Chapter 1 | His Phobias

Ink sat on his bed after a long day. The stars twinkled in the perfect night sky as the shining light from the moon came throught Ink's window. Him and the other Star Sanses had gotten into another fight with the 'Bad Guys' as they called themself. Ink ironiclly thought Moon Sanses sounded a lot better and less..... evillier? Was that a word? Most likely not. Ink didn't care though.

...Not like he was able to care at all without drinking literal paint. How fun!

Talking about drinking them... He should drink them since his emotions were running low and, even with how tired he was, he wouldn't sleep.

Well more like he couldn't but ,whatever, it's not like this will be the first time he didn't get any sleep for three days straight. (A/N: I mean he's not straight, actually he's the gayest shit I've ever seen so that might have something to do with it)

"Shut up Author you're annoying."  (;–; Wow rude much?)

(Did I mention Ink could hear the creators' voice in this story? No? You know now! Well since I'm kinda? a creator too, he can sometimes hear me. Error also can but I like annoying Ink more)

"Go away and tend to your youtube channel or whatever that is. I'm gonna have to go refill my vials. Oh and I know you could do it in a hand wave if you wanted but you're an asshole. You like to see me suffer so you won't do it. Also stop. No more. Where are your parents? Who are your parents?! I'mma call child proctective services! You're sick."

(Ouch but hey! That's the truth I need daily drama from fan-fictions or I'll starve... -Anyway! Back to the story with /hopefully/ no more of this pointless intrupptings)

Ink stood up. He hadn't bothered to change the clothing he was wearing. It was dirty, covered in blood, his own paints, whatever the hell Nightmare had on him –Black goopy mess– dripping down his several layers of clothing, it was also tattered in cuts both big and small. Thanks to Error's strings and Killer's knife attacks. At least Horror wasn't there this time and his axe didn't completely rip Ink's clothing up. He swung that axe so carefree even Ink was hoping he wouldn't hit his other teammates with it.

Wait- wouldn't that be a good thing-

'Uhhm... What was I about to do again?' Ink looked at what he was holding.

Oh, uh... Right! He had to go refill his vials!

.....Where did he go to refill them, again?

'The Anti-void! Yeah! O-oh... The a-anti-void..... Where there was only white for miles, a never ending blankness. The creators never talked when he went there. Nothing but him and the quietness of that place.' Even thinking of going back there was going to give ink a panic attack. Sometimes... Sometimes he considered just, you know, not refilling the vials. Letting go of whatever emotions they made him feel. But then... whenever he went too long without taking his vials...

He simply turned into a MONSTER. He was soulless. He didn't even know if he could die. He was emotionless. Nothing he felt was real. And when the feelings that came from drinking paint left, he... turned into something he always regretted when he drank the vials again.

But that was who... WHAT he was without his damned fake emotions.

A soulless being. A thing worse than the countless Floweys. An anomaly. A sick creature. A Glitch.

'Pfft... No, no. That would be insulting ERROR! He's better. He does what is needed to mantain the blance. While all I do is tip it over constantly. Helping creators. Pushing them past their limit to make more worlds. More AUs. More AnOmAlyS. I didn't even known about it until recently! What kind of Protector doesn't know about an important detail like that?! No... I'm no protector. Dream and Blue are. I'm just a puppet for the creators. A willing puppet even. Just so I won't be FORGETTEN.'

Oh. Back to what he was gonna do.

He grabbed Broomie from the corner he'd left it. It was almost broken. "Poor Broomie! Don't worry I'll fix you-! uh, after I'm done refilling my vials." Ink hugged Broomie to his chest. Funny, how he stood in the middle of his room, talking and hugging a brush sized nearly the same height as him as if the brush was a person.

He giggled to himself. Did he take too much of the yellow vial? Again? How many times had it been? It seemed as he enjoyed overdosing yellow a lot since he did it even without noticing. Or was he just insane and blaming his crazy giggling and talking on the vials?

...The later sounded more likely as what was left of his yellow vial was the same amount as the other ones.

He just shuggred his shoulders and swiped across the floor with Broomie. A black ink portal appeared.

