Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Disgusting.

You felt absolutely, totally, and completely disgusting.

And very little of that had to do with the fact that you were currently sitting on the protruding root of a twisted oak tree, covered in dirt, sweat, and a little bit of blood dripping from the gash on your forehead.

It was because of him.

Asshole.

You must've looked like such a mess, panting and sobbing as you tried desperately to catch your breath. The night was so cold you could feel the edges of your pajamas beginning to freeze at the hem, oversaturated with sweat and possibly blood. Your skin was so cold it had passed into the territory of numbness. You cringed as you rubbed your tingling fingers over the frigid skin of your arm, the motions doing little to ward off the painful cold. 

It didn't even occur to you that you now had no idea where the hell your car was in this tangle of foliage until you glanced up into the darkness around you. You then also realized that you had no idea where these woods even were, much less how to navigate them. When you had hopped into your car after the door of your apartment slammed loudly behind you, you had driven as far and as fast as you could, crying too hard to see much in the inky blackness of the night. It could've been minutes, it could've been hours. you weren't exactly paying attention to cardinal directions in that state.

It seemed to have been mere moments since that argument, and yet here you were, leaning heavily against the scratchy bark of an old oak in the middle of a dark, unfamiliar forest.

How had you gotten here? Why were you bloody? And why were you so fucking dirty?

The reality of the situation set in quickly, and you could feel yourself begin to shut down. Fuck, now is not the time for a dissociative episode. Or worse, a panic attack. You were going to die out here if you didn't pull it together, and fast. You were too exhausted to move, too shocked to speak, much less call for help, and honestly, it didn't matter to you if you wasted away right here, as far as you were concerned.

A light flickered in the darkness.

Your gaze immediately snapped to a red glow that curled out in a beautiful pattern before fizzling out, creating a dazzling, dancing display a few feet in front of you. You stared dumbly at it for a few moments, dimly registering that it must be from a monster before a sharp gasp caught your attention to your left. You turned your head to see two white dots suspended in midair.

"it's you."

You jolted upright as a deep, drawling voice thundered from where the dots of light floated, startling you so badly that you snapped into a standing position. You waited, hands clenched at your sides as you stared, caught like a deer in headlights, at the dots in front of you. After a few minutes of staring, unmoving, the tiny area around you lit awash in red light, revealing what you finally fully registered as a monster.

A giant, at least seven-foot-tall, skeleton monster.

Huh. That's new.

"please, don't scream. i promise i'm not gonna hurt ya." The massive skeleton practically whispered, his hands held in front of him in a soothing gesture.

That was odd. He sounded so desperate, but you couldn't quite place why. It wasn't exactly like you had the strength to move away anyhow, with how your legs ached in the cold. Your eyes trailed hazily to the hands that seemed to move closer and closer.

Hands covered in blood-red, glittering, fire magic.

Your mind malfunctioned. Suddenly, you felt like you were floating above your head, watching from a distance as your eyes zeroed in on the dazzling lights and stayed there, half-lidded and empty. You felt nothing. Not fear, not shock. Just a numb indifference. Dissociation. 

"sweetheart? are ya...okay? nice, red, real intelligent question to ask yer obviously shocked soulmate. okay, honey, do you mind if i touch ya? the fire won't hurt ya, i promise." The skeleton, Red, you gathered, if his little admonishment to himself could be trusted, asked, and you suddenly snapped to attention. You blinked, recoiling slightly as you were sucked back in your body, still feeling the numb release of dissociation tugging at you.

"No, no no no, I'm too dirty, I'll get you dirty too." You mumbled, and the skeleton, Red, looked at you with a strange, confused scowl.

You looked down at your hands, scratched up and bloodied from the sharp edges of the bark. Somehow, you knew that wasn't what was making you feel dirty. And yet...

"ya aren't dirty love, it's just a little blood. please, let me heal ya." He said once again, his voice more pleading than before.

You weren't dirty? But... You glanced down again, taking in the rest of your appearance. You weren't dirty. There was no dirt. But you could feel it, the dirt, oil, germs, the feeling of being utterly disgusting. You were dirty. You were dirty. You were dirty.

"darlin'? you're hyperventilating... listen to me, okay? i'm not gonna hurt ya. ya aren't dirty. please, just let me heal ya."

You couldn't breathe. You stared deeply into the eyelights of the skeleton in front of you, who looked back at you with a face of intense concern. Care. Understanding. You couldn't breathe. You couldn't understand it. Who was he? Where were you? What's going on? And more importantly, is he here? Oh god, oh god oh god oh god...

"sweetheart!"

And it was over.

********

"BLUEBERRY, LEAVE THE TINY HUMAN ALONE! SANS INSTRUCTED US NOT TO TOUCH THEM WITHOUT THEIR EXPRESS PERMISSION!"

What was that voice? And why was it so loud? What was the warm, smooth sensation fluttering on your forearm? Why couldn't you open your eyes?

"PAPYRUS, THEY ARE MY SOULMATE! I WOULD NEVER HURT THEM!"

Papyrus, you assumed, replied in a softer voice.

"I Do Not Think That Is What Sans Is Worried About."

You tried to catch the other person's reply, but sleep claimed you before you could.

...

The next time you gained enough consciousness to hear, the voice speaking to you was much softer. Gentle. Sweet, even. A voice you knew, one you recognized but couldn't quite place.

"...lucky to have ya here now. you're beautiful, ya know that? absolutely stunning. i've only heard your voice once, but even that was absolutely stunning. i'm sorry i scared ya back in the forest, but i tried to help, and when you started to panic i...i didn't know what to do. so i took you back here. axe liked you right away, and so did his brother. even boss seemed taken by you, even if just a little bit. course, he did disappear off to who knows where right after. ya know, we..."

And you slept once more.

...

The next time you awoke, it was silent.

The first thing you noticed was that you had been bundled up in some unimaginably soft fabric within an inch of your life. You felt like you'd been swamped in fabric, swooping in endless waves under, over, and around you. You were laying on your side, clutching tightly at something that felt suspiciously like a fuzzy creature. As your brain began to process what was around you, you forced your eyes open, blinking as your pupils contracted painfully in the light. 

You immediately noticed that you were clutching onto a stuffed lioness, brand new, and one of the nicest stuffed toys you'd ever seen. You gazed at it for a few moments, numbly, before you gazed around your room, taking it in with the interest of a bored toddler.

The room was a very nice, five-star hotel style with a large flat-screen TV, large, open, spotless windows, and cream walls with clean, modern accents. The room was tasteful, yet completely and totally useless in helping you decipher where the actual hell this place was. 

You sat up slowly, watching the blankets fall away from you as a strange sensation of disconnect washed over you. You were so numb you couldn't even be bothered to worry about where you were. Was this some kind of bizarrely human afterlife? Was The Good Place right after all? Not that it mattered anyway. Not after...

"sweetheart! yer awake!" 

Your gaze shifted slowly to the door, which must've opened at some point when you were stuck in your thoughts. Standing there, now in broad daylight, was the skeleton you'd met in the forest. Red, you dimly registered, that was his name. The name was immediately fitting as the red of his undershirt caught your eye. Concealing this shirt was a large black parka, one that looked much too warm for the chilly fall, but seemed to fit him nicely.

You blinked slowly at him as he stepped inside, a large, genuine grin spread across his face, revealing a row of sharp, shark-like teeth. One tooth glinted gold in the sunlight, and your eyes widened an imperceptible fraction as you focused on it for a few moments. You followed his glinting smile as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed a couple of feet from your folded legs. You watched him ceaselessly and noticed as he began to sweat small, red beads.

"it's been almost a whole day since I found ya. the sun should be setting soon, maybe in another hour. 'm sorry that i had to carry ya here but i couldn' just leave ya there because...well, there's a lot of reasons."

You shifted your attention to his words, moving to reply, but feeling as if you couldn't speak. You went to open your mouth to try to form the words, but the effort left you stressed and exhausted, so you dropped your gaze to your lap and wrung your hands, flush lighting across your face. damn it. this was not a good time for a non-verbal epsidoe. Besides, if this was the afterlife, this must be some kind of angel or something, and you didn't want to give a bad impression. Though, if this wasn't the afterlife...

"shy, huh? that's okay, yer not the only one. axe hardly ever talks, and sans can be pretty shy a lot of the time too. though probably not with ya on account of the fact that yer his uh...i'm rambling, aren't i? i know, i should introduce you to the others!"

Others?

You looked up from your tangled hands as you felt his weight leave the bed, watching as he made a beeline for the door. You vaguely heard him mutter something about 'Papyrus' and he was gone before you could even remember to ask if he knew ASL. You stared out of the open door, into an unassuming hallway that gave you no more information as it opened up into a room just as pristine and minimalist as this one.

What the hell was this place? It was clearly some kind of house or hotel, but you'd never seen a house with this kind of modernist furniture. Maybe in movies, but those were always the big condos in LA, not the kind of thing you would find in the middle of the Carolina woods. You grabbed the lioness you had pushed aside, looking into her amber eyes for some kind of clue, before giving up and trying to collect yourself.

You tugged the remaining bedding off of your legs and swung them out of bed, determined to check the extent of the damage to your head on the small mirror hanging in the bathroom attached to your room. Your legs were sore and stiff, but you managed to get out of bed with little issue, and you glanced down to see how badly your pajamas were torn.

You were more than a little surprised to find yourself dressed not in a pair of plain blue pajamas, but instead a slightly too big T-shirt and a pair of black shorts. You squinted down at the words on your shirt and finally figured out that they had a sentence written entirely in Japanese, a picture of a neko girl, and the words “Mew Mew Kissy Cutie” written in bright pink bubble letters.

You know, maybe it was intuition, but something told you that this shirt didn’t belong to Red.

Wait, who had changed your clothes?

You shook the thought off, mostly out of embarrassment, and headed towards the bathroom, only to stop as a shorter, but much flashier skeleton came barreling down the hallway, followed by a much taller, slightly less flashy skeleton wearing a parka similar to Red's. The shorter of the pair, obviously a figure that commanded respect, must’ve been six foot even, stuttered in his steps a bit as you locked eyes. Or uh, your eyes met his eyelights.

The shorter of the pair was dressed in a strange type of armor, that left what would be his midriff exposed and was topped by an orange scarf, like a trimming of icing on a cake. His counterpart wore a similar orange undershirt and had the stick of a lollipop hanging from his partially agape mouth. He too, had a tooth of gold, eerily similar to Red's. It was then that you noticed that the two skeletons had stopped stark in front of you, both looking at you with matching faces of wonder.

“Hello, human. My name is Blackberry, and this is my brother Mutt. Come with me.”

When the shorter of the pair, evidently named Blackberry, spoke, he held a certain air of confidence bordering on arrogance that warned you not to protest. you noted he spoke in a much more even tone than Red, more confident and closer to what you were used to, without the loud shouting cadence of the people you'd heard in your sleep. You wondered if you should reply, but he didn't wait for you to. Not that you could speak even if you tried, so when he spun on his heel, his brother sidestepping to let him pass, you followed wordlessly behind, falling in step with Mutt.

The walk was silent and somewhat awkward, but as you traveled down the hall, you could hear voices coming from the room that opened up at the end. You passed a few unopened doors that were each painted a different color, strange and staunch against the cream walls. Mutt stared down at you unapologetically, giving you a subtle nod, which you returned politely when you met his eyes.

“You have been in my house for almost a day, and still have not properly met any of the residents here." Blackberry's voice drew your gaze. "This disrespect will not continue. I am taking you into the kitchen, where you can meet the household cooks. While they are not as good as me, I prefer to not have to do such menial tasks,” Blackberry said, with a grand sweep of his hand as the hallway opened up into a bright, tiled room reminiscent of a hotel suite kitchen. 

Everything was perfectly spotless, as if this whole house(?) really was cleaned daily by maids. The only way you could tell that anyone lived there was the line of many individual coats that hung on the wall by, what you imagined, was the front door. By the looks of it, a lot of people lived here. As your trio turned to the right, you were greeted with a scene that immediately felt homey and heartwarming, even if you’d never met most of the people in it.

Closest to you in the kitchen was easily the shortest of all the skeletons, only a few inches taller than you, at best, wearing armor almost identical to Blackberry. This armor, however, was mostly grey instead of black, with blue accents and the cutest blue bow you’d ever seen in your life. Unlike most of the other skeletons, who either had no eyelights or simple white dots, this little cinnamon roll had two bright, blue stars, glittering in his sockets. He seemed to be busy messing with some ground beef when he turned to look at you three.

Behind him, standing at the same height as Mutt, was a very normal (relative to the other skeletons), happy-looking skeleton wearing an apron that read “KISS THE COOK COOL DUDE” and a plain white shirt underneath. He seemed to be stirring a pot that boiled on the stove, though his eyes were now trained on you.

“HELLO, HUMAN! I AM GLAD TO SEE YOU ARE FINALLY AWAKE FOR OUR SPECIAL SPAGHETTI AND TACO DINNER! WE MADE IT SPECIAL JUST FOR YOU! MY NAME IS PAPYRUS, AND THIS IS BLUEBERRY!” The taller of the two, Papyrus, exclaimed quite loudly, causing you to shrink closer to Mutt, who gave you a curious and concerned look.

You gave him a small, shy wave, knowing you wouldn’t be able to speak for some time, and hoped you wouldn’t come off as rude. Papyrus grinned happily at you and you sighed in relief. That relief was short-lived, however, as Blueberry barrelled towards you, slamming into you and pulling you into a tight hug. You startled, your throat growing tight as panic overwhelmed you for a moment, the feeling of being touched so suddenly very invasive, before he abruptly released you, stepping back with an apologetic smile.

“I AM SORRY, LITTLE HUMAN, I FORGOT MY MANNERS. IT IS NICE TO FINALLY MEET YOU.” He said, his tone colored with concern.

You hardly had time to react before another skeleton entered the room.

“blue, what did i tell you about leaving her alone? and black, did you really have to drag her out of her room for introductions? you know we can all be pretty shocking to a newcomer.” a new voice joined the fray, saving you from having to figure out how to "verbally" respond.

The new monster, another skeleton, (which was starting to get a little suspicious considering you remember reading somewhere that they were rare), patted Papyrus on the back as he slid past the counter. This skeleton must’ve been six foot even, with a big, fluffy blue hoodie and a white undershirt, finished off with a pair of black basketball shorts. He seemed pretty laid back, both hands hidden away in his pockets as he sauntered over to you, but it was clear in his expression that he was...worried? Somehow he looked familiar, even more so than the others.

“you okay?” he asked you quietly, so that only you, him, and Mutt, who had moved closer to you in your discomfort, could hear him.

You nodded minutely, though your blood felt like it was buzzing from adrenaline and your stomach roiled with nausea. He stepped a bit closer, and you drew in on yourself, averting your eyes a bit as he checked you over for injuries. His eyes looked oddly concerned, as if he was looking for any semblance of a superficial injury.

“are you sure? i know blue can be a handful. anything still wrong from last night? Is there anything i can get you?”

Okay, too much stimulation. There must have been, what, five, six skeletons in the room? You hadn't seen this many people since visiting your family two Christmases ago. This was too much. You were already nonverbal, but now there was so much noise, and so many new people, and so much new information, and… You take a few steps back, eyes wide with fear.

And slam right into someone else.

You immediately back away a tiny bit, turning around quickly to see a wide expanse of bony rib cage- 

Oh.

Oh jesus. 

That is a lot of rib cage. 

You begin to look up, and your gaze keeps going, up and up, and up. To meet one large, red, glowing eyelight, and…

His skull…

Oh my god.

It looked like someone had taken a shotgun and shot a huge section of this poor, massive skeleton’s head off, leaving one eye socket horribly injured. His face was mostly neutral, as neutral as a smile can be, but his eyes stared into your soul, freezing you in place. You knew how awful it felt to get stared at, but with everything going on, there wasn't much else you knew how to do without crying.

Your legs shook uncontrollably, and you began to buckle a bit, doing all you could to stay standing. You noticed out of the corner of your eye that Mutt had reached his arms out to grab you, but he didn’t get the chance. Between one breath and the next, you were suddenly suspended in midair, much higher than anyone in the room.

The massive skeleton was carrying you.

Yup, that's it. You were officially crying.

“axe! put them down! you’re gonna scare them!” Mutt shouted, and you would’ve been interested to pay more attention to what his voice sounded like if a horrible, nauseating sensation didn’t wash over you, your eyes closing of their own accord.

When the dizziness finally cleared, you opened your eyes, shocked to find yourself back in the bedroom you started in. A single tear fell, which you quickly wiped away as you tried to blink back the flood. Axe said nothing, nudging the door closed with his shoulder and setting you on the bed. Thousands of questions zipped through your head, but you knew it was a hopeless endeavor to try to speak, so instead, you settled for watching every move Axe made.

Gently, so carefully you’d think you were made of glass, he set you down on the mattress, peeling back the covers only to tuck them back over you as you straightened out your legs. You stared up into his unblinking eye, strangely calm as you took in his woodsy, almost gamey scent.

“rest, little lamb. i will not let any of the others in until you are ready.”

Oh, dear.

What had you gotten yourself into?

Chapter Text

Axe was… interesting.

He was always completely silent. Due to his lack of necessity for breath, he made no sound as he sat on the end of the bed. Neither of you spoke, but the silence didn’t feel unnatural. It was obvious pretty quickly to you that Axe wasn’t a talker, but his single eyelight never left your face as you lay next to him.

You didn’t realize how stressed you were until you really began to relax, breathing evening out as you trained your eyes to the ceiling. As you became calmer, Axe’s somewhat oppressive atmosphere relaxed, and you eventually sunk into a comfortable silence, where you focused on your breath and tried to force your voice to work.

You grasped at the paw of the lioness, too embarrassed to grab her, but thankful for the comfort she offered in this still semi-awkward moment. you took some time to really wonder where you were, and how you got here. The second part of that mystery, however, you hoped you didn't recollect anytime soon, pushing it away as soon as you heard the sound of the door slamming in the corner of your memory. You moved your gaze from the ceiling to meet his eye.

Axe seemed to stare deeply into your soul, his single eyelight flickering across your form as if he was trying to memorize every part of you in perfect detail. You quickly avoided his gaze as much as you could manage, feeling his stare piercing through you in a way that made your skin crawl and made you feel painfully vulnerable. It reminded you too much of... him.

A thudding knock sounded at the door.

“I’LL TALK TO THEM…”

“i don’t know if that’s such a good idea, blue. they seem kinda scared of you. maybe pap or i should go in there.” 

“like hell, vanilla. i’m the one who found ‘em and they trust me the most. let me in there and i’ll get ‘em away from ‘im.”

“CALM DOWN, RED. SANS AND AXE HAVE DONE NOTHING TO HURT THEM YET. AND DON’T FORGET, THEY BELONG TO ALL OF US, NOT JUST YOU.”

Wait. Did he just say you belong to them?

Suddenly, you had a bad feeling about these skeletons. As is sensing your sudden change in mood, Axe stiffened (an odd sight to see from a skeleton) his spine straightening as he turned his head toward the door a bit.

“i haven’t hurt them, and i don’t intend to. now leave.” Axe growled, and the muttering behind the door abruptly stopped.

“we don’t think you’re gonna hurt ‘em, axe. we’re just worried that they aren’t too comfortable with someone as... uh...intimidating as you hovering around them.” Red called out, a little louder than before.

You glanced up at Axe as he turned away from you and towards the door, an air of simmering warning thickening the atmosphere.

The doorknob began to shake as one of the people standing on the other side of the door attempted to get in, and you shuddered as your muscles tensed reflexively, and your throat tightened. A deafening, animalistic growl reverberated through the room, startling you with its intensity. You felt an immediate spark of anxiety shoot through you at that moment, as your breathing quickened and you curled into yourself. Damn, you wish you could talk right now.

“axe? what was that for? sweetheart? are you alright?” Mutt’s voice called from the other side of the door, and you flinched violently at the sound, leaning towards Axe reflexively.

Axe looked back down at you, and his eyelight seemed to sharpen, focusing in on you like the laser of a scope. In the blink of an eye, you, and the blankets covering you, were scooped up in one fell swoop and deposited in the lap of your much larger skeleton companion. You gawked a bit, feeling the smooth hardness of his ribs press against your lightly clothed back. You forced a small squeak out of your throat, the sound draining you.

immediately, you screwed your jaw shut, hugging a mass of the blankets and trying to tighten your core. The damage was done, however, as Axe looked down at you with a smile, which would have been frightening if it didn't have an odd charm of playful mischievousness.

“kiddo?! are you okay? axe i swear to god if you hurt them i’ll send you back to your miserable home myself.” A voice similar to Red’s, belonging to the person they called Sans, snarled threateningly from the other side of the door.

“BROTHER? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?”

A new voice joined the fray, sounding exactly like Papyrus with the hint of a lisp, and Axe’s arms tightened around you as he tucked you tightly into himself. He seemed to be preparing for something when a red light glowing from his eye bathed the room. The door lock was engulfed suddenly in red flames and then flipped around of its own accord, swinging open so hard it slammed into the wall.

Standing there, with an amusing array of expressions on their oddly malleable skeletal faces, were the members of this eclectic household. Standing, hunched over quite a bit, in the center of this hodgepodge of bones was by far the tallest sentient creature you’d ever seen, monster and human alike. Where Axe was wide and seemed to fill a room just by existing, this skeleton was as thin as a beanpole but so tall that his head was bent at an awkward angle as the back of his skull pressed against the ceiling.

Your eye traveled to his mouth.

Those teeth.

Oh god, poor baby.

“sweetheart!” Red’s voice pierced through your thoughts, and you flinched, the loud, unexpected sound agitating your already high overstimulation and anxiety. 

Axe growled warningly, and though Red had begun to step forward to try and see if you were okay, he stopped in his tracks with a vile glare. Axe’s arms tightened around you, and you barely managed to force out a mangled squeak before your throat closed up again, tight with anxiety.

“don’t be afraid of me, little lamb. i won’t hurt you, and i won’t let them hurt you either. my brother, sugar, is completely safe to be around. besides, he's learning sign language, so you should be able to talk to him.” Axe bent down and whispered in your ear, and your eyes widened in surprise.

You turned your head as he pulled back a bit and did your best to ask him with your expression how he knew you couldn't speak. Besides, how did his brother seem to know too even though he hadn’t seen you yet? You made a mental note to ask him more details once you could actually talk.

“i have some experience with mental disorders. i can recognize a few non-verbal issues.”

Huh. Who would’ve guess...oh wait, he has a massive hole in his skull. Duh.

You turned your head back to the doorway as Sugar stepped through, ducking down under the far too short doorway to stand straight in this strange room, just barely tall enough to have his head brush the ceiling. You looked up at him, keeping your eyes from his teeth and instead looking into his somehow warm and friendly eye sockets. He looked down at you with a sort of bright sincerity.

“Are you deaf?” He signed, and you perked up, thrilled to see a language you could use even now.

“No.” You signed back, your movements frantic and anxious. “But I am non-verbal for now. It will end. Can you tell me what’s going on? Where am I?”

“what are they doin’?” Red asked, peeking his head around Sugar to watch your hands.

