(Once again, I'm really sorry for the delay in chapters. Things have been busy with school and I'm planning a big project coming sometime in the future. I really hope you all can be patient with me. Without further ado, I present this chapter)

~Nightmare's POV~

"INK YOU MOTHER FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!!" I shouted at the top of my non-existing lungs as I crashed through the portal I had just created. I was beyond livid at him and I was going to let him know about it.

I saw the figure that I knew had to be Ink flinch down the dark alleyway that we were in. One of the first things I noticed about it was all of the freshly crumpled up pieces of paper littered across the ground. It looked like Ink had been slouching against the ground before I had arrived. I was taken aback at just how much negative energy filled this small alley, it seemed to be coming straight from Ink.

"N-Nightmare? W-What are you d-" Ink stammered, getting to his feet but I quickly cut him off before he could continue his question. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU JUST TELEPORTED AWAY FROM Y/N AND MADE HER SOB ALL FOR WHAT?! ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T WANT TO TELL HER THAT BLADE IS STILL AROUND?! YEAH, WE FIGURED THAT OUT REAL QUICK!" I reprimanded him so loudly that my throat was beginning to ache from the strain. 

I didn't even feel that badly when inky black tears started to flow from his eye sockets. He had pressed himself against the wall and wrapped his arms around himself, like he was trying to barricade himself against my words of attack. He was sobbing even more loudly now, and I simply crossed my arms waiting for his response.

After a minute or so, I realized he was just going to continue crying instead of answer for what he had done. I took a deep steady breath and attempted to calm myself down before saying, "Well? What do you have to say for yourself? What do you have to say about making Y/n have to resort to go to Error since YOU weren't there to comfort her, making her sob into me and Dream's arms, make her feel like SHE had done something wrong, and make her physically be sick?" My attempts at calming myself down had been futile, as I only got myself riled up again as I listed off the things he had done to her.

Ink looked like he could hardly breathe over his sobbing and tears had completely covered Ink's face. He took a few loud gulps and deep breaths before he finally started to talk. "I-I'm so sorry... I- I didn't mean f-for any of t-this to happen! I j-j-just wanted to p-protect her... I w-was so scared that Blade c-could effect her like s-she's effected me. I n-never want her to g-go through that or k-know that I was going through that. S-So I panicked when she confronted me. It's been so i-instilled in me to not share my feelings anymore now that I actually can feel out of my own free will... I shouldn't of acted that way. She deserves so much better than that... b-better than me. I love her too much to have her just s-settle for s-someone like m-me."

Ink slumped against the wall after he had spoken his explanation, making dust on the alley's floor fly up around him. He raised his knees to his skull and pressed his face into them, more shaky quiet sobs coming from him.

I let out a very loud and obvious sigh, and extended my hand to help him off the ground. He looked toward it and then back at me, I noticed that both his eyelights had turned into dark blue teardrop shapes. "Quit that bullshit self-hatred talk. You know for an absolute fact that she would do anything to have you back right now, right? She loves you, Ink. You should've heard her in the VOID when she talked about you, those were some of the only times I saw her smile. You mean everything in the world to her Ink and I'm sure it is breaking her heart listening to this."

One of Ink's eyes had shaped into a deep blue heart at my words, and now only the teardrop eye was leaking tears onto the ground. Ink grabbed my hand without looking at me and I helped him stand on his shaking legs. He held onto my shoulder for support as his knees wobbled when he tried to gain his balance. I wonder how long he had been sitting like that...

"Wait... what do you mean by 'listening to this'?" He suddenly realized, taking his hand off my shoulder now that he had found some of his footing. Oh, right, I probably should've left that detail out so I could get him to say more.

"I didn't completely shut the portal behind me, it's still slightly open so Y/n and Dream can hear everything. I probably shouldn't of sworn so much... sorry Dream." I answered him honestly, no point in lying since I was going to tell him anyway. He looked at me blankly- except for one eye twitching involuntarily for a moment. Then, he facepalmed himself as he registered all that Y/n could hear.

