#papyrus glaring at worm

[mentheii]

hey oakie did you accidentally give me a caterpillar instead of a worm

cause i saw a butterfly the other day

wait what's that green thing papyrus is glaring at

that’s like saying “oh did you give me a neepo because the world ugly meter just doubled”

fool 🫵

[spidernana]

if ya still want prompts, i am asking you, pretty please, for the softest, sweetest swap papyra fluff you can make. i'm talkin' tooth rotting, diabetic coma-inducing sweetness.

Sorry this is a little late ^^; I was trying to get all my stuff for Fracture out and this just fell to the wayside. So... late Papyra fluffiness~ with a touch of the Spook holiday

                                        -------------------

Late afternoon spilled golden light through the crisp and multicolored leaves of the trees lining the streets of New Ebott, its people alive with excitement and glee for the coming of both fall and Halloween. The air was thick with the scent of wood smoke, apples, and the chillness of autumn, and near the edge of the city, the parking lot of a large store sang with the vibrant energy of its people’s excitement, the clatter of carts and the shouting of schoolchildren and the chattering of parents rising over the rumble of cars and a nearby airport.

The grocery store itself was bustling with activity as well, bags of candy and cheap nylon costumes and cans of hair color cluttering every cart lining every checkout stand. Among the aisles of holiday décor, leering pumpkins and inflatable ghosts and cake makeup falling off the emptying shelves and into the reaching hands of gleeful children, both human and monster alike, there sighed a human clinging to the push bar of a shopping cart, pale beneath a veneer of freckles and the thick fall of their auburn hair.

They were heavily pregnant, leaning just as heavily on the cart before them to remove some weight from their ankles and sipping at what looked Sprite from a fast food cup, and were watching, with a great deal of exasperation, as a tall, broad-shouldered skeleton monster flicked busily through the racks of costumes much too small for his lanky frame.

“Tell me you’re not thinking what I think you are,” they sighed at last, swirling the contents of their cup and looking critically on the leg of the costume the monster had pulled from the rack (scarecrow, huh... wonder what he could be planning), and the skeleton, glancing back at his mate with a single raised brow and the twinkle of mischief in his clever sockets, cocked his skull to the side as questioningly and innocently as he could manage while smirking.

“and what do you think i’m thinking?”

Chara threw their husband a scathing look that he let roll off of him as easily as water off the back of a seal. Trying to be stern with Papyrus was like trying to argue with a brick wall that fired back with Nerf darts, but they had to at least try.

“You did this last year too, baby… You scared Helen so badly she couldn’t look at our yard for months. I had to promise the homeowner’s society I’d rein you in this time,” they reminded him, setting their cup down and folding their arms firmly (it was getting very hard to do that, the baby was very adamant about being in the way, and in the center of attention, before even being born), and Papyrus, adopting a look of complete and utter surprise, threw his newly acquired costume into their cart and raised his hands to give evidence to his innocence, twirling the stick of his sucker between his teeth idly.

“i have no idea what you’re talking about. i’d never do that to helen, our absolutely not annoying old bat of a neighbor that i definitely don’t loathe with every fiber of my being, and may or may not sabotage regularly,” he protested, the drama and sincerity of the hand pressed to his bright orange hoodie's chest ruined completely by his crooked, conniving grin, and Chara scowled back at him, tapping a sneaker toe against the stained tile below.

It wasn't him that got all the complaints about his shenanigans and pranks; they all knew that he'd just ignore anything he was reprimanded for. Not that they had any real control over him... or wanted to, really. Most of the time it was quite funny, his little stunts and practical jokes. It's what had made them fall for him in the first place... his sense of humor.

This time, they'd been threatened with a fine, though. Uptight little group of Karens that the homeowner's society was...

“Papy…” they huffed moodily, clenching their lips together, lowering their brows, and attempting to look fierce, but, as always, the skeleton monster they'd decided to marry for some reason or another merely snorted out a chuckle at their expression, reaching out a hand to stroke their jawline with his thumb dotingly. He'd never been very impressed by their attempts to be firm... usually said they just looked like a kitten having a temper tantrum.

So flattering.

And yet, even despite the slight antagonism in his petting, despite his complete dismissal of their complaints with his usual disregard for rules and propriety, they felt themselves softening under his smile and his touch, his forefinger twirling a lock of their hair around it and brushing his knuckles against their neck the way he knew they liked. They blamed the pregnancy hormones, completely ignoring how charming he could be when he wanted to be, and swatted his hand away temperamentally.

“Don't try to butter me up, I'm serious,” they snapped, snatching up their cup to pop the lid and grab up a piece of ice to chew on (something they'd never done before the baby... along with downing some of the strangest food combinations of their life), and the tall monster let out a heavy sigh, dropping his rejected hand away but stepping closer as well, to both clear the way for a gaggle of children trying to look at costumes and to stroke the swell of his mate's hip at the same time.

Chara pouted, crunching their ice and glaring into their cup... but also didn't pull away, letting Papyrus pulll them closer and bend to push a slightly sticky but very sweet kiss to their cheek. They knew what he was doing, trying to worm his way back into their good graces the best way he knew how (it honestly wasn't fair, the kind of effect he had on them... at least they knew they had the same power over him, when the tables were turned), and sent him a look from the corner of their eye when his hand pressed to the small of their back, massaging the soreness at the base of their spine with his thumb.

He winked back, switching his sucker to the other side of his mouth with a roll of his magical tongue (they were so proud of him for quitting smoking that they never complained about the sweets; he'd gone cold turkey the second he'd found out they were carrying), and leaned his free elbow on the cart, crossing a huge orange Converse over the other lazily.

“alright, let’s look at the facts, honey. i’m just browsing completely innocent, totally nondescript, fully camouflaging halloween costumes that might make a passerby think i was a decoration. and if, by chance, i was wearing one and holding completely still at the time they thought that, sitting among other decorations in the yard on a dark evening, and holding a candy bowl intended to make people come closer, they might be alarmed to find out that i wasn’t, in fact, a plastic skeleton,” he explained nonchalantly, a spark of magic flickering from his fingertips to soothe the pain in their spine as he did so, and merely shrugged a broad shoulder at their steeply arched and skeptical brow, grinning snarkily.

“i don’t see how anyone could possibly blame you for a harmless misconstruction from a third party.”

He was an honest to god menace.

Chara scoffed, rolling their eyes and snapping the lid back onto their cup... but felt the fight go out of them even as they shook their head in wonder at their husband's capacity for troublemaking. It wasn't in them to discourage him too much, especially when they were just as frustrated by the efforts of their nosy, gossiping neighbor... what was wrong with a bit of honest fun? The neighborhood kids had loved it.

Screw Helen, and the rest of them too. They'd pony up thirty bucks for a nice Halloween.

“You’re impossible, you know that?” they sighed good-naturedly, reaching up to kiss the monster's cheekbone before scooting their shopping cart a little further down the aisle, and Papyrus followed along in their wake, smiling widely and victoriously. He leaned forward to prop his chin on their shoulder when they came to a stop again, looking over paper packages of makeup and gaudy accessories, sneaking his arms around their middle to hug them close and stroke their rounded belly lingeringly.

“you love it~” he purred, clearly pleased with himself and his efforts at cajoling his little human partner, and they sent him an indulgent, sideways glance, covering one of his hands with theirs and using the other to pluck a container of clown makeup from the shelves.

“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have you any other way,” they replied simply, squeezing his phalanges between their fingers and bumping the side of their head against his skull softly. Papyrus' smile softened until it melted, at that, his sockets closing and his face pressing into the dip of their throat, breathing them and the mating mark beneath their blouse in happily. The embrace of his arms tightened minutely, his larger frame swaying them both in place, and for a moment they could both feel, their souls beat as one, everything else around them fading.

And then a toddler knocked over a display in the next aisle, the crush of the sounds in the store swelled around them, and the moment was gone. He gave them one last squeeze, and a lingering press of his teeth to the corner of their lips (an offer and a promise; later, later) before standing back and smirking at the blush on their cheeks, so bright it nearly matched their hair.

“you keep bein’ so sweet i’m gonna have to marry you,” he crooned, taking the makeup package they had clearly forgotten about from their limp hand, and Chara, jolting and blinking back into reality, watched him look over the little box with a consternated divot between their brows, twiddling their fingers to catch the fluorescence of the overhead lights on their wedding ring.

“We… we’ve been married for three years. I’m pregnant with your baby,” they spluttered, pointing indicatively to the bump currently stretching out the front of one of their favorite sweaters (the baby monster moved at nearly that exact moment, stretching and turning with great deliberateness), and Papyrus, nodding approvingly at the box of makeup and tossing it into the shopping cart, waved a hand dismissively, walking around them and, with an expression of sudden inspiration, pulling his cell phone from the back pocket of his sweat pants.

“details. oh! speaking of which, what do you think about dressing liiiiiike…” he lead up, unlocking his screen and flipping through pictures, before alighting on one and turning to show it to them proudly.

“this.”

...it was a picture of an extremely pregnant woman with her belly painted like a jack-o-lantern, the rest of her costume made to look like the stem and leaves.

“Papyrus, I swear,” Chara sighed, shooting the lanky monster a dirty look and directing the cart into the candy aisle (they were going to need so much chocolate for all this headache...), and Papyrus followed, snickering and pocketing his phone again as he watched them attempt to shove an entire pile of Twix bags into the cart.

“in front of our baby? whatever will helen think,” he tutted sardonically, shooing their hands away so he could help them with their candy hoarding, and Chara stood back to let him, sipping at their soda again and snorting as a vision of themselves in that costume flashed through their heads.

He'd tease them with pictures of it for years, they knew it.

“I’m not painting my stomach like a pumpkin,” they insisted, pointing mutely at an equally large pile of Reese's cups to direct their husband in his pillaging, and he pouted playfully as he obeyed (bless him, he didn't even question it), dumping about twelve more large bags of candy on top of his rumpled costume while doing his best to mourn the loss of his idea.

“spoilsport.”

Chara scoffed, ignoring the looks they were getting for the frankly incredible amount of candy going into the cart, and, once they had raided the Almond Joys and the Kit Kats as well, lead the way towards the check-out stands, ready to go home and get off their feet.

“Hooligan,” they retorted, finding a queue with only about ten people waiting in it (short, compared to some of them), and Papyrus, sighing extremely dramatically and slumping over the end of the cart to fill their line of sight, did the best impression of puppy dog eyes that a skeleton monster can muster, his lower lip line nearly wobbling beneath the fake tears in his sockets.

“i looooove yoooouuu...” he whined, fluttering the lids of his sockets at them, and Chara raised their brows superiorly, though a smile played around their mouth, sending cracks through their facade and resistance both. Damn it...

“I love you too,” they rejoined, trying not to chuckle at the sight of the almost too tall monster laid out over the cart completely. People were staring, children pointing and adults gossiping behind their hands, but they honestly didn't care. This was what they loved so much about spending time with this... this ridiculous, hilarious, handsome monster. He was just too much.

He worried so much about not doing enough, not being enough. In their eyes... that was the last thing he ever had to worry about.

“pleeeeease...” he begged outside their considerations, proffering the picture of the painted woman in his hands as though offering a sacrifice to a god, and they couldn't hold it back any longer. They snickered, snorting through their nose in the depth of their hilarity (his face lit up like a Gyftmas tree, overjoyed and amused both), and leaned heavily on the push bar of the cart, wiping amused tears from their eyes onto the sleeve of their sweater.

“Oh fine. I suppose I'll need to keep my lawn skeleton company. Wouldn't want him to get 'bonely',” they snarked when they had finally settled the laughter shaking their body, watching Papyrus scramble to stand back up from his awkward posing, and his let out a bark of laughter at their turn of phrase that nearly made the person in front of them jump out of their fur-lined Uggs.

He rounded the cart to bend, run his phalanges into their loose hair, and kiss them, fully and unabashedly, and brushed his nasal ridge against their nose when he pulled back, a huff of laughter and adoration on his honeyed breath.

“you're prefect~”

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Welcome to Backwater ch.11 (spicyhoney)

Summary:  Stretch finally has Edge's address, but as always seems to happen in this town, answering one question only makes two more spring up to take its place.

Read ‘Unconventional Wisdom’ on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

The dog spent all morning napping behind the counter, not rising for broom bristles nudging him nor Stretch stepping over him awkwardly so he could grab a few boxes from the top shelf to fill up the front racks. He did snore loud enough to be heard over the radio, but eh, so did Red so Stretch was used to it.

It wasn’t until the jangling cowbell over the door heralded the arrival of a group of kids that the pup gave up on his snoring and wandering out to inspect the new arrivals, tail already happily wagging. Predictably, the kiddos were enamored of their newest employee, although guard dog might be overstating things a bit. Okay, maybe a lot; it looked like Red hadn’t been able to get back to sleep last night because the once-filthy dog with a mess of tangled fur was now freshly washed and brushed, and he smelled a lot like the shower gel from Red’s bathroom. Cleaned up, he was a handsome dog, looking as fluffy as an enormous toasted marshmallow. Not exactly threatening, fluffykins here was probably gonna spend most of his shift on moral support duty.

The little girl who was currently the main recipient of the dog’s enthusiastic face licking giggled and asked, “What’s his name?”

“uh.” That gave Stretch a pause. He shrugged. “doesn’t have a name yet, i’ll have to ask red what he thinks.”

“Should name him Rover,” one boy put in helpfully.

Another boy chimed in, “Or Bingo!”

“Cheeseburger!” A little gal firmly declared as though no other name would do and Stretch couldn’t help laughing.

“is that a name suggestion or a lunch request?” he teased. All the kids giggled, including the one who’d suggested the name and Stretch gave one of her pigtails a gentle tug. “tell you what, here.” He pulled out a pad of paper from under the counter, flipped past the pages filled with inventory lists and cribbage scores to a blank one and wrote carefully at the top, ‘Name Our Dog’. He set it in one corner of the counter triumphantly, “there! now anyone can suggest a name and red can choose the best one.”

All the kids seemed in agreement that this was the best course of action, each taking a turn to scribble their suggestion on the sheet. He wouldn’t be at all surprised if ‘Cheeseburger’ was at the top of Red’s picks.

The kids eventually abandoned the dog and started a round of intense negotiations over what penny treats to buy today. Stretch left them to it, settling to sit on the stool to wait for them to bring up their selections to the register. His mind wandered idly back to newest side quest: getting to 637 Wood’s End Drive.

He’d already tried to look the address up on his phone’s GPS and wasn’t too surprised to see that it didn’t come up, naw, that would be too easy. So, first was figuring out how to get there and second would be figuring out how to get there. Not like he had a car and somehow, he doubted that Backwater had a thriving Uber economy. Maybe he could hitch a lift with someone? People were always coming into town in those big ol’ pickup trucks and the folks around here were pretty friendly, plus Edge seemed to be pretty well known. They all probably knew exactly where Edge lived and stopped by for pie and tea all the time. Surely someone would be delighted to help out, particularly if they were one of the lookie-loos from Mama’s who wanted to see Stretch and Edge on another man date, thank-you-but-no-thank-you.

That would probably be the easiest way to go about it, but Stretch found he was strangely reluctant to take that route. It felt a little like cheating, considering the roundabout way Edge went about handed out his address.

Anyway, if he’d wanted to go down that path, he could’ve simply asked Red days ago, but that right there was an entirely different can of worms that he didn’t want to share with any of the early birds. Red never forbade him from hanging out with Edge, but he’d been pretty clear time and again that he wasn’t too keen on it, either. Might be best if he kept any mentions of Edge to a minimum unless Red brought him up first.

He’d just figure it out himself, thanks, and he wasn’t any puzzle master, not like his bro was, but he had a little pride buried around here somewhere. Edge set him a challenge, damn it, and he was gonna see it through.

His absent gaze strayed down to the pile of bicycles outside the store, kid-sized, sure, but hey, wait a second—

“hey, guys,” Stretch said slowly, and the debate on whether to get two packs of everlasting gobstoppers or three paused as a half-dozen heads perked up like prairie dogs from a sugary plain. “if i wanted to buy a bicycle around here, where would i go?”

Heads ducked down again in a hastily whispered conversation, then the spokeskid popped up again and said, decisively, “Try over at the thrift shop. Miss Maggie always has old bikes for sale.”

“thanks.” He should’ve known. The only other option right in town was the tractor supply shop and while driving up on a John Deere would make a hell of an impression, it was probably well out of his price range. The kids crowded over with their handfuls of spoils and Stretch dutifully rang them up and if he tossed in a dime of his own to cover them, eh, wasn’t like they’d ever know. He handed over a paper sack of treats to a chorus of thank yous and the divvying began before the kiddos even got out of the shop.

“Oh, Edgar Allen said to tell you hi!” One little girl called back to him. She was gone out of the door before he could even think of a reply, all of them clamoring onto their bikes, their faces chipmunk-cheeked with their spoils.

Edgar Allen, shit, yeah, that was right. He’d pretty much been the first stop on this questline and Stretch’d been meaning to do something for him. He’d already rethought the magazine idea; what if it turned out that scarecrows couldn’t read, kinda insensitive there. He’d have to think of something, though, owing someone didn’t sit well with him even if that person didn’t qualify for traditionally alive.

In the meantime, the dog, bereft of childish companionship, wandered back behind the counter and flopped down with a huff, sighing deeply.

“yeah, go on and take a break,” Stretch told him, “you were working pretty hard there.” He stretched out a leg to pet the dog carefully with his foot and wasn’t too surprised that it didn’t care one bit about his shoe, only pliantly rolled over to give him better access to the belly region.

Stretch obediently kept petting, hell, he obeyed better than the dog. But his thoughts were still on the upcoming journey to 637 Wood’s End Drive.

~~*~~

Red relieved him in the shop a little later than normal, looking a lot like he’d just hauled ass out of bed. His shirt was the same one as earlier, only with a fresh crop of wrinkles and his eye lights were still bleary with exhaustion.

Almost, Stretch offered to stay later and let Red get a little more sleep, considering it was his fault Red got woken up in the middle of night. But the baleful glare Red sent his way was an unspoken warning that such an offer probably wasn’t gonna go over well. He kept his jaw shut tight and took the paper sandwich bag Red handed over before heading out the door. Time to get this side quest rolling, literally, he hoped.

