FINALLY GOT TO THIS JESUS CHRIST

Yeah, I ruined your wholesome ending.

I just enjoy making you sad more than I like giving you happy endings

I'm sorry it took so long I kept getting distracted by new thoughts

There's more still, if I can get off my butt and finish it. I was hoping it would only be two parts but it was really long ha
There might be a total of four parts but we'll see

Anyway story time

"You know," Blue said quietly, "someone is going to find out."

Cross paused. He'd been trying to teach Nightmare table manners; because at this point it'd learned all the basics of day-to-day functioning.

In the past few weeks, it had gotten stronger. It could walk normally, and its teal eye light was much brighter.

At some point, it'd also apparently grown some tentacles that it occasionally used to poke Cross. Usually they dragged behind it like limp tails attached to the middle of its back.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Someone is going to find out you created another monster," Blue said. "And the rumor will spread. You're probably going to get scientists knocking at your door asking for the secret to creating life or asking to 'humanely study' Nightmare."

"He's right," Dream said. "There might be a few people who come for innocent reasons, but more likely..." he trailed off.

Cross looked at Nightmare, who was now looking at his reflection on the different sides of the spoon with a confused frown.

"You guys aren't going to- to tell anyone," Cross said nervously. "R-right?"

"Of course not!" Dream said.

"No way," Blue agreed.

Ink shook his skull. "You would obviously stab a bitch if something happened to him. I'm certainly not subjecting anyone to the punishment of taking your...adopted son? Artificial?" He sighed. "You get my point."

"'He'?" Blue asked.

Ink shrugged. "Nightmare seems like a guy to me. And I don't like calling him 'it'; makes him seem like some emotionless android."

Nightmare was completely ignoring the conversation.

"You assumed Nightmare's gender," Cross gasped in pretense of offense. "How dare you. But I actually agree. Nightmare seems more like a dude than a girl."

"You say that like you usually don't agree with me," Ink noted.

"That's because I usually don't," Cross admitted. "You're weird."

"Aww, thank you!"

"You're wel-"

"There's someone at the window," Blue interrupted him.

They all turned to follow his gaze.

An inquisitive red-and-blue eye light blinked at them from the window near the ceiling.

They were still in the basement, meaning the owner of that eye was on the ground trying to look in.

"...Dude," Cross complained to it, "What have I told you about being creepy?"

The skeleton laughed. His voice was muffled through the glass.

"But it's so much fun!" He said. "Also, you have a literal sci-fi monster down there and I want to meet it."

Cross groaned. "I'll be right back," He sighed.

"Uh- who is that?" Blue asked.

"That's my annoying neighbor," Cross grumbled. "I'm 65% sure he's a professional stalker. He usually leaves me alone."

"That's not at all concerning," Dream muttered.

Cross went outside to talk to the skeleton.

"Dust," He said, "What the actual fuck?"

Dust, who was still wearing that greying hoodie he loved and never seemed to wash, laughed. "You left one of your windows open," he said. "I heard you and your friends down there talking about the government spies picking up on something's existence and stealing it away for horrendous experiments."

Cross scowled at him. "These windows don't open."

Dust just grinned. "Then maybe I used my stolen government technology to eavesdrop on you," He joked.

"You and your conspiracies," Cross grumbled.

"What's it going to cost us to keep him quiet?" Chara prodded him.

"What is it going to take to keep you quiet?" Cross asked through gritted teeth.

Dust's grin stretched. "Me? Easy."

He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially,

"Get me a date with Blue."

Cross was expecting him to ask for money.

Cross was expecting him to ask for food.

Hell, he was expecting him to ask for someone he could murder.

He was not expecting that.

"I- Come again?"

Dust laughed. "I'm dead serious. I want to meet him, he's cute. It doesn't even have to be a date; just tell him to meet me at..." he hesitated. "...Uh, ok, I haven't actually thought this through."

Cross rubbed his temple. "I swear half the people I know are high."

