#calcium_cat

I was scrolling and saw them, I also happen to be in the skeleton drawing mood. So I guess you can figure out what happened! >w<

A oneshot I wrote for @calcium-cat's OSDecember prompts!!! Based on Extra Prompt "Duck(s)" It's not just about ducks though- maybe I should've used a different prompt

Apologies if it’s not like the OSD story, I did my best 😅

Also posted on my ao3, writefromtheheartandsoul!! I hope you all enjoy! __________________________________________________ "Alright Dream, got your colors picked out?" Dust peered over Dream's shoulder, adjusting his glasses.

"Yeah!" Dream held up the felt he had picked out from Horror's stash; yellow, orange, and black.

"That's it?" Dust looked skeptical. 

"Horror didn't have any pink, otherwise I'd have pink legs..." Dream pouted for a moment. Horror rumbled in laughter beside him, placing a fresh stick of glue into the hot glue gun. 

"Sorry," he patted Dream's skull, grinning a bit to himself. 

Dream wiggled in his chair, swinging his legs as he surveyed his choices again. The table the three were sitting at was covered in craft supplies, ranging from felt pieces, thread, pincushions, tubes of glitter, and glue. 

A lot of glue. 

"Are you gonna let him sew it up?" Dust asked over Dream's head. Horror hesitated, looking at Dream. 

"I mean.. if he wants to." 

The small skeleton perked up, realizing the conversation had been directed back to him. 

"Yeah!!! I want to try sewing!" Horror nodded. 

"You too Dust?" Dust shrugged. 

"Why not?" Horror beamed, pulling over a little fabric book, opening it to reveal several sewing needles. He allowed the two to select their choices, making sure they chose proper sizes for their projects. 

"Alright Dream, now what you want to do is trace a basic outline of what shape you want your ornament to look like. I'm going to go get the stuffing real quick." Horror handed Dream a sharpie, scratching around his skull cavity as he shambled off. 

Dream giggled to himself as he popped off the cap, sticking out his tongue as he began to draw on the felt. 

Dust started to do the same, except on light grey felt. He made sure to keep an eye on Dream to make sure he didn't start doodling on himself. Who knew what was in those pens?

 It only took a few minutes for Horror to return, a large bag of stuff tossed over his shoulder. His eyelight surveyed Dream's progress, casting a faint red glow over the table. 

"Looks good, let's cut it out." His hands guided Dream's as the little one cut along the black lines, then taking the cutout and placing it alongside another piece of felt. Horror decided to cut that one, while Dream traced triangles on orange felt, then a wing-like piece on yellow again. 

Horror grinned, looking at the laid out pieces.

"Alright, time to get sewing!" 

Dream watched attentively as Horror threaded the needle, showing Dream how to stitch the fabric together properly, to hold the most amount of stuffing. 

Together, the three got to work, Horror offering commentary as he dusted the inside of clear ornaments with glitter, managing to do patterns within the ornament.

Dust swore for a moment, shaking his head, glaring as a bit of dust fell.  

Soon, red, silver, and gold ornaments were laid out neatly on the table, and Dust was finishing his own ornament, picking out the color ribbon he wanted to sew to the fabric. 

Dream giggled to himself, stuffing the cotton mixture into his own ornament. When he was done, he finishing sewing up the fabric, then attached the triangle and wings to the main body of his ornament. 

With a exclamation of glee, he held up his ornament, presenting his creation. 

The two stifled chuckles as they gazed upon the duck, a black circle of fabric serving as its eye. 

"Well, what do you think, Dream?" Horror asked, taking the ornament to attach a loop of ribbon. 

"I love it!!!" Dream exclaimed, hands hitting and tapping the table in excitement. 

"And with little injury too," Dust commented, glaring at his own pricked phalanges. 

"Did you want a bandaid?" Dream asked, peering at the small divots.

"Nah, I'm fine." Dust held up his own ornament. It was a long bone, with a red ribbon in the middle. "Here's mine." 

"Wow!!!" Dream's eyelights morphed into stars for a brief moment. Dust chuckled, reaching over to rub Dream's skull, ignoring the little skeleton's protest. 

"Whatcha doing?" Killer morphed into view, conveniently located on Horror's shoulders, Horror grunted under the added weight. 

"Making ornaments!" Dream presented the cluttered table. 

"Ooooooo, those glass ornaments look mighty fragile, Horror," Killer leaned forward. Horror grunted again, using a hand to grab the back of Killer's jacket, yanking him back. 

"You break them and you're cleaning it up, not us," he warned. Killer huffed. 

"Where have you been?" Dust asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"I've been making these bad boys!" Killer held up what appeared to be one of those generic plastic frogs, a (hopefully) fake missiles tied to the top of it with string. 

