Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You hated noise early in the morning, it was the one thing you despised more than snobby customers at your shop. So when you heard trucks beeping all of a sudden outside, you almost had a meltdown immediately. You had a short temper, especially with everything that was going on with your work and some competitors. Someone opened up a bakery across from yours, and it seemed prettier so you’ve been fighting for your life out there.

Getting up from your dining table– since you were calculating some additional costs to your bakery and how it’d affect both your workplace and home– you moved towards the window closest to the noise, peeking out from behind the curtains. Big ass trucks, you didn’t know for what though. You squinted and leaned a bit to the right, since the trucks were in front of the house on your left. You finally spotted the big blue writing on the truck, ‘BIG BIRD MOVING SERVICE!!!’, you raised an eyebrow at the choice of exclamations, but honestly it was pretty eye-catching. 

Then it hit you, you have new neighbours … You felt a bit bad with how your brain jumped to groan at the fact you have new neighbours, but you weren’t always a fan of new people because you can’t tell what type of person they are. For all you know, a bunch of murderers could’ve moved in.

…Or the victims of murderers? You had spotted three skeletons– one was wearing a white shirt and a half-sleeved blue unzipped jacket, probably because it was summer, with a lazy grin. They seemed a bit short. The other two were similar in height, one wearing a similar jacket to the shortest one but in orange and it was full sleeved. The other was in darker clothing, sharp teeth, sharp… Skull too? You personally didn’t know how they managed to make their bones sharp, but hey, you can’t judge them.

They seemed similar in appearance, maybe they were siblings or relatives? You’ve met a lot of monsters who look almost identical and claim to be related to each other. So it wasn’t unexpected. But some weren’t related, just from the same species but completely different families. Maybe it could be the same for them. 

The two tall skeletons were talking to a blue bird, who seemed a bit buff but definitely average height. The third skeleton, the shortest one, was talking to a lively but shorter version of the buff bird. They had glasses on and were rambling about something, the short skeleton amusing the kid(?) by nodding along. You can’t tell if he was saying anything or not because his back was to you now. 

You cracked your window open just by a bit, and you could immediately hear the blue bird talk about how smart he was, the games he played, and his classmates. You immediately closed the window. Maybe not today. You didn’t wanna hear a nasally voice who matched the stereotypical nerd appearance. 

After affirming that people had moved in, you went back to the dining table, picking up your pencil and scribbling down some costs. You weren’t a curious person, so you didn’t go over to greet the three skeletons. You could go in a few hours, claim to have just seen the ‘FOR SALE’ sign suddenly disappear and wanted to greet the new neighbours. 

Also, how the fuck did your water bill spike up from $135 to $210?? You must’ve been careless when it came to making sure you didn’t leave the water on while cleaning… You should fix that habit of yours.

After hearing knocking on your door, you immediately got up. Did your delivery finally come? It said it would come tomorrow, oh well, better for you. You grabbed some money from the table you kept next to the door in a drawer, ready to pay the delivery fee since the shop you bought from didn’t cover it online, you might need to switch shops later, something cheaper or something with more variety of tools.

Opening the door, you were met with a tall boney guy– sorry, a tall boney cool guy , his shirt said so. You stared at the containers in his hands, before looking up at him. He looked like the two tall skeletons you were staring at earlier, but dressed really differently now. Could they change that fast?... Also you didn’t order any food, maybe this is a completely different skeleton who was meant to deliver to the other house, despite the fact he wasn’t dressed in any sort of uniform. Or maybe he was a friend who was visiting someone else. 

“Hi..?” You started the conversation, noticing how he was just staring at you with a huge grin on his face. Maybe he forgot to talk. Or he was waiting for you to say hello first, although he came to your house…? 

“HELLO!!” He exclaimed, his volume wasn’t too loud but it was still louder than the average person. The skeleton presented his hands towards you, each hand had one container. One had spaghetti, and the other had… You couldn’t tell actually, maybe it was a dessert? A slice of something. “MY NAME IS RUS! I’M YOUR NEW NEIGHBOUR! ALONGSIDE MY BROTHER AND COUSINS!” He explained, letting you grab the containers out of his hand, smile as wide as it was when he came to your door.

“Oh! Right, I just– I just saw the truck a few minutes ago actually. I’m (Name), I’ve been living here for almost two years, haha. It’s nice to meet you.” You quickly dmade sure to keep a polite tone, stacking the smaller container on top of the spaghetti, offering your hand to shake his. Rus quickly took your hand, shaking it eagerly. Almost causing you to drop the food he had just given you, but thankfully it didn’t fall.

“IT’S WONDERFUL TO MEET YOU! MY BROTHER IS CURRENTLY BUSY CHECKING IF EVERYTHING HE BROUGHT IS UNDAMAGED, BUT WE WANTED TO INVITE YOU TO OUR HOUSEWARMING PARTY… DINNER!! PARTY DINNER YES!!” Rus invited, very eager to invite you to their house, and maybe some others too. You paused, hesitant about going to a stranger’s house. I mean, you thought of it earlier, the whole ‘neighbours could be murderers’ thing. But then again…

“When is it, and will there be other people?” You quickly asked, trying to figure out the information so you could decide. Rus rubbed his chin with his gloved hand, you didn’t notice earlier but you did now, he had red gloves, but they were also slightly orange? Red-orange? You squinted at his hands to try figure it out before he began talking again.

“IT WILL BE AT 6PM TODAY! AND YES! HOPEFULLY! MAYBE! I AM GOING TO TRY TO INVITE MOST OF OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD! I ALREADY ASKED OUR OTHER NEIGHBOUR, BUT THEY CLAIM TO BE BUSY… AND THE HOUSE ACROSS ISN’T HOME!” Rus explained his situation, rubbing his chin before shrugging and placing his hands on his hips. He seemed a bit fashionable in your opinion, or in today’s standards at least. He had jean shorts down to his knees, sneakers, a baggy white shirt with colourful text saying ‘COOL GUY’. He also had a backwards basketball themed baseball cap, and those gloves he wore were red and yellow, which matched his shoes, which were also red and yellow. He had a loose scarf on, but it didn’t seem to look like wool, more like a scarf made for fashion than warmth.

“I’ll try to come then, thank you for the invitation, Rus.” You quickly thanked the tall skeleton, who giggled a small ‘nyeheh’ and skipped off back to his house. He was a bit weird in your opinion, but who could you blame? Everyone’s a bit weird, even yourself. You took your phone out of your sweatpants, looking at the time, it was 4pm, so you had two hours before you went. You opted to check out the food Rus had brought you, walking to your open kitchen. You liked this house a lot because it had an open kitchen, which meant you could watch TV, since the lounge area was right in front of the counter. 

Placing the containers on the counter, you opened the spaghetti first, grabbing a fork from your drawer and quickly rinsing it before twirling the spaghetti around the metal tool and eating it. You forgot to assess if it could possibly be poisoned, but it was already in your mouth so you gave half a shit and ate it. It was a mix of cold and warm, so it was possible that he had made it earlier today and warmed it before he came to give it to you. 

It didn’t taste bad honestly, for a guy who doesn’t have tastebuds (assumably…) he had gotten the taste and texture of the spaghetti to be perfect, you hummed in contentment. Placing the container lid back on and cracking open the second container, sticking the fork into your mouth as you observed the cake. It looked like strawberry shortcake. You haven’t had some in a bit, so you quickly licked the fork clean so none of the spaghetti or tomato sauce was on it, and took a bite of the slice. It didn’t taste too bad, but it didn’t suit your tastes, it tasted a bit off, maybe the strawberries were a bit too bitter. Yeah, it was definitely that. But you decided you’ll eat it later for sure. You wouldn’t want to waste any food. 

So, instead of choosing an outfit, you decided to watch TV for an hour and a half. When your phone rang, you were reminded of the housewarming party you needed to attend. You had decided you needed to go because it would give you a good impression on whoever lives in the house. Then, they wouldn’t bother you anymore. Plus, there's bound to be other people. So they won’t bother with you as much either. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

Getting up, after turning your reminder off, you walked through your house. It was a two floor house, bedrooms were both downstairs and upstairs, so it was pretty big. The houses in this lane are incredibly similar, but some had only one level, others had wider houses, or bigger backyard space. You only got this house because you had friends who sometimes visited your country, and you liked having people in your house. That, and your family occasionally visits. 

It felt scary to be in a big house all alone, but you had to be independent. It’s a key thing in your life, how else are you going to live? So, sometimes you buy big shoes that look like what a man would wear and place them outside, especially after getting them dirty and all. You had a bicycle and a car, so you assumed it’s all you needed. I mean, the bicycle looks like one that a couple would use, since it has a little area for someone to sit on and already has a cushion on top. It looked a bit worn so it added to the effect of someone living here. 

You hated having to depend on needing to make it seem like someone else was living with you, but you had to be safe. 

Brushing that topic aside, you reached your room easily because it was the second door on the right in the hallway upstairs. You looked through your closet to find something that could look nice on you, quickly finding your long baggy jeans and a baggy white shirt that had a shark surfing, with big bold letters on top of the picture saying “TOTALLY COOL”, your parents bought this a while back and you wore it whenever you could. It was funny.

You weren’t against dresses, you actually had a lot, but you didn’t know how your neighbours thought about dressing up like that for parties or if they were fine with trousers and shirts. You didn’t need anyone to start gossiping about you. As much as you wanted to say you didn’t care about what others thought, you did . No matter how much someone says ‘just ignore them’, or ‘they’re dumb, it doesn’t matter.’ you can’t get rid of the feeling of unease. Especially when it’s obvious they’re gossiping about you.

Dressing up, you just put on some light make up, seeing this as an event where you won’t be the main focus. You decided to put on some concealer and foundation, then began to play around with some lipstick and gloss to make your lips a bit shiny, but not stand out. Eyeliner is a must, but instead of mascara you just curled your eyelashes and decided you were good. You went back downstairs.

Since your trousers were so long, you grabbed a chunky pair of shoes and slipped them on while sitting on the stairs that led upstairs, but instead of tying your laces normally, you wanted to make it look cool. You’ve seen a lot of tiktoks with people tying their laces into bows, or other stuff. Grabbing your phone from beside you, you searched up ‘How to make butterfly laces’. You placed the phone down and watched the video, it took you a good 10 minutes to get a good butterfly, it was a bit hard since you had huge laces on your shoes. 

Satisfied, you stood up and fixed your trousers so it layered over the shoes, the back of the pants catching under your feet slightly. You pocketed your phone after checking the time, you’ll be 10 minutes early if you go now…

Oh well, who cares. 

You grabbed your keys and pocketed it once you had locked the door. You might be just next door, but you never know when someone breaks in. Might as well just make it harder.

Walking over to the house next door, you noticed how the truck was gone now, there was no trace of it ever coming here. You looked at how only some cement split the two front yards, you might have to invest in getting a little fence and a gate… Your other neighbours were a bit nosy too sometimes and you’d just prefer if their kids didn’t try to pick flowers from your tiny garden. You didn’t have a green thumb so it was hard gardening, some plants kept dying or never sprouted for some reason.

You knocked on Rus’s door, you didn’t really know who else the house belonged to so you just labelled it as his. You could hear some shuffling towards the door and a lock being unlocked– a couple of locks actually..? Did they already install locks or something? It’s been just a few hours…??? 

The door opened and revealed someone that wasn’t Rus. Instead, you were met with the skeleton you were looking at earlier, the one with a pointy skull. The embodiment of every My Chemical Romance fan back in the 2000s. He didn’t look the type to like it, but the fans would love him, maybe.

“Hi, this– uh, this is Rus’s house right? I was invited.” You quickly spoke up before he could say something, like you being a random person. Which you weren’t.

“I AM AWARE. RUS HAD ALREADY INFORMED US. COME IN.” He spoke, his voice was a bit similar to Rus’s, just a bit more deeper and hoarse? It was hard to describe it, but it was different. Matched his appearance well. He had stepped to the side so you could walk in. 

Eyes widening, you were shocked at the fact that the house was already decorated and the furniture was in place, seriously, how the hell..???

“Didn’t you guys just move in? How is everything set up already?” You quickly asked, curious on this topic specifically. Maybe if you move in the future, you could ask these guys to help you. I mean, nothing looked out of place or messy, it looked clean as hell.

“WE ARE SIMPLY FAST.” He vaguely explained, not interested in conversation with you as he walked somewhere else, you got the feeling he didn’t want you to follow though. So… You didn’t.

It was a bit awkward, just… Standing in someone’s house. That you didn’t know about…

Speaking of house, there wasn’t anyone else here but you in the entrance. You expected to hear or see someone you knew in the neighbourhood hear, but you saw nobody. You heard some foreign voices that you immediately assumed were the people who lived here, or maybe their friends? Either way, you didn’t know them.

You heard someone rush down, your eyes immediately darting towards the source of the sound, the house wasn’t formatted too differently from yours, so you didn’t have trouble figuring out where the sound was coming from.

“(NAME)! HELLO! WELCOME!” Rus yelled, quickly walking towards you. He seemed conflicted on what to do in greeting, so he offered you a high-five. You looked confused for a second, so he pointed towards his hand. “WELCOME HIGH-FIVE!” He explained, looking giddy. His energy was fortunately infectious so your face broke out in a confused grin, slapping your hand against his.

“Never had a welcome high-five before.” You commented, blowing some air out of your nose from how ridiculous it was. Not that it was bad, it was just a bit funny to you.

