For those who were wondering, ETA means "Estimated Time of Arrival." In question format, it's basically asking when someone will arrive.

~~~~~

Nightmare's gang was doing all right; we didn't exactly have much to do, but we could enjoy that. We were all working with different projects..except for me. I didn't exactly have anything to do, but I was willing to help out! Killer was working on improving his juggling skills, Horror was trying to learn how to cook, Cross was working with Paps and Chara to allow ghosts to be heard, Error was working on his knitting, and Nightmare was catching up on his reading. At the moment, I was helping Cross with Paps and Chara.

"C-could you hold that?" Cross handed me a beaker of..something; I wasn't very good with keeping track of chemicals, and there were about five beakers with the same colored liquid..

"Sure." I did as instructed. 

"Now p-pour it slowly into h-here."

"Okay." I did.

"P-perfect." Cross shook the mixture. "N-now put one of th-those tablets in, quick!"

"Which one?!" There were a lot of tablets! 

"R-red!"

"Okay!" 

I picked up a red tablet, but it was too late..the mixture blew up..quite literally. Cross groaned, lying down on the floor. I decided to see if he was okay.

"Um..sorry?" I apologized. "You okay?"

"I-I don't think y-you should be in th-the lab..sorry, Dust.." Cross frowned.

"I guess that's for the best.." I had risked the mixture ten times in the past twenty minutes..it was probably best for me to leave. 

"M-maybe you can h-help Horror.."

"Yeah! Cooking should be easier! Sorry again, Cross.."

"I-it's fine; we should get i-it eventually."

With that, I left the laboratory we had in the house; it was small, but we didn't need anything too extravagant. I knew which kitchen Horror was working in, which meant that I could find it quicker than if I hadn't; I made it in five minutes. When I reached it, I found Horror making some sort of..food. He said it was..some surface food; I didn't think it was English. In any case, I agreed to help him. It only took five minutes before the pot boiled over..and a fire broke out..Horror was unimpressed, and he asked me to leave..I figured that it was best. I decided to see if Nightmare had any book recommendations; I couldn't mess that up, at least. As soon as I reached the library, Nightmare took note of my presence immediately and gave me the "No" expression; he must have been reading something incredibly sad or incredibly thrilling, and I knew not to intrude on that. Nightmare was usually open for visiting during his reading, but there were certain times when he was so absorbed in a story that to take him out of it would have been like murdering someone; I didn't want to do that to him, and naturally, I moved on, thinking of who might have liked my company.

I decided to try helping Error next, since knitting was probably less likely to end up in flames..totally. I found him in the living room, and I sat next to him promptly, finding myself holding a lot of string. It was actually fairly pleasant, and I enjoyed helping Error..until I got a phalanx caught in some string; it took an hour to get the knot untied, and Error's creation was ruined..he didn't take too kindly to that, and I was again requested to do something else. Killer was my last chance; I had absolutely no idea how to help him juggle, but at least I couldn't have ruined anything. Or so I had thought. It turned out that walking into the room of someone who was juggling knives and going for a world record was liable to break said person's focus and rip his chances of getting the title from him..he was going to get another chance, but I wasn't allowed inside. I had never seen Killer so upset before; I supposed it just wasn't my day. I made a portal to a copy of a universe and decided to stay there for a while..I couldn't have harmed anyone there..unless there was some poor monster wandering the woods; I felt sorry for anyone who might have decided to do that today..

"Aha!" Someone was consequently in the forest at the same time as I was..and paused when he saw my crying. "Um..Dust?"

"Wh-what..d-do you want?" I asked, looking up to see Ink.

"Uh..why the heck are you crying?"

I only cried harder.

"Hey, hey, sorry!" Ink backtracked. "Um..I mean..are you okay?"

"Wh-why would y-you care?" I whimpered; I didn't want this day to get worse..

"Um, well, usually, when I see you crying, I made you do it..but I don't think I did this time..unless I forgot? No, I would remember that..so, why are you crying?"

"I-I ruin..e-everything.."

I half expected Ink to either make fun of me or try to torture me, but..he didn't? He sat next to me and started rubbing my skull..was he trying to trick me by being kind? I didn't want to trust it, but I was in dire need of some form of comfort..Ink would do. I wondered why Ink was actually helping me for once; he would have sooner broken every bone in my body than helped me in the past..I didn't think he had changed. After a few minutes, I had stopped crying, and I was ready to ask my questions. 

"Why are you being nice to me?" I wiped a few tears off my skull.

"Dust, there are things in this world that you simply cannot understand." Ink replied. "Possessiveness, for example. You're my favorite one to bother, and as such, I want to be the only one who can bother you; anyone else simply won't do."

"You call torture-" I was cut off.

"Yes. I can do worse things than simply torturing you; I just don't want to scar you too badly before our next meeting."

"Like..what?" 

"Oh, I can make you relive every second of your worst moments over and over until you give in to your insanity and do..whatever people like that do."

"..." I had no words.

"Most people can't stay so calm after hearing something like that; that's part of why I like hurting you: you're resilient."

