#t1dreader

You heard the crying and didn't know what was going on. You were already dealing with the headache from having a rollercoaster night and getting woken up when you crashed on the couch was not what you were expecting at 7am. It just made your headache worse. The crying continues so you finally get up and try to pinpoint where it was coming from.

It sounded like it was outside your door so you opened it up to see... A baby? Not only that, it was a strange skeleton baby. They looked up at you with huge eyes, one was orange with a normal yellow eyelight while the other socket was red with a yellow eyelight in the shape of a sun. The tiny kid has wings on his back in a mix of orange, yellow, and red feathers with a halo over his head. And he was crying hard. You looked around, trying to see who left the baby at your doorstep. He looked about 2 years old or a bit younger. It was hard to tell since he was wrapped in some fur.

No one was around, and all was quiet other than the crying skeleton. You didn't feel you had a choice so you picked him up and held him in your arms. He ended up clinging to you as he cried, wings flapping in distress.

"Shh shh... It's okay. We will find your family little one," you said as you tried to comfort him. At that he looked at you and the crying slowed down a bit at hearing you wanted to find his family.

"Nini..." He tried to say. You didn't know who Nini was, but they must be important to the kid.

"We will find Nini, don't worry," you say as you rubbed his back between his wings. You walked out the door and stepped on something. Looking down you find a piece of paper that seems to be painted on with the word Dream. "Dream?" The kid perked up at hearing the word and pointed at him. You nodded and picked up the paper and put it in your pocket. Maybe Sans can help find his family.

"So your name is Dream. That's a pretty name sweetheart," you say to him. You give his wings pets which ended up making him purr. What to do now?

Dream started sniffling again and rubbed his stomach area from the clothes he was wearing. Which were a simple blue t shirt and yellow pants. Not something really suiting the baby. You sighed and took him inside. Wondering what kind of food baby skeletons eat. You didn't have magic milk or anything, but you did have that pudding Sans brother made for you in case of lows.

You took it out and grabbed a spoon as you tried to feed it to Dream. At first he stared like he didn't know what pudding was, so you showed him by taking a bite and holding up another spoonful to him. He ate it and hummed at the taste trying to grab at the bowl for more.

"Hey, I'll feed it to you sweetie. Give me a chance," You said as you fed him more. He kept grabbing at the spoon and made a mess of himself as he ate and chirped happily. At least he wasn't crying anymore. You fed him the rest of the pudding and he yawned in your arms and closed his eyes.

He was clinging to you hard, so you didn't think you could put him down. You sighed and went to clean him up at least. You needed to eat something yourself, probably gummies again, and then go to Sans's house. Maybe he would have answers about a new skeleton family in town that lost a kid.

After cleaning him and doing what you could clean the clothes and blanket, somehow the fur on the blanket is super clean despite being in the line of fire, you left the house with the sleeping baby clinging tight to you and not letting go. At least Sans's place was only down the block since you took walks past it and that was how you met him and Papyrus in the first place. You came to the door and knocked on it.

When the door opened, you found yourself face to face with the hooded skeleton that now lived with Sans. You believe he was a cousin of some sort. "Hey Dust, do you know where Sans is?"

Dust looked at you before he nodded, giving a look at the toddler in your arms. "He's in the basement with the others. Wait here," he said before going inside.

It wasn't long before Sans came up with another cousin you think was named Mutt. He had his own fluffy hoodie up as he looked at the scene before him. Sans took off the goggles over his sockets to give a better look at the situation.

"Y/N? Where the fuck did you find that baby?" He asked as he looked you up and down.

"I found him crying on my doorstep with only a piece of paper with his name," you said as you took out the paper and handed it to him. "Are there any new skeleton families that moved in? Or new family members?"

Sans shook his head and gave a look at the paper. He cursed under his breath, showing it to Mutt who made a face. "Did you see anyone around him?" The latter asked you.

"No? Just him," you say. "He was asking for someone named Nini too..."

Sans and Mutt gave a look at each other while Sans pulled out his cellphone and they walked away. You felt so confused and lost what was going on. They are acting like there are no new skeletons in the city. So where?

"Y/N! It's wonderful to see you! Who do you have there?" asked the voice of who you recognized as Papyrus. He was so not like the other monsters that came out of the mountain some years ago. His eyelights were green instead of red for one. And he always was working on new recipes with his cousin Axe.

"Umm... His name is Dream and I found him crying on my doorstep," you said as you shifted said baby as it was getting harder to hold him. You were not strong and was reaching your limit. Papyrus saw that and grabbed you to drag you inside to pull you to the couch.

