Daemons

Mild Violence Warning

Killer checked the time on his phone with a sigh, finding that he’d been wandering aimlessly around his room for the past hour and a half. It was hard for him to focus on anything as all he wanted was to be by Dream’s side, but his soulmate had some classes to attend and a therapy appointment today, so there was no way to see him until later. It killed him a little inside to know that the golden skeleton was on his own right now, especially with his current mental state.

Things hadn’t exactly gone well when the true identity of Nightmare’s soulmate came to light, and that was putting it mildly. He couldn’t fault the other daemon for an act of fate, but if he had to choose between his brother and Dream then he would always pick Dream. Thankfully Nightmare understood his choice, all the daemons understanding why he was avoiding their leader for the time being to instead focus his attention on Nightmare’s twin. After all, every one of them would’ve made the same choice in his shoes, all of them understanding that even if they were close, their soulmate would always come way before any of the others would, no matter how simple or petty the situation.

But right now, he didn’t have a clue how to help. Therapy was just barely managing to keep his sweet ball of sunshine from falling apart, and more often than not he’d go to pick Dream up from his appointments and find him in tears. The rest of the day was then spent trying to cheer him up with variable success, certain activities proving to be more effective than others. The really frustrating part was that there was only so much he could do simply because Dream wouldn’t let him in. Again, he couldn’t fault the smaller skeleton, but it wore on his patience every day to have to bottle up his own feelings for the sake of trying to give his soulmate the space he needed to heal.

“It’s not fair!” He suddenly shouted, banging his fist against the wall as he fought back tears of his own. “Dust constantly breaks the rules and now he’s bot a boyfriend, Fell’s nothing but a scaredy cat and he can get a boyfriend, and what do I get? Nothing! Fucking nothing but a broken soulmate that won’t let me in to even try to fix him!”

“Screaming at the wall isn’t going to fix your problems, y’know,” a sudden voice called out, causing the frog daemon to jump and whip around to see Reaper standing in the doorway. The taller skeleton honestly looked like crap, dark rings underneath his hollow sockets, rumpled clothes that clearly had been worn for several days, and his wings no longer had the glossy sheen they normally did.

“Holy shit dude, even when you look like hell you still scare the crap out of me,” he muttered, looking to him in concern once he recovered from Reaper’s sudden appearance. “You okay? Because I know you’re named after the grim reaper but you look like death.”

The other gave a weak chuckle at his comment, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the door frame. “I may be neglecting myself a bit, but I came up here to see how you’re doing. You’ve already got enough to worry about, so don’t worry about me right now. You wanna talk about what’s going on? Or would you prefer to keep taking it out on the wall?”

If Killer had visible eye lights, he’d be rolling them right now, chuckling a bit as he pulled away from the wall and moved to sit on his bed, inviting the older daemon to join him. “I just... don’t know how to help him. Things were fine at first, and so long as I got to see him and help him smile, I was fine to wait for him to recover. But ever since Nightmare found his soulmate, things have just gone so downhill with him and I’m stuck. I’m there for him every chance I can be, but it’s not enough. Dream wants that Cross guy still, but now he knows that he’ll never have him, and it’s tearing him up inside. What am I supposed to do? Just sit back and watch Dream self-destruct because he’s hung up on something that’ll never happen? I just... don’t get why he can’t accept that he’s meant to be with me...”

Reaper listened quietly to his rant, sighing at the end and placing a hand on his shoulder to try and offer some comfort and support. “Kills, if reading novels has taught me anything, it’s that love is always so much more complicated for literally everyone else. We daemons have it lucky with the whole soulmate thing, we know exactly who we’re supposed to be with and they almost always feel drawn to us in a way that makes it easy to get what our souls most desire. We pay for it in other ways, but love for us is so simple when it’s extremely convoluted for others. Dream is no exception, even if he’s your soulmate or if he grew up around daemons, he’s still a regular monster with a soul that can yearn for things it might never have.

“I know you want to just show up and make everything better for him, it’s in your very nature just as it is for all of us, but a monster’s soul and their desires are never so simple. Let’s see... you’ve seen how Horror gets when there’s food he wants that he can’t have, right?”

That made the frog daemon pause and turn to glare at his brother, not impressed in the slightest with the analogy. “Did you seriously just compare my problem to Fatass not being able to reach a cookie?”

“It’s more a comparison to Dream’s problem, but yes,” the taller answered matter-of-factly, shooting him a look in return. “I could make a different one if you prefer. How about Dust when he’s trapped somewhere and can’t get out? Or Nightmare when news of hunters reaches him and he knows we need to move on? Or how about Error if he can’t find his scarf or if he doesn’t know what we need to do next?” Admittedly, those ones made his frustration falter, the younger daemon having witnessed each of those events happen and how they affected his brothers. Dust would break down into full-on panic attacks if he felt too trapped, Nightmare often stormed out to destroy something when they had to move on, and Error would sit in sullen silence if either his scarf or he himself were lost.

“The point I’m trying to make, is that people are complicated, and everyone has their scars that they bear every day. You know the scars that we all bear, so you understand why we react to certain situations the way we do. Dust’s panic or Error’s feeling of loss are something that none of us judge them for because of what they’ve gone through to develop such behaviors. But you’re not trying to understand why Dream reacts the way he does. You don’t know his scars other than his thing with Cross, and I have a feeling that the scars run so much deeper than what we can see on the surface with him. Instead of trying to understand, you’re trying to cover everything up with a band-aid solution by forcing yourself into the hole Cross left in his soul. That won’t fix anything, it’ll only delay him completely falling apart on you.”

Killer let his brother’s words sink in, feeling guilt sink in with every passing moment. “Oh god, you’re right! I’m a horrible soulmate!” He wailed, hanging his head in his hands in shame as he felt tears finally start to leak from his sockets. He sat there quietly sobbing and berating himself, not even looking up as the arm around him pulled him closer and was joined by a wing that admittedly did offer a sense of comfort.

