Ideas from Free_Fart_Avenue, SpiritM, and NickIsSus were used in this chapter (there's a bitty :3). Thank you!
Comments are welcome and appreciated!
Please enjoy!
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It had been two months since the "invaders" had come. Nighty had told me what invaders were since then, and he had told me that they had freed every prisoner in the dungeon. Nighty and the others had had to leave more frequently because of that for some reason, and..I was alone more often. Right now, there was no one in the dungeon; when the others left, I was alone. That wasn't so bad, though; Error visited, sometimes, and so did Blue! In fact, I was with Error right now; Nighty had asked if Error could watch me while the others went out, even though I had beeen alone in the castle before - maybe he just didn't want me to get bored! In any case, Error and I were having tons of fun!
"How does this look?" I held up my work.
"Pretty good, actually." Error chuckled.
"Yay!"
"You know, I think you're one of the only people I've known for more than a week who knows how to sew; who taught you?"
"Oh! When I still lived near the village, the tailor taught me how to patch things up and make small things!"
"That's cool; were you friends?"
"Y-" I paused, thinking about what Nighty had said.. "Well..we were more..acquaintances.."
"..Are you okay?"
"Yep!" I nodded quickly. "Just, uh, have I told you how scenic this place is?"
"..." Error looked around. "It's a white void; please tell me where this is scenic."
"..Did you make that beanbag?"
"Nah, I st-" Error coughed. "I was gifted it by a stranger!"
"Nightmare says it's not good to accept things from strangers, even if it's candy."
"Kid, especially when it's candy." Error shuddered, before muttering something to himself about chocolate, I believed. "Anyways, what's the thing for? It's a little thin to be a blanket, don't you think?"
"Oh, it's not for me, silly!" I giggled. "This is for Nightmare!"
"..Why?"
"'Cause today's his birthday!"
"Wait, really?" Error groaned. "Does that mean I have to get him something, too?"
"I guess, if you want to." I shrugged.
"I didn't think he even celebrated his birthday."
"He doesn't." I confirmed; Nightmare had told me that when I had been pestering him about birthdays a few months ago.
"Then why are you making him a gift?"
"..Personal reasons." Reasons such as, 'I'm his brother,' and, 'I want to make him happy!'
"Whatever." Error rolled his eyelights. "When am I supposed to drop you off, again?"
"Uh, four o'clock." I recalled.
"We've got thirty minutes, then."
"Really?!" I gasped. "Do you have wrapping paper? I need to wrap this!"
"No.." Error looked into my sad eyelights. "But I could probably get some.."
"Yay!" I cheered.
Error opened a portal, and wrapping paper fell out; that was convenient, but..
"Where'd you get that?" I wondered.
"I dunno." Error shrugged.
"Shouldn't you pay for something like that?"
"..I got it from a secret storage compartment I have for, uh, emergencies..like this." Error explained.
"Oh. Okay!"
I folded up my gift for Nighty, making sure it was nice and neat as I folded the wrapping paper around it. Error offered his strings to keep the wrapping paper in place, and after a small amount of struggle, Nighty's gift was wrapped and ready for him! The rest of my time with Error was spent talking about what we would do next time I visited, and when it was over, he opened a portal back to Nighty's castle for me, and I thanked him before walking through, holding my gift to Nighty close. Immediately, I decided to run to Nighty's and my room, intending to hide the gift until tonight; I didn't want to give it to him early, and Nighty always opened his gifts at nighttime - at least, that was the way it had been before, and I wasn't sure if he had changed his preferences. Once I had hidden the gift under my pillow, I decided to act natural for the rest of the day and go to the living room. When I arrived there, I noticed that the lights were off; that was weird, since the castle's lights were magic, and they weren't meant to be off unless someone turned them off - the living room's lights were always on, even at night! Deciding that it had been an accident, I flicked the light switch, and the lights turned on once more.
"Happy birthday!" A group of voices yelled, making me jump; I..had not expected that.
