Something...was wrong.
It didn't take long after Horror returned from his morning patrol for a sense of unease to rise in him. There was something... not quite right, though, for a while, he couldn't tell exactly what.
After coming home he had immediately went to sharpen his axe. It was extremely well kept for its age and frequent use and Horror had every intention to keep it that way. On his patrol he'd taken the liberty of gathering just a bit of firewood from the forest to chuck in the fireplace and attempt to warm the house with. He had dropped the sack of wood at the door for Crooks to find and prepare as it would need to be set out to dry for a bit before it was ready to use.
Even though his axe was one of his signature items, even Horror wasn't completely sure where he had gotten the old thing from. It seemed to have just magically appeared in his spotty memory sometime after the core broke down. As he maintained the chipped blade and worn wooden handle he mourned the day when it would be finally time to replace it.
It wasn't a thought he entertained for very long as he put the well aged tool up in exchange for reading a book in his room.
The book in question wasn't terribly interesting; quite the opposite actually. Horror had just taken it as a fairly boring challenge to finish the five hundred paged thing without skipping over the dull parts. It was a personal goal of his to read every book he owned in the house cover to cover and he'd gotten pretty close to the end of their library in addition to quite a few books he had found at the dump too.
Despite all of his laziness, he had been considered a well learned and pretty intelligent monster before everything went to hell, and even with parts of himself slipping, Horror still liked feeling competent- even he failed to like reading anymore.
Only after making it a good way through the book did he realize that he'd been falling asleep and brushing over chapters. His irritation was kindled when he realized he'd have to reread the same section again. Such an occurrence didn't normally happen at all, usually he had Lust cheerleading him on, sometimes to the point of distraction…
Oh. That's what felt weird.
Snapping out of whatever sleepy daze he'd been lulled into Horror heard Crooks shuffling around downstairs, back from recalibrating his puzzles. He slinked to the top of the stairs to greet his brother.
"uh paps? have you seen lust around here any time lately?"
Crooks called up to him. "NO, I DON'T BELIEVE I HAVE SINCE THIS MORNING," The shuffling resumed for a moment, more aggressively. "SERIOUSLY SANS, YOU CHOPPED THIS WOOD MUCH TOO BIG! IT'LL NEED TO BE SPLIT AGAIN BEFORE IT DRIES!"
"sorry bro- but you're sure you haven't seen him since i left?"
"POSITIVE. HIS FURRY COMPANION IS ALSO MISSING, I FIND IT STRANGE. PERHAPS HE WANTS US TO ENGAGE IN A ELABORATE GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK?"
"i...don't think that's the case."
With the odd feeling of something being off now justified, Horror's concern rose a bit beyond mild worry. He felt stupid for having not noticed more quickly. No wonder the house had felt so silent, so empty, so strange- it's beating heart was missing.
Now that Horror was paying attention, he realized that even Lust's scent in the house had faded. How long had he been gone? How had it just slipped by him?
It felt as if Lust's absence should have been so much more obvious than something just feeling off. His mouth moved a mile a minute and he was constantly doing something, yet it had taken him well over an hour after arriving home to notice?
Horror took it upon himself to conduct a house wide search as Crooks managed the firewood and looked on in concern, inwardly berating himself. He should have known sooner.
It was strange, finally being granted the solitude he'd craved since Lust arrived. There was no comfort in the situation, just the knowledge that something was horribly amiss. He used to be able to stand long stretches of time alone and still not feel lonely, enjoy them even, but now he was left for just a fraction of a day and he had felt like a puppy without its owner.
Or maybe Lust was the puppy he needed to keep an eye one.
He only found evidence to support that claim when his search finally led him to the back door slightly ajar.
Horror wasted no time taking off like a hound with the scent of blood once he found two pairs of footprints leading away from the house. One of boots, and one of paws. He worked with the knowledge in mind that he needed to move quickly before a layer of new snow covered them.
A hundred different anxieties ran through his head as he tracked the path. He had never truly discouraged Lust from wandering outside, only jokingly warned him about it, but he had never taken Lust to be stupid enough to actually go.
While it cut down on some of his theories as to where the two went, it didn't help his concern much to find that the trail led to the Snowdin woods.