"Looking at the people you know, you're probably right," Dust said. "I'm real sure Dream smokes weed."

"He's probably right," Chara said. "No one can be that chill all the time."

Dust nodded towards the shade. "See? Even your ghost buddy agrees with me."

"So?" Blue asked, then frowned. "You look traumatized. What did he do?"

Cross blinked at him. "He can see Chara. And proved it by wrestling him to the ground."

"I feel violated," Chara moaned.

"Also," Cross coughed, "He wanted me to set him and Blue up on a date."

Nightmare chose that moment to drop the spoon he'd been playing with. It clanged against the plastic folding table rather loudly.

Blue blanched. "I'm sorry, what?"

"In exchange for him keeping quiet about Nightmare," Cross added, a little more quietly.

Nightmare perked up at his name, but didn't like how it was paired with 'quiet'.

"Quiet?" The artificial life form asked.

"Not you," Cross assured him. "Someone else."

Nightmare tilted his skull. One of his tentacles twitched, pointing towards the window Dust had been at.

"Him?" He asked.
"Yeah," Cross confirmed. "Him."

"Hold on," Blue protested, "Why the hell does he want me to go on a date with him? I don't even know him!"

"He thinks you're cute," Cross admitted. "I know I said I was pretty sure he was a stalker, but other than that he's not that bad. His name's Dust."

Blue blinked. "Dust? He's named after-"

"Yeah."

Blue took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, fine. Where does he want me to meet him?"

"He hadn't figured that out yet," Cross snickered. "If you have an idea, I can pass it along. I'm sure he'd be glad to meet you just about anywhere."

Blue pinched the bridge of his nose. "If I get murdered by some weirdo, I'm tormenting you for the rest of your life with Chara."

Cross shuddered.

"Murdered?" Nightmare asked innocently.

"Aaaaand this is where I kick you guys out."

"Don't forget your date, Blue," Ink snickered.

"I am not above feeding you glitter tacos," Blue warned him.

"Glitter doesn't kill you," Ink said cheerfully. "It just tastes weird."

Note- do not eat glitter. Ink is special. Also a moron. Eating glitter is really bad for you. Thanks for reading this PSA.

"What did he say?" Dust asked excitedly.

"He said he'll go but he's concerned about why some dude he's never met before wants to go on a date with him just because you think he's cute," Cross said.

Dust's face lit up. "R-really?"

"Did you even hear the last part?" Chara asked pensively.

"I did," Dust assured them, "And honestly, that's reasonable. But I'm more hyped about the fact that he actually said yes!"

Cross sighed. "I really hope you actually have a plan."

"I got tickets to a movie," Dust said.

"Not a bad idea," Cross admitted. "What is it?"

"Uh...Jumanji."

Cross smiled. "I actually think he was interested in seeing that. You want him to meet you at the theater?"

"Y-yeah," Dust said. He covered his face. "Agh; why am I so nervous?"

Chara snickered. "Somebody's never been on a date before~!"

"Shut up, Ghostie," Dust grumbled.

"Ghostie?!" Chara squawked. "You little-"

"Calm down, dude," Cross said. "He can probably strangle you if you piss him off."

Chara folded his arms and huffed. "Fine. But next time he calls me that, he's getting the Chocolate Face."

Dust frowned. "'Chocolate Face'?"

"Best not to ask," Cross advised. "When's your movie date?"

"Oh, uh, next week. 2 pm."

"Guess I'll be messenger boy," Cross muttered. He turned to leave. "See ya."

"Oh, hey," Dust called. "Before you go, can you give this to him?" He held out a small, folded piece of paper.

"Messenger boy indeed," Chara snickered.

"Shut up, Ghostie," Cross snapped. He took the note.

"If you read it, I'll stab you," Dust warned.

"Yeah, yeah;" Cross waved him off. "I've heard that a million times from Killer, you don't need to warn me."