Normally, Ink wasn't hesitant to dive into his portals. But now... said portal was gonna lead him straight to the Anti-void. While Error was in it. That's where he would go after battles. He also used to go into Outertale after the fights ended but Ink had found him there once. Now Error randomly dropped in Outertale, hoping Ink wouldn't find him.

Before, when he went to the Anti-void so he could fill his vials, he always made sure Error wasn't there. That Error was too busy to notice him breaking down at the sight of the white and blank space. It would give away his weakness. It would mean Nightmare and his gang had an oppurtanity to get under his (non-existent) skin.

'It couldn't be t-that bad, right? Error has to be sleeping. It's 3 AM and we had a fight with eachother this evening. He won't see me. He won't notice my need to get the vials refilled... But what if he does? What if Error notices how scared I'm of  that place? What if he finds out what the vials meant, and destroys them? I would be an easy target. But if I don't take the risk... I would  have to see Blue and Dream in that state. They would find out.

They would find out I had no emotions on my own.

They would find out I didn't.... I couldn't care about them.

They would find out I was soulless.

No. I won't let that happen. No way. I don't want to be forgotten by them too!'

He had decided. He would HAVE to take the risk. Before it was too late. Before Blue and Dream found out. They couldn't leave him behind. He would go insane.

With a sigh, he jumped into the ink portal. Dissapearing from view.

As soon as he left, Dream knocked on the door. He got worried when no one answered. Blue had clearly heard Ink talking to the paintbrush he had named Broomie in the middle of the night and then Blue woke Dream up to complain.

Dream opened the door. Only to see the room with no signs of Ink or Broomie.

The only thing that was worthy of attention was the black inky portal closing and vanishing into the baby blue rug on the floor.

He could only catch a glance at the white and emtpy space before the portal had closed.

'But why would he go to the anti-void? He told us numerous times he hates there for some reason. Also Error lived there– WAIT, ERROR LIVES THERE!' Dream panicked knowing neither himself or Blue had any means to get into the Destroyer's propety.

The only thing on Dream's mind was why the hell Ink would go there knowing Error could use his fear of the place to kil- get rid of him for good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Error did nothing other than laying down on the white floor -if you could even call it that- of the Anti-void. He liked it here. It was quiet and empty of colors. Just how he loved it.

He was so tired he hadn't bothered to take off his paint dripping clothes. Seriously, Ink's paint was more annoying than it was harmful. Error knew Ink had a paint that would burn the person it touches but he'd only use that in emergencys. Error found Ink prefered to use his paint to tie him and the other gang members up.

Error honestly couldn't tell why Ink was trying so hard not to use the painful paint. Maybe bad memories? Who knows. (Well I do and Ink also does but whateves man)

Or maybe he just didn't want to leave lasting damage on them?

Pfffft! Who was he joking with? Ink knew Error was destroying to keep the blance.

Error couldn't belive at first when Ink asked what the blance was. How could he not know?! He was the leader of the Star Sanses! Ok, sure, he had a fish's memory but no one could forget something like that!

Error had always thought Ink was trying to get him pissed when he asked why Error destroyed AUs. It wouldn't have crossed Error's mind that Ink had honestly no clue.

So when Error explained what the blance was to Ink, he was sure Ink would stop creating as much. Just stop, take a break or something!

But nooooo, Ink still had the guts to act like he did before!

Creating without stopping.

Going days without sleeping or eating just so he could help make an AU.

Error didn't understand his reasoning. He could forgive Ink for tipping over the blance so much before he knew it even existed. But now? He damn well knew what would happen if he didn't stop. Ink was still tipping over the blance, maybe even worse than before.

What was his darn problem?!?

Error didn't know also he was too angry to try and figure it out.

'Damn him and his AUs! Damn him and his colors! Damn him and everything in his fucking life! Damn his short height which made him pout when he was teased over it! DAMN INK AND HIS CUTE RAINBOW FACE—!!!!! Wait....'

"CuTE???!!!" His shout echoed in the anti-void. Thankfully there was no one else to hear it but himself.

