"Did ya get them to sleep bruh?" asked a skeleton in purple jacket, tilting his skull as a monochrome skeleton walked into the room.

"Yeah.." the monochrome one sighed, a bit upset. "They keep asking more questions every night.. It's already been almost a year with nothing.. I don't even know where he is."

The purple one turned to wrap his arms around him. "He will come back eventually bruh. Maybe he's just busy," he tried to assure.

"I know.. I'm just upset that he's missing out quite a lot.." the monochrome one admitted. He took a glance towards the door behind him, thinking about who was behind it.

"Hey bruh. Ya know how I'll be moving for a new job next month bruh. Maybe I'll find him there. I can keep looking put for him for you bruh," the purple one reminded, slowly pulling back from the hug.

The monochrome's face fell as he remembered. "Right.. Then I'll be all alone when you're gone as well.." he whispered, collapsing down on the sofa.

"No bruh, you won't be alone! You'll still have them with you bruh! And I promise to call every day bruh!" the purple rushed to promise.

"I know... Just please promise that you'll actually do that," the monochrome begged, taking his friend's hands on his and looking him in the eye sockets.

"I promise."

-----

     Cross turned in his bed, staring at the upper bunk bed. He had another sleepless night behind him. He was tired, but tried to ignore it. He knew he had to get up and go start his day.

"Too bad he didn't actually follow up with that promise."

Cross froze. Slowly he turned to look at Chara, who was staring at him from the opposite bed. He was about to snap at them, but as soon as he opened his mouth he snapped it close. They had a point and he didn't want to start arguing this early in the morning.

Instead of acknowledging Chara any better Cross decided to just get up from the bed and make his way outside. He really didn't want to deal with his own little parasite.

-----

     The air outside was cold. It kinda made Cross miss his old outfit, which had been way more warmer.

He was about to start heading off towards the food tent when he heard someone approach him. Before he could turn around he heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Hello there dear sir! I do not think that I have had the great pleasure to meet you yet dear sir! You must be the new interesting performer we have in here! I have heard quite a lot of fascinating things about you dear sir. It is a true pleasure to finally find you aimlessly wandering around this spectacular circus of ours!" Cross turned to look at the talkative and confident skeleton, who was standing before him. There was a polite smile on their lips.

"Yeah.. I don't think we've met yet. Uh, hey, my name's Cross," he introduced himself, a bit dumbfounded by this skeleton.

"Ah, dear sir Cross! My amazing name is Ace. I happen to be the best magician in this whole wonderful circus! It truly is my pleasure to meet you on this fine day. It really is a fine day, isn't it? The depressing rain and gloom is gone and we have been left with a bright sun shining above us. You do agree that it is a wonderful day, don't you?" Ace spoke and took Cross' hand to shake it, even though the other hadn't offered it in his slight shock.

"What..? I-I guess.?" Cross stuttered – something at Ace didn't do at all despite speaking way more than him. As he pulled his hand back he came to notice that the bandage around it, which was a part of his outfit, was now gone.

Ace inspected her new stealing curiously. Cross stared at him, now even more dumbfounded. Had he just been robbed of his bandage?

"Lust truly knows how to do his wonderful work! His wonderful clothes are the best of their kind. I can see with my own two eye sockets that he has outdone himself in that fascinating outfit of yours once again!" Ace chatted away, coming closer for a better look. "It really is such a shame that he still keeps adding those ridiculous pockets in every one of his otherwise stunning clothes. Let me fix that there for you, dear sir!" And before Cross could react, Ace had already cut his pockets off with a card.

"What the fuck?" he cried out, staring at his missing pockets in shock before turning to look at Ace, who had already teleported further away with his bandage, and now also his heart locket.

"Hey! Give it back!" Cross exclaimed and bolted after the magician. He sure as hell wasn't about to lose his heart locket like this. It meant the world to him.

The magician teleported further away every time he almost reached them. Cross didn't dare to shoot at her with anything because he didn't want to accidentally anger then Ringmaster.

"Get back here!" he shouted, despaired to get his stuff back.

"Ace!" someone else called out. It made the magician stop and turn to see who it was. He was smiling politely – as if he hadn't just stolen Cross' stuff.

"Blue, what a nice day out here, don't you agree? Is the something special that you might be in need of from me? My magical services are always available if you dear sir happen to need help with any kind of litter issue you might have with anything that you do!" Ace began his confusing speech as Blue approached him calmly. Cross had stopped to watch what happened.

"Could you give me what you stole from Cross?" Blue asked politely, holding his hand out. He was smiling like always.

Ace chuckled, handing the locket and bandages over. "Here you go dear sir! Since you asked so nicely I will let you have these lovely items back. You must already know that I mean no harm on this lovely day out here. It would be a true shame to do something horrible to anger our dear Ringmaster here today."

"Thank you. I'll make sure to get them back to him," Blue hummed before turning to Cross as Ace disappeared – with Blue's goggles – to go find someone else.

"What the funk was–," Cross stopped mid-sentence. "What the fuck?" he cried out.

"Don't worry about that 'funk'. That's Fresh. He sensors others. He must be somewhere near. Don't worry about him. He just kinda comes and goes. He's nearly impossible to spot, but he's always here somewhere as leaving is impossible," Blue explained, handing the items back to him.

"Thank you. But what the fuck was that about?" Cross immediately began inquiring about Ace.

