Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mabel wasn't having all that unusual a morning the day she became aware of a six inch tall skeleton staring at her tablet along with herself as she read. Well, until that point.

She had been keeping aware of the mug of coffee sat steaming slightly, just on the edge of her viewpoint, to the left of the cushioned arm of the lazyboy chair enveloping her. This was her third cup today and maybe the first she would actually get to drink. There always seemed to be a vacuum of time between a hot coffee being too scalding to drink, and as soon as you ignore it long enough to cool slightly it has decided to become ice-cold. She didn't like iced coffee. It went down the sink. So she had been scowling at the innocent beverage periodically, attempting to keep an eye on it in between focusing on her screen, like it was waiting for her to let her guard down.

That there was recently another event sparking what equated to hot gossip in the sedate old neighborhood Mabel considered a ‘wrinkly wasteland’, was the main cause of her absorption with the local chat forum on her device lately. She didn't know who half the people on there were but they were all apparently living in the nearby area. And although Mabel wouldn't usually socialize with ‘the old people’ who had the most free time to be on there, this forum had turned out to be a wealth of entertaining rumors interrupting useful but less interesting local event planning.

A young housewife across the road having a handyman over for over an hour already?
-Well of course her husband is at the office during the day, people do need work done you know it’s perfectly innocent.
-What work is she having done?
-It must be nice to have money.
-What like you do Deborah I know you go golfing thats not cheap!
-Who’s sat on the voice channel on their own?
-you’re on voice honey, press the phone option again on the left menu then exit.
-Oh i know her, nice girl, her family used to do one of the farmers market stalls in summer I think.
-Is it a new kitchen?
-Old boy who lives in the house by the old oak will know, he tends to remember everything
-They wont see you typed that, hold on I’ll get on voice and tell them
-No, no they had a new one when they moved in, they cant be having another one already.
-You never know.
-Oh that retired architect? Very introverted, is he even on here?
-It’s not that fella number 14 had in last month, the tree surgeon is it?

*”Hello”
*”Oh hey G- Oh you’re gone”

-Oh does anyone have his number? The tree surgeon I mean
-That was him on voice but he’s logged off now, nevermind.
-The tree guy?
-No the Architect
-Pity it wasn't number 55, how long are they going to leave that rotten stump there? Its making the area look run down.
-Oh calm down its only a stump.
-I still say we should start a HOA.
-LOL!
-You're kidding, no one wants that except you Mandy.
-We’d all be getting court summons for garden ornaments and 2 inch long grass.
-I’m not Mandy Im not telling you lot my real name.
-Oh come on we know its you.
-Anyone? The number?
-Just web-search it Rick.

Life had gotten quite exciting really. It put the usual old chit-chat in the shade. Events across town had finally caught up to their sleepy little corner on the outskirts of Ebott. If magical monsters appearing in the world hadn't already been interesting enough. -Dominating the news for the past few years with the surprising revelation that they just yearned to visit coffee shops, malls and community centers like eager tourists with the dullest home lives.

-Well, this bit of news back in spring may not have been on any six o'clock broadcast, but for the little set of old streets around Mabel’s home in Treemont avenue it had been like the event of the century; monsters moving into the neighborhood. No one knew if more would come along in future and their first ever monster locals had arrived a few months ago now but there was still plenty to gossip about.

Now all but the most determinedly shut-in humans in Ebott city and old Ebott-Town areas had seen, encountered, or even had full on conversations with monsters by now, whether in part of business or socializing. It had become like an unspoken point of pride to have the presence of ‘their’ monsters giving the Ebott region a sense of cultural and historical gravitas. And this might have been a weirdly inappropriate attitude if not for the outpouring of curiosity and fervor in much of the monster population themselves towards ‘their’ humans. And their way of making life interesting in the various oddities of their behaviors.

Mabel almost felt a little left out, having only really had a conversation with a hand monster long enough to give him directions, and having thanked what turned out thankfully not to be a pot plant when it held the door for her to a shop. Otherwise it was just not much different from seeing various ones in passing in the streets and shops. Just the same experience as seeing humans was really. Even one or two people from Mabel’s little part of the world had claim to a monster co-worker.

But having them in the neighborhood was a big deal! For a bored bunch of mostly retirees. And this was the topic of conversation she had been logging in for since earlier in the year, and now again in the autumn, when it seemed like something might have been kicking off.

Considering her neighbor’s in some cases cantankerous and fussy varieties of characters, Mabel had originally been a little worried about what bigotry might be testing the waters among their innocent concerns, when the monsters were due to move in back in April. The little old dear in her layers of soft blouses and knitted cardigans may have looked huggable to her visiting grandkids, and may have spoken with that softly frail meander that the most sweet-natured elderly seemed to specialize in, but inside was a downright troublemaker eager to get out, and what better way than by being poised to get her teeth (still her own thank-you-very-much, aside from a few implants…) into any deserving bigots in a proud storm inspiring community justice.

It wasn't exactly disappointing that no bigots had revealed themselves, other than the well meaning type of accidental racism that comes from people honestly trying to be inclusive a bit too hard. Which she did her best to avoid noticing her own protective attitude may have strayed into the borders of too. And even better, she supposed, was the pleasant surprise of witnessing people doing a very respectable job of collectively self-regulating to correct many misconceptions about monsters and being inclusive.

The conversation from a few weeks just before the monsters moved in was still visible a little way up.

-No we don't need monster friendly areas, thats singling them out for being different. No to the welcome signs too, its very sweet Jo but let’s not scare them off.
-How about a well timed community event? It’s a bit early in the year for a barbeque but maybe we could do a little get-together with finger foods.
-Oh my someones fancy
-It’s not that fancy its just sandwiches and drinks
-Isn't that singling them out? Not like we do this for every new neighbor.
-We don't have to tell them
-I think it’s a good idea
-They’ll know if they join the forum and read back.
-Eh who does that. And if they do -HI NEIGHBOR that was a welcome party because you're monsters and we wanted to show we’re nice, inclusive, totally not nosey people.
-I can contribute
-We all can do that, let’s do a gather round then see who’s free to do the shopping?
-Me too, who can host it this time?
-Me if you want. I don't mind.
-Who’s ‘me’? Your handle just says Buster’s mom and you have a dog profile pic
-Does anyone even know what they look like yet? If it’s plant monsters or bugs or something they might like something other than sandwiches.
-If it’s plant monsters Charlie might know, he’s into gardening.
-I don't think that know-how works for monsters hun. Well I mean it might but best we don't assume.
-I think most monsters eat sandwiches
-Even plants?
-Yep apparently. Might not matter what type they are.
-Why don't we just look on the Embassy FAQ pages? There’s quite a lot there.

It turned out they were skeletons. Even as monsters go, that one was a surprise. And of the few houses Mabel knew were for sale, it turned out they were moving into the one a few doors down from herself. She knew it was silly but she found herself secretly a little smug that her part of the street had been favored by these novel people, as if her personal presence had reflected on the desirability of the street over the years.

Also it might be amusing to see more of Deborah next door to them being as entertaining as she was when she worked up the courage to beat anyone else to welcome them first. The rumor of them being two skeletons was confirmed by a very flustered Deborah getting the offer of a selfie with one of them who was declaring she must be an admirer. Mabel managed to throw a coat on and grab a cigarette as an excuse to witness the show thanks to Deborah boasting about announcing the act on the forum shortly before she dived out among the busy movers to knock.

Deborah wasn't the lightest lady to pick up but the exuberant creature managed it happily for a hug. Mabel had to duck back inside after the sight of Deborah's little feet briefly kicking in the air after leaving the ground, as pretending to smoke turned into a spluttering laugh Mabel had to disguise as a slightly too loud cough, before escaping to carry on giggling inside her hall.

The cigarette, as always, was put out with the burnt end snipped off for relighting next time, never to be actually smoked. It went in a chintzy little gold-edged flowery ashtray by the front door, next to a small fan she used when she ‘smoked’ to keep the smoke ‘out of her hair’, supposedly. It was a very useful way of happening to be outside to see things going on.

The neighborhood social elites got right back down to planning so the two skeleton brothers could be invited to the little get together the next Saturday. They couldn't make it Saturday? Sorry we meant the Saturday after!

On the day eight skeletons turned up. It had apparently been misheard it wasn't just the two brothers moving in but their cousins too. It explained the extra furniture deliveries that had followed their move-in. More human, supposed ‘neighbors’, came along to the small party than seemed to live in the area as well, so it was lucky the cooks and extra snack bringers had ended up in an unstated sort of competition to impress as the most fruitful providers on the planet.

Mabel herself had been quite proud her tray bakes of honey glazed chicken, and sweet potato disappeared onto plates in record time on the night. She had spent a lot of time at the party casually enquiring who had made this or that lovely dish, cake, or sandwiches, in turn responding that hers was the humble bake that had been well received. While it never exactly gained her any favors or benefits, it was still a satisfying point of pride that after raising three children and catering for six grandchildren when they visited, the grandmother was aware she was pretty damn adept at making her food the stuff of fondly remembered visits.

Doing the rounds with the food as a talking point also led the way to all the catch-ups, who’s-whos, and little rumors her heart could desire, as well as a few passing chats to one or two of the skeletons themselves.

The tall one Deborah from two doors down had the original introduction to was called Papyrus, and was apparently in a friendly competition with his energetic cousin Blue to meet absolutely everybody before each other.

Both appeared dressed in an extreme array of 90’s style party clothes, and when not running round a house party attempting to make new friends at breakneck speed, apparently worked in the embassy. Distinct from the other skeleton; Blue’s eyes appeared to be shining blue lights in his dark sockets. That would make it easy to remember his name then.

They had also bought food, but Mabel had only seen the remnants of the signposted and decorated corner of the kitchen theirs had been in. When both asked together if Mabel had tried theirs, she just asked which dishes they made and lied that she did and she loved both of course.

Though not rushing to get round, a smoothly spoken Sans turned up and introduced himself, made a few humorous quips and chatted about the brothers move to the neighborhood, then thanked Mabel for lying about his brother’s food as he had ‘removed it’ straight after it was placed, for safety until they could get some more practice at human food. He finished this comment with a tilt of his skull to direct his white eye-lights above Mabel’s head, so she turned to see what it was and found herself staring at an orange chest.

She looked up into a different grinning skeletal face, turned to look back at empty space, so turned again to greet this gentleman.

He also thanked her for lying about his brother’s food, and additionally thanked her for the glazed tray bake. Mabel was happy she could add her first monster fan of her cooking. Before moving on she thought to ask if there were any other dishes she definitely tried and loved, which got a chuckle, and she made sure to remember the crunchy lasagne and glittery burritos, the latter being the specialty of another smaller skeleton just across the room, dressed in a stylish black and purple waistcoat and open jacket combo.

He had pointy teeth compared to the others and very pretty purple eyes, and Mabel wondered if she could get away with brazenly commenting on that, but he looked busy for now, gesticulating enthusiastically as he talked to a small group, so she moved on.

Although she didn't personally chat with any more of the eight cousins beyond a brief hello, Mabel got to the stage she had fit in about as much socializing as she could handle for the night, and as the music was starting to get a little loud and those who were drinking a little more into party-mode, she didn't hesitate to head out fairly early, to the comfort of her own home, her own company, and most importantly her own bathroom.

Ordinarily, when getting as tired as she was, Mabel had got to the stage in life she wouldn't worry as much as in her youth about social niceties, and would ditch to go home without any farewells. To anyone mentioning it after, coo-ing that she missed finding them to say goodbye, and asking how the rest of the get together went. This worked for birthdays, weddings, and funerals. And once for a court appearance.

But this time she did want to at least figure out who was actually hosting the party. The door was wide open when she arrived with a lot of others, and if the host was there they had been swamped in the crowd at the time. It was at a lovely modern house eight doors down and not one she had come to before, and prior to that weekend Mabel found out where was hosting by chatting to Charlie next door as her internet had gone down and she couldn't check.

Bless him he knew where it was at least but also didn't know who the host was, and it slipped her mind to ask anyone else before the day. She had made the most of having a good nose around, appreciating the gleaming black counters and stone floors in the fancy kitchen, the stylish living room with professional looking music paraphernalia and open plan, and made her way through this now to a face she recognized in Jane from across the road. Jane knew everyone and their family tree.

The little old lady meekly barged her way through dancing bodies, calling out ‘Don't mind me”s and “Oopsie daisy”s and gently patting a burly gentleman on the arm with a big sweet smile and a “Oh dear it’s a bit packed here isn't it?” when he turned to scowl at who tried to shove by. Poor dear was getting pushed around the dancefloor into him, so he dropped the scowl for a smile and helped her past the last few people.

Jane, thankfully directed her to the patio outside where the young lady hosting; not whoever Buster’s mom had been, was chatting to a couple and a tall stern looking skeleton in a red and black band shirt and jeans, with sharp teeth and a big crack across one eye. He was standing listening with his arms folded.

Prisha, Mabel remembered. So this was where the party girl lived.

Prisha had been the subject of her own small amount of gossip when she moved into the street a few years ago. Being quite young in a nice house to herself prompted the usual guesses of lottery winner or inheritance, before the more boring eventual reveal was that she had quite a good career in a specialist IT contracting company. She also found time to do DJing, which Mabel wasn't familiar with in terms of how well that might pay, but was apparently fairly well known in that industry too.

Looking at the part shaved hairstyle and glitter eyeshadow on dusky make-up, paired with a studded leather pants and ripped t-shirt outfit that Mabel supposed was very fashionable punk rock style, she considered that one career was likely the ‘your dream job might not work out’, and the other was managing to get into her dream job after all.

Prisha was one of the sort of people who Mabel was quite happy to make time for. Nice girl, as old ladies blandly say. But she was, and despite how a few like Mandy might wrinkle their noses judging the anarchistic look, the young lady was grounded, decent, and just plain sweet to those around her, all the while usually decked out like a K-pop hell's angel.

As if the call to live up to such a good impression chimed out past the dulled bass of the music inside the house, (and possibly the sight of the smiling silver haired old girl making a beeline straight for her helped) Prisha cut short her companions conversation with that brief sort of ‘just a minute’ hand-raise, and beat Mabel to the punch with a big smile and hug, and thanked her for coming to the quote, unquote “quiet little get-together” as both had a small laugh at that. Seeing as Mabel was already bundled in a coat, the youngster also thought to offer an escort to the side gate so her neighbor could escape without having to fight back through the packed house, and topped it off with remembering to ask if there were any food containers she could bring back to Mabel's after washing. Lovely girl.

Anyway, where was she… Oh yes that was back when the skeletons had just moved in. The gathering worked out quite well for everyone to get a lot of the curiosity out of their systems judging by how much it turned more into a drunk enough party that everyone seemed to forget they came for anything but fun in the first place. The humans had gained a nice first impression of their new neighbors, and had satisfied themselves to have given the monsters a good first impression of themselves in the unofficial welcome.

This weeks, incident however, was potentially a lot more serious for the street. Defensive eyes were directed to the house three doors down. Mabel scrolled back down to a discussion that was still active.

Flashing blue lights outside are a very good way to get everyone logging on to ask what’s going on, and even if this was in the hour after things had already settled down, the lone police car and an officer trundling up to knock and have a nice discussion drew the attention of everyone who wasn't already aware at that point of what had happened.

Mabel, while not privy to whatever was said to satisfy the officers concerns, was guilty as charged as one of the forum’s primary sources of intel on what happened from what she saw of the main event, having suddenly needed a cigarette by her postbox after hearing shouting in the street earlier that evening, and was able to inform about the young man throwing an impressive tantrum in the skeletons front yard.

Her presence wasn't unnoticed by the two humans or the monsters, along with a few other doors opening to shed light on the pavements nearby, so if it may have added to the stress of the situation for the four skeletons dealing with this, it was easily distracted from by the screaming human throwing a lamp from his truck parked on their lawn to break, also on the lawn, where an assortment of dented boxes, bags of variably strewn items and a bike were spread.

Mabel saw a girl in the doorway, huddled with her arms around herself as she appeared to be the target of the yelling and finger pointing while the tall skeleton with the scar, whose name the forum since informed Mabel was Fell, stomped to place himself in the young man's immediate view to do some yelling and pointing of his own.

Another edgy dark clad shorter one Mabel hadn't seen before strolled with hands in his puffy jacket’s pockets to stand at a ninety degree angle to the human visitor and Fell, somehow giving the scene a more of a dangerous feel as the two red-eyed monsters seemed to automatically work together to split his attention.

From what Mabel caught when voices weren't lowered, presumably missing some of the more interesting threats, was that the young man claimed to be the girls boyfriend; the young lady was no longer in favor of this; the young lady had been no longer in favor of this for over four months now; the young man loved her more than these skeletons would ever do; the young lady was a whore; again the young man loved her and would treat her better this time; the young lady was living here now; if the young lady wants the rest of her stuff she can come and get it herself; the young lady should watch out in future; the young man should watch out himself.

By then two more skeletons had turned up from the house. The short black clad (oh his name was Black?) one with purple eyes also stomped up, and the young man went from having a glaring match looking up at Fell and starting to look like his nerve was failing, to flying across the lawn in a purple glow to land on his ass by the truck. Orange-chest appeared in the doorway and swept the girl into a teary embrace. His name was Orange? Maybe a common naming trend for monsters.

Mr. Ex boyfriend drove off before the police came and it looked like the hub-bub was over aside from some muted conversation between the housemates clearing up the belongings on the lawn, so Mabel considerately left them without an audience for that indignity and went back in her house. The cigarette had been stumped out on top of her postbox ten minutes before when it had gone down to ash, so the butt went in the bin this time.

The online chat became like a pinball machine of rumors flying for the next few days up until today, and still Mabel wasn't sure what was true or not. A young lady in a house full of monsters. Nevermind that. -A young lady in a house full of guys. And it took nearly, what? -Two months for anyone to notice she’d moved in?! For anyone to post about it at least.

Still ‘The young lady’ because no-one had managed to put a name to her yet, had been keeping her head down, and thanks to the threatening ex was being protectively escorted to her job at some cafe and to college by her housemates, one of whom was her current boyfriend.

Mabel was corrected by Jane that no, it wasn't Orange, but another lanky one called Rus who looked similar with pointier teeth, who had been seen in passing in a passionate kiss with his girlfriend on their front porch recently, and Jane was corrected that no, Red, the edgy one, was her boyfriend who had been spotted hand in hand on a date with her. And she first turned up when they did that disastrous barbeque in June didn't she? Came over with a lot of food after theirs didn't survive the first attempt.

Maybe she had an identical twin? Didn't someone say she worked at a bar in the evenings? Someone said she volunteered at the animal shelter, surely we cant be talking about the same person. Amusingly a few more witnesses had popped up until it was hazarded that maybe the same girl was dating more than one.

-Maybe that’s just how skeletons date?
-What? All at once? Lol
-Sounds like they're all having fun
-a LOT of fun
-Good for her!
-oh please behave yourselves, aren't we supposed to be talking about a neighborhood watch here?

And back to the boring bit, thought Mabel, as the chat had got back on track to the overwhelming reaction to the Ex incident, which was to discuss organizing a new neighborhood watch, partly in solidarity against any future troublemakers that might target their monster neighbors, but also because to be fair, one house down the road did get a break in in the summer and the idea had been bought up already once and then been left neglected.

Mabel left the more organized members to their planning, and finally looked up to reach for her coffee.

The little fellow sat on her armrest looked up from his own reading of her tablet and they made eye contact, old human eyes meeting big soft lights in dark sockets. Neither said anything for a moment. Another moment came along and joined the last. Mabel reached out to her coffee, finding it cold, and looked from the mug in her hands to the surprise miniature version of her neighbor to ask, “Do you like ice coffee?”

He looked up with a big, happy, sleepy looking grin. And shook his head.

Chapter Text

Sans grimaced.
He probably should have been more disturbed that the machine only being tested went so theatrically wrong, but, as he waded through the smokey shed with a fire extinguisher under his arm he was surprised to find himself cautiously optimistic. Yes it had gone badly. Yes the machine was going to be out of action for a good while and they would need to fix it again. But apparently this time thanks to the added combined expertise of three more versions of him and his brother, it hadn’t gone so badly as scrambling the laws of physics and disrupting space-time to reveal a multiverse and kidnap his alter-egos.

And, as the members of the household were called on rapidly to search house and streets for any new interlopers, Sans was thanking his lucky stars that it was seeming apparent no more had appeared this time. Just the extra versions of himself and his brother already stuck in his world for the last year.

He reflected while walking through to re-open vents and assess the damage, that they may have been a little rash about starting an advanced test run so soon. He wasn't oblivious why the others were suddenly so keen, and perhaps he took advantage of that to finally get them back to their own universes and out of his girlfrie- he meant universe. Yep.

It was that damn ex boyfriend setting everyone off. Suddenly every skeleton in the house is realizing how much they care about and want to protect Y/N. Pretty much everyone at once being ready to commit to face the feelings they had mostly been dancing around, and the four of them who were working on the machine recognizing that they either get back to their own universes soon, and hopefully their own version of the girl, or end up too devoted to this one to even want to leave her anymore.

Sans dropped his head down and sighed loudly. Three doors down a much smaller version of him also heaved a big sigh, then looked a bit confused at itself.

So they ended up doing the first test earlier than first planned. They had already been in world for a while thanks to Sans and machine, crammed into a three-bed house, which was why they had to up-size in the first place, bringing the machine with them, relocated once already from the Underground, again to carefully rebuild in a custom built shed in the back yard.

Three months of diplomatically calming down varying levels of distrust and animosity especially from the more violent world’s brothers, three months of grumbling about space until they all had enough and agreed together to all put into financing a house move. They faced up to the fact they would be in this world long enough that it would be better to at least live more comfortably, plus with more room they could devote themselves as a team to working on the machine together to send themselves home.

As part of the agreement Sans was made to concede on accepting Red, Orange, and Rus to be equal partners in this work from now on. No more little accidents.

A dinging notification chimed out from his pocket, so Sans stepped outside the shed’s metal door under the cloudy night and checked his messages, finding among the nights check-ins from his ‘cousins’, a concerned note from the house next door on the shed’s side that their shed was indeed smoking. He sent a quick reply that all was okay; he was just fixing up their barbeque and don't worry its not on fire (anymore), and looked up to wave at the message’s sender in their window as he stood swinging the shed door open and closed to get the smoke out. He must smell like Red right now.

At least it was nice to deal with these situations in a big fancy house with rooms to themselves, he mused. Paps and Blue may have had a ball room sharing, being so joyfully alike each other and not afraid to dive into making friends, and Orange turned out to be decent enough, volunteering to share the living room with him when neither of the other two pairs would budge on sharing a room with anyone but their own brother. Sans had the recliner, and Orange had room to stretch out on the sofa.

By the time they were due to move they had ended up with Red and Rus deciding that they had got to know the others enough to chance that no-one was going to kill them in their sleep, and one took the other recliner while the other took the floor and all the cushions. Between collectively avoiding upsetting their brothers tidiness standards and avoiding a lot of demands, it was a bonding experience.

Talk of the grinning devil, Red appeared behind him to amble out through the smoke, fanged gold tooth glinting to appear first. “either we pulled through a few who ‘r really good at hidin’ or ya got lucky this time”, he noted. “yer bro and black ‘r doin’ a patrol of sorts, rus ‘n orange are doin’ another sweep out further just in case. prolly both gonna end up in the gas station buyin’ sweets while their bros aint watchin’. hows the damage?”

“eh, a lot of the circuitry looks fried so that needs pulling out but the core processing section looks like it survived. must’ve blew the surplus energy through the safeties so good thing we added those in. ‘n we need a new coffeepot, that got obliterated”

“my bro’s gonna chew me out over breakin’ the machine when he gets home from work… “

“hey it was a group effort” Sans shrugged. “but i get the feeling he wont really be too devastated about not going back just yet am i right? i’m bettin’ if he was home it could’ve been him barging in to disrupt things as much as black. hasn't he got that date night tomorrow anyway?”

