Chapter Text
It was an ordinary day in the save screen, Geno was sitting in the dark and waiting for something to happen. Today was his lucky day, as he was tossed from the save screen into Dreamtale. He ended up falling from the sky and landing on his side, his bones didn’t break, which was one of many positives in his day. However when he saw a small skeleton dressed in purple, with a beautiful crown atop his head. Geno figured he was royalty and went to see if had gotten lost or was lonely.
“Hello,” the smaller skeleton tried to punch him before he could even introduce himself and ran off in the direction of a tree with apples that were golden and apples dark as night.
Geno had seen some tears on the other skeleton's face when he had been able to get close to him and he wanted to comfort the other. He walked towards the tree as he noticed the sun was setting, the darkness of night was not as bad as the save screen, but Geno did not want to be alone in it. The smaller skeleton was terrified as he watched Geno walk closer and closer to his mother.
“S-stay back, leave me alone,” the purple clad skeleton was crying and begging Geno to stay away from him.
“Please don’t run away again, I just want to talk,” Geno tried to make himself look harmless, but the other skeleton did not trust him.
“How can I believe you aren’t like them? Everyone else will be nice to me to get closer to my brother and then turn on me,” with a frown Geno approached him, pulling the smaller into a tight hug and trying to comfort him.
“Why would I want to get closer to someone I’ve never seen before? Plus, you look like you need a friend and I’ve seen you now so I think it’s valid for me to want to try being your friend,” the smaller was confused by how Geno acted, he was certain that he would be rude after his accusations, but he remained kind.
“I’m Nightmare,” he mumbled as he snuggled further into the first hug he had gotten from someone that wasn’t his brother.
“I’m Geno, it’s nice to meet you, Nightmare,” they both smiled at each other and found comfort in the embrace.
For a while they didn’t speak to each other, Nightmare let Geno sit down beside him under the tree of feelings while the sun set. Only when the light was gone did Nightmare notice Geno seemed afraid of the dark closing in around them and he offered a hug to him in silence. Geno accepted the hug happily just before another small skeleton ran up the hill.
“Brother, I’m back,” the golden skeleton shouted, before going wide eyed at the sight of someone else hanging out with his brother.
“Dream, please stop shouting,” Dream hardly even reacted to the comment and he plopped himself in front of their guest.
“Who are you? I’ve never seen you in the village before,” Dream looked like he was about to poke Geno and Nightmare thought his new friend may not like that very much.
“I’m Geno and I’m not from around here, that’s the best way to put it. I can’t go home though and I’ve accepted that fate,” the sad look Dream gave him made Nightmare look away before he would fall into the trap.
“That sounds horrible, but you can stay here with us if you’d like,” the way he acted was much less mature than Geno was used to and it reminded him of his own brother, he preferred Nightmare’s more calm personality.
“I guess I can stay, I don’t have anywhere else to be,” Dream cheered while Geno looked towards Nightmare and saw that he looked upset over the attention given to Dream.
Softly Geno leaned over and rested his head on Nightmare’s shoulder, feeling overwhelmed with all that was going on around him. Dream noticed the tired behavior and settled down on the other side of Nightmare, cuddling in for the night. It wasn’t until the sun rose in the morning that they woke up, Geno wasn’t used to rising with the sun and tried to go back to sleep. Dream wouldn’t allow it, he didn’t like it when people slept in and missed out on the daytime that he loved so much.
“Dream just let him sleep a little longer, the sun is still coming up,” the pout he got was what he expected for stopping his brother's plan from happening.
“Getting up with the sun is a good thing though and everyone should do it,” Nightmare was getting tired of Dream’s insistence on waking Geno up.
“Can you two quiet down? It is way too early for bickering,” the look Nightmare gave Dream as Geno gave a soft glare was one of “It’s your fault that we’re in trouble”.
“Sorry, I’ll keep him quiet from now on,” Nightmare shoed Dream a bit away from the tree and pulled out a ball he had found lying around one day.
The twins played catch while Geno woke up and stretched, preparing for whatever sort of day was about to begin. Nightmare caught the ball before running over to the now awake Geno and laid down beside him, pulling out a worn book. It reminded him of the library that nobody bothered to fix the spelling of and how many books there were on the most random of things.
Footsteps broke the happiness that had been building up inside of Nightmare and Dream ran to greet the people that were in need of his assistance. Geno watched them glare at the small skeleton beside him and take interest in him before taking Dream down the hill with them. Long after they left, Nightmare was tense and Geno just sat there comforting him silently.
“Why did they take Dream?” Geno finally broke the silence and he watched the smaller tense up and then try to relax himself.
“They want Dream for his positivity, he gives off a positive aura that people want to be around and I give off negativity. They blame me for their problems because of my name and my aura plus I have to protect the tree. Dream isn’t good at it,” Geno nodded, understanding Nightmare’s hardships and sympathizing.
“I promise I’ll stick around and won’t leave you, no matter what,” the promise of a friend that wouldn’t leave him comforted Nightmare and he clung to Geno like he was his favourite thing in the world.