“That’s not what I was getting at Kills, you’re not a horrible soulmate. We’ve all made mistakes before, some of us with our soulmates. Remember how much Fell freaked out the first night after he found his because he pretty much stalked him? Or how about my own failure to find mine so many times? Does that make us horrible?”

“Well... no-”

“See? Look, I was only spelling it out for you like that so you would know why things weren’t working like you wanted them to. And now that you know what’s wrong, how are you going to fix it?”

The frog daemon paused, giving his answer some serious thought even as tears continued to roll down his cheeks. “I... guess that I need to make a better effort to get to know him more. I’m gonna assume that asking him outright or trying to get answers from Nightmare are a bad idea?”

“Correct on both accounts there. You can surely ask Nightmare little things, like what he likes and dislikes, though bear in mind how long those two have been apart. He might not honestly know his twin’s preferences anymore, and he’s going to be pretty careful about feeding you false information considering how icy things already are with the whole Cross thing. But whatever you do, do not ask him directly how his problems came to be. That’s more a job for his therapist to sort out deeply rooted trauma.”

“So what am I supposed to do then? Ask Nightmare what he likes and hope that I get the right answers so that I can shower him in his supposed favorites? That seems really fucking shallow.”

Reaper simply shrugged at his comment, smirking a bit in response. “Maybe, but you don’t learn to swim in the deep end of the pool. You start where the water’s shallow and it’s safer if you make a mistake. You won’t get to be an expert at swimming overnight, but over time you’ll get better and feel more confident about moving into deeper waters.”

“... You’re making a swimming analogy to someone who’s part frog? I was practically born knowing how to swim!”

“And yet your parents still didn’t let you go straight into deep waters, now did they?” The raven daemon pointed out, causing Killer to avert his gaze as he had to admit that his brother was completely right. It almost made the analogy better in a way, as just like he instinctually was drawn to water, his instincts were crying out to him to help Dream.

“Why do I feel like you picked that analogy specifically because of my love of swimming?”

“Did I? Hmm... maybe,” the taller cheekily responded, hopping up from the bed. “Well, I feel like my work here is done! Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a tub of ice cream in the freezer that I fell asleep before I could eat last night!”

Despite the cheer in his voice, there was a distinct hollow ring to it that left Killer frowning. “Dude, even I can tell that smile’s false. If you wanna talk about it, you did just give me a chance to vent before helping me figure out what to do next. Besides, eating tubs of ice cream is something people do when they’re upset. You’re not even doing your fancy-talk thing, so it’s obviously bad.” That didn’t even include that this was the first time he’d seen Reaper off the couch in over two weeks. He probably would’ve been joking about their feathered brother making a nest if it wasn’t so sad to see him so defeated.

As the taller turned to face him once more, he could see just how strained the raven’s smile was at the moment, watching it quiver for a before Reaper seemingly gave up on trying to keep himself together in front of the younger daemon. “Heh, I’ve gotten that obvious?” He muttered, wings drooping as he slumped back on to the bed. “I... finally found the strength to pull my ass off the couch a while ago, figured that it wouldn’t hurt to go flying around the city a bit in the hopes that maybe I’d catch some inkling of their presence somewhere...”

“Oh... sorry you didn’t find them again dude-” Killer started to say, only to be cut off midway.

“No, that’s the problem, I did find them... sort of. I... I managed to feel their presence... as I was flying over a hospital. I-I hoped that m-maybe they were just visiting someone, b-but as I flew down to g-get a better feel of where they were... t-they were in the ICU, t-they were a patient there.” Now it was Reaper’s turn to start crying, his wings wrapping around himself as if to offer any sort of comfort. “I-I’ve flown over that hospital e-every night since, a-and they’re still in there! I-I don’t know if they’re s-stable or dying or c-comatose, I-I know nothing about why they’re in the hospital! T-The worst part is, I know that I-I could easily sneak in there and g-go find out! B-But I’m too scared! What if they’re d-dying and I’ll c-connect with them just in t-time to lose them? M-My soul would f-finally be complete only for it to b-be ripped out right in f-front of me! I-I can’t even bear to fly too c-close to that hospital anymore! Either I go in to find out and risk losing my chance at having a soulmate forever, or I keep hiding from there in fear of them dying and let the unknown drown me!”

Killer froze for a minute as Reaper completely broke down on him, his impossibly cocky and full-of-himself brother turning into a complete mess at the possibility of his soulmate dying this very moment. He wasn’t nearly as good with words, choosing to instead offer a hug which quickly resulted in the raven daemon crying on his shoulder. “Reaps, I... I’m not nearly as good with words as you are, but you were there for me and my soulmate when Dream was dying, so I’m gonna try my best. I’m sure they’ll be fine though, whoever they are, after all they’re supposed to be your perfect match. That must mean that they’re just as tough as you are, so I’m sure they’ll pull through whatever landed them in the hospital in the first place.”

“Y-You really think so?” The taller whimpered, pulling away enough to look Killer directly in the eyes. The frog daemon nodded without hesitation, truly believing it himself since Reaper was by far the strongest among all of them, even stronger than Nightmare. If Reaper’s soulmate was even half as tough, then they’d be alright, he was sure of it. “Heh... so much for trying to keep you out of my problems... thanks though, I really needed that.”

“No problem, you did the same thing for me like thirty seconds ago, least I can do is give you a helping hand too... just without all your fancy metaphors.”

The pair shared a laugh, the older of the two already looking a lot better with hope visible in his otherwise empty sockets. “The day you start breaking out the metaphors is the day Horror goes on a diet, no offense. I hope you’re right though... I’ll check out the hospital again tonight, maybe see if they’re still in ICU or not.”

“There ya go, there’s the cocky asshole I’m used to!”

“You know it! But uh... mind not telling the others? Not really in the right mindset to deal with their teasing.”