Red grunted in affirmation. “yeah. he’s still pretty pissed blue asked her out before him, wants ta outclass the shrimp’s lame movie idea.” He stood and scrutinized his counterpart’s formerly blue sweatshirt. “c’mon, the shed can wait til tomorrow ‘n they’ll be home soon, she’s got dinner in the slow cooker and you need a shower dude”

He didn't need convincing, locking up the shed and trailing behind Red into the house in time to see the aforementioned pair shedding their scarves and coats over by the front door, acting very happy and familiar with each other as Blue pressed in unnecessarily close behind to help pull Y/N’s coat from her shoulders while she giggled and blushed.

“*ahem*”

“OH HI!” Blue’s deep voice rang brightly, as they both looked over to Sans and Red.

“Hey guys! Sans, uh you…?” Y/N paused, looking at the state of him.

He shrugged and grinned, “just been working on science stuff”

“In the shed?”

“in the shed”

He looked at Blue. “good movie?”

“OH YES IT WAS VERY SCARY! IT WAS A GOOD THING I WAS THERE TO KEEP Y/N FROM GETTING TOO SCARED AND HOLD HER CLOSE WHEN THE KILLER WAS CHASING PEOPLE ON SCREEN.” He bounced on the heels of his feet, raising a blue gloved hand to make a showy fist pump as he puffed up his chest, and Y/N smiled indulgently at the youthful natured skeleton at her side.

“I bet”, muttered Red.

“doesn't sound like such a lame idea now does it?” Sans jabbed under his breath at the one beside him.

Red scowled back. “whatever”, then turned to go, winking at Y/N before he went, “if ya need me sweet-cakes i’ll be in my room”, and he teleported away.

As Y/N went to check on the food, Sans took Blue to the side and started to inform him of the mishap with the machine and the precautionary search for threats. He was interrupted as the front door slammed open and Fell entered the hallway without breaking his stride, and Sans had a brief moment of appreciation for the pay-off they were already getting from installing spring door stops in this new house.

“DID YOU SERIOUSLY WAIT TO MESSAGE ME UNTIL AFTER I FINISHED WORK?! WHERE ARE THE EXTRA VERSIONS OF OURSELVES, HAVE YOU IDIOTS CAUGHT THEM YET? HOW MANY, AND HOW VIOLENT?” He glared around the hallway, the action confirming there was indeed no-one other than himself, Sans, and a startled looking Blue, and peered down at Sans.

Before Sans could get a word in, Blue sharply turned to face him with an wide sockets and a stamp of his boot, “MWEH! NOT TO FEAR! WE WILL SHOW ANY NEWCOMERS THIS IS A FRIENDLY AND SAFE WORLD IF THEY WANT TO BE GOOD CITIZENS!-”

“guys-”

“AND SUBDUE ANY WHO DON'T.” Added Fell.

Blue momentarily considered arguing this, but conceded; “WHERE NECESSARY.”

“guys-”

“WHERE NECESSARY.”

Sans pinched his nasal ridge. “guys that’s really great but i don't think we bought anyone through the machine this time. everyone’s already been out sweeping the area and it’s all quiet. it looks like the safeguard we added stopped it from using more than a little energy to search monster magic signatures, so it couldn't grab onto anyone fully enough with any extra energy. worked as designed mostly”

“...think that’s why it kinda exploded” He added under his breath.

“OH.”

“OH.”

Their universes may have been divergent but every now and then, Sans found himself reminded of his own brother in this darker version of Papyrus who had taken the nickname Fell, and even in the jarringly dynamic version of himself in Blue, and felt a small pang at seeing them both look so deflated. He saw no harm in the idea that occurred in this moment, and glanced towards the kitchen doorway.

“although…”

They both saw him glance at the kitchen and paid attention.

“it might be best to keep guard in the house for this evening in case we missed any intruders. i mean, we weren't at full complement with neither of you on the team tonight so we did the best we could but… “

Fell pointedly turned away from Sans and flung his arms crossed together in a grandiose show of considering the implications. “HMPH! OF COURSE YOU IDIOTS WOULDN'T DO A GOOD ENOUGH SEARCH WITHOUT MY SUPERVISION. IF ANY DEVIANTS HAVE SOUGHT TO EVADE YOU ALL SO FAR AND YET STILL COME INTO THIS HOUSE, WE WOULD HAVE TO ASSUME HOSTILE INTENT…”

Blue joined in, bringing up clenched fists to square up to the prospect of a fight against such evil-doers, “IF THEY COME ACROSS THE HUMAN…”

“eh, it probably wont be an issue but might be safer if one or two of us keeps in range of y/n. maybe use the excuse of helping her in the kitchen?” Sans supplied, then paused at the pair currently focused on the kitchen and its occupant, and before sidestepping to go added “we dont wanna take the whisk of any uneggspected impastas”.

Two skeletons briefly froze before turning to react in sync at the puns.

“MWEH!”

“NYEH!”

Orange, standing slouched with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets reacted with a half-asleep start as they turned to accuse the spot Sans had just been stood in. He managed to look a bit guilty in place of the errant joker, grinning mildly and eyelights studying the wall at his side as a bead of sweat appeared on his skull.

They both turned back to each other.

“NYE- INFURIATING! IF THAT MARSHMALLOW WANTS TO KEEP CHALLENGING MY PATIENCE WITH THOSE PUNS,” Fell paused to grasp for a suitable threat and excuse to laugh,

“…I’LL MAKE THE TITCH EAT THOSE STUPID PINK FLUFFY SLIPPERS, NYAH HA HA HA!”

An old lady paused with her finger to the doorbell, and looked at the little companion sat presented to face the door in the upturned palm of her other hand. He blinked at his little pink slippers and looked up at her. If she had been a second later to the house or the loud comment came a little earlier, she wouldn't have had pressed it.

Chapter Text

-Note that although at this point he was aware that the ‘Fell’ brothers tendency to talk threateningly was just reputation-saving habit in their world, and not unprompted malice; if he wasn't already bare-bones naked in the bathroom shower at the time with nothing but what looked suspiciously to him like a Woshua’s ducky for company, (he shrugged and placed it on his skull) Sans might have reacted to the loud idle threat on principle by teleporting up behind with empty eyesockets to ask Fell to repeat what was just said. But he opted to let this one go, as there’s creepy and then there’s naked creepy.-

Meanwhile, the human at the door a few feet away from those in the entrance-way didn't want to jump to conclusions about the oddly mirthful threat on its own. So was stood frozen in indecision with nothing to change that until the door ope-

Blue, not to be outdone on enthusiastic fervor, glanced at the semi-trailing shoelaces of his brother as he strolled to the front door, and made sure to add, “LAZY FOOTWEAR ASIDE, WE DO NEED TO BE VIGILANT TO ELIMINATE THE THREAT OF ANY UNUSUAL SKELETONS THAT COME TO THIS HOUSE!”
He also didn't moderate his speaking volume.

“heh, guys ix-nay on the ‘urder-may” Orange half-joked as he opened the front door to see who it was. He hoped the front door was much more soundproof than the internal doors.

It wasn't.

Orange saw the little old lady at the door and considered she might be a little deaf at that age anyway.

She wasn't.

Mabel sought to deflect the question of why she was stood at their door with her arm stuffed down her blouse with a question of her own; “ ‘urder who?” She asked sweetly.

Orange sought to deflect any question about “ ‘urder” by deflecting with his own question, despite not really wanting to know any answer.

“why do you have your arm down your top?” He regretted before she even answered.

With a shameless lack of hesitation Mabel had the answer instantly, “Oh don't mind me dear they get a bit unruly in old age, I didn't expect anyone to get to the door so fast and you caught me making an adjustment…” She pulled her arm out and patted her front.

This was basically true. She had to think quick as it sounded like her little friend was a bit doomed if she didn't hide him after ringing the doorbell and hearing the startlingly close conversation in the entrance hall.

The skeleton who answered looked like he might be letting his cousins answer the door in future, especially with how he probably did hear her say “Stay” as she patted her bosom. But the two nearest house members had gone on their way to the kitchen since any dangerous elusive newcomers wouldn't just turn up and knock, -but could take advantage of the distraction of a visitor at the front door to sneak in, which is what Blue and Fell agreed as they went.

And Mabel regrettably had to double down on the awkwardness because she had another question that may not sound pertinent to him, but was possibly critical to know for the one she had been about to hand over.

“WHO IS THIS? AND WHY ARE YOU STANDING WITH THE DOOR WIDE OPEN UNSECURE WHEN WE HAVE POTENTIAL…” Came a voice from behind her; Black returning from his patrolling. He looked at Mabel as he walked up, “...VISITORS? DO WE WANT DRAFTS?”

Knowing she didn't expect to need a spare answer as to why she was paying her monster neighbors a surprise visit, Mabel opted to gain a few precious seconds to think of one by looking back to the orange dressed skeleton, -ah was he wearing the same thing he wore to the party months ago?- Orange, that’s his name, and leaving it for him to ask her, as she smiled expectantly…

...He wore that to the summer barbeque too didn't he? Did he ever change or was there a wardrobe full of the same sweatshirts?...

Orange had started to ask her a question.

“Oh I’m sorry dear can you repeat that please, I'm a little hard of hearing.”

Orange squinted at her and repeated himself.

“...uh, how can we help you neighbor?"

From her route of escape, Black had stepped forward to scrutinize her reply, so between the piercing purple eyelights directed at her face from one side, and the mellow hooded sockets of Orange, Mabel floundered. She couldn't just turn up at their door then blurt out a random skeleton question. She needed something…

Fortunately, an unimportant distraction that had been at the back of her mind on the way over now blundered its way to the currently vacant spot at the front, and; “What’s that burning smell?” came out instead.

Both skeletons subtly flinched a little and the sudden shifty reactions had the benefit of taking the heat off Mabel: They had a neighbor worried about a possible fire. This was manageable in the household’s ongoing care of keeping good monster-human relations. They were handily prepared for this thanks to the actual fire that had been put out.

So Orange relaxed his posture and his grin seemed to stretch wider on his skull as he reached to scratch at the back of his neck, “ah that’s nothing to worry about hun, sans was cleaning out the barbeque earlier but it ended up lit up”

“...but we gave him the extinguisher and he was de-lighted”

“URGH! REALLY ORANGE, AT THE DOOR?” Black rolled his eyelights.

“sorry, is it a tinder subject? my miss-steak” Orange looked pleased with himself.

"..." Black looked disappointed.

The metaphorical cogs in Mabel's head whirred and she quickly spotted the chance for her question to fit the topic of magical skeleton well-being in smokey air.

Their neighbor opened her mouth to speak but Black impatiently got moving, ushering this inconvenient caller to enter the house too, whether she wanted to come in or not. He wanted to make sure the timing of this visit wasn't because of any so far non-existent interlopers having managed to encounter and be disruptive to the neighbors before being found and dealt with by themselves.

Orange stepped back to allow them in as his cousin carried on.

“HUMAN I KNOW YOU ARE OVERCOME BY THE PRESTIGE OF LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF THE MALEFICENT SA-, BLACK. IF YOU MUST INSIST ON PAYING TRIBUTE WITH A VISIT I MUST WARN YOU I AM COMPELLED TO MEET YOUR CHALLENGE WITH SUPERIOR HOSPITALITY. COME IN.”

There was no breeze in the house but as Black paused to make a dramatic pose with his eyesockets shut, one gloved hand spread on his chest and his feet planted, the ends of his purple bandana fluttered in the wind accordingly.

“Oh, uh, thank you?” hazarded Mabel, as she looked at her surroundings of an entrance-way similar to her own house’s, with the addition of a very nice chandelier hanging in the space leading to the stairs. The culprits of the previously overheard threats weren't in sight, but she could hear some muffled speaking coming from where the kitchen must be back on the left, since the house was one of those where the layout mirrored her own. A pleasant smell of cooking replaced the smokeyness from outside.

She took her chance, “I do actually have another question…”

“fire away”

“OF COURSE YOU DO OF COURSE -stop that-, COME AND SIT IN THE LIVING ROOM. WE CAN HAVE A FRIENDLY EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS.”

Mabel followed as he presented the way and Orange strolled across the room to the doorway towards the kitchen, leaning through before coming back to join them.

He leaned down behind the intent looking Black and asked; “not gonna grill the little old lady are ya pal?”

Black managed to lower his voice to respond that no, he didn't have the right tools for interrogation, but local humans turning up with ‘questions’ after the machine went active might be something to be on guard about. He may have slipped in that it was best not to brisket.

Mabel looked round at the abundance of furniture including two large couches centered on a massive TV with gaming systems in front, one recliner to one side of this setup, and another one the other side which came complete with a drowsy looking fluffy-hooded skeleton draped over backwards, so that his legs dangled down the back and his head, with one eye half open, rested upside down on the seat of the chair. He looked a lot like Orange if he had pointy teeth, one of which was gold like that Red had. The porch make-out session boyfriend Rus maybe, from what the forum gossipers had shared?

“BROTHER GET OFF THE FURNITURE WE HAVE A GUEST!” Black pointed at the floor, and to their visitor’s surprise the berated brother went from his sleepy flop to jerking straight up and lightly onto his feet off the chair. He casually slouched over to stand beside his brother, as Orange leaned against the doorframe.

The little human picked the nearest couch to perch on the center of, with hands folded in the lap of her long chunky cardigan, so that she looked swamped by the furniture, and smiled up serenely. Internally she had decided time was up and she couldn't afford a second more of distraction, interruption, or polite introduction.

Black started, “NOW, WOULD -”

“Do-skeletons-need-to-breathe?”

Black faltered. The two lankier companions raised a browbone.

“NO, SKELETONS DO NOT NEED TO BREATHE” burst a voice from the entrance-way, as the front door opened then slammed.

“IS THIS A SURPRISE QUIZ? I AM A SKELETON EXPERT. I AM ALSO A HUMAN EXPERT, BUT STILL ALSO A SKELETON.”

Mabel noticeably sighed in relief, ”Oh that’s good!” as Orange, and Black’s brother exchanged a look.

“OH HELLO HUMAN NEIGHBOR!” Papyrus leaned round the doorway before stepping into the room, dressed in shorts and t-shirt like he had just been to the gym.

“I AM GLAD TO HEAR YOU ARE HAPPY WE CAN’T BREATHE. I MYSELF AM OUT OF BREATH AS YOU CAN SEE FROM RUNNING TWO LAPS AROUND OUR STREET AFTER THE PATROL TO FIND SKELETONS.”

He deadpanned at the others looking from each other to himself for a moment before pointing a red gloved hand at them and adding, “I HAVE FOUND THE SKELETONS… GOOD.” He paused.

“AND DON’T WORRY, BREATHING IS MOSTLY OUT OF SOCIAL CONVENTION.

FOR US, NOT HUMANS.”

Seeing Black looking skeptically at her after her small exclamation, while the other two had turned to Papyrus, Mabel sought to excuse herself by giving an obvious reason for the question, and clarified, “You see, that was why I came by! I was out looking for my cat, but smelling that smoke make me a bit worried your house was on fire! But if you don't need to breathe you’re much safer from smoke inhalation than humans.” She smiled.

Orange turned to face her and blinked at the statement.

“WAS THAT ALL YOU CAME TO ASK ABOUT, HUMAN? NO STRANGE ENCOUNTERS? NO UNUSUAL SOUNDS OR SIGHTS OF VIOLENCE IN THE GENERAL VICINITY OF THE STREET? NO OVERLY UNFRIENDLY, FRIENDLY OR, UH, SEXUALLY INAPPROPRIATE MONSTERS, PARTICULARLY SKELETONS? ” Queried Black, who had stepped to loom ominously in front of his diminutive gray haired neighbor.

As much as she could wonder what that was all about later, it occurred to Mabel as she shook her head slowly that this might be her chance to get a couple more crucial quick answers on looking after an unexpected skeleton monster, possible child, possible very small adult, possible wanted criminal, guest.

She was going to hold off for now at least, on bringing who she thought may have been a lost family member to their attention. He might well count as a strange encounter but she was no snitch to the defenseless.
Another reason she knew she was a favorite of her grandchildren.

“Well since you're asking dear I must admit I cant help being a little fascinated about monsters. And skeletons, you’re very interesting!” She cooed. She didn't even need to lie about this, it was lucky happenstance of events. Magical beings!

To encourage things further she made sure to slyly add; “But I’m sure you don't have time for this old lady’s silly curiosity!”

“YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS.” Came a voice from the hallway, deflating Mabel's sails and drawing the others attention. “-WE HAVE COMPLETED FOOD PREPARATIONS.” Fell announced just past the doorway with a pink dish-towel over his black clad shoulder.

He stepped back towards the stairs and yelled, “SANS!” then came back to the door to address their guest.

“HUMAN NEIGHBOR WILL YOU BE JOINING US IN THE DINING ROOM FOR DINNER?” He glowered, “IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.”

On any other day, thought Mabel. She would have enjoyed being welcomed in and getting to know her newest neighbors more. “Oh my I would love to another time, but I have my own dinner in the oven at home and I need to get back to it soon.”

“OH.” Now it was Fell’s turn to look a little deflated, “WELL, THAT CANT BE HELPED… BUT IF IT WAS MY COOKING YOU WOULD NOT BE SO ABLE TO RESIST.”

He said it like a statement, but looked sideways at her with a little hesitation like it was a question, and her sharp old mind homed in on the pertinent information in her memory; “Oh if you're doing that lasagne from the party sometime I must have that again!” She exclaimed.

“What ingredient gave it that nice crunch?”

“GLASS.”

The sleepy hooded fellow now leaning on the couch tilted his skull to the side a little and Orange chuckled as Mabel did a fair job of keeping a poker face and nodding. She now possibly had the additional task of getting future-her out of eating glass.

Black watched her reaction and noted that the family had apparently been helped to move on a little in human health standards since the springtime. “COMMENDABLE, HUMAN. WE HAVE ONLY GROWN IN SKILL AT HUMAN COOKING TECHNIQUES AFTER HEARING THAT MOST OF YOUR KIND HAS INTOLERANCES TO SHARP AND CHALLENGING FOODS. TO BE MORE INCLUSIVE WE HAVE STARTED USING SUBSTITUTE INGREDIENTS SUCH AS FOOD SAFE GLITTER AND CROUTONS.”

Her sigh of relief may have been kept internal this time but the two amused skeletons looking at her did appear to have the sparkle of mirth in their eye-sockets. Although Fell looked a little disappointed.

A thought occurred that she might have to personally face the consequences of along with everyone else, but Mabel just couldn't resist and piped up with a big smile. “Hmm food safe glitter is very clever but croutons are quite the switch… You know, Fell?... There is always sugar glass that is safe to eat for humans? Maybe you could learn to make that instead of using croutons?”

She wickedly noted the two brief grimaces, as Fell meanwhile perked up at the idea. “HUMAN! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN A TRUE CONNOISSEUR OF COOKING WOULD MISS MY SUPERIOR STYLE OF LASAGNE ENOUGH TO SUGGEST SUCH A PROMISING WORKAROUND! I WILL HAVE OUR HUMAN ASSIST ME SINCE SHE ENJOYS LEARNING NEW CULINARY SKILLS.”

At this he turned on his heel back towards the kitchen to share the idea straight away.

Ah so that was the young lady’s doing. Some good self-preservation there. Mabel elegantly held a softly wrinkled hand to her breastbone as she leaned forward to stand up, as Black backed off. “Well I best be off. What are you eating? Not barbecue I'm guessing?” she chuckled mildly.

“NO?”, said Papyrus. “WE PUT THE BARBECUE AWAY AFTER THE MODIFICATIONS WE MADE IN SUMMER PROVED HAZARDOUS TO THE ENVIRONMENT. WE ARE HAVING CASSEROLE.”

The others flinched, and Orange spoke up, “and thats why sans was fixing it up and caused all that smoke” He stood up straighter briefly at this, then looked down as his hoody bulged, and he quickly went back to his slouch against the door-frame, looking sideways up at an interesting spot on the wall.

“AH, THAT WOULD BE A PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION.”

“Oh, so skeletons can eat human food? They don't need magical food or anything then?”

A few skulls shook amiably, and Papyrus explained, “NO, HUMAN, WE CAN LIVE OFF HUMAN FOOD AS MUCH AS MONSTER FOOD, BUT THERE IS A LOT OF NICE MONSTER FOOD WE AND HUMANS CAN EAT!”

“Oh that’s lovely,” said Mabel as she smoothed out her cardigan and slowly began to amble to the doorway as she conversed. “Do you have any intolerances then yourselves?”

“NO! NOT AGAINST ANYTHING OTHER THAN POOR EATING HABITS OF TOO MUCH JUNK-FOOD,” He declared, briefly scowling, “AS SOME OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS TEND TOWARDS.”

“Any allergies?”

“ERM, NO?”

“Nothing deadly poisonous?”

“...UH.”

The old human laughed and waved away the implication, “Oh don't mind my silliness, I’m not going to poison anyone, it’s just nice to know if there’s anything to avoid to help keep my neighbors safe.”

Orange and the others relaxed a bit, but Black froze a little and asked “...SAFE FROM WHAT?”

“I have no idea! That’s why I’m asking.” She chirped, and stopped in the entrance hall to think a moment, as sounds of activity with clinking dishware and muted talking drifted out from the room across from them.

“How about the cold?... I mean would I need to turn my heating up or down if any of you lovely boys come to see me?”

Papyrus leaned in suddenly to face her extremely closely, “HUMAN.” He paused.

“THAT’S VERY CONSIDERATE OF YOU,” He stood back as he held his jaw in thought to respond further.

As this exchange took place, purple eyelights flicked in Mabel's direction from where Black had been distracted by his line of thought, and he now strode after them to intercept any quick exit and better assess this strangely prying individual.

“HUMAN! I MUST INSIST ON COMPLETING PROPER HOSPITALITY.”

He stepped closer.

“GOOD FORM DEMANDS I MUST OFFER YOU REFRESHMENTS SUCH AS TEA.”

Another step forward.

“WE CAN TALK MORE ABOUT WHY YOU ARE SPECIFICALLY SO INTERESTED TO LEARN OF WAYS WE COULD COME TO HARM.”

At this point Papyrus’s brother Sans came strolling in from the doorway Mabel and Papyrus had just passed through like he was caught passing by. The head of the household was looking absurdly comfortable in a big pink fluffy sweater that swamped his short stature with what were either short pants or long shorts underneath as he went to stand with his back to the front door.

“hey guys, why don't you all catch some food, it’s just hitting the table. me and my bro can finish seeing our guest out”

He looked at Black. “you too black, you’ve worked your coccyx off today, and the uh, barbecue incident wasn't your fault”

He felt a little guilty he may have kinda not corrected Black from assuming that earlier. Sans had been a little annoyed at his counterpart rashly diving into the shed as they ran the machine.

He had apparently assumed it was more than a test run, and ran in with the flimsy excuse that ‘they hadn't asked his permission to run it yet’. Sans didn't need to puzzle out the real reason. He thought he was going to lose Y/N by being sent home suddenly.
Sans begrudgingly couldn't be annoyed at the guy for that.

Black’s expression shifted at that revelation and he looked at Sans, then warily at Mabel, but stopped advancing to stand at a nonchalant sort of parade rest with his gloved hands behind his back, and conceded “VERY WELL, IF THIS IS THE WAY YOU WISH TO DISPOSE OF THIS… SOCIAL ETIQUETTE, I WILL JOIN THE OTHERS AND LEAVE THIS TO YOU.”

He inclined his skull to Mabel slightly and gave a small polite nod, “IT WAS INTERESTING MEETING YOU… UH. -HUMAN!” He caught himself, and turned on his heel to the dining room.

Dammit how had he not got her name? No matter, he could have his brother check the postbox at her house.

Sans grinned up at Mabel from the depths of his oversized roll-neck. “heh, sorry i couldnt come say hi earlier neighbor, i was still cleaning up after dealing with the shed”

Mabel blinked at him, “Wait, you fired a barbecue up -inside your shed?”

“...”

“yes”

He seemed to disappear further into the roll-neck like he was looking to escape. “hehe yeah… i uh, guess i made an ash of myself?” Inspiration brought him back out of the sweater to gleefully spout; “but it was smo-kay in the end!” as a red gloved skeletal arm came straight down to grab his skull.

“NEIGHBOR HUMAN PLEASE FORGIVE MY BROTHER.”

The neighbor human wondered what for, but smiled vacantly anyway, as Papyrus continued to bear down on his brother. “WE ARE HELPING THE HUMAN COMPLETE A SURPRIZE QUIZ ON SKELETON MONSTERS AND THEY WANT TO KNOW IF WE GET COLD SANS.” He stated. “ARE YOU COLD BROTHER?”

