The rest of the week passed without anything particularly interesting happening. Ink and Error found themselves texting until stupid hours into the morning, and only going to sleep when one of them would point out that the other's typing was getting bad. Nightmare and Reaper had asked a few questions about Ink, but didn't push too hard. Of course they were interested, but felt that harassing Error would get them no answers and an angry skeleton. However, Cross had been less merciful, attacking Ink with questions at every chance given. Dream was better, but was starting to get curious too.
"Come on! Tell me his astrological sign at least!" Cross giggled, throwing a piece of paper at Ink's head.
"I don't know his sign. Or his birthday. We haven't even had our first date yet Cross!" Ink tried to hide his agitation from his friend. He didn't like to get angry at his friends, so he tried to refrain from doing so.
"Tell me something! Anything!" Cross plead. Phoenix was watching the two with a half amused expression, his eyes darting between Cross and Ink.
"He's black."
"..."
"..."
"He is, though."
"...Ink..."
"To be fair, Cross, you did say anything-"
"Shut up Phoenix. Your input is invalid." Cross huffed and jumped off the desk where Ink was filling in more paperwork. You know, the stuff the studio owner should be working on.
At that moment, Ashley walked in, a piece of paper in her hands. "Uh... You guys said we were mentoring this week, right?"
Ink paused. "Um...Yeah. I don't know what happened there."
"Well I do," Ashley grunted, "It starts today. On Friday. Through all next week. And the next week. And probably the next week."
"Can't you like, tell Satan to stop that from happening or whatever? Oh, even better! Let's sacrifice them to-" Cross yelled, raising an arm in the air.
"...No?" Ink said.
Unsurprisingly, no one was prepared for mentoring right now. They'd all forgotten about it, and the date was changed, so naturally all four freaked out. But none more than Ink, who was already stressed about his date the next day, and all though Cross was his friend, he really was getting on his nerves. Ink was known for being the best mentor, but this time he was panicking. So when the younger trainees walked through the door 20 minutes before the place opened, a tsunami of dread washed over him.
"Hey! You must be the new artists!" Ink said, forcing a smile and walking over to the door. The group looked fairly large, making Ink scream internally already. They all looked around at the studio, and then at the four artists.
"Right, well... Time to pick groups!" Ink stepped forwards, doing a quick head count. There was sixteen students. Six girls, ten guys.
"All right, four to one artist," Ink said, "Line up!"
The students did, quickly forming a line. Ashley immediately stepped forwards and grabbed one girl by the arm. The girl was very pale skinned, unnaturally so. Her makeup was about as dramatic as Ashley's, and she wore a shirt that said 'Mudvayne', and a necklace that said 'Marilyn Manson'. Two bands Ink really didn't like.
"I'm having this girl, she's got good taste." Ashley smirked.
"...Okay! So..." Ink proceeded to split them into groups, his own consisting of two girls and two guys.
"So my name's Ink, what about you guys?" Ink asked his group as the other groups followed their mentors to other corners of the room.
After sharing their names, Ink briefly explained that they'd be helping some and watching some, and all the other stuff he usually said to students.
"You know," One of the girls in Ink's group said suddenly, just as they were preparing to open the studio, "I've never used a tattoo machine in my life!"
This did not make Ink feel any better.
"That's okay, you're here to learn!" He said, giving the girl an encouraging smile and showing her a machine before explaining it to the rest of the group. However, it seems they didn't need the explanation, the other three seemed to have used them before.
**
"No! Just- Just... Put that down..." Ink's eyes widened as he turned to see the girl with little experience trying to prick her finger with the machine. The other three in Ink's group just gave her strange looks.
"But I can't get it to- OW!"
Ink inhaled sharply. "I am not ready for this today..." He muttered. It didn't help that Error had sent a message earlier about where they were meeting the next day. He forgot to tell Error which bar.
"Um... Maybe it's best if we just have you guys observing today?" Ink suggested.
The other three sighed, glaring at the girl.
"Look, it's not sensible to let you guys actually do any tattoos today, you can mess around with the machines, just not on anyone, okay?"
They nodded.
Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Cross was silently tattooing a guy's arm, all four of his students watching intently. Phoenix and Ashley seemed to be working on something together, both of them standing at one guy.
"Do you talk?" One of Cross' students asked.
Cross nodded.