“WELL I AM GLAD I GOT TO GIVE YOU YOUR FIRST WELCOME HIGH-FIVE, (NAME)!!! COME!! LET'S GO TO THE KITCHEN!” He ushered you over to their open kitchen, you were right, it seriously wasn't that different from yours. From what you remembered, your landlord owned this place too, so maybe that’s why. They liked keeping things the same. 

“I like how you did the kitchen.” The compliment seemed to brighten Rus’s mood even more, him giving out a quick thanks before he looked around the kitchen. “So.. Is anyone else coming or is it just me? Not that I mind.” You were quick to add the last part, not wanting to seem impatient.

“HMMM… WELL, THE NEIGHBOURS WERE A BIT BUSY, BUT THEY AGREED TO COME ON THE WEEKEND TO MAKE UP FOR IT! BUT I STILL WANTED TO INVITE YOU! AND THE ONLY OTHER PERSON COMING IS OUR GIRLFRIEND!” Rus explained, having needed to think about all the neighbours he had asked. You tilted your head at him when he mentioned ‘our girlfriend’.

“Our girlfriend…???” You echoed, pointing at yourself, then him, and repeating that motion with a confused look. Last time you checked, you didn’t have a girlfriend…? 

“NYEHEHEH!! NOT YOU! ME, MY BROTHER AND A FEW OF MY COUSINS HAVE THE SAME PARTNER! IN MONSTER CULTURE, IT’S A NORMALISED THING. YOU COULD EITHER HAVE MULTIPLE PARTNERS WHO LIKE EACH OTHER, OR PARTNERS WHO ONLY HAVE INTEREST IN YOU, OR JUST A SIMPLE MONOGOMOUS RELATIONSHIP!” Rus ran down the whole concept, speaking like he’s rehearsed it over 20 times, which he probably did. It’s only been about two or three years since monsters came out anyways. Polyamorous relationships weren’t entirely normalised, but they weren’t exactly hated upon. Kind of. You have no clue, you never were in a polyamorous relationship. 

“Ohh. Right, cool. It’ll be great to meet her then, an extra friend for me.” You took it positively, you didn’t really care about who was dating who, you hated all couples equally if they wanted to be all mushy and weird in public.

“YES!!! FRIENDSHIP! WHAT A GREAT WAY TO PLACE IT!! SPEAKING OF FRIENDSHIP, I’LL BRING ALL MY COUSINS DOWN! IT’S ALMOST TIME TO EAT ANYWAYS!!” Rus stated before he jogged off in glee. Does this guy just not run out of joy and whimsy? It was entertaining to watch honestly, it’s refreshing too. You quickly sat down on the tall stool that was placed in front of the counter. You might need to get one of these, you never thought of getting a stool or two for your own counter.

After a few minutes, some– no, a lot of people came down. Holy shit, Pitbull needs to make a song about an 8 person party now. One’s company, two’s a crowd, eight’s a party..??

You looked at how there was a pattern in these guys. Short ones had a similar skull structure– and they all were the same height…?? Somehow?? Then the tall ones were also all the same height, maybe give or take a few inches for all the skeletons. Some of them seemed a bit taller but some were a bit shorter but they were definitely all in the same range. The tall ones had the same skull structure too– similar, actually, some of them had sharp teeth. One having a golden tooth that matched a short skeleton, were they brothers? Matching tooth core?

“Hi.” You greeted them, you got a lot of greetings back, Rus ushering you to the dining table to sit down. 

You sat at the right corner of the table, on your left, the cool skeleton who greeted you with a high five sat. In front of you, sat a short skeleton that seemed to hold himself as high as the sharp skulled skeleton you met earlier, then sat at the head of the table was the golden toothed skeleton, the tall one. The one sitting across from you seemed to be content talking to the person on his right, which was the guy you’re assuming is the golden tooth’s brother, since they both had gold in their teeth…

A few minutes pass and everyone is chatting away, you contributed a bit but remained silent as possible, feeling a bit awkward. The guy at the head of the table on your right was also silent, guess he wasn’t a fan of talking either. Something to relate to, I suppose. 

Suddenly, there was rapid knocking at the door. The sharp-boned skeleton got up and opened the door, you leaned forward on the table to see who was there. It was a girl, was that their girl–

“Caesieee!!” The new girl squealed, hugging the skeleton that opened the door for her. Was that his name? Caesie? Probably. Maybe?? You didn’t know but you figured that you might learn later. In the peripheral of your eyes, you saw the skeleton sitting across from you grimace at the girl’s entrance, weird.

“ANAIA, JUST ON TIME.” He greeted her, patting her back before leading her to the table. You were going to introduce yourself but Anaia seemed to want to talk about something, and immediately went off on a ramble, most of the skeletons encaptured by what she was saying.

“– So, I was talking to her right after, and you know what she said? That she didn’t care if he cheated or not, because then she can actually get divorced with him? It was so crazy!” Anaia had given an ending to her story, which you were listening to. Kind of surprised as well.

“Was that like… Something she’s just been waiting for? Like for ages?” You asked, and her eyes widened at the sight of you, as if she didn’t know you were even there. You didn’t blame her, you didn’t speak up after she arrived.

“Oh my gosh, I didn’t see you there! But yeah, I think? I have no clue, but my name’s Anaia! Who are you, girly?” She asked, smiling. You liked how she spoke, she seemed nice. Smiling back, you introduced yourself, mentioning that you were invited because it was a housewarming party at first. Rus nodded and smiled. He seemed a bit tense now, but you didn’t know why. 

“Oh! It’s sooo nice to meet you!” And with that, she went back to talking to the skeletons. You wanted to say something more but kept yourself quiet, maybe you shouldn’t intrude. It could make you seem weird. Maybe annoyingly persistent.

As Anaia kept talking, you just sat in your seat. Fiddling with the hem of your shirt, Rus and Caesie went off to get the food and began to set it on the table. Once they sat down, they announced everyone could start eating, to which they did. You did too, you didn’t eat on purpose so you could just eat here. 

The food was great as expected, munching down on your food you kept your eyes on your plate. Silent and listening to everything everyone was saying. You suddenly saw a bony finger tap twice near your plate, but it wasn’t loud enough for anyone else to glance at you or the intruder. It was by the golden tooth skeleton, who gestured towards the skeleton across from you with his head.

“Oh, uh. Did you need something?” You asked, lowering your spoon down, you were in the middle of eating rice and steamed vegetables.

“Yes. What’s your name?” He asked, his voice wasn’t as loud as the tall ones, but it still had a distinct personality to it, the sound of it was stable.

“Uh, (Name).” You repeated your name for the third time today, surprised he didn’t hear it when you were introducing yourself to Anaia. Maybe he zoned out? “You?” Returning the question back to the skeleton, he seemed to smile a little bit more, it didn’t feel like it was out of friendliness but more of a formality. 

“Palace.” He introduced himself easily, crossing his arms and leaning onto the table once he placed his arms onto it. “What Do You Do For Work?” Another question was shot at you. So you had to think for a moment before deciding to talk about both. 

“I work at a bakery. I also have a workshop online and physically, but it’s something I do on the side.” You did carpentry for fun, honestly. It was something you grew up doing with your dad, and just carried it into your daily life. Saved some furniture costs back when you moved in for the first time.

“Workshop?” He repeated, curiosity evident in his voice as he placed his head onto his hand, his fingers pressed softly against where his cheek was. Could you call it a cheek? He didn’t have a hole where there was supposed to be one, so maybe you could.

“Yeah, I do carpentry.” You replied, shoving another spoonful into your mouth. Chewing as you stared at him, he stared back with the same intensity. “What about you?” Your chewing muffled your words, earning you a disapproving look from him, but he still answered your question.

“I work as a lawyer.” Choking on your food, you swallowed and coughed a bit. Rus looked over at you immediately, patting your back instinctively. You gave him a thumbs up and drank some water, and he left you to be. 

“No way, really?” It was cool, you never met a lawyer before. But he may have taken your surprise to be shocked that a monster could be a lawyer, judging by his face. You quickly waved your hand in front of his face, making him move back and raise an eyebrow. “Not– not like that. I’ve never met a lawyer before, you seem nice for a lawyer too. I mean– I usually see them being rough and mean and stuff, y’know?” Rushing your words out, Palace smirked before moving your hand down to let you know you can suck your hand back to your side. 

“No need to act so shocked, for Toriel’s sake. I assume you’ve never ran into trouble if you’ve never met a lawyer.” To which you replied by shaking your head, he hummed. Knowing he was right. There was a few seconds of silence between the two of you, save for the skeletons and Anaia talking to each other. It felt like Palace was assessing you, so you just continued to eat your food. You were almost done eating before Palace cleared his throat. Is that even possible?

“Slim.” He muttered, the golden toothed skeleton immediately looking at him. Palace nodded his head towards you, you stared at him, confused. But ‘Slim’ seemed to understand immediately. In Palace’s perspective, he wanted his brother to talk a bit. It’ll help Palace assess you too. 

“i’m starting work as a music producer soon.” Now his voice was a mix of Caesie’s voice and a lazy one, talk about weird genetics. Do genetics even affect vocal chords? 

“Really? You like music? When are you starting?” You asked, curious about him now. You turned your body to face him, he seemed hesitant to continue but did.

“uh, next week.” He replied, scratching his neck. “i like music, yeah. you?” 

“Love it. Do you have any favourite artists?” And soon enough, the two of you were talking back and forth. Seems like music was a good common ground between the two of you, he even began asking more about your bakery and carpentry jobs. You noticed Palace was just staring while the two of you talked, so you looped him back into the conversation, which Slim matched.

Soon enough, the party was over as it got late. Rus volunteered to walk you out but nobody but Comic, who you learned was his older brother, responded. Everyone else– but Palace and Slim, you suppose– was busy with Anaia, you noticed him deflate a bit at the lack of response. Patting his back with both of your hands, like a bongo, you told him to speed up or else you might go back home in the morning with how slow he was. He took that comment as a joke, laughing and speeding up. Palace and Slim followed a bit curious on which house you lived in.

“That was nice, next time I’ll try to learn everyone’s name, haha.” You told Rus, walking towards your house on the sidewalk with him next to you, and the other pair behind you. You glanced behind, looking at them. “Why are you guys following? Not to be rude, just curious.” 

“wanted to see where you lived.” Slim answered, Palace humming in agreement as he kept his arms crossed. 

“...So you could break in and rob me..???” You asked, furrowing your eyebrows in pseudo-concern. Not genuine with your question.

“AH! NO! TRUST ME!! THESE TWO WOULD NEVER ROB SOMEONES HOUSE!” Rus rushed to defend them, Palace chuckled lightly as you tried to let him know it was a joke, but he cut you off before you could. “THEY’RE LIKE VAMPIRES! ASK TO COME IN AND THEN THEY’LL ROB YOU!” He joked, which caused you laugh heartily, Palace guffawing and entering a playful argument with Rus. Slim giggled, simply liking the ambience. 

You stopped in front of your door, the others on the steps to your house. “Welp. It’s time for me to sleep, see you guys whenever.” Giving them a quick wave, you went in after they gave you their own goodbyes. You were quick to close the door, slamming it shut and locking it. Sighing loudly, you were exhausted, you didn’t expect to be so socially drained from a party where more than half the people didn’t even talk to you.

You quickly moved upstairs having kicked your shoes off somewhere in the middle of the house. You took your clothes off and changed into some pajamas, deciding to shower in the morning.

Fuck, you hated socialising so much.

Chapter Text

Work was a hassle, getting up was a hassle, getting dressed was a hassle… What the hell isn’t a hassle at this point? The fucking word didn’t even seem real now to you…

Staring at yourself in the mirror, you looked down at your clothes. You owned the bakery, can’t you just… Go in pajamas? 

…No. No you can’t… You cant… If you do, then you’ll look like a homeless person claiming to own a building. Then someone’s going to call the cops or something. You’d rather not deal with that.

So, you quickly got dressed. Grabbing the ‘uniform’ (In your opinion, it’s just bakery appropriate wear.) that only you wore, since you were the only employee at your bakery. You should hire some people soon… 

The clothes you wore was a button-up shirt that had a pure beige colour, with black buttons. Then you put on your black slacks, slipping a black and golden coloured belt through the loops and adjusting it until it fit snugly around your waist. Your apron was at the bakery, so you didn’t have to worry about it. 

You opened your curtains, only to see someone doing the same. You forgot the neighbour’s house had a window to a room right in front of yours. You didn’t expect it to be… Palace? 

Eyes widening, you stared at him. He seemed busy with making sure the curtains were hung to the sides, since you could see him tying something and a bit of the curtain drooping at the top to make a curtain bang type of look on the windows. He was wearing a black t-shirt, from what you could see. It was early in the morning so it made sense if he was still getting ready.

What time do lawyers even go to their job?

It seemed like Palace sensed someone staring because he paused with what he was doing, and snapped his skull towards where your window was. Staring you dead in the eyes, making your heart almost leap out of your mouth. You clutched where your heart was, your eyes widened. His eyes matched yours, as wide as the sun at this point. 

You gave him an awkward wave, to which he furrowed his brows at. Guess he decided he didn’t want sunlight with how quickly he closed the curtains. Yikes. 

Is waving offensive or something..?? Damn. Talk about rude.

You couldn’t blame him to be honest, if you were in his shoes, you’d act the same. 

Dismissing that weird interaction, you went downstairs so you could put your shoes on and then grab a fruit from the fridge. You grabbed a banana because it was the easiest to eat on the go. Like, you wouldn’t choke on it or something. It was too soft. Maybe.

Peeling the banana, you stuffed half of it into your mouth as you fixed your pants to layer over your black shoes. Grabbing your keys and locking your door, you removed the banana from your mouth before it could rip off of itself. 