“nope” Came from the cozy depths.

“HMM THAT ISN'T A VERY GOOD QUIZ ANSWER.”

“It’s okay, I can just turn up the thermostat anyway just in case of company?...” Tried Mabel, weakly. She really had hoped to find out about this one before going home, and she had run out of bluff, as her smile fell thoughtfully.

“well, cold and heat does affect us, but not like you humans.” Sans had emerged to observe her as his sibling released him.

He considered for a moment and went into further detail, “for monsters, especially undead, some things like heat and cold are often more an emotional effect than physical. like, we could wander in the arctic in shorts and t-shirts, but being homeless in the cold we would feel the effects of cold through feeling neglected or abandoned…” His thoughts drifted happily to the lovingly handmade sweater.

“WE CAN TAKE A PAN OUT OF THE OVEN WITHOUT MITTS IF WE WANTED BUT A FLAMETHROWER TO THE FACE WOULD HURT” Supplied Papyrus.

"IT WOULD HURT MY FEELINGS, HUMAN."

While that last statement actually made things less clear, Mabel got the sneaking suspicion that the meaning behind it was that a monster would absolutely die from such an attack.

“Oh! Thank you both that really does put my mind at ease. Well there’s no flamethrowers around here so you don't need to worry about that!” She mentally kicked herself.

“Well, I best get home to my cooking and not take up anymore of your supper-time!”

“sure thing, nice to chat to you again neighbor, bro you wanna get the door?” The fluffy skeleton wandered off to the dining room in a dream.

As he opened the door and Mabel stepped out and turned to go, Papyrus paused, then cheerfully bade her farewell.

“I HOPE YOU MANAGE TO FIND YOUR CAT. IT’S BEEN GRATE TO SEE YOU AND FRANKS FOR COMING!”

Which caused her to pause for just a moment to second guess what was just said, as her passenger chose the worst timing to start to giggle. Well there was no covering that up, she thought. Unless -

“meow”

Or that. “Ah… I found my cat.” She said seriously. “There you are. Schnookums.” She glared into the visibly shaking section of the cardigan.

“THAT WOULD BE A PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION”

“...”

"..."

“WELL GOODBYE!” Papyrus slammed the door.

“I WONDER WHY IT WAS MEOWING IN LOWER CASE.” He said.

After what had turned into a long and eventful day, Orange made it through supper unsuspected, despite some close calls earlier and during their meal when he couldn't excuse himself, and he was finally able to retire to his room.

Sighing in relief he faced the bed, stood up straight, and shook out his hoodie, as a receipt and an avalanche of sweets poured out. The combination of a deep pocket inventory and a natural void in the abdominal area was something he found to be a joy in life sometimes.

An elderly lady sighed in relief as she got in her door, dropped her keys on the side table and stood over her cushioned couch, shaking her cardigan to drop out… She shook her top to drop out… Where was he? She glared accusingly down her blouse, then up at the room, then made eye contact. There back on the arm of her chair sat her little friend, leaning back on his tiny hands, looking even more tired than before.

“Oh don't look so traumatized, I’ve got three layers on and you were only in the blouse, you're fine. What do you want for dinner? And what do I call you little Sansy?” Mabel teased.

“...Oooh! Hoho. Sannnssy!” She pointed and giggled wickedly.

He said nothing about it, but… he actually didn't mind that name.

Chapter Text

Sansy peered up at the imposing sideboard unit.

The morning bought a world in a whole new light to him, as it shone on everything that was now oversized all around. Whether he was some sort of clone of himself the original Sans the other Sans, or literally born yesterday with gifted memories, he really wasn't too stressed about it. The world outside of a lifetime enclosed in the Underground was different enough that this was, in a way, just another part of things being different.

And, heh, this could be quite interesting.

He would still have to find out what happened with; he assumed the machine, to cause this new life. He didn't really remember running it just before he woke up like this, just memories of the underground and life in Ebott after. But it was pretty safe to assume.

He took a shortcut back to the currently empty armchair and carefully stepped from the soft arm to the long, low cabinet it was beside.

Wow, that magic use really did take more out of him than he was used to, he thought. Smaller size but more reduced magic reserves than a small monster could normally expect. Oof, okay.

Sneaking back into the house could be do-able to investigate. He didn't really think the others had it in for him, as bad as what he overheard yesterday sounded. He wasn't about to out himself as having been abruptly hidden down an old lady's blouse at the time though.

But the more he thought about it, the more he felt a certain satisfaction in not being known about by them all. For now at least.

He walked around neatly placed photo-frames set to the side of a darkly looming wall-mounted TV overhead, past a bowl of pink and brown potpourri which he picked a hand sized reddish paper flower out of, then viewing as he went a variety of huddled knick-knacks and a phone handset, to the edge. He glanced down the gap that appeared to be an achievable four inches, then with a pat-pat of tiny slippers made the jump to his intended area. Heh Papyrus would be shocked to see him so active.

…

Would he get to see him again? Would he even see him as his brother… Sans… knew what his brother was like but this was… was…

His forlorn train of thought stalled against a background of muted chinking and placing of cutlery and crockery, and the thud and rustle of food packaging and cheerful half-singing emanating from the kitchen.

She hadn't meant to fall asleep in her armchair last night, but after all that excitement and then spending time figuring out supper for the little skeleton monster yesterday, the temptation to pull the throw blanket up to her shoulders and ‘just shut her eyes for a minute’ had proved too much in the end. Who was going to tell her otherwise anyway? Not the little skeleton certainly, as he had already fallen asleep before her, leaning against her upper arm.

She had smiled down and tucked the blanket around him, then leaned back carefully, so that if she did nod off and shift in her sleep, he would at worst fall onto the blanket instead of off the side of the chair. Her last thoughts as Mabel drifted off were how sweetly child-like the delicate creature with white lidded sockets looked cuddled up to her arm.

She paused in digging through the cupboard with cereal boxes to jot another item down on her notepad on the sunlit counter as she hummed absently, with the occasional ‘la, da-da’ thrown in. There was only so much improvising that could be done, so a shopping trip was looking called for.

Last night’s supper had been shared from her own dinner onto a sandwich size plate for Sansy, who had a valiant attempt at hefting a teaspoon to pick up the extra small diced potatoes, before Mabel thought hard and got up from the table she was sat at, and he was sat on, coming back with a rattling container of cocktail sticks. His drink consisted of a shot glass of ketchup, which caused a lot of amusement from Mabel's side about his drinking problem when it was too thick to come out of the glass as he tipped it with both hands, so she had to water it down a little for him.

It had worked out ok in the end though! Better than her first attempt to feed him before trying to return him ‘home’ that evening. It wasn't her fault she didn't know if he might have been some sort of monster pet. And she still had some cat kibble left stored…

He wasn't impressed at the offering. He had still tried one though, throwing it back and crunching thoughtfully as his little face scrunched up.

Okay, this would do for now… Mabel left the cereals, milk and bowls she had gathered on the kitchen table and went to find her friend for breakfast, hoping he wouldn't mind being picked up and carried in again. She didn't mind giving him the freedom of her house, but just felt a little bad at leaving him no option but to traverse the huge rooms and climb to the table without help.

Experience of years of caring for small creatures that had the knack of getting underfoot thankfully kept her in a habit she never really stopped; of keeping aware that where her feet were stepping was empty of any less aware, lovable furry morons.

Even sitting in plain sight she almost couldn't spot him as she looked up on entering the room. As still as he was, he could have been mistaken for an odd little ornament. He was sat on the edge of the small cabinet by the unused footstool nearest the hallway door, head down and little feet dangling over the edge with one slipper half coming off.

Mabel stopped quietly as he didn't react to her presence, and the slipper dropped to the floor. He didn't react to that either, just slowly closing delicate skeletal fingers repeatedly around the petals of a paper flower he was cradling in his lap.

Her usual breezy bustling behavior packed its bags and took a holiday at times like this, as Mabel automatically paid attention to the helpless despair evident in the barest movements. There were times to brightly gee-up a sad mood and not let them dwell, times to let someone have a moment they needed, and times to swoop in with a warm hug and let them get it all out.

She walked calmly across the carpet and approached him slowly. He raised his head slightly then down again with a small breath, and she bent to the floor with an “mmpf”, picking up the slipper pinched between finger and thumb, to hold in front of the silent bitty creature from where she was crouched.

“I know you don't talk much so far, and it’s okay if you don't want to, but I’m here if you want a friend. I meant what I said last night that you're welcome here, or, I can take you back to where you want. I am an old lady with a lot of time on her hands and I’m honestly just happy to have something to do, dear.”

She smiled up at him at that and presented the slipper with a more teasing tone, “And if those big fellas are being mean to you, I am not afraid of going back over there and telling them off until they behave themselves. Now let me get this back on your foot, okay?”

She very gently lifted his foot with spread fingers and pushed the footwear back on as he watched, and then grasped the cabinet edge on her right, starting to get back up. She added, before holding out her other hand, “I may not look tough but I can make a grown man cry if I have to, granny will not tolerate a sweetheart like you getting picked on. Do you want a ride to the kitchen? I've got some breakfast laid out and you can pick out anything you like.”

Upstairs in a spare room usually left shut until family came to visit, a heavy antique wooden wardrobe tipped one inch further.

Sansy looked up at Mabel with translucent blue tears beginning to well at the edges of his wide sockets. “...”

“i… miss my bro.”

All the details he might want to add about how he could explain how he came to be without giving away any secrets, whether his brother even was his brother anymore, whether he would be a burden if he went ‘home’, and the girl who brightened his soul would look at him in pity, and his original self would look at him aghast as just another newcomer or mistake, whether he was all alone, all got mushed together in his soul as they all came at once so that they couldn't be said at all.

He looked up as the words didn't come, at Mabel's open reach and sparkling eyes in a sadly smiling face, and took a small leap forward into her hand. She swept him up to hug her shoulder under her chin, standing up from the cabinet and stroking his back with her other hand.

Somehow, just hearing this human softly shushing and cooing that it would all be okay and she would help him with everything were the most powerful words in the world for him.

Alongside his current tearful state, Sansy considered. He was so easily happy just going along with whatever had happened when he woke up in this house, it felt like he was seeing the world differently in more than just size. He never used to be this overwhelmingly sensitive to his emotions did he? Heh, maybe he was a little different.

“mabel?” He hesitantly began once he had had a little time to feel better, and Mabel had placed him on the kitchen table with cereal boxes in an array for him to choose from.

“Hmm? Ready to pick one yet or something else on your mind? Don't worry if you cant finish it too, I could have sworn I had some old teacups somewhere but they're probably in the attic. Is the bowl gonna be alright for you to manage from?”

He grinned lightly, “heh, yeah bowl’s great for now. and… thanks, yunno… for looking out for me?” He held his sleeve self-consciously and looked down at his feet a moment before looking up at her again, his sockets bashful, “you mind putting me by the sink after so I can wash up my face?”

“Oh! You know I hadn't thought about that yet! I tell you what I’ll put one of these bowls in there for you with some warm soapy water so you can wash. I’ll cut you a bit of a new sponge off and there’s a clean dishcloth in the cupboard to dry with until I can get you something better. Will you be okay there while I go wash up in the bathroom?”

“yeah. thanks, mabel” he responded warmly.

As he watched the fruitloops he picked swirl around the milk filled bowl in front of him Sansy revealed why washing up occurred to him right before they ate breakfast.

“theres somethin i kinda wanna do that wouldnt normally be an option” he mused after having fished out and eating a good share of fruitloops with the cocktail stick and placing it down on the cereal box he was sat on, as Mabel paused mid spoonful of her own cereal.

He grinned wider, holding both hands on the edge of the bowl looking down into it, then opened his mouth and dunked his head in.

Chapter Text

Everyone was panicking long before the machine started to quake and smoke as the humming became almost deafening for those in the insulated shed. In fact it was a pleasant sort of blinging that had them all diving to stop the test as the machine began to ramp up inexorably with every happy little ‘bling!’.

‘Bling’, along with the notification on the screen was announcing impending target retrieval. ‘Bling’ was meant to be target world located. But, no, according to the screen it was definitely doing whatever it wanted again, in spite of how carefully the four of them had set the programming to only search and identify monster/multi-world links.

Sans was starting to genuinely consider, unironically asking the machine nicely to do what they wanted as part of operating procedure, since it was more and more convincingly sentient. It happened sometimes with monster technology.

He was the only one of them all who had experienced this previously, but had recounted more precisely what happened in the days after the three sets of brothers had first arrived. So all present at the machine test were at least familiar with when to panic, in the chaos where a few specific actions meant the difference between magical individual signatures being processed, or not quite leaving the memory banks…

At the start of the year with one ‘bling’ he had been very briefly hopeful his modifications had actually succeeded in bringing back his and Papyrus’s errant scientist brother Wing Dings Gaster, through the machine. Then more than the one Target Retrieval window started to appear along with an irate pile of skeletons in the transfer section. Wing Dings was not among them, and the machine finally obeyed the shutdown command at six successes.

One of the few reasons there wasn't an immediate fight from the group who couldn't really be blamed for feeling a little defensive, was seeing Sans in all his casual dressed glory of t-shirt, shorts, bathrobe and slippers in a room full of discarded Grillby's takeout bags and an unwashed assortment of mugs.

That, along with literally being in a pile on top of each other as they had been spat out on almost the same space. Having to untangle limbs and climb off each other in an indignified, unplanned team effort quickly quelled any ideas that anyone was anything other than a fellow victim of all this.

Apart from Sans. Who looked too pathetically stunned and absurd to be hostile. And to each skeleton in the room he either looked uncannily like their own brother, or themselves accordingly. So for any spluttering threats and accusations, no-one was in a hurry to actually hurt each other.

This did not prevent a highly uncomfortable session of everyone talking at once, with it gradually being directed solely towards himself as the culprit.

“‘whats going on?!”

“WHERE ARE WE?!”

“who did this?”

”YOU.”

“shit…”

“LANGUAGE!” / “BROTHER!” / “MIND YOUR WORDS!”

“okay, what is all this?!”

“get off!”

“MOVE YOUR ARM AND I CAN-”

“whose leg is this? lemme unhook it, just…”

“IN TORIEL’S NAME I DEMAND Y-..” / “asgore’s BALLS”

“LANGUAGE!” / “LANGUAGE!” / “LANGUAGE!”

This continued for a while, and Sans eventually abandoned weighing the option to short-cut away in a teleport to the front porch and leave them all to it, instead accepting his fate with empty eyesockets.

He managed to clumsily hash out at the time, and clarified better later, that he had set the programming based on his and his brothers magical signatures to run the quantum reconstitution when it identified the related skeleton monster.

He made what the others had to admit was an honestly very fair point arguing afterwards that it wasn't his fault if he didn't know Gaster’s design went so nightmarishly, impressively above and beyond in its reach across time and space to start targeting other potential states of the brothers across universes.

Once they understood that bringing Gaster back was what Sans had been trying to do, the surprising consensus from the others was shock that he would. In the three other worlds the scientist had been either dangerous, mad, or dangerously mad, apparently.

And a couple of them hadn't even fallen into their invention at all in the incident that erased Gaster from most memory and a set existence.

Papyrus forgot himself as the shock of the situation started to die down at this point, as what had happened was muddled out, and automatically pulled a cigarette from his hoody instead of the suckers he had switched to thanks to his brothers caring chastisement of the habit.

Sans still liked to nag at his sibling over-indulging his sweet tooth but it was a different sort of, more fun, disapproval between them…

This Sans who was seeming more jarringly like himself than how his brother normally behaved had invited them all into the open space of the living room and gone to make drinks under the un-subtle watch of a few of the others, probably partly to escape the six-way mix of questioning and varying anger.

“sans, -uh my sans-,” Papyrus started cautiously as they came back in with Sea Tea and he fished out his lighter.

“do you remember the boat person before bro took over that job? they used to be interested in the void research?”

He had always suspected his brother remembered a little like he did, and now seemed as good a time as any to mention it and find out for sure, and see if anything lined up with what these others had known.

Sans drew back, looking slightly surprised, “PAPY I DIDN'T KNOW YOU REMEMBERED TOO.” he said, as Papyrus grimaced at the confirmation.

He didn't miss the look exchanged by two of the others. The suddenly quiet version of Sans who had been trying to give orders earlier, and the guy who looked so like himself. The one whose amber eyelights stared back from under the shadow of his hood as Papyrus had Checked them and seen it confirmed they had Level like the other pair did too. High enough Level that came from having killed, and it being no accident.

“PAPY, REALLY?”

He had flicked the lighter and bought up the cigarette, then stopped like a Gyftrott caught in string lights. Even the edgy looking monsters were looking at him like he was drunk at a children’s tea party.

He took the offending item from between his teeth, considered it and the lighter in his hand like he didn't know where they came from, then swapped them back to his pocket to fish out a sucker to bite down on instead.

(His rougher ‘twin’s’ eyelights followed the item from pocket upwards with muted interest, so Papyrus considered for a moment then pulled out a second one and passed it tactfully. It was intercepted from an equally smooth reach with no eye contact, by the dark ‘twin’ of his brother walking past, confiscating the illicit candy junk food mid-stride, as if it never happened.)

Papyrus turned to the bathrobe Sans, who looked at him with the chastened expression of a guy who was just glad at not being shouted at right now, and continued. “-yeah, uh, our wing dings used to work on the royal lab before and on a machine like you got… but it was riverperson who fell, well, fell in. our bro wasn't the same after, but no-one remembers riverperson in our underground, not exactly. we wouldnt be able to bring them back like you were trying for your bro”

Inclining his skull to the other two, he noted; “something similar for you guys am i right?”

His alternate had a stony look, but nodded. The smaller brother looked introspective, and Papyrus almost thought he wasn't going to add anything, before those purple eyelights looked round at those present, then at his own brother where he was sat on the couch arm next to him.

“RIVERPERSON IN OUR UNDERGROUND WAS PERHAPS LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM YOURS. IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T YET GATHERED; OUR WORLD IS… FAIRLY HOSTILE.” He glanced between Papyrus, the red and black clad pair, and this world’s Sans. “BUT ONE OF THE SAFEST PLACES TO BE WAS ON THEIR BOAT. EVEN WEAKER MONSTERS WHO MIGHT BE AT THEIR MERCY ON SUCH A CONFINED SPACE WOULD ALWAYS BE FERRIED SAFELY, WITHOUT FAIL.”

His expression darkened as he propped his chin on long leather gloves. “THE ONLY ONES WHO DIDN'T ARRIVE SAFELY WERE THOSE WHO TRIED TO CAUSE TROUBLE BY ATTACKING RIVERPERSON OR OTHER PASSENGERS.

THEY NEVER COMPLETED A TRIP.” He brightened with an upbeat smirking grin, “ALSO WITHOUT FAIL.

The red and black armored skeleton stood by the window folded his arms and laughed a knowing “HMPH!” at that, as his red eyed Sans shrugged and muttered beside him, into the furred hood on his shoulders; “sounds like our riverperson, boss.”

He grinned sharp teeth at in amusement at the seated pair, “did yours deliver the dust too?”

Papyrus balked at that, and Sans beside him tensed, “THAT’S TERRIBLE.”

“THAT WAS KINDNESS.” said the dark armored brother.

“our riverperson just sang”, said their host.

Still leaning on his laced hands, the other Sans had one more thing to add. “OH OURS DID THAT TOO. BUT THERE WAS ONE TIME… AFTER THEY WERE GONE AND OUR BROTHER TOOK OVER THE BOAT LIKE IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN HIS. I BOARDED AND AS SOON AS WE SET OFF EVERYTHING TURNED GRAY, AND THERE RIVERPERSON WAS IN PLACE OF MY BROTHER. THEY WERE SINGING THAT THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE, AND EVERYWHERE. WHEN I ARRIVED I TURNED ROUND AND THERE WAS GASTER AGAIN.”

The shorter red eyed skeleton by the window sweated slightly but didn't add anything. But the funny thing was, last time he used the boat, Riverperson’s latest nonsense song was singing say hi to Sans… and Sans and Sans.

“HAH!” Barked his sibling. “OUR GASTER WOULD HAVE MADE EVERYONE SWIM BEHIND THE BOAT!” He didn't elaborate whether that was said dismissively or as a boast. It seemed a mix of both.

Was this things getting better, or worse with this less conflicting turn of conversation? Sans couldn't tell. He really had been about to text his brother to warn him at a few points that something had happened, but each time there was another question or confrontational argument about the situation. So time flew and Papyrus arrived home from work before Sans expected.

The front door clicked and swung open as one final skeleton walked in and got part-way through taking his jacket off to hang it by the door before becoming aware of seven sets of eyelights greeting him.

“IM HOME BROTHER, HOW WAS YOUR DAY? WHAT DID YOU-

-DO-?

OH WOWIE.”

Chapter Text

When Sansy first came into the world, nearly one day ago, his first impression was of thinking he should be worried about something fairly important, seeing an expanse of absurdly plush carpet and odd architecture, and immediately sinking down to unconsciousness from where he was stood next to a polished wooden pillar. He might have slept successfully for much longer, but for a persistent muttering of disjointed comments he thought might have been directed at himself.

It took him a little while to process what he was seeing was a very, VERY large human, talking away not to him, but to herself as she spoke her mind amusingly to what appeared to be online comments on an also stunningly large computer tablet. Did humans sometimes get this size?

He knew somehow that he didn't have any urgent business, so without much worry about life just went about finding his way up the giant’s bookshelf by laying down loose books to climb up improvised staircases, and heading over from behind the chair to see what was so interesting.

Others, meanwhile, weren't so disturbed in their much needed sleep.

The tiny Blue thought he was watching a big screen, but it felt like he blinked and was instead looking at a confused Papyrus, who had thought he was working on his convertible in the garage. Both sunk down to the soft floor together to continue the weird dream this must have been. And they really did share the same dream, racing each other through a field of huge flowers and jumping from one to another, adopting fluffy pet bumblebees together.

A few feet away Fell was already curled up sleeping. He wasn't at work and was on a bed that seemed suitably impressive to his standards, so took the hint and didn't question his body knowing best in it clearly being time for bed.

His brother, Red, was further away but still just about in the same room, at a high enough vantage point on top of a dust caked platform that what he was looking at was much more clearly identifiable as an oversized bedroom. Which was odd. But why should he care about that?

Seeing his brother drop down and curl up did have him worried enough to fall back into an old habit with a small cry of “boss!”, then a teleport over from his position on the wardrobe down next to him, where after hearing his Papyrus respond to him in his sleep with “FLUffy Bunnny…”, he promptly dropped to sleep right next to him. The two didn't take long to end up cuddled up in their sleep.

So until the trip three doors down, and into the early hours of the next day, the house remained blissfully oblivious of much change.

This morning, Mabel was quite refreshed and had luckily made it back downstairs, padding her slippered feet to retrieve Sansy from his improvised bath set when the house-shaking ‘CRASH’ and ‘WHUMP’ upstairs happened.

She had a state of fitness for her age that included a strong heart, but it wasn't something anyone would want to test in themselves with what sounded and felt like an avalanche boulder paying a friendly visit.

As you do in moments like this, Mabel stood for a minute to process that she was still alive, and no other house destroying crashing, possibly imminent death from stray random boulders was continuing, so she slowly unfroze to look in the direction of the ceiling where dust and paint flecks were drifting down, then did a shuffling rush through the kitchen to find Sansy quickly before anything else.

He had climbed out by the sink chain already earlier after a very nice soak in a chunky bowl which would have made a pretty fancy ceramic bath for his original full sized self, overflowing with lemony dish-soap bubbles, So he was to be found peeking from behind a sugar canister up on the lower shelf nearest the sink, clutching the dishcloth towel like a pauper’s humble cloak. The hide and seek prank he’d been brewing amongst the assorted caddies, jars and recipe notebooks was abandoned as he had been jolted off his feet before having to immediately scrabble to dodge a falling recipe book.

He hopped straight into the outstretched human’s worried reach once she found him, and clambered up the thick plaited cable-knit to her shoulder, managing to do so mostly one handed while hanging on to his towel.

