Reishu, despite being your friend, will know better than to just agree to anything just because of you. Some part of you hopes it isn't true, and some, the guardian one, hopes that Reishu truly isn't the one to get manipulated like this.

Your hand trembles, clutching the document and slightly crumpling the paper, which makes you panic and immediately try to straighten the sheet. Damn! You can only hope that Nightmare won't notice.

Suddenly, footsteps are heard. In a sheer panic you hide under the table... What an idiot! This is an obvious place, a terrible place! You're doomed! What a shitty situation to be in! 

You hold your breath, closing your eyes. Slow footsteps are heard, and judging by the sound, it's Nightmare. Fuck!

Everything happens as if in slow motion. You hear him take something from the table, but then he freezes in place. In your soul, you curse yourself, Cross, the situation, Reishu. But surprisingly, the nightmarish creature simply leaves the office as if nothing was out of the place. 

You wait for a while before letting out a shaky breath, still holding this crumpled piece of paper.

It was terrible, your whole body aches from nerves. Damn, damn, damn... You slowly crawl out from under the table. Maybe it makes sense to go to your room now? No! You're too far, you need to try to find something else.

Suddenly, a thought comes to your head. What if Nightmare took something important when he came here!? You quickly look at the table, analyzing all the documents. But surprisingly, he only took… his glasses? Huh…

You need to look around a bit more. The open desk drawer reveals nothing interesting. You look at the books and documents on the shelves by the wall, most of it is information about different AUs and their work and connection with each other, but nothing important. Although for some reason, seeing a document marked with an X symbol makes something inside you clench. You reach your hand forward, wanting to see what's inside, but a voice in your mind whispers, 'You don't have the right to see this,' which makes you instinctively pull your hand away, clutching it to yourself. It wasn't Cross’s voice, not really, more like some inner sense. 

There is nothing you are looking for in this document anyway, you are sure of it. None of this matters, you need to get out of here.

Slowly opening the office door, you look outside. No one. Perfect. 

At a calm pace, you decide to head to your room. You are healthy enough not to go back to the medical office, so it would be nice to rest in your own bed. Well, more specifically, finally resting in Cross's bed. No, that sounds even worse... It would be nice to just rest in a bed that is familiar, that's all!

Opening the door to your room, you are met with a familiar face, which makes you tense up.

Horror sits on your bed. His gaze turns to you, making you tense.

"Hey, hi. How's it going?" you awkwardly ask the skeleton, trying to look casual, which you don't succeed at all. You can practically feel the magical sweat on top of your skull.

Horror is silent for a while, after which he finally speaks. "I wanted... to check on you. But you weren't in the medical office, so I... came to your room."

You feel drops of magical sweat start to drop from your forehead. "Oh, I was just looking for some chocolate, and got lost. Sorry for wandering around alone. I still can't memorize the layout.”

Horror silently stares at you for about a minute, which feels like hours, years, an eternity! Finally, he gets up from the bed and approaches you, which makes you tense up even more. But instead of any dangerous actions, he takes your hand, puts a couple of candies in it, and then just leaves the room. Strange. Very strange, and uncomfortable. You feel like there is something more to it, but can't put your finger on what is exactly wrong.

You can't stop looking at the closed door for some time, but finally gathering your courage, you slowly shift your gaze to your hand. You open one of the candies and throw it into your mouth. Sweetness helps to cope with stress, that's for sure. Did he just bring you candy because you talked about it with Killer? Or is there something more in here? 

You need to do something casual to feel less stressed. There are enough thoughts for now. For the start, you should change your clothes and take a shower. You probably smell ‘not-so-great’, stinky, after the whole battle and ‘lying-on-the-ground’ thing. Taking off your outer clothing, you feel something in one of the pockets... Dust's broken phone! Quickly, you sit on the floor, gathering every little piece of the broken device. You can still feel Nightmare's magic from it, even in its broken form! This is clearly a clue to finding an answer on how to get into your AU. You can explore this phone, understand the principle of embedded magic, and create a new device that can move between AUs! By mimicking Nightmare’s magic. Finally, hope has appeared in your life.

Chapter Text

The night after the mission was anything but restful. For the past few hours you were just sitting on the floor analyzing the magical components of the Dust’s broken phone. The thing was completely a mess, there were two big chunks and clearly a lot of missing pieces from the middle, but, hey! it's better than nothing! 

Of course, you can try to take apart your own phone, but Nightmare definitely will have some questions for you about the suddenly  destroyed phone. That would be just too suspicious. Why the life is so unfair? You just want to get the portal to your home au, to get Reishu’s help, to just, get your damn body back!

“Shit!” You curse, slamming your bony fist into the floor, only to right away feel the sting from the action. Your injured body wouldn't say ‘thank you’ for such outbursts. “Ouch…”

You are so damn tired, your life is just so miserable right now. Only a few days ago you were a regular human with a somewhat peaceful life, and here you are, in the enemy's body, forced to deal with everything alone. To hell that all!

“Why are you so complicated…” Muttering to yourself, you look back at the broken pieces of the phone while scratching the top of your skull in frustration. The device can teleport people, though there are limitations, it can teleport only where Nightmare wanted those people to be, but you can change it, you just need to understand the structure, that's all!

…

But the damn structure is so complicated, and you still can't use your magic properly, it's like looking at a complicated colorful painting after being blind for years. The action is tiring, frustrating. You need something! You need to write the formula down somewhere, just anywhere.

Your gaze swift around the room, stopping at the trashy romance book that belongs to Cross, the thing that usually was hidden under the bed as some kind of the most private secret, now was standing proudly at the nightstand. You forgot to put it back down after Killer found the thing and placed it on the bed, on top of the cringe bed sheet that he placed beforehand , with howling wolves and moon, you just wonder where Killer even found those stupid things to pull such a prank. Though you can admit, the joke was funny, and the book was a perfect cherry on top. Of course the prank did nothing to you, no shame or anger, considering that it isn't even your book, and you aren't Cross. Killer wasn't happy with your reaction, but what can you do? Anyway, to the task at hand!

With a small sigh, you crawled to the bed stand, picking up the book, opening some of the early pages that you read already. The book isn't precious to you, but you don't want to ruin it too much, so there is a deliberate choice of the most boring part of this book, the beginning.