The other skeletons pressed tightly into each other as if they were concerned or curious. Though you could assume it was a mix of both, from the odd care these monsters seemed to have for you. You smelled a slight tinge of cedar in the air and noticed the hair of your arms raising. You looked at all of them as your anxiety slowly rose, the number of very strange monsters and the reality of the situation sinking in. Your hands began to shake violently as you started to sign again, not giving Sugar enough time to respond.

“Wait, what is this place? Will you all hurt me? Where is my car? Why are all of you so similar? How long have I been here?"

Noticing your obvious panic, Axe began to gently rub your upper arm, an action that would normally make you jerk away, but instead was extremely comforting. Your hands dropped as you hugged your arms close to yourself, trying to keep your breathing calm as you fought the ugly feeling rising in your throat. You tried to ignore the sneaking feeling of comfort from his touch, not wanting to attach yourself to these strangers without any sense of their intentions thus far.

“DON’T WORRY SMALL HUMAN! NONE OF US ARE GOING TO HURT YOU.” Sugar exclaimed, and you flinched back, leaning into Axe.

“My Apologies. I Promise That You Are Safe Here With Us, Small Human. We Will Answer Any Questions You May Have.” Sugar lowered his voice, and you forced your muscles to relax, struggling to suppress the fight or flight instincts bubbling up in you.

'Please, just tell me where I am.' You begged, hands still trembling.

“This Is The House Of Sans, Brother Of The Monster Representative of The Underground, Papyrus. The Rest Of Us Are...Family Of Sorts. We All Reside Here, In This Lodge Almost Six Miles Away From Ebott City, In The Woods To The West. When Red Found You, You Were Almost A Mile Away From Your Car, Which You Had Abandoned On The Road. Red Returned You To Our Home After You Fainted, And We Noticed Your HP Was Dangerously Low. Unfortunately, Despite Our Many Attempts To Heal You, It Seems To Remain Particularly Low.” Sugar explained, his voice sure and kind.

“i promise, no one here is gonna hurt you, kiddo.” From behind Sugar, the laid-back skeleton whose name you’d never properly received stepped slightly into the room, ignoring Axe’s warning growl. “the name’s sans, sans the skeleton. your car is in the garage and you can leave at any point. is there someone you can go back to? do you have a house or flat in the city?”

Sans’ voice sounded strained and reluctant, as if it pained him to ask if you had someone else to go back to. You saw varying degrees of pain, anger, frustration, and concern flash across the faces just outside the door. Axe shifted almost immeasurably, stilling so that he felt like a statue behind you. Tears pricked your eyes as you realized the reality of your situation.

The skeletons all seemed to shift to concern as tears filled your eyes, and Axe relaxed minutely. You tried to keep your breath steady but couldn't stop the tears from flowing quickly down your cheek. Red's hand twitched slightly as if he was stopping himself from moving.

A new skeleton you hadn’t noticed stepped up, and your mind reeled from just how many people there were in this strange place. He wore an orange hoodie that looked similar to Sans’, but he was much taller than Sans, even a touch taller than Mutt. A small stick hung from his mouth, and you suddenly realized that he was sucking on a lollipop of sorts. He stopped a bit after a quick glance at your shoulder. Your eye widened as he lifted his hands and quickly signed S-T-R-E-T-C-H, before pointing to himself. 

"Not to interrupt, but, are you okay? You know, if you don't have a place, we can help you out." Stretch offered, looking over at Sans for confirmation, which he quickly received.

The distraction he had presented before offered you momentary relief, taking a strange sense of comfort in knowing the names of everyone who lived in the household. However, that relief was short-lived, and as dread settled back in, your mind began to spiral dangerously.

You were lost, away from the city, away from home, with nowhere to go, and now, no one to go back to. You had almost died from hypothermia in the woods in late fall, and you were now in the house of the biggest monster family you'd ever seen in your life. By all accounts, you were pretty fucked. In a moment of desperation and hollow hopelessness, you dropped your hands and began to silently cry. All of the skeletons around you seemed frozen for a minute, while your tears continued to flow faster, and you finally broke out into horrible sobs.

“ah, pumpkin, don’t cry. m’lord, what do i do?” Mutt said quietly, and you glanced up to see a pained grimace mirrored on both Black and Mutt’s faces.

“Comfort her, Mutt. I won’t stand for such sniveling in my presence.” Black snarled, but you could see that worry creasing his brow bone.

“try me.” Axe growled, tightening his grip on you and drawing you under his chin.

“woah woah woah, everyone calm down before we get into a fight again, yeah? they’re okay, and all you idiots are doing is scaring them when sugar just got them to calm down.” Sans said, stepping into the room and motioning Mutt to stay where he was.

You stared up at all of the skeletons standing around you, your face twisted into a frown as tears flowed freely down your face. Sans and Sugar looked down at you, ignoring the way Axe clung to you like a lifeline. As his eyelights met your eyes, his face fell, and you could practically feel the sadness pouring off of him in waves.

“alright, hon. i’m gonna ask one more time, okay? do you have anywhere to go back to?”

This stranger, who just so happened to be one of many very large, seemingly powerful skeleton monsters, was asking you if you had anyone to go back to. Everything about this was screaming at you “STRANGER DANGER” and telling you to get the hell out of here. But these skeletons were trying so hard to be nice, and something in your chest pulled you towards them, like they could help you solve your issues. Besides, it’s not like you had anywhere to live now anyway…

You slowly, deliberately, shook your head.

A collective sigh of relief and pity sounded through the room, and you startled a bit at the synchrony of the sound. Axe chuckled softly and began to pet your back again, immediately helping to calm you some from your panic. At least if these skeletons planned on killing you, they had been nice to you so far and seemed like they liked you enough to not be too brutal. you noticed Mutt give you an odd look.

“What are you going to do with me now?” You signed, your hands lethargic and defeated as your hope left you.

“Do To You?" Suger exclaimed, drawing the attention of those around him. "We Are Not Going To Do AnythingTo You, We Only Want To Help You. We Are Your...Are You Hurt!?” Sugar’s sentence stopped suddenly as his tone shifted into one of alarm and shock.

Immediately, the rest of the skeletons clambered inside the room, faces stony as a sense of urgency settled over the room. You flinched back into Axe, who immediately took up a defensive stance as he looked down at you. A glowing flash of numbers shone in front of you, oddly reminiscent of a menuin an old video game you used to play, glowing green and surprisingly dim. You watched as varying degrees of shock and concern passed over the faces of the skeletons as they looked at the space just above your heart, horror beginning to dawn on them.

“oh, god. what happened to you? your hp is tanking, jesus. i’ve never seen anything like this. why is your hp dropping?” Red began to fret over you, stepping close enough to Axe to gently rest his hands on your arms, ignoring the larger skeleton’s warning growl.

“i’ve seen this before, even had it happen to me once. back home we call it soul-ache. it’s what happens when a person...gives up.”

A tense silence settled over the room as the implications of what Mutt said began to come to light. Sugar, Papy, and Blue looked mildly confused and very concerned; as if they had just heard a diagnosis for their sick child in a dialect they didn’t recognize. Mutt’s gaze fell staunchly to the floor, a furrow in his brow bones nearly rivaling the deep scowl set on his brother’s face. Red, Stretch, and Sans had a look of thinly veiled understanding, relation, and devastation on their faces, colored with a staunchly similar hue of pity that was chillingly identical.

Axe was still behind you, unnecessary breaths stilled as if in horror or shock. You twisted a bit in his arms to see the look on his face, but he held you too tightly for you to do anything but squirm a bit, before giving up and looking back at your newfound friends of sorts. You were confused, but based on what you’d learned about souls and HP in your dive into monster culture when they'd first emerged, and the sullen air of the room, you had a pretty good idea of what Soul-Ache was.

“Soul-Ache? That sounds utterly ridiculous. What could be so bad that happened to this human that they would give up on their will to live?” Black’s arrogant tone cut through the air like a knife, though his voice sounded suspiciously unsteady.

You snapped your gaze over to him, knowing that the look on your face was raw enough to shake even him. Mutt, who stood behind him, stared at you with such a visceral sense of pain that you wondered if he really did know what had happened to you.

“you know what, pipsqueak, it’s none of your business. you act like you’re the only monster or human on the planet who matters, and considering who they are to you, to us, i’m more than a little pissed that you’d dismiss their feelings so easily.” Stretch, who had mercifully signed his name to you earlier, jumped to your defense, startling the skeletons in the room.

“BROTHER, PLEASE CALM DOWN! YOU KNOW THAT ARGUING WITH THEM IS FUTILE. BESIDES, WE DON’T WANT TO CAUSE THE HUMAN ANY MORE STRESS.” Blue reached out and laid a comforting hand on his brother’s arm, and Stretch grumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets with a huff.

“Soul-Ache?” You signed, though both Sugar and Stretch, who you assumed were the only ones who knew ASL, had their attention trained away from you.

As if by some divine coincidence, Papyrus, who had been quietly standing to the side with a sad look of remembrance and grief on his face, began to speak, catching the attention of the room.

“When My Brother First Became Afflicted, I Thought Little Of It. The Change In HP Was So Small, I Doubted It Would Ever Have Enough Of An Effect To Matter.”

Sans shuffled where he stood, flickering his eyelights around as he avoided the gazes that flickered at him every so often.

“Of Course, His HP Was So Low, That The Moment It Dropped Enough To Register, I Immediately Did All I Could To Remedy It. He Was Not Injured. He Was Just. Tired. Too Tired To Fight To Survive Anymore.”

The story abruptly ended, and you saw a single tear run down Papyrus’ face. Blue hugged him around his waist, the sight both touching and amusing, due to their heights. However, as light-hearted as that scene appeared, the heavy tone of the story rung out as if striking a chord of clarity.

Something about the honesty of his tone made the absurdity of the moment sink in to you, and the bitter nihilism that had been pounded into you from the moment you'd gotten into your last relationship pounded into your head like a migrane. Almost as if that strange menu had opened up in your mind, you could feel your heatrarte slowing, the low thuds getting louder and louder as it pounded against your ribs. Axe was the only one who really seemed to take notice, his bones shaking ever so slightly to make a soft rattling in your ears.

So this was it, huh? You really had given up. What a fucking pity. Well, at least you knew no one back at home would cry for you. No one back at home would even notice. He would probably celebrate when your Hope drained away and your soul gave out. Hell, at this rate, with all the shit that you'd been through…

So would you.

A pang shot through your chest, and you abruptly choked on your own breath. A bright green light flashed in front of you, before quickly dulling in saturation, the shift so drastic it left an afterimage as you blinked. The pain that had been a small pinpoint in your chest suddenly bloomed, the kilndling quickly caught aflame and burned in an inferno of agony in your lungs, and a jolt of alarm and panic spread through the room like a wildfire sparked by your flame.

The room immediately broke into chaos, though you had to admit some of that could have been thought up by the dizziness of your sleep deprived brain. You thought you saw Stretch shuffle Papyrus, Sugar, and Blueberry out of the room quickly, as Sans and Red scrambled past Mutt and Blackberry to get closer to you. Axe pushed a hand to your chest, gently maneuvering you so that you were laying across his lap, momentarily making it a bit easier to breathe.

You expected a fight, expected panic, but as you watched Red fall to his knees next to you, all you could feel was exhaustion. exhaustion, pulling and tugging at you like an anchor, begging you to sink into the comforting weight of sleep.

"sweetheart, I'm gonna need you to keep your eyes open for me, okay?" Red's voice was calming as it washed over you, and you suddenly felt like a little kid again, sick before another long day of school.

Your hand groped around the blankets, catching the attention of Sans, who had moved around the end of the bed to get closer to you. he watched curiously, finally understanding as your fingertips brushed against the soft fur of the lioness and you made an almost imperceptible sound. Wordlessly, with an almost painful tenderness, he handed her to you, shushing you as tears began to flow from your eyes.

"blackberry, I need you to go find boss. tell him the sparrow has arrived. he'll know what to do." Sans said, and the normally petulant skeleton immediately left, haughty expression replaced with genuine fear.

Mutt stood helplessly as Red and Sans held their hands above your chest and stomach, Red's right hand holding open the same menu you saw earlier. One of the numbers kept slowly but surely dropping, the number falling faster with every tick. Axe seemed on the verge of panic, his clawed hands gripping the bedsheets below him so hard they tore like paper.

"sans," Red began, his tone warning.

"i know, i know. keep an eye on it. there's not much i can do without grillby or paps." Sans replied, his usually smooth voice gruff with fear.

"i can help." Mutt sais, suddenly coming up around the skeleton pair to reach your head.

You looked up at him, locking eyes with him as he gently held your head in his hands. A warm sensation filled your mind as the smell of woodsmoke and brisket filled your nose, a slight purple haze forming beautiful swirls around your head. The tender adoration in this practical stranger's eyes filled you with a sort of... determination.

You smiled at him, and in that instant, you watched his face brighten so much it made you, if only for a moment, happy.

"holy shit. mutt, i don't know what you're doing, but for the love of god don't you dare stop." Red choked out, the relief in his voice palpable in the shaky tone of the words.

"hi, pumpkin." Mutt hummed, his voice light and rich, grounding you as different sensations tingled through your body. "i like your smile. if you don't mind, i'd like to see it a lot more in the future."

You listened intently, the bit of happiness you'd gained being stoked by his words like one shuddering ember at the center of a pile of kindling. Too much wind would blow it out, not enough would suffocate it. Everyone but Mutt held their breath, keeping you stable, and hoping.

"its not so bad, living here." Mutt said, nervousness creeping into his tone as you continued to watch him, so close to nodding off. "i know we don't know each other that well, but... we could."

His voice cracked, emotion building up in his eyes as his thumb moved to stroke your face. You were starting to get really sleepy. It would be really nice to take a nap right now.

"please." he said, barely above a whisper. "fight to stay afloat. fight to stay awake."

Your eyes were closing slowly. You vaguely registered the other three going into varying levels of panic, but you kept your eyes on Mutt, as best as you could. Ever calm, ever steady, you watched those eyelights until your eyelids got too heavy to close, and even when they did, they seemed to remain for just a moment more.

"fight to stay alive."

Chapter Text

"do you think they'll be okay?"

The voice was calm, quiet, and oddly familiar to your fuzzy, sleep-filled head. Your rest was dreamless and calm, but somehow as you started to slowly pull yourself from the grasp of sleep you knew that it had not regenerated your energy as it usually should. Instead, you felt somewhat sore and feverish, as if the world was too hot and too cold all at once. Your body was completely limp, and even though your consciousness was mostly awake, you hadn't quite regained your fine motor skills yet. 

You felt softness around you, wrapped up in a much more reasonable amount of bedding this time, though you were still pleasantly surprised to find yourself very warm. The feeling of a hand holding your head up alerted you to the fact that you were being held in the lap of one of the skeletons, and by the voice of who spoke, you had a pretty good inkling it was Axe.

"perhaps. they have a low max hp to begin with, so i worry that this may take a permanent toll on them. at least they have us to protect them now."

...Axe?

"that they do. but hey, its not like the rest of us have the highest hp on the planet either."

That voice. that was the chill one's voice. What was his name again? Sean? Sam? No, it was Sans. Strange name for a person. Or, I guess monster, in this particular case. Although, honestly, none of them had very traditional names from what you could tell. Nothing about this situation screamed traditional if you were being honest.

"that is true. though we do have much more power, experience, and ability than they do. in my universe, they would have been eaten before they could leave their house. i would have to leave them in my den with Sugar if i had found them back home."

A strange chill ran through you at the tone of Axe's voice, and you felt a gentle pressure begin to stroke across your head. The pressure was gentle and soothing, and you relaxed instinctively, pressing a bit into the touch. Axe's pleased hum let you know it was likely his hand you pressed against. You weren't sure what your quick companion had meant by "universe", but it was hard to imagine he was joking or lying about the "eaten" part of the sentence. 

There was a silent, slightly uncomfortable pause. Sans finally broke it after a moment, tone even and almost professional.

"thankfully, they weren't born in your universe, and thankfully for you and your brother, you live here now.  and like i've said a few times before, i'm happy for you to stay here for the rest of time, but if our new friend is going to be staying with us they're going to have to get used to all of our presences. Considering how comfortable they already seem with you, i wanted to ask you if you wouldn't mind staying with them and making sure their hp doesn't drop any lower than it has to?"

"as if you think i would let anyone else."

Axe's reply was simple, but those words alone gave you more comfort than they probably should. You didn't know much about these skeletons, but considering the countenance of some of the humans you'd known, you were sure they didn't deserve the moniker "monster" more than any other creature. Though how you'd met them had certainly been...unconventional, and definitely frightening, they hadn't hurt you yet, and while that was no cause to trust them, it at least offered you enough comfort to assume, or really hope, that they would continue this treatment until you were at least healthy enough to stand up and walk out of their house. From that point, you could figure out where you would go.

That simple comfort was enough to lift your spirits a bit, and you felt your breath even out a bit as your fever-like symptoms began to subside a bit. The hand petting your head stilled, and you felt a strange tug at your chest. Sans took in a breath of surprise.

"i think you patting them like that lifted their spirits a bit. they really do seem to like you." Sans hummed, a bit of awe in his voice.

"why wouldn't they? with their connection to us, they'll be comfortable with all of us soon enough." Axe said, his voice so matter of fact you wondered what he could have meant.

"be careful throwing that information around carelessly, axe. we don't want to freak them out badly enough to risk their health."

Axe stayed silent, resuming the strokes on your head with silent reverence. The weight of the bed shifted as Sans stood, and you found yourself struggling to try to open your eyes as his quiet steps padded away. The sound of the door opening, and quietly but surely shutting, made you realize you'd missed your chance.

"i know you're awake, little lamb. can you open your eyes?"

Startled that Axe addressed you, you finally mustered up the effort to open your eyes, flinching as the light shone through your heavy lids. You looked up at the ceiling, the late evening light barely glinting off of the light fixture on the ceiling before bouncing around the room in an array of spots, creating a dazzling spectacle as you finally blinked away sleep. Axe loomed above you, one of his too-large hands gently cupping and holding the back of your head so you didn't fall off his lap as the other brushed a few stray hairs from your face.

You met Axe's eyes blearily, the heavy grogginess of a fevered sleep weighing you down. He looked back at you with subtle fondness, so discreet you would have mistaken it for nonchalance if it hadn't been for a certain glint in his eye. His ever-present smile, a feature you had noticed on several of the other skeletons as well, seemed relaxed and natural, more comfortable than it had been when the others were in the room.

"how do you feel?" he asked, his voice soft.

Taking in a deep breath, you cleared your throat, slightly startling Axe. You tossed him an apologetic smile before steadying yourself, preparing to use your voice for the first time in a couple of days.

"Hi," you said, voice scratchy but solid, and you felt a bit of your confidence return at the ease with which the words came out. "I feel a bit sick, but otherwise okay."

Axe's eye widened, his smile widening with a certain awe-filled shock that shook you to your core. The hand that once stroked your hair came to rest at your cheek, the sharp tip of the claw gently brushing against the delicate skin that rested there.

"red was right. your voice is beautiful."

You blushed brightly averting your eyes from his intense gaze. He chuckled lowly and took in a deep breath, and you absently wondered how he did that without any lungs. he carefully removed his hand from your face, reaching past you as you watched, your embarrassment morphing into curious confusion. When his hand reappeared in your vision, it held the lioness you had clutched for comfort before, her soft fur slightly tousled from being moved around. Instinctually, you reached out, grateful when he placed her softly into your waiting arms.

"Thank you for the lioness. And...well...everything else too. it was so rude of me to drop in on all of you like this, especially as a stranger." You rambled, hugging the plush toy close to you. "I really don't know how I'm gonna repay you guys."

Axe huffed gently, catching your attention, and you searched his expression only to find nothing but gentle amusement there.

"i don't think vanilla would let you. neither would the others. you're welcome here." Axe said, and you shot him a look of confusion.

"Vanilla?"

He looked back down at you, his easy smile growing a bit snarky.

"vanilla is what i call sans. sometimes." he replied, the husky growl of his voice shooting down your spine.

"Right, Sans. He's the one who owns this place, right? is there a way that I could talk to him? I want to thank him, and work out how I'm gonna pay him for the room." you asked, stretching out a bit as you tried to limber up your stiffened muscles.

Axe shot you an odd look.

"yeah, he owns the place. he's busy right now, but we can go look for him." Axe's mood seemed to sour a bit, and it didn't escape your notice that he pulled you in a bit tighter.

"As much as I don't want to move, I should probably properly meet the others, no that I can, ya know, talk." You joked, and Axe seemed to brighten at the idea that you were comfortable where you were.

Suddenly, startling you both, your stomach growled loudly, drawing your attention to the gnawing hunger in the pit of your stomach.

"what was that?" Axe asked anxiously, his hand coming to hover over your stomach.

"It was my stomach grumbling. It happens when I get really hungry, and considering I haven't eaten in a few days, it's really loud." You explained, thinking nothing of it.

The hand holding up your head tightened, as the hand hovering over your stomach reached across your side and pulled you close to Axe. You looked at him with concerned confusion as his eyelight seemed to contract into a tiny pinprick, much tinier than the usual wide, fuzzy light that hovered in his socket. His bones rattled loudly as he placed his ear hole to your stomach.

you took in shallow breaths, worried that something was genuinely wrong before another, longer, louder rumble sounded through your stomach. Axe jerked away as if it had burned him, and stood abruptly, ignoring your quacking as he carried you like a princess.

"I'm sorry, little lamb. i didn't realize..." he trailed off, guilt evident in his tone as he moved towards the door.

Feeling as if you could fall any moment, you clung to his hoodie, the greyish blue material soft under your grip. The door seemed to click open of its own accord, the slightest hint of red mist the only hint that he'd used magic at all. The door swung open towards you to reveal Papyrus standing there, gloved hand poised to knock. He looked at the two of you for a moment, startled, before he straightened, standing a bit taller than Axe.

"HELLO HUMAN AND AXE. I WAS COMING TO BRING YOU TWO TO DINNER. SUGAR HAS MADE PENNE ALLA VODKA!" He exclaimed excitedly, punctuating the sentence with a flourish.

"That sounds lovely," You said sheepishly, catching the startled delight that flickered across his face.

"HUMAN, YOU CAN SPEAK NOW! THIS IS CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION! I WILL TELL BLUEBERRY RIGHT AWAY, AND WE WILL MAKE THE MOST FITTING DESSERT POSSIBLE FOR THE OCCASION!" He exclaimed, pivoting quickly on his heel and making his way quickly down the hall.

Another small grumble from your stomach seemed to startle Axe back into action, his long strides making quick work in following Papyrus. As you both moved closer to the kitchen, the unmistakable scent of authentic Italian cuisine hit your nose, making your mouth water and your stomach begin to roil in an almost constant complaint.

"hold on, little lamb. I'll get you food, i promise."

The desperate tone in Axe's voice caught your attention, and you absent-mindedly wondered if he had some kind of food insecurity. Better not to tell him of your ED then, no reason to give him any more anxiety.

