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In the beginning it was chaos, four great powers clashed against one another, Gaia the spirit of stone and earth, Agro spirit of wind and sky, Atlantis spirit of water and seas, and Grillby spirit of fire and heat.
In the frothing chaos as Agro and Atlantis clashed the great fire elemental looked around them into the void, filled with echos of their fights.
Why, he called to them, why do we clash could we not instead create instead of destroy as we do. The other three gathered around him and in his hands he made a ball of fire, cupping it gently the fires licked his palms.
Gaia saw the danger in the flames and surrounded them in her stone, and over the stone washed Atlantis' water, covering two thirds of the sphere's surface, Agro wrapped his arms around the young planet, shielding it from the chaos, and as Atlantis wept with joy he let her tears fall to it's surface.
Gaia raises plants from the dirt, plants that drank up the water and grew over the earth, from Gaia's earth and Atlantis' waters they created creatures large and small, and into each one Agro blew life them.
Grillby watched them as they worked putting life on the planet, and as their creations began to wither in the cold darkness he placed his fire in the sky warming half the planet, but for the other half he gifted the stars and the moon, gently pushing the planet so that it spun equally night and day in all places.
The others who had always looked upon Grillby as the most destructive of them saw the fondness of how he looked at the world and tended it, and Gaia gathered her dust it was Grillby who gave life to the dust, making it another creature to roam the earth, though one who was a part of him.
They looked upon the world they had made and tended still and found that of Gaia's, Agro's, and Atlantis' creations one creature ruled, human they named it, and so they bestowed this creature with their gifts, so that all humans, would feel magic coursing through them and would know that the gods were with them still.
From Grillby's creations was one species who were filled with his burning magic, they all took on different forms but at their core were the same. Monsters they named them. Hand in hand monsters and humans ruled, and each god placed their final creation on the earth.
Each took a small part of their soul and created a race like of less powerful versions of themselves. Elementals, dryads, druids, nymphs they had many names.
From Gaia came earth, stone, plants. From Agro wind, and sky. From Atlantis sea and rain. From Grillby fire and magma. From these four categories came thousands of more specific groups though they would always remain part of these four.
Spirits of chaos saw this peace the great elementals had created and sought to destroy it, they brought plague and illness. Gaia retaliated by giving her plants the ability to heal the sick. They brought famine and Atlantis' rains fought the hunger, they polluted the air but Agro's winds chased them away. The chaos demons realized that like this, they could not win, so they brought cold to the lands and Grillby went down to the planet and fought back the cold, he did this for 3 fourths of the year before he tired and had to withdraw to rest. He watched in horror as he rested as the chaos ravaged the earth freezing it almost to its fiery core.
So even as the other great elementals pleaded with him to stay and rest he rose and went down to earth, inheriting the form of a fire elemental. In his hands he gathered dry plants and sticks and made a torch handing it off to a human, he watched as the knowledge of fire spread like a wildfire, and now the planet could fight the cold when he could not.
Soon he was no longer needed on the planet, and the great elementals took on a form of which they could walk the earth among mortals and the gods that formed from the excess magic in the air.
A goddess of life appeared to guard the children of the gods and heal the sick, a beautiful goat woman who would marry the king of the rains, but as she formed so did a balancer.
A herald of darkness, despair and sickness. The embodiment of death. He and his gaster blasters reaped the souls of those who passed on and guided to them to the afterlife, where two other skeletons formed, Gaster the god of repentance who punished the souls of the damned who had done more wrong in life than right. And Papyrus the god of reward, who reward those who were more good in life in their death.
The goddess of war, a great fish woman was born in the blood filled tides of Atlantis the city named after the great elemental. The goddess of intelligence was likewise born in their libraries from the thoughts of the scholars.
As the gods appeared the elementals began loosen their hold on the world. First Agro bowed his head and wrapped himself around the earth and slept. Atlantis slept in the depths of her waters shortly after her lover closed his eyes. Gaia turned herself into a beautiful willow's who's roots dipped in Atlantis' streams and who's leaves reached high into Agro's winds.
