Nightmare kept his eye lights open, looking around in the darkness. The moon was high up in the sky, moonlight emerging through the trees. All the lights in the circus were long dead. Yet with his eye light Nightmare had spotted a prey in the darkness. Someone was trying to sneak outside after curfew.

"What do we have here?" he sang, tipping his skull. The figure in the shadows froze immediately. They must have thought that they were safe, but oh had they been wrong.

"Dust, may I ask you what you're doing outside after the curfew?" the Ringmaster asked, mockingly.

Dust stood in the shadows, frozen. His back was still towards Nightmare. They both knew that he was fucked.

Slowly Dust turned around, but he didn't dare to look Nightmare in the eye light. He rathered to keep his gaze down and expression cold.

"I'm expecting an answer," Nightmare reminded him, walking closer to the performer with a wide grin on his face.

Dust stayed quiet. He always did. He did know that it would make his situation even worse, but he wasn't about to open his mouth and speak.

"You do know that your punishment will be worse if you ignore my question," the Ringmaster continued taunting him.

Dust didn't answer.

"Well, this is your own fault then!~" Nightmare chuckled before pulling out his whip.

-----

     "I don't even want to know what you did to get whipped this badly, but whatever it was, it must have been bad, or then just the Ringmaster being sadistic.." Geno mumbled as he patched up the quiet performer in the middle of the night. "You're lucky he got you here instead of just abandoning you outside," he added, sighing.

The two of them were the only ones in the main part of the medical tent. Reaper was sleeping in the bedroom and there were no other patients or night spenders.

Dust glanced towards the floating skull on his left. Geno noticed it, but didn't comment on it. He knew about Dust's problem and had tried to do everything he could to make it better, but nothing seemed to work.

"Did.." Geno hesitated, "Did you... Brother... Tell you to go outside.. After the curfew.?" he asked carefully, gritting his teeth as Dust flinched.

"That's not good.." the medic mumbled, taking this as a yes. "Perhaps you should stay here for we few days so we can make sure that doesn't happen again while you're still healing because we both know that the Ringmaster won't hold back even if you're injured and we don't want you to die." Worry sparked in his eye lights.

This was why Geno was stuck inside the four walls of the medical tent. He was weak and therefore even the slightest of the Ringmaster's punishments could lead to his demise. And of course he would never even imagine leaving his precious little Goth alone in the tent, and taking him outside was not an option.

"Can you stay here for a few days?" he asked the unstable performer, softly. Hesitatedly he lifted his hand and placed it onto Dust's cheek. "I just want to make sure that you're alright.. You know that I still..." The word died on his teeth, unable to escape, but Dust knew what he meant and that he really meant it.

"F-fine.." Dust rasped, voice cracking. He could see Geno froze, SOUL skipping a beat. A soft smile spread on his teeth quickly and carefully he wrapped his arms around Dust.

"I missed hearing your voice.." the medic whispered. Dust huffed the best he could to mimic a chuckle as he carefully pulled the older onto his lap.

"I wish you even looked at me more often.. You never do that.. I always look at you, but you never look back at me for longer than a few seconds. You barely even react to my touch whenever I'm healing you.." Geno continued whispering, burying his burning face into Dust's shirt.

"Ya know... W-we wouldn't m-make it.." Dust forced the words out of his mouth. His voice was raspy, but Geno didn't care. It still made his SOUL beat faster.

"It's not fair... What did we do to deserve this..? Why can't we just have the happiness we wanted..?" Geno's eye sockets filled with tears.

"R-Reaper.. In-k.." Dust reminded him, but yet he pulled him even closer.

Geno fell quiet. Slowly he raised his skull from Dust's blood stained shirt. "I know.. That's why this is so wrong.." He pulled Dust closer and connected their teeth.

Dust leaned into him, answering the kiss. Geno's familiar taste filled his mouth. It was addicting – and something he had really missed. The tears that spilled down Geno's face wet both their cheeks, but neither one of them cared. They were getting drunk on each other's tastes.

Geno tried to pull back, but Dust didn't let him get away, leaning closer after him. They were both messily tangled around each other on a blood stained hospital bed, Geno's husband and son sleeping in the room next to them.

After exchanging saliva for a long while, they finally pulled back from each other to catch their breaths. Geno still wasn't ready to let go, he pushed himself further into Dust's lap, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

"I wish we could work out.. I wish we had a future together.." Geno whispered, burying his skull back to Dust's chest.

""S not p-possible.." Dust answered, slowly petting Geno's skull. There was a gloomy tone in his raspy voice. Geno wasn't the only one wishing that.

"I trust you. I trust you with all my life! Why don't you trust yourself around me?" Geno exclaimed, keeping his voice down. Tears were falling down his cheekbones.