Okay, where should you start? Your attention moves to the pages on the left, people tend to miss this part when they quickly scroll through the book with the use of their right hand, so it is safer to have those notes on the left side of the book. More, uh, secretive? At least you hope so! Not like you can even find a better solution right now.

You focus your magic, trying to force the ink into another shape, to transform it into the notes about the magical formulas. Using your magic without a mix of Cross’s feels like trying to pull a muscle that hasn't worked in the while, you feel a drop of the magical sweat forming on your forehead. Why this shit is so tiring!? 

Letting out a tired grunt, despite all your efforts , all you left with is the chaotic shaped ink in unreadable form, no notes and no novel either, just some nonsense. But… At least this time your magic did not try to harm you in the process! Not like the two last times when the unknown weed transformed and tried to grasp your hand in the firm hold, or that one time where your hands heated up almost burning yourself, and all you did is tried some healing. But this time, this damn wonderful time! It even obeyed what you wanted to do, changing the ink! Even if the results aren't great, being not what you wanted, it's still better than before. It somehow feels rewarding, seeing all this progress.

You place the book under the bed. After moving back to the device, your full attention is back on the broken pieces of the phone. Well, no notes it is… let's go! You can do it!

The sun started to rise, the two pieces of the phone turned into ten separated details, you are absolutely unsure what the hell you are even doing, but some understanding of the mechanic formed in your mind, somehow. Maybe you are secretly a genius? Or maybe your understanding is absolutely a false bullshit that wouldn't work in the end. Who knows!

You gather everything together, moving as carefully as it's physically possible. Where to hide those?... Under the bed is a foolish choice, Killer will find the thing right damn away, the same way he found the book. On top of the closet? No, what are you, five? It's as stupid as hiding your journal under the mattress, too obvious. 

After some intense thinking, the perfect place was found! Behind the toilet, there is a small gap between the toilet and the wall, and the place has some plates on the sides, making the space even more private and secure for your secret key to freedom. Carefully, as if pieces aren't already a broken mess, you place them inside the pair of socks, and then place this piece of clothing behind the toilet. It feels like you're some kind of a prison criminal making a stash, but you gotta do what you gotta do to survive!

Now, the best course of action would be to take a shower and change your clothes. You are still covered in dirt and magical sweat, as well as some magical blood. But… you're so damn tired of everything right now, it's a surprise that you're still standing! So, instead of being a responsible adult, you go back to your bed, plopping on top of it without even taking your shoes off or covering yourself with a blanket. If Horror had to see you like that, he would have definitely nagged you, but you really don't care about that right now, all you think about is that sweet sweet Dreamland.

And, to be absolutely honest, some part of you want to see Cross. For the past two dreams he was absent, and this is… concerning to say the least. Though , of course the concern goes not out of the goodness of your heart, but out of the fear for your own well being. Any changes in what is going on inside your soul can be a critical signal about something crucial. 

Opening your eyes in the familiar, and now somehow comforting, black space of your dreams,  you lay down, hugging yourself. The feeling of your true regular self instead of that damn Cross’s skeletal body is so much better, despite sensing unfamiliarity after being the skeleton, hugging yourself gives you an indescribable sense of comfort, it's still the body you lived in your whole life, it's you.

“What are you even doing right now?” Cross asks, but you just ignore him for a moment longer, you truly do need this moment for yourself. To be you. Those dreams are the only place where you truly can do such a thing.

Finally,opening your eyes to look at Cross, you speak up. He, as at your previous meeting, doesn't look that great, though you are sure you aren't in the best condition either. “I'm tired.”

At your response, Cross feels an incredibly strong urge to just tell you to get out of his body, or pull yourself together, or even to give up, and some part of him also does want to scream at you to give him the control back, but he just stares at you. After this little time he was with you, he already vaguely understands that none of that would even work. You wouldn't listen, and, to be honest, he knows you are mostly not in control of the situation. So he needs to focus on what you can do. What you can change.

“You should check your soul. Check the damage, and then focus on getting…” Clearly he wants to say that you should focus on getting out of here, but thinks better of it. “Focus on getting your body back.”

“Thanks, genius, easier said than done. To get my body back, I need to get in my AU first.” He just states the obvious, what an idiot. Though you agree on the action of checking your soul, something clearly doesn't feel right, or rather, it does feel worse than before.

“If you get there, what would you even do? When you can't even use any magic properly! You can't fix it yourself, and you can't ask Reishu to help you, she wouldn't even recognize you, not in this body.”

Huh!? How dare he! You move from the laying position into the sitting one.

“You're wrong, she will see that it's me! I was her best friend for those past ten years, she will recognize me even if I turn into a damn worm!” You snap at Cross, feeling the rage bubbling inside. The rage at the situation, at him, at your whole damn garbage of a life.

The heavy silence settles for a moment, you turn your gaze away, unable to look at the skeleton. What does he even want from you!? Telling you to go get your body back, but at the same time proclaiming that you'll fail if you do any actions. Not very encouraging of him to say so!  But… maybe, just maybe he has some kind of a plan? By the end of the day, both of you are in the same situation.

“What… what can I even do in that situation?” You mutter into the black void, feeling like you are going mad. Asking the advice from your enemy whose body you stole!? Crazy, such a crazy woman you are, y/n! Outrageous…

Surprisingly, Cross does answer your question with a suspicious level of calmness, but perhaps he thought about it for a while. What is life even when you are not in control of your own body? Do you just, constantly exist in the subconscious? “Try to bargain with Nightmare, tell him the truth, and then try to make a deal.”

You spin around swiftly, standing up in one fluid motion. “Are you fucking stupid!? He is the one who started the mess! He is the damn piece of crap! And you want me to, what, make a deal with him!? It's like selling your soul to the devil!”

Cross frowns as you poke his chest angrily. His hand slaps yours away, though it does not feel painful, but considering that this is a dream, there is a low possibility of feeling the pain to begin with.

“Listen, you are in a tight spot, and don't forget, you are the one who locked yourself in this position. Did so on your own accord! With your own magic!” He says back, looming closer, making you take a step back.

“You are a mad man if you think that I would even consider it!” 

“And what is your plan then!? How do you plan to fix the situation yourself? What a guarantee that you don't have a limited time frame to deal with this!” He is right, each day you feel this, the subtle shift in your soul, and the thing is concerning to say the list. It's scary.

