A hand knocked on the pole, timid and so brief it was almost unnoticed. Geno growled, nodding to the god of death to see what it was.
A few moments later, Reaper returned.
"Geno.."

"What?"
"They're preparing to move out and are asking for you. I can cancel it for you-"
"No. I have to go. Especially now." He leaned over to the silent and hissy Error. "Will you be okay?"
"I've b€eñ thrøügh wo®se." He hissed, voice glitching erratically.
"Never like this." Geno advised calmly, ignoring the flickering black clouds rising up from the other and snapping back in place at random.

"W€'ll 8e £iπe. Gø." He ducked his skull away with a very odd catlike hiss, pushing himself to the far end of the bed. Geno looked up at Reaper severely.
"You need to stay here, make sure he's okay."

Reaper immediately balked. "What do you mean, me? Geno, I'm- this is not my job. This is the exact opposite of my job."
"Then it'll be a good change for you."

The death made to argue, but was at a loss for words as the bloody glitch swept out of the dark tent, following the confused messenger boy. Reaper glanced back at Error, who was curled up with one eyesocket visible, staring at him like a wild animal.

"...Do I need to get Tori?" He whispered hoarsely, not wanting to admit his slight fear. Error shook his skull in two jerks, grunting as his glitches flickered more erratically around him, covering the bed.
They both stared at each other, not knowing what to do or say.

"...Look." Reaper drifted down until his feet met the ground, a faint patch of dying grass turning black with the contact. He regarded Error as seriously as possible.
"Both of us are not made for a situation like this." He gestured vaguely at the other.
"Creation, life, et cetera. Hell, I probably have more experience because…" He hesitated.

Error growled, phalanges curling tight around his blankets before he responded slowly, enunciating every word carefully so as not to sound incomprehensible with glitches.
"Isn't it. Human. Mothers. That often die. Giving birth."

"Yeah." Reaper quietly admitted, slumping a little. "Humans aren't as highly evolved as they like to think they are." He added with a half-hearted snort. Error nodded slowly against the mattress, kneading the sheets like a cat.

"Are you sure you're more arachnid? Cause I swear, you're acting feline." Reaper joked lightly, finding a seat in a nearby beanbag despite his tension.

Error slowly let his sockets slide shut, taking a deep breath full of errant glitches as the codes lifted away from him once again. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts- though he flinched slightly at a crack that came from him.

Just as it seemed like he'd forgotten about Reaper, he opened his sockets and stared at him again.
"I was originally.. Geno, before he existed. I.. started.. with a shard like his.. too. I don't know exactly.. how I developed an entire.. Soul.. in the Anti-Void, but… it's entirely possible it came from parts of.. other lost and shredded Souls." He paused to breathe for a moment, still kneading the blankets.
"I've had a long time to think about it." He breathed, not even looking up at this point.

"So.. you got turned into a hybrid? That shouldn't be possible…" Reaper muttered while thinking.
Error spoke up again in a sudden burst of energy, somewhat vehemently.
"I was Fate's toy, she could do whatever she needed to ensure I survived. Even if.. she took apart forgotten Souls for it."

Now the god of death looked on at destruction with wide sockets, concerned and confused. Error just groaned, shoving himself further back to the point of almost falling off the back of the bed.

Reaper noticed this and stood, worry overriding puzzlement as he reached over slightly. He only held back due to his typical aversion of touch- a sentiment they both shared, though for different reasons.

"Uh, you're about to fall off the back-" Error abruptly hissed at him, clinging to the sheets as he practically vanished under glitches and floating code, save for the burning red sockets that stared at the other, devoid of eyelights.

Reaper flinched back, caught off guard by the unexpected feral behavior. He refused to admit the terrified squeak that came out of him as he fell to the floor, not expecting a knock of all things to happen at the entrance.

"Who is it?" He spluttered shrilly, not daring to look away from the glitch in fear, yes, fear.
"Reaper?" Came the surprised question outside, Lust poking his skull in.
"I keep hearing unusual noises-" He noticed what was going on, taking in the scene.

