Cross remembered that human that came in and out of his dreams and give him the nickname that his whole AU, and later, the Multiverse called him, pretty well.

He had known her for his entire life.

The time between her visits seemed to be shorter as Cross grew up. It used to be once a year but once Cross turned three, she started to visit him once every six months.

And when he turned five, it was now once every three months.

He was ten when it became once every month.

It was Queen Toriel who told him what was going on. Cross and Chaos had a Soul Link between them, it was very rare, but it was another way that Soulmates could meet each other but the price for that was a steep one.

The Queen told Cross that this was possible because something bad had happened to Chaos, which had left her trapped somewhere that would make it difficult for her and Cross to meet normally, and that she had been separated from her Soul Locket for a very long time.

Cross was angry when he eventually managed to learn the truth, of what had been done to her, and when he told the Queen, she was even angrier.

Because, despite being a resident of Dreamtale, Chaos was one of their own, because of her link with Cross. His family had opened their home to her once Cross was old enough to tell them what was going on, Dream and his group would never be allowed in Xtale.

No one deserved a Fate like that, not even XGaster when his AU came to an end, it was cruel.

Cross felt sick that he was the same species as the one that had done this to her, it wasn't right.

His own brother was the one who showed him a way to possibly fix that, if Chaos associated Dream with a bad part of her life, then Cross had to find a way to prove to himself and to her, that he was nothing like Dream.

His first try at that was to make her a scarf cape like his own but the black and white ended up being switched around and the item itself was a bit too big for her, but Cross didn't care, he put it in his inventory, ready for the day that they could really met for the first time.

His second try was to try and help her readjust to having positive physical touch. It started out with simple brushes of his fingers against her hands, letting her dictate and choose when she wanted to respond to his physical touch. It eventually moved into him holding her hand at random times, letting her choose if she wanted him to stop.

Cross then moved onto hugs and wrapping his arm around her shoulder or her waist, he always kept them quick and swift, slowly increasing the amount of time that he spent hugging her or how long his arm rested on her shoulders or around her waist.

One of the best days of his life was when she hugged him.

And after that, it soon moved onto Tag and other games that required physical contract, they spent hours running around that tree, tagging each other or running away from the other and when Cross started to learn how to use Magic, he would pass on those lessons to Chaos, teaching her how to use Magic.

He was fifteen when the dreams became once every two weeks, it was also when everything started to change, his own father started to withdraw from him and Papyrus and Frisk fell into the Underground.

Frisk brought a lot of changes to their friendship, Frisk had a broken Soul Locket, because she had been rejected. She latched onto Cross the moment that she saw him, seeking from him what she never had the chance to experience.

It led to Cross running from one end of the Underground to the other in an effort to escape her and it also cut into his sleeping time, which did not make him happy, especially when it was time for Chaos to visit him.

He didn't like Frisk, but he couldn't hate her. Frisk was suffering from a broken bond but that didn't give her the right to harass him.

But Frisk could be sweet sometimes, there was times when she found Cross collapsed on the couch, or in the forest, or wherever he fell asleep, she would call his brother to come and pick him up or she would cover him with a blanket.

It took three years for Frisk to slowly heal from the broken bond, three years that he spent running and hiding, three years of venting to Chaos about his stalker and encouraging her to vent about Dream, but eventually, Frisk apologised for her actions.

They would never be friends but they could tolerate each other, and that slowly build the groundwork for a reluctant trust, and later, understanding of each other.

They were experiencing the same pain but the only difference was that Cross still had a Soulmate, but there was a chance that he would never meet her properly.

XGaster slowly started to seek perfection, overwriting and resetting the timeline if he found, what he called imperfection, and Cross was forced to watch as the pattern of Resets and Overwrites slowly hurt his Soulmate.

Vines of ivy would physically grow on Chaos, mainly around her legs, while apple blossoms would grow on her head. He had to watch as the ivy took away her legs while the petals that would fall from the apple blossoms would be caught in her hair.

Cross just held onto her as tight as he could while Chaos struggled to walk, trying her hardest to not let the ivy vines stop her from having fun.

Cross couldn't understand why his Soulmate seemed so small now, because before, she had been so bright and big but now, she seemed more alive, more human....

