Nobody had really wanted to collect the day's letters for some reason, so eventually Xcellence went. Halluciv and Dream were tired from the nightmares from the horror movie. It was an obscure movie called Mr. Tusk or something like that......it was very misleading. Nightmare was an absolute mess while Cross had completely forgotten what he had admitted. All Cross knew was that he had fallen asleep after drinking, nothing else.

Xcellence took the two letters and small boxes for the day inside. One of the small box had a note on it that read 'I'm sorry, I hope you can forgive me! -From -Smol_Incubux-'.

He opened the box and found a few plushies, then remembered that this was from the asker making Dream and Halluciv watch that horror movie. He'd give these to them later.

Xcellence opened one of the two letters to see what was happening today. 'Can we have a drinking contest to see who has the highest alcohol tolerance? I have a feeling that even the hardcore whiskey Cross had to drink wouldn't affect Nightmare and Halluciv, and we've already seen Cross', so they don't have to try it. Asked by OnChanceTales.'

Xcellence really doubted more alcohol would be a good thing but set the note aside anyways. He never really got drunk, let alone wasted, so he certainly wouldn't last long.

There was another note that was for Nightmare, Dream, and Cross that X set aside for them later.

As if on cue, Nightmare shuffled downstairs. Without saying anything, he picked up the letter, opened it, and then promptly closed it right after reading it and set it back down. He walked right out of the room, not seeming too happy.

Xcellence raised a nonexistent eyebrow and opened the letter to read it himself. 'Hey 'Nighty' I have a question. Do you have the same feelings? Dream: How do you feel about Cross now? Cross: Why don't you like Dream? Asked by PearlTheCat999.'

Xcellence snorted in amusement and set the note down just as Cross was heard coming back down and, unsurprisingly, closely followed by Nightmare. The literal king of darkness was borderline fussing over Cross, asking if he still had a hangover or if he felt sick from chugging that much whiskey at once.

Cross was quite confused and insisted he felt fine, but didn't flat-out tell Nightmare to stop. He didn't seem to mind the other hovering over him like a hawk.

Xcellence handed over the note to Cross, who in turn gave it to Nightmare with some confusion. "What happened while I was drunk....?"

"Nothing." Nightmare said briskly, pretending that nothing happened.

"Okay, that's a lie, what happened?" Cross saw right through that, beginning to look worried. "You sound much less perpetually threatening and grumpy when you're trying to lie."

Nightmare cursed under his breath quietly. "It's fine, nothing happened."

"If it's nothing then you'd tell me." Cross huffed out, looking up at Nightmare and giving him the look combined with puppy dog eyes.

A moment later Cross collapsed onto the ground, completely asleep.

Nightmare ignored the look Xcellence was giving him and picked Cross up, setting him on the couch. There. Better. "Problem solved."

"...." Xcellence pretended like didn't see that and turned away, just setting the breakfast on the table. As if summoned by the food, Halluciv sleepily came downstairs.

"Marvul tried to sleep in." Halluciv yawned and sat down to eat. "I think Dream's about to come down...."

Xcellence nodded, rubbing Halluciv's head lightly before sitting beside him. "What happened to Cross?" he asked, still half-asleep as he glanced over at the sleeping skeleton.

"Nightmare's having denial and trying to convince Cross that nothing ever happened." Xcellence shrugged.

"I'm telling him without having to tell him." Nightmare grunted from the living room. "It's a thing called 'forcing a dream or memory onto someone while they're asleep'."

Halluciv was beginning to properly wake up. He smiled sleepily. "Aww...~" he said to himself, giggling. "I can feel Cross' aura from here.....he's so embarrassed...."

Nightmare's face flushed blue and he ignored Halluciv, going back to Cross and waiting for the memory to be over so Cross could understand how emotionally confused Nightmare was. Because whom the fuck would ever love someone like him?! It certainly wasn't a crush or just infatuation, since Cross knew him for years and they were close friends....

Soon Cross did start to stir, his cheeks burning purple as he sat up and opened his eyes. Nightmare was staring intently at him, obviously wanting an answer to get rid of his confusion. Five hundred years old and never went on a date, though he wasn't exactly a huggable teddy bear.

To Cross, Nightmare was a huggable misunderstood teddy bear. He just looked up at him, not saying a word since Nightmare was also an intimidating teddy bear.

"....so? Are you going to say.....something....." Cross trailed off as Nightmare slowly made himself comfortable beside Cross and hugged him, the smaller soon being suffocated and physically crushed by the hug as Nightmare refused to release him. He couldn't tell if Nightmare was trying to kill him or not.

