Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You shoved another spoonful of cereal into your mouth as the screaming match raged on in the kitchen. Stretch and Sans were arguing about something again, you weren't sure what exactly, but it sounded like some multiverse thing again. You watched on from the dining room which was connected to the kitchen and living room because of the open floor plan the first floor of the manor had.

“because that’s not how that works!” Sans yelled at Stretch, throwing his hands out to his sides. Blueberry was cornered at the other end of the kitchen. He had to put a pause on making his breakfast before his morning run when Sans and Stretch started arguing in front of the stove. 

“well that’s how it works in my universe!” Stretch shot back, mirroring Sans by throwing his arms out to the side. You were never supposed to know about multiverse stuff, and the skele-bros kept it well-hidden for the first couple months, but now they argued about it all the time whether you were in the room or not.

“Hey!” Blue butt in with a clearly nervous smile, “Maybe We Can Just-”

“shut up, Blue!” Sans yelled, turning to the innocent skeleton with rage in his eyelights. You downed the rest of your milk and stood from the table.

“don’t talk to him like that!” Stretch yelled at Sans, to which the shorter skeleton snapped back.

“oh, please! he’s me! he can take it!” They both ignored you as you walked up to the sink near the entrance of the kitchen.

“he’s my brother! and I say you can’t talk to him like that!” You turned on the water and rinsed out your bowl and spoon.

“Stretch! Sans! Please, Stop! It’s Too Early For This!” Blueberry tried to reason with them, but to no avail.

You let their incessant arguing filter into background noise as you ascended the stairs. You had been living with the skele-bros for about two years now. Everything went smoothly at first, you got along great with the, at the time, two skele-bros who occupied the massive house. You watched TV with Sans and sat in the kitchen while Papyrus cooked, usually in silence, but that’s what you preferred.

However, rather quickly as time passed, you stopped hanging out with them as much. Then Red and Edge showed up and you pretty much phased completely into the background. You had tried asking Sans about the sudden appearance of two extra skeletons, but he avoided the question at all costs. You didn’t have to wonder for very long, though. More skele-bros joined the house and you gradually picked up on conversations about multiverses and whatnot. You listened in and stumbled across a weird-ass machine in the basement by accident, and came to the conclusion on your own that they were different versions of Sans and Papyrus.

You had a couple panic attacks at first and trying to communicate with anyone after that point was excruciatingly awkward, but after a year you got used to it. You had first expected the new guys to question why you were living there, but you quickly found out that, just like with the first two, you were like background noise in a carnaval. That’s what the manor was like anyway.

As your feet stopped for a moment on the second floor landing, you rose a brow at the loud moans coming from Red’s room. That was odd. Usually he kicked out his lays first thing in the morning, she must’ve been a damn good one for him to be up for morning sex. Smoke swirled around your feet as you walked past Cash’s room, the heavy scent of weed drifting up to your nose. The tell-tale sounds of a ‘Game Over’ screen reached your ears as you came up to Coffee’s room. You couldn’t hear Mutt mumbling swears at the loss, so he must be in Cash’s room getting high with him. 

A ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign hung on Papyrus’ door handle, he must be studying for his upcoming college exams. Edge and Wine had already left for work, they always spoke over coffee in the morning before leaving together for their shift. Razz and Black were likely already on their morning run. Blue usually joined them but he would have to postpone or skip his this morning.

You stopped in the middle of the second floor and looked up, sighing in annoyance when you saw that the string to the attic door was tucked back into the door. You had asked the tall skeletons to stop doing that, but they never seemed to listen…except Bear. He would just unintentionally forget and get annoyed with it dangling in the hole in his head. At least this wasn’t the first time you’d dealt with this. You jumped up and grabbed onto the handle, holding a tight grip as your feet hit the ground. Pale dust dropped from the edges and you grimaced. You should really clean better up there. 

You pulled the door open all the way and braced the folded steps with your other hand, slowly easing them to the floor so the metal hinges wouldn’t make more than some high-pitched squeaks. You ascended the steps into the attic and pulled them back up after you. As the door sealed shut, the loud moans and arguing from the kitchen became muffled, but not completely gone. 

Still, you sighed in contentment and turned, relaxing and letting a smile grace your lips as your pottery wheel, bathed in early-morning sunlight, greeted you. She was your pride and joy, one of the most important parts of your job aside from a kiln and clay. You walked over to the little pottery area you had set up years ago, opening up the window to let the early spring air filter into the stuffy attic. You took in a much-needed deep breath and turned back to your ‘studio’ as you lovingly called it. You had everything you needed up here besides a kiln, which was in the shed in the backyard. From large stand-alone shelves to boxes on boxes of clay and containers of glaze, this is where you made your living, and you couldn’t be happier with it. 

