Aconitum

First Fire

Nightmare was tired the next morning, but not to tired to use his magic after properly waking up. Every morning he'd give himself about 10 minutes to wake up before heading out of his room and seeing the others (if they were awake). It was early enough that everyone else was still in bed.

Nightmare had the house to himself as long as he was reasonably quiet. So he spent the morning reading. It wasn't exciting but he enjoyed it regardless. The story was worth a read. It was about a guy who had a narrator telling him what to do and how that effected him mentally.

Nightmare nearly was near the end of the story when there was a knock at the door. He got up and set his book down on a side table. Obviously answering the door.

Ink was there, because honestly what acquaintance does he have outside of the house other then Ink. Core maybe, but they only talked on the request of Ink. Which means it was Ink, or some friend of one of the others.

"Hey Nightmare!"

"What brings you here?" Nightmare must of sounded more impolite than he intended because Ink's face fell.

"Just came to check on you." Ink fidgeted with his hands. Nightmare stepped outside and closed the door. He
wandered over to a tree and sat down, patting the spot next to him. He needed to be kind to make Ink feel welcome. He forgot about that sometimes.

"What happened to you?" Ink smelt like smoke and looked mildly singed. He sat down next to Night and picked at some plants.

"I saw fire for the first time." Ink's excitement spiked but he hid it behind a flatter voice.

"How did that go?" Ink perked up a bit.

"I got burnt, I've seen it from far away before. So I didn't know it was warm. I leaned in really close to it and fell in when I was surprised by one of the last survivors of the au coming behind me."

"Do you want to explain?"

"Basically Error was destroying an au and decided to kidnap one of the last survivors, leaving his brother to suffer in a partially empty au." Ink picked a flower and bent the stem into a circle, "I didn't know there were survivors and I thought I was to late. So I was looking at a fire in a fireplace."

"Anything else?"

"Of course! I saved the kidnapped survivor, and Chara. Their human, so that their au could be reset. And," Ink hesitated, his hands halting, "the survivor hugged me."

Nightmare didn't know what he was expecting, but he certainly didn't expect Inks eyes to start watering. His flower chain lost to the ground as he desperately wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

'Ink might not be as well as I thought he was.' that was unfair though wasn't it? Nightmare of all people should have known. It wasn't Ink's job to tell him.

"What's wrong?" Nightmare put as much emotion as he could muster into his voice.

"I just realized how many things I haven't done." Ink wrapped his arms around himself, "I just got hugged for the first time in my life. Ha! Isn't that sad. I'm sad. You're my only friend and I haven't done anything with myself. I'm just-"

"Stop. You aren't doing anything wrong. You're doing really well Ink," Night really wanted to say more, but he had never been good at people. So he said the first pep talk stereotypical thing that came to mind, "I'm proud of you."

"You said that really awkwardly." Ink giggled through his tears.

"Shh." Nightmare even more awkwardly hugged Ink. Partly to get him to quiet down and partly for his friends sake.

Ink hugged back and hid his face into Nightmares shoulder. Probably getting tears and snot all over his sleeve but Nightmare could not find any reason to care.

Ink's emotions were all over the place. His doubts and dread didn't magically go away with a hug, but Ink was grateful. He was all sentimental and mushy. He was happy to be friends with Night. That was enough for now.

"Thank you." Ink pulled away first. He liked the hug but after a little it felt smothering. So he went back to making his flower chain.

"What are you making?" Nightmare looked at the flowers.

"I'm trying to make a crown out of them," Ink fumbled with them, "it's hard though."

"I'd believe that." Ink messed with it for another few minutes before throwing the chain away enthusiastically, "yeah I hate that, why do people do that?"

"People find odd things amusing. I enjoy reading, which my brother used to consider odd. He enjoyed making crowns out of flowers." Dream really was Nightmare only real bar of normal and unusual.

"He must of been insane!" Ink giggled, "I like the flowers, just not making them into anything."

"Oh? Any favorites?"

"I really like a lot of them! But the best ones are Begonia's!" He continued to ramble, "they were one of the first things I saw in the doodle sphere. I love them still."

"I do not mean to pry, but you keep talking about the first time you saw things. What do you mean?"

"Oh! I never explained that. You must think I'm crazy." Ink laughed awkwardly, "....I come from an unfinished au. No world and no family or home. I was trapped there for a while. There was nothing and no one. The creators saved me then. After I ripped up my soul. It's hard to explain."

That explained a lot. That's why Inks emotions were like that. In fact, that's why Ink was like that. Why he clung to Nightmare the day he found him. That's why he seemed so alone for someone who knew that much.

"Well you always have a place here." Nightmare understood the feeling of not belonging, and Ink didn't deserve that.

"So you're giving me permission to come over any time?" The man asked slyly.

"Of course."

"See you at three am then!" With that Ink left, he probably had his reasons.
Nightmare took it as a chance to go finish his book.

It wasn't a happy ending. The main character ended up going insane from the constant presence of the narrator. It's a pointless death and it's clear that the story was meant for mortals who'd die no matter what they did, something that Nightmare would never relate to. The ending while poignant, left Nightmare unchanged.

~~~

Ayyy a chapter barely written within today like I wanted!