Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She took the scenic route from school. Bullies tended to be a bother she gladly avoided. Also this route was way more peaceful with a secret shortcut to her home, the edge of the woods ending on a hill just behind her backyard.

Since the woods next to mount ebbot were rumored to be haunted she luckily was safe from most bullies close to them and at home.

Today it was nice and warm and she let her eyes wander. The grass and flowers were slightly shifting in the wind and…
Wait, what is that small white creature running in the grass?
She would have thought it was a bug, but it moved weird like bipedal?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sans moved as quickly a he could, seeing as he was low on magic (even despite his size) and every moment outside their hideout was dangerous.
Where the underground had been a kill or be killed place, the surface held only death for monsters their size.
Well death or capture.

There was only a few humans passing their area but from what they could gather when they entered this world creatures avoided humans for a reason.
Those who weren't openly hostile were mostly interested in themselves and being special.
Special like 'look what I found'.

Huh?
Were there any clouds before?
It didn't really feel much colder, though he did feel a sudden draft.
Wait the ground was shaking a bit and the grass crunched behind him.
Oh no!
He turned just in time to see the giant hand closing around him.

"Help! Boss!"
He shouted out of instinct.
His brother rounding the corner of their hideout just in time to hear and see the terrible event unfold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was curious, grabbing for the little creature to get a closer look.
An action that bit her in the hand in an instant.
But curiosity overruled pain in a world where school was allowed to bore children into entertainment hungry internet addicts.

When she opened her palm, what she saw was worth all the pain and then some.
The creature biting her looked like a tiny humanoid skeleton.
Wow, it moved and snarled and it's eyes snapped up at her. If this was some new kind of toy or maybe even a new species of tiny people she would have to find out more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He looked up at the young female human in horror. If his minuscule (heh!) knowledge about humans was correct, this should be a…
a
Oh no!
His eyesight gutted out.

A… T e e n a g e r.

A giant finger was moving towards him, surely to crush him.
He yelped, pulling his teeth out, ducking and rattling in fear.

Yes, he was used to a terrible world that wanted nothing but to see him dead.
But back then he had magic (magic food while sparse still available), couldn't easily be crushed underfoot and had his powerful brother to back him up.
Even in the unlikely case his brother would come to his aid, he would have a hard time conquering an enemy that didn't even flinch spilling blood.
Especially given he was only slighty bigger than Sans.

Besides, the finger was seconds from crushing him.

Making contact now.
Pressure started to built slightly.
This was it, his body wouldn't be able to take much.

Shortcutting was no use either, if he made it to the ground he would certainly be out of magic, unable to run.

The featherlight pats and strokes on his skull continued for a moment before he actually registered he wasn't dead.
Wait!
Did all humans have ridges in their skin?
The rubbing didn't feel too bad.
Okay, concentrate..
what was this for?
Did she…
Did she feel him up?

Her smile grew and the hand he was sitting on started to close.
Nononono!
Boss!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She couldn't believe what she found, it felt real, like a living being.
Could it talk? Was it sentient? How did it work? Were there more?
This was so exciting.

Without a second thought, she started to run home, holding the hand that trapped her find steady as best as she could.

Chapter Text

Arriving at home the young girl ran up to her Room. She was not interested in meeting her parents or sibling, she didn't feel like sharing her find.

Excited she opened her palms and took a close look what she had brought with her. Her excitement died down a little, when she saw the small thing wasn't moving.
The small bout of worry that started to form was crushed pretty quickly, when she saw the minuscule movements of breath.

Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she went for a magnifying glass to better make out the tiny things features.

Putting her find down on a soft cloth on top of her writing desk, she kneeled down, closing one eye to peer at whatever it was she found.

Mesmerised she carefully turned him to and fro picking up his small limbs with her slightly longer fingernails.

Mulling over what exactly the creature was and what its intentions were, she didn't catch the small movement around her feet until it was too late.

Not expecting any pain she was caught off guard, when something bit her in the ankle.

Looking down she was greeted by a tiny creature that was starting to climb up her legs.

