Reborn as Error

"Never thought that I would see you so emotional brah. What did I miss?" 

No way.

I turned my head slowly feeling unsure if I was just hearing things. What if that fear stuff was still affecting me to think I heard something? I saw bright colors, a beaming grin, and the word 'YOLO' on a pair of shades. I was feeling many emotions at once not sure which was going to be the first to come out. 

I turned around completely to face him and it was definitely him, it was Fresh. He was really here in front of me.

"Broski, it's good to see that you're still kickin' it. I was totally buggin when I heard the little dude say that you were still out there! I mean I knew you had to be but I won't lie, thought you might of kicked the bucket for a second. It was only for a second I swear."

I started stepping towards him as the tension rose up between us. I saw him holding up his hands up in a surrendering motion when he realized I was approaching him. My expression gave away nothing besides blank shock.

"Now before you start attacking me maybe this time you could- oof!" 

It happened so suddenly that I'm pretty sure I made Fresh buffer. Before I even realized it I had my arms around him and my face buried in his shirt. I was shaking and had tears running down my face. I have had my issues with Fresh in the past knowing what he's really like but after everything that happened I was immensely relieved to see him.

Dealing with 404, being stuck in the Void for who knows how long, being stuck in this world that was on the way to deleting itself, dealing with that thing, pushing my abilities to to edge to fix a soul. Safe to say, I was done. 

I felt sobs try to push through and I was struggling to hold them back. I broke immediately when I felt arms around me feeling safe for the first time in a long while. Everything I was holding back came out and I cried. 

"Come on Error, I gotcha." I heard from Fresh and didn't realize that he moved us so we were sitting in the grass instead of standing. He stayed there and didn't move letting me cry on him. Eventually, I fell silent and felt my body was heavy from everything that happened with lack of sleep on top of it. 

"As much as I am thrilled about this, we should probably talk somewhere else," he said breaking the silence.

My grip on Fresh tightened for a moment before I shortcutted us down to the lab. Once we were in the darker area I released Fresh and got up using my sleeve to clean up my face a bit.

"How.... how did you find me? Don't get me wrong I'm grateful but I had trouble being able to even leave so..."

"Well it was actually Gradient. I was popping in to check on Ink when I saw little dude pop out of a portal and start telling him that he felt your magic. Ink discussed with him on how to find you while I snuck off to do my own search. I just started popping into aus hopping to get a clue or something. Then I popped up here and that it was a mess, I have no idea what happened but I noticed a stray string. That was my only clue so I started to search and tada I found you. Well that's the short version but you get the idea." 

Fresh stayed seated on the floor as he explained his story while I sat in a seat.

"Gradient.... is he..." I trailed off worried that I would hear something horrible.

"The kid is fine. He was pretty quiet in the beginning. Nightmare, Sci, Lust, and some others did what they could to cheer him up. Sending searches or just spending time with him."

"...how long have I been gone?" I asked needing to know how long I was possibly in the horrid place of dark nothingness.

"....," Fresh didn't respond and I noticed he was just staring. I didn't like the silence he was giving.