As if something had changed...

He sighed and he rested his head on her shoulder, praying that one day, everything would be okay.

He would always ask himself what had changed that day, as time went on, as his AU slowly started to come to an end, and when it did, Cross was now twenty one and he soon realised that these dreams were now once a week.

He had been left with Chara, in a blank white void, the exact opposite of the black void that Chaos had described to him whenever their talks turned to what had been normal for her, until Cross showed up.

Chara changed their name to X and Cross had to learn how to live with his new roommate, X was a prankster and a joker, but he had always been semi decent when it came to Cross. X had been the one to teach him about memes and Cross was a very willing enabler when he was in the mood to be one.

X was the one to convince him to tell Chaos about what had happened, Cross didn't like it, but when he showed up, only to see that the ivy vines and the apple blossoms were gone, he couldn't help the smile that grew on his face, the only evidence of those times here were the apple blossoms that were now on the tree, but, breaking the news about his AU to Chaos was hard, because even though she had never met them physically, she had been a part of their lifes, and they had been a part of hers.

Telling her hurt him a lot and Cross just held onto her once he was done, letting her cry on his shoulder for the second family that she had lost.

"They were your family too Cross." He heard her say through her tears. "You have a right to cry too!"

But Cross had run out of tears a long time ago and all that he could do was to hold onto the only other proof, apart from himself and Chara, that his AU had existed.

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

Chaos often wished that their was something that she could do to help Cross, the poor guy was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had lost almost everything, his AU, his home, his friends and his family, because of a perfectionist's desire to create the perfect world. Why couldn't he see that Cross, and his AU, was perfect the way that they were, especially Cross, with his smile, his laughter, his personality, his flaws and his presence...

She remembered a quote that Cross had learned from Frisk, during one of her nicer moments, that he later told to her.

"I fell in love with him like I fell asleep; very slowly, then all at once."

And sitting there, underneath the memory of her friend's tree, being held by Cross, she had her all at once.

Chaos blushed, remembering every single moment that she had shared with Cross, the moments when they held hands, the first time that she hugged him, their sessions of tag, teaching him how to climb the tree, Cross carrying her around when the ivy vines finally took away her ability to walk, his smile when he saw that she was free from them, the time that they spent stargazing together, when she taught Cross about the stories of the stars, when they ranted about Dream and Frisk, when he taught her about Magic, when she first met him as a baby, when he chewed her hair, when he started to walk, when he started to talk...

There was so many moments that they had shared together and she wanted to share even more with him.

She wanted to introduce him to Nighty, to actually show him the real Tree of Feelings, to actually hug him, hold his hand, play tag with him, practice Magic with him, there was so many things that she wanted to do with him!

And she couldn't do that because of Dream, and his stupidity! She didn't even know what had happened during the years that she was asleep, she didn't even know if Nighty was still alive!

And it was Dream, who was responsible for her being trapped in her own head, in her part of the dreamscape, and because of that, she couldn't met the Monsters in Xtale that had opened their hearts and their AU to her, and now, it was too late for that....

She pulled away from Cross, placing her hands on his cheeks, as she looked at him. He had changed from that little baby that she had found underneath the memory of the tree, he was now an adult, facing his own challenges, his own battles and yet, he still had hope, to believe in tomorrow, to believe that it would be better then today.

"Your father was an idiot." Chaos eventually said, placing a single finger over Cross's lips when he tried to talk, removing it once she was certain that he would be listening to her, without interrupting her. This was something that she had to say. "To not see what was right in front of him.

No one is meant to be perfect, everyone has flaws for a reasons, they're a part of us, just like sorrow, and death, chaos and negative emotions, they help us to decide who we want to be and what we don't want to be.

They are our way of protecting ourselves from foolish ideas like being perfect, because if we were perfect, life would be boring, nothing would change and everything would stay the same, that is not the world that I want to live in!

The world that I want to live in continues to move on, no matter what happens to it, it changes and it grows, learning from it's mistake, to make a better tomorrow for those who believe in it, for those who want it and are willing to fight for it! We can't run from our destiny but we can change our fate, I changed my Fate when I met you, you gave me the hope to continue fighting Cross. That everything will be okay one day, that I would be free from Dream's spell, to be me again, without him deciding it for me!