Being somewhat arachnophobic, she instantly got creeped out, putting away the magnifying glass while panicky trying to grab for the offending creature.

It was just about to make a jump for the desk, when she was able to make a grab for it. Fortunately she recognized the creature as being similar to the other.
So when feeling another bite she quickly grabbed for another cloth putting it into a jar and dropped the creature on top of it.
With another clumsy move, she managed to close the lid.

Staring at her with two red pin pricks as eyes, the other small skeleton seemed to scowl at her.

She sucked at the small wound on her hand for a moment till the bleeding subsided.
All the while glowering back at him.

Feeling Petty she huffed and ignored the skeleton in the Jar. Turning up her nose like a little child and returning her attention to the unconscious skeleton on the table.

It looked way cuter anyways.

Seeing how the other small skeleton was completely skeletal, she wanted to take a closer look at the unconscious one in front of her.

Carefully trying to undress the one in front of her she suddenly heard small clicking noises from the Jar.
The new skeleton seemed to be extremely upset about her attempt to get a closer look.

She eyed him skeptically.

Huffing she mumbled "I don't want to hurt him, I just wanna see.."
For reasons she didn't know she pouted at nobody in particular.
It's not like she wanted to actually hurt something as interesting as this little…
Whatever it was..

She just wanted to find out what it.. what they were.

New clicking noises from the glass had her look to the taller one.
She saw him make motions with his hand, but it was hard to decipher.

Bringing the magnifying glass in she saw the taller one was motioning to himself, making an x with his arms when pointing to the smaller one.

"Oh, are we playing sharade?
..
You want me to look at you instead?"
She questioned.

He looked taken aback for a moment, but then nodded frantically.

Thinking for a second, she picked another glass, put in a cloth and carefully lifted the smaller one inside, then also put the lid on top. Of course that lid also had holes.

Afterwards she wanted to unscrew the taller ones glas, but stopped mid motion thinking better of it.
He would try to run, she thought.

Sure enough, putting the glass back down she saw the taller one fixated on the lid.

It seemed to take a moment for him to realize she had stopped, after she put the glass back down again.
Then his eyes snapped back to her.

Narrowing her eyes at him, he took a step back, averting his eye.. lights(?).

No, she didn't want to be bit again, or risk him running away.

Grinning victoriously she said "Not gonna happen, you can do it yourself."

She brought the magnifying glass back in and looked at him.

Wait, why was his skull(?) changing color?
That was kind of a cute red.

Was he.. blushing?

"Can you understand what I say?"
She asked absentmindedly.

Not really expecting an answer, she almost missed the taller of the two mini skeletons blush even harder and nod, very curtly, averting his eye lights and crossing his arms defensively.

"You.. are you flustered?"
She asked skeptically.

He flinched, looking down ashamed for a moment.

It was hard to grasp that a being that was only bones could be flustered.
This little guy was already so much more emotional and apparently sentient, then she would have thought.

"A.. are you a boy, then?" She stuttered.

He huffed, but couldn't stop himself from grinning up at her incredulously 'that's what she was picking up on out of all of this?' He thought.

She contemplated for a moment, looking away and absentmindedly filling her cheeks with air and making popping sounds, while thinking.

Her behavior threw him off, what was that mouth sound for?

When she was done contemplating, she focused on him again.

"Okay, so only your upper body then. But I want to see and learn more."

Slowly, he nodded.
That seemed to appease her, as she came closer and lay her chin on her crossed arms on the table, focusing on him.

Feeling himself blush he didn't have to wonder how his surroundings were tinted in a faint red glow.

Deciding to just do it, he took his upper clothes off. They were made from foliage and not very comfortable, but they were okay and the only clothes both his brother and him had were those they wore.

Carefully putting his makeshift shirt down, he stood there, feeling the humans eyes on him more than actually looking.

"Huh!" Came their eloquent answer to his predicament, to which he looked up. "So you are completely skeletal.." She added.
She still looked at him and scanned him, but seemed to not react much more. To his relief it seemed to be a non invasive, scientific curiosity.

