Work Text:
Accidents were an immutable part of fighting with another god frequently. Usually, Ink tried not to hurt Error, and Error just tried to get Ink to leave him alone. But sometimes, injuries were sustained.
This time, Error had been tossed and landed awkwardly, crunching the bones of his wrist. It was a very imperfect break. His radius took the brunt of the fall and broke completely in half. Other cracks from the pressure wrapped around his radius like stripes on a candy cane. Error should’ve been more disturbed by it, but injuries were pretty common for him.
At this point, the bleeding had stopped. He didn’t know what else to do but wrap up his wrist with clean fabric and wait for it to heal. Error scowled down at his wrist as if his angry look would scare the bones into healing themselves. Shockingly, that didn’t happen.
He could hardly move his hand, it felt like his fingers were frozen in place. Not cold, but stuck. As if someone hit the pause button.
Error was finding it difficult to do anything like this. He constantly forgot about the poor condition his arm was in and moved to do things with it only for a shock of pain to race through his arm. It was annoying. The break hurt constantly, but if he had his arm still, it only hurt a bit compared to the intense shockwaves that would hit whenever his arm slightly twitched.
And sitting in an infinite void of whiteness, unable to move his arm was boring. He couldn’t sew like this, and the pain was making it hard to focus on anything else other than the infinite nothing all around. Error hated this. The level of apathy and pain he was in was incredible, he didn’t even think it possible to hate being alive more than he did right now.
Instead of doing anything productive, he was stuck having to rest. How annoying was that? Error didn’t want to just lay around, he would rather do literally anything else. And yet here he was being a complete lazybones, sitting half on his beanbag chair and half on the floor.
Error jumped when his phone suddenly rang. He sometimes forgot he even had a phone, no one ever called him. Glancing down, he saw it was Horror calling him.
He didn’t like many glitches in the multiverse. If you’d asked him previously, he would’ve told you that he didn’t like any glitches like Nightmare and his gang. But recently, that has started changing.
For dirty glitches… They were kind of chill. They weren’t loud and obnoxious, they didn’t try touching him all the time, and they were… a little funny. Not that Error would ever admit any of that out loud. But as far as multiverse glitches went, he’d be upset when he inevitably had to kill them.
And of the ones he’d be most upset about having to kill, Horror was up there. “Hello?” Error said as he answered the phone.
“Hello. Are you coming for baking lessons?” Horror asked. Error doesn’t have much interest in baking, at least… he didn’t. But then, Horror started introducing him to all kinds of incredible food. And if Error knew how to bake, he could make these things even when Horror was busy.
“Yeah, sorry, I forgot.” Error said. “I will be there in a second.”
“Ok. I wanted to teach you how to make cheesecake.” Horror said.
When Error first heard the word ‘cheesecake’ he thought it was weird. But when Horror convinced him to try it, he fell in love. To be fair, that was the same with most things Horror had to more or less beg him to try.
“I barely got the boxed brownies down.” Error said. “Is cheesecake any harder than that?”
“Um… yeah. But I want cheesecake, so we’ll struggle through it together.” Horror said. Error involuntarily laughed.
“I will be there in a minute, I just need to um…” Error felt a jolt of pain run through his arm. “I need to convince myself to get up. The ground is far more comfortable than you might think.”
“I get it. See ya.”
“Bye.”
Error hung up and sighed. How was he going to bake when his arm was messed up? How annoying.
Was he going to let a little broken bone stop him from enjoying some cheesecake? No. And he certainly wasn’t going to disappoint Horror in favor of lazing around. Both bones weren’t even broken, it was just one.
He stood up, feeling his arm metaphorically sob in pain. Holding it up to his chest was too much effort, but keeping it at his side hurt. After a moment of thinking, he sighed and carefully let his arm drop to his hip.
When he got to the castle, it was pretty quiet. Someone had left something playing on the TV, but no one was there. He glanced around for a moment but didn’t see anyone.
“Hello?”
In a couple of seconds, Horror came into the living room. “Hey. Killer’s not feeling well, so he’s in his room. Dust and Cross are on a mission.”
“Oh. Is Nightmare here?” He asked compulsively.
He didn’t know why he asked. The boss lived in Error’s head rent-free. Randomly throughout the day, he’d wonder what Nightmare was doing. And it was embarrassing, but whenever he was alone and talking to himself just for the sake of hearing a voice, he usually imagined he was talking to his puppets. But now, he imagined he was talking to Nightmare.
Error didn’t know what that meant, and refused to truly examine what that might mean.
“Yeah, the boss is taking care of some… work. I don’t actually… dunno what he does in his office… but he is in there.” Horror said.
The glitch shrugged. “Anyway, are we going to get to the baking?”
