(Warning: lore dump, scroll down to skip)

You hauled yourself onto the couch, falling onto it with an 'oof' and heaving a sigh into the empty space around you. You were just about to get comfortable when you heard a small sound off in the distance from down the thousands of halls it took to get to Horror's room. You sat in agony, listening to the small tinkle of a little baby bell. You weren't questioning how you were able to hear it from here. Your head pounded, and you really wanted to scream. Oh, you just wanted to rip the hair out of your head. But it was Horror. And you liked Horror. You could never be mad at Horror. He didn't do anything wrong. With some time and reluctance, you forced yourself onto your feet and went to see what he needed. See, a lot of things had happened as of late. Like, a LOT of things.

Nightmare had recently hired on a large recruitment of workers, yourself included. You were hired on a bit earlier than just the average ducklings, though, so you were able to meet the hotshots and get to know your way around the castle before the big stuff happened. Er, so, you've been here for like 6 months. Pretty chill. And stressful. You'd felt a lot of emotions since you started working here.

Right, so, Nightmare launched this huge attack front around a month ago. Like, his ultimate plan. There've been a lot of hiccups, though, that he wasn't prepared for. Mostly because a lot of mistakes keep getting made. Big stuff.

Anyway, one of those hiccups really threw a wrench in his plan. The last mission you, Killer, and Error had been sent out to steal information. Long story short, yeah that did NOT happen. Y'see, Killer sort of... majorly fucked up. Everything. Everything that could've possibly gone wrong did. We were caught, didn't retrieve the information, Error has been in enemy hands ever since, the information is now being put on heavy guard... listen, it really couldn't get much worse. At this point, a super volcano might as well go off and even that could make this better.

But because of that, Nightmare had to bring out his army of Dark Papyrus' to fix things. Like, the ones that usually look over the castle. And he couldn't really spare many hands to look over the castle- Dust and Killer were too valuable and all those brand new ducklings just didn't know the castle well enough or what they needed to do- so you and Horror were sent to look over and maintain the entire place. Alone.

Don't worry, it gets worse! Horror got sick. He's been sick a whole week. You've been managing the entire castle and taking care of Horror and multitasking doing some off the field tasks for Nightmare for a week.

So, that was your situation. Yay! Lucky you!

   (Hi! Skip lore dump here!)

"Hey, Horror," you kicked open the door to his room and lazily dragged yourself over. Your head lolled in his direction after you'd plopped down onto the end of his bed. A solemn, tired expression had drawn itself over your face. "What's up?"

"You look... bad." Horror commented, concern coating his voice.

You cracked a small smile in response, relaxing. "Thanks, new look."

He frowned at your sad humor. "You have," he gently pointed to his eye in reference to yours, "bags."

You narrowed your eyes at him, still smiling. "Hey, I'm not exactly the only one who looks like shit here."

He huffed, smiling a bit too now.

"So, what's up?" You stood and grabbed his empty glass off his bed stand, planning on getting him some more water. You'd take up a whole pitcher to his room, but you never managed to find them. "Hungry?"

He looked down at his sheets. "Little..."

You squinted. That was odd. It looked like he was... avoiding you. "Something wrong?"

"Mm... when's... the last time... you ate...?"

You blinked. Slowly. Once. Then, twice. "Why... are you asking that?" Your expression hinted at an anxious curiosity, like he was about to break bad news. You could tell.

He shifted in his bed, sitting up. He grabbed the alarm clock sitting on his bed stand and twisted his wrist, turning it into your view.

"Yeah, it's... 12. What about it...?" You stared at the time with uncertainty as to what he was getting at.

"AM."

"AM," you repeated, mulling that over in your brain. The clock, in fact, said AM in small lettering at the end. "Yeah, it's 12 A..." And then it clicked. "Oh."

He stared at you.

"Oh, wow."

"You... did this yesterday too."

You shifted your weight from one foot to the other. You hadn't eaten all day. And yesterday you hadn't really found time until you (were forcefully) sat down with Horror. An awkward silence followed.

"You... need help..."

"...I, um," your eyes drifted to the glass still in your hand. "I'll be right back."

"Rabbit." Horror stopped you in your tracks. "Come here."

"Come on, big guy, cut me a break here-" He pulled you into a hug when you got close enough. You felt him rip the glass out of your hand and watched him set it aside, but you didn't fight him on the matter. It was warm. It was cozy. You felt so tired. He combed his hand through your hair, and you felt your stress melt away instantaneously, relaxing and finally just... giving in.

"Goodnight, rabbit." He planted a kiss on your forehead right before you passed out.