Chapter Text
“People can no longer cover their eyes, if this disturbs you then walk away. You will remember the night you were struck by the sight of, ten thousand fists in the air, aa-aa-air! Ten thousand fists in the air, aa-aa-air! Ten thousand fists in the air!”
Edge stepped away from the mic and the rest of the band set down their instruments as they took a break from their rehearsing. The five skeletons broke off into two groups; Edge and Paps staying in the garage-turned-practice-room to discuss what they each were planning on making for dinner that night, while the other three stepped outside for some fresh air.
“cough it up, honeybun. yanno edge don’t lemme buy ‘em fer myself,” Red held his hand out to the much taller skeleton wearing an orange hoodie, with the hood pulled up over his skull, tan cargo shorts, and bright orange hi-top Converse.
‘Honeybun’, or Rus (as was actually his name) rolled his amber eyelights as he dug out his pack of cigarettes from one of the many pockets on his shorts, pulled two smokes out and handed one to the short edgy skeleton.
“y’seem ta be in a good mood t’night, red,” the third skeleton spoke up, lighting up a dog treat and inhaling the fragrant purple smoke. He was just as tall as Rus, though with the way both of them were always slouching, you could never tell just how tall they were. He was decked out in a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, a black tank top with the sides ripped open showing off his ribs, and around his neck was a royal purple collar studded with gold spikes.
“eh, shaddup mutt,” Red grumbled as he stole Rus’s lighter and lit his cigarette. “started th’ new job t’day. i think it’ll be a good time.”
“yeah? i’m supposed ta be startin’ there on wednesday, up in ‘it’,” Mutt informed the others.
“i think, uh, blue is starting then too… but he’ll be up in customer service...” Rus chimed in, shuddering at the thought of ‘customer service’. “my bro is so cool… i couldn’t deal with that many people everyday…”
“we know, honeybun,” Red grinned. “s’why ya stay at home, locked in yer room on yer computer all day.” He sent the orange clad skeleton a wink.
“ugh, red!” Rus grumbled, while Mutt was trying and failing to hide his laughter in the background. "i write books . like actual novels, not whatever smutty fanfics you find in your filthy corner of the internet.” Rus pulled his hood further over his head, trying to hide his face.
“honeybun… ya do write some pretty inspired romance books...” Mutt drawled, throwing an arm around the blushing skeleton. “and speakin’ of, i’ve got a bone ta pick with you about that. you haven’t cum ta beg me for any ‘inspiration’ lately...” Mutt lowered his voice an octave and purred directly into Rus’s acoustic meatus.
Rus pulled on the strings of his hood, disappearing completely inside as he shoved Mutt off of him, shooting a glare at the cackling Red. “wh-why did this t-turn into pick on rus? y-you know i’m d-dating keri...” Rus stuttered out, his embarrassment getting the better of him, causing him to falter in his speech.
“aw, honeybun, don’ let th’ mongrel get ta ya. ya know we only tease ‘cause we care,” Red comforted Rus, after he had gotten his laughter under control.
Rus just glared at the two of them from inside his hood, and grumbled, “s-see if i w-write anymore songs for either of you,” flinching slightly as he still tripped over his words.
“rus, honey , why ya gotta do me like that?” Mutt asked, dramatically grabbing on to Red as the three of them made their way back into the garage. “ya can’t just say things like that! The two of us boneheads don’t have the same magic way with words that you do!”
“get offa me, ya stupid mutt,” Red grunted, shoving the tall skeleton off of him as they all started grabbing their instruments to continue rehearsing.
Edge and Paps paused in their conversation, already waiting by the drum set and keyboard respectively, when the others walked in.
“So what’s up next?” Edge asked them, casually spinning the drum stick in his right hand through his long phalanges.
“Rus, have you decided if you want to do one of your songs on Friday?” Paps asked the shy skeleton as Rus picked up his bass guitar.
“eh…” Rus shrugged, shifting the instrument to settle more comfortably against his body. “i sh-should, but…”
“you wanna wait ta see how ya feel day of?” Red offered, being surprisingly thoughtful.
“yeah... if i do end up s-singing, i’ll probably go with, uh, ‘tomorrow’ or ‘breaking the habit’. s-so i guess we should run through those tonight.”
