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Chapter Text

You died.

You are sure of that. You remember the feeling of pain, the blood coming out of your veins, and your little brother's hands trying to keep it all inside of you, you remember his voice apologizing and your own heavy breathing and voice stuttering trying to comfort him. You remember feeling weak and closing your eyes and then, you remember nothing.

There was black, you aren't sure about how many hours you spend in that black space; doing nothing, being nothing.

The next thing you know, you are opening your eyes to a new world. It was blurry, the sounds were a bit confusing and you felt absolutely nothing. You wonder why you're there, you are sure you died, you still remember it, though the feelings seem like something distant and far away from you now, you remember feeling pain, but it doesn't matter because you can't feel anything now except energy.

You try to move and fail, you notice you don't have any limbs. You wiggle on your own axis, you think it is weird. You see next to you, there's a blurry yellow light that shines the same way you feel you are doing.

There's a hand holding you, you notice. The hand is big, more than you. For a minute you think about the possibility of you being some kind of worm, you can't enjoy that idea any minute more because you feel yourself being pulled into something.

The world is black once again, but this time you can feel things, you blink your eyes open and try to get used to the light. You can feel the energy within you starting to connect with every nerve in this body, you are appropriating it, it's your body now. Then, you felt pain, it was something that you just felt when you died, but between being in a dark space and being energy you kind of forgot the horrible feeling it was; it comes through all your body, all your nerves and then you feel yourself exploding.

But you didn't explode, it was just that body you were pulled into.

You blink your eyes, the blurry colors were back, and the sounds were funny once again. You are back to just feeling energy, you are energy, you are nothing but that.

You kind of like being just energy. You don't feel anything, not even the desire to wonder why are you here or why aren't you dead.

And the feeling comes again, you try to fight it. You don't want to be pulled into another body! You don't want to explode again! It felt so horrible, please, you just wanted to be in peace, you just-

You feel yourself connecting with the vessel, it's just like the other one, but this one had more space for you. The body didn't explode, thing for what you were grateful for. You blink your eyes once again, and see your hands, they weren't normal hands, for one, they didn't have skin.

"Dream... Nightmare..." You lift your head towards the voice, and you see a woman with green-colored skin and hair, a pink dress, and a blooding wound in her chest. She was smiling, a tired and sad and hopeful smile. " You are the new guardians of the tree, please... take care" next thing you know, she is fading into thin air and fusing with the tree in front of you.

You gulp, processing everything that has come to you in these past few minutes.

You died, and now you are here, in front of a tree, being a skeleton and somehow knowing you are the one called Nightmare, knowing that you are the guardian of negative feelings. You try not to panic, but it's a lost cause when you see next to you and find yourself staring into de eye sockets of another skeleton, one with yellow pupils and a golden crown on its head. Pardon, his head.

Nightmare Sans, you are Nightmare Sans.

Why the heck are you being reincarnated as Nightmare!? You could have been Dream! BUT NOOOO, destiny and fate are huge jerks and you have to be the one who's going to be bullied.

Dream smiles at you, and both of you lie down on the grass, staring at the eye sockets of the other one.

You close your eye sockets, you are tired.

You go back to sleep.

Chapter Text

You open your eyes, the first thing you notice is the tree above you. It's really big and has really weird apples.

One half is full of black apples, while the other one has shiny golden apples. You wonder where that tree came from, but then, you remember everything that happened. Turning your head, you see that the other skeleton is still asleep.

Huh, so it wasn't a dream. You mean the whole dying and being reborn as a fictional character, the skeleton next to you is definitely a Dream.

You go back to staring at the tree, it is beautiful but you can't help to compare the two halves of the tree. The apples on Dream's side are golden and shiny, you could swear they even have sparkles and you even feel like you're able to notice the positivity within them. Yours, on the contrary, were a dull black color, there was not even shine and it didn't seem that the sunlight touched them, they were black and lifeless apples that gave the feeling of being rotten.

You are the keeper of those apples, apples of negative feelings. But why do they have to look so bad? Dream's looked like they had been blessed but yours look ...

You snort and blow a raspberry towards the tree.

Stupid tree! Stupid apples! If they look so bad there's no wonder why the villagers decided Nightmare was the evil one! Just look at those things! They look terrible! Why would someone want to protect it?

Well, you don't want to!

"Brother?" You flinch at the sudden voice of Dream, he looks worried for a minute but you smile and he looks happy again. "What should we do now?" He asks, his eyes lights shining with expectation. You wiggle and avoid his stare.

"Uh... What if... What if we explore?" you suggest, not really knowing if that was the correct answer or not.

Weren't you and Dream supposed to guard the tree? What if while you were exploring someone came and stole all the golden apples? -You wished you could worry over your own apples, but you know well that nobody will take them ever, so there's no need to even think about those black things-

His smile is really big, he takes your hand and lifts you off the ground. You stare at your joined hands, he is touching you so naturally that anybody who sees you two would think you have known each other your whole life. And, maybe, that's exactly why he is grabbing your hand as you would do with your closest friends, you and he were born literally yesterday, he did know you his whole life.

But for you? You still have memories of your past life, your friends, and your family. This skeleton is nothing for you except maybe, a roommate or a tree-mate, you don't know him, you can't consider him your brother, 'cause he is nothing like your real brother, the one you lost the moment you died.

You try to ease the sadness that comes to you wherever you think of your death.

"Look! There's a river there!" Dream says and drags you towards the said river. The water is so clean that you can see the fishes swimming in there, you see the animals and you ask yourself if you need to eat.

You are a skeleton now, you don't have guts, right? You shouldn't need to eat. But then again, Sans ate in Undertale. But did he eat because he needed to or because he found it interesting? Or did eating have something to do with the soul?

Maybe they needed to eat, to gain energy, and keep living and producing magic?

... Do you even have a soul?

"I'm gonna try to catch a fish!" Says Dream, starting to take off his clothes and preparing himself to jump into the water. You aren't listening to him, you are thinking.

You remember some people saying that Dream and Nightmare didn't have souls, you don't remember if that's canon or not, and you don't know if you want to know if you have one or not.

You were energy before being put into this skeletal body, you were pure negative energy, not a soul.

But once again, what was the meaning of a soul? It is the representation of your whole being, and the representation of your whole being was that pure negative energy. So... Your soul is that energy? But it wasn't heart-shaped like other monster souls, it was a ball of energy, not an inverted heart or something similar.

So... Did it still count as a soul? You are feeling right now, and you know for sure that soulless people don't have feelings. So yes, you have to have a soul, because if not, what sense did that make?

"NIGHT...MARE! HELP... MEEEEE!" The screams make you go out of your own thoughts and notice that Dream was far away, the water current was carrying him away. He was waving his arms desperately trying to stay afloat, you curse under your breath and run after him.

"Dream! There's a rock near you, hold on it!"

He does as you say, his hand takes the rock and he hugs it as his life depends on it, which was actually true. You don't know if skeletons can drown as they don't have lungs, but you prefer not to let your tree-mate die just to know the answer.

When you are near him, you think of what to do. The river isn't really that large, but the current was fast and you fear being carried away.

What to do? What to do?

You are suddenly really angry. Why did Dream even get into the water? Why is he that irresponsible? Didn't he know he had to be alive? He has to keep being alive, you don't want to be the only one protecting the cursed tree! Why didn't Dream think about you!? He surely just thought that it would be funny to be in the water and die and leave you alone!

"Don't you know how to swim!?" You shout at him, looking around for something to help Dream.

"No! I was just born yesterday, same as you!" He shouts back, his eye socket filled with tears.

"Oh, right" You mumble. "Thanks, dear tree, give us the knowledge of how to walk but not how to swim!"

Finally, you see a branch large and light enough for you to take it and try to get it to Dream. You do that, you take one extreme with both of your hands and tell Dream to take the other one.

"Then you just have to come here." You say. It's a good idea, you think.

Dream nods and does as you said. He slowly takes his arms off of the rock and puts his hands on the branch, he uses it to cross the river and when he is touching grass again he stumbles onto you and cries while hugging you "I- I was so scared, brother!" He says between hiccups, you make a face when you feel his wet body over yours.

