“His room’s that way…” Dream pointed to a door at the end of a hall.
They were in the guardians' house, a simple one, close to the skele bro’s but not quite. The downstairs was the same, but the upstairs held a hall that divided the upper floor into two. One door on the right- decorated with stickers and keep out signs, most likely Blue’s when he did stay over, another one the left- a single sun drawn on with permanent marker, obviously Dream’s, and one at the end of the hall- Painted from top to bottom like a rainbow, unmistakably Ink’s.
Nightmare and Dream left him alone in the hall, seemingly going downstairs to talk things out or sit in silence, it was hard to tell with them. He was going to do this alone, Dream was trusting him for once, he shouldn’t break it.
He walked up to the door and knocked, no answer. Another knock, still nothing.
“Ink…? Are you in there?” He called, shuffling was heard in the room, but didn’t open the door. It sounded like it moved closer to it, however, possibly sitting with its back against the door. Silently showing it was going to listen. “Will you open the door, Protector?”
“No.” A drained and emotionless voice answered. He had gone off his paints, you can’t feel sad about not knowing something if you can’t feel.
“Would you mind if I opened I window so I could talk to you properly?” No answer, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
He waved his hand and opened a small window, and saw all the evidence he needed to prove his suspicions were right. Ink eyes were blank and white, his cheeks puffy from previous crying, but otherwise, he was unchanged.
“Why.” Ink calmly spoke, Error coked his head to the side, confused. “Why did you come after me.” It was meant to be a question, but it was more a statement, confusion, thinking out loud.
“Because, you’re the only one that understands- and I’m the only one that understands you. You’re like a brother, I don’t want to lose the little family I have again.”
“Even without my memory.” Error nodded
“Even without your memory. Now, will you unlock the door?”
-----
“Come on everyone! Everything is set up at the top!” Ink cheered, leading the group to the picnic.
It’s been a year, not everything is ok yet, but they’re working on it. Nightmare’s gang is being treated as people with problems, not ruthless killers. Nightmare himself is working on letting people in and is learning to trust Dream again. Everyone is working on themselves as well, Error is growing steadily back to living normally and taking care of himself, and Ink is learning to deal with his problems instead of numbing himself to them.
In short, everyone’s getting better. It’s not perfect, but who is? No savior hasn’t made a mistake, No demon hasn’t been bad forever, no person can be perfect.
Ink and Error have become basically family, calling each other brother occasionally, But what matters is they’re happy- and the AntiVoid can’t bother them anymore.