And then there was one, unlike water fire didn't still in puddles, it did not dies down and still like the wind, it was not as unchanging as the ground they stood upon, fire did not sleep it did not rest.
The flame set up a bar in the edge of the void, gods and deities came to the bar when lost they would eat or drink and pass on, very few returned within 10 years, most couldn't find their way back for years, and few cared to try to find the way back. Those who did return often enough to be called patrons were the dogs of war, the goddess and god of beer, and a strange deity who the flame supposed was a spirit of popularity.
After some time, as the world's population grew so did its death count, and souls would sometimes slip through death's guiding hands and would be lost, the lost souls all one day found their way to Grillby's, when they stumbled through his doors for the first time it wasn't long after Death, otherwise known as Sans came to collect them. Sometimes the souls would be there centuries, but after your dead time passes differently.
Soon the god of death was there often enough that the bar patrons began to relax around the embodiment of death.
Years passed, humanity changed, may gods were forgotten and resurged. Over that time, relation ships bloomed and withered, especially among gods where bonds until death do we part didn't really apply, commitment was hard to come by.
One god however seemed committed to never picking up a lover despite being powerful and handsome enough that he could get anyone he wanted.
Grillby ran his bar, didn't talk much, and only interacted with those who were ordering and the gods and deities who tried to hold up a conversation with him, he says tried because the only person who was never faltered at his lack of response was Sans, the skeleton could talk to thin air and be perfectly fine, but it seemed if the skeleton wasn't in conversation with someone or reaping souls, he was sleeping. And the skeleton could sleep any where in any position.
At first Grillby was intruieged by the strange skeleton, then he waited for when the skeleton would come again, he anticipated the skeleton's jokes. Yes the fire elemental was in love. Grillby wasted no time skating the issue, he woke up realized it, said: Shit, and got ready to start courting the skeleton.
The fire elemental's dance of courting began very subtly, taking note of what the skeleton ordered predicting it and then serving him. Responding with short phrases instead of silence. Not pulling away when the skeleton leaned in to tell a joke.
Grillby certainly was a simple god on the surface, but underneath he was as complex as the working of the earth. His courting process which no one was really sure how he developed was similar, it was very simple in the beginning and slowly became more and more complex. If both partners were aware of the dance it would probably be a sight to behold, it was the courting method of elementals with godly essence sprinkled in and elementals were well known for strange courting methods.
No one really noticed until the annual new years eve party thrown by Asgore, god of weather, the fire elemental hadn't gone in years, and by years I mean thousands of them.
The fire elemental appeared in the crowd, jostled by gods and deities who didn't recognize who he was. Within the hour he had a drink and was standing in a secluded balcony watching the crowds bellow. When he was noticed the gods bellow would lock eyes with him before inevitably looking away when they became uncomfortable.
Eventually he spotted the god of death who stood under an alcove, eye sockets half lidded holding a wine glass filled with something golden. The fire elemental made his way to the skeleton.
"oh hey grillby, didn't expect you to be here."
"...You're not exactly a..... social one yourself." The skeleton laughed and the fell into small talk, apparently Sans was having trouble with his blasters, they were having problems getting along and were fighting amongst each other. At a lull in conversation Grillby handed the skeleton a flaming rose, the skeleton had gingerly taken the flower from him.
"heh thanks, something that wont die when I touch it." The skeleton gave the elemental a genuine grin. Grillby wasn't the only one who saw it, and unfortunately the skeleton was the only one who didn't realize it was a gesture of courtship.
~*~
"Muffet for the last time I don't care if your web of fate says I'm courting him and doing it alone!" Grillby rarely spoke, and hardly ever raised his voice, but chasing the spider oracle out of his bar. He was sick and tired of the gods and deities that were trying to interfere with his love life. Thank goodness he had a moment of silence before opening the bar.
"You cant wear that! It looks like your going to a funeral!" The voice that came from right outside the bar made Grillby halt, the fire elemental poked his head out of the bar, and there standing in the void was Sans cornered by the god of love and show business, Mettaton.