He is wetting your clothes.

But you feel tears creating in your eye sockets and you cling on to Dream. "You are a fool! I hate you!" You say, not really feeling that but wanting to say that nonetheless, "Why would you do something like that to me? Don't do that again. I- I don't want to lose you, Dream!"

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to catch a fish!"

You hug him, for a very long time.

You don't want him to leave you. He is the only thing that proves to you that this is real and that this is your new life.

You need him, to keep you company and help you guard the tree.

You cling on to him, fearing he's going to do something foolish once again and leave you alone. He hugs you back, and you can't help but feel relieved that he is with you, and alive.

You notice, that that is the first time you felt something positive since being reborn.

Relief, a feeling of reassurance following release from anxiety or distress.

Until that moment, you were just being angry and sad and scared about your situation.

You shouldn't have been so sad about being Nightmare, he was one of your favorite characters after all. But you couldn't think about that, you were focussing on the idea of the suffering you were going to go through.

Maybe, you didn't have a soul, after all, just negative energy could not be considered a soul.

Normal you, the real you, would not be sad about this situation, she -you- would have been really happy and excited, trying to get the better of the situation and change the future. Why, then, why don't you felt like that? You are she, she was you after all, even if you are now this skeleton you shouldn't have been so sad and grumpy and doing things past you would not do!

"What if we go to the village? Would you like that?" You ask Dream, deciding that you wanted to live a happy life.

At least the happiest life you could have. You weren't going to just sit down and let the sadness overcome you! You were going to fight! And fail, 'cause Nightmare is bound to be the sad one in this story and- NO! None of that! You are going to fight and keep fighting and make your life a happy one.

This is a new life, you can learn from what you know and make it slightly better!

"There's a village?"

"Yeah, I think there's one near the tree..."

"I didn't see it! Let's go, brother!" Dream smiles and takes your hand ready to drag you towards the tree. You stop him. "Dream, I think you are forgetting something" He blinks his eyes at you.

"Oh! My clothes!" He smiles, and you do too.

If Dream was near you then you are sure you can be happy.

' But, isn't he going to leave Nightmare and go play with villagers?' Your smile drops. You just need to keep him with you, that can't be difficult.

Right?

Chapter Text

There's no village.

Dream and you have walked for what seems like hours, you explored near the tree but there was nothing there that could be considered a village, it was simply nature as far as the eye could reach. Even so, you decided that you wanted to keep looking, you are sure that there must be a nearby village, from somewhere whoever had injured your mother-tree must have come out.

Still, there was nothing.

No houses, no monsters or humans or people willing to hate you and love Dream. There was nothing and no one.

"Brother? I think there's no village" Dream says when you both reach the start of a forest.

You shrug, trying to look nonchalant. "Welp, I suppose we should go back to the tree."

Dream smiles at you and nods, starting to walk back to the tree you were supposed to guard. You walk next to him, your mind wandering over reasons why the village wasn't there and why it bothered you that much. The villagers were going to bully you at some point! Why do you feel bad? You should be happy they're not here.

Well, maybe it was because you told Dream that there was a village, but this stupid world just wants to make you look bad in front of your tree-mate!

And why is there no village? Maybe it... It hasn't been built yet. Yeah, you should tell Dream that. "Hey, Dream? I'm sorry there wasn't a village"

"Don't worry, brother! I'm not angry at you for being wrong!"

"Yeah, right. Well, the thing is that I know there's going to be a village sometime in the future! So, technically, I'm not wrong."

Dream stops and looks at you, his pupils have now the form of stars and his smile is shining more than the sun. "YOU CAN SEE THE FUTURE!?" He exclaims excitedly.

You smile nervously. Well... you don't want to lie to him, you can't see into the future, but... You came from a world where all this was just fiction and you kind of knew what was going to happen so... It's not a lie. So you're not a liar. "Yeah! I- I can see the future."

"Can you see what are we going to eat for lunch?"

"Future sight doesn't work like that! It- It happens by accident, like today, I thought I saw a village but that was only me seeing the future! I can't, you know, force it or anything."

Dream smiles and resumes his walk. You sigh, you couldn't believe you were lying. Didn't you promise yourself that this was going to be a better life!?

But nooo, you were falling into old habits from your old life, lying like there was no tomorrow!

Didn't you just think that Dream was going to leave you because he'd think you're a liar? Well, when he discovers that you lied he is surely going to hate you! Ok, you lied your entire past life, this can't be difficult, is just one small lie, Dream will never discover that you're lying and he won't leave you or hate you 'cause he is Dream! He is the guardian of positivity that loves everyone and sees the good in people!

Yeah, you don't have to start thinking that bad, it's going to be fine.

AND! You close your eye sockets and promise yourself that you're not going to lie anymore, not unless is necessary, like if someone told you that he is going to kill Dream if you tell the truth. Which isn't going to happen, nobody would hurt Dream, ever.

"Well, I think we are going to eat... These red apples!"

You look at the other skeleton, in his gloved hands has a bunch of red apples. "Where did you get those from?"

"There was a tree that looked like ours! I didn't touch the yellow apples, only the red ones."

You look at the trees near you, you notice two things; one, both of you are in the middle of the forest; and two, the trees near you were mostly apple trees.

"You know, you can touch the yellow and green ones, too." You say, starting to climb one of the trees and reaching a green apple with your hand, you loved green apples in your past life and you wonder if this body will like them too, taking on account that this body probably had different taste buds than your past one, maybe even it didn't have taste buds as... you are a skeleton and you don't have a tongue.

"Really? But they look similar to my apples! I thought we weren't supposed to touch our apples, just protect them!" You take one apple and start to reach another one.

"We can't touch our own apples, because... uh... well, they're feeling and all that. But these are normal apples, so it's ok. And also, those red apples in your hands have yellow too." You go to another tree and take a yellow apple, you smile when it doesn't turn black. "Look at this one, is just a yellow apple. The positive apples look more like gold and shine and even have sparkles and you can probably listen to angelic music when you see them. But this is just a normal apple."

Dream smiles. "You're really smart, brother!"

"Yes, I suppose I am." You smile too and bite one of the green apples in your hand. "Now, why don't you explain to me what are we doing in the middle of the forest?"

He smiles sheepishly "I kind of got lost... There was a beautiful butterfly that I wanted to look at, then I lost her and I noticed we were surrounded by trees, so I took these red apples and you know the rest."

"Well... I'm happy there's no village. We've got time to spare looking for the exit"

"Hehe." Dream smiles, and sits on the grass near a tree, he pats the place next to him so you drop yourself in there. "Let's eat first, I want to know how these apples taste!" He smiles and bites his red apple, he munches it for a while, and then his eyes take the form of stars once again. "IT'S SO GOOD! Do you want to try a bite?"

You shrug and nod. "Ok, and you can try my apple" he gives you his apple and you give him yours.

His pupils are still stars when he takes a bite of the apple, you can't help but laugh at his face. His stars break and his eye sockets are empty. He starts coughing and looks like he wants to cry. "This tastes awful! It's so- So ... EW!"

"Sour?" You suggest while taking a bit of the red apple. Hmm... It was sweet. But nothing different from your past life, you like apples but you rarely could eat green ones, so you love more green apples than red ones!

"Yeah! It's so blegh! How can you like that?"

"I think they taste fine."

"You are crazy." He says, with a smile on his face

"Yes, I am." You take another bite of your green apple and smile.

Chapter Text

"I found our tree!" Dream exclaims with a huge smile on his face, you feel yourself smiling too at the sight of the black and golden apples in the tree.

You go and hug the tree. "I never thought I would miss see you so much!" Dream laughs and joins you in the hug. "We've been walking for hours, I just want to sleep."

"Don't be lazy, brother. We're back at home but there's still a lot of things we can do until the sun goes down!"

You groan, not really wanting to do anything but lay down and sleep for a really long time. "Things like what? I don't think there's anything to do here. There are no video games and no TV, and..." you gasp, suddenly realizing something important "There are no fanfics either!" You feel like wanting to cry, there aren't fanfics, what are you going to do now? Fanfics were the whole reason you were still alive in your past life! How were you going to survive without them?

