As (Y/n) pulled into the lake home driveway, her eyes widened at the house. The lawn was neatly trimmed and bright green, and the house was sat on a hill that looked down on the lake behind the house. The home itself was spacious from what she'd seen on the website, with a screened-in porch off to the right and easy access to the water. She was able to see a hammock set up in the backyard and a jetski waiting in the lake at the dock, and she didn't realize she was smiling as she parked the car in front of the house. As far as final destinations go, this was one she didn't mind.
(Y/n) stepped out of the car and stretched, but then her eyes spotted a Ring doorbell. She held up a hand at Nightmare, but he already felt her fear so he grabbed Dust's gloved hand with a tentacle as he tried to push open his door. She quickly walked over to stand in front of the doorbell, blocking the camera's view of her vehicle and its occupants. She motioned them to pile out of the car and into the house.
Nightmare paused next to her as the others filed past. "What is it, summoner?"
"This doorbell has a camera on it that the owner can see through," she explained nervously. He made a 'hmm' sound and nodded approvingly.
"Good foresight."
She brightened. "Thanks!"
"Don't forget your bags." Then he walked into the house. She sighed but did as he said since it wasn't like they could help, and once her bags were inside, she explored the house.
The entry room functioned as a game room with polished wood floors, the spacious area filled with darts, ping-pong, and foosball. In the next room was a couch and two armchairs, and a large oak coffee table with plenty of board games and cards spread across it. Up the stairs to the main floor, there was a bathroom immediately at the top of the stairs, and to the right was a door that led to the porch, and to the left was the kitchen. The counters were a tan marble, and all the cupboards were packed with anything a kitchen could possibly need—minus any food. Good thing the grocery store wasn't too far away.
The kitchen was directly connected to the living room with only a dining table in between—no walls at all separating the spaces—and the giant room held a door out to the backyard, where stone steps led to the dock in the lake. There was a firepit (Y/n) could see through the giant glass door, and plenty of lawn chairs as well as the hammock she saw earlier positioned under a large oak tree. If she ever got a chance, she'd love to take a nap in the shade of the tree, or curl up on the hammock with a book. Maybe both.
She smiled to herself as she turned back to the living room. It held an L shaped comfy couch that faced a TV with plenty of movies and an HDMI cord for a console or laptop. The giant room was also directly connected to the hallway that led to the three bedrooms with two beds each. They had fuzzy blankets on top of the sheets, each color coded to the room—blue, red, and green. The bed frames were all hand made with pine wood, and the green and blue bedrooms at either end of the hall could be converted to king size beds by using a C clamp on the bed frames to hold the two twins together. It was kinda genius, and she recalled reading the homeowners were the ones to design the beds on Airbnb.
(Y/n) drug her bags into the leftmost blue bedroom—the master bedroom with its own bathroom—and threw her suitcase into the closet and dropped her bag onto her bed. The room itself was pretty basic, with clocks on each bed stand and extra pillows in the closet, but the focus was supposed to be on the lake and not the interior design.
"Are you settled?" (Y/n) jumped in place as Nightmare appeared behind her, and as she tried to turn to face him, her legs got caught between him and the bed, and she nearly fell onto the mattress. A tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her back upright, which just so happened to be into his chest, and suddenly she was inches away from his face. Her eyes widened and her face exploded with color, and he rose a browbone amusedly.
"Sorry, what?" she managed to squeak out, hyper-aware of her hands on his chest and how close he was to kissing her. He chuckled.
"Are you done walking the perimeter of the house?" It took a noticeable couple seconds for the words to process in her brain. Her eyes fell to his teeth in the meantime, and for one crazy second, she wondered what it would be like to kiss a skeleton Demon King.
"Um, not quite?" Her voice was soft, and her breath caught in her throat as he gently tilted her chin up with his hand. She watched him study her for a long moment, scarcely breathing. What was he thinking? He barely showed emotion, but she knew he could sense her emotions. They had to be loud with how flustered she was. As if he could hear her thoughts, his teeth widened into a smirk. Her gaze fell away from his eyelight, but it was like a magnet was attached to his teeth because her gaze returned to them without her consciously doing it. Would he let her kiss him?
"Are there any other hazards save for the 'doorbell' you spoke of previously?" His tone was still customarily composed, but she swore there was amusement dancing in his turquoise eyelight. Then she remembered he asked a question.
"Not as far as I can tell." Right after the last word was out of her mouth, they heard a shrill scream. Immediately Nightmare rose his head with anger flashing across his face, and the tentacle around (Y/n)'s waist tightened. She gasped as he held her closer to his chest, but his gaze was focused on the doorway out of the blue bedroom. He was listening for something, and his other 3 tentacles were raised in alarm.
Then the sound of multiple demons laughing met both sets of ears, and (Y/n) tilted her head curiously as Nightmare growled, his tentacles lowering. "Those fools..."
"What's going on?" Like he sensed exactly where his minions were, he teleported the two of them into the porch, where her eyes widened. Cross was pressed against the corner in fear, his daggers crossed in front of him as he faced the table at the center of the room. The other minions were cracking up around the table, absolutely losing it at Cross' terror.
