How to Establish Your Gang and Take Care of the Children in It

Rule 25: Let Your Fluffy Oreo Work Through his Trauma in a Safe Space.

Cross was not one to hold onto revenge. After losing his entire family to a spiteful, elaborate vengeance plot, he'd lost his enthusiasm for bloody, drawn out suffering. Revenge, he'd figured out, was all well and good, until you were finished, kneeling down in a judgment hall after having killed everyone you loved because they wanted vengeance. The thought of going after someone in retribution was now one that made him sick.

Having said that, there were a few people who deserved retribution. A few people who, if he saw them, deserved to be punished. That number of people was low, but it was there.

Never, though, had he expected one of those people to suddenly drop back into his life next to Nightmare.

Cross couldn't stop an expression of horror from spilling out as he recognized the Destroyer of Worlds, crashed and glitching next to Mare. He managed to get his expression under control, reverting back to his normal deadpan, before anyone noticed.

Well, anyone but Nightmare, who glanced at him with a mix of curiosity and concern. Somehow, the goopy skeleton seems to know exactly what everyone was thinking almost before they did. It-

Cross blinked. Could Mare read minds?

No, that wasn't exactly right. If Mare could hear their thoughts, things like Horror's panic attack would have been prevented. No, it was more like... like he could tell what their emotions were at any given point.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It was why he was always coincidentally around right when Dust started getting anxious, or why a snack would always be seemingly carelessly left on the table as soon as Horror got hungry. So many small things that looked completely accidental from the outside were really carefully engineered, tiny things to make them feel better or more at home.

He wants us to feel comfortable here, Cross thought, looking at Mare, who was waiting for the other two (Dust and Horror) to actually notice their arrival (the two were playing a very intense round of what Horror called Checkers, but with Dust the game had a suspiciously high level of attempted murder. But as long as Horror was having fun and could deal with the attacks, it was all well and good). But he knows we've been through too much not to be suspicious of no-strings-attached help. But if he presents it as a coincidence rather than a gift he knows we'll take it all the same.

It took a few moments for Horror to stop grappling with Dust and sit up to notice them. When he did, he brightened. "Hey, guys! Good to see y'all! How'd it go? Uh- who's that?" He added, noticing Error.

"Dream and Ink showed up before we did," Nightmare explained. "It was a bit of a mess."

"I got some good target practice!" Killer added with a grin. "Sunny was a bit of an eyesore to look at for too long, though. Hey, Rory! Let's go spar!"

"Call me that again and it'll turn into a muder scene!" Horror snapped. But he was grinning as well.

"Oh my god I knew it was a bad idea to bring you!" Nightmare said, throwing his hands in the air. "Fine, you two can go- But I want no repeats of what happened last week! Go to the courtyard so you don't destroy anything- AND STAY AWAY FROM ANY WINDOWS, Y'HEAR ME? If I see any broken windows- they're gone." He gave a long-suffering sigh as Dumbass One and Dumbass Two disappeared. "So," He said to Cross, "care to explain why Error here threw you into such a loop?"

"I..." Cross folded his arms over his chest, glancing away. "Care to explain why you never told us you can read our emotions?" It wasn't the right thing to say, and he knew it. But at the moment, he was willing to say anything to distract Mare from the conversation topic.