//SOMEBODY'S GOT A CRUSH!!!//

/ERRORINK SITTING IN A TREE K.I.S.S.I.N.G~/

///OH SHIT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE ERROR! YOU'VE BOUGHT THE CURSE OF SHIPPERS UPON US!///

/////Shut up all of you. I don't want your crazy shipping here!/////

////ERRINK FOR LIFE!!!////

\\\IT'S ERRORINK, STUPID!\\\

\\I Gotta agree, Errink sounds a bit better\\

\NO! ERRORINK IS THE OFFICAL SHIP NAME!\

Oh... And the creators. How great.

Error just wanted to curl up and die in a hole for all he cared at this point.

His face got noticably darker, cheeks flushed with blue.

His error signs floting around him multiplied. He glitched like crazy. Finally he lost his visions to the error signs covering his eyes.

\\\\\You little shits! Stop! He's gonna crash!\\\\\

///Oh... Sorry?///

\\Mhhmmm..... Sorry.....\\

\\\\\Besides Author told us that Ink's going to have to come here to... Uhhh you know! Something Error doesn't need to worry about!\\\\\

/Oh rightttt~ Maybe something will happen between them when he arrives!/

\\\It won't happen if you keep teasing Error to the point he'd crash. Ink would just press reboot and leave after he'd refill them.\\\

\Sadly you're right ;–;\

\\\I'm always right you just can't see it\\\

Error sighed. He wasn't understanding anything with the useless brickering they had started again. It would last a while, thankfully, by now he'd learned how to tune them down. They were nothing but a song stuck in his head for him.

The only thing he could catch was that Ink is gonna come to refill.....something. He din't know what. He would have to wait and see.

What time was it anyway? There was no way to tell the passing of time here in the Anti-void. Ink could be coming in here at 3 AM for all he knew.

///Oh wow. He's spot on.///

'Wait it's actually 3 AM and he's coming here to- I don't know! Refill something! What's he gonna refill, his glass of water because he couldn't sleep?'

...if he was being honest, he expected that sort of thing from Ink. The problem was that there wasn't anything other then his blue string with doll- Oh *cough* I mean puppets! Hanging down from the non-existent ceiling.

He guessed he only needed to see it and started to fake being asleep. A gut feeling told him Ink would run away the second after seening him awake (Totally not me! What are you talking about???)

Error watched as a portal made out of ink appeared. He couldn't see well without his glasses but wearing them would surely alert Ink of him being awake.

After a few minutues of nothing happening, the skeleton Error wanted to see jumped out of the portal, closing it behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Ink's Point Of View (POV)*

I sighed as I went out of the portal. Ah shit, Here we go again..

Thankfully my remaining emotions were quickly running out, so no panic attacks this time. Yay!

I looked around the blank and endless void surranding me. My eyes changing shapes and colors rapidly before finally settling on little white dots, guess I fully ran out of feelings.

It was weird, literally running out of emotions.

I couldn't feel anything, only the emptiness that remained after the colors drained.

I couldn't care about the pain much. It was a slight annoyance once the emptiness settled in.

Still, I liked the pain sometimes. Well aren't I weird man...

But enough of that, time to do what I came here to do!

...What was that again...?

I looked around again. Out of the corner of my eyes (what eyes? You're a skeleton.) (Shut it for a min won't you Author?!?) I spotted Error lying on the ground (But the anti-void kinda doesn't ha-) (SHUT UP!) of the anti-void.

Is he dead?

Wait I would be dead if he were dead, too.

So he's sleeping then.

Why was I in the anti-void...?

Better question, how was I in the anti-void without breaking down?

Oh... Right emotionless. I came here to get the vials refilled. I'm so dumb ;-; ....

*Error's POV*

Is that idiot going to stand there until the end of the multiverse? Do something, damnit! My back fricking hurts!

Not gonna lie, he looks kinda creepy not moving and standing there with his eye-lights as white dots.

Since when does Ink have white eye-lights?

Wait! He's moving! Shit, he's coming closer to me! I'm asleep! You hear me?! ASLEEP! No, actually, don't hear me! I'm in dreamland!

