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“But, papa!”
“No buts, I said you could not go. End of this conversation.”
“But everyone’s going to go! Palette is going to go, Goth and his siblings are going to go, even Blueprint is going to go! Why can’t I go?!”
“Because I said so, now go wash your hands, dinner is almost ready.”
Even without fully turning, Nightmare could see from the corner of his eye that PaperJam was still standing at the kitchen entrance, his hands still covered in chalk and natural dirt from playing outside and not moving to get them clean at all. He had a scowl in his brow and a pout he always did when upset ever since he was a baby.
“Dad would let me go.” He muttered.
“But he is not here, I am, and I do not give you my permission to go to that sleepover.”
Silence, only the quiet sizzling of pancakes against the pan echoing loudly.
“I’m gonna call him.”
“What did you say, young man?”
“I said I’m gonna call dad! If you won’t let me go to the sleepover, he will!”
“I do not think it’s appropriate to call him now, you know he had a long week of work and traveling is just as exhausting-“
“Then let me go to the sleepover!”
“Enough!” He turned suddenly and slammed the plate with a tower of pancakes on the table hard enough to make all the cutlery shake. “You cannot go. End of story. Now go get clean for dinner.”
For a few tense seconds, PaperJam glared at Nightmare, the ink that made his body was restless; then with a loud groan he turned his back to him and stormed out of the room. Distantly, Nightmare heard a door being slammed, and then silence again.
He let out a weary sigh and turned off the stove. He took a seat at the table and tried to have dinner by himself —with PaperJam’s tower of pancakes sitting in front of an empty chair. It was uncomfortable, and a part of himself felt guilty, after all, it was just normal for children of PaperJam’s age to get excited over parties with friends, let alone the amazing experience of staying at a friend’s house to spend the night with no adults nearby, it was a kind of freedom he knew every child got excited about, to be able to get away with little harmless mischiefs like staying up past bed time.
But he couldn’t allow that if it meant that PaperJam would be at risk.
If Error was here, he’d have immediately said yes and would have dropped PaperJam at whatever house the slumber party would be and he wouldn’t call him for the rest of the night, he’d have said to Nightmare that he’d be fine, it was just a kids party and they wouldn’t leave the house, they’d be safe all the time.
But, well, that’s exactly what Nightmare was worried about. All the children would be in the same place, confined to a house with a family he didn’t know anything about. PaperJam had told him the name of the kid’s house —Jack, was it? Or Jason? No, it was definitely Jack— and he knew he was a good friend of PaperJam, he’d seen him a few times at school when it was his turn to pick him up, he knew he was a good kid.
But the rest of his family? He knew nothing about them, does this kid have siblings? What are his parents like?
There was no way he’d let his child stay at a strangers house just like that.
The rest of the night went by like a blur; he cleaned the kitchen, put the abandoned pile of pancakes in a plastic container and left it at PaperJam’s door —still closed and locked— and retired to his office to review the drafts of the week. It was hard to concentrate though, his mind going back to that slumber party every time he got too distracted from his drafts; he hated seeing PaperJam upset. From the first moment he met PaperJam, when he had just started dating Error and the glitchy skeleton introduced him to his little baby, Nightmare swore he’d do everything in his power to keep that child safe and smiling, he’d do anything to ensure nothing ever tainted him or dulled those eyelights full of life.
They’d been through this a couple times before —an excursion to the local museum, a sports competition, a visit to a classmate’s house to finish a school project— it wasn’t the first time PaperJam was left alone somewhere new without Nightmare, Error or even Ink to look after him, but it was always something that was utterly necessary, stuff Nightmare couldn’t refuse because in the end, who forbids his child from going to events that will help with his development as an useful monster for society?
Besides, all those times, Error was there to reassure him that he’d be fine being away from home for just a couple of hours.
But these weren’t just a couple hours, a slumber party implied a full night away from home, away from safety, if something were to happen, he wouldn’t be there to make sure nothing happened to his child. But how could he explain this to PaperJam? He was just a child, innocent and blissfully unaware of all the things that could go wrong if he isn’t there to protect him, to him, the whole world is still a safe place to explore and discover with friends and nothing but giggles and fun in the way, and Nightmare wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible, but as he grew older and wanted more from the outside world, it would get harder and harder to do so without making him hate him-
Bling!
