Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You had known Red since he drunkenly tried to hit on you at a seedy bar that you had somehow found yourself in at the unsocial hour of 4am. Your drinking buddies had long since gone home and you were fruitlessly trying to order a taxi, but every single one eventually cancelled on you, leaving you temporarily stranded.

His cheesy pick-up routine was laughable at best, especially since he had clearly had too much to drink, resulting in him slurring his words as he leaned his entire weight against the sticky wooden bar and eyed you mischievously. You simply rolled your eyes at the black and red clad monster, but that did little to deter him. He was attractive, sure, but you seriously were not in the mood for the complicated mess that was drunken one-night stands.

Finally, you found a taxi that didn’t cancel on you, politely waved him off, and stepped outside, only to have the intoxicated skeleton monster follow behind you. It wasn’t an issue for long, though – just as you whipped around to growl a warning at him, he stumbled into the alleyway beside the bar and promptly collapsed against the brick wall.

Well, shit.

Scanning the street for anyone who may look like they were going to jump in before you, you sighed when no one seemed to even notice and made your way over to the very unconscious monster. With a grimace, you checked his pockets for a phone and, after successfully pulling a beaten up smartphone from his jacket pocket, dialed the last number that had called him.

 Stars, you hoped someone picked up. You really had no idea what to do in these situations, but you were afraid an anti-monster group or… worse would get a hold of him and…

Well, it didn’t end up mattering.

 A very gruff, extremely irritated voice finally answered, demanding to know where you were and why you were calling at this ungodly hour. After meekly explaining that you were not, in fact, his useless lump of a brother, but that said brother was passed out in an alleyway outside of a bar, the furious voice stated in a growl that he would be there soon, and to stay with his brother so that he could properly repay you for looking after him.

And that’s how you met Edge, Red’s brother.

The towering skeleton monster certainly was rather intimidating, especially since you could feel the dangerous, furious energy radiating off him in waves. The scathing glower that he had fixed you with didn’t do much to help.

You had tried to refuse when he offered (more demanded) that he repay you, and insisted that you didn’t want anything in return, but to no avail. After reluctantly swapping numbers, Edge dragged his now half-conscious, furiously cursing brother into his impressive, sleek, black Jaguar and sped off with a screech of tires and a puff of smoke.

Edge didn’t end up calling you - in actual fact, it was Red that called you, having received your number from his brother. You could only imagine how that conversation went.

He bashfully apologized, sounding as though he was being forced to by a certain someone by the strain in his voice, and claimed he had no memory of that night, but insisted that he buy you coffee as a thank you.

It turned out, once you got past the rude, abrasive aspect of his personality, you and Red got on like a house on fire. Before you knew it, you were hanging out nearly every day.

So, that’s how you ended up, six months later, with a prickly skeleton monster attempting to tackle you to the floor for stealing the last shot of rum in your shitty, run-down apartment.

“For fucks sake, Red, get off of me!” Laughing, you attempted to shove him off, resulting in both of you falling off the couch and onto the worn, carpeted floor.  You snorted as you looked up at him sitting on your chest, victorious.

“an’ that’s wha’ ya get for not lettin’ me have th’ last of tha’ booze, cupcake” He drawled, flashing his pointed teeth at you in a cocky grin.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll remember that for next time” You rolled your eyes with a smile and sat yourself up after he graciously removed himself from his position on top of you.

Smugly flinging himself back onto the couch, Red shook the last remaining drops of cheap rum into his open maw, exposing his rows of sharp teeth and the pitch black void behind them. He frowned when barely anything dripped out and threw the bottle over his shoulder, leading to a loud thud resonating around the room when it hit the carpet.

His eyelights then traveled to you as you mirrored his action of falling back onto the couch with a quiet huff. The two of you sat in companionable silence for a little while, absentmindedly watching whatever dumb reality TV show the two of you had decided on, before he broke the quiet with what you were sure was intended as an innocent question.

“hey, ya found another place ta stay yet?”

You groaned, exhaustedly running a hand down your face, “Nope, I can barely afford rent here as it is and I honestly can’t find anywhere cheaper,” You sighed, then added in a grumble and a wry breath of laughter, “and flirting with the landlord isn’t exactly working anymore. I think he’s figuring out that I’m not going to sleep with him for rent.”

Red let out a breath of humorless laughter, then turned his lightly flushed skull away from you to growl softly, “guy’s a fuckin’ creep anyway. ya don’ need ta do that.”

You hummed apprehensively and laid your head back against the couch, fixing your gaze on an oddly shaped, brown stain on the ceiling. Silence washed over the two of you as you chewed your lip in anxious thought, the only sound the quiet chatter of the TV playing in the background.

The awful, dilapidated apartment that you currently resided in had been yours since you’d moved to Ebott- a last ditch attempt at trying to run from your previous life and make something of yourself, and now you were likely about to be evicted. You had been late on rent too many times, even unable to pay a few times until the month after, and you’d quickly learnt that a sweet smile and flirty comment towards your landlord could only get you so far.

Of course, Red had offered you a room at his family’s lodge many times, but your pride had you refusing every time. After having your independence stripped from you for so many years you wanted to finally be able to look after yourself, to do this on your own, and now it was being ripped from your grasp once again.

Well, you supposed life was cruel that way.

Red broke the silence first, eyelights downcast, “hey, ya know- “

“I know, Red. Just… give me a few more days, I’ve got a while to find somewhere. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere.” You voice had a defeated tone to it, but he couldn’t mistake the shine of determination in your eyes.

Stars, you were going to get yourself killed with how stubborn and determined you were to survive on your own, but he had a feeling you’d find somewhere, and you wouldn’t need him after all.

***

You didn’t find somewhere.

Humiliation burned at your cheeks and stung at your eyes as you packed what little you owned into a suitcase and a few boxes. You wanted to be happy, you were moving in with your best friend. Not only that, but you were moving into a huge, fancy lodge with your own already furnished room and the rent was suspiciously cheap. You wanted to be grateful, and you were, but the sting of failure overshadowed any happiness that you may have felt.

The click of a lock and the creak of the old, worn door to your apartment alerted you to someone entering.

“kid?”. Ah, just Red.

“THIS APARTMENT IS AWFUL; I’M SURPRISED THE HUMAN HASN’T BEEN MURDERED YET WITH HOW SKETCHY THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD IS.”.  Oh good, Edge is here to experience your humiliation too.

You had kind of hung out with Edge a few times, mostly just when he came to pick Red up from whatever bar you two had found yourself in. Those ‘hangouts’ usually ended up being one sided, though, with Edge mostly just rolling his eyelights at you whilst you drunkenly blabbered on about anything and everything.

You always insisted that Red could stay with you for the night, but you suppose Edge wasn’t very trusting of you back then, and despite constantly berating his older brother, you knew he worried about him. After you had apparently proven yourself to not be a threat, you were allowed to start dragging Red back to your apartment for the night when he’d had too much to drink- which was most nights you went out, if you were honest.

“In here, just finishing packing!” You called cheerily from your bedroom, quickly scrubbing at your eyes to eliminate any tears that threatened to fall. You took a deep breath and plastered on a smile as you stood. This was embarrassing enough; you didn’t need them to see you cry too.

The pair stepped into the room, stopping in the doorway. Edge had a deep frown on his face and was tapping his foot impatiently, arms crossed over his chest.

“ya alright?” Red asked as he raised a brow bone, then scanned the sparse boxes of mostly textbooks and a couple of personal items, as well as the few outfits that you had in a small suitcase. “that all ya bringin’?” He added.

“Not like I have much to bring” You huffed out a short, frustrated laugh, “It’s fine though, makes this a whole lot easier.” You turned to look at the taller brother, “Hi, Edge!”

You only received a stiff, curt nod in greeting. Well, at least he wasn’t straight up ignoring you like he usually did. The tall skeleton may have deemed you not a threat, but that certainly didn’t mean he liked you in any sense of the word.  You supposed that was fair, he’d only ever seen you whilst you were already drunk off your ass, and therefore, obnoxiously loud, and annoying.

You watched Edge’s as he froze, eye sockets widening ever so slightly as your sweet, ginger tabby, Albert, rubbed along one of his legs with a chirrup.

Albert had been around since you were a kid, he was your parents’ cat, but you had developed a special bond with him and couldn’t bear to leave him. Now ten years old, the little guy had been a lifeline for you ever since.

He purred as he looked up at Edge with rounded eyes, clearly not deterred by his otherwise threatening appearance.

Red snorted as he leant down to pet the top of the cat’s head, “aw, he likes ya, bro”.

You tried to stifle your laughter as the taller, edgier brother gingerly mirrored his older brother’s action, his eyelights darting to your face as a not very well concealed giggle found its way past your lips.

“WELL,” clearing his throat, he swiftly stood, a light, ruby blush gracing his cheeks.

Cute.

“NO POINT DAWDLING, BROTHER, MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND HELP ME PUT THE HUMAN’S THINGS IN THE CAR”

You bit your tongue. You wanted so badly to say that you could do it yourself thank you very much, but you knew better than to argue with Edge - you wouldn’t win.

“sure thing, boss” came Red’s reply. You obviously knew that he was notoriously lazy, attempting to get away with doing as little as possible, as often as possible, so you were surprised when he didn’t even try to make an excuse.

Stars, they must really pity you.

After finishing heaving everything into the trunk of Edge’s car and spending a ridiculous amount of time getting a very belligerent Albert into a carrier and into the back seat, the three of you set off.

You could feel your throat closing up, tears burning the back of your eyes as you stared out the window at the passing scenery. You could hear light conversation between the brothers in the front of the car as well as Albert’s indignant howling at being removed from the apartment, but it was soon drowned out by your racing thoughts.

You’d never even met Red’s family before, well, excluding Edge, and you had no idea what they were like. Would they even like you? Do they even like humans? You felt bad enough about being such a burden on your friend, but to be a burden on his family too?

Not only that, but moving into a home entirely populated by monsters was dangerous and completely selfish. If they found out, then…

The thought was already quickly getting to be too much.

Deep breaths, in and out.

It’s going to be okay.

It has to be.

***

Now standing at the front door of the lodge, you once again took a deep, shaky breath.

Edge had effortlessly carried everything inside, including the screeching cat, in one trip and didn’t bother coming back outside, so it was just you and Red. You looked to him as he squeezed your hand in his, his crimson eyelights searching your face.

“hey, it’ll be alright, kid,” He said, voice low, “my cousins are pretty chill, the worst of us is me and my bro and look at how easily ya won us over.”

“You mean how easily I won you over,” You scoffed, “Edge barely even acknowledges my existence.”

“heh, he barely acknowledges anyone, it’d be a miracle if ya got ‘im to show any interest in ya at all.”

Well, that did make you feel a little better.

“Okay,” You straightened your posture, giving one last squeeze to Red’s hand before letting go, “let’s go.”

As you pushed open the door, you were greeted by, quite frankly, the most gorgeous interior you’d ever seen. There were huge windows almost floor to ceiling on many of the walls, exposing a breathtaking view of rolling hills and a sparkling lake. The floors were a chocolate-colored wood with gold accents along the bottom of each wall, of which were painted in a simple eggshell white. Adjacent to you was a towering brick fireplace, surrounded by lush leather couches and an elegant glass coffee table. Looking up, you could see the exposed hallway at the top of the wooden stairs, with a railing acting as a sort of balcony. There were a ridiculous number of doors, you assumed to each of the skeleton monsters’ bedrooms, lining the hallway wall.

You turned to the kitchen, mouth agape, taking in the extensive counters covered in appliances as well as a breakfast bar and, wait, is that a fucking liquor bar??

You realized that in your flabbergasted stupor, you completely missed several skeleton monsters lounging at differing points around the living room, one of which was now bounding toward you, arms outstretched.

“HELLO, MISS!” Ouch, this guy was loud, “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS. IT IS SO LOVELY TO FINALLY MEET YOU!”

The towering skeleton wrapped you in a bone-crushing hug as Red started to sweat and let out an anxious chuckle, “uh, paps…”

You were promptly released, taking in much needed air in a gasp as Papyrus profusely apologized.

“Ah, hah, it’s okay!” You gasped, “It’s nice to finally meet you too!”. You smiled as you introduced yourself.

After catching your breath, you took the time to look around at the now many skeletal faces staring at you, some smiling, some indifferent, and a couple just downright upset. There must be eight monsters in the room right now, including Red and Edge.

“oh uh, paps, they’re not a girl.” Red spoke lowly to the over-excited monster.

Aw, Red’s always there to back you up. You’d have to thank him for making sure only Papyrus heard; you could tell the others at your own pace.

“HUH? IF THEY’RE NOT A GIRL, WHAT ARE THEY? A BOY?”

Welp, there goes that idea.

You cleared your throat, hands worrying at the sleeve of your sweater, “I’m, um, non-binary, so…”

Papyrus looked positively puzzled. Just as he opened his mouth, another, deeper voice rang out behind him.

“like the kid, bro” You tilted your head at the new voice, a skeleton that looked remarkably like Red, but all round lines and smiles, clad in a blue hoodie, basketball shorts and… pink fuzzy slippers? Huh.

“OH! LIKE NOT A GIRL OR A BOY!” Papyrus suddenly grabbed both of your hands, stealing your attention away from the other skeleton and onto him, “I AM SO SORRY, HUMAN! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!”

Stars, he looked like a kicked puppy.

“It’s okay! Uh yeah, I use they and them, if... if that’s alright with you guys.” You address the rest of the room with a nervous laugh, may as well get it out of the way now that it’s been blurted to the entire household.

“’course it’s alright kid, don’t need to ask” the slipper-wearing skeleton replied with a lazy grin, “’m sans by the way.”

You sighed out a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding, “Thank you, Sans.” You grinned.

You like this guy already.

“What do you mean ‘like the kid’? If you don’t mind my asking.” You continued.

“yanno, the human ambassador, frisk?” he raised a bony brow at you.

“Oh! Yeah, I’ve seen them on the news! I didn’t know that you knew them!” You lit up with excitement at the revelation, causing a few of the less gloomy inhabitants to light up with you.

“well, the underground is a small place,” Sans shrugged, “plus, me an’ paps were sentries, it was our job to capture ‘em back in snowdin.”

“Seriously?!” You gaped.

“yup, but, uh, paps mostly just subjected ‘em to his puzzles whilst i watched, heh” He looked a little guilty at that, releasing his hand from the pocket of his blue hoodie to rub at the back of his skull, “was always too bone tired to do anything else.”

“AND FANTASTIC PUZZLES THEY WERE! ALTHOUGH, THE HUMAN SOLVED THEM SO EASILY!” Papyrus pipes up, only after groaning at Sans’ pun, hand on his hip and chest puffed out, “THEY TRULY ARE A PUZZLE MASTER!”

“That’s so cool!” You gushed, “You’ll have to tell me about it sometime!”

Sans snorted, obviously amused at your enthusiasm, “sure, kid, no bones about it.” He winked.

After a chorus of groans from some of the skeletons and a giggle from you and the others, the next few minutes were a whirlwind of introductions and exchanged pleasantries. You’d have to keep repeating the names in your head to make sure you remembered them – there were so many!

 There were three other pairs of brothers that you had met. Sans and Papyrus, who you were starting to take a shine to already. Mutt and Milord, who honestly made you feel tiny in different ways. Milord mostly in a ‘I’m completely inferior to you’ kind of way since he was barely taller than you, and Mutt in a literal height sense. He must have been at least 6,3”! Not to mention that Mutt’s way of greeting you was to unabashedly flirt.

“so, this is the famous human Red won’t stop talkin’ ‘bout, eh? th’ name’s mutt.” He grinned down at you, gaze unwavering as he languidly looked you up and down. His mouth stretched into a smirk, seemingly pleased with the view.

You rolled your eyes and smiled, “Yep, that’s me!” You dropped your voice, ready to mess with him, if anything for your own amusement, “Like what you see, puppy dog?”

His grin shifted into something practically sinister as he gazed at you with lidded sockets.

“woof.”

Oh no, he’s hot. Abandon ship. ABANDON SHIP.

Whilst Mutt snickered at your flustered expression, Red obviously had decided that he had had enough and pulled you away with a grumble, prompting Mutt’s giggles to turn into full on cackling.

He was going to be trouble for sure.

Finally, you met Axe and Butch, who didn’t seem happy that you were moving in at all. Axe had just stared at you with an unflinching gaze, a grin from ear to metaphorical ear, red eyelight following your every move, and Butch just seemed like he wanted to be literally anywhere else, partially hiding behind his brother and wringing his hands together with his gaze intent on the floor. You internally cringed at the gaping hole in Axe’s skull and Butch’s jagged teeth. What happened to them?

Red, thankfully, insisted you come and check out your new room and dragged you by the arm up the stairs. Once you were safely through the door, shutting it behind you both, you sank to the floor with your back against the wall. Albert hopped down from off the bed, obviously having been let out of his prison by Edge, and nestled himself into your lap with a contented purr.

You swear, nothing bothered this cat, not even being uprooted from his home into a completely foreign environment full of strange skeleton monsters. Maybe you should ask him what his secret is.

Probably the lack of brain cells most ginger cats seem to have. Heh.

Red not so very gracefully threw himself onto the bed with a groan, threatening to knock over the boxes precariously balanced on there.

You snorted in response, “Wow, this hard for you?” you asked, words practically dripping with sarcasm. You squeaked as you dodged a shoe thrown at you.

“shuddup” He retorted in a mirthful grumble.

Letting out a short laugh, you threw the shoe back at him, missing by a mile.

“damn, ya bad at this.” He sat up, smirking. Noticing the bags under your eyes and your strained smile, his sharp grin dropped as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, “but, uh, on a more serious note, ya okay? i know they can be kind of… a lot.”

Chewing your lip, your eyes dropped to the floor, before you let out a sigh and shrugged. “Yeah, I mean… they’re fine. I’m more just kind of struggling with being a burden on you all, I guess.”

Suddenly Red was in front of you, his mouth a downwards slant. “stars, kid, how many times i gotta tell ya, ya aint a burden. now, quit mopin’ an’ get ya shit unpacked.” He offered an outstretched hand to you, yanking you into a standing position as you took it, forcing a very offended Albert out of your lap.

You rolled your eyes good-naturedly as you leaned down to offer an apologetic head scratch to the ginger tabby, knowing that this was just Red’s awkward, emotionally constipated way of trying to make you feel better.

“Thanks, by the way, for y’know…” You spoke softly, a small smile making its way onto your face.

“eh, it’s whateva, don’t want ya bein’ uncomfortable or anythin’” a small blush covered his cheekbones as he shrugged.

You could tell he obviously didn’t receive a lot of praise before he met you judging by how flustered he got by it. Compliments were another ball field completely, sometimes you would even just compliment him to get a reaction out of him.

“ya alright to be here alone ‘til dinner while i go do some shit?”

That got a genuine giggle out of you, “Do some shit? That’s ominous.”

“ya don’ need to know what i do when I’m not around yer sorry ass” he quipped back, grin growing.

“Well now it just sounds like you’re going to do some weird sex stuff or something.” You said between giggles, earning an incredulous look from your friend.

“shut th’ fuck up, ‘m goin’” Rolling his eyelights, he lightly shoved you out of the way of the door using a palm on your face on the way out, leaving you in a giggling heap on the floor. Riling him up would never not be hysterical.

Letting out a contented breath, you scanned the room. It was certainly spacious, but apart from a Queen sized bed and a dresser along with a mirror and a small bookcase, it was pretty empty. Though, the large windows allowed a fair amount of natural light to shine into the room, warming each place it touched with the golden rays of late afternoon. After unpacking your stuff, the room felt just a tiny bit more like yours, especially with your collection of comics and manga, as well as your many textbooks, littering the shelves of the bookcase.

With little to do until dinnertime you passed the time by studying. You were halfway through your PHD for neuroscience, and it took up pretty much all of the time you weren’t working, so any opportunity you had to study had to be taken.

The quiet was almost unnerving – you were so used to there being a cacophony of noise at your old apartment due to your less than savory neighbors. Regardless, you pulled out a textbook and began flipping through pages until you found the one that you needed and focused on the inky black print against white, glossy paper.

After no longer than a minute or so, a crash resounded from what sounded like the living room, causing you to flinch and end up with an ugly, black line across the notes you were taking. You froze, pen in hand, unsure if you should go and investigate.

“it ain’t as if th’ kid had anywhere else ta go, ya tiny prick!”

Uh oh.

Scrambling to your feet with your heart hammering in your ears, you flung the door open and raced over to the balcony railing. From your position, you could just about make out Red’s furious form, his stance obviously readied to fight. You bolted down the stairs, but froze with a weary grimace when you spotted who your friend was up against.

“I would have appreciated it if someone had informed me of their moving here, criminal.” The words were spoken through gritted teeth, the final word spat with pure venom.

Stood opposite him was Milord, fists clenched, and his stance mirroring that of Red’s.

Great, here we go.

“What the hell is going on?!” You demanded, looking between Red and Milord, whose smoldering gazes rounded on you. Red’s expression immediately softened as he opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off, resulting in a hardened scowl overtaking his features once more.

“I do not think this concerns you, human.” He spoke coolly, his voice laced with a quiet malice.

Anger prickled along your skin and knotted in your chest. The way that he was looking at you, sneering as though you were the lowest form of life he had ever come across, caused your temper to flare.

You barked a humorless laugh, “I think it does, since not only does this involve my best friend, but I literally heard you talking about me!” Your anger deflated somewhat when you remembered what their fight was actually about, however. “Look, if I’m not welcome here-“

“You are not.”

“kid, don’t-“

Red and Milord spoke at once, turning to glare at each other once again, the feeling of hostility in the room increasing tenfold as their shouting quickly resumed.

“how th’ fuck was i meant to tell ya? huh? ya always ‘too busy’ ta talk ta anyone anyway!”

“Well maybe if you spent less time in a drunken stupor, you would have been able to use that thick skull of yours to realize that the last thing that I want is a human in this house!”

Red let out an almost crazed laugh. “oh yer gettin’ it, tiny.”

Just as you leapt to snatch Red’s raised fist, a shadowed outline materialized between the two, before taking the more familiar form of a skeleton monster.  He had both hands outstretched, palms facing towards either Red or Milord, and a thin film of magic blocking either of them from launching at the other.

“c’mon, no need to fight.” Sans retained his nonchalant demeanor with a chuckle in his voice and a lax grin as he addressed them, “i know ya got a bone to pick with each other, but-“

“i’ll have a bone ta pick with you if ya don’t shut th’ fuck up, vanilla!” Red barked, interrupting the still lazily grinning skeleton and baring his sharp teeth in a threatening snarl.

The aforementioned monster simply raised a browbone at his unruly cousin, though he now held a tension to his once slack form. Milord clicked his tongue against his teeth and rolled his eyelights disapprovingly at the aggressive display, causing Red’s magic to crackle and flare with rage, and a rumbling growl to emanate in his chest.

Sensing just how badly the situation was about to fly out of control, you stepped forward with a stern call of your friend’s name and a warning in your eyes. It took a second of reluctant hesitation, but he eventually huffed and let out a deep growl, then turned to grab you and make a hasty retreat, but Sans’ voice caused him to freeze with a deepening scowl.

“how ‘bout ya both apologize, huh?” He suggested casually, if not a little condescendingly, hands back in his pockets as the barriers dissipated, “gotta keep the peace around here, after all.”

Milord and Red both shot Sans an incredulous look, almost as if they couldn’t believe he was even asking that at all. Red was the first to argue.

“ya fuckin’ kiddin’ me? i ain’t apologizin’ to this goddamn prick! i-“

“r e d” The almost mirthful lilt that Sans’ voice typically held was absent, instead replaced by a threatening, though dangerously calm insistence.

His sockets had lost the usual little sparks of white light and were now a pitch black void, sending ice into your veins and causing you to flinch back. Despite the lack of ‘pupils’, you somehow felt that he was looking at you. The tug at your chest, where you knew that your soul took residence, had your breath hitching in your throat in fear.

“r-right” Red’s voice, laced with an anxious chuckle, rang out from beside you. He cleared his throat, refusing to look at Milord and instead glaring at his shoes, then muttered bitterly, “uh… sorry, tiny, i, uh, shoulda told ya… or whateva.”

Milord looked smug, a smirk pulling at his sharp teeth as he spoke, “Then I, too, apologize, Red. The insult was uncalled for.” His face then dropped into a scowl as he continued, “Regardless, this conversation is far from over.”

Sans, now back to his usual self, spoke next with a wink and a sly simper, “see, that wasn’t so hard, huh?”

You could hear Red cursing colorfully under his breath and, from what you could make out, most of it was directed towards Sans. Seemingly used to this behavior from him, Sans only shrugged and widened his grin before taking a small step backwards and vanishing from the spot he once stood.

You could only spare aghast glances at the two remaining skeletons for a moment, one of which was sending daggers your way in an obvious attempt to intimidate you, before a hand grasped your arm and pulled you away.

“Red-“ You attempted to get through to him, but cut yourself off with a squeak when you were dragged into your new room with a loud slam of the wooden oak door.

“who th’ fuck does that mothafucker think he is? i shoulda punched ‘is lights out while i had th’ chance!”

Sitting heavily on the bed, you watched wearily as he paced back and forth and ranted. “Red, I-“

“th’ prick’s so far up his own ass-“

Rendering your second attempt to capture his attention futile with a pointedly loud shout, likely wanting the subject of his anger to hear, you resorted to yelling his name with impatience heavy in your tone.

He turned his indignant glare onto you for a moment, then allowed his expression to drop into one of concern as he took notice of your obvious agitation. A guilty grimace overtook his features before he gingerly took a seat next to you.

“oh shit, kid. ‘m sorry,” He tentatively placed a hand on your shoulder and mumbled, “jus’ ignore ‘im, i-“

“Do they not want me here? I mean, you told them I was coming, right?” You forced your voice past the lump in your throat, causing it to leave you in a hoarse, shaky mutter.

You’re so useless. Why would anyone want you around?! You’re pathetic!

You inhaled sharply and squeezed your eyes shut as those words rang in your head, a ghostly reminder of the past you were running from.

“hey, hey, it’s alright, of course they do,” The skeleton monster moved to awkwardly wrap an arm around you in his attempt at a comforting gesture, then added in a quietly bitter laugh, “i mean, th’ tiny prick don’t, but who gives a shit what he thinks, eh?”

You let out a watery giggle at that, then sniffled and meekly asked, “What about Butch and Axe? They looked downright petrified of me.”

“eh, butch is scared’ve everyone ‘cept his bro ‘n axe is jus’ a lil weird around humans. ‘m sure they’ll get over it.” Red let out a breath as he watched your shoulders visibly relax. Then, after a lilt of quiet, let out a breath of mirth and smirked down at you. “gotta hand it ta ya, kid, ya moved fast ta stop me from hittin’ ‘im.”

You snorted, “Hah, ain’t my first rodeo when it comes to you, ya maniac.”

Your grin grew when he burst into raucous laughter, “’m sure it ain’t, cupcake. now, ya got that game where ya shoot zombies an’ shit? need ta blow off some steam.”

You rolled your eyes with a smile as you grabbed your laptop from its place on the nightstand and handed him a controller. You’d introduced him to violent videogames in the hopes it would somewhat mediate his angry outbursts, and thankfully, it had worked for the most part. Though, every now and then you did have to drag him away from the odd bar fight.

Stars knows why you put up with this crazed skeleton, you thought with a smile, watching as he took down a hoard of the undead with a chainsaw with clear glee gracing his features.

A lull in the virtual zombie massacre as he took his time choosing the next level had your mind wandering. Milord had called him a criminal and, as far as you knew, anyway, he didn’t have any criminal convictions. In the most loving way, you wouldn’t exactly be surprised if he did, given how you knew his temper to be, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?

“Hey, Red?”

He grunted in acknowledgement, refusing to detach his eyelights from the screen for a single moment.

“Why did Milord call you a criminal?”

That made him freeze with widened sockets and pause the game, “…uh, it’s not really somethin’ i wanna talk ‘bout, kid.”

You raised your eyebrows at him, “What? You’re my best friend, Red! I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other?”

He let out a sharp breath through his nasal cavity and turned to face you, the laptop and controller now abandoned, “nah, we don’t, but i’m jus’ not ready to talk ‘bout it, kay?” The slight edge to his voice, along with the slight flicker to his eyelights warned you of his ire and prompted you to back off.

“Alright, fine, but when you are ready, I want you to talk to me about it, okay?” You put on your best stern parent voice, crossing your arms over your torso, and making Red snort and roll his eyelights.

“yeah, yeah, i will,” The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he picked up the controller, ready to resume his marathon of slaying the undead, then hesitated slightly with a dusting of crimson along his cheekbones, “uh, thanks.”

“For what?”

“jesus, kid, don’ make me say it” He groaned, running a hand down his now fully flushed face.

You were genuinely confused until it clicked in your head, he was thanking you for not pushing him to talk! Aw.

“Oh! Oh, yeah, no problem, I’m not gonna force you to talk if you aren’t ready, y’know?” You smiled as you lightly punched his arm, “What kinda friend would I be then, huh?”

Red snorted and resumed the game, “a pretty shitty one.”

You grinned, throwing an arm around his shoulder, causing him to sputter and nearly drop the controller, “Exactly!”

Not too long after you had gone back to your studying whilst Red continued with the video game, Papyrus came to collect you for dinner. You entered the dining room and quickly chose a seat next to Red at the end of the table, which also just so happened to position you to be facing Mutt. Axe was next to him, facing Sans, which left Papyrus and Edge on either side. Butch and Milord were strangely absent, though you could have guessed at the reason why.

“Hey,” you whispered to Red, “where are Butch and Milord?”

“tiny prolly don’ wanna eat while ya here and butch is prolly too anxious,” he shrugged, “don’ worry ‘bout it, kid, they’ll be fine.”

Your gut twisted with guilt regardless. There wasn’t a world where you weren’t at least going to try to make up for their discomfort. Clearing your throat, you sat up tall (more in an attempt to curb your nerves, than anything) and turned to Papyrus.

“Um, Papyrus?”

“YES, HUMAN?” He beamed at you as he spoke, a light in the proverbial darkness that slightly eased your distress.

“Do you think I could take Butch’s and Milord’s food up to them?” You ran a hand through your hair as you spoke, an anxious tic you’d had since childhood, “I mean, they’re not here eating with you all because of me, so…”

“uh, kid, I don’ think that’s a good idea-“ Red tried to argue, a hand on your shoulder to try to grab your attention.

“GASP!” Did he actually just say the word gasp? Oh my god, that’s adorable. “THAT’S A GREAT IDEA, HUMAN!” Papyrus beamed once again, jumping up to retrieve the food from the kitchen with a clap of his gloved hands. You stood to follow him, pointedly ignoring Red’s attempts at trying to deter you.

“I’ll be fine, Red,” You quietly reassured him, “What’s Milord going to do, slam the door in my face?”

He slammed the door in your face.

You huffed and placed the plate on the floor, just outside his door. You had half a mind to throw insults at the wooden door inches from your face but thought better of it. Instead, you took a deep breath to calm yourself and began to speak softly to the door, hoping that he was listening on the other side.

“Um, I’m not sure what I did to upset you so much, or, I guess, what humans in general did, but for what it’s worth, I really wouldn’t be here if I had anywhere else to go.” You bit your lip as you considered your next words, the feeling of rejection causing your eyes to burn, “I, uh, already feel like a massive burden on you all, so I swear, as soon as I’m able to, I’ll get out of your hair. Um, metaphorically.” Great job, Shakespeare.

You heard a barely audible shuffle come from behind the closed door and held your breath, a small part of you hoping he was going to come out and talk to you. No such luck.

“Well, the food is just outside your door. Goodnight, Milord.” You sighed and made your way over to Butch’s door.

Papyrus had very helpfully pointed out which doors were the missing skeleton’s, so you knew when you saw the door littered with posters of various nature scenes that you had found his. Your eyes wandered over a particularly beautiful photo of fractured sunlight amongst tall trees and scattered leaves as you lightly knocked and waited for a response, though all you got was a resounding silence. Sighing, you slid to the floor with your back against the wall, once again placing the plate just in front of the door.

“Hi, Butch,” You spoke softly, your voice similar to that you would use for a scared puppy, “I know meeting new people can be scary, I’m sorry. I used to be scared of meeting new people, too, when I was a little younger.”

You paused, listening for any movement. It almost sounded like he had moved to sit just by the door in order to hear you better. Encouraged, you continued.

“Heh, I was awful, would always panic and run away and then beat myself up for it.” You smiled sadly, recalling the terrified teenager you once were, “The point is, I understand how you’re feeling, so if you ever need to talk to anyone, I’m here, okay?”

The door slowly creaking open made you jump and caused you to scramble to your feet. The shy skeleton hesitantly poked his head out and smiled shakily at you.

“Hi!” Your enthusiasm must have frightened him because he jumped a little and shrank back. “Oh, I’m sorry!” You spoke gently, slowly crouching to pick up the plate from the floor, before offering it to him with a patient smile. “Here’s your food.”.

He reached out gingerly and took the plate, his smile growing ever so slightly, “t-thank you.”

You beamed at getting the anxious monster to speak to you and chirped, “You’re welcome!”

After watching the door close with a small click, you practically skipped down the stairs, joy radiating off you as you rounded a corner into the dining room, where all eyelights were immediately on you. You grinned and slid into your seat, poking Red in the arm as you did, “Told you I’d be fine.”

He scoffed, “we all heard tiny slam th’ door on ya, cupcake.”

Your pleased demeanor faltered for a moment, “Well, yeah, that… didn’t go great. But! I got Butch to come out of his room and take his food from me!” You puffed your chest out with pride, wide smile returning.

“you… did?” Axe spoke slowly, disbelief etched on his face. Your joy only doubled in size at having him talk to you, too. The fiasco with Milord didn’t seem so awful, now.

You nodded, “Yeah! Why? Is it difficult usually?”

“…yes,” His expression was slowly transforming into one of quiet awe, “what… did you… say… to him?”

You swallowed, suddenly shy, “Oh, I, um, just talked about - well more to the door while he was listening, uh.” You looked to Red for encouragement, who remained stoney faced, but you could see the glimmer of curiosity and fascination in his eyelights, of which were currently trained on you, “I talked about how bad my anxiety was as a teenager, how I was very much like how he is now, and… I guess just said that if he needed anyone to talk to, that I’m here.” Your voice quieted, barely above a mumble at this point, an embarrassed blush creeping along your cheeks.

The table was silent, the only noise the thudding heartbeat in your ears as you prayed for someone to speak.

“…thank you.” Your eyes snapped up to Axe’s face, having dropped down to the table while you were explaining. Was he blushing?!

You smiled, previous awkwardness dissipated, “It’s no problem, really! The same goes for any of you, you know, if you want to, aha.” Damn, now you feel awkward again.

You decide to try to remedy this by finally beginning your meal, which was actually really delicious. Light chatter started amongst the others as they resumed their meals and allowed you to untense with a sigh now that the focus wasn’t on you anymore. You flinched when Red bumped his shoulder with his, raising his bony brows in a bid to tease you.

You felt your face begin to warm again and muttered, “Oh, shut up, you dick.”

Just as Red laughed, preparing to retort, Mutt spoke up, a teasing tone lacing his words, “so, sweetheart, where ya from?”

You internally cringed at the use of sweetheart, “Um, here?”

Mutt snorted, “no, i mean where were ya born? yer accent ain’t american.”

“Oh!” You slapped a palm against your face, “Sorry! Yeah, no, I’m not American. I’m from the UK.”

“uk?”

“Um, England?” You slightly tilted your head to the side as you considered him. Perhaps monsters just weren’t caught up with the world’s geography yet. It has only been a couple years since they surfaced, you thought, and even then, they weren’t even allowed to leave Mount Ebott for the first year or so.

Red spoke up next, “yeah, yanno, th’ fancy country where they drink tea and shit, like in downton abbey.”

You choked on a laugh, “You watch Downton Abbey?”

“nah, mutt does though, won’ stop tryin’ ta get me to watch it.” Red looked like he was taking great joy in exposing his cousin, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

You couldn’t stop the giggle that forced its way past your lips as Mutt blushed and looked away.

“Oh, Mutt, it’s okay! We all have our guilty pleasures!” You said through your laughter, trying and spectacularly failing to be somewhat comforting.

“i know what england is, asshole” Mutt mumbled, stabbing at his food with a wash of lilac covering his cheekbones.

After apologizing to Mutt for laughing and letting him in on one of your guilty pleasures to make him feel better, the rest of dinner went by smoothly. A couple of the skeletons asked the odd question about what England was actually like since you insisted that it was nothing like Downton Abbey, what you did for work, what you studied and so on.

You appreciated Red steering the conversation away from why you moved to America whenever the topic came up, he knew it made you uncomfortable and even though he didn’t know why, he still looked out for you. You loved that prickly bastard.

You asked a few questions of your own and learnt that Sans has a PHD in astrophysics and works in a lab like you, Papyrus loves to design puzzles and works as a teaching assistant for younger kids, Axe has a thing for Paleontology (you were definitely going to talk his ear off about that at some point) and Edge is a chef at a super fancy restaurant.

Edge even piped up to make a dig at Red about his secret love for country music! Oh, you were so going to relentlessly tease him about that later. One of the things that you and Red had initially bonded over was your love for Metal, Rock, and the likes, but he had never once confided in you about that! Probably because he knew you would bully him for it, hah.

Thanking Edge for the food and complimenting him on his cooking, you gathered a few remaining plates and followed Papyrus to the kitchen to clean up whilst the others shuffled off to do their own thing. The two of you washed and dried dishes and cookware in silence for a while and, even though you didn’t know him well, you had an odd feeling that this was uncharacteristic for him. A glance at his expression revealed that his face was screwed up in contemplation.

“You Know, You Are Welcome Here.” He said finally, his low tone a startling comparison to the boisterous way of speaking that he had until now.

You let out a breath through your nose as you focused on scrubbing a particularly stubborn spot of dirt, “Thank you. I really do hope it’s not too much trouble. I wouldn’t have moved in here if I had any other option.”

“Nonsense! It Is No Trouble At All!” He smiled softly at you, coaxing a thin smile from you in return, “Plus, You Seem To Make Red Happy.”

Your stomach filled with butterflies at that comment, “Oh?”

“Yes! He Has Been In Much Better Spirits Lately! I Do Not Think I’ve Ever Seen Him Smile So Much Before.”

Affection for your best friend bloomed in your chest and warmed your cheeks. “I’m glad. He’s been through a lot; he deserves to be happy.”

At that moment, Sans and Red entered the kitchen, both wiping tears of mirth from their sockets as they seemingly attempted to out-pun each other. You joined in, making Papyrus screech and stamp his foot, which just caused you all to double over in laughter.

Looking at these boys with a newfound joy in your heart, you let yourself feel the tiniest sliver of Hope. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

After saying a quick goodbye, you headed back to your room to resume your studies. Your brain was in danger of turning to mush within a couple of hours of trying to make sense of reams upon reams of data, so after putting away your textbooks and notes, you stretched across the bed to watch some YouTube and relax for a while.

Just as you were getting to a good part in a ‘let’s play’ video, Red and Mutt came barging into you room with matching mischievous grins, making you squeak in surprise. Before you could even begin to protest, both boys lifted you up by an arm each and started dragging you out of the room.

“cmon, cupcake, it’s saturday night ‘n we’re gonna go drink.” Red demanded, a smirk on his face.

“and no, you don’t have a choice.” Mutt added, eyelights catching your glare.

Well, you guess you had no choice.

“Hey, if we’re going out, at least give me a chance to change and do my makeup! Guys!” You struggled in their hold, trying to grip the slippery laminated floor with your feet to no avail. Damn, they’re strong.

To your surprise, they simply dumped you on one of the couches in the living room, the speakers on the TV already blaring some soft rock song. You huffed and sat yourself upright, then noticing that Sans was also on the couch with you, shooting an amused look in your direction.

“he do this a lot?” he chuckled, jerking his head in Red’s direction, who was already pouring out drinks for you all.

You snorted, “Yeah, he’s usually not so forceful about it though.”

“ah, that’ll be mutt’s doing,” he grinned and shrugged, “that kid is relentless when it comes to drinking nights. plus, he hasn’t been happy that you’ve been stealing one of his drinking buddies every weekend.”

“Oh,” you gasped, “I didn’t think Red hung out with anyone else on Saturdays! I wonder why he never introduced us.”

Sans burst out in laughter, “heh, i could spare a guess.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Mutt plopped himself down beside you, a glass in each hand, “here ya are sweetheart, hope it isn’t too strong.” He crooned as he handed you one of the drinks, letting his hand linger on yours as you took it.

You rolled your eyes and took a sip, “First of all, stop calling me sweetheart, it’s gross,” your stomach clenched at the quiet hurt in his surprised expression. Damn it, why are you such a softie?
“Second of all, no drink is too strong for me, handsome.” You smiled slyly at him, prompting his lidded sockets and smirk to return.

Oh stars, you were going to get yourself in a lot of trouble if you continued like this.

You watched in amusement as Red calmly took Mutt’s drink with a deadpan expression, placed it on the coffee table - not forgetting the coaster! - and gracefully pulled him to the floor, earning an indignant screech from the monster. You and Sans were howling with laughter, each clutching your stomachs as you gasped for air.

“that, hah, that was hilarious,” Sans wheezed, “ya really fell for the human, eh Mutt?”

You groaned as you wiped a tear from your eye, “That was, hah, so mean, Red!”

Red sat down next to you with a cocky grin and a chuckle, bumping his shoulder with yours as your grin faded to a soft smile.

Mutt grumbled and moved to grab his drink and sit on the armchair next to Sans, “i finally get my favorite drinkin’ buddy back ‘n this is how ‘e treats me?” He sighed dramatically, reaching a hand out to Sans as if to ask him to hold it “yer my favorite now.”

Sans snorted and slapped Mutt’s hand away, “gee, thanks, bud, i don’t know how i woulda gone another day without being ya favorite.”

Mutt leant his head back against the chair as he groaned, “i take it back, i don’t like any of you.”

All three of you burst into laughter once more, and soon the drinks, as well as the conversation, were flowing. Soon enough you were all a little tipsy, getting louder and more boisterous by the minute. At some point Albert trotted into the room, taking turns sitting on each person’s lap to get pets and relishing the attention each of you gave him.

Eventually, the raucous laughter from you all got to be too much for a certain member of the skeleton family, leading you to be well and truly told off.

“IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE THIS LOUD ALL NIGHT, I SUGGEST YOU ALL EITHER GO TO BED OR GET OUT” Edge whisper yelled. You checked the time: 11:24pm.

You all looked at each other as he stomped out of the room grumbling to himself and, as soon as he was out of ear-shot, burst into laughter.

“Okay, okay. Give me like half an hour to change my clothes and throw on a bit of makeup and we’ll head out, deal?” You grinned, hopping from foot to foot in excitement.

The three skeletons enthusiastically agreed (well, Mutt and Red did, Sans just agreed in his usual chill manner) and you skipped out the room and into your bedroom.

After applying your usual heavy black eyeliner and mauve lipstick, you looked for an outfit. You picked out a skater skirt with black thigh high socks over fishnet tights, accompanied by a V-neck crop top and a leather jacket. You decided against a coat since it was spring, and you’d probably end up all hot and sweaty from dancing anyway.  

You stopped in front of the full-body mirror, glancing over yourself. You had bleach blonde hair that came down just past your shoulders, parted in the middle with an undercut that revealed your natural hair colour, a light brunette. Your face was littered with piercings, nostril piercings on both sides and a septum, a ring in the center of your lip and a venom piercing on your tongue. Tucking your hair behind your ears revealed stretched lobes adorned with a silver tunnel in addition to several lobe and cartilage piercings. Your arms and legs were covered in several monochrome tattoos, as well as a swirly, flowery design covering your sternum.

After fluffing up your hair with a little product, you strapped on some black platform heeled boots and left your room to meet the boys.

“Ready?” You called, earning a nod and cheer from Mutt and Red, as well as a thumbs-up from Sans.

The rest of the night was mostly a blur of dancing and drinking. At some point you were back home, but you weren’t in your room. This room was messy and smelled like cigarettes and some sort of flowery herbs. Your vision was filled with purple and gold, and suddenly you were kissing someone.

When you woke up with a pounding headache, you groaned and turned over to reach for some water. The first thing you noticed was that you’re practically naked, the second being that this wasn’t your room. Your heart starts to slam against your chest, anxious about the prospect of you having gone home with a complete stranger with barely any memory of the event. After sitting up slowly and taking a calming breath, you looked around and allowed your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

There was someone in the bed next to you, sleeping soundly. Your vision slowly cleared until they came into focus and the memories, triggered by view of the familiar face, came flooding back.

Fuck.

Cursing under your breath, you gathered your abandoned clothes strewn about the room and hastily dressed yourself before slipping out the door. Thankfully, it was the ass crack of dawn, so hopefully no one else would be up to see your shameful sneaking across the hallway if you were careful enough not to bump into anything or make any noise.

Clearly, you weren’t being careful enough. You almost fell back with a restrained squeak when you walked straight into a solid structure. Squinting your eyes to force them to adjust, you found a pair of critical purple eyelights staring down at you.

“I see you and my brother have become well acquainted,” Milord spoke coolly, a malicious smirk twitching the corners of his mouth upwards, “and so soon, too.” He tutted. Although he was wearing a cruel smile, the edge to his voice gave you a clear warning.

You felt your stomach drop, a queasy feeling accompanying the humiliation that flushed your face.

“I… um,” You started dumbly before growling and crossing your arms across your chest in a defensive gesture, “Just… don’t tell anyone about this, please.” You conceded with a sigh, unable to justify your impulsive actions.

He laughed, a cold icy sound that covered your skin in goosebumps, “I shan’t think I need to, human.”

Your face contorted in confusion, “Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean,” his voice dropped into a dangerous growl as he took a step closer to you, “we monsters have an exceptional sense of smell, and if you don’t wash his scent from your person, every monster within a mile will know.”

You cursed under your breath, “Thank you for telling me, Milord.” You gave a grateful smile, attempting to not let his intimidating aura get to you, “You could have just left me to figure it out on my own, but you didn’t, so, thanks.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” He spat with venom, causing you to flinch back and your smile to falter, “I simply wish to avoid conflict where you are concerned. That criminal is enough of a headache to deal with as it is.”

Feeling anger broil in your gut, you opened your mouth to retort, but the words were lost in a growl of frustration when he simply pushed past you, forcing you to brace yourself against the wall in order not to stumble and fall.

“Fucking asshole.” You muttered under your breath before making a beeline for the bathroom. You considered making a quick detour to grab some clothes beforehand but didn’t want to risk anyone else seeing - or, you guessed, smelling - you.

After scrubbing your skin raw and washing your hair twice over, you figured that you definitely didn’t smell of anything but lavender bodywash and stepped out of the shower to wrap yourself in a fluffy towel. Wiping down the condensation on the mirror, you looked yourself over in the mirror and pushed the heels of your palms into your eyes, letting out a frustrated groan.

You really, really wanted to be on good terms with everyone in the household, and this was absolutely not the way to go about it. Now Milord probably thinks you’re some kind of desperate slut, fucking his brother on your first night here! Not to mention that it’s going to be unbearably awkward to be around Mutt now. And Red! Oh, my stars, what would he think if he knew? Would he be furious or just plain disappointed? Either way, you didn’t want to find out.

Holding your breath, you practically tiptoed across the hallway and into your bedroom, softly closing the door to avoid making any kind of noise. Now safely inside your bedroom without being spotted, you sat on the edge of the bed and sighed, your throat tight and eyes burning.

You would not let this happen again.

Chapter Text

You were going to throw yourself in front of a train.

Well, not literally, but that’s how the last few weeks had made you feel. Getting to know everyone was nice, especially Sans, Papyrus, and Edge, who had actually started giving you one-word answers instead of ignoring you, so that was something! You and Red continued your usual hangouts, which usually involved him invading your personal space whilst you studied when you weren’t in lectures or in the lab.

Unfortunately, Axe and Butch were still avoiding you. Axe would freeze and simply watch you with that intense eyelight of his with a strained perma-grin until you got so uncomfortable that you gave in and left the room. Butch wasn’t much better, he would yelp and skuttle away if you got too close, but at least he would somewhat hold a conversation with you under the condition that there were others around and you kept your distance.

And Milord… well, you were both just straight up avoiding each other at this point. After your little speech outside his door, you had hoped that maybe he would stop being so harsh with you, but as a result of your first night here, the most you ever got from him was a glare and a snarl if you got too close or even just attempted to talk to him.

But the kicker was that you’d gotten close with Mutt too, although some would say too close. You had broken the promise you made to yourself about not sleeping with Mutt again… several times. It had started out as a couple of drunken flings and evolved into you deciding that you are your own person that can make their own damn decisions and nobody else should make them for you, thank you very much!

Well, that was the excuse you had fabricated to make yourself feel better.

There’s just something about that damn edgy, sexy, fucking skeleton that makes you weak in the knees (literally, ha), and you hated him, and honestly yourself, for it. Not only that, but it was getting harder and harder to hide it from the rest of the household. An underhanded comment here, a heated kiss in the hallway there, you knew you were getting too cocky about it and had nearly been caught many times. Not to mention the absurd number of showers you had to take to keep yourself from smelling like him.

Mutt had agreed way too easily to you wanting to keep it a secret, claiming that ‘it’s kinda sexy, knowin’ we’re not supposed ta be doin’ it and doin’ it anyway’ and whilst you somewhat agreed, the guilt was eating you up inside and you knew you had to tell Red eventually. Weren’t you the one who claimed that you don’t keep secrets from each other?

It was the early hours of the morning; you were sat up in Mutt’s bed smoking a cigarette whilst he lit one of his own. You exhaled the smoke slowly, relishing in its calming effect.

“I need to tell Red.” You broke the comfortable silence, staring down at your lap as Mutt raised a brow bone at you.

“’kay, i don’t get why you’re so worked up ‘bout tellin’ him,” he took a long drag of his cigarette, considering his next words, “unless ya think he’d be jealous or somethin’.”

“What?” Your head snapped to face him, “No, it’s not that, it’s… wait, why would he be jealous?”

“ya kiddin’ me, doll?” His expression was very serious all of a sudden, “i can see it, but ya tellin’ me yer completely oblivious?”

“Um… yes?” You tensed, afraid that you knew what he was going to say next.

Mutt sat up straight, turning to face you, “he likes ya, like, like likes ya, how haven’t ya figured that out yet?”

Your mouth went dry as a heavy feeling of nausea settled in the pit of your stomach like a rock.

“Oh.” Your voice came out a whisper as you swallowed against the thickness in your throat.

A strained silence settled over the two of you as a million thoughts raced through your head. Sure, Red flirted with you, took care of you in the best way he knew how, but he had always been this way with you. Perhaps the others only thought that he loved you because they’d never seen him actually care about someone before.

Yeah, that must be it.

“ya okay, doll?” Mutt’s eyelights scanned your face, concern etched into his features.

Ignoring his question, you asked slowly, “You’re the closest with Red out of all of his family, right?”

Mutt furrowed his brows together, stubbing his cigarette in an ashtray on the bedside table, “yeah?”

“If you knew that he…” you swallowed, twisting your fists into the blanket, “felt that way about me,” you cleared your throat, “why continue sleeping with me? Why even do it in the first place? Isn’t that kind of fucked up?”

You observed in silence as Mutt picked out another cigarette from the packet and placed it between his teeth, golden fang glinting as it refracted the dull warm light of the bedside lamp, “i, uh, honestly didn’t think of it like that.” He spoke lowly, his raspy voice enveloped in shame.

You threw your hands up in exasperation and cursed, “For fucks sake, Mutt! How?!”

Mutt shrank back as he avoided your eyes, hurt evident on his face, “i dunno, jus’… didn’t.”

You breathed out heavily, anger dissipating at his melancholy expression, “I’m sorry, love,” reaching an arm around his shoulders, he desperately leaned into your embrace, resting his head on your chest as an arm snaked its way around your waist, cigarette now abandoned, “I shouldn’t be taking this out on you. I’m just… stressed, I guess.”

You had cuddled like this with Mutt many times since your first escapade since you got the sense the poor skeleton was touch starved. Not that you didn’t enjoy cuddling, just that this wasn’t something you usually did with your, ahem, sexual partners. He had always greedily snatched up any affection you were willing to give him, but somehow this time felt different. He shook slightly as he buried his face into your chest, obviously distressed over his revelation regarding your time together. You lowered your face, so your cheek was resting on top of Mutt’s head as you softly rubbed his back, earning a pitiful whimper from the skeleton monster.

“It’s going to be okay, Mutt,” You mumbled against his head, “I’m sure he’ll understand. Yeah, he’s gonna be pissed for a hot minute, but you guys are practically besties, right?”

In response you received a mournful grunt, you took it as a yes.

“So, he’ll forgive you in time, especially if you’re as sorry as you are right now.” You chuckled sadly before lifting Mutt’s head to plant a kiss on his forehead as he gazed up at you.

You spent a while like that, just holding him in your arms and tracing his spine and ribs with gentle touches. Eventually he fell asleep, leaving you to ruminate in your thoughts alone.

Wiping the tears that you hadn’t realized had fallen, you breathed deeply in an attempt to soothe yourself. You wished sleep came to you as easily as it did to him then, but the guilt swirling in your chest kept you awake and alert.

With a groan you checked the time: 1am. Welp, may as well get up and go for a cigarette outside, that usually helped you relax.

Being careful not to wake Mutt, you meticulously untangled yourself from the sleeping skeleton and left to wander the hallway. As you padded past one of the bedrooms you heard a beautifully haunting melody playing from what sounded like a piano, muffled by the closed door. You put an ear to the door, your heart swelling as you listened.

You weren’t sure whose room the sound was coming from but decided to take a gamble and lightly rapped on the door, praying for anyone but Milord. The song abruptly stopped as you listened to footsteps approaching the door.

“What Do You Want?” Edge’s voice was hushed, almost eliminating the rough undertone, making it sound deep and smooth.

“Oh, hi, Edge.” You smiled at him finally speaking a full sentence to you, even if it was paired with a bitter expression, “Sorry, I just heard you playing and wondered if I could listen for a while.”

You watched as Edge scrunched up his face in disgust, and a jolt shot through you as you realized that in your eager attempt to get Edge to play for you, you had neglected to shower after just getting out of bed with Mutt. You opened your mouth to say something, but as quickly as the expression had appeared on his face, it was gone.

Edge’s ruby red eyelights scanned your face, your eyes puffy and red and accompanied by dark circles, and for some reason took pity on you.

With a roll of his eyelights he returned to the piano, leaving the door open for you. You held back a squeal of excitement as you shuffled into the room, softly shutting the door behind you, and took a seat on the end of his bed, careful not to mess up his perfectly made sheets.

You heard a light thud and a pitiful squeak before you spotted Albert, who had poorly misjudged the distance from the windowsill to the bed. You snorted and picked the ginger tabby up, cradling him like a baby.

“I was wondering where you had got to!” You cooed as you rubbed his fluffy belly, earning a rumbling purr from the kitty.

You directed your attention back to Edge and inaudibly gasped as you took in the gorgeous black oak grand piano. You had always wanted one like that but could never afford it. You bit back the jealousy rising in your throat and patiently waited for him to begin playing.

You listened in bliss, your eyes closed as you gently swayed to the music, Albert still cuddled to your chest. The three of you stayed like that for one song, then another, and another, until you opened your eyes and spoke gingerly.

“Why are you still awake?” You asked.

“Irrelevant.” Came his short reply.

Oof, you were doing so well, too.

“You play so beautifully; I wish I could play like that.” You smiled sadly, you’d only ever had cheap, shitty keyboard pianos that broke quickly, and once you moved here you couldn’t afford that luxury, so you’d fallen out of practice, “I’ve never even seen a piano that luxurious before.”

His playing slowed to a stop as he considered you, “You Play?”

You perked up at his interest, “Yeah! Well, I’m a little rusty now, but I taught myself for years.”

You observed with muted curiosity as he stood from his seated position on the black, leather stool and motioned for you to sit. Placing a disgruntled Albert on to the bed, you cautiously took a seat on the stool, letting your fingers lightly graze the keys, “Wow.” You breathed.

“The Keys Are Weighted Differently On A Piano Like This,” His voice came from right beside your ear as he leant down to show you, a gloved finger using different pressures to push the same key to demonstrate how each one created the note to play at varying volumes, “And There Are Three Pedals, From Right To Left Is To Sustain, The Next To Sustain Any Keys That Are Held, And Lastly To Soften The Notes.”

Your heart was hammering against your ribcage as you felt his hot breath against the side of your face. He’s teaching you how to use his piano!

Pure glee mixed with Edge’s close proximity made your cheeks burn as you attempted to focus.

“I, um-” Your wavering voice betrayed you as you cleared your throat, “I also learnt to sing as well as play, if you- you want me to, uh, sing.” Stars, get it together!

Edge had straightened his posture, now towering over you, and gave you a wave of his hand in a ‘go ahead’ motion. Even though he still wore his usual apathetic sneer, his eyelights shone with inquisitiveness as you cracked your knuckles and began to play.

Your playing started out as stumbling and inexperienced, like a newborn deer learning to walk, but as you gained confidence, as did your playing. You began to sing to the haunting melody.

I'm so tired of being here

Suppressed by all my childish fears

And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave

'Cause your presence still lingers here

And it won't leave me alone

Your heart soared as you sang. This was one of the first songs you had ever learnt in full and so the lyrics and the emotion behind them came easy to you.

These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real

There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears

When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears

And I held your hand through all of these years

But you still have all of me

Everything and anything that was causing you anguish was washed away from your soul as your fingers expertly glided across the keys, your voice gaining strength as you continued.

You used to captivate me by your resonating light

Now, I'm bound by the life you left behind

Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams

Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me

These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real

There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears

When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears

And I held your hand through all of these years

And you still have all of me

A genuine smile pulled at your mouth as you poured your soul into your singing, forgetting that there was anyone in the room but you.

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone

But though you're still with me, I've been alone, I'm alone

When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears

When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears

I held your hand through all of these years

You still have all of me ah, me ah, me ah

As the last few notes of the outro played, you let out a contented sigh. You had missed this so much. Music, especially when you were able to play it yourself, was the one way you could let your emotions be free; something you had desperately needed to do for a while.

A jolt of adrenaline ripped you from your blissful dream state as you realized that you were, in fact, not alone. You sheepishly stood from the stool and swiveled to see Edge, his face glowing a brilliant crimson.

“Ha, sorry, got carried away there.” You let out a breathy laugh as you studied the ground beneath you.

“That Was… Adequate.” His voice came out strained, as if it was physically painful to speak.

Holy shit.

Your face lit up as you grinned, “Thank you! I don’t think I could ever be as amazing as you are though.” You ended your sentence with a timid giggle.

Edge’s face burned even brighter, the furious blush now covering his entire skull, “Yes, Well… No one Could Ever Hope To Be As Amazing As The Great And Terrible Edge.” He puffed out his chest, hands resting on his hips. With the intense blush covering his skull, he really didn’t look so intimidating anymore. He was actually kind of… cute.

You bit your lip to stifle a laugh and decided to put him out of his misery, “I should be getting to bed. Thank you, Edge.” You smiled softly, “Good night.”

His eyelights struggled to meet your gaze as he wished you a good night in return, but watched your back as you exited the room with your cat trotting happily behind you, only leaving your form once the door was completely closed.

After making your way back to your room and slipping under the covers with Albert curled up beside your head. Your soul felt content for once, lulling you into a dreamless sleep.

The sun had just started to peek over the hilly landscape when you finally went to bed and as a result you ended up sleeping in a lot later than you would have liked. Luckily, it was Saturday, so you didn’t have classes or work and you silently thanked the stars as you stretched and rubbed the sleep from your eyes.

Just as you sat up and threw the duvet off of you, Red came shuffling through your door, looking as though he had not long woken up himself. Without warning, he flopped down on top of you, resulting in Albert, who had migrated to wrap himself around your head during the night, giving him a glare and a huff as he hopped down from the bed. You recalled that this was his usual course of action when he needed comforting, whether it be a result of a fight with his brother or a depressive episode. He would obviously never actually ask for it - no, he was too emotionally constipated for that - so he had taken to invading your personal space as a silent ask for reassurance.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” You cooed, wrapping your arms around him. He was only wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, making him feel a lot smaller than he usually did in his big puffy jacket.

He groaned as he rubbed his face into your chest, then froze.

“Red?” You craned your neck to try to see his face, “What’s going on?”

With some force, the skeleton monster shoved himself away from you, scrambling to stand.

“why do ya smell like th’ mutt?” He said slowly, as if he were fighting down his temper. He most likely was, you thought.

“Ah, um,” You sighed, squeezing your hands together. You may as well get this out in the open now then. It’s not like you’d spent many sleepless nights figuring out what you were going to say or anything.

You had. You definitely had.

“ya been sleeping with ‘im?” His voice and face refused to betray whatever he was feeling, making you increasingly nervous.

“Yes.” You took a breath as you prepared to stand up for yourself, “Red, I’m an adult, I can make my own decisions and- “

“how long?”

“Since… since my first night here.” Your words came out almost inaudibly, shame clawing its way into your chest.

A low growl emitted from Red’s throat, his hands clenched by his sides, “’m gonna kill that fuckin’ bastard.”

“Red, stop!” You jumped from the bed to grab his shoulders, forcing him to look at you, “Listen to me for one second, please!”

Red stilled, his eyelights had vanished from his sockets, leaving you doubtful that he could even hear you at all through his blind rage. Frankly, you were impressed he had even stopped at all.

“ya don’t understand.” He growled; sharp teeth bared in a threatening grimace.

“I do understand.” You spoke defiantly, “Mutt told me.”

You knew this was a long shot, being that you didn’t believe what he said and, even if it was true, Red wouldn’t admit it.  You could feel his body shaking, attempting to contain his fury. You don’t think you’d ever seen him this pissed off before and started to have serious doubts regarding your ability to calm him.

“tha’ makes it even fuckin’ worse!” He roared, forcefully freeing himself from your grip and storming through the door.

You couldn’t even begin to process the fact that he had just inadvertently confirmed what Mutt had told you, instead compartmentalizing it for later and deciding to first attempt to save the lanky skeleton.

Cursing up a storm that Red would have been proud of if he wasn’t absolutely wracked with rage and definitely on his way to murder his cousin, you scrambled to chase after him, praying you could mediate some of the damage that was about to be done.

By the time you had made it to Mutt’s room, your chest heaving from rushing to catch up, the door had already been violently flung open, causing a sizeable hole in the wall behind it, and Mutt had already been thrown to the floor, a seething Red standing at his feet.

“ya have ten seconds to explain yaself before I fuckin’ dust ya.” His voice was cold, any semblance of the sweet, albeit bad-tempered, guy you knew.

You held your breath as you waited for Mutt to answer, heart hurting at the fear in his eyes.

“i- i didn’t think, i didn’t even make th’ connection ‘til last night, but- “ Mutt started, an undertone of desperation to his words.

“but fuckin’ nothin’!” Red yelled, cutting off whatever his cousin was going to say next, “ya knew! ya fuckin’ knew and ya still- ya still…” He deflated slightly as his sentence trailed off.

Your eyes began to burn as Red’s voice cracked, your soul urging you to reach out to him, to comfort him, but you couldn’t. You couldn’t because you were the one that caused this. You were the one that couldn’t stop fucking hurting people.

“red, ya can’t just claim ‘em as ya own, that’s not how this works, ya know that!” Mutt half-shouted, picking himself up from the floor and taking a tentative step forward when Red simply stared, breaths coming out in quick, short bursts.

Taking this as a sign of encouragement, Mutt continued, his voice stern, “ya need to get ya fuckin’ jealousy under control, they ain’t even ya alpha!”

“me?! get my jealousy under control?” Red let out a bark of condescending laughter, “tha’s fuckin’ rich comin’ from you!”

Mutt jerked back as if he’d been physically burned by Red’s words, hurt twisting his features.

“that’s not fair.” He whispered, arms crossing over his form in a protective stance.

That snapped you out of your self-pitying trance. You’d had enough of watching them fight. You stomped closer to the two, rage evident on your face.

“Red, will you stop it?!” You screeched, “Mutt fucked up, I fucked up, but you don’t get to use whatever thing happened in the past against him to hurt him like that! For fucks sake!”

Red froze as if he had just realized your presence, not even gracing you with an answer before you were thrown out of the room by some sort of invisible force, the door slamming shut in your face.

Your heartbeat in your ears and breath coming in panicked gasps, you pulled yourself to your feet and tried the doorknob. Locked. Not knowing what else to do, you repeatedly slammed your fists on the door in a desperate attempt to get it open.

“Red! Mutt! Open the fucking door!” You screeched, your vision starting to darken around the edges in your panic. You heard a resounding crash and more yelling, and screamed in frustration. What the fuck do you do now?! Where is everyone?! Surely, they heard the commotion, so why aren’t they coming to help?!

As if an answer from the stars themselves, Papyrus bolted up the stairs, his face a picture of worry. He looked as though he had only just arrived home, a few plastic shopping bags hanging from his arms.

“HUMAN? WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?” He dropped the bags and caught you as your knees gave out in pure relief, allowing you to wrap your arms around his neck to steady yourself.

“Red… Mutt… they- “ You gasped out, a grueling panic attack now wracking your body.

“they fighting?” Sans had appeared beside his brother, obviously returning from an outing with him. He looked as laid-back as ever, his hands shoved in the pockets of his hoodie, though his smile was strained as he took in your shaking form.

All you could manage is a weak nod, a sob forcing its way past your lips.

“paps you take ‘em somewhere safe, i’ll handle it.” He sighed.

Papyrus gave a determined nod in response, hoisting you into a bridal carry and marching you to your bed, where he carefully took a seat, positioning you so you were in his lap.

You clutched the front of his shirt a buried your face in it, the faint smell of sweet citrus calming your nerves as you sobbed. Papyrus rubbed your back, making gentle shushing noises the way you would to a crying child.

“Deep Breaths, You’re Okay.” He repeated this several times, his soft voice soothing you, until you could take deep, even breaths.

You cringed and wiped your face, mortified that he had just held you like a kid whilst you wailed.

“I’m sorry.” You hiccupped, red faced and bleary eyed as you looked up at him.

“DON’T BE SORRY, HUMAN! CRYING IS A GREAT WAY TO RELEASE YOUR EMOTIONS!” He pointed a finger toward the sky as if he were teaching you something new, “BESIDES, DON’T YOU FEEL BETTER NOW?”  

Your stomach was cramped with nausea and your head was pounding from crying so hard, but he was right, you did feel just that little bit better. A wave of determination washed over you, making you grit your teeth and jump from the boisterous skeleton’s lap.

“You know what? I do.” You offered Papyrus a watery smile, “Thank you, Papyrus.”

“IT IS NO PROBLEM AT ALL! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS LOOKS OUT FOR HIS FRIENDS, AFTER ALL!” He beamed and stood with you, placing a supportive gloved hand on your shoulder whilst the other rested in a fist on his hip.

“We’re friends?” You hesitantly asked, a meek smile lighting up your tear-stained face.

“OF COURSE!” His grin faltered slightly, “DO YOU NOT THINK WE ARE FRIENDS?”

“No! No, it’s not that!” You placed your hand atop of his on your shoulder, “I just can’t believe that I get to be friends with someone as cool as you!”

An adorable tangerine orange blush lit up his cheekbones, “W-WELL, BELIEVE IT, HUMAN! BECAUSE! WE ARE THE BESTEST OF FRIENDS!”

You giggled at his enthusiasm and pulled him into a hug, of which he returned by lifting you from the floor and spinning you around, letting out a hearty “NYEH HEH HEH” as he did so.

After placing you back on your feet and releasing you, Papyrus’ face practically lit up with mischief.

“AND SO, BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS, YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT MUTT AND RED ARE FIGHTING ABOUT!” He stated, more than asked, eyelights shimmering.

Oh, Papyrus. You sneaky bastard.

Your smile dropped and you began to chew your lip as anxiety once again welled up inside you.

“I… can’t tell you, Paps. I’m sorry.” Your heart gave a pang of sympathy as he whined in protest. You got the feeling he wasn’t told a lot, especially when it came to the darker side each of his family members lives, “I really want to tell you, in fact, it would help a lot to talk this out with someone who isn’t involved, but… it’s Red’s secret to tell, not mine.” You finished, relief washing over you as he gave you a nod and an understanding smile.

“IT IS OKAY, FRIEND.” He sounded a little defeated, his usual energy absent from his speech.

You hummed in thought, an idea coming to you that may just appease the sweet skeleton monster.

“Well… perhaps you can advise me a little? As long as I don’t actually tell you what it’s about specifically, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” You offered with a small smile.

“YES, ABSOLUTELY! I AM VERY ADEPT AT GIVING ADVICE ON NON-SPECIFIC SITUATIONS!” Papyrus excitedly plopped himself back down onto the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to him with way more force than necessary, making you giggle as you complied with his request.

You stared down at your hands, fiddling with your thumbs as you pondered how best to explain it to him.

“So… imagine that you have two best friends- “

“I DON’T NEED TO IMAGINE!” He interrupted with pride, making you snort and shake your head.

“Okay, okay. So then, imagine those two best friends were keeping a secret from you and doing sneaky things without you knowing. Then, to make it even worse, one best friend tells the other a secret about you that you didn’t want them to know. How would you feel?”

You fidgeted as you watched Papyrus rub his chin in thought, his browbones scrunched together.

“OH!” He exclaimed suddenly, making you jump, “ARE THE TWO FRIENDS PERHAPS SLEEPING TOGETHER AND THE SECRET IS THAT I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU?”

“What?!” You gawked, “Who told you?!”

“NO ONE! I FIGURED IT OUT BY MYSELF!” He declared as his chest swelled with pride.

You slapped a hand to your forehead as you cursed, “How?! Oh stars, does everyone know?!”

“WELL…” He started guiltily, “YOU STILL SMELL LIKE HIM, FRIEND. AND RED ISN’T VERY GOOD AT CONCEALING HIS EMOTIONS, IT’S QUITE OBVIOUS.”

These fucking monsters and their insane sense of smell. God fucking damn it.

You groaned and threw yourself backwards onto the bed, covering your burning face with your hands.

“This is so embarrassing.” You whined; your words muffled by your hands, “I didn’t even know he felt that way about me until last night, and now I don’t think he’ll ever even look at me again.” Your voice wavered as your throat tightened at the prospect.

Papyrus mirrored your action, his tall stature placing him a head taller than you, even when lying down.

“If I Were Him, I Don’t Think I Would Blame You.” Papyrus spoke softly, his tone uncharacteristically serious.

“Really?” You peeked through your fingers at the skeleton.

“Really. Yes, It Is Hurtful, But You Didn’t Know, So It Isn’t Your Fault.”

You sniffled and removed your hands completely, “What about Mutt? He said that he didn’t even see it as a hurtful thing to do until I mentioned it, and I truly believe him.” You said, recalling the way Mutt had shaken and whined as you held him when he had realized what he’d done.

“I Am Afraid That It Is Up To Red To Decide. Hopefully He Will Let Him Explain, But With Red’s Track Record, Well…” He trailed off, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

You knew exactly what he meant. That skeleton could hold one hell of a grudge for even the smallest things, never mind something like this.

Well, fuck.

“I should go talk to him.” You exhaled heavily as you stood and offered a hand to Papyrus to help him stand.

Before Papyrus could reply, a soft knock pulled both of your attention to the door. Your soul leapt at the thought that Red could be on the other side, and you rushed to open the door, almost tripping over your own feet in your eagerness.

“heya.” Sans shuffled from one slipper-covered foot to the other, adorning a tense smile.

You almost groaned in disappointment before you noticed a crack running the vertical length of his skull, forcing one of his sockets to close.

“Sans, oh my god, are you okay?!” You grabbed his skull without thinking, turning his head side to side to assess the injury, “Did Red do this to you?!”

“heh, was collateral damage, no biggie.” He shrugged, wincing as your finger lightly brushed the scar.

“OH, BROTHER.” Papyrus sighed sadly and shook his head, making you think that this was a common occurrence, “COME HERE, LET ME HEAL YOU.”

You released Sans’ skull and bit at your fingernails as he sat himself cross-legged across from Papyrus on the bed, who copied him so that they were facing each other and removed his gloves. You gasped lightly as you watched beautiful, green magic swirl from his hands and absorb into the injury, which almost immediately started to knit itself back together.

“I had no idea you guys could heal, that’s amazing.” If your eyes could have transformed into stars, they would have.

“not all of us, just paps as far as we’re aware.” Sans confirmed, “my bro is so cool.”

You couldn’t see his face since his back was turned to you, but you just knew he had this dopey proud grin on his face, and it honestly made you want to burst into tears all over again from how damned sweet it was.

“Yeah,” you whispered with a small smile, “he is.”

Although Papyrus’ face was scrunched up in concentration, a small blush lightly tinted his cheeks as Sans chuckled.

You remained in the doorway, chewing your nails once again as you waited for Papyrus to finish. You became lost in your thoughts, completely zoning out until a hand lightly touched your arm, making you squeak. Your eyes shot to the hand and travelled up to its owner, Sans.

“Ah, sorry, heh.”  You nervously giggled.

There was an awkward silence between the two of you as you cleared your throat and tapped the heel of one foot with the other.

“ya wanna know what happened, don’t ya?” Sans finally broke the silence, an amused lilt to his words.

“Oh my god, yes, please!” Your put-together façade finally shattered as you word-vomited, “Are they okay? Where’s Mutt? Where’s Red? Did he kill him?! Oh fuck, he killed him, didn’t he? Jesus fucking shit- “

“woah, woah” Sans put his hands out in front of him, palms facing you, “no one dusted, kid, calm down.”

“Oh, thank the stars.” You sighed, “So, where are they? Are they okay?” You furrowed your brows in worry, trying to read Sans’ tense expression.

“mutt is in his room, he’s okay, just shaken. red is…” his eyelights shifted to the side to avoid your gaze, “i dunno… where he is.”

You deadpanned, panic rising in you once again, “What do you mean, you don’t know where he is?” Your words came out strained and quiet.

“he just… disappeared while my back was turned, i’m sure he’s fine- “

You darted to your bedside table where your phone lay and frantically dialed Red’s number, squeezing the phone in your sweaty palms. When the dial tone rang out, you swore and launched the phone across the room, not caring if it broke or not. You were in full crisis mode.

Sharp recollections flashed in your skull, making you gasp and flinch back. Last time someone had run from you like this was-

Blood. A Blade. Pills….

You slapped a hand over your mouth as you gagged, tears once again flowing freely down your face before someone grabbed your arms and called your name in a way that made you think this wasn’t the first time they had done so. Your vision cleared, revealing the concerned faces of the two brothers.

“geez, kid, ya okay? ya blanked out there for a sec.” Sans tilted his head at you with a nervous laugh.

You didn’t bother responding. You shook yourself from his grip and ran.

You ran through the hallways, slamming your fists on every door on your way before opening them, panic only growing stronger the more empty rooms you found.

You screamed Red’s name, desperation making your words hoarse and burning your throat. Eventually you barged your way into Mutt’s room, startling the poor skeleton.

“doll? what the hell’s goin’ on?” He shot up from his seated position on his bed, grabbing your arm before as you turned to continue your rampage, “hey! ya okay? what’s wrong?!”

“I have to find him, I have to find him before he does something horrible,” Your voice wavered and cracked, “I have to help him, he’s gonna- he’s gonna…”

Mutt studied your blotchy, tear stained face. Your eyes were completely glazed over, you weren’t lucid. Something was happening, something from your past replaying in your head and making you act irrationally. He pulled you into him, wrapping his arms tight around you and refused to release you despite your thrashing.

“Stop! What are you doing? I have to find him! You don’t understand!” You screamed and sobbed, bashing your fists against his chest.

Mutt simply rocked you back and forth, repeating a series of ‘he’s okay’ and ‘no one is hurt’ until your thrashing weakened and eventually slowed to a stop, leaving you an exhausted, wheezing mess.

He carefully lifted you and placed you in his bed, gently climbing in beside you and pulling you to his chest as you shook and finally, mercifully, passed out.

Mutt quietly watched your sleeping form, guilt twisting his insides, or lack thereof. He gingerly pushed a strand away from your face, lingering a moment on your cheek as he listened to your soft breathing through slightly parted lips. You looked peaceful, unburdened, despite what had just transpired, and he found himself thankful that you could at least find respite in your slumber.

He had grown fond of you in your time together, which is why he needed to fix this. First, though, he needed to figure out how to help you if something like that ever happened again. He despised feeling helpless.

Cautiously untangling his limbs from yours, he inaudibly hissed as you stirred and whined, upset warping your face.

“be back soon, doll.” He placed a tentative skeletal kiss on your forehead, causing you to sigh and unfurrow your brows, burying your face deeper into the pillow.

Closing the door softly as not to wake you, Mutt let out a steady exhale before running his hands down his face.

“You look distressed.”

With a start Mutt cursed under his breath, “stars, i should put a bell on ya.” he let out a raspy laugh at his brother’s annoyance in response to his jab.

Milord simply raised a browbone at the taller brother, tapping a foot impatiently as he waited for reply to his statement.

“huh? oh, yeah.” He forced a smile, praying the more pronounced than usual bags under his eyes wouldn’t portray the truth, “nah, m’fine. don’t worry ‘bout me, bro.”

As he spoke, Mutt placed a hand atop the irate skeleton’s head in a brotherly gesture, only to have it slapped away with a huff.

“You clearly are not, but if you consider it such a waste of time to tell your brother what has you so upset, so be it.” Milord rolled his violet eyelights, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mutt fought back a snort at the display, despite being older his brother could really act like an indignant child sometimes.

“it’s just tha human, they ain’t doin’ so good,” His voice dropped as he admitted, “‘m worried ‘bout ‘em.”

Milord growled, his expression darkening, “I knew they would be nothing but trouble. I should never have allowed your- your gallivanting.” He hissed.

“they ain’t done anythin’ wrong!” Mutt hissed back, “it’s me that fucked up, not them!”

Milord barked a cold laugh, “Yes, I’m sure they’ve convinced you of that.” His tone dropped to a condescending lilt, “Sex will do that, won’t it? Make you believe anything they say?”

A rumbling growl arose from Mutt’s throat, “i ain’t stooping to ya level,” He pushed past his brother, fists clenched, “grow up, milord.”

Hurt briefly flashed across the skeleton monster’s face before being swiftly replaced by an enraged sneer before he stomped into his room with a slam of the door.

Mutt pinched the bridge of his nose as he exhaled, “one crisis at a time, mutt.” he mumbled to himself.

Recalling his original mission, he walked at a brisk pace to the bedroom of the only person he knew who could help.

Axe.

Forgetting any semblance in manners, Mutt burst through the door, earning a yelp from Butch, who was sat on the bed, several papers containing sketches of wildlife strewn in front of him. Right, he had forgotten they shared a room, the two hesitant to be apart even to sleep.

Butch’s tensed form relaxed upon seeing his cousin as he offered a shaky smile, “H-hi, Mutt.”

“hey, sorry for spookin’ ya, jus’ need an urgent favor. ya seen axe anywhere?” He asked, eyes nervously scanning the room.

“I think he’s in the mountains somewhere, b-but I could help too, if you’d like.” The anxious skeleton busied himself with gathering his drawings as he spoke.

“uh, sure.” Mutt shrugged, “ya know when axe has those…” he trailed off, gesturing with his hands.

“Episodes?” Butch helpfully supplied, tilting his head to the side.

“yeah, those. he takes shit for it, right? do ya know where he keeps it?”

“Oh, um, y-yes, but you would have t-to ask him for some.” Butch looked at his cousin, concerned, “You aren’t h-having episodes like that, are y-you?”

“no, no. it’s uh…” he hesitated, unsure if he should reveal what happened. If there’s anyone that would understand, it would be Butch, right?

“it’s tha human, they freaked out on me and i thought it looked kinda similar to what happens to axe, so…” he continued, nervously scuffing his feet on the linoleum floor.

Butch grinned, “That’s s-sweet, Mutt, but it w-wouldn’t work on a human, r-remember?”

Mutt groaned, “magic based, right? damn.”

“Humans h-have stuff for it too, I-I think. Maybe they a-already have some?” Butch suggested, “Perhaps y-you should ask them.”

Mutt strode with newfound enthusiasm toward his cousin, grasped the sides of his face, and planted a fat skeletal kiss on his forehead, “yer a genius, butch, thanks!” He rushed out of the room, leaving behind a perplexed Butch, who let out a breathy laugh and shook his head.

“You’re w-welcome, Mutt.” He mumbled to the air where the other skeleton had just been, rubbing his forehead.

Now in your bedroom, Mutt was frantically searching through your dresser. You wouldn’t mind, right? It was to help you, after all.

With a shout of triumph, he pulled out a Tupperware box containing several packets of medicine. Rifling through them, he read the names of each one with great confusion.

“effexor? ritalin? th’ fuck is this shit?” He dropped the packets back into the box in frustration and settled on just bringing the entire box to you, figuring you would know which one of the ridiculously named medicines you needed.

Hoisting the box under his arm, he grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen for you to take the pills with before slipping back into his room to find you awake and sat up, smoking one of his cigarettes.

“Hey, you okay?” You shot him a tired smile before your eyes homed in on the box, “What ya got there?” You raised a disapproving eyebrow, knowing exactly what he ‘had there’.

“i, uh, didn’t know what ya needed, so i jus’ brought the box,” he sheepishly handed you the box and the glass of water before squeezing himself into the bed next to you.

“You went into my room and searched through my stuff while I was passed out just so you could find medicine for me?” Laughter laced your words as you pinched his cheek, “That’s so sweeeeet!” You teased, giggling at the lilac blush tinting his face.

Mutt snorted, “ya fuckin’ weirdo, i thought for sure you’d be pissed.”

“Pissed? At you? I could never.” You cooed, booping him on the nasal bridge, earning an adorable whine as he batted your hand away. Composing himself, Mutt gently grabbed the hand poking at him and placed it between his skeletal ones.

“ya scared th’ shit outta me, doll.” He spoke lowly, suddenly serious.

Your grin fell as you squeezed his hand, “I know, I’m sorry. I should have told you about my episodes.” You let out a frustrated huff, “It’s just, they don’t happen so much anymore, and I wanted to feel fucking normal for once, y’know?”

“yeah… i know.” He looked down at your interlinked hands, tracing the back of yours with his finger, “it’s alright, ‘m just glad yer okay.”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” You raised one of his hands to your lips and kissed the back of it.

Flustered, Mutt cleared his throat and swiftly changed the subject.

“s-so, ya gonna tell me what these stupid complicated soundin’ pills do?”

You snorted and picked up a packet, showing it to him, “Effexor is an SNRI, means it works on Serotonin and Norepinephrine.” Noting his baffled expression, you rephrased, “It makes my brain stop being sad and anxious.” You giggled as recognition lit up his features.

“And this,” You picked up another packet, “Is Ritalin. It’s for my ADHD.”

“adhd?” he repeated, taking the packet from you, turning it in his grasp.

“Uh, basically my brain isn’t wired right, meaning I struggle to concentrate, do tasks even as simple as cleaning, get distracted super easy, stuff like that.” You simplified it for him, painfully aware that it was so much more complex than that. “And Ritalin helps make my brain function almost like a normal one.”  

“huh, humans really got so much stuff that could go wrong with ‘em.” He mused, returning the packet to you.

You guffawed, “Oh, you have no idea.”

“so, where’s the stuff to make you calm when you get like before?” Mutt asked.

“Oh, you’re thinking of, like, Xanax or something.” You explained, placing everything back in the box, “I’m not allowed that though, I’m lucky they let me get away with Ritalin.”

“why? it bad for ya?” Mutt inquired as he placed a cigarette between his fangs.

“Ha, yeah, you could say that.” You swallowed before aptly changing the subject, “Why’d you think I’d have something like that?”

“it’s jus’ that axe gets like that sometimes and he takes this herbal stuff for it, so i asked butch an’ he said ya probably have ya own stuff that, yanno, would actually work on a human.” He shrugged, lighting the cigarette before taking a drag.

Your heart wanted to burst out of your chest with how full it was. You threw your arms around the skeleton with a mumbled, “Thank you”.

“heh, it’s no problem, doll.” He said lowly, returning your hug before continuing, “ya wanna tell me what the uh-“

“Episode.” You supplied, lifting your head to meet Mutt’s gaze.

“right, episode.” He repeated, using a skeletal hand to take a piece of your hair to play with, “do ya wanna tell me what it was about?”

You inhaled sharply as your gaze dropped, “Life, um, life hasn’t been the… kindest to me, yknow?” You chewed your lip, deciding how much you were willing to tell him, “Being born to drug addict parents will do that, I guess.”

Mutt’s hand paused before he mumbled almost hesitantly, “that what ya were seeing? ya parents?”

“Nah, something that happened… after that.” You gave a short shake of your head as you spoke, “Someone else.” You added in a whisper.

There were chills running up and down your whole body, your heart was beginning to race. You changed the subject.

“Is Red back yet?” You asked hopefully, meeting Mutt’s gaze once again.

His eyelights were fuzzy in a way that almost mirrored a human’s eyes when they were lost in thought. Your question snapped his attention back to you.

“don’t think so, doll. ya were only out ‘bout half an hour.” He rested his chin on the top of your head, removing the hand fiddling with your hair in favor of wrapping an arm back around your waist.

You visibly deflated, “Oh.”

All of a sudden you were lifted into Mutt’s arms, positioned like a baby monkey holding onto its mother, making you squeak and laugh.

“cmon, let’s get some grub, ya haven’t eaten yet today, right?” Mutt grinned, jostling you to reposition you as he walked.

“No, but you don’t have to carry me!” You giggled, removing an arm from around his neck to poke the side of his face, “Come on, I can walk on my own!”

“nope, yer gettin’ carried” He spoke with finality, hands placed under your legs giving your thighs a chaste squeeze, earning an indignant squawk from you.

This teasing back and forth continued until you were placed on top of a counter with a parting kiss from the skeleton monster, then watched in adoration as Mutt rifled around the fridge before pulling out leftover tuna salad pasta from yesterday’s lunch and throwing a heaping portion into a bowl. With a curtsy and a “ta da!” he handed it to you along with a fork, making you snort.

“You’re such a nerd.” You said affectionately through your laughter.

Mutt chuckled in return, “and you ain’t?” he teased, tapping your forehead, “doctor ~”

“Welp, ya got me there.” You conceded, grinning around a forkful of pasta.

The two of you chatted whilst you ate, which involved you attempting to spoon-feed Mutt some of your pasta after he confirmed your suspicions that he hadn’t eaten either. In all of the hubbub you had completely forgotten to feed Albert, who had picked up on your chatter from the kitchen and was now mournfully meowing by his food bowl.

You gasped as you spotted him, “Oh, I’m so sorry, sweetheart! I completely forgot!”

Mutt placed a hand out, preventing you from pushing yourself off the counter, “i got it doll, food’s in this cupboard right?” He pointed to the cupboard just by the kitty’s bowl.

“Yeah, just give him half a tin.” You smiled gratefully at the skeleton, “Thank you, love.”

The pet name (which honestly was a common thing to call anyone in England, but you guessed that’s not how it worked here) always flustered the lanky monster.

You held in a giggle as he flushed and bashfully replied, “’s no problem.”

After successfully satiating the starving kitty, you hopped down from the counter and washed your dishes. You both settled for distracting yourself with videogames whilst you waited for Red to come home.

You only got through a single match of some battle royale game before someone’s presence was made known by a slam of the front door. Both you and Mutt went silent and tensed, shooting each other a wary look.

“I’ll go check.” You whispered, pulling yourself up into a standing position.

Mutt simply nodded, a slightly fearful expression on his face as he messed with the buttons on the controller.

It seems like word gets around quickly here, as the rest of the household (those who were home anyway, it was only early evening, and you knew Edge worked late on Saturdays) had heard the commotion too, because many of them were stood on the balcony overlooking the hallway leading to the front entrance with concerned looks.

It didn’t fill you with confidence.

Steeling your nerves, you took a breath and made your way over to find Red absolutely wasted out of his mind, pulling himself up the oak stairs by the hand railing with a string of muttered curses.

Time to face the music.

Chapter Text

“Red?” You called softly and craned your neck to try to see his downturned face, reaching a tentative hand out as you did so. Your worry only grew as you observed his current state; mouth downturned, cheeks slightly flushed from the alcohol and swaying gently as he attempted to keep himself upright. The skeleton monster lifted his head to regard you, fuzzy eyelights trained almost looking through you.

“sup, kid.” He nodded curtly at you, then attempted to continue his wobbly ascent up the stairs.

Stars knows how he managed to get so drunk in such a short amount of time. Probably monster alcohol, you thought.

You grabbed him as he stumbled and led him to sit on the bottom step, your stomach clenching in concern. You took a seat next to him, your thigh pressed against his. Even through your clothing you could feel the heat of his bones, as well as the familiar hum of his magic, which right now was almost like the buzz of an agitated swarm of bees. Well, time to do what you do best, try to mitigate the tension with stupid bullshit jokes.

“Wow.” You breathed, raising your eyebrows, and tilting your head as if seriously assessing him, “You are absolutely wankered.”

Red wheezed at your use of British slang, considerably brightening your dulled mood, and encouraging you to continue.

“heh, wankered” He badly imitated your accent, making you snort. You rarely used your familiar jargon since you moved, for quite a few reasons, but you busted it out every now and again to make your best friend laugh.

“Some would even say positively trollied.” You teased, a grin cracking your face.

Red’s wheezing turned into full on howling laughter as he wiped a tear of mirth from his socket. He quickly doubled over and fell into your side, prompting even more laughter from you as you struggled slightly under his weight to keep him upright.

“That funny, is it?” You purposefully exaggerated your accent and giggled along with him, nudging your knee against his, earning a nod in place of a verbal confirmation due to the poor monster barely being able to get a word out through his drunken cackling.

It took a minute of breathing to calm yourselves, only to look at each other and burst out laughing again, but eventually both of your laughter had finally died down. There was a brief moment of companiable silence before you reluctantly reminded yourself of what you actually needed to talk to him about.

“You okay?” You asked as you took a skeletal hand in yours, giving it a squeeze. The air around you immediately felt heavier at your inquiry.

“’m fuckin’ fine.” He grumbled and tried to brush you off but faltered as he did so, resulting in you releasing his hand and throwing a cautious arm around his shoulders once again. At this point you were professionally trained in the art of ‘don’t let the drunk bastard fall flat on his face’ and had fairly quick reflexes in these situations as a result.

“Oookay, let’s get you some water.” You grunted as you lifted him into a standing position, earning a childish whine as he attempted to resist with little success, “C’mon, big guy.”

Red was essentially dead weight at this point. Somehow for a guy made of bones he was really heavy! You grunted with effort as you hauled the skeleton monster into the living room and attempted to throw him onto the couch, but his grip on you had you flailing and tumbling with him. With a squeal you tried to pivot yourself to catch your fall, only to end up positioning yourself under Red with his head precariously placed on your chest. Thankfully, Mutt must have heard Red’s drunk protests as you dragged him along with you and decided that now was not the best time to confront him as he was absent from the room, making you the only one who would remember this mortifying incident.

“Stars, Red, get off me! You weigh like a million tons!” You groaned as you tried to free your pinned arms under his weight. Your attempts were futile, however, as your arms were positioned in such a way that it was near impossible to maneuver them in any direction.

A faint snore sounded from the monster, making you whine in annoyance. Great, he’s passed out and you’re well and truly stuck. If you were going to be freed, you would have to deal with one of the skeleton family seeing you with Red’s head practically between your tits.

“Mutt?” You called as loudly as you could, not worried in the slightest about waking the snoozing monster and internally praying that he could hear you from here, “A little help, please?”

It took a few minutes of listening to Red’s soft snores and mentally cursing yourself for getting into this situation before your ears picked up on signs of life in the hallway. You sighed with relief as you listened to the shuffling footsteps enter room, only to tense and flush a brilliant pink as you caught sight of the skeleton that had responded to your cry for help.

“Ah, hey, Axe.” You laughed wryly, “He- um, he’s super drunk and I tried to drag him to the couch, and he fell on top of me and… yeah.” You cringed internally at your rambling as Axe’s engorged eyelight constricted and expanded, shifting from your face to Red’s. You were about to open your mouth to ask for help after a few seconds of tense silence when Axe’s perma-smile expanded into a monumental grin, and he burst into a fit of giggles.

“Yes, haha, very funny.” You rolled your eyes but couldn’t help the smile twitching at your mouth as a result of his laughter. You had never heard him laugh before, it was a deep and rumbling chuckle that was very contagious. You really liked it.

After recovering from his sudden onset of laughter, Axe wordlessly hoisted Red up and off of you, allowing you to slip out, the eagerness of your action causing you to not so gracefully roll on to the floor before scrambling to your feet with an awkward clearing of your throat. Axe, noticing your tumble, failed to hold back a snort and unceremoniously plopped his edgy cousin back on the couch. Incredibly, Red didn’t even stir.

“Thanks.” You smiled at Axe, who gave a nonchalant shrug, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his worn grey hoodie.

You shifted uncomfortably as Axe continued to silently stare at you and murmured a quick goodbye before escaping to the kitchen to fetch Red some water for when he woke up.  You exhaled slowly, soothing your nerves as you leaned against the counter. It wasn’t that Axe made you uncomfortable per say, it’s just his unrelenting stare and unwillingness to talk to you that triggered your social anxiety something awful.

With a muted curiosity, you watched as a rather large spider, about the size of the palm of your hand, descended into your field of vision, anchored to the ceiling by its delicate strand of web.

“Oh, hello.” You spoke softly as you reached an open palm out to catch it, “You shouldn’t be in here, someone might squish you.”

“don’t… hurt it.” Axe’s velvety deep voice came from beside you, causing you to jump and snap your head towards him just as the spider landed on your hand. You quickly cupped both of your hands around the arachnid to prevent it from escaping.

“I would never; I love spiders!” You replied enthusiastically with a small smile, elated that Axe had finally spoken to you after weeks of silence, “Could you open the door to the garden, please?” Axe’s eyelight was focused on your chest, making you squirm a little, which, combined with your question, snapped his attention back to you.

“sure.” He moved to open the door, staring in quiet amusement as you gently released the spider outside with a quiet ‘Bye bye! Be safe on your adventures, little one!’ and shut the door.

“you’re… a kindness soul… you know.”

You quirked an eyebrow at the seemingly out of the blue statement, “I am?”

Axe nodded, before explaining further, “colors in human souls… correlate to their… main trait… yours is green.”

You suddenly realized why he was staring at your chest! You had forgotten that monsters could see souls!

Oh, monsters can see souls.

You didn’t want to have to lie, but…

“So… my main trait is kindness?” You smiled a little, “Huh, that’s… I didn’t really expect that.”

“did red… not tell you?” It was his turn to quirk an eyebrow, his gaze slightly surprised.

“No, he doesn’t tell me a lot about souls and magic and stuff. I figured that it’s private stuff so I shouldn’t pry, y’know?” You shrugged, leaning back against the counter.

Shame caused a pit to form in your stomach. You hated lying.

With the intention to change the subject, your eyes flicked up toward the clock on the opposite wall; it was only 8:30, you had plenty of time to kill and this was the perfect opportunity to try to get to know Axe better now he was finally speaking to you.

“Do you… maybe wanna hang out?” You quickly regretted your question, the sting of expected rejection making your chest tight, “It’s fine if you don’t, I just-“

“do you… like bugs?” He interrupted your self-pitying rant with his head tilted to the side, reminiscent of a curious puppy.

Adorable.

The question took you by surprise and you replied quickly and enthusiastically, “Yes! I mean, I love all bugs really, even the ones that people don’t seem to like very much, like spiders or snails, oh and moths! I love moths! Butterflies are pretty and all, but moths are so cute, and they can be even prettier than butterflies! I mean, have you ever seen an Atlas moth? They’re so gorgeous and-“You cut yourself off, noticing the affectionately growing smile on Axe’s face, “Ah sorry, I’m rambling.” You bit your lip as your gaze fell to the ground, an embarrassed blush lightly tinting your cheeks.

“come… with me.” He offered a skeletal hand. You reached out, but hesitated just before skin met bone. You didn’t really want to leave whilst Red was passed out just in case he woke up and went looking for you, but you figured he would probably be out for another couple of hours at least.

Having made your decision, you grasped Axe’s hand. With little to no warning you plummeted into darkness. You couldn’t figure out which way was up, it was like being deep underwater where no sunlight could reach, where no life could survive. You tried to take a breath but found that you didn’t need to. It couldn’t have been longer than a split second, but time felt almost infinite here. You felt strangely at ease here, despite the inky blackness threateningly shifting around you, enveloping your entire being. Then, with a soft thump you were ejected from the timeless void and your feet landed on dry grass, and you fell to your knees, coughing and gasping as your disoriented brain tried to make sense of what had just occurred.

“you… okay?”

You started at Axe’s concerned voice from behind you. You slowly pulled yourself to your feet, head still swimming and causing you to stumble slightly before righting yourself.

“What was that?!” You gasped, groaning and slapping a hand to your head when a new wave of dizziness hit you.

“shortcut…” He stated simply, noting your bewildered look in surprise, “don’t tell me… red’s never taken one… with you before?” His deep voice had a lilt of amusement to it as he watched you right yourself for a second time, your face somewhat pale.

“No! What the fuck is a shortcut? Did we just fucking teleport?” You almost tripped over your words as the queasiness eased quickly and was swiftly replaced with pure unadulterated joy as you began to bounce from foot to foot, eager for Axe to confirm your theory.

“kind of… it’s more complicated… than that… but in human terms… yes.” He snorted, a barely visible cerulean blush tinting his cheekbones.

“That’s FUCKING AWESOME!” You yelled, jumping up and down and pumping your fists, earning a wheeze from the skeleton monster, his flush growing considerably brighter.

“c’mon… i wanna… show ya something.” He grinned, casually strolling past you into a wooded area, your excitement seemingly rubbing off on him.

If you weren’t so giddy from literally teleporting you would have feared you were about to be murdered, but you were (giddy, that is), and so you mindlessly followed, giggling in glee the entire way. Due to it being the beginning of summer, the sun was just about to set, but still cast a faint glow over the lush, wooded area. Your grin only grew wider as you took in the scene around you. You had never seen a forest like this before, and it was honestly one of the most stunning things you’d ever seen.

You came to a stop as Axe did, watching as he meticulously scanned the area. Clearly having found whatever he was searching for, he took a seat on a nearby log, motioning for you to follow him. He pulled out his phone and turned the flashlight on, causing you to shoot him a curious look as you perched yourself next to him.

“just… watch” He instructed, placing the phone face down on the ground and sitting back on his hands before training his eyelight on the glow of the flashlight.

You waited, and waited, and began to grow impatient as you scanned the surrounding area. You opened your mouth to complain, but snapped it shut when Axe placed a finger to his teeth in a ‘shush’ and quirked his head toward the illumination and its varying inhabitants.

You gasped and laughed in amazement as you took in the view before you. There were quite a few insects flying around, attracted to the light, but they weren’t the only ones. Moths in all shapes, sizes and colors fluttered about, some even getting close enough that you could reach your hand out and offer it as a makeshift perch. A beautiful brown and orange moth landed on your finger, gently flapping its wings as it crawled the length of your arm.

“A Cecropia moth,” You spoke softly as not to spook the creature, “I’ve never seen one before. I don’t think I’ve seen any of these species before; we don’t have them in England.”

You turned your gaze to Axe, who had several moths exploring his extended arms, an excited grin lighting up his face.

“You look like a Disney Princess!” You snickered, scaring the lone moth on your wrist, and causing it to dart away, back toward the glow of the flashlight.

Axe chuckled bashfully before shaking himself akin to the way a wet dog would, prompting the insects to flutter away.

The two of you sat in a peaceful silence, the only sound being the various animal and insect calls within the woods. You think you may have seen a bat at one point and excitedly pointed it out to Axe, who chuckled and explained that there was a family of them deeper into the woods that had made their home inside a shallow cave.

“Thank you, for-“ You gestured widely at the surrounding trees, “-this. I honestly never thought I’d ever experience anything like this.” You finished softly, looking down at your hands.

“…why?” Axe tilted his head at you with an inquisitive expression.

You tensed, your jaw clenching before forcing a cheerful expression.

“Just because England doesn’t really have places like this, I guess.” You explained, light tone camouflaging the anxiety roiling in your stomach. You honestly needed to stop blurting every thought that came to your head.

“…you could have… traveled…” Axe sounded confused, “you did… travel.”

You barked out an uncomfortable laugh, “Yeah, I guess I did!” Standing abruptly and making the skeleton beside you start slightly, you cleared your throat before offering a hand to help him stand. “I should get back, check on Red.” You smiled brightly, anxiety only increasing when Axe hesitated slightly with a befuddled expression before taking your hand and allowing you to pull him to his feet.

“…okay… hold on… gonna shortcut.” He warned, his regular grin donning his face once again.

You were catapulted into darkness once again, but with some warning and previous experience it wasn’t nearly as jarring. Once again you were confused by the comforting aura of the void, an almost peaceful feeling washing over your soul. Soon enough, though, you were back in the kitchen, squinting your eyes against the bright light as you waited for them to adjust.

“hey… you didn’t… fall over this time.” Axe teased as released your hand.

You snorted and scolded him good naturedly, “Well the warning certainly helped.”

Axe simply shrugged with a smile, returning his hand to its apparently semi-permanent home in his pocket. Turning to fill the forgotten glass with some water for Red, you let out a slow exhale to soothe your nerves as you did so. You honestly didn’t expect Axe to still be there when you turned back around, so when he was directly in front of you, red eyelight boring a hole into your face, you squeaked and jumped, some water sloshing from the glass and over your hand in the process.

“Stars, Axe!” You breathily laughed, placing a hand over your chest, “You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days!”

The hoodie-clad skeleton monster didn’t react, opting to simply observe as you grabbed a kitchen towel to dry where the water had spilt.

“i heard…” He seemed nervous, eyelight darting from one place to another, refusing to focus on your face, “…that you’re like me… sometimes.”

“What do you mean, love?” You asked softly, face scrunched up in a mix of confusion and concern.

You internally scolded yourself as the skeleton sputtered, his face lighting up a brilliant blue. Honestly, the casual pet names were the hardest thing to remove from your lexicon, especially because you’ve always called everyone you liked that.  You opened your mouth to apologize and explain but opted to remain quiet as Axe cleared his throat and continued, the sapphire still slightly tinting his face.

“the… flashbacks… i get them too.” He finished; gaze downcast as he shuffled anxiously on his feet.

Your heart sank as you blinked against the stinging in your eyes. You knew how debilitating, how life ruining and horrific PTSD was, and your soul hurt for the monster in front of you.

“Is-“ You inhaled sharply as your eyes focused on the gaping hole in his skull, nothing but a seemingly endless void of blackness within it, “Is it because of…” You trailed off, afraid to push any further.

He gave a sharp couple of nods of his head, his voice low and strained, “that and… other things…”

It was getting harder and harder to contain the waterfall of tears threatening to burst free. You had no idea what had prompted him to suddenly tell you such a personal piece of information, but you were so glad that he did. Without a thought you moved to wrap your arms around the monster, slightly shaking with the effort it was taking to not cry.

“Thank you for telling me,” You whispered to the side of his skull as he tightly returned the embrace, “I truly hope that you feel less alone now, I know I do.” You pulled back to study his face, hands placed on his shoulders. His expression was laced with… surprise? Muted joy, maybe? It was honestly hard to tell. “You can always come and talk to me if you need to, okay? You and Butch both.” Your expression was watery, your cheeks flushed, but your eyes were filled with a softness, a kindness that Axe had never seen before.

All he could manage was a weak nod as you pulled back fully and let out a sharp exhale.

“Well, I should go check on Red, make sure he hasn’t fallen down the stairs trying to get to his room or something.” You rolled your eyes in mock annoyance, but a small smile was present on your face.

Your heart feeling just that little bit lighter from your hang-out with Axe, you skipped into the living room to find it… empty. With a sigh you headed up to Red’s room and rapped on the door. You waited a minute… knocked again and waited some more… then reached into your pocket for your phone before cringing and remembering that in your previous panic you had launched it across your room. Not only that, but you were wearing pocketless leggings. Genius.

“Red, I’m coming in!” You didn’t enjoy invading his privacy like this, especially when he was in such a vulnerable state, but you were worried, and so you pushed open the creaky door to be welcomed by a pitch-black room.

Stepping inside, you then gently shut the door behind you, eliminating any light that was pouring in from the entrance, and flicked on the lights. His room was… well, it honestly looked like a tornado had hit it. Not that Red was particularly clean anyway, but it looked like he had thrown quite a few things and consequently broken them.

In the center of the room, pushed up against the far wall between two curtained windows, was a lump in the shape of the skeleton under the duvet on his bed.  You snickered quietly as you devised a dastardly plan. He’s probably hungover as hell and/or still slightly drunk, but no best friend of yours was going to spend Saturday night sulking in bed!

You tiptoed across the room, taking care to avoid the many miscellaneous objects littering the floor and placing the glass of water on the window ledge. With a grunt of effort, you then threw yourself on top of the Red-shaped lump.

“th’ fuck ya doin’?!” He yelped as you rolled off of him onto the bed, giggling hysterically.

“You looked sad, so I’m here to cheer you up!” You grinned at his expression, a hilarious mixture of disheveled and pissed off.

“i don’t fuckin’ need cheerin’ up, i need ta sleep.” He growled as he rolled over, hiding his face from you, “leave me alone, will ya?”

“No, if you keep sleeping, you’ll be up all night.” With a stern telling-off, you whipped the covers from his body and wiggled to press your body against his back, giving him a tight squeeze. “C’mon, don’t just stay here and be sad.” You softly whined, pressing your cheek against the back of his head. A low growl sounded from the skeleton monster, making you freeze.

Uh oh.

Before you could even comprehend what was happening, you were roughly flipped onto your back with Red above you, his legs either side of your hips and your wrists pinned against the mattress.

“i said ta fuckin’ leave me alone. can ya do that for me, princess?” He snarled, eyelights fuzzy as though he wasn’t fully lucid.

You swallowed harshly, a small flower of fear blooming in your chest. “Y-yes.” You squeaked, your face burning.

Seemingly satisfied with your answer, he released your wrists and unceremoniously flopped back onto the mattress before pulling the blanket over his head. You lay still for a moment, attempting to process the last few minutes before slowly clambering out of bed and into the hallway.

“Holy shit, holy fucking shit.” You gasped as you pressed your back against the cool wall. You knew you were supposed to be upset at his actions, maybe even scared, but instead you felt…

Did you seriously get fucking turned on from that? What is wrong with you?!

You stumbled down the hallway in a daze, collapsing on your bed when you reached your room. Your emotions were very conflicted, almost fighting each other for dominance in your mind. You had never even considered Red in that way since the first night you met him when he hit on you, but even then, you weren’t interested! Why, then, were you suddenly feeling this now?!  Honestly, if it were literally anyone else, you would’ve just gone for it and thought about it later, but… it wasn’t anyone else.

It was Red. Your best friend.

Your best friend, who was almost like a brother to you.

Your best friend, who you couldn’t live without.

Your best friend, who is in love with you.

You groaned and curled up on the bed, nails digging into your scalp as you tried to will the clashing feelings to quiet. There’s no way you could let this horrid situation just fester, you needed to resolve this, and you definitely needed some fucking answers to your non-stop stream of questions.

First though, you retrieved your phone from its landing place on the floor and assessed it for any damage. Not noticing anything but a small crack in the screen, you sighed in relief and placed it on your bed-side table. But just as you turned to leave, your phone began to buzz. You stared at the screen as it rang. Unknown number, huh. In fact, you had a lot of missed calls from this one number. You cautiously pressed accept and lifted the device to your ear.

“Hello?”

The other end was eerily quiet, the only sound something akin to muffled breathing.

“Who is this?!” Your voice cracked, panic welling up inside you.

They hung up.

Okay, nope. One fucked up thing at a time, you were not dealing with this right now. It’s fine, you’re fine. They don’t even know what you look like anymore and they certainly don’t know where you ran to. It was most likely some creepy dickhead playing a prank. That had to be it.

“hey, ya okay?”

A scream forced its way past your lips at the voice behind you as you whipped around to face it. You hadn’t even heard the door open in your daze.

“woah, it’s only me, doll.” Mutt held his hands up in an action of surrender as he took a few tentative steps towards you, “what’s got ya so tense?”

A frustrated sigh left you as you threw your phone for the second time that day, though mercifully onto the soft cushioning of the bed where it simply bounced slightly before coming to a halt.

“Nothing, sorry. I was just spacing out.” Your words were flat and accompanied by the dark circles under your eyes and exhausted demeanor, it left Mutt feeling more than a little concerned.

“ya sure? ya seem exhausted.” He pressed, his long arms reaching to grasp your shoulders before speaking lowly, “ya know ya can tell me anythin’, right?”

I really can’t, though.

The intrusive thought forced a jolt of guilt through you, causing you to worry your lip with your teeth.

“Yeah, of course.” You lied, flashing a wry smile, and meeting his eyelights in an attempt to get him to believe you and drop it, “I’m fine though, Mutt. Just need to get some sleep.”

In an action that was unheard of in yours and Mutt’s relationship, you trudged forward with your head hung and buried your face into his chest, arms tightly wound around his ribs. He stood frozen for half a second before he returned the embrace, nuzzling his teeth into your hair and sighing. You were grateful that he didn’t say anything about the sudden affection, and instead was focused on providing the comfort you so desperately needed in that moment.

“is red alright?” Mutt softly enquired, obvious guilt lacing his tone, “i didn’t mean ta run away, i jus’ thought-“

“That super drunk Red is not rational in the slightest and therefore would result in you getting your arse beat again?” You laughed breathily, “It’s okay, love. He’s fine, just sleeping right now.”

“kay.” Came his simple reply before falling silent again, the only sound audible being your quiet breathing.

“Mutt?” You murmured; voice slightly muffled by the fabric of his shirt.

“hm?”

“What did you mean, before? When you said that I’m not Red’s alpha?” You pulled back a little and lifted your head to meet his gaze. In response, Mutt almost completely pulled away from the contact, his skeletal hand entwining with yours.

“ya ever shortcutted before?” He inquired simply, taking you by surprise.

“Yeah…?” The word was drawn out and had the lifted lilt of a question. You purposefully neglected to mention that it had only been for the first (and second) time that day. You had the sneaking suspicion you were about to be transported across literal time and space for an additional third time.

Your suspicion was correct.

As soon as the answer had left your mouth you were thrown, once again, into the familiar embrace of the void and spat back out into the living room.

“Mutt!” You screeched indignantly, a hand desperately gripping the arm of the sofa in an attempt to steady yourself. Stars, these skeletons were going to be the death of you.

Said skeleton snorted at your displeasure and released your hand before holding up a finger in a ‘wait one minute’ gesture. With a huff you fell backwards lengthways onto the sofa, your legs hanging comically over the arm whilst the remainder of your body had landed on the cushions.

You lay there for a minute, resigned to staring at the wooded ceiling. It was eerily silent, not just where you were, but the rest of the house too. You hated the quiet. Your brain always took the lack of any auditory stimulation as an invitation to let your thoughts race.

You know you can’t hide for long, right? Sooner or later, they’ll find you. In fact, I bet that was definitely one of them on the phone earlier. I bet they’re looking for you right now. What will they do when-

“Ahahaha, nope.” You blanched, rolling yourself onto the floor with a thump before hauling yourself into a sitting position and flicking on the TV. After spending a few moments loading up a music app and finding a playlist you liked, you allowed yourself to relax as the soothing melody of your favorite band filled your ears.

They’re comin’ for us now

(Coming for us now)

Somehow they found us out

(They found us out)

No sudden moves, don’t make a sound

They’re out for blood this time around

We gotta burn it all down

God damn it.

Before you could even think about throwing the remote at the stupid TV and cursing the universe for taunting you with the scarily accurate lyrics, Mutt came sauntering back into the room, a bottle of some non-descript amber liquid that you prayed was alcohol in one hand and a pair of whiskey glasses in the other. With a newfound enthusiasm you jumped up and snatched the bottle before furiously popping the cork and taking a deep swig.

“wow, didn’t know ya were that desperate for a drink.” He teased, placing the glasses on the table before taking a seat on one end of the couch, his back against the armrest.

You moaned at the burn the sweet honey-flavored whiskey caused on its way down, relishing its immediate warming effect. Then letting out a hoarse laugh, you mirrored Mutt and passed the bottle back to him, “You have no idea, dude.”

You observed impatiently as he took his time pouring a glass each before replacing the cork and setting the bottle on the glass table. You watched even more impatiently, chewing on the inside of your cheek, as he took a long sip himself before offering your share to you.

“So, uh, were you gonna answer my question or did you just want to get me drunk?” You asked in a half-flirty, half-serious manner, raising an eyebrow as you accepted the glass.

“eh, maybe.” Mutt smirked at you, swirling the orange-brown liquid with one hand whilst the other tapped out the beat to the music.

“You’re such a shit, you know that?” Rolling your eyes, you reached out a foot to kick him, earning a look of mock-hurt, “Don’t you look at me like that! You know what you’re doing, sir!”

The stricken expression was rapidly replaced by one of great amusement as he snickered at your agitation, “alright, alright. uh, what was yer question again?”

“What did you mean by I’m not Red’s alpha!?” You exclaimed through gritted teeth, adding in a scolding tone, “Seriously, answer my question or I swear on all things good in this world I will end you.”

“oooh, right.” Ignoring your half-hearted threat in favor of tapping his chin in thought, he continued, “do humans have relationships where, like, multiple people are all together?”

Perking up at the question, you nodded fervently, “Yeah! Like polyamorous relationships? Or is it polygamy? No, I think that’s something different.” You muttered that last part mostly to yourself, getting carried away in your enthusiasm, “Anyway! Yeah, we do. Why?”

You listened intently as Mutt explained, realization slowly dawning on you at why he had tried to defend himself against Red’s unrelenting wrath.

“so, in th’ underground there was a pretty high male to female ratio, somethin’ like six ta one, and th’ population was already seriously low and startin’ to dwindle, so monsters started to form kind of… packs, i guess? matriarchal lead packs, mostly. so many males would have a female as their alpha as a way of producin’ as many cubs as possible with as much magical diversity as possible, cuz males are th’ only one’s that pass on the magical component of their sub-species.” With a casual shrug he finished, “at least, that’s what i was told. i wasn’t even a babybones when all that went down.”

“So…” You began, your speech slow and meticulous as you processed the information, “You guys all essentially share one partner?”

“not really, depends on th’ pack. some have both male and female betas who can go to each other with their needs, others can have purely male, but never purely female. it all really depends on which way ya swing if ya go for the other betas in th’ pack.” A mischievous smirk found its way onto Mutt’s face as he considered you, nodding his head in your direction, “if you were our alpha though, we’d all have ta rely on ya.”

“Me?!” You sputtered, almost choking on your drink.

A boisterous laugh sounded from the lanky skeleton, earning a fierce glare as you kicked his bony leg for a second time.

“ya fuckin’ face!” He wheezed, making you roll your eyes before draining your glass.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, bone boy.” You grumbled, pouring yourself another healthy serving of the sickly liquid. A sudden question springing to your mind caused you to sit up straight, sporting a serious expression, “Why did Red get so upset with you, then? If it’s normal for monsters to share one partner?”

Your enquiry must have been like a slap in the face because the skeleton shrank back, copying your action of draining his glass and pouring another.

“jus’ old shit between us, doesn’t matter.” He grumbled with a scowl, refusing to meet your eyes.

“Mutt, it really does matter.” You argued, leaning forward to place an encouraging hand on his knee, “If we’re going to sort all of this out then I need to know why you’re fighting.”

A pleading look was shot your way, but you wouldn’t relent. Usually, you wouldn’t push people to talk about something if it distressed them this much, but you needed to find out why Red was so upset.

You huffed irritably, “Fine, I’ll just ask Red when-“

“no!” Mutt barked, an embarrassed flush covering his cheekbones at his outburst, “no, i’ll tell ya. jus’… gimme a minute.”

You felt a little bad using that tactic, but needs must, you supposed. Impressively, Mutt had cleared almost half of the bottle by the time he was ready to speak and didn’t appear to be anything more than tipsy. With a nod and what you hoped was a reassuring smile, you listened attentively as he began.

“i, uh, started datin’ someone a couple months after we were allowed to move into th’ city, a human girl. she was real sweet, beautiful too. we weren’t that serious ta begin with, but i introduced her ta red ‘n sans and invited her to a few of our drinkin’ nights.” Mutt shifted uneasily, eyelights trained on his hands, “i- i fell for her pretty quick, and explained ta her what i just told you. i thought that eventually she could, uh, mark me, make things a little more serious, but…”

“Mark you?” You took his hesitation as an opportunity to ask.

“right, i didn’t explain that part.” He brightened a little, obviously taking respite in the interruption, “when ya initiate someone into ya pack ya mark em, for you or me it would be in the form of a bite, but other monsters who don’t have mouths or teeth do it in other ways. it don’t really matter how ya do it though, ya just gotta have the right intention ta imbue the mark with ya magical signature.”

“Kinky.”

A loud laugh erupted from the skeleton monster at your comment, “only if ya want it ta be.” He flirted, wiggling his browbones and earning a snicker from you.  He cleared his throat before continuing, his joyful demeanor swiftly taken over by anxiousness once more, “anyway, yeah, i was gonna ask her, but she kind of… had other ideas i guess.” Mutt paused, inhaling deeply as if psyching himself up to proceed with his story before hissing through gritted teeth, “she marked red instead.”

Realization struck you, bringing a hand to cover your mouth as you gasped lightly, “Mutt, I-“

“an’ i know what ya thinkin’,” He bulldozed over you, beginning to seethe, “it ain’t up ta me who gets marked first, right? it’s th’ alpha’s choice and i gotta jus’ deal with it. but she wasn’t even interested in me no more! she didn’t want any part of bein’ an alpha, but instead of jus’ getting’ th’ fuck outta my life she marked my best friend, an’ he let ‘er! th’ fuckin’ bastard knew i loved ‘her, and he let ‘er!” His voice wavered, his clawed fingers gripping the fabric of the couch so hard you feared it would tear to shreds.

Placing your abandoned drink on the table, you crawled forward until you were straddling Mutt’s lap and wrapped your arms around him, placing a kiss on his cheekbone before pressing the side of your head into his chest.

“I’m so sorry.” You whispered, rubbing soothing circles into his back. The Red in that story… that wasn’t the monster that you knew. You couldn’t imagine him ever doing something like that to someone, “What happened? He obviously isn’t with her anymore, right?”

“ta begin’ with i tried tellin’ him how much it was hurtin’ me, but he was different back then, doll. he didn’t care about anythin’ or anyone but ‘imself.” He noted the disbelief evident on your face with a wry chuckle, “ya have no idea how much ya changed him. he was already kinda startin’ to adapt to th’ way things are up here, but it was a real struggle. th’ underground was a dangerous, harsh place.”

You scrunched your eyebrows together in contemplation. If it was that bad, then why do Sans and Papyrus seem so… normal? The others you could understand, especially Butch and Axe, but it just didn’t make sense why Sans and Paps appeared so well adjusted whilst the others were having such a difficult time.

There were more pressing matters to attend to right now, you thought, you’d ask another time. Shifting so only your legs were in his lap and your butt was on the couch so you could face him properly, you prompted him to continue, “So then, how did you two make up?”

“he met you. he broke it off with th’ girl an’ apologized t’ me, said he’d been a massive dick an’ he wanted to be better. we’d been fightin’ for so long that i honestly thought he was about to be dusted or somethin’, it was so outta th’ blue. but he did get better, an’ then i found out why.” Mutt smiled sympathetically at you took in this startling information.

“He apologized because… he started to feel that way about me and realized how much he had hurt you?” Your words were barely audible over the instrumental of some folk song still blaring in the background. Guilt swirled in your belly as you continued in a mutter, “…and then you did practically the same thing to him.”

You could barely focus on the skeleton as he nodded, his mumbled words laced with anguish, “he prolly thinks i did it ta get revenge or somethin’.”

“But I didn’t mark you, doesn’t that make it at least a little better?” You asked, a hopeful air about you, only to be deflated at Mutt’s answer.

“i don’t think it matters, doll.” He sighed, propping his head up with his hand. He sounded so… defeated.

“No. No way.” You stood suddenly, the alcohol buzzing in your veins making you dangerously confident, “You guys have only just made up, there’s no way I’m going to let you keep fighting for any longer.”

Mutt considered you with a wary gaze, “doll, what’re ya doin’?”

“Fixing this.” You stated boldly, taking a hold of Mutt’s hand and hoisting him into a standing position, “Come with me.”

“nope, whatever yer plannin’ ta do, it ain’t a good idea.” He struggled against your grip, but you were determined. With great conviction and a burning fierceness in your eyes, you asked Mutt one simple question.

“Do you trust me?”

He did, plus he honestly didn’t have the energy to argue, so he nodded and allowed himself to be dragged upstairs until you eventually both stood outside of Red’s room.

“Okay, stay here for a minute.” You commanded lowly, before adding “And don’t run away, got it?”

The skeleton monster groaned and leant his back against the wall, causing you to wag a disapproving finger in his direction and repeat yourself, sternly this time, “Got. It?”

“understood, cap’n.” He replied cynically with a lazy mock salute.

“Good!” You praised, deciding to ignore his sulking in favor of retaining at least some of your sanity, before quietly pressing your way into the sleeping skeletons room. You called Red’s name, flicking on the lights and hopping over the many shattered items littering the floor before landing on the edge of his bed.

“th’ fuck do ya want?” He grumbled, cracking open an eye socket to look at you.

Oh, thank the stars, he’s actually sober and lucid this time. You doubted he would even be able to remember your previous visit. You flushed at the memory before shaking it from your mind to focus on the task at hand.

“You’re making up with Mutt. Now.” You stated, mustering up as much conviction in your voice as possible.

“th’ fuck i am.” He laughed humorlessly, attempting to roll over to ignore you, “ain’t it th’ middle of th’ night?”

You grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from moving, “It’s like 11pm, dude! You got super drunk and passed out a few hours ago.”

The grumpy skeletons eyelights focused, the fuzziness clearing as a bashful look crossed his face, “oh.”

“Yep. Mutt’s outside, so you’re gonna talk this out with him, okay?” You stood with a bounce in your step and without allowing him to reply, skipped out of the room and back to the disgruntled skeleton thankfully still present in the hallway.

“Time to go!” With a cheerful smile you pushed a grumbling Mutt into the room without too much resistance and promptly shut the door.

You hovered outside the door, listening for any shouting and ready to burst into action if needed. When a few minutes passed with the only sound coming from behind the door being low chatter, you resigned yourself to sitting on the floor with your back against the wall, just in case shit hit the fan, you thought.

You don’t know how long it had been, but you had definitely fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing you remember is being scooped up into a pair of warm arms and the faint buzz of magic lulling you further into a dream state. You were carried, not very far, and then gently placed onto a mattress, whining when the warm arms left you, but sated when you felt a familiar body next to yours instead.

“ya welcome.” Mutt whispered and winked at Red, whose face was lit up a dazzling crimson.

The flustered skeleton opened his mouth to retort, but snapped it shut when your arm found its way across his chest, prompting you to snuggle closer into the contact with a contented sigh. With an evil snicker, Mutt stepped into the hallway and closed the door, leaving you and Red a tangle of limbs in the dark of the room, fated to stay that way until sunrise.

Chapter Text

You awoke to the sound of scratching and mournful mewling from the other side of the door as Albert tried his hardest to break in. In an automatic half-asleep action, you pulled yourself out of bed and opened the door for the tabby cat before returning to bed and snuggling up under the covers, the now contented feline quickly making himself comfortable in the crook of your arm.

With a sigh you cuddled up closer to the heat source next to you but froze and snapped open your eyes when the bony figure next to you grunted and snored. Right, someone – Mutt? – had carried you to bed, but this was most certainly not your bed, nor your room. It wasn’t like you and Red hadn’t shared a bed before, and you unfortunately got very cuddly in your sleep, so it’s not like you hadn’t cuddled in bed before either, but it just felt different now. Crimson eyelights stared back at you as Red slightly cracked open his eye sockets, the dim glow growing brighter as he noticed you.

“mornin’.” He grunted as he stretched, his joints popping softly as he did so.

“Morning.” You replied softly, smiling up at him.

Your head was positioned on his chest with your arm flung over him, the other curled around the sleeping cat. Red yawned widely, flashing his fangs before tenderly petting Albert, an immediate rumbling purr sounding from the ginger tabby. It seemed that neither of you wanted to move.

Cuddling like this was just so… comfortable. You had never noticed how much your soul swelled around Red, thinking it was simply affection for your best friend, but since his inadvertent confession, you had found yourself focusing on how you felt about him a lot more. Nerves swirled in your stomach, and you wished you could just move on from the situation and go back to how you were before, but both of you knew that couldn’t happen.

“Red?” You called quietly, making sure the skeleton hadn’t fallen back asleep with how silent he was being. You looked up to see a single eyelight regarding you, the arm that wasn’t holding you tucked behind his head.

“’sup?” His demeanor was casual, almost peaceful. It made you feel guilty about wanting to talk about something so serious as soon as he had woken up, but the rapid thoughts pounding against your skull were going to drive you crazy.

“I think-“ Your eyes dropped to Albert as you removed the arm from Red’s chest in favor of scratching behind the cat’s ears as a way to self-soothe, “Um, I think we need to talk about… you know.” You chewed the inside of your cheek, feeling his full gaze boring into you, but unable to lift your eyes to meet it.

“uh, sure.” You felt him tense, the hand resting on your hip beginning to dig into your flesh being a good indicator of his mounting anxiety. Neither of you spoke for a while, the only sound present being Albert’s raucous purring, as you both worked up the nerve to break the ice on the awkward topic. You cleared your throat before inhaling deeply. Guess you were the one to start, then.

“Do you really feel that way about me?” You whispered, heart hammering in your chest.

Red didn’t reply straight away, and you almost begin to think that he didn’t hear you, but when you returned your eyes to his face, his expression was unreadable, the only thing giving away his true emotion his flushed state. He refused to look at you.

“Red?” You sat up, gently removing your arm from underneath Albert, so that you could face him properly.

You swallowed against your dry throat, nerves having stripped away any moisture, and placed a tentative hand on his leg, making him flinch and jerk his eyelights to your face.  A quiet growl emanated from the monster, portraying his frustration at being unable to get the words out. The way he was reacting was enough of an answer for you.

“It’s okay, um, if you do.” Your soul was screaming at you to hold him, to be with him, to love him.

But…

“I- um, I just can’t…” Your breath hitched in your throat, your fingers twisting into the bedsheets, “I can’t be with you. With anyone. It’s not like- like I don’t want to be, I just… can’t.” You finished lamely, tears pricking at the corners of your eyes as your lip trembled.

You had already fucked up by becoming friends with him, never mind the fact that you were now living with him and five other monsters. You couldn’t even make yourself regret it, though. You were the happiest you had ever been, so it pained you more than anything to be doing this to someone you loved.

“why?” His gravelly voice was almost inaudible, almost desperate sounding, “if ya want ta, why not?”

The pleading in his voice made your heart hurt and you squeezed your eyes shut in an attempt to stop any tears from falling.

“There’s a lot that you don’t know about me, Red.” You attempted to keep your voice level, but your tight throat betrayed you as your words wavered.

Finally gathering up the courage to meet his gaze, you took a deep breath and looked up. The expression on his face… You had never seen anything like it, especially not from the tough, prickly guy you knew.

Fear. Pure fear.

“tell me, then!” His big hands came to rest on either side of your head, cupping your face to keep your focus on him, “whateva it is i can fix it, ‘m sure i can.”

It took everything you had to not break down sobbing right there and then as you took in the hopeful but terrified look in his eyes. You knew the emotion behind the kind of fear he was feeling right now, he was scared of losing you now that you knew his true intentions. You lifted your hands to place it over his, still cradling your face, and gently guided them away, letting both of your hands rest in your lap whilst still joined.

“I can’t tell you.” You bit down hard on your lip, the metallic taste of blood flooding your mouth, “I’m so sorry.”

You’ve already stayed here for too long.

“then tell me what i can do!” He was getting frantic, abandoning your linked hands to grab you by the shoulders, “there has ta be somethin’ i can do, right?”

Tell him. Go on. Tell him, then he’ll never even look at you again. You’ll be out on the streets, and you’ll have to go back to them. I wonder what’s waiting for you after all these years.

“There isn’t anything!” The dam finally shattered, fat tears flowing freely down your face as you sobbed, “There isn’t anything you can do. I just can’t- can’t…” You trailed off, hiccupping and sniffling as Red pulled you into him, awkwardly petting your head. He cursed under his breath, his optimistic demeanor flipping to one of quiet anger.

“I don’t want to lose you, Red.” You cried, feeling completely pathetic, “I love you.”

He knew that you meant it, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it back. You couldn’t be with him, or maybe you really didn’t return his affections and were lying to spare his feelings. He wanted to run, to leave and never come back, but he couldn’t do that to you. He couldn’t lose you either.

“i ain’t goin’ anywhere, angel.” His voice was hoarse, strained with the effort of keeping his bubbling rage from surfacing.

The sweet nickname paired with his promise only served to make you cry harder, soaking his shirt with your tears. Once you had cried yourself out, you took a few soothing breaths before releasing your iron grip on Red’s shirt and bashfully looking up at him with swollen, red eyes.

“I’m sorry.” You managed to squeak out, pure guilt and shame wracking your whole body.

“’s okay.” His voice was flat, detached, his expression the same as he struggled to meet your eyes, “i gotta go, got a thing with boss.”

You knew it was a lie, an excuse to be anywhere you weren’t, but you plastered on an understanding smile and replied in a tone poorly masked in cheer.

“Okay. Have fun!” The skeleton did a double take at your sudden contentedness but opted to ignore it simply grunted in response.

He had passed out still dressed, so he kicked on his shoes with a little more force than necessary and made his way out of the room, leaving you alone in the dimly lit space.

As soon as you were sure he was out of earshot you brought a pillow up to your face and screamed in frustration. You had never hated yourself more than in this moment. The emotions swirling and clashing inside of you were too much, you couldn’t take it any longer.

With a growl you threw the sheets from your body and stomped out of Red’s room and into your own. Making your way over to your dresser, you threw everything inside the drawers onto the floor in an attempt to find what your pained mind wanted. Finally, you found the small black box you kept it in and fumbled the lid in your desperation before roughly pulling out the item inside.

***

A razor blade.

It had been so long, almost 6 months, since you had done anything like this, but right now you didn’t care. You knew you’d regret it, but the furious screaming in your head needed to be silenced, and this was the only way you knew how.

Pulling a hoodie over your head and shoving the blade in the pocket, you practically ran to the bathroom, forcefully shutting the door behind you and making sure it was locked. There’s no way you’d do it on your arms, it was summer and far too hot to even consider wearing long sleeves all the time. Legs it is then.

After pulling down your leggings and sitting on the edge of the bath, you retrieved the blade from your pocket and placed it against your thigh, hissing through grit teeth as it easily sliced through your flesh. The calming effect was immediate, making it obvious why you couldn’t drop the habit no matter how hard you tried. You even got a lot of the tattoos you had to cover up the faded old scars and deter you from creating any more, but it never worked.

Encouraged by the rush of dopamine it gave you, you sliced again, and again, and again, until the tops of both of your thighs were almost covered. Your mind was completely numb now, not even phased by the blood trickling down your legs as you moved to grab tissues and bandages to stem the bleeding. Once you were cleaned up and bandaged, you replaced your abandoned leggings, flushed the bloody tissues, and splashed your face with water, mentally willing the redness in your eyes to fade.

***

You checked yourself over, making sure nothing was out of place before breathing deeply and stepping out of the bathroom and… straight into someone. Milord stood before you, a deep scowl twisting his features as he snarled at you. Great. Thanks, universe. This is exactly what I need right now.

“I’m not in the fucking mood, Milord.” You growled, shoving past him, only to stop dead in your tracks and whip around when a hand grabbed your wrist.

“Why, pray tell, do you stink of blood?” His voice was low, his words spoken with a threatening rumble.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” You spoke between grunts, attempting to pry his hand from your arm, “Will you fucking let go of me?!” You snapped venomously when he wouldn’t relent.

In response, the shorter monster yanked your arm, forcing you closer to him as he bared his teeth at you.

“If you bring any harm to my family, I will not hesitate to dispose of you. Got it?” He hissed, ending his sentence with another harsh tug on your arm.

Now, you were normally a difficult person to get riled up. Anger just wasn’t an emotion you experienced often, and complete blind rage? That was even rarer. But something about your mounting distress regarding the situation with Red combined the way this monster was looking at you, a picture of complete smugness and arrogance as he dug his claws into your arm, just made you completely lose it.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, tiny.” You spoke coolly as you leant down to get even closer to his face, reveling in the use of Red’s offensive nickname for the skeleton, “But honestly, even if I did, what the fuck would you be able to do about it?” You hissed, taking a sadistic joy in seeing the deadly fury sparking in his eyes.

“Careful, Human.” Milord seethed, claws digging deep enough into your arm to bruise, “You do not want to mess with me.”

You barked a humorless laugh, bordering on hysterical, before cooing in your absolute best condescending voice, “Aw, what’re you gonna do? Fight me? Look at you!”

You added insult to injury by looking him up and down before snickering. Maybe you really did want a fight. You kind of get why Red acts the way he does sometimes now. This was… cathartic, to say the least.

With a shout of rage, Milord released your wrist to swing at your face, only for you to duck his blow. Internally giggling at his look of surprise, you then took a swing of your own, fist connecting with his jaw only because of his disorientation at your unexpected dodge.

The monster stumbled slightly; a gloved hand raised to his cheek. You couldn’t read his expression at all, so you remained in a fighting stance, ready for anything he had to throw at you. Incredibly, the monster cracked a smile and erupted into disbelieving laughter, causing you to falter.

What the hell is wrong with this guy?!

