Safe With Me (Shatteredmare fic)

The Beginning

Nightmare was alone in his room. The room Shattered gave him. The room in their very own castle. Nightmare remembered when he had woken up with Shattered one day...

"This castle belongs to you, Nightmare," Shattered affirmed, staring longingly at the castle for some reason.

"It does?" Nightmare asked.

Shattered nodded, pulling Nightmare closer to his chest as he readjusted their position. He was currently holding Nightmare bridal style, probably because it would be most comfortable for Nightmare. "It does," he confirmed. Shattered hesitated from doing something. He continued anyway, "See, you don't remember it, but this was after the Incident happened," Shattered said. He closed his eyes, his head leaning backward a little.

Nightmare simply tilted his head, raising a confused eyebrow. "I'm confused now, you said you couldn't save my brother?" Nightmare questioned. "And yet I had a whole castle I could keep him in after the 'Incident'?"

"Dream died in the Incident," Shattered corrected. "You had the castle only after he died."

"Oh." Nightmare flinched at the bluntness from Shattered, looking away toward the direction of the castle. He looked down at Shattered's feet... His boots were still clean, even after the trip. Maybe his shortcut was a clean path?

Suddenly, Nightmare squeaked when Shattered took his hands (specifically his thumb, the other fingers curled below it) to grab Nightmare's chin. "Look," he cooed quietly, pointing Nightmare's face toward him. He was so close. Nightmare blushed, he didn't know why Shattered felt the need to have his face so close to his. Was he going to kiss him?! But they barely even knew each other! "I'm sorry about what happened to Dream, but you don't have to worry about him anymore," he said. Something screamed to Nightmare that he was lying, lying big time, but Nightmare let it go. Shattered saved him, so obviously he must be an extremely good person for saving someone so useless? "You have me now, and I'll take good care of you, in your castle... No, our castle," he stated, his face leaning toward Nightmare's, his face above his own. "Understand?"

Nightmare was still frozen, utterly confused as to why Shattered was acting this way. Did he act like this to everyone? He didn't know Shattered well enough, so maybe he was... flirty? With everyone??

"Nightmare," he repeated clearly.

Nightmare blinked, coming back to reality. He must have been staring at Shattered's only-showing eye, the other eye being covered in the weird ink like the rest of his body was. "Y-Yes?" He stuttered.

"Were you listening?" Shattered asked. Somehow, he didn't seem to be bothered. He didn't seem like he was losing his patience. Nightmare ignored this, he was probably upset...

"I... I was, I... I understand," Nightmare responded slowly. He wasn't sure as to what Shattered meant at all, but he just had to hope that Shattered believed him.

Shattered's only pupil flicked to his left, off somewhere. His face didn't move away from Nightmare, which only increased the heat flushed on his face as Nightmare gulped. Was he upset?

His eye returned to Nightmare's face. Nightmare thought he saw a gleam or a twinkle in his eyes, but if there was it didn't last long as he grinned. "Let's get inside then. I have your room, just for you," Shattered concluded.

Nightmare nodded, gripping Shattered's sleeves subconsciously, waiting for Shattered to stop being so close to him. He didn't notice he was doing this until Shattered chuckled, pulling away from Nightmare. "I'm sorry if I make you uncomfortable, Nighty," he observed. His eye seemed to twitch as he was holding back from something, but perhaps it was just Nightmare's imagination.

"O-Oh, sorry," Nightmare stammered. He let go of his grip, his blush fading mostly. "I-I didn't mean to get... bottled up," Nightmare added.

"That's fine," Shattered replied simply, stepping toward the gates to the castle. The golden gates that were painted with black swirls opened up when Shattered came close, opening toward the castle. Nightmare couldn't help but gawk at its humongous size... It was chilling. His all-black castle seemed to glisten and shine. It almost seemed that if you were to touch it, it would feel slimy or slick, that's how... odd it seemed. A good kind of odd though, it stuck out well against the surroundings, as if to announce its presence like a royal.

They were nearly to the entrance now.

"Here we are," Shattered breathed quietly. He looked to Nightmare, a wide grin on his face as he whispered, "Our castle."