Soon, the hallway opened up into the same kitchen you'd been in earlier, though now it was bustling with skeletons running here and there. Stretch and Mutt were setting the tables, exchanging laughs as they mumbled lowly to each other. Papyrus and Blueberry conspired on the far end of the kitchen, and Sugar weaved in and out past them as he transferred a variety of different side dishes into glass serving trays. Red was nowhere to be seen.

Sugar looked up as you and Axe approached, his brow furrowed in concern when he met Axe's anxious eyes. He quickly portioned the rest of the green beans into the glassware before straightening, closing the gap between you two and him in a single step.

"Sa- Axe, What Is Bothering You?" He asked, sweet voice a bit quieter than before. You noticed Stretch and Mutt look over from what they were doing.

"they haven't eaten in a few days," Axe replied, his voice strained and tight.

Sugar's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, his face falling as he looked down at you. you'd seen that look before, the crestfallen fear that alights when you remember something traumatic. You locked that look in, mentally noting that the pair seemed to have severe anxiety around eating. you wondered what had caused it.

"Go Sit Down. I Will Bring Them A Plate." Sugar Said, and Axe obeyed instantly, nearly knocking Stretch over in his haste.

"stay here, little lamb." He said, setting you down in a chair near the head of the table.

You blinked at him, a bit confused as he moved away from you and over to the kitchen. Not that you didn't appreciate the gentle care that Axe offered, but it felt a bit strange to be carried around as if you weighed no more than a doll. The sound of the chair to your left scraping against the tile caught your attention, and you turned to see Mutt sliding into the seat next to you. He slipped a small, purple handkerchief onto the plate to his left before turning and shooting you a dazzling, crooked smile.

"hey, pumpkin. what's got axe all in a rutt, eh?" he asked smoothly, though, by his tone, you could tell he expected no real response.

"He's kinda upset that I haven't eaten in a while." You replied, catching him off guard.

"oh, so you can talk?" He said, voice mellow and happy, though the eyelights that hovered in his sockets had shifted into tiny hearts.

"Yeah, sorry about that," you said, bringing your hand up to rub sheepishly at the back of your neck.

"nah, don't be. and hey, what's this about you not eating? Tibia honest, you do look a bit skin and bones to me. if I had one, I'd offer you a spare rib as a snack." He joked a look of pride painted on his face at his poor puns.

You looked at him for a moment, startled at the absurdity of this rather edgy-looking skeleton telling you silly little puns before you burst into laughter, once quiet voice shaking loudly with uncontrollable giggles. The absurdity of the moment, as well as the glittering grin that plastered itself onto his face, only made your cackling worse, and with your eyes screwed shut, you didn't notice that all attention in the room had been turned to you.

"Oh... oh my god... I... Can't breathe." You choked out, between fits of laughter.

The bright, proud look on Mutt's face made your heart beat faster, the glint of his teeth shining as much as the glint in his eye. He looked at you with such happiness you were glad you were currently caught up in laughter because if it could make him smile like that, it was worth it.

In his own way, he looked... handsome.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just love puns so much." You chuckled, much quieter, wiping away a stray tear as you finally calmed yourself down.

"you have the most amazing laugh." He replied, a bit dreamily, as he rested his head on his hand.

"Thank you." You said, sobered, as your cheeks lit up in a flush.

"now I'm curious." A voice said from beside you, and you turned to see Stretch pulling out the chair across from you. "what did mutt here say that made a little thing like you laugh that hard?"

You blushed even harder, averting your eyes at the slightly cocky grin he gave you. His eye, however, betrayed a bit of admiration you didn't quite expect.

"we've got ourselves a pun lover over here," Mutt answered for you, and you watched as Stretch's face transformed into one of genuine delight.

"is that so?" he asked, a cheeky grin replacing his usual smile.

Before you could reply, a bony, clawed hand reached over your shoulder and placed a plate in front of you, piled high with all kinds of goodies. The foods ranged from the pasta Papyrus had promised, to the green beans you had seen Sugar holding before, to a slice of freshly baked, buttered, and toasted slice of sourdough bread, topped with roasted garlic and a bit of pesto. the mouthwatering sights and scents reminded you of your hunger, and your stomach growled once again, startling Mutt and Stretch.

"eat, little lamb." Axe hummed, his deep growling timbre shaking you slightly as his ribcage pressed against your back.

You opened your mouth to protest, not wanting to be the only one eating, before you were interrupted by Stretch, his voice a bit incredulous.

"what was that sound? did you make that? I always thought humans couldn't growl."

As you moved to reply, you were interrupted again.

"it means they are very hungry. let them eat."

Axe's voice was rougher with the other skeletons than it was with you, his tone holding a little more than a hint of a warning. Stretch's expression soured a bit, and you gave Mutt a nervous look, which he rewarded with a handsome, easy smile.

"I should probably wait for everyone else to sit and serve themselves first..." You said, half-heartedly, turning to Axe as he moved to sit on your other side.

"pumpkin..." Mutt said, his voice twinged with a bit of a gentle warning.

When Axe turned to meet your eye,  the frenzied mania that you saw staring back at you shocked you to your core. You knew he was worried about you not eating, but so see that concern driven to...this? You didn't know how to react. You stared back at him, unmoving, even as Sugar approached slowly behind him.

"Human, Please Eat. Now." Sugar insisted, much gentler than Axe's glare, but still forceful enough to know he meant business.

Without another word, you grabbed the fork by your plate and stabbed into a few pieces of pasta, side-eyeing Axe the entire time. His body was rigid, unmoving, and unnerving as he watched you carefully. At that moment, you knew something serious had gone down between him and food.

Axe only relaxed when you'd finished swallowing, the excellent flavor reigniting your hunger. The whole room seemed to let out a sigh of relief, and you continued to eat your food in silence, scarfing it down with a fervor that seemed to satisfy Axe.

Soon, the rest of the skeletons took their place at the table, paired off into neat chunks around the table, while Red sat at the head closest to you, and the other head remained empty.

"so, not be abrupt, but, is it okay if i ask your name?" Sans asked after a little while, mercifully breaking the odd silence.

"Oh!" You exclaimed, covering your mouth as you swallowed. "My name is Y/N, I'm sorry I hadn't told you before."

Everyone at the tables around you seemed to regain their liveliness after you said that, bursting into compliments about how lovely it was, and 'what a strong name you had.' Flattered, albeit a bit confused, you accepted their compliments in stride, thankful to see Axe gently relax his tense stance. The conversation that bloomed as simple, but felt too natural from a bunch of strangers, easy puns from Sans, Axe, Red, Mutt, and Stretch met with varying degrees of displeasure from Blueberry, Blackberry, and Papyrus. Sugar watched happily, glowing after receiving a particularly fervent compliment on his cooking from you.

"I've been meaning to ask you guys." You said after a bit of banter, setting down your fork with just a bit of food left on your plate. "How are you all related?"

The room fell silent then, and everyone looked at Sans to explain. he sighed, exhaustion flickering on his face for a moment before turning back to you. you almost felt bad for asking.

"papy here,"  He began, gesturing to Papyrus beside him. "is my brother. sugar and axe are siblings, as well as mutt and blackberry, stretch and blueberry, and red and boss. We're all..." He stumbled a bit. "Cousins."

You hesitated for a moment, the pause in his words making you question if he was telling the truth, but the look on his face told you not to pry. 

"Wow! That's a big family!" You explained instead, and everyone in the room seemed to let out a breath of relief. "I'll bet family reunions are crazy."

"you have no idea." Mutt replied, and you let out an easy chuckle.

"I meant to say this earlier, but thank you, guys. Seriously, it's a huge favor that you've let me stay this long, and I don't know how I'll repay you. I promise not to bother you guys too long though." You said, and you noticed some of the skeleton's faces darken as you said the word bother.

"IT'S NO TROUBLE AT ALL, LITTLE HUMAN. WE...ENJOY YOUR COMPANY." Papyrus replied, and you flashed him a bright grin, eyes widening as his cheeks flushed a glowing orange hue.

"I meant it, though. Thank you. By the way, Sans, could I talk to you after dinner?"

Sans looked up from the chicken he'd been cutting to meet your eyes, a bit surprised.

"yeah, of course." He replied, a bit nervous.

"Thank you." You said, shooting him the same grin you'd given Papyrus, surprised to see his cheeks flush a brilliant blue.

"so, what brought you to these woods? do you live around here?" Stretch asked innocently, reaching across the table for a bottle of honey.

You soured a bit, your mood darkening at the thought of who, and what, you'd left behind when running into your new friends. Axe noticed, taking his left hand from where it sat next to his (now empty) plate and resting it on yours, which had stilled.

"I live a couple of miles south of where my car was, near the top of the little mountain down that way. I was..." You hesitated, not sure whether or not you should tell this story. "leaving someone."

The skeletons all shot you a look at that, Mutt and Blackberry exchanging a tense glance.

"SOMEONE?" Blue asked, his voice less bright than when you'd met.

You took in a deep breath, embarrassed at how it shook, and didn't notice the worried expressions on the faces of the other's Axe's grip on your hand tightened slightly.

"The person I left, James, i-was my boyfriend." You said, correcting yourself when you stumbled.

The air in the room darkened, and Axe shifted closer to you. Even Sans seemed put off.

"was?" Red asked, his eyes trained on you intensely.

"Yeah." You choked out, holding back sudden tears. "He and I dated for a few years, but I broke things off about a month ago."

"you don't have the tell us the story if you don't want to." Stretch offered, ignoring the glare Blackberry shot him.

"Thank you," You muttered, appetite lost at the roiling in your stomach.

Without thinking, you pushed the rest of your food towards Axe, who looked surprised by the offer. After he gently tried to coax you into finishing it, he took it gratefully, splitting the rest with Sugar and devouring it in a few bites. His hand never left yours.

"I don't really feel well. Do you guys mind if I excuse myself for a minute?" You asked, and everyone but Blackberry shot you looks of concern.

"You okay, darlin'? need one of us to come with ya?" Red asked, already moving to stand.

"No, no." You said, your tone rushed as your nausea spiked violently. "I'll be fine alone."

(Emetophobia Warning)

You stood, a bit abruptly, and both Axe and Mutt reached out to steady you as you threatened to fall. Axe looked like he was going to follow you, still holding closely onto your hand, but after Sans cleared his throat loudly, Axe silently and reluctantly released you. Shooting Sans a grateful glance, you turned, a bit lost as you realized you had no idea where the bathroom was.

"down the hall, to the left, darlin'," Red said, his voice steady and thick with worry.

Thanking him briefly, you quickly made your way down the hallway to your right, which seemed to stretch on longer than you remembered. After too long, you finally made it, not even bothering to close the door behind you before bending over the toilet.

The contents of your dinner made a reappearance, and you suddenly wished you hadn't eaten quite so much of that penne after all. It seemed to take hours, but after what could have only been a few minutes, you were given a small break, shuddering and crying as you knelt on the time like you'd had too much to drink.

You dimly registered someone coming in, the door mostly closing behind them, as they knelt next to you. The mystery person pulled your hair back from your face, and he was suddenly revealed to be Mutt, smiling at you apologetically.

"hey there, pumpkin. trust me when I say I've been where you are right now. are you feeling any better?"

You nodded, thankful for his help as he pulled your hair back into a quick updo, pulling the hairband that rested on your wrist and using it to keep the hair in place.

"Thank you," You croaked out, throat sore from the acid of the bile.

After an encore performance from your dinner, you finally stood, accepting Mutt's help happily as he pulled you up easily. He chatted lowly to you the whole time, telling you a simple story about the days when he and an old friend got so drunk that he woke up hanging from a purse tree by his femur, and patiently helped you as you rinsed out your mouth, brushed your teeth, and washed your face. By the time you were clean, you were wiped out, and the groggy, gross feeling of fever made itself annoyingly evident on the cold tile of the bathroom floor.

Mutt sat next to you, smoking some sweet-smelling cigarette of sorts shaped like a dog biscuit and looking up at the ceiling as he talked, the rumbling cadence of his voice lulling you into calm.

Almost like you were in a dream, you tilted your head, too groggy and exhausted to keep it up, and slowly fell until you were leaning most of your weight against him, catching him off guard. He paused in his story, of which you were now unable to follow, and looked down at you, gentle adoration in his eyes as you closed yours.

"wanna go to bed, pumpkin?"

You hummed quietly, too tired to formulate any kind of response, but you hoped he understood what you meant. You grumbled a bit as he shifted his weight from under you, using the last of your rapidly depleting energy to keep yourself from falling over. That didn't last, however, as you were scooped into two strong, steady arms and held close to Mutt's chest, immediately snuggling in with a whimper at the delirious push of your own brain.

"shh, you're okay. let's go say goodnight to everyone, let them know you're okay, and then we can get you to bed, 'kay?"

Mutt's voice shot a shiver straight through you, the deep tone like butter to your ears. You hummed out another response, snuggling further into the fort fluff of his jacket, and struggling to stay awake as he walked out of the bathroom. The hushed mutter from the kitchen quieted as the two of you approached, and though your eyes were closed, you couldn't mistake the sound of Axe's jealous growl.

"they're still pretty sick from soul-ache, so they threw up most of what they ate. next time we should probably stick to monster food or something light. I'm gonna take them to bed now if that's okay."

You didn't know who Mutt was asking for permission, but he must have gotten it, because he relaxed notably. Though your eyes wouldn't listen to you and open, you recognize Sugar's lisp as he sadly spoke.

"I'm Sorry For Making You Sick, Little Human."

"S'okay." You slurred, not even having the cognitive ability to be embarrassed as the skeletons cooed softly.

"me too," Stretch said, and you forced your eye open only to be greeted with genuine regret on his usually unmarred face.

"You didn't." You said, eyes fluttering closed again despite your best effort.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, kid. get some rest."

With Sans' words, you muttered a sleepy goodnight, which the skeletons all reciprocated with varying levels of volume and excitement. Mutt carefully turned, a second pair of footsteps sounding after him, and you deduced that Axe must've followed. You were proved right when the noise of the talking skeletons faded away and you were brought to your room, placed on the bed gently only to be picked up by Axe and placed back on his lap.

"need anything else?" Mutt asked you and Axe, and you shook your head gently, already slipping back into exhaustion.

Moments later, you heard the door close behind him, and felt the softness of a stuffed toy being pressed against you, a feeling you automatically latched onto as Axe chuckled softly above you.

"we can try eating again tomorrow. the more you sleep, the more you get better, but soon you'll be able to go a long while without needing to sleep as much. but for now, little lamb, sleep."

His voice left no room for argument, and so, you obeyed.

Chapter Text

Wow, this view was beautiful.

You stood wistfully by the window, thankful for the fresh pair of too-big, very bright blue pajamas Blue had dropped off for you before he'd gone to bed. Axe had helped you change (though you asked him to look away when you changed your undergarments) and you had been out like a light after that. When you woke up, much to your surprise, you were alone in the room, Axe nowhere to be found. You were grateful for the moments to collect your thoughts, but you couldn't help but be a touch worried as you watched the early morning light bloom over the crest of the hill that made up the view from your new bedroom.

At the foot of your bed sat a pair of basketball shorts and a tank top, likely courtesy of Sans, you realized. Next to them sat a neatly folded towel and a too big assortment of hygiene products, overflowing a too small basket with a bow. Everything from shampoo and conditioner, to face wash, to a toothbrush a toothpaste filled this basket, and you found yourself eternally grateful to your hosts as you stepped into the shower for the first time.

The shower was warm, and you wasted no time in setting up your new products, noting that all of the scents were some variation of evergreen or pine, a combination that perfectly accented the view from your room. You took your time in the shower, relishing the time by yourself and the moment to recharge and think. You really considered your situation, anxiety blooming in your chest as you realized your days in this paradise were severely limited, and soon you'd find yourself struggling to make ends meet again.

The thought tanked your spirits, and the spike in your depression made a shock of pain shoot through you. You distantly remember Sans explaining that hopelessness would worsen Soul-Ache, and you found yourself forcing those thoughts away. 

You kept the rest of the shower brisk, cleaning yourself thoroughly and taking the time to brush your teeth and wash your face. You had to remember to thank Sans when you two talked.

You stepped out of the shower happily, humming lowly to yourself as you dried off your hair and body, easily slipping on the clothes Sans offered. You were thankful to find them soft and clean, a bit loose, but nothing unbearable. You had just finished brushing out your hair with the new bamboo comb that the skeletons had gotten you when a gentle knock sounded at the door.

"Come in," You called, moving over to sit at the door.

The door opened slowly, revealing Sans on the other side, who had the hand that wasn't on the doorknob in his pocket. He seemed exhausted, but he brightened a bit at the sight of you, and you smiled warmly and gestured for him to sit next to you.

"hey, kiddo. how're you holding up? Mutt said you had a rough time yesterday." He said, his voice light and simple, a bit higher in pitch than Mutt or Red.

"You can say that again." You said, injecting enough humor into your tone to keep the conversation light. "I feel a lot better, though. And thank you so much for the clothes and bath stuff, by the way. That was really awesome of you guys."

"of course, it's not a problem." He said, blushing as he looked down at you wearing his clothes. "But you should really thank Blue for all of that stuff. It was him who picked it all out and bought it for you. We can go shopping to get you some clothes in your size soon, but first, you said you wanted to talk to me?"

Reminded of your request at dinner last night, you straightened, linking your hands together and placing them on your laps as you tried to find where to begin. he waited patiently, unfazed, as you thought for a moment.

'Well, I should start by thanking you again for taking me in, that really was so generous of you guys. the real reason I wanted to talk, though, was to discuss the...terms? of my living here. How I pay you for food and board, how long I'll stay, that kind of thing."

Sans looked a bit caught off guard, as if he hadn't expected you to bring that kind of thing up. You waited for a response, a bit nervous at what he would say next.

"ya know, i meant it when i said you're welcome to stay here." he began, talking slowly as if he was picking his words carefully. "you don't have to pay me back for anything, and i'm not gonna kick you out at any point. you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like. we all enjoy your company." He said, matter of factly, and you were a bit taken aback at his nonchalant kindness.

"Really?" You asked, confused. "Are you sure? I don't have a job right now, but I can totally work out a deal with you about payment. I don't want to just freeload off of you guys like a hitchhiker or something."

Okay, maybe not your best analogy, but you hoped he got what you meant. His eye-present smile grew soft, more genuine, and you relaxed as he let out an easy chuckle.

"i really don't mean to brag, but i have enough money to last me a lifetime, kiddo. i would have this place if i didn't." He said with a wink, and you immediately felt more at ease.

"Alright, I suppose, if you're sure. But if you ever change your mind, seriously, let me know. I'm totally down to pay rent of some kind. And I just want to say that you guys are genuinely some of the nicest people I've ever met, thank you so much." You said, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze to emphasize your point.

That, mixed with the sincerity in your voice, had his face a bright shade of cerulean, and you snatched your hand away with an awkward blush of your own at the realization.

"no problem, kid. let us know if you ever need anything, and one of us will always be happy to help. axe and red have taken a particular liking to you, so i'm sorry if those two are clingy." He said, and you laughed.

"That's okay, I appreciate the affection. It's nice to have such sweethearts as friends." You said, and he brightened notably at your words.

"yeah, for sure." He moved to stand. "oh, and by the way."

You paused, looking at him expectantly.

"the only house rules we have are 1: don't go into the woods without blackberry, blue, sugar, boss, or papyrus. 2: always let someone know before you leave the house. and 3: do not, under any circumstances, go into the basement." he said, his voice suddenly a bit more serious.

"Got it. I'll keep that in mind." You said, a bit nervous.

His stance relaxed, smile shifting from the sharp grin it had turned into to his usual relaxed expression. You watched him leave, letting out a small breath as he closed the door behind him, and absently wondered what was so important that it would stop you from seeing the basement. oh well, it's not like you were curious enough to sabotage the kindness of your hosts, especially not Sans. Though for the first time, you had a sneaking suspicion there was more to these monsters than there seemed.

Shaking off the thought, you stood, determined to find Blue and thank him for his too-kind gift. You stood, waiting a moment for the sound of Sans' footsteps to truly disappear, and even a moment after, to leave your room, the sweet smell of blueberry muffins hitting your nose as soon as you stepped past the threshold.

You made your way down the hallway, passing passed the closed doors painted with strange colors and littered with decorations. The mouth of the hallway opened up into the kitchen you were not pretty familiar with, the morning light bathing the room in an almost ethereal glow.

Sugar stood on one side of the counter, closest to you, while Blueberry and Papyrus stood opposite him, watching intently as he explained the process of making batter to them.

"-AKE SURE YOU DO NOT USE TOO MUCH FLOWER, OR THE DOUGH WILL SEPARATE. TOO LITTLE, AND IT WILL BECOME TOO STICKY AND WILL BE DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH." Sugar explained.

The skeletons turned to you as you approached, each lighting up with excitement as you waved and wished them a good morning. You smiled a bit to yourself as you noticed their matching aprons, with azure for Blue, orange for Papyrus, and an orange-red shade for Sugar. The aprons were simple but vibrant, and as you moved closer to them, you noticed a design of small skulls and bones making up the borders.

"HUMAN!" Blue exclaimed, hopping off a stool he'd been standing on and running over to you.

This time, you were prepared for his hug, and you braced yourself as he came barreling over, catching him smoothly as he rammed into you. He hugged you tightly, a hug you now reciprocated, and you felt a sort of jubilance as you squeezed him extra tight before letting go.

"Good morning, Blueberry. I wanted to thank you for that lovely gift you gave me." You said, your hands still resting on his shoulders.

"OF COURSE! ONLY THE BEST FOR THE FRIENDS OF THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE! NYEHH HEH HEH HEH!" He shouted, the perfect impression of a gallant prince.

Going with his energy, you bowed deeply, adding a flourish with your hands as you dipped down. he seemed to practically shake with glee at that, bowing back before grabbing you by the wrist gently, and guiding you over to the other skeletons, who waited patiently to say their hellos.

"Good morning Papyrus, and you too Sugar."

"GOOD MORNING." They said, at the same time, their voices almost identical, save for the small lisp caused by the state of Sugar's teeth.

"HUMAN, IT IS EXCELLENT TO SEE YOU LOOKING BETTER THIS MORNING. SUGAR WAS JUST TEACHING US HIS MASTERY OF THE ART OF BAKING!" Papyrus announced, and Sugar's face flushed a rouge-orange.

"YES, THAT IS TRUE! WHILE ALL FOUR OF US ARE MASTERS OF THE KITCHEN, SUGAR SEEMS TO HAVE A PARTICULAR FLARE FOR IT THAT I AM DETERMINED TO LEARN!" Blueberry added, his enthusiasm contagious.

"Is that so?" You asked, looking to Sugar.

"IT IS, LITTLE HUMAN. I INVITED BLACKBERRY AS WELL, BUT HE AND BOSS VERY CURTLY REFUSED." He replied, and you frowned slightly.

"Well, that's no fun. Does that mean you could fit me into these lessons as well?" You asked, and the three brightened noticeably.

"OF COURSE!" Sugar said, his genuine happiness melting your heart. 

A flash of movement to your right caught your attention, and you looked over to see Sans, Red, and Axe watching you, quietly happy expressions on their faces. Sans gave you a simple salute as he slid into a room to the right of the kitchen, and Red leaned smoothly against the wall, his golden tooth glinting as he shot you a smile. You waved at the par, who waved back, a subtle smile appearing on Axe's face.