"What are video games, TV, and fanfics? I don't know any of those"

"Well... Uh..." You frown, not really knowing how to explain it. "Well... TV is... there's a screen, and it shows something interesting, like aliens. The same goes for video games, except that you can play with a video game. And a Fanfic is... Like a book but made by fans of TV shows and video games...?" You shook your head. "I don't really know how to explain it, and I don't think is important right now because it doesn't exist."

"Is that another thing about the future?" You nod, hoping that that was it, you really didn't want to live in a world with no fanfiction.

The shows and games you liked probably didn't exist here, which wasn't that bad as your favorite game was Undertale and now you were living in it. And you can always try to watch new shows and see if you like them. You always wondered what Mew Mew Kissy Cutie was about, maybe you can watch it someday.

"We don't have a screen about aliens that play with us, but we have grass! Let's roll on it, like this!" He lays down on the grass and rolls from one side to the other. "WHEEEEEEE'! This is fun!"

You roll your eyes at his antics and let him have his fun. You want to keep thinking about fanfics and how to overcome your loss.

Maybe you wouldn't be so sad about that if you had some fantasy books, you just love to read things, but there's no village so there's no library and there are no books for you to take. There isn't even some paper for you to write, you would be happy just writing unfinished fanfiction, or drawing as you did in your past life... Man, now there's an itch on your hand, you want to draw.

"I'm joining you in that," You say, starting to roll from one side to the other in the grass the same way Dream is doing.

You try to distract your mind from the urge to draw, you remember all those nights when the urge suddenly appeared and you couldn't sleep until you took a pen and a paper and started drawing as you wanted, the next morning you'd see the draw and notice that it was terrible.

'Rolling in the grass is not working' You notice, so you stop doing that and force yourself to think about other things.

Like that about earlier with the apples, you asked yourself if you would like the apples or not because of taste buds, so now you know more about this body. You apparently still can taste things, and you can also eat, you don't know how that works as you are a skeleton and doesn't even have a throat or a stomach, maybe you can find a book about that someday, most likely when you are out of this AU as a goopy octopus, as you and Dream are the only skeletons in this place.

And talking about AUs, what would happen to that Undertale AU you started some time before dying? It was out there waiting to be finished? Could you finish it now? You were Nightmare Sans now, but you're also the creator, how does that work? Was it like an X-Gaster situation?... Was X-Gaster someone in the real world who died and now is in Undertale? Is Xtale even existing right now? You know Dream and Nightmare were hundreds of years old, and Cross was just in his mid-twenties or something near that, so... we're right now AU's outside this one?

Well, yes it must be, your mother-tree made your body the same as Swap Sans, so there IS alternative universe. But Dream was older than Blueberry, and the only logical solution to that is that this AU has a different speed of time, faster. Or maybe it was because in this place you didn't have a human resetting the timeline, so your story is linear while the others keep repeating and going back to the beginning.

But back at your AU. You don't know if you want to finish it, you kind of left it abandoned for a month and then you died, it wasn't that original so... But what if it was out there? You didn't want to let those poor unfinished characters being alone in that universe! Ok, the first thing you need to do when going out of this place; found Error and ask him to destroy that universe. He is the destroyer so he would do it! And as you are the creator and you want it destroyed Ink can't go and interfere.

Gosh, having an AU is less stressful when only you and your two friends know about it, thinking that it may be out there at the reach of anyone in the multiverse and-

"Oh dear god, please tell me they're not there" you pray, terrified at your own thought.

"Who?" You don't answer him, fearing that if you say their name out loud they're going to appear in front of you and laugh and point that yes, they do see that AU of yours all the time and how terrible it is. Core! Frisk... Why did that damn child even exist? Now you can't do anything without knowing they're there watching everything you do.

"Nothing, I think I'm going to sleep now."

"Oh... Ok. I'm going to collect flowers"

"Don't go too far, I don't want you to fall into a river or get lost in the middle of the forest ever again"

You close your eyes, yup, not gonna think about that Frisk and the fact that they're everywhere, better think about other things, like... counting sheep and go to sleep!

"Don't worry, I won't"

Chapter Text

The days come and go, you and Dream have been playing and exploring around, you now know some things about this body of yours.

First of all, you need to eat. Your true form may be pure negative energy, but you are now in this body and this body needs to be fed. You discovered that when you fell sick the other day; you wake up and feel extremely bad, everything hurt and you couldn't find the energy to move or do anything, you wanted something, your body wanted something, but didn't know what? Why were you sick?

Dream saw you, he looked worriedly at you and said "I told you to eat, brother!"

You hadn't been eating, you were busy thinking about the world you were and everything in your mind, you didn't think you needed to eat, besides, you did eat some apples sometimes. But that wasn't enough to live, your body needed more than just one apple every three days. That day Dream forced the food down your throat.

Not that you didn't want to eat, you love to eat, that's practically other of the reasons you loved being alive in your past life. You... you just figured that since you were immortal you wouldn't need it. Apparently, your body's not immortal.

(Thanks again, dear tree, for doing us inside a mortal body)

And second, your eyelights can also turn into stars.

You and Dream were on the river washing your clothes, and you saw your reflection for the first time; a skeleton with lavender eyelights and a golden circlet with a crescent moon atop your head, you didn't know you had that thing on your head, you obviously had it, since Dream had his so you were supposed to have yours, you kind of felt stupid for not noticing before.

Dream came close to you, his reflection also appearing in the water next to you. He smiled. "You are really cute."

You blushed, your eyelights looking at him. "Your eyelights! They're stars!" you blink and see at the water, your reflection has a soft lilac color on your face and your pupils are stars.

You smile. This body is easy to flatter, not like the one you had before, just the fever could bring color to your cheeks.

Now, it has been two months since you and Dream were created by the tree, two months since you died and reincarnated in this world of fantasy.

You had time to think.

Your memory has good, better than before even, so you tried to recall everything you know about Dreamtale and other universes.

You thought about Core Frisk, again hating the idea of the kid being right next to you watching your life, they weren't at fault for their own omnipresence so you tried not to hate the kid for something they didn't choose. Instead, you thought about what you knew of the child. They take monsters survivors of genocide routes to the Omega Timeline? Or something like that. And the way to enter the Omega Timeline was with a door and thinking about that place.

You wanted to try it. But you can't, there are no doors in the middle of nature, you had to wait until the village started to get built so you could try and see if that's true you can enter the OT that way. You wanted to go to the Omega Timeline! Just visiting and all that, maybe you could get some friends there?

You shook your head. You can't just think about getting friends when there is no guarantee you're going to be able to go to that place.

You also thought about you and Dream. This is obviously another universe different from the original, after all, you are here, and that's not how it's supposed to be. But... Is this universe similar to the original Dreamtale? Or was this another universe? Maybe it was Dreamswap or... whatever name the other Dreamtale AU's have.

And if it was the original one, how many changes can you do? And how would that affect the multiverse? Nightmare getting corrupted was one of the important events, he is needed! You are needed! But what if you going to the Omega Timeline affect the story so much that you never get corrupted and you and Dream live forever in Dreamtale?

Finally, you thought about the tree you were supposed to protect.

"How are we supposed to protect the tree?" You ask yourself, Dream was playing near you with a rabbit he found in the forest, he looks at you and shrugs. "Don't know," he says, you think about it.

And then you smile.

"We need to use magic!" You get on your feet, feeling excited about the idea of using magic for the first time. "Let's try to do magic!" You say.

"Yes! That sounds fun! Uh- How do we magic?"

"Er... I don't know? Just... Close your eyes and think about magic or something"

You sit in front of the other skeleton, the rabbit being forgotten and escaping to the forest again. You close your eye sockets and try to think about magic, about feeling magic and doing magic. Nothing comes to you.

"I DID IT!"

You open your eyes, Dream has a soft yellow aura in his gloved hands. "What?... How did you do it!?"

"I just... Thought about things that make me happy! And then thought about protecting our mother!"

