#ds!nightmare

The chicken in his arms shifted and squirmed, and Nightmare set Kevin down and gently scratched his head. He had made it to the helm of the boat and glanced around. It was quiet, and the air was crisp. It wasn’t a terribly cold night, and he was able to just wear a short-sleeved shirt without much issue. He slipped his hands into his pockets, Kevin trailing him, preening himself every so often. He looped around the helm and then started a trek back to the otherside of the boat. He wasn’t planning on sleeping tonight, so pacing the boat and hanging out with his chicken was the plan for the night.

Once Nightmare got to the other side of the boat, he realized that staying up wasn’t going to be a solo activity. Kevin cooed, announcing both his and Nightmare’s presence to Error who was sitting at the edge of the boat. She appeared unconcerned at the fact that she could fall right over into the ocean. She had a cup of coffee in her hands, and it was still steaming.

Nightmare shifted awkwardly on his feet, “Hey?”

Error flinched slightly, but turned her head around. She pushed up her red, comically large, rounded glasses. Settling them on her nose. “Sup. Have a seat?”

Without too much difficulty, Nightmare hopped over the fence and plopped next to Error, a good amount of space between them. Error had a whole set up out here, damn. With a fresh cup of coffee, and some sort of crochet project in her lap. There was also a lantern on the opposite side of her, sitting precariously on the fence behind her.

“Does that not give you anxiety?” Nightmare asked, wheezing out slightly. She took a glance at what he was referring to, that being the lantern.

Error shrugged, the crochet needles clinking together as she mindlessly worked on the project. “It’ll be fine. I’m pretty much anxious all the time.”

“SAME!” Cross shouted from the window leading to the living space. Error put her head in her hands and Nightmare snickered.

“COME DOWN HERE AND JOIN US!” Nightmare shouted back, laughing slightly to himself.

“OK!” And the window was slammed closed.

“And there goes my peace and quiet.” Error said, accented with an eye roll and a soft, if exasperated smile. Nightmare snickered in response, and leaned back. It was a little nerve wracking, being at the very edge of the ship. Luckily the skies were clear, and the water wasn’t moving too fast. If one of them were to fall in, they’d be alright. It would be scary and shitty but they wouldn’t drown or be left behind.

“What are you doing up?” Error asked him, going back to her crochet project.

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

Error just shrugged, and turned to her side to pet Kevin’s head, since he had appeared out of nowhere to join them. The chicken cooed as Error stroked his head, and sat down when she ceased.

“Vague but ok.”

“My answer is the same as yours, dickhead, I couldn't sleep.”

“Don’t you complain about being tired all the time?”

“Don’t you?” Nightmare scoffed and rolled his eyes. Error got him there. He pulled up one of his legs into his lap, allowing the other one to dangle over the edge. After a few moments, Cross had finally made her way down to the back of the boat. Cross looked at the two dangling over the edge, before deciding to make the objectively correct decision to not sit along the ledge of the boat. Kevin burrowed himself in between Cross’s feet, and tucked his head back into himself, making the decision that none of the humans on the boat can seem to make: going to sleep.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

“Yup.” Nightmare said as Error hummed in agreement. Cross paused and slid down the fence, sitting down, her back to Nightmare’s. The boat rocked side to side gently, the waves crashing against the wood, the smell of the sea, and the sound of Error’s crocheting needles clicking together was nice. It was just the three (er…four) of them on the open water, no Dream or navy in sight. None of them could remember the last time they had a relaxed, not stressful time like this.

They had no need to be anywhere, and being on the sea was the safest option for them. They were outlawed everywhere else. Supplies were high and they had no need to make any stops. Being at sea, with no place to go in mind was nice. Just allowing the sea to take them to wherever they wanted. Cross bent down and scritched at Kevin’s neck, the rooster cooing slightly in his sleep. Nightmare yawned and stretched his arms out, his back popping as he did so.

“It’s quiet tonight.” Error spoke, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly as she worked. 

“It’s nice though. Especially without Captain Von Bitch on our asses.”

“Mm.” Error nodded, pushing back a braid that had fallen in front of her face. “Although I do question his motives.”

