Time seemed so fleeting.
Speeding by so quickly for Shades/Umbra.
Which was strange, because, thanks to the time loops, he was technically older then the Multiverse, and that time had always seemed to go by at a snail's pace.
It could be different now, because he didn't know what was to come...
His mind was a bit quieter, the Error part of his personality slept so deeply that he couldn't touch it. Even Umbra mostly slept, but he was closer to the surface, because he was so tired....
It was too quiet...
He kept on expecting to see Solas when he turned around, and Solas would demand a cuddle from him, to play with him, or something else....
To chat with Ser as Shades, or to watch him go about his daily life as Umbra.
Goth scowled a bit, he was happy to be home, and everyone could see that... but the other half of his being, Ser/Solas, was missing.
He was bewildered, why couldn't he find them, for goodness sake he'd carried Solas's Soul piece in his own Soul for years, giving him the link that usually formed between a mother and their child. He'd always known where Solas was and how he felt, but he couldn't feel anything.... He couldn't even feel the gaping wound that would have formed if Ser/Solas had died.
Of course if Ser and Solas died, Shades and Umbra would follow them, because they were two halves of the same coin, they used to be the same Skeleton. They were counterparts...
"Gothy, Gothy!" A voice called, and Goth blinked, coming out of a spiral of depressing thoughts.
"Hello Palette, is the party about to begin?" Goth asked with a smile.
"Yup, so come on. Everyone is waiting for us!" Palette said, gently taking Goth's hand and pulling him to his feet, before they started to run towards the location of the party.
Goth started to laugh, he could trust Palette to cheer him up.
----
Seeker frowned when he heard someone pounding on his bedroom door.
"Come on Mopey head! Get up!"
Rurik....
They had found his Fell counterpart two days after his Gothy had disappeared, and they had to explain everything to him.
Rurik was not pleased that his baby's godfather had been kidnapped by someone with no honour, and he had made it his personal mission to drag Seeker out of his bedroom whenever he found his Tale Counterpart in it.
Searcher had gotten Lotus out of a toxic situation, and since he wasn't here, Rurik was going to make sure that Seeker wouldn't starve himself to death, by moping in his room.
Rurik opened the door with a kick, before he slung one of Seeker's arms over his shoulders, and he began to drag Seeker out of the room.
"Have you put on weight Mopey Head?! Come on, get up and start walking!"
------
There was food and people everywhere, bright lights, and scents, and sounds....
It was almost too much....
Goth blinked, and for a moment, he thought that he had spotted Retconned in the crowd.
"Oh, these cookies are great! Who brought them?" A voice asked, and Goth snorted.
Of course Retconned would appear, and disappear, him and his cookies...
"What's so funny?" Palette asked.
"I'll tell you later." Goth replied.
"Oh, Nightmare arrived!" Goth said happily, as Nightmare, and his Doom and Gloom boys, knew the truth about him being Error. He had told them about Searcher, and they had been keeping an eye out for him...
And this party, was one of the rare ones that had a temporary truce. Which meant, if you came across the murderer that had killed your lover.. Welp, you couldn't do anything, these parties had a 'No fighting' rule.
Nightmare walked over to them, with everyone avoiding his darkness.
"Are you okay kid?" Nightmare asked.
"I could be better." Goth replied.
"Hang in there Goth, things will work out, and we will find him." Nightmare replied, and then, he walked away.
But Goth knew that they would talk later, when people not in the know, couldn't eavesdropped on them.
"That was nice of him." Palette said, he knew that his Uncle would usually avoid social events like this.
"By the way, where is your Mom?" Goth asked, as he looked around.
"No clue, I think that he had another idea to try to talk to or 'save' Uncle Nightmare." Palette said with a sigh, and Goth snorted.
Dream really should just give up.
------
Dream grinned, as he held up a large bottle of amber liquid.
This was some very powerful alcohol.
One with no taste or smell, so it wasn't very popular.
He remembered that Nightmare became more mellow after he had some alcohol.
And he had seen Nightmare sipping the alcohol laced punch earlier.
Maybe, he could become mellow enough for Dream to talk to him.
He added it to the punch that was about to go out on the floor.
But, there was a problem...
He put it in the wrong punch.
The one that had been reversed for the Children, or the Adults, that didn't want to get drunk tonight.
-----
"Hey..." Palette and Goth heard someone speaking to them.
They turned around to see Seeker standing there, and he looked like he had just gotten out of his bed.
The Palette's clothes were rumped, and there was a stain on the right shoulder of his jacket.
They could see the eyebags underneath Seeker's eyesockets, and Palette frowned when he saw something.
Was it just a trick of the light... but that didn't explain why it looked like Seeker was taller than Palette...
-----
Seeker smiled at them, he had a sad look on his face.
-----
"Kill it..." Umbra hissed, as the sunlight hit his face.
"Destroy it, sunlight must die..." He grumbled.
His eyes opened, and he jumped up, running to their private bathroom, and he threw up in the toilet.
"Gross..." Umbra said, and he gargled some water to get the taste out of his mouth.
'Why do we hurt so much?' Shades moaned.
'Ugh.. even talking like this hurts..' Umbra replied. 'Also, why am I in charge of the body?'
'Um....' Shades said, and somehow, he blushed, while he was inside of their head. 'You have realized our current state, right?'