Dust perked up. "You know Killer?"

"Yeah; he likes to torment me."

"He's my best friend."

Cross groaned. "Of course he is."

Dust laughed. "No wonder you take things so easy. You know him and Ink!"

Cross stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom, running down the mental checklist of things he knew were going to happen and things that should happen today.

Obviously he needed to feed Nightmare and keep teaching him stuff. That was top priority.

Blue was going on his date with Dust today; once he'd learned he was going to see a movie he'd been wanting to watch he'd actually been kind of excited.

He was real sure Dream was out of town for whatever reason.

Ink was re-painting his house for the fifth time this month.

It was just going to be him, Chara, and Nightmare; once he got home from work.

He stretched.

Time to feed the blob child.

Nightmare's taste had become more refined; instead of just the basics nutrients, he had found that he especially like spicy foods, and didn't like sweet things.

He was particularly found of hot sauce.

Breakfast tacos with Sriracha it was.

He'd gotten better at cooking since having to feed Nightmare. Blue's cooking lessons helped too.

Soon it was done, and he put one on a plate with a decent amount of hot sauce.

He knew how his child liked his food

"Chara, you mind opening the door?" He called.

The door swung open. "Do we have to go to Taco Bell?" The ghost yawned. "I'm still tired."

"Yeah," Cross said. "You want me to be able to pay for your video games, don't you?"

"But Cross-" Chara whined, "I wanna sleep more!"

"You can sleep in the car, you big baby."

"I can't sleep unless you sleep," Chara protested. "Just- call in sick or something."

"By the time Nightmare's finished with his food and I make the call, we won't be tired anymore," Cross pointed out.

Chara sighed. He knew Cross was right.

Nightmare was sound asleep on his bed. His tentacles were wrapped around him like a blanket, even though there were already one snuggled around him.

"Nightmare," Cross said softly. "You gotta wake up."

Nightmare grumbled in his sleep and rolled over.

Cross chuckled. "Come one, buddy; you wanna eat before your food gets cold."

Nightmare opened his good eye socket and peered at him.

"Tired," He complained.

"I know," Cross said, "Me too. But I gotta go to work again, and I need to make you lunch before I go."

Nightmare whined. He didn't like it when Cross left.

He was such a little kid.

"Come on," Cross tried again, "I even put the hot stuff on~"

Nightmare's eye light brightened.

"Hot?" He asked.

"Yep!"

Nightmare got up. His tentacles still dragged behind him. (How on earth did he even get those? Cross still had no idea. Maybe that was his magic ability?) He reached out for the plate, but Cross said, "Nope. Table, remember?"

Nightmare grumbled, but sat down at the table.

He was learning so fast. He might not speak English very well, but he was extremely clever.

Cross loved him to bits.

Ink was probably right; if anyone hurt his artificial son he'd most likely knife them.

Once that was done, Cross returned to the kitchen to quickly whip up a peanut butter sandwich for Nightmare, and some milk.

Yes, Nightmare still liked milk. Why should't he? It was full of calcium, and tasted good.

Then he put them in the freezer he left down there. He'd turned up the temperature so it was working as a fridge instead.

"You really enjoy being Nightmare's dad," Chara noted.

"Shut up, Chara."

Nightmare watched him with sorrow in his teal eye light. "Why go?" He asked despondently.

Cross gave him a sad smile. "Sorry, Nightmare. I have to work so I can take care of you."

Nightmare didn't quite understand. "Take...care?"

"Yeah. Get food and stuff."

"But..."

Cross checked the clock on the wall and muttered a curse.

If he didn't leave now, he was going to be late.

"I'll see you this afternoon," Cross promised him. A gentle hug, and he left.

He left the basement door open; seeing as how he didn't mind Nightmare roaming around a bit.

He got in his car and drove away.

Nightmare hated it when Cross left.

He always came back, yeah, but it felt like it took forever.

