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“Why are you bringing him onto the team Boss? His creator causes terror and annoyance everywhere he goes! He’s going to be a liabilit—-”
“Killer for fucks sake, deal with it, Cross is a valuable asset, I expect you to respect him just like you would with Dust or Horror, you are dismissed,” Nightmare demanded, his gaze narrowing further. Killer thought about going against his boss’ wishes but eventually decided against it. He began to mumble as he turned and walked out, closing the door behind himself.
The male skeleton walked through the castle grumbling further until he found the living room and sat himself on the couch, the furthest away he could get to a whispering Dust as possible, no doubt talking to his Papyrus. Horror was in the kitchen, making himself food from the remains of a human Horror had found during their mission earlier.
Cross, their new member, was missing from the scene, which had been a regular occurrence since he’d arrived. Holing himself up in his room. During their last mission, Killer had found out some interesting information as he’d been talking with others.
A few had seen a variant of Muffet and Undyne, but they quickly realised it was the Xtale group. As they had been going through some of the AU themselves, a few of the people there had witnessed XGaster talking through them, despite him not being there at all. Killer had taken a particular interest in this information and relayed it to his boss as soon as they’d arrived back.
Cross hadn’t known about any of this, and Killer wasn’t about to say it out to him either. Now he was angry, knowing that XGaster was more likely than not able to see what they were doing in the castle through Cross. It made Killer angry, as he thought about his likely presence in the castle, despite never setting foot there.
Nightmare didn’t seem to mind, which only infuriated Killer further, why was he so calm about this? Surely this would be grounds to take the other off the team and throw him back into the Omega timeline with that good-for-nothing Dream, right? Apparently not, according to his boss.
As Killer grumbled incoherently about how angry the situation made him, Dust glanced over with a frown, what had gotten the idiot so frustrated now?
“I see you’ve brought yourself back into your room,” XGaster observed, looking through the room just as he had many, many times before. Cross quickly regained control of his body and curled up a little. “That doesn’t matter, bugger off,” he murmured, clenching his hands tightly into fists.
“I thought we’d been building quite the relationship, enough of one to bring you back to me,” Cross’ creator informed him, involuntarily relaxing the male’s body as he took control to speak. The skeleton tensed himself up once more as he gritted his teeth. “I’m never coming back to you,” he shot back, giving a glare, despite XGaster being unlikely to see it.
“What about Papyrus? Oh and Chara, I bet they’d be so excited to see you again,” XGaster pressed on, keeping his control a little longer as he shifted off the bed that Cross had curled himself on and began to put the other’s hands on the small holes in the wall. The monochrome had put them there in fits of anger during conversations with XGaster, Cross was only relieved that Nightmare nor anyone ever came into his living quarters.
Every once in a while they’d get a glance, but it was only fast enough to see how ‘tidy’ it looked, and how the colour had leaked out of the room, just like Cross’ colour palette and his home. Angry, the male took control of his body and instead of caressing the wall like XGaster had been doing, he turned his hand into a fist and punched the small indent, only making it worse in reply.
“You won’t get me back with them, Paps tried to kill me, and I only killed him back, Chara hates me,” Cross supplied, trying to ignore the feelings of guilt, regret and self-hatred that XGaster was trying to bring bubbling up to the surface. “We know that’s not stopping you Cross , no, what’s stopping you is your own weak emotions,” XGaster shot back, turning the monochrome’s face into a grin, an unsettling one to say the least.
It took a moment for him to recover. “Is that why you still speak to me, even though I’m no use to you? You don’t need to know what’s going on in my life, I bet you have a better view of the Multiverse than Ink… So why do you insist on keeping me in your grasp?” Cross asked, raising his voice as he spoke. Cross stalked the room, going from one side to the other.
He waited for his creator to take control, to reply, but he’d seemingly gone quiet. Beginning to make his own grin, the other began to inwardly celebrate, only for XGaster to take control once more. “Although your emotions are irritating, that doesn’t mean that it is the sole reason for me speaking to you, the others want you back Sans,” XGaster said in his cold tone.
“That’s a lie, all you want is perfection, perfection which you’ll never get, I’m done playing your stupid games,” Cross spat trying to urge himself to avoid throwing anything again. “Don’t make me remind you of all the sickening games you’ve played, everything you’ve done to the others, staying there instead of being here with your family!—-”
“Shut it!” Cross roared, summoning his twin daggers and throwing them both at the wall as if the other was standing there. The monochrome stood panting as he shook, now feeling unwell and his mind swirling with dark thoughts which only seemed to grow darker and darker.
His mind drifted back to what others had called him. A dog, a puppet, only good for following orders. Cross was about to have another go with his twin daggers when he suddenly heard a knock at his door. Confused but now alerted, the monochrome quickly calmed himself and took the twin daggers out of the wall. Inwardly hoping that XGaster wouldn’t arrive once more to cause trouble, he opened the door ajar slightly, only to be met with darkness.
“B-boss!” Cross said, straightening his back and taking a step forward, closing the door to his room behind himself. Nightmare’s eye narrowed as he watched the male. “I could feel a considerable amount of negative emotions coming from your room Cross…” Nightmare spoke in a matter-of-factly manner. The soldier’s expression darkened slightly. This wasn’t the first time this had happened.
Nightmare had confronted Cross about the communication between XGaster and him shortly after he’d arrived, after all, he’d seen it for himself. Only once, since the other had seemed rather shy around the Guardian of Negativity. Once they’d realised this, the two had used it to their advantage, and it was rare (apart from the mornings when XGaster had never arrived before) for Nightmare and Cross to be separated when the other three were also with Cross.