"... That is not what I think it is," Dust groaned. Killer cackled. 

"You mean those, and yes, they're missile toads!!!" Horror looked up, squinting. 

"What do you do with them?" 

"You hang them up like mistletoe, but instead of kissing, you get into a fight!" 

"And you think Midnight wouldn't immediately tear these down?" 

"Not if he never finds them!" Killer grinned, stuffing the missile toads into his coat pockets. 

He leaned over again, pulling out a knife to twirl nonchalantly. 

Dust gave him a warning look, but didn't say anything, watching as Dream used a dark yellow frabric pen to trace his ornament, hiding any visible black marks from the sewing process. 

In the relative quiet, none even noticed when Cross walked in. 

Cross raised a bone brow, walking over to see what they were doing. 

"What are you-" 

Disaster ensued- Horror started, his fight-or-flight reflex activated; Dust jumped, falling backwards in his chair; Dream twisted to look at Cross, and Killer lost his balance, dropping his knife, and grabbing onto Horror's skull. 

Cross's hand grabbed Dream's shirt and pulled him back as the knife plunged into the table- right into the middle of the duck. 

There was dead silence. 

"Dream- I'm so sorry-" Killer hopped down from Horror's shoulders, trying to see the damage. "Oh no..." 

Cross let go of Dream, breathing heavily, the small skeleton darting forward. 

"Ohh..." Dream's voice wobbled, a sniffle breaking free. 

"Oh, don't cry," Cross patted his shoulder. "I'm sure it can be fixed!" 

The words of comfort didn't seem to help, Dream's face only falling more as tears began to streak down his cheekbones. The others only began to become more frantic in their attempts to soothe Dream, fear of who would come down to see what unlucky skeleton had made Dream cry. 

"Enough!" Horror thumped his fist on the table, silencing the others. He had not participated int heir comfort, the giant of the group taking a moment to regroup. 

"Everyone out! Except for Dream. Killer, take your knife, and take the ornaments out to the tree. Cross, help him." Killer, looking rather cowed, snapped his fingers, blue surrounding the ornaments and carting them out of the room, Cross watching to make sure none would fall. 

As they walked out (each casting an either pitying or guilty look at Dream), Horror picked up the stuffed duck. 

"Hmmm...." He tutted for a moment. "Dream? Are you hurt at all?" 

Dream sniffed, rubbing his eye sockets. "No.....?" 

"Are you okay?" 

"N-no...." A soft whimper came from the babybone, Dream starting to curl into himself. Horror sighed softly. 

"Come with me. We can save your duck, but we have to be quick." 

Dream paused to look at the duck, then nodded, reaching for Horror's hand. Horror's eye softened, his hand engulfing Dream's as he took Dream to what he called his "crafting closet". 

"We need to find a patch for your duck, since stitching it isn't quite an option..." he muttered to himself. 

Dream wiped another stray tear. "H-huh?"

"What color do you think your duck would like?" Dream swallowed a hiccup, looking at the colors of fabric Horror had. 

"B-blue and green," he mumbled. Horror reached and pulled out two sheets, handing them to Dream. He opted this time to carry Dream back, placing him on the table instead of the chair. 

"Alright Dream, here's what we're going to do." 

He swiftly cut up the fabric, using the hot glue gun to create a small blue heart, a smaller green heart in the middle. 

Dream's sniffles began to die, quavering eye lights beginning to regard Horror's work with interest. 

"There we are, we just need to stitch these on both sides." Dream took the two hearts, one for either side of the duck. 

"Why can't we sew it together?" 

"Cause that means it won't heal properly," Horror explained. 

"Why?"

"Some wounds can be healed as simply as that, but some require a bit more care." Horror grabbed a needle, threading blue thread through the eye. 

"Oh..." Dream watched, his hands clasping on his lap.

"Mhmm... people are like that too. Sometimes, all it takes is a bandaid. Other times, we need to stitch it up. It may not look pretty in the beginning, and it might leave a scar, but all we can do it make the best of it." 

"Like your skull?" 

Horror smiled. "Just like my skull. Got to make the best of things." Dream studied his hands for a moment. 

"What hurts people?" 

Horror looked up, pausing for a moment. "Well, sometimes people get hurt in fights.. with things like knives... more often, it's words that hurt us the most. Or actions that don't leave physical wounds." 

"Phy- physi- what?" 

Horror pointed to his skull. "Wounds like this." 

"Oh... how do words hurt?" 

"If they're untrue or true, if the person saying them is trying to be especially rude." 

"Why would someone do that?" 

"I wish I could tell you the answer to that, kiddo." Horror finishing the one side, flipping the duck over. 

"And act-shuns?"

"Actions, and like if... er, I left without saying goodbye."' Dream gasped, looking at Horror. 