Nightmare blinked, the shrill sound breaking through his skull and —thankfully— stopping his spiraling thoughts. He looked at his phone, noticing the lit screen and took it to check who’d sent him a message at this ungodly hour.
Yarn_Loon: Hey Night. Everything ok at home?
Nightmare sighed and rubbed his temples, then started typing.
Octopus: Everything is fine, I just had a discussion with PaperJam. He called you, didn’t he?
Yarn_Loon: Yeah, he did. I couldn’t speak with him for long tho, you know planes and shit.
Octopus: I’m sorry, I told him you would be busy and not to call you.
Yarn_Loon: It’s fine don’t worry, told him I’d talk to him tomorrow when I’m home.
Octopus: What time is your landing, by the way?
Yarn_Loon: Around midday. I’ll text you when we take off.
…
Yarn_Loon: By the way, how’re you holding up? I know how you get when PJ’s on one of his moods.
Nightmare rubbed his face in mild annoyance, very aware that he couldn’t lie to Error even if he tried.
Octopus: I’m fine, don’t you worry. I just have to wait until he’s not mad at me anymore.
Yarn_Loon: What did you guys argued about, anyway?
He took a moment to think if it’d be better if he told Error now or until he was home. Admitting that he made PaperJam upset just because he was an overprotective worrywart was humiliating enough, so maybe telling him now that he could hide behind a text was a better option.
Octopus: PaperJam got invited to a sleepover at Jack’s house.
There, it was out, done. He watched for a few minutes as the three dots that indicated Error was typing appeared and disappeared more than once. He wrung his hands together, waiting for a response; he knew he didn’t need to say more for Error to understand where the problem with that was, and it was always kind of uncomfortable when he had to admit these things to his husband, but it was necessary. The harm was done with PaperJam, yes, but maybe Error could make him feel a little bit better about his decision, no matter how exaggerated he could find it.
Yarn_Loon: Jack is the human kid from his class, right?
He was somewhat avoiding the bigger matter, which surely meant Error preferred to talk it over in person, and Nightmare didn’t know if that was better or worse.
Octopus: Yes.
Yarn_Loon: Well, I think PJ can survive missing one sleepover in his life, don’t worry too much about it, Night.
It was times like this that made Nightmare feel like he didn’t deserve Error. No matter how short tempered he might be or how blunt, he always knew just the right thing to say to not make him feel worse when he was already beating himself up over something.
Octopus: If you say so.
Yarn_Loon: It’ll be fine, you’ll see he’ll forget about it by Monday.
Octopus: Alright.
Yarn_Loon: Ok. I’ll see you tomorrow at the airport then. Good night, Nightlight.
Octopus: Good night, my love.
A little more at ease with the situation and after checking the time on his phone, Nightmare decided it’d be best to leave his drafts for tomorrow and go to sleep, he had to pick Error up tomorrow, so he should at least try to get some rest.
He couldn’t help the faint relief washing over him when he passed in front of PaperJam’s bedroom door and found the container full of pancakes gone.
-----------
The way to the airport wasn’t that long, but Nightmare felt like this time the drive there lasted hours. PaperJam still wouldn’t talk to him, he barely muttered a halfhearted “Morning” during breakfast and only nodded and shook his skull when Nightmare asked him something. The whole ride was silent and not even the music playing from the radio could drown it enough.
When they arrived at the airport they sat at the waiting area side by side, the young skeleton playing a game on his phone the whole time and not looking at him in the slightest. Error arrived shortly after and the change was impossible to ignore, PaperJam’s face lit up and he hugged the other, asking endless questions about how his trip had gone. Of course, Error took his time to properly greet Nightmare with a quick peck on the teeth, and the three of them went back to the car, ready to go home.
Error complained the whole time about the bunch of idiots he had to deal with and how they couldn’t fix the simplest of problems in a code and how much they whined about their production line being delayed.
It was nice, it made the ride back easier, and Nightmare got to hear PaperJam speaking and making comments about his dad’s clients.