And I won't let you fall into the same trap that I did Cross, because I love you! I love you for who you are!

I love your smile, I love the fact that despite growing older, you refuse to stop having fun, I love your laughter, I love it when when you have your bad days, when you just want to hide away from the world and snap at everyone! When you just want to be alone, I love that you refused to give up on me, that you were determined to help me get used to positive physical contact again, that even when I was angry and upset because of the pain from the ivy vines, you stayed by my side.

I don't care that you're not exactly innocent, that you have hurt, and even killed others, I don't care because you're perfect the way that you are Cross and I don't want you to change, unless, it is your choice to change.

I love you Cross."

Chaos stopped talking after that, tilting her head downwards so that her hair covered her eyes, she didn't want to look Cross in the eyes, in case he was disgusted with her, what if she took things a little bit too far, what if Cross only wanted to be friends with her?

She didn't notice the arm that wrapped around her waist or the one around her shoulders, with that hand resting on the back of her head until she was pulled forwards into a chest, causing her to look up at Cross.

Cross was smiling down at her, gently leaning down so that their noses met. "I love you too Chaos." He said. "I love that you accept that everyone has flaws. I love that you accept that you have difficulty finding your own flaws and that you own up to having them. I love that you refuse to give up, even if you are in a position that could cause others to give up. I love that you keep fighting in whatever way that you can, I love that you refuse to let others help you when you are in pain.

I love that despite being trapped inside your own head, you continue to believe, I love that you found the hope and the strength to climb out of the darkness that you fell into, that you got up and you tried again, I love that you changed your Fate and refused to let others choose it for you. I love that you care so much for your friend that you are willing to do anything to make him happy and to keep him safe, even if it means that you get hurt in the process.

And I want to be a part of the world that you see, I want to be by your side, experiencing it with you. You're right about my Father being blind, to not see that being perfect means that you have to accept that there is no such thing as being perfect, following that path leads to madness and sorrow.

I want to be there when that tomorrow comes, when both of us are free from our prisons, because, it means that we can be free together. Free to be who we want to be, not who others want us to be. I'll even be your knight in shining armour if I have to, I will find a way to save you, somehow, someday, so we can meet each other properly.

I want to meet your friend, I know that there will be a shovel talk but I don't care about that, because as long as I have you, I know that everything will be okay."

"You can promise me that, right?" Chaos asked. "That everything will be okay?"

"I can do something better than that." Cross said, before he pressed his lips against hers. The kiss itself was innocent and yet, there was something unsaid hidden within it, a promise, that one day, this would happen when they were awake and not in a dream.

They slowly pulled away from each other and Chaos just rested her head on his shoulder, watching as their hands slowly intertwined themselves together. Cross looked up to the sky, to see a shooting star. "Shall we made a wish together?" He asked her.

"Yeah." Chaos said, before they slowly closed their eyes and they wished on the star. They wished, that one day, they could be together awake, not in a dream.

They had no idea of how long they spent like that, just sitting there, enjoying the quiet and the fact that they were together in this dream.

But all dreams must come to an end and Cross yawned, this was a sign that he was waking up. This meant that they had to wait a week before they could see each other again, they were used to waiting for that, a week wasn't as bad as a year or a couple of months, they were used to it by now.

Cross yawned again, resting his chin on top of Chaos's head, running the fingers of his free hand through her hair, it was getting too long again, Dream never played close attention to the state that Chaos's body was in, he only made sure that it had the basics that it needed to survive and look healthy, without telling anyone who were suspicious, that there was more then meets the eye when it came to his Puppet Queen.

Cross hated that, his Soulmate was not a Puppet that Dream could lock in a box and forget about, only to bring her out when he remembered her and he needed a Puppet that he could dance on his strings to make it look like everything was okay in his little world.

He wanted to be there when it all fell apart but this was not the time for thoughts like that.

"Hey, can you sing for me?" He asked, right before his eyes closed.

Chaos just smiled, before she opened her mouth and she started to sing to her Soulmate.

"Once there was trees full of birds, meadowlands vibrant with flowers, carefree the songs our children once sang, gilding our minutes and hours..."