Killer leaned on the tense skeleton's shoulder as he chuckled. "What's wrong, Criss-Cross?"
"This isn't funny, Killer!" Cross shouted, trying to keep his voice loud and confident despite the way he mimicked a scared mouse. Dust covered his mouth as he laughed on the other side of Cross, his eyelights taunting the poor minion. Error tried to keep his expression displeased but his subtle grin showed just how amusing this was.
Horror faced Nightmare and (Y/n) with a wide grin. "Sorry buttercup, did we scare you?" The other demons looked over at his words, and Killer let out a low whistle as he pushed off of Cross to point his knife at the pair.
"Whoa, getting cozy with your summoner, eh Boss?" he teased, his grin playful. Error rose his browbones in surprise as Dust leaned closer, intrigued. Nightmare growled lowly—and for a moment he actually seemed flustered into silence—before he tilted his chin up and looked down on his minions.
"You all could use a reminder that this is not a vacation and my summoner is off limits." He met each of their sockets sternly. Killer flicked the knife along his fingers as Horror smiled unevenly at (Y/n). "Since you all see fit to ignore my instructions, I'll be keeping a closer eye on her—and by association, all of your interactions with her." His warning was clear. Dust leaned back against the screen windows with arms crossed, same empty grin on his face as always. Error looked at the girl for a moment before he looked away, keeping his expression unreadable. Cross still seemed too preoccupied with whatever he was staring at.
"Now Cross, why are you here?" Nightmare's voice resumed its deep monotone drone, and Cross' white and red eyelights flickered up to his Boss.
"Killer told me you wanted to speak with me." (Y/n) tilted her head—she supposed Killer was the only demon to join Cross protecting her family, so he must've teleported to the new hotel he and Cross moved them to to bring the monochrome demon here. But why?
Nightmare's scowl switched to Killer as the other demons teleported out of the porch preemptively. He gently pushed the girl to the side as he faced his minion, and she walked over to Cross—who had no time to explore the house and thus couldn't teleport away.
"What's wrong?" she asked him gently, getting close enough to see his quick breathing as he barely took his eyelights off whatever held his attention. Was it the table?
"Killer thinks it's funny to torment me," he growled darkly, his white eyelight flashing purple for a moment. She tried to follow his gaze, and her eyes landed on the middle decoration for the table: a cow figurine. It had exaggerated proportions and looked rather silly, but apparently that didn't matter to the demon.
"Is it the cow thing?" He nodded, trying to calm his breathing. "Are you afraid of cows?" The idea seemed preposterous as it left her mouth, but his awkward nod confirmed her theory. Her lips pulled into a sympathetic frown, and that seemed to catch his attention as he glanced over at her for a moment. A question rested right at the edge of his teeth, but he hesitated, talking himself out of asking. But her gaze remained curious, still shining with innocence, and he eventually gestured to the cow. Her head tilted in confusion, and he sighed. He made a flicking motion with a dagger, and she slowly walked over to grab the cow. He watched her movements closely, and as she slid it away from him on the table, she watched his expression visibly relax. So she snatched it off the table and brought it inside to hide it in the bathroom right inside the door.
Cross focused on the other demons in the room as Nightmare wrapped a tentacle around Killer's neck, Killer's casual chuckle coming out choked. "...I hope I won't have to have this conversation with you again, minion." Nightmare said lowly, barely loud enough for the minion to hear. Killer flashed a thumbs up quickly, and as soon as the tentacle moved away from his throat, he teleported away.
The Demon King sighed to himself, then turned to face the demon in the corner. "I suppose it's optimal you're here, Cross. This is our new location." He crossed his arms as his tentacles spread out as if welcoming Cross to the lake home. Cross nodded as he put his daggers back in their holsters on his hips. He was sweating as (Y/n) returned, but he sent her an appreciative nod. She smiled back warmly. "Killer will not be making the same mistake again, I assure you." Nightmare spoke to both of them, and (Y/n) frowned.
"What was that scream we heard?" she asked, looking between the demons in confusion. Cross quickly blanked out his expression as Nightmare simply grinned crookedly.
"Nothing more than a distraction to what we were doing." His tone was almost flirty—well, as flirty as bored monotone could be. (Y/n) quickly reprimanded herself; if she had to make such illogical connections in her mind to claim he was flirting, then clearly it wasn't true. Nightmare turned to Cross. "Get familiar with the layout but avoid the front entrance, as it has a camera."
"Noted." He acknowledged his Boss, then looked over at (Y/n). "Would you like to join me?" Her (e/c) eyes widened as Nightmare crossed his arms tightly, his earlier instruction to leave his summoner alone coming to mind. "I was just going to discuss what her family has been up to, as I am not sure when I will get the chance again," Cross explained quickly.
"I'd love to!" (Y/n) agreed happily, walking over to Cross as Nightmare sighed. She could imagine exactly what was going through her King's mind—something along the lines of 'your family ties will only cause you problems' or 'love isn't worth the hassle'—but he did nothing to stop her.
"I do not know what could've possibly happened since we last saw them, but be quick. They still need guarding." With all he had to say spoken, Nightmare disappeared back into the house.
Cross turned to (Y/n). "Where to first?"