"but that's my job..." The skeleton looked confused.
"That's no way to dress on your date!" The robotic god scolded.
"dia de los muertos is in two months..." The skeleton's bone brows were furrowed, Grillby almost burst out laughing, of course the skeleton thought his date, his day, was day of the dead. Wrong type of date Sans.
"No! Your date with Grillby."
"i'm just getting breakfast and maybe grabbing a nap before heading out." Before the robot could open his mouth and give any more advice to the oblivious skeleton the fire elemental stepped out and made his appearance known.
"Hello Sans, hello Mettaton"
"heya grillbz,"
"Hello Grillby."
"....Can I help you Mettaton?" The robot felt the fire behind the elemental god's words and stepped away from the skeleton.
"N-no! I was just saying hi to Sans here! I really must be going." The robot struck a pose before disappearing in a flash of purple light. Grillby lead the way to the door and held it open as the skeleton walked in, he looked at Sans, the tired dark area's under his eye sockets, the way the skeleton's jaw unhinged to yawn showing off a set of fangs the skeleton kept hidden with a smile for good reason. Watching the bar patrons react to those chompers for the first time had been hilarious. The skeleton rubbed his eyes half asleep.
Ketchup infused coffee it was then.
~*~
"O-oh you t-two are so cute!" Alphys tittered, Grillby would have refused to help her with her experiment if he had known it would entail listening to Alphys and her girlfriend Undyne gush and fangirl over the fact he was courting Sans, well Alphys was gushing, Undyne was telling him to man up and confess like a normal person.
"Alphys please..." Grillby begged her his shirt sleeve rolled up waiting for the doctor to take a sample of his fire so he could get out of this torture.
"I still think you should just tell him." Undyne said bluntly.
"H-he would d-definatly say yes." Alphys said readying the syringe.
"And it would give us more to gossip about." Grillby gave Undyne the death stare as Alphys took a sample of Grillby's fire.
"It tends to get a bit unruly when separated for to long if it gives you any trouble douse it and I'll give you some more." The elemental stood up.
"He likes tomatoes. You could make him something tomato based."
"Stop! "
"Not until you confess nerd!" Undyne cackled slamming the door behind him.
~*~
"Oh! You should take him to a fancy restraunt!" Red Bird, a bird like woman who was a spirit of gossip was taking one of the windows where the skeleton wasn't present to talk Grillby's non-existent ear off with date ideas, the dogs of war were not helping. Sans wasn't really one for eating anywhere that could possibly have living things, and very few gods other than Grillby ran a restaurant.
"No! There's no place better than Grillby's when it comes to dining. Take him to a comedy show!" Dogamy barked.
"Nooo... Sansy would want a quiet night alone~" Drunk Bun, the appropriately named goddess of beer butted in.
"YOU SHOULD TAKE HIM STARGAZING!" A strange spirit who the patrons, and Grillby for that matter had never seen in the bar, not that they could see much of the loud stranger. He was tall in black robes, and when the light did fall under his hood gaunt skeletal features could be seen just barely in the shadows.
"Quiet! The lot of you!" Grillby's voice silenced them as the stranger sat down at the bar. The elemental turned to the man expecting an order silently standing before him.
"A GLASS OF MILK" The stranger said in the lengthening silence a bit of an odd request among souls who showed up here, but he had gods literally ask him for cups of blood. The elemental nodded and soon handed a glass of milk, if a little on the warm side to the hooded figure. The man pulled down his hood and the silence became one of shock instead of one commanded by Grillby.
Papyrus, the younger brother of death drank his glass of milk as Grillby cleaned a shot glass unfazed by the appearance of the figure.
"YOU SHOULD TAKE HIM STARGAZING THOUGH, HE JUST LOVES SPACE!" The skeleton said as he finished his milk.
"I concur. (I̡ ̸̶͢҉c̛͟͏o̢͜n̷̢͘͘͢c̷̡̨͝͏u̷͘͜҉r̵͘̕.҉) " An echo-y voice turned heads to a black robed figure in a corner booth that had been empty a few minuets before their hood pulled down revealing a cracked skeletal face. The eldest and youngest brothers Grim. Gaster and Papyrus respectively.