Umbra frowned, he was wondering why his other self was so embarrassed.
'We're naked.' Shades muttered.
'We walked around, naked, all the time, when we lived in the void.' Umbra told his other self.
'We woke up, naked, in a bed with a naked Palette.' Shades squeaked.
"Eh?!!!" Umbra said, shocked.
'We have a dim ecto flow over our bones.' Shades finally said, in a just done voice.
"Mom's going to kill us." Umbra said.
"Kill who?" Palette asked, as he walked up behind them, he didn't blink when he saw Umbra's golden eyelights.
"Pally, what do you remember about last night?" Shades said as he took over, but their eyelights remained gold, with specks of red, that were growing stronger...
"Um... we greeted Seeker, and we helped him clean up for the party.. And we went for punch?" Palette said, he was so confused, what happened?
"Someone spiked the punch." Goth moaned, which explained his current state, he was a bit of a lightweight, and he didn't have any experience when it came to dealing with alcohol, and the effects that it had on his body.
"Oh.. that explains why I feel sick." Palette thoughtfully said and Goth twitched.
"Pally, we had drunk sex last night." Goth dryly told him.
"What?! But I wanted our first time to be special... I don't remember anything!" Palette protested.
"Without protection..." Goth growled, and he got a blank look from Palette.
Goth twitched again, with purple markings briefly appearing in his eye lights.
Must not kill Palette.
Instead, he summoned his own Soul.
The golden Soul was beautiful, but in it's centre was a tiny, forming Proto-Soul.
"Oh..." Palette said.
And he fainted.
Grumbling, Goth put his Soul away and he took a shower, he was not going to face a hung over household, with the scents of alcohol and sex, clinging to his bones.
------
Seeker groaned as he woke up, he didn't want to get up, he didn't want to face another day without his Searcher...
He rolled over as the sunlight hit his face. "Nooo.... I don't wanna get up Rurik."
He slowly opened his eyes, only to see that he wasn't in his bedroom, but he reached into his jacket, and he pulled out a bundle of clothing.
"Gothy..." He quietly started to cry as he hugged the bundle of clothing.
-----
Goth yawned as he pulled on his clothing, he felt better after he had taken a shower.
He stared at the bones of his hands.... Sometime, he would see a shimmer of gold, or purple Magic, or the markings.
He'd discovered a long time ago, that these were marks in his Magic, from his time under Fate, as the Destroyer, and they had changed during his time as Umbra. He couldn't read them, but he knew what they were.
And Fate didn't need him anymore, but he did have to act as Umbra, occasionally, when the Fates needed him....
They were records...
A record of every AU and story that would exist in his Multiverse, Fate had written it into his very Magic and Soul, so that Ink's creative Magic would create them.
He was a living record of his Multiverse, for what was, what it would be, and what it used to be... for both sides, and as long as he existed, the Fates had the codes needed to recreate the Multiverses, if anything happened to them. He hoped it was never needed. Solas and Ser had it too, but they only had it, because he'd shared it with them, on that day, at the library.
He wondered if Ser, or Solas, had something written in their Codes.....
He hummed, feeling Seeker waking up in the next room.
"I"M NOT READY TO BE A DAD!" Palette cried, as he woke up, and then, he fainted again, with a loud thump.
He shook his head and he snorted.
What a morning....
-------
Seeker slowly rolled out of his makeshift bed, and he slowly got to his feet, shuffling towards the kitchen, to find some food.
He grumbled as he headed for the box of tea that he could see on the counter. "Tea....."
------
Breakfast... was awkward.
Goth was still half out of it, from the fact that he'd lost his virginity, and the fact that he'd started the process of creating a Souling....
This meant that Umbra was in charge of their body, and the only thing that told everyone that it was Umbra, was his eyelights.
Palette looked ready to climb underneath the table and hide, but if anyone looked at Geno and Reaper, they would have seen the looks of murder on their faces that appeared on them, after they saw the shine of Magic on Goth's bones.
They weren't ready for grandchildren, damn it.
Thankfully, Goth's younger siblings had slept over at a friend's house last night, they didn't like going to these parties.
Seeker's Rurik had apparently gone home early, before they had the spiked punch, to check on his Mate.
Seeker had stumbled into the kitchen, with bleary, red eyed eyelights, and no one said anything about the tears that they could see on his cheeks.
"Ur.." Umbra said, clutching his forehead, as he was assaulted by a sudden dizzy spell.
'STOP IT! LEAVE MAMA ALONE! MAMA!' Solas cried. 'DADDY! SAVE MAMA! PLEASE!'
The world spun, as a missing connection snapped back into place.
"Are you okay Umbra?!" Reaper asked the other aspect of his son.
"Solas! Where are you?!" Umbra cried, out loud, and across the bond they shared.
'DADDY!' Solas screamed.
"No!" Umbra cried, as their connection was torn apart.
And he fell into Darkness from the shock, and Reaper caught him as his body fell out of his chair.
----
Seeker almost dropped the cup that he was using when he heard Umbra's voice.
Solas.... Wasn't that...
He gasped and he clutched at the fabric above his Soul when it started to scream in pain....
And something snapped within him....
Gothy.... His Gothy was hurt.... He wasn't in his arms, he couldn't keep him safe if he wasn't in his arms!
A dark glint flashed in Seeker's eyelights, but as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone....
And he threw up, into the sink.