Fairytale - An Undertale AU

Chapter 9 - Life Before

My eyes flutter open as I look over at Ink. He stayed up later than me, so he must have fallen asleep while writing. Idiot. Gliding over, I sigh. It seems . . . chilly in here. This is off because this is a void, a pocket in reality. There is no such thing as temperature. Shivering, I close my eyes and focus. When I open them again, a blanket is floating in front of me. Ink sighs in his sleep and I take the blanket and drape it over him. He pulls it around him and I sigh, gliding over to the papers. It's been three weeks, from what I can tell at least, since I left FairyTale. As sad as it was, I feel a bit better. There have been days when I don't move, but most of the time I just read the stories. My fingers graze Undeswap's paper. Finding my place, I start reading.

"Huh? Where did thi- Paint?" he says. Looking up, I raise an eyebrow. He straightens up, groaning. As I look down at my page, he sighs. "What are you doing? And why is it so cold in here?" he asks, looking at me. My back pops as I shrug. He shakes his head, gliding over to me. He looks down at the page, sighing. "You know, they are all variations of the same story, right? Very few stray off the path. Why don't you try doing something . . . productive?" he asks me, taking the pages from my hands. Sighing, I roll my eyes.

"And what might that productivity consist of?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Well, um, how about painting?" he says, holding up a blank paper. Again, I roll my eyes. "Alright, moody, why don't you go visit Dream?" he says. Tilting my head, he motions for me to follow. We glide over to a paper. There was only one. All it had was a scene. No story, nothing. Glancing at Ink, I sigh and touch the paper. Blinking, I appear in a new world. It was a small island with nothing but a tree in the middle. Golden and black fruit dropped from it. Glancing, I look over to see Dream leaning against said tree, spinning one of the apples in his hand. I walk over and sit down next to him.

"Hey," I say. He glances at me, only to turn back to the apple. He seemed upset, to say the least. My eyes wander to the golden apple. "That's a cool apple," I murmur, leaning my head on Dream's shoulder. He nods and I sigh quietly. Guess we both feel like trash today.

"This apple uses to mean so much more, you know? Now, it's just an apple. But this tree, this island used to be so much more," he says, holding out the apple. Glancing at him, I let him continue. "These apples used to be embodiment of good feelings throughout the AUs. Now they are just apples. My brother and I used to protect this tree, you know?" he says, looking at me. "His name was Nightmare. We cared for and protected the tree. But one day, he took one of my golden apples. He thought he could do just as well as me. He was jealous. He ended up hurting the tree. Out of rage, he ate one of the black apples. That's what caused him to become the embodiment of bad feelings. There used to be a town here. They hated him. He hated them. They told me we had to fight, but he was my brother! How was I supposed to fight him?! But the tree, it was dying. The people were angry and my brother tried destroying the village. So, I did the unthinkable. I ate a golden apple," he says, trailing off. I notice a tear slip down his cheek as he looks around. "We fought. No one won. That was the day I learned something. No one wins in war. Everyone loses someone. A brother, sister, friend, mother, father, lover. In war, everyone loses. Just like we did. I lost my brother, he lost his sanity," he says, looking at the trees. "And now, since he left, I feel these feelings. Bad feelings," he says, looking down at tears flow from his cheeks. Our eyes meet and I pull him into a hug.

"No feelings are bad. If you're mad, sad, jealous, or happy, it's ok," I say. He sobs into my neck, wrapping his arms around me. Patting his head, I close my eyes. Picturing it in my mind, he gasps. We let go of each other and he points to the sky. It was dark, but it had amazing colors all over. Pinks, purples, blues, yellows, oranges, greens, reds. They danced together, shining brightly. A smile crawls across my face as Dream looks at me with tears streaming down his face and a goofy smile.