You could only watch dumbly as he simply breezed right by you and into his room, still chuckling to himself. You had no idea if this meant you were in even more danger of being ‘disposed of’ or not, but at this point you did not care.

Dropping your shoulders and bringing the hand that wasn’t currently throbbing to rub down your face, you growled to yourself and made your way downstairs.

Coffee, you needed coffee.

You didn’t even bother trying to mask your apathy when you noticed Sans and Papyrus in the kitchen. Papyrus was cooking what looked like pancakes and Sans was lazily watching, his head propped up by a hand whilst he sat at the breakfast bar.

“GOOD MORNING, FRIEND!”

“mornin’, kid.”

“Morning.” Your voice came out flat, unable to match the enthusiasm of the taller brother.

In an almost zombie-like trance, you began preparing coffee, making sure to stay out of Papyrus’ way. You hissed and cursed when you caught your injured hand on the cupboard, prompting looks of concern from the brothers.  Papyrus gently grasped your wrists, stopping you from continuing your motions and forcing you to look up at him.

“FRIEND, YOU SMELL LIKE BLOOD.” He lifted your hand to examine it, gasping as he noticed the already blooming black and red bruise, “YOU ARE INJURED!”

“what happened, kid?” Sans chimed in, sitting up and eyelights scanning your body for the source of the bleeding, “ya alright?”

The monsters’ words sounded as if they were coming from a distance, your vision similar to that of what you would see through a fish-eye lens. You knew this feeling well, so it didn’t freak you out the way it used to. Dissociation was a relatively big part of your life, but it hadn’t happened for a while up until this point.

“I’m okay, don’t worry.” You tried your hardest to give Papyrus a genuine smile, but it came out crooked and shaky.

Papyrus hummed in a way that signaled he didn’t believe you, his brow bones furrowed in worry.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL US WHAT HAPPENED, BUT AT LEAST LET ME HEAL YOU.” He conceded, gently tugging on your arm to lead you to sit next to Sans.

You let him; no fight left in you to resist. You detachedly watched as Sans hopped down from his seat on the stool to finish making your coffee, a small bloom of appreciation surfacing beneath the numbness. Your gaze moved to Papyrus as you realized that he was speaking to you, a worried grimace etching on his face.

“Hm?” You blinked owlishly, forcing your eyes to focus.

“I WAS ASKING IF IT IS OKAY TO TOUCH YOU. YOU SEEM TO HAVE BRUISING ON YOUR HAND AND WRIST THAT I WOULD LIKE TO HEAL. YOU MAY HAVE BROKEN YOUR HAND, SO THE MOST I CAN DO IS HEAL THE BRUISING, BUT YOU MAY NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR, FRIEND.” His voice was dripping with sympathy, and a part of you wanted his comfort, but a bigger, angrier part of you wanted to lash out. You knew that you didn’t deserve his kindness. You pushed both clashing emotions down, opting to lean further into your apathy.

“Yeah, it’s okay.” You gave a small smile of encouragement, prompting him to remove his gloves and look to you for confirmation, “Go ahead.”

You grunted in pain as the skeleton tentatively lifted your arm towards him but sighed in relief when the cooling green magic began soothing your injured hand and wrist. You felt the tingle of the magic on your legs too and prayed that he couldn’t sense exactly where your injuries were. Sans eventually came back to sit on the other side of you, steaming mug of coffee in hand, which he gingerly placed in front of you, earning a weak ‘thanks’ and a smile of gratitude. Papyrus then finished up and replaced his gloves, grinning at his handiwork when you twisted your hand and slumped in satisfaction at the reduction in pain.

“THAT’S ABOUT AS MUCH AS I CAN DO FOR NOW, BUT IF YOU’RE EVER INJURED AGAIN, PLEASE DO COME TO ME. THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAD ADEPT HEALING ABILITIES!” He boasted, clearly proud of himself, “AND I AM A GREAT SHOULDER TO CRY ON, IF YOU EVER SO NEED ONE!” He finished, craning his neck to meet your eyes in a not very subtle hint.

“Thank you, Paps.” You giggled slightly at the display, feeling a little lighter than you did before, “I will.”

“do ya wanna talk about what happened, kid?” Sans chimed in, prompting you to swivel your head towards him, “that kinda injury, in my experience, only really happens when ya punch something… or someone.” He emphasized the last word, tilting his head conspiringly and earning a sigh from you.

Well, the jig is up, you guessed. May as well tell them.

However, as soon as you worked up the strength to start, the subject of the conversation stepped into the kitchen, standing straight with his hands behind his back. You tensed and internally cringed at the small crack running across his cheekbone; you honestly hadn’t even meant to hit him that hard. You felt all three of the skeletons’ eyes on you, making you shrink in shame and silently move to excuse yourself, only to have Milord step in your way and regard you with a cool gaze.

“I request to speak with you.” He spoke lowly before his eyelights flicked to the brothers and back to you, “Alone.”

You could hear the almost inaudible frantic chatter between the skeletons, obviously having figured out what had happened by Milord’s injury.

“Milord, I’m sorry for hitting you, that was wrong.” You whispered, making sure the others wouldn’t overhear you, “but I’m really not in the mood for another fight.”

“I do not intend to fight with you. Well-“ He smirked, showing off his razor sharp fangs, “-not in the way you are thinking, anyway.”

You hated to admit it, but damn it if you weren’t curious.

“Fine.” You sighed, noting his pleased expression, and followed him into the garden, leaving the two brothers to watch after you with open uneasiness.

It was a gorgeous day, the sun warmed your face and brought a little, however fleeting, peace to your aching heart. There was no one else around, which made you nervous, but you took respite in the fact that Sans and Papyrus knew who you were with, and they could definitely hear you shout for help from the kitchen.

You were wordlessly led toward the tree line where Axe had taken you into the forest but stopped just short of entering. Milord stood before you, still posed in a stiff upright position, reminding you of a strict captain of sorts. You leaned into your hip and crossed your arms over your chest in a defensive pose, arching an eyebrow at the skeleton in a silent question.

“You are skilled in combat.” He stated, a brow bone raised as he smirked at you.

“Yeah, I can hold my own. What of it?” Your voice came out harsher than intended. You supposed you were still prepared for him to attack you, whether verbally or physically.

“You misunderstand.” He took a step towards you, causing you to internally flinch, but you stood your ground. You weren’t going to let this tiny prick think you were intimidated by him for a single minute. You glared at him as he continued. “You not only can hold your own, but from the very limited display earlier I can tell that you have had formal training.” He sounded almost impressed. You didn’t like where this was going.

“Yeah… I took a few classes when I was younger, but- “

“Do not lie to me.” The shorter skeleton hissed, lowering his voice, “You had no idea that I was going to strike you, yet your reflexes were nothing short of preposterous. ‘A few classes’ does not produce such results.”

Fucking Christ, this guy.

“Nothing gets past you, huh?” You grumbled sarcastically, rolling your eyes in a display of childish behavior. You took great satisfaction in watching Milord’s eye socket twitch as he scowled, before closing his eyes and composing himself with a breath.

“Show me.” He commanded, positioning himself in a fighting stance, “Unless, you think you are too weak to take me?” He added a malicious grin twisting his features.

“Seriously?” You scoffed, raising your hand within his eyeline to show off the still prominent bruising despite Papyrus’ healing magic, “You know I probably broke my hand punching that thick skull of yours, right?”

A sense of dread made your mouth dry and your heart race as you watched his malicious grin turn into something downright dangerous before he spoke, his words enveloped with pure evil satisfaction. He had been waiting for the right moment to pull the rug out from under you, and now was as good a time as any.

“Then don’t use your fists, Mage.”

In that moment, it felt as though your world had come crashing down. You felt sick and began to shake as you fought down the rising bile in your throat. This is it. It’s all over.

“I’m- I’m not- “ You stuttered dumbly, barely able to form a sentence as you fought the dizziness and tunnel vision the adrenaline was forcing onto you. You couldn’t believe that this is how you were found out, because you took a stupid risk and fought back, “H-how?”

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” Milord dropped his stance in favor of strolling closer to you.

You squirmed as he grasped your chin with one gloved hand, forcing you to look directly into his violet eyelights, which were practically sparkling with amusement. When you neglected to respond, he scoffed and gripped harder, making you gasp, “I am Captain of the Royal Guard. Sound familiar?” He keened, a nasty smile stretching his face as he watched your reaction.

“I– I have no idea what you- “ Your words morphed into a cry of pain as he once again increased the force in which his claws were digging into the soft flesh of your face. You crumbled easily.

“I ran away! You wonder why I have no family, friends? Why I have nowhere to go? Why I have no money, nothing to my name?! I have nothing to do with them anymore, I swear!” Gritting your teeth, the words came strong and fast, determination flashing in your eyes.

Milord studied your face for a second, eyelights searching for any sign that you were lying, before humming and releasing you. With a sharp inhale, you dropped to your knees, your legs finally giving out.

Your hands came up to touch where his claws had impaled you, even through his thick leather gloves, and came away slick with blood. Grinding your teeth together, you stared up at the skeleton, a fresh wave of rage overcoming you.

“I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me the second you stepped foot in this house.” He tutted, observing with amusement as you picked yourself up, pure unbridled fury evident on your face.

“All I know of is the Royal Guard’s name, nothing else.” You hissed.

Blood dripped from your chin, your hair was matted and wild still from recently rolling out of bed, and now you were covered in dirt from the knee down. Your messy appearance combined with the feral look in your eyes served to be quite intimidating, but Milord knew you were weak and harmless. An out of practice Mage, and one with a kindness soul to boot? You were barely a threat to him.

“Are you going to tell the others?” Although you attempted to keep your tone level, you couldn’t help the crack in your voice when your soul throbbed in hurt at the prospect of losing your friends so soon.

“No.” He stated simply, causing you to wrinkle your face in bewilderment.

“What do you want?” Your tone portrayed just how defeated you were feeling. If there was even the slightest chance that you could keep this from them, to keep them safe, you would take it. You, unfortunately, were completely at his mercy.

“Ah, you’re a fast learner, too.” He cooed with a smirk, “Very useful.”

“Get on with it.” You hissed through grit teeth, your fists clenched so hard that the skin had lost its coloring.

“Work for me. You’re strong, I predict even stronger with some practice. Not only that, but you have insider knowledge that monsters have been searching for since we were banished underground. You work for me; I keep your secret.” Milord’s eyes flashed dangerously as he extended a hand towards you, “I expect we have a deal?”

He could have asked for anything, and it wouldn’t have mattered, but he knew that. This was the weapon he and all of monsterkind needed if they were going to win this war.

You took his hand, grasping it tightly and shook, “Deal.”

“Good.” He flashed his teeth at you before releasing your hand, “Oh, and heal those marks on your face. Stars knows you don’t need any more attention drawn to you.” With a flourish he dug into his pocket and pulled out two small pieces of candy before dropping one into your hand and the other into the void behind his maw.

All you could do was stare at the candy in complete shock at the events that had just transpired until Milord was out of your sight. You swallowed harshly before unwrapping the sweet and popping it into your mouth, not surprised at the tingling magic immediately knitting your wounds back together.

You attempted to scrub what blood you could from your face with the sleeve of your hoodie and sneaked inside to shower, successfully avoiding the houses inhabitants as you did so.  

Now clean and somewhat presentable, and your hand bandaged the best you knew how, you decided to do something to take your mind off of today’s events. What you really wanted to do was lay in bed and stare at the ceiling for an indefinite amount of time, but you knew from past experience that doing so would make you feel even worse.

You dug around under your bed until you found an old sketchbook and pencils, smiling lightly as you flipped through to view your old pieces. You had always loved drawing people, and one of the ways you would escape mentally would be to sketch whatever your brain could think of in that moment.

You froze when you came across a piece you created just before you had run from your ‘family’, gently running the tips of your fingers over the worn paper. It was a self-portrait, but your face was distorted and set in a permanent wail, thick trails of black ooze running from your eyes and mouth whilst your fingers dug into the delicate skin under your eyes.

With a sharp exhale you tore the paper from the book and folded it before shoving it far into your dresser drawer. Nobody would see this if you could help it. Then, with the sketchbook and pencils in your possession, you shuffled your way into the garden and finally made use of the gorgeous outdoor swing seat. It was big enough for at least two people, so you took up the space by stretching your legs across it, your back pressed against the arm rest. You breathed in the sweet summer air and listened to the various sounds of nature, reveling in the glow of the sunlight warming your being.

With a solid idea of what you were going to sketch, you began to make various pencil lines over the paper, and soon enough you were completely absorbed in the task.

You were eventually shaken out of your trance when you heard light footsteps approaching you, but didn’t expect the person who the footsteps belonged to. Shading your eyes with your hand, you gave a warm smile to your visitor.

“Hey, Butch.” You spoke gently, a contended lilt to your voice. Honestly, you completely expected the shy skeleton to notice you and run, but he surprised you by taking a cautious step towards you, his eyelights trained on your sketch as he rubbed his hands together anxiously.

“You wanna see?” You offered, smiling when he nodded gingerly. Swinging your legs over so your feet rested on the grass, you patted the spot next to you, cheering internally when he folded himself to hesitantly sit on the cushion next to you. Although, it did look uncomfortable having to bend his towering form like that to fit under the canopy covering the swing. A giggle forced its way past your lips as you watched Butch’s eye sockets widen at the drawing.

“I-it’s me?” The corners of his mouth twitched into a crooked smile; his voice coated in disbelieving surprise.

“Yep!” You enthused, passing the sketchbook to him for a better look, “It’s not done yet, but you can have it once it is!”

The skeleton monster gently took the sketch from you, his shy smile blooming into a full grin as his eyelights sparkled. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him smile before and it lifted your awful mood considerably.

“W-why?” He mumbled, his gaze refusing to leave the page as took in every little detail.

“Why not? I think you’re a beautiful subject.” You hummed and tilted your head to look down at the drawing, proud of the work you had done so far. Your gaze snapped up to the skeleton’s face when you heard him sputter and slap a hand to his mouth, a brilliant apricot blush covering his entire skull.

You bit your lip to fight a laugh at the display, not wanting to antagonize him, and gently took the sketchbook back into your lap. Sighing and bringing your legs up to sit crisscross, you put pencil to paper once more, sneaking little glances every now and then to make the drawing more accurate. A few times you caught Butch watching you draw with an open inquisitiveness, only for him to meet your eyes and flush before looking away. Eventually the peaceful quiet was broken by Butch murmuring something almost inaudibly, prompting you to lightly ask him to repeat himself.

“I d-draw too… sometimes.” He stuttered a little louder, eyelights trained on the ground.

“You do?” You said brightly, earning a short nod in response, “Do you want to draw together?”

The seemingly permanent tangerine flush only illuminated his cheeks further as he nodded before carefully maneuvering himself from under the canopy and standing to his full height.

“I-I’ll go get my s-supplies.” He stammered and made haste into the house before you could even open your mouth to reply.

Taking into consideration Butch’s massive height, you opted for simply sitting in a shaded patch of grass, hoping it would be more comfortable for him. You stretched out across the warm ground, turning to lay on your front with your sketchbook in front of you as you waited for the skeleton’s return.

Your head cradled in your hands and gaze focused on the house, you noticed immediately when he gingerly stepped outside, a sketchbook and pencil set of his own under his arm. You gave a little wave, which he returned with a lopsided smile, making your soul hum in affection.

Once he was situated on the ground next to you, deciding to mirror your laying position, the both of you sketched in silence for what felt like minutes, but the low point of the sun indicated that it had been hours. You had attempted to sneak a glance at Butch’s drawing, but he was always quick to notice and tilt it away from you to hide it from view. You instead settled for watching the skeleton out of the corner of your eye, internally squealing at how cute he looked with his face wrinkled in concentration, the tip of an orange tongue poking out ever so slightly from between his jagged teeth.

Eventually, your eyes started to strain from focusing for so long, and you rolled onto your back, yawning, and stretching your stiff muscles. You were about to ask if he wanted to go back inside but were interrupted by his sketchbook being gently plopped onto your chest, the skeleton hiding his face with a hand, refusing to meet your gaze. With a giggle you picked up the sketch and held it above your face, gasping loudly when you noticed exactly who the subject of his drawing was.

“You drew me!” You said excitedly, rolling onto your front and pulling yourself into a seated position to match the skeleton. “Oh, Butch. This is gorgeous! You’re so talented.” You swooned, lightly tracing the curves and lines of the sketch.

“Y-you’re a b-beautiful subject.” His voice wavered as he imitated the compliment you had given him, and it was your turn to furiously blush.

“Heh, thank you.” You giggled, feeling like a love stricken teenager all over again, “I, um, finished my drawing, if you want to keep it!”

You made yourself busy with gently tearing the page from the spine of the sketchbook, being careful to rip it cleanly, before passing it to Butch, your face still burning in flattery. In return, Butch tore his drawing from the book and softly placed it into your open palms, his flush matching yours in intensity. You thanked him genuinely and tucked it away safely between the pages of your sketchbook as he did the same.  

After saying your goodbyes and going your separate ways, you returned to the safety of your bedroom to work on a very overdue paper that you had just not had the mental energy to complete over the last few days. You used the high that your interaction with Butch had given you to write for a while. The rest of the day went on without a hitch, the only punch in the gut being Red nowhere to be found at dinner, and similarly absent until the rest of the household had gone to bed.  Edge was giving you strange looks too, more than he usually did.

There was no way you could sleep, your mind felt wired even though your body was the most exhausted it had been for a while. After shrugging on a light jacket, you grabbed your cigarettes and stepped outside, plopping yourself down on the patio. You lit a cigarette, exhaling the smoke slowly as you looked up at the stars, drinking in the calm it washed over you. You turned your head to the sliding glass door opening behind you, silently smiling at the visitor before he took a seat next to you.

“can’t sleep?” Sans’ deep voice came from besides you, prompting you to sigh and take another drag.

“Nope. You?”

“nope.”

The warm wind kissed your exposed skin and soothed your ears as the two of you sat in companionable silence, both watching the inky sky and the tiny sparks of light within it. You discarded your finished cigarette and pulled out the packet, tapping out another before offering one to the skeleton monster. He gratefully took it, allowing you to light it for him before lighting your own and taking a long drag.

“Didn’t know you smoked.” You broke the silence, an amused tone to your words.

“eh, sometimes.” Sans shrugged, “if paps asks though, nah i don’t.”

You snorted before replying, “Got it.”

You observed curiously as Sans took a swig from a hip flask before offering it to you. You delightedly took it and sipped at the liquid, only to gag and look at the skeleton in betrayal, who was doubled over in laughter.

“Is this fucking ketchup?!” You whisper-shouted, rubbing your mouth with the back of your hand to dispose of anything that remained of the offending viscous goop.

“y-yep!” He gasped out between his snickering, “what? i jus’ wanted to ketch-up with ya!”

Your groan turned into a fit of giggles, his chuckling causing you to eventually dissolve into full on laughter.

“I seriously hope you’re proud of yourself, dude.” You snorted, passing the flask back to him, “That was awful.”

“thanks for the, heh, condiment” Sans waggled his eyebrows at you, causing you both to burst into raucous laughter once again.

“Okay, okay.” You gasped, hand clutching your stomach, “Stop it, I’m actually going to piss myself!”

Sans snorted at your comment, “gross.”

“Thank you.” You grinned, puffing out your chest in pride, earning another rumbling chuckle.

“so…” The skeleton trailed off, arching a browbone at you.

“So?” You drew out the word, unsure of what he was referring to.

“ya really smacked the shit out of milord, huh?” His tone was so casual that it forced a breathy laugh out of you.

“In my defense, he was being an actual bellend.” You rolled your eyes, leaning forward to rest your elbows on your knees.

“bellend?” Sans almost choked on his tomatoey drink at your insult, flashing an amused look your way.

“Yeah, knobhead, cockwomble, a complete and utter dick.” You listed the offensive names off on your fingers, speaking as though you couldn’t believe he wasn’t familiar with the colorful insults. This prompted another burst of tumbling laughter from the skeleton before he wiped a tear of mirth from his eye socket.

“ya really weird, ya know that?” He teased, chuckling good-naturedly.

“Yeah, I know.” You snorted, before gently nudging the skeleton with your elbow, “Says you though, ketchup guzzler.”

“heh, ya got me there.” He shrugged, swigging the thick concoction from his flask.

After a moment of calming silence, a question sprung to your mind, “Do you know any constellations?” You asked hopefully, watching as the skeleton returned his gaze to the sky and focused for a moment.

“that there’s ursa major,” He pointed out a cluster of stars, before moving to another, “orion, canis major and centaurus.” He continued, your gaze following in fascination as he pointed to each.

“That’s so cool.” You whispered in admiration, eyes locked on the tiny twinkling points of light.

“heh, i spent a lotta time studyin’ the stars when we were underground, it’s why i went into astrophysics when we surfaced.” He waved off your compliment, and you felt your chest tighten at the information he shared.

“That must have been terrible, being trapped there for so long.” You whispered, eyes dropping to the floor, “I’m sorry.”

“what ya apologizin’ for, kid?” He questioned, confused, “ain’t your fault it happened.”

“I guess, just feel bad for what we did, y’know?” You jolted and corrected yourself, “What us humans did, I mean.”

“eh, it was hundreds of years ago. no hard feelings here, bud.” He winked with a shrug. Sans had such a calming demeanor about him, you noticed, it really put you at ease.

“I know it’s not the same thing, but I didn’t even go outside until I was, like, sixteen.” You returned his confession with one of your own in the hopes of strengthening your budding friendship, your voice low.

“seriously?” His eyelights snapped to your face, his own a picture of awe.

“Yeah, I wasn’t allowed to.” You shrugged, “Had to brainwash me somehow, I guess.”

“but- “ You could see the cogs turning in his head, his brow bones drawn together, “how?”

“Well, I was a home birth with no medical assistance, so there’s no record of me even being born. Plus, I was home-schooled and never had any contact with anyone outside of the c- “ You corrected yourself, “uh, outside of my family.”

“don’t you humans get sick if ya don’t get sunlight or somethin’?” You were honestly impressed that he knew that.

“Hah, yeah. I did get sick, but supplements and stuff helped.”

“that’s… horrible.” He mumbled, his mouth downturned and eyelights fuzzy, “’m sorry, kid.”

“Hey, what’re you apologizing for? Ain’t your fault.” You smiled and parroted his words back at him, bumping your shoulder with his. Before he could press any further, you stood and stretched, “I should go to sleep.”

“yeah, me too.” Sans stood with you, giving you a strained smile.

“Thank you, though, for this.” You smiled softly, “It was nice.”

“no prob, bud.”

You raised an eyebrow when he didn’t move to follow you, “You not coming in?”

“nah, think i’ll stay here a little longer.”

“Okay. Night, Sans.” You smiled.

“night, kiddo.”

Chapter Text

The next few days were… odd, to say the least. Red was still barely speaking to you, no matter how hard you tried to reconcile, and it was just about driving you mad. As a result, you spent most of your time with Mutt, who seemed as reluctant to continue your sexual relationship as you did, so you were bone dry in that department (heh). Apart from that, your life was just work, school, feel sorry for yourself, rinse and repeat. You hadn’t heard anything from Milord either, and you were honestly afraid to ask him when you were supposed to begin to ‘work’ for him. You had no idea how you were going to fit it into your already extremely packed schedule, but you supposed didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Not to mention that you’d been getting an absurd number of missed calls from unknown numbers, of which you religiously blocked, but where you blocked one another would pop up in its place. You were beginning to lose sleep over the situation, petrified that they knew where you were and would come in the night to take you. You avidly avoided being anywhere with a sparse population of people when out and definitely avoided being out at night, even when with others.

Desperately needing something to make you feel a little bit safer, you opted to pick up pepper spray and a small knife to keep concealed on your person, as well as some hair cutting scissors and brown box dye. You were determined to keep yourself from running again for as long as you could, even if it was selfish, you didn’t think you could move to a completely new place and start over again.

As soon as you returned home, you made haste into the bathroom with your new supplies, locking the door behind you. This wasn’t the first time you had cut and dyed your hair to try to conceal your identity, in fact, you had done it when you first moved to Ebott, so it wasn’t difficult to chop your hair into something resembling a long pixie. After cleaning up the discarded hair, you hopped in the shower, wet your hair, pulled on the cheap plastic gloves, and began to mix the dye.

“Goodbye, blonde hair. I’ll miss you.” You whispered to your reflection before dumping the horrendous smelling mixture onto your head and haphazardly rubbing it in. After about 30 uninterrupted minutes of playing on your phone whilst it developed, you once again hopped in the shower, shampooed, and conditioned your new hair as well as washing your face and body, and stepped out and into a towel. With a grin you wiped the condensation from the mirror as you took in your new appearance. It wasn’t half bad! You definitely looked very different, hopefully unrecognizable.

A new haircut and color deserved a nice outfit and a touch of makeup to complete the look, so you browsed through your limited collection of clothing for something appropriate. Eventually you decided on a black button-up, - sleeves rolled up halfway, of course - with a silver embroidered snake travelling up one shoulder, across your upper back and down the other side, paired with your usual grey-black skinny jeans and knee-high combat boots. The make-up was a simple winged eyeliner with a touch of black smudged on your lower lash line, brown eyebrow pomade to make your eyebrows match the new hair color, and a dark nude liquid lip.

Feeling invigorated, you grabbed your handbag, making sure you had your phone, purse, cigs, lighter, and lipstick in case you needed to top up, - not forgetting the knife and pepper spray - and stepped out of the front door to head to the lab for a shift. You were beginning research on a fascinating new subject and needed to make sure you were there before the participants to set up, and you were actually really excited to start!

On your way out you noticed a black, fancy-looking car parked on the street, still running, right in front of the cabin, and walked towards it, curious. The windows were tinted black, not allowing you to see the driver, which made your heart begin hammering in your chest. You sighed in relief when the driver-side window rolled down, revealing Milord, who beckoned you over with a ‘come-hither’ motion.

“Perfect, I was just coming to collect you.” He grinned, before regarding your change in appearance, his eyelights flicking quickly from head to toe. You could have sworn you saw a very light lilac tint on his cheeks, but it must have been a trick of the light.

“Coming to collect me?” You scrunched up your face in befuddlement, “Why?”

Milord rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply, earning an unimpressed look from you.

“You remember what we discussed, obviously?” His tone was impatient, his body language reflecting this in a repetitive tapping of his clawed fingers on the leather steering wheel.

“Obviously.” It was your turn to roll your eyes, crossing your arms under your breasts, “But I’m on my way to work-“

“Call in sick, this is clearly more important than whatever it is you do.” He said boredly with a wave of his hand.

You prickled at his insinuation that what you were doing wasn’t important work, but he was right; this was more important. You wanted to argue, to shout and scream about how this wasn’t fair in the slightest, but you knew that this was your own doing, and consequently you had to deal with the fallout.

With a resigned sigh, you reluctantly shuffled around to the other side of the car and flopped into the front passenger seat. As you were strapping in your seatbelt, Milord let out an amused huff at your disgruntled expression and began to drive. You decided to ignore it to pull out your phone and dial into work, guilt eating away at your insides at bailing right before you were due.

“Hey! Yeah, no. I can’t come in, I’m sick. I know, I should have called earlier, I’m sorry. But- Yeah, I know. Can’t Michelle cover for me? Oh. No, I really can’t. Yeah, sorry. Okay, bye.”

Throwing your head back with a groan, you dumped your phone back into your handbag and sulked.

“I’m a neuroscientist, by the way.” You huffed, “Well, assistant researcher, but still. Had a super important study to start on today as well.” You added, childishly hoping to make the monster feel at least a little guilty.

It didn’t work, obviously. All you got in return was a disinterested hum, only serving to make you sulk harder as you stared out of the window at the passing buildings, until civilization began to turn into hillside, and you spotted Mount Ebott in the distance.

“Um, where exactly are we going?” You inquired, anxiety bubbling in your gut.

Milord huffed a short laugh, his eye sockets crinkling in amusement as he continued to look ahead, “I was wondering when you were going to ask. Underground. That is where the operation is based. You will likely meet the King of monsters; Asgore. He will expect to be briefed on the reason for your presence.”

You swallowed harshly, nervous laughter infecting your speech, “The King of monsters? Isn’t that… a little much?”

“Do not allow nerves to consume you. He has earned the title of King Fluffybuns for a reason.” He spoke the King’s nickname as if it disgusted him, but you felt appreciative of his poorly veiled attempt to make you feel better; even if, you suspected, it was so you wouldn’t freak out when you met his superior.

You would have snickered at the title at any other point, but you were afraid that if you opened your mouth, you would puke all over the inside of Milord’s most likely very expensive vehicle from nerves. So, silent you stayed, listening to the hum of the engine and eyes focused on the rapidly approaching mountain until you arrived at your destination.

It took a few minutes of traversing the sharp incline of the rocky surface before you were staring at the ginormous, and frankly terrifying, gaping maw that was the entrance to the Underground. Two guards stood to attention on either side, clad in heavy armor. From what you could tell they were some forms of dog-like monsters with the muscle-ridden body of men, their pink tongues lolling from their mouths as they noticed your presence.

“You aren’t going to lose consciousness, are you?” Milord raised a brow bone at you, “You’re pale.”

“I’m fucking nervous as shit, dude!” You hissed, waving your arms frantically, “There aren’t going to be other Mages here, right?!” You added, the possibility spawning into the forefront of your racing thoughts.

“No. Believe it or not, you may just be the first of your kind,” The purple-clad skeleton’s mouth quirked upwards in mirth.

“What? First of my kind?” Your panic dissolved momentarily at the statement, instead replaced with open curiosity.

“I have been searching for someone like you; a Mage who has turned their back on their own. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in my endeavors.” His violet eyelights sparkled as they caught your gaze, “Imagine my astonishment, then, when I discover that one has been directly in my eyeline for a numerous amount of time.” You observed curiously as the skeleton monster dug around in his pocket for something, then shoved it towards you, “Put this on.”

“What is it?” You hesitantly took the item and turned it in your hands. It looked like a thick faux leather choker with a metal clasp, similar to something you would normally wear, except for one detail. Fused to the middle was a small metal device, about the vertical thickness of the strap, of which you could feel the buzzing of unfamiliar magic.

“A magic-suppression collar. You are to wear it if you even hope to step foot into the Underground.” He stated coldly, a sneer twisting his features.

“I haven’t used my magic since I left the Coven, Milord.” You said defensively, your grip tightening around the device so that the cool metal was pressing into the flesh of your palm. Wow, Coven. You hadn’t uttered that word for a long time. You had a feeling that you would be saying it a lot today, though. The thought made your already tense muscles tighten even more.

“That may be so, but I cannot trust your word that you will not bring harm to the Underground’s inhabitants.” His eyelights trained on you, he asked with a condescending lilt, “You understand, do you not?”

With a growl you fastened the collar around your neck, thankful that it almost just looked like an eccentric accessory and flinched when what felt like a static shock assaulted your entire body. You groaned at the sensation of your magic being forcefully suppressed, leaving you weak and lightheaded. Your soul ached at the empty feeling and with a small whimper you clutched at your chest.

Milord hummed in thought at your noises of distress, “Alphys stated that there may be some side-effects.”

“I feel like someone just drained half of the blood from my body.” You muttered, squeezing your eyes closed in an attempt to curb some of the dizziness.

“Come with me, we shall remedy this before continuing.” He offered his hand, and you stared dumbly at it, earning a sharp exhale and a shake of his head, “There is a magical barrier. You won’t be able to enter unless I share my magical signature with you.”

“Oh, right.” You flushed, embarrassed at what your mind had begun implicating, “That makes sense.”

You took his hand, and with that Milord began to lead you onward. You inhaled deeply and walked shakily alongside the monster. As you passed through, the invisible barrier rippled around you, causing your skin to break into goosebumps. It wasn’t unpleasant, just strange. You noted with amusement that when Milord had greeted the two guards, they yipped the same way a tiny Pomeranian would. It was adorable!

Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, you thought.

Your optimism was fleeting, however, as when you made your way through the dimly lit entrance and into the first section of the Underground, you were greeted with many unfamiliar faces, some of which had dagger-sharp glares trained on you. Except, wait- you knew that face!

“Edge?!” You squawked, dropping Milord’s hand as if it had scalded you, “Seriously, you’re in on this too?!”

The towering monster simply scoffed and rolled his eyelights at you. He was clad in the same armor that the guards outside the entrance were, except his was a darker grey and covered in intimidating spikes.

“Edge has been a valued member of the Royal Guard since we surfaced.” Milord supplied, a hint of pride shining in his eyelights, “His talent is irreplaceable.”

Wow, you’re sure that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever heard Milord say about anyone. He must be good.

“So… the whole chef thing was a cover-up?” You concluded, awe etched into your features, “But you’re so good at cooking!”

“OBVIOUSLY.” The edgy skeleton spat, a light crimson dusting his cheekbones despite his harsh tone.

“You- uh, you aren’t going to tell anyone about this, right?” You shifted guiltily, eyes dropping to the gravel floor at your feet, “About me being a Mage and everything?”

“Anything that happens within these walls is strictly confidential.” Milord cut in, a serious expression pulling the corners of his mouth downwards, “You do not have to worry.”

“Right.” You chewed the inside of your cheek, your clammy hands clasped tightly together in front of you, “I feel so bad about keeping this from everyone.” You added, mumbling.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE YOU ENTERED THEIR LIVES AND PUT THEM ALL IN DANGER.” Edge hissed, his tone cutting through you and making your stomach drop.

Yeah, you deserved that.

“Enough, Lieutenant.” Milord scolded, “We are lucky that they inserted themselves into our lives. They could be integral to our success, don’t forget that.”

You only felt your shame increase tenfold when you watched Edge shrink back and mutter an apology, but it was incredible that Milord, the monster who had been the most hostile toward you from the beginning, was somewhat sticking up for you.

“Come, let us not waste any more time.” The shorter skeleton shoved you forward, causing you to trip over your feet and barely catch yourself from falling straight on your face.

Well, it was nice while it lasted, you guessed.

Your gaze anxiously shifted around at the strange faces, of which had only become more hostile since overhearing your conversation, as you passed them. You instead decided to focus on the environment around you. It seemed as though it had been hastily renovated, with what looked previously to have been a sort of throne room now bare, the walls and floors replaced with splintering wood and chunks of stone. As you continued, the rest of the space seemed to continue this theme, torches lit with what you assumed was fire magic littering the walls. Eventually, you came to a barricade made of stone, causing you to blink in confusion.

“I thought the Underground was a lot bigger than this?” You questioned, eyes scanning the area as though it would reveal the answer to you.

“It was. We were forced to block off the rest of the Underground when Mages began finding their way in.” The skeletons tone was almost mournful, his face twisted into a scowl, “With less space for them to hide, there is a reduced chance of attack.”

Your heart sank, guilt closing up your throat and rendering you speechless. You knew that your kind had been hunting monsters since they surfaced, but to hide in the place that they forced monsterkind to call home for hundreds of years to ambush them? The thought made you nauseous.

Milord motioned for you to follow him into a small side room, which looked as though it was carved out of the cave wall. You had to crouch slightly to avoid hitting your head, causing you to brace yourself against the entrance with your eyes screwed shut as a fresh wave of dizziness washed over you.

“Oh- Oh, dear!” Came an anxious, shrill voice, “I thought I m-might have gone overboard with the magic s-suppression, but I had no idea by this m-much!”

You started and snapped your eyes open when an unfamiliar pair of hands grasped your arms. In front of you was a yellow lizard-type monster sporting a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a white lab coat. They looked incredibly distressed, eyes frantically darting from your face to the collar.

“This is Dr. Alphys, she is the one that designed the collar.” Milord introduced you to the monster you now knew as Alphys, “She should be able to adjust its effect.”

“Hi, Alphys.” You gave a weak, shaky smile, “Y-yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”

“C-come sit down, I-I’ll just get my t-tools.” She waved you over to an examination bed, similar to one you would find in a doctor’s office, which was situated next to a very old computer positioned on a wooden desk accompanied by a worn office chair. Apart from these items, the makeshift room was bare and dimly lit.

You pulled yourself up onto the bed and looked to Milord, who was regarding you with a disinterested look, standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back.

“You know,” You started, causing his eyelights to brighten and focus on you, “I could probably help you guys get some new equipment for this place.”

“It’s too risky.” He shot down your idea quickly, “If word gets around that a human is helping monsters with obtaining equipment that is clearly related to our operation it could easily uncover our plans.”

You scoffed and shook your head, “I think you’re being too paranoid, Milord. I’d just get some updated tech and maybe some building supplies to help fortify this place a little better, nothing too extravagant.” Your eyes shifted to the sound of someone shuffling back into the room, “Think about it.” You shrugged, causing the skeleton to knit his brow bones together and look away with a stubborn hum.

“O-okay!” Alphys scampered in, a small case of tools under her arm, “I-if you could, uh, keep the collar on whilst I adjust it- just, you know, i-in case.” She wrung her hands together guiltily at your stricken expression. You quickly let your face melt into understanding, feeling bad for the anxious monster.

“It’s alright.” You spoke softly, leaning forward and lifting your chin to allow better access, “I understand.”

With a determined nod, the lizard-monster pulled out the appropriate tools and began tinkering with the metal device, the close proximity making you shift anxiously and stare at the ceiling.

“Can I ask why you have an examination bed in here? You don’t seem like the ‘fixing-people’ type of doctor.” You asked, before adding quickly, “No offence.”

Alphys exhaled sharply in a breathy laugh, “N-no offence taken! I- um,” She scrunched her eyebrows together either in anxiety or concentration, you couldn’t tell, “I’m not a ‘f-fixing-people’ type of doctor, b-but m-monsters were being a-attacked and, um, t-the ones that m-managed to run away would c-come here, a-and there’s only s-so much that the monsters w-with healing abilities can d-do without completely d-draining their magic s-supply, s-so I try my best to h-help.”

“I see.” Your voice came out barely audible, shame making your throat thick.

You wondered silently exactly how many monsters were being hunted now, and how many managed to escape their attackers. Probably not many actually escaped, especially with how powerful you knew Mages to be, especially against monsters. Your gut twisted in worry for your friends, you truly wish you were able to protect them.

You were so lost in thought that you didn’t notice when the doctor had finished tweaking the device and stepped back until her voice regained your attention.

“T-there!” She grinned shakily at you, “D-does that f-feel better?”

Your hand came up to gently touch the collar, a smile forming when you realized that apart from a strange emptiness, you felt relatively normal!

“Oh, that’s so much better, thank you!” You enthused, hopping down from the table with vigor.

As Alphys flushed from the praise and opened her mouth to answer, she was abruptly cut off by panicked shuffling and shouting. You watched in horror as two armor clad dog-monsters, one’s you hadn’t seen before, burst into the room, the smaller of the two cradling what looked to be a child. The tiny child was another lizard-monster, armless and clad in stripes, and unconscious. You inhaled sharply and stepped out of the way as the dog-monsters hastily laid the child on the examination table.

“Dogamy, Dogaressa, what happened?” Milord demanded, his voice level and cool despite the chaos.

“Captain!” Dogaressa spoke with a clearly feminine voice, “He was being attacked when we found him!”

“It was another Mage attack, they ran when we arrived, but I fear we may have intervened too late.” Dogamy added, his tone deep and gruff.

“We are fortunate you were in such close proximity. Good job, you two.” Milord praised, leaving you baffled. Who knew the tiny tyrant could be so nice?!

“I-I’ll do w-what I c-can, b-but it d-doesn’t l-look good.” Alphys’ strained voice chimed in, already looking over the tiny monster. You noticed that her stutter had increased ten-fold under the stress and your heart ached for her, “F-fetch s-someone who c-can h-heal, q-quickly!”

You swallowed harshly and wrung your hands together anxiously as you watched her work, the two dog-monsters already having been dismissed by their captain to find help. Forcing yourself to finally really look at the child, your heart sunk when you saw the amount of Dust covering the poor monster as well as the floor and bed they were lay on. You couldn’t stand it, you had to do something. With a newfound sense of urgency, your hands fumbled with the clasp of the collar, only to find that it refused to come undone.

“You cannot remove it yourself.” Milord’s eyes flicked to you with a sneer, “It requires monster magic to open.”

“Then remove it!” You yelled in a panic, “I can help!”

The skeleton’s eye sockets narrowed at you, clearly suspicious of your intentions, but before he could refuse you, Alphys’ meek voice, full of distress, cut in.

“M-Milord, I, um, u-usually w-wouldn’t g-go against y-your orders, b-but t-there isn’t t-time for a-anyone e-else to g-get here!”

Both you and Milord stared in horror as your attention was brought to the child, who’s skin was faded to grey, clearly close to death. Alphys was working hard, sticking a syringe full of a green swirling liquid into the child’s leg, but it didn’t seem to do anything. With a growl through grit teeth, the skeleton monster relented and signaled for you to lean down so he could reluctantly remove the collar.

“If you try anything, and I mean anything,” He hissed lowly into your ear, “I will not hesitate to dispose of you, got it?!”

Finally free of the collar, you jumped into action, opting to ignore the skeleton’s threat. You were terrified, it had been so long since you had tried anything like this, but this kid was going to Dust, and you would hate yourself if you didn’t at least try.

“Here,” You put a hand on Alphys’ shoulder, causing her to squeak and jump, “Let me try.”

The shaking monster stepped back, breathing heavily, allowing you to get close to the child. With a steeling breath, you softly placed your open palms on his body, closing your eyes to tap into the well of magic you knew was within your soul. Casting magic, it was almost like riding a bike in that it came to you instantly, the warm buzz of healing magic enveloping your palms as you pushed it outward and into the monster’s body.

You don’t know how long you were like that, breathing deeply with closed eyes as you pushed out as much magic as you physically could, but you could hear the high chatter of several voices. They sounded distant, almost as if you were in a bubble. You were snapped out of your trance by a hand roughly gripping your shoulder, forcing you to open your eyes, blinking hard as your eyes focused.

“Stop!” That was Milord’s voice, why would he want you to stop?

You let out a yelp of triumph as you saw the child beneath your hands, his color had returned and he was breathing softly, although still unconscious. Your knees buckled when you were overcome with weakness, but you were promptly caught and lowered gently down to the floor. You squinted as your eyes focused on a face crouched down in front of you.

“You pushed yourself too hard.” Milord scolded before reaching back to retrieve a handkerchief from Alphys.

“Ah ha, I saved him!” You giggled, high from the adrenaline of the situation.

“That you did. Well done.” The usually cranky skeleton gave you a warm smile, his sockets lidded and eyelights sparkling. He looked handsome like that, you thought.

You flinched as he patted just under your nose with the cloth, prompting your already flushed face to burn even brighter. You were about to question his actions before you noticed the blood staining the cloth as he pulled it away from your face. He offered the handkerchief to you, which you took with shaking hands.

Your breath hitched in your throat as you noticed the Dust caked onto your palms, a flash of a memory making you whimper and screw your eyes shut. If the others noticed, they didn’t say anything. With frantic motions you scrubbed the Dust from your hands as best you could, trying your hardest to get it out from under your fingernails. The task was making you nauseas and you fought back a gag, breathing deeply to curb the feeling.

“I guess I did push myself too hard.” You laughed shakily, attempting to distract yourself, “Told you I haven’t used my magic in a while.”

Milord hummed, his smile replaced with a muted look of concern at your state, before reaching forward to clasp the collar around your neck once again. You shot the monster an incredulous look.

“Seriously?” You laughed in disbelief, throwing your hands up, “I just saved a kids life and you’re still afraid I’m gonna go all Wicked Witch of the West on your ass!?”

You felt proud when Alphys snickered at your exclamation, regardless of Milord’s confused and exasperated expression. He sternly spoke your name in a warning, and you rolled your eyes.

“Aye aye, Captain.” You exaggerated a mock-serious expression as you raised a hand in a salute, causing Alphys to slap a hand over her mouth to stifle a squeak of laughter. You had to bite your lip to hold in your own laughter at Milord’s widened eye sockets and lilac blush before he scoffed and stood, leaving you to pull yourself up from your resting place on the gravel floor.

“Dr. Alphys.” Said monster started and forced her expression into a serious one at the Capitan’s beckon, “Ask around, see if you can find the child’s parents.”

“Y-Yes, Sir!”

“You.” Milord motioned for you to follow, “I understand that this was likely exhausting, but you are far from done here.”

“Aw.” You grinned and teased the skeleton monster, “You’re being nice to me!”

You snickered when he faltered and sputtered, “Keep that up and you will likely never hear a kind word from me again.” His face fell into a glare, though it wasn’t very intimidating with the blush covering his face. Ah, adorable.

Now with your hands as clean as you could get them, you shoved the cloth into your pocket and followed the skeleton, not very far, into another makeshift room containing a large beat-up wooden table, surrounded by equally as beat-up chairs. You really needed to help them get some new stuff, you decided.

Sat at the head of the table was an enormous goat-monster, dressed in dark-purple robes and a golden crown atop his head. In front of him was a teapot and adorable little matching teacups that were dwarfed by his giant hands. Sat next to him was a very intimidating fish-monster, of whom had a black eyepatch over one eye and maroon-colored hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She was scowling at you with razor-sharp teeth, instilling a sense of dread in you. At least Edge was seated with them - his presence along with Milord’s served to soothe your anxiety a little, even if they were the quite possibly the coldest individuals in the room.

“I apologize for our lateness, Your Majesty.” Milord called to gain his attention, “The collar Alphys created for our Mage here needed some adjustments.”

The King stood from his seat, and you gaped at his full height as he strolled towards you, “Now, now. What have I told you about the ‘Your Majesty’ stuff, Milord?” His voice was rumbling, but kind. It helped to set you at ease, “Asgore is plenty fine!”

“Of course.” Milord looked uncomfortable at not addressing him formally, “My apologies, Asgore.”

“Ah, there we are!” Asgore let out a tumbling chuckle before turning to regard you, “And you must be the Mage that Milord informed me of?” He confirmed your name, smiling warmly at you as he reached out a giant paw in offer of a handshake.

“That’s right.” You smiled back as you shook his hand, which easily enveloped yours, “It’s lovely to meet you!”

“Ah, what a pretty accent you have!” His compliment caused you to giggle nervously as you thanked him, a light blush dusting your cheeks, “Come, let us begin the meeting.”

The three of you took your seats at the table where you were positioned next to Edge, facing across from Milord and the fish-monster.

“Now, I know that you are well acquainted with Edge here,” Asgore spoke with a wave of his hand in the prickly monster’s direction, “But I do believe you two have not met.” He gestured to the fish-monster with a tilt of his head.

“Undyne.” She introduced herself shortly, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back in her chair, still donning the critical expression she had when you had entered.

You told her your name, “It’s nice to meet you!” You smiled, refusing to falter when you only got a scoff in response. The King looked perturbed at Undyne’s rude behavior but opted to ignore it in favor of asking if you would like some tea. You happily agreed, carefully taking a teacup from the monster, and sipping at it with pleasant surprise.

“This is delicious, thank you!” You smiled softly, “What is it, if I may ask?”

“Ah, it is Golden Flower tea. I brew it myself!” He spoke with a hint of pride in his voice, his kind eyes sparkling.

You opened your mouth to respond, but quickly snapped it shut when Milord cleared his throat.

“I do believe that we should begin, we are short on time as it is.” His stern tone cut through you, making you press your lips together guiltily at derailing the obviously very serious meeting.

“Ah, I apologize.” Asgore chuckled, “Well then, let us begin.”

The four monsters looked at you expectantly, causing you to freeze and stare dumbly, “Uh, what- um, what do you want to know?” Get it together!

“How about we start with the reason you left your Coven?” The King helpfully supplied, shooting you a sympathetic look. You had no idea why this guy was being so nice to you when everyone else was so hostile, but you would take your victories where you could!

“Right.” You took a deep breath, steeling your nerves, “I was around twenty-one when I managed to escape. It was, um, a few months after the barrier was broken. My Coven was more like a cult, honestly, and although they were not kind to me in the first place, the barrier breaking just made everything worse.” You chewed your lip and scanned the faces around you, even Undyne had begun to look at least semi-interested in what you were saying.

“How so, my child?” Asgore spoke softly, the pet-name making your breath hitch as you cleared your throat.

“So, uh, are you guys aware of why Mages are hunting monsters?” You asked quietly, eyes now trained on your hands in front of you.

“I have always assumed that it is to do with the previous war and humanities hatred for our kind.” Milord spoke up, a brow bone raised, “Is it not?”

“N-no. I mean, not entirely…” You cleared your throat, your chest tight with anxiety, “It’s to… consume them. Their Dust, I mean.” Your eyes flicked upwards to see the several looks of shock and disgust, deep rumbling growls emitting from the bared teeth of Undyne and Edge.

“I see.” Asgore spoke first, a mournful tone to his velvety voice, “That is… troubling, to say the least.”

“Y-Yeah. Dust, it, um, increases our well of magic.” You explained, shame straining your voice, “It makes us far more powerful than we were ever meant to be.”

When no one else spoke up, you continued, fists clenched so hard that your nails were biting into the soft flesh of your palms.

“So, um, my parents along with most others in the Coven all moved here, from England, where I grew up. Old records that had been passed down from the older generations spoke of the power that monster Dust could give us, and as soon as they heard news that the barrier had broken, we just dropped everything and moved here.” You swallowed, blinking back the tears burning your eyes, “I hated the idea. I didn’t want to go, but… they had me so brainwashed at that point that I just went with them out of fear of what would happen if I didn’t.

“We joined up with other Covens in the area, not too far from Ebott, and began hunting. I refused and was punished a lot for not cooperating. Anyway, a lot of Mages, including my parents, got greedy and consumed more than our bodies are meant to handle. They…” You wiped at your face to find that tears had started to fall and scrubbed hard at your eyes, “Um, they kind of went mad with power, I guess? They were executed. ‘Too far gone’ the High Priest said, ‘nothing but a drain on resources’.” You fell silent, your hands shaking as you continued to wipe your eyes with your sleeve.

“I understand that this is difficult to talk about, my child.”  Your gaze snapped to the King, his understanding expression soothing you, “And I am ever so sorry for the loss of your guardians, but your knowledge could be the key to winning this war.”

“I know.” You sniffled, inhaling deeply in an attempt to stop your crying, before shakily continuing.

“They discovered that they could get more Dust for less effort if they kidnapped weaker monsters and kept them as prisoners, injuring them to collect Dust and then healing them to keep them alive.”
Your gaze shifted to Milord as you continued, who despite maintaining his composure, was somehow looking paler than he usually did.

“Healers are extremely rare. Some Mages can learn to heal, but it’s often messy and extremely draining. I was born with the ability, and so I was tasked with healing the injured monsters. I wanted to help them, and it was enough that the High Priest would be satisfied with my contribution, so that is how it continued for a while. I tried my hardest to help them escape. I would steal the keys for the cells and sneak into where they were being kept in the night to free them, claiming the next morning that they must have used their magic to break out somehow. One day, I was caught, and…” You inhaled sharply, shaking your head as if to clear the traumatic memories.

“Well, I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, do anything, without supervision, and I was locked in my room at night with a guard outside of my door. It wasn’t until more Mages were discovered and initiated that small, weak monsters weren’t enough anymore. They kept accidentally killing them, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t save them. They would scream and beg, and I tried so hard but-” Your voice began to break again. You cleared your throat before continuing.

“I couldn’t take it anymore. I was a coward, and I ran. I grabbed a bag of clothes and my fucking cat and stole what money I could, and I ran. I- I think I may have k-killed the guard. I only meant to knock him out, but I was so scared that I…” You trailed off in a whisper, eyes trained on your hands.
“I continued to run, moving every time I was sure that they were close to finding me, until I ended up here.”

You looked around with swollen tear-filled eyes as you sniffled. Every face looking back at you was a picture of anguish, even Undyne had dropped her scowl in favor of a softer, sympathetic expression.

“Anyway, I know where the Coven is based, if they haven’t migrated by now, but apart from that I’m probably pretty useless.” You laughed miserably, “I’m sorry.”

A suffocating silence enveloped the room as the monsters processed your story. You were surprised to hear Undyne speak up first, her one eye filled with pained determination as she caught your eyes.

“You don’t have to run anymore.”

“I- What?” You swallowed against the lump in your throat, fresh tears threatening to form.

“Yeah!” Undyne flashed her sharp teeth in a tenacious grin and slammed her fist on the table, “I don’t know about these guys, but if those assholes come anywhere near you again, I’ll kick their butts so hard they won’t even know what hit ‘em!”

Asgore cleared his throat in a stifled laugh, “I think what Undyne means to say, is that you did an incredible thing, trying to save and free those monsters, and we are willing to protect you the best we know how.” He smiled softly at you, “But, she is right. You do not have to run anymore, my child.”

Unable to hold back the intense wave of emotion any longer, you burst into tears, “T-Thank you. I r-really don’t d-deserve this.” You blubbered, covering your face with your hands.

“I’m afraid I may have lied about the real reason we were late, Your Majesty.” Milord grinned knowingly at you, and you let out a watery laugh as you wiped at your face, your soul swelling with affection for the monster.

“Oh?” The King raised an eyebrow, “Pray tell.”

“Another monster was attacked. A child, seconds from dusting.” Gasps resounded from the monsters at the statement, to which Milord quickly added, gesturing to you, “They healed him and saved his life. After years without even attempting any form of magic, no less.”

An astounded silence filled the room, all three other monsters gawking at you with varying degrees of awe. Although Edge had stayed silent throughout the meeting, his scowl had softened considerably as he regarded you.

“I want to help.” Your gaze fell on each one of them, determination burning in your watery eyes, “I can heal, gather supplies, help build and fortify. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”

Asgore stood suddenly and padded towards you, prompting you to stand and face him, maintaining the same determined expression, as he held out his hands.

“Well, then.” He beamed at you as he took both of your hands in his, “Welcome to the operation, Royal Sorceress.”

Fresh tears welled in your eyes as you smiled wide, making your cheeks hurt, “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

***

The ride home consisted mostly of you pumping your fists and yelling in triumph, repeatedly exclaiming, “Royal Sorceress! Fucking Royal Sorceress! How fucking cool does that sound, dude!?” to which Milord would roll his eyes with a small grin and remind you that this had to be kept a secret for now, for the others’ protection, which temporarily sobered you. Though, one thought kept swirling through your head. If you didn’t have to run anymore, then…

The second you were parked in front of the house, you wriggled with impatience as Milord removed the collar, then thanked him profusely before grabbing his face and planting a kiss on his forehead in your unadulterated excitement, leaving him sputtering and yelling with his face lit up a dazzling violet, then ran as fast as your feet could carry you into the lodge.

You dropped your bag and kicked off your boots before opening your mouth to call for Red but remembered with a start that your hands were still slightly coated with Dust. A shiver wracked your body as you jogged to the kitchen where you spent a good five minutes or so scrubbing your hands and under your nails, only stopping when your skin felt raw.

You took a calming breath with your eyes closed. Nope, this is not going to ruin your good mood.
After finishing drying your hands, you padded back into the hallway and called for your friend.

“Red?” You yelled, your voice cracking in a mixture of elation and relief, “Red!? Where are you dude?”

Said skeleton came sauntering into the entryway, a grimace twisting his features.

“th’ fuck, kid? wh-“

You launched yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his neck as you pressed lips to teeth. The force at which you grabbed him pushed the two of you against the wall as he hungrily returned the affection, hands locked onto your hips.

Red gasped as he gently pushed you back, his face flushed and eyelights hazy “what? i thought-“

“No talking.” You demanded with a sly smile, a finger pressed to his teeth, “Your room, now.”

He happily complied, and suddenly you had been transported to his room, your back hitting his mattress as you landed with him on top of you. With a low, lustful growl he pinned your wrists against the bed, kissing you hard. You parted your lips to allow his tongue to dance with yours, the tingle of his familiar magic making you moan. From what you could feel, his tongue was freakishly long and tapered off into a point.

Holy shit, that is so fucking hot.

The skeleton hesitated as he pulled back, flushed and panting.

“are- are ya sure? i-“

You hooked your leg under his, flipping the both of you so he landed on his back with an ‘oof’ with you straddling his hips. Your hands made quick work of slipping under his shirt to explore his ribcage, coaxing a strangled moan from the skeleton.

“Red,” You breathed, eyelids heavy with arousal, “I have never wanted this more in my entire life than right now.” The last words were practically a growl, earning you a near feral grin as he grabbed you by the shirt to pull your face to his in a heated kiss.

You parted momentarily to pull his black turtleneck over his head and onto the floor, continuing the kiss as he skillfully undid your button up, allowing you to shrug the shirt from your shoulders. Every item of clothing was removed from the both of you as you each desperately ran your hands over the other’s body, grasping and panting and moaning as you did so. You were flipped onto your back, Red making quick work to position himself between your legs, his formed cock rubbing against your entrance, earning a yelp and a moan as he slowly pushed his full length inside of you.
With a grip on your hair, he pulled your head to the side as he leant down to press his face to your neck.

“Red, please.” You whined, bucking your hips against him, causing him to chuckle darkly.

“ya have no idea how long i’ve wanted this, angel.” He growled lowly, “ta have ya like this, completely fuckin’ naked, moaning my name, practically beggin’ for me ta fuck ya.” He gave a sharp tug of your hair, making you gasp and squirm, “tell me what ya want me ta do to ya, princess.”

“Fuck me, Red! Please!” You cried out desperately, yelping when he sank his razor-sharp teeth into your neck and began to pound into you at a blissfully quick pace.

Your vision was blackened at the edges from the mix of pleasure-pain as you repeatedly alternated between screaming his name and a chorus of moaned curses. Your back was suddenly against the cool wood paneling of the wall with your legs wrapped around his hips, whether he carried you there or shortcutted, you had no idea, you were too distracted by the waves of pleasure coursing through your body.

“ya have fun? keepin’ me fuckin’ waiting this long, huh?” He snarled, clawed fingers cutting into the delicate flesh of your hips, “ya little fuckin’ tease.”

Your breathy laugh morphed into a moan as he continued to relentlessly thrust into you, “You got what – ah!  - you wanted though, - hah - didn’t you?”

“too fuckin’ right i did.” He flashed his teeth in lewd grin before capturing your mouth with his, moaning and growling as he entangled his long tongue with yours.

He carried you back to the bed, not breaking the kiss for a second, before releasing you and pushing your chest into the mattress, your back arched so he could grip your hips and roughly shove his member back into you, making you squeal and whimper from the overwhelming pleasure. His thrusts began to get erratic as his moans and growls steadily grew louder. With a vicious tug of your hair, he forced you up and back against his chest, causing you to yelp and brace yourself with your hands on his thighbones.

“Inside me -ah!- please, Red!” You gasped out, sensing his quickly approaching orgasm. In response he growled as he once again latched onto the sensitive flesh between your neck and shoulder and filled you to the brim with his cum, the opaque-red liquid spilling down your thighs.

You were both left panting, flushed messes as you crawled onto the bed, Red pulling you into his side with your head on his chest as he lay on his back, both of you taking a minute to catch your breath.

Anxious thoughts swirled in your head, snapping you out of your blissful state. You had been so impulsive and reckless, yet you didn’t even know if you truly loved Red the way that he loved you. You just wanted him to stop being so goddamn mad at you all the time!

Your eyes traveled up to his face, the affectionate grin he was giving you making you feel sick with guilt. Nevertheless, you grinned back, praying that he couldn’t read your inner turmoil by your tense muscles or possibly shaky smile. You had spent countless nights since learning of Red’s love for you debating in your head whether you felt the same way. Were you mistaking your platonic love for him as romantic? You truly didn’t know.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

You had just finished typing up your notes for the head researcher and sat back, stretching with your hands above your head in a yawn. It was about time for you to take your lunch, so you hopped up from your desk, grabbed your bag and headed towards the break room. On your way, you noticed a new sign pointing you in the direction of a ‘Magic Research Department’. The name came as strange to you, before you remembered that the use of monster magic, at least, had become public knowledge since the barrier to the Underground had been broken. You were confused, however, as to why it had taken them so long to get them a simple sign. Probably underfunding, you thought with a roll of your eyes, per usual.

You turned followed the sign, abandoning your lunch break to sate your curiosity. The hallway looked exactly like the one that lead to your lab, so you peeked through the small windows on each door to see who exactly was working in this department.

Your heart swelled as you saw mostly humans, but a lot of monsters as well, all interacting and working peacefully with one another. It wasn’t a secret that there were a lot of anti-monster hate groups out there, as well as just ignorant humans and, well, Mages, but seeing how nice the humans here were being really gave you hope for a better future for monsters.

You stopped in your tracks when you came to the room at the end of the hallway. There was only one monster in there, and their back was to you, but you could swear that you knew them…

“Sans?” You called as you pushed open the heavy wooden door, causing said skeleton to whip around with a lazy grin and an equally lazy wave. He was sporting a white lab coat instead of his usual blue hoodie and basketball shorts, but somehow was getting away with wearing his pink slippers.

Hot.

“heya.” His voice snapped you out of your thoughts, causing your cheeks to tint pink.

“How long have you been working here?!” You laughed in disbelief, surely, he had just started because you hadn’t seen him around the campus once!

He snorted, “uh, a pretty long time, kid.” He raised a boney brow at you, “what’re ya doin’ here?”

You deadpanned, “I’ve been working and studying here since I moved to Ebott! How have we not run into each other before?!”

“huh, i dunno. i usually shortcut home during my lunch break, so that’s probably why.” He shrugged.

“Oh, right.” You furrowed your brows together, “Still! I had no idea this department even existed! The only reason I found it is because of the new sign they put up.”

“they finally got a sign, huh?” He tried to shove his hands in his pockets the way he usually would with his hoodie but faltered as he realized the pockets weren’t where they usually were, and resigned to clasp them behind his back instead.

“Dude, do you shortcut here in the mornings and back home when you’re done or something?  How did you not notice?” You laughed, shaking your head at the monster.

“heh, yeah i do.” He scratched the back of his neck guiltily with a light blush gracing his cheekbones, eyelights shifting to the side.

“That might be the laziest thing I’ve ever heard.” You giggled, then pretended to tip your hat to him and in your best posh-English accent said, “I take my hat off to you, good sir.”

Sans snorted at the display before motioning toward a high-security door, “ya wanna see what i’m workin’ on?”

“Am I even allowed in there?” You raised a critical eyebrow at the monster.

“eh, probably.” He shrugged with a nonchalant tone.

“Good enough for me!” You beamed, earning a low chuckle “Lead the way!”

You shifted excitedly as you watched Sans pull out a keycard and press it to the sensor, before pulling open the heavy metal door, holding it for you as you passed through with a ‘thank you!’. It was dark inside the room until Sans shut the door securely behind you and flicked on the lights, illuminating the moderately sized lab in a flash of artificial white light.

“Holy shit.” You breathed, earning a flattered snicker from the skeleton. Behind a wall of fortified glass was a momentous machine, so tall that straining your neck to look at the top of it made you slightly dizzy, “What is that?”

“’m tryin’ to replicate the core. humans wanna know how we did it, powering the whole underground with just monster magic, so i’m tryin’ to find out.”

You scrunched your face up in confusion, “Hold on, I have, like, so many questions.”

Sans huffed out a laugh, “shoot.”

“Okay, first, I thought you worked in Astrophysics?”

“eh, i did for a while, but this seems more important an’ it pays more.” He shrugged.

“Right. Okay, second, if you weren’t even in the right field for this, how did you get the job?”

“i was one of th’ people that worked on the core underground.” He said casually, earning an incredulous look from you.

“Seriously?!” You exclaimed, throwing your hands up in the air, before thoughtfully muttering mostly to yourself, “Stars, there’s so much I don’t know about you guys.”

Sans chuckled, “anythin’ else?”

“One more.” You held up a finger to accentuate your speech before asking, “How do you not already know how to replicate it?”

“it’s kinda complicated.” He shifted uneasily, “the person who invented the core wrote down all his findings in a different language, one that died out with him.”

You quirked an eyebrow, “Can I see?”

“sure. don’t think you’ll know it though, it’s an ancient language specific to skeleton-monsters.” He shrugged before reaching over to a shelf to flip through some files.

“How come you don’t know it then?” You were getting more confused by the second!

“ya sure got a lotta questions, don’t ya?” Sans teased good-naturedly and you stuck your tongue out at him, crinkling your nose as you did so, “never learnt it, he never taught me.”

The cogs were really turning in your head now. You were silent as you connected the dots, heart sinking as you came to your conclusion.

“Was he…” You trailed off, gesturing in a way that you hoped was conveying your thought.

“my dad, yeah. only one that still spoke it and dusted before he got the chance to teach me.” He exhaled through his nose as your expression softened.

“Oh, Sans.” You sighed sadly, “I’m so sorry.”

“eh, s’okay.” He shrugged and having finally found the file he was looking for, pulled it out and handed it to you, “happened a long time ago.”

You weren’t sure if you should keep pushing, but a part of you was desperate to learn more about the skeleton, even if it was upsetting.

“How old were you?” You said softly, fingers playing with the tabs on the file.

“about eight? paps was only a babybones.” He looked away, the corners of his mouth pulled downwards, “had to raise him myself.”

“What?” You inhaled sharply, anger broiling in your gut for the poor skeletons, “Where was your Mum?”

“heh, mum” He snickered quietly, completely ignoring your question.

“Sans. C’mon, man.” You put on your best stern face, but you couldn’t hold back the laugh in your voice, “Not cool.”

He continued chuckling, which made you easily dissolve into giggles as you tapped him lightly on the top of his skull with the file.

“ya gonna look at that or just beat me over the skull with it?” He snorted.

“Alright, Drama Queen, that was not ‘beating you over the skull’.” You rolled your eyes with a smile before finally opening the file and flicking through.

Well, if he doesn’t want to answer, you weren’t going to push it.

Your eyes fell upon writing that looked like a variety of symbols but spaced out the way English would be. You squinted at it in silence, before something clicked in your head.

“This is Script…” You muttered quietly, earning a startled look from Sans.

“what? how d’ya know that?” He snatched the file from you, eyelights rapidly travelling over the writing as though it would reveal the answer to him.

“I dunno, I just… do.” You screwed your face up in confusion, “Maybe I saw it in a book somewhere?”

“that’s impossible,” He shook his head, his mouth downturned as his eyelights flicked from your face and back to the file, “if there was anything with script in it surely only monsters would have it, right?”

You bit your lip as you shook your head slightly, your voice coming out almost a whisper, “I dunno. Weird.”

“can ya read any of it?” His face lit up in hope as he handed the file back to you. You breathed out slowly through your nose as you focused on the symbols.

“I think…” You pressed your lips together as you mulled over your theory, “Each symbol probably correlates to a letter, right? Have you tried seeing if you can read any of it by assigning an English letter to each symbol? There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet and as far as I can see there’s a similar number of different symbols too, so why don’t you try out all the different combinations? I’m sure you could probably figure it out in a few hours!” With a grin you turned your gaze to the skeleton, who looked completely stricken.

“why didn’t i think of that?” He mumbled, eyelights fuzzy as if he were in thought before he took the file back from you.

Before you could say anything, he rushed out of the door and back into the main lab, leaving you to catch the door, flick off the lights and follow suit. By the time you had closed the door behind you, the lock securing with an electronic beep, he was sat at a desk, furiously scribbling on a piece of paper with the file open next to it.

With a small giggle, you leaned on the table with your elbows as you watched him work, his face stoic as he concentrated. After a minute or so, you checked your phone for the time, cursing quietly when you realized your break was over.

“I’ve gotta go, Sans.” You called as you shoved your phone back into your bag, “My lunch is over.”

The skeleton’s head shot up, his face was the picture of excitement, his eyes wide and eyelights the brightest you had ever seen them. Your soul did a strange thump against your chest at the sight, causing you to lightly place a hand over your chest with a soft exhale.

“d’ya wanna help me? with th’ core?” He asked, snapping you out of your trance and earning a nervous chuckle.

“Ah, I don’t know…” You shifted, eyes locked on the floor beneath you, “I don’t think I’d be any use, honestly. I know nothing about building machines and stuff.”

He swiveled on the chair to face you properly, “i’ve been workin’ on this for so long by myself, i think what i’ve needed all this time was a fresh perspective, y’know? you’re smart, i could teach ya. i’d only ask you to help during your lunch like today ‘n you could eat in here!”

You cursed your kind nature as your eyes flicked up to meet his, cheeks flushed from the compliment. He just looked so damn hopeful and happy, plus this was the most animated you had ever seen him. Refusing him would be like kicking a puppy!

“Well…” You sighed and smiled lightly, “If it means I get to spend lunch every day with my buddy, why not?”

“heh, thanks, pal.” He looked away bashfully, a pretty cyan blush spreading across his face, “it means a lot.”

Your heart filled with affection for the skeleton monster, causing you to grin widely, “No problem! See ya later, pal.” You winked as you stressed the last word, astutely aware that this was the first time he had called you anything but ‘kid’ or ‘kiddo’. You were pretty sure you were only a few years younger than him too!

You didn’t stay to see his reaction, painfully aware that you were late back to your station, but if you had, you would have seen that pretty blush light up his entire slack-jawed face.

After practically running back to your lab and apologizing profusely to the lead researcher, the rest of the day went off without a hitch. You were in an extraordinarily good mood, which was a nice change from the last month or so.

With a small smile you skipped out of the building and down the street, ready to head home and spend some time with your housemates. It was around 7pm, you had stayed late to finish up some paperwork whilst you snacked on your previously abandoned lunch, and the cool breeze was a welcomed respite from what warmth remained from the sun beating down on the earth.  With your headphones in, blaring a new album from your favorite band, you lit a cigarette and exhaled slowly, joy radiating from your chest and throughout your body.

Man, life was good.

But this is your life, so unfortunately nothing good lasts for very long.

Stupidly, you had felt bold and taken a faster route home, which was sparsely populated, and took a turn down an alleyway. Obviously, someone was waiting for you. Why would you go down an alleyway? Nothing good happens in alleyways!

You froze as you felt eyes on your back and dared to whip around to check who it was, pulling out your headphones as you did so. That was your second mistake. If you had just kept walking, they would have seen you disappear into a crowd, assumed it wasn’t you and given up. But you didn’t, so instead they bolted towards you, hand outstretched.

With a sharp inhale you turned to run but found that you couldn’t move. You wanted to scream, but not even your vocal cords were cooperating with you. The figure sashayed towards you, circling you so that you were face to face.

A woman, no older than you, stared back, an ugly smirk twisting her pretty lips. She had dark, almost chocolate-colored skin, and a buzz-cut that served to accentuate her startlingly bright cyan eyes. Her outfit was casual, a grey tank-top with spaghetti straps paired with simple black jeans and a pair of black sneakers to match.

“Finally got you!” She teased in a sing-song voice, “Where have you been, huh?”

Huh, looks like you could still roll your eyes. The woman realized that you couldn’t speak and released you. In a daring move, you attempted to flee, only to find that whilst the rest of your body was free, your legs most certainly were not. The result was you flailing stupidly, prompting the woman to giggle at your misfortune, a perfectly manicured hand lightly covering her mouth.

“Fuck you.” You spat, putting your energy into boring a hole in her head with a deadly glare.

“That’s not a nice way to speak to your friend.” The woman spoke with a condescending lilt to her voice as she pouted.

“You’re not my fucking friend, Ella.” You growled, attempting to look over her shoulder for someone, anyone that could help.

“Ohoho, I forgot how spicy you are” Ella swooned, teasingly tapping your chest with a finger, prompting you to slap her hand away.

“Are you going to kidnap me or just flirt with me?” You shot a particularly sassy look her way, crossing your arms over your chest.

She chuckled lightly, prettily, but fucking annoying for you right now, “Nah, just gotta tell the boys where we are,” Pulling out her white smartphone, she tapped away for a few seconds before announcing, “There!”

You needed to come up with a plan, quick. Ella was skilled in object manipulation, meaning she could freeze and unfreeze things or people at will, as well as use telekinesis. On top of her regular magical attacks, she was definitely a force to be reckoned with.  Once you were outnumbered, you were well and truly screwed. Come on, think of something!

“Ella.” A nervous laugh infected your words, “If you’re actually my friend, you won’t let me go back there. Please.”

Stars, this is demeaning.

“I’m sorry, muffin.” She pressed her lips together, giving a light shrug, “You’re the only healer around as far as we know, and supplies are getting tight. We tried getting the monsters to heal each other, but you’d be surprised how quickly they run out of magic!”

You bared your teeth in a grimace, voice gaining volume as you spoke, “Have you ever thought about not fucking enslaving monsters for their Dust, you sick freak?!”

The second the words left your mouth, you felt a pair of hands grab your arms from behind. You shrieked and thrashed, attempting to throw the person from you.

“Hey, guys!” Ella waved, smiling sweetly. She was acting like it was just a casual day out rather than a goddamn attempt at kidnapping someone, and it made you furious.

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” You screamed, thrashing and hitting out at whatever you could. You could feel… something writhing in your chest, it almost felt like an electric eel, the intense buzzing growing with every attempt to defend yourself. There were two pairs of hands on you now, one on each arm. You froze and watched in horror as Ella pulled something out of her bag.

A needle.

“No, no, NO, NO!” Thrashing harder, you shrieked at the top of your lungs. Your eyes darted around and locked on a group of people walking by. You screamed and screamed until your throat was raw, but it was like you were completely invisible to them. Fucking barrier magic. Obviously, one of the men holding you was casting it. Great.

Ella stepped closer, her mouth downturned in a frown, “Hold them tighter, would you?” she whispered almost sadly as she brought the, frankly, ginormous needle to your neck. The tip of the needle pricked your skin and…

Everything was suddenly burning a blinding white.

Distant screaming and shouts of panic assaulted your ears. Whatever was touching you was unbearably hot, it felt like it was scalding your skin. You were screaming, it hurt your throat. Your back hit something solid and blessedly cool, and you slumped to the floor. All of your senses returned in full force at once, winding you like a punch in the gut. You wheezed and sobbed as the scene before you was slowly brought into focus.

The first thing you noticed was Ella, blood running down her face and breathing heavily, limping as quickly as she could away from you. You turned your head and realized that your arm was outstretched, palm facing towards two men that you didn’t recognize laying lifeless on the cobblestone in front of you.

“Shit, shit shit shit!” You cursed under your breath, scrambling to your knees and shuffling over to the men. The wall behind them had been cracked with the force of the impact and they were soaked in blood. You gagged and slapped a hand over your mouth before you jerked back, away from the growing pool of red and whimpered. Inhaling sharply, you snapped your head to find the source of the sound when you heard someone yell your name.

“Red?” A relieved laugh mixed with a sob tore its way past your raw throat as the monster raced towards you, “What’re you doing here?”

He knelt down in front of you, holding you by the shoulders. His expression was a combination of fear, concern, and astonishment as he looked over you.

“what th’ fuck happened?!” He asked, voice laced with the most concern you’d ever heard from him, his voice cracking slightly in alarm.

Before you could answer, the click of boots against stone announced someone else’s arrival.

“What did you do?” Milord hissed, rage evident on his face, “Are you braindead?! Do you realize-“

“shut th’ fuck up, tiny!” Red barked, his teeth bared in a threatening grimace, earning a just as threatening glare and a low growl from the shorter skeleton. He opened his mouth to retort, but you weren’t in the mood to listen to them argue.

“Can you please just fucking take me home?!” You croaked, your throat protesting against every word. Feeling bad for lashing out, you added weakly in a whimper, “Please?”

Still sneering at his cousin, Red lifted you into a bridal carry and shortcutted you into your room, placing you on the bed before shuffling in besides you, allowing you to curl yourself into him as you wailed.

“I- I killed them,” You blubbered and hyperventilated, the harsh reality of the situation setting in now that you were safe, “I think I fucking killed them, Red!”

“They are alive, cease your crying.” Came an apathetic voice from in front of you. You felt more than heard Red growl and placed a hand on his chest to calm him as you forced yourself to breathe slowly.

“Oh, thank the stars.” You laughed in relief, bordering on hysterical as you pulled yourself into a sitting position, scrubbing at your face. You noticed Red sit up with you and keep a protective arm around your waist, and despite the horror of the situation, found yourself thinking it was oddly cute.

“can someone tell me what th’ fuck is goin’ on?” He threw the hand that wasn’t wrapped around you into the air, his voice full of bewildered frustration.

You were definitely still pretty dazed, so you what he said didn’t register straight away. When it did though, you felt ice shoot through your veins, forcing you back to reality.

Shit.

“You only tell him what is absolutely necessary, understand? I shall speak with you later.” Milord scolded lowly, a very unimpressed scowl etched into his features, before he left the room, slamming the door behind him and making you jump.

You swallowed hard against your scratchy throat, making you wince. You couldn’t even bear to look at Red’s face, petrified by what you would see. No point beating around the bush, you thought.

“I’m a Mage.” Your rough voice wavered and came out weak. Silence fell over the room as you screwed your eyes shut, mentally bracing yourself for whatever was coming next.

“what?” He sounded confused. You repeated yourself, a little stronger this time, and forced yourself to look at him.

“nah, i heard ya,” His demeanor was calm, but his voice came out strained, like he was holding back from blowing up, “’m askin’ ya ta explain.”

It had barely been a few days since you had told your story in front of the King, and the wounds still felt fresh. You took a deep breath and clenched your fists, steeling your nerves before you told it for a second time, purposefully omitting your trip to the Underground, but adding on what had happened in the alleyway, Red’s expression getting progressively more and more livid as you spoke.

“I wanted to tell you, Red.” You sniffled, tears flowing down your face once again, “I really, really did, but-“

“ya had ta keep runnin’, ta stop them from findin’ ya, right?” Despite his scowl and downcast eyelights, his voice was level and soft.

“That and…” Your breath hitched in your throat, your voice unsteady, “I wanted to protect you. To protect all of you.” Turning to catch Red’s gaze, you stressed your words, “They are powerful, Red. Insanely powerful. If something happened to me, if they took me back there, who do you think would be the first person to go after them?”

You took his silence and anxious shifting as an answer to your question.

“Exactly, you would. None of you even stand a chance against them. I couldn’t live with myself if- if…” You let out a pitiful sob, unable to even vocalize your fear.

“an’ how does tiny know?” He growled, getting more agitated by the second.

“I didn’t tell him. He found out on his own.” You whispered, eyes downcast and swallowed harshly as you came to a decision to finally be completely open with him, even if it was going to cost you Milord being furious at you for betraying his orders, “Do you… um, know what Milord does?”

“yeah, head of th’ royal guard, fuckin’ acts like it too.” He rolled his eyes, his voice gruff with irritation.

“And… do you know exactly what the Royal Guard do?” You worried at your shirt with your hands.

“uh, nah, always assumed they jus’ fuck around and flaunt their titles t’ be honest.” His eyelights snapped to you, his brow bones knitted together, “th’ fuck ya bein’ so cryptic for?”

“I went to the Underground with Milord a few days ago. He threatened to tell everyone about me if I didn’t come and work for him. He said I was strong, and I could be useful.” You refused to meet the skeleton’s eyes as you heard the sheets on your bed tear from the intensity of which he was gripping them. “Red, you have to swear you won’t tell anyone. I could get in a lot of trouble if anyone finds out I told you, okay?”

“alright, i swear.” His voice was dangerously level, it made your skin prickle with goosebumps. He never agreed to promise something so easily. Either he was lying, or he really wanted some dirt on Milord. You didn’t know which was worse.

“The Royal Guard have a base Underground. They work together to try to find a solution to prevent more deaths and protect monsterkind. Milord wanted me there because of my skills as a Mage. I’m a healer, but I can fight too, just… not with magic.” You took his silence as a que to continue, your fists twisted into the fabric of your shirt as you spoke, “I had to wear a magic suppression collar, but it was too strong so I went to Dr. Alphys to have it adjusted-“ You noticed Red perk up slightly at your mention of the lizard-monster. Did he know her? “Red, a child was rushed in on the verge of dusting after being attacked by a Mage. He would have if I didn’t heal him. Milord may have blackmailed me into going with him, but I’m glad that he did.” Your eyes finally flicked up to his face, a pleading tone lacing your words, “So please don’t blow up at Milord, his intentions were good and selfless, even if he did go about it the wrong way.”

Red’s expression was unreadable, his sharp claws having remained dug into your bed sheets with astounding force. You held your breath, afraid that he would explode at any second, but was taken aback when he spoke with what you could tell was great restraint.

“ya gonna go back?” Came his simple question, causing you to falter before quickly recovering and letting out your held breath.

“Yeah. I want to help, Red.” You shifted uneasily, gaze downcast once again, “They need a healer, and I may have insider knowledge that can help them prevent any more death.” Moving so you were on your knees directly in front of him, you caught his gaze with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

“Red, if anything happens to me, if they take me back there, you have to promise me that you won’t come after me, no matter what.” You begged, voice thick with panic, “Promise me, Red!”

“ya know i hate makin’ promises.” He mumbled, his eyes dropping to his lap.

“Red, look at me.” Pushing down your panic, you forced your voice to be level. Red reluctantly lifted his eyelights to meet yours, apprehension and anguish evident on his face, “Promise me. Under no circumstances do you come after me. I got out once, I can do it again, right?” Lifting a hand to gently cradle his face, you gave him a soft, watery smile, trying your best to reassure him.

“i promise. i won’t come after ya.” He grumbled. The strain in his voice made it obvious that he was reluctant to promise such a thing, but you appreciated it, nonetheless.

“Thank you.” You sighed and shuffled forward to embrace him, your body still slightly shaking from your adrenaline rush. He returned the affection immediately, winding his arms around you tightly, and you noticed that it wasn’t just you that was shaking.

“i had no idea mages were even still around” He whispered, his voice wavering ever so slightly, “how has no one noticed monsters bein’ dusted and goin’ missin’?”

“The Government and the Royal Guard have been keeping it under wraps, nobody knows except the people involved. It’s not your fault for not knowing, Red.” You breathed, nuzzling your face into his neck in an attempt to comfort the monster, “I know it’s really scary, I’m sorry.”

Red scoffed as you pulled back, a grimace etched into his features, “I ain’t fuckin’ scared, ‘m just pissed that those bastards are gettin’ away with dustin’ us.”

“Yeah,” You dropped your shoulders with a sigh and chewed your lip, “I’m angry too.”

The two of you spent a moment in defeated silence, both fidgeting anxiously as you processed the situation. After a while, you swung your legs over the bed and stood before taking a deep breath in preparation for your next task.

“I need to talk to Milord. Are you going to be okay on your own for a little while?” You asked, nervously rubbing your arm as you did.

“nah, fuck that.” Red sprung up after you with a deep grimace on his face before shoving his hands into his pockets, “whateva yer gonna say to ‘im, i wanna hear.”

You shifted anxiously, “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“listen, angel.” The skeleton spoke lowly, his tone a warning, “not ta be a dick, but ya kept this from me for almost a year. i can forgive ya for not tellin’ me, but i ain’t bein’ kept outta th’ loop anymore, got it?”

You didn’t know if you could take yet another fight between Milord and Red, but you didn’t really have a choice at this point.

“Okay.” You conceded with a small sigh, “Let’s go.”

With a furious skeleton at your heels, you made your way to Milord’s room, figuring it would be the best place to start looking. You had barely knocked before the door swung open, the purple-clad monster’s already sour expression only intensifying when he caught sight of your tag-along.

“Absolutely not.” He hissed, “Leave.”

You spoke quickly, not allowing Red to unleash his pent-up fury on his cousin.

“Milord, please?” Your tone conveyed just how exhausted you were, “He already knows most of it and I dare say he’s going to find out the rest eventually anyway. Can’t we just get it out of the way now and avoid conflict like this in the future?”

You chewed your lip as you waited for his response, cringing at the feeling of Red’s furiously buzzing magic behind you as he tried his best to keep himself calm. You could have cried with relief when Milord sighed, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, before his eyelights zeroed in on Red.

“You are not to reveal this to anyone under any circumstances, understand?” The skeleton growled through grit teeth, “If I find out that you did so much as even utter a single word of this to anyone, I swear- “

Red pushed past Milord with a roll of his eyelights, causing you to press your lips together to contain a snicker, “yeah, yeah. whateva, tiny.”

Milord’s absolute hatred for the skeleton must have sent him past unbridled rage and into a frankly terrifying calm as you watched his eyelights disappear before he simply shook his head with a snarl and followed. And with that, you slipped into the room after them, gingerly closing the door behind you.

Milord’s room was pristine, not that you expected anything less. He had shelves upon shelves of assorted books and papers, as well as a perfectly organized desk paired with an office chair. His bed was a Queen sized, his bedsheets crisp and black. It almost looked as though nobody had ever slept in it before.

Taking a seat on the office chair and turning it to face you, he wordlessly motioned for you both to sit on the end of the bed. Red opted to stay silent, simply observing as the situation unfolded.

“I presume you understand how reckless your actions were?” He asked coolly, a frown playing at his mouth.

You bristled slightly, your voice hoarse with the effort of maintaining your composure, “They attacked me, Milord.”

The skeleton leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows in his lap as he regarded you, “Then, please, pray tell why you retaliated with such force?”

You clenched your jaw, nausea settling in your gut as you recalled the event, “They had me cornered. One of them was using barrier magic to hide us so that no one could intervene. Not to mention that Ella used her fucking object manipulation shit on me to paralyze me from the waist down! She came at me with a needle, I assume containing some sort of sedative, to knock me out and kidnap me!” Your fingers dug into the material of your jeans in a fist as you continued, “I don’t know what happened after that. Everything went white and when I came to…” You trailed off, tears stinging your eyes.

“who th’ fuck is ella?” Red chimed in bluntly after a second and you laughed miserably in response.

“She was my girlfriend. She was the only person in the Coven that was as disgusted with their actions as I was, but then she gave in and got addicted to Dust, just like the rest of them. It warped her and turned her into a power-hungry, malicious person. The way she is now, it’s like night and day.”  Your heart hurt as you recalled, the sting of betrayal was still as painful as the day it had happened. You caught yourself wondering if you had actually been in love with her, or if you were that desperate for companionship that you would have done anything to obtain it.

“and she was helpin’ those dickheads kidnap ya?” Red barked out an angry laugh, wrenching you away from your contemplation, “fuckin’ bitch.”

You laughed breathily, “I don’t think it’s all her fault. The High Priest- that’s um, the leader of the Coven,” You explained to the skeleton besides you, earning a grateful nod, “The High Priest and his little minions are skilled at using whatever means necessary to get what they want out of people.”

Milord, who seemed to have been lost in thought whilst you spoke, caught your attention as he spoke up.

“I recall you stating that you were born with the ability to equip healing magic. This is your primary magical ability, correct?” He cocked an inquisitive brow bone at you, causing the gears in your head to begin turning at his question.

“Yeah, but I don’t get what that has to do with any of this.” You stated as you tilted your head at him in confusion.

“Think. Have you ever used your magic in combat before?”

You inhaled sharply as it clicked in your head, “Oh! No, I haven’t. It’s not like I haven’t tried, but it just never happened. That’s why I was trained in physical combat instead.”

Red snorted, “nah, there’s no way ya could kick anybody’s ass, ya too soft!”

“Oh, you wanna bet, bone boy?” You raised your fists in a mock fighting pose as you smirked, lightly punching his arm the way a boxer would use a punching-bag, earning a short laugh from the skeleton.

“yea? you, me, let’s go, right now.” A mischievous grin lit up his face as he poked you in the stomach, causing you to squeak and bat his hand away. You were elated that you had managed to lift his mood with your antics, even a little bit.

You both started and bashfully directed your attention towards Milord as he cleared his throat, a thoroughly unimpressed look gracing his features.

“if you two are quite done flirting,” He began, causing you both to flush brightly, Red shooting his cousin a dirty look as he did so, “I propose we devise a plan of some sort to better help you control your magical ability in regard to combat.”

“I already told you, I’m useless at magic attacks.” You grumbled, frustrated, “What happened back there was probably just a result of my fight or flight response, I doubt I could replicate it unless my life was in danger again.”

“It will do you no harm to try.” Milord smiled lightly at you, causing Red to bristle even further, “I will find a suitable teacher and you shall begin immediately.”

You sighed, already stressed at the prospect of having to fit yet another thing into your packed schedule, “Fine. Is that all?”

He smirked at you, and you swore you could hear Red almost inaudibly growling, “That is all. You are dismissed.”

Before your prickly friend could launch himself at Milord, you grabbed his arm and herded him out of the room, making sure to stand between him and the door as you shut it.

“’m gonna fuckin’ dust ‘im, I swear ta th’ angel, ‘m gonna dust that smug little-“

“Woah,” You laughed anxiously as you cut him off, holding your hands up in a surrender, “You wanna tell me what’s going on there, bud?”

“didja not see th’ way he was lookin’ at ya, angel? practically fuckin’ undressin’ ya with his eyes, the little fuckin’-“

You shot him a disapproving look, causing him to deflate and shift guiltily.

“We probably need to talk about where we are in our relationship, huh?” You laughed softly, the topic of conversation stirring up butterflies in your stomach.

“heh, yeah, probably.” He replied, the fury on his face dissolving slightly as he scratched the back of his neck in a nervous tic.

“C’mon,” You gently tugged his arm to lead him toward your bedroom, “Let’s sort this out, ay?”

Red grumbled as he allowed himself to be led by you, but you could tell that he was just as flustered as you were, your nerves causing the butterflies to intensify as you entered your room. You sat yourself on the edge of the bed and patted the spot next to you, prompting Red to sit awkwardly.

“Dude, come on,” You giggled at his nervous disposition, “We’ve been best friends for almost a year, and you’ve never been like this around me before, it’s weird.”

“’m fuckin’ nervous, alright?” He growled, earning a sympathetic look from you.

“Red, whatever you want from this relationship, I’m willing to give you, you know that?” You spoke softly, offering him a genuine smile.

“really?” He asked softly, his eye sockets wide in surprise.

“Yes, really!” You bumped his shoulder with his, “If you wanna just continue being friends, we can continue being friends. If you wanna be exclusive, we can do that too. If you want me to… y’know...” You trailed off as you shrugged lightly, hoping he would pick up on what you were insinuating.

He laughed shortly, “be an alpha?”

“Yeah! I mean, I’m not a hundred percent sure if I wanna do that yet, but if you wanted me to I’m sure I could-“

Red cut you off with a short exhale, “ya know ya can do what ya want, right? I ain’t gonna try to control ya.”

Your face burned bright in embarrassment as you mumbled, “I know, I just… don’t want to hurt you again.”

The skeleton sat back on his hands as he looked up to the ceiling, humming in thought before he spoke, “if ya wanna be an alpha i ain’t got a problem with it.” He shrugged as his eyelights flicked to your flushed face.

“It’s just… how you reacted with Mutt…” You pulled a hand to your mouth to chew on your nails, starting when Red gently grasped your hand and pulled it away from your face and into his lap.

“that was old shit between us, angel. sharin’ a partner ain’t anythin’ new fer us.” He reassured you, soothing your frayed nerves.

“Right…” You fiddled with your hands as you thought.

Yes, you had the protection of the King of all monsters and his Lieutenants, but you had to protect yourself when you were apprehended by Ella and those two men. You wouldn’t want to drag them into a fight with powerful Mages anyway, they’d be risking their lives with a slim chance of winning. However, if you could learn how to wield your magic to attack, you’d have a much better chance at defending yourself and your potential mates. Although, Red didn’t even know about the Royal Guard’s involvement with Mages, not to mention that his brother had been a part of this whole thing since they surfaced and, as far as you knew, he had no idea! Plus, you were still struggling to figure out whether your affection for Red could move past anything platonic. You were being reckless again.

You had come to your decision.

“I think I need to think about this a little more before I do anything,” You smiled sadly at the skeleton-monster, “I’m sorry. It’s nothing to do with you or the others, I’m just having a hard time figuring out if I even want to be in a relationship and I… I’m scared of getting more involved with you all and putting you in more danger than I already have.”

Red hummed in understanding, his demeanor a whole lot calmer than it was previously, and although he was trying his best to be fair to you, his voice still advertised his obvious dejection, “nah, don’t be sorry, it’s normal for alpha’s ta be claimed by multiple partners before they mark ‘em, it don’t bother me. plus, we can handle ourselves, angel. mages may be strong, but so are we.”

You bit your lip and hummed discontentedly, “I guess.” Desperate to turn the conversation away from you, you asked, “Why did you get so upset at Milord, then? If sleeping around before choosing pack members is normal?”

“i just don’t fuckin’ like th’ prick” He grunted, his mouth downturned in a scowl, “but if ya wanna go there, ain’t my place ta stop ya.”

Your heart swelled with affection for the monster as you grinned widely, “That’s really mature of you, Red. Thank you.” The prickly skeleton sputtered and flushed, making you snort in an attempt to hold back your laughter.

“yeah, well, tiny’d probably lose ‘is mind if ‘e had ta be nice ta me cuz a you,” Red shrugged, a light rosy blush still tinting his cheekbones, “shit’d be funny.”

You giggled at the thought, only feeling slightly bad for the skeleton. You honestly still weren’t sure what your verdict was when it came to Milord. Sure, he’d been nice to you in the Underground, but you also saw the way he interacted with his family, especially Red, and Mutt, his own brother! It just didn’t sit right with you.

Mirroring Red and sitting back on your hands, you let out a long exhale as you felt your nerves settle, only to tense up once again as he spoke.

“ya should really tell th’ others, y’know?” The skeleton monster mumbled, ruby eyelights trained on the ceiling, “they like ya. it’s gonna hurt ‘em if they have ta find out th’ way i did.”

“I know.” You whispered, guilt eating away at your insides, “I will. I’m just… scared.” You finished lamely.

“i know.” Came a mumbled reply.

“Hey, Red?” You turned your head to look at him, prompting him to do the same.

“yeah?”

“How’d you find me? Back at the alleyway, I mean.” The question hadn’t popped into your head until that moment, previously too distracted by the grim thoughts that the situation had forced onto you.

“tiny was lookin’ fer ya, asked me where ya were. i told ‘im that ya were at work up at th’ lab but that ya weren’t usually out this late.” He shrugged, using a claw to pick at his gold tooth, “he had a stick up his ass ‘bout it ‘n i was suspicious cuz i know ya don’t like th’ bastard either, so i followed ‘im.”

“Huh.” You said lamely as you felt the tiniest spark of affection for the shorter skeleton. You even dared to wonder if he had been concerned for your well-being following your revelation that you were being hunted down by your Coven.

“Well, I’m really glad you were there. Thank you.” You smiled gently at him, gratitude shining in your eyes.

Your genuine expression made Red’s breath hitch in his throat as he looked away with a crimson flush gracing his face. It wasn’t like you hadn’t thanked him like that before, but recently everything you did drove him crazy, especially when you smiled like that at him. It was no secret that he had feelings for you, but since you had slept with him, well…

No matter how much he pushed down his feelings and forced himself to be patient whilst you took your sweet time making a decision, he could feel himself starting to become more and more irritated with you. He didn’t want to be, he really didn’t, but he didn’t know if he could take being just friends for much longer.

“It’s getting late.” You sighed, rubbing your eyes as exhaustion weighed your body down now that you could relax, “You wanna watch some YouTube with me for a while before I go to sleep? There’s this new ‘let’s play’ that just came out that I’ve been waiting to watch with you, I think you’ll really like the game!”

What Red really wanted to do was scream and yell and break something, but the way you were looking at him with big hopeful eyes, your face still slightly pink from crying, made him stay right where he was.

“yeah, sure.” He gave you a small smile that grew slightly when you squealed excitedly and turned off the light, leaving the room to be softly illuminated by the bedside lamp.

Hopping back onto the bed, you opened up your laptop and launched YouTube, excitement energizing you once again.

Red watched you as you did so. The genuine smile on your face was a welcome respite after your tears and anguish, and as you looked at him with pure happiness and affection, despite his frustration, he felt his soul give a thump from behind his ribcage.

He really was in trouble.

Chapter Text

It had been a couple of days since you had last visited the Underground, and you were growing antsy waiting for your next orders. You had lost a lot of sleep cramming for school and writing up the results from the head researcher’s last study just so you had time to help out with the operation again, but so far all you had heard from them was radio silence.

Not that you were sleeping much lately anyway. You had always suffered with intense, grueling nightmares due to your PTSD, but they had gotten considerably better since moving in with the skeleton family, whether that was because you subconsciously felt safer with them or simply a coincidence, you weren’t sure, but you were grateful all the same.

Since your encounter with Ella, though, old wounds had been ripped open and the nightmares were back, stronger than ever. Plus, now the attempted kidnapping was a common theme in these night terrors, so that was fun.

At least you could take respite in your time spent with Sans working on the Core replica. Even though you were pretty useless at manual work, he was always grateful for the company. It was sweet really, he would attempt to teach you the inner workings of the machine, but with the small amount of knowledge you had on monster magic and mechanics it would often go over your head. Despite this, you tried your best to help, carefully omitting what you did know about magic in general as not to raise suspicion, and often spent most of your time together simply bouncing ideas off of each other within your respective fields.

It felt nice… normal. Well, as normal as it could get when you were working on a gargantuan magic-fueled device with a punny skeleton-monster, but it served as a much needed break from the chaos that had become your life as of late. Plus, you were both nearly halfway finished translating the documents needed to replicate the Core! Your assumption that each symbol could be ascribed to an English letter was, incredibly, correct, so the two of you had spent a lot of time working on turning the illegible symbols into something readable. It turned out, though, that there were what seemed to be hundreds of pages packed with the small text that needed translating, so it had taken hours of painstaking work to get as far as you had.

However, the lack of communication from Milord had you a little worried, so with a free day you decided to get up early, shower and change as well as grab some quick breakfast before you would call on the grumpy skeleton for an update.

A ’quick breakfast’ had fast turned into you making way too much pancake batter, and so you prepared enough for everyone, stacking each of the sweet discs on a plate and putting out bowls with various toppings. You weren’t sure what everyone else liked, so you set out some blueberries, strawberries, syrup, and whipped cream for them. When it came to Red and Mutt, however, you had a solid idea of what each of them liked, that being chocolate and honey respectively. You pulled out a tub of Nutella and a little squeezy-bottle of honey and placed them beside the bowls, smiling fondly as you thought about the two skeletons you were closest to.

Once you were done, you stacked your own plate and topped your serving with strawberries and whipped cream. You were singing and swaying your hips as you cooked and served the somewhat extravagant breakfast, completely enveloped in your own world, so you almost dropped your plate in fright when you turned around to Butch and Axe standing curiously in the doorway, positively ravenous looks on their faces as they gaped at the food.

“Good morning!” You grinned, snapping their attention to you, “You hungry?” You added with a giggle.

The brothers nodded bashfully, excitement glimmering in their eyelights.

“Well, I made enough for everyone! Although, I’m not sure how to make American pancakes, so they’re more like crepes.” You admitted with a wry smile, motioning to the spread, “I put out a few different toppings, so help yourself!”

You didn’t have to tell them twice. The two boys moved quickly to begin stacking their own plates as you stifled a giggle at their enthusiasm. Once you all had your helpings, you moved to the dining room and took a seat.

“Oh, I forgot coffee.” You groaned, slightly annoyed at your air-headedness, “Does anyone else want some whilst I’m up?”

When you received a chorus of ‘no’s you jumped up to go back to the kitchen, leaving your food behind. After quickly brewing some instant coffee, you reentered the dining room and took your place once again, only to stare down at an empty plate in bewilderment. Your gaze slowly travelled to the brothers, their faces a picture of guilt as they made quick work of wiping some cream from their mouths, both of their plates also completely cleaned of any food.

“Did…” You started, a laugh in your voice, “Did you guys eat my pancakes?”

“you… did say we… could help ourselves.” Axe shrugged, his perma-grin growing slightly at your befuddlement.

“Not my share though!” You laughed, slapping a hand to your forehead, “Oh well, there’s plenty left in the kitchen.” As you stood and were about to take your plate, a small shaky voice caught your attention.

“A-Are you m-mad at us?”

“Huh?” You swiveled around quickly to face the direction the voice was coming from.

Your face dropped as you took in Butch’s shaking form; his mouth downturned as opaque orange tears filled his eye sockets. Moving quickly to crouch down by his side, you reached a tentative hand out to comfort him, chest tightening when he flinched back.

“Of course not, darling!” You spoke gently with a soft smile, prompting the anxious skeleton to snap his somewhat blurry eyelights to your face, “Why would I be mad at you?”

Your gaze rested on Axe’s concerned face, silently asking for help, before returning to his brother.

“they ain’t mad at us, bro.” The shorter skeleton spoke just as gently, placing a reassuring hand on his brother’s shoulder “’s okay.”

“We a-ate your f-food.” His voice wavered, breathing picking up, causing your chest to tighten with sympathy.

“Well, yeah. You shouldn’t have done that,” You smiled up at him, understanding in your eyes, “but it’s alright, honestly! It’s just food, I don’t- “

“It’s not just food!” Butch’s voice broke and increased in volume, tears now freely flowing down his face as he clutched his head in his hands, “It’s not! It’s not!” His breaths were coming out in short, panicked gasps, his bony, jagged fingers digging into the side of his skull.

You watched in horror before you could find your voice, Axe’s face dropping as his expression became panicked.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Your voice shook as you attempted to comfort the taller brother, grasping his hands to stop him from hurting himself and move them into his lap, relief mixing with your uneasiness when he didn’t try to pull away, “I’m sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Once again you looked to Axe as his brother hyperventilated and sobbed, but he seemed as though he was frozen in fear, unable to do anything but stare as his eyelights moved from Butch and back to you. You cringed and bit down hard on your lip when his hand came up to latch onto his until socket and give it a sharp tug. Being well versed in self-harming behavior, the action caused a queasy feeling to settle in your stomach.

“Hey.” You whispered to Axe, releasing one hand from Butch’s to reach over the skeleton.

With a gentle touch, you took the hand that the shorter skeleton was using to harm himself and held onto it, stroking your thumb in firm circles over the back of his hand in an attempt to ground him. His eyelight moved erratically over your face as he squeezed your hand hard. Ignoring the stinging pain, you instead moved your focus over to his brother, allowing your hands to remain interlinked. You were practically leaning over the taller skeleton as a result, but you’d be damned if you let either of them suffer any more than they had already.

You took a breath, recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack in Butch, and unclasped your hand from his to softly cup his face and maneuver it so he was looking at you.

“I forgive you, it’s okay.” You breathed, your voice wobbly as you met his watery eye sockets, fighting back your own tears at his distress, “Nothing bad is going to happen, it’s alright.”

With that, Butch fell forward into your embrace, forcing you to push yourself up to balance yourself on your shins to accommodate his height. It at least made it easier to comfort Axe as you continued the soothing motions, the contact seemingly slowly bringing him out of a potential episode or panic attack. You gently rocked the taller brother the best you could, repeating a chorus of “you’re okay” and “you’re safe” whilst he sobbed into your shoulder. His pained wails tightened your chest and broke the dam behind your eyes, your own tears silently slipping down your face as you tried your hardest to comfort him.

You could see Axe getting more and more upset as his inability to help, so you tugged gently on his hand, motioning for him to join you with a watery smile. He hesitantly moved toward his brother’s side and wrapped his arms around him, his expression switching from distress to relief as the taller skeleton let go of you in favor of latching onto him.

“I’m s-sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ Butch hiccupped, his face buried in Axe’s shoulder as his soft cries began to lessen.

“i know bro, it’s okay.” He whispered, a pained expression taking over his face. He continued your motions of gently rocking the skeleton, having seen its effectiveness in comforting him.

You had a feeling that he wasn’t talking about the pancakes anymore.

Swallowing against the thickness in your throat, you furiously scrubbed the tears from your face before looking to Axe to receive a silent confirmation to leave them be. You didn’t want to, but you had a feeling that what Butch needed right now was to be with his brother. Axe motioned with his head toward the door, his eyelights shining in a silent thank you as you shot him a wry smile.
The second you were out of earshot you crumpled to the floor, internally cursing yourself for only making it to the kitchen before the situation combined with your chronic lack of sleep and just general overwhelm had you breaking down. It was still early enough that most of the household wouldn’t be awake, but you were so preoccupied by the pain in your soul that you didn’t give it too much thought.

With a hand clasped tightly over your mouth to stifle your sobs, you felt anger begin boiling up inside of you. You weren’t just frustrated that you couldn’t do more to soothe the sweet skeletons, but furious that both of them had been through something so horrific that it had left such lasting damage, both physical and mental.

After taking a few calming breaths and wiping your face, you picked yourself up from the floor and decided to distract yourself with plating a considerably smaller portion of pancakes for yourself, groaning when you realized you had left your coffee in the dining room. As you were brewing a fresh cup – you wouldn’t dare go back into the dining room in case Butch and Axe were still in there - your ears pricked at the sound of short, clipped footsteps entering the room. You turned to regard the visitor, praying that your face wasn’t still blotchy from crying.

“Good morning.” Milord gave you a small smile, faltering slightly when he noticed your puffy eyes and dark circles. It didn’t go unnoticed by you, the split second action causing humiliation to tighten your throat once more. Not wanting to burden him with your upset, you slapped on a bright smile and responded in kind.  

“Good morning, Milord!” You replied cheerfully as you took a forkful of your food, “Do you want some pancakes and coffee?”

The purple-clad skeleton exhaled sharply through his nose, his mouth twitching upwards slightly as he regarded you. Your ability to plaster on a smile and act as though nothing was awry was something that he respected, possibly even admired.

“Perhaps later.” He stated coolly, prompting you to shrug lightly and continue eating, “For now, I have a request.”

Your soul fluttered in excitement, a welcome respite from the agony that had been inflicted upon it, as you quickly finished a bite, “Sure, what’s up?”

“You recall our talk about beginning training so that you may better control your abilities?” He spoke lowly, a knowing twinkle brightening his violet eyelights. You gave a short hum in affirmation as you finished your plate and placed it into the sink, quickly moving on to sip at your coffee.
“As soon as you are finished here, I would suggest you change into something more appropriate for combat,” His eyelights traveled the length of your body - which was currently dressed in jeans and an old t-shirt with a rock band logo on it - in one smooth movement, causing you to tense and nearly choke on your coffee, “Then meet us in the back yard. Be quick.”

“Right, I won’t be long!” You drained the remainder of the hot drink, burning your tongue on the scalding liquid in the process, and rushed out of the kitchen, only taking a breath when you reached your room and slammed the door shut. You could feel a warmth pooling in your lower abdomen as you recalled how the skeleton had looked at you; with a sly grin, slightly lidded sockets and hazy eyelights. You groaned and slapped your hands against your cheeks, attempting to snap yourself out of the trance.

Am I seriously this insatiable? What is going on with me?

With a sharp exhale you distracted yourself with finding a sports bra and leggings to change into, as well as a pair of comfy sneakers. Once you had changed, you turned in the mirror, making sure you looked somewhat presentable, before heading out the door and into the back yard.
Milord and Edge were waiting for you, the latter of the two flushing slightly with a scowl as he turned his gaze away from you.

Okay, that was weird.

“Hey!” You greeted both skeletons with a grin before stretching your arms over your head to try to release any tension left over from the morning, “What’re we doing?”

“Edge will be training you,” Milord spoke coolly, his hands clasped behind his back, “I am preoccupied with my duties, and so this is the next best option.”

The taller skeleton scoffed at his cousin’s remark, causing you to press your lips together to force back a smile.

“WE’RE GOING TO MY TRAINING GROUNDS. HURRY UP.” Edge sneered at you as you shot a nervous look Milord’s way. The shorter skeleton unhelpfully raised an eyebrow at you with a smirk before heading back inside, leaving you to jog after Edge to keep up with his tall strides. You kept up a brisk pace to remain by his side as he walked, curiously looking around to see only the usual mountains and trees.

“How far is it?” You asked, bristling slightly when he rolled his eyelights at you.

“NOT FAR. KEEP UP.” The edgy skeleton spat, not even gracing you with a look your way.

“Alrighty then.” You mumbled rather sarcastically, earning a quick glare that had you clearing your throat so as to not burst out laughing. This is the dude that is about to spar with you, best not to antagonize him any further, you thought.

Eventually you came to a rather large clearing surrounded by a thick brush of trees, the towering oaks causing sunlight to scarcely filter through and providing cool shadows that were a blissful respite from the unforgiving summer sun. It looked as though it had been created manually, rather than a natural occurrence; the empty space you were stood in had boundaries that were far too neat to have been crafted by nature. You found yourself wondering if your sparring partner was the one that created it, or whether it had been here long before either of you.

Edge positioned himself across from you at one end of the clearing, shooting you an expectant look.

“HURRY UP AND FIGHT ME.” He demanded, his demeanor portraying his obvious displeasure at being the one to train you, “WE DON’T HAVE ALL DAY.”

“You’re supposed to be teaching me attack magic, dude!” You laughed in disbelief, your thinned patience already waning, “I’ve only ever used my magic to attack in defense, and that was when I was literally being kidnapped! I don’t even know how I did it!”

“THEN TRY. IT IS NOT DIFFICULT.” He rolled his eyelights at you, his arms crossed over his chest as he tapped a foot impatiently.

You grumbled and cursed under your breath as you metaphorically bit your tongue. Deciding that retaliating was not the best course of action, you instead took a deep breath and closed your eyes, focusing on the well of magic inside of your soul. The magic that came to you was gentle and curious as it fluttered inside of your chest, reminiscent of your familiar healing magic, but you knew that this wasn’t what you needed. You allowed the fatigue and frustration that had built itself up within you to push itself to the forefront of your mind, hoping that this is what would allow you to tap into an offensive attack. Biting down on your lip, you raised a hand palm-up to try to summon something, anything. You thought you could feel that same white-hot burning that you felt in the alleyway engulfing your hand, but as soon as you opened your eyes to check, it was gone.

“Fuck!” You shouted in frustration, causing Edge to jump and glare at you, “I almost had it!”

“KEEP TRYING.” Came his short order, prompting you to growl and shut your eyes, once again attempting to center your anger.

You tried and tried, and tried again, but every time you got close your magic would simply fizzle out, almost as though it refused to be used for fighting.

“This isn’t working!” You cried, throwing your hands up in a gesture of defeat. Edge squinted his eye sockets at you, regarding you thoughtfully with a finger tapping his mandible.

You were about to ask what he was thinking, but suddenly had barely any time to react before several spiked bone attacks were thrust your way, forcing you to throw yourself out of the way and land on your side. Bewilderment caused your mouth to hang open as you wiped a small amount of blood from your face, one of the attacks obviously having slightly grazed your cheek.

“What the fuck, man?!” You shrieked indignantly, pushing yourself to your feet with exasperation.

Edge exhaled a short laugh, a smirk twitching his mouth upwards, “IF YOU WILL ONLY ATTACK IN DEFENSE, THEN I WILL KEEP ATTACKING UNTIL YOU DEFEND YOURSELF.”

Your heart was hammering in your chest, but you couldn’t help but let out a breathy chuckle as your mind caught up with his intentions.

“Fine, but if I die, I’m gonna haunt you for the rest of your life.” You threatened light-heartedly with a determined grin, causing Edge to flash you his own downright mischievous smirk.

Uh oh.

With a flourish, Edge summoned what looked to be a sword made of his red magic before gracefully falling into the appropriate combat position. The sword was relatively large, although clearly designed for single-handed use, and had a curved hilt, similar to the handle of an umbrella. The blade was single edged at the base but double edged at the tip, curving the entirety of its length.
It looked deadly, to say the least.

Your mouth feeling similar to that of sandpaper, you clenched your jaw and pushed down your nerves as you entered a fighting stance, your eyes locked on the skeleton’s smug face. It was hardly fair that he got to summon a weapon, but if he was going to fight dirty, so were you.

Only a second had passed before that deadly sword was hurtling towards you, forcing you to dodge and weave as it was thrust toward your body again and again. You had somewhat of an advantage with Edge using a close-range, one-handed weapon, as it often left him open to attack.

It had been a very long time since you had sparred like this, and so you were determined to get a few hits in at least. Edge was fast and strong, but you were smaller, nimbler and, therefore, faster.

It took a few minutes of dodging before you spotted the perfect opening. As Edge slashed the sword toward you, you jumped back to avoid the blow before ducking under his arm, hooking a leg around the back of his knee, and pulling with all of your might, forcing the skeleton down onto his knees and giving you an immediate advantage. Not allowing him time to retaliate, you moved fast, and with a hard kick to the chest he was on his back with your legs pinning either arm as you shouted in triumph. He probably could have easily thrown you off if this were a real fight, but you felt proud of your small victory nonetheless!

“Got you.” You leaned down to boast lowly, your face inches from his with a hand either side of his head.

You took sadistic pleasure in watching him turn beet red, although you were expecting him to become flustered and his expression was anything but. You felt butterflies flutter in your stomach, your own face becoming flushed as a lewd grin spread across his face, his sockets lidded.

With a sharp breath you rolled yourself off of the monster and onto your back next to him, laughing nervously. You heard the rustle of leaves and other debris as Edge righted himself before offering an outstretched hand to you with a grin. He almost looked… proud?

Nah, no way.

“WELL DONE,” You were elated at the praise as you allowed him to pull you to your feet, but deflated quickly at his next words, “BUT YOU RECALL THAT THE POINT OF THIS EXERCISE IS FOR YOU TO SUMMON A MAGIC ATTACK, CORRECT?”

You groaned in frustration, your tone defeated, as you crossed your arms over your chest, “I really don’t think it’ll work. The only time my magic seems to want to react is when I have no choice but to use a magic attack.”

“THEN,” A positively evil grin pulled the corners of his mouth upwards as lids dropped slightly over sharpened eyelights, “I WILL GIVE YOU NO CHOICE.”

“Edge.” You spoke lowly in a warning with a glare, “Don’t you dare.”

You backed away slowly, the roots of the surrounding trees catching at your feet and causing you to stumble. With a shriek you fell hard onto your backside and scrambled backwards until you hit a tree. The look on Edge’s face as he advanced on you was almost feral, his sharp features twisted into something that resembled pure, malicious glee.

It was kinda hot.

NOT THE TIME.

Your skin had broken out into a cold sweat despite the intense summer heat and your heart was threatening to burst free of your ribcage. Surely, he wouldn’t actually hurt you?
He was advancing slowly, likely to give you time to get your shit together, which you appreciated at least. That or he was enjoying the chase, like a cat stalking its prey. The thought caused anxious, yet excited fluttering to assault your stomach. Fear was pounding through every vein in your body, and the familiar writhing of your soul began within your chest, albeit a lot weaker than before. The last time you had felt that was in the alleyway and although panicked, your mind latched onto the sensation in an attempt to etch it into your memory. Resolute flowing through you, you clumsily pushed yourself to your feet and took a breath.

“READY, MAGE?” Edge growled, causing electricity to buzz along your skin as you clenched your jaw.

He had abandoned his weapon, and with a whimper your gaze fell upon what he had summoned in its place. Behind him were two massive floating beings, their shape similar to that of a cat’s skull. They were riddled with sharp edges and huge pointed teeth. Their massive maws were agape, crackling red energy quickly forming within as they huffed and snorted.

Fuck.

Leaving no time for you to respond, the skulls roared as they spat a beam of powerful magic towards you. Hurtling yourself out of the way with a scream, you landed oddly on your arm, causing the edges of your vision to blacken from the shooting pain.

“Edge, stop!” You cried, your voice cracking in desperation as you clasped your hand over your injured arm, “Please, stop!”

It was as though the skeleton hadn’t even heard your pleading as he once again commanded the blasters to begin gathering energy, his outstretched hand covered with the same crimson magic. There was no chance of winning this fight if you couldn’t summon an attack, so, mirroring his stance with your intact arm, you internally begged your soul to allow you to form something to retaliate with.

With a gasp you felt the writhing in your chest intensify tenfold and travel down your outstretched arm. Your gaze snapped to your hand to find that there was a soft sage-green glow emanating from your palm. Now painfully aware of the blasters ready to fire, you squeezed your eyes shut on a reflex and let out a shout as you pushed every fiber of your being into releasing your magic.

Fire and earth clashed as you both discharged your respective attacks. The surrounding woods lit up in a brilliant light show of ruby and emerald as the beams of magic clashed and wrestled with each other. With grit teeth and heaving breaths you urged your magic to push just a little bit harder. You noticed with muted pride that Edge was struggling to match your strength. Opaque red sweat was rolling down his skull, his brow bones furrowed as he growled and panted.

Shrieking as you forced the beam further and further towards the skeleton, you hard work eventually paid off, and he was knocked backwards into a tree with a sickening crack. Your elation at your achievement quickly fizzled as the situation dawned on you.

“Shit! Are you okay?!” You bolted over to the skeleton, panic welling up inside you.

He was on his back, pulling himself into a sitting position with his legs bent as you fell to your knees in front of him, your features contorted in worry. With a wince he brought a hand up to the back of his skull.

“I’M FINE.” Edge grumbled and pulled a Dust-coated hand away from his injury, making you flinch back with a sharp inhale.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you!” You exclaimed, reaching a tentative hand toward his skull, before offering gingerly, “I can heal it… if you want.”

You felt even more exhausted and drained than before after expelling so much of your magic, but there was no way you were going to leave him like that if you could help it!

“THERE IS NO NEED. I AM PERFECTLY FINE.” He spoke with confidence despite his strained voice. You squeaked as your hands latched onto his arms when he attempted to push himself to his feet, but faltered and fell back into his previous position.

“Nope, you are not fine,” You scolded with a wag of your finger, a frown pulling at your lips, “Head injuries are serious! Now, come here.”

A furious blush lit up his face as he grumbled and scowled, then turning his skull to give you better access to the injury. You were positioned between his legs now, your face precariously close to his as you hovered an open-palmed hand over the crack in his skull. You could feel your own face heating up at the close proximity and forced yourself to breathe slowly to center your focus. Closing your eyes, you once again pushed healing magic from your tired, drained soul and into the injury. Once you were sure that it was healed, you opened your eyes and moved your hand slightly, using the leverage to turn his skull a little more to inspect your work.

“There, all done.” You exhaled with a tired smile as you pulled back slightly, a hand still gently placed on the side of his face as he turned his head to look at you.

Edge’s breath caught in his throat as he met your exhausted eyes, full of kindness and affection. It made him feel… vulnerable.

With a quiet scoff he turned his skull away from you, refusing to meet your eyes until you shrank back and pulled yourself to your feet. He followed suit, ushering you forward in a silent agreement to end the session. With a sharp inhale you stumbled, your legs giving out from exerting yourself. A fast pair of arms caught you before hoisting you up into a bridal carry. With a breathy chuckle you lifted your gaze to his face, which was lit up a brilliant crimson as he marched forward.

“YOU DID WELL.” The compliment warmed your heart and prompted you to grin sleepily at the skeleton.

“Thank you.”

“DON’T BE AN IDIOT AND PUSH YOURSELF SO HARD NEXT TIME.”

A snort escaped you as the rhythm of his footsteps pulled you further into slumber and coaxed your eyes to close.

“I won’t.” You whispered. Soon enough you gave in to the gentle pull of sleep with your head resting against the skeleton’s chest, a small smile gracing your features.

Edge made sure he was quiet, mostly so as not to attract the attention of the other members of the household, as he stepped through the sliding glass door into the kitchen and up the stairs. It was just his luck, however, when as soon as he approached the upstairs hallway, no other than his brother almost walked straight into him.

“heya b- uh, what’re ya doin’?” Red could feel a protectiveness spark within him as his gaze zeroed in on your sleeping form, causing him to furrow his brow bones in a scowl. He trusted his brother, of course he did, but the way you were clutching to him with a contended smile made his soul thrum in envy.

Edge froze and sputtered dumbly at being caught, eyelights darting around in an attempt to find an escape route.

“WE WERE SPARRING, THEY GOT TIRED AND PASSED OUT, THAT IS ALL.” The taller brother glared as he growled defensively, “WOULD YOU RATHER I LEFT THEM OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE?”

Red’s uneasiness lessened considerably at that, instead being replaced by mild amusement at his brother’s flustered state. If it was anybody else in the household he would have raised all seven circles of Hell, but he knew that since somewhat adapting to the surface ‘The Great and Terrible Edge’ had started to be infected by the quote ‘disgusting softness’ of those around him, whether he was aware of it or not.

“nah,” He shrugged before shooting a lazy but genuine smile at the other skeleton, “thanks for takin’ care of ‘em bro, ‘preciate it.”

Edge cleared his throat, shifting anxiously as his skull lit up once again at his brother’s gratitude.

“YES, WELL. THEY WOULD GET THEMSELVES KILLED IF SOMEONE AS STRONG AS ME WASN’T AROUND TO PROTECT THEM.” He puffed his chest out, attempting to save face, then froze when you stirred slightly and clutched tighter at his shirt, his eyelights immediately flicking down to your small form.

Now, this was a rare sight. His brother completely reduced to flustered sputtering and openly showing care and concern towards someone? Towards a human, of which he claimed to despise, no less! No matter how badly it was going to come back to bite him, Red was definitely going to have his fun with this.

“heh, yeah.” He grinned up at the monster, who had visibly relaxed now that you had ceased stirring, and put as much affection into his tone as possible, “they’re lucky ta have ya, y’know? yer so cool, bro.”

“DO. NOT.” Edge hissed at him as his face fell into a positively murderous scowl despite being still completely lit up like a beacon, earning a round of raucous laughter from his brother.

“have fun, boss.” Red snickered as he strolled past with a friendly, though thoroughly condescending, pat on the shoulder.

It took everything in the skeleton to not squawk in indignation, drop you to the floor and smack his insufferable older brother upside the head, so much so that he was grinding his teeth and gripping onto you a little harder than necessary, but he managed it somehow.

Now safely in your bedroom, he attempted to lay you gently on your bed, only to find that the grip from your (in his eyes) tiny hands was like a vice.

“Come On,” He growled lowly, using his hands to pry your fingers from his shirt, “Let Go! You’ve Humiliated Me Enough, Haven’t You?”

At that you whimpered and looked at him through cloudy, half-lidded eyes, your face the picture of distress.

“Don’t go. Please.” You breathed, your tone high-pitched and wobbly, “Don’t leave me.”

The normally stoic skeleton felt his soul thump against his ribcage, and with another low growl he reluctantly lay himself next to you on the bed. Your eyes now closed, you sighed contentedly with a small smile and pulled yourself into him, an arm over his chest and a leg wrapped around his.

“You Humans Are Ridiculously Needy, You Know That?” He grumbled mostly to himself; his bones tense as he stared up at the ceiling.

After a silent minute of refusing to move or even look at you, eventually his gaze traveled downward. You were still scantily clad in a sports bra and leggings, as well as your sneakers, and he couldn’t help but trace the curves of your body with his eyelights, fighting the urge to touch you.

Edge had never found humans particularly interesting, never mind attractive, but there was something about you that drew him in. Perhaps it was that he saw how happy you made his brother, who despite the constant beratement, he clearly cared deeply for. Or maybe it was the way that you tried your hardest to treat every living being with tenderness and understanding, even when they didn’t treat you with the same courtesy.

Kindness was not something he had experienced Underground, and as a result, it felt foreign when he was treated in such a way. Either way, ever since he had met you, he had developed a strange fascination with you, and it had only intensified since you had played the piano and sang so beautifully for him that one night.

These strange emotions that swirled around in his skull, emotions that made him breathless when you smiled, or made him feel raw and vulnerable when you were kind to him, and he just couldn’t understand why he felt this way. His soul wrenched and writhed within him, calling out to you as though you had already known each other for a million lifetimes, and it was infuriating.

He was almost relieved when he had heard from Milord that you likely had unsavory intentions when it came to his family, but once again you had proven that you were nothing if not a Kindness soul. In fact, he had found himself admiring you for what you had done, and this admiration only served to push fascination into full-on infatuation. Not that he would ever do anything with it; unlike his soft touch of a brother, he could barely even utter a kind word to another being.

How pathetic, that all you had to do was show one iota of compassion towards him before he was completely smitten by you. He found himself briefly wondering if you could ever feel the same way about him. Where you were sweet and soft, he was calloused and mean, and yet, that didn’t seem to matter to you.

He had always managed to pull himself out of his infatuated daze in the past, instead opting to growl and lash out at you in a self-protective manner. In this moment though, there was just something that was calling out to him, beckoning him to you like the intoxicating serenade of a Siren’s song.
With a soft exhale his eyelights drifted up to your face, soft and content as you slept in a tangle of limbs. He moved a hand to gingerly push a stray piece of hair away from your face, lingering on your cheek as you inhaled sharply before letting out a soft moan.

If only he weren’t such a coward, he could…

He very nearly threw you from him as he felt a small weight hop into his lap. Albert stared up at him with curious round eyes combined with a rumbling purr before making himself cozy in the space between your squishy leg and a solid skeletal one. A tentative hand reached down to softly scratch the top of the tabby’s head and was rewarded by a nuzzle and intensified purring.  

Allowing himself to relax a little, Edge’s face brightened against his will with a small smile as he gazed down at the kitty. He had never really interacted with cats before, much less owned one as a pet, but he found himself becoming strangely fond of the furry little creature. With a muted grumble, he shook his head to rid himself of the dopey expression and resigned himself to simply staring straight ahead until you woke up. Albert’s soothing purring combined with your soft breathing and warmth pulled the usually high-strung skeleton into an unfamiliar state of relaxation, and soon enough, it was a struggle for him to keep his eye sockets open.

When you awoke the first thing you noticed was the quiet breathing of whomever you were nestled up against. Whoever it could be was warm and solid, safe, and it almost made you want to ignore your plans for the day and sleep it away instead.

When your memory decided to finally return to you, you snapped your eyes open with a soft, sharp inhale and slowly lifted your head to Edge’s sleeping face. Without the strain of his trademark scowl, he looked almost peaceful. Even with his pointed teeth and the twin scars running over his eye socket, he kind of looked… cute?

You briefly wondered that if you ever told him that, whether he would self-destruct and implode.
The image you had conjured up in your head had you quietly giggling to yourself, but with Edge being the light sleeper that he is, it was enough to rouse the skeleton. He regarded you with lidded sockets and hazy eyelights as he awoke. The way he was looking at you, with barely contained affection, made the breath catch in your throat as you felt your face begin to heat up.

It didn’t last long, however, because within a split second his wits had returned to him, and with a shout you were thrown across the bed as he scrambled to his feet, his face beet red. Luckily, Albert had long since disappeared, deciding the window ledge bathed in sunlight was a much better nap spot, otherwise he would have definitely been launched across the room.

You couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the predicament as you pulled yourself into a sitting position, which only made the poor flustered skeleton increasingly more mortified. With a snarl he turned to leave, only getting a few steps toward the door before you caught your breath and called out to him.

“Edge, wait!” You gasped lightly, still winded from laughing so hard, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh! I just laugh when I’m embarrassed, I swear!”

Edge remained silent, but at least he had turned around to face you and wasn’t attempting to make a beeline for the door anymore. Instead, he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, scowling at the wall beside him, refusing to meet your eyes.

“Why, um- “ You played with a strand of hair as your voice came out meek, the question causing you to become quite bashful yourself, “Why were you…?”

“BECAUSE YOUR WEAK HUMAN BODY COULD NOT WITHSTAND FIGHTING ME, SO YOU PASSED OUT AND I HAD TO CARRY YOU HERE!” He scoffed, his frown deepening, “THEN WHEN I TRIED TO LEAVE YOU WOULD NOT LET GO!”

A pitiful groan left you as you slapped both of your hands to your face, pure mortification flushing your already red face.

“I am so sorry! That is so embarrassing.” You removed the hands from your face as you forced yourself to look at the skeleton, moving them to worry at the duvet cover under you instead.

Unsurprisingly, Edge simply rolled his eyelights with a click of his tongue at your apology, “LIKE I SAID, DO NOT PUSH YOURSELF SO HARD AND YOU WILL NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM. I WON’T ALWAYS BE AROUND TO SAVE YOU, YOU KNOW.”

Feeling slightly less awkward, you shook your head with a smile as he spoke. His prickly attitude combined with the slowly fading crimson flush reminded you so much of Red, it was so very obvious that they were brothers.

Oh, right! You had actually wanted to ask Edge about something, and the affectionate comparison had jogged your memory. Enthusiastically, you shuffled yourself across the bed and threw your legs over the side so that you could more easily face him without straining your neck.

“Could I ask you something?” You leaned back on your hands as you regarded him with a soft gaze, prompting him to raise a browbone at you.

“WHAT IS IT?” He snapped, cursing internally when his tone came out a lot harsher than expected, causing you to shrink back slightly. His flaring temper had you rethinking whether it was a good idea to bring it up, but you decided with finality that it couldn’t wait any longer.

“Do you think that maybe it would be a good idea to tell Red about your involvement with the Royal Guard?” You asked meekly, bracing yourself for the possibility of an outburst.

“AND WHY WOULD I DO THAT?” Lowering his voice slightly, he continued with a warning tone, “DO YOU NOT THINK YOU HAVE PUT HIM IN ENOUGH DANGER AS IT IS?”

Bristling slightly at the comment, your expression dropped to mirror his as your tone conveyed your soured mood, “Edge, I understand why you’re worried. I’m terrified!” A nervous laugh infected your words before your gaze fell to your lap, “But… he already knows about me, about Milord and the Royal Guard. I had to tell him.”

Your heart hammered in your chest as you waited for him to snap, to scream and shout and berate you, but he stayed unnervingly silent. Taking it as a sign to continue, you took a steeling breath before explaining.

“I assume Milord told you that I was attacked by some members of my Coven a few days ago?”
You looked to him for an answer, receiving a curt nod in response. The rage flickering in his eyelights caused your stomach to flip and you swallowed back the rising nausea in your throat.
“Well… It wasn’t just Milord that found me. Red followed him.”  

“I AM AWARE.” He growled dangerously, causing you to contort your face in confusion.

“What? Did you think he would just accept what he saw and not ask any questions?” You laughed in exasperation, “He’s a person, Edge! Of course he’s going to want to know what the fuck is going on when he finds me hysterical in front of two unconscious men beaten bloody!”

“YOU COULD HAVE LIED.” Edge hissed, his waning control over his temper evident by his clawed fingers digging into his arms as they remained crossed against his chest.

“And say what?!” Your voice began to gain volume as anger began thrashing in your chest like a distressed snake, “Oh yeah, I beat those two guys to the brink of death without taking a single hit! Me, a small, weak, pathetic human, fucked those guys up beyond belief and I didn’t suffer one injury! Do you think he would have believed that, Edge? Seriously? He’s not a fucking child!”

A low growl began to emanate from the skeleton as he released his arms and stalked towards you. You clenched your jaw and stood, staring him down with as much tenacity as you could despite the fury and fear clutching at your insides.

“None Of This Would Have Happened If It Were Not For You. He Would Not Need To Know And He Could Remain Safe, Unaware That Anything Was Even Awry.” His tone was dangerously level and quiet, causing your skin to break out in goosebumps. You refused to back down.

“What difference does it make?” You hissed through clenched teeth, “I didn’t tell him at first because I knew that eventually they would find me, and I would have to run again. Plus, I was afraid to tell him because I thought that I couldn’t protect him if he tried to fight for me, but I know now that I’m strong enough to protect this whole fucking family if I wanted to. Which I do, by the way, including you, Edge.” You finished, not breaking eye contact for a second.

Your expression of desire to protect the family caused your voice to waver, and the fiery skeleton hesitated slightly at that, his furious expression easing by just a fraction. Encouraged, you returned back to your seat on the edge of the bed, running a hand down your face as you sighed.

“He deserves to know. They all do.” You added with an exhausted laugh, “You have no idea how hurt, how humiliated he was that I had kept this from him for nearly a year. You’re his brother, and you’ve kept this from him for almost four! Do you not think he would take it better if you were the one to tell him, instead of him finding out because you’ve been seriously injured or even killed?!”

“That Will Not Happen.” He argued, his tone considerably softer than before.

“You’ve seen how strong Mages are, Edge!” You snapped back, your exasperated voice pitching up as you spoke, “I can barely control my attack magic and I cracked your skull open; imagine a whole Coven of experienced, Dusted-up Mages attacking you at once! You wouldn’t last a fucking second!”

You could have cried in relief as you watched the skeleton’s eye sockets widen, his angry expression softening into a fearful one. Your heart hurt as he began to shake slightly, the harsh reality of the situation and the fact that he couldn’t protect his brother from everything finally setting in.

“Edge- “ You breathed as you stood and gingerly took his gloved hand in yours. He didn’t pull away, but his gaze snapped quickly to your conjoined hands.

The mixture of emotions on his face was something you had never seen in him before, and you couldn’t read him at all. If you didn’t know any better, you would have said that it looked like he was about to cry. However, as quickly as that amalgamation of emotions had appeared, it was gone, and he was staring down at you with resolute.

“I Will Tell Him.” He spoke with soft confidence, his tone steady and determined, as he pulled his hand away from yours. He turned quickly to exit, stopping only once he was in the doorway to look at you over his shoulder, causing electricity to fizz through your already frayed nerves.
“Thank You.”

Before you could even open your mouth to respond he was gone, leaving you staring slack-jawed at an empty doorway. Out of hysteria or perhaps just pure exhaustion, soft giggles began to tumble past your lips, oddly paired with tears pricking at the corners of your eyes. Your head fell into your hands, nails digging into your scalp in an attempt to dampen your emotions with the stinging pain.

After a minute in this position, you eventually took a deep breath before you collected your thoughts and shook yourself off as if to rid yourself of the emotions. Deciding that you’d had enough of Mage-business today, you forfeited talking to Milord face to face about the operation and decided to shoot him a hopefully inconspicuous text about it instead, asking simply if he needed any help with his ‘project’. Not that you were too worried about anyone looking through your phone and finding the texts, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. You left your phone on your nightstand, deciding to return to check it later on in the day.

It was Friday, so you decided that what you really needed was a goddamn drink and some conversation with company that wouldn’t make you want to blow your brains out. So, you changed quickly into a band tee and shorts before skipping up to Mutt’s room. You knocked and waited, praying that he was around, and thought about inviting Red too so that you could all hang out like old times. You really did miss when things were simpler.

“heya, doll.” Mutt grinned lazily at you, opening the door wider to let you in.

“Hi!” You smiled back before slipping past him and throwing yourself onto his bed, “You got any booze?”