You frown. "I'll try that". You close your eye sockets again, this time trying to think about the feeling of happiness, you thought about things that made you happy in your past life, things that made you happy in this one, you thought about the tree and your mother and you protecting it. You open your eyes, just to see nothing in your hands. "This isn't working"

"Maybe you have to think about sad things? You are my opposite, so..."

That's true, you nod and try again. Feeling of sadness... Nothing... You thought about your past life, it makes you sad to think about your brother even when you know you love him, it's a bittersweet feeling, being sad about a happy memory... You think about the tree, about your brother, about failing in this life and letting the tree be hurt, about how sad you would be if that was your brother you're letting die. You think about not wanting to be sad and protecting the tree, not only the tree but yourself and your brother.

There's warmth in your hands. "Brother! You did it!" You blink your eyes open, watching the lavender aura in your hands.

"Wow..." It felt... really nice. You try to shape the magic in form of something, a bone or a staff or... whatever, you didn't care, you just wanted to do something. After a while, you are successful at gathering all your magic in your hand, you use your hands to mold it. "Look at this! I made a star!" You say, holding out your hands for your brother to see the purple star-shaped magic on them.

"That's really cool! Lemme try..." You watch as Dream also gathers his magic in one of his hands and uses the other to give it form. "Mine is a Crescent moon!" You smile at the dull yellow crescent moon in his hands.

"Now, we just need to know how to use this magic to protect the tree. Maybe we can cast some kind of protecting spell? Do even spells exist here?"

"We can try this night when we get home!"

You nod and watch the star in your hand. "How... How do I make it disappear?"

Dream chuckles. "I got distracted so my moon disappeared! So... think about something else?"

"I was thinking about something else! Like the spell for the tree..." You frown your inexistent brows at the magic. "Uh... Maybe I just... Go away Magic!" you think about not doing magic, it takes another five attempts but in the end, you can get the star to dissipate.

Magic is hard.

Chapter Text

When you get home that night, Dream and you try to use your magic to cast a protection spell for the tree. You don't know if it works; you and Dream gathered the magic and then thought about protecting your mother/tree, both of you put your hands on the tree trunk and tried to apply the magic.

If you actually applied the magic on the tree or not, it remains to be seen.

Days come and go, you and your brother have fun playing in the forest, you taught Dream how to make a fire and you tried to cook some vegetables, you are bad at cooking, half the vegetables come out like a burned mess. Same as you, Dream is terrible at cooking, he tried to cook something but he got distracted trying to find more ingredients, when you noticed he was gone the food was already burning.

You actually never cooked before, not even in your past life (ok, you did pizza once in your life, but that was with the help of a recipe and a pre-made dough.) You want to try and be able to cook the vegetables before trying to catch a fish or a rabbit, there's a theory you want to prove with that, but until the day you and Dream stop burning everything you won't kill an innocent animal to be badly cooked.

Speaking of theories...

"Dream? I have a theory I want to prove" You say, moving your feet on the water and splashing a little. Dream is next to you, laying on the grass and watching the sky.

"What theory?" He asks you can feel his eyes fixed on you, but you keep staring into the water.

"Well..." You smile "¿Puedes entender español?"

Dream blinks. "Uh... Yeah?" Turning your head to see him, you realize your tree-mate has a frown on his face. "I understand 'Spa...nyol'. What's 'Is... panyol'?"

"It's a language, it's called and I want to know if you can talk it!"

"I... I can try?" you stare at him intently, his face is deep in concentration. "I... I don't know what to say!"

"Your favorite fruit?" You suggest

"¡Banano! Me gustan los bananos" of course, you forgot his favorite food was bananas, luckily for Dream, saying banana in Spanish is pretty easy. "¡OH! ¿Es esto español?"

"Yup! ¿Puedes decirme tu nombre?"

"Mi nombre... ¿Sueño?" Dream smiles, while you just pull a face. Right, it's always weird thinking about the translation of your names, you are used to reading fanfics in Spanish with the names in English, so you never, not even once, tried to translate those names. Then you started reading English fanfics and had to learn that the names were awfully literal and that's normal.

You brush it off and smile. "Yeah! And my name is Nightmare!"

"Mwehehe. ¡Puedo hablar Español!"

"Yes, you can, same as me. But most people speak English!"

Dream nods, and you smile.

Your theory has been proved!

You knew that Joku, Dreamtale's creator, speaks Spanish, so you thought that maybe you and Dream could also do it! And you were right! You could have proven the theory alone if you didn't know the language before, but thanks to Dream you can confirm it.

That also means that other creators that speak other languages passed that knowledge to their own creations. Hopefully, it's only a second language, you aren't sure how are you going to be able to convince Killer to join you if he speaks Arabic, you can't even speak English or Spanish all that well!

Chapter Text

"Brother! What's this white stuff?" Dream questions you with curiosity, his gloved hands grabbing the snow that had fallen the night before.

The sky is still covered with clouds and little snowflakes are softly falling from up there. You smile at Dream, grabbing some snow in your hands too, it is cold but it doesn't feel terrible, maybe it's because you don't have skin. This is the first time seeing snow, not even in your past life, you had the opportunity to see it.

"That, my dear tree-mate, is snow."

Dream eyelights change into stars, you are pretty sure yours are also like that, how not to be excited about this? It's snowing! You always dreamed about doing things with snow!

"Hey Dream! Let's do a snowman!" You state with a big smile.

The next few hours are spent trying to figure out how to build a snowman. Both of you made the snowballs for the man, after several unsuccessful attempts you had finally managed to keep the snow together; now, however, there was another problem, you had no idea how you are going to put one ball on top of the other. You tried to lift one of them, but it is bigger and weighs more than you and Dream.

Maybe you shouldn't have tried to do a snowman THAT big, but you were excited about doing one for the first time...

"This is snow, but not a man." Dream says, his eye sockets staring at the snow.

"Yeah. I know, I think we should do a smaller one" Your brother tree-mate nods and you start doing a snowman from the beginning.

This time, you and Dream manage to assemble the snowman, you even do another one next to the first one. It was three snowballs together. "It just needs the arms and face, so... You go find something for the face, and I'll go for the arms." The other skeleton nods with a serious face (the most serious a kid Dream is capable of doing) and both of you split up to search for the objects you want.

You find some sticks that look good enough, you grab them and return to the place where you're doing the snowmen. You push the sticks into the middle section of the snowman, positioning the sticks so they're tangled up in one snowman and angled down in the other one, giving the snowman the look you like best. When you finish doing that, Dream returns and gives you what he found.

Stones, some bananas, an apple, and a beetle. You immediately let all the things fall onto the snow beneath your feet when you see the last one, you are still scared of bugs, a fear you have not overcome and will probably never do. The beetle goes away, at least you can't see it anymore, you sigh.

"Is this useful?" He inquiries, you nod, crouching and picking up all the things you let fall.

"Help me doing the faces." You say, giving him the things he gave you before, and he does as you say.

He grabs the stones and places them as eyes and nose in the two snowmen, then he looks at the fruits, peels the bananas, and starts eating them. You roll your eyes but don't tell him anything, of course, Dream would grab a banana just to eat it, he loves bananas, why did you even think the banana would be for something else?

You take the apple and cut it in half, you don't have knives but you got a stone sharp enough that it has served you as a knife since the moment you found it a couple of weeks after teaching Dream how to make a fire. You cut the apple into slices and grab two of them. "Hey Dream, look! These are like smiles!" You say, putting the slices of apple in the snowmen's faces.

"Oh! That's true!" He finishes his banana, and stare intently at the snowmen you two did. "That one is you," he says, pointing at the snowman with its arms angled down, "and that one is me." he now points to the snowman with its arms angled up.

He took the circlet off of his head and places it atop the head of the snowman he last pointed out, then he looks at you. You took off your circlet too and place it on the head of the snowman Dream said is you.

Well, this is cute. You wish you had a camera to take a photo, but you don't have one so you'll have to look at it and memorize everything about this memory.