“I think his motives are that he’s an asshole.”

“That is not what I mean at all but okay.”

Nightmare leaned against his knees and looked at Error. He wasn’t particularly fond of this conversation, but he wanted to see what Error was thinking. Especially if he needed to correct any factual errors that Error might have about him. The last thing he wanted was his friends believing that Dream was less of a dick than he actually was. Some people believed that Dream was some angel, and it pissed him off to no end. “What…do you mean then?”

“We do not qualify as pirates, since we hardly even steal and most violence we do is in self defense. While I don’t think our actions are well within the law - CROSS - but we aren’t pirates. And Dream exists in this weird gray area of not-pirate but also not-navy. And yet he claims that we’re pirates and he is not and it just doesn’t make sense? In all technicality he’s breaking the law as much as we are.” Error paused, “Does that make sense? I don’t know if I’m making sense.”

“No no, I totally get it.” Nightmare shook his head. “It’s because he’s a hypocrite. It’s part of who he is.” They had both deserted the navy. And yet he was the one Dream called a pirate. Truly if dramatic irony was a person, it would be Dream.

“You’ve known him for like, forever then?” Cross questioned, one of her eyebrows raised.

“Unfortunately.”

How could Nightmare not notice the quiet exchange of eye-contact between Error and Cross? The silent gesture of Error telling Cross to not to push any further. He liked that about Error, really. He knew that she understood not wanting to talk about someone, or even think about them. She knew when it was time to change subjects. He appreciated it. He pretended that he didn’t see it though, preferring to stroke Kevin’s head. The chicken purred, which is a thing that could happen! Most people associate purring with cats but chickens do it too! Nightmare loved telling Error and Cross chicken facts. Error found it less fun but Cross was always interested.

“I think it’s kind of mean to blame me for all the crimes we commit. You and Nightmare aren’t innocent either!”

Error rolled her eyes so hard that Nightmare worried that she would roll them into a different dimension. “I never said that we weren’t. You just tend to steal shit even though you don’t have to. Then we get in trouble and then we have to go back out to sea which makes us vulnerable.”

“You people don’t appreciate me.”

“I appreciate you, Cross.” Nightmare spoke, looking up at her.

A hand gently patted his forehead and he snickered, “THANK YOU.”

There was another silence, and the three took a second to listen. There was the sloshing of the waves against their vessel, Kevin’s soft trilling, the clicking of Error’s knitting needles, and no sound of another ship approaching them. It had been around a year since Nightmare picked up Error to be a part of his mini “pirate” crew, and nearly two years since he found Cross. To say that they were close was an understatement. At sea it was just them, they couldn’t exactly get away from each other. They had seen shit, and been through shit, and even though Nightmare was sure that they’d eventually get tired of his bullshut and leave, they didn’t.

Some aspects of their personal history often got lost. Nightmare was especially notorious for not talking about himself. And most of their conversations were making up random stories or telling each other ridiculous stories about who knows what. It was inevitable that heavier conversations would come up on occasion. 

Much to Cross and Error’s misfortune, Nightmare was feeling particularly somber. Maybe it was the nighttime, the quiet, or maybe he was just in a more grim mood than usual.

“Cross?”

The clicking of knitting needles got quieter, “Yea?”

“Have you lived at sea before? Like as a kid?” Nightmare asked. He was honestly hoping that she had, it would just make his brain happy. He hadn’t gone out to sea until he was nineteen and Error was a maybe. She couldn’t remember much of her life before she met Blue, and subsequently Nightmare and Error. The last thing she remembered were flashes of a terrible storm, and then awakening on a beach where she met Blue. It was entirely possible that she was always at sea, but no one could really be sure. If Cross was always at sea, then it would just make their little group complete.

“Dude I’ve been on the ocean since I was little.”

Nightmare mentally pumped his fist.

“Really? I didn’t think that it would be a good idea to bring kids onto open water.” Error commented, taking a second to stop her knitting and look up at Cross. Cross nodded, leaning into the ship railing.