Joining you on the bed, the skeleton gave you a mock-hurt look with a hand over his chest, “Is that all you use me for? My booze?” He flopped dramatically onto his back next to you, the back of his hand now against his forehead, making you giggle, “And I thought we were friends!”

“You got any or what, puppy dog?” You raised your eyebrows at him, a playful grin tugging at your lips.

With a snort he sat up and pulled a bottle of rum out from under the bed, waving it at you teasingly before you snatched it up and took a swig.

“everythin’ okay?” He asked, laying back on his side and propping his head up on his elbow, “ya don’t usually day drink unless ya upset ‘bout somethin’.”

You passed the bottle back to him and mirrored his pose as he drank from it, letting out a dramatic sigh. Stars, this skeleton had the ability to read you like a goddamn book.

“Yeah, just stressed.” You offered a gentle smile in an attempt to ease his worry.

“wanna talk about it?”

“Nope! I just want to get so drunk I forget what words are.” You grinned, hopping up to turn on his speaker bar and connect your phone to it.

To that, Mutt let out a breathy chuckle, “i know that feelin’.”

With the speaker now softly playing a Pirate Metal album (yours and Mutt’s favorite), you returned to your space, once again copying Mutt’s position so that you were lying facing each other. You were about to ask whether you both should go get Red, but Mutt seemed to have other ideas.

“so,” Mutt started, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before passing the bottle back to you, “you ‘n red, huh?”

“Me and Red?” You repeated warily, shooting him a confused look.

“yeah, y’know…” The skeleton childishly wriggled his brow bones at you with a snicker, causing you to catch on and groan.

“Did he tell you?!” You asked in an exasperated tone, “I swear to the stars, I thought just human men were bad with blabbing about getting laid, but apparently it transcends species!”

Mutt guffawed, putting his hands up in defense, “nah, he didn’t tell me. lay off th’ poor guy.”

“Oh.” You said dumbly, embarrassed at your premature outburst, “How do you know then?”

As soon as the sentence left your mouth, it dawned on you; his and Red’s rooms were next door to each other.

“MUTT, OH MY GOD.” You exclaimed, slapping your hands over your face as it lit up.

If he wasn’t laughing hard before, he was in absolute stitches now, completely reveling in your misery.

“heh, at least ya -ha- sounded like ya were havin’ fun!” He gasped out between giggles, earning an incredulous look from you.

“I cannot believe you.” You deadpanned, shoving the bottle into his hands, “I’m going to throw myself in front of a car and it’s going to be your fault.”

“heh, it ain’t that bad!” He continued giggling at you, poking you in the ribs, causing you to squeal and slap his hand away with a glare.

“It’s fucking mortifying is what it is.” You groaned pitifully, your face still completely flushed.

“hey, ya lucky me ‘n him decided ta take th’ rooms we did, otherwise ya’d be hearin’ this from my bro instead a me.” He consolidated, still snickering at your beet red face.

Right, Red’s room was at the end of the hall with Mutt’s being the next one up, then Milord’s after that. You took a moment to silently thank whatever being in the universe was looking out for you.

“I think at that point I would just move to a different country and forge a new identity.” You said seriously, cringing at the thought.

“heh, glad ya finally did tho, th’ guy was so pent up i was afraid he was gonna explode or somethin’” Mutt teased, a laugh in his voice.

“Gross.”

He snickered before composing himself and asking, “how’s it goin’ with you two, then?”

You bit your lip and looked away, before breathing a tired laugh, “Uh, it isn’t. Going, that is.”

“whaddya mean?” The skeleton’s face fell into a serious expression, a concerned lilt to his voice.

With a sigh you sat up and took a long drink, preparing yourself for the conversation you knew needed to happen, but that you had been putting off.

“Mutt, you’ve been in love before, right?” You asked simply, prompting the skeleton to sit up with you, his brow bones furrowed.

“heh, yea. why?”

“What does it feel like?” You asked innocently, the child-like curiosity making him grin affectionately as he hummed in thought.

“it’s like…” he paused, mulling over the best way to explain it, “it’s like when ya around them, ya feel safe and at home, and they make ya happy, happier than ya'v ever been. they become ya whole world and ya just know that ya wanna be with ‘em for the rest of ya life.”

You pressed your lips together in thought. You definitely did feel like that around Red, but…
“I feel like that around all of you guys, though.” You lifted your gaze to Mutt’s face, confusion distorting your features.

“heh, maybe yer in love with all’a us.” He needled with a smirk.

“Ha ha.” You grumbled sarcastically, before asking, “How do you know, though? Like are you just supposed to know for certain when it happens?”

He shrugged in response, “yeah, pretty much.”

You threw your head back with a groan before dropping your gaze to your lap and mumbling dejectedly, “I think I’m broken.”

Mutt sighed, ruffling your hair, “ya ain’t broken, doll. maybe ya just don’t feel that way for ‘im, ‘n that’s okay.”

You smiled gratefully at the skeleton, a sadness still eating away at you, “I just… I love him so much. There’s just something missing and I can’t figure out what it is.”

“maybe ya just need ta see him in a romantic way.”  He shrugged, his gaze soft and affectionate.

“What do you mean?”

“like, ask him ta take ya out on a date or somethin’. maybe th’ issue is that ya only see him as a friend because he only treats ya like a friend.”

“That’s… really smart, actually.” You grinned, your mood lifting at the idea, “Okay, I’ll do that!”

With a newfound optimism, you shuffled over to Mutt and wrapped your arms around his neck before planting a lingering kiss on his teeth in thanks, prompting him to move his hands to gently grasp your hips.

The contact coaxed a small whimper from you, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. A long violet tongue pushed past your lips, entangling with yours and earning a strangled moan from both of you.

Encouraged by Mutt’s small gasps of pleasure and the ever-growing fire in your abdomen, you climbed into his lap, pushing your bodies together as close as physically possible. You felt him harden under you, only adding to your arousal, and you pulled back with a sharp inhale.

“Mutt- ah!” What you were trying to say was ripped from your thoughts when the skeleton latched onto your neck with razor-sharp teeth, forcing a lustful mewl past your lips instead. He ran his cool tongue down the length of your neck, causing you to squeeze your thighs together and squirm as your breath caught in your throat. The soft action making you rub against his arousal coaxed a low growl from the skeleton as he recaptured your lips, his clawed hands digging into the flesh of your hips and thighs as he ground against you.

Your mind was completely blank as wave after wave of pleasure rippled through you, but one guilt-ridden thought managed to force its way past the lustful haze.

Pulling back once more, you gently placed a hand either side of his head to focus his attention on your face. He looked… absolutely wrecked. Lidded eye sockets combined with beautiful, hazy amethyst eyelights and a just as beautiful flush covering his cheek bones. His arousal was obvious, his breath coming out in short, quick bursts as he hungrily looked over you.

You felt your soul thump as affection bloomed in your chest, making you exhale shortly through your nose and smile softly.

“Mutt, we have to stop.” You scolded gently, your thumb softly rubbing where it lay on his cheek bone. You could see the internal struggle to collect himself by the way he tensed and let out a frustrated growl. Just as pent-up as he was and with liquor running through your veins, you fought back the urge to just say ‘fuck it’ and let that stupid, sexy, gorgeous skeleton (thump) do whatever he wanted to you, but the more you thought about Red, the more intensely the guilt ate away at you.

He closed his eyes and sighed, his eye lights bright and focused when he reopened them, “’m sorry, doll. got carried away.” He looked away guiltily as you removed yourself from his lap.

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have kissed you.” You chuckled breathily, taking his hand in yours, “Neither of us have the best track-record for self-control, y’know?”

The skeleton’s gaze flicked down to your entwined hands as he let out a short breath in a laugh, “yea, yer right.” His expression shifted from frustration to a soft sadness, his thumb running over the back of your hand as he spoke, “i jus’ miss ya. you’re always busy lately an’ i miss it jus’ bein’ us.”

“I miss you too, darling.” (thump) “How about we spend the rest of the day together and call on the others tomorrow, sound good?” You offered with a smile, your gaze tender and affectionate as you regarded him.

“yea, thanks.” He grinned bashfully, pulling you into a tight embrace.

“I love you.” You whispered into his neck; your heart full to bursting.

thump

“i love ya too, doll.”

thump thump

Chapter Text

After spending the day before with Mutt, he seemed contented to let you put your plan for Red into action. So, after a quickly showering and feeding Albert, you prepared coffee and breakfast for the two of you and brought it up to Red’s room, hoping to treat him to breakfast in bed.

The plates were precariously balanced on your arms whilst both of your hands were occupied by the coffee mugs, so you resorted to kicking the door to get his attention. Soon enough, a very grumpy, sleepy skeleton answered the door, obviously displeased at having been woken up, yawning and rubbing at his eye sockets. Adorably, his face lit up when he saw your face and greeted you with a grin before letting you past the doorway and into his room. With a pleased hum, you noticed that he had cleaned the place since his last rampage, leaving only the usual scattered clothes and messy bed sheets in place of broken furniture.

“ya made breakfast?” He grinned sleepily at you, relieving you of balancing the plates by taking them and placing them carefully on his nightstand. His voice was thick with sleep, giving it a rough, husky quality that easily caused your face to warm.

“Yep!” You beamed back, pushing a mug toward him, “Coffee, too!” you added, retrieving the cutlery that you had haphazardly shoved into your back pocket when you realized you’d be struggling to carry everything, before handing him a pair and shuffling over to the furthest side of the bed.

“thanks, angel.” He smiled gratefully, taking the mug, and passing you a plate before taking a seat next to you, “yer th’ best.”

“I know, right? What would you do without me?” You teased, idly unlocking your phone to select a random YouTube video to watch while you ate. With a start, you realized that you hadn’t checked your phone since you had texted Milord, and he had replied almost instantly.

Continue with your lessons. I will update you soon.

You deflated in disappointment. Oh well, no news is good news, you supposed.

“that tiny?” Red cocked an eyebrow at you before shoveling the food into his mouth. You had made bacon and eggs on toast, his favorite breakfast food, and he was certainly showing appreciation for it by how quickly he was inhaling the food before you had even touched yours.

“Yeah,” You sighed, selecting a video, and placing the phone down on the bed in front of you for background noise, “He’s been training me on how to use magic attacks, but he hasn’t asked for me to go back to the Underground since the first time. I’m kind of getting impatient, y’know?”

Red shrugged, seemingly indifferent to the situation, “if he’s trainin’ ya then he’s prolly got a pretty important use for ya, i wouldn’t worry.”

You groaned stubbornly, coaxing a quiet chuckle from the skeleton.

“hey, uh, speakin’ of, what were ya doin’ sparring w’ boss yesterday? that part of ya training?” He asked, hesitant curiosity on his face.

Having finished with his food, he put the plate aside and pulled his legs up to his chest as he tilted his head at you. The question made you freeze and tense. You had no idea if Edge had talked to his brother yet, but judging from Red’s good mood and the fact that you hadn’t heard them engaged in a screaming match, it was safe to bet that he hadn’t.

“Kind of,” You sighed, choosing your words very carefully. The last thing you wanted to do was lie to him again, but you wanted Edge to have the chance to be the one to tell him. “My combat skills are kind of rusty, so I asked him to spar with me so I could practice.” Suddenly fully processing the question, you furrowed your brows together in confusion. “Wait, how do you know we were sparring?”

Any nerves melted away when he snorted, amusement sparkling in his eyelights, “he carried ya when ya got tired, right? caught th’ bastard tryin’ ta sneak ya into yer room, was hysterical.”

With a gasp you abandoned your plate and swiveled your body to face him directly, poorly veiled delight infecting your voice, “Red. You cannot tell anybody, but I need to tell someone becauseit’sbeendrivingmemadtonottalkaboutitand- “

“geez, angel.” He chuckled gently at your enthusiasm, mirroring your action of turning to face you, “sure, i won’t tell.”

“Okay, okay.” You took a breath, leaning forward like you were about to spill the biggest news of the millennia, “So, I have no idea how it happened, but when I woke up, he was holding me. Like, lay down next to me, cuddling me, the whole shebang.”

Red erupted into boisterous laughter, his cheeks tinting crimson with mirth as he clutched at his non-existent stomach, “heh, that’s amazin’!”

You began to snicker along with him, any tension you were feeling long gone as you continued, “Okay, but get this. He was asleep!”

“nah, no way. yer pullin’ my leg.” He seemed just as shocked as you were, though there was still an undertone of amusement to his voice.

“Seriously! Then, when he woke up, he freaked out so hard that he practically threw me across the room!” This earned another round of raucous laughter from the skeleton, prompting you to once again giggle along with him. You kind of felt bad for ratting Edge out, but it’s to his brother, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?

“oh man, i’m so gonna rip inta him fer that” He gasped out between chuckles, wiping a fat crimson tear from his socket.

“No, Red! You said you wouldn’t tell!” You exclaimed, grabbing the skeleton by his shoulders, and roughly shaking him which only served to cause him to dissolve into giggles again as you did so. You spoke his name in a warning, amusement causing your voice to come out less stern and more like a jokey whine than you would have liked.

“alright, alright, i won’t tell.” He grumbled; an undertone of laughter still present in his voice.

The two of you returned to your usual chatter as you finished your breakfast and coffee, but your racing thoughts made your stomach tight. You needed to talk to him about Mutt’s idea, but bringing up the relationship whilst things were so good made you hesitant. Then again, Red had always been skilled at putting on a brave face when things were bad, and you weren’t confident that he wasn’t hiding his hurt from you.

You squirmed anxiously. If you were going to do this, you needed to do it now before you lost your nerve.

“ya okay, angel?” Came Red’s concerned voice, his ruby eyelights searching your face as you bit down on your lip in an anxious tic.

Okay, here goes nothing.

“I, um, actually wanted to talk about something with you.” You answered meekly, prompting him to eye you with a raised brow bone.

“alright, what’s up?” Your awkward demeanor did nothing for the skeleton’s rising anxiety at your request. His eyelights remained trained on your face, whilst your gaze had dropped to your anxiously fiddling hands.

“So, um,” You swallowed harshly before taking a steeling breath, “I think that maybe the reason why, I -uh- I’m struggling to, y’know…”

Your chest tightened as your eyes flicked upward to gage Red’s reaction. His expression had dropped from concern to mild discomfort as he grunted in affirmation.

“Right. Well, I think I might know why.” You smiled softly as his lowered head snapped up to look at you, a concealed hopeful glint brightening his eyelights. Taking this as encouragement, you continued. “Well, we’ve only ever been friends, right? What if I can’t see you as more than a friend because that’s how you treat me; as just a friend?”

“so, you, uh, want me ta start treatin’ ya like i’m ya mate?” Red spoke slowly, obvious discomfort at discussing his unrequited love causing his voice to come out strained and quiet.

“Yeah! I mean, you don’t have to go all out straight away, and I’ll do the same!” You explained quickly, the prospect of this possibly being a bad idea increasing your nerves tenfold, “Y-You don’t have to, I just… thought maybe if- “

Your words were cut off by teeth being pressed to your lips, making you squeak in surprise. It wasn’t hungry and desperate like the last time you had kissed him, rather it was soft and vulnerable, slow, and lingering as though it was the last time that he would ever get to touch you. With a happy sigh, you wrapped your arms around his neck, his hands coming to rest on your lower back. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he gently released you and allowed you to pull back in a flushed daze.

“ya wanna go out somewhere wi’ me?” He asked, a light blush tinting his face as he grinned affectionately at you, his voice low and deep.

“L-Like a date? Now?” You breathed, your mind still hazy from the kiss, earning a warm, rumbling chuckle from the skeleton that intensified your flustered state tenfold.

“yeah, why not? we can go ta that aquarium ya’v been wantin’ ta go to.” He shrugged, his voice cool despite the bashful expression and growing flush on his skull.

“Yeah, okay!” You beamed as your soul gave another strange thump against your chest, “Let me go get ready, then I’ll come get you, kay?”

Before he could even reply, you were scrambling excitedly to collect the abandoned dishware and skip down to the kitchen, leaving Red to watch after you with a lovesick grin and hazy eyelights.

After cleaning up, you practically ran back upstairs and to your room where you made quick work of applying your makeup. Today, you would smooth a medium-brown toned eyeshadow over the inner portion and crease of your eyelid, then buffing it out with a black shadow which you meticulously shaped into a wing, pointing it at your inner-corners to achieve a fox-eye look. A little foundation, a little concealer, blush and contour, mascara, and lashes, and to bring the look together, a black liquid lipstick. You looked over your work, turning this way and that, proud that you had managed to throw it together in such a short amount of time.

Most of your clothes met the fate of being scattered across your bed as well as the floor as you dug through your dresser for an outfit. You didn’t want to go too over the top, but then again, Red kind of expected you to dress up to the nines for any occasion at this point. Knowing that it was going to be warm when you stepped outside, you opted for a sheer summer dress. With a giggle, you pulled out an off-the-shoulder, figure-hugging mini dress that was adorned with tiny, adorable skulls. Perfect.

Quickly changing, you then moved on to jewelry. You noticed with a start that there were tiny puncture wounds along the length of your neck that had previously been hidden by your hoodie, and silently cursed Mutt and his goddamn biting fetish. You only had one choker that was big enough to hide it, and so opted for one made of thick, faux leather that donned a circular pendant hanging from the middle. It was definitely sending some sort of message, but you snorted at the image of Red’s face lighting up beet red at the display and decided to wear it anyway.

A pair of lace-up ankle boots with a platform heel and a spritz of perfume later, you were grabbing your handbag and making your way over to Red’s room. A mixture of excitement and nerves caused butterflies to flutter in your chest, and it took all of your effort to not squeal like a schoolgirl with a crush. Just as you were about to knock, however, you spotted Edge leaving his room, and decided to greet him with an enthusiastic grin. You received the expected glare and scoff, but what you didn’t expect was for the edgy skeleton to do a double take, his eye sockets widening as his face erupted into a furious blush.

“What? - “ You started, but was interrupted by the skeleton angrily stalking over to you before he leaned down and roughly grabbing your chin in one gloved hand.

“ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME?” He spat, the grip tightening when you sputtered in confusion, “HM?”

“Edge, I have no idea- “

“IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU, YOU WILL TAKE THAT THING OFF. NOW.” He snarled, his face contorted into a furious scowl, before he released you and stomped down the stairs and out of view.

You tentatively reached up to touch where he had harshly grabbed you, dazed from the interaction. Did he mean the choker? Shit, maybe you should run back to your room and take it off if you were unknowingly committing a monster faux pas.

You turned on your heel to rush back the same way you came, but a concerned voice made you freeze and whip your head toward the source of the sound.

“angel- “ Red called as he exited his room, obviously having heard the commotion, his eye sockets widening when he took in your appearance, “wow, uh…”

You looked over Red’s appearance at the same time, face heating up slightly at how handsome he looked. He had forfeited his usual hoodie-shorts combo for a black button-up shirt, grey jeans, and smart red and black sneakers, the outfit causing him to look somehow even more attractive than he usually did.

“Um, should I change?” You fiddled with the collar nervously, biting your lip, “Is- Is a collar offensive in monster culture? I can go take it off if it is, I’m sorry!”

“heh, so that was my bro shoutin’ at ya then?” He chuckled nervously, eyelights flicking from the collar and back up to your face as you wordlessly nodded before reciting what Edge had spat at you.

“ah, uh.” Red shifted uneasily, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers, “it’s jus’ where me n’ boss are from a collar like that is fer, uh, showin’ yer owned by someone.”

“Owned by someone? Why would that make him upset?” You cocked an eyebrow at him in befuddlement, crossing your arms under your breasts in a protective stance.

“’s not jus’ that,” Red was really uncomfortable now, shifting from foot to foot with a bead of sweat travelling down his skull, “i didn’t wanna tell ya cuz it’s embarrasin’. fer us, not fer you.” He clarified quickly at the short flash of mortification on your face.

“What is it?” You asked softly, your stance relaxing slightly.

“yer in heat doll, we can smell it.” He mumbled, his eyelights glued to the floor as his face burned even brighter.

“What?!” You squeaked, “In heat? Red, humans don’t go into heat. That’s ridiculous.” You laughed in disbelief, before what he actually meant clicked in your head. Oh.

“Oh. Maybe what you can smell is me ovulating?” You offered, your voice high pitched and quiet in embarrassment.

“th’ fuck is that?” The flushed skeleton asked bluntly, making you snort and easing some of the tension.

“It means that I’m, uh, fertile, for lack of a better word.” You laughed nervously. Your periods had always been super irregular, with you sometimes going months without one. Now that you thought about it, you hadn’t had your cycle since you moved into the skeleton household. At least this was useful to predict when one was coming up, you supposed. It also explained why everyone had been acting so oddly around you over the last day or so. “Haven’t you been able to tell before?”

Red scratched the back of his neck guiltily, a wry grin pulling at his mouth, “uh, yeah. i usually jus’ avoided ya until it stopped.”

“You monsters and your sense of smell! Well, that explains why you’d go MIA randomly.” You giggled with a roll of your eyes, prompting Red to let out a breath and untense, “So what you’re saying is I’ve just unknowingly tried to seduce your brother, and his first instinct was to threaten me? I didn’t realize he thought I was that gross.” You added, your voice thick with amusement.

Red snorted, his demeanor once again laid-back, “heh, pretty much. though, i think it’s th’ opposite. he probably likes ya.” He finished with a shrug, mirth shining in his eyelights.

“Oh.” Your eyes widened as your hand came up to touch the collar once again. You promptly shoved the idea to the back of your mind to deal with later. “Should I go take it off? I don’t want to upset anyone.”

“nah, ‘s okay” Red shrugged before stepping closer to you and looping a skeletal finger through the ring, pulling it softly to bring your head up to meet his gaze, “i like it. look’s good on ya.” He spoke lowly with a slightly lustful growl enveloping his words.

Holy shit, holy shit, HOLY SHIT.

Not allowing you to respond (you likely would have just stammered stupidly in your flustered state anyway) he released you and strolled ahead as if nothing had happened with a casual “ya comin’?”

“Yep!” You squeaked, jogging lightly to catch up with the skeleton.

Damn, when you’d floated the idea of him treating you like you were together, you had no idea that he would slip into the role that easily.

Well, he’s had practice.

The bitter, jealous thought caught you by surprise. Guess the plan must be working already. Huh.

When you both stepped through the front door, Red held up a finger in a ‘wait here’ gesture, causing you to scrunch your face up in befuddlement. Your confusion was soon depleted and replaced with absolute unadulterated glee as Red pulled up on what you were delighted to recognize as a Suzuki motorcycle.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” You shouted, racing over to the snickering skeleton, “Where did you get this?!”

“y’know there’s a garage around th’ side of the house, right?” He chuckled, throwing a chunky black helmet and leather riding jacket at you.

“Seriously?!” You laughed in disbelief, craning your neck to attempt to spot it, “You didn’t tell me that you had a motorbike, dude!” With a hand placed on the frame of the bike, you stepped around it to take the full vehicle into view with a nostalgic expression, “It’s been a long time since I got to ride one of these things.”

“ya can ride?” He raised a boney eyebrow at you, his expression melting into one of admiration when you vigorously nodded your head.

“Have since I was eighteen!” You grinned enthusiastically before fastening the helmet onto your head before shuffling on the jacket, “It took a lot of begging and groveling for my parents to let me get my license, heh.” You said gently as you did so, the sting of a reminder that not only was it one of the very few memories of your parents that you can look back on with fondness, but that you would never have a chance to make any more. Not, you thought, that you were likely to anyway, but the realization still had you grateful that the visor was mostly shielding your face as you bit down on your lip to force your tears back. With a forceful exhale you banished the thought from your head and focused on the task at hand.

Red had hesitated at your mention of your parents since you had never talked to him about them bar the one mention when explaining your heritage, but recovered quickly and mirrored your action of equipping the gear.

“ya wanna drive?” He asked, an amused lilt to his voice to hide his apprehension, both at your passing mention of your family and at him unofficially putting his life in your hands by letting you man what most would call a ‘death trap’.

“Fuck yes I do!” You squealed in excitement, before using a booted foot to gently nudge the skeletons leg, “Move over, motherfucker. It’s time for the ride of your life.” You teased with a dramatic demeanor, causing him to snort as he carefully shuffled back, allowing you throw a leg over the bike and take a hold of the handles.

With a gleeful giggle you turned the ignition, causing the vehicle to rumble and purr as it came to life.

“You ready?” You shouted over the noise of the engine as you looked back at the skeleton. He gave you a thumbs up with a shit-eating grin before leaning forward to wrap his arms around your waist.

The seemingly innocent action sent electric shocks throughout your body, making you flush and shake your head to rid yourself of your very impure thoughts. With a roar of the engine, you were in motion and, following using the back of your foot to lift the kickstand, you were soon racing down the downhill slope that led to the residence. You couldn’t help but let out a whoop and a holler as you rode, the exhilaration of driving a motorcycle making your face hurt from smiling so wide. You didn’t even care how insane you must have looked to passer-by’s; this was the stress relief you had so desperately been craving.

There was considerable traffic, as should be expected for a Saturday morning, but you dodged and weaved through the flurry of vehicles, your heart pounding in your chest and adrenaline coursing through your veins from the risky maneuvers. With butterflies thrashing around in your stomach, you realized that you could hear Red laughing and cheering along with you; a purely joyous sound that you didn’t know you had missed so badly until now. Sure, his laughter wasn’t a rare occurrence, but something about how full of child-like excitement it was on this occasion had you forcing yourself to focus hard on the road in front of you as a flush crept across your face.

thump

Too soon for your liking, you had arrived at the towering structure that was the Aquarium, and after parking up and removing your helmets and jackets, you could contain your elation no longer and barreled towards Red, almost knocking him over with how enthusiastic your embrace was.

“That was fucking amazing!” You giggled, the adrenaline making you slightly loopy as you pulled back slightly to catch his gaze, “Thank you, you have no idea how much I needed that.” You added genuinely, your eyes full of grateful affection.

“heh, s’no problem,” He shrugged, a bashful expression overtaking his skull, “c’mon, let’s go inside, yea?”

Now fully separated, you offered your hand with a teasing grin and wiggle of your eyebrows, causing him to snort and grasp in in his, the two of you now walking side by side with your fingers interlinked. You winced slightly at another odd thump of your soul, but wrote it off as coming down from the adrenaline high.

“like yer dress, by th’ way.” Red snorted, prompting a shit-eating grin to spread across your face.

“I knew you would. I bought it specifically for you, after all.” You teased, bumping your shoulder with his, adding in a flirty whisper, “You don’t look so bad yourself, handsome.”

The comment about the dress wasn’t a complete lie. You had spotted it whilst treating yourself to a spot of shopping and had immediately fallen in love with it. Not only was it a beautiful dress, but you could absolutely use it to fuck with Red one day, you had thought. Of course, this was during a frigid winter and so you hadn’t had a chance to wear it until now.

The skeleton’s skull lit up with a pretty rosy blush, but before he could even open his mouth to reply, you were overtaken by a sudden, intense feeling of dread, forcing a sharp gasp out of you as you came to a halt. You were about to chalk it up to an oncoming episode or panic attack as your mind was abruptly assaulted with flashes of horrific images. You didn’t recognize them, but they had the familiar feeling of that of a memory. They were present only a quarter of a second, but it was long enough to have the pictures burned into your mind.

You’re kneeling on cold dirt; the sky is pitch black and cries of pain can be heard echoing around what seems to be an almost deserted city. You look down to your hands. They’re shaking and covered in Dust. Whose Dust is this?

You’re standing adjacent to an army of monsters clad in heavy armor. You recognize a few of them as those you had met Underground. Asgore, Undyne, Alphys and… Edge, Milord, Sans? What are they doing? Someone shouts at you to move forward, and the monsters grit their teeth as they ready their attacks. What? No, I’m not going to attack! Stop!

The next and final image is starkly different to the morose theme of the previous two. You’re pressed against someone, their figure towering over you. They smell like leather and smoke. You look up to meet red eyelights, a jagged scar crossed over one of their sockets. They smile fondly down at you as you twirled and swayed. You’re dancing. Muffled classical music filters in and you find yourself grinning back.

With a jolt you were thrust back into reality, Red’s concerned face filling your vision as he held you up by your arms, your weak legs struggling to support your weight. With a trembling hand you reached up to your face to find that it was wet.

“stars, angel. ya scared th’ shit outta me.” Red sighed, relieved that you were lucid once again, “ya have an attack?”

Blinking hard to ground yourself back in reality and wiping the tears from your face, you offered a shaky smile as you exhaled slowly.

“Hah, yeah, I guess I did.” You shook your head softly to rid yourself of the lingering emotions that had come along with the flashes, “Sorry. I’m alright!”

“ya sure? we can go home if ya want.” He offered softly, his hand moving to brush your hair away from your face.

“I’m okay, it wasn’t a bad one.” You forced what you hoped looked like a genuine smile, “Come on, let’s go inside!”

After several more rounds of insisting that you were fine, soon enough you had arrived at the ticket booth, and you were excitedly talking to the clerk. You insisted on paying for both of your tickets, “as thanks for everything!”, much to the prickly skeleton’s displeasure, but soon enough his stony expression was replaced with one of amusement as he watched you zip from one tank to the next, grinning from ear to ear, whilst he lazily trailed behind you, content to just observe your reaction to the Aquarium’s fishy residents. You had long forgotten whatever strange thing had intruded on your mind as you distracted yourself with the various creatures and you were having the time of your life pointing out all the strange looking fish.

“Look at this guy!” You giggled at the weird looking fish, pointing at it as you looked at your date. Its scales were a beautiful mix of shades of pink and black, but its bulbous forehead made it an odd sight to see indeed.

“says here it’s called a malaysian flowerhorn cichlid,” Red noted in amusement, reading from the plastic sign at the base of the tank, “human’s name stuff real weird.”

You snorted, your eyes leaving the aquatic creature in favor of looking at the skeleton, “Wait until you hear about the Spiny Lumpsucker.”

“ya just made that up!” He exclaimed, mirth lacing his words and pulling at his mouth.

“No, seriously! It exists!” You giggled, reaching into your handbag for your phone to prove the existence of the ridiculously named creature, before frowning when you couldn’t locate it.
“Oh shit, my phone…” You groaned, worrying at your lip as you tried your hardest to recall where you had left it.

“oh, uh, here.” Red pulled your phone out of his pocket, earning a delighted gasp from you, “ya left it in my room.”

thump

“Thank you, my love.” You smiled softly, regarding him with a gratitude, “It was really sweet of you to bring it with you for me.”

The genuine affection you held for him in your expression was too much for the emotionally constipated skeleton, so forcing you to abandon your previous task, he grabbed your hand with a furious blush and pulled you along with him to the next section, earning a boisterous laugh from you as you trailed quickly behind him.

After exploring almost the entire Aquarium, taking lots of pictures the whole way, you only had two exhibits left to see. You had purposefully saved them for last due to them being your favorites. With your hands remaining entwined, you stepped into a dimly lit room with a huge dome above you, the thick glass the only thing between you and gallons of shifting water, gorgeously reflecting the small amount of light and casting swirling patterns of blue throughout the exhibit. There weren’t many others around, so in a daring move, Red released your hand to tentatively wrap an arm around your waist, gently pulling you into his side. Your gaze snapped to his face as you giggled softly at his boldness before you returned the affection by throwing your arms over his shoulder, interlinking each of your hands at his chest and turning slightly to press your body to his side. You stayed like that, your heart full and the happiest you had felt for a while, just watching the fish of varying sizes wriggle and weave in the tank above you.
All of a sudden, you felt Red tense besides you, prompting you to turn your head to gage his expression.

“th’ fuck is that?” He asked lowly, his eye sockets widened and the lights within them small, locked onto something above him. You followed his eyeline to notice a Great White shark slowly swimming above you, its black, beady eyes seemingly locked on the groups of people below.

“It’s a shark!” You grinned, holding back a laugh, “Don’t you like it?”

“no i don’t fuckin’ like it!” He hissed, immediately ruining any control you had over your laughter as you dissolved into giggles.

“It can’t hurt you, Red!” You gasped out between laughs, only feeling slightly bad at the embarrassed flush on said skeleton’s face.

“nah, he’s got it out for me, i can sense it,” He growled, squinting his sockets at the creature, who just stared blankly back.

That did it. Your legs gave out from laughing so hard as you fought to catch your breath, resigning to sit on your heels with a hand clasped over your mouth as tears of mirth gathered in your eyes. Red looked torn between a scowl and an amused smirk as gaggles of humans around you stared and shot you dirty looks as a result of your shrieking laughter. Eventually, the skeleton conceded as rumbling chuckles began to fall from his mouth, unable to feel anything close to a negative emotion as he listened to your wheezing.

“Oh, stars.” You sighed, wiping the tears from your eyes as you stood before shooting Red an apologetic look, “I’m so sorry, we can leave if you want!”

“heh, nah. it’s nice t’hear ya laugh like that.” He shrugged, a soft smile gracing his features.

thump thump thump

Your face erupted with heat, causing you to giggle nervously and drop your gaze to the floor.

“Thank you, um,” You fiddled anxiously with the hem of your dress, unsure how to handle such a sweet, genuine compliment, “There’s only one more exhibit I want to see, so c’mon!” Similar to how Red had before, you snatched his hand and pulled him along, refusing to look at him as he quietly snickered at your flustered state.

At last, you came to the last room, which was mostly empty save a few human couples sat on the bench closest to the cinema-like screen of viewing glass. Opting for more privacy, you and Red sat at the back, the white light illuminating the tank barely reaching where you were seated, leaving the spot dimly lit.

“So beautiful.” You whispered in awe, your eyes following each aquatic creature that darted to-and-fro, a soft smile pulling at your lips.

“yea, beautiful.” He breathed back, his eyelights focused on your face as you watched the display before you with childlike wonder, your eyes hypnotically reflecting back the shifting, shimmering pattern of the clear water.

With a contended sigh, you rested your head on Red’s shoulder, encouraging him to wrap an arm around your waist once more. Being here like this with him felt so natural and comfortable, like you’d done this all before, or already known each other for a million lifetimes. It was strange, if someone had told you that you’d be here on a date with your best friend a few months down the line, you would never have believed them, but this just felt… right.

“d’ya think it’s workin’?” Red’s soft baritone voice wrenched you from your daze, the question causing you to pull back and look at him questioningly.

“Do I think what is working?” You asked gently, tilting your head in confusion.

“i mean, do ya- “ He took a steeling breath, his gaze dropping from your face to the floor, “do ya feel anythin’?”

Red was fully bracing himself for rejection, for you to say no and for nothing like this to ever happen again, so his soul almost leapt out of his chest when instead you softly asked a question in response.

“Red, do you ever have this feeling like your soul is, kind of, almost beating in your chest?” You played with the hem of your dress, your eyes downcast as his eyelights snapped up to look at you, “And, like, with every beat, you just have this overwhelming feeling of happiness and love, and it’s so intense that it kind of makes you want to scream, y’know?”

“yea, i do.” He murmured, prompting you to meet his eyelights, your eyes wide in surprise, “when d’ya feel it?”

“Well, I’ve felt it around Mutt a few times,” You breathed, chest tightening at the flicker of disappointment in the skeleton’s eyelights before you added, “but, it’s mostly happened around you. Especially today, it’s been almost non-stop.”

“angel,” You jumped when Red’s hands grasped yours, a hesitant, hopeful expression morphing his features, “d’ya know what a soul bond is?”

You shook your head, open curiosity evident on your face.

“when yer in love, ya can bond ya souls together. it’s a physical act that ya both have ta consent to and it bonds ya fer life unless one of ya dusts or decides they don’t wan’ it anymore.” He explained lowly as a mixture of nerves and shock left you slack-jawed, your eyes wide, “what yer feelin’, it’s ya soul callin’ out ta mine. d’ya get what i’m sayin’?”

Almost as though a wall that had been built up around your mind and soul had been slowly chipped away over the last few months, finally, with his explanation, it crumbled and fell, leaving you exposed and raw. Memories that seemed like they were from a million lifetimes ago quickly flashed through you mind, hand in hand with the powerful emotions, and it was as though your mind had finally caught up with your soul, that it was, at last, listening to what it had been telling you since you and Red had met.

This is what love is supposed to feel like.

Your watery eyes met his, your face lit up with elation and Red allowed himself to feel his hope, his adoration and love for you, as you breathed a disbelieving laugh.

“I’m in love with you.” You whispered, your soul giving the hardest thump against your ribcage it ever had, almost as if it was joyously responding to your revelation, prompting you to grin even wider, “I’m in love with you!” You repeated a little louder, your voice laced with almost hysterical elation.

With that, Red’s mouth captured yours, the kiss deep and needy as you dug your fingers into his shirt, his hands similarly gripping your waist. When he pulled back, his face was the epitome of lovesickness, his grin wide as lidded sockets harbored gently flickering eyelights.

“c’mon,” His voice low and laced with lust, he pulled you to your feet, fingers tightly intertwined with yours, “let’s make this official, huh?”

All you could do was huff out a laugh at his eagerness and nod, your whole body covered in tingling goosebumps, before you were thrust into darkness, reappearing in the privacy of your room. Without missing a beat, once again his mouth was on yours as he hoisted you into his arms, forcing you to wrap your legs around his waist and wind your arms around your neck. Refusing to break the kiss, he carried you to the bed, taking a seat on the edge and shifting you so you were comfortably in his lap. Gently pulling back, you placed a gentle hand to cup the side of his face, the both of you flushed and panting.

“Can I mark you?” You asked softly, your gaze full of adoration mixed with arousal as your eyes traveled from his flushed face to his chest, a hand moving to lightly finger the buttons of his shirt.

“fuck, angel.” He breathed with a relieved laugh before sitting back on his hands, a wide grin flashing more of his sharp teeth and making you squirm in impatience, “i thought ya’d never ask.”

Biting down on your lip, you slowly unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it from his shoulders, your touch lingering on his collar bone as you hungrily looked over him. He was already fully formed, and the sensation of his hard cock rubbing against your wetness was driving you insane, but you wanted to do this right.

“Where…?” You whispered, your hand moving to gently stroke the vertebra of his neck and travelling down his sternum, earning a low grunt from the monster.

“usually th’ neck, but ya can -ah- do it wherever as long as ya -ngh- put ya intent behind it.” Red explained, barely restraining his moans as your fingers continued to gently graze each exposed bone of his torso.

You guessed that his neck would be too difficult to bite down on hard enough to mark him with your flat teeth, so your eyes dropped further south to, in your opinion, the next best area.

“Ready?” You smiled gently at him, halting your ministrations for the time being as he eagerly nodded and grinned back.

“been ready fer a long time, angel.” He breathed huskily, gently tucking a piece of stray hair behind your ear as he spoke.

More than satisfied with his confirmation, you lowered your head to the part of his collarbone that met his neck vertebra and bit down as hard as you could, focusing on the love and adoration that had swelled within your soul for the skeleton. A strangled yelp of pain caused you to start and pull back quickly. You opened your mouth to ask if he was okay, but the look on his face instead made you exhale shortly as your stomach filled with butterflies. His mouth hung open, hot breaths coming short and fast. His face was flushed, and lidded sockets contained hazy, flickering eyelights. You only got a snapshot of this wonderful expression, though, as with a near-feral growl, you were grabbed and roughly flipped onto your back on the bed, his body immediately pressed against yours.

Within a heartbeat his mouth was once again on yours, his long, pointed tongue pressing at your lips in a desperate plead for access, You happily parted your lips, moaning as you felt his hot, tingling magic invade your mouth as your tongues wrestled for dominance.  You inhaled sharply at the sensation of his clawed fingers grazing you slightly as he hiked the skirt of your dress up around your waist and ripped your underwear off in one smooth slash of the material.

“Wait,” You panted as you pulled back, causing him to hesitate and tilt his head questioningly at you, before you continued in a lustful breath, “I want to taste you.”

A low growl emanated from the monster’s chest before he pushed himself off you, allowing you to position yourself between his legs. Wasting no time, you freed the strained member from its cloth prison and wrapped your hand around it, stroking gently from base to tip in an agonizingly slow manner. Red hissed and growled, his fingers dug into the sheets below him as he restrained himself from just picking you up and fucking you into the mattress.

“i swear ta th’ angel, if ya don’t do somethin’ ‘m gonna fuckin’ lose it.” He growled, making you huff out a laugh and look up at him through your lashes. You got incredible masochistic joy from teasing him like this, especially when it caused him to look as thoroughly wrecked as he did right now, but you supposed you could save that for another day.

Finally relenting, you wrapped your mouth around the tip of his cock, running your tongue over it before taking in as much of the length as you could. With a sharp inhale that melted into needy moans, his hand latched onto the back of your head as he thrust up and into your throat. You slowly breathed through your nose, allowing him to fuck your throat and reveling in the delicious noises your partner was making that only served to further fuel your arousal.

All of a sudden, the grip on your hair pulled your mouth from him with a lewd ‘pop’, and you were forced onto your belly by a rough hand pushing between your shoulder blades. You really needed to ask him whether he used his teleportation magic during sex, you thought with amusement.

Your mind went blank however, when clawed fingers ripped into the soft flesh of your hips and forced your buttocks into the air, tearing a cry of pleasure-pain from your throat. With a harsh thrust, his member was pushed into you, filling you completely and making you writhe.

“ya like it when i hurt ya, huh, angel?” He cooed lowly, pulling all the way out and thrusting back into you with force, causing you to moan a strangled, “Yes!”.

“heh, ya little freak.” He grinned lewdly, picking up the pace and pounding into you at a blissfully fast pace, earning a mewl from you as your walls tightened around his cock, ripping an animal-like growl from the monster.

Similar to the last time he had claimed you, a hand wrenched you into a kneeling position with your back against his chest by your hair before he continued thrusting into you, but this time, you could feel a pair of ghostly hands make quick work of pulling your dress south, exposing your breasts. You started and gasped, shifting your gaze to the foreign intruders to spot a pair of disembodied, opaque-red skeletal hands, of which had moved to grasp at your tits and play with your nipples.

“Red! Ah!~” You squealed, the action sending shooting waves of pleasure throughout your body. The skeleton chuckled darkly in your ear, his hot breath causing goosebumps to rise along your skin.

“heh, ya like that?” He breathed, his lustful grin only growing when you began to beg for more.

Your pleading was immediately rewarded by a second pair of disembodied, clawed hands grasping at you, one gripping your thigh with brute strength as the other began to rub circles at your clit. Vision blackening at the edges from the pleasure-pain coursing through you, you could only pant and whimper as the skilled pairs of hands along with Red’s cock brought you closer and closer to the edge, your mouth hanging open in the picture of absolute bliss.

“that’s my good little slut,” He praised you in a low growl before running his tongue up the length of your neck whilst a hand moved to grip your chin and force your head back, “ya gonna cum fer me?”

You could only respond with a shrieking moan, forcing him to slap a hand over your mouth to muffle it, as your walls pulsed and contracted around his cock, your whole body enveloped in pure ecstasy as you reached your peak. You had barely began coming down from the high before he pulled out of you, making you whimper at the emptiness.

“ya still wanna taste me, right?” He asked lowly, before demanding, “turn around.”

You obediently complied, positioning yourself so you were on your knees in front of him and eagerly taking his length into your mouth, causing the skeleton to hiss and moan. It didn’t take long for him to come undone, a hand once again painfully tangled into your hair as he released the hot liquid into your mouth and down your throat, ripping a surprised squeak from you as you dutifully swallowed.
His magic quickly dissipated, allowing you to take heaving breaths as you looked up at him, his face a picture of lustful pride.

“lemme look at ya,” He breathed, using a clawed finger to pull on the loop of the choker you had honestly forgotten you were still wearing, and tilting your chin up. Your face was flushed and red, your eyes hazy with tears from the exquisite pain he had inflicted upon you and your makeup smeared under your eyes. He wiped a small droplet of cum from your lip, practically purring at your wrecked expression, “ya did so good. my mate.”

You hummed happily, a tired smile gracing your features as you parroted back with a hoarse voice, “All yours.”

His grin grew wider before he leant down to give you a soft, lingering kiss, prompting you to sigh contentedly into the contact.

“stay here a sec, i’ll be right back, angel.” He mumbled affectionately after pulling back slightly, then vanishing for a few seconds before reappearing with the jacket he usually wore over one arm along with a pair of his shorts.

You could hazard a guess at this point that Red was the possessive type and wanted you to wear his clothes after claiming you as a result. If you weren’t so utterly destroyed from his claim, you would have teased him, but all you could do was let him change you out of your dress and into his clothes, his movements sweet and soft as he did so. Finally allowing you to collapse from exhaustion, he pulled you into his arms and laid you both on the bed as you immediately curled up against his frame, sleep taking you quickly.

“my beautiful mate.” He breathed, gently brushing your hair away from your face.

All yours.

Chapter Text

The golden rays of morning sunshine filtered through the slightly parted curtains and gently illuminated your bedroom, coaxing a quiet grumble to pass your lips as you turned over to hide your face. A persistent aching in your limbs, as well as a stinging sensation radiating from a sore spot on your neck, brought you fully out of slumber and encouraged you to open your eyes.

You shifted uncomfortably against sharp metal pressing into your skin and pulled away what felt like a zipper from the soft flesh it was embedded into with a wince. A feeling of soft fondness washed over you when you groggily recalled that you were wearing Red’s clothes and your hand moved to gently stroke the soft fur lining of the hood with a contented sigh, a small smile pulling at your lips. It had his scent – a smokey smell, similar to that of a campfire, with a pleasant undertone of leather.

The only thing bar your sore muscles that encouraged you to move was the fact that you, to put it simply, felt gross. A decision to soak your battered and bruised body in a scalding hot shower was what finally pulled you out of bed to stand in front of your mirror and clear your face of now ruined makeup, before grabbing a change of clothes and finally heading out into the hallway.

You had to force back a shriek when you practically walked into Mutt as he was exiting the bathroom, the lone towel wrapped around his waist exposing the scarred, cracked bones of his arms and torso. Not that you hadn’t seen it all before, several times in fact, but you flushed when he caught you staring.

He would have teased you over this normally, but the way you were dressed- with Red’s jacket dwarfing your form and a collar fastened around your neck. Not neglecting the fact that you had his scent all over you -was far better material to bully you with.

“sup, doll?” He smirked down at you, his tone low and teasing, as he leant against the doorframe to prevent you from passing, “what ya doin’?”

You rolled your eyes good-naturedly, “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, bone boy.”

“’m jus’ askin’ what ya doin’, that’s all!”

A dubious hum accompanied a brow raised in skepticism at the skeleton. A snort of laughter easily escaped you when his expression shifted to mirror your own in an exaggerated manner.

“I’m trying to take a shower if you’d let me pass!” You waved your hand in the general direction of the bathroom in faux exasperation, but the very obvious laughter to your tone only served to widen his impish grin.

“aw, ya all roughed up after ya boning session?” He cooed, coaxing an embarrassed flush to warm your face.

“Yes, now move!” You giggled, trying to wriggle your way around him as he attempted to box you in.

“nope, th’ toll for entry is one” He held up a clawed finger to accentuate, amusement evident on his features, “kiss.”

“You’re disgusting.” You joked, rolling your eyes as you huffed out a laugh and earning a snort in response, “Fine.”

As Mutt leaned down to press his mouth to yours, you allowed him to get within a hairs-width of you before you ducked out of the way and slipped past, kicking the door shut and locking it with a triumphant shout.

“ya wound me, doll!” You heard him call from the other side of the door, prompting you to dissolve into a fit of giggles.

“Get good, bitch!” You called back.

You heard him snicker before the opening and closing of his bedroom door reached your ears and exhaled heavily with a soft smile still playing on your lips. After plopping down your change of clothes on the bathroom counter, you clicked the shower dial to the ‘on’ position before quickly checking yourself over in the mirror.

 Wow, you seriously did look rough. The dark bags under your eyes had lessened somewhat, but they were still pretty prominent, plus your hair was a birds-nest of a mess.

You moved on to open the jacket adorning your figure to take a better look at your aching body and bit your lip as you surveyed the purple-red bruises and puncture marks. Unless you could get your hands on some monster candy, there was no wearing anything but t-shirts and jeans for you until they healed.

It was so typical that you could heal any other living being, you thought bitterly, but because of some stupid magic rules, you couldn’t heal yourself. You had tried as soon as you had a hold on your magic when you were little, and the only explanation you got from your Coven members as to why it wasn’t possible was ‘just because’, which bothered you to no end. Perhaps it was a good thing that a Mage’s own magic didn’t work on them, you concluded, there’d probably be a lot of accidental injuries or even deaths when the little ones were learning to control their newly blossomed abilities otherwise.

Once you were showered and dressed, you dropped off Red’s clothes on his still empty bed and tidied what you could without ending up on a mission to deep-clean the entirety of his room.

 Each movement was a painful reminder of the harsh treatment your body had received, so in an optimistic move you decided to shuffle a few feet over to Mutt’s door, give it a few raps, and pray that he had some form of magic food to soothe your sore muscles.

“ya here ta steal my booze again? or are ya jus’ here ‘cuz ya were hopin’ ta catch me in nothin’ but a towel?” He grinned down at you, mischief glinting in his eyelights.

“You just never take a day off, do you?” You snorted, lightly pushing past him, and threw yourself onto his mattress with a soft bounce.

“nope.” He beamed, clearly proud of himself, as he copied your action of throwing himself onto the bed, practically landing directly on top of you.

“Mutt! Get off me, you weigh like a ton!” You squealed with a giggle, slapping his bony arms as you did so.

“a skele-ton?” He snickered, making you groan and intensify your ministrations of attempting to shove him off you until he finally relented and rolled onto the mattress beside you.

“seriously, though, ya alright?” The drama-queen of a skeleton had rolled onto his side with a hand propping up his head, wrenching a bark of laughter from you at the sight.

“Ha- Yeah, I’m fine.” You turned to face him, mirroring his pose, before asking bashfully, “I was actually wondering if you had any monster candy?”

“yer in luck, doll.” He wiggled his brows at you before rolling over once again to reach under his bed to pull out a small metal tin, which he handed to you with a cheeky grin.

With a critically raised brow, you flipped the lid of the tin, your jaw dropping in astonishment when you saw that it was filled to the brim with assorted, brightly colored candies.

“Where did you get this from?” You laughed in disbelief, picking out one that was a particularly pretty shade of blue, and handed the now closed tin back to the skeleton.

“perks of bein’ th’ big brother of th’ captain of th’ royal guard, i guess.” He shrugged, shoving the tin back in its previous place under the bed.

Hm, well at least someone in this household has the decency to tell their sibling that they’re involved with the guard. You thought bitterly, before shaking the thought from your head and addressing the skeleton before you.

With a snort, you asked jokingly, “What, you steal them or something?” You didn’t expect Mutt’s grin to grow wider as he once again waggled his brow bones at you, causing you to gasp out a laugh, “You didn’t!”

“eh, if my bro’s noticed ‘em missin’ he ain’t said anythin’” He replied nonchalantly with a small shrug, the shit-eating grin still ever present on his skull.

“Aw, it’s ‘cause he loooooves you~” You cooed, tapping him on the forehead and causing him to bat your hand away with a wry chuckle.

“heh, i dunno ‘bout that.” He mumbled, his eyelights shifting to the side as his grin faltered and faded.

“Of course he does!” You gently scolded the suddenly moody skeleton, “He’s your little brother!”

“eh, he’s got a funny way’a showin’ it.” Mutt grumbled, clawed fingers picking at the bedsheet beneath him.

You hummed lowly and rolled your eyes, “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he’d implode if he even just thought about having a positive emotion.”

Mutt snorted, his face brightening slightly before he caught you off-guard with a completely unrelated statement, “hey, heard ya finally marked red.”

“You know you can just tell me if you don’t want to talk about something, right?” You asked amusedly, only half-joking.

“yea, but that’s not as fun.” He teased as he mirrored your previous mocking action of tapping you on the forehead, an impish grin once again gracing his features.

You rolled your eyes with a knowing grin, “He tell you?”

“nah, but he’s been walkin’ ‘round with it on show since ‘e got it.” He cackled meanly as your face morphed into mortification.

“Oh my god, I’m going to kill him.” You mumbled; reddened face hidden in your hands.

“i think it’s kinda sweet,” Mutt contended with a small shrug, dropping his teasing tone, “like he’s proud of showin’ off that yer together.”

“Yeah, it kinda is.” You mumbled happily with a small, bashful smile.

“blegh, get out!” Mutt exclaimed dramatically, sticking a lilac tongue out at you, “yer love makes me sick!”

You stuck your tongue out in return, then sat up and popped the forgotten candy into your mouth, sighing in relief when it worked its magic on your bruised body.

“I’m gonna go get something to eat now anyway,” You yawned as you stretched your arms over your head, “You wanna come?”

“nah, gotta finish up some stuff for work.” He copied your action, stretching his maw wide and showing off his golden fang and the void behind it.

“I never have asked you what you do for work, have I?” You contemplated, a sheepish expression overtaking your features.

“yep, cuz yer a terrible friend, that’s why.” Mutt needled playfully, prompting you to gasp melodramatically with an amused grin, before he helpfully supplied, “jus’ do some computer security stuff, nothin’ fancy.”

“Oh! Well,” You started in a mock-pleasant tone, shuffling yourself off the bed and into a standing position, your hands on your hips in a theatric fashion, “now I know, and I am no longer the worst friend in existence!”

Mutt snorted as he retrieved a carton of cigarettes from his nightstand, “whateva ya say, doll.”

You flicked the skeleton off with a mischievous grin, giggling when he returned the action, and began to make your way to the stairs.

When you had reached the hallway, an odd sensation of dread washed over you, seemingly out of nowhere. Your face scrunched up in bewilderment as a hand came to lay flat against your chest in an attempt to calm your racing heart.

Once again, unnervingly familiar images flashed behind your eyes – so vivid that you felt as though you had been transported back in time.

 Your body is numb, stiff with ice as you fall onto cold, hardened dirt. A purple and black-clad skeleton monster stands threateningly over you, a stranger, yet hatred twists his features into a vicious sneer. He turns on his heel with a scoff and walks away. You look down. Your hands are slick with warm blood. It’s your blood. You’re dying. It hurts.

 Now you’re standing in front of a human, no older than fourteen or fifteen. They’re looking at you with eyes full of sorrow. You’re begging them for something, hysterical. You can’t decipher the fuzzy, muffled words, but you desperately plead in wrenching sobs. They bite their lip and say something in response. You’re thanking them. Everything goes black.

You’re running, your breaths short and panicked. You round the corner in the dark, stone-walled hallway and burst into a room. Your brother stands there, a blade in his hand. You scream and tackle him, then hold him tight him as he sobs an apology. He lives. You never leave.

You were grateful that you were alone. The force that the not-memories had hit you with had you reeling backwards, slamming your back against the wall before you slid to a crouch. A hand was tightly welded to your mouth, stifling your heaving sobs as you were snapped back to reality.

You allowed yourself to silently cry, the intense emotions that had wracked your body along with the not-memories slowly dissipating as you did. The confusion surrounding the ordeal was what caused you the most fear. Flashbacks were something that you were unfortunately used to dealing with, but the contents were always of the same few events – so how were you experiencing memories that weren’t yours?

After picking yourself up with trembling limbs, you attempted to shove the whole thing to the back of your mind, took a deep breath and slipped back into the bathroom to splash cold water on your face. Once you were sure that you didn’t look like you had been crying, you slapped on a smile and headed downstairs.

Well, what else could you do? The smart thing would have been to tell someone, obviously, but all you knew was to hide your issues and deal with them alone. The guilt over possibly involving anyone else was overwhelming, especially after having your status as a Mage forcibly outed to the one you held dearest. So, you did what you did best and buried it with the rest of the troubling memories.

When you eventually arrived in the kitchen, you were pleased to see Papyrus cooking away over the stove with Sans once again sat at the far end of the breakfast bar, though this time he wasn’t alone. Butch and Axe were sat with him, the two shorter skeletons casually chattering away whilst Butch scribbled at his sketchbook.

“Hey!” You greeted the skeletons with a grin, prompting all four to lift their heads and shoot you a greeting back with varying expressions. Sans and Papyrus seemed happy enough to see you, but Butch and Axe seemed hesitant, almost bashful, and you could hazard a guess at why.

“FRIEND, HELLO!” Papyrus abandoned his station at the stove to whisk you into a hug, one which you gratefully returned, giggling all the way, “DO YOU WANT SOME SPAGHETTI? IT IS MADE BY THE ONE AND ONLY GREAT CHEF PAPYRUS!” He bellowed proudly once you were placed back on your feet, his hands on his hips with a puffed-out chest.

“You know, that actually sounds amazing.” You said dreamily, the smell of the cooking pasta causing your stomach to growl, “Hah, thanks, Paps.”

“YOUR STOMACH MUST BE VERY CROSS WITH YOU IF IT’S MAKING THAT NOISE!” He fretted, forcing a snort from you, “HAVE YOU EATEN AT ALL TODAY?”

“…no” You admitted sheepishly, donning a semi-guilty expression when he tutted at you.

“THAT WILL NOT DO. GO SIT DOWN.” He scolded gently, wagging a finger at you, “IT SHALL BE READY MOMENTARILY!”

“Okay, okay.” You conceded with a grin, hopping up on the breakfast bar next to Sans.

“how ya doin, bud?” He placed his head in his hand, his arm resting on the table as he smiled lazily at you, prompting you to sigh softly with a small smile in return.

“I’m not too bad, just tired and stressed with everything going on at work, plus the amount of research I have to write up for school. I don’t think I’m even sleeping at this point.” You laughed exhaustedly, mirroring his action.

“y’know, ya don’t have to keep helping me at the lab if it’s too much for ya,” The skeleton furrowed his brows, concern shrinking his eyelights.

“Oh, stars no.” You waved his concern away, “I’m pretty sure our little lunch dates are the only thing keeping me going right now.”

“lunch dates, huh?” He snickered; a bony brow raised. You didn’t miss the tint of blue across his cheekbones as his eyelights darted to the side, avoiding your amused gaze.

You took a breath to retort but hesitated with a curious expression when your ears picked up the quiet mumbling of Axe and Butch next to you. You strained to pick up the words, being the nosy creature that you are, but whatever they were saying wasn’t in English. Axe’s speech sounded almost like creaking, warping metal, whereas Butch’s was similar to that of the nervous chittering of a songbird. It suited them, you thought.

Sans seemed to pick up on your poorly veiled curiosity as he turned to the brothers, speaking firmly but gently.

“hey, don’t speak font in front of the human, it’s rude.” He scolded lightly, shooting them a critical look. Both brothers shrank back with mumbled ‘sorry’s, but instead of continuing the conversation in English, hopped down from their chairs, and stepped outside, out of eyesight.

“You didn’t have to do that, Sans.” You sighed, smiling sympathetically, “I don’t mind.”

“heh, i said it ‘cuz they’re talking about ya, bud.” He said critically, his expression having slipped into worry, “everything alright?”

You groaned and rubbed your tired eyes with the back of your hand. “Yeah, it’s okay. I’ll talk to them.” You conceded with a sigh, sliding off your seat and walking quickly towards the sliding glass door, unwilling to spill anything to Sans about his cousins’ struggles without their permission.

You weren’t worried about what the brothers had said. From your short time in knowing them, you got the sense that they weren’t the types to slander someone behind, or in this case right besides, their back.

When Sans didn’t make a move to speak up or stop you, you slipped through the door and into the garden, the warm air and soft sunshine making you smile against the anxiety fluttering in your chest. Although, with a moment to gather your thoughts, you realized with a rush of adrenaline that you hadn’t even asked Sans what Font was in your exhausted daze. Hopefully, he wouldn’t get suspicious, or just assume that Red had explained previously, but the thought still made your chest feel heavy.

Shaking the speculation from your head, you looked around to easily spot the two runaways, who were sat on the patio at the far end of cabin lowly talking to each other in Font. Not bothering to warn them of your presence, you simply flopped down onto your backside in front of them, earning a jump and a startled squeak from the skeletons.

“What’s going on, you two?” You raised an eyebrow, your tone kind but persistent, “Were you talking about me?”

“fuckin’ vanilla,” Axe grumbled, his eyelight shrinking and growing as he looked back towards the door with a scowl.

“I-It w-wasn’t anything b-bad!” Butch defended with wide sockets, his voice shaky and shrill.

“I’m not upset! I just want to know if I’ve done anything wrong and, if I have, how to fix it.” You insisted, your tone understanding as you smiled gently at the brothers.

There were a few beats of tense silence before Axe finally spoke up as an embarrassed blue flush crept across his face. The startling contrast of ruby and sapphire upon his skull was pretty, you decided, a barely visible smile twitching the corners of your lips upwards.

“ya didn’t… do anythin’ wrong,” He muttered, refusing to meet your eyes, “we… thought ya didn’t wanna be around… us anymore.”

“What?” You laughed in disbelief, your expression a mixture of concern and worry, “That’s not true at all! What made you think that?”

“A-After my panic attack, w-we thought you would think w-we were… w-weird, I g-guess.” Butch supplied, his hands twisting into the fabric of his jeans as he spoke with a tone enveloped in shame.

“Are you kidding? I would never think you guys were weird.” You said softly, adding as an afterthought, “You know that I have episodes too; I understand what it’s like.”

Axe shifted uncomfortably as his gaze remained trained on the floor, “yea, but ya… not weird like… us.”

You couldn’t help but snort at that, wishing that you could tell them just how wrong they were.
“Heh, I’m plenty weird, don’t you worry.” You grinned, laughter infecting your voice as you decided to do what you do best: talk shit until everyone feels better! “You know, one time, I was dating this guy, right?”

The brothers perked up at your jovial tone, eyelights snapping to your face as you spoke and expressions melting into something more positive. Butch gave an adorable little nod to show that he was listening, encouraging you to continue.

“We’d only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks, so I hadn’t exactly told him about any of that stuff. So, when I did eventually have an episode, you wanna know what happened?” Both skeletons nodded hesitantly, their wide eye sockets portraying their interest in your story. “He tried to grab me to like, shake me out of it or something, I guess. The poor guy got his nose broken.” You finished, embarrassment causing you to breathe a laugh and lightly cover your mouth with your hand.

“seriously?” Axe burst out in laughter, prompting his brother to giggle quietly with him, “there’s… no way.”

“Yeah, I completely freaked out and punched him square in the face. That relationship did not last.” You giggled, earning another round of laughter from the brothers.

Once the laughter had died down, you lowered your voice and spoke with as much genuine intent as you could, “There’s a lot of stuff I could tell you, but let’s just agree that there’s no way in hell I’m ever going to think you two are weird, okay?”

The two looked apprehensive, their eyelights briefly meeting for a moment before they conceded with a nod, earning a pleased grin from you.

“Thank you f-for helping m-me. Those attacks d-don’t happen as much anymore, b-but it was s-scary and… you really h-helped.” Butch smiled gently at you, prompting you to smile back.

“It’s no problem at all, really!” You started, shifting uneasily when a thought caused guilt to writhe within you, “I’m really sorry if it’s my fault it happened, I didn’t realize…” You trailed off, worrying at your lip with your teeth.

“O-Oh no, it’s okay!” The anxious skeleton fretted, sympathy evident in his features, “I’m just g-glad you were t-there!”

“me too… i wasn’t exactly the… most helpful, heh.” Axe added, guilt twisting his expression, “i, uh, get a lotta… memory problems ‘cuz of,” He tapped at his skull, and you hummed in understanding, “so when i get stressed… my mind kinda goes… blank, y’know?”

“I understand.” You breathed, smiling gently, “Seriously, though, if anything like that ever happens again to either of you and you need help, or even if you just need someone to talk to, I’m here. Okay?”

Both of their faces lit up with small blushes as they nodded bashfully, pulling a giggle from you at how adorable they looked with their skulls covered in blue and orange.

“Okay! Now, are you gonna come back inside and eat? I’m sure Paps and Sans are waiting for us!”
That earned a more vigorous nod as enthusiastic smiles stretched their faces, making you chuckle as you stood with them.  

The kitchen was strangely empty, so you decided to poke your head into the dining room and saw almost all of the skeletal family present, all talking and eating together. It forced a fond grin from you as your soul thrummed in joy.

The only people missing were Red and Edge, which you found odd. Red had been gone a while now, and you were beginning to get worried. However, you had an uneasy feeling that you knew exactly where the two of them were.

Instead of overthinking it, you took your seat - which just so happened to be between Mutt and Sans - and enjoyed the family dinner. It was actually a really nice change of pace, to see everyone getting along. The energy of the room was warm and comfortable, easing your troubled mind.

Mutt, of course, needled you for avoiding his kiss earlier, and you teased him right back. At one point he began to poke and prod you, so you shoved his shoulder, then he shoved yours, and eventually the impromptu play fight resulted in both of you on the floor, laughing hysterically and wearing spaghetti. Poor Papyrus fretted and worried whilst you wheezed out an apology to the sweet skeleton for wasting his food, to which he simply scraped up what he could salvage and passed the plates to Axe and Butch, of whom were elated to be offered a second helping.

Sans, of course, was not only in stitches, but in his element and relentlessly hitting you with pun after pun, most somehow pasta themed. Papyrus was, hilariously, losing his mind at the puns, screeching, and scolding his brother who simply made yet another pun in response, but the twitch of his mouth as he fought to hold in his laughter didn’t go unnoticed by you. Even Milord, who made a show of rolling his eyelights and grumbling, looked as though he were holding back a smile, his eyelights sparkling with amusement when he caught your gaze.

Once you were all done, you helped Papyrus clean up despite his constant insistence that you didn’t have to, whilst Mutt unhelpfully sat at the breakfast bar, resigned to teasing both of you good-naturedly.

Your clothes were still slightly stained with marinara sauce, and so you and Mutt strolled upstairs together to change. You stopped by Mutt’s room first, and both of you changed into one of his t-shirts after he insisted that you’d look better in it anyway. You easily gave in. The shirt he had picked out for you had ‘bad to the bone’ inscribed on it, the text made up of adorable little femurs; it was huge on your frame, and you couldn’t resist a baggy shirt. Plus, the shirt he had pulled on with a smirk was similar to yours, except the text read ‘bone daddy’. You had almost wet yourself from laughing so hard at his proud expression when he pointed it out to you.

Just as you had finished changing, a bang against the conjoining wall to what you knew was Red’s bedroom along with raised, familiar voices caused both of you to freeze. Your respective heads whipped around to give each other uneasy looks as the furious yelling steadily increased in volume.

With your jaw clenched you stepped forward with resolute, sure now that what you had suspected before at dinner was correct, and you were determined to mediate this fight. You hesitated and looked back at Mutt with a soft frown when he grabbed your arm, preventing you from going any further.

“doll, i wouldn’t interrupt whatever they’re fightin’ about,” He warned, concern etched into his features, “it can get pretty violent.”

“I don’t care.” You replied, your voice level and determined as you pulled yourself from his grip, “It’s my fault they’re fighting in the first place, I’m fixing this.”

With that, you stalked out of the room, leaving Mutt to curse and chase after you. He heard your voice, loud and firm, echoing into the hallway, before he came to a halt in the doorway to gawk at the scene in front of him.

There you were, stood between the seething brothers, hands on your hips as you held their glowers with a glare of your own and scolded them - and they were listening. Sure, he had expected Red to listen, but Edge?

Reluctant to interrupt, he silently backed away from the doorway to stand against the wall, out of view, and listen. He jumped when the door was slammed shut, then pressed his acoustic meatus to the wood with purely curious intent.

With the door firmly shut, you spoke lowly so as not to be overheard, painfully aware that Mutt was close by.

“Edge, you knew Red was going to be angry, so why don’t you hear him out and validate his fucking feelings for once instead of getting defensive and lashing out?!” You hissed, earning a positively furious look from the taller skeleton- a contradictory expression to the smug smile on Red’s.
“And Red,” You turned on him, the self-satisfied look on his face quickly slipping into one of surprise, “I know this is hurtful, but can you look at it from his side and try to understand why he wanted to keep this from you?!”

The two skeletons remained silent, deep grimaces contorting their features as they refused to even look at each other.

“For fucks sake, you’re family!” You threw your hands up, exasperated, “You’re supposed to look out for each other and love each other, not fight over everything and constantly berate each other!”

“AND WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP?” Edge spat, his flaming eyelights boring a hole into your skull.

Your breath caught in your throat at the question, forcing you to swallow harshly. “Because I care about you both, and I want you both to be happy, and that’s not going to happen if you’re fighting all the time!” With your voice gradually rising in volume, you clenched your jaw and stood resolute, ready for whatever was going to be thrown your way.

“I WOULD SUGGEST YOU STAY OUT OF IT, MAGE.” Edge growled, crossing his arms over his chest before he simpered maliciously, his voice laced with condescension, “I RECALL YOU SAYING YOU WERE AN ONLY CHILD, ONE WITH DEAD PARENTS NO LESS. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FAMILY, HM?”

The comment made your chest tight, and you clenched your fists, attempting to quell your rising temper at his obvious taunting. Red’s audible snarl signaled you to snap your gaze to him. You moved quickly, standing between him and Edge and preventing him from flying at his younger brother.

“No.” You spoke coolly, rage twisting your face into a scowl, “No more fighting. If you’re going to lose it, then leave the room and take a breath, okay?”

“’m fine. jus’ do what ya gotta do, angel.” He growled through bared teeth, “i’m stayin’ here ta make sure he don’t hurt ya.”

Edge scoffed and rolled his eyelights at the display, prompting you to turn your attention to him with a fiery glare.

“You wanna know what I know about ‘family’?” Your voice remained level and dangerously calm yet retained an undertone of fury. Not bothering to wait for a response, you pushed on, “What I know is that you’re damned lucky to have a brother that loves you so much, and wants the best for you, even though you treat him like shit.” You spat the last word at him, causing him to falter somewhat.
“What I know is that you can have all of that ripped away from you in a second and it fucks you up so badly that you start believing that it’s not worth it to stay alive and fight anymore, that you’d rather be dead because it hurts so fucking much. What I know is that if I would give fucking anything in the world to have my brother back, and you’re throwing yours away like he’s nothing! And you know what, Edge?”

The skeleton's face had shifted into shame, his eyelights only daring to meet your eyes when you spoke his name.

“It fucking disgusts me.” You hissed with as much venom as either of the skeletons had ever heard from you, your eyes flashing dangerously in an icy glare at the taller brother. Said skeleton had completely shrunk back now, a rare look of hurt twisting his features.

“So, apologize to your brother and fucking fix this.” You spoke lowly after taking a calming breath, turning on your heel and storming out of the room, afraid that, with your loose grip on your attack magic, if Edge said anything else to provoke you that you would unintentionally hurt him.

Slamming the door behind you, you stalked down the hallway and downstairs, heading straight for the well-loved liquor cabinet under the bar. Your mind was so enraptured with rage that you didn’t notice when Mutt shrank back into his room as you stomped past, his face contorted with hurt and fear after having overheard the majority of your argument with the brothers.

With a huff you pulled out the biggest bottle of booze you could find, which just so happened to be red wine, and popped the top before taking a hefty swig of the sour liquid. You knew that self-medicating as a way to cope with your heightened emotions was the last thing you should be doing, and you would advise anyone else to avoid it like the plague, but you had a tendency to self-destruct at times like these- you always had.

Bottle in hand, you sauntered into the garden and took a seat on the swing. With a slow exhale you tried to release the rage from your body, and when that barely worked, resigned yourself to taking hearty swigs of wine instead to soothe your frayed nerves. The muted sounds of animal calls and the gentle wind against your skin did wonders to eventually calm you, that or you had finally drunk enough to get tipsy and didn’t have the mental capacity to care anymore, but either way you were relatively placid by the time Red found you.

“ya okay, angel?” He asked softly as he took a seat next to you. You allowed him to wrap an arm around your shoulders as you leaned into him, resting your head on his chest.

“Yeah.” You sighed, your words laced with exhaustion, before you looked up at the skeleton, “Are you? Are you and Edge okay now?”

“yea, everythin’s alright,” He sighed back, using a skeletal hand to begin playing with your hair.

“You’re not mad at me?” You asked cautiously, the content of their argument having sprung to the forefront of your increasingly intoxicated mind. 

A short, breathy chuckle left the skeleton as he shook his head, “nah, th’ boss explained everythin’ ta me. plus, after th’ way ya rinsed him, i couldn’t be mad at ya” He added the last part with a snort, then moving his eyelights met your gaze, his expression soft, “i’m actually glad ya encouraged him ta tell me instead’a tellin’ me yerself.”

A relieved sigh left you as you smiled up at your mate, “I thought you would be. I’m happy I made the right decision.”

A happy hum left the skeleton before the two of you fell into a comfortable quiet, simply enjoying each other’s company whilst you basked in soft sunlight.

“Red?” You broke the silence, your voice hushed. Said skeleton grunted to indicate that he was listening, “Why do you call Edge ‘boss’?”

“heh, ‘cuz that’s what he was underground,” He answered casually with a small shrug, seemingly unbothered by revealing the information to you.

“He was your boss?” You drew your eyebrows together in confusion, lifting your head from his chest to face him, “Like, you worked for him?”

“yep.” He said nonchalantly, grinning softly at you.

The gears began to turn slowly in your head, the alcohol causing your thoughts to be muddled as you attempted to piece what little you knew about Red’s life in the Underground together. You swiftly remembered your first night here when you had attempted to break up a fight between him and Milord, and a funny sinking feeling settled in your stomach.

“What, were you guys like, in the mafia or something?” You half-joked, subtly gaging his reaction. Your heart sunk when he froze with wide sockets, his eyelights jerking to your face.

“uh, yeah. kinda.” He murmured sheepishly, his expression shifting into a soft scowl, “was more like a mob, ta be honest.”

“Oh.” You breathed, worrying your lip with your teeth, “Is that why Milord called you a criminal?”

“heh, yea.” His scowl grew at the question, his tone of voice shifting into one of bitterness, “he was th’ one that took us down ‘n got us branded as criminals across th’ whole underground. fuckin’ prick.”

You couldn’t help but huff out a laugh and shake your head at the quintessentially Red insult, your mood lifting a little when you felt the skeleton relax slightly at the motion.

“Wow.” You laughed breathlessly, the information slowly sinking into your hazy mind.

You were honestly conflicted on how to feel. On one hand, you found it oddly… hot? But the moral part of you scolded yourself for thinking that. It was probably safe to assume that the two of them had Dusted other monsters, maybe even tortured them, and the thought made you queasy. However, you also completely understood doing what you needed to do to survive, and if the Underground truly was as dangerous as you had come to know it to be, having a high status as a mob boss would definitely be the ultimate protection from the harsh ‘kill or be killed’ mentality that you were aware of among monsters like Red and Edge.

You didn’t realize that you were chewing on your nails in thought until Red gently took your hand away from your mouth and into his lap, earning a wry smile from you as he did so. Your smile slipped, however, when you noticed the look of shame contorting the skeletons features.

“Thank you for telling me.” You said softly, running your thumb over the back of his hand in a soothing motion, “I love you, Red.”

His remorse was interchanged for muted astonishment as you spoke, a wry chuckle slipping past his teeth, “ya ain’t scared? disgusted? i tell ya that me n’ my bro use ta dust people fer a livin’ and all ya can say is thank you?”

“And that I love you,” You grinned cheekily, gently nudging your shoulder with his, earning a disbelieving bark of laughter from the skeleton.

“i love ya too, angel.” He murmured affectionately before nuzzling the side of your face with a skeletal kiss, “ya fuckin’ weirdo.”

It was your turn to burst out in laughter at the inappropriately timed jab, “That I am, good sir.” You quipped, exaggerating your accent for effect, and earning a snort from the prickly skeleton.

“do i get ta ask ya a question now?” He raised a skeletal brow at you as he asked, prompting you to groan and slap a hand over your face.

“Don’t do it,” You murmured, tone exhausted, “I already know what you’re gonna ask.”

“about ya- “

“Yes, about my brother!” You cut him off with an exasperated whine, already well aware of your slip-up when you were going off on Edge. It was just a matter of time before he or Red asked about it since it had come completely out of left-field – you just didn’t expect it to be so soon. “It’s a super depressing story, dude. All you need to know is that he isn’t around anymore, and it sucks.”

“’m sorry, angel.” Red sighed, pulling you closer to him with a hand around your waist, “ya never haveta tell me ‘bout it if ya don’t want.”

“I will, just… not right now.” You conceded, pressing your head to his shoulder once again, “I’ve had so much shit from my past dug up without me wanting it to be lately and I… I’m just tired, I guess.”

“i get ya,” He muttered, placing another skeletal kiss atop your head.

The two of you again lapsed into a comfortable silence, the slight rocking movement of the swing and the warm summer breeze making for a soothing combination. The quiet gave you ample time to think, and your mind always ended up circling back to the same thing.

“Hey, I’m… sorry.” You mumbled, lifting your legs to hug them into your chest as you leaned against the skeleton.

“fer what?” He asked lowly, shifting so he could meet your gaze as he furrowed his brows together.

“Just… hurting you. I really messed you around because I wasn’t sure of my feelings, and you got hurt in the process. It was really selfish of me so… I’m sorry.” You whispered, guilt forcing you to look away from his face as you worried your lip with your teeth.

“s’fine, angel.” He shrugged lightly, his demeanor nonchalant. You looked up at him incredulously, frustration building quickly inside of you.

“No- Red, it isn’t fine.” You whined, prompting the skeleton to scrunch his face up in befuddlement, “I hurt you. I hurt you so badly, so many times, just because I couldn’t get my shit together! You’re supposed to- to…”

“yell n’ scream at ya?” He asked with a laugh in his tone, shaking his head when you nodded meekly, “yea, ya hurt me, but no one can be perfect, angel. ‘m jus’ glad ya put up with me at all.”

“I don’t put up with you!” You gasped, shifting so you were fully facing him, “I love you! I love being around you! You make me feel so safe and happy and- and just loved! You’re everything I’ve ever wanted and more, and I’m so sorry that it took so long for me to realize that.”

The liquid courage fizzing in your veins had certainly helped with you verbalizing your emotions, something neither you nor Red were used to. As a result, your proclamation of love had the skeleton lit up a bright ruby color, his eyelights refusing to meet your intense gaze.

“heh, i- uh,” He fiddled with his hands nervously, his eyelights darting everywhere but your face, “i forgive ya, ‘s okay.”

“Oh!” You groaned, slapping a hand to your face as you turned to sit back in your previous position, “I made you uncomfortable. Fuck, I’m sorry!”

“huh? nah, ya didn’t make me uncomfortable, angel.” He chuckled, using a skeletal hand to gently grasp your chin and turn your head to face him, “’s jus’, i’ve never had anyone say that kinda thing ta me before, that’s all.”

Your heart sank as he said that and, in your drunk, stupidly determined mind, you made a decision.
“Then I will say all of the nice things all the time forever, okay? You’re always going to hear them from me for the rest of your life!” You rambled, your eyes filled with resolute as you grabbed his face and planted a kiss on his forehead, prompting him to sputter and flush even brighter.

“ya- ya can’t say shit like that.” He grumbled, a bashful smile tugging at his mouth as he shifted nervously.

“Yes, I can because you deserve nice things and kind words because you’re amazing!” You huffed, sitting back against the swing with crossed arms with a satisfied smirk, clearly proud of yourself.

You squeaked when he grabbed your thighs, pulling you into him before he lifted you by your butt and positioned you so that you were straddling his lap. Before you could protest, he was pressing his teeth to your lips, coaxing a mix between a sigh and a moan to tumble from your mouth. As he pulled back, a hand gently brushed your hair away from your face as you leaned happily into the touch.

“Mmh, is this your way of thanking me?” You giggled, looking at him with hazy, lidded eyes.

“maybe.” He replied huskily, his grin growing as eyelights harbored by lidded sockets flickered gently, watching your lips as you spoke.

“I’ll have to compliment you more often.” You teased with a breathy laugh before lightly tilting his chin upwards to place a lingering peck on his teeth.

“mhm, all th’ time fer th’ rest of my life.” He mumbled once you had pulled back, earning a quiet snicker from you.

“That’s right. All the time for the rest of your life.” You breathed; your gaze soft as you smiled affectionately at him.

“ya wanna get smashed n’ make fun’a shitty movies?” He asked suddenly with a smirk, prompting you to gasp and perk up.

“Fuck yes, please!” You exclaimed perhaps a little too enthusiastically, earning a rumbling chuckle from your mate.

Getting drunk and watching bad movies purely to rip into the flicks had started around the beginning of your friendship with Red and was a result of you being too depressed to do anything but lie on the couch and feel sorry for yourself. Of course, the persistent skeleton had not allowed you to do so, instead bringing over way too much booze and food and turning the TV over to the worst movie he could think of. By the end of the night, you were in much better spirits, and it became a tradition for when either of you felt like shit and needed something to distract you.

With that, you both hopped up from the swing - you grabbing the abandoned bottle of wine and taking a swig before handing it to a grateful Red first - and headed back inside. The two of you fumbled giddily about the kitchen, you more so due to the alcohol coursing through your veins, to find more booze as well as snacks to prepare for your spontaneous movie night, before making your escape with arms full of goodies.

Just as you rounded the corner to head up the stairs, however, Red stopped you with an outstretched arm, a clawed finger over his teeth. You opened your mouth to ask what was wrong but were met with a quick shake of his head that signaled you to stay quiet.

With furrowed brows, you strained your ears to try to listen to whatever Red seemed to have picked up on. After listening for a minute, you deduced that there were three of the household’s members talking in the living room, but for the second time that day you couldn’t understand what was being said. One of the voices sounded like shattering ice, whilst the other was similar to the sound of a crackling campfire, and the final voice was almost akin to rattling chains. They weren’t the exact sounds as you could describe them, but without knowing Font, it was the best your human brain could come up with.

“Who is that?” You mouthed to Red, tilting your head in a silent question.

“tiny, mutt ‘n boss.” He muttered with his eyes remaining trained in front of him, keeping his voice to a barely audible whisper.

“How come I’ve never heard you speak Font?” You teased in a hushed whisper, a shit-eating grin on your face as your inebriated state caused you to completely misjudge how tense the situation was.

Red blanched, a mixture of befuddlement and exasperation scrunching his brow bones together with his mouth downturned, “’cuz i never needed ta- jus’ shush!”

You mouthed an apology before biting down on your lip to contain a snort. Wine might have been the worst choice for this situation. Where spirits made you boisterous and confident, wine simply reduced you to a puddle of giggles after one glass, and you’d definitely had more than one glass.

“What’re they saying?” You hissed lowly, finally getting impatient as well as frustrated at not being able to understand.

“they’re talkin’ about ya, angel.” He replied quietly, unease lacing his tone, “mutt’s rinsin’ tiny ‘bout not tellin’ ‘im about ya.”

“Huh? What do you- oh.” Your befuddlement slipped into open irritation as your muddled mind put the pieces together, “Oh, shit! Shit!” You hissed frantically, before mumbling to yourself, “I can’t get a fucking second of peace around here, can I?”

Red huffed out a short laugh, “not when yer mage-ing up th’ place all th’ time.”

A bark of laughter forced its way past your lips, causing you to hurriedly slap a hand over your mouth with a gasp, resulting in the numerous food items you were carrying with that arm to go tumbling to the floor in, what sounded to you, a crash louder than the engine of a fighter jet. The chatter immediately came to a halt, instead replaced by the furious stomping footsteps of one of the group’s members.

“Just what do you two think you are doing?!”

Shit.

Chapter Text

Milord stood furious before you, his arms crossed over his chest as he fixed you with an icy glare. It took every iota of self-restraint that you had not to burst out laughing (mostly out of nerves), and so you smartly decided to keep your mouth shut as he raised his browbone in silent distaste.

Edge and Mutt, who were just a few feet behind Milord now, were stood in defensive poses and glared at you, Mutt more so than his cousin. The look Mutt was giving you, a mixture of fear and hatred, ripped any semblance of humor from the situation, turning your stomach and tightening your throat. You tried desperately to catch his gaze, but he refused to meet your eyes.

You inhaled sharply, blinking rapidly to rid yourself of your fast forming tears. The room was spinning and wavering, forcing you to wordlessly move to press your back against the nearest wall and grit your teeth, both in an attempt to ground yourself and in an effort not to cry.

“we were jus’ goin’ upstairs, tiny.” Red rolled his eyelights, a grimace pulling at his mouth, “don’ get yer panties in a twist.”

Milord hummed shortly, glancing briefly to your distraught face before fixing his eyelights on Red with a sneer, “May I be correct in assuming that you were eavesdropping, criminal?”

“ya would be correct in assumin’ that yer a pain in my fuckin’ coccyx” He grumbled sarcastically, his eyelights quickly flitting from Milord’s face to his brothers, who simply shook his head in silent reprimand.

Before either party could respond, however, a sob wrenched itself from your throat and you dropped the remaining items to the floor with a clatter. Each of the present skeletons froze at the action with wide eye sockets harboring shrunken eyelights that were trained on your trembling form.

“Mutt.” You whimpered his name, your voice hoarse from your futile efforts to keep your devastation at bay, as you took a few tentative steps forward and past his older brother.

The others could only watch in an air of uneasiness as the skeleton’s face morphed from anger into fear and upset, causing you to jerk back as though the look had physically scalded you.

“Mutt, please.” You breathed, your voice bordering on hysterical desperation, “I can explain everything if you just… just listen to me, please!”

Your soul felt like it was about to split in two, the dull pain causing you to inhale sharply and clutch at your chest. The agony only intensified as Mutt’s face once again slipped into anger and his hazy eyelights dropped to the floor, ignoring your pleas. You inhaled sharply when a hand gently took yours, your blurry vision quickly shifting to Red’s enraged face as you fought to keep a grueling panic attack from overtaking you.

“c’mon, angel.” He urged you softly, turning you away from the others, “let’s go.”

You opened your mouth to refuse, to argue and insist that you needed to speak to Mutt now, but all that came out was a strangled sob as he led you away from the living room and used a shortcut to drop you both into the privacy of your bedroom.

In your drunken, emotion ridden mind, you had concluded that you had just lost your best friend, and so the second you and Red were alone you were reduced to a sobbing, hyperventilating wreck. You clutched for dear life onto Red, who immediately picked you up and held you to his chest as he settled you both on the bed, rubbing your back and allowing you to cry yourself out.

His soul thrashed and keened inside of him, desperate to comfort you, to rescue you from the horrid emotions that were causing you to wail until you couldn’t breathe, but all he could do in that moment was hold you and mumble soothing assurances.

He felt helpless. He hated feeling helpless.

Eventually you had cried enough to likely fill an Olympic swimming pool, and you shot Red a wobbly smile in gratitude for staying with you, of which he tried his hardest to return, however it only ended up looking strained against the quiet ire flickering within his eyelights.

“ya know once tiny explains everythin’ to him he’ll prolly be fine with ya, right?” Red said as softly as the upset thrashing in his chest would allow whilst brushing your hair away from your tear soaked face.

“I know,” You sniffled, wiping at your tears with a sigh, “I just- it hurt so bad, the way he looked at me. Like he was disgusted by my existence.”

“i know, angel. ya just gotta remember that he don’t know th’ whole story ‘n… us monsters are sensitive ‘bout mages, yanno?” He murmured with a small frown, his attempt at comforting you soothing you slightly.

“Yeah, I understand.” You muttered miserably before letting out a yawn, “I think I’m just going to go to sleep.”

“ya want me t’stay with ya?” Red asked, earning a pitiful nod as you pulled yourself off the bed to change into sleep shorts and a t-shirt.

Looking at the shirt that Mutt had given you to wear prompted a fresh set of tears to well in your eyes, and you threw it to the ground with a huff. You were certainly feeling sorry for yourself, and so you were quick to curl up under the covers with Red, clinging to him like he was your lifeline. He had stripped down to just a pair of boxers and the warm, humming magic of his bones and sweet smokey smell was soothing your aching soul as he used gentle touches to run his fingers through your hair.

As a result, you were swiftly pulled into a fitful slumber full of panic inducing nightmares. Not once did you wake though, as your mind and body were so exhausted and heavy with alcohol that waking was a near impossibility.

With a soft sigh Red attempted to follow your lead and get some rest, but the swirl of agitation, concern, and sorrow, and the resulting rapid, infringing thoughts prevented him from doing so. He was upset with Mutt for reacting the way he did, and furious with him for ruining what was on track to be the absolute perfect day. Not only had he finally received your mark after months of patiently waiting, but the way you had defended him and yourself to his brother had only intensified his adoration for you. In fact, after you had stalked out of the room and left the two brothers together in a state of awe, the resulting conversation had prompted Edge to apologize to him and even promise to do better.

Not once in his life had Red ever heard his brother apologize for anything. Even if it resulted in ruining friendships or sometimes even life-threatening injuries perpetrated by the monster he had wronged, his stubborn brother would refuse. So, when your chiding had resulted in such an achievement, Red was sure that he was hearing things. But no, with an exceedingly rare look of guilt and remorse his brother, ‘The Great and Terrible Edge’, a relentlessly cruel ex-mob boss, had asked for forgiveness for his actions.

And then Mutt had to go and ruin it all by refusing to even hear you out. It made him furious. He understood where Mutt was coming from, how he felt, but at least Red had had the decency to let you explain yourself first instead of just ignoring you and running away like a coward!

He was extremely tempted to find his wuss of a cousin and rip him a new one, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind a small whimper directed his attention back to your unconscious form. His soul writhed uncomfortably as he took in your expression of distress, your face scrunched up in a grimace as you let out another whine and intensified your grip on the bones of his ribcage.

Red knew the signs of a nightmare in you, of course he did. He had slept with you in your bed many times before you even moved in with him, and horrific night terrors were commonplace when it came to you. With a resigned grumble, he forfeited abandoning you to disparage his cousin, instead pulling you closer to him and nuzzling the top of your head in a skeletal kiss. He both loved and hated how soft you had made him with your empathetic ideals and unyielding affection, but at this point it mattered little how he felt. His job now more than ever was to protect you and comfort you the way you always had him.

You awoke in the early hours of the morning with a pained groan, the red wine having caused a throbbing headache to bloom in your temples. With a wince you became terribly aware of your stomach cramping and clenching, and the burning acid assaulting the back of your throat. Letting out a pitiful squeak, you scrambled to your feet and dashed to the bathroom to empty your stomach, somehow not even causing Red to stir in the process.

You grumbled and cursed as your tired mind caught up with how much you had actually drank last night as you moved to the sink to brush your teeth and rid yourself of the acrid taste in your mouth, then flinched and dropped your toothbrush with a clatter into the sink when a soft knock and low concerned voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“FRIEND? ARE YOU OKAY IN THERE?” A certain orange-clad skeleton called, prompting you to sigh softly and quickly wash out your mouth as well as the temporarily forgotten toothbrush.

Attempting to plaster on the most convincing smile you could, you gently opened the door to a very uneasy looking Papyrus, who was wringing his hands together with a soft frown as he watched you.

“Morning, Paps.” You greeted cheerily, “I’m okay, don’t worry!”

Papyrus may have acted airheaded and unobservant at times, but he was far from it. He hummed disapprovingly as he took in your appearance; matted and messy hair from tossing and turning all night, swollen red eyes from crying, and dark circles that were stark against your paled face.

“YOU MOST CERTAINTLY ARE NOT!” He scolded, a rare, disappointed scowl darkening his usually bright and cheery complexion at your lie, “WHAT HAPPENED?”

“I just drank too much.” You argued as your shortened temper began to flare, arms coming up to wrap around yourself in a protective gesture, “Seriously, I’m fine!” Your stomach clenched painfully once again as you registered the brief flash of hurt on the skeleton’s face, the expression immediately dampening your irritation.

“I’m sorry,” You mumbled, your downcast eyes beginning to fill with tears once again as your fingers clenched around your crossed arms and dug your nails into the soft flesh, “I shouldn’t take my anger out on you, Paps. I know you’re only trying to help.”

A newly soft smile illuminated his face as he wordlessly folded his towering frame to wrap you in a hug, of which you needily accepted, your fists bunched up in his shirt as your weakened body shook against his strong frame.

“Why Don’t You Come With Me To The Kitchen, I Know Just What You Need To Make You Feel Better.” His gentle voice came from beside your ear, prompting you to weakly nod your head against his shoulder as you forced your tears back.

What you really wanted was to crawl back into bed and throw yourself a pity party, but you trusted Papyrus. If he says that he knows what is best for you, well, you were inclined to believe him.

You felt like a little kid as he released you, standing back up to his towering height and took your hand before leading you downstairs. For once, you were relieved that you had woken up at the ass crack of dawn so that no other members of the skeleton family would see you in such a sorry state. At least you had forgone drinking even more and opted for sleep instead, otherwise you would likely have been much worse off. Papyrus would glance back worriedly at you when he thought you weren’t looking, only further intensifying the guilt writhing in your stomach as your mind assaulted you with barrages of self-deprecating thoughts.

You don’t deserve his kindness. You’re lying to him. Lying to them all. Liar. Liar. L I A R.

When you reached the kitchen, squinting against the sunlight assaulting your hungover head, Papyrus motioned for you to sit at the breakfast bar and busied himself with boiling water and fixing you some sort of hot beverage. Your mind wandered as he did so, fixating on feeling awful for refusing to talk to the skeleton about what had upset you so much that you drunk yourself into a stupor, as well as the relentless bombardment of self-hate that was yet to let up. With a slow exhale, you decided that you would at least give him surface-level details to hopefully placate him.

“I had to break up a fight between Edge and Red,” You started lowly, earning a pleased smile and a hummed affirmation to confirm that he was listening as he continued with his task, “Edge was really, really cruel to me. He said a lot of things that really hurt my feelings.” You placed your head in a hand, the other fidgeting with the fabric of your pajama shorts as Papyrus finished brewing the hot drink and brought it over, placing the steaming cup on the table and taking a seat next to you. You gazed into the swirling liquid as it began to settle to reveal your ashen reflection staring back. With a quiet, sharp inhale you quickly looked away and into Papyrus’ contemplative eyelights.

“Edge Is…” Papyrus began, a sigh forcing its way past his teeth as he mulled over his words, “He Can Be Very… Spiteful When He Feels Threatened.”

You let out a humorless laugh before muttering bitterly, “Yeah, I gathered that.”

“Is That All?” The skeleton asked, his brow bones drawn together as he regarded you, “From What I Have Seen, You Are Exceptionally Good At Handling Edge.”

You bit down on your lip as you listened, eyes downcast, then letting out a soft exhale before you answered, “Mutt and I had a fight. A really bad one.”

“I See.” He tilted his head at you with a sympathetic smile, prompting you to once again lift your gaze to his softened features, the action causing your soul to gently flutter, “May I Ask What It Was About?”

“He- um,” You cleared your throat nervously as your voice came out frail and shaky, “He found something out about me that he didn’t like and- and now he won’t even look at me.”

The sweet skeleton hummed thoughtfully before speaking kindly, “I’m Sure That Whatever It Is, It Isn’t As Awful As You Think. Sometimes We Just Need Time To Process These Things Before Accepting Or Forgiving Someone.”

The kind, naïve words caused your breath to hitch in your throat, tears burning the back of your eyes.

“I really hope that you’re right.” You whispered pitifully, offering a watery smile.

You expected the usually boisterous skeleton to proudly state that ‘of course he’s right, he’s amazing at giving advice!’ But he surprised you by simply gesturing to the forgotten cup in front of you, encouraging you to drink the now lukewarm liquid. With trembling hands, you brought the drink to your lips and took a tentative sip, only for the insanely salty taste to cause you to slap a hand over your mouth to prevent yourself from gagging.

“What is this?!” You asked with a strained voice, coughing and sputtering as the rancid taste assaulted your tastebuds.

“SEA TEA!” Papyrus exclaimed proudly, the sudden change in volume causing you to flinch slightly, “IT HAS HEALING MAGIC SPECIFICALLY MEANT FOR ILLNESS IN IT, SO DRINK UP!”

With a grimace you looked into the cup at the clear, steaming liquid and back up to the skeleton’s beaming face. You doubted such magic even existed, being an expert in healing magic yourself. However, you were resolute on not hurting his feelings by refusing, so resigned yourself to pinching your nose shut to avoid the pungent flavor before you knocked back the entirety of the cup, your eyes squeezed shut in the acceptance that it was most likely just going to come back up. You were pleasantly surprised, then, when a soothing, cooling sensation spread across your body, easing your nausea, and ridding you of your migraine. You could even feel the swelling around your eyes reducing as a wave of fresh energy washed over you.

“Woah,” You whispered, looking into the now empty cup in astonishment, before flicking your gaze up to Papyrus’ pleased face and exclaiming, “That’s amazing! I had no idea that healing magic could do this!”

“OH, YES!” He grinned, puffing his chest out in pride, “DIFFERENT MONSTER SUBSPECIES CAN TAILOR THEIR HEALING MAGIC TO SPECIFIC AILEMENTS TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE. IT’S REALLY QUITE IMPRESSIVE!”

“That’s so cool!” You grinned, feeling a million times better due to the magical brew, “Who made this one?”

“GERSON DID! HE HAS A SHOP SELLING ALL SORTS OF MAGIC-INFUSED STUFF!” Papyrus explained, seemingly excited to be talking happily with you, “HE ONLY SELLS TO OTHER MONSTERS, BUT I’M SURE HE WILL BE HAPPY TO LET YOU BUY SOMETHING IF YOU’RE WITH ME!”

So that’s why you had never discovered this type of magic before. Not only is it monster-specific, but they were hesitant to allow humans to even know about it. Not that you blamed them, humans can be greedy and corrupt. You’d be scared to allow them to experience the insanely potent magic too, especially after how you’ve seen it affect those in your Coven.

Your face warmed slightly at the prospect that Papyrus had not only trusted you enough to explain its origins, but also cared enough about you to allow you to partake in it.

LIAR.

“That sounds good, Paps.” You smiled gently at him, your soul thrumming with affection for the excitable skeleton, “Thank you, y’know, for everything. You always know exactly how to make me feel better, so… yeah, thank you.” You finished awkwardly, the tenderness in his eyelights causing butterflies to begin assaulting your stomach as your flush intensified.

“OF COURSE, THAT IS WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!” He stated confidently despite the tangerine tinting his cheekbones.

Cute.

“Hey, Paps?” You murmured, anxiety now thrashing in your gut as you clenched your hands into fists, the bite of your nails into the flesh of your palms working to ground you as you spoke, “I actually wanted to tell you something.”

Papyrus will understand. Papyrus will forgive you. Just tell him. It’ll be so much easier if you just tell him.

The sweet skeleton’s face lit up at your confession, a wide grin spreading across his face as he focused his attention on you.

“WHAT IS IT?” He questioned as gently as he could with his booming voice, the expectant, hopeful expression he wore forcing a nervous chuckle from you, “YOU KNOW YOU CAN TELL ME ANYTHING!”

No no no no NO NO NO N O

All of a sudden, a familiar, panicked voice rang from the doorway, prompting you both to swivel in your seats towards the source of the sound. The interruption had wrenched you from the panic assaulting your fragile mind and you could have sobbed in relief at how well timed it was.

“hey, pap, have ya seen- “ Red sighed in relief as you poked you head around Papyrus’ tall frame to smile at Red, your face lighting up in amusement as you realized that he had obviously jumped out of bed when he saw you weren’t there and neglected to dress himself before coming to find you, “stars, angel. ya scared th’ shit outta me!”

You slid out of your seat to make your way over to the skeleton, biting your lip to hold back your laughter. You felt slightly disappointed as well as relieved, but figured that you could tell Papyrus another time - perhaps when you weren’t feeling quite so frail.

“I’m fine, love. Papyrus has been looking after me. I’m sorry for worrying you.” You explained, placing a kiss on his forehead, and giggling when his face lit up bright red.

Your eyes flicked down to his collarbone where your mark was prominently on display. It was the first time you had actually looked at the deep indents, and they were very obviously in the shape of your flat teeth, a very subtle shimmer of your magic giving the mark a pretty sheen the same color as your soul. You could feel a very faint wave of intent emanating from it, projecting love, warmth, security. It brought a dopey grin to your face as you gazed softly at the skeleton it belonged to, who warmly returned the affectionate look.

You whipped around with a start when you heard Papyrus let out a disapproving groan, to see him with an exasperated expression as he took in Red’s appearance.

“FOR STARS SAKE, RED, PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!” He chastised his cousin, standing and walking over to the two of you.

His mouth was twitching with the effort of keeping his face stoic, but you could see the amusement shining in his eyelights. You didn’t miss the brief flick downwards of his eyelights to the stark indents on Red’s collarbone with a strange softness to the little glowing dots.

Unable to hold back your mirth any longer, you dissolved into a fit of giggles, only encouraging Red to mess with his cousin.

“nah, don’t think i will,” He said teasingly with a shit-eating grin, casually stretching his arms over his head and exposing more of his bare ribcage. Your stomach was starting to hurt from laughing so hard, and this, unfortunately for Papyrus, egged him on further.

“RED, IT IS INDECENT TO WALK AROUND EXPOSED LIKE THAT!” Papyrus scolded, wagging a finger at his cousin, and placing the other on his hip.

“what? am i gettin’ under yer skin? i thought ya’d find it humerus.” Red waggled his brows at the taller skeleton, the puns combined with Papyrus’ pained groaning causing you to gasp for air as laughter shook your body, “cmon, don’t tell me ya it don’t tickle yer funny bone.”

A mischievous smile spread across Papyrus’ face as he let out a playful laugh, “NYEH, HEH. PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE I CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU!”

You and Red were shocked into stunned silence at the skeleton’s pun, both of you bursting into wheezing laughter when it finally registered. Papyrus gave another hearty “NYEH HEH HEH!” at your laughter, standing proudly with both hands on his hips. You were leaning on Red at this point, your face hurting from smiling so wide and legs weak from your roaring laughter, as he doubled over in a similar manner.

“Ha- that was – aha – amazing, Paps!” You gasped out, still fighting for breath between giggles.

“heh- yeah, ya really – hah – ya’v really been holdin’ back a skele-ton of good jokes!” Red added in a similar state to you, only serving to cause you to wheeze out another laugh.

“Come on, Red.” You shook you head at the skeleton with a wide grin as you stood up straight, your voice laced with amusement, “I’ve gotta go get dressed anyway, so why don’t you come with me? I wouldn’t want you to get bonely.”

The unexpected pun forced yet more laughter from the two skeletons, crimson and tangerine lighting up their skulls in a way that caused your own face to flush at how adorable they looked.

“heh, alright.” Red wiped a tear of mirth from his socket before taking your hand with an affectionate smile, “c’mon, angel.”

You waved goodbye to Papyrus and made your way upstairs, both of you giggling as you recounted said skeleton’s rare joke. After both of you were showered and dressed, you decided to have breakfast in the empty dining room. You had wanted to eat in the living room whilst you watched TV, but Red advised that Milord would likely throw a hissy-fit if you were caught, and so the dining room it was.

You were still in good spirits from the morning as you cleaned up after yourselves, planning to lounge about for a bit before you would have to reluctantly begin studying. The smile slipped off of your face, however, when the aforementioned skeleton entered the kitchen, obviously displeased at your raucous laughter and bantering.

“It is good to see that you are in better spirits than yesterday evening.” Milord spoke coolly, his expression so unreadable that you couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or not. For the sake of your sanity, you decided that the skeleton wasn’t being sarcastic and did actually enjoy seeing you happy.

“Yeah, Red and Paps have been amazing with cheering me up.” You smiled sweetly, drying your hands on a nearby kitchen towel. You sensed Red tense besides you spoke and prayed that he was in a good enough mood not to snap at the stoic skeleton.

“Hm. Perhaps, then, you shall be level-headed enough to engage in a meeting regarding the events that transpired yesterday evening?” He raised a critical brow bone at you, the question causing ice to shoot through your veins as anxiety began swirling in your chest. Your mate must have picked up on this, or he was very aware of your discomfort in regard to the subject, because he quickly stepped forward with a scowl on his face.

“they don’t have ta do shit, tiny.” He growled lowly, prompting the other skeleton to stare balefully in his direction, “mutt’ll come ta them when he’s good ‘n ready.”

“Red.” You spoke his name quickly, not allowing the other monster to respond, “I think this might be a good idea. You can come with me to back me up. Right, Milord?” You turned your gaze to the other skeleton, a warning tone to your voice when you addressed him.

“Fine.” He responded shortly, “You are to meet us in the living room in five minutes. Do not be late.”

With that he stalked out of the room with clipped, irritated footsteps. As soon as he was out of sight, you let out a breath that you hadn’t realized you were holding and slumped against the counter, shooting Red an exhausted look.

“ya know ya don’t have ta do this, right, angel?” He reassured you, scrunching his browbones together as a small frown pulled at the corners his mouth.

“I know,” You sighed, flashing him a grateful smile, “But, I think it’s time I tell everyone. Well, the rest of the household that don’t know, anyway.”

“ya know tiny’s gonna blow a fuse if ya bring th’ others inta this, angel.” His expression shifted from concern to thinly veiled amusement at your plan, the grin on his face soothing your anxiety just a little.

“Probably, but I don’t feel like repeating myself again when they do eventually find out and I’d rather be the one to tell them before they do. I just… want everyone to know now. The guilt and the weight of this stupid secret is beginning at eat me alive, y’know?” You breathed a bitter laugh before taking Red’s hand and looking up at him with soft determination, “Besides, I have you there to back me up. As long as I have you, I’ll be okay.” With lidded sockets and an affectionate smile, Red lifted your hand to his teeth in a kiss, causing butterflies to stir in your stomach as you flushed lightly.

“ya’ll always have me, no matter what.” He assured you huskily, his eyelights flickering with adoration as he looked at you.

“And you’ll always have me, my love.” You replied with a bashful smile before pressing your lips to his teeth, sighing into the contact as he cupped your face with his hand. “Okay, I’ll get Paps and Sans and you get Axe and Butch?” You asked quietly after pulling back lightly, resolute shining in your eyes.

There was no order as to who was retrieving who, but if you had to be honest, Papyrus’ soothing nature and Sans’ ability to at least appear to remain cool and collected in any situation was what you needed right now. It was selfish, sure, but sometimes you deserved to be a little selfish, right?

“alright, angel.” He replied lowly, his expression just as determined, “see ya there.”

With that, the red-clad skeleton disappeared from sight, obviously having used a shortcut to the upstairs hallway. You huffed out a laugh as you rolled your eyes at the incredible amount of laziness that he and Sans seemed to share before making quick work of climbing the stairs and banging on Papyrus’ door, painfully aware of how long you had been keeping the others waiting already.
When he answered the door, you barely let him get a word out before you began explaining quickly, nerves settling in your stomach like a rock now that your plan was set in action.

“Hey, Paps. Um- “ You exhaled sharply, the instability in your voice causing the skeleton to furrow his brows in worry, “We’re having a kind of family meeting downstairs, so would you be able to come with me? Now, please?”

“SURE. IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” He tilted his head at you in a question as he stepped out of his room and gently shut the door behind him.

“Yeah! I mean, no, but it will be!” You laughed nervously, grabbing his gloved hand, and halfway dragging him across the hall to Sans’ room.

You knocked rapidly on the skeleton’s door after releasing Papyrus’ hand, chewing the inside of your cheek, and shifting your weight nervously from foot to foot as you waited for an answer. After what felt like forever, but was most likely only a minute, Sans was stood at the doorway, browbones scrunched together as he rubbed at his eye sockets sleepily. Your erratic knocking had obviously woken him up, and he had rushed to throw on a white shirt and his usual shorts, as was evident by his scruffy appearance.

“what’s up, bud? paps?” His eyelights shifted between the two of you, his face dropping into confused concern as he did so.

“We’re having a very important family meeting, and you need to be there, so come with me!” You rambled, once again grabbing the skeleton’s hand, and pulling him along with you.

“hey, woah!” He laughed nervously, digging his bare feet into the ground in an attempt to slow you down, “what’s goin’ on?”

With a harsh exhale, you whipped around to address the monster, muted desperation causing your voice to waver, “I’ll explain everything when we get there, okay? Just… please?”

Sans’ eyelights traveled across your face, his mouth downturned in a small frown as he took in your heavily breathing, distressed form, your hands shaking from adrenaline that was relentlessly assaulting your body. His gaze then shifted to his brother, his expression asking a silent question. When all he received from Papyrus was a small shake of his head to indicate that he didn’t know what was happening either, he conceded with a sigh and began walking beside you.

As you descended the staircase, Red, Axe, and Butch swiftly came into view. Red sweetly offered you a supportive smile, which you gratefully returned as you approached the group, the last two members of the household following apprehensively behind you.

“what’s… wrong?” Axe looked anxious, his eyelight engorged and rapidly searching your face. Butch didn’t look much better; he was almost curled in on himself, as though he wanted to make his towering frame as small as possible.

“I have to tell you all something, and I don’t want to repeat myself because it’s not great, so we’re having a meeting, okay? Okay!” You fumbled over your words as your voice shook, prompting the skeletons to look at each other in muted worry. Before anyone could call you out on your jittery disposition, however, you swung open the door to the living room and marched inside, gesturing for the others to follow.

“Unbelievable!” Milord exclaimed in agitation, his face contorted into possibly the most furious expression you had seen from him yet, “You are not bringing them into this, get out!”

“Milord, listen.” You placed your trembling hands out in a gesture of surrender, “They deserve to know- “

“deserve to know… what?” Axe’s hesitant voice rang out from behind you, prompting you to clench your jaw as you shot Milord a pleading look.

Said skeleton marched fiercely towards you, his teeth grit in a deep grimace. You stood resolute, your heart hammering against your chest as you willed as much courage as you could into your gaze as your eyes met his.

“If anything happens to them,” He hissed, words laced with venom as he jabbed a skeletal finger at your chest, “to any of my family, I will hold you personally responsible. Do you understand?”

Once again you felt Red bristle, the air of the room becoming unbearably hostile and tense. Milord’s viscous warning had caused a lump to form in your already dry throat, but you did not falter.

“I accepted that a long time ago, Milord.” You spoke softly, before taking a deep breath and offering him a sad smile, “I understand.”

The purple-clad skeleton growled lowly at your response, the creaking of his leather gloves signaling that his fists were tightly clenched as he stepped back. Taking a breath, your gaze finally fell on Edge and Mutt, who shared the same sullen expression as they stood stiffly behind Milord. With an anxious smile, you motioned for the remaining monsters to sit before sitting yourself, your hands clenched into fists in your lap, the biting pain of your nails cutting into the flesh of your palms the only thing keeping you from abandoning your plan and making a swift escape. Red was quick to take his place next to you, tentatively taking one of your hands and unfurling it to hold it in his in a supportive gesture, prompting you to shoot him an appreciative look.

Your gaze was trained on the ground as you bit down hard on your lip, waiting for the remaining members to take their places on the couch opposite you. Mutt, Edge, and Milord continued standing, their stoic expressions not faltering for a second. Swallowing harshly against the thickness in your throat, you struggled to bring your eyes from the ground, but forced yourself to look around at the skeletal family and, with as much strength in your voice as you could, you began to speak.

“I- um- I didn’t want to keep this from you for so long. I mean, I didn’t think I’d even be here for long enough for this to be an issue, so, first, let me apologize for lying to you all.” Your focus was on the skeletons adjacent to you, each of their faces contorted in bewilderment as you regarded them.
“I’m going to tell you something that might make you angry, perhaps even hate me, and… if you want me to leave and never come back, I’ll understand.” Your voice cracked as you felt tears burn the back of your eyes, forcing you to clear your throat. Everyone was eerily still, each of their eyelights boring a hole into your head. Taking their silence as a sign to continue, you pushed on.

“I’m a mage.”

You watched in silent horror as the four sitting across from you gave varying reactions, none of them positive. Both Sans’ and Axe’s eyelights vanished from their sockets as a deep scowl overtook their features, Papyrus’ and Butch’s sockets widened in fear, the minute but noticeable action of them shrinking back slightly feeling like a dagger through your heart. You didn’t dare look at Mutt out of fear that the same disgusted expression from the night before was present on his skull.

“I -I’m not here to hurt you, or to put you in any danger or anything like that, just… let me explain, okay?” You murmured in a choked voice, your eyes dropping to your lap.

Red gave your hand a supportive squeeze in a gesture of quiet encouragement, and you took a slow, calming breath before you began to speak. For a third and, hopefully, final time, you repeated the story that you had told in the King’s presence, adding on what had happened in the Underground before your meeting. Your soul became lighter as their cold expressions gradually slipped into something more neutral, and your voice gained strength as you continued.

“I didn’t tell you all at first because I knew that I wouldn’t be here for long and… that once they found me, I would have to run again. The King offered me his protection, but I know better than anyone here how relentlessly strong Mage’s are.” You muttered defeatedly, your stomach wrenching and twisting in remorse, “But, then Milord and Edge began to help me. Edge and I started working on my attack magic, so then at least I would have a chance of protecting you all if something were to happen. I’m a Healer, that’s what I was born to do and that’s all I’ve ever done, but with their help I really think I can make a difference, that I can help protect you all.”

You breathed deeply, feeling a weight lift off your shoulders at finally, finally not having to lie to your friends anymore. Blinking back tears, your vision zeroed in on Mutt, your soul thumping hard against your ribcage in a way that made you breathless as you took in the look of pure guilt and remorse on his face. All you wanted was to run over to him, to beg for his forgiveness and have him hold you whilst you released the anxiety, the grief and mourning that had been plaguing you for so long in wailing sobs, but you couldn’t. Ripping your eyes away from his form, you instead focused on the two pairs of brothers in front of you.

“I- I’m done hiding and lying, I can’t stand it.” You breathed, the hand clasped in Red’s tightening as you continued to fight back tears, “So… If you have any questions, I’ll answer truthfully.” There was a beat of strained silence before the last person you expected to speak asked you a shaky question, their voice quiet and hoarse.

“D-Did you really s-save that cub?” Butch whispered, his hands wringing together anxiously as he spoke. A breathy laugh slipped past your lips at the question, relief allowing your tight muscles to relax slightly. You looked to Milord, wordlessly asking him to confirm your story. If they believed anyone, you thought, it would be him. You honestly expected him to remain silent with how enraged he was with you just moments ago, but pleasant surprise allowed a small smile to grace your features when he answered lowly, everyone’s attention now directed at him.

“They speak the truth,” He stated simply, though his demeanor seemed almost reluctant, “When I discovered that they were a Mage that had relinquished their Coven due to the abhorrent actions of their kind, I brought them to the King for evaluation. I admit, I thought of them as nothing more than a pawn to use to achieve victory against our enemies, but they proved to be far more useful than I had once thought.”

You shook your head slightly as a huff of bitter laughter fell from your lips. Well, at least he wasn’t berating you, you guessed.

“I had them wear a magic suppression collar created by Dr. Alphys in order to enter the Underground, though it proved to be too strong and rendered them incredibly impaired. Whilst Dr. Alphys was adjusting the collar, a cub was brought in seconds from dusting. Our Mage here insisted that I remove the collar so that they could help, and miraculously brought the cub back from the brink of death: something we have never been able to achieve.” His icy demeanor melted somewhat when his gaze met yours, and despite the scowl still present on his skull, the hazy flicker of his eyelights as they regarded you spoke of a quiet admiration. “I am certain that if they wished any harm upon us, that they would have taken the chance in that moment. Yet instead, they almost killed themselves in their efforts to save one of us from perishing.”  

You watched with hope flittering within your soul when the skeletons’ once sour expressions were transformed into one of awe, letting out a sob of relief when Red caught your gaze with a grin full of pride.

“are there really mages out there that’re dusting monsters to… y’know…” Sans shifted uneasily, unable to even vocalize the horrific act.

You nodded shortly as you bit down on your lip, avoiding his eyelights out of pure disgust for the actions of your kind. The room once again fell silent, each of the previously unaware skeletons processing the hard to hear information.

“I know that this is a lot to take in. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry that this is how you had to find out.” You cleared your throat once again as your voice wavered, “I-If you want to know any more, I’ll tell you what I know, but for now I think we all need to just… take some time to process.”

You stood suddenly, letting go of Red’s hand and prompting the others to look at you with varying degrees of muted concern. Unable to get anything past your closed-up throat, you wordlessly and rapidly excused yourself from the room. You focused on one foot in front of the other, your head spinning and gut writhing from the intense anxiety that the impromptu meeting had caused, and only stopped once you were in the private safety of your room. You counted your breaths as a way to distract yourself, desperate for the panic wracking your body to ease, and almost jumped out of your skin when you heard and felt the telltale crackle of magic that indicated that someone had shortcutted into your bedroom. You had barely lifted your head before you were assaulted by a tall figure, their lanky arms tightly wrapping around you in a needy embrace.

“’m so sorry, doll.” Mutt’s voice shook as he buried his face in your shoulder, violet tears soaking your shirt as he sobbed, “’m so sorry, ’m such an asshole.”

Returning his embrace with trembling hands, you could no longer hold back the odd mixture of panic, grief, and relief that was wreaking havoc on your exhausted body, and you burst into tears, pressing your cheek to top of his skull as you sobbed.

“N-no, it’s o-okay.” You whimpered through your cries, your fingers clutching at the back of his shirt as though he may be ripped away from you at any moment, “It’s o-okay, I’m s-sorry.”

You were both blotchy, tear-stained messes by the time you had caught your breath. With a shaky smile you pulled back from the embrace, placing a gentle hand on the side of his face and softly wiping at the lilac stains with your thumb.

“I thought you hated me.” You let out a breathy laugh of relief, your soul giving a hard thump as your eyes met his. You were acutely aware of what your soul was trying desperately to tell you, but with the recent events that had transpired you had been dutifully ignoring it, opting to figure something out when you had a moment to breathe.

“i could never hate ya, doll.” Mutt murmured softly, his skeletal hand moving to rest atop your fleshy one at the side of his skull, “’m sorry for not lettin’ ya explain yerself.”

“It’s okay,” You murmured back, flashing him a sympathetic smile, “You were scared, I understand.”

He grinned at you appreciatively before scooping you up with his hands under your knees and supporting your back, pulling you to his chest as he repositioned himself on the bed. You stifled a giggle at the needy skeleton’s desire for constant touch, instead snuggling up in his lap and letting out a contented sigh. Clawed fingers played with your hair, lingering on each strand as he marveled at its velvety texture.

Both he and Red were constantly enamored by your hair, your skin, all the fleshy human parts that made up your body. It was adorable.

After a moment of much needed peace, you sated your increasing curiosity with a hesitant question, “How are the other’s taking it?”

Mutt breathed a wry laugh, the action only serving to send a shot of adrenaline through your system, “eh, paps ‘n butch are pretty understandin’, but i have a feelin’ it may take a little more time fer axe ‘n sans ta come around.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that.” You muttered miserably after letting out a distressed groan. “At least Butch and Papyrus are okay.”

“it’ll be alright, doll.” He reassured you softly, nuzzling your hair in a skeletal kiss, “if i know my cousins, i know they’ll forgive ya soon enough.”

“I hope so.” You whispered, before turning your head to meet his soft gaze. “You aren’t mad at me for keeping this from you?” You asked meekly as you worried at the fabric of your sleeves.

Mutt exhaled softly through his nasal cavity as his browbones drew together in thought. “a little. there’s this part’a me that is pissed that i wasn’t th’ first one ta know, but if i know my bro, then i know you didn’t tell ‘im willingly.” He mumbled bitterly as his eyelights dropped to his hands.

“He essentially blackmailed me into working for him. So, no, it wasn’t really up to me who found out and who didn’t.” You grumbled with a roll of your eyes, adding swiftly when you felt the skeleton tense as well as the silent growl rumbling in his chest, “But I get it. He didn’t trust me, and for good reason. I wouldn’t trust someone who was a member of the enemy group that was secretly living with my family. I would absolutely assume the worst.” You insisted, resolute evident in your tone. “He took advantage of the situation and did what he needed to do to not only protect his family, but monsterkind as a whole too. I would have done the same thing if I were in his position.” You finished softly, a wry smile on your lips as you shrugged lightly.

“ya would?” He asked in surprise, his previous ire abandoned in favor of staring at you with wide sockets. You shook your head lightly as you smiled gently at the skeleton.

“Yeah. I’d do anything to protect my family because you guys are my family.” You said, before adding on with a snort. “All of you, even including certain grumpy skeletons that actively work to make my life more difficult.” Mutt chuckled lowly at that with a faint warmth of lilac to his cheeks before he tightened his arms around you, nuzzling his cheek to the top of your head as he did so.

“’m jus’ glad yer safe, doll.” He murmured almost inaudibly.

The genuineness to his words had you fighting back tears as you returned the intensity of the embrace in silent thanks, afraid that if you spoke you would somehow find more tears to shed. After a few minutes of simply holding each other, you had decided that you had had enough of sulking, and so swiftly wriggled free Mutt’s grip and shuffled over to the bedside table, earning an undignified whine from the skeleton. He was quickly placated, however, when you pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes and offered one to him.

“Come on,” You hopped up from the bed, gesturing for Mutt to follow, “I’ve had enough of hiding away and feeling sorry for myself. Why don’t we go walk around the woods for a bit?”

“ugh, yer gonna make me exercise?” He mimicked clutching his pearls, an absolutely exasperated expression on his face, “never mind, i hate ya. go away.”

“Noooo! How will I ever go on?!” You gasped melodramatically, earning a snicker from the skeleton, before promptly sobering and grabbing his hand to wrench him from the bed, “Come on! You can shortcut us into the garden if that makes you feel any better!”

“ya just want ta avoid everyone, don’t ya?” Mutt snickered, leaning all his weight back on the bed so that he was near impossible to shift.

“Yes! Now. let’s. go!” You whined; your voice strained with the effort of attempting to force him from the bed.

Your back hit grass as he thrust you into the garden with no warning, prompting you to shriek and glare at the skeleton, who was currently in the same position as you, doubled over in laughter. You stood with indignation and brushed off your jeans but, realizing that neither of you were even wearing shoes, couldn’t help but dissolve into a fit of giggles.

Offering an outstretched hand to Mutt, he gratefully took it and allowed you to pull him to his feet. The both of you decided that you were too lazy to go back inside to get shoes, and so you padded barefoot across the grass, forgoing the rough terrain of the woods for the soft green landscape at the base of the cluster of mountains. You chatted about the myriad of things that you had wanted to tell each other in the short time that you had been apart, eventually coming to the topic of yesterday evening.

“ya were absolutely hammered!” Mutt guffawed as he strolled lazily beside you, prompting you to wheeze a laugh.

“Dude, the only reason Milord caught us is because Red made some fucking joke about me ‘Mage-ing up the place’ and I burst out laughing.” You giggled, a bashful expression causing your face to flush, “I dropped everything I was holding as well! If he hadn’t heard me before he definitely did then.”

“that’s fuckin’ hysterical.” He snorted, his face lit up with glee, “’m surprised ya didn’t just laugh in his face when he caught ya.”

“Oh, I almost did. Red had to do the talking, otherwise I would have.” You grinned, recalling just how drunk you accidentally had become, rendering you useless in such a tense situation.

Eventually you had circled the property so many times, gossiping and laughing about a variety of topics, that you decided to just park yourselves on a spot in the garden to continue your conversation. Your soul was light and thrumming with joy as you did so, the normalcy of the situation a soothing balm on your wounded heart. As most good things do, though, it had to come to an end when you spotted Sans stiffly walking toward you, an uneasy expression in place of his usual lazy grin.

“Hi, Sans!” You smiled gently as you greeted the skeleton, using a hand to shield your eyes from the sun as you looked up at him, “Everything okay?”

The typically jovial skeleton shifted uncomfortably in front of you, his hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie despite the hot summer sun.

“hey, uh- can i talk ta ya?” He asked apprehensively before his eyelights quickly shifted to Mutt, then back to you, “alone?” Your head swiveled to look at Mutt, a silent question in your eyes. He shrugged and flashed a casual smirk in your direction.

“if ya need me, ya know where i am, doll.” He spoke under his breath so that only you could hear before giving you a quick peck on the lips.

Leaving you with a bright red face, he disappeared from sight, the crackle of his periwinkle magic the only indication he was ever even there. You cleared your throat, mentally willing the blush to disappear, before observing Sans with muted curiosity as he heavily sat down beside you.

You pulled out your cigarettes and offered him one, the action fondly reminding you of the first conversation the two of you had shared alone under the starlit sky. He gratefully took one and allowed you to light it for him before lighting one of your own. Your nerves only began to ramp up as you watched him exhale the smoke slowly as it swirled and twisted around him, and lean back on his hands. You mirrored the action, taking advantage of exhaling the smoke as a deliberate, calming breath.

“have you been having- how do i explain this?” He mumbled the last part to himself, his face cutely scrunched up in thought. You patiently waited for him to gather his thoughts, keeping your gaze on him with a tilted head as an indication that you were listening. “do ya ever get this insane sense of déjà vu, like you’ve lived the moment before but have no memory of it?” He explained lowly as he caught your eyes, prompting you to cast your gaze downwards as you mulled over his words.

“Sometimes, I guess.” You shrugged, lifting your eyes to meet his once again, “Like, I kind of get this feeling in my soul that I already know what’s going to happen, or that it’s already happened before. Like that?”

“yea!” He perked up, his eyelights shining, “what about… flashbacks of memories, but they’re not your memories. at least… ya don’t feel like they are.”

You hummed in thought, eyes widening when a whisper of a memory scratched at the back of your mind, “I- I think so… I can’t really remember…”

Sans let out a relieved laugh, before mumbling with a shake of his head, “thank th’ stars, i’m not going crazy.”

“What’s going on, Sans?” You furrowed your brows in concern, craning your neck to catch his gaze, “Why are you asking me this?”

“th’ kid, frisk?” He searched your face for confirmation that you knew who he was talking about, continuing with fervor when you gave a silent nod, “they’re a mage, like you. a determination soul, though. they can use their magic to manipulate time, kind of like a save and load system that ya’d see in a video game.”

Your eyes widened at his explanation, your mouth hanging open slightly before you muttered in a disbelieving laugh, “I had no idea… I’ve never heard of a Mage being able to manipulate time like that before. Plus, determination souls are so rare, I think I’ve only ever known one person with one.”

“it’s how they managed to survive the underground.” He breathed, his gaze downcast, “they died so many times, but they just kept coming back.”

“Woah…” You let out a breathy laugh, before lifting your gaze to his face, of which was contorted in a muted, pained expression, “Do the others know? Have they been sensing it too?”

“nah, just us as far as i’m aware. i took a chance assuming ya might be somewhat aware since, as a mage, you’re much more in tune with your soul than regular humans.” He murmured almost sadly, taking a steeling breath before explaining, having noticed your befuddled expression, “my theory is that ya have to have a determination soul, or at least a lotta determination in general, to be able to remember fully, otherwise it’s just a feeling of déjà vu, yanno?” He avoided your gaze, jaw clenched as his voice came out strained, “i- uh, i’m the only monster with determination as far as i know. monsters aren’t supposed to have it, it usually melts our bodies from the inside out.”

You grimaced at the gory description, an ache beginning in your soul for the poor skeleton, “So then… How…?” You asked hesitantly, your voice low.

“heh. ya remember how i told ya about mine and paps’ dad?” He started, continuing almost inaudibly when you nodded in response, “he was the royal scientist before alphys – dr. w.d. gaster - he performed a lotta experiments with lab-made determination to try to break the barrier without killing any more humans. dt he called it. ‘n, uh,… one of them was to infuse my soul with the stuff.”

“Oh, Sans…” Your gut clenched as a lump formed in your throat, your voice a trembling whisper, “That… that must have been agonizing.” The skeleton breathed a humorless laugh, his fingers digging into the ground beneath him as an uneasy expression took over his face. “How- How did you not…?” You asked apprehensively, unsure if he even wanted to talk about it any further.

“he, uh- he only did a little at a time, let me recover and used more an’ more ‘till my body couldn’t take any more.” He grumbled through grit teeth, obvious contempt for his father evident through his bitter tone, “now i‘m so weak that one hit from just a regular human’ll dust me, never mind a mage.”

You opened your mouth to ask how he could know such a thing, before it clicked in your head, prompting you to instead slap a hand over your mouth with a sharp inhale. He’s died before, perhaps many times, and he most likely remembers dying, too.

“They’ve killed you before, haven’t they?” You breathed, your voice thick with distress.

“heh, they’ve killed all of us monsters before, over and over.” His eyelights had vanished from his sockets now as his voice shook with barely contained rage, “i watched paps die over and over. i‘m just the only one that remembers.”

Tears burned at the back of your eyes as he spoke, and you forced a long, shaky exhale in an attempt to soothe the pain writhing in your chest. Something in your soul was calling out to hold him, to comfort him and, almost automatically, you reached an arm out to wrap around his shoulders, pulling him into your chest as silent tears slipped down your face. Sans breathed a wry laugh as you did so, allowing himself to be held by you as cyan tears formed in his sockets.

“That must be so lonely, Sans.” You mumbled against his skull, your voice trembling with the effort of holding back your grief, “I’m so sorry.”

At that moment, you were hit with another flash of a not-memory, the force of the impact knocking the breath out of you. You felt your soul slam against your ribcage, desperately trying to reach out to Sans’ as the images flickered through your mind almost like a stop-motion film.

You’re hiding behind a building. The muffled screams and wails of the injured assault your ears. You look down, your hands are covered in Dust again, but someone is lay in front of you this time. A skeleton monster. You don’t know him, but he’s close to death. You’re exhausted, drained and in pain, but you force as much healing magic as you can from your shaking hands. Someone is shouting behind you, scolding you, calling you useless. Your breath quickens as you continue, praying that they don’t reach you before you can save the dying monster. His color comes back slowly, and you drag him to his feet. He teleports you both away and you land hard on cobblestone, knocking the wind out of you. With gasping, panicked breaths you frantically search for him. He’s keeled over, panting and sobbing. You reach out…

When you came back to lucidity, you were startled by Sans’ aghast expression as his eyelights frantically searched your face. This not-memory was so intense that, unlike the others, it lingered at the forefront of your mind as you strained to etch it into your brain, desperate to ask Sans whether he remembered it too.

You swallowed against your dry throat, fat tears rolling down your face, and took a breath to speak. But, before you could get any words past your trembling lips, Sans’ voice rang out from in front of you, prompting you to focus on his tear-stained face as his strained voice wobbled. “did ya see that too?”

You nodded shakily, a hand coming up to cover your mouth as your breaths came short and fast.

“I-It looked like…”

“a war.” He muttered hoarsely, his brows pulled together in thought, “ya saved me. ya didn’t even know who i was ‘n ya saved my life.”

You breathed a wry laugh as you shook your head, unable to form any words on what you both had seemingly simultaneously experienced. With a resolute expression, Sans stood and offered an outstretched hand.

“we need to talk to frisk.”

Chapter Text

True to his word, Sans had promptly called Toriel, who you quickly learned was not only Frisk’s adoptive mother but also the ex-Queen of monsters! She was delighted that her old friend wanted to come and visit, and thrilled that he was bringing a friend along too. The excited chatter from the other end of the phone suggested as much, anyway.

You were certainly nervous to meet Toriel, even if she was the ex-Queen, but your nerves were soothed by your recollection of how kind Asgore had been to you, and you fast concluded that, if she was anything like him, there was nothing to be worried about.

Deciding to let the others in on your plans, you pulled out your phone and opened the skeleton household’s group chat. You had been added not long after you had moved in, but had little reason to use it until now. You usually only opened it to laugh at the family’s more humorous conversations and to reply to Mutt whenever he decided to grace you with a new nickname.

With a snort, you realized that Mutt had changed your name to ‘the wicked witch of the west’ only seconds after he had left you to speak with Sans. He was incredibly witty with the nicknames for each of the family’s members, each one being more hysterical than the last.

Well, you thought so at least. Usually, Mutt was reprimanded by his brother and ordered to change it back to his name, but within minutes he had thought up a new nickname to tease his stoic older brother with.

the wicked witch of the west: hey, me and sans are going out to visit frisk and toriel. be back soon!

You waited for a response as the three little bubbles almost immediately popped up at the bottom of the screen, indicating that several people were typing.

red dead redemption: ya better not be mageing up the place angel

You giggled at the nickname you had set for Red, a reference to one of your favorite video games, as well as his apparent new term for your work with the Guard. As you were typing your reply though, your phone pinged as another message came through.

tiny tyrant: Do you need assistance?

tiny tyrant: MUTT, CHANGE IT BACK.

woof: lol

woof removed Milord’s nickname.

You were really laughing now, prompting Sans to look at his phone to check the chat and chuckle as he shook his head at his cousins’ shenanigans.

wicked witch of the west: it’s what i was born to do, red ;)

wicked witch of the west: no thanks! just a casual visit milord, don’t worry! :)

With that, you pocketed your phone and gathered your things, slipping on a pair of sneakers as you did so.

It was oddly sweet of Milord to offer to help you, though it did make you curious as to what exactly he thought you were doing. Clearly then, you thought, he was aware of Frisk’s status as a Mage, but you weren’t surprised. As captain of the Royal Guard, he obviously needed to be in the know about any possible risks to the operation. You found yourself briefly wondering if the others knew about Frisk’s true nature too.

Obviously, after your chat with Red and Edge, the two were aware, but if the latter had reprimanded Milord for keeping it from him, you didn’t know. You assumed that you would get an earful if he had, and so you safely predicted that nothing had been said between the two. With Edge’s fiery nature, you were honestly surprised that storming over to the Captain and demanding to know why he had been kept in the dark wasn’t the first thing he had done. Then again, maybe he had, and Milord was simply sick of scolding you, you thought amusedly.

After confirming with Sans that you were ready to leave, you took his offered hand and were thrown into the familiarity of the void. You were getting good at remaining upright during shortcuts now, not counting the times you were thrust into one without warning, and so you landed gracefully on your feet on the pavement outside what you assumed to be Toriel’s house. It was actually more like a cottage with the painted white detached building surrounded by a lush garden and potted flowery plants as well as an adorable wooden picket fence. It was certainly not what you would have expected royalty to choose to live in!

“ya ready?” Sans grinned at you, though his usual relaxed smile seemed strained.

“As I’ll ever be!” You replied, flashing a nervous grin of your own.

With that, the two of you headed toward the lovely little cottage, your anxiety only continuing to grow as you did so. It didn’t take long after Sans had knocked on the door for a towering goat-monster, you assumed the same sub-species as Asgore, answered.