The banana tasted good. You subtly looked at your neighbour’s house, to see if they were out or not… And by subtle, you snapped your neck towards that area, scanning like you were trying to find a victim to attack. 

Once you saw nobody, you hummed. You didn’t bring your bag with you today since you plan to just quickly work and go home asap. You pocketed your phone and keys, checking your other pocket to see if you had your bus card. Yup. You did. 

You were going on the bus today because you had turned your car in to get fixed yesterday, so public transport was the next best thing. So, you began your journey towards the nearest bus station, which wasn’t too far from your house, a 4 minute walk. 

“I wanted you to know, that i’m ready to go, heartbeat– in a heart beat…” You were muttering lyrics of a song that’s been stuck in your head for ages. Bopping you head to the music in your mind, muttering gibberish as you enjoyed the music in your head. 

As you approached the bus station, you noticed someone tall there. 

Oh. It was Caesie. He seemed to have noticed you as soon as you entered hearing range, his head slowly turning towards where you were. For some reason, his gaze on you felt threatening. Though, nothing about him made it seem like he was going to attack you. 

Looking him over, he had a black shirt on under a black leather jacket, a silver chain and black pants. You look at the sky, then back at him. Isn’t he hot? Matte back usually absorbs the most light out of any other material…

“Aren’t you hot?” You asked immediately, since he wouldn’t look away from you. It’d be awkward if you just walked towards him without speaking and waited for the bus. You hated socialising, but you hated awkward silence even more.

“NO.” Simple and short, you suppose. Clearing your throat, you tried to figure out what to ask, feeling a bit unnerved by his side.

“So.. How are you, Caesie?” Continuing the conversation, your sentence seemed to cause him to choke. On his saliva? While breathing? You didn’t know, but his gaze definitely felt much more threatening now. 

“HOW DARE YOU CALL ME BY THAT NAME.” He seemed pissed. Did you just call him a slur or something??? 

“Isn’t– that your name?? I heard Anaia call you that yesterday so–”

“NO. IT’S CAESIUM. CALL ME BY SUCH. NEVER AGAIN DO I WANT TO HEAR THAT NAME COME FROM YOUR MOUTH.” Caesium stated, cutting you off swiftly and looking ahead. Yeah, he was angry with you. Talk about a great few interactions. He seemed so lively talking to Comic and whatever the orange’s name was, so why was he so angry talking to you? Even yesterday he was like that.

“..Sorry, uh… Where are you heading?” You didn’t dare to ask about the vehicle situation, keeping it minimal since he seemed mad enough. He glanced down at you before continuing to stare ahead. You figured you weren’t going to get a response, so you continued the conversation for the two of you. “I’m heading to my bakery, since I work there… And need to get money. And… Yeah.” Caesium suddenly looked over at you, eyeing your outfit before nodding. 

“If you’re not busy, do you want to come see it…?” Fuck. Why are you asking him to come? He already seemed like he was going to bite your head off, was this considered overstepping a boundary? Even Caesium seemed disinterested by your offer, tapping his foot against the floor and keeping his gaze off of you. Lord, let a time traveller come and scoop you up so you can kidnap yourself before you run into this guy. Seriously. How does a single skeleton make you so anxious.

“YES.” What the fuck. You looked up at him, but he didn’t bother looking at you. It seemed like he was already thinking about something.

Fuck all that meditation and yoga classes you took, dude. You’re jumping off a building later.

“Oh. Um. Okay.” You cringed at how rough your tone seemed about him coming, but he didn’t react. So you both just stood in silence, neither of you choosing to sit down like a normal person. Why the hell did he want to come? Why did you ask??

The bus eventually arrived after a few minutes of silence, you were mentally scolding yourself while it arrived, so you hadn’t noticed. When Caesium had cleared his throat, you looked over at him– or where he was supposed to be, noticing him about to step onto the bus. So you rushed behind him, joining him and… Literally no one else on the bus. 

I mean, it made sense. The neighbourhood you lived in mainly had elderly people or people with small families and young kids as it was known to have a more peaceful and less lively place, so most were retired or worked elsewhere. You lived here because you liked your peace and quiet. Throughout your life, you weren’t known to be loud. The only person who knew how loud you were, was yourself. 

Sitting down on a seat at the back, Caesium proceeded to sit as far from you, but in the same row. Guess that ‘Caesie’ thing really added onto his distaste for you. Fair enough. 

You thinned your lips and leaned into your seat, closing your eyes as you let your head fall back onto the wall of the bus. It was about 5:30am, the sun was still rising so it wouldn’t hurt to take a nap. It took about 20 minutes to get near to your bakery anyways. 

While you kept your eyes closed, Caesium took it as an opportunity to observe you. You could also tell… I mean, how can you not feel a gaze as heated as his? It always felt like he was judging you, and you’ve met this guy like, twice. Eventually he looked away and you opened your eyes, letting out a sigh of relief that you could breathe without being judged now.

Caesium glanced at you before looking out the window. 

“So, Caesium…” You began a new conversation, the skeleton not responding. “What do you do for work? I only know that one of your cousins work as a lawyer, and the other is like a music producer– soon to be? Something like that.” He looked over at you once you mentioned his cousins, raising an eyebrow at the choice, but nodding slowly. 

“YES. SLIM IS BECOMING A MUSIC PRODUCER…” He then paused, as if he was trying to remember who was a lawyer, his eye sockets squinting a bit before humming. “PALACE IS A LAWYER. YES. HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS.” Caesium suddenly asked, crossing his arms and moving so his body was facing you while he leaned against the interior of the bus’s wall.

“I… Talked to them..?? I’m not a psychic or something, if thats what you’re asking.” You responded, a bit confused by what he meant but still played along. He furrowed his brows– or where they would be?... Same thing, there’s brows somewhere on that massive skeleton head of his. 

“So… Like. I’m taking you to my bakery, could I please know what the hell you work as? I’d rather not go into my bakery and find out you actually work as a murderer. I’m not ready to die in that place yet.” It didn’t seem like he liked that with how he changed his gaze, yikes. Talk about a guy who can’t take a joke.

“I PLAN TO WORK IN THE POLICE FORCE.” Your eyebrows went flying up in surprise, him? Working with the police??? He seemed like he would be the one police would be chasing. “WHAT? DO YOU THINK A MONSTER CAN’T BE APART OF THE POLICE?” He asked angrily, leaning forward and keeping his arms crossed but a harsher fire in his eyes.

“Alright you’re just putting words in my mouth.” You rolled your eyes, “I never said that. It’s just that you seem like the type that would be the police would be trying to catch.” You explained, this is the second skeleton who’s assumed this, the first to verbally express it too.

“BECAUSE I’M A MONSTER.” He argued back, squinting his eyes as if he was testing you.

“Again, I never even said that?!” You matched his intensity, shaking your head and squinting your eyes to emphasise your need for him to shut up about this. He nodded slowly and leaned back, you sighed and turned yourself to face forwards. Looking at the window, you seemed to be close. And honestly, fuck if you wanna be in a bus with this guy. 

Standing up, you pressed the red button to alert the bus driver you wanted to stop here. Caesium noticed you stand up and followed, you forgot he was coming with you… 

Thanking the driver, you quickly hopped out and checked your pockets to see if you dropped anything. Thankfully, nothing was lost yet. So you began walking, letting Caesium walk behin– nevermind, he rushed forward. 

“SO. WHERE IS IT.” He asked impatiently, looking around.

“Hell.” You replied, your mood being a bit off now, I mean, who would be joyous after having someone insist you’re something you’re not? Caesium’s mood also seemed to be a bit off now, great. You honestly hope he trips now, just so you can bolt. He didn’t reply to your sarcasm and just stayed silent. 

Eventually the both of you reached your bakery, you shoved the key inside of the keyhole and entered the shop, letting him in before you went to open the blinds, pulling the chains so they rolled up. 

“This is my shop, what do you think?” You were curious on how he thought about your store, glancing at him as you finished rolling up the curtains. You chose a store that was facing the sun, and adjusted a bit of the windows so when the sun sets or rises, the sunlight hits the window and casts a pretty colour upon the inside of the bakery.

That’s what was happening now. The colours orange and yellow began to turn into a more blue colour, as the sun rose, but it gave the cafe a warm feeling.

When you looked at Caesium, he had an unrecognizable look on his face. You hadn’t known him for long, but you never saw an expression like his. It was a mix of awe and curiosity, but something else too. 

“You good, dude?” You asked, opening the counter’s swinging door and entering the employee’s area. “Do you like it that much?” 

“NO. IT’S JUST HORRENDOUSLY UGLY.”

…Okay.

Wow.

Your shock was evident, because when he looked at you, he smiled. 

“Get out.” You sighed, shaking your head. You didn’t need this type of negativity, did someone piss in his drink or something? You went into the back of your bakery, in hopes that Caesium would just waltz out. But to your disappointment, when you had returned, he was still there. This time, he was looking at the empty glass display that normally had pastries in it. It was curved outwards so he could place his gloved hands onto the glass and lean a bit.

You noticed his gloves just now, it’s not even cold, whats the point? You didn’t want to ask though.

“WHERE ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES.” Caesium suddenly asked, normally in a store you would see the employees and, if there’s any, a manager opening up the store. Not the owner of the store. 

“Uhh… Don’t have any?” You replied, spraying the cleaner liquid you grabbed onto a rag and cleaning the counter. Suddenly, a phone began buzzing. You immediately picked yours out of your pocket and checked if someone was calling you, but nobody was. Looking up, Caesium had already fished out his phone from his pocket, accepting the call. He turned towards the left to face away from you and began talking.

“HELLO? WHAT DO YOU NEED?” He asked, however his tone didn’t seem impatient. “WHAT? WHAT DOES HE NEED?! DOESN’T HE HAVE HIS OWN DAMN PHONE– OH? BROKE?? HOW THE FUCK… WHATEVER. GIVE THE PHONE TO HIM.” Nevermind, it was definitely impatient and irritated now.

You watched from behind the counter, he used his hands a lot while on phone. Scrubbing the same spot over and over again, you eavesdropped on his call… Not really, his voice is incredibly loud and you can’t hear anyone else.

“YES. RUS, WHAT DO YOU WANT?” Caesium asked, tapping his foot against the floor. He seemed to be content with talking to the person before Rus, now he seemed normal– fast-paced and rude. Nodding along to whatever was on the phone, he glanced at you.

“NO– PLANS WERE CHANGED. IM AT (NAME)’S BA– WHERE? IT’S– CAN YOU LET ME FINISH!?” He yelled all of a sudden at the phone, causing you to flinch from how random that was. Though, it was easy to assume that Rus was interrupting Caesium with random questions…

“NO– YES IT’S DOWN NEAR THE COMMUNITY MALL, THE LITTLE SHOP CENTRE WITH ALL THOSE THRIFT STORES AND CAFES. NO– NO- YES, NO… YES!! YES THAT ONE. FINALLY– YOU’RE COMING HERE???” As soon as he asked the final question, he pulled the phone away from the side of his skull and look down at his phone, confused. 

“Is everything alright?” You asked, noticing you barely cleaned the counter, you began to wipe around the surface properly. Sometimes, you got too absorbed in listening to other people’s conversations… What can you say? You like drama.

“YES. JUST FINE.” Caesium sarcastically replied, turning his phone’s screen off and placing it back in his pocket. “IT SEEMS LIKE THE VANILLA HERO WANNABE IS COMING OVER.” 

“The– the what?? We have a vigilante??” This immediately threw you off, who the hell is ‘The Vanilla Hero Wannabe’..????

“NO– RUS.” He exasperatedly said Rus’s name, as if it was going to kill him if he said it once more. Now it made more sense… Kind of? Caesium rolled his eyes when it finally registered in your head, opting to take a seat on one of the two seater tables.

“So… Uh. When is he coming?” You were confused, why would Rus want to come anyway? Don’t any of this guys have jobs…??? I mean, Palace obviously does, Slim’s starting his in a few days– a week was it?? Caesium was going to be a police officer… But you had zero clue about anyone else. 

“DON’T ASK ME.” Who the fuck are you supposed to ask then??? Your imaginary friend???

You didn’t speak up though, staying silent and finishing the counter off by starting to wipe down the glass display too. Moving around to go back to the front to wipe it down. 

While cleaning, you glanced behind yourself to see what Caesium was doing, he was looking outside the bakery’s windows from his seat. Maybe he was watching out for Rus? You couldn’t figure him out. He was like a Katy Perry song. He was hot and then cold…?

You went to the back to grab a broom and mop. There was two hours until opening so you could take your time. Finding both tools, you grabbed some soap and water and put into the bucket– midway, the bell to the door rang as someone came in. You dropped everything to check who had the audacity to come into a closed shop so early in the morning.

Surprise, it was Rus! You forgot he existed while you were trying to remember how much soap you put into mop water.

“HELLO CAESIUM!!! HELLO (NAME)!!!!!!! I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WORK AT A BAKERY!!!! WHERE IS THE OTHERS?!” Rus was already energetic, he wore a cropped shirt– his spine visible– paired with those jean shorts again. But this time they were a bit shorter, above his knees and it was ripped a bit on the bottom, a cute look on him. Especially with the… Picture of him? On his shirt? Did he get a custom crop top with his own face??

“Hi Rus! I–”

“SHE DOESN’T HAVE EMPLOYEES. SHE’S THE OWNER OF THE SHOP. IT’S DEPRESSING TO SEE SUCH A POOR STORE.” Caesium sighed, obviously attempting to provoke you. He leaned back into his chair, he kind of reminded you of Palace. You knew everyone had a pair, but you didn’t know who was blood-related (bone-marrow related???) to who. You should ask Rus later.

