Nightmare was used to this. A simple little schedule that he longed for a small change in, but knew damn well it would not change.

Wake up, say hello to Swad.
Eat (if up to it) then hide in library.
Proceed to do so unless it's lunch or dinner, and at those times go out, grab food, eat it quickly, then take a mad dash to the library.

His main goal: Don't let Swad touch him.

Why?

Because ever since his little "running away" incident, as Swad called it, Nightmare hated the idea of having a nasty bird man be near him and do something to him without Nightmare's knowledge or consent.

So why had it felt so relieving to Nightmare to just collapse in Swad's arms and borderline trust him? To carry him back and not just leave him as a defenseless pile of tar on the ground?

Cold shock slammed into Nightmare, making him stop what he was doing and flush deeply with embarrassment of his slow realization.

He was falling for a damn sadist.

"Oh my dear~ what has you so worked up to the point of feeling that much embarrassment?~" Swad asked, letting out a soft chuckle after he asked that. He looked inside of the library.

Nightmare sputtered to come up with the right thing to say, soon just shrugging like a fool and burying his face in the book he had in hand.

Swad was immediately behind the chair Nightmare was in, hands cooly sliding up Nightmare's back so they rested on his shoulders. The other shivered slightly at the touch. "Tell me~" He purred, leaning close to Nightmare so that if the two were human, Nightmare would feel Swad's breath on his neck.

"It-its not that important, really. Just... interesting... story plot."He said softly. Gripping the book in his hands tightly like his life depended on it.

"Are you sure?~ You know I don't like it when you lie to me~" Swad's mouth was just barely touching Nightmare's neck, making him go stiff and hold back a small and surprised noise.

"It's no-othing..." Nightmare choked out. Swad hummed, pulling away and smiling.

"So you finally realized?~" He said through a teasing giggle. Nightmare stopped his response from being spoken, not trusting his voice. "It finally came to you that I've swept you off of those pathetic, adorable feet?" Nightmare cringed at Swad's choice of words.

"I don't... I don't like you." He choked out.

"Oh~ but you love me~ I can basically hold the massive amount of embarrassment and other.. quite interesting feelings you have when I'm close. I wonder~ do you think of how it feels to be touched by me?~ Do you stay up at night, sick at yourself for all of the lewd things you daydream of me?~" As Swad talked in a teasingly slow and breathy voice, Nightmare felt more and more overwhelmed with the amount of warmth he was feeling. Was he sick? Or just getting overheated for some reason?

Nightmare didn't understand why this was happening. Swad did a horrible thing- he tricked Nightmare- but yet that bastard was right. Nightmare had fallen in love with Swad. He hated it so much- even the thought of the word love had made Nightmare cringe. But it had happened. After such a long time of putting off and pushing away love and anything related to it, he had been basically grabbed by the neck and thrown into it.

Before Swad's hands could travel down to caress Nightmare, an overwhelming amount of negative feelings -so much pain, regret, rage-made him go rigid and let go of the other.

Nightmare's grip on the book loosened and he dropped it, stood, and ran to find the source of those feelings.

"Where do you think you're going?" Swad shouted after the tentacled monster.

Nightmare didn't respond, only ran until he reached the main entrance of Swad's castle and skidded to a frantic stop.

A hooded skeleton was leaning against one of the doors, shaking with exhaust and struggling to stand. His face had a large crack which trailed from the base of his skull to his left eye socket, and almost every place Nightmare looked, there was some sort of wound on it. One of his legs looked broken and unnatural, and he sunk lower to the ground with a shaking sigh.

Nightmare wrapped a tentacle around them and it pulled them close enough for Nightmare to hold them gently.

"Darling, who's this?" Swad demanded. He held back a 'tsk' of pity when he saw how worried Nightmare was for the stranger.

Again, Nightmare ignored Swad and bent down, mustering comforting words to them as his eyelight turned a pale green, hastily trying to use every scrap of healing magic he remembered. It just barely healed the minor scratches and bruises.

The new guy- Dust, if Swad was correct- had a tight grip on that red scarf loosely wrapped around his neck. If he dared hold any tighter he might just tear the fabric.

The winged creature sighed, pushing Nightmare aside and brought a hand to the stranger's skull. In an instant they collapsed, making Nightmare scream in panic and try to tackle Swad. He grabbed Nightmare by the hood of his jacket and threw him to the ground, pinning the other down by placing a knee on his chest. "I'm trying to help, my dear."

Nightmare hissed and struggled, and with a flick of Swad's wing he was drained of energy as he was enveloped in an overwhelming amount of positive feelings.

Taking that as a chance to continue, Swad propped Dust's leg up and found where it had broke. He couldn't heal it fully, but enough to the point where it only felt like at least a twisted ankle. Swad's hands had a green cloud of magic surround them as he took the damaged bone in hand and cradled it, supporting it to quicken the process.

Nightmare was watching with hushed rage, wanting to scream and kick until it felt dizzying to stay awake. But Swad was... actually helping Dust. He didn't want to risk anything, so he stayed silent.

Swad soon let go, tracing the barely-there wound with his finger. He nodded, then started feeling for anything unnatural. A minor crack every now and then, lots of scratches and bruises, and Swad was definitely sure Dust broke at least two of his ribs.

After roughly ten minutes of healing Dust, Swad let go of Nightmare and picked up the third skeleton. Nightmare, being too exhausted to think of what he was doing, hugged Swad tightly.

"Thank you- thank you so so much for helping." He mumbled.

Swad nodded. "Of course, a friend of yours is a friend of mine, darling. You go rest up okay? There's a guest room- yes I know I said there wasn't- I'll put him in there. You can sleep on the couch in the room next to mine or sleep on my bed."

Nightmare nodded and let go, walking over to Swad's room and closing the door behind himself after he entered.

The skeleton in Swad's arms shifted, mumbling under his breath. He quickly went to the room and set Dust down on the bed, glaring at him harshly. Swad reached to his leg and found the basically healed wound, and in a heart-stopping snap, broke it again.

Dust sat up quickly, tears already rolling down his face as Swad clamped a hand over his mouth and prevented a scream.

"Listen, I want to make myself very clear. You are to not convince Nightmare into finding loopholes to escape. You may be as close or far away from him as you please, but if I find out that you were helping my darling with escape, I will break every single bone in your body until you are so ground-up you look like sand. Understood?" He hissed.

Dust growled and licked his hand, which Swad pulled away and gripped the scarf-wearing monster by the neck. Dust kicked Swad's arm firmly with his good leg, rubbing his neck when the winged creature let go. "No." He spat.

Swad then grabbed Dust's arm and twisted it to the point where a slight movement would break it, making Dust choke out a soft whimper and nodded quickly.

The other didn't let go. "I want to hear you say it."

Dust tried pushing Swad's hand off. "I-I underst-tand." He was sobbing silently, the scarf at his neck soaked with tears.

Swad gave him an innocent look. "Understand what? Be specific."

Dust was already using so much energy trying to not collapse, so he let out another shaky whimper. "I un-nderstand tha-at I am to not.." He was quaking with exhaust, wanting nothing more to fall over and hide in the blankets. "To n-not ge-et in the way." That was all he could manage, crumpling under Swad's grip and falling into the blankets.

Swad let go and stalked back to his room, going to his bed and laying close to Nightmare, who was already sleeping. He snaked an arm around the other's waist and pulled him close. 

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