But then she seemed to notice something "Wait, what's that glowy thing in your ribcage?
Is that your heart?"
She asked, confused.

He became even more red in the face, when she noticed his soul, but shook his head.

She stared at him for a moment longer than relented.
Sighing, she focused again.
"Hold on, but if you're skeletal, then can you touch your spine, or do you have an invisible belly?"
She eyed him expectantly.

Seeing that he didn't react she added "Wait, it wouldn't hurt to touch your spine yourself, would it?"

He blushed harder than before, but shook his head.

She narrowed her eyes at him, sighing "is it something 'very private' then?" She made quotation marks with her fingers to accentuate the private part.

He flinched, pulling up his shoulders for being so obvious about it.

"Okay, so no touching or rubbing, just a poke?"
She stood up poking her belly near her belly button "like this?!"
Then she got closer again looking at him through the magnifying glass and he seemed frozen in thought.

In the end he just nodded and did as she asked, relieved she wasn't interested in what private things meant for a Skeleton.

She saw when he poked his spine that there didn't seem to be a belly in the way.

"So you really are just bones?"

He nodded. Looking everywhere but her.

She considered this part, looking away and mumbling to herself "then, what does private time even mean for a skeleton?!"

His eyes darted to and fro and he froze before looking at her again, luckily this question wasn't actually addressed at him.

"Hmm.."
She added. "But hold on, if you have no belly, do you even need to eat or drink..?"

At the mention of food his eyes snapped back at her.
She wouldn't waste food on them, would she?

His hopeful expression made her pause.
"Wait, you haven't been actually starving all this time, while I was trying to find out how you work, have you?"

The whole body flinch at being caught vulnerable would have been hard to miss even without a magnifying glass.

She face palmed.
"Hold on.."
She jumped to her feet, turning to run off, only to freeze again.
"Uhh.. what do skeletons even eat?"

Chapter Text

"Hmm, you look somewhat like a human skeleton,  so can you eat cooked food?"

There was an assortment of different food in front of her. 

She had apparently brought her own cooked food,  it was lasagna. 

Even from his perspective it wasn't hard to tell what savory dish was placed in front of him.  Only he couldn't imagine ever being able to eat a slice as big as this in his lifetime. 

The smell made his mouth pool with magic. 

Other things she had brought were small pieces of vegetables, fruit, condiments and a small bowl of pudding.

He hadn't seen that much good food in a long while,  they had lived from scraps and bugs outside. 

‘They’

he paused, looking over to his brothers glas prison..,

being seperated like this didn’t sit right with him.

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The young girl sitting in front of her desk with the two jars on top watched the taller skeleton through a magnifying glass that was leaning against his jar.

Not getting a direct answer to her question wasn’t all that bad, since his reaction pretty much told her everything. She didn’t miss him looking over to the other small skeletons jar, though.

Apparently he snapped out of it quickly though, like he caught himself doing something bad. 

He looked at her again crossing his arms, huffing and answering her question with an attempted uninterested nod at the food.

Like he begrudgingly approved what she had brought.

As though he hadn't almost been drooling a second before. 

--------------------

He gazed over to his brothers' jar wondering if the other was okay, if he did wake up yet, then he noticed he was still being watched. 

‘This was dangerous’ 

..his instincts reminded him.

He couldn’t show her he cared, she already used it against him. 

Papyrus quickly redirected his attention back to her approving the choices of food she brought acting as indifferent as he could.

Inside Papyrus was wrecked with worry and hunger, but he was the great and terrible Papyrus, he would not show a potential enemy weakness.     

---------------------

His behaviour threw her off.

Before he was insistent on her not touching the other, seeming upset and worried now he seemed to want to make her believe he didn't care about anything at all.

Looking at the second jar she could see the other skeleton was still asleep. 

This would be a problem if he wanted to eat something warm as well. 

She considered the taller skeletons' reaction,  deciding to risk it. 

"You can come out to eat, if you promise not to run away,  but the other guy still seems to be sleeping, so he will get some later."