"Sit sit, I insist!" He said. You sat down, grateful to take some pressure off your arms as you settle yourself to let Dream just drape to your chest. Papyrus seemed to coo at the sight and took a picture of it. "Poor dear. I'm guessing you told my brother? I saw him walking by to talk to Black and Dust with Mutt," he said.

"Yeah, but I'm so confused. He acted like this was a surprise or something..." You said.

Papyrus's face changed to a scowl as he glanced at where his brother and the others disappeared to. He made a growl grunt in his throat. "My brother is always a fucking idiot with his secrets," he said. He sighs as he gives you a look and pets the child gently. "Dream looks so pretty. I never would have known how wings would be on a skeleton."

"Really? This isn't a thing for you guys? I mean the halo is a bit odd but not as odd as the other monsters I've seen for the last couple years since moving here," you said.

"Yeah the wings and halo are not typical for a skeleton as far as I know," Papyrus said. "I'm sure Sans will figure it out or blow something up again."

You wondered at that and felt Dream shift as he woke up on your chest. He looks at you and nuzzles you. "Mama..." He said. You froze.

"I'm not... I mean..." You flailed internally at this new development.

"Oh dear... I wonder if he had parents in the first place. He synced your SOUL to his," Papyrus said.

"Wait... What?" You asked as Dream kept nuzzling you.

"It can happen with orphan kids. I did it to Sans when I was small," Papyrus explained. "We tend to sync SOULs up to the person that makes us feel the safest. So he might not have parents."

"But... He kept asking for Nini..." You said. Dream looked at that and sniffled as he repeated the name.

"He might have a sibling then. Is Nini your sibling Dream?" Papyrus asked. Dream looked at him and nodded as tears fell from his eyes.

"Nini, twin. Want Nini," Dream sniffles more. You pet him to help calm him down again. Now that you focus on it, it did seem like your heart was beating in time with his SOUL. So he really got attached to you quickly. You wonder where he even came from.

"We are going to find your twin, don't worry Dream," you say as you rub his back. He hugged you tight again and settled down in your arms. Papyrus smiled at the sight.

"You really make a good parent Y/N," he said.

"I don't know how. I was an only child," you said.

Sans and the group came into the living room at last as he and the others looked at you. "Okay, we got in contact with someone that can take him for now and find his family," he said.

"Who?" You asked him.

"Don't worry about it Y/N. Just know he is in good hands," Sans replied. Papyrus shook his head.

"That's not gonna work Sans. Dream synced to them," he said. Sans eye seemed to twitch at that.

"What do you mean? He needs to go back where he belongs," the other growled.

"Sans what are you talking about? Where does he belong? Do you know where his brother is?" You asked.

Black was the one who answered. "You don't need to worry about it. He doesn't belong here. If he synced with you he can desync just as easily," he huffed as he came over and tried to pick up Dream.

You held the child tighter out of instinct as Dream cried when he was attempted to be pulled off you. "Mama! Mama!" He cried as Black pulled on him.

"Get off him!" You growled at Black. You didn't care how dangerous he was. You've seen him train with Papyrus and Dust a few times.

"Don't make this any harder," Black growled back at you. A bone attack hit him in the chest and knocked him away from the pair of you.

"BLACK ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT?! THE CHILD ACCEPTED Y/N AS HIS PARENT NOW AND YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO SEPARATE A NEW BOND LIKE THAT!" Papyrus growled as he held up his hand. "SANS! STOP YOU AND YOUR FUCKING JERK TEAM FROM TRYING TO TAKE THE KOD AWAY!"

Sans glared at his brother who glared at him right back and rubbed his face. "Fucking hell. Fine," he said. "I'll tell them about this..."

"You better and tell them to find his brother too! Twins shouldn't be separated!" Papyrus growled.

Black growled as he got back up but Mutt picked up his brother and started shoving Dust away too, tho he looked more bored at the events if anything. "Come on, let's take a breather for now."

The rest of the group left you and Papyrus alone. Dream clung to you with tears in his eyes again. You sighed.

"What do I do now?" You asked.

Your first mistake was probably just eating a salad for lunch.

Well, no, your first mistake was not keeping low blood sugar snacks in your inventory like Horror reminded you to probably a dozen times by now. It's not your fault! It was hard to remember you now had access to something like that!

You probably shouldn't have had just a salad for lunch though. Nightmare had told everyone you all were going on a raid that afternoon and you probably needed the carbs. But you weren't that hungry! And Horror hated having sodas in the castle sooooo. (Not that you usually drank full sugar sodas anyways. Too sweet.)

Your next mistake was not paying attention to your symptoms. To be fair, the Star Sanses had shown up and you had proven yourself surprisingly capable in a fight so they were actually taking you seriously. Your trembling legs and racing heart rate and blurry vision could just as easily be adrenaline, right? And you had more important things to worry about, like dodging Ink's paintbrush.