You can't help the smile that crept onto your face, Dream is really smart. The snowmen are placed near the tree, it looks like they're guarding it. The snowman that represents you is below the half of the tree with the black apples, while the one that represents Dream is below the golden apples' half of the tree. Yes, they look exactly like you and Dream, they only need clothes but since you and Dream only have the one you're wearing at the moment, the snowmen will have to be like that.

"That was fun to do." Dream beams.

"Yes! Wanna do a snow angel?"

You lay on the floor and move your arms and legs, then you stand up. "Ta-dah! A snow angel!" Dream chuckles and lays on the floor, he moves his arms and legs and then stands up.

"This is great!"

Chapter Text

You and Dream are hiding between some bushes. Both of you had gone to clean your clothes on the river, when you were coming back Dream caught a glimpse of someone moving, Dream thought it would be an animal and he wanted to see it, but you thought it was bigger than an animal so you convinced your tree-mate to hide and watch before doing nothing.

You were right, it was no animal, instead, it was a man. You glare at him from your hiding space, you didn't know that man, for all you know he could be one of the villagers who bullied Nightmare; Dream doesn't think the same as you. He beams with excitement and goes out of the bushes. He walks towards the man, with you screaming whispering for him to come back.

Why is he being like this? Doesn't he know that strangers can be dangerous? But of course Dream didn't know, until this very moment, it was only you and him.

You'll have to teach him to not just go and talk to unknown people.

"Hi! My name's Dream!" Dream says, waving his hand. You stand up and go next to him, your eyelights fixed into the man and studying him. "And this is my brother, Nightmare!"

The man was taller than them, he had suntanned skin, teal short hair, and hazel eyes. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and a confused but polite smile on his face. He was wearing a dark teal turtleneck, black pants, and black boots, atop his head, the man had a black fedora. You think he looks like someone in his thirties, but you were never good at guessing other people's ages so you were probably wrong.

"A pleasure. I am Noah, and..." He looks around, a more sincere smile appears on his face. Noah waves his hand at somewhere, both you and Dream turn your head to see, it's... A little cat boy hiding behind a tree. You knew there were going to be monsters but it's so weird seeing one in front of you. "And he is my nephew, Anton. But I bet you could tell, we are really similar"

... Where, exactly, are the similarities between them?

The boy's a cat! Well, partially, more like... like a furry! Semi-furry? Yeah, that! He is a blue bicolor cat with hazel eyes, he is wearing an orange shirt, brown short pants, and white shoes. He has an old brown backpack. Honestly, the hazel eyes are the only thing you can see they share.

Contrary to you, Dream is nodding his head. "Yeah! You two have the same face!" Apparently, he can see the similarities. You know he's not lying, he wouldn't do that, he's too good to do something like that.

Anton comes out of his hiding place, Noah places a hand in the back of the boy and smiles at you two. "We are looking for my brother, Anton's father. Have you seen him?"

You shook your head no. Dream answers with words. "Nop! The first people we see here since we were born is you!"

"Are you sure!?" Anton says, he opens his backpack and searches for something in there, when he finds it, he gives you a piece of paper. You see it and notice that is not a piece of paper but a photo. "That's him! He... He has to be here, please."

Dream looks at the photo over your shoulder, in the photo is a man similar to Noah, but instead of teal hair the man had blue hair, in the photo, he was hugging Anton, both of them were smiling.

"I'm sorry, we haven't seen him." You say, feeling somewhat bad about not being able to help this little boy. OK, not 'little' boy, Anton is a head taller than you and Dream. You wonder how old is he. You knew you and Dream were going to be small after all these skeleton bodies are based on Swap Sans and he is smaller than Classic Sans, but this small? You had to look up to the boy!

"But! But... Uncle Noah, tell them my father has to be here! Tell them!"

"Ben -that's his name- said that he was going to look for something that would help us all. He said he wasn't going to take more than a few months, but it has been a year and we don't have a word about him. I was worried and decided to search for him. And... This is where he has to be, we followed his map."

"Map, what map?"

Noah moves with his hand, Anton nods and searches again in his backpack, he takes out a book and opens it on some pages. There's a map, you don't know what all of those lines are, but you recognize something; the drawing of a tree with black and white apples, next to it was small cursive words that said 'The tree of feelings'.

Oh.

You think you have an idea what happened to Anton's father. The answer is so obvious as knowing two plus two equals four.

"That's our tree!" Dream exclaims with a huge smile.

"My father was looking for that tree! This is his journal, he wrote about the tree and its apples."

Dream and Anton talk with smiles on their faces about the apples, Dream compliments Anton's father on knowing so much about the apples and Anton smiles and shows him the journal.

Noah notices you, you and your face of utter despair and uncomfort. You actually have a really good guess about what happened. "You... You know something about Ben?"

You pull a face, avoid his gaze, and start playing with the sleeves of your clothes. "I..." You start, but can't say anything else. "I..." You move in your place.

What's the correct manner to tell someone that his brother is dead? Not only that, you needed to tell him what happened, tell him that the man was dead because your mother killed him, and then explain that your mother is also dead because of that man. Explain that the brother he seemed to care about was a murderer.

There has to be a good way to tell all that, but... You don't know it, so you'll just do your best. You take a breath and then start to explain with a hushed voice the best you can. "I think he's... Well... I... He's dead. I... I don't know if I'm correct, but if I am, then I must say sorry because it was our mother that killed him."

"What!? Where's your mother!? I want to tell her some things! I want to know why she killed my little brother..."

"Um... So, long story short, our mother was the guardian of the tree. Your brother stabbed her, she killed him to protect the apples, and then she died."

"... So, my brother... My brother and your mother killed between them. Oh god." The teal haired man puts a hand on his face, then he cast a worried glance at his nephew.

You know what's he thinking, probably about how much this would hurt Anton or how to tell him the news. Noah looks at you once again. "But... You aren't sure about that, are you?"

"It's a theory, it may or may not be correct."

"I... I knew he may be dead, but I wanted to believe otherwise. I think I want some tea, thanks for your help, Nightmare"

Your eyelights sparkle at the mention of tea. "You have tea? I love tea! I- I mean, maybe I love it, I never, not even once, had tried it!"

Noah smiles sadly at you. "Ok, you and your brother can come with us for some tea."

"DREAM! We're going to drink tea with Mr. Noah and Anton!"

Dream cuts his conversation with Anton to look at you. "Really? I never had tea!"

"Me neither!"

Anton smiles. "Yes! We can go home so I can show you more about my father!"

You smile fondly at Dream and Anton. While you were giving bad news, Dream had already done a new friend. Maybe if you try... You could make Anton your friend too, you just need to talk to them a little. It can't be more difficult than telling someone sad news.

Chapter Text

Since he was born on some sunny day, Dream hadn't seen anybody near the tree. He knew he had to protect it, but from what? It was a somewhat vague order, he simply had to protect the tree against dangers, but what dangers? Animals were the only living beings near the tree, and the animals NEVER did anything to his mother! The squirrels didn't even get up to the branches.

So what dangers? There was nothing to protect.

But now, there's someone else, another person who he can talk with and be friends! Don't take it badly, Dream loves his brother, but the more the merrier, Dream wants friends!

Noah and Anton are family, the skeleton thinks that they're really similar, ok yes, Anton was basically a cat, full of fur and all that, but they both have the same round face and they have the same hazel eyes! If he puts cat ears atop of Noah's head then they're the same except with other colors.

"That's our tree!" Dream exclaims, pointing at the drawing of their apple tree.

Anton's face brights up at the revelation, he smiles at the skeleton and says "My father was looking for that tree! This is his journal, he wrote about the tree and its apples"

"Woah! Your dad knows about our apples!? I didn't know others knew about them! Your father must be smart."

Dream recall the photo Anton gave them, there was a man, the father of Anton, he was like Noah but with blue hair. Anton's father and Anton are more than similar! Anton is a cat copy of his father! They have the same round face, and the same form of eyes, the same eyebrows, and the same shade of blue on their hair/fur.

