Slave To Torment

Night

Horror enjoyed having Dust's help with dinner, though he definitely wasn't perfect it made Horror feel nice.
"So uh how long until I touch it with the..."
"Tongs?"
"Y-Ya..."
Horror laughed, walking over next to Dust and looking at the thing in the pan.
"Um give it another minute then you can take it out."
"Ok then, what about everything else?"
"I'll take care of it..."
"But-"
"You got this big guy... Just do one thing at a time... You're doing great..."
"Is that meant to be sarcastic!?"
Horror laughed
"A little"
"H-Hey! I'm trying!"
"I know but you've never cooked a day in your life."
"Well I have now~"
"I've noticed-"
"What's with all the laughing?"
The two stopped giggling and joking around, when they heard the deep guttural growl that came from Nightmare.
"Why are you both so happy?"
Nightmare walked up to the counter, leaning over to look at the two intimidatingly.
"And why are you doing Horror's job?"
"I'm sorry boss, he shouldn't-"
"I wanted to help"
Crossing his arms, Dust leaned forward to face the king.
"Unless there's something wrong with that?"
Nightmare looked from Dust to Horror then back at Dust.
"Finish up quickly will you? I don't think he ever needed help in the first place, so don't make it an option."
Nightmare was about to turn around and walk away when he noticed that Horror's ecto was summoned. Having no clue what happened earlier, Nightmare's mind started to jump to some unfair conclusions.
"Oh... Never mind Dust..."
"Huh?"
"I can see that you were more helping yourself for once... Good on ya..."
"That's not-"
"That's not what?"
Nightmare bellowed, Dust about to honestly answer before Horror cut him off.
"Y-Ya...that's what happened..."
"Good boy Horror, always being so honest... Now tell me something else, if that did happen then why were you both practically glowing when I walked in?"
"He wanted me to act happy about it... So I do what I'm told..."
Dust and Horror stood there silently, as Nightmare thought. Dust didn't dare say anything, he wanted to be honest but being honest now would get him and Horror in more trouble then it'd be worth. So all they did was stand there.
"If only you listened this well with the rest of us..."
Nightmare grumble silently, before looking at Dust.
"But good job Dust~ Finally pick your balls up off the floor."
Nightmare laughed, Dust awkwardly chuckling.
"Y-Ya I sure did..."
"Hm...yes...and as for you Horror~"
A tentacle wrapped around Horror's waist, lifting him off of the ground and almost pulling him on to the counter.
"You better listen this well with us~ Or me and Killer might want to see how well you 'listen' to Dust~"
Horror gulped before nodding. With a smirk on his face Nightmare let go of Horror.
"Um Nightmare- I mean-"
"Nightmare is ok, so what is it Dust?"
"Uh ya ok... Nightmare was does that um..."
"Threat have to do with you?"
"Yes"
"Well let's just say it'll be a nice surprise~"
Dust was going to ask what that meant but Nightmare left before he had the chance. Once he was gone, Dust noticed Horror taking the food out of the pan before turning of the burner.
"Hey I was supposed to- Wait- No! What the hell was that!? I didn't-"
"I know you didn't Dust..."
"So...why?.."
"We would've both been in trouble if I hadn't, and besides you're respected now... At least by Nightmare at the moment..."
"I doubt the other's are gonna hear about it"
"Oh trust me they probably will..."
Dust wasn't as sure but it didn't matter
"It's kind of sad you know..."
"What is?.."
"The fact that you feel like it's normal to say things like that, let the others use your body the way they do..."
"I don't let them...and it is a bad thing... But at least all that bad stuff helped us in this instance."
"I guess..."
The oven beeped before the two could continue talking, so with a sigh Horror just continued making dinner. As he did the rest of the castles occupants enter the kitchen.
"Nice ass Horror you should bend over more often~"
Killer teased, warranting Horror to silently groan. Dust grumbled, prompting him to continue.
"Oh and nice job Dust, or better said-"
"That's enough Killer..."
"Aw, fine you big baby~"
Killer chuckled as a pixely portal was opened with in the castle, Error stepping out of it.
"Oh hey Er-"
"Shut it Killer"
Killer laughs turned a lot more nervous after Error said that. Cross then randomly walked through the door.
"Um hey Cross, what are you doing here? Thought you and Dream-"
"Something came up, so I came back..."
"I see..."
Dust honestly didn't care about the reason why, he just didn't like that Cross was back. Horror nudged him.
"Stop it now..."
"Fine..."
"Oh he really did that?"