But of course, things couldn’t stay nice all the time. At some point, PaperJam mentioned the sleepover; it turned out Palette made a lot of posts about the party at Jack’s house and how fun it was to stay the night there, and PaperJam spent most of the night moping over it. Nightmare’s grip on the wheel tightened but said nothing.
“Well, it was just a sleepover, PJ, it’s not the end of the world. I’m pretty sure there’ll be more, or you could even make your own, you know? The living room has plenty of space.”
“What’s the point? Papa won’t let me go to any of them.” He muttered and crossed his arms, the pout back on his face.
Ouch.
Error was quick to retort. “For the record, young man, it is true that I’ve never met this Jack’s parents, so I would’ve said no too.”
“But you did meet them! At the PTA board last month”
The one where the principal talked everyone to sleep, and they just attended out of curtesy and didn’t speak with anyone at all? Nightmare could have laughed, but it’d be better to leave this to Error for now.
“I met a lot of people that day, how do you expect me to guess who they were?”
PaperJam huffed in defeat and pouted even harder. Hopefully, that would be the end of this whole situation.
----------
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
It was so sudden and out of the blue that Nightmare had to hum in confusion to prompt Error to elaborate more.
“The sleepover thing. It’s still bothering you.”
It had been two days; the weekend was over, and it was Monday already. As Error had predicted, PaperJam had already forgotten about the issue and though still not as cheerful as usual he was talking to Nightmare normally. Still, that heavy feeling that he might have done something wrong was still there.
“What is there to talk about? He does not seem upset anymore, just like you said.”
“Yeah, but I asked for you, not for PJ.”
Well, what did Error want him to say? He knew very well why he didn’t like the idea of a sleepover, so what use would it be to talk about it again-
“You did the right thing.” The sudden hug from behind made him jump slightly; Error wasn’t a hugger, he appreciated his space and wasn’t fond of touch, but here he was, skull leaned on his shoulder and burrowed against his neck, arms comfortably but firmly holding him by the shoulders, gently squeezing him.
“I know how you feel about leaving PJ on his own, and about sleepovers, that’s ok, and yes sometimes you might be a worrywart but that’s ok too, cause you’re just taking care of him.”
Error began rubbing his arm as a tremor ran through his bones, he tangled both of his hands together tenderly and then lifted it to place a kiss on his phalanges.
“You have no idea how thankful I am that you care about him this much, and one day he will as well.”
He hunched his shoulders and turned his skull to hide himself in the crook of Error’s clavicle.
“What about next time? There will be more, and I cannot always ask you to tell him no. I know one day we will not be able to keep him with us all the time and he has to learn to take care of himself sometime but I just… I don’t want it to happen just yet.”
A small pause, then a hand came to the crown of his skull and started making soothing circles over the smooth bone.
“He’ll be alright. We’re raising him well, Night, he will know how to defend himself.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, grabbing at the sleeves of Error’s nightshirt. He was right, PaperJam was a smart child, and they had taught him well, that he could always turn to his parents —Ink included— for help, no matter what the problem was, they would always be there for him, and they’d always believe his word over everyone else’s, no matter how bleak it could be or who it could endanger.
They weren’t like his mother, they’d never tell him that he was just making things up for attention, and they’d never tell him to shut up and never tell a soul —not even his brother— about the things that were done to him just because the person responsible for it was a friend of the family —supposed to take care of them while his mother was gone— they’d never tell him that if he spoke about it that everyone would be disgusted and would leave him alone, they would never threaten him that way.
They’d be there for him, and that, as far as Nightmare knew, was the first step to protect a child.
“…alright.”
Slowly, Error moved them so they were lying down on their sides facing each other, keeping Nightmare buried against his chest and letting him hide for as long as he needed; he rubbed his back the whole time, and they spent what felt like hours in silence, until Nightmare felt like he could breathe right again. He scooted backwards until he could see Error’s face and gave him one last nuzzle in the forehead, knowing that saying sorry for his moment of weakness would just prompt another wave of reassurances from his husband, then let the heaviness from his chest finally drift away.
PaperJam would be fine, they were all going to be fine.
They just had to be there for one another.