My Friend Over the Phone

Chapter 23

It has been almost a year since Nightmare and Cross first got together. Christmas had come and gone(even though Nightmare doesn't celebrate) and it was now the beginning of February. The duo had almost done everything they knew couples did, other than the, uh, reproductive process, but they had both agreed that it would've been way too soon for them.

But now, Nightmare wanted to initiate the next step of a romantic relationship. A very important step, and probably the most nerve-wracking. He stared at the tiny velvet box he had used to store the gift, shaking a little. He was planning to propose in two days, where he was going to take Cross on a small hike on a mountain.

He knew Cross could take the exercise without complaint despite the constant amount of chocolate he ate. He recalled a time where Horror had a real craving for ice cream, and stole the grocery bag with the tub in it as soon as Cross returned from the errand. Everyone else in the castle chased him down; they had to have ran down every hallway in the castle, and while everyone eventually collapsed from exhaustion, Cross hadn't even broke a sweat.

He chuckled under his breath at the memory. He might miss living together with them all after the Village is done. Maybe. Just maybe, if he considered those ridiculous but infuriating moments at the time worth all of their bad habits. Like Killer always throwing knives at the wall(Cross usually complains about this one because the wall he practices on is the wall between their rooms), or Horror sleepwalking with his favourite axe that he always sleeps with despite everyone strongly objecting to this after he almost chopped Cross' head off in the middle of the night. He knew he had things about himself even that made everyone else go crazy.

But the hike would probably only take a few hours, as there was a gondola to take halfway up the mountain to the summit.

Funnily enough, he bought tickets for the trip thinking about how long his corrupted form could take being in the hot sun, which was about four hours depending on the heat, before he became a sticky mess and he'd have to revert back to his passive form in order to not be very disgusting and/or have his hands stick to the box during the proposal. It was only afterwards did he remember that he didn't have to worry about that anymore, but the gondola was a nice addition either way.

    He sighed and closed the decorated box, carefully putting it in a small compartment in the backpack he's taking with him. They were leaving tomorrow; they wanted to tour through the town surrounding the mountain before the hike.

    He went downstairs and saw Cross and Blue chatting on the couch. "Mandala Mountain, huh?" Blue asked. So they were talking about their trip. Cross waved at him. He waved back smiling and slipped into the kitchen. He might as well make lunch for the trip now.

    "I heard the summit's breathtaking at sunset."

    "Yeah, I'm kind of exited. It's been ages since I've gone hiking!"

    "Tell me what it was like when you two get back! I was planning on taking Error there sometime!"

    "Maybe you guys could come with us!"

    That made Nightmare falter. No, he wanted Cross and him to be alone when he did it! He really liked having the two around, don't get him wrong, but he wanted this to be special. He only wanted Cross there with him! He turned around to look at Blue with a desperate look. Luckily, he seemed to have gotten the message.

    "No, it's okay! I don't want to crash your date."

    "Well alright, if you say so."

    "Think of it this way, it'll be more romantic without us there. Maybe the next time we go, we can bring everyone and it'll be a friend thing! I don't think we've all done something cool together like that yet."