Chapter Text
“But whyyyyyy?”
Bad sighed as he sent a glare at Skeppy who was sitting on the table, swinging his legs off of the edge.
“I already told you, my friend is coming over for a little while to hang out. We haven’t had proper time to see one another for a while, I’d like some time to hang out with him.”
Skeppy huffed at Bad and swung his arms into the air. “But you have me! We can just hang out instead! Fuck your other friend.”
“LANGUAGE! I can’t believe you! I’m hanging out with Sapnap today and that’s final. You will survive a few hours without me, muffinhead.”
Bad watched fondly as Skeppy crossed his arms and looked down at the ground pouting. He reached out towards the borrower and carefully scooped him up and brought him into a hug. Bad smiled when Skeppy leaned into him.
“Fine, but I won’t be happy about it. And we better make muffins tonight.”
Bad smiled and rubbed Skeppy’s back with his thumb. “Of course! And they’ll be chocolate chip, just for you.” Bad smiled harder at Skeppy’s small cheer. “Thank you, Skeppy.”
“No problem, Bad.”
They stayed in their hug for a little while longer until they were interrupted by knocking at the front door. Bad frantically pulled Skeppy away from himself and set the borrower on the kitchen counter near where he knew one of Skeppy’s entrances into the wall was.
“Coming!” He shot Skeppy one last smile and a wave before he rushed to the front door.
Bad quickly walked over to the door and opened it to reveal Sapnap, holding a small box in his hands and smiling brightly.
“Bad! Good to see you man!” Sapnap dove forwards to hug Bad, who gladly returned the hug. They pulled apart and Bad stepped to the side and wove Sapnap in.
“It’s wonderful to see you too! Come on in, Sap!” Bad closed the door behind Sapnap as he took off his shoes. Sapnap turned to Bad and lifted up the box a bit so that Bad could see it.
“What should I do with this?” Sapnap grinned as Bad examined the box with confusion. Sapnap thought it was hilarious how confused his friend could get.
“What is that? I mean, I guess you could set it on the kitchen table, but I have no clue what that is.” Sapnap smiled at his friend’s words and held the box towards Bad. He didn’t miss the way Bad’s eyes lit up in excitement when he realized that the box was for him. Bad carefully took the box from Sapnap and looked at him as if silently asking for permission. At Sapnap’s nod, Bad took the lid off of the box and gasped.
“Sapnap! You didn’t have to!” Bad reached in and grabbed out a small bracelet with a red and black charm and a small fire charm on it. Sapnap only smiled and lifted up his wrist to reveal a similar bracelet, just with an orange bracelet as opposed to Bad’s black one.
Bad set the box down and quickly slipped the bracelet on his wrist before diving in to give Sapnap another hug, which the man returned with a laugh.
An hour later after some idle conversation, the two men found themselves sitting on the couch in the living room, both with a hot cup of tea just chatting about how things have been since they’ve last seen one another.
Sapnap took a sip of tea as he listened to Bad recounting another story of something he recently did with a new friend of his. Sapnap was beyond overjoyed that Bad made another friend, plus, the guy seemed awesome too. Bad told him about all of the pranks that his new friend has pulled on him and how annoying he got sometimes, Sapnap knew he would get along amazingly with this new friend of his.
As Bad was talking about him and his friend making muffins the other day, Sapnap thought he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over and saw a small flash of blue disappear behind the television.
“Sapnap? You alright?” Sapnap turned to Bad who was looking at him concerned. He sent Bad a small smile.
“Ah, sorry Bad. I zoned out there for a minute, thought I saw something.” Sapnap didn’t miss the way Bad instantly seemed nervous and began glancing towards the television. He decided not to say anything though, Bad wasn’t one who could keep a secret very well so if he was hiding something then Sapnap would figure it out very quickly.
“You muffin! I was just telling you about Skeppy and I-” Bad cut himself off and his cheeks reddened a touch in embarrassment. He turned to Sapnap in a panic. “Wait-”
“You said his name! Hah! Now I just got to find out who this Skeppy person is and then I’ll help hook you two up, alright?” Sapnap grinned as Bad reddened even further as he began to sputter about how he didn’t like him like that and other nonsensical words to Sapnap. “Bad, buddy, you cannot tell me you don’t like him. All you have been talking about is him and how amazing of a friend he is. There is absolutely no way there isn’t anything between you two, I just don’t believe it.”
“Sapnap! No! I promise, we are just friends! I’m not even sure how that would work.” Bad mumbled the last part to himself. Sapnap is pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear that part either, it only confused him. What was that supposed to mean, ‘I’m not sure how it would work?’ Sapnap was starting to question if he should keep pressing this or not.
“Alright, alright, you can chill. I won’t push you on that. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Bad.” Now Sapnap just felt bad, his friend was actually looking a bit panicked and Sapnap just continued to push it. “If it matters though, this Skeppy guy sounds awesome, I’d love to meet him some day.” Bad sent Sapnap a small smile that he was certain was a sign of forgiveness. He cheered internally at his success.
“I’m sure you two would get along, Sap.”
After that, they continued talking about different stories over what they’ve been up to. Sapnap brought up how he was stopped from adding a flamethrower to his costume last Halloween, earning him a laugh from Bad. Apparently Bad agreed that a werewolf wouldn’t have a flamethrower. Sapnap still stands by his opinion that they should have flamethrowers.
Once the sun began to set, Sapnap bid his farewells and left to go back to his home. Bad waved until he couldn’t see Sapnap anymore and closed the door. As soon as he shut the door he sighed. That was way too close, that could’ve gone a lot better.
