A MINI Adventure

Nothing stays unnoticed

Cross watched this little version of Horror while they slept. And despite the fact that the two had almost identical origins, Cross could still see differences between them. One of them, of course, was their size differences. Cross never thought a little Horror could be so cute, but here it was. The other difference was the hole in their heads. Horror's hole was a lot smaller than Mini’s. Then too, Undyne's spear has not changed in size. So it's to be expected that it would have a bigger impact on Mini's skull. But another, rather worrying, difference was the absence of Mini's Papyrus. According to Cinnamon, Mini had been alone in their AU. Had their Papyrus died? Or was there some other reason for his disappearance?

With a small sigh, Cross looked down gently at the child and readjusted the covers once more. He'd best go back to the others. They need to talk about how to proceed now. And Cross had just turned away, ready to leave, when all of his mental alarmssuddenly began to sound. But when he turned around with a drawn sword, ready to fight the danger, there was nothing there, only Mini, who was asleep in bed. And when even after several minutes there was still nothing to be seen, Cross released his sword and went back to the others. Maybe it was just the nervousness of hiding Mini from Nightmare that made him nervous.

But if Cross had just looked a little closer into the shadows, he would have seen it. A large, heavily glitching creature whose body could not be seen in the dark. Only the outline of the skull with a strong, malicious violet and a blood-red eyelight could be seen. The crack that runs from the skull of the figure to the right, purple glowing eye could almost no longer be called such, as it almost formed a hole. And the crack that stretched from the left, glowing red eye to his jaw made it look like the part of the jaw close to it was falling off any second. If Cross had looked better, he would have seen the gray, cracked hand with the huge hole in the middle that carefully ran down Mini's cheek. But because Cross hadn't looked well enough, the figure went unnoticed.

So Cross entered the living room again without being aware of what he had actually missed. And as Cross thought, there are discussions about what should happen to Mini. However, each of these discussions died when attention was turned to Cross.

"How are they…? Do you think... they... need something to... eat? ", Asked Horror, while Horror’s wide red eyelight seemed to glow with excitement as well as nervousness. Guess Cross wasn't the only one who immediately took the tiny skeleton into his heart. But Horror generally had something for little beings who needed his help.

"Well, they were quite light for a child their size, so it would probably be better to have something ready for them. And precisely because of their origin, I would recommend something light. We don't know when they last ate.” And Cross had never held a child personally, but thanks to the others he knows roughly how heavy a child must be and Mini was way too light. Though Cross could imagine that their Papyrus had always given Mini extra food. Because even while Minis bones seemed brittle, they still had a certain resilience. He just hoped they could get Mini back to a healthy weight quickly.

"And what do we do about Boss? He will notice that there is another mouth to feed. Because I doubt the kid can be locked up in the room until we find a way to introduce him to Boss.” Dust interjected and Cross realized that the hooded skeleton was right. Nightmare was the biggest problem in this situation. And while Nightmare hadn't said anything against the different animals each of them had brought with them over time, another skeleton was different. It is very likely that Nightmare will simply tell them to drop Mini off somewhere. And Cross ... He didn't want to. This injured little skeleton made Cross want to take care of Mini and make sure they were fine. He didn't want to trust Mini to anyone else.

"Don't worry Dusty, I doubt the boss will see the tiny one at all. And if it does get that far, we can always tell him that they are a Bara Bitty or something. You all worry too much. I tell you, Boss will be falling for Little H faster than you think. And then we both will no longer see either of them, because Mama Nootnoot would look after his child all by himself." Cross wanted to smack Killer on the back of the head for being so reckless. Sure, Killer may have known Nightmare the longest, but that still doesn't mean he can predict how Nightmare will react. And while that was the perfect scenario, of course, Cross doubted it would ever take place. Cross can already hear Nightmare say this isn't a kindergarten and the majority of them didn't even know how to care for a child.

And while the four of them continued to talk about what to do with Mini, no one noticed how the shadow of Nightmare's armchair grew lighter when the guardian decided to no longer attend the conversation. He had a guest he wanted to visit.

~ * ~

Nightmare materialized in front of the bed in which the little skeleton slept. It wasn't hard to see where it was coming from, which was a huge limitation on those who brought the skeleton into his castle. Cinnamon and Horror were the only ones among them who actively go to other Horrortales to deliver food there. And the way the skeleton looked, it wasn't difficult to see why his boys decided to hide this skeleton from him. It was small, young, and obviously without a brother. It was a chance for his boys to relive those old moments when they were just plain Sans. And while Nightmare understood the nostalgia, he couldn't let this skeleton distract his boys from their duties in the future. It would be best to get rid of it now. And with the AU that the skeleton comes from, it's not even necessarily due to him. The skeleton could simply have died of starvation.

However, when Nightmare sharpened his tentacles and placed them on the chest of the little skeleton, ready to stab them straight into their soul, two things happened. For one, the same tall, glitchy figure from before appeared in the shadows, carrying a manic expression with a broad grin that showed all of their pointed teeth, while four hands manifested behind Nightmare, the claws ready to dig into Nightmare's soul and slowly… painfully tear it in easy pieces to consume it. On the other hand, light yellow-orange tentacles with bright red spots resembling bloodstains shot through Mini's top and wrapped tightly around Nightmare's tentacles. And it was actually those so much smaller tentacles that made Nightmare stop.

"Erebos?" Said Nightmare in surprise as he relaxed his tentacles and carefully peeled away from the smaller tentacles. And the more Nightmare broke away, the more Para came to the front, who looked closely into the cyan eye of Nightmare with his turquoise eye that had a green circle around it, along with yellow triangles forming a third circle. And although the little parasite didn't have many opportunities to show his expression, he was still more than able to look disappointed.

With a small sigh, Nightmare sits down on the bed and gently strokes the tentacles of his ... well, his child. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Fresh? As far as I can remember, he had said that you should be with him in your younger years.” And while Par-Erebos could not speak in this form, he was perfectly capable of projecting his intention.

Friend. Warm. Safe. Family?

With a sigh, Nightmare wanted to contradict, that this little skeleton was in no way part of their family, when a quiet, sleepy voice interrupted him.

"Mama...?"

Surprised, Nightmare looked at the small skeleton, which was staring at him with blurred eyes and could technically fall asleep again any second. But it was that name that made Nightmare freeze in place. Sure, Killer and the others had called him Mama Nootnoot for fun, but that was different. This kid didn't say it for fun, they weren't awake enough for that. What surprised Nightmare was that this child's subconscious automatically considered him to be their mother. Was it the connection he had  with Erebos, or was this little skeleton really so hungry for love that it would choose the literal embodiment of negativity as its source of affection?

"Sleep." Nightmare said in a low voice, while he gently stroked the child's cheek and watched as it snuggled into his hand with a low purr and fell asleep again. And when he felt Erebos's satisfaction, it was obvious to Nightmare why the child had woken up. With an amused look, Nightmare sat Erebos back on the child's chest. "Fine. I will keep it. And now sleep. You both need the rest."

And after he  had covered his children in the covers again and turned off the lights, Nightmare went back to his library with a smile. He was curious how his boys would like to talk their way out of the fact that they had brought in a child when Nightmare would mention feeling some strange new presence inside of his domain. He was ready to watch them squirm.

This would prove to be interesting in the long run.