A/N- Welp. Guess I don't have a lot to say -_-

-*Ink's POV*

Pain.

That's all Ink felt when he resurfaced from unconsciousness. His whole body was throbbing in a torturous rhythm, and his head felt like it was splitting in two.

What happened? He thought as he groggily opened his eyes, squinting to let them adjust to the blinding white light around him.

His eye sockets opened wide as he remembered sharp claws tearing at his limp form, ripping through his bones as his world was consumed in blood and agony.

The universe…

He'd failed. He'd failed again. Another universe had been lost because of him. He clenched his fists as tears pricked the back of his eye sockets, but he quickly pushed them down. This was no time to be upset.

It seemed that his arms and legs were wrapped up in bandages, predominantly over his ribcage, covering up the tattoos running across his upper body.

His colorful eyes darted around his surroundings to get some sense of where he was. The boundless white area had blue strings hanging off of the ceiling, tangling together at places, was that a hammock? Next to him, there was a table with fresh bandages and a glass of water. There were also some random objects here and there, a beanbag, some chocolate in a corner, but overall, it seemed pretty lonely.

Shit.

Ink had fought here enough to know where he was.

He needed to get out of here before a certain glitchy skeleton came back to finish him off while he was vulnerable like this.

Ink tried to sit up in the white bed he was resting in but was instantly blinded with spots dancing across his vision. After waiting a couple of moments to regain sight, he slowly swung his legs over the bed while using the table next to him for support and stood up, hissing in pain at the sharp jolts of agony running up his entire being and making his knees wobble.

HIs brush. He needed his brush.

He glanced around before spotting the large brush above him, suspended in the same blue strings that were hanging from the ceiling.

A sudden wave of fatigue hit him like a bus as he tried to teleport to the object. He stumbled before losing his balance, all of the exertions that his body was taking in his weak state finally catching up to him, and crashed to the floor.

Ink gasped for breath. His throat was closing up and he started hyperventilating, his chest rapidly rising and falling, causing the bandages to widen with the movement. He started coughing, making his entire form shake. His body felt like it was on fire. A searing hot iron was being pressed onto his chest.

Ink felt a familiar iron tang in his mouth and looked down at one of his palms through blurry eyes, where a few small droplets of blood lay on his bones, and a couple dripped into the blank floor.

He shut his eye sockets tight and dug his boney fingers into his palm, slowly regaining his breath, but it still felt like his throat was on fire. What was wrong with him? The beast that he met in that AU couldn't have done this much damage, right? Or maybe Error contributed to Ink getting injured this badly.

The thoughts were quickly dismissed from the skeleton's mind when he heard a sound behind him, followed by a inhale than a scoff.

"Wow squid, you sure know how to be an idiot, don't you?"

Ink gasped and spun around to see a familiar black skeleton staring down at him with some amusement dancing in his eyes. He was carrying a bowl of steaming soup in his hands, and set it down on the table next to the bed Ink had been in a couple of minutes earlier, before approaching Ink, who was still on the ground.

Ink started to backing away on his hands, preparing for a fight, even in his weak state. "Get away from me," he said in a hoarse voice "I said stay ba-"

He was cut off when another wave of pain hit, making him collapse and start coughing again. After regaining his breath, he realized he wasn't being attacked by anything other than his own body.

He looked up to see Error standing over him with his arms crossed over his chest. "You're just gonna hurt yourself even more if you keep being a dumbass. Just get back into the bed like a good little boy before you pass out again."

He then proceeded to grab Ink by the arm, making him hiss in pain. Strangely, his grip loosened slightly as he led him back to the bed.

Ink was stunned. Why was he helping him? This was the perfect opportunity to end his life once and for all! Confused, he watched as Error's eyes darted to the bowl next to him after Ink got into the bed. "Erm, the soups for you," he said before glaring at him, "If you don't want to starve, anyway."

Ink slowly grabbed the steaming bowl, his eyes still locked on the skeleton who was now turned away, heading in the opposite direction.

"Why did you save me?"

"What do you mean."

Ink sighed, "I mean, why did you save me? I was obviously in pretty bad shape after that thing attacked me, so you could have easily killed me right there. Why didn't you?"

Error turned to look at him. "What makes you think I won't right now?"

"I don't think that you won't. But from the looks of it, you could have ended my life once and for all anytime earlier. Isn't that what you want? If I die, no more AUs, or are you just planning to kill me later?

Error looked away. He seemed almost confused himself but quickly covered it up with a scowl.

*Error's POV*

Jeez, Ink. He sure knew how to make Error irritated. But the truth was, he still didn't have a great reason for saving the shorter skeleton's life. He guessed something in him just kinda told himself to do it in the heat of the moment, when all his thoughts were jumbled and he was filled with adrenaline. Evidently, he wasn't thinking completely straight.

"Just like you said, you being dead would mean no more anomalies. I can't destroy your trash if you don't create it. But like you said Squid, I can kill you at any time, so don't try to piss me off."

Ink looked down, and Error took note of the dark bags under his eyes and constricted breathing before Ink spoke up. "How bad is it?"

"If you're talking about your injuries, I'm not gonna lie, not great. Though you were about to kick the bucket anyway, so I guess they're better than before. Plenty of broken ribs, amongst other things, you got some cuts on your arms that somehow got infected, I had to take you over to Reapertale so Toriel could heal you."

Ink's handed tighten over the sheets. He seemed bothered by something, but Error let it go. It was probably the pain, besides, he didn't care about how the squid was feeling. He began to walk away from his bed.

"Hey, I didn't get you the soup so you could stare at it, if you want to get any better you should probably eat something."

He then turned around and started leaving the area and Ink alone.

"Hey, Error?"

Rolling his eyes, Error turned to face him again. "What."

Ink looked up, and Error was surprised to see a small smile on his face.

"Thank you."