The few times he’d met Magdalen May he’d figured right from the get-go that she, like Red, was a partaker of the Sheriff’s son’s prize cannabis crop. Not only because of her dreamy demeanor but also whenever she came into the store, she was surrounded by an almost visible cloud of pot stank so strong that Stretch got a contact buzz while she was shopping through the meagre selection of yarn that Red kept. By the time she left, Stretch would have a craving for Cheetos so strong he’d be ready to start gnawing on his fingerbones for a cronch.

Stepping into the thrift shop was a little like hot boxing in a hoarder’s closet but Stretch soldiered on, squinting as his vision adjusted from the bright light of day to a dimness barely above attic-levels. He went past shelves of gewgaws and boxes of dusty records, old clothes hanging from racks that looked like they’d been commandeered from a lot of remaindered furniture. There were tables piled high with ancient radios, cameras, electronics that Stretch didn’t know the name of and surely didn’t work, existing only to be parted out by an amateur scientist or an electrician in search of cheap parts. Antique glass was set high on the shelves, catching dusty light and sending a kaleidoscope of color to scatter over the room, freckling it in greens, reds, and yellows.

The entire store radiated a glorious sort of chaos and if it weren’t for the fact that he already felt a little woozy, he would’ve stayed for a while and poked through some of the wares. Maybe even find a new book for Red buried in the nearby piles, see if he’d be willing branch out into cowboy romance for a change.

He heading to the back of the shop where Miss Maggie was sitting in a rocking chair surrounded by boxes and shelves, knitting with flashing speed despite the foggy miasma hanging in the air. Her long white hair was smoothly braided and pinned up on top of her head, her weathered skin tanned dark and leathery. The weave of bright yellow yarn trailing from her needles was spread across her lap in an incongruous contrast to her dark, billowing skirt and the light sweater she wore against the chill of the air conditioning.

“Hello, Papyrus,” she greeted him with the sort of rough, croaky voice made over the years by a thousand packs of Marlboros. She didn’t look up, her attention completely focused on her knit and purl.

That gave him one hell of a pause. “how did you—” Stretch stopped. Great, he was in the soothsayer chapter and hadn’t even had time to prep. Yeah, okay, he didn’t really have any room in his life for another side quest, maybe let this one go. He didn’t actually want to know where she got her intel, not really, especially not with his head already spinning a little. He stuck his hands in his pockets to hide the way they wanted to curl into fists, rocking back and forth on his heels. “heya. i haven’t gone by papyrus in years, it’s stretch, thanks.”

“A wise choice,” Miss Maggie said. She sounded…different, somehow. He’d talked to her a few times now and strangely, today he couldn’t seem to place her accent. It wasn’t like the other townsfolk, all of them had a certain warm, down-homey charm, and usually so did she. Her words today were crisp, sharp-edged, nothing like the dreamy peace he was familiar with when she came into the store for coffee creamer and vanilla wafers. She glanced up at him over the wire rims of her glasses, her gaze as sharp as her tongue. “Names have power. A wise man keeps his true name to himself.”

“um. sure,” Stretch couldn’t stop himself from giving the door a longing glance. This was starting to seem like a bad idea, Miss Maggie seemed to be having a personality crisis, maybe he should come back after lunch. “that’s some very handy wisdom, but i’m here about a bike?”

She ignored that. “You have issues with names,” Miss Maggie told him. She kept knitting, needles flashing furiously in a rhythmic clickity-clack as steady as a metronome. “don’t you.”

“huh?” Stretch didn’t exactly have any flesh to get goosebumps with, but he felt a chill nonetheless, prickling maddeningly over his bones. His head was whirling, everything around him seemed to blur except the old woman in front of him. His tongue felt strangely thick as he whispered a question he didn’t want to ask, “i don’t…what do you mean?”

“Mmm, yes,” Miss Maggie sighed out, “so many names you’ve had and rejected. Had and left behind when you ran away, far, far away.”

“stop,” Stretch said weakly. His soul was starting to pulse with aching intensity behind his breastbone. The room filled with an electric heaviness like a coming storm, the rich green smell filling the room suddenly nauseating. “please, don’t.”

“Brother, lover, yes, but never father, not even once.”

“shut up,” Stretch said thickly. Or tried to, the words seemed to clot and stick at the back of his throat, refusing to travel over his useless tongue.

“And now you’re taking on new names,” she raised her head, and here in the dim, her eyes seemed like dark pools of pure blackness that reflected nothing of the flickering overhead lights. Her grin seemed unpleasant and wide, showing pale pink gums in an endless maw. “Is it friend you seek or something else, I wonder?”

As she turned towards him, her sleeve caught on the sugar bowl set on the table next to her, sending it tumbling to the floor. The burst of sound as it shattered pushed through his dazed distance like the snap of dry twig broken over a knee. Stretch jerked, blinking hard, and all the nebulous emotion in him surged forward, gathering and coalescing into real anger. He was starting to get sick of this shit, if everyone in town wanted to act like this place was Sleepy Hollow’s second-cousin, that was fine by him. He was happy to play along, but not if they were gonna keep sticking their shovels into his past to see what other skeletons they could dig up.

“look, fuck you,” Stretch snapped out. He turned back to the door, tossing over his shoulder. “never mind, i’ll figure out something else!”

“Wait!” And he didn’t want to wait, he wanted to push on through the door, but his stubborn feet suddenly refused to move. Miss Maggie clumsily thrust aside her knitting, hardly noticing her teacup wobbling, spilling tea and leaves out into her saucer in a wild splash. That funky weird woman vibe abruptly eased and so did some of the stench in the air, flavored instead with lavender tea. She waddled over to him, her long skirt dragging on the floor. Even bent over with age, she was impressively tall, hardly shorter than Stretch was, and he was a mini-skyscraper to most Humans. She looked up at him, her eyes a watery, pale blue, surrounded by a sea of wrinkles, how could he ever have imagined they were anything else?

Miss Maggie reached up to touch his cheekbone with fingers nearly as thin as his own.

“Oh, sweet child,” she said with mournful gentleness, and her voice was the smoky-sweet, grandmotherly one he recalled. “S’all right. Ain’t nothing wrong with setting aside a name you’ve outgrown, nor in taking on a new one.”

All his bright, burning anger collapsed inwardly, a card house with the center support removed, and hurt welled in him instead. He was crying, he realized distantly, tears stinging in his sockets, running down his cheekbones to gather on wetly his chin. He didn’t realize he was going to speak until he did, choking out, “it feels wrong.”

“How you feel and how things are don’t always match,” she agreed. She held out her arms, her gnarled hands open to him and Stretch leaned into them, burying his face in the soft, knitted shawl draped over her shoulder. She smelled like weed and lavender, a strange, exotic mixture. “i’ll get you all wet,” Stretch mumbled, muffled into the cloth.

She petted his skull gently, “It’s all right, child. I’ll dry.”

He held on tightly for a long time and when she finally drew back, she lightly touched his forehead with the tips of two dry fingers.

“You can get to his home through the forest,” she said, and it seemed to Stretch he could almost see it, clear as a picture someplace behind his sight. “Follow the exchange down about a mile, you’ll see a turnoff on the left. Don’t you stray from the path, you hear me, sonny?” Those pale, rheumy eyes searched his face for understanding. “Easy to get lost out there.”

“i won’t.”

“Good.” She let him go and shuffled back to her chair to picked up her knitting again. “Now, you mentioned something about a bike.”

For a moment, Stretch stood there, practically wobbling on his feet. He felt like he’d woken up from an unexpected nap, still floating in between the sleeping and waking worlds. Then he blinked, snapping awake, and looked around almost wildly. Until his gaze snagging on one of the shelves, or more specifically, something sitting on it, and held.

“a bike, i did.” Stretch walked over to the shelf where a bandana was sitting, a bright turkey-red plaid, and picked it up, holding it out for Miss Maggie to see. “how much for this, too?”

By the time he left the shop, he was in a fine mood despite his savings being a little lighter. He was pushing a rattly old bike with a squeaky chain and a horn that let loose with a hoarse ‘awhooga’ when the dusty rubber bulb was squeezed. The bandana was stuffed into his short’s pocket and the first thing he was gonna do was deal with that, then he’d worry about some maintenance. Probably better to find out if his new bike was streetworthy before taking his act on the road.

He used the walk back to the store to draw in a few deep, refreshing breaths of the heat-smoggy air, letting it clear his head.

“miss maggie sure smokes some strong shit,” Stretch muttered to himself. He left the bike leaning against the porch around back and headed over to the main road, taking his normal walking route down towards the corn. There were no kids on the makeshift baseball diamond today, looked like they’d headed off somewhere else to enjoy their penny candy.

The grass was yellowed and dying under his sneakers as he went off the beaten path, heading towards the rustling corn. Was it his imagination, or did those whispers get louder as he approached, even eager? The corn got lonely sometimes, Edgar Allen had said, but it didn’t mean any harm.

Somehow, he didn’t think the skeleton they’d found in the fields back in Doris’s day would agree.

“um, hi?” Stretch tried. There was no one around to see him and he still felt ridiculous, talking to the damn corn. “look, i dunno if you can understand me, but if you do, could you see that edgar allen gets this? i wanted to thank him for helping me out and i thought it’d look good on him.”

Carefully, he laid the bandana over a crux of green leaves and stalk, tugging to make sure it wouldn’t simply blow away. He left it there and turned back to town, hoping that the scarecrow got the message; as much as he wanted to thank the guy, he really didn’t feel like taking a second go in the corn maze to do it. He didn’t look back until he got back to the side of the road and there he paused, frowning. The splash of red should’ve been vivid against the sea of green but there was nothing, not so much as a glimpse.

He craned his neck, searching, but it hadn’t fallen to the ground and the wind wasn’t strong enough to carry it off. Maybe the corn had gotten the message after all? Yeah, he was going with that, and he headed back to take a look at his new bike, hands in his pockets and whistling cheerfully, which was a heck of a trick for someone without lips.

Yeah, he felt pretty good today and why not? He had a place to stay, a job, someone looking after him, and a dog. And now he had a bike. Things were looking up, Stretch decided.

Things were looking up.

~~*~~

tbc

[crookswithbooks]

More Than Just A Friend

Day Four - Kris is feeling uncertain doing the holidays without Asriel, and Susie discovers hidden feelings within herself. 

Susie shifted on the bed, shooting nervous glances over at Kris every once in a while, who sat reading a book, some comic or another, completely oblivious to Susie’s inner turmoil.

When Kris had asked her to stay for the holidays, as she had no one else to stay with, she had accepted immediately, feeling grateful and a little bashful that Kris thought of her at all. But now that she was here, in Kris’s room filled with things that made him Kris, she began to think about the long night (nights? They hadn’t quiet discussed how long this was lasting) ahead of them. Where would she sleep? Where would she get changed? Where would he get changed? Would they stay in the same bed? The questions swirled around in her head, making her more and more nervous as time went on, and Kris sitting there as if everything was completely normal was not helping.

Susie’s feelings for Kris were a recent development, one that had crept up on her quietly and quite unwillingly. She had noticed it one day when he had accidentally bumped her arm and her heart did backflips in her chest. She had tried to shove it down and keep her from accidentally ruining things with the only friend she had.

Though technically not only friend, if you counted Ralsei and Lancer; but that was still up for debate, whether they were even real or just figments of her imagination, all of which was all kinds of messed up if you though about it.

She had thought she had been dealing with these new feelings pretty well thus far, but being suddenly thrust into the same house as Kris for a week (weeks? Seriously she had no idea how long she was staying) was not doing any favors to her already raging crush.

“Sooo…” Susie started, after a minute of unbearable silence had passed. “What, uh, what have you been up to?”

Kris looked up at the sound of her voice, putting down his comic. “Nothing much. Hanging out with you, I guess.” He picked at a hole in his jeans that she hadn’t noticed before. “I got a letter from Asriel.”

“Yeah?” The subject of Kris’s brother was not one that came up often, and it was a rare moment when Kris himself brought him up. “What’d he have to say?”

Kris shrugged, ripping the whole wider. “Nothing much. Wished me a merry Christmas. He said things in college were going well, that he’d started to make a bunch of new friends.”

“That’s good,” Susie said, offering an encouraging smile, a rare gesture for her. “Right?”

Kris nodded, but his expression was vacant and closed-off, a look Susie was starting to get more and more familiar with. “Yeah, I guess.”

He picked back up his book and she realized with horror that the silence was going to begin again, but he paused, turning to look at her. “Hey, have you ever been kissed before?”

Her heart just about exploded in her chest at his words. “Uh… what?” she stuttered as he stared at her with innocent eyes. Two seconds ago they were talking about his brother and now he suddenly bombarded her with this? Where the hell was this going and how did they get here?

Kris scooched forward, which did not help. “A couple of the kids at school were talking about their first kisses and it got me thinking.” He crossed his legs, peering up at her. “So, have you?”

Susie could feel the burning on her cheeks and she only hoped that Kris didn’t notice. “Uh, yeah, of course I have.”

This was a lie. She had spent so long pushing people out of her life and cutting herself off from any potential friends, that she had never gotten close enough with someone for kissing to even be a possibility.

“I haven’t,” he confessed honestly, sitting back which she was both grateful of and disappointed by. “I’ve always wondered what it’s like, but I’ve never found someone who likes me in that way.”

Susie snorted at the irony of the sentence. “Really? You?”

Kris narrowed his eyes at that, frowning in confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Susie was spared having to answer, as at that moment the door swung open and Toriel stuck her head in, smiling when she saw the two of them. The minute she opened the door the smell of fresh-baked gingerbread wafted through the room, and Susie could feel her mouth watering.

“I just wanted to tell you two that dinner’s ready.” The goat was staring between them with a knowing smile that made Susie flush, avoiding her gaze. The idea that even Kris’s mom knew about her feelings made her wonder how obvious she had been. Did Kris know? The thought made her stomach squirm uncomfortably, like there was a giant, nervous worm trapped inside.

“Make sure you wash your hands first, and for goodness sake’s Kris, clean up the mess on your floor.” Toriel gave him a stern look before disappearing back out into the hall, closing the door gently behind her.

Kris reluctantly slid off her bed, picking up the various comics and clothes spread about the room, spilling a pile of colored pencils into an emptied out pickle jar. Susie watched him do this, still jittery from the earlier question, not sure if she should bring it back up or let it go.

She still couldn’t believe that Kris hadn’t been kissed before. When they had travelled to the Darkworld he had been so kind to everyone, sometimes even being a little too nice, though she hadn’t known why it bothered her at the time. Surely he must have dated someone before.

“You coming?”

Kris was standing by the doorway staring expectantly at her, and she realized that he had finished while she was lost in thought.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” She shoved past him, ruffling his hair as she went.

“Susie,” he complained, ducking under her and glaring up at her. Despite his annoyance, she couldn’t help but find it cute when he tried to be angry. That was her thing, not his.

Dinner was spent in quiet silence as Susie shoveled food into her mouth, feeling a part of her soul die and go to heaven with every bite. It was a beautiful roast turkey with thick gravy drizzled generously over it, and combined with the mashed potatoes Susie might as well have been eating like a king. Kris picked quietly at his food, his mind seemingly elsewhere. Susie paused in her inhales, wondering if she should ask him about it.

Toriel beat her to it, however, turning her kind eyes towards Kris. “So honey, how have things been in school?”

Kris shrugged, the same noncommittal answer as earlier when Susie had asked him. “It’s been fine. Mr. Papyrus taught us how to make spaghetti in class today, for the third time in a row. We keep telling him we want to learn other stuff, but he insists that pasta is, quote, the greatest food item in the world and the most important foundation for learning to cook. I’m not so convinced. I’m not sure how many more ways we can learn to make pasta.”

Toriel smiled graciously, shaking her head. “Just the same as when we were kids. And you, Susie?”

Susie snapped her head up, surprised to be addressed. Gravy dripped down her chin and she wiped it off quickly. “What?”

“How are things going in school with you?” she repeated promptingly.

“Oh. Uh… nothing much, I guess. Haven’t been getting as much detention recently, as you probably already know.”

Toriel smiled wryly. “Yes, I’ve noticed, and I’ve been glad for it. I wouldn’t want Kris hanging out with someone who’s a bad influence.”

Susie nodded humbly, going back to her food, but Kris stood up from the table. Toriel and Susie both looked at him in surprise. “I’d like to be excused, please.” He whirled around, rushing out of the room suddenly.

Toriel stared after him in shock. “He barely even touched his food.”

Susie felt worry blossom in her chest. “I’ll go check on him, make sure he’s okay.”

Toriel smiled gratefully. “Would you? Thank you, honey.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Susie said, blushing at the nickname and hurrying off.

She found Kris in the living room, curled up on the couch. He had a book in his hands but his eyes scanned the pages dully, not taking in the words. She sat down next to him, feeling awkward and bulky next to his tiny frame. The sheer amount of awkwardness she felt around Kris nowadays days was wholly unfair.

She coughed to announce her presence and Kris glanced up. “Oh. Hey.”

“Hey,” she agreed. “So, uh, what was all that about?”

“Oh, that.” Kris looked back down at his book, flipping a page. “That was nothing. I just wasn’t hungry.”

“Kris.” Susie raised an eyebrow.

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Kris.”

Kris sighed, leaning his head back. “Fine.” He crossed his arms, not looking at her. “I just don’t like the way mom talks about you sometimes. Like you’re some kind of miscreant that’s leading me off the path of good, whatever the hell that means.”

Susie raised an eyebrow at the curse, but inside she was touched that Kris cared about her that much. She nudged his arm, grinning. “Aw, dude.”

Kris blushed, shoving her away. “Shut up. It’s just… I care about you, you know? You’re my only friend, and I hate that mom disapproves.”

Although the sentiment touched her, the word friend echoed around in her head, reminding her that that’s all they were. Friends.

“I’m sure she doesn’t mean it like that,” Susie reassured him. “She just doesn’t want you to do poorly in school on my account. I think she was just teasing, anyway.” She frowned, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not all this is about, is it?”