“I-i don't know! I will figure things out!” Your answer quickly , you sound weak even to your own ears. You can't even figure out why Dust split up with you, why Reishu didn't even look back at you when Cross attacked, and what the hell will you even do with your damaged soul! You just… “I'm just so damn tired of all of this…”

You admit sincerely, looking at Cross. The fire of anger is gone, and now emptiness filled the place. Only now, when you are not under your rage, standing that close to Cross, you notice how truly tired he does look. The dark marks under his eyes, the fuzzy eye lights. 

The bitter truth is, both of you feel like things can't keep going that way, you are both tired and damaged. The worst part? You feel empathy for him. For your enemy, for someone who resulted in your death. By the end of the day, you are the one who has locked him here. By some means, you are the one who killed him in return, and you aren't even sure how to feel about it. All you know is that your heart stings, filled with all those emotions. You need a better plan, the plan that wouldn't involve Nightmare, not it this way.

But before you can even open your mouth, you feel the shift in the surroundings. The dream is ending.

Waking up, you squeeze your eyes shut, feeling irritated from the sunlight that beams practically right in your face. Rolling from the bed, your gaze goes down, seeing those messy clothes. Yes, right, yesterday was no shower day, so today you should clean yourself, change into something more proper. Though with the wardrobe that Cross does have, you are unsure about the fact if the word ‘proper’ is the suitable one to his tastes. Let's hope you will find something at least a bit decent.

With a tired sigh, you slowly move to the bathroom, practically dragging your feets. Some time later, after the proper and painfully long shower, you are in the black turtleneck, and white pants. As a human, or rather, woman, you would never choose white pants, but as a skeleton, you put them on. And oh boy! You are starting to feel kind of fashionable in those! Your gaze drifts to the mirror, to check out your fit, and at that moment your smile drops instantly. Right, you smashed the mirror a few days ago, all that because of your rage. Oops… 

Anyway! You don't need the damn mirror to know that you are slaying right now.

Before opening the door to your room, you, as if only now remembering the most important detail, place one of your hands on your chest. With the focused yanking motion, you move your hand, your soul once again before you. And it's… in awful condition to say the least. The crack in the middle did not get bigger, that's good news. The bad news? It is now even more mixed in colours, the gradient between your purple and his white is more pronounced now. You unsure about who consumes who, is it you taking over Cross’s soul or is it him fighting back? Either way, something is going on, something truly bad.

You gently place your soul back, groaning into your hand. “Fucking bullshit…”

The rest of the morning is a blur, you are just too tired to pay much attention to anything, your mind, at the moment, filled with the desire to understand the principle of how the magical phone works, and set the things functionality to traveling into your universe instead of anything else.

Halfway through your meal, your gaze goes up to glance at the skeletons at the table. Nightmare, as usual, scrolls through his phone while having the blackest damn coffee you ever saw, disgusting. Horror, despite already finishing his plate, just sits here, as if waiting for something. What's on his mind? Who knows. Despite your curiosity it's not like you can ask him anything. 

You look, or rather, quickly glance at Dust. Dude for some unknown reason looks even more tired than you, and that really does say a lot! You leave him be, for now. There are still things that should be discussed between both of you, but right now the moment doesn't feel right. 

And, the last but not least… Killer. You almost choke on your food. The dude stares into your soul with a smile! You decide to ignore him, desperately looking at your plate instead, trying your best to pretend that Killer isn't even here. You still can feel his gaze on you… what does he want from you!?

The awkward silence, that probably only you see like something that uncomfortable, stretches. You hear how Nightmare places his cup down, you hear the sound of his skeletal finger scrolling through the phone, you hear the way Dust eats in a sulking and tired manner, while your own silverware slightly scratches the surface of your plate while you are eating your own meal. While Horror who sits next to you exists quietly, the dude is sitting still like a rock. You want to be anywhere but here at the moment.

Finally , the spell of the silence that is probably uncomfortable only for you, broken by Nightmare. “I think, considering the condition that half of us are in, there is no point in going out on a mission, too dangerous, so, instead we will have a-”

“A day off!? Does that mean a day off?” Killer suddenly chimed in, cutting Nightmare mid sentence. He is so full of eagerness, that you wondered what kind of mission that guy had in the past, that he was so desperate in wanting some rest. You can't even imagine it. For the couple of days that you were here, you never saw him or Horror going out on the mission. You even fully thought about the chances of them being an inner guard and house maintainer only. You can see Horror as such, he is very good at cooking, but Killer?... That would be an odd choice to keep at home 24/7, he gives the vibes of a hyper active dog that always needs to go out to play. Though, it's not like there is a rule about only tired people wanting to have some day off, why are you even overthinking it right now? You move your attention back to the situation at hand.

Despite Killer cutting Nightmare mid sentence, he does not become angry, just nodding slowly, confirming Killer’s guess. “Yes, you will have a day off.”

“Yes! I want to go have some fun! To go out somewhere!!” Killer declared, not naming anything specific. You wonder, what specifically does he see as fun activities? Throwing knives at people, or some other kind of freaky activity? After your fight in the corridor, your guesses are endless. And none of them are kind or typical.

The next to speak up is Horror, judging by his look, this is the exact thing that was bugging him earlier. “We also need supplies. We need to use this opportunity to go to the grocery store.”

Huh, the idea of regular day to day activity like a peaceful grocery shopping feels like a bizarre picture, you can't go with those bunch of dudes that radiate chaos. Yes, you should stay home, figure out the problem with the phone, relax… wait! You can get a new phone!! The second phone to experiment your magic on, to create an inter dimensional hopping prototype. Yes, that is a must have! That settled, you will go with Horror. Besides, staying home means staying with Nightmare… ugh.

You nod to yourself, you will go to the store. You weren't even listening to the details that Horror and Nightmare were discussing in the background, while Killer was barging in the dialogue here and there to suggest something silly and pointless.

When you open your mouth to suggest that you're also willing to go with Horror, Dust speaks up first, it's the first time this morning when he said something. “I need a new phone.”

Nightmare lowers his phone, looking at Dust with one eyebrow raised. “And what happened to your last one?”

You see Dust shaking slightly, not out of anger, you notice that his leg is shaking, in the thinking motion. “Ink destroyed mine on the last outgoing.”

You tense up, wondering if Nightmare will question where pieces of the broken phone now. Will you be caught? If he does catch you, what will happen next? He is gonna figure out that you are not Cross, seeing you act weirdly, and do some act of exorcism or something? The idea of that sounds ridiculous and terrifying at the same time.