"How do you like torture?"

"It just kinda grew on me; I like the range of emotions I get from it."

"But..people are hurt.."

"Few can wrap their heads around that; it comes with an innate ability to love and hate someone at the same time. Because of my hate, I can hurt people without remorse, but my love prevents me from killing if I don't want to."

"But.."

"You can't really understand it unless you experience it firsthand, and I doubt you'd want to do that - although, if you do, I have a wonderful victim I was going to visit later!"

"Um..no, thanks.."

"Suit yourself. So, what got you crying so bad?"

"Just..a bad day. Everyone's doing stuff, and when I tried to help, everything just got messed up.."

"I know the feeling."

"Really?" 

"I wasn't always evil, you know; I had days like those."

"That's hard to believe."

"Maybe for you. I remember one day when I was out doing things, and my best friend was left alone to make the absolute worst decision of his life - people died. I felt horrible, although I wasn't directly involved."

"Is he still alive?"

"Yeah..we see eachother sometimes, but I don't remember the last time we just sat down and talked; it got worse after I decided to become evil."

"Why did you?"

"I got tired of the good routine; why protect the people who are shooting at you? Being evil's more fun; you should try it, sometime."

"Why were they shooting at you?"

"I used to have Error's job; take a wild guess why people didn't like me."

"..You could have just quit instead of turning fully evil.."

"It's not that simple..can you keep secrets?"

"Yeah?"

"Since I can kill you and whoever you tell before you know you said it, I'll tell you my most hidden secret in the entire world."

"Are you really-" I was once again cut off.

"Yes. No telling!"

"Okay.."

"Well..I'm possessed."

"Like..by a demon?"

"Yep! Me and Broomie work well together!"

"Isn't that your..paintbrush?" I was confused..

"Oh, I just named my paintbrush that so it wouldn't be weird when I talked to thin air! Broomie's really cool!"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Probably half because there's a part of me that's still good and is fighting desperately to return but never will, and half because it'll be interesting!"

"..What will be interesting?"

"Oh, you didn't understand? By telling you my most secrety secret, you're now my best friend!"

"What?!" I did not want to be best friends with Ink!

Ink chuckled. "You seem nervous; I swear it won't be weird, okay? I just..want a friend I can trust..please?"

"Don't you have friends?"

"...What friends would those be?"

"Dream?"

"Ah, yes, Dream, the verbal abuser. Allow me to give you en example of an average conversation with the innocent Guardian of Positivity: 'Hey, Dream!' 'Hey, Ink! Guess what I did today!' 'What did you do, Dream?' 'I- oh, actually, nevermind, you wouldn't get it, since you're soulless and can't feel a dang thing!'"

"..." I wasn't sure what to say to that..

"It would be helpful if he actually treated me like a being instead of some foreign creature who can't feel emotions, even though I can! I can feel! I'm not a hopeless case.." Ink was..crying; I sighed, rubbing his skull; I supposed that not even Ink was completely bad.

"I'm sorry you have to put up with that.."

"I just want to be treated decently for once..is that so much to ask?"

It seemed that I had a choice to make: go home and forget this ever happened..or help the person who literally enjoyed torturing me. The choice was obvious.

"I'll treat you decently." I responded; maybe I could have even gotten Ink to be good.

"Wh-what?" Ink couldn't believe what he was hearing; I could hardly believe it, myself.

"You want a friend? You've got one..with conditions."

"Wh-what conditions?"

"One: at least try to be good every once in a while. Two: this isn't going to be a secret thing; I'm telling the others. Three: apologize to Cross. I don't expect you to become good overnight, if you ever do, but that's at least a start."

"..I guess I'll accept that." Ink paused before looking at me. "I'm still going to torture you."

"I know.."

"I guess I can try to be good.."

"That's all I ask."

"Do we have to go see your friends now?"

"No, but sometime today; I don't want them to get the wrong impression if they see me with you."

"I could just erase their memories."

"That would be lying."

"I happen to enjoy lying."

"I happen to enjoy being honest."

"That's weird."

"Perhaps to you."

"I will never understand you."

"That's fine."

"So..I kinda have to do something.." Ink tried to change the subject. 

"After we see the others."

"Darn it."

"It won't be too bad."

"Maybe for you."

"Come on."

I opened a portal home, finding myself standing in the living room; Ink gave the impression that he wanted to be literally anywhere else, but I wasn't going to let him go that easily! After ringing the bells, I set the unwilling artist on a couch and waited for the others to come, which they did. The next ten minutes contained a myriad of confusion and questions, but in the end, everything was absolutely fine! I was just considered a bit more insane for even thinking of my weird idea - which I didn't mind - and Ink wasn't allowed in the house ever again unless something changed, such as his addiction to torture. Overall, it wasn't so bad, and when Ink was finally granted permission to leave, he took his chance and ran, probably wondering about the consequences of what he had just done.

I was, as well..

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean new friend..?

Thanks for reading my possibly friendly writing!

Bye!