You couldn’t help but think she was beautiful, with almost snow-white fur that covered the entirety of her body that looked soft and well kept, and her deep brown eyes sparkled with the same kindness that you had seen from the King as she regarded you. She was dressed in a floor-length purple and white gown, the sleeves coming just down to her elbows in a flare and the bottom of the loose-fitting skirt just brushing the floor as she approached you.

“Oh, hello, Sans!” She greeted cheerfully, her voice soft and soothing to your frayed nerves, before her gaze fell upon you, “And this must be the friend you were telling me about!”

“hey, tori.” He grinned at her, his demeanor casual but obviously pleased at seeing who you understood to be a very close friend of his, “yep, the one ‘n only.”

“Hi!” You smiled enthusiastically and introduced yourself, “It’s lovely to meet you, Toriel!”

“Oh, just call me Tori, dear!” She waved a paw in dismissal, “After all, any friend of Sans’ is a friend of mine!”.

Your smile grew wider as she spoke, the gentle, motherly energy emitting from the monster immediately making you comfortable in her presence, “No problem, Tori!”.

“Now, come on inside. I have tea and pie waiting for you that I made specially for the occasion!”. She ushered you inside quickly, allowing you to enter before softly shutting the door behind you.

The inside of the cottage was just as, if not more, beautiful as the outside. As you entered into the kitchen, your senses were blessed with the warmest, most homely sights and smells that you had honestly ever encountered. Simply the atmosphere of love and care that Toriel had obviously curated so carefully brought a tear to your eye, overwhelming you with a rarely experienced feeling of safety.

Toriel gestured for you to sit at the wooden dining table at the far end of the kitchen whilst she busied herself with plating slices of the incredible smelling pie and brewing what you now recognized as Golden Flower tea. You briefly wondered if she brewed it herself like Asgore did, or if the King had given it to her.

“Here we are!” She called in a sing-song tone as she served each of you, only placing tea down for herself.

“thanks, tori. look’s apple-tizing.” Sans waggled his brows at the monster, holding up a piece of the apple pie to accentuate the pun, causing you to snort unattractively compared to Toriel’s soft giggle and slap a hand over your mouth. The punny skeleton simply raised a brow bone at you, amusement evident in his eyelights as you flushed.

“Ohoho, I see you enjoy puns as well!” Toriel giggled good-naturedly at your bashful expression.

“Ha, only when they come from Sans.” You smirked, fully intending to get him back for that teasing look as you shifted your gaze to said skeleton, and with your best flirty tone asked, “Isn’t that right, bone boy~?”. Sans almost choked on his bite as a result of your jab, coughing and sputtering as a pretty cyan blush lit up his skull.

Both you and Toriel burst into a fit of giggles. If you were honest, though, your boisterous laughter once again sounded like a witch’s cackle compared to the bright, bell-like sound that came from the graceful goat-monster. Appropriate, you thought with a snort.

“Oh, dear! You didn’t tell me they were so humerus, Sans!” Toriel snickered after the aforementioned skeleton had recovered, earning another bashful giggle from you and an almost exasperated laugh from Sans.

“heh, they sure are.” He replied, sending a jokey half-glare your way with a light tint of blue remaining on his cheekbones.

The lack of a pun in return had you wondering if your teasing really had flustered him that badly. The possibility definitely brought you some small form of insidious joy.

The conversation between the three of you continued in the same fashion as you ate your desserts and drank tea. Of course, the pie had to be the best thing you’d ever tasted, and you told Toriel as much. She insisted that this wasn’t even her best recipe, and that you would have to come over again soon so that she could make her famous butterscotch-cinnamon pie, to which you enthusiastically agreed. Eventually though, when you had finished up, leaving only a few lone crumbs on each of your plates, Sans reminded you of why you were even there in the first place with a clearing of his throat and a pointed look. Guess it was up to you to ask then.

“Um, Tori?” You asked politely, prompting the goat-monster to turn her attention to you with a tilt of her head to indicate that she was listening, “I was actually wondering if I- uh, we could talk to Frisk?”.

“Oh, dear.” Toriel breathed, a disapproving look gracing her features as she directed the following question more towards Sans than you, “What have they done now?”.

Frisk must be a bit of a troublemaker then, you thought with a hint of amusement. You had a feeling that the two of you would get on like a house on fire.

“heh, nothin’, tori,” Sans put his hands up in a defensive gesture, his smile strained, “just need to talk to the kid.”

She didn’t look convinced, simply surveying Sans with a critically raised brow and a low hum, but conceded anyway and left her place at the table to fetch the little Mage. You and Sans then abandoned your places at the table and made your way into the living room to make yourselves comfortable via Toriel’s insistence.

You had barely sat on the lacey throw covered couches for a minute when you heard a shout of excitement and thudding footsteps descending the stairs. You spotted Frisk almost immediately as they came barreling into the room to tackle Sans with a hug, giggling and calling his name the whole time. You couldn’t help but hide a grin behind your hand as you watched; the teen’s obvious excitement at seeing their friend was infectious. What had you holding back your snickering though, was the fact that said teen was just about taller than Sans, a far cry from the small child you had seen on the news so many years ago, and so their eagerness almost toppled the poor skeleton over. Although Sans seemed happy to see Frisk, you definitely got an air of uneasiness from him that wasn’t there before. With a jolt, you remembered what he had told you.

heh, they’ve killed all of us monsters before, over and over.

They certainly didn’t seem like the type to do such a horrendous thing, especially since they did eventually free monsterkind from the Underground. If Sans was willing to talk about it, you would have to ask him about what had happened to make them decide to follow through with what was essentially genocide. With a sharp inhale, you were pulled away from your racing thoughts by a voice directed towards you.

“Hi! I don’t think we’ve met!” Frisk grinned at you, offering an outstretched hand, “My name is Frisk!”.

The human standing in front of you was quite a few inches taller, and had an adorable mop of thick, chin-length brunette hair with a face full of freckles. They were obviously of Eastern Asian descent, their appearance made up of angular lines and curves as they beamed at you, a startling change to their once soft childish features they once had. Their deep voice indicated that they were born male - something you didn’t often see when it came to non-binary individuals - and dressed in a long-sleeved blue and green striped t-shirt and grey-black jeans. They couldn’t have been much older than fifteen, but their red-brown eyes seemed to give away that they had experienced far more than any other young teen ever had.

“Hi, Frisk!” You greeted with enthusiasm, giving them your name as you stood and shook their hand, “It’s amazing to finally meet you! I’ve heard quite a few stories about you from the others!”.

You and Frisk ended up chattering excitedly about the skeleton household once you had all taken your respective seats on the couch. The conversation flowed smoothly without a single awkward silence or neither of you knowing what to say next, and it was as though you had been friends for a long time.  You somehow ended up on the topic of video games and YouTube, and soon enough the teen was eagerly asking you if you wanted to play a new first-person shooter with them upstairs. You looked to Sans in a silent ask, faltering when you noticed the amused smirk on his face.

“What?” You dragged out the word suspiciously, your eyebrows drawn together as he snickered at you.

“ya forget why we’re here?” He asked innocently, raising a brow bone at you.

“Oh.” You deflated in disappointment, a bashful expression overtaking your face. You definitely had a habit of getting overexcited and getting so absorbed into conversations that anything outside of it became as though it never existed in the first place.

“That’s okay, we can play another time! I can add you and we can play online!” Frisk offered, a kind smile pulling at their lips, prompting you to grin back and excitedly agree before you traded phone numbers to keep in contact. You snorted at the contact name they had set for themselves: ‘frisky business’, and set your name appropriately as ‘partner in time’. The name earned a surprised, yet knowing snicker from Frisk as they read it, prompting you to beam at them.

“What did you need to talk to them about, dear?” Toriel gently pulled you from your enthusiastic chattering once again, a weight settling in your chest as you were finally forced to get to the point of your visit.

“Sorry, got carried away!” You huffed out a laugh, twisting your hands into the fabric of your shirt in an anxious gesture. You mulled over where the best place to start was, wondering whether you should explain your background first or just jump straight into the time-reverse stuff.  

“So, I’m- um, I’m a Mage, like you, and I… kind of ran away from my Coven so- ” You started, trailing off in baffled silence when Frisk gave no reaction but a gentle nod, causing a brisk realization to hit you.

“You… You know all this already, don’t you? We’ve met before…”.

As though your revelation had triggered something in your soul, you were thrust into another erratic slideshow of images, all of them revolving around Frisk. In many of them, you were begging them to go back, to reverse time, but you couldn’t figure out why you would ask that of them. Slotted in haphazardly between the distressing not-memories, though, were images of them laughing, feelings of joy, of comfort and the long-desired feeling of sibling kinship as the two of you played video games, chatted, went on days out…

You must have only been in that state for less than a second, because by the time you came to, Frisk was nodding at you, a hint of astonishment in their expression.

“Many times. We were friends, you know?” They stated, causing you to inhale sharply and knit your brows together in bewilderment.

“Yeah… we were.” You laughed lowly, a grin splitting your face as whispers of the previous timelines and the emotions associated with them flitted through your mind, “Almost like- “

“Siblings.” They breathed with a small smile, the word a confirmation rather than a question. Your soul was fluttering in your chest, pure unadulterated joy at the revelation pricking your eyes with happy tears.

“so ya have been using ya abilities.” Sans mumbled, his tone bitter and his eyelights flashing dangerously, causing the air of the room to become thick and heavy as you and Frisk faltered, snapping your gaze to him with uneasy expressions. Toriel immediately bristled, jumping to her child’s defense as she spoke the skeleton’s name in an icy warning.

“It’s okay, Mom.” Frisk smiled gently at their mother, a gentle hand placed on her shoulder in a comforting gesture, and causing the goat-monster to relax slightly, though her gaze was trained unwaveringly on Sans now, “Yes, I have. Only when I absolutely needed to, though.”. You felt Sans tense and, like Toriel, quickly jumped to the teen’s defense, the not-memory having informed you that this was actually likely your fault.

“Sans, I think this is because of me.” You muttered, your tone laced with guilt, as said skeleton whipped his head around to look at you incredulously. Frisk seemed surprised, their eyes widening a fraction as you spoke.

“what? how could it be ‘cuz of you?” He asked, shaking his head, “ain’t like you have the power to manipulate time like frisk can.” He finished bitterly, causing Frisk to shift anxiously and Toriel to narrow her eyes at the skeleton monster in a silent warning.

“The visions I keep getting, I think it’s because my soul is remembering previous timelines. I- I remember begging Frisk to use their powers, but I can’t remember why.” You breathed, your face scrunching up in frustration as your gaze dropped to your lap.

“I… know why.” Frisk mumbled, chewing on their lip as both you and Sans shifted your attention to their anxious form. When neither of you spoke, they continued with a strained, reluctant tone, “Um, there was a few different reasons. The first time was because war broke out between Mages and monsters. That was, um, the reason for quite a few times actually.”.

Toriel, who had been observing silently since her warning to Sans, gasped softly, a white paw coming up to cover her mouth. Although her expression portrayed her worry, something in her eyes told you that she had been expecting this for a long time. Sans’ mounting irritation wavered slightly as it was quickly combined muted anguish. He wasn’t surprised, of course he wasn’t, but you had a feeling that despite not knowing why the war had broken out in previous timelines, that he was acutely aware of its development, and not just because of your shared visions.

That’s right, he must remember…

“Then, uh, most of the times were because s-someone died.” They finished, hands wringing nervously together as a heavy silence filled the room, “But you’ve never remembered the other timelines before. I don’t understand why you suddenly can now. In fact, a lot of stuff is happening in this timeline that has never happened before.”

“Like what?” You tilted your head at the teen, naked curiosity obvious on your face.

“Like… You’ve never lived with Sans before.” They supplied helpfully, before they awkwardly cleared their throat and added in a strained mumble, “You, uh, never usually last this long outside of your Coven, either.”

“I… don’t?” You asked meekly, your gut twisting with anxiety.

“Y-You’ve, um, died, like, a lot. It was always either Red or Edge that, heh, threatened me until I brought you back.” They whispered almost inaudibly, “That or your Coven found you and took you back. There was one time where you never even left and they um- they forced you to… consume Dust by spiking your food and stuff, I guess. I’m not so sure about that one. All I know is that you were on the front lines of the war, and you were… powerful.”.

You felt like you were going to be sick. Your frame shook as tears pricked at your eyes and a hand clamped down over your mouth as you struggled to lift your blurry vision from the floor. A flash of an image assaulted your senses. It was familiar, like you had seen this not-memory before. The only reason you would have never left was if your brother had never died. The thought forced you to swallow hard against the thickness in your throat as you struggled to compose yourself.

“frisk, bud. i- uh, think that’s enough.” Sans spoke lowly to the teen, who clenched their jaw as a guilty look twisted their features and they mumbled an apology.

“I- hah,” You exhaled forcefully, scrubbing the tears from your eyes, “That’s… not great, heh.”

“you okay?” Sans’ hand came to rest on your shoulder as you offered him a shaky, grateful smile, “i can take ya home if you want.”

“No, I’m okay.” You breathed, finally finding a handle on your emotions, before looking to Frisk with a watery, yet determined look in your eyes, “I want to know more. Anything that can help.”

“Actually,” Toriel’s soft voice cut in, an apology in her gaze, “I am sorry to leave so suddenly, but I do believe that I need to talk to the Guard. Is that okay, my child?” She finished, tilting her head gently at the teen.

“Yeah, it’s okay. Dad should really know about this, huh?” Frisk smiled sadly at their mother before their gaze dropped guiltily to their fiddling hands, “I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I just… wanted some normalcy for a bit, I guess.”

“Oh, Frisk.” She breathed sympathetically, scooping her child up into her arms as they squirmed and flushed red with embarrassment in an action that was very typical of someone their age, “It is okay, I understand.”

“Mom!” They groaned, the syllable dragged out in a whine, prompting Toriel to giggle and release them before planting a motherly kiss on the top of their head, earning another growl of mortification.

The sight made your soul swell with adoration, but as is unfortunately typical for you, you felt an ugly pang of jealousy at the affectionate display between mother and child. Sans’ snickering from besides you somewhat eased the intense negative emotions swirling in your chest and allowed you to let out your own breathy laugh at the situation.

Once you had said your goodbye’s and Toriel had left for the Underground, only the three of you remained, and the atmosphere became tense once more as each of you struggled to find something to say. You spent a little time thinking about what Frisk had told you, attempting to extract any useful information that may help prevent this seemingly inevitable war from happening. Your mind kept falling back into the same place, though.

“Hey, Frisk?” You asked hesitantly, your face contorted in curious bewilderment, “I can understand Red threatening you to bring me back, but why Edge?”.

A positively mischievous look crossed the young Mage’s face and you looked to Sans with an uneasy expression, the skeleton flashing you one of his own.

“Oh, you two were boning in, like, a lot of the timelines. Like, exclusively.” They raised their eyebrows at you, snorting when your mouth fell open with a flush.

“I- What?!” You burst into laughter, slapping a hand over your reddening face, “That’s impossible, dude. He hates me!”

“i wouldn’t be so sure ‘bout that, bud.” Sans teased, rumbling chuckles beginning to tumble past his teeth, “ya were boning.”

“Oh my god.” You groaned, hiding your face in your hands, “I miss a minute ago when I did not know that.”.

Sans and Frisk were both in stitches now, completely and utterly amused by your pained groaning at the situation. It wasn’t the fact that you had been, ahem, exclusively involved with Edge, it was the fact that a goddamn teenager was currently howling with laughter at the knowledge that you two had ‘boned’.

“We are here to talk very important Mage business, not gossip about my love life!” You squeaked, throwing up your hands in exasperation.

“aw, but this is so much more fun.” Sans snickered, poking your arm teasingly as you batted his hand away.

“You sound exactly like Mutt, you know?” You grumbled, though the smile twitching at your lips indicated that you found the whole thing at least a little amusing.

“Speaking of boning,” Frisk teased, their head tilted innocently at you as they continued to rib you, “Which one is it this time? Red or Edge?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business!” You exclaimed quickly, face beginning to heat up again as you half-glared at the snickering teen.

“red.” Sans cut in with a shit-eating grin as Frisk ‘ah’d and nodded their head, pure mischief glinting within their deep brown eyes.

“Sans!” You gasped incredulously, “Seriously, dude?!”

“and mutt.” He continued, his shoulders shaking from the effort of keeping his laughter at bay.

“I can’t fucking believe you.” You groaned, shoving your bright red face back into your hands.

“That’s a new one.” Frisk giggled, a positively wicked grin spreading across their face at the information.

“’n probably edge too.”

“SANS!” You barked, mortification evident on your flushed face, “Did you and Mutt swap bodies today or something? What is up with you?!”.

Sans opened his mouth to speak, mirth sparkling in his eyelights, but was cut off by the incessant blaring of your ringtone. After a second of digging through your bag, you pulled out your phone and read the caller ID. A knot formed in your chest as you bit down on your lip, your mind immediately coming up with a mirage of anxious thoughts. Sans leaned over your shoulder to read the screen, his smile dropping into a small frown as he did so. With a breath you met his eyelights and answered the call.

“Hi, Milord! Is everything okay?” You asked in a chipper tone, attempting and failing to force down your nerves.

“There has been an attack. At least twenty or so monsters have been injured, more Dusted. Have Sans bring you to Ebott park, we require your assistance.” His clipped tone, although calm and collected, had an undertone of panic to it. Your heart jumped into your throat as you listened, a hand moving to cover your mouth as you inhaled sharply.

“I’m coming. Gather the most critically injured, I’ll need to work on them first.” You stated, your voice dropping into an almost unheard-of serious tone.

“Understood.”

Frantically shoving your phone into your bag, you looked to Sans, who already was offering a hand to you, a somber but determined expression gracing his features. Just as you took his hand, your head snapped towards Frisk’s equally as determined gaze as they leapt forward to grab onto you. You opened your mouth to yell at them, to tell them that it was too dangerous for them to come, but by the time you even got the first syllable out you had been transported to the aforementioned park.

“Frisk! This is way too dangerous for you!” You yelped, grabbing them by the arms and turning them away from the scene before looking to Sans’ fearful face, “Sans, take them home!”

“No! I want to help!” They argued, struggling in your grip as they flashed you a glare, “I survived the entire Underground by myself, I’ll be fine!”.

You growled through grit teeth, trying your best to keep a hold on their squirming form, but faltered and loosened your hold when someone yelled your name, allowing them to break free and sprint towards the groups of gathered monsters. You cursed lowly and swiveled toward the source of the sound.

“Come with me, quickly.” Milord ordered you, breaking from his usually cool demeanor by snatching up your hand and dragging you in the same direction that Frisk had ran in. Although his expression had not deviated from his usual stoic frown, his too-bright eyelights betrayed his panic and only served to fuel your own.

“Fuck- Sans! Keep an eye on Frisk!” You called over your shoulder at the skeleton, who seemed to be feeling completely out of his element, as his frown deepened before he gave you a short nod and vanished.

Your chest tightened as you approached the injured monsters, forcing you to take a steeling breath through your nose with your jaw tightly clenched. There was Dust everywhere, coating the grass and giving each blade a distinctive shifting silver hue as sunlight was refracted from the monsters’ remains. Just a few feet away, there was a huge gathering of monsters, most of them fretting family members and friends, trying their hardest to use what little healing magic they had to save their loved ones from perishing as they shrieked and sobbed.

In an attempt to ground yourself, you bit down hard on your lip, immediately flooding your mouth with the coppery taste of your blood. There were several members of the Guard, all donning their heavy metal armor, stood with conjured weapons at several points around the area and seemingly scanning the scene for any remaining Mages. You recognized one of them as Edge, who caught your panicked gaze with an icy one of his own before your attention was pulled away by Milord’s authoritarian tone.

“Here.” Milord ordered as you came to a stop, a deep scowl on his face, “Start with him.”.

You swallowed harshly as your gaze fell upon a fire elemental, his neat black and red suit coated with thick Dust as his indigo flames flickered weakly, each ember seeming to die out and reignite itself in an attempt to keep himself alive. Kneeling next to him was another fire elemental, a girl, except her flames were a swirling mixture of purple and pink. You assumed that she was his daughter, not only because they were the same sub-species, but due to the red and black striped dress she wore.

Red had explained to you that monster children, or cubs, exclusively wore stripes due to it being difficult to tell whether some monsters were children or not. There were so many varying sizes and shapes that you could easily mistake a fully grown adult for a kid, he had told you, and so the striped signified their age and vulnerability.

The young fire-elemental cried out to you in Font, a popping, spitting sound similar to that you would hear from a bonfire. You couldn’t understand her, but you spoke soothingly to them both regardless.

“It’s okay, he’s going to be okay.” You breathed, dropping to your knees next to the injured monster and hovering both hands over the gash in his chest.

Sage-green magic trickled from your palms, prompting what sounded like a crackling gasp and a low growl from the daughter as she slapped your hands away.

“N-No, I’m trying to help!” You cried out as panicked breaths causing your chest to heave.

You whipped your gaze toward the sound of shattering ice, and with a sigh of relief realized that Milord had remained by your side, thankfully having predicted that this would be an issue, and was talking to the girl in their native language. You assumed that he had reassured her that you were healing her wounded father and weren’t a threat, as her flames began to flare and shrink as she studied you, her hands clenching into fists as though she were conflicted. When she graced you with a short nod, you couldn’t help but flash her a gentle, relieved smile before resuming your previous position.

After a tense minute of moving your hands over each affected area of his body, making sure to reach every wound that you could, the sapphire fire elemental pulled himself up into a half-laying, half-sitting position. With a soft smile, you watched as his daughter launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck with crackling sobs and your own eyes began to mist. You jumped when a hand gently grasped your shoulder, prompting you to crane your neck up to meet Milord’s gaze.

“Come on, there are more.” He spoke lowly and although his expression was somewhat impassable, you thought you could see a slight warmness melting though his icy eyelights as he addressed you.

With a determined nod, you scrambled to your feet and allowed him to lead you to the next monster, and the next, and the next, until eventually you were so drained that just keeping your legs from buckling under your weight was a challenge. Mercifully, you ended up only having to heal ten of twenty injured monsters, as many had brought food infused with healing magic to help those with the more minor wounds, and others had healing magic of their own that was just enough to stabilize them until Alphys had arrived with her medical supplies. The first monster you had worked on seemed to be the only one that was close to dusting, and so you allowed the others to tend the monsters that weren’t as badly hurt.

You found yourself morbidly wondering why so many monsters had been left alive, as well as why the attackers had fled so quickly. Perhaps this was the work of an anti-monster hate group, but with so many Dusted, you seriously doubted it.

Falling to your knees next to a towering oak tree that was secluded from view now that you were no longer needed, you heaved gasping breaths whilst your body screamed at you from exhaustion. You frantically scanned the area for Frisk and Sans, anxiety building inside you when you couldn’t find them anywhere. A trembling hand came up to touch your face when you felt a warm trickle from your nose and came away slick with blood.

“Fuck.” You sighed, searching your pockets for anything that could help stem the bleeding, but coming up empty handed.

You bit back a yelp when heavy footsteps came from behind you, prompting you to snap your head up to the figure as they stepped around you, coming to a kneeling position adjacent to your trembling form.

“HERE.” Edge spat as he offered you a napkin, proceeding to thrust it into your hand with a grumble when you just stared dumbly at him. What you didn’t expect was for him to fall backwards into a sitting position before removing his helmet, throwing it to the ground and placing his skull in his hands.

“T-Thank you.” You said meekly as you dabbed at your nose, concern growing inside of you as you took in his defeated demeanor. As if just to make a jab at you, your drained soul gave a tiny thump in your chest, prompting you to internally grumble and sigh. “Are you okay?” You then asked softly, craning your neck to better see his downturned face.

“FINE.” He grunted, not lifting his skull from his gloved hands.

“You, um,” You swallowed, well aware that pushing him was a gamble that would most likely not work out in your favor, “You don’t seem fine.”

He raised his skull slightly, his ruby eyelights boring a hole into you as the flickered weakly, before he hissed through bared teeth, “MOST WOULDN’T AFTER WITNESSING MULTIPLE OF THEIR KIND SLAIN BY AN ENEMY THAT THEY COULDN’T EVEN HOPE TO COME CLOSE TO DEFEATING.”

“R-Right, that was a stupid question. Sorry.” You muttered meekly as you shrunk back, your nails digging into the flesh of your crossed arms where your hands had come to rest on either side.

You chewed the inside of your cheek as you studied the ground beneath you, desperately trying to think of a way to make him feel at least a little better. Nothing could make this any better, you supposed. Instead, you took the opportunity to bring up something that had been needling at your mind, hoping it would at the least distract him from whatever was going on in his head, as well as lift a weight from your shoulders.

You were still immensely pissed off with the skeleton after the way he had spoken to you previously, but perhaps apologizing to him for something you had unintentionally done wrong was a step in the right direction to mending what little of a friendship you had before.

“I’m sorry for the other day, Edge.” You started, prompting him to flick his eyelights back to your face, “I didn’t know that collars were such an important symbol in your culture, I won’t wear it again.” All you received in response was a scoff. It was better than anything else you had come to expect from the prickly skeleton, and so you pushed on. “I, um, also didn’t know that you could sense… uh, y’know. It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable, so I’m sorry for that too.” You mumbled, your voice almost inaudible as an embarrassed flush crept across your face.

“IT’S… FINE.” He grumbled lowly, crimson lightly tinting his cheekbones as his gaze fell to the ground.  You perked up at that, a grin stretching your face at his acceptance of your apology.

“Friends?” You asked cheekily, jutting a hand toward him in the offer of a handshake.

“DON’T PUSH IT.” He growled, his flush growing as you snorted and lowered your arm.

thump

“Shut up.” You hissed almost silently, directing the insult at your extremely persistent soul as your gaze fell to your chest.

“HM?” Edge hummed in response, your eyes flicking up from your chest to address him.

“Oh, nothing. I was- um” Your breath caught in your throat as your gaze met his.

He had lifted his head to the point where you could see his entire face now, one hand supporting his skull as he leant on it. Whether he was aware of it or not, he had dropped his icy scowl of a mask and was gazing at you with an exhausted tenderness that you recognized from that day he had held you whilst you slept. His eyelights flickered gently as they searched your face, vulnerability shining through the withered away mask of a small frown as he did so. In his exhaustion, his usual disgruntled facade had slipped, it seemed. Although, it didn’t last for long, as when he caught on to your hesitation combined with a furious blush, he was right back to scowling and refusing to look at you.

Instead of trying to blab out an apology or an explanation or whatever your muddled brain thought would be appropriate at that point, you fell backwards onto your back, resigned to stare up at the sky whilst your tired soul thump thump thumped in your chest.

“heya.”

With a squeak you realized that you had closed your eyes, giving into your tired body’s demands, and snapped them open to see Sans’ lazy grin as he stared down at you. You scrambled into a sitting position, not trusting yourself to stand just yet, and looked around frantically. Edge was gone, and there was still no sign of the little Mage.

“Where’s Frisk?” You asked, voice thick with panic as you continued to visually search the area for the teen.

“took ‘em home once they’d finished checking on everyone, wasn’t much they could do to help.” He shrugged, offering an outstretched hand to help you to your feet.

“Oh, thank the stars.” You sighed, taking his hand, and making a wobbly ascension, “Thank you, Sans.”

“heh, s’no biggie.” He said nonchalantly, shoving his hands back in his pockets once you were standing, “i’m surprised that you’re so worried ‘bout them. they did kinda free the whole underground y’know?”

“I don’t know. It’s just…” You hugged your arms against your chest in a self-soothing gesture, your voice quiet, “They’re little. Well, not little, but… young. They’re still practically a kid and… kids need protecting, y’know?”

“frisk may still be a kid, but they’re older up here,” He tapped at his skull with a knowing smile, “they’re okay. plus, they got tori lookin’ out for ‘em, ‘n that woman wouldn’t let anyone harm a single hair on their head.” He added with a breathy laugh.

“I bet she wouldn’t.” You smiled wryly, the sting of jealousy piercing your chest once again at the statement.

“c’mon, bud.” He smiled gently at you, his eyelights filled with empathy as he took notice of your exhausted, shaky form, “let’s get ya home.”

“Ugh, yes,” You groaned with a small giggle, “I need to sleep for, like, three days.”.

Instead of just taking your hand as he normally did when you shortcutted, Sans instead put a steadying arm around you, and you shot him a tired, grateful smile in return, a faint blush reddening your cheeks at the intimate gesture. With a crackle of blue magic, you appeared at the front entryway of the cabin. Your low well of magic combined with the exhaustion seemed to make the trip a little harder on your body than it usually would, and you had to brace yourself against Sans with your eyes squeezed shut tight as a wave of dizziness overtook you.

“woah, you okay?” Sans’ voice came from beside you, prompting you to nod your head slightly as you took a breath, “are ya- oh shit.”.

Now, Sans rarely ever cursed, he never felt the need to, and you knew that, so when a swear tumbled past his teeth it pushed a spike of adrenaline to pierce your chest, forcing you to open your eyes to gage his reaction.

“What?” You were breathing heavily now, and although the dizziness had mostly subsided, your legs felt even weaker than before, and it was becoming a struggle to keep yourself upright even with his support.

“you, uh- “ His eyelights were focused on the spot just above your lips, shrunken in what could have been either concern or fear, but your vision was too hazy to determine. You reached up to touch under your nose, sighing and cursing when your fingers, for the second time that day, came away wet with blood.

“It’s fine, this happens. Come on, I need to get a tissue or something.” You insisted with a grumble, using what little strength you had to nudge Sans forward.

He seemed baffled by how casual you were being about the situation, but conceded and allowed you to lean your weight on him as you shuffled through the front door and into the kitchen. With a sigh you grabbed some kitchen roll and decided that it was good enough for the purpose of mopping up the blood from your face as you swiftly pressed the material to your nose, then tilted your head forward to prevent any blood dripping down the back of your throat.

“I’m just gonna… sit here for a while.” You grunted, releasing your grip so you could slide down onto the cool kitchen floor with your back against the counter.

The poor skeleton only looked increasingly more perturbed by your state, resigning himself to sitting next to you to make sure you didn’t pass out since he doubted that he could carry you up the stairs, and using a shortcut seemed like a bad idea if that’s what it did to you whilst you were so drained.

“hey, angel. i thought i heard ya- “ Red froze when he noticed you, his previous nonchalant smile slipping into a furious scowl as he immediately zeroed in on Sans, “what th’ fuck, vanilla?! i thought ya were jus’ goin’ ta tori’s!”

Said skeleton scrambled to his feet, his hands held out in a defensive gesture as he spoke, “we were, but they got a call about an attack from milord ‘n we had to go.”

Red simply growled and moved to kneel in front of you, his eyelights darting frantically across your face, “yer bleedin’, why’re ya bleedin’?!”

You laughed breathily as you caught his gaze, shaking your head slightly at the overly worried skeleton, “I’m fine, Red. It happens sometimes when I overdo it with my magic. I’m just drained is all.”. The prickly skeleton abruptly stood; an idea evident in his expression as he looked to Sans.

“look after ‘em, vanilla. if anythin’ happens to ‘em while i’m gone i’ll fuckin’ dust ya, got it?” He growled, baring his teeth at his cousin, who simply raised a critical brow bone at the monster and nodded slightly. With that, Red vanished, leaving you and Sans to look at each other in befuddlement.

“Yep, I can definitely see him threatening Frisk until they used their abilities.” You snickered, feeling bad for the teen having to face Red’s wrath not just once, but likely many times.

Sans let out a breathy laugh, his shoulders dropping as he did so, “poor kid.”

“Poor kid.” You agreed with a snort before slumping your form back against the counter with a sigh.

“ya feeling any better?” He asked, leaning back against the breakfast bar with his hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie.

“Eh, a little.” You said softly, offering a small smile and removing the tissue now that you were sure the bleeding had stopped, “Sorry for scaring you.”

“heh, ya didn’t scare me.” He shrugged lightly, avoiding your gaze as his smile faltered a little.

You’d never known someone to have such an easy tell before. At least you’d always know if he was ever lying to you, you thought. Biting your lip to stifle a giggle, you decided to be merciful and not call him out on what you had swiftly surmised to be absolute bullshit.

“Well, thank you for looking after me, then.” You conceded, a smile pulling at your lips as you did so.

You met his eyelights with a soft gaze, and you swore you could see the faintest blue tint to his cheekbones. You took a breath to say something but exhaled it in a squeak when Red suddenly popped into existence in front of you, several plastic bags hanging from his arms.

“Stars, Red!” You clutched a hand to your chest as you laughed weakly, before your gaze focused on the bags and an impish smile spread across your face at the mouth-watering smell emanating from them, “What’ve ya got there?”.

The skeleton snorted as he slid down next to you and dropped a bag into your lap, chuckling at your excitement as you dug through and pulled out the food.

“Grillby’s!” You cheered, feverously unwrapping your burger and taking a bite, humming contentedly as you did so.

“it’s got magic in it, so it should help ya get some of yer strength back.” He explained, prompting you to nod and smile gratefully, “an’, uh, i went t’ th’ store an’ got that gross sugary drink ya like too.”

“Oh, you’re amazing! Thank you!” You grinned widely at him, digging out your favorite energy drink as you did so.

He smiled fondly at you in response, red creeping along his cheekbones at the praise. Sans, who had been awkwardly shifting as he leant against the bar, unsure if he was relieved of his duties yet, whipped his head to look at Red as he called his name.

“here, i got ya a burg ‘n fries, bottle’a ketchup too.” He waved a bag at the skeleton, who’s jaw dropped open slightly at the kind gesture.

“ya… did?” He scrunched his brows together, tentatively taking the bag as he did so, “this isn’t a trick, is it?”

“jus’ take th’ food, vanilla.” Red grumbled and rolled his eyes, the crimson tint to his cheekbones growing as he did so. You couldn’t help but giggle at the exchange, your heart swelling when Sans’ face lit up as he pulled out the food and decided to plop himself down on the floor on the other side of you.

“thanks, pal.” He beamed, tilting his head as he looked over you to address Red, before nudging you and whispering, “ya really softened him up, huh?”. You raised your eyebrows with a sly grin and nodded, earning a rumbling chuckle from the skeleton.

“don’ fuckin’ push it, ya bastard.” Red growled as you did so, prompting you to snort and bump your shoulder with his.

The irritable skeleton grumbled in response, but you could see the slight upwards twitch of his mouth. The three of you dug into your meals in relative silence, only broken by you sighing and groaning in relief when the magical food began to replenish your supply, quickly energizing you and relieving you of the aches once plaguing your body.

“hey, uh, grillbz was sayin’ ‘is brother was one’ve th’ monsters that got hit in th’ attack.” Red directed the statement towards you, prompting you to deflate a little and chew on your lip.

“I had no idea that was his brother, actually. A kind of dark blue fire elemental? Had a kid with him, too.” You spoke softly, your soul aching as you remembered the scene.

“pyre? damn, he alright?” Sans cut in, his brows furrowed in worry.

“Is that his name? I couldn’t understand anything that was being said, everyone was speaking in Font and Milord had to kind of translate for me.” You explained, your gaze soft as you pulled your knees up to your chest and wrapped your arms around them now that you were done eating, “Yeah, I got there in time to heal him, thank god. He was in pretty bad shape, but he seemed fine when I left.”

“stars, angel. how many were hit?” Red asked softly, his eyelights focused on your face as you shifted uncomfortably.

“Twenty were injured in total, but… “ You started meekly, a tight feeling in your chest causing you to exhale sharply, “They- They don’t know how many were Dusted…”

“shit.” Was all Red said in response, letting his head fall back against the counter as a grimace twisted his features.

“how many did ya heal?” Sans asked, tilting his head as he caught your gaze.

“Only ten. The others weren’t critically injured, and people brought magic food and stuff, so they were fine without me.” You shrugged, offering the skeleton a wry smile.

“ten?!” Red snapped his attention to you, a scolding tone to his words, “stars, ya need ta stop pushin’ yerself like that, angel! no wonder ya were on death’s door!”

“I was not on death’s door.” You laughed exasperatedly and rolled your eyes, “And what was I supposed to do, just let them die?”

“i don’ fuckin’ know, i jus’ don’ want ya ta hurt yerself!” He huffed, throwing his hands up in irritation.

“ya were pretty rough, bud.” Sans cut in, a critical brow raised as he regarded you, “it can’t be healthy for ya to expend that much magic at once.”

“Well no, but- “

“an ya barely sleepin’, stressed ta fuck with school n’ work, n’ then on top’ve that ya got tiny breathin’ down ya neck all th’ time getting’ ya to do shit fer him.” Red added, his tone full of indignance at the observation.

“I want to do that stuff, though- “

“and you’re having those weird visions too, that can’t be good for your mental health.” Sans piled on, his teeth downturned in a soft frown.

“what th’ fuck d’ya mean visions?! angel- “

“Stop!” You snapped, raising your hands in a surrender, “Seriously, I’m okay! I feel so much better after the food. So, just… stop worrying about me, okay?!”.

You deflated as you received mumbled apologies from the two, guilt creeping up from your stomach and into your throat as a tense silence filled the room.

“No, I- I’m sorry. You’re right.” You muttered somberly, eyes trained on the floor beneath you, “I can’t not attend school, and work, and there’s absolutely no way that I’m giving up helping the Guard, but… You’re right, I’m… not doing well.” You finished with a pitiful whisper, your throat tightening as your overwhelm quickly caught up with you. “But, hey!” You brightened as an idea came to fruition in your mind, causing the others to lift their gaze to your face, “I get like two weeks of paid leave that I haven’t taken yet!”

“that settles it then,” Red said with finality, flashing you a mischievous grin, “yer gonna take time off n’ we’re gonna go on vacation.”

“Really?!” You practically squealed, a beaming smile stretching your face as you bounced excitedly.

“hey, yea.” Sans cut in, an amused lilt to his voice, “we could go to the beach house. haven’t been in forever.”

“You guys have a fucking beach house?!” You gasped, earning a snort from each of the skeletons.

The three of you chatted excitedly about your vacation plans for a little while, which mostly involved you devising a plan to get even the grumpiest household members to agree to come with you, and soon enough the atmosphere was light and comfortable once more. Eventually, you departed from your makeshift seats on the kitchen floor and cleaned up, deciding that a good plan for the rest of the day was to laze about and do absolutely nothing. Normally you would have protested, but you had a feeling that neither Sans nor Red would allow you to try to study after the fright you gave them earlier, so you resigned yourself to lounging on the couch, watching shitty reality TV, and laughing about how awful it was with your skeletal housemates.

You couldn’t help but anxiously look over at either skeleton when there was a brief lapse of silence, worry twisting your gut when you caught them scowling and looking off into the distance as though they were deep in thought. They were certainly acting as though the news of the attack, and in Sans’ case actually seeing the aftermath, wasn’t bothering them, but it was in those moments that you caught a brief glimpse of their grief.

You hated that there wasn’t anything that you could do to make it better, and so you resigned yourself to simply keeping up the light chatter and essentially making a fool of yourself to make them laugh.

It wasn’t long into the evening before you were struggling to keep your eyes open, and so you opted to sleep in Red’s bed after saying goodnight to Sans. A big part of you wanted to stay with the latter skeleton, to make sure that he was okay after what he had seen and, if he wasn’t, to comfort him, but a bigger, self-conscious part of you insisted that he wouldn’t want you there anyway.

You went to bed that night cuddled between Red and Albert (who had quickly snuck his way in when he heard you chatting in the bedroom), and you should have felt safe, warm, and just… happy, but you didn’t. The only reason you fell asleep despite the anxious chattering in your head was due to pure exhaustion, and even then, nightmares filled with the harrowing events of the day plagued your mind until the sun had risen.

Chapter Text

The next few days around the skeleton household were… tense, to say the least.

The day after the attack, the King made an announcement to warn monsterkind to be cautious and to avoid gathering in large groups to prevent something like this from happening again. Of course, he omitted to discuss precisely who was responsible, but chatter amongst monsters indicated that they had pinned the blame on anti-monster hate groups and were now more wary of humans than ever. On top of that, the news stations seemed to be replaying their cover of the incident almost constantly, which didn’t help to ease monsterkind’s mounting fear.

You felt awful having to explain to the others the true nature of the attack after, only the day before, unloading your secrets onto them, but you felt they deserved to be kept updated. They were, understandably, terrified, and it broke your heart to see them as such. You had tried your best to assure them that you were here to protect them, but it did little to remedy their heightened anxiety. Although, it appeared as though things were beginning to settle now, as much as they could, and with no follow-up ambushes the household slowly returned to a semi-normal state.

Except… Edge had been strangely absent, spending most of the time that he wasn’t busy with the Guard isolating himself in his room. When you had asked Milord about his wellbeing, he had simply informed you that he hadn’t noticed anything awry with the skeleton, only further fueling your frustration at the situation. Obviously, you had asked Red too and vented your worry about his brother to him, but received an aggravatingly similar reaction. You had begun to wonder if you were seeing something that wasn’t really there due to how defeated he had seemed when the two of you had talked shortly after the event, or whether these emotionally constipated skeletons simply struggled to pick up on how strange Edge’s behavior was.

Deciding to take matters into your own hands, you came up with a plan to try to get the prickly skeleton to open up to you. It was early in the evening, the sun just barely casting a dull orange glow over the horizon, as you dug under your bed for something that you had long forgotten about. A snort escaped you as you spotted Albert snoozing in the small space between your bed and the floor, your rummaging having very rudely awoken him. The sweet tabby unfurled with a stretch and rubbed against your hands as you reached for the treasured item.

With a soft smile, you pulled out a wooden lockbox and turned the old, dusty object over in your hands. Unlocking it with a code you could never forget – your brother’s birthday - your smile grew as you flipped through page after page of sheet music, each song a somber reminder of the way you filled your time within the Coven.

Music had fast become an extremely important aspect of your life from the second you had been allowed to begin learning. Unable to spend your leisure time away from the confines of four walls, you had picked up many skills to attempt to quell your boredom. Some were self-taught, and others were taught to you by the kinder, older members of your clan.

You felt your chest tighten with grief and longing, tears burning the back of your eyes as you recalled exactly who had taught you to play such a wonderful instrument. This box of sheet music was your brother’s, and he had proudly taught you step by step how to play the second you showed any interest when you were still small. Weekly lessons had become part of your routine, and soon enough you were almost as skilled a pianist as he had been. Those few hours a week you spent with him, simply focusing your attention on fine-tuning your motor skills and committing the songs to memory the best you could, were your safe haven from the chaos and anguish of your regular life.

So, when you had escaped from your make-shift prison, this lockbox full of old sheet music was something that you had absolutely deemed important enough to take up space in the limited capacity of your old backpack, but you couldn’t regret doing so. You had made it out, after all, and now you had this memento of your brother, your protector, from your old home that had, and still did, mean so much to you.

After looking through each piece, adeptly pulling the paper away from Albert’s curious paws when he slyly reached to bat at them, you replaced the pages once more and shoved the box under your arm with a determined feeling washing over you. You were going to get that grumpy skeleton to open up to you if it was the last thing you did!

With revived motivation and a ginger tabby at your heels, you purposefully strolled over to Edge’s door. You took a steeling breath before knocking lightly, your muscles tense and your heart beating hard against your ribcage as you waited for an answer. The cruel words he had thrown at you during his fight with Red unhelpfully floated to the forefront of your mind, causing you to screw your eyes shut as you let out a slow exhale in an attempt to force down your rising hurt and animosity. When you opened them again, the door was in the process of opening, soon allowing you to once again gaze upon the sour mug belonging to your mate’s younger brother.

“Hi, Edge.” You started meekly, offering him an apprehensive smile then gesturing to the box as you spoke, “I remembered that I have a ton of classical pieces that I collected when I was just starting out with piano, and I was wondering if you’d like to borrow them.”.

The monster squinted his sockets suspiciously at you. At least he didn’t look like he hated the idea of borrowing your sheet music. In fact, his eyelights repeatedly shifted from you to the box under your arm as they flickered with thinly veiled curiosity.

“WHY?” He spoke with an undertone of uncertainty to his voice, arms crossing over his chest as he looked down at you.

“Um, because you’re the only person that I know that plays and I want to share these pieces with you. I thought it might be nice for you to learn some new songs, if you don’t know them already.” You explained, a soft tone to your voice, but his suspicious expression only seemed to intensify at the good-natured gesture.

As you were talking, Albert had bolted over to the skeleton, winding around and nuzzling his legs in a gesture that you knew meant that he wanted to be picked up. As you finished, Edge causally lifted the tabby to his chest and held him there, immediately distracting you from the task at hand. How cute!

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR IT?” He grumbled, his eyelights focused on the cat in his arms as he scratched under the kitty’s chin, earning a purr that could have contended with the hum of an engine.

You were so focused on watching the way Edge behaved with the fuzzy creature, with a silly grin quickly making its way onto your face, that the question didn’t register for a second. When it did, however, you tilted your head and knitted your brows together, confused at the nature of the query.

“Nothing? I just wanted to do something nice for you, I guess.” You shrugged lightly, your gaze dropping to the floor as you suddenly began to feel slightly self-conscious.

With a short inhale, you recalled that this is how Red had acted for a long while after you had become friends, always suspicious of your kind actions and expecting you to want something from him in return. That must just be how the Underground was for them, you surmised.

“If… you want to give me something in return, then- “ You spoke lightly and shifted nervously as you brought your eyes up to meet his, “maybe you could play a couple of songs with me?”

“IS THAT IT?” He asked in a low rumble, his distrustful demeanor not easing by a fraction at your reasoning.

“It would… actually mean a lot to me if you did.” You replied in a timid tone, a fondness interlacing your words as you regarded the skeleton with a soft smile.

“FINE.” The skeleton conceded with a sharp exhale, stepping to the side to allow you to enter.

Trying not to be discouraged by his bitter tone, you shot him an enthused grin and slipped past him to take a seat on the end of his bed. You made quick work of shuffling through the sheets until you found the piece that you were most eager to play and plucked it from its place within the oak confine.  

“Can we start with this one?” You asked, holding the paper out towards him.

He gently let Albert down, who quickly began protesting in the form of demanding meows, and took the sheet from you before his eyelights scanned over the title.

“BEETHOVEN?” He raised a browbone at you as his crimson eyelights lifted to meet your hopeful gaze.

“Moonlight Sonata,” You named the piece dreamily with a soft sigh, “It was the first piece I ever truly fell in love with. Do you know it?”

“I AM FAMILIAR.” He stated in almost an amused manner, a whisper of a smile pulling at his pointed teeth.

Feeling encouraged by his ever so slightly lightened demeanor, you hopped up and took a seat on one side of the stool facing the piano, the position allowing you to be able to play the right-handed notes. Edge hesitantly perched himself next to you, the stool just being wide enough to comfortably fit both of you, but not quite big enough to avoid his leg lightly brushing yours as he sat, the tight squeeze not allowing for more than a fingers width of space between you. The close proximity had your mind reeling as a light flush crept its way up your neck and onto your face, but you were determined not to let it get to you.

Somewhat easing the tension, the abandoned ginger tabby hopped up onto your lap to use you as nothing more than a stepping stool to climb onto the lid of the piano. With a giggle you scratched behind his ears before he decided to lay across the structure, a contented expression on his sweet little face. Edge had positioned the sheet music appropriately on the stand as you did so, and so you placed your right hand over the keys, a silent indication for him to do the same with his left, which you had easily picked up to be his dominant hand during the first few occasions that you had spent time with him.

The two of you played side by side, the haunting melody of the song filling the room and uplifting your soul. Albert remained happily spread out on the piano, his tail swaying gently and his eyes squinted in tranquility as he watched your hands dance over the keys. The piece required the left and right hand to come quite close to each other on several occasions, and so it wasn’t uncommon for your hand to brush against Edge’s as you played each key.

You were so enraptured by the perfectly in sync performance that you didn’t pay it much thought until the two of you played the last few notes of the song and you turned your head with a grin to see a very flustered skeleton beside you. You bit your lip to stifle a giggle, opting to pretend as though you hadn’t seen anything and instead hopped up from the seat to grab the lockbox.

thump

“Do you want to choose the next one?” You offered with a smile, opting to ignore your soul’s incessant pounding, and instead holding out the open box to the beet-red, scowling skeleton.  

With a huff he took the box from you and began rifling through, taking his time reading the title of each piece. You took the opportunity to take your place at the far end of the piano and peered over his shoulder, curious as to which one he would pick. You let out a breathy laugh when you saw the piece he placed on the stand after gently closing the box and laying it on the ground beside him. He had chosen a beautiful song – Trois Gymnopedies, composed by Erik Satie – but you were surprised that he had decided on a piece from the romantic era, especially because he didn’t exactly seem like the romantic type. However, you opted not to tease the skeleton about it, simply out of fear of ruining what seemed to be, at least to you, an enjoyable period of time spent together.

“Ready?” You said softly with a smile, once again placing your right hand over the keys.

Edge simply nodded as he copied your action, his eyelights focused on the instrument before him. His lack of input in any conversation you tried to start was beginning to worry you, and you thought with a hint of anxiety about whether you were bothering him or if he was simply playing with you due to feeling indebted in terms of your offering. You shook the feeling off and concluded that if he truly didn’t want you there that he would have no problem in telling you so. After all, he wasn’t exactly a meek or passive person.

However, as the two of you played, you couldn’t help but sneak glances at his downturned face. He seemed somewhat distracted and, although his eyelights were focused on alternating between the sheet music and the keys, his expression held the same frustration and tired defeat that you had seen back at the park. You lifted your hand from the piano, causing the aforementioned monster to do the same and turn his head to you in a silent question.

“Edge?” You called out lightly to him, tilting your head in an attempt to catch his gaze. The skeleton hummed in response, pointedly avoiding your attempts, “Are you okay?”. He shifted nervously at your enquiry, his face contorting further into frustration. You softly spoke his name again, worry evident in your features.

“WHY- “ His hands curled tightly into fists as he sharply exhaled through his nasal cavity, his next words coming out quiet and strained, “Why Are You Being So Nice To Me?”

“Huh?” You breathed a short laugh, shaking your head lightly at the skeleton, “Why wouldn’t I be?”.

You started slightly when he stood abruptly, turning his back to you as he stalked toward the bed with an irritated growl. You quickly threw your legs over the bench to push yourself into a standing position, concern gnawing at your gut as you took a few tentative steps towards him. Once again, you softly called his name and reached out a hand towards his, your soul aching and urging you to comfort him. With a gasp you flinched back when he swiveled quickly, slapped your hand away and proceeded to glare down at you. His expression wasn’t angry or annoyed, rather it was forlorn, his teeth bared in a grimace and eyelights wavering weakly as they looked over you.

“I HAVE DONE LITTLE OTHER THAN BE CRUEL TO YOU, BERATE AND INSULT YOU, YET YOU INSIST ON BEING KIND TO ME.” His words were clipped and restrained yet had the smallest undertone of dejection.

You simply smiled up at him, your gaze softening as you did so before you spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Because I like you, Edge. Yes, you can be rude and abrasive and definitely cruel, but I can see good in you. You hurt me, but… the way you defend yourself is by lashing out, right? I see you trying to be better and… I couldn’t even begin to understand how relentless and cruel the Underground was and the horrific things that both you and Red went through, but what I do understand is putting up a wall and wearing a mask to protect yourself. So, um… I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s okay if you’re cruel to me, if you berate and insult me, because with every other action I can see that you’re trying to not be that way.”.

Edge’s grimace softened slightly as you spoke, yet his clenched fists only tightened and caused his hands to shake. His eyes were downcast, his eyelights continuing to gently flicker and fade as though he were turning over your words in his mind. You took a breath to speak, but your soul gave a familiar thump in your chest, though this time it forced the air out of your lungs, prompting you to bring a hand to your sternum in an automatic gesture. In the exact same moment and in a similar way, Edge’s hand flew up to the center of his ribcage, bewilderment etched into his features as he watched your copied action.

“WHAT…?” He muttered, eyes flicking from your chest to his own. You had never seen such open vulnerability on his face before, a mixture of shock, frustration and the tiniest hint of fear all compounded into one.

“I- “ You sighed softly, wrapping your arms around yourself as you bit down on your lip, “You’ve been feeling it too, haven’t you?”.

He growled lowly, avoiding your gaze as he nodded shortly. A feeling of anguish washed over you and made your throat tight as you concluded that for him to fully understand, you would have to reveal Sans’ and Frisk’s secret. In fact, Red didn’t know the truth behind why your feelings had suddenly all revealed themselves at once after feeling nothing but companiable love for so long. Not that he seemed to have given it much thought, but you had been wanting to talk to him about what the pair had told you since you had figured it out. As long as you didn’t mention what Sans had told you about the ‘resets’ underground it should be fine, right?

With a newfound resolute, you pulled out your phone from your pocket and messaged Red asking him to come up to his brother’s room, earning an incredulous look from said brother.

“I’m going to explain everything, I promise.” You said, stepping around Edge to sit on the end of the bed and gesturing for him to do the same, “It’s going to be a long story, so…”.

The uptight skeleton opted to remain standing as he faced you, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling as he did so. It wasn’t long before Red popped into existence besides his brother, restrained anger evident on his face.

“th’ fuck is goin’ on?” He demanded as he looked between you and Edge, the latter rolling his eyelights and scoffing with a deepening scowl.

“Nothing, it’s okay!” You exclaimed quickly, putting your hands out with your palms facing the irate skeleton, “I just want to talk to both of you. It’s- um, it’s easier if I just tell you both now, okay?”.

Red’s face slipped into concerned befuddlement as you spoke. He swiftly took a seat next to you and you shot him a soft smile.

“what’s up, angel?” He asked lowly, his hand finding yours and giving it a squeeze. You returned the action with a grateful look.

“So… You know that Sans and I went to visit Tori and Frisk, right?” You aimed the question more at the taller brother, unsure if he was aware of your whereabouts before Milord had requested your presence. When he nodded in response, you continued on, “And… You know that… Frisk is a Mage?”.

Both brothers’ eyelights snapped to you, their sockets wide in surprise. With a sinking feeling you realized that the only people that must have known about Frisks’ status prior to you finding out was Sans, Toriel and Asgore, and possibly Milord.

“Yeah… It turns out they’ve been kind of… manipulating time?” You breathed, your voice pitching up as you spoke due to the nerves swirling in your stomach at revealing the sensitive information.

“what?!”

“WHAT?!”

Both brothers exclaimed at once, their faces twisted in confusion and fury.

“how come we ain’t never been told ‘bout that?” Red asked with an indignant huff.

“YOU MEAN WHY WASN’T I TOLD ABOUT THAT. AS LIEUTENANT TO THE CAPTAIN, I WOULD ASSUME IT WOULD BE VITAL FOR ME TO BE AWARE.” Edge grumbled back, causing his brother to growl lowly with a roll his eyelights as he crossed his arms over his chest, “WHAT I DON’T UNDERSTAND IS WHY VANILLA OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO KNOW.”. This statement prompted Red to perk up with a befuddled expression, his browbones furrowing as a small frown tugged at his mouth.

“yea, what’s th’ deal with that? ain’t like fuckin’ vanilla’s gonna do anythin’ ta help.”.

You felt your soul flare in anger for your friend, but it was quickly extinguished by the reminder that they weren’t aware of what Sans had gone through, and they likely never would be. You hated lying to them, but once again, it wasn’t something you could just blurt out without Sans’ permission.

“I… don’t know.” You mumbled, unable to lift your eyes to meet their gaze as guilt began to claw at your insides.

With a breath you gained the courage to briefly look to the brothers, who looked as though they were about to begin barraging you with questions, and so you clenched your jaw and forced strength into your voice.

“Just let me explain, okay?” You gave each of them a stern look, causing them to falter slightly, “I found out because… I’ve been having these visions.”.

Neither of the skeletons attempted to interrupt, instead they watched you with muted curiosity, their brow bones drawn together as they listened. Red’s eyelights flickered gently in recognition as he recalled Sans’ earlier words regarding the episodes.

“I thought they were memories, but they’re not. Not from this lifetime, anyway. I couldn’t remember them at first, but the more they happened, the more I could recall afterwards. I think… the first time it happened was just after we had arrived at the aquarium.” You directed the last part at Red, who’s face once again lit up in understanding.

“ya were cryin’,” He mumbled, his eyelights searching your face with fervor, “what happened? in th’ vision?”

“I can’t remember,” You sighed heavily, obvious frustration evident in your words, “I just know that whatever it was seemed really, really bad.”

“shit.” Red grumbled, leaning back on his hands as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah.” You laughed bitterly before taking a breath and resuming with your explanation, “When I met Frisk, I had another not-memory, vision- whatever you want to call it. I saw us together over several different… timelines, I guess? We were so close; we were like siblings…” You shook your head with a disbelieving laugh before taking a breath and regaining your focus. “Anyway, I asked them about it, and they told me that they have the ability to manipulate time, to go back and make it so nothing after that point ever happened.”.

You watched anxiously as the brothers processed what you had told them, both of them had cast their gaze to the floor with their jaws clenched as they did so.

“so then… why are ya rememberin’ shit when no one else can?” Red asked in a mumbled tone. With a sigh you shook your head slightly and shrugged.

“I don’t know.” You muttered disappointedly, “There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t know.”.

A tense silence filled the room, only adding to your already intense unease. With a steeling breath, you pushed on, eager to get to what you had actually wanted to construe to the brothers now that the context was clear.

“The reason I’m telling you this is because it has something to do with… “. You trailed off, attempting to find the correct phrasing before muttering mostly to yourself, “Shit, how do I explain this?”.

You thought about your soul and the way that it had been desperately trying to communicate with you, and realized that besides Edge and Red, as far as you were aware, you were the only other one who had been experiencing the pounding of your soul in your chest. It made sense that it was something that happened when you had feelings for someone, but for it to happen so rapidly for someone that you only thought of as a friend at the time, and someone that you barely even knew? It was strange, for sure. Yes, it had happened with Mutt, but the two of you already had an intimate relationship, so surely it was bound to happen at some point.

“Red, do you remember what I said about feeling like my soul was beating in my chest?” You asked, tilting your head at the skeleton who hummed in affirmation, “Don’t you think it’s strange that I didn’t feel anything for you at all and then as soon as you explained that it was my soul calling out to yours it was like… a wall broke down in my mind and I felt everything?”.

Red’s jaw dropped as he began to put the pieces together, his eyelights darting from side to side as he mulled over your question. Satisfied, you turned your attention to Edge.

“And Edge, you can feel it too, can’t you?” You repeated your earlier query, hoping now that the context was there that it could click for him too. His face brightened with a ruby flush as he growled softly, his eyelights trained on the floor below him. Red’s head shot up, his gaze once again alternating between you and his brother.

“Frisk told me that in most of the timelines I was dating one of you. I guess our souls remember, even if we don’t.” You breathed a laugh, your face beginning to heat up as Edge’s eyelights caught your eyes, “I just… It’s been very confusing and frustrating for me, so I didn’t want either of you to feel the same way.” You finished, aiming the sentiment more toward Edge than his brother. There was another beat of silence as the aforementioned skeleton grumbled and shifted uneasily, relief flooding your body when Red spoke up and broke it.

“but… why’s th’ kid doin’ this?” He muttered, confusion etched into his features, “what happened ta make them want ta go back so far?”

“Well… “ You started with a strained tone, your hands clenched into fists in your lap as you recalled what the little Mage had told you, “The main reason was usually because war broke out and… a lot of monsters and humans died. It’s not all Frisk’s fault though, I had a lot to do with it from what I can gather.”.

The two glanced quizzically at you, prompting you to explain everything that Frisk had told you. You told them every gruesome detail: your deaths, being captured by your Coven and never lasting as long as you currently have outside of it, and never leaving at all and becoming an extremely powerful and dangerous Mage. Then finally, your visions of begging Frisk to go back, but not understanding why you were asking of such a thing until they had informed you of the reasoning. What you purposefully omitted, however, was Sans’ recollection of each timeline. As far as you understood he couldn’t remember the details of every single one, and regardless it was his secret to tell, not yours. The expression on the brothers’ faces morphed from confusion into somber understanding as you spoke, only broken by their huff of laughter at your recounting of them threatening the poor teen to bring you back.

“but… i don’t get it,” Red mumbled, his mouth downturned as he looked almost dazedly at you, “if ya escape in every other timeline, how come there’s jus’ one where ya don’t?”.

Your breath caught in your throat at the innocent question and a spike of adrenaline caused your heart to begin to race. If you were going to tell them about him, the person who was your greatest source of joy, yet had quickly become the largest root of your trauma and anguish, you had to do it now. You hadn’t ever actually spoken to anyone about your brother since he had died, not that you had anyone to tell, but perhaps this was a huge first step towards dealing with the wretched memories of your former life. A brief flash of a not-memory you could have sworn you had seen before only served to further push you to speak, the grief and longing that came with it causing tears to well in your eyes.

“My brother.” You whimpered, not missing the way Edge’s head snapped in your direction with an almost horrified expression. You had half a mind to think that he may actually feel somewhat guilty about what he had said to you from the way he tensed and squirmed at your siblings mentioning.

“I- um, I wasn’t alone when I freed the imprisoned monsters. Daniel – that was his name - he was there too. He was the most incredible older brother, the most incredible person. He might have been a justice soul, but he was so soft and kind, just… sensitive and empathetic to a fault, y’know?” A fond smile found its way onto your face despite the tears burning at the back of your eyes, love for your lost sibling blooming in your chest as you spoke.

“Anyway, um- his abilities revolved around memory manipulation, so if we got caught, he could just erase the memory of whoever caught us, which was super useful, heh. I tried doing it by myself when he… but, yeah, it didn’t work out. Everything that was happening with moving here and then monsters surfacing, then our parents dying, it was just… too much for him. I tried to get him to escape the Coven with me, but he was so scared that they would hurt me if they managed to recapture me that he refused. Eventually he… he was always high on anything but Dust, and I tried so hard to help him, but eventually I got so tired and frustrated that I just… snapped.”. Your voice was wavering now and although your gaze was trained on your rigidly clenched fists you could feel the eyelights of the others carefully focused on you.

The room was so eerily silent that you could likely hear a pin drop, not even your own breathing could be heard, and you realized that you weren’t taking any air in at all. With a long exhale and a deep breath in, you attempted to unknot the tightness in your chest, forcing yourself to be grounded by focusing on the stinging feeling of the biting of your nails into the palms of your hands.

“I was so cruel to him. He didn’t deserve it but I- I just couldn’t take it anymore. He wasn’t my brother, he was just this lifeless husk that was always desperately searching for the next hit, and it hurt so badly to see. He- “. You cleared your throat, tears now freely falling down your cheeks and dripping from your chin. Though you tried to wipe away the wetness from your face, it was quickly replenished with fresh tears, and so you conceded to simply let yourself sniffle and sob as you told the story.

“I told him to get away from me, to never speak to me again unless he stopped using and he- he ran away. I didn’t look for him until hours had gone by and… by the time I did, it was too late. He killed himself. He killed himself and it was my fault. If I hadn’t- if I’d just been kinder to him, he wouldn’t have- “.

Red pulled you into him, allowing you to cry and wail into his shoulder as he held you close. His expression was hard, but the almost unnoticeable wavering of his crimson eyelights betrayed his pain at seeing you hurt. You had expected Edge to give in to his unease surrounding your intense emotion, but incredibly he was still present, albeit stiff with a minutely panicked expression, but he didn’t ditch the two of you in favor of preserving his own comfort. How could he when all he could hear was his soul screaming at him to go to you, to hold you and soothe you. Even if he wanted to leave, he didn’t think he could at this point.

In a move that had both you and Red reeling, the taller skeleton rigidly and cautiously sat beside you, a very tentative leather-clad hand lightly grasping yours. The action shocked you out of your self-pitying state and you rapidly lifted your head from your mate’s shoulder to lock your eyes on yours and Edge’s now entwined hands. You felt more than heard Red’s attempt at holding back his laughter, causing you to bite your lip to stop yourself from giggling at his muted amusement.

With a gentle jab to his ribs as a signal to be quiet, you righted yourself and wiped at your face, the free falling tears having ceased as a result of the prickly skeleton’s sweet attempt at comforting you. Said skeleton’s face was covered in a pretty rosy blush, his face contorted in furious mortification as his eyelights refused to lift from the ground. You smiled gratefully at him as you gently squeezed his hand in a thankful gesture, only causing his flush to grow and his frame to tense further.

At least, you thought, he understood now why he was feeling the way he was. Perhaps now he would refrain from lashing out in an attempt to remedy his confusing emotions and the two of you could begin to build some form of friendship, or even something more, somewhere down the line. The thought had you flushing, and you sharply shook your head to regain your focus.

“So, um, to answer your question I guess, that one timeline where I didn’t leave, it must have been because we never had that argument or that I found him in time to save him and… he lived. I would never have left if he didn’t die so… yeah.”

“fuck, angel.” Red breathed, prompting you to shift your gaze to his melancholy expression, “’m sorry.”

You breathed a short humorless laugh, shaking your head slightly at the skeleton, “It’s okay. In a way, there’s a silver lining to it all, y’know? I would never have met you, any of you, if he hadn’t of died. I would never have had the heart to leave him, to escape and move here.”

“Would You Not Rather Have Your Brother?” Edge surprised you by asking a mumbled question, one that you had to think over for a second before answering. His face portrayed a stern focus, yet he would not turn his head to face you, instead looking off to the side as you studied his skull.

“He would have wanted me to be here, to be happy.” You breathed, a small smile tugging at your lips at the thought, “I would rather he be here with me, though. He would have loved you guys.” You finished with a hushed giggle, taking great amusement in imagining how he would have interacted with each member of the household.

“ya think?” Red smirked at you with an inquisitive brow bone raised.

“Oh, absolutely!” You perked up, returning to your sunny disposition and soothing the tension in the air, “We were very similar! Like, for someone who was so nice he had the darkest sense of humor- “.

You chatted joyously about what it was like growing up with your brother and how much fun he was to be around. Each story lifted your mood and had you grinning from ear to ear, even laughing along with Red when you explained all the trouble the two of you would get up to, especially when you were rebellious teenagers. Although there was four years between you, the two of you had always been joint at the hip, rarely apart for more than a night or so. Even Edge had begun to relax somewhat, a placid expression replacing his once strained one as he fondly listened to you nostalgically recall some of the best times you had experienced with the person you had loved so dearly. He didn’t even try to pull his hand away from your grasp, instead allowing you to run your thumb over the back of his metacarpals as you animatedly spoke.

Eventually though, you realized that it must be late in the evening when Red not so subtly yawned and rubbed sleepily at his sockets, and decided that you should probably go to bed and relieve Edge of your company.  Politely excusing yourself and wishing Edge a good night, you hopped up from the bed and began to make your way out of the room, a sluggish Red at your heels. A sudden thought crossed your mind, however, and you called to Red that you would catch up with him, leaving you and Edge alone in the privacy of his bedroom.

Edge watched you curiously as you sauntered over to the piano and plucked the previously abandoned sheet music from its stand before offering the paper to him.

“Daniel was the one that taught me how to play. He would have wanted you to have a piece that you liked.” You said softly, offering a small smile that only grew when he gingerly took the music from your grasp with an expression that conveyed a mixture of disbelief and quiet gratitude, “I’d like to take the others back when you’re done with them, but this one you can keep, if you want to.”.

He brought the item into both of his hands, holding it in front of him as his eyelights focused on the lines and squiggles inked on the old, worn paper.

“Thank You.” He spoke lowly, his brows knitted together and a red tint to his cheekbones.

Satisfied, you turned on your heel to leave, but was stopped by a skeletal hand gently gripping your wrist, urging you to swivel your body to face the now standing skeleton. His face was scrunched up in a shameful scowl, but his eyelights were unwaveringly trained on you. You looked up at him, your gaze soft and questioning.

“I Am… Sorry For What I Said,” He muttered, his voice strained with the effort of what must have been a very difficult feat for him, “I Was… Needlessly Cruel.”.

Your heart did backflips in your chest, the genuine nature of his apology causing affection for the skeleton monster to bloom within you.

“Thank you, Edge.” You breathed, your face flushing as an appreciative smile twitched the corners of your lips upwards, “I forgive you.”.

He gave a sharp nod in return, his scowl fading slightly and a faint blush gracing his features.

“I’m sorry too, for being so mean to you. I know you’re trying your hardest to be a good brother to Red, it must be difficult to show that you love someone when love was what got you killed in your old home, y’know?” You said gently, offering him a supportive smile.

You were stunned and, honestly, insanely proud when instead of lashing out as he usually would, Edge’s expression softened considerably as his eyelights dropped to the ground before he breathed out forcefully through his nasal cavity and nodded shortly. Feeling bold, you took a step towards him and stood on your toes to wrap your arms around his neck, the skeleton tensing but leaning down slightly to accommodate you as you did so.

“I’m proud of you, Edge.” You whispered to the side of his skull before leaving a kiss on his cheekbone and releasing him.

With that, you were fully pleased with the interaction and made quick work of skipping out of the room, your face hot and soul thumping hard against your ribcage. Edge had been left in a similar state, his entire skull flushed and his jaw slack as he reached up to gingerly touch the spot that you had kissed him.

With your face still burning, you slipped into Red’s room and undressed before jumping into bed. Surprisingly, Red wasn’t yet asleep, seemingly having waited for you to join him before he did so. Said skeleton cracked a socket open, the single ruby eyelight present within flickering softly as he looked over your flushed, giddy expression.

“everythin’ okay?” He asked, an obvious undertone of mirth present in his voice as he grinned at you.

“I think I want to be an alpha.” You blurted in a whisper, face only growing redder by the second as Red chuckled lowly.

“alright, angel. fine by me.” He shrugged lightly and your gaze lifted to meet his, relief mixed with surprise evident in your expression, “jus’ be careful, kay?”

“Okay.” You breathed, an affectionate smile slipping onto your face, before asking hesitantly, “You’re really okay with that? With me marking other members of the household?”

“sure. like i said, ain’t nothin’ new ta us.” He reassured you, casually bringing an arm up and behind his head, “jus’ don’t tell me ‘bout th’ details of ya relationship with th’ others an’ it ain’t an issue.”.

You hummed and shuffled closer to him, propping your head up on a hand so that you could see his face whilst still being able to cuddle into his side.

“Jealous, are we?” You teased lightly as you dragged a finger lightly down the center of his exposed ribcage.

“heh, nah.” He spoke lowly, using his free hand to place two fingers under your chin to lift your head and turning his skull so that there was barely an inch between your faces, before growling possessively, “jus’ so long as ya know that when it’s jus’ us, yer mine ‘n mine only, got it?”.

Heat swiftly rushed to your core at the demand as you inhaled sharply, your face once again beet-red.

“Got it.” You whispered, your skin already alight with electricity at the tiny action.

“good.” He breathed huskily before capturing your lips in a tantalizingly slow kiss, each movement of his tongue, buzzing with magic, causing your breaths to become ragged as a needy moan escaped you.

You pulled back slightly, your eyes hazy with desire as you gently cupped the side of his face and ran a thumb gently over his cheekbone. The action caused his breath to hitch, lidded sockets containing dimmed eyelights that were focused on your lips.

“I love you,” You spoke softly, your soul full of adoration for your mate, “so much.”

“i love ya too, angel.” He murmured back, his lewd expression transforming into one of pure infatuation, “so much.”

The two of you didn’t especially spend too much of the night sleeping, so when your alarm blared at the god awful hour of 7am to wake you for classes, it took a good few attempts of hitting snooze and falling back to sleep before you finally managed to drag yourself out of bed. Not that you minded, since you had been sharing a bed with Red your nightmares seemed to be mostly at bay and, although the skeleton was an extremely heavy sleeper, even when you did wake in the night panicked and distressed, he always woke to mumble soothing words and hold you until you calmed yourself and dropped off again.

After planting a gentle kiss on Red’s forehead, causing him to adorably grumble and scrunch up his face, you carefully slipped out of bed and began to get ready for the day. You had spoken to the head researcher and your tutor about taking some time off the minute you could, and so you only had two more days before you were free for a whole two weeks! The thought gave you a spring in your step and motivated you to do the best you could with the time you had left before your vacation, and so the day passed without an issue.

You and Sans were extremely close to being done with the tedious task of translating his father’s documents, but little progress was made that day due to the two of you animatedly chatting about what you had learnt from Frisk and how it could possibly help prevent the seemingly set in stone fate of monsterkind from happening again. Both of you had surmised that to come up with a solid plan that you needed to get some more information from the little Mage, namely what warning signs were there before war broke out, and to discuss how to remedy them. That could wait until after your much needed holiday, you had decided. It was only one weekend of no Mage business, surely everything would be okay until then.

Sans had been kind enough to shortcut you home with him since the attack, as you were often afraid that now that your Coven were aware of where you were, as well as there being a good chance that they now knew that you were affiliated with monsterkind, that they would be hot on your heels.
And so, once you had finished up with work, you made your way over to Sans’ lab, exhausted and ready to head home. You pushed open the heavy door and stepped into the room just in time to catch the skeleton shuffling his lab coat from his shoulders and replacing it with his usual blue parka.

“That lab coat looks good on you, y’know.” You half-teased with a grin from the doorway, earning a startled yelp from your friend before he whipped around to face you. His surprise was swiftly replaced with bashfulness as he processed your compliment, a pretty cerulean blush lightly tinting his cheekbones.

“heh, really?” He asked, shoving his hands into his pockets in a nervous gesture.

“Yeah!” You enthused, your shit-eating grin only growing wider at his shy disposition, “It makes you look sexy smart.”

Sans snorted at that, his blush intensifying despite the amusement in his tone, “sexy smart?”

You hummed in affirmation, taking a few slow steps toward him, “Some people find intelligence really sexy, y’know.”

Are you flirting with him? You might possibly, definitely be flirting with him in your own, very odd way.

“huh, ‘n how d’ya know that?” He asked with a wide grin, his voice dropping to a hushed tone and his sockets half-lidded as you stood before him, a very mischievous look in your eyes.

“Perhaps I’m one of those people.” You murmured in a teasing tone, looking up at him through your lashes as you smirked at him.

It wasn’t like you hadn’t relentlessly flirted with Sans before, especially when it served to embarrass him as revenge after he did something to embarrass you, but now with the confirmation that you were a hundred percent free to mark whoever you wanted, nervous and excited fluttering was assaulting your stomach and heating up your face. Stars, you wanted to kiss him, but you were painfully aware of the fact that you were in your workplace and likely would find it hard to stop once you began. Sans seemed to be thinking the same thing as his cyan eyelights traveled down up your body, landing on your lips as he exhaled shortly, frustratedly.

“Come on, we’ll be late for dinner if we don’t leave now” You breathed, taking a tentative step toward him so that you were barely an inch away before you even knew what you were doing.

“yeah, we should go.” He muttered back, his eyelights hazy as they alternated between your eyes and lips.

Your faces were unbearably close now and you could feel his hot breath as it came short and quick, an obvious indication that he was just about as riled up as you were from the short, seemingly innocent interaction.

Oh, fuck it.

Before your brain could register what was happening, your body had already sprang into action. You pressed lips to teeth and Sans hungrily returned the affection, his hands making quick work of latching onto your hips as you wound your arms around his neck to deepen the kiss. As though he had been waiting for this moment, he gently pushed you back against his desk and lifted you to seat you on the piece of furniture before pressing himself between your legs, not breaking the heated kiss for a moment. The action caused a whining moan to slip past your lips, further fueling his arousal that was expressed in a low growl.

You gasped and started slightly when your phone began blaring from inside your pocket, pushing you to break the kiss and pull out your phone. Sans took the action as an invitation to begin nipping gently at your neck, causing you to inhale sharply and squirm as you hit the answer button.

“Hey, Paps!” You spoke his brother’s name very deliberately, causing him to sharply pull back, flushed and panting but with a curiosity in his expression.

“HELLO, FRIEND!” Came the boisterous skeleton’s voice from the other side of the phone, causing you to flinch slightly at the volume and opt for putting him on speakerphone to salvage your hearing.

“hey, bro.” Sans called out, a dopey smile stretching across his face at the sound of his brother’s voice.

“OH SANS, GOOD, YOU’RE THERE TOO! THAT’LL MAKE THIS A LOT EASIER!” The taller skeleton exclaimed, prompting the aforementioned skeleton to meet your eyes quizzically.  

“What’s up?” You asked, returning Sans’ look with a curious one of your own.

“WELL, WE HAPPEN TO HAVE SOME MORE FAMILY THAT WILL BE JOINING US FOR DINNER TONIGHT!” He continued cheerily, before adding in a rushed manner, “AND THEY WILL ALSO BE STAYING WITH US FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE!”

“I didn’t know you had more family!” You grinned excitedly, nudging Sans gently as you did so and earning a low chuckle, “More cousins?”

“YES! YOU CAN MEET THEM SOON. I CAN JUST SEE THEM PULLING INTO THE DRIVEWAY NOW, SO HURRY BACK!”. With that, you said your goodbyes and hung up the phone, the prospect of meeting more of the skeleton family making you buzz with enthusiasm.

“Come on, let’s go!” You hopped from foot to foot, your once tired body now full of energy and rearing to go. Sans chuckled once again at your excitement before offering a hand to you.

“alright, bud. ya ready?”

With a grin you took his hand in yours, feeling the warm tingle of his familiar magic as flesh met bone.

“Ready!”

Chapter Text

You were through the door before Sans was, kicking off your shoes and bounding into the hallway with a revived vigor. Animated chatter could be heard from the living room as its inhabitants laughed and shouted excitedly, and so you swiftly headed toward the source of the sound with a delighted grin.

When you rounded the corner into the living room, you caught sight of four skeleton monsters, two of which you recognized as Red and Papyrus, but just as the latter skeleton had claimed, there were two present that you didn’t recognize. Warmth spread to your cheeks when the monsters you knew lit up at your presence, Red being the first to greet you with an almost prideful grin. The two that were unknown to you turned their heads to you with curious expressions as your mate (beta?) announced your arrival, the shorter of the pair practically leaping from his spot on the couch when he spotted you.

“HELLO! YOU MUST BE THE MAGE THAT MILORD TOLD US ABOUT!” He addressed you exuberantly, a wide grin showing off his flat teeth, of which contained an adorable gab between the front two.

A sigh of relief escaped you at his words. You were thankful to Milord for briefing them on your status beforehand, at least now you wouldn’t have to go through any more heartache over it.

You noticed with an internal squeal that he had a dusting of blue freckles across his cheekbones and nasal ridge. You were unaware that skeleton monsters could even have such a cute feature!

The hyper skeleton before you was almost the spitting image of Sans, yet he was a touch shorter, just about coming up to your height. His facial features were softer, more child-like with larger cyan eyelights, and from what you could tell his bones were just a tad slimmer, but the likeness was incredible. His outfit consisted of a simple white tee and blue jeans, complimented by pristine white lace-up sneakers. Though, you noted with a hint of amusement, around his neck was a baby-blue scarf despite the sweltering weather, and a matching pair of faux-leather gloves. He thrust a gloved hand toward you, and you took it in with a toothy grin, giggling as he shook your hand vigorously.

“I AM THE MAGNIFICANT BLUEBERRY, BUT YOU CAN CALL ME BLUE!” He introduced himself as he released your hand, posing with his hands on his hips and his chest proudly puffed up in a way that reminded you greatly of Papyrus and brought an affectionate smile to your face as you told him your name.

You just about caught sight of the other skeleton, presumably Blue’s brother, light up when he spotted an equally as thrilled Mutt stroll in behind you with a gasp, accompanied by Sans who gave a casual ‘heya’ to the others. The latter simply side-stepped out of the way with a lazy grin as Mutt launched himself at the other lanky skeleton, almost as though he were expecting such a thing to happen. The two fell to the ground with a clatter, becoming a snickering pile of bones as Blue groaned and shook his head.  

“AND THAT IS MY BROTHER, STRETCH.” He grumbled almost disappointedly, but you could see the corners of his twitching as though he wanted to laugh.

“I’m guessing they’re close, then?” You said between giggles, your face hurting from smiling so much at the affectionate display.

“DISTURBINGLY SO.” Blue muttered, his expression so serious and such a contrast to his previously lively nature that it caused your giggles to evolve into full on belly-laughter.

Before introducing yourself properly to who you now knew as Stretch, you strolled over to Red to greet him with a peck on the teeth, which caused a precious flush to tint his cheekbones. Of course, you stopped to give Papyrus a hug too, the force of which forced a squeal and a giggle out of you before he promptly released you with a grin and a faint orange blush. Finally, you made your way over to the pair of obviously great friends, who had opted to sit cross-legged on the floor beside the couch instead of actually on it, as they vibrantly conversed. With a breath you prepared to grab their attention, only to exhale it in a squeak when Mutt, without even sparing a glance your way, wound his arm around your waist and pulled you into his lap with an ‘oof!’.

“Mutt!” You squealed and giggled as you gracelessly attempted to wriggle your way out of his grasp, a furious blush heating your face as you did so, “Let me go!”

“nah.” He answered simply, smirking down at you as you resigned yourself to slumping down against his chest with your arms crossed, pouting in defiance. The purple-clad skeleton snickered at you before informing Stretch of your name, of who grinned nonchalantly at you.

“stretch.” He confirmed his name, offering a hand to you the same way Blue had. You had to wriggle an arm free from Mutt’s grasp to take Stretch’s hand in a handshake as the skeleton’s pale orange eyelights glinted in amusement at your predicament.

The monster before you bore a startling resemblance to Papyrus, just as his brother did to Sans, though he seemed to be the slightest bit shorter. You honestly couldn’t tell if that was due to his slouching or not, however. His facial features were very much the same as Papyrus’ too, but he definitely wore a very similar expression that Sans often did, complete with a lazy grin and lidded sockets. He was dressed in a casual orange hoodie and black shorts that came down to his knee, as well as a pair of black pumps, and between his teeth was what you surmised was a lollipop stick, of which he adjusted and readjusted with a flick of his orange tongue. What had you fighting off your rising blush, however, was the fact that he also donned the same tooth gap and dusting of freckles that his brother had, though his were a pretty apricot color.  He was, in a word, gorgeous.

He had obviously caught you staring, because he caught your gaze with a wink and a flick of his tongue to readjust the lollipop once more.

“Ah- It’s nice to meet you!” You said in a nervous laugh, your face heating up further at his clearly flirtatious action, “I had no idea these guys had even more family!”

“aw, mutt, ya didn’t tell ‘em about me?” Stretch pouted despite the clear mirth still evident in his expression.

“they never asked.” Mutt shrugged in response, and although you couldn’t see his face from where you were, you just knew that he wore that same shit-eating grin he usually did when he was fucking with you.

“I didn’t even know he existed until like ten minutes ago, dude!” You exclaimed with a laugh, your blush returning with a vengeance when Mutt proceeded to nuzzle the top of your head in a skeletal kiss. You had expected nothing less from the clingy skeleton than to show off in front of who you now knew to be one of his closest friends.

“ya never told me ya had an alpha. how could ya keep such an important thing from ya best friend, huh?” The orange-clad skeleton teased, his tone portraying faux hurt.

You now saw where Mutt got his flair for the dramatic. Well, that or Stretch had adopted it from him, but either way you had a feeling that you were in trouble whilst these two mischievous skeletons were in cahoots.

The innocent statement had both of you sputtering and lighting up in pink and violet, the scene obviously being prime entertainment to Stretch as he quietly snickered at your reactions.

“uh, they ain’t an alpha,” Mutt said sheepishly, his eyelights flicking over to Red on instinct as Stretch’s mouth morphed into a silent ‘oh’, “they’re red’s mate.”

“Actually, I’ve decided to give the whole alpha thing a go,” You spoke in a hushed, shy tone, earning a look of muted surprise from Mutt before you regarded Stretch with a smile, “But Mutt isn’t my beta, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“huh, ya sure act like it.” Stretch voiced his observation with a sly smile and a small shrug, the action screaming ‘shit-stirrer’ to you.

You could practically feel the buzz of hopeful, apprehensive energy from Mutt’s magic without even needing to clock his expression and it had you flustered all over again, your soul giving a thump in encouragement at the idea. If you were honest, it wasn’t that long ago that you had marked Red, and you weren’t sure if marking Mutt would be too fast of a development. You certainly wanted to, but the thought made you anxious, especially because you had no idea if Mutt saw you as anything more than a fuck buddy due to your perpetual insecurity surrounding the idea that anyone could see you as anything more than something to fuck. Despite knowing that Red loved you, the constant self-degrading thoughts failed to rid themselves from your mind and heavily influenced your perception of how others saw you.

The optimistic skeleton must have sensed the anxious shift in your energy, as he seemed to wilt ever so slightly. If he was feeling disappointed, he certainly didn’t show it, as a laughter-filled conversation quickly started up between the three of you, avoiding the topic and instead focusing on small-talk.

From the other side of the room, you heard Papyrus exclaiming something about a smudge on Sans’ teeth and whipped your head toward the pair with a start. The abrupt action caused Mutt to stop mid-sentence and follow your eyeline, tensing when he caught sight of Sans’ dutiful younger brother wiping lipstick from his teeth as he chuckled nervously. Your lipstick.

Before you could even think about saying anything, you were lightly pushed from his lap with a yelp. Swiveling yourself to face where the skeleton once was, you attempted to call his name, but he had already disappeared, leaving behind a befuddled Stretch. You cursed under your breath as you scrambled to your feet, heart racing, as you moved quickly to follow him. Just as you made it to the doorway, however, you heard a baritone voice summon you, of which had you turning toward the source of the noise.

Red’s grinning face entered your vision, followed by Blue’s inquisitive one, as the former snaked an arm around your waist. With your heart hammering in your ears, you barely made out what he was saying to the other, but you caught the words ‘my alpha’ and internally groaned. This is no time for you to show off, Red!

Despite the nerves making your stomach feel like you had swallowed a boulder, you smiled politely at Blue as recognition lit up his features and the two continued chatting. In desperation, you craned your neck over Red’s shoulder to see if you could spot Mutt, but instead saw that Stretch had disappeared as well. You hoped he had gone after the clearly distressed monster, but your gut twisted in guilt as you thought about what a wonderful first impression you were making.

You just needed to fix this, now.

Your nervous shifting had the two looking at you quizzically before Red asked, “ya alright, angel?”

“Yeah!” You chirped, forcing what you hoped looked like a genuine smile, “I just, um, need to go grab something from upstairs, kay?”

“OH, CAN I COME WITH YOU?” Blue asked with a boundless energy, practically bouncing with enthusiasm, “I HAVEN’T HAD THE CHANCE TO TAKE OUR LUGGAGE UPSTAIRS YET!”

You wanted to scream.

“Sure!” You said pleasantly despite your teeth being grit in frustration, “Do you need help carrying anything?”

“NO NEED, FAIR MAIDEN!” Blue announced proudly before using a gloved hand to envelop the nearby suitcases in his cyan magic, “THE MAGNIFICANT BLUE CAN HANDLE ANYTHING!”.

You couldn’t help but huff out a laugh at the ridiculous nickname and shoot Red an amused look, who snorted quietly and shrugged.

“’m gonna go get a drink. ya want one, angel?” He smirked knowingly at you, obviously sensing your heightened stress.

“Stars, yes, please.” You groaned with an appreciative look, prompting the skeleton to give you a quick mock two-fingered salute before wandering off into the kitchen.

With that you and Blue made your ascent upstairs, the luggage being held by his magic as the items were skillfully maneuvered around corners and up the staircase.

“So, where are you staying?” You asked politely, turning your head to address the skeleton.

“OUR ROOMS, OF COURSE!” He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, causing you to draw your brows together with a tilt of your head in confusion.

You noted with a start that the two of you had stopped by the door to Butch and Axe’s room, but before you could even take a breath to object, Blue had used the hand that wasn’t occupied with gravity magic to swing the door open, completely ignoring the huge indicator that someone was using this room that was the many posters of naturistic scenes that Butch had put up taped to the door. Your face was the picture of horror when the door moved to reveal a petrified Butch, as well as a furious Axe, who was standing protectively- positioned as though he were ready to fight- in front of him.

“OH. AXE, BUTCH, I HAD NO IDEA YOU HAD MOVED IN AFTER STRETCH AND I HAD LEFT.” Blue spoke thoughtfully, completely unperturbed by the trembling pair adjacent to him.

“Blue!” You scolded the shorter skeleton, your absolute mortification combined with a fierce protectiveness of the brothers dissolving any ounce of decorum that was once present within your person, “You shouldn’t have just burst into their room like that! Apologize!”.

Without waiting for him to follow your bark of an order, you rushed over to the brothers with your heart in your throat, afraid that Blue had inadvertently caused a panic attack or worse in them.

“Are you okay?” You fretted, your eyes frantically searching over the two, who had calmed down considerably since you had entered their sight. Butch offered a shaky nod and a smile whilst Axe began lowly chuckling at your overly concerned state.

“we’re fine, bug.” He shook his head slightly at you, his rage quickly melting away into almost affectionate amusement, “jus’ spooked us is all.”.

You sighed in relief before the nickname hit you and caused you to snap your gaze to him.

“Bug?” You breathed a laugh as a light azure flush tinted Axe’s cheekbones.

“heh, yeah. cuz ya like bugs.” He shrugged, trying his hardest to act casual despite his obvious flustered state.

You couldn’t help the grin that broke out across your face as a hopeful flutter started in your chest. Surely, if he was gracing you with a nickname, and an adorably personal one at that, that he was okay with you since your admission of Magehood. The thought melted away some of the acquired stress and allowed you to untense slightly, but you fell right back into an uptight disposition at the sound of Blue’s voice from behind you.

“UM, I AM SORRY.” He stated, his tone of voice not sounding very apologetic at all, actually more annoyed than anything, “THIS WAS MY ROOM, SO I ASSUMED IT WOULD BE EMPTY.”.

The brothers froze at that, guilty expressions overtaking their skulls as they glanced at each other. You, on the other hand, were staring Blue down with a fierce glare at his phony apology, of whom simply shrugged and walked back into the hallway.

“OH WELL! STRETCH AND I DON’T MIND SHARING!” He decided with a finality to his tone as he rounded the corner and out of sight, leaving you staring after him with your mouth agape.

“Stars above, I am going to kill that little- ” You grumbled, running a hand down your face in exasperation and earning muted snickers from the others, before turning to them and rambling, “I am so sorry, but I need to go stop him from giving the rest of the household a fucking heart attack.”.

You didn’t miss the increasingly loud giggling from the brothers as you bolted out of the room and firmly shut the door, the sound serving to lighten your mood just a little. You turned quickly to follow after Blue and noticed with sigh that your bedroom door was open. Guess you know which room was Stretch’s then.

“I DON’T REMEMBER STRETCH LEAVING ALL THIS STUFF HERE!” The hyperactive skeleton chirped naively, leaning down to thumb through your textbooks and folders as you leant against the doorway, already exhausted from his shenanigans.

“That’s because they’re mine.” You informed him, an undertone of guilt lacing your speech, “This is my room.”

“I WASN’T AWARE YOU WERE LIVING HERE.” He tilted his head at you, confusion etched into his features as he did so.

“Yeah, it’s… a long story.” You sighed, pushing yourself from the doorframe in favor of perching yourself on the side of the bed, “You guys can take this room if you’d like. I can always share with Red.”.

As you looked through the many piles of research papers and stacks upon stacks of textbooks, you decided that moving them was not something you wanted to do, especially into Red’s bombsite of a room.

“Do you mind if I keep some stuff in here though? Red has a habit of… breaking things.” You inserted a nervous laugh into the end of your sentence, cringing at the thought of what fate may await your already small number of belongings if Red decided to wreck his room again.

“THAT SHOULD BE FINE!” Blue enthused as he flashed you a toothy grin, “WE CAN ALWAYS GET ANOTHER DRESSER AND MORE SHELVES FOR OUR STUFF!”

“Thank you.” You said in a relieved exhale and smiled genuinely for what felt like the first time in hours, before offering quickly, “I can move my clothes and stuff into bags if you want to unpack your stuff into the dresser, though. I don’t mind!”

“NONSENSE, FAIR MAIDEN! WE SHALL HAVE NEW FURNITURE IN HERE BY TOMORROW, DO NOT WORRY!” He assured you with a resolute tone, standing with his chest puffed out and his hands on his hips in a way that was once again very reminiscent of another boisterous skeleton you knew.

“Okay, great.” You exhaled a breath as you allowed yourself to relax, before perking up slightly when a burning question pushed its way to the forefront of your mind, “Hey, Blue? How come Axe and Butch didn’t live with you guys before?”.

As you spoke you began to busy yourself with making room for some of Blue and Stretch’s stuff on your little bookcase, as well as cleaning up the piles of abandoned papers. The task certainly gave you something to do whilst you thought over the next thing that Blue blurted out as though it were common knowledge.

“THEY’RE PARIAHS. THEY WEREN’T ALLOWED TO LEAVE UNDERGROUND WHEN STRETCH AND I LIVED HERE. AFTER EVERYONE SURFACED, THEY WERE KEPT UNDER THE GUARD’S WATCH UNTIL THEY WERE DEEMED SAFE TO JOIN US.” He said, busying himself in a similar fashion by unzipping his suitcase and rifling through it.

“Pariahs? Like, social outcasts?” You flicked your gaze over to the skeleton, curiosity etched into your features, “I don’t get it, why would they not be allowed to surface with everyone else just for that? They don’t seem dangerous, at least, not to me.”.

That seemed to stump Blue, who ceased his ministrations to carefully search your face, his brow bones furrowed.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEIR DISTRICT WAS LIKE?” He asked almost cautiously, eyelights watching you to gage your reaction.

You breathed a soft laugh and shook your head as you said, “I didn’t even know there were districts, to be honest with you. It explains why all of you are so different.”

“YEP! THERE WAS SNOWDIN, WHERE ME, STRETCH, SANS, AND PAPYRUS LIVED. THEN THERE WAS WATERFALL, BUT THAT WAS INHABITED MOSTLY BY WATER DWELLING MONSTERS, SO NONE OF US LIVED THERE. THEN HOTLAND, WHERE RED, EDGE, MILORD, AND MUTT LIVED, AND THE RUINS. THAT’S WHERE PARIAHS AND FERALS LIVED, SO THAT WAS WHERE AXE AND BUTCH WERE.” He listed off the districts on his fingers, his eyes focused on the ceiling as he recalled each area and who had resided there.

“That’s… really good to know, thank you for telling me.” You said thoughtfully before offering him a grateful smile, “So, did everyone that lived in the same district grow up together, then?”

“YEP! ALTHOUGH MILORD DISTANCED HIMSELF PRETTY QUICKLY WHEN EDGE AND RED- UH…” He trailed off, a stricken look on his face when he realized that he had very nearly spilled some very sensitive information, of which he had no idea if you were privy to or not.

“When Edge became a mob boss and Red his underling?” You exhaled shortly through your nose at the surprised look on the skeleton’s face, who quickly recovered, albeit with a somber expression.

“YES. IT WAS SO SAD HEARING ABOUT THE WAY THEIR RELATIONSHIP SUFFERED BECAUSE OF MUTT BEING DRAGGED INTO THEIR MALFEASANCE.” He muttered the best he could with his booming voice, shaking his head sadly.

“He was?!” You gaped, eyes wide as he froze at the realization of the fact that you were, in actuality, not aware of that piece of information.

“OH- UM…” He stuttered, his eyelights looking past you at the doorway as though he was plotting to escape, before he perked up and exclaimed, “BROTHER! COME HERE AND HELP ME UNPACK!”.

Your head whipped around toward where Stretch was standing, leaning against the doorway with an inquisitive expression. Your heart flew up into your throat as you remembered exactly what had brought you upstairs in the first place, an ashamed expression contorting your features.

“Um, I’m just going to check on Mutt, okay?” You murmured with your eyes downcast, making quick work of pushing yourself to your feet and slipping through the doorway.

A gentle hand grasping your shoulder forced you to come to a stop as you brought your eyes from the floor to look up at whomever it belonged to. Stretch’s surprisingly neutral face stared down at you and you swallowed harshly as your eyes met his.

“hey, he’s super worked up ‘bout everythin’, so… just look after ‘im, alright?” He spoke lowly and with a tone of understanding sympathy that you weren’t expecting as he smiled wryly at you.

“You… aren’t upset with me?” You murmured gingerly, bringing your arms up to hug yourself in a gesture of self-soothing.

“heh, nah.” He shook his head slightly as a soft smile graced his features, “i’ve known mutt for a long time n’ he can be sensitive, y’know? ain’t your fault that he didn’t have the courage to tell you how he feels.”

“H-How does he feel?” Your voice came out a hopeful yet hesitant whisper as your stomach did backflips at the statement. Stretch huffed a breathy laugh as his gaze softened, only gracing you with a small shrug as his arms moved to cross against his chest.

“why don’t ya go find out?” He asked, an impish smile spreading across his face as he did so.

You could only silently nod as the butterflies in your stomach intensified at the idea. All of a sudden, a small movement from the corner of your vision caused you to turn your head to the source to find Blue quickly busying himself with pretending to sort through his luggage. A rush of embarrassment shot through you at the fact that he was most definitely listening to your exchange with his brother, and now absolutely knew of your intentions with Mutt.

Choosing to ignore the skeletons poor attempt at concealing his eavesdropping, you instead took a steeling breath and shot Stretch an appreciative look before stepping out into the hallway. Despite your heightened nerves and racing thoughts, the fact that Blue had not only swindled you out of pushing him for an answer about Axe and Butch’s situation, but he had also managed to avoid telling you about Mutt’s involvement with Red and Edge underground popped into your head as you sighed heavily. Stars, whether he intended to be or not, he was one slippery little skeleton.

With a sharp shake of your head to regain your focus, you continued with the more pressing matter. Adrenaline was causing your hands to tremble slightly as you reached up to lightly knock on Mutt’s door.

“Mutt?” You called out lightly, straining your ears for any sign of movement, “Can we talk? Please?”

Your heart was hammering against your chest as you waited and fidgeted nervously, disappointment quickly setting in when you didn’t detect any immediate signs of motion. With a sharp exhale you stepped back to prepare to turn back and head downstairs but froze when you caught the door opening with a soft click.

Mutt stood in the doorway, his eyelights trained on the ground below and a soft frown pulling his sharp teeth downwards. Your heart sunk as you moved quickly toward him, wanting nothing more than to comfort him, but he had moved away to retreat to the sanctity of his room before you got the chance. Instead, you followed him inside and gently shut the door behind you, a lump already forming in your throat as you blinked away the tears burning at the back of your eyes.

You remained standing awkwardly by the door as you chewed your lip and hugged your arms around you, the tightness in your chest making it difficult to get the words out. Mutt simply returned to his bed and pulled out a carton of cigarettes as he kept his fuzzy eyelights focused on his hands. With a deep breath, you clenched your hands into fists and stalked over to the bed before taking a seat beside him, determination to resolve the situation flowing through you.

“Mutt?” You called gently, craning your neck to attempt to meet his eyelights, “Talk to me. Please, tell me why you’re upset.”.

There was a beat of silence as he lit his cigarette and took a long drag before sitting back on his hands and exhaling slowly. Irritation began to broil in your gut at the prolonged quiet and you began to think that he wasn’t going to talk to you at all. A muted sigh left you as you twisted your hands into the fabric of the bedsheets, and frustrated tears relentlessly pricked at the corners of your eyes.

“Mutt, I- “

“i jus’ thought that i’d be th’ first one ya would come to.” He mumbled dejectedly, the corners of his mouth jutting downwards further as he shifted his focus to your distraught face.

“I- “ You exhaled sharply through your nose, your tone dropping to one that portrayed your feeling of insecurity. “Mutt, if this is just about sex, then- “

“no!” He snapped, the sudden rise in volume making you jump and prompting him to take a breath and lower his voice. “no… it-it isn’t.”

“Then, what is it?” You whispered almost inaudibly, your eyes meeting his as hopeful butterflies fluttered in your chest.

“i- i thought ya would come ta me first because ya’d want me ta be th’ next one ya marked.” He mumbled, now avoiding your eyes, and fiddling nervously with his hands as a violet blush erupted across his face.

“Oh, Mutt,” You breathed a laugh of disbelief as a bashful smile lit up your expression. “Of course you’d be the next one I’d mark, I love you.”.

The sweet skeleton’s skull jerked toward you, a hopeful yet apprehensive expression widening his sockets and brightening his eyelights as he looked at you. Stretch’s earlier words came to you, an obvious reassurance that Mutt felt the same way for you as you did for him. Gazing into his lilac eyelights and seeing the vulnerability, and adoration that they held for you, a feeling of serenity and love washed over you, making the next words you spoke come to you easier than they ever had.

“I’m in love with you.” You whispered as you gently cupped his face with an expression full of adoration.

“ya are?” He murmured; his face lit up in disbelieving surprise as he leaned into your touch. With a small smile you took his hand and positioned it so that it was splayed across the center of your chest, over your soul.

“Do you feel that?” You asked softly with your hand placed over the top of his. He looked confused for a brief moment before your soul gave a hard thump against your chest, and a hesitant smile twitched the corner of his mouth upwards as he exhaled sharply. “Red told me that it means that my soul is calling out to you. Do you feel it too?”.
Mutt breathed a relieved laugh before he took your hand and placed it against his ribcage in the same fashion that you had his. You gasped lightly as you felt his soul and the crackling, buzzing magic within it respond to your touch with a hard thud against your palm.

“i’m in love with ya too, doll.” He breathed, his gaze soft and filled to the brim with affection as your watery eyes met his, already overwhelmed with love for the skeleton.

You wasted no time in capturing his mouth in a slow, passionate kiss as your hands moved to wind around his neck. With a contented sigh he lifted you into his lap and deepened the kiss before gently cupping your face with a hand. As you pulled back lightly your hands moved once again to rest softly on the side of his skull, your words leaving your mouth enveloped in muted shame.

“I’m so sorry, my love.” You breathed, the guilt making your throat tight, “I made a stupid, impulsive mistake, and I’m so sorry for hurting you. I didn’t think- “.

Whatever you were going to say next was fast eradicated from your thoughts as he once again pressed his teeth to your lips, instead only soft sigh left you as the warm, familiar buzzing of his magic coaxed you into contentment. It was his turn to separate the kiss, a bashful expression overtaking his face.

“’s alright, i know i can be kinda… sensitive.” He laughed wryly, his eyelights dropping to the ground.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re perfect as you are, you know that?” You breathed, your heart swelling with affection as you gazed softly as his flushed expression. He faltered for a moment, his small frown and knitted brow bones portraying his skepticism. You would have to fix that, you thought.  

“What can I do to make it up to you?” You murmured as you lifted his skull gently to catch his gaze.

“heh, i know somethin’” The impish grin you had come to associate with the skeleton returned in full force as he spoke with an undertone of lust, causing you to flush and grin back.

Just as he moved to recapture your lips, however, a loud knock made the two of you flinch as you squeaked in fright. Whoever it was didn’t wait for a response, instead thrusting the door open and prompting you to attempt to wriggle out of Mutt’s grasp, but the clingy skeleton refused to release you.

“hey- “ Stretch sauntered in, stopping just short of the doorway as a sly grin spread across his face. “oh, ya made up then?”

“yep,” Mutt gave a similar mischievous grin back as your face erupted into a furious blush, your attempts at escaping his iron grip proving futile.

“Mutt, for the love of all things good, let me go.” You hissed, prompting the skeleton to snicker at your flustered state and release you.  

You quickly stood and brushed yourself off as you awkwardly cleared your throat, shooting a glare in Mutt’s direction. The two mischievous skeletons snickered at you, before Stretch seemed to remember why he had barged in in the first place.

“oh, food’s ready by the way. paps wanted me ta tell ya.” He said as though it was an afterthought, which, you guessed, it probably was.

“Oh, good. An excuse to escape this horrifically awkward situation.” You chirped, shoving past a chuckling Stretch as you did so. “Bye!”.

With an exhale of relief, you skipped down the stairs with the pair’s audible chuckling following you, then into the dining room where the rest of the household was already seated and chatting as Papyrus dished out servings.

With a fond smile you noted that Red had saved a seat for you next to him at the end of the table. You slipped into your seat and thanked him with a kiss on his quickly reddening cheekbone. He had mercifully placed the drink he had set out to get you next to your plate and you groaned happily as you took a deep swig, the burning liquid melting away the stress of the day. Not long after, Stretch and Mutt appeared at the table and sat across from you, the formers face still lit up with amusement as he waggled his brow bones at you, prompting you to glare at him as your face began to heat up once again.

“th’ fuck is he gigglin’ ‘bout?” Red asked under his breath, his brows furrowed together and sharp teeth downturned in a small frown.

“He walked in on me and Mutt after he- “ You began to explain quietly, but paused when something clicked in your mind. “I think he orchestrated the whole thing. Motherfucker.” You hissed, squinting your eyes in suspicion at the monster, who simply finished whatever he was saying to Mutt and shot you a knowing wink.

“yeah, that guy’s slippery as all hell,” Red snorted, making you switch your attention over to him, before he muttered cautiously. “be careful with him, angel.”

“He can’t be that bad,” You scoffed as Red raised a browbone at you. “Look at him, he looks harmless!”

“ya’d think so, but him ‘n his brother are th’ worst outta all’ve us, trust me.” Red grumbled bitterly as your eyes widened in surprise.

“No way! Blue is so cute and sweet!” You gasped, your next words filled with confidence. “If I can handle your brother, I think I can handle these guys.”

“nope, they’re worse than my bro,” Red argued, smirking slightly at your shocked expression. “at least with boss ya can tell what he’s thinkin’, not those weirdos though.”.

You sat back with a ‘huh’, now looking at Stretch and his brother, who was sat on the other side of the aforementioned skeleton, with a strange apprehensive feeling. You were certainly always one to give the benefit of the doubt, and you would absolutely do that for this pair of brothers, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious, you thought.

After eating and chatting with the household members, eventually you had all finished your meals, and your attention was captured by Milord clinking his silverware against a glass, similar to the way you would before you would give a toast. Every head in the room swiveled toward the source of the sound, curious expressions on each.

“I would like to inform you all of the reason for Blueberry and Stretch’s return,” He stated, prompting you all to briefly relocate your gazes to the pair. The usually jovial skeletons’ faces dropped into serious, yet somber expressions, and your gut twisted in anxiety.

“As you all know, Blue was a valued member of the Royal Guard before his departure. Himself and his brother have rejoined us tonight per my request.” He continued coolly, a whisper of amusement sparkling in his eyelights at your slack-jawed expression.

Perhaps Red was right, you thought. If Blue was a member of the Royal Guard, it was possible that he was more dangerous than you had initially thought, despite his innocent appearance. The energy in the room had shifted and, where there was once an air of joy and familial fondness, there now existed a heavy atmosphere of unease.

“The Guard has been made aware of a large quantity of missing monsters. At first, we had assumed that they were likely victims of the recent assault that took place at Ebott Park, however, we have been unable to locate their Dust. Now, this is not a new development by any means, but the sheer volume of these individuals unable to be located in recent months has rapidly increased and is likely to continue to do so.”.

Any positivity that was left among the room’s inhabitants was swiftly dissolved as a result of the Captain’s words. Your chest tightened as you listened, and you chewed on your nails in an anxious gesture. Your gaze then automatically moved to Red, whose eyelights were trained on his clenched fists atop the table. His face was contorted into a snarl and his jaw was harshly set, and you could feel his unruly magic crackle and thrash in fury. In fact, you could sense that the air was thick with each of the household members’ individual magic signatures and, although they were unique, they shared the same impression of grief and frustration. The intensity had your skin breaking out in goosebumps.

“We have to do something.” You addressed Milord and although your voice came out wobbly in upset, your tone was resolute, “I’m sick of… just sitting back and watching this happen.”.

All eyes were on you now, but you ignored the series of surprised expressions in favor of holding Milord’s skeptical gaze, your hands clenched tightly into fists.

“And what do you expect we do?” He asked slyly, his mouth twitching downwards into a scowl. “You said yourself that monsters are unable to defend ourselves against your kind.”.

You swallowed harshly as you thought, and your eyes dropped to your hands. With a sharp inhale, you once again lifted your gaze to regard the monster, determination evident in your expression and in your voice as you spoke.

“What if there are others like me? Others that have renounced their Coven, or at least want to?” You reasoned, earning a contemplative look from the purple-clad monster. “I could try to find them and convince them to work with us.”.

A beat of tense silence filled the air as Milord considered you, his expression softening as he did so.

“And how do you plan to locate these individuals?” He asked, a brow bone raised as he leant forward with his hands laced in front of him.

“I- “ A feeling of defeat pierced through your chest, causing you to falter and your voice to become quiet and strained. “I don’t know, but I have to try, right?”.

Your throat thickened as frustrated tears burned the back of your eyes. There had to be something you could do. Covens littered the country since monsters had surfaced and, as far as you knew, there were hundreds of Mages in each. Statistically, it made sense that at least a few of them were reluctant to hurt monsters. Although, there was one thing you could try. It was risky, but you were more than willing if it meant protecting monsterkind.

“I could… infiltrate my Coven.” You murmured, a glimmer of hope rising within you and strengthening your voice. “I could let them abduct me and gain insider knowledge about their plans. At least then we have a chance to prepare ourselves and drastically reduce loss of life.”

“fuck no, angel,” Red cut in as you snapped your gaze to his darkened expression. “ya have no idea what they could do ta ya, don’t ya remember what happened before?!”.

Confused low murmuring broke out across the table at his question and you noticed with a start that Sans had tensed and was wearing a fearful grimace.

“FRIEND?” Papyrus spoke up for the first time since the discussion had begun, befuddlement etched into his features. “WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE?”.

You heard Sans curse under his breath as you caught his eyelights in a silent question. He gave a defeated shrug before his eyelights dropped to the ground beneath him, and you took this as a silent confirmation to explain what had happened to the others.

With nerves sitting in your stomach like a rock, you told them of the visions you had been having. You purposefully omitted any information about Frisk’s abilities or Sans’ memory of the other timelines, instead explaining it as though you were the only one aware of these not-memories. In order not to scare the others any more than you already had, you kept the visions of the impending war against Mages to yourself. You didn’t miss the grateful, relieved expression on Sans’ face, nor the raised browbone of Red as he silently questioned your decision to not reveal the true nature of the situation.

“Regardless, even with what happened before, I have to try.” You finished, looking pointedly at Red with a determined scowl. “It might be our only option.”

“so, ya’v been havin’ these visions ‘bout what’s gonna happen in the future?” Mutt asked lowly, his face scrunched up in confusion as he regarded you.

“It’s more like stuff that’s happened in the past, like…” You exhaled shortly through your nose as you thought about the best way to word it. “-like alternate timelines. Have you ever heard of the quantum immortality theory?”.

Mutt shook his head at you as the others’ faces contorted into varying degrees of understanding, some just as confused as the aforementioned skeleton.

“It basically means that when you die in one timeline, another branches off and you continue to live in that one. I guess what I’m remembering is the timelines where I died.” You explained with a small shrug, guilt twisting your insides at the half-lie.

Yes, there were many timelines where you had died, but the simple act of dying wasn’t what had reset the timeline, never mind the countless times you yourself had asked Frisk to go back. For now, though, this was the best you could do to explain without giving away secrets that weren’t yours to tell.

“I SAY WE SEARCH FOR OTHER MAGES THAT WANT TO HELP US FIRST,” Blue spoke up this time, his face and tone of voice uncharacteristically serious. “IT WOULD BE SMART TO HAVE THEM TO HELP YOU IF YOU DID EVENTUALLY NEED TO INFILTRATE YOUR COVEN.”

“That’s a good idea, Blue!” You grinned at the monster, causing a light cyan blush to tint the dusting of freckles on his cheekbones, before you turned to the others. “I say we do that!”

“Very well,” Milord spoke coolly, a small smirk playing on his mouth. “We shall increase the frequency of your training as well. You need to be able to defend yourself if you are to go ahead, so it will commence as soon as possible. This likely could be extremely dangerous.”.

You gave a resolute nod, hope bubbling up inside of you for what felt like the first time in years, despite the irate grumble from Edge at having to train you even more than before. Your head whipped around to face Papyrus, however, when he spoke up with a foreign expression that was filled with an iron persistence.

“I WANT TO HELP.”

The room fell silent once more as Milord looked at the skeleton with apprehensiveness. Sans shifted uneasily, his mouth downturned and his eye sockets wide with concern.

“paps, ya sure that’s a good idea?” He chuckled nervously. “what they’re doing, it’s pretty dangerous, y’know?”

“I KNOW, BUT I AGREE WITH THE HUMAN, I CAN’T JUST SIT AROUND WHILST COUNTLESS MONSTERS ARE DUSTED AND CAPTURED.” He argued, a frown twitching the corners of his mouth downwards in muted irritation.

“bro, c’mon.” Sans shook his head at his younger brother, his expression becoming panicked. “ya could get yourself killed. what if ya get attacked and-?”

“I AM CAPABLE OF HANDLING MYSELF, SANS.” Papyrus’ brows furrowed as his tone began to convey his frustration, causing said skeleton to shrink back slightly as his breathing began to pick up.

You knew why Sans was so scared, after all he had seen his brother die countless times before. His overprotectiveness was coming from a place of love, but you had the feeling that this was a common occurrence, and that Papyrus was beginning to tire of it.

In an attempt to keep the peace, you caught the monster’s attention with a gentle calling of his name.

“I know you want to help, but this really is a very dangerous situation.” You explained softly, your brows furrowed in concern. “I’m sure we could find something else for you to help with. We always need more healers; you could do that!”

“I AM NOT A CHILD!” He exclaimed, his anger now flowing freely in his speech as you flinched back. “IF ANYBODY ELSE HERE WANTED TO HELP, YOU WOULD LET THEM. SO WHY- Why?”.

Your heart sank at the crack in his voice before he then pushed himself up from the table with a low growl. Both you and Sans both called out to him, only to be ignored as he stalked out of the room. A stunned silence fell over the room as your gaze caught Sans’ and you cursed under your breath.

Ignoring the shocked, mumbled chatter amongst the others, you drained the rest of your drink and abruptly stood to chase after him with Sans hot on your heels.

Chapter Text

“bro, c’mon. open the door.” Sans called out from the other side of Papyrus’ door, his voice wavering as he did so. “i’m sorry, please just… open the door.”

You were standing beside the distressed skeleton, chewing on your nails as you thought about the best way to resolve the situation. It was likely that Papyrus needed to talk to someone about Sans’ overbearing behavior without him being present, you surmised. Though, bypassing Sans to speak to his brother without him was likely to cause some conflict, and you had certainly had enough of animosity between yourself and the skeletal family for one day.

No, you thought, conflict be damned, Papyrus’ wellbeing was more important than your comfort.

Resolute mixed with anxiety swirling in your mind, you gently placed a hand on Sans’ shoulder, prompting him to swivel his skull towards you with a poorly concealed look of panic.

“Let me talk to him, Sans.” You spoke softly, wordlessly hoping that your expression was conveying some form of understanding. “I know that you’re concerned, but I think that maybe he needs to talk to someone who isn’t directly involved in what he’s upset about, y’know?”.

Sans’ face fell into a frustrated scowl, and his eyelights dropped from you to the floor. For a brief moment he looked as though he was going to argue against it, but with a short exhale through his nasal cavity, he instead wordlessly stepped aside and shoved his hands into his pockets with force that conveyed his upset.

Biting down on your lip, you raised a fist to gently rap on the door, your heart doing backflips in your chest. You didn’t do well with conflict, especially if said conflict was a result of your behavior, no matter how minor.

“Paps, can I come in?” You called out gently, “I’m really sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean anything bad by it, I just… You worry about those you love, right?”. You strained your hearing for any sign of movement and the sound of muted footsteps, and the lock unlatching made you jump slightly as a result.

Shooting a wry smile to Sans, an apology in your eyes, you gingerly turned the doorknob and stepped inside before shutting the door lightly behind you. Sans’ expression, comprised of hurt and defeat, stuck in your mind and caused a lump to form in your throat, but you forcefully swallowed it back and plastered on a sympathetic smile as you took a few cautious steps towards Papyrus.

“Hey,” You spoke softly, getting close enough to take a tentative seat on the edge of the bed but leaving considerable space between the two of you. “Thank you for letting me come in.”.

The somber skeleton remained silent, and you took the brief lapse to study his expression. There was no sign of his typical cheerful grin, instead his mouth was downturned, and his brows furrowed with faint orange tears lining his sockets. Once again forcing back the rising distress that threatened to send you into a sobbing fit yourself, you took a slow, soothing breath and softened your gaze as you spoke.

“Sans really loves you, Paps. You know that, right?” You breathed, smiling gently at the skeleton as he lifted his skull to meet your eyes.

“I Know.” He mumbled dejectedly, his hands clenching and unclenching in his lap as his jaw tensed, the subtle actions conveying his obvious conflicting feelings.

“So, you know that that means he’s going to worry about you, and try his hardest to protect you?” You asked lowly.

“I Know, I Just…” His face scrunched up in irritation as he huffed a short breath. “I Wish Everyone Would Stop Treating Me Like A Child! I Am An Adult, Yet Everyone Treats Me As Though I Am Naïve And Innocent! Especially Sans!” His voice rose slightly, his words enveloped in exasperation as his voice shook. Tears began to slip free from his sockets and he quickly scrubbed at his face with the back of his hand, eliminating the orange droplets before they had a chance to fall.

“Am I Truly That Pathetic?” His shaking voice had quieted, and the almost unnoticeable drop in pitch only exacerbated the defeated tone.

Your eyes widened at that, your mouth dropping open a fraction at the usually so self-assured skeleton speaking so lowly about himself. You shuffled closer to him and placed a hand over his, causing him to eye you with watery curiosity.

“You are not pathetic, Papyrus.” You scolded lightly. He avoided your intense gaze with a hiccup. “Don’t you ever say that about yourself. You are the farthest thing from pathetic, do you hear me?”

“Even You Keep Things From Me! I Saw The Way Sans Was Looking At You!” He cried, his eyes full of accusatory anger.

Although he made no move to pull his hand from yours, his fiery gaze caused you to flinch back and you returned your hand to your lap, shame causing your breath to hitch in your throat as you dropped your gaze to your lap.

“I’m sorry.” You whispered, your voice wobbling. “It’s just… it’s not my secret to tell.”.

A tense silence washed over the two of you and caused the air to become heavy. You swallowed against the lump in your throat as you mentally willed your emotions to compose themselves. With a sharp exhale through your nose, you lifted your head to address the skeleton with the intent to say something, anything, to make the situation better. However, before you could force the words past your lips, Papyrus grumbled lowly and recaptured your attention.

“NO… I’M SORRY.” He sighed, his volume returning to normal as he took your hand back in his, causing you to look up at him with confusion rounding your features. “I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN SANS WAS THE ONE KEEPING SECRETS. IT’S ALL HE EVER SEEMS TO DO. EVEN UNDERGROUND HE WOULDN’T EVER TELL ME WHAT WAS UPSETTING HIM- HE WOULD JUST SMILE AND SAY THAT HE WAS FINE BUT… I KNEW THAT HE WASN’T.”

“I think… Sans just wants to protect you from the things that cause him so much pain.” You suggested softly, “You’re the sweetest, kindest, most optimistic, and just… incredible person I’ve ever met, Paps. I mean, you somehow always see the good in everyone, no matter how cruel they’ve been to you, and it’s so… admirable.” A gentle, almost wry laugh enveloped your words, and you shook your head in disbelief.  “I think I can speak for both Sans and I when I say that we truly wouldn’t want anything, or anyone, to hurt you so badly that you lose that outlook on life.”.

A faint tangerine blush danced across his cheekbones as his sockets widened at your declaration. The flow of his tears had quelled, and your soul leapt in joy at his lightened demeanor. You squeezed his hand in quiet encouragement, your gaze conveying pure affection for the skeleton, and a rush of heat assaulting your face when his eyelights returned the same sentiment.

“DO YOU… REALLY FEEL THAT WAY?” He murmured apprehensively, prompting you to nod vigorously before turning to sit cross-legged to face him and take his other hand into yours.

“Of course I do!” You exclaimed, a disbelieving laugh slipping past your lips. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve helped me? How much talking to you or even just being in your presence has pulled me back from the edge? I- I don’t know what I would do without you, Paps. I couldn’t live with myself if…” You trailed off with a sharp inhale, the thought making your chest tight as tears pricked at the corners of your eyes. Quickly shaking it from your head, you regarded the skeleton with resolute in your eyes.

“How about this? I’ll talk to Sans about you helping me locate the other Mages. I get that he’s protective of you, but you’re right. You’re an adult and you can make your own decisions, and I’ll tell him as much. Sound good?”.

You giggled as Papyrus nodded enthusiastically with an excited grin, any remaining tension immediately dissipating at the action. With a squeak you were pulled into a tight embrace and quickly returned the affection, nuzzling your face into the crook of his neck and sighing contentedly.

“Thank You.” He muttered, his voice muffled as he pressed his face to the top of your head. The innocent action had you fighting off a rising blush as the heat of his breath brushed against your scalp and sent tingles down your spine.

“That’s what friends are for, right?” You breathed shyly with a small chuckle as you pulled back from the embrace, your heart swelling as you looked over the skeleton’s equally as flushed face.

“Y’know, you were actually the next person I was going to tell. It would have been the first time that I actually got to explain everything on my own terms instead of being forced to because of someone finding out behind my back.” You smiled wryly as a bitter laugh left you at the latter half of the sentence. “I’m sorry that you had to find out the way you did. I truly didn’t want to hurt you, any of you, but, well… you know.” You mumbled, shame enveloping your words as you shifted uneasily.

“THAT’S OKAY, HONEY.” He chirped cheerfully as you flushed at the nickname. “I’M JUST GLAD THAT I KNOW NOW.”

“H-Honey?” You breathed a bashful laugh, a brow raised in amusement.

“YES, BECAUSE YOU’RE SWEET!” He clarified as he beamed at you, forcing a relieved chuckle from you.

“Well, thank you.” You giggled, a semi-teasing tone to your voice that only served to brighten his flush.

“Hey, I may have an idea for something else you could help me with, but it’ll have to be a secret between us, okay?”. You grinned mischievously with a raised brow, prompting the skeleton to gasp dramatically with a gloved hand to his mouth.

“OH, I AM THE BEST AT KEEPING SECRETS!” He exclaimed proudly as you snickered. “WHAT SUPER SECRET TASK DO YOU HAVE FOR ME?!” He continued excitedly. His voice had risen several octaves at this point, and you quickly pressed a finger to your lips in a ‘shush’ motion before he mouthed a silent apology in response.

“Okay, so I was thinking, if I do have to eventually infiltrate my Coven- “

“Red Said That It Would Be Too Dangerous, Honey!” He fretted, his voice just above a whisper, which you honestly found impressive compared to how loud he was previously. “Is That A Good Idea?”

“I know, I know, but say… if I did have to,” You breathed, holding your hands up in a surrender. “Don’t you think that it would be a good idea for me to be able to speak and understand Font? So that I can not only converse with you guys without being detected, but other monsters who may have been captured too?”.

Papyrus looked torn as he anxiously rung his hands together. Seeing him so apprehensive about something you had asked about caused a swell of guilt to sit heavily on your chest.

“You can say no, Paps. I won’t be upset.” You assured him gently.

“N-No, I Would Love To Help You, Honey. It’s Just…” He trailed off with a slow exhale through his nasal cavity, his browbones drawn together in contemplation. “I Am Scared For You, And I Worry That If I Do Teach You That It Will Only Encourage You To Go Ahead With It.” The sweet skeleton’s voice was full of concern, causing you to chew on your lip as you took a brief moment of silence to consider your next words.

“Can I be honest with you?” You asked softly, a whisper of a wry laugh in your tone. He nodded slightly, his gently flickering eyelights meeting your eyes as you continued. “Whether you teach me or not, if this is something that I need to do, I’m going to do it. I figured that it’d be safer if I could communicate with you guys without the Coven finding out, y’know?” You explained, resolute strong within your gaze, “But, if you feel uncomfortable with it, I’ll find someone else to teach me, alright? It’s not a problem at all, love.”

The unnervingly quiet skeleton screwed his face up in thought for a moment, before conceding with a soft sigh accompanied by a small smile. “Okay, Honey. I’ll Teach You.”

“Thank you, Paps!” You squealed excitedly, throwing your arms around his neck, and planting a chaste kiss on his cheek, causing him to flush and sputter cutely. “You’re the best!”

“W-WELL OF COURSE I AM!” He attempted to exclaim cockily, only for his voice to waver and stutter as a result of your affections. You bit your lip to stifle a laugh, finding the whole thing unbearably adorable.

“Can we start after the weekend?” You asked hopefully, your eyes bright with careful optimism. “I have a couple of weeks off, so we could maybe do lessons whenever you have some free time!”

“SURE! WHY AFTER THE WEEKEND THOUGH?” He agreed happily, his voice dropping into light confusion as he questioned you.

“Well, we’re supposed to be going to the beach house!” You reminded him, only getting more animated as the prospect filled you with excitement.

“OH, OF COURSE!” He grinned, mirroring your enthusiasm. “IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE LAST WENT, AND WITH YOU COMING ALONG IT WILL BE EVEN MORE FUN THAN USUAL!”. You snorted at that, face flushing at the unexpected compliment.

“Ooh, Paps, you flirt.” You teased with an impish grin, causing the already flustered skeleton’s blush to brighten as he once again began sputtering in an unsuccessful attempt to rescind his earlier words. “I’m joking, I’m joking!” You cried as you snickered quietly, before taking a calming breath and smiling genuinely at the skeleton. “Thank you, though. I’m so excited, I’ve never been on holiday before!”

“YOU HAVEN’T?” He asked, tilting his skull questioningly. “WHY? DIDN’T YOUR PARENTS- OH.” He cut himself off with a guilty look, a frown tugging at his teeth.

Before you could say anything, you were pulled into an embrace for the second time during your conversation as he mumbled against the side of your head. “I’m Very Happy That You’re Here With Us Now, Honey.”.

You breathed a wry laugh, immediately choking up at the heartfelt confession.

“Me too, Paps.” You whispered, “I’m so, so happy.” With a sigh and a watery smile, you pulled back, your soul keening in affection as your eyes met Papyrus’ hazy eyelights.

Now infused with vigor from your success at resolving the situation and returning the skeleton to his sweet, boisterous self, you hopped up from the bed and did your very best impression of his trademark confident stance.

“We’re a team, Paps. We’ve got this!” You enthused with a grin, giggling when the sweet skeleton immediately reacted to the boisterous action. Said monster let out an enthusiastic gasp as he jumped up to mirror you with excitement glimmering in his orange eyelights.

“IF WE’RE A TEAM THEN WE NEED A TEAM NAME!” He declared, forcing a snicker to slip past your lips as you nodded, before he tapped his mandible in contemplation with a low hum. “HOW ABOUT… TEAM TROUBLEMAKERS! BECAUSE! EVERYONE IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE VERY ANNOYED AT US FOR CONSPIRING BEHIND THEIR BACKS!”.

You burst into laughter at that, your hands moving from your hips to clutch at your stomach at the skeleton’s blunt proclamation.

“I don’t – hah – think they’ll be that upset, love.” You snickered as you wiped a tear of mirth from your eye, before asking with a mischievous grin. “But if you want a super-secret mysterious team name, how about… team chaos?” You spoke the suggestion with a dramatic flair as you moved your hands in the air in front of you in a gesture similar to ‘jazz hands’.

“OH, THEN EVERYONE WILL THINK THAT WE ARE DOING VERY MYSTERIOUS AND COOL THINGS AND WILL WANT TO JOIN US AND BE OUR FRIENDS!” He surmised innocently with a gloved finger pointing towards the sky.

You couldn’t help the soft laugh that escaped you at that as you once again admired his optimism and enthusiasm. It wasn’t exactly what you had meant by the two of you being a team, but you’d be damned if you were going to correct him and crush his spirits.

“Exactly!” You chirped before holding out your hand with your palm facing him.

“IT IS SETTLED THEN!” He declared, moving his hand to meet yours. “TEAM CHAOS!”.

You snickered at the chant as flesh met bone in an enthusiastic high-five.

“I’m gonna go talk to Sans, okay?” You said softly with a supportive smile. “He’s worried about you, I’m sure he’d appreciate the update.”

Papyrus’ grin slipped slightly, but he righted himself quickly and nodded in confirmation. With that, you slipped quietly out of the room, shutting the door behind you, and nearly jumped out of your skin when you spotted Sans - in the exact same place that he was before - with an inquisitive expression on his skull.

“team chaos?” He asked with an amused lilt to his voice, a browbone raised at you.

“You heard that, huh?” You said, a small laugh lacing your words.

“yep,” He confirmed with a snort before his expression shifted into something almost unreadable, almost as though he was fighting down hurt or maybe, jealousy? “glad to hear he’s in better spirits. uh, thanks.” His voice contained the same strange tone as he spoke lowly with his eyelights downcast, shifting slightly with his hands shoved deeply into his pockets.

“You need to talk to your brother, Sans.” You sighed, folding your arms over your chest as you leaned back against the wall. “He thinks that you, and everyone else in this household, treat him like a child. Like he can’t handle whatever’s going on with you.” You raised an eyebrow at the skeleton as a small frown pulled at your lips. “He used the word ‘pathetic’, Sans. Your brother thinks he’s so pathetic that no one will be honest with him about how fucked up shit is right now.”.

Perhaps you were being too harsh right off the bat, Sans’ stricken expression proved that, but you weren’t going to mess around when it came to Papyrus’ feelings. He meant too much to you for that.

“i… i didn’t realize…” He muttered, his voice coming out choked and strained as his frown deepened.

“Tell him.” You said sternly before lowering your voice to just above a whisper. “Tell him about all the timeline stuff, about your memories and the resets and how much they’re hurting you. He just wants to help.”

“i can’t!” He whisper-yelled, his tone conveying his quickly mounting upset as his hands clenched into fists. “what if it messes him up as much as it messed me up? i can’t risk doing that to him!”

“What’s messing him up is knowing that his brother is struggling!” You retorted lowly, indignant anger quickly rising within you. “He thinks that you don’t trust him! You’re hurting him more by keeping this from him than you ever will by just telling him the fucking truth! He’s an adult, and he’s a lot stronger than you think, he can handle it!”

“ya don’t understand!” He spat back, his tone bordering on hysterical as he met your eyes with furious eyelights. “ya don’t know what it’s like to have to protect someone – someone who means the whole world to ya, that ya wouldn’t be able to go on without – from something as fucked up as this!”

“I understand a lot more than you think I do, Sans.” You stated calmly, the warning in your tone causing the skeleton to falter and deflate slightly. “Just tell him, or I will.” You finished, pushing yourself from the wall and stalking across the hall and into your room before he could even open his mouth to argue.

Thankfully, neither Stretch nor Blue were present, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be eventually. The conflict with Sans had really riled you up, and raw emotion was bubbling up from your chest in the form of unshed tears as you breathed deeply in an attempt to curb your temper.

Intending to check the time, you pulled out your phone, but were quickly distracted by a string of text messages ranging from when you had gone after Papyrus up until a few minutes ago.

7:14pm   puppy dog: hey doll, u should come back when ur done being family therapist lol

7:14pm   puppy dog: edgey boy just nearly knocked out blue for petting ur cat wrong

7:17pm   puppy dog: ok seriously u need to come save me, everyone got real drunk real fast

7:18pm   puppy dog: including me lmao

You burst into laughter at the texts. You guessed that Mutt predicted that you would have been in a bad mood after dealing with the brothers’ conflict - that, or he was just naturally like this when he got drunk without you around. Either way, it was adorable.

With a raised eyebrow, you noticed that there was an attached picture under the slew of texts. It depicted Edge cradling Albert like a baby, who looked perfectly content at being handled in such a manner, whilst he was - you assumed - in the middle of yelling at a terrified looking Blue, of whom was holding his hands out in defense. In the front corner of the image was Mutt’s grinning face accompanied by his hand held up in a peace sign.

Well, at least Edge was spending time out of his room, even if it was to scream at his much smaller, much more innocent looking cousin.

With a snort you saved the image, a wide grin pulling at your lips as your mood lifted considerably. Now laughing quietly, you scrolled through the rest of the barrage of messages.

7:41pm    puppy dog: everything ok?

7:42pm    puppy dog: uv been gone for ages, i miss u, hurry up

7:45pm    puppy dog: ok seriously if u dont respond im gonna teleport into paps room and save u

The last of the messages had been sent a few minutes ago, so you frantically typed out a response.

7:48pm   sneaky link: do not do that, sans is in there talking to him

7:48pm   sneaky link: i’m in my room

7:49pm   sneaky link: also omg change my name

You weren’t surprised when his response came mere seconds after your last text.

7:49pm   puppy dog: ooh alone? ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

7:50pm   puppy dog set your nickname to not so sneaky link

7:50pm   not so sneaky link: first of all, i seriously regret showing you those emoticons

7:50pm   not so sneaky link: second of all, i hate you

When he didn’t immediately reply, you assumed he had gotten distracted by the others and pocketed your phone, opting to take advantage of the rare moment of silence to gather your thoughts. Eventually you felt a little more solid in your metaphorical emotional foundation and made your way over to the doorway to join the others downstairs.

Just as you swung open the door, however, your attention was grabbed by a soft ‘thump’ on the bed behind you, prompting you to squeak and whip yourself around to locate the source of the sound.

“heya, doll.” Mutt greeted you in a flirty manner, clearly drunk by the slight slur to his words.

You snorted at the position he had somehow shortcutted into: lay on his side with one leg bent and a drink in each hand, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. Giggling, you wandered over and plopped yourself on the bed before plucking one of the drinks from his hand.
“hey, how d’ya know that’s for you?” He teased, making a show of attempting to steal the glass back whilst you held it above your head with a snicker.

“Well, it’s mine now.” You said before sticking your tongue out at him. With a light gasp, your eyes zeroed in on a wet patch on the sheets just beside the skeleton, prompting you to glare half-heartedly at him.

“Mutt, you spilt your drink! Blue and Stretch are staying in here!” You whined, unable to hold back the laughter in your voice as you did so.