“It’s not. My dad was a retired navy officer and I think it fucked him up badly or some bullshit. Maybe he was always fucking nuts, who knows. I never really had a home on land until I was like, twenty. Then I met you guys and the rest is history.” Cross laughed softly, although it didn’t reach her face. She spoke of her father on occasion, often by cussing or cursing him out.

“What happened?” 

“My family had enough, y’know?” Nightmare and Error could only assume what Cross had meant. “And one day when I was seventeen or so, I dunno, they dropped me off at a town with an old family friend. I wanted to go with them but…my mom made me stay behind.”

“Cross you don’t-” Nightmare started before Cross shushed him. She took a seat on the opposite side of the fence, back to back from Nightmare. 

“I know I don’t man. But I think I want to?”

“Jeez.” Nightmare grabbed Kevin and tossed him over the fence. The chicken, who was rightfully startled, screamed and ran off, squawking as he did so. Error gave Nightmare a look, something she did often, and he shrugged in response. He would give Kevin a small piece of bread as an apology. He didn’t give Kevin bread too often, since it did almost nothing in terms of nutrients. His bird friend liked it though, so it was a good apology gift when he pulled shit. 

It wasn’t often that the trio worked in sync together. While they worked efficiently during fights and outrunning Dream and his gaggle of self-righteous fools, on their off time they often had some clashes. Nothing relationship ruining, it was just they were always doing different things that sometimes contended with each other. However, that night they all had the same thought process. Nightmare hopped over the fence and plopped right down next to Cross. Error did the same, going on the opposite side of Nightmare.

There was a heavy silence. Cross was the most open out of the trio, but even this felt extremely personal. But Cross also had a point. Sometimes holding things in for too long was harmful, and Nightmare knew that better than anyone.

“Go ahead Cross.” Error prompted, her voice soft. She set her knitting needles down, her knees tucked into her chest.

“Ahah um.” Ah. It wouldn’t be a Cross-centered conversation if she didn’t try to back out of it. However both Nightmare and Error had gotten quite skilled at pushing back at Cross when she made an attempt to change the conversation topic.

“Don’t even think about it, Cross.” Nightmare said before anything else could happen, his voice sharp and to the point.

Cross’s mismatched eyes looked helplessly back at Error, who just stared back, the glare of the sun hiding most of her eyes through her glasses. She nodded at Cross, who took a deep breath.

“It was a suicide mission.” The words held heavy in the air. Error’s eyes widened for a second, but she didn’t react in any other way. Nightmare put his hand on Cross’s forearm. “They, my family, knew that the only way to get dad out of the picture was to go down with him. My mom left me with a family friend. I don’t think she wanted me to die. I don’t know why.” Cross scoffed.

“I worked with that family friend for a few years.” Cross looked down at Nightmare, “Then I met you.” The two shared a moment, shared a smile between each other. 

“There was more than that, but y’know.” Nightmare shrugged, turning to Error who’s face said nothing. Although he knew better than that. He figured that he should clear up some of the timing for her, since she wasn’t there until a few months later. Of course, she wasn’t left entirely in the dark. Especially since Cross would often rant and rave about her relationship with Ink and how Dream had wronged their friendship.

Error knew more about Ink’s past and history with Cross than both Cross and Nightmare expected. A few months into being a member on Nightmare’s ship, by complete coincidence, Nightmare and Dream had docked in neighboring towns. Error couldn’t sleep and, apparently, neither could Ink. At first, Error thought a fight would ensue on the dock. But it didn’t. They just sat down next to each other, legs hanging over the ocean water. They just chatted. About nothing in particular. It was similar to what the trio were doing now. Error hadn’t told them about it, and she doubts she ever will. Although Error did learn a few things about Ink. 

The most prevalent being that their stories were quite similar. Neither of them really remembered their life before meeting Dream and Nightmare. However Ink did have some memories of her childhood, unlike Error who had lost everything. It was interesting, to hear about someone else’s amnesia. She could only assume that her’s was due to the ship crash that she suspected took place before meeting Blue while Ink’s was due to trauma or something like that. Of course, Ink didn’t tell her everything. Most of their conversation was just a back and forth of ranting about things that annoyed them. However, one of the things Ink talked about, briefly, she wasn’t much for conversation, was that sometimes things would remind her of specific childhood events. Suddenly memories long forgotten would just…appear in her mind.