“No,” Kris sighed, looking away. “It’s also my first Christmas without Asriel here. It’s just weird not having him around the house, singing Christmas songs and helping to decorate the tree. I guess I just got used to things being a certain way and now they’re…”

“Not?” Susie finished.

“Yeah,” Kris agreed.

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them unsure what to say next. Finally Kris leaned over, resting his head on her shoulder. Susie froze, her body tingling with sudden electricity. “Thanks for being here,” Kris said, fiddling with his hands. “I really do mean it. Thanks for coming and spending the holidays with us when you didn’t have to.”

Slowly Susie relaxed, her expression settling into a smile. “Of course, man. If anything I should be thanking you for giving me somewhere to be for the holidays.”

Kris nuzzled closer and Susie relaxed against him, glancing up at the twirling paper snowflakes above them. That was when she noticed it. Mistletoe, hanging right above the two of them.

Susie snapped her gaze down to Kris, who noticed the sudden tension in his friend. “What is it?” he asked, sitting up much to her disappointment.

She pointed up, hoping he wouldn’t notice the furious blush on her face. Kris saw the mistletoe and his eyes widened in understanding. “Oh. Mistletoe.”

Susie was already making up excuses, blustering and gesturing wildly. “We don’t have to or anything. It’s a stupid tradition anyway and I wouldn’t want to make things weird, so it’s totally cool if you don’t want to—”

Kris cut her off, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers. Her eyes widened as she felt his soft lips, softer than you would think a boy’s lips would be. He pulled away, staring at her, his eyes just as wide as hers as though he hadn’t quite realized what he was doing.

Susie jerked back instinctively and Kris’s face fell immediately. “I’m sorry,” he said, holding up his hands apologetically. “I didn’t mean to, it just kinda—”

The rest of his sentence broke off as she grabbed him, kissing him again. A part of her didn’t believe what she was doing, but another part of her felt completely clam, as if kissing your best friend wasn’t a weird thing to do. They stayed like that for a minute, their lips locked together, and when they finally pulled apart both of them were panting for breath.

“Um, excuse me?”

They jerked around to look at Toriel, staring with a smirk between the two teens. “I was just gonna ask if you wanted some cookies, but maybe I should leave you two alone…?”

“Mom!” Kris exclaimed, his face going bright red. Susie would have been embarrassed as well but the sight of his blushing face was so uncharacteristically adorable that she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

“Right, right, of course,” Toriel said, winking subtly as she left the room. “I’ll just leave you two alone then to... continue your business. 

“Mom,” Kris groaned again as she left, burying his face in Susie’s shoulder. Susie glanced down at him, grinning a little. He glared up at her, but there was no venom in his gaze. “Oh shut up you.”

“Gladly,” she responded, pulling him in for another kiss.

Maybe the holidays weren’t going to be so bad after all…

[krat395]

Gorgeously Glamorous Gargalesis (Chapter 9)

Bad news and good news, folks! The bad news is that Mettaton betrayed Rocco and Lydia! He made mini Mettatons tickle their trapped feet knowing very well that the effects of his MTT massage oil haven’t quite worn off yet! But the good news is that Rex saved them! :D By distracting Mettaton, he made the glamorous robot himself lose control of the mini Mettatons without knowing that he lost control of them! Oh, and he made him lose 95% of his hearing too! And with Mettaton only able to hear sounds from very incredibly short distances, now’s the perfect time for Rocco and Lydia to strike back! ;)

 Undertale© Toby Fox.

******************************************

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 10

******************************************

GORGEOUSLY GLAMOROUS GARGALESIS

 Chapter 9: The Climactic “Battle”

 Once Rocco and Lydia saw Mettaton tickle torturing Rex, they stopped laughing and destroyed the nearly inactive mini Mettatons that were still holding their legs and feet in place with their magic. To completely free herself, Lydia froze the ones around her ankles solid with ice breath and then smashed them to bits with her magic arms, which she electrified with lightning magic. As for Rocco, he simply melted the ones around his ankles with acid breath. Then once they were free, Lydia, with her magic arms, summoned her two magic whips and electrified them with lightning magic as well. Electric whips! :D And she is intending to latch onto Mettaton legs with them to stun him long enough for Rocco to sneak up behind him and grab him. Good plan! But just as a precaution, Rocco summoned his two magic cleavers. Then just for dramatic effect, he extended their handles and lit them on fire. Non-lethal fire of course! He doesn't want to kill Mettaton! And neither does Lydia, who still looks like she’s two seconds away from biting someone’s face off! XD They just want to knock some sense into him as punishment for tickling a toddler in such an intense manner and for commanding miniature versions of himself to tickle their feet for 15 minutes straight after rubbing MTT massage oil on them. But unfortunately for the lizard parents, they didn't get very far. The moment they stood up off of the couch, weapons in hand, they fell and face planted into the floor like their son, MK. Due to sitting in one spot for too long and due to having their feet tickled in such an extremely intense manner after MTT massage oil rendered them more ticklish, their legs felt as if they were jelly the very second they stood on them. Apparently, they were supposed to wait a few minutes or so before trying to stand on their feet. But there was too much at stake though!

 Lydia: Eeeeeeeeeek! Oh no!  

 Rocco: Jelly legs!

 Rocco and Lydia: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!! *shouted the lizard parents as they fell to the floor* Oooooof!!

 Upon hitting the floor, Lydia's magic arms and whips disappeared! And so did Rocco's cleavers! Yes, face planting into the floor somehow rendered both of them without weapons and Lydia without her arms. But all is not lost. They may be weaponless at the moment but they can still use their elemental magic. And luckily for them, Mettaton was too busy tickling Rex that he didn't even notice them freeing themselves from their predicaments and falling when they tried to stand up. It also helped that Asriel and MK were still being tickled by Mettaton's contraptions; since their combined laughter drowned out the sound of Rocco and Lydia talking and moving around while he was in the process of regaining his hearing after accidentally zapping his sound sensors with bolts of electricity. Yes, unlike the lizard parents, the two older monster boys weren't so lucky! Since the contraptions were built by Mettaton rather than summoned by him, the boys are forced to endure tickle torture until someone nearby can deactivate the contraptions and release them.

 Asriel and MK: AHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 Rex: HEEHEEHEEHEEHEHEEEHEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE HEEHEEHEEHEEHEHEEEHEEHEEHEHEEHEE!!!!

 Mettaton: Hahahahahahaha! I hope you're learning your lesson, young man! *taunted Mettaton in a completely unintentional cocky manner, prompting the now free lizard parents to shoot death glares towards him*

 Rocco: Huh? Lesson? What lesson? Lydia, what's he talking about?

 Lydia: Hmmmm… I'm not sure, honey. But as his parents, we need to help him! I don't know what our baby boy did to get himself on Mettaton's "you know what" list but I can guarantee you that tickling him like that as punishment won't accomplish anything!

 Rocco: Hahahaha! I couldn't agree more! It doesn't matter what Rex did; that's no way to tickle a toddler! Not if I have anything to say about it! Then after we save Rex, we can free MK and Asriel! Our legs should be back to normal by then.

 Lydia: Oh yes! Yes, of course! You hear that, boys? Hang in there just a little longer, all right? We'll get you out!

 Asriel and MK: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAHAHAHA HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! *the boys laughed once more, still unable to speak but were at least able express their gratitude with thumbs up gestures*

 Rocco: Haha! Great! So, any ideas how to take him down? I've got one.

 Lydia: Ooh, me too!

 Rocco: Plasma discharge?

 Lydia: You read my mind! Heeheeheeheehee!

 With that said, the lizard parents did a special magical attack together. They call it a "plasma discharge" and it's an attack that involves either one or both of them firing continuous plasma beams from their mouths that lock onto victims and heat them up enough to cause a mini explosion that has a small chance of blowing them to smithereens or dust particles if used for lethal purposes! :O But the plasma beams Rocco and Lydia are using on Mettaton, however, are ones that are instead tickling the hell out of him! :D Loophole! Mettaton didn’t say that Rocco and Lydia couldn’t tickle him with magic elemental beams! XD And rather than increasing in temperature with every passing second, they are increasing in tickle intensity; from 1% all the way up to 100%! :D Like Gaster, Rocco and Lydia have tickle beams of their own but theirs however require more focus and concentration to use. And on top of all that, they can only fire one tickle beam at a time; as opposed to Gaster who can fire a plethora of tickle beams at once.

 Plasma beam tickling intensity; from 1% to 50%...

 Mettaton: Eeeeeeeeeeeek! *squealed Mettaton the moment he felt green and cyan plasma beams touch his metallic body, prompting him to stop tickling Rex* What in the world… oh… oh my… pfffffffff… Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! *he then started laughing and giggling profusely, arching his back as tried so desperately to get back up on his feet* Ohohohoh my gohohohohohod!!! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Ohohoh my gohohohohod, stohohohohohop!!! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Whatehehehever that is, it tihihihihickles!!!! *he then claimed, his laughter intensifying as he fell flat on his stomach* Eeeeeeeeeek!!!! Hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha!!!! It tihihihihihihickles like hehehehhehell!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!! *he squealed once more, pounding his fists and feet on the floor like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum as a means of coping with the tickle torture* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

 It's working! :D The plasma beams are tickling Mettaton everywhere on his body and by firing increasingly tickly plasma beams at Mettaton, Rocco and Lydia managed to save Rex from any further tickle torture from the glamorous robot himself. Rex saved his parents from the mini Mettatons and was so grateful to see them both return the favor; and the moment his tickle torture ended, he immediately stood up and ran towards his parents to express his gratitude. He wanted to give both of his parents hugs but because they were too busy tickling Mettaton with plasma beams, he decided to hug them until after they were finished instead. But while he was waiting, he got to fend off some mini Mettatons that Mettaton blindly summoned while laughing up a storm (in an attempt to stop Rocco and Lydia) and he did so with style; using his tail and the toy weapon Papyrus made for him, which turned out to be a cleaver with a blade that can split into multiple sections and be used as a heavy whip! A combination of his parents' weapons and he fought ever so valiantly with it too; almost as if he was mimicking someone else's moves rather than coming up with his own. But sadly, not one individual in the room with him saw him fight! Mettaton, who had his head down against the floor the entire time, and Asriel and MK, too teary-eyed to see anything clearly, were all too busy laughing their heads off and Rocco and Lydia were too busy concentrating on maintaining the tickle effects of their combined plasma beams to notice him! Luckily though, Rex didn't fight for any type of reward or want any credit for his noble actions. He just wanted to have fun and that's exactly what he had while he was protecting his parents (and himself) from mini Mettatons with his tail and favorite toy weapon. ;)

 Plasma beam tickling intensity; from 50% to 100%...

 Mettaton: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahaha!!!!! Oh… Oh god… EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! *squealed Mettaton, his laughter intensifying as he inadvertently began doing the worm dance move on the floor* HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *he laughed once more, louder this time around* OH NOHOHOHOHO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH NO, OHOHOH NO, OH NOHOHO, OH NOHOHOHOHOHO! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!! HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!! OH MY GOD, MAKE IT STOHOHOP!! *he then pleaded through his laughter, right as he began cycling through all of his signature poses haphazardly on the floor* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! MAHAHAHAHHAHAHAKE IT STOP, PLEEHEEHEEHEEHEEASE!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!! HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA!!! GOD DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAMN IT!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!! HAHAAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHA!!!! GOHOHOHOHOHOHOD *BLEEP*ING DAHAHAHAHAHAMN IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHHAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! *he then laughed at the top of his nonexistent lungs, while on his hands and his knees looking as if he was about to pray to a higher power* OHOHOHOH MY GOHOHOHOD, I FEEHEEHEEHEEL LIKE I'M GOHOHOHOING TO BUHUHUHUHURST!!!!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…

 *KABLOOEY!!!*

 It took about 90 seconds but once the tickling intensity of Rocco and Lydia's plasma beams reached 100%, a small explosion occurred, just as Rocco and Lydia predicted. But what happened to Mettaton during the explosion was something that Rocco and Lydia didn't expect. Instead of making Mettaton laugh like anyone would if the tickling intensity had been increased to 300%, it blew off his arms and legs and temporarily disabled his voice box! XD

 Mettaton: [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!] *Mettaton laughed silently, currently unaware that only his head is attached to his torso*

 Rocco and Lydia: *horrified gasp*

 Rocco: Oh dear god, we killed him! *shuddered Rocco, sincerely and jokingly at the same time*

 Lydia: Mettaton! Young man, we're so sorry! Rocco and I had absolutely no idea something like that would happen! *shouted Lydia worriedly, concerned for Mettaton's well-being after inadvertently blowing off his limbs* Are you ok?!

 Seconds later, Lydia's question was answered once she saw Mettaton's arms moving along the floor, first towards his tickling contraptions' control panels to deactivate the contraptions and free Asriel and MK and then towards his torso to reattach to his body. And to Rocco and Lydia’s surprise, Mettaton wasn’t at all nervous or furious about his limbs being blown off of his body. How could he be? Especially now that he can control his limbs when they’re not attached to his torso! Well, his arms, anyway. Ironically, he still can’t control his legs when they’re not attached to his torso.

 Mettaton: Here, darlings. Let your big robot brother give you a “hand.” Hahahahahahaha!

 A few seconds later…

 Asriel and MK: Hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! *the boys continued laughing due to lingering ticklish sensations on their feet and upper bodies, while slowly getting ready to stand up and ultimately get out of the contraptions' chairs*

 Asriel: Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Thahahahahahahank yoohoohoou!!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Ohohohohohoh, thahahahahank yoohoohoou!!!! *snort* Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 MK: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Hohohoholy mohohohoholy, thahahahahat wahahahas intense!!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! But fuhuhuhun at the same time!!!! *squeak* Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 Before too long, the boys, while continuing to laugh, stood up out of the chairs, not knowing at all that their legs would feel like jelly the moment they stood up.

 Rocco and Lydia: *worried gasps* Wait, boys! Don't…

 Asriel and MK: Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Woooooaaaaaaah!!! Oooooooof!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!

 A few seconds later… after the boys stopped laughing...

 Asriel: Hey! I landed on pillows! A whole bunch of them!

 MK: Oooh! Me too! Wait, how'd these get here? *asked MK curiously, looking at his father* These weren’t here when all this craziness started. Or were they?

 Instead of face planting into the floor, Asriel and MK both face planted into two piles of soft pillows. And those pillows were there because Rex put them there when no one was looking! X3

 Rocco: Hey, it wasn’t us, champ. Your mother and I have been sitting here stretching our legs ever since, well, I guess you saw what happened. *answered Rocco, referencing the moment he and Lydia blew off Mettaton’s limbs with their plasma magic, which neither of the boys saw at the time due to watery eyes* Hmm… wait, maybe not.

 Mettaton: And it wasn’t me either. *said Mettaton while easily reattaching all four of his arms* I was concentrating on freeing both of you, remember?

 Asriel: *gasp* Then that means*

 Rex: Oooooooooooooo… *cooed Rex happily, holding his favorite toy weapon with his long tail and Darius in his right hand while making himself visible to everyone in the room* Aaaagaaagiboobabahihaaaaa! *he babbled*

 Asriel, MK, Rocco, and Lydia: REX!! *they all exclaimed excitedly*

 Mettaton: Hahahahaha! Well, well, well, if it isn't the little hero himself. *said Mettaton with a chuckle while concealing his backup arms, looking at Rex with a cheeky expression* You’ve certainly been busy this evening, haven’t you?

 Most definitely! Distracting Mettaton, fending off mini Mettatons with nothing but his tail and a toy weapon, and placing pillows on the floor?! Very impressive for a 15-month-old toddler! :D

 Lydia: Heeheeheehee! He has! Heeheeheehee! That’s Rex for you! Always such a busy little boy! Busy, busy, busy! *claimed Lydia while sliding along the floor next to Rex, seconds before picking up the toddler himself with her feet to lift him up into the air for a brief moment* Heeheeheeheehee!

 Rex: Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee! *Rex giggled happily in response*

 Mettaton: Hahahahaha! You’re lucky, Lizard Mom. If it wasn't for him covering my eyes, climbing on top of my head, tail whipping me, and biting my fingers, you and Lizard Dad might still be on that couch laughing your guts out.

 Rocco: Hahahahahahaha! Really? Our little Rex did all of those things? *asked Rocco curiously, though not really all that surprised by Rex's actions since Rex has actually done most of those things before on his own (Rocco's) head and shoulders* Hahahahahahaha! Wow, Mettaton! Now I understand why you felt the need to punish him. He could've gotten himself hurt if he wasn't careful!

 Lydia: Heeheeheehee! Yes, he could’ve. But he didn’t. He never does. Heeheeheeheehee! Am I right, Rex? Oh, what am I saying? Of course I am! Heeheeheeheehee! Who's my cautious little baby? You are, Rex. You are. *said Lydia in silly mommy talk, now sitting up and wiggling her toes against Rex's sides, tickling him briefly* Heeheeheeheeheeheehee!

 Rex: PFFFFF… HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! *SQUEAK* MAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! *SQUEAK* HEEHEEHEEHEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! *Rex giggled preciously, leaning backwards and wagging his tail with ticklish glee*

 MK: Whoo! Yeah! Way to use your small size to your advantage again, buddy! *cheered MK, super proud of Rex* Whoo!  

 Asriel: And cuteness! Don’t forget that he used his cuteness to his advantage again too, dude! *Asriel chimed in, prompting MK, Rocco, Lydia, and Mettaton to snicker and look at him with “Of course you of all monsters would mention something about cuteness” expressions XD* Heeheeheeheehee!

 MK: Heeheeheeheehee! I didn't forget. I just didn't feel the need to mention it. Heeheeheeheehee! Come on, man, do I have to describe every exciting thing that happens in full detail? *asked MK rhetorically*

 Rocco: Yes. *answered Rocco with a wide sharp-toothed smile for Asriel, just for a little joke* Hahahahahahaha!

 Before anyone could say "Oh you!" to Rocco after his little joke, the notification sounds on Asriel and MK's phones went off, indicating that both of them had new text messages. But they don't have their phones on them at the moment. Instead, their phones are in a bag on the floor in the main basement closet; along with Rocco and Lydia's phones; and they're in there because Mettaton put them in there. Mettaton didn't want anyone playing games, browsing the Internet, or calling or texting anyone on their phones during his performance. Not that they would've but why take the chance?