"You wouldn't do that, w-would you?" Horror snorted, nudging Dream. 

"Nope, you're never getting rid of me." Dream giggled. Horror held out the ornament, two blue and green hearts covering the tears in the fabric. 

Dream took it gently, cradling it in his hands. "... Horror?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Did Midnight get hurt by words or... actions?" 

Horror paused, thinking, a hand tugging at his skull cavity. "Long ago... but he's healing... Slowly, but he's healing. That's what he has us for." 

Dream nodded, puzzling it over. Horror huffed, flicking Dream's skull gently. 

"Don't worry about it, go hang up your ornament. Make sure Killer and Cross apologize to you." Dream giggled and slipped down from the table, running off into the halls of the castle.

Bones pattered through cobblestone corridors, down a flight of stairs, hanging a right. It didn't take long to find the living room, Killer and Cross bickering over what seemed to be the layout of ornaments on the tree. Both silenced as Dream ran in, once again holding up the ornament. 

"Look!!! Horror fixed it!" 

The two skeletons sighed in apparent relief, Cross rubbing his skull, purple glowing on his cheekbones. 

"About that, sorry about startling the two of you..." Killer guffawed, slapping Cross's back. 

"No harm done, besides, you didn't scare me-"

"AHEM" Dust cleared his throat from a chair, glaring at Killer. 

"Oh, yeah, what I meant was sorry for sticking your duck, Dream..." The second in command got on a knee, holding out his arms. "Hug it out?" 

Dream giggled, moving forward to hug Killer, the older skeleton squeezing him back in response. 

"Alright, do you want to hang up your ornament now?" Cross asked. 

"Ornaments?" Dream turned to see Nightmare walk in, holding a cup of tea in one hand, looking tired. 

"Midnight!! Look what I made!" Dream ran forward, handing him the duck. 

"Oh, you made something." Midnight turned it over, looking it over. "Looks good. But why the heart?" 

"He had an accident, but Horror helped!" 

Nightmare arched a bone brow. "Is that so?" He looked suspiciously at Killer, already coming to conclusions. "Killer?" 

"Y-yes Boss?" 

"If I find another one of your missile toads, I will personally strap a missile to you and send you off this mortal plain."

Killer sweated, red beads of sweat appearing. "Y-yes Boss." Nightmare nodded in satisfaction, turning his attention back to Dream.

"Do you know where you're gonna put it yet?"

Dream turned to look at the tree. "Hmmm... the middle!"

Nightmare shrugged. "Alright." A tentacle swarmed to hook the ornament, finding an open spot in the middle. Dream clapped his hands, gleefully dancing in place.

Horror walked in, a box in his arms. "Hey Cross, Killer, I got yours... I also made one for you, Boss," he looked at Nightmare "if that's alright.

The goopy skeleton frowned. "What did you make?"

Horror's smile sharpened, reaching in to pull out an octopus, black with a single teal eyelight. Dream burst into shrill giggles, clapping hands over his mouth as the rest of the gang snickered openly.

Nightmare sighed. "Fine, you can put it up." Killer giggled even louder.

Horror walked over to place the ornament on the tree. Reaching back in, he pull out a knife ornament, and a black cow ornament with a big white 'X' on its back. Cross groaned, slumping.

"Really, Horror?"

"You should've participated."

"Killer didn't, and his is normal!" Cross folded his arms, sulking a bit.

"Killer asked me to do his," Horror retorted, folding up the box.

"Enough," Nightmare interjected, sitting down in a chair. "Settle down or we won't watch a movie."

"Let's watch Home Alone!" Killer poke up, throwing himself onto the couch.

"And give Dream ideas? No."

"What ideas, Midnight?" Dream asked, hopping into Nightmare's lap.

"Nothing for you to know."

"But-"

"Let's watch Elf, that's a good one-" Dust piped up from his spot.

"Are you serious? A Christmas Story is wayyyy better!" Killer argued from his end of the couch, propping his feet onto Horror's lap as the skeleton sat down, Cross following on Horror's other side. As bickering broke out again, Dream giggled behind his hand. Looking back up at the tree, he noticed that Nightmare's ornament was by his own.

"Midnight?"

"Hmm?"

"... Merry Christmas!"

There, TSD now has a cover! As usual warnings are before the chapter (and in the story's tags).

Also, the comments and kudos on this I've gotten really makes me happy, so thank you all for taking the time to do so!

It took a couple of months but guess what?? It’s up!

Willow Tree Chapter 2 - Star Snatched  A Star Snatched AU fic based on @calcium-cat’s story One Small Dream. 

Dream is having a rough time, Blue doesn’t know what to do, and Ink is...there. 

Please leave comments, they motivate me to keep writing!! 

Bonus excerpt that didn’t make it in! The original first flashback was going to go like this-