"Yes, he is!" Anton's smile is basically shining, Dream is happy because his new friend is happy. "Look, he even wrote about the golden ones." Anton changes the pages on the journal and shows the skeleton a page where a drawing of a golden apple with sparkles is shown. Dream takes the journal and starts reading what it says.

But...

"Um... Anton. I don't know how to read"

The cat looks at him with a dumbfounded expression. "What? How old are you? I learned to read when I was four!" Dream thinks about that, how old are Nightmare and him?

He didn't know, he was trying to count it but after 'I was born the day before, before, before, before yesterday' he lost count. Lots of days have passed, Nightmare said to him that there are months and days, but that he also didn't know what day it was... Nightmare said that when the days are sunny and warm again, that means it has passed a year since they were born, then his brother mumbled something along the lines of 'Weren't Dream and Night born in December? Seasons are so weird...'

Well, Dream knows he is not a year old, so that means he still is not four years old. "I'm not four years old yet. Can you read it for me?"

"You are not four years old? Hm... Well, you are small, so it makes sense. Give me the journal, I'm going to read it!" Anton clears his throat and starts to read slowly. "The... gold...en... apples! The golden apples... are... the ap... apples of... pos...itivi...ty. O...one... o...of... th...th...them..."

It was slow work, a real slow work. Dream wonders if Nightmare knows how to read. Nightmare knows lots of things, he must also know how to read and read really fast because his brother is smart, Dream thought they were created the same, but nop, Nightmare can see the future, so he is more than smart, he is... He is... SUPER REALLY MEGA SMART!

"DREAM! We're going to drink tea with Mr. Noah and Anton!" His brother shouts, Dream blinks, and turns his head to watch his brother.

"Really? I never had tea!"

Nightmares smiles. "Me neither!"

"Yes! We can go home so I can show you more about my father!"

The four of them walk to the camping tent of Noah and Anton, inside of it, Dream can't help but stare with starred eyes at everything. Noah puts something with water onto something else, then he closes his eyes and... "SIR! YOUR HANDS ARE ON FIRE!" Dream exclaims worried, the man's hand are on fire, blue fire!? He looks at his brother for help, but Nightmare doesn't look freaked out, his brother has stars in his eyelights

"WOW! Is that magic fire?" He asks, Noah nods with a small smile.

Magic. Dream smiles now, feeling better about not having to worry. "Wow! Nightmare, can we do magic fire?"

"Maybe, we can try if you want"

"I have a book about magic!" Anton says, he goes for his backpack and takes a book, then he handles it to the yellow skeleton. "Oops! Sorry, didn't remember you can't read"

"Don't worry! Brother, do you know how to read?"

Nightmare blinks and nods slowly. Dream handles him the book which the other skeleton opens, his confused expression becomes one of understatement, he starts to read aloud, just to be interrupted by Anton. "Wait! I thought you didn't know how to read!"

Nightmare avoids Anton's intense gaze and shrugs. Noah looks confused at his nephew. "Why wouldn't he knew how to read?"

Dream's the one to answer. "Because we never had seen a book before!"

"What? How's that possible? Don't you kids go to school?"

"Our mother and home is a tree, mister. And there are no schools near the tree."

"Wait, your mother is a tree?"

Chapter Text

The book in your hands is about magic, the first pages speak about what's it and how one can use it. It's... different from Undertale.

Everyone has magic, but not everyone can use it, it requires patience and practice, and even then, some monsters and humans are never able to activate their magic. And, contrary to the classic universe, the monsters here didn't have patterned bullets, it was with the force of will that the magic could be shaped into something, and, over time, the magic could be inclined towards a specific branch of magic.

You considered it really interesting, especially because you and Dream are learning magic and it would be useful. "Magic theory, a guide by..." you started to read, only to be interrupted by Anton.

The cat boy thought he couldn't read because Dream couldn't either. And then Noah asked why they wouldn't know.

"Our mother and home is a tree, mister" You explained to the teal-haired human, who looked even more confused at the news of you two having a tree for a mother.

"I thought your mother was dead?" He says, clearly confused, and you now understand why he is really surprised. Not because of a mother-tree, but because you told him that your mother is dead. Of course, his nephew is a cat, why would Noah even be surprised about two skeletons being born from a tree?

"Our mother's not dead! She's a tree!" Dream says with a big smile, and you can't help the glare you send him, great, now Noah's gonna think you lied about his brother and your mother killing themselves. You had to explain it, while also avoiding talking about Anton's father's involvement in your mother's death.

"When she died, she used her last bit of magic to create us and fuse herself with the tree. So... She died, but she's a tree, like- Like when someone dies and you spread the dust onto something they liked so their essence lives in that thing forever." Did those things even happen here? That was just classic Undertale logic, monsters are dust when they die and then the dust is spread in the funeral, but, did monsters here turn to dust when they die? Or that's just valid to Undertale?

You hope that your bullshit makes sense because you don't know what your gonna say if it doesn't.

"Oh! That's like when Nona Platty died, and we spread her dust on that old violin she loved?" The cat asks his uncle, who nods.

Phew. Monster dust is something here! But... apparently, humans can also turn to dust here? Or maybe that 'Nona Platty' was also a cat...? You need to ask! "Does humans also turn to dust when they die?"

Because, if they do, that makes sense about why you never saw Ben's corpse near the tree, he was killed so his body should have been there, there wasn't time for your mother to bury it, so... If his body turned into dust, the wind could have blown it away or something.

"No, humans don't turn to dust immediately, it takes a long time. We usually cremate the bodies." Ok...

Ok. Right, that-

Then, what the heck happened to Anton's father's body?

"But I think I prefer to know how do you know how to read if there are no schools!" Noah says, changing the conversation to something you didn't want to talk about.

What could you say? You can bullshit your way out of lots of things, but not this! What are you going to do? You can't just tell them you knew it since you were born, that's the truth but then they would ask why Dream didn't know it. And, ok, you could tell them about future vision and act like you saw books and then you learned to read because of that...? But, no, that wasn't right, you can't just lie like that! And- And you told Dream that the future sight was meant to be kept a secret, so if you told them then you are being contradictory and Dream would hate you and then Noah and Anton's are going to bully you and- and...

'Don't think like that! You can do it, it's easy!

"Well. It's not that difficult, because uh... Well, this letter here" You point to an 'm' "seems like it sounds like... 'Mmm' and then this one here" you point to an 'a' "seems like it sounds 'ah' so. 'mmm' and 'ah' sounds like 'ma' and then the rest is easy because... 'mmm' 'ah' 'ghh' 'ee' 'khhh' is 'Magic', that's how I read..?" It makes sense, right? No, it doesn't, is stupid, but you hope whatever force brought you here to help you. If the mysterious force can make you reborn into Nightmare Sans, then the mysterious force can make these people think that your bullshit is true!

Yes, you just hope they don't notice that doesn't make sense, because English is confusing and the pronunciation changes depending on the words!

"WOW! So, that means that..." Dream takes the book from your hand, opens it on a random page, and points to the first letter. "This looks like a 'Q'" And, to your surprise, his mouth took the form of a Q.

What the heck.

And the form of a U, and then of an I and an N.

"Quin! Here says 'Quin'" The fact that his mouth is still doing the shapes of the letters and making the correct sound for each one... Is... Is just weird. But enough prove that Noah and Anton's believe you.

That's good.

The water is ready, Noah takes out some cups and serves the tea, you took it eagerly, the cup is hot so you blow a few times before bringing it to your teeth and tasting it. From the corner of your eye socket, you see Dream repeating what you did. You laugh at his face. "EW! This- Ewww"

"You should put some sugar on that, Dream." You say, smiling at him.

Noah also smiles, handing your brother the sugar bowl, Dream puts more sugar in his tea than any healthy person would. You smile.

Thinking about it, how come you can talk? Don't you need lips for that? You are a skeleton, you don't have lips.

The answer is magic, obviously. That's always the answer.