“let’s run through a few more songs ‘nd we can end a bit early ta bang out our setlist for the gig,” Mutt drawled, sending a wink towards Edge.
“Keep me out of your nonsense, you insatiable mongrel,” the drummer growled. “Are we going to start or not?”
“I agree with Edge!” Paps chimed in, his long fingers dancing through some classical music excerpt on his keyboard while he was waiting.
Mutt and Red looked at each other briefly before Mutt reached for his guitar. “you're up, cherry pie,” he said with another wink, “what’re we doin’?”
“down with the sickness,” Red grinned, thinking of his impromptu duet with you earlier in the day.
Everyone nodded as Edge clicked his sticks together before launching into the intro of the song. The five of them ran through several more songs with Mutt, Edge and Rus each running a few that they sang before they stopped for the night to discuss the show coming up that Friday.
“speakin’ o’ th’ gig,” Red said after they came up with a mostly solidified setlist. “i invited someone from work ta come.”
“Oh? You made a new friend, Red?” Paps smiled, always the beacon of cheerfulness.
“uh, yea, guess you could call her tha’…”
“how’d ya manage that?” Mutt raised a brow bone at the shortest skeleton in the room.
“laser lady’s th’ one trainin’ me,” Red answered with a shrug.
“Laser Lady?” Edge scoffed from where he was covering his drum set for the night. “With a name like that , it’s no wonder you get along with her.”
“eh, bro, tha’s jes’ her nickname. her name’s actually ___.”
“when do i get ta meet her?” Mutt asked with an unlit dog treat already shoved between his teeth as he packed up his guitar and bass.
“down boy, heel,” Red chuckled. “i’ll introduce ya ta her durin’ lunch on yer first day.”
“aww, c’mon… throw me a bone here,” Mutt whined pathetically. “at least tell me how she looks. is she hot?”
“don’t go barking up the wrong tree there, buddy,” Rus commented with a smirk, looking up from his phone where he was texting his girlfriend.
Paps and Edge shared a look over their shared dislike of the puns as they debated throwing an actual bone attack or three at the punning skele-trio.
They were saved from having to decide as Rus spoke up after reading his newest string of texts. “alright guys, i’m out. meeting up with keri for date night.”
“later, honeybun,” Red said while Mutt rolled his eyelights as Rus blipped out of existence, with his bass over his shoulder. “dunno wha’ he sees in tha’ one,” Red sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
“ ‘date night’?” Mutt questioned, storing his instruments on the shelves they had built for them. “ain’t the honeybun startin’ his heat soon?”
“One last canoodling beforehand?” Paps suggested, standing by the door that led to the rest of the main house, where he and Mutt lived with their brothers, along with Rus and Blue. “Either way, I’m going to start on dinner for the house, since Black is working tonight. Good practice tonight, everyone!”
Edge rolled his eyelights as he walked up next to Red. “If you two are quite finished discussing Rus’s sex life, I am ready to leave,” he said, directing a sharp look towards his brother.
“alrigh’, alrigh’,” Red grumbled giving Mutt a fist bump. “‘re the drums stayin’ ‘r goin’”
“They can stay, since we practice here . I have my other set back home, if I want to use them.”
“righ’ well, here we go then,” Red huffed out the warning, giving his brother a split second to brace himself, before dragging him along through a shortcut back to their house.
Edge wobbled on his feet, disoriented from his trip through the void, but was able to keep his footing. “DAMMIT, RED!” He yelled, losing control over his volume for a moment. “You know I hate it when you do that!”
“sorry, bro.”
“You are not,” Edge stated matter-of-factly, before moving to make dinner for the two of them. Pulling out the ingredients for a simple chicken stir fry, Edge set them on the counter and grabbed a sauté pan from underneath. “How was your first day at the new job?” the tall skeleton asked as he began to cook. The two of them had left for band practice as soon as Red had arrived home, so they hadn’t had time to catch up with each other.
“it was fine. ___ is pretty cool,” Red shrugged, sitting down at the kitchen table with a bottle of mustard. “she’s got a nice voice too.”
“Nice voice?” Edge narrowed his eye sockets. “Sounds less like working, and more like shirking responsibilities, brother.”