Pretending to be asleep was harder than I thought...

Oh why don't you go away already! I'm gonna give myself away if he continues to stares at me like that! His eyes are damn scary!

I can't belive I'm actually saying this but, I prefer his eyes as red targets. Even the 'I'm gonna murder you and your entire family' eyes are better than this!

*No one's POV / aka mine*

Ink stared at Error sleep(Not really) for a little while.

Then, as if a second ago he wasn't staring at someone he thought was asleep, Ink walked past Error. Heading towards the unknown (Anyone getting that referance?) Well, unknown for Error at least.

Error slowly turned around wih his eyes tightly closed so he was facing the direction Ink was going. Ink stopped and turned his head to the side to see Error. Ink just narrowed his eyes for a tense minute before he finally continued what he was gonna do.

With Ink facing the other way, Error slowly opened his left eye-socket (don't ask why it's the left one idk even myself)

Error watched as Ink took off his sacthel thing and took one of the empty glass vials. Ink held the vial away from himself, waiting for something to happen. Error didn't know what Ink was waiting for tho. He just knew Ink looked kinda stupid and cute at that moment.

Then, as if it knew Error questioned what Ink was doing, red paint fell from the anti-voids non-existant sky.

Error eyed what was happening questiongly as the glass vial filled with the red paint. Ink closed the vial with a heart shaped cap, placing it in the same exact place on his belt.

Error stared at him as Ink did this with all the other empty vials, each one a diffrent color. Then, as if he forgot to do something important, he suddenly took them out of their places and placed them gently on the ground (I'm not even gonna bother anymore) before sitting down himself. Error had the urge to give up the act and shout at Ink to not drink literal paint before he died of poisoning, yet he did nothing but watch as Ink chugged down half of the diffrent colored vials.

Error found himself surprised when Ink's normal eye shapes and colors came back, only to change into an orange exclamation mark and a little purple oval when Ink blinked because Ink found himself surrended by white.

Ink suddenly got up, looking like he wanted nothing more than getting out of the anti-void. Error noticed Ink's breathing was frantic and ragged as he reached for the vials scattered around the ground (BUT- Skeletons don't need to- I give up T^T) and placed them all into their places.

Ink reached out towards the brush he had named Broomie, only to fall on his knees as inky tears started to drop down his eye-sockets.

Error felt his soul clench and squirm when he saw the tears staining his beautiful Ink's face. He was about to get up and drop the act when Ink's face started to blush rainbow from crying too much, but...

Ink started to mumble to himself. Error decided to not get his attention to hear what cuased Ink to have a panic attack out of nowhere. Wow, being a jerk huh?

"N-No... it's s-s-so white.... And blank.... a-and empty!"

"W-why did I think drinking the vials while I was still in the anti-void was a good idea!?"

"Right- I wasn't even thinking!"

"P-please... I n-need out of here!"

"Dream! Blue! Someone! Anyone! I-I-I *hic* don't w-want to be here!"

*But Nobody came...

"Nononononono! Not AgAin! NO! P-Please... I don't- I don't want to b-be....."

"I don't want to be forgotten..."

"I don't want to be left alone!"

"I JUST WANT TO BE SOMEONE!"

And just like that his soul was gone.

Just like that, he was free of his unfinished AU.

Ink clenched his skull, hoping to forget again. He didn't need to remember why he did it. He didn't want to know why he did it.

He didn't- He was the reason he didn't have a soul.

It was because he ripped it apart with his own hands.

He didn't need to know that. He didn't want to know that.

Why couldn't he forget again?!? He was fine never remembering his past. Hell, he didn't remember what he was doing minutes ago!

Error couldn't stand seeing Ink cracking his own skull with his bare hands. He didn't want to see Ink crying with his white dot eye-lights shaking as tears poured down his eye-sockets. He didn't want to only watch as Ink started coughing and choking on the black ink he threw up.

Error had enough. He stood up and didn't waste a single second before apparoaching Ink. He couldn't leave Ink alone like this. His soul wouldn't let him.