After a moment of confusion, his eyelights shrank as his sockets widened, realizing what was going on.
"Is it Fresh?" He asked softly, directing the inquiry to the glitch.

Error only grunted, curling in tighter on himself as the codes rose up again. They were beginning to rise up and snap back in time with his unsteady breathing- something that was more than unsettling, given how some patches were just faster than others.

Lust hurried into the tent, waving Reaper to the side as he found a chest full of readily made blankets. "Do you want a space for yourself, Error?" He asked in that same gentle tone.

The glitch paused, watching the other warily as his shaking hands pushed and pulled rhythmically on the blankets before him. The movements slowed, and he gave a slow blink. Lust stared, figuring out what that meant. Reaper just watched behind him, completely lost.

The sexualized skeleton decided that it was a yes, bundling up a bunch of fabric that was clearly woven from Error's strings with how they were automatically glowing and turning back to face the god of destruction.
"I'm going to summon a few bones now, alright? Is that okay with you?"

Error flinched slightly- though not from the words, but a loud, dry rustling preceding a painful crack. Lust seemed horrified by this, though the expression quickly vanished.
"Can I summon a few supports for a little.. nest? It'll make you feel better." He reiterated.

The destroyer growled weakly, considering this as a few odd sparks of.. something left his parted teeth. His bare arm reached over and gripped the mattress, clenching so hard his phalanges tore it.
"Can't. Keep. Code." He practically snarled.

"What?" Lust had no idea what that meant. The black numbers rose higher, swirling almost threateningly around Error.
"Do you mean.. this?" Reaper finally dared to speak up, pointing to the code.
Error nodded jerkily, groaning.
"What do you want us to do?" Lust asked, unsure.

That same hand that had been ripping the fabric of the mattress suddenly reached out to him, startling a gasp from Lust at the movement.
"8läπ[{€+." Came the jarring word.
"What?"
"Did you say blanket?" Reaper offered, slightly more understanding of glitched speak.

Error grunted, nodding again as a tremor ran through him. Lust blinked, then shook his skull and quickly handed over a rather oversized blanket, the fabric gleaming brighter as the outstretched hand snatched it away.

The glitch held the fabric close, breathing heavily as he clung to it like a child to their security blanket. The codes seemed to flutter, rising up in more even lines as they began to swarm in front of him, growing more and more chaotic as they fell down onto the blanket, so thick that Error completely disappeared behind the black cloud. The blanket quickly lost its color, lost to the black that crawled over it almost like a living thing until not a hint of blue remained.
And still it continued to swarm like a hive of angry bees.

They stood in place as the codes coated the blanket in layers of mat black, curious and not sure how to react. After a few minutes, it quickly began to lose density, revealing something that glowed several colors behind the wall of black.

Lust couldn't help the gasp when enough had moved out of the way, revealing Error.
The glitch glowed under the codes, as if made of neon. A beautiful, honest, royal blue shone softly from his ulna, complemented by the yellow blending to blue radius.

What had previously been solid black metacarpals were now an almost navy color, gleaming like a night sky in full moon. The rest of his phalanges were still red and yellow, the same shade of red glowing from his humerus and ribcage. His skull was an ash grey, as though his entire body was no longer capable of white.
It was exotic, a strangeness that was beautiful, but deadly.

"Error?" He finally dared to whisper. The glitch inhaled suddenly, opening his tired sockets to peer at him weakly.
"Are you okay?"
Error quietly stared at him, the gaze no longer hostile and afraid but weary and.. ambivalent.

He breathed out not a word, but an odd chitter, a soft sound that seemed to be his way of saying yes, he was okay.
"Can I set these up now?" Lust asked softly, indicating the rest of the blankets in his arms. Error sighed, nodding faintly as he curled in tighter to himself.

Lust nodded to Reaper, gesturing to the blankets. "Help me with these." He ordered silently.
Since he was still entirely clueless about the situation here, Reaper obeyed mutely, letting the other hand him one side of a sheet before studying Error cautiously, slowly summoning a long bone in front of him.