"STAY HERE, LITTLE HUMAN. I HAVE TO GRAB YOU AN APRON FIT FOR OUR KITCHEN." Sugar announced, turning towards a walk-in pantry and opening the door with a purpose.

"I love your aprons, by the way. Very fashionable."

Papyrus and Blue looked at each other with triumphant smiles, before striking the most outrageous, ostentatious, battle-ready poses you'd ever seen. Happy to amuse them, you lifted your hands and pretended to be taking pictures, fake swooning as they winked and flourished their hands. As Sugar returned, holding a folded green piece of fabric, you turned to him, waiting for him to strike his own pose. After a bit of confusion, and then some enthusiastic encouragement from Papy and Blue, Sugar shyly began to pose himself, your little shenanigans bringing a genuine smile to his face. From the former of your eye, you noticed Axe watching in awe, as Stretch (who had appeared at the sound of your laughter) pulled out his phone and filmed the wholesome scene.

"Alright, alright." You said, catching your breath from laughing. "My cheeks hurt, I can't keep having so much fun! So, Sugar, what've you got for me?"

Sugar, who seemed a bit more confident than he'd been before, unfolded the cloth he'd set down, revealing a slightly-too-large apron identical to theirs, only in a beautiful vibrant green. You clapped your hands together in delight at the sight, and you ran forward to hug Sugar. he seemed startled but returned your hug enthusiastically, squeezing you for just a second too long. Not that you minded, of course.

"HUMAN, MAY I ALSO HAVE A HUG?" Blueberry asked, and instead of answering, you let go of Sugar with one arm and invited him into a group hug. After seeing Papyrus's longing look, you gestured him in too, quickly finding yourself squished between several very excited skeletons.

"Oh, oh!" You exclaimed, pulling back from them a bit to turn to Stretch. Red, Axe, and Stretch watched you all with dazzled, awed looks on their faces. "Stretch!"

As if startled wake at the sound of his name, Stretch straightened, and his smile returned to its usual cheeky grin.

"yes, y/n?" He said, his raspy voice sending a small shiver down your spine.

"Could you take a picture of all of us together?" I think it would look great!" You said, and the three skeletons standing with you quickly voiced their enthusiastic agreement.

"of course, honey." He replied, pulling his phone from his pocket as you and Blueberry stood in front, arms around each other, while Papyrus and Sugar stood behind you, each striking mirrored battle poses.

"On three, everyone say Muffins!" You said.

"i'll count." Red offered, his Brooklyn drawl brightened by an easygoing smile.

"Thanks, Red." You said, shooting Axe a smile as well, which he returned gently.

"alright, ready? one, two...

"MUFFINS!" You all yelled, staying still just long enough for Stretch to catch a photo before breaking out into laughter, Stretch watching you and Blue fondly.

"Now, let's get to baking!"

After your exclamation, and Axe bringing you a chair so you could reach a similar height as the towering skeletons, you all got to work, Red and Axe joining you in watching the spectacle. Stretch said a quick goodbye to you, promising to stop by later to check on you guys, and, as Blueberry put it, 'STEAL ALL OF THE MUFFINS.' You had fun helping them make the batter, Axe and Red standing on either side of you like comforting bodyguards, helping you catch messes as you tried to keep everyone entertained.

It was the most fun you'd had in years, making simple treats with your new friends. Within the first few minutes of the process, it became clear to you that Blue and Papyrus were disasters when it came to food, but they had so much fun trying you didn't have the heart to say anything. Instead, you carefully fixed their mistakes (with some extra help from Red, who offered you a wink as he fished out a large piece of eggshell with a bit of magic) and carefully made your own batch, remembering your time interning at the restaurant in your hometown.

"you're good at this, darlin'. is there anything you can't do?" Red asked, swiping his phalange through the batter quickly and giving it a taste.

"Oh, there's plenty I can't do." You replied, batting his hand away as he went to steal some more batter. "Physics, for example. Or any complicated science, for that matter."

Red and Axe chuckled at that, and when you asked what was so funny, Red simply replied 'we'll handle the science, darlin'.'

"Ah, shit. Forgot to preheat the oven." You said, oblivious to the disapproving look Blueberry gave you as you hopped off your chair. "Be right back."

You stepped past the counter, remembering Sugar mentioning earlier that they have a separate room with large ovens for when they bake in bigger amounts. After stepping past the pantry, you found the room, just out of eyesight from the kitchen. After fumbling for the light switch, you stepped inside, surprised to see a very cluttered room filled with all kinds of appliances that one could use for different types of cooking. The most obvious, however, were two massive ovens that sat side by side in the back center of the room.

Scooting past several metal contraptions, you moved over to the ovens, a bit discouraged when you realized they towered just a bit too high for you to reach the controls. You looked around the room for something sturdy enough to stand on, eyes landing on a few unopened boxes you felt would suffice for long enough for you to type in the temperature. With less issue than you were expecting, you grabbed the boxes, stacking them atop each other in order to reach the height.

Carefully, you climbed onto them, stretching up as far as you could until you finally hit the bake button. Triumphantly, you punched in the numbers, unaware of how the boxes teetered below you. Finally, you pushed just a little bit farther to press the start button, aaaand.... success.

That was, until the lower box beneath you buckled. (Emetophobia Warning)

From one moment to the next, you were on the floor, the sharp corner of a large stand mixer digging into your back with a sickening crunch. For a moment, there was nothing, until a wave of pain so intense you almost immediately vomited up bile and let out a gut-wrenching, gurgling screech.

Immediately, Red, Sans, and Axe appeared around you, razor-sharp bone summoned in their hands, and, especially in Axe's case, expressions tinged with such violent intent that their eyes had gone entirely black.

At the sight of your saviors, you broke out into violent sobs, quickly rolling over so the sharp metal would stop jabbing into you. Warm wetness bloomed across your back, and you heard footsteps fast approaching as your sobs grew desperate.

"I'm-I'm so....sorry." You choked out, tears making your eyes blurry.

"fuck." Sans cursed, the bones he and the others held dissipating into nothing. "papyrus!" He called, voice desperate.

Axe looked down at you with such sickening fear on his face that you wanted to reach out and comfort him, but the thought of moving sounded too terrible to even imagine. He and Red knelt next to you, such genuine panic in their eyes that you had to look away.

"Human," Papyrus said, his voice thick with shock. Though you couldn't see it, you heard Stretch ushering a terrified Blue and Sugar from the room, though his voice seemed to shake just as much.

"what happened?" Mutt's voice asked from behind you, all business.

"i don't know, they were alone when they fell." Sans replied, his voice stricken. "pap, please."

Sans moved behind you, as Axe and Red moved to fill your vision, Axe petting your hair gently as his eyelight shrunk into a vibrating pinpoint, while Red grabbed your limp hands and held them tightly in his own, speaking softly to you as you shook in pain.

"I'm so sorry." You choked out again, and both Axe and Red shushed you gently.

"don't apologize, kiddo. just stay as still as you can for me, okay? this may sting a bit, but i promise papyrus is only helping you." Sans said, his voice pained.

"Please, Y/N, Take In A Deep Breath," Papyrus said, voice shaky.

Obeying, you took in as deep of a breath as you could manage, letting out a desperately pained whimper as stinging pain ripped through your back. You waited for it to subside, but as it only grew more intense, you began to squirm, desperation and pain making it impossible for you to stay still. Suddenly, more hands were on you, holding down your shoulders, your hips, pinning you down as you writhed desperately. Mutt came into view, shushing you as gently as possible as you began to cry and fight to get away. The panicky feeling of being trapped intensified, as you reached out to him, silently begging him to help you. As if it pained him, he waved his hand in front of himself, a wave of purple light washing over you, before your body went limp. He didn't lower his hand, and the hands on your body didn't budge, but the pain continued to crescendo, until finally, finally, it lessened, the relief so great you almost passed out.

"-you hear me?" a voice asked over the sound of blood rushing in your ears, and you struggled to open your eyes, which you hadn't realized you'd closed.

"Hngh," you groaned, trying to piece together who was talking to you.

"y/n? can you hear me? I need you to say something if you can hear me."

Sans. It was Sans.

"I'm sorry...I messed up...your floors." You panted out, seeing the mess you'd created with toppled boxes directly in your line of sight.

Sans let out a sigh of relief, and Mutt let his hand fall to his side. he seemed to be sweating you, watching you closely even as Red and Axe removed their hands from where they'd rested. Red looked down at his right hand like it'd burned him, a bit of your blood smeared across it.

"you did nothing wrong, kid. you really don't have to apologize. we should have sent someone to heat the ovens for you." he replied finally.

"Shit." You cursed, immediately trying to push yourself up. "The muffins, I totally forgot. Poor Sugar, I ruined the baking." You said, flinching as a sore ache ran down your spine.

"don't get up," Axe warned, voice trembling violently as he gently pushed you back down to the floor.

"I'm sorry," You said again, feeling helpless as you began to cry once again.

"it's okay, pumpkin, it's okay, deep breaths." Mutt hummed, taking in deep 'breaths' of his own for you to mimic.

You just cried and cried and cried, as the skeletons watched helplessly. Axe's hands twitched as if he wanted to draw you up, but even in this state, he knew that wasn't a good idea.

"STRETCH, IF YOU DON'T GET OUT OF MY WAY IN FIVE SECONDS, I WILL DUST YOU." An unfamiliar voice warned from just past the doorway, and you watched Red jolt up with an audible 'fuck.'

The sound of heels clicking on the floor caught your attention, and you forced yourself to sit up just enough to shift around, ignoring the warnings of all five skeletons around you, just to turn to see Sans ad Papyrus turned toward the doorway, where a tall, intimidating skeleton garbed in a full suit of black leather armor, with the sharpest heeled boots you'd ever seen, and a scowling, sharp-toothed face that rivaled Blackberry. Stretch followed helplessly behind, irritation plain on his face.

"boss," Red began, only to be cut off by the skeleton, who you assumed was the Boss everyone kept mentioning, held up a hand.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" He growled, eyeing Sans as the skeleton stood from where he'd knelt by you. Axe shifted closer.

"listen, boss, i get your issues with y/n staying here, but i will not have you bothering them right now," Sans said, a warning clear in his voice.

Boss bared his teeth violently, his left eye light forming a transparent ring of red fire around it. Red cursed again, though this time quieter.

"AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT, VANILLA? YOU WOULDN'T WIN IN A FIGHT AGAINST ME, AND THEY AREN'T ONLY YOURS. I CAN BOTHER THEM IF I WISH." He replied snidely, taking a step closer to you.

He was stopped, however, when Axe appeared in front of him, seemingly out of thin air. While Axe stood just slightly shorter, the threatening, manic aura he gave off was an obvious warning, and Boss stared at him indignantly.

"try it." Axe dared, summoning the same sharply shattered bone from before.

"boss, please." red tried, only to be shot down with a withering glare. Mutt pulled you a bit closer as if he was waiting to do something.

"both of you, stop it." Sans demanded, tone harsher than you'd ever heard it. "if your crossfire hurt y/n or papyrus, i'd dust you before you had the chance to blink. if you're gonna fight, take it outside, but for now, we have an injured human to take care of and an oven room to clean."

Sans' words left no room for argument, but the room seemed to hover in tense silence nonetheless. You were almost worried they were going to fight regardless, but at the realization he was outnumbered, Boss made a bristled retreat, shoving rudely past Stretch who threw Sans a quick apology and followed after him. Axe finally relaxed, the bone dissipating once more as everyone collectively relaxed.

"I'm sorry, darlin', I have to follow him. I'll come to check on ya soon, 'kay?" Red said, shooting you an apologetic smile before promptly disappearing.

The shock of what happened, combined with your pain, combined with the vision of him just disappearing, had you collapsing back onto your side, groaning as what little adrenaline you had left wore off.

"alright, kiddo, let's get you out of here. great work, papy, you did awesomely." Sans said, patting Papyrus on the back as Mutt came to gently scoop you in his arms.

Papyrus smiled weakly at Sans, but his focus was mostly on you as Mutt carefully picked you up, careful not to jostle you too much. Despite your best efforts, you let out another whimper.

"shh, it's okay pumpkin," Mutt whispered, slowly walking you to the door.

Axe intercepted, reaching out his arms expectantly as Mutt approached. Mutt passed you over without complaint, humming a bit as Axe cradled you to him carefully. The position was slightly awkward, but kept any pressure off of your sore back, and you breathed out a sigh of relief as your back finally relaxed.

As you stepped put of the oven room, Axe leading the other skeletons like some fucked up parade, you were met with the sight of Sugar and Blue sitting nervously on the chairs you and Blue had used as stools, straightening as they saw Axe carry you out. Sugar covered one hand as he caught sight of you, definitely a bit bloodied and looking worse for the wear, before he began to cry quietly, Blue not faring much better.

"Hi, buddy." You said, waving slightly to him despite the wince of pain it caused. "I'm sorry about your muffins."

Your voice was so sad that the skeletons behind you exchanged looks, their hearts breaking as Sugar waved back.

"No, Little Human, I'm Sorry You Got Hurt. I Should Have Realized You Were Too Small To Reach The Ovens." He said, a single red-orange tear falling down his cheek.

"it's not your fault, sugar." Axe said, his voice pained as he held you carefully.

"AND DON'T WORRY, HUMAN. WE CAN SAVE OUR BATTER AND FINISH BAKING SOME OTHER TIME." Blue said, so sweetly you almost cried again.

Not wanting them to see you sad, you looked down, the dam of tears breaking when you realized the beautiful apron they had made for you was now bloodstained. You broke into ugly sobs, and Stretch, who had been quietly talking to Blackberry off to the side, looked up at you in alarm, his expression matching the skeletons you could see.

"what's wrong, honey? are you in pain?" He asked, approaching you worriedly.

"The apron." You sobbed, struggling to get the words out between shaky gasps. "I ruined it." The skeletons followed your eyes to the stained aprons, and Sugar raised his hands quickly, looking a bit miserable.

"Little Human, Don't Worry! We Can Make You A New One, Right Blue?' He said, turning to the smaller skeleton for approval.

"OF COURSE! IT WILL BE A FUN PROJECT FOR US TO DO WHILE YOU RECOVER!" Blue promised, their jump to assure you touching your heart.

"Thanks so much, guys. You're the best." You cried, missing the bittersweet joy on the pair's faces.

"alright, let's get them to their bed for right now, okay?" Sans interrupted, though he was also clearly touched by the scene.

Without arguing, Axe walked over to your room, this time only Sans and Mutt following. As you walked away, you heard Stretch as Papyrus if he was okay, and your heart filled with a fondness for your new friends.

"I love you guys. No one's ever been this nice to me." You muttered, a bit delirious from the pain and emotional from everyone's worry, but meaning what you said.

Mutt and Sans, who had come to stand on either side of Axe, glanced at each other in shock, before smiling at you with such fond adoration you knew it had been the right thing to say. Axe hummed smoothly, the vibrations soothing as the exhaustion from the events of the past hour caught up to you. The four of you reached your room quickly, Mutt and sans setting up a sufficient little nest in which you could lay on your back or side without any extra pressure on your spine, before covering you in some light blankets. 

You were in and out of sleep for the next hour, as Papyrus, Mutt, Sans, and Axe came in to check on you every so often. by the next time you had properly awoken, you were propped up on your pillows, the bright midday light making it difficult to sleep. a gentle knock sounded at the door. and after stifling a yawn, you invited whoever waited at the door to come in.

The door opened slowly to reveal Blueberry standing there, a pile of fabrics in his arms. behind him stood Papyrus, and behind Papyrus stood Sugar, holding a sewing machine and a folded, foldable table.

"May We Come In?" Sugar asked, a bit more timid than he'd been this morning.

"Of course, you can, sweetheart." You said, offering the rest of the large expanse of your bed as a place for them to sit.

excitedly, Blueberry bounced in, followed by Papyrus, followed by a much more careful Sugar. While Blueberry splayed out every number of green fabrics and threads, Papyrus helped Sugar set up the table, carefully setting out the pattern for the aprons and plugging in the sewing machine. blueberry grabbed your attention by showing you a myriad of different green fabrics, ranging wildly in texture and hue. In the end, you both agreed on a shimmering, deep green fabric, made of some kind of relatively soft polyester you believed would be good enough to protect you from potential messes.

"Excuse Me, Y/N?" Papyrus asked, pulling your attention from the lovely chiffon you'd been examining.

"Hmm?" You replied, looking up at him to see him holding a tailor's measuring tape.

"May I Take Your Measurements, For The Apron?" He asked politely.

"Of course, go ahead." You said, offering him a smile.

He got to work, being very careful to avoid your injury. You couldn't help but blush as he carefully wrapped your chest, your waist, his gloved hand brushing lightly against your outer thigh as he measured the outside of the body. He was so gentle and respectful, you were totally at ease, but by the time he was done, you were both a bit flushed.

"Are You Ready, Little Human?" Sugar asked, slipping on the cutest pair of round glasses.

"Sure am!" You said, proudly holding up one corner of the fabric you and Blue had chosen while he held up the other.

'Wonderful!" Sugar replied. "Let's Get Started."

Chapter Text

By the time the apron was finished, your temporary bedroom had become quite the disaster. Despite Papyrus' best efforts to keep the room tidy, it had quickly devolved into a graveyard of fabric, thread, and glitter, courtesy of Blue. You and Sugar carried a simple, pleasant conversation as Papyrus gently scolded Blue on the dangers of loose glitter as an agent for messes, and you found yourself quite enjoying the domestic moment.

"Hey, Sugar?" you said after a moment lost in thought.

"Yes, Little Human?" He replied, briefly looking up from where he had been finishing up the last few stitches.

"When did you learn how to make clothes?"

Sugar's usually soft expression darkened, and you quickly wondered if you should retract your question. Before you had the chance, however, he steadied his expression, returning his attention to his stitching before he replied.

"Where Axe And I Are From, We Often Found Ourselves Having To Make Our Own Clothing. There Weren't Many Resources Readily Available For Us, So I Learned How So I Could Get A Bit More...Creative." He said, and you furrowed your brow, thinking back to what you'd learned about the monster emancipation.

"So, you guys had trouble in the Underground?" You asked, choosing your words as carefully as possible.

"Yes, You Could Say That. Though That May Be A Bit Of A Gross Oversimplification Of The Experience." He replied, just the tiniest bit of bitterness in his tone.

"I'm so sorry." You said, and you meant it.

He looked up at you over his glasses for a moment, a bit surprised at your reaction, before his teeth bloomed into a bright smile.

"You Have No Need To Apologize. You Are Very Different Than The Human That Put Us In That Predicament."

While your curiosity called you to press, you decided against it, not wanting to make him upset. especially as he was doing something so kind as to make you a whole new apron.

"I really am sorry about your other apron, Sugar." You said, and he simply smiled, returning his attention back to his work.

"There Really Is No Need To Apologize, Little Human. I Would Rather Sew A New Apron Than See You Upset." He replied, and you smiled at him, touched.

"i don't mean to interrupt." Sans' voice appeared from the doorway of your room, though you hadn't noticed him enter.

"No, it's no problem at all, come on in." You said, laughing a bit as he watched his brother show Blue how to properly store fabric.

"when you next have a second, i wanted to check on your back. it should be good for you to walk now, i just want to check on it. there's only so much monster healing can do for humans, after all." Sans said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

"Oh, yeah, of course." You said, sitting up quickly.

Sans immediately reached out, a bit concerned, as Sugar watched you two from over his glasses. He hadn't seen the injury yet (though really, neither had you) and you worried it would make him feel a bit guilty. As Sans slowly helped you sit up, Blue and Papyrus moved to stand on either side of him, abandoning their cleanup out of curiosity. Sans paid them no mind, so neither did you.

"alright, now turn around. slowly, this time." Sans instructed, and you obeyed, having done this so many times in the last couple of hours that you were used to it at this point.

Carefully, he lifted up your shirt, his hand brushing gently across your skin in a way that made you fight a shiver. You could still definitely feel the soreness of the area, but you were sure that it must be looking at least a bit better, after all the healing they had offered you. Though you imagined there was still likely some blood on the area, as they had all been too worried to touch the injury to wash it. You were just glad they'd given you clean clothes.

You heard someone behind you take in a sharp breath, almost like a hiss, at the sight of your exposed back, which almost made you a bit self-conscious, but you shoved that feeling away the best you could. A gentle hand pressed a bit around the area, feather-light at first, but soon pressing a bit deeper, then deeper until you couldn't help but flinch at a particularly sharp pain.

"sorry, sorry. deep breaths." Sans said, voice quieter than usual.

You took in a deep breath, closing your eyes as the touch returned to its initial soft pressure. It honestly felt nice, and you quickly realized that your touch-starved self really needed a solid hug. Though honestly, with the amount you'd been carried around, you weren't sure that was really off the table.

"well, it's not exactly where i want it to be, but it's good enough. you're welcome to walk around, but i would ask one of us to help you if you need to pick something up. also, new house rule to add, but if something's too tall for you to reach, please, for the love of asgore, get one of us to get it for you." Sans said, his tone light and joking, but you could tell he really meant it.

"Will do, boss." You said, turning around as he carefully lowered your shirt.

He grinned at you, a sparkle in his eyelight.

"nah, I'm nothing like that drama queen." He said with a wink.

"Now that, I can agree with." You said, face falling a bit as you caught sight of Blueberry's crestfallen expression.

"What's wrong?" You asked, as the stars that made up his eyelights dimmed a bit.

"I'm Sorry, Y/N." He said, and your heart broke a bit.

"Hey, Blue." You said, grabbing his hand gently as he looked away. "You okay?"

You shot Sans a worried look, and he returned your look with an equally confused expression, looking to Papyrus on his other side. Papy seemed just as confused as you, and you quickly signed to ask him if you could talk to Blue alone. He shot you a thumbs up, as did Sugar behind him, and grabbed San's arm, gently dragging him towards the door. Sans and Papyrus moved away to give you some privacy, stepping outside the door silently and disappearing down the hall. Sugar gave you a quick wave goodbye before following, closing the door behind him.

"Look at me?" You offered, a bit surprised at the guilt and frustration in his eyes as they met yours. "It's not your fault, not at all. Sometimes, things happen, and it's no one's fault, okay? This is one of those times."

He said nothing, only holding your hand a bit tighter. Your heart broke as he looked down again, clearly conflicted at his own feelings. You briefly wondered if he often got dismissed due to his childish nature, just as Sans had done a moment ago, and Stretch had done earlier when you were first injured. Hell, even Papyrus had been scolding him like a kid just a few minutes ago. If you could pull up that many examples in your mind after just a couple of days here, you wondered to yourself how frequent of an occurrence it really was.

That kind of dismissal was a sentiment you could, in some ways, relate to. It was clear that he probably needed someone to treat him as an equal for once, and you wracked your brain trying to think of what to say to help him feel more at ease. Almost immediately, a story popped into your head. It may not be something he could totally relate to, but you figured that maybe if you showed him that you trusted him enough to be vulnerable around him, he'd feel more comfortable opening up. It was worth a shot at least.

