Cross kept opening and closing his eyes, expecting a change.
The darkness did not change at all.
A sigh escaped him as he thought about how he went and managed to snuff out his eyelights with his fits. It was, however, better than severing another limb or something.
The flat ground under his feet kept his steps muted and he wondered, not for the first time, where he was.
He remembered falling, but not crashing down. The whooping sensation of the free fall just stopped with him standing upright on his own two feet.
Sitting down, he took a second to examine the floor. It felt like nothing tangible.
Where could he be? One moment he was trying to follow Dream in his strange hurry, the next, he was there, alone.
Cross tilted his head, focusing on nearby sounds.
Hopefully, he was alone.
What could he even do now? What option did he have besides waiting?
A noise made him twirl around a few times, trying to determine its origin. It faded away.
A jolt of phantom pain among his very real aches made him chuckle darkly. He was barely functioning as it was.
He could only wait and hope.
He did not have to wait for very long, things considered. A shout and a snicker made him turn his head to the right. Obviously, he didn’t see anything but he knew someone must be there.
Multiple someones.
“Hey Cross, I hope you don’t mind I took that long to get to you?”
Relief coursed through his body once he realised it was Dream. With someone that must be an ally?
“Not at all, I doubt I’ve been here for much more than 5 minutes. How did you get here that fast and who’s with you?”
Cross waved his hand in front of his eyes to gesture he still couldn’t see.
“What do you mean 5 minutes… It took me 3 days to convince Chime to get out of that shack…”
A huff from the unfamiliar person made him lower his attention. Smaller than him?
Now that didn’t seem right, he would know if he spent 3 days here? Wouldn’t he?
“Where are we, uncle Dream?”
…Uncle?
“We’re in the void, I’d say.”
The void? That would explain the ground. The previous noises suddenly seemed far less innocent, what could be lurking around that strange place?
“Uncle Dream…?” he inquired, because that was the part that confused him the most.
“Oh yeah, that’s our niece, Chime. Say hi to poor blind uncle Cross, Chime.”
A hand found his own.
“Hi. I’m Chime, two of my dads hate you.”
“Who are your dads?”
“Nightmare, Killer and Ccino.”
“That checks out.”
A giggle answered him and he brought his hand up until he found the girl’s head and patted it softly. A niece, uh? When he really thought about it, he might have heard about her at least once… But they hadn’t kept any true contact with the others. He had been aware Dream’s brother fancied his ‘coworker’ and the barista but beyond that…
“How old are you?” he absent-mindedly asked.
“15.”
Ooooh, he truly hadn’t cared much about the others’ business in a very long time. Well, he might as well take things in stride, they had more urgent problems.
He turned to where he hoped Dream was patiently waiting.
“Can you get us back?” Home was left silent, “You ‘ported there, didn’t you?” and after an afterthought, he added as well, “How did you recover your magic in mere days?”
He could only imagine his partner's body language but considering the long silence that stretched before he uttered any understandable answers suggested he wouldn’t have liked what he’d seen.
“I… I don’t have enough left to jump again, I used a lot to locate and get to you. And how I recovered it, I’d prefer to not talk about it for now.”
“He terrorized me when I was finally starting to calm down from being attacked.”
“CHIME, YOU SNITCH.”
Cross ignored the two bantering ‘children’, although he will have to get out the full story later, and focused on the important part.
“Dream, why are you here if you had enough to travel back? And HOW ARE WE GETTING OUT OF THE VOID NOW!?”
Cross quickly decided right there he hated being blind because silence could be hard to interpret on its own.
“We can… talk about it later in private.”
“Oh don’t mind me,” chimed Chime.
“Later I said. Now to get out, well..,” a high squeak came from his left, “lady whiskers here still has her tanks full enough!”
“Are we truly calling my fresh scars whiskers, uncle?”
“Well, they look like whiskers, looks great with your cat hood.”
“Oh. Really?”
Chime’s voice lilted with a cheery note at the end of her declaration and Cross briefly wondered what was happening there, not for the first time since they joined him in the dark nothingness.
“So can leave now?”
“Slow down Ross, I never did that before. How do you do that?”
“Ross- Wait no, unimportant. How come you never ‘ported before, you’re a full-fledged teen. That’s prime lazy shortcuts shenanigans period.”
“Well, it’s easier to walk? And I’m not usually… alone.”
It didn’t take very long for Chime to get it but Cross couldn’t stop feeling anxious. If 3 days had passed during the short time he spent alone, he was either very out of it (possible) or they were dealing with some sort of time discrepancy (and therefore couldn’t afford any delay).
He stayed quiet about his thoughts and kept to the ground where he could lay (he couldn’t stand anymore) and strained his hearing to catch how the training was going.
By the time they got out, Cross had managed to focus enough magic in his eyes to light up the tiniest pinprints. Better than nothing. It was still. Extremely blurry.
He turned towards Chime, more or less standing straight, who was panting from the effort, and smiled.
“You did great, thanks.”
The vague blorb of cyan, black and white that was the girl perked up but stayed quiet.
His face was roughly taken by two hands as his partner gazed into his eye-sockets and grumbled.
“Glad you didn’t permanently blind yourself like a dummy. I guess. Please, stay in my sight…”
“Eye’ll try.”
Ignoring his excellent pun, Dream turned his attention towards his niece (their niece?).
“You reopened your whiskers.”
“Stop calling them whiskers.”
A stop and a sharp exhale.
“DON’T TOUCH, IT BURNS LIKE HELL.”
