"Psst... Frisk," said a voice out of thin air.

[Who said that?]

"That's not important."

[Who are you?!]

"I'm not tellin' kiddo. Calm down. I gotta talk to you."

[Why should I trust you?! I don't even know who you are!]

"I'd tell you, but I'm not allowed to do this as it is! If my boss finds out what I'm doing, then I'll be in trouble for breaking quite a few rules, mainly the non-interference ones! So please, kid, just listen to me! I'm trying to save some lives, if they live then you might have some new pals! So please, listen to me kid!"

[Fine. I'll listen. I might even help you if I decide to.]

"Thanks, kid. Now listen, I need you to do something..."

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

"Well, I guess this is the place, huh?" Stretch said, looking at the house. It was surprisingly normal looking for Fresh, a rather plain cornflower blue version of the swap bro's house.

"I'm guessing that it is," said Error, pointing at a sign on the mailbox. It read "Fresh's Home Away From Home," in rather eye-achingly bright neon colors.

"Time to see if it's neon on the inside or not," chirped Blue happily, seemingly unbothered by that idea.

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

The house wasn't neon on the inside, and Error was very thankful. It kept the calm color scheme from the outside, lots of pale blue and white, with surprisingly tasteful decor. It was very simple, but it had enough space for all three of them, so everybody was happy. Something about the place felt oddly familiar to Error, but he figured that it was probably due to the similarities between it and the swap bros' house.

"Norмally ι don'т lιĸe Freѕн," Error said grumpily, "Bυт ι gυeѕѕ ι'll нave тo gιve нιм ѕoмe credιт, вecaυѕe тнιѕ place acтυally looĸѕ nιce."

Error normally would've never admitted such a thing, despite it being true, but he was truly exhausted for the first time in decades, if not centuries, and he was unused to it. Whatever had healed part of his glitching had also taken some of the more useful side effects, such as his magic being rerouted to keep him from needing to sleep or even feeling tired- likely due to Fate wanting him to be able to work as much as necessary, with no need for mortal things such as sleep or food. Although he appreciated the reduced crashes, he still wasn't quite sure about the needing to sleep.

He decided to at least try to sleep- he'd never been able to sleep in the Anti-Void, due to the voices. Something about this AU- likely the unusual barrier that he'd sensed when attempting to portal out- kept the voices from bothering him unless he wanted to hear them, though.

Error walked up the short set of stairs to the upstairs, where two bedrooms were. He noted that one of them- the larger room- had two smaller beds, while the other only had a mattress on the floor, but it was somewhat bigger. Stretch had already called dibs on the mattress the moment he had seen the upstairs, something about it being just like home. He'd promptly passed out on it too, and was still sleeping.

Error curled up into a tight ball on the bed that Blue hadn't claimed earlier, and truly slept, for the first time since Fate had stolen him, all those centuries ago.

————⊰ Blue ⊱————

Blue had decided that he would share the other room with Error- not that the glitchy dark-boned skeleton had ever slept while he was around- but on principle, he had insisted that Error got a bed too, just in case he wanted to sleep.

He hadn't actually expected his friend to sleep in it, though.

Error looked so much more at peace than when he was awake. It was heartwarming, but something about it hurt, too. Error had never seemed this relaxed before. Blue wanted his friend to feel safe and happy.

Blue decided, then and there, that his new goal would be to help Error feel relaxed and happy while he was awake. It might take a long time, but someday, he'd see his friend this relaxed and at peace while he was awake.

Wrapping himself in a blanket burrito on the other bed, Blue laid for a while, fidgeting. He'd always had difficulty sleeping, but that was normally due to his overabundance of energy- it was different, today.

Blue's mind was running on overdrive, attempting to connect the dots on what was happening to Error- because it was pretty darn obvious that something was going on with his friend. He didn't know why, but something about this AU had changed Error. He was Blue's best friend, and as Error's friend, it was only right that Blue try to find out what was going on.

Pondering what little information he had, Blue considered the possibilities. So far what he knew was that something about Startale seemed to have partially healed Error's glitches, Error had had a memory error- causing him to crash- when asked about his past, and Quill was likely connected to Error's past, but didn't remember anything, so that was uncertain. It all came back to Startale, though... such a strange AU, and it seemed like it might hold the missing links somewhere. Blue decided that he'd go exploring with Error tomorrow, and go see what they could find out about the past of this AU.

With his mind finally put to rest, Blue soon fell asleep, his eyelights going dark as he slept peacefully, without a dream in sight.

————⊰ Error ⊱————

Blue may not have dreamt of anything, but Error was a whole other story.

Error fell into the Dreamscape, puzzled by the strange picture frames with moving images floating around him. They trapped him as he fell towards a brightly colored piece of stained glass, although whatever it depicted was obscured by glitches. When he was about to hit it, everything disappeared and he sensed a familiar presence- the King of Fear, Nightmare.