He noticed that if he stared at the round thing with numbers, the slow, short hand would move six, sometimes eight numbers from where it would start.

He missed Cross when he was gone.

Today, he decided, he was going to explore beyond this 'basement', as Cross called it.

He'd been allowed to, but never really did.

Maybe he'd be able to follow Cross to that work place he kept going to.

He got to the stairs, and glared at them. They always impeded his progress. He couldn't seem to figure out how to go up them.

Hm...

Maybe if he crawled?

Several attempts later, he made it.

Next task: exploration.

...Ok, this place was really big.

This might take a while.

...What was that?

It looked like the thing Cross put his food in, but bigger and more...silver? The one in the basement place was white.

He opened it.

Holy food.

Wait...is that...

...Milk?

"I feel like something is going to go wrong," Chara said.

They were almost at the Taco Bell.

"Why do you say that?" Cross asked, turning into the parking lot.

"I don't know," Chara admitted. "Just...I'm have a very profound sense of foreshadowing."

"Don't you mean 'foreboding'?" Cross chuckled.

"No; I'm real sure it's foreshadowing. At least in this case."

Cross shook his skull. "Get out of my car, you nerd."

"Takes one to know one."

There was so much milk in that thing.

Why did he try to drink it all?

Now there was a puddle of milk on the floor.

He would try to drink it like that, but Cross said it was bad.

Made he could find one of those weird squarish things he used to clean up spills?

Hm...

That looked like a handle. Should he pull on it?

He found some of those silver eating things.

Huh. So that's where Cross got them from.

Ok...what about the one underneath it?

...Huh. That one opened like the food thing. But the other slid? Weird.

There were some flat things in there. They were white and had rectangle holes on one end. A handle, maybe?

There was another sliding thing next to the first one. He opened that one, and found all sorts of stuff. A bunch of colorful circles caught his eye light.

He picked one up.

It hung from his finger loosely. He put another finger in it and pulled them away from each other.

It stretched. As it stretched, it became thinner.

He watched it in fascination. Stretch, unstretch, stretch, unstretch, stretch-

One end of the circle thing came off his finger.

It zoomed across the room, hitting one of the doors over the floor.

Whoops.

He poked around some more, but found nothing else of interest.

Next door. Just some big bowl things with handles.

Third sliding thing.

There were the square things!

He looked at the spilled milk. How many did he need?

Well, he'd start with one. Then, once he'd cleaned it up, he could find where Cross put his dirty things.

"Hey, Cross," one of the cooks greeted.

"Hey, Horror. How's your morning?"

Horror grunted. "Got here literally five minutes before you did."

"It can't be bad if nothing's happened yet," Cross joked.

The other skeleton rolled his red eye light. "Yeah, sure; you keep believing that. Personally, anytime I'm not eating is bad."

Cross snorted. Typical Horror.

Ok...the milk was clean.

But now he had serval milk-soaked squares.

Where did they go?

He couldn't leave them on the floor; that would be mean. Also, he'd learned the hard way that milk that was out too long stunk.

So...where?

Hmm...

That big bowl thing in the weird table stuck to the wall had dirty plates and cups and stuff in it. Maybe he could put the squares in there?

Seemed right.

He picked them up off the floor and put them in the bowl thing.

Right. Next task...find the way out and look for Cross.

But there were so many doors.

Ugh.

This exploring thing was starting to become more annoying.

How about that door?

It had a handle like the one out of the basement.

...But that other door had a yellow triangle with strange shapes on it. Weren't those 'letters'? Maybe they were even words.

Cross had been starting to teach him about letters.

Maybe this was where Cross went. He poked the handle. It was a round thing like the one one the other door.

How did Cross open it...?

Something like...

He grabbed it and twisted.

Then he pushed.

The door swung open and banged against the wall.

...Maybe not as much push next time.

Either way, Cross definitely wasn't here.

Unless he was hiding behind that black square thing on the table, which he was too big to do. And anyway, he wasn't nearly this quiet.

