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They managed to find each other alone.
Ink hadn’t really been having much of a good day in the first place, but this was the cherry on top.
Nightmare’s fist was balled up in the collar of the jacket he wore, and the shorter was yelling something. They’d started arguing about Dream again, but somehow, they’d shifted from,
“You’re on the wrong side,” to, “Shut the fuck up and kiss me!”
Even as the words slipped out, Ink regretted them. And even then, he was counting on only disgust to get Nightmare away from him.
He hadn’t expected Nightmare to actually do it.
Nightmare pulled him forward and harshly kissed him, starting and staying rough with him, and Ink found himself actually getting into it.
They fought with their mouths, taking out every frustration in another kiss, every worry and fear with a tangle of their tongues.
And every time they’d been unappreciated, they pulled each other closer, and closer.
Finally, they parted, panting for breath, opening their eyes to stare at each other, when they realized.
Ink wrenched himself from Nightmare’s grasp, turning away, holding his face in his hands, and screaming incoherent words.
He’d just made out with his boss’s brother, the one that the entirety of Justice Reigns was after, and by definition, his enemy.
Ink screamed a little more.
Nightmare did much the same.
~~~~
The next time it happened was in an abandoned monster city in some desolate au.
Ink looked up at the sound of footsteps to see Nightmare storming towards him.
He immediately held out his left hand to summon his brush, but Nightmare grabbed his wrist with one hand, fisted the collar of his shirt in the other, and shoved him up against the nearest building.
“What did you do to me?” He demanded, and Ink scowled, twisting in Nightmare’s grip. He stayed pinned against the wall.
“I didn’t do anything, let go-!”
Nightmare gave a noise of frustration, then proceeded to slam their teeth together.
Oh.
Oh.
Every sense of reasonable thought was now long gone, and replacing it was a burning feeling washing down from his head to his feet. He moved into it, letting Nightmare lead, and when Nightmare pressed their bodies together, he may have whimpered, receiving a growl in return.
He was on fire with a strange sort of anger, and it felt so good, and if it wasn’t Nightmare on him like this, Ink would totally be up for doing this again and again-
“Wait,” He pulled back and tried to speak, but Nightmare simply pushed his head against the wall and kissed him again.
The fact that it was indeed Nightmare pressed against him didn’t seem so important anymore.
~~~~
The third time it happened, Nightmare was trying to escape from the Justice Reigns castle without getting caught.
Note the word, “trying”.
He turned a corner and proceeded to run right into Ink.
They fell together, Ink letting out a yelp of pain when they hit the ground. Nightmare pushed himself up onto his hands, sprawled on top of Ink, wearing an expression of panic.
“Hey, watch where you’re- Nightmare?” Ink cut off his angry snap with confusion, before his expression darkened and he opened his mouth to yell.
“Dre- mmph..!”
The yell morphed into a surprised moan, Nightmare having kissed him again.
This one was fast, almost desperate and panicked, and Ink was having a hard time keeping up.
All too soon, Ink felt, Nightmare was pulling back, but then he hissed,
“Let me lead, dammit,” and plunged Ink back under a whirlwind of angry and panicked emotions that was the next kiss.
“Don’t stop,” Ink found himself whispering between kisses, clutching tightly to Nightmare’s hood for some semblance of being grounded. It wasn’t working too well.
He was questioned later by a confused Dream as to why he looked so dazed.
~~~~
The next time they met, Ink truly hadn’t been expecting it.
He was with a squadron of Justice Reigns volunteers when his jacket was grabbed from behind and he was shoved in an alley.
Nightmare pinned him to the wall, a half snarl on his face.
“What,” He growled, “are you doing here?”
Ink matched his snarl, anger flaring up at Nightmare’s words.
“We’re here to get the survivors from this au. What’s your excuse?”
Nightmare huffed and stepped away from Ink, still frowning but not as harshly as before. The anger from Ink faded as it did from Nightmare.
“Whatever.”
He turned to leave, but stupid Ink had to open his stupid mouth.
And then say the stupidest thing ever.
“What, no kiss goodbye?”
