Addictive (Errormare)

03; Tease

Nightmare mumbled different theories under his breath as he walked back to his office. He had been out all day traversing different AUs, avoiding Dream to allow himself to heal since their battle last week didn't exactly go his way, but more importantly he'd been looking into the concept of love. From what he understood people fell in love randomly, some with absolute strangers (which he'd found out was called love at first sight) and others with those they'd known for long periods of time. His symptoms seemed to match up heavily with what was written in the sappy romance novels he'd reluctantly skimmed through, enough so that he himself had begun to believe that there was a chance that he'd fallen in love with the Destroyer somehow. But from all that he'd read throughout the day there was one piece of information that had stuck with him.

He'd learnt that, typically, the only way to get rid of the feeling was to wait it out or to have the person do something so horrible that the person in love feels they can no longer speak with them again. Only one of those options seemed plausible to him, and that was to wait it out.

He sighed and opened the door to his office, glad that he could finally just relax and put all this nonsense behind him for the rest of the day.

"I was beginning to think you weren't coming back tonight."

He jolted at the voice, staring at the skeleton sitting on the chair he typically sat in, legs on his desk.

Error was sitting behind his desk, scrolling through his phone absentmindedly. Nightmare blinked a few times, trying to figure out if what he saw was real or not. Error typically only went in his office if he was trying to find hidden documents about something, and he most definitely tried to hide his presence whenever he did that despite failing almost every time. For him to be willingly sat there, waiting for Nightmare's return, it was unfathomable to the goopy skeleton.

He could feel his emotions beginning to go haywire. His affliction had been getting worse over the past week, but to see Error sitting there so nonchalantly was driving him insane and he couldn't figure out why. Was it the way that everyone apart from Error seemed to fear him in one respect or another? Was it his odd appearance? His overexaggerated expressions during battles? His clothes which seemed to perfectly fit him despite evidently being numerous sizes too big? His passion for anything he was interested in? Perhaps it was a mix of all of it, maybe it was none of it.

"What's got you all hot and bothered?"

The question confused him for a brief moment before he realised that he was, again, blushing. It had been happening so much more often recently, occasionally his entire body would warm and he'd begin to feel sick to his stomach - something he wasn't even aware was possible.

"I'm just.. warm. It was warm in the AU I was visiting today." He answered, knowing full well it was a lie.

Error put his phone down and focused on Nightmare, a grin on his face.

"You've been getting worse at lying recently, Night. Not the only thing you've been getting worse at.."

Nightmare flinched, had he really been getting worse at lying? Error was known to be gullible, so for him to see through him that easily..

"What do you want?" Nightmare asked, finally taking a step into the office.

"I came to ask you why you've been so weak recently. Not even just physically, it's like you're losing all your skills." He plainly stated, chuckling near the end of the sentence.

Nightmare took a deep breath before responding. "I've been busy with work recently, Error, I.. you should lea-"

Error cut him off by picking up a stack of paper and slamming it onto the desk with his strings, some of the paper falling onto the floor.

"This is your work," he gestured towards them. "The oldest ones are about a week and a half overdue. Obviously you've not been doing it, so what have you been doing?" He asked, tapping his finger atop the stack.

Nightmare's eye widened in shock, had his backlog of work seriously gotten that big? He hadn't realised just how badly this supposed crush of his had been hurting his work life.. had anything else of his began to hurt?

"Alrighty, let me cut to the chase. Are you in love with me, Nighty~?" Error asked, a wicked grin on his face.

Nightmare took a step back, the previous blush on his face being heightened to new levels. It was unlike him to react so much to an obvious provocation tactic from Error but he seemed to be completely incapable of controlling himself.

"Of course not! In fact I take offense to you suggesting such a.. horrible thing!" He retorted, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself more-so than Error.

Error rolled his eyes. "I should've known! You've been acting so aloof lately.. obviously it would be because of my dashing good looks and charming personality~!" He loudly teased, placing the back of his hand onto his head and relaxing further into Nightmare's chair.

"Would you stop that?!" Nightmare yelled, feeling his body begin to heat up.

He gently gripped onto his ribcage as he felt his soul pounding. All he wanted was to be closer to Error, to speak with him, to-

"Why? Is it true?" He spoke, standing up and walking over to Nightmare.

The pair were but a few inches from each other, Error looking up at Nightmare who was obviously avoiding eye contact with him. Nightmare could feel the smugness radiating from Error, he was so obviously happy that his teasing had elicited a reaction from him.

Error pushed Nightmare back gently, laughing.

"Is it true?!" He asked loudly, putting his hands on his hips as he waited for an answer.

"Error, I told you to stop." Nightmare sternly warned, pushing him out of the way as he walked over to his desk.

There it was again, that guilt that seemed to well up inside of him.

"Why? You seem awfully flustered today, Night." Error spoke, following him and stopping him in front of his desk.

Nightmare tried his hardest to match Error's gaze, his legs beginning to feel as if they were about to give out from beneath him. Why wouldn't his body just cooperate with him?! He attempted to walk forward only for Error to stop him, placing his hands on opposite sides of him against the desk to stop him from leaving.

Nightmare leant back to avoid touching Error, but that seemed to only make his situation worse as he found himself accidentally being bent over his own desk by his own supposed subordinate.

He could feel his soul pounding further than ever, his tentacles curling in as a way to hide themselves. All he could see was Error's stupid face with a wicked grin on it, lightly blushing as he looked down on Nightmare; so close he could feel his breath lightly on his body. Error seemed to be looking him over for whatever reason, a crazed look in his eye as if he were getting a sick thrill from it.

"You look pathetic."

The words hit Nightmare like a truck. Typically he'd be screaming and trying to murder whoever had called him pathetic, but when it came to Error..

He pushed him away with a tentacle and walked around to the other side of his desk, collapsing onto his chair and attempting to set things up to do his work. He was trying to distract himself, and it most certainly wasn't working.

Error laughed. "Alright, I'll let you get away with that.. for now. Guess I have my answer even if you refused to help me with the question~!" He spoke, walking backwards over to the doorframe.

Nightmare stared at him in silence. He could feel his body beginning to shake, he felt as if he could be sick at any given moment, but there was something new as well. A craving. He wasn't entirely sure what it was a craving for, but he could identify it as a craving for sure with how severe it felt.

"Goodnight, sir." Error mocked, bowing out of the office and closing the door, the grin never leaving his face.

And he was left in silence, Error's words hanging within his mind and - apparently - his body.