Mother_Shadow

take it

~~~

You approached the dragon, coiled around itself in a nest made of whole trees. Its gleaming black scales shone and sparkles beautifully in the sunlight as its brilliant purple gaze followed you towards it.

The sorcerer was the first to get closer, having a draconic bloodline. He hoped to convince the beast ten times his size to return to the kingdom it was raised to protect. He wanted to ask it why it ran away, why it flew out of its post without warning. This was it, this was what they scoured the entire forest to find.

But wait...

The dragon was curled around something almost completely hidden. It was white with streaks of black in it. It was an egg.

Then the dragon let out a low growl, beginning to stand. There was the distant sound of wings flapping above you, getting closer with every second you wasted gawking at the turn of events.

There was the sound of someone hitting a table and squealing. It was three in the goddamn morning and three of the four people still playing the tabletop were wide awake. Cross was practically sleepwalking at this point, Marvul was being a typical DM, Halluciv was completely invested, and Dream was giggling.

Prefect bonding experience.

"What....the..." Xcellence was just wanting to know what that ear-piercing squealing sound was. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard combined with a dog whistle. He was so tired but he did process the sight of what was in front of him. ".....I..." he simply had no interest in playing the game, and now he was glad or else he might've ended up like Cross. He didn't know how to react. ".....I'll leave you be..."

Halluciv looked like an owl, with his big purple eyes practically telling X to get his ass over here for the best goddamn part of the campaign.

Xcellence quickly shuffled back upstairs to go back to bed and escape whatever was about to happen.

Nightmare walked by him, looking very annoyed that he had to be woken up by Halluciv's fangirling. He went downstairs, tiredly saw the scene, and decided to not intervene. Not even to collect poor Cross since he seemed to be having fun.

He did, however, walk over to give Cross a hug that only resulted in another squeal from Halluciv. Nightmare felt deaf at this point, patting Cross' head and telling him to come upstairs before he fell asleep here.

Cross sleepily hugged back, earning another pat before Nightmare left him be. He yawned and stretched, his back popping as he tried to wake himself up long enough to at least finish this.

".....we can take a break." Marvul noted, looking at something behind the DM screen. There was the slightly worrying sound of him rolling dice and smirking. "None of us need sleep and you look absolutely exhausted."

"....nah, I'm fine." Cross mumbled. "I've stayed awake for longer."

"You're all absolutely fucked." Marvul muttered to himself, still smirking. "Roll initiative."

Halluciv kept tapping the table with his fingers in anticipation as the dice were rolled. "I'm first. I ask the dragon to return to the kingdom with the egg and kindly ask it to tell its mate to not kill us."

"It scoffs at you and coils back around its several eggs, its back towards you. There is little chance of it listening."

"I do the same." Cross mumbled, rolling for whatever statistic decided how well he did. 20. Marvul's smirk widened.

"First off you can't even speak Draconic but suppose Halluciv rubbed off on you and you magically learned it from that." Marvul smirked. Halluciv had this look on his face, just an incredibly shady look that screamed I know what's happening here.

The dragon peers over its shoulder at you, seeming interested in the offer. Just then the other previously unseen dragon lands behind you. It was a snow white Wyvern, gazing down at your puny party in mild curiosity.

"...this one reminds me of you. No need to kill it." the black dragon muttered. The Wyvern simply knocks you over with its tail before heading towards the dragon and sitting beside it.

"So polite." Cross muttered sleepily.

"Shhhhhhh."

~~~~~Time Skip~~~~

Nightmare rolled his eyes as he carried Cross. The poor guy had fallen asleep right after the game ended and he had carried him to his room. Cross looked so peaceful when he was asleep. What? No, he doesn't watch him sleep. ...he didn't have a valid reason to do that.

Cross was still out cold even in the morning. Nightmare carried him downstairs, stroking his head lightly and setting him on the couch. Cross really needed to take better care of himself, and some silly game was no excuse.

"Alright. Letters?" Dream glanced at them as the near-ritualistic routine of everyone sitting down in the living room took place.

"Are you done with squealing three in the morning?" Nightmare asked tiredly, stroking Cross' skull as the smaller curled up with his head on his lap. He lightly shook him, murmuring for him to wake up.

Marvul snorted in amusement and nodded. Cross yawned and started to stir, Nightmare still petting him as he woke up. "Mmmm?"

"It's morning." Nightmare said gently. Dream was obviously hardcore shipping it, internally squealing at how cute his brother and Cross were.

"Okay. First letter...." Dream hummed, opening up the envelope. "Marvul: what in God's name made you think it was a good idea to enlist a cannibal and two murderers to protect your brother?! Halluciv: out of Killer, Dust and horror, who do you prefer? I guess Cross can answer this as well. Asked by Mother_Shadow."

"In my defense, I didn't know that Xcellence had bloody housemates until I brought Halluciv over and Dust was there to greet us still covered in his own name, and during the 'tour' we found Horror in the basement chopping up a body and crouched beside it like a gremlin." Marvul huffed, glaring at X. "By then we had sealed the deal so there was no going back."

"I'll have to say Killer." Halluciv shrugged. "He's really the only one I've become good friend with, besides Celly of course."