“Skeppy? Sapnap is gone, you can come out now,” Bad called out to the borrower to let him know he was in the clear. Though, Bad wouldn’t be surprised if the borrower refused to come out. Bad had accidentally revealed his name. Sure, Sapnap doesn’t know he’s a borrower, but Bad still screwed up.
Bad walked into the kitchen, slightly upset by the silence he was receiving but completely understanding. Still, he couldn’t help but lean on the counter and glance towards Skeppy’s small entrance, hoping to see the borrower walk out to come talk with Bad.
Bad sighed in disappointment and pushed himself off of the counter. He was just going to go to bed, it was a long day and he was tired.
However, he froze when he heard the telltale sound of tiny footsteps. He turned around and was happy to see Skeppy peek out of the hole in the wall and glance over at him. Bad quietly walked over to Skeppy and set his hand onto the counter.
Skeppy scrambled onto his hand and Bad lifted him up to be more eye level.
“I am so sorry, Skeppy. It was an accident I promise. I really didn’t mean to-” Bad was cut off as Skeppy reached out and gingerly set a hand on his nose. Bad went cross-eyed to look at the borrower, who chuckled at the reaction.
“I know you didn’t mean it Bad. It was an accident, you are all good. Besides, I’m too good of a borrower to be caught! He won’t find me anyways!” Bad snorted.
“I met you because you fell into a bucket, Skeppy.”
“You got lucky.”
“You would’ve died if I hadn’t found you.”
“I refuse to believe that I can die.”
“Oh my goodness.”
Bad couldn’t help but smile. This only proved why Skeppy was his best friend. They would stick together and make it through every obstacle in their path. He smiled at Skeppy who grinned right back at him.
“Now let’s make those muffins!”
---
Dream was making his way through the walls when he heard the front door open and Sapnap announcing that he was back. He grinned and made his way towards George’s room where they were planning on having a movie night.
It was always strange when only one of the humans was home. Sure, he and George got to spend a lot of time together with just the two of them. Dream had made sure to annoy George as much as he could, much to the annoyance of the human.
But it wasn’t the same without Sapnap. They were a trio and nothing could change that.
But now Sapnap was home from visiting his friend and they could all hang out and watch a movie tonight. Dream pushed the small piece of wood away from the exit in the wall and walked out into George’s room. He looked up to see George and Sapnap already sitting on the bed, discussing how Sapnap’s day was with his friend Bad.
Dream only half paid attention to the conversation and scaled up the side of the bed. Both humans had noticed him but made no move to grab him. Dream was extremely grateful that both of them respected his boundaries and want for independence.
Once Dream was up on the bed, he quickly scrambled over to Sapnap, wanting to cuddle in his hands tonight. He had enough time with George today, it was time to get Sapnap cuddles.
Sapnap was quick to scoop him up and hold Dream by his chest as he continued to talk about his day. He leaned back onto Sapnap’s chest and closed his eyes, very content with the rumbling of his chest as he spoke. But then he heard Sapnap say a name that sounded vaguely familiar.
“Can you repeat that last part, Sap?” Dream needed to know if he heard him correctly. There was just no way that he said the name he thought he heard. Sapnap glanced down at Dream confused.
“I just said that I’m pretty sure Bad has either a crush or a secret boyfriend who goes by the name Skeppy. And I wanted to see if George knew them.”
Dream couldn’t believe it. This was either the biggest coincidence or Sapnap’s friend was actually talking about the borrower who saved his life a few years back.
“Is-is that a common name? Because I met another borrower a few years back with that same name. It’s a strange name, so I thought it was just a unique borrower name.” Dream looked up to see that George had paused the tv and both humans had focused their gazes on the borrower.
“Neither of us have heard a name like that before… do you think Bad was actually talking about a borrower then?”
Dream was starting to feel conflicted. He honestly wouldn’t be too surprised if Skeppy had managed to get himself caught, he was the most reckless borrower Dream had ever met, and that was impressive coming from Dream. But he did not deserve to be caught, Dream didn’t want to imagine the fire he saw inside of Skeppy die out because he managed to get caught.
“It actually seems very possible, Bad was a bit nervous and I do think I saw something run into the walls now that I think about it.” Sapnap’s answer only seemed to further worry Dream as he began thinking about the possibilities of Skeppy’s fate.
“Would Bad hurt him? If so, I propose we try and rescue him.”
“I’d hate for a borrower to be hurt or caught by anyone, I’d be down for a rescue mission.” George looked down at Dream, a determined smile on his face. Dream was thankful for a friend like George. They both turned their gazes to Sapnap, hoping he would be on board with their idea.
Sapnap just looked unsure about that idea. “I don’t know about this. Bad isn’t a bad person, even if he did catch your friend I don’t think he would ever hurt them.”
“Even the friendliest human will turn on a smaller creature. I’ve watched it happen before.” Sapnap looked sadly at Dream. He knew how bad life was for borrowers, Dream had told them all about it. But, Bad wasn’t a bad person. He was the nicest person Sapnap knew, he could never imagine Bad being horrible to any creature.
But Sapnap knew he would really struggle in convincing his friends that this was a bad idea. Especially with this being an old friend of Dream’s. He sighed as he made up his mind. He couldn’t believe he was going to agree to this.
“Fine, I’ll join you two. But I’m still unsure if this is a good idea or not.” George and Dream cheered at his response. Sapnap hesitantly smiled at them. He’d do anything to help his friends, but he was anxious to see where this was going to go.
Guess he’ll find out if he regrets this later then.