"Can you say something?" A girl asked.
Cross shook his head.
"Why?"
Cross shrugged. Ink almost laughed at how different Cross was around strangers. He knew that later Cross would be asking him questions about Error again.
And at their lunch break, Ink's prediction came true.
"So..." Cross sat next to Ink, a grin on his face.
"No, Cross, please..." Ink groaned.
"Come on! Why are you acting so weird about this?"
"Cross, stop."
"I mean, I'm sure he's a good guy, what's the problem?"
"Cross, shut up, you're genuinely annoying me."
"Is he-"
Ink suddenly stood up. "What do I need to do to get you to shut up? The more you harass me, the less I want to tell you! Or talk to you at all!"
Cross raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright! Jeez, I just wanna know-"
"It's really nothing to do with you. You need to learn to shut up." Ink hissed.
Cross said nothing.
"Just don't... don't say anything to me today, okay?" Ink sighed, feeling bad already for snapping.
Cross seemed to be ignoring Ink, taking out his phone, picking up a taco that he'd been eating for his lunch, and continued eating it like nothing had happened.
**
E: He'll get over it.
I: I didn't mean to shout at him or anything...
E: It'll be fine. He could see he was annoying you.
I: Yeah...
E: I actually haven't given my friends any info on you. They seem to be fine with that though.
I: That's good... Do you think I should text him an apology or something?
E: You have nothing to apologize for. Wait for him to do it.
I: I don't know why I didn't just tell him your name...
E: Don't tell him my name. Not if he's going to stalk my social medias and stuff. I'm not trying to sound rude, but I don't want much to do with other people's friends.
I: No, I totally agree!
E: Anyway. About tomorrow.... I've never been to the bar you told me about, what's it like?
I: It's great, the owners are super nice, and I don't think anyone would find us there. I don't take my friends there, I usually go there alone.
E: Sounds good! Also, it's like.. 2am?
I:..oops...
E: Yeah XD I'm tired, see you tomorrow?
I: You bet! See ya!
Putting the phone down, Error realised he'd never actually been on a date. And he didn't even know the person he was going on his first date with. They hadn't even had a phone call yet.
"What am I doing..." He muttered.
It would have been nice to get some decent sleep, Error thought. But despite his exhaustion, his mind kept wondering back to the shorter skeleton, and each time he felt a wave of anxiety. It got to a point where he couldn't lie still in his bed anymore, so throwing the covers off himself, he sat up, grabbing his phone. He just swiped the screen a few times, flicking through all the apps on his home screen, not actually knowing what he was doing. Perhaps he'd hoped the device would distract him in some way, but instead it just made him want to press on Ink's contact and send him another text. Just as he was about to put the phone back down, Nightmare texted.
N: You okay?
E: Yeah, just can't sleep.
N: What, that boy on your mind?
E: Maybe.
N: Wow. Go to sleep.
E: You go to sleep.
N: Don't tell me to go to sleep, you're not my mom.
E: Well you're not mine.
N: GO TF TO SLEEP
E: stfu, I can't if you're texting me!
N: I'm going to come to your house and make you inhale chloroform.
E:...But that would make me pass out, not sleep.
N: Same thing.
E: No... It's really not...
N: OMG GO TO SLEEP OR I'LL PUT YOU IN A COMA!
E: Yet again, that's not sleeping.
N: GO. TO . SLEEP.
E: Fine.
Even with Nightmare's many threats, Error could not sleep. He couldn't even keep his eyes closed, despite how heavy his eyelids felt and how his head hurt. He only got about three hours of sleep last night, and he was regretting it.
When Error finally did fall asleep, it was nearly four in the morning.
**
Cross had said nothing to Ink. It showed that Cross had read all Ink's messages, just chose to not reply. And Ink was getting annoyed. He decided to just call the taller skeleton in the end. The call was denied. Ink huffed. He thought this was extremely childish, but he'd have to deal with it later, he had a date in an hour.
The weather lately had been all over the place lately: storms one minute, hot sun the next, and then torrential rain again. Today it was cold. Not freezing, but cold. So Ink wrapped his brown scarf around his neck, hiding the tattoos that swirled around his bones.
Stepping outside, he notice it had gotten colder than it was a few hours ago.
It was only about 7pm, but he wanted to get there early, so he set out to the bar, grabbing his phone off the kitchen counter. There was a text from Alpha.