 Asriel: Oh, hey, that was our phones!

 MK: Hehe. Yep. Let's go see our messages after we stretch our legs. *suggested MK; due to his and Asriel's current case of "jelly legs"*

 Asriel: Ooh, yeah, good idea!

 Lydia: Heeheeheehee! Or, one of us can just grab them for you. Heeheeheehee! Wait right here, boys.

 As Lydia made her way over to the closet, Rex followed her and when they got there, they were both surprised to see the lower half of Mettaton's body lying face down in the closet alongside the bag with everyone's phones.

 Lydia: Oh, so this is where Mettaton's legs ended up after that little accident. *said Lydia, grabbing the bag with everyone’s phones inside of it with her tail* Heeheeheeheehee! I was wondering where those slid off to.

 Rex: Oooooooooo! Uppygashabanudaaa!

 Lydia: Heeheeheehee! Yes, my dear, those are Mettaton's legs.

 Rex: Heeheeheehee! Hababadapadaaaaaa!

 Before too long, Rex noticed something on the backs of Mettaton's knees. Small holes that look exactly like the tail scanner on his toy box!

 Rex: Ahwadafui! Eeeeeeeeeeee! *squealed Rex excitedly after his recent discovery, loud enough that everyone outside the closet heard him*

 Mettaton: *effeminate laugh* Well, that little boy is certainly excited about something. *effeminate laugh* Hey! Lizard Mom, what's Rex so excited about?

 Then all of a sudden, Rex inserted the tip of his tail in each of the small holes in the backs of Mettaton's knees one by one and by doing so, he REMOVED METTATON'S PINK BOOTS, revealing a metallic pair of gray human-like FEET with one pink heart on the centers of each sole!

 Mettaton: *horrified gasp* O-oh m-my g-god!!! H-h-how?!?! HOW?!?! *shuddered Mettaton, curling his toes with fear after feeling his both of his boots split down the middle and leave his lower body*

 Then not even five seconds later, Mettaton felt tiny lizard fingers scribbling up and down his soles and a lizard tail sweep across his 10 toes, tickling him immensely and making him laugh at the top of his nonexistent lungs… and squeal like a girl. XD

 Mettaton: PFFFFFFF… HAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OHOHOH NOHOHOHO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA! REX, DAHAHAHARLING, STOHOHOHOHOP! *pleaded Mettaton, looking at Rex from outside the closet as he tickled his feet in the closet* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHA! STOHOHOHOP TIHIHICKLING MY FEEHEEHEEHEET! EEEEEEEEEEEEEK! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PLEEHEEHEEHEEHEEASE STOHOHOHOP TICKLING MY FEEHEEHEEHEEHEET! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHA!

 Just like Sans and Papyrus's legs, Mettaton's legs are capable of feeling touch long after they've been separated from his upper body and after doing some tinkering during his spare time, his legs can now reattach to his upper body like theirs too. But unlike the Skelebros, Mettaton can barely control his legs after they've been separated from his upper body. In fact, the only thing he can do is wiggle the ten toes on the two human-like feet that Asriel, MK, Rocco, Lydia, and Rex had no idea he had until today. Yes, encased in Mettaton's famous pink boots is a metallic pair of human-like feet, and under normal circumstances, Mettaton is the only one capable of removing his boots, which he always does by holding his index fingers in the holes in the backs of his knees for a few seconds. But when Alphys built Mettaton's human-like body however, she was sneaky. Due to Mettaton's love of tickle fights (at the time) and tickling feet, she installed an override program in both devices that would allow her to instantly remove his boots whenever she pleased. And all she ever had to do to activate these programs was insert the tip of her tail in the holes in the backs of his knees. But what she didn't know at the time (and is still unaware of to this day) was that the devices she installed in the backs of Mettaton's knees can actually be overridden by any lizard monster's tail; not just her own. And that was most certainly made evident the moment baby Rex removed Mettaton's boots!

 Rocco: Pfffffff… Hahahahahahahahahaha! Ohohohoh my gohohohod! *exclaimed Rocco while laughing immediately after walking over to the closet to get a better view of Rex tickling Mettaton, surprised that Metttaton has human-like feet but also finding it hilarious that he can feel his feet being tickled despite the fact that his lower body isn't currently attached to his upper body* MK, Asriel, come over here when your legs no longer feel like jelly! You boys gotta see this! Hahahahahahaha!

 It did not take Asriel and MK long to get up and walk over to the closet and once they did so, they were shocked to discover that Mettaton has human-like feet and that Rex managed to expose them.

 Asriel and MK: *gasp*

 Asriel: Good gosh golly, Mettaton!

 MK: Holy moly! You've had feet inside those boots this entire time?!

 Mettaton: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! YEHEHES, MK, HAHAHAHAHAHA, YEHEHEHES! *answered Mettaton through his frantic laughter* HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OHOHOHOHOH MY GOHOHOHOHOD, HAHAHAHAHA, WILL SOMEONE PLEEHEEHEEHEEASE GET REX AWAY FROHOHOHOM MY FEEHEEHEEHEET?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WE DIDN'T ROHOHOHOLL THE EXTRA CHAHAHAHAHAIR AND STOHOHOHOHOHOCKS IN YEHEHEHET! *he claimed, prompting Asriel and MK to look at Rocco and Lydia with surprised, wide-eyed expressions* EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 Asriel: Wait, wait, wait! What?! WHAT?!?!

 MK: An extra chair and stocks?!?! What the heck is he talking about, Mom and Dad?!?!

 After being asked such a question, Rocco pulled the two older monster boys further into the closet with him, Lydia, Rex, and Mettaton's lower body and shut the door behind them. For two reasons: 1. to talk in private about something that will be happening in just a few minutes and 2. To reduce the sound of Mettaton's laughter so they can all hear each other talk.

 Rocco: Sorry, what was that? We can't hear you with the door shut! *joked Rocco, one second before closing the closet door for real* Hahahahaha! Good job, Rex! Hahahaha! That's my boy! And whatever you do, don't stop. Don't stop until one of us grabs your tail, all right, buddy? That'll be our little "code." Hahahaha! (A little payback for making those mini versions of yourself tickle our feet when you knew very well that they were more ticklish than usual, Mettaton! Hmph!)

 Mettaton: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ROHOHOHOHOCCO, YOU JEHEHEHEHERK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OHOHOHOPEN THAT DOOHOOHOOHOOR! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU OHOHOHOPEN THAHAHAHAHAT DOOHOOHOOR RIGHT NOHOHOHOW OR I'LL… EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! *shrieked Mettaton outside the closet the moment he felt Rex drill his tail into the dead center portion of his left sole, right into the decorative heart on his arch* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (*sigh* Ok, yeah, I probably deserved that.)

 Meanwhile in the closet, Rocco and Lydia took some time to inform Asriel and MK that Mettaton is willing to let both of them tickle him back. Yes, after all of that craziness the two boys went through, Mettaton is more than willing to let both of them trap him in one of his contraptions and get some sweet revenge! :D And can Rex help them? Why, of course he can! The more, the merrier! :D But... There's a catch. Mettaton is the type of lee that's more willing to let others tickle him if and only if he doesn't have to endure the tickle torture alone, hence why a third tickling contraption will be needed soon. If one or more individuals are being tickled alongside him, then he's more than happy to let others tickle him as much as they please. Ironically, it's the one and only time he doesn't want the spotlight entirely on him. XD Unless of course he doesn't have a choice; like during a one-on-one tickle fight, for example. But the thing that's about to happen in just a few minutes won't be a tickle fight of any kind. Instead, it'll be straight-up tickle torture and Mettaton is only willing to endure it if Rocco and Lydia sit alongside him and endure it with him! Those poor lizard parents! They literally just endured 15+ minutes of hellish tickle torture from mini Mettatons and right before Mettaton himself arrived, Rocco endured 10+ minutes from his wife, sons, and Asriel! But on the plus side, the effects of the MTT massage oil have probably worn off by now, meaning that their feet won't be significantly more ticklish than usual anymore. That and they happened to discover another loophole in their agreement with Mettaton. ;)

TO BE CONCLUDED...

[iamjjmmma]

Here it is. The thing I promised would happen on February 11th.This is a short story called “An Hour’s Nocturne” based on something earth-shattering that will most likely happen in the next episode of Glitchtale. Contains major, major character death. Trust me. You are not ready for this. No matter how much you think you are.

“Ground control to Major Tom…”

Sans woke, and the world hit him. It was a truck, and he was nothing more than a little rock in the middle of the road. He could hear. He could hear. He could hear… He could hear the same song playing in the background a room or two away,  his father putting it on replay whenever he was stressed. But what could be-

Then came the pain.

Pain was a throbbing thing, Sans would come to know in those hours to pass. Pain was more than a feeling. It was sentient. Encroaching. It was something that could be learned, something that could be taught. It was a vessel. It was a worm, tearing its way just below what the world could see. It was a companion, this rotting friend of his.

Where was he? Where was he? He was in a bed, he knew that. He knew many other things, things scattered, things of a different life he knew more about. Things like photons, working energy, electrons. But he couldn’t force any of these words out. Minds, human and monster, tended to settle into this simple way after long rests such as these. They called it a “coma”, he was sure of it. Coma...coma. Coma. Coma! Coma? Comatose? Comatose? He’d been in a coma all this time? The gears in his brain went into motion, although they were sputtered, uncared for. Comatose? Could he walk? He was so tired. Could he?

But where? Where? Where was he? Where?

The blobs roared their way outside; Sans knew the noise all to well. While he was in his mountain of hate, the mountain that seared through him perhaps even more than this pain did, he knew the noise. It had become a part of him, and Betty had done such a commendable job at muffling the screams that the roaring was all he heard.

But where, where, where?

He wasn’t anywhere he’d been before, or at least anywhere he remembered. There was a glass case over him. Did his family think he was dead? He remembered Snow White from the movies. Skin pale as bone, just like his. A glass case, just like his.

He tried to teleport, but everything inside him turned to searing plasma, as if Jessica wanted another round of vengeance that was much more than the first. Something tore out of his throat. Something awful, something that left him shaking more. He meant for it to be a cry for someone to help, at least before he could get enough energy to teleport, but it came out as a noise an animal would make. A noise a monster would make. Something like him.

He stayed there, didn’t make any noise. Maybe a monster should be caged like this, even if the cage was made of glass.

It was only when his father opened the door, opened the glass over Sans’ bed, that it came.

The pain came, and it came sudden, came swift, and the throbbing, sentient… thing, this creature, came back, and it wracked him. It wracked him, and the bones were whipped, and whipped, and torn, and whipped again, and Sans was arching, and the front of his hospital gown was touching the glass. There was a thumping sound, but he kept his hands firm to the bed, clawing, clawing till he felt foam instead of fabric. But his feet were alive and wild, kicking, kicking the poor bed to shreds.

“D-D-DDRG-DAD-”

“Yes?” His father wrenched his hands to flight. The medicine came coursing, and Sans came to, but the pain was still there, only pushed a few feet away. There was a gasping noise, and Sans didn’t know who made it until he found his own chest tired.

“Did you use the-”

Hands still clawing the bed. They never stopped. Pain was always there, only a few inches now.

“-use the Deter-deter-detRGG-”

Papyrus’ eyes turned into pools, and Sans knew he had to do something. Maybe keep his teeth clenched, at least when he wasn’t talking.

Or maybe smile.

He did for a moment, but the foundation became all skewed, and Sans had to go back to a monotone expression. A smile couldn’t be a smile if it was skewed.

The smile had seemed to make his brother chuckle a bit, but his father grew worse if anything, and he only nodded. No speech. Nothing but the heart monitor yelling in its unpredictable way.

The sound came, but a little quiet, then quieter before it ever got louder. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, dear God, I’m sorry-”

It came again. The beast came again, and his lip quivered without him knowing, his legs making a plopping sound against the bed with him knowing. But he could do this. He had to.

One hand stopped from clawing the bed. He had to do something now. He couldn’t T onto anything; that would be too much of a trouble if he was ever going to try and speak. He had to do something. Wait? No, he couldn’t wait. That was all medicine could do. But he needed to do something, something… maybe sit his hand on his father’s lap?

His brother. He had to focus on his brother’s eyes. Then he’d switch onto his father, just like that. Just like that. Something to distract him, that’s all. That’s all he needed. Come on, Sans.

My brother’s eyes are orange. His eyes are orange. His eyes are orange. His eyes are orange.

Sans got his hand off the bed. The beast came screeching.

They’re orange, they’re orange, they’re orange, and they’re orange, and they’ll always be orange, and they’ll always be there, because he’s my brother and he has to he has to he has to-

The hand landed on his father’s lap, and the heart monitor shouted awhile before going back to its normal whine.

Now to get the words out. This was the hard part.

The left hand clawed deep, and the sheets were mauled, and his fingers found foam.

“Dad.”

He considered lifting his head, but only his eyes would work now.

“I wanted you to.”

It was enough to keep his father silent for the next hour, but not the pain. The pain was too loud, and each and every time either of the two tried to speak, it roared, and he kicked, and it interrupted the both of them. It was an hour, surely, but it may as well have been a day. A year. A lifetime.

The worst part of the hour was when thirst weaved its way through him, even though Sans didn’t feel it. He had to sit up, and the beast sat on him in retribution. This time he could bite; he had to bite, or else he’d wake up the whole of creation. He bit on the patch of torn-off coat that had finally loosened and fallen on the bed, and the noise, awful as it was, came from his throat, and he could feel Papyrus looking away before he saw him look away.

By the time it was done and the water had poured down, down into him, he let himself flump against the bed. The beast was there, certainly, but it was different. He’d let himself slide under it, rather than fight it. That was what needed to be done, he supposed, if he’d ever build enough energy to fight it in the first place.

But this time let him say a few words. “Dad?”

His father’s hand lay on his stomach. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.”

“All’s forgiven. All’s forgiven.”

It was only now that the pain spread to his father, his bones being intact but his soul somewhere far else. It was only now that his father winced until he could hear his eyelids tugging at him, feel the tears soaking the throbbing bones he was holding in his hand. Sans’ eyes darted from left to right, from his father’s hand to his eyes and back again. “I need you to do something, alright? ‘Cuz it looks like I just might not be able to.”

Dr. Gaster tried to predict what thing he’d have to do, what beast he’d have to forgive, but his rationalizing turned into tumbling, stumbling, and his thoughts fell.

The monitors protested.; His father found he couldn’t muster an “alright”.

“Dad.” He looked one more time back at Papyrus, and then at a place only he could see, and then back at his father. “Tell Azzie that I’m back, alright? Just this one thing. Just this one thing for me, alright?”

Papyrus’ mouth stuttered open, but one glare from Dr. Gaster’s mouth made it silent again. They knew what had happened to the prince, known that he’d tangled himself in a mess far deeper than Sans had. They knew he’d been taken, stolen, the same way Sans had, and that there was nothing anyone could do to reel him back. But Jessica had been stolen from here the way Sans would be stolen soon. As Dr. Gaster was very quickly learning, there was nothing they could do to reel any of the two back. This was a different world Sans had woken to.

But maybe… just maybe, if the beast could be held back…

“Yes, son. I promise I will.”

A tear lurched its way out of Papyrus’ eye, but if Sans noticed, he didn’t say anything. But for a moment, Sans thought his brother was going to shove his way out of the room, and when in a half a minute his brother was still in the chair, Sans was surprised.

Before any more words could be said, his father lifted him up. Strangely, the beast was gone now.

“Dad. Dad. I’m so scared, Dad.”

“I know. I know.”

The monitors beeped to the point of exhaustion, and the world became nothing. The blobs were defeated into the half-dark that death often tends to bring. Except this death was littler, gentler, brought a blanket instead of pain to muffle the noise, to muffle the pain, the searing pain.

He was littler now. He was a child, resting on his father’s chest. A part of Dr. Gaster, a small part of him, unrestrained, wanted the rest to come later. His brain, his larger part, wanted it to come sooner.

“Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

He could feel his son’s fingers as they tried not to claw at his jacket, and he winced once more.

“Do you-”

He stopped.

“Do you still have the scarf?”

Papyrus snatched it off his neck, and it was only when he touched his brother’s hand that he started to cry. He cried out an awful noise, not knowing it was his until he felt the ache in his throat.

The sun slipped under the mountainside, and something died inside Asriel, something hateful, something wretched. He remembered something. Remembered the spear headed towards him when he was first under Betty’s verdict, remembered whose blood stained his clothes at the end of that day. He remembered, and his eyes turned green. Betty turned into a monster in Asriel’s eyes for the first time in months, centuries, and Asriel took the sword hilt in his hand.

The sun set on the Gaster household. Sans was so tired. So tired.

He looked into his brother’s eyes until they turned into marbles, glazed with water. He smiled, the way he always had.

And he died shaking.

[nascent-chaos]

If it’s cool with you, could we have some random fluff canons for our skeletons with the Reed? Like, um... Their favorite things to do with her, or their favorite things about her! Stuff like that :> If not, it’s totally cool, just figured I’d ask- Either way, I hope you’re doing well and tak8ng care of yourself!

Sans

He loves sitting down and watching tv with Reed. It’s become something the two of them do a few nights each week - he’ll pick some silly rom-com and the two of them will watch it together for a bit before they both eventually start to teasingly pick it apart. 

That is if he hasn’t konked out twenty minutes into the film and is now using her lap as a pillow. Which tends to happen quite often whenever he sits next to her. What can he say? She’s warm and soft, and that melody from her soul can lull him to sleep in an instant.

He teases her. A lot. It’s all in good fun, but endless pranks and puns will quickly become the norm. Shoot back, though, and he’ll get all embarrassed and flustered - he’s not used to taking it as much as he is dishing it out.

After a particular series of events, he’ll often take Reed up onto the roof at night to go stargazing. He can’t help but feel a great sense of accomplishment as he watches her start to learn the constellations in the night sky.

He absolutely loves it when she gets passionate about something. When the topic turns to something she holds close to her heart she gets this spark in her eye and a bright smile on her face and he can’t help but feel his soul soar.