"Was that your doing, Nightmare?" Error asked calmly. He doubted that Nightmare would do such a thing, but it never hurt to ask.

"Nope," said Nightmare. "I just pulled you out of something, I'm not sure what it was but I don't think it meant well. I'm surprised to see you here, though- I thought you didn't sleep?"

"Apparently I need to sleep now- something healed part of the errors in my code, and it corrected that too," said Error. "Not sure if it's a good thing yet, but I guess we'll see."

"How curious. I'll see about having Dream send a good dream or two your way, but for now, I'm putting you back into deep sleep," said Nightmare, etching glowing runes in the air as he spoke. "Hopefully you won't end up back in whatever I pulled you out of earlier, but I'll keep an eye on you just in case. Rest well, my friend."

"Be careful," said Error, looking straight at his friend.

"I will, Error," was the last thing he heard, falling deeper into sleep.

————⊰ Stretch ⊱————

Yawning, Stretch forced himself up, off of the mattress he had claimed the night before.

He couldn't hear anything in the house, so his brother was probably still sleeping- if Blue was awake, he would definitely be attempting to cook breakfast, likely with rather... questionable results.

Stretch meandered down the stairs, collapsing onto the couch as soon as he got there. He considered going to get breakfast, or even cooking something, but he decided to wait until Blue and Error showed up.

'Oh s***, where is Error,' wondered Stretch. He was pretty sure that the glitchy skeleton didn't sleep, but he decided to go look and see if he was in the other room anyway, it wasn't like there was much of anywhere else for Error to go.

Poking his skull into the room, Stretch noticed two lumps in the beds, one wrapped in a blanket burrito- undoubtedly Blue, his brother had slept that way for a long as he could remember- and the other, curled into a ball like a skeletal cat, had to be Error.

Stretch decided to let them sleep- if they were still sleeping, then they probably needed it. He'd go pick up some donuts from Muffet, he knew he had some G somewhere in his hoodie, he could hear it clinking. Finding it would be a whole other problem, but whatever.

Ambling outside, Stretch looked up and saw that dawn was beginning to chase away the stars that gave the AU its name. It was earlier than he would usually wake up, but he had slept in a lot yesterday and gone to bed rather early, so that would probably be why.

He continued down the path towards Starlight Town, the trio had taken it the day before to reach the house. It passed through a small forest, though which he could see the Riverperson on their boat, floating in the still water.

Now Stretch just needed to find Muffet's- luckily for him, the wonderful scents of the bakery could be smelled from miles away. He followed the smell and soon found the bakery. He ordered a few breakfast pastries, some of which were honey flavored, of course, but also some chocolate and blueberry.

Some might call it cannibalism, but Blue really liked blueberry flavored things. Not as much as Stretch liked honey, but still quite a lot. It was hilarious to Stretch when he found out that Error had nicknamed his brother Blueberry- Blue for short- not even knowing what blueberries were.

Stretch was pretty sure that Error liked chocolate, so he had gotten the chocolate pastries in hope that the dark-boned skeleton would eat them. Some of Muffet's spiderlings brought him the small box of pastries, and he took it, giving them some gold as a tip- he had already paid Muffet for it at the counter.

Stretch shortcutted back to the house lazily, not in the mood for another walk. He found his brother on the couch, and Blue shot him a scolding glare for his laziness.

"Seriously brother? Shortcuts this early in the day?"

"Yeah... so what?" Stretch said.

"You are such a lazy bones!" Blue whisper-yelled.

"I knew that already, bro," said Stretch, ignoring his brother's irritated grumbling. "Want a muffin? I went by Muffet's and got some stuff for breakfast."

"I'm going to go see if Error's up, then I'll get one," said Blue, getting up and heading for the stairs.

————⊰ Blue ⊱————

"Error? Error, wake up," said Blue quietly, gently nudging his friend.

Error curled into an even tighter ball, not glitching where Blue had touched him. He normally would, so that was a bit odd, but Blue tacked it up to Startale again. Calling his friend's name a bit louder, Blue continued to attempt to wake Error, but the glitchy skeleton slept on.

"I guess he's catching up on sleep, heh. I'll let him rest a bit longer."

"Error up?" Stretch called.

Running back downstairs, Blue told his brother, "No, and don't wake him up. I think he probably needs it, he hasn't slept in... well, probably over a century, maybe even two or three."

"I'm not planning on waking him up, I don't want to die. Besides, if he sleeps for too long, Dream or Nightmare will probably wake him up. They can do that, and it feels really weird."

"I did not know they could do that," said Blue, grabbing a muffin. "Cool."

"I was gonna go see about getting groceries and stuff, so when Error gets up you two should probably go explore," said Stretch, yawning. "I saw the Riverperson over on the beach, just past the trees behind the house, seems that's the only way to get on and off the island besides shortcuts or portals."

"Got it, thanks bro!" Blue said cheerfully, before grumbling under his breath, "If I see Snow or any of the others, I am so going to scold them for not at least giving us their phone numbers."