With the newfound lighting in the living room, I noticed a very large change from when I had seen it last. In short, it was colorful. There were floating balls on strings everywhere, and there was a big banner on one of the walls that read, "Happy Birthday!" When I looked down, I saw Nighty, Dust, Cross, Horror, and Killer, and all of them seemed..happy. Then I realized..I had been thinking so much about Nighty's birthday that I had forgotten that it was mine, too! I grinned widely and giggled happily as I ran up to the others, hugging them all as tight as I could; I hadn't even expected them to remember!
"Thank you!" I bounced around the room, looking at all the colorful decorations.
"Maybe we didn't need a cake, after all." Killer let out a small laugh, but he caught my attention.
"Cake?!" I grinned wider, if that were even possible; I loved cake!
"Yeah, cake."
Thus, the celebration began. I was a little upset when Nighty said that decorations and cake were for me and not both of us, but he soon explained that he had had hundreds of birthdays, and he said that he had more fun seeing me happy than any party would have given him. I still insisted that he enjoyed himself, though, and he did! The first thing on the schedule was cake, and all of us had a slice of the delicious cake the others had gotten! After that, it was time for my second favorite part (the first was the cake, obviously), which was presents! Naturally, I wanted to see my gifts; I could hardly wait, but I held myself back.
"Nightmare?" I looked up to my brother.
"Yes, Dream?" He responded.
"Are we going to open all the presents now?"
"Well, I would think so."
"Okay!"
With that, I ran to our room, not looking back when the others tried to stop me; I had to get Nighty's gift! I quickly entered our room, grabbed Nighty's gift, and ran back to the living room, depositing Nighty's present in his hands.
"What's this?" Nighty was confused.
"Your birthday gift!" I smiled. "Error helped me wrap it, but I made it all by myself! Open it!"
"Dream, I really-" Nightmare was interrupted.
"The kid said to open it!" Killer encouraged. "Afraid it'll bite?"
"Oh, it won't bite!" I assured. "It's not alive!"
Nighty chuckled to himself, although I wasn't sure why. "All right, I'll open it."
Nighty grabbed the end of one of Error's strings and pulled it, peeling back the wrapping paper to find the soft purple fabric I had chosen for him.
"Dream, this is..." Nightmare hesitated. "What..is it?"
"It's a cape, like mine!" I giggled. "Do you like it?"
"Oh..this is very nice, Dream." He hugged me, before putting the cape on. "Thank you - I love it."
"You're welcome!"
"Now, would you like to see your presents?"
"Yes!"
"Mine first!" Killer handed me a wrapped gift, and I opened it promptly, finding..a knife?
"Killer!" Cross's voice promised scolding. "A knife isn't a proper gift for a seven year old!"
"The kid's gotta learn to defend himself someday." Killer reasoned.
"Yeah, but we could at least wait until he's ten, or twelve!"
"How about we just put this aside for now?" Horror put the knife on a nearby table, before handing me his gift.
"Okay!" I opened Horror's gift to me, revealing..another box, with pictures on it?
"I, uh, wasn't really sure what you'd like, but..everybody likes board games, right?"
"What's a board game?" I wondered.
"It's a game that people play on a piece of cardboard, instead of running around and getting tired." Nightmare explained. "And I think you'll like this one; we can all play it later."
"Okay! Thank you, Horror!"
"My turn!" Cross gave his gift to me, and I opened it, pulling out a different box; the pictures on it were different than the other one, though.
"What's this?" I inquired.
"It's a racetrack!" Cross seemed excited about it. "You can put the track parts together any way you want, and then you can put a small car on it, and once you turn it on, it'll drive around your track!"
"Ooh.." That sounded interesting, if I was remembering what a car was properly. "Thank you, Cross!"
"No problem, Dream!"
"You're up, Dust!" Killer alerted, causing Dust to nod, giving his gift to me.
I opened the fourth gift, which contained..a lot of stuff.
"I, uh..couldn't choose.." Dust chuckled nervously.
