"I'm sorry.." 

"Vincent, wake up!" Vincent's eyes flashed as they opened to a dim light, his irises catching it and framing his pupils, pinpricks of black in a swath of purple and red. He lay still, his chest the only movement as he sucked in frantic breaths, his heart beating wildly from the exertion. 

Soft chirping caught the neko's attention almost instantly, his ears automatically swiveling towards the direction of the noise's source, song birds fluttered outside the window next to him. 

He watched silently the shadows of their wings play across the bed, dancing around the silhouette of a tree branch that they perched on. A lump on the branch brought the thought of a bird's nest to Vincent, producing a scene of two birds flying together, nestling into their cozy home, ruffling one another's feathers for warmth. 

He blinked and looked out the glass, seeing the two creatures singing to one another. They were small, dark gray and black feathers with dapples of white on their backs, rosy red chests puffed proudly. 

Vincent became familiar with their movements and patterns, and was soon able to distinguish a male and female. The male's head was black with a particularly orange beak jutting from it, while the female had a lesser orange mouth and white around her eyes, like a mask to hide her true identity. 

The male strutted forward on the bark, his claws hidden in a layer of snow pilled on the bare tree. He sang sweetly to the female, his beak open wide and his head held high as he poured his heart out to her. 

She watched with hidden interest, tilting her head away as if she did not care for his show, but keeping a close eye on the male. 

When the male finished, he spread his wings, seemingly dancing as he shook his torso to the female, tittering and chirping. The female backed away slightly as if taken aback, before she sang for him, a higher melody of sweet notes. 

The male tucked his wings back in and listened, swaying in time with the female, eventually joining in her song with his own voice. 

Vincent listened closely, his eyes falling shut as he memorized their ballad, mesmerized by it's beauty. When the birds fell silent, he opened his eyes to glance back out to them, a faint smiling playing at his lips as they cuddled together, their feathery tails lifted high with joy.

They flew off together, disappearing quickly into the wood line beyond the yard, leaving the neko to soak in the warmth they had left, a feeling of happiness tingling through his fingers. 

It was short lived when he remembered the horrors of the night before, his ears falling back and his tail curling under the blanket. He was once again distracted as he realized the lower half of his body was tucked under the covers, tightly pulled as if restraining him to the bed. 

His tail was hidden from view, but another flick reassured him that it was safe. He pulled his hands out of the comforter's warm confines and rubbed his face, sighing as his fingers slipped into his bangs, his hair slick from sweat. 

He pushed the aside for once, ruffling his hair in an attempt to dry it out a bit, thinking for a moment before the dampness evaporated. He moved his hands through it again to confirm that it was dry, soft as velvet and purple as lavender. Just the way he liked it.

He tilted his head to stretch his neck, his ear twitching as it cracked, giving some relief to the neko's stiff muscles. He laid his hand against the side of his throat, feeling down to his neck before abruptly stopping when something felt off. 

"What.." He was confused as his voice was off too, cracked and strained. He touched his throat absentmindedly, a dull and sort of muffled sensation on his voice box, but also a free sensation to the skin around the base of his neck. 

He wasn't wearing the collar. 

"Wh-where.." He looked around quickly, scanning the room's shelves, dresser, even headboard for his collar.

Panic flashed in his eyes before immediatly disapearing, his ears going back and a low gurgling growl rumbled in his throat.

There he goes again. Saying master, getting weird feelings, and now he was worried about a shock collar.

He should be happy it was off. But still..

After a few moments of internally fighting with himself, Vincent decided to focus on what else he was missing.

His clothes.

Vincent pushed away the crimson red blanket to conclude he was still wearing his boxers, relief sweeping through his body. He couldn't help but smile at the perfect mix that was created by his lavendar tail and light chocolate skin.

It just looked.. so right. When he relaized how narsasistic he sounded, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching the stiffness from his body.

A quick, more thorough search of the room had Vincent staring at an unfamiliar pile of clothes sitting on a chair half hidden in the closet. It wasn't his sleeveless turtleneck like he had been longing for, making him worry where that went, too. 

It looked like something Papyrus would wear, but as pajamas. He picked up the shirt and looked it over, holding it between his index finger and thumb while his lip curled back slightly in feined disgust.

Sighing, he slipped it on, unable to contain a content wave of his tail when the scent of bones reached him, reminding him of the monster.

Looking back down he hissed when he couldn't find pants, his previous thought to a pile of clothes slapping him mentally and stating the obvious that it was indeed, not. The t-shirt was only big enough to reach down to half of his thighs, the dark red fabric hiding his boxers. Barely.

To make it worse his tail perked in the back, lifting the fabric more and allowing a magnificent view of his-

"Son of a bitch.." Vincent muttered in a hoarse whisper, trying to calm the rising anxiety flooding him and get his tail to listen, tucking it down behind him so it hung limply, the tip parallel to the floor so it wouldn't touch the carpet.

He remembered the hearty zap he had gotten last time he let it.

He wasn't looking forward to it happening again.

Vincent sighed and headed towards the bedroom door, reluctantly looking down at himself once more, then around to make sure there was no other options.

When it became evident there wasn't, he let his ears swivel forward and twisted the doorknob, opening the wooden door to be greeted with a familiar voice he didn't realized he missed.