A Hidden Heart

28 - Changes

Guys. 

I finally made a cover. 

If you're on Ao3, you can see it in the A/N chapter. 

That is all. 

Comments are welcome and appreciated!

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

Nightmare didn't have time for this. Today was just not going his way. First, the protectors had decided to throw a party in celebration of 404's capture, which wasn't bad in and of itself, but it had significantly tilted the balance to the positive side because they apparently had to invite literally everyone to it?! And for some reason, they had to do it now, instead of perhaps the week of 404's actual capture? So Nightmare had to work today. Dream had wanted to go play with his friend, which Nightmare saw no problem with, but his dear little brother had somehow accidentally created a portal to an entirely different multiverse (Nightmare really wanted to find out what kind of higher entities were messing with his little brother), and Nightmare had to reverse-engineer the magic from said portal in order to track down his sibling. It was..a lot. Thankfully, the scientists he had abducted from their homes were willing to help him in exchange for their release and the information they would gain from this, and within the hour, Nightmare was on his way to what he assumed would be the easiest part of this little problem: actually getting his brother back.

Unfortunately, having a door slammed in his face by an older version of his brother wasn't the best sign of things to come.

"Hello?" He questioned, knocking again; this time, no one came to answer the door. "Uh..Dream, are you in there?"

"Nighty?" He heard his little brother's voice from inside, and a relieved sigh escaped him; that was good, at least!

"Don't!" A..deeper version of his brother's voice? Not too much deeper, though; it sounded just right for an older Dream, really. "He's clearly manipulated you!"

"No, he hasn't!" His little brother.. "He's the best brother ever!"

"You can't see it, but I can! I'm not letting someone like him mess with a child like you!"

"But he's my brother!"

Nightmare considered breaking the door down, but considering the conversation that was currently going on, he decided that it would have been better to wait; this certainly wasn't the first time this had happened. So he listened to his brother and the other version of his brother argue for a while, until, after almost ten minutes, things got quiet. He decided to knock again, and the older Dream answered the door, one of his eyesockets twitching when he realized that Nightmare had just been waiting patiently outside all that time. 

"Why are you still here?" He asked. 

"I..came to take my brother home?" Nightmare reminded. "I'm sorry for the intrusion; my brother is only just learning how to use his portal capabilities, and it seems he made a bit of a mistake with his latest one."

"Hi, Nighty!" His little brother waved with a big smile, as if he hadn't just had a heated argument with the other him. 

"Hello, brother." He replied with a chuckle. "Are you ready to come home yet?"

"Not yet!" Dream shook his skull. "Nighty, this other me never got told about anything important!"

"Excuse me?" The adult seemed annoyed. 

"No one ever told you that you don't have to be a Guardian, and that's important!"

Nightmare sighed, kneeling down to his brother's (who had come much closer as soon as he could) level and putting a hand on the little one's shoulder. "Dream, some people don't get a choice in the matter."