The fire elemental remained silent as the brothers finished and started to walk out the door together but the elder and darker of the two stopped and waited for his brother to leave the restaurant before turning around walking up to the bar placing his flat on the wooden surface leaning towards the flame his expression anything but friendly.
"Sans is strong enough to kill gods but he's delicate enough to crumble under one wrong touch, be careful how you treat him. (Ş̨̕͡ą̵̵͞n̵̴̛͏s̷̴ ͟͏̸i̧̢̧s̴̵̨ ̴͟s̶̡t҉̨ŗ̧̨o̵̡͝n̵͝g͡ ̡̡͝e͘͟ņ̶̷͜ơ̷̕͞ų̷͟g̶̛͜͟͡ḩ̶͢͜͡ ̡t̶͘͞o̸̢̨ ̡͜k̢͏̴įl̴͞͠l̸̡͏̵ ̷̡̛͢g̶̨̡͏o̴͠͠d̡͘͜͞s͞ ̸b̸u̷̧̧͠t̶̛̕͘ ̢̨̨͟͜h̷̶̡̕e̡͟'͘s̕͢ ͘d̛̕e͞͞͝l̕͢͠͠i̵̶͘c̕̕͢͡a̴͘͟͟t̷̨͜͟͝e͝͠ ̛҉̶e̴̢̧n͝o͝u̶̡̕g̢͜h͢͢҉ ̶̛͘͞t͟͝͏̶o̕͜ ͘͝c̶̢̕͟͜r̡̢̢̢u̶̡m̵̡̨͡͠b̶̴̡l͜͞e̷̛͜ ̴̡u̷̶͝n҉̶̨͞͠d̶̸͢e̢̡͡r̴̢ ̢̢͘͡͡o̡̕͢n҉͏͜e҉̵҉͏ ̶̛͏w̕͏r̨̨͘͟o̷̧͜n̵̡̕̕g҉̷̴̡ ̸͘͠t̵̕͜o҉̢͟u͜͟͞͝c̡͟͠h̡̕҉,̨҉̸ ̴̷̴b̴̧͟ȩ̧̨͢͡ ͘͝c̶̸̨̨͏a̡r̴e̴͟f͜u̢͜͠͝ļ͜͡ ͡͏h҉̡҉͘͢o̡҉͟͞w̴̷̨͜͝ ̛͡͠҉y̸̧̕o҉͟u̸̷̴̢̕ ̷̨͢͝t͢͝r̸̢̕͡e̶a̶̕t̶̸̵͜ ̵̡͟͡h̷͠͠i̷̵̢͜m͜͞͠.̛͝ )" The skeleton growled.
The white sharp edged almond shapes in the orange yellow fire narrowed as the elder god held his ground. The skeleton turned and left the bar his threat received though not acknowledged, the elemental turned to put the shot glass away. He tapped pushed up his glasses and tapped his jaw thoughtfully.
"...Star gazing.... there's an idea..." The patrons of the bar let out a cheer at the fire elemental's quiet words.
~*~
Grillby's closed randomly on the whims of the god who owned it but fortunately for the patrons the elder flame was a workaholic and rarely closed his bar. So it wasn't hard for the costumers to guess what the god was planning when he announced he was closing for a couple of hours.
Now the flame had two problems, finding death, then dealing with some very hostile constellations.
Finding death could be easy, kill something, he shows up, or a pain in the ass. Kill something one of the blasters shows up, or don't kill something and try to find death.
Grillby however wore a cursed black onyx charm around his neck under his dress shirt that kept his flames in check and let him hold a humanoid form but if he spilled the blood of a person or god when wearing it the magic would become null. Grillby had already been through three of the charms and they tended to be hard to find and harder to make.
So instead he went to the youngest of the death brothers, the eldest already clearly did not like him.