Horror nodded, grinning warmly, and then paused. He audibly sniffed. “Do you smell that?”
“Smell what?” Error asked.
The bigger skeleton looked confused, glancing around. “I thought… Nevermind. Let’s go.”
In the kitchen, Error saw multicolored sticky notes everywhere. He had gotten pretty used to not knocking them off their places, and the sticky notes did help. Error had a terrible memory. Maybe not as bad as Horror, sometimes Horror would forget entire days, but Error’s memory was still trashy.
Before they started, Horror took some medicine. Error wasn’t entirely sure what it was for because he didn’t think to look. He still wasn’t entirely sure what medicine even was. Killer’s explanation was the opposite of helpful. ‘Little awful tasting capsule things that give different effects.’ That’s all he knew. Horror also messaged Killer something before they got started.
There were some things already sitting out for them. Error preheated the oven while Horror mixed cookie crumbs and butter. Already, Error wanted to just eat the cookie crumbs, but he knew he needed to be patient.
When it got to the part where he had to beat the ingredients, Error ran into an issue. He was using his nondominant hand which was already a challenge, but also he couldn’t hold the bowl still. Unthinkingly, he moved his broken arm to the bowl so it wouldn’t move, only to let out a cry of pain.
“Are you ok?” Horror asked, concerned.
“I am fine.” Error snapped. He wasn’t mad at Horror, he was just in pain and frustrated with himself, but Horror probably thought Error was mad at him because he backed off.
Eventually, though, he got it done.
When the cheesecake was in the oven and baking, they decided to wait in the living room. Error, at some point, had started sweating intensely. He wasn’t sure when that started, but now he found it just as annoying as the injury he had suffered.
The two of them sat down on the couch, it took a minute for them to find the remote, but then they changed the TV to some animated show Error had never seen. Horror sat a respectable distance away from him. Error greatly appreciated it.
“Have you ever seen this movie before?” Horror asked. Error shook his head. “I know the… the boss hates it.”
“Why?”
“Dunno.” Horror shrugged. The movie was called The Prince of Egypt. Error had never seen this movie before and had absolutely no context for anything going on in the movie, but it was ok other than that. Why did Nightmare hate it? Isn’t he some damn know-it-all? He’d probably understand more happening in the movie than Error did.
He had no idea where his infatuation with Nightmare began. At first, he hated Nightmare. The cocky, manipulative, know-it-all always seemed to find unique ways of getting on Error’s nerves. But one day, he started wondering how Nightmare was. If he was happy. What kind of missions was he doing?
After that, all his annoying traits started to seem like charming quirks. He was extremely smart. Sometimes, he felt like he needed Nightmare to explain things to him because he always had a way of phrasing things that helped Error understand. At first, it pissed him off, but now he craved that feeling of learning new things and confusion lifting from his shoulders. And his arrogance. Maybe arrogance was the wrong word? It’s not like he was unreasonably confident, it’s not like he didn’t have reason to believe in his abilities. Error felt like arrogance implied that someone was overconfident in themselves, but Nightmare always seemed to know what he was doing. Was that the correct definition of arrogance? Nightmare would know.
“Maybe it’s the conflict between the two brothers.” Horror said, startling Error out of his thoughts. What was Horror talking about? Oh, right. The movie. “Maybe it hits too close to home.”
“I don’t think something like that would upset Nightmare.” Error said. The goopy skeleton seemed to thrive on conflict.
Horror shrugged. “You don’t know him as well as you might think.” He said. “I’ve seen him get pretty emotional about things like that. Like when it was his birthday. They are twins, you know.”
Nightmare had a soft side? For some reason, that was nice to hear. It made Error’s face feel warm.
And then he winced with a hiss of pain. His arm has started to throb with pain, now and again, a shooting pain will race up his arm into his shoulder. It was getting harder and harder to ignore. It was so damn annoying.
“Are you sure you are ok?” Horror asked.
“Of course I am.” Error grumbled. Fuck Ink, fuck these fucking broken bones. He hated it when this happened because his arm was useless like this. “It’s just a dumb fucking injury.”
Horror was quiet for a moment. “I mean… I could get you some pain medicine.”
“Pain medicine? The hell is that?” Medicine that causes pain? Why would Error want that?
“Pills that make injuries and stuff hurt less.” Horror said. Error blinked in confusion.
“That’s a thing?”
“Mhm. You just take a couple, wait a while, and the pain gets better. Sometimes you can’t even feel it.” Horror explained.
“Well then get me some! I had no idea anything like that existed…” Error said.
Horror brought two small pills for Error along with some water. He instructed Error not to chew them, which Error was about to do, and to just wash them down with the water. Since when was this a thing? Killer did try to explain it, but he didn’t mention how useful they could be. Error wished he knew about this sooner. His arm was still functionally useless, but at least it wouldn’t be annoying him.