The time y'all spent drinking the tea, was with a mindless chat about family. Anton talked about all his family, which just confused you even more and made you think about things you wish to erase from your mind. So, 'Nona Platty' was a platypus, not an anthropomorphic platypus, she was an animal. The kid even shows you photos of her, and yep, she's a platypus. And then there was 'Nono Nom' who's still alive and was a man with cat ears, not a furry like Anton, but more like a... A Neko...? Yes, that. They had three human sons, Noah, Ben, and someone who they never said the name.

And Anton's mother is, apparently, a bunny girl. An anthropomorphic bunny, with a dress and all that.

So. Platypus plus Boy with cat ears equals... Humans with weird color hair. And a human plus a bunny girl equals... A cat boy.

You understand how Anton's ended being a furry... kinda, what you don't understand is HOW is there a platypus in their family. You also don't understand Dream.

He's smiling at the photos presented, and saying things like "Ohh! You have your mother hair!" and Noah nods and smiles, while you wonder how's that true. That platypus doesn't have hair! It has fur, teal fur which, actually, reminds you of Perry The Platypus. But now's not the time to think about another fandom.

"We loved the tea!" You say, leaving the cup on the floor.

"I'm glad you did. Er... Anton, come here, I need to talk to you, in private"

You understand what does he want to do, so you take Dream's hand. "We have to go Dream! We can come back another day"

Chapter Text

Your name is Nightmare now, but you weren't him before.

It's night, Dream is finally asleep but you can't bring yourself to close your eyes and drift into sleepiness. You know what will happen when you close your eyes and sleep, you'll either get a night dreaming about your past life, or you'll get a life dreaming about the future. Those dreams are more like nightmares, even when the memories are sweet and cute, with you and your little brother in them; they remind you about the life you left behind. And then you dream about the future, and it hurts just to think about the bullying, you dream about fighting Dream and it hurts because... you won't say it aloud, but you consider him family now. Is hard not to, and you know you'll have to fight him in the future.

You don't want to see that future, but the other universes with Dreamtale are all about Dream eating the apples and you don't want to be like DS! Nightmare, running from your brother. It's better if you are the one eating apples, it's better if you are the one who would become a goopy octopus. And you will know the truth, that it wasn't Dream's fault. Or at least you expect you'll know, maybe after eating negative apples you won't be able to remember that.

It scares you.

And you normally just ignore it all, you just went to sleep like nothing was wrong, convincing yourself that those nightmares about the future were far away from the present time. But now, there are other people, Anton... Noah... Who's to say they won't be the first villagers? Who's to say that after they're gone other people won't come and start building the village? And then they will bully you and Dream will leave you aside. And it's just not fair, you don't want that.

If you go to sleep now, then you'll open your eyes and you'll be one day closer to becoming an octopus.

But you can't just don't sleep, even if you don't close your eyes, the next day will come. Past you know that you need to sleep.

So you close your eyes, and when you open them again is because Dream's calling your name.

Things are blurry, you see something in front of you, is a blurry white with a yellow and light blue that you recognize as Dream. But why it is so blurry? "Night! You are awake! Please, stop crying" Crying? You are... crying?

You lift one of your hands to your face, your cheeks are wet, you are crying. You rub your eye sockets with your hands and sniff. "It's ok, I- I think I had a... a me"

"A you?"

"Yes, a Nightmare" You smile at him, the blurriness gone and a smile on your face. Dream looks gobsmacked, then a frown is on his face and he's stomping his foot on the ground. "This is not the moment for jokes, brother!" you laugh, and he fumes.

"But, are you ok? you know, it was just a bad dream, it's not real" You smile at him and nod, you know it was a nightmare. You dreamt about your past life, and your brother, that was real before, but not now.

Sometimes you wonder what Dream dreams about... It doesn't matter, he had never had a Nightmare and that's enough for you.

You can't go back to sleep, you watch as Dream lays on the grass with his eyes closed and fastly asleep, you wish you could do that but you don't find the energy to sleep again. Besides, you can see the night is ending, the sun is rising and soon Dream will be awake too, it doesn't matter that you didn't get more sleep, you aren't tired anyway.

When Dream wakes up, the day truly starts.

The hours pass and you are happy to notice that Dream didn't even mention Noah and Anton, it would have been very uncomfortable for you to tell him that it's better not to go to visit them. You don't want to think about how to explain to your twin why he can't.

"Nighty! Look, I got pears! Remember Anton told us he likes pears? Maybe we can go and give some to him!"

Aaand, you have to open your mouth. Or your mind, stupid mind of yours that can't stop the useless thinking, for your mind's fault now you have to think about how to lie to your twin- No wait, not lie, you promised you wouldn't lie anymore to him. So the truth is it.

"We can go, but if they're not outside of the camping tent then we're not bothering them." Dream nods and you both go near the camp, there is no one outside, Dream deflates in disappointment, he looks at you with big shiny puppy eyes. Ha! Does he think he can convince you like that? You were the master of puppy eyes in your past life! And your past little brother always tried to suffocate you with his shiny eyes! So you are immune now. "We are not going to them, you can't convince me"

"Please?" And his eyes are even bigger, you try not to think about your brother's ability to do weird things with his body; like that 'Q' shaped mouth of his, or these big shiny eyes that are bigger than anything you can consider normal.

How does he do that? You wonder if you can do it too, but you'll need a mirror to see if you can, and- No no, wait, don't distract yourself, you close your eyes and bring yourself to the present time, you'll have time to wonder things when Dream and you stop being so close to the people you don't want to see. Because you don't want to see Anton right now, not when you don't know what did Noah tell him.

Did Noah said something like "That purple skeleton told me your father is dead"? Or just the last part. Anyway, surely Anton is devasted and you just don't know how to treat sad people.

'Wow, and I'm supposed to be Nightmare when I don't even know how to manage bad emotions'

"No, Dream. Maybe later. And they know how to find us." You take his hand and walk away.

He keeps the pears, and the next hours are not that great, you notice Dream is not his happy usual self, is more like a... a not completely happy that you don't like, you hate seeing him not being completely happy, more because you want him to be happy with you, and you know he is not happy because OF you, because you told him not to go with his other friend.

But you know a way to make him happy. "Dream? I'm going for something, I'll be back soon, ok?" He nods, and you walk away to the trees, to that part of the forest with bananas. Food! The better way to make people happy! Or so you think, you hope it makes Dream happy, he hasn't eaten a banana in all day so maybe you can blame that on your brother's unhappiness. You take a lot of those and go back to your mother-tree, but when you are back, there's no Dream.

And there are also no pears.

You hate your life. And this stupid mind that made you thought leaving Dream alone was a good idea. You know where he is, you run to Noah and Anton's camp tent, letting the bananas on the grass before running.

You see him, he is with an angry-looking Anton. You stop, watching the cat boy. You don't like angry people, you don't know how to... You just... You don't like angry people, angry people are people who aren't thinking and can be aggressive. But you'll have to face angry people in the future, starting now is just start earlier.

Start earlier on the hate, because there's no way they don't hate you now. So you walk to them, being able to listen to the fight.

"But if you don't tell me the problem, I can't help you, Anton." Dream says with a hopeful expression, trying to get closer to his friend. But Anton shoves him away, still with an angry face.

"I don't want your help! I... I HATE YOU!" And, that's your clue. No one hates your brother (except future you), that's just antinatural. You step in between them, receiving a punch on your face that Anton was aiming to Dream. It doesn't really hurt, his hands are furry and soft, it just stings a little bit.

You look at your brother. "I told you to leave them alone"

Dream offers you an apologetic smile and a shrug. He then looks at your face. "Are you ok? That must have hurt" It didn't, not really, just a little but nothing serious or important. Is ok, and the more important here is that Dream wasn't punched. The next more important thing is Anton.

"I'm ok, Dream."

You turn yourself to Anton and think about how to do this. "Anton?" Angry people, sad people. Angry with sadness is not good, it makes you stupid, but emotions do that kind of thing, it doesn't even matter if they are good or bad emotions, emotions make you dumb. The cat is crying but also looking hateful. He hates you and your brother..? Why? You can understand if he hates you, you are the one to told Noah that Ben is dead, but Dream didn't do anything wrong, Dream is good, Dream doesn't deserve to be hated.

