-Aqua's Pov-

I woke up in a cold sweat and quickly sat up. As I quietly caught my breath, I hurriedly looked around to identify my surroundings. I sighed in relief when I realized I was in the room Dream let me and Ink sleep in. Speaking of Ink, I look over and see the skeleton sleeping on the floor without a care in the world. I remembered that we barely managed to escape Error yesterday and crashed at Dream's Castle to recover. I got up from the bed I collapsed on and go over to wake Ink up.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I remembered the nightmare. I shivered on the spot just thinking about it... Only to be confused why I was scared. It was just her. She appeared in all of my dreams, the girl who I know nothing yet everything about. I shook my head and sat down next to Ink to wake him up.

"C'mon sleepyhead we have stuff to fix." I shook his shoulders in a vain attempt to get him up and about.

"Noooooo. Nooot noooowww." He mumbled in protest.

"Yesss noww, Ink we have to undo the damage that Error did. C'mon wake up!" I shake him more.

I finally gave in and pulled the last move I have.

I roll Ink over and untie his sash that carries the vials.

"There. You can't be asleep without your vials, and I know your system's running low." I say all matter-of-factly.

"Arrrggg, FINE! I'm up ok!??" He snaps.

"Alright," I toss the sash over. "Drink up!"

"Gah, why did I ever become friends with you?"

"Because you love me, there's no denying it!" I tease in my famous sing-song voice.

I know Ink will be less irritable after a while, he just needs to properly wake up. Another thing that doesn't help is my unfortunate tendency to unnecessarily tease people when I'm scared, like after I wake up from a nightmare.

"Alright, I'm done sassing you for now, I got some dirt."

That peaked the wayward skeleton's interest, "New dirt? What up?"

"Well I had another 'nightmare' about her, if you could even call it a nightmare."

"Ah, that explains your desperateness to get me awake. Anyway, what are you going to do with that? Do you even remember the details?"

I sigh, no. I don't remember much, only her golden hair in the offset light and her voice whispering 'Next year, I promise'.

"Noo. I just wanted to tell you..." I must have teared up, because my voice became smaller and gave away how hurt I am. I reach for the locket around my neck in hopes that it might make me feel better.

"Hey, look at me." Ink says to get my attention. I do and his eyelights start to reflect his caring words. "It's ok, remember the beginning when we knew nothing? Think back and see how far we've come! You'll learn more about her, just as we're trying to learn where we came from!"

I wipe the forming tears in my eyes with my sleeve and nod. "Y-yeah." I whisper softly.

Ink hands me my blue-gray scarf and I wrap it around my neck. I put the rest of my possessions in various places on my person and get ready to head out. I open the locket as a reminder to my resolve. I look at the picture and see me and the golden haired girl posing together. As the music box starts playing I remember all the time we spent together and all the hardships we had faced. I remember the old names we used to have that we now use as codenames, 'Star' and 'Luna'.
I remember the memories.

As I hand Ink his scarf I note that he has some unusual reminders among the normal tasks he needs to do. Two of them to be specific. One simply says 'tell him' and the other says 'ask Aqua how to' and the writing ends there. Huh. I hand it over and continue with my morning routine.

...

Hey wait, my sweater has blood on it. I roll up the sleeve and inspect the deep cut that I must have gained from one of Error's bones. The bleeding has stopped but it still needs attention.

I take the faded paintbrush from the pocket inside my sleeve and quickly channel my 'soul color' to make bandages and disinfectant. I patch up my arm and hope that I didn't lose to much blood.

"Hey do you know if Dream has some food we can have?" I ask noncholantly as I'm tending to my flesh wound.

"Yeah, although if your desperate I can make something right now." He says while mixing the color concoction in an empty vial.

"Nah, I'm fine. I just hope Dream isn't to mad at how late it took us to visit. Actually, he might be happy that we haven't been around as often, we usually get into more trouble than we have in the last couple of days. I also don't think he would be too content with replacing your arms like he has the past couple of times-"

I continue muttering to myself about the situation and the best ways to approach Dream. Ink has to stop me before I talk myself to death and we head off to find the Guardian of Positivity himself.
______

We find Dream settling some new recruits in the castle and he seems more ecstatic to see us than I hoped.