To Error, that sounded like hell.

They had talked briefly a few times after that meeting. Nightmare would never again dock in a city anywhere near Dream. Even if it meant stretching rations over a day or two longer than they should be. Life on the sea was comfortable, despite it all. 

“Wooph, thanks guys.” Cross looked between the two of them, a smile appearing on her face. “I think I needed that.”

“Yeah, of course.” Error said, her body no longer as tense as it was before.

“...I don’t think I’ve told anyone that before.” Cross added, voice going soft. That time, it was Nightmare who responded, arms crossed and resolute in his tone, “Well obviously. Why would you?”

“Nightmare.” Error punched, not with her full strength, him in his arm, and he yelped in surprise. “What he means is: thanks for trusting us Cross. We’re for you.” Nightmare rolled his eyes as he rubbed his arm, but his gaze softened when he made eye contact with Cross once more. He nodded, patting Cross’s forearm. It was awkward, but who would they be if they weren’t?

Cross laughed and a large yawn escaped her as she did so. She leaned back as she did so, a low grunt slowly leaving her. Exhausted. With a grunt, Cross stood up. Her hands reached around to her back and she stretched, and Nightmare could hear her spine pop as she did so. The three of them all struggled with their sleeping schedules, Nightmare the most, and all for different reasons. If one of them was going to head to bed first, it was almost a guarantee that it would be Cross. 

“I think I’m gonna…head on up.” She ruffled Nightmare’s hair as she spoke, much to his displeasure. “Fuckin’ spent.”

Error nodded, messing with her gloves, “That makes sense. Sleep on this, and if you wanna talk about it a bit more in the morning, you can. We’ll be here.” She snorted as she finished, as Cross was now leaning on Nightmare with her hand on his head. He was not amused one bit.

After messing up Nightmare’s hair a final time Cross spoke, “Yeah. Thanks. Will you two be…?” Nightmare shrugged, “Well. Good night, if you end up sleeping that is.”

“‘Night Cross.” Nightmare waved as Cross disappeared behind the corner and into their quarters. The ship was small and getting around it was easy enough, although it had little room for their sleeping quarters. The three of them had to sleep in the same general area, they really had no other choice. Error and Cross adjusted to it fine, for one reason or another, but Nightmare? Nightmare struggled. With his, well, nightmares. Ironic, huh?

So to avoid having that uncomfortable conversation, Nightmare just had the most fucked up sleep schedule known to man. It was worth it. Probably. Since it was just the three of them, they had to swap out who would do night shifts. It was often Nightmare who offered, so that he could stay up. He didn’t sleep very much anyway, the least he could do was be productive at night. That wasn’t every night though, as Error and Cross also took their fair share of night shifts. Nightmare didn’t sleep much at night when they did though, often plagued with terrors. So he compromised with his body. He often napped in short periods, not long enough to go into REM sleep and dream, but long enough that his brain could rest. It really sucked honestly, but it worked.

“You gonna head up soon too?” He asked, turning his head towards Error who had picked up her knitting needles and continued her project. His legs were crossed and he leaned into his hand. Both he and Error looked like shrimps, both of their posture being shitty as hell. 

“Are you?”

“I didn’t plan to.”

“Do you mind if I stay up with you?”

Nightmare blinked a few times, “Nah, not at all.”

There was a small smile on Error’s face, “Cool.”

Silence covered them like a soft blanket. Nightmare and Error didn’t hang out one on one that often, but when they did it was nice. She was just…chill. There wasn’t really a need to talk, although they totally could. He considered it, briefly, before seeing how enthralled Error was in her work. His tired eyes drifted up into the sky, the stars dancing in his vision. Error knew a lot about the stars and how to navigate with them, although from where he couldn’t say. His mouth opened to speak, to start some kind of conversation but she beat him to it.

“Mind if I ask you something?” Before he could respond, she added on, “You can say no, by the way. It might be kinda sensitive.” Error watched his face, at his dark blue eyes that looked almost purple in some lights. He squinted at her.