Papyrus 

He likes surprising her in all sorts of little ways, whether by gifting her a bouquet of wildflowers or preparing breakfast for her, complete with fun characters or happy faces in the food. Her giggles when he shows her always brightens up his day!

He’ll spontaneously hug her out of the blue. Most of the time he doesn’t have any real reason to do so but just likes to do it regardless. Whenever he suspects she’s feeling a bit down he’ll sweep his human up and won’t put her down again until he’s sure he’s cuddled all of the sadness out of her!

He’s quite in tune with Reed and her overall emotions. On more than one occasion he’s scooped her up and plopped down with her in his lap, just so he can cuddle her when she seems to be down. He’ll shower her with as many positive words and complements as he needs to until she’s smiling and laughing again - and then shower her in some more, just because he can!

In the mornings after they’ve cooked breakfast together, sometimes Papyrus and Reed will take a seat at the dining table and take turns solving the puzzles in the newspaper. He’s impressed by how skilled she is at Junior Jumble, although he does usually have to lend her a hand with crosswords. How can anyone find crosswords more difficult than Junior Jumble?!

Red

He enjoys physical contact and is almost always touching her in some way when she’s within reach. His hand is always finding her own and vice-versa.  

The first time he heard her heartbeat, he was absolutely floored. Reed wasn’t too pleased having him that close to her chest (though in his defense it had been an honest accident), but when she realized he was in awe over it and his request to listen to it a little longer wasn’t just a cover to be a pervert, she let him enjoy the sound for a few more moments before sending him on his way. He’s admitted he finds the sound to be unexpectedly comforting.

Whenever he sits on her left and leans against her now she’ll give him a pass, knowing he’s just wanting to listen to her heartbeat again. He usually only does this when he’s really stressed though and is grateful that she’s pretty understanding about it.

On more than one occasion she’s caught him sneaking back into the house after having gotten into a fight somewhere. The first time she saw him injured she panicked and practically fell down the stairs in her hurry to grab the first-aid kit. He’ll often port directly into her room when he needs a hand patching himself up now or doesn’t want Edge to find out he’s been getting into scuffles. He’ll teasingly call her his nurse.

She’s let him crash in her room on more than one occasion because of this. She’ll let him have the bed and she’ll cuddle up to the giant plush teddy-bear sitting in the corner (a gift from Blue).

Edge

Ever since he found out Reed is afraid of thunder he’ll often stick around her during storms, or demand a task from her that he knows will keep her in his sight.

He loaned her his scarf during a particularly bad storm once. He thought she looked adorable in it - especially since it was so big on her he could almost wrap it around her like a blanket. He was really pleased to see how effectively it appeared to help her.

He’ll often do something he knows will annoy her, just to get a rise out of her. She’ll often respond in a bossy way - he actually finds it rather endearing, seeing her trying to be intimidating in those times and failing so horribly. He knows not to push too hard though because holy shit she can be downright terrifying if he’s really managed to piss her off. 

He loves cooking with her and especially loves it when it’s just the two of them in the kitchen. He’s still a bit too shy and prideful to really come up with any real reasons to keep her in his presence without actually giving her a reason to be, so he finds cooking to be the perfect opportunity for him to spend some actual quality time with her.

Stretch

He loves reading with her. Most of the time the two of them will sit together on the couch and read whatever novels have caught their attention at that time, or else he’ll visit her in her room. Her reading nook was his idea - she’ll typically take the window seat overlooking the garden and he’ll lounge around on the floor next to it, his back against the seat.

He’s a cuddler, perhaps even more so than his classic counterpart. At first, he’d been extremely hesitant, given her general dislike of people touching her, but she seems to have grown accustomed to and accepting of her housemates’ touches over time. On the couch, doing laundry, cooking, it doesn’t matter what she’s doing at the time - he’ll still come up behind her and drape himself over her, his face always settling into the same sleepy yet content expression. There are few things in the world he enjoys more than pulling her up against his chest and wrapping his arms around her - it eases his anxiety, knowing she’s safe and sound. 

He visits her at work a lot. Granted, he spent a lot of time at Muffets even before she’d started working there, but now he just has another reason to be there all day. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t think she looked fantastic in that uniform, either.

Lazy though he is, he does enjoy walking home with her rather than just teleporting. They’ll usually swing by her secret spot for a bit and chat idly for a little while before heading home.

The bookmark he uses is actually a flower he had bought home from there, which he later pressed and preserved in his magic.

Blue

He loves playing with her hair. He’s learned tons of creative and intricate ways to braid it since she’s moved in and absolutely loves it when she’ll let him play with it.

This will often happen when the two of them sit down to binge movies together - he’ll take the sofa and she’ll sit on the floor in front of him, letting him play with her hair as little or as much as he wants throughout the movie. 

She has a veritable mountain of adorable stuffed animals on her bed, all gifts from Blue. He tends to buy one whenever he finds it especially cute, saying it reminds him of her! He was over the moon when he saw her snuggling up with one on the couch once!

Whenever they go out of the house together, he’ll always ask with a bright blush if he can hold her hand. He’s always so happy when she says yes.

When she rides into town with him on his motorcycle, she’ll wrap her arms around him and rest her head against his spine. He was so caught off guard the first time she did it he nearly sent the two of them crashing into the flower beds!!

Hickory

Flirty texts for days. It’s all in good fun, of course - he keeps things light enough to avoid the situation turning into something uncomfortable.

He thinks her hair is soft AF. He’ll often comb his phalanges through it just to enjoy the feeling - though sometimes it can annoying when her hair gets caught in the grooves and chips of his joints and he has to carefully untangle himself.

Skull pets for days. He loves to nap with his head in her lap and she’ll often stroke the back of his skull lightly. It’ll usually knock him out in a matter of minutes.

When she’s listening to music while cleaning, he’ll occasionally sing along, but usually off-key just to make her smile. 

He and Stretch have become her official taste-testers for whatever new concoction she’s decided to try and bake in the kitchen at home. Given their shared sweet tooths, they’re both more than happy to try out whatever new recipe she’s discovered.

Black

Though he’ll often hide his actions behind a variety of different excuses, Black quite enjoys spoiling her. 

He’s exceedingly protective of her - she’s his human, after all! Like Blue, he’ll hold her hand whenever the two of them step out of the house together - although he also tends to shoot piercing glares at anyone whose eyes tend to linger on her a second longer than he likes.

Ever since the not-date he enjoys showering her in nicknames just to watch her get flustered. What’s that, darling? You find it odd? My dear, he has no idea what you could be talking about. Come now, lovely, there’s no reason to look so embarrassed!

Dust 

Red might be the one with the engineering degree, but it’s Dust that often helps Reed fix things around the house. Despite his lazy exterior Dust is surprisingly deft with his hands and hasn’t come across anything in the lodge yet that he couldn’t fix (well… except the machine of course, but that’s a different can of worms altogether).

They spend a lot of time in the gardens together, since he’s not allowed to leave the property without an escort. He’s gotten a bit more accustomed to allowing her around Papyrus and the two of them will often go back and forth punning each other until his ‘brother’ blows his top and starts scolding the two of them.

He still suffers from night terrors on a regular basis. Reed will show up at his door not long afterword, no matter what the hour might be, with a glass of golden flower tea and sit quietly beside him while he calms himself.

G

He travels a LOT but always makes sure to get Reed a souvenir from wherever he goes. He knows she has a soft spot for anything glass and especially loves crystal suncatchers - he once spent an entire week during a trip to Seychelles trying to find a place on the island that sold - or could make - something like that. But when he finally returned and got to see her reaction to the delicate gift? Worth it!

He has a habit of swinging by the lodge a lot when he’s in town. He tries to let Reed know beforehand when he’s coming over, but admittedly sometimes he forgets - yet on more than one occasion he’s popped in around lunch or dinner, only to find she’s already prepared a plate for him. Apparently, its something she does quite often when she hears he’s back. 

Teasing for days. He loves seeing her flustered and throws grand complements at her with all the casualness of discussing the weather just to see her cute blush. He thinks she looks absolutely adorable.

[ebelwrites]

Counting Heads

The very early hours of the morning isn't the best time to have a scare because of a false alarm. Neither is it a good time to have a serious conversation with your boyfriends. But it still happens; that doesn't mean it achieves all that much.

In which things are discussed but nothing changes, but did they really want them to change in the first place.

(Alternative title: Nightmare Stresses, Error Knits, and Dust Has Had It Up To Here With This Baloney)

He blearily blinked his eye opened as he slowly returned to wakefulness. It was a soft wakeup, nothing had startled him awake, and so his body took its time slowly adjusting to the waking world. He blinked a bit more to try and remove some of the fog from his sight, it didn't do the same for his mind. His thoughts felt like there was tar dragging at them, preventing him from fully grasping them. But his instincts drove him to lift his head upwards; On reflex, he began to count the other beings in the room with him.

one…two…three…four…-…FOUR?!

Instantly, Nightmare snapped awake, his peace long forgotten amidst the panic he now felt. There was one missing. He bolted upwards, trying to get a better view of the room. His panic surging forward, driving him to count again. Who was missing? Who was missing? He had to be wrong.

One; Red scarf-On the right.

Two; Black streaks-In front, on the floor.

Three; X markings-Tangled with Two

Four; Glitching code-In the armchair, to the right.

Five? Five? Where was-

A loud snore cut off his panicked thoughts, and he sought desperately to find where the noise had come from. He almost believed he'd imagined it, some hallucination born out his mind's attempt at preservation against the panic, until he heard it again, and quickly whirled to face the direction it came from. It took a few moments for him to realise what he was seeing, but then he fell back with a sigh.

Five; Cracked skull-Under the table.

Well, there was definitely no going back to sleep now. He grumbled to himself as he surveyed the chaos of the room; the remains of the movie night they'd had, before everyone had drifted off to sleep wherever they had been. Apparently, for some of them, that had been a rather unusual place. The title screen of the last film they'd watched, some B-rate horror flick that Killer had picked up in the last above-ground timeline he'd entered, played upon the television screen, casting the only light upon the scene. It was a testament to how tired he was that he didn't even realise he'd woken Dust until he went to get up in order to start cleaning (Because there was popcorn everywhere, it was in his carpets), and found a pair of hands dragging him back to the couch.

"Nope, too early." With that eloquent sentence, Dust, terroriser of worlds, murderer of hundreds, let out a kitten-like yawn and fell back into position against Nightmare's shoulder. He really didn't want to disturb Dust, but there wasn't any way the leftover anxiety was going to let him rest.

"Let me go; Someone has to pick up."

"It can wait until morning."

"Technically, it is morning." Dust made a noise somewhere in-between a snort and a groan at his reply and raised half-lidded sockets up to glare at him without any heat.

"You know what I meant; It can wait until a reasonable hour." He squinted and grumbled to himself as the light from the TV caught him the wrong way. "What are you even doing awake? It's far too early to be up. No one else is even up yet." A pair of clicking needles quietly wormed their way into the conversation to dispute that observation. "Well, except for him."

In fairness to Dust, Error had been pretty quiet. Sitting curled up in the armchair that they'd reserved for when he wasn't feeling up to physical contact, he'd been quietly knitting away since before Nightmare had even stirred. But, then again, Error had sleep patterns that put Nightmare's to shame, so it wasn't that unusual.

"Dust has a good point; what did stir you so badly?" Error carefully set his knitting to the side, staring intently at the two on the couch. "You woke peacefully, I had assumed you would just fall back to sleep. What startled you?" Nightmare grumbled a bit, his face tinting blue slightly.

"…I couldn't find Horror…" It was all he said, but it was all he needed to; Dust and Error let out groans in unison.

"You stress far too much." Dust settled against his side, doing a wonderful job of, almost innocently, pinning Nightmare in place; it was quite the good deception, even though Nightmare already knew about this trick of his. "Not a single being, no matter what their skills, would be able to sneak into this place undetected, and you know it."

"Besides, you'd hope that after last time, people would have more sense than to try taking one of us." The only reason Error could say it was because he was the one taken, but it still made Dust and Nightmare wince at the reminder. A Swap!Papyrus, not the Swap!Papyrus, but one who'd heard about Error and that particular Swap!Sans, had thought himself clever to kidnap the destroyer of AU's. Nightmare and the rest of the evil Sans' had taken offence to that and rained hell upon his entire world. By the end, they'd made him regret ever thinking up that particular scheme; or he would have regretted it, if he'd still been alive to regret, but that was beside the point. Nightmare didn't think he'd ever had been as emotional as that time. (The others had thought it to be rage; Privately, he thought it was fear. Whichever it was, he'd made sure to keep them all in sight for the next several days. It eased the coil in his ribcage, being able to check on all of them at once.)

"The point remains, Nightmare, you should go back to sleep. We're all here, we're all safe, and cleaning can wait until a proper hour." And apparently, that was all Error would have to say on the subject, as he picked up his knitting again and continued with some new project. Dust seemed quite welcome to the idea, settling down almost immediately; he'd been hanging onto consciousness by a thread, and now that an opportunity to go back to sleep presented itself, he took it. He was soon slumbering against Nightmare's shoulder. With no other option presented to him, Nightmare took one last glance around the room; making sure everyone was exactly where he'd last seen them. His eye closed almost against his will, and he found himself curled up to Dust. The steady clicks of the knitting needles slowly eased the last dregs of tension and anxiety that had coiled in his ribcage; he drifted off without even realising.

[odderancyart]

The Cherry Chronicles pt. 6

First Last Next

AO3

Summary: Another Sans appears in Underfell. The only problem, except getting him home, is that this one’s showing signs of abuse, and is terrified of Papyrus.

Warnings:  physical/mental abuse, flashbacks of abuse, self-loathing, violence. The flashback is in cursive, and that's the worst part of the chapter, so you can skip it

Still with the steaming mug in his hands and the blanket over his shoulders Cherry made his way downstairs. He wasn’t entirely sure that was an okay thing to do, but during the past three days (or was it four? He didn’t know how long he had slept) there had been no punishments, so he felt bold enough to take the risk. In the living room, the native brothers sat on the couch. Boss – no, Papyrus – was reading a book and Sans just stared at the wall, looking grumpy.

“i wanted to t’ grillby’s, boss,” his counterpart almost whined. “i don’ wanna be here.”

“YOU SOUND LIKE A CRANKY BABYBONES, SANS. AND IT’S NOT HEALTHY FOR YOU TO GET DRUNK ALL THE TIME.”

“’m a skeleton. got no organs for ‘t to hurt either. i can drink a skeleton, no worries. ” Cherry let out a chuckle at that, and the two immediately turned their heads toward him. Sans looked upset, but Bo-Papyrus only smiled. It was sharp, but seemed oddly sincere. He gulped, but resisted the urge to cower under his not-brother’s gaze.

“CHERRY,” Papyrus greeted. At least he didn’t seem upset about Cherry taking the blanket and mug with him. “SIT DOWN PLEASE.”

His soul skipped a beat in surprise of being asked instead of ordered. At least without being directly ordered. It might just be an order in disguise, but it still felt nicer than a direct one. At least when it was one he didn’t have to worry about not managing to obey.  

Papyrus looked straight at him, while Sans was almost pointedly avoiding his gaze. He seemed very uncomfortable, fiddling with his collar. At that, Cherry was reminded of his own, and his hand went up to it. It wasn’t nearly as good quality as Sans’. It was only there as a proof of Boss’ ownership of him. He hated it, and loved it. He sat down at the floor. This time he was leaning toward the armchair, though. Perhaps that’d be okay. First, he sat on tenterhooks, but as no one said anything he felt himself relax.

“WE ARE… CONCERNED,” Papyrus began as he closed his book and put it on the table. “ABOUT WHAT YOU TOLD US YESTERDAY. MAY I BE FRANK?”

Cherry sat quiet for a few minutes before he realized he was being asked something. He gave a sharp nod, startled by the notion.

“YOU ARE BEING ABUSED AND WE WANT YOU TO STAY HERE.”

There was silence, before Cherry flew to his feet. His eye was blazing red and he almost growled.

“how dare ya?” he practically hissed. “Boss has been takin’ care o’ us fer years when i couldn’. ‘t’s not ‘is fault i can’t do anythin’ right.”

The brothers looked taken back, staring at him in shock. They both gaped at him. Then Sans’ face softened, and he stood up. Cherry flinched back, preparing himself for getting hit – they’d definitely punish him for this. Yet he couldn’t regret it. How could they even suggest such an outrageous thing? Boss was the coolest, and yes, he would rough at times but it was just how their world was. Sans walked up to him, and put his hands on his shoulders before gently pressing him back down on the floor. Cherry obeyed, but glared at him despite how he twitched at being touched. Sans sat down in front of him, staring him straight into the eyelights.

“’lright,” he stated calmly. He had a weird, kind of sad look in his eyelights. “now yah’ll listen ta me. understood?”

Cherry didn’t want to, but it was an obvious order, so he nodded. Sans looked a bit pleased.

“yer relationship with yer bro ain’t normal. ‘t ain’t healthy either. if he really cared then he wouldn’ leave ya outside in th’ middle of th’ winter for th’ dogs ta do whatever withcha. ya wouldn’ be terrified o’ ‘im ‘n’ o’ messin’ up and ya wouldn’ ‘ave been surprised tha’ ya got food. none o’ this is a healthy relationship, buddy.”

Cherry did his best not to listen. He didn’t want to hear this. No. It wasn’t true. His Boss loved him and cared for him. It was all done for his sake.

Yet, there was this small voice in the back of his mind. A voice he had supressed for years, which was telling him Sans was right.

It terrified him.

“no, no, no, no, no,” he muttered. As Sans let go off his shoulders he hid his face in his arms. He wanted to get these thoughts of doubt out of his head. “’t ain’t true. Boss is doin’ ‘t fer my sake. ‘t ain’t true.”

“I THINK YOU KNOW YOU’RE LYING TO YOURSELF,” Papyrus said gently. And how wrong wasn’t it for that voice to sound so soft? It wasn’t right it shouldn’t he didn’t deserve it. Why couldn’t everything just go back to normal where he wasn’t forced to question everything he had ever known? “OR YOU WOULDN’T BE TRYING TO CONVINCE YOURSELF WE’RE LYING. BECAUSE YOU AREN’T TRYING TO CONVINCE US, THAT IS FOR SURE.”