Sensing your nervousness, Nightmare's gaze turns to you. “Hm?”

You look at him, then at your plate, then back at him, weighing if you should say something. Quick , what can you say to not be suspicious!? “I just… I fear that the situation is particularly my fault, I did not have my phone with me when the mission started, so when things went sour, we had no opportunity to get back.”

It was Dust’s damn fault, the dude snatched you with him without a warning, and when you told him that your phone aren't with you, suggestibg that you need to teleport back, to be prepared un case of the emergency, he just did, not, fucking, cared! But right now you should take some of the blame, to not look too suspicious.

Nightmare seemed to buy your answer, frowning slightly in disapproval. “A rookie mistake.”

Ouch. Well, you know that! But once again, it's not your fault.

“I know, it's my fault.” Your gaze goes back to your plate. That's all just tiring. You learned your lesson after that, your phone now always in your pocket! You softly reach in your pocket with your free hand, taking the thing out, showing the phone to Nightmare, as if to show him that you learned your mistakes. “Wouldn't happen again.”

“... What happened to your screen?” He asks, staring at the phone with a broken screen, a level of brokenness that raises questions how the thing is still even working!?

“Killer happened.” You answered through your teeth, the memory of Killer attacking you is still fresh in your mind. You slowly put your phone away, the anger you felt a moment ago quickly lessened by the sense of the opportunity. “I can go get my screen fixed while Dust gets himself a new phone.”

The suggestion is truly logical! Non suspicious, like at all!! While at the store, you can sneakily ‘borrow’ a new phone, or even two, and build the prototype. That's a great opportunity! You can't believe it, but you even feel grateful that Killer attacked you that day, this time the broken screen is another ticket to freedom.

Nightmare’s attention turns to Killer, and when he opens his mouth, you finally see something wonderful, Killer getting scolded right in front of your eyes. You act uninterested, of course, continuing your breakfast, but inside, oh! Inside you are just so damn happy! The fact that Killer accidentally helped you doesn't change the fact that he is a piece of shit for attacking you. 

Well, now you need to finish eating, the outgoing awaits!

And here you are, on the street of some unknown to you AU(not like you were an expert to begin with), judging by monsters and humans around, looks like it's the universe in the time where the barrier is broken already. You shouldn't be surprised, otherwise, your group consisting of four skeletons would have looked suspicious and weird. Out of place to say the least!

As Horror grabs the cart, you can't shake off the feeling of being out of place. Everyone around here just lives their lives, buys groceries, enjoys whatever is going on in their lives, and here you are, a human trapped in the monster's body, and your company is  three skeletons from other universes. What a bizarre situation to be in, unbelievable even, but here we are, in this unimaginable moment.

“...the list, understood?” Only now you heard Horror, noticing that he was, in fact, speaking with all of you at that moment. 

You glance at Killer, who was, at the moment , playing with a cart, clearly only now pausing to look at the big skeleton. Those stupid eyes, there are no thoughts behind them. Killer… What is even going on in the empty head of his?

You turn to glance at Dust instead, he just stares somewhere in the distance, you have no idea if he is even listening to whatever was said or not. You can't help but feel some empathy for Horror, even though you also weren't listening to what he was saying.

When your gaze falls back to Horror, he looks irritated, slowly taking a deep breath, he starts his speech once again. “You all should stick together, no wandering… around too far away. Not like the last time. Also, first of all… we get all the groceries, and only then… snacks would be allowed. Understood?”

You nod, Dust grunt in agreement, and Killer just, well, with how Horror speaks with pauses, because of his injury, the hyperactive creature named Killer doesn't look like he was listening after the first half of speech. Though part of you feel he was, in fact, listening this whole time, and only pretending not too. Maybe it's a foolish thought, but after spending some time with that skeleton, you are almost sure that he just pretends to annoy Horror.

Looks like Horror is satisfied with everyone at least showing that they were listening this time. He takes the cart from Killer’s grip, and your group is moving forward. It's time to go grocery shopping!

You can't help but look around, this big mall looks nothing like what you had at home, no guardians everywhere, no busy life, just a regular big mall with some folks. The place looks like the ones you saw on the tv. It even feels like a good change of pace! Just a peaceful outgoing, without any unbelievably big problems to solve. No star sanses, no Nightmare. Yes, you are still trapped, yes, your real body is rotting somewhere, also, yes, your soul is getting consumed or consuming another person…

“What this milk did to you, Crossy? Look at you funny or something?” Killer’s voice snaps you out of it, and in the glass of the refrigerator you see it, the two empty voids of your eyes. Finally the light in your eyes returns, and you look down at your hand, seeing that one more squeeze and this bottle of milk will burst.

“Yes, very offensively.” You mutter, closing the door  of the refrigerator while checking the date of expiration on the milk, only to pause. What even is today's date in this universe?

Sensing your troubles, Horror, who already finished picking up all that you needed in this area, clarified today's date. “ xx th day,  xx month.”

How did he -? You turn your head to look at him, and seeing that he looks at his phone as if checking the date, you realize that those phones are more handy than you thought, showing the date while sensing what universe it is. That's truly amazing! Each universe has a different flow of the time, which is usually not a problem , aren't that pronounced, but, in some places you can get so damn lost. You still remember the story you heard in the academy. The pure shock of one of the guardians when they came back from a very complicated mission after only three days, when for them it was so much longer. It turned out that they were there for three months! No jokes, multiverse time can be truly spooky.

Placing the milk down, Horror speaks up, you hear a new task for you and, surprisingly, Dust. Pick up some veggies from the list, while Dust will get the fruits. Easy. Meanwhile Horror is planning to check some other things on the shelves to the other side, while Killer is just… he has a very, very important task. To guard the cart! Pfft…

While picking up some veggies, choosing only the best as a pro you are, you hear Dust’s voice in the background. “This time, at least try to pick something edible.” 

Excuse me!? You are really good at choosing groceries, father raised you like a pro groceries shopper! But before saying something, you remember one small detail that you have no idea you forgot, even for a moment, you are not Cross. Dust is talking about him, not you. How were you able to forget it even for a second ? It's all this damn domestic atmosphere of grocery shopping!