Sansy and Mabel cautiously eyed the ceiling and up the stairs as they slowly rounded the door to the entrance hall. No debris was apparent apart from the new layer of plaster dust speckling the formerly shiny-clean wooden flooring, and a couple of family photos fallen from the walls. The house was quiet as they waited and listened…

Both of them jumped at the doorbell breaking the pregnant pause.

They looked at each other wordlessly, and Mabel automatically turned to open the door, as the ringing was followed by heavy knocking. Sansy nearly forgot to hide, until the worried male voice of a neighbor added to the knocking through the door, to which the bitty snapped out of it and looked side to side for somewhere to go, and made a hasty teleport to a spot he could see directly.

“Mabel! Did you hear that?... Are you okay in there? I heard a bang or something smashing and it sounded like it came from your house… Mabel?” Charlie from next door had started knocking again as the door was unlocked the other side of him.

The door swung open to bring the two silver-gray haired neighbors face to face, the little man smiling as “Oh hello Charlie!” came from a slightly flustered looking Mabel. No sooner than she spoke, she startled with suddenly wider eyes and looked at her shoulder. The reaction passed in a moment as she turned the odd jump into brushing off some dust from her arms, adding to the stuff already floating down in the hallway’s air.

Charlie said with a relieved chuckle, “I think I got the right house for that noise. Did, uh, something happen?”

Staring blankly a second before answering, Mabel replied, “Yes, you could say that, but I’m not sure what that noise was.” She looked around in thought, “I was just about to go look upstairs.”

He looked up the stairs too, “Well let me go with you at least.” He followed that with a rapid hands-up movement, “I know, I know, you can look after yourself Mabe. It’s just, uh, just in case you need two people?” His voice elevated in hopeful diplomacy with the question.

He knew her too well, and she smirked as her eyes twinkled at her old friend. “Oh come on then, before you let the cold in.” She stepped in for him to follow and closed the door, knowing that the old boy’s pleased-with-himself look meant that he knew, that she knew, that he knew she was actually glad of the help right now.

In the unlikely event Charlie had stopped to peruse her hallway radiator’s ornaments, he might have seen one of the smaller photos frames wobbling, with little skeletal fingers making a bizarre detail to the sides of the silver frame as the stand of Sansy’s hiding spot had collapsed when he squeezed behind it and left him propping up the item in front of himself like a mover struggling with a wall painting.

They both trudged up the stairs side by side, and Mabel looked over her shoulder back down, taking a second glance to brush off the leaves from her neighbor’s ripped old sweatshirt. He’d been outside in his back-yard again.

“Charlie you look like you had a fight with your hedge.”

Charlie just laughed lightly, opened his mouth to make a comment and seemed to think better of it, with another “Heh!” coming out instead.

At the top of the stairs the culprit of the explosive noise was immediately apparent, in the form of a smashed bedroom door and the edge of a polished chestnut wardrobe sticking part-way out.

It was laying on a mix of scarves, sweaters and jogging pants which, where not now stretched and ripped, were tied together from one to the next, leading around the top of the wardrobe like someone had made it a big bandanna. Tied and trailing all around the clothing and leading through the door were many strands of stressed and frayed yarn.

They looked at each other and approached the escaped furnishing slowly. The door, as Charlie inspected it, had come away along with a chunk of the frame, and while there was splintered wood strewn across the landing, the remains of the lower half of the door had managed an admirable attempt of holding together to swing outward together with its hinges and shiny round doorknob, which left a nice dent in the plasterwork.

“Well… Your floorboards look okay from here. I cant see how on Earth this happened though.” He assessed as he peered into the room and Mabel came closer to do the same.

It looked like an explosion in a craft store.

Plaster littered the room from the door and chunks from the ceiling, and on a few places where they hadn't been torn out there were strands of yarn hanging down from what looked like eyelet hooks for hanging the net curtains she never got round to putting up. They had been screwed into the lower walls and ceiling it appeared. Almost every ball of yarn she had purchased over the years was now decorating the bedroom in a rainbow of unraveled webbing. Books were piled on the floor just beyond the wardrobe’s base, along with a couple of old hockey sticks and some of her dearly departed old Marvin’s never-used old hand weights with yarn connecting it all to the chaos. A light, rhythmic tapping could be heard faintly dying down, likely the hanging lightbulb in the linen closet next door finishing its swinging from the impact.

It didn't appear to make any sense, but Charlie was chewing on his knuckle in deep thought, like he was piecing something together.

“... It’s like a pulley and lever system.” He tapped the wardrobe softly as he thought. “Or it was, maybe… “

“Here… to there… hmm. Up there?... Then…round, huh.” He said to himself, getting one knee on the side of the door blockage to peer further in the room. He climbed in fully and checked the room for occupants, even opening and shutting the wardrobe door as far as it could crack on the way out.

Mabel was also starting to put things together in her mind, eyes narrowing to revisit an assumption of how she had one little look-alike version of one of her monster neighbors turn up out of the blue. And a niggling question striding center stage in her brain; why would there only be only one? An indulgent passing whim she had yesterday coming back as she had wondered how cute the other skeletons would look in miniature. No…

No.

Probably not…

But. Maybe just in case.

She looked at the mess, with Sansy in her mind’s eye, then at the rounded doorhandle on the formerly shut room as Charlie clambered back out and wandered to look out of the window the other end of the landing where the view favored his yard.

“Is there anyone else in your house Mabel? Do you want me to che-”

“NO!” I mean no! Don't worry about it Charlie I know what this was now. Ahah ha… My, uh, grandchildren. They… ” she ended with a doubtful mumble.

He turned back to face her questioningly but thankfully the view of his well tended garden drew him back like a magnet stronger than the explanation after only a moment.

He stood on tiptoe to peer further out diagonally, noting distractedly, “Well, gonna love to hear how you're gonna say they managed this one. Did you ever tell their parents the truth about the bathroom?”

“No.” Came the happy reply. “And I never intend to. If I have to be the senile old bat who forgot to turn the taps off, so be it.” They both gave a laugh at the event she’d filled him in on after last Thanksgiving.

There followed a small grumble of; “Though did Tom really have to assume quite so easily that his mom’s mind’s starting to go already?”

They broke into further laughter.

“Well if you're sure you don't need any help right now…”

She seized the opportunity to shoo him out, “No, it’s okay now the mystery prank or whatever they were up to’s been revealed. It must have been Noah,-” Mabel reasoned.

“Little Noah?”

“Not so little now. He’s twelve now, and a very clever little boy, even if he gets bored a bit easily,” she noted. “Actually wants to be an engineer… or something like that I think. I bet Evi helped and the little one encouraged them. Must have been trying to prove they could move that big old thing… ”

As Mabel readily worked up the unfairly traitorous, incriminating story against her beloved grandchildren, a flash of the scene of her quickly shifting them to the side and assuring the very teary three of them that she would take the fall, just before she had done just that to their parents, came back to her mind.

They’d scared the pants off themselves when forgetfully playing in the bathroom turned into a sagging ceiling and then a waterfall into the living room making itself a central feature after Thanksgiving dinner that year. The family had exited the dining room having earlier ignored sweet little Cole happily babbling that the ceiling was biiiig in there, and come out just in time to all stare mutely at the bulging down area before it burst.

As Mabel lovingly joked with a wagging finger at the time to get the three to smile, while the older family members were busy paying attention to either racing upstairs or frantically saving the living room items; ‘You three owe granny BIG time!’

Well, here was the perfect time even if it wasn't really a debt she was ever truly going to call in. Her children wouldn't need to hear about the fallen wardrobe or any other damage she might want to link to any supposed escapades, Charlie was already on-team for keeping her grandkids Thanksgiving secret from her kids in case it ever came up, and she could tease Noah next time that she was calling in the favor with ‘we’re even for Thanksgiving now, so if any neighbor here asks about a wardrobe you are very sorry!’

Now to shift Charlie out the door… “Well thank you so much for your help Charlie, I can get a handyman or two in to sort out the wardrobe and woodwork, I've been meaning to have a few odd jobs here and there done anyway.” She added that last part preemptively.

He took the cue surprisingly fast, starting to walk swiftly back to the stairs as she joined him on the way down, pausing to shake her head at a big dopey bumblebee boinking off the stairs window. No you cant hibernate in here, she thought. It was a good sign Charlie must already be busy working on his autumn prep work around now. Mabel didn't have much patience for all that. Just plant whatever will look after itself year after year and throw some bulbs in the ground in spring. The shrubs and trees Marvin planted years ago didn't need much pruning.

“Oh yes! You're right Mabe, it looks like a pretty minor repair, I know you can handle it, heh, I best be getting home hun.”

He opened the door before she could get to it, and stepped outside in view of a couple more neighbors, Jo-Ann and her husband Travis who she had probably dragged out to see what was going on, who was chatting casually to Sans while both had their hands in their pockets like they were mimicking each other. They looked like the two most hypnotically laid back denizens of the street, from the conversation sluggishly droning between them as Jo-Ann smiled, politely bored. Along with Sans, leaning one long arm on her chest-high stone postbox was Rus, who looked up as Charlie strode out calling in a sing-song tone; “Found the culprit, nothing to worry about just a bit of a wardrobe malfunction!”

Mabel rolled her eyes and glanced behind her before stepping out in her slippers and pulling the door to, accompanying her next door neighbor up the path for a quick word to show all was fine. She pulled her cardigan around her and folded her arms to make a show of how cold it was so she could make a quick escape back inside.

“Hope I didn't worry anyone with the banging, it was just some furniture fell over, grandkids left something a bit unstable. No-one tell my kids! Ha! Hello Jo, cold out here isn't it? Ooh I’m going to go back inside, Charlie I’ll call you if I need any more help, thank-you so much again dear.” A few quick hellos to Travis, Sans, and Rus, and she was gone again, leaving them all outside her front yard to carry on chatting if they were so insistent on doing that there.

Back inside, leaning against the front door, a look to her left showed a picture frame laying down on its own. She turned and leaned to peep out of the peephole, saw Charlie had also turned to head back next door already, decided Rus couldn't possibly be making eye contact back at her like that and was just happening to be looking at the front door, then clicked the lock and went looking for Sansy.

The first call of his name was quieter, with a small pause to make sure her neighbor version of Sansy outside wouldn't overhear, and god forbid, think she meant to call him that.

After a few tries raising her volume more each call, a soft call back came from the hallway, and she found Sansy halfway up the stairs, dressed back in his clothes and huffing in frustration as the little skeleton turned from his effort to climb his current stair, releasing his phalanges from their grip in the plush threads.

“pff, harder than it looks.” He sat down with his legs hanging over the small carpeted drop.

“Well,” Mabel started to plod steadily back up the stairs, “You did pretty well if you started climbing when I stepped out.” She smiled up at where he’d reached.

A little shrug. “eh, if i got a few steps higher before you got back i could see the top of the hallway light-shade, then maybe could see a path to make it to that window” He inclined his head to the stairs window to his right above him, then added sheepishly, “was kinda hopin’ to be chilling at the top by the time you got in. i am really missing making that look effortless… it was kinda, my thing”

Mabel paused and quirked a brow in bemusement. “Lot of jumping around! Don't say you've got yourself a grappling hook to get around with? Heh!”

It occurred to Sansy with a widening of his eye-sockets that she hadn't actually noticed yesterday how he got back to the armchair, and he brightened up and bought one foot up followed by the other, then straightened up to stand. He made eye contact down at the approaching human and as much as he tried to play it off with a careless shrug, he couldn't help a small blush and a huge grin as he stuck his hands in his pockets, winked, and vanished.

Paused in a forward lean of walking up the stairs, a pair of irises moving was the only sign that gave away the lady who was doing her very best impression of a very lifelike human statue. They slid from the now empty step she had been talking to, to the left side of her lined face, where the little skeleton had suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision, leaning in looking smugly happy with himself on her shoulder.

“OHH!” She exclaimed.

He managed to grin wider.

“OHH!” She grinned too and finally stood up straighter. “Well I’ll be, you really are magic aren't you?”

In her delight Mabel didn't even consider it could be socially inappropriate to do this as she automatically reached her right hand to, well, not ruffle his hair, but the same sort of petting motion. And Sansy took a whole three seconds after, as he still basked with closed eye-sockets in the afterglow of the affectionate contact, to wonder if he should feel silly or embarrassed.

They both avoided comment on the topic by jointly looking back up the staircase, to then continue up and discover the true source of the breakout.

Chapter Text

Blue didn't know what had gotten into his brother today, but Orange, slouching on the sofa looking every bit the carelessly relaxed, chilled out lazybones doing coding for his job mid morning like usual, wasn't fooling him. To an outsider, there was nothing to give away his wretched state right now.

“oh hey bro- “ He grinned up from his work laptop nonchalantly. He couldn't explain his anxiety, but he was relieved to see his brother right now even though everything was fine. Everything was fine.

“PAPY!” Blue stood with his fists on his hipbones, wearing his morning jogging gear of black t-shirt and dark blue jogging pants. He didn't wait for his brother to respond, and instead, two densely boned skeletal hands leading to sweatbands shot forward to grab the hoody of the startled sibling. “THAT CAN WAIT.”

A laptop found itself abandoned on an empty couch.

As Orange found himself carried triumphantly overhead like a barbell, out of the door to the crisp fresh air of the sunny garden for what turned out to be an urgent session of helping rake a ‘huge mess’ of leaves, which his brother admonished him for somehow having encouraged to accumulate, his grin relaxed into something more genuine.

Blue. Sans. Hadn't tackled him like that for a while.

Tiny fists banging on the unyielding wooden wall fell weaker and weaker against the surface, until they finally dropped helplessly to his sides where he knelt in the waves of blanketing fabric. His voice already hoarse from trying to call out for help when he had woken up imprisoned here, finding he could barely raise his volume as it was in the unlit and muffled room.

He had tried to shortcut out, shortcut home, anywhere, but it didn't work. He tried to clamber over the room full of blankets like a strange warehouse, summoning glowing bones to see by as he looked for a way out, tried to break out with his magic, until he was exhausted, the meager light around him shrinking as the amber glow of his eyes faded to tired sockets and he resigned himself to wait for what mercy he might have. Hoping there was some mistake.

The whole world had shaken with a colossal bang to jolt him awake later, like a building had come crashing down. He was terrified. As his bones rattled he thought he heard muffled cheering, then other voices, so he tried desperately again to pound his fists on the wall. But it was almost soundless, and no-one came.
He curled up and sobbed alone in the dark.

As cats are sometimes known to do, Red went from appearing fairly content going about his workday in the warehouse, to suddenly jumping a foot in the air. Unfortunately Red wasn't a cat, and unfortunately, his relationship with his co-workers had gone from that cautious sort of politeness towards a new monster co-worker, to affectionate comradery and friendly teasing banter he pretended to be aloof about, but secretly reveled in. He couldn't even figure out what shocked him like that, and from the barely contained looks of wicked glee on the faces around him, he knew with a black socketed grimace and a wry grin that he wasn't gonna live it down for a while.

The four pairs of bitty eyelights peered out, dots of light wavering from under the bed as the dust and floating down streamers of yarn settled. A tennis ball rolled by to no reaction; a random passerby if not an invited participant in their work.

It belatedly felt like a safer spot considering the dangerous stunt. They had known with budding excitement that the rigged behemoth of furnishing was getting closer and closer to falling at the impassable door as planned, as it reached critical leverage where gravity favored it being on its side instead of standing as Mabel preferred it.

When they discovered they were trapped in the room they woke in this morning, Red had mainly been the one to engineer everything while Blue, Papyrus and Fell provided conflicting directions all at once, but still all worked seamlessly together.

They raided the room and the inside of the wardrobe excitedly to build with what they could use once the chestnut door was heaved from the bottom to click open to reward them with, among other items; the game changing yarn supply. It all took a lot of effort. Even opening drawers and climbing in and out of the plastic storage tubs took teamwork. The heaviest items took the combined blue magic of all of them to gravity lift the short distances. Everything in this room was so huge.

If it was some sort of prank, it must have taken an absurd amount of effort to work on creating. Red begrudgingly appreciated the possibility despite the amount of work this had made for him to escape, and the worry of what intentions were behind - surely kidnapping the four of them? He had ran the boney digits of his hand down his face and almost groaned at the idea that one other explanation could be another universe with someone like a giant Sans activating a damn machine. Or if someone was messing with them… Well, they were gonna regret it.

He wasn't afraid… He’d whoop giant Sans big boney ass. Yeah… Dammit.

He felt small.

No. He felt irritated. Pride wouldn't let him dwell on those thoughts right now, so he puffed up the furred collar of his jacket round his ear-holes by setting his shoulders and crossing his arms in a surly pose, and knuckled down to think and plan. He didn't notice his brother turn approvingly from this sight to carry on scouting for items and leave him to think.

It was like putting together the most ambitious puzzle to solve how to break out of this strange place. Stranger too, the feeling that they might have gotten easily distracted by the fun to be had in the giant room, and not been so bothered about getting out if it weren't for them all feeling a little hungry. And that door barring their way like an affront to them personally. Heh, probably came down to a long history of being stuck behind barriers in their worlds.

The skeletons a few houses away would have been scratching their skulls to understand the resulting chaotic lever and pulley system, yet the bitty versions of them automatically worked out their method to tip, turn, and aim their weaponized armoire perfectly.

Funnily enough, not one of them cared to give the much more easily breakable window the esteem of being their target. They were going through the door.

The gradual heaving of pulleys orchestrated by Red with Blue, straining of gravity magic shared between all, and manoeuvring to lift each almost car sized book under the raised corner by Fell and Papyrus, was repeated until finally the wardrobe took the hint and carried on with sudden enthusiasm in the direction they’d been inching it all day.

The strength of any exclamations about this thrilling victory were damped down by the exhausting effort it had taken, followed by blind panic caused by the impact somehow feeling unexpected, like a child popping a balloon then wondering where it went. As one they shared the fright of their lives and a frantic, inelegant burst of speed to scramble to safety with phalanges scraping the floorboards and sneakers skidding after its impact tossed them in the air. And so it was that they ended up under the bed.

Fell was the first to move now as the dust settled, the barest turn of his skull and a slow pat on the fluff of his brother’s jacket collar which had poofed out. “I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD JUMP THAT HIGH BROTHER. YOU’RE NOT HIDING SOME ATHLETIC TENDENCY ALL THIS TIME ARE YOU?”

“...”

Red’s eyelights were tiny and staring in vacant shock still, so Fell let him be and surveyed the room.

The door was open.

What was left of it.

Papyrus and Blue stepped forward together from under the bed excitedly, somehow finding the energy to punch the air and pose victoriously. As Fell stepped out they were both giving each other a high five, before Blue picked up Papyrus in a bone-crushing hug and they laughed a muted “Mweh!” and “Nyeh!” breathlessly. He was too dignified to join in such things. He didn't feel left out… unwanted… Turning his skull away he folded his arms with a self-conscious sniff of disdain, to pretend to be in deep thought about more important things.

They noticed him step out and both struck a dynamic high five pose each at him without hesitation.

Oh. Well, he… supposed he could give them the honor. A good Captain recognizes the job well done of subordinates, or allies. Making sure that his shirt sleeves were still rolled up securely, he raised his arm and, keeping his expression a neutral mask over internal delight, wondered why he was almost having to fight down giddy joy at such a silly expression of fun, and put his soul into two impressive (superior) high fives.

Dignity intact, he-

“Nyeh!!” Papyrus had grabbed him in a huge hug now and he spluttered indignantly in the grip of the happy skeleton, before being put down again to gather back his composure and turn his blushing skull away, as Blue ran to the door.

All four of them came to be looking up at the fallen monolith. Blue pulled the edge of a dangling striped sweater sleeve taut and rappelled up using the fabric to the side-now-top. Papyrus followed as Fell stood with hands on hips waiting for them to make it like an instructor safekeeping students. Then he watched his brother tiredly walk around instead, to sidestep through the gap between the wardrobe and broken door-frame, before Fell climbed up to join the other two.

It was another huge space, less cluttered than the room apart from their contribution. What looked like a hallway in a home just like the bedroom.

They each stood looking in different directions from their platform. The view sweeping to the left revealing more rooms on both sides with three open doors and two shut to the left, and a grand window at the end presenting half blue sky and half red brickwork of another house between the open curtains. A fancy half moon console table with a wooden box and shiny white sleeping cat ornament sat below this window, with a pot plant spreading out green fern on its base.

In a recess in the wall between the furthest open and closed doors could just be seen sat a one-third wall height bookcase, facing a pair of comparatively small multicolor upholstered reading chairs in a matching recess opposite. The wall next to the last closed door facing the escaped bitties ended, to open up to white painted railing, which Red had strolled forward to look out through.

As he walked up with a scowl and hands in pockets like it was an everyday stroll, his eyelights slid along the polished wooden top of the railing, taking in the height it reached, following to the right past another couple of closed doors facing it, until it started to curve downwards over stairs.

He could see from here that an arched window set hung just below and central over what must be an entrance-hall door, and a long cable almost within reach was leading from the high ceiling to the top of a light fixture. Red was still taking this all in as his hands reached and held the thick bars tentatively, when he immediately flinched as he looked down.

The others saw him freeze at what he saw below which had made sudden shuffling movement noises the moment he got there. Someone or something was down there.

As Red leapt backwards, Papyrus, Blue, and Fell sat on the edge of their platform, dropped down and gathered to him questioningly. Blue looked past him for a moment as if about to just run past to see for himself, but turned his gaze back for a moment.

Fell might have made a show of shouting confidently at Red at times like this in the familiar territory of their Underground, but even there, there were times when making an allowance for stealth was the wiser tactic. Even if ‘stealth’ for him only tended to amount to not shouting, while he’d still insist on striding through confidently, if quietly. He had at least learned to appreciate the unexpected benefit of hostile monsters changing their tune when the captain of the guard was suddenly stood there, letting those familiar with his usual posturing falter as imaginations leapt to fill the deadly silence. He could admit that part was very satisfying.

Papyrus and Blue though, they hadn't known a dangerous underground like his, and it was a matter of moments before ‘stealth’ against an unknown potential captor was a wishful thought as the spirited duo recovered from their exertions. They were already all vulnerable thanks to depleted magic levels right now.

He made eye contact with his brother, red eyelights to red in a dark look, and both understood the same.

In sync they acted. Fell turned and raised both hands as Red vanished and reappeared in front of the farthest two doorways, taking a quick glance inside one. Even with the element of surprise there was a chance the move would be thwarted. After all, Papyrus was his own name, and where this Papyrus, as well as Blue, lacked the careful, battle-hardened experience, they could make up for it with surprising un-burdened tenacity in a fight, as he knew from some surprisingly challenging sparring sessions.

But it seemed luck was on his side this time, as both hesitated (did he want another high-five?), with only a misguided slight hand raise in reaction before his gravity magic pinged its grip onto both and sent them flying backwards, where Red grabbed them in a fluid motion sideways into the room, their shocked shouts muffled in time.

Fell strode after them, glancing towards the railings but not falling for curiosity for now. He was loathe to admit it but he was really exhausted from taxing his magic reserves so much. He must have taken more than his share of the strain overdoing the gravity magic earlier.

At least it was nice to not be on the receiving end of that last one for a change, he mused with a small smirk. It was Undyne who had thrown him a similar distance to his brother to foil him stomping into danger as a youth when he’d been naively over-keen to prove himself. He’d absolutely grown out of that now…

Fell arrived in the new room with just enough time to see the three astoundingly still silent, but locked in what appeared like a three-way wrestling match they’d forgotten they started. His brother still just about had hold of Papyrus’s black t-shirt sleeve, causing the lanky skeleton to be awkwardly imbalanced backwards in an almost limbo, one red gloved hand blindly shoved in Red’s face, while Blue was also in a currently abandoned escape squashed in the middle, leaning forward with one foot planted on the floor and the other wedged in Red’s side, with Red hanging onto the blue scarf.

All three faces were inclined upwards and staring at… Holy shit it was Asgore.

Being the last in the room, Fell took his own turn with stalled thoughts and a slack jawed expression as he processed that he was staring at a life size door-stop smiling merrily at them, while his housemates slowly released each other.