“Meaning you’d probably kill one of them for it?” Killer clarified, chuckling as he got a sheepish nod yes in response. “I’ve got your back man, they’re not gonna hear one word of it from me.”

“Thanks Kills, I appreciated it,” Reaper said before pulling away, quickly wiping away the rest of his tears before getting to his feet and stretching. “Alright, I’m heading off to not eat that bucket of ice cream, and I guess you’ve got a phone call to make, so I’ll leave you to it! Best of luck buddy!” He waved before practically evaporating into nothingness.

“You too!” Killer called out, not even sure at this point if the other daemon heard him or not. Shrugging at the lack of response, the teary-eyed skeleton pulled out his phone and went to Nightmare’s contact, his finger hovering over the call button for a moment before he sighed and pressed it. “This is for Dream,” he mumbled to himself, waiting for the call to connect and hoping that the other daemon would be willing to help him despite the two of them practically avoiding each other for the past two weeks.

Eventually the sound of the call going through reached him, the frog originally being greeted by silence before Nightmare’s voice came through. “Have to admit, I was not expecting a call from you of all people. Is something wrong?”

“N-No! Not really... look, can I ask you some questions about Dream?”

Another pause greeted him, the hesitance clear even before he spoke up. “Killer, you do realize that the last time I spoke with Dream before we all came here was over a decade ago? I really don’t think I’ll know anything helpful.”

“T-Trust me, I’m not asking for anything major, j-just little stuff! Like... uh... do you know what kind of flowers he likes?”

“... Did you seriously interrupt me so that you buy my brother flowers?”

“Do you know or not, Nightmare?” He growled, his already thin patience not lasting long as he glared at nothing in particular. “Also what the hell are you working on that’s so important?”

“Murder, if you must know. As for your stupid question... I dunno, he’s always liked yellow things. Get him buttercups or marigolds or some shit. Why do you suddenly need to know this anyways?”

The frog sighed, realizing that his own agitation was predictably making Nightmare even more hostile. He needed to calm down if he was going to get anywhere. Completely glossing over the ‘murder’ comment since it honestly sounded legit knowing who he was talking to, he turned his focus back to the reason why he’d called. “Reaper gave me some advice on what I should do moving forward to try and help Dream, and his idea is both stupid and brilliant so here I am asking you stupid questions. What other things does he like? Any preference in terms of animals?”

“Oh fuck no, so long as Dream can hug it he’ll like it... please tell me you’re not about to go buy him a puppy or some shit like that. Because at some point I will inevitably need to deal with that, and I want nothing to do with baby animals. I have my hands full dealing with you idiots most days.”

“Relax, I’m not buying him a puppy... at least not yet. Maybe he’ll want a kitten instead,” he teased, definitely hearing the warning growl come from the other end of the phone. “It’s just an idea I’m working on, no permanent baby animals, I promise. What about food? Do you happen to know what he likes?”

“Killer-”

“Please, just give it your best guess,” he begged, just hoping that it was something he could pull off.

“... Apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was always his favorite dessert growing up, and if there’s anything he still likes then that’s the most likely one... Do I even want to know what you’re planning?”

“Probably not, too much sunshine and rainbows for you. I’m just... trying a new way to understand him so that I can maybe help him move past your soulmate. Thanks for the help.”

A sigh came through the phone, the voice that followed lacking its typical bitter edge and instead holding a melancholy tone. “Well... I wish you the best of luck in getting through to him. It’s not my place to say what exactly happened, but my brother’s been through a lot, and that’s only for the half of his life that I was there for. It won’t be easy, but then again neither is taming a sugar-high Dust and you’ve pulled that off before. If anyone can help him, it’s you.”

The line went dead before he could say anything in return, the frog daemon smiling softly at the more characteristic abruptness of their leader. “Well, guess that’s all I’m getting to work with for now, hopefully that’s enough,” he mumbled to himself, hopping off of his bed and finally leaving his room before quickly heading out of the house. He only had a few hours to get everything set up before he picked Dream up from his therapy appointment, so he had to get moving if his plan was going to be finished in time... well, half a plan... maybe less than that. Still, he had an idea, and he was going to try his best to pull it off.

He never stopped running pretty much the entire time, heading from one place to the next to set everything up and make sure that his idea was feasible as he planned out how the rest of the day was going to go. Now he was starting to see how Error could get so testy though when trying to plot out their course of action, planning so much out was harder than he thought and it was starting to give him a bit of a headache. Still, he wasn’t backing down in the slightest, even when his admittedly half-baked idea wasn’t as brilliant or easy to pull off as he’d hoped. The daemon managed to pull it off at the last minute though, hoping that Dream wasn’t too upset that he was running late to pick him up.

By the time he got to the therapist’s clinic, Dream had been sitting in the waiting lobby with a box of tissues for about fifteen minutes, the golden skeleton looking up with teary eyes when Killer finally came in with one arm behind his back and an apologetic smile. The smaller instantly made grabby hands towards him, with Killer wasting no time in bringing him into a one-armed hug as he felt Dream’s head burrow into his shoulder to muffle his sobs. “Sorry I’m so late Dreamy, I had some errands to run and time got the better of me.”

For a while the smaller didn’t respond, too busy trying to calm himself down enough to speak in coherent sentences. “I-It’s okay,” he eventually blubbered out, furiously wiping at the tears that the daemon knew weren’t going to stop so easily. “Y-You’ve got a l-life too... c-can’t expect you t-to always b-be right here.”

Those words weren’t exactly what Killer was hoping for a response, since as his soulmate it was in fact his responsibility to be there for Dream whenever the golden skeleton needed him. “Well, I’m still sorry that I was late. I promised you that I was always going to be here waiting for you when you got out of your appointment, so I hope this makes up for me being a little late.” By now Dream had noticed that his one arm was still hidden behind him, his sniffles subsiding a bit out of curiosity. Smiling, the daemon revealed a bouquet of bright golden flowers, specifically a mixture of buttercups and marigolds.