You opened up your record player and thumbed through the milk crate of records on the floor next to the stool the player was on. You plucked one of the records out and set it on the little metal prong in the middle of the player. You pressed the play button and the mechanical arm moved of its own accord, expertly setting the metal pin in one of the groves of the record, filling the attic with the sound of music. You smiled and tied an apron around your waist as you walked over to one of your shelf units, lifting a hefty bag of clay from the middle shelf and carrying it over to a table covered in canvas. 

You pulled out a wire clay cutter and a scale, setting them next to the bag. You turned back to the bag and pulled down the plastic enough to reveal half of the massive lump before picking up your wire tool and cutting off a chunk. You dropped it onto the scale and took away or added some until it was two pounds. You then morphed it into a ball and set it to the side before repeating the same process for the rest of the heap of clay. 

When you were done you put away the scale and wire cutter, but left the bag on the table. The next two hours were spent wedging the clay, 100 wedges per ball, and placing them back in the bag. You were sweating by the time you were done, but persisted and carried the heavy plastic bag over to your pottery wheel, setting it on the floor beside the wheel and making yourself comfortable on your spinning stool in front of the wheel. 

Once you were comfy, you lifted one of the balls of clay and slammed it down on the middle of the wheel, smacking it down with your hands so it wouldn’t come off. You reached into a bowl of water on the shelf of your wheel and grabbed the sponge inside, quickly bringing it over to the heap of clay and squeezing the water over the top of it. You dropped the sponge back in the bowl and brought your hands to the clay, pressing your foot onto the pedal on the floor to make the wheel spin. As if on instinct, your body went into motion.

Cone up.

Cone down.

Repeat until centered.

Start pulling the walls.

Shape the walls.

Flood with water and use the wire tool to cut it from the wheel.

Carry it to the shelf to dry.

Repeat.

You were mainly focusing on mugs today, they were simple and with a little extra clay and sculpting, they could be turned into something even better. By the time lunch rolled around you were done with throwing for the day. All that was left was to have lunch, unload the kiln, join Stretch, Cash, Mutt, and Coffee in the garage for their band practice, have dinner, and then it was off to bed to repeat the next day. 

When you arrived downstairs for lunch everyone was already getting their food. Papyrus had made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, one of your favorites! You snatched up a sandwich and took a seat on the island in the kitchen, you rarely sat at the table anymore after Stretch and Cash got girlfriends, not enough room. You watched silently as everyone spoke and ate. Well, spoke is putting it lightly. Sans was still mad at Stretch, Edge was lecturing Red about waking everyone up to the sound of him having sex, Razzberry was demeaning Mutt for being high at the table again, and Papyrus and Blue were desperately trying to prevent another house-wide argument. You didn’t really understand why they bothered sitting together for meals anymore, but it’s not like you could do anything about it. They never listened to you.

Once you finished your sandwich you brushed the crumbs off your hands and made your way outside to the shed. The house was out in the middle of nowhere, settled at the edge of a large plot of grassy land. Near the edge of the lawn was a crystal clear pond that fed into a forest. There was a massive willow tree on the far side of the pond that you loved with all your being. You had many fond memories there, like watching Blueberry and his Alphys joust with pool noodles last summer, or watching Papyrus and Sugar work in the greenhouse or garden.

The shed was much closer to the house, just a few yards from the in-ground pool. You happily walked over and pulled the door open, beaming at your kiln. It had shut itself off automatically once it was done firing the pieces inside and by now it was cooled off so you could take the pieces out. You heaved open the top and bit your lip in excitement at the pieces inside. There were some mugs, a few plates, a couple bowls, and a ton of tiny little charms. You began to unload everything into a nearby red wagon and inspected each piece as you went, making sure nothing was broken.

As you were unloading the charms, you slipped a few of them into your pocket as gifts for the skele-bros. You often made them something small and gifted it to them if it went well. Once everything was unloaded and in the wagon, you closed the kiln and pulled the wagon to the garage. You unloaded the wagon onto the shelves next to Red’s workstation before quickly heading upstairs to distribute the little charms you had made. Over the years, you had gotten pretty good at slipping into their rooms and depositing the charms on their dresser or bedside table undetected. 