"....brother? Are you trying to kill Cross?" Dream interrupted the 'moment'. Nightmare hissed and hugged Cross tighter. ".....okay."

"Mine." Nightmare hissed, still not letting go of Cross and practically smothering him with the hug at this point.

Nightmare hissed when Dream poked him lightly, giving him the questions he still had to answer. That earned a growl from Nightmare. "How do you think I feel?!" he snapped, referring to the first question of the letter.

"....personally I'm getting very mixed signals." Cross mumbled from still being smothered. "You're crushing me, Nightlight."

Nightmare looked like he wanted to die from just hearing the nickname and let Cross go, feeling a mixture of emotions and wanting to leave the situation to calm down.

Cross seemed to notice that Nightmare was utterly clueless and let out a sigh, leaning up and giving Nightmare a light kiss before quickly pulling away.

At that Nightmare just quietly hugged Cross, laying on his side and back to smothering him in a hug.

Cross let it happen, hugging Nightmare back and letting the confused 'teddy bear' just cuddle him. "...I love you too." Nightmare said quietly, not knowing how to function anymore and just hugging Cross numbly.

Dream slid the letter onto the couch and soon left them be, where Marvul was recording the situation and smirking at the sight. "I think Cross broke Nightmare." he snorted in amusement.

Dream nodded. "Any other letters for the day? I don't think Night's going to move from there until Cross either tells him to or falls asleep."

Xcellence nodded. "One question asked how you feel about Cross now." he said as he went to collect the other letters.

"I mean...we never really talked much so I guess we're still friends. He's never been interested in anyone except for Nightmare as far as I know." Dream shrugged. "Nightmare never let us be alone, anyways."

Halluciv was nibbling on a leftover cookie as he read the next letter, holding the plushy gift for him. X handed over the other plush to Dream, who held it curiously. "We've gotten a lot of boxes..." Halluciv said. "....Marvul's never let me drink before. Xcellence let-"

"Ah.....haha, no." X interrupted him, Marvul glaring at him. "It's not my fault he got confused when Horror kept calling it juice. Besides, he doesn't even have to drink here. It's everyone but Nightmare, Halluciv, and Cross."

Marvul growled softly and nodded. "Fine. Can we save the drinking for later, though? Like at a reasonable time and not at noon."

"Sure." Xcellence shrugged. "Next?"

Marvul held up a box of Cards Against Humanity, reading the note. "Just so they can have some more fun. Also Xcellence, How did you meet Halluciv and why did you stay with him? Asked and given by Mother_Shadow."

"....Marvy pretty much hired X." Halluciv said. "You kept saying I couldn't protect myself...." he huffed.

"And I soon regret letting you stay in a stranger's goddamn mansion. And the next thing I know you're practically dating." Marvul groaned. "I don't even know how that happens."

"First off, we're not dating." Xcellence said. "Second, maybe it's because I'm the only sane person in the place and Halluciv's pretty cuddly in general."

Marvul muttered under his breath and distastefully sighed. ".....perhaps. I still don't know why Halluciv won't move back in with me."

Halluciv stuck out his tongue teasingly and hugged X's arm. "Maaaybe I liiiike living with Celly?"

Marvul looked sick of that already and shook his head. "Next letter? Please."

Xcellence shrugged and opened up the fourth letter of the day. "Dream: Do you have a crush on someone? I'll be kind and will not ask who it is if you do. Xcellence: What would you do if Halluciv went missing? As in there have been no signs from him for a week or so.And finally Marvul: What is your biggest regret? Asked by 1nSaneWiTch."

"Mmm, nope." Dream shrugged. "I'm aromantic. Half the people interested in me are just there because of my aura, so that kinda killed any want I had to be with someone. Plus I'd probably outlive them."

"And the other half?" Marvul asked.

"They look up to Nightmare and want to kill me."

"Lovely." Marvul muttered. "As for my biggest regret would be ever thinking eating the fruits from the tree was a good idea."

"I'm surprised you didn't say it was letting Halluciv be with me." Xcellence said. "If Halluciv went missing and it wasn't just you pulling him back home, I would....probably tear the AU apart to find him." he made the miniscule movement of pulling Halluciv closer.

While that was happening, Dream was getting the alcohol and setting a bottle down in front of everyone but Halluciv.

Also during the time, Nightmare had slid into the room. Cross was behind him, visibly worried for him.

