I had been with Nightmare's gang for three years and eleven months now, and Dream had been a prisoner for almost a month. The only thing keeping us from releasing him was the fact that he knew the location of our house, which was a difficult situation to handle. Ink knew that we had him - it wasn't like there was anybody else that could have possibly been holding Dream captive - and was very outspoken about it; he didn't try to get Dream back in any way, but he certainly said a lot. Nightmare was getting really uncomfortable with having Dream in the house, since we had to be a lot more secretive than usual; before, we could walk around the house laughing about things completely carefree. Now, we had to do that quieter and on different floors; the emotion room was on the first floor, which meant we would often talk about silly things on the third floor or above. We really did want to let him go; Nightmare was working on something to accomplish that without our location being discovered, but he wouldn't let us know what it was yet. At the moment, I was guarding the Guardian (that sounds redundant) of Positivity while carving something for Killer's birthday, which was coming up soon.

Dream never saw much of Nightmare when he was here, partly because Nightmare was on the verge of breaking down when they were together, but Dream didn't know that. I was carving another knife for Killer - I had carved several in the past - that would match a new blade I had 'found' somewhere. The others seemed to like my woodworking, so I was going to carve some gifts for them too, in preparation for Christmas; carving gifts generally took time. Dream seemed to enjoy watching me do things, which was both weird and..actually, it was just weird; I didn't mind it, though.

"What are you doing?" Dream wondered.

"Something." I could talk while carving.

"But what is it?"

"It's something."

"Come on! What are you doing?"

"Something."

"You're no fun."

"I don't have to be fun."

"Please tell me what you're doing?"

"I'm carving something out of wood." 

"You mean you make things with wood? Like a carpenter?"

"Something like that."

"What are you making?"

"A secret."

"Is it for somebody?"

"Yes."

"Ooh! Who's it for?"

"Not your concern."

Dream sighed. "Have you..ever lost someone you loved?"

Memories of genocide routes flew through my mind faster than Killer's quickest sprint. "No."

"Would you tell me the truth for once?"

"..."

"Please?"

"..Perhaps."

"Is..is my brother happy?"

"What do you mean?"

"Does he ever laugh? Does he share jokes or have any friends? You must follow him for a reason, right? I don't think you would stay with him if he was mean...Is he happy?"

"I.." I didn't know what to say. I had ceased my carving.

"Are..you...happy?"

"H-happiness is relative."

"I'm sorry..I shouldn't have asked."

Nothing else was said for a while, and I continued carving the knife. After about half an hour, I was well on my way to creating a knife handle that was more detailed than any other I had made in the past, and I was even genuinely smiling; Dream was probably interested in that, but he didn't say anything. When my time to guard him came to an end, I left the room without a word, having enjoyed the silence. I walked to the living room peacefully and sat on a couch to continue carving the knife handle; Killer would no doubt have wanted to find me soon. Before he did, Papyrus floated towards me.

"Hello, brother!" Paps greeted.

"Heya, Paps." I returned. "Are you having fun?"

"Oh, yes, indeed, brother! I wanted to spend some time with you, though; we haven't been doing that as often recently, and, well, I miss you a little."

"You don't have to miss me, Paps. You're the best."

"I know, but I really want to do something with you."

"And what would that be?"

"Just maybe talk?"

"Okay, Paps. What do you want to talk about?"

"Brother, I feel that we've recently been growing apart, and I don't like it."

"You don't?"

"No, I don't, and I want to make it right. I have made something for you!"

"For me? But I haven't made anything for you. Should I?"

"In order to become close again, we shall start a ritual!"

"Um.."

"Not that kind of ritual, brother! Every month, we shall do something together for a day, just the two of us! That leaves plenty of time for other things, and we can stay close!"

"You have the best ideas, Paps."

"I am the Great Papyrus! Follow me, brother!"

"Okay, Paps."

Papyrus led me to a storage room that he and Chara had claimed as the 'ghost room,' which was just a room filled with tape; there were storage rooms filled with some pretty random things, but at least we would never run out of staples; we hadn't used more than one box of staples in the past (almost) four years. When we were inside, I noticed that Paps had done some cleaning in there, which was nice. He set me in a chair and began to have a conversation.

"So how have you been doing, brother?" Paps started.

"Fine, you?" I joined his discussion.

"I have been doing very well! What is going on in your life?"

"Not much."

"There must be something!"

"I guess...my lost abilities are still gone; I've given up on them."

"You can't just give up, brother! I know your abilities will come back!"

"I wish I could be as sure as you always are, Paps, but I'm just..not. I'm sorry."

"That is why I am here, brother! I can help you be sure of things!"

"Thanks, Paps. You're the best.."

"You are still not convinced, are you?"

"Paps..."

"Yes,brother?"

"How did I get the best brother in the world? You're always so...confident and outgoing. You always know exactly what to do, and you're the best brother ever, and I'm just..a disappointment..."

"Brother! You are not a disappointment!"

"But I am! I couldn't even protect you from a child, Paps! A child!"

"A child that could live forever, brother."

"It doesn't matter..I failed everyone I cared about, and I even killed my own brother to seek revenge. What does that say about me?"

"It says that you're normal, brother. Everybody makes mistakes; yours just happened to be larger than others."

"Papyrus."

"Yes, brother?"

"You just called cold-blooded murder normal."

"If I recall correctly, there was a time when it was normal."

