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The storm raged on when Stretched opened the pantry door in the kitchen. There sitting on the floor was the love of his life, curled up in the tightest of bony balls, rattling like a maraca with how hard he shook. Edge had covered his head with his hand, an attempt to protect that poor scarred head of his. His sockets clenched tight as he flinched away as the next set of rolling thunder shook the house.
Stretch’s soul hurt for his husbone. He knew he should have been up here sooner, the storm coming out of nowhere, not a single warning from his weather apps or the news station this morning. Stretch happened to be in the basement, working on his latest experiment when the thunder and lighting started, the machinery he was working with ended up dampening the sound of the outside world. Stretch only got a clue when he happened to look up from his notes and saw the flash from the basement window.
He wasn’t too sure how long this storm had been going on, but even a single second was too long for his precious.
Stretch knelt down to Edge’s level, producing an Mp3 player and a pair of noise canceling headphones. Selecting the music had become second nature to him, a collection of music meant to be soothing but loud enough to cancel out any thunder that may weed its way through. The next flash had Edge curling away into a tighter ball, if it was possible. Stretch reached out, stroking his love’s skull as he waited out the thunder. The responding sob coming from his husbone nearly broke his soul.
Once it was over, Stretch began to slowly ease Edge’s trembling hands off of his skull, slipping the MP3 player in his hands to hold. He tisked as he noticed a few fresh scratches left behind that he would have to care of later. Right now, his first priority was to calm Edge out of his terror.
He managed to get the headphones in place just before the next loud rumble, though it didn’t keep Edge from flinching as he felt the resounding vibrations of the thunder. Sure enough the music began to do it’s trick as Edge began to relax from the balled up position. Edge didn’t glance up at him, he never did. Stretch knew Edge was ashamed of his fear, and Stretch would never shame him for it.
Placing a kiss atop of Edge’s skull, Stretch began to help guide him into a standing position. This process took a few minutes as the flashes still triggered Edge to pull away. Stretch remained patient throughout, gently coaxing him back to him. For Edge, Stretch had all the time in the world to give and then some.
Once they were standing, Stretch produced Edge’s scarf he had picked up on his way into the kitchen. Edge normally took off his scarf when he was cooking, keeping on a hook by the door for safe keeping. A quick glance at the counter and the kitchen floor saw the victims of the storm. Vegetables meant for the night's meal scattered all over. At least Edge managed not to cut himself this time, said skeleton still sported a faint line of a scar from that incident. Stretch will have to come back later to clean it up, Edge always hated wasting food and he’ll make sure those fallen vegetables went somewhere useful.
Stretch wound the scarf over Edge’s eyes and around his skull, cutting off his sight so the flashes of lighting would no longer affect him. Stretch hooked an arm over Edge’s shoulder, while the other hand held Edge’s elbows before guiding him out of the kitchen and through the living room. The level of trust Edge held for him, as he guided him up the stairs, tapping his shoulder every time he needed to step, made Stretch’s soul swell with love and affection.
Once in the room, Stretch turned Edge around to face away from the bed. Reluctantly, Stretch removed his hands from Edge to grab at the heavy, plush blanket that rested at the foot of their bed and proceeded to cocoon Edge tightly. The storm still was raging outside during their walk, and the thunder still powerful enough to feel it through their bones, causing Edge to jump in Stretch’s hold. The blanket would make for the final piece of armor to defend Edge against his living nightmare for the night.
Stretch then guided Edge to sit down with him, pulling him onto the bed to be tucked against his side. He could feel the remaining tremors begin to fade from the skeleton burrito as Edge began to relax against his side. Fear melted away to exhaustion, the Fell monster’s breathing slowed to the rhythm of sleep.
Priority one complete, now to work on his next priority as Stretch reached into his pocket to collect his cell phone that was vibrating furiously since this whole thing started. Hitting the answer button, Stretch brought the phone to his ear and let the one on the other end fire off.
“took ya fuckin’ long enough asshole, is everythin’ ok ov’r there? do i need to come ov’r? how is Edge going? is he hurt?” Red nearly sounded panicked, his own fear of the storm bleeding through the line as it was one of the only predictable times for Red to drop his heartless gremlin act. Not that he had anyone fooled.
“he’s snug as a bug in a rug and off to dreamland. you have nothing to worry about Red, everything is fine here. i got him.” Stretch reassured the elder fell brother, glad that they had made it past the whole popover in an instant and risked burnout from short-cutting during a thunderstorm stage. They learned very quickly that shortcuts and thunderstorms don’t mix well.
The reply seemed to have been satisfactory as he heard the relieved sigh on the other end before the line went dead. See, Red had really come a long way in letting Stretch care for Edge’s tramas. Placing the cell phone down on the nightstand, Stretch leaned back into Edge, stroking the other’s skull as he waited out the night.