“I will manage that much, don't worry.” You answer him with a firm nod, finishing with the task. Despite the jab, you notice that it's a friendly one… it eases the mood. Perhaps now is the moment to talk, ask Dust why he left you on the last mission? Ask why he decided to split up. “Hey, Dust, listen…”

“M?” He looks up at you, waiting. You choose your next words carefully, with utter precision. It's a truly important matter. But when you open your mouth, you see it, just past Dust, you see as Killer is leaning on the cart, enough to almost trip the thing over! This made you forget all you had in mind, forcing you to practically sprint to this damn skeleton.

“Killer! Stop that!” Your words of panic and anger are loud enough to make a few patrols turn around, glancing at you. You lower your voice, while placing the bags with veggies into the cart with one hand, and softly push Killer from the cart with the other. “Stop fooling around and stand still for a few damn minutes.”

You practically growl through your teeth, which made the skeleton only smile more. Like it's some kind of a funny new game. It isn't a good sign, not at all! While Dust, who slowly walks to the cart and places the fruits and berries inside, Killer opens his mouth, leaning on the cart once again, though because of your hand that is still there, this time he does so much less dangerously to the groceries inside, not risking tripping the cart.

“I'm bored.” Killer whined. “Horror went somewhere, and all I do is just stand in one place.”

“You can jump in one place, or lay in one place, look at this wonderful big choice of options that you have.” You hissed, which probably isn't what Cross would have said in that situation, but today you just can't do this game of pretends properly! Someone, give you a damn break.

Killer pouts at you, sighing. “Or… I can, you know, have some fun and ride the cart while Horror isn't here.”

Your eyes widen in shock, you turn to look at Dust, as if silently asking him ‘do you see what am I seeing?!’. Both of your hands gesture to the skeleton that, judging by his look, has nothing inside the small brain of his. Dust looks at you, he seems like, well, like someone who's not giving any damn about any of it.

Your attention back on Killer. “You will not run around.”

“Why?”

“Because It would cause a commotion.”

“Why?”

“Because people tend to take a peek at the adult guy running around with a cart. We shouldn't get any extra attention.”

“Why?”

“Because it isn't what we are here for. We are here to do our tasks silently, without getting in trouble.”

“Why?”

“...” You only now see what he is doing.

“...why?”  He smiles at you while asking the same stupid question one more time.

The last ‘why’ makes you place your hands on your face, letting out a long sight. How are you even supposed to deal with something like this? And where the hell is Horror? You need his help, Dust doesn't seem like enough to stop this guy from going wild.

You turn fully to Dust. “Do something with him.”

He just stares back at you, raising an eyebrow, as if he is not part of, whatever it is. Then… you heard it…this little- !!

You turn around, only to see that Killer is rolling away with a cart. No, nope! Not on your watch!  You rush forward. After a few seconds, Killer is yanked away from the cart with your left hand, meanwhile the cart stopped with your right hand placed firmly on its handle.While holding Killer by the collar of his clothes, you feel a very real and big urge to choke him, but instead of doing so, you slowly let go of him.

“I'm gonna f-” Before you can finish your cursing, Horror is back. Savior! You can't help but grin seeing the image of Killer jumping in surprise when a big guy starts to speak.

Ha! Serve him right. Horror's scolding is a pure melody to your nonexistent ears.

While Horror scolds Killer, you look around, noticing that… where the hell is Dust!? He was just there a moment ago! 

“Uh, guys?” You say hesitantly.

Horror wasn't listening to you, continuing the scolding. “You know that you… aren't supposed to act that way, you know that Dust and Cross are worn out right now, we can't just risk it-”

“Guys?”

“What?” Horror snapped, and damn, his gaze made you shrink back.

“... Where is Dust?” You mumble softly, and you see the moment of realization hitting Horror like a wall of bricks. There is a slight panic in his eye socket.

Horror is troubled between two options, ask you to go search for Dust while he stays with Killer, or leave you with Killer and go search for him himself. He should make his choice quickly, considering the LV spikes that Dust had a day ago, there are enough reasons to be concerned. But both options are a bit…

Horror firstly looks at you, someone not trust worthy, a problem that puts his friend's life in danger, you are the wild card right now. Then he looks at Killer. Killer doesn't know your true nature, his guard, even if only slightly, will be down, and combined with the fact of him acting mischievous today, it's a bad combination to leave both of you alone. So, the choice is obvious.

“We all will… go look for him.” Horror declared with a firm nod, you just softly nod in return, not even thinking about arguing that matter. Meanwhile Killer just raises his hand in thumb up, agreeing in his own way.

When you walk behind Horror who's now pushing the cart, your gaze travels around, searching for Dust. Where did he go?

When you turn your head, you see Killer sneakily walking away, moving behind one of the shelves. Thinking that maybe he saw Dust, you went after him without even thinking about warning Horror that you and Killer will go that way. You never was a team player, so there's no surprise that you were inconsiderate.

…

One moment Horror was baby sitting both of you while looking for the Dust, the next, sensing that it's too quiet, he looked behind, only to see that you and Killer are gone. “!!”

…

Finally reaching the skeleton, you firmly placed your hand on Killer's shoulder. “You shouldn't wander away alone.”

Hypocrite, but hey, you are the smart one here, you have the right to be hypocrite!

“Have you noticed Dust somewhere?”

“No, but look.” Killer says, smiling, or rather, grinning to the fullest while pointing at something. Slowly, you turn your head, and see this. “!”

The hand on Killer’s shoulder dropped down, you feel the magical drool forming in your mouth. It's chocolate, a big, wonderful, indescribably big shelf full of different kinds of chocolate bars!! The blurred distant memory of Horror warning that snacks are only after the main shopping, now feel like something out of another life, something meaningless and far, far away.

The next moment, instead of scolding Killer for wandering away, or going back to Horror, or even looking for Dust, you and Killer stand there. Yours and his hands are full of chocolate bars. Yes, you feel like some kind of naughty child for disobeying Horror, and more importantly, you feel guilty for not helping to search for Dust. But! But… the chocolate…

“Horror is gonna kill us.” You mumble under your breath.

“He will understand, he is a wise guy after all.”

“You sound absolutely delusional and unconvincing right now.”

“I know, and you know what? I sound that way even to myself!” He shrugs with a grin. His elbow nudges you slightly. “But it's worth it, isn't it?”

You can't disagree with such an obvious truth.  “... It is.”

You shake your head, clearing your mind. “We need to go search for Dust, or, well, Horror? Someone. Any of them.”