“WHAT!! YOU DON’T?” Rus suddenly asked, shocked by the revelation. 

“Nah. Never needed any, business is slow and…” You trailed off, watching Rus walk towards you with a weird sense of compassion in his eyes. 

“I UNDERSTAND… YOU MUST BE BROKE!!” Rus exclaimed, placing both his hands on each side of your shoulder, shaking your head. You heard a bone slap onto something, glancing behind Rus to see Caesium’s hand over his teeth, closing his eyes… Was he holding his laughter back???

“I’m– I’m not broke??”

“IT’S ALRIGHT. I UNDERSTAND YOU’RE TRYING TO KEEP YOUR DIGNITY IN FRONT OF CAESIUM AND I!! BUT ITS ALRIGHT!!! I WILL ALWAYS HELP A FRIEND IN NEED!” Looking up at him, you were fighting an internal battle. Do you say no to his help, or do you say yes? On one hand; you might hurt his feelings if you say no, on the other hand, you get free help. 

“Okay. If you want to help… Can you mop the floors?” You asked, deciding to just go with it. If someone said you’re broke, then I guess you’re broke now. In response to your request, Rus’s eyes brightened up. He immediately turned around towards Caesium.

“CAESIUM!!! GET UP!” He called, to which the other skeleton gave him a confused look. 

“WHY AM I HELPING?” Caesium replied, crossing his arms. He frowned even harder. If he was a human, he’d have wrinkles from how much he frowns… 

“MY GOODNESS.. (NAME)... HE’S BECOMING LIKE HIS BROTHER… A LAZY BONEHEAD!!” Rus gasped, slapping his boney hands over his teeth as if the situation had shook him to the core. But, thanks to Rus’s immediate taunting, Caesium stood up. Knocking the chair he was sitting down. 

“HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT TO ME!?!? I AM NOT! IN FACT, I’LL CLEAN BETTER THAN YOU! YOU’LL KNEEL DOWN AT MY FEET BECAUSE HOW WELL I’LL CLEAN THAT YOU’LL BEG!  YES, BEG FOR MY ASSISTANCE AGAIN! MWAH HAH HAH!!!” Caesium yelled, immediately stomping over to where you were earlier, behind the counter, after flipping the swinging door open and marching into the back of the bakery.

You heard some stuff being moved around, guess he was trying to find the mop. Looking up at Rus, you raised an eyebrow.

“Was that on purpose?” 

“PURPOSE? WHAT?... NO! OF COURSE NOT, NYEH-HEH-HEH!!” He replied, waving you off with a massive grin on his face. It was definitely on purpose. He seemed to have a brighter attitude when he was out of the house from what you saw last time, it was a bit odd, but you suppose everyone had bad days at home.

“Whatever you say…” You played along, a smile on your own face. “Could you set the mats and seasonings onto the table?” At your request, he seemed a bit confused.

“I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BAKERY, THOUGH?” He asked, only noticing how odd the tables and chairs seemed now. 

“It is, but we have some items that allow people to sit and eat– like a cafe I suppose… Do I even run a real bakery..??? What..” You trailed off to your own thoughts when you realised it was similar to a cafe. Rus stared at you while you were in your own mental battle.

“WELP! I KNOW MUFFET’S IS SIMILAR! SO DON’T WORRY, SOME BAKERYS TEND TO HAVE SEATINGS!! IT’S STILL A BAKERY!” He tried to reassure you, Rus did the same thing as you sometimes. So he knew how to deactivate it, patting your shoulder, he decided to move on. “WHERE’S THE MATTING AND ITEMS? DO YOU HAVE A PICTURE I CAN GO OFF OF?”

You quickly whipped your phone out, showing him a picture. He gently grabbed your wrist to pull the phone closer to his face instead of grabbing your phone. Then, he let go of your hand, having successfully studied the layout. You told him where the decorations where and he rushed off. 

While he went in, Caesium came out with a mop. Ready to scrub the floor back to hell. You opted to go to the kitchen. Your bakery sold pastries and cakes, so you normally came in the night before to start. Truth be told, you forgot this time. 

When you realised you forgot to bake some items beforehand, you groaned into your hands. Quickly grabbing an apron and hair-net, you got to work. Item by item.

20 minutes in, it seemed like Caesium was done mopping the entire store, even in the tiniest spots. You glanced up, mid-mix. He stared at you, then the metal bowls you were using. Sighing, he walked away into one of the rooms, coming back with an apron in hand. He put his head through the loop and tied the strings around his back quickly. 

A bit confused, you stared at him. He quickly noticed when he stood next to you, in response, he placed his left hand on his hip and leaned onto his left leg. 

“WHAT?” Caesium seemed ready for confrontation already. You shook your head slightly, as if to say nothing was wrong.

“I was just going to ask why… You’re in the kitchen..?” You struggled to put words together to form a sentence, not sure on how or what to ask him. Why he was wearing one of your aprons? Why was he helping? 

“BECAUSE YOU SEEMED PATHETIC AND IN NEED. THE GREAT CAESIUM NEVER IGNORES SUCH A PATHETIC BEING.” He announced, patting his chest in pride. You furrowed your brows in response, a bit concerned about how big his ego was proving to be. You glanced at the door that led outside, and he caught on.

“RUS IS BUSY CORRECTING THE PLACEMENT OF THE CHAIRS AND TABLES. AND FIXING THE COUNTER. HE’S ALSO THOROUGHLY WIPING DOWN YOUR PASTRY DISPLAY…” The skeleton rolled his eyes, facing the kitchen island you were working on and looking around. He had seen the board that was above the counter earlier, the ones with all the pastries and cakes. He turned to look in the ovens, crouching down, it seems like you had a few going already.

“But I already wiped it down?” You muttered, continuing to stir the dough in the bowl until it began to form. 

Standing back up, Caesium grabbed the container of flour you had put on the island, and a bowl. Putting it in one area and going off to grab eggs and such. “IT’S BETTER IF HE BUSIES HIMSELF.” He left it at that. Returning with some ingredients and getting to work immediately. 

In truth, Caesium hasn’t baked in a while. Last time he did, it was underground. This world’s underground. His eyebrows furrowed in memory of the underground, how weird it was, how… claustrophobic it was. Instead of lingering on those thoughts, he kept mixing.

Noticing his aggression being put into mixing, you let him be for a while. The two of you were like that for  a few minutes until Rus popped into the kitchen as well. He seemed to be sweating bullets, but it didn’t seem like it was because of fixing and cleaning. 

“IM SO SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO SKIP OFF!!! THERE’S AN EMERGENCY– ARE YOU COMING, CAESIUM?” Rus rushed his words out, an emergency? Looking over to Caesium, you saw an irritated expression. Seems like he knew what this was about, but didn’t look or say anything to you.

“NO. YOU CAN HANDLE IT JUST FINE, CAN’T YOU? TELL MY BROTHER TO COME HERE. I DO NOT WANT HIM MIXED UP IN THERE.” Caesium demanded, having paused his motions since Rus popped in. The worrisome skeleton just nodded, not phased by his attitude and rushed out after yelling a quick goodbye to you.

Caesium went back to pouring the batter into cake moulds after putting some extract in each bowl. Meanwhile, you were just concerned as hell. What emergency had Rus rushing like that? At the same time, it was none of your business. You had just met the guys yesterday– but at the same time, it’s their first day in a new house and they’ve already got an emergency.

However, it seemed like a topic Caesium didn’t want to talk about. Or maybe he had a resting bitch face? No clue.

“So uh… Palace doesn’t seem lazy.” You started a new conversation, to which he snapped his skull towards you for. 

“HE IS NOT. WHY BRING HIM UP?” Caesium asked, moving around until he reached a vacant oven and placed the cakes in there. He made about four one-tier cakes. Quick baker, you noted. If he wasn’t going to be a police officer, then you would’ve asked him to help you at the bakery. 

“I mean– Rus said he was a lazy bonehead?” That had Caesium turning and looking at you like you were a mad man, then looked at the wall while trying to figure out what you meant. Then his face slowly looked back towards your direction.

“PALACE IS NOT MY BROTHER. WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT!?” He sighed, crossing his arms. Quickly unfolding them when he felt flour from his apron touch his bones. Suddenly, the both of you heard someone knock on the glass door before the bell rang. Indicating someone’s entered.

You walked out the kitchen to see who it was, Caesium walking behind with little to no tension. He seemed to know who was here. Looking at where the door was, you recognised the skeletons, he was the one talking to Palace the other night.

“‘ey.” Caesium’s brother raised his hand, not waving it but deciding it was good enough for a hello. He shoved it back into his jacket. He was dressed up in a black parka, red turtleneck– you could see a glimpse of something golden under the folds of the turtleneck, a necklace maybe?–  long black shorts with a yellow stripe on the sides of it, yellow socks and red shoes. Oh, and he red gloves too. But they looked more like mittens compared to Caesium’s.

And he was sweating, no wonder. It’s summer, why is he wearing all that? 

“Hi.” You greeted back, feeling a bit awkward before Caesium spoke up.

“THATS MY BROTHER, CRACKLE.” He pointed at the short skeleton. You stared at Caesium, who looked down at you, before looking at his brother. Your eyes widened as your mouth fell into a small ‘o’. 

“Thats your brother?” You asked, shock evident on your face. In all honesty, you thought Crackle was related to someone like Slim. “I thought he was like… Slim’s or something. They have matching teeth and all…” You pointed out, which caused Crackle to raise an eyebrow and approach the counter. Since he was closer now, you could tell he was sleepy. It was almost 7am now anyways.

“why are we talkin’ like i ain’t even here? ‘that’? what? am I some branded microwave now, ay?” He asked, chuckling. He yawned and basically unhinged his jaw with how wide he opened it, lazily waving his hand in front of his mouth as if he tried to cover it. He slowly blinked his eye sockets.

“My bad, haha. How are you?” You asked, smoothing out your apron as Caesium went back to the kitchen to check on something. 

“i’m doing a’ight.” His reply was bland, but it was expected, you two just met and he’s tired. “knock knock.” 

Raising an eyebrow, you slowly replied. A bit confused on how sudden it was. “...Who’s there?” 

“are ya a here?” Crackle raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he was genuinely asking the question, but it didn’t make sense. So you continued.

“Are you a here who?...”

“one, it’s pronounced hero, two, nah. but you’d be mine if you lemme sleep somewhere around here.” He grinned, showing off his golden tooth unconsciously. A small smile slipped onto your face, that joke was horrid. Genuinely, horrible. You had to take a second before replying, knowing you’d burst out in giggles if you tried talking.

“I do have a little staff break room– which is just for me, actually. You can go there. Do you want me to show you where?” You got a nod in response, so you opened the swinging door for the fifteenth time today, letting him into the back and pointing him towards the You Room, can’t even call it a staff room.

You looked to the side, seeing Caesium work on the cakes, and you decided to start putting out the pastries that you’ve made into the display areas. Walking in and out of the kitchen. It was already opening time… With Caesium working on the cakes, it’d be finished before 9, hopefully. 

Once you flipped the sign at the door to say ‘OPEN!’ you made sure to not to move from behind the counter too much. The day went by quickly, Caesium proudly presenting the cakes he’s made and placing them in a nice area inside the display glass. It seemed like he was planning to stick around until you finish. So he ended up working in the back for any person who wanted something to eat here, or a drink. 

You didn’t know why. 

It was almost like he was avoiding going back home.

Crackle woke up about a few hours after you had led him to the You Room, asking if he could get some mustard. You told him you didn’t own any, so he opted for a chocolate shake. You told Caesium to take a break and he did, mentioning that this hour of day, 2pm, didn’t have a lot of customers. 

The three of you talked about nonsense, none of you mentioning the ‘emergency’ at home. It was just about the customers.

Sooner or later, you closed the store at 8pm, surprised the two had stuck around for so long.

“Didn’t the two of you have plans?” You asked, pulling down the blinds for the windows, Caesium had his jacket in his arm, his phone in the other, texting someone. 

“PLANS? NO.” Caesium replied, smiling at his phone. Crackle snuck a peak at who he was texting and got shoved. Laughing at whatever he saw. 

“Well, thanks for sticking around. Hope everything is fine with Rus, though.” You mentioned Rus, which caught Crackle’s attention.

“y’mean the grand ol’ hero, Rus? don’t worry, i was checking up and the guys thought there was a burglar, turns out it was just our distant cousins visiting, heh. haven’t seen the two in ages, y’know?” He explained flawlessly, watching you walk out the bakery, the two skeletons following. You locked the door to the bakery, it was a bit breezy outside now. “too bad they left so soon, might get to see ‘em again later.”

“Really? I get that. Once, I thought someone broke in but it turned out to be two of my friends that got in because one of them had the key and the other was drunk.” You related, letting Caesium walk behind the two of you. 

“what time was it?” He asked, happy to continue the conversation with his hands in his pockets. For a second, you thought the fur on his parka flew up like flames, but there wasn’t anything when you looked at it. Must’ve been some bit of fur flying off.

“2am? I was busy writing down some bills and deadlines when it happened, so I was stressed-stressed. Like, holy shit, I’m already mentally going insane, is this guy gonna actually make me lose my mind?” You animatedly told, causing Crackle to let out a few loud cackles. He seemed to laugh heartily whenever he did. 