Due to the mornings, there hadn’t been any rising suspicions yet, but after Killer’s conversation with Nightmare, the darker had grown almost nervous. Cross lacked a relationship with anyone but Nightmare in the castle at the moment, and the continuous conversation that continues between him and XGaster only causes negativity around Cross.
Nightmare originally enjoyed this and would allow the two to talk for hours before finally showing up to shoo him off, but the bittersweet taste that Cross gave off - and all of the XTale members - left a nasty taste in Nightmare’s mouth to the point he wondered whether it was intentional by XGaster himself.
If that were the case though, it also backfired on him, because Nightmare came sooner each time it happened to try and separate the two sometimes bickering, and sometimes in genuine fights. This time, Cross had been able to dissolve his negative feelings by trying to get back at the male faster than Nightmare could catch that something was wrong. He had been at the other end of the castle and had let it go on longer than he’d originally wished.
Cross nervously glanced between Nightmare and the wall behind him. “I’ll work on that Boss,” he responded, his voice clear and strong. The goopy male only shook his head and wrapped a tentacle around the monochrome, which made him squeak at the sudden movement as he was brought up in the air.
“I need to speak with you privately, let us take a walk to clear our heads before we get to my office,” Nightmare curtly spoke, beginning to walk as Cross was firmly stuck in a tentacle. Cross huffed as he watched Nightmare walk. Despite the slight annoyance that crept up inside of him, he did begin to calm down properly, instead of masking it.
By the time the duo were inside the goopy male’s office, Cross was ready to deal with whatever Nightmare had to throw at him. He was put down and promptly told to sit down at the chair in front of the desk. The two got comfortable before Nightmare could say anything to the other.
“I had Killer come into my office earlier with information which could prove damaging,” Nightmare began, watching as Cross’ face kept stolid. Sighing, the darker male continued. “He’d heard from some of the villagers in the AU earlier that your… Creator could speak through your fellow companions,” Nightmare curtly explained. Although Cross’ face kept neutral, his hands fisted themselves around his shorts. Nightmare took notice.
“He came to me saying it was possible that you could possibly have this too, which causes a difficult situation for us both, don’t you think?” The goopy male asked, raising a brow as he continued to watch Cross. He was almost squirming by now, especially with their constant eye contact. “Did he say anything else?” Cross asked, not being able to stop himself from asking.
“He said it could prove to be a liability,” Nightmare spoke shortly. The monochrome snickered as he thought of Killer telling Nightmare this information with a look of dread. It was faintly amusing to the other. The goopier male was not so impressed. “Is him not trusting you funny, Cross?” Nightmare asked, crossing his arms and leaning over the desk slightly as his tentacles writhed behind him.
Any emotion quickly left the monochrome once more as he straightened in his seat. “No, my apologies,” he replied evenly, keeping neutral. Nightmare pulled back slightly from his desk as he continued to watch the other with his one eye. “Well, I suspect that Killer will be keeping a closer eye on you from now on, I was going to propose we do a few sessions of hanging out with the three without me there, but I want your opinion first,” Nightmare explained his thought process as he kept an eye on Cross.
The monochrome had no idea why Nightmare seemed willing to bend things to keep him around. It didn’t make sense, why wasn’t he getting thrown out? Yes, he could easily beat someone like his right-hand man in a fight to the death if given the proper motivation, but Cross doubted that was enough to keep him here with Nightmare staring at him.
Nightmare frowned as he began to read the other’s emotions and the slight bittersweet taste began to appear once more. “Stop that,” Nightmare bluntly ordered, watching as Cross flinched at the realisation. “Sorry Boss,” Cross mumbled quietly as he thought, although that wasn’t doing a lot of help for either of them.
“I’m just, not sure if that’d be the best idea,” Cross hesitated, looking down at the floor. Instead of replying like the monochrome was expecting his Boss to do, an impatient tentacle curled around his chest once more and pulled him to sit on top of Nightmare’s desk, right in front of the elder. Cross gulped as Nightmare watched him.
“Explain, without talking down about yourself,” Nightmare coolly replied, watching the hesitance grow on the monochrome’s face. The goopy skeleton had grown attached to Cross. He hadn’t meant to, but just like the others, he couldn’t imagine pushing Cross away despite the mere idea that XGaster could control Cross at a whim.
“He could mess things up, if you aren’t there to keep him away, then he might come bursting out just to get Killer to kick me out,” Cross eventually spoke. He’d thought about it for some time, initially finding it hard to convince Nightmare without speaking about himself in a negative manner. It felt bewildering to the monochrome that the Guardian of Negativity would try to keep bad feelings away from growing in the room.
“I’ll take your point into consideration,” Nightmare murmured. The silence grew in the room as the two kept eye contact with each other, at least that was until a tentacle began to move up to Cross’ face. The monochrome didn’t move, he only looked at the tentacle with a questioning look, why was it there?
It carefully moved against Cross’ cheek and began to pat it, a small blush began to rise as he glanced between Nightmare and the tentacle. The goopy skeleton in question was masking embarrassment with exasperation as he used another tentacle to take Cross back in his chair. The soldier didn’t move an inch as he was moved, nor did he speak of what the other tentacle had done.
After a moment or two of awkward silence, Nightmare stood up and cleared his throat. “Do not speak of this to anyone, I’ll ask for you when needed, for now, you are dismissed,” he ordered. Rather quickly, but not suspiciously quickly, Cross got up and left the room quietly, closing the door behind himself. Taking a deep sigh as he was alone once more, he began to walk back to his room, not trusting himself to be anywhere near the other trio that stayed in this house with Nightmare and Cross.