Cherry felt himself trembling, and shook his head. No. No this wasn’t true. It wasn’t… He felt himself starting to get light-headed and his breathing got shallow. He couldn’t breathe. He glanced up, and the world was fuzzy. What was going on, why couldn’t he see?! What was going on? His soul beat violently as the world turned black.

“YOU USELESS WORM,” Boss shrieked as he grabbed Sans’ collar and hoisted him into the wall. Sans gasped for air, but the collar restricted his breathing and he could hardly get any. He trembled, staring at the other’s furious face. “YOU HAVE EMBARRASSED ME FOR THE LAST TIME.”

Sans wasn’t sure what he had done. Undyne had been over, and he had tried to make himself as small as possible. Then she left, and Boss punched him.

It didn’t matter what he had done. He deserved it. He always did, for being such an awful mess. He groaned in pain as one of Boss’ claws dug into his mandible. He would probably get another scar. Perhaps it’d get infected again, Sans thought absentmindedly, if Boss didn’t let him into the medicinal supplies. He often didn’t, because medicine was only for valuable members of society who did something useful with their time. Not like him, who couldn’t even sit through a sentry pass without falling asleep, no matter how much he tried.

He whimpered in pain as Boss roughly hoisted him higher before grabbing one of his ribs. He didn’t have a soft grip.

“’m sorry, ‘m sorry,” he managed to get out, holding back the sobs threatening to escape. “whatever i did, ‘m sorry, Boss, ‘m sorry.”

Boss didn’t take any notice of his words, and grabbed harder. With a crack, the bone splintered, and Sans screamed. The sound was almost unreal, loud and shrill. It didn’t sound like his voice, but he knew it was. He had heard it so many times, he’d recognize it better than his normal speaking voice.

“YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE THIS,” Boss said levelly. One could almost think he was cracking an egg, not his older brother. No. Not his brother. His pet. Property. The collar witnessed of that. Sans nodded. Tears were now flowing down his face and mixing with the blood Boss had drawn earlier. “TELL ME.”

“i deserve this,” Sans sobbed. It was getting hard to get enough air to speak. “’m a worthless piece o’ dust ‘n’ i deserve this.”

“GOOD BOY.”

“cherry! cherry!” “CHERRY! SANS!”

Cherry jerked as he felt himself getting shook. His breath hitched as he wildly looked around, trying to figure out where Boss had gone. His eye sockets widened as he found himself face to face with him, and then himself. A memory triggered at that, and his breathing slowly calmed down as he realized where he was.

“thank th’ goddamn stars,” Sans exclaimed quietly. Relief was obvious on his face, even to Cherry. “that was fuckin’ scary.”

“OF COURSE IT WAS, YOU IDI…” Papyrus interrupted himself as Cherry gasped softly. His voice lowered. “HE WAS HAVING A FLASHBACK. WHAT HAPPENED, CHERRY? CAN YOU TALK ABOUT IT?”

Cherry shook his head violently. He didn’t want to… he couldn’t…

“Boss… he…” he whispered anyway. It was too ingrained in him to not keep secrets. Yet he couldn’t go on, and simply lifted a weak limb and pointed first at the scar on his cheek before holding up his t-shirt and showing off the poorly healed ribs.

The brothers stared at his ribcage in horror.

“tha’s…” Sans began, but didn’t seem to know what else to say. “tha’s…”

“FUCKING HELL,” Papyrus finally stated. Both Sanses couldn’t help but agree, albeit of different reasons.

…

Papyrus stroked Doomfanger, feeling a bit of the stress he had been constantly feeling since Cherry came into their home slowly dissipating. The feeling of soft fur on phalanges was calming. Especially combined with the deep purring. He stared at Sans, who had sunk into the couch, looking completely out of it. His brother was just staring at nothing. Papyrus hadn’t felt this helpless in years, not since he began to get promotion after promotion in the Guard. Certainly not since he had become lieutenant a few years ago.

There was no protocol for this. Nothing that said how he was supposed to feel. What even was the logical way to think, feel and act when an alternate version of you brother showed up after a life of abuse from an alternate version of yourself? There was none and that fact was completely throwing him off his rocket. Even more than he would’ve been otherwise.

Cherry seemed adamant on denying he was being abused by his brother. Which might’ve be understandable; he couldn’t promise he or Sans would’ve acted in another way if they’d been in his situation. Which was a horrifying thought, but true nonetheless. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

“SANS?” he asked. There was no need to keep his voice down, Cherry had passed out soon after that flashback and was now sleeping in Sans’ room. His older brother turned his empty stare toward him, and the eyelights slowly came back.

“yeah, boss?” Sans said. His voice was disturbingly quiet. There was none of that cheekiness which always was there.

“WE NEED A COURSE OF ACTION. AND I WAS THINKING… PERHAPS IT’S HARD FOR CHERRY TO REALIZE WHAT IS GOING ON WITHOUT AN OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE?”

Sans was silent for a few moments. He stared at Papyrus in confusion before blinking. A malicious grin slowly made its way onto his face and some colour returned to his eyelights.

“i like th’ way yer thinkin’,” he drawled, finally sounding more like himself as he had a goal and a solution in mind.  “i really do.”

…

Sans worked ceaselessly through the following day and night, with Papyrus’ help. Papyrus did have a knack for mechanics, and could probably have become a fantastic mechanical engineer if he hadn’t been more interested in fighting and leading   . Sans couldn’t remember the last time he had worked this hard, if he ever had. Even while in the Royal Labs he had taken every excuse to slack off. If it ever had happened it was probably when he was still new and excited, or still at the Royal Academy. Through sweat and frustration, the Machine stood finished just in time for the fluorescent lamps to lighten up the town, signalling it was morning.

They’d left Doomfanger with Cherry, both to keep an eye of him and to let Cherry know where they were, should he wake up.

“GOOD JOB, SANS,” Papyrus eventually said as they stared at the product of their labour. “I’M PROUD OF YOU.”

A grin made its way onto Sans grin, and he rubbed the back of his head.

“thanks, boss,” he replied almost sheepishly. “’m proud of ya too. i know ya don’ care much fer science.”

They smiled at each other, pleased that their hard work had paid off. Then they made their way upstairs, to explain their plan to Cherry, who jumped on the chance to prove his brother wasn’t abusive.

Travelling with the Machine was weird. It felt a bit like shortcutting, but much, much stronger. Sans could only describe it as being pulled apart at the seams and put together again, atom for atom, inside a Void that was different from the one he used for teleporting. He couldn’t describe different how, just really fucking different.

They were all a little dizzy as they stumbled out of something in what hopefully was Cherry’s Basement. Sans fought to keep at his feet as he gazed back at the thing they’d stepped out from. They all stared as they saw it. A black vortex, floating in the middle of the room. Like a rift in existence. It didn’t disappear.

”welp,” Sans said, plopping at the ‘p’. “hopefully tha’ stays, or i don’ know ‘ow we’ll get back. didn’ think o’ that, fer some reason.”

Papyrus didn’t say anything, even if he startled a bit at that. Sans’ words had obviously worried him, which he felt a little bad over. Still, there was nothing to do. Cherry was standing there, looking quite shaken. If it was because of the journey or because he was back in his own universe, Sans couldn’t tell. Papyrus put a hand on Cherry’s shoulder, making him wince slightly. Yet, it was a smaller wince than it used to be and he didn’t look as scared so Sans counted that as a victory.

“LET’S FIND A GOOD PLACE TO HIDE,” Papyrus suggested. The Sanses nodded, and they made their way upstairs.

The living room was disturbing. It looked almost exactly like their own, but also like a screwed over copy of their own. The carpet was stained by something that looked disturbingly like blood, and so was the wallpaper. It looked like someone had scrubbed away the most but not quite succeeded. The couch was a perfect picture, all orderly, and there was no sock in next to the wall.

The brothers looked around. It was really disconcerting to see. Finally Sans sighed.

“yer not allowed on th’ couch, ya said, right?” he asked, and Cherry shook his head mutely. Sans shook his head in quiet dislike and went to sit down next to the wall. Papyrus grabbed Cherry’s wrist and led him to the kitchen.

“REMEMBER, SANS,” he said before they went inside. “IF YOU THINK YOU CAN’T HANDLE ‘ME’ THEN IMMEDIATELY CALL FOR ME.”

“o’ course, boss,” Sans assured him. “i won’t lose my head.” As he said that, he wiggled his skull. He didn’t like to take it off fully, but it was very possible. A pro of being a skeleton, he guessed. Papyrus groaned, while a quiet snicker came from Cherry. Success.

Soon, he felt himself nodding off where he sat. It wasn’t incredibly comfortable, but he had definitely slept in worse places before. Such as that pine tree once when they were playing hide and seek as babybones. He snickered at the memory. Pap had been so angry when he found him asleep three meters over the ground. He had climbed the tree, shook Sans awake, and yelled at him before realizing he didn’t know how to get down. Sans had had to teleport them both, and as a babybones Papyrus had detested shortcuts even more than now. They’d made him feel ill.

Smiling as he remembered the happy times, he felt his eyelids getting heavy, and he was soon fast asleep.

“YOU FUCKIN JACKASS!” A familiar voice shouted, and a door banged open. “BY THE FUCKING STARS, WHERE HAVE YOU FUCKING BEEN?”

Sans twitched as he was abruptly woken up. His eye sockets flew open, and he couldn’t help the red flickering as he watched Cherry’s abuser. He was almost distressingly similar in looks to Papyrus, but with the cruel, furious look in his face it wasn’t hard to see the difference. ‘Boss’ grabbed the front of Sans’ shirt, and hauled him off the ground, slamming him into the wall. Sans let out a pained oof as he hit it. The other certainly wasn’t careful with his 1HP. Though if this Papyrus was anything at all like his own, then he had perfect control of his Damage and wouldn’t hurt anyone’s HP if he didn’t want to.

“EXPLAIN YOURSELF, AND I MIGHT NOT THROW YOU TO THE DOGS TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO WHEN I’M FINISHED WITH YOU.”

The shorter couldn’t help it as his eyelight flickered red again in fury. Boss slammed him into the wall again, and he gasped.

“DON’T YOU DARE THREATEN ME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT,” he growled. It was easy to see what he was thinking; he was like an open book. Sans couldn’t help but wonder if he always was this easy to read or if he just didn’t bother hiding his true self with his ‘brother’. If the first was the case, he was playing a dangerous game.

“aw, is baby bro pissed?” Sans snickered despite the deathly grip the other had very close to his neck. Boss froze, staring at him in pure disbelief. His eye sockets widened, and he was obviously doubting what he had heard – and seeing. Sans had a shit-eating grin on his face. “c’mon, tha’ glare o’ yers almost sends shivers down my spine. what?” he added as Boss’ shocked face turned into a glare. “dontcha think ‘m humerus?”

“ENOUGH!” Boss screamed, and slammed him into the wall again. Sans felt pain travel up his spine, but he kept in any sounds again. “I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU’VE BEEN THAT HAVE MADE YOU FORGET YOUR PLACE, BUT I WILL MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER IT QUICK ENOUGH.”

“ya sure ‘bout tha’?” Without another word, Sans threw out his leg, kicking Boss in the ribs. It would probably – hopefully – not be enough normally, but he apparently managed to surprise the other enough to make him loose his grip on Sans. As he felt himself falling to the floor, his magic flared and he shortcutted.

Soon standing a few meters away, Sans grinned malevolently.

“aw, don’ skullk around,” he teased. His voice was growing darker. “you d i r t y  b r o t h e r-a b u s e r.”

As on que, which it was, Papyrus stepped around the corner. He had a ferocious and enraged expression, and his eye was glowing brightly as he crossed his arms and glared at Boss. The native Papyrus froze again, staring at his copy. He looked completely stunned. Then he frowned, and outrage filled his face.

“I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU TWO ARE AND HOW YOU GOT INTO MY HOUSE,” he snarled while stretching out a hand. A red, sharp bone appeared in it. The tone was low and threatening, but it only made Sans grin. That seemed to infuriate him even more. “BUT I WILL MAKE SURE YOU REGRET IT.”

“tibia honest,” Sans said with a cruel smirk. “i don’ believe ya.”

[jflashandclash]

Blood of a Mayan---TOO

Twenty-Five: Kalypso

Solar Deities are Creepy and Need Restraining Orders

             The most frustrating thing about Kally’s nightmare was simple: she’d already beaten Python by using her godly nova blast, but it never worked in the nightmare. She’d be choking for air, paralyzed by fear and wishing Pax could make her as angry as he had in Howe Cavern. Then she could defeat Python. Then she’d be free.

           But this time, like the last two times she’d been saved in dream world and when she’d beat Python in real life, it took an external force.

           “Be gone foul creature!” someone roared.

           Python completely ignored the shout. A dim sparkle of light sprinkled around both of them. The shimmer looked like someone was trying to promote Python on a dating simulator.

           Another voice teased, “Really? You’ve only been out of the game for what? A few thousand years? And that is all you can do?”

           A different, rosier light warmed Kally’s body, loosening the coils.

           Last time someone saved Kally from a dream, she’d learned her lesson on accidentally kissing strangers, since they could end up being your long lost half-brother’s completely homosexual boyfriend.

           With the way these two saved her from her nightmare, Kally wouldn’t have even considered it.

           Someone slapped through Python’s coils with a cheery, “Goooooood MORNING!”nailing Kally in the face.

           Kally jerked awake—er—she jerked out of Python’s nightmare. Upon a frantic glance around, she could tell she was still dreaming. Or she hoped she was.

           Everything blazed with a glaring light. There were celestial bronze columns around an audience chamber. The walls were completely covered with emeralds, glowing Kally’s favorite color. The ground felt cold under her fingers—marble? Mirrors reflected more light across the chamber, like the set up in Cabin Six.

But the place looked hollow and empty. There were only two figures standing in front of Kally.

           The more her eyes came into focus, the more imperfections she noticed. There were cracks in the columns and emeralds that had fallen off the walls to reveal blackened holes. For some reason, something her priest used to say fluttered through her head: All material things fall. The only immortal thing is the kingdom of God.

           Here was a god’s throne room starting to decay.

           Then Kally felt the overwhelming pain in her cheek from being sucker slapped by a goddess.

           “Oh good! You’re up! That’s so exciting! Did you have a nice sleep? You don’t look like you did. That’s my favorite time to wake people. At dawn when they haven’t slept at all.”

           The woman standing before Kally spoke rapidly and with enough cheer that Kally could imagine Euna punching her through several skyscrapers. She would probably agree with Kally: morning people made the worst super villains.

           The woman was young, maybe nineteen with brown auburn hair that flowed loosely down her shoulders. She wore a pink pair of yoga pants and a tight work out shirt with floral print. She hopped back and forth and giggled, like she was warming up for a race. Her fingers, hands, and forearms were stained a deep pink and Kally had to wonder how many flowers were killed in the making of those hands.

           There was a Starbucks coffee cup in her hands with the words Mornings Rule! on the side.

           The man beside her was terrifying. Not in the ax-murderer way though. His hair was golden, flowing in curly locks over his shoulders. His shoulders were broad and Kally could imagine he’d be handsome if he stood up straight and smiled. He wore a dirty purple sheet like a cloak and a ragged, torn shirt and shorts. Instead of looking handsome, he looked like, well, her dad—if Apollo had become a hobo and tried out for the Walking Dead. But none of that was scary. It was his eyes.

           They burned like the sun setting along the horizon. Kally felt like those eyes were as ancient as the sun and as omnipresent as light during day. “It’s not dawn for her,” he chastised the woman.

           She giggled. “You know what they say? It’s 5:00 AM somewhere.”[1]

           “That’s not how that saying goes.”  

“Hey!” She folded her arms and gave him a playful scowl. “Dionysus stole that from me with those military shenanigans. Augh, I used to be so much more popular before the Industrial Revolution! Stupid Antoine Redier!”[2] She dramatically shook her fist downwards.

Kally really didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, but she had no idea what was going on or what the Industrial Revolution had to do with this little inception. “Um, excuse me but—who are you?” she asked timidly.

The woman put a hand to her chest. “I am the beautiful, coveted, adored—”

“Don’t listen to her. She kidnaps people to get affection,” the man interrupted.

“Helios!” she cried and swatted his shoulder. “Don’t spread that rumor! They come to me. You’re as bad as Hemera.”

Helios… Hemera… Kally remembered Axel mentioning something about people Hemera knew.

“Eos!” Kally said. “You’re Eos. You’re the Titaness—er—Goddess of Dawn. The one that poured out all of Hemera’s grains so Euna, Joey, and Axel had to collect them.” After everything that happened that day, Kally couldn’t believe she remembered that little bit, but Axel had been particularly angry about why they were doing their activity.

“Eh, Titaness. Goddess. I accept eith—wait—no! I did not pour out all of her grains. Is that why Hemera was so indignant all morning? She seemed even snipper than usual. I keep telling her an hour ahead of schedule is a perfectly considerate amount of time to arrive at a house. I mean, Aphrodite was even earlier than I was!”

Kally really didn’t want to get into whatever dispute was going on between the Goddess of Dawn and the Goddess of Day, but it wasn’t like she could snap her fingers and have an Uber drive her home. “Um, if you didn’t, then who did? Not that you would,” she quickly added, hoping it wouldn’t make Eos angry. Kally figured that people who made this goddess angry just darkened the stains on those rosy fingers.

“That’s part of why we’re here,” the man said. He gave Kally a dazzling grin, literally dazzling since she had to look away or be blinded. Then the light dimmed. “I’m Helios,” he said simply. There was a sad emptiness in the explanation.

Eos groaned. “Oh, go on. Say it. ‘I used to drive the sun chariot.’ And whose fault is it that you don’t now? I keep telling you. Early bird gets the worm.”

Helios’s eyes dimmed further until the glare of his eyes looked filtered by water. “I wouldn’t expect you to know who I am,” Helios said. “Most of the gods think I’ve already faded.” He touched his forehead, like he was adjusting an invisible crown. His eyes gazed at one of the blackened holes in the wall. “What I wouldn’t do for one last ride in my chariot—to watch Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon galloping westward, to see Hemera ahead of me, scattering her mother’s mist to prepare the path for the sun.” He sighed and closed his eyes.

