Chapter Text
When you finally finished washing and drying the dishes that you’d been procrastinating doing all day, you dried your hands on the nearest clean dishtowel and stretched your neck before heading out to look for your three boys.
You smiled to find them hanging out on the living room table, chatting and laughing amicably as they threw puns at each other. At their sizes they had to take care not to fall off. They were usually picking fights, or well, Red was ever since you brought him home nearly half a year ago and that made it an even bigger risk.
The boy just didn’t know when to stop, even when you put him in time out. You once had to resort to grounding him from mustard for a day or two and he fought you tooth and nail all the way, sneaking it whenever he could.
Your smile fell when you remembered that none of them had bathed in a while either, the spots of dirt clear on their grimy (very) off-white bones. They would often hide till you gave up or caught them and oh, boy, did they smell, but today was the day you’d get them in the bath. You’d been extra nice to them for the last couple days, and damn it, you were going to clean every nook and cranny on their little bony bodies ‘til they sparkled. You were filled with Determination.
The boys glanced over as you strode over to the table, and you cut them off before they could ask what’s up as they usually did.
“Okay my lil’ dirty bones~ It’s bath time for everyone, no ifs or buts about it.” Their faces fell, and Red started to to whine.
“but ma!”
“What did I just say?” You gave all of them a stern look to show them that you meant it, their protests dying in their mouths. Sans sighed.
“fine we won’t fight ya this time.”
“speak for ya self,” growled red, crossing his arms.
Sans rolled his eye lights. “come on dude, she’s been real nice the whole week. least we can do is throw ‘er a bone.”
Red huffed, but nodded reluctantly.
“Nah I don’t wanna take a bath with Red, Mama, there’s only so much of his bullshit I can take,” Brassberry said, jerking his thumb at red with an unpleasant sneer.
“what!” Red growled, as he snapped to look at him. He pushed his sleeves up and stomped closer as Brassberry stared him down coolly. “fight me bitch!” Before they could do more you put your hand between them, blocking their views of each other and forcing them to look up at you instead.
“None of that, got it?” You snapped, tone a few degrees colder than what you wanted it to be. Sans and Brass were suitably unnerved, watching you carefully before they mostly shook it off.
Still growling, Red crossed his arms again and looked up at you with a scowl.
“yeah, like mama august said. there’s no need to pick a bone with one another,” said sans, giggling a little as he leaned back on his hands.
“Just Mama is fine, Sans,” you told him.
Sans looked over at you with his smile quirked to one side and waved a hand in dismissal.
“mama august sounds better to me.” You level a small smile at him before you go back to your point.
“Boys please, you need a bath. Y’all are covered in stars know what,” you said as you leaned over them and inhaled obviously, waving your hand in front of your face to emphasize your words with downward tilt of your lips. “And you smell like armpits and old food.” They all raised an arm and sniffed themselves, shrugging.
“i don’t smell anythin’. if you wanna talk about smelling bad,” Red huffed and got up to give you a good sniff. “it’s you who smells bad. when was the last time you bathed, ma?” Red leaned back, crossing his arms with a shit eating grin while the other two snickered.
“I…well…umm, auughh, it’s been a few days I guess,” you muttered, crossing your arms and pouting with all the bullshit you had to deal with. Considering work and red’s overall naughty behavior, coupled with brass’s PTSD and overly emotional anxiety attacks, you didn’t have time to think about bathing.
“ha, now ya can’t say shit about us when you need a bath just as bad,” red rebutted, loving the fact that he got the upper hand.
An idea popped into your head and you looked the boys over with a smile. They returned the look suspiciously, sharing worried glances.
“Then I guess we’ll just have to bathe together so we all can get nice and clean,” you declared smugly.
“ah-what,” was all red could say as his face went pink, while the other two looked at you with wide eye sockets and similarly blushing blue.
Without noticing their faces, you started liking that idea of yours. You’d always wanted to bathe with them but hadn’t had the chance to, and you started to fantasize a little before getting pulled out of it when Brass spoke. “Ahh, I don’t think that’ll go so swimmingly, Mama--”
“THERES NO FUCKING WAY I’M DOIN’ THAT,” Red yelled up at you, face going bright with his magic’s color as he crossed his arms and backed away.
“for once I agree with these two bone heads,” sans said, rubbing the back of his neck bones.
“What! But- but why?” You pouted, shoulders slumping and holding your hands coming up in front of your chest. “It’ll be fun and- and it’ll save me water and energy if we do!”
“that may be true, but-”
“What’s the holdup then?” Your hands went to your hips.
“But mama-” Brass startled as you interrupted by putting your head on the table with the biggest puppy dog eyes you could conjure.
“Pleeeaase~? I really wanna have a bath with you all…” you said with the sweetest voice you could muster. They shared another look before sighing.
“fine… we’ll bathe with you,” answered sans as he cupped his head in his hand.
The other two nodded too, faces still colored and postures slightly inward.
With a big smile on your face you jump up, giggling happily before you scooped them up in your arms and carried them to the bathroom.
You set them down on the sink, where they shift in place and look everywhere but at you.
“All right sugar skulls, stay put. I’ma get some towels and bubbles okay? Oh, and maybe that bath bomb,” You say aloud as you head out to the hall closet to grab what you need.
“What are we gonna do,” Brass said in a low tone as he turned to the others. “Can we let her know we’re all sorta in heat right now?”
“i-i don’t know tibia honest” sans groaned, rubbing the back of his neck bones again.
“whats so bad about her findin’ out we’re in heat? I mean i don’t mind if she does, it’ll make it more bearable if you ask me.” Red leered at the doorway you’d left from. “plus she ain’t bad ta look at, ” he added as he licked his teeth.
“Because it is, she-she’s never helped us with our heats before. You’re still new here so you wouldn’t know,” Brass shrugged.
“i don’t… think she even knows what a heat is,” Sans injected. “She’ll probably get so embarrassed that she might just lock herself in her room again for not knowing what to do. wouldn’t be the first time. it took me and brass hours to get her out of that cocoon of blankets she made of herself when she found out that brass always had a ecto- ahem down there ” Brass looked away in embarrassment.
Red bellowed a hard laugh. “HA, is that all? Hahaha…well, that wouldn’t be too bad now would it we just hafta coax ‘er out….or maybe have some fun with er.”
Sans snaps back with “you don’t know if that would work! she might not treat us the same after something like that!” He swallowed, regretting the words the moment they came from his mouth.
Red and Brass looked at him with morose eyes and Brass turned away, shaking.
“You’re right. What-what if she starts to hate us…” He choked out, voice shaking.
“brass… you know that wouldn’t happen,” Red reached out for his shoulder.
“BUT WHAT IF SHE DOES?” Brass yelled back, tears forming in his sockets as he thinks about the worst things that could happen. Red grabbed his arm.
“i don’t think she would, I mean…. she is the one who saved us from the streets.” chimed-in sans looking at Brass with a hopeful smile.
Wiping his tears away and breaths in and out, Brass returned the smile. “Yeah.”