Chapter Text
Stretch woke up by the sound of someone giggling, but stilled kept his eye sockets shit. Was that Berry? What was he doing in his room? Was it time to get up or something? He didn’t really feel like getting up.
He was so comfy and warm in his bed, he grabbed the sheets and snuggled in more. He buried himself deeper in his pillow, and couldn’t help but to think his pillow felt a lot softer than usual. Did Berry buy him a new one? His little brother’s giggling grew louder so maybe that was the case. His brother bought him a gift and found it funny how much he loved it. Stretch smiled a little at how thoughtful his brother was.
Until he heard the sound a photo being taken.
Did he look funny snuggling his pillow? Was he in a weird position? Why would Berry take a-
"YOU TWO LOOK SO CUUUUTE...."
Stretch’s eye sockets snapped wide open at that. Two?
The first thing that he saw was red. He pulled away slightly from what he thought was his pillow, and realized it was a red scarf. Papyrus’ scarf. Stretch froze, and looked at his surroundings. He was in the Tale brother’s living room on the couch, his brother was right in front of him with his phone out and giggling excitedly, and Papyrus was...
Right underneath him.
Stretch felt his face slowly burn with magic as he sat up a bit to look at the "bed" he was snuggling with a few seconds ago. He was in Papyrus’ lap, who was sitting back on the couch, being held by two arms, one arm on his back with a hand cradling his head, and the other underneath his legs, a thumb gently rubbing up and down his fibula. Stretch’s mouth hung open in shock as he tried to make sense as to how, why, and what in the world was going on here.
Why was he...did he...what?!
Memories of last night were slowly coming back to him. He was right outside the Tale brother’s house when Papyrus hugged him all of a sudden. He felt tired in his arms when he didn’t take his nap so he...
He fell asleep in Papyrus’ arms.
Stretch’s face burned even more as he realized how embarrassing this all was. He couldn’t believe he did that to Papyrus. The poor guy was probably worried about him suddenly falling asleep right then and there. He even made him sleep on his couch instead of his bed, that couldn’t be good on his back.
He looked at his hands and saw the "sheets" he was pulling before was Papyrus’ battle body. It was...surprisingly soft for something that was supposed to be armor. Papyrus’ body shifted and Stretch looked up to see his friend waking up.
Papyrus yawned and removed his hand that was rubbing Stretch’s fibula to rub his own eyes."Good morning, Stretch!"
Stretch looked away and stared at his scarf, feeling too embarrassed to look at him directly."g-good morning, paps...listen, about last night-"
"You were really worn out last night! I would’ve carried you to your universe but I was worried I would’ve waken you up. You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn’t want to disturb you."
Stretch managed to look at Papyrus and give him a small smile."thanks, paps, that was really thoughtful of you but you could have just left me on the couch and slept in your own bed."
"I would’ve but you wouldn’t let me go!"
Stretch felt a whole new level of heat rise in his cheekbones. Was he that exhausted?!
"I didn’t know you were such a cuddler. You also snore a little too, it’s actually kinda cute."Papyrus said and smiled sweetly at him, causing Stretch to bury his head once again in his red scarf.
He wondered how Papyrus could say things like that so easily. He can just practically throw compliments to everyone and not feel the least bit embarrassed about it. He never hesitates to compliment someone and always means it. Did it come naturally to him? Was he just too honest and genuine to feel embarrassed?
Only when he heard his brother squealing for joy did he remember he was there, watching and taking pictures.
He quickly got out of Papyrus’ lap and embrace, and tried to reach for his brother’s phone. Berry, however, dodged and immediately went up to Papyrus and showed him the pictures he took, much to Stretch’s horror. He stood paralyzed in humiliation as Berry kept swiping his phone to the right.
How many pictures did he take?
"OH, LOOK AT THIS ONE! THIS ONE’S EVEN CUTER THAN THE LAST ONE! YOU TWO MAKE SUCH A CUTE COUPLE!"
"Couple?"Papyrus said in a confused manner. He tilted his head as he gave Berry a perplexed look."We’re not a couple."
Normally, if his brother ever wore a sad expression on his face, he would do anything to make it happy again. This time, though, he felt nothing but pure satisfaction. Finally, his brother was going to realize how wrong he was for making assumptions and misinterpreting things.
Blue looked at paps with a confused, sad look."W-WHAT? B-BUT YOU ASKED HIM OUT TO DINNER!"
"To thank him for giving me some very useful advice."
Berry’s shoulders sagged and the sad expression on his face deepened."SO...YOU’RE NOT DATING MY BROTHER?"
Papyrus felt bad for making his friend so upset and gave him a sad smile."I’m sorry, Berry, weren’t not dating. But if it’s any consolation, these pictures are really cute!"
Stretch sighed in relief, happy to know his brother finally got the message, even if Papyrus’ his last comment burned his cheeks a bit more. How many times was he going to be referred as cute today?
"thanks for clearing things up, paps. my bro’s imagination can get pretty wild sometimes."