"Can you sit with me for a moment? I want to tell you a story." You said after a bit of silence, and he nodded, briefly letting your hand go to pull up the chair Sugar had set up by the table, and push it right next to the bed.

He took your hand again, and you laced your fingers together. He looked up at you with a surprisingly sad smile on his usually sweet face.

"When I was growing up, I used to have this stuffed toy that I loved more than any possession I had ever owned." You began, laying back on your pillows as you recounted the tale, looking up at the ceiling. "My dad had bought it for my fifth birthday, and she was a little lioness that I named Jewel, after what my dad would call me as a nickname."

You looked over to Blue, who met your eyes for a moment with a nod for you to continue before you both trained your eyes to the ceiling.

"I loved that little lion, and I knew that no matter what, I would always have someone there that I could lean on. Someone to listen to me, someone who would never judge me. That little lion was an embodiment of my dad when he wasn't around. So when my parents divorced, a few years later, and my mom got full custody, Jewel was the only thing I had left to remember him by."

You swallowed thickly then, the memory bringing a lump of tears to your throat. With a shaky breath, you continued.

"My mom... she did her best, but we had never been close. She wanted me to grow up, replace my dad, help her cope, that kind of thing. Before I had even turned ten, I was already raising my younger sister. Pretty soon, it felt like the only time I could really be myself, be a kid, was when I was alone, playing with the only toy I really had left."

"One day, my mom came back from court, some kind of settlement case with my dad, and she came back angry. When she burst into my room, catching me playing with the stuffed toy my dad had gotten me instead of cleaning the house as she expected, she reacted."

A few stray tears began to stream down your cheeks, your voice shaking as you recalled the horrible event. While Blue looked like he wanted to stop you, comfort you in some way, he stayed silent, squeezing your hand once to show his support.

"My mom almost never hit me, but she really went at it when she did. Honestly, that wouldn't even have been the worst of it. But she ripped Jewel out of my hands, ignoring the pleas for her to do anything else, that I would do anything she wanted, and she threw her into the firepit at our old house. I watched as she destroyed the last thing from my dad that I had left." You choked out, the tears flowing freely now.

"Our relationship was never the same after that."

You two waited in silence for a moment, a look of pure devastation on Blue's face as he watched you cry.

"What I'm trying to get at here, is that it's okay to act young."

Blue's eyes widened, smile falling a bit in genuine surprise.

"How Did You...?" He asked, trailing off when you smiled at him through your tears.

"I know what it's like to have your feelings devalued. I may have not had the same experience as you, but I can say with certainty how important it is to embrace youthful joy for as long as you have it."

He looked at you as if you were reading his mind, his astonishment almost amusing as you stumbled through the message you were trying to share. You had no idea if you were doing it right, but you were hoping you were at least getting through to him a little bit.

"I also know," You continued after a moment of thought, finally meeting his eyes. "That the way you act, and how you present yourself, doesn't devalue your experience, or your opinions. I'm sorry you were worried about me yesterday when Stretch kept you guys out. You're an adult, just like they are. You don't have to beat yourself up about not being there to help." You said, suddenly feeling a bit shy as his expression morphed into an almost shocked adoration.

When he didn't reply for a moment, just looking at you like you'd read his soul like a book, you suddenly felt the need to backpedal. You guys hadn't known each other that long, so was it actually super rude of you to say something like that? In your panic that you misread, you tried to think of a way to back yourself out of the situation.

"I...I'm sorry, that was probably so presumptuous of me, oh my god." You said, realizing that you may have totally just overstepped a boundary and that you just vented a super stupid story about a freaking stuffed animal, and...

"Thanks."

You looked up at him, ripped out of your self-deprecating thoughts only to see perhaps the most dazzling smile you'd ever had the pleasure to witness painted across his face. Seeing him like this, he seemed... beautiful.

"Not Many People Take Me Seriously, Even My Brother Sometimes. It's Nice To Have Someone Go Out Of Their Way To See Me As An Adult." He said, his voice so genuine you just had to smile.

"Anytime. I mean it." You said, giving his hand a squeeze. "Oh, and I wanted to apologize for telling you that sob story. It was pretty dramatic of me." You joked.

"No, Don't Be Sorry. I'm Glad You Told Me. Though I'm Sorry That Happened To You." He replied.

"Honestly, me too." You said, using your free hand to wipe away the tears that had grown cold on your cheeks. "But it makes a good story in times like these."

He laughed, though it held a certain contemplative sadness that made you wonder if he'd genuinely found it funny or not. The two of you fell into a comfortable silence, heads swirling with thoughts as you both processed the conversation, and the emotions it brought up. You almost found yourself falling asleep again when he began to speak.

"You Know, This May Sound Weird, But I'm Really Glad You Wound Up Here." He mused, eyes never moving from where they watched the distance.

You looked over at him for a moment, unsure of exactly why he felt that way. But something about the way he said it, the way he held your hand just ever so slightly tighter, made you inclined to trust that sentiment.

"Honestly, me too. I haven't had people be this nice to me in a long time." You replied, internally cringing at how sad that sentence came out.

Blueberry didn't seem to mind as you two fell back into that comfortable silence. you guys stayed like that for a while longer, before he eventually excused himself on the premise that he would be grabbing you something to eat. As he closed the door behind you, the room's silence settled heavily over you, and you began to remember the past. As the silence grew more and more oppressive, the tears that had barely begun to flow during your earlier conversation made themselves known, and soon, you were sitting, alone in the guest house of the nicest friends you'd ever made, with an injured back, some strange soul related injury, and nowhere to go when you inevitably had to leave.

Even though you remembered Sans' warnings about hopelessness, you couldn't help but find yourself spiraling into a, rather unsurprising, meltdown. Desperation and despair swallowed you, and you quickly grabbed the lioness that reminded you just a bit too much of your dad and muffled your cries into her fur. Your chest ached in that now-familiar way, only further reminding you of your situation, and despite your best efforts, you couldn't get yourself to stop crying.

However, to your surprise (you could tell if you were happy or sad about this particular fact) none of the skeletons seemed to come rushing to your rescue on this one. While it felt good to finally get the crying out of your system, you were left sore, aching, and dizzy, with a massive headache to boot. That, combined with a grumbling stomach and a distinct lack of Blue, is what drew you to your feet, however shaky, in search of, at the very least, a Tylenol.

While the pain in your chest had subsided some, the pain in your back insisted on making itself known, the aggressive aching sending a spike of pain down your back every time you took a particularly long step. So, you hobbled your way over to the door, finally finding a way you could walk (somewhat) normally without too much trouble, and opened the door.

The hallway was empty, which came as no shock, but it was also suspiciously quiet. As you slowly made your way down the hall, you found yourself in a mostly empty kitchen, your soul almost leaving your body as you nearly knocked into Boss while turning the corner.

"Human." He spat out as he looked down at you, the venomous disgust in his voice wounding your feelings more than you expected it to.

"Sorry, Boss." You said, looking down.

You were honestly too tired for a fight, so you were thankful when he merely waved you off with a scoff and moved past you. You stood awkwardly in the kitchen as he rummaged through the cabinets, stepping around you with no further acknowledgment.

"Where are the others?" You asked curtly, keeping your eyes trained firmly on the floor.

"They Went To Meet Some 'Family' At Their Bi-Monthly Meetups. Well, Except For The Orange And Blue Ones, They Went To The Store. Considering They Were Supposed To Kepp Watch Over You, I Consider The Abandonment Of Their Duties A Testament To Their Trustworthiness." He grumbled.

He actually answered you in a full sentence this time, which was way more than you expected. the news that Blueberry and Stretch had left, however, left a pang through your heart, the sore ache of Soul-Ache Returning full force.

"Oh," You muttered, holding back tears. damn, You were too sensitive these days. "I'm gonna take a walk outside, okay? I won't go into the woods." You said, remembering the rule that you had to tell someone before you left the house.

"Do What You Want, I Don't Care. I'm Leaving, Anyway." He growled out, grabbing the last of the things he'd been collecting from the cupboards and disappearing down the hall.

A moment after he left, you heard a door slam loudly, followed by the much quieter click of a latch locking. Too tired to bother with him anymore, and too sad and anxious to sit alone in the kitchen or your room anymore, you walked down the only hallway you hadn't explored yet, only to have it open up into a larger foyer with a set of stairs on one side going up, and on the other going down. You glanced out of the window closest to you, making sure you were on the second floor before going down the steps to your right, having that staircase open up into an even larger living area.

After a bit of wandering (how big was this fucking house?) you finally found the front door, which opened up into a beautiful driveway lined with trees on either side. Not wanting to break a rule, you avoided the woods to either side, slowly sauntering up the driveway until you came across the actual road. Not paying attention to where you were going, you walked aimlessly on the pavement, dissociating to avoid having another breakdown.

You walked for a long time, the dull pain and repetitive movement soothing to your mind. You didn't even notice as the asphalt shifted into gravel, which shifted into dirt, as you moved from the main road onto one of the larger campsites in the area. By the time you'd looked up, it was getting a bit later into the afternoon, and your legs were practically on fire.

Startled at how different the landscape around you looked from the driveway you'd left, your anxiety spiked, and you silently cursed yourself for not paying more attention. Looking back the way you came, you found nothing but an uphill climb, an impossibility that your aching back and legs begged you not to attempt. Not wanting to plop onto the dirt in the middle of the hiking path, you made your way down to the main campsite, finding a younger couple, maybe in their twenties, packing up to continue their journey.

"Hello?" You called out, catching their attention.

You're sure you looked like a mess, as you hadn't even had the wherewithal to throw on a pair of socks, let alone shoes, before setting out. Not only that, but you were still garbed in some of Blue's pajamas that he had lent you yet again, though those were now dirtied and bloodied from the reopened wound in your back. The woman, a shorter blonde in full hiking gear, rushed over when you called.

"Oh my, are you okay?" She asked, with a bit of a faint southern drawl.

"Well, that's a bit complicated honestly. I hate to ask this, but can I ask you guys for some help? I'm a bit lost." You said, hunched over a bit and your hunger and exhaustion began to make themselves known.

"Of course, sweetie. My name is Maryland, but you can call me Mary, and my girlfriend over there is Betty. How'd you get lost out here, darlin'?"

The pet name, especially how she said it, had you thinking of Red, and you desperately wished you had your phone to call him right now.

"It's kinda a long story," you replied sheepishly, as you two finally made your way to their almost completely deconstructed tent.

Betty popped her head over the tent, her feature also twisting in concern as she took one look at you.

"Here, sit, sit," Mary said, leading you over to one of the larger rocks they had leaned their tent against.

You sat, grateful to get off your feet, but you silently wished to be back at the lodge. You absently wondered if the boys had noticed you were gone yet.

"Let me clean you up, and you can borrow one of our extra pairs of shoes," Betty said, her voice deeper and rougher, with no accent to be found.

She knelt down in front of you as she pulled out a first aid kit, wiping off your cut-up feet with an antiseptic wipe and wrapping them up. Your wounds stung, and so did your eyes, but you gritted your teeth and sat through the pain as Mary offered you a bottle of water.

"Thanks so much, guys. You're really lifesavers." You said, taking the water she offered gratefully.

"Of course, darlin'. What kind of hikers would we be without some manners?" She joked, but you could tell she was genuinely concerned.

"Alright, all done," Betty said, slipping some compression socks over the bandages to help them stay put. "These shoes may not fit perfectly, but they're better than nothing."

carefully, she slipped on a pair of slightly too big tennis shoes onto your feet, the extra room leaving some space for the bandages.

"That's perfect, thank you so much." You said, trying to force as much gratefulness into those words as possible.

You took a long draw of the water Mary offered before handing it back to her, not wanting to take more than your fill. She took a seat on the rock next to you, eyeing your bloodied back with concern.

"So, how'd you get lost out here?" she asked, placing a comforting hand on your upper back.

"Honestly, my own stupidity. You two wouldn't happen to know where a big lodge in the woods near here is, would you?" You asked, half-heartedly.

"I'm sorry, but not really. Do you want to come with us? We don't have much, but we can definitely take you to the next rest stop and get you taken care of there." Betty offer, and you genuinely considered it for a moment.

"Thank you so much for the offer, but I really shouldn't. I have people looking for me and I don't want to stray too far." You said, hoping desperately that you made the right choice.

Mary looked like she wanted to protest, but with a look from Betty, she resigned, offering to wait with you as long as possible instead. You accepted happily, grateful to not be alone for a while. they really did stay as long as they could, Betty even relighting the firepit while Mary laid her denim jacket across your shoulders. Eventually, though, they had to leave, worried they wouldn't make it to the next campsite before nightfall. You watched them leave reluctantly, and desperately prayed that you had made the right decision in staying put.

Mary had handed you a folded sheet of paper with their numbers on it as she left, and you stared at it as you watched the sun slowly descend. The heat of the fire and the jacket you had slipped on staved away most of the autumn chill during the day, but as the sun dropped below the horizon, the temperature fell with it.

You sat at that fireplace for who knows how long, silently praying another group of campers, or even a park ranger would come along, but to no avail. you were hungry, thirsty, cold, and in deep pain, kicking yourself for wandering off after telling perhaps the only skeleton in that house that couldn't give less of a fuck about you. you began to wonder if you would be in some serious trouble when a sound caught your attention.

It was so quiet, that at first, you'd thought you were imagining it. It carried over the wind, a distant sound, almost like the cry of a bird. but slowly, so slowly you felt like it was killing you, it got louder until finally, it was just barely loud enough for you to realize what it was.

Someone was calling your name.

After another call, you recognized the panicked sound of Stretch's raspy voice, followed moments later by Sugar's much clearer call, just as desperate. Mustering up the last of your strength, as best and loud as you possibly could, you screamed.

"STRETCH, SUGAR! I'M HERE!"

The sound echoed on and on, feeling as if it bounced off of those trees for eternity all on its own. For one, hopeless moment, you worried that you hadn't shouted loud enough, that they had given up, that you would be stuck here forever.

Until the sound of footsteps approached.

As Stretch and Sugar appeared through that treeline, looking almost as ragged as you, you sobbed at their approach. They quickened their pace as soon as they caught sight of you, a mix of relief and desperate panic on their faces as they came into view of the firelight.

"oh my god, y/n." Stretch breathed, at your side in an instant.

You clung to him like a child, latching onto the front of his hoodie and not letting go. He looked you over, fear in his eyes as the lollipop he usually kept between his teeth fell uselessly onto the floor.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," You repeated, breathless, the pain in your aching body and the delirium from hunger, relief, and exhaustion making you a broken record.

A warm, sharp pain washed over your back, and you realized Sugar was healing you, the ache somehow sweeter at the knowledge you would finally be okay. You collapsed onto Stertch's shoulder, and he held your head close, hugging your upper body as Sugar worked like he was afraid you were going to disappear. He shushed you gently as you cried, the pain finally subsiding as you became practically drunk with relief.

"sugar, i need to take them home, okay? I'm gonna take a shortcut, I'll come back for you in..."

"No!" You interrupted sharply, terrified at the thought of Sugar being left here alone. "No, we can't leave him."

"honey, it would only be for a second, i promise." Stretch tried to argue, but you were having none of it.

"No, no no no." You insisted, shaking your head violently.

"alright, alright, we'll walk. we'll walk." Stretch agreed, forcing you to still your head as Sugar finished his healing.

"Are You Sure? I Don't Want The Human's Condition To Worsen." Sugar asked Stretch quietly as if you weren't there. You didn't care.

"neither do i, but i don't want to freak them out, or make them sick with a shortcut. besides, axe would have my head if i left you."

You had no idea what they were talking about anymore, but you couldn't care less. The pair waited for you to cry yourself out a bit, before Stretch picked you up carefully, cradling you awkwardly as you clung to his hoodie. The walk back to the house was a blur, but somehow also an eternity, seeming much longer than you remembered it being. You were silently thankful you didn't try to walk back by yourself.

You didn't catch much of Stretch and Sugar's quiet conversation, trying to pull yourself together enough to be relatively lucid when you got back to the house. You had some explaining to do, and some apologizing as well.

"did you tell everyone we found them yet?" Stretch asked, and you finally pulled your head out from his shoulder to see Sugar shake his head.

"I Didn't Bring A Way To Charge My Cell Phone, So It Died A While Ago. When We Get Home, I'll Call Them."

Stretch nodded, pulling you a bit tighter to himself as you guys slowly approached the driveway. You saw Sans and a new skeleton you didn't recognize standing close together as they talked. The stranger was tall, almost as tall as Papyrus, but a bit broader, garbed in a leather jacket next to a motorcycle.

"Sans!" Sugar called out, catching the attention of Sans and the stranger.

At the sight of you approaching, Sans' expression changed, and from one moment to the next, he was in front of you, scaring you half to death.

"oh my god, kiddo, are you okay? where the hell were you?" Sans said, looking over you as you stared at him in bewilderment.

"How did you do that?" You asked, stunned, but he ignored your question, looking at your bloodied, dirtied clothes with concern.

"why didn't you tell anyone that you left? you scared the shit out of us, we thought you'd been kidnapped or something! that's why i made the rule in the first place." Sans said, his voice thick with concerned anger.

"I did tell someone," you said quietly, guilt forcing you to look away from him.

"what?" he paused; Stretch and Sugar seemed equally as confused.

"honey, who did you tell?" stretch said, suspiciously.

"I know it's gonna sound stupid, but I told Boss. I wanted to go on a walk to clear my head after..." you decided against continuing, not wanting to sound petulant, and feeling quite ridiculous.

"oh my god," Sans said, his eyelights extinguishing for a moment before flickering back. "I'm gonna kill him."

"look, as much as i agree with you, can we get them inside? it's cold, and they're already in bad enough shape." Stretch interrupted before Sans could get any angrier.

Sans took a steadying breath, closing his eyes for a minute before nodding his response.

"you're right, you're right. I'm sorry, kiddo, i didn't mean to snap at you. you've been through hell already. c'mon, let's get inside and get you looked at."

The four of you made your way to the front of the house, though the guilt you felt love the situation rested heavily in your gut, as you approached, the stranger, who you now noticed had strange, jagged cracks under his right eye and over his left, and was notably missing an eyelight, similar to Axe, shot you a wave. He held a lit cigarette in his mouth, which he stamped at as you approached. You waved back.

"The name's G." The stranger said, his voice thick, and almost two-toned, deeper than any of the skeletons you had met thus far.

"I'm Y/n, it's nice to meet you. Are you more of the family?" You asked, trying to make light conversation over your pounding headache.

"You could say that. I've heard a lot about you, songbird." He said, with a sly smile.

"can we do introductions later, please?" Stretch said, his voice exasperated as he stepped around G.

You waved him a quick wave as you stepped back, which he returned before disappearing from your view. When your ragtag group stepped back into the main foyer of the lodge, you found Mutt and Blackberry sitting over a map of the woods, which had been hastily divided out into different colors of markers. When Stretch stepped inside, they looked up, the relief they felt palpable as Blackberry smirked at you.

"About time you were found, Human." He said as Mutt rushed up to check on you.

"oh my god, pumpkin, you scared the hell out of us," he said, sitting next to you as Stretch set you gently on the couch.

"I'm sorry." You said, handing your head in shame.

"please, don't apologize." Mutt insisted as he rested his hand on your shoulder.

"I'll be right back," Sans said, disappearing in a blink.

Sugar, who had been waiting quietly, turned to you with a simple smile.

"I'm Going To Go Prepare You Some Simple Food, Little Human. Wait Here." He announced, walking to and up the staircase in a few strides.

"How does Sans do that?" You muttered to yourself after he was gone, earning a chuckle from Stretch and Mutt.

"don't worry about it, honey," Stretch said, kneeling down to take off the tennis shoes Betty had given you.

"who's clothes are these?" Mutt asked, looking at the worn denim jacket, and the pair of shoes Stretch was now setting to the side.

"Oh, a really sweet could found me out there to make sure I was okay. They gave me these and lit me a fire. I probably would have gone into hypothermic shock without them." You joked, but the terrified looks it earned you made you question the timing of your humor.

"And who were these Humans?" Blackberry asked, standing up to move in front of you, acting nonchalant.

"Their names were betty and Mary, they gave me their numbers." You said, pulling the slip of paper from the jacket pocket.

Blackberry took the paper before you could protest, grinning and walking out of a side door without another word. You moved to stop him, kept in place only by Mutt pressing you down by your shoulder. You looked at him, about to ask what he was doing when he smiled.

"he's going to thank them, pumpkin." Mutt explained.

"How do you know?" You asked, glancing back to the door he'd walked through.

"M'lord is many things, but most of all, he's an honorable monster." Mutt replied, ignoring Stretch's snide chuff.

"Huh," You replied, flinching as Stretch peeled off the bandages.

"god, honey, your feet. how did you not notice they were this injured?" Stretch asked, looking up at you with genuine worry.

"I was upset." You replied simply, looking away.

"what happened?" Mut asked, his voice so gentle you almost started crying again.

You almost didn't respond, but you knew they'd want the answer sooner or later. Better to tell these two now than everyone later.

"Well, after I had a pretty... emotional conversation with Blue, he said he'd go get me some food. I was having kind of a rough day, so I cried in my room for a while, and when I left to go find him, everyone, including him, was gone." You replied, not wanting to go into more detail about how you felt abandoned.

"oh, honey." Stretch sighed, sounding heartbroken.

"I know, it's stupid.  When I told Boss  I was leaving, he just blew me off, so, I just kept walking."

"I'm gonna dust him," Mutt growled, much darker than Sans had said it.

"yeah, get in line." Stretch said, before turning back to you. "but honey, blue and i weren't trying to blow you off, he had gone to the store with me to get you ingredients for soup, so you wouldn't get sick again."

As the words sunk in, you felt sick to your stomach, the guilt that had laid dormant before crashing against you like a tsunami.

"Oh my god, I am so fucking stupid." You cursed, the vitriol in your voice startling the boys as you put your head in your hands. "I'm so sorry, oh my god. I'm the worst person on the planet, what the fuck."

A pang shot through your chest again, forcing you to take in a breath, and suddenly, Stretch was cradling your face, forcing you to meet his eyes. Distantly, you could feel Mutt rubbing your upper back.

"listen to me. you have to stop thinking like that, right now, or your hp will go critically low, and sans actually will kill me. you did nothing wrong, honey, i promise. it was a simple misunderstanding, and you felt abandoned. we should have told you we were leaving, and i am so, so sorry. okay?" He said, searching your eyes desperately as he held your face.

You looked at him for a moment, before nodding, tears slipping down your face one more. He pulled you into an awkward hug, but you didn't mind, hugging him back and squeezing your eyes shut.

"we were so worried." He choked out, sounding on the verge of tears himself.

After a while, he let go, and you sank back to your seat on the couch. Mutt smiled warmly at you, which you rewarded with a watery smile of your own.

"everything okay in here?" Sans asked, returning with what appeared to be a sort of makeshift first aid.

"it will be, as soon as we get them cleaned up." Mutt replied lightheartedly.

Sans knelt down in front of you, laying out a mishmash of different medicines, bandages, wipes, and bottles, which he looked at relatively uncertainly.