Killer nods, already moving forward. “Maybe if we were the first to find Dust, Horror will show us some mercy!”

“Your motives in searching Dust aren't so pure, huh?”

“Hey, I'm the greatest friend ever, Crossy~ I just multitask. Two birds with one stone.”

“If you say so.” You shrug, smiling at him. No point in arguing something that silly, and, in some ways, his actions and reasoning are even charming. And honestly, you really hope to be the first ones to find Dust, it would truly make things easier.

After some time, Killer nudges you lightly with his side once again, pointing at something with his head. “Look!”

You turn around, expecting to see Horror, or Dust, or even more chocolate, but instead you see some poster with a regular boring cow on it. But… Something deep inside of you sets your inner senses of fear on fire, and you jump back, almost dropping one of the chocolate bars in your hands.

“Killer!” You hiss at him, feeling the anger melt into the confusion. What the hell was that even about? You never were afraid of some stupid cows! And, judging by Killer’s snickering, it is Cross's quirk that Killer is very aware of.

You feel your whole body tensing up in fear, what if it's a result of changes in your soul? How much time do you even have, before something truly bad happens?

You hear how Killer's laughter dies abruptly, and looking up, you see as he is gazing behind you. Slowly,  you turn around, and see a very, very angry Horror. Your eyes widen in shock, and you make a few steps back, though the firm hand quickly grabs you and Killer by the shoulder, pulling you closer. You feel scared of Horror, probably for the first time since the first meeting.

“Horror, listen, I can explain, I really can!” You were the first to speak up. Slowly, Horror’s head turned to look at you, straight in your scared eyes, he was calmly waiting for the explanation, which only made you gulp nervously. “... I thought you'd be talking over me or something…”

There is no explanation, so… while this ship is sinking, you should at least save yourself! “It's all Killer's fault, he wandered off, and I just went to grab him!”

You point at your partner in crime with your hand that was filled with the chocolate bars, which , to be absolutely honest, doesn't help your case, not at all. “...”

“Hey, not cool Cross!” Killer protests, despite Horror's firm grip on his shoulder, Killer moves slightly to nudge your side with his elbow.

“It's true!” You hissed, turning to Killer. “You wandered away! And then, which is so much worse, you bribed me with the chocolate!” 

“Hey! You were the one to even grab a first bar!” Killer pointed out, at the, well, true chain of events, but hey! There are no witnesses, so you can just…

“That's a lie!” You turn your head to Horror, your voice is pleading. “He is lyi-...”

The words die in your throat when you see Horror’s face. All the desires to blame Killer disappear, switching with fear. You glance at Killer, who is currently looking at Horror with the same level of terrifiedness. Your gaze snaps back to the big guy. You can feel his grip on your shoulder thighed for a second.

“Listen now.” Horror starts, slowly moving away, while taking all the chocolate bars from yours and Killer's hands. “You both are not allowed to have snacks for a week, and if you … wander away once more, I'm gonna send you back, and report to Nightmare.”

His voice is stern and undeniable. You feel like some kind of dog who chewed on the remote and got caught. Nodding slowly, your gaze drops to the floor, unable to meet Horror's stern stare.

Bye chocolate, you were a good friend… it was great while it lasted.

You hear a small snort behind Horror, and moving your head, you see Dust. Looks like Horror found him before you and Killer had a chance to do so! Here goes your last opportunity to get on Horror's good side. No snacks for you now… what a shame.

The rest of the grocery shopping went pretty well, no more accidents or unusual situations. Though you were a bit bitter seeing as Horror and Dust bought some snacks for themselves, meanwhile you and Killer were banned from doing so. You can't even blame anyone, by the end of the day, you were the one making the mistake of wandering away and picking up the chocolate bars before the main task was complete. There was a rule, you went against the said rule, and got your punishment. Fair and square. Yet, still sad.

Horror was paying for the groceries, which truly surprised you, honestly, part of you was expecting for them to straight up steal it or something. But maybe that would gather some unwanted attention to yourself? As you remember, Horror warned at the start of this trip that you should be careful and lay low, keep the attention to yourself to the minimum. Though the lack of guardians raises a question, how do those star sanses even track those guys without getting an inter dimensional reports? Is there an artifact that scans the multiverse for the sign of commotion, like a supernatural thing in heroes movies, or something of that sort? Wouldn't it then be easier to set the artifact to search for those guys specifically? You are sure that you heard about the possibility of creating such an artifact, but, if that was possible it probably would have existed by now.

Killer taps your shoulder, pulling you out of your thoughts once again.

“Hm?” You hum, looking at the smiling skeleton, who slowly unzips his jacket, revealing the few stolen chocolate bars. Your eyes widen in shock, and you quickly glance at Horror who's luckily still turned away from both of you. Your hands move with the speed of sound, zipping up Killer's jacket.

Your eyes don't leave Horror's back for a couple of seconds, before you turn to Killer while slowly letting go of his jacket. You truly want to scold him right here and now, or maybe, you should snitch on him to Horror?

Killer moves his mouth as if saying something, but you never were able to read lips, and especially that is harder to do with someone who literally doesn't have the damn lips! What he expects from you, to perform a damn miracle? You just grimace in confusion.

Seeing your expression, he leans closer, whispering into your ear. “Want one?~”

Bribe… or offering. Why, though? He had the opportunity to just keep those things hidden, and no one would have known. So why share it with you? There should be a catch, and you are absolutely unsure what it can be!

Slowly, you nod. Not like Horror would actually kill you for having some chocolate stolen, yes? You will play along with Killer, for now.

At your nod Killer’s smile widens, though, this time, for some absolutely unknown reason, you don't feel any mischief in his face. Maybe you are getting better at reading his emotions? Or perhaps, you are just delusional as hell, who knows.

You glance at Dust, to see if he will comment on your stolen chocolate, but he seems a bit out of it, staring into nothingless. You curious, where did he wander off before? Why did he do so? But asking now seems pointless, it's not the right moment. 

On the corner of your vision you see Horror teleporting the bags with the use of the magic in his phone, huh, convenient. This device is full of surprises, no wonder you still can't figure out all the principles to the fullest. One day you would be able to figure out these damn phones! 

The understanding of your limited time looming over you, but for now you ignore those feelings.

