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cyncerity · 15 days

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Finally! The Store Shifter AU dad story!!

Holy shit this took so long, i’m still not fully satisfied with the ending but this story has been like genuinely over 5 months in the making so i’m leaving it as is. also this will need a part 2 so expect that hopefully in a shorter period of time than this one took!

guys this thing is like almost 5k words lol

tw vore: don’t like it don’t read it

“Bad, are you sure this is the best idea?” “Yes I’m sure, now be quiet, we’re almost there.”

Skeppy huffed, blowing a few loose strands of hair out of his face. Bad always got like this when they went on retrieval missions. The kind and funny (if not somewhat naïve) man he married buried beneath a stoic, focused outer shell. He couldn’t blame him, though. Humans were horrifying to be around, and if Bad felt like he needed to turn off everything to get them all out of there safely, so be it. Usually it was just the two of them, Skeppy and Bad against the world as it always seemed to be, but Sam was with them today. He’d been pretty silent through their walk, but Skeppy could sense the unease practically radiating off him. Sam was a builder, after all; he almost never went near humans. But, according to him, some homes in their colony had been damaged by storms and needed repair work that would be significantly easier with human tools.

So, here they were. Bad, Skeppy, and Sam, headed towards a human market. Skeppy had been fully opposed, but the hunt and crops had been poor at the colony, and their supplies likely wouldn’t be regrown until a few months from now if they were lucky. Bad suggested the human’s market, where he’d heard other borrowers say they’d seen humans come in with nothing and leave with bags full of god knows what. He was confident they’d be able to find the necessary rations there, and even if he was scared, he wouldn’t let Bad go to some human infested place without him. Then Sam had joined them and off they’d gone, promising the rest of the colony to be back in a day or two.

As they neared the market, Skeppy could see Bad tense. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed the slight crease of his brows, the minute shaking of his hands. That’s part of what made him a great leader for their colony; he was able to stay calm and collected no matter what. But having known him for so long, Skeppy could read him like an open book. He was scared. Sam, meanwhile, wasn’t even trying to hide it. He was quaking, clearly terrified of going into a space filled with creatures he knows could and likely would kill him if given the chance. Skeppy, honestly, was equally terrified. They almost never ventured this far into human society, and certainly never into human inhabited spaces. But, all for the good of the colony.

They approached the building and saw humans leaving the store, making Skeppy’s stomach turn in fear. He was sure that his fear was just as noticeable as Sam’s was, and he wasn’t sure how Bad was managing to keep his cool while him and Sam were panicking right next to him. But somehow, Bad pressed them forward, and they had little choice but to follow. They’d already made it this far, and like hell Skeppy was gonna back down and leave Bad to do this alone now.

They managed to get in the door right behind a human before scurrying back to the shadows for safety the second they entered the building, and holy shit was it bigger than he’d thought it was. There were dozens and dozens of rows one hundred times bigger than any one of them, even if they were small compared to the trees of the forest. “We’ll have to search from above,” Bad whispered quietly, breaking the unspoken vow of silence that the three had been following since nearing the shop. “Skeppy, lend me a rope. We can hoist each other up on each level.”

So, that they did. One of them would climb, then throw a rope for the other two to climb to meet them, only occasionally having to hide behind whatever human product was nearest to avoid being spotted. Thank god there weren’t as many humans in the place as he’d initially thought there would be. After a while, the three had made it to the top, overlooking pretty much the entire shop. Skeppy took note that most of the food they’d need was farther back in the store, unfortunately, but at least the platforms they stood on were close enough together that they could jump them. He also took note that a good number of humans were leaving, which was great for them, but also meant that night was likely coming soon, so they had to be fast. It wasn’t safe to travel the woods at night. Bad seemed to recognize this, as he gestured for Skeppy and Sam to follow him, leading them towards what they’d need. After a few more minutes of the three heading to the back, almost all the humans were gone except for a few in bright green vests. Skeppy reasoned that they were the ones who operated the place, if they all dressed the same and stayed when no one else did. But he wasn’t worried; what were the odds that the humans would look up to see them?