"If I-I lose.." – Dust stopped to cough – "C-control.. Y-you.. I-I c-could k-ki.." The words died on his teeth, the expression on his face broken. "Y-you're t-too w-weak.. I.. I– D-don't wann-a h-hurt.."

"But you won't hurt me.! You won't.!" Geno tried to protest, desperately. His SOUL ached so bad.

"No.." Dust shook his skull. "I don't.. Control.. I– already.. H-hurt, a-almost k-killed yo-u on-ce.." he reminded softly. His whole body was still aching from Nightmare's whipping, but he didn't want to let go of Geno. He could suffer a bit for the sake of the medic. This was the first time in a long time that they had gotten a chance to be alone together.

"Maybe.." Geno hesitated. "Maybe that's the only way for us.." He raised his hand onto Dust's cheekbone.

"W-what... Mean..?" Dust asked, furrowing his browbones. He wasn't sure if he liked where this was going.

"If I were to kill myself, you would follow me."

"I-in a SOUL b-beat.."

"You didn't even hesitate," Geno hummed, eye lights wide with shock. "See, if we die, we can be together. You can't accidentally hurt me there. We could finally be happy, together." He leaned in to click their teeth together for a quick kiss.

Dust pulled him even closer, whispering into his nonexistent ear: "I– I know... B-but 's it.. really worth.. It..? T-think.. 'bout everyone e-else.. Your b-brothers.. O-our friends.."

Geno fell quiet again. He knew that Dust had a point. He didn't think that he could do something like that to everyone, to his brothers, his friends, his Reaper and his precious son. Guilt swelled through his SOUL.

"Right.." he mumbled, a bit ashamed of himself for even think about something like that.

Dust had a sympathique look on his face. It was really rare for the usually emotionless murderer. So rare that even Ink didn't see him so many emotions.

"G-go.." he whispered. "Y-your husban-d must b-be waiting.. F-for you.." he continued, carefully wiping away Geno's tears.

"B-but–"

"N-no.. Y-you're tired a-and not thinking.. G-go to slee-p.. I'll... I'll be f-ine.. Y-you know that we w-won't make i-it if we t-try, so don't p-pretend like w-we could.. I-it's been a h-hard night.. Y-you need t-to sleep.. Y-your husband is w-waiting for you.." Dust spoke softly, yet carefully.

Geno looked down. He knew that if he didn't leave Dust, he would end up making decisions that would hurt him, Dust, Reaper and Ink. He didn't want to hurt Reaper. Or Dust and Ink.

With a gloomy look in his eye sockets he nodded. He stood up quickly and rushed off, not trusting himself around Dust any longer.

The murder watched after him, sighing softly as he vanished into the darkness in the back of the tent. He loved Geno, he really did. But his unstable magic and Geno's weakness wouldn't blend together well. He didn't want to accidentally kill Geno, plus he had seen how Reaper looked at his husband. From the moment Dust had first seen Reaper with Geno, he had known that Reaper would do anything for his love.

Was he upset that Geno had gotten married? No. Dust could never be upset at Geno for falling for Reaper. He was just happy that Geno had found someone who could really love him and keep him safe. Plus, Dust had Ink.

His relationship with Ink was really bumpy, filled with issues here and there, but yet it worked. Ink seemed to be happy with it too. Killer, however, was his own kind problem. But well, the death of their lover had been hard for the both of them. Dust couldn't blame him.

Now all Dust had to do was to make sure that he and Geno wouldn't end up alone ever again. He didn't know if he could face the medic again like that. If it were to repeat, Dust knew he couldn't hold himself back.

"That dumb medic has really messed up your skull," his brother scoffed. Dust flinched, turning to look at the floating skull next to him. "You should be great that your relationship didn't work out because otherwise you would be even weaker than you already are. You should have just killed him back when you had the chance to!"

Dust stared at his hands, they were shaking. His brother was right, he was getting weak.

"You've spent too long in here. It's time to go," his brother reminded. Dust nodded and stood up. He ignored Geno's request and walked out of the tent and into the shadows surrounding it.

-----

     Cross stared at the letter in his hands. It had been sitting in his pockets for way too long for his liking. He had read through it and it was exactly how he remembered. He still remember all the words, he had thought about it so hard. His entire SOUL had been poured onto those words.

From the old tear stains he could tell that it had been read by the right person. The picture he had put in the envelope along with the letter was gone. He didn't know what had happened to it, but he hoped that his lover had it with him wherever he was.

"Look at that, you made him cry. Are you proud of yourself?" Chara commented sarcastically, trying to lighten up the heaviness in the air.

"I hope those were happy tears.. I don't want to make him sad..." Cross answered. His throat felt tight. He knew he was close to tears. "I–" he was cut off as a storm of sadness poured into the tent from somewhere else in the circus.

