Painting in the Darkness - a Nightmare x reader x Ink

~35~

"Ah, ok!" I replied. After the introduction, I walked back off to the bedroom. I sat on the bed, exhausted. I threw on some pjs and hopped into bed. I eventually drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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A month has come and gone. I feel hollow. I feel guilty. Worst of all, I feel hatred towards myself.

Ever since Dream's death, I've mainly just been sleeping. I hardly ate or did anything else. Most times, I wouldn't have any dream at all. If I did though, it would usually just be me sitting alone in the meadow with blood on the ground where Dream was at. And if not that, then it would be the haunting memory from that day. It wouldn't happen often, but when it did, I would always wake up, shaking and crying.

I haven't seen Nightmare often. He would either be super busy, or he'd be in a different room. I liked the distance between us, but...

Just then I heard a faint knock on the door.

"Who is it...?" I called out quietly, my voice coarse from weeks of inactivity. The door opened slowly and a figure walked into my room. Nightmare. I tried not to look at him as he walked into the room. He gently sat down on the bed. He carefully lifted up my body so that it was sitting right next to him using his tendrils.

Nightmare stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking. "Y/N, I'm...I'm sorry. I-"

I cut him off before he could finish speaking. "But why...? Why did you have to kill him...?" I spoke softly, my head never looking up from the ground. He stayed silent for a few minutes. Tension built up in the room. He finally placed a tentacle under my chin and lifted my head to look at him. I looked deep into his glowing blue eye.

"...I didn't want you to get hurt. I was only protecting you."

"B-but..." I could feel rage build up inside of me. "But...But he would never hurt me! I considered him to be like a brother to me! H-he would never do that to me! He..." I trailed off. "Would he...?"

He gave me a worried look. "I know that this was hard on you. But I'm only here to protect you, ok?" I nodded in response, resting my head on his chest. He tilted my head up and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. We sat there for a bit until we eventually drifted off to sleep in each other's arms.