Mutt simply snickered with an ‘oops’ as you sighed lightly and placed your drink down to begin changing the sheets. You honestly hadn’t slept in your bed since the last time you had changed them, so only the duvet cover would do for now, you thought.

As you leant down to tug on the sheet in a silent ask for the skeleton to move from the bed, a clawed hand wrapped around your arm and pulled you down, causing you to land on your front with an ‘oof!’. Before you could even open your mouth to protest, you had been flipped onto your back with Mutt’s body pressed against yours, his face mere inches from your now furiously blushing one.

“i missed ya, doll.” He breathed huskily, the lustful growl to his voice causing heat to immediately begin pooling in your lower abdomen.

“I missed you too, my love.” You returned softly, your eyes lidded as you regarded him.

Memories of his, and your, earlier confession flashed to the forefront of your mind, and suddenly you were more bashful and nervous than you had ever been around your best friend. Plus, the look of yearning within his eyelights and lidded sockets paired with a lewd grin had you squirming under his grasp, but you mentally shook yourself and gently scolded the skeleton.

“But we are not fucking where Stretch and Blue are supposed to be sleeping tonight.”

“my room then?” He supplied cheekily, earning a breathy laugh from you as you rolled your eyes good-naturedly.

“You are drunk, it’s not happening.” You raised your eyebrows at him, prompting him to whine childishly and roll over onto his back next to you.

“ugh, ‘m gonna die,” He groaned dramatically as he threw an arm over his eyes. “ya got me more pent up than before ya fucked our boy red, i might actually implode.”

“You shouldn’t have drunk so much then, dickhead.” You chastised with a laugh as you sat up, earning a quiet snicker from the skeleton. “Now move, I need to change this sheet since you decided to literally drop yourself on the bed and spill alcohol everywhere.” You continued as you nudged his ribcage with your foot.

“if yer gonna change it anyway… ” He needled with a waggle of his browbones, not making a single move to do as told. With a short exhale you decided that the only way to beat this skeleton was to play into his game.

Lidding your eyes and positioning yourself on your knees, you shuffled toward him so that you were just shy of practically being on top of him. You almost broke and burst out laughing at the mixture of surprise and elation on his face, but managed to hold it together enough to beckon him toward you using a ‘come hither’ motion with one hand. The second he sat up so that his face was somewhat level with yours, you used as much strength as you could muster to shove him from the bed, sending him flailing with a yelp to the ground.

“Get dunked on, motherfucker!” You cheered between gasps of laughter, your mirth only doubling when the dazed skeleton sat up to shoot you a positively appalled look that was mixed with thinly veiled amusement. “I can’t believe you keep falling for that!”.  

If you weren’t laughing so hard, you would have noticed the quickly growing flush and hazy eyelights that Mutt wore as his expression melted into fondness. The moment of weakness was short-lived, however, because as soon as you had sobered, he used a shortcut to land next to you and took your brief stunned hesitation as an opportunity to knock you down once again onto your back, but this time used his legs to pin your arms to the mattress.

“that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” He drawled, a mischievous glint in his eyelights as he grinned slyly down at you.

“Mutt, don’t you fucking dare.” You warned lowly, though your lips were twitching with the effort holding back a grin.

You squirmed and bucked in an attempt to escape from his grasp to no avail, and just as you had feared, the monster began relentlessly tickling you, causing you to squeal and cackle.

“Fucking stop! Mutt!” You gasped out between laughs, trying and failing to glare at him. “I am going to fucking kill you! Stop!” Your voice had risen to a yell now, yet you were still screeching and giggling hysterically with a now red flush across your face.

“HONEY? ARE YOU OKAY?” Came the concerned cry of Papyrus as he barreled through the doorway. With a cringe you remembered that you had neglected to close the door before greeting Mutt, who had frozen and whipped his head around to look sheepishly at the intruding skeleton.

With a gasp, Papyrus spoke Mutt’s name in a scolding tone and stalked over to pluck the skeleton by the collar of his shirt from atop of you and placed him on his feet by the side of the bed.

“I’m okay, Paps.” You said with a breathy laugh as you pulled yourself back into a seated position. “Sorry, I didn’t realize the door was open.” You continued, a guilty expression overtaking your features.

“OH, THAT’S OKAY! I WAS JUST HEADING DOWNSTAIRS ANYWAY AND WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT NONE OF MY COUSINS WERE DOING SOMETHING THEY SHOULDN’T BE DOING.” He chirped happily, though the brief disapproving glance he shot at Mutt had the mischievous skeleton shrinking back slightly and rubbing at the back of his neck as he steered his gaze away from the look.

“Did, um, everything go okay?” You asked gingerly, honestly surprised that Papyrus was as chipper as he was considering the heavy nature of the topic. Unless, you thought with a jolt of anger, Sans hadn’t actually told him anything. “Did Sans tell you?” You added quickly, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

“OH… YES, HE DID.” His jovial demeanor shifted into a slightly anxious one for a brief moment, before he swiftly recovered and plastered on a wide grin. “EVERYTHING IS OKAY. THANK YOU, HONEY.” He lowered his voice slightly as he offered you an appreciative, warm smile, of which you happily returned.

Mutt, who looked completely befuddled at the exchange, yelped when he was once again hoisted up by his collar by his ever so slightly taller cousin, who exclaimed purposefully. “NOW, I’M SURE THERE’S A BOTTLE OF WHISKEY WITH YOUR NAME ON IT, MUTT.  LET’S GO!”.

You mouthed a thank you to the skeleton as Mutt wriggled and jerked in his grasp, shouting a long line of obscenities as he was ungracefully removed to the room with Papyrus happily chatting away about nothing at him.

You loved Mutt, but sometimes, especially when he was drunk, he could be just a tad too clingy when you needed to get anything done. You honestly didn’t mind it usually, in fact, you found it endearing, but right now you needed some peace and quiet whilst you went through the boring motions of changing bed sheets.

With a long, calming exhale, that’s exactly what you did, taking the time to smooth out any wrinkles and making sure to make the bed as perfectly as possible. With a satisfied smile you surveyed your work and, now that you were finally feeling ready to deal with whatever chaos was transpiring downstairs, retrieved the abandoned drinks and made your way to join the others in the living room.

The excitable chatter and laughter that could be heard the second you got to the top of the stairs was infectious, and brought a warm smile to your face as you descended and headed towards the source of the sound. You were quick to shove yourself in the small space between Red and Mutt as the latter gratefully took his drink from you.

With a brief scan of the room, you noted with a hint of disappointment that Milord was absent, but simply assumed that he was busy. Though, you were happy that Axe and Butch had decided to stick around to spend time with their family, even if Stretch and Blue repeatedly glanced over at the pair uneasily. You could harbor a guess at why they were so apprehensive, but without knowing what the brothers’ district was like you had to assume that they knew something distressing that you didn’t.

Papyrus and Sans were present at least, but were sat to one side conversing under their breaths.
A pang of concern shot through you at the sight, and you almost made a move to stand up and mitigate the conversation, but a faint whisper of a memory glued you to your seat.

“You can’t save everyone, bud.” Daniel’s soothing voice came from beside you, a gentle smile on his lips.

You were only twelve, but you were already attempting to insert yourself into every fight, argument, or small disagreement between those around you - trying to help them, to stop them from being cruel to each other. Despite only being four years older than you, your brother was already wise beyond his age, and it was reflected in his kind blue-grey eyes as they met your obstinate emerald ones.

“You try to.” You grumbled in a rebuttal, a pout on your lips as you stubbornly crossed your arms over your chest.

It was true, wherever there was a problem he was there trying to find a solution. You wanted to do that, to make everyone happy and be just like your sweet, selfless older brother.

“Yeah, but I’m the older sibling. It’s my job, remember?” He retorted, a good-natured teasing tone to his voice as he ruffled your hair, earning an indignant squeak as you batted his hand away.

“Hmph. Hypocrite.” You muttered. Although your tone was laced in irritation, he snorted at the slight smile that was breaking out on your face against your will.

“You don’t have to do any of that, okay?” He said softly as you caught his gaze. “Leave it all to me.”

You sighed gently as the words rang through your head: You can’t save everyone.

You knew he was right, but you had always been unyielding in your ways as a child. Even now you felt defiance at his advice rising within you, but fought it down in favor of simply watching the others have fun with a small smile.

Although, it seemed that Edge’s idea of fun and familial bonding was sitting cross-legged with Albert in his lap as he nursed his drink, occasionally shooting a glare at anyone that came too close to the slumbering creature. A dumb grin spread across your face as you observed his fierce protectiveness over the cat, fondness growing in your chest for the stoic skeleton.

“WE SHOULD PLAY A DRINKING GAME!”

Your ears pricked at the mention of said game from Blue, a giddy feeling overtaking you before you remembered that it was not, in fact, the weekend, and that you actually had stuff you needed to do tomorrow.

“heh, baby blue wants ta play a drinkin’ game,” Red snickered from besides you before nudging you to attract your attention. “ya playin’?”

“I have work and school tomorrow, so I’m good.” You sighed regretfully, earning a sly smirk from the skeleton.

“huh, didn’t take ya fer a pussy.” He needled as he leaned back, his eyelights issuing a silent challenge as you gaped indignantly.

“Game on, motherfucker.” Too easy.

Blue had aptly decided on ‘never have I ever’ with a positively mischievous grin on his face. Everyone bar Edge easily agreed once he had explained the rules, but even the prickly skeleton begrudgingly conceded once you pulled out the puppy dog eyes and insisted that he didn’t have to drink for anything he didn’t want to and could ask innocent questions. You were all pretty much seated in a circle on the respective couches and armchairs, and so, once you had decided who was going first and in which direction turns would be taken, you were off.

You were practically vibrating with excitement at the chance to get to know more about each member of the skeleton family, no matter how lewd the learnt information may end up being. Papyrus was chosen to go first, more so that it wouldn’t start off immediately vulgar than anything else, and so he hummed in thought before lighting up once he had chosen what he was going to say.

“NEVER HAVE I EVER OWNED A MOTORCYCLE!” He exclaimed proudly, snickering quietly when Blue and Red shot him indignant looks.

“ya targetin’ me, creampuff?” He asked with a raised browbone, an amused smirk tugging at his mouth.

“IT WAS AN INNOCUOUS STATEMENT THAT COULD HAVE APPLIED TO ANYONE, RED.” He shot back, though the impish gleam in his eyelights told another story.

“drink up, blue.” He grumbled good-naturedly, before nudging you gently. “you too, angel.”
With a huff of mirth, you took a sip of your drink, your attention being held by the skeleton monster when he half-mumbled a question to you. “hey, what ever did happen t’ya bike? i ain’t ever seen ya with one.”

“Oh, it broke down. Couldn’t afford to repair it, so I sold it for scrap.” You explained nonchalantly with a small shrug, earning a small hum from your beta.

You smiled at his offer for you to use his and gratefully accepted with an appreciative kiss to his temple that caused a pretty red flush to break out across his cheekbones. You bit your lip to stifle a giggle when the others snickered lowly at the display, prompting the hot-headed skeleton to growl and make a lewd suggestion in the form of a string of curses.

Your gaze eventually landed on Blue, a brief flash of surprise hitting you at the seemingly endless number of things that you were finding out about the skeleton that didn’t correspond with his sweet, innocent demeanor.

The contemplative feeling was wrenched from your mind, however, when you were caught in his gaze. His eyelights had morphed into stars that almost filled the entirety of his sockets and were paired with a wide, toothy grin. You had no idea skeleton monsters could even do that!

You suddenly felt slightly self-conscious at his look of awe being directed your way and smiled bashfully back before quickly averting your eyes to study your drink.

The following turns, which consisted of Sans, Axe, Butch (who was too anxious to speak aloud and so whispered his to his brother, who then announced it for him), and Edge continued in the same harmless fashion, consisting of never having travelled by airplane or never having been to the zoo and the likes. You were beginning to realize that there was a lot of stuff that you had never done before, and so you were quickly catching up with the intoxicated members of the group.

The next turn landed on Mutt, and you had to hold back a snort as he flashed a mischievous grin at you. Somehow you knew that he would be the one to start turning what had started as an innocent game into one of dishing dirt.

“never have i ever said th’ wrong name durin’ sex.” He said almost conspiringly, his eyelights immediately zeroing in on Red as he snickered quietly.

“fer fucks sake, mutt.” He growled, his face lighting up.

Amongst the chorus of giggling from the inhabitants of the room, you let out a gasp of disbelief, your face lit up with amusement.

“You didn’t.”

“oh yea, he did.” Mutt answered for him, cracking up as he explained how the affected party had slapped him and kicked him to the curb. You were howling in laughter by the time he was done, only feeling slightly bad for the snarling, flustered skeleton.

“i knew i shouldn’ta fuckin’ told ya that.” He grumbled lowly, only encouraging Mutt to double over in laughter as he clutched at his non-existent stomach.

It was your turn next, and you kind of found it hard to think of something, one, that you hadn’t done that was sexual in nature and, two, that wasn’t too vulgar for the sweeter skeletons in the room. If Mutt wanted to turn it into a game of revealing explicit secrets, you certainly weren’t going to be one to argue.

Finally, you decided on your turn and with a sly grin, addressed the group.

“Never have I ever sent a dirty text to the wrong person.” You said with your brows raised, eyes scanning each of the skeletons to catch who would drink.

A pang of disappointment rose in you when no one moved to raise their glass until, incredibly, Sans took a swig from his bottle of non-descript beer, prompting you to drop your jaw in astonishment.

“Sans, really?!” You laughed, earning a shrug from the skeleton despite the light tint of blue to his face.

“spill, vanilla,” Axe spoke up with an amused lilt to his baritone voice, shocking you into stunned, thrilled silence. “who… did it… go to?”.

Sans’ mortified expression only grew with his eyelights trained on Axe with a pleading look. The taller skeleton only snickered and shrugged, prompting his cousin to sigh and mumble out the confession.

“tori.”

The room erupted into cheers and shouts of disbelief, causing the already flustered skeleton to flip up his hood and pull on the drawstrings to close the fabric around his bright cyan face. Well, at least he seemed in better spirits after his talk with Papyrus, even if that meant complete mortification at the hands of his unruly cousins.

“heh, ‘m surprised it weren’t meant fer her.” Red piped up with an almost sadistic grin, earning a groaned ‘noooo’ from Sans. “ya always did have a bit of a thing fer her, ay vanilla?”

“oh stars, i wish i was there for that conversation.” Stretch suddenly gasped out between his cackles, earning a snort from Red.

“NOW, NOW. THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING A CRUSH!” Papyrus scolded the two lightly. His intentions were obviously pure but only served to cause his devastated older brother to shrink further back into his seat. “EVEN IF IT IS ON FEMALE ASGORE.” He finished, his face scrunching up in open befuddlement as he did so, and causing another round of boisterous laughter to erupt throughout the room.

You couldn’t help but shoot a quick glance over at Edge, who despite only wearing a small smirk, was definitely having trouble holding back laughter if the slight shaking of his shoulders was anything to go by.

“alright, alright, i think we’ve tortured ‘im enough.” Red snickered, pulling the focus away from Sans who visibly relaxed at the shift. You would have thought it was a kind gesture, but if you knew Red, you knew that he just wanted to get his own back on Mutt for embarrassing him with his turn. “never have i ever slept with someone of th’ same sex.”

Both you and Mutt lifted your glasses, prompting the both of you to grin at each other and share a fist bump. Obviously, this wasn’t what Red had been intending, as he groaned and threw his head back in response.

“i thought ya’d be more weird ‘bout it.” He admitted, shooting a joking glare at his best friend.

“then ya don’t know me very well at all, my friend.” Mutt snickered with an impish grin, prompting Red to roll his eyelights good-naturedly and throw out a one-fingered salute in response.

It was Blue’s turn next, and he was practically shaking with enthusiasm when he grabbed the room’s attention by announcing as much.

“NEVER HAVE I EVER HAD A THREESOME!” He declared proudly, causing more than one of the group members to choke on their drinks, including you.

“bro!” Stretch cried as he coughed and beat a fist against his chest, obviously having been one of the unlucky few who were mid-sip during Blue’s exclamation. His face was a strange mixture of emotions, almost as though he couldn’t decide whether he was proud or horrified.

“DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU THOUGHT I WAS UNAWARE OF WHAT A THREESOME IS, BROTHER?” He grinned coyly as he shook his head disapprovingly at his brother, who was staring back aghast, seemingly unable to answer the presented question.

“WELL?” The freckled skeleton directed the following query to the group, his impish grin unfaltering and eyelights sparkling as he looked at each of you.

There was a brief lapse of silence when nobody drank in confirmation, and, sensing Blue’s disappointment, you conceded and made a show of lifting your drink to your lips and taking a gulp of the bitter liquid. You rolled your eyes good-naturedly at the whoops and hollers from the rowdier members of the group.

“damn, angel. i knew ya were kinky, but i had no idea.” Red slurred drunkenly from beside you with a teasing grin. With a snort you lightly slapped his humerus with an invitation to suck a certain part of the male physique, prompting him to wriggle his browbones suggestively at you with a snicker.

“so, what was it, cupcake?” Stretch drawled with a raised browbone as you shot him a disapproving look. “two guys? two girls?” He spoke the last word with a teasing lilt, and you rolled your eyes at him with a joking glare.

“What, you gonna add that image to the wank bank for later, cupcake?” You needled back, echoing the condescending nickname with a tone that issued an unspoken challenge.

He simply responded with a gesture that indicated a nonchalant ‘maybe’, and you felt your face heat up. You should have been disgusted by the thought, but for some reason the image had you fighting down your rising blush. Stars, there is something definitely wrong with you.

“GUYS! DO NOT BE SO VULGAR!” Blue whined as he threw his hands into the air, a small frown replacing his usual beaming grin as a faint blush presented itself across his freckled cheekbones. It was evident that the smaller skeleton was getting wound up by the explicit language from the second Red had opened his mouth, and with his younger brother now joining in, it seemed to be getting too much for the easily flustered skeleton despite him being the instigator of the topic.

“aw, c’mon, baby blue.” Red drawled with a snicker before dropping himself in a blink of crimson magic next to the aforementioned skeleton and causing him to squeak adorably in surprise. “i wanna know too.” He finished, beaming at you coyly as he threw an arm around his cousin, earning a resigned sigh and a grumble from the monster.

With a breathy laugh you turned to address Mutt with a teasing smirk.

“What? Got nothing to say, puppy dog?” You prodded good-naturedly, “No comment about wanting to join in next time or anything of that nature?”. The impish grin that had twitched the corners of your mouth upwards and raised an eyebrow quickly slipped as your booze-addled mind registered his uneasy expression.

“nah.” He replied shortly with a shrug. You could tell that he was trying to hide his discomfort with a lazy grin and lidded sockets, but the strained nature of his demeanor as he fiddled idly with a lighter gave away his true feelings.

Your heart leapt into your throat at the sight as your mind began spinning with guilt at the prospect that you had possibly done or said something to upset him again. Perhaps he was fighting off jealousy at your admission to past sexual experiences? No, that couldn’t be it. You and Mutt had partaken in many a long conversation about things of that nature before and he hadn’t reacted in such a way. Maybe he was still feeling sensitive from your earlier conflict and your flirting with Stretch was consequently getting to him? It was possible, but you had an odd feeling that the reason was a little more complicated than that. Perhaps then, you thought, this particular topic was reminding him of something from his past- something distressing?

With a start, you realized that the room had gone silent whilst you had been openly staring at Mutt with an alarmed expression.

“Two girls!” You blurted as you whipped your head around to address the others, desperate to avert the room’s attention away from the skeleton. Thankfully, their curiosity was easily sated by your confession, and the room was filled with cheers and shouts once again.

You took the brief distraction to reach out a tentative hand to lay over the top of Mutt’s with a silent question in your furrowed brows and slight tilt to your head. He smiled softly at you before giving a short shake of his head, indicating that it wasn’t something that he wanted to talk about. You smiled back with a nod of understanding, content with allowing him to do whatever he thought was best for him in that moment.

Eventually, you all got bored of the game and decided to instead branch off into your own groups to continue drinking and conversing. By the time midnight had rolled around, most of the household’s inhabitants had passed out either on the couches or on the floor. Well, the older brothers of the group had.

You snickered quietly as Edge hoisted a slumbering Red onto his shoulder with a grumble, followed by Papyrus, Butch and, incredibly, Blue, all mirroring his action. You had to bite down on your lip to keep from bursting into a fit of giggles as you watched the much shorter skeleton essentially wrap Stretch around his shoulders to keep him from dragging on the ground as though it was something that he had done numerous times before, as the three younger cousins carried their respective brothers to their beds.

Of course, Milord was absent, and so his older brother was the only one left sleeping in the living room. You felt bad leaving Mutt on his own, plus you were worried about him because of his earlier dip in mood despite his quick recovery, so you went upstairs to gather blankets and pillows, as well as changed into a t-shirt and shorts. Soon enough, you had finished your bedtime routine and cuddled yourself and Mutt under a blanket on the couch without so much as earning a grumble from the skeleton, and sleep quickly overtook your hazy, tipsy mind.

It didn’t take long for you to awaken with a gasp, sweat covering your body and sticking your hair to your face as you attempted to shake off the panic from yet another nightmare. They often subsided whenever you slept in the presence of someone else, but since Frisk’s confirmation of the previous timelines, they had returned with a vengeance.

Your visions, or not-memories, had begun to seep into your dreams in small fragments, making it difficult to know what was real and what your mind had conjured up from the experiences of the day and previous events in the current timeline. This time, though, you knew that you were reliving an event from a past timeline, only because said event had been confirmed to be true by Frisk.

It was the same nightmare that you had about finding your brother after he had taken his life, but the little Mage’s confirmation of a singular timeline where you made it in time to resuscitate him had altered the recurring dream. Instead, you saved him and consequently failed to run from your Coven. You fell in line with the abhorrent actions and habits of your kind and fast became the strongest amongst them. Finally, you would find yourself standing over one of the skeleton monsters that you had come to adore, each time someone different, and no matter how much your mind screamed and thrashed and refused to hurt them, your body moved of its own accord, leaving nothing but Dust where they once lay.

Focusing on your breathing whilst your eyes adjusted to the dark of the room, you considered attempting to rouse Mutt to ask him to comfort you, but decided against it. You hated relying on others for comfort and would avoid it if possible due to the relentless guilt that your mind would plague you with if you did.

With a sigh, you flung yourself back onto the couch cushion, resigned to staring at the ceiling until your racing heart slowed. Tears burned at your eyes as flashes of the nightmare continued to assault your mind, the quiet of the room only serving to give you nothing else to focus on. You were so lost in your thoughts that when soft, hesitant footsteps from the hallway reached your ears, you jerked upright with a quiet squeak. With a quick glance to make sure that Mutt hadn’t awoken and rubbing at your eyes to eliminate any moisture, you hopped from the couch to pad over to the doorway leading into the corridor to investigate.

It took a second for you to identify the intruding individual due to your inferior human night-vision, but once your eyes had adjusted, you recognized the towering figure as Papyrus. Blinking blearily, your stomach knotted when your sleep-deprived mind registered the panicked, watery expression on the sweet skeleton’s face.

“Hey,” You whispered, concern lacing your voice as you took a tentative step towards him. “What’s wrong, Paps?”

“I, Um…” He took a shaky breath as he wrung his hands nervously together. They were free of the gloves that he usually wore, and you realized that this was the first time you had ever actually seen his bare hands. They were slender with long fingers that lacked the pointed claws that most of the others seemed to have, and completely smooth and unscarred.

You reached out to take his hand, your fingers hovering just below the metacarpal in a silent ask for permission, unsure if he was comfortable with the naked bones being touched. He ceased his nervous ministrations to allow you to gently take his hand in yours and lead him to the couch opposite the one that you had been sleeping on with a finger over your lips as a signal to be quiet.

Fortunately, you had actually retrieved more than one blanket before you had settled in for sleep in the event that sharing a couch with Mutt had become uncomfortable, as there wasn’t much room for you between his large frame and tendency to sprawl out on whatever surface he was sleeping on, and so you quickly wrapped said blanket around the two of you as Papyrus cuddled into your side. He offered no resistance, instead happily allowing himself to be pulled into you so that his head was on your chest as you gently traced his coronal suture in soothing, repetitive motions. His tall stature usually wouldn’t allow for such a position to be reached comfortably, but he was curled up in a way that made him seem much smaller than he was, allowing you to easily hold him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” You murmured softly, earning a gentle shake of his head in response.

“No, I…” He exhaled heavily, the action portraying his frustration. “It Is Just Everything That Sans Told Me… It Is Scary And… And I-I Didn’t Want To Wake Him, So…”

“It’s okay.” You breathed, an understanding tone to your voice. “It is scary. I’m glad you came to me instead of struggling with it by yourself. You can always come to me, alright?”

“Yes, I… Thank You.” He muttered, the beginnings of a rumbling purr vibrating within his chest at your gentle petting and resulting in a slight waver to his voice. A wide smile broke out across your face at the comforting sound.

Red had informed you that purring was something that monster cubs did when they felt safe and happy, and so adult monsters could often slip into the same habit for a similar reason. Of course, he had only begrudgingly told you this when you had caught him purring whilst falling asleep cuddled up to you after a particularly bad fight with his brother. You hadn’t heard the sound from Red for a long time, but you supposed that it was difficult for the high-strung skeleton to feel completely content with the way things were at the moment.

You were content to listen to the soothing sound emanating from the skeleton, simply continuing with the soft touches along his skull until you were eventually struggling to remain conscious. You were jerked from the brink of sleep by his softened voice after a few minutes of this, however, forcing you to take a deep breath and tiredly blink your eyes to process his question.

“Are You Really Going To Be An Alpha, Honey?”

“Mmh, yeah, I think so.” You breathed, perturbed at his sudden curiosity regarding the topic. “Wait, who told you that?” You asked with a light laugh.

“Mutt.” He confirmed quietly, earning a sigh from you as you lightly shook your head.

“Of course.” You snickered, before sobering and asking gently. “Why do you ask?”

“No Reason.” He mumbled with a contented sigh.

You wanted to push further at his reasoning for asking so out of the blue, but before you could even open your mouth, his purr had slowly quietened until all you could hear was his rhythmic breathing, indicating that he had swiftly fallen asleep. With a soft, breathy laugh, you placed a chaste kiss on the top of his skull and closed your eyes, your soul humming in affection for the sweet skeleton.

“Night, Paps.”

Chapter Text

Edge had awoken just as the sun had begun to peek over the horizon, intent on continuing with your training as soon as possible- mostly just because he wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

Training with you was… odd for him. The first and last time that he had triggered your magic attack via relentlessly assaulting you with magic attacks of his own had brought about a strange euphoria for the skeleton. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt you, no, quite the opposite, actually. However, the game of cat and mouse that the two of you had fallen into was, quite honestly, thrilling. In fact, he had wanted to take it further, and almost had despite your pleading for him to stop. The only thing that had halted his relentless assaults was the damage that your attack had done to him.

That was a problem.

A high LV monster like Edge was always at risk of losing themselves during a fight, whether it was a friendly sparring session or otherwise, yet he had never truly had an issue with self-control until it came to you. Now that he was aware of the soul’s ability to recollect past timelines, as well as the fact that you and he had been an item in many of them, it made sense as to why he was having trouble restraining himself. Nevertheless, Edge was stubborn to a fault, and so he refused to allow the overwhelming combination of the murderous intent that his high LV caused and the mind-numbing lust that he felt for you to keep him from his task.

After checking Red’s room for you, he recalled that you had opted to sleep downstairs with Mutt due to ‘feeling bad’ for him. Edge would never understand how you could be so freely and openly kind, and therefore, vulnerable, around people, monsters like him, of which you had no idea if you could trust or not. That, and the fact that you were so easily trusting. Sure, it was only a small display of kindness, but enough of that resulted in you being labelled as weak and easily manipulated where he had come from.

Now in the living room, he raised a browbone when he noticed that you weren’t with Mutt, but instead were cuddled up with Papyrus on the opposite couch. You were lying on your side with the skeleton’s head nuzzled just under your chin, your lips slightly parted and expression soft as you took gentle, even breaths. He couldn’t help but stare, the only thing breaking him out of his trance being the infernal thump of his soul against his ribcage, of which caused him to huff and growl lowly.

Both you and Mutt were still fast asleep due to it being the very early hours of the morning, but with Papyrus being the light sleeper that he is, simply the sound of Edge’s clipped footsteps had awoken the monster, and Edge’s hushed grumble caused him to start slightly and gently shift himself so that he could sit up to face his irritable cousin.

“Edge?” He called gently as he rubbed the sleep from his sockets. “What Time Is It?”

“Five AM.” He spoke back quietly, “The Captain Requires That We Begin Training, And I Am Cautious Of Their Time Restraints.” He explained, earning a befuddled look from the skeleton as he alternated his gaze between you and Edge.

Papyrus noticed you shift and sigh, immediately capturing his, as well as Edge’s attention. The two mirrored the other’s soft flickering of their eyelights as they watched, before looking to each other and tensing with light orange and red flushes. Edge cleared his throat awkwardly as crossed his arms over his chest, now avoiding Papyrus’ gaze.

“Wake Them Up. We’re Starting In An Hour.” He said shortly, before moving to pivot himself toward the way he came, but then hesitated and turned a critical eyelight toward his cousin when said skeleton meekly called his name.

“Can I Come With You?” He asked hesitantly, his voice only gaining strength when Edge raised a judgmental browbone at him. “I Want To Train, And I Think That I Could Be Useful In Teaching Them, Too.”.

Edge huffed an amused laugh at that, a smirk twitching the edges of his mouth upwards as he listened.

“Going Behind Vanilla’s Back, Are We, Creampuff?” He teased, his words laced with something akin to pride. “I Did Not Think You Had It In You.”.

The normally patient skeleton couldn’t help but bristle slightly at his words, the topic of Sans’ overprotective tendencies still raw and fresh in his mind. He felt immensely guilty at his actions, especially since he learnt the reasoning behind his older brother’s overbearing nature, but he reminded himself of his capabilities. He is not a child; he can handle himself. Sans has nothing to worry about.

“Can I Come Or Not, Edge?” He said, an impatient sigh in his words and a small frown pulling at his teeth.

The shift in the typically jovial monster’s demeanor had Edge surveying his expression with suspicion. Although, he speculated, if there was anything that would keep Edge from losing control, due to his high LV or… other things, it was having the ‘creampuff’ around. He hated to admit it, but the skeleton’s passive and kind nature was an ideal anchor for a monster like him.

“Fine. An Hour.” He conceded with a somewhat sadistic grin, once again confirming the minute amount of time they had to ready for the session, before hastily exiting the room and into the kitchen.

The look on Edge’s face had Papyrus second-guessing his decision as a knot of dread started in his chest, but he was determined to prove his resilience and usefulness. Plus, he wouldn’t mind experiencing your magic and getting to see you attack Edge, he thought with a low snicker.

“Honey,” He called softly as he gently shook your shoulder, causing you to grumble and moan as you blearily blinked open your eyes to look at the monster. “Come On, Edge Wants To Start Your Training Now.”.

Confusion was etched into your features as your sleep-deprived brain struggled to comprehend his statement, and when it finally caught up, you groaned once more and shoved your face back into the pillow with a huff.

“Tell him he can go fuck himself.” You grumbled, your voice muffled by the fabric of the pillow, causing Papyrus to snort quietly before gently chastising you.

“Language, Honey.” He scolded you teasingly, coaxing a soft giggle from you before you turned over to look exhaustedly at the skeleton.

“How long do I have?” You asked in a tired sigh, your irritation at being woken up so early only growing when Papyrus informed you of the limited amount of time. “Ugh, fine.” You groaned before unceremoniously rolling yourself from the couch into a seated position on the floor and rubbing at your eyes in an attempt to will the exhaustion away. Papyrus watched with thinly veiled amusement, before remembering that he hadn’t even asked you if you were willing to allow him to help with your combat training.

“I Was Wondering If It Would Be Alright If I Joined You For Your Training Sessions. I Would Be Happy To Help You With Your Magic Attacks Too, If You Would Like!”. You grinned at the skeleton, excited about the prospect and, honestly, relieved that there would be someone else around to tame Edge if he pulled anything similar to the last time you had trained together.

“Of course! That would be great, Paps!” You enthused as quietly as you could, aware of the sleeping skeleton on the opposite couch. “I do have to warn you though, Edge can be… intense.”. You cringed as you spoke the last word, recalling the previous session with a shiver.

“I’m Sure That It Is Nothing The Great Papyrus Cannot Handle!” He grinned as he struck a pose, coaxing a light giggle out of you.

“I’m sure it isn’t.” You breathed with a lilt of amused adoration to your tone. “I suppose we’d better get ready, huh?”.

After a verbal confirmation from the skeleton, you each headed to your respective rooms to dress and ready for the day. It wasn’t until you had placed your hand on the doorknob to your room that you remembered that it was no longer, per say, just your room. You chewed on your lip as you considered just dressing in something of Red’s, but decided against it since there was no way something of his would fit you as anything more than a sleep shirt. And so, you opened the door as quietly as you could, silently praying that you didn’t bump into anything in the dimly lit room and wake its inhabitants.

Blue and Stretch were both fast asleep in an adorable tangle of limbs that had you grinning despite your mounting anxiety, not just at your little mission to retrieve your things, but also at the training session ahead. With a small shake of your head to regain your focus, you padded along the wooden floor to your dresser and grabbed anything that looked appropriate for exercise-wear. You also attempted to silently open your box of medicines to grab what you needed to take for the day, but the pop of the lid to the container was deafeningly loud compared to the noiseless environment.

Whipping your head around to check on the brothers, you let out a sigh of relief when neither of them so much as stirred. Now with a change of clothes and medication in hand, you snook to the door, but almost dropped the items in fright when a voice thick with sleep gently called your name. You could easily tell which skeleton had awoken in the dark of the room by the soft glow of cyan eyelights and smiled apologetically in response to his confused grumbling.

“Hey, sorry for waking you, Blue. I just needed to grab some stuff.” You whispered, aware that his younger brother was still sleeping.

“The Sun Is Not Even Up Yet.” He observed as he blinked wearily at you and pushed himself into a seated position. “Where Are You Going?”

“Edge is training me, apparently he took ‘as soon as possible’ very literally and woke me up a few minutes ago.” You rolled your eyes, still irritated at the rude awakening that was almost definitely going to leave you completely drained by the time you had finished work.

As you spoke in a hushed tone, you couldn’t help but occasionally flit your gaze over to Stretch, anxious that your chatter would wake the skeleton. Blue seemed to catch on to this, as after a hum of confirmation he spoke a little closer to his usual range of volume with an almost exasperated tone to his voice.

“DO NOT WORRY ABOUT HIM. I DOUBT EVEN A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE WOULD WAKE THIS LAZYBONES.”.

You snickered at that, the trait very much reminding you of Red. You didn’t miss, however, how his gaze briefly landed on the boxes of pills in your hands, and with an anxious twist to your gut remembered that monsters had much better night-vision that humans did. You suddenly felt self-conscious, but he thankfully made no attempt to discuss said medication, instead smiling at you and wishing you luck on your training in such a way that made you think he had an idea of just how rigorous Edge’s definition of ‘sparring’ was.

After you replied that you would most likely need it, a thoughtful, slightly conflicted expression caused his grin to vanish. You raised an eyebrow at him in a silent ask, prompting him to speak as though he were choosing his words very carefully.

“YOU ARE A MAGE, CORRECT?”.

You faltered and scrunched your eyebrows together at the unneeded question before nodding your head, a pang of anxiety causing your heart rate to spike.

“THE CAPTAIN – MILORD – TOLD US THAT YOU RAN AWAY FROM YOUR COVEN. WHY? WEREN’T YOUR FAMILY THERE?”.

The innocent question had you inhaling sharply as your chest tightened. This was not something you wanted to talk about after just being woken up on little more than five hours of sleep at the ass-crack of dawn.

“No, they weren’t.” You answered shortly, your voice barely above a whisper. “It’s complicated. You can ask him for more details if you want, but it’s not something I want to talk about right now, okay?” You murmured with a wry smile, aware that the stress was causing your voice to come out a little harsher than intended. When all you got was a curt nod paired with a pensive expression, you politely excused yourself and headed to the bathroom to change.

Once you were ready, you took the liberty of quickly and silently throwing your old clothes into Red’s room with the intention of taking them to your laundry basket once your room was vacant, as well as plucking the pills you needed from their packets and pocketing them before making your way downstairs and into the kitchen. You needed to eat at least something small before you assaulted your stomach with the prescription chemicals, and you would usually retreat back to your room to do so, but with how exhausted you were and the only other option to head back upstairs into Red’s room, you decided that any odd look you got was worth it if you didn’t have to drag yourself back up the stairs.

You were pleased to see Papyrus and Edge already in the kitchen and pressed your lips together to suppress a grin at the pair’s outfits. Both had seemingly independently decided on crop-tops that showed off their spine, as well as low-waited tracksuit bottoms, or in Papyrus’ case, shorts, that flashed the slightest part of their iliac crests. A furious blush had your face heating up at the sight, and the bemused smirk from Edge only served to intensify it as you ripped your gaze away and smiled brightly at them in an attempt to recover from being caught openly staring.

You yourself were dressed in a sports bra with a tank top over the top instead of your usual decision of forgoing a shirt due to the heat, accompanied by a pair of tight, grey shorts that you had pulled out blindly in your attempts to retrieve your outfit as quickly as possible. You had to hide a smirk of your own when you caught both skeletons cast a quick, but obvious glance at your legs, since it was very rare that you ever had that much skin on show outside of exercising.

“Good morning!” You greeted cheerily as both of their faces flushed adorably at being caught.

Edge, impressively, retained his usual scowl as he pointed your attention towards the breakfast bar with a grumbled “HERE”.  

Your soul swelled with affection for the grumpy skeleton as you noted that he had not only made a coffee for you, but had remembered that, after many mornings of refusing to eat, that you struggled to stomach anything more than fruit when you had just woken up and had placed an arrangement of cut up fruits and berries on a plate for you. You must have looked like you were about to cry, because Edge let out a growl and busied himself with something, his skull lit up like a beacon.

“Thank you, Edge.” You said softly with a dopey smile, willing back the tears that were threatening to fall from the sweet action. “It was really nice of you to do this for me.”

“I JUST DON’T WANT YOU PASSING OUT ON ME AGAIN, SO EAT.” He grumbled as he refused to meet your eyes, prompting you to snort in response as you took your seat.

thump

Edge must have felt the keening of his soul too, as both of you froze with wide eyes and on instinct clutched a hand to your chest, your gazes immediately shifting to look to the other. Just as quickly as it had happened though, the two of you flushed and looked away before hastily continuing with your previous tasks. You couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Papyrus to see if he had noticed and faltered when he looked back at you with a raised browbone, knowing amusement brightening his eyelights. You awkwardly cleared your throat before pulling the plate of fruit towards you and gesturing to it.

“Do you want some, Paps?” You asked, internally cursing when your voice came out must weaker than intended. “I don’t think I can eat all of this, so…”.

The sweet skeleton took pity on you, despite the obvious effort it was taking for him not to laugh, and sat next to you with a verbal confirmation before using a fork to stab at the presented food. You did the same, and after a minute of idle chatter with the aforementioned skeleton that thankfully defused the tension, Edge joined you with his own cup of what you assumed was coffee. You noticed that he had not prepared any food for himself and addressed him with a critical eye.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” You asked carefully, causing the skeleton to scowl at you.

“I AM NOT HUNGRY.” He stated coldly, a warning in his eyelights that you, obviously, took as a challenge.

“You’re going to be using a lot of your magic supply, you should try and eat something.” You scolded him lightly, offering a piece of banana that you had speared with your fork in a decision that was most definitely made in poor judgement.

With a sharp intake of breath, he jerked his head to the side with his sockets squeezed shut and caused you to snatch the fork back toward yourself with concern flooding your features. You spoke his name softly as he clenched his jaw and breathed heavily through his nasal cavity, as though just the food being that close to him had caused him to be overwhelmed with nausea. Your gut twisted in worry as your mind rapidly travelled to the worst case scenario.

“EDGE, ARE YOU OKAY?” Papyrus called out softly with his mouth downturned in a small frown that conveyed his unease. “ARE YOU SICK? WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS IF-“

“I AM NOT SICK! JUST-“ He lashed out with clear frustration in his tone, causing both of you to flinch, before he exhaled sharply and shook his head slightly, almost as though he were scolding himself, and continued in a way that conveyed his barely contained ire. “-JUST FINISH EATING AND COME OUTSIDE WHEN YOU’RE DONE.”.

With you and Papyrus watching after him with equally anxious expressions, he -in an action that was very out of character for the usually orderly skeleton- abandoned his half-full coffee mug on the table without cleaning it and stalked out of the back door into the garden. Your stomach churned uncomfortably at the interaction, and you suddenly didn’t feel like you could eat anymore.

With a slow exhale to calm your racing heart, you pushed the half emptied plate towards Papyrus and instead focused on throwing back your pills with a swig of coffee before gathering yours and Edge’s cups to wash.

Unsure of whether you wanted to talk about what had just happened, the sweet skeleton anxiously blurted out the first thing that had come to his mind with an overly jovial tone.

“WHAT ARE THOSE PILLS FOR, HONEY?” He asked with a chipper demeanor, though the slight tapping of his gloved fingers on the table portrayed his anxiety.

You were completely distracted by your own thoughts as you went through the repetitive motions of washing and drying each cup, and so you first regarded him with a questioning hum before the query fully processed and you answered absentmindedly.

“My, um… my brain doesn’t work properly, um, sometimes, so I take, uh, medicine to…” You trailed off with furrowed brows as you finished putting the cups back in their proper places, leaving Papyrus staring after you with a befuddled expression.

“IS THIS ONE OF THE TIMES?” He asked innocently, causing you to freeze as your preoccupied mind caught up. You then snorted and shook your head before walking back over to the breakfast bar and leaning over so that you could rest your elbows on the table with your chin in your hands.

“I’m just distracted, I guess.” You mumbled with a wry smile, immediately clueing in the skeleton as to why you were acting so strange.

It wasn’t that he didn’t expect you to be worried, far from it after he witnessed what he knew to be the beginnings of soul bonding between the two of you, but Papyrus tended to assume that people wanted to talk about the things that were bothering them. Unfortunately, the people he tended to assume this of never actually did, so he had started to take it upon himself to not mention anything unless they brought it up first, or it was painfully obvious that they needed to get it off their chest.

“I’M SURE HE’S FINE, HONEY.” He assured you gently, prompting you to sigh and shoot him a skeptical look. “HE DOESN’T SEEM SICK, AT LEAST.”

“What would that look like?” You asked cautiously. “I didn’t think monsters could even get sick.”

“IT CAN HAPPEN, BUT IT THANKFULLY IS NOT AS COMMON AS IT WAS UNDERGROUND.” He explained as he perked up at your willingness to discuss the issue. “IT IS TO DO WITH OUR MAGIC AND OUR SOULS. LOTS OF THINGS CAN CAUSE IT TO BECOME IMBALANCED, AND IT CAN PRESENT IN A SIMILAR WAY TO HOW HUMANS GET SICK.”

“Why did it happen more underground?” You asked hesitantly, almost as though you were afraid of the answer.

“WELL… QUITE A FEW MONSTERS FELL DOWN, THAT WAS THE MAIN WAY THAT WE GOT SICK, BUT I HAVE NOT HEARD OF IT HAPPENING NOW THAT WE LIVE ON THE SURFACE!” He finished brightly but faltered at your bewildered expression.

You didn’t have to ask him to explain, of course you had no idea what ‘fell down’ meant; no monster that you had the privilege of knowing would willingly offer that information without being asked, and even if you did ask, you would be lucky if they did explain due to its sensitive nature. With a reluctant grimace, he continued lowly.

“SOMETIMES, MONSTERS CAN LOSE ALL OF THEIR HOPE, AND THEN THEY FALL DOWN. THEY SLEEP ALL THE TIME AND STOP EATING, AND… EVENTUALLY GO INTO A COMA AND…”. He stared down at his hands as he trailed off with a pained look in his eyelights, prompting you to furrow your brow in worry before your anxious mind did what it does best: catastrophize.

“Oh no, that isn’t what’s happening to Edge, is it?!” You squeaked as your eyes widened with panic.

Just as an extra punch to the gut, your soul began to writhe uncomfortably at the thought, causing a tight, painful sensation to radiate deep in your chest and forcing you to inhale sharply. You only realized that your breathing had picked up when Papyrus gently called your name and took your hands in his with a sympathetic smile.

“NO, THAT IS NOT IT, DO NOT WORRY.” He said softly, his smile fading slightly when his assurances did little to calm your rising dread.

“How do you know? What if this is just the start of it and he’s going to get worse? What if his symptoms are just different to what’s been seen before? What if- “.

Unable to contain the fearful deliberations swarming your mind, you blurted out a fraction of what was racing through your head before Papyrus cut you off as he once again spoke your name in a stern but gentle tone. You forced yourself to take slow, calming breaths as he spoke and forced back the tears stinging at your eyes, painfully aware that you were overreacting.

“TRUST ME, EDGE IS NOT GOING TO FALL DOWN, I- “ The skeleton exhaled shortly through his nasal cavity with closed sockets as though to compose himself, before meeting your eyes again with a strained smile. “I HAVE SEEN MONSTERS WHO HAVE, THIS IS NOT IT. LIKE I SAID, THERE HAS NOT BEEN A CASE OF ANY MONSTER FALLING DOWN SINCE WE SURFACED, SO YOU DO NOT NEED TO WORRY.”

“Right. Okay… Thank you.” You breathed before letting out a wry laugh at yourself for getting so worked up, before chewing on your lip in an anxious tic. “I’m sorry… for making you talk about that, I… I overreacted.” You mumbled with your eyes downcast, but lifted your gaze when the skeleton squeezed your hands in a reassuring gesture.

“Honey, You Clearly Care About Him, And We Worry About Those We Love, Right?” He spoke softly with kindness in his eyelights, causing you to laugh weakly as he parroted your earlier words. “He Needs Someone Like You. We All Do, Really. So, Don’t Apologize For Caring, Okay?”.

You pressed your lips together to contain a sob as his compassion for what would usually conclude in you being berated- at least, in the past it would have -caused disbelieving joy to bloom within you.

“Thank you.” You whimpered, the effort of holding back your emotions causing your voice to waver.

After quickly composing yourself with a sharp exhale and wiping your eyes, you abruptly stood from your folded position with a determined grin.

“Well then, I think we’ve kept the edge-master waiting long enough!” You said cheerily, prompting Papyrus to stand with you as he matched your energy and urged you along with a vocal affirmative.

The skeleton insisted that you go ahead whilst he cleaned up the remaining lone plate, and so you stepped through the sliding glass door and into the garden.

You quickly spotted Edge leaning with his back against the wall, a look on his face as though he were lost in thought. The sound of your footsteps as you approached him caused him to push himself from the wall as he regarded you, and you offered him a small smile when his eyes met yours.

“Hey, sorry for the wait.” You said with a soft, awkward laugh.

All you received was a grumble in response, and so you resigned yourself to just standing tensely as you fiddled with your hands and not-so-subtly looking over at the skeleton with naked concern etched into your features. After being caught a few times, Edge huffed and rolled his eyelights at you.

“WILL YOU STOP LOOKING AT ME AS THOUGH I AM ABOUT TO KEEL OVER AND DUST AT ANY GIVEN SECOND?” He hissed, making you start and focus your gaze on the ground beneath you.

“I’m not!” You squeaked out, quite obviously embarrassed at being spotted fretting so openly over the aforementioned monster. Edge hummed dubiously in response, causing you to exhale frustratedly.

“I care about you, Edge. Of course I’m going to worry after seeing you practically gag at the sight of food.” You mumbled dejectedly; eyes downcast as he whipped his gaze towards you with a faint flush.

You realized that this was the first time you had actually vocalized your feelings for the skeleton and, when you lifted your gaze to meet his, you caught sight of a cacophony of emotions flashing across his skull.

At first it was shock, then spite, then it quickly shifted to a strange combination of ire and sorrow, yet his eyelights contained something akin to longing - for what, you weren’t exactly sure. But, if you had to make an educated guess based on what you knew, it seemed as though he wanted desperately to tell you something that his stubborn, closed-off nature wouldn’t allow him to.

Just as you took a breath to gently call his name, the long-awaited missing skeleton bounded through the back door and towards you with immeasurable energy. If he noticed the way both you and Edge jumped and hid your faces, he didn’t mention it, and instead chirped happily (and loudly) that you all should get going, before grabbing your hand and practically dragging you into the wooded area, leaving the grumbling, bad-tempered skeleton behind.

You squawked and yelled the whole time for the over-excited monster to slow down, and by the time you had reached the clearing you were taking heaving breaths in an attempt to sate your oxygen-deprived body.

“COME ON, HONEY! THAT WAS JUST THE WARM-UP!” He scolded you teasingly, earning a half-hearted glare as you slowly regained your breath.

“Fighting and running are two different things!” You whined, an amused lilt to your words. “I’m a fighter, not a runner, okay?”

“HMM, I DISAGREE.” He said conspiringly with a smirk, fully intending to rile you up. “IF YOU ARE THIS BAD AT RUNNING, YOU MUST BE AWFUL AT FIGHTING!”

“You wanna test that theory, bone boy?” You asked, raised eyebrows along with an impish smirk indicating that whatever his answer was, you were definitely going to attempt to fight him.

“I THINK I DO.” He shot back with an equally as mischievous expression before both of you dropped into combat stances, unable to hold back your snickering as you did so. If you could take down Edge, you could for sure take down Papyrus.

The second that he began to advance towards you, your body began to act on instinct as years of training and muscle-memory kicked in. You forcefully dug your heels into the dirt and launched yourself at the skeleton, but he was somehow faster, much faster.

With a yelp you ducked out of the way to prevent his fist from connecting with your chest and fell to your knees in an attempt to maneuver your body in a way that would allow you to knock him down. With a pivot, you swept your leg at his feet in a tactic that rarely failed you in tripping up the opponent and gaining an advantage, but as quickly as Papyrus stumbled, he had righted himself and was once again barreling towards you. Letting out a squeak, you rolled yourself away and scrambled to your feet.

The two of you were locked in and circling each other as you each scanned your respective opponent for an opportunity to gain vantage. You were easily distracted, however, when Edge appeared through the brushes - apparently having taken his sweet time to stroll through the wooded area - with a raised browbone and a smirk.

The brief lapse in focus was all Papyrus needed to rapidly stride toward you and knock you down with a swift kick to the abdomen, then took the opportunity to pin your body against the dirt ground using his weight and gracefully constrained your arms in a similar fashion using one skilled hand upon your wrists. He hadn’t hit you hard enough to hurt you, but you were definitely dazed by how quickly and effortlessly he had subdued you.

“Hey, that wasn’t fair!” You wheezed with a giggle. “Gotta hand it to you though, Paps-“ You accentuated the pun by wiggling your fingers, earning a disappointed sigh from the skeleton, “-either Edge let me win last time or you’re insanely strong!”

“I LET YOU WIN.” Came Edge’s smug voice in response, making you squawk indignantly at the revelation and consider boasting that you had absolutely obliterated him with your magic attack, thank you very much! But, in a wise decision to keep the peace, you held your tongue and pouted instead.

Briefly distracted by the pun, Papyrus hadn’t realized just how intimate the position the two of you had found yourselves in was. Panting and flushed, you were restrained underneath him with the scuffle having resulted in your shirt riding up just enough that he caught a glimpse of your toned, lightly tatted abdomen and protruding hipbones. He was transfixed on the small sliver of skin until you cleared your throat and snapped his attention to your greatly amused, yet equally as flustered expression.

“You gonna let me go, bud?” You asked lowly with laughter in your voice, causing the skeleton to light up with a tangerine blush and promptly release his grip on your wrists, before frantically pushing himself to his feet.

Biting your lip to stifle a laugh, you mirrored the action of pushing yourself into an upright position and brushed off your clothes. You didn’t miss the slight shake to Edge’s shoulders as he reveled in his cousin’s misery, of which only served to fuel your mirth.

“OKAY, CREAMPUFF-” He addressed Papyrus with a condescending tone paired with an expectant look, though his amused smirk had yet to fade, “-YOU SAID THAT YOU WANTED TO HELP, SO, HOW SHOULD WE BEGIN THE LESSON?”.

Said skeleton started as though he wasn’t expecting to be called on, before quickly recovering into a confident demeanor despite the faint dusting of orange across his cheekbones that remained.

“EASY! FIRST, THEY NEED TO LEARN TO SUMMON THEIR ATTACK MAGIC AT WILL!”

“And… how do I do that?” You asked slowly as you furrowed your brows at him.

Instead of allowing Papyrus to answer, Edge cut in with a scoff as he folded his arms over his chest in a show of impatience.

“OBVIOUSLY YOU JUST ACCESS YOUR WELL OF MAGIC AND PUSH IT OUTWARDS. IT IS NOT HARD.” He stated moodily, prompting you to roll your eyes at him.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” You mumbled under your breath, completely forgetting that these monsters had wildly superior hearing to you and freezing when you saw the edgy skeleton bristle.

Papyrus looked between you with a small frown and, in an attempt to defuse the tension, animatedly turned to you with a clap of his hands and a grin.

“HONEY, WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR ATTACK MAGIC AND WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?” He asked helpfully, prompting you to exhale slowly through your nose as you visualized the sensation.

“It starts in my chest, where my soul is, then radiates from there and down my arms. It kind of feels like… burning?” You explained slowly as you knitted your brows together in contemplation. “But it’s not painful, just… hot, I guess.”

“GOOD!” He praised as you smiled bashfully at him, then hummed as he considered his next question. “AND WHEN YOU HAVE USED IT, WHAT EMOTIONS DID YOU ASSOCIATE WITH IT?”

“ATTACKING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EMOTIONS.” Edge spat the last word as though its mere existence disgusted him as he turned to address you with an exasperated sigh. “YOU LOCATE THE MAGIC, YOU SUMMON IT, AND YOU ATTACK YOUR OPPONENT. THAT’S IT.”.

You raised your eyebrows at the monster as you surveyed him critically. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Papyrus deflate slightly, and immediately jumped to defend him.

“It’s not that simple, Edge.” You said cooly as you crossed your arms over your chest. “I’m a healer, attack magic doesn’t come naturally to me. And think about it, the only times I’ve ever been able to use it was when I thought that I was going to die or at least be seriously harmed, and even then, I was barely able to control it, so I think Paps is on to something.”.

Papyrus brightened at your words as Edge rolled his eyelights with a growl.

“FINE-” He grumbled, before sauntering over to a nearby tree and sliding down into a sitting position, “-WASTE YOUR TIME FOCUSING ON FEELINGS. AS LONG AS I AM HERE THE TINY TYRANT WILL BE SATISFIED.”.

You couldn’t help but huff out a laugh at hearing the nickname that he and Red shared for Milord. He definitely wouldn’t be too pleased if he knew of the colorful insults that were thrown out behind his back. You felt bad for him in a way, but considering how cruel you knew he could be, you could understand the dislike for the monster, especially since your learning of how he had treated Edge and Red in the Underground.

Yes, they likely somewhat deserved it, and Milord was just doing what he needed to do as head of the Guard, but you could definitely sympathize with being wary of, or even being hostile, toward the other in their situation.

“Okay, Paps.” You sighed with a weak smile. “How do you suggest we begin?”.

The now enthusiastic skeleton ushered you toward a nearby tree to sit under before he began to explain how juvenile monsters learnt and practiced their magic. You listened intently as you tried your hardest to apply each thing that he was telling you to yourself and how you knew your magic to present.

From what you could gather, even when you felt the magic migrate from your soul to your hands, you had to continue focusing on the well of magic within to maintain it. Then, once you’re well practiced, it becomes similar to muscle memory, and you no longer have to concentrate as intensely.

As he continued to advise you, it quickly became clear as to why you lacked control over your powers. Healing magic had come to you easily, much more easily than your peers, due to your complementary kindness soul. So, now that you were attempting to learn attack magic, you struggled due to the contradictory nature of your soul. Just as healing was difficult and messy for those gifted with specific attack magic, the opposite was true for you.

The disclosure of this information caused you to wilt as frustration built up inside you.

“DON’T WORRY, HONEY.” Came Papyrus’ voice in an attempt to quell your rising feeling of defeat. “I AM SURE THAT WITH PRACTICE, YOU WILL ALMOST BE AS AMAZING AS ME!”.

You snorted at his confident proclamation and offered him a small smile.

“I hope so.” You said in a sigh, before gathering all the determination that your tired mind would give and looking to the skeleton with a resolute nod. “Okay, guide me through it oh wonderful teacher of mine!”.

Papyrus blushed lightly at the compliment, even if it was part of a jokey statement, and began to walk you through the process.

You found that breathing deeply as though you were attempting to achieve a meditative state helped you to concentrate on the gathering of magic, and so paired this with closed eyes as you willed the prickly attack magic away from the well in your soul and into the external environment. As Papyrus had advised, you kept your attention focused on your soul rather than the heat of the magic travelling down your arm and into your open palmed hand. However, just as had happened the last time you had tried, the second you opened your eyes, you lost focus and the magic fizzled away into nothingness.

You groaned as you threw your head back in exasperation whilst the orange-clad skeleton tilted his head at you with a pensive expression.

“PERHAPS YOU NEED A TARGET!” He exclaimed brightly after a few seconds of quiet. “IMAGINE THAT THERE IS SOMEONE IN FRONT OF YOU THAT INTENDS TO HARM YOU. MAYBE THEN IT WILL COME MORE EASILY TO YOU!”.

Just as instructed, you once again shut your eyes, then pictured someone coming toward you with the intent to harm you and outstretched your arm with an open palm towards the imaginary figure. As the figure advanced, you felt the familiar tingling of attack magic form at the center of your palm and put all of your effort into pushing it outwards in a controlled manner, but as you did so, the faceless figure began to morph and glitch. Assuming this was the result of your brain playing tricks on you, you clenched your jaw and attempted to regain your focus, but the once anonymous form flickered for a moment before transforming into someone that you knew.

You’re injured, a spear has penetrated the flesh of your leg. You know that to pull it out would be a fatal mistake, but you cannot break it in half so that you may wrap a bandage around the sharp point that is embedded and continue on. You frantically search around for your allies, but they’re either engaged in battle or have been reduced to nothing more than still warm corpses on the cold cobblestone. You’re panicking, grasping at the handle of the spear with fervor as you try and try to break it, but it’s made of magic, and will not give under your futile attempts. With a growl, you rip the material of your shirt and wrap the fabric tightly around the weapon before securing it around your leg. This will have to do.

As you stumble to your feet, your jaw clenched as you let out a pained groan, you catch a silhouette out of the corner of your eye. You whip your gaze toward it to see a skeleton monster. He’s shaking. Tears of orange are rolling down his face as he takes heaving, trembling breaths. You ready your magic, he readies his. ‘I’m sorry’ he says, and the strange proclamation causes you to freeze, to scrunch your face up in confusion and, in an action that would cost you your life, to hesitate. Huge cat-like skulls materialize behind the monster, orchestrated with a flick of his outstretched hand. They unhinge their jaws and fire, and you are engulphed in hot, blinding, agonizing magic.

You weren’t aware that you were screaming as the excruciating pain wracked the entirety of your body until you felt hands gripping your shoulders, and the strained shrieking slowly increased in volume until it was causing your ears to ring. The pain faded, instead replaced by the cool dirt ground beneath you and the warm kiss of sunlight. You took short, panicked breaths and dug your fingers into the dirt and, only then, you picked up on the concerned chatter of the two people adjacent to you.

The deeper, gruffer voice said something, and the other voice replied in turn, before you felt the faint spark of magic that you recognized as indicating that one of your housemates had used their teleportation abilities.

Your eyes snapped open when the remaining voice called your name, his words enveloped in worry. As your gaze landed on Papyrus’ anxious face, his eyelights frantically searching your panicked expression, reality began to seep back into your hysterical mind.

“WHAT HAPPENED, HONEY? ARE YOU OKAY?” His voice had the slightest waver to it, and your soul clenched painfully at the sound.

You flinched when his gloved hand moved gingerly to wipe at your face, causing him to hesitate with a frown. Still dazed from your experience, you gently grasped his hand and brought it to your tear-soaked face, the warmth and buzz of magic in his bones grounding you as he softly ran a thumb over your cheekbone.

“I… remembered something.” You muttered slowly before swallowing harshly against the thickness of your throat. “S-Something from a past timeline, I think.”.

You could see the question in his eyelights. He was going to ask what you had seen that had caused such a violent reaction, but you couldn’t tell him. You couldn’t tell this sweet, kind, gentle skeleton that he had killed you, actually killed you, in a previous timeline. You couldn’t tell him because you were certain that it would destroy him, and not just because he had killed you, but that he had killed at all.

You were shaking with rage at the thought that things had gotten so bad that he was forced to abandon his steadfast principles in an attempt to defend himself and those he loved, and it made your stomach churn that you had been one of those responsible for such a thing.

Thankfully, you didn’t have to admit to what you had witnessed, as the second Papyrus opened his mouth to ask, Edge had returned with Red and Mutt, both of whom were quick at rushing to your side with panic-stricken expressions. You were honestly surprised that Edge had remained with them, he could have just as easily stayed at the house whilst they shortcutted here, but then, perhaps they weren’t aware of where the training grounds were. Either way, you were eternally grateful to the edgy skeleton for retrieving the two closest people in your life in an unexpected pledge to help you.

Papyrus pulled back with his brows furrowed as the two fretted over you and pummeled you with question after question, prompting you to laugh and smile weakly at them.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” You insisted, causing them to frown skeptically at you. “I had a vision, that’s all.”

“what happened?” Red asked lowly, prompting you to sigh shortly and shake your head.

“I’ll tell you later, okay?” You breathed, your gut twisting in guilt when you caught the flash of hurt across Papyrus’ face at once again being kept out of the loop.

Both Red and Mutt nodded solemnly, their own expressions of muted guilt appearing briefly before the latter gently pulled you to your feet and against his chest in an expression of concern.

“ya sure yer okay, doll?” He asked in a hushed tone, his pretty violet eyelights searching your face as you gazed up at him. With a small smile, you nodded gently, but then tensed when you spotted Edge a few feet from besides you.

He was braced with his back against a nearby tree, sockets screwed shut with a hand against his forehead as he grit his teeth in a pained scowl. He looked to be breathing heavily, and you instinctually wriggled free from Mutt’s grasp, who protested with a whine, before quickly making your way over to the taller skeleton.

At this point, each of the remaining members’ eyelights were trained on you as you approached the monster, and you heard Red curse lowly before appearing next to you in a puff of magic. You spoke Edge’s name, concern etched into your features, and flinched slightly when his flaming eyelights bore into you with a snarl.

“boss, what’s wrong?” Red said lowly, and your soul clenched painfully at the slight shake to his voice.

The shorter brother seemed to have swiftly realized what was going on with his sibling, as his worried expression morphed into frustration as he took a step ahead of you.

“have ya not been eatin’ again?! i swear ta th’ stars, boss, ya know ya can’t-“. His scolding words paired with his hand reaching out to grab the taller skeleton were instead replaced by the crack of Edge’s leather gloves against bone as he hit out at his brother, forcing a pained yelp from the skeleton and a sharp gasp from you.

You caught sight of Edge’s face as he lashed out, and shrank back in fear at the feral, unhinged look in his eyelights. Like a cornered animal, you thought.  

Mutt and Papyrus immediately jumped into action and stepped between the two of them with hardened features. Although, Edge didn’t seem as though he was going to be much of a threat, as even with his deep growling, he remained braced against the tree as he took heaving breaths.

You took the opportunity to quickly drop to your knees beside Red, who had been knocked onto his backside from the impact, and place a tentative hand over the tiny fracture at the side of his skull.

You didn’t even get the chance to ask if he was okay before a burning rage welled up in your chest and spread throughout your body, and with bared teeth and a threatening growl, you pushed yourself back to your feet and shoved past the make-shift barrier that Papyrus and Mutt had created with their bodies so that you were standing in front of Edge. The latter two were fast in protesting and attempting to pull you back, but you weren’t relenting.

“No!” You growled at them as they grasped at you, forcing them to flinch back with panicked expressions before you faced Edge head-on with your rage rapidly threatening to boil over.

Papyrus remained behind you as he prepared to pull you away from the monster the second that he thought you were in any more danger, whilst Mutt, seeing this and trusting his cousin with your safety, copied your previous actions in dropping to his knees next to Red to check on him.

“What the fuck is your problem?” You hissed as your eyes flashed dangerously. When all you got in response was a scoff and a condescending roll of his eyelights, you felt your fury flare and took a steeling breath.

“I get that you’re going through something, but that is no excuse to hit your fucking brother!”. The skeleton removed the hand from his face as his eyelights brightened and wavered, an amused look crossing over his skull as they did so.

“What? You going to hit me now?” Your voice increased in volume before you let out a wry laugh, “Try your fucking best, because I-“

“YOU AREN’T AS USELESS AT MAGIC AS I THOUGHT.” He stated with a tired smirk and caused you to falter with furrowed brows.

“What?” You let out an exasperated laugh as you shook your head at him. “You better start making sense real fast, motherfucker.”.

Edge huffed a weak laugh at your needling and leaned his head back against the trunk so that his gaze was locked on the winding branches and softly fluttering leaves above.

“YOUR HANDS.” He stated simply once more, not moving his eyelights from the sky as he did so.

You took a hesitant step back and raised your clenched hands into view, gasping and gingerly unfurling them when you caught sight of sparks of green magic flickering between your fingers and gathering in your palms. This wasn’t healing magic, though, this was attack magic. Your attack magic.

Any semblance of anger you once held quickly dissipated as you watched the swirling mist dance across your palms with wide eyes. Edge hummed lowly and you clenched your fists once again and snuffed out the tiny ember as you snapped your gaze to him.

“WELL DONE. A FEW MORE SESSIONS AND YOU WILL BE PROFICIENT IN MAGIC COMBAT, I’M SURE.”.

The sudden praise had your cheeks heating up as he looked to you with the smallest of smiles, but the recollection of the current situation swiftly sobered you.

“Okay, you must really not be okay if you’re being nice to me.” You said with a raised brow before turning on your heel to address the others. Mutt and Red were stood beside Papyrus now and were scowling at Edge. “Can one of you shortcut him to his room, please? I don’t think he should walk.”

“I AM PERFECTLY FINE, DON’T BOTHER.” He scoffed as he pushed himself from the tree with a glare in your direction.

You tensed, ready to at least try to catch him if he stumbled, but Red beat you to it as he appeared next to his brother, grabbed him by the arm with a heavy sigh and grumble, and disappeared out of sight in a crackle of crimson magic.

You chewed on your lip anxiously as you stared at the space where they once were, concern welling inside you at the prospect of Edge further injuring Red in his seemingly uninhibited daze. You tried to remind yourself that Red had known his brother his whole life, had survived the cruel district that they had grown up in and knew how to handle him, but it did little to quell your rising unease.

You jumped when a hand came to rest on your shoulder and whipped your gaze around to find Mutt’s concerned expression looking down at you. Your eyes automatically moved to locate Papyrus and your chest tightened when you saw that he was looking off ahead at the trail leading back to the house, muted frustration twisting his mouth into a small frown. With a slow exhale, you looked back over to Mutt and smiled apologetically at him.

“Hey, do you mind if I come find you later? I just want to talk to Paps real quick.” You spoke with your voice just above a whisper, prompting Mutt to briefly flick his gaze over to the aforementioned skeleton before shaking his head slightly with a wry smile.

“always tryin’ ta keep th’ peace, ain’t ya, doll?” He asked lowly, a tone of quiet admiration to his tone. “go on, i’ll make sure those two idiots don’t kill each other.”

“Thank you.” You sighed in relief and offered him an appreciative look before standing on your toes to place a chaste kiss on his cheekbone.

He flashed you a toothy grin as a lilac blush danced across his skull before he vanished before you, leaving you to take a steeling breath before approaching the remaining somber skeleton.

“Hey, Paps. About earlier-“

“YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TELL ME, HONEY.” He spoke over you with a sad smile, prompting you to shake your head with a wry smile in return.

“I won’t keep things from you anymore. If you want to know then… I’ll tell you. But…” You began to shift nervously as your eyes dropped to the ground, regret welling up inside of you and causing your voice to come out in what was barely a whisper. “It’s… The vision, it was about you. A you from a past timeline, one where… one where war broke out.”.

Papyrus was silent for a moment as he seemingly mulled over whether he wanted to know the details of what you had seen. You felt yourself begin to tremble as a whisper of the horrific sensations from the not-memory washed over you, causing you to grit your teeth and inhale sharply as you squeezed your eyes shut. After a few tense seconds, he let out a slow exhale and took your hands into his as he beamed appreciatively at you, prompting you to shoot him a questioning look.

“JUST THE FACT THAT YOU WERE WILLING TO TELL ME IS ENOUGH. THANK YOU.” He said gently as you sighed in relief, then let out a wry laugh. “I AM NOT SURE IF I EVEN WANT TO KNOW ANYMORE, TO BE HONEST WITH YOU.”. It was your turn to huff out a bitter laugh at that.

“You don’t, trust me.”. There was another lapse of silence, and you were about to suggest that you both head inside, but he seemed to have other ideas as a curious, yet hesitant expression crossed his features.

“DID… DID I DIE?” He asked gingerly, causing you to freeze and giggle nervously.

“I thought you didn’t want to know what happened?” You asked anxiously as your brows knitted together at the monster.

“I DON’T! JUST…” He trailed off as he fiddled anxiously with your entwined hands, obviously allowing morbid curiosity to get the best of him.

“No, you didn’t.” You mumbled, dread beginning to creep up the back of your neck and cause your hairs to stand on end as you sensed a follow-up question from the skeleton.

“DID YOU?”

His voice came out muted and uneasy, and all you could do was nod shortly and pray that he didn’t put two and two together. Horrified, you watched as it clicked in his head and his expression fell blank, a far-away look to his eyes causing your breath to hitch in your throat. You squeezed his hands as you spoke his name in a weak, wavering tone and snapped him out of whatever daze he was in to meet your gaze with a bright smile, as though nothing from the past few hours had even happened.

“WELL, I THINK WE SHOULD HEAD BACK INSIDE!” He chirped as he released your hands and began to stroll toward the trail.

You started at the sudden proclamation and hurried to catch up with him, concern gnawing at your gut the entirety of the way back to the house.

You tried, and spectacularly failed, to catch his attention and bring up the topic that had so obviously deeply disturbed him, but he swiftly brushed it off in favor of rambling on about literally anything else until you had reached your destination. The clearly not okay skeleton insisted that he was fine, and so once you were into the kitchen and he had excused himself to go off and busy himself with some non-descript task, you leaned heavily against a counter and slowly exhaled to calm your racing heart.

One thing at a time. Just take one thing at a time. It’ll be okay.

Okay, you thought with a shaky exhale, time to go and find Mutt.

Chapter Text

You had planned to find Mutt after Papyrus had made his hasty departure, you really had but, the second he was out of earshot, you felt the beginnings of a panic attack creep into your chest with an accompanying intense feeling of dread. You couldn’t go to your room or Red’s room, so you had nowhere to go to try and either let this attack run its course or attempt to calm yourself down, and the prospect fueled the rising panic and quickened your breaths.

Instead, you rushed into the dining room after concluding that this was the room least likely to be occupied, and clumsily slammed the door behind you. The only sound in the room as you slid to the floor with your head in your hands were your heaving breaths as you desperately tried and failed to slow your breathing.

You knew that this was coming. You had a habit of letting things build up until you metaphorically exploded, either in a blind rage or a sobbing breakdown, but you hadn’t realized that it had gotten this bad. Obviously, you weren’t handling everything as well as you had thought, and the events that had transpired that morning had served to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

You were having a seriously bad day.

Okay, ground yourself. Five things you can see, four things you can hear-

It wasn’t working. The attack was in danger of turning into a full on episode, and your frustration at being unable to soothe yourself was only adding to your distress. You were full on sobbing now as you shook and rocked yourself in a last ditch attempt to even just take the edge off of the panic.

Flashes of silver and red began to seep into the corners of your vision and you squeezed your eyes shut, but the images continued against the dark of your eyelids, each one more gruesomely detailed than the last.

The door is locked. Why is it locked? He never locks his door, so why is it locked?

You gasped and heaved as you desperately tried to keep your grip on reality. You dug your nails into the flesh of your arms as hard as you physically could until you felt sticky blood against your palms, but the abundance of adrenaline rushing through your system acted as an extremely effective painkiller, and so you felt nothing but the give of your skin under your fingers as you continued to pierce the delicate organ.

Daniel? Open the fucking door, dude! Dan?!

A chorus of strangled ‘no’s were ripped from your throat as you were thrust fully into a flashback and your senses were violently assaulted by the sight and iron smell of blood.

So much blood, pooled under him and around him, matting his hair and sticking it to his face. There’s vomit on the floor next to him, adjacent to an empty bottle of pills. You’re screaming and screaming and sobbing. You fall to your knees and shake him and bawl his name over and over again, but you know that he’s gone. His eyes are wide open and glassy, his skin pale and cold. There’s nothing you can do. He’s been gone for a long time. You could have saved him, if only you hadn’t been so selfish.

Small slivers of reality begin to intercept themselves between the seemingly endless loop of shrieking and wailing, and you can hear low, concerned voices. Someone touches you, and you yelp and flail, terrified. Your hand makes contact with something hard, and the voices get louder; more concerned. You don’t know how long you’d been in this state when the voices began to make sense as they filtered through the flashback.

“The year is 20XX, you’re not there anymore.” One said, the words causing your mind to jolt and latch onto the soothing tone. “You’re in our dining room, you are safe, you are okay.”.

A face began to come into view as the memory faded, and you forced yourself to focus on it as it repeated those words over and over. As your vision began to clear and the ruthless panic died down to a fluttering of anxiety in your stomach, you realized that there were two faces in front of you- faces that you recognized.

“Butch? Axe?” You whimpered in a voice hoarse from your wailing as your eyes darted frantically between the two kneeling down in front of you. “What…?”

“hey… we heard ya… screamin’ and… ya looked like ya… where havin’ a flashback.” Axe answered first, his eyelight shrunken and shaking despite the relief evident on his face.

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” Butch asked softly as you scrunched your brows together and rubbed at the wetness on your face with the heel of your hand.

“I- I don’t…” You shook your head, still dazed from the attack on your senses, and froze when you spotted a tiny crack just under Axe’s lit eye socket.

“What happened? Y-Your face…” You whimpered as you reached a shaking hand tentatively towards him, but choked on a gasp when you spotted streaks of red staining your fingers and caked under your nails.

“yea… i tried to… stop you from… hurting yourself.” He spoke lowly as guilt twisted his features and cast his gaze to the ground. “ya did… warn me… before… that’s on me… i guess, heh.”

“I… hit you?” You breathed as your chest tightened and caused your voice to waver. Fresh tears burned at your eyes as you began to hyperventilate against your will, the guilt at injuring your friend, your already badly hurt friend, swallowed you whole.

“I’m so s-sorry.” You hiccupped and clutched your hands to your chest, restraining them as though they had a violence-riddled mind of their own.

“hey, it’s… okay, bug.” He spoke softly and gingerly reached out to touch you, but at the last second decided against it and pulled back awkwardly.

He was unabashedly staring at the blood covering your hands and arms as his large red eyelight grew and shrank rapidly. You would have thought that he was upset by the sight if it weren’t for the glow of blue covering his cheekbones as he shifted uneasily and attempted to hide it with his hand. His expression was a mix of embarrassment and shame, but he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the crimson that stained your skin.

“Brother, go and get the first aid kit, a washcloth and a bowl of warm water from the bathroom.” Butch said in a hushed voice as he regarded Axe.

Said skeleton seemed grateful for the out as his tense perma-grin relaxed slightly and he nodded before vanishing from his spot in front of you.

Your whole frame shook with the effort of keeping your sobs at bay as shame enveloped your mind. You couldn’t bear to look at Butch, too afraid that he would be furious with you for hurting his brother, and so you stared at the ground with watery eyes, then squeezing them shut when he gently spoke your name. When you didn’t respond and simply took short, fast breaths that conveyed your upset, he began talking at you in an attempt to distract your racing mind.

“We always have a first aid kit on hand, you know. Sometimes we run out of healing items, and it is good to have them as a back-up.”

Your heart rate began to slow, and your breathing evened out as you listened to his low, soothing voice. You noticed that he wasn’t stuttering like he usually did and realized that he must be similar to you in that he was able to switch off any of his negative emotions in favor of comforting another. The thought made you sad.

You could only do that because you had needed to throughout your life, to always be the one to emotionally regulate your parents when things got bad. It didn’t matter how hard your brother had tried to take on that role for you, ever since you were a kid your parents solely relied on you to walk on eggshells around them and to mediate their conflict.

You found yourself wondering what had happened to the sweet skeleton to give him such an ability. Though, you could probably harbor a guess.

“Mutt has some.” You whispered absent-mindedly, prompting Butch to smile gently at your strengthened, less panicked tone.

“Oh! Then shall I ask Axe to go get-“

“No!” You squeaked, your eyes widening as your mind caught up with what you had just said. “No, please. Please don’t tell him. H-He can’t see me like this.” Your voice began to crack again, and you mentally scolded yourself before taking a deep breath and speaking with resolute. “I need to be strong for him, for all of you. There’s so much awful stuff happening, and you’re all involved because of me so… I- I can’t break down like this, I need to be strong. I’m going to be strong.”. Your fists and jaw were clenched tightly now as you lifted your head to meet Butch’s concerned gaze. His eyelights held a certain sadness for you as he sighed softly and shook his head.

“Being strong does not mean that you cannot break down.” He said with a sympathetic smile, causing your determined demeanor to falter slightly. “It isn’t about how many times you get knocked down. It is about picking yourself back up, brushing yourself off and pushing forward, right?”

“I guess.” You whispered miserably as you shrunk in on yourself and dropped your eyes to your hands, swallowing thickly as you studied the blood beginning to flake against your palms.

Butch, as he usually would, took a breath to start to talk aimlessly at you to take your mind away from the situation, but then recalled how happy you had looked when his brother had revealed his nickname for you. He himself had been thinking about an appropriate name and had come up with a few art-related ones that he thought you may like. Eventually, he had settled on one that seemed to fit you perfectly and took the opportunity to divulge it to you in hopes that it would brighten your dimmed spirit.

“You know, I have been thinking about what I would like to call you, since Axe has decided on ‘bug’.” He said almost conspiringly, causing you to snap your gaze to him with a curious expression. Encouraged, he continued, “I thought that ‘Iris’ would suit you originally, a reference to the painting of a similar name by Van Gogh, but honestly now I think ‘Hope’ would fit far better.”.

You were staring at him with round, vulnerable eyes now as your hardened expression melted into one of careful optimism.

“Why ‘Hope’?” You asked gingerly, and your heart did backflips in your chest when he smiled affectionately at you, his eyelights glimmering with unrestrained admiration.

“Well, it is a reference to George Frederick Watts’ work, which suggests that hope is characterized by blind faith and perseverance, but I have never quite seen it that way.” He explained gently, his tone conveying the passion he seemed to harbor for the subject. “Hope to me, at least, is optimism; it is a peace that continues throughout chaos; beauty in the brokenness; certainty within uncertainty; and the sun rising and setting and reminding me that light is on the way, to keep pushing me to move forward. And that is what you give me, Hope.” His eyelights flickered softly as he spoke, and despite the blood staining your fingers, he took one of your hands in his as you listened to him, completely awestruck. “I truly believe that you will be the one to finally allow monsterkind to live in peace. You are so kind, so determined, and always push on no matter how awful things may become. I may not witness the hardships you face, but I listen to the others. You are Hope to every single one of us.”.

Silent tears slipped down your face as you squeezed his hand, unable to form a response that would encapsulate just how loved and special his words had made you feel. Instead, you let out a weak, wry laugh and gently shook your head as you willed your tears to cease.

“Have you ever thought about writing poetry? ‘Cause that was fucking beautiful, dude.” You laughed out in an attempt to quell your rising emotions, causing Butch to snort and grin widely at you as his skull lit up in a muted tangerine blush.

“Um, seriously though… thank you. I- I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I just- I can’t believe that you, that anyone, would think of me in that way, so… thank you.”.

Tears were still freely falling and causing your hushed voice to shake, and the two of you met eyes and smiled gratefully at the other. Just as Butch took a breath to speak, Axe returned with the requested items with a dopey, knowing grin on his face, causing his brother to squint his sockets suspiciously at him.

“You were not eavesdropping, were you, brother?” He asked in a teasing, scolding tone as said skeleton snorted and placed the items on the ground before resuming his seat.

“nah…” He said with an ever-growing impish grin. “but i… agree with bug, bro… ya should write poetry.”.

You burst into quiet giggles as Butch sighed and shook his head in reprimand, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards as orange spread across his cheekbones.

“y’know he’s… writing a book?” Axe addressed you with a raised browbone and a positively mischievous glint to his eyelights as his brother said his name almost exhaustedly.

“He is?!” You gasped excitedly as your face lit up at the information.

The poor flustered skeleton looked as though he wanted to curl into a ball and disappear, but he opted to busy himself with sorting through the array of bandages and ointment in the box that Axe had retrieved instead as he purposefully avoided either of your gazes.

“Can I read it?” You asked hopefully, prompting him to sputter and shrink back, much to your disappointment.

“aw, cmon… bro… it’s the best… book i’ve ever read.” Axe shrugged as he watched his brother’s nervous ministrations, causing said skeleton to shoot him an exasperated look.

“You don’t even read!”

“hey, i used to… read to you every… night before bed, remember?”

“That was one book, and I seriously doubt that Hide and Seek with Fluffy Bunny is exactly the height of literature.”

“…touché, ya got… me there.”

The back and forth of the brothers’ good-natured bickering had you grinning like an idiot as you watched and listened, the exchange only coming to a stop when you couldn’t hold back your snickering any longer. They snapped their heads towards you with faint blue and orange blushes as though they had forgotten you were there, which only served to fuel your mirth.

“S-Sorry!” You giggled as you shook your head slightly at the pair, “You both just remind me so much of me and- “ Me and Daniel “-um… never mind.” You swallowed thickly against the tightness in your throat at your slipup before gesturing to the readied supplies. “Are you going to, um-“.

Butch started at the reminder and quickly grabbed the washcloth whilst shooting you an apologetic smile.

“Yes! I’m just going to clean the blood from your hands and arms first, is that okay?” Butch asked as he hovered a hand just below yours, allowing you to close the distance as you flashed a wry smile and nodded shortly.

You honestly would usually be more stubborn about this and insist that you do it yourself, but between the lack of sleep and the toll that the episode had taken on your body, you were completely drained.

The warm water and gentle movements of Butch’s hands against yours felt incredible as the red began to slip from your fingers and onto the cloth. You watched with detachedness as the water slowly turned from clear to crimson and turned your reflection into a bloody, distorted version of yourself. You were so focused on the crude caricature of your weary form that you flinched and squeaked when Axe called your name, breaking you out of whatever strange trance you were in.

“hey… did ya hear… about this new air freshener… that ya can control with… ya mind?” He asked all too seriously as your sluggish mind struggled to catch up with the question. You shook your head slightly as you regarded him in bewilderment. “it makes scents… when ya think… about it.”

It was Butch’s indignant squawk that signaled the joke to you and, as soon as it clicked, a surprised snort was forced out of you. He didn’t let you retort though, instead pushing on with some of the worst, and therefore, best puns you had ever heard.

“what kind of… people man a haunted ship? a… skeleton crew! what instrument… can ya fit in… a bathroom? a tuba toothpaste!” And finally, just when you thought that your face couldn’t get any redder from laughing so hard and Butch couldn’t look any more disappointed, he asked, “don’t ya… hate it when people… answer their own questions?... i sure do.”.

His delivery of the pun - dry and completely serious - had you gasping for air as tears of mirth gathered in your eyes, earning a pleased grin from the skeleton and a pained groan from his younger brother.

You wiped at your eyes and realized that whilst you were enjoying your own personal comedy routine, Butch had skillfully washed and bandaged your wounds and was gathering up the remaining supplies to replace them in their box.

The pair had exchanged knowing looks between Axe’s onslaught of puns as his brother quickly caught on to what he was doing, and so joined in with noises of disapproval which had hilariously caused you to double over, forcing him to have to look away quite a few times to avoid dissolving into giggles himself.

After a few more weak chuckles and a deep breath, you sobered yourself and flashed a grateful smile at the two before looking at the bandages covering your self-injury with a sigh.

“Thank you, both of you.” You muttered bashfully as you hugged your arms around yourself. “I’m actually really glad it was you two that found me. I really appreciate you helping me.” With a sly grin you addressed Axe specifically with a note of amusement to your voice. “Even if it is with a relentless onslaught of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard.”. Axe snorted at that before shrugging and beaming at you.

“ya… laughed though.” He teased, earning a good-natured groan from you.

“Unfortunately.” You needled back in faux exasperation, before short, somehow angry sounding footsteps caused all of you to swivel your heads toward the doorway in expectation of a visitor.

You watched curiously as Milord stepped through the doorway, looking a tad more flustered than usual, and scowled as his gaze moved between you and the brothers, his eyelights briefly dilating and shrinking before returning to normal.

You’d been around skeleton monsters for long enough to know that this particular rapid motion of those little sparks of light indicated either fear, concern or anger, and you didn’t know Milord to be one to be easily frightened. You felt defensiveness for the boys rise up inside you at the most likely unintentional reaction, but pushed it down in favor of smiling at the skeleton.

“Hi, Milord! Everything okay?” You asked sweetly, causing him to snap his gaze to you as his frown softened ever so slightly.

“You are injured.” He stated simply, yet the silent question of ‘why’ was obvious.

You self-consciously brought your arms around yourself to place your hands over the bandages, as though the action would make any difference to his observation.

Axe and Butch shared a strange look that bordered on amused bewilderment, and you found yourself wondering just what was so odd about the situation. It was short lived, however, as their uptight cousin looked to them with a contempt that suggested that they were responsible for your wounds, and Butch quickly looked ashamedly away whilst Axe glared icily at the skeleton.

“Oh, yeah. I fell during training, caught myself on some branches or something.” You quickly waved it off with an irritated huff that you hoped sounded somewhat convincing, before making a show of gesturing to the pair in front of you. “These two insisted on patching me up, that’s all.”.

Milord seemed to untense with a short hum in response as the aforementioned brothers shot you somewhat surprised looks -as though you wouldn’t immediately defend them!

“I see.” He said distractedly with a soft sigh. “In that case, then, are you aware of what the situation is with the Lieutenant? The cri- “. He caught your critical look and reluctantly corrected himself, albeit with a tut paired with a roll of his eyelights. “Red will not allow me to speak with him, and Mutt will not tell me anything.”.

Well, at least he tried not to insult Red, you thought amusedly. You chewed your lip as you thought over whether this was something that Milord needed to know, but quickly decided that if Edge wanted him to know, that there would be no way that he’d allow his brother to send him away.

Time for yet another lie.

“I’m not sure, sorry.” You shrugged with a wry smile, earning an exasperated sigh from the skeleton.

Your gut twisted in worry at his almost defeated demeanor. You hadn’t noticed it before, but now that you were really looking at him, he seemed to have the beginnings of eye bags under his tiredly flickering eyelights. As usual, there wasn’t a crease or a single button out of place when it came to his appearance, but just the faint lines of lilac under his sockets was concerning enough. You wanted to ask if he was okay, but even if you weren’t in the presence of two of his cousins right now, you doubted that he would actually confide in you, so you fast shoved that thought to the back of your mind.

“No matter.” He said with a wave of a gloved hand and turned on his heel to leave, but seemed to remember something and looked over his shoulder at you. “Mutt is looking for you.” He said shortly, before continuing on his way out of the room and into the hallway.

The three of you stared after him, simply listening to the sound of his footsteps as the sound got more and more distant, before you eventually couldn’t hear them at all. With a soft exhale you turned to the brothers with a concerned expression, but faltered when you noticed that they didn’t appear to be the least bit worried at all, in fact, they were grinning dumbly at you and snickering.

“What?” You drew out the word in suspicion as you furrowed your eyebrows at them, prompting them to, annoyingly, look to each other as soft giggles turned into full on laughter.

“he… likes ya.” Axe teased between his chortling, prompting you to tilt your head at him in befuddlement.

“Well, I fucking hope so, I work for the guy.” You said with an undertone of laughter to your voice, before your sleep-deprived brain caught up with what they actually meant. “Oh… Oh, no way.”

“yes… way.” Axe snorted with a waggle of his browbones.

You shook your head with a disbelieving laugh and looked pleadingly to Butch.

“Butch, come on, be the voice of reason here!”. When the aforementioned skeleton simply shrugged with a shy grin, you groaned dramatically and dropped your head into your hands.

“I think maybe becoming an alpha was a bad idea.” You breathed mournfully, the overwhelm of such a small observation adding to your already abundant stressors.

“Y-You know that you don’t h-have to be an alpha, Hope, r-right?” Butch asked carefully and you lifted your head to exhaustedly gaze at him.

“Too late.” You laughed bitterly before dropping your eyes to the floor. “I’m already in love with two people and have marked one of them, and I honestly don’t think it’s going to let up any time soon.”.

Throwing your head back and now staring at the ceiling, you mumbled wryly. “I didn’t even want to move here in the first place; it was, and still is, way too dangerous for me to be around you all, and now I’m trying to handle a relationship with multiple people? What am I thinking? I can barely even look after myself, apparently!” You finished frustratedly as you weakly gestured to the bandages littering your arms.

You realized with a start that you were getting visibly agitated and closed your eyes to take a few calming breaths. You offered a small smile to the pair, who were staring at you worriedly, before speaking softly.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be ranting at you guys.” You exhaled sharply through your nose with a shake of your head. “I should go and find Mutt; I did promise him that I would.”

With a grunt you pushed yourself to your feet with the pair following suit, before yawning and stretching the stiffness from your muscles. Your eyes immediately landed on the bandages and the sight caused you to shift uneasily as you tried to figure out how you would find something to cover them with without being spotted. Axe seemed to have read your mind, as he casually shrugged off his jacket, leaving him in a simple black t-shirt that displayed the cracks and nicks along his forearms, and offered it to you with a bashful smile.

You allowed your eyes to linger on the maze of interconnected grey lines, marveling at how akin to tiny bolts of lightning the old scars looked. You found yourself thinking that they were beautiful, but ripped your gaze away with a slight heat to your cheeks when you realized with a start how long you had been so obviously staring.

“Thank you.” You said softly as you took the item of clothing with a grateful expression, causing Axe to flush lightly with a small shrug as his eyelights focused on your action of turning the coat over in your hands to study it.

The old, tattered jacket was obviously well loved from the small rips and tears throughout the material. As you secured it around you, you were hit with the smell of what you could only compare to the sweetened scent of rot. It somehow wasn’t unpleasant, but it was certainly not something you had smelled before. It had you thinking about how each of the skeletons seemed to have their own distinct scent, and you wondered if it had something to do with their magic and how it had formed in the environment that they had grown up in. It would make sense given the limited amount of information you knew about each of them, but if your theory were true then you were correct to be concerned about where Axe and Butch had originated from.

Your fingers idly played with the fur lining of the hood as you got lost in your thoughts - aptly deciding that you were going to use your very limited sewing skills to fix up the jacket for him if you had the time before you gave it back - before you realized that you had been doing just that and forced yourself to focus on the pair. You thought about apologizing for being so spacey, but the next topic of conversation was decided on by Axe as he then cleared his throat, capturing your attention.

He was absolutely, definitely blushing a fantastic cobalt blue at seeing your small frame dwarfed by his jacket.

“y’know, uh… if ya ever start… feeling overwhelmed or anything… ya can come to our room… if ya want.” He offered meekly as a hand came up to scratch at the back of his head in a nervous gesture- a tic several of these skeletons seemed to possess. “i could, um… take ya out to… the woods again… show ya the… bats i was telling… ya about.”.
You really wanted to make a joke about him wanting to get you alone or something of the sort, but Butch’s shaky voice filled with genuine kindness pulled you away from any mischievous plotting you had found yourself partaking in.

“O-Or we can d-draw together again, i-if you’d like.” He added as he anxiously wrung his hands together with his gaze trained on the floor. “I-I really e-enjoyed it last t-time.”

“That sounds amazing, I’ll have to take you both up on that.” You grinned genuinely at the two, excited at the invitation to spend more time with them.

You honestly wanted to attack the both of them with a barrage of affection, but held yourself back in favor of asking permission to hug them instead. When they both lit up a brilliant combination of sapphire and tangerine, and nodded, you leapt at them and wrapped an arm each around them. It was awkward, but they didn’t seem to mind, and returned the affection with meek chuckling.

“Thank you.” You whispered to the side of their skulls and quickly planted a light kiss to each of their cheekbones before pulling back, earning flustered sputtering as their blushes intensified.

Once again looking at the small fracture under Axe’s eye, you sighed softly with furrowed brows, attempting to not allow the guilt at your unintended action to overwhelm you.

“Can I?” You asked softly as you hovered a tentative hand over the injury.

He seemed confused at first, but smiled gently once the recollection of your abilities came to him. After receiving consent in the form of a slight nod, you gently placed the tips of your fingers over the fracture and willed your healing magic forward.

“There. All done.” You breathed with a small smile when you removed your hand to see nothing but porcelain bone where the injury once was.

“heh… thanks…” He mumbled as he brushed his fingertips over the area, his face gradually getting bluer by the second and forcing you to bite your lip to stifle a giggle at how adorable he looked.

It was only then, now that you felt completely safe and comfortable, that you realized just how worn down you felt and so, with a plan to convince Mutt to nap with you after you got the whole vision thing out of the way (not that he would need much convincing, anyway), you thanked the still flushed brothers once again and headed upstairs.

Thankfully, Blue must have gotten up and left the house in the time it had taken you to finally get to your room, and Stretch was, as Blue had claimed, almost impossible to wake, so you had no issues grabbing a change of clothing and sneaking off into the bathroom to shower and change.

You removed the bandages that Butch has so carefully placed on your wounds, seeing as they would only get wet and fall of anyway, and turned in the mirror to survey your self-injury. It certainly wasn’t the worst you had done to yourself, but seeing the deep indents in the broken skin made your anxiety flare at one of the household’s members seeing them.

Perhaps Mutt wouldn’t question it if you asked for one of the candies from his ever-growing collection, but you simply didn’t want to risk it, nor did you want to lie to him. You would just have to wear long-sleeved shirts or a jacket for the time being. At least recently the summer air had been showing signs of the crisp chill of autumn, so you wouldn’t overheat too badly, you thought.

Once you were showered and dressed, you intended to just throw your discarded clothes into Red’s room along with Axe’s jacket with the plan to patch it up later, but it seemed as though your usually heavy-sleeper of a beta had awoken at the sound of the opening door. You smiled gently at him as he grumbled and squinted his sockets at the sliver of light coming through the crack in the door from the hallway.

“why’ve ya got th’ axeman’s jacket?” He asked, his voice thick with sleep, as you stepped into the darkened room and shut the door behind you.

“I thought I’d fix it for him.” You stated simply before placing your clothes on the floor and folding Axe’s jacket neatly on a nearby dresser.

“I see you got back to sleep quickly.” You teased lightly as you sauntered over to sit on the edge of the bed.

Red grunted in a bitter dismissal as he rubbed blearily at his eye sockets. You noticed with a spark of affection and a wave of relief that the fracture in Red’s skull had disappeared, and assumed that Mutt had allowed him to partake in his sneaky stash of stolen monster candy.

“eh, boss refused ta let me help him past gettin’ his sorry ass to his room and i ain’t got nothin’ better ta do.”.

Right, in all the chaos you had forgotten what had actually set you off in the first place. A wave of guilt and concern washed over you, and it must have been evident in your expression, because he frowned softly and pulled you down onto the bed and into his arms, earning a surprised squeak from you.

“he’s alright, angel. this jus’ happens sometimes.” He said softly in an attempt to reassure you.

You sighed and chewed on your lip as you adjusted yourself against him to cuddle into his warm frame.

“He isn’t sick?” You asked meekly – though, you had a feeling that you knew what was actually going on with him.

“nah, it’s jus’-“. He cut himself off with a short exhale as though he were frustrated at himself for not knowing how to word the information. “it’s been happenin’ since we were teenagers. he overworks ‘imself ‘n gets stressed, then stops eatin’ ta compensate or somethin’. i’ve never understood it.”.

Your heart sank as he confirmed your theory and your soul thrummed in your chest with sorrow for the skeleton. You swallowed back your rising emotion and mumbled out what you knew to be a possible explanation for his odd behavior.

“I- um, I kind of struggled with the same thing, back home.” You felt yourself mentally shrink back when Red’s fuzzy eyelights solidified as you spoke and searched your face in a silent question.

“A common cause for restricted eating is because the person feels out of control in regard to their life and wants something that they have full control over. That, or as a form of self-punishment. At least, that’s how I felt, I guess.” You explained gingerly, unable to meet your beta’s eyelights as shame at your past coping mechanisms forced your gaze to your fiddling hands.

After a tense moment of silence, you felt Red shift and sigh as he turned over, taking you with him, and stared up at the ceiling.

“shit.” He breathed, prompting you to look up at his face, which was currently contorted in a guilt-ridden grimace. “now i feel bad fer yellin’ at ‘im all th’ time over it.”

“You didn’t know, love.” You said softly as you offered him a sympathetic smile. “Just… try to be more understanding from now on?”.

His scowl only grew further at that, and you knew that he was wrestling with the idea in his head, but eventually he conceded and nodded shortly with a drawn out sigh. Feeling proud of him for at least trying to be more empathetic towards his brother, you grinned and planted a lingering kiss on the corner of his mouth, biting back a giggle at how quickly his face began to heat up.

“how’dya know all this shit anyway?” He grumbled after clearing his throat, a surefire attempt at getting you to change the subject and ignore his flustered state.

“Well, personal experience and- “. You cut yourself off and knit your brows together as you looked critically at the skeleton. “You know I have a degree in psychology, right?”.

The blank look he gave you was enough to confirm your suspicions, and you snorted and lightly slapped his chest.

“You had no idea! You’ve known me for how long?” You giggled out as he grumbled and flushed.

“makes sense, ya always seem ta know what’s goin’ on in someone’s head.” He mumbled with an air of faux irritation, earning a bark of laughter from you.

“Or maybe it’s part of my super witchy powers.” You teased in a conspiring tone as you wiggled your fingers at him and made, ridiculously, what you had dubbed ‘ghost noises’.

In return, you got a snort of laughter and a ‘shuddup’ as he lightly shoved you back by your face, causing you to squawk indignantly and bat his hand away. After you had sobered from your giggling fit, you resumed your position at his side and wrapped an arm protectively around him.

“Are you okay?” You asked gingerly, causing the monster to sigh and frown as he steered his gaze away from you.

“yea, angel. ‘m fine.” He mumbled, his contradictory tone of voice making you chew your lip in worry as you looked up at him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” You offered gently, then deflated in disappointment when he sharply shook his head. “Okay, but you know that I’m always here if you want to, right? It really does help.”

“i know. thanks.” He said in a sigh.

You sat up slightly to cup his face and brush your lips against his forehead in a kiss, causing him to snap his gaze to you – full of vulnerability and adoration. You smiled affectionately at the monster before sitting up fully with a sigh.

“I need to talk to Mutt, I said I’d catch up with him like an hour ago.” You said exhaustedly as you moved to throw your legs over the side of the bed, but flailed when you were roughly grabbed and dragged back onto the mattress.

“jus’ tell ‘im ta come ‘ere.” He mumbled, his words muffled by the fact that he had slid down and shoved his face against your chest.

Once again you had to bite your lip in an attempt to hold back your laughter at how clingy and affectionate this supposed ‘dangerous criminal’ was.

Cute.

“I don’t have my phone.” You whined as you struggled half-heartedly against his grasp.

You watched amusedly as he threw an arm back without so much as adjusting his position and blindly searched for something under the duvet. Your curiosity was rewarded when he thrust his phone at you, and you took it with a snicker.

The maniac didn’t bother securing it with a passcode, so you easily unlocked the device with a swipe of the screen and searched through his contacts. They were all ridiculously named, and while you could guess who ‘tiny tyrant’, ‘vanilla’ and the likes were, you had no idea what he had dubbed Mutt.

“Um, which one-?” You began to ask, to which he quickly supplied the name he had the skeleton under.

You were cackling manically as you selected the message icon above the contact labelled ‘bitch ass’ and began typing out your text. Your giggling was no longer at the contact name as you sent the message and, within seconds, his phone began buzzing with an incoming call. You wordlessly passed the phone to an exasperated Red and giddily watched the scene play out.

“can ya not jus’ text like a normal- what?” Red squinted his sockets suspiciously at you before replying slowly. “yea. why’re ya bein’ weird…? sure, whateva.”.

And with that, he ended the call and threw the phone onto the bed, grumbling something about Mutt being a ‘fuckin’ weirdo’. You very nearly burst out laughing right there and then, but managed to hold it together until Mutt appeared by the doorway with a completely mortified expression.

“Hi -hah- hi, Mutt.” You gasped out between hysterical cackles as Red lifted his head to look between you and his cousin, bewilderment evident in his features.

“oh, what th’ fuck.” He said with, hilariously, complete disappointment in his tone, only further fueling your amusement as you wheezed and clutched at your stomach.

Shoving you away, Red scrambled to sit up and retrieve his phone to read the message you had sent and after a second of the room being filled with nothing but the sound of your jovial giggling, he ripped his gaze away from the screen to look at you incredulously.

“did ya seriously text ‘im askin’ ‘im ta ‘come ta my room right now, cuz i got my dick stuck in somethin’ and can’t get it out’?!” He asked in ire, yet his voice had an undertone of mirth to it as you simply replied by howling and wheezing, unable to even form a coherent sentence.

Mutt immediately joined in with you, though his laughter sounded almost relieved as he shook his head at you with a grin.

“You- hah- you were -haha- fully prepared to help him, too!” You managed to eke out between wheezes and were thrilled when you heard Red snort loudly from beside you.

“okay, that’s kinda funny.” He conceded as he dissolved into deep, rumbling chuckles.

“ya do realize what ya’v started, right?” Mutt asked conspiringly as he sauntered over to the bed and sat as close as physically possible to you without actually sitting in your lap.

“Huh?” You hummed breathlessly as you sat up further and wiped the tears of mirth that had gathered in your eyes. You quickly clocked the mischief in Mutt’s expression and shook your head at the skeleton.

“Oh, no. Nope. This was not me initiating a prank war.” You tried to say sternly, but the smile twitching at your lips and the remaining amusement in your tone easily bypassed any attempt at being serious. “Got it? Not. Initiating. A. Prank. War!” You accentuated each word with a poke at Mutt’s ribs, who snorted and playfully batted your hand away.

“do whateva ya gotta do, ‘m goin’ back ta sleep.” Red grumbled from beside you, apparently already completely over your shenanigans, and rolled over with a pillow over the side of his skull.

You smiled fondly at the skeleton, your eyes full to the brim of affection for him at the seemingly innocuous action, but snorted and rolled your eyes when you heard Mutt making fake gagging noises. You mouthed at him to shut up and he stuck out his lilac tongue in response, prompting you to mirror his action as you scrunched up your face at him.

“Don’t you want to know what the vision was about, Red?” You asked softly, aiming the question toward your beta, after you had sobered yourself.

In response you got a reluctant grunt, and you thought for a moment that he had decided that whatever it was wasn’t any more important than sleep, but your patience was rewarded when he rolled himself back over to face you, albeit with one socket still shut. The sight forced a quiet giggle out of you before you recalled what the content of the approaching conversation was about, and your demeanor quickly dropped from amused to anxious. Within a second of the change of disposition, Mutt’s hand was on your thigh in a supportive gesture, and you smiled gratefully at him.

“So, Papyrus was helping me with being able to summon my attack magic at will and control it- Which I can now, by the way! Just… not because of him.” You began to explain, not missing the way the two perked up at your admission. You could see the silent question shimmering in their eyelights, and so you answered it without their verbal input.

“Edge- um, when I got super angry at Edge back there, for some reason it just… happened? It wasn’t like the last time; this time I could control it. It was… strange.”. Red was fully awake now at the mention of his brother and his focus was completely on you, something unreadable flickering in his eyelights.

“d’ya think it’s ‘cuz ya were protectin’ red?” Mutt asked helpfully, causing you to gasp lightly as the pieces fit together in your mind at his suggestion.

“It must have been!” You exclaimed as you directed a grin toward the skeleton. “It’s annoying though, I can only ever seem to summon it when I’m scared or angry. Paps said it’s because my soul type has a contradictory nature to the magic that I’m trying to use.” You explained, a hint of disappointment to your tone as you did so.

“so, try summonin’ it now.” Red, who had been uncharacteristically silent until now, proposed as he shifted to support his head with a propped up hand. “test ya theory. no point gettin’ upset ‘bout it if ya don’t even know.”

“he’s got a point.” Mutt coincided with his cousin as he shrugged lightly at you. You made an anxious noise, and he seemed to immediately pick up on what you were thinking. “yer not gonna hurt us, doll. even if ya do, ‘s not like ya got th’ intent ta dust us.”

“I might not intend to, but that won’t make a difference if I lose control of it, right?” You asked meekly, earning a look of befuddlement from the two.

They looked at each other in a similar fashion before they seemed to remember that you weren’t aware of the nature of magic-based attacks.

“intent’s important when yer dealin’ with combat magic, angel.” Red clarified, huffing out a quiet snicker when your face contorted into confusion. “ya gotta have th’ intent ta kill before ya can actually dust anyone. at least, that’s how it works with monsters.”

“So…” You spoke slowly as your brows knitted together. “If I don’t intend to Dust you, I, like, physically won’t be able to?”.

The whole concept didn’t make sense to you, but then, not a lot about the world of monster magic really did, despite your foundation knowledge of magic as a whole. When you received a verbal affirmative from the two, you sat back with a ‘huh’ as the information sank in.

“Alright then, I’ll try!”.

Both Red and Mutt seemed to unconsciously flinch back when you opened your palm, and you tried not to take it to heart – after all, it wasn’t you specifically that they were wary of – but the slight, almost unnoticeable action sent a shot of sorrow through you. You didn’t react, however, aware that they would likely be ashamed of their instinctual behavior, and instead closed your eyes as you focused your energy into the well of magic within your soul.

You felt the white-hot, searing magic trickle down your arm but kept your focus trained on the feeling in your soul, just as Papyrus had instructed, until the burning faded out into a pleasantly warm tingling. The second that the warmth gathered in your palm, and you spotted a faint green glow behind your eyelids, a chorus of amazed vocalizations filled the air.

With a slow exhale you cautiously opened your eyes to the astonished faces of Mutt and Red, their widened sockets and parted teeth alight with a wash of sage from your summoning. A wide grin stretched your face as you spotted the small gathering of swirling, shimmering magic in your palm.

“it’s so pretty.” Came Mutt’s stunned, quiet voice from beside you, breaking your focus and causing the tiny green flame to sputter out.

Unsure as to why, you flushed at the compliment and swiftly closed your fingers over your palm and lowered your hand. The two ripped their transfixed gazes away from you and to each other, but their look of awe remained.

“Really? I’ve always thought that a monster’s magic is much prettier.” You countered meekly, causing their eyelights to travel back to your reddened face.

“ya kiddin’ me, angel?” Red shook his head slightly at you, his eyelights sparkling with an admiration that had your face heating up even further. “i ain’t never seen nothin’ like that before.”

“seriously,” Mutt agreed, the same intense look of wonderment lighting up his lilac eyelights, “yer amazin, doll.”.

That did it. You were a flustered, red-faced mess at the combination of adoring gazes and compliments as you breathed a giggle and waved off the boys’ flattery.

“Ah, I’m pretty sure all Mages’ magic looks like this! I’m nothing special, really!” You squeaked out, unable to lift your eyes to either party as you did so. “A-Anyway! We’re getting off topic! You wanted to know what the vision was about, right?”.

Both monsters looked as though they wanted to retort, but then simply looked to one another with amused smirks on their faces at your bashful state before turning back to you with an affirmative hum. You visibly relaxed at the subject being dropped despite your anxiety at revealing the nature of the vision to them and took a steeling breath before you explained.

“So, Papyrus told me to imagine that there was someone in front of me that intended to hurt me, to see if that would help with summoning. I did, and it was fine at first, but…”.

You chewed your lip as flashes of the not-memory came back to you, causing you to inhale sharply and shake your head to rid yourself of the image. You glanced briefly at the pairs concerned faces before dropping your eyes to your now anxiously fiddling hands.

“I don’t know what happened. I was imagining a faceless figure preparing to attack me and then… then it turned into Papyrus.” You murmured, your voice shaking slightly as you spoke the aforementioned skeleton’s name.

“he… killed you? before?” Mutt muttered weakly, causing you to snap your surprised gaze up at him.

You were about to ask how he knew that and not just that he had injured you in some way, but the recollection of what you had told him about your visions stopped you just as you opened your mouth. Instead, you nodded feebly and swallowed harshly before continuing with your explanation.

“I was already injured. Someone – a monster – had stabbed me with a spear. It was made of magic so I- I couldn’t snap it off or pull it out.”.

If you had not returned your gaze to your lap, you would have seen the way Mutt and Red tensed as they whipped their heads to eye one another wearily, concerned recognition etched into their features. But you did, and so you continued on without so much as a glance their way.

“Then… he was in front of me. He had these huge skulls summoned and- and he apologized to me. He said he was sorry, and I hesitated and- and he killed me. I-It was so painful, I- I felt every part of my body ignite and burn. I- “.

Your whole frame was trembling as you recalled the agony you had felt in that moment and tears pricked at the corners of your eyes. Determined not to cry again, you exhaled sharply and dug your hands into the blanket below you as a way to ground your senses.

“He asked what the vision was about. I told him that he was better off not knowing, but… he figured it out eventually.” You finished, guilt clawing at your insides and turning your stomach as you finally lifted your eyes to look at the skeletons.

Red’s face was screwed up in a mixture of anger and grief, as though he wanted to be furious with his cousin but knew that he was just as horrified, if not more so, with his actions in this singular past timeline as Red himself was. Mutt looked to be in a similar state, though the erratic flickering of his eyelights portrayed some form of denial about the situation.

“paps wouldn’t do that.” He muttered out, a hint of anger to his tone as he glared weakly at you.

“I-I know it’s hard to believe, and I don’t want it to be true either, but…” You trailed off, your soul thrashing wildly in your chest and causing it to tighten as you watched his expression morph from anger to sorrow and finally morose acceptance.

“why? why would he do that?” He asked bitterly as he shook his head with a frown and furrowed brows.

You didn’t need to look at Red to know that he was staring critically at you, you could feel his eyelights boring a hole into the side of your head from a mile away, and so you revealed what little you could about the former timelines.

“There were a lot of… alternate timelines, I guess, where I was recaptured by my coven and forced to fight with them… against monsters.” You breathed frailly, the remorse for your coerced past actions causing your voice to come out strained and shaky.  

You were terrified that he was going to needle you further and ask how you knew, but he must have picked up on your exhausted, distraught demeanor, and instead wrapped you in a bone-crushing hug.

“i ain’t ever lettin’ those bastards get their fucking hands on ya ever again.” He growled, his voice muffled slightly by your hair as he pressed his teeth to the top of your head and pulled you tightly against him in a protective action. You huffed a small, relieved laugh as you returned the gesture and rested your head against his chest.

“I know.” You whispered hoarsely, more to yourself than him, as you tightly wrapped your arms around his frame.

There was a brief moment of silence as the two of you held onto each other as though you could be ripped apart at any second, before you remembered with a start that you weren’t the only people in the room.

Lifting your head and turning your gaze to Red, you noticed that he was staring dolefully at his hands with shrunken eyelights that were fuzzy around the edges. You frowned slightly at the sight and wriggled free of Mutt’s grasp to fully face him.

“Red? You okay?” You called out gently, prompting the skeleton to start slightly before plastering on his usual carefree demeanor as he grinned at you.

“yea, angel.” He said, his tone matching the relaxed air that he had swiftly conjured. “ya wanna get some sleep? no offence, but ya look like shit.”.

You snorted at his blunt observation, deciding to let go of your worry for the day in order to finally get some rest.

“I feel it.” You laughed wryly before letting out a sigh. “Yeah, that sounds good.”.

With a stretch and a yawn, you caught a glimpse of Mutt’s downturned face and froze. He looked completely dejected and by the way he was anxiously shifting, you surmised that, after the conversation the three of you had just had, he wasn’t quite ready to leave you just yet.

“Do you want to join us?” You asked with a hint of amusement to your tone and had to bite back a laugh at how endearingly he lit up and bashfully nodded his head.

Eager to get some rest before you had to leave for your final day of classes and work before your break, you playfully shoved Red with your hip to get him to make room for all of you and earnt a low grumble before he did just that. Mutt swiftly jumped in beside you as you pulled the duvet over you, sandwiching you between the two skeletons. It was a bit of a tight fit, but you couldn’t be happier to be squished between them with Red spooning you and Mutt cuddled up to your chest with his arms wrapped around your waist.

Despite the barrage of somber events that had plagued your day already, you felt perfectly content and safe now that you were wrapped tightly in the arms of two of the skeletons that you most adored, and so the pull of sleep quickly claimed your weary mind.

Chapter Text

The nap had been exactly what you needed. You had awoken still sandwiched between Mutt and Red, but the three of you had shifted in your sleep so that both of them had ended up with their heads on your chest, an arm each thrown over you. Admittedly, you had spent way too long just watching their sleeping faces and the steady rhythm of the rise and fall of their chests with a dumb grin on your face.

After you had managed to rip your lovesick gaze away from them to find that you only had ten minutes until you had to leave, however, you expertly wiggled your way free from their grasps, then placed a chaste kiss on each of their skulls, causing them to squirm and grumble and, amazingly, end up grasping on to one another in an attempt to find your missing form. You had to slap a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from giggling at the sight of the two of them now essentially cuddling each other and couldn’t help but snap a quick picture on Red’s phone and send it to yourself.

You decided to leave the picture on his phone, snickering at the image of him confusedly finding it one day, and sneakily returned the device to its place in the tangle of bedsheets.

Thankfully, you only had one class that finished about an hour before your blessed half-day shift, and so you arrived at work just before those who had been in since the morning were about to go on lunch. Almost as though it were muscle memory at this point, you automatically entered the building and turned down the hallway that led to Sans’ lab, but froze as a thought came to you.

You had messed up with Sans. Not only that, but you’d messed up with his sweet, usually unshakable younger brother too. Everything you had done and said was full of good intentions, but all you seemed to have accomplished was adding fuel to the fire in regard to their issues with communication. Not to mention the fact that you had literally kissed Sans the day before, and now things between the two of you were more complicated than ever!

Deciding that there was no point in avoiding the skeleton, you strolled over to his lab and pushed the door open as you would have on any other day and announced your arrival. If Sans was still upset with you, he didn’t show it as he grinned and greeted you in his usual casual way before shrugging off his lab coat. His relaxed demeanor instilled confidence in you that he didn’t completely hate you now, at least, and so you took a steeling breath before throwing out an invite to discuss the offending incident.

“Um, can we talk? About what happened with Papyrus?” You asked meekly, causing his grin to falter slightly before he quickly recovered with a small shrug.

“sure.”.

You let out your breath and smiled softly at the skeleton before taking a few steps toward your usual seat at his desk, but stopped just short when he unexpectedly spoke up again.

“hey, ya wanna go somewhere for lunch?”.

He’s definitely going to murder me.

“Yeah, sure.” You chirped, albeit a little nervously, before gingerly taking his already outstretched hand. “Lead the way!”.

Fortunately, he didn’t teleport you into a dark alleyway to assault you with bone attacks or simply drop you off a building as you had initially feared. Instead, when you stepped out of the crushing pressure of the void, you were greeted by a colorful sign reading ‘Grillby’s’ adorning the front of an equally vibrant building. You grinned enthusiastically at the skeleton before releasing his hand to push open the door and hold it for him before entering yourself.

You had never actually been inside the establishment despite having had their food numerous times. Red had always just shown up with an armful of bags with the restaurant’s name printed on them as going out to eat was never something you were particularly eager to do. You had to admit though, actually getting to see the inside was exciting to you, and you weren’t left disappointed.  

As soon as you stepped through the doorway you were hit with the sound of low chatter and the mouth-watering aroma of greasy, fried food. The interior was mostly oak wood that was lit up with a dull orange glow and consisted of several tables and booths lining the walls, adjacent to a bar that ran the length of the room. There were only a handful of patrons present, all monsters, and as you walked over to the bar side by side with Sans, every monster in attendance lit up and called his name in a series of cheers and hollers, causing you to beam at the skeleton as he greeted them back in the same, though slightly more nonchalant, manner.

That was, until they spotted you. The excited jabbering faded into murmured exclamations, the monsters staring at you as you shuffled past. You immediately felt self-conscious, and you turned your attention straight ahead in an attempt to ignore the hushed chattering. Sans quickly noticed your discomfort and his lax grin dropped into a sheepish frown as his eyelights darted between the gossiping patrons.

Did he plan for this?

“hey, uh, sorry ‘bout that.” He muttered uneasily as a hand came up to scratch at the back of his neck. “forgot about the whole ‘mage’ thing for a sec.”.

A quiet huff of relieved laughter escaped you at his apology and you shook your head lightly at the skeleton in dismissal.

“It’s alright. Let’s just find somewhere to sit, okay?” You breathed with a small smile, relieving Sans of his anxiety as he smiled softly back and dropped his shoulders.

Said skeleton motioned for you to sit at a booth that was relatively out of the way, and you gratefully slid into the seat across from him as he mirrored your action.

After a tense moment, you opened your mouth to speak, but was cut off by a fire elemental that you didn’t recognize coming over to the table and greeting the two of you in crackling Font. Of course, you couldn’t understand what was being said, but regardless of your frustrating lack of knowledge of the language, you smiled politely at the monster as you greeted him.

“heya, grillbz.” Sans said as he grinned lazily at the elemental, causing you to mentally facepalm. Obviously, this was Grillby!

The aforementioned monster said something else, but this time he was hushed as he leaned down to whisper something to Sans. The skeleton flushed lightly and chuckled in that nervous way that he did when you flirted with him, and you tilted your head with a raised eyebrow at him. A sound akin to something like a rushing waterfall that you quickly recognized at Sans’ Font emitted from the monster as he replied, and you could swear that you could hear a bashful, flirty tone to the sound.

Either way, you found yourself thinking that it sounded really beautiful, and couldn’t hold back the dopey grin that spread across your face as a result.

Finally, noticing your amused look, he cleared his throat and made a show of introducing you, to which Grillby responded in a series of louder crackling.

“oh, heh. he says he knows who ya are.” Sans directed the words at you, and you eyed the monster in befuddlement before it clicked in your mind. Before you could reply, though, the fire elemental spoke to you, somehow the popping of his Font conveying a grateful tone.

“he says thank you for saving his brother.” Sans translated for you, flashing you a grin that was almost full of pride. “an’ that he knows it ain’t enough, but that ya can have whatever ya want on the house.”.

“Oh, I’m so glad he’s okay!” You grinned shyly at the elemental, a relieved tone to your voice, before you flushed and waved away his offer. “There’s no need, really! You don’t owe me anything, okay? I helped because I want to help, that’s all.”.

After a lot of back and forth of Grillby insisting that you eat for free and you insisting that he didn’t have to do that, of which Sans amusedly translated the whole time, eventually the fire elemental won out and you begrudgingly ordered your food. You noticed with a touch of mirth that neither of you had even glanced at the menus, both of you knowing exactly what you wanted already, and you told Sans as much with a snort. Your laughter was short-lived, however, as you noticed with a slight frown that he was now looking uneasy as he chuckled weakly at your observation.

“I, uh, guess we should talk about what happened, huh?” You breathed anxiously, prompting Sans to nod shortly at you with a tense smile, of which allowed the slew of anxious musings that had been invading your mind since the incident to all spill out at once.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to insert myself into your relationship, I just hated seeing him so upset and I know what it’s like to have a brother that keeps everything from you! I didn’t want him to feel like that because I know how much it hurts when you tell them everything and they don’t offer you the same thing! IfeellikeI’vemessedeverythingupandnowyouhatemeand-!”

“woah, bud.” Sans chuckled breathily as he held his hands up in front of him, allowing you to take a much needed breath and steer your gaze ashamedly away from him. “i don’t hate ya. honestly i- i thought ya hated me.”

“No! Stars, no!” You replied quickly as your head snapped up to meet his eyelights, a note of disbelief to your tone. “I could never hate you, Sans.” You added, shaking your head slightly at the skeleton with a small smile playing on your lips, causing him to chuckle bashfully as a slight tint of blue lit up his face.

“heh, i, uh, could never hate ya either, kid.” He muttered, now completely avoiding your eyes as his face continued to get bluer by the second, much to your amusement.

You scoffed teasingly at the nickname, causing him to look at you puzzlingly.

“Kid? We’re reverting back to ‘kid’ now?” You needled with an impish smile and a raised brow. “You’re gonna call someone you had a steamy make out session - in your workplace, no less! - ‘kid’?”.
Sans stared at you for a beat, a completely befuddled expression on his face, before bursting into melodic laughter. You didn’t know what you had expected in response, but it certainly wasn’t for him to dissolve into rumbling, infectious chuckling, and the sound had you simultaneously giggling and flushing at how full of joy it sounded. It wasn’t like you hadn’t heard him laugh before, but in this instance, for one reason or another, it was completely intoxicating.

“you’re so weird.” He teased affectionately as he wiped a tear of mirth from his eye, prompting you to snort and roll your eyes good-naturedly.

“Yeah, we’ve established that.” You huffed in faux irritation but couldn’t fight back the grin breaking out across your face as you rested your elbows on the table to cradle your face with one hand. “Got any new observations, genius~?”.

“heh, well-“ To your surprise, he actually made a show of screwing up his face in thought before looking back to you with a soft grin and blue tinted cheeks. “you’re sweet, and insanely smart, and definitely funny. You’re never boring to be around and… ya make super good crepes.” He listed off each thing on a skeletal finger as your face got progressively redder and redder, the last item causing you to breathe a huff of laughter as you hid your face in your hands.

“that good enough for ya?” He asked with a very smug tone to his voice as he smirked at your flustered, red-faced form.

This was definitely payback for all the times you had relentlessly embarrassed him, and you’d be lying if you said he didn’t absolutely wipe the floor with you when it came to flirting ability.

Luckily, at that moment Grillby returned with your orders, and you could have kissed the elemental for taking Sans’ attention away from your mortified self as he spoke to said monster and set down your food. You could have sworn that you heard Grillby say something in a joking tone and chuckle whilst Sans snorted in return and briefly turned his gaze to you.

You’d give anything to be able to understand what he was saying, but hopefully it wouldn’t be long before you could! Although, you were somewhat grateful that you didn’t understand in this moment- you didn’t think you could take any more humiliation at the hands of that damn skeleton.

Once it was just the two of you again, you ate and chatted in the way that you usually would when you shared your lunch break. You were ecstatic that things seemed to be going back to normal with Sans, and even more ecstatic that you were getting him to laugh and smile with your ridiculous jokes and observations. It had broken your heart to see him so panicked and upset when Papyrus had stormed off, so the fact that you were the cause of this polar opposite demeanor filled your soul with joy.

This was just you being happy for your friend. This absolutely, most certainly was not you having an teensy weensy crush on him. Nope, definitely not.

As you conversed and joked, you couldn’t help but notice that he seemed preoccupied by his thoughts and often caught him looking at you in an odd way. With a start you recalled that you had slipped up again and mentioned your brother again, and decided to just get the mention of your sibling out of the way.

“His name was Daniel.” You said weakly after a moment of silence, causing Sans to look at you with a bony brow raised.

You fiddled nervously with a stray napkin as his face lit up in recognition, before dropping into a nervous frown.

“he, uh, he around?” He asked lowly, obviously having picked up on your use of ‘was’.

His cyan eyelights studied you intensely, the corners of his mouth pulling further downwards when you shook your head with a sharp exhale.

“’m sorry.” He muttered as a look of intense remorse twisted his usually lax features.

From his reaction, you could decipher that he wasn’t just apologizing in the way that people often do when they learn of a bereavement. He was apologizing for assuming that you didn’t understand his fear regarding his own brother. You shot an understanding look at him, hoping it conveyed that you knew that he was sorry for what he had said.

“It’s okay. I just…” You swallowed harshly as a knot of anxiety began in your chest at Daniel’s mention, before letting out a sigh and meeting Sans’ eyelights with a wry smile.

“I didn’t mean to mention him. I just know what it’s like to have an older sibling that keeps everything from you because they think that they’re protecting you, but in reality, it just hurt me, especially when…” You trailed off to take a slow, calming breath as your hands began to shake.

Perhaps this was a bad idea but, now that you had slipped up anyway, you wanted Sans to know your reasoning for your actions - to truly understand why you felt the intense need to meddle in his and his brother’s lives. Sans looked as though he were about to say something, but you quieted him with a sharp shake of your head.

“He -He took his own life and… I didn’t know that he was struggling. I mean, he fell into a drug habit and everything but… I don’t know, I just didn’t think, I guess. If- If he had just told me then maybe I could have helped and- and he wouldn’t have…”

You jumped slightly when a skeletal hand came to rest atop yours, prompting you to snap your watery gaze up to its owner. Something about what you had said seemed to resonate with the skeleton, since he was staring at you with an intense seriosity that you had never seen from him before.

“it wasn’t you’re fault.” He murmured with an equally as serious tone, before taking an anxious breath and pulling his hand back, a somewhat embarrassed air about him as he did so.

You could only continue staring at him with furrowed brows as he shifted nervously and avoided your gaze. He seemed to be turning something over in his head by the way his frown deepened, and his brow bones knitted together. Once he had seemingly found the words, he lifted his eyelights once again to meet your questioning gaze.

“do you- uh, do you know what ‘fall down’ means? like- uh, besides the obvious meaning, heh.” He rambled anxiously as his hands moved to pick absentmindedly at his stray fries. Worrying your lip with your teeth, you nodded in response, and he gave you a relieved, but still strained, smile. “paps tell ya?”

“Yeah, he said that he’s seen monsters fall down before and- oh. Oh stars, Sans…” You whispered the latter half of the sentence as a hand flew up to cover your mouth.

The skeleton breathed a bitter laugh as a pained expression contorted his features for a brief moment. You opened your mouth to ask if he was alright, but as quickly as the emotion had flashed across his face, it was gone, and he was looking at you with a serious air once more.

“so- y’know, speaking from experience and stuff, heh – ya didn’t do anythin’ wrong. sometimes... sometimes no matter how much ya love someone, ya can’t imagine that they actually love ya back and that you’re good enough for them, no matter what they do or say, and- and then when shit is real bad, ya start to think that they’re better off without ya, y’know?” He stopped to take a steeling breath as his voice began to waver slightly, before gently shaking his head with closed sockets as though to rid himself of his rising upset.

“it’s not your fault, okay? he- i’m certain that he loved ya more than anythin’, and the last thing he wanted was to hurt ya or for you to blame yourself for somethin’ stupid that he did.” He spoke the latter half of the sentence with an undertone of remorseful sourness that you surmised was what he attributed to his own experience of being the one to struggle so badly, and hurting his brother as a result.

A few tears had slipped from your eyes as he spoke, and you quickly wiped them away with a shaky inhale. Not trusting yourself to speak for fear of dissolving into sobs, you instead shuffled out from your seat in the booth as he watched you curiously and parked yourself on the edge of his, before throwing your arms around him in a tight embrace. With a nervous, but almost eased, chuckle, he returned the affection as a flush travelled across his cheekbones.

After a few moments, and after you finally felt that you wouldn’t become a wailing mess if you even just opened your mouth, you pulled back from the hug and smiled gratefully at the skeleton.

“Thank you.” You breathed softly; your eyes full of appreciative affection. “I know what it’s like to… to feel that way, so… I get it. I guess I’m just holding on to a lot of anger over what he did and because he’s gone… there’s nowhere for it to go but inwards, right?”

“guess ya just gotta learn to let it go.” Sans muttered with a small shrug as his grin slowly returned to his face in response to your thankful smile.

“And how do you do that?” You asked meekly, your eyes full of an almost hopeful innocence as the skeleton once again breathed a wry laugh and winked a socket at you.

“when i figure it out, i’ll let ya know.”

“Great-“ You sighed in a show of dramatics as you pulled yourself from besides him and sat back heavily into your seat, “-we’re both fucked, then?”.

Sans snorted as his smile relaxed, and he leaned back into the booth with a shrug.

“guess so.” He responded with a lilt of amusement to his voice.

With a quiet laugh you dropped your eyes to the table in front of you and picked at what little food you had left; your appetite having left you due to the topic of conversation.

“Hey, if you ever need to talk about stuff or if you’re just having a bad day or whatever and want someone to just be with you, I’m here. Okay?” You said softly after a brief lapse of quiet as you offered a sympathetic smile to the skeleton.

The pretty cerulean blush almost instantly returned to his skull as he chuckled nervously and rubbed at the back of his neck vertebrae.

“uh, yeah. ditto.” He mumbled awkwardly, flushing even brighter when your face broke out into a massive grin at his timid demeanor. “listen, i’m not good at this emotion stuff.” He defended himself in a joking tone, prompting you to let out a bark of laughter.

“Yeah, neither am I.” You huffed, leaning an elbow on the table, and using your hand to rest your head against as you did so. “But I’m pretty sure that I’ve had to talk about emotions, like, every day since I moved in with you guys, so I’m getting some good practice in.”

“oh yeah?” Sans copied your action with raised brow bones and a mischievous smirk. “how come?”

Well, if Sans wanted to gossip, gossip you would.

You spent the remainder of the time you had left talking about your various emotional escapades with the skeletal household. Of course, you kept the more sensitive conversations to yourself, and eventually the topic gravitated toward your general experiences with each member. Sans was wheezing and clutching at his non-existent stomach by the time you were done telling him about Mutt teleporting onto your bed in, what you aptly referred to, a ‘paint me like one of your French girls’ pose, as well as showing him the picture that Mutt took of Edge protectively scolding Blue over Albert. If skeletons needed to breath (do they?) you were pretty sure that Sans would have run out of air and passed out from how hard he was laughing at your recount of Red’s reaction to seeing a shark for the first time, and Milord losing his mind over you kissing him on the forehead that first day you visited the King.

Eventually though, it was nearing time for Sans’ lunch to be over and for your shift to start, and so
once Sans had flippantly told Grillby to ‘put it on his tab’ on your way out, you profusely thanked the fire elemental for the free food to which he waved you off with what you figured out was definitely a chuckle. Then, for the second time that day, Sans took your hand and teleported you back to the inside of his lab in a crackle of cyan magic.

After checking the time and sighing at the fact that you only had a few minutes before you had to start work, you looked to the skeleton with a gentle smile as you self-consciously wrapped your arms around yourself.

“So, uh, are we okay?” You asked meekly as you detachedly watched him pull on his lab coat before regarding you with a chuckle and an affectionate grin.

“yea, bud. we’re okay.” He replied softly with a bright grin, and you breathed a sigh of relief as you visibly relaxed.

You couldn’t take anything seriously for a second longer than is needed, however, and so you slapped on a mischievous smirk as you raised your eyebrows at the monster.

“Oh, we’re back to ‘bud’ now? What’s next? Bucko? Compadre? Ooh! Comrade?!” You teased with a snicker, doing your best Russian accent for the last suggestion (which wasn’t very good anyway), resulting in the skeleton snorting and shaking his head softly at you.

“careful, pal. remember where that attitude got ya before?” His voice dropped into a low, teasing lilt that, combined with the memory of the way he had showered you with compliments at the restaurant, had your face rapidly heating up as you let out a nervous giggle.

You wanted so badly to come up with some smart-ass retort, but your brain seemed to have short-circuited at his highly flirtatious response. Instead, you stared dumbly for a second before clearing your throat, much to the aforementioned skeleton’s amusement as his eyelights sparkled with mirth.

“Welp, I’ve gotta go to work, so…” You mumbled somewhat awkwardly, to which he simply raised a brow bone at you before you, unbelievably, shot finger guns at him, mentally slapped yourself, and backed out of the room.

You were followed by the sound of Sans’ wheezing, raucous laughter as you did so, and could have actually died from pure mortification whilst you groaned and shuffled down the hallway and into your lab. You were absolutely never living that down.

You had mostly forgotten about your horrific blunder by the time you had finished writing up your notes for the day, and so headed back to Sans’ lab for your usual routine of having him use a shortcut to take you home after work. You had received a text from Milord that you were idly reading as you sauntered through the building, asking you to let him know when you were free so that the two of you could discuss ‘work’. You were so focused on reading the message, in fact, that you walked face first into someone.

Today was really not going well for you.

“Oh, shit! I am so sorry!” You squeaked as you stumbled back, causing the stranger to chuckle softly as they waved off your apology.

“It’s no problem. You okay?” Came a baritone voice in response.

Attached to the voice was a very tall man- at least six foot, you guessed- sporting black rimmed glasses that framed his dark brown eyes. He had a mop of jet-black hair that curled around his slender, angled face and stopped just short of the bottom of his ears. To compliment, he had deep brown skin that was a stark contrast to the bright white of his button-up shirt, paired with black slacks and pristine dress shoes of the same color. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, but his demeanor gave you the impression that he was likely slightly older.

He was smiling kindly at you, and he was being perfectly polite, but every instinct in your body was screaming danger.

“Yeah!” You chirped as you smiled softly back at the man. “Sorry, I really shouldn’t be looking at my phone while I’m walking, huh?”.

“Ah, I can’t say much.” He laughed gently as he waved a phone you hadn’t realized he was holding, flashing a very minimalist map of the campus. “I’ve been walking around staring at this thing all day trying to find my way around.”

“Oh, are you new here?” You asked politely, pointedly ignoring the anxiety sitting like a rock in your stomach at whatever signals you were picking up.