“Are... A-Are these for m-me?” Dream asked, looking to him in a mixture of shock and surprise as he clearly hadn’t expected a gift.

“Yep! I didn’t know what flower specifically was your favorite, but you seem to like yellow and gold so I got these two!” He kind of figured that mentioning Nightmare at this moment would be a bad idea considering that Dream was fresh out of therapy, so he figured that he’d keep the octopus daemon’s involvement in his plan a secret for now. “Here you go Dreamy, I hope you like them.”

The smaller skeleton tentatively reached out his hand not currently holding a tissue, eventually managing to take the bouquet offered to him. Killer’s smile never faltered throughout the whole thing, watching as his soulmate took a deep sniff of the flowers before sighing, a smile eventually crossing his face as well. “Thank you Killer, I love the flowers. They’re very nice.” Even as Dream had to make use of the tissue in his hand from his earlier crying session, the teary-eyed skeleton never found a reason to stop smiling.

He waited a bit longer, giving Dream as much time as he needed to recover and calm himself down before gently pulling him to his feet. “Great! I’m glad you like them! Now, as nice as this place is, I’m sure you’ll like the next place we’re going even better!” True, the office was specifically designed to be warm and inviting to its patients, but the daemon was pretty sure that the next place he’d picked out would feel even cozier.

“Killer? What are you planning?” Dream cautiously asked as he was led out of the building, pulling his jacket even tighter as the fall winds brought a distinct chill to them. It would only be another few weeks before snow would start falling, reminding him that they’d already been in this city just over a month. It was one of the longest stints their group had gone without moving, especially with some of them already encountering a hunter, but with their soulmates all here none of them would be able to bring themselves to leave any time soon.

Tearing his focus away from the changing weather and passage of time, Killer simply smiled as he pulled his soulmate closer, hoping to block out some of the wind at least with his body. “I can’t tell you, it’d ruin the surprise!”

A frown started to appear on Dream’s face, prompting the taller to ask what was wrong. “Killer, I really appreciate the flowers and all the attention, but I don’t know if I have time for whatever you’re planning. I’ve got so many assignments that I put off to study for midterms or just completely forgot about, and I’ve got my therapy exercises to work on, and then I need to clean the apartment and make food and there was something else that was really important that I can’t remember right now-”

Before the golden skeleton could come up with any more excuses, Killer silenced him by gently placing a finger over his mouth. “Dream, you’re definitely not in a good enough mental state to even think about homework, so save yourself the stress and put it off until you can actually do it. Your roommate can take care of the apartment for tonight, I’m sure that they’ll understand that you need the night off. As for food and therapy, I plan to take care of both of those! And if that important thing comes to you and you need to go, then I’ll completely understand!” It was clear that Dream was now very curious as to what exactly he was planning, allowing himself to be pulled along once again without saying another thing in opposition to the impromptu night out. It was clear that he was still conflicted about whether this was a good idea or not, but Killer simply trusted that his plan would be enough to change Dream’s mind once they got to their first stop.

It didn’t take much more walking before they made it to their there, the daemon leading his soulmate into a quaint little café. The whole place had a cozy vibe to it, with a little fireplace in one end of the café and plenty of plush seats instead of hard plastic or metal dining chairs. With the many photos and bookshelves lining the walls, it felt more like one was visiting family instead of going to a business, and that was exactly how Killer wanted it.

“I’ve never been here before,” Dream murmured as he was led inside, the time of day leading to the place being relatively empty. That meant that they had their pick of seats, with the taller of the two deciding that near the fireplace and towards the back would be comfortable as well as private enough for the two of them to talk freely.

“Honestly, me neither. But I did a bunch of googling and this place came with such great reviews. I only stopped in earlier to make sure that this was exactly the kind of place I wanted to take you to. Rejected like three other places before I got to this one, so I hope you like it.” As the pair made it to their seat, the teary-eyed skeleton never made a move to sit down, only confusing his companion. “I’ll be right back, gotta order something really quick!”

As he left Dream sitting at the table by himself, Killer ran up to the counter and asked for two servings of apple pie with ice cream. This place had been the only one to have really good food reviews as well as the right atmosphere, their pie particularly having high reviews for its homemade nature and great taste.

Before too much longer two plates of freshly warmed pie were in his hands, the ice cream already beginning to melt from the heat. “I... heard that you like apple pie, so I really hope that I heard right,” he muttered, trying his best to keep Nightmare out of things until he was sure that mentioning the other daemon wouldn’t trigger any sort of episode.

Dream’s eyes grew noticeably larger as he stared at the pie, a smile forming once again as he took his own plate and savored the smell for a moment. “You definitely heard right, this is my favorite! Who told you?”

“U-Um...” Killer struggled to find something he could say, rubbing his skull and thinking for far too long.

The fact that he didn’t say right away caused his soulmate to sigh, the smile that he was wanting to see so badly being replaced by a frown. “Night told you, didn’t he?”

“W-What? No! N-No of course not! I-I totally didn’t ask him a-anything!”

“You’re a horrible liar Killer,” the golden skeleton mumbled, looking to the pie with a mixture of pain and sorrow.

It was too much to bear, seeing Dream in such a state. He knew he had to say something, and since lying clearly wasn’t doing him any favors, maybe the truth would be more helpful. “Okay yes! I called Nightmare and asked him what some of your favorites were, but only because Reaper suggested it! I... look, I’ve been a horrible soulmate ever since we met. I kept expecting you to just one day get over your crush and miraculously fall in love with me, and I never made any effort to make that happen. I never tried to get to know you or understand you, I just kept sticking myself next to you in the hopes that you’d soon choose me over him, and I’m sorry about that. If I’d made even the slightest effort to get to know even your most basic preferences, then I wouldn’t have had to phone your brother and ask him stuff that I should already know.” He could practically feel the guilt clawing at him from the inside, causing him to look away in shame as he admitted just what a pathetic excuse for a soulmate he’d been. They’d known each other for over two weeks, and he didn’t even know what kind of foods he liked without having to ask the one person that Dream didn’t want to speak to right now.