Stretch began to drift back in thought, back in time to when he first came across Edge’s paralyzing fear of these storms. Way back in the day where Edge and him were more like Frienemies rather than lovers.
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Back then, they all; Tale, Fell and Swap; shared one household while being stranded in the Undertale-verse. Undertale had made it to the surface and the resident skeletons were able to get a household just barely big enough for them all to live in, with each brother sharing a room. Those were trying times.
He remembered it well, Ignoring Edge once again as he ranted and raved for Stretch to get off his lazy tailbone and pick up the laundry he left purposefully, to annoy the ornery Fell monster, in the only bathroom of the household so he could clean it. Stretch remained content to ignore Edge’s demands as he continued to play the game on his phone.
Earlier Blue, Rus and Comic had gone out with Undyne and Alphys to check out a local Arcade for the first time. Had there been enough room in the car, Stretch would have tagged along, as the idea also perked his interest. Red apparently had locked himself downstairs to tinker on stars knows what.
That was when the first flash came, steering Stretch's attention from his game, and Edge’s rant, to the window where he was drawn to as if with a magnet. He threw open the curtains to watch the sudden downpour as the rumble came like a force to be reckoned with. It sent a pleasant shiver down his spine.
It wasn’t the first Thunderstorm they had witnessed since being on the surface, but it was definitely a big one. Each storm was always fascinating to Stretch as well as a kind reminder that they were no longer stuck underground. He enjoyed watching the bolts streak jagged patterns in the sky. The way the thunder boomed or rumbled loudly soon after.
Stretch almost missed how much he used to enjoy watching these storms.
“hey Edge, come check this out.” Stretch glanced back at Edge, who only stood stock still, facing away from him and the window. Stretch only shrugged it off, taking as Edge being furious with him still ignoring his earlier request. He glanced back in time to see a rather large, multi-branching bolt strike somewhere close to the neighborhood, He bounced as he counted down the seconds for the rather boom to follow.
It was loud enough to nearly shake the foundation of the house, making Stretch giddy from it’s sheer power. A second later the sound of the closet door slamming shut grasped his attention.
Stretch glanced back, noticing that Edge was no longer in sight. Curious, Stretch walked over to the closet door, hearing a light rattling coming from the other side. Pulling the door open, Stretch was surprised to find Edge huddled on the floor, hands covering his acoustic meatus as he rocked where he sat.
To this day Stretch is ashamed how he laughed. “are... are you seriously afraid of a little lighting? the great and terrible Papyrus, scared of a little storm? oh, come on Edgelord, that is too rich.”
The room lit up with the next bolt, illuminating Edge’s features as he flinched and cowered. Ice cold guilt flooded Stretch’s soul, ending his laughter dead in its tracks, when he heard the sobbing whimpers come from the usually proud monster. Stretch blinked owlishly down at Edge, noticing as he trembled from the resounding boom that followed.
To his recollection, he had never seen Edge this terrified before. He never thought Edge could emote anything past constipated anger and disapproval.
Stretch crouched down to look at Edge closer, asking in concern, “you really are terrified of the thunder, aren’t you?” The next crackling boom answered that question for him, the length of the sound went on for a good while. Edge’s bones rattled harder than Stretch ever thought possible for a skeleton monster without falling apart.
Edge’s sockets stared blankly ahead of him with his eye-lights as small as pin pricks, Stretch would have thought they had extinguished if they didn’t shake so violently. It was then that Stretch noticed the scratches developing over his skull as Edge tried in vain to muffle the sounds with his hands, but bones were poor at covering sound. Stretch hadn’t noticed earlier that Edge wasn’t wearing his gloves.
He wasn’t sure as to what had caused it to happen, possibly their weight and haphazard placement on the top shelf had caused the avalanche of blankets to fall off the top shelf of the closet directly on top of the poor cowering skeleton. Stretch jumped back, falling on his coccyx, as Edge screamed in utter terror, a flash of magic circled him, though no attack was formed. The scream led Edge to hyperventilate as he shook beneath the mountains of blankets.
Stretch just sat there, mouth agape, as he stared in shock like a deer in headlights.
He nearly jumped out of his non-existing skin when the door to the basement slammed open. Red was making a mad scramble over towards Edge, pushing past Stretch in his haste. Red fell to his knees and began to unearth Edge from the blankets.
“Paps! hey Paps it’s me, Sans. i’m here bro, i’m here. breathe with me Paps...” Red gathered Edge into his arms, pulling him close as the next set of flashes and thunder rolled through. Stretch felt like he had been flung into another timeline, one where Edge was clinging to his brother for shelter and comfort and Red was actually acting like a brother and providing what Edge needed. “shh, shhh, that’s it, it’s ok, bro. it’s not a cave in, yer on the surface. yer safe, yer safe.”