-----------------

Papyrus saw her looking over to his brother, contemplating something. 

Nervously catching glimpses of the other jar, he wondered what was wrong,  why she looked over to Sans.

Was he hurt? Dusting?

She probably didn't even know they turn to dust when they die so she wouldn’t even know what she saw. 

Maybe he was panicking, being alone in a glass prison being ogled at by a humongous human.

He.. maybe he was still..

The girl answered his questions and he mentally berated himself for even thinking Sans would be doing anything but being lazy. 

Of course he was still asleep.

He looked to the side,  then again he could still be dusting or faking to be asleep, he must be the size of her damn thumbs fingernail, how would she be able to see.

Though it worried him to an extent that Sans didn't seem to show any kind of movement with such a delicious smell in the air. 

The runt never kept his appetite in check when smelling food.

…

His thoughts came to a sudden stop when the first part of what she said to him finally clicked. 

She would let him out,  if he promised. He just had to nod and be free?

He looked at her with wide eye sockets. She couldn't be that dumb,  right?!

----------------------------------------------------

It took a while for the taller skeleton to contemplate things and she caught his nervous glances at the other jar. 

'Ha, Big faker!' She thought. 

So he probably did like the other skeleton?

Suddenly he stopped his contemplation and snapped his head up at her again. His… eyes(?).. sockets(?) were wide in wonder but through the magnifying glance she saw his posture change. There was just that little bit of an animal ready to pounce in there, so she decided to clear some things up. 

"Listen, I won't hold you captive forever.  I just want to learn what you are and.. maybe who?

If you really want me to bring you back where I found you,  I will.  

But please don't try to escape there yourself.  

Aside from it being an ordeal to get there with your size, we have a pet dog and my parents like to keep the place clean.  My room is probably the only in the house where you might at least find crumbs to eat,  but she'll rectify that tomorrow while I'm at school and I'd hate for you to be sucked into a vacuum cleaner…

So since it's already late afternoon and I still have homework to do,  would you bear with me till tomorrow after school?!  

I promise I won't hurt you and if you want you can eat and rest.

You can come out or stay inside."

She saw she had his rapt attention, there were small flinches of his shoulders at the dangers that might await them and he looked more than doubtful about her good intentions. His face was stoic and what she'd call grumpy and he had his arms crossed. 

"Listen if I did want to hurt either of you in any way,  it wouldn't really matter what you thought about it or if you were asleep or not. 

But if you want to go back to your place right now, I will take you.."

She looked at her food already going cold. 

"Well,  after I ate.

Because I'm hungry too" She stated and harrumphed, crossing her arms.

"You can join in or not, your pick."

She looked down at him through one eye,  feeling big and important for once, but still hoping she didn't push it too far and they would stay.

Glancing quickly at the smaller skeleton, she didn’t know why she wanted them to stay, they were complete strangers…

But maybe that was really the reason. Friends never actually had time for you, she learned. They were busy, or meeting someone else or straight up didn’t feel like meeting. She would have been fine just to call them, maybe via discord, but all they ever did was write, even going so far as to only answer with emojis..

She accepted her fate a long time ago and just stuck to talking to people in school.

Being confined together must make people less picky…

Doesn’t make her less lonely at home most of the time, but she couldn’t really legally kidnap other sentient beings.

Finding these small creatures was not only interesting but they also provided some kind of company and she wondered if she could maybe tame and keep them to talk to.

When she found out about them being sentient that thought went out the window.

Legally she might have even been obligated to tell somebody, since there might be an infestation nobody knew about but they were sentient and the only ones of their kind she ever saw. 

So legally keeping creatures, that shouldn’t exist, confined probably wouldn’t have gotten her into trouble other than not making it known,...

morally…

She knew how being somewhere you didn’t feel at home at felt like.

Catching herself gazing ahead with an empty stare she looked down at the small skeleton, that probably wanted to give her an answer when she spaced out. She shook her head to get out of her self pity party, these thoughts weren’t gonna help anyone.

“Uh, sorry, spaced out there.

You want out?” she asked.