“Yep, I’m starting as head researcher for one of the branches of the neuroscience department pretty soon. Just wanted to take a look around between meetings and paperwork.” He explained casually, causing your eyes to widen.

“I didn’t even know we were getting a new head researcher.” You muttered thoughtfully, before shaking yourself out of your contemplations and brightly introducing yourself.

“Rami.” He informed you of his name, before shaking his head slightly with a small laugh. “You would think they would tell the assistant researcher, right? Perhaps they’re waiting for me to decide on which branch I’m heading.”

“You haven’t decided yet?” You were subtly looking past him now to see if you could spot Sans exiting his lab, praying that he would appear and relieve you of the conversation.

“I’d like to have information on the research that each branch performs before I do, if I’m honest.” He said with a small shrug and a smile, before perking up slightly as though he had just had an idea. “It would be great if you could tell me a little more about your area sometime, actually! I would really appreciate it.”

“Oh, sure!” You agreed easily, just wanting the interaction to be over so that you could figure out why your intuition was screaming at you and causing your chest to tighten just at the mere presence of this guy.

 It was your turn to brighten as an idea came to your head. It was probably stupid, but you were determined to figure out who this man was. If your instincts are going this crazy, you had every reason to believe that he was someone from your Coven attempting to wiggle his way in with you for whatever plan they had to abduct you now, seeing as brute force hadn’t turned out so well for them.

“I’m actually not here for two weeks from today, but I can give you my number and we can arrange a time to meet up, if that works for you?” You asked sweetly and Rami agreed enthusiastically in response.

Just as the two of you were finishing up trading contact details, Sans finally shuffled out of his lab, his look of concern fading into a relaxed grin when he spotted you and sauntered over.

“geez, bud. ya nearly gave me a heart attack not showin’ up like that.” He teased with a poorly veiled relieved chuckle as he moved to stand next to you.

“You don’t have a heart.” You snorted as you rolled your eyes jokingly.

“yikes. ya lucky i’ve got thick skin or that would’ve gotten on my nerves.” Sans wiggled his bony brows at you with a shit-eating grin as you sighed loudly in faux irritation despite the contradictory smile pulling at your lips. 

Taking both you and Sans by surprise, Rami dissolved into giggles at the skeleton’s pun, causing said monster to start as though he hadn’t even realized there was someone else present.

“Ah, sorry!” He flushed slightly as his chuckling bled into his words before beaming at Sans. “I have a guilty pleasure for wordplay. You’re good at that!”

“heh, thanks, buddy.” Sans had quickly picked up on your discomfort and despite wearing his usual lax grin, his eyelights were critically surveying the man. “’m sans. ya work here? haven’t seen ya around before.”

Feeling uneasy about Rami asking Sans about which department he worked in – since you absolutely weren’t risking your Coven having that information, despite how minor it may be – you piped up in answer for him.

“This is Rami. He’s going to be starting in my department soon.” You explained quickly and, not allowing the aforementioned person to speak, urged Sans forward with a jerk of your head in the opposite direction.

“We really need to head off. It was nice to meet you, though!” You smiled politely at the man before grabbing Sans’ hand and leading him away – of whom was completely content to let you do so as he glanced back suspiciously.

“Oh! You too!” Rami called after you with a grin.

The second the two of you were out of sight, you felt the familiar crackle of the skeleton’s magic and you stepped out of the hallway and into the front yard of the house. It was only then that you let out your held breath in a long exhale and looked at Sans with raised eyebrows as if to say, ‘I’m glad that’s over’.

“he do anythin’ to ya?” Sans asked lowly, his teeth pulled downwards into a scowl as he searched you from head to toe with critical eyelights.

You huffed a laugh at his overprotective nature – you guessed that it isn’t just Papyrus that he’s like that with, then.

“No, no.” You breathed, shaking your head as you did so. “I just got a really bad vibe from him. Like, my intuition was going nuts.” As though anybody could be listening, you lowered your voice to just above a whisper and leaned in slightly. “I think he might be with my Coven – I’m going to meet up with him to discuss work at some point and try to sus him out.”.

Sans’ scowl deepened as he spoke your name in a warning, prompting you to exhale sharply in an attempt to curb the instant ire at his fierce disapproval.

“You can come with me, if you want?” You offered, a lilt of amusement to your tone.

He agreed readily as he visibly relaxed and, now satisfied with the plan, the two of you made your way inside.

As you stepped through the door, Sans by your side, you caught sight of Milord waiting for you with a look of discontent sharpening his features. All Sans needed was a quick side-eyed glance from you and he nodded shortly and -with a wink paired with finger guns, mirroring your earlier mortifying action, and causing you to glare half-heartedly at him- he popped out of existence.

Now that it was just you and Milord in the hallway, he stalked over to you as you looked concernedly at him.

“After dinner, come to my room.” He spoke quickly and mutedly, the clawed fingers tapping at his crossed arms portraying his nerves. “There has been a… development, of sorts.”

“Okay…” You drew the word out as your stomach did an anxious flip. “Can’t you just tell me now?”

“Edge is cooking – he gets aggravated when he has to wait for people, and I would rather not deal with that as of right now.” Milord explained with a tone of bitterness to his voice and a roll of his eyelights.

You ‘ah’d in understanding, expecting the purple-clad skeleton to leave the conversation as it was, but screwed your face up in worry when he remained where he was, staring into space as his eyelights faded and flickered.

“Milord?” You called softly and caused said skeleton to start slightly and focus his gaze on you with a small frown. “Are you okay?”.

“Fine.” He spat venomously, but seemed to regret the harsh action instantly as you flinched and shrank back. With a muted sigh he brought up a gloved hand to rub at his nasal bridge as his sockets closed, before looking back at you and speaking with much less malice. “Just… tired.”.

The look of concern melded with empathy that appeared on your face at his response must have been too much for the stoic skeleton, because he swiftly visibly tensed and recovered the scowl that you had come to associate with him.

You opened your mouth to say something, but a hand held out with the palm facing you and a short shake of his head had you snapping it shut. Without another word he turned on his heel, and left you alone in the hallway whilst you sighed and kicked off your shoes.

You headed to the dining room- planning to just sit and chat if there were others present or finish up some reading for your studies in the rarely encountered silence if not- and found that Butch apparently had intended to do the same. The high-strung skeleton flinched minutely as you walked in, but immediately relaxed and flashed a weak smile at you as you sat heavily in the seat opposite him. He was scribbling away in a notepad, but stopped and closed it when you joined him.

“Hey.” You greeted with a grin as you dug through your bag for your own notes, before offhandedly asking, “Was that the book you’re writing?”.

Butch nodded tensely and flushed, but when you didn’t pry any further, simply replying with a ‘Cool!’, he relaxed slightly and resigned himself to simply watching you as you flipped through pages of complicated statistics, making a few notes here and there. He was content to sit with you in companiable silence, and so leaned forward to rest an elbow on the table to cradle his head with his hand as you grumbled and read through equation after equation with a muted look of frustration.

After a few minutes, you lifted your gaze to Butch’s (who tried to play off that he wasn’t watching you by immediately dropping his eyelights to his hands) and smiled at him, before an inquisitive expression crossed your face.

“You look different.” You stated, your brows furrowed as you searched every aspect of his face and caused him to clam up and flush once again. “Your teeth are straighter… and your eyelights are brighter, too. When did that happen? Did you go to the dentist?” You asked brightly as you tilted your head at the skeleton, whose skull was now glowing orange as he shook his head at you.

“I d-didn’t think it w-was that noticeable.” He murmured apprehensively, but there was a sparkle of elation in his now vivid, burnt orange eyelights as he gingerly brushed the tips of his fingers against his teeth. “I-I think that I am h-healing, n-now that we are safe and h-have food all the t-time.”.

Butch rapidly caught his slip up the second it came out of his mouth and stared at you with wide sockets and an almost fearful expression, of which you stared wide-eyed in return. The exchange of shock only lasted for half a second, however, as you opted to pretend that he hadn’t said anything about their apparent famine at all, instead grinning excitedly at him in return.

“That’s incredible, Butch!” You enthused as you abandoned your stationery in favor of diverting your full attention to the now gratefully grinning skeleton. “Is Axe healing too!?”.

He hesitated as his grin faltered at your question before he sadly shook his head, prompting you to deflate slightly.

“N-No. The kind of i-injuries he has… you can’t h-heal from.” He muttered dejectedly, causing your elated demeanor to briefly fade into a small frown.

“Well, still!” You chirped, forcing yourself to perk up and beam at him, still feeling genuine excitement at his progress despite the heavy sadness you felt for Axe. “That’s really amazing, dude. I’m so happy for you, seriously.”

“T-Thank you.” He smiled bashfully at you for a moment before looking away with an expression full of contemplativeness and… shame?

“Maybe now p-people won’t b-be afraid of me! I-I am excited to l-look…”. He trailed off as he wrung his hands together, resulting in you raising your eyebrows in disapproval.

“Normal?” You asked in gentle reprimand, your frown intensifying when he shifted guiltily.

“Okay, first of all, what the hell is ‘normal’ anyway?” You started, beginning to feel an indignant rant come on. “I’m not normal, you’re not normal, nobody in this goddamn house is normal! Normal is boring, and if anyone has or ever would judge you and decide not to be your friend based on the way you look then they are missing out.”

You were really getting heated now as your features twisted into one of intense resolute. Poor Butch was staring slack-jawed at you, a soft orange glow steadily growing with every word you said.

“You are sweet, kind, an incredible artist and I bet an awesome author too! You care so much for your brother and the rest of your family, and for some goddamn reason even me! You are one of the most wonderful people that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I’m genuinely sad for anyone that doesn’t get to meet you! Okay?!” You finished your little speech with an audible deep inhale, due to quite literally forgetting to breathe between sentences, and regarded Butch with furrowed brows, your eyes full of raging determination.

The sweet skeleton looked as though he was about to cry and, noticing this, you faltered and quickly deflated before standing to make your way over to him, afraid that you had said something to upset him. You could hardly get past the first syllable of his name, however, before you were pulled into a back-breaking hug, the force of the impact squeezing the breath out of you in a wheeze.

“T-Thank y-you.” He mumbled shakily to the top of your head as you were practically pulled into his lap, the action swiftly causing your face to heat up. “N-Nobody has e-ever said a-anything like that t-to me before.”.

He loosened his grip and allowed you to pull back as he spoke, and you looked up at him with a gaze full of affection, your grin only growing when he returned the sentiment.

“That makes us even, then.” You breathed with a slight laugh to your tone, prompting the skeleton to let out a breath of laughter in response.

“You are a wonderful person, Butch. Don’t ever forget that, okay?” You spoke softly as you reached a gentle hand to wipe a stray tear that had fallen from his socket and, although he was flushing brightly, he nodded resolutely with a bashful grin as he leaned slightly into your touch.

“Good. Okay, well-“ You began as you pulled yourself into a standing position, but cut yourself off with a shriek as you felt your back hit something solid and whipped yourself around in an attempt to identify the offending mass.

“heya.” Axe towered above you, his perma-grin the widest you had ever seen it as he beamed adoringly at you.

You let out a breath and untensed at his presence before offering him a small, relieved smile, and his grin somehow stretched further in return.

“Stars, Axe!” You giggled breathlessly as your hand moved to lay over where your heart was slamming against your ribcage from the scare. “You fucking teleporting skeletons are going to be the death of me!”

“Y-You and your e-eavesdropping, brother!” Butch huffed disapprovingly, causing the aforementioned skeleton to shrug lightly, the entire time not tearing his one red eyelight away from you.

This close up you could see that what usually just looked like a solid red actually consisted of several swirling shades of the color, each whisp of magic that made up the glowing sphere interweaving with each other as they shifted and blended together. You were fascinatedly staring at the hypnotizing display, as much was evident from Axe’s faded cerulean blush as his expression transformed from one of adoration to flustered insecurity.

With an apologetic look and a clearing of your throat, you turned your attention away before sighing softly and shaking your head at him in silent reprimand, but the faint smile gracing your features told him that you weren’t annoyed by his habit.

You would have said something to the effect of agreeing with his brother and jokingly scolding him – if anything, just to break the tension that your gawking had inadvertently caused-  but, before you could even get a word out, other members of the skeletal family began filtering through into the dining room, and you opted to greet them and sit in preparation for dinner instead.

The usual family time went about as expected, except for a couple of outlying events. Firstly, Axe had swiftly shoved himself into the seat next to you, not allowing for Red to take his usual place -since Mutt had arrived before him and always insisted on sitting with you- resulting in a lot of huffing and grumbling, of which you had to frantically mediate.

Not only that, but Axe seemed to be watching you, grinning from ear to metaphorical ear, the entire time. Well, you were pretty sure he was- you could feel his enlarged eyelight boring a hole into you whenever you weren’t looking, but the second you turned to catch his gaze, he would look away and pretend as though he was never staring at you in the first place. You were pretty sure you caught him blushing a few times too!

You had to assume that this had something to do with what you had told Butch and, whilst you found it sweet that he was suddenly so enamored with you due to being kind to his brother, it was incredibly unnerving.

Secondly, you just couldn’t stop your gaze from moving to Edge with every bite of his meal that he took. Obviously, you were worried about him, and you tried your best to leave it alone if he was eating, but he was just taking such few, tiny mouthfuls that it was driving you nuts!

At one point he had caught you watching him and, with a growl and a roll of his eyelights, he scooped up as much as he could onto a fork and unceremoniously shoved it into his mouth, glaring at you the whole time with a look that said ‘better?!’. With that, you were satisfied enough to divert your attention away from him with a small smile and a nod, but you couldn’t help but notice the amount of food that was left on his plate when he discreetly pushed his plate towards Axe and Butch.

You tried to frown at the skeleton in a silent scolding, but he refused to meet your eyes and swiftly exited the room before anyone could notice. Red had caught him this time, however, and met your eyes with an equally as concerned scowl before pushing himself away from the table and following after his brother. It did make you feel better knowing that he was checking on him, especially after the talk you had had with him about Edge’s reasoning for his restrictive eating, but you were still worried all the same.

“you… okay, bug?” Axe’s voice came from beside you, startling you out of your loop of anxious stressing and prompting you to smile wryly at him.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” You replied distractedly but didn’t give him a chance to needle any further. “I’ve got to go and talk with Milord.” You announced to Mutt and Axe, the former of whom flashed you a jokey grimace in response, causing you to snort in laughter at the silent, but effective, jab at his cantankerous older brother.

With that, you collected your plate and took it to the kitchen where you made fast work of cleaning up, only to notice with a startled squeak that Axe had been behind you, just out of sight, the entire time you were doing so. Either you were completely unobservant (a very real possibility) or this monster was the stealthiest being you had ever come into contact with, because at no point had you heard the thump of his worn sneakers against the ground as he followed you.

“Did you need something, love?” You asked patiently with, what you hoped was, an equally as accommodating smile.

When the stalker of a skeleton simply shook his head with a bright grin and a gently flickering eyelight, you bit back a frustrated sigh and began to make your way upstairs. Of course, Axe was hot on your heels and, by the time you had made it to the landing, you had to steel yourself to be firm with him.

“Axe, I need to talk with Milord.” You said sternly, but kindly, and when he made no move to leave, you added with a tone of finality to your voice, “Alone.”.

Your soul ached at the flash of rejection that crossed his features, but you couldn’t just let him follow you everywhere like a lost puppy! Well, you could, but you’d rather not have someone watching every move that you made, plus this chat with Milord was private for very good reason!

With an apology on your tongue, you exhaled quietly and turned your gaze to the skeleton, but in place of the dejected expression was now a lax grin, and it caused you to falter and hesitate for a breath. Then, with a wink, he wordlessly vanished, leaving you slack-jawed as you gawked dumbly at the spot where he once stood.

Stars, if the teleporting ability that these skeletons seemed to share wasn’t the end of you, their bewildering array of emotions certainly would be.

With a huff of baffled laughter and a shake of your head, you regained your focus on the task at hand. You had seen Milord leave rather quickly after you all had finished up with dinner, and so you headed to his room and rapped lightly on the door, confident that he would be there.

It took half a second for the disgruntled captain to answer and, without so much as a single word, to usher you inside with urgency.

“Here.” He announced shortly as he shoved a lone paper into your hands, of which was covered in scrawls of black ink.

You knit your brows together at the monster in puzzlement, of whom was standing completely rigid with a deep grimace, before turning your attention to the document and scanning the elegant, curled writing.

I hereby declare that all conflict and bloodshed between monsterkind and the Mockingbird clan will cease under the conditions stated below:

• Dust will be supplied readily and continuously to the Mockingbird clan.
• There will be no attacks of any nature against the Mockingbird clan perpetuated by any members of the Royal Guard, or monsterkind as a whole.
• No details of this contract or agreement will be shared outside of the Royal Guard or the Mockingbird clan.
• The Mage under the name (y/n) (l/n) will be brought to the Mockingbird clan’s place of residency to discuss the terms of the deal in further detail. This may be completed before signing.

Alternatively:

• The Mage under the name (y/n) (l/n) will be brought to work for the Mockingbird clan until the foreseeable future. Details of the job role and the terms of the deal will be discussed before signing.

Signed ____________________

Your face contorted further and further into confusion and concern as your eyes scanned the inky black script over and over again, as though you were willing the words to make more sense to you, or to change into something more desirable and rid you of the pit of dread that had opened up inside of your stomach.

The whole ‘clan’ thing was certainly new, but this meant that you had no idea which Coven had created this contract, and that made you extremely anxious.

Eventually, you brought the paper away from your face to meet Milord’s exhausted gaze with a silent question in your panicked expression.

“I was approached outside of the entrance to the Underground.” He murmured bitterly as he ran a leather-clad hand down his face in a gesture that portrayed his chagrin. “It was the leader of this so-called ‘Mockingbird clan’. She stated these terms and handed the contract to me.”

You shifted uneasily, feeling particularly nervous about the final term stated. It wasn’t like you wouldn’t, albeit extremely reluctantly, go if there was absolutely no other option, but the prospect had your gut writhing uncomfortably regardless.

“What are you going to do?” You asked meekly.

Your chest tightened with apprehension at the immediate assumption that he had already begun planning to send you away. Then, in an action that you had never expected from the headstrong skeleton, Milord sighed lightly and looked at you with pleading in his eyelights.

“I am not usually one to be at a loss when it comes to decision making, but…” He trailed off with a soft shake of his head, before clenching his jaw and growling lowly. “If we accept the offer, we are essentially allowing ourselves to be enslaved by this ‘clan’. Not to mention that a ‘steady and continuous supply’ of Dust is immoral and, frankly, unrealistic. However, if we decline, it may be seen as an instigator for war. I am… asking for your assistance.”

“You’re… not just going to give me to this Coven?” You asked with hopeful skepticism in your voice, alleviation of your distress expressing itself in a muted exhale when he lightly shook his head in return.

“Is it really worth giving up our most vital asset in return for a truce between one Coven of many?” He questioned rhetorically with a cynical laugh, prompting you to bristle and stare reproachfully at the skeleton.

“Not because, say, you don’t want me to leave? Just on a personal level? Because I am, y’know, a person.” You asked with a sarcastic bite to your tone, your voice intensifying in ire as you enunciated your words with frantic hand gestures. “Oh! Or because you don’t want to return me to a place where I will quite literally be tortured? That would be a big one for me, personally.” You finished with a bitter bark of laughter.

 Your fury at his poor wording was fast quelled as you watched the usually quick-witted monster struggle to form a single word, his mouth opening and closing uselessly as though he couldn’t come up with anything to say in response to your obvious outrage. With a conceding sigh you dropped your defensive demeanor in a show of compassion for the skeleton, the guilt at lashing out at him when he was so clearly drained softening your features into a small frown.

“I’ll talk to them.” You offered, the undertone of ire still ever so slightly present in your voice, as you passed the paper that had somewhat creased under your intense grip back to the now wide-socketed skeleton.

“You and Edge and whoever else in the Guard are coming with me, that’s for certain, but… I’ll see what I can do. After the weekend, though! I am not even thinking about any Mage-y stuff for the next two days.” You added with a bleary smile, hoping that the action along with your offer would construe your regret at snapping at him for the clearly foolish statement of which he instantly showed remorse for.

Your soul did a strange, but not unpleasant, writhing motion in your chest as Milord smiled in tired appreciation at you. The violet of his eyelights wavered within the black of his sockets before softening considerably along with the untensing of his overwrought frame, and you found yourself smiling affectionately at the monster in response.

“Thank you. It is… truly appreciated.” He said in a long exhale.

The action portrayed just how run down he really was feeling and caused your chest to tighten with concern despite the strange, contradictory mix of lingering agitation and warmth still present in your mind.

After you were dismissed, you turned to leave and opened the door into the hallway, but hesitated and snapped your inquisitive gaze to Milord when he mildly, almost reluctantly, spoke your name.

“I… would find myself remorseful if I were to return you to those people.” He mumbled in a strained tone, as though the very act of speaking was paining him, and glared at the floor with a furious lavender to his angular cheekbones. “You have become an… enjoyable presence in my life.”

Your face lit up, both in quiet delight and the glow of your rising flush, as the strange writhing started in your soul again. It wasn’t quite the thumping that you had grown used to, but it wasn’t the unpleasant stirring that emotional discomfort caused, either. It was almost as though your soul was unsure about Milord’s and was hesitantly reaching out- afraid to be hurt and braced to retreat, but inquisitive as to what it might find if it were brave and gambled with the concept that there may be something more than just mutual respect between the both of you.

“Thanks.” You muttered bashfully, the squirming of your curious soul making you feel short of breath and weakening your voice.

Attempting to ignore the persistent little body of condensed magic that seemed to be obstinate in making its feelings known, you began to rapidly cycle through ideas on how to help the overworked captain to not feel so… well, overworked. There were several things that you could think of, but you had a feeling that he wouldn’t accept any assistance that you offered him. Bracing yourself for rejection, you opted to simply ask him in a way that you hoped would not trigger whatever aversion to aid that the skeleton seemed to possess.

“Is there anything that needs to be done tonight before we leave tomorrow? I don’t mind taking some stuff off of your hands since I have a lot of free time now.”.

He seemed to think for a brief moment, and you were positive that he was going to wave off your attempts at easing the strain on his mental state, but he pleasantly surprised you by addressing you with gratitude brightening his fuzzy eyelights.

“Perhaps check on the others and make sure that they are prepared. I do not wish to dawdle due to their lack of organizational skills.” He voiced with an exhausted, muted ire to his tone, prompting you to snort quietly and nod before his use of the first-person pronoun registered.

With now naked elation brightening your features, you began to bounce excitedly, much to the monsters quiet, amused predilection.

“So, you are coming, then?” You confirmed eagerly, your grin only spreading when he breathed a soft chuckle and nodded.

“A break would be ideal for all of us, don’t you think?” He expressed cooly, a bony brow raised as he smirked at you, the action causing your dissipated blush to return with a vengeance.

“Right. I’ll make sure the others are all set, then.” You chirped happily, your enthusiasm giving a bounce to your step.

As you turned to leave once again, you stopped yourself to look back briefly and wish him a good night. “Get some rest, okay?” You added with a stern, half-hearted glare.

He hummed in response as the corners of his mouth twitched in an attempt to conceal his mirth.

“Good night, Althea.” He murmured distractedly.

He was already absorbed in the stacks of papers littering his desk as a look of frustration hardened his features once more, and so he didn’t notice when you froze and grinned dumbly at the nickname that had seemingly slipped past his defenses.

You looked up what it meant that night whilst you sat in Red’s dimly lit room, patching up Axe’s jacket the best you could, and spent a long while just beaming giddily at your phone screen whilst your soul writhed pleasantly against your ribcage.

Althea (Greek), to mean ‘with healing power’.

Chapter Text

Despite checking in on everyone as Milord had asked, you, Papyrus, and Blue spent a good hour running around like headless chickens in order to gather the lazier members of the household and get them and their luggage into their respective vehicles.

The fact that you had finished patching up Axe’s jacket the previous evening had slipped your mind as a result, but once the chaos of wrangling the unruly skeletons had died down, you took a moment to mentally run through and check off your tasks for the morning and swiftly retrieved the abandoned article of clothing from Red’s room.

“I’m not fantastic at sewing, but I think it looks a lot better now!” You chirped nervously, afraid that he would turn down your handiwork, and breathing heavily due to your frantic rushing to fetch the item.

A dumb grin broke out across your face when Axe lit up bright blue and gawked at you in shocked gratitude. He thanked you with an enthusiastic hug, his shaking voice portraying his attempts at keeping back the happy tears that your kind action had generated, causing you to flush and giggle as you eagerly returned the affection.

Butch and Axe had asked to come with you in the car since they were both very anxious about leaving the house (which honestly filled you with a sort of pride as well as a feeling of honor that they felt the safest with you) and so you ended up borrowing Edge’s car. Edge himself (adorably) had only agreed to come along after your insistence that Albert would be okay on his own and each member of the household would take turns shortcutting you back to the house to feed him. And so, after much bickering between the two of you – additionally because you weren’t comfortable allowing him to drive after the previous day- you eventually won out and was allowed to drive as long as he was in the front passenger seat so that he could meticulously watch your every action.

Red had mouthed ‘witchy powers’ at you with a look of total disbelief at the fact that you had successfully wrangled his brother into doing, well, anything. You snorted and wiggled your fingers at him in a totally threatening manner, and you swore that Edge was about to implode in indignance right there and then.

Of course, because you were driving, this meant that Red was sandwiched against Axe and Butch in the back since you had originally planned to hitch a ride with him on his motorbike and he insisted on travelling with you. Consequently, the car was immediately full of distractions as Red began needling and teasing each passenger – out of boredom or simply because he could, you weren’t entirely sure.

Hilariously, both you and Edge had yelled at him to ‘shut the fuck up’ (obviously in very differing tones of voice) simultaneously, which – unfortunately - had only egged him on further. At one point, you were pretty sure that he had pulled out a flask of some non-descript liquid and offered it to the pair sitting to the side of him, of which they refused, before he offered it to you with a sly smirk.

“Is that booze?” You asked with an amused lilt to your voice, to which Red hummed an affirmative with a shit-eating grin as he waggled the container right next to your head.

“I’m driving, dude.”. You continued with a light chastising, then glared and shook your head in reprimand at him through the rear view mirror when he shrugged in a gesture that said ‘so?’, his expression conveying absolute confusion at your denial.

“IT IS NINE-AM, BROTHER.” Edge grumbled with a roll of his eyelights, prompting you to snort and mumble to him conspiringly, fully intending for Red to hear your teasing.

“Aw, let him have his fun, Edge. Who knows, maybe he’ll pass out before dinner, and we’ll finally have some quiet.”

You cackled as Red spoke your name in betrayal and his younger brother let out a muted huff of laughter, before making you jump as a skeletal hand quickly adjusted yours on the steering wheel.
He had been making minor adjustments to your positioning the whole time you were driving, and no amount of whining from you made him let up, so you simply accepted it with a small roll of your eyes, before looking in the rear-view mirror once more at your passengers.

“Axe, Butch? You two alright?” You called gently, earning a thumbs-up from Butch, but frowned when you noticed Axe staring out of the window with a gently trembling eyelight as he scratched lightly at his dead socket.

You bit your lip in an anxious tic as his younger brother gently grasped his wrist and brought it away from his skull, which only served to increase his distress as his one option to self-soothe was taken away. You had suffered pretty badly with anxiety when travelling, especially when you weren’t the one driving, so you had just the thing to take his mind off of his unease.

“Edge, can you grab my phone please? It’s in the middle pocket thingy.”

“THE CONSOLE.” He corrected you grouchily, but retrieved your device as asked and looked at you expectantly.

“The passcode is three-four-one-two.” You supplied helpfully, allowing him to reluctantly unlock your phone with an air of unease before averting his gaze away from the screen as though he could stumble upon something private of yours simply by glancing at it. At least he respected your privacy, you thought with a snort.

“Open the app called #SelfCare and pass it back to Axe, please?” You asked lowly, earning a pretty dramatic sigh and a growl that sounded like ‘fucking ridiculous name’ from the skeleton as he did just that. Axe flinched as his irate cousin shoved the phone toward him, then eyed the two of you confusedly as he took it.

“There’s minigames and stuff on there that are supposed to help distract you when you’re anxious.” You explained as you shot a soft smile at him through the mirror. “It’s always really helped me. Give it a try.”.

With that, you turned your focus back to the road ahead of you and, as a result, missed the rapid shrinking and growing of his trembling eyelight as a dusting of blue tinted his cheekbones.

“thanks.” He mumbled bashfully, before becoming completely engrossed in the app as Butch watched curiously over his shoulder, every now and then mumbling an answer out to what you guessed was the word-matching game that you always gravitated towards.

After a few moments of the only noise being the hum of the engine and the hissing of the wind whipping past the vehicle, you spotted Red fiddling with his phone with a look of determination, before glancing at the console and opening his mouth to speak. You already knew what he was going to ask, and so you tapped at the little screen expertly, only ripping your gaze away from the road once, to switch on Bluetooth and allow him to connect to the device.

“If you put country music on, I swear to god I will drive us off a cliff.” You called back with a faux-warning tone to your teasing and caused the skeleton to flush and growl lowly, keeping his attention focused on the screen in his hands as he ducked his head down to hide the crimson glow.

“’ooh, why didn’t you tell me you liked country, red?’” He mocked your voice in a high-pitch and a, frankly, awful imitation of your accent, as you gasped dramatically before dissolving into giggles.

You didn’t miss the way Edge’s mouth twitched upwards into an amused smirk before he decided to do some mocking of his own.

“NOW, NOW. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ENJOYING A TOUCH OF DOLLY PARTON EVERY NOW AND THEN.” Edge fake-chastised you with barely contained mirth in his voice, a rare grin- though completely malicious –softening his sharp features as you choked on laughter and Red’s flush brightened even further.

Even Butch and Axe, who’s attention had been captured by Edge’s teasing, were giggling hushedly now as Red threw a colorful array of curses at his brother and fueled your boisterous cackling.

Once the impromptu argument had fizzled out, Red – knowing that you couldn’t resist singing along – began blaring the soundtrack from the ‘Tenacious D’ movie and enthusiastically sang along with you, both of you doing your best impressions of the characters voices as you did so and snickering between songs the whole time.

You had expected Edge to become increasingly irritated at the ruckus that you and your beta were making, but you caught him more than once looking at you out of the corner of his vision with the faintest whisper of a smile on his teeth. You tried not to think about it too much, lest you lose focus and actually end up driving the five of you off a cliff.

Eventually the soundtrack finished and, after a few tamer soft-rock songs, Red had passed out along with Axe, leaving Butch in the middle feverously tapping away at your phone after expertly catching it as it slipped from his sleeping brother’s hand.

“Hey, look-” You said lowly to the skeleton besides you with a smirk, gesturing to the back seat with a jerk of your head, “-we got our wish.”

“I AM SURPRISED HE LASTED AS LONG AS HE DID.” He replied with a quiet snort as his eyelights flicked to the rear-view mirror to check on Red’s unconscious form.

“Is he usually that annoying or is it just because I’m driving?” You asked in a jokey manner, fully expecting Edge to just roll his eyelights at you, but you were quietly delighted at his sincere response.

“HE IS EXCITED.” He stated simply as he propped his head up with a hand and leant his elbow against the door, watching the scenery go by from the window as he did so. “AND WHEN HE IS EXCITED, HE SEEMS TO HAVE BOUNDLESS ENERGY. THAT IS, UNTIL HE TIRES HIMSELF OUT.” He added with a lilt of laughter to his voice, prompting you to giggle lightly as your gaze wandered up to the mirror to glance at Red, adoration for the skeleton summoning a mushy, love-sick grin to grace your features.

“Like a drunk, potty-mouthed, grouchy toddler.” You suggested with a snicker and a soft shake of your head.

“HM, INDEED.” He concurred with a smirk as his eyelights sparkled with mirth.

You just about caught the way he looked back at his brother through the rear-view mirror once more as a fond expression crossed his face.

The almost unnoticeable shift in demeanor had you thinking about the previous morning, when Edge had struck Red as though it was easy for him to do so. Not only that, but he had hit him hard enough to leave a literal crack in his skull, and Red had just picked himself up and gone back to his brother like this was something that had happened before- likely, many times before.

Of course, you knew that you could love someone and still be abusive towards them, especially when one had been raised on violence and abuse themselves, but the more you thought about it, the more concerned and, honestly, furious you got. This wasn’t something that you were just going to let go, but it certainly wasn’t something that you were going to bring up with others present. It would have to wait, you conceded to yourself.

Instead, you decided to sate your curiosity regarding exactly why the household had opted to travel via car instead of just shortcutting - since you hadn’t really thought about it until you had a moment of silence to allow your mind to wander - and directed your question toward the more awake members of the group.

“T-That’s our fault.” Butch piped up from the back seat with a wry smile. “W-We haven’t been t-there before s-so we can’t u-use a shortcut.”

“IT IS NOT ALL YOUR FAULT.” Came Edge’s somewhat hushed voice from besides you, shocking you into stunned silence at his attempt at comforting his cousin. “TO TAKE OTHERS ALONG WITH YOU, IT TAKES A LOT MORE MAGIC THAN IT WOULD IF YOU WERE ON YOUR OWN. PLUS, WITH ALL THE LUGGAGE, IT WOULD TAKE EVEN MORE THAN THAT. THIS IS JUST EASIER.”. He explained to you as you listened intently with naked fascination on your face.

“I guess that makes sense.” You mused quietly as the information processed, then beamed at Butch and spoke with an amused, but enthusiastic lilt to your voice. “I guess we’re in this together where being a tagalong is concerned, then! Plus, we get to experience the beach house for the first time together!”.

Your zealous musings earned a lopsided grin from the sweet skeleton, a faint orange flush lining his cheekbones as he acknowledged your attempts at making him feel less guilty regarding the longer trip.

Stars, every single one of these skeletons were so adorable- even the more menacing and, at first, threatening members of the household had turned out to be absolute softies!

After approximately an hour and a half of driving, you pulled up to your destination per Edge’s direction and breathed an exclamation of awe at the scenery that greeted you. You were the first to pull into the massive cobblestone driveway and so were rewarded with a clear view of the ginormous building, of which donned glass lined walls that allowed you to see into the interior of the two-story house. Accenting the glass walls were pillars of white, the texture a perfect mirage of smooth, brick patterned exterior extending outwards to form a half balcony that hung over a cedarwood dining table, lined with chairs of white leather that were framed with the same material. Spotlights hung from the underside of the balcony as well as the overhanging lip above the first floor, and smaller, square lights littered the perimeter of the massive driveway.

You craned your neck to get a glimpse of the beach that was just a stone’s throw away from the house and practically squealed in excitement at the gorgeous combination of sights.

“This must have cost a fortune.” You uttered distractedly as you put the car in park and gazed in complete astonishment at the scene.

“WELL, GOLD IS WORTH A LOT ON THE SURFACE AS IT TURNS OUT. WE USED IT AS CURRENCY BECAUSE IT WAS A COMMON MATERIAL FOUND IN THE UNDERGROUND.” Edge explained with a sly grin as your face lit up in a mix of understanding and wonder, before a question that you had completely forgotten to ask since you had met Red was brought to the forefront of your mind.

“Does that mean that Mutt’s and Red’s fangs are made of real gold?” You asked with open amazement on your face and lacing your words as you took the keys from the ignition and undid your seatbelt.

Edge didn’t get to answer you, however, as Red -obviously having woken up when you had arrived- popped up from the back to lean over a whining Butch to insert himself between the two front seats with a mischievous grin.

“yep. all real twenty-four karat or… whateva ya fuckin’ call it.” Came his voice from right beside your ear, making you jump and whip around to half-heartedly glare at the snickering monster.

Axe was awake now and seemed just as excited that you had arrived as you were, of which was made evident by his widening grin and frantic shuffling to remove his seatbelt and exit the car, so with an enthusiastic urging from you for everyone to step out of the vehicle, you all filed out and moved to the trunk of the car to retrieve your luggage.

It was then that the others arrived in their respective vehicles and pulled up next to Edge’s, and the more boisterous members of the group wasted no time in scrambling out of their seats and grabbing their bags, whilst the more laid-back members strolled casually in tow despite their brothers’ shouting for them to hurry up.

Sans, Papyrus, Blue, and Stretch had travelled in Papyrus’ red convertible (of which you didn’t even know existed until he had pulled it from the garage), and Milord and Mutt rode in the formers black Rolls Royce since he wouldn’t allow anyone but Mutt -and apparently you that one time- in his car.
Mutt was eager to reunite with you, despite the two of you only being apart for the short drive, and sauntered over to you with a relaxed grin as he shrugged his backpack over his shoulders.

“Hey! How was the drive?” You asked cautiously as you shot him a knowing look.

You were honestly surprised that Milord hadn’t thrown Mutt from the vehicle with how easily irritated he was by his brother. An hour and a half alone with him? - He was lucky to be alive!

“oh yanno, i riled him up, he shot me down- normal brotherly bondin’ stuff.” He drawled with a shrug before apparently deciding that he was done with the conversation and, instead of allowing you to respond, scooped you up with one arm and throwing you over his shoulder, then grabbing your bag with the other.

You squeaked at the action and squealed his name in chastising but couldn’t stop the snickering that was forced past your lips. You promptly zeroed in on Red as you half-heartedly struggled against Mutt’s grip, of whom was trailing behind as you were carried into the house. 

“Red! Help!” You gasped out between giggles, causing the aforementioned monster to shrug with an impish grin as he watched you wriggle in his best friend’s grasp.

“Traitor! How could you do this to me?! You will rue the day that you decided to betray me! Rue it!” You cried dramatically in faux hurt, then yelped when you were unceremoniously adjusted against a chuckling Mutt’s chest with an upward jerk of his arm.

You seemed to have forgotten that there were others present to watch your impromptu show of dramatics, and flushed with a nervous giggle when you finally glanced back to see the other members of the household watching you as they strolled along behind Mutt with varying degrees of amusement. This, of course, only served to fuel Mutt and Red’s mirth as they immediately began cackling at your misfortune and very pink, very embarrassed face.

Your gaze landed on Sans as he meandered and chatted to his brother, and when his eyelights caught your line of sight, his laid-back grin doubled in size before he shot finger guns at you, pure mischief making his eyelights sparkle. You sighed disappointedly in response before throwing up both of your middle fingers with a look that said, ‘try me, bitch’ as his deep chuckling following you into the house. You could feel your face heating up at the sound and internally blamed it on the lingering embarrassment from your earlier escapade.

Once you were inside, you were hoisted from Mutt’s shoulder with a squeak and inelegantly dropped onto a nearby couch, causing you to bounce and shriek as you fought to catch yourself (much to the aforementioned skeletons amusement) before he lightly dumped your bag in your lap with a snort.

Everyone was eagerly chatting away to decide which rooms would be taken by whom and you learnt that, despite the house being so big, there was only six bedrooms available. You could have taken a room by yourself since each pair of brothers could share a room, but after much whining from Mutt about one, not wanting to share a room with Milord and, two, wanting to share a room with you, you conceded with an affectionate chuckle and headed up to a vacant room at the end of the hall.

You thought that you had caught a brief flash of hurt cross Milord’s face at Mutt’s resistance to share a room with him, but as quickly as it had appeared, it was replaced by a roll of his eyelights and a scowl.

You wanted so badly to just sit both of them down and force them to hash everything out so that they could actually stand being around each other, but knowing you, and knowing Milord, you had a feeling that it would just result in even more conflict and animosity. There had to be something that was making them so wary of each other, you just didn’t know what it was. Plus, you were still trying to figure out exactly what had happened underground when, as Blue had worded it, Mutt was dragged into Red and Edge’s ‘malfeasance’. Maybe that was what was causing such a strain on their relationship, you surmised.

You were torn away from your thoughts as you stepped through one of the many doors that littered the upstairs hallway and into the most gorgeous bedroom you had ever seen. Not only did it also sport the same floor to ceiling windows that allowed you to look out over the beach, but the bed was huge and dressed up in pretty silk sheets. The interior was decorated in a semi-modern style with black, grey, and white being the primary colors utilized. Against the wall adjacent to the bed there was a beautiful electric fireplace that mimicked the flickering flames of a coal fire, and above that was a flat screen TV!

You were looking around in awe, giggling excitedly like an overexcited child as you bounced from place to place to inspect every aspect of the luxurious room. There was even an on-suite bathroom that had a huge stall shower and was lined with any kind of hygienic product you may need! It truly was the most incredible experience that you had had thus far, and your awestruck, giddy expression conveyed that perfectly.

“This actually might be the best day of my life.” You breathed as you beamed broadly at Mutt, who smiled softly back at you with affection sparkling in his violet eyelights.

“’m glad yer happy, doll.” He murmured as he brought a hand up to cup your face and place a lingering kiss against your lips, immediately causing you to flush and laugh softly as you returned his affections.

In all of your enthusiasm to check out the place, you hadn’t noticed the somber air about the skeleton, and frowned softly at him when you clocked on to the weak aspect to his voice.

“Are you okay?” You asked lowly as you took his hand before leading him to sit on the end of the -amazingly soft, holy shit- bed to sit with you and running your thumb over his metacarpals as he spoke.

“yeah. jus’… my bro and i fought th’ whole way over. he, uh- he said some hurtful stuff.” He muttered as his eyelights dropped to your conjoined hands and a small scowl pulled at his mouth.

“What was the fight about?” You asked carefully, prompting the skeleton to gently shake his head as he lifted his gaze to look out of the window and at the gorgeous scenery below.

“jus’ stuff that happened underground.” He supplied with an almost pained grimace, and you quickly perked up at his admission, eager to find out what exactly had fueled the beginning of their tumultuous relationship.

“Can I ask what happened?” You questioned with a soft, cautious tone to your voice as you craned your neck to try to catch his gaze, but he deftly avoided it with a deepening scowl.

“it don’t matter. let’s jus’ enjoy th’ weekend, huh?” He contended, finally meeting your eyes with a thin smile as he did so, and you had to physically restrain yourself from groaning in frustration. Instead, you opted to smile back and nod your head, hoping that your disappointment wasn’t too evident.

A light knock on the door caused you both to jump and whip your head toward the source of the sound. Once you had called out for whoever it was to come in, Axe revealed himself as he opened the door and stepped into the room, his face containing the same usual blank grin that it usually did, paired with an inquisitive eyelight that darted between the two of you.

“you… forgot your… phone.” He said as he gently waved the device in front of him, prompting you to hop up from your place on the bed with a grateful grin to thank him.

You flinched a little when you heard the door to the on-suite close, and looked back to see Mutt gone, prompting you to sigh softly with concern knitting your brows together and pulling your lips into a slight frown. You were thankful when Axe didn’t seem to question it, instead tapping you on the arm and holding out something in his closed fist as you looked at him curiously. He then dropped a monster candy into your open palm with an impish grin as you gasped lightly and beamed at him, before screwing up your face in suspicion.

“How did you get this, Axe?” You asked dubiously, breathing a muted laugh, and shaking your head when he snorted and answered conspiringly.

“stole it.” He drawled, his grin growing by a fraction at your faux disparagement, before adding cheekily, “’m sneaky.”

“Axe! You shouldn’t steal!” You whispered in a half-hearted scolding, of which wasn’t very effective when paired with a poorly concealed relieved grin as well as an undertone of amusement at his proclamation.

“Thank you though, you’re a life saver.” You added, causing the monster to shrug before he uttered out a ‘see ya later’, shoved his hands back into the pockets of his hoodie and disappeared from view with a crackle of grey-blue magic.

You adeptly popped the sweet in your mouth before removing your jacket and checking over your arms, immediate relief washing over you not only at the alleviation of your injuries, but also the kiss of the blessedly cool air against your already too-hot skin.

Feeling happier now that you didn’t have to worry about accidentally exposing your self-injury, you rifled through your bag for your swimwear and a sheer cover-up. You only had one bikini, but it was new enough that you couldn’t justify buying one for the occasion, and so you pulled out the crisscross wrap, black bikini top and its accompanying high-waisted bottoms to change into.

You were struggling with fastening the back when you heard the sound of the bathroom door opening and looked over your shoulder to smile softly at Mutt. With an affectionate huff of laughter, he gently brushed against your hands with his own to signal you to allow him to take over and tie the strips of fabric together.

The tips of his sharpened claws scratched lightly at the skin of your back as he did so, and you could tell that he was being careful not to hurt you by how slowly and meticulously he was moving. The repetitive motions and gentle brushing of bone against skin was lulling you into a contented state whilst you relished the physical contact, as much made evident by the soft sigh that left you.

Once he was done, he placed his hands on your hips to gently turn you around and let his eyelights leisurely travel the length of your body, the slight tightening of his hands against the soft flesh portraying his delight at seeing you with so much exposed skin. You placed your hands against his chest, of which was now bare, with nothing but a pair of black swimming trunks hanging from his iliac crest. Your gaze immediately and unabashedly dropped to the slightly exposed bones and travelled from his spine to his ribs, and finally his collarbones, all of which were marked with nicks and cracks that scarred the porcelain surface.

“gorgeous.” He purred with lidded sockets and a smirk as one of his hands travelled the length of your hips, abdomen, and chest, before coming to a stop to lightly brush against your jawline and tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear.

The gentle but intimate action sent a pleasant shiver down your spine, causing you to involuntarily inhale sharply as your grasp on his ribcage tightened in response to the sensation. Mutt’s breath hitched in his throat at the unintentional action and the slight, muted sound that had emitted from the skeleton had heat rushing to your face and settling in your abdomen in response.

“You’re not so bad yourself, handsome.” You teased in a low, amorous purr as you smiled mischievously at him, your heart already slamming against your chest at the arousal clear in his expression.

You almost whined when he pulled away from you with a ‘one second’ gesture, but grinned knowingly when he simply flicked the lock for the door with an impish grin.

“we ain’t gettin’ walked in on again.” He announced in an amused tone as you snorted and ushered him over to you with a ‘come hither’ motion of your finger.

He eagerly complied and made quick work of lifting you by your buttocks to situate you in his lap on the bed as he captured your lips in a slow, deliberate kiss. His already formed cock was rubbing against you as he did so and you repeatedly bucked your hips into the sensation, earning a strangled moan from the skeleton.  As his hands moved to grasp and feel every curve and dip to your flesh, you wound your arms around your neck to deepen the kiss. A forceful inhale was ripped from your throat when he brushed teasingly against your clit, and he took the brief parting of your lips as an opportunity to tangle his tongue with yours in a frantic battle for dominance.

Both you and Mutt were sub-leaning switches, as you had swiftly found out from the first few times that you had slept together, and so because you were more inclined toward taking the lead, he often freely and eagerly submitted himself to you. Every inch of your already painfully sensitive body was begging you for stimulation, but despite this, you were definitely going to take your sweet, tortuous time with riling him up as much as possible before allowing him any form of relief.

“You’ve needed this so badly, haven’t you?” You purred once you had separated the kiss, placing a hand against the side of his skull, and stroking along his flushed cheekbone with your thumb as you did so. He nodded slightly, his breaths shallow and fast as you ran a finger along the length of his mandible, stopping only to force his head upwards to meet your gaze.

“Use your words.” You commanded in a soft, but firm tone, prompting him to whine lowly when you stopped the grinding of your hips to wait for him to obey.

“y-yes- fuck!~” He growled, then gasped as his compliance was rewarded with a sharp buck of your hips and your fingernails raking harshly down his spine as you praised him with low, lewd whispers.

Your own arousal was unbearable at this point, but you pushed your needs down in favor of taking your time with teasing him by running your hands and fingernails over every sensitive spot that you knew of him to have, the whole time reveling in the mewls and moans that came with every calculated ministration.

It was honestly thrilling to have him so completely at your mercy, absolutely wrecked and desperate for your touch, as was made evident by his fervent attempts at intensifying the chaste contact. With a satisfied exhale, you pushed him down so that his back was against the mattress and took your time licking and nipping at his neck vertebra, his collarbone, and ribs, and you knew that the slow, deliberate actions were driving him insane by the increasingly desperate sounding whines and growls that left him in response.

“please- p-please just -ah!- fuck me.” He rasped out between moans as you reached a hand into his shorts and grasped his shaft, running your thumb over the slick tip.

You hummed thoughtfully in response as you watched him writhe and dig his fingers into the sheets below him, whining and gasping with each intentionally, painfully languid motion.

“Do you think you deserve to be fucked?” You asked lowly as you used your other hand to wrap around the lowest rung of ribs and give a sharp tug, earning a yelp that dissolved into a growling moan.

“no, but… p-please.” He breathed, the pleading desperation lacing his angular, flushed features fueling your arousal as you let out a breathy moan at the sight.

With a sly smile you repositioned yourself so that you were sat against his cock and cupped his face as you once again pressed lips to teeth. He opened his mouth in silent permission as your tongues collided, the intense buzz of magic that continued to strengthen alongside his rapidly building arousal forcing a choked moan from you. You pulled back and separated the exchange, prompting Mutt to whimper at the loss of contact, before grinning lewdly at the skeleton as you drank in the intoxicating sound.

“Fine, since you’ve been so good for me~” You cooed before sitting up to release his cock from its clothed prison and aptly move your bikini away from your entrance to lower yourself onto him.

Your breath hitched in your throat and forced a stifled moan from you as you adjusted to the stretch, the sensation making your mind hazy with desire as you fought to remain collected and in control.

“ah! thank you.” He mewled, the latter half of the sentence warbled by his growling moans as he instinctually grasped at your hips to buck up into you.

You almost just allowed him to do so, but composed yourself with a sharp breath and grabbed his wrists as you tutted at him, then pinning them above his skull with a tilt of your head paired with a playful smirk.

“Who’s in control here?” You asked, your tone cavalier as you increased the tightness of your grip on his wrists, the punitive action coaxing an impatient groan from the monster.

“y-you are.” He conceded in a low rumble, earning a satisfied hum from you as your features softened into an appeased simper.

“That’s right.” You breathed as you resumed the tortuously slow grinding of your hips. “Good boy~”.

You kept one hand tightly fastened around his wrists as you moved the other to dig your nails into his ribs, eventually quickening your pace as your own arousal made you desperate for more stimulation. The room was filled with gasping and moaning as you felt his cock repeatedly slam into the most sensitive spot inside of you. You felt him twitching and hardening even further in an obvious indicator that he was close to his peak, but he surprised you by choking out a “w-wait.”.

You stopped the second he did so, regarding him with a questioning look as you panted and released his wrists, before readjusting yourself as he sat up. Pure affection filtered through the lustful haze of his eyelights as he placed one hand on your hip whilst the other moved to brush against your cheek in a gesture full of adoration.

“i want ya t’mark me.” He breathed, breaking you out of your lust-ridden trance and forcing a dopey smile to break out across your face in response.

“Yeah?” You said in a happy sigh, your grin only growing when he nodded resolutely with a soft smile of his own.

A huff of blissful laughter left your lips before you began placing kisses down the side of his neck until you reached the spot that you had chosen to bear your mark. Consumed by intense love and adoration for the skeleton, you willed every modicum of your intent into the action before biting down with all of your strength and leaving deep indents of your flat teeth in his collarbone.

The act of marking him must have triggered some form of animalistic instinct, as the second you pulled away, he let out a deep, guttural snarl and flipped you onto your back with an almost feral glint in his eyelights. You gasped at the sudden change and fought for dominance, but he had you completely pinned against the bed as he desperately thrust into you, growling and moaning as he did so.

“yer mine.” He snarled as you struggled against his grip, but the pleasure-pain from his sharp claws and relentless thrusting weakened your limbs as you submitted to him with almost shrieking moans.

A hand was aptly clamped over your mouth to quiet you, but it did little to muffle your yelps of pleasure as you felt yourself fast approaching your peak from the unrelenting stimulation. Your vision went blank as he latched onto the delicate area between your neck and shoulder with his razor-sharp teeth just as you tumbled into orgasm.

He let out a guttural growl as he came, filling your overly-sensitive pussy and intensifying your orgasm to the point where you felt as though you were going to pass out from the blazing pleasure-pain wracking the entirety of your being.

Once both of you had come down from your highs, you lay next to each other for a moment of mutual bliss, panting and flushed, before you forced yourself to sit up with a wince. Now that the flood of hormones had dissipated, the sting of the deep bite that Mutt had given you was intensifying fast.

“shit, ’m so sorry.” He fretted as he gently grasped your face to turn your head and get a better look at the bleeding injury. “i shoulda warned ya, ‘m sorry.”

“Hah, it’s alright.” You chuckled breathily as you fought to catch your breath, but frowned when you saw the panicked look on his face.

“Hey, it’s okay! It’s nothing a bit of healing magic can’t fix, right?” You said in an attempt to comfort the monster, who seemed conflicted as his eyelights frantically looked over the bite, before adding with an undertone of disbelieving laughter to your voice, “Plus, it was super hot.”

He huffed out a laugh and shook his head affectionately at you, before hopping up from the bed and rummaging through his bag to produce his stash of candy, then handing you one with a crooked, sheepish smile. You grinned gratefully as you took the sweet before popping it into your mouth and sighing when the sharp stinging faded into a dull ache, and then disappeared completely.

“See? All better!” You chirped as you brushed your fingers over the healed skin, but faltered with a grimace when the tips came away slightly wet with blood.

“c’mon, we should prolly both take a shower.” He murmured, then urging you along to the on-suite.

A wince and a noise of disgust left you when you felt the cum dripping down the insides of your thighs, and you were just about to make a, frankly, horrible joke about it, but a knock on the door had you both freezing with a shared look of alarm. In a completely spur of the moment action, you panicked and yelled out the first thing that came to your head.

“Don’t come in! I’m- uh, I’m naked!”

You cringed the second that the words left your mouth and shoved your face into your hands as Mutt slapped his hand over his mouth to contain the wheeze that forced itself past his teeth at your blunder.

Well, at least someone could benefit from your misfortune.

A faint, irritated sigh sounded from the other side of the door, before literally the worst person to have been on the receiving end of your mortifying mess of an excuse called out.

“Is Mutt with you?” Came Milord’s icy tone as you snapped your head towards said skeleton, who shook his head frantically at you with wide eye sockets.

“Uh, No? – fuck.” You answer came out sounding completely unconvincing, prompting you to curse under your breath as Mutt had to, once again, slap a clamp over his mouth to muffle his cackling.

“Are you lying, Althea?” He asked sternly, his tone conveying his displeasure at your hijinks.

You hesitated and lit up with a dumb grin at his continued use of the nickname, but jumped and spluttered when Mutt lightly slapped your arm with a look that said, ‘answer him!’.

“No…” You squeaked out, resulting in Mutt face-palming and shaking his head with a combination of pure disappointment and mirth gracing his features.

Thankfully, Milord seemingly decided that this fight wasn’t worth the energy and so, with an irritated growl, he began to walk back down the hall and down the stairs as you both listened to the sound of his clipped footsteps decrease in volume. Once you were sure that he was out of earshot, you groaned dramatically and hid your face in your hands as Mutt dissolved into wheezing laughter.

“I’m never going to be able to face him again, holy shit.” You whined, before removing your hands and looking to the cackling monster with as much seriosity as you could muster. “Do you think anyone would notice if I just, I don’t know, moved to another country under a new name. Like, uh, Roberto! or something!”.

Mutt went completely silent as he stared at you before snorting and bursting into laughter once more, prompting you to giggle and mumble out, “I’m glad someone’s enjoying my misery, because I certainly am not.”

“hah- roberto?!” He gasped out between his howling as you dissolved into snickering yourself.

“I don’t know, man! It was the first thing that came to my head!” You argued, your tone full of mirth as Mutt’s chuckling began to die down.

“that doesn’t seem t’be workin’ out so well for ya, huh?” He said as he shook his head affectionately at you and you scrunched up your face and laughed sarcastically in response.

With a squeak, you were once again hoisted up into his arms as he nuzzled your forehead.

“i love ya, doll.” He murmured out with pure adoration laced with amusement, the expression of the mix of emotions causing his voice to shake with laughter.

“I love you, too.” You sighed in faux-exhaustion before grinning at the skeleton, who began the task of carrying you to the bathroom to shower. “You really like carrying me, huh?” You noted with a hint of amusement.

“ya so light. it’s like holdin’ a couple’ve grapes.” He snorted as you barked out a surprised laugh at the impromptu reference to what had fast become your, along with Mutt’s, favorite comfort show after your unrelenting insistence that the two of you should watch it.

Admittedly, what should have just been a simple shower had rapidly turned into… well, it was midday by the time you finally made it out of the bathroom and downstairs to join the others. You had missed Mutt a lot, and the effect that the intent in your fresh mark was having on him made him even more clingy and affectionate than normal, so you just enjoyed the time that you were spending together and tried not to worry about the others too much.

You had thrown on a thin dress that served as a cover-up, and Mutt pulled on a black tank-top along with his swimming shorts to walk to the beach. The cover-up was very pretty – you had bought it a long time ago in an optimistic dream to get to one day wear it – and now the lacey, white material hung from your body and billowed just above your knees, the sheer fabric allowing the inky black of your tattoos to show along with the dark material of your swimwear. You couldn’t stop looking down at the dress and smiling to yourself – it wasn’t just a dress to you at this point, it was a symbol of your freedom, in a way.

You had urged Mutt to just be mature about the situation since it was pretty obvious what you had been doing by the unmistakable mark in the shape of your teeth along his collarbone. It was covered for now, but eventually someone was going to see it and figure it out. However, it didn’t even take anyone seeing your mark for them to catch on to what the two of you had been doing for the- stars- the last three hours, and you were met with whoops and hollers as you stepped outside hand-in-hand and onto the sandy coastline.

Both you and Mutt grumbled simultaneously as your faces lit up red and violet, your mortification only growing when you spotted two arrivals amongst the groups of beach-goers that hadn’t been there before.

“I was wondering when you two punks were gonna show up!” Undyne grinned toothily at the two of you as she approached.

You couldn’t help but scan the muscular areas of skin that were showing from her two-piece suit and chuckled awkwardly when she smirked at your wandering eyes. Hey, you couldn’t help it - she’s attractive!

Luckily, she neglected to say anything, and instead opted for wrapping an arm around each of your necks and pulling you into a very awkward hug that was more like a choke hold. The two of you giggled nervously and mumbled a greeting before she let you go, causing you both to stumble in an attempt to right yourselves.

“Where have you been? The others have been around since we showed up!” She asked jovially, causing you and Mutt to sputter as you attempted to come up with an excuse.

So much for being mature, then.

“Um… talking?”

“yea, talkin’…”

“For three hours?” She asked suspiciously as she raised her brows at you with a knowing smirk.

“It was a long conversation.” You squeaked, then blanched when Mutt began snickering.

“yea, long ‘n hard.” He mumbled under his breath as he jerked his brow bones upwards at you and caused you to groan and slap a hand over your face.

“I’m going to fucking kill you.” You hissed as your face heated up to a degree that you didn’t even know was humanly possible.

Undyne burst out in uproarious laughter before slapping both of you on the back and almost knocking the wind out of you as a result.

“Quit ya bickering! I know where you’ve been.” She teased with a waggle of her brows, causing you to hide your red face with both hands and Mutt to shrug with a satisfied smirk on his face, despite the dusting of violet across his cheekbones.

“hey, where’s ya girl, anyway?” Mutt asked slyly, and you praised the stars for a change in topic when Undyne excitedly called over another monster in response.

You lifted your head from your hands just in time to see a yellow lizard-monster that you recognized stroll over. She was wearing an adorable sailor-esque one-piece that reminded you of those that women in the 1920’s wore, and lit up when she spotted the two of you.

Mutt excitedly called her name and gathered her up in a hug so that her feet were dangling in the air while she giggled nervously and greeted him. Once she was back on solid ground, grinning and adjusting her glasses that had threatened to fall from her face during the assault of affection, Undyne beamed proudly and draped an arm over her shoulder.

“You remember my fiancée, right, punk?” She asked almost giddily, prompting you to gasp as you looked between the two.

“Alphys, right? You were the one that made-“

“T-The magic s-suppression collar, yeah.” She stuttered anxiously as her gaze dropped ashamedly to the ground. “S-Sorry about that, by t-the way.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it!” You grinned at the monster as you injected a chuckle into your speech. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if you hadn’t put everyone at ease with it, so I should really be thanking you!”.

Alphys flushed and waved off your praise with a giggle, and you noticed Mutt grimacing at the mention of the collar and shot him a questioning look.

“that musta sucked, havin’ yer magic drained like that.” He stated with a note of sympathy to his tone.

You had a nagging feeling that his reasoning wasn’t the only thing that was bothering him about the collar, especially since Red had told you a while ago that a collar in their district was a symbol of ownership, but you let it go with a shrug.

“It wasn’t so bad once Alphys adjusted it. I just kinda felt… empty, I guess?”

You didn’t miss the looks of morose empathy that crossed each of the monsters faces at that and figured that they didn’t enjoy the idea of having their magic diminished either.

“Anyway! I had no idea you two were even together!” You chirped as you directed your attention toward the couple, causing Undyne to grin with pride at the mention of their relationship.

“Yep! We’re engaged as of a few months ago!” She announced enthusiastically, prompting both you and Mutt to gasp – you in surprise and Mutt in offence.

“why didn’t ya tell me, alphy?” He cried as he strolled closer to the furiously blushing monster, the latter of which was guiltily wringing her clawed hands together as she stammered out an excuse.

“w-we haven’t s-spoken in a l-long t-time and…”

The two of them became involved in a half-hearted bickering and you decided to just leave them to it with a laugh and a shake of your head, before turning your attention to the remaining monster, of whom was cackling at her poor fiancée’s misfortune.

“How do they know each other?” You asked as you amusedly watched Mutt subject the flushing monster to his faux-dramatics.

“I met Mutt through Milord, then he met Alphys through me.” She explained casually with a shrug, before leaning down and mumbling conspiringly as she snickered. “She mentioned Mew Mew Kissy Cutie in front of Mutt once, and they’ve been friends ever since.”.

You screwed up your face in befuddlement at that, before muttering lowly back to the monster, “That sounds like a Shoujo…”. You lit up disbelief in your face when Undyne nodded feverously and grinned at your very limited knowledge of anime genres. “You’re kidding!”

“Yep. You’re telling me you didn’t know that your boyfriend has a guilty pleasure for Shoujo anime?” She asked with laughter infecting her tone, prompting you to snort and shake your head.

“It… honestly doesn’t surprise me.” You chuckled at the image of this big, edgy looking skeleton squealing over a pink, sparkly anime girl, and somehow it just made him even more endearing.

“Hey, how come you’re here, by the way? Milord invite you?” You asked with a note of surprise at the idea that the stoic skeleton would invite anyone outside of the family on vacation with him, but snorted when a guilty look overcame the monster’s features and she let out a wry laugh.

“Not really. I just heard him talking about it with Edge and kind of… invited myself?” She said as her face lit up with a faint blue blush, sheepish laughter lacing her words as she did so.

You erupted into laughter at that, honestly excited to know what his reaction to the pair just showing up was. You were going to ask about just that, but she quickly recovered and looked at you with furrowed brows.

“Where is he, anyway? He decide not to come after all?”

It was your turn to scrunch your face up in confusion as you informed her that he had been with you when you arrived, and began to fret over his whereabouts. He was likely fine, but you couldn’t help but worry with everything that was going on. You made a pact with yourself that if he hadn’t turned up by the time you had gotten back from giving Albert his lunch, that you would go on an impromptu mission to locate the missing monster.

You were torn from your anxious musing by Papyrus’ voice yelling to Undyne that he needed her help with a game that he was playing against Blue and Stretch, and the boisterous fish-monster shouted in enthusiasm in return before bounding over to the group. Mutt and Alphys had disappeared at some point, too, and so you were left to find a spot to sit and people-watch whilst you enjoyed the sun and the sound of the sea.

It didn’t take long for the others to begin complaining about being hungry, and so you all found a nearby store and stocked up on snacks to take back with you, the whole time laughing and joking around with each other, much to the displeasure of the poor cashier who smiled nervously at each monster that passed through their register. At least they were trying to be polite!

When you did eventually make it back to the coastline to eat, you took a moment to simply look around at the company that surrounded you, each of them dressed in their own combination of sheer shirts and swimwear, with a fond grin.

Undyne and Papyrus had already abandoned their food to tackle each other in an action that fast led to a play-fight, of which Blue eagerly joined in on with a triumphant shout as he teamed up with his cousin to take down their, apparently, mutual opponent. Stretch was snickering at the display as Alphys fretted over them being too rough with each other and possibly getting hurt. Red was needling Edge about something with a huge, impish grin on his face as he poked a skeletal finger at him and, incredibly, his brother simply snorted and lightly pushed him away with a soft smile and a shake of his head. Sans, of course, had passed out the second he had finished his food and was snoring softly on the sand besides you with an arm under his head as a makeshift pillow. Axe and Butch were sneaking food away from those that were distracted and snickering to each other as they did so, then flushed lightly when you snorted in amusement and shook your head in faux disparagement at the pair, prompting Axe to shrug and wink at you before resuming his mischief.

You felt an arm gently nudge you and turned your gaze to its owner. Mutt grinned down at you in an expression that said ‘happy?’, and you sighed dreamily and nodded lightly in turn. With that, he wrapped an arm around you and pulled you into his side before nuzzling the top of your head in a skeletal kiss as the both of you contentedly watched the scene before you.

It was perfect.

Chapter Text

At some point during your lunch, Alphys had gingerly piped up about overhearing you discussing her favorite anime, and you didn’t miss the way Mutt immediately perked up with a dubious inquisitiveness. Of course, you teased Mutt a little about his preferred genre, but enthusiastically suggested that you should all watch it together soon, which lead to both Alphys and Mutt rambling at you about how awesome it was. You listened with a dopey grin on your face, which led to both parties brilliantly flushing, both in mortification at their rambling, but also at the fact that you were completely enamored by it. It was adorable.

Once you had cleaned up any trash – since there was no leftover food due to the brothers that you had caught sneaking it away earlier - Blue was nominated to shortcut you home to feed your poor abandoned tabby, and so he dropped the both of you directly into the kitchen, seeing as there wasn’t anyone to spook or have their privacy invaded.

The second that your feet hit the cool kitchen tile, you recognized the crackling ice of Milord’s Font emanating from the living room and, unable to help yourself, froze to listen.

You looked to Blue with furrowed brows at the Captain’s presence, but faltered when you noticed the thinly veiled concern etched into his features. With a start, you recognized a tone that was comprised of anger and quiet desperation lacing the Font and took a breath to ask the skeleton beside you to translate. He must have sensed your impending question, however, and cut you off before you could even utter a single syllable.

“HI, MILORD!” He called at a deafeningly loud volume, causing you to squeak with fright and slap your hands over your ears with a glare at the monster.

The crackling Font lowered to just above a whisper as he assumedly finished up whatever he was saying to whoever he was conversing with before you heard the telltale clicking of footsteps against wood as he approached the kitchen. When you spotted the skeleton, he was tapping away at his phone before shoving it into his pocket with a barely audible sigh, and you almost began your interrogation right then and there. However, as you often were, you were distracted by the sight of Albert winding around Milord’s legs as he walked, purring up a storm as he did so.

“Alby!” You cooed as you dropped into a crouch and held out your arms in a summoning gesture, but gasped in hurt when he simply glanced at you inquisitively, then continued his ministrations along a very irate Milord’s legs. With a huff you stood and crossed your arms over your chest, weakly glaring at the oblivious tabby.

“Everyone’s betraying me today.” You grumbled under your breath, causing Blue to snort knowingly and Milord to shoot you an exasperated, questioning look. You shook your head as a way to dismiss the subject, before raising a critical eyebrow at the monster.

“What was that about?” You asked carefully.

You were very well aware that you were being extremely nosy, but at this point you didn’t care. If there was anything to know about the whole impending doom situation, you were going to be the first!

“Nothing that concerns you.” He stated cooly as he flashed a small, strained smile.

You hummed doubtingly before deciding to just drop it in favor of not starting yet another fight with the fiery skeleton and moved to begin retrieving Albert’s food instead.

If you had been looking at that moment, you would have observed the look of incredulity that appeared on Blue’s face that he directed toward his Captain, as well as the glare and slight shake of Milord’s head in return. However, you stood with cat food in hand just as the expressions disappeared from their skulls, before shaking the bag and causing Albert to dash over to you with a pitiful mewl.

“Oh yeah, now you come to me, ya little deviant.” You half-heartedly huffed to the ginger tabby as he began to wail and rub against your legs as though he had never eaten in his entire life. Just as you moved to open the bag, though, Milord spoke up with an irritated sigh.

“He has already eaten. He would not scease making this awful howling noise and following me until he had.”.

To that, you gasped and glared at the very innocent-looking kitty before shoving the food back in its place, earning a look of pure betrayal.

“Thank you, Milord.” You said in a grateful exhale, before looking at Albert with your hands on your hips accompanied by a stern look.

“Liar! I raised you better than this!” You cried in mock-reprimand, causing Blue to snort and scoop up the now completely devastated cat.

“HE IS INNOCENT! DO NOT BE SO MEAN, MAIDEN!” Blue huffed offendedly as he cradled the tabby against his chest and half turned his body away as though you were going to hurt the poor thing, jokingly glaring at you as he did so.

“He is anything but! He is a convicted criminal!” You countered with an air of faux indignance.

Blue breathed a laugh and raised his brow bones, before instantly falling straight into character for whatever improvised drama the two of you had begun to act out.

“WHAT DID HE DO?!” He made a show of acting absolutely flabbergasted, even holding a hand to his mouth in shock for effect and widening his eye sockets.

“Tax fraud, robbery, manslaughter, murder- I mean, the list goes on.” You ticked off each apparent criminal offence on your fingers, somehow maintaining a completely deadpan expression as you did so. “It would be easier to tell you what he hasn’t done. He is one stone cold criminal.” You finished as you sadly shook your head at the skeleton, causing him to dissolve into boisterous cackling and immediately breaking your serious demeanor as you giggled in return.

“If you two are quite finished-“ Milord called over your laughter, a tiny hint of amusement to his authoritarian tone, “-we should return to the others, should we not?”.

Blue looked conflicted all of a sudden, as though he wanted to say something, but the troubled expression was quickly replaced with a chipper grin as he agreed and offered an outstretched hand to you. Unease roiled in your gut as a result, but instead of asking any questions that you were sure that you didn’t want the answer to in that moment, you instead held out a hand in the same fashion to Milord with an impish smirk.

“So I know that you’re actually coming with us.” You justified the action with a jovial tone, causing the skeleton to roll his eyelights and tentatively grasp your hand. He was only barely brushing the tips of your fingers, but it was enough to make sure that he would be teleported along with the two of you, you surmised.

Satisfied, you took Blue’s hand and the three of you soon landed in the lounging area of the beach house. The second that you moved to exit the house and looked back expectantly at the pair, Blue began to shift uneasily as his eyelights darted between you and Milord.

“YOU GO AHEAD. WE’LL CATCH UP IN A MINUTE!” He tried to say cheerily, but there was a definite undertone of nerves to his words.

You pressed your lips together and considered calling Milord out and needling him for who he had been talking to on the phone, then swiftly decided against it.

“Sure, see you in a bit!” You chirped with a grin, not missing the faint relief on the pairs’ faces, and strolled out onto the beach with a quiet sigh.

Then, with a huff of laughter, you watched the others animatedly chat and run about doing whatever they were doing, quickly spotting that Sans and Edge were sat on a large beach towel – definitely big enough for more than two people - away from the group, Sans seemingly still napping, and Edge focused on a hardback copy of some sort of murder-mystery novel. You scanned the title of the book with a raised brow once you got close enough and committed the genre to memory, justifying the action with the thought that you could buy one for him if you ever came across something similar.

Not really feeling like joshing about with the others due to the unrelenting twist of anxiety in your gut regarding the earlier situation, you pulled off your cover up and opted for some sunbathing instead. With a huff you sat heavily on the towel next to Sans, who cracked open a socket to eye you with a lax grin.

“what’s eatin’ ya, bud?” He asked lowly.

You lay down on your back and used an arm to shield your eyes from the sun, the pleasant warmth somewhat easing your anxiety and allowing it to leave your body in a slow exhale.

“Just Milord.” You stated shortly, earning a snort from Sans as he closed his sockets once more and crossed his arms under his head in a makeshift pillow.

“say no more.” He said with an amused lilt to his tone, causing you to clarify quickly.

“Oh, no. He hasn’t done anything wrong-“

“YET.” Came Edge’s mirth-filled voice as Sans chuckled and made a noise of agreement, before opening both sockets and shooting the stoic skeleton an impish smirk.

“you’re one to talk.” He sniggered with a raised browbone.

Edge bristled, but seemed to quickly decide that Sans’ needling was not worth getting irate over, and so simply grumbled and rolled his eyelights before going back to reading his book. You lightly slapped Sans’ arm in reprimand and you bit your lip to hold back a giggle, earning a hushed snicker from the monster in response.

Opting to attempt to take your mind off of the topic rather than sitting and stewing in it, you sat up and looked around the beach. You noticed that there were quite a few stall-like structures being set up along with coolers and the likes. There was even someone lugging a set of speakers onto the sand, and another person heaving a large bag of wooden logs!

“Hey, it looks like there’s going to be a party or something here tonight!” You exclaimed excitedly, causing Sans to sit up slightly to curiously scan the area.

“huh, well would ya look at that.” He muttered distractedly, causing you to turn to him with furrowed brows.

You fully expected him to have simply lay back down and resumed his nap, uninterested by your observation, but what you were greeted with had your whole body heating up, and not just from the lingering sunshine.

Cyan eyelights paired with an identical flush were trained on you. He had openly taken notice of your bare skin, littered with monochromatic tattoos that were accented by the thin silver lines of your many old scars. They were never usually noticeable due to how dark the ink was, but in the bright daylight sun that shone on the rarely exposed skin, they seemed to reflect the rays and cause a faint glimmer to lace the long-healed wounds, making them all the more obvious.

An icy feeling of self-consciousness settled in your stomach, and you forcefully pushed it down. You had told yourself repeatedly that you would never be ashamed of your scars despite attempting, and mostly succeeding, in covering them up with swirling black ink. So, doing what you did best, you plastered on a sly smirk and raised an eyebrow at the ogling skeleton.

“Ya got a staring problem, buddy?” You asked amusedly, immediately causing Sans to flinch as his eyelights shrunk and rapidly shifted from your expression, thick with mirth, to the ground below as his entire skull further lit up a brilliant blue.

“sorry.” He mumbled weakly.

“No, no. Go ahead!“ You exclaimed all too seriously, forcing a neutral expression as you did so, before leaning back on a hand and gesturing to yourself with the other. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to get an eyeful of this? This is peak human performance!”

Your shit-eating grin returned with a vengeance when the poor, flustered skeleton sputtered and somehow turned even bluer, his words sorely failing him as his mouth opened and closed in a poor attempt at retorting.

You froze and snapped your gaze to Edge when you heard a restrained snort emanate from the monster, then beamed in delight at the hand covering the lower half of his face as his shoulders shook with the effort of keeping his laughter at bay. Of course the one thing to get Edge to laugh, to really laugh, was others’ misfortune! It should have been obvious to you, now that you thought about it.

At that, you devised a silent plan to attempt to turn the muted sniggering into full on laughter and got to work with a positively evil little grin that Sans responded to with a pleading look.

No time for mercy, Sans, I have work to do!

“Aw, it’s okay!” You cooed as you tilted your head at him in a condescending manner. “It’s normal for boys your age to have certain feelings, y’know? Nothing to be ashamed about!”

Sans uttered out a mortified ‘ohmygodshutup’ as his hands moved to cover his burning face. The sound of louder, but still muffled and restrained, snickering reached your ears and encouraged you to continue. This was certainly sweet, sweet revenge for his low blow back at the lab, and you were definitely drinking it in with pure satisfaction.

“You see, when two people love each other very much-“

Your impromptu sex-ed talk was cut off by your own prolonged wheeze as Sans yelped a ‘nope!’ and vanished from his spot. Then, your maniacal giggling quieted when you picked up on deep, raspy cackling sounding from besides you- the rough but pleasing sound full of genuine malicious joy as it tumbled past his now uncovered teeth.

“Did I just make you laugh, Edge?” You asked with a thrilled grin.

You were beaming to the point where your cheeks were hurting when he paused to look at you, but then dissolved into rasping chuckles once again as he attempted, and spectacularly failed, to repress the jovial sound that was forced from him at your ridiculous antics. Joy fluttered within your soul at the sight, especially when you noted the very faint red that tinted his cheekbones, and you couldn’t help but to join in with giggling of your own.

Once the two of you had somewhat sobered, you looked to the skeleton with affection obvious in your expression, of which morphed into flustered, delighted surprise when he gazed at you with the same adoration. You felt as though the both of you were locked in a trance, in which time seemed to slow to a stop, as heat flushed your face and a strange yearning for his touch bubbled up inside of you, along with the familiar thump of your soul against your ribcage.

The exchange must have only lasted for a second, which was quickly, disappointingly broken by Edge regaining his senses and wrenching his gaze away with a furious blush and a small scowl, but the chaste interaction left you reeling as you fought down the intense emotion that it had generated.

You’d be lying if you said that you didn’t feel somewhat disillusioned that he had broken the brief, wordless exchange of affections, but a faint smile remained on your face nonetheless as you let out a breathy laugh and bit down on your lip, your gaze now trained on the ground beneath you.
You remained like that for a minute, simply allowing your thoughts to wander regarding the aforementioned skeleton, but whipped your head up as you felt the unnerving crawling of your skin that only ever occurred when somebody was watching you.

Your searching gaze was pointed in every direction in an attempt to find whoever had decided to sneakily observe your actions, but all you caught was a flash of what you surmised to be a human with a mop of long, brown hair. You didn’t see their face, as they had already turned around and made haste in retreating, but you could just about make out the broad frame of a male attached to the dark hair, with what you could see of him clad with dark denim.

Swallowing against your dry throat with a knot of dread tightening your chest, you watched the figure take off, your gaze locked on the back of the stranger’s head as you willed them to just glance back so that you could see their face, but they simply continued to retreat without so much as a second’s hesitation. You only tore your eyes away from the figure when they had disappeared completely, and forced yourself to exhale the breath that you had been holding out of fear.

Someone audibly shifted next to you and, still wound up from the odd encounter, you flinched and snapped your gaze to them with a sharp gasp. Then let out a breathy, wry laugh at yourself for getting so easily spooked when you recognized the pointed frown and red eyelights that filled your vision, but couldn’t shake the unease in your soul as his questioning expression melted into one of veiled concern. It took a brief moment of watching this shift before you realized that not only were your eyes wide with fear, but you had unconsciously dug your fingers into the blanket beneath you, causing your knuckles to whiten around the bunched up fabric.

Dropping your gaze ashamedly to the ground, you forced yourself to untense and released your grasp on the material of the blanket with a shuddering sigh. Edge lowered the book he was holding to his lap as he took a breath to address you, but whatever he was going to say was lost when his older brother popped into existence between the two of you with a crackle of crimson magic. You were honestly jealous of Edge’s apparent resilience to jumpscares via teleportation, because the second that you felt the body of your beta brush your arm, you shrieked and flailed, the frantic action causing you to tumble straight into him.

“jeez, angel, ya fallin’ fer me all over again.” He snickered.

He caught you and pulled you into a sitting position before slyly positioning you between his legs so that your back was against his chest and wrapping his arms around your midsection. You were thankful that he couldn’t see your face at that moment, because you were pretty sure that it had lost all of its color from the repeated scares.

Letting out a weak laugh, you couldn’t help but glance over at Edge, of whom had gone back to his book as though nothing was awry and, honestly, you were grateful for that – you really didn’t want to alert the others over something that you weren’t even sure if you were just being paranoid over or not.

You could smell the alcohol on the monster and internally sighed in reprimand, though, letting the sweet haze of booze overtake your tightly wound mind didn’t sound like too bad of an idea at this point.

Your eyes quickly zeroed in on the half-emptied bottle of brown liquid that had replaced his flask and you made quick work of plucking it from his hand, unscrewing the lid and taking a deep swig, earning a hearty chuckle from the monster.

“ya finally decide not ta be borin’?” He teased as he nuzzled the crook of your neck, prompting you to roll your eyes good-naturedly and let out a sarcastic laugh, before once again taking a large sip of the bitter, burning liquid.

After a few more sizeable swigs of the booze, and a lot of tipsy affection from your beta, your mind began to calm, enveloped by the warmth of the alcohol as well as the much needed, comforting physical contact, and you found yourself giggling and joking as you usually would with the monster.

At one point, Mutt decided that he had had enough of messing about with the others and decided to join the two of you, though he had abandoned the black tank top – of which was now bunched up and hanging from one hand- and was now proudly displaying the green shimmer that laced the deep indents in his bone that made up your fresh mark. You could have sworn that you felt Red and Mutt fist bump behind your back, and looked at the two of them in exasperated amusement as they each regarded you with an impish grin.

Honestly, it didn’t matter what species they were, boys were boys.

The exchange of mutual boasting did cause a startling realization to jump to the forefront of your mind, however. Communication and equality between you and your pack was something that you were determined to prioritize, and yet you didn’t get a chance to ask Red if marking Mutt was something that he would be okay with. It certainly wasn’t as though he wasn’t expecting it, but the lack of open dialogue when it came to your intentions with his best friend had guilt blooming in your chest regardless.

Now certainly wasn’t the time to bring it up, especially since his brother was right beside the three of you, but you made a mental note to talk about it with the both of them at some other point.

Mutt had just lit a cigarette and joined you in partaking in day-drinking after passing one to you and Red, of which Edge audibly showed his disapproval for with a grumble and a roll of his eyelights, but he didn’t make any move to reposition himself, instead opting to ignore the three of you in favor of getting lost in his book. You were distracted from the beginning of banter between your betas when Milord and Blue finally exited the house, the two of them looking positively irate with one another, and almost got up to intervene.

Nope! No Mage business!

Instead, you noticed with confusion mixed with a hint of mirth that Milord had seemingly absolutely refused to join the group in changing into swimwear, and instead wore a long-sleeved button up and slacks, complete with his typical black dress shoes. You pointed this out to Mutt and Red, who tilted their heads at you with smirks that made you feel as though you were missing out on some key information.

“What?” You drew out the word with suspicion as you screwed up your face at the pair.

“y’know skeleton-monsters don’t feel temperature, right doll?” Mutt drawled as he exhaled the last puff of his cigarette, the smoke curling and winding around his pointed teeth and nasal cavity as he did so. Your jaw dropped as you made a noise of outrage, prompting both skeletons to snicker at your reaction.

“Then why do all of you dress appropriately for the weather?” You asked in indignance as you scanned the beach as though to confirm your observation. “If I couldn’t feel temperature, I would just wear whatever I wanted all the time!”

“we never used ta, but since surfacin’ it’s best if we try t’blend in with humans since most of ‘em are still kinda freaked out by walkin’, talkin’ skeletons.” Red explained nonchalantly with a shrug before tipping the shared bottle back and taking a swig of the quickly diminishing liquid.

You hummed in morose understanding, your lips pressed together as a feeling of bitter unjust roiled inside you for the monsters.

“humans already think we’re weird, it’s jus’ easier if we follow their rules so they think we’re at least a lil’ less weird.” Mutt added as he took the offered bottle from Red, prompting you to sigh and deflate in empathy for them.

“Humans suck.” You concluded with a low grumble.

Your gaze dropped to the lit cigarette in your hand, guilt for the way that your species seemed to just lash out without a single thought at anything that was different causing a tight feeling in your throat – it honestly disgusted you, and you felt ashamed to even be a part of the same race as human beings a lot of the time as a result.

“not all’a them.” Both Mutt and Red contended in a low, affectionate tone simultaneously, the former gently nudging his shoulder with yours as the latter squeezed your midsection with the arms that were still looped around you.

You missed the shared look that the two gave each other - a silent communication that conveyed just how much affection they held for you, without the bitter sting of jealousy that usually came along with it - as you huffed a bitter laugh despite the flush that was creeping along your cheeks and the faint smile playing on your lips at the sweet statement.

As you exhaled the last drag of your cigarette and stubbed it out on the sand below, you looked around to locate Milord and Blue, only finding the latter monster as he had joined in once more on Papyrus and Undyne’s roughhousing with a bright, jovial demeanor. You craned your neck to look over Red’s shoulder and spotted the missing skeleton sitting on one of the loungers that littered the rear of the house, though he was doing anything but lounging. The uptight monster was sitting rigid, his clawed fingers tapping away on his femur as he glared at the ground below, seemingly completely lost in thought.

“why’re ya tryin’ so hard with ‘im, angel?” Red’s morose tone from right besides your head made you flinch and snap your gaze to him, immediate ire beginning to well up inside of you at the question.

You furrowed your brows at him with a soft frown and opened your mouth to retort, but was cut off by Mutt shoving Red’s arm in an action that conveyed the fierce defensiveness that he held for his brother. The obviously impulsive action caused you as well as Red to jerk to the side, but in place of where you expected an apologetic look to be, instead was a twisted scowl paired with dangerously flickering eyelights that remained trained on the skeleton.

“what th’ fuck?” Red growled in indignance as he glowered at the monster, unwinding his arms from around you to rub at the assaulted bone.

“he’s still my brother, red.” He contended dolefully - a threat in his jagged scowl and the emphatic flickering of his lilac eyelights - before his gaze abashedly shifted away from his cousin’s insolent expression with a growl. “even if we ain’t exactly gettin’ along right now.”

Red bristled and looked as though he was going to argue, but a quick glance at his own brother -who briefly looked up from his reading material to issue a silent warning with his eyelights- seemed to remind him of his own protective nature when it came to Edge, and his combative glare softened into one of remorse.

“’m sorry.” He grumbled reluctantly, shifting uneasily and dropping his gaze to the ground.

You had expected Mutt to react with displeasure to the forced-sounding apology, but somewhere in the utterance, just as you had, he had detected the undertone of genuine guilt for his words and instantly deflated, dismissing the dig at his brother with a “‘s okay”.

You often forgot that Mutt had known Red for a lot longer than you, and consequently easily picked up on his intentions where a stranger would take his belligerent words and demeanor at face value. It honestly warmed your heart at how well they knew each other and how close they were due to it, plus, it made your life a lot easier when you didn’t have to mediate every conflict between the two.

“To answer your question- “ You piped up once the tension from the exchange had dissipated, a disapproving tone to your voice as you did so, “- I’m trying so hard with him because he’s a good person. Sure, he can be cruel and abrasive, but so could you, Red!”.

The aforementioned monster grumbled as his scowl intensified at your observation, knowing that you were right but holding himself back from pointing out the differences between him and the captain.

“He’s been kind to me, given me a purpose -even if it was for a selfish reason at first. I can see good in him, just like I can see it in you- and aren’t you glad that I did and still do?”

“ya don’t know ‘im like we do.” He muttered weakly, a sure compromise to what he actually wanted to say and, whilst you sighed in frustration, Mutt furrowed his brows and glanced over his shoulder at his brother with a solemn frown. The brief flicker of hurt that crossed his features didn’t go unnoticed by you.

“No, I don’t.” You said in a tone that conveyed your waning patience, before shuffling so that you were facing Red and sat back on your heels. “But I’d like to form my own opinion and get to know him, because so far I actually like what I do know.”

You could practically see the effort it was taking for the headstrong skeleton to keep his temper in check and reached out a tentative hand to place on top of his as you caught his gaze, smiled gently and softly spoke his name, hoping that it would convey the fact that you weren’t upset with him for what he had said.

“you fuckin’ kindness souls, too nice fer ya own good.” He grumbled as his demeanor untensed slightly, allowing both you and Mutt to internally breathe a collective sigh of relief. “go ‘n make pals with ‘im, but don’ say i didn’t warn ya.”

With that, he vanished from his spot on the blanket, leaving you staring at the empty space with a growing knot of anxiety in your stomach. A clawed hand entered the periphery of your vision as it came to rest on your thigh and you shifted your gaze toward its owner, chewing on your lip as your eyes burned from unshed tears when Mutt’s concerned face came into view.

“he’ll be alright. jus’ let ‘im cool down.” He murmured gently as he flashed you an empathetic smile and squeezed your thigh in a comforting gesture.

With a shaky exhale, you nodded your head weakly and internally steeled yourself for your next little mission of the day.

“I’m going to go and see if I can get Milord to join us.” You announced as you plastered on a confident grin. “Do you want to come with me?” You directed the question towards his younger brother, who faltered slightly and shook his head, before composing himself with a lax grin and sitting back on his hands.

“nah, think i’ll spend some bondin’ time with edgy boy here.” He snickered when Edge huffed from beside him, his gaze remaining unwaveringly trained on the pages in front of him as he did so, but made no attempt to object to his proposed plan.

To that, you nodded as your insincere smile shifted into one of mirth at the prospect of Mutt’s idea of ‘bonding time’ -as it was likely just going to be him needling the irate monster until he got up and left- and nodded before taking one last glance over at Milord as you began mentally deliberating a way to cheer up the increasingly grouchy skeleton.

“hey,” Mutt’s lowered voice caused you to freeze and turn to him questioningly, before he took both of your hands into his with a grateful smile, “thank you… fer defendin’ ‘im. i know he can be… well, y’know, but he’s still my brother ‘n…”

“You don’t need to thank me, my love.” You breathed with a small smile.

You then took the opportunity to enquire about something that you had been wondering for a while, hoping that he would at least answer your surface-level question if he wouldn’t indulge your more personal ones. You just prayed that you weren’t completely off the mark with your observation.

“He… He’s always had to be the strong leader in any situation, hasn’t he? The one that everyone else relies on?”

Mutt started slightly and snapped his dropped gaze to your face in surprise, before he scrunched up his face in thinly veiled sorrow and nodded, prompting you to exhale gently through your nose at his confirmation with a sad writhing in your soul.

“I can tell.” You stated, your melancholy tone barely above a whisper as Mutt looked to you curiously. “He’s always had to be cruel and rigid to keep things under control, right?”

Mutt once again nodded as his features shifted into surprise once more but offered no further information on your speculations.

“That’s why I’m trying so hard with him. It breaks my heart to see the others so afraid of him or hesitant to be around him, when he’s the one that needs someone to understand him the most, I think.” You explained with a light shrug.

There was a beat of silence for a moment, the only audible sound the faraway shouts of beachgoers as well as the hushed roar of the sea as it lapped languidly against the sand. You could feel Edge’s eyelights on you, and when you glanced over to survey his expression, you found that it was completely inscrutable. The only indication that he was experiencing anything but pure apathy was the almost inconceivable upward jerk of a bony brow, of which you interpreted as being that he was somewhat questioning your judgement.

When you returned your line of sight back to your newest beta, your eyes widened a fraction at the mixture of appreciative disbelief that laced his features. His jaw was clenched like he was attempting to force back tears as he let out a wobbly exhale, before pulling you into him and wrapping his arms around you, bunching his fists up in the back of your top as though you could be ripped away from him at any second. He had a habit of doing that, it seemed, and you couldn’t help but feel a little flower of sorrow bloom in your chest at the implications of his repeated, desperation-filled action.

“we really don’t deserve ya, doll.” He murmured to the side of your head as you wound your arms around his neck and brushed your lips against his temple in a light kiss. You pulled back and opened your mouth to contend with his statement, but someone else beat you to it.

“Speak For Yourself, Bitch.” Edge muttered under his breath as his attention remained trained on his reading material.

He obviously was unintending for anyone to overhear him by the way his smug smirk dropped into shock, then complete flustered mortification when he noticed you and Mutt simultaneously gawking at him with stunned delight.

Mutt broke the quiet first with a loud snort as he slapped a hand over his mouth, and you easily dissolved into hysterical giggles at the combination of the action and Edge’s unexpectedly sassy comeback. Your synchronous cackling only doubled in intensity when the poor, humiliated skeleton let out an irate growl, snapped his book shut and stalked away from the pair of you and in the direction of the house, his entire skull beet red as he did so. You managed to choke out the monster’s name and shout for him to come back through your mirth, but absolutely nothing was going to get him to turn back around and face the complete chaos that he had inadvertently caused, it seemed.

Eventually, the sounds of your laughter died down into quiet, breathless giggles and Mutt automatically reached for the abandoned bottle of liquor, groaning half-heartedly when he picked it up to find it empty save a few miniscule drops lining the bottom of the glass. You really did intend to continue on with your plan regarding Milord, but perhaps some liquid courage wasn’t too bad of an idea, you surmised.

“There are a few stalls along the pier that have alcohol. If you go get my handbag from our room, we can go get some more~” You offered in a sing-song tone, grinning and waggling your eyebrows at the skeleton as he huffed good-naturedly with a roll of his eyelights.

“but that requires effort~” He sang back, making a show of falling onto his back with an arm laid over his skull as though the very thought of moving from his spot had exhausted him. You mirrored his action with a snort and nudged his tibia with your foot in a teasing admonishment.

“I guess we’ll just have to be sober, then.” You sighed in mock disappointment.

You thought for a brief moment that he had actually just wordlessly accepted his alcohol-less fate, but after a few seconds of silence, the skeleton grumbled, dragged himself to his feet and lovingly presented you with his middle finger before disappearing from view in a crackle of magic.  

With a snort you sat yourself up and shrugged on your pullover in preparation for your mini adventure, then stood just in time for Mutt to reappear – thankfully with a shirt on this time- and launch the retrieved bag at your head. You were grateful for your relatively fast reaction time as you caught the offending item with a squeak and yelped his name indignantly, prompting the skeleton to flash you a shit-eating grin that conveyed just how proud he was of his ‘prank’.

“Come on, idiot.” You huffed out in an affectionate giggle as you extended a hand toward him, of which he eagerly interlinked with his own, and began your jaunt towards the location of the longingly sought after beverages.

The original plan had been to just pick up a couple of bottles and maybe some mixers, just enough to last the two of you the night whilst having some spare to offer to the others, but it, unsurprisingly, quickly got out of hand.

It turns out, saying ‘fuck it, I’m on holiday!’ is a very costly turn of phrase, as by the time that you had deemed the impromptu shopping endeavor over, the two of you had a heavy bag full of assorted alcohol and soda, along with some disposable cups for convenience, that clinked and rattled with every step. You were just about to announce that you should probably call it a day where alcohol purchasing was concerned when you came across a stall that seemed to exclusively sell different types of wine and pulled on Mutt’s arm to direct his attention to it.

“Does Milord drink wine?” You asked as you tugged at his hand to pull him toward the variety of dark glass bottles, prompting the monster to grin knowingly as he joined you in your browsing.

“it’s th’ only thing he drinks apart from coffee.” He huffed amusedly.

You lit up with a grin, then greeted the vendor, fully aware that you hadn’t the faintest idea of what the difference was between each of the fancy-sounding descriptors that labelled each bottle.

After the vendor – a sweet bunny-monster with cream fur and an adorable southern twang to her melodic voice – had asked what you were looking for and Mutt helpfully supplied ‘uh, red?’, you spent a little time listening to the descriptions of each wine and eventually, with your betas guesswork on what his brother would like, you settled on a Cabernet Sauvignon.

The combination of flavors – blackberry, plum and black cherry – was exactly what you had envisioned Milord to prefer, and so you paid the - incredibly steep - amount for a singular bottle (you wouldn’t tell the lovely vendor that, of course) and the two of you were on your way back to the sandy coastline.

The others had apparently decided to take a break from their antics and set up their own beach towels and the likes next to yours, and greeted the both of you as you returned with your bountiful accumulation of drinks, of which a few began to eagerly partake in – namely Sans (who had finally returned after your earlier shenanigans), Undyne, Stretch, Axe and, somewhat worryingly, Papyrus.

You supposed that Blue, Butch and Alphys weren’t big drinkers, but that honestly didn’t surprise you. What you were concerned about was the fact that, firstly, Red and Edge weren’t anywhere to be found (though you could hazard a guess as to why), and secondly, that Papyrus not only had been avoiding you since the incident during your training, but that, despite seeming completely fine, the normally composed, health-conscious skeleton was day drinking.

If it were literally anyone else, you would have dismissed it as them treating themselves on their vacation, but a quick glance at Sans confirmed that he shared the same gnawing feeling of concern. You would have to keep an eye on Paps, you thought, just to make sure that he didn’t overdo it. It’s not like you could chastise him for his behavior, that would make you the biggest hypocrite to ever have walked the earth, but you could never forgive yourself if something were to go awry.

As much as you wanted to stay with the present members of the group, you resumed your briefly abandoned mission and, after pouring yourself your own drink, retrieved the newly acquired wine and headed in the direction of the house with a spoken promise to return.

Milord was now sat at the edge of the lounger, fervently tapping away at his phone in what you could only assume was a work-related text conversation with a look of focused unease, and only looked up from his screen when you passed by him to enter the building. You caught the presence of quiet curiosity within his hardened features as his eyelights darted from you to the bottle, and you made quick work of finding a wine glass and carefully pouring out the dark liquid, before returning with your cup in one hand and his glass in the other.

“It’s a Cabernet Sauvignon.” You stated when he eyed the glass suspiciously, holding out the aforementioned item as you did so. “I have no idea what that means, but Mutt said that you like red wine and the lady at the stall said it’s good!”  

His eye sockets had widened just a fraction as you spoke and his teeth parted slightly in surprise, but the stupefied expression swiftly returned to one of cynicism when you urged him to take the glass from you with a patient smile paired with a raised brow.

“You have not poisoned it, have you?” He asked cautiously as he continued to study the burgundy liquid, prompting you to stare at him incredulously.

“No? Why would I-?” You cut yourself off with a sharp exhale as you shook your head at the monster, before making a show of taking a large sip of the bitter swill and screwing up your face in disgust.

“See? Not poisoned.” You choked out as the sour acidity assaulted your tastebuds, then once again thrust the glass toward him. “God, I fucking hate wine. Why do people drink this shit?” You added in a low grumble as Milord huffed a barely audible laugh at your displeasure, his tense demeanor relaxing somewhat as he did so.

You could have run laps in celebration when the prickly skeleton finally conceded and took the glass from your hand, but instead, you opted to smile softly at him and situate yourself on the edge of a neighboring recliner before taking a hearty swig of your own drink to rid yourself of the lingering taste on your tongue.

Now observing anxiously as he wiped the rim of the glass with the edge of his sleeve – at which point you put every modicum of effort that you had into holding back a roll of your eyes - before bringing the glass to his pointed teeth to sample what you had chosen, you sighed mutedly in relief when the slight upward twitch of his mouth signaled to you that your barely-educated judgement when it came to wine selection was at least acceptable.

“You know,” He said coolly after a moment, “there are several methods of poisoning a monster that would not bring harm to a human. Your approach to proving that you did not poison my drink is completely ineffective.”

You could only blink owlishly at the monster in bewilderment in response to the information, before muttering out, “Then, why…?”.

“Perhaps simply the act of attempting to prove such a thing to me has rendered you trustworthy.” He stated with the barest hint of mirth to his tone.

 The addition of a smirk and glittering amusement within his violet eyelights immediately signaled something to you, resulting in you squinting your eyes suspiciously at the skeleton.

“Were you just fucking with me?”.

You gaped at him in stunned silence when his sly grin widened at your question, then breathed a laugh of disbelief, and shook your head.

“I had prepared myself to insist that you sample the wine to convince me of your integrity, yet you seemed compelled to do so without my interference.” His sly grin widened at the explanation of his devious scheming, prompting you to make a noise of indignance as he mutedly snickered in response.

“You have a strange sense of humor.” You stated with a snort, then laid back on the recliner and shielded your eyes from the sun with a hand.  Milord raised a bony brow at you in turn as he crossed a leg over the other and absentmindedly swirled his wine with a smooth motion of his gloved hand.

“And you do not?” He contended amusedly, obviously referring to your spontaneous little theatric performance with Blue that he had witnessed earlier.

“Yeah, you got me there.” You conceded with a breath of laughter, rolling your eyes good-naturedly as you did so, before adding with a half-hearted glare, “I can’t believe you made me drink wine. You’re actually evil! How did you know that I don’t like it?”

“My brother talks about you a lot more than you think he does.” He stated, a smug smirk gracing his features at your accusation, before muttering in muted exasperation with a roll of his lilac eyelights, “He would not shut up about you on the journey here.”

“Oh.” You breathed weakly as your face warmed in response to the information, a lovesick grin forcefully making its way onto your pink face as you did so. You opted to ignore the scoff that sounded from beside you.

“Speaking of, why are you not with him instead of wasting your time here?” He asked coolly.

A small frown and critical pair of eyelights were present in the skeleton’s expression, despite the otherwise air of apathy that had replaced the short-lived mirth.

“I wanted to hang out with you!” You chirped jovially, beaming at the skeptical skeleton as you did so.

A light, lilac flush crept along his cheekbones at your response, of which was promptly followed by the deepening of his scowl as he turned his skull away from you.

“I do not need your pity.” He growled.

You sat up to swing your legs over the side of the chair to face him and, not allowing his defensive demeanor to get to you, shot him a sickeningly sweet grin.

“It’s not pity if I actually just want to spend time with you, Milord.” You affirmed, causing the skeleton’s blush to intensify further as his scowl softened into quiet disbelief. “Is it so hard to believe that I care about you?”

There was a beat of tense silence where Milord seemed to be considering something, before he abruptly stood from his seat and stalked over to you, his expression completely unreadable. The sudden action startled you, and you snapped your gaze up to him as he glowered down at you, the difference in positions giving him quite the height advantage for once, despite him being as tall as you. The faint flush was absent from his face, instead replaced with a malicious glint to his eyelights as they searched your mystified expression.

He held his wine glass, the stem elegantly cradled between his ring and middle finger, in one gloved hand, whilst the other found its way under your jaw, two of its clawed fingers gently tilting your head upwards. The contact made you inhale sharply as a furious flush lit up your features, of which were rounded in careful curiosity as a vicious smirk slowly revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth.

“Are you afraid of me, Althea?” He asked lowly, his velvety voice laced with the most pernicious intent that you had come to hear from the usually stoic skeleton.

You swallowed hard against the lump that had formed in your throat despite the intense heat that had swiftly spread to your face and lower abdomen from such a small action, then gently shook your head the best you could with the pressure against the underside of your jaw. A short, breathy chuckle emitted from him as he leant down so that his face was mere inches from yours.

“And what a foolish decision that is, to be so trusting, so caring- to become fond of a monster like me.” He hissed, the malicious lilt to his voice now accompanied by some form of sick amusement as he watched you squirm under his scrutiny.

The painfully close proximity of his face to yours was only fueling your flustered and – if you were being honest with yourself- aroused state, and the heat of his breath against your flushed face certainly wasn’t helping.

He seemed to take note of this and, paired with the fact that you weren’t showing any signs of fear or even a desire to escape from his touch, he quickly surmised the exact flurry of emotions that he was invoking in you, if the lidded sockets and growling chuckle was anything to go by.

“I don’t think it is.” You managed to eke out in a weak sigh, the thrashing of your soul against your ribcage accompanied by your racing heart causing your voice to waver.

Despite the very obvious flush to your cheeks, your soft expression hardened into one of fierce determination as you gingerly reached up to grasp the wrist of the hand that held you hostage.

You couldn’t tell if it was the pure indignance of being spoken to in such a condescending manner or if the little alcohol you had consumed was already clouding your judgement, but a spike of confidence shot through you as you strengthened your grip and jerked his arm downwards in one fluid motion. The action forced a guttural snarl to slip past his scowl and left but a hairs-width of space between your faces, but he made no move to resist or pull away.

Now fully encouraged by this, you tilted your head so that your lips brushed against the side of his head with lidded eyes and a sly smirk, of which he responded to with another low growl.

“What I think - “ You purred in a condescending tone that rivaled his, your voice soft and level, “- is that you’re afraid to let anybody get close to you, and this is just your way of pushing me away. Am I correct in my assumption, Captain?”.

You pulled away slightly to study his expression, but didn’t release your grasp on his wrist, instead weakening it just a touch to give him the opportunity to back away and end the interaction.

You were fully expecting him to blow up, to lash out and possibly even harm you in some way, however, something in the writhing of your soul reassured you that this was exactly what was going to allow you to break through his fortified mental barricade.

Now surveying the skeleton with an unwavering gaze, your vision was filled with the pitch-black void of his sockets as his eyelights flickered weakly before sputtering back to life and locking onto you with a fierce intensity.  

“You are playing a very dangerous game, Althea.” He spat, his voice thickly enveloped in an enraged growl.

But, once again, he didn’t try to pull back or make any sort of move, and so you issued a silent challenge with your eyes, wordlessly urging him to choose his next action. You caught the brief glance over at where the others were likely still gathered before he sighed in a way that conveyed his frustration.

“You are extremely fortunate that we are not alone.” He growled lowly.

You quickly picked up on the lustful inflection that lined his threat, despite the clear ire present in his voice.

“Or what?” You breathed.

You were unable to help the sadistic grin that graced your features, the adrenaline of the situation making you giddy and probably far more confident than you should have been. A sharp inhale was forced past your lips as he reversed the grasp on his wrist to dig his clawed fingers into the soft flesh of your arm and mirrored your earlier action of speaking right next to your ear, his breath causing a tingling feeling to race down your spine.

“Or I would  t e a r  y o u  a p a r t.”

The look of self-satisfaction upon the skeleton’s face as he pulled back and released your arm honestly made you want to scream, but you’d be lucky if you could even get a single utterance past your parted lips as you openly gaped at him. If your flushed face and ragged breathing wasn’t enough to give away your confusedly aroused state, the not-so-subtle way you squeezed your thighs together in an automatic response certainly was, and Milord’s sly grin only widened at the sight.

“I would strongly suggest that you shower, Althea.” His voice, thick with malicious amusement, snapped you out of your trance and prompted you to glower at the monster. “Heat cycles are not the only thing that a monster can smell.”

If you were being completely honest, if you hadn’t just marked his brother – of whom currently seemed to share a mutual animosity for the other – you would quite literally jump his bones and wipe that infuriatingly pompous look from his face. Instead, you swallowed harshly and tried to gather your wits as you watched the skeleton take one last look at the state that he had induced in you, before turning his back and sauntering into the house and out of view.

Somewhere nearby, a pair of crimson eyelights aflame with rage silently watched the interaction. Pointed teeth locked together in a sharp scowl as a muted snarl rumbled within his chest. His hands shook with barely contained rage as he futilely attempted to wrestle down the explosive emotion.
He had been prepared to simply allow you to find out his captain’s true nature for yourself, to step back and observe to make sure that you were never in any true danger, but the way that he had spoken to you- threatened you – forced him to reevaluate his decision.

He was going to dust that insufferable bastard.

Chapter Text

You spent a good, long while just blasting yourself with cold water in the shower following your interaction with Milord. Not because he told you to, you thought belligerently, just because you didn’t want to suffer any more mortification due to your housemates’ insane sense of smell.

Plus, you really did need a minute to calm down.

Thankfully, you weren’t gone long enough to cause anyone to wonder where you where, so you integrated quite seamlessly back into the group with only an inquisitive look from Mutt whilst he attempted to gage how your talk with his brother had gone by your body language alone.

“He went back inside, but… I think we made some progress.” You mumbled, leaning in as you did so to avoid anyone else overhearing. Mutt offered you a nod along with a thin smile, but, blessedly, didn’t press you for any details.

Satisfied, you allowed yourself to look over the group surrounding you to find that Red had returned and seemed in much better spirits. You let out a snort as you watched him slightly drunkenly ramble on about what you could only assume was his latest violent video game obsession by the way he gestured wildly with his hands and the absolutely wicked grin that came along with the enthusiastic maneuvers.

Undyne, as the recipient of his avid rambling, at least seemed receptive, if not just as impassioned, by the topic and somehow in just the few conversations you had experienced with her, you weren’t the least bit surprised by this. At one point you heard a favorite video game of yours mentioned and couldn’t help but excitedly shuffle over and join in on the fervent chattering, and eventually the three of you were like a group of raving lunatics as you all got increasingly more animated the further into the topic you got.

You quickly learnt that Undyne was into a lot of the same video games that you, and by extension (since you were the one to introduce him to them) Red, played and a plan was swiftly created to battle one another PvP style via a particularly brutal first-person shooter as soon as you had the time. It honestly took every modicum of social decorum within your person to not just ditch everyone else in favor of teleporting back home with them to hash out a couple of rounds, and it seemed as though you weren’t alone in that feeling by how much they were impatiently whining regarding the idea.

Amidst the fierce discussion, Red’s hand had worked its way into yours and given it a grateful squeeze. You mirrored the action in understanding, not even having to spare a glance his way to discern the meaning behind the small gesture.

We’re okay. I love you.

Your soul gave the now very familiar thump in your chest, and your eyes darted over to Red when you felt his soul respond with a beat of its own. It was as though it had somehow magically joined your own in its place behind your ribcage and had become entangled within it, allowing the two wells of crimson and emerald to beat in time with each other- perfectly synchronized. Red returned your surprise with slightly widened sockets of his own, of which morphed into a sort of joyous recognition. He didn’t speak, but you heard – no, it wasn’t quite hearing- sensed his intention, as though you were in his head. It was a silent promise to explain the strange psychic conjunction between you, the whisper of unuttered words as clear as day.

He must have picked up on your nervous excitement because he flashed you a particularly lovesick grin, to which you giddily returned. You had no clue what on earth was happening, but Red didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed, so your nerves swiftly settled into inquisitive exhilaration at the situation.

“Hey! Love-nerds!” Undyne’s indignant shout, laced with amusement that matched the mirth gracing her angular features, made both of you flinch and jerk your respective heads in her direction with matching rosy blushes. Whatever words she was going to, most likely, torment you with were lost, however, when your ears pricked at a somewhat distant voice calling your name.

As you swiveled your head towards the sound, you were surprised to find Papyrus waving you over from the back entrance of the house and anticipatory butterflies began to flutter in your chest in response. A large part of you hoping that he had finally processed everything enough to be able to speak to you again instead of acting as though you didn’t exist like he had been up until this point. You felt a little bad that you hadn’t even noticed that he was absent in all the excitement.

“I’ll be right back.” You chirped to Undyne and Red, who looked just as curious as you felt, and hopped to your feet before sauntering over to the orange-clad skeleton.

The closer that you got, the more clearly you could detect the anxious undertone to his demeanor, despite the bright, jovial expression that he usually wore being present. Your gut twisted in unease as your own smile faltered and melted into a concerned grimace.

“What’s wrong?” You asked in a feeble whisper.

The intense foreboding feeling that had quickly consumed your mind only intensified when he used a tentative hand on your lower back to steer you hurriedly into the house, only dropping his upbeat mask once you were both inside and the door securely shut.

“I Am So Sorry To Do This To You, But- “ He murmured hastily, his shrunken eyelights darting around as he watched for anyone who may overhear.

Your eyes immediately began to search his form in a panic, and you inhaled sharply and spoke over the skeleton when your vision landed on hairline fractures snaking along the length of a humerus and coming to a stop just below the beginning of his ulna.

“Your arm…” You whimpered in a forceful breath, your hands moving on instinct toward the injury but jerking back when he spoke your name sternly, forcing your attention back to his discontented expression. With a gentle exhale, the towering skeleton leant down ever so slightly to place a hand on each side of your arms, the action an attempt at keeping you calm as well as holding your focus.

“I Am Going To Explain Very Briefly, Because This Is A Very Time Sensitive Matter, Okay?” He waited for your weak nod before locking his gaze on you in an intense seriosity, of which you returned with wide, fearful eyes.

“Edge Is A Monster With Extremely High LV - That Stands For Level Of Violence – And Sometimes Certain Things Can Trigger ‘Episodes’ That Are Very, Very Violent And Difficult To Control. I Usually Deal With Them, But This Is The Worst I Have Ever Seen Him And He Was Asking For You. I Would Not Involve You Unless It Was A Last Resort, But I Cannot Handle Him On My Own And He Is Insisting That You Have Some Form Of Magic That Can Help Him.” He explained clearly and levelly, the whole time not breaking eye contact. Your brows furrowed in confusion as you shook your head.

“I- I don’t know what he means. I don’t-“ You stammered out, panic causing your heart to slam against your ribcage.

“He Was Very Insistent, Honey. If There Is Something That You Can Try, Please, Try.” He breathed, sympathy for you evident in his apprehensive expression as he gazed at you pleadingly. If Papyrus was this torn up about it, it must be seriously, seriously bad.

With a harsh swallow against your dry throat, you nodded feebly, then tightened your fists and clenched your jaw in preparation for whatever chaos was about to be thrown your way.

“Thank You.” He murmured with relief evident in his voice and a thin smile. “I Have Restrained Him, But It Will Not Hold For Long. I Will Not Let You Get Hurt, Okay?”

“Okay.” You forced strength into your wavering voice as he released you and offered his hand.

You were well versed enough in teleportation magic when it came to these skeletons to know that you were about to be transported directly into whatever room Edge was in, and so you steeled yourself with a slow exhale and grasped the presented extremity.

The second that you stepped through the void and into one of the houses bedrooms, you felt as though you could suffocate under the intense pressure of chaotic, ungovernable magic- the thrashing, wild essence of Edge’s pure fury condensed into a torrid air that permeated every corner of the room. Though it was impossible to ignore, it wasn’t what your panic-stricken mind was fixated on.

Restrained by winding loops of translucent orange magic, straining under the pressure of violent convulsing against the floor where he sat, was Edge, but one look at the animalistic fury that twisted his features was all you needed to know that inhabiting the body of your friend was not the skeleton that you knew. This was ‘Boss’, as Red so often referred to him – the cruel, merciless mob boss that oversaw every senseless murder within their district.

Pure, instinctual fear settled like a rock in your stomach as his flaming eyelights landed on you, and it took every ounce of effort in your trembling body not to turn tail and run in the way that your intuition was begging you to.

Papyrus was right by your side, an arm extended with crackling tangerine magic dancing around his fingertips in anticipation of an attack. But an attack never came. Instead, Edge ceased his fierce writhing to flash a sickening, malicious grin at you that, paired with lidded sockets, was downright terrifying. He purred your name in a raspy, low voice, and you weakly breathed his name in return, much to the monster’s satisfaction as the sharp, twisted smirk grew in response.

“Come Here And Untie Me.” He said in a rumbling growl, though the inflection in his voice wasn’t angry as you had expected. In fact, he was almost cooing at you, the softness that enveloped his words completely foreign sounding coming from the abrasive monster.

“I can’t do that, Edge. I’m sorry.” You murmured as you took a few tentative steps forward, your voice gaining strength as you continued, “Tell me what I can do to help you.”

“What You Can Do- “ He crooned, his voice dropping in volume a fraction now that you were in closer proximity, “-Is Untie Me So That I Can Crush Every Bone In That Vile Monster’s Body Into Dust For Laying His Filthy Hands On You.” He hissed the latter half of the sentence as unbridled fury began to seep back into his voice.

You didn’t have to wonder who he was talking about, you already knew, and as such was evident in your horrified expression.

“Edge, he didn’t hurt me, I promise.” You stated, forcing as much confident certainty into your voice as you could.

You flinched back when a bitter bark of laughter left the skeleton before he glowered at you with a feral snarl contorting his angular features. 

“But He Will.” He seethed in dangerous placidity, the sadistic simper edging its way back onto his face as he did so. “I Intend To End His Pathetic Existence Before He Ever Gets A Chance To.”

“I don’t want you to do that. Please-“

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT!” He wrenched his frame against the restraints as his voice returned to full volume in a frustrated bellow, causing you to whimper and jerk back. “IF YOU KNOW WHAT IT GOOD FOR YOU, YOU WILL LET ME DUST THAT REPULSIVE CREATURE!”

Edge resumed his writhing against the dangerously thinned magic that held him captive, spitting and snarling like a caged animal. Fighting back the tears that had begun to gather in your eyes, you took a few cautious steps back so that you were by Papyrus’ side once more, glancing at the increasingly anxious skeleton in an attempt to somewhat gage the situation from his tense demeanor.

“Paps, what did he say about my magic?” You murmured, your voice wavering from the immense amount of adrenaline that was coursing through your veins.

“He Wasn’t Especially Coherent Even Before It Fully Took Hold, But He Mentioned Something About Music.” He uttered hushedly back, not once lowering his magic-casting arm or taking his eyelights off of Edge as his thrashing and yelling became progressively more vicious.

You desperately wracked your brain for any detail of the memory that could potentially aid the situation, biting down hard on your lip as you did so as a way to ground yourself. There was something that was possibly related to the time that you had spent with Edge, but it was a long shot.

“Resonance.” You mumbled; your brows knit together as your gaze dropped to the floor in thought. Papyrus briefly looked at you, befuddlement etched into his features as you lifted your eyes and shook your head gently at the skeleton. “But there’s no way. That’s an incredibly rare ability and- and no Mage has been born with it in hundreds of years!”.

It was true. You had read about resonance abilities when you were just beginning to learn about your own powers and recalled how badly you wished that you could perform such a wonderful spell. However, as was the case for most things, your parents had ridiculed you when you expressed such a desire and informed you of the near impossibility of such a thing. You had promptly given up on that dream and focused on what you knew that you could do, instead.

If Edge had insisted that you had such an ability, that must have meant that you had unknowingly cast it before - if it was what he was referring to, you soberly reminded yourself.

It wasn’t unusual for singing to be the first catalyst in developing the skill – at least, you had read as much in one of your parents’ old dusty, leatherbound books – and with enough practice, it could be transferred to talking, and eventually no physical action would be needed at all.

It would make sense, you thought. Your initial conclusion when Edge had reacted the way he did to your singing – flustered and, in his way, complimenting you – was that he simply wasn’t used to that type of gentle interaction, but it could have been a result of so much more.

Both of you started and snapped your gazes back to Edge when you heard the telltale snap of one of the restraints, followed by a shout of triumphant laughter. Papyrus once again turned to you with panicked pleading rounding his features.

“TRY, HONEY.” He yelled over Edge’s increasingly loud snarling, the pure horror he was feeling becoming evident in the way his voice shook and fluctuated in pitch.

Both of you were startled once again when you sensed a crackle of frantic magic within the room, the signature similar but somehow completely different to the essence of furiosity that permeated the air.   

“boss?” Red’s fearful voice emitted from beside you, prompting you to inhale sharply and swivel your body towards him.

He must have followed you when he became suspicious of Papyrus’ anxious demeanor as he led you into the house, then shortcutted into the room following hearing his brothers shouts of rage, you quickly surmised. Now surveying his expression, your chest tightened at the open, vulnerable grief lacing his usually hardened features as he took a few tentative steps and reached a trembling hand toward his brother, prompting Papyrus to alarmedly shout his name.

“BROTHER.” Edge stopped his squirming to glare icily at the aforementioned monster, the volume of his voice increasing further as he spat at him. “AS YOUR SUPERIOR, I ORDER YOU TO COME TO ME AND FREE ME THIS INSTANT OR I SWEAR TO THE STARS I WILL MAKE IT SO YOU ARE NEVER ABLE TO USE THOSE USELESS LIMBS OF YOURS AGAIN!”

“RED, DON’T!” Papyrus yelped once again, his eyelights frantically darting between you and the pair of brothers as though he were weighing up the consequences of a crucial, improvised decision. His magic crackled and sparked at his fingers, the swirl of orange intensifying in anticipation of his next action.

In a spur of panicked impulsivity, you stalked towards your beta and stepped in front of him before tightly grasping his arms. His eyelights were flickering and sputtering, the glow weak and faded as he detachedly searched your face. Something was happening to him in response to seeing his brother in this state, and whatever it was, was not good.

The barrage of vile, berating commands that continued to unrelentingly pour from Edge’s mouth caused nausea to roil in your gut and insolent rage to bubble up in your chest, but you forced it down in an attempt to remain composed and clear headed as you looked to Papyrus, a silent question of ‘what do I do?!’ in your horrified expression. Your attention was recaptured by the skeleton adjacent to you when a threatening snarl rumbled in his chest, and you froze with hurt evident in your expression in response to the hateful glower that he viewed you with.

You were forcibly thrown backwards with a shriek when Papyrus launched himself at the skeleton, a frustrated growl emanating from him as he did so. Before you could even process what had happened, a flash of tangerine caused the two of them to vanish as a bracing arm wrapped around your legs and forced you down to the floor and against a solid mass. You froze like a deer in headlights in response, your breathing erratic as every muscle in your body tensed against the form it was restrained against in complete shock.

“Edge, let me go.” You whispered in a shaky exhale, tears once again gathering in your eyes as your frame shook in terror.

You knew that Edge wouldn’t purposefully harm you, but this monster – the one that willingly murdered others for a living, whether it be by his hand or otherwise – you had no idea what he was capable of.

Survival instincts promptly kicked in as you concluded this, and a flurry of potential escape routes ran through your head. If you struggled enough, you could probably wriggle your way free and get away, especially since he had only managed to break the restraints around one arm and the restrictive magic seemed to tighten automatically around his frame in response, but no amount of mentally screaming at yourself to just move was willing your frozen body to act.

From below you, you could hear the muffled, distressed yelling of both Papyrus and Red, and could just about make out the desperate shouts for his brother from the latter, as well as his cousin’s futile attempts at reassuring him. You sat there, breathing heavily, as you listened to what sounded like Mutt confusedly yelling something, then Papyrus shouting for him to ‘KEEP AXE AWAY’, before Sans’ voice joined in with the barrage of exclaiming and clamoring, assumedly helping his brother in subduing Red.

Tears now freely fell as your chest heaved with a trembling sob. The entire time that chaos seemed to be unfolding downstairs, Edge had been growling lowly and refusing to relent his grasp around you. However, when the sound of your cries broke through his haze of fury, he jerked away and released you as though the contact had scalded him.

Falling forward onto your hands and knees with a yelp, you then scrambled to back yourself against the wall so that you could face the monster whilst putting some distance between the two of you.

When you finally dared to look at the skeleton as heaving breaths shook your frame, you noticed the same far-away look to his eyelights and the soft vulnerability that came with it that you’d seen in Red moments previously. It only lasted for a brief moment, however. Almost instantly, the little sparks of ruby light sharpened, and he was back to writhing against the restraints as well as using his clawed hands to attempt to tear them away from his bones.

You knew that you didn’t have much time, and there was no way that you were going to run away and risk him breaking free, so after taking a steeling breath, you focused the well of magic in your soul the way that you would when casting healing magic, and attempted to push it outward with intent, rather than any physical action. With that, you began to weakly sing the first thing that came to your head.

Love of mine

Someday you will die

But I'll be close behind

I'll follow you into the dark

Edge stilled for a moment as his gently flickering eyelights locked onto you before resuming to struggle, albeit in much weaker, apprehensive movements than he had previously.  Encouraged by the subtle response, you continued to push as much calming intent into your trembling voice as you could as you carefully pushed yourself to your knees.

No blinding light

Or tunnels, to gates of white

Just our hands clasped so tight

Waiting for the hint of a spark

With every line of the song, his frantic movements began to slowly calm, his breathing ragged and heavy as he gave a few last hard jerks against the magic that bound him.

If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied

Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks

Then I'll follow you into the dark

His furious growls softened into almost pained whimpers as he went limp against the restraints, his gaze now solely focused on the ground below him. Your soul screamed at you to go to him, and in an instinctually automatic action, you shuffled towards the skeleton and cautiously reached out.

In Catholic school, as vicious as Roman rule

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black

And I held my tongue as she told me

"Son, fear is the heart of love", so I never went back

His head was hung as he continued to hyperventilate, and he flinched when you gently placed your hand on the side of his face. Assuming that he was resisting your touch, you began to slowly pull back, but smiled softly when he started to lean into the contact.

And if Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied

Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks

Then I'll follow you into the dark

Your quelled tears recommenced in full force as you mirrored your action with your remaining hand, now cupping his face and continuing to softly sing despite the lump in your throat. He weakly lifted his head to search your face and you recognized once again the distant, dissociated sheen to his eyelights. Your voice wavered slightly as you fought back a sob at the fearful vulnerability that shone through the exhaustion as watched you detachedly. Your soul thumped in your chest at the quiet recognition amongst the cacophony of emotions in his gaze. Had you sung this for him before?

You and me have seen everything to see

From Bangkok to Calgary

And the soles of your shoes are all worn down

The time for sleep is now

But it's nothing to cry about

'Cause we'll hold each other soon

In the blackest of rooms

Edge’s head once again fell forward as he dropped his gaze to the floor, allowing you to bear the weight of his skull in your hands. With a shuddering sigh to release the built up tension within your body, you closed your eyes and pressed your forehead to his before finishing the last few lines of the song.

And if Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied

Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks

Then I'll follow you into the dark

Then I'll follow you into the dark

You weren’t sure how long you remained like that – simply holding him whilst you gently hummed the melody of the song – but soon enough you became aware of the familiar fizzle of magic in the air that signaled one of your housemates’ arrivals. They didn’t shout and frantically attempt to separate the two of you as you had expected them to, instead, you had to aptly readjust your hold on Edge as the restraints disappeared in a gentle mist of orange, now cradling his head against your chest as he continued to stare at the ground below.

You didn’t miss the gentle trembling of his bones as you wrapped a protective arm around him, and your embrace tightened around him as sorrow weighed down your body and thickened your throat. Recalling that such an action usually calmed your betas when they were upset, you began to softly run your fingers against the chipped, scarred bone of his humerus and along the connecting scapula and clavicle bones. He sighed mutedly in response as he leant his weight more heavily on you, and you had to force back a sob at the simple action.

With silent tears continuing to roll down your cheeks, you lifted your head to address who you quickly identified as Papyrus, of whom looked as though he could cry with relief himself. With a muted sigh, he stepped towards the two of you and repositioned himself to kneel and survey Edge’s condition, a small frown and furrowed brows gracing his features as he did so.

“Is he going to be alright?” You murmured softly, prompting the skeleton to sit back on his heels as he flashed you a small, grateful smile.

“He Will Be Out Of It For A Little While, But Yes, He Will Be Alright.” He responded in a tone that matched your own and you let out a shaky exhale as you nodded.

“Is Red okay? Where is he?”

Panic entered your quieted voice as you instinctually visually searched the room for him, concern gnawing at your chest at the recollection of his pained, anxious shouts. Edge stirred slightly at the mention of his brother, his frame tensing as he assumedly recalled the same thing.

“He Is Fine. Mutt Took Him Back To The Cabin To Calm Down.” He reassured you gently, before an anxious look crossed his skull and he continued almost ashamedly, “Honey, I- I Just Wanted To Explain Everything To You, Before I Allow Red To Come Back. Is That Okay?”.

You perked up at his admission and nodded eagerly, your attention now completely trained on the skeleton as he took a steeling breath through his nasal cavity.

“When A Monster Has A Very High Level Of Violence – Meaning That They Have… Hurt Others A Lot- “

Killed.

“- It Can Affect Their Magic In… Not Very Good Ways.” He was wringing his hands together anxiously as he spoke, almost as though he were afraid of the way that you were going to react.

In hopes of reassuring the sweet skeleton, you smiled weakly and spoke his name to capture his attention.

“I know about what they did.” You stated just above a whisper and earning a startled, but relieved look from the monster. “I don’t care about who you guys used to be- what you did to survive in such horrible circumstances. What matters to me is who you are now.”

A disbelieving, affectionate huff of laughter escaped the skeleton as he shook his head gently at you, before he mumbled with a small smile, “Axe Would Be So Happy To Hear You Say That.”

“Why?” You eked out cautiously.

He snapped his gaze alarmedly to you as though he hadn’t realized that he had externalized the brief reflection, and you deflated in anxious disappointment when he literally waved off your question with a hand and another, more frantic shake of his skull.

“N-Never Mind That! We Are Getting Off Topic!” He stammered out with a nervous ‘Nyeh!’, then composing himself and resuming his explanation, your reassurance allowing him to inject sobered seriosity into his tone as he did so.

“Every Now And Then, Something Can Cause The LV To Flare Up, And The Result Is What You Just Observed. I Sent Red Away Because He Has The Same Vulnerability, Albeit Not As Severely As Edge Does. Seeing Another Monster In Such A State Can Trigger A Similar Reaction. Do You Understand What I Am Saying?”

You nodded somberly as you blinked away fresh tears that were threatening to fall at the pure hurt that you felt for these monsters. As Papyrus smiled gently at your understanding, your mind began to race in contemplation due to the newly acquired information.

He had sent Axe away too. So, he has a high LV as well? That, combined with the accidentally obtained knowledge of the brothers’ famine, as well as their severe injuries accompanied by the sweet rot smell of their magic, didn’t allow you to make the best conclusions as to why he had assumedly dusted other monsters.

Of course, the first verdict you settled on was cannibalism, how could it not be? Even then, you only continued feeling anguish over their circumstances, even more so, if you were being honest with yourself. Though, you pushed the contemplation away in favor of allowing them to confide in you their story themselves- if they ever did.

As you chewed your lip in thought, your eyes once again latched onto the vine-like cracks that wrapped and intertwined around Papyrus’ arm. Desperate to have some form of normality to latch onto, you reached out a hand, palm facing the ceiling, and beckoned for the skeleton to close the proximity with a tired smile.

“Honey, You Don’t- “ He started to murmur with an uneasy, remorseful edge to his features, but you cut him off with a gentle shake of your head.

“Please?” Your voice came out in a pitiful whisper, wary vulnerability evident in your watery eyes and tear-stained face as you continued to hold out your hand in wait.

There was a moment of tense quiet before the skeleton exhaled slowly through his nasal cavity, then shuffled forward to allow access to his wound. Disturbed by the movement, Edge started and tensed as his fuzzy eyelights locked onto Papyrus, of whom smiled gently in turn.

“It Is Alright.” He comforted the now bewildered looking skeleton in a hushed, sympathetic tone. “It Is Not A Substantial Injury. You Did Not Hurt Anyone Else.”

He seemed to be placated by this, as he once again untensed in your embrace with a shuddering exhale. Not allowing yourself to look at either skeleton for fear of completely falling apart, you focused on healing Papyrus as well as taking deep, soothing breaths through your nose.

“Is Milord Okay?” You whispered detachedly, still refusing to lift your gaze from your hand and the shimmering green magic that enveloped it, but internally flinched when another anxious thought forced itself to the forefront of your mind and caused your weakened voice to tremble with barely contained horror. “Oh, God. Is Sans okay? He must be freaking out after seeing you hurt! And Axe! You told Mutt to keep him away, is he okay?! I- “.

A hand clasping over the top of yours that rested on his now fully healed humerus broke you out of your anxious rambling. Papyrus softly spoke your name in an attempt to focus your attention. With a steeling breath, you lifted your gaze to meet his and deflated at the kindness you found within it.

“Everyone Is Okay.” He spoke just above a whisper, the soothing tone to his voice instantly putting you at ease. “Milord Went Home After I Warned Him, Edge Didn’t Even Get A Chance To Touch Him. Sans Will Be Fine Once He Sees That I Am, And Axe And Butch Didn’t See Anything. Everything Is Fine.”

With a sigh you wiped at your face and nodded, then, realizing that this was the most that Papyrus had spoken to you in days, you looked up at him and asked with calm sincerity, “Are you okay?”.

It was obvious that he wasn’t expecting the question by the way he froze, then shifted uneasily as his shrunken eyelights dropped to the floor. He seemed to be thinking over his answer meticulously by the way his mouth contorted into a small frown and his brows knitted together.

“I… I Am Okay.” He answered honestly, the resuming of his hands wringing together speaking of his anxiety around the subject. “I Am Sorry For Avoiding You, Honey… It Is Just A Lot To Process, I Suppose.”

“I understand.” You muttered softly, offering the skeleton an empathetic smile. “I miss you, y’know? But… don’t push yourself to be around me if it’s too much for you. I’d much rather you be happy than anything else.”

“Thank You. I… I Miss You, Also.” He mumbled, but offered nothing else in the way of his future intentions when it came to your friendship. The lack of closure shot a pang of painful sorrow through your soul, but you pushed it away with a slow exhale.

The sweet skeleton looked as though he wanted to say something else by the subtle clench of his jaw, but it was lost when Edge suddenly stirred – causing both you and Papyrus to start and train your gazes on him- and pushed himself into a seated position, then crossing his legs under him with a completely dazed inflection to his furrowed brows and downturned mouth whilst he confusedly looked between the two of you.

“WHERE IS RED?” Was the first thing that he muttered. Papyrus pulled out his phone to assumingly send a text to either Mutt or Red with permission for them to return.

“HE’LL BE HERE SOON.” Papyrus stated with a considerably more chipper tone to his voice now that he was completely sure that his cousin was okay, before standing and flashing the both of you a bright grin. “I AM GLAD THAT YOU ARE OKAY, EDGE.”

Said skeleton grunted irately and began tapping anxiously against the exposed bone of his leg with a clawed finger in response, though a barely noticeable flush across his cheekbones showed that he was at least slightly grateful of the affection, even if he was reluctant to accept it. With that, Papyrus hurriedly exited the room after one last glance of reassurance between the two of you, leaving you alone in the stifling silence.

“For what it’s worth- “ You stated lowly as you allowed your head to fall back against the wall and pulled your knees up to your chest, then turning your gaze to the skeleton next to you with a small smile, “- I’m glad that you’re okay, too.”

You only caught the intensifying of his flush when he turned his skull abashedly away from you before the room was filled with a flash of crimson magic, followed by the thumping of frantic footsteps as Red barreled towards the both of you. With a silent huff of affectionate laughter, you watched as the panicked skeleton dropped to his knees and secured his arms around his brother, then wrenching him forward into a hug and burying his face in his chest.

“BROTHER.” Edge dragged the word out in a growled warning, his arms hovering over the smaller skeleton as though he wasn’t sure what to do with them.

“no, shut th’ fuck up.” He barked, his muffled voice cracking slightly and betraying the extent of his concern. “ya scared th’ shit outta me.”

Edge’s expression shifted into one of shock for a brief moment, of which was swiftly replaced by a deep scowl and another roll of his eyelights as he grumbled and allowed his arms to rest upon his brother’s back and give a few tentative pats. The apprehensive action seemed to placate Red because he pulled himself into a kneeling position and awkwardly cleared his throat, not-so-subtly scrubbing the unshed tears from his sockets as he did so.
It was only then that his eyelights landed on your flushed, tear-stained face that instant panic flashed across his, and he began to frantically visually search your entire body for injury.

