Dreamcatcher

10. Progress

Rebooting after a crash with hazy memories was something Error was getting quite sick of. While the aftermath of a crash was never horrible, it sure sucked. Sometimes he'd forget completely what had caused it, other times it left him with headaches that racked in his skull the rest of that day. This time it seemed to be roughly in the middle.

Error vaguely remembered he'd been with Swap and that they'd been talking about... something important? Then the Voices caused his already conflicted emotions to overwhelm him, resulting in his unpleasant state right now. The exact details were foggy in his memory, like an apple he couldn't quite reach on a branch. They were there but his skull couldn't get itself to recall them, however hard he wracked it, leaving Error slightly infuriated.

Of course Swap knew of these issues and had left a note.

Picking up that said note, Error fumbled around in his jacket's pocket to put on his glasses. They didn't help him see perfectly as of now, but it was better than the blurry mess of shapes and colours. Error blinked a couple times to adjust his sight and read the note carefully, having to restart a couple times from misreading it.

HI ERROR! YOU CRASHED SO I'M QUICKLY WRITING THIS BEFORE DREAM PICKS ME UP.

Error's soul did a flip at Dream's name before he mentally scolded himself for it.

I THINK THE VOICES SAID SOMETHING FOR YOU TO CRASH. BUT IN CASE YOU FORGET, I WAS GIVING YOU ADVICE ON LOVE! WELL DONE FOR WORKING ON YOUR PHOBIA BY THE WAY, UNTIL NEXT TIME FRIEND! MWEHEHEH!

-THE MAGNIFICENT SWAP

P.S. I'M SURE DREAM WOULD LOVE ONE OF YOUR CROCHETED THINGS!

P.P.S. HE ALSO LIKES DAFFODILS!!

The past few hours came rushing back to him in a haze, and where usually a headache would form, in its place was a flutter of warmth.

He. Liked. Dream.

Right. That was what he'd been repeating far to many times to himself, so much so, he'd accepted its truth. That he, the 'merciless Destroyer' felt love towards Dream. The Dream that Error shouldn't have befriended in the first place. 

A cold feeling tingled up his spine and the previous ecstasy was snuffed out.

Positivity and destruction didn't belong together, it didn't work together. While the two weren't binary opposites, they didn't meet along the same path. Error should have understood the moment he realised his crush on Dream that this would most likely never work out.

And yet, this felt like something he shouldn't give up on. 

Error had been skeptical, then astounded, and more recently addled. All those had been muddled together in a blur, tangled in a clutter of his conflicted mind. Swap had helped him understand the main components of love (sure, he'd known and seen it, but never experienced it firsthand, being uninterested until this moment). And now? Now Error had accepted his mess of absurd emotions and situation, he was determined.

Screw what logic he held, Dream was the first monster Error didn't want to destroy on the spot. That tingle of mirth as Dream's golden eye lights twinkled in joy or as his soft laugh soothed Error's doubts. That glimmer of hope he felt he could reach and halt of his soul when Error really focused on the positive skeleton. And that feeling Error wanted to experience, one that felt so much better than destruction. All that wasn't worth losing over his hesitancy