Explanations, Twice Over
Blue stared Error dead in the eye, the sounds of Inky playing with the human in the background. "So, to recap, Inky got his Soul back, felt guilty and locked himself away in the Doodlesphere, then you went through to check on him, found out what happened and stayed with him through the night, but when Inky woke up the next morning, he was a kid? Did I get all that right?" he asked, clasping his hands in front of him with his eyes closed. "Pretty much, other than the visit to Medic." Error replied, leaning back in his chair. He felt exhausted, and the day was only half over!
Blue breathed out harshly through his nose and rubbed his temples. "Ay yi yi, it's too early for this. You said Inky needs clothes, right?" Here he cracked open an eye to glance over at Error. "Yeah, everything he has is too big. Maybe something close to what he used to wear would work, since it was his preferred outfit." Error said, looking over at the little skele in question. He was currently playing... something with the human, Error had no clue what though. Something about robots and cars and space. He looked back over at Blue and raised a brow as his companion rubbed the back of his skull.
"You ok? You look kinda tired." he asked Blue. Blue smiled, not one of his normal bright grins, and nodded. "It's just Stretch being Stretch again. With the way he goes on, you'd think he was the older brother! I'm just about to go get roaring drunk to shut him up." Blue replied, looking so utterly done with his brother. Error chuckled and said, "If you can find something that can get you drunk, anyways." Blue laughed softly and looked back over at Inky.
"He looks really happy now." he said quietly, looking back at Error. Error nodded in agreement; even with the breakdown the night before and this morning, Inky was happier than he had been in eons. "When I did the CHECK... it mentioned that he felt guilty about not being fast enough to save someone. I'm going to see if I can find what AU Inky's from, which shouldn't be too hard, there weren't that many around when he was created. See if I can find out what happened to the guy he was trying to save, if only so he can put it behind him." Blue nodded slowly. "Makes sense. Eventually he's going to remember, and he'll want a sure answer."
The two at the table heard the door open and shared a conspiratorial grin. Error held up his fingers and counted down. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... "Hey Ink... WAIT, INK, WHAT THE HELL!" they heard Stretch yell. Inky came running to Error, looking scared, with the human right behind him. Inky jumped onto Error's lap while the human hid behind him, peeking around Error's bulk to look at Stretch, who watched all this happen with a slack-jawed expression. "Blue I- wha- HUH?!"
Blue bursted out in laughter, sliding out of his chair to fall on the floor, tears streaming down his face at his brother's reaction. "Y-YOUR FACE!!! OH MY STARS, THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE!!!" he wheezed, holding his sides. Error was holding in laughter as well while Inky looked at Blue in confusion. "Oh, oh stars... I needed that laugh so bad..." Blue panted, trying to get his breath back from laughing so hard. He got back up and sat down again, careful to not look at Stretch, because if he did, it would probably set him off again.
Stretch just looked at Error helplessly. Normally, he would try to attack the Destroyer, but with a kid version of Ink in his lap, he wasn't going to risk it. There was also the fact that his bro was all buddy-buddy with the guy, which confused the hell out of the orange-clad skeleton. "Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!" he asked desperately, feeling a headache build. Blue snorted and looked at Stretch with a cold look in his eyes. "Why, so you can ignore me all over again? So you can just trample all over my rights as a monster and try to keep me as the way you see me, never mind the fact that I'm the one who practically raised you? I'm the older brother, remember? The one that got a job so you could have a place to sleep at night, the one that helped you when bullies started attacking you because we didn't have parents, the one that got you your first drink, need I go on, little brother?" he said coldly, in a matter-of-fact tone.
Stretch winced; he hadn't been treating his brother badly, had he? Looking back over his actions in the past, he realized that Blue was right; he hadn't been a very good brother. Sighing, he took his ever-present cigarette out of his mouth and extinguished it. He sat down and looked his brother in the eye. Error, realizing that this was a family moment, excused himself. He needed to see Nightmare anyways, and he had no doubt that Inky would want to see Horror at the very least. Inky had made it clear that he wanted to at least apologize to Horror for making it near impossible for Horror to get food to his AU. Opening a portal, he stepped through, holding Inky tightly.
At Nightmare's base:
"What do you idiots think you are doing?" Nightmare asked venomously. Dust and Killer gulped and looked up at their much taller boss nervously. "Um-" Luckily, Dust and Killer were saved by the appearance of Error, with a mini Ink on his hip. Cross, who had been getting ready to watch the show while eating a chocolate bar, ran over so fast he left behind a dust cloud. "Oh my gosh, he's adorable! What happened to make him a kid? Was it getting his Soul back? Do you even know how he got his Soul back? Or how he lost it in the first place? Hey, maybe we ca-" "Enough, Cross!" Nightmare snapped, using his tentacles to pull the over-excited skeleton away from Error and Inky, the latter of whom was looking a little overwhelmed. Cross pouted and crossed his arms, puffing out his cheeks. Inky giggled and copied Cross's actions, causing him to perk up and start doing other things, Inky copying him.
Error sighed and looked over at Nightmare, who waved him over to the couch so they could talk while the two children (yes, Cross was being counted as a child) were entertained. Groaning, Error sank into the very comfortable couch, enjoying the chance to sit down again. "So, what happened? You didn't say anything after the text." Nightmare asked, curious. Error groaned and rubbed his face. Maybe he should've told Nightmare and Blue at the same time.
One Explanation Later:
"Well that explains a lot. How do you plan on finding his old AU?" Nightmare asked. "I was planning on asking Inky about his old AU, but I've got some suspicions. I think he was from one of the Original AUs, I just have to figure out which one." Error replied while messing with his strings; during the explanation, he had started playing Cat's Cradle to occupy his hands. Nightmare nodded and looked over, only to sit up in alarm. "If you want to ask him, you're going to have to FIND him first." he said, panicking. Error shot up and looked at where Cross and Inky had been playing, only to discover that the two had vanished while he had been explaining things to Nightmare. Error and Nightmare turned to look at each other, blinking. Then, Nightmare shot off of the couch saying, "I'll check the backyard." Error vaulted over the back of the couch and said hurriedly, "I'll check upstairs." Taking the steps two at a time, Error only had one thought.
"Cross is fucking DEAD when I get my hands on him."