…
Cross then spent a good while scolding Dream for touching an open wound like that and also for not even taking the time to wrap it before coming to get him and an even gooder while attempting to wrap the girls cheeks. It was so awkward doing it with one arm and little to no sight that he left Dream do it in the end. The hazardous wrappings was going all around her head and over her nose bridge. It would have to be redone once they get their hands on some healing stuff.
And then. They continued in this new place.
Their goal seemed farther away than ever but they continued, repeating themself patience would help them if nothing else. The fact they felt they had been gone for far too long kept a certain tension in the air.
The addition of Chime to their group did not help them calm down. He was happy they found her ok, or as fine as she could be after such a traumatic event (it wasn’t hard to guess who (what) must have attacked her and caused her so-called ‘whiskers’). But. Her presence reminded them of the absence of their own kid and it was tearing Cross’s soul apart.
Dream didn’t seem to fare any better now that the light banter had died down and he thought idly that he might be concerned about whatever had been his brother’s fate. While Dream and Nightmare hadn’t really kept contact and they never really resolved many of their disputes, he knew his partner cared still. Enough to keep quiet for a long part of their walk. He couldn’t see his expression any clearly still but he probably looked gloomed.
The long walk (to somewhere he was sure) allowed him to think and ponder but not to ask, not with Chime here. Although, it was hard to keep in some questions. The bigger one he desperately needed the answer to was pretty simple…
Why did Dream go seek him out without checking on Mimosa first? They had healing items at home! He could have rested there then come after! And it had been 3 days, how come he was sure enough he was alive to risk that… Surely their son was more important than him, wasn’t he?
He mulled over the question and every possible answer did nothing but enraged him.
But he stayed quiet. Chime didn’t need that on top of everything.
Speaking of Chime.
“Hey”, he reached for her shoulder and almost missed, “how are you holding up?”
Their niece shrugged, dislodging his hand.
“Alright enough, I doubt I’ll sleep well for a while but that's ok. I just want to find them.”
He didn’t ask who ‘them’ were.
“They locked me in the shed, you know? I wanted to come with them, to help. I’m certainly old enough to put up a good fight…”
He nodded and let her the space to continue if she wanted.
“Then, they left, told me to not make a squeak until they’re back. And I thought… I thought they were exaggerating and being dumb but well,” she hugged her arms, “they all hugged me before leaving and it was weird.”
“I yelled a lot and promised horrors but I didn’t try that hard to get out of that shed. I helped paint that shed when I was a kid. Was very proud of it. I couldn’t wreck it for a tantrum. Maybe they knew that.”
“Hey, I wasn’t even the one who wrecked it in the end!” Chime giggled, “it was those abominations.”
“I yelled too much and attracted their attention. I heard a bit about them before but nobody told me the important stuff so I didn’t think of keeping quiet.”
“They came when I finally decided to sit it out, against the far wall.”
“Their… hands broke the wall on either side of my face and they- it… Well you get the picture. Then uncle Dream did almost the same thing and I almost skewered him.”
Cross’s mind took a second to register the words as he was still nodding.
“He WHAT!?”
“Yeah, and if you could tell him to stop looking at me like a kicked puppy that would be great.”
Oh he was so ready to explode.
Keep calm. Keep calm.
Comfort Chime and do not murder the father of your child.
A retching noise made him turn his head just in time to see Chime throw up a thick black liquid on the ground, wiping her mouth with the black part of her sleeves’ sweater.
“Sorry, the build-up was getting too big,” she explained, not looking apologetic at all.
That day kept getting better…
************************************************
Next day!
Credits:
Shattered!Dream belongs to shattereddreamau
Cross!Sans belongs to jakei95
Chime is mine
Dark cream ship week by @zu-is-here
I fully forgot to post her here :3 (her ref have been up on artfight since the start of the month XD)
A lil' bit ago, I designed a fluffynightkiller kid for fun and I decided to keep her so here's the official ref XDc
Chime (named after wind chimes)
Fluffynightkiller shipkid
She/her
Lives in Nadiverse (if you know you know)
Has a medical condition (due to being Night and Killer's daughter) that makes her cough up goop. Her sleeves were constantly stained black until they just sew black ends on all her sleeves to hide the stains. Growing up, she figured out throwing up the build-up once in a while allows her to be free of coughing for a good while (not the best solution but she manages).
She finds a guilty pleasure in chaos caused by misunderstandings especially if it's because she stayed silent about a thing. She might regret hurting someone but will never regret the very act of messing with them.
Her magic consists of putting targets on things and people so that her magic bullets (rather classic bones) will hit it later when used. Will always touch her targets. She does not have a great unassisted aim however.
Given Nadirverse is a sorta post-apocaliptic verse. You might have guessed what happened to her family... Maybe one is still alive tho, who knows? But it's been 5 years and nobody came home after locking her up inside the shed. Her parents refused that she helped in the big war, she's still mad about it but would prefer to have someone to be mad at tho... Her hope isn't very high however.
She met Nada and Tutto (woman + creature on the ref) during one of her journeys and just keep falling on them again and again for some reason. Her hate for Nada is almost friendly sometimes. Her opinion on Tutto is cautious but the thing does amuse her when it's not provoking weird fear responses in her body. They have a rather interesting relationship in my opinion.
She did not come physically unscathed from the big war despite everything. A shed door was not enough to keep one of them outside. Well those scars look like whiskers, that's cute, isn't it? She no longer can sleep with her head against a wall especially if it's wooden, her head must lay flat on the ground/mattress.
Loves clothes with animal ears, especially cat ones <3
doodle I kept on my desk while studying for my exams XDc
