Ink stood before his friend with tired eyes. His very being oozed with confusion and exhaustion, his energy having been drained by a search for answers that brought him no closer to them. Dream felt pity for him, knowing that this investigation was going to take more from than a good night's rest.
"Have you figured anything out?" Dream asked, moving closer to Ink, putting his arm around him.
Ink let out a mournful sigh, "just the universe that went down. Pommy was supposed to help with Little Bones."
Dream nodded, beginning to lead his friend to lie down in the grass. He recalls this being an unfinished AU, one that never got to be populated, and thus has been made into a place for Ink to relax. And, god, did he need to relax now.
"well," Dream began, "we... we could hold a funeral soon."
"Yeah, I guess."
The usually cheerful monster glanced to him, putting his hand on top of the other's.
"We'll figure this out, Ink."
"how?!" Ink cried out, "We can't figure out who did it, Dream! It's so close to Cross's work, but it isn't! It could be Error's but we all know that he's not, you know, being himself right now! How could an entire universe just implode like that?! There's not even a trace of it left!"
The Creator hunched over, shaking with either grief of a friend lost or with the anger produced by knowing you can't protect those you want.
Dream looked away, closing his eyes, "We'll find out, Ink. We'll fix this. I know we will."
"you're too optimistic."
"Someone has to be."
Rus and Little Bones sat on the floor of Rus' room. It was clean, uncomfortably so for a child. The bed was neatly made with a nightstand with books and a lamp in place. He had shelves of action figures, and a bean bag full of stuffed animals. His wallpaper was superheroes flying around, overlooking a city with towering buildings. His dresser had stickers littering every part of it, as did a small book shelf, which housed books and handheld gaming consoles, and propped up a backpack, and his closet door. The back of his door had hooks where scarves and sweaters hung, all bright oranges and reds. The carpet was soft, colored an extremely faded red.
Little Bones liked this room; it was nice and cozy.
"So! What do you like to play, Little Bones?"
"I... I don't know," replied the smaller baby bones, "I don't... 'play' a lot."
"Well, sure you do! You're a kid, too, right? You're small like me and wear a striped shirt!" Rus pointed to the shirt, which poked out from behind the sweater.
"I usually just... I don't know... Re... Re-n'act stuff?"
"...re-enacting stuff? Like what?"
Little Bones stared at the ground, "I don't wanna talk 'bout it."
Rus took this in stride, as he did with the vague answers before, "that's okay! I'll teach you some games, alright?"
The mismatched skeleton nodded slowly with this. It didn't seem like a bad idea. In fact... learning how to behave like a normal child would be fun, right? Then all the adults would stop looking at him as if he's... broken.
...was he broken?
He didn't want to think about that.
"Alright! But... where should we play?"
"Does it matter?"
"...well, not always! Outside, you play games where you run a lot and stuff. Indoors, you play with toys or video games or color!"
"Why can't you play that stuff outside, though?"
Rus blinked slowly, "well... that's a fair point, actually! Coloring might be hard outside, though... You'd lose all your crayons!"
"...can we try the vid'o games?"
"Video games? Oh, yeah, sure! Do... do you want to play that outside?"
Little Bones glanced at the window above the other child's bed before nodding.
"Okay, but promise not to lose my games!" Rus held out his hand, his pinkie extended.
Little Bones stared at this gesture in confusion, "what are you doing..?"
"It's a pinkie promise! You're supposed to the same thing and then we- yeah, yeah like that!"
Little Bones found himself even more confused as he held up his own hand, mirroring Rus' gesture. Then Rus intertwined their pinkies. Little Bones felt his body... spaz...?
Rus jerked back, his eyes wide, "what happened?!"
"...I... I don't know. Please don't do that again. I don't like it."
Rus agreed, though he eyed the other child as he fetched the handhelds. Then, the two made their way downstairs. They stopped in the living room, where the adults were quietly speaking among themselves. Rus cleared his 'throat', successfully gaining his brother's attention.
"We're gonna go to the park!" He exclaimed proudly.
"Alright, be home in time for lunch," replied Sci, looking over to them fondly.
Strawberry grunted as he began to move, " Lil' Bones, ya need yer shoes..."
He was pushed down by Sci, who got up from the couch and rummaged through the child's things before walking over to him. He placed them before the child, watching him slowly slid them on before nodding firm and returning to his seat.
"be safe, boys," he called, "and don't leave the park!"
They chorused they wouldn't before rushing outside.
By outside, I mean truly outside. The Surface yawned out before them, the sun shining brilliantly, with a soft breeze brushing over plant life that thrived. The yard before them wasn't super big, but large enough to have a stone path leading to fencing and a sidewalk. Flowers of all shades bloomed along side this path. Rus didn't allow Little Bones to admire this new environment, as he was already opening the gate and waiting for him. Little Bones walked quickly to him, but found he needed to keep a light jog going to keep up with the other. By the time they had crossed the street in front of Sci's house, he was out of breath.
"...are you okay?" Rus asked, tilting his head, "I've never seen some get tired by that..."
"Uh, I dunno how to explain it? I don't usually have to... do whatever I just did?"
"...you were jogging?"
"what is that?"
"...never mind. Come on, the park's just over there!" Rus gestured to a playground area on the same plot of land they stood on. It was simple, with a few different types a slides, swings, benches... Nothing fancy, but nonetheless suitable for kids who just wanted to run around.
The metal, painted incredibly vibrant hues, blinded the smaller kid for a moment before he was, once more, following Rus.
"Let's play in the shade, okay?"
He responded with a nod and two sat down beneath a big tree. Little Bones stared up at the leaves for a while before a device was placed in his arms. Rus held up his own, giving instructions on how to use it. Shortly after, he produced two games and taught that to the other, as well. Not long after, they began playing together, and Little Bones found himself enchanted by the screen's display of little creatures that fit into balls and fought beside the player.
Ink felt the same searing pain in his chest again, though significantly less... vision-causing. Through a blurry gaze, he watched Dream sway, doubling over from the agony brought up him, just as Ink himself fell back, grasping the clothe above his ribs.
It was torture, how four minutes could feel like eternity, dragging itself on, dipping claws into the earth of time and moving as slowly as possible, just so they could feel what true anguish felt like. When it ceased, it never truly left, with a dull throbbing flowing through their magic veins and causing their souls to freeze from time to time. But it ended, and Ink was relieved for that.
Except...
"Another one is gone," Ink breathed out.
Dream shook, "oh, stars, this is bad."
"I," he shuddered, "I need to find out... which one..."
"I'll come with," insisted his friend.
Ink couldn't fight him on this, not now. He grabbed the other's hand and disappeared from the one place that had been spared suffering until now.
...
it wasn't hard to find. Outertale was visited by everyone, so they would know who went down. And, god, it was true. They had appeared in front of Star, who stared up at them blankly. In his arms... Lust. Lust was sobbing, his frame trembling violently, breathing hitching, heaving up words that made no sense. All while Star held him as if trying to keep something fragile from breaking apart. And, god, he was trying so hard, but you can't stop someone from crumbing into pieces of grief and fear and loneliness-
"They're gone," Star whispered, and Ink knew. He knew who had fallen.
And he knew that Lust was the last from his universe.