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"Hey, Axe," you greet softly from a distance, mindful not to startle him.
He hums back at you in vague response, letting you know he heard, and you take the cue to approach him. Of all your skeleton friends, Axe is definitely the jumpiest, and you were warned from day one to never sneak up on him, lest you give the poor guy a panic attack.
He's messing with some sort of metal contraption on the workbench just outside his cabin. You've never seen him so focused on anything before. He looks so.. peaceful. You shuffle carefully through the golden leaves on the forest floor, the soft crinkle of the strange autumn leaves quite satisfying beneath your boots after the cool, dewy spring grass in the woods around it. Once you're certain he knows you're there, you go ahead and lean over his left shoulder to watch.
"..What're you doin', sweetie?" he mumbles, hands fiddling to replace a rusted bolt.
"Just watching you tinker."
"Tinker..?"
"Yeah; to fix up a thing," you clarify. "Like when you made that suncatcher the other day for the kitchen window. You were tinkering."
He stills for just a second, looking over the metal in his hands, before nodding to himself and getting back to work. You smile, endeared by his visible thought process; he's trying to remember the new word to tell his brother later.
"What's this for, anyway? To scare off hikers?" you tease him.
"....Bear trap," he corrects you softly, still not quite paying attention. His fingers are very nimble, you notice. Sturdy, but precise.
"Do you build a lot of traps?" you wonder aloud.
"....Makes for easy hunting."
"Got'cha.." you nod, lazily slipping your hands into your pockets as you watch him work.
The silence should've felt awkward, but it's honestly kind of nice. You really like this relaxed version of Axe. He almost reminds you of Sans, looking through his telescope the other night.
Sans...
You suppose Axe is a Sans, as well. You forget that, sometimes. You call his brother Papyrus sometimes, when the two of you are alone. Just yesterday, he'd confided in you that he was upset by his current nickname, and you'd agreed to find him a new one. But what about Axe? Have you ever called him by his name?
You watch as he tilts his trap this way and that, delicately pulling at the metal, then sighing when nothing happens. He's really into his work.
You wonder if he would mind..?
You lean in a little from your spot behind him, your chin hovering just over his left shoulder.
"Hey, Sans?" you test lightly.
"Hmm?" he hums, again, distracted.
Did he not notice? ..Or is it just not a big deal?
Standing this close to him, you can feel the warmth radiating from his bones. The ever-autumn weather that always lingers around the cabin is fairly cool, and the gentle heat of his magic feels almost inviting in contrast.. You lean in further, still, pushing the borders of your casual closeness to try and get his attention.
"Um, Sans...?" you murmur, practically against his skull, this time.
Suddenly his eyes widen, and he stops what he's doing to turn and look at you. When he sees how close you've gotten, a noticable splash of stormy sea grey washes over his cheekbones. But rather than moving away, he brings his voice down to a low mumble to match your own.
"Uh.... you.. talkin' to me, sweetie?"
His red eyes are so pretty up close.. How have you never noticed before?
"Yeah.. Is now a bad time?"
"I, uh-- I guess not. Just a little.. offput by the name drop. ....Any reason for it?"
You let out a thoughtful hum, giving yourself a moment to consider your words.
But mostly just to enjoy his flustered expression, if you're being quite honest...
"Well, I mean.. I guess it just occured to me that I wasn't aware of how your nickname came about. Suddenly, I wasn't sure if I felt okay to be using it."
"Oh.... 's that all?" He studies you for a moment, almost like he wants to ask you something. You wait for a moment with baited breath, but he seems to decide against it as he turns back to his bear trap.
Quite immediately, you miss the warmth from his closeness. You choose not to feed into that particular craving, taking a good couple of steps back.
"....I don't mind it. It's.. mostly just about an old hobby, I guess.... Not like it offends me or anything."
"A hobby?" you ask him. You walk into his view to lean gently against his faded window frame, the leaves crunching softly under your feet as you move.
"....Unlike the other.. colorful skeletons you're used to talkin' to.. we got our names a long time ago...."
Sans gestures down to the bear trap, still working on it.
"Traps are my favorite, anymore.. keep me from gettin' my bones dirty.... But I threw a mean axe, back in the day" he explains.
"Whoa," you breathe, trying to picture this guy thrusting a battleaxe through the woods at some giant beast. "Honestly? That's pretty badass..."
Axe, on the other hand, looks caught between a laugh and a sigh. He settles on a low chuckle, instead, his bad eyelight flickering like a disturbed candle.
"..Trust me, sweetie. Whatever you're imagining.... it was much less heroic."
You smile, choosing to ignore the hint of self deprication in favor of cheering him up. "Maybe so, but hey, it kept you fed, right?"
Out of nowhere, he freezes, face plastered with an empty grin. The lights in both his eyes go dark, and he's staring down at his stilled hands as if they had betrayed him. For a moment, you panic; somehow, you'd definitely said the wrong thing. But before you have the chance to fix it, he's back. Eyes bright and fingers working as if it had never even happened.
"....Yeah.. it kept us fed.." he breathes, seemingly to himself.
You shift your weight rather uncomfortably from one leg to the other. You're more than a little concerned about the blatant compartmentalizing you'd just witnessed. You briefly wonder if he's even aware he does that. But how he chooses to cope with trauma is no business of yours, you suppose, so you keep your thoughts to yourself.
"So.. Um.. Axe is fine, then?" you ask carefully.
"....It's fine, yeah."
Suddenly, the trap snaps loudly into place, startling a small squeak out of you. Axe lets out a small sigh in relief at his finished work. Then, he dusts his hands off on his pants and moves to stand beside you, staring up at the trees like it's the most natural thing in the world. You follow his gaze to the crisp orange leaves above you; to the glittering of sunlight, peeking through the branches as they sway in the wind, casting a delicate golden glow over everything in sight. You wonder, not for the first time, how this area of the woods could look and feel so much like fall, all year round. Your best guess so far is 'magic'. You're about to ask him when he speaks up.
"Hey, uh.... what about you?"
You blink. Did you miss something?
"Me?"
"....You were kind enough.. to ask me about my own name.... Figure I could at least do the same.."
You feel your face flush, totally caught off guard by his sudden thoughtfulness.
"I, um-- I don't actually mind you calling me sweetie. Maybe I wasn't fond of it at first, but.. It's kind of grown on me."
"..Yeah?" Axe asks you, his eyes wide.
"Yeah.. Between the two of us, I kind of like the way it sounds, coming from you."
"....Huh.."
He ponders this for a moment, as if it's something that's difficult for him to understand. It almost seems like he's never considered a nickname as something personal, before.
"....If it's just the two of us.. when no one is around, I mean...."
"Hmm?"
"I uh.. I like the way my name sounds.... coming from you, too.. so...."
Even as he says this, he glares at the ground like it had offended him, and you have to bite back a chuckle.
How cute... who knew he had such a soft side?
You lean in close, whispering to him just like before.
"..Sans?" you try.
At the drop of a hat, his face turns the heaviest shade of grey you've seen it yet, so deep it's almost blue, the light of it even reflecting off the cabin window behind him.
He's absolutely adorable.
"Y-yeah.... that's fine," he mumbles.
He can't help but notice he's no longer able to face you or the ground, now, opting instead to just cover his face with his hands.
"Alright, then," you giggle. "Sans, it is."