“Killer,” the smaller skeleton called, a gloved hand reaching out to guide his face back to face him. “It’s okay, you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. I don’t think you’ve been horrible at all, you’ve been there for me the entire time ever since we’ve met, meaning that I’ve never had to feel alone. And you’re constantly trying to think of ways to improve my mood, like right now, which I really appreciate... If anything, I’ve been the one that’s been horrible to you. I keep stringing you along even though I know your feelings for me... I know exactly what that pain is like, to love someone that refuses to love you back, and yet I still inflict it on you daily... I’m sorry.”

The moment his soulmate began sniffling again, Killer cursed himself and his big mouth. His attempts to apologize had only been made worse as Dream had taken the blame and thrown it upon himself. Maybe this was why Reaper had originally told him to keep the whole ‘soulmate’ thing to himself while the golden skeleton recovered. If he’d done so, it would’ve been one less burden weighing him down, one less thing to make him feel pressured to get over Cross, but of course he just couldn’t stop himself and had to open his big mouth.

But he had something more important to do than hate on himself at the moment, seeing as Dream was doing the same thing and it was far more dangerous for the smaller to be doing such. The frog reached out to grab hold of his soulmate’s shoulders, effectively stealing his attention and forcing him to look directly at the daemon. “Dream, please don’t worry about me. You’re the one that felt so pressured that you resorted to trying to take your own life, and you’re the only one out of the two of us that needs to be worried over. I can handle myself just fine, and like I told you when we first met, I’m more than prepared to wait until you’re truly ready for us to be a thing. I know that things wouldn’t work out right, no matter how meant to be it is, if your soul still belonged to someone else. But I can’t force you to simply stop loving someone that you’ve wanted for a year... all I can do is be there for you whenever you need me to be.”

Before the conversation could continue down such a depressing path, the daemon put on a smile and gestured to the pie in front of them, each one starting to sit in a small pool of melted ice cream. “Well, regardless of how I found out, this is indeed your favorite treat and it would be a shame to let it just sit. Apparently, this place has really good pie, so why don’t you be the judge of that for me?” He took the seat across from Dream, continuing to softly smile as he tried to steer their time together to the more positive outcome that he desired.

While he was clearly reluctant to let their earlier blame game go so easily, the sniffling skeleton turned his focus to the dish in front of him, taking a slightly shaky hold of his fork and cutting off a chunk with some ice cream. The first bite was apparently pretty good, a soft hum escaping Dream as he immediately dove in for another bite, gesturing for Killer to do the same. While he’d never really been crazy about pie before, the frog daemon had to admit that this was damn good. The apples had a fresh sweetness to them, the crust was soft and flaky, and the ice cream was the perfect match to complete the sweet dessert.

“O-Okay, I’ll admit that they have some good pie,” Dream chuckled, already about halfway through his. A moment of silence lingered between them, with Killer looking up to see his soulmate toying with his fork instead of eating. “Thanks Killer, this means a lot to me. Even if you had to ask Nightmare, I really appreciate the effort you went through to try and pick my mood up.”

“Yeah... still wish that I didn’t have to rely on Nightmare... which is why I was hoping that I could sort of ask you a bunch of questions. I want to truly get to know you, and if I have to start by just asking you a bunch of questions about your likes and dislikes, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

The smaller thought over his suggestion for a bit, the frown leaving Killer a little on edge and awaiting explanation. “Okay, but why do I have to just answer questions? I’d like to ask them to!”

“... What?”

“Yeah! I mean I don’t really know much about you either now that I think about it, so how about this? Any question that you ask me, you have to answer it too. Then I’ll ask a question and I’ll give you my answer as well! Sounds pretty fair to me, don’t you think.”

While this was clearly not the turn he’d expected, it wasn’t an unpleasant one so he was all too happy to oblige his soulmate. “Okay, if that’s what you want then that’s how we’ll do it. Let’s see...” He had so many questions that he wanted to ask, but he figured that he’d start with an easy one at first. “Okay, since I clearly had no real clue, what are your actual favorite flowers?”

Dream pondered his answer for a moment, looking to the bouquet he’d been gifted earlier with a soft smile. “I don’t know if I ever actually took the time to pick a favorite out now that I think about it. Call it cheating, but I think I’m just gonna make these my favorites! After all, you gave them to me, so they’re already special to me.” The sweet answer had the daemon swooning, finding Dream to just be too adorable. He was so busy swooning that he never noticed that the smaller was waiting for him to speak up, silently gesturing before giving up with subtlety. “Now it’s your turn Killer, you have to tell me what your favorite flower is.”

“Huh? Oh... Oh! Crap, I totally didn’t think about that when I asked,” he admitted, blushing as he tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t be too sappy or embarrassing. “Um... I guess I’m a little biased, but I like those... whatever they are, the ones that just sorta sit on the water.”

“Lotus flowers?”

“Yes! Those ones!” He blurted out, only to fall silent as the golden skeleton across from him began giggling. “Please tell me that wasn’t an embarrassing answer.”

“No, I didn’t think so! I thought it suited you given your... nature. Though you might want to be careful of what kind of questions you ask in the future if you’re that concerned about saying something embarrassing.” The frog noted that with a chuckle, waiting for Dream to come up his first question as he took a bite of pie. “Well, I know your group is pretty big, and while you’re all together, I’m curious who among your brothers is the one you’re closest to.”

“Oh, that would be Dust, hands down. The two of us are the youngest in the group, so we kind of connected right away unlike with some of our older brothers. Plus, most of them are kind of intimidating to approach right off the bat until you get to know them... well your brother is still intimidating, but I never felt that way with Dust. He was always such a big goofball once I met him, always full of energy and excitement. Apparently, he wasn’t like that when the others first met him, but I was the last to join the group so I usually only see his happy-go-lucky side. I’ve only seen him get murderous on a few occasions, and usually he pretty quickly flops back to the dork I’m used to dealing with.”