----------------------------------------------------

Papyrus listened to her endless rant about what they could and couldn’t do, this girl was either a spectacular liar pretending to be overly sensitive to others needs or an utter pushover.

She would let them leave, they could be out and about as soon as she was done eating and she’d even let them have their nibbles?

Well it wouldn’t be any more than nibbles to someone her size, so he guessed it wasn’t actually a bother in the end and he was hungry.

Looking up at her after not hearing a word out of her for a while he saw she still had her fork in hand looking past their jars at the wall.

Her expression made him swallow a sudden lump of magic in his nonexistent throat.

This particular expression he had seen too often. Lately more than he liked.

It was the expression a monster had before they were falling down.

An expression his brother had been wearing much too often lately when he thought Papyrus wasn’t watching, gaze distant, looking at the dark sky.

Sure they struggled with food and weather but it was still better than underground, where instead of bugs they had to watch out for the EXP hungry neighbour. 

They had to pretend not to care for each other so no one would try to use Sans’ weakness against Papyrus. 

But that was exactly the problem. When they left the underground they didn’t need to pretend anymore.

Generally more often than not his brother was being dumb, almost getting himself killed and he couldn’t do anything to make him stop, because if he did berate him about trying to help explicitely, he’d make Sans realize that he knew how ‘useless’ he actually was when it came to defending his younger brother.

So instead, back in the underground he just generally called him a dumb idiot and dragged him back home instead, making sure to go over the top, making his rants heard by the whole underground, so Sans would have something to tease him about when they were safe back home.

Grinding his teeth, facing away from Sans he wanted nothing but to have a serious talk with his brother, but he always avoided it and it never took long for Sans to deflect with some of his horrendous puns.

He played along.     

Pretending to blow up about the idiotic word play, so they wouldn’t have to talk.

Now there was no more reason to pretend and the cover fell. Sans figured it out quickly that he was the one who needed protection and that Papyrus always knew…

Papyrus’ guess was, secretely Sans always knew Papyrus knew, now however, Sans didn’t need to pretend to be strong anymore.

Sans stopped to pretend even in front of himself, and became even more reserved. 

So when he asked this morning to help gather food, Papyrus was more than happy to let him help under the premise he wouldn’t wander too far and call when he needed help.

In the end in a roundabout way his brother actually had found them food and maybe even good food at that, if only it doesn’t get them killed after everything was said and done.

Looking up at her to give her his answer he saw a few tears at the corner of her still distant eyes.

She wasn’t going to fall down right then and there, was she?

When her eyes returned to him and she shook her head apologizing, he remembered having heard that human souls were much more persistent and she was probably fine.

He absolutely not frantically nodded his head when she asked if he wanted out and certainly did not hope to get Sans back right away as well.

Since it was established that she was most likely a push over close to falling down, instead of a menace, he would see to it that his underling idiot of a brother was free as well ( in case she was falling down after all?).

-------------------------------------------------------

Seeing him frantically nod his head, she snorted a laugh and thought for a moment.

“Okay you go over here” she pointed at the back side of the jar “and I’ll slowly tip the jar towards me.”

She opened the Jar and looked at him from above “Or would you rather I pick you up?”

Seeing him blush was one thing, but she didn’t think it was possible to see color drain from a white boney skull.. face. He shook his head frantically. She didn't even need the magnifying glass to catch his reaction.

She snorted, making sure she turned her head to the side.

Looking down at him again she felt a little sorry since he must be afraid. 

He stood in the corner crossing his arms and she swore it looked like he was pouting.

"I'm going to tip it over now" she warned, waiting a second till he braced himself and started.

At first he looked frightened, but when she started he looked up at her, from what she observed before, probably in disbelief.

So she sped up a bit until he stepped down to the glass wall (now ground ) effortlessly, parading to the exit with a confident stride.

Before stepping out of the jar and off the rim, he looked up at her one more time.

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Her reaction to him not wanting to be picked up was utterly humiliating, so he was almost grateful that she skipped right to getting him out. 