Meanwhile Killer steps closer to Horror, seemingly confident that his ‘contraband’ wouldn't be discovered. In his place you would have acted more sneaky, stay away. Though, that probably would have looked kind of suspicious. Okay, you see Killer's point of acting the way he does.

“Hear me out, Horror, my friend, I know that we need to go get Dusty a new phone, and fix Cross’s, but … just hear me out on this-” He moves his hands while speaking. “What if we all, instead of doing all this boring stuff, take a pause and, you know, go watch some movie in the cinema?”

You can see Horror frowning at the suggestion, looks like after all the commotion that Killer created so far, there is no way he would have the right to just suggest any kind of activity. Even though today is supposed to be a day off…

Okay, you wouldn't intervene in this. Maybe watching some movie would be nice, and the last time Killer chose what to watch, he absolutely nailed it, and you really enjoyed it, but still! You shouldn't join Killer on this.

You truly shouldn't…

It's a bad idea…

…

“Maybe one movie wouldn't be that bad?” You spoke up, looking at Horror with, well, skeletal attempt at the puppy eyes. Killer, sensing what you are doing, does the same, looking as sad and pleading as it's possible for the skeleton. He even holds his hands in the pleading position.

“Please~” Killer pleads, lightly nudging you with his elbow, making you join this more than you anticipated. 

“Please, Horror, one movie.” You add pleadingly.

Horror crossed his hands, slowly shaking his head in disapproval. “No, both of you… were a problem today. And we shouldn't risk it… Dust and Cross aren't in the best condition, and it's especially dangerous to stay here for too long… without a phone to teleport away. Both of you should know that better than me, especially you, Cross.”

The hint is a very unpleasant one, a precise crit hit, you are not a part of this party, to ask for something after acting like that, after causing problems, you don't have the rights to do so, and most importantly, you have no right to risk Cross’s body like that. You look away, feeling a weird mix of emotions from the situation. Why have you even tried to join Killer's pleading, that would only force you to stay longer with those guys! What is wrong with you…

Surprisingly, when all the hope for the movie seems lost, Dust speaks up. “I think the movie would be good right now…”

Horror's eyes widen in surprise, before his features relax into more gentle ones. “...Only one, and everyone should be cautious and quiet.”

Killer nods with a smile. “Yes, sir!~”

“Killer, I'm serious …about it.” Horror warned, staring at the skeleton for a couple of seconds, letting the warning settle in.

You look at Dust who looks away, his expression is unreadable. There's no telling, did he suggest it for both of you because he is nice, or did he do it for you as an apology for the last mission, or perhaps he truly wanted to watch some movie… you need to talk with him later on. Figure everything out.

On your way to the cinema, Killer gets closer, whispering to you. “Next time, instead of even thinking about trying to ask for something ourselves, we should make Dust go to Horror.”

You can't help but snort at that. “Or, next time we can act like reasonable adults and not cause any trouble, that probably would lead to us not being on the wrong foot with Horror.”

“Or maybe Horror just has favs.”

“You're just searching for a reason to keep your mischief going.” 

“I do. Does it work?” Killer grins at you.

“Not really.” You answer with a small smile. You really doubt that Horror has favorites, despite all nagging, you can't not notice the way he truly cares about everyone. Turning away from Killer to glance at Dust and check on him. Your smile waver slightly seeing that he was, in fact, staring at both of you while you were talking. Ignoring the momentum sense of unease, you comment to him. “Dust, I feel like the next time we will ask Horror for something, you won't be on our side.”

Dust hums in return, under the darkness of his hood you can see a small smile. “Probably.”

Killer gasps dramatically. “Oh no, that was a one time thing!? How cruel!”

You glance at Killer letting out a soft, sympathetic sigh. “Be glad that he even helped us this time.”

“Oh, I'm dying from gratitude. Can't you see it!?” He moves, leaning closer and placing his weight on you, hitting the pose of some victorian era damsel in distress. This action forces you to stop while moving your hands to hold the guy more firmly. Killer clearly trusts your physical condition a bit too much, which is a wrong move considering your injuries and physical state. You almost dropped the guy!

Horror turns to sternly look at both of you, which worked like magic, no words needed. Both of you stopped fooling around at that same moment, taking a step away from each other. Killer even raises his hands in surrender, and you, seeing it, after a small pause do the same, mirroring his pose. That makes Horror glare at both of you with more suspicion. It's no good when two trouble makers combine.

He gestures his hand, silently commanding you to stick closer to him, that way he can keep an eye on at least one of you. That reminds you about how teachers rearrange the sitting, separating two always loud and problematic kids. Though you never would have guessed that you will be the one causing the troubles! Or, well… okay, no, considering your record so far, it is a really believable thing to happen. You take your thoughts back, you are not surprised, not at all.

You nod, obeying Horror's order, sticking closer to him. The walk beside him instead of the always active Killer, feels different , it fills your head with thoughts about all the responsibility that awaits you. Though , surprisingly, despite everything, this outing is fun. Even with all the chaos, scolding and confiscation of the chocolate, you still feel better than you felt only yesterday. Perhaps the day off is truly what you needed!

After the debate about what to watch, where Killer suggested some cliche filled relaxing stuff, and Dust once suggested something documentary related, you and Killer managed to convince those two to watch some action movie. 

Though at some point Killer’s comment made you tense slightly. He pointed out about how this is the first time when you had insisted that much on what to watch, instead of agreeing to whatever as usual. You just sheepishly mumbled some excuse about wanting to watch that specific movie for quite some time. Which did little to help your case.

After Horror moved Killer's attention to snacks, you let out a sigh of relief. Part of you feels like it was a deliberate move, covering your fuckups. The truth is, with each passing day your acting just gets worse, it's hard to pretend to be something you aren't, especially when you don't have a full idea about who Cross are. Even when you had the opportunity to talk with him through your dreams, he never was the one to talk much about himself, hell, now he wasn't even in every dream! And in some cases you even got cut mid speaking, waking up without a warning. So there's no chance of getting to know him better. There's only a hope that you will keep going good enough to not get discovered, at least to keep going until your body will be back in your hands.

The film was fun, and truly interesting! All those actions are the best way to numb all the anxiety that was constantly looming over you. But, one of the moments in the movie made you tense up once again. One of the characters, a friend of the protagonist, turns out to be a villain, an honestly expected plot that you saw miles away, but the delivery… something reminded you about Reishu. Of course Reishu isn't a villain in this scenario, no, for the first time since your ‘death’ you don't feel bitterness towards Reishu, no, you feel  something else, something you can't quite describe. As if now you are the bad guy. Do you do enough? Even now, instead of going to grab a phone, and work on the portal to your home AU, you just watch some stupid movie. 