Guess the other door was the right one, after all.

"Ugghhhh this is so borrinng!"

Cross resisted the urge to chuckle.

It was almost noon. Business was slow today, but he knew things were about to get busy.

Chara, of course, was complaining.

He seemed to have forgotten his 'foreshadowing' as well.

"Yo, Cross," one of the human employees called, "You ready for the Lunch rush?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," He sighed.

The man grinned. "Good; I think that weird guy is coming back."

"You mean Yolo Glasses?" Cross asked.

"I usually call him 90's Man, but yes," The human said.

"That's a little judgmental," Cross said.

"Says you?" He laughed.

"Shut up, Adam."

What are those?

They looked like Cross and the others, but with something pinkish over their bones.

They were moving around like Cross, too.

Well, at least he knew that this was the right door.

Time to find Cross.

...why were they all staring at him?

The Taco Bell establishment that Cross worked at had a couple of televisions.

Most of the time, they were tuned to various sports channels.

Cross, who took orders at the counter, had the perfect view of one.

As Cross took one customer's order, they all changed.

"Breaking news," a news anchor said, "Several locals have called into the police station to complain about a strange skeleton causing havoc. According to witnesses, they wandered out of someone's house. The skeleton has been described as-" A paper was pushed in front of them.

"Oh- actually, someone has taken a photo of them."

Cross felt his soul drop.

He thought he'd locked the door.

But apparently he didn't.

Because there was absolutely no mistaking that tentacled skeleton.

Nightmare had gotten out.

And he was probably looking for Cross.

"I told you something bad was going to happen!" Chara wailed. "Why didn't we notice you forgot to lock the door?!"

Cross swallowed the lump in throat.

He had to go find his creation, but with all these people around, he'd never get away.

Fuck.

"Can we get someone to take over for us?" Chara asked.

"I don't think so," Cross mumbled. The person he'd been talking to was listening to the news and ignored him. "Maybe Kent, but-"

His phone rang.

He muttered a curse, and sent a text to the caller.

Cross: Dude its rush hour

Ink: Yeah but u saw the news right?

Cross: No I defiantly didn't see that Nightmare is wandering around. I'm not having a panic attack because I can't look for him until I can get all these people moving or get someone to take over for me.

Cross: Also I thought u were painting your house again how did you see the news

Ink: Yeah. The inside.

Ink: I was watching something else and it changed

Cross: Was it 'The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross'

Ink: Haha

Ink: No

Ink: I can see why you'd think that but I was actually watching law and order

Cross: Unexpected

Cross: What are the chances I can get u 2 go look for Nightmare

Ink: Me? Look for ur adopted/artificial son before he gets hurt?

Ink: Highly likely

Ink: No offense, but I've seen u angry and absolutely don't want to be on the receiving end of that

Ink: Especially since I've also seen u handle knives

Cross: I owe u

Ink: Only if I can actually find him

Ink: Is Blue still on his date with the weirdo?

Cross: Yea

Cross: I would ask him to help 2 if I could but he's phone is most definitely off

Ink: Did u try calling the weirdo

Cross: Dust might be a weirdo but he would've turned his phone off to watch a movie

Cross: Also rush hour

Ink: Right

Ink: I wish Dream was in town he'd be so much help

Cross: I feel like everyone here relies on Dream for helping with their real-world problems

Ink: He has a lot of real-world solutions

Cross: True

Cross: Ty for looking for Nightmare

Cross: ttyl the distraction is wearing off

Cross pocketed his phone before before the customer turned back to him.

"What do you think that guy's trying to do?" They asked casually.

Cross shrugged. "Who knows?"

But he knew exactly what Nightmare was trying to do.

He was certain Nightmare was going to get hurt.

Hopefully Ink would find him before that happened.

The outside was so big!

He wanted people to stop staring at him, but he was more concerned about Cross.

...What if he couldn't find him?