Of course, then your vision went dark and you collapsed for a few moments and Ink was carrying you and everything was kind of a blur. But you felt someone CHECKing you and a spider donut being pressed to your mouth. Thankfully you were aware enough to swallow. (later you and Horror would talk about what happens if you get low enough to lose consciousness and when to use a glucagon and other things, but that was later).

By the time your blood sugar was up enough for you to actually be with it and fully aware, you were back at the castle, with everyone watching you.

Horror fretted over you especially, low blood sugars seemed to trigger something in him akin to the idea of people he cared about starving. Maybe because the solution to both was food.

Cross was also very openly worried, and asked questions about physical activity and training and food and blood sugars.

The others... Weren't quite as open about it, but you could tell they cared. You spotted a pack of juice boxes in Dust's room, he claimed it was for when he didn't have energy to go to the kitchen for something but they'd only appeared right after the incident and he never seemed to take any for himself.

You stood up too quickly once the next day and stumbled. You could feel a boney arm around your waist almost instantaneously, steadying you while Killer asked about when was the last time you ate and if you'd eaten enough.

In hindsight, you should have seen this coming, really. Blue and Ink wanted desperately for Shattered to be "saved." The Crescents- especially Nightmare- wanted Shattered to go back to "normal." You and Shattered really should have expected that the two groups would eventually try working together, even if they were traditionally on opposite sides. A single, shared goal can be one hell of a unifying force, after all.

You should have seen it coming. Ink and Blue wouldn't keep just begging Shattered to let them help him forever, not when he kept refusing so violently. The Crescents couldn't stop Shattered on their own.

So... It made sense, that both sides would work together. It made sense that they would ambush you as one force (although their lack of cohesive ability to work together almost let you and Shattered escape). Ink almost grabbed you too, determined that you should "return to your own story," but you managed to escape that, at least.

You were lucky Shattered had given you a "portal device" already. Not really anything high tech, it was actually an enchanted necklace that would let you call upon his powers (technically) to make a portal wherever you needed to go. So you managed to escape Ink, making a few jumps to make yourself hard to find before going home.

Except... Shattered hadn't come with you. You'd failed at the task he made a deal with you for (the silent promise you'd made to him), to help watch his back. And to get him back, it would be you against... Lets see. Two godlike entities and their five mortals. You were still somewhat human, but becoming more and more like what was apparently the phoenix in your ancestry with every "treatment session."

Well then.

You watched quietly from the doorway while Nightmare trained. Ever since losing his corruption to his brother he'd been on edge, probably because he had lost his strongest weapon and his brother had gained said asset. Horror, Dust, Killer, and Cross hadn't left him and neither would you, but everyone was adjusting.

Thankfully Dream- well, Shattered- was quiet for now. He'd lost control for a while, although thankfully not nearly as long as Nightmare had at first, according to him. Still, everyone was recovering from injuries as well as the changes. Some of those injuries would leave permanent issues...

But back to Nightmare. He was training almost every day, having picked up a pair of kukri blades he was surprisingly skilled with. His movements were fluid and agile, and yet you noticed it in his eyes. He was anxious, probably felt more vulnerable without his tentacles to protect his back and blind side. After all, the corruption hadn't healed all injuries, and neither had losing it.

"Need a sparring partner?" You'd picked up surprisingly good control of your fire magic since joining Nightmare. And to think, at once it almost burned you alive from the inside out.

He looked at you, face relaxing slightly when he saw that it was you* entering the training room and not one of his men. "Sure. You'll be better dodging practice, and a moving target would help."

You chuckled, changing into more fire resistant clothes and wrapping your hands to protect them before stepping into the main part of the training area where Nightmare was waiting. You launched yourself at him immediately, hands already on fire.

He jumped out of the way, you trailing after him. Honestly, the lack of tentacles was a huge benefit to you, less dodging to worry about. You managed to get close, although he blocked your fire with his blades. (Another reason to wrap your hands, direct contact with Nightmare's weapon.)

You grabbed one of his blades with your hands, letting the intensity of your flames increase, making the handle hot and letting the flames lick his cheeks. He pushed back, undeterred, and attempted to push you out of the way.

You jumped back, pulling the blade still in your hands and Nightmare along with it. That managed to unbalance both of you, sending him tumbling into you and sending you both to the ground.

You were pinned under him, Nightmare momentarily too dazed to realize he had the upper hand. You were about to replicate a scene from one of Cross's animes-

When your pump started blaring, cgm trying to alert you to your blood sugar plummeting. You groaned, moment ruined. Nightmare helped you up so you could dismiss the alert (for five minutes at least.)