“How can you do that to me? I thought that you would always be there for me.”  The protagonist said while raising their weapon.

“I was, I always was by your side! You never saw it that way, did you?!” The villain pleaded while laying on the ground.

“I don't think so. You know, I truly believed you, trusted, it felt like you were the only thing I had. But I realize ,” The protagonist shakes his head with the butter expression. “you never were.” Slowly he was getting closer.

You feel fully captivated in this scene, despite the fact that it feels cliche, still, something inside of you responds to this. 

“We can talk this through-” The villain insisted, while running to hide from the approaching danger to reload his weapon. “You are the fool who doesn't even see the truth!” The villain snaps.

“There is no point in listening to you, you always has been -”

The speech got cut by the voice, Killer leans closer to you, whispering. “Isn't all this talking kind of boring?”

You almost jumped in your seat, clutching your empty popcorn bucket. You had forgotten that you weren't alone at that cinema! Your head spins to look at Killer who just smiles at you, oblivious how he ruined the very important scene for you. You want to say something, but your mouth just opens and closes, not making any sounds.

There is a sound of explosion in the movie scene, and Killer turns away from you, while staring at the side of his skull, you hear Killer and some other people letting out a sound of cheering, which makes you turn your head to see the fight between the protagonist and a bad guy.

You feel bitter. Will Reishu listen to you if you approach them in this body? Would they feel sympathy, would they say sorry for not doing more at the moment of the need? Will you snap and blame them, or will you come to terms with your feelings toward the situation? You know, on that awful morning, you were the one telling them to run, you were the one making that choice, fighting to protect them. But the sting from how everything turned out is just… too much. As selfish as it is, you regret your action, you doomed yourself to the unknown faith, and you don't even feel sure that Reishu would truly mourn your death. She never did anything to make you doubt her, but your tiredness mixed with insecurity just twists everything inside of you. Hell, how can you even blame her for running for safety when you asked her to do so? And the fact that in the past you told Horror about it, him, your enemy, about her and your dissatisfaction with her. Why… why are you like this? Why are you failing everything?

Seeing the villain retreat while looking with bitterness at somebody who was their friend, you can't keep sitting there, you need some fresh air. Standing up you carefully leave your seat, on your way out you glance at Horror who slowly nods, approving of your leaving alone. Surprising thing,but you wouldn't question it. You are just happy to go get this, this moment to yourself. 

Stepping out of the cinema area, you take a shaky breath, despite not having any lungs it does help to calm you down. Okay, where is the bathroom? You look around, through the corner of your eye you see another skeleton , Dust. Oh, looks like Horror was okay with you going out alone, because in truth you wouldn't be alone. Huh. Right now it feels like a perfect moment to talk with him, to discuss what happened on your last mission, you need to know why he acted so irrationally. But… you walked out to have a moment to yourself, to pull yourself together, not to throw yourself in another harsh situation without taking a break. So, for now, Dust will wait a few minutes while you pull yourself together.

You turn around, walking to the bathroom. You need to splash some cold water on your face, calm down.

Without even thinking twice, you enter the woman's restroom.  After washing your face and taking a deep breath, you look in the mirror. It's, for the first time in those last couple of days, when you see your reflection in the unbroken mirror, and, well, what you see is truly awful. You look the same shitty way Cross in your dreams was looking.

There's big dark circles under your eyes, your eye lights are fuzzy, and you see the tiredness that practically radiates from this damaged body. Even with your clothes covering you pretty well, you still see a glimpse of bandages on your neck, as well as some peeking out of the end of your sleeves.

Your shaky hand reaches to your reflection, lightly touching the cold surface. Yeah, you know why you broke the mirror back home. Staring at this skeletal face feels like another kind of torture. You miss your wonderful hair, it was a pain to maintain, no matter the length, but it was an always present part of you. You miss your flesh, the softness and warmth you had, the feeling of comfort you felt from hugging yourself. Now all you would feel is just those cursed bones! And all those scars, sharp parts, cuts, yes, this is the body of a fighter, of something you at some point of your life wanted to be as a future guardian. But that does feel like the most wicked version of it.

Suddenly, you hear a door opening, your hand that was on the mirror a second ago, shoots down. You feel like a deer caught in the light, it's been a while since you saw another fellow human up close while being alone. For those past few days your company has always been those cursed skeletons. 

The human raises an eyebrow at you, and you quickly turn away, washing your hands, despite the fact that you did absolutely no usual toilet activities, you still did so, the action is born out of habits of hygiene. And after that, shaking the water from your hands, you leave the room as quickly as possible. Why had she stared at you like that? Oh, maybe because you are the skeleton! That's a rare type of monster after all.

You didn't even consider that her reaction was maybe, just maybe, because of the fact that you, despite not looking too girlie, was in a woman's bathroom. Though it's not like you can say for sure the gender when it's a skeleton! Maybe that's the only thing that stopped her from screaming. Nevermind!

Looking around, you are relieved to see that Dust is still here, he is standing on the balcony area, smoking while looking at the outside view. Not much of a view though, considering that it's just the second floor, but who knows, some might find something soothing even in that, all those people living their lives and all. 

You cautiously approach Dust, leaning on the railing. “Hey.”

Dust glances at you, puffing out the smoke in the opposite direction from you. He hums, the sound is a clear question  about what do you want. Despite his grumpiness , he doesn't look annoyed by your company, more like, it's just a regular aura of tiredness that is always around him.

“I just wanted to talk. If you don't mind.” You curse in your head. That probably sounded so awkward and not Cross like! But you are just unsure about how to do all this talking things properly. How to even start a conversation like that?

“Ok.” He nods, you can see that he was expecting this. Which is truly a relief to see, because by the end of the day, the problem is still here, you would have talked about it eventually.

You brace yourself to the conversation, pausing to gather all your thoughts together, while desperately thinking about what Cross would have said in this position. Acting a certain role isn't easy, but you are truly doing your best here! You kind of sure that Cross wouldn't even start this talk to begin with…

Dust allows you to think, not pushing you into any specific actions. After some time , you are ready. You know what and how you want to say it! With a small sigh, you open your mouth.