Nightmare took a bottle of hard whiskey from Dream, who squeaked. "Y-you don't have to participate-" he started.

"I'd like to try anyways." Nightmare muttered, opening the bottle. He glanced at his surprised twin. "What, can't at least try to drink until I pass out and forget about everything that's happened in the past week?"

Dream sighed and let him do that, glancing at Cross who looked just as worried.  "Did I...do something?" he asked warily. Dream shook his head and glanced back at Nightmare.

".....he's never had anyone express those kinds of feelings for him." Dream explained. "I can only imagine how strange it feels, since normally positive emotions hurt him but I don't think your aura does."

Cross nodded awkwardly. "So....he's in denial?"

"Yup." Dream said. "Oh, and it's not because he doesn't like you back. I honestly can barely feel any other aura in this room because his is just radiating love directed at you. And confusion. Lots of confusion."

Cross barely got to respond before he felt something cold wrap around his waist, pulling him into a hug. He squeaked, feeling the tentacle remain around him and Nightmare clearly set on smothering him for the rest of the day.

"N-Nighty? What are you doing?" Cross squeaked. His only response was the hug getting tighter.

"What? Do you not like this?" Nightmare asked, sounding completely genuine. Cross shook his head quickly, admittedly enjoying the attention. Nightmare let out a little sigh, resting his head on top of Cross'. ".....good. I like this."

Cross felt his cheeks burn with blush, internally glaring at Dream when the other smirked and walked away to leave him here.

Then Cross noticed that Nightmare was still sipping the bottle of whiskey. Of course it didn't seem to be affecting him, but now he did smell strongly like alcohol. He managed to take the bottle from him. "Come on, you don't need this."

Nightmare let him do that and kept cuddling Cross, letting out little purrs, his eye half-closed and not paying attention to how Dream was quietly taking a photo and Halluciv seemed to be discretely recording them. Damn, this was like a soap opera to them.

Everyone in the room jumped when they heard a thud. Halluciv glanced over to see that Xcellence had passed out, just after about two shots' worth of whiskey. He had face-planted onto the table.

"Guess he wanted to get that over with." Marvul mused, poking his shoulder and smirking. "Eh. Might as well start drinking since he's already out cold."

Dream had less tolerance than Xcellence, and after one shot he'd rushed off to vomit. Marvul was easily the winner, four shots in and still awake. He was now drunk out of his mind, though, and slurring random curses to Xcellence and Eraser.

Nightmare took the whiskey bottle from Cross and set it aside, pulling him out of the room since it was really starting to smell like hardcore whiskey.

"It's not even dark outside yet..." Cross pointed out as he was hauled into his room by Nightmare.

"Do you want me to cuddle you or not?" Nightmare asked sarcastically, seeming to believe that this was much better than having to say his feelings out loud.

Much to his pleasure, Cross went limp and let himself be smothered once more.

The moment was sadly interrupted by Halluciv, who let himself into the room since the door was still wide open. He slid a letter towards Cross and quickly ran off before Nightmare could assault him for interrupting his cuddle-session.

Cross read the letter. "Oh yeah, that one." he said out loud, trying to ignore the fact Nightmare was slowly crushing him and laying on top of him. "Nightmare, would you be annoyed if I mentioned Dream?"

"Yes."

Cross snickered, both knowing it was that question on why Cross didn't like Dream. "Hey, we live together now. You can't stop him from trying to make friends."

"I feel like I've done enough since you fell for me instead of him." Nightmare grunted, his tentacles wrapping around Cross firmly. "I don't even know how that happened."

"He doesn't even want a relationship. You're the first person I've ever felt attracted to. Whenever we fight with him you tell me to 'go back inside' as if I'm a child and are extremely obvious with your protectiveness."

"I'm technically older than you."

"You have the mind of a teenager."

Nightmare groaned and let a tentacle curl around Cross' mouth, effectively gagging him. "Be quiet about him. I just want to hug you."

Cross laughed even though he was being muffled and nodded, curling up below Nightmare. He was surprisingly comfortable, although it felt more like a massive cat than a blanket. Mainly because he was purring and wouldn't let Cross escape even if he wanted to.

Nightmare turned the lights off and shut the door with his magic, still gazing at Cross and snuggling against him.

".....Nightlight." Cross mumbled tiredly, closing his eyes. "That nickname suits you. You glow in the dark."

Nightmare moved and shoved Cross face-first into his pillow, starting to suffocate him again.