By time he was completely positive that Lust had went into the forest, the prints were hard to see anymore- and tracking any scent would have been close to impossible. If Horror's pace quickened to a run he hardly noticed as he tried to trace the tracks further. It took him a while to notice when they had finally disappeared and he was left chasing with no firm idea of what to follow. How had Lust gotten this far so quickly? How had he not come across evidence of him while patrolling? Had he been that desperate to get home quickly?
Lust wasn't built for Horrortale- at least not the part of it outside the house. He was a soft, messy thing too prone to attracting trouble. His charming, warm nature wouldn't help him avoid the areas of the forest where the snow became toxic and tar-like, capable of trapping monsters whole. His constant chatter couldn't fend off an attack. There was no chance he could survive an encounter with a feral monster, and no chance he was alive if he already had.
These were the thoughts that pushed him onward as Horror began to feel panicked and discouraged. This universe was much too sharp for Lust to wander about in, Horror at least owed it to him to find the smaller monster before the world had a chance to cut him.
Soon, it would be late and Crooks would feel the need to come out and look for him and drag him back inside. Even though he was perfectly willing to look for Lust long into the night, his brother knew that the danger that revealed itself after dark wasn't something to be tested.
Just on the verge of absolute hopelessness, Horror heard a jingle that he absolutely despised and held so dearly.
Suddenly forgetting that his feet hurt and his legs were weak and he was so terribly cold, he followed the sound. The sound rang out in short bursts, struggling to reach Horror over the sound absorbent snow, but he followed it nonetheless.
He followed it until finally, at last, he broke into a clearing.
In the center of the clearing was a small lake, maybe more accurately described as a large-ish pond. Completely frozen over, the thick ice took on a blue-gray tinge which made it evident that the water it had once been hadn't been the cleanest. And there, laid out in the middle, was Lust and his mutt; appearing not to have a care in the world.
Relief was instant, and so strong Horror became a touch light headed.
"lust!!"
He looked over a bit before noticing Horror and waving with a beaming smile.
Anger followed in quick pursuit.
"for fuck's sake come here!"
Lust had the audacity to seem confused by his rage as he made his way over to Horror, slipping and sliding and eventually restorting to scooting on the ice to get there. Once he reached the bank he scrambled to his feet, his dog preferring to stay behind and jump after falling snow.
"horror!" Lust yelled approaching him. "you made it to the party!"
"party?" He fumed.
"yeah! it's pretty fun out here, a whole lotta emptiness, but still fun- y'know?"
Horror tried not to make his seething outwardly noticeable.
"and why exactly are you out here?"
"because!"
Horror swallowed a growl building at the back of his throat. "because what?"
"i told you it would happen, now look at me," Lust plopped down in front of him, kicking up snow. "i've gone completely mad."
"interesting."
"but seriously! being stuck in a house all day for weeks on end was driving me crazy. you and crooks wouldn't even let me join you on patrol."
In Horror's defense, he attempted to see things from Lust's point of view, though it didn't calm his anger. More than anything he was at least happy for the fact that the irritant was alive and in one piece.
Maybe it was the pure positivity Lust exuded that made the world reluctant to touch him, to ruin him.
"so you would rather risk death than stay put?" He hissed.
"i'd hardly say i risked death, i've had a pretty nice time wandering around- not too much trouble at all. i don't see what you mean when you say it's so dangerous out here."
"so you haven't had the slightest inconvenience at all?"
"i wouldn't say that, i did hear some growling that seemed a bit too close for my liking on my way here. but i just sat up in a tree until it went away- which was very hard to do with a broken leg i think you should know."
Well that answered the question of how he managed to avoid the dogs. They weren't known for their climbing abilities and if you were small and agile enough to get up one, a tree was a secure spot to rest until they passed. Maybe the world wasn't gentle with him; maybe Lust was just a bit more clever than Horror took him for at times.
That could be the case if it was ignored how he'd managed to avoid all the things that lurked in the trees with pure luck alone.
"yeah it's very surprising you got out here at all with one," Horror yanked Lust to his feet. "and a complete wonder how the fuck i managed to miss it."
