"Wait, seriously?" Cross asked, excitedly.

Nightmare sighed. "Yeah. To hell with me, I guess."

"So, you're coming with us?"

"Mm." Nightmare nodded.

The group celebrated, Dust and Killer high-fiving each other and Horror throwing his axe into the air. Cross narrowly dodged a falling axe before running up to Nightmare and giving him a hug. Nightmare stumbled a bit before standing awkwardly with a Cross stuck to him.

Then, Swap finally caught up. He gazed at the group celebrating and cocked a non-existent eyebrow. "Wha... Why are you guys so excited?"

Dust looked over and smiled. "Boss is coming with us!"

"Wait, what? Really?" Swap regained the spring in his step and ran over. "You're seriously going to come with us?"

"Don't abuse this moment or I'll change my mind." Nightmare quickly blurted.

But Swap didn't seem to care, running off to find the others and spread the good news.

~~~

Dream couldn't believe his 'ears'.

After managing to self-heal himself (which took five-ever), Blue came running to him and started blabbing about Nightmare changing his mind. When they found Ink and had gotten back to the group, Dream stood before his brother.

They stared at each other as the dripping skeleton uttered those fabled words.

"I'm coming home."

Dream couldn't hide his happiness, his relief. He went to hug Nightmare, but his brother backed away. "Okay, I agreed to your stupid plan, but stay away from me."

Dream didn't mind.

~~~

When they arrived back home, Nightmare sucked in a slow breathe. Before him was the tree feelings. The group stood back as both brothers stood in front of its ancient wood, reminiscing in their childhood.

"Hey, Nightmare. Remember the time we watched the stars on this very hill?" Dream whispered.

Nightmare stared up into the tree's leaves. "Yeah."

"Or the time you told me about the constellations?"

"Yeah."

Dream ran a hand through the markings of the tree, tracing them quietly. His smile widened as he turned to the other. "Well, ready?"

"For what?"

"Well, getting that tar off of you, silly."

Nightmare froze. "...You can do that?"

"It's what I was trying to tell you since we saw you in pain."

Nightmare didn't know how to tell them this, especially right now, but he had to. "I don't want to change."

"What?" Dream's smile faltered just a fraction.

"I don't want to change, Dream. I don't."

Now his brother was frowning. "Why...?"

"Well, I like who I am right now. I'm fine with the decisions I made. Besides, if you wanted me to just be your brother, then I can't. Not after what I went through."

Dream stared at his brother was a long, long time. His expression could be summarized into a word. Hurt. Why he wore that face didn't make sense to Nightmare, but it didn't bother him at all. Dream just had to accept that the past is the past. There is no going back.

"I miss you." Dream said.

Nightmare looked to the tree quietly. He hadn't done this in front of anyone before, but he thought now was a good time to. Slowly, the sludge began to withdraw. It rolled up his arms and legs, disappearing into the pearly white crevices of his bones before there was none left. He became significantly shorter, no taller than Dream, but continued to wear that distant look on his face.

Dream's eye-sockets widened as small tears gathered at the edges of his gaze. He stared face to face with the person he loved so dearly back then.

His brother.

"I know you do." Nightmare finally replied, turning to Dream. His golden crown around his head gleamed in the fading light of the sun as night began to fall over the land. Nightmare held his arms out.

Dream ran to him and embraced him so, so tightly.

The others watched in astonishment as the two brothers had their moment.

"Wow..." Horror murmured. Dust whistled.

"He's so short." Killer blurted. That received a few snickers from the gang.

"I heard that." Nightmare hissed quietly at them, glaring daggers at Killer. The skeleton hid behind Cross to escape Nightmare's stare.

"Feel my paaaaain." Dream whispered in Nightmare's 'ear', smiling jokingly.

"Oh god no." Nightmare shook his head. "Nope. I refuse to stay this short just so you can get a laugh."

Ink started chanting. "One of us. One of us." Blue began to join in as the others started laughing.

Nightmare pulled away from the hug. "NOPE."

Even Dream was chanting at this point, all the star sanses smiling goofily. "One of us. One of us."

Nightmare's friends were basically laughing so hard, some had fallen on the ground.

Nightmare is now regretting his decisions.