“Hey, Nick, you wanna head home early? You don’t look so good, I’m sure Dream wouldn’t mind.” Skeppy heard a human say. He knew it’d be best to stay back, but Skeppy was nothing if not stupidly impulsive. He leaned over the edge of the platform they’d been walking on, catching the attention of Bad and Sam too late to stop him. The human who had spoken was wearing a white sweater and gold chain with blonde hair and pale skin. He was talking to another human, “Nick” apparently, who was slumped over some boxes he was putting on a shelf, back turned to where the borrowers were. This one had a dark red hoodie and black beanie pulled over his head that almost matched the shade of his hair. The first human was right, though; if human body language read anything like a borrowers, this guy really wasn’t looking good. Nevertheless, he responded. “Hm? No, no, I’m fine, Punz, really.” He mumbled, barely looking up. The blonde one, “Punz,” didn’t look like he believed it for a second. “Bullshit. C’mere, let me take your temperature.” He said, pulling the other human to face him, and-

No.

No fucking way.

Skeppy could feel that Bad at this point had noticed his absence and had come over to drag him away from the conversation by force, but he shook himself free from his grip, eyes never leaving the scene in front of him. That was him. There’s no way it wasn’t. His hair was different, far different from the hazel brown he remembered, the same shade as his father’s, but it was him. He even had the discoloration around his eyes to prove it, the scar that had nicknamed him “Pandas” all those years ago. He looked older, much older, no longer the teen Skeppy remembered, and more tired. Worn down, even. He really did look sick.

Bad wasn’t letting go, and now Sam was trying to help him. Punz and Nick- no, Sapnap, he was sure of it- were still idly chatting below, Punz trying to convince Sapnap he needed to go and Sapnap insisting he was fine. At another insistent yank from Bad, Skeppy finally snapped, pulling away and grabbing Bad by the front of his hood, dragging his face close. “Bad,” he whispered as quietly as he could with tears threatening to spill from his eyes, “it’s our son.”

He saw Bad’s eyes light up for a moment before fear masked his expression. He looked down at Sapnap, who was now sat alone, staring at the ground. Punz must’ve left at some point without him noticing. Bad sat in stunned silence, and for once Skeppy couldn’t read his expression. An expression he could read, however, was Sam’s. He looked an odd mix of confused and mortified. Skeppy was confused at the odd reaction before it hit him; Sam didn’t know Sapnap was a shifter. “That’s Sapna-mph?!“ “Shh!!” Sam whisper yelled before Skeppy slapped a hand over his mouth. “Ok, i don’t know what he’s doing here but yes, it has to be. He can…do this. I mean, he can look human. But he’s not! It’s…it’s a long story, dude.” “I- He..what?? Bad, you knew about this?” Sam whisper yelled again, quieter. “…Yes.” Bad took a moment to answer, like it pained him to admit out loud that the ‘human’ down there was his own son. “How can…how long has he-“ Sam cut himself off as Sapnap’s head snapped up, revealing that his eyes were almost black with how large his pupils were. He looked out of it entirely. He looked…predatory.

Bad gasped, stumbling back from the edge of the platform he’d been watching from and fell to the ground, clutching his chest, unable to control his ragged breathing. Skeppy and Sam were immediately right there beside him, Sam trying to lead him through breathing exercises as quietly as possible as Skeppy asked him what was wrong. After a few moments, Bad managed to choke out words. “We- we need…to go. We..we need t- to go now.” “Why? What’s going on?” Skeppy asked. Before Bad could give any semblance of an answer, they heard boxes be knocked over. To curious for his own good, Skeppy went to see what it was, and Sam and Bad reluctantly followed.

Sapnap was stood again, back turned to the three as he looked up at one of the shelves near him. And there stood- “Alex?” Skeppy heard Sam whisper, hope full in his voice. Skeppy had almost forgotten that the day Sapnap ran away was the last time Sam had seen his own son. Quackity looked older, too. His hair was longer and he looked more well nourished and muscular than the scrawny, scrappy little boy Skeppy had watched grow up. He also still wore his stupid little bandana and the face covering Karl had made him after he’d got that gash through his mouth. But even with that mask on, Skeppy noticed the confusion and pity in his eyes as he looked at his boyfriend.

“Sapnap?” Quackity asked, but there was no response. He kept looking for a little bit before sighing and looking around. What for, Skeppy didn’t know, but what he did find was them. Skeppy saw Quackity’s eyes go wide as he noticed the three, and he looked horrified. Sam stood and waved, moving to say something before Quackity violently charaded to keep quiet. He then started to shoo them, and Bad immediately took the hint and tried to pull the both of them away, but Skeppy and Sam held their ground. “Why?” Sam said just barely loud enough for Quackity to hear across the aisle, but also loud enough for Sapnap to notice apparently, as he started to turn around towards them. “Just go!!” Quackity screamed, drawing Sapnap’s attention back to himself as his head snapped back. Quackity took a step forward about to yell something else before time froze.

