Chapter Text
Five minutes before closing time.
You’ve been telling yourself this since the last hour.
The smell of stale coffee grounds and cleaning wipes grows all too familiar when you finally finish clearing out the last shelf of pastries.
Stuffing a croissant into your bag as you walk out the cafe’s back exit, eyes heavy, back aching, and feet overworked and sore, you’re barely able to keep one eye open as you approach the front door of your apartment, the keys leave the lock before you stumble inside.
The place smells the same as it always does, of air freshener and even more stale coffee.
You manage to make it to your room, collapsing onto your bed before closing your eyes. For you, the best part of your day is finally closing your eyes to take a nice long nap and a nice comfy dream to go with it.
Your eyes shut as you drift off into deep sleep. You see yourself into the dream world, walking into a cozy cottage, the candles amit a warm glow - it’s a nice change from your own lackluster apartment. The place is filled with memories and photos you can’t exactly make out, standing by the kitchen counter you see him, white bones that always seem to have a new pair of pajamas on every time you see him, and a cup of cocoa clutched in his hand, he stretches his hand towards you, he doesn’t talk - he can’t, but the care is undeniable. You can’t see his face nor does his appearance keep form for long but you can tell he’s still the same as always or as the similar as a shapeshifting dream can be. Taking the cocoa in your hands you take a sip - it tastes like nothing but the warmth of the intent is still there.
“Thanks Bones” Bones - a nickname you’ve grown accustomed to calling the skeleton. At first he seemed against it, maybe even a little offended if that’s even possible, but you’d like to think that it eventually grew on him, either that or he’s given up reasoning with you.
You shoot him a smile, he replies with what you can only hope is a nod from his blurred skull .
You don’t know when these dreams started, not like you’d want them to end but every night since then you’ve noticed him growing closer and closer. Every time you closed your eyes you could see him watching you in the distance, almost as if he was observing you before finally showing himself. At first you thought you were crazy, the same guy five nights in a row?
That’s absurd.
What are the chances of that?
But it’s been months.
Three to be exact.
He seems to have a mind of his own in a way, from they way he makes his coffee to how he keeps himself entertained from time to time. You don’t know how it works. What you do know is that every night his clothes change, not only that but his body, personality, even the place you end up in changes.
It’s not a bad thing, each place you two end up in is always beautiful, like somewhere you’d go to for a date, maybe that’s why you and Bones have grown so close. It’s like these dreams are trying to get you to date a fictional skeleton. You wouldn’t say it’s entirely crazy though, Bones makes for great company.
But you won’t date a fictional skeleton, you’re not that much of a loser
yet.
Bones crashes down on the couch before turning towards you, he pats the spot next to him waiting for you to come sit down. It’s always confused you on how one day he can be so laid back and the next he won’t even sit down for a second, maybe it’s the location of the dream or maybe it’s hus ever changing wardrobe that gives him these sudden boosts of energy but no matter what it’s always entertaining to see what he’s up to every night.
He makes waking up a whole lot harder that it should be. Fortunately for your bills, if you stay asleep for too long he’ll eventually leave. It’s as if he’s his own person or monster..? Even so it’s not like that’s possible, you don’t even know any monsters, especially not any skeleton monsters so it’s likely your own way of waking yourself up.
Yeah, that’s gotta be it.
Crashing down on the couch next to him you start to go off about your day. The good thing about Bones is that he’s a good listener, not like he had a choice in the first place. Sometimes when you talk to him, it looks like he’s trying to say something back, it’s like he can understand what you’re saying in a way. It was a little creepy at first but despite that he’s been your comfort companion after work ever since then. Honestly, you could sit here with him forever if you had the chance but of course, he’s not real - he never will be. But god do you wish he was sometimes.
If only.
Bones taps your shoulder to get your attention, it snaps you out of your thoughts. Lately, Bones has been getting a lot more real, as real as a dreamable skeleton can be, you can sort of make out his expressions or a couple of them. The more you get to know him he sort of grows on you. In a way, he’s your best friend and maybe if he was real, something a lot more.
Settling down into the couch, you can’t help but lean onto his shoulder. A few more minutes in bed couldn’t hurt.
You are suddenly dragged back into reality by the sound of your alarm clock. The sound ringing in your ears - a great way to start the day.
You groggily open your eyes as you stretch. You recall your night with Bones. The skeleton had been mixing multiple different tea bags together before you woke up,
you chuckle a little thinking about the way he lurched forward after taking a sip from his mug, from the blur you could make out an open jaw and…a tongue? It’s not everyday that you get to see the skeleton so expressive - the last time you’ve seen him express himself to that extent was last month but he seems to have shelved the race car pajamas for a while now, it’s a shame really - they were your favorite.