Error blinked his sockets open, sensing the magic and watching with wide sockets that missed nothing. Neither said a word as Lust summoned three others, all in full view of the parent.

Moving slowly and carefully, he slowly sent the bones to the four corners of the mattress, watching for any sign of Error feeling threatened. He knew the other was difficult due to his past.

Since Error found nothing overly worrisome when the supports were in place, he gestured to the god of death as they started draping the blanket across the poles. Unfortunately, it kept slipping off without being held in place.

"Do you have any spare string to help hold this, Error? I don't intend to use blue magic while you're in this state." Lust whispered over to the glitch, who blinked.

After a long, lethargic pause, Error pointed a single phalange towards the drawers in one corner. Lust sighed faintly, telling Reaper to hold the blanket in place as he moved over to the drawers in search of something to hold it in place. Reaper grumbled to himself, but held it up with a faint wisp of blue magic. Error watched him with a wide, oddly innocent expression that said nothing of what he was thinking.

In the ensuing silence as Lust rummaged through the furniture, a few awful cracks shattered the moment, the crackling sound of something dry and papery being moved.
"What even is that?" He eventually muttered, glancing at the glitch but not expecting a response.

So it was surprising when after a long minute, Error eventually breathed out a soft word.
"Cocoon."
Reaper blinked a few times, processing the word.
"...Oh."

Lust returned with a yarn ball of deep red string, clearly an altered color version of Error's strings. He'd heard the brief exchange and decided to say nothing, not knowing what could be said.
It was a cocoon in his ribcage.
Odd, but it didn't sound all that serious.
After all, spiders used those for their young, and he had several spider qualities.

He quickly tied the first corner down, only to pause. "How do you normally cut off your strings?"
The glitch didn't answer. Lust was getting concerned when Reaper caught his attention.
"It just twisted itself.. off."

Lust took a moment to blink at the clearly disconnected string, then shook his skull and proceeded to tie the rest of the corners up, watching as each time he finished, the end of the thread twisted itself off and wove into the knot as though alive.

He soon put the rest of the ball back where he'd found it and set to draping more fabric around the tent within a tent. It grew dark like a cave inside, yet was still illuminated by the calm glow of the destroyer's bones himself.

Soon, the world outside was muted and distant, inside a comforting closeness. Error curled up in the blackened, code-covered blanket, long limbs left exposed around it.
"Do you want us to stay?" Lust asked.

Error shrugged, indifferent to their presence as another crack sounded, sounding.. wet, compared to the others. Even Reaper cringed at the noise, backing away.

Error only sighed, going limp as the sounds continued, less like dry branches and more like wet paper tearing- far from a pleasant thing to hear.

Fortunately for Error, he seemed to have passed out by this point, no longer subject to hearing the grotesque sounds as Reaper ducked out of the makeshift room in disgust. Lust shot a look after the coward, but waited in case something happened.

He'd been through these before, he'd often helped others become parents. The whole reason he knew anything about what to do at all.
Most monsters of his AU that the injections failed to take hold in typically helped others with this process. Such monsters were few and far between, though.
It sucked.
But that didn't mean he didn't like it- Lust adored the joy most parents had seeing their children for the first time.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be taking a while. Error was dead asleep- a strange sight to see, the destroyer sleeping. He seemed so strangely peaceful, bones gleaming in their ethereal colors, pulsing almost imperceptibly in a basic rhythm.. perhaps in time with his Soulbeat? 

Lust couldn't help but be fascinated, leaning in to gaze upon it more clearly- though he didn't stop himself from glancing at the blue under the other's ribcage.
...That was a cocoon. It was just resting there, against the side with it's previous weak supports snapped at the other side where gravity had pulled it down.
Lust stared at it, thinking.

Typically spider monsters needed help removing cocoons that didn't fall off entirely on their own. The masses were typically attached completely and the skin beneath is absent- easily fixed with healing magic after separation, but the process itself is exhausting and often the mother passed out from the split.

