𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐴 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟 ☬ℑ𝔫𝔨𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔢☬ ☬𝔈𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔨☬

chapter 31: Hello?

^Ink's PoV^

"Yeah yeah! I'm fine don't worry about it."

It sounded like the biggest lie ever but he must've believed it since he lifted his hands from my shoulders and rested them on his hips.

"Alright well, we better head to our base. We might wanna catch you up with all that has happened while you were away."

I nodded as he opened a portal and looked back to me, stepping so that I could enter. I walked forward into a room that was too dark for my eyes to see anything. The portal closed and I felt around where it was, but didn't feel a single think.

"Alright very funny. Come on, I know you're here Dream."

I heard some rustling but it quickly stopped when I turned to it. I squinted to see if I could see anything, but the only thing I saw were wooden floorboards. Wait, wooden floorboards.. didn't we have tiles?

I tapped my foot and just as I thought it sounded exactly like wood.

"Heh knock on wood."

I chuckled a little to myself before returning to trying to find where I am. I walked until I touched a wall and felt around. No light switches. I scaled the walls unit I felt something hit my head. Not hard enough to know me out or anything but definitely did cause a headache.

Reaching up to touch the spot that was hit, my eyes left the wall and into the dark abyss to see what had hit me. When I didn't see anything I turned my attention to the wall I was previously at when I didn't see anything again. I turned my head, not seeing a single thing. I even looked down at my hands, feet, and yet still nothing.

"Alright alright. So what if I can't see anything? Maybe this is some elaborate prank. Ha ha ha very funny Dream now stop it."

Again I heard that same rustling but instead of turning to it, I leaped at it. Probably a stupid move but it worked none the less. I kept hold of whatever was under me, still not able to see anything. It felt... Odd though. It didn't feel like it had any limbs, or a head for that matter.

I heard something turn on and all of a sudden there was a little light. I reached up, touching where my eye sockets should be, only to feel a cloth on top of them. I removed it and looked around.

There were five figures standing above me, all skeletons.

"Blue? Dust, Horror? What's going on?"

Unlust smiled and walked over to me, reaching a hand in my direction. I took it and he helped me stand up. I looked down to see what I had attacked, only to find a tentacle that belonged to a certain octopus. I shook my head and looked at each skeleton standing around me. Blue, Dust, Horror, Unlust and Nightmare.

"Seriously, what the hell is going on?"

Night came up and hugged me. I was too stunned to hug back, but that didn't make him stop, making Unlust chuckle.

"He couldn't wait to tell others that you were back since he wanted you all to himself."

Night didn't say anything as he shot a glare at Unlust.

"So... Why, and this is just my guess, does it look like we're in a shed? And if he was too impatient then why are you four here with him?"

"Well, when Dream called us on the group chat, only we five answered since the other's were busy. So, he said to pick a random place and, unfortunately Horror was the first one to answer, which is why we are currently in a shed. It isn't really his fault, Dream hadn't said you specifically was back."

I nodded and pushed Night's hands away. I walked to the door and opened it. I looked around and noted that we were in Underswap.

"Soo Horror, why Underswap of all places?"

Horror, which I didn't hear come up behind me, answered after a couple of seconds.

"If anyone asked if a murder happened that wasn't one of the background characters, for example a few guards, villagers of Snowden, then no one would really suspect Underswap since it's one of the AUs that has way more pacifist routes than genocide routes. And it's currently on a pacifist route."

"That's.. surprisingly smart. And how exactly did you know all of that in that short amount of time?"

I could hear him laugh as I rolled my eyes. I squinted and moved my hand above my eyes to protect them from the harsh glare of the sun. I ended up seeing two figures running our way. As they got closer I could see them more clearly. Before I knew it I was getting hugged so tightly that I could barely breathe.

"Cross... Reaper..... You're gonna kill me.."

They quickly let me go as I leaned forward, placing my hands on my knees and trying to get a greedy amount of air. When I finally caught my breath I looked back up at them.

"Hey Reaper, hey Cross."

Reaper smiled wide and hugged me again as Cross just stood there, smiling. I heard, more so felt, Reaper cry and I pat and rubbed his back.

".. you alri-"

"No! I'm not! You were gone for so long and for awhile we thought you were back but you weren't, it was just some other you from another multiverse! I didn't know where you were or if you were even still alive!"

I didn't know what to say so I just kept patting his back. Wasn't I only gone for at most a year? I mean that's plenty of time to forget someone but someone really replaced me?

"Hey uh, how long was I gone for exactly?"

"Over four years."

Over four years?! Well, if that person replaced me for that long I suppose they were so good at being me that my friends never stopped to think if it was actually me.. not gonna lie that kind of hurts, but I suppose I deserve that. I didn't respond, only nodded my head as I looked down.

I looked back up to Cross as he was no longer smiling. I put on a smile and looked from Cross to Reaper and back to Cross.

"Why don't we go do something before everyone on the multiverse knows I'm here?"

It seemed to cheer Reaper up as he pulled away, wiped his tears and smiled down at me, nodding his head. I kept a smile on my face but I looked up at both of my brothers I secretly swore to get taller than them eventually...

I took both of they're hands and was about to open a portal when I realized I didn't have my broomie. I groaned and turned back to everyone.

"Alright who has my paintbrush?"

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Hey, sorry for not updating this story in forever. I was trying to decide what to do with it exactly and I decided to make it happy for now. Any who thank you for reading/supporting. I am trying to get some one-shot books out (for example: Danganronpa because I'm obsessed with it, Undertale, Undertale AUs, FNaF, ect) but haven't been able to since I don't have many ideas for those. Also I was thinking of making another book like this one but in a different language so ye.

Oh! One more thing, I got tired of doing the different bold, italics and underline all the time for speech so I apologize for those if you actually liked those. Anyways, byyyee