“Shoot.”

“Why did you leave the navy?”

“Oh. Yeah no, that’s not a hard question.” Nightmare paused as the tapping of bird feet on the deck slowly got louder. With a scream, Kevin lept into Nightmare’s arms, getting comfortable in his lap. “Hey buddy. Forgiven me already? Haha. Anyways, I deserted for a few reasons, um. The main one being I didn’t want to be part of the navy y’know? It was never a goal of mine to…fight, I guess? Being a military personnel sounds like hell. And when I did get drafted, I hated how both Dream and I were being treated. We both did.

“Dream was always more into it than I was. But I won’t get into his whole…everything.” There was a lot there. And honestly? He didn’t really want to think about the past, and his whole relationship with Dream. It was like putting salt in an open wound. On many occasions, he wondered if Dream thought about him the way he thought about Dream. There was this sour fondness that came up whenever he thought about their time together. And every time the wound he thought he had sewn up opened wide up for all to see.

Error nodded, knowing better than to push Nightmare about Dream. He looked over at her, and she just looked back at him. He did leave his reasoning unfinished.

“And eventually…I just kinda left. Went AWOL. I tried to convince Dream to come with me, but uh,” He forced a laugh into his voice, but his face was still tugged back into a sneer, “He already decided how he felt about me.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“Why what?”

“Why he…y’know,” Error gestured with her hands.

Luckily, Nightmare knew what she meant.

“Not really. If I had to guess, I’d say that he saw how the military was running and thought that he could do a better job. He was always like that. Observing things and then making them better. When I went AWOL, I guess he lobbed me in with pirates and stuff? I couldn’t tell you why he did that.”

There, of course, was more to it than that. But Nightmare had reached his “talking about Dream” limit for the day, and he suspected Error could tell.

Nightmare stroked Kevin’s neck, “Dream’s mind is fucking enigma.”

The knitting needles and project were slowly being put away. “It really is, isn’t it?” She turned to look him in the eye, “Are you alright?”

“What?” He raised an eyebrow at her, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“We just had a deep conversation, of course I’m going to check in on you.”

God, Error was so cool like that. Nightmare scoffed slightly, but smiled at the sentiment. “Error, dude, I’m fine. Promise.”

“If you insist.” Error stood up, gathering up her knitting supplies in her hands. “I’m going to head off to bed. Or, try at least. You coming?”

“In a bit.”

With a nod, Error began to head back into the sleeping quarters. Nightmare had totally lied about heading back to bed, although he wondered if Error picked up on it. Not with Cross and Error being in the same room. He had filled in his quota of talking to his friends about important shit for the month, and he was not going to explain his horrendous nightmares. His nightmares varied in content and who was present. Very rarely were they just unsettling, making him wake up in a cold sweat. More often than not, he’d wake up in tears and gasping for air. And sometimes, on the worst nights, he would wake up screaming. That was the thing that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

However, there appeared to be a change in plans. Before Error could get far, Cross came barrelling from the door to the quarters. Nightmare could see the startled look on her face and stood up, keeping Kevin in his arms. She slid to a halt, around an arms length away from Nightmare, and Error pressed herself up against the nearby wall to avoid being touched. 

“Guys,” Cross heaved, not bothering to take a second to catch her breath. Sweat dripped from her forehead. Her eyes glanced wearily from Nightmare to Error, clearly shaken up. “It’s Dream, his ship, port side.”

“God fuckin’ damnit.” Nightmare seethed, setting Kevin down on a nearby barrel. The chicken didn’t even stir in his sleep. “Let’s go. I need to see how far he is. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to avoid him.”

The Trio of Idiots all made a fast dash to the front of the ship. Kevin and Error’s knitting supplies were left behind. Sometimes Nightmare cursed the messy nature of all of them, just leaving shit around with no reasoning behind it. Things often got lost or misplaced and sometimes it pissed him off, especially when he went to find something and it ended up falling right off of the ship. However, he had to thank both his, Error’s, and Cross’s lack of organization, as his spyglass was sitting precariously on top of some boxes. He grabbed as he ran up the bow, getting as far up it as he could. Cross and Error  soon joined him, the cold sea wind blowing in all of their faces. Nightmare raised the spyglass up to his left eye and glanced around at the port side.