After a large bite of pie, Dream nodded along to what he said before commenting. “I don’t think I’ve met Dust yet, but I can see why you’re close with him if that’s the way he acts. I’ve actually got a friend really similar to that, there’s a rule in our friend group that he’s not allowed to have sugar or anything overly sweet because nobody can handle him on a sugar high.”

“Yeah, that does sound a lot like Dust,” Killer chuckled in agreement, now finding himself growing curious. “Well, what about you? You’ve got a pretty large and crazy friend group, there’s gotta be one that sort of stands out from the others.”

“Yeah, there is actually, and I guess that honor would go to Ink. Out of everyone, he’s the one I’ve known the longest, and the two of us have been through some... interesting times.” Dream paused for a moment, as if trying to figure exactly how to word his thoughts instead of just rambling on like Killer did. “Ink saved me the first time I hit a really rough patch, took care of me and nursed me back to health physically and mentally. I met him shortly after Night left, so I relied heavily on our bizarre friendship to keep going. Eventually though things got better for both of us, with Ink helping to keep my head in a better place and I helped him to get a better grasp on his emotional problems that he’d been dealing with. For a few years though it was just me and him against the world, and as much as I love my other friends, that period of time will always house a special place in my soul.”

“Ink... that’s the artist that’s been clinging to Error the past few weeks, right?” Once he got a nod that confirmed he was thinking of the right skeleton, the daemon couldn’t help but chuckle. “Kind of funny how your closest friend is the boyfriend for one of my brothers,” he commented, specifically avoiding the use of the word ‘soulmate’ out loud to keep from drawing unnecessary and possibly dangerous attention their way.

His comment only served to make Dream laugh as well, though the shake of his head made it clear that they were laughing for different reasons. “It’s not surprising to me in the slightest. Fate works in strange ways, especially when dealing with the strings that bind us together.” Damn, Dream was good at saying things in a way that never explicitly screamed ‘daemon’, he’d have to take note sometime. “You and your brothers are bound together, your lives are all destined to walk a similar path. So why wouldn’t fate join your future partners together in a similar way? It’s actually more common than you think for brothers like you and Dust to have partners that are already friends. It’s fate’s way of saving you from having to choose between two different bindings that would otherwise pull your soul in different directions.”

“... You really know a lot about this stuff, don’t you? I mean hell, you know more than me!”

“I kind of grew up surrounded by this crap, that’s the only way that I understand things as well as I do. Honestly I’m surprised that Nightmare never once tried to explain this possibility to you guys.”

“Well... knowing me, there’s a very real possibility that he did and I simply never paid enough attention to actually retain it... either that or I’m just being forgetful again.”

“Oh please, you can’t possibly be forgetful as I am,” the golden skeleton challenged, pulling out his phone and sliding it across the table. “I had to specifically get this fancy waterproof case because I was always washing my phone. I think I killed three different phones in as many months before one of my friends suggested that I get this case.”

While that would’ve been an impressive level of forgetfulness, the daemon simply smirked as he pulled out his own phone and slid it to be right next to Dream’s, the two looking almost identical save for some slight color variations. “Nightmare told me he’d kill me if I broke this one, he was tired of replacing them after I kept going for a swim and forgetting to take them out beforehand.”

“No way... I have never met someone as forgetful as I am!” The smaller blurted out in excitement, the pair sharing a laugh until the sound of one of the phones vibrating interrupted them.

With both facing the taller of the two, Killer instinctively went to silence the phone in annoyance, dismissing the call since he figured that he’d simply forgotten to set his own phone on silent. That was until he caught the distinctive gold markings on the case that meant it wasn’t his. “Oh crap! Sorry, I just totally declined a call on your phone thinking it was mine!”

The teary-eyed skeleton handed it back with a sheepish look, only to relax when all Dream did was shrug. “Eh, if it was important, I’m sure they’ll call back or get a hold of me somehow. I wasn’t even really expecting a phone call anyways... at least I don’t think so... maybe I’m forgetting something?”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not that important. They can just call back later. For now, why don’t we get back to our questions and our pie? I’ve got something planned for after this too, so I want us to make some progress before my forgetful nature makes us miss arguably the best part of my plan.”

Dream let out a soft giggle, any sort of confusion or doubt melting away as he quickly pocketed the phone without another glance. “Wow, you’re spoiling me right now, aren’t you?”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted with a laugh of his own, taking another bite of his pie before restarting their little question session. It was more fun than he thought it would be when he’d initially suggested it, the two going back and forth and learning little details about each other. Killer had a fear of bears that he’d never been able to get over; Dream’s least favorite color was neon pink; Killer didn’t mind eating bugs but preferred normal food; Dream was too nervous to try dunking his fries in a milkshake. It was little things like that, each with their own story that helped pass the time and another slice of pie each.

“No way, you actually made your own spell?!” Killer blurted out, trying to be as discreet as he could considering other people had long since filled the little café.

“I said theoretically, I’ve never tried it. Pretty sure with my luck I’d blow a crater into something the minute I tried to cast it,” the golden skeleton admitted, clearly not as proud as Killer felt he should be.

The daemon pouted, wanting his soulmate to take greater pride in what he understood to be an extremely difficult task. Just as he went to try and convince him otherwise, a server from the café came up with the bill, a smile on her face. “Pardon the interruption, but you requested that we bring you the bill at this time since you said you might forget.”

Glancing at his phone, Killer found that it was indeed when he’d requested that they bring him the bill as a failsafe for when he inevitably forgot to keep track of time. “Here Killer, let me get it,” Dream piped up, going to reach for his wallet and pull out his card.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that Dreamy, I got this!”

“Um... you know that’s technically my money, right?”