“So, how’s Anaia?” You liked her, she seemed pretty and nice. Welcomed you as much as she could, in your opinion. You knew Crackle was dating her, so you wanted to hear more about her. Crackle seemed to sense that you didn’t have some sort of malicious intent behind the question, and didn’t hesitate to talk about her.

You didn’t notice, but Caesium was glancing at the two of you a lot. Especially whenever Crackle said the name ‘Anaia’.

After riding the bus back home together, you bid the skeletons goodnight. They went in first, but you noticed something odd. 

Even though Rus was the one to open the door, you saw someone different next to him, you didn’t recognise them from the dinner party… Didn’t Crackle say they left already? 

They looked at you before the door closed, which ran chills up your body. Shit, it felt like you got caught. You quickly walked into your front yard, then walked up the porch and opened the door. You rushed into the house as quickly as you could, it wasn’t like you were in danger, but it felt like you were invading their privacy by looking at that person's eyes for some reason.

You locked the door, and went up to change back into your pajamas. You made sure the curtains were closed before changing. After you did your nightly routine, you got curious if Palace was in his room, so you opened your curtains. Sadly, the curtains were still closed. Blowing a raspberry to nobody, you closed your own curtains and flopped onto your bed. The thought of that cousin for theirs kept pestering your mind, but you still managed to fall asleep.

Maybe tomorrow will be good too.

Chapter Text

Sitting in your bed, you scrolled on twitter to see if there were any new album releases from your favourite artists or new games. You remember there was one that was released on June 4th– or was it the 5th?– but you were too busy to see what it was. 

Speaking of busy, it’s been a few days since you've talked to your neighbours. Mainly because you were trying to avoid too many interactions with them. For all you know, they could start asking you to join dinners, or go to some shady area that they call a fun place, or even hang out with them for a whole day. 

The bakery day with Caesium and Crackle was more than enough, and then getting chills up your spine when you made eye contact with– assumably– their cousin? You needed a break.

Thankfully, none of them had your number so they couldn’t text and ask where you were or what you were up to. You got a few texts from your friends so you had just texted them back a few minutes ago. The bakery was lively as usual, and now you’re just at home. You didn’t want to go to sleep since it was 10pm and nothing’s really happened to exhaust you. 

Out of nowhere, your stomach rumbled. Reminding you that you haven’t had dinner. So, you got up and walked down the stairs, going around the island and grabbing a bag of rice out of your lower cabinet and pouring it into the sieve you had. You felt like having fried rice, maybe shrimp fried rice specifically. Your friend made it for you a while back, and now you’re craving it. 

After washing the rice, you poured it all into the rice cooker and made sure to add water into it as well, making sure to put the appropriate ratio. Then closed the lid and made sure you pressed the button that starts the machine. Last time, you forgot to, and ended up having to wait even longer.

You were about to go grab the shrimps in the freezer, but you heard a weird noise near you. Specifically at the front door. You paused for a few seconds, waiting for the noise to come back, but you didn’t hear anything. 

Shrugging it off, you opened the freezer and pulled the shrimp packet out of it, grabbing frozen corn, peas & rice before closing the door. You placed the ingredients down and grabbed some garlic, green onions and eggs as well. 

Grabbing a pan as well, you put it onto the stove and put some vegetable oil and sesame oil before putting the shrimps into the pan, cooking it over medium-high heat. After about a minute and a half– maybe closer to two minutes than half– you flipped the shrimps over. 

You decided to grab your phone and put on some music, it was a bit eerie with how quiet it is. That and the random noise you heard earlier. 

Putting on your favourite party playlist, you hit shuffle and let the music play as it willed. The first song that it chose was ‘Don’t Stop the Party’ by Pitbull, ft. TJR. You grinned and put the volume higher.

Grabbing a plate quickly– and after rinsing– you put it down near the stove and transferred the shrimps into it. You realised you forgot to cut the green onion, so you quickly got to work.

You noticed the rice hadn't finished cooking, so you turned the heat off and waited for the rice to finish cooking. It might ruin the process, but who cares, you’re the only one eating. You never complained about your own food.  

Busy listening to your music, you didn’t know the slow knock against the glass doors to your backyard. ‘nor did you notice the threat at that door, the curtains were drawn over that area, hiding them.

You were having your own concert, harmonizing to the near end of ‘Can’t Hold Us’ as if you were an actual singer. Truth be told, you can harmonize, but you aren't used to it anymore. The last time you actually sang was in choir in primary school.

Suddenly a loud bang hit the glass door, and you snapped your head towards the offending sound. Hesitantly turning off your music. You shouldn’t go near the sound— you should call the police, what if it’s an intruder? You slowly walked towards the door. Pushing the curtains to the side…

To be met by a cat? 

You stared down at it before opening the glass door and crouching down, giggling.

“Can’t believe I got scared by a cat, you're so cute!” You pet the cat, it was a black one with… pretty sharp fangs. Their fangs were slightly poking out of its mouth, but then something caught your eye. The collar.

The cat seemed pretty tame and used to touch, so it’s no surprise that it’s a pet. You used your finger to bring up their cat tag.

‘Doomfanger’, well, the name fits? Fangs were the most prominent feature on the cat. You turned it around to see if there was a name or number—

‘CAESIUM SERIF, CALL HERE IF LOST’ with a bunch of numbers following… This was Caesium’s cat?

“and I can’t believe that you fell for bait that easily.” Followed by a dark voice, you slowly looked up to see a skeleton that had a bigger size than the other skeletons that looked like him. At first, he looked like Comic, but you noticed his eye— then the hole in his head— Then the bone about to slam down at you.

You launched backwards, the flight bit of ‘fight or flight’ kicking in immediately. Eyes widening, you scrambled to get up as he tore the bone back out of your floor. The cat left as soon as the violence began.

“What the fuck?” You muttered, looking back up at him. You could sense the intent to kill. You immediately bolted upstairs, to your room. The large skeleton followed behind, the thrill filling him up with fulfillment.

Running to your room, you locked your door, frantically looking around for something to push in front of it. You shoved your dressing table right in front of it. Right after, you rushed towards your phone and grabbed it. Your hands were shaking like you were insane, trying to type in the emergency number.

Suddenly you heard a crack in your door, whipping your head around, you were just on time to see a large bone pierce through the wood of your door. You screamed as you backed up towards your window. The bone stabbed through a few times before it made a hole, a red eye peeking through. 

“guess you could say you make me feel hole .” He chuckled, you looked behind yourself— at your window… Could you…?

You didn’t have time to think as you heard your door knob break, and the skeleton slam against the door. He managed to begin moving the dressing table away from the door. You quickly pushed the window up, looking if someone— anyone— was awake and able to help. You grabbed your phone with you and jumped from the window, a fucking horrible mistake as you felt something in your body break, but the adrenaline didn’t let you process. You laid flat on the floor and took a few seconds to get up, the shock stilling your body but you forced yourself to get up.

The skeleton following you had successfully broke through your door, but didn’t see you. He looked outside the window and found you getting up and beginning to run. Muttering a small ‘ fuck ’ he rushed back down.

You spotted someone right before you were about to bolt down the street. You couldn’t stop in someone’s house, so you yelled a loud ‘HEY!’ and they turned around. It was Anaia. 

Your eyes widened, and so did hers, she seemed to recognize your distress and the way your sleeve was cut. You hadn’t noticed that the bone had grazed your arm when you dodged his first hit.

She was in front of the skeleton’s house, but she stopped herself from entering for you.

“Anaia— please!! Call for help, there’s a fucking maniac—“ you paused as you immediately felt that insane aura you got from the skeleton when you looked at him first. Whipping your head around, you ran. You couldn’t use your phone while running away because there was a chance you could trip and let him catch up.

You bolted down the street, praying that your legs didn’t fail you. You used to do some sports in high school but you never continued them. Your body wasn’t used to the exercise anymore— but it didn’t let you slow down. It forced you to keep running from him. 

You didn’t want to die.

“slow down— it’s rude to run from a friend, ya know?!” You were right, he was already following behind. Your hair whipped around while you ran, you tried figuring out how to lose him. 

Turning left, you entered an alleyway you knew didn’t have a dead end. It led to the markets and even at this time, there would be people roaming about. You knew there were some troublesome teens and genuinely dangerous adults, but they weren’t the type to turn away when someone was about to die.

In the end, they still had good morals when it came to the people in this town. Sure, they had their fights with one another, but they never let someone die in this town unless it was by a natural cause. Everyone was close with each other.

But you could be wrong, you were naive. You are naive. You opened a door for a fucking cat and now you’re here running from a murderer.

Suddenly, a wall of bones burst up from the ground, causing you to stop in your place. You heard the grunts of the murderer you were running away from become louder.

“y’know, you should pay for the fact you made a starving man run. you shouldn’t be acting like this, I just wanted to know if we’re friends, kid.” He spoke as if you two were friendly acquaintances, you slowly turned your head around, not speaking.

“don’t look at me like that. a guy’s gotta do what he has to do. and honestly, this wouldn’t have happened to you if that other neighbour was still around.” He sighed, scratching his chin with his phalange, you backed up and your back hit the wall of bones 

“I ain’t regretting this, that’s for sure. gotta kill the asshole who made me run miles. no hard feelings. ” He inched towards you, you felt your heartbeat race. All you could do was watch, but you still wanted to scream. You could still find help if you just tried . 

So you screamed, with all your might. You screamed until your own ears rang, until your voice became hoarse, until the psycho in front of you looked confused by your voice. You weren’t going to die with your voice still stuck in your throat.

You lived a mediocre life, nobody saw you more than a pushover. They saw you as a polite little girl. Never as someone who had their own feelings, urges and desires. 

Crackhead rolled his single eye..light? it looked more like an eye than the eye lights you saw on the other skeletons.

You put your arms up to defend your face as he got ready to slam the thigh bone he had in hand down onto you. 

But the blow never came, instead replacing a loud sound of two cracks. 

Your eyes opened in surprise, seeing the skeleton you talked to at the dinner. Palace. 

He had a sharp weapon of his own, it was like a bone but shaped like a broad sword. The middle of the sword broke but he slid his bare skeletal hand over the sword, fixing it with some of the bone marrow that came out.

“Must you cause so much trouble? You’ve just arrived a few nights ago, Cracks .” Palace rolled his eyes, as he kept his hands on each side of the sword. One on the sharp edge, and one on the handle. ‘Cracks’ slammed his weapon down on Palace’s sword– right in the middle– with more force than before, his grin was lopsided and full of irritation.

“thought i told ya to not call me that.” ‘Cracks’ reminded, pushing his weapon down even harder, they were different heights. ‘Cracks’ was taller than you, that’s for sure, but he was taller than Palace too. You and Palace were similar in heights, just an inch difference. 

“Well, beggars can’t be choosers, can they? And I think we all can tell–” Palace grunted as he loosened his defense for a second before doubling his strength and forcing the skeleton backwards. “You’re dirtier than a filthy beggar.” You could tell that it was a double-sided insult, something darker meant by it. 

Because Cracks seemed like he was about to kill Palace, with how he was about to slam the– now sharper and cracked– bone into Palace’s skull. However, there was an array of bones that surrounded him, caging the beast. 

“MY GOODNESS! I THOUGHT WE AGREED TO TALK IT OUT, ERRR.. PLACEHOLDER NAME!” Rus rushed in, his left hand spread open as three layers of bones– that acted as walls– caged Cracks. A few more skeletons had popped up, and the wall Cracks had made faded away. There was a skeleton with a white shirt and blue scarf wrapped around his neck, swaying in the wind. It looked a bit like a cape.

“MISS (NAME)! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” He rushed over to you, he knew your name but you didn’t know his. You nodded as your knees finally gave out when he turned away to look at Cracks. You sat on the floor with your knees tucked under your bottom, your hands running through your hair. 

Palace left your side to talk to Caesium, who came a bit later. 

A hand touched your back, you flinched violently but looked up to see Anaia’s worried expression.

“Are you okay? I immediately told the household you were in trouble– I’m so sorry about Cracks.” She talked to you softly, crouched down to your level. You stared at her, on the edge of tears as everything flooded into your system. You almost got fucking killed . 

You took a breathy exhale and nodded. You couldn’t cry here. Not in front of all these people.

No matter how much you wanted to, you couldn’t be a crybaby. It was instinct. You just couldn’t . 

You stayed kneeled on the floor as Anaia got up and petted your head before walking over to the skeleton that asked if you were alright, and Palace walked back over to you when he finished his conversation with Caesium. He grabbed your arm and pulled you up abruptly.

“I’ll take you home.” He stated, brushing your sleeve off for any dust, you winced as he roughly brushed it down. It wasn’t the arm that got a graze, but the one you roughly landed on. Palace suddenly looked up at you when you had given a reaction to his touch. His eyebrows furrowed.

Looking around, it seemed like everyone was busy talking and figuring out what to do– and Cracks seemed to be joking around now. It was insane to you, how could he switch that easily..?

Palace gently pushed your back to indicate for you to start walking. So you did. When you walked past the people that were there, your saviour grabbed the back of your shirt.

“Keep your mouth shut for the next few seconds.” And you didn’t hesitate to do so, you didn’t have any plans to even talk. Suddenly, it fell like you were falling. The same feeling you got when you woke up from a dream you fell in. It felt scary. 

Then, you were in front of your home within seconds. You were shocked at how you were miles away and now you’re here, but amazement wasn’t the right word. Could Cracks have done that? Was he playing with you?

“oh my god– ‘ey! belt whip and chef!” You heard a voice from your ride, and you looked at where it came from. Fuck. You really didn’t want to talk to any more skeletons now. Call it racist, but the red ringlight in Crackle’s eye reminded you of Crack already– fuck even the damn name reminded you of him!

