Mmmm, Nightmare's teddy it is.

Another question:

Salient's favorite duo?

a) Killer and Cross
b) Horror and Dust

--------------------------------------------

Alright.

This... May not be so bad after all.

Nightmare's subordinates have yet to snap and hurt the kid, so that's good. And he's been getting more free time, since he no longer has to watch over the child 24/7.

He could get used to it.

Although...

Error would be lying if he said everything was fine.

What happened over a month ago - the entire fiasco with the Multiverse still bothers him. He doesn't know why, but it just does.

And as far as he's aware, the squid still doesn't know what caused all this.

Then there's the problem with the Apple Twins.

Nightmare has been getting more agitated as of lately, since he hasn't seen his brother in a while, and confessed to being unable to sense the positive skeleton's presence at times.

Made Error remember how angry Ink got when he mentioned Dream's absence.

And admittedly, Error was also concerned. Not about Dream exactly, but more about the balance between negativity and positivity.

Dream is a Guardian for a reason, so they can't have him slacking off.

Though, Error can understand the desire for a break. He took them several times by now.

Not counting the ones that almost made the balance between creativity and destruction tip off. They were accidental.

But Dream was a workaholic, so him being so absent was weird.

"Uwaah!"

Error blinked and looked towards the source of the sound.

Salient.

He saw the child being fed by Killer in the dining room. Usually, it would be Horror that was feeding the kid, but he was on a mission so Killer took the task upon himself.

Wait...

Error blinked and shook his head.

What was he doing here again?

Oh, right.

He had nothing to do, so he decided to watch over Salient, while making sure Killer won't accidently hurt him.

He forgot. Weird.

Sure, his memory was bad, but it shouldn't be this bad!

Sheesh, the squid is rubbing off on him.

Salient, who apparently saw Error staring started to coo towards the multicolored skeleton.

Killer paused and then looked at Error, snickering at the glitch's dumbfounded expression.

"You know..." Killer started, which made Error look over at him. "You can feed him, if you want."

Error grimaced and looked away.

"nO tHAnkS."

He'd probably mess it up anyways.

Killer shrugged and looked back at Salient, putting down the jar of food that he was giving him.

"Suit yourself. Anyway, pretty sure the kid is full by now. You can take them back to their room." Killer grinned and flicked the child's forehead, which made them look at the tear eyed skeleton with confusion.

Error sighed and walked towards the child, putting them in his arms. He nodded at Killer in silent thanks and teleported away.

Once in their room, he let the child down on the ground, watching as they immediately started to crawl towards the teddy that Nightmare gave them.

At least he stopped crying over the Dream puppet.

Error furrowed his bone brows. He keeps forgetting to ask Nightmare to give it back. Oh well...

Error laid back on his hammock and closed his eyes. Besides the sounds of Salient's giggles, the room was pretty damn quiet.

It was after a few minutes that Error realized that the kid went uncharacteristically silent.

He opened his eyes and looked towards the child, just to find them staring intensely at their crib. Or more accurately, what was under it.

While Error didn't know the exact age of the child he took, Cross made him aware that they were somewhere between 6 to 8 months old. A good age for a crib.

Maybe he's sleepy?

Error shrugged and closed his eyes once again.

Only to open them abruptly.

The sudden shriek that came from the child almost made him fall off his hammock, but when he looked at them he could his SOUL leave his body.

Something was dragging Salient under the crib by his right arm.

Error instantly lunged towards the kid, grabbed him, and ripped him off the thing's reach.

As the room wasn't the brightest in the castle he couldn't really see what was under the crib. What he did saw however, was an endless void. Darkness.

What the fuck.

Salient's cries brought him back to reality, and he realized that he may have been gripping the child much too hard.

He paused as he looked at the kid's right arm. The same one that was being held to drag Salient under the crib.

Burn marks?

...

Oh, hell no.

This is not happening!

This place was supposed to be safe!

As Error listened to the child's cry, he felt pure rage burn inside him

Guess he's gonna have to talk to negativity Guardian.

-----------------------------------------

Uh, okay so...

First of all I'd like to say sorry for the lack of updates.

But like - I have exams in about a month and everyone just keeps telling me how traumatic it has been for them. So yay!

Anyway, this chapter could've been written better yeah.

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night, to whoever is reading this! I love you all!