The horizon between the endless blue ocean and star-covered sky is cut by a massive ship. Nightmare didn’t even need the skyglass to recognize it.

Radiance.

That stupid ship and its stupid name and its stupid captain!

“Is it him?” 

“Oh it’s fucking him alright.” Nightmare said, grinding his teeth as he did so. He focused on the ship. It was, thank god, not coming straight for them. He squinted at the bow. There was someone on it, talking to Dream. He could recognize Dream from a mile away, especially with his bright golden hair. But there was someone next to him. Someone he didn’t recognize. He stepped closer to the edge, leaning over to get a better look. Cross put her hand on his shoulder, to both stabilize him as well as getting into the position to catch him if he slipped. The last thing they needed was any of them falling into the water while Dream was around.

It was dark, and without memories to fill in the gaps, Nightmare couldn’t get a good grasp as to what exactly he looked like. There was some light illuminating from the Radiance, but not enough. Damnit! It also didn’t help that the stranger had pressed themself up against Dream either.

“What is it?” Error asked, “What do you see?”

“Some, uh, guy.”

“A guy?”

Nightmare adjusted the focus on the spyglass. He struggled to separate the stranger from Dream, but he did his best. “Yeah…wearing a blue something? A scarf maybe? They’ve got what I think is short brown hair and, uh, yeah that's about it.”

There wasn’t much to his description, but once he stepped back, he saw the startled expression on Error’s face. Wordlessly, he handed Error the spyglass so she could get a look. Cross shifted on her feet awkwardly, unsure if she should stabilize Error like she did with Nightmare or not. She glanced towards Nightmare who shook his head. Error was much more careful with her feet placement, and grounded herself securely.

Error hesitated. She didn’t raise the spyglass to her glasses for a moment too long. She swallowed hard, and she prayed to whatever deity that existed that Nightmare was wrong. That it was somewhere else, anyone else. She focused the spyglass and focused on where Dream and the other person were. Despite the multiple layers of glass between her eye and what she was seeing, it was clear enough who was on The Radiance. Error’s heart began to race, apprehension and adrenaline rushing through her. She staggered backwards, bumping into Nightmare, who shifted to her right.

“What’s the matter? Do you know him?”

A scoff left Error’s mouth, and she took her glasses off of her face and wiped them down with her skirt. “Do I know him? Yeah, I fucking know him.” She takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. Taking any grievances on Nightmare and Cross wasn’t a good idea. “It’s Blue.”

“WHAT?!” Cross stands there mouth agape.

“What is he doing with Dream of all people??”

“Who the hell knows!” Error rubbed her temples, “It’s…whatever. Right now we need to make sure we avoid his line of sight.”

The other two nodded, and Cross left to begin unveiling the sails, setting them up to catch as much wind as possible. Error’s job was to make sure cannons were loaded and working properly. While once might think that Cross should have that heavy lifting job, it was often much harder to work the sails. It’s also what Cross did on her dad’s ship, so hey, if it isn't broken don’t fix it. And often Nightmare took his position as captain (no one calls him captain) and steered the ship, assisting Cross and Error when necessary. When Error finished, she often assisted Nightmare or Cross in whatever they needed, and vice versa.

Before Error could get to work, Nightmare grabbed her by her sleeve. Despite there being no actual contact, she still jumped. He immediately pulled his hands away.

“Shit, sorry.”

“It’s fine. What’s up? We need to keep moving.”

“I know.” Nightmare crossed his arms. “Just…We care about you, y’know. If you need anything, I’m here.”

Error pushes her glasses up, the glare from the moon concealing her expression. With some hesitation, she grabs Nightmare’s hand with her gloved one. Wordlessly, she squeezes it, rubbing the back of his hand. A silent thank you.

She lets go of his hand before adjusting her glasses a final time, “Now, let’s beat some not-pirate ass.”