A: You need to do something tonight.
Ink felt a wave of anxiety. 'Not today Alpha, please not today!' he silently begged.
I: What?
A: I need you to check the AUs. Destruction's been doing stuff again.
I: Impossible. I checked this morning.
A: Stuff can happen between this morning and now.
I: I'll do it tomorrow.
A: No, you need to do it now.
I: I'm sorry, I'm busy tonight.
He put the phone back in his pocket and smirked slightly.
"Not today, bitch."
**
Error arrived ten minutes late.
He stepped inside, quickly looking around. And there he was, Ink was sat at a small table a few metres away from the bar with a beer in front of him, his phone in his hands.
Error's nerves got worse as he approached the smaller. "Ink?"
Ink jumped, looking up. "Oh! Error! Hi!" He laughed nervously, "I was going to get you a drink, but I didn't know what you like.."
Error smiled, relieved that Ink hadn't said anything about his lateness. "Oh, I'm okay with anything! I just don't really like anything that contains tequila..."
"I don't like tequila either, it's so gross!" Ink laughed, standing up and starting to walk to the bar, Error following, "I like cocktails, and I guess tequila is okay in a cocktail, but I'd never drink it straight... So what do you want?"
"Uh... I'm just gonna get a beer..." He went to pull out his wallet, but Ink had already put the money on the counter, and was asking for a beer already. "Wait, no, you don't need to-!"
"I want to." Ink smiled, handing Error the beer and leading him back to the table.
"So... how are you?" Error asked once they were both sat down.
"I'm okay. Annoyed at a few people, but okay." Ink sighed, sipping his drink.
"Why, what have they done?"
"Ugh. You know about my friend, and I'm also mentoring these students. They're not even going to work at our studio, we just do the training. Usually I can get through it without getting too annoyed, but today they just seemed to really get annoying." Ink complained, "How about you?"
"I'm tired. And I want to kill my boss." Error grumbled.
"Understandable," Ink smiled slightly at that, "Your boss does sound pretty awful."
"Yeah... he is..."
"..."
"I'm sorry, I'm bad at conversations..." Error sighed, hiding his face behind his hands, a light blush appearing on his face.
Ink giggled. "Yeah, same. Why don't we just ask some questions about each other? That way we can get to know each other a little better!"
"..Sure."
"Okay, I'll go first... hmm...Oh, I know! Let's talk about music! What do you listen to?" Ink asked.
Error froze. The one thing he hoped wouldn't come up. "Oh, it's.... I...I like weird stuff." He quickly sipped his drink, waiting for Ink to change the subject.
"Really? What bands?"
"Um... ever heard of Celldweller?"
"Nope."
"Blue Stahli?"
"Never."
"...Voicians?"
"No idea."
"Yeah, I didn't think so..." Error laughed nervously.
"What genre are those bands?"
"Uh.... They're... something. What about you?"
"Oh, I like stuff like lo-fi and acoustic music, chilled stuff basically." Ink said.
"...Basically we like the exact opposite stuff..." Error snorted.
Ink giggled. "Okay then... what about movies?"
"Maybe... horror?"
"I'd say... comedy? I don't know though, I like romace too..." Ink said slowly.
"Oh jeez, romances are so cringey..." Error supressed a laugh.
"Only if the acting is bad!"
"Sure," Error chuckled, "What about games?"
"Mmm.... I don't play too many video games... I like Minecraft, there's no one telling you what to do, and creative mode is so fun! You can just build whatever, and... yeah!" Ink said before going back to drinking his beer. He could tell Error was a gamer, and Minecraft was probably not something he'd play.
"Yeah, if you're a creative person, then that's quite a good game. I prefer shooters and stuff. It's always entertaining to target the little kids who scream unpleasant things on the voice chat." Error laughed at the thought.
"That's mean!" Ink said, but he to was laughing.
"No, these are the kids who think they're the best, and that they're so cool for saying stuff they should definitely not be saying at their age. You know how many times in one match a nine year old tells me he's going to fuck my mom?" Error rolled his eyes.
"Oh jeez, those kinds of kids. Yeah, go ahead and shoot them."
Many more questions were asked and answered in the next half an hour, and when Ink stood up to get another drink, he accidentally brushed his arm against Error, who shivered slightly.
