No Matter What (A Dreammare Fic)

Chapter 4: Greater Embarrassment

"Could you all wait outside?" The head healer asked when Dream, Cross, Killer, Horror, and Dust walked into the infirmary.

Cross nodded and dragged a whining Killer out the doors with a bored Horror and Dust following. 

Rose got out from behind the front desk and led Dream towards the back of the room where four beds sat. "You can place them on the one in the corner, once they're out, they're out for a good, long while."

Dream perked up, happy that Ash's mother used their pronouns, and set the slumbering child on the bed in the corner carefully.

"Can you sit here?" Rose asked as she pulled out a medical bag from her inventory.

The guardian complied and sat on the bed next to the healer. 

Rose wasted no time in checking one of the skeleton's arms, making sure the new fissures and scars were healing properly. "Your outfit is lovely, but I'm going to need you to take it off so I can check the majority of the damage."

Dream's face lit up for what felt like the thousandth time today. "Y-you w-want me to do what?"

Chuckling softly, Rose tapped Dream's clothed sternum. "I need you to take your clothes off," she dug around in her gray medical bag. "I've seen you 'bare-bones' already, so there's no need to be so embarrassed."

Dream squeaked at her lack of shame. "W-when di-did you see my..."

"Bones?" Rose finished simply. "When you arrived here last night, Cross was carrying you. His Majesty asked me to heal you in the suite you awoke in. He joined me after making sure everything was fine with the Imperial knights."

Dream flushed even harder, shaking slightly. Maybe the boys were right about Nightmare's meaning for the symbol... Dream thought as he rubbed the back of his skull. Nightmare was with her when she healed me? Does that mean... "D-did N-nightm-mare s-see--"

The healer chuckled and took one of Dream's hands. "No, I had him turn around. The only thing he saw was your spine, and I couldn't really help that."

The guardian's flush calmed down a bit, knowing that Nightmare didn't see him naked. "Now will you take the clothes off?"

Grumbling lightly, Dream undid the belt at his waist and unbuttoned the top segment of the garment, exposing his ribs and spine. He slid the jacket off of his shoulders and folded it next to him. "Can we start with this?"

"Absolutely, Your Grace." Dream blinked at the formality while Rose began to inspect all of the knicks and wounds on Dream's ancient bones. 

That's the first time she's called me by a title. "You don't use the titles as much as other staff."

"Something tells me you do not mind," Rose stated as she investigated each one of Dream's vertebrae, eventually having him take off his pants and boots. The healer continued the conversion without so much of a beat, but Dream was struggling with the embarrassment.

"I-I don't, b-but I want to know what's going on with them," Dream unloaded, trying to distract himself from the fact that he was bare-bones in front of a stranger, "why does everyone use different ones? I have no station here, but I'm 'Your Grace', while Horror and the rest of them have been working under Nightmare for a while and they're only addressed as 'sir'."

The healer pulled out a small tin from the medical bag. Dream's brow bones raised, curious as to the item she was holding. "It's a type of salve, should reduce the chance of scarring." She explained. "Yes, well, only a few people will likely refer to you as 'Your Grace', because no one has gotten word that you're--"