Suddenly gripping Palace’s arm– out of instinct to find something to shield you– he had gotten the memo. He also found similarities immediately when the filthy skeleton had come out last night. So he figured you might be a bit freaked out right now. 

A lot freaked out would be a better way to say it. 

Looking at Crackle, he seemed confused by how you acted before the skeleton looked back at Palace. The latter tapped the side of his skull, near his eyelights. Crackle’s eye sockets widened, realising what he meant. 

“shit. er. my bad, chef.” Crackle quickly rubbed his eye sockets with his hands, squeezing his eye sockets shut for a second before opening them. His eyelights were white now– he had both eyelights now, instead of having just his left eye. 

“what th’ fuck even happened? i heard Anaia yellin’ in the house and next i know more than half of everybody’s gone, i see chef’s window wide open but i got’ta chance to see the door in there shattered and– the fuck even happened???” Crackle rambled for a few seconds, using his hands to gesture and picture a lot of his words. You were blankly staring for a while, hell, why the fuck were you standing around here for?

Your room’s door was broken, the backyard door was still open– bugs could be coming into your house– the food you were making… You didn’t even get to eat . Your dressing table was probably broken too– was the flooring broken? He had slammed that shit weapon of his into the floor.

Palace sighed and waved Crackle off. 

“Do you not see how terrible she looks? She almost got killed, Crackle.” That had stilled the skeleton, his eyes widening. As if he couldn’t believe it, then, the cogs in his head began turning and his hand slapped over his mouth. 

“no fuckin’ way, did that big guy do it? i knew it was weird that he wanted to check the garden–” 

“ You’re the reason why that nutcase got into my house?” You interrupted Crackle. He looked at you, slowly furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. 

“not– no, i just–” He tried to figure out what to say.

“Actually, fuck that. Why the hell is a murderer living with you guys? The fuck? I thought you were a lawyer? Aren’t you breaking the law by hiding a fucking murderer??” You yelled, on the border of crashing out. You seriously shouldn’t have even talked to these assholes, because of it, you almost got killed by– by their cousin??

“I personally don’t tend to him. If I could I would ship him to another place... As if anybody would even want him in their country.” Palace muttered, clearing his throat, he wanted to get off this topic before you endured any more stress. “Now, would you like to go to the hospital now, or tomorrow?” He asked, glancing down to both your arms before back at you. Crackle followed that movement and raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw one of your sleeves and… Well he didn’t know what’s wrong with your other arm, he couldn’t see your skin.

“Now…” You sighed, you had a feeling you broke your arm, it was hurting a lot, but for some reason: you couldn’t find the voice to complain about it. To be honest, your voice was hoarse, you might’ve killed your voice when you screamed for help. Nobody mentioned it though.

“Right.” He nodded, before pulling his phone out and texting someone with one hand. Then, all of a sudden, Slim had come out of nowhere. He had a long black parka, similar to Crackle’s, but the hood was over his head. Looking at you, then Palace, he gave a small wave. You didn’t return it.

“He’ll take us both.” Palace explained vaguely, grabbing Slim’s left arm, gesturing for you to do the same. 

“‘ay can I join y–” Crackle immediately shut up, seeing the look on Palace’s face. Maybe not a good time, then… “...neva’ mind. you guys stay safe or whateva’.” He gave him a brief wave, grumbling about something, probably cursing out Palace.

“Slim.” Palace called, his younger brother nodded and within seconds you were in the hospital. This didn’t look like the one you knew of, though. It was one of the hospitals out of town. 

You didn’t ask questions, and they didn’t prompt you to ask any, so you all went through the process. You had come up with an excuse for the reason why you were so roughed up, saying the three of you went to mess around in the forest that was up hill but you tripped and injured yourself. 

The nurse believed it easily, nodding. He gave a small nod towards Slim, who reciprocated it. Seems like they’ve been here before, or they know each other.

The process of getting checked up, then being given a cast for your injured arm was quick. There was a monster doctor that said the cast had a magical property that helps both monsters and humans heal faster. It normally goes faster for monsters since they have pre-existing magic in their body– so it feeds into the magic that exists in their body to help heal their bones– but it’s slightly longer for humans. But better than the normal casts. 

It was about 12am when you guys got out of the hospital. You felt… Weird.

As if this all was a dream and you were going to wake up. Looking up at the sky, you stared at one star that shone brighter than the others. Slim followed your movement while Palace was doing something on his phone, you didn’t check what though, you honestly couldn’t give a fuck.

“Would you like to go home, or grab something to eat?” Palace asked, looking at you. You muttered to have the latter, and he nodded. There was a place that was still open, so you all went there, it was a fast food restaurant. Sitting down, Slim offered to go to the screens and just order it. You gave him your order and Palace just said he’d take a drink, it looked like Slim already knew what he meant and he skittered off.

You and the short skeleton just sat in silence, he sat across from you, but you both were next to the massive window. 

“Um. Thanks for saving me, by the way. I would’ve been split in half if it wasn’t for you, haha.” Awkwardly thanking him, you used your less injured hand to scratch the spot in front of your ear. Palace didn’t look away from his hands on the table for a moment, but his eye lights went up to look at you, his head unmoving. 

“It’s hard to ignore a shrill scream like yours.” He stated, his left hand playing with his right hand. Now that you think of it, he was bleeding– or the skeletal equivalent of bleeding– when he was defending you.

Your hand reached his right hand, flipping it so his palm was facing up. You were right, there was a massive gash on his hand. Palace ripped his hand away from you, his eyes wide open. However, there wasn’t shock on his face, it was more like anger. 

“Do not touch me.” He stated, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. It’s weird how he and Caesium sat in a chair similarly. Same amount of slouch– which was a tiny bit– and crossing their arms. Clearing your throat, you nodded awkwardly. Slouching into your own chair, maybe you should fix that habit, checking on people unnecessarily. 

“I understand you might think we are friends , however, that is not the case.” This caught your attention, so you looked at him in the eyes, him returning your gaze. “In this world, it’s give and take. I gave you the chance of survival, you owe me your life .” Maybe it was your head, but for a second, it felt like he was threatening you. 

“Right.. Um. What do I ‘owe you’ then?” You asked, internally, you began to understand Crackle. Mainly because you were cursing Palace out in your head, you just survived a murderer and now he’s making sure you know you owe him shit for saving your life? Maybe being sliced was a good idea. You just met this guy a week or so ago.

“We’ll see.” He ended it there, his brother came back with your food and Palace’s drink, he got himself some fries. You ate your food happily, to be fair, you’ve been starving. Now, you just felt tired of it all. You felt a tap on your hand. Looking up, you saw it was Slim that tapped you.

You were about to look at Palace, because that’s what Slim did last time he tapped near you, but this time the golden-toothed skeleton offered you a fry. 

For some reason, that began to lift up your mood. How could a soggy fry make you feel better? From a weirdly quiet guy, no less. Taking the fry from between his index and thumb. Slim seemed happy and just kept eating his food, Palace didn’t even glance at what the two of you were doing, busy in his own thoughts.

You would be the same, but Slim seemed to loop you back into whatever he was doing. At some point, he managed to tie two fries together..??? You were a bit confused on how he did it, but you clapped nonetheless. He seemed comfortable just doing random shit instead of talking, and so did you.

Soon, you finished your food. Palace finished his drink, and Slim finished his fries– save for the ones that he kept in between his teeth to represent his inner walrus. He was adamant on keeping them in his mouth. None of you stopped him though.

Slim helped blip the two of you back to your house. 

You stared at your house, your heartbeat beginning to race slightly. It unnerved you to go in. Hell, to even step foot in your own garden. 

A heavy hand fell down onto your shoulder, nudging you slightly. You looked to your side and saw Slim silently encouraging you to go in. But when you looked down at the grass– the same patch of grass that you ran onto when Cracks was chasing you– you saw how ruined it looked, you looked at your front door and saw it was slammed open. Probably by Cracks when he realised you were about to escape…

Slim had recognised the face of defeat and sorrow on your face, the look of fear. It was all mixed around on your face. He looked at Palace, who was on your other side, for permission. Palace simply nodded, and Slim grabbed you gently by the wrist before walking forward slowly.

“What are you doing..?” You asked, slowly following. Palace was right behind you. Your heartbeat quickened, not because of any romantic feelings, but fear. Were they planning something? Why the both of them? Was this all a ruse?

“inside…” Slim muttered, going up the steps. But froze when he heard something fall in your home. You froze as well, backing up in fear. Palace had stopped you by placing his hand on your back, patting you before opting to go forward. Slim let his older brother go, knowing he was much more qualified to recognise and deal with danger. 

When Palace stepped into the house, and looked to where the sound came from. His face morphed from stern to disbelief. He looked all around the house, chuckling before waving the two of you in.

Slim made sure to step in front of you, walking ahead before his gloomy face turned into absolute amazement. He ushered you in with a smile on his face, and you did.

When you walked in, your eyes widened like theirs. Your house was spotless somehow, nothing looked like it was broken on the first floor.

“WELL? WHAT DO YOU THINK!” Rus asked, a bit nervous. Your head pivoted to the right, where Rus had just dropped a soccer ball by accident… It looked deflated too. You didn’t care though, you were shocked by the fact you were gone for only an hour and he managed to fix up your first floor?? Alone??

“This is– I’m so grateful, Rus! Did you do this alone? It looks great!” You exclaimed, absolutely joyful, which Rus returned tenfold when he realised you weren’t irritated by him touching your stuff. 

“ALONE? NO! JAY HELPED ME!! JAAAYYY!!” Rus suddenly yelled, suddenly Jay appeared– it was the skeleton who asked if you were alright when Cracks was caught. 

“MWEHEHEH!! JAY IS HERE! HELLO (NAME)! I FIXED YOUR DOOR!... UHM. BUT YOUR DRESSING TABLE IS BROKEN. I’M NOT IN WOODWORKS SO..” Jay scratched his nape as he sighed, a bit guilty but Rus patted his shoulder, to which helped Jay get back on track. 

“I’M SO SORRY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH CRACKS TODAY!” He began, a genuinely guilty look on his face. “YOU SEE– UM… IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT TO DO… LIKE LEGAL ISSUES..” Jay glanced at Palace, “THEN YOU CAN COME OVER IN THE MORNING TOMORROW! WHEN MOST OF US ARE OUT AND IT’LL JUST BE RUS, PALACE, AND I! AND MAYBE SLIM..?” Jay looked over at Slim this time, who shook his head. 

“job stuff.” He replied, pocketing his hands. Jay nodded and looked back at you.

“JUST US THREE THEN!” He slapped his hands together, grinning even wider. Rus nodded frantically. 

“YES!!! DON’T WORRY ABOUT CRACKS TOMORROW, WE’VE DEALT WITH HIM!” The first thing that popped up in your head was murder, but they didn’t seem to be the type to do that..? 

You nodded slowly, scratching the back of your neck. After a bit of chitter chatter between all of you, Jay and Rus had to go due to them needing some sleep after all this. You watched them go, but Palace and Slim were still standing next to you.

“I suppose we must go too. It’s getting too late.” Palace gave you a brief nod before looking at Slim who gave you a quick wave before following Palace near the door.

“Wait!” You cringed immediately how loud you said it, as if you were some movie character. But it worked, the both of them turning around– almost in sync, how cool– and waiting for you to say what you needed. Palace looked a bit impatient but Slim seemed fine. 

“Could I get your numbers..? Uh, just… In case something happens again.” You explained yourself, Palace nodded after a few seconds. Making a grabby-grabby motion, and you immediately knew what he wanted. Putting your phone into his hand after you opened the contacts section of the phone app.

He was typing before pressing ‘done’, handing your phone off to his brother– who did the same. Then Slim returned your phone back to you. You glanced down at it before looking back at them, they were already halfway out the door.

“Goodbye, (Name). See you tomorrow morning.” Palace had given you a half-assed goodbye, not bothering to turn towards you. Slim contrasted him easily, waving at you with both of his hands, waving his arms around before catching up to his elder brother.

You smiled at Slim’s behaviour before closing the door. He was kind of similar to Rus with how he acted, but again, not so similar. You didn’t want to think about it so you quickly went upstairs, a bit cautious out of fear. You saw your door surprisingly with no hole and the knob was fixed. Talk about a real professional.

Looking inside, you saw your dressing table in a corner but some of the drawers were put next to it, that's probably what Jay meant. It was fucked. You sighed, and grabbed your pillow and blanket.

You didn’t really feel safe in your room, or anywhere right now. So you opted to go to your favourite spot, from the day you bought this house till now. It was the attic that you allowed nobody into. Kicking a certain part of the wall, the trapdoor fell loose. You jumped up and grabbed the edge of the retractable ladder and pulled it down.

It was a struggle to climb up with one arm and with items you needed, but you figured it out eventually. Placing the stuff you needed next to the trap door, you pressed a button on the side of the top part of the ladder which caused it to start retracting itself. 

Then, closed the little door and clambered onto the inflatable mattress you had brought up when you found this place. You had made this your second bedroom, for when times were rough and you needed to escape. 

For some reason, you had relief and safety rush into your body when you looked up at the window that was on the other side of the attic. Laying down on your bed, you could get a perfect view of the moon. 

Slowly, the moon’s lullaby began to flood your ears. The sound of rustling leaves and weak wind pushing against the window lulled you to sleep, as if it was trying to tell you that you were finally safe.

However, in your dreams… You had dreamt of Cracks, but he wasn’t the main focus. But this much more beastly character was, teeth split towards different directions, stained red and pink, and you assume he liked keeping his mouth open… Or he had a dislocated jaw. 

