Crystalline Heart

Chapter Eight: Salt

After a while, they knew they would have to depart from the AU, and they did. Hope herself felt an instant longing as soon as she stepped back through the portal into the living room. She didn't want to leave. It'd been way too beautiful.

Ink seemed to notice and he let a hand fall heavily onto her shoulder, which made her jump. "Don't worry, it's not gone forever. We can visit again. No need to be so blue.. that's his job." He pointed to Blue.

Hope sighed.

"Aw, come on! Not even jokes make you laugh?"

Blue huffed. "Why should she laugh? You were making fun of me!"

"But was I really?"

"You made fun of my name!"

"It was only one joke!"

Dream sighed heavily. "You two, be nice. But, Hope, Ink is right; we can go back again some other time, if you'd like."

She nodded.

"Can we go tomorrow?" Ink asked, flopping over the armrest on the sofa.

Blue and Dream ignored him.

"Hope, come on, please say yes!"

She shrank away.

"Y'all are lame!"

Again, he was left ignored. Blue disappeared into the kitchen, and soon, a familiar clicking as the gas stove ignited told that he was making dinner. Dream set the table.

"Can we do something interesting tonight?! We can't just go to Outertale and then leave it at that!"

Hope felt bad the artist was being ignored. She didn't want to feed into any trouble, but... he suggested something once, about... a movie? Was that what it was? Quite frankly, she couldn't remember. She felt stupid, really. But, she pulled out her notebook and quickly scribbled the idea before handing it to Ink.

His eyes lit up. "That's a great idea, Hope! Hey, guys, what about a movie night, then?!"

"Ooh, yes!" Blue peeked out from the kitchen. "Dream, what do you think?"

The prince sighed and nodded. "I don't see why not. We haven't done one for a long while, anyhow. What do you guys want to watch?"

Blue shrugged and turned back to the stove, and Hope caught the smell of egg. It was... it was good. She'd try and stomach it tonight—that'd been getting easier lately, especially with Blue's superb skill in the kitchen.

She turned to Ink, who was writing an entire list of movies he could remember, though Dream immediately eliminated a few. When they offered her the list, she simply shook her head. It wasn't like she knew any of them.

Finally, they settled on one, right when Blue called for dinner: Titanic. They warned her it could be emotionally intense, but she didn't mind. The fact that it was on the water alone appealed to her. For once, she was... excited.

Dinner went fine, for the most part. Ink managed to choke on his egg, but there were no other incidents. Ink and Blue set about getting movie snacks. Dream led Hope to a closet and pulled out a few blankets.

Soon, they were all huddled up on the couch, wrapped in fleece blankets. The lights flicked off with a little magic, and the screen on the TV lit up.

The movie was pretty good at first. Hope liked the sweet romance and iconic scene Ink had tried sketching out and showed (it hadn't looked too great, as he'd been drawing in the dark). In fact, everything went well until...

Hope flinched and squeezed her eyes shut at the feeling of cold salt water and rain stinging her face, of the waves that raged and tossed the boat. She felt... horribly afraid. Someone a few feet from her, and much taller, was standing by the railing. Something was wrong about it.