"..This is basically a 'be a kid starterpack.'" Cross laughed, looking inside the box. "Slinky, action figures, crayons - you'll love this stuff, Dream."
"Thank you, Dust!" I grinned.
"I suppose it's my turn, then." Nighty carefully set down his box, but not without a warning. "Dream, don't jostle this; it's very fragile."
"Okay, Nightmare!"
I opened this box cautiously, noticing that there were holes in the wrapping paper; I didn't know why, but I decided not to ask yet. The box wasn't a normal cardboard box, however; it had holes, too, all over it! I hummed, lifting the lid off the box to find..a tiny person..? The person looked like Blue, sort of, but with wings? The wings looked so pretty; they were a light red color with a purple streak through them. The small person was sleeping, and I wasn't sure what to say..what was I supposed to say? I looked up to Nighty, wondering what my gift even was.
"Dream, this is what we call a 'bitty.'" Nighty explained. "You've told us time and time again that you're lonely when we leave, and while we can't fix the leaving, we can fix the loneliness. Now, this bitty isn't a pet; he's a companion, and it's your job to take care of him."
"Like how you take care of me?" I asked.
"Yes, sort of like that. This one will play games, keep you company, and even fly; in short, you won't have time to be lonely while we're gone anymore."
"You'll teach me how to take care of him, right?" I hoped; I had no clue how to take care of another life!
"Of course."
"Thank you!" I hugged him, but I accidentally nudged the box, waking the sleeping one. "Oops.."
The "bitty" stood up quickly, only to fall down again because he stood up too fast; I giggled a bit at that. He stood up once again, slightly slower, and looked up at me with stars as his eyelights.
"Hello!" He waved excitedly. "Are you my new friend?"
I nodded, smiling down at him.
"Awesome!" He jumped. "In that case, you get to name me now!"
"..Can I?" I wondered, looking up at my brother.
"Go ahead." Nighty confirmed. "Pick something sensible, however."
"Okay!" I pondered the subject for a minute, thinking of different names for my new friend, before deciding on one. "How about..Robin?"
"That's a great name!" The bitty liked it, I believed, flying out of his box. "I love it!"
"Yay!"
"Well, Dream, that's it for the main festivities; do you want to play now?" Nighty offered.
"Yes!" I nodded, wanting to play with everyone, including my new friend!
"What would you like to play with first?"
"Can we play the board game?"
"Sure." Nighty smiled.
We began to play the game, which was known as "Monopoly," and I really liked it! Robin and I teamed up against the others, and although I wasn't very good at the game, Robin knew how to play, and he taught me lots of good strategies! In the end, we won, and everyone else went bankrupt (it wasn't real, though - Nighty had explained that to me after I thought Horror had actually lost all his money). After Monopoly, Cross had helped me set up the racetrack, and we had had lots of fun watching the cars zip around, while also trying not to make them go too fast; they would fall off the track if we did that! For the rest of the day, we all had fun together, and I was happy.
I had had a good birthday.
~~~chapter end woot~~~
Dream bean is seven now!
Hehe, meet Robin! No, the name is not because I've been binging the 1960's Batman show (it totally is); I actually had, like, seven different names, and the random online spinner wheel deemed the bitty as Robin (the spinner must like Batman, too). Basically, Robin is a Baby Blue bitty with red wings that have a purple streak through them. That color scheme is important for future (mythology buffs will totally see where I'm going with it) reference.
And, before you ask, no, Robin is not going to be too much of a main character; he'll be more of a primary secondary character (that makes sense, right?). He'll be there, but not every chapter is going to hinge on him - that isn't to say that he won't be developed, though (I've already got some ideas for him, and they're cool). In essence, if you don't like Robin, you can ignore him for the most part, but if you do like Robin, you'll have enough of him to enjoy!
Also, in case you were wondering, the holes in the box were to let air in; bitties need to breathe, too! The "floating balls on strings" earlier in the chapter were balloons! ^v^
Okay, this has gone on long enough; I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Thanks for reading my celebratory writing!
Bye!