Moving a lot in your sleep, you eventually fell into a deep sleep. 

But you best pray you don’t die tomorrow.

Chapter Text

When you had woken up, you expected to be in your bed without a cast and bandage around your arm. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t what you woke up to. Hell, you woke up a bit too early. Your phone was ringing beside your ear. Wiping your drool off your face, you sat up and rubbed your eyes with your uninjured hand, lazily grabbing your phone and clicking accept. You were hoping to sleep in…

“Hello?” You started, your voice raspy. It was a Friday and you don’t think you had any plans today. 

“Hello. Did you just wake up? You didn’t forget about the fact you’re meeting the others and I, did you?” Palace asked, impatience visible in his voice. Fuuuck … You forgot you had to meet the murder of skeletons… The word ‘murder’ soured your mood immediately.

“ Give me a break, dude… ” You muttered, rubbing your eyes as you processed the fact you had to go their house. You got up and stared at where you were. Right… The attic.

“Pardon? Could you not mumble?” He asked, a stern tone applying to his voice. Rolling your eyes, and holding a sigh back, you hummed.

“Yes I just woke up, no I didn’t forget.” You lied, you were a bit moody in the mornings and Palace, despite saving your life, was just a bit annoying in your eyes. He reminded you of your mum, but he accepted your answer. 

“Good. I’ll open the door in five minutes.” He hung up, and you were left holding your phone against your ear for a few seconds. Trying to process what he just told you, and it eventually clicked.

Five minutes???????

You jumped out of your bed, your stomach feeling queasy as you worried about being late. It felt worse than just queasy, it felt like something bad was going to happen again. Your palms sweaty as you realised you had to enter the house that the guy who almost killed you lived in.

You stomped on the trap door with one foot with a safe distance and dropped down the blanket and pillow you used yesterday. You should get some separate ones for that room specifically. 

After dropping it down and pocketing your phone, you climbed down the ladder before letting it retract back up and tucking the door back up so it looked like it never existed in the first place. It camouflaged that well.

You did your daily routine; go to the toilet, brush your teeth, wash your face, and get dressed but way quicker. You slung your purse over your right shoulder so it rested on your left hip and quickly shoved some necessities. Spraying perfume on yourself, you sprinted down and out, worried about being late.

Reaching their door within seconds– which wasn’t surprising, you were neighbours – you panted slightly. Mainly because you had to run down the stairs. Thankfully, your left arm wasn’t hurting as much as it was yesterday. But your right arm– the one with the graze– throbbed a bit. 

Man, you should’ve rebandaged it. Why the hell were you so worried about how they perceived you? Their cousin almost killed you– you were only mad because they apparently knew how insane he was with how they reacted. Scoffing, you adjust your bag and knocked on their door. 

Within a few minutes, the door had opened. Palace had a shit-eating grin, with Jay right behind, utterly confused. 

“HELLO (NAME)! YOU’RE EARLY!!!... VERY?? EARLY?” Jay stated, glancing at Palace who slowly turned towards him with the same bitchy grin. “OH MY DAYS. PALACE!! CAN YOU STOP IT WITH YOUR LITTLE PRANKS? YOU MADE HER RUSH OVER AT 8-AM?!” Jay slapped the back of Palace’s skull, the skeleton returning that blow but towards where his stomach would be. Seems like they’re close? I mean, they’re cousins, why wouldn’t they be?

“Just having a bit of fun. Mwahaha.” He played it off, retreating into the house. Jay rolling his eyelights as he turned to face you, smiling. 

“SORRY ABOUT HIM! HE LIKES TO PLAY AROUND. SURPRISING, RIGHT?” He took a step back to allow you in, before closing the door when you entered. Causing you to flinch. His expression morphed from his playful smile to a more tense smile. Remembering the reason for you visit. He patted your shoulder, before walking ahead. Seriously, what is up with skeletons and patting?

You followed into the lounge, which allowed Rus to realise you’ve arrived. He immediately checked up on you, asking about your cast and your other arm.

“YOU DIDN’T REBANDAGE IT?! THAT CAN CAUSE INFECTIONS!! WHAT WAS THE RUSH?” Rus asked, not rolling up your sleeves but just bending your right arm to check if it had any problems before letting it go.

“ PALACE .” Jay explained, Rus immediately understanding and sighing loudly. Muttering a lot ‘ OF COURSE… ’ 

Rus sat you down, Palace returning with a cup of milk instead of anything fancy. You raised an eyebrow at him to which he ignored. Jay had disappeared for a few seconds before he had come back, not saying anything about what he went away for. 

“OKAY… SO.. THE TOPIC… UM. CRACKS ..” Jay began, leaning forward and placing his elbows onto his knees. “I UNDERSTAND IF YOU WANT TO PROCEED WITH PROSECUTING CRACKS WITH WHAT HE’S DONE! I CAN’T GUARANTEE THAT PALACE WILL BE YOUR LAWYER THOUGH, IF YOU’RE THINKING THAT–” He was cut off by none other than the devil he spoke of.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Palace asked, placing his left leg over his right. Curious about why Jay felt like he wouldn’t. Yeah, maybe it was inappropriate to interrupt but he was curious. He might be mature, but he’s not polite.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU’LL BE REPRESENTING CRACKS IF YOU–” Again, cut off.

“What do you mean I’ll be representing that bag of filth? I’d rather die than do that.” Palace scoffed, which caused Rus and Jay to tense up slightly. Remembering what happened last time he said that and Rus sweating slightly from that memory while the latter rolled his eyes.

“STILL? I THOUGHT YOU DON’T LET PERSONAL FEELINGS EFFECT YOUR WORK.” Jay countered, which initiated a whole different thing. This was getting awkward for you, so you looked at Rus. He sensed you were staring, so he looked back at you. 

You motioned that you were going to get some water, he just gave you a thumbs up and pointed towards the kitchen. At the same time, both Palace and Jay stood up, aggression visible in their body language. Welp, while they fight, you’re going to get a nice glass of water and wash your worries away.

Stepping around to make sure you didn’t bump into the coffee table, you walked to the kitchen. You mentioned they had a similar structure, it did– but the kitchen wasn’t open to the lounge. It was open to the dining room, which meant the room was big.

However, you didn’t expect to see someone else in there.

You slowly looked up at them, they looked like Rus.

But they weren’t, not with the way their eye-sockets were tiny and their teeth were basically bent over each other. The pink tint to some of his teeth worried you a bit.

What the hell happened to this guy?

“Um. Hello… I didn’t know anyone other than– um, the ones in the lounge was here…” You tried to make conversation, he squinted to try figure out who– or maybe what?– you were. 

“WELL. MY NAME IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” He announced, bending down slightly to offer a handshake. It wasn’t needed, but it was probably to add flair to his introduction. You shook his hand.

“I guess you really are cousins with Rus, haha! You have really similar names, Papyrus, Rus…” You responded, shaking his hand. You expected a gentle grip but instead it was decently tight. He could snap your bones if he wanted.

“...NYEHEH. TRUE! COUSINS, YES!” He seemed to be a bit confused at the start, before snapping back to normal. He cleared his throat. “I PREFER BEING CALLED CAPE! IT’S A VERY GOOD NAME!” ‘Cape’ let you know, you nodded and just respected his choice. 

“I’m here to get some water, how about–” You were abruptly cut off by a different voice this time. Someone you didn’t see today either.

“(Name)!” Anaia called, waving towards you as she entered the room. Wrapping her arms around your shoulders– careful of your cast– she squeezed you lightly, grinning. “I was so worried about you! Are you okay?” She asked, rubbing your shoulders as she furrowed her eyebrows in concern, glancing at Cape before at you again.

“Oh.. You met his brother…” She said in a more sorrowful tone, looking down at her shoes. That had you curious, who’s brother? You still haven’t connected each skeleton to a  brother, could this be Jay’s brother? Or that orange guy’s? 

“..Who’s?” You asked after a heartbeat, Cape seemed like he was about to answer, but Anaia did instead.

“You know? Cracks?” She slowly said his name, your eyes widening and snapping to where Cape was. The skeleton himself was confused why Anaia was saying Cracks’s name like that, and looked at you. His expression changed from confusion to slight surprise and curiosity, why did you seem to look at him like… that when Anaia said he was related to his brother?

“Cracks…’s brother?” You asked, to which Anaia hummed in reply. She still had her hands on your shoulders, squeezing them all of a sudden.

“I– I didn’t want to say this but,” She glanced at Cape with a look that you say had genuine sorrow within it. “I don’t think you take legal action against Cracks… Or even report him–”

“ What ?” You interrupted, shock slapped across your face. You switched between looking at her left and right eye, settling on her right. “What do you mean I shouldn’t– what??” 

“I mean it, (Name).. Look at him .” She whispered the last part, squeezing your uninjured arm for a second to add emphasis. So you did, you looked at Cape. Who was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Do you think he’ll survive without his older brother..? I know he attacked you but… The place they came from, it was bad– horrible .. It took a toll on their health, and Cape– he’s already in a bad place, his brother? Worse…” She looked down at her shoes, you tilted your head to the side too try see her face and saw her lip quivering. Your eyebrows shot up, is she… Crying over this??

“Anaia?” You called her name, now it was your turn to touch her shoulder in a way to try to ground her, or get her attention. She slowly looked up at you, her eyes watering, as if she was on the verge of tears.

“ Please . They just… Need help, (Name)... Cracks isn’t a bad person he’s just… broken …” Anaia tried to explain, you mentally cringed at the word ‘broken’, the word psycho would fit him better but you didn’t say it out loud. You looked at Cape, who was weirdly fixated on Anaia.

The nail of your index finger scraped against the skin around your thumb. Your heart felt like it was sinking but also ready to jump out of your throat. Your stomach felt nauseous, your palm slowly became sweaty. Swallowing down your spit, you were debating. Cape did look horrible, and Anaia was saying he couldn’t live without his older brother, what if you were wrong?

Were you jumping to conclusions again? Should you just back down for now? Palace and Jay were literally yelling at each other because of it, who knows what’ll happen to Cape, you didn’t know how the others felt about Cracks. Sweating even more, you decided. Especially with the gaze you felt on your head as you had unconsciously tilted your head to look down. 

“ (Name) .” Anaia repeated your name with a tone you couldn’t recognise. So you cleared your throat.

“I’ll…” You paused, and glanced at Anaia. She nodded, and you took a deep breath and exhaled. “Drop… The legal stuff…” Announcing it, you felt sick for saying it, but Anaia was happy. 

Why did you care so much about how others felt? 

“Thank you– thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!” Anaia squealed, hugging you. Hearing you wince, she stepped back and gasped, apologising frantically. 

Suddenly, it all clicked for Cape when he was watching Anaia’s expressions. His face dropped in realisation. The way you looked at him upon realisation, the cast, the reason why Anaia was so fidgety before you came and was lingering around the kitchen. It all made sense.

He reached out to you, but Anaia snatched you and led you out of the kitchen. So you didn’t notice how Cape was debating on either actually going to you and asking about what happened, or to watch everything go down. 

“Jay!” Anaia called out, which made Jay stop himself from starting to choke Palace, both of them having weapons against each other. The cyan themed skeleton jumped up from his spot, no longer straddling Palace’s hips on the floor to be able to gain the upper hand in their fight. 

“ANAIA!” He exclaimed, rushing over to give her a tight hug. You stepped to the side so you wouldn’t be intruding on whatever they were doing and planning to do. Instead, you walked over to Palace, offering a hand to help him up.

Palace slapped your hand away as he brushed off any dust on his outfit. Standing up and grumbling, he fixed the red scarf around his neck, rolling his eye lights. Muttering something about Jay being a bitch. You let your hand stay limp next to your body, but you glanced at Rus.

You suddenly noticed that Anaia didn’t say anything to him– nor did you. Feeling a bit bad, you whisper-yelled a small ‘Rus!’ which had him snap his head towards you. Giving him a small wave, he grinned. Suppose the guy just wanted someone to notice him. 

“YOU’RE DROPPING THE CHARGES!?” Jay yelled, which caught your attention. You began sweating on the spot again, the anxious feeling crawling back up your body. You nodded, scratching the back of your neck. Then you noticed Palace looking at you like you’re insane.

“YOU’RE DROPPING THE CHARGES? ARE YOU INSANE? HE ALMOST KILLED YOU?” You’ve never heard Palace at a volume like Jay’s, seemed like it was by accident too. He quickly cleared his throat, reprimanding himself. Internally, he didn’t really care about you dropping the charges: he just wanted to throw someone in jail for attempted murder. Imagine that on his records, successfully put a person in jail for that. Now that dream’s gone.

“Yyyesss….” You cringed at how soft your voice was, but you couldn’t really yell in this house. It’s obvious everyone could out-yell you. 

While you were getting yelled at, someone else was too..

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU FORGOT THE RESTRAINTS!?!?!?!” Caesium yelled, sitting in the back of the car next to Cracks. “DID NONE OF YOU GET IT!?” He yelled once more, surprisingly, Cracks was still asleep. 

“look, i didn’t mean to forget it– Jay was rushing us out.” Comic tried to deflect, glancing at Slim who was driving. Slim didn’t speak at all, ignoring the yelling. He was in the passenger seat so he had to turn to look at everyone else. 

Zen and Crackle were playing chopsticks with their fingers, ignoring Caesium’s yelling as well. Sighing, Comic decided he was on his on with this one.

“SANS.” Caesium stated, Crackle’s grin widened a bit more, easing up once he was called. 