"I hate you! I HATE YOU!" It would help if he stopped repeating that, and he is hitting you, his paws are really soft and he isn't even trying, it doesn't hurt and it doesn't leave that sting like the first punch. That... is actually more worrisome. He isn't trying to hit you with all his might? But when he tried to punch your brother it actually stung a little.

"Why? What did we do? What did I do? What did DREAM do?"

"You know what you did!"

"Maybe, but I want to know what is the thing that made you angry at me, and at Dream." Anton doesn't say anything, so you just continue. "Especially Dream, what did he do?"

"... My dad is dead, and he was smiling and lying to me! Acting like he didn't know he was! He is a bad friend! AND A LIAR! He acted like he was my friend but he isn't! FRIENDS JUST DON'T GO AROUND PRETENDING YOUR DAD IS STILL ALIVE!"

Oh. OH. "So, you are angry because Dream acted like he didn't know about your dead father?" You wait until Anton nods. "Then you have no reason to hate him. He truly didn't know"

"LIAR! You knew! My uncle told me it was you who said my dad is dead! YOU KNEW! DREAM KNEW! All of you, and you LIED!"

"Dream didn't know. Just like I knew how to read but he didn't" You put your hands on Anton's shoulders. "But that still doesn't explain why you seem to hate him more than me" You want answers, real answers.

"You told Noah my dad's dead... I hate you for saying that and blaming my dad for your mom's death. But at least you told Noah! Dream was straight lying to me! He smiled and acted like nothing was wrong! You told Noah, that's better than telling no one..."

"But Dream didn't know your dad was dead, he wasn't lying, he was hiding information. You should hate me, I was the one who suggested your father is dead, not Dream."

"Yeah! I- I didn't know about your dad! I... I brought you pears, you said you liked them. I'm sorry I made you angry, I still want to be friends with you."

You forgot your twin was still here, doesn't matter. At least Anton stopped screaming about hate, but now he is crying. You don't like sad people, it makes you uncomfortable. But Anton is crying, not only that, but he is hugging you. YOU, you are stunned, you don't move, half expecting to be stabbed or something, because this has no sense, why is he hugging you?

"I'm sorry! I'm just angry my dad is not with me! I didn't even get to say all the things I wanted to tell him! I miss him! I want him! But he isn't here and he won't come back and I just... I hate it!"

"...It's ok. I understand"

And you did, you know how is it to miss someone who you'll never see again, you went through that, you are still experiencing it. Your little brother is on another life, on another world, on somewhere where magic and monsters aren't real. And you miss him, he is gone and you'll never see him. It's not the same as having a dead father, but it's near enough. Anton misses his dad, you miss your brother.

"And we forgive you!" Says Dream, with a small smile and joining to the hug. It just makes you more uncomfortable, Anton's tears are starting to wet you.

"I'm sorry!"

"It's ok, you can cry until you feel better." You say, patting his head soothingly. "It'll be ok"

Chapter Text

Anton didn't stop crying until Noah returned, he was carrying a bucket full of fish, when he saw the three of you hugging each other and trying to soothe his nephew, he smiled sadly. He walked near you and joined in the hug, Anton was still crying, babbling about his father and wanting his mother and how he hated everyone but is sorry for saying he hates you and Dream.

Noah grilled the fish, and for the first time in this life, you could taste something that wasn't fruit and vegetables. Dream smiled wide while eating it. "This is good!" he said with a big smile on his face, you also thought it was good, but the fact that you had to look out for the fish bones made you a bit less willing to say how much you liked it.

You like it, but you hate the bones of the fish. Those were the whole reason you didn't eat fish in your first life.

At the end of the day, Noah said they needed to return home. "After all, I can of took Anton without permission, I bet his mother is dying of worry", Anton nodded, mumbling something about having to tell her about dad.

You felt bad for them, it was your fault they were sad, if you hadn't said anything... Then they wouldn't have known that Ben is dead and would have kept looking for him for who knows how long. You don't have to blame yourself, after all, it was that man that decided that leaving his son to look for some magic apples was the best idea, and it wasn't that man fault's either, he was just full of negativity, and that was... nobody's fault. Right? Is not the guardian's job to distribute the emotion evenly, the guardian just watches for the apples, not to go and sees if everyone is equally happy or sad.

"So, you are going home?" You ask, a bit sad. Dream is helping Anton pack his things. You are happy they are friends again... You wonder if you can consider him a friend too, maybe not, you just were there to tell him pretty lies and calm him down, Anton surely didn't consider you a friend.

"Yes, we'll return, tomorrow morning we'll be gone," Noah says, you nod.

Yeah, they are going to go, and you will be here... Alone. It was fun to have them around, even if you actually just talked like... for two days or something. It was just two days, right? It was yesterday you found them... It felt more than two days, like... five chapters or something like that. It doesn't matter, anyway.

Still, you kind of liked them, and you want to repay them because you were a bother and you don't want to be one, so maybe a nice goodbye gift would make things better! "Ok, but I want to give something for you before you go, so you must wait for me!"

"Sure, kid."

"Oh! And- Um... another thing. I want to ask something." Noah nods, so you just ask the thing you wanted. "What day is today? Day and month, please."

He frowns, but then he looks like he remembers you lived beneath a tree so you don't have a sense of time and all that. "It's December, 13"

"Oh! Thanks!" You now just have to remember that, it's almost your birthday- Not your birthday, Nightmare and Dream's birthday, which is your new birthday but not your real birthday- Your real birthday was in October... Except because that was real and this is real, so both days are your birthday. Wow, almost a year here!

You feel someone patting your skull. You frown and look up, at a furry face smiling at you, it's Anton. "Oh, um... Hi" You say, feeling stupid, how do you talk to someone? Is he still sad? He is smiling, but he looks like he just cried (that he did) and you don't know what to do.

Fortunately, he smiles at you and gives you something on your hands. You blink and look at the objects. Two books, one you recognize as the book about magic and the other... You open it on the first page, is blank.

"I want you to have those, I can buy another book about magic. And that is a notebook, so you can write whatever you want! Like a journal!" He then puts a feather and a bottle of ink above the books. "For you."

You have a book, and a notebook and a feather and ink to write and- And oh my god, what year is here? Haven't people discovered yet about pens and pencils? And ink, you have a bottle of ink. Can you just... make it fall and call for the artist skeleton? But it doesn't matter, because you have a book and a notebook, and you can write and- And draw just like you wanted to do. A form of entertainment besides going on an adventure with Dream. And you couldn't waste the Ink just calling Ink, you can write, and draw!

And you can write about all your memories from your past life, you are afraid of losing them, of forgetting everything. But now, now you can write it down and read it every time you think you forget something!

And a book! The book about magic! It was perfect, you could read it and be better with your magic, and you could even try to cast better protection spells for the tree, and- And oh god, this was just too much for you. You really NEED to give them something, how are they being so nice? How could this little cat be the family of the guy who killed your mother-tree?

"Um... Nightmare? You... don't like it?"

"I love it, Anton! Thank you so much!" you lock eyes with him, and he gasps. "What?"

"You look so cute with those star eyes!"

Dream joins him, watching you and then beaming. "Yeah! He is cute with those eyes" and then Noah also sees you and nods.

Your face burns. "I have the same face as Dream! I'm sure you have seen him with star eyes too! If I'm cute, then he is too!"

"Yeah! I'm cute! I can admit it!" Dream smiles, and you feel yourself melting in embarrassment. Ugh... Anyway, it was cute to have people with you. Maybe Nightmare's life isn't going to be so bad.

After that, Dream shows you the gifts Anton gave him, the journal of Ben about the tree and a notebook, plus a feather and a bottle of blue ink. His quill is red, while yours is dark blue. You say goodbye and take Dream with you, being you the one to carry all the objects, Dream isn't careful enough to not start jumping up and down and making something break.

Down the tree, you decide to tell Dream about your plan, the plan of giving them a gift, a gift they'll surely love!

He doesn't seem to agree, he says that's lying, but after a bit of convincing, you manage to make him agree with the plan! Now, you just have to wait for tomorrow, they'll love it, you know.