"That's Ace. He's our magician. They're a bit confusing, but don't worry about it. She also has a habit of stealing others items, but never means anything bad about it. Here it's easy to get them back since you know..." Blue trailed off. He was referring to the Ringmaster. The thought of him made Cross' spine shiver. "Oh! Did he cut your pockets?" Blue crouched immediately to have a look. His mission was aborted very quickly and he shot up with blue spreading across his skull.

"I-I DIDN'T S-SEE ANYTHING! D-DON'T WORRY! I'M SORRY!" he immediately began stuttering, going even more blue.

Cross stared at him, confused, for a few seconds before the realisation hit him. His skull immediately turned purple. His pockets were missing, which meant that there were just holes left in his trousers, and at a very awkward place. And what made it worse was the fact that Blue was 16, ten years younger than him.

"I'll just take you to Lust so he can fix your trousers!" Blue decided and started running away. Cross had to run after him to not be left behind.

-----

     "The show is this week. How are the preparations going?" Nightmare turned to look at Ink. The artist stiffed, immediately spinning around. He hadn't noticed the other entering the tent.

"We're almost ready with everything! A few props just need some fixing!" he announced quickly before turning to look at his scarf for clarification.

"Why are you still wearing a different pair of shoes?" the Ringmaster asked, raising a browbone.

Ink froze again and turned to look at his shoes. It was true. He had two different shoes. The right one was his own short, brown shoe while the left one was a long and greayish blue.

"I don't know where my other one went so I just borrowed a new one from Lust," Ink admitted. "But I can ask Lust to get me a new one if it–," he stopped as Nightmare waved his hand.

"Don't bother," he scoffed. "You won't remember to do so, or if you do, you'll probably end up losing the new one as well. We can't waste material like that." The tone was flat, careless.

"Oh.." Ink mumbled.

"Do you happen to know what's going on between Dust and Killer?" Nightmare asked. It shocked Ink completely. Since when was the Ringmaster curious about the performers? "Those two have been leaking some pretty delicious negativity lately," – he liked his teeth. Ink's spine shivered as he was reminded of the fact that the Ringmaster liked negative feelings. — "And I heard them mention your name. What is their little fight about? What did you do, little doll?" The nickname made Ink's breath hitch.

"I don't know what's going on, I promise I'm not lying!" Ink blurted out immediately. He honestly didn't know — or then he had just forgotten.

"I don't believe you," Nightmare hummed, stepping closer. Ink backed against the table behind him. "It seems to be something really important since they've both been feeding me really well~ Why don't you tell me what it is?" He leaned close, forcing Ink against the table.

"I don't know what it is about!" the artist cried out.

"Are you sure?" Nightmare tilted his head and reached for Ink's vials. Before the artist could react, the pink vial was forced into his mouth and the rest of the vials were thrown out of his reach.

"I-I'm sure.!~" Ink tried to assure as Nightmare flipped him around and leaned him on the table. The air felt cold against his now bare bones. "P-please~ Not h-here~" he tried to beg as the vial started to kick in. "Ah!~" he cried out – moaned – as the whip collided against his bare spine. It left a stinging a stop.

"I am the Ringmaster here. I decide what happens and where it happens," Nightmare reminded him. "Your opinion means absolutely nothing." The tone was cold, reminding Ink of the fact that he had absolutely no control over anything.

"Ink, I've brought Cross here for a while since I couldn't find Lust!" Blue announced as he matched into the tent, barely avoiding the metal pole by the entrance, with Cross right on his tail.

They both froze, eyelights widening in pure horror when they saw Ink pressed against the table with no clothes. Nightmare was pressed against him, all clothes still on, for now.

Cross' hands immediately slapped on Blue's eye sockets. His own eyelights met Nightmare's in horror. The Ringmaster just smiled at him.

"You're interrupting us a bit," Nightmare hummed, giving Cross a warning look. 'Get our or you two will be next on the line,' it said.

Cross immediately pulled Blue out of the tent, slamming the flap close after them. He barely managed to catch the younger skeleton as he fell towards the ground.

Blue magic splattered on the ground as he emptied his nonexistent stomach, immediately passing out afterwards. Cross could barely hold his own vomit back. It took him a lot to put his own disgust and horror aside as Blue's took over. The younger's emotion were really strong, hitting him pretty hard.

Cross had to let go of him to turn around and vomit. His head was spinning with all Blue's emotions and his own shock.

Someone rushed to him as he vomited for the second time. The worry of this new person wasn't enough to neutralise Blue from his mind.

"B-Blue.." Cross pointed towards the younger, trying to get the one helping him to go help him instead.

"Shh, it's alright, Ccino's got him," a familiar voice told him. At least they had found Lust, or well, Lust had found them.

Cross tried to say something, but it was all growing too overwhelming. Suddenly the ground came closer than before and someone – probably Lust – rushed to catch him before it all went black.

Words: 2140

[24.12.2022]

Merry Christmas everyone! I've been a bit busy with some other writing projects, but now I'm done with those and coming back to Wattpad.

I could have given you fluff, but my finger slipped and instead you got:

-Ace. (I love him and tried my best to write him as well as I could.)

-Blue saving Cross from Ace. (Don't worry there's no ship between them, just an awkward interaction.)

-Nightmare and Ink non-con and Blue and Cross walking in on that–

Then here's Ace's casual outfit, which is supposed to be in the same colours as his original clothes. (Ignore the shit lighting, I didn't bother to turn my lights on–)

Then there's some art I drew a few months ago.