Once the last charm was planted, you climbed the ladder back up to the attic and snatched up your trusty old guitar. You had it since you were a teen and it was splattered with old clay and glaze stains, a spare sticker here or there. You ran back down to the garage and settled into a chair near the other band equipment and began strumming and singing quietly. Not too long after, the band mates filed in and began prepping their respective instruments. 

Cash was on drums. Mutt was on bass and backup vocals with Stretch on guitar and main vocals. Coffee was even part of the band, having mastered the electric keyboard quickly. You never joined in singing or playing with the band, you just watched quietly from your chair like you always did. 

They were preparing to drop a whole new set of songs for an upcoming summer music festival a few hours away. The next few hours were filled with loud music broken up by slight arguing about lyrics and where the songs would be placed in the set. After several hours, they finished two songs they had been working on, started a new one, and practiced the rest of the set at least three times. Eventually, Papyrus called them inside for dinner and Cash made a big dramatic show of being hungry, just like he always did. 

You happily followed them inside, slipping through the door behind Mutt before it could close on you. Dinner looked delicious as always, the real cooking lessons Papyrus was taking seemed to be paying off well. Dinner went the same as normal, Red had already gone out drinking so he was nowhere to be found, but you still enjoyed your meal on the island in the kitchen, gazing through the doorway to watch the heated argument between Stretch and Sans(again), and the hushed argument between Cash and his girlfriend. 

You ate quietly, observing from the sidelines like you always had. Once you were done, you dropped your dishes in the sink and wiped your hands off. You left the kitchen and, just like you had done every night prior for the past two years, turned to the table of skeletons, smiled, and waved as you said, “Good night everyone! Sweet dreams!”

No one responded, just like every night prior for the past two years. You deflated a bit, but shook it off and smiled small before turning to make your way back up to the attic. You were used to being ignored by them after two years, you didn’t get why their ignorance still disappointed you. You’d never be noticed by them, but that was okay. It had to be. 

You were a ghost after all.

Chapter Text

Nothing had gone wrong. Nothing at all. It was a normal day. Mutt, Cash, and Stretch were high, Papyrus just got home from his college classes, Edge, Wine, and Sans went to work on time, Blue, Black, and Razz all stuck to their usual schedule, Bear was watching over Sugar while he prepped plants outside for the greenhouse, Coffee was playing video games in his room. Everything was normal. 

So why did you feel an overwhelming sense of dread? 

Sure, the mugs, plates, and bowls you were trying to throw weren't turning out quite right, but you had off-days every once in a while. You tried glazing a few pieces, but even if you triple-checked the label you kept accidentally grabbing the wrong glaze. You gave up on glazing and tried trimming, but your tool kept cutting through the clay or the piece would randomly collapse for no reason. It annoyed you to no end. When you first found out you could make phantom items out of existing ones, you had a lot of trouble like this when getting used to them since you couldn't feel them the same as when you were alive. But you got used to using phantom items years ago, so you had no clue why you were struggling so much today. 

Maybe you just needed a break. Yeah, a break could do you some good. You dropped your trimming tool onto the shelf of your wheel and stood up, removing your apron before making your way out of the attic. Papyrus was still putting together lunch, so you went out the back door to sit with Bear and watch Sugar getting the greenhouse ready for growing season. The skeletons used the greenhouse mainly for herbs and nursing the fruit and veggie plants until they could be planted outside in the garden beds. Once Bear and Sugar found out food grew much easier on the surface than in their underground, they insisted on growing food for the house, even if Sans could afford more than enough for everyone. 

Papyrus came out about an hour later to alert the two about lunch and you followed them inside. Lunch passed normally, but that dreadful feeling still refused to leave you. In a last-ditch effort to fend it off, you went for a short walk around the house. It was probably only 15 minutes, but when you returned to the attic door, it was open. 

Not the phantom version of the door that you used, but the real attic door. That wasn't normal. In the two years the skele-bros have been living here, none of them ever even touched the attic door. At least, as far as you were aware. You could hear muffled arguing and quickly made your way up the steps. 

Everything was the same, except for the small group of skeletons huddled in a semi-circle at the opposite end of the attic from where your studio was. You tentatively approached, unconsciously trying to avoid creaky floorboards despite knowing they couldn’t hear you anyway. You avoided this end of the attic at all costs for a certain reason…the same reason Papyrus, Stretch, Mutt, Red, and Blueberry were crowded together.

“We Can’t Just Leave It Here! …Right?” Blue turned to the others, