They both entered into UnderSwap, the portal leading them straight to Swap's living room. Swap looked back down at his chained wrist, not having yet taken in what had just happened. Nightmare looks down too, dumbfounded that dream would even consider this as a reasonable solution.
Both of their attention is caught by the sound of approaching footsteps from the kitchen. Swap!Papyrus wanders in holding a bottle of honey. He stops in his tracks when he spots the two. He takes a sip, stares, and then takes another sip.
"It's not what it looks like!" Swap exclaims, light blue blush hides on the corner of his cheeks. "Dare I ask what it is?" Papyrus responds, considering what the answers could be. "Um, well-" Swap struggles to word things. "Okay, so, for starter, this is nightmare, Nightmare, this is my brother " he introduces the two as he wonders whether to mention nightmare's status. He decides against it, not wanting to panic his brother. Nightmare waves at papyrus and Papyrus nods in recognition. "Dream put this thing on us and we can't get it off.." Swap says, almost ashamed to say it.
" 'Can't get it off' Eh?" Papyrus questions, now intrigued by whatever the handcuffs are. He steps closer, Swap holds his wrist out for Papyrus to see, forcing nightmare to also raise his arm in unison. Papyrus inspects the handcuffs. He raises a figurative brow at it's strange design. The cuffs aren't connected physically, proving it's a mainly magical device. "Weird" Papyrus notes "Well, I don't have a clue. Have you asked your dream friend to get it off?" "He doesn't seem too willing to help." Nightmare scowls under his 'breath'. "Hrm, well in that case I don't think I can help ya." Papyrus shrugs, taking another sip of honey "Welp, I'm going to Muffet's. Have fun you two." And with that Papyrus shortcuts away, leaving the two alone with eachother.
"Helpful" nightmare comments sarcastically. Swap keeps quiet, he doesn't know how to act around someone he's basically just met. It feels off to go from someone you fight to someone you're stuck with. Nightmare picks up on the tension. "Hey, why don't we sit and talk?" Nightmare suggests Swap's eye lights brighten as he smiles to show he likes the idea. The two sit on the sofa, uncomfortably close thanks to the cuffs.
"What do we talk about?" Swap asks "Anything, I guess." Nightmare responds, thinking of what to discuss. ".. may I ask something?" Swap requests, hesitantly. Nightmare looks at swap, trying to read where this is going. "... Sure." Swap shifts on his seat uncomfortably, he decides to ask something else instead. "Earlier.. you called the rest of the bad sanses your 'boys', are you close with them?" Nightmare eases, this is easier for him to answer. "Of course. They're my subordinates, I have great respect for what they do for me." "Oh.. that's really sweet!" Swap looks at nightmare hopefully, maybe he's not so 'evil' after all? Nightmare shoots a glance towards Swap, his stare cold. "But that wasn't what you were going to ask, was it?" Swap paused and gulped, guilty. Although he's shocked nightmare could know that. "Well.. no it wasn't.." "Go on then, ask away, I don't bite." Nightmare scoffs. Swap picks up on the irony of that, he might not bite, but he does stab. Ignoring this, he blurts out a question. "Um, why are you evil?"
Nightmare stiffens and looks at swap, he expected that question, yet he still despises it. "your world view is so painfully simplified. This multiverse isn't spilt into 'good' and 'bad'. There's more to it. Just because I reek havoc and cause great pain, doesn't mean I'm just 'evil'. There's far too many different perspectives for me to always be the 'bad guy'." Swap quickly realised he's made a grave mistake by asking that. "Listen to me, Swap, I cause pain and harm because I feast off of negativity. And I have to keep causing harm because that Dream boy keeps spreading positivity. The work he does could kill me one day. I've only decided on a truce because if I become terribly unwell from too much positivity, I'd like to do so on my own terms!" Nightmare scowls.
There's a silence between the two. Swap looks down, ashamed of himself, while nightmare looks away, heavily 'breathing' from his outburst. "Nightmare.. I had no idea.. I'm so sorry." Swap struggles for words. Years of wanting to help has resulted in him causing someone harm. Nightmare sighs, using his free hand to wipe his face in attempt to calm his anger. ".. it's not your fault. You didn't know."
Swap wasn't sure what to say. Now that he's finally gotten a chance to speak to the 'almighty king of negativity', his world beliefs seem to have crumbled. Truthfully, there wasn't a doubt about Nightmare's evilness, it was just that Swap hadn't considered the genuine reasons behind his actions.
Nightmare looked at a clock sitting just above them, on the balcony. It read "11:30pm". "We should figure out how we're going to sleep now. It's getting late" Nightmare sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be getting a good night's sleep for a while. Swap also looked at the clock, double checking the time. "Right,," Swap acknowledged, slowly getting up from the sofa, ensuring to not jolt his restricted arm too much. The both stood up, Swap guided them up the stairs and into his room, the door furthest down the hall.
Swap's room wasn't the prettiest, he could admit that, but it was enough. The opened the door, revealing a simple mattress layed on the floor with simple covers, a blanket instead of a duvet, and only two pillows. The rest of his room consisted of one set of draws, simply decorated with one action figure. He had always wished he had that race car bed frame, like his brother's but he would never voice this want.
Nightmare looked down at the bed, a fed up expression plastered his face. Swap, noticing this, explained "it's not much, I know, but it's enough." Swap continued to guide nightmare into his room, the both of them now sitting on the old mattress. "Ah, geez, this isn't really fit for a King,, maybe I should call Dream and see if he has an apartment we could borrow-" Swap started "Don't bother. We're here now. It's been a long day, let's just try to get some rest." Nightmare insisted, laying down and placing his skull onto a pillow, forcing swap to also get down.
The two layed incredibly close to one another. The meer blanket hardly covered both of them. Despite the conditions, the two slowly drifted off to sleep. Swap first, then nightmare.
In their sleep, the two shifted positions. Nightmare had rolled over, now cuddled up into swap's arm. Nightmare often found himself cold during the night, however, this night he was very warm. The two slept through the night, skulls sweetly rested on eachother.
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