Faster than he could blink, Sapnap had reached up and roughly grabbed Quackity off the shelf, holding him to his face for a short moment before stuffing him in his mouth. He could hear muffled yelling, too distant to make out any words, and could see indents of Quackity pushing against Sapnap’s cheeks trying to fight his way out. Bad was silent, ghastly white and completely unmoving, not even breathing, which left Skeppy to turn his attention away from the scene in front of him to keep Sam quiet. He quickly and forcefully wrapped his arm around his mouth and pulled him back, using his other hand to push Sam’s head into the crook of his elbow to muffle him. Sam was yelling and screaming; clawing, kicking, doing anything just to make Skeppy to let him go, but he endured it. It was all he could do to not think too heavily into what he’d just seen. There was no way Sapnap would…eat him. He’d watched Quackity and Sapnap grow up together. Before Karl came along, it’d really just been the two of them. They were best friends from the start, and early in their teenage years, it turned to something more. Sapnap cared more about Quackity than himself, he knew that for a fact. There had to be something he was missing here, right?

All at once, Sam fell silent. The screaming, kicking, everything stopped. Everything but his crying; Skeppy could feel his sleeve growing wet with tears. Maybe this was a good sign. Maybe Sapnap had spit him out, maybe it was all a prank, a joke, anything. Sapnap was raised by him and Bad, after all. He’d seen his fair share of trolling from his fathers. Sapnap couldn’t do this, he and Bad hadn’t raised a monster. This wasn’t happening. Everything was ok.

As he looked up, the sight ahead of him said otherwise.

Sapnap had his head tilted up, one hand lightly pressed on something- no, someone in his throat, while the other was holding something just outside his mouth; a tail. Quackity’s tail. Quackity was moving under the pressure; squirming, thrashing even, under Sapnap’s skin, yet the expression on his son’s face read nothing but bliss. Skeppy could even swear he saw drool seeping out of the corners of his smile. He couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t stay here and stand to see the boy he had raised, had loved his entire life, kill someone that Skeppy had thought he’d watched him grow to love. But he couldn’t move. He stood frozen, tears welling in his eyes and his body cold from fear with Sam limp and silently sobbing in his arms. Sam, poor Sam, who sat here watching his son be eaten alive not only by his previous future son-in-law, by his own best friends’ son. Bad, who’d been so silent that Skeppy had nearly forgotten he was here, barely seemed to be breathing. His only signs of life were the tears pouring down his face and the violent shaking that wracked his entire frame. He looked so scared Skeppy was surprised he was still standing.

The three of them watched in silent horror as finally, after what felt like hours, Sapnap let go of Quackity’s tail. They watched his form fall farther and farther down Sapnap’s throat little by little until finally his struggles had disappeared beneath his lover’s collar bones, sealing his fate. Sapnap dropped his head and sighed, the blissful, at peace expression he wore making Skeppy sick. He watched Sapnap seemingly subconsciously trace a line down his torso, no doubt following where Quackity was within his body, until he finally placed a palm on his stomach. And if there was any doubt (which at this point could only be chalked up to wishful thinking) as to what fate Quackity had truly met, it had all been dispelled as the three heard horrible, violent gurgling sounds coming from Sapnap’s stomach. Sapnap covered his whole midsection with his arm, face tinged pink in apparent embarrassment as he whipped his head side to side to make sure no one was around. Luckily for the three of them, he still didn’t think to look up. He blinked a few times before looking down at where his arm laid for a few seconds and subsequently sighing, rolling his eyes (which Skeppy belatedly realized were back to normal instead of the horrifying all consuming black). He began rubbing his stomach as a few more gurgles were heard and he pulled a little thin black box from his apron, tapping it a few times before holding it to his ear.