Nightmare stopped.
He turned around to face Ink, who had gone completely still at his own words.
Then he stepped forward, cupped the side of Ink’s head with one hand, and pressed the softest kiss Ink had ever gotten to his mouth.
He barely had any time to return it when Nightmare stepped back.
Ink opened his eyes to see Nightmare’s face turned away, and then, he was gone.
~~~~
Ink ran through the halls of the Justice Reigns castle, heading for the bottom floor, which no one but Dream, security, and he knew existed.
Where they kept prisoners.
When he reached the door, he calmed himself down, then confidently walked in.
Cells lined the walls, and it was just as one of the JR security guards had told him.
Nightmare, Cross, and Error all sat in separate cells, and Ink wanted to believe that Nightmare looked the tiniest bit happy to see him.
He motioned for the current guard to leave, and when the door closed again, he looked over the imprisoned skeletons.
Error, who although he didn’t know that well, had been fucked up by Blue.
Cross, his once friend, and whom he missed.
And Nightmare, whom he...
Ink grabbed the keys off the far wall and unlocked their cells.
“Get out of here.”
After a brief moment of confusion, Error and Cross ran for the door, but paused when Nightmare didn’t follow.
“Night!” Error gestured towards the door, and Cross copied him, but Nightmare only stood and walked towards Ink.
“Come with us.” Nightmare demanded, despite the stares he was receiving from his friends.
Ink was starting to feel conflicted.
“But, what about- mmph!”
The keys made clanging sounds when they hit the floor, and Ink clutched Nightmare’s hood in both hands, pulling closer and returning the kiss.
Error and Cross stared from the doorway.
“Dream can go fuck himself,” Nightmare pulled back and hissed. “Come with us, Ink. Dream will find a way to get rid of you when he finds out you’re the one who let us go.”
Ink scoffed nervously.
“I’m a multiverse guardian.”
“And Dream thinks he’s a god.”
And after a few moments under Nightmare’s hard stare, Ink nodded and took his hand.
~~~~
Despite everything, Error and Cross had grown used to him walking around their house. He’d played video games with Cross and Nightmare, and sobbed over anime with Error.
But the thing with Nightmare was that Ink had no idea what he was to him.
“He hasn’t said anything to you about it?” Cross asked in disbelief.
“No!” Ink fell backwards from where he was sitting on Cross’s bed, staring up at the ceiling.
“Well, I mean it doesn't surprise me, Nightmare’s not exactly the kind of person to open up about anything.” Error remarked, cuddled into Cross’s side from where they were sitting.
“You guys have been around him longer than I have, what do I do?” Ink groaned, bringing his hands up to cover his face in exasperated hopelessness. Cross shrugged.
“I’d say just be blunt. That’s literally the only language he speaks.”
Well, there was no better time than now.
Cross and Error had gone to bed together while Ink and Nightmare stayed up playing video games.
After getting his bony ass handed to him by Nightmare, more than once, Ink put down his controller and stared at his hands.
“Finally had enough of me kicking your ass?”
Ink didn’t answer, trying to think of how to phrase his next words.
“Ink? What’s up?” Nightmare asked, actually sounding sincere for once.
“I... I just...” Ink looked over at Nightmare helplessly, and Nightmare only looked more worried.
“What’s bothering you?”
“You are!”
At the flash of hurt on Nightmare’s face before he covered it with a hardened expression, Ink backtracked.
“No, not- I'm just confused. Are we dating? Are we friends?”
Nightmare’s expression softened.
“Ink...”
“I really hope we’re dating because I want to do all that gross mushy couple stuff Error and Cross do, and I really want to be able to kiss you because kissing you is the best thing ever-”
“Ink!”
At Nightmare’s shout, Ink stopped, and if he had a SOUL, it’d probably be beating out of his chest.
“Y-Yeah?”
“Shut the fuck up and kiss me.”
So he did.
He reached out and held Nightmare’s face in his hands, and kissed him.
He pressed soft kisses to Nightmare’s mouth, his cheeks, his forehead, just beneath his eyes.
And beneath it all, Nightmare smiled.