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

Rule 32: Try a Little Harder to be Open and Honest with Problems. Honestly.

"Just for a bit," Horror promised, clapping the powder off his hands with a shrug. "There's nothing to do about it, anyway."

He shot a small smile at Dust, who shot him back a disgruntled glare.

Horror held out his hands. "Well, it's not my fault everything was off time by a bit. Blame the..." He hesitated, racking his brain. What was it Mare always said? "Relative speeds of different universes. Or something. Isn't that what Mare calls it?"

Horror thought for a moment, frowning. Was that what Mare said? Did he call it something different? It was something about AU's, and- and speed and time, right? He couldn't remember. Mare said a lot about magic and science, and as much as he tried, Horror couldn't stop it all from becoming one long, hard to understand blur. Any specific terms were lost completely, facts and information hard to recall.

Horror's frown deepened as he tried to think. His head started to hurt from the effort he was using. Why? He had barely remembered three words. It shouldn't be enough to cause him a headache bad enough to make him dizzy.

He sighed, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye and squinting through the other. The light in the kitchen- just barely blinding- now felt more manageable.

"It's getting worse," He muttered to himself in response to his earlier question. He sat down, closing his eyes and trying to fight down the nausea clawing its way up his throat. It was just a dizzy spell. He'd be fine.

Yeah, Horror thought shakily. Just a side effect from having half my skull destroyed and my eye ripped out. I'm perfectly fine. Just give it a few minutes, Ror, and you'll feel right as rain.

Horror opened his eyes, then jumped. Dust's face was about three or four inches from his own, studying him sharply. The red-eyed skeleton nearly fell out of his chair, scrambling to retain his balance. Dust didn't move, simply watching him with the same intense but oddly blank expression.

Horror exhaled softly, putting a hand over his chest. "Jesus," he breathed shakily. "Give me some warning next time, will you?'

"..." Dust's eyes flicked to Horror's head. "Hurt."

"... Yeah, bud. It hurts right now," Horror said, rubbing his eye. The pressure relieved some of the pain, but not much.

"Dust? LV?" Dust 's voice cracked slightly as he continued. "Dead? Dust? Gone? LV? EXP- Dust- gone-" He continued mumbling to himself, rocking back to forth and biting his index finger anxiously.

Horror held out his hands, making Dust blink. The red-eyed skeleton simply smiled reassuringly. "Hey, it's alright," He said gently. "It hurts right now, yeah, but it'll get better here in a bit. I'm not gone, and I'm not dying anytime soon. I'm okay."

It wasn't really a lie. He would be okay. Sooner or later.

Or a lot later.

But he could function, and he could smile. As long as he could see the others improving and doing better, he'd be alright. As long as he was with the Gang, the headaches couldn't hurt him too much. Any amount of pain was worth seeing the others smile.

He'd be alright.

"Headache?" Dust asked, a bit less anxious than before.

Horror nodded. "Yeah. It's not too bad, though," he added. But Dust was already standing up, walking over to one of the cabinets and opening it. A few cups fell onto the counter, but Dust ignored them, grabbing one from the shelf and walking over to the faucet. After a few moments, he brought the cup of water over to Horror and held it out.

Horror gave a small laugh, taking the cup. His hands were shaking, trembling slightly, but he ignored it, taking a sip. Dust stood next to him, crouching until they were eye level.