A few seconds of silence later, Sapnap was speaking. “Hey, Dream! Did Punz tell you I was sick? He said he was going off to find you like 10 minutes ago.” More silence. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine now. I think I just needed something to eat, if you know what I mean.” Skeppy’s heart skipped a beat hearing Sapnap so nonchalantly refer to his own species, to someone he loved, as food. “I’m just gonna go on break now if that’s ok. Could you meet me by the security office? I need you to help me, uh…get rid of something.” Another break. “Ok, sounds good, I’ll meet you then. Bye.” He said, tapping the black box again before slipping it back into a pocket and moving to leave the aisle. At that, Skeppy decided it was far past time to go. He went to grab Bad before realizing that he was fully unconscious, likely having passed out from fear. Sam, on the other hand, lay sobbing. Skeppy could do nothing but try to drag him to away, but ultimately failed. “Sam,” Skeppy whispered, voice cracking through tears and shivering, “We…we have to go.” “I failed.” he responded, not bothering to whisper since Sapnap was gone. “I failed as a father. I couldn’t save him. I- I couldn’t save them. Either of them.” He chocked out, tears pouring harder. Skeppy stood shocked; Sam rarely mentioned his other son anymore. It’d been so, so long since he’s been around that Skeppy (as much as it pained him to admit it to himself) had almost forgotten he existed completely. And didn’t that just make this all the more sad; Sam didn’t deserve to lose another kid. He didn’t deserve to have these old scars ripped back open again. “You couldn’t have known.” Skeppy said, sitting down beside him. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. I…I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Sam.”

Skeppy wasn’t sure why he felt the need to apologize, but in some way, this felt like his fault. Sapnap was his son. What had he done wrong? How long had Sapnap been planning to do this? What would Karl say if he saw this? Is Karl even still alive, or did Sapnap get to him first? How were they gonna tell Tina that her younger brother got killed by his fiancé, of all people?

Skeppy was only snapped out of it when a hand rested on his own, and he turned to see Sam looking at him. His tear-stained expression held no anger, no contempt for the man who had raised the person to have just killed his son, just…pity and sadness. Sam didn’t hate him. Sam felt…sorry for him. Sorry that his son had turned out like this after so many years being away from home. Sorry that the boy who they’d both loved growing up was gone, twisted into a psychopath and cannibal. In a way, they’d both lost their kids today. Skeppy couldn’t do anything but break down, clinging to Sam and sobbing as he finally processed everything that he’d seen today. Sam just hugged back tightly, like Skeppy was his only lifeline, and sobbed with him.

“We should get going.” Sam sighed after what felt like hours. “We need to help Bad, and I’m sure the others are wondering why we’re not back yet.” Skeppy, still numb, just nodded and helped sling one of Bad’s unconscious arms over his shoulder while Sam took another. The walk back to where they had come from was silent, neither of them willing to bring up the fact that they hadn’t actually retrieved any supplies and the whole trip was kinda pointless, but were met with a sight that neither had been expecting.

The doors were tied shut with chains. They couldn’t get out.