This wasn't a normal situation, though.
Error was a skeleton. Those children are usually attached by the spine until it cracks and breaks apart in the end, but.. this cocoon was not attached that way.

….Was it attached directly to his Soul?
That could complicate things.
Not to mention whether the infant needed help out of the shell.

A slight rustling caught his gaze.
Oh.
It was writhing. Stabbing at the sac as though in panic.
He remembered Fresh before. The parasite that was always smiling even when he could feel nothing, always tried to be kind despite not knowing quite how.
Lust had no idea if anything of that personality remained, but he cared nonetheless.

"Don't worry sweetie, I'll help you out of that little thing." He murmured, cautiously reaching in to grasp the rather egg-shaped husk. He could feel bone inside, wriggling frantically as he gently tugged the cocoon free of the last of its tethers, hugging it close as a whine emanated from it.

Shushing the child, he worked his phalanges into the dry material, tugging it apart so the child could find air. The sudden rush of warmth escaping brushed past his face, smelling musty.

Through the hole, a limb stabbed out. It was a skeletal foot, but it seemed odd. Something about it was elongated, claws stretching apart as though feeling the air. It shuddered in the cold, retreating, only to be stopped by the silken threads between the leg and the rest of it's warm body.

The child inside whined, clawed foot curling up almost like a bird's talon, not quite coming together.
"I know, it's cold, but you have to get used to it, darling. It gets easier, I promise." He whispered kindly, bouncing it a little in his arm.

"I'm going to open it up a little more, okay?" He said, a little impressed that the other seemed to respond, the visible leg going limp before he started widening the tear around it, working more up than down.

The exposed limb quickly ducked back into the warmth as soon as it could, revealing a small tail that curled around it delicately.

Lust blinked at it curiously, but continued to part the fabric, even more intrigued by the glow he noticed as he worked the cocoon open.
He froze when he recognized a whitish heart shape.

He wasn't sure what the child looked like beneath, but he was staring at a very large Soul.
It was so.. unique. A glitch ran down it's surface occasionally, it's color stained a bluish yellow, with only a jagged white patch surrounded by a line of bleeding red.

All around it were scars, looking like strings had been pulled tight around it not too long ago and rubbed the surface raw. He could see the blue, yellow, red and white inside, poorly scabbed over with a darker, mustard and navy color.
This Soul was terribly abused. How Error was even capable of carrying a child at all was beyond him, but Lust quickly came to his senses.

He took a part of the cocoon in his hand and used it as a barrier between him and the delicate heart as he gently separated it from the newborn, who let it go after a moment of fear. Lust then bent down and let it go near Error, where it quickly flashed and snapped back into place.
He sighed in relief.

He then smiled sweetly at the child in his arms, studying them. The infant was strange, peering calmly up at him with knowing, fuchsia eyelights. They had four arms, one normal set and an extra set a little below, ending in sharp claws with only three long phalanges. Their bones were a slightly grey hue, with blue-white lines running along the inside of their extra limbs, mixed with a slight fuchsia hue. Their feet were definitely digitigrade.

"Why hello there." Lust greeted the little one, curious. The babybones parted teeth to say something, only to pause, as though surprised to discover.. needle-like fangs there.
"Oh my, you look much more like a spider than Error now, don't you?"

"Ah?" The infant seemed to ask, the fangs sliding in and out experimentally. Lust couldn't help but giggle; odd as he was, this was still a child.

Said newborn seemed to get over the strange fact and crane their skull in the direction of his parent.
"Oh, I'm sorry darling, but he's asleep right now." Lust turned away from Error, bouncing the quiet infant gently.

Said child leaned over the edge of his cocoon, babbling slightly in Error's direction, wanting him. Lust just gently shifted him back, despite the complaints.

Lust sat down in a beanbag in the enclosed space, rubbing a phalange soothingly across the child's tiny, velveteen skull.
"Is there anything of the old Fresh still in you?" He whispered to himself, studying the strange infant.

