Addictive (Errormare)

02; Denial

"Shit.."

Nightmare flinched as he felt a bone attack pierce straight through his face. He could accept being hit by Ink, Hell even sometimes by Dream.. but by Blue? Something had to be severely wrong with him.

All he'd been doing was looking at his teammates to see if they'd needed any help, to see if Error needed any help fighting Ink, and-

"Gah-"

He let out a slight yelp as Blue hit him again, causing him to stumble back slightly. He tried to regain his composure, but found it near impossible as someone collided into him; knocking him out of the way.

He grasped onto his head as he felt it go fuzzy, similar to the other times he dealt with his current infliction, but this time there was something else unburying itself from within him. A twinge of something. What was it? He could've sworn that he felt.. guilt? For what? There was nothing for him to feel guilty for apart from..

He looked over at Error to see him launching attacks at Ink, who seemed awfully amused and was cracking remarks at the glitchy skeleton as an attempt to upset him.

He lightly gripped his chest watching the sight, he hated it. He hated all that was happening. He hated the way he was feeling.

"What is wrong with you?!"

A shout from nearby caught his attention, turning to see Dust deflecting Blue's attacks. His head kept turning back and forth from Nightmare to Blue frantically in an attempt to keep both an eye on the battle and on the wellbeing of his Boss.

"I got 'im!" Horror yelled, launching himself into Blue.

Dust sighed in partial relief and turned to focus on Nightmare, who was still gripping his chest trying to figure out what was going on with his emotions.

"Answer me!" He yelled.

"I don't know." Nightmare answered.

"Well if you could put whatever's wrong to the side for a few minutes and help us, that would be great!" Dust hissed, running off to help his teammates.

Nightmare growled and stood up, letting go of his chest. Dust was right, he had to try to ignore what was happening to him and focus on what was going on in front of him.

He leaped back into battle, slamming a tentacle against Dream and knocking him directly against a tree, snapping it practically in half. He darted over towards Dream, determined to get more hits on him whilst he still had the strength to do so. But as he reached where his brother was, inches away from him, he felt something at the side of his face.

The searing pain of Dream's positivity. It was as if time itself slowed for a moment as his vision managed to barely focus on the arrow loaded in Dream's bow about to be shot directly at his face.

"You're weaker.."

It was the last thing he heard before feeling himself being launched back, flying backwards and landing just on the outskirts of Snowdin. He let out a cry of pain as his hand instinctively reached for his face, where it hurt him most, before retracting as the burning spread onto his hand.

He heard the sound of metal on metal as he looked up to see Cross stood in front of him, holding Dream off from further hurting him. He couldn't fight as he was. He couldn't let his team fight the Star Sanses without him; they rarely won even when he fought alongside them.

He opened his mouth, ready to give an order that would surely cause backlash from everyone.

"Cross, retreat!"

"What?!" Cross shouted, sparing a glance towards his Boss.

He did a double take as he noticed that half of Nightmare's face seemed to be melting, an arrow stuck within it. He hesitated for a moment before summoning a Gaster Blaster and shooting Dream out of the way, rushing over to his teammates to relay Nightmare's order.

One by one they retreated to where Nightmare now stood, ready to teleport away. There was one skeleton however who refused to listen. Swinging aggressively towards all three of their enemies, Error seemed to want to continue his bloodshed.

"Error!" Killer yelled in an attempt to get him to listen.

"What? Can't you see I'm busy?!" He screeched in response, throwing Ink halfway across the AU.

"Retreat!"

Error rolled his eyes, a grin on his face as he dodged Dream's attack. He'd always been known for his recklessness but this was on another level entirely. Was he trying to show off or was he trying to get himself killed?!

Killer continued to yell at him, each time being ignored by the Destroyer. He briefly turned to face Nightmare, about to ask him to forcefully grab him, when an idea came to mind.

"For fuck sake Error, Nightmare's face has practically been melted off!"

This caught his attention as he turned to look at Nightmare, their eyes meeting one another. Error held a look of what appeared to be both confusion and concern, whilst Nightmare could only stare on in horror as Error found himself being hit down by Ink's brush.

This seemed to be the final straw for him as he rushed over to his teammates, wiping off the paint that had gotten on his face. Nightmare stared at him for a few moments, the twinge of guilt resurfacing.

"What are you waiting for?!" Killer yelled, snapping Nightmare out of his thoughts.

He wrapped his tentacles around his subordinates wrists before reluctantly laying a hand on Error's shoulder, his sludge covering them as they teleported away from battle.

Nightmare inhaled in preparation for his teammates' complaints. They would all be valid of course, but he still wanted to be prepared for-

"Maybe we would've won if you weren't so focused on Error."

He looked at Killer, who was glaring at him angrily with his arms crossed.

"He was focused on me?" Error questioned, cocking an eye at the revelation.

As he met Error's gaze he felt his face light up in a slight blush, much to his confusion and hatred. He raised a hand to his face to make sure he wasn't mistaken; was he seriously blushing?

"Now he's blushing! I'm telling you our conclusion is solid!" Killer yelled, walking over and yanking Nightmare's hand away from his face.

Error watched in amusement. He never would've expected such a thing to be real, for Nightmare to be in front of him and blushing because he was.. wait, was he concerned? Error tried to rationalise the situation, feeling his own face light up slightly.

"It's.. it's just because of Dream's arrow, that's all. It's just messing with my emotional state." Nightmare stuttered, reaching up and pulling the arrow out of his head.

"Bullshit! Just admit you're in love with Error and be done with it already." Killer retorted.

In love with Error? Is that what they thought? No, he was just sick with an unidentifiable illness, that's all; there was no other possible reasoning for his situation, certainly not him being in love. He wasn't even aware of what love felt like, he'd never cared enough to look into it. His eye widened, realisation overcoming him. He'd never cared enough to look into it.

He barged past Killer and headed upstairs, determined to put this newfound unshakable theory to rest.

"Wow. Didn't expect him to react like that.. he was worse than you were!" Killer laughed, turning to look at Error.

Error was staring at the staircase that Nightmare had gone up, a conflicted look on his face. He'd gone through a lot during his time within the Multiverse: near death experiences, sickness, crashes, having to have conversations with Ink.. but the one thing he'd never gone through was someone loving him. He failed to rationalise his situation, leaving only one question on his mind.

Was Nightmare really in love with him?