In the interests of fostering good publicity and positive engagement with monster-kind following their integration into the human dominated world, the monster king had for a period of time given the go-ahead to quite a mixed bag of merchandise. The doorstops had been one of the items discontinued once oversight of this had been pried out of his indulgent fluffy paws and passed to a more discerning team away from the king’s allowance of hundreds of whimsical suggestions.

Papyrus perked up and was going to be the first to break the silence, but the doorbell beat him to it, as ‘Ding-Dong!’ chimed through the house.

“Mabel!” Came the thudding on the front door and enquiries of a familiar voice. The skeletons all recognised both voices. Two of the neighbors? They listened as the door opened and the conversation downstairs took place, and Red took the chance to hurriedly fill the three in on what he saw.

“th’ human’s huge it’s not just th’ house, think it’s our neighbors but those old humans are five foot not fifty so it’s either another universe we got dragged to or.

… or we got, shrunk somehow” He finally dared to voice that chastening thought.

While Fell stood scowling with his arms folded, Papyrus and Blue looked at each other, and the taller skeleton picked back up his delayed turn to speak, looking from Blue to Red. “Ah… Well that does explain things.”

With the rapidly hissed explanation out, Red had paused in anticipation in the desperate stance he had taken, looking between the powder-keg of readily uproarious companions surrounding him from three angles. He looked tensely between each to gauge their reactions, his legs set apart and arms held out palm-outwards in a ‘wait’ motion like a tamer of beasts.

It was Blue, in the center of the group who took the initiative. Whether it was out of a desire to support the bone-tired looking Red, or in recognition of the hard work the normally dead lazy, sweary, edgy version of him had done leading them to freedom, his pride in his discipline from Royal Guard training and exceptional friend-skills won over his urge to leap out and give the maybe-new human the benefit of meeting him.

Plus they were in her house and he didn't remember being invited, so meeting the trespassing Magnificent Sans might not come over as well.

“So... It sounds like we had better disguise our presence and lie in wait to observe the human!” He offered.

“no! That’s not a-

-oh, i mean yeah.”

“Do we have disguises?”

Chapter Text

Red had probably picked one of the worst places to hide, considering how exhausted and sleepy he was.

As the others had run off eagerly in what he hoped was thanks to scoping perfect hiding places, he figured he had done all he could. So he looked right, looked left, blinked at the room he was in with too many places and no time to risk checking any of it out, and hopped into one of a pair of boots right beside the door. Doorstop Asgore’s face vanished from view as the walls of the wobbling boot rose, with Red squeezed in coccyx first and arms up, thanks to his jacket padding around the limited space and rising around his head.

The boots had soft, fluffy lining as it turned out, which was a smart addition as part of an old ladies winter wardrobe. He was experiencing firsthand how comfortable they were. The absurd prospect of falling asleep right as the two potentially dangerous giant humans now loomed nearby felt like a truly cruel test of his fortitude, swaddled in the most comfortable frikkin’ footwear in the world. At this point, the stress of events was a downright gift, being the only thing now keeping him awake and alert.

“Is there anyone else in your house Mabel? Do you want me to che-”

YOU’VE GOTTA TO BE KIDDIN ME!

The old man’s head had started to swivel in the direction of the room Red was just inside, only interrupted by the saving grace of a surprisingly urgent response from the old lady. If Charlie hadn't been so worried about his garden view, just the briefest look to the right of where he stood at the window, followed by a glance down, would have gifted him the sight of dumb fear on a sharp toothed skull perfectly framed in a fluffy halo. A little red-eyed monster facing up out of Mabel's boot, bony hands up either side like it was surrendering. And may as well have been if found like this.

Fell, concealed in the center of the decorative plant on the console base nearby, looked down at his brother in his unimpressive predicament, and looked up the pant leg of the human gardener who was now stood pretty much in his own face to lean over the small table for the window view, feet directly in front of what had shamefully revealed itself to be a synthetic fern that Fell had opted to crouch in. The sense of ‘monster in the wild, poised to strike’, that framed his choice of hiding place only worked in the wilds of Ikea. At least a gardening human shouldn't be too interested in a polyester plant to give it any attention. And yet, as the discovery of his elder brother began to transpire…

Clawed phalanges reached out unnoticed, a breath away from the thin pant leg in front of them, then retracted silently in time with the diverted attention of the human, as the leg swung back in a step out of reach as he moved to walk away.

Crouching further back down in behind the foliage, Fell surveyed the continuing conversation with the two, hmm, distracted looking humans, weren't they? His vantage point to view the entire hallway as well as the two nearest rooms either side did at least make this a good spot. He could just about keep an eye-socket on the alcove where Papyrus had gone, and where Blue had picked in the opposite one. And at least no filthy soil on his red boots and smartly fitted work suit was a bonus really in this fake plant.

Boring work suit.

Eh? No he loved wearing his smart black shirt and jacket. He had discovered he pulled off such a tailored outfit to the envy of many a male human. When he had learned of the blushing effect simply rolling up his shirt sleeves had on their new female house guest, he refused to let anyone else help her with the dish-washing for a week, insisting on showing her how to do it ‘properly’.

But right now he kinda missed his guard armor. His life underground may have been dangerous, but it felt good when he first donned his armor, even if he came to detest it after the realities of work in the Royal Guard took their toll… It had for a short time felt like being dressed as a superhero.

Papyrus shook his head with a skeletal smile from where he stood on the bookcase. Every smile on him was skeletal, but there was a difference between a grin or a grimace on a monster skeleton’s features that a human skull could never match.

While he felt Blue had certainly been charitable to Red’s apparent stress levels by agreeing they could all hide, they had to all get moving to cut short Red looking like he had taken the joke about disguises seriously and had been about to try to desperately argue against said disguises.

There is absolutely no problem with a tactic of stealth, Papyrus thought...

He watched the human male get close to discovering the brothers who had stayed near the far room, having himself opted to hide in plain sight, where no-one would look. This was inside a nice vase of colorful fake flowers on top of the low bookshelf, his skull perfectly framed by a pink daisy centered behind him as flowery camouflage, with leaves crowded in front and red mittened hands gripping the edge of the container hidden underneath a leaf each side.

This had several benefits; it was a vibrant backdrop suitable to his greatness (if a bit quaint), and humans tempted to do a double-take on seeing something monstrous lurking in the shadows had an amusing tendency to doubt their own eyes and decide not to look again. -No that couldn't have been a monstrous skull watching me from that flower. Perhaps a self-preservation instinct of refusing to believe something is real in hope that will make it true.

And it made him feel pretty. Anyway this was only a temporary position. He simply didn't want to be left out of the fun of finding a good spot. Papyrus’s ultimate train of thought on what a good stealth tactic was, was as follows: I am, naturally, a stealth expert. As such I will of course use my grand entrance to draw attention away from my stealthy comrades. He had only to wait for the right moment…

Although… there was a small conundrum to overcome. Papyrus’s focus shifted from the comings and goings of the humans in the hallway, to Blue’s hiding place where he had climbed up from one of the low chairs in the reading nook, and after dismissing hiding behind the cushions, had managed to plant himself inside the shade of the lamp on the small end-table next to them. It had barely stopped wobbling as the slow walking elders had made it upstairs, with Blue hanging on in a jumping-jack pose. Papyrus had thought to himself this seemed like a terrible choice of hiding place with the shadow of a small figure showing through if anyone looked that way, but at the same time knew the lampshade was the perfect hiding place and no-one would notice.

No, his problem, he considered as he looked back away to glower down from the vase, was the slight niggle that human elderly had a worrying tendency to fall down at shocks. He was stressed this fact astoundingly often in his dealing with humans. Sometimes they would voice that fact without any prompting. Even random strangers stopping him to advise this in the street. How helpful of them! He thought fondly at the latest one.

A man had pointed at him in the street by way of greeting one day and shouted; “Oh my GOD! Are you an actual freakin’ skeleton?! You’ll give someone a heart attack!”

Papyrus had proudly responded, “WHY, YES! THANK YOU KIND HUMAN!” Since it was considerate advice. He had given a friendly wave as he carried on his way, and the human turned to also walk away but a little too fast and expressed surprise at meeting a nearby lamppost. The gentleman had been clearly wowed by meeting a skeleton monster.

He came to a decision. He was still, even in miniature, The Great Papyrus. And as ever, no human would fall down with his inspiring presence.

Comings and goings. Hm, wait, comings and goings. Oh. The humans had gone. The fake flowers wilted a little.

“phhaaa!” came the noise from the boot with comically blindly waving little hands as Mabel and Charlie could be heard exiting the house, “gi’me out!!”

Fell was already stood looking down his nasal ridge at the item, before reaching in to drag his brother out to dangle by the hood. At coming face to face with that glare, the demands morphed into silence and the looks of a guilty puppy. As Blue and Papyrus made their way back over, Fell put his foot down, that is in a stomp.

He crossed him arms, “THIS IS GETTING ABSURD, WE HAVE ALL MET BOTH OF THOSE HUMAN NEIGHBORS AND THEY ARE QUITE HARMLESS. I DEMAND WE CONFRONT THAT MABEL WOMAN AND FIND OUT IF SHE KNOWS HOW WE ALL GOT HERE.”

Sansy downstairs paused with one pants leg on in the kitchen and tipped his skull on one side before putting the other leg through. He grabbed his t-shirt and hoody, stepped into his slippers and finished dressing as he went, mixing up a stroll with a few shortcuts spaced in to get to the hallway stairs past the plaster debris.

The others all hesitated. Truth be told, they were all a little invested in succeeding at their plan by this point, and at least making an entrance in a way that was more satisfying than just wandering up to Mabel to say “Oh hi! We don't know how we got in here haha. Or why we’re titchy. Ha… please don't squish us.“ Even Fell was nervous about the idea but he certainly was not going to show it.

Red grit his teeth and dropped his head to pinch his nasal ridge for a moment to think, “ugh, okay. wardrobe.” he indicated at the fallen beast.

Blue positively pouted, crossing his arms and sticking his chin up and to the side, “I AM NOT HIDING IN THE WARDROBE, GRUMPY VERSION OF ME. I AGREE WITH FELL, IT’S TIME WE FACE THIS CHALLENGE OF GREETING OUR NEIGHBOR.” He added more quietly; “ AND ALSO GO HOME IF WE CAN, I AM VERY HUNGRY AND WOULD LIKE LUNCH, AND I NEED TO FIND MY BROTHER AND HOPE HE DOESN'T FREAK OUT THAT I’M NOW EIGHT INCHES TALL, OR WORSE, NOT LET ME LIVE IT DOWN.”

“six-” Red cut in, “i mean… i got enough juice left i think i can get us to that stair window. just need the platform to see past the banisters for it.” His arms fell to his sides as he looked across at the window. “it’s near enough the top of the stairs so figure we can all fit behind the curtains each side and wait till the ol’ lady passes, then give ‘er a big scare, uh, friendly greeting, from a safe point an’ we can jump down and get down the stairs too if we need. we aint that fast but neither’s her old ass”

Other than chiding him for language, no-one had any better ideas, so as the front door clicked shut already as Mabel had of course returned mercilessly fast, they gathered together after helping Red up.

Fell was quiet, with how worried he was getting at this point at his brother’s evident magic strain. If he hadn't been so practiced at hiding it over the years, he would have been more obviously fretting. Red had a moment of near panic as he found that he still couldn't quite see the surface of the window sill, before realizing he could act based on the reflection of it in the window itself, and bunched together, the four of them were shortcut to the window. They split two each side behind the ballooning curtain waves, in time to hear a muted conversation as Mabel approached once more.

Silent confusion bloomed in unison in the monsters behind the curtains. -’Sansy”?

A new muted voice that sounded suspiciously familiar replied to the name.

Unseen by those listening in, the monster on Mabel's shoulder turned its fixed grin directly at the curtains as it passed by. Knowing mischief flashed in its eye-lights. As she turned past the top banisters he tapped her on the shoulder and held a digit to his teeth in a ‘shush’ motion as she inclined her face to him and cocked an eyebrow. He pointed sideways on towards the window and winked, so Mabel turned her feet as if to continue away, but paused.

”human…”

The effect might have been scarier at night instead of in the pleasant sunshine, without forewarning, and if the attempt at villainous “Nyeheha”s and “Mwehehe!”s didn't come across quite so cute that it gave the effect of the curtains giggling. Mabel still turned back stoically anyway to meet this.

Red didn't care any more. He stood grinning darkly and nonchalantly in the dead center of the sill’s edge as the others stepped in from each side. It was an open challenge. They'd see how scared or hostile this human was...

Mabel desperately wanted to smile. There were more of them, and they were all posing! They seemed to be trying to both intimidate and impress her. Her hands fluttered to the sides of her face as she felt her resolve slipping, her thoughts a mantra of “Don't call them adorable don't call them adorable!”

Sansy appeared directly behind Red with empty black eye-sockets, ”...dont you know how to greet a new pal?” he spoke in unison with Red.

Red recoiled in alarm and fell off the edge.

Fell already had hold of Red’s jacket when he fell, having kept in reach watchfully, as Papyrus, Blue, and Sansy all reached to grab a hold too. They would have pulled him back up, except they all only had hold of the coat and not his arms, so he fell out of the jacket as it swept his arms above his head.

It had given Mabel time to dive forward though, and the stunned little skeleton found himself cupped in the soft old hands of their bent over, worried looking adversary.

“Well, hello to you too!” she said.

Up above, Sansy had spotted his brother, even more his own than the big version three houses away. He couldn't help himself,-“papy!” he cried, and dived to hug Papyrus with his face mushed into his chest. Blue meanwhile looked slightly smug at the moniker Sans used when his walls were down in this moment. Confirmation of a term of endearment Sans had previously refused to admit he would also use for his Papyrus, like Blue did.

The smug look melted into a smile, before dropping in thought. ‘Where are you Papy?... ’

Papyrus wasn't nearly so emotional at the reunion, not having had time to spend agonizing over ‘if’s and ‘where’s, but happily hugged Sansy back none the less, and patted him softly on the skull with a gloved hand. He looked round to see Fell impatiently jump down, right onto Mabel's arm. One hand hanging on to her thick wooly sleeve, he looked at her cautiously before crouching down to check his sibling where he lay on his back, blinking up from Mabel to him.

He considered making the small jump to the floor, decided against it while he was in the same place as his brother if he needed help, looked to Sansy happily letting his guard down around Mabel, and finally face to face with the old lady herself.

“HMMPH!” He scowled away with a blush of red on his cheekbones at the friendly bright eyed smile disarming his defenses. He wanted to fold his arms but was having to hang on to her sleeve for balance. But he was a match for such a powerful opponent! He made himself glare back again and pointed harshly at the ground with his free arm; “UNHAND MY BROTHER THIS INSTANT HUMAN! IF YOU ACT WITH ILL INTENT YOU WILL KNOW THE FACE OF DARK JUSTICE AND RUE YOUR CHOICE.”

The human blinked down at the bitty skeleton cradled in her hands, “Ah, um, would you like to go down, dear?” She crouched down a little so he could hop off her hands.

Red daren’t admit to his brother he was actually pretty comfy and wouldn't have minded staying put, seeing as how Mabel hadn't decided to kill him. He grunted, and pushed himself to sit up with a small groan, before climbing off Mabel's hands as she lowered them right to the floor for him, joined by his brother hopping down. She took the opportunity to grab the banister to help herself back to stand from the crouch that had grown uncomfortable anyway. She was back to towering over them, but it wasn't so scary anymore.

In the kitchen of the neighboring monster’s house, the group including Red, Orange and Blue were in the middle of a boisterous conversation around lunch. Sans had been midway in reaching to grab a tomato for himself before it got pulverized, but stopped and dropped his arm. Orange watched his expression change from content and happy in the middle of the banter, to looking like he was about to cry.

They then all had the rare experience of witnessing Papyrus, who had his back turned to Sans at this point of the conversation and wasn't even aware of his brothers mood change, actually abandon what he was saying to let the words peter out. The room went quiet, and Papyrus turned slowly to his brother as the latter did the same. Seemingly unprompted they fell into a hug.

“love you bro”

“I LOVE YOU TOO BROTHER.”

Chapter Text

Silence reigned at the top of the stairs for a few minutes of respite. Red sat down where he was, staring blankly at the big padded house slippers that could crush him in a move. Above him, Blue crouched and dropped the shaggy collared coat he had been left holding down to Fell, who dropped it on his brother’s head. Red found the sleeves and shrugged it back on to hang unevenly off his shoulders. He wanted to lie down.

Sansy broke off from the hug after one last head pat from Papyrus, to stretch one arm down the back of his neck and acknowledge the others in a half-wave with the other. “uh, hey guys, heh. this is our neighbor, mabel. she’s been looking out for me since yesterday with, uh, whatever happened, with the, uh… thing, we were working on… in the… you-know… to do with different, places?...” he trailed off shiftily as his eyelights flicked back and forth from the human.

“Oh don't hurt yourself,” she huffed in amusement. “As much as I’d love to be in on it. You all take your time and I’ll leave you be to chat among yourselves whenever.” She peered round at them all, “Oh and there’s plenty of room for all your little friends if it comes to a bit of a stay. No fretting about that. If it comes to it I can shoo away unwanted visitors and pretend none of you are here if you are hiding from the big Sans and Fell and Blue and all of them.” She waved her hands with a little sing-song to emphasize, “Ohhh dear! I’m just an innocent frail little old lady. No visitors today, thank-you-good-day!” Then made a slamming door hand motion with accompanying spoken sound effect, “Slam!”

Sansy chuckled.

With the other four now looking up at her, Mabel’s fond tendency to host took the reins, so she decided promptly to take charge. They could decide differently if they wanted later, but for now, “Now then! I think it must be my and Sansy’s lunchtime soon! Now that all this meeting and greeting is happening, how about we all see what I have in my kitchen that can be mini monster sized for you all while you have a nice chat with your friend here?”

She wasn't about to force anyone to ‘fess up why they had all visited upon her house of all places, as much as it was tempting to ask a lot of questions right now, the least of which was actually how they had apparently got stuck in a spare room so catastrophically. And come to think of it, how Sansy had got in. So far there was that teleporting thing, if he could maybe do it through a closed window, or climbing through the cat flap in the back door, but she was pretty sure that was still locked since her last cat died.

They all exchanged glances as she asked in a playfully exaggerated tone and thumbed towards her face. “Who-would-like-a-ride-downstairs?”

No answer. Blue considered, Red stayed sitting, Fell crossed his arms. The suggestion of food wasnice. Then Sansy took his brothers hand and pulled the little, still taller then Sansy, Papyrus towards Mabel as she held an upturned hand to the windowsill where they stood. “shy all of a sudden bro?” he softly teased a response.

It worked like a charm, and Papyrus bloomed back into his larger than life manner, with an expressive open hand gesture towards his chest to proclaim, “NYEH! NO FEAT IS TOO GRAND AND NO MOUNTAIN IS TOO HIGH FOR ONE AS GREAT AS MYSELF TO SCALE!” He hopped on and climbed up with a determined set to his brow. He reached a shoulder and kept going by bending at the knees to do a leap even further up. Mabel stayed carefully still with widened eyes looking straight up, in the hopes he wouldn't fall off. He leaned forward into her view from his seated position cushioned in the piles of gray hair to tell her, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR OFFER, NICE HUMAN, YOUR HAIR IS VERY COMFORTABLE, nyehehe.”

“Thank you Papy and it’s very nice to meet you.” Came the reply that left her new hat thinking.

Sansy was most of the way up her cardigan and he climbed back on her right shoulder with a happy look and no comment, so it seemed his brother would be fine. Mabel glanced down to the sitting skeleton with the spiky teeth set in a grouchy looking line, next to the similarly sharp toothed taller one in red boots and a contrasting smart black suit standing stoically over him. The one still on the windowsill with big blue eyes to match his own accessories was looking round distractedly for now. On his own with fists clenched at his sides he had the look of a lost child on a mission, to Mabel’s mind at least.

“Okay then, who’s next up?” Mabel looked back at the last on the sill, but he was lost in thought. He had turned instead to peer out with both hands on the window as if looking for something, so she looked to the two, and stepped down a few stairs to lean a knee against the top-most one with her left arm out to the floor, with the other holding the banister ready to straighten up to fully stand when ready.

“pfft, i don't need no carrying like a babybones, get lost!” Red sneered up at Sansy. To the good humored face next to him; “what? wanna try me? heh, or just like what you see so gotta stare, huh lady?!” Then making a show of leaning back on his hands in a slouch with a cocky grin and eyes shut, “just cuz all the ladies wanna get their hands on this doesn't mean i aint a lone wolf”

Sansy saw through the bluff with his own eyesockets shut, but opened one to aim the simple retort, “cant stand up, can you bud?”

Red’s eyes shot open as he spluttered, “c-course i can stand up, ya think i’m a pushover?!” He struggled to his feet to posture but wobbled once there. “fuck you, marshmellow, i’m- i-” But his protests died out once again in the grip of his brother who had him held up by a fistful of the t-shirt threateningly. It conveniently masked that he had looked about to fall over. “he-... heh, hey boss, i, uh”

“My, you’re edgy, aren't you?” blurted Mabel. The outburst had only made her smile fight its way to break out across her face further. Softly she added, “It's okay! I wont pick you up if you don't want me to. Sansy made it up here most of the way so I’m sure you can follow us all down on your own if you like.” She looked instead to Blue by the window and started to pull back her hand again, missing the panicked open jawed look on Red’s face because he hadn't truly wanted her to give up on him her offer.

Fell huffed, and looked at the old human who had already gently held his brother once, and saved from a fall, and now had two relaxed skeletons already hitching a lift. He made a decision. “HUMAN! I DEMAND YOU CARRY MY BROTHER AND I. I WILL OVERSEE THIS SO CALLED LUNCH YOU ARE OFFERING.” He dangled said brother. ”AND YOU! NO ARGUMENTS!”

“bu-bro!...yes boss” Came the meek reply. Red attempted to climb back on the lowered hand before Fell feigned impatience to hoist him back on himself, then climbing past him up the sleeve. Mabel carefully bought her arm up to cradle Red in front of her chest, and Fell stayed stood on her lower arm while holding onto the cardigan.

“Thank you, Boss is it?” she asked, with a glint in her eye.

Fell considered a moment, surprised, then inclined his skull to look up at her. He swung his face away in a show of dismissiveness, but said, “YES. HUMAN MABEL, THAT… IS MY NAME, IF YOU WISH TO CALL ME IT.”

Red was also surprised as that jolted him out of the casual thought that he could bite those big fingers if the lady tried anything. Why would his brother opt for a new nickname? And Sansy. Papy. She had said something about the big Sans and others. So if they were still at the house who was he? He sighed. The damn machine. Last thing he remembered was working on it, and they were gonna run a jerry-rigged test. They weren't in another universe, they weren't shrunk, they were… made? The weird by-products that had appeared on the energy readings. It was them.

“Sooo. Edgy?” She was talking to him. Wait. That was a name?! Hell no!

“arcturus! He blurted as he went beet red. Boss rolled his eyelights. Yeah his little brother knew where that name was from. Old memories of big bright eyelights devouring a book on astronomy when the still in stripes Sans had discovered it in the dump when they were children. Sans had gone through a phase of wanting a cool nickname for street-cred, and ended up diving into the nerdiest stuff he could find. Staring at that innocent starry eyed excitement of his big brother had been a good memory in an often cruel world.

“it’sa star,” He elaborated. “a red one, like my eyelights. i just… always liked it.” He looked away, then back hesitantly. The doubts in his head however didn't hesitate. -Ugh! Stupid… why did he have to spit that out? She just had to come up with that dumb name and he panicked!

Mabel just smiled a moment. “That sounds like a lovely name, Arc? If you don't mind me shortening it?”

He shut his eyesockets again to pretend to not care either way, but said, “yeah. that’s cool, i mean whatever”

Finally came the little Blue’s turn, and Mabel had slowly raised to stand straight from the stairs with all her passengers. But he beat her to it; “HUMAN NEIGHBOR! IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU. THANK YOU FOR BEING SO KIND TO US ALL, I WILL OF COURSE BE HAPPY TO ACCEPT YOUR OFFER OF FRIENDSHIP! BUT… “He hesitated. “I BELIEVE MY BROTHER MAY ALSO BE SOMEWHERE IN YOUR HOUSE, AND POSSIBLY TWO OF OUR OTHER COUSINS. “ He paused. “IF THEY ARE HERE THEY WOULD HAVE FOUND US BY NOW… UNLESS THEY ARE TRAPPED LIKE WE WERE BUT, UM, WITHOUT SUPPLIES.”