"I can tell you what these do, if you want." You offered, and Sans accepted with a sigh of relief.

"sure. let's get you patched up while we wait for the others to get back."

And so, you sorted through the supplied with him, Stretch and Mutt, and waited as your anxiety grew. A knock at the locked door startled you. Oh well.

It's time to face the music.

Chapter Text

Mutt grabbed your hand gently as Stretch stood to open the door, rushing a bit as the doorknob jiggled desperately. As soon as the knob was turned enough for the door to unlock, the door was shoved open, just barely missing Stretch by a hair's breadth as a flash of Red flew past him. In the next moment, Red was there, holding your face, running his hands down your arms, muttering his concerns under his breath as he looked you over. You let him, pretty much expecting all of your friends to be a bit worried when they all reappeared.

"oh my god, darlin'," Red gasped, pulling you into a tight hug, as your arm twisted awkwardly as you held onto Mutt's hand. 

"Hey, Red. I'm sorry I worried you." You hummed, using your free arm to hug him back as you rest your head on his shoulder.

You peeked behind him, startled to find your eyes meeting with the same blue stars that you'd looked into just earlier that day. Blue's sockets filled with tears, and your heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

Damn, you really were an asshole.

Red finally pulled away then, his face turning from the pure worry it had been to the righteous anger of a worried mother, whose child had strayed too far from her side. You swallowed heavily, looking at Sans to save you, but he only shrugged and smiled.

"y/n." Red growled out, his voice so low your heart skipped a beat.

"Yes, Red?" You replied, your voice timid.

"why, in the name of all things holy, did ya leave the house without tellin' any of us?" He said, his eyes trained on you intensely as he scowled.

"Well..." You said, your mouth going dry as you averted your gaze, trying not to rile him up.

"they did." Mutt interrupted, saving your ass.

"what?" Red said, genuinely surprised. Blue's expression matched his, and Red turned to look at Sans for an explanation.

"why don't you ask your boss?"

Red's sockets widened, before the realization at what Sans had said truly sunk in, and his eyelights extinguished, his hands tightening where they held your arms. It was a genuinely frightening sight, and you squeezed Mutt's hand tightly, who moved as if to get Red off of you.

"excuse me for a moment, darlin'," Red said, his voice eerily calm as he carefully let you go, blinking away as suddenly as he appeared.

"i should go chaperone that. stretch, mutt, blue, stay here with them until papyrus comes back, please." Sans said, popping out of existence himself.

You didn't have time to be startled by their disappearances before Blue was hugging you, barrelling into you with such force it almost knocked you onto Mutt. You caught him, with a little bit of trouble, as he was bigger than you, letting go of Mutt's hand to make sure he didn't fall as he slammed into you.

"I'm So Sorry, Y/N." He sobbed, shaking so quickly that his bones clattered loudly in the room.

Stretch watched you two with a pained look on his face, looking like he was doing his best not to comfort his brother as he clung desperately to you. You just held him tightly, exhaustion and pain and guilt and everything that had made up today crashing into you again like the tide.

"You don't need to apologize, Blue. This is all my fault." You replied, trying to keep your tears at bay.

"stop that, both of you," Stretch said, sounding pained.

"what stretch is trying to say is that it's not your fault. either of you. it was a misunderstanding, and everyone is safe now. it's all okay." Mutt said, rubbing your back gently as you clung to Blue like a life raft.

"I'm still sorry."  You said, chest aching as the guilt hung over you.

"hey, be careful with that, honey." Stretch said, coming over to sit on the other side of you. "you still have a pretty bad case of Soul-Ache, and your hp can't be looking great after tonight.

You stayed quiet, unsure of what to say as you held Blue tightly in your arms. Thankfully, Stretch didn't seem to expect a response as he waited with you, all of you sitting in comfortable silence. Your exhaustion pulled at you like an incessant child, and you slowly relaxed in Blue's comforting hold, resting your head on the top of his skull as he leaned onto you. Stretch and Mutt watched you both fondly as you began to drift off.

You awoke from your half-sleep to the sound of gentle humming, and the feel of phalanges running through your hair. You distantly wondered how they didn't get caught in the tiny strand of your hair, but any thinking was quickly cut short by the feeling of the bone gently scratching against your scalp. The feeling was soothing, and with the warmth Blue was giving off, the gentle affection you hadn't received in who knows how long, and the quiet drone of Mutt's voice as he started to hum a song you didn't quite recognize, you were in a hazy slumber within minutes.

You registered a few times as you were moved, groaning and whining a bit as you were pulled away from Blue (who seemed just as annoyed by this as you) only to be placed on the softer cushions on the couch and reunited with him once more. You clung to him again, barely realizing how clingy and affectionate you were being, and honestly being too tired to care.

You dimly registered the nearly constant presence of Mutt and Stretch, who cared for you intermittently as you and Blue slept. They would check on your wounds every so often, and tried to keep you too from falling into too deep of a sleep. Stretch argued that it was because he didn't want you sleeping on the couch and messing with your sleep quality, but you offered the slurred argument that Blue was warm and comfy and you were sleepy. Mutt even tried to convince you two to move up to your room, but you denied it, albeit reluctantly. You wanted to be there when Papyrus and Red got home. You owed them that much at least.

You almost thought you would have to forfeit your little battle of stubbornness and move back up to your room when the sound of the front door opening pulled you out of your light sleep. You opened your eyes slowly, blinking blearily as a figure slowly stepped through the door, the tall, broad frame immediately registering as Papyrus. You sat up, shushing Blue as he rightly protested and rubbed your eyes, yawning as Papyrus shot you a dazzling smile, rushing over to you on his toes like a child trying to be quiet.

"Y/n, You Are Safe!" Papyrus whispered loudly, his usually booming voice just barely quieter than your normal tone.

"Hey, Papy." You hummed, lifting your arms up for a hug.

Papyrus immediately obliged, picking you up as easily as if you were a kitten, and hugged you to him like a little kid. you cuddled into him, huffing a bit at the feeling of his cold bones against your face, but hugging him as tightly as you could anyway. When you opened your eyes, you were greeted with the sight of Axe, watching you with a tear-filled expression, hands twitching at his sides as his mouth sat slightly agape.

"Oh, Axe." You said, thankful when Papyrus realized the situation and carefully set you down, moving to start a quiet conversation with Stretch.

Axe looked at you as if he was searching for something, so clearly wanting to go to you but seemingly frightened to. your heart broke as you realized, he was looking at you like you were going to disappear; like you would run if he got close. You had to show him that you weren't you had to comfort him.

So, you ran to him. From one moment to the next, you were hugging him, arms wrapped so tightly around his waist you were worried you'd heart him. Not waiting one more second, he stopped you up, cradling you close and pressing you to him like it was the last time you'd ever see him again. You just quietly hugged him back, gently petting the untouched side of his skull when he started to shake from his sobs.

"please, don't ever do that again, little lamb." He whispered, his voice so quiet you almost thought you'd misheard him.

"I won't, Axe, I promise. I'm so so sorry." You said, eyes filling with tears once again.

Immediately, as if sensing your emotional distress, Axe began petting your hair, still cradling you close as he sat down on the floor. He practically hurled around you, the experience odd but not unpleasant, and you briefly wondered if you should be concerned about how kind these skeletons were. The soothing feeling of his warmth all around you made you quickly realize, you honestly didn't care why, you just never wanted it to end.

"it's okay, little lamb, it's okay. breathe, you're safe now. you're always safe with me." Axe hummed, so quietly that only you could hear.

The drowsiness of just being asleep combined with the comforting cadence of his words was enough to immediately calm you, your guilt and worry melting away like snow in the morning sun. Axe continued to hum praises and comforts to you, and you were butter in his hold, so cozy and warm that the only thing you wished you could have right now was another hug from Blue to cap it all off.

"axe, you are a miracle worker. you stabilized their hp faster than any method I've seen yet." mutt's words were twinged with a light bit of humor, but there was a sincerity behind his tone that made you realize he was genuinely impressed.

Axe only hummed, never ceasing his gentle ministrations for even a moment as your breathing slowed and evened out. After a little while in and out of sleep, you felt another hand touch your forehead, and you furrowed your brows at the interruption.

"they don't seem to have a fever." Sans' voice muttered near you, and you realized he must have come back from 'chaperoning.' "Have they been sleeping long?"

"a couple of hours, if you total up the time. they've been in and out of sleep, though, so i wouldn't consider it super high quality.

Sans hummed at Mutt's words and began to run his hands along a couple of the cuts and scrapes you'd gotten on your little outing. You flinched as he poked a particularly tender spot, and you felt his hand retract at a warning growl from Axe.

"we should probably get some food in their stomach," Sans remarked, prompting you to open your eyes.

After you adjusted to the bright overhead lights of the room, you were greeted with the sight of Sans' skull less than a foot from your head, his eyes locked on your bruised skin as he carefully and respectfully looked you over. Mutt and Red stood behind him, though Stretch, Papyrus, and Blue were nowhere to be seen, which disappointed you. When Mutt realized you'd opened your eyes, he shot you a simple two-fingered salute, so you wiggled your arm out from where it was pinned to Axe and returned the gesture.

Sans, realizing you were aware, looked up at you, his slightly more serious expression softening at your sleepy face.

"hey, kiddo. think you could handle a little bit of a light dinner before you head to bed?"

You thought for a moment, imagining eating some food. While you weren't hungry, your nausea had even out a bit, so you nodded, barely stifling a yawn.

"alright, good. sugar and blue made you some soup, if that sounds okay with you."

Remembering that Blue and Stretch had gone out of their way to buy you ingredients for soup, only for you to be petulant and disappear for several hours, made a lump form in your throat. By the concerned expression that flitted over Sans' face, you guessed he must've noticed. Not trusting yourself to speak, you nodded again, a bit slower this time. Sans seemed to pause for a moment, debating whether or not to ask why you were upset, but you were silently thankful he let it lie.

Sans stood, and you rose with him, Axe carrying you smoothly as he always did. The five of you made your way up the stairs, Red sticking close as Mutt lagged a bit behind. You had gotten used to being carried around all the time at this point, but you kinda hoped that in the future you'd be able to move around more freely, curious about the layout of this massive house. You were back in the kitchen shortly, though you noticed it was a bit emptier than you were used to seeing it. You noted specifically Blackberry, Stretch, and Papyrus missing (as well as Boss, but that was no surprise), and you silently hoped they were okay, though you had to remind yourself they were most likely asleep.

As you and the others entered the room, Blue and Sugar turned from where they had been portioning out a wonderfully fragrant chicken soup into bowls. Axe put you down (rather reluctantly) as you began to squirm, rushing over to Blue and giving him a hug. This time, he had to catch you, and he seemed a bit surprised as you squeezed him tightly.

"Thank you, Blueberry. I really don't deserve you guys." You said, meaning every word.

"Oh, Don't Say That, Starling." Blue hummed, returning your hug just as tightly.

Your heart melted at the nickname, liking not being referred to as 'human' for once. You silently hoped he'd use it more often. Your heart thrummed in your chest as you blushed, a bit shy at just how happy a simple pet name had made you.

Damn, these skeletons were getting into your head.

"little lamb, you should eat," Axe said, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder.

You pulled away from Blue, looking down to hopefully hide some of the blush that was blooming over your face. If Blue noticed, he said nothing, though a quick glance at Mutt revealed a knowing grin that only made your face that much hotter.

"YES, LITTLE HUMAN, LET'S EAT!" Sugar exclaimed, mercifully drawing the attention of the other skeletons as they moved to go sit.

The table was notably emptier, though you had to assume it was probably pretty late if the inky black darkness coming from the window outside was any indicator. You sat at the same seat you had taken before, hoping you weren't in anyone's usual seat, but the skeletons didn't seem to mind. Red swooped in to sit next to you, shooting you a dazzling smile that had your blush coming back full force. When did these skeletons get so damn handsome?

To your surprise, Mutt came to take the seat next to you, ignoring Axe's displeased growl as he realized he couldn't sit next to you. You almost said something when Sugar steered him away, sitting him across from you so that he could still take to you while he ate. Despite his clear reluctance, he took a seat, Blue joining him to his left with a disappointed huff. Sans shot you a grin, looking at those two and back to you with a shake of his head, taking the head of the table to the right of Red and heavily salting his bowl.

Sugar placed a bowl in front of you, despite your protests that you'd happily stand up and grab one for yourself, and patted you on the head, his bony hand surprisingly gentle. He took a seat next to his brother, and everyone began to quietly eat, the sleepiness of the room evident.

In fact, your eyelids were so heavy as you slowly ate the excellently spiced chicken soup that you were afraid you fall asleep in the bowl. typically, when you would eat alone before, you could play music to dampen out the silence, but without your phone, there was little you could do but think.

"Where's Stretch and Papy? Did they go to bed?" You asked, purposefully avoiding the topic of whatever Blackberry was doing with your new friend's numbers.

"after i had a little 'chat' with Boss, i ran into those two talkin' to the motorcycle freak outside," Red responded, and you weren't sure whether you were more curious about his clear distaste for G or what had happened between him and Boss.

Thankfully, Sans decided which answer you'd hear for you.

"g was gonna help us look for you, if it took us too long to find you," Sans explained, though that didn't really answer why Stretch and Papyrus were talking to him, or where they were now.

Seeing the confusion on your face, Blue chimed in. "MY BROTHER AND PAPYRUS ARE TRYING TO ARRANGE A TIME FOR YOU TO MEET THE REST OF OUR... FAMILY."

You narrowed your eyes at how long it took for him to say the word 'family,' watching as Red eyed you nervously from the corner of your eye. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths for a moment, and though your suspicion over what that meant mounted, you ultimately decided it wasn't your business and resumed eating. You tried to ignore their very obvious relief as you took another bite of carrot. If they wanted to tell you, they would.

"So, Mutt." You said, changing the subject entirely. "Where's your brother?"

Mutt looked over to you for a moment looking a bit surprised before a sly smile spread across his face.

"m'lord went to thank the friends that helped you on the trail, this evening." He answered, and you raised your eyebrow a bit at the strange title.

"Oh?" You said, caught off guard.

While Blackberry hadn't been mean, necessarily, he also hadn't been particularly kind. You had never gone out of your way to speak to him, but he seemed a little self-righteous for a gesture like that. But from the beaming, proud expression on Mutt's face, you could tell that Mutt likely had a different thought. You made a mental note to talk to him more when you next got the chance.

"That's really sweet of him," You said, happy to see the way Mutt beamed in response.

"I'm not gonna lie, i wasn't expecting that one," Sans said, voicing your inner thoughts.

"IT IS QUITE A KIND GESTURE FROM OUR FRIEND. I AM GLAD THAT HE IS COMPENSATING THOSE WOMEN FOR THEIR HELP IN AIDING YOU." Sugar said, but your mind caught closely on the word 'friend'.

Okay, first Blue's hesitance on the word 'family,' then Sugar's use of the word friend. That, combined with a few incidents you couldn't quite remember off the top of your head, put a bad taste in your mouth. You fell silent as you considered the implications of these incidents. Were they accidents? Were you reading too much into it? It was possible, but you got the feeling somehow that that wasn't quite the case. So what else? Could it be that they weren't actually family? If that was the case, then why did they all look so similar? Something wasn't quite right there.

Red and Sans eyed you carefully as you stared at your soup, lost in thought with your brow furrowed. They seemed nervous, and shared a nervous glance, which you pretended not to see as pieces began to fall into place.

Suddenly, you remembered a tidbit that you'd realized when you first met the skeletons, a line in an old history book that a friend had pointed out to you a while back. Weren't skeletons...rare? As far as you could remember, they were really rare, though that could just be a fluke of memory on your part. But clearly, something wasn't adding up, and the nervous silence from the skeletons around you wasn't helping their case too much.

You looked up, studying Sans closely as his skull began to sweat. The round shape of his head, the pudginess of his cheekbones. Hell, even the way his brow bones sat. You looked over at Red, who watched you with nearly identical beads of sweat on his own skull, and examined his face. Yup, just as you suspected. Same shape, same features, the only real difference was his teeth. You looked at Sugar then, setting down your spoon into your bowl with a loud clatter. Everyone was watching you now, expressions ranging from confused to concerned, to downright anxious, as you stared at Sugar intensely.

"...Y/N?" He said, as you looked over every feature of him and compared it to the image of Papyrus in your mind.

Or hell, even stretch, who looked more and more similar the more you thought about it. Besides his astounding height, and his unfortunate dental situation, Sugar was the spitting image of Papyrus, and as you shifted your view to Axe, who watched you as closely as you watched him, it finally clicked.

Just to be sure of your conclusion, not wanting to throw out meaningless accusations without being totally sure, you tried to imagine Axe without his injury. The spitting image of Sans came to mind, who was currently so nervous you thought he'd spontaneously combust. Everyone had stopped eating now, just watching as you looked over them with narrowed eyes. one last glance over to Blue did it, and your eyes widened as you confirmed your theory.

"You're Sans." You said, looking him right in his eyes.

Blue's starry eyelights widened as far as they could go, every skeleton at the table staring at you in total shock.

"HOW... HOW COULD YOU KNOW THAT?" He stammered, his voice unsure.

"I couldn't have known for sure before you said that, but you just confirmed it for me." You turned to Axe, who wore a small, proud smile on his face. "You are too, and so is Blackberry, Right? And Red," You turn your gaze to him, though he looks like he wants to disappear. "You too, am I right?"

The table remains in shocked silence for a moment, before the sound of Sans putting his spoon down draws your gaze to him. He looked flabbergasted, but had an almost awed smile on his face as he stared at you.

"damn, kid, you're more observant than i gave you credit for, I'll give you that one. what gave it away, in the end?" He said, almost sounding impressed.

"Honestly, you guys look really similar, so I'm kinda surprised I didn't realize it earlier. I chalked it up to you guys being related, but the way you acted... something told me you guys weren't family. That, and I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that skeletons were pretty rare when it comes to monsters." You said, a bit proud of yourself for figuring it out.

"are you... mad?" Axe asked, and you turned to look at him.

You thought about it for a moment, but couldn't really muster up any emotions other than curiosity and pride, happy that you cracked the code but confused about how that was possible. Were they clones? Alternates? Regardless, you couldn't really bring yourself to be mad, not after they'd taken you in and been so kind. Besides, you were practically a stranger, you really had no right to that information.

"No, not at all." You answered, honestly. The skeletons all notably relaxed at that. "Honestly, I have no right to that information, so you were under no obligation to tell me. Besides, you guys have been nicer to me than anyone else I've ever met, so it would kind of be a dick move for me to get mad at you for something that understandable."

"Though I will say," You continued, "I don't quite understand how that's possible. Not that you have to tell me! I'm just curious, is all."

Red looked at you affectionately as he shook his head, rubbing his temple with a laugh. The relief in the room was practically palpable, and you were glad that they didn't seem upset that you knew their secret.

"oh my god, kiddo, you're such a gem, i swear." Sans said, laughing a bit to yourself as you gave him a confused look.

"Huh?" You asked, feeling a bit dumb as the skeletons laughed a bit, Sugar shooting you a soft smile.

"we're just glad you're such a sweetheart, pumpkin." Mutt explained, though that really didn't help you understand their reactions any better.

"WE WERE WORRIED THAT IF WE REVEALED THAT PARTICULAR FACT ABOUT OURSELVES, IT WOULD FRIGHTEN YOU. TO SEE THAT YOUR REACTION IS SIMPLY PRIDE IN YOURSELF AND GENUINE CURIOSITY, ITS, WELL..." Sugar began, and Axe finished his sentence for him as he trailed off with a blush.

"it's cute."

Your face flushed hot, the bright red blush covering your entire face, ears, and even going down your neck a bit. Red snickered to himself a bit, prompting you to shove your head in your hands as the rest of the skeletons shared a lighthearted laugh.

"aww, no need to be embarrassed, pumpkin. you look even cuter when you blush like that." Mutt said, laying a hand on your shoulder.

Oh my goodness, Jesus take the wheel.

You Buried your head into your arms, laying your head on the table as the skeletons cooed at how cute you were, though Blue and Sugar stayed mercifully quiet, only getting out a couple of laughs. Damn these handsome skeletons and their teasing compliments. 

You were so embarrassed you felt like you were going to combust, but you couldn't help but appreciate the praise a bit. You weren't stupid enough to think they were genuinely flirting with you, but you let yourself pretend for a moment, basking in the feeling of being wanted by these skeletons who were, though you would never admit it out loud, quite attractive and sweet.

Finally, they lessened their heckling, and Mutt began to rub your back softly.

"come on, darlin', ya can't finish yer dinner if you've got yer head in yer hands." Red crooned, his voice still holding a note of gentle teasing.

You flipped him off, sending him into a fit of guffawing laughter as you lifted your head up from where it had rested on your arms. You quickly took back up to finishing your soup, thankful for the distraction as you quickly finished the bowl. Axe hummed, seeming pleased.

"So, if you guys," You said, gesturing to Red, Sans, Axe, and Blue, "are all Sans...es, then does that make you and the others Papyruses? Papyrusi?" You asked Mutt.

He chuckled at your made-up words but nodded, gesturing to Sugar, who waved sheepishly as you looked at him.

"Me, Sugar, Stretch, Boss, and obviously, Papyrus." He said, and you nodded, still a bit confused.

"How is that even possible, if you don't mind my asking?"

It was Sans who replied.

"do you know the multiverse theory?" He asked, which you confirmed with a nod. "well, it's true, and these guys are all from different iterations of our original universe." He explained as if it was just a simple fact of life.

"Wait, so, this is the original universe? Does that mean there's more of me? And wait, if this isn't their universe, then what are the other versions of you guys doing here? No offense." You asked, the information absolutely blew your mind.

"yes, this is the original universe. As for whether or not there are other versions of you, kiddo, the jury's still out on that one. and to answer why the others are here, it was really an accident that they were brought here." 

That news brought a pang to your heart, more sudden and painful than you expected.

'Wait, does that mean they're going to leave?"

The energy in the room notably dulled, as Axe gripped the table so hard it splintered a bit. Sugar put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but it was clear that your question was a bit of a sore spot. You'd keep that in mind.

"eventually, theoretically, yes. though, that's a bit more complicated now." Red replied instead of Sans, and you gave him a confused look.

You considered asking more about what he meant by that, but you didn't want to run the risk of making anyone more upset. Instead, you smiled, a bit weaker than before.

"But hey, we can all hang out still, right? It's not awkward now that I know, is it?"

The change in subject seemed to relax the skeletons, and you made a note to ask Sans about it the next time you were alone.

"AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T BOTHER YOU, STARLING, YOU'RE WELCOME TO CONTINUE TO SPEND TIME WITH US. WE'D ACTUALLY PREFER IF YOU DID, IF YOU DON'T MIND." Blue replied, sounding a bit sheepish.

You beamed at him, happy that you wouldn't have to lose your newfound friends so soon. Damn, it was gonna be hard when you did eventually have to go on your own. You hoped you could at least keep in touch with them.

"I'd love to, you guys are awesome. though I have to ask, can I still call you guys by your nicknames? It may be confusing if I'm calling everyone Sans and Papyrus.' You said, prompting a laugh from Mutt.