"You okay?" Ink asked, noticing.
"Uh- Yeah. I'm just not a huge fan of physical contact with people I don't really know. I have a phobia..." Error said quietly.
"Oh? What's the phobia?" Ink asked.
"It's called haphephobia. Honestly it's improved a lot since I was a teenager, but I don't like crowds because I don't like strangers touching me."
"Ah... So I can't touch you at all?"
"You probably can. A bit. I have no problem with my friends touching me, so the more I know you, the easier it'll get."
Ink poked Error. Error didn't really react. Ink snickered, poking Error randomly in different places until Error swatted his hand away. "Alright, that would annoy anyone..."
"Yeah," Ink giggled, "Well I'm going to get another drink. What about you?"
Error looked at his empty beer bottle. "Sure, I'll have another."
After a few more beers, the two were in deep conversation, the tension that had been present before had completely melted away. The conversation topic had changed several times, and at about 9:30, it was about motorbikes. More specifically, Reaper's motorbike and the many problems it had caused in the past. However, Error had not mentioned the name of his friends, getting the feeling that it was better if he didn't, since they were all Gods.
"So that made your brother mad? Why?" Ink asked, putting down the now empty bottle of his 4th beer.
"My brother's a nurse. He works at the hospital I ended up going to." Error had just finished his 5th beer. He'd just finished telling the story of the time Reaper crashed his motorbike into a tree while Error was on the back with him. Yes, Reaper was drunk, no they were not arrested.
"How bad were the injuries?" Ink asked, trying not to laugh at the thought of a motorbike crashing into a tree.
"I got a broken wrist, I landed on it. My friend had some sort of injury to his ribs. I don't exactly remember that night too well, I was quite drunk... He came off worse, though. My brother was not happy when he had to deal with me at the hospital, though." Error was grinning as he remembered how he'd casually walked into the hospital and found Geno. His exact words were: "Hey bro! Reaper fucked my wrist up! What do I do?"
"...Wow. Possibly the worst thing I managed to get myself in hospital for while drunk was... hmm... I climbed a very tall tree with a friend. I was hanging off a branch, my friend was above me, he fell down onto my branch and it snapped. We both fell a very long distance down, we were in a hospital for a few days..." Ink paused for a few seconds after sharing his story, and then burst out laughing, Error joining in.
The friend Ink had climbed a tree with was Cross. They were both drunk and high at the same time.
"How drunk were you?" Error snickered.
"Uh... I'd had vodka. A lot. And I was high, too." Ink replied.
"I've only been high a few times. The first time I got high was a party in high school, some guy gave me weed. Apparently I decided that a random cat we found on the streets was magical and could talk or something, so I picked it up and tried to take it with me. It actually let me, too. But then my friend told me I couldn't take a random cat home with me. I got pretty upset over that apparently." As Error was saying this, Ink was laughing harder and harder, his face now rainbow from laughing too hard. And then Error asked him how many times he'd been high.
Ink could tell the beer was starting to affect him, because he just said, "I'm a stoner. Like, I'm high... a lot."
"Wait, really? Is that... is that not bad for you?" Error asked.
Ink shrugged. "I feel fine."
Error stood up suddenly. "Hey, do you wanna get out of here? Like, go back to mine or something?"
Ink stood up too. "Sure!"
The two made it down the street, and then Error saw a store right in front of them. He turned to Ink. "Wanna get something else to drink?"
Ink raised an 'eyebrow'. "You haven't had enough yet?"
Error smirked. "Well, I'm not drunk!"
Ink giggled. "You want a hangover?"
Error paused. "I haven't had one in a few months, why not?"
Ink snorted. "Yeah! Let's get drunk and regret it in the morning!"
So they bought a whole bottle of Russian Standard vodka.
And a large bag of chili Doritos.
Arriving at Error's apartment, Error grabbed two shot glasses from a cupboard and slammed them down on the kitchen counter where Ink was already opening the vodka.
"Wait," Ink said, "What are we doing? This is like, a really bad idea."
Error nodded. "I'm done with life at the moment, I'm ready to drink until I can't feel feelings."
Ink paused. And the poured the vodka into the shot glasses. "Honestly same."
They drained the glasses quickly.
"Oh God, that burns..." Error muttered.
"It tastes horrible..." Ink complained.