Everything was so much easier when the medicine kicked in. He ate some of the cheesecake when it was ready, and then curled up on the couch, he began to fall asleep. It had been a long and exhausting day. And now that pain wasn’t tormenting him, sleep was hard to resist.
“Error.” Said a voice. The glitch sat up straighter with a groan, rubbing his eye sockets. For a moment, he wasn’t sure who’d called his name, but then he spotted Nightmare. It was hard because the living room was pitch black and so was Nightmare, only his eyelight and squirming tentacles let him know the guardian was there.
“What is it?” Error grumbled.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t come here earlier because I was busy. But now I am, and it’s clear to me you don’t intend to fix your injuries by yourself.” Nightmare said. It was a little annoying how Nightmare could borderline read his mind. Not really, he could just sense negativity (like pain) and infer things. But it gave the illusion that he was a mind reader at times.
“It’s nothing. Just an inconvenience at most.” Error said. He truly believed that it was, he wasn’t lying. And yet Nightmare seemed unconvinced.
“Let me inspect it to be sure.” Nightmare said, leaving no room for debate. Error scoffed.
“Why do you even care? Go back to hiding in some corner like a damn cryptid and leave me alone.” He rolled his eyelights as he said it.
“Like it or not, we are allies. We help each other, it’s part of our deal. I trust you haven’t forgotten that already, yes?” Nightmare said.
“Fuck me, you yap so much. Just look at it if that’s what you are into.” Error said. He pulled up his sleeve, maybe a little too harshly which made him flinch, and held it out for Nightmare to inspect.
Nightmare leaned closer, hands under Error’s arm as if to support it (thankfully not making contact). His face twisted into something unreadable. And then he sighed.
“Horror told me that you smelled like blood and were wincing a lot. Still, I didn’t expect your arm to be so severely broken.” He said.
“It’s not as bad as it could be. I have had worse.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s ok to be left untreated.” Nightmare said. He leaned down to get something. Error noticed only then that Nightmare had brought medical supplies.
He untied the fabric that Error had put on before. Error winced again, the painkillers were good but not good enough to eliminate all pain. Nightmare cleaned the wound with antiseptic. It stung like hell, Error at one point instinctively pulled away. Nightmare’s tentacle wrapped around his upper arm and held it still after that.
“Stop fucking touching me.” Error snapped, trying to pull away.
“Just hold still. I will be done in a second, but I can’t do anything with you flailing around.” Nightmare said. Error huffed, offended.
But his offense and his repulsion to being touched were washed away when Nightmare started wrapping his arm. Error gasped in pain and his hand reflexively closed into a fist. He held his breath as the pain continued. Nightmare was trying to get it over with swiftly, but he was also making sure he didn’t do a sloppy job.
It felt like hours, but likely it only took a couple of minutes. And then, Nightmare let go of his arm. Error fell back against the couch, trying to just breathe through the lingering pain.
A softness crossed Nightmare’s face, something that went unnoticed by Error. It was gone in an instant, but for a moment it looked like sympathy. And then, he grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and dropped it on Error’s lap.
“I will get you a pillow. Need anything else? More blankets or anything before I go?” He asked.
Error pulled the blanket properly over himself. He thought about it for a moment. What did he want? He felt like Nightmare would do anything within reason to make up for the nonconsensual contact and the pain he caused Error. That is, if Nightmare truly did have a soft side like Horror said.
“Could you watch something with me?” He asked. He surprised himself with that request.
Nightmare processed the request for a second. “Unfortunately, I cannot. I have a lot of work that needs to be done before morning.”
Error frowned hard. He hadn’t expected how disappointed he would be. “Then I don’t need anything.” He said, arm crossed.
The other sighed heavily. He crossed his arms, looking between Error and the door that led towards his office. And then, he sighed again. More like a short huff of air.
“I will stay with you until you fall asleep.”
A smile appeared on his face. He moved over and when Nightmare came back with a pillow, he sat on the newly freed space. Error turned on the TV and played a random animated movie.
He was still so tired, but now he was going to sleep satisfied. It felt like he won. What did he win? He wasn’t entirely sure. Regardless, he was already feeling a lot better.
Now his arm was on the right track in terms of healing, it didn’t hurt, and he had the guardian of negativity here with him watching a kid’s film. It was nice. It was the best sleep Error had in years.
Maybe next time he was injured he’d come to Nightmare. Certainly was a lot nicer than going crazy from boredom in his Anti-Void. Error found himself excited to see Nightmare again despite trying to bury those feelings.
When had he grown such a soft spot for these glitches?