"of course you can, pumpkin." He said, and you relaxed at the lighter mood.

Before you could stop it, a yawn escaped you, and you were acutely reminded of just how exhausted you were. Sans smiled softly at you as you yawned, and you couldn't help but smile back, even as you rubbed your eyes tiredly.

"as thrilling as this conversation has been, i think we should save any more questions for another time. it's getting a little too late for you to be up." Sans said, and you crossed your arms petulantly, even as your eyes drooped of their own accord.

"I'm not tired." You lied, even as you were rudely interrupted by another yawn.

"mmhmm, I'm sure you aren't, darlin'." Red quipped, earning min a chuckle from Mutt.

"Fine," You huffed, defeated. "It may be a good idea for me to get to bed before I pass out."

You stood, a bit unsteady on your exhausted legs, but stubbornly waved Mutt off as he offered to help. Axe looked like he wanted to scoop you up like he usually did, but your stubborn sense of joking spite made you determined to walk to the bedroom on your own.

"Goodnight guys, see you tomorrow." You said, offering them a wave as they replied with their own goodbyes. "Love you."

It was purely a habit, something you used to say to your friends (when you still talked to them) when you were saying goodbye. You hadn't even realized you'd said it, having already turned around, so you completely missed the shocked, starstruck looks on the skeletons faced, completely floored by your casual affection. It wasn't until you had showered, changed into another pair of Blue pajamas (they smelled like him!), and fallen into bed that you realized what you'd said.

"Well, fuck."

Tomorrow was going to be interesting.

Chapter Text

(If you're reading this chapter on the 9th, the day it came out, please make sure you've read 'A Symphony Awaits,' which is the previous chapter, before this, as they both came out today. Okay, enjoy!)

A few days had passed since the 'L' word incident.

You'd felt terrible about it, and had pulled Sans aside to apologize for being so forward. He'd laughed good-naturedly and told you not to worry about it, but you were thoroughly embarrassed around that particular group for the next day, especially Mutt and Red, who teased you relentlessly about it at first. You were blushing so much, avoiding their eyes and missing how clearly smitten they were with you, and Sans had to thank his lucky stars that you were so unassuming and oblivious.

So that's how you ended up here, staring at Sugar's cookbook with a confused expression as you tried to decipher his loopy cursive handwriting. The rest of the skeletons had trickled out of the house for every which reason, even Axe and Sugar had found something to do for the day, leaving you home alone, with very little to do. You could have gone with them, but you wanted to both apologize for being awkward, and thank them all for saving your ass (on more than one occasion. And so, there you were, alone.

Well, not quite alone, per see. You had one companion.

Red had been left behind to chaperone you, which you supposed you deserved after last time. He'd mostly left you alone, finally stopping his teasing after you'd threatened him with the silent treatment. You'd never admit it to him, but you actually didn't mind the attention, enjoying the company of the handsome, caring, cocky skeleton more than you expected to. He had been the one to initially save you after all, so it made sense you were a bit attached to him, right?

"need any help in 'ere, darlin'?' Red asked from the doorway, his deep baritone sending a shiver down your spine.

He clearly noticed, and smirked at your reaction. If you hadn't known any better, you could have sworn you heard a laugh rumble in his throat.

"Actually, maybe you can help me." You said, a bit sheepish. "I can't read cursive."

"of course, darlin," he purred, coming to stand behind you to read the writing.

You blushed as he stood behind you, placing a hand on the counter on either side of you, and placing his head smoothly on your shoulder to look down at the cookbook. You knew that he was messing with you, but the closeness of his warmth and the feeling of his body caging you in made butterflies erupt in your stomach.

Stop crushing on the too-hot-for-his-own-good skeleton, Y/n. You said to yourself in your head, trying to keep your breathing stable as he hummed in thought, his breath brushing against your ear.

"well, it says here you need ta whisk together the dry and wet ingredients separately, and then slowly combine them," He said, his voice so close to your ears it sent another shiver down your spine.

This man would be the death of you.

"Thank you, Red." You said, your voice breaking as you cursed internally.

"no problem, daaaarlin'." He said, directly into your ear.

Holy fuck, you were totally crushing on this skeleton.

"oh my goodness, sweetheart, ya should've seen yer face." He laughed, after finally pulling away.

Your legs felt like putty, and you were too flustered to really be mad at him, but you fought back a smile and batted him away anyway, only making him laugh harder. You searched the drawers of the kitchen for a whisk, finally finding one in the third drawer you checked before turning around to find Red already holding one, whisking the dry ingredients together with casual ease. he looked pristine then, the remnant of an amused smile on his face and the casual way he leaned against the counter making him look like a piece of art,

God, you needed to pull yourself together before you actually developed a proper crush on him.

Suddenly, you were reminded of the fact that you'd been here longer than you'd intended to stay in the first place, and your happy mood dampened notably at the realization that you would probably have to leave soon. The familiar pain of Soul-Ache shot through your chest, and you sighed.

At the sound of your sigh, Red looked up, his teasing attitude gone as he took in your saddened expression. His face shifted from the cocky jokester expression you'd grown used to seeing on him, to the same caring, worried expression that had been on his face when you'd first met, just over a week ago.

"what's wrong, darlin'?" He asked, his voice filled with just genuine care your heart grew heavy.

"I was just realizing that I'm getting pretty close to overstaying my welcome." You replied honestly, watching his face morph into one of confusion as he set the bowl down.

"overstayin' yer welcome? you've barely been 'ere a week," he said, coming up to you and tucking a piece of stray hair behind your hair.

Red was not making it easy to avoid crushing on him.

"Realistically, I wasn't supposed to be here at all. Besides, I haven't paid you guys anything, even rent or food money. It's not fair of me to keep  mooching off of you guys." You said, the guilt you'd felt before slowly rearing its ugly head.

"darlin', can i be honest with ya?" Red said, resting a hand gently on your bicep.

"Please do," You said, looking up into his eyes.

"look around." He said, more solemn than you'd heard him in a while.

You followed his gesture, looking at the crisp, clean kitchen that Papyrus, Sugar, and Blue loved so much, furnished with only the best that modern appliances had to offer. the room was spotless, spacious, and splendid, perhaps the nicest kitchen you'd ever had the pleasure of using. The white, creamy paint, the modern backsplash, the elegant, antique dining room table just a little bit away, and even the sink had a certain air of quality to it that made it marvelous to look at. After you'd felt like you'd seen enough, you looked back into his waiting eyes.

"this room, this house, all of this, is a luxury that most people could never hope ta afford. sans, and many of the other monsters in yer universe's underground are extremely lucky ta have the opportunity ta have this wealth, and ta use it as they want. if ya ask me, and forgive me for bein' blunt, just be thankful that ya 'ave the opportunity and enjoy it as long as ya can. if sans, or any of us really, didn't want ya here, you'd be gone, but that clearly ain't the case. we like ya, a lot, and we want'cha around." He said, and your eyes welled up with tears.

He caught you smoothly as you hugged him, grateful tears spilling from your eyes at his words. He was right, however difficult that was for you to accept, and you really were thankful for the opportunity that you were given.

"You guys are the best thing that's ever happened to me." You said, squeezing your eyes shut to stem the tears and taking a breath.

"you have no idea, sweetheart." He replied, and though you were confused, you left it at that.

"now come on." he said, pulling away and quickly wiping your tears. "let's bake this cake, or whateva."

You chuckled at him, but didn't need to be told twice. With him translating Sugar's beautiful but illegible handwriting, and the two of you working together, you'd finished the batter in no time. Axe had insisted on turning on the oven this time, though you argued that these ovens were much smaller and you could reach them just fine, and soon enough the cakes were in the oven, the scent of chocolate slowly permeating the room.

"Ugh, waiting for cakes to finish baking is so boring." You complained, Red laughing at your joking whine.

"You'll live, darlin'," He said, but you could tell he was antsy too.

"I just wish I had some music to listen to or something." You said, missing the old playlists you used to dance to when you baked.

"oh, ya like music?"  Red asked, perking up.

"I love music." You replied, curious.

"come with me, i 'ave somethin' ta show ya." 

You followed after him as he hopped up, leading you into the foyer to the right of the kitchen, where the staircase that led to the next floor up and the first floor lay. He ignored the staircase, however, crossing to the opposite side of the foyer into a wide hallway, which opened up to reveal three doors. The baseboards and upper corners of the hallways were lined with orange neon tubing, which you found interesting, and each of the doors was decorated with a different neon letter. The large 'G' at the end of the hall caught your eye, and you distantly wondered if G the skeleton had ever lived here.

Red ignored the room at the end of the hall, instead turning to the room to the left which was adorned with a large C written in a large, fancy cursive.

"What's this?" You asked.

Instead of answering verbally, Red shot you a cheeky grin, before turning the knob and swinging open the door. You were immediately met with perhaps the most unique room you'd been in yet, furnished with nothing short of the most ostentatious Italian furniture you'd ever seen. Everything in this room looked antique, but somehow in pristine condition, fit with an entire alcohol cabinet on display on one side of the room, a full king-sized bed with posts and curtains, and a couch set with an antique dark wood table with a decorative cigar box placed exactly in the middle.

The thing that really caught your eye, however, was a beautiful, traditional, 1960s-style jukebox, complete with full neon lighting and gold trimming that pulled the breath from your lungs.

"Oh my god, it's beautiful." You sighed, stepping immediately over it and running your hands down the side.

Almost immediately, you could tell this was the real deal, if the aging songbook inside was any indicator. It was warm beneath your hands, buzzing with electricity as you admired it closely.

"ya like it? it belongs ta one o' the sanses that doesn't live here anymore, so I pop in here and turn it on from time ta time." He said, patting it lightly.

"I love it, its beautiful!" You exclaimed, giving him a quick hug before going back to inspect it.

Red chuckled but didn't interrupt as you admired every square inch, practically in heaven as the nostalgia from your childhood washed over you. It was a beautiful installment, and you knew you'd do anything to hear it play.

"When I was a little kid, my grandpa used to have one of these. When my mom still let me visit him, we'd dance together to his favorite song every time." You said, practically glowing as the pleasant nostalgia washed over you.

"that right?" Red said, and you looked up at him, blushing at the look of unveiled adoration he was giving you.

"Yeah, it is." You stammered, a bit shy.

"what song was it?" He asked, and you flipped through the songbook excitedly, feeling like a kid again.

"Don't look! it's a surprise!"

Obliging with a patient smile, Red turned around, moving from where he'd been standing to look around the rest of the room. It took you a little bit, but eventually, you finally found it, grinning in triumph as you realized it was an option on the list. You quickly selected the song, pressing the button as it came to life, the beginning chords of the ever familiar "Can't Help Falling In Love." playing with that charming old crackle from the speakers.

Excitedly, you turned around, eager to see Red's reaction. When you turned around, however, you were immediately starstruck at the sight in front of you.

There he stood, looking like the most magnificent painting you'd ever seen. As Elvis' rich voice began to sing over the speakers, you couldn't help but feel a little bit dazzled by the skeleton in front of you. He had his arm outstretched, the orange light of the jukebox casting a beautiful glow on the white of his bones as he smiled at you, such a beautiful smile on his face it took your breath away. Immediately, you were just a young kid again, happy and carefree, being offered a dance. You fought back another bout of happy tears.

"take my hand." Red sand along with Elvis, his beautiful baritone making you gasp in a breath as he offered you a dance. "take my whole life too."

You took his hand, immediately swept into his tender arms.

"for i can't help, falling in love with you."

Red sang along with the song, his voice so breathtaking you couldn't help but waltz along with him, resting your head on his chest as you two swayed across the room. The youthful innocence you had lost so long ago made its return as you let yourself be held and sung to by Red, the person who'd saved you when you were at your lowest. The words really sunk in for the first time.

You really couldn't help it. You were falling for him.

The sweet sound of the song suddenly filled you with longing for a life you couldn't have, and you began to cry softly, mourning a love you knew you would never get. Red didn't stop, merely pulling you in tighter as you hiccuped softly. You glanced up a moment to see a pensive, caring expression on your face, and your heart shattered, forcing you to bury your face in his hoodie once again.

You wanted to stop yourself. You wanted to pull away from him right then ad there, to save yourself the pain of getting the taste of this life and never getting to kee it. There were so many reasons it would never work. You would have to leave soon, he would have to go back to his own universe. At the end of the day, you were just a silly human he'd saved out of the kindness of his heart.

And yet...

You couldn't pull away. You remembered what Red had said earlier, about enjoying things while you had them.

If this was your only chance to feel this loved, this simple and happy, the goddammit, you were gonna take it.

"like a river flows, surely to the sea. darlin', so it goes. some things are meant to be." He sang, his own voice a bit choked up as you clung to him.

"take my hand," He continued, lacing his fingers through yours. "take my whole life too."

He held you closer, resting his head on yours as you continued to sway around the room. As the song began to come to an end, you found yourself desperately wishing for this to last forever.

"for i can't help, falling in love with you."

You both slowed to a stop as he held out the last note, punctuating the end of the song with a simple song. You both stayed there for a moment longer, not wanting to break the spell that the song had cast, when the next song in the queue began to play.

Oh no.

As the first, heartbreaking chords of Elvis' 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' played, your simple tears turned into quiet sobs, holding Red as tightly as possible. He held you as you cried, moving you both to sit on the floor as the slow, sad song played in the background. Eventually, you cried yourself out, but you felt no reason to move, wanting to enjoy this for as long as you were able to.

"I'm sorry, darlin'," Red said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "i didn't mean ta make ya cry."

You held onto him tightly shaking your head slowly as you took in a steadying breath.

"'Don't be sorry," You said, voice shaky. "I'l never forget this moment. Thank you. No one's ever..." You tried not to sob again. "Made me feel this loved."

Red took in a sharp breath, resting his head gently on yours.

"oh, sweetheart. I-"

For some reason, he stopped himself, simply pulling you closer. You didn't try to guess what he was going to say, instead holding him as the song faded into silence. It was comfortable after that, though the longing remained, and you were left with one simple fact.

You were falling in love.

You didn't know how or when it had happened. Something drew you to these skeletons, who'd been nothing but affectionate and caring and genuine the entire time you'd stayed with them. You'd never gotten along with anyone so quickly, so effortlessly. that's what falling in love with Red was like. It was effortless, easy. he was handsome, kind, generous. He was considerate and teasing, he was wonderful. And he'd just given you perhaps the most magical moment of your life.

"Thank you, Red." You choked out, voice teeming with emotion. "So much."

"anytime, darlin'," He said, pulling back from the hug to look you in the eye. "and i mean it, okay? I'm always here for ya."

You nodded in response, lip trembling as his words touched you. God, you were so fucked.

"Red, I-" You began, unsure of whether you should tell him how you felt.

All logic pointed to no. You knew it wasn't a good idea. As you stared up into his eyes, your heart begging you to tell him how you felt, you knew you couldn't and it killed you.

"I'm gonna miss you." You said instead, your heart shattering as his face fell. "So much."

He pulled you into another hug, his own eyes filling with tears.

"I'm gonna miss you too, darlin'. more than you know."

The two of you stayed like that for as long as you could, before the quiet sound of a watch alarm pulled you from your thoughts. Red sighed heavily, stopping the alarm and reluctantly pulling from the hug, your heart heavy as you looked at each other for just another moment.

"c'mon, sweetheart. the cake is ready."

You could tell from Red's tone that he was just as unhappy to be leaving as you, but you both knew that all good things must come to an end. He stood, offering you a hand which you gladly accepted, even if you held it just a few moments too long. He didn't seem to mind. The two of you left the room, a bit surprised to see Papyrus and Mutt carrying large paper bags to the kitchen, surprised as you emerged from the hallway.

"AH, RED, HUMAN, WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU! WE ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN THE PREPARATION FOR LUNCH; WOULD YOU..." Papyrus stopped, seeing your clearly tearstained face and puffy eyes, and Red's rather forlorn expression. "ARE YOU TWO ALRIGHT?"

"Yeah, Papy, we're okay," You said, not sure if you even believed that.

Mutt gave you a worried look, clearly skeptical at your tone.

"hey, papy, could you take this to the kitchen for me? I'll be right there to help you unload in a second." Mutt said, handing Papyrus the bag he was hold, which the slightly taller skeleton took with ease.

"OF COURSE, DEAR FRIEND. THIS IS A SIMPLE TASK FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" He said, gallantly taking the bags to the kitchen as Mutt approached the two of you.

"hey, are you guys okay?" Mutt asked lowly, sounding genuinely worried.

"I'm fine. I'm gonna go take the cake out of the oven." Red said curtly, and before either of you could protest, he was gone.

Mutt turned to you expectantly, and you sighed, rubbing your aching eyes roughly as you tried to think of what to say. You weren't gonna explain everything you'd just felt to Mutt, especially with your lingering crush on him (and everyone in this goddamn house, apparently) but you knew he wouldn't let you off the hook with no answer at all.

"Red just took me to listen to some music, and I got sad because I missed a person I never got the chance to be."

The answer was cryptic, you knew, but it was technically the truth, and as Mutt seemed to inspect you for any hint of a lie, he found none. It was clear he wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he thankfully didn't press, giving you a quick hug instead before patting you on the shoulder.

"whatever it was, just know that you've got a lot of people here to support you." He said, and you smiled at him.

"Thanks, Mutt."

"anytime, pumpkin."

With that, you both made your way to the kitchen, met with Red placing the cakes on cooling racks, Papyrus and Sans unloading some groceries into the fridge, and Blackberry holding perhaps the most grandiose bouquet of flowers you'd ever seen in your life.

"Oh my god!" You said upon seeing them, your spirits a bit lifted at the beautiful array of colors in the arrangement. "Those are fantastic! What're they for?" You asked, genuinely impressed at their beauty.

Blackberry seemed to puff up his chest at your enthusiasm, pride making his smile sharper as he set the arrangement on the table.

"These," He began, gesturing to them dramatically, "Are the simple 'thank you' I plan to offer our new friends Betty and Mary. I will stop by their home tonight to deliver them."

You blinked at him, a bit shocked, and pleasantly surprised. Those flowers couldn't have been cheap, and while you were extremely thankful for the help the women had offered, you couldn't think of a reason for Blackberry to be so generous.

"Wow, Blackberry, that's amazingly kind of you. They're absolutely going to love these." You said honestly stepping yo to them to rub the soft petal of a peony between your fingers.

"Of course, they will! They are from the magnificent Blackberry, after all." He said, and you grinned at him, your spirits lifting to see him so genuinely proud of himself.

"I mean, how could they not love it if it's from you." You said, a hint of amusement in your tone that he definitely didn't catch.

He preened under the praise like a peacock, the words going straight to his head. Mutt smiled at him with a sort of brotherly love you admired from the skeletons, before shooting you a grateful smile.

"Precisely!" He exclaimed, turning to Mutt with a dramatic twirl. "Mutt, treat this human with the utmost respect, as they understand my magnificence better than the rest of these idiots."

While you didn't appreciate your friends being called idiots, you could admit there was a sort of endearing fondness that bubbled up in you at his words.

"yes, m'lord. of course." He said, shooting you a playful wink.

"y/n?" Red said, his voice almost back to its normal, bright tone.

"Yeah, Red?" You said, moving from where you'd been examining the flowers to come to stand next to him.

"wanna help me ice these cakes?" Red asked, and you chuckled a bit at a silly realization. "why're ya laughin'?"

"Because of your accent," You said, stifling another giggle. "when you say you want to 'ice' the cakes, it sounds like you want to kill them."

Red chuckled a bit at that, shaking his head at your antics. It was good to see him smile.

"you know, y/n," Sans said as he unpacked, "i couldn't have said it batter myself."

Blackberry and Papyrus both groaned, while you, Red, and Mutt broke into varying degrees of laughter, the stupidity of the terrible pun made even funnier by the pair's disdain for the joke.

"well, being told that about my accent was a real cake up call." Red said, making you laugh even harder as Papyrus facepalmed.

"Red, Sans, stop these foolish jokes at once." Blackberry insisted, but Red's smile just got bigger.

"what's wrong, blackberry, ya wanna piece of me?" He said, in a mock threat.

You were practically on the floor with how much you were laughing, wiping your eyes of tears as Blackberry sauntered out of the room with a huff and a flick of his cape. Red looked down at you with a wink as you laughed so hard you wheezed. 

"man," Mutt interjected, laughing before he even said the joke. "we're really watching history in the baking."

You collapsed on the floor with laughter, only encouraging Mutt, Sans, and Red, as you rubbed your aching, still smiling cheeks.

"what's so funny, kiddo. this really is dough joke."

Oh my god, that was so stupid. Papyrus groaned and put his head in his hands as you were hit with another wake of laughter, clutching your sides as your stomach began to hurt.

"oh, y/n." Mutt said, just as your laughter began to taper off. "you ain't seen muffin yet."

Yet again, you laughed, clutching your stomach as it began to genuinely hurt to continue. With great effort, you stood, waving your hands in a 'stop' motion as the three skeletons watched you with eager grins.

"Please, no more. My poor stomach can't take it. God, you guys." You said, taking a deep breath, before you had the best idea of your life.

"You guys really bake me crazy."

By the looks on your face, you would have thought you'd just told the three pun-tellers that they'd won the lottery, or that heaven was real. They broke out into cheers and laughter, Red hugging you tightly with a litany of "i'm so proud of ya." and "you're my favorite human ever." Sans gave you a high five, and Mutt patted you on the back, as Papyrus sighed heavily.

"NOT YOU TOO, Y/N." He said, and you apologized with a simple shrug.

"I'm sorry, Papy, I had to." You said, and he smiled gently at you, clearly not actually upset.

"what's all the noise coming from in here?" Stretch asked, stepping in from his daily activity as you and Red each iced a cake.

"A pun session, you explained, as Sugar, Axe, and Blue followed in behind it.

"and i just missed it? damn, that's unlucky." He said, almost sounding genuinely disappointed, even as he gave you an easy smile.

"NONSENSE," Papyrus said, pulling out several packages of deli meat from the groceries. "YOU ARE JUST IN TIME FOR SANDWICHES AND CAKE."

"now that i can get behind," Stretch said, patting Papyrus on his back.

The kitchen then transformed into a flurry of motion, Red being the only constant as the others all attempted to make sandwiches at the same time. Loaves of bread were everywhere, with condiment bottles ending up in the oddest places, and everyone wanted to make each sandwich the perfect way they preferred. you and Red stayed in your little safe zone, as Red made sure you didn't get swept away and you made sure all of the icing got onto the cakes. At some point during the debacle, Axe approached you, his pure size shielding you from the chaos.

"how do you like your sandwiches, little lamb?" He asked.

Despite your assistance you could make your own, Axe was unmoved, so you caved. You told him your particular sandwich preferences, thanking him profusely for his willingness to help, and he smiled at you, before moving silently to make your food. Red watched him go oddly, and when he was out of earshot you turned to Red.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" You asked, knowing only he could hear you over the cacophony behind you two.

"of course," he said, smoothing the top of his cake.

"Why is Axe so particular about food?" You said, and Red stopped what he was doing, looking a bit pensive.

"i think... that may be something ya should 'im."