Papy leaned forward to brightly add, “YES! THANK YOU FOR YOUR YARN, HUMAN! IT WAS A VERY NICE COLLECTION, I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND HOW WE IMPROVED IT’S PLACEMENT!”

Honestly she didn't mind. It was mainly a long neglected, rather shameful collection of unused baby patterns and good intentions, stuffed in that wardrobe over the years in ever lengthening delusion with each new grandchild growing past booties-age, that it would definitely be used one day.

Blue steeled himself and continued, “I CAN LOOK BY MYSELF! IF THAT’S OKAY. IF EVERYONE IS GOING TO GET FOOD. I, UM. -WOULD YOU MIND JUST OPENING THOSE SHUT DOORS BEFORE YOU GO DOWNSTAIRS FOR ME PLEASE?”

All the bittys bar Sansy were very famished. But; “uuurggh! fine!” came from Mabel’s hand, with no hesitation. “OF COURSE WE CAN LOOK FIRST!” Came from her hair. Closely followed by a mellow “sure bud, i had a breakfast already so i can sit out lunch to search if need be. we’ll find him.” And simply a sharp nod of approval from Boss when they looked to him.

“Well, then my new friend.” Mabel held her arm to the windowsill and he immediately hopped on with a small “Mweh!” He climbed up to the spare shoulder and looked ahead as the human pivoted steadily. “Let’s look. You can point us where to check. Lead the way my little scout!”

Voices. Noises. All dull but, familiar? Lethargically Orange lay there and listened. Fell? Red. Papyrus. Blue. And another. Were they really nearby or was his mind playing a cruel trick?

“Let’s try this room.”

Blue-green light opened up before him in a long vertical line. A door cracking open, and it made the darkness around it wonderfully comforting; there was nothing to fear, a release from these walls. It was all okay now, he knew. A scythe came into view.

That snapped Orange out of it. “who the fuck are you?!” he actually squeaked as he scooted back rapidly on his elbows among the folds of pale cloth.

“Heh,” The soft voice seemed to have eons behind it. It came from a skeletal face that regarded him passively from the shadow of the billowing dark cloak. The being looked like Sans. But it definitely was not his brother, or any of the others he knew. A new Sans, from another universe, but…

The black cloak around him moved with the dark energy of the void itself, fragments at the edges of it seemed to break off and vanish like the flames of a fire. His eyelights were gentle white, yet held a terror for whoever might look too deep, and find a firm, immovable, ageless finality.

“It’s not your time.”

Orange stayed frozen where he was sat. That was nice to hear, at least, so he was gonna just let this guy go ahead and build on that point uninterrupted.

The being like Sans looked around the space now once again barely lit with a green afterglow that seemed to come from himself, and spoke with an unhurried, murmuring flow. “Well, this is something that doesn't happen to me very often I have to admit.” He considerately leaned the scythe backwards out of his sweating companion’s immediate focus. “I am not here for you, not this day at least.” He couldn't resist adding in good humor. He thought he had opened his portal back to his realm, but this was certainly not there.

“My business in this world was already concluded. I… “ He looked wistful, and turned a graceful gaze over Orange, deciding to share a small confession before he left. Perhaps a whim of letting a mortal in on a rarely shared insight on himself, by way of apology for the intrusion. “I only wished to pause a while before returning to my own realm.
I gave myself a single day, just to float among the stars of this universe… did you know that they can differ between universes?”

Orange looked at the being anew and dared to respond, “no” He said thoughtfully. “im from a different one too. but, uh, i get the feeling you already know that?” His guest just grinned softly, so he continued. “i did look at them. when i knew we’d been bought to a universe where the underground had been freed like my and my bro’s own. they were pretty similar to me. was just glad to still see ‘em, you know?”

“Yes, it is always a beautiful sight.
It was a pleasure talking to you, but I must return to my duties. He would not think of it that way I’m sure, but I have already burdened my brother with caretaking our realm on his own for a selfish use of my time.” He didn't turn away, instead calling on his magic to create a new portal to turn back and step through. Correctly this time.

Uh.

While Orange faltered between not encouraging this stranger who behaved like the personification of death to stay, and from not stopping himself from begging his only company to leave him alone again, the Sans who was the personification of Death also faltered. His magic wasn't working.

It was there still, but he was finding he had no way the right amount of energy to step across the many creations. Not even one. Is that why he had stepped back out into the same universe a few minutes ago when he tried to go home? It was… strange. Like his power was greatly reduced, now that he thought about it. He had assumed he was just worlds-weary the past day.

This, could be bad, he thought. What force in any universe could so reduce Him? He wasn't accustomed to worrying about something like that since The Child had taken a portion of power. What being-

His thoughts were cut short as a huge vertical line of white light expanded behind him. As Orange stared upwards with an open jaw, he started to turn his own head to look past the side of his hood in the rapidly all encompassing light. A shadow fell over him, like a great hand reaching out.

It was a great hand. It grabbed him backwards into the light as Orange looked on in renewed shock.

“What’s this? Oh! Is this him?!”

-No! don’t!

“Hello little fellow I’m sorry I picked you up like that, I wasn't sure if you were a doll tucked away in here.”

-Wait! You’ll-

“The children do that sort of thing sometimes you know, hiding toys around for granny to find after they’ve gone home!” She warbled on.

--not die?

“Hello there!” The hand had turned him round to face a merry, giant old woman. With various skeletons perched all over her.

He was stunned. She had a hold of him from his cloak, and her gentle but firm grip scrunched up this and his robes underneath so that his arms stuck out and up at his sides in a highly undignified manner not befitting a deity. He probably did look like a toy right now. His arms were resting on her closed fingers. And she wasn't dropping dead. What was she?!

“Oh my, aren't you spooky? Here, let me. Oh! There’s another one, hello!” -” He found himself placed gently to sit on the mound of a giant multi-colored patchwork chair, as she had spotted Orange mid-way through turning to put him down.

“BROTHER!”

The Reaper, and everyone else, watched as the swap universe Sans leapt off her shoulder and onto the linen closet shelf where said brother still sat. He dived to bear hug Orange, who was so overcome by emotions he didn't know whether to be grateful his brother had found him, happy to be free, horrified to be facing such a huge human, relieved there were some of the others climbing all over her with no apparent fear, and nevermind processing that he had been stuck in a giant linen closet the whole time instead of kidnapped.

The tears decided it before his mind could really have a say. He reached his arms around Blue and hung on happily. The occasional soft little “nyeh”s escaping him into his older brother’s bright scarf.

“WERE YOU ASLEEP THIS WHOLE TIME?!” Came from Fell, stood on the arm of the old- oh! -That was one of their neighbors. The one who made the honey glazed bake at the I.T. girls party months ago. She’d grown.

“BROTHER?” Blue held him at arms length from the hug to add his voice to the question.

“eeeh… well i uh, couldn't get out, so. there wasn't much else to do?“ Orange deflected with a sheepish grin, to a groan from his brother. “thanks for finding me bro… ”

There wasn't much chance for a response, as Mabel suddenly glared at something next to them. “Are those scorches and holes in my sheets?” Both brothers gave a startled yelp as the top sheets were grabbed abruptly to be held up in front of Mabel's eyes, causing them to be tumbled to the side. She raised an eyebrow at Orange.

“welp, time to go eat?” Sansy changed the subject.

Mabel grumbled incoherently, before setting the sheet back down and placing her hand on it. “Oh come on then. Is this everyone? It’s the last door that was shut up here. Wasn't there one more of you?” She half turned to glance at the little Reaper, then looked at Blue as he tugged Orange to climb aboard. Mabel gave them a hand up to her shoulder, where Sansy peeked over at Orange and winked..

“...YES, UH, TWO, I’M AFRAID WE DO NEED TO LOOK FOR OUR COUSINS. THEY-” Started Blue.

“There is no-one else in this house.” Cut-in the unearthly skeleton from the cheerful decor he’d been placed on. “I can sense souls, usually further than this but the nearest other monsters I can detect are over there.” A boney digit came from his black sleeve to point towards the right side window, the direction of the house of the original skeletons. When he retraced his hand, he stared at his boney palm briefly, before gazing up at Mabel, almost in wonder.

“uh, great, thanks whoever the heck you are pal” Said Sansy over Mabel's shoulder, and she turned to face the Final monster. “we’re all gonna have a private chat about what happened to us, while our big friend here kindly sees what food we can manage. you’re welcome to join us? wouldn't mind hearing where you came from too. got a name?”

Sans, God of Death grinned; “Spooky.”

Chapter Text

A generously stacked sandwich plate clinked down on the table, promptly ignored. A few smiles and thank-you’s, sure, but their maker was briefly put-out when no-one dived in eagerly, too into their conversation at the moment. She brushed it off with a good natured mental shrug, thinking she probably did the same sort of thing when it was someone else's turn to host, and pulled a chair to join in. She was just very happy to help! As long as everyone didn't get too rowdy chatting away tonight. Her babies were asleep after all.

Mack’s relaxed tone rose above the chatter at Jo’s kitchen table, “...Casual does sound like the best way to go about this for now,” he said, with a loud scrape of his chair against the floor as he leaned his weight back and placed a big palm on the bare pine of the table as if the statement was on paper there. “We’re no gated community, and how many wanna pay a share of hiring a security company to just wander round? Much as everybody round here’s supposedly loaded, not much support for coughin’ up for a regular thing.” His chuckle and smirk joined the other smiles at that.

Mandy, whose suggestion it had been previously, joined in the laughter and sportingly held up both hands in surrender. Most of those present were oblivious to or ignored the fact that she had sat midway along the table with her chair turned to directly face those preferable to speak to, while presenting the person beside her with a flat expanse of back, like a concrete pillar in a blouse. A big smile plastered on her face joined an exaggerated head nod and sing-song; “Oh you’re right Mack!”

“So what’re the options we got so far?” he said.

A blonde bob leaned into view as Amanda glanced round to check no one else was about to speak before putting in her take on things, pausing a moment on Prisha, who was sat the other side of herself. Prisha hadn't really said much today. Just a nonchalant blink of eye contact before going back to observing the conversation without joining in. An elbow on the table edge supporting her while she chewed on a finger joint intently. It drew Amanda’s eye to a few plasters joining the mish-mash of rings today, but Amanda couldn't tell if they were for injury or grunge fashion. She could ask later out of concern, maybe offer some ointment? Ugh she felt lame for that.

“Sam and me talked about it all the other night,” the young housewife started. “We got a pretty good quality security system ourselves but we both kinda felt it’s not just about us, you know? Sam’s not comfortable with the idea some racist A-holes ever thinking they can harass our neighbors. -I mean! Not that that’s what happened, but just in case?”

Jo-Ann nodded enthusiastically at this across the table, while others murmured ascent, encouraging Amanda to go on. “Some of you already know I used to do stuff that included network and scheduling at my old regional job, so even if none of us are gonna exactly go out patrolling, we could keep track of times of day we can each be around and keep eyes out across the day. To know who might be around. Not full schedules because we wont all be around the exact same times every single day, plus it’s best to avoid letting anyone who sees the forum pages know when houses will be empty you know? We can update the forum page if anything’s odd, and all keep the sheriffs department number for Neighborhood Watches in our phones in case of anything serious… “ Myself, I go jogging every morning at 6am and walk the dogs before noon, and Sam takes them out in the evening. He said he’s happy to make an extra route if it helps anyone.”

Rick cut in, “Yeah, I think I’d appreciate that if it’s not too much trouble? I can’t get out so quick myself anymore and just knowing there’s someone passing by in the evening is great. Not that I’m expecting to fall on my face, haha, but yeah. Good to know if anyone shifty’s hanging round or any wildlife wreaking my bins come to think of it. Saves me wheeling out there so much and leaving the door wide open.”

Mack warmly remembered there was a time when the guy was stubbornly proud of not asking for help. So he expressed his pride in his friend’s growth by bursting out with -”Heeey, hehe, if you're feeling your age don't be afraid of getting us youngins to help… need a piggyback?” Rick's fought against smile and dead-pan glare spoke the word “Fucker” right back at his neighbor. This only encouraged him. “What, you know you want to be carried in my loving embrace!”

Rick quipped back with a wink, “Always! But we’d have to worry about your poor old back! Looks like these actual young people here will have to carry me lovingly instead!” He turned his exaggerated flirty face to the ladies of the table to comical effect and a few laughs.

“Sam would be happy to drop in if you want, Rick?” smiled Amanda, her neatly styled hair gleaming under the kitchen light as she turned to respond. “I mean, aside from all these loving embraces and all, I know you guys get on when there’s a sports season to watch.”

Rick went from smiling placidly to a little startled, raising a few eyebrows, and Mack added, “Hell yeah! You know I’m happy to drop by too and not just card night. You gotta admit it’s fun to just shoot the shit. Deb don't mind do ya Debs?”

“Eh-ha!” Rick’s response spluttered over Deborah’s happy agreement. “Thhaat’s okay thanks guys, I actually have a kinda project on for now so just a drive-by check past my house is great for now. That’s what I meant more. Gonna prolly have some more adaptions in, you know? Been thinking of starting a little art studio thing in my place, keep me busy for a while and all… Thinking I need a hobby lately and now. Now… just seems a good time to start. Good point on security too, ‘bout time I got some cameras over my yard, for door alerts.“ He mused as an afterthought.

A few murmurs of “That sounds great!”, and “You gonna need any-” were cut off by Rick scratching the tiny curls of his peppered gray beard sheepishly and noting he would be having old trade friends in to do whatever he needed, but thanks for the offers. “Just sayin’ I might be a little busy to have people over for a while. Might hit you up for tech help if I get stuck though Prisha if you’re still offerin’ that for us old fogeys?” He got a friendly grin and a “Sure! No prob.”

Charlie finished chewing a bite of his second sandwich and to Jo-Ann’s surprise, narrowed his eyes a little at Rick. Did she mistake that or did the old guy just look a little suspicious? He swallowed and looked Rick straight in the eyes as he said, “Yes, good time for projects Rick, you and me both. I’m busy bringing in my little garden friends who might not do so well in winter, myself.” It was said so friendly yet he seemed to keep a questioning eye contact as if looking for something from Rick. Prisha straightened up a little, but Rick didn't seem to notice and didn't really add anything so the conversation carried on.

Deborah was talking in a lowered tone with her husband Mack, who grabbed a sandwich and gestured with it, “So has anyone knocked round our newest neighbor’s yet to invite them to this?”

Now everyone looked a little shifty, as they all smiled and coughed in amusement. “Come on now, Debs says none of them are on the forum. Has anyone even mentioned we got a community page yet? -Ah never-mind for now, just means we gotta go knock and see if anyone over there is available right now, right? See if the boys over there want to join this neighborhood watch group and be all official.” A few nods and “yup”s.

“So who wants to go?”

The room went quiet for two seconds, before some of them burst into subdued huffs of laughter and giggles, self-aware of the absurd childishness of no-one wanting to be in the spotlight.

Jo-Ann started to perk up eagerly as she got the courage to volunteer, but if anyone noticed they pretended not to. She was sweet but made things pretty darn awkward at the spring barbeque trying too hard to be monster friendly. Lady made every conversation monster related and about monster rights and hardships. She meant well, but Travis had to distract his wife by steering her away once she got to the point of talking to that Blue in a baby voice. Had the guy cornered. It was getting so bad he’d even started throwing hints about his maturity by asking for advice on clothes to wear on a date with his girlfriend, which Jo masterfully derailed by enthusing about Kid’s Warehouse and how he’d be so cute on his play-date. He got a laugh out of the guys when he joked he’d been about to punch through the fence to escape.

Travis didn't mind though. He was sat to the side of the kitchen by a counter to make room as more neighbors had turned up at their home, and content himself with just the odd comment thrown in, while reaching behind himself to awkwardly ‘help’ pass the plated up snacks, cups, and whatever else Jo needed which all seemed to be located with him in the way. Neither of them minded. It was one of the things he loved about her, trying so joyfully any chance she got.

That included dragging him outside earlier today to ‘help’ when Sans and Russ appeared outside old Mabel’s house after that bang, only to end up bored to hell while he and Sans talked about car maintenance. Mabel must still be dealing with that, whatever happened there, he thought. Hadn't been online today or responded to the Neighborhood Watch meet-up invite apparently. Out of the neighbors who might respond to these community things G- oh what’s his name, the old engineer round the corner, was unavailable too it seemed. Maybe catch him next time.

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Mack chuckled, seemingly oblivious to Jo looking about ready to hop up and down. But Mandy’s husband John was already grabbing his jacket and waving him to stay sat.

The diminutive man spoke with the slight rasp of an aging former smoker, “You gents and ladies stay here, I’ll walk over. You guys all keep the ideas coming, I’ll do my part. I haven't gotten to know our skeleton friends that well yet so it gives me my chance here.” he smiled as he went. “Wont be long.”

The plate still had a hand attached when all the sandwiches flew off.

Mabel paused, huffed in mock annoyance, then slid the plate away again to go make some more snacks. From where they were sat in a rough circle on the kitchen table, Orange and Papy, leaning to the side to peer up at her in worry, both caught the little smile as she marched off despite grumbling as she went. They looked at each other, then at Sansy, who shrugged and inspected the triangle held across his body happily. She’d cut the crusts off.

Their host was diving into the cupboards and fridge to distract herself as best she could from listening in, and the hungry little guests were helping keep her busy on that note. Boss was currently sat cross legged in front of his own plate on the counter near the sink, where he had been stood scowling at everything with his arms folded, overseeing as promised. But he seemed satisfied enough now to be lifting his own food to tackle a corner. To save time, chocolate filling had been settled on for all of them, so Mabel was able to whip up a batch with practiced ease. The little monster turned the bread this way and that in front of him before settling on grasping a corner to tear a chunk off at a time in his clawed hands. Tear-eat-tear-eat, and as he started to enjoy himself a soft little diabolical “Nya!” as he carried on tearing it apart.

He was one of the more dainty eaters. His brother, now glaring at anyone who didn't call him Arc, could only glare because he was busy stuffing as much as he could of his sandwich into his jaws in one go. So were Papy and Blue, with the difference that they weren't tearing into theirs like the sandwich had personally insulted them, or crouching over it like a possessive kitten. Sansy had to laugh as Orange cuddled his to his hoody lovingly as he took bites.

The only one not eating was Spooky. Sansy wasn't even sure if the guy needed to eat. He had been taking interest in the fruit bowl centerpiece when they all reached the kitchen. He had declined a ride, just grinning and stepping to float backwards down through the floor, and they found him waiting for them. He only seemed to find it amusing when half the group had freaked out as he pulled a grape off the bunch in the bowl, only for it to disintegrate into ashy mold a moment later in his skeletal hand.

Arc, Blue and Papy dragged the whole bowl away from him across the table. He took one more grape with his magic as they did so, which he floated towards himself to drop directly into the void in his mouth without touching it. Whether he got anything out of this he didn't say, but did appear to enjoy the taste. He declined anything else to eat this time.

For now he was content to sit perched on the top of a chair-back and take part in the conversation a little separate from those eating. The rest of the fruit apart from the oranges had gone while they all waited for Mabel to finish the spreads, and a single large bite mark dented the skin on one of those. The strawberries she grabbed from the fridge when she noticed everyone starting on the grapes, and she jotted those on the shopping list after seeing how much her little friends were thrilled by holding giant berries in their hands to devour. Little Orange looked almost teary when he held one, and she could've sworn Papy sparkled in happiness as he held his giant strawberry up to his face to admire.

Sansy had an easy enough time catching them all up on what he thought had happened to them all, thanks to them all being too busy stuffing their skulls to interrupt. Once Mabel bought over the next plates, this time six shot glasses filled with milk on one plate, which was hopefully a good idea for skeletons, six soft brioche rolls with a cheesy filling, and half of the warmed up cheese quiche spare from her own lunch cut up into little cubes, he called Boss over to join them.

Mabel heard this and offered her hands up to the counter, but Boss dramatically threw his head to one side to refuse that, then after looking around for himself, stomped over to the fridge, squatted and thought for a moment, then swung round to the handle and slide down with his foot and hands in the door seal to the floor. Being quite proud of himself for this, he posed coolly with hands on hips, then ran over to look up at the table.

After some more thinking next to the polished chair legs, he had to concede to a lift up this time. Before hopping off from where he crouched in Mabel's cupped hands he looked up at her face to thank her, but to his shame couldn't bring himself to do it and highlight that he had needed help, so turned to get down, then got the idea to instead very subtly hug a finger before going.

As Mabel was busying herself between her fridge and microwave, Sansy reiterated for Boss in a hushed tone, “your bro and orange just backed up my theory. the three of us all got vague memories we were gonna be working on the machine for the monster locating test-run. was part of arcs, -reds, job to monitor the real-time logs and arc says the last thing he remembers is a flash of that. the machine was tracking through every monster it could detect but there was bounce-back from the energy we blocked it from using… it was still doin’ the grabbing thing, just not able to grab whole sized monsters”

He looked round the kitchen instead of the faces of the group to finish, “so looks like it reconstituted us from the samples of each targets magic”

The others were all looking at him. Thoughts crowded out words so that the only sound was Mabel’s humming in the background until Spooky was the one to break the bittie’s silence. By laughing of all things. “So…” he managed to compose himself to continue, “You’re telling me I got caught up with your backfiring science experiment thanks to passing through your world at just the right day?” If anyone thought he was angry, he wasn't. Kinda impressed actually, by their apparent knack for top notch accidental results. Creating -themselves- and capturing Him of all people up in their attempt. He placed a hand over his sockets “Haha, so that’s kinda a relief. Should mean my original self carried on to my home realm like I was going to. Something so small as me… I’ve barely got the level of power that he’d notice he lost any.”

They watched as he pulled the hand away from his face to stare at it a moment as he paused. A small niggle in his mind had occurred as he said that. While his future was now filled with something bright and wonderful that came with being able to touch without killing other beings. Well. Even in miniature he was still an incarnation of death. It just didn't sit right that nothing would perish before Him. Was it petty? Maybe, but still. A small thought formed, as he turned to set his gaze over the fruit bowl. Something for later.

“So what do we do now?” Spooky directed at the group. “I’m kinda out of a job, since my original self has that covered. Not that I mind. ‘Retirement’s something I never considered a possibility I have to say. I mean, what am I meant to do like this?” He swept a hand down at himself.

A few looks of mutual understanding were exchanged across the table. The same could be said for all of them.

“chill here with us…” Sansy softly stated. And there it was. The reality of the situation laid out before them. Each wondering what the others thought and waiting for the first to decry the loss of their old lives. And yet…

Blue loved his work, loved making friends with lots of humans. His current builders apprenticing job was demanding but fulfilling!- Ugh who was he kidding it was fun for a while but so boring sticking to a schedule, and they wouldn't let him use his impromptu improvements to add a tower here or a moving walkway there! It was nice to make friends, but what filled his mind right now was excitement at exploring Mabel's house and maybe would she let him see what toys her grand-kids left? You know- not to be childish and all but all the toys would be GIGANTIC now! What adult wouldn't have a blast with that?

Papy thought of college. He was studying three subjects for a career in childcare, (since he was already an expert at not killing Frisk he felt not killing multiple children was the next logical step), as well as a potential culinary career to suit his clear unnatural talent as a chef, and thirdly accounting. It was great and he fit right in at college! He had coursework and tests coming up. Papy got over college. With Papyrus covering all that anyway Papy would not count as a dropout!

Boss was proud of his progress as a legal aide. But… He’d been there, done that now. - He was needed here thanks to these new events! What a shame. Anyway, the size he now was, he of course needed to get some sort of armor again. If not to serve the King anymore, since he had been secretly grateful to be released from the burden of orders to kill humans instead of making friends with them, he certainly was needed here to protect the others in such a vulnerable state!