Red eye-lights turned towards Stretch, a flash of anger sparked in Red’s sockets before he barked out, “quit yer gawking. git out of here if yer gonna be fuckin’ useless.” Red growl faded as he turned his attention back to Edge, muttering more words of comfort and shielding his younger brother from the sight and sounds of the storm. Edge’s grip on Red’s shirt began to produce holes from how hard he was holding onto him.
Stretch rose to his feet, still unable to tear his eyes from the brothers in the closet as if bewitched by the scene. Stretch gulped with a dry clink, soul full of guilt and sympathy. He knew he couldn’t just keep standing here, staring like a dimwit. There had to be something he could do to…
Stretch ran up the stairs to his and Blue’s shared room, grabbing his backpack and dumping the contents onto his bed. After a bit of rummaging Stretch grabbed the old beat up cassette player he usually took with him on trips into town. He yanked off the dying earphones, it wouldn’t help against the booming thunder to have one bud that would only play sound when the wire is held in a specific position. He then dived for the headphones next to his computer, they weren’t the best at noise cancelling but both ear pieces worked and would do for now.
Nearly taking the steps two at a time, Stretch ran down the stairs towards the closet, nearly tumbling in as he came to a screeching halt. Breathing heavily, Stretch presented his solution towards Red, who glared at him for returning.
That glare melted into realization as Red snatched the offered objects from the Swap monster’s hands and began to coax Edge into removing his hands from his head. Red hands shook as he pulled Edge’s hands away, struggling as thunder rolled in the background and Edge fought to cover up again.
Once the headset was in place and the music turned on, Edge visibly began to relax. Stretch knew the cassette in the player very well. An old party mix, with songs ranging from “It’s Raining Men” to the “Chicken Dance” to “Rockin’ Robin”. It was an amusing mix, though he wasn’t entirely sure on Edge’s musical taste. But he would place bets that it was worlds better to the sound of thunder.
It felt good to see that something he did was helping Edge come out of his terror, leaning into his brother's hold as his eye-lights went from migraine-inducing pin-pricks to a softer version of his normally intense cat-like eyes. Even Red appeared to be breathing easier as he held onto his brother. Edge flinched at a flash of lighting, prompted Stretch to gather the big heavy quilt that was on top of the blanket pile and draping over the two before sitting down next to Edge, wrapping the corner of the quilt over the shivering skeleton’s face, effectively blocking out the storm.
The effect was almost instant, the shutters soon melted into a slow rise and fall as he leaned even heavier against Red. The subtle snore was the only clue that Edge had actually fallen asleep between them.
Red shifted to get his hands out of the blankets without uncovering Edge and signed “thanks, that was actually helpful”
Stretch nodded back, placing his hand on Edge’s back and gently began to rub soothing circles over the snoozing monster’s back, much like how he would for Blue back when he was a baby-bones.
Red glanced down at Edge and appeared to come to a decision before he began to sign. “earthquakes used to be pretty common in our underground. small tremors here and there. not much to bat an eye at. But there were a few that shook things up.”
Red paused, appeared to check his brother before continuing. “one day he was tucked away in a small cavern in Waterfall, i told him to stay quiet, that he’d be safe there while i scavenged for food. then a big one hit, everything shook and rumbled, some buildings collapsed, a few fissures created, rocks fell from the underground ceiling. i rushed to the cavern as fast as i could run, most of it was a blur.”
Red swallowed, his fist closing into fist. Lighting illuminated his features, making him look older, tired, his gaze seemingly looking into the past. “i got there to find the cavern caved in. there was no sign that Paps had made it out. I started digging when I heard a muffled cry from within. just me, digging til my hands bled. i nearly lost him in that cave in. he was about 6 years old when it happened. said there was a flash of some sort in the cave before all the rocking and rolling.”
Red taps over Edge’s covered rib cage, right at a few ribs. Stretch knew of a few significant jagged scars in that area. He got a good view of them from an accidental peep show he got just a few months back. The scars were jagged and healed a little crooked. “the first few scars he’d gotten, not from monsters’ hands. i still remember the sound, the thunder is very similar to it. i still think i’m gonna find his dust sometimes.” Red rested one of his hands in his lap, the other rose to Edge’s skull, absently rubbing along his coronal suture.
Stretch stared at Red following his movements towards Edge. “that's why he’s afraid of the thunderstorm.” Stretch signed back. Red nodded in response before resting his head against Edge’s.
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Stretch squeezed Edge close to him, kissing the top of his skull as the last of the memory faded in memory. Edge hadn’t been too pleased that Red told him about the past, granted he only found out after they started dating.
A hand trying to burrow out of the tightly wrapped blanket caught Stretch’s attention. He met it with his own, interlacing his fingers and placing light kisses over the knuckles. He knew better than to assume that Edge had woken up, not with that light snore of his. Outside the storm began to calm down, thunder a distant rumble. Here Stretch would remain, supporting and comforting Edge for the rest of the night. Nothing short of a reset could ever make him leave.