You hummed in response, his answer confirming your suspicion that he had some food-related trauma. It was clear, now that you knew they were from a different universe, that Axe and Sugar's universe had not been as... kind as yours was to Sans and Papyrus, but you weren't sure if you and Axe were close enough yet that it was appropriate to ask how. If a time came up, you would.

"Alright, all done," you said, looking down proudly at your baby pink cake.

"me too," he said, smiling proudly at his red one.

"RED, LITTLE HUMAN, IT IS TIME TO EAT!" Sugar called, and you and Red turned to go to the table.

"Save me a spot." You said, and he nodded, walking over to the table.

You moved to wash your hands, humming slightly as the bright chatter of your new friends filled the room with life. You quickly dried them, just to turn and see everyone happily talking and eating, the scene so genuinely fun and happy that all of your worries from earlier were erased, at least for now. Red sat at the table, smiling brightly at you as he noticed you watching them. Blueberry, who was sitting on the other side of the sandwich Axe had made for you, grinned and waved you over, his star eyelights glittering in his sockets.

You really did care about these skeletons.

And you let yourself hope, for just a moment, that maybe, just maybe, it would all be okay.

Chapter Text

You don't know how you found yourself back here.

The neon orange light of the jukebox shined on your face like a warning, almost unsettling in the dark of night. The rest of your day earlier had gone well, so you didn't know why you'd found yourself here again, crippled with insomnia and staring at the songbook like it was going to jump out and bite you.

You weren't stupid. You knew this was a bad idea, but you couldn't quite convince yourself to stop anyway. After today, you needed some time alone to think, somewhere none of the skeletons would expect you to be, leaving them less likely to bother you. And so, you had come here, too embarrassed and dissociative to wake up one of the skeletons to ask for help. You knew your mental health wasn't doing great right now, but if you were being honest, that really wasn't their issue.

You pressed the button.

As the song played, the chords echoing exactly as they had when you'd taken Red's hand earlier, you felt that all too familiar pang in your chest as your HP dropped. You'd felt it so often at this point that you didn't even have the wherewithal to worry about it, even as it persisted past its usual spikes.

You sat on the ground, almost collapsing as your vision swam a bit in front of you, but whether it was from your health or your mental state, you couldn't tell. Either way, it didn't really matter. You'd avoided really thinking about it before, but as you lay down on the plush carpet of a stranger's room, you knew you had to face it one way or the other.

You couldn't stay here much longer, that much as clear. You were falling for these amazing, kind, beautiful monsters too fast and too hard. You didn't want to hit them with an Irish goodbye, as you imagined that would likely end up with you scaring the shit out of them and/or hurting their feelings, and you wanted to do this with as little of that as possible. You considered ignoring Sans' rule and walking off into the woods, getting 'lost' and not being a problem for them anymore, and while it was a tempting offer, you wanted to save that particular option as a last resort. Being unhappy didn't mean you wanted your life to end.

You were at a loss, at this point. There really didn't seem to be a solution you could think of that wouldn't break your heart or theirs, though you imagined breaking your own heart was basically guaranteed at this point.

Damn, your chest really hurt.

"What am I doing?" You said aloud, burying your head in your hands.

The weight of the decision ahead crushed you, and you felt many of the anxieties of your past resurfacing. Lectures from your mother about responsibility and hard work, insults from James when you made the wrong move, and even quips and questions from strangers flooded your head, making it hard to think, much less breathe as the throbbing, sharp pain in your chest persisted. The catch in your breath, as well as the memories shouting in your head, began to fill you with anxiety, and you could quickly find a panic attack coming on.

Shit.

"I need help." You said, hands shaking violently as your depression took a 180-degree turn into extreme panic.

With no small amount of difficulty, you hauled yourself onto your feet, your walking so unsteady you struggled to stand. You took nervous, desperate steps, every shaky hiccup in your movement threatening to topple you onto the ground. Through some miracle of god, you managed to turn the smooth brass doorknob, stumbling out of the room and slamming awkwardly onto the wall across from you. You suppressed a scream as pain shot through you, dampening the panic for a moment before doubling it, the dull but agonizing ache and the odd way your shoulder hung hinting at a dislocation.

"Fuck." You cursed, your body beginning to shudder and shake violently as your stomach threatened to reject your simple dinner.

You considered calling out into the darkness of the foyer, hoping someone would hear and come to your aid, but at the struggle to breathe that came after you uttered a quiet curse, you instantly decided against it, not wanting to end up passed out on the floor for one of the skeletons to discover you later. Instead, you slowly hobbled across the foyer, clutching one arm tightly as the pain threatened to overwhelm you, tears flowing freely down your face. You shook so hard you were forced to grit your teeth together, afraid you'd cause them serious damage if they continued to clatter and knock against each other.

Each step seemed to take you a lifetime, but you finally made your way into the kitchen, the shift from the carpet of the foyer to the tiled floors causing you to trip, as you fell face first into the hard floor. Your head hit the time with a heavy thud, bouncing a bit as pain so violently agonizing that you literally saw stars ripped through you. If the breath hadn't been knocked from your already struggling lungs, you would've screamed.

You felt the world spin around you for one disorienting moment, and you dimly wondered how you kept getting yourself into these situations, desperately hoping you wouldn't be this helpless when you were forced to move out.

After a moment of recovery, you forced yourself up on your right elbow, trying your best to right yourself without disturbing your left arm. It took you several agonizing minutes, but eventually, you were able to get your knees under you, dizzying nausea and a migraine worse than anything you'd ever felt making you wish you could lay down and pass the fuck out.

Blood dripped from your nose, falling onto the clean white tile of the kitchen into perfect little spheres. A part of you felt terrible about getting blood on Sans' beautiful floors, but the other part of you couldn't care less, animalistic desperation and panic overwhelming any rational thought.

Slowly, you dragged yourself forward, limping a bit on your right arm like a child pretending to be a wounded animal. You cringed in disgust as you dragged your own blood across the floor, the scarlet smear something you knew would scare your new friends. You struggled to get your breath back, the feeling of the world spinning, the achy pain in your head, and the feeling of something warm running down your face excellent distractors from your concern over the floor.

You finally reached the first door of the hallway, a deep blue door with little honeybee stickers plastered all over it. You weren't totally sure if this was someone room, but you prayed that it was, using what little core strength you could muster to lean your weight off your hand, and knock as hard and as loudly as you could, ignoring the white-hot pain that shot through your knuckles.

You nearly held your breath as you waited, begged, hell, prayed for a response, finally falling back onto your hand as despair washed over you. Your chest pain, the unmistakable burn of Soul-Ache, warned you that your time was running out, and the dizziness that threatened to down you if you tried to stand made crawling over to the next door down the hallway an impossibility.

You were about to give up entirely, resigning yourself to the fate of being found half-dead with Soul-Ache and a concussion in the morning, when the latch on the door clicked, and it slowly swung open, revealing a very sleepy, very confused Blue.

You almost collapsed in relief when you caught sight of him, practically thrilled to see him standing in front of you and rubbing his eyes. When he caught sight of you, however, his expression was not quite as enthralled.

"OH MY GOD, Y/N." Blue said, dropping to his knees immediately to hold your head in his hands. "STRETCH!"

You watched as Stretch shot up in his bed, just barely visible to you through the open door of their bedroom. He looked confused for a moment, looking around the room in a panic before his eyelights fell on your bloodied face, cradled gently by Blue's shaking hands. He was kneeling in front of you the next moment, his expression so terrible you could've sworn he looked whiter than usual.

"shit. what happened?" Stretch asked, his eyes flicking to your left arm, which hung unnaturally at your side.

"I DON'T KNOW, I JUST FOUND THEM LIKE THIS. SANS, PAPYRUS, WE NEED YOU!" Blue yelled, his already loud voice carrying effortlessly through the hallway.

Quickly, the doors of the hallway began to open, revealing the bleary-eyed skeletons who'd been awoken by Blue's call. Sugar emerged first, his head poking around the large red door that sat directly next to Stretch and Blue's room. Axe wasn't far behind, teleporting over to your side the moment he caught sight of Blue kneeling near you.

You collapsed into him, thankful to not have to hold yourself up anymore. He caught you easily, hands shaking as his massive, fuzzy red eyelight flicked over you with such fear that you wished you could comfort him. Now that you were laying back, the blood from your bloody nose began to trickle in the back of your throat, and despite your lack of air intake, you began to cough violently, spraying out your blood onto your clothes in a messy spatter.

"STRETCH, PLEASE, THEY'RE BLEEDING," Blue said, looking back at his petrified brother helplessly.

Stretch froze for a moment before an idea seemed to form in his head, and he turned to Axe, his face more serious than you'd ever seen it.

"axe, make sure nothing else happens; I'm going to get someone who can help," Stretch said, before disappearing without another word.

Blue grabbed your hand and squeezed it tight as Sugar rushed over, leading Sans and Papyrus behind him. Sans and Papyrus wore an adorable pair of matching skeleton pajamas, and under any other circumstance, you would have found it endearing. Instead, as they kneeled next to you, the too-familiar feeling of fear on their faces made you feel horrible.

"oh my god, what the hell happened? i thought they went to sleep hours ago." Sans remarked, running his fingers over the abrasion on your scalp.

When he pulled his phalanges away, you saw them coated in blood. At the horror on his face and the other skeletons, you opened your mouth and took in a breath to tell them that scalps bled a lot more than anywhere else on the body, but you instead accidentally breathed in a bit of the nosebleed blood, forcing you into a particularly violent, and bloody, coughing fit.

"Are They Dying?" Blue asked, clutching your hand tightly.

His voice was so uncertain you wished you could stop coughing for a second and just talk, to tell him that you were fine, but you couldn't seem to stop no matter what you tried. Now was really not the best time to be hacking up a lung, you were gonna give these poor boys a heart attack.

"i don't know, i don't know," Sans said, placing a hand on your chest.

As he pulled his hand away, you felt a tug from deep inside you, before the same floating 'menu' you'd seen them pull up a few times before appeared. The number labeled HP was blinking red, and you watched anxiously as the numbers slowly but steadily declined.

"oh god, that isn't good," Sans said, and Blue whipped his head to him, fear glittering in his starry eyes.

"Does Anyone Know If Anything Happened Today That Could Trigger A Bout Of Soul-Ache?" Papyrus asked, his eyes never leaving the flashing number.

"i do," Red said, entering your vision. "they think they're gonna get kicked out, and that they're gonna have ta live on their own again."

He was leaving out a few key details you'd mentioned, but he'd basically hit the nail on the head. At the miserable reminder, tears sprang into your eyes, and you watched with dulled surprise as the speed at which the numbers were decreasing quickened noticeably. Jesus Christ, this was so embarrassing. Hopefully, this damn soul-ache would kill you so you wouldn't die from secondhand embarrassment thinking back on this in the future.

"shit, listen to me, kiddo," Sans said, grabbing your head and turning it so that you were forced to look into his eyes.

"I'm so sorry," You wheezed out, feeling like you were apologizing for more things than you could say.

"no, no more apologies, no more tears. just listen to me, okay?" He said, insistent.

You blinked up at him, surprised into silence.

"good. I'm going to make this as absolutely clear as i possibly can. you are wanted. you are wanted here, with all of us. i care about you, blue cares about you. hell, even blackberry cares about you, in his own way. we all care about you, and all we want is to see you okay. we... i will do anything i can to see that happens, even if it means buying you a place where you can live by yourself. whatever it takes."

The sincerity in Sans' voice made you tear up, and you felt so acutely vulnerable with everyone watching you that you began to cry and hiccup again. Despite your searching, you could find no indication on his, or anyone else's faces that he had said anything in that speech he didn't mean.

"hey, kiddo, hey, it's okay. i promise, it's okay. can you breathe for me?" Sans said, still holding gently onto your face.

Obediently, you took in a breath, cringing at how shallow and shaky it was.

"good job. keep breathing. you're doing great." He praised, and you felt yourself calming down, your brain responding to his voice faster than you could.

Blue squeezed your hand gently as your breathing slowly but surely evened out, his thumb running across the back of your hand. Axe held you carefully, sitting you up a bit as your nosebleed began to slow. Everyone watched you with bated breath, Papyrus and Sans keeping a close eye on your HP level as Red came to sit on the other side of Blue next to you.

“HUMAN, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU TO PUT YOU IN SUCH A STATE?” papyrus asked, eyeing your, likely dislocated, arm.

You took in one more breath, your panic falling away only to be quickly replaced with growing embarrassment. You almost felt like a child that your new friends had to care for, and that sense of helplessness made it even more ridiculous that you kept getting yourself in these situations.

“Honestly, it was more of my own stupidity than anything else.” You admitted, chuckling bitterly as you registered the ache in your arm. “I probably should have stayed in  my bedroom, but I get pretty stupid if I can’t sleep.”

Red raised an eyebrow, and you dimly wondered if you’d said something wrong as Blue frowned in the darkness.

“not to be rude, but that still doesn’t explain how you hurt yourself so badly,” Sans said, and you couldn’t help but laugh at yourself.

“Well, emotionally? I snuck into a stranger’s bedroom and played some Elvis. The arm, on the other hand, was because of my clumsy ass. I’ve dislocated it before in a fight with my mom, so it’s more likely to get pushed out of the socket now.” You explained, the expressions on the skeleton’s faces ranging from suspicious anger to horror.

“Wait, Your Bone Can Fall Out Of Its Socket?” Blue asked, appalled.

“and don’t think we’re gonna gloss over exactly how yer arm got dislocated the first time,” Red growled out, his tone stern.

“It’s fine, guys, I promise.” You said, changing the subject quickly. “I can just pop it back in.”

“I Think I May Be Sick.” Sugar muttered, and you gave him an apologetic smile.

“I Must Admit, I’m More Concerned About The State Of Your Head,” Papyrus said, looking down at Sans’ still bloodied hand.

“Oh, right. That could actually be a problem.” You said, bringing your good hand up to feel the wound.

You flinched violently as you poked into it with a bit too much force, startling Axe and prompting Sans to quickly grab your hand. You sighed and watched him gently lower it to your lap and replace it with his. He inspected the wound carefully, sucking in a quick breath of air as he saw the damage done.

“jesus, kiddo, how did you manage this one?” He asked, drawing back to meet your eye.

“I tripped when I was trying to get to the hallway to wake someone up. I was already kinda shaky from the panic attack so when the flooring changed from tile to carpet, I was pretty much fucked.” You explained, paling as you remembered the blood on their floor.

“Oh my god, I forgot to tell you this, but there’s probably blood all over your kitchen floor. When I hit my head, it triggered a nosebleed, so I got blood all over.” You said, finally looking down to see dark stains on Blue’s pajamas.

“that’s okay, kiddo, we can clean the floor, no problem.” Sans soothed, sensing your distress over the mess.

“I’m sorry, Blue, I messed up your clothes.” You apologized, but he just smiled brightly at you.

“IT’S NO PROBLEM, STARLING.” He said, patting the hand he was holding with his free hand.

“Yer welcome ta borrow some o’ my clothes, darlin’, if ya need.” Red offered, and you smiled at him with a quiet ‘thank you.’

“can we heal your arm?” Axe asked, his voice soft as he held you softly.

“Oh, right.” You said, looking down at it. “I’ve got it.”

You moved to stand up from where you’d been laying, and despite his clear reluctance, Axe helped you stand, which you appreciated. You felt the eyes of the skeletons follow you as you stepped over to the wall, trying to walk confidently to avoid any chance of them trying to interfere. You knew they wouldn't like this, so you had to get it done before they stopped you. You considered warning them, but...

Readying yourself, you moved your arm into the proper position, holding back a cringe as a sharp pain shot through you, and rammed into the wall with all of your weight.

It took everything in you not to scream, instead letting out a strained groan, an almost strangled yelp that startled even you. In a moment, you were pulled from the wall, held down by gentle, gloved hands as Papyrus carefully restrained you. Sans, Red, and Axe appeared in your vision as it swam with dizzying pain, already recovering now that your arm was slotted back in its proper place.

"what the fuck, y/n? why?" Red exclaimed, resting a gentle hand on your (now fixed) shoulder.

"That's how... we fix... dislocations." You panted, a sly, easy smile on your face as you looked up at the horror in theirs.

"kiddo, please, warn us next time," Sans said, looking you over with thinly veiled panic.

"If I had warned you, you would have stopped me." You said, straightening as Papyrus rubbed your arm.

"true," Axe admitted, and you offered him an apologetic smile.

"sans!" Stretch's voice called from the kitchen, and you all turned around to see him turn the corner. "i brought alphys!"

"oh good, she'll be able to help. i wish you'd waited until she got here to...do that." Sans said, stumbling over the end of the sentence.

Ignoring him, you looked past Stretch, only to find yourself mostly unable to see the much shorter figure behind him. That is, until, someone flicked on the light switch, and you saw a sleepy, very confused Mutt standing behind Stretch in the kitchen.

With the lights on, you could now see the new monster clearly, and you noted that she looked a bit familiar. She was much shorter than you, with scaled skin and a very reptilian stature. Her head tapered off into three spikes, and she held her hands like a baby pangolin, tucked closely to her chest. She wore a white lab coat, and had a stethoscope sitting around her neck, as well as a hospital access badge, so you assumed she must be a doctor.

"H-hello." She said, her soft voice shaking.

"alphys, this is y/n. they're a human." Stretch said, and you almost snorted.

"Hi, Alphys, it's nice to meet you. Are you a doctor?" You asked, walking up to her and offering your hand.

"Y-yes. Papyrus, u-uh, I-I mean S-stretch told m-me y-you needed m-medical a-attention," she said, shaking your hand softly as she eyed the, now dried, blood on your face.

"Ah, yeah, sorry. I'm a clumsy idiot, honestly, totally my bad. If you don't mind though, I'm gonna clean up the floor before-" A reverberating growl interrupted you, and you both turned to see Axe, Sans, Red, Papyrus, Sugar, Blue, and even Mutt eyeing you with disapproval.

"First Of All, You Aren't An Idiot, Starling," Blue said, his arms crossed.

"second, if ya think I'm gonna let ya clean yer own blood off tha floor while yer still bleeding, ya've got another thing comin'." Red continued, looking at you with a single raised browbone.

"Guys..." You began to protest, but a sharp look from Sans silenced you.

"P-please, come s-sit over h-here," Alphys said, gesturing to the chaise that rested on the far side of the kitchen table.

Reluctantly, you sighed, following her as Blue, Sans, and Axe trailed close behind. Stretch pulled Mutt and Red aside, whispering to themselves behind you as you resisted the urge to look over your shoulder at them. You felt the awkwardness of the situation settling on you as you sat on the chaise, exhaustion and social anxiety making eye contact with this new monster difficult.

"D-do you feel d-dizzy? S-sans, c-can you g-grab t-them a g-glass of w-water?" Alphys asked, pulling a penlight from their pocket as Sans promptly disappeared.

"F-follow m-my finger." She instructed, holding one of her clawed fingers a few inches from your face.

You obeyed, a little bit annoyed at how your eyes struggled to focus, and more than a little irritated at the pain blooming in your sinuses from the light she shined on your face. Her brows furrowed as she watched you, sweating a little as Axe came to stand menacingly behind her, watching her every move as she tried her best to ignore his towering frame.

"W-what i-is today's d-date?" She asked, and you stayed silent for a bit, not realizing she was talking to you.

"Starling?" Blue asked, his voice tinged with concern.

"Hmm?" You hummed, snapping your eyes towards him.

"Do You Know Today's Date?" He asked, his eyelights flicking back and forth between yours.

You shook your head, the dissociative haze of confusion not quite dissipating as you struggled to meet his eyes. He didn't bother to hide his worry, but let it slide, looking to Alphys for instruction. You quickly fell back into that comfortable fuzz, the numbness helping to fight off the throbbing headache that had begun to form behind your eyes. You could feel the disconcerted stares from the people around you, but you quickly became less and less aware of them, thoughts too far to grab flitting through your head like butterflies.

Something cold and hard pressed against your head. With a couple of seconds and a bit of solid willpower, you were able to break out of the dissociation enough to blink, looking down to see a glass of water pressed against your limp hand. You followed the line of the phalanges that held that cup, until you came eye-to-eye with Sans, his discomfort palpable as he watched you particularly closely.

"drink." He said simply, waiting until you took the water from him to take a seat to your right.

You obeyed quietly, too tired and too out of it to put up any kind of a fight. Not that you'd win against any one of these skeletons, stubborn bastards they were. You felt bad for all of this, but you decided at that moment you could worry about it later. the last thing you needed right now was to stir up any more commotion for the boys, and your new acquaintance.

In your state, you didn't notice the look that Axe shot to Sans over your head, one that communicated more worry than they could have out loud. The only time Sans had ever seen a case of Soul-Ache this bad... He didn't even want to think of it. Something genuinely devastating must've happened to you to put you in this state, and he was just glad he was able to get to you before it was too late.

At least, he hoped.

"Fuck," You muttered, letting out a breath that sounded like it held the weight of the world.

Alphys watched you nervously, a knowing glint in her betraying the timidity behind her stance. You screwed your eyes shut, the ever-increasing headache and frustration making even the dim light in the room nigh unbearable. Sans put a comforting hand on your back, clearly a bit at a loss, while Blue laced his fingers with yours, giving your hand a gentle squeeze. You appreciated their efforts, but there wasn't much they could do, at this point. 

"Where's Papyrus?" You asked suddenly, breaking the tense silence that had settled over the room.

There was a moment before anyone answered, and you opened your eyes to see Axe looking at you strangely.

"he's just in the other room," Sans said, his tone measured as he rubbed circles on your back. "Do you want me to get him?"

You shook your head again, letting your eyes slide closed as you rubbed the heel of your palm over your forehead. The pressure was a bit soothing, at least, and you took a soft breath as the others waited for an explanation.

"Do you think," You began, a bit unsure of where you were going with this, "Do you think he'd be willing to do something for me?"

You hated asking for things. Loathed it. Especially from the people who have helped you so much, and offered you more than you could ever pay them back for. But, if you were going to get better, and get out of their hair, you were going to need their help.

"Of Course, Starling. Anything." Blue said, barely bothering to hide the relief on his face.

"Awesome. This may sound totally stupid." You hesitated again, a flush coming over your face as humiliation ate at you. "But do you think he could drive me home at some point? I just need to grab something that's really important to me."

Axe stiffened, and Blue's grip on your hand tightened imperceptibly. You stilled, a shock of fear running through you as you immediately regretted asking, your body going rigid under Sans' careful touch.

"that can be arranged," Sans said smoothly, not missing a beat. "you're welcome to go home anytime you'd like, sweetheart."

There was something in his tone you couldn't quite detect, and you felt the need to clarify.

"Oh no, I definitely don't want to go home anytime soon. I just really need my medication." You said, and Alphys blanched.

"Y-you haven't b-been taking your m-medication?!" She stammered out, and you turned to her with a sheepish shrug and a smile.

"I had a lot going on." You said, ignoring the appalled look on her face as Blue groaned and rested his head on your shoulder.

"You're a riot, kid," Sans said, patting your head with a defeated chuckle.

"You're not so bad yourself." You replied, the easy nature helping you relax as you rested your head on Blue's.

Maybe, just maybe.

Everything could be okay.