The three looked at each other in silent agreement. Then they looked at Orange, Arc, and Sansy. Papy put his hands on his hips decisively and spoke up, “WE WILL ALL HAVE TO STRIVE TO ADAPT! IT IS A TERRIBLE THING YOU THREE HAVE DONE TO FORCE MYSELF, BOSS AND BLUE HERE INTO SUCH SHOCKING IDLENESS! WE DON'T HAVE WORK FROM HOME JOBS LIKE YOU ALL DO NOW, DO WE, THAT YOU CAN CONTINUE EVEN IN SUCH A BITTY STATE IF YOU GET A LAPTOP!”

Orange and Sansy looked at each other in defeat, while Arc grimaced and flopped face-forward on the bun in front of him. No fair! His was only a side-job. This was truly their punishment.

Mabel, having utterly failed to stay out of it by this point, hovered over them all to throw in the most beautiful lifeline they had ever known possible. The little old lady deadpanned over the three and said conspiratorially-

“Don't worry, no need if you can't, I’m loaded.”

Unfortunately, common decency demanded they just could not accept living a life mooching off an old lady.

Fortunately, the old lady was one step ahead of common decency, and threw in something to present the offer as one to have to suffer instead, with a wicked expression morphing onto that sweet face, adding with a finger poke in Sansy’s direction, “AH-ha-ha! You can all be my little sugar babies!” Giggling to herself manically some more as she wandered off for a moment. “I’ll be your sugar granma! Hehehe!”

Orange got the grateful attention of the table as he bought up something to change the subject with whatever came to mind; “hey bro, so what are we gonna call you now?”

“-Ehehehe gram’a sugar… ehehee-”

“HMMM… THAT IS A GOOD POINT BROTHER! ANY GOOD HERO MUST HAVE A NEW ALIAS FOR A NEW ADVENTURE!” Blue stood holding his chin in thought as the other hand motioned with a cocktail stick with a square of quiche on the end.

“yeah baby blue, what are we gonna call ya?” Came from the smugly grinning Arc.

Blue spluttered indignantly, but recovered to put both hands on his hips and scowl back, “ACTUALLY I THINK I’LL GO WITH SCOUT! I THINK IT SUITS ME!”

“whatever ya say baby blue”

“...”

“EDGY…”

It was Arc’s turn to splutter as he opened his sockets to yield, “scout! okay?! ya happy?” He buried his face back in the soft top of the bun.

He was. Scout, now, turned to Orange as his brother gave a happy thumbs-up, and looked up above to Mabel who had stepped back in time to see this and add her own thumbs-up, to his joy.

Sansy spoke as Scout faced his brother, “last one to give a name, huh? orange… orange…” he mumbled, while Scout stepped closer to look up and scrutinize his brother. “oranger, how about ranger? you guys could match you know”

It wasn't a bad name, thought Orange, he kinda liked the idea, and he narrowed his eyes in consideration but was interrupted by his brother stepping right in front of his face and holding the cocktail stick above his head, before bringing it back down and measuring with his hand, and a frown.

“YOU’RE SHORTER, BROTHER.”

Orange raised a finger to state the obvious, but Scout elaborated, “NO! REALLY! YOU WERE ALWAYS THIS MUCH TALLER THAN ME!” He made a cutting motion on the section of stick. “AND NOW YOU’RE ONLY THIS MUCH! THE MACHINE MADE YOU SMALLER IN SCALE THAN IT MADE ME!”

Orange stood with his hand in mid air with the finger lowered, a little too blind-sided to be exactly devastated by the revelation, instead sheepishly coming under the scrutiny of the rest of the tables skeletons.

Scout had it figured out, “IF I HAVE A BIG BROTHER STILL IN THAT HOUSE THEN THAT MUST MAKE YOU THE LITTLE ONE NOW! YOU’RE MY LITTLE BRO!” He motioned grandly with his sockets shut and grinned happily at the twist of logic.

Orange looked down at the smaller Scout.

“lil bro”

Several heads out of those present, some monster, one human, tilted to the side in question.

He smiled. “my name. ‘m gonna go with lil bro” he said as his eyelights twinkled slightly in his sockets.

It occurred to them all after a moment to turn to see what smart-assery Arc was going to come out with to that easy one. But Arc wasn't even turning around from where he was now curled up fully on top of his soft bread roll.

“zzzzzzzzz”

John made his way in a consciously confident, but casual walk up to the house across the road. The sort of walk made by a neighbor aware they could be observed approaching the house by anyone who might be looking out of a window at that moment, or by a porch camera, and therefore feeling the self-conscious need to appear both friendly, and normal. Like exiting a shop you haven't purchased anything in and having to try not to look suspicious. ‘Act casual’, he thought with a small chuckle.

It was silly, he chided himself, as he tugged the collar of his checkered fleece up and dug his hands into the pockets. He wasn't having this trepidation because they were monsters, was he? He hoped not. He wasn't like that. The house grew bigger as he neared, looking up with a slight grimace echoing his self-doubt. He shook his head to banish the line of thought his nerves had conjured up unfairly against himself, relieved when honest reflection easily won out. No, don’t do that to yourself John, he thought. It’s impostor syndrome to think you’re only pretending to be good, man, like the therapist says.

He reached the door and rang the bell, practicing the greeting inside his head.

The lights repeatedly streaming from the house entryway as multiple neighbors were earlier entering were hardly inconspicuous, even if no-one had been paying any particular attention to the street that evening.

Black had been paying attention. And by the time the stocky human male sauntered up to their door, the monitor with the doorbell camera video had a small, grave audience.

“heh! look at the cocky fucker”

“RED, ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY OR NOT?” scolded Blue.

“eh… not”

“WELL AT LEAST GET YOUR HEAD OFF THE DESK SO WE CAN REACH THE KEYBOARD.”

“BROTHER.”

“ugh, fine. but ‘m keepin’ the seat.” Red leaned back with his arms behind his head and relaxed further in the padded computer chair with one socket open. “so looks like he’s about to ring, anyone gonna answer?”

Black was already moving to leave the room before the doorbell chimed. “SINCE I AM THE ONLY ONE APPARENTLY WHO SEES THE POTENTIAL DANGEROUS INTENT IN THIS STREET I WILL DEAL WITH THIS.”

“hate to say it but i think vanilla’s right, black” Red called after him. “these humans aren't like sweetheart’s ex and even that sleazebag’s all talk. these ‘r just a buncha harmless old homebodies”

Fell was inclined to agree, but stayed to observe the video, as did Blue, although he was barely interested and was there more to hang out.

Rus raised his head from where he was sat slouched against the foot of his bed, “so are ya’all gonna be stayin’ in my room again?” he asked resignedly.

Black knew he might be wrong. In fact he hoped he was. Under it all he wanted no more than to be friends with the humans and monsters around here. But how could he fully let his guard down and have no-one left to cover the ‘what-ifs’. It was a hard-learned lesson in his life that there were few people you could ever truly let your guard down around.

With his descent of the staircase he went over the facts in his mind. The strangely behaving old woman. Her ‘friendly’ visit so soon after the event with the human male being violently dealt with by himself and the others, visible to the whole street. Monsters hostile against a human and disturbing the peace in a place where the locals so loved their peace.

She was watching wasn't she?

And now a meeting with apparently everyone but the monsters invited? As soon as they noticed this he had sent Rus over to skulk where he could, and of the little he could catch out of view of any cameras as people entered the house was that the meeting was indeed about the incident. Some sort of planning.

Well, so here comes their grim faced representative, Black thought on the camera feed of the man approaching shiftily. Collar up like he was hiding his face, laughing to himself scornfully as he came.

Shaking his head at their house.

Pinpoint focused purple eyelights stalked through the warm light of the entryway, Black’s grin growing as the distance to the door shrank before him. Disapprove, do you? Here to ‘deal’ with the troublemaking monsters on your street, are you? Accuse us? Blame us?

How. Dare you.

Black might have seen the face of the Neighborhood Watch man finally relaxing into a more natural, friendly smile just before the door opened; if Black hadn't ripped the door open quite as shockingly. The face he was presented with was instead a slightly scary look of wide eyes glaring down at him from a stony, jaw-clenched mans face.

Black attempted to get a read on his adversary, which didn't work on such a frozen expression, as John’s mind was near enough blue-screening at that moment, grasping for a mentally repeated greeting which was now no longer there, and this led to them both giving the appearance of darkly staring each other down.

Thinking this behavior might just be a normal monster door greeting, and that he was actually about to screw up the simple task of an invitation, John made an admirable come-back to snap himself out of it with salvaged parts of his forgotten greeting, and somehow calmly stated, “I’ve been sent by the Neighborhood Watch-”

“OH. HAVE YOU NOW.”

“Uh. Well yes, you see we want, …”

“NOT INTERESTED.”

“Oh, uh…”

Black’s clawed hold on the door gripped so tightly it started to create gouges in the wood, and the neighbor stepped back a pace. Black cocked his skull to the side, “HUMAN… If ONE OF YOUR KIND COMES TO OUR HOME TO ATTEMPT TO THREATEN US AND HARASS US, IT DOES NOT GIVE A VERY GOOD IMPRESSION OF HUMANITY AS A WHOLE, DOES IT? THERE ARE SOME AMONG MY HOUSEHOLD WHO BELIEVE HUMANS TO BE CAPABLE OF… BETTER. AND I WOULD LIKE TO COUNT MYSELF AMONG THEM, BUT WHAT ARE YOU ACHIEVING WITH BRINGING THIS ‘WATCH’ TO OUR DOOR? ARE YOU TRULY INTENDING TO ‘THROW OUT’ THE TROUBLEMAKERS?”

John honestly didn't know what to say to that. They’d only just started up, so it wasn't like they had a lot to show for themselves yet. But no-one had come to the monsters aid when that youth drove over their lawn and was yelling at them that night, did they?

He couldn't leave this as the monsters impression of them though! With a burst of determination he blurted, “Don't you worry! We’ll show you what we’re capable of when we all stick together. -We’ll defend this street!” He finished with a rousing fist raise, which the slightly startled purple eyed skeleton focused on, before raising his eyelights back to the man.

“OH?” He grinned dangerously, not that John knew to interpret that expression on a skeleton. “I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE HUMAN, IF THAT IS WHAT YOU TRULY WANT. UNTIL THAT TIME, I WILL BE WAITING. BUT UNTIL THAT TIME?...” The purple eyelights vanished, ”BEGONE.”

Deborah had stepped outside to check where he had got to, in time to witness John stumbling almost into a run on the way back from across the street. He looked a little paler than his usual skin tone. The newly formed Neighborhood Watch group was informed of his encounter. Apparently the monster neighbors were still very upset about the man who attacked their household, and didn't seem to have much faith in their neighbors looking out for them, so they wouldn't be joining. Oh dear. Everyone felt a little guilty about this. Well! It was best they made a good start on forming a great Neighborhood Watch and giving their neighbors faith back in their community!

Chapter Text

Black opted to not go back to his brother’s room. He could leave the others to their own conclusions from having watched the the live-feed of the Watchman at the door.

Fell found him sat in one of the recliners, glancing over a shoulder to eye the taller skeleton as he was heading by, then turning his focus back to the empty room. He had undone the top buttons of his white shirt and rolled up the sleeves, and was now cradling a wineglass in his encircling digits, inspecting the contents distantly. Fell frowned, but said nothing, staring at the back of his housemate’s skull.

“WELL? I AM SURE YOU ARE AWARE THAT DESPITE OUR SOMETIMES RIVALRY, I HAVE COME TO RESPECT YOUR INPUT, FELL. YOU ARE IN AGREEMENT?” He prompted fairly quietly, without looking.

Fell’s posture sagged very subtly as the frown sank deeper in consideration, looking away with one ungloved hand resting on his black denim clad leg. Then he straightened up with a confident decision; “I AM NOT CONCERNED, BLACK. ONE PUNY HUMAN’S POSTURING AND A GOSSIP SESSION COUNT AS NO MORE THAN A SMALL INFATUATION WITH US. IF THEY ARE LOOKING TO PROVE THEMSELVES THEN WE CAN INVITE HIM TO ONE OF OUR ULTIMATE FITNESS TOURNAMENTS.” He added, “THE MAYOR ONLY BROKE AN ARM BECAUSE HE DIDN'T FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS LAST TIME.”

Black’s eyes widened a moment, and he turned his head again to side-eye Fell for just a second. “I SEE…”

A red eyelight in a scarred socket flicked back towards the living area, as Fell reached to grab a tassled leather bike jacket on his way to the door. “I’M GOING TO PICK UP Y/N FROM HER EVENING CLASS, AND WE’LL BE BACK LATER.” He exited the house with no more comment when Black didn't respond.

The previous afternoon.

Rus climbed out of what looked like a over-engineered, futuristic shower, leaning down to click shut a circuitry compartment as he went. “everythin’s lookin’ good here,” he patted the top of a console, “nothin’s broke since you last used the thing on us, or from the move, so good ta go this end”

He sauntered over to where Sans and Orange were leaning over the main console screen checking the gauges against numbers flashing up, and leaned in too. Orange yelped and nearly dropped the sucker that was intently ground between the flat line of his teeth, as Rus slid his arms around his counterpart and into the hoody pocket. He pulled out another wrapped candy with a smirk that stretched his fanged grin and wrinkled the edges of his eyesockets. Orange refocused on the machine with a grumble as Rus stood back to examine the calculations from behind the two others.

Red was sat in his own chair in front of the retrieval monitor, done with his own checks a while ago. His arms were resting on his legs, and he was wearing his own fur lined hoody again, with the hood covering his skull to almost touch his arms from how far forward he was hunched. Rus couldn't see the guys face, but had an idea of how he felt right now. Playing it off as he might.

If this test went as expected today there was nothing left to stop them from heading back to their own universes. Back to where they mostly wanted to be. And leaving Y/N. There was no reason there shouldn't be a version of her in each of their original universes, but it was still a leap in the dark to be certain of finding her again for sure. Maybe still stuck living with the same scuzzball ex without them to intervene… And no more of their other selves to hang out with either. He’d grown kinda fond.

It was different for him and Red though. Both of them had relentlessly flirted with Sans’ friend-not-quite-girlfriend as soon as they met her, entertained by how aghast Sans was at that. Both had surprised themselves by catching feelings for her for real after a while.

Only while Rus had somehow found himself genuinely bonding, Red had ended up retreating back into superficial flirting after their date. Y/n was kinda hurt and confused when Red started making excuses and dodging anything other than that. It took Rus to corner him on his own, in an angry confrontation out the back of Grillby’s Bar to get the truth. “Y/n didn't really like him, y/n couldn't really love someone like him, she was just falling for his fake charming act.”

Rus hadn't failed to appreciate the irony of pointing out to someone so freakin’ alike himself how emotionally constipated he was, and how all the self hate was based on fear, how he needed to forgive himself for the dark past he did his best with.

Red had finally clocked on when Rus started to struggle, pausing mid-argument before finally, pointedly switching it up to say “i use the flirtin’ like a shield sometimes… i act like it’s all a joke and i don't care… i need to forgive myself. Red had dropped his fists and hugged it out. Until the ex turned up he had still been helping Red work on it. The two confided quite a lot these days.

“hurry it up already” Came gruffly from within the hood, as Sans and Orange glanced his way. “th’ parameters were fine th’ first two times we went over ‘em… it’s time”

Black got home from work to an empty house. It shouldn't be too concerning. He just had a tendency to keep aware of where everyone was.

Papyrus at least was in the garage, banging around and talking to what sounded like his own car as he worked on it. Fell was finishing up in the office. Both had come to an agreement and would unfailingly message each other if they were going to be even minutes later than expected. According to the note he found in the kitchen, Blue had taken Y/N to that movie they had been planning to see the past week, and the human had sweetly thought ahead to set out the slow cookers for dinner, so everyone could get to it at different times if need be.

A second note, from his own brother, signed ‘Rus’, informed him that they were working on Gaster’s machine again today. They had been working for months on calculations for switching the machine from bringing, to sending them to their linked worlds. They were apparently getting nearer to the testing stage, without full activation. “ABOUT DAMN TIME.” He had said to them, hoping to at least sound flippant about it, while considering ways to keep Rus too busy for that a while longer.

The first slow cooker was nearly done, so after he came back downstairs from getting changed, Black stuck his head in the garage side door to tell Papyrus, so the oil splattered skeleton had time to go wash up, then set to preparing some sides for those who were home, and finally strode out of the patio doors to retrieve his brother and make sure he couldn't get out of taking a break for a proper meal. And the other three wouldn't get away with it either. If they were home it was family time.

Whirring sounds spilled from the metal outbuilding in increasing volume as Black approached. He raised a browbone. Was the machine usually running when they worked on it? Light lanced out from the vents in the sheds sides in alternating directions. The machine was running.

Eyelights were focused on a couple screens and boney digits tapped keys mostly in silence. “… your bros keep on your asses about working on this thing too right?”

“eh? heh… yeah. pap keeps telling me to make sure i go over the calculations again, to be safe. even erased a bunch ‘n made me start over ‘cos he said i had a decimal wrong”

“blue’s let up lately but he was on my back for a while. he’s got friends there he misses, especially chara”

“fell is worried our undyne’s gonna kill the brat, hehe. i told ya right? bro had just managed to convince ‘er to play nice with frisk when they both got a front row seat to fell gettin’ dragged into that portal thing. lil’ stripey wimp was just startin’ to develop an attitude too”

“our chara hadn't got as far as alphys yet. th’ lil shit survived gettin’ dragged all round town and then blacks friendship-ass-kickin’ and was headin’ outta snowdin. wings jumped outta his damn river boat. ya gotta understand he never usedta do that often. right as we got portaled wings shouted ‘DoNt WoRRy! I sHaLl BaBySiT!’. kid’s doomed, hehehe.”

“‘Targeting’, read Sans, “here we go.”

-Bling- A few wary looks passed round. A faint whirring seemed negligible.

“‘Surplus Artifact’?” Orange raised a browbone from the little computer window that ran progress bars marked ‘Storing’, then ‘Processing’, then ‘Allocating’. “could be just some slight anomalous code… or by-products ‘cos it cant do its whole thing”

“red? is that the coordinates?”

-Whhhiiirr- “wait, it might be. says target world located, target located.” Cut in Red. “that’s what we’re after righ- oh, wait the coordinates are changing. that doesn't look-”

“what?! no that’s not right-”

-Bling- “shit”

“what??”

-WHHHHIrrr- “location just changed. different coords.” Red dived out of his seat towards the other monitor, to be replaced by Sans.

-Bling- “but that’s fine, right? target world, target -oh. oh no”

-WHHHRRRHHRRHHRRRHHRR -Bling- “its drawing power!”

“yeah yer seein’ it now. target world and target located are two different things. it’s processing something!”

They were yelling now, as the noise ramped up. “we can still- we gotta adjust the quantum firmware layer!”

“ok i got it- where’s the wrench? where’s the damn wrench?!”

-BlingBlingBling-

A wrench flew through the air, disturbing wisps of smoke starting to come from a few panels, and it was stopped in a blue glow by Sans, with Red then grabbing it out of midair to bring down to where he was laying with his head under the main console.

-WHHIRRWHRWHRWHR- “hit the shutdown.”

-WHRHRHR-Blingblingblingblingbling- The processing windows zipped onto the screen in rapid succession now.

“i did!” Orange nearly tripped over Sans to dive for the plug itself as smoke started pouring out from under the machine, and on his hands and knees looked up to see Rus passively holding it by the dangling plug already, with the blaisé expression of someone who did their job but was clocking out of office now thanks. He’d already lit up a cigarette.

-WHRWHRWHR--Bling-Storing-Processing-AllocatingWHRWHRWHRBling-Storing-Processing-AllocatingWHRWHRWHRBling-Storing-Processing-AllocatingWHRWHRWHR-the coordinates briefly flashed 0-0 in front of Reds eyelights

-Bling-Storing-Processing-Allocating-... Black burst through the door as streams of energy from the receiver pod began to whip around the room and everyone dived to avoid them. Something glass exploded as they all flinched and ducked in avoidance.

“I DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD RUN IT YET! WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION?” A purple tinged bone appeared in the air to fly with deadly precision, embedding itself in the Off-button on the main console.

Four sets of skulls turned to the flickering button in the brief hope that that might work, but it didn't. The shed did, however start shaking, and a final, higher pitched, slightly more worrying whirring starting to grate from it along with billowing smoke. Orange teleported, Red teleported, Sans looked at Rus diving for Black and teleported out with a sigh.

-WHRWHRWHR-Bling-Storing-Processing-AllocatingWHRWHRWHRBling-Storing-Processing-AllocatingWHRWHRWHRBling-Storing-Rus teleported Black out as the machine went boom.

The targeting screen, which hadn't been part of the destruction, had stopped on completing its latest ‘Storing’, with a little pop-up curtly stating ‘Allocation interrupted. Process shut-down.’

The five of them stood inside the house in time to watch the boom. It wasn't a very big one. The shed made a muffled sound and belched a bunch of smoke as it stopped shaking. Papyrus stepped in behind them in fresh shorts and T-shirt.

“WELL!” He merrily started. “THE SAFETIES WORKED THEN? RUS; CIGARETTE.”

That got them out of their stupor at least, so he carried on, “ARE WE TO TAKE IT THAT CONTINGENCY PLAN: ‘ALPHA-B-ONE’ IS IN EFFECT?” He finished with a disco style pointing pose at that.

Sans looked at his brother and nodded stiffly, and everyone got moving in different directions.

Prisha’s house was on fire.

Chapter Text

Prisha’s house was on fire.

But it was okay!

Prisha was the girl who could handle anything! Stone-cool in photos, just about famous enough to have been mentioned in side articles of music blogs and magazines, socializing with the popular crowds in R&B, electric, and alternative scenes. Mostly in the background, while in demand for her skillset.

But determined to be smart about life too. Clean, not a huge drinker even if she could appreciate trying a variety, (though the bulk of her home bar’s contents got hidden when her parents visited), and strictly careful about; who she trusted in life, her finances, her IT career, and, in a home featuring some high grade computer gear and music equipment, pretty security and fire safety conscious.

Heck, more than one fire extinguisher graced her home in easy enough to reach but discreet locations. One for downstairs, and one for upstairs. Overkill for a suburban home? She didn't care, she liked her gear. Prish was a pro.

Prisha slid by so fast that her socked feet nearly went out from under her on the polished tiling, and the fire extinguisher nearly flew out of her grip. Her freaking bass speaker was on fire.

“Saali kutti ka- Fuuuuu!” A colorful mix of insults were directed at the offending extinguisher and the young woman grit her teeth while rushing to work the item.

She looked up a few times, expecting the fire to spread, but it just sorta moved left? It might be best to call 911 just in case. Better than calling and waiting for the firemen after it got out of control. Still, she went to try the extinguisher one more time.

She had it! -She ran forward and fumbled it. The thing slipped out of her grip and rolled across the floor, over to the base of the looming speaker.

The fire plopped down onto the extinguisher. Her extinguisher was on fire.

The speaker, for some reason, no longer appeared to be, but whatever this was was unpredictable enough to warrant making that call. “Phone, phone… where did I leave you?” She looked to the kitchen counter where she probably left it. The kitchen counter was on fire.

It was a little fire. Why was it little? WAS THAT HER PHONE ON FIRE?!

Prisha swung left, towards the speaker, then right, to the counter where she squinted, then moved closer instead, as apparently the fire had picked up her phone.

She walked towards it, and the fire took clearer form as she got closer. It was a little man. It was a little fire monster? It was struggling to pass her the phone that was a big as he was.

“Oh. Wow.” A moment of silence was only filled with the sound of the kitchen tap dripping across the large open plan section.

She gave a quick look over her shoulder and back again. “Ah, oh, Okay thank you, are you, uh, burn-y or can I just take, that-” she tentatively took the phone off the little guy with that enquiry answered in effect. He didn't burn her, and the phone was undamaged, as she flipped it front and back.

“I’m very happy I could be of help.” Spoke the little monster politely, as she flinched in mild surprise. He was just this charming little, little! -He had a teeny dapper black bow-tie and waistcoat over a white shirt, like some fancy bartender. And teeny glasses that somehow weren't melting.

Prisha actually felt a little bad about the next question she had to ask, in between more glances back at what she hoped wasn't an incorrect guess about the other ‘fire’.

“Hey, uh, I just kinda need to check, but, why are you in my house? Not that I’m accusing you of anything but I think I’d remember having let you in, and you do know… you’re not supposed to just… uh.”