Error picked up the bottle and put it back down again. "I actually don't think I want any more of that."
"Me neither." Ink said. And then he grabbed the bottle and just started drinking it straight.
"Wait Ink nO-" Error grabbed the bottle back.
"So we're just gonna not drink this?"
Error poured himself another shot.
Three shots later, Error decided that they should probably stop, so they went to watch a movie and eat Doritos.
"Why is there nothing good on?" Error muttered, flicking through some movies on the TV.
Ink was laying on the other side of the sofa, looking pretty tired.
"...Alright, let's give up on the movie. What now?" Error threw the remote on the floor, glancing at Ink. The artist sat up, yawning.
"I'm tired, I should probably get home..." He stood up, but fell straight back down and made no attempt to get back up. "Ooooooor not!"
Error smirked "You good?"
"Yup, just... lemme... lemme get up...." Ink slowly climbed back onto the sofa, resting his head on Error's lap. Maybe it was just the alcohol, but Error didn't feel any sort of discomfort at the physical contact.
"Guess you're staying here tonight then." Error chuckled. He didn't feel too affected by the alcohol, but was clearly feeling it.
"Guess so!" Ink reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. There was a message.
A: What are you doing right now?
I: im at hhoime righ tnow and I'm tryijmg to sleep go away.
A: Are you drunk?
I: No im jst tired
A:...I want to speak to you tomorrow.
I: Alrigty then bYE
"Who are you texting?" Error asked.
"No one important!" Ink exclaimed, sitting up. "Actually I prefer lying down." He snuggled himself into Error's side. No haphephobic reaction from Error. The dark skeleton seemed to completely forget about his phobia. "You smell good."
Error snorted. "Do I?"
"Yes. You smell of alcohol."
"...Alrighty."
**
Error woke up with a headache. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't pleasant.
He also noticed that he had something under his arm.
It was a skeleton. He had an arm wrapped around Ink, and they'd fallen asleep on the sofa.
Error panicked. He didn't know what to do, since moving would wake the smaller. He also noticed that his phobia was still failing to kick in.
Not that he minded.
Slowly Error sat up, carefully getting off the sofa and going into the bathroom to take a shower.
About five minutes later, Ink started to wake up. His eyes opened slowly. He noticed he was in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar sofa. He immediately sat up, freaking out, until the memories of last night came flooding back. He relaxed again, sinking back down on the sofa. His head hurt. A lot. He just lay still until Error appeared about fifteen minutes later. Hearing footsteps, Ink opened his eyes. "Error?"
"Oh, hey! You okay?" He asked the artist.
Ink nodded. "My head hurts though... I knew I'd regret that vodka..."
"Yeah, we probably need to think things through before we do them."
"...So, Error..."
"Hm?"
"Did you enjoy last night at all?" The nerves were all returning to the shorter skeleton now.
"Of course I did! Although next time we'd probably enjoy it more if we cut out the alcohol. Like, we could go to the movies?" Error smiled at Ink.
"Yeah...So, uh, was this a date...? Or, like... a friends thing?" Ink asked nervously.
"It's whatever you want it to be."
"...A date?"
"In that case, that was actually my first date. Ever." Error laughed.
"Really? Same!" Ink giggled.
"Well...how does a movie next Friday sound?" Error asked.
"Sounds great! But I have a question..."
"Yeah?"
"...How do I get home now?"
"Uh-"
**
"Thanks again, Geno!" Ink smiled at Error and Geno before stepping out of the car and walking to the apartment complex he lived in.
"So... That was your boyfriend..." Geno smirked.
"No, my date. There's a difference. Also, Reaper really wants you."
"I know."
"..."
"..."
"You can't tell any of the Gods about Ink, okay? I shouldn't be hanging around an unmarked mortal." Error said.
"Yeah, I know. I'm not gonna say anything. But that guy seems nice enough, is there gonna be a second date?" Geno asked.
"Yep. Friday."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FFFFFFRICK
I am dying
I'm so tired
I'm sorry, I wanted to get this out today. Don't know why, just couldn't rest until I did it. I know it's crappy.
It's like 1:30 am...
Reeeeee ;-;
I'm dying, sorry for mistakes, I'm literally so tired. I tried editing it, but I probably missed some stuff XD
BUT YAAAAAY, ERRINK!
-Brooke