They were stuck there till morning.

~~~~~

Sapnap sat in the break room fiddling with his phone when he saw Dream come in, twirling a set of keys on his finger. “You said you needed access to the security room?” “‘Bout time.” Sapnap responded sarcastically, standing up off the beanbag chair with a hand over his stomach to keep the extra weight in his gut from swaying as he moved. Seriously, no matter how many times or how often he’d done this, he was never going to get used to it, was he? “Sorry I needed to lock up the store, asshole.” Dream replied, leading him out of the room to the security office down the hall. “Ranboo is staying at my place tonight so Tom and Tubbo aren’t alone, so I had to lock up from inside today cause someone invited me to stay the night to work on parkour stuff.” “Don’t pin this on me, I’m being nice to you for once.” Sapnap replied, lightly elbowing Dream as he tried to unlock the door and messing him up. Dream flipped him off without even moving his vision away from the lock before getting back to work. “Are you at the security office yet?” Quackity asked, startling Sapnap which in turn startled Dream, who gave him an odd look. Sapnap just pointed to his stomach and Dream rolled his eyes and went back to work on the lock.

“Yeah, we are. Holy shit, dude, you scared the fuck outta me, I thought you were asleep. You haven’t said anything like this entire time.” “I couldn’t fall asleep. Something…something happened, man.” “…Well that doesn’t sound ominous at all. What kinda something? Something bad?? Are you ok, did I do something?” “I’m fine!” Quackity quickly responded, picking up on his fiancé’s nervous tone. “It’s just…well I don’t know yet. You’ll be able to see for yourself on the video camera. I don’t want to freak you out if it’s nothing.” Sapnap went to ask what that meant before Dream finally managed to open the door with a little cheer of celebration. He ushered Sapnap in as he started to log into the camera’s system.

“Ok, so can you tell me what happened?” Dream questioned. “It’s been a while since I did the instinct thing, so I guess I looked kinda sickly, so Punz ran to get you. After that I started to feel nauseous and sat down and passed out. When I woke up again, Quackity was in here and I felt a lot better. I think my instincts just fully took over so I wasn’t conscious, like, at all. I figured I would see what exactly happened and then delete the footage so no one else could see me lose it.” Dream nodded. “Yeah, I figured that’s what you meant by ‘needed something to eat.’ Kinda also figured that instincts had something to do with why Punz said you looked sick, so I asked Quackity to go and look for you.” Sapnap vaguely heard Quackity confirm what Dream had said. “Oh, thanks dude.” “No problem. Now, where and when was this again?”

Sapnap gave a few more specifications on what had happened, and at this point he could feel Quackity nervously pacing in his gut, which felt…weird, to say the least. “Quackity, dude, are you ok? You never move this much in there, it’s kinda freaking me out. And it feels weird.” “Sorry.” He heard as he felt Quackity drop back down to sit, almost immediately starting to tap his foot. “You’re nervous about something.” “No I’m-“ “You’re sitting with your eye sockets pressed into your knees while tapping your foot. I’ve known you my entire life, I don’t need to be able to see you to know what you’re doing. You only do that when you’re really anxious, what’s up?” “Like I said, you’ll see on the video.” Sapnap was about to respond again, but was agin cut off by Dream. “Found it! Oh shit, yeah, you look really out of it, I’m surprised you made it as long as y- what the fuck is that??” That bit caught Sapnap’s attention. He moved closer to the tv and noticed what Dream was questioning: on the grainy monitor, there were 3 small silhouettes on top of an aisle in front of Sapnap. “Are those…borrowers?” Dream asked, looking over to Sapnap. “They have to be. What the hell are more borrowers doing in the store? Q, is this what you were worried about?” “…Mostly.” Quackity responded, and Sapnap nodded to Dream so he could follow along. “…fast forward, see if you can tell when they leave.” Sapnap relayed the request to Dream, who did as he asked.

“Oh no…” Sapnap whispered. “What?” Dream asked, but Quackity was apparently more than aware of the issue. “They didn’t listen, did they? They didn’t go when I told them too?” “No, no they didn’t…” Sapnap whispered again, in shock. He felt Quackity stand and start to pace again, but this time couldn’t care to correct it. “What? Who didn’t what?” Dream asked. “The borrowers on the aisle. Quackity was signaling for them to leave so they wouldn’t see me do..that, but they didn’t. They’re seeing everything.” Sapnap gestured back up to the screen, where at this point he could see Quackity entering his throat and the borrowers backing up, one even kicking and fighting another to do something. “Well…thats not good, but it can’t be that bad, right? I mean, what are the odds you’ll ever see them again? I mean, sure they can tell a colony about a human that ate a borrower, but you guys have always kinda been under the impression we did that anyway, right? At the absolute worst, they’ll have another horror story to get kids to bed on time.” “Dream, I just traumatized 3 random borrowers for life.” “I was under the impression you were all just kinda traumatized from shit in general, is this really that much worse?” “Sapnap, tell him to shut up.” Quackity interrupted. Sapnap obliged by smacking a hand over Dream’s mouth and putting a finger over his own lips. “…I need you to let me out.” Sapnap looked confused for a moment. Quackity had only been in there for a few hours; normally when this happened he would just stay the night since it was more of a hassle to get dry and clean just to put on pjs. Something was wrong, still, Sapnap would never hold the man he loved against his will.

Sapnap quickly brought him up, placing a hand under his mouth as Quackity climbed out. Quackity’s head snapped immediately to the security footage. At this point, Sapnap could see himself finally swallow Quackity down, and the 3 borrowers react accordingly with varying levels or fear and distress. One of them even went unconscious. Quackity watched with a look of worry that made Sapnap anxious; in all the years he’d known Quackity, he’d never seen him like this. Why was he this worried? He barely registered that in the video he had regained control, only focused on what could have caused the fear in his fiancé’s eyes.

Until one of the borrowers turned enough for their face to be seen in the camera.

That…that was his dad. That was Skeppy, holding onto someone who had to be Sam. His other dad was taller than that. That means that the last one, the borrower who’d passed out when Sapnap had swallowed Quackity was…

Sapnap felt his breath speed up. He quickly set Quackity down on the desk as he clutched a hand to his chest and his vision started to blur. “Sap?” Dream questioned, hands hovering around him in concern, “Sapnap are you ok??” “That’s…Those are…” He couldn’t get the words out. Fuck. No, fuck, god no, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go, they weren’t supposed to know, they weren’t supposed to ever see him again but now they knew everything.

They knew he was a monster.

“…those are our dads.” Quackity whispered, barely audible as dreams eyes widened. “The one crying is my dad, the other two are Sapnap’s.”

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