The bitty monster stepped back and raised his glowing hands in front of his chest in a surrender motion, as the human crouched down partly, so he was more eye-level.

“Oh, I am aware, I’m terribly sorry for my intruding,” his flames turned a shade rosy on his face, “but I don't know how I got here to be honest! I was in my bar near to your nightclub district. Grillby’s. I just… felt like I was very sleepy, but woke up to your shouts. Also, I don't quite know how to say this, but, I appear to have shrunk.” He sounded very uncomfortable having to try to explain himself, and the words came out like they would be higher pitch, but were softened to a gentle little murmur. Prisha got the impression he was a guy usually happier on the sidelines.

He startled, then looked at the phone. “I can of course vacate your home, but would you mind if I made a call? One of my staff will have to pick me up. Literally it seems.”

She unlocked her phone for him, and placed it back on the counter. “Can you use it like this?”

“Yes, thank you for your help here, this shouldn't take long. Oh, and do you enjoy fast food? I insist on providing you something for the bother.”

“Sure, why not. Thanks,- Grillby I’m assuming? It’s not a problem though, I’m just happy you’re a monster fire and not a goodbye-all-my-stuff-one.”

While he was setting the mobile to speaker and dialing his bar, Prisha turned to greet the other fiery intruder, and crouched down as she came closer. It appeared to be another little chunkier looking Grillby-like, waistcoat and all. Though his waistcoat looked a little more like a peasants open shirt and draping neck tie from the 1800s. No pants. His body just kept extending instead, into a snake tail that pooled in a loose coil over the fallen fire extinguisher. He had a spattering of darker scales that extended up to his face, like a rock crust on lava.

He slid off as the human got nearer, and used his hands and tail to roll the item back to her helpfully. He regarded her, and then piped up himself that he had also been a lot larger than this; “It… is… strange not towering over humans, I must admit. I believe you were wanting to use this for something quite badly? Please let me help you!”

The extinguisher promptly got moved to Prisha’s side and left on the floor with the nozzle directed strictly away from the little guy as she looked around for the yellow pin, and shuffled on her knees over to snatch it from where it had been discarded in the panic. “I’m guessing it’s best I don't actually use this on you.” she muttered.

He reared back an inch in surprise. “You were going to…?”

Grillby’s phone call had connected in the background and he sounded like the staff were taking what he said as a request to speak to Grillby, as he spluttered then gave up while they left their phone to locate the fire monster.

Prisha held a hand up as she was scooting back to very carefully put the pin back in and tuck the hose nozzle back away, and pushed the item using a full-body stretch, way away across the floor. “Yeah I didn't see you were a monster. I just thought you were my electrics going up in smoke,” she pointed over guiltily. “This is a powder mix, designed to snuff out fire. So yah I probably still shouldn't use it on you actually. And sometimes these things are water based. Promise I wasn't trying to kill you or anything.”

“Well,” he huffed, looking a little put-out. “Handing a human the item that kills me would have been quite the embarrassing way to go, it seems.” He shook his head. “It certainly would not have done me much good. I can see it was not your intention though, so thank you.” He slid right up to Prisha at this, and looked about to continue, but two heads cocked to the side as a voice came over the phone’s speaker.

“Hello! This is Grillby speaking.”

The little Grillby kneeling over the phone startled. Prisha got up and put a hand over the mic, and shared a rapid hissed conversation. “Are there usually two of you?”

“No! I, oh, what should I… please don't tell him, -me!”

“...hello?” said the phone.

“Uh, yeah, hi!” improvised the girl. “Can I, uh, make an order?” She shrugged at Grillby and mouthed “Are you sure?!”

She watched the flaming snake monster climb up a barstool using his coils to reach the counter, and looked between them both. “Uh, what do you guys want? Actually do you do a sharer or family sized?” she asked the phone.

“Of course! We do both!”

“I’ll take the family sized then thanks, yeah, uh-huh, the second mix option, yeah that much is fine, my card number, jus’ a sec.” She scanned the counter in case her wallet was here instead of in the living room - but felt something light ‘fwip’ against her head. Huh… Her credit card fell on the floor. Who the heck had chucked that? The two monsters were right in front.- “yeah my number is…-” she carried on for now, and gave her address, before calling off.

“O-kay. Well I guess you guys are staying for take-out now?” The credit card was held up for inspection as her gaze traveled over it towards the living area.

The fire snake was getting in the personal space of Grillby to inspect him more closely. “Don't worry, I don't eat sentients,” he assured gently. “This is a way from my forest if we are in a human abode. Surely you must have heard of my hospitable reputation?... I would love to have an outfit such as yours. Oh. Forgive me, I am unused to conversing with others very often.” He sighed with a soft hiss to his voice.

“I’m afraid I haven't heard of you, friend.” said Grillby. “I didn't know of any fire snake monsters in the Underground, and no monsters were known to still exist on the surface until we broke though. It is nice to meet you.”

“That seems a little, odd.” Mused the snake. “While I am not one to boast, I am aware I am known as a legend of the Ebott forest. They call me Hearth. Mainly because I am one of the few Lamia who has a little more difficulty hiding. So I have found I actually quite enjoy helping lost humans in the forest and trading with them. Although,” he paused. “It seems I am more a FireRing than Lamia now, at such a size.”

“That’s not a thing. I mean,” cut in their host. “-I’m really sorry, there’s loads of info out there nowadays about monsters and old legends are getting researched, but Lamias died out in the war, everyone thinks. Not that I’m saying you don't exist, ‘cos you're right here. But it’s really weird if we should know about you. It’s like you're from another universe.”

“Seeing as there are other versions of me, and your strange speaking device, that might be the very reality of this. It leaves me unsure of what to do. I suppose I should,- should I still go to your Ebott forest?”

Visions of the little... FireRing being stomped on by some instinctual animal or human wanting to put out what looked like a fire, or caught in a downpour if he found no shelter bloomed in Prisha’s mind, giving the human a fleeting thousand-yard-stare.

“No! No. You stay here with me. I mean if you don't mind? If you don't want to stay with a monster or something? You too Grillby, unless you figure out you wanna go somewhere else safe or let the other you know.”

The both let out a little relieved sigh in unison. “That is very kind of you, Prisha” said Grillby. “Perhaps we could help you out around your home, or arrange a stipend from the embassy to pay our way?” He seemed to adapt well from previously wanting to get back to ‘his’ bar, thought Prisha.

She brightened up. “I’ll take the help?” She offered as a chance to let them not have to pay. “Oh and we also have those skeleton monsters down my street, if you want to-”

“-No, I think I prefer them not knowing about this just yet,” spoke up the little Grillby with a smile. “I think… I just want to be let be.” He nodded to himself as he came to that decision.

Hearth was touching Prisha’s hand, and she managed to not whip her arm back on noticing it wasn't burning, just warm. She turned her hand on it’s side as the FireRing held and inspected her ringed fingers. As he did so, his tail seemed to unconsciously curl round her wrist, resting on the counter, leaving the human to stare in fascination as no more than a pleasant warmth and scales could be felt through the flame.

He also came to a decision. “Can you name me?”

“What?”

He blushed a little and looked away, before looking up earnestly. “I feel that my old name no longer suits me in this form, especially if there is my old self possibly still out there worlds away… Would it be improper if you gave me a new one?”

It was Prisha’s turn to blush. “Oh wow, -sure! Are you really alright with that? That would be so cool. I’d be honored.”

He nodded, and let her think about it, but the response jumped fast into her mind as she looked across the kitchen. “Hob. How about Hob? It’s kinda like a hearth but much smaller.”

He appeared very happy with that, and wrapped a few coils up around her arm in a loose hug with his head on her thumb.

Grillby felt similarly, as he thought on it. “I think I will be known as G.”

He thought what he had seen of this human and her house was a very cool, stylish person and the idea made him feel more hip, though he didn't confess that.

In the waning evening sun, light was filtering through the windows of Prisha’s living room, and the three of them talked about where best to share their first meal together (for the foreseeable future). They settled on the coffee table being a great platform for them to eat as a group.

Hob simply wrapped himself up Prisha’s arm a bit further and more securely, looking like an epic flaming armlet. They wordlessly smiled at each other that this was going to be his ride there.

G shuffled his feet and looked down bashfully, before pushing his glasses up as he looked up to accept climbing on the offered hand. He sat on his knees holding the curled fingers as a small wall to look over. The sunlight flickered oddly in the living room as they rounded the corner to the seating.

Sunlight didn't flicker like that though; flames did. Her wallet was just where she had left it, and it was on fire.

Instincts to resume the earlier panic and run for the fire extinguisher were discarded by the now savvy Prisha. She slowly walked closer, as a third flamey monster came into clearer view. He looked like a purple version of G, and was grinning wickedly. He ran off across the sofa with an evil cackling laugh, as they turned to watch him go with deadpan expressions.

“That’s what you get for not coming to me first!” He yelled.

What you get? Blinked Prisha. She hadn't even known he was there. Their focus was lured away by the flickering yellow light and smoke out of the corner of her eye, on the coffee table, Her wallet still appeared to be on fire. The edges were wrinkling up.

Her wallet was on fire.

Prisha looked from hand to hand at the two bitty monsters she was carrying, and ran back out of the room’s lounge area back to the fire extinguisher. She stuck to the area rugs as much as she could this time. The last thing she wanted was to slip and fall flat on her back and annihilate her new friends.

She slowed to a rapid walk and reached for the metal item, looked at the two occupying her hands, and whipped round to fast walk to the small table nearest, where she held her arms out close to it. They looked at her quizzically, taking just a little too long to hop off, and she turned back to step away in too much of a hurry, stopping dead to look again at the two unexpectedly still there, hanging on even tighter to her outstretched hands.

The third turn they were going to time it right, since they both had cottoned on enough to get ready to climb off onto the side table, as a smoke detector starting shrieking piercingly.

Something else started screaming too, in the lounge area, and Prisha abandoned putting the guys down, instead transferring G to the hand Hob was partly in, grabbing the extinguisher with her now spare hand and quick-footing it back.

Unnoticed until now, stood on the unit against the wall with some sound equipment, a turntable and laptop, was a little blue glowing monster crying with his arms over his head. He didn't quite look flamey, and nothing near him appeared on fire. But he was pretty distressed. The evil Grillby had even stopped running around in the racket, and was trying to shout at the other monster, looking a bit overwhelmed too.

“What’s wrong with you?! Stop- stop screaming!” The purple flamed creature tried. He even looked back at Prisha for help. He pointed at the blue guy “Make him stop that crying or I’ll set something else on fire!” He looked about to cry himself.

A bell like voice finally joined the fray in response to that with “Please stop shouting-please stop that noise! Please make it stop-make it stop-make it-aaaahhh!” And the blue monster crouched down as he shook.

Oh poor thing. Prisha had to raise her voice but tried to keep it gentle, “Honey it’s okay its just a smoke detector, the fire set it off but I can go and stop it after I get this fire out.”

Grillby’s evil twin hadn't heard that bit due to being in the middle of summoning more fire with a growl, and looking to throw it down somewhere from above his head.

Ah, he was picking the pot plant.

He threw the small fireball which hit the soil with a ‘FZZZT’, but to his shock a splash of water hit straight after, putting it out.

The little blue guy was stood with his own arms above his head with a sobbing scream, to call up two more puddles which flew through the air; one sploshing a direct hit on the wallet, and the other making the purple Grillby dive for cover as it missed him and hit the tile floor.

“Okay! You!-” He actually wordlessly squeaked as Prisha grabbed him. “-You burn me I give you to water boy.” She glared at the purple menace. So he didn't. He bit her finger instead.

“Owww-ha-haow, blue guy hold on I’m going to turn that alarm off!” She looked at the entrance hall; that alarm wasn't flashing yet, then went back and saw the kitchen ceiling one blinking away.

Sharing a glare with the bitty monster in her right hand, she held out her left, where Hob was holding on with his coils and had let go of her hand to hang onto G with his arms, so the troublemaker got transferred to that hand, where he promptly bit another finger.

She leaned to open a window, then turned her back to the center counter and used her now spare hand to hop her ass up onto it.

“Are you guys really staying on for this whole thing? Eh. Nevermind.” She managed to get onto her knees then stand up and hit the silence button, before opening the case and nudging out the battery, until the smoke cleared at least.

They all looked towards the living area, even purple Grillby. It was silent. A few sighs were let out.

Prisha squatted, then took her time sliding off the counter side, and walked back to the seating area. “Okay, see little guy, I shut it off. You're okay.” She got a better look as they came closer, the purple monster having the cheek to pull her fingers closer round himself to nervously hide in.

Blue guy was what looked like a watery version of the flame ones. He was only sniffling now, standing up to compose himself by wiping his pale white-blue eyes. She wondered how that even worked for a water monster. He had a little bow tie too, a black one on a lilac dress shirt, and black pants. He was stood on her open music laptop.

The monsters all startled at the little dying, deflating squeak the human made at seeing the water monster.

He was stood on her laptop.

The doorbell rang.

“So.

We all eating?”

They all nodded.

Chapter Text

Mabel's hybrid minivan didn't get a lot of miles, except for when family came to visit or she did her shopping trips to the big store. But she suspected she’d need the trunk space this morning. She probably could have just grabbed her list and gone, but then she wouldn't have been able to enjoy from the sidelines the intense set of arguments that came from the bitties banding together to plan things out.

In their little hands the list grew. They argued over who should go with Mabel. They argued whether any of them could go with Mabel and still manage to keep things under wraps. They argued whether Spooky knew a damn thing about food stuffs the living required, seeing as he offered that just he could accompany Mabel, since he would be safe from accidents or malice.

Most of them had slept on the roomy guest room bed last night, while Mabel had made it to her bed instead of the armchair this time, and Sansy had snuck off from the others to discover with a grimace that Spooky had beaten him to it, being happily cuddled up to a softly snoring Mabel. Lucky little phantom didn't need to worry about being squished by a turning human, so Sansy left him cuddled up next to her arm on the covers, and settled down on the pillow next to the top of her head. Sansy’s instincts were pretty sharp though; he was confident he would teleport in his sleep if he felt the slightest bit of squishing happening.

Mabel had woken up to Sansy, Spooky, and Arc curled up with her. Boss was sat in the pillowing duvet with his legs crossed, scowling at Arc hugging Mabel’s shoulder and tucked into her neck, but he didn't wake him. Papy came in after a while to wake them up, and Scout had awoken at the same time as him, but kept still a little longer as they both saw Lil bro had both arms around him contentedly.

A neat ripping sound came from the shopping list being torn from the pad as they all milled in the kitchen. Mabel flipped the pad over and scanned the other notes she had started on, titled ‘Skeleton Monsters.’ So far it only had a few items of things she was worried about. The first was; ‘Don't need to breathe?’ She had thought after first smuggling Sansy in her knitwear; if they fell in the filled sink they would be alright?

She placed the pad back down. She could have a little question and answer session later maybe. Just some things she wanted to avoid sounding like she was fretting too much over them with, or to scare anyone. She could look some of these things up on her own…

“Okay then!” The list got tucked in her purse, car keys grabbed off the counter in one hand, and a delighted Spooky grabbed in the other looking up at her.

There was a thought, and Spooky was lowered to sit in the high inner pocket of the purse. He could duck inside when needed. She hmm’ed. “Well I cant talk to you down there.” The purse was hoisted up, inspected, then the straps shortened so it would sit over her hip, but not quite under-arm. “There.”

Scout looked at Papy, sat cross-legged next to him, and pouted, “WELL I STILL THINK MORE OF US COULD COME ALONG.” A huge shop to adventure in sounded like so much fun. He determined to find a way sometime. Papy nodded.

Sansy didn't think he was a jealous sort, but, “hey i wouldn't mind coming? i could be your sauce aisle guide?”

Sansy had not planned on Mabel giving him the touchy treatment that Spooky clearly revelled in. “Oh my little friend of course you can co-” he teleported away as she went to simply poke his little chest gently.

Boss snorted disdainfully and Arc taunted, “ya aint told granny about yer 1 hp yet, have ya?”

“heh heh, ehhh…” Sansy sweated and ran a hand over his skull on the spot, as he got the wrong sort of attention from Mabel’s innocent question.

“1 hp?”

“yeeeaah, didn't tell her, did ya sansy?” came the wickedly smug look. “hp’s what we all have, including humans. it’s like a number attached to our life-force. big sans has about 7hp nowadays, since they got outta the underground. means how much of a kickin’ you can take before ya dust. if ya get hurt it goes down until you heal. monsters can see it easier than humans. but sansy here’s shrunk down to 1 again with his size.”

By how worried Mabel looked, she was starting to get it. “If you have just 1 hp…” Her eyes widened.

The red eyed skeleton had a twinge of his own pain of just how much he could relate. He wasn't going to admit he was hiding his concern behind the teasing method of snitching. This was something they needed their carer to be aware of sooner or later. He was ripping that bandaid off from the damn start.

“no fair. you have 4 hp.” Sansy tried to snitch back, but Arc was prepared to accept the risk. Lil Bro had melded very quietly into the background in the shadow of the kitchen towel roll.

“n’ i could survive a knock or two.” Arc drove it home so Mabel could finish.

“But if you get just one…” Oh stars, she looked on the edge of tears. Sansy gave him his best deadpan, ‘oh thank-you’ type of glare.

As the front door clicked shut, two bitty skeletons were laughing their bony behinds off, while three were biting their fists with tears in their eyelights and turning away as they desperately tried not to. Sansy tottered in place taped in so much bubble-wrap it looked like a balloon costume. ‘Just until they got back.’ He tried to shortcut out of it but it acted like clothes and came with him. Oh Arc was gonna pay.

Spooky made for a cute dashboard ornament for a while with an amazing view of the world going by, but got relegated to sit in the middle of the front passenger seat to avoid being a distraction once they hit traffic. Either way, he reassured his driver, if they got in a crash he would just phase through anything, including Mabel, so they were safe.

As they went to get a trolley, the rules of the trip were covered again. “It’s a nice quiet shopping day but until we’re sure a human carrying a little-bitty monster wont get too much attention, we are going to…..?”

“stay hidden in the bag.”

That got a smile. “And you can peek out and chat when it’s safe but if any humans might spot you, you…?

“hide in the bag.” grinned Spooky.

“And if-” started the smiling human. There had only really been the one rule, so he answered straight away.

“hide in the bag?” which got a laugh. And towards the supermarket entrance they trundled.

Funnily enough, the hide rule came in handy right away, as who else did they see but Charlie coming out of the adjoined home and garden supplies center next door. He had quite a full trolley. Mabel of course made a diversion to have a good look while they stopped to say hi.

“Are those sun lamps?” she pried.

“Oh?! Oh, yes! I’ve been, um, expanding my garden inside, with a few plants this year. You know, since it will be a bit cold to be out so much.” her neighbor explained. “You don't know how delicate these flowers can be, so I think they’ll appreciate a nice bit of sun, don't you think?”

He also had a two bags of compost, some nice small pots from the home section, a new pair of the thickest gardening gloves they sold, plant feed, a spray bottle, as well as his food shopping bagged from the supermarket. Unless he was planning to freeze a lot, all that bread wasn't going to last just one person before it went off.

“Grandchildren visiting soon hun?” Mabel enquired with a gesture to the cookie dough and ready made pastry sicking out.

“Yes,” lied Charlie.

They parted ways to carry on shopping and home respectively. Mabel pulled out her list and followed the order she had re-written it in.

Spooky peeked out as he helped point out strawberries, blueberries, bananas, grapes, and cherries that went in one end of the trolley, followed by vegetables he was less interested in. As she looked up for the next produce section, Mabel noticed another neighbor, Jo-Ann, over the far aisle browsing the baby clothes. It was a toss-up between her knowing someone with a new baby, and just window shopping because she was broody. She was smiling happily as she added a couple of the smallest baby-grows to her shopping. Still a toss-up.

The old lady busied herself with getting the larger choice of mince that could be frozen, four litres of milk, a wealth of cheeses for lasagne and tacos, Parmesan toppings, and what would work for charcuterie board, sausage meats and olives, then moved on to the sauces aisle.

It was here that Prisha walked her trolley past the aisle, stopped, turned around, and with a curious “another one…” under her breath, wheeled up to Mabel with a friendly hello and an unusually nosy glance over Mabel’s fairly innocent looking so far shopping as they talked while browsing.

“I could swear the whole street’s in here today,” Prisha said jovially as she watched Mabel grab tinned tomatoes from one side, then tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup, mustard, barbeque sauce, and a hot sauce, then moving on to grab four types of pasta, while her companion picked up some hot sauce, Worcester sauce, and ketchup.

“Oh yes, small world, isn't it? I just saw Charlie from next door and I think that was Jo-Ann, -you know Jo-Ann don't you?” Mabel picked out some noodle pots, taco shells and mix, then they headed for a baking aisle together. “She was getting baby things.”

“So was Rick.”

“Pardon?” Mabel paused with a jar of rainbow sprinkles, before adding that, food glitter, sugar, cooking chocolate, then moving on to marshmallows, jelly babies, jelly beans, and mini chocolate eggs. It got to the point she started grabbing packets of sweets to throw in without even looking at them. “Well that is strange. Hmm. Maybe his niece has a new one. Oatmeal…”

“Yeah he had some baby blankets and some of those chocolate bunnies with bells, for a gift, but said he was mainly getting paint and stuff for a new hobby. Jo-Ann hosted that get-together you missed, by the way I heard you had some sort of furniture get broken or something? I hope it’s all okay now?”

Baby blankets, oh that's a good idea! Thought Mabel, before doing a double-take at the ones tucked in the front of Prisha’s trolley among a lot of cushions stuffed in. “Oh that’s nice.” she said as she nearly steered into a pillar. “Yes, yes, I’ve given my handyman a call to patch everything up. These things happen sometimes.” Sneaking another look at the younger woman’s trolley, Mabel asked, “which aisle are you heading to now, dear?” As soon as she answered, Mabel enthused, “Oh I need something there too!”

She wasn't until now, but as Prisha stood browsing the pet supplies section, Mabel was able to have a look at what was in the trolley. Aside from the usual food including burgers and buns, there were four fire extinguishers, a multi-pack of sponges, about every brand of mini taster-bottle of alcohol, fairy lights, mini bottles from craft supplies, mixing items, more than one pourer-helper for the less able, and a box boasting some sort of milk frother tool. Oh. Bar things. The girl had a nice home bar.

Reaching out bandaged hands, Prisha pulled a cat hammock off the shelf, and a cat bridge that could be wall-hung. She looked over at her neighbor slyly. “What are you getting?”

The old lady flustered, but couldn't hide what a good find she felt those items were for her bitty monster friends! So she also grabbed a few boxes and admitted she was (now, at least) “-getting the same thing! He he, isn't that funny?” She hesitated, looking at her company, then slowly grabbed half of the rest of the bridges off the shelf.

“Yeeeeahh.” Prisha smirked cheekily, grabbing the rest of the stock. “I thought your cat died last year?”

“That fluff-head? Oh, noooo. No. She just. Wandered off. She’s around. Well, best be off! You’re going…?” Mabel pointed left and right. Prisha pointed left, and Mabel nodded understandingly and said she needed to go right. “Oh well, be seeing you then!” she sing-songed a farewell, made a dead stop as she passed a large cat perch, then got moving again around the corner.

Spooky stuck his head out. “You know…”

“I know.”

“You could have made a new cat up instead of resurrecting Duchess?” he chuckled, and got a dirty look.

“I know. Ah, towels, here we go. I’ll get a bigger cat-perch online. They'll like that, wont they?”

“Could be useful,” he responded. “But maybe don't describe it as cat furniture to them? Or do, come to think of it actually. Please do.”

Twelve luxury-soft face towels and a cut-able fleece throw went in the trolley, along with two black wired hanging fruit baskets Spooky spotted, and they stopped off at the children's toy section. They decided against a variety of flimsy dolls furniture, drawers that didn't open, and a dolls house that was too small. The rest of the trolley ended up piled with dolls clothes before they cleared out the last baby blankets and added three pairs of fleece lined slipper socks.

Neither noticed Rick leaning back from another section and noting how slipper socks would be perfect, before he and his assistant wheeled back to the clothes with their trolley.

Spooky settled down and dozed on the way to the checkouts.

“I don't think Prisha has a cat either.”