"You couldn't of told me that sooner...?"

"And have you panic and make up more lies to tell Y/n?"

"F-Fair enough..."

"C'mon, you two have been far apart for long enough already."

With that said, I turned behind me towards the tiny circular portal that stood there. I pried it wide with my magic, enough for both of us to get through. Ink didn't even wait for me to say anything before crashing through it at full speed. 

~Y/n's POV~

I had been clutching onto Dream's shoulder as I listened to the conversation Ink and Nightmare were having. It broke my heart to hear him say those things about himself, he never said things like that before. Was that all of Blade's doing? Has she broken his self esteem so much? If she has, she was going to find out what dying twice felt like.

I could hardly prepare myself as I saw the portal was widening for them to enter. Ink crashed through the portal and stumbled, but I quickly let go of Dream to catch Ink in my arms. He had no time to react as I straightened him up by giving him the tightest hug I could possibly give him. If he had the need to breathe then I would certainly be restricting him of that.

It only took him a few seconds to register what was happening and who was hugging him. As soon as he processed that fact, he hugged me twice as hard. Since I did have the need to breathe, I was slightly choking. I didn't really care all that much though and just held him in my embrace. We had only been apart for hours, but it felt so good to be able to hold him again. His scent filled my senses and it was only then I remembered how much I loved it.

Eventually, we had to let go. I seriously couldn't breathe and needed to get a breath of air or else I was going to suffocate. As soon as I regained my air supply, I grabbed the front of his scarf and pulled him into a deep kiss. I hardly even cared that Dream, Nightmare, and possibly Blade was watching. I had missed the feel of his smooth bone against my lips and the grip of his hands as they grabbed my waist to pull me closer.

Our mouths finally parted away from each other, but our bodies stayed close. I put my hand onto the side of his skull and he leaned into it, until he saw my serious expression. He looked slightly afraid but I tried to quiet his fears by slightly rubbing my hand against his head.

"Please, don't ever speak about yourself in that way again. It broke my heart, Ink. You are my everything, don't you ever doubt that." I knew he wouldn't know how to respond, so I spared him from that burden by pulling him into another kiss.

I could feel fresh tears fall down his face as I embraced him. At least these ones seemed to be from happiness. I probably would've cried too if I weren't so exhausted. It only just dawned on me how tired I was now. Finally being reunited with Ink must've made me realized. All of the emotions of today had drained me, and I was quite eager to finally fall into bed with Ink whenever we got the chance.

Ink was the one to pull back this time, just so he could wipe his tears with the back of his hand. Since he was skeletal, it didn't do much to aid him. So instead, I decided to help him out by wiping them for him. He sniffed and gave a small 'thank you'. I only responded by giving him a peck on the cheek. 

Abruptly, Ink flinched and his eyes darted to something to the right of me. I glanced to where he was looking but couldn't see anything, when I looked back he was blushing up a storm and looked rather sheepish. I gave him a questioning look but he just pulled me down to sit on the couch. 

I wrapped my arms around his middle and rested my head onto his shoulder, I refused to be apart from him again. He gave me a rub of the back before turning to talk to Nightmare.

"How were you able to find me? Even I didn't know where I was."

"I followed the most negative feelings in the universe and figured that was where you were. Now that you're sharing SOULs with Blade, your negative energy is increased by double so I'll probably be able to find you no matter where you're at." Nightmare answered him with a hint of a glare at the end of his sentence. There was definitely some sort of threat in his words and Ink noticed it too. He rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't wrapped around my back.

"Can we go to bed? I'm really exhausted now." I blurted aloud, trying to clear away the tension and awkwardness now present in the air. It looked like Dream had caught onto what I was trying to do and bounced out of his seat.

"Of course! We have a bunch of spare bedrooms that you guys can use! Right this way!"

~~~