“ ‘das me.” He replied back, tapping Zen’s finger with one of his. Turning Zen’s ‘4 chopsticks’ into 5, and forcing the guy to lower his hand. All he has to do now is get rid of the other one to win. 

“WHEN WE ARRIVE AT THE BEACH, I WANT YOU TO GO BACK TO THE HOUSE AND BRING THE ROPE. BECAUSE I SURE AS HELL DON’T TRUST THAT NUMBSKULL TO GET THEM!!!!” Caesium yelled, causing Comic to chuckle and sit back straight. 

“didn’t know you liked punny jokes too, ian mckinley.” Zen joked, adjusting his orange hoodie with his free hand as he tried to figure out how to win. “what did ya think of that joke, Cape?” He asked, waiting for a response. 

Caesium’s eyes widened as he realised, and because of the silence, Zen turned around to realise they forgot Cape.

“...oh god.” Zen muttered, and Slim turned around for a second, then looked back at the road. Then he took a double take and immediately pulled over to the side of the road. 

“you guys forgot to get Cape into the car!?” He gasped, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning around. He made eye contact with Caesium, who motioned with his eyes to just kill everyone in the car. Slim deadpanned at that and Caesium– assumably– rolled his eyes with how he rolled his head slightly. It was a joke, maybe. Not really. He was going to attack Comic within a few minutes if something goes wrong again…

Everyone sat in the car, silent. The only sound that came was Cracks’s soft snoring. 

“WELL.” Caesium started, shaking his head slightly as he looked back at Slim. “WE CAN’T DO MUCH. I’LL TAKE THE WHEEL.” He announced, flicking Crackle’s skull to indicate for him to shuffle over so he can open the car seat that’ll let him out. He grabbed the pulley string and pulled it harshly twice, the seat in front of him folding and lifting up so he could get out of the back-most seats. 

Slim got out of his seat, waiting for Caesium to walk to the driver’s seat.

“y’got this, big boss.” He smiled at Caesium, handing the keys over to the guy. He knew Caesium liked to actually feel the car start under his hands, they were close friends. Nobody really knew that though, it was their little secret. 

Caesium grinned confidently.

“YOU KNOW I DO.” He laughed, patting the skeleton’s shoulder before playfully shoving him to the side so he can get in. To others, their chat seemed like Slim was warning Caesium about something, and Caesium’s shove looked like he was irritated by it.

Oh well, that’s the curse (blessing, in this case?) of having a resting bitch face.

Slim got into the car, pulling the folded seat back to normal as he was next to Cracks now. Still sound asleep. Somehow.

Crackles chuckled when he saw Slim, giving a small wave. Zen then tapped Crackle’s hand and his eyes widened.

“how the the fuck did you win?!” He exclaimed, eyes rapidly checking how he went wrong. Suddenly, the car reversed. Making Crackle fall to the side and hit the arm rests. “what– what the hell’s goinG ON–” He yelled again as the car sped forward. Making him fall back into his seat this time

Zen immediately put his seatbelt on, clutching on for dear life as Caesium began speeding. Comic was holding onto the handle above his window. Crackle was holding onto Zen not bothering to put his own seatbelt on.

“s-slow down, dude– please!!” Zen pleaded, now clutching onto Crackle with one arm.

Cracks was awake, but he didn’t tell anyone. Like Slim, he didn’t move too much with Caesium speeding forward. Barely seemed phased. Slim glanced at Cracks, and realised he was awake. 

The scarier skeleton grinned before closing his eyes again.

Unfortunately, his attempt of ‘aura-farming’ was shut down immediately as Caesium pulled a hard right, sending everyone flying to the left side of the car. All hell went loose as soon as most of the skeletons, save for Comic, flew to the left side. Crackle was over Zen’s lap and Zen was already halfway to heaven. Slim was clutching onto the head of one of the seats as his lower body slid to where Cracks was… Which was flat against the wall.

“ the fuck are you doing, Caesium!? ” Cracks yelled over everyone’s groans. Caesium glanced at Cracks in the rear-view mirror before straightening the car up.

“MAKING THIS EXCITING. THAT’S WHAT.” He snorted, his gloves gripping the wheel even tighter as he stepped on the gas. Everyone was yelling at Caesium to slow down, even Slim at this point, but he didn’t bother. If they tricked him into coming, then he’ll make sure he’ll have some fun too.

Eventually, the car stopped and everyone scrambled out. Caesium seemed satisfied as he stepped out too. He fixed his shirt, though, it didn’t fit his tastes… Black and red, he wanted to wear more than just these two colours, but…

Shaking his skull, he turned to see Crackle approaching him. 

“i call dibs on drivin’ back, head honcho.” He stated, Caesium’s jaw dropped. Irritated that he didn’t think to call dibs first.

“THAT ISN’T FAIR! YOU DIDN’T EVEN LET ME THINK AND CALL DIBS!” Caesium stomped his foot on the ground twice, irritated as Crackle’s expression change from discomfort– which was from the insane car ride– to an easy going smile. Laughing lightly at his little brother’s behaviour. 

While the two chatted, Slim watched from afar. He looked down at his feet.

Could he and his brother be as close? 

He knew that Caesium endured the same thing as Palace, that Crackle endured the same thing he did. But… They were closer. He could see how Crackle pushed Caesium away– trying , but the younger one was always so… persistent . 

Palace wasn’t. 

At some point, Palace began to accept their distance. Slim didn’t notice when, but one day, his older brother stopped coming to his door to tell him goodnight. He stopped asking if Slim’s got all his things, like his keys, or his emergency phone, or his double emergency phone. Hell, he’s even stopped asking if he’s still smoking… 

So what did that mean?

Sure, he looked out for Slim, who wouldn’t make sure that their little sibling is around danger? But… It felt hollow.

It didn’t feel like they were the same two lame teens they used to be back then. 

“hey.” Zen called, touching Slim’s back as the taller one out of the two of them flinched. He chuckled, patting the frightened skeleton’s shoulder. “it’s just me. you good? you were staring at the floor for a while , buddy.” He asked, curious on what was wrong. 

“nothing.” Slim replied, shaking his head and moving forward to get closer to Caesium when the pairing had finished talking. Caesium was still a good friend to Slim, regardless of the relationships that surrounded the two of them. Regardless of the fact that Caesium acted more like comfort and an escape from the world than a friend.

Comic was busy trying to pull Cracks to the beach with the rest of them.

“come on big guy, you sure you didn’t gain a skele ton of weight while gobbling up all that food?” Comic joked, the heels of his shoes literally digging into the floor under them as he leaned backwards to put more weight into pulling Cracks out.

“ you’re just calling yourself fat. you know? ” Cracks said, suddenly taking a step forward and causing Comic to almost fall over. He let out a low chuckle before he walked forward. Looking around. “ so. what are we doing here. ” 

“we’re just going to sit here, chill out and all. heh.” He replied, looking as calm as ever. Pocketing his hands into his pockets. 

“ where’s papyrus. ”

“home. we kinda forgot him.”

Cracks slowly looked at his slightly shorter alternate, a boggled expression on his face.

“ what do you mean you forgot him. ”

“i mean we forgot him.”

It was silent for a bit, save for Caesium yelling at Zen for trying to lick the sand to piss him off in the background.  

“‘eyyy i’m back with some pop-si-cles.” Crackle interrupted the conversation, a lazy grin on his face as he shook the popsicles in his hands into the air slightly. Emphasising the fact he got some for everyone.

“come on. this’ll be good for you.” Comic told Cracks, walking over to Crackle to casually snatch one. Cracks stood still in his spot, debating something. 

Was it really okay? He’s left everyone in Snowdin to starve and fend for themselves now. So is this really okay to do? 

“mister macho man, you ain’t getting any?” Crackle came up to the frightening skeleton, at ease. He had only two popsicles now, the rest given away. Offering one to him.

“ no. ” He denied, looking away and at the empty beach. Weren’t these things supposed to be full or something?

“i’m offerin’. just take one and get your mind off’a things.” Sighing, Crackle tilted his head, wanting the guy to just take the damned ice pop and get on with their day. But that seemed to be the wrong thing to say, as Cracks’ mood began to swing around again.

“ get my mind off of things? yeah. real easy to say. ” Cracks turned his entire body to face Crackle, the latter not showing the fact that this intimidated him slightly. 

“yeah, cuz ‘yer acting like a real weird guy. almost killing a person then acting all buddy-buddy like it ain’t even happened.” He snarled, rolling his eyelight. If Cracks wanted a fight, Crackle was happy to start one properly.

“ you got a problem with me doing my job? ” 

“what type of job has ya killing humans so people can eat ‘em when ‘yer already out the damn place ya came from? Jeffrey Dahmer Co??” That seemed to confuse Cracks a bit, to which Crackle used to his advantage. Grabbing the big guy’s tightened fist and shoving the popsicle into his hand after he opened it.

“ the fuck– ”

“take th’ damn thing and just eat it. i wanna say i get it, but i don’t, yeah? shit on everyone’s parade but mine, i’m here to actually enjoy my life.” Crackle stated, opening his mouth and stuffing the popsicle into his mouth before he grabbed Cracks by the arm of his jacket. Mentally, the skeleton was screaming at his behaviour, but he had to keep the rough and though look for a bit longer.

Meanwhile, Cracks didn’t argue mainly because he didn’t want to escalate the situation. If he was right, acting out meaning a 5v1, sure, he could mess around and beat them, but would Papyrus accept the fact he hurt people even when they’re out of the hell they came from?

Papyrus didn’t even know that he had attacked some weird girl yesterday. 

All the others were sitting on the ledge of the cement floor. Their legs dangling off, some legs closer to the sand than others. Crackle sat down next to Slim, giving a look to Cracks. A mix of a glare and and invitation. The other received it well, chuckling at the attitude was given his way.

Honestly, Crackle was a bit irritating in his eyes, but again, didn’t want to bother with a 5v1. So he sat down, holding the popsicle in his hand as everyone talked to each other. Crackle and Cracks were the only ones not talking, so Crackle opted to talk again.

“so. ya feeling hot or something?” Crackle asked, biting off a chunk of his popsicle. Cracks raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering how that question was relevant to anything that they’ve talked about so far. “‘yer pop’s melting all over ‘yer hands.” He pointed out, chewing on the ice in his mouth. 

“ wh– well shit. ” He stared down at the melting popsicle, switching it to another hand as he licked his hand clean.

“ew man– keep ‘yer fucking hand away from me.” Leaning away from Cracks, he held a foot up in defense.

Talk about pairing two assholes together, they manage to get along fast. 

“ don’t ya want a taste of the icicle? c’mere. ” Cracks moved his hand near Crackle, who kicked his hand immediately. That didn’t falter Cracks, having dealt with humans that squirmed, and slapped his hand onto the shorter skeleton’s face.

Nobody talked for a second, having noticed what Cracks did. Slim cringed at the slobber on Crackle’s face, and also the fact that Crackle didn’t like people touching his face unless they were like. Weirdly close to him.

“the fuck.” 

Crackle slowly wiped the spit on his face off. All of it on his hand as he looked towards Cracks who was eating the ice pop with no care in the world. 

He slapped his hand onto the side of Crack’s head, wiping the spit on his hand off onto him. 

From there, it went to hell. Both of the skeletons at each other’s necks, irritated the entire trip until they got into the car.

When they got into the car, Cracks completely switched. Making lame jokes as Zen was plotting on jumping out of the window. He might be a swapped version of the original, but they still had similar tendencies. Like the need to jump out of windows. Comic grabbed the edge of his hoodie as soon as he felt the vibe shift. Shaking his head. 

Slim was sat on Caesium’s lap, the lower skeleton grumbling about how fat Slim was.

“SERIOUSLY. WHY COULDN’T WE HAVE JUST OPENED THE SEATS WE CAME IN!?” Caesium yelled, staring down at Comic.

“payback for that hell of a ride you gave us earlier, heh. what? can’t be assed to handle Slim?” He replied, ignoring how Zen groaned even louder than the last at every horrible pun Crack made. Caesium deadpanned at Comic’s attempt of a pun, shaking his head as he looked away.

“ON EVERYONE’S LIFE, THIS CAR IS GOING TO CRASH.” Caesium announced, knowing his brother was too good of a driver to crash the car. 

“nah ya can’t be saying that–”

“ great, now we’re gonna die. ”

“over a pun..???”

“please let this car crash. but let me walk unscathed, big bad wolf.”

“whoopsies.” 

“YES OVER A PUN DEAL WITH IT!!!!” Caesium yelled back at the variety of responses, rolling his– well, rolling his skull slightly to emphasise his eye roll.

In comparison to your day?

They had a better one.

…But you were having trouble under Cape’s intense stare while you walked out the door with Rus. 

He had offered to walk you back home, wanting to talk to you in private which everyone seemed to be find with. Save for Palace, who was acting pissy.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” You asked, a bit nervous after all the havoc that was raised by Jay basically announcing your decision. Seriously, how could two skeletons create more chaos than ten? 

“UM. ABOUT– YOUR DECISION…” Rus began, wringing his fingers as he thought about how to bring it up. Mentally, you prepared him to try ask you to either carry on with pressing charges and sending Cracks off or make sure you don’t switch your decision at the last minute.

“Yeah?” You replied when he didn’t say anything more, and suddenly, he stopped walking. So you did two, looking behind yourself to see if Rus almost tripped over something or if there was some bug. Papyrus was on the exact line that separated the two houses on the side walk. While you were one tile closer to your house.

He looked up at you, a stern expression on his face.

“WAS ANAIA THE ONE WHO MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?”