“stars, angel, he- he didn’t-“

“DON’T BE STUPID.” Edge scoffed and glowered at his brother before you could get a word in. “THE CREAMPUFF HAD ME RESTRAINED THE WHOLE TIME.”.

Red eyed him suspiciously before glancing to you for confirmation, at which point you smiled weakly and let out a bitter huff of laughter.

“I was just worried, I guess.” You assured him, then adding in a rushed statement, “…and a little scared, but mostly worried!”.

A smug snort escaped the skeleton next to you- at which part, you weren’t sure-, prompting both you and Red to shoot him an incredulous look.

“HOW MANY TIMES MUST I SAY IT? EVEN THE STRONGEST MONSTERS HAVE NEVER SO MUCH AS LANDED A MERE SCRATCH ON ME – WORRYING ABOUT SOMEONE AS EXTRAORDINARY AS ME IS A WASTE OF ENERGY.” He announced proudly, a pompous smirk curving his mouth upwards as a hand moved to press his fingertips to his chest in a half-steeple shape, the action conveying the unshakeable confidence in his proclamation.

You opened your mouth to contend with the statement, to assure him that you’re going to worry about him regardless, but the pure ridiculousness of the situation seemed to hit you at that very moment and a hushed giggle escaped you instead. Due to either delirium from the crash of your adrenaline high or just pure exhaustion, the giggles quickly turned into manic laughter as a hand came up to cover your face. The utterly offended expression that graced Edge’s face only had you clutching at your stomach, and you didn’t miss the quick glance at his brother as you did so, of which openly indicated his belief that he’d finally ‘broken the human’.

“S-Sorry!” You gasped out, then wiping a tear of mirth from your eye as your chuckling died down. “I’m just, heh, relieved!”.

Whilst Red snorted affectionately at the display, Edge continued to scowl at you in befuddlement as you let out one last giggle and lay your head back against the wall.

“YOU ARE VERY STRANGE.” He concluded, mirroring your action as you hummed amusedly at the claim.

“Never said I wasn’t.” You breathed in response.

The contented tone to your voice spoke of the numerous times that you had uttered it before and earned a very brief smile that expressed the quiet endearment that he held for you. A light flush to broke out across your face in turn.

“either of ya gonna tell me what th’ fuck happened?” Red grumbled lowly, causing both of you to start and direct your attention toward him, before he gave an accusatory glare toward his brother. “ya told me ya don’t have th’ episodes no more.”

“I DON’T. THIS WAS… AN EXCEPTION.” He muttered indignantly, obviously attempting to sound convincing but spectacularly failing.

As his younger brother spoke, Red’s scowl intensified, and the frustrated grunt ripped from his throat indicated his ire at the lie. Almost instinctually, you tensed and braced yourself to mediate a fight between the brothers once again, but all that followed the noise of disapproval was a deep sigh as he shifted himself to sit cross-legged, before eyeing you expectantly.

“Papyrus came to get me and said that Edge had told him that I had some ability that could snap him out of the episode, so I went with him.” You explained meekly, perking up slightly when the recollection of your newfound magic came to mind. “It’s called Resonance. I didn’t even know I could do it but… I just kind of gathered healing intent the way I would with physical injuries and… I guess, used my voice to channel it?”. A muted laugh of disbelief escaped you as you shook your head, a small smile gracing your features as you began to ramble, “It’s something that only Healers can do, but nobody with the ability has been born in nearly a thousand years! I read about it when I was a kid and wanted to be able to do it so bad and now… now I can! But I read that you have to be super careful with it because you can use it to incapacitate someone if you’re skilled enough, but I would never want to do that! -Well, maybe if they were trying to hurt me…”

You may or may not have been attempting to steer the subject away from the exact cause of the situation, seeing as you knew that Red would blow up and possibly even hunt down the monster in a similar, slightly less murderous manner, but you were also genuinely ecstatic about discovering this ability that you had longed for!

As your voice gained strength and a huge, thrilled grin brightened your face whilst you animatedly gestured with your hands to accentuate each word, the tension in the room slowly began to dissipate in accordance with your enthusiastic rambling. You were prematurely silenced, however, when Red moved forward to gently cup your face in his hands with a soft, affectionate grin.

“that’s amazin’, angel. ‘m real proud’a ya.” He muttered in a muted, warm tone as you flushed lightly and lit up with a bashful smile, “but i’m still gonna need t’know what happened.”

Your face was the picture of bewilderment as you gawked at him, the breakneck speed at which he switched up the emotional content of his words whilst maintaining a loving, gentle tone forcing you to mentally freeze before what he had said sunk in. It was only Edge’s quiet snort from beside you that broke you out of your dumbfounded trance, and you shot him a weak glare before sighing heavily as your beta sat back and removed his grasp on your face with a somewhat smug simper.

“Can I…?” You asked timidly, the uncertain glance toward Edge filling the silence with your unspoken question.

“YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IT.” Edge huffed indignantly with a roll of his eyelights, before regarding you with an exasperated scowl. “I AM NOT SO WEAKMINDED THAT A MERE DESCRIPTION WOULD MENTALLY CRIPPLE ME.”

“Right, sorry.” You mumbled out.

Your hands began to idly play with the fabric of your dress, anxiety surrounding the inevitable chaos that was about to unfold coaxing your gaze to the floor.

“You have to promise not to get angry.” You eked out, your head snapping up to shoot Edge a disapproving look when a bitter bark of laughter left him, prompting you to exclaim his name in reprimand.

“nah, he’s right.” Red spoke up smoothly in defense of his brother, sitting back on his hands with a nonchalant shrug as he did so. “that’s a big fuckin’ ask and ya know it.”.

You deflated in response and chewed on your lip as a knot of tension began to tighten in your stomach whilst you wracked your brain for a way to mediate the fallout as much as possible.

“Just… let me explain first, then you can do whatever you want -“ You pleaded exhaustedly, holding your hands out in a gesture of surrender, before adding frantically at your beta’s look of sadistic delight,  “- as long as it isn’t Dusting or even harming him in any way, okay?!”

A soft, frustrated growl left the skeleton at your compromise, before he grumbled under his breath, “i swear to th’ stars, if this is about th’ fuckin’ half-pint…”.

The flash of brief panicked horror that crossed your face in response told the monster all he needed to know, and a deep, furious scowl quickly took over his features.

“are ya fuckin’ kiddin’ me?!”

“No. Red, listen!” You scolded as you pushed yourself to your knees in uneasy anticipation, then took his brief hesitation in response to your shout to hurriedly clarify, “It’s my fault! I pushed him too far, but he didn’t hurt me! He barely even threatened me!”

He doesn’t need to know about the intensely hostile flirting, right?

A guttural snarl sounded from the skeleton adjacent to you. His shrunken eyelights sputtered and vanished and, for a tense, horrifying moment, you thought that what had happened to Edge was now going to happen to his brother, too. However, all it took to snap the monster out of what looked to be the onset of a near-blind rage was the chiding bark of his name from, evidently, the presence of the only person who had the ability to override the unbridled fury with the utterance of a single word.

You watched in awe as his eyelights instantaneously lit up his sockets once more and he let out a frustrated growl, before addressing Edge’s own scrutinizing gaze with a weak grimace. A lightning fast, wordless exchange seemed to take place once their eyelights met, before Red indignantly pushed himself to his feet, his teeth bared, and fists clenched.

“ya don’t have any’a them shooty games, d’ya?” He grumbled to you, the obvious effort of keeping his anger at bay causing his voice to come out hushed and strained. In response, you shook your head with a wry smile, prompting the skeleton to exhale sharply. “’n, uh, tiny’s back at th’ house, ain’t he?”

“I can ask one of the guys to take me to go get it, if you want?” You offered, already beginning to push yourself to your feet but ceased your efforts when he gave a sharp shake of his head.

“nah… ‘m gonna go find some shit t’break.” He mumbled. He began to make the motion of shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket, but faltered with another frustrated growl and returned his hands to his sides when he realized that his frame lacked the attire.

“NOT IN THE HOUSE.” Edge called after him as he turned on his heel to leave, earning a rude gesture involving his middle finger and a ‘ya got it, boss’.

With that, it was once again just you and Edge left in the too silent room. Untensing now that your temperamental beta was no longer present, you shuffled to your feet and held out a hand in offering to the skeleton. He surveyed it critically before accepting and allowing you to hoist him to his feet.

Whether it was the remainder of the liquid courage running through your veins or just the pure, giddy relief that the chaos had finally come to an end, you gave in to your urge to impulsively wrap your arms around the stand-offish monster, prompting him to let out a noise of surprise in turn.

“I am really happy that you’re okay, love.” You muttered into his chest, drinking in the comforting smell of what registered to your human nose as a pleasant mixture of gasoline and smoke. Edge’s face, of course, immediately lit up a furious crimson as he held his arms out awkwardly, similar to the way he had when his brother had assaulted him with a barrage of affection.

As though your mind had at last caught up with your body’s action, you jerked back completely pink in the face as you breathed a nervous giggle and eked out a “Sorry…”.

After clearing your throat in the midst of the two of you pointedly avoiding the other’s gaze, a sudden question sprang to mind, and you took the opportunity to both hopefully dissipate the awkwardness and sate your curiosity.

“How did you know? About my ability?” You asked timidly, daring to lift your eyes from their fixed position on the floor to study the skeleton’s expression, of whom only flushed further and tensed at your, previously assumed to be, innocent question.

“I DIDN’T.” He pushed stoic certainty into his voice, despite the conflicting flustered demeanor that accompanied it, before outwardly losing what little confidence he had in his statement and muttering lowly, “I… RECALLED THE EFFECT THAT YOU HAD WHEN- AND…”. With a sharp sigh, he crossed his arms over his chest and agitatedly stammered out, “I WAS NOT IN MY RIGHT MIND! I SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN MOST THAT DESPERATION CAUSES PEOPLE TO MAKE MORONIC STATEMENTS! I SIMPLY DID NOT WISH TO DEAL WITH THE FALLOUT THAT DUSTING THAT INSOLENT LITTLE SHIT WOULD CAUSE!”

“Woah, Edge.” You spoke in a soft chuckle, holding your hands out ahead of you in surrender as you did so and halting his rambling in its tracks. “You asked for help, that’s a good thing! I promise I won’t tell anyone, but… asking for help is a really difficult thing to do, y’know? So… I’m proud of you.”.

Your jovial tone shifted into one of hesitant affection as the heat returned to your cheeks with a vengeance, though, you stubbornly forced your gaze to remain locked with his widened sockets and the rapidly shrinking eyelights within them to illustrate the fierce integrity in your statement.

It took a few unnerving moments before Edge could coax any reaction other than pure abashed shock into his features and, with some effort, he forced a grimace and tore his eyelights away from you, his intense flush only growing in opposition to his fabricated stoic air.

“Your Kindness Is Insufferable, You Know.” He grumbled just above a whisper, and you surprised yourself with the snort of laughter that fast dissolved into hushed giggles that left you as a result. With a pointed roll of his eyelights, the grouchy monster pushed past you and through the doorway and you hurriedly jogged after him to keep up with his swift strides, unable to hold back your crescendoing cackling as you did so.

“Hey, we still need to talk about you essentially stalking me, you little deviant!” You called after him.

You were unable to maintain your accelerated pace as a result of doubling over in laughter when he yelped in indignance and threw up his hands. After he had apparently decided that he had officially had enough of your needling, the last you could see of the prickly skeleton vanished in a mist of burgundy magic.

Chapter Text

Nobody made any mention of the events that had transpired, much to your relief, and simply opted to continue on as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. So, once you did your rounds to check on Axe, Mutt, and Sans (Red was assumedly still away somewhere ‘breaking shit’) you retrieved your abandoned bag from the sand and a pair of sneakers from your room, then headed to the front of the house. There were increasingly large crowds of people that had begun to gather for the assumed beach party, so you took a moment to decompress in the mostly isolated cobblestone driveway.

As you lit a much needed cigarette and took a drag, you decided on taking the time to prepare dinner for everyone instead of likely relying on take-out and pulled out your phone to begin searching for nearby stores for ingredients. You had no idea what you were going to cook yet, but you supposed that perusing through the items on the shelves would generate some form of comprehensive plan.

Once you had selected your store of choice, you sent a quick text to the group-chat informing them of your intensions and planned to shove your phone back in your bag and head off, but the sight of Milord’s name in your contacts gave you pause.

You wanted to check in with him and make sure that he was okay, and you considered calling him during your walk, but lingering unease from your most recent interaction prevented you from doing so. Instead, you sent what you hoped didn’t sound like too overbearing of a text and chewed on your lip as you anxiously waited for a reply.

You: Just checking in, everything okay?

It didn’t take long for the indicator that he was typing to pop up, then a suspiciously long minute for the short reply to come through.

Captain: Fine.

Yikes. You had forgotten about the nickname you had set for him, and it had not aged well due to your malicious use of the title in your last exchange with the skeleton. The intention to change it came to mind, but the crushingly awkward realization that changing it now would be even worse than just leaving it made you swiftly abandon the plan. So, with a sigh, you locked your phone and began the task of replacing it in your bag. However, a short buzz from the device had you curiously opening it once more.

Captain: Your demon of a feline has eaten. Do not allow him to deceive you.

A huff of laughter left you at the curt message, and you assumed that Albert’s incessant wailing and pursuing of anyone in sight for his dinner had once again worn down the monster enough that he had given in and fed the tabby. Relief at the typical response from the monster allowed you to untense as you tapped out a reply, referencing the descriptor Milord had used in hopes of further lightening the mood of the conversation.

You: Thank you! I’m guessing he finally wore you down with his ‘awful howling noise’?

Captain: You said it yourself, did you not? He is a stone cold criminal.

You had to slap a hand over your mouth to muffle the ugly cackle that left you, then, when you had sobered, to allow you to anxiously nibble at your nails as butterflies swarmed in your tummy.

The awful, contradictory churning of both cautious affection for Milord and the intense guilt over feeling this way for him in spite of your betas obvious animosity superseded your desire to type out a witty reply. Instead, you reluctantly shoved your phone into your bag, stubbed out your spent cigarette, and focused on one foot in front of the other as you headed to your destination.

The brisk walk accompanied by the kiss of the sun on your skin allowed you to clear your head and, by the time you arrived at the store, you felt a lot lighter than before. After entering the blissfully cool building, you took your time looking through the offered foodstuffs as you wracked your brain for anything you could make with the somewhat limited options.

Once you had selected the desired ingredients, you made your way over to the cashier and began the mundane task of checking out. Then, with a start, you recognized the rhythmic buzzing of your phone and braced yourself for whomever it may be calling, but furrowed your brows in confusion as you read the caller ID.

“Hey, Rami.” You greeted the man cheerily, the instant anxiety that your instincts had deemed necessary spiking as you did so. “What’s up?”

“Hey!” Came his deep voice from the speaker as you idly watched the cashier leisurely bag your items. “I was just wondering if we could meet today! I have a couple of hours free and honestly don’t know what to do with myself.” He ended his sentence with a sheepish laugh, and you immediately got the impression that he was someone who rarely took any leisure time.

“I’m actually away for the weekend, sorry!” You replied, smiling weakly at the cashier as you tapped your card against the machine, retrieved the bag and mouthed a thank you.

Whatever Rami said next went into one ear and completely out the other when you once again noted the chilling feeling of eyes on you and whipped your head around to try to locate the perpetrator. You only snapped out of your high-alert daze when Rami called your name as though he had already done so several times.

“Oh, sorry! Got distracted, heh.” You laughed anxiously as you exited the store, continuing to actively scan the area around you as you hurriedly began your journey back to the house. “I can meet you for lunch on Monday, if you like?”

“Sure, sounds good!” He chirped, then paused for a moment before he spoke with hesitant concern lacing his words, “Are you alright? You sound nervous.”

“Yeah, fine.” You replied breathlessly. Swallowing your pride and choosing what you decided was a likely protective factor when it came to individuals with unsavory intentions, you muttered out, “Could you, uh- could you just stay on the phone with me whilst I walk back to the house, please?”

“Yeah, of course! What’s wrong?” The genuine concern and kindness in his voice caused the hesitance around trusting him to conflict with the beginnings of strange fondness for the man, and your next words slipped out unintentionally as a result.

“I just feel like someone’s following me. I’m probably being paranoid, but…” You replied hushedly, afraid that whoever may be stalking you would overhear that you had clocked them.

“Oh… Well, I’m happy to talk until you feel safe, then!”

Stars, he’s seriously making it hard to dislike him.

By the time you had reached the house, the icy feeling of eyes on you had long since disappeared and you felt relatively content. You had even learnt a little about Rami during your conversation - mostly just surface-level stuff like the fact that he’s an only child and that his parents moved to America from Bangladesh before he was born, but it was useful to have at least some information on him, you surmised. Of course, he had asked you for similar answers in return, and you tried to keep each of them brief before quickly moving on.

It was only when you stepped through the front door and set your groceries down in the kitchen that you realized that, although there was still a faint sensation of suspicion towards him, his friendly and empathetic demeanor had almost put you completely at ease.

Was your initial gut-feeling wrong or was he just skilled at manipulation? Either way, you felt indebted to the man, so thanked him genuinely before allowing him to continue with the rest of his day and ending the call.

You were pretty lost in thought about the whole situation whilst you idly pulled each of the items out of the plastic shopping bag, so when an enthusiastic shout sounded from close behind you, you damn-near hit the ceiling with how hard you flinched.

“CAN I HE- OH, SORRY, HONEY!” Papyrus fretted, holding his hands out as though you could pass out from the scare as he did so. With a breathy laugh, you held your hand over your heart and turned to address the skeleton with a small smile.

“Yeah, you can help if you’d like!” You offered breathlessly, a wide grin gracing your features when he bounced and clapped excitedly, before practically skipping over to survey the laid-out ingredients.

“WHAT ARE WE MAKING?” He questioned with boundless enthusiasm and beaming at you as you did so. You could have cried with how normal he was acting around you following your heart to heart and had to force back the rising emotion with an equally jovial demeanor.

“I thought I’d try making paella, since it’s relatively easy and I fancied making something new!” You explained, gathering the appropriate pots and pans as you did and earning an excited gasp from the skeleton.

“I HAVE NEVER TRIED THIS PAELLA! THIS IS VERY EXCITING!” He chirped, his optimistic air easily infecting you as your energy began to meet his seemingly limitless enthusiasm. Alcohol evidently only intensified his happy-go-lucky character, you concluded with internal relief.

The two of you quickly got to work, chatting about nothing in particular as you did so. At one point, Undyne must have sensed that the stove had been ignited, because she came barreling in with an insistence to allow her to help, too. It was a pretty simple dish, so you really didn’t need any help at all, but you couldn’t refuse the hopeful glimmer in her eyes. Though, you ended up wishing you had.

It turned out that Undyne’s version of ‘cooking’ was to repeatedly punch the ingredients with a valiant war-cry, as well as almost burning the house down with extreme temperatures that she asserted were completely necessary. Not to mention, she had a habit of calling you a ‘wuss’ and a ‘weakling’ whenever you attempted to contend with her brutish methods.

Not too long after her intervening, your attention was redirected from helplessly begging the monster not to throw the entire jar of paprika, packaging and all, into the mix, to the irate expression of one of your betas. Mutt wordlessly signaled that he wanted to talk to you with a sideways jerk of his head, his arms crossed over his chest as he did so, to which you exasperatedly gestured to the chaos that was unfolding right beside you with Undyne letting out another triumphant shout as though to accentuate your point. Mutt silently contended with a pleading look and repeated his earlier motion, which sparked immediate concern.

“Guys, I’ll be right back. For the love of all that is good, please don’t set anything on fire!” You essentially begged the pair, earning a hushed snicker from Papyrus and a disappointed groan from Undyne, before you pointedly added, “Paps, don’t let her dump all the ingredients in at once, please?”

After a cheery verbal confirmation and a grumble from the reprimanded party that sounded an awful lot like ‘lame’ and ‘no fun’, you cautiously made your way over to Mutt, who then led you into the empty living room.

What tipped you off that this really was a serious matter was the fact that Mutt, as notoriously lazy as he was, refused to sit and instead tapped his foot anxiously while his arms remained crossed against his chest.

First taking a steeling breath as the ire returned to his features, he simply stated, “red talked t’me.”

“Okay…” You murmured in more of a question than a statement. A feeling that you already knew what his foul mood was about came over you.

“what’d he do?” He asked hushedly, clear frustration evident in his tone, to which you felt the need to stupidly clarify.

“Red?”

“no, doll.” He responded in a sigh, the sharp bite to his words portraying his rapidly waning patience. “my bro.”

“Oh. Sorry, that was stupid of me.” You huffed a wry laugh, now mirroring his action of wrapping your arms around yourself in a self-conscious gesture.

“’s okay.” He murmured, shame swiftly overtaking where obvious annoyance once was. “sorry fer snappin’.”

“It’s okay.” You breathed back, flashing a small, weak smile as you did so.

There was a tense beat of silence as you considered how to describe the interaction, afraid that whatever Edge had possibly told Red, and then in turn what Red had told Mutt, was a fantastic exaggeration of the story.

“I… I pushed him too far and he lashed out a little, that’s all.” You offered, gesturing with a hand as though to dismiss the perceived gravity of the situation.

“ya don’t have t’protect him-“

“I’m not!” You contended, your voice rising in volume as you did so. “It’s not that big of a deal and- and I can take care of myself! Okay? Nothing bad happened, so stop worrying!”

It was clear that something about Mutt’s concern for you had brought up a deep insecurity when it came to your newfound independence and you were painfully aware of the fact, but it didn’t help the rapid rising of belligerent anger that accompanied it. In an attempt to quell the intense emotion, you let out a slow breath through your nose and looked to Mutt as he softly spoke your name.

“jus’ ‘lashin’ out a little’ don’t trigger one’a edge’s episodes.” He muttered somberly, the obvious disbelief in your statement lacing his words and raising a browbone.

You almost felt like a scolded child under his scrutinizing gaze and the urge to lash out as such was a difficult one to quash. Realizing that you were acting rashly and, honestly, immaturely, you forced yourself to meekly explain.

“…It’s my fault.” You spoke just above a whisper, your eyes dropping ashamedly to the ground when he shot you a questioning glance in response. “I pushed him too hard and… I wasn’t exactly… kind.”

In response to the proclamation of what Mutt knew to be out of character behavior from you, he dropped his arms to his side and took a few steps towards you, surprised concern etched into his features. Daring to glance up at your beta, you fast spotted the wordless question in his eyelights as guilt welled up inside of you.

“He asked me why I was ‘wasting my time’ hanging out with him and I said that I cared about him.” You murmured, unable to meet Mutt’s progressively more befuddled gaze as you did so. “He… asked me if I was scared of him.” Mutt let out a scoff at that and, partnered with a roll of his eyelights, you surmised that this was likely somewhat typical behavior from his brother.

“I said no and… he told me that it was a stupid decision, to ‘become fond of a monster like him’.” You quoted Milord with a wry huff of laughter, then shook your head at Mutt when he once again spoke your name in a gesture to signal that you weren’t done explaining.

“I… I kind of, maybe, accused him of being afraid of letting anyone get close to him and trying to push me away because of that?” You breathed weakly, visibly cringing at your own words as you did so. “Then he kind of… threatened to tear me apart?” You added in a squeak, heat quickly travelling to your face as you did so.

“what?!” Mutt half-shouted, immediate rage evident in his features as you flinched and held your hands up in surrender.

“No, no! Not… um, not in a b-bad way…” You whispered the last part, your face going beet red as pure, unadulterated embarrassment at having to voice that part of the interaction aloud assaulted your mind.

“wait, so… lemme get this straight.” Mutt said slowly, his face scrunched up in confusion and the whisper of an amused smirk twitching at his mouth. “edge lost it ‘cuz ‘e was jealous?”

“I don’t know if he just heard what was said!” You jumped in to defend the monster, completely unbelieving that as much would be true. “From an outsider perspective it did sound like he was threatening me! Especially if you didn’t see- um, y’know.” Your face somehow got even redder as you awkwardly cleared your throat, your flustered state only increasing as Mutt barked out a laugh.

“nah, if he could hear ya, he could see ya.” He choked out, clearly having some trouble holding back his mirth. “my bro’s fuckin’ lucky ‘m findin’ this as funny as i am, otherwise i’d dust ‘im fer touchin’ ya.”

“Yeah, well,” You grumbled, irritation beginning to well up inside of you as a result of the strange, fierce protectiveness you felt for the spoken-of skeleton, as well as feeling suffocated by the amount of fierce protectiveness over you that had transpired in such a short period, “Edge already tried to, so have at, I guess.”

An icy feeling of dread settled like a rock in your stomach as you watched Mutt’s jovial expression shift into disbelief, swiftly followed by rage, his eyelights disappearing for a brief second as you asked feebly, “Red didn’t tell you that, did he?”

Your redundant question was promptly ignored by the monster, of whom began to turn toward the direction he last saw Edge with a snarl. In an agile motion, you grasped his wrist to prevent him from doing so and desperately yelped his name.

“Papyrus made sure that he didn’t even touch him! I don’t think he even remembers anything!” You whisper-shouted, aware that your voice would likely carry to others present within the building. “Please, Mutt. There’s been enough conflict and heartache today already. I think… I think Edge went to Papyrus and asked for me because he didn’t want to hurt him, at least, not before the episode fully took hold.”

The exhausted desperation in your voice caused the skeleton to falter before he exhaled sharply through his nasal cavity and shut his sockets for a second. He turned to you, his eyelights sputtering and reappeared in the inky blackness of his now open sockets.

“Talk to your brother and make sure that he’s okay.” You suggested after a breath of relief along with a patient smile. “Don’t punish Edge for something he couldn’t help, it won’t do any good.”

“yea, yer right.” He conceded with a sigh, his frame untensing as he did so, before pulling you forward into a tight embrace. “’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” You breathed against his chest, the contact easing your anxiety and allowing a genuine smile to break out across your face. “I’m proud of you, my love.” You added, gazing affectionately at the skeleton as he pulled back with a light flush and bashful grin.

“heh, thanks, doll.” He murmured, allowing his hands to slip down your arms and entwine with yours. “come with me?” He asked tentatively with a hopeful lilt to his voice, practically flashing puppy-dog eyes at you in turn.

“Don’t you think that this is something you should do on your own?” You asked carefully, causing the skeleton to grumble dejectedly.

“i had a feelin’ ya were gonna say that.” He said in a sigh. Instant unease at the possibility of facing his brother alone, even just to check on him, caused a tense frown to jerk the corners of his mouth downwards.

“It’ll be alright, and if it isn’t, then I’m right here, okay?” You assured him as you squeezed his hands and earned a small, affectionate smile in return.

The timid expression lasted for just a moment before something akin to tentative shame crossed his features, prompting you to knit your eyebrows together with a small frown, the action conveying your wordless concern.

“doll… there’s somethin’ i gotta tell ya.” He muttered as his gaze dropped from your increasingly worried expression and to your interlinked hands.

It was then that a scolding shout echoed from what once was the suspiciously quiet kitchen and caused the two of you to flinch. With a sigh and an apologetic grimace, you held a finger up to signal that you would be back to resume the conversation and dashed in the direction that the noise had come from.

Before you could even process what was happening, Axe had bolted towards you and attempted to hide behind your much smaller frame, cowering like a scolded puppy in response to whatever he had scampered away from. With a furrowed brow you surveyed the scene and noted amusedly that Papyrus was wielding a wooden spoon as he glared in reprimand at the aforementioned monster. Undyne’s boisterous cackling instantly put you at ease and a single glance over your shoulder to see Axe rubbing at his hand with a self-pitying grimace told you all that you needed to know.

“Oh, Axe.” You spoke in a soft laugh, shaking your head slightly as you did so. “Did you try to steal the food?”

“no…” He mumbled, an obvious lie by the way Papyrus practically shrieked in indignance before going back to the cooking and conversing with a still-snickering Undyne. The former skeleton giggled lowly as he sneakily wound his arms around your waist and placed his chin atop your head, earning an affectionate huff of laughter from you in turn.

“Well, it looks like it’s nearly ready.” You observed hushedly, turning your head to look at him as you did so and fighting back a flush after noting the close proximity of your faces. “Why don’t I get you the first serving?”

Axe’s eyelight shrunk briefly before returning to its typical size, engulfing the black of his socket as he considered your question and seemingly completely unaffected by your closeness, before a serious demeanor that you had yet to see from the skeleton hardened his features.

“butch… first, then… i’ll eat.” He muttered, his tone openly conveying the fierce protectiveness for his brother.

A pang of empathy shot through you at the request, of which was quickly followed by admiration along with shared understanding of being so protective over your sibling. The swift succession of emotions must have been evident in your features, because despite the veiled unease on Axe’s face, a light blue flush begun to creep along his cheekbones.

“Okay, do you want to go and fetch him?” You offered softly, a small smile making its way onto your face at the skeleton’s now bashful demeanor.

With a slight nod of his head, the arms around you disappeared along with his flustered form and you took the opportunity to briefly glance over the cooking, which looked surprisingly not burnt to a crisp as you had envisioned, then head back to where you half-expected Mutt to still be waiting. Unsurprisingly, he had vanished in the short amount of time you had been away, so with a sigh to dissipate the unfolding anxiety at his now abandoned desire of admission, you headed back to the kitchen to assist with finishing off what was left of the cooking.

Incredibly, the end result was actually edible, and your surprise at the fact was met with semi-outraged boasting from both parties (not that you expected Papyrus to be the one to obliterate the meal anyway) that only came to a stop when the rest of the group was called and sat down to eat. It was still bright and warm outside despite the evening hours fast approaching, so you prepped each serving and, with Papyrus’ and Undyne’s help, brought the plates to the outside dining table that you had first spotted under the balcony at the front of the building.

There was something about placing each plate in front of each person that had become such an integral, special part of your life, and seeing their faces light up in return, that warmed your soul and gave you a contented, blissful feeling. As promised, you gave Butch the first serving, then Axe, and couldn’t help the giddy, flustered grin at the look of grateful adoration you received in return.

Everyone seemed in good spirits, laughing and conversing amongst themselves whilst you fondly watched over them. Even Red seemed to be doing a lot better, and you couldn’t help but wonder what poor inanimate object had suffered the wrath of his rage in order for him to be as jovial and carefree as he was. It saddened you that Milord wasn’t around to experience it all, but then, you wouldn’t be too eager to be around someone that had completely intended to murder you literally an hour ago, either.

 You had asked Mutt about what he had wanted to tell you, but just as you had anticipated, he waved it off as unimportant, and no amount of needling from you would get him to give in. You figured he would tell you when he was ready and pushed your anxious musings aside in favor of joining the others in their chattering.

Blue and Papyrus insisted on helping you clean up, so it didn’t take long before everything was washed and put away. You could hear the beginnings of a party in the rising chatting and shouting, as well as the quiet thumping bass from a nearby speaker, and excitedly skipped to your room to change out of swimwear and into something a little warmer for once the sun had set.

Your chosen outfit consisted of denim shorts along with a V-neck spaghetti-strap top, as well as a simple pair of sneakers. You had brought a hoodie with you just in case it got chilly, but deemed it to be warm enough to forgo that item of clothing for the time being and tied it around your waist by the sleeves for safe-keeping.

 Not wanting to hole yourself up in your room to apply a little makeup, you instead grabbed your makeup bag and a hand-held mirror and brought it downstairs with you. Then taking a seat on one of the many recliners littering the back porch of the house, you popped in your headphones to allow you to listen to your own music instead of whatever drum and bass song the groups of beach goers decided was appropriate to subject everyone else to.

You were lost in your own little world of carefully selected Disney songs and the meticulous task of getting your eyeliner just right when Blue approached you and asked what you were listening to. Once you told him, he lit up and expressed his love for the soundtracks but, when you offered an earbud to him, tilted his head confusedly at you. It took you an embarrassingly long time to realize that he didn’t have ears to insert the little device into, and so you suggested that you move to the living room to play the songs from your phone’s speaker instead, to which he enthusiastically agreed.

Before you settled, you made a quick stop by the kitchen to get yourself another drink and was pleasantly surprised when Blue took up your offer of pouring him one. Then, once the chosen song was playing back in the living room, you both zealously sang along as well as chatting between songs. The task of applying your make-up was long completed, but you were having so much fun creating your own renditions of random songs with Blue that you simply remained where you were for a while.

You were in the middle of an enthusiastic duet of Beauty and the Beast’s ‘Evermore’ when a very amused snort sounded from the doorway, prompting you to freeze and bashfully look over to where the noise had emitted from, whilst Blue, ever the confident being, just excitedly greeted the visitor.

“are you two drunk or somethin’?” Stretch asked amusedly, a bony brow raised as he leant against the doorframe. He and Blue, as well as those you had passed by during your task to change, had seemingly had the same idea as you and had abandoned their swimwear for more casual, party-appropriate outfits.  

“You don’t need to be drunk to just enjoy life, dude.” You scoffed in mock disparagement, before a sly smirk of an expression accompanied your mirth-filled confession, causing the skeleton to snort with a slight shake of his head, “But yes. Yes, I am.”

“I AM NOT!” Blue chirped from beside you, earning a look of pure betrayal from you and an affectionate chuckle from his brother.

“Traitor!” You hissed, regarding him with a faux glare as you did so and causing him to adorably sputter before correcting himself.

“OH, YES! I AM COMPLETELY, UM…” He trailed off with a pensive look, of which he directed at you to fill in the blank in his innocence with respect to drinking. You happily supplied your go-to word for such a situation, to which he asked if it was a swear (you evilly insisted that it wasn’t), then leading to you dissolving into giggles when he blurted out, “WANKERED!”

You were laughing too hard at your own childish joke to clock the lightning-fast flash of irritation that crossed Stretch’s face and so didn’t quite realize the stern talking-to you were in for when he spoke your name calmly to grab your attention.

“c’mere, i wanna talk to ya.” He stated coolly, the ire fast gone from his features and instead replaced with a laid-back demeanor as he motioned with his skull for you to follow him.

A whine of disapproval left Blue as you hopped up from your seat and so, wrongly assuming that he was annoyed at not being able to choose the next song, you unlocked your phone and handed it to him with a promise to be right back.

What you weren’t expecting was for Stretch, the moment you were out of sight, to grab your wrist and throw you into a shortcut, the void then spitting you out into what you assumed was the room he and Blue were staying in. A sharp gasp was drawn from you at the sudden action, and you whipped around and glared at the monster once you had regained your senses.

“What the fuck?!” You yelped indignantly.

All cylinders firing and reared up to either flee or fight, you locked your enraged gaze on the skeleton as he shrugged with a lax grin. He noticed you break your line of sight briefly to survey the exit points of the room and stared confusedly at you, before seemingly realizing why you had done so.

“sorry, just wanted to talk in private. i’m not gonna hurt ya.”

He would have looked apologetic if it weren’t for the lingering ire that you had now picked up on, yet it did little to ease your anxiety. However, you dropped your guard slightly in order to placate him after making a mental note of the best escape routes. When you made no indication that you were going to respond, instead staring at him with a raised brow and crossed arms, he sighed lightly, shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and took a step towards you.

“i was gonna chew you out for tricking my bro into swearing, but i can see i’ve made ya uncomfortable-“ An exasperated glare and a roll of your eyes openly signaled your anger as he continued, evidently unaffected by the action, “- so, i’m just gonna ask ya not to do that again, k?”

“Sure. Sorry.” You said shortly, untensing slightly now that you had surmised the interaction was over, but froze when he spoke up once again.

“actually, whilst i’ve got you here, i wanted to ask you somethin’.” He said, searching you with his amber eyelights as he did so, and causing you to continue to mentally brace yourself. “why haven’t ya told mutt about everything?”

The question obviously had caught you off guard by the way you faltered and stared dumbly at the skeleton. It took a second for it to register, at which point you felt an icy pit of guilt settle in your stomach.

Of course Stretch knows. If Blue is in the Guard, then he knows and had evidently confided in his brother about it. That, or he had unwittingly blabbed about it, as he seemed to have a tendency to do. Either way, you were in deep shit.

“I have. Everything about the visions is true.”

You didn’t know why you were lying. Perhaps it was the deep-seated sense of hostility that the outwardly calm monster had instilled in you and led you to feel defensive as a result, but it was instantly evident that he didn’t believe you.

“liar.” He stated shortly, shaking his head in reprimand at you as he moved to lean his weight against the wall adjacent to you.

“I’m not lying.” You insisted through grit teeth. Your hands unconsciously clenched into fists at your sides as he let out a muted, frustrated sigh.

“yea, you are. i can sense it.” He contended with a shrug. His tone was level and serious as though the information were common knowledge, prompting you to scoff in disbelief.

“What? Do you have a super-secret ability to just know when someone is lying or something?” You asked sarcastically, completely expecting him to deny it. When he simply raised a brow bone at you with a smug simper, however, you openly gaped at him and muttered, “Are you fucking kidding me? Do all of you have that?!”

A huff of laughter left the skeleton before he answered, “we all have our own special abilities, but being a walkin’ lie-detector is just mine.” You felt a chill crawl down your spine when he stared at you icily, somehow never breaking his calm demeanor as he uttered, “you could lie to every one of them all you want, and they’d be none the wiser. in fact, i bet you already have, haven’t you?”

Okay, ouch.

“He doesn’t need to know.” You argued, dropping your gaze ashamedly to the floor as you shifted uneasily. “The others only know because they’re directly involved and… I couldn’t keep lying to Red. He was my best friend before all of this and I felt… obligated, I guess.”

“but you can keep lying to mutt? to axe and butch? do they not deserve to know the truth just cuz they haven’t known you as long?”

His neutral expression had fallen into a chastising scowl as you had spoken, and he maintained the look of cold reprimand as his voice began to display obvious resentment at your actions.

“The only things they don’t know about are Frisk’s status as a Mage, their abilities and the timelines, and by extension, the impending war.” You explained, your voice gaining strength as you stared defiantly at the skeleton and stated, “That’s the truth. It wasn’t my secret to tell, and it still isn’t. Do you really think that the knowledge that a war between Mages and Monsters is an inevitability would do them any good? Haven’t they got enough to worry about already? Haven’t they been through enough suffering without knowing that eventually they’re going to have to run and hide or fight to survive, again?!”

Stretch’s sockets widened as you spoke, clearly not expecting you to go on a tirade about the subject, and only fueling your indignant ire at his accusations.

“I keep the shit I do from them to protect them, and I know that you know what that’s like – you were just about to yell at me for getting your grown-ass, older brother to swear! Yes, at some point they’re going to find out and they’re probably going to hate me for it, but if I can give them even a second more of the peace and happiness that they deserve by keeping such horrific information from them, then I don’t care!”

You were a hypocrite – you knew that. You would like to think that your situation was different, but in many ways, it was exactly the same. It was the same thing that your brother had done to you, and it was the same thing that you had chastised Sans for doing to Papyrus. However, when you thought about the anguish and torture that they had gone through simply to escape the hell that was their respective districts, you just couldn’t bring yourself to rip away likely the largest sense of security and happiness that they had ever experienced. You already hated yourself for pushing Sans to tell his brother, as well as caving and telling Red, and you were not going to let someone guilt you into relenting your control over the one thing that you could assuredly do to protect them.

Swallowing harshly against the lump that had formed in your throat, you didn’t allow Stretch, who was now openly gaping at you, to answer and instead pushed past him to stalk out of the room. Unshed tears burnt at your eyes as the unrelenting shame and guilt following the interaction assaulted your mind. Rage bubbled up along with humiliation and you set a particularly destructive goal for yourself - of which you would need your equally as destructive beta for.

“Take me to the place that you went after you left before.” You demanded when you had located the monster, the clear furiosity etched into your features giving him pause before a pleased, mischievous smirk made its way onto his face.

“fuck yea, let’s go break shit.”

It turned out that this particular spot was a regular haunt for Red, if the numerous scorch marks and obliterated trees were anything to go by. It took a moment of tense searching, but eventually you found slabs of bark and smaller sticks that you could confidently snap and shatter with your inferior human strength, and so you did just that. After an indeterminate amount of cursing and yelling along with smashing quite a few pieces of the poor, wrecked trees over your knee, you planted yourself heavily on the ground as you fought to catch your breath.

Red, who had at first joined in, but quickly settled for observing your rampage with a pure look of awe on his face, sat down with you with a huff of laughter before throwing an arm over your shoulder and grinning affectionately at you.

“i think that was prolly th’ hottest thing i’ve ever seen.” He said in a chuckle, then faltered and regarded you with furrowed brows and a small frown when you forced a weak chuckle, your gaze detachedly trained on your anxiously fiddling hands. With a small sigh, he pulled you closer into his side and nuzzled the side of your head before asking, “what’s goin’ on, angel?”

Chewing on your lip as you considered your next words, you leant into the contact and reveled in its calming effect, then shifted yourself so that you could meet his eyelights whilst remaining in his embrace.

“Red, am I a bad person?” You asked meekly. Said skeleton gained a look of exasperated disbelief at your question.

“what? no, of course ya ain’t. yer a saint, good to a fuckin’ fault.” An incredulous lilt to his voice betrayed his obvious thinking that your self-conscious musing was ridiculous to him as he loosened his grip slightly to fully face you. “th’ fuck made ya think that?”

“All these secrets I’ve kept from everyone, all the lies I’ve had to tell to maintain them… Am I really protecting them if they’re just going to be hurt when they find out? I thought what I was doing was different to what my brother did to me, but is it really?” Your eyes began to burn as you spoke and you took a steeling breath before dropping your gaze to the ground once more, unable to take the mix of concern and confusion on your betas face. “I mean, I pushed Sans to tell Papyrus about the timelines and resets in a stupid, impulsive decision based on nothing but my own hurt and now look! He's worse off for it! I- I feel like I’ve come barreling into each of your lives and just… fucked everything up!”

“…who said that t’ya?” He muttered after a few uneasy seconds of quiet, his demeanor quickly shifting into one of ire as he did so.

“That’s not important.” You breathed as you shook your head, then knit your brows together before gazing pleadingly at him. “Should… Should I tell Mutt, Axe and Butch about everything? The timelines, the resets, the war? Am I an idiot for thinking that it would only cause them suffering to know?”

You took a moment to look around at the destruction that the two of you had caused, a flower of guilt for what you assumed was a beautiful landscape beforehand being reduced to nothing but shards of debris at your hand blooming in your chest, as Red turned over your words in his head with a pensive frown. This isn’t who you wanted to be – this cataclysmic mess of a person who, no matter how hard they try, just ends up making things worse than they were before. People are inherently flawed, and you knew this, but it was getting harder and harder to forgive yourself for what were the unintended consequences of good, yet evidently naive intentions.

“th’ way i see it, yer doin’ what ya think is right, ‘n i trust ya more than anyone t’know what right is.” Red’s comforting tone broke you out of the cycle of self-pitying contemplation, offering you a weak smile as he did so. “bad people don’t sit around stressin’ ‘bout whether they’re bad – they just are.”

The kind intent that accompanied his words began to put you somewhat at ease and allowed you to let go of the writhing guilt in your soul in a soft exhale. It was strange, you hadn’t been able to sense the projection of comfort, care, and love that he seemed to be emitting so clearly before – it almost felt akin to a warm blanket being draped over your tense form.

“Do you think what I’m doing is right?” You eked out feebly, then searching his face as he let out a wry laugh and looked to you with obvious skepticism etched into his sharp features.

“fuck, i dunno, angel. ya really trust me ta have an opinion on that?” He asked exasperatedly.

There was a bitter undertone to his words that signified the evident resentment toward himself and his checkered past of numerous needlessly cruel actions. At that, you turned fully to face the skeleton and placed a hand against the side of his face as you met his eyelights with a determined, insistent gaze.

“You’re good, Red. I trust you.” You stated, your voice the strongest it had been during the whole interaction. You smiled softly at him, and a reluctant grumble and a light flush is what you received in response, followed by a muted sigh while he looked away from you in contemplation.

“if i were you, i’d do th’ same thing. i have done th’ same thing, a lotta times.” He admitted with a shrug and a weak frown, then meeting your gentle gaze, and muttering out, “i know that’s kinda useless, sorry.”

“No, that… actually makes me feel a little better.” You said in a soft laugh before maneuvering yourself to cuddle back into his side and place a kiss to his cheekbone before whispering, “Thank you.”

After a minute of some much needed serenity, the only sounds audible your gentle breaths and the chirping of nearby birds as the sun began to disappear below the horizon, you looked to your beta with affection clear in your expression, causing him to flush lightly as a result as he met your eyes.

“I’m really proud of you, y’know?” You spoke just above a whisper as he raised a brow bone at you in befuddlement, prompting you to clarify, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed how hard you’ve been trying to keep your temper under control. You could have gone straight back to the house and let all hell break loose on Milord, but you didn’t. You came here instead.” You explained with a sweeping gesture to the chaos that littered the ground around you to accentuate your last point. Red lit up the color of his namesake and let out a sheepish chuckle.

“i, uh… i never wanted ta be like this. i don’t think boss did either, it was just… necessary, y’know?” He admitted in a soft, morose tone, the claws tapping against his femur portraying his unease at being so emotionally open. Yet, he continued to confide in you, albeit in a strained, reluctant tone.

“y’know edge wanted ta join th’ guard since he were real young? not ta have power or ta hurt anyone though– ta help. he wanted to help everyone ‘n make th’ district a better place.” He muttered with a bark of disbelieving, bitter laughter, shaking his skull gently as he did so. Your soul began to writhe with sorrow at the information, but you continued to listen intently as a look of remorse hardened his features.

“i’m th’ older brother, i shoulda taken over after our old man… after our dad couldn’t be th’ boss anymore. but… i was a wreck. jus’ sleepin’ all th’ time ‘n… if i weren’t passed out somewhere, i was too fuckin’ outta my mind on whatever shit i could get my hands on ta do anythin’.”  His voice had dropped to a whisper now, each word clipped and enveloped in shame as a brief break in his voice betrayed the intense storm of emotion he was experiencing. “i coulda protected ‘im from all that, but i was too fuckin’ busy wallowin’ in my own self-pity. y'know he got them scars over his eye cuz he was protectin’ me after I was an idiot an ran my mouth at the wrong monster? it’s my fault he turned out th’ way he did, n’ it's my fault he has those fuckin’ episodes. if i had just… just fuckin’ done somethin’.”

A wave of shame, hurt, and hate washed over you, but you fast recognized them as not your own emotions, but Red’s. You took a breath to speak, your chest and throat tight from the myriad of painful feelings, but exhaled it in a short sigh through your nose as you furrowed your brows when he turned to you with a look of fierce determination.

“that’s what i wanted ta talk t’ya about.” His shaky, grief-ridden tone had shifted into one of careful, anxious conviction as he zeroed in on your befuddled expression. “ya remember i told ta ‘bout soul bondin’?”. You could only nod your head as he turned fully to take your hands in his, concern gnawing at your gut at the sudden change in demeanor.

“it ain’t somethin’ that jus’ happens – ya gotta have both parties ta consent and ya bring both of ya souls out ta do it. it usually don’t happen this quickly, but i guess cuz of alla th’ timeline stuff…” He trailed off with a shake of his head as though to collect his thoughts as you nodded in understanding.

“ya see each other’s memories, all th’ most important shit that shaped who ya are. th’ reason ya can feel my intent so much more now is cuz soul bondin’ is a natural progression of relationships between monsters n’ it’s ya soul’s way of tellin’ ya that it’s ready. ya understand?” He explained hurriedly, prompting you to nod as he exhaled sharply through his nasal cavity, seemingly steeling himself for what he was going to say next.

“i want ya to know everythin’. i can’t help feelin’ like ya don’t understand the gravity of what i did- who i was. i can’t keep pretendin’ that i’m okay with it not matterin’ t’ya, ‘cuz it matters ta me.”

As you listened, you began to idly run your thumbs over the back of his metacarpals, completely captivated by every word. It seemed as though he had been considering this for a long time by how quickly he was able to describe everything, but you also had a feeling that the spur of the moment ramble was just that. The second he stopped talking and took a breath, he suddenly looked unsure of himself as he surveyed your furrowed brows and parted lips.

“What- In terms of our relationship and my role as an alpha – what would this be?” You asked carefully, wracking your brain for an example that would make sense in comparison when he tilted his skull at you with a muddled frown. “Like… Is this something similar to being engaged? Married? Something even more intense than that?”

“eh, heh.” A sheepish laugh sounded from the skeleton as his flush returned with a vengeance, now unable to meet your questioning gaze before muttering, “Uh, not quite marriage, but… sorta like gettin’ engaged, i guess? jus’… not as serious. it’s, uh, pretty intimate, though.”

“Are- Are you sure?” A breath of skeptical laughter accompanied your words, a small smile gracing your features at the very notion that he wanted to share something so incredibly vulnerable and personal with you. The tentative question seemed to catch him off-guard, resulting in widened eye sockets and parted teeth as though he had expected you to promptly shut the idea down.

“i- fuck, ‘m not good at this emotional shit.” He grumbled under his breath as he dropped his flustered gaze to the ground, then took a moment to consider his words as you offered him a patient smile. After a short while, he exhaled sharply through his nasal cavity, unable to meet your eyes as his faint crimson blush grew tenfold as he spoke.

“it ain’t jus’ about sharin’ memories. it’s th’ most intimate thing in th’ world fer a monster – the whole our souls bein’ the culmination of our beings ‘n stuff, y’know?” His eyelights briefly darted to your face, prompting you to nod in understanding and squeeze his hands as a gesture of encouragement, your cautious smile slowly transforming into one of pure adoration in turn.

“right. uh… i can’t put inta words how i feel ‘bout ya, angel. so… i could show ya, instead.” He mumbled with a shrug, completely and adorably flustered by the admission, and struggling to lift his eyelights from your entwined hands as a result. A bashful grin had broken out across your face, which had reddened considerably along with the intense fluttering of butterflies in your stomach. You didn’t even have to think about your answer.

“Okay.” You breathed, laughing softly when he once again locked onto your face with an astonished expression. “But you have to promise not to make fun of me for my emo phase, that shit was rough.”

A mirthful, yet relieved laugh tumbled past his teeth at that as an air of pure adoration about him softened his gaze and widened his grin, before he teased, “ya sure ya ever even came outta that phase?”

“Oh, ha ha. Never heard that one before.” You snorted with a sarcastic laugh as you rolled your eyes good-naturedly. He snickered in response, before sobering with a bashful grin and a hopeful glint to his eyelights.

“ya really wanna do this?” He asked lowly, the unease in being so openly vulnerable evident in the way he intensely searched your expression for any type of doubt. He wouldn’t find any, though – instead, all he saw was adoration that rivaled his own.

“I want to show you how I feel about you too. You’re right, there’s no way for words to accurately express just how much I adore you, Red. And to know you so completely, to see and experience every moment in your life that is an integral part of who you are, both good and bad, is so incredibly special.” You expressed in just above a whisper, the butterflies intensifying as you did so and reflecting in your shy demeanor and flushed face. “So… yes, I really want to do this.”

“heh, how d’ya always know exactly how ta say shit like that?” He mumbled with a breath of laughter, prompting you to snort and shake your head.

“I’ve had a lot of practice lately. Remember when we first started hanging out?” You said in a giggle, prompting him to let out a bark of laughter.

“fuck, ya were worse than me.” He teased as you groaned good-naturedly, then smirking impishly before needling, “ya remember when ya threw a shoe at my head just cuz i said ya looked nice?”

“I try not to remember that, thank you.” You snorted, then sighed in a show of mock-longing for the emotionally guarded person you once were. “I used to be such a cool, tough badass before you guys, now I’m all soft and emotional.” You spoke the last words with an air of faux disgust as you screwed up your face and coaxed a round of raucous laughter from your beta.

“bullshit, i saw ya cry after ya accidentally washed a fuckin’ spider down th’ drain.” He contended as he snickered at the pure indignation in your expression.

“That doesn’t count! I was already having a bad day!” You argued, the mirthful grin lighting up your face immediately taking any conviction out of the claim.

“what about when ya refused ta move yer cat from yer pillow cuz ya didn’t wanna wake him up, so ya jus’ slept without one?”

“That’s a normal cat person thing!... I think.”

“how ‘bout when ya accidentally killed a dog in that video game so ya freaked out, deleted th’ save and never played it again?”

“I…” You cut yourself off, unable to think of an excuse that would even come close to justifying such a silly action, so instead snorted, and conceded in a sigh. “Alright, yeah. You’ve got me there.”

The both of you dissolved into laughter for a while, occasionally making jabs at the other as you bantered and joked. Eventually, though, you lapsed into a companiable silence, the hushed chirping of nearby birds and the sound of the gentle breeze allowing you to take a moment to contemplate the aforementioned topic.

“So… the whole soul bonding thing.” You said in a soft, thoughtful tone, earning a grunt of affirmation from the skeleton. “Do I need to do anything? Is there a certain time it should be done? Are there, like, rules I have to follow?”

A particularly amused wheeze left him in response, prompting you to exclaim, “I don’t know! In case you weren’t aware, I only ever seem to learn about Monster culture through unknowingly infringing on cultural no-no’s!”

“it’s more fun that way.” He stated through his chuckling, then letting out a few more breaths of laughter as he wiped a tear of mirth from his socket as you glared weakly at him, despite the smile threatening to force its way onto your face, before collecting himself and clarifying in a tone that portrayed the endearment he held for your anxious musings.

“nah, nothin’ like that. it can be intense though ‘n ya’v had enougha that fer today, right?” With a huff of wry laughter, you nodded and shot him an exhausted look. “so, how ‘bout tomorrow night? i’ll show ya how ‘n everythin’, ya don’t have ta worry.”

“Okay.” You said in a contented sigh, then beaming at your beta as nervous excitement bloomed in your chest. “Tomorrow night it is.”

Chapter Text

It was well after the sun had set before you and Red made it back to the beach house, and by that time everyone had gathered along the beach, drinking and conversing over the loud music. At least they all seemed to be having fun, you thought, even Axe and Butch were chatting (albeit very reluctantly) with a monster that looked like a combination of a bird and a snowflake – though, from what you could gather from the interaction, the snow-like monster was attempting to barrage the two with a not very well received comedy routine, if the raucous laughter from the former and confused grimaces from the latter were anything to go by.

There were strings of lights strewn about the beach now, illuminating the sandy ground below along with a roaring campfire just by the pier. Huge crowds of people, both humans and monsters alike, had gathered along the coastline to partake in the festivities and the harmony amongst them brought a small smile to your face as you detachedly watched the interactions.

It wasn’t long before Mutt had spotted you and Red amongst the horde of bodies, then happily ditched whomever he was talking to in favor of sauntering over to the pair of you, obviously more intoxicated than the last time you had seen him. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, which mostly consisted of needling regarding where the two of you had been for the last hour or so, Red’s gaze quickly zeroed in on his brother and, after the days previous events, decided to join him – “‘jus ta keep an eyelight on ‘im” he had insisted along with a lax grin and a small shrug.

With that, you and Mutt found an empty spot near the campfire amongst the other attendees to sit and chat for a while. A glance around at the crowd allowed you to spot Sans talking to a human that you didn’t recognize – a tall, dark haired and model levels of attractive guy. Said guy was definitely flirting with Sans, evident by the smirk paired with light touches along his arm. However, Sans wasn’t getting flustered and bashful the way he did with you – in fact, he seemed to be the one in control of the situation, and evidently had the other party completely enamored by his every word.

An ugly pang of jealousy shot through you as you watched, and you had to silently remind yourself that he wasn’t your beta and that he could do whatever he wanted, but it did little to quell the uncomfortable, envious writhing of your soul. Your attention was only steered away from the sight when Mutt followed your eyeline and let out a quiet snort, then softly shook his head.

“looks like ol’ sansy boy is gettin’ some.” He muttered amusedly, waggling his browbones at you when you turned to him and huffed a weak laugh.

“I didn’t even know he was bi.” You mumbled detachedly as you once again directed your gaze back at the pair, of whom were walking off to some unknown location side by side.

“heh, yea. he ain’t never come out or nothin’ but it ain’t like he tries to hide it neither.” He explained nonchalantly with an equally as casual shrug, before a mischievous simper lit up his face as he leaned in conspiringly. “ya know th’ way i found out is by catchin’ him doin’ the walk’a shame outta grillby’s one mornin’? apparently grillbz lives above th’ place.”

“I knew there was something going on between those two!”  You whisper-shouted with great enthusiasm, the previous ire at the observed interaction between him and the man fading fast as you asked amusedly, “So, when he says ‘put it on my tab’…?”

“heh, yep.” He snickered as your face lit up in delighted disbelief. “he gets ta eat fer free jus’ cuz they’re fuckin’. i tried to wiggle my way in there, but he wasn’t interested.” He admitted with a sly grin and another shrug as you gasped in mock reprimand and laughed out his name.

“what? i get free food an’ he’s hot, literally.” He once again waggled his brows at you as you groaned dramatically, then dissolved into giggles. A recollection of the fire-elemental sprang to mind as you considered Mutt’s statement before you made a ‘so-so’ gesture with your hand, causing the aforementioned skeleton to gasp as though you had just uttered the most offensive thing in the world to him.

“Okay, okay. I get it.” You said with a snort before addressing him with a grin, “He is kinda hot.”

“ya wouldn’t be sayin’ ‘kinda’ if ya got ta see those abs’a his.” He sighed dreamily as you raised a critical brow at him.

“How did you get to see that?” You asked suspiciously. Surely, he didn’t just randomly abandon his shirt, so there’s only two ways that he would come across such a sight – Mutt had already discounted one of them, so…

“i walked in on ‘im when he was changin’ one day.” He explained casually, prompting you to once again gasp his name in disbelief. “well i didn’t mean ta! i jus’ wanted ta ask if he had any more siracha ‘n he was takin’ forever!”

“Are you sure that it wasn’t just part of your plan to seduce him?” You asked in a conspiring manner, imitating his action of waggling your eyebrows as you did so and causing him to scoff indignantly.

“please, even i have more tact than that.” He exclaimed in a show of dramatics, then stared at you incredulously when you simply addressed him with a skeptical expression. Knowing what you were referring to almost immediately, he made a noise of offence. “excuse me, ‘m a master of seduction!”

“Why don’t you tell me what you think happened that night?” You offered mirthfully, resting your head on your hand as you did so.

“i skillfully seduced ya with my charms ‘n then we had a night’a passionate love making.” You made a fake gagging noise at the term ‘love making’ and had to swiftly catch yourself from tumbling onto the sand with a bark of laughter when he shoved your arm in scolding. “then we fell in love ‘n lived happily ever after, obviously.”

“Now, what I remember- “ You started with a shit-eating grin as he groaned and attempted to quiet you with a hand over your mouth, of which you aptly dodged then grabbed his arm to prevent him from doing so again, “- is you unsuccessfully, relentlessly flirting with me all night, then just giving up and straight up asking if I wanted to ‘fuck’.”

“ya said yes, though – it couldn’t’ve been that unsuccessful.” He scoffed with a grin paired with a raised brow, then snorted when you responded with an ‘eh’ along with a shrug.

“It’s not like it was difficult to bed me at that point, to be fair.” You clarified as Mutt once again gasped dramatically and addressed you with a hand over his chest as though your statement had simply horrified him.

“are ya calling yerself ‘easy’, doll?”

“No, I’m calling myself a slut.” You responded with barely contained mirth lacing your words. “And a proud one, at that.”

Mutt’s façade of faux outrage slipped at your proclamation, and he swiftly burst into laughter, of which you easily joined in on when he offered a hand to you in a high-five and you smugly returned the gesture.

Once you had composed yourself, you looked to the skeleton with a contemplative expression, causing him to address you with a raised browbone and a tilt to his skull.

“Is there anyone else that I don’t know about?” You asked with an impish smirk.

“that i’ve ‘accidentally’ walked in on or…?”

“No!” You exclaimed through a huff of laughter, “Anyone else in the family that isn’t straight!”

“oh.” He snorted, then hummed thoughtfully as he considered your question.

“well… my bro is demisexual – though he don’t put a label on it, it’s jus’ what i figured from what i’ve seen.” You let out a ‘huh’ at that – it honestly was rather fitting now that you thought about it.

“as far as i know, apart from me n’ vanilla everyone else is straight. though- “ He gained a pensive expression as he dropped his hands to his lap, then regarded you with a shit-eating grin, “- i ain’t so sure ‘bout paps. i don’t think he’s ever shown interest in that sorta thing, but he has a weird obsession with mettaton. he always calls him a ‘sexy rectangle’ when he watches th’ show ‘e did underground.”

“A ‘sexy rectangle’?” You parroted with a snort as Mutt barked out a laugh at the descriptor.

“yep. i never got it though, i mean, he’s a robot.” He stated incredulously before correcting himself, “well, a ghost-type inhabiting a robot’s body, but still.”

Whatever joke you were going to make about people being attracted to much stranger things went completely out the window at the newly acquired information and caused you to openly gawk at the skeleton in response.

“They can do that?!” You asked in another whisper-shout, then adding, “Wait, I thought Mettaton was, like, a fucking sentient robot or something! It makes way more sense that he’s a monster!”

“he kept it secret for a while, dunno why. now his cousin, napstablook, is lookin’ at doin’ th’ same ta help with his music career.” He explained after recovering from a round of chuckling at your exclamation, then waved off the contemplative statement with an almost prideful tone to his voice, “ya know alphys built his body? th’ new one too.”

“That’s incredible! She’s so smart.” You complimented the monster with a longing sigh, before adding with a raised brow, “She did an amazing job with his new body – now that I can understand being attracted to.”

“oh, stars. not you too.” He sighed in a faux scolding as you snorted in response.

“Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants, man.” You snickered with a shrug, then quieted when Mutt assumedly felt his phone vibrate and pulled the device from his pocket with a grimace.

“it’s my bro.” He mumbled anxiously, prompting you to knit your brows together.

“You absolutely just texted him instead of going back to the house, didn’t you?” You asked in a cautious tone, huffing out a short laugh when he nodded sheepishly as the phone continued to vibrate in his hand.

“Answer the call and speak to him, you know I’ll be here if anything goes wrong.” You suggested softly. He sighed and tapped the screen, then flashed you a grateful smile before vanishing to assumedly somewhere quieter in a puff of violet magic.

It didn’t take long for another member of the household to take his place besides you, but you didn’t expect that someone to be Axe. You had half a mind to think that he had been waiting just out of sight for you to be alone with how quickly he had appeared, but the thought was swiftly banished from your mind when he offered an outstretched hand to you with a wide grin.

“wanna… hang out?” He asked, his soft, baritone voice difficult to hear over the booming of the nearby speakers, as you took the offered extremity and allowed him to pull you to your feet. He didn’t let go straight away, and you had a feeling that you were about to be thrown into yet another shortcut if you agreed, but concluded that you were in no real danger around the skeleton and nodded with a bright grin.

As predicted, inky blackness surrounded you for a fraction of a second the moment that you finished the movement and you found yourself wondering why the strange void continued to feel so familiar to you. The beginnings of your contemplation was swiftly dissolved, however, when you were spat back out the other side and into one of the house’s many bedrooms, then felt hands swiftly grasp at you.

Before you could even get a yelp of surprise past your lips, they were met with teeth being pressed against them. After your hazy, liquor-tainted mind caught up with who they belonged to, you untensed and allowed your eyes to flutter close as you relaxed into the contact.

Tiny sparks of magic tingled against your mouth as he parted your lips with his and instigated a feverous dance, his tongue exploring every inch of yours and resulting in simultaneous breathy moans. Heat had quickly spread to your face as well as your core by the time that he had pulled back, both of you flushed and panting as you met each other’s lustful gazes.

“I, um…” You said breathlessly as a surprised laugh left you, “I don’t think this is the typical definition of ‘hanging out’.”

One of Axe’s hands moved from its place on your waist to gently cup your face, the action easily making you melt under the touch. He looked at you with a barely contained mixture of affection and yearning, of which was accompanied by a pretty cerulean blush that painted the tops of his cheekbones. Combined with the taste of alcohol on his tongue, however, it was easy to see that he was at least somewhat intoxicated, and the realization of this caused you to falter.

“i… want you… bug.” He breathed huskily, the wanting inflection of the words causing a pleasant shiver to run down your spine. You spoke his name lowly, intending to break off the exchange, but he captured your lips once again the second that you had finished the utterance.

His body pressed flush to yours and forced your back against the cool marble tiling of the wall, the forceful action coaxing a gasp from you as your hands grasped at the front of his hoodie to steady yourself. It wasn’t as though you didn’t want this, but the only thing that you could think about was the fear of making yet another drunken mistake, and the anxious thought urged you to break the kiss and speak his name in a sterner manner.

“Axe, you’re drunk.” You chided softly, but it did little to discourage him. Though he didn’t make any move to instigate further contact, you could see that he was thinking hard about something by the way his eyelight shrank and contracted as he searched your face.

“be my… alpha.”. The hushed, yet certain request had you screwing your face up in befuddlement and you let out a weak breath of confused laughter before he breathed your name and drew your attention back to his determined grin. “i’ve never met… anyone like you before and… i want you… i… want to be… your beta.”

“D-Don’t you think this is a little… impulsive?” You squeaked as heat overtook your whole face at the statement, then parted your lips in surprise when he fervently shook his head.

“you’re… perfect for me… i’m certain.” He stated, the complete confidence in his tone causing you to bite down anxiously on your lip as you considered him.

“Axe… I love you- “ You forced a soft sternness into your voice when just those words caused his face to light up with a wide grin and quickly clarified, “-but this is all too sudden for me. It’s not like I wouldn’t consider it, given the opportunity, but…” You bit back a sigh as guilt swirled in your chest at the dejection beginning to overtake his demeanor and forced a gentle smile as you took his hand from your face and held it in yours. “Look, I just want to get to know you a little better before I make a decision like that, y’know? I mean, this is only the second time we’ve ever been alone together!”

“that’s… okay, bug.” The air about him had melted into one of relaxed confidence as you spoke and he regarded you with a lazy grin and a shrug, before moving the hand that had remained on your waist to lightly trace your jawline with a lewd smirk and a growl to his voice, “just means… i get to chase you… for a little longer.”

You were eternally thankful that he had deemed the interaction over in that moment and released you to disappear with a wink and a low chuckle, because it was getting painfully difficult to remain the level-headed one after that. You were definitely proud of yourself for being as much, but stars did you want to throw your newfound responsibleness out the window and wipe that smirk off of his face.

Instead, you sighed heavily as you leant your head back against the wall in an attempt to compose yourself and, once you had mostly done so, you made your way downstairs and back outside before opting to retake your place on the sand by the campfire.

With a sobering sigh, you took a moment to consider what Axe had said to you. It wasn’t like you weren’t attracted to him, and you definitely adored him, just not in the way that you felt you should before claiming him as your beta. Perhaps it would come with time, but after only just marking Mutt the same morning, the idea was overwhelming.

With a start, that same feeling of being watched that you had experienced twice that day already broke you out of your musings and caused you to feverously scan the crowd to locate the perpetrator. At this point, your patience with whoever had decided to essentially stalk you had worn thin and you were ready to confront them, but the person you saw staring back at you wasn’t the brown-haired, denim clad man that you had anticipated.

A human girl stood out from the mass of bodies – she looked as though she was attending with a group, herself, and was off-handedly replying to another human as she continued to spare glances your way with a soft, pensive frown adorning her freckled face.

She did look oddly familiar, but you couldn’t quite tell exactly where you recognized her from. After deciding that – with your track record – the smartest thing to do was to ignore her questioning gaze and find the others, you stood from your seat on the sandy ground and set your sights on a spot closer to the house.

Just as you had taken a few long strides towards your desired destination, however, a breathless shout sounded from behind you and forced you to whip around to face the stranger. She came to a halt with a few staggering footsteps as though she had ran to catch up with you. Then, with a sheepish grin, brushed a heavy curtain of auburn, curled hair away from her freckled face.

“Sorry! I just can’t shake the feeling that I know you.” She said with a huff of laughter.

You were awful at recognizing faces, but something about the way she tilted her head at you, allowing the curled strands of glossy auburn hair to fall from their place tucked behind her ear as she addressed you with a gentle smile, scratched at a faint memory in your head. Along with the unmistakable Northern Irish twang encompassing her words, you suddenly had no doubt in your mind who this girl was.

“Niamh?” You breathed.

Your eyes were wide with astonishment, and a heavy feeling of unease settled in your gut at the recollection. The utterance caused her to match your expression with shock of her own, her face then lighting up in recognition as she mirrored your tone and spoke your name.

“Holy shit.” She muttered, then placing a hand lightly over her mouth as she shook her head lightly. “You got out.”

“I did.” You said in a wry laugh, before speaking just above a whisper, “They- The High Priest, he told us you were dead.”

“Ha, yeah. It’s… a long story.” She mumbled anxiously, the way she began chewing on her lip betraying the emotion. With a sympathetic smile, you allowed a moment of silence to elapse as she took a steeling breath, then forced a weak smile, and chirped, “Where’s Dan? He must have come with you!”

Right, she ‘died’ before any of the events regarding your brother had transpired. In fact, now that you thought about it, you were pretty sure- no, you were certain – that Dan and Niamh had been dating at the time. Her apparent passing… had that been yet another factor that had led to his suicide?

You didn’t want to think about it.

“Uh, no.” You murmured, your voice uneven and shaky from the disturbing recollection. “He, uh, he took his own life not long after you…”

She immediately deflated and her face screwed up in concern, obvious remorse causing her to clear her throat against a lump that had formed there. Perhaps you were too straightforward with the sensitive information, but your suspicion around the situation made you curt with your answers in an attempt to escape as soon as you could.

“Oh. I’m so sorry.” She offered a sympathetic smile as she wrapped her arms around herself, and you could see the glimmer of mourning in her eyes.

It made you wonder if she truly remembered him- if she thought about him as much as you did. They had seemed completely in love, and devastated was honestly too light of a word to describe his mental state when she had evidently been forced to leave. Your heart hurt for her, in that moment.

“They must be looking for you, with you being their only Healer and all.” She stated suddenly and gingerly, the words causing you to freeze and tense as the absolute worst sprang to your mind. As you took a tentative step back, keeping your horrified gaze locked on her form as you did so, she seemed to realize her error and held her hands up in surrender.

“Oh, no! No, I’m not with them!” She insisted hurriedly, giving you pause but not reassuring you enough to let your guard down. “Listen, I can tell you about what happened – why I was thrown out – if you’d like? Honestly, it’d be nice to talk to someone who knows exactly what it was like to live in that shit-hole.” She finished with a bitter laugh, dropping her hands and smiling gently at you when you relaxed slightly, albeit with skepticism clear in your expression.

“How do I know I can trust you?” You asked lowly. You hugged your arms against your chest as she fiddled idly with the tassels of her hoodie in thought.

“I… I really can’t think of anything that would convince you… If you’d just come with me, somewhere where we won’t be overheard, I can try to explain everything.” She offered sheepishly with a kind, pleading expression rounding her already doe-like features.

A flash of reluctant uncertainty contorted your features in response, and you were just about to shake your head and refuse, but she, once again, seemed to clock her mistake and groaned with a hand over her face.

“Sorry! That sounds super serial-killer-y of me!” She laughed, then spoke animatedly when an idea came to her, “You could bring someone with you if you’d like! Is there someone…?”

Stretch! He could tell if she was lying! Though, things were still painfully awkward between the two of you, and the recollection of your last interaction honestly made you want to crawl into a hole and die. However, if enduring a soul-crushingly uncomfortable conversation had the potential to find out if Niamh could be trusted, then it was more than worth it.

Not wanting to risk an ambush, no matter who or how many of the skeletal family you had with you, you hatched a plan in your mind and sprang into action.

“Follow me.” You instructed her with a gesture of your hand, then turned and made haste toward the last place you had seen your housemates, leaving Niamh to frantically jog after you with a yelp of surprise.

You quickly spotted Blue out of the crowd talking to Papyrus and dashed over to them, earning a cry of ‘slow down!’ from the poor girl, who was trying her best to keep up with your hectic movements.

“Hey! Do you know where Stretch is?” You tried to ask casually, but in actuality sounded just as frantic and breathless as you felt, consequently prompting a befuddled, concerned look from the pair.

“I AM NOT SURE. I THINK I SAW HIM WITH MUTT A LITTLE WHILE AGO.” Blue said as he unsubtly, worriedly glanced to Papyrus, who looked back just as uneasily.

“OH! WHO IS YOUR FRIEND?!” The latter monster asked excitedly as your tagalong finally caught up with a wheezing laugh.

“Stars above, give a girl some warning next time!” She chided you jovially as she braced her hands on her knees before taking a few more heaving breaths and standing with a bright grin. “I’m Niamh! We knew each other back- uh…” She looked at you sheepishly as she trailed off into silence, obviously unsure if your past was something that the adjacent monsters knew about.

“Niamh was in my Coven.” You clarified with a weak smile, causing both of them to subtly tense as their eyelights darted over to the girl, discomfort evident in their uptight demeanor. “She was thrown out before I escaped, so I just wanted to talk to her – which is why I need Stretch.” You stated pointedly, causing realization to dawn on both of their faces.

Suddenly, it was like the boys were possessed by the most professional personal bodyguards in existence as their expressions dropped into hardened determination. A squeak of surprise left you when they began to usher the two of you toward the house with a spoken request to follow them from Papyrus.

You could only comply, completely baffled, as you were herded into the living room, then watch dazedly when told to sit whilst they retrieved the others. Despite your many attempts at insisting that they didn’t need to do that, your pleading shouts were swiftly ignored as they rushed out of the room.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to turn into an interrogation.” You spoke hushedly with a wry laugh, offering her an uneasy, apologetic smile.

“It’s alright, I get it.” She replied lowly, smiling weakly with a shrug as she did so. “I can’t imagine it was well received when you told them, either.”

“You have no idea.” You said in a bitter laugh, then started slightly when your name was called sternly from the other side of the room.

Swiveling your head toward the sound, you spotted Sans with a particularly distrustful, anxious expression as he motioned for you to accompany him. Your immediate thought was that he was annoyed due to being ripped away from whatever he was doing with the human that you had spotted him with, but this would turn out to be far from the case.

With a muted sigh, you once again shot Niamh an apologetic look, of which she responded to with an anxious, thin smile, before hopping up from your place on the couch and doing as told. After being led just outside the door to the living area, Sans glowered at you critically with a raised brow.

“I know, but she could be the first step to finding others and- “

“nah, i know.” He cut you off in a quiet murmur, then looked over your shoulder with an increasingly uncomfortable demeanor before meeting your questioning gaze. “it’s her lv.”

“It’s high?” You uttered back meekly as a concerned grimace took over your features.

“yeah, bud.” He answered in a tired sigh, “got any idea why?”

“…Sans, you remember what I told you about my Coven, right?” You breathed ashamedly, unable to meet his eyelights as you shifted anxiously. When you received a verbal confirmation in response, you eked out weakly, “Someone had to do it. I- I didn’t want to know, but… I guess she was one of them.”

You hoped this was the case, anyway- ‘Ashers’ are what they had dubbed those tasked with leeching Dust from the captives. As awful as it was, it was better than the alternative of actively taking the lives of others after she was banished. Though, if she did take part in the vile capturing and Dusting of monsters, it raised more questions than answers.

Did Dan know? He must have, it wasn’t an easy thing to keep under wraps unless you were purposefully ignorant in the way that you had forced yourself to be. Then, why was he with her? Did he believe he could help her? It wasn’t completely out of the question, but the thought made you queasy.

“and ya sure ya want that one?” Sans grumbled bitterly, snapping you out of your anxious musings and forcing a bark of hushed, bitter laughter from you. The tone in which he had posed the question made it sound as though he were reluctantly allowing you to pick out a pet, and the one that you had chosen was the yappy, mangy, mini hellhound that nobody else wanted.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, my friend.” You huffed with a thin smile.

Seemingly somewhat placated, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his retrieved hoodie with a sigh and a slight shake of his skull before trailing back into the living room, leaving you to follow after him with a nervous roiling in your gut.

The discomfort only increased when you returned to a full room with everyone bar Milord present and staring icily at Niamh, who looked as though she wanted to throw up, pass out and run away simultaneously. A slight pang of sympathy shot through you at the sight, recalling just how mortified you were in the painfully similar situation that you had once found yourself in.

With a brief scan of the room, your gaze landed on Mutt, and you moved to stand next to him with a question on your tongue.

“Shouldn’t we get Milord?” You whispered, earning a bitter snort in response.

“not if ya don’t want ‘er t’run away screamin’, ya don’t.” He mumbled, unease evident in his tense demeanor and the small frown hardening his features. You hummed anxiously as you scanned the room once more, noticing then that Undyne and Alphys weren’t present either.

“Where-?”

“told em it was a family thing. don’t want ‘em blabbing t’my bro unless this is th’ real deal, yanno?” He spoke over what he had evidently been anticipating you to ask next, prompting you to chew on your lip anxiously as a feeling of guilt washed over you. It definitely made you uncomfortable being so secretive about this, but you trusted Mutt and the others to know what was best in this regard.

“Listen, I don’t want to cause any harm – to any of you.” Niamh broke the silence with an anxious declaration, pointedly meeting your eyes as she uttered the latter half of the sentence. Glancing over at Stretch, he noticeably untensed and met your questioning gaze with an almost unnoticeable nod.

Then, allowing your anxiety to leave your body in a light sigh, you decided to join her on the couch in an action that you hoped not only conveyed your trust of her admission, but also eased her discomfort a little. She flashed you a small, grateful smile and, in place of the stony silence filling the room, you urged her to explain herself with an encouraging nod.

“Right.” She took a steeling breath, her hands anxiously fiddling in her lap as she then spoke in a strained, almost reluctant tone.

“I- I’d like to start by saying that I’m not proud of who I was back then – of what I did – and I know that an apology from me is practically worth nothing to you all, but… I’m so sorry.” She spoke just above a whisper, her voice catching as she admitted her guilt, before she cleared her throat in an attempt to keep her tears at bay.

Whilst the more stoic members of the group – that being Edge, Red, Axe, Mutt, and Sans – showed no signs of letting up their relentless glowers, you, along with the rest present, deflated in empathy for the girl, especially when Stretch seemed to completely lose his defensive demeanor. She meant what she had said – that was a really good sign.

“The High Priest wasn’t – isn’t a good guy.” She breathed, her distress evident by the waver in her quiet voice. “He, um, he took a liking to me from a- a young age, I guess and… heh, surprise – the priest is a weirdo creep!” She injected a weak laugh into her words as she attempted to soften the blow with humor, but it obviously landed flat. What was insinuated by her words was obvious and soft gasps as well as a few disgusted growls sounded from around the room. The more innocent members looked to their respective brothers’ questioningly, of which were met by a stern shake of their heads.

“Niamh, you don’t have to- “ You began to say hushedly, but she cut you off with a sad smile and a shake of her head.

“It’s okay, I owe you an explanation for everything, right?” She murmured back, the guilt in her expression despite her weak smile like a dagger through your already scarred heart. A wordless exchange was spoken between you in that moment – she blamed herself for his death.

“It went on for a long time, until a couple of years ago. It, um – it was actually Dan who... I- I was so fucking brainwashed that I didn’t even realize that what he was doing was so fucked up until I accidentally slipped up and- and he told me that it was wrong. He promised that if he could, that he would help stop him, but… “. She murmured the confession mostly to you, then trailed off to exhale slowly, evidently fighting back tears as she did so by the shaky nature of the breath.

You felt sick. There was absolutely no way that he didn’t blame himself for her ‘death’. Not only was grief and remorse threatening to swallow you whole, but pure rage at the Priest for doing such a thing to your brother as well as Niamh was causing your hands to shake as you balled them into fists to conceal it. You couldn’t bring yourself to look to Stretch, you didn’t want to know if it really was true, but… you needed to know.

One glance at the skeleton’s veiled, pained expression was all you needed to confirm your fears – she was telling the truth. A muted, sharp inhale was forced from you in response, and you heard someone taking steps towards you. Through the haze of unshed tears, you recognized Mutt tentatively reaching out to comfort you, but he shrank back when you harshly shook your head. You needed to be strong right now, and any form of sympathy toward you would be the catalyst for your breakdown.

If you had taken a second to gage the others’ reactions, you would have noted the confusion on the majority of their faces. It was no secret that you had only told a handful of the household about your brother, whether that be by your own volition or not. You weren’t even sure if Mutt knew at this point – you had always just assumed that he did since he overheard your argument with Edge back when you had first moved in, and he had just decided to allow you to come to him with the information when you were ready.

Deciding to train your focus anywhere but the assault of distressing thoughts in your head, you turned to Niamh instead and gently placed a hand over hers, causing her to start slightly and train her wide-eyed, watery gaze on you. With a quiet huff of wry laughter and a weak smile, she turned her hand over and held yours, before clearing her throat once more and dropping her eyes to the interlinked extremities.

“Dan confronted him. I begged him not to, I knew that he would make his life hell if he did, but he stormed right in there and cussed him out something fierce.” She breathed a sad, short laugh full of adoration for your brother, smiling weakly and shaking her head gently as she did so.

A brief exchange of knowing affection for him was shared between the two of you, and you couldn’t stop the one positive emotion amongst the cacophony of mourning that forced itself to the surface – even if it was under these circumstances, it was the most incredible feeling to hear someone who actually knew your brother, who loved him arguably as much as you did, to talk about him. The moment was fleeting, however, as Niamh’s next words caused seething hatred to envelop your entire being.

“It was that piece of shit’s way of punishing him, as well as keeping him quiet.” Her voice had dropped into a whisper, and you found yourself straining your hearing to pick up the hushed, hurt-filled words.

“He threw me out – I guess he liked me too much to actually kill me.” A tone of bitter disgust accompanied by a scowl portrayed her animosity for the man, of which only intensified as she muttered, “He told everyone that I had died – suicide, he said. Nobody questioned it, not even my own goddamn parents– they were all just as fucking brainwashed as I was. Then… Then he told Daniel that if he said anything about what he did to me, that he would kill you next.”

The room was unnaturally still and silent as though everyone had simultaneously begun holding their breath. A million thoughts were racing through your head, each just raising more questions and fueling your rising frustration.

“They needed me… He wouldn’t have-“ You mumbled hoarsely, the effort of keeping your upset at bay causing your throat to tighten.

“Dan wouldn’t have risked it- he didn’t.” Niamh replied gently, her kind tone portraying her sympathy for you in that moment.

“If he had just told me-“

“You would have confronted the High Priest yourself and actually gotten yourself killed.” She contended softly, prompting you to deflate with a soft growl. “His reputation and the control he holds over the Coven is worth more to him than having a Healer around, you know that.”

You should have wanted to cry, to scream and wail about how it wasn’t fair, about what a vile, disgusting person your supposed ‘leader’ was, but you just felt… numb. Perhaps that was a good thing – the last thing that was needed was for you to break down into a sobbing fit.

You considered then if there were other timelines where he did allow you to know the truth about everything and the High Priest was brought to justice. You could always ask Frisk but… perhaps it was better if you didn’t know.

“and you don’t… do that anymore?” Axe’s stoic tone from the back of the room snapped you out of your daze as you looked up in surprise at the monster, of whom was solely focused on surveying Niamh’s reaction. “don’t… kill monsters and… use our dust.”

“Stars, no!” She affirmed her response with furrowed brows and an open, vulnerable glint to her watery eyes. You quickly noted that her gaze lacked the fear you would have expected from a stranger to Axe’s intense, critical glower, and you found a modicum of trust beginning to bloom for the girl.

“You have to understand… we were so brainwashed by the Coven – taught from a young age to follow the High Priest without question, that he always knew what was best – that we just went along with his actions. I-I know it’s not an excuse, but…” She murmured in a morose tone, her eyes darting between each bitter gaze of the monsters before her, then adding with a voice thick with remorse, “After I left and the effects wore off – really wore off – and I began to finally become myself again, I realized how vile my actions were. I swear to you, I will never, ever, do anything like that for as long as I live.”

Axe’s eyelight shrank a fraction as he glanced over at Stretch, of whom was expecting this and emitted a whisper of almost inaudible Font in response -it almost sounded like a gentle flutter of a breeze passing through the leaves of a treetop. You assumed that he had affirmed the truth to the statement, because Axe easily untensed and redirected his eyelight toward Niamh with a short nod.

You looked to the tense monsters adjacent to you following the swift exchange, some of which were gazing at you with sorrow, whilst the rest continued to keep their hard glares trained on Niamh after glancing briefly at you, seemingly still readied for something to go wrong. All except Red – he was staring at you with hard seriosity, and you were eternally grateful for the shared soul connection between you in that moment.

An unspoken statement and a question to follow was swiftly picked up by you from the projected intention. Even if you hadn’t sensed it, you could have waved a guess at the content of his thoughts. The detailed discussion of your brother and the threat to your life that had come as a result of his actions was going to bring up questions amongst the household, both you and Red knew that.

The interaction only lasted a second, but it was all that was needed. You gave your permission for him to explain to the others – it would save you a lot of heartache anyway and… well, it was long overdue.

“Can you give us a minute?” You asked gingerly following the end of the quick, wordless conversation, prompting all eyelights to snap to Stretch in a silent question. When he nodded somberly, they all began to reluctantly file out, but you caught the gaze of one of them just in time to subtly gesture for him to come over to you, thankfully not alerting anyone else as you did so.

Once everyone had left, Sans shuffled over to you with a strained smile in place of his typically lax grin.

“you okay, bud?” He asked softly, a whisper of sadness flickering within his cyan eyelights and infecting his hushed voice.

“Yeah.” You matched his tone, the mental exhaustion that had swiftly caught up to you evident in your thin smile. “I could use some help explaining everything, though, if that’s okay?”

A pensive, anxious expression forced a frown to replace the already weak smile as he dropped his eyelights from your gaze, evidently considering your question. For a fleeting moment, you thought that he would refuse, but then, with the reappearance of a laid-back grin, he offered his hand to Niamh in a handshake.

“heya.” He greeted the girl, who lit up at the action with a tentative grin, “sans.”

“Niamh, it’s nice t-“ Her voice was cut off by her own sharp gasp after taking his hand, of which was quickly followed by a look of complete disbelief as she pulled away and asked in a breath of laughter, “Is that a fucking hand buzzer!?”.

“Oh, god, Sans.” You groaned in disparagement over his deep chuckles, unable to stop yourself from dissolving into giggles as you placed a hand over your mouth. Niamh easily burst into laughter after recovering from the initial shock (ha) and for the first time in too long, the room was full of the blissfully carefree sound of your combined snickering.

“That’s, hah, amazing! Do you just carry that with you everywhere?” Niamh wheezed out between giggles, prompting Sans to shrug with a wink as he returned his hands to his pockets.

“ya never know when laughter’ll be in short supply.”. Your sigh of mock disappointment only fueled Sans’ snickering as well as clued Niamh in on the joke that threatened to go straight over her head otherwise.

“Sans, I swear to god-“

“watt?” His mirth-filled voice cut you off and coaxed another groan past your upturned lips despite the grin that had broken out on your face, as well as more hushed giggles from the girl next to you. “don’t blow a fuse, pal. ya usually de-lighted to hear my puns. ya lucky i dish ‘em out free of charge.”

“Well, I’m ex-static.” Niamh piped up in a nonchalant tone with a sly grin, forcing a surprised snort that evolved into chuckling from Sans and a gasp of betrayal from you.

“I think I finally understand how Pap feels.” You murmured, your voice muffled by the pair of hands that had come to cover your face in faux displeasure at the barrage of puns, before lifting your head and addressing Sans. “Should I apologize to him? I feel like I should apologize to him.”

“nah.” He said in a breath of laughter, heavily setting himself down on the couch next to you as he did so. “he loves it really.”

“Pap?” Niamh’s now somewhat meek voice came from beside you and you turned to her with a soft smile in response.

“Papyrus. He was the one who brought us in here – the taller one, that is.” You explained, prompting her to ‘ah’ in recognition before you gestured to the skeleton next to you. “And Sans’ younger brother.”

“I’m so sorry if this is offensive, but… are you all related?” Niamh asked cautiously as Sans snorted at her disclaimer.

“yeah, we are. cousins.” He answered simply, resting his head on one propped up hand as he did so.

“Five pairs of brothers, if you can believe it.” You added, readjusting yourself into a cross-legged position now that the earlier tension had mostly dissipated. “I’ll have to properly introduce you to them all, if you’d like?”

“That… would actually be really nice.” She breathed with a gentle smile, before taking a deep breath and asking, “And… they all know about…?” She gestured vaguely as her question trailed off into silence, her expression a mix of careful optimism and envy.

“Yeah. It wasn’t too long ago that I was in your position, y’know.” You laughed wryly at the memory, relief that everything was (mostly) out in the open allowing the anxiety caused by the recollection to fade. “That’s… actually something that I wanted to talk to you about.”.

Niamh perked up at your hesitant admission, her attention now solely focused on you as you spoke in a stern, soft tone.

“You have to promise not to repeat a single word to anyone, though. Got it?” You captured her gaze with intensity, letting out a soft exhale when she nodded gingerly. “I’m trusting you with this, Niamh.”

“I promise.” A look of fierce resolute graced her features as she spoke, before she added with a shrug and a somewhat bitter breath of laughter, “It’s not like I have anyone to tell, anyway.”

A muted sigh left you as a somber empathy welled up inside you at her sour confession. The two of you were a lot more alike than you had initially predicted, and a vehement protectiveness had begun to form for the girl as a consequence.

Shaking the thought from your head, you looked to Sans with slightly raised brows and a tilt to your head to convey your authorization in how much he would allow her to know. It was a lot of the reason why you had asked him to stay behind – Frisk would have been the better option, seeing as they were the reason for your knowledge of the future, but something as time sensitive as this wasn’t something that you were going to delay.

The breath of hesitation before his grin relaxed by just a fraction, of which was accompanied by a barely audible huff of a grateful chuckle, signaled his understanding that you were allowing him to take the lead.

“so, y’know the human ambassador – frisk?”

Sans pleasantly surprised you by being completely forthright about everything – Frisk’s status as a Mage, the timelines, the resets, the recent attacks on Monsterkind, and finally, the impending war. He predictably omitted anything about the ‘genocide’ timelines or any of the resets that took place in the Underground, but if you were him, you wouldn’t be keen on telling a complete stranger about what you assumed to be the most horrific trauma of his life, either.

Niamh listened intently without so much as a single word, her eyes getting progressively wider as her jaw went slack at the information and a dainty, freckled hand rose to cover her mouth. It took a decent amount of time to explain everything effectively, but as Sans uttered the last sentence with furrowed brow bones and a small frown, a thick blanket of quiet fell over the room. After a moment of contemplation, of which was evident by the pensive expression hardening her features, she spoke gingerly as she looked between the both of you.

“Why are you telling me this?” She asked and, with that, it was Sans’ turn to issue silent permission as he turned to you with an upward jerk of his browbone.

“If we’re going to even stand a chance at succeeding – or, better yet, preventing it from happening at all – we need help.” You explained softly as you watched Niamh’s features shift from confusion into somber understanding. “Anything you can do, any information you have, will be a huge aid to us.”

“Okay.”

Both you and Sans started in surprise at her brisk answer, you so much that a “What?” was forced past your parted lips, convinced that you hadn’t heard her correctly.

“Okay.” She echoed the word as a fierce determination sharpened her features. “Anything I can do, I’ll do it. They’ve been getting away with this shit for far too long – it’s about time someone stops them, right?”

It was then that the deep plum of Niamh’s soul shone brighter than it ever had to Sans’ eyelights, the little heart at the center of her chest beating in time with intensifying luminosity in accordance with her resolute.

It was appropriate, really, given the little that he had come to know about her- Perseverance.

Chapter Text

You had sent Sans away with a thank you and an appreciative smile after Niamh had agreed to join your efforts against the Covens, fully intending to talk some more about what she knew about the High Priest and your brother, but you hadn’t the faintest idea on how to broach the sensitive subject. It turned out that she had the same intentions as you, however, and the second that she deemed Sans to be out of earshot, she completely broke down into tears whilst she repeatedly and profusely apologized – it was as you had suspected, she entirely blamed herself for his death.

You had nearly dissolved into a sobbing fit yourself as you insisted over and over that it wasn’t her fault, that he was already struggling after the death of your parents and the move to Ebott and, although her tears eventually dried up and she thanked you with a wobbly smile, you had a needling feeling that nothing you could say would relieve her of her guilty conscience.

Luckily, you had neglected to return your makeup bag to your room, so cleaning up the smudges of mascara under her eyes was an easy feat. Whilst you were doing so, she exhaled shakily and addressed you with furrowed brows and a weak frown.

“I don’t even know how you can stand to look at me, never mind sit here and- and be so nice to me.” She breathed in a wry chuckle, her eyes dropping ashamedly to her anxiously fiddling hands as she did so and coaxing a light sigh from you.

“We all did horrible things when we were there- “ You contended softly with a small, reassuring smile, “ -and it wasn’t our fault. You said it yourself, we were brainwashed from birth, y’know?”

“But you… you didn’t!” She argued, her tone frantic and full of bitter disbelief. “You tried to free them! You talked to them and healed them and I- I…”

“Niamh.” You dropped the makeup wipe you were holding in favor of gently placing your hands on each side of her face, forcing her to quiet and meet your eyes with fresh tears welling in her own.

“You may have been forced to leave, but you were the one that decided to get clean. You were the one that saw that what you were doing was wrong and vowed to never harm another monster again. Considering your circumstances, where you came from and how you were raised, that’s incredible.” You spoke gently but sternly, meeting her gaze with a fierce intensity that you hoped conveyed the truth to your words, before adding in a weak chuckle, “Plus, you didn’t rat me out when you totally could have.”

“I knew what that would mean for you, if they caught you again.” She breathed with a weak smile, prompting you to drop your hands to the tops of her arms with a grin.

“See! You’re good, Niamh. You were just dealt a seriously shitty hand and you tackled it the best way you knew how, even if that way wasn’t… fantastic.” A slight grimace forced its way onto your face at the latter half of the sentence and you feared that the unintentional action would cause her guilt to overwhelm her once more, but instead, she laughed and shook her head affectionately at you.

“Can I hug you?” She eked out bashfully. You giggled at her sudden shy demeanor then pulled her into an embrace.

“Thank you.” She whispered to the side of your head, her voice enveloped by pained gratitude. You squeezed her tightly in response before pulling back, keeping your hands on her shoulders as you addressed her with a kind smile.

The sound of a light knock against the open door caused both of you to flinch and separate with equally as inquisitive expressions, and you felt your heart jump into your throat when you registered the form leaning against the doorframe with thinly veiled guilt lacing his features. With a heavy exhale through your nose, you smiled thinly at Niamh, who looked concernedly back at you with a silent question in her eyes.

“Are you going to be okay?” You asked hushedly, to which she responded with a determined grin and a nod.

“Are you?” She parroted back with a subtle flick of her gaze toward Stretch.

“Yeah.” You responded in a sigh, “Talk later?”

“Talk later.”

The two of you shared a knowing glance accompanied by genuine grins at the mutual optimism for what was to come, and with that, Niamh stood from her seat and exited the room, flashing a sweet smile at Stretch as she did so. It surprised you to see him return the action with a lax grin of his own, and it seriously made you wonder whether he had been listening to your conversation from just around the corner.

 On instinct, you curled your knees up to your chest and wrapped your arms around them in a self-soothing gesture as he sat heavily on the couch beside you and rifled around in his pocket for something, then pulled out a carton of cigarettes. You assumed he thought better of smoking inside, especially when his brother – who you had seen chastise him numerous times for the habit – was close by and decided to forgo the packet for a lollipop instead. Honestly, you could understand his ire as he placed the sweet between his teeth, you could really use the relief of a smoke yourself.

“she was tellin’ the truth, by the way.” He stated offhandedly as he rolled the sucker with the flick of an orange tongue, then glanced at you with a raised browbone and a shrug, “i guessed you figured that out anyway, but…”

“Yeah, I did.” You muttered back, your eyes downcast as you chewed your nails thoughtfully. “Thanks for, um…”

“yeah, don’t sweat it.”

The stifling, painfully awkward silence made you want to scream, shout, or even laugh- just anything to break it. He came to you! Wasn’t he going to say something?!

“i’m sorry.”

Oh, thank god.

“i… didn’t realize how, uh-“

“Fucked up?” You offered with a snort, to which he responded with a huff of laughter as his shoulders visibly lost their tension in response to your lightened demeanor.

“yeah- how fucked up everythin’ is.” He spoke in a sigh, offering you a weak smile as he did so and allowing you to untense and return the action with a small smile of your own.

“It’s alright, I know you were just looking out for Mutt.” You said softly, before widening your grin and meeting the skeleton’s eyelights. “He’s lucky to have a friend like you, y’know?”

“heh, thanks.” He chuckled bashfully as a faint tangerine tinted his cheekbones, before returning the gesture with a casual shrug. “he’s lucky to have you as his alpha.”

“Ah, I don’t know about that.” You waved off the compliment with a hushed giggle as your face began to redden and caused him to bark a muted laugh of disbelief.

“ya kiddin’? that boy is head over heels for you… and- “ He finished the sentence in a low, almost embarrassed mutter as the pretty apricot flush spread across his freckled face, “- i see how hard you’re workin’ to keep him safe – to keep everyone safe.”

Not used to such compliments, especially from Stretch of all people, your face got considerably hotter as you breathed a nervous laugh, despite the lump beginning to form in your throat as well as the burning of your eyes as a result of the sweet acknowledgement, particularly after the content of your earlier argument.

“Thank you, I… I really appreciate that, Stretch.” You managed to utter out, your gaze now trained on your anxiously fiddling hands as you blinked away the tears that had swiftly formed.

“you okay?” His soft voice was full of concern for you, and it almost made you break down right there and then, but you took a deep breath to force down the rising emotion and nodded, then flashed a strained smile at the skeleton.

The innocent question had brought the earlier topic straight to the front of your mind and you realized with an icy chill of nerves that the others now knew about you keeping your brother a secret from them. If you knew your housemates, you knew that they would likely not be upset at you for keeping such a sensitive thing from them, but the recollection made you uneasy regardless.

“How… um, how did they take it?” You murmured weakly, then watched as his face switched from confusion to pensiveness and, finally, muted amusement.

“be careful.” He said in a snicker, prompting you to raise a questioning eyebrow at him, “ya might get tackled to the floor later.”

Stretch refused to elaborate and would only insist that they were fine and that you would have to find out what he meant for yourself. You figured that nothing bad was going to happen by the mirthful glint in his eyelights and the impish grin twitching at the corners of his mouth, so as you exited the living room and headed toward the sound of chatter, you braced yourself the best you could.

You couldn’t even get the first syllable of a greeting out before, the second your presence had been noticed, Papyrus, Axe, and Mutt threw themselves at you and reduced the four of you to what was essentially an impromptu cuddle pile. Though Stretch had been close behind you, he had skillfully shortcutted away and next to his brother with an affectionate chuckle at the scene as you sent a good-natured glare his way.

With the kitchen being the place that they had decided to congregate, the tile floor combined with your bony companions didn’t make for the most comfortable of scenarios, but you happily returned the affection with a bashful giggle after you had recovered from, as Stretch had aptly predicted, being tackled to the floor.

You easily spotted Blue amongst the remaining members of the household, who looked to be intensely, anxiously considering whether it was appropriate for him to join in. So, with a snort, you caught his gaze and motioned the best you could in the tangle of limbs for him to join you. His face instantly lit up as he catapulted towards the pile and landed amongst you, almost knocking the breath out of you with his enthusiasm.

You now had Blue and Papyrus on each arm, Mutt essentially lay with his head in your lap and the rest of his body awkwardly splayed on the floor, and Axe wrapped around your back, but there seemed to be one last reluctant skeleton that was trying his hardest to resist the urge to barrel towards you as the others had - if the way he repeatedly glanced between you and the wall with a small, jealous frown was anything to go by.

“Come on, Red.” You sighed in mock impatience, the huge grin that had broken out across your face an obvious indication that you were anything but. He was evidently trying to keep up his tough guy façade in front of the others and growled lowly in response as he crossed his arms over his chest, but the flush that began to spread across his cheekbones told another story entirely.

Incredibly, Mutt moved only to raise a hand and, without so much as sparing a glance Red’s way, used a mist of lilac magic to grab the now loudly cursing skeleton and unceremoniously drag him into the sparingly small space next to him on your lap, a contentedly feline-like simper etched into his features the entire time.

“c’mon, idiot. we all know yer a massive softy – no need ta hide it.” He had sniggered as he did so, which only fueled Red’s indignant screeching as well as caused the others present to poorly attempt to conceal their snickering at the furious skeleton.

Not surprisingly though, the second that he was sat against your chest and you had placed your chin on his shoulder to nuzzle the side of his face, his skull erupted a bright crimson and he swiftly gave in to the affection – albeit, grumbling and keeping his arms crossed against his chest for the duration. A hushed giggle left you at the sight, but you sobered and directed your attention towards Blue when he gingerly spoke your name.

“I Am Sorry That I Asked About Your Family And Why You Left.” He mumbled guiltily, remorse rounding his eye sockets and dampening his usually loud, jovial voice into a hushed utterance.

“It’s okay, Blue.” You spoke softly back as you wriggled your arm free of his grasp to wind it around his shoulders in an awkward half-hug. “You didn’t know.”

You gave a squeeze with your arm and released it from around him to allow him to sit back, of which he did as he flashed you a sad, but grateful smile, then used your free arm to pull a very furiously blushing Red closer to you and place a light kiss against the side of his skull. Noticing that Papyrus had been eerily quiet since you entered, you looked over to him with a soft smile.

“You okay, Paps?”. Your question seemed to break him out of some sort of daze as he started slightly and met your gaze with one of surprise, then chuckled wryly and nodded. Your face screwed up in concern at the sound and, thinking better of trying to pretend that he was okay for once, he sighed gently and corrected himself with a shake of his head.

“I Am Just… Thinking About What I Would Do If I Lost Sans, I Suppose.” He uttered out just above a whisper and you could practically feel the spoken of skeleton tense at the admission.

Your heart sank as the recollection of Sans’ disclosure of when he had ‘fallen down’ sprang to the forefront of your mind. Papyrus’ vocalization of his anxious musings must have prompted the others to consider the same possibility, too, and the air around you became heavy with potential mourning.

“Hey, that’s not going to happen.” You mirrored your earlier action of freeing your arm and pulling him into an embrace, but you directed your words to the remaining skeletons as well as him, your voice full of certainty as you did so. “I’m not going to let that happen- to any of you.”

You didn’t lift your gaze to survey the room’s reactions in fear of finding any modicum of doubt (you didn’t think your heart could take it in that moment) but you did glance up briefly when Sans self-consciously shuffled over and placed himself heavily next to his brother, who then pulled away from you to wrap his entire frame around his big brother with an almost inaudible sigh. You couldn’t look then, either- the sight would have easily made you break down. Instead, you took a steeling breath and addressed the room with a tentative smile.

“So, uh, speaking of, I guess – “ You suddenly felt uneasy as every set of eyelights in the room darted over to you, and as much was obvious by your anxious shifting, “- what do you think? Of Niamh, I mean.”

“i like her.” Sans surprised you by mumbling with a nonchalant shrug and you shot him a relieved grin in response. “shoulda seen how fast she agreed to helpin’ us – perseverance soul, too.” He directed the latter half towards you, and you hummed thoughtfully. It was certainly fitting, you thought.

“she agreed?” Mutt spoke up from your lap, then groaned dramatically and pulled himself into a sitting position when you nodded enthusiastically, prompting you to snort and eye him inquisitively. “someone should tell milord, i guess.”

“Or we could just, I dunno, enjoy the rest of the night and tell him tomorrow?” You suggested innocently, but the mischievous look on your face was anything but.

There were no objections from the others as they briefly glanced at each other with shared shrugs from some, then Mutt flopped back down into your lap with a ‘thank fuck fer that’, the notoriously lazy action forcing a giggle past your lips.

“WHAT CAN SHE DO?” Edge spoke up next with a critical brow raised and arms crossed over his chest, causing you to screw your face up in contemplation as you attempted to recall her abilities.

“If I remember correctly, she has regenerative powers in terms of healing herself and a freakishly low sensitivity to physical pain – oh.” You breathed the last word in realization as her soul trait came to mind and looked to Sans, who snorted affectionately at you in response.

“Um, in terms of attack magic I’m not actually too sure – you’ll have to ask her.” You finished with a shrug, then added meekly, “She would actually love to meet all of you, if you’re willing.”

An air of unease washed over the room at that, and you understood why, but something about the conversation that you had just had with the girl brought up a fierce defensiveness for her and gave you the nerve to speak up on her behalf.

“I know it’s a difficult thing to accept – what she did, but unfortunately there aren’t going to be many that have renounced their Coven that didn’t take part at one point or another.” You chewed on your lip in an anxious tic as a few members untensed, a morose understanding crossing their features as they did so, and was unsurprised to hear Edge and Red scoff lightly in response.

“She genuinely regrets what she did and… I don’t know, guys.” You deflated at the feeling that it was going to be a difficult feat to convince them, despite having the privilege of Stretch’s ability, and so glanced around at them with a pleading smile.

“Look, you don’t have to like her, but you’re going to be working together and trust is going to be a very important factor in what we’re doing. At least just be civil, please?” You directed the question more towards the harder to please individuals, but they thankfully nodded lightly in agreement and allowed you to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank you. And hey, be happy! This is a huge step in the right direction!”

You thought you caught Edge direct a light flush and a prideful grin your way out of the corner of your eye, but when you turned to look fully, all you saw was the sour mug that you had grown used to and attributed the fleeting expression to a trick of the light.

The group then evidently took your appreciation of their agreement as ‘dismissed’ and began filing out of the kitchen to return to whatever they were doing before Blue and Papyrus had herded them into the house. You had to urge Mutt to move as he whined in protest, but Red decided to turn the table on him for his earlier action and dragged him away in a cloud of crimson magic with a grumbled ‘c’mon’.

It was only when you attempted to stand that you noticed that Axe had been completely silent throughout the exchange and was still firmly latched onto you, causing you to stumble and fall straight back onto your butt, then laugh out his name in faux disparagement.

“sorry.” He mumbled bashfully as he released you and popped into existence adjacent to you to help you to your feet. Butch had remained behind too, and meekly made his way over to you with a tentative, anxious smile.

“Hope, I-I wanted to ask – and y-you don’t have t-to answer, but… your brother- is f-finding him what your flashbacks a-are about?” He asked gently, his hands anxiously wringing together as he did so.

“Yeah, they are.” You confirmed in a whisper, then lifted your downcast gaze to eye him curiously. “How did you know?”

“I, um, I t-thought I recognized t-the name…” He admitted weakly as he dropped his gaze ashamedly to his intertwined hands, “Y-You said it a l-lot when…”

“Oh.” You breathed, then screwed up your face in confusion as you glanced between the two and muttered, “But you never…?”

“ya never asked ‘bout us, neither.” Axe interjected with a shrug, then surveyed you with a raised brow. “and i know that ya know stuff.”

Butch began to shift uneasily at the vocalized reminder of his slip-up, which prompted Axe to place a hand on his arm and flash him an understanding grin, wordlessly speaking the forgiveness of his mistake and allowing his brother to relax slightly in turn.

“It’s up to you to tell me, if you ever want to.” You said softly, then spoke with gentle certainty, “I’m happy to listen, y’know, if you do want to talk about it.”

“W-What, um, what d-do you know?” Butch inquired meekly, the slight shake to his voice portraying his anxiety around the subject.

“Well, you mentioned a famine and…” You exhaled slowly through your nose as you searched your mind for additional information and, feeling slightly bad for ratting Blue out, said, “I know that you didn’t surface with the others, that you only got to leave the Ruins just over a year ago and are considered ‘Pariah’s’, but I don’t know what it means in regard to you. And Axe… I know that you have a high LV, like Red and Edge.”

“who told you that?” Axe breathed as his eyelight shrunk to the smallest you had seen it, fear evident in his expression as well as Butch’s.

“Blue accidentally mentioned the Pariah thing when he was telling me about the districts, but he shut up pretty quickly when he realized that I didn’t know anything about it.” You could practically feel the relief radiating off the two as you clarified your limited knowledge, but that relief was swiftly extinguished at your next admission, “I overheard Papyrus telling Mutt to keep you away when Edge was having his episode and, when he explained that monsters with high LV can be triggered by seeing others in an episode, I just kind of put two and two together, I guess.”

“and ya know…?”

“Level of Violence – it means you’ve killed before.”

The two of them froze like a deer in headlights, fear and guilt overtaking their features once more and prompting you to force their respective attention to you by softly uttering their names.

“bug, we- i didn’t want to-“ He began to ramble frantically, but you quickly cut him off.

“I don’t care about that stuff. Whatever you did to survive, that’s in the past. You don’t have to justify your actions to me.” You insisted gently, but sternly, then took a shot in the dark and admitted casually with a soft smile, “If it’s what I think it is, then humans do that all the time in desperate situations, y’know? It is what it is.”

Butch looked as though he wanted to break down into tears as he shifted uneasily, somewhat unsure as to whether you would be receptive of his affection or not. As soon as you noted this, you held out your arms with a bright smile and he didn’t hesitate to wrap you up in an embrace, of which you gratefully returned.

Axe, however, wasn’t so jovial about the whole thing. Once you were released, you looked to him and frowned at his somber expression and his refusal to look at you. With a soft sigh, you tentatively took his hand, the action causing his eyelight to dart to your face with guilt heavy in his demeanor.

“I love you both.” You uttered gently and couldn’t help the quiet amusement at the instant flush of their faces, but smiled as earnestly as you could at them both as you spoke with gentle certainty, “If you never want to tell me, I won’t hold it against you and, if you do, it won’t change the way I see you. Okay?”

Even if Axe looked unsure about the whole thing, Butch seemed to believe your every word. His face lit up with an appreciative, affectionate grin as he nodded and you easily returned the sweet expression, joy at his trust in you blooming in your chest as you did so.

“maybe another day, bug.” Axe muttered lowly, then trained his eyelight on the floor as he spoke in a strained, reluctant tone, “i really wanna believe ya, but…”

“But it’s hard.” You gently spoke the remainder of the sentence for him, prompting him to huff a wry laugh and nod lightly. “I understand.”

There was a brief lapse of morose quiet as you thought about the best plan of action to lift the dampened mood, then sighed forcefully to release your built up tension before plastering on an enthusiastic grin.

“Well, I think that’s enough sad stuff for one day, don’t you think?” You chirped, holding back a snort when Butch nodded fervently in agreement where Axe simply raised an inquisitive brow at you with the appearance of a tentative grin.

You first searched for your handbag, which had been left on the kitchen counter from your earlier escapade, and swung it over your shoulder before beginning the hunt for whatever booze hadn’t been swiftly consumed by the others. When you located a lone bottle of vodka with an ‘aha!’ and waved it at the brothers before you, Axe easily broke out into deep, rumbling chuckles at the shit-eating grin on your face.

“Come on boys, let’s go deal with our problems the good old fashioned way- “ You declared animatedly as you sauntered past them, leaving them to follow after you with muted snickers, “-getting absolutely shit-faced!”

When you got outside and onto the illuminated coastline, the air filled with shouts of enthusiasm, laughter and, thankfully, considerably better music, you recognized Sans and Papyrus avidly chatting away to Niamh, who looked completely delighted that they were doing so. After quickly swapping contact information to ensure that you didn’t lose track of her, you left them to converse amongst themselves and scanned the crowds of people in an attempt to find something fun to do.

With a far too excited gasp, you spotted a group challenging each other to a game that you instantly knew to be beer pong and dragged a still giggling Butch and Axe along with you in order to ask to for permission to partake. The humans that you would play against looked unsure at first and, assuming that they were put off by the brothers’ appearance, you smiled sweetly at them and (definitely not passive aggressively) urged them to join in on the game. After you had finished and won said round (of which you were sure Axe was using magic to guide the ball into the cups when no one was looking) a few of your group had evidently recognized the sound of your triumphant cheering and wandered over to observe.

“th’ fuck is this?” Red snorted as he sauntered over to look inquisitively at the three of you, of whom was promptly joined by Edge and, oddly, Blue.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never played beer pong before, dude.” You said incredulously, completely prepared to spring into an explanation on the game, but promptly shut your mouth when he shook his head with a laugh.

“nah, i mean how’d ya get these two hermits ta play?” He asked amusedly with a jerk of his head in the direction of Axe and Butch, the former of which shot a look of mock hurt at his cousin.

“hey, i… know how to… party.” He said nonchalantly with a shrug, before draining the remainder of the liquid from the last of his losing drinks with a sly grin.

“Plus, Axe and I have been taking turns with Butch’s drinks.” You explained hushedly, prompting Red’s mischievous smile to widen as he shook his head affectionately at you.

“OH, I WANT TO PLAY!” Blue shouted excitedly from beside him, practically bouncing with enthusiasm as he did so. You noted that his eyelights had transformed into little stars, the same way they had when you were playing a drinking game the last time and he had found out that you knew how to ride a motorcycle, and you couldn’t help the grin of awe that graced your features.

“How do you do that!?” You squeaked, clarifying when he simply stared at you confusedly, “Your eyelights, they turned into stars! That’s so cool!”

“OH! I, UM, IT JUST HAPPENS SOMETIMES!” He sputtered out, his face lighting up a brilliant cyan as he did so, of which only intensified when you muttered out a quiet ‘woah’.

“c’mon baby blue,” Red interjected with an obviously jealous air about him that was masked by his impish grin as he threw an arm over his shoulder and led him towards the other side of the table, “’m gonna teach ya, n’ then we’re gonna wipe th’ floor with ‘em, got it?”

A wheezing cackle left you at the sight, especially when Blue stammered out a “Y-YES!” as he was steered away. Still giggling, you turned your attention to Edge, who was watching the exchange with a soft frown.

“You playing, Edge?” You asked innocently, pouting when he scoffed and looked away. “What? Are you scared we’re gonna beat you?” A raised brow and a mischievous smirk accompanied what was so obviously a taunting jab. Regardless of this, though, Edge quickly gave in with a fierce glower.

“YOU WISH.” He scoffed with a fiery determination intensifying the glow of his eyelights before a dark grin flashed across his skull. “I NEVER LOSE.”

You internally scolded yourself when the simple interaction had heat assaulting your face, prompting Edge to snort as he moved to join the others adjacent to you. It looked as though Red was arguing with the two humans that you were playing against previously, assumedly about essentially taking over their game, and you took a step towards them to mitigate the potential fallout. However, the second that Edge, his towering frame and sharp glare making him look incredibly intimidating, stood beside his brother, the humans shakily conceded and swiftly retreated.

“Guys, that wasn’t nice.” You shouted in scolding over the loud music as you tried your hardest to hold back your drunken mirth at the transpired events.

“they shouldn’t be such pussies that jus’ th’ sight of us has ‘em wettin’ their panties.” He shouted back, pure amusement lacing his words as he snickered at your failed attempt at remaining upset.

Any ire at his actions were easily dissipated when you watched in awe as Edge cackled loudly at his brother’s retort, then actually reciprocated an offered fist-bump from him. Your joy at seeing them actually get along for once was evident in your grin from ear to ear and caused the taller of the two to grumble and flush before launching a very strategically aimed ping-pong ball at you. You couldn’t even be mad that it hit you square in the forehead – the joyous, boisterous laughter that filled the air as a result had you easily joining in as you presented a middle finger at the offending monster, of who smirked smugly at you in turn.

You were eternally thankful for Axe’s apparent tendency to cheat and the resulting minor amount of alcohol you had been forced to consume in the last round as a result, because Edge was absolutely wailing on you with his insane, razor-sharp accuracy. Unfortunately, Red and Blue didn’t seem to share the same amount of skill, so it was essentially neck-in-neck when it came to who was set to win. Not only that, but it was getting increasingly difficult to effectively aim for the little red solo cups when Red’s raucous gloating and taunting throughout the game had you fighting for breath from laughing so hard.

Apparently Axe and Butch had given up on trying to come out as the victors entirely, because every ball they threw suspiciously ended up flying towards Red’s skull and actually made contact a good few times. It took way too long for him to clock that they weren’t just horrendously bad at throwing and, the second he realized, his ever-suffering younger brother had the arduous task of locking his arms around his midsection to prevent him from flying across the table at the pair. It seemed as though you weren’t the only one with lightning-fast reflexes when it comes to restraining the unruly monster from launching himself at anyone who even slightly pisses him off.

During the groups competitive shouting match, you all had neglected to notice that Blue had been downing every losing cup that Red or Edge didn’t snatch up first and – evident by how insanely quickly the liquor had affected him – it turned out that his tolerance was, as Red would put it, absolute dog-shit.

“Oh fuck, nope-“ You gasped out in a half-panicked, half-laughing state as you dashed over to the poor, flushed, hysterically giggling skeleton, “-I just got on your brother’s good side, this is not happening!”

You half-heartedly glared at Red when he swiftly shifted from unbridled rage towards the brothers adjacent to you and into uproarious chortling when he noticed you fretting over Blue, who, frankly, was just having a good time in his intoxicated state.

“ahahaha! he’s fuckin’ wasted!” Red wheezed out, clutching at his non-existent stomach as he did so, but let out an offended yelp when his brother gave him a chaste clip against the back of his skull in scolding. Edge wasn’t doing much better, though – he looked to be having a difficult time holding back his own laughter at the situation.

You looked helplessly for Axe and Butch for some semblance of assistance, but groaned in frustration when you found that they had been easily distracted by a nearby hot dog stall and simply regarded you with a sheepish grin and a shrug.

“Great, now I’m stuck with you two.” You grumbled with a hand over your face, causing Red to burst into laughter once more and Edge to, you guessed it, scoff and roll his eyelights at you.

“THIS IS FINE!” Blue chirped from beside you, the rising volume of his voice causing you to flinch and stare incredulously at him, “I AM HAVING A GREAT TIME!”.

“I’m sure you are, darling.” You sighed as you used a hand against his back to steer him in the direction of the house. “Come on, let’s get you sobered up.”

“’m comin’ with ya, there’s no way i’m missin’ this free entertainment.” Red snorted as he fell into line beside you, then jerked his skull in the direction of his brother when he exhaled heavily and began to follow the three of you. “look, even boss wants ta see this shit.”

“I AM SIMPLY MAKING SURE THAT YOU DON’T TORTURE HIM AND GET YOURSELF DUSTED BY HIS BROTHER.” He insisted, but the slight upward twitch of his mouth betrayed his mirth and easily gave away his true intention.

“NO! I WANT MORE, THIS IS FUN!” Blue whined, feebly struggling against your grasp as he did so.

“yeah, angel. don’t be a party-pooper.” Red gasped out between his barely contained snickering, “let th’ boy have some more.”

“Red, you are being incredibly- shit.” You squeaked the last word and dragged Blue away and against the wall of the house with a hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his cries of indignation, when the one monster you were trying to avoid shuffled into view.

Red, being the absolute shit-stirrer that he was, and an increasingly drunk shit-stirrer at that, opened his mouth to shout for the monster, leading Edge to mirror your action of clamping his hand over his mouth and dragging him into line next to you whilst he cursed and struggled. You watched anxiously as Mutt followed Stretch out from somewhere, took a drag of what looked like a cigarette and then passed it to the latter monster, who did the same.

“Is that weed?” You whispered in a laugh, observing as they passed it back and forth one more time before stubbing it out.

“The Monster Equivalent.” Edge muttered amusedly back, releasing Red now that the two had wandered out of eyesight and earning an icy glare from the aforementioned skeleton.

“Is it stronger?” You asked with a snort, then regarded the skeleton with delighted disbelief when he nodded with a knowing chuckle.

“Much.”

“Wait, how do you-? ow, Blue!” You yelped when the little monster somehow managed to bite your hand in a ploy to get you to flinch and let go, of who then began to feverously dash toward the direction that he saw his brother go in with a triumphant cackle.

He didn’t get far, though, as Edge easily teleported in front of him and threw him over his shoulder, causing him to whine pitifully and beat his fists against his cousin’s back. You couldn’t help the round of laughter that left you at that, especially because Edge just looked so damn proud of himself.

“LET’S GO.” He stated simply as he carried the indignantly howling monster into the house, leaving you and Red to stare after him in disbelief, then look to each other with dumbfounded expressions before quickly following him inside.

“I’ll make coffee and get some water.” You announced when you came to the hallway, earning an affirmative from Edge as a snickering Red followed him into the living room.

Now in the kitchen, you got to work on your set task, but couldn’t help eavesdropping on their conversation. You literally couldn’t help it- Blue’s voice had somehow increased in volume even further due to his drunken state and easily carried into the room you were in.

“I AM AN ADULT!” Was followed by what you surmised to be an amused retort of some kind by Red, seeing as you couldn’t hear him very well, of which was subsequently met with, “HE WILL ONLY MAIM YOU A LITTLE! YOU CAN HANDLE IT!”.

You tried your best to stifle your giggling at the proclamation, but obviously forgot to account for their insanely sensitive hearing, because the second that you returned with coffee and water in hand, Blue was trying his very hardest to look somewhat threatening with a glower in your direction. There was no way that he was ever going to be the slightest bit intimidating with that adorable face paired with freckles and a tooth gap, you thought – not that you would ever say that aloud, mind you.

“ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME?” He huffed, somehow even pouting as he did so and prompting you to have to bite down on your lip to keep yourself from laughing.

“yes.” Red answered for you with an impish grin, prompting you to sigh his name in scolding as you placed the drinks on the table and took a seat between Blue and Red. The pair had decided to sit together on one couch, whilst Edge had deemed that observing from an adjacent armchair was appropriate, and so simply watched the chaos unfold with barely contained, malicious mirth. The stance he had decided to sit in – leaning forward, one leg crossed over the other with his hands interlaced in front of him – really didn’t help the villainous air about him.

“No.” You said pointedly, before sitting back with a grin and a nonchalant shrug. “I’m laughing at the fact that Red is definitely going to get maimed if your brother finds out about this.”

“what th’ fuck?!” Red exclaimed offendedly as you snorted and stuck your tongue out at him. You absolutely were laughing at Blue, but a little white lie to placate him and get a jab in at your beta would do no harm, you thought.

“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY HE INSISTS ON BEING SO PROTECTIVE OF ME.” Blue grumbled as he slouched in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, before beginning to use his fingers to list off each subsequent ‘bad’ thing that he had done, “I CAN SWEAR! I JUST DO NOT THINK IT IS NECESSARY!”

“say a swear then.” Red chimed in, and it was your turn to slap his arm and glare icily as he snickered evilly. Luckily, Blue didn’t even seem to hear him, that or he was just straight up ignoring him at this point, and continued with his ramble.

“AND I CAN DRINK, TOO! I AM DOING IT RIGHT NOW!” He insisted indignantly, before sitting up and gesturing frantically with his hands as he spoke, “I AM IN THE ROYAL GUARD, FOR GOODNESS SAKE! I HAVE ALREADY SEEN LOTS OF NOT VERY NICE THINGS!”

Almost on instinct your eyes darted over to Edge, who was now regarding his cousin with a raised brow bone and a smirk. You kind of felt sad at his statement, but also somewhat impressed that he was as carefree and jovial as he was despite the things that he had apparently seen and experienced.

You were about to start on a tangent about how he just wants to keep him from witnessing anything else like that and whatnot, but before you could even form a coherent sentence in your mind, you had slapped a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from dissolving into wheezing laughter in a stunned response to Blue’s next proclamation.

“AND I HAVE HAD SEX! I HAVE HAD GIRLFRIENDS – DOES HE THINK THAT WE JUST SAT AROUND AND HELD HANDS!?”

Red, of course, wasn’t as gracious and once again let out a raucous round of laughter, whilst Edge sighed in disappointment at his brother’s apparent immaturity.

“’m sure he does think that, baby blue.” He said, wiping a tear of mirth from his socket as he did so and causing the aforementioned skeleton to regard him with a small frown.

“AND I DO NOT LIKE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT, RED! I AM OLDER THAN YOU!” He chastised the now openly gaping monster. Your shoulders were shaking with the effort of keeping your snickering at bay as you kept a hand firmly clamped over your mouth, before somehow managing to take a breath and sober.

“They do call it ‘truth serum’ for a reason, I guess.” You managed to eke out, prompting your beta to recover from whatever initial shock the comment had caused and sit back with a snort.

“i’ll say. good fer you-“ His face scrunched up in contemplation for a chaste moment, before a satisfied grin graced his features and he addressed his cousin with a snap of his fingers, -adult blue.”

“NO!” He groaned in response, slapping a hand to his forehead as he did so. You immediately burst into laughter, of which was not helped by Red’s disappointed, somewhat embarrassed grumble.

“How about you just, hah, call him by his name?” You suggested between giggles, prompting him to respond with a very sweet gesture involving his middle finger that only fueled your mirth.

You didn’t have to hear what Red said next, you could sense the impending question from a mile away and could only squeak his name in chastising as a result.

“so what’s yer body count then, big blue?” He made a show of wiggling his eyebrows at the monster as he spoke the new nickname, of which was considerably better than the previous one, but still had you choking on laughter anyway.

“You don’t have to answer that!” You fretted, your voice laced with mirth despite the scolding nature to your tone, as you retrieved the abandoned coffee and shoved it towards him. “Here, drink!”

“NO, LET HIM TALK.” Edge, who had been stonily silent the whole time, spoke up with malicious delight in his voice, causing you to stare indignantly at him in turn. “HOW MANY?”

“Since when are you such a little pervert, Edge?!” You laughed out in disbelief, but your jab at the skeleton went almost completely unnoticed by him bar the brief glare that was thrown your way.

“HM, I AM NOT SURE.” He mused as refused the cup from your still outstretched hands and lightly pushed them away, prompting you to sit back with a sigh. “I LOST COUNT AFTER TEN.”

“no way, yer fuckin’ lyin’!” Red damn near yelled in accusation as Blue’s face lit up with a mischievous grin.

“YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH THE LADIES LIKE ME.” He stated confidently as he leant his skull against one hand. The alcohol clouding your senses made it somewhat difficult to hide the awe on your face at his admission and as much was evident when Blue cracked an impish smirk at you with a wink, causing your face to immediately flush in response.

“alright, now yer jus’ fuckin’ pushin’ it-“ Red growled dangerously as he began to move to reach over you and toward his smug cousin, but an arm across his midsection from you as well as the arrival of another skeletal family member forced him to sit back with a grumble.

“Oh, Paps, thank god.” You sighed as he glanced between all of you with befuddlement etched into his features.

“WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED?” He asked cautiously, obviously referring to both yours and Blue’s flushed faces (his from the alcohol, obviously) as well as Red’s growling and Blue’s maniacal giggling.

“THEY GOT HIM DRUNK.” Edge stated simply, causing you to scoff in indignance.

“We didn’t mean to! You’re just as responsible as we are, bone boy!” You huffed with a half-hearted glare at the smirking monster.

“I got coffee to sober him up, but he won’t drink it.” You said pointedly at Blue, who just childishly stuck his tongue out at you in response.

Papyrus sighed and looked disappointedly between you all, before walking over to you to retrieve the cup from your hands, then to squat down in front of Blue with a stern frown. For the first time, you got to hear his Font – it almost sounded like the gentle breeze through a windchime, but somewhat faded, with each individual chime blending together in a pretty hum of a melody. You didn’t have the opportunity to appreciate its beauty, though, as when he had finished speaking you noted two baffling things in quick succession – one being that Blue’s expression shifted into surprise, then scolded ire as he took the cup and began to drink from it, and the second being that Red and Edge had been stunned into silence.

“WELL DONE, CREAMPUFF.” Edge praised him with a malicious grin after a tensely quiet moment, which didn’t signal anything good to you at all. “I DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD IT IN YOU.”

“THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW ABOUT ME, EDGE.” Papyrus responded as he stood with a roll of his eyelights.

You had honestly expected Edge to fly into a fit of rage, so you were surprised (and relieved) when he burst into laughter, which was quickly followed by his brother’s own mirthful chuckling. Apparently, Papyrus wasn’t just a happy drunk, he was evidently also a don’t-take-shit-from-anyone drunk, too!

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened.” You whispered in awe mostly to yourself, which only fueled their uproarious laughter, before you added curiously, “What did he say?!”

“THERE IS A REASON THAT I SPOKE IN FONT, HONEY.” He scolded gently, earning a huff of disappointment from you as a result as he grinned slyly at you.

“GO ON, I WILL LOOK AFTER HIM.” He urged you softly with a gentle hand against your back as you frowned and looked at him with guilt etched into your features.

“Are you sure? I- “

“GO, HONEY.” He repeated more sternly this time, before softly stating, “YOU SHOULD BE OUT THERE WITH EVERYONE ELSE, NOT HOLED UP HERE WITH ME AND BLUE.”

“You should be, too! I don’t mind-“ You tried to argue back, but were silenced with an affectionate chuckle from the skeleton.

“WE WILL BE FINE. PARTIES ARE NOT ESPECIALLY MY THING, ANYWAY.” He insisted, prompting you to glance between him and Blue with a pensive frown before conceding with a sigh.

“Thanks, Paps.” You breathed softly, a grateful smile gracing your features as you did so and earning a bright grin from him in response. “I’ll be back later to check in though, okay?”

The sweet skeleton flashed you a soft smile as he nodded, before the now very impatient Red flung an arm around your shoulders and steered you out of the room with an enthusiastic grin and a just as enthused urging to get back to the party now that ‘the creampuff’ had ruined his fun. Edge had apparently deemed the fun to be over whilst you and Papyrus were talking and was nowhere to be found, so you both decided to congregate with the rest of the group on the pier. You were slightly disappointed to see that Niamh had vanished, too, but assumed that she had returned to her group or gone home. Not that you blamed her – it had been a very intense last couple of hours or so.

You were in the midst of being assaulted with a barrage of affection from Mutt when you heard Undyne shout for you some ways down the boardwalk and had to struggle your way out of your increasingly drunk beta’s grasp, earning a disappointed whine as you did so. A kiss against his forehead and a few whispers of affection easily placated him before you curiously made your way over to the end of the pier, which overlooked the ocean and filled the air with the sound of gentle wind as well as the soft roar of waves lapping against the sand. The soft glow of artificial light danced across the surface of the crystal clear water and illuminated the immediate area around you, causing your eyes to widen in fascination as you joined the monster in sitting on the edge of the wooden structure.

“Wow.” You breathed with an awestruck grin as you drank in every detail of the gorgeous scene, earning a quiet chuckle from the monster next to you.

“Ya looked a little overwhelmed, figured this would be a nice break from the skeleton squad over there.” She explained softly with a brief glance in the direction of said skeletons, her tone laced with mirth as she did so.

“Oh, thank you, but I don’t think I feel overwhelmed…” You mumbled with furrowed brows, prompting her to snort and shake her head at you.

“Your soul says different, kid.” It was her turn to knit her brows together when you shot her a confused look. “Ya can’t see it?”

“Humans can’t see souls, even if they are more in tune with magic, like I am.” You clarified sadly, disappointment in the fact evident in your hushed tone.

“Right, I forget that sometimes.” She muttered with a faint frown, before explaining, “Ya soul reacts to emotions – brightens when you’re happy, dulls when you’re sad. Yours is a lot duller than when I saw ya last, keeps pulsing quickly too – overwhelmed.” She said simply with a shrug as you listened with naked fascination on your face.

“Woah, I really wish I could see them, now.” You all but whined, then flushed slightly when the implications of such a thing came to mind. “I just thought you were all really good at reading emotions, but I don’t know how I feel about them being so… obvious.”

“Hey, it means no miscommunication where feelings are concerned, at least!” She exclaimed with a slap against your back, and you had to slam your hands down against the wooden pier to right yourself, almost toppling over into the ocean below as a result and letting out a frightened squeak. “Sorry, heh.”

“Ha, it’s alright.” You insisted breathlessly, then gazed pensively at the monster with a question on your tongue. “Can you see LV, too?”

“Ya talkin’ about Sans?” She asked with a raised brow, humming in understanding when you nodded with open curiosity rounding your features. “Nah, that’s just his special ability.”

“Oh, yeah. Stretch told me that you all have one!” You enthused, your energy increasing considerably at the opportunity to learn more about the topic. “What’s yours?!”

“Well, apart from being able to make wicked sharp spears- “ She boasted with a proud grin, “- I can echolocate and water bend, look!”

You observed with giddy awe as she lifted a clawed hand and, with a slight flick of her wrist, manipulated the water below so that it rose in a wave up to you, then scattered across the surface of the ocean. You let out an audible breath of awestruck laughter, but noted that something about what she had said was scratching uncomfortably at the back of your mind.

You’re injured, a spear has penetrated the flesh of your leg. You know that to pull it out would be a fatal mistake, but you cannot break it in half so that you may wrap a bandage around the sharp point that is embedded and continue on.

“What, um- do you know any of the others’ abilities?!” You chirped in an attempt to wrench your mind away from the recollection. If she noticed the subtle waver to your voice and the writhing of your soul, she didn’t react further than a slight flick of her gaze to where the little heart lay with a weak frown and instead opted to hum in thought as she considered your question.

“Huh, y’know, I don’t think I actually know.” She screwed her face up in contemplation, then brightened when she recalled something. “Oh, Edge has the ability to drain the health of an opponent after hitting them with a magic attack, like a poison type attack in a videogame! I’ve never seen the Captain’s though, as far as I know his ability isn’t attack based, otherwise I would have seen it by now.”

“Woah, that explains why I passed out after our first training session. He only grazed me, too.” You noted with a hint of mirth, prompting Undyne to gape at you with a laugh of disbelief.

“You train with that maniac?!” She gawked as you snorted with a nod, causing her to punch you in the arm with a bark of laughter, blessedly a lot more gently than she had before. “Huh, you’re not as much of a weenie as I first thought, punk!”

“Thanks?” You said in a breath of laughter.

A companiable silence washed over the two of you and you took the opportunity to allow yourself to get lost in the calming sounds of the oceanside with a contented sigh.

Undyne must have noticed you eyeing her when she picked up a bottle of, assumedly, some type of liquor from beside her and took a swig, as she then let out a muted snort and passed it to you, which you gratefully accepted. A mischievous glint had appeared in her gaze as she regarded you, and you internally prepared yourself for whatever bedlam was about to unfold.