When she started tilting the glass he expected to be thrown around but what he got was so slow, that he crossed his arms, staring up at her. 

Incredulous! 

Who does she think he was?!

Fortunately she sped up so he could finally gracefully descend and get out of that stupid jar.

Not before checking her face for any sign of betrayal, of course.

He was met with a dumb, almost obedient expression, he only knew from his brother and occasionally some of the mutts, though. 

Feeling empowered in his assumption that she was indeed just an oversized pawn, he strode over to his brother's confinement.

Not being able to see, he banged his fist against the jar " WAKE UP YOU LAZY MORON! " He shouted.

For a moment, nothing happened, then there was movement.

Finally something crawled closer.

He spotted the face of his brother closing in. 

Only something felt off. 

Even considering that his brother was on higher ground, Papyrus could already tell Sans' head was bigger.

-----------------

After grinning dopily down at Papyrus in his half awake state, Sans' head registered something felt off "heh, bro ?! Wha' are ya doin' down there?"

Clinking his skull against the glass, Sans seemed to slowly wake up.

Frowning he scanned the other's face "Ya.. kinda got smaller 'r somethin' ? Uh..."

----------------

Papyrus was sure the human wouldn't necessarily notice, but from his point of view it was hard to miss.

------------------- 

Hmm, sure smells nice and this place feels kinda comfy,  the older brother mused. 

He could stay here,  right?

Sans snickered as he saw papyrus' mouth move, so much for comfy, brother muffling sleeping place. 

"Heh,  yeah,  can't really hear ya behind the glass,  hol' on" He said, feeling his magic surge. 

But his attempt to get to the other side of the glass was foiled. He looked around, then up confused. 

Huh,  a glass jar.. how'd he get the lid on…?!

Suddenly movement behind papyrus registered and Sans froze,  looking up. 

HUMAN?!!!!!

Sans' eye lights gutted out,  then he threw himself against the glass shouting at his brother to run,  his eye light coming aflame with red as he warningly glared and growled up at the perceived threat. 

The human did nothing other than to blink down at him dumbly.

After a moment he heard clinking on the glass and looked to Papyrus again,  who was leveling him with an unimpressed stare,  crossing his arms. 

Sans swallowed 

'S..seriously?!' His mind stuttered 

'What kind of weird dream is this?!'

Then Papyrus signed for him to move back. 

Sans' eye lights darted between Papyrus,  the human and the lid when he wanted to crawl back,  then he heard clinking against the glass again and boss' gaze told him everything, no short cuts,  unless absolutely necessary.

Sans whined and nodded,  then Papyrus looked up at the human and nodded AND THE HUMAN NODDED BACK. 

What kind of asfferxgdtfv dream was this?! Sans mind went haywire.

He went to the other side of the jar as instructed and the human opened the lid with a small jolt.

Huh,  that wasn't too bad Sans thought,  before he remembered 'no shortcuts' and felt the jar tilt "nonononono nope, nooooooo!" He shouted scrambling back,  pressing himself against the wall behind him. 

It took a moment before he noticed how slowly the glass shifted.

Blinking back his surprise and relaxing, he saw papyrus on the side leveling him with another unimpressed gaze.

Sans narrowed his sockets at him, knowing full well even Papyrus would panic in a situation like this, mentally calling him a hypocrite. At least papyrus had the decency to avert his eyes a little sweat gathering on his forehead. 

Ha! Yeah, that's what I thought!

As soon as the orientation of the glass shifted more to sideways,  Sans casually got up and walked to the glass ground.

When he went to the exit towards his already waiting brother,  he looked up at the human shortly before he got out and suddenly remembered how they got here. 

A wave of panic surging through him when he remembered 'This is no dream!!!'

His mind screamed from fear and confusion as he inspected his hands and clothes.

Shivering he looked to Papyrus,  but instead of his pelvis in front of him, was faced with his brother's chest.

Looking up at his brother's face it felt like the other had gotten smaller, but from his clothes suddenly no longer feeling comfy and oversized, Sans could tell it was him who'd gotten bigger instead. 

What the hell was going on here?!