Work Text:
"Blooky, are you in there? I'm coming in!"
Not hesitating a single second, Mettaton placed his hand on the handle and slowly pushed open the door to Napstablook’s new home, on the surface. It wasn't locked, as usual, and to be honest he and Blooky knew each other so well that after all these years he didn't even bother knocking or waiting for an answer anymore.
Besides, desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was definitely a desperate time. Blooky was feeling down, after all, at least more than they usually did; true, they always looked kind of sad, but these past few days... Mettaton had noticed that his cousin didn't seem to enjoy being the great DJ they were quite as much as they used to do when they had first started their band. Blooky hadn't told anyone about this, of course, but just by seeing how they no longer moved their head to the beat of the music during their rehearsals, Mettaton knew something was off.
That was why he had decided to offer his cousin a unique gift that every single one of his fans couldn't even dream of receiving: an entire afternoon with their favorite TV star. Plus, he had also decided to wear one of his outfits his fans loved the most, a pink dress with a blouse-like top and a short flared skirt – he truly was a great cousin, wasn't he?
Once again proud of himself, he quickly closed the door behind his back and stepped in Napstablook's house. The little white ghost was standing in front of their computer with their headphones on, and only seemed to notice him when Mettaton cleared his throat (which didn't need any clearing, by the way, since he was a robot; but he truly was a talented actor). Instantly, Blooky turned around to face him, and a panicked blush appearing on their face.
"Oh! I'm sorry... I didn't know you were coming... I'm so sorry..."
"No, no, Blooky, don't give me that," Mettaton cut them off, taking a confident step towards his cousin. "I hope you're ready to go, because we're going out!"
"But..."
Napstablook stopped in the middle of their sentence to give his cousin a small smile, a slight blush appearing on their ghostly cheeks.
"Is this the outfit... that you were wearing in last month's episode of Falling In Love With A Killer Robot?"
They were looking very happy about that, somehow, and that made Mettaton's heart skip a beat; or at least, that would have if he'd actually had a heart, but once again, he was a very talented actor, and could therefore perfectly mimic the feeling of having your heart skip a beat.
"Of course it is!" Mettaton exclaimed, before rushing to his cousin to hold them in a loving hug. "You love it too, just as expected from my favorite cousin!"
The ghost was blushing to the point that they had started crying, now, so Mettaton had no choice but to let them go; but that wasn't done without one last well-deserved hug. Blooky was so cute and so precious, after all.
"Well, are you ready to go, darling?" The robot asked with a bright smile.
"Oh... Not really... I mean, I have nothing to wear... And where are we going..."
"Hm..." Mettaton seemed to hesitate and think for a minute. "That's no problem, dear. I'll just ask my agent to bring us something for you to wear, alright?"
"Are you sure that..."
He didn't leave his cousin any time to object, however, as he immediately took his phone out of the small bag he was carrying to make a call. A few seconds later, he hung up and gave Napstablook another confident, delighted smile.
"Done! She'll join us when we're in town. Now, let's get going!"
Tears started to fill the small ghost's eyes again – but it wasn't like they had much of a choice, anyway.
Once they had walked all the way to the nearest human town, all the while talking together -or rather, a teary-eyed Napstablook listening to Mettaton's never-ending speech-, they met with Mettaton's (human) agent, just as he had said. She had brought a few hats with her, and after making his cousin try on half of them, the robot finally decided that a blue newsboy cap was the most fitted to the occasion. He thanked his agent with a smile and a wave of his hand, and grabbed Napstablook again so that they could...
Well, before anything else, they had to take a selfie together – Mettaton’s thousands of Instagram followers needed their daily dose of MTT, after all, and with Blooky looking even cuter than usual, that picture was assured to get a million likes. At least.
Once the picture was taken and shared, Mettaton led them to a café.
"Why don't we take a seat, Blooky? Let's grab something to eat!"
"Oh... I'm sorry... But I can't eat, since I am a ghost... I'm so sorry..."
Mettaton blinked. Well, that was... unexpected, but not totally unjustified – Blooky could only eat ghost dishes and ghost pastries, indeed, and it was very likely that any human food would just go right through them. Mettaton himself could still eat or drink something, given that he was material and that Dr. Alphys had thankfully provided his new body with these abilities – but having some food or a drink while Napstablook would only watch him during his entire meal sounded quite...
"That's a problem", he said out loud.
"I'm so sorry..."
Napstablook started crying again and Mettaton jolted.
"That's not what I meant!" He said, almost panicked. "Let's go somewhere else, alright?"
He didn't wait for his cousin to agree before pulling their ghostly form into his arms again and dragging them away from the café.
A while later, they found themselves in a music store, and Mettaton let out a satisfied sigh as he realized that Blooky seemed a lot more comfortable in the middle of the CD-covered shelves than they did in between the small tables of the coffee shop. The happy feeling inside his chest (although his chest couldn't quite feel, faking it to the point of feeling it anyway was but one of his many talents) didn't last long, though, for as soon as they had approached the shelves, Napstablook started shivering again, and tears soon fell from their big eyes again.
"Blooky?" Mettaton asked, now rather alarmed, as he couldn't identify the reason of his cousin's sudden sadness. "What's going on, dear?"
"Oh... Nothing..."
That was a blatant lie, given how hard the little ghost was crying now, and Mettaton raised an anxious brow. He quickly walked up to his cousin – only then did he notice that Napstablook had been staring at the shelf that displayed the five best-selling CDs of the week, and... Oh. He finally understood what was happening.
The first album that their band had just released was in front of their eyes, right here on the display stand – at the second place. Mettaton frowned.
"I'm so sorry..." Napstablook said, still crying. "I should have written better tunes... Then you would have received the first place that you deserve..."
So that was the problem. Mettaton crossed his arms. Blooky... They had learned that their band was only second in popularity in the human world, and they blamed this lack of success on the music they had composed. This was... to be expected from a ghost such as Blooky; but still nonsensical as well.
"Listen carefully, darling," Mettaton spoke again, in a firm tone. "It's not your fault. Your tunes are haunting, dear, they're nothing like what humans have heard before. It's only natural that it would take them a bit of time to become accustomed to such brilliance."
He ended his sentence with a quick pat on his cousin's head, or rather, the cap they were wearing.
"I'm sure they will soon realize how great we are, Blooky."
"Are you sure..."
"Of course! Besides..."
The robot put his right hand on his hips, and took a step back to have a better look at the display stand.
"All of our songs are beautified by my melodious voice," he added, sounding almost offended now. "They deserve to get the top place."
And with that, he came closer to the stand again, and extended both of his hands to take off from the top shelf all copies from the number one album. Without a single regard for them, he let them aside, and grabbed one by one the remaining copies of Blooky's, Shyren's and his album to put them right where they belonged. Once he was done, he placed the so called 'best-selling' CD next to the plastic label with a 2 on it, in other words at the very place that whoever released this inferior album was bound to occupy.
Mettaton crossed his arms again and gave his work a satisfied look.
"Looks much better this way, doesn't it, Blooky?"
Right next to him, the little ghost started crying again – but Mettaton could tell those were tears from happiness, this time (or at least he really hoped they were).
A week later, their debut album became the number one best-selling CD in the human world, and Mettaton couldn't help smiling as he noticed Napstablook had started nodding their head to the beat of the music during rehearsals again.