“nah, bro, ts’all good. we were workin’ at th’ same time,” Red said taking a large gulp of the tangy yellow condiment. “neva heard a female cover any o’ our songs tha’ good b’fore.”
“Oh?” Edge looked genuinely intrigued as he dished up the now finished stir fry, placing one plate in front of Red and the other in front of himself. “Which of your songs did you hear her singing?”
“ ‘down with the sickness’ and ‘the game’. but wha’ really caught me off guard was her versions o’ ‘this moment’ and ‘killer in the mirror’.”
“Interesting…” the tall skeleton looked thoughtful, as though he was plotting something, which more often than not meant trouble for Red. “You mentioned you invited her to the show on Friday, did you not?”
“course i did,” Red grunted, digging into his dinner. “when my skull stopped ringin’ from th’ squealin’…”
“Ah, so she’s a fan then?”
“yep. she coulda nailed any o’ th’ songs i picked fer her, even th’ newer shit.”
“I see…”
The brothers ate their meal in peace, with minimal punning coming from Red, and when they were finished, Edge took care of the dishes while Red took a shortcut to his room, landing directly on his bed.
Shifting just enough to remove his jacket and throw it over his desk chair, he pulled out his phone and reclined on his bed. He scrolled through reddit for a bit, trolling some posts and laughing at others, when he was reminded about Mutt starting his new job at your company, by a meme of a dog in glasses, surrounded by lab equipment saying ‘I have no idea what I’m doing.’ Letting out a tired sigh, Red switched over to his messaging app and pulled up your message thread. After he actually saved your number, chuckling as he entered “Lazer Lady” for your contact name, he debated whether he should warn you about the additional skeletons that would soon become your coworkers.
“ah, fuck it…” he groaned aloud as his phalanges tapped against the screen of his phone. He clicked send before he could second guess himself and quickly resumed browsing the internet.
~ ~ ~
After you had gotten home from work, taken a long relaxing shower and made yourself something to eat, you sat down at your computer and debated whether you should play video games or continue typing up the story you were currently working on.
“I should at least finish typing the next chapter,” you reasoned out loud, reaching for the unassuming notebook that you were using for this particular story. Opening the book to the last thing you had typed, you squinted at the scribbles written in brightly colored gel pens and let out a groan. “Why did I use that color again? I can hardly read it!” Letting out a huff of annoyance, you tilted the notebook until the light hit it just right and you could make out what you had written a little bit easier. Holding the book up in one hand, you started typing with the other, releasing a relieved sigh when you flipped the page to reveal the next color pen was a whole lot easier on the eyes.
“Oh, thank gods…” you sighed, setting the book on your desk so you could use both hands to properly type. A few moments later, your phone buzzed, alerting you to a new text. You let out a whine, your hands freezing as your gaze flickered between your phone and your computer. Willing yourself to not get distracted, you rolled your eyes and flipped ahead in your notebook to see how much was left of the chapter you were working on.
“Three more pages, only three more pages ,” you gritted your teeth and ignored your phone for the moment. Your fingers flew over the keyboard and you transcribed the hastily scrawled words from your notebook to the document you were typing in. Twenty minutes later, you shoved your bookmark in the notebook, saved your work and pushed your chair away from your desk. Grabbing your phone, you walked through the kitchen, out onto the porch, and lit up a, in your opinion, well deserved cigarette.
Unlocking your phone and opening your texts, your were mildly surprised to see two new messages from ‘Red Alert’, which you had set Red’s contact name to.
Red Alert: heya girly
Red Alert: jes wanna let u kno thers gonna b 2 mor skeles @ work on wed
You smiled to yourself as you took a drag of your smoke and typed out your response. You only slightly cringed at the textspeak and generally lazy message from the edgy skeleton.
You: Cool deal. They gonna be skull -king around in production with us?
Almost immediately, your phone buzzed again as Red answered you. You raised a brow at the instant response, but shrugged it off, figuring he must be done with band practice by now.
Red Alert: nah 1 in it nd 1 in cust service
You: Ah, the one in IT must be my replacement then
Red Alert: replacement?
You: Yeah, I only moved down to production at the beginning of the year. I was IT before. Still am for my family though >_<
Red Alert: heh no escape
You: How’d practice go?