In only a matter of seconds he was drowning in someone else emotional pain. It was something he felt every day, but as time had passed he had kinda gotten used to it. This time, however, the hurt was way more worse. Someone's SOUL was breaking. Cross couldn't quite tell what it was exactly caused by. He would have guessed a breakup, but it seemed way too deeper.

Whatever it was, it was horrifying for him. He was drowning, sinking deeper and deeper into a bottomless pool. He couldn't breathe. He tried to gasp for air, but it was impossible. Where did all the light go? Why was everything so dark?

He pressed the letter against his chest. Chara let out a pained hiss and soon Cross felt himself collide against the floor. His skull stung from the damage.

-----

     "Oh no! Are you alright?" Worry flashed in their eyes as they crouched down next to him. "Did it hurt?" they asked, fussing over him, checking for any possible injuries.

"When I fell for you.?" he joked, grinning innocently.

Their cheeks dusted into the beautiful colour of their magic. "So you did hit your head while falling down the stairs," they huffed, crossing their arms.

"I fell down the stairs, for you," he chirped.

"Right, you're still a stubborn child!" They rolled their eye lights, yet the look on their face softened. They offered their hand towards him.

"You're just three years older than me," he reminded, taking the hand, but instead of helping himself up, he pulled them down.

They yelped, surprised, as they landed on top of him onto the hard wooden floor of their house. "Cross!" they exclaimed, blushing even more. "You're brother is watching and he's still a child!" they pointed out.

"Oh no, he's not here, so don't worry my lo–"

"I am here you bastard!" snapped the ghostly child floating above them. They seemed really disturbed by the moment going on in front of them.

"He's here, isn't he?" the blushing skeleton asked softly, assuming from the way he had been cut off.

"Yes.." he sighed. "Can't you leave us alone for five minutes?" he asked, looking up at the child.

"I need some bleach for my eyes.." they groaned, gagging as he pulled the other skeleton closer.

"He's leaving," he told them.

They chuckled softly. "I'm sorry!" they called out after the ghost.

"C'mon, let's move onto something more comfortable," he suggested.

"No, I'm already comfortable here!" they protested, burying their face into his chest.

"But I'm hurting!" he whined.

"Then suffer~" they sang teasingly, a mischievous smile on their face.

"You're the worst!"

"I love you too!"

"I don't love you back anymore! You're making me suffer!"

"Then I'm taking your brother with me and moving away!"

"You can't even see him!"

"He prefers me over you!"

"You spoiled him! Of course he loves you for that!"

"I'm just better with children!"

"Well, I want proof of that!"

"Wha– Cross!"

"See? Being under someone on the floor isn't that comfortable, now is it?"

"W-what are you doing?"

"I want proof that you're better with children!"

"W-what do you mean.?"

"What are you thinking about?~ You're a blushing mess!"

"Aren't you supposed to be a gentleman? Yet you have the mother of your future children laying on the hard floor!"

"W-wait–"

"And now you're a blushing mess! Hah, Look how the tables have turned!"

"I–"

"What? Didn't expect me to flirt back?"

"..."

"Well? What about proving my point. Didn't you kinda promise me a child now?"

"No–"

"Yes, you did! And you know that I've always dreamt of having a family. Heh! So, go on!"

"But look at us! I'm 18, barely even an adult, and you're just 21! Aren't we a bit too young?"

"But what if we die young? We've both been too close to death so many times already! I don't want to wait only to realise that it's too late!"

"Please don't cry.. I hate to see you sad.."

"Please, let's have a family together. So what if we're young? Well be fine, I promise! Just please, please don't make me wait.."

"You're the one whose going to be changing diapers at three in the morning, let's go."

"Hold up–"

Words: 2669

[3.3.2023]

No beta – as always – we die like literally everyone in this story.

I saw more opportunities for past ships that didn't work out, more angst! And also more of Cross' past.

Today's actually been a year since I joined the Undertale fandom and that's why I wanted to post today. (Definitely didn't postpone this a few hours to cosplay Nightmare– Also, let me just quickly promote my (mostly) Undertale cosplay Tiktok, which is shado.cosplay)

A year ago I was on a rented cottage and rewatching Aphmau's Minecraft Diaries. I went to go look for a MCD playlist and from one I found Megalovania cover by Caleb Hyles. I got curious about the lyrics and went to buy the game from Steam. A pretty good decision–

It happened the day before we left the cottage and so on the next day when we were leaving I played Undertale in the car on the way home. I reached the Waterfall and when we stopped at a gas station I had the song Waterfall playing in my head the whole time. Might be the reason why that's my favourite Undertale soundtrack–