"Oh! Hey Ink! Hey Aqua! How are you guys feeling?"

"We're fine, we just had to heal some minor injuries. Do you happen to have any food? I just wanted something before we went back to the DoodleSphere." I question.

"Yeah! Feel free to head to the store room and make something. I need to check on Core!Frisk, so if you need me you'll know where to find me." With that, Dream walked out the doorway and was gone.

"That was fun..." I commented sourly, I didn't really like how positive Dream was. It just felt too good to be true... "Anyways, I'll head to the store room, you can just do whatever or come with. I don't care."

"No, go ahead. Besides, I have to visit Core about some unrest or something in the Omega Timeline." With that he disappeared like Dream did, leaving me alone.

It's times like these that I'm glad Ink is able to read me like a book. Usually after talking with Dream I need some alone time. I sighed. Today was not starting out great. However, all I could do was go on, after all, once you hit rock bottom you can only go up. I trudge down the stairs to the store room and make myself a sandwich or some oatmeal, I wasn't really paying attention.

I eat and go back to the ground level, debating about waiting for Ink or finding him myself. I decide to wait, I don't feel like dealing with the residents of the Omega Timeline right now. They always think I'm going to kill them, and while that's a fair concern, I'm not going to go on a murder spree.

I root through the small pack on my back and take out a fairly thick book; Wings of Fire Legends; Dragonslayer. It's one of the few books I own. I lay down on the couch and I look through the catalog of the different dragons, I remember one thing that my mind always corrects when studying this book. Rainforest Dragons aren't the deadliest dragons, they're pacifists and are only found deep in the jungle.

I continue reading until Ink walks into the common area I'm in.

"Hey Aqua! I'm back, what's up?" He flops onto the couch next to me.

"Nothin' much, what were you up to in the Omega Timeline?"

"Just a small favor, something Core needed. What's that?" Ink questioned as I slid Dragonslayer into my pack.

"Just one of the books we found, remember?"

"Yep."

Silence.

"H-hey Aqua... I-uh wanted to a-ask you s-something..."

I look over at Ink and sit up to face him on the couch. "Uh yeah?" I ask confused at his sudden shyness.

"H-have you e-ever h-hugged anyone..?" He finally asks, tapping his fingers together.

I stare I'm shock for a second. Why is he so shy about hugging, don't close friends hug? Come to think of it-

"S-sorry for a-asking a b-bad q-question! I didn't m-mean to be so insensitive!" He hastily added at my quiet.

"N-no. It's fine, I was just wondering why you think that hugging is bad! Your not being insensitive, and you made me realize that we haven't actually hugged in a while, maybe ever... Come here!"

I pull Ink into a hug, hopefully the warmest one I'll ever give. He hugs back and I bury my head into his scarf. We stay like this for so long that we eventually sink to the couch, laying down in a hug. I start to hum quietly and feel myself become less aware of what's happening around us.

The last thing I hear before my mind slips into a restful sleep are the hushed whispers of Dream, "I knew it, you owe me 5G Frisk."
______

"Where should we head next?"

"Well we should go back to Altertale to see the damage that was done. After all, I don't think you nor I can recall the full extent of the fight." I get ready to summon a portal.

"Yeaahh, we probably should. I'm all set, so let's head out when your ready."

Thinking back, I remember it was nice to wake up next to Ink instead of him sleeping on the floor. We only had a small amount to prepare before heading out.

As the portal opens I look at Ink and smile, "Ready!"

He responds in kind. "Let's go!"

A/N
It's me! I'm back! And I'm procrastinating! Again! Yayyy. Anyways I decided I wanted to write some fluffy hugs and then I mixed to much plot with it, oops. Well I don't care enough to change it. Also I might start an art book because I have so many drawings that I've made while procrastinating, I don't know what to do. Also everyone in school has gotten an email about 'not giving up in these trying times' bitch I've already given up. This ain't going on my record and this isn't a normal situation. Also who cares! It's before 9th grade! Anyways I'm done. Have this because I want to do something other than school work.
-Flaff

Ps. I faqing love Eleventh Hour. I just finished my solstice run and the ending killed me QwQ.

Here we are, at the Eleventh Hour.
I wonder if the big clock has reached zero yet...
I want to be right here when everything ends.