Chapter Text
When your soulmate mark developed, it was easy to say you were underwhelmed and confused by the "uuuhhhh... what. how the fuck did you lose a baby? " that adorned your wrist in chicken scratch.
You could distinctly remember your parents trying to give you reassurances: "Surely it would be a misunderstanding," and "Maybe they thought you were someone else". It wasn't a terrible soulmark, but it certainly raised a few brows when an employer would reach to shake your hand only to find that you were doomed to lose a child at some point. Your third cousin had "Do deez nuts cost extra?" on her thigh so really, you had no room to complain and you really doubted that you could ever lose an infant-toddler-thing.
That is until you got to the point in your life where you realized that it was, in fact, extremely easy to lose a baby. Everything your parents had taught you and had tried to prepare you for still managed to fail miserably and you were still stuck looking everywhere for the little shit. In your plants, under your tables, behind your TV: anywhere it could hide, you were searching for him frantically. It was kind of embarrassing, considering how you had pretty much your entire life to get good at finding shit and you wasted the chance just to play video games and read bad fanfics.
Maybe you were just overlooking him. Maybe he was sitting right in plain sight and you were just not fucking seeing him. Maybe he suddenly grew camouflage and was now one with your living room: who knew!
Your fingers knotted in your hair in frustration and you paced in a circle as you tried to figure out what to do. A fresh set of eyes in the room would help you out immensely but you couldn't call anyone: the people you could contact were too far away or were too preoccupied with jobs to come to help your dumb ass out. Would the apartment manager help...? Perhaps maintenance!
"Fuck, it's worth a shot," you muttered and hurried to open your door.
As soon as you stepped outside, you spotted one of the newer neighbors shuffling down the hall, looking very much like Death himself got hit by a bus. Stout, made of bones and hungover a majority of the time, you had never gathered up the courage to speak to the grumpy bastard or his bombastic brother, but they were well known for being the resident troublemakers for all of the shenanigans they would get into. From blowing up their oven to starting fights with a very angry fish lady to somehow pranking their fellow residents by carefully lining the halls with whoopee cushions, you simply did your best to avoid them and minded your own business.
You bit your lip and tried to debate what you should do. From the rumors, you've heard that most Monsters were actually fairly decent to be around, if not a bit rough around the edges thanks to the effort of the kid that had freed them from their prison and taught them about the magic of Friendship or something, though you were still nervous. Frankly, most people were still terrified of the edgy assholes that had come up out of the mountain a few years ago, but the more he stalked closer, the more you decided that not even the skeleton's shark-like grimace could deter you from your search.
Mind made up, you dove at him and grabbed his shoulders as he made a variety of confused noises and flailed to get away from you. His hand slapped against your face and his palm pushed your head further away from him, but you continued to cling to him undeterred until you managed to grab hold of his jacket and haul him into your apartment. You were quick to slam the door shut, preventing both him and your baby from escaping before you turned to him with a manic look in your eyes. His fists were already up in a brawl position and his left eye was flooded with red magic that swirled and smoked in the air around his head, but you didn't—couldn't—let it stop you.
You sucked in a breath to try to calm down, all while he stared at you like you were certifiably insane.
"I lost my baby and I need help." The skeleton blinked at you once, then repeated the action as if he hadn't understood a damn thing you said, so you added, "If we don't find him in the next fifteen minutes, he's gonna dehydrate and die."
"uuuhhhh... what." He looked almost as panicked as you now: his red eyelights little more than pinpricks and a burst of sweat broke out across his brow. "how the fuck did you lose a baby?"
"They're escape artists! The little fuckers just—" You made a variety of motions with your hands, but you were back to scanning the room for signs of your target. "He's probably terrified. I should have kept a better eye on him, I should have—"
The skeleton cringed as he watched you tear the cushions off the couch, then awkwardly came forward to place his hand on your shoulder in what you assumed was comfort, but he very much looked as though he would rather be literally anywhere else. If you weren't in peak "everything is awful" mode, you'd probably want to crawl into a socially awkward hole and die too. You were just amazed that he didn't sock you in the mouth the moment you jumped him.
"i'm... sure they're fine."
"Y-yeah," you squeaked and lifted your decorative rug to peek under it as if it would help. "I'm... Sure he's not dying... Or stuck in a vent..."
His eyes went completely dark and somehow, he began to sweat even more. "n... nah. i doubt it. we'll find 'im, toots."
It surprised you how easy it was to convince the typically grumpy and standoffish stranger to help you and you couldn't help but watch in awe as he squatted down beside a chair to peer under the table. The sight would have warmed your heart if not for the fact that you were on a time limit to find your precious baby before they upped and died. You could fawn over the prickly Monster doing a nice thing for you after the search was over.
Powered by a newfound sense of Determination, you began the long process of checking every nook and cranny in your household. No cabinet went unopened, no pillow left in their cases: wherever you both went, you left behind a trail of destruction and out-of-place furniture in your wake. Really, you would have been impressed by the teamwork that was going on if you weren't too busy making kissy noises in a vain attempt at drawing out the missing bugger.
"are ya sure he's even in the apartment?" The skeleton asked as he held up the couch for you to peek underneath it.
You froze. "I... Hope he is...?"
He groaned and dropped the couch back down. "ya don't even know?"
"I'm... Pretty sure...?"
You cringed and sat back on your heels, preparing to thank the skeleton and apologize for wasting his time, but you stopped short when you saw a short burst of movement on his jacket. In the blink of an eye, you once again lunged at him and nearly yanked his shorts down as you reached up to swipe the red and black critter that was clinging to his clothes. He swore and clutched at his waistband to prevent you from depantsing him, but you ignored his indignant shouts to cradle the small, red claw crab in the palms of your hands. It instantly pinched you like the little bastard it was, though you didn't care as you began to blubber happily and cooed at it.
"Oh my god—you were with us the whole time! How did you climb up the nice fella so fast?" You walked over to a carefully decorated aquarium where two similar crabs sat half-hidden by a plant, giving you a perfect opportunity to open the lid and set the escape artist on a driftwood log before quickly snapping and securing the tank shut. "You had mama so worried! Don't you ever do that again."
The red and black crab pointedly ignored you and tapped its claws on the log before it leisurely crawled into the water and promptly hid inside the plants with its tank mates. The sheer amount of relief that flooded you made you sigh and grin down at them happily now that the vomit-inducing anxiety rush was over with. You'd have to reorganize the tank to prevent any future mishaps and—
"crabs!?" The sudden shout made you jump and whip around to face the skeleton. "all these years and it was about a fuckin' crab!? you've got crabs!?"
You held your hands up in defense and wondered if dragging him into your apartment was about to be the biggest mistake of your life. "Huh?"
""huh"? that's all ya have to say to me?" He threw his hands in the air and his voice raised in volume. "no "nice to meet ya" or "how the fuck do ya do"?"
Confused more than ever, you squinted at him and questioningly said, "How the fuck do you do?"
The skeleton instantly slapped his palms against his face and let out a muffled scream. "boss was right: my soulmate is a fuckin' idiot."
"I'm... Sorry? Maybe you should talk it out with them. They could just be oblivious, you know."
He stared at you, his expression dull as he yanked the hem up his shirt up to his chin and you yelped and shielded your eyes, though you peeked anyways because what the hell did a skeleton have to flash you with?
Across his ribs, you recognized your handwriting.
"I lost my baby and I need help. If we don't find him in the next fifteen minutes, he's gonna dehydrate and die."
Your mouth formed an "o" and you suddenly realized that he had, indeed, said the fated words as well.