Spirits and Souls

Clothes make the monster

Once again that Snow for her wonderful Beta work

It had to be a dream, the reflection looking back was one that was familiar, yet unfamiliar.

It had been over 500 years since he had seen his true face.

Magic tainted tears slipped down his white bones.

White and pure, not dark or slimy in the slightest.

Slim hands reached up to touch the crescent headgear, to think that all of this had been under the corruption, for all those years. He brushed a hand over his old clothing and the soft fabric, woven with charms and enchantments, warmed under his touch. It was nice, far more pleasant than the goopy clothing his magic had manifested to cover him when the apples took over.

"You're still a kid," Error teased, running a gentle hand over Nightmare's skull.

"Hey," said Nightmare, pouting, but that only made Error grin.

"I... want to go outside, walk outside as me," Nightmare said, his purple eyelights bright. "I want to feel the actual sharding sun for once!"

"You can't go out as yourself, I'm pretty sure you're not ready for the Star Sanses to spot you," said Error as he began to pull fabric through a portal.

"I'm... not ready to meet Dream like this," Nightmare said softly, it was strange to think that while he was still a child, Dream looked and was an adult.

"Go relax, I'll figure something put," Error smirked.

"Thanks, Dad," Nightmare said, and instead of wandering off, he leaned against his father figure happily. He didn't even feel himself fall asleep.

OoOoO

Error paused in his sewing as the weight at his side increased. Blinking, he looked to see that Nightmare had fallen asleep, but was still maintaining his true form.

"Sleep tight, son," Error whispered, pulling a blanket over the leader of the Dark Sans.

He began singing a soft lullaby, one he had sung to his Papyrus, all those centuries ago, before Fate forced him onto a different path.

OoOoO

Dream felt like he was missing something important, it was nagging on his mind.

The oven wasn't on, he'd already checked that.

It was annoying.

Ink snoozed on the couch, a half-full bowl of popcorn in his arms.

This feeling had been going on for hours.

He grumbled and walked through the base, trying to figure what it was.

This had Nightmare written all over it, but his twin's signature emotions blocked Dream from sensing whatever dark AU he hid in.

"Damn it Nightmare, just do something already!" Dream shouted, frustrated.

"The answer is 42!" shouted Ink, waking up startled by Dreams yell. As the ink-stained skeleton jumped to his feet, the bowl of popcorn went flying. Kernels flew everywhere, Dream already knew that would not be fun to clean up.

"Ink... why," Dream whispered.

"Ha ha ha... gotta go. Sorry," said Ink, laughing nervously. He fled through a portal, probably to go take a nap in some other AU.

The bowl had also landed on top of Dreams head.

OoOoO

Nightmare came to with a yawn, his form surrounded by one of Errors oh-so-comfy blankets.

He swore these blankets were made to sin, so perfect with hints of Error's magic still in the threads.

After all, Error had made them.

He grinned when he raised his arms, seeing white bone still.

Unlike before, he wasn't tired keeping this form, maybe he'd been so tired before because it had been an incomplete transformation. He wondered how long he could keep this form, because he had very much missed being like this.

Heck, he wondered how the other Dark Sans would react.

'Wait, where's Error?' he thought after a moment, he'd been leaning against the other when he fell asleep.

"Dad?" he called, slowly climbing out of his blanket cocoon.

"I'm coming," Error said from the small private bathroom, and a few moments later, the glitchy skeleton exited.

"Uhhh..." Nightmare said, his eyelights wide from shock, that was not normal.

Error looked like a Dreamswap Error, and appeared to be the same age as Nightmare himself.

"How?" he said in disbelief.

"I can't take my original form back due to Fate, but I can adjust my own code to a point," Error smirked, his voice sounding younger and slightly less glitchy, matching how a DS!Error spoke.

"That's cool, wait, what am I wearing!" Nightmare said in excitement, right before he fell back onto the blanket as clothes hit him in the face.

"Ohh... Dreamswap Nightmare clothing," he said gleefully before running to the bathroom to try them on.

OoOoO

t was strange. There didn't seem to be very much of a difference between himself and his DreamSwap counterpart, but the new clothes somehow made him look like a whole other person.

"Let's get this rodeo moving," he said happily.

"Aw... can I hug you first," asked a voice sadly. The two skeletons turned to see the rest of the gang gathered in the doorway, staring in.

"I knew we forgot something," said Error, humming quietly.

Nightmare couldn't help but laugh, he had a feeling he'd be waiting a few more days to head out at this rate.

He had that kind of luck after all.