Said babybones surprised him by scoffing. He blinked, meeting the little one's shockingly aged gaze.
"Ah."
A simple sound, much like a yes, directed at him.

Once again, Lust had no idea how to take this.
"..Fresh?"
Said child blinked at him, aware, understanding, before narrowing his little sockets.

A strange feeling filled him, like another mind in his own- one that he didn't recognize, yet knew.
Then it spoke, voice unmistakable.
Put me back.
"Fresh!?"
Brah, please. I'm cold.

Lust hesitated, then stood up, stepping closer to the oddly serene god of destruction. He paused in front of the other, glancing back down at what was definitely still the same Fresh.
Said little one peered up at him expectantly.
Error suddenly shifted, making him jump slightly.

The glitch slowly peered up at him, recognizing the blue of his own strings in the other's arms.
"Is he okay?" Came the tired question.
Lust stammered for a moment, wanting to explain what happened but not knowing how- so he gave up.
"Good. He's fine."

Those slender, long arms weakly reached for the cocoon, glowing the whole while. Lust almost reluctantly handed it over, watching as Fresh eagerly leaned towards Error, who silently pulled him close and curled around him.
"You can g0." He murmured hoarsely, voice glitching slightly in a way that sounded more like a crack than a glitch.

Lust crossed his arms, indecisive. "Are you sure? I really wouldn't mind sticking around a little while longer."
Error grunted, making it clear he wanted to be alone.
So Lust sighed, arms dropping to his sides as he obeyed the request.

The blankets hung around them flapped as he left, letting a slight breeze in the darkened space.
Error sighed, still unbelievably worn.

He glanced down at the unblinking child.
How do you feel?
Fresh blinked.
Cold. I have fangs. I can't wear my rad shades.

He snorted, caught off guard by the disappointment.
I'm sure we can work that part out. Maybe while we wait, you can wear them like I… no, they're still too big. Do you even need them anymore?
I.. want them.

Error sighed, glancing around before hugging him closer again, reaching into his inventory and pulling out something he'd made recently.
I hope it fits. If it doesn't, that'd be annoying.

He held out the pink thing, letting the other take it and rub into the fabric.
Like it?
It's soft, Brah!

Error just smiled. Do you want any help?
I got it, I've had a body before.
Not one like this.
I got i- He was struggling to stand when he fell over and landed on his face.
...Oof. Lemme try again.

He awkwardly turned himself to his backside, managing to fit his feet through while his arms went into the wrong sleeves. Error just watched, amused as Fresh started to realize he messed up, struggling to get his arms out.

He eventually went limp, giving up and staring back with begging eyelights.
I'ma bit stuck here, daddy-o.
I know. He snickered a little, grinning as he helped the little one out of the bind, gently moving his arms into the correct positions and buttoning it up.

Fresh struggled a little at first, then gave up and let Error take care of it for him, leaning slightly into the touches.

There. Better? He asked as he latched the last little button. Fresh nodded, enjoying the soft fabric. Error smiled at him.
For stealing so much of my energy, you sure are tired.
Dunno where it went, just.. you good, though?
I'm fine. Just tired. Do you want to sleep?
Aren't ya needed, though?
It will be fine. We should both rest. He stroked the top of Fresh's skull, the little one leaning almost desperately into it, eliciting a chuckle out of him.

With this, Error finally sat up, ignoring the slight disgust he felt at how difficult that single action was, picking up his tiny son and bundling up the blackened blanket beside him in a little nest, setting the remains of the cocoon inside the depression and Fresh after it. The little one blinked up at him before the blanket closed around him.

"Sleep, Fresh." He told him while curling himself around the blanket nest, sighing.
Only if you sleep too. Fresh replied, mind still very much inside his own.
I know, that's why I'm here. He responded with a sigh, glancing warily around before his sockets fluttered tiredly.
Oki. Fresh relented, quickly drifting off within the bundle.

Error fell asleep with a smile.