Viva La Vida

Once You'd Gone, There Was Never

TW: Minor character death and blood

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Nightmare held Ink the entire time they were in the carriage. He sobbed from the pain, even when his tongue scabbed over and he stopped bleeding. The blood stopped pouring out of his mouth and the blood on Nightmare's clothes had dried. But Ink still cried, he was still in pain, even though his blood was no longer dirtying the carriage and his lover. He wasn't crying any longer, but he couldn't stop shaking and he was terrified and in pain.

"Goodness, you are so dramatic." The woman laughed, mostly to herself.

Nightmare gave her a pissed off look, one that she thankfully didn't see-or else things might have ended much worse for him. Nightmare hadn't been mad in so long, just scared, but her blatant disrespect of his lover just made him angry. He could feel his LV bubbling up, the voices in his head screaming at him to just kill her. But he knew he couldn't, he wouldn't let his anger take over, even though his LV was so painful it felt like his bones were breaking. Nightmare pulled Ink in closer and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"It is okay Love, I got you, I am right here." He whispered, though it was barely audible to either of them. "I got you honey, I got you."

Ink nuzzled into his neck and he jumped when he felt the carriage stop. His hands gripped onto Nightmare tightly, terrified that either he or his lover would be hurt. Nightmare looked over to their owner, not daring to look at her any higher than her stomach for fear of being beaten for it. She had hammered the idea that he was less than anyone else, and according to her and many other owners eye contact was for people, not slaves. It was a show that they were equal, and looking an owner in the eyes was considered to be an act of defiance that should be punished. Nightmare found that out early, and it was one of the first things that had been broken out of him.

It took longer to train him on other things-not to speak unless spoken to, not to fight, not to bite, to throw himself to the floor and beg for forgiveness-but eye contact was the first thing to go. It was a slow process to break a person until they were nothing but an object, breaking a king was even harder for her.

Nightmare had been taught from before he could remember that he was above everyone else, that he was more important. That mentality only got worse when he went off to war, where his soldiers treated him as if he were a god. The only thing that really stopped him from turning into a full-fledged psychopath with an insane god complex was Dream, and later, Ink and Killer. They kept him grounded in reality and stopped him from getting carried away. Breaking someone who had been conditioned from a young age to know that he was above everyone around him was hard. But not impossible.

Nightmare was a living, breathing, walking example of that. A king of a fallen kingdom, one that was beloved by his kingdom, one who was the most well known and powerful throughout many other kingdoms. Yet here he sat, bloody, scarred, broken, dressed like the common whore he had been broken into, holding his sobbing and equally broken lover. It was pathetic for him, but for her, Nightmare being quiet and submissive at her side was a show of power. Any submissive slave was a sign of power, but a terrifying, violent, previously powerful king was just even better for her.

"Oh, we're here!" The woman said, a little too cheerful.

Her tone was far too cheerful to not alarm Nightmare and Ink that something was wrong here. She stood up, smoothing out the pretty, flowy, beautiful dress she was wearing and yanked Ink to his feet.

"Stand, we've arrived." She ordered, to which Nightmare obliged.

He stood, grabbing Ink by the waist and silently making sure he was okay. The woman opened the carriage door and stepped outside, Nightmare and Ink following closely behind. The horses that dragged the carriage along were being fed and cared for after their long journey. Ink envied the horses, it was pathetic that a couple animals were treated better and cared for more than he and his lovers were.