Reborn as Error

78 - It's Alright

"My room, I'll be up there in a minute," I told Gradient and watched as he quickly headed upstairs.

"Error don't be upset with him. I'm the one that taught him to do that," Killer said as he and Sci followed me towards the kitchen. I started rifling through some cabinets. 

"I'm not upset with him," I said but when I looked at them I guess I didn't sound convincing.

"Are you upset with me?" Killer asked a bit hesitant. I only huffed.

"I dont know." 

"Is Gradient in trouble?" Pap asked.

"No, are you ok though?" I asked the smaller skeleton before continuing my search.

"Yep! Nothing happened to me!" He cheered which was a good sign.

"Good... aha!" I found what I was looking for, a first aid kit. There were quite a number of those around the house. I brushed past the three and headed upstairs. By the door Nightmare was staring into our room before his gaze went to me. 

"Error, what happened?"

"Gradient got into a little conflict. He punched someone in the face. Killer's been teaching him apparently." I explained only what I know and Nightmare nodded understanding.

"Do you need me to talk to Killer?"

"I couldn't stop you if you wanted to but now, I need to talk to Gradient." I held up the first aid and Nightmare nodded before stepping aside allowing me to go inside. Gradient was staring at the ground while clutching his hands close, more specifically the hand he used was cradled against himself. 

He refused to meet my gaze as I sat on the floor in front of him. 

"Hand." I said while holding out my own. He reached for the open palm but I immediately pulled away.

"No, the other one." He hesitated but held out his other hand. I grasped it gently before using my other hand to poke and prod at his knuckles and fingers. He flinched a few times which was normal but winced with a hiss at his third knuckle. It wasn't broken or fractured but it was definitely bruised. Weird since we're skeletons but I've accepted that our biology isn't literally just bones. 

I opened up the kit and started tending to his hand.

"You... aren't mad?" He asked after a moment.

"Do you want me to be?" I asked without looking to see his reaction since I was too focused on wrapping up his hand. I've wrapped my own injuries before but I was struggling a bit. Maybe because it was my child, I feel muddled with different emotions.

"Here," I heard from my side before a pair of hands helped with the wrapping. Looking over I saw it was Dream and I actually welcomed his presence.

"I was walking by when Nightmare told me what happened, I just came over to help." I looked over and saw that Nightmare had left.

"....Thanks," I said as Dream did quick work of the wraps. He gave Gradient's hand a reassuring pat when he was done before getting up.

"Of course, I'll go get an ice pack." He headed out as I put everything away in the kit. 

"....say something," Gradient said unable to stand the silence.

"What do you want me to say? You punched a bully and ended up hurting yourself because of it. Or do you want me to talk about how you've been learning to defend yourself without my knowledge and from Killer of all skeletons. You've never hidden stuff from me before heck you talked to me about cooking with Ink, and you know I don't like him."

"...it wasn't just Killer." He admitted in a quiet tone and at that I raised a bone brow.

"You start telling me names and none of them will get hurt." I gave an offer but I wasn't going to hurt anyone, not that he knew that.

"....Cross and Dust." I sighed and shook my head.

"Of course," I muttered. Soon Dream came back and placed the ice pack he grabbed onto Gradient's hand. 

"Here hold it in place, it will help," he instructed Gradient. 

"If nothing else I'll be going," Dream said but didn't get far.

"I think it would be better if you stayed,"  I said catching the guardian off guard.

"What?" He asked stunned.

"I said that I want you to stay." I repeated with slight annoyance. I never liked repeating myself.

"So you are mad," Gradient said sounding sure of himself.

"No, geez kid. I'm not mad at you. Why would I be mad when I'm pretty sure everyone had to fight at some point in their life? You're no different. I mean look at Dream." I gestured to the guardian.

"What about him?" Gradient asked looking confused as Dream settled down to sitting criss-cross on the floor.

"He's the almost perfect definition of positivity. He is kind, welcoming, understanding, and so on and so on. But just because he's positive doesn't mean he's passive. There is a difference."

"Error is right Gradient. I use weapons and I fight in battles, just because I'm the guardian of positivity doesn't mean I let others do as they please. I'm still sorry about that arrow by the way." He said to me and I shook my head.

"I've forgiven you by now Dream trust me. I'm not upset that you fought Gradient. I'm upset that you got hurt, and I'm upset with your so called teachers. I was not made aware of you being taught and no one told me."

"I didn't want you to get upset."

"I wouldn't have. You need to learn how to protect yourself and others so I would've allowed it. But you still have to be punished a bit. So no training or playing with Pap for a week."

"A week!"

"Or at least until your hand is healed. Playing around could hurt it more. It's a light punishment, you'll be fine." Better than what I got that's for sure. After checking everything I sent Gradient on his way and glanced at Dream for a moment before walking away. I needed some fresh air so I headed to the back area. 

Time to sit on the rock again.

Though when I reached my usual spot I decided to go further. We did find that one area for the picnic, it would be nice to see it again.

I listened to the leaves being crushed under my feet or the occasional twig I would step on. I could hear a few birds and even a squirrel somewhere. The time of day had the sunlight filtering through the leave up top giving everything a warm vibe. 

I should've confronted the others for what they did but I knew it would be best to cool off first. 

I should've paid attention instead of being in my thoughts. I was going further in, I really should've noticed how it was much quieter now.