Tall Tales - An Ink Sans x Reader Story

11

After unpacking my essentials, I take out my art supplies and set them out on the F/C bed. I hesitantly take a look at my old sketchbook, and then at the new one that Ink gave me. With a sigh, I push the book off the bed and grab the new one. The old book hits the ground with a thump and bounces under the bed as I grab a pencil and open up my new book and begin to sketch a new drawing.

A quiet knock comes from the slightly opened door, and Ink steps in. "Hey," He waves brightly. "What's up?" 

"Nothing much, i'm just drawing in the new book you gave me... thanks again, by the way."  I smile, looking up at him. 

"Anytime, I never used that anyways. So what are you drawing?" He asks, walking over to me and looking at my sketch book. 

"I dunno," I shrug, looking at the shaded sketch of a pair of wings. "Something random, I guess, nothing special." 

Ink smiles. "That's pretty cool, you pay good attention to detail, don't you?" He asks, looking at the drawing.

"I guess so... I always have been kinda OCD about the stuff I draw," I smile, looking up at the painter. "How about you...? I mean like, what do you draw?" 

"Me? Oh, I draw mostly everything, but painting is my favorite pass-time, especially painting with watercolours," He laughs quietly before looking down at the purple and blue canvas sitting upon the edge of my bed. Picking it up, he smiles wider. "Is this the Outertale scene I showed you a little while back?"

"Uh, yeah," I smile nervously, "I had a bit of leftover inspiration after I saw the shooting star that went by when we were looking at the sky, so I painted with that." I look at the partly unfinished painting with a little bit of pride. 

"You're very skilled at blending colours," Ink compliments quietly, staring at the painting in a small state of awe."Kinda makes me jealous." He jokes, gently elbowing my side in a playful way. 

"You are probably so much better than I am," I giggle, shoving his arm. He chuckles, his colourful eyes sparkling in delight. 

"Oh, shush, I am not," His cheekbones flush rainbows; he looks away shyly. 

"Are too." I stick out my tongue teasingly.

"Am not~!" He does the same.

"Y/N, INK! BREAKFAST IS READY!" Sans shouts from below. 

"Let's just agree that I'm right," I wink, "And by the way, I'll race you down." 

With that, I take off, my feet thumping the ground as I head towards the stairs. I hear Ink laugh behind me and begin to run. To keep ahead of the painter, I jump on the railing and slide down as fast as possible, my hair flying in all directions. To my surprise, Ink dashes ahead of me and skids to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, not even out of breath in the least. Jumping off the railing upon coming to a stop, I look at the skeleton in astonishment. 

"How in the hell did you do that?" I ask. "You're like a freaking marathon runner." 

"What can I say? I'm fast like a freak," He smirks, crossing his arms as he sits on the couch. 

"More like a damn roadrunner..." I mumble, to which the skeleton laughs at. Sitting next to Ink, I wait for breakfast to come. As if on queue, Sans brings our plates to us, which are plates of pancakes topped with syrup and powdered sugar. "Thanks, Sans." I smile as I dig in.

~~~ 

I quietly hum an unknown tune as I rinse off the dishes we used, letting the warm water run over my hands for a few seconds before turning off the faucet and placing the dishes into the dishwasher. I dry my hands on my shirt and turn. "So what are we gonna do today?" I ask Ink, who is putting away leftover ingredients and cleaning the counters. 

"Dunno," He shrugs. "I guess we co--" 

"Ink! Blue! Get in here!" Dream shouts from upstairs, his tone frantic and urgent. Ink's kaleidoscopic eyes widen slightly in concern as he dashes upstairs, his scarf flying wildly behind him as he does so. I follow. 

Upon reaching Dream's bedroom, I follow Ink and Sans inside. "Dream, what's wrong?" Ink asks anxiously, his eyes both a navy blue colour. 

"It's Nightmare. I can sense it, he and Error are in Underfell, a-along with Horror," Dream looks at all three of us with worry. "I have no idea what they're doing there. They have no reason to be! We have to help." He insists, to which Ink nods and takes out his paintbrush. 

"Wait!" I grab Ink's hand. "I have to help!" 

"Y/N, that's too risky, he could hurt you." Ink protests, looking down at me.

"But he wants me, right? I could distract him while you guys come up with a plan. I could help! I don't want to be useless." I plead.

"I..." He looks over at Dream and Sans in distress. To my surprise, Dream nods. "Fine, but stay close." He sighs reluctantly, painting a portal and jumping through. Dream follows, and so does Sans. I look around one last time and jump through.

I land on my hands and knees in a patch of fluffy white snow, the cold air sweeping across my body with no remorse. I shudder and stand up on wobbly legs, hugging myself for warmth. I feel a hand on my shoulder steady me, and I look up at Ink's face. "You alright?" He asks.

"I-I'll live," I stutter. Ink unties the jacket from around his waist and hands it to me with a slight smile. Taking it, I immediately slip it on over my arms and smile back. "Thanks." 

"I sense him, he's in the center of Snowdin," Dream murmurs, his eyes closed. "He's wrecking havoc. Let's go, but be stealthy about it." He looks at us with golden eyes. We nod, and I put up the hood of Ink's jacket. We go through the trees, the snow quietly crunching beneath my shoes. Ink stops at a certain point, and I follow suit, following his eyes to Nightmare. He has a monster wrapped in his tendrils, a smirk on his face as he talks to Error and an unseen accomplice. Knitting my eyebrows together in determination (lol), I look at the painter and murmur,

"Stay here, and when I snap my fingers, attack from behind. I'll keep him busy." 

Ink squeezes my shoulder and sighs, "Good luck. Whatever you do, don't go through with anything. He'll get in your head, but you ignore it, alright? Just shout if things go wrong." I nod and stand up fully, running into the open with anger coursing through me. 

"Nightmare!"