Fairytale - An Undertale AU

Chapter 17 - I'm Not Who You Think I Am

My eyes flutter open as I groan, rolling over. Dream's eyes are closed, a soft snore coming from him. Rolling the other direction, I look over at Ink's empty sleeping bag. Confused, I manifest crutches and pull myself onto them without disturbing Dream. Closing my eyes, I picture the one place he must be. Wind rushes past me and I sigh.

"Hey," I say, looking down at Ink. He glances at me, sighing.

"What are you doing here?" he asks me.

"I could ask you the same question," I retort, stretching out. We are in the writing space, thankfully. Here, I can stretch out and do what I want without pain. Ink crosses his arms over his legs, refusing to look at me. His eyes seem painfully dull. Leaning my head on his shoulder, I close my eyes.

"Do you remember?' he asks.

"About the . . ."

"Yeah."

"There is nothing for me to remember. I wasn't there," I say, looking at him. His eyes land on mine as he finally looks at me. Smiling, I rest my hand on his head. "There is one thing you should always remember about me, from now on. I am Paint. That is my name. I'm not Anna. Even if her soul is in my body, I have one of my own. Don't confuse me for her," I say, looking at him. His eyes begin to water as he wraps his arms around. Smiling, I pat his head.

"Thank you," he murmurs.

"Yeah," I say. We sit there for a while, in eachother's arms. A weight feels lifted, from all this stress from Anna. She's content. Soon, we pull away from each other, wiping our tears and sighing. Resting my hand on my head, I sigh. "So, what do we do now?" I ask, looking at him. He shrugs, looking at his writing station.

"We just wait," he says, looking at me.

"For what?" I ask, looking at him.

"Well, first for your leg to heal, then for Nightmare to come back, then Error to go insane," he says, shrugging. Sighing, I nod. Everything he listed is inevitable, I guess. Soon they'll come, but this time, we have to be ready. There's no point in delaying it again. Looking at Ink, I sigh. The bags under his eyes stick out as he rests his head in the palm of his hand. Gliding over, I grab his arm and teleport us to my room. Thankfully, I was already sitting this time. Dream looks at us, groaning. Ink looks around, sighing. "I'm fine," he says.

"Actually, no, you aren't. You have bags under your eyes the size of New Home and and a pessimistic attitude worse than Nightmare's ego," I say, laying him down and pulling the blanket over his head. He groans and I roll my eyes. "You need to sleep. You must not have last night, so you're going to now," I say.

"I'm not tired," he murmurs.

"I could knock you out and see how that goes!" I say. Again, he groans.

"Fine, I'll go to sleep. Just, leave," he says.

"Why?"

"I can't sleep with people in the room," he says. Looking at Dream, I shrug. We grab hands and I teleport us to Dream's world, leaving Ink to himself. If he teleports away, he's going to die. I'll make sure of that. Dream looks at the tree, sighing and plopping down next to it. Crawling my way over, I do the same. This leg is inconvenient, to say the least. Dream looks at the sunrise that I painted on the wall the last time we were here. It's been a while, but not long enough for my power to fade away. Sighing, I lean against the tree.

"So, how is your leg?" he asks me. Looking down, I shrug.

"It doesn't hurt as bad as it did. Aches a bit," I say.

"Good," he says, crossing his arms. Nodding, I close my eyes and absorb the sun's warm light. It feels just like the real one. Well, I guess it is the real one, or as real as it's going to get. Dream grabs an apple, taking a bite out of it, then offering some to me. Taking it, I look at him.

"What happens to your food when you eat it?" I ask, taking a bite myself.

"Well, uh, good question," Dream says, looking down. Our eyes meet.

"You have no idea, do you?" I ask. He sighs and I laugh, shaking my head. It's something I've always wondered about. Sans, well, my Sans always ate food, but since he could turn human, it wasn't that big of a deal. But when it came to Classic Sans, I've always wondered where it went. Same with Pap. "Sometimes I wonder what it's like to live in an AU, just normally," I say, looking at him. He shrugs.

"It's probably boring," he says.

"Boring seems to sound better and better lately," I chuckle. He rolls his eyes and nods a bit. Dream's bright eyes shine with gold as he looks at the sun. "It's nice, isn't it?" I murmur, looking out at the sun myself. He nods, smiling slightly. Relief washes over me as I lean back, cracking my back. Dream looks at me, confused. "What?" I say.

"Did you just break your back?" he asks me. Laughing, I shake my head.

"No! I just popped it. I don't know if you can do that, since you don't have joints," I say, motioning to his hands. He looks down at them and I demonstrate, popping my knuckles. Glancing at mine, then back to his, he tries replicating it. "All that happens when you pop your knuckles is popping the air bubbles between your joints. But, since you don't anything to actually trap the air, it most likely won't work," I say, shrugging.

"Well, we won't know if we don't try," he says, shrugging. Interlacing his fingers, he pushes them out. Six loud pops ring out as he gasps, pulling them back and shaking his hands. Laughing, I look at his hands. How did he do that I wonder? "Ow! Why did that hurt so much?!" he cries, rubbing his knuckles.

"It normally does when you do it for the first time," I say, shrugging. He sighs and rubs his hand. We lean back again, looking at the sun as it shines bright above us. A peacefulness washes over me as I relax in it's bright light. "Skeletons are weird," I murmur.

"Yeah," Dream responds.