Papyrus was a heavily symbolic god, as all of the 3 Grim brothers were, if Papyrus' name didn't give that away the way to find him was. Alaha Lahla the god of the river of death and the first oracle who would ferry souls after death dropped them off to the underworld. The god was a strange one, born of Grillby's own shadow, which Grillby didn't know he had until he had 7 oracle sons and 7 oracle daughters who had been born from the shadow of light... somehow. So it was off to pay a visit to his youngest son.
Alaha Lahla could be found at any river near an epicenter of death, and what better place than to find his son, and find Papyrus than the Nile river.
Soon he stood on the bank of the river as the river person pulled up at the bank, he stepped on gingerly, water could rarely hurt him but soul water could defiantly put him down for a couple of weeks. and the man pushed off from the bank and the water splashed up around them as they began to sail.
"Tra la la, whom am I what am I, the shadow of a flame, Tra la la la la." Grillby stayed silent, he knew the river person often fought with Gaster and told many damned souls to beware the man who speaks in hands, he knew his son could read the waters and could tell the future with them, he knew the river person could see the other worlds and from the river person he had been told one of the skeleton brothers could and one of them was from the other world. He had learned many things from his children, if they really could be called that, but one thing he knew without ever being told was they were all reflections of himself, Lahla the most literal of them, he did not know why his son was telling him this, perhaps Lahla was just telling Grillby he respected him in the only way he knew how.
Soon he stepped off the boat into limbo where all souls were judged and kept in line by a giant skeleton doglike creature with three heads. Some souls however gave up before they were judged and were turned into echo flowers, glowing teal flowers that repeated the last thing that person had said in life, admittedly some told amazing pieces of life advice, others... well they were more stupid in nature.
He was lucky enough Papyrus was right there directing souls and explaining to them they were now dead, he strode up to the skeleton.
"AH GRILLBY, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?"
"Where is Sans...." The skeleton paused before giving the fire elemental a wink.
"I'LL GET HIM!" The fire elemental nodded as the youngest skeleton held onto a charm at his neck infused with Sans' magic to teleport. When the skeleton reappeared he held Sans by his hood. "NYEH HAVE A WONDERFUL DATE BROTHER, HAVEFUNBYE!" The taller thrust the small skeleton into the elder god's arms surprising both as the taller skeleton teleported away.
The stunned pair stood there for a moment, well Grillby stood holding the skeleton bridal style.
"so.... you needed me?" The skeleton snapped Grillby out of the stunned shock that Papyrus had left him in.
"Will you help me settle a fight between the constellations? Scalapia and Radiam are fighting." Ok, it wasn't exactly stargazing, but it was surrounded by stars in space and Grillby would really like some help dealing with the conflicting star creatures.
"sure i've got nothing better to do." The skeleton shrugged and got a strange feeling in his soul when he received a jack-o-lantern smile from the elemental.
Suddenly the skeleton nearly jerked himself out of the elemental's grasp when fire raged up around them in Grillby's form of teleportation.
When they reappeared in the physical plane once more they were floating in a cosmos surrounded by stars, Grillby's bartending clothes replaced with silver armor. The skeleton's scythe drawn, both had adjusted to the gravity, the skeleton had used his own gravitational magic on his robes (because he couldn't effect himself) and had righted himself, Grillby's form righted itself like a magnet in the cosmos, flames roaring to life around his hands as the stars around them began to form into the great 7 constellations. Lia the scorpion like creature formed first and was already swarming around Grillby wildly. Wow he was just seeing a whole lot of his not direct children but he was their indirect creator so they considered him their father children.
The constellations not much for conversation had arranged a table and a candle made out of star light in-between the two gods.
"what the hell... are they trying to romantic dinner us to death?" Sans asked confused.
"...." Grillby was seething. When the constellations set menus down in front of them the fire elemental snapped.
"STAY OUT OF MY LOVE LIFE, AND YOU CAN TELL THE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME! " The flames whipped wildly around the elemental who pulled the skeleton into his arms and pressed fiery lips against bone.
Fire and Death fought for dominance.
Fire won.
And Death could no longer be found around his usual haunts, he had taken up hanging around a certain bar around the end of the universe.