Misery Loves Company

Rewards And Vacations

You woke up with a groan, on the floor.

When did you fall asleep?

You tremble as memories of your panic attack return but push them away soon after, getting up and brushing off your black tunic. You sit in your chair, looking down at the documents on your desk, you need to arrange a group for the weekly shipment of food to Horrortale. You think for a moment, mentally going through your troups.

You already have two, Horror and Dust as they always stick together, Horror's been wanting to see his brother for a while. Maybe you could arrange a short vacation for him and Dust, they were two of your hardest working members. Maybe for Cross as well, you'd be getting rid of your best members for a short period of time but you could make due.

You get out a couple more documents from your desk before seeing the letter on your desk, it was from Red, a note that it was a genocide run and therefore he wouldn't be avaible. You curse inwardly, tossing the letter in the trash bin and turning back to your documents.

You manage to arrange a week for Cross, Horror, and Dust to have some time to themselves. Of course, you only have control over a few universes and you hope they'll stay to those and not stray. After that, you start arranging what should be in the shipment's content, making sure to include healing items and a large varity of meats, and a little something special for Grillby and his family of flame monsters.

Now all you have to do is arrange the transportation, which would be rather easy, you had your own machine outside; different from the ones in other universes, seeing as it actually worked.

You look at the time and realize how long you've been in your office; about a day and a half. You groan, realizing that some of your members would be worried enough to badger you until you tell them something. You debate whether to wait out the rest of the day in your office or actually go out and face them. It's times like this that you wish you'd never gather such large forces.

Maybe no one would notice?

You quickly dismiss that thought as you hear a knock at the door, you unlock the door with a tendril, "enter!" you give permission. The door creaked open to reveal your perhaps favorite member, "cross, what have you come here for?" you question, raising a brow. He stutters, "sorry for interrupting, b-boss, but me and the rest were worried" he states, looking down.

"you know, not looking at the person you're talking to is considered very rude" you tease and his eyelights snap to you, "sorry, boss!" he exclaims, you nearly smile but manage to keep a neutral face. "how do you feel about going on a vacation?" you ask, leaning on your hand and looking at Cross with a bored expression, "what- ahem, what do you mean, boss?" he inquires.

You chuckle, "you're one of my best and hardest working members, so i'm offering you some time to explore the aus i have control over, a week" you say, holding up the documents with the arrangements. "i-i don't know what to say, boss", his sockets are a bit wider than normal, "a yes or no would be a great start" you say with a chuckle, swinging the paper left to right teasingly.

"if you prefer to stay here, i'm sure i can arrange a different reward" you state, looking over the shipment contents. You were thinking of taking over a Candytale anyway, Cross was sure to love the chocolate from there. You look up at Cross, a bit irritated at his stretch of silence, his eye sockets are wide and his teeth are set in a surprised circle.

"i-i'd prefer to stay, if it's really okay, boss" he says, fiddling with his belt, his face a dark shade of purple in embarrassment. "you have so much trouble accepting praise, cross, may i ask why that is?" you ask, placing the paper down and returning to looking at him, "i-i just- i", he looks a bit frustrated and you can't keep in a snort of amusement. "alright, you don't have to tell me, come on, it's about dinner time anyway" you say, waving him over to follow you as you exit the office.

As soon as he comes out, you lock the door behind you as you walk down the hall in the direction of the stairs. His footfall patters behind you as you walk, "any requests, Cross?" you ask, still facing forward, but your sharp hearing picks up the way his footsteps stutter. "i-i can pick?!" he asks, seeming rather surprised, "but of course, it wouldn't be much of a reward if you didn't like it" you say, a bit of sarcasm leaking into your voice.

Cross hums as you walk, side by side. You slow as you both reach the step and stop as Cross begins to speak, sounding unsure, "can-can i call you by your name?" he asks and this time you falter. "um, doesn't sound like much of a reward but sure", you shrug, "i really like your name, it's a great reward!" he shouts with some kind of conviction and your socket goes wide.

He seems to realize what he did and looks down to his shoes, your soul feels warm and a smile spreads across your own face, "thank you, cross" you say tenderly before dropping the smile and turning to the stairs. "come on, we'll be late" you say and you both hurry to the dining room.

"brother!!" a voice comes from the kitchen and a golden blur rushes at you at high speeds. You can't stop the high pitched squeak that escapes you teeth as you topple down, Dream on top of you. He gasps loudly, "did you just squeak?! that was so cute!!!", his eyelights turn to stars as you blush, "i-i didn't" you try to stammer out.

"but ya did, boss, we all heard it" Horror says, sometimes his voice got better, even for a mere moment, even though he was in the kitchen, you wonder how loud you squeaked. "where were you, brother?! i was very worried" Dream exclaims and you wince, "i got caught up in paper work and fell asleep" you say, rubbing your neck. "also, horror and dust should both start packing their bags, they'll be leaving for a week to horrortale with the shipment" you say loudly, you hear Horror whoop and Dust chuckle.

You sit up, "now, get off me, so i can stand" you say before lifting Dream with a tendril and placing him on the chair beside your own, opposite to Cross' chair. You also sit, "brother??" Dream says, requesting your attention, "yes?" you inquire. "i never got to ask my question, and could you change forms?", you nod, letting your tar sag off your bones, "and i won't answer that question, dream, it's rather personal" you say as everyone starts to pile into the room, sitting in their seats.

Dream pouts, and you wish he'd just let it go...