Night Terrors

Twenty-Five

Blue yawned as he went downstairs to start on breakfast. He was surprised to see the dark lord, already starting on some food. He knew the stained man was an excellent cook, so he wasn't going to object, but he wondered on the occasion.

"Hey boss. Whatcha making?" Blue peeked over his shoulder.

"Oh, just some eggs and bacon. I was gonna make some toast too." Nightmare looked up at the guard.

"Nice! I heard you were a good cook, boss-man!" Blue nudged his arm playfully. "Need any help?"

"Oh, yes please. Can you start toasting some... well, toast?" The king looked back at what he was doing, flipping the fried eggs.

He was a good cook. And when he would make a meal, it was big enough for his entire crew to eat as much as they'd please. But it was a lot harder to do such extravagances when he was limited to just two limbs for this stuff. He did miss his tentacles. Oh, how he missed the extreme multitasking.

"So, how have you been sleeping?" Blue smiled, beginning the process of toasting for the large "family".

"Umm, fine..." the god lied.

"That's good. Any dreams? I'd assume the gods of emotion have a lot of vivid ones. Dream always does, anyhow."

Nightmare tensed up, not speaking. He just stared at the frying egg.

"You don't have to answer. Dreams can be weird. Or bad."

"Oh... yeah..."

"Change of topic! You and Kills, huh?" Blue looked over, smiling as friendly as possible. He didn't want him to be silent. It was weird to cook with someone and not speak.

"Oh!" The stained skeleton blushed a bit. "Yeah. It's weird to be dating someone, you know? At first, I thought we'd just keep it to just us, but... I guess we just couldn't keep our hands off of each other."

"Oh, no, I understand." Blue smiled, as his plan was working.

"I never thought I'd ever date anyone. I mean, it's for people who love each other, and I thought no one would ever love me. So imagine my surprise when he just..."

"He adores you," the other finished. "He doesn't have pupils, but everyone can tell he's always looking at you. It's genuinely adorable."

"Oh, uh... thanks, I guess." Nightmare blushed. "I love him too. And I'm happy I'm in a relationship with him. But I don't really know... how? I mean, especially after the Dreamtale incident, I didn't expect anyone to not hate me, so I never really prepared to be in a relationship with anyone."

"Oh, you two are doing fine! You seem to be communicating well, and you do seem comfortable with him." Blue smiled. "I mean, you don't seem fully comfortable with anyone else, so it seems like a good start!"

"I, well, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to—"

"Nonono! It's okay! It's mostly in those more intimate things, you know? Like when you're in your ecto-body, I'm guessing when you're sleeping, stuff like that. I fully don't blame you. It took years for your brother to actually summon his body around us, actually!"

"Really?" Nightmare tilted his head. He expected his brother to have been much more comfortable with himself.

"Yeah. We were super surprised. He's like super cute. Like, really cute. He had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. Like, at most, he's noticeably bottom-heavy, so I guess he was insecure about that?" Blue laughed a bit. "Ink asked him if he was a very elaborate prankster, and tried grabbing his thigh while telling him he was fine! He got smacked all the way into the wall!"

The dark one grinned. "Dream always has been super strong. And Ink totally deserved that."

"Yeah. I was surprised he didn't do the same to you when we were first starting to fight. I mean, he could kick your ass a bit before things went south, but he always played defense."

"And he got super pissed at you guys when you absolutely kicked Horror and Error's asses. He's never been one for violence." Nightmare smiled a little less, signing a bit. "I still worry he wouldn't defend himself in a situation he needs to though. I know he can, he knows he can, but he almost never uses that strength for himself. Always to protect someone else. What if something happens to him?"

"Dream has better judgment than you think. He can hold his own." Blue gently rubbed his back with one hand. "You worry about him too much."

"I know, I know." Nightmare sighed. "He's just my baby brother..."

"I know, Mare."