"I guess. You really know how to make somebody feel better, Paps."

"I am the Great Papyrus!"

"Paps?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, brother."

"Let's not change that."

"Agreed, brother. You should probably get going, now: Nightmare will be waiting for you to show up for your checkup."

"You're the best, Paps."

I got up from the chair and exited the room then went on my way to the hospital room. I did still have weekly checkups, since Nightmare was worried about me; he didn't have any cause to be worried, but he was, nonetheless. My magic was constantly upheld by the magic restorer, and apart from my lost powers, I could perform all of my magical abilities at perfect levels - sometimes even above average, if I was trying hard enough. When I reached the hospital, Nightmare looked as if he had just gotten there moments before me, and he was setting up the equipment when I walked in. Since I had gotten there early before, I took my usual place on the wooden table and kicked my legs a little while I waited for him to finish his work. It took a little while for him to completely set up the equipment, but it was eventually finished, and we began to go through the familiar motions; we had done this plenty of times before, and we knew exactly what to do and when to do it. When we were almost finished, Nightmare looked rather upset about something; I contemplated whether to ask for a moment before deciding it was worth a try.

"Something bothering you?" I inquired.

"My brother." Nightmare sighed. "I can't keep this up much longer; hopefully, I won't have to."

"Got a plan?"

"Yes. I believe I am finished creating a device that can purge a portion of someone's memories; we won't have to worry about our location being revealed, and we can continue like nothing happened."

"Well, I'm sure you'll succeed, Dad."

"I hope so; I feel as if I'm going to break down every time I enter that room. Sometime soon, I might just do it."

"Stay strong, Dad."

"I'll try. Thanks, Dust."

I was quickly pulled into a hug which I returned promptly. When I was released, Nightmare continued with the checkup, and closely monitored my magic flow. When the checkup was finished, Nightmare gathered the data and relayed it back to me.

"Looking just fine, Dust." Nightmare commented. "Still no sign of the other powers?"

"No tracks, no trails, and no hints or clues." I confirmed. "I can live without them."

"Nice to see that you're not soulbroken about it."

"I've had worse."

"And what exactly would that be?"

"Nothing important."

"You'll tell me someday, right?"

"I don't know. It's sometimes hard just to think about.."

"I understand: sometimes I can barely remember what happened at the tree, and what I do remember..just hurts."

"Thanks, Dad."

"No problem. Would you go tell Killer and Cross that food's on the table?"

"Sure thing, Dad."

"Thank you."

I hopped off the table and walked out the door, ready to find Cross and Killer; I was not ready for them to slam into me at a hundred miles per hour. That hurt.

"Oh! Sorry, Dusty! Are ya okay?" Killer worried.

"If by 'okay,' you mean 'severely injured,' then I'd say yes, I'm actually better than okay." I replied. 

"Oops. Can ya stand?"

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes."

"S-sorry D-Dust." Cross stuttered.

"Would you mind explaining why you're all lying on the ground?" Nightmare had exited the hospital.

"Um..yes?" Killer attempted.

"Food's on the table." I groaned.

"Oh boy!"

"I want an explanation, boys." Nightmare wasn't having it.

"I just walked, then I was on the ground; I still don't don't know what's going on." I was dizzy.

"Killer?"

"We ran into him?" Killer nervously chuckled.

"You have to be more careful than that. Apologize."

"Sorry, Dusty."

I groaned; I think I hit my skull too hard.

"A-are you okay?" Cross was concerned.

"Yeah...just give me a minute.." I rubbed my skull.

"Should we carry him?" Killer offered.

"I don't..need to be carried.."

I felt myself being lifted up in spite of my protest, and I soon found myself at the dining room table, wondering how I got there. My injury mostly recovered while we ate, leaving me with simply a bad headache to deal with; I would feel better later. Our meal tonight consisted of spaghetti, which wasn't half as good as Papyrus's spaghetti, but I wasn't complaining. There was a small conversation during our meal that revolved around Nightmare's plan to release his brother and the steps that would be necessary to complete it; he was actually done with the device he was planning to use, and he needed simply to test it out. The consequences could have been disastrous, though, so he was hesitant to use it, especially on something living. Eventually, Killer volunteered himself for the initial test of the device, since he was confident that nothing would go wrong; we all tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen - he was going to have the device tested on him, and he wouldn't budge. We were worried, to say the least, when he said that he was ready to perform the test at that very moment, but Nightmare managed to make him wait by saying he had to work out a few bugs.

Nightmare spent the next few days perfecting the device and making a ton of failsafes in case it didn't work correctly; he really didn't want to lose Killer. Killer, on the other hand, was determined that the device would work, and he was quite confident in the success of the plan. His confidence would have been admirable if it was any subject except this. Nightmare kept finding ways to put it off, though, and it would be a while before Killer was in any danger. Dream had a lot of questions which we answered or avoided depending on what the topic was, and sometimes it was hard, since he was literally Nightmare's brother. It wasn't too out of the ordinary, really, with Dream as our prisoner; we could ignore that fact rather well with the knowledge that he could be gone soon and we could continue normal life. Paps and I were getting close again, and he was spending less time with Chara in favor of getting more involved in my life, which Chara understood completely, taking his chance to follow Cross more.

In a way, I guess we were all brothers.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean family.

Next part to this subplot in chapter 33! :)

Thanks for reading my unrelated writing!

Bye!