There was no sounds other than Ink crying and choking and Error shuffling down right next to Ink. The creators were quiet. The author was quiet. Error himself didn't talk as he was sure Ink couldn't hear him over his crying. So, Error did the only thing he could think of at the moment.

He hugged Ink. He didn't care about his phobia. What mattered was Ink. The only thing that Error cared about right now was Ink calming down.

After a while he tightened the hug as Ink stopped chocking on his sobs. Now, Ink just cryed quietly as Error held him. Soon Error started whispering things to Ink to calm him down more.

"It's gonna be ok."

"Don't worry I'm here."

"I promise I won't forget you."

"See? There's nothing wrong."

"It's alright. Nothing can hurt you as long as I'm here as Ink fell into a dreamless slumber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*No one's POV*

Error didn't wanna get up. He was content, laying on the floor while snuggling something in his arms. Gosh, he could stay like this forever...

Then suddenly the thing he held in his arms softly let out a snore.

'Wait...' Error thought to himself. 'Since when did pillows or my puppets snore?' With that thought, Error opened his eyes to see...

Ink being held tightly by Error's own arms as Ink softly snored and murmured in his deep sleep. Ink had bags under his eyes and his face was a slight rainbow, nearly unnoticable. But Error noticed with how close his face was to Ink's.

Error blushed. (I like making Error's blush yellow but since his blush is blue cannonly, it is also blue in this story. Unlike my YT channel where I make Error blush yellow)

'Why is Ink sleeping next to me in the anti-void? Also why does he look like he cried–' Error stopped himself as memories of yesterday came back to him. When had he fallen asleep...?

More importantly, how much time had passed? Not like Error had anything else to do other than destroying AUs, tho he was sure Ink had some kind of outing with Dream and Blue. Not that he stalked Ink in anyway! He was just passing by when he heard Blue talk with Carrot (Swap! Paps) about it. Why are you looking at him like that? He definently wasn't stalking Dream and Blue to figure out Ink's scheulde! He just got bored when Ink didn't come to fight Error that day and randomly opened one-way windows to random AUs.

Which happened to be Underswap and Dreamtale.

'Yep. Complately random. What are you accusing me of?' Error thought towards the creators and the author.

'Keep telling yourself that, bud.'

'Shut up, will you?!'

'Ouch why is everyone rude these days?'

'Go away'

'Fine! Don't let me keep me from your Inky!'

'Since when did I say Ink was mine-?!'

*Slight flashback to last chapter*

'Oh. OH. Never bring that up again.' Error finally turned his attention back to Ink. He smiled as Ink let out another quiet, gentle snore.

'Heh. Cute.' Error blushed as he grinned and hugged Ink tighter. Ink let out a soft purr like sound as he snuggled harder into Error's chest.

Error stopped grinning as he felt his glitching becoming rapider as the blush covered his skull.

"WaIt... SiNcE whEn wAs InK a cAt?"

~*Take two*~

Error kept himself from crashing. He was going to enjoy this moment as much as he could before Ink woke up. Error knew that as soon as Ink woke up, it was back to fighting. It didn't matter that Error didn't want to fight anymore. All Error wanted was to wake up next to Ink everyday.

'Like that could ever happen. Whatever, I'm going to savor this moment to it's fullest.'

Error closed his eyes as he let himself drift back to sleep, Ink still asleep on top of him.

~Time skip brought to you by GaY rAinbOws and Windows 7 crashing sound~

Error woke up again. This time it was because he felt someone enter the anti-void. They were awfully near. Error looked down to see Ink still asleep on his chest. 'Huh. Must of been pretty tired to sleep this long.' Not like he knew how long it's been. He was just listening to his mental clock. Even though him being in the anti-void for so long had slightly broken it.

Error heard the footsteps of someone approaching near. If they didn't at least try to muffle their footsteps, maybe they meant no harm? Or they just didn't know Ink and Error were here.

Even if the first one seemed more likely, Ink was exhausted and unable to fight. He was also asleep and unlikely to wake up even when faced with the sounds of a battle. He was really a deep sleeper indeed. Error had to fight for both of them. Which meant being more on edge than normal.

Finally, Error saw the source of footsteps.