"Yeah, I'll have to say Killer's the most sociable of anyone else in the house." Cross said sleepily, sitting up and snuggled into Nightmare's side. "....more so than Nightmare."

Nightmare looked offended.

Dream snickered and read out the next question. "I-" he stopped, briefly read over the letter, and then handed it over to Nightmare. I dare Nightmare to kiss Cross on the cheek (or somewhere) without him knowing it was a dare. Asked by __Purple_Fluffball__.

Nightmare read over the letter, shrugged, and gave Cross a gentle kiss on the cheek. He handed the letter back to Dream and pat the flustered skeleton on the head.

Dream smirked and read out the third letter, his expression quickly showing disgust. "Cross and Xcellence, I have two things for you.1: Switch each other's clothes and try to convince everyone else you are the other for an hour. And since you two have different heights, you are not allowed to be in the same room.2: Get a shot glass full goop from Nightmare and/or Halluciv and drink it. How does it feel? Asked by Sansy-ton33."

"Okay now that's just mean." Xcellence noted as Cross tossed his scarf at him. He simply took off his jacket and tossed it over to Cross. "...and disgusting."

"And deadly." Nightmare said. "It's literally raw magic and negativity. Your souls would short circuit and you'd pass out. As for having a large amount, you'd both probably die."

"....great." Cross mumbled, and grabbed a tentacle that had strayed near his face. He pushed it away in minor disgust. "So do we still have to do it if there's a risk of death?"

"Fuck it." Xcellence muttered, grabbing one of Halluciv's tentacles. Halluciv squeaked and nearly fell of the couch, everyone in the room looking generally disgusted(Halluciv included) when X took a tiny part of the tendril into his mouth and passed out after a rather forced swallow.

"..."

Nobody said anything.

"I warned him." Nightmare rolled his eyes and leaned back, almost not noticing Cross leaning in. "If you do anything to me I swear-"

Too late.

Cross was blocked by a tentacle, which he had promptly put into his mouth. He probably took a bit more than a shot's worth, but he was out cold after a brief yet obvious spike in energy.

"Well then." Halluciv shuddered horribly and hugged himself, slowly pushing Xcellence to the other side of the loveseat. "I never want to feel that ever again."

Nightmare nodded in agreement, looking absolutely disgusted. He slowly pushed Cross off the couch with a soft thump, not in the mood for anymore physical contact after that.

"....can we get a nice happy reasonable ask?" Marvul asked weakly. After witnessing all of that he needed some happy things to think about.

"Hedgehogs with marshmallows stuck on their backs." Halluciv said suddenly, beginning to poke X's body until he started to wake up from annoyance.

"Thank you."

Dream smiled almost longingly at that before turning to the fourth letter. "Hmm does anyone here know who your Chara is? And Xcellence do you have a Casper?? Asked by undertaletrashlit."

"Assuming that's Cross' Chara, then yes." Nightmare said. "Dunno where he is, though I can faintly sense his aura in Cross sometimes. He might've been knocked out when we were brought here. He'll be waking up soon, especially with Cross getting a lot more sleep lately. I can literally feel it."

Xcellence paused for a moment as he woke up before looking at Nightmare curiously. "....I got Caster his own soul a while back. I have no clue where he is now, but he does come around and visit sometimes."

Nightmare raised a nonexistent eyebrow at that. "Really? Wonder why Cross hasn't done that yet, or at least asked me to get him a human soul."

"Oh it was absolute hell." X muttered. "Sci had to basically rip out souls apart at the perfect time so I wouldn't dust." Halluciv shuddered at the memory and hugged Xcellence, who hugged back.

"....you couldn't move for days after that..." Halluciv said quietly, hugging his arm like his life depended on it.

Xcellence murmured some reassuring things to Halluciv, stopping when he saw Nightmare looking at him with what could only be described as raw jealousy. Marvul looked like he really didn't want to see the two cuddling.

"....anyways. Final letter..." Dream drawled, getting everyone's attention. Nightmare nudged Cross as he started to wake up, picking him up and hugging him like Halluciv had done with Xcellence.

"I'd be careful with lil Halluciv there. Breaking him enough could easily unleash all that magic that's been pent up for centuries. Asked by Mother_Shadow."

"....that sounds like a threat." Nightmare said.

"Says you." Halluciv pointed out. "I at least know I lasted long than you did." he then realized what he said and paused. "Sorry."

Nightmare growled under his breath and hugged Cross protectively, crushing the breath out of him. "Nightmare...." Cross managed out, trying to escape.

Nightmare hissed and hugged him tighter. "Let me love you."

"You're taking my breath away~"

Nightmare let go of Cross. "I never want to hear a pun like that ever again, especially from you."

Cross smirked and laid over Nightmare's lap. "Aww....~" he had the cheekiest grin ever. "Night liiiight~"

Nightmare looked like a blueberry in a span of five seconds, stock still as Cross made himself comfy on his lap and hugged him, looking up at Nightmare with big, innocent eyes. "Nighty?"

Nightmare didn't move at all as Cross made himself comfy on his lap, leaning against him and not planning to move anytime soon.

"....help."