Chugging down a cup of coffee. You grimace before taking a sip of water to rid yourself of the bitter taste. You head out the door, bag tucked up your arm and water in hand.
Arriving at work you take a quick swig of your bottle to chase down the rest of the coffee flavor before adorning your apron and visor. Heading out of the break room, you’re suddenly stopped by your boss who seems to be in a hurry at the moment.
“Oh good you’re here, I hate to drop him off with you but we have a new recruit and he could really use a run down on how stuff works around here,” He leans in closer to you
“I know he’s a monster but you’re the bravest out of all of us. If you could spare some time to train him that would be great,”
He thanks you before running off, not waiting to hear your response.
Rude.
“wow, he didn’t even wait for you to EXPRESSO yourself,” as if the new recruit had red your mind out loud.
You turn to see a short skeleton in the same apron and matching visor. A skeleton, what are the chances of that? It’s almost embarrassing to look at him since you’ve been thinking about Bones for the entire morning. As if noticing your hesitance, the skeleton tenses for a moment before extending his hand forward..
“Sans, Sans the skeleton,” he says.
Snapping out of your thoughts, you take his hand and-
“Pfffttttt,” a loud fart sound rings through the empty break room.
“Sorry pal, I guess I just don’t hold my beans well” A grin creeps up on his face as he raises his hand. It’s a small woopey cushion with beans printed on it - specifically coffee beans, how convenient.
Still, it gets you to laugh. San’s grin seems to widen as he stuffs his hand band into his pocket.
“(Reader),” you pause for a second "y'know what, never mind, I got nothing,”
Sans chuckles, seemingly more relaxed than before.
“Don’t worry, we’ve all bean there before,”
He says. A shit eating grin growing ever wider on his skull.
“Seriously, how do you come up with these so fast?”
“I’ve been brewing them since this morning actually,” Sans shrugs.
For most of the shift you teach sans how to work the coffee machine, each time you introduce him to a new drink, he already has a pun for it.
“That’s a latte to do for one drink,”
“This doesn’t mocha lot of sense,”
“I have to put my thinking cappuccino on for this one,”
“They leave you to do dishes too? That’s a bit cold don’t you think?”
At some point you just stop getting the jokes completely. Nevertheless, he makes for good company, he’s able to keep a conversation going. It makes work go by faster than it usually does, the long hours seem like a comedy skit with San around, it makes you wonder if Bones would have been similar to him if he could talk.
At some point Sans had stopped his pun marathon, he had been watching you who had been staring intensely at a dirty mug in the sink.
“Hey, are you tired of me already? I mean by now, I guess you’d be a little pressed by my jokes,” San’s grin seems to drop for a second before he recovers.
“Not to say I’d stop of course,”
You snap out of your daze before blinking yourself awake a bit. You guess you can’t fully deny his claim, what he says is a bit true but it wouldn’t hurt to lie a bit, especially since he’s your only other company this shift.
“I’m not, I swear! Just a little tired that’s all,”
You turn to face him again. To your dismay he seems to have tensed up again as he looks your face up and down - like a judge making their final verdict, it makes you a little nervous by how intense he’s staring at you, even with his laidback expression you can still tell he red you like a book.
“Yknow, you don’t gotta lie about that.
I rather you not anyways. Besides, I can handle the truth. I got thick skin after all,”
As If to prove his point, Sans pinches his boney cheek, it looks surprisingly soft considering that he’s a skeleton. You stifle a laugh.
You decide to just tell him a little bit of the truth, besides, he’s good company, even if his puns do get annoying at times, he’s still the only one working with you back here.
“If I’m being honest Sans your puns do get a little old but I don’t mind them really,” You turn your attention back to cleaning.
“You also just happen to remind me of someone, another skeleton actually, yesterday we were hanging out and he drank 20 different teas mixed together, he started coughing like crazy, it was pretty funny not gonna lie. I was just thinking about how maybe if they could talk they’d be a lot like you,” you turn toward sans only to see his grin completely wiped off his face.
Shit.
“Sans..?” You call out.
Sweat building on your forehead.
It seems to snap him out of his trance, he’s all tensed up again. What did you do wrong this time?
“Err sorry. Spaced out a bit there,” his voice is still the same as ever but his grin seems to be strained. The air tensed as you and Sans go back to washing the remaining dishes.
The rest of the shift is completed in silence. You You walk though your front door utterly defeated. Placing the banana pudding into the fridge you flip onto the couch. Everything was going just fine until you brought up Bones. The pit in your stomach deepens as you think through everything you’ve said that day.
You’d have to try and make up for it tomorrow. For now, you had to tell Bones everything.