From his description, Kally could almost envision it. Those must have been the names of his horses. There must have been a lot of glory in striding across the sky—

“And the chicks,” Helios added. He opened his eyes and cocked his head thoughtfully to the sky. “That chariot is a babe magnet and Apollo kicked me out before low cut shirts were in fashion. That scoundrel.”

Eos swatted him. “Helios! That’s gross!”

“What? You spy on people showering in the mornings.”

Were all day deities this creepy? Kally didn’t remember Axel describing Hemera as this creepy.

“Um...” Kally prompted. “About why you’re here..?”

“Oh! Yes! I have an itinerary,” Eos said. She snapped her fingers, her coffee disappeared, and a papyrus scroll appeared in her hands. She read aloud, “Scold Kally for not doing her sun salutations to greet her dad…” Eos glanced over her list, frowned, pointed one finger at Kally and said, “Shame.”

Helios rolled his eyes.

Eos kept reading. “Wake Kally up so she can save Leo Valdez. Remind her to do sun salutations to greet the morning deities. Startle hiker awake and off a cliff—okay!” She snapped her fingers and the scroll was replaced by a white mug that read Here Comes the Sun and a picture of Kally’s dad. “No one has seen Hemera in two days, since that whole cereal incident, when Aphrodite said she had some handsome heroes over to clean up the mess.” Eos giggled. “Maybe Hemera isn’t fading after all if she’s having handsome heroes over. Now, if you ask me, that old bag is being overdramatic and playing hookie—”

“She’s not. I worked with Hemera for thousands of years. She’s reliable and never takes a sick day,” Helios said.

“Except those few months on the North and South Pole—” Eos waved her cup of coffee around.

“Nyx told her to stay home and she deserves some vacation time—”

“Socialist. You know, I’m just as reliable—”

“You’re annoying,” Helios said. The fiery blaze of his eyes returned as he glanced back at Kally. “Mount Olympus has too many problems for anyone to worry over Hemera’s disappearance.”

“Aren’t they in a time of peace right now? And what was that about Leo Valdez?” Kally asked. Although she hadn’t sat through many explanations from the Athena Cabin about the gods, she hadn’t heard of any wars going on or problems in Olympus. And Leo seemed in fine shape before she… how had she fallen asleep in the middle of the morning?

Helios shook his head. “I would say the usual fights, but none of them make any sense. Not that their fights ever do—and trust me, I helped sort out all the craziness with Persephone. Man, does she have a creepy husband. But these fights make even less sense than usual. Hephaestus is mad at Aphrodite and Ares for going off on vacation—”

“Which is false because Aphrodite is scheduled for an exfoliating session with Hygieia today and she would NEVER let anything get in the way of that,” Eos said like it was common knowledge. She winked at Kally. “It was an article in this week’s edition of The Glade.”

“Athena and Poseidon are in the middle of a fight over some museum that wasn’t supposed to originally feature either of them. It was originally supposed to feature Pontus…” Helios gave an exhausted sigh. “How I miss Pontus. Regardless, Artemis and Apollo are trying to chase down the Teusmessian fox, both claiming the other challenged them to it, while Apollo is still trying to hide from Zeus. And Hera and Zeus just got into another fight over some lover or another that Zeus hasn’t seen in years—”

“I feel bad for whatever mortal Hera runs into first with her little riddle, ‘who knows how to have the secret to a happy marriage better than the goddess of marriage.’ If she’d only cheat, she’d be so much happier.” Eos giggled.

That might have explained Joey’s encounter. Kally thought about her mother with Apollo and felt sick. Every time she heard about a Greek god, it sounded like fidelity was as high on their list of priorities as protecting LGBTQ+ rights was for the Westboro Baptist Church. Maybe people fell out of love after several hundred years but…

“Wait—Did you say Hemera went missing two days ago? Euna, Axel, and Joey helped her yesterday,” Kally said.

“You’ve been asleep for a day and a half,” Helios said.

Kally gaped. A day and a half? She didn’t even get to do that on weekends.

Eos took a long sip from her mug and glared. “Someone used Morpheus Dust on you and your group. You know that crust you get in your eyes? If you can collect it off Morpheus from one of his naps, it’s like, my anti-venom. I tried waking you all morning yesterday but it was like you’d had three bottles of Nyquil.”[3]

“When you do wake up, remember to look out for Hemera. Apollo might not care to watch out for his business partners—” Bitterness seeped into Helios’s voice “—but I care. This isn’t like Hemera. No one has any qualms against her. I mean, she and Nyx fight a lot, but I don’t think Nyx would ever harm her.”

Eos gave Helios a skeptical look. “Hemera is too boring for anyone to have qualms with her. Anyway, you’re about to wake up. Things will be clearer for you about how to help Leo Valdez and find Hemera.”

There was no way Kally would be useful in any situation that one of the Seven couldn’t help themselves. “Uh, couldn’t you just tell me how things will be clearer now?” she squeaked.

Helios and Eos gave each other a bewildered look. “Do… gods just TELL heroes things now?” Helios demanded. “That’s so… distasteful.”

Sensible was the word Kally wanted to supply him with, but she felt a chill creeping along her face. Until she fell through the floor, she hadn’t realized how warm it was in the audience chamber.

  When Kally woke up, things were not clearer. Her vision was—in fact—blurry, but she could see two furry creatures curled in her hair. One wore an orange Hero-In-Training shirt and the other cradled the remains of some kind of toy. A… decapitated man’s head?  Bleeding stuffing. Well, it used to be a centaur. She remembered seeing those at Camp Half-Blood’s shop.

Someone nearby was crying. It was a quiet, continuous sob, one that made Kally chest hurt with sympathy pangs. She hated when you’d been crying to the point of chest pains and couldn’t stop.

“But he’ll leave me. You know he will,” Pax whined to… someone.

Kally willed herself to stand to see the other person. Her limbs wouldn’t work. Everything felt numb. It wasn’t the right time of day. Hadn’t it been morning? Early morning? Now it was dark, with nothing but her glow stick and a campfire lighting up Hunnie and Baller’s fur. When she remembered that weasels liked to store dead things in people’s clothing for snacks, she wished she could recoil. From the look of it, Hunnie was… still unmoving.

Every few seconds, Baller would perk up, yawn, and twist his body to climb all over Hunnie. When she didn’t react, he’d give her ear a halfhearted nip. After pawing at her, he’d give up and curl back up with his tail dangling over her face.

Oh, my little terror muffin, another voice spoke. The voice was feminine and warm in a noxious way, like a pillow pre-fluffed to smother someone. Kally wasn’t sure she could hear it aloud, but it echoed in her head. Although Kally’s arms didn’t feel strong enough to lift her body weight, she strained to reach for Hunnie and Baller.

I’m sorry you might lose your brother forever, Ajax. Here’s a voucher for free ice cream to cheer you up.

Kally managed to get up to her elbows. The weasels rolled out of her hair, Baller with a soft huff. Someone had tucked her into the Morpheus sleeping bag—Pax once told her it belonged to Alabaster, a friend of his from Mount Othrys. Supposedly it granted good dreams, though she was struggling to remember hers clearly. Around her, she found Merry, Joey, and Euna also tucked into various sleeping bags. Whoever had taken care of them—definitely Pax, judging from this last part—had unceremoniously plopped a blanket on the upper half of Calex and left his feet exposed. That was something Kally could see Pax finding evil.

The others in the distance blobs of color. Sometime in the night, her contacts must have dried and popped out of her eyes. Her eyes definitely felt sore and dry enough for it. She fumbled in her bag to produce her backup glasses and slipped them on.

Centaurs and nymphs lay scattered around the campfire. She could hear a rhythmic creaking sound. Upon seeing the startling shine of bronze highlighted in the flickering flames, she realized Festus was snoring on the edge of the camp.

“Forever?” Pax hiccupped. “I’d give up ice cream for the rest of my life if I could stay with Axel. He’s all I have left.”

That’s a serious ultimatum, the person warned. Ice cream is delicious. Remember how much you love Reese’s Sundaes.

“Even Reese’s Sundaes, Mom. Even. Reese’s. Sundaes. And what are you saying? Is Axel going to die if he goes to arrest Dad?”

Kally picked up the furry, serpentine bodies of Hunnie and Baller. She expected Baller to bite her. Instead, he curled up into her arms.

Oh, he’ll die if he goes alone, the woman said, like it was an assurance. But he was always going to die before you Pax… Well, unless your little nightmare-prophecy comes true.

Pax recoiled from… a weird thing sitting in front of him. His legs were crunched up, his elbows resting on his knees, and his hands tugging at his hair. His face looked puffy from crying. At his feet, there was some… weird mix of various creatures: goat parts, feline part, bat wings, and horns. Looking at it, Kally didn’t know if she was still dreaming or if a taxidermist had decided to play Mr. Potato with various animals.

“That nightmare won’t come true. Axel wouldn’t do that,” Pax snapped. His tone shook with fear and anger, but tapered almost apologetically. “I don’t think. I—I’m sorry. But—but you said alone. Will he be okay if he has his proper fan club?” He gestured vaguely towards Kally and the others without looking up. “How are we supposed to be his Sailor Scouts if he doesn’t want us there?”

The creature flicked its reptilian tail up to stroke Pax’s cheek. I’ll do what I can to keep the family together. Just keep calm and use that voucher. There should be more for you to steal in Leo’s shack.

Kally wiggled out of the sleeping bag. Despite her attempt to be quiet, the zipper whined.

The creature disappeared.

Pax jumped to his feet. “Kally! You’re awake?!” His yellow and black eyes widened in alarm. He rubbed his face on his duster jacket sleeve. “I mean, completely sincere sounding, ‘Yay! You’re awake!’”

Kally tried to talk. Her mouth felt like it was full of ferret bedding. She adjusted the weasels so she could lean down to withdraw her water bottle from her messenger bag. Once she took a swig, coughed once, and put the water bottle away, she approached Pax.

Morpheus Dust.

Eos’s words lingered from her dream. Kally couldn’t recall the full conversation, but she slowed down. “What’s going on?” She remembered the party and Hera giving Joey her quest, and something about Morpheus Dust. Why had Eos mentioned it?

“Everyone fell asleep after Leo started making Axel’s unbreakable buster sword. Except Axel, Leo, and I. I think it’s because we’re Latino and awesome,” Pax said. He perked up and sniffled. “But now that you’re awake, we can draw on everyone’s faces. Leo said he’d be done with the sword soon so we probably don’t have much time before Calex wakes up.”

Something about Leo Valdez. All the warmth from the sleeping bag sapped out of Kally. The evening November chill made her shudder, huddling into her sweatshirt.  “Where’s Leo?” she asked. That’s what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to protect Leo. How? Kally wasn’t sure. She assumed it would involve her sacrificially tripping and rolling into an enemy so Leo had enough time to get away.

“He and Axel are at his forge, but we could cause way more chaos if we stayed here and—”

Kally walked up to Pax and set her weaselless hand on his arm. “I—” Her mind ground to a halt. What would Merry say? She was so much more assertive and better at this type of thing.

That didn’t matter. Merry was asleep. It was completely on Kally to screw this up and either crumble to Pax’s wishes and write I love Manchester United all over Calex OR to not be a doormat and put herself in a life or death situation to save Leo Valdez from... something. Assuming her dream with Helios and Eos had been more than just a dream…

When Kally took too long to finish her sentence, Pax supplied her for, “… love chinchillas?”

“What? No—well, yes, but no. That isn’t what I was going to say.” Kally took a deep breath. “I want to go check on Leo and Axel. Please Ajax.”

Pax’s eyes narrowed. The alarmed hopefulness of his expression melted into his standard devilish grin. He stood and took a step closer, so he could stroke under Baller’s chin, his finger brushing against Kally’s sweater as he did. Baller’s head bobbed sleepily with each pet. “You know Cyclopes, the only people allowed to call me that are my childhood friends, my family, and my lovers.”

In the tiny repertoire of retorts Kally had prepared—pretty much a single retort—Kally wasn’t ready for Pax to say that. She felt her face heat up. He’s just trying to distract you, the logical part of her brain reminded her. The rest of her brain was encouraging her to walk back to her sleeping bag, hide her face for the rest of eternity, and pretend the conversation never happened.

“Because if you’re building a time machine to become one of my childhood friends,” Pax said. He tapped her nose with the hand he’d been using to pet Baller. “I would want to know your intentions. I would love to use modern technology to scare some settlers into thinking we’re ghosts. We could create some nice mass hysteria.”

Kally did her best to glare. “Leo and Axel,” she said again. As the grogginess of sleep retreated to awareness, the weirdness of the situation hit her. What had Pax and his mother been talking about? Had that been his mother? She’d never seen a goddess show up in a form like that. Before asking about that, she needed to make sure they were on their way to Leo.

“Maybe I can talk to Axel about… about us coming with him to arrest your dad,” she offered.

As much as the Pax boys were great at putting them into life threatening situations, and as scary as Santiago sounded, she didn’t want anything bad happening to them. Their ragtag team of seven was pretty strong. If nothing else, she was sure Calex could make Santiago fall in love with a toaster and Joey and Euna could tie him up in some Clematis bindings while he was serenading it.

Pax puffed up his cheeks and popped them. He took the hand she had on his arm and laced their fingers. “You heard Mom and me talking?” he asked.

“Yea. Your mom was…”

“An awesome whatever,” he supplied like that described it perfectly. Without being a helpful term at all, it did do his mother justice. “Kally,” Pax hesitated and rolled his thumb across her knuckles. The motion had grown more comforting than panic-inducing over the last month. “He’s… he’s not a villain for young adult novels. He’s a big kid villain, for like, an R-rated movie. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

Considering how Python wanted to murder she and her half-brother Will and how the Aphrodite Devils attempted to rip she and Pax apart, she wanted to protest that Santiago would probably feel at home with their other villains. “I’m pretty sure convincing your brother will be way harder than defeating your dad. Axel’s pretty stubborn.”

Pax hugged Kally. Baller made a loud chirping sound at being crushed between the two of them. Kally squeaked when she felt Baller squirm and claw at her sweater.

Pax started to babble in some other language, then switched over to English. “—go talk to him. Maybe you can convince him to leave Leo’s memory alone too. Kally, thank you! I’m sure this’ll blow up in our faces, but at least we’ll be miserable together!” He released her, allowing Baller to scamper down her leg and disappear into the grass.

“What about Leo’s—”

Pax squished Kally’s cheeks together with both hands, gave her a kiss, then tugged her towards Leo’s shack. With his other hand, he picked up a quiver of arrows off the ground.

As they walked, Kally tried to keep focus and ignore how Pax’s lips had felt. She desperately hoped her face wasn’t as red as it felt. To distract herself, she asked, “Why do you have a quiver without a bow?” She remembered Pax saying he hated long distance weapons other than his darts. And there didn’t seem to be a lot to shoot other than stationary centaurs.

“Axel needs it to make the sword.”

           Maybe she hadn’t paid attention when Nyssa or Matt explained Blacksmithing 101, but that sounded like saying you needed turpentine to make pancakes. “You need a quiver to make a sword?”

           “We descend from Greek gods. Recipes get messy sometimes…” Pax glanced over his shoulder at her. “Hey, uh, if you ever want someone there when you talk to your mom, or for ice cream and cry support afterwards, I’m here. Or to punch your dad in the face. I’m always up for punching a god in the face.”

Kally’s stomach clenched at the thought. She was still terrified of talking to her mother. “You’re too much of a coward for that,” she managed.

“Yea,” he admitted without a hint of offense. “But I could put something in his drink that will make him flatulent. That’ll make him WAY more upset than a silly punch.”

They laughed. For a moment, Kally forgot that all her other friends were unconscious in the clearing and Leo Valdez was in some kind of danger. She could pretend Pax and she were going for a nighttime hike in the forest. Alarms went off in her head at the words, put something in his drink.

Morpheus Dust. They’d toasted before everyone fell asleep hadn’t they? Pax had given them Kool-Aid. Kally squinted at Pax’s utility belt in the moon and glow stick light. There was a third vial beside his Sleep and Poison (Do not mix up). It was the same one he’d pulled out for Calypso “that worked better than a dream.” The vial was mostly empty, only a thin layer of glitter at the bottom.

“You, uh, don’t have a thing for Axel, right?” Pax asked. He slipped the quiver’s strap over his shoulder so he could take Hunnie from Kally’s arm and stuffed her into his jacket like a toy.

Kally glanced away from the vial, hoping she looked calm. Why would Pax do that? He and Axel had done dumb stuff before for “noble” reasons. They’d kidnapped Rachel, so they could save her and gain the trust of the Greeks—all to get the proper equipment to take out their father. But what didn’t they want them seeing now? That was just so invasive, and creepy, and overall wrong.

“What?” Kally asked. She needed to keep it cool. But she also had to make sure Pax didn’t have a reason to dart her and tuck her right back into the sleeping bag.

They walked around where Festus creak-snored. The shack was bigger than she thought it would be. Around the back, she could see several work benches and a forge two dozen feet away. There were some kind of hybrid torches—lights surrounding the work space. Various types of tools littered the ground. Over to the right was a small greenhouse. Kally had to wonder—if Leo and Calypso hadn’t settled down in one spot for long—what kind of transformer move this place did to fit on the dragon.

The ground around the workspace, other than the greenhouse, was bare dirt in a wide radius.

Axel sat on one of the work tables with his legs crossed pretzel style. Although he might have been meditating, Kally could envision a tail irritably flicking behind him. His head twitched at their approach.

He wore what looked like a reflective jumpsuit, complete with booties and gloves. Despite the circumstances, Kally almost hoped he’d do some astronaut break dance. As they got closer, Kally could see the material was… uncomfortably tight on him.

Pax hadn’t noticed her unease. “I didn’t know if you had a thing for Axel and you were turning me down because of that and not because you’re wisely not trusting me.”

That was weird to consider. Axel was definitely one of the reasons Merry suggested their group take a trip to the pool at some point. He was an excellent fighter and charismatic leader and the muscles under that silver suit were quite obvious. But…

“Your brother is too cool for me,” she said. Plus, she wasn’t sure she could trust either brother with how this night was turning out.