You grinned at him. "Aw and here I thought it was just your pretty face making my legs feel shaky."

Nightmare's face exploded in a bright purple blush as he shoved you towards your phone. "Just go take care of yourself already! And stop hanging out with Killer! He's a bad influence on you!"

Honestly, DKA sucked. The vomiting, the thirst, the pain. You felt like death for a while. But at least you got more attention from Sci and Dream than in a human hospital. Perks of working with immortals and monsters, you guessed.

Various skeletons came in and out of your room to visit. Mostly Stretch and Blue, but other allies of the Stars would visit sometimes as well.

You weren't expecting Death himself, though. You'd never actually met Reaper before, despite occasionally coming with the Stars to OT Council meetings that Reaper was supposedly a part of (but rarely actually attended). But that cloak, and those wings...

You reacted by taking the closest object you could reach (thankfully just a pillow) and throwing it at his face. "Oh hell no, Sci said I was getting *better.* I'm not dying yet!"

It was a good thing he had a good sense of humor. He laughed so hard he probably would've fallen over, if he wasn't floating.

"No, you're not dying. I just came to check in on the little human Dream is so protective of," he eventually explained. "And I'm not your Death, anyways. I'm only in charge of monster SOULs, and the Fallen Humans because they're close enough."

You stared at him suspiciously. "So is that why I didn't see you the times I was actually a lot closer to dying than now?"

"Yep!" He snorted and shook his head. "While plenty of people try to resist dying, only really you and Geno have actually tried to fight me. You're a fascinating little human."

You shrugged. "I guess. I'm just someone who gets along with the Stars and happened to like my martial arts studies enough to possibly be useful in a fight."

"How *did* you meet the Stars? I love hearing people's stories, when they're willing to share."

"Mmm well, I'm from Blue's AU, and I met him and Stretch first, I guess." You spent the next hour or so just talking to Reaper about your life, with him occasionally asking questions or making comments. It was... Kind of nice? Weirdly enough?

And then Sci came in to check on you and had a SOUL attack seeing Death himself hanging around his patient. Reaper laughed his ass off at that before leaving.

Finding Shattered was harder than you'd hoped. To be fair, neither of you had many allies to lean on, which meant you had no real sources of information. Eventually though, you managed to slip into the Omega Timeline and piece some things together, although it took time (fortunately, your "treatment" left your appearance shifting often enough that it was hard for anyone to actually associate you with Shattered, although you were still cautious.)

From what you'd gathered, they had initially brought Shattered to some place of basically pure positivity (an AU maybe?) hoping that would blast away the corruption, you guessed. That worked absolutely horribly and had harmed Shattered badly instead (your SOUL ached just imagining how he might be hurting, and at how badly you'd already failed him.) They'd brought him back to wherever Nightmare usually stayed to keep an eye on him while they tried to figure out what to do next.

But... You had no idea where the Crescents' hideout even was. And no one else did, either. So you decided to try something you probably should have tried at the start (although in your defense, it hadn't occurred to you that it was even a possibility.)

Because... Your portal charm used Shattered's magic. Which meant it was tied to him, right? So it should be enough to use it to just reach for his magic-

- and pull yourself through. Stars that was weirder than normal. You felt like you were actually traveling through something for once, instead of just stepping through a doorway. That method seemed to push you out of a shadow in a hallway... Somewhere. Looking around, you were in some kind of castle, maybe. Probably. It did feel like something Nightmare might live in. (He looked kinda princely to you.) But Shattered was nowhere in sight. The charm had taken you this far, you decided to use it again to try to feel for him, hoping it would lead you in the right direction.

"You're not supposed to be here."

You turned around to find yourself face to face with Killer. When had he snuck up behind you so silently?! It wasn't long before the rest of the mortals were arriving as well- Dust, Horror, Cross, Blue.

You stared him down. "Im getting him out of here." They knew who you were. They knew who you meant.

Killer laughed. "I'd like to see you try."

You grinned. "Gladly."

Killer summoned his knife and ran at you, just as you encased yourself in flames. (They were almost an armor as much as they were a weapon. Over time they had started to look almost feathery as they encased your body.)

Of course, he wasn't your only enemy. You had to dodge attacks from Dust, Axe, everyone attacking you at once, really. It was a miracle to find a spot to simply avoid losing your head. And was no surprise when all the attacks broke through a few walls as you were chased through the castle (although you personally couldn't care less about the damages.)

You tried to focus on your task, tried to focus on feeling for Shattered as you ran. You hoped you were getting closer.

You figured you were probably on the right track when Nightmare himself appeared, twin blades at the ready.

"Im afraid I cant let you go any further."

"Make me."