To live again

Chapter 11 - He's your what now?!

Nightmare took a deep breath, firmly gripped the walker and carefully stood up. His legs still felt quite weak. Though that wasn't anything new to him. He slowly took a few steps forward, holding onto the walker for support.

“You are doing very well.” Doctor Shyren said with a smile as she watched Nightmare walk around the room. Then with her guidance, Nightmare did a few more small exercises to hopefully strengthen his legs.

“Would you like to try it without the walker today?” Shyren asked. She had seen the huge progress the dark guardian made so far and thinks that it might be time to move to another stage of his rehabilitation journey.

Nightmare thought about her question for a minute, but in the end nodded in agreement. He put the walker to the side and slowly let go. His legs lightly shook as he tried to take a few steps forward. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for his legs to become too unstable that he had to stumble backwards and fall back on the chair. He cursed under his breath. He knows that rehabilitation takes time, but the progress seems so slow. He just wishes he could walk again like any other person.

“You did good. We will focus more on walking without the crutches in our next sessions and I am sure you'll be running around in no time.” Doctor Shyren said, trying to lift Nightmare’s spirit. Then she ended their sessions.

“Do you need me to help you to your room?” Shyren asked.

“No, I am fine. Thank you.” Nightmare quickly answered. He got back in his wheelchair, said his goodbyes and strolled away.

Truthfully Nightmare is starting to get sick of everyone jumping around him and sometimes treating him like he was unable to do much on his own. Sure, he still feels weak and tired, which is apparently also a side effect of some of his medications, but he is capable enough.

Finally Nightmare arrived in his room. There, he noticed a paper note laying on the small table. It was from Dream. His brother was just letting him know that he went to pick up that person he wanted Nightmare to meet. Right, Dream talked about that the other day. He just forgot. He sighed in defeat.

So the dark guardian waited for Dream to return. Overall Night wasn’t sure what to think of the situation and truth be told, Nightmare felt really nervous. What if Dream’s ‘friend’ is like the people back in the village? What if he finds himself in the same situation as before with Dream being blind to the schemes his friends did? Is he going to be on his own all over again?

Nightmare tried to quickly take his mind off of that. Dream wouldn't do that again, he promised. He just needs to calm down, put a bit more faith in his brother and stop overthinking everything. So Nightmare took a few deep breaths and tried to distract himself. The keyword tried. Before he could even think about anything else, there was a knock on his door. Immediately all the anxiety from before came crashing back onto him.

Dream then walked in with another skeleton tailing right behind him. “Hello, Brother! I am here with that special someone I told you about. I am really happy that you are finally going to get to know each other.” Dream said excitedly.

Nightmare sat up properly and stared the stranger up and down. They were wearing some casual clothing in black and white. The red and white eyelights looked directly at him with skepticism. Just from the look alone, made Nightmare fully realize that this whole meeting will not go in his favor.

“Soooo this is Nightmare and Nightmare this is Cross… my boyfriend.” The golden skeleton announced with a nervous laugh at the end. Then strong silence overtook the room.

Nightmare's mind went blank for a moment. “He's your what now?!” Nightmare asked in pure shock, unsure if he just heard that right.

“…My boyfriend.” Dream responded, still trying to hide his worry.