The two hearing some talking looked over at the table of monsters.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Oh nothing you gotta worry about pretty~"
Cross cooed mockingly, Horror grumbled walking off to go and finish up with dinner. Dust was going to go after him but was pulled over to the others by Error's strings.
"So I've heard you had fun today with the pet over there..."
"He isn't-"
"Shut up"
Doing as Error said, Dust complied.
"Though that is not how I choose to partake, congrats on doing that~"
"Uh..."
Looking back at Horror, he watched him nod prompting Dust to say-
"Y-Ya...totally..."
"Don't be like that, you should be very happy... Or something along those lines."
Cross stated, an annoying smirk on his face that made Dust groan.
"Yep! Now can we quit it, now"
Dust said between gritted teeth.
"Fine, Error let him go. We were just joking around... Or they were..."
Rolling his eyes, Error let Dust go. After being let go, Dust turned back to check on Horror a few times until he heard Horror call out that he had finished with the rest of dinner. So the occupants of the table watched as Horror tried his best to carry three sizable plates of food by himself over to the table. Some how he managed, placing them down with a slight huff. Horror looked at the expressions of everyone at the table, mostly neutral and none very angered or upset from what he could tell. Dust was obviously pleased, and told Horror his thoughts.
"It looks great Horror thank you"
"Y-You're welcome Dust..."
Having heard nothing else, Horror nervously began to ask-
"Do you guys l-like it?.."
"... It's better than breakfast, so yes"
Nightmare said with a chuckle, motioning for everyone to take what they want.
"You did a very good job~"
"T-Thanks... Um..."
"Is there something else?"
"...Could I go back to my room now?.."
Nightmare pondered that question, as he did so he got his plate of food before nodding.
"Go ahead"
"Thank you!"
"Horror wait what about-"
Horror walked off before Dust could finish
"Dinner..."
"He'll be fine Dusty, don't worry about it"
"But I-"
"He's, fine"
Killer reassured again before eating his food some more. Though Dust was worried he didn't get up nor say anything as he began to eat dinner.
Horror ran over to his room, the second he closed the door behind him he let out a sigh of relief.
"That went better than expected..."
Horror spoke to himself, as he began the short decent down the stairs. Getting to the bottom rather quickly he turned on the lights, then walked over to his bed. Quickly slipping out of the clothes he had worn that day he put on some pajamas and laid down in bed. It was quiet again, he could maybe hear the occasional laugh or part of a conversation from upstairs, but really it was just silent. Just like before it was welcoming, nice, and relaxing.
That was until the silence was interrupted by somebody opening the basement door. Confused and a tad bit worried, Horror sat up a bit to see who had come downstairs. Luckily it was just Dust.
"Oh hey Dust... What are you doing down here?"
"We'll I just thought that you'd like..."
Dust went over and sat next to Horror, before pulling out some nicecream and couple of spoons.
"Some nicecream! I know it's your favorite flavor to~"
"Thanks Dust... But I have a feeling that this was just an excuse to get yourself some to, I know we have the same favorite flavor~"
Horror teased before grabbing a spoon. Dust rolled his eyes.
"Ya I know...and I guess you're right."
Dust also got his spoon out before starting to eat some of the nicecream. Horror stopped eating for moment. Dust realizing this stopped as well.
"You don't mind sharing, right?"
"Oh no of course I don't..."
"Ok...then why do you sound like that?"
"It's just you know how they are... I guess it's 'programmed' into me at this point."
"Oh I get it...but it's ok, I won't get mad you know that."
"I know... So can we just keep eating our nicecream!"
"Hehe...sure Horror..."
The two again began to eat the nicecream, staying almost totally silent as they until it was gone.
"That was really good Dust, thank you"
"Don't mention it..."
Dust stood back up, before turning back around to look at Horror again.
"I'll see ya later?"
"Um sure, I just have one question before you go..."
"Ok, what is it?"
"Um...well I just want..."
"Want to?.."
Horror was thinking about what he wanted to ask, or more how he wanted to ask Dust the question he's had for a while. But before he could even form the words he decided to not.
"It's nothing, just tired is all... Thanks again though, and I'll see you tomorrow."
"... See ya then I guess..."
Dust walked back up the stairs, the door slowly creaking shut behind him. Horror sighed exasperatedly.
"I should have at least tried to ask...I'm so stupid..."
Laying back down, Horror used the light switch next to his bed to turn off the lights. The room plunged into darkness , Horror's single glowing red eye the only thing that could be seen. But even that light slowly faded as he closed his eyes go to sleep.