The teary-eyed skeleton froze, recalling that the funds he and his brothers used were in fact Dream and Nightmare’s private funds that they hadn’t touched in years. So technically, the money was Dream’s. “... I’m still paying, it’s the principle of the matter now.” After causing the smaller to giggle and paying their tab, the frog daemon quickly rushed the pair out of there, keeping quiet about where he was leading the golden skeleton to despite several determined attempts to figure out what he was up to.

“All right, last stop of the night!” Killer announced as they approached an animal shelter, the daemon snickering quietly to himself as he pictured how Nightmare might view this scene without any context. He opened the door and ushered a clearly confused Dream inside, listening to him insist that he didn’t need another gift tonight.

A woman at the counter perked up as the two skeletons walked in, flipping through some papers before getting up and smiling. “Are you our 6:30?” She asked, getting a nod from the taller and even more confusion from his counterpart. “Great! Just come right this way please!” The woman led the way to a room nearby, the two skeletons following behind before she gestured to a completely empty space. “If you’d just step inside please.”

“Killer... what is going on?” Dream asked, having to be practically pushed towards the glass door that almost completely blended in with the glass outer wall.

“I’m not telling~ Just get inside and you’ll find out what the surprise is!”

“Killer...” The smaller whined, eventually giving up and letting himself be herded into the empty room while the daemon held his flowers. The golden skeleton looked around with a frown, wondering just what the whole purpose of this was, while Killer simply gave the symbol to the shelter worker. Nodding, the woman made a call into her radio, and before much longer, a couple trap doors opened at the base of the far wall.

Out of the holes first appeared a puppy... then a kitten... then two puppies, three kittens. Before Dream could even process what was really going on, baby animals of various shapes and sizes had poured into the room, all eager for attention as they made a beeline for the only person in the space. Next thing Killer knew, he was watching with happiness swelling in his soul as his soulmate was left rolling around on the floor, giggling and squealing with joy as he was swarmed with affectionate and cuddly animals all fighting for his attention. It had taken a lot of searching to find a shelter in the city that would let people just drop by to play with their animals, but judging from the golden skeleton’s reaction, it had so been worth it.

Deciding that now was a good time to check his phone since he didn’t have to give Dream his immediate attention, the teary-eyed skeleton pulled it from his pocket and quickly looked over the notifications. The one that caught his attention though was a text from Reaper, opening the full message only to smile at what his brother had sent him. They’re gone! I did what you said, and they’re gone! I can feel them... they’re somewhere out there, practically begging for me to come find them now that they’ve recovered! Thanks, Kills, you have no idea how much your words helped!

Well at least things were going well with Reaper’s attempts to find his soulmate, letting out a soft sigh as he pocketed his phone and turned his focus back to his own. If Reaper’s had just gotten out of the ICU ward of the hospital and his own soulmate was still struggling with his depression, it felt like the two of them had gotten screwed over by fate somehow. But so long as they both were alive and well, it didn’t matter if they had a rougher start than the others did, because they’d still make sure their soulmates were safe and happy no matter what.

“Puppy!” A voice behind him called out, drawing the frog’s attention away from Dream to see a little child accompanied by who had to be his parents. His father looked like the kind of person he wanted nothing to do with, fresh scars crossing his face that left an even scarier impression on top of the tattoos and old scars that remained visible to him. At least his mother looked relatively normal, smiling down at her child that was excitedly gesturing at the animals currently playing with his soulmate.

“Hi folks, how can I help you?” The attendant asked, all smiles as she stepped up to deal with them. Even though the staff was dealing with them right now, something didn’t sit right with Killer. Both of the parents gave him a bad vibe, causing him to keep his guard up and keep an eye on them.

“I wanna play with the puppies!” The kid blurted out, continuing to pull on his parent’s arm. “Mommy! I wanna play with the puppies now!"

Instead of responding by disciplining the boy for his demanding tone, all she did was smile and pet him on the head. “Alright sweetie, Mommy will get you the puppies.”

As she looked expectantly back at the shelter worker, the woman stumbled a bit over her words. “O-Oh, I’m sorry, b-but your boy can’t play with those animals right n-now. However, I c-can book you the next available appointment for the p-play box if you’d like-”

The employee didn’t even get to finish, the platinum-blonde woman immediately going off on her. “No, didn’t you hear my son?! He wants to play with them now! Just throw that disgusting monster out of there and let my angel play!” She snapped, her partner stepping up beside her as if to intimidate the young lady that was merely doing her job.

“I-I’m s-sorry, b-but Mr. R-Rah... R-Rahaf-fwabas c-came in earlier and b-booked the space! I-I can’t k-kick either one out, he’s a-already paid even!” The glint in the couple’s eyes as the woman stumbled over his last name just set his instincts screaming. His body was already reacting to the situation, the goop leaking down from his sockets no longer as harmless as it usually was. It was the only way he had to defend himself in a situation like this, but like hell he’d let any member of that wretched family come anywhere near his soulmate.

“Honey, can you remove those annoying monsters so Max can play?” The mother sweetly asked, turning to the behemoth of a man beside her that didn’t hesitate to push past the frantic employee with ease. Seeing him heading for the door, Killer didn’t hesitate to stand in between them, his face showing no emotion as he stood his ground and prevented him from disturbing Dream.

“Daddy, I wanna play with the puppies!” The brat practically screamed out, pretty much having a meltdown on the floor over the ‘mean lady’ that kept desperately trying to tell him no.

“I’m working on it, Max,” the man simply huffed, glaring at the daemon in front of him. “Move.” Silence was the only response given, Killer not budging an inch. “I will move you if I have to, and it won’t be pretty for you. I’ll break your weak little bones if you don’t get out of my way this second.”

This time, the teary-eyed skeleton simply shifted his stance to brace before smirking and pointing to his one cheek. “Oh yeah? Come on then, tough guy! Give it your best shot!” He didn’t doubt that he was about to get one hell of a punch, all he could hope was that Dream was too busy playing with the animals just past that door to pay attention to what was going on out here.