Red Alert: good
Red Alert: picked a setlist 4 fri nite
You: Oh? Can I get a hint? Pretty pleeeease?
Red Alert: nope ;)
You: Awwwwwwwww, c’mon! Throw me a bone ....
Red Alert: yanno mutt said th same thin when i told em bout u
You: AND?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
You: What did you tell them?
Red Alert: tha they can wait til wed or fri
You: Oh, and you’re soooooo sure I’m gonna come to your show?
Red Alert: yep feel it in my bones
You: booooooooo!
Red Alert: ;)
You let out a snort as you discarded the butt of your finished cigarette. Stifling a yawn, you headed back into the house, locking the door behind you, and walking back to your room after grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.
You: Hey, I’m pretty beat, gonna turn in for the night.
Red Alert: so wud u say u r bone tired.
You: Ha.
You: -_-
You: yes. I sleep now. Goodnight.
Red Alert: nite ___
After double checking that your alarms were set on your phone and clock, and making sure your phone was plugged in, you climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep with a smile on your lips.
~ ~ ~
Red rubbed a hand over his face after you had said goodnight, thinking about how he was actually looking forward to work the next morning. Well, more specifically, he was looking forward to seeing you at work the next morning. An unsolicited flutter of something went through his soul, causing his phone to slip out of his grasp and thwack him right in the face.
“ow! fuck! wha’ th’ hell?” he swore loudly, as his phone bounced off his skull and landed on the bed next to him.
“Red?” Edge called, hearing the swearing from the room next to Red’s. “Is everything okay in there?” he asked, his voice growing louder as he walked towards the door of Red’s room.
“yeah, bro!” Red called back, red sweat drops appearing on his skull as his brother approached and stuck in head through the open door. “jes tried ta catch m’phone wit’ m’face…”
“Maybe you should ask Mutt for help with that?” Edge suggested with a smirk, now leaning casually against the doorframe. “Or were you not trying to play fetch?”
“ouch, bro. why d’ya only make jokes at my expense?” he grinned as he put a hand over his chest and slid off his bed dramatically.
“I’m sure you’ll get over it,” Edge huffed with a roll of his eyelights. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”
“night, bro.”
“Goodnight, brother. I would suggest you head to sleep soon as well, this way you won’t be any more useless than usual on Friday,” the taller skeleton quipped before retreating to his bedroom.
“fuck you too, edge.” Red flipped him off as he left. “asshole,” he grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor.
Choosing to ignore his brother’s advice for the time being, Red grabbed his phone and flopped back on to his bed after swapping his jeans for some track shorts. He continued to fool around on his phone for a while, and at some point during his random internet surfing, no, he was not looking at porn, thank you very much, his phone buzzed as he got a text from Mutt.
HornDog: gotta situation w/ rus…
Red: sup w/ th honeybun?
HornDog: dunno
HornDog: just appeared in my room wen he shoulda ben @ ‘date night’
HornDog: saw me & burst into tears
HornDog: smelled really gud tho
Red: ah fuck
Red: his heat musta started early
HornDog: shit
HornDog: ur rite
HornDog: hes in sub heat 2
Red: shit
Red: you gonna deal w/ it?
HornDog: guess i got no choice…
HornDog: dont see you gettin off ur coccyx ta help
Red: maybe next time
Red: i got work in th’ morn
HornDog: bite me
Red: nah go ask th honeybun im sure hes willin
HornDog: ttyl. gonna go fuck the honeybun all better
Red: gl hf
Red: l8r
Red let out a sigh. Hopefully Rus would just accept Mutt’s help again and this whole thing would blow over before their show on Friday. He thought Rus’s girlfriend would have helped him with whatever, but what does he know. His sub-heats really weren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things; he just really liked to clean during them, and snuggle a lot. Red couldn’t care less about sexual relief during his sub heats but it was always a nice bonus, even if he did have to suck up to one of the guys to help him out.
He rolled his eyelights, annoyed how his bandmates’ problems were somehow becoming his problems and decided that he was done with everything and that sleep sounded perfect right about now. Throwing his phone on the charger after he made sure his alarm was set, not that Edge would have let him sleep past it, Red shut his bedroom door and turned off the light with magic before he flopped face down on his bed and started snoring almost instantly.