Even worse, what if he couldn't find his way back?

He stopped in his tracks.

He'd been following the whiteish floor, but it kept splitting off in different directions. Which turns had he taken?

...What was that loud sound?

Why did that fast shiny thing have red and blue flashing lights?

Why was it coming towards him?

He didn't like it.

It was scarier than the other ones.

He started to back away.

A voice came from it. It yelled, "STOP! POICE!"

What was a police? The shiny thing wasn't telling him to stop, was it?

How dare it.

He could do whatever he wanted.

He glared at it, still scared. He hoped it wasn't going to come off the black floor towards him.

He kept backing away.

He didn't like this.

Why were the pink things around him moving away?

Oh, this couldn't be good.

Why hadn't he just stayed inside and waited for Cross?

He should go back, but what if this police thing followed him?

He was pretty sure Cross didn't want them there either.

He was going to have to run and try to lose them.

He was bad at running, but he had to try.

Ink heard sirens and turned.

"Ah shit-"

The police cruiser was racing down the street.

Of course they'd send out the police if Nightmare was causing trouble.

He figured he should follow them, but he wasn't in a car. Hopefully Nightmare was smart enough run, and they'd run into each other.

He wandered around, finally hearing a commotion.

Naturally, he found Nightmare being tranquilized by what looked like-

Shit.

"Hey!" Ink shouted. "Leave him alone!"

But he found a tranq dart coming at him.

"Answer your damn phone, Ink," Cross hissed. He had gotten Kent to switch out for him and had ran out the back door to try to find Ink, but the Spaz absolutely refused to notice he had a call.

He was about to give up, when he spotted a familiar scarf behind the Walgreens.

"Oh fuck- Ink?"

Ink was out cold on the concrete, a dart thing in his foreskull.

"Ink!" Cross said loudly, shaking him.

Ink groaned and tried to open his eye sockets.

"Ugh...what the fuck?"

"You tell me!" Cross snapped. "Why are you unconscious behind the drug store?"

Ink blinked and squinted at him. "Cross?" He suddenly shot straight up. "Oh fuck- Cross, don't kill me I'm so sorry-"

Cross held him down. "Slow down, dude. Start from the top."

Ink took a deep breath. He was shaky, which wasn't like him.

"Ok, so...I saw a police car with its sirens on, right? I was pretty sure they were looking for Nightmare because, y'know, disturbances. But me, not being in a car, didn't follow them. I just hoped he was smart enough to run." Ink glanced a few feet away. "And, uh, he was? B-but some dudes in white lab coats were...well..." He plucked the dart from his skull.

Cross stared at him. He felt something inside him break.

"...C-Cross?" Ink said nervously.

Cross took a shaky breath.

"L-lets go back," He said. "We can't do anything n-now."

God, was this what normal parents felt when their kid was kidnapped?

It was painful.

"B-but-"

"No," Cross said quietly. "We have no idea where they took him, and even if we did we would probably have to plan some elaborate break-in. Wherever they took him, they probably have some serious security measures. There's n-nothing we can do right now."

Were those tears he felt going down his face?

Ink pulled him into a hug.

"I'm so sorry," He said. "I'm so, so sorry. Maybe if I'd gotten here sooner-"

Cross choked back a sob. "N-no. They probably would've thought you had something to do with his creation."

"But...maybe I could've kept him safe," Ink said.

"Uh-huh. How many of them were there?"

"...Five?" Ink guessed.

"And how many of them had tranq guns?" Cross asked, pulling back and folding his arms.

Ink sighed. "All of them."

"And how do you think you could've helped?"

"Shut up and accept that, despite my non-existence social skills, I'm trying to make you feel better."

Cross punched him lightly. "Come on. I gotta get back before they notice I ran off. You should probably get back to painting your house, too."

Ink hesitated. Then, he sighed, and got up.

"What are you going to tell the others?" Ink asked.

Cross rubbed his arms. "I don't know," he murmured.