Even with him bracing for the impact as best as he could, Killer really couldn’t have prepared for how badly that shot would hurt. Had he not been a daemon, there was no telling how much damage it would’ve done. But it still hurt like hell and jarred his skull, leaving him disoriented as he stumbled back and collapsed against the glass wall. He could faintly hear someone screaming out his name, but his blurry vision was currently on the two men towering before him, watching them slowly merge back into one as his vision stopped spinning so much before his plan took effect.

While he typically avoided producing dangerous substances with his slime unless dealing with hunters, someone directly threatening his soulmate had been more than enough for him to risk using his talents out in public. He hadn’t gone for a lethal poison to avoid the problems that would arise from that, but hallucinogenic toxins were well within his capabilities to produce. And that man had stupidly smeared his toxins all over his hand when he’d punched the frog in the face.

“Tyler!” The woman screamed as her partner doubled over, swaying and staring at his hand as if he couldn’t quite see it properly. She rushed over to his side, ignoring her child for a moment to tend to him and fussing as she tried to get a coherent answer out of him as to what was wrong. It gave Killer enough time to recover, his eye streaks back to harmless by the time he stumbled to his feet. Though his movement only seemed to bring the vile woman’s attention on him. “You!” She seethed, kneeling next to her partner and glaring venomously at the skeleton at the other end of the room. “You evil demon! You’ll pay for this! I swear it!”

Her words struck a chord with him that let panic flutter in his soul while the family were escorted out of the building by security. Did she say demon... or daemon? The two were pronounced identically, so it was hard for him to tell. Still, they’d reacted to his name, which was definitely on his file, meaning only one thing: those two were potentially hunters. And if they were, they knew who and what he was.

Before he could even think about warning the others about the pair, a soft yet muffled voice behind him stole his attention. “Killer, are you okay?” Whipping around, he came face to face with Dream pressed against the glass. Dream... if they were hunters, they would know Dream was his soulmate. Oh god, he’d just put Dream in grave danger.

Tears slowly began to leak down his face as the gravity of his mistake weighed down on him, his lip trembling as he couldn’t even begin to apologize for what he’d just done. The sight of him in tears clearly wasn’t what the golden skeleton wanted to see, Dream’s expression hardening as he went over to the door. The daemon couldn’t even say anything, nor could the employee that was trying to help, before the smaller grabbed his arm and simply yanked him into the room.

“Killer...” He mumbled, brushing his gloved hand against the other skeleton’s cheek. Yet he didn’t even react despite how tender the spot was. “Well, that’s clearly not why you’re crying,” Dream sighed, pulling the both of them to the ground before promptly plopping a puppy in his lap. “Pet the puppy and talk to me Killsy, what’s got you so worked up?”

“I... I-I... K-Killsy?” The daemon mumbled, his cheeks growing hot as that single word effectively distracted him from the turmoil of his thoughts. All he could managed was to absently stroke at the animal squirming in his lap that was practically begging for attention, though he was so focused on Dream that he didn’t even realize he was doing it.

Even though a similar blush streaked across Dream’s face, the smaller didn’t back down from what he’d said. Instead, he simply smiled, leaning forward to place a gentle kiss against the dark bruise on the side of his face. “There, a kiss to make it better,” he giggled, the taller struggling to say anything as he felt heat practically consume his face. “Killsy, you’ve been here for me this entire time, now let me return the favor and be there for you.” The golden skeleton reached out and took hold of his hands despite the many animals currently vying for their attention.

As much as he wanted to tell him, the daemon worried over what kind of impact it would have on Dream’s fragile mental health to learn that their lives were now potentially in danger. There was also a chance that he was completely wrong, and that the woman called all monsters demons or they’d simply reacted to his admittedly very unusual last name or something. If he was certain, then he would probably speak up, but until him and the others could confirm this, it was nothing that he really needed to concern Dream over, not until he was sure.

“I-It’s nothing,” he insisted with a shake of his head, leaning forward to return the earlier kiss with one to the golden skeleton’s forehead. “I promise you if it turns into something, then I’ll tell you, but until then I don’t want to add another needless worry to your plate. After all, this whole plan was to help you relax and get some critter therapy, so let’s get back to focusing about you and these super cute animals!” To fully emphasize his point, the taller grabbed a nearby kitten and held it up with the most innocent smile he could manage, laughing as the kitten reached out and batted at Dream’s crown.

The laughter he heard coming from the smaller lifted some of the darkness and despair encircling his soul, watching as Dream reluctantly focused on the admittedly cute animals instead of what he was now hiding. It was clear that his soulmate wanted to find out, but for now he wouldn’t involve him in this matter. All that was important right now was smothering Dream in all the affection and care he needed.

His efforts also seemed to be paying off already to get closer to the smaller, surprised by how quickly Reaper’s advice was starting to show results. Dream seemed determined to involve him with the animals now that he was in the room as well, the two eventually laughing and rolling around with the fuzzy creatures as the fight outside the small room was all but forgotten. Instead, the two were joking and playing with each other, but the highlight of his night had to be when his soulmate proceeded to snuggle up to him with a hug, offering another kiss on the cheek with a sweet smile. “Thank you Killsy, today was more fun than I’ve had in a long time, I really appreciate all the effort you put in for me... And it got me thinking... maybe I should put a little more effort into things when it comes to us.”

“R-Really?” The daemon practically squeaked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Yep, I want to give us a chance. I’ll still need things to go pretty slow I think, but... the occasional kiss here or a hug there would probably feel pretty nice.”

“O-Of course! We’ll only go as fast as you want us to, I promise! S-So long as I get to hold you like this every once in a while, then I’ll be happy.” The smaller’s smile just had him swooning all over again, his arms wrapping comfortably around Dream’s lithe frame as he was finally allowed to do what his soul had been craving for weeks now... god, he so owed Reaper for his stupidly brilliant idea.