“You’re… right.” Pax added a skip to his walk. “He is too cool for you.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Kally?!” Axel demanded.

She and Pax froze when he rounded on them. For a split second, his jaw was clenched in fury as he rose to his feet. Then he relaxed and he gave her a rough smile. “I’m glad you’re awake,” he said evenly. As the words came out, he shot Pax a quick glance. “Everyone fell asleep after Leo started working on the blade. I should have known something like that would happen with the curse.”

The practiced ease of the lie scared Kally more than the lie itself.

Pax’s hand tightened on hers. He set the quiver down on a workbench. “She woke up all on her own, like a big kid,” Pax said. “Nice suit. Good for preventing alien abduction and mind reading.”

“I’ve been helping Leo at the forge. He said it would be safer if I wore Calypso’s fireproof clothing.” As he spoke, Axel examined Kally’s face. That was a familiar look, the same one her parents gave her brother, John, when he’d messed up: a forcibly neutral expression that said I still care about you, but what am I going to do with you now that you’ve screwed up?

A tension spread through Kally’s chest. She wanted Pax to let go of her hand and Axel to take a step back.

“Man, I really don’t like this thing. It gives me the heebie-jeebies—”

Kally exhaled in relief when Leo walked out from the shack, something oblong in his hands. His arm and face were covered in soot and sweat. Those elfish features were slack from exhaustion and worry. When he glanced up to see Kally, his brown eyes lit up with excitement. “Someone is up? Are the others awake? Is Calypso okay?”

As he asked, he rushed over to another work table. Until then, Kally hadn’t registered the comatose person. Calypso was on top of the table, curled up on a roll-out matt with several layers of blankets, including a fancy electric one.

“Hey, Sunshine, stop being so lazy! Wake up… please,” he called to the resting girl. When she didn’t stir, he frowned and punched the edge of the table.

“I’m the only one up,” Kally said. She wanted to tell Leo that Helios and Eos were worried about him, but he didn’t need the extra stress. This kid looked like he hadn’t slept in… well, a day and a half.  

“I told you they’d probably start to wake up once you finished the sword. Maybe the curse just needs to wear off,” Axel supplied. He took a step closer to Leo, examining the object in Leo’s arms. It was wrapped in a colorful beach towel. Well, Kally assumed it was normally colorful. In the dim torch lighting, the towel was just striped.

“Calypso had better be okay,” Leo muttered.

“If Kally is up, I’m sure the others will wake up soon,” Axel said. He glanced at Pax, like he was looking for affirmation.

Pax lifted his hands up, Kally’s included, as if to say not it, bro.

If Kally hadn’t been suspicious of the Pax brothers before, she took that exchange as a plea of, guilty and shameless.  

Axel turned back to Leo. “But you did finish it, right?”

“This sword isn’t worth all the trouble,” Leo grumbled. He released the towel with one hand to stroke Calypso’s cheek. Judging from the smears of soot across her head, Kally assumed this had been a standard procedure each time Leo walked past.

He wrapped his hand back around the towel and turned to Axel, glaring. “I don’t know how to explain it hombre, but it didn’t want to be a sword. I had to really fight with the metal. I know we had a deal, but the deal was to make the sword. Not to have my girlfriend cursed into Sleeping Beauty. I feel like I’m carrying around thirteen black cats and a broken mirror with this thing. If she and the others don’t wake up in the next hour, we’re melting it.”

“Of course,” Axel agreed. “Kally, Pax, can you go check on the others to see if they’re waking up? We probably shouldn’t leave them vulnerable in the forest.”

Every muscle in Kally’s body encouraged that notion—that survival and snacks were back towards the others. But something about this whole scenario was giving her goose bumps. Although Pax was already tugging at her hand, she didn’t budge.

“No,” she said.

The Pax brothers stared her.

“I—”

You’re not a doormat, she scolded herself. And it’s just Axel.

“I want to see the sword first,” Kally said. That wasn’t true. She never wanted to see what had caused all of this, but she wasn’t supposed to leave Leo by himself. Her instinct had made that much clear.

There was a pause where she wouldn’t have been shocked if Axel told her to go to her room, in his best Dad impression ever, disregarding the hundreds of miles preventing that.

Axel clenched his jaw.

Then he sighed, his shoulders sagging. “Very well. Leo, let’s see if this was worth all the trouble.”

“It wasn’t, but whatever,” Leo grumbled. He shoved a set of tools off a work table to put the towel on it. Axel, Kally, and Pax all gathered around as Leo unwrapped the towel.

Kally shuddered.

The sword was a xiphos, a double-edged, one-hand Greek blade. Those were common in Camp Half-Blood. What was uncommon was the coloration of the blade. One half gleamed with celestial bronze. The other half shined with steel.

As Axel’s fingers wrapped around the grip, Kally heard an undeniable growl from the blade, Hello Lieutenant. A wave of malice billowed from the blade, like its past occupation was decapitating puppies.

“Yea, and that’s the creepiest part. That happens sometimes when you touch the metal and it sounds about as friendly as a clown in a dark parking lot,” Leo said.

Pax whispered, “Don’t discriminate against clowns. They have funny feelings too.” Although he tried to joke, Kally could hear the tremble in his voice. He pulled her gently from the table.

Axel’s arm seized. He grunted and lifted the blade. He began to shake and sweat.

“Why do you even want this sword man? It’s no bueno,” Leo said. “Uh… man?”

“Because…” Axel’s voice dropped to a gravely tone, the same he used to scare her brother John. Kally felt the pressure drop. Her ears popped. The torches around them dimmed with the next gust of wind. One sputtered out.

“Its name is Backbiter,” Axel growled. His arm stopped shaking.

“It was reforged to fight oppression and dethrone rulers that should have rotted with their archaic methods centuries ago.” Axel spun the sword in his hand. The blade flashed wickedly in the disappearing torch light and Kally thought she could hear it scream.

Pax dragged Kally backwards a step. “Bad timing for him to have an episode,” Pax whispered.

An episode? Kally wanted to demand, but she was too scared. With each movement Axel made, she felt herself tremble more. What was happening?

Two things sprouted along either side of Axel’s hair.

Leo took a quick step back, towards Calypso. “Wow—dude—”

The voice was no longer Axel’s, but a guttural mimic. “And it was supposed to be mine.”

Pax spoke rapidly, “Hey, uh, Axel, you’re doing that thing—”

Axel grunted. He crunched his eyes closed and clutched at his head with his free hand. As his fingers made contact with his hair, whatever was along his hairline disappeared.

Axel collapsed onto his knees. He hugged himself, breathing heavily. The sword was still firmly clutched in one hand.

“Okay! Sword is definitely being melted!” Leo shouted and stood defensively in front of Calypso’s table. From what Kally could see, he’d already set his hands on fire. “Possessions are not okay at Camp Leo!”

“Hold up,” Pax said. He released Kally’s hand to kneel near Axel, though strategically out of sword slashing distance. “Ola,” he said.

Axel grunted. “I’m okay.” The voice sounded like his, though strained. “I’m okay.”

He dropped the blade.

Leo immediately whisked it up.

“Wait,” Axel called.

“You’re in a no-waiting-zone,” Leo stated. “This baby’s gotta burn.”

“I helped you make it. I want to help you destroy it,” Axel gasped.

He rose to his feet. There was no golden glint to his eyes, like she’d seen in the van. There were no elongated teeth. He looked like a tired, sweaty eighteen-year-old, only standing due to determination. His limbs had stopped shaking and he straightened his posture. Kally couldn’t place it, but there was still something wrong with him.

He’d given up too easily.

To get this far, Axel lied to the Romans and the Greeks. He’d kidnapped the Oracle. He’d risked fighting the automaton monster that killed his childhood guardian for the chance at this sword. Kally might not have known what just happened to Axel or what an “episode” was, but she knew he would never submit with so little fight.

“Kally, let’s go stuff some crickets in Calex’s sleeping bag before he wakes up,” Pax suggested. He rose from where he’d been kneeling beside Axel, stepped to her side, took her hand, and pulled.

Leo raised a skeptical eyebrow at Axel. “There’s not much to destroying it. Unless you want to roast marshmallows over the fire I’m about to make.”

Pax tugged at her hand again, urgently. When she glanced at him, she saw his cheeks had puffed up. He nodded back towards the campfire. She shook her head and glanced back to Axel. No—no, she definitely wasn’t leaving after whatever Axel just did.

Axel picked up a silver mask off one of the work benches. It matched the rest of the fireproof suit. When he slipped it over his head, the material seemed to mesh into the rest of the suit, making an impermeable seal. Kally had to wonder how he—or Calypso for that matter—could breathe in it.  

Leo didn’t wait for him. He got about two paces towards his forge.

Then Axel grabbed him.

The motion was too fast for Kally to shout a warning.

Axel stepped behind Leo and wrapped an arm around his neck. From the self-defense classes she’d been learning from Mr. Paine, she could tell Axel had pinched the arteries to Leo’s head, crushing his throat between Axel’s bicep and forearm.

Leo had seven seconds before he’d be unconscious.

With the same motion, Axel lifted Leo off the ground. With his other hand, he grabbed Leo’s sword arm and snapped his wrist. The sword fell to the ground.

As it did, flames burst around Leo, engulfing them both.

The fire skyrocketed into the sky. She’d never seen anything explode like that. As they vanished, she could see Axel clasp Leo’s last functional hand and Leo kick frantically backwards.

Heat nailed the exposed skin on her face and hands. The moisture wicked out of the air. There was no way someone could survive that.

Kally tried to run forward. She didn’t know what she was going to do. There wasn’t enough water around to dowse that fire, if she could dowse it. She couldn’t see Axel to drag him off Leo, and probably couldn’t wrestle Axel down if she could see him. And she didn’t have a fireproof suit.

“STOP!” she shouted, hoping someone at their campfire would hear her. Maybe Calex could force one of them to fall in love with a random tree so they’d break it up or Merry could talk them down or Joey and Euna could snap up roots from the ground to separate them or Festus could do whatever dragons do that didn’t involve killing Axel or stealing gold.

But all of them were asleep. When she felt Pax’s hand clamp down on hers, she remembered why everyone was asleep.

“Kally—wait—” he said. His yellow eye gleamed fiercely in the firelight. The flicker of the flame cast shadows into his wild dark hair. Between that and the way his duster jacket billowed, Kally felt like she’d been fraternizing with a monster.

“Let go—” Kally yanked her arm away from him.

Pax stepped forward to brace against her. “This is just a misunderstanding. We didn’t mean for things to—ha ha—flare up like this—and as long as Axel doesn’t get—tee hee—carried away with Leo—”

Despite the laughter in his voice, he looked scared. He glanced past her at the conflagration. The flames were dying. Leo must have run out of time.

In that split second, she stopped trying to pull away from Pax, reversed her movement, and slammed her elbow into his gut. As Pax doubled over to clutch his stomach, she followed through with her other hand in an open palm strike. When her palm made contact with his jaw, light flashed out of the tips of her fingers, bright enough to blind someone wearing Apollo brand sunglasses.

Pax released her and toppled backwards.

She hadn’t knocked him unconscious—just bought herself some time. He sat on the dirt, gasping for air and clutched his eyes with one hand. Pax couldn’t breathe enough to whine, “Ay!”

The heat disappeared off her back, replaced by a chilled wind.

Kally whirled towards where the flames had been.

Smoke sizzled up into the night air, half obscuring the scene. Sections of the dirt smoldered in a way that made Kally want to call for a fire alarm for any building within three miles, [4]  though the dirt circle had been wide enough to avoid the trees. As the coils of grey dissipated, she could see two figures.

Leo lay in the dwindling embers, his neck bruising. Both his hands were bent at odd angles. Although Kally was terrified he might be dead, she had to note an oddity in his clothing. Nothing had even been singed. Kally didn’t know they made explosion resistant clothing.

Apparently Axel’s fireproof suit was made from the same material. Although blackened, she could see a silvery figure walk to a nearby work bench. Axel swiped something off the surface—the quiver Pax had brought out—and withdrew a cloth from therein.

He knelt beside Leo and pressed the cloth into Leo’s face.

“Axel, stop!” Kally shouted and ran towards him.

She expected him to be a pile of ash, not smothering Leo with arrow dirt. That had terrified her. What had Axel been thinking?! Why would he do that?

When she approached, Axel withdrew the cloth. He pulled the mask off.

Kally dropped beside Leo to check his pulse and injuries. He was alive, but would need a lot of ambrosia. Despite the flames and struggle, Axel had done an expert job knocking Leo out without crushing his trachea.

“It’s just water from the River Lethe, so he won’t remember reforging Backbiter,” Axel said softly. He grabbed a clasp on his neck. Once he touched it, the silvery suit expanded and peeled off, revealing his Ares hides from me at night shirt.

Kally needed to get her messenger bag from the area with the others. All her ambrosia was in there. She was rested enough to sing, but Will had taught her to start with ambrosia when—

“Axel, why…” Although her question began with a fury, she trailed off when she saw how intensely he examined her.

His eyes gleamed gold in the moonlight. He couldn’t quite close his jaw because of how his fangs slipped over his lips. “The less people who know about the sword, the better,” Axel explained. He’d detached the entire suit, except the gloves.

The way he said it made Kally think of how good a fighter he was. That and the horrifying bear trap of a mouth. She scrambled to her feet.

Axel rose beside her, except he was much taller than she remembered. Kally craned her neck to look up at him, stumbling a step back.

Axel stepped over Leo’s body towards her, readying the Lethe-soaked rag.

“Axel—s—stop. You’re scaring me,” she whispered. Stupid. You, Kally, are stupid, her brain helpfully reminded her instead of supplying an escape strategy.

Axel paused in his approach, letting her increase the distance between them. When she glanced down, she saw he’d stepped on the edge of that cursed sword. “You should be scared of me, Kalypso Kassand, Daughter of Apollo,” he whispered. His voice slipped into that gargle.

Kally shrieked when she backed into someone.

Pax stood behind her. From the way he still clutched his face with one hand, she figured he couldn’t fully see. Instead of grabbing her, Pax slid between she and Axel. He held his other hand out in Axel’s general direction. Although he was visibly trembling, Pax muttered, “You hit REALLY hard, you know that Cyclopes? Next time I’m in trouble for stealing, I’m cowering behind you.”

“Bring her to me, Silver Tongued Snake,” Axel growled.

There was a moment where Kally felt like the wind gods were holding their breath. She didn’t have a weapon. Judging by the way Axel’s calves had gained an awkward, animalistic curve, she figured she couldn’t outrun him. Even if she could, she could also envision getting to the van and Axel and Pax patiently waiting outside, eating popcorn, as she stalled the manual transmission over and over. Fighting them would result in some sort of death or memory deprivation. No one else was awake to help.

Kally felt like she was caught in Python’s coils again when all she had left to do was pray. But how much good did praying do when you know the gods didn’t always listen?

 Thanks for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed—even if that means you hated me a little bit for it XD

 Here are some songs that inspired this scene:

(of course) Emperor’s New Clothes—Panic! At the Disco 

Don’t Mess with Me—Temposhark

And MOST prominently, this male cover of Control, originally by Halsey

[1] Random fact: Jimmy Buffett actually trademarked the phrase “It’s five o’clock somewhere” and took legal action against a shoe company for using the phrase. Imagine if Rebecca Black could sue us every time we shouted, “It’s Friday!” People would be getting wrecked at the end of every school week.

[2] He patented the alarm clock. There were others before him that definitely had clocks that could ring at certain times of day, dating incredibly far back with ancient Greece and the Tang Dynasty of China, but Redier’s patent lead to mass production. So next time you throw your alarm clock through a wall, you should make a bull’s eye with the name “Antoine Reider” at which to throw it.

[3] And Jack feels obligated to say: don’t do that at home kids. It can definitely wreck your stomach.

[4] Plus, it would disrupt classes for a bit.

[undertaletalesuniverse-blog]

Spiders (1/1)

A scream has Papyrus running into the front room, eyes wide, looking for the danger. 

“What is it?” He panics, skidding into the living room. Her scream had snapped him out of a nap, so he was still a little hazy. Though he was able to see his girlfriend on the coffee table with terrified eyes. 

She looked at him with begging eyes. Was she about to cry. 

“S-spider.” She stutters, pointing shakily to the ground. 

Following her pointing finger, he did indeed see a spider. The thing had to be smaller than a dime. Unlike the ones at Muffets, this was just a plain ol’ spider making it’s way from one end of the room to the other along the edge of the floor. 

He can’t help but smirk, bringing a hand up in attempt to cover the smile. She shoots him a betrayed look. Relenting, he grabs a cup and piece of paper. With a gentle nudge, he gets the spider on the paper and releases it outside. When he comes back in she is still on the table, looking at him expectantly. 

“You can relax, it’s outside.” He assured her. He lazily trails over to her and reaches out her hand. Still looking slightly upset, though much more calm than before, she takes his hand and steps down. “I’ll never understand your fear of spiders. You never have a problem at Muffets.” 

“I told you- its different.” She huffs, letting go of his hand to pick up the thrown book she must have been reading. “They are different. Besides, phobias don’t make sense.” She plops herself back onto the couch. 

“Eh, I suppose it’s kinda cute. Even if you did wake me up.” He teases. “Would have thought someone kicked in the door, you screaming like that.” She glares at him- but he knows it holds no real weight. He chuckles and lays on the couch next to her and spreading out until he has wormed his way into her lap. She lets him with a fond smile on her face.

“You know that if someone broke down that door they would need to be worried- not me.” She smirks at him. This was true. She had been learning some form of martial arts or another her whole life. Several people had learned this the hard way when attempting to bully her for her choice of boyfriend. She could certainly handle herself. Yet such a little creature could send her running for the hills. 

“Fair enough.” He admits with a shrug. “But I still think I deserve a reward for rescuing you from that terrible beast of a spider.” He gives a good yawn to emphasize the reward he wants. 

“Yeah, I can do that.” She agrees, stroking his skull. 

It doesn’t take long for his eyes to droop and sleep to take him again. It never took long for him. She simply smiles as his sleeping face with affection and carefully opens her book as to not disturb him. 

They stayed in this cozy state of comfort for over an hour. Until her bladder got the best of her and she just had to get up. Good thing sleep always came easy to him.