“So…”

Uh oh.

“I noticed your soul do a funny little thing when I mentioned Sans.” She muttered conspiringly, then barked out an uproarious laugh when you froze and instantly flushed. “Ha! I don’t even need to see ya soul! You’re so easy to read!”

“Shuddup.” You grumbled as your face flushed further in pure mortification, though you couldn’t help but note with a hint of amused affection how much you had sounded like Red, then. Perhaps he was having more of an influence on you than you first thought.

Undyne once again burst into raucous laughter as she swung an arm over your shoulder good-naturedly, then leaned in to mutter slyly, “Ya tell him yet?”

“N-No!” You squeaked, hiding your face with a hand as she continued to snicker at your bashful demeanor. “I mean, I only marked Mutt this morning a-and I don’t think Sans even feels that way about me!”

“Aw, c’mon, punk!” She chided with an impish grin, causing you to sink further into your hands with a groan. “I see the way he looks at you~”

“He doesn’t! Look at me! Oh my god.” You insisted in a shrill voice, then mumbled in a mortified grumble, both hands now covering your burning face as you did so.

“Shouldn’t you be with Alphys?!” You asked in a desperate attempt to steer the attention away from your very obvious crush on the aforementioned skeleton.

“It’s pretty late already, so she went back to the hotel.” She explained casually after recovering from the onslaught of laughter at your misfortune, before addressing you with a sly grin, “So, you’re stuck with me!”

“heya.”

Just kill me now.

“Ohohoho, have fun, kids!” Undyne wheezed out as she stood and slapped a very confused Sans on the back, before snatching up the bottle of liquor from your hands – at which point you responded with an offended whine – and sauntered off to leave the two of you alone. You could have actually screamed at her smug grin as she backed away, waggling her brows at you as she did so.

“what’s up with her?” He snickered as he sat down heavily beside you, then tilted his skull at you with a mirthful, but befuddled expression.

“Uh, N-Nothing.” You eked out, your face still completely red and not showing any signs of letting up, then asked in an attempt to direct the topic away once again from the transpired events, “What’s up?”

“eh, can’t find paps ‘n everyone else is doing their own thing, so i thought i’d come hang with you. that okay?” He explained with a casual shrug as he searched your flushed face.

The light reflecting off the water only served to cast beautiful shadows of the rippling ocean against the porcelain white of his skull and create a mirage of pretty swirling patterns against the surface. The blue of his eyelights seemed brighter, more vivid in the dimmed light and from your close proximity you could see flecks of a darker indigo throughout them. You must have been staring, completely transfixed by the sight, for a while because he flushed lightly with an anxious laugh in response and caused you to falter.

“O-Oh, yeah, that’s fine!” You chirped, tearing your gaze away to look down at your now anxiously fiddling hands. “Paps is looking after Blue back at the house – he may of drank a lot when we were playing beer pong.” You added in a weak laugh, fervently attempting to distract the skeleton.

“what?” He said in a breath of laughter as you started when your very preoccupied mind caught up with what you had said.

“Oh, shit. Don’t tell Stretch, please.” You breathed with a pleading, sheepish expression as you dared to look up at him.

“heh, ya secret’s safe with me, bud.” He chuckled as he sat back on his hands, then stared up at the starry night above with a contented grin.

Your soul began to thrum gently as you watched him and, finally, gave the thump that you had been anticipating since you had realized your feelings for him.

It strangely made you feel better – that your soul was now acting in accordance with your emotions. Something about it validated the affection that you held for him and assured your certainty when it came to feeling as though you weren’t messing anything up. After all, your soul hadn’t lied to you before and you doubted it ever would.

Quiet settled in the air and you let out a hushed sigh of relief, allowing yourself to untense now that he no longer seemed suspicious about the previous interaction. As he turned his skull to address you, though, you couldn’t help but flinch and tense up at his inquisitive expression.

“you okay? ya seem anxious.”

You hadn’t noticed him do so the numerous times that he had in the past, but you noted then the brief flick of his eyelights to your chest, where your soul lay, before he focused them on your face. Whatever happened to your soul when you were around him must have been intensified due to the topic of your earlier conversation with Undyne, because his smile became slightly strained as a faint tint of blue painted his cheekbones.

Well, if it’s that obvious, you may as well just get it out in the open, you thought. Never make important decisions when you’re drunk – that’s the rule that you always tried to impose on yourself, but apparently, rules were made for breaking where this was concerned.

“I like you!” You squeaked out, your face burning and eyes downcast whilst your hands balled up into fists from your mounting anxiety. “I- I really fucking like you, Sans.” You murmured, your stomach doing backflips as a tense silence settled over the two of you.

“heh, bud… i-“ He shifted uncomfortably as he turned his skull away from you, forcing you to revoke the statement with a curse.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” You breathed in a sigh, the icy feeling of rejection instantly washing over you and causing your throat to tighten. “I- I shouldn’t have said anything- “

“no, no. it’s alright.” He muttered back, the tone to his voice portraying his unease at the situation. “it just caught me off guard, i guess. i, uh- i thought we were just… messin’ around, yanno?”

Oh.

Tears burned at your eyes as a hard lump formed in your throat, the embarrassment from blurting out your confession fast overwhelming the sting of rejection. After clearing your throat in an attempt to push down your hurt, you smiled weakly at him with a shake of your head.

“It’s okay! I- “ You sighed heavily as you pushed yourself to your feet, then plastered on a bright grin as you addressed him. “It’s late, I’m gonna- I’ll see you tomorrow, kay?”

You heard him sigh your name and urge you to ‘wait!’, but the roar of your heartbeat as well as the unshed tears threatening to fall superseded any intention to do so as you dashed back into the house, your arms wrapped around yourself, and your eyes trained intently on the ground.

Once you had made it safely inside, you scrubbed at your face with a shaky sigh and headed upstairs. You could hear the faint buzz of a television from inside one of the rooms and surmised that it must be where Papyrus and Blue were, so knocked lightly and shifted anxiously as you waited for a response.

“Honey? Are You Alright?” Papyrus asked gently once he had opened the door, prompting you to smile weakly at him and nod.

“Just a long day.” You whispered, then craned your neck to see Blue blessedly passed out on the bed. “Can I come in?”

“Of Course!” He beamed brightly at you as he stepped aside to allow you to enter, then shutting the door with a quiet click behind you.

The room was only dimly lit by a bedside lamp and the glow of the television, but it made for a comforting atmosphere. You shuffled yourself onto the bed next to Blue, who adorably screwed up his face and grumbled softly at the intrusion. As you sat back into the pillows with a sigh, your attention was quickly captured by an assault of bright colors from the adjacent television, as well as a melodic voice announcing something and subsequent cheering from the crowd. A huge grin broke out across your face in recognition of the television star as Papyrus softly sat next to you in a cross-legged position.

“Hey, it’s the sexy rectangle!” You enthused quietly, as so not to wake the sleeping skeleton by your side, as Papyrus flushed lightly and sputtered in response.

“Who Told You That?” He demanded in quite the flustered state. “It Was Sans, Wasn’t It? I Swear To The Angel-“

“Ha, nope.” You said in a giggle as he furrowed his browbones at you, before you whispered slyly, “It was Mutt, actually.”

“That Is Just As Unsurprising.” He grumbled, causing you to snort at the claim.

“I mean, he is quite sexy- just saying.” You murmured with a shrug, then bit your lip to stifle a giggle when he simply flushed further and stammered out a mumbled agreement, refusing to meet your gaze the whole time. Well, you may as well change the topic and put the poor thing out of his misery, you thought.

“How was dealing with this one?” You asked in a gentle, amused tone as you gestured with a nod of your head to the offending skeleton.

“It Was Fine – He Just Complained About Not Being Allowed To Drink Any More For A While And Then Fell Asleep.” He stated in a soft chuckle, prompting you to scoff good-naturedly and receive a curious look in return.

“You’re lucky – he bit me.” You grumbled, starting slightly but breaking out into a wide grin when he slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle the cackle that left him.

“Oh, I Am Sorry, Honey.” He tried to say sincerely, but the waver to his voice due to the effort it was taking for him to hold back his mirth overrode the emotion completely. “I Should Not Laugh. Are You Okay?”

“He didn’t even leave a mark, it’s all good.” You said brightly, before dropping into an awestruck whisper, “The little fucker is fast, though.”

“L-Language!” Was all he managed to get out against the muffled laughter that left him, his shoulders shaking with the effort of staying quiet.

His laughter was infectious and had you easily dissolving into giggles, of which only continued to increase in intensity as you both fell into a tipsy loop of laughing at the other’s maniacal snickering.

You did, however, freeze and divert your attention to Blue when he whined at the hushed noise and extended his arms towards you. The only thing keeping you from waking him up with your wheezing laughter was your hand firmly clasped over your mouth as he flung an arm over your lap, then pulled himself closer until he practically had his head lay on your legs and settled with a contented sigh.

“Why are all of you so cuddly?” You managed to eke out after taking a few sobering breaths, prompting Papyrus to raise a critical brow at you with a sly grin.

“How Would You Know?” He asked conspiringly as an impish simper spread across your face.

“I’ve practically cuddled with all of you at this point – well, all except for Milord, Stretch, and Sans.” You informed him, then deflated for a brief moment at the utterance of Sans’ name. You hoped that he couldn’t tell in the dim light of the room, but forced yourself to perk up and beam at the skeleton regardless.

“You Did Not Exclude Edge.” He corrected you, then faltered when you simply grinned at him with a raised eyebrow. “No.”

“Well, it was more I passed out after training and wouldn’t let go of him when he tried to carry me to my room, but he stayed with me.” You explained with a shrug, a swift rush of heat assaulting your face at the memory.

“You Continue To Impress Me Every Day, Honey.” He said in a soft chuckle and, despite the comment likely just being an offhand joke, a flower of flustered affection bloomed in your chest in response, and you could only let out a short, breathy giggle in place of a retort.

It was already late, and your body had begun to grow heavy with exhaustion, but between catching Blue purring when you had started to idly pet his skull as a way to keep your hands busy and the hushed chatter between you and Papyrus, overflowing with muffled giggles and pleasant conversation, you couldn’t bring yourself to leave.

It was well into the early hours of the morning when Stretch returned to his room, drunk, exhausted, and more than ready for the sweet embrace of sleep – but, instead of the sight of his brother soundly snoozing in their shared bed, he found you and Papyrus there too, all three of you cuddled together, asleep, and still dressed in the clothes he had last seen you in.

It was glaringly obvious to him what had happened – he wasn’t unobservant – but it was far more amusing to watch you, Red and Edge frantically try to avoid him whilst keeping Blue in check. He would let it go just this once, if only because it had given him such a good laugh.

With nowhere else to go, he caught up with Mutt as he entered the room that you were supposed to be sharing with him and let him know of your whereabouts, before taking Milord’s abandoned bed for the night. He’d trust you and Papyrus to take care of his brother for now.

Chapter Text

Sunlight shone through the thin gaps of the curtains, signaling the beginning of a new day, and allowing birdsong to fill the air. For you, however, it was a burning assault on your aching head and forced you to turn away with a grumble to escape the blinding glow.

As you readjusted yourself, your body fell flush against another, and you instinctually cuddled closer to the source of warmth. What had you confusedly opening your eyes to survey your surroundings, however, was the smell of sweet smoke. You were sure that you had fallen asleep next to Papyrus and Blue, and unless either of them had picked up a smoking habit, the body next to yours didn’t belong to either of them.

As you rubbed the sleep from your eyes, Mutt’s peacefully slumbering face came into view and coaxed an affectionate giggle from you. He obviously wasn’t prepared to let his chance of sharing a bed with you get away and had carried you to bed at some point during the night.

Curiosity sated, you lay back down and attempted to get some more sleep, but no matter how much you willed yourself to relax, you just couldn’t. Eventually, you forced yourself into a sitting position with a hushed groan as you rubbed at your aching temples and looked around for your phone. Adorably, Mutt had apparently retrieved the device, along with your bag, due to you accidentally abandoning it somewhere during your drunken travels, and both items were safely placed next to your backpack.

After checking the time, you hopped into the shower in an attempt to rid yourself of the combined grogginess that plagued you as a result of little sleep and the previous night’s drinking, then quietly dressed yourself in the appropriate attire for your day’s plans.

You were actually somewhat relieved that you had woken up relatively early, as there was something that you wanted to do before it was time to head home. It was a shot in the dark, but something in your mind insisted that a certain stoic skeleton would enjoy the activity you had picked out – plus, you felt bad that you didn’t really get to spend any significant time with him and, after the previous day’s events, was feeling rather delicate towards the monster.

Once you made a brief stop downstairs to apply a little makeup (you really did need to take your stuff back upstairs at some point), you headed for the kitchen in dire need of coffee and a little something to eat to settle your stomach. To your surprise, neither Blue nor Papyrus were up yet, and you chalked it up to having to sleep off the effects of the alcohol. Though, Edge was already dressed and milling about the kitchen in his own morning routine.

“Morning!” You chirped with a bright grin, to which he simply glanced at you with the same stoic frown that you had come to know and love.

“GOOD MORNING.” He mumbled out, before pausing his ministrations in preparing his own cup to retrieve another from the cabinet above him and add coffee to it. A dumb grin spread across your face at the subtle action, but you turned your head away from him as not to call any attention to it.

“WHY ARE YOU DRESSED LIKE THAT?” He asked shortly as you leant against the counter, prompting you to grin slyly as you crossed your arms over your chest.

“I was thinking that maybe we could go to this ballroom dancing thing I may or may not have seen being advertised for later this morning.” You stated casually, flippantly gesturing with a hand as you did so and causing the skeleton to eye you critically.

“WHY?”

“Because I thought it might be fun.” You said with a shrug, coaxing a sigh from him as he slid your now ready coffee towards you. You smiled at him in thanks.

“NO, I MEAN WHY WITH ME?” He reiterated.

“Don’t you like dancing?” You asked somewhat anxiously, afraid that your gut feeling had misled you. When he didn’t deny the question, you impishly offered, “If you come with me, I’ll let you drive back today~”

“THANK THE STARS, FINE.” He grumbled, before abandoning his drink to stalk past you, assumedly to change, with a growl of, “I DON’T THINK I CAN TAKE ANY MORE OF YOUR HORRIFIC DRIVING. IF I HAD A HEART IT WOULD HAVE FAILED BY NOW.”

You burst into giggles at that, only a little offended that he had made such a slight at your, what you considered to be, at least average driving skills.

As an anxious person anyway, you had fully researched the area around the beach house before travelling, as well as the route to get there, and had stumbled upon an advertisement at a local studio for a ballroom dancing event. It was something that you’d enjoy, so you made a note and packed a knee-length black dress and low heels in case you got the opportunity to participate. It had stated that it was an all-day event, lasting well into the night, so you hoped that it wouldn’t be too densely populated if you went in the morning.

You had spent a while considering who would be the most likely to have fun accompanying you to such an activity and, at first, you had thought about going with Papyrus, but for some odd reason, your mind continued to circle back to Edge as the most appropriate companion.

When said skeleton returned a short while later, you almost choked on the fruit you were snacking on at his newfound attire. In place of his usual turtleneck was a black button-up shirt, of which had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Additionally, he had tucked the bottom of it into his black slacks, as well as done up the top button, which in your mind, looked far too formal (and uncomfortable) for the event.

Feeling bold, you sauntered up to him with a soft smile and loosened the tuck of his shirt, prompting a surprised sputter and a flush in response. Once you were satisfied with that, you moved to unbutton the first two buttons and adjusted the material until it looked far more comfortable against his frame.

A flash of gold along a tiny fracture on his clavicle that veered off onto his sternum and disappeared under the dark material of his shirt caught your eye, but you decided not to mention it in fear of upsetting him. The indent looked as though it was laced with the same gold that made up Mutt and Red’s fangs and it had you wondering – why? The fangs you could understand as a fashion choice – even humans do it – but this didn’t seem… voluntary.

“There, that’s better.” You breathed.

You shook the musings from your head as you used a gentle touch to flatten any creases that had been made along the fabric covering his sternum, then glanced up at his cherry-red skull. The lustful inflection to his hard gaze had you tensing and flushing with parted lips, but he seemed to think better of whatever urge had caused such an expression to form and lightly pushed you back with a scoff.

“You look nice!” You chirped somewhat breathlessly, hoping to dissipate the tension in the air as you returned to nurse at your coffee in an attempt to hide the heat assaulting your face.

“IF YOU SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, I WILL RECIND MY COMPLIANCE.” He growled in ire, though the furious blush painting the tops of his cheekbones indicated that his annoyance was likely not at you.

“Okay, okay!” You giggled, before looking over at the small bowl of fruit that you had prepared for yourself and asking cautiously, “Do you want something to eat before we go? I picked up some stuff for pancakes when I went shopping yesterday- “

You trailed off with a sheepish smile when he spoke your name in a quiet warning, then held your hands up in a gesture of surrender. You know when you’ve been beat, so instead of pushing any further, you made yourself busy with draining the rest of your coffee and clearing up after yourself whilst Edge did the same.

With that, you urged the grumpy skeleton along with a bright grin and exited the house into the crisp morning air. As you were walking, you sent a brief text to the group chat letting them know of your absence for when they woke up, then replaced the device in your bag to look around at the scenery that surrounded you.

You knew that Edge would likely refrain from making any small talk and didn’t want to force it and make things any more tense than they were, so you simply observed the gorgeous seaside town and enjoyed the feeling of the sun on your skin as the two of you made the short walk to the venue. A contented smile graced your features as you did so and you more than once caught the skeleton glancing over at you with a somewhat contented expression of his own, only for it to harden into a fierce scowl accompanied by a faint tint of crimson to his cheekbones when you turned to beam at him.

Eventually, after having to check your phone once or twice to make sure that you were headed in the right direction, you made it to the desired destination and excitedly bounced up to the front desk, where you were greeted by a just as enthusiastic clerk.

“Well, don’t you two make just the most gorgeous couple!” She chirped as she pushed a clipboard towards you, allowing you to sign into the event.

Where you had giggled bashfully and thanked the lady, Edge faltered and lit up bright red before snatching up the clipboard and scribbling your names, then grabbed your arm to essentially drag you into the hall.

You couldn’t help the wheezing chuckle that left you at his flustered demeanor, despite nearly tripping over yourself in your heels and breaking an ankle as a result of his frantic movements.

The assumption that the venue would be scarcely populated was thankfully correct, as just a handful of other attendees were present. They looked from their partners to glance at the two of you as Edge hectically pulled you along, but soon returned their focus to their graceful, sweeping movements across the dance floor.

“COME ON, LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH.” He grumbled.

He released his grasp on your arm to extend a hand palm-up in the appropriate invitation to dance - his eyelights were trained specifically on anywhere but you and his flush had yet to fade, but, despite the small frown still present on his face, your soul began to flutter in your chest at the sight. You never really had just taken a moment to consider how handsome he was, and, at that moment, it was all you could think about.

With a nervous breath of laughter and the appearance of your own faint blush, you took the offered hand and allowed yourself to be gently led to the center of the wooden floor, the gentle melody of ballroom music following you as you did so. The two of you easily fell into step as you skillfully followed his lead, at which point you swore that you could see a hint of an impressed glint to his eyelights.

“I was right in thinking that you already knew how to do this, then.” You smiled softly at the monster, “Where did you learn to dance?”

The stoic skeleton showed no signs of answering your question, instead just keeping his focus on gracefully leading you into each step, so you decided to offer up some information about yourself in an attempt to make him feel more at ease when it came to sharing that of his own.

“Some of the adults back, well, you know.” You started softly, capturing his attention, and causing him to train his gaze carefully on you. “They taught stuff like this. I learnt quite a few styles of dance to pass the time – tango, foxtrot, and the likes – but this was always my favorite. It’s just so… elegant, y’know?”

“YOU ARE NOT SOMEONE THAT I WOULD ASSOCIATE WITH ELEGANCE.” He said in a hushed scoff, prompting you to giggle and shake your head.

“Perhaps that’s why I like it.” You suggested casually as he hummed in detached acknowledgement.

You allowed the two of you to lapse into silence for a while, simply enjoying the atmosphere of the relaxed swaying along with the pretty sounds of the accompanying music.

After your admission, he seemed a lot more confident leading you into more advanced moves and even seemed to be easing into and, possibly even enjoying, twirling you around, as well as the resulting closeness as he pulled you flush against his body. There was even the faint whisper of a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth as he observed your graceful movements and the giddy grin that had appeared along with them.

“AFTER WE SURFACED.” He stated suddenly, “I WAS TRYING TO… BETTER MYSELF, FOR RED. I ALWAYS HAD AN INTEREST AND… I THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD HELP TO… “ He trailed off, obviously uncomfortable with the subject, but you smiled encouragingly at him with affection clear in your expression.

“To channel your energy into something productive that didn’t involve violence?” You offered lowly, prompting him to nod shortly with a muted sigh. “Did it? Help?”

“FOR A WHILE.” He said in a hushed breath, before his frown deepened and he said in a voice laced with quiet frustration, “JOINING THE GUARD WAS MORE IMPORTANT, I RARELY HAVE THE LUXURY ANYMORE.”

“Well, we could make the time.” You suggested meekly. A bashful grin lit up your face as you did so, and prompted him to raise a critical brow at you.

“WE?”

“Yeah! Paps could take over my training and we… we could dance, instead.” You breathed, “I’d love to get back into it and… it would be nice if it was with you.”

Shock rounded his features as you spoke, before he chuckled affectionately and actually grinned down at you, the open vulnerableness in the adoring expression causing your soul to thump against your ribcage in time with his.

Along with this, however, came a flash of a memory.

You’re pressed against someone, their figure towering over you. They smell like leather and smoke. You look up to meet red eyelights, twin jagged scars cross over one of their sockets. They smile fondly down at you as you twirl and sway. You’re dancing. Muffled classical music filters in and you find yourself grinning back.

“Woah.” You breathed in awe and looked up at the now inquisitively staring skeleton. As the not-memory had hit, you had frozen for half a second with an almost faraway look in your eyes, the same look that he had seen when your vision of Papyrus had happened during training.

“A Vision?” He asked hushedly, prompting you to huff a short breath of laughter as your grin doubled in size.

“A good one.” You clarified, just above a whisper, then added in response to a raised brow, “We’ve done this before.”

He didn’t audibly respond, but the softening of his features told you that he was somewhat pleased at the fact. A music change then urged you to resume the fluid movements in time with the languid melody and, for a while, the two of you lost yourselves in simply enjoying the dance, as well as each other’s company.

It must have been at least an hour before you found yourself getting tired and satisfied with the outcome of the event, asked if he would like to leave. When you received a (reluctant?) affirmative, the two of you headed out of the building. You chirped a goodbye to the lovely clerk as you did so, and stepped out into the pleasantly warm late summer air.

You insisted on walking back despite your aching feet due to a desire to take in the beautiful scenery for the last time before you would all head back to Ebott. As you walked, the two of you engaged in chitchat about the previous day’s events. Well, it was more of you rambling happily about the more pleasant aspects of the day whilst Edge gave you grunts and nods to show that he was listening, but it was nice, nonetheless.

Once you had reached the front door of the house, you stopped in place and turned to the skeleton with a soft, grateful smile, causing him to pause with an inquisitive glint to his eyelights.

“Thank you, Edge.” You said softly, appreciation for the act enveloping your words and coaxing a faint blush to appear on your face. “I mean it – about taking classes together. I think it’d be really nice.”

You watched with open curiosity as he sighed your name with an odd mixture of quiet frustration and pensiveness softening his eyelights, along with a small frown pulling the corners of his mouth downwards. Your heart began to hammer in your chest as he took a tentative step so that there was just an inch between you and used a gloved hand to tilt your chin upwards, a now gentle, considerate expression rounding his sharp features as his gently flickering eyelights searched your face.

On instinct, you held your breath as he leant down to put a hair’s width of distance between your faces and…

“Wait.” You whispered, causing the skeleton to swiftly pull back with a brow cocked at you, “Do you hear that?”

Somewhere in the parking lot, you could hear the muffled, distressed mewling of what you surmised to be that of a cat and, unable to ignore it, stepped back and away from his grasp to investigate.

Edge looked completely, indignantly stunned at this as he let out a low, frustrated growl, before apparently conceding and following you with a sharp exhale.

“I think it’s coming from over here.” You announced hushedly.

You crouched down near one of the bushes lining the far end of the cobblestone lot and gingerly pushed the branches apart to get a better look at whatever was making the noise.

With a gasp, you spotted a tiny splotch of black amongst the green leaves and gently lifted it from its place amongst the soil. The blob had a little pink mouth that was now trying its best to hiss at you as you brought it to your chest with open upset widening your eyes, then stood to address a now curiously staring Edge.

“A kitten…” You breathed sadly and he furrowed his brows at you, his eyelights now trained on the spitting creature cradled against you. “It can’t be more than a few weeks old, it’s eyes aren’t even open yet.”

“IT WILL LIKELY BE A PART OF A COLONY – IT’S MOTHER WILL BE AROUND.” He informed you with an annoyed gesture of his hand as he crossed his arms over his chest, but you weren’t convinced.

“It’s freezing and so skinny – I think it’s eyes are infected too.” You argued back gently, looking around for the assumed mother just in case she might need assistance as well. “Even if the mother is around, it needs help, or it’ll die.”

Edge scoffed and opened his mouth to retort, but you stepped towards him and held the weakly wriggling kitten out in the palms of your hands with a spoken request for him to take it. Any ire in his expression instantly softened into one of tentative surprise as he gingerly took it from you and copied your action of cradling the creature against his chest. Your heart just about melted when the faintest of purrs began to emanate from the little black mass the second that he did so, causing him to deflate completely and stare at it with a faint flush and barely contained adoration in his eyelights.

“We need to warm it up before feeding – it’ll need to be bottle fed so I’ll see if I can find a pet shop somewhere with a bottle and kitten formula.” You informed him gently, a broad grin stretching your face as you watched him ever so gently pet the top of the fuzzy little creature’s head with a cautious clawed finger. “Take it inside and find a blanket to wrap it in, okay?”

Edge simply nodded in stunned silence before carrying the kitten inside, at which point you briskly followed and looked around with a question on your tongue.

“Can I borrow the car, please? I’m not sure where the closest pet shop is, and we need to be quick.” You explained, nerves surrounding the time sensitive situation making you fidgety as he once again nodded shortly and reached into his pocket to retrieve the keys before passing them to you.

With a chaste thank you, you rushed out the door and hopped into the car with nervous excitement causing a bright smile to grace your features, then tapped in a request for directions to the nearest pet store into the GPS in your phone. You couldn’t help the snicker that passed your lips at the skeleton’s easy compliance to let you take the vehicle due to his shocked state as you started the engine and pulled out of the driveway, then swiftly headed to your next destination.

Once you had explained to the person manning the register that you had found a practically newborn kitten, he had easily helped you with gathering the correct supplies to make sure that it had the best chance of survival you could give it. You returned with a bundle of tiny syringes with varying sizes of nipples to be attached as the kitten grew, as well as a little bottle for when it was a bit bigger and able to stand stably on its own, lots of kitten formula, a heated blanket and even a teddy bear that simulated their mother’s heartbeat and warmth to help it feel as safe and comfortable as possible, and a small carrier pen to keep it in as you travelled home. Additionally, he had recommended a newborn-safe antibiotic cream for its eyes but urged you to take it to a vet as soon as you got home.

Perhaps you were jumping the gun in assuming that this kitten was coming home with you, but if Edge’s cautiously affectionate expression as he had cradled the tiny creature in a single palm was anything to go by, you could easily conclude that the cat distribution system - as you liked to call it - had worked its magic and Edge likely had a brand new fuzzy best friend.

With your items in hand, you locked the car and rushed inside to the living room, where you assumed that they would be. You were surprised to see Papyrus and Butch awake and staring in awe at the tiny void that had fallen asleep in Edge’s arms.

“Hey, I got everything we need.” You announced softly, prompting three pairs of eyelights to dart to your form as you knelt down in front of them and began pulling out the supplies.

“A-A kitten?” Butch asked in a gentle breath as you nodded with a soft smile.

“Found it just outside in the bushes – I still didn’t see a mother anywhere so… I think it might have been abandoned by someone.” You contemplated sadly as you set up the carrier pen and placed the blanket and teddy inside, then visually searched around for a plug socket to attach the electric blanket to.

“Are You Going To Keep It?” Papyrus asked next, his gaze having returned to the creature now completely fixated as it wriggled gently and yawned.

“I don’t know – I think we should ask everyone first.” You responded hushedly, then plugged in the blanket and made a few adjustments to the pen as it began to heat up. “Either way, I’m going to make sure it’s okay first and then, if you guys decide that you can’t keep it, I’ll find a foster home for it.”

Edge looked torn as you spoke, almost as though he had instantly fallen in love with the little creature but was aware that the others may not be as receptive as he seemed to be to a new addition to the household.

“Can I?” You asked as you held out your hands, at which point he hesitated slightly before passing the mewling smudge of black, which was now wrapped in a section of the couch’s utilized throw, to you.

To sate your curiosity, you gently unwrapped the kitten and held the wriggling form in one hand and lifted its tiny tail to determine the sex, then placed it next to the teddy and gingerly pulled a small section of the blanket over it to help it warm up as quickly as possible.

“It’s a little girl.” You breathed with a smile as she spat and hissed at your gentle petting, obviously displeased at being taken away from, evidently, her new favorite person.

“H-How do you k-know how to t-take care of her?” Butch inquired with a rounded, curious expression, tilting his skull at you as he did so. With a sheepish laugh, you admitted how you obtained the knowledge.

“I heard that there are a lot of cat colonies around in the US and wanted to be prepared in case I ever came across this exact situation – I spent hours researching it one night and I guess the information just stuck.” You said with a shrug, using a gentle hand to check the temperature of the now contently sleeping kitten.

“Can We Help?” Papyrus asked as enthusiastically as he could with a hushed voice, a hopeful, adoring expression rounding his eyes and causing a grin to break out across his face.

“Sure! Kittens this young need to be bottle fed every few hours, that means during the night too.” You informed them as their skulls lit up in varying degrees of excitement – Edge’s being the most cautiously veiled. “They have to be warm before they eat otherwise it can cause them to expend too much energy on digestion and it can be really harmful, seeing as they can’t regulate their own body temperature at this age. They need help going to the bathroom, too – I’ll show you how in a moment. Oh, and you always need to help them pee and have a bowel movement before they eat.” You checked off everything mentally with a pensive expression, before grabbing the antibiotics and quickly scanning the back. “She has an eye infection, so I’ll have to manually open her eyes to apply this. It says to use it three times a day, so I’ll create a chart to check off for that as well as a feeding and weighing schedule – she should be gaining ten grams or more a day, so we’ll have to make note of that, too.”

“OH, THIS IS SO EXCITING! I’M GOING TO WAKE SANS!”

Papyrus, unable to hold back his enthusiasm any longer, hopped up from the couch, causing you to flinch and let out a huff of laughter, before practically bouncing away to inform his brother of the development.

After the previous night’s events, a pit of anxiety developed in your stomach at the proclamation, but you didn’t have the heart to tell him not to, and so simply grinned with a nod as he did so.

“I-I’ll get Axe, t-too.” Butch announced meekly as he stood in a much gentler manner. “H-He’ll be so h-happy!”

“Just don’t get his hopes up, we don’t know if everyone will-!” You tried to call after him, but he had already excitedly followed Papyrus out of the room, so you sat back with a muted breath of affectionate laughter as he disappeared from sight.

“Keep an eye on her, I’m just going to grab a few things.” You said with a soft smile as you pulled yourself into a standing position, prompting him to again, simply nod with a torn, contemplative look on his skull as his eyelights latched onto the sleeping kitten.

You were honestly starting to get a little freaked out – you had never seen Edge stunned into such complete silence before. Though, you figured that he was wrestling with the idea of just claiming the creature as his own and ignoring everybody’s else opinions on the matter. That, you couldn’t blame him for.

Once you had retrieved the desired items, as well as filled a stray beaker you found in the back of a cupboard with warm water after meticulously washing and disinfecting it, you returned to find the remainder of the household up, blearily rubbing at their sockets. Poor Blue looked pretty delicate from the night before and you could bet that he felt as much, too, if his dampened, tired demeanor was anything to go by.

“th’ fuck have ya done now, angel?” Red asked in a joking manner. You let out a huff of sheepish laughter and set down the items with the rest of your supplies.

“I’m surprised you’re up. You too, Mutt.” You said with a snicker as you addressed the two groggy skeletons, of whom were grumbling in ire at being woken up so early (well, for them, anyway).

“paps’ voice carries when he’s excited, as ‘m sure ya’v noticed.” Mutt groaned with a sigh as the aforementioned skeleton shifted guiltily.

“I DID NOT MEAN TO WAKE YOU! I AM JUST SO EXCITED THAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A NEW ADDITION TO THE HOUSEHOLD!” He chirped, a sheepish air still around him.

It was at that point that you noticed that he hadn’t even successfully woken his brother as he had planned to. In fact, said brother was still soundly asleep slung across Papyrus’ shoulder. It was impressive, really, how he still managed to sleep through the commotion and Pap’s booming voice – though, you supposed that he was used to it by this point.

“We need to decide as a household if we’re going to keep her, remember?” You asked pointedly, causing the enthused skeleton to deflate slightly before looking around at his family.

Every skeleton present – minus Sans, obviously - that was not already completely on board shrugged indifferently, obviously just thinking about going back to bed, before the more responsible and less blinded by excitement skeleton spoke up.

“WHO IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF HER?” Blue asked, his voice wavering as a yawn inserted itself into his words.

“Well, me, Butch and Paps have already agreed, but whoever wants to help can take shifts.” You explained with an ecstatic lilt to your voice, excitement fast overtaking you at their agreement. “I’m going to write up a schedule, so-“.

“I WILL.” Edge interrupted suddenly with a fierce, stoic determination sharpening his features, prompting everyone to swivel their heads in his direction with naked surprise evident in their expressions. “SHOW ME WHAT TO DO.”

“Okay.” You breathed hushedly as a huge, dopey grin broke out across your face, then made quick work of setting out the needed supplies.

“well, if we’re all in agreement-“ Red grumbled quietly, prompting you to snort and shake your head affectionately at him.

“Yes, you can all go back to bed.” You spoke in a laugh, your mirth only growing when Mutt, and Red, as well as Stretch, all groaned in relief and disappeared. “You two aren’t going?” You added in a question as you looked between Blue and Axe, the latter of whom was sat cross-legged by the kitten pen and gazing adoringly at the little black bean inside. Axe simply shook his head fervently with a huge grin on his skull, coaxing an affectionate huff of laughter from both you and his brother, whilst Blue sat down heavily on the couch beside Edge and Papyrus.

“I HAVE SLEPT ENOUGH.” Blue said in a sigh as he rubbed at his evidently sore skull. “I MUST THANK YOU FOR NOT ALLOWING ME TO DRINK ANY MORE, MAIDEN. I DO NOT THINK I WOULD BE ABLE TO FUNCTION RIGHT NOW IF YOU DID NOT.”

“Well, Paps spent the whole night looking after you, so thank him, not me.” You contended with a giggle, prompting the skeleton to furrow his brows in confusion, then said in a teasing lilt “You don’t remember, do you?”

“THE LAST THING THAT I REMEMBER IS YOU TELLING ME THAT I SHOULD NOT DRINK ANY MORE.” He admitted sheepishly, half-glaring at Edge when he snorted at the statement, then turned to the still excitedly bouncing skeleton with a grin. “THANK YOU, PAPYRUS.”

Following this, you began prepping the kitten formula, showing them step by step how to do so, but faltering when you realized that they wouldn’t be able to tell if the milk was too hot due to their apparent heat-resistant affliction. You insisted that you would have to be present whenever she was fed as a result, which didn’t seem to faze them – in fact, they seemed somewhat eager to get to spend the time with you, even if it was groggy late-night feedings where you were barely a person due to the lack of sleep. Then, you showed them how to stimulate her to go to the bathroom, once again explaining for the members that weren’t present initially the order that things had to be done in and how frequently, as well as the need to keep her warm at all times.

Satisfied with how quickly she had warmed up, you scooped her up and offered her to Edge, who readily pulled her into his chest with one hand, then took the presented syringe with the other.

“You need to make sure she latches before you push down on the syringe and do it very slowly. You can tell if she’s latched if her ears are wiggling.” You explained as he listened intently, then nodded and gingerly maneuvered the teat into her mouth. She eagerly latched and her tiny ears began to wiggle, prompting everyone bar Edge to practically squeal at the pure adorableness.

You watched with affection warming your heart as he very tentatively pushed down on the syringe until the entire thing was empty, then passed the item to you with the same fierce determination that had not left his face the whole time.

“Okay, I’ll take her just for this part. It’s very delicate, so I’ll demonstrate first.” You said softly, gently taking the very full and loudly purring kitten from his hands and sitting on the floor, then placing her gently on your lap.

You began the meticulous task of first gently washing her face with a warm washcloth, then carefully prying her eyes open as she squealed and protested in the form of frantic wriggling, apologizing softly and profusely to her the whole time. Then, showed them how to apply the cream correctly, before replacing her in her pen and allowing her to sleep.

“OH LOOK, SHE HAS BLUE EYES!” Blue chirped excitedly as you did so, only slightly cringing at your uncomfortable task and prompting you to smile brightly at him.

“All kittens have blue eyes at this age, it might change, but they might stay blue. We won’t know until she’s around seven weeks old.” You informed him as he deflated slightly, but then quickly replaced the dejected demeanor with one of confidence.

“I AM SURE THEY WILL STAY BLUE. IT IS THE BEST COLOR!” He insisted with a grin.

A snort left you at the proclamation and you opened your mouth to retort, but froze with nerves tightening your chest when you noticed something – or someone – moving out of the corner of your eye.

It was then that you noticed a certain sleepy skeleton, who had been unceremoniously dumped on the armchair next to the couch by his brother when the others had returned to bed, watching you with a guarded expression. He looked as though he had been awake and observing you for a while, especially because he was sitting still with a head resting on his hand and not groggily stretching as he usually did when he woke. The hardened look only lasted for a split second, however, as a lax grin fast replaced it when he noticed you cautiously look back at him.

“mornin’.” He greeted you casually, then gave a brief up and down glance at your outfit, followed by Edge’s, and asked with mirth clear in his tone, “where’ve you two been?”

You had completely neglected to change in the hecticness of the situation and both you and Edge were still dressed in your semi-formal attire from the event. You assumed that those who had retreated back to their rooms either didn’t care or were in such a half-asleep state that they didn’t notice, but now all eyelights were trained on the two of you as though those present had only just clocked the outfits.

Edge immediately flushed with a grumble as you shifted uncomfortably, prompting thinly veiled concern from the others. Sans simply raised an inquisitive browbone at you as you fumbled for an answer.

Then, feeling slightly spiteful and hurt from your last interaction, you announced in a bitter move towards Sans, “A date.”

“ya dressed up all fancy ta go for breakfast or somethin’?” He said in a chuckle, obviously trying to make you laugh, but with how embarrassed you still felt, it was completely misguided and only sparked a flame of frustration within you. You were so distracted by the wave of indignance that washed over you, in fact, that you missed the way all heads turned towards Edge with varying degrees of surprise and muted amusement, resulting in him flashing a dangerous glower and a growl towards them.

“Why do you care?” You huffed, then, realizing how hostile you sounded, flushed, and pushed yourself to your feet with a mumbled, “I’m going to go change.”

The hushed, concerned mumbling of Papyrus questioning his brother followed you out of the room, your eyes trained on the floor the whole time as not to catch whatever the others’ reactions were to your outburst. You didn’t go straight to your room, however. Instead, you retrieved your abandoned bag by the doorway and stepped out into the backyard of the house to smoke, taking slow, calming breaths as you did so.

“Don’t cry, you idiot.” You scolded yourself as you scrubbed at your tear-filled eyes, then hid your warm face with your hands and slid down with your back to the wall until you were sat on the ground, internally cringing at the interaction.

It must have taken some time for Papyrus to coax his brother into admitting what your upset was about, because you had finished your cigarette and were simply staring out at the faraway ocean with tears still burning at your eyes when you heard a scuffle and reluctant mumbling from inside.

“LOOK, THEY’RE OUT THERE!” You heard Papyrus’ scolding voice from right beside the door, then the sound of the door sliding open and froze with the pit of anxiety returning with a vengeance. All of a sudden, Sans was unceremoniously dumped outside with a, “GO!” from his brother and the sound of the door slamming closed filled the air around you.

You wanted to laugh, you really did, but the overwhelming hurt and mortification that continued to plague you took precedent over your amusement at the situation, so you continued to stare detachedly at the adjacent scenery in an attempt to avoid his guilty gaze. It took a moment of anxious shuffling, but he did eventually find the courage to sit next to you with a sigh, leaving a good amount of space between you as he did so.

“uh, ‘m sorry.” He mumbled in a strained, guilt-laced tone, coaxing a sharp exhale from you as the apology easily caused you to deflate and begin to feel remorseful yourself.

“No, I’m sorry.” You muttered back, your gaze dropping to the ground as you did so. “That was really childish of me. I shouldn’t have reacted like that – I’m just… hurt, I guess.”

“nah, i feel like i led ya on. it’s my bad.” He insisted softly with a shrug, prompting you to flash him a wry smile in response.

“You can’t help how you feel. I should respect that, y’know?” You argued back, then huffed a laugh at the complete ridiculousness of the back and forth game of pinning the blame on yourselves that you had unintentionally fallen into, coaxing a wry chuckle from him in turn.

“’m surprised ya do – like me like that.” He mumbled after a brief silence, a faint, embarrassed flush tinting his cheeks with blue as he did so and his eyelights glued to the ground below.

“What? Why?” You said in a laugh of disbelief, “Sans, I- “

“ya know why some’ve the others call me ‘vanilla’?” He asked suddenly as you screwed your face up in confusion, then weakly shook your head in response. “cuz i’m borin’ to them. to them, i just got to live a cushy, easy life that i’ve got nothing to show for.”

“What? I- What about Blue and Stretch? They lived in the same district as you, right? Do they call Paps ‘creampuff’ for the same reason?!” You blurted out, completely befuddled by the revelation. “That might be the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard!”

“heh, well, they’ve got respect for blue cuz of the guard, and they’re petrified of stretch – bar mutt, obviously” He said in a snort, then clarified with a hint of bitterness to his tone, “n’ yea, same reason for me when it comes to paps, ‘cept they gave him that name cuz he’s ‘too sweet for his own good’ or whatever.”

“That… is completely ridiculous!” You damn-near screeched in indignance, causing him to start and look at you in surprise. “You don’t need to have a traumatic, shitty past to be interesting! You and Paps are the farthest thing from boring! If only they knew the shit that you’ve been through – they wouldn’t dare talk about you like that! Fuck what they think!”

“even red ‘n mutt?” He said with a huff of laughter, a wide grin spreading across his face at the apparent offence you had taken on behalf of the skeleton.

“Especially them! They should know better!” You huffed, then mumbled bitterly, “They’re going to get a stern talking to the next time I see them.”

He burst into melodic chuckling at that, the joyous sound immediately infecting you and causing you to dissolve into giggles yourself as you felt the tension leave the atmosphere, and you by proxy.

“nah, it’s alright.” He wheezed out between his laughter, “let ‘em have their fun – at least you don’t think we’re boring, that’s all that matters.”

Butterflies swarmed in your tummy at the sweet statement, swiftly followed by a sharp pang of hurt and rejection as you recalled what the conversation was actually regarding. His chuckling promptly ceased when he noticed this with a brief glance down at your chest, where your soul resided, and you instinctually brought your arms up to cross over the area with a frown.

“Stop looking at my soul, it makes me feel so exposed.” You muttered bitterly as he flinched and looked away with guilt clear in his features.

“sorry, force of habit.” He mumbled back.

The recollection of his ability to see LV floated to the forefront of your mind and eased the ire towards him a little. After slowly exhaling through your nose to release the regained tension, you opened your mouth to speak, but swiftly shut it when he began a reluctant admission.

“i… i kinda have issues with… commitment, i guess.” He uttered out in a strained, quiet voice, anxiously fiddling with the material of his shirt as he did so. “i just… if everythin’ reset then…”

“Oh.” You breathed, immediate understanding of his reasoning causing remorse to well up inside you.

“i shoulda told you that a long time ago, ‘m sorry.” He grumbled as you screwed up your face in morose acceptance, then let your head fall back against the wall with a sigh.

“Yeah, you should have.” You said in a quiet, weak scolding, before turning to regard him with a sympathetic smile. “But… I think you’re amazing, regardless. I’m more than happy just to be your friend.”

“heh, thanks, bud.” He breathed with a small blush painting his cheekbones, before grinning softly at you and opening his arm up to you with a, “c’mere.”

You happily shuffled over to accept the affection and lay your head on his shoulder with a sad smile. Your soul was writhing with dejected heartbreak, but you were at least happy that you could remain friends after your impulsive admission. This would just take a little time to heal, you concluded.

“Are you going to be totally weird around me now?” You asked softly, only half-joking as he responded with a snort.

“yep. totally weird.” He said in a laugh, prompting you to giggle in turn and lift your head to lightly shove him in mock reprimand before replacing it on his chest, of which rumbled with a deep chuckle.

“Thank you for apologizing.” You whispered after a moment of contented silence, before teasing, “Even if Paps did have to literally throw you out here to do so.”

“heh, yeah, i- uh, i’m not especially great at this stuff.” He admitted with a sheepish laugh as you snorted in response.

“I remember, don’t worry.”

Another few moments of quiet, surrounded by warm summer air and the hushed roar of the ocean, were then broken by a cautious enquiry.

“did ya really go on a date with edge?” He asked amusedly, and it was your turn to flush and let out a bashful giggle.

“Well, we didn’t exactly specify that it was a date, but…” You admitted, your flush intensifying at the memory.

The two of you chatted like that for a little while, the contents of which were mostly him ribbing Edge for apparently being a connoisseur of the arts whilst you frantically pleaded for him not to say anything. He continued to tease you about it, but eventually conceded and promised to stay quiet about it all, much to your relief.

Eventually, though, you insisted that you really did have to change and the two of you headed inside. You could hear the mixture of what you recognized as a back and forth of Font from the kitchen and assumed that the others previously present were preparing breakfast, so made quick work of skillfully and quietly changing without waking Mutt and headed toward the source of the chatter.

Adorably, Edge was keeping the kitten close by and had brought the carrier pen with him into the kitchen to keep an eye on her, and it took every modicum of effort in your being not to fawn over how sweet it was.

Axe was stonily glaring at Sans, who looked rather nervous about being on the receiving end of his fierce glower. You caught the formers gaze and raised a critical brow at him in scolding, at which point he grumbled quietly and looked away as Sans flashed you a relieved, grateful smile.

Papyrus was, of course, cooking away and rebutted your attempts at helping him since Blue had already eagerly taken over that task, so instead, you joined Butch at the end of the breakfast bar, of whom greeted you with a gentle smile as he sketched away at his retrieved sketchbook.

“Do y-you want…?” He asked quietly, gesturing vaguely to the materials in front of him. With a bright grin you nodded and accepted a spare pencil and a torn away fresh piece of paper to join him in doodling whatever your mind could come up with.

“E-Edge named t-the kitten.” He whispered with a lilt of mirth to his soft voice, prompting you to gasp excitedly with a wide grin. “Doomfanger.”

“Doomfanger?!” You whisper-shouted, your cheeks hurting from the huge grin that had appeared on your face and coaxing a hushed giggle from the skeleton. “That might be the coolest name for a cat ever.”

“It c-certainly rivals A-Albert.” He teased with a snicker as you gasped once again in faux offence.

“Hey, you leave my boy out of this.” You responded in a laugh, “My fourteen year old self would be distraught to hear you say that - they worked very hard on coming up with that name!”

“I-It’s a good n-name!” He chided back, a cheeky grin appearing on his face as he did so. “B-But it isn’t D-Doomfanger.”

As you engaged in some good-natured banter with the sweet skeleton, you decided to sketch Edge as he was the only one not animatedly talking or moving around. In fact, he was unknowingly being the perfect subject as he sat at the other end of the breakfast bar, one hand cradling his head as he idly traced the rim of what you knew to be his second cup of coffee and watched Doomfanger peacefully sleep in her bundle of blankets with a softly contented expression. He caught you staring at him with quiet concentration on your face and glanced down at the sketch, then, seeing that he was the subject of said sketch, lit up a brilliant red and looked away with a scowl. It was adorable.

Finally, the others began waking up and filtering into the kitchen, their faces the picture of joy when they were promised breakfast upon their arrival. Red and Mutt sat with you and obviously commented on your drawing, pushing Edge to growl at them in mortification and, subsequently, leading to them snickering amongst themselves. You threw a good-natured glare their way in a weak scolding as they did and thankfully saved the embarrassed skeleton any further chiding.

You and Butch both left the drawing supplies in the kitchen as you all followed Papyrus out to the outside dining area to eat and you only remembered that you had done so after clearing up and intended to begin packing your things. When you went back to retrieve it, though, you found it to be strangely absent.

You brushed it off as Butch having taken everything back with him as he packed and resumed the task of retrieving your other items. What you didn’t see, however, was a certain someone gently placing the folded paper deep into the pocket of his bag for safe keeping whilst his brother was distracted, then casually begin clearing the room as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

It certainly wasn’t as though he was that vain – he just particularly enjoyed the way that you had drawn him. Not to mention, the look of gentle concentration and the unintentional fluttering of your soul as you watched him had struck something deep inside of him and only intensified his infatuation with you.

He would keep it if only to not forget the way that you had looked at him – with open adoration that graced your lips with a soft smile and elicited your bright emerald eyes to shimmer with unadulterated delight – the way that no one had ever looked at him before you.

It was definitely worth keeping, he concluded.

Chapter Text

It was midday by the time that everyone was fed, showered, packed and ready to head home. You and Edge had fed Doomfanger just before getting in the car, and so she was soundly asleep in her carrier, which was safely situated in your arms, as he drove.

Milord had assumedly come back briefly to pick up his car, so Mutt had reluctantly joined him to travel home. The former had greeted you with a small smile, of which you returned, but you didn’t miss the raised browbone at the little bundle in your arms, as well as the icy glare that he and Edge shared. Though, he oddly didn’t question you, instead simply herding his brother along to return home, and you figured that you would talk to him once everyone was back and settled.

Red, Axe, and Butch had all joined you in the car once again, though this time your unruly beta was far too hungover and tired to engage in the game of making jabs at whoever he felt deserved them for the whole car ride. As a result, he mostly just slept and allowed the other occupants to quietly entertain themselves in whatever way they saw fit. For you, this meant watching the scenery change from naturistic to industrial as quiet music filled the car, briefly glancing at the kitten to make sure that she was still sleeping every now and then, whilst Axe and Butch quietly conversed between themselves.

You were lost in a daydream when you felt a gentle finger tap you on the shoulder, prompting you to look back with a patient smile, but faltered when two pairs of concerned eyelights met your gaze. Axe was flushing intensely and the combination of worry and the blue tinting his cheekbones had you staring at them confusedly.

“blood…” He murmured simply.

You furrowed your brows at him. It was only the sharp pain in your lower abdomen that clued you in on what exactly was happening, and you froze with a forceful inhale.

“Shit.” You breathed, then spotted a sign for a nearby rest stop and meekly asked, “Hey, Edge? Can we stop there real quick, please?”

He didn’t seem phased by what the others could apparently smell and simply nodded nonchalantly as he pulled in, seemingly aware of your situation. You didn’t know how he knew, but you were eternally grateful that he did.

Once you had stopped, you gently passed the kitten pen to him and dashed out of the car to the trunk to subtly grab a change of underwear and shove the garment into your pocket, then into the little shop with a spoken assurance that you were fine and that you’d explain when you got back, of which did little to quell the brothers’ fearful confusion.

Silently praying that the rest stop had a functional bathroom, you quickly picked up tampons as well as a pack of painkillers and a bottle of water before paying and hurrying into the back to clean yourself up. The bathroom was kind of grimy, but it had a lock and wasn’t completely dilapidated, so it would do.

Feeling slightly bad, you shoved the ruined underwear into the bin besides the toilet with a grimace and washed your hands, then prepared yourself to explain to the boys that you weren’t, in fact, bleeding out from a hidden injury, and that what was happening was completely normal.

Once you were sat back in the car with a heavy sigh, you took the pen back into your lap and turned to address Axe and Butch (Red was still blessedly passed out), but found that befuddlement had replaced their once distressed demeanors.

“what’s a… period?” Axe asked innocently, causing you to freeze and furrow your brows at him.

“Who told you that word?” You asked skeptically, eyeing Edge as you did so, who was casually turning over the engine to resume your journey without so much as sparing a glance your way.

“edge…”

Yep, that tracks.

“How…?” You asked hushedly, now staring completely befuddled at the skeleton. With a scoff, he rolled his eyelights and addressed the others.

“DID NONE OF YOU RESEARCH HUMAN BIOLOGY BEFORE THEY MOVED IN?” He asked almost indignantly, prompting you to gape at him and the others to sheepishly shake their heads. “I DID NOT WANT TO BE UNPREPARED IF SOMETHING WENT WRONG WITH THEIR FRAIL HUMAN BODY. BESIDES, IT IS MORBIDLY INTERESTING.”

You should have been offended, if you were any other normal human, but you simply burst into laughter and covered your face with a hand, earning a raised brow from the skeleton next to you.

“Yeah, you’re right. It is morbidly fascinating.” You said with a shrug, then turned back to explain, “Humans who are born female usually have a cycle where they ovulate – that’s when an egg is released to be fertilized – then if it isn’t and a pregnancy doesn’t happen, we bleed for around a week to shed the lining of the uterus.”

“Y-You lay eggs?!” Butch piped up, horrified, as you snorted and shook your head.

“No, no! They’re really tiny eggs that stay inside, then are fertilized by sperm, and eventually develops into a baby.” You informed him with a chuckle, causing him to gain a sheepish expression as he flushed, evidently embarrassed by his incorrect assumption.

“so… ya go into… heat every… month?” Axe asked, obviously quite perturbed by this information.

“Yeah – well, not for me, my body is kind of weird.” You said in a wry chuckle, then added with confusion evident in your expression, “Do monsters not?”

“only… once a… year.” He informed you, prompting you to silently turn over the information in your head before fast coming to a conclusion.

“Is that why an alpha has several betas? Because chance of conception is so low?”

“AND BECAUSE BOTH MONSTERS HAVE TO SYNC THEIR HEATS – THE POPULATION WAS ALREADY DWINDLING, SO IT IMPROVED THE CHANCES IF A FEMALE HAD MULTIPLE SEXUAL PARTNERS.” Edge explained nonchalantly as you hummed in understanding, then flushed lightly as you came to a second conclusion.

“So… you guys…?” You trailed off as you vaguely gestured with a hand, causing all three of them – even Edge, who had been insanely mature about the topic so far – to light up in a cacophony of colored blushes and avoid your gaze.

Guess that answers that, then.

“I mean, human heats aren’t bad and only born females get them – it isn’t like we lose our mind and can only think about sex for a straight week or anything.” You explained with a shrug, then froze with a mix of horror and amusement on your face when they simply lit up even further. “Do you-?”

“THAT IS ENOUGH.” Edge spat out frantically as he reached for the radio to drown out your voice with the volume button.

The inadvertent confession had you thinking hard about whether you’d noticed any signs of such a thing. Sure, Red did have a tendency to go MIA before you lived with him, but you just assumed that was because of your own heat. Though, now that you thought about it, there was at least once where he wouldn’t reply to your texts and fervently ignored your calls, and that lasted for around a week – he refused to explain why he had done so, too…

Oh stars, you hoped they weren’t due any time soon. You’d probably have to retreat somewhere for your own safety if it was as bad as your head had made it out to be. You’d have to ask Mutt about it – he was the most likely to be candid with you about it without getting flustered.

Unable to hold back your curiosity any longer, you tapped out a quick text to the aforementioned skeleton in hopes that he would be forthright with you.

You: Hey, just found out that apparently monsters go into heat once a year. Should I be worried?

He replied almost instantly.

woof: shit

woof: forgot about that

woof: you’ll probably be fine

You huffed out a concerned breath of laughter as you read his response, then replied in a string of frantic texts.

You: Probably??

You: Do I need to find somewhere to stay when it happens?

You: When is it going to happen??

You: Do all of you go through it at the same time?

You: Mutt omg answer me.

“who’re you… texting?” Came Axe’s curious voice as he leant over to glance at the screen of your phone, causing you to squeak and fumble the device before aptly catching it and locking the screen.

“Stars, Axe!” You huffed out a relieved laugh, then admitted sheepishly, “I’m asking Mutt about stuff to do with heats, seeing as none of you will tell me.”

His flush returned with a vengeance as he nodded and sat back, obviously still unwilling to tell you anything. With an amused smirk, you returned to your device and was horrified to see what Mutt had written.

woof: we kinda lose our minds and want to fuck anything that moves for a week

woof: its embarrassing tbh

woof: if i were you, i’d stay with undyne and alphys

woof: they’ll be happy to save u lmao

woof: but yea, it happens to all of us at once mostly. when u live with each other for as long as we have u kinda sync up

woof: ill have to do the math on when its gonna happen next brb

Well damn, you wished you knew about this beforehand. You probably would have considered finding somewhere else to live if you had, that or you would have developed some sort of plan in preparation. You supposed there wasn’t a lot you could do now – plus, the thought of all of them out of their minds with lust like that? You couldn’t help but think it was kind of… hot.

woof: hahah my bro saw the texts and is freaking out

You: Mutt, focus!

woof: lol sorry

You snorted at the idea that the stoic captain was furiously blushing at the idea that you now knew about what they had deemed to be the most embarrassing thing about them, then began gnawing anxiously on your lip at his next reply.

woof: it usually happens for us around the start of fall, give or take a few days

woof: sorry, doll. should have told u, it completely slipped my mind

Well, fuck. Fall was only a few weeks away – not to mention that it would be practically debilitating to have all of them out of operation for a straight week with how much was going on. You would have to handle it yourself, hopefully with Undyne’s assistance, you thought.

woof: how come ur talking about heats anyway?

You: Oh, I got my period and had to explain to the others what it was.

woof: wtf is that?

Once again you had to go into detail about the ins and outs of human biology – at least this time it was over text, and you could save yourself the embarrassment of having to say it out loud. Not that it was embarrassing, you scolded yourself, but the reactions to such a thing tended to be less than savory, in your limited experience.

It took the rest of the ride home to answer all of his questions and, by the time you had grabbed your stuff and retreated into the house to greet the others, they were all eyeing you with furrowed brows. Honestly, you didn’t want to explain for a third time to so many people, so you looked pleadingly at Edge and blurted out, “I’m not injured! Edge, explain!” before practically running away and up to Red’s room to unpack.

Once you were safely in the privacy of your shared room, you sat down and let out a breath of laughter at the pure ridiculousness of the situation. You kind of felt bad throwing Edge under the bus like that, but he seemed ‘morbidly interested’ enough, as well as mature enough, to explain for you, you concluded.

A dull aching pain reminded you that you had gotten distracted and neglected to medicate yourself, so you quickly retrieved the pain pills and took a couple in preparation for what you knew was going to be a very painful next few days. Plus, not that you weren’t an emotional person anyway, but the arrival of your cycle did explain why you had been so quick to tears over the last few days. You could take solace in that, at least.

“why does my bro know so much ‘bout human bodies?” Red’s amused voice rang out from in front of you as he materialized from thin air, prompting you to snort and quote him with a gesture of your hands.

“Because he ‘wanted to be prepared in case something went wrong with my frail human body’ and it’s ‘morbidly interesting’.” You said with a laugh.

“heh, that don’t surprise me.”

Red, thankfully already was well informed on the situation due to you having this conversation not too long after you had started hanging out. It was even more mortifying back then than it was currently due to barely knowing the guy, as well as being considerably more immature and emotionally constipated than you are now. His reaction had been kind of hilarious, though. In fact, he was horrified about the fact that you didn’t die from such a thing and accurately dubbed it as ‘metal as fuck’.

Once you had unpacked everything, trying your best to rebut Red’s teasing regarding the situation with your own needling about what Mutt had told you (which got him to shut up very quickly), you decided with a sigh to inform Milord about Niamh and what she had told you. You felt a little bad that it had taken you this long to do so and you weren’t looking forward to his reaction to finding out that you had taken a whole day to tell him, but there was no point in postponing the inevitable, you supposed.

Now facing the aforementioned skeleton’s door, you knocked lightly and prayed that he was around, but all you were met with was stony silence. Concluding that he must be with the Guard, you whipped out your phone, dialed his number and pressed the device to your ear, only for the dial tone to ring out.

Concern gnawed at your gut in response – he always picked up the phone if he wasn’t home and the lack of reception was making you nervous. You really didn’t want to wait any longer than you already had to inform him of the Guard’s newest ally either, so with a plan you headed to Edge’s room, assuming he had already followed suit in unpacking and situating Doomfanger in her new space.

Thankfully, you had assumed correctly, and he quickly answered your knock. He had the little smudge of black cradled in one arm whilst she furiously drank from the syringe that was in the other – you didn’t know if it was the fact that this big, ‘scary’ monster was acting so paternal towards the little creature or otherwise, but there was something very, very attractive about the skeleton in front of you in that moment. Though, you had to bite back a scolding sigh when you realized that he had determined that he didn’t need you to make sure that the formula wasn’t too warm, but concluded that she was fine by the way she was happily guzzling the liquid.

“YOU’RE STARING.” He noted simply, breaking you out of your infatuated trance and forcing a breath of sheepish laughter from you.

“Sorry.” You muttered, then beamed genuinely at the skeleton as you said, “Thank you for, y’know…” You trailed off with a flush, gesturing vaguely as you did so.

“IT’S FINE.” He said detachedly, his gaze now focused on the wiggling kitten in his arms. “IS THAT ALL?”

“Ah, um-“ You shifted nervously with a bashful smile, prompting him to raise a bony brow at you. “I know we just got back and everything, but I should really tell Milord about Niamh and he isn’t picking up his phone, so…”

“HAVE YOU NOT HAD ENOUGH OF DRAGGING ME AROUND TODAY?” He asked with a scowl, turning to walk back into his room and replace the kitten in her bundle of blankets now that she was sated, prompting you to chew your lip anxiously as you tentatively followed him just past the doorway.

“I know. I’m sorry, but…” You cut yourself off with a sharp exhale through your nose, frowning at the ground as you did so before a – probably really bad – idea struck you, and you addressed him with a sly grin. “I’ll trade you for something? You take me to the Underground and back, and I owe you. Fair?”

“ARE YOU CERTAIN ABOUT THAT?” He asked with lidded sockets and an impish grin as he turned to regard you, stepping forward to tilt his skull at you and crossing his arms over his chest as he did so. “YOU MAY JUST END UP REGRETTING IT.”

Shit. Maybe this was a bad idea.

“I’m certain.” You uttered back, then mirrored his stance with a shrug as you stated, “Whatever you throw at me, I can handle.”

His smirk only grew in response as he surveyed you in silence for a moment, then let out a bark of laughter and urged you along with pure malicious glee lacing his words.

“FINE, BUT DON’T SAY THAT I DIDN’T WARN YOU.”

You really, really didn’t like the way that he said that, but you also knew that whatever it likely was couldn’t be worse than when he essentially hunted you down like prey – right?

Well, you hoped so anyway.

After flashing a grateful smile at the skeleton, you stepped forward with your hand outstretched and a nervous fluttering in your stomach before he grasped it in his and you were thrown into the void. You barely had time to adjust to the change as you landed on rocky terrain before he pulled you along, through the barrier and promptly released his hold on your hand, leaving you dazed and blinking hard in an attempt to let your brain catch up.

“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve been here. Shouldn’t I be wearing the magic suppression thingy?” You asked meekly, internally praying that as much wasn’t the case. All you got in response was a shrug as he walked ahead of you, and you had to hold yourself back from rolling your eyes as you jogged to catch up with his long strides.

That skeleton really confused you. One minute he was more than receptive, laughing at your jokes and gazing adoringly at you, then the next he treated you as though you were a stranger to him. You were seriously getting sick of his hot and cold act, but pushed down your frustration with a reminder that it likely wasn’t you that was the issue. Though, how much more you could take of it, you weren’t sure.

The cavernous, make-shift base was eerily empty, causing the only sounds around you to be the echoing of your footsteps as well as Edge’s as the clipped noise bounced against the stone walls. Once you reached the door of what you recalled being the room that you had initially spoken with the King in, the muffled, irate Font of Milord quickly reached your ears and soothed your worry regarding his whereabouts. As you reached up to knock, Edge simply pushed past you and swung the door open to reveal Milord’s furious gaze at the rude intrusion, as well as Asgore’s inquisitive one.

“Lieutenant, can you not-!” He shouted in scolding, then faltered with furrowed brows when his eyelights landed on you, prompting him to sigh and take short, clipped steps towards you.

“Althea, did you need something?” He asked lowly, the ire in his tone causing your nerves to return in great intensity as you smiled weakly at him.

“I, um, have an update on the situation.” You replied hushedly, hoping that you weren’t being too vague in your efforts to not accidentally reveal anything that the King was not aware of. Then, with a glance back at the King and another sigh, he gestured for you to follow him, leaving Edge and the aforementioned monster behind to speak privately in another room.

“Is everything okay?” You asked, concern evident in your tone and in the frown tugging at your lips as he shut the door behind you. You didn’t miss the wrinkling of his nasal bridge and almost just blurted out a justification for what you knew that he had detected, but he seemed happy to ignore it in favor of the more pressing matter. That, you were blessedly grateful for.

“Fine.” He stated shortly. He seemed to realize the bite to his tone and dropped his shoulders as he leant back against the wall with his arms crossed, then addressed you with a much softer inflection. “What is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“I found another Mage, one that’s willing to help us.” You informed him. An excited grin broke out across your face at the achievement and causing him to untense further, a whisper of a smile pulling at his mouth.

“Go on.” He urged you with a flippant gesture of his hand and, despite his demeanor portraying his skepticism at the situation as a whole, it seemed as though it was just the good news that he had needed by the grin that was threatening to take over his stoic expression.

“Her name is Niamh. She was banished from our Coven a couple of years before I escaped. I had Stretch use his ability to determine whether she was being truthful or not and it turns out – not only is she completely willing to help us, but she got clean from using Dust and refuses to ever use it or hurt another monster again.” You explained giddily, your optimism evident in your bright grin and enthusiastic gesturing as you spoke.

“And you are sure that we can trust her?” He asked with suspicion clear in his tone, before pushing himself from the wall to take a step closer to you with curiosity rounding his features, his hands clasped behind his back as he did so. “Why, pray tell, was she banished?”

“It’s…” You took a breath as you thought about how much you wanted to tell him – it was a sensitive topic, but you concluded that you could trust him with the information and uttered in a straightforward manner, “She was a victim of grooming and abuse at the hands of the High Priest. She eventually resisted and threatened to expose him, so he threw her out and onto the streets. He told all of us that she had died… Yes, I believe that we can trust her.”

There was a beat of silence as he considered your words with his eyelights trained on the ground and his brows furrowed in thought. You watched him with fierce determination flickering in your eyes as he did so before he met your fiery gaze with a prideful grin.

“Well done.” He praised you, leading to you fight off a flush as you untensed and let out a breath that you didn’t even realize that you had been holding. “Bring her here as soon as you can. She will have to wear the collar until we know for certain that she is trustworthy. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” You blurted out unintentionally, slapping a hand over your mouth when you realized what had just slipped out of it.

Milord froze for a second, surveyed your reaction and the furious blush that came with it, then burst into melodic laughter. You certainly weren’t expecting that.

“Stars, Althea.” He chuckled out as he recovered from the bout of mirth, shaking his head at you as he did so. “You do not have to be so embarrassed. In fact- “

Your breath caught in your throat as his amused expression dropped into one of lewd inflection. He closed the distance between you with a graceful stride, a malicious smirk twisting his features as he did so.

“I would not mind if you addressed me as such more often.”

The dangerous growl to his tone had you frozen like a deer in headlights, but a simple recollection of who you were talking to easily allowed your flirtatious nature to bloom forth.

“You’ll have to earn it then, won’t you?” You breathed with a condescending lilt to your hushed voice, earning a snarl in response. He looked torn between remaining professional or simply ripping your clothes off and fucking you right there, then, disappointingly, backed off with a dark breath of laughter.

“Go. I am sure Edge is getting impatient.” He ordered you with a jerk of his skull towards the door, prompting you to smile sweetly at him as you did as told and headed towards said door.

“Oh, and Althea,” He spoke up just as you turned the handle, causing you to turn your head towards him. He looked over his shoulder at you with a sly smirk paired with lidded sockets, “I would play this game very carefully if I were you. I can be rather… forceful in getting what I want.”

Holy shit holy shit holy shit

You couldn’t even grace him with an answer, but the bright red that covered your face seemed to be response enough for him if the dark chuckle that followed you out of the room was anything to go by. Edge was waiting for you, and you almost veered straight into his towering frame as a result, but he managed to catch you before you could and scowled icily down at you.

“WHAT DID HE DO?” He growled. His expression quickly hardened into one of seething hatred for the skeleton and prompted you to fiercely shake your head and literally wave off the question with a frantic gesture.

“Nothing bad! I just embarrassed myself, it’s fine!” You squeaked out. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it would do him more harm than good to know, you surmised. This seemed to placate him as much as he could be placated in the situation, and he let go of you with a grumbling sigh.

“ARE WE DONE HERE?” He asked in an impatient growl.

“Yep, let’s go!” You chirped, more than happy to retreat and allowed him to take your hand and transport you back to the front of the house. Your cheeks were still burning, but you had mostly recovered by the time you addressed him with a grateful smile and a thank you.

Obviously displeased by whatever he thought had transpired by you and Milord, he simply responded with a grunt and stepped around you to enter the house with an icy scowl. Choosing to ignore the bitter action for the sake of your sanity, you let go of your ire with a sigh and followed suit.

It was probably a good idea to call Niamh and let her know about the Guard and everything that she would be expected to do, if only just to prepare her for just how intense it could be. So, with that plan in mind, you pulled out your phone and dialed her number. As it rang, you headed out to the back to sit on the swing chair not too far from the entrance, soaking in the last rays of sun as your holiday weekend began to come to an end.

“Hey!” Niamh greeted you cheerfully, and you could practically hear the smile in her voice, “What’s up?”

“Hi, Niamh!” You greeted back, her enthusiasm already infecting you despite beginning to feel the exhaustion from the day. “I just got back from speaking with the Royal Guard and wanted to let you know about a few things. That okay?”

“The Royal Guard?!” She squeaked, her voice full of anxious excitement and coaxing a breath of confused laughter from you.

“Yep. We’re going to be closely allied with them.” You explained, earning an enthusiastic gasp from the girl. “You know about them?”

“Of course! I overheard someone talking about them at work and got curious – I found a few things online about them- they’re so cool!”

Huh, you’d have to look into that yourself, you thought.

“If I get to meet Undyne and Milord, I think I’ll die!” She swooned, prompting you to burst into disbelieving laughter and earning a, “Whaaaat?”

“Undyne was there when you were, you didn’t see her?” You informed her as she whined in disappointment.

“She was?! No, I didn’t!” She exclaimed, then said in a bitter grumble, “Next you’ll tell me that you’re good pals with Milord.”

Once again you dissolved into giggles, completely baffled by the girl’s apparent fascination with the two.

“You’re fucking joking.” She said in a completely deadpan tone, only earning more amused cackles from you.

“I live with him and the others that you met. He’s Mutt’s brother.”

Losing her mind was a mild way of describing her reaction to the information, especially when you explained that two others that she had met – that being Edge and Blue – were members as well. She didn’t recognize them, leading you to believe that the two had managed to avoid being clocked by the media and therefore had no such information about them online. This only further piqued your curiosity surrounding the topic and solidified the decision to do some internet sleuthing of your own once you had finished up explaining everything to Niamh. You did have to cut off her enamored rambling to do so, at which point she quieted with a sheepish giggle and allowed you to inform her of her requested presence. It was adorable how nervous she was to meet the Guard – you would have never guessed that they were something of celebrities among those that knew of them. Though, you supposed it made sense.

“I work during the week, but I can definitely travel down at the weekend!” She chirped, excitement infecting her tone and coaxing an affectionate chuckle from you.

“Sounds good! I can come with one of the boys to pick you up.” You said, then recalled how disorientated your first shortcut had made you and asked cautiously, “You don’t get motion sick, do you?”

“No, why?”

You had to move the phone away from your ear to save your hearing from her awestruck, ecstatic squealing when you informed her of their teleporting abilities. She really did remind you of yourself when you were more naive to the world of monsters, their magic, culture and whatnot, and the thought had you feeling an almost maternal protectiveness over the girl, despite her being a year older than you.

She wasn’t as enthusiastic about the requirement to wear the magic suppression collar, but you assured her that it wasn’t too bad and that she wouldn’t have to wear it for long. Then, with that out of the way, curiosity got the better of you and you couldn’t help but quiz her on what her life had been like since she’d left the Coven.

She explained that she had been homeless for a while initially but had managed to find her way to a shelter and, with the aid of the staff there, landed a job at a diner as a waitress to save up some money. Not too long after that, she had enough to buy a dingy little apartment on the outskirts of the seaside town and immediately traveled there via public transport to start afresh. Then, with the help of student loans and frugal saving, she landed a degree in childcare and now works with children at a daycare.

You were thoroughly impressed with her resilience and determination to turn her life around and you told her as much. Pride for the girl swelled your heart and plastered a permanent grin on your face as you conversed and she mentioned that she and Papyrus had quickly bonded over their work with kids, seeing as he was an assistant teacher at the local kindergarten. The fact had you getting overwhelmed with prideful affection all over again.

Inevitably, she then began asking about your life since you left, and you were more than happy to tell her your story. You told her about how you met Red, then lost your apartment, and got to move in with him and his family, then about your job and school and your experience as the Royal Sorceress. She listened, completely enamored, and littering the conversation with enthusiastic gasps and affirmatives, and eventually the two of you had been fervently chattering for so long that the air had gained a bite of chill and forced you inside.  

As you entered, you were once again reminded of your curse as a uterus-owner when a considerably more intense pang of pain shot through your abdomen, despite the painkillers that you had taken before, and forced a sharp inhale from you.

“Ouch, you okay?” Niamh asked concernedly, prompting you to groan irately in response.

“I got my period on the way home. This shit is painful.” You laughed out, earning a sympathetic hum from her. “Well, at least I’m not pregnant, I guess!”

“Ooh, who have you been sleeping with to be worrying about that~?” She teased as you snorted in response.

“None of your business~” You teased back, “Though, I’m not even sure if monsters can get humans pregnant.” You added in an afterthought, realizing immediately with a blanch that you had just muttered your thoughts out loud when she gasped excitedly and began hammering you with questions, as well as guesses at which one of the boys she thought you were sleeping with (“It’s Mutt, isn’t it? I saw the way he was looking at you! – If it’s Milord I swear I will kill you!”).

When you giggled out a mock scolding and refused to elaborate, she quieted with a groan of disappointment.

“Well… peppermint tea and a hot bath- that always works for me!” She chirped, earning a grateful chuckle from you in response.

You hated to admit it since you didn’t consider yourself to be especially feminine, but it was really nice to have a girlfriend again.

Eventually she did have to cut the conversation short, and you said your heartfelt goodbyes, both of you enthusing about how nice it was to talk to the other before the call ended. Feeling invigorated by the conversation, you then decided to sate your curiosity regarding Milord and Undyne’s apparent internet fame by doing a quick search for their names. When that didn’t turn up anything, you added ‘royal guard’ in the search bar alongside their names and scrolled endlessly through useless links, all the while just leaning against the wall in the hallway, completely lost in your searching. As a result, when Albert – who was very offended that you hadn’t come to greet him the second that you had returned home – brushed up against your legs with a mewl, you flinched and let out a squeak of surprise.

“Hi, baby.” You cooed in a breathless laugh as you reached down to pet the tabby, who purred and nuzzled your hand in turn, then began winding around your legs in a gesture that signaled his desire to be picked up.

Now, with a furiously purring tabby cradled like an infant in the crook of one arm and your phone precariously held in the other as you scrolled, you finally found an obscure blog run by who you assumed to be a monster from Hotland and assuredly the same blog that Niamh had found, indicated by the user ‘Nia’ repeatedly gushing over the monsters in comments on the posts. There seemed to be a close-knit fanbase for the Guard on this little blog, and you wondered if they even knew that it existed. Now fervently tapping away at the screen, you rifled through each post until you found one of particular interest.

It was somewhat of a character article, stating:

Milord Gaster – son of Roman Gaster and Bell Cambria, and the heir to their empire within the Hotland district. When tragedy struck in the form of Gaster and Cambria’s assassination, the young noble was forced to take over the empire and-

You stopped reading and exited out of the blog, feeling as though you already knew way too much about his past for comfort. It was extremely tempting to keep reading, but an icy feeling of guilt washed over you at finding out the information behind his back – it almost felt like you were betraying him, in a way.

Though, he was a noble?! He ran an empire?! You couldn’t say that it didn’t make a ton of sense with regard to his regal, uptight demeanor, but it absolutely wasn’t what you were expecting at all! That meant that Mutt was a noble, too!

Now that was difficult to believe – nothing about the skeleton indicated any sort of such a background and it had you wondering if they were raised separately. And their parents were assassinated?! This was way too much for your brain to handle right now.

You were positive that the skeletons all shared the last name, indicating that each of their fathers were brothers. Did they all come from a noble bloodline or had Milord and Mutt’s father ‘married’ into it? Or had he created it himself? The differing last names of his parents indicated that marriage wasn’t a common thing Underground – that or monster marriage differed in the fact that they didn’t alter their surnames - which made sense regarding the alpha/betas dynamic. The musing over such a thing forced something that you hadn’t considered before to the forefront of your mind – if their mothers all had multiple betas, did that mean that they each had a ton of half-siblings, too?

Then, what did sharing the surname mean for Edge and Red? They were part of a massive crime syndicate and both shared extreme animosity towards the captain – that didn’t indicate anything good to you at all.

A soft, baritone voice forced you out of your anxious contemplation and caused you to flinch and drop your phone with a yelp, as well as startle Albert and cause him to leap from your arms with a pitiful mewl. You had just accepted the fate of your phone breaking against the hardwood floor at that moment, but a cloud of grey-blue magic prevented it from hitting the ground and gently floated it back up and into your hand.

“careful.” Axe chuckled as you took the presented item with a look of pure relief on your face, then grinned at him gratefully as he kneeled down to comfort the frightened tabby with soft cooing noises.

“Thanks.” You said in a relieved sigh before looking at him quizzically. “What’s up?”

“wanted to… hang out with… you.” He stated with a shrug as he stood with Albert in his arms, his grin widening when you tutted disapprovingly at him in response.

“If this is anything like the last time that we ‘hung out’, I think I’ll pass for now.” You said in a breath of laughter, raising a scolding brow at him as you did so.

“nah, just… want to let you… get to know me better.” He replied cheekily, earning a snort of laughter from you as you shook your head in faux reprimand. You couldn’t help but giggle at the view of Albert furiously purring and nuzzling Axe’s skull as he snickered quietly and mirrored the tabby’s action.

“Yeah, well-“ You cut yourself off with a pained gasp as a sharp stabbing assaulted your midsection once again and instinctually brought your hand to knead at the spot in a vain attempt to lessen the pain.

“bug?” His concerned voice broke through the haze of pain and forced you to snap your gaze to the fearful expression rounding his features.

“I’m okay! It’s just- ah, motherfucker-“ You gasped out, the pain making your legs weak, and causing you to have to brace yourself against the wall, “- it’s just cramps from, uh, my period.”

“are they… supposed to be painful?” He asked, disbelief evident in his soft voice as he quickly moved to hold your arm to keep you upright, earning a grateful smile from you once again.

“They can be, it varies from person to person.” You explained in a slow exhale now that the cramp had subsided, “Mine suck though.”

“come… with me?” He said after a fleeting look of contemplation passed over his face, taking your hand as he did so in the subtle signal that he was about to use a shortcut after gently placing the ginger tabby back on the ground, who let out what you were certain was an indignant whine in response.

With a good-natured look of skepticism, you nodded and suddenly reappeared in his room, causing you to immediately gasp in scolding at the skeleton. He seemed to conclude your instinctive thought at the action pretty quickly and shook his head frantically as a result, then started to root around in his bedside cabinet for something with a determined frown.

When he emerged from his feverous searching with a triumphant grin, he offered what looked like a small, green, rounded pill that had the telltale sheen of healing magic upon its surface. With a slightly unsure air about you, you took the medicine from him and regarded him with a quizzical upward jerk of your eyebrow.

“i get… migraines sometimes…” He explained softly, the nature of the little pills coming to fruition in your mind as a result, “these help.”

“Oh, Axe. Thank you, but… I don’t want to take this from you if you need it.” You replied gently, flashing him a thankful smile as you did so. “I have some regular old human pain pills in Red’s room – I can just double up on the dose. I’ll be fine!”

“isn’t that… dangerous?” He inquired with a suspicious, almost scolding tone to his voice, a frown appearing on his face when you shrugged with a sheepish breath of laughter.

“It’ll be okay, I’ve done it before and as long as I don’t take more than- “ As you were talking, he had promptly plucked the pill out of your hand and, in one swift motion, placed it on your tongue.

With a squeak and a flush, you slapped a hand over your mouth and fixed him with a half-hearted glare. Then, to your surprise, it simply dissolved, and you felt the soothing magic begin to tingle along your skin, easing aches and pains in your muscles that you didn’t even realize that you had as well as easily numbing the persistent dull ache in your abdomen.

“Axe! You shouldn’t have done that – what if you needed it?!” You whined in a weak attempt at scolding him, the conviction of your question being instantly dismantled by the relieved sigh enveloping your words.

“i have… enough.” He contended with a shrug, then eyed you with a sympathetic grin paired with a faint flush as he mumbled, “and i don’t… like seeing ya in… pain.”

“Oh.” You breathed, suddenly feeling very shy at his heartfelt admission, before adding with a mock stern scolding, “Well, in that case, I’ll let you off – but just this once, okay?”

“kay.” He responded in a snort, before shuffling over to his bed to sit on his knees and regarding you with an impish grin as he held out his arms in a beckoning gesture.

A giggle escaped you at the cheeky action and you easily conceded, sitting back against the pillows, and throwing an arm around him to pull him into your side. A surprised yelp sounded from him as you did so, your bold action causing a furious glow to spread across his cheekbones along with widened sockets and parted teeth.

“I lied about letting you off – this is your punishment.” You chirped smugly as you used gentle touches to pet along the top of his skull, making sure to avoid the cracked edges of his wound as your fingers easily glided across the smooth surface.

“my punishment is… to be… petted?”  He asked amusedly, shifting himself to look up at you with a smirk as you nodded proudly. “doesn’t seem… like much of a punishment… to me.”

“Well then, I suppose I’ll have to-  “ You lifted your hand from his skull with an air of faux indignance as you spoke, but cut yourself off with a snicker when he quickly grasped the extremity to place it firmly back on his skull with a muted whine.

“i mean… oh no… please stop… this is terrible.” The deadpan tone he uttered the words in had you dissolving into giggles as you resumed your light ministrations, causing him to release his grasp on your hand with a contented sigh.

“Oh, there’s this documentary on entomology that I wanted to watch. Do you wanna watch it with me?” You offered with a soft smile, snickering once again as he lit up with a grin and nodded enthusiastically before using a lax motion of his hand to float the remote to his TV over to you.

“Stars, what I wouldn’t do to have gravity magic.” You sighed as you plucked the item from the air, “I don’t think I’d put effort into anything ever again.”

“why do you… think most of us are… so ‘lazy’?” He said with a chuckle, air quoting with his fingers as he did so in an obvious slight towards the more active members of the family.

“True – why get up when you can just teleport places and telekinesis shit? I certainly wouldn’t.” You giggled, earning a snort from him in response. Then, as though to only rub salt in the wound that was your lack of such convenient magic, a faint scratching sounded from the other side of the door accompanied by a chorus of demanding meows, prompting Axe to open the door with a gentle flick of his wrist, allow Albert to enter, then shut it again in the same fashion.

“exactly.” He drawled as he performed the minute action, the tone of his voice indicating that he’d been waiting for someone to say that exact thing for a long time. “why do… the others always… make stuff harder… for themselves?”

“I dunno,” You shrugged as you flicked the TV over to a streaming service and selected the documentary, before whispering conspiringly, “maybe they’re masochists or something.”

It took a second for the words to register, but the second that they did, he burst into cackling laughter, easily causing you to giggle yourself at the joyous sound. You didn’t think that you’d ever heard Axe laugh before, not to this extent, anyway, and the sound brought a dumb grin to your face as a consequence. Something about making these skeletons laugh really made you happy, you concluded, and you silently vowed to continue doing so for as long as you could.

The smooth, deep lilt of the narrator’s voice over a scenic picture of varying creepy crawlies from the television had you both sobering with a few more hushed snickers before eventually you were both completely enamored by it. Albert had already quickly made himself comfortable by shoving his fuzzy body in a small gap between you and Axe and was letting out rumbling purrs as the aforementioned skeleton sweetly scratched between his ears.

Axe definitely had a habit of softly talking over the narrative when he already knew what they were going to say (which was an incredible majority of the time) but you didn’t mind. It was amusing to hear him state a fact about the creature on screen, only for the narrator to parrot what he had uttered, and to see the look of pure smugness on his face in response.

“y’know the sound bees make- the buzzing?” He asked lowly, adjusting himself to further nuzzle into your lap as he did so and earning a hum of acknowledgement from you. “it’s their wings. they beat them somethin’ like two-hundred times per second.”

“There’s no way! How is that-?” You should have learnt your lesson by that point. The narrator repeated the fact and shut you up instantly with a good-natured huff, prompting Axe to snort before returning his attention to the TV.

At some point, your arm had begun to cramp from keeping it in one position for so long and you readjusted it so that you were running the tips of your fingers along his neck vertebrae and clavicle. The second that you had made the alteration to your positioning, he all but melted into your touch with a noise that sounded like something between a contented sigh and a growl. The noise had heat involuntarily rushing to your face and you silently prayed that he wouldn’t look up at you any time soon. Then, stretching out in a motion akin to that of a cat before essentially curling up in your lap, a rumbling purr began to sound from the skeleton as his sockets fluttered closed.

“You’re all so cuddly.” You whispered amusedly to yourself; your voice easily overtaken by the increasingly loud purring that was now emanating from both him and Albert. You couldn’t help the huge, affectionate grin that had appeared on your face as a result and resigned yourself to simply listening to the soothing sound whilst you detachedly watched a mirage of pretty dragonflies’ dance across the screen of the television.

You weren’t sure how long you remained like that, but by the time the narrator had begun his closing statement for the documentary, you heard a light knock on the door and called gently for whoever it was to come in. Axe had fallen asleep about halfway through the show and didn’t stir when the door opened with a creak to reveal Red, who had an odd, anxious air about him.

“heya, angel.” He greeted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he shot you a weak, shaky smile.

“Hi! Are you alright, love?” You asked softly, skillfully shifting yourself from under Axe’s grasp as you did so to approach the uneasy skeleton, earning a pitiful whine from the former as you did so. Adorably, he was easily placated when Albert wedged himself under the skeleton’s arm and was subjected to what was essentially a bear-hug as a result, but for an overly affectionate kitty, he was having the time of his life.

“yeah, i, uh-“ He mumbled, forcing a somewhat confident grin onto his skull as you stood before him and ran your hands down the sides of his arms in a gesture to urge him to remove his own from his pockets and place them in yours. Feeling eased by the contact, his hands grasped in yours, he exhaled slowly through his nasal cavity and met your concerned gaze.

“ya remember yesterday, when i, uh…?” He muttered out, prompting you to gasp lightly as the recollection came to mind.

“I’m ready.” You stated with a gentle smile, excitement shining through the soft expression as muted surprise flashed across his face at the sudden declaration. Then, with a breath of affectionate laughter and a shake of his skull, he uttered an affirmative and squeezed your hands in a gesture of silent gratitude.

Ever the lazy skeleton, he simply threw the two of you into a shortcut and into the dimmed light of your shared room, then let go of one hand to lead you over to the bed to sit. With an enthusiastic grin, you sat cross-legged adjacent to him and silently waited for your next instructions.

“have ya ever had yer soul taken out before?” He asked lowly, a skeptical look crossing his features as you gently shook your head. “kay, it’s gonna feel a little weird. ya ready?”

“Ready.” You breathed, watching as he raised a tentative hand and made a small pulling motion towards himself with it.

You weren’t sure what you expected, but it just felt as though there was a slight tugging in your chest, then a strange, soft pop, and suddenly the room was lit up with the gentle green glow of your soul. Wide eyes latched onto the little heart, both of you sharing awestruck expressions as you gazed quietly at the shifting, shimmering magic that enveloped it.

“Wow.” You breathed, a dopey grin spreading across your face and only widening when your soul reacted to the emotion with a pulse, causing the pretty glow to brighten alongside it.

Red couldn’t even seem to get a word out at the sight. Instead, he let out a muted breath of disbelieving laughter as his face began to flush lightly, then sobered himself with a brief shake of his head. Then, oddly, he seemed to survey your soul more critically as he leant forward to get a closer look with his brows knit together.

“have ya soul bonded with someone before?” He asked, a muted undertone of frustration and disappointment lacing his words.

“No, why?” You replied, confusion evident in the small frown and furrowed brows hardening your features.

“look.”

As you visually searched the little green heart, your befuddlement only grew when you didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. You weren’t even sure what ordinary was in this situation, though you froze when you spotted something – a tiny sliver of red mixing with the green of your soul to create a tiny, almost unnoticeable streak of purple along the edges of the blemish.

“What is that?” You breathed, anxiety welling up inside of you and reflecting in the dimming of your soul.

“i dunno – colors appearin’ in ya soul like that only usually happens when ya soul bond. that’s why i asked.” He grumbled, frustrated confusion contorting his features as he sat back and steered his gaze away.

“I swear, I’ve never done this before!” You insisted, distress at possibly not being believed causing your soul to pulse in a series of dimming, fast-paced beats.

With a sharp exhale, you tried to recall anything that may make sense regarding the crimson mark on your soul. You definitely hadn’t soul bonded before – not in this timeline, anyway. Perhaps it was the remnants of soul bonding in a previous timeline? It made sense, your soul did seem to remember a lot from before the last reset, unless…

“DT…” You whispered, a hand flying up to cover your mouth in shock as you did so and earning a pensive look from your beta.

“how d’ya know ‘bout that?” He uttered skeptically, prompting you to shake your head in a dismissive gesture.

“I… found out from Sans that you need to have DT in your soul to be able to recall past timelines. That’s why Frisk, and other Mages with determination souls, can.” You explained tentatively as a flash of realization crossed his features. “It would make sense, right?”

“yea, but… who would’ve put it there?” He contended with a small frown, befuddlement etched into his face as he searched yours.

“I don’t know. Perhaps in a past timeline my Coven managed to get a hold of some and used it on me?” You offered, his face shifting into unease as you did so.

“angel, maybe we shouldn’t do this…” He mumbled, reluctant disappointment evident in his tone and further intensifying his frustrated demeanor.

“No, I want to!” You insisted, once again locking your gaze on the splotch of crimson at the center of your soul and muttering softly, “It doesn’t seem to be hurting me and… Red, I don’t know if I’ll ever find out exactly what this is, but I don’t want to lose out on soul bonding with you because of it.”

There was a lapse of silence over the two of you as he considered your words, then, with a sigh, looked at you with a soft, affectionate grin.

“alright, if yer sure.”

You fervently nodded in response, your face lighting up and coaxing a weak chuckle from him. Then, in a smooth gesture, he performed the same pulling motion against his ribcage, but towards you instead of himself.

You observed in awe as his soul materialized in front of you, the little heart illuminating the room with yours, but with a soft, white glow bleeding into the shimmering green. You noted that it resembled an upside down heart and was littered with faint cracks and fractures that were darker in color. He looked almost embarrassed as your widened eyes looked over it, pure, naked fascination rounding your features as you did so.

“i know it ain’t as pretty or whateva- “ He started bashfully as he avoided your awestruck gaze, but froze and snapped his eyelights to you with a furious flush when you interrupted him.

“It’s beautiful, Red.” You breathed as a huge grin spread across your face, prompting him to huff out a bashful chuckle as the glow of his cheekbones intensified.

“kay, ready?” He asked softly, his nerves once again getting the better of him as he offered you a shaky smile.

When you nodded in response, he exhaled slowly and raised his hand to make a gentle pushing motion towards his soul. Then, just as the surface of the little heart kissed yours, you were thrown into a blinding flash of white.

Chapter Text

The burst of white clears and your vision is filled with the dreary, orange-tinted streets of what you assume to be Hotland. A sharp pain stabs at your chest as you gasp for air, the feeling signaling to you that you had been running for a long time and that your body was beginning to give out from exhaustion. The jarring sensation forces a pained whine from you, but it isn’t your voice that reaches your ears. Rather, a childlike cry is what you hear.

You’re running as fast as your small body can take you, a wailing baby wrapped up in your arms as you take heaving breaths in time with each thump of your feet against the rough terrain. Tears blur your vision, and you don’t know what you’re running from, but you know that it’s really, really bad, and you can’t stop running if you want to survive. Older monsters curse and yell at you as you rush past without a care for who you trip up or force out of the way, but all you can hear is the screaming of your soul and the panicked squealing of the baby in your arms.

Fear. Overwhelming, agonizing fear wills every part of your aching body to keep running, regardless of how much it hurts. Your soul starts to writhe in your chest, and you’re petrified that if you get caught, the infant in your arms will die along with you.

Eventually, your tiny body expends the last of its energy to force your legs to throw you into an alleyway to catch your breath. You slide down the rough brick wall until you’re sitting, heaving and gasping as you shake and sob. Through your tears you look down at the wailing infant – your younger brother – and feel indignant injustice at the situation well up inside of you. You have no idea how to take care of a baby, you’re barely out of infancy yourself, but there’s no way in hell that you’re going to just abandon him. You’ll learn, you have to.

You can feel the pure lament that he experienced in this moment, and you want nothing more than to reach out and hold those poor, terrified cubs – to comfort them and tell them that it’s going to be alright, that you’ll protect them. You try to speak but find that you can’t. You don’t have any control here; you are simply an observer.

They’re after you, you know they are, but you’re so exhausted that you’re beginning to just accept your fate and think about letting them get it over with and Dust you. However, as you stare down at the tear-streaked face of your baby brother and his big crimson eyelights, full of innocence and vulnerability as they stare back at you, you decide that if you were going to fight, that it was going to be for him.

Fierce protectiveness and adoration overwhelms you. You’re determined to never let harm come to this baby as you pull him closer against your chest in time with Red. Instinctually, you both begin rocking and shushing the wailing infant, feeling your souls sync up at the mirrored action with a warm, gentle hum of magic.

People tell you that they’re sorry to hear about your parents, but you can hear the snide, taunting tone to their voice and know that they don’t mean it. They simply want to torture you with the reminder that you’re an orphan and, consequently, vulnerable and open to attack. People know you, knew your parents, but nobody wants to take you in. You understand because you know where you’ve come from. Nobody would want a runt – gutter trash like you - to take care of, not in this world.

At first, you’re awestruck at the sudden awareness that, despite every word spoken being uttered in Font, you understand their speech perfectly. Though, it is merely a fleeting thought.

Fury fast wells up inside of you at the taunting jabs and you scream at them with everything you have, tell them that they’re cruel and evil – they’re children, how could you be so vile?! But, again, nothing comes out of your mouth, and you’re reminded that there is nothing that you can do to protect them. Fear and upset overwhelm you, the emotions only intensifying hand in hand with Red’s.

You spend your nights huddled in any dark crevice that offers protection from those that lurk during the black of nightfall, and the days searching through trash to find something, anything to fill the gnawing pit of hunger within your soul. Your brother screams all the time. He’s hungry and scared, and the sound begins to drive you crazy. You need to find someone to protect you both. You’re both too weak and small to do it yourselves.

You suddenly feel overpowered by fatigue. Everything within you is telling you to just give up and let some sick monster kill you. One glance down at the wailing infant fills you with enough determination to keep going. Your mind is beginning to sync with his, and you feel every heart wrenching modicum of anguish, fury, fear, and hopelessness in suffocating waves throughout your body.

Someone finds you. A towering goat-monster, his face littered with scars, one of which crossed over his seemingly permanently closed eye. With your brother clutched to your chest, you accept that this is the moment you are going to die. There’s nowhere to run, he has you cornered. But, instead of Dusting you, he offers an outstretched hand with a smile and tells you his name - Arial. He offers a home, food, protection, and safety, and, along with the foreign kindness in his expression, you’re persuaded to accept. After all, you have nothing to lose.

Skepticism laced with a whisper of HoPe fills you as you glare at the monster, trying your best to appear intimidating despite your tiny frame.

As yourself, you break away to cry not to trust him, but your body moves to pull yourself to your feet and follow him in spite of your fearful suspicion.

You learn quickly that Arial is powerful, perhaps the most powerful monster in Hotland. Nobody messes with you anymore, they’re too scared of what he’ll do to them if they do. You could get used to this.

Icy realization strikes you – you know who this is. Your own fear intermingles with Red’s tentative relief.

You’re older now, out of stripes and technically an adult, Arial tells you, yet you’re only sixteen. You’ve begun to call him ‘dad’ – your brother started it first. After all, he had no idea that he wasn’t his father for a long time, and you both grew used to it.

He’s supposed to be a skeleton, or us goat-monsters – that’s what everyone tells me, he would say. Perhaps, we’re just really special!

You didn’t have the heart to correct him, but he learnt eventually, once he was older and wiser. He refused to leave his room for days when he finally found out about your birth parents’ death – painfully aware of the fact that he could not remember them and would never get to meet them. Then, as though nothing had happened, he emerged and carried on with a bright demeanor. You could tell that something had changed in him, though. He was never quite as energetic, never quite as happy or laughed quite as loud from that point forward.

 You have to learn how to make your way in this world, your father tells you. He has been good to you, fed and protected both you and your brother and, despite barely ever being present, that is all that you needed. Yes, he has a temper and has struck both you and your brother more times than you can count, but it’s better than whatever you’d have to face without his protection.

He brings you into a dark backroom and you gaze at him questioningly, innocently. Then, he smiles a smile that you’ve never seen from him before – dark, full to the brim with sadistic pleasure.

You’re terrified.

You’re horrified. You know what is going to happen, but you’re powerless to stop it.

When he flicks on the lights and illuminates the musty, dank room, your eyelights land on a bound and gagged monster as his muffled yells for help reach your acoustic meatus. He tells you to kill the monster, and you want so badly to please him, to make sure that he doesn’t rip away the life he’s built for you, that you do it without so much as a whisper of resistance. You feel the LV sink into your bones and permanently taint your soul. You don’t allow him to see you retch and empty your last meal onto the ground outside.

It hurts so badly – please, make it stop.

Your brother, still in stripes himself, doesn’t have any idea that anything is amiss. As your father continues to rope you into his vile actions – forcing you to torture and maim whoever he had deemed to be his next victim, whoever he decided had wronged him – you conceal your distress from your younger brother. Seeing the grin on his face as he excitedly tells you about his day and the innocence in his untainted soul pushes you to continue your father’s bidding.

Anything – you’ll do anything to make sure that he is safe, protected, and happy. You grin and bear it. Beating after beating, Dusting after Dusting – the more LV that marks your once pure soul, the easier it becomes to kill. You hate it. It shouldn’t be so easy.

Why is it so easy?!

God, it hurts. You’re putting everything you have into reaching for him, to grab his shaking hands and save him from this place, but you can’t. Your soul strains against your resistance, but a comforting whisper of magic that is not your own gently envelops it in turn. He’s reassuring you that everything is okay, soothing your distress and reducing your desperate, panicked energy to a shaky whisper of agitation.

The sound of pained wailing echoes throughout the house and wakes you. Immediately you recognize the high-pitched cries as those of your brother. Fear envelops your entire being as you rush towards the source of the sound and throw open his bedroom door. Your ‘father’ pushes past you, slamming your back into your wall as he stalks out of the room with a growl.

There, crumpled up into a tiny, shaking, sobbing ball is your brother, barely twelve years old. You trip over yourself to get to him as you whimper his name. As he looks up at you, tears soaking his face, he has one hand clasped over his eye socket. You pry his hand away to reveal two deep gashes running vertically from his brow ridge to the top of his cheekbone, Dust leaking from the wounds.

You haul him into your arms – he’s still so tiny – and rummage through the bathroom for a washcloth to press against the fractures. You clean the Dust from his face and hands, mumbling words of comfort the best you can with a waver to your voice and tears in your eye sockets.

I had a nightmare, he sobs, I just wanted him to tell me that everything is okay.

You tell him that everything is okay, that you’ll protect him no matter what. You sleep with him in his bed that night, but you don’t get a minute of rest. You know that it is your fault that your father hurt him like this. You angered him – spoke out of turn and, as a result, made it so that even the tiniest show of emotion from your brother caused him to fly into a fit of rage. You should know better than this.

Every time you glimpse the twin scars, you’re reminded of what a failure of a brother you have been – what a failure of a brother you always will be.

Your brother is becoming distant. It started the night that Arial secured a collar around each of your necks and claimed that he owned you both, and it had only gotten worse. He used to be so happy, so full of energy and optimistic to a fault, but since Arial – dad, you scold yourself- began involving you in his operation, since that night that he gave him those scars, your brother has begun to pull away from you. He no longer wants you to touch him, to hug him or read him bedtime stories. Instead, he pushes you away with a scoff and disgust in his eyelights.

Does he know? You’ve been so good at keeping everything from him – he can’t know.

Despair and mourning fuels the self-deprecating screaming in your head. No, you argue, it isn’t your fault. It isn’t your fault.

Arial initiated him. You didn’t see it, nor did either of them tell you, but you recognize the faraway look of grief and agony in his eyelights. He’ll barely talk to you anymore. He’s angry, full of blind rage that can be triggered at the drop of a hat. This isn’t your brother - your brother wouldn’t scream at you or spit in your face, call you useless and pathetic. Perhaps you truly are, though, if you couldn’t even just protect him from the horrors of the place you had come to call your home. You can’t think of the monster that did this to your brother as your father anymore, but you’ll continue to address him as such, even just to hold on to any semblance of sanity.

It feels as though some invisible force is restraining you, holding you back as you curse and yell at the monster that put the ones you love through so much agony. Your muscles strain against the force of your thrashing, you want to hurt him the way that he hurt them.

A flash of rage and sorrow that isn’t your own, detached from the memory that you were living in place of Red, forced you out of his consciousness and back into yours. An icy sensation of horror at your own desire to injure or possibly even Dust Arial gives you pause and allows a heavy pit to settle in your stomach. However, you feel Red’s soul calling out to you, and you project comfort and reassurance as though it were second nature. His fury subsides and you simply feel muted anguish – it’s enough for now, and you’re thrust without warning into another of his remembrances.

You learn that you have family here, cousins. They’ve mostly kept to themselves since they come from somewhat of an aristocracy, you found out. You try to bond with them, but the older brother – Milord – just sneers at you and ignores your existence. His younger brother – Mutt – seems to like you though. You fast become close friends. It helps to have someone around that treats you like an actual person again. Mutt tells you that he doesn’t want to be controlled by his brother anymore, wants to be independent and prove that he can be useful. It sounds like his brother is similar to yours in the way he's been treated. You promise him that you’ll help.

If your soul hadn’t already been outside of its usual residence behind your ribcage, it would have leapt out at the sight of your other beta. This isn’t the Mutt that you know, though. He’s younger, no older than a teenager and so… resigned, terrified of everything. You want to sob and pull him to you, to protect him from this place – but you can’t.

Arial is furious with you for ‘consorting with the enemy’. You don’t understand. He tells you that their family are responsible for trying to take down his operation, that they’re no-good rats who pretend to be protecting the district, but only parade their status around and pick on people like ‘us’. You don’t want to stop being friends with Mutt, but he insists that you do, lest he have to ‘teach you a lesson’. You know what his lessons consist of.

You concede.

Don’t concede! Don’t! Fuck him! He needs me! He needs us!

You’re too much of a strung-out mess to do anything. Arial attempts to force you to fight, to ‘train’ you to be a fit heir to his criminal empire, but you can barely stay conscious. He lets you off – just this once, he says, and in your delirious state, you thank him. He strikes you, fury burning in his eyes. Weakness will get you killed, he spits, and gratitude is weakness.

Stop. Please, stop. It hurts.

You’re wrenched out of bed with a start, your back hitting the cold, hard floor beneath you and knocking your breath from you in a wheeze. The throbbing of your skull is the first sensation that greets you, then the blinding flash of what little simulated daylight there was assaulting your eyelights. Arial’s face slowly sharpens as your vision clears – his expression is brimming with malicious joy. He has a gift for you – for both of you, he says.

I have been tracking them for a while, but I feel that the two of you are ready, now, he chirps with a maniacal chuckle as he leads you and your brother into the infamous back room, every surface caked with thick remnants of those that had perished within its walls.

Your brother doesn’t recognize them and neither do you, at first. As you gaze confusedly upon the snarled, scarred faces of the bound monsters, an uncomfortable whisper of a memory scratches at the back of your mind. A horrid combination of terror and rage boils inside of you, threatening to spill over into a snarl as you eyed Arial with disbelief.

The pathetic creatures that Dusted your birth parents, he explains to your brother in short. Then, as though a switch had been flipped, you awake with the grainy residue of your family’s killers cemented into the joints of your fingers and spattered across your clothing. You inhale sharply as tears burn at your sockets, then snap your gaze to your brother, who is staring down at his own shaking hands. He meets your fearful eyelights with a horrified expression and you know that whatever had just happened, that he had experienced it too.

Arial gazes down proudly at you both. He praises you. You feel sick.

Too long was spent scrubbing yourself clean of their Dust. Even after it was gone, you scoured your bones with such ferocity that you drew Dust of your own. You spent the night sobbing – not because of what you had done, but because you couldn’t remember a single moment of it. You thought that you had heard muffled, restrained cries from your brother’s room, but when you had bolted over to check on him, he had viciously shoved you away with a hiss for you to leave him be, no indication that he had been crying present within the sneer that sharpened his features.

Perhaps you were hearing things. Maybe, you wanted him to be just as petrified as you were. If only, just to not feel so fucking alone.

He’s dead. You didn’t think it was possible, but someone actually managed to Dust that son of a bitch. His ‘subjects’ look to you, as the oldest brother, the heir to his metaphorical throne- his successor. You’re an adult now, they tell you, it’s your responsibility.

You shakily accept – anything to keep your brother from having to commit the vile acts that you knew your ‘father’ to have done. At least now, you think, you don’t have to do anything yourself. You can order your underlings to do it for you. You rip off the collar around your neck as you step up to the role – your brother refuses to remove his. Why?

Your brother is furious with you for not allowing him to carry out any of the tasks that Arial had delegated to him. It’s too dangerous, you insist, let your big brother take care of it. You are not my brother, he replies in spite, and you think that this is what dying feels like.

It hurts so badly. You think that this must be what dying feels like.

The criminal empire that Arial so carefully curated is slowly coming crashing down under your reign. You’re too weak, too soft, your brother scolds, you’re going to get us all Dusted.

You can’t do it anymore.

Your brother steps up and takes the role as leader. You beg him not to, that you can find protection somewhere else. Hell, you both could probably protect yourselves now, just the title of ‘Arial’s successors’ and ‘ex-mob boss’ was enough to keep even the worst of monsters away. If not, you can go into hiding, perhaps illegally migrate to another district. As long as you’re together, it’ll be okay, you argue. It won’t be enough, he growls in response, this way we know that no one will even attempt to cross us. He is the boss now, and you work for him. He removes the collar from around his neck and secures it around yours. There’s quiet grief in his expression as he does so, and you understand. It’s for your own good.

He didn’t want to be like this.

Mutt has started using. You hate yourself for having an influence over him – you know that watching you snort, smoke, or shoot up whatever you could get your hands on tempted him, too. His vile excuse for a brother kicked him out, he says, told him that he’s a blemish on the family’s reputation. You tell him that he doesn’t have to stop, but to come and live with you so he at least has a roof over his head. He agrees. It doesn’t take long for your brother to ask him to work for him. I won’t kill, Mutt says, so he finds another ‘use’ for him. There’s a huge gap in the market that nobody will fill, he says to him, and you are perfect for it.

You’re overwhelmed with defeat. There’s nothing you can do to protect your friend. This is just how it is.

Your brother isn’t eating. He insists that he’s fine, and that he doesn’t need gutter trash like you worrying about him. You wonder if he remembers that you both came from the same poor, destitute family. You wonder if he even remembers that you are family anymore. It’s agonizing to watch him struggle, to purposefully refuse meals whenever things get to be too much. He gets weaker and weaker until he can barely stand, and then he starts eating again.

You can’t lose him. You try so hard to help, but you’re always pushed away with a snarl. You find Mutt and ask him for a hit. Just one more, you think. One last hit to ease the screaming in your skull.

Of course, it isn’t just one. Your brother finds you shaking and digging your clawed phalanges into your skull in a feeble attempt to ease the pounding in your head. You’re in withdrawal, he tells you, and you’re going to stay that way until it’s out of your system, and then you never touch that shit again, understood?

He drags you into that same backroom that you committed your first murder in and locks you in. I can teleport, idiot, you think, but he doesn’t just leave you there. He tells his second in command, some mangey looking dog monster, to handle things whilst he is gone, and he locks himself in that horrid room with you.

You don’t think you’ve ever felt agony like this before. You can’t take it. You find yourself wishing that you’d just die.

He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, so that he’s ready to leap at you to keep you from teleporting away at any given moment. He stays. He holds you whilst you violently shake and sob as the drugs purge themselves from you in sweat, tears, and vomit. He reassures you that you are doing the right thing, and that he is proud of you, that he loves you and that he’s sorry for having to treat you this way. You’re still not sure if you were hallucinating those kind words amongst the barrage of angry disembodied voices screaming in your head. He gets you through the most traumatic experience of your life, and then he leaves and acts as though it never happened.

What? No! Don’t leave! I need you!

The Guard has caught wind of your operation. Of course, that smarmy motherfucker Milord was the one to report it. He’s captain of the Hotland division now, you heard.

Figures. Being a noble as well as the sole leader of an empire wasn’t enough, apparently.

Mutt, yourself, and your brother are brought before the district’s leader for sentencing. Mutt is beaten – a mild punishment for his involvement, despite never harming another soul – and has a fang ripped out and replaced with gold, the obvious marking of a criminal. You can hear his pained howling from where you sit. You try not to concentrate on it. There’s nothing you can do whilst you’re tightly bound to this chair under the guise of the watchful eyes of the Guard.

NONONONONONONO

You should receive much worse than what he has, and you do. Both you and your brother are brought to the edge of Dusting numerous times over several painstaking days, until eventually you, too, are branded with gold. The same as Mutt, your fang is replaced. Punishment enough for you as an underling, they spit at you.

STOP

Your brother has gold seared into every bone that makes up his ribcage and spine, leaving veiny scars that tarnish the once pure, porcelain white. They leave the rest of him. They say that they’ve done enough, but you know that they’re sick of having to treat the monsters he bites and claws at as he thrashes and struggles. Their inferior magic isn’t enough to fully restrain a monster like him. Tenacity if you’d ever seen it.

PLEASE DON’T HURT HIM.

He even manages to land a hit on the ‘Captain’s’ smug face, raking his claws across his skull leaving him with twin scars crossing his socket as a result. Ironic.

Another human comes through. You stay away from them. Your brother will handle it, you think. They won’t fare well in the Ruins, you think. They won’t make it a single step past the entrance. Yet… they somehow befriend everyone. Your brother is not kind to them, but he doesn’t kill them, either. They managed a similar feat in the previous districts too. Though, it isn’t as though that would be a difficult achievement – they’re all soft and weak over there, you heard.

You’re surfacing. You didn’t think it would happen, but the damn human did the impossible and made it through the Ruins and broke the barrier. Nobody knows how they did it, but you don’t bother questioning it. You’re free.

Life on the surface isn’t what everyone thought it would be, but it definitely beats being underground. Your brother allows you to live with him, just until you can support yourself and then you’re out, he says.

Learning the language that the human’s here use is… odd. It doesn’t consist of intention, but of grammatical rules and sounds. Though, once you’ve learnt a handful of words, you’ve learnt them all where meaning is concerned. It doesn’t take long before you’re all fluent – you suppose having a native language that consists of intention has its perks when it comes to speaking and understanding all of the others.

You have more family. They lived in other districts, you’re told, and you get to meet them. Four of them were lucky enough to be born in Snowdin, which explains why you never knew that they existed. There’s no way any goody-two-shoes Snowdin folk would ever set foot in Hotland, and no chance in hell anyone from your ‘criminal’ district going to be allowed to go anywhere near theirs.

You hate to admit it, but you miss Mutt. There’s been no word from him since you surfaced and you’re starting to think that his bastard of a brother finally just Dusted him. You spend hours just scouring the streets for him, asking others from the district if they had seen him. Now that you had no hold over them anymore, they ruthlessly mock you for getting caught instead of helping you, sometimes even attempting to attack you, just because they can, now. You give up.

The others – Sans, Papyrus, Stretch, and Blue – they invite you to live with them. You refuse at first, but something about the kindness they show you convinces you that you’d be better off with them. It wasn’t like you were doing so badly, but… you were beginning to get sick of the constant demeaning at the hands of your brother. Not to mention, you’ve both nearly Dusted each other during these freak ‘episodes’ that you figured out your LV has been causing. Perhaps some distance would be for the best, you think.

Everyone is so… nice to you. It makes you angry. You don’t need their fucking pity. You lash out, break things, scream and yell until they look close to tears. Good. You don’t need them.

Mutt turned up. The others had been searching for him and his brother since they heard that there was other family members from your district. You had no idea that they were looking for him, too. You feel a semblance of gratitude towards them, but quickly shove it back down. Weakness will get you killed, and gratitude is weakness.

He’s frail and covered in grime. He’s still using- that much is obvious.

You do for him what your brother did for you. It’s one of the hardest – no, it is the hardest thing you’ve ever done. You thought going through withdrawal was hell on earth, but watching someone you care for go through it is even worse. Seething hatred seeps into every bone in your body, all of it directed at his pathetic excuse for a brother. He should be the one holding him whilst he shakes and sobs – he should be the one whispering words of comfort to his goddamn little brother whilst he shrieks and wails in response to the hostile voices screaming in his head. You decide then, if you ever had the unfortunate experience of seeing that scum ever again, you would make him feel every modicum of agony that he had put his brother through.

You relapse. Everything is a haze, but you think that you see your brother amongst the sea of concerned faces. They must have told him. You swore that you would never do this to him again. The second you’re able to function, you scream and yell at those Snowdin motherfuckers to stop fucking with your life, with your brother’s life. They were just trying to help, they insist.

You feel awful.

Fuck apologizing, you aren’t sorry for shit. But… maybe you’ll just help to distract Sans after you find him in the middle of the night, still shaking from a nightmare. Or perhaps, you’ll let Papyrus explain one of his newest puzzles to you – it’s not like you have anything better to do. Blue’s motorcycle broke down – you know how to fix it and he’ll only fuck it up. Stretch ran out of cigarettes, and you have a few spare – you should quit the habit, anyway.

Your brother has moved in. He needs to keep an eyelight on you ‘since you can’t take care of yourself even with these pussies doing everything for you’ he says. They catch him belittling and cursing at you and they… protect you. You can’t even be angry, you just run away to the confines of your room and cry.

How pathetic.

Withdrawal is just as bad as the last time. At least he was here to help you again.

You haven’t touched anything for a while, but booze has become your best friend. It’s better than whatever dirty shit you’d get from the street, you rationalize. Mutt is stuck in a loop of relapsing, getting clean, then relapsing again. You’re there for him every time.

The Royal Guard is still a thing, you find out. Your brother finally gets his wish of joining. The only issue is that Milord is the Captain. You and your brother take part in a screaming match until the early hours of the morning over it. He wins. He always does.

Blue joins, too. He’s ecstatic, and you find yourself feeling… happy for him.

Everything is so goddamn calm. It’s making you antsy. How pathetic, that even when there’s no danger around, when everybody has the opportunity now to be happy and safe, that you can’t stop feeling as though something awful is about to happen.

It’s driving you insane. Just drink – drinking always fixes it.

A woman – a human woman – shows interest in you. Well, fuck – you aren’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

Mutt’s in love with her. She says that she’s in love with you. There’s nothing you can do about that, you guess.

You fucked up. You used her for sex, for company, to not feel so fucking lonely all the time – yet you took her mark. That’s not what you messed up on, though. Mutt found out. He won’t even look at you.

You make her leave. You turn away from her tear-streaked face as she begs you not to go. You grovel and beg Mutt to forgive you. How fucking pathetic.

There’s more family. They were released from the Ruins – Pariah’s, they call them. They’re like terrified, cornered animals. They can’t be left alone, so they come to live with you.

It’s getting too fucking crowded in this house.

Milord found out about Axe and Butch. He’s furious.

Ha, good, be angry you little fucking freak.

He insists on taking them, but they snarl and scratch at him – they like it here, they wail, they don’t want to leave. He says they’re too dangerous and need to be locked away. The ‘vanilla’ crew offer him a room. Too fucking kind for their own good. Don’t they know what he did – who he is?!

He actually moved in. Not for his brother, but to keep an eyelight on the Pariahs – it’s his ‘duty’ he says. You fucking despise him. You can’t hurt him, though – the others wouldn’t like it and they’ve been too good to you for you to betray them like that. You’ll just have to make his life a living hell in every subtle way you can.

You met someone. They’re kind and sweet and so goddamn beautiful. How you met them is something you’re never going to utter to anyone, though. You start spending most of your time with them. You stop drinking alone – it’s more fun to drink with them, anyway. They comfort you and hold you when you have panic attacks or have a fight with your brother. Even he seems to like them – not that he’d ever show that, though.

They have episodes too. Something really bad happened to them and now their brain makes them think it’s happening again, sometimes, they said. You help them, comfort them the same way that they comfort you. You feel… useful. Happy.

You don’t tell them about yours. You don’t allow them to see it happen. You’re not going to fuck this up.

They caught him yelling at you -telling you that you’re a pathetic waste of space, among a barrage of other demeaning insults- when you got home, drunk. They were supposed to go home, but they forgot that you had given them your jacket and wanted to return it. They scream and belittle him, scold him, and call him ‘cruel’ and ‘evil’. They don’t remember a thing the next day. You don’t tell them.

He stopped. He hasn’t yelled at you since that night. Why? Why did it take someone else to stop him? Why wouldn’t he just listen to you?

This is what love is. You’ve never felt anything like this before. You are completely, terrifyingly in love with them. But… they don’t love you back. Not in the way that you want them to, anyway.

You can see that they’re trying so hard to make you happy, and you appreciate their kindness and company more than anything, but there’s still an emptiness inside of your soul that just friendship can’t fill.

You don’t deserve them, anyway.

They’re struggling. Working part-time to support themselves and their studies isn’t enough. You can tell that they’re devastated – all they’ve ever wanted is to make something of themselves, they say, and now they’re about to become homeless.

You’re determined not to let that happen. The second that you get home, you call a ‘family meeting’, as the creampuff dubbed it. Milord isn’t around – good. It’s not like you give a fuck about his approval, anyway. They seem hesitant, but you’ve never asked anything of them before and the quiet desperation in your voice easily wears them down. Blue and Stretch left before Axe and Butch moved in, anyway, and they share a room – there’s space for them, you argue. They concede.

They’re humiliated, you can see that from a mile off. They try their best to hide it, but you don’t miss the redness of their eyes or the wobbly smile they flash you when insisting that they’re fine. It’ll be okay, you think, I’ll make it okay.

Mutt got clean a little while before they moved in – right about now is typically when he relapses, but… he doesn’t. You wait another week or so, prepared to care for him once again, but it doesn’t happen then, either. They’re helping him. They have no idea that they are – just their company is keeping him from relying on substances to cope.

They’re the most incredible person that you’ve ever met.

And they don’t love you. In fact, it seems that karma has come back to bite you on the coccyx – they’re sleeping with your best friend.

How stupid could you be to think that they’d ever love you the way that you love them? They’re too good for you, you know that. A pathetic, worthless monster like you doesn’t deserve to be loved by someone like them.

You fly into a fit of rage and storm out. Run away, just like you always do. They’ll hate you now, now that they’ve seen what you really are. They’ll never want to even look at you again.

Just drink. It can’t hurt if you’re numb.

Just as the agonizing cacophony of heartbreak, rage, frustration, and mourning began to be too much for you to handle, suddenly it was as though someone had flicked a switch and the deafening, self-deprecating shrieking silenced. You hadn’t been aware of it before, but it was as though your consciousness had been perfectly melded with Red’s and there was no difference between your two states of being – they had become a unified whole.

Now, however, your soul had deemed the intensity of the experience to be too much and had pulled back, but not enough to allow you to snap back to reality. No, now you were detachedly watching as a slideshow of images flickered before your eyes. Awe bloomed inside of you as the images began to take on more color, brighter colors. It was as though a dark, heavy cloud had lifted from above you and allowed rays of sunshine to gently dance across your field of view.

The hazy, alcohol-fueled recollection of you trying your best to make him laugh when he returned from attempting to drink himself stupid, and the following forced reconciliation between him and Mutt. Then, the memory of him and Milord finding you after you had been attacked by Ella and the subsequent revelation of your status as a Mage.

You bringing him breakfast and the mutual agreement to go on a date, then the… result of such. Him taking your mark. You protecting him from Edge.

Every moment that the two of you had spent together thus far was playing out in front of you, all different and carrying varying degrees of hurt, sorrow, jealousy, rage, happiness, comfort, contentedness – yet, they all had one thing in common.

Love. Absolutely terrifying, incredible, painful adoration for you.

Slowly, the agony and anguish was replaced with joy at seeing you smile, with heartache at seeing you cry. But, most importantly, with the overwhelming feeling of the acceptance, love, companionship, comfort, safety, and happiness that he had been longing for his entire life – that you had given him simply by being you, and by loving him back, platonically, or otherwise.

You really were an angel in his eyes.

The warm dampness of your cheeks was the first thing that you felt as reality began to seep back in, filling your vision with the combined glow of green and white, then the wide-socketed, tear-stained face of your beta.

You flinched when your souls instinctually separated and gently floated back to their respective homes, then placed a hand over your chest where it lay once more, tears freely slipping down your face and dripping from your chin as you did so. Before the little hearts had completely disappeared from view, however, you had caught a brief flash of a shimmering, almost translucent crimson, the same color as Red’s magic, dancing along a sliver of your soul. Not only that, but the same could be seen lacing his – green shining brightly against the white of his soul.

There was a breath of tense, suffocating silence as your mind feebly attempted to process everything that you had just witnessed. Meanwhile, you noted that Red was staring at you with a combination of guarded hope and fear rounding his sharp features.

Then, unable to hold back any longer, you all but threw yourself at the skeleton and wrapped your arms around him as tightly as you humanly could, burying your face into his shoulder as you let out a strangled sob. He eagerly mirrored your action, tightly winding his fingers into the material of your shirt as he shoulders shook with the effort of holding back his own tears.

There was a long while where the both of you were simply whispering wobbly declarations of love to the other, as well as desperate apologies for hurting the other through your cries, holding on with an iron grip as though you were terrified that they would be ripped away from you at any given moment. The intensely overwhelming feeling of adoration and comfort hadn’t left you for a second and was only growing, overtaking the ache of sorrow in your heart for the monster and allowing the sensation of your souls beating perfectly in time with each other in a graceful dance of mutual devotion and infatuation to surface.

Then, as your tears began to subside and you forced yourself to regulate your breathing with slow, gentle breaths, you shakily pulled back and wiped at your face with a wobbly smile as he copied the action.

“You’re not pathetic or useless, Red.” You whispered, a lump already forming in your throat once again as you pushed as much certainty and strength into your voice as you could. “You’re so strong. You’re the most incredible person, you know that? I am so, so insanely lucky to have met you. You’re the best thing to ever happen to me! My life is so starkly different to how it was before I met you – I’m so happy and… so grateful to have you in my life. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I- I love you so, so much.”

Parted teeth along with fresh tears beginning to well in his sockets portrayed his surprised disbelief at your words. Then accompanied by a bright flush and the furrowing of his brows as his mouth clicked shut, the expression displayed his inability to respond in an appropriate manner, and coaxing an affectionate huff of laughter from you.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything.” You murmured, smiling softly at him as you once again brought your hand up to cover the spot where your soul lay. “I know.”

“fuck, angel, i… “ He muttered, then exhaled sharply as he shook his skull in a gentle motion. Whatever he was struggling to say was swiftly pushed aside, though, when he tentatively grasped both of your hands and turned them over so that the flesh of your wrists was exposed.

It was only when he used a ginger touch to trace vertically along the skin that a biting feeling of realization dawned on you.

It wasn’t something that you had ever talked about. In fact, it was something that you were so ashamed of that you had pushed it deep into the abyss of your mind and blocked it out entirely.

Disfiguring the once smooth skin of your forearms were matching ugly, twisted scars – one for each wrist. Though invisible under the inky black scrawling of your tattoos, the faint outline could be seen if you knew what you were looking for. You had kept them well hidden.

You were fourteen when you attempted to take your own life. Your parents were junkies, plain and simple. With excessive drug abuse came flaring tempers, and, along with that, came an onslaught of physical and mental abuse, as well as neglect.

They were lucky to have the Coven supporting them, otherwise your family would have fallen into homelessness and deprivation a long while ago. They all insisted that your parents were good people, that they had just fallen upon hard times and would get better soon. You held out hope for a long time that one day they would just turn everything around and be the loving, doting parents that you so desperately craved, but…

Being locked inside from birth, forbidden to leave your home, combined with abuse, neglect, raging teenage hormones, and guilt over your brother being subjected to worse at the hands of your father for trying to protect you, had led you to decide that being dead was better than the living hell that you had been born into.

So, one night, you grabbed a razor, ran a bath and…

Your mother had found you. You were already unconscious and had lost a lot of blood, but she managed to haul you out in time to prevent you from dying.

No hospitals, she had said. Your body was littered with bruises and the abuse you were suffering would be glaringly obvious to anyone, not just a doctor. Instead, the Coven’s ‘medical specialist’ was called in to haphazardly stitch up the wounds and dress them.

You eventually woke after a few days, but you were so weakened by the loss of blood that you could barely do more than blearily look around. There was no way for them to perform the blood transfusion that you needed, so that’s how you spent the next week – in and out of consciousness, teetering dangerously on the edge of death and too weak to move whilst your body desperately attempted to heal itself. It was agony.

You had cursed out the universe for letting you live for a long time, but you never tried it again. Just seeing your brother’s tear-streaked face as he held you was enough to dissuade you every time the urge had arisen.

“Are you… upset that I didn’t…” You muttered out in a strained voice as your eyes dropped ashamedly to the hidden blemish, prompting him to screw his face up in disbelief at you.

“am i-? no, angel. fuck, no.” He said in a breath of wry laughter, shaking his head as he did so, before adding in a low, dangerous growl, “’m fuckin’ furious at ya parents fer doin’ that to ya, but…”

 A squeak of surprise left you when he used the arm that he was holding to pull you into him, then tightly wound his arms around you with a shaky sigh. You had felt the spike of rage that had come along with his words, but it suddenly dimmed as he held you.

“’m just… so happy yer still here.”

“Me too.” You whispered back, tears welling in your eyes as you did so. “I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

“heh, s’alright.” He said in a weak chuckle as he pulled back and flashed you a wobbly grin, the confidence in his tone a stark contrast to the raw emotion that you could feel coming off of him in waves. “ain’t nothin’ i can’t handle.”

You chewed your lip anxiously in response, trying your best to return the wry smile but coming up short as guilt welled up inside of you. Quiet settled over the room as you both took a moment to process what you had just seen, then, with a muted sigh, he gestured for you to shuffle yourself next to him so that he could pull you into his side. Once you had done so, a gentle hand moved to stroke your hair and allow the silky strands to slip between his fingertips as a small frown signaled his wordless contemplation.

“how d’ya feel?” He uttered softly after a moment, prompting you to furrow your brows as you internally scanned your body for any signs that something had changed.

“Normal? I guess? I mean-“ A sharp exhale through your nose left you as you noted the almost unnoticeable change in what you, what your soul, could sense. Just like before, you could feel the intention and emotion behind his words, but it was definitely more intense than before, “-It’s like I can feel everything that you’re feeling, just… to a lesser extent than you’re feeling it. Does that make sense?”

“yea, that sounds ‘bout right.” He stated, a lilt of amusement to his tone as he glanced down at you, “ya have a lotta emotions, y’know that?”

A snort of laughter left you at that, before you contended, “So do you! They’re just mostly… angry.”

You smile dropped into a small frown as he let out a breath of bitter laughter, heartache at the reminder of the paralyzing fury and the hurt that came alongside it causing your breath to hitch in your throat.

“I think I understand, now.” You whispered, glancing up at his face as it contorted into morose acceptance, before you admitted shamefully, “I… I’m angry with him – with Milord and… with Edge, too.”

“don’t be too hard on m’bro. he was just doin’ what he thought was necessary.” He replied softly with a shrug, then asked with a lilt of almost righteous smugness to his tone, “ya see why we’re so protective over ya, now?”

“Yeah, I do.” You eked out in an anxious breath, “God, he was so cruel to Mutt and… fuck, he tortured you, all of you! The gold! I didn’t realize that-! And, oh my god, Edge gave him the scars over his eye?! Both you and Mutt were addicts?!” You began to ramble and trip over your words, indignant disbelief lacing your tone as your voice began to gain strength.

“I fucking chewed Edge out for yelling at you and didn’t even remember! And your parents –Oh, Red…“

You froze as you noted the tears silently slipping down his face despite the typical frown that he often wore that came along with them and sat up with a sorrowful whisper of his name. At your concerned, baffled look, he lifted a hand to tentatively touch his cheekbone and frowned at the tears that wet the tips of his claws.

“heh, ‘m feelin’ yer emotions. told you ya have a lot of ‘em.” He said in a wry breath of laughter.

“It isn’t going to be like that forever, is it?” You asked meekly, prompting him to shake his head gently as he scrubbed harshly at his sockets.

“nah, jus’ fer a little while whilst th’ bond is still new.” He informed you with a wobbly smile, allowing you to deflate with a relieved sigh.

You hadn’t even realized how upset you had been getting – though, you were used to feeling those sorts of things at such an intensity and could handle them a little better than your beta, you surmised. Now, what you were slightly concerned about was if he lost his temper around you – anger wasn’t something that you were especially used to wrangling when it came to your own emotions and the thought of losing it as a result made you anxious.

Suddenly feeling overwhelmingly protective of him, you sat up and pulled him into your chest, earning a quiet yelp of surprise before he settled into the position with a snort. Silence once again washed over the room as you held him tightly with gentle rocking motions – to comfort him or yourself, you weren’t sure. The two of you stayed like that for a while, just turning over the events that you had witnessed through the eyes of the other in your heads and processing the emotions that had come along with them.

There was just one thing that was irking you though.

“The monster that took you in – Arial.” You whispered, immediately feeling him tense in your arms as you did so as he looked at you with a guarded scowl. “He was a goat-monster, right?”

“right.” He replied shortly, anxiousness welling up inside of him and, consequently, in you. After a slow exhale to calm your now racing heart, reminding yourself that it wasn’t your anxiety that you were feeling, you eyed him with curiosity.

“The King and Tori, they’re also goat-monsters – were they…?” You uttered meekly, afraid that you were making an ignorant observation, then widened your eyes in surprise when he sighed with a short nod.

“last livin’ relative of th’ king – half-siblin’. there used ta be plenty’a sub-species of monster that weren’t related – that’s why tori ‘n asgore ain’t, they’re older than ya can imagine – but most of ‘em were wiped out by th’ war, ‘specially if they were royalty.” He explained lowly, a cautious air about him as he did so. “arial managed ta survive n’ used his status ta start doin’ what he did – no one would even think ‘bout fuckin’ with him.”

“Holy shit.” was all you managed after a beat of silence, earning a breath of wry laughter from the skeleton.

“yea. there’s a reason why i don’t go near th’ guard – ‘n it ain’t jus’ ta avoid tiny.” He said with a bitter laugh, then dropped his gaze to his now anxiously fiddling hands as he uttered, “why d’ya think th’ king let my bro into th’ guard even after what ‘e did.”

“Does he know? I can’t imagine he would be especially happy if he got into the Guard on a sympathy vote.” You asked carefully, your own wry laughter enveloping your words.

“heh, he refused ta join fer a while cuz of it, but ol’ fluffybuns decided ta make up some ‘agility test’ or somethin’ ta let my bro prove that he was strong enough ta join.”

“And I assume he passed with flying colors?” You asked knowingly, earning a snort from the monster as he shook his head affectionately.

“yep. th’ king said he’d never seen anyone so determined ta get in before – finished th’ thing in thirty seconds flat.” He chuckled, a prideful inflection to his words that warmed your heart and coaxed a smile from you.

“That sounds like Edge.” You mumbled affectionately, the pride that Red felt for his brother easily overtaking the previous anxious writhing and allowing you to relax with a muted sigh.

“yep, that’s m’bro.” He muttered as he snuggled deeper into your chest, then, in a yawn, breathed, “he’s so cool.”

It wasn’t long before you noted the slow, even breaths that signified sleep from the skeleton and you couldn’t help the giddy, affectionate grin that had spread across your face at his declaration. It was hard to drift off yourself with the number of rapid thoughts cycling through your mind, but, when you finally did, despite the anguish that had wracked your body mere moments before, it was the most restful, contented sleep that you had ever experienced. Just his presence beside you and the knowledge that you were so loved, so protected and safe as long as he was around, allowed you to sink deeply into a dreamless slumber.

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