A What Now? A Nightmare X Reader Story

Chapter 4: Brothers, huh?

[(Y/N) P.O.V.]

"My name is Nightmare, and I'm from Dreamtale. It's a pleasure to make you're aquaintence."

I can feel the recognition on my face.

"Nightmare from Dreamtale, huh? That means you're Dream's brother, right?"

Nightmare's demenor went from amused to bitter before I could blink. "Yes." He sounded irritated, and I knew why.

"You've gotten a lot of that, haven't you?" He looked at me, confused, and I rushed to explain. "The whole 'Dream's brother' thing. People will delegate people the deem to be less important or interesting as just an add-on to the ones they find interesting," I shrugged. "and knowing how people are, they're probably attracted to that aura of his."

"Yeah.." Nightmare muttered, clearly not wanting to talk about this.

"I personally don't get all the hype. Blue says his aura makes people want to be around him since it's so positive, but it really rubs me the wrong way."

At this, Nightmare froze, jaw dropped, staring at me. I stopped too.

"Rubs you the wrong way?" his incredulousness (is that a word?) rang in every syllable.

"Yeah," I told him. "it just seems so fake, you know? I mean, no one can be that positive all time." I chuckled. "I never thought I would want to tell someoe to stop being positive, but he really needs to tone it down a bit." I felt a little bad dumping all my complaints on this guy I had literally just met, but he seemed to be enjoying it. His face was spreading into a wide grin, and his cyan eyelight gleamed with a strange kind of excitement.

"Yeah," he said. "I get that all the time." He started walking again, and so did I. "How did you know?" he asked, still watching me.

I was quiet for a moment, contemplating if I should mention it. I decided that I'm already going to hell anyway, so why not.

"I used to have a brother too," I told him. "He had a really positive aura like Dream's, except that was just a result of his personality, not a bunch of emotion magic or whatever it is. I was always the quiet one, so I was always just 'Sunnyboy's twin'. It gets pretty exausting after a while."

He didn't say anything, so it was quiet for a minute. "I'm (Y/N) by the way."

Nightmare smiled a little bit. "(Y/N) and Sunnyboy?"

I laughed. "His name wasn't actually Sunnyboy, that's just what everyone called him, because he was always so warm and happy, it was like he had his own personal sun." I felt my smile drop a little bit. "I kinda miss that dummy." It was an understatement, I miss my brother so much, but if I say so I'll end up breaking down.

"What was his name really?" Nightmare asked. I shook my head. "I don't say it anymore."

It was answer enough, he let the matter drop.

"So, you know Blue?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I was adopted by Toriel two years ago, after the monsters returned to the surface. He and Papy have been pretty cool to me, and we hang out sometimes. It can be pretty exausting though," I added, "he's a little way to high energy for me to keep up with."

Nightmare laughed. Glad I entertain him.

We've been walking for a while, and we're in the park now. I move off the path and plop myself down at the base of a tree a hang out in a lot. Nightmare seats himself beside me as I yawn. 

"I got up way too early today. I'm going to take a nap." It's probably not a good idea to go to sleep in front of a stranger, but I'm screwed no matter what I do, so to heck with it.

He chuckles. "Sweet dreams, (Y/N)."

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[Nightmare P.O.V.]

Oh my god. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Not only was this human not fawning over Dream like he was some angel from heaven, but they were put off by him. Never have I heard of someone reacting to him to him that way, and I doubt that I will again. 

And they had a brother too. Used to, that is. By the way they spoke about him, they got along better than Dream and myself. Also sounds like he's dead. No wonder they were hesitant to talk about him. When they said they missed him, their negativity spiked, and I could tell they missed him more that they were letting on. This really was an interesting human.

(Y/N), it's a good name for them. It really suits them somehow, I guess. I looked at them sleeping, they seemed peaceful, but I could sense a nightmare brewing, like a stormcloud hanging over their head. Suddenly, I heard the faint wavering that meant someone had teleported nearby. I looked up to see the Star Sanses a few feet away, chatting nervously.

"The school called Her Majesty and said they never arrived," It was Blue who was speaking, obviously about (Y/N). "We need to find them, they could be hurt!" The worry hanging over him made his voice seem just a bit quieter.

"Don't worry Blue, we'll find them," It was my brother, comforting Blue. "they have a very unique emotional climate, so it should be easy to pick them out. They're around here somewhere, I'm certain."

Before Dream had finished speaking, Ink noticed me sitting next to (Y/N). His eyesockets narrowed, and he pulled out his brush, approaching where we were. Blue and Dream looked to see where he was going, and their eyesockets went wide, and they followed him over.

"Nightmare-!" Dream began.

"SHHH!" I shushed him. all three of them blinked in unison, and he tried to start again, but I stopped him. "(Y/N) is sleeping!" I whispered at them, pointing at the sleeping human. I then got to my feet and motioned for them to move away. "You can try and chew me out over there."

We all moved away from (Y/N), letting them sleep. Dream looked back at (Y/N) before speaking. "What are you doing Nightmare? Why is (Y/N) all wet?"

I considered my options before speaking up. "They were thrown into a lake by a bunch of cheerleaders and I pulled them out." I told them, knowing full well (Y/N) would be pissed at me for telling. "I was staying with them so they didn't get attacked again." This was only half true, I had only thought about protecting them after they fell asleep. "Don't tell them I said that," I added, having spotted the smug look on Dream's face. Oh, he is definitely going to tell them.

"Why didn't you send them to school?" Ink was using an accusatory tone, which I didn't appreciate. But I didn't think (Y/N) would be able to sleep through a full blown fight. So I just shrugged.

"Who am I to tell them how to live their life? I'm not the boss of them." I knew the irony of me saying that, and so did they. They didn't seem to think it was very funny though. I sensed the sharp emotional shifts behind me, but I was still startled when (Y/N) sat up with a shriek behind me.