Lust glared at him, rubbing his wrist like a scolded child. "well i think i saw you pass by on your way back home when i was trying to get back down, you didn't notice me waving at you, though."
He'd seen him and hadn't called out to him at all? The entire situation could have been ended much earlier with Lust safe at home and Horror headache and heart attack free?
"oh and look!" Lust rushed over to two collapsed mounds of snow. "i made a snowman and a snowdog too!"
Horror squinted at them.
The snowman in question appeared to be three miserably slumped over piles of snow somehow miraculously stacked on top of each other with two sticks poking out on either side. Black stones made up it's eyes, mouth, and nose due to a lack of a carrot. The snowdog next to it was just a pile of snow it appeared Lust's pet had dug out of the snowman, with paw prints all over it.
"...very nice," he muttered. "anyways i'm glad you enjoyed your play time, it's gonna be the turn of a century before i let you out of my sight again. now get your dog because we're leaving."
"...now?"
"would you rather be left out in the dark?"
"dunno. maybe i would."
Horror snorted. "i really doubt that."
"well," Lust started in that voice that established that he would absolutely be making demands. "i think you could convince me if you carried me back"
Horror glanced at the darkening forest.
"and you'll keep quiet and won't complain?"
Lust's eyes widened like he hadn't been expecting to be taking seriously before nodding vigorously and whistling for his mutt. "i promise no resistance whatsoever."
"then shut up and come here."
All but teleporting next to him radiating self satisfaction, Lust seemed happy with himself. Horror, far from in the mood to carry him home bridal style, was just as happy to throw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Even happier with the yelp of surprise that followed.
"watch the merchandise!"
"a 5G whore is far from merchandise," Horror chided, though he hardly felt that way.
The tiny, sentient cotton ball finally made its way to them, just as Horror started walking. He could hear Lust badmouth him to the dog as it happily followed along.
"we're gonna have to give 'em a bath when we get back, some real nasty, sticky stuff got stuck in it's hair," Lust observed out loud. "i had to pry it out of a weird looking pile of snow on the way here. i almost got stuck and it's all over my hands."
The fact that Lust had an accident with blue snow and still was able to get out without being trapped and suffocated struggled to surprise Horror. He didn't linger on it and instead thought about what work would need to be done upon getting home.
"you need to get a bath when we get home." Even though Horror dreaded the thought of how much water would need to be filtered for one.
"fair enough."
"then you'll need to sit by the fire to warm up."
"but i'm already pretty warm?"
"and i'd advise you eat."
"i'm perfectly fine."
"i'll have paps get you some more blankets too to keep you from catching a chill."
"will you listen to me?"
"will you let me take care of all of this? you've already run off and done stars knows what all day with no sense of self preservation," Horror snapped.
Lust, as if to spite him, went limp in his grip. Horror almost fell as he had to readjust the deadweight.
"well geez," he muttered. "it's not like you had anything to lose just from me deciding to come outside, nothing important to have a stick up so far up your ass."
"You could have died! you'd think i'd be out here until dark freezing my ass off if it wasn't for a important reason?"
Lust seemed startled but Horror didn't stop his forward march home, his breath billowing out in frozen clouds. The meaning of the words didn't even occur to him as they came out of his mouth naturally and unhindered, and he might even have meant them.
"that's...why you're so angry?"
"it's stupid that i am."
Horror quieted as he expected teasing, joking and shots thrown at him for caring about "little ol' Lust", but instead, his passenger was quiet and nuzzled closer to his back.
"m'kay, darling."
The rest of the ride home was silent for Lust, and was warm with the knowledge that maybe he wasn't as much of an unwanted houseguest as he started out as.
True to his word, Lust and his dog were both immediately corralled to the bathtub when they got home. They sat in front of the burning fireplace to dry even despite Lust's complaints of being hot, because it was more for Horror than either of them. That night, he didn't need to check to know that his bed had been piled high with blankets.
And that’s how Horror told him, in a roundabout way, that he loved him.
A/N: Ah. Realistic dialogue and pacing. Still my greatest enemies. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed this because i'm going to do my best to mess up any relationship development they had here next chapter :)