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It was hard to say if he loved his job or not.
As your typical employee, getting paid minimum wage at some decent looking-ass bookstore, the most fun Red got a kick out of was judging his customers on the books they bought.
But fuck can it get boring overtime. He would greet the new people with your typical fake enthusiasm customer service, or not at all—it was dependent on his mood. He would just stay behind the counter until they needed him to get their ass out of the store.
It was a simple job that didn’t require a lot of effort like he wanted, and close to his home, but his working hours felt endless that he, also, wanted to kick himself out of the shop.
Currently, Red was behind the counter as per usual and was reading some stupid digest for shits when he sensed someone coming in front. He glanced up to see a skeleton monster like himself who placed a book about renewable energy, and it had wind turbines on the cover.
It left his mouth before he could stop himself. “Big fan, huh.”
“Heh, if it helps save energy.” The monster shrugged. “Didn’t want to keep my head spinnin’ about it any longer.”
Red blinked, and his heart shook. A grin couldn’t help make its way to his face. “So you’re just gonna go with the flow, huh.”
“Current-ly, yeah.”
Red’s mouth twitched. This guy. Not speaking anymore, Red scanned and processed the payment quickly, handing the bag with good ol’ customer service smile. “Thank you for shopping, please come again.”
“If you insist.” The skeleton had the gall to wink at him, making Red’s eye twitch.
Insist my ass. Red huffed. He hoped that’ll be the last he saw of him … Even if the latter was interesting.
Red didn’t see the skeleton the next couple of days, and he didn’t know whether to be glad or disappoi—No! He was fine. Good riddance.
Though despite his thoughts, the short skeleton was a little down as his heart grumbled in the passing days.
It wasn’t until he looked up one afternoon on a slow day when his eyes widened in seeing the lazy yet smug cute grin—not cute! What the hell was he thinking?! This punk wasn’t the least bit cute at all.
This time, the latter handed him a book on plantation. Red looked up to see the cheeky grin still plastered on the other’s face. Back for more, huh.
Red couldn’t help raising a brow, the challenging twinkle in his eyes was obvious. And that only seem to make the skeleton before him brighten up.
“Energy, and now plants, huh. Did the other one stumped ya?”
“Heh, nah. Just thought it’d be good to keep being natural.”
Red snorted. “So you’re gonna stick with it?”
The skeleton shrugged. “My bro was leafin’ me no choice. Told me to branch out even if I had to log myself around.”
Calm down heart.Stop beating so fuckin’ fast! It’s distracting me from my showdown! But Red was starting to be rendered speechless with how much he was starting to like the stranger more and more.
“Hey bud, you doin’ okay? I’m just pollen your leg.”
Holy fuck. The skeleton better stop being too fucking charming or Red was going to have a cardiac arrest with how loud and hard his soul was beating against his ribcage.
“… I’m oak-ay.”
The other skeleton grinned, which made Red immediately grimace, already knowing what was going to happen next.
“Hi, oak-ay. I’m Sans.”
Red groaned. He was totally set up! The cute bastard!
It was the dreaded final nail getting hit on the coffin to seal the deal. Red was absolutely already smitten by this customer of his—Sans, as he introduced himself to be.
Sans laughed wholeheartedly at his dismay, and it left Red muttering curses under his breath as he scanned the book and did the payment process like before.
“Thank you for shopping, please don’t come again.”
This only made Sans chuckle, and wave at him. “See you again, Red!”
Red blinked, and was just about to ask how the latter knew before he quickly realized, thank fucking stars to save himself from embarrassment, that he was wearing a name tag. Tsk. He really got dunked on this round.
It didn’t take long for Red to start looking forward to their pun fights.
With Sans coming in once a week, becoming a regular, with a different book to buy, a different topic to discuss, and a whole new pun war to ensue, Red knew that he had fallen hard for the skeleton.
They traded blows back and forth no matter what is was; throwing everything in their repertoire and reserves just to one-up the other.
Sans even had the gall to purchase a Harry Potter book, and oh, it went down all right. All hell broke loose that day. And they ended it in a draw because Sans’ brother called and the latter had to leave right after.
But stars, who asked Sans to be this cute and funny?! Red grumbled in his heart, unable to help enjoying their moments together, however short they were.
He’d never met anyone who can match him as well as Sans had.
The skeleton tapped on the desk nervously at his usual spot behind the counter. They’ve been doing these banters for about three months now, and even got to exchange numbers. At this point, Red was definitely sure, if his stupid soul wasn’t shutting up about it, that he was having a huge crush towards Sans. God fucking damnit.
Red sighed heavily. Sans texted that he was going to come by any minute, and he didn’t know whether he should act what he planned to do or not. He’d be a fool not to take the chance, but heck, he was going to be making a fool of himself regardless. He might as well make it intentional, right? Save his dignity a bit by having at least tried it.
The doors slid and in came the very monster he dreaded and delighted in seeing. His soul began thumping loud as if on cue. Stars, Red hated everything right now.
“Hey Red.”
Just casually wave Red, act natural. Don’t be a dumbass. “Yo.” Right. Good. Good start. Don’t— “Wannagooutsometime?!”
“What?”
“What?” Red echoed.
Sans blinked, before he snorted and made his way over to Red. The latter was inwardly freaking out, sweating bullets as he gave Sans a shaky smile.
“You know,” Sans started. “You’ve been working in here for some time, with all these books surroundin’ ya. I would’ve thought that—”
Oh no.
Sans’ grin widened when he watched Red’s expression transform into horror at the realization. “—you’d believe in yourshelf more.”
Red’s cheeks flushed brightly, wanting to scream unintelligible words as he moved his hands to cover his face. “I hate you.”
“Aww, but I like you.”
Red choked on his breath.
Sans took one of Red’s hands into his own, and his soul melted in seeing the bashfulness. Though it amused him to see the slight frustration as well. “If ya haven’t noticed, I don’t come here to buy shitty books because I actually want them ya know? And I don’t just give away my number that easily. Been wonderin’ how to get your attention since day 1.”
Red chuckled, snorting loudly. “Oh my fuckin’ stars. Are you for real?”
“No. I already told you I’m Sans. Was there someone else hittin’ on ya? Point to ‘em, I’ll dish out the sickest diss puns they’ll ever hear. Pretty sure I already called dibs on ya.”
“Shut up! Pfft-ahahahaha!” Red broke into a laughing mess. He wiped the tears that cropped up in his eyes as he held his stomach. “You asshole!”
And wasn’t that just such an endearing thing to hear from his boyfriend. Sans couldn’t help himself from grinning widely. His cheeks hurt from it.
When Red slowly calmed, still chuckling almost breathlessly for a bit, he smirked at Sans. “Guess I better let people know that you got me fully booked after my shift.”
And it was Sans’ turn to break down in laughs.
It was just another slow day, in a small bookstore, where two monsters were just enjoying themselves.