Berry pouted when he heard that and crossed his arms. Papyrus giggles and patted the short skeletons head to comfort him."Oh, no problem, but Berry please don’t be upset about this. We just share platonic feelings with one another that’s all."
"...THEN CAN YOU TWO SHARE ROMANTIC FEELINGS WITH EACH OTHER?"Berry asked hopefully, and Stretch groaned in annoyance. His brother was worse than Undyne and Alphys from his world...and this one too.
"bro, please don’t ship us..."
"I CAN AND I WILL!"Berry exclaimed and posed dramatically before running out of the room. Stretch and Papyrus heard the portal open up in the basement and close a few seconds later. Stretch sighed again and gave Papyrus a tired look and a short laugh.
"heh, sorry about that, paps. don’t know what’s gotten into him...this is all pretty embarrassing."
"Oh, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind if he ships us, it reminds me of how Undyne and Alphys act whenever an anime comes up on TV. They speak with such passion about the characters they ship together, it’s beautiful! Seeing him so passionate and happy about us warms my soul, so what’s the harm?"
Stretch smiled, admiring how easily Papyrus handled the situation with his brother and how he saw it. I guess there’s no real harm in it, when he really thought about it. Maybe he was overreacting about this whole thing. It was embarrassing sure, but he could just ignore him, or be cool like Papyrus and not mind it at all.
Papyrus was so cool like that.
"didn’t think about it that way. i guess there’s no harm done really."He said and sat down next to Papyrus, who was looking at the pictures on Berry’s phone again. He wondered how long it’ll take for Berry to notice his phone missing. Hopefully, long enough for him to delete the pictures.
"Berry’s right though, we do look cute together in these photos."Papyrus said with a smile and passed the phone to Stretch. Stretch held the phone and looked at the pictures.
Geez, his brother took so many.
The sound of rumbling caught the two skeletons attention, and they both looked at each other before laughing a little.
"Looks like our stomachs are in need of breakfast! I’ll go make us some pancakes, hopefully my brother will come down and join us soon. He usually sleeps in on the weekends." Papyrus said and got up, heading to the kitchen and humming a happy tune.
"pour some honey over mine!"
"I’ll check if we have any, but if we don’t is syrup ok?"Papyrus called out from the kitchen.
"not as butter as honey, but sure."
Papyrus head slowly popped out of the kitchen entry way, glaring at Stretch for a good few seconds and said,"No condiments for you...and you’ll be eating burnt pancakes," before disappearing into the kitchen again.
Stretch laughed at the empty threat and looked back at the phone. He started deleting the pictures oh him and Papyrus cuddling until he reached one that caught his eye. The picture looked...oddly perfect. The lighting was just right, no shaking of the camera, no thumbs on the screen, like some of the other pictures, and his face...Papyrus’ face....
They were both smiling.
They both looked so content and peaceful.
Stretch thought about it for a moment, before sending the picture to his phone. He felt his phone vibrating, before deleting the picture and the message he sent to himself with his brother’s phone. The last thing he wanted to do was to get Berry’s hopes up. He liked the picture, but knowing Berry, he would think there was more to it and there wasn’t.
He just...thought it was a nice picture is all.
He set his brother phone in his other pocket before reaching out his phone in the other. He opened it up and saw the picture, smiled and decided to send it to Papyrus. He figured he’d appreciate that, since he thought they were cute and all. He heard a happy ringtone going off in the kitchen for a moment before it stopped, and was then replaced with a happy "Nyeh!"
Stretch chuckled, and made his way into the kitchen, greeted with the smell of home made pancakes. He practically drooled at the sight of it, especially when there was a honey bottle next to one of the plates.
"Thanks for sending me that picture, it’s proof of how great our friendship is, and shows how great of a cuddler I am. My future love will see this one day and know how great my cuddling skills are."
Stretch chuckled a bit nervously, not wanting anyone else making assumptions, but then....
What’s the harm?
He, or Papyrus, can always explain it and hopefully no one will jump to conclusions like his brother did. If they did, well...again, what’s the harm?
"so, you gonna show that to the human waiter then? to show him your cuddling capabilities?"
Papyrus blushed and Stretch laughed while taking a seat."St-Stretch! Stop teasing me about him, he could be just a friend!"He said while taking his own seat:
"or something moooore?"Stretch said in exaggeration and wiggles his boney eyebrows.
The blush on Papyrus’ cheek darkened and he shook his head furiously."No more teasing! Tease me one more time and I’ll cuddle you to death!"
"I just might take you up on that offer..."Stretch said softly to himself without thinking. When he realized what he just said, he froze. He...didn’t know where that came from, or why he said it. Papyrus didn’t seem to hear him quite clearly, asking him to repeat himself. Before he could come up with an excuse, he heard someone clearing their throat. He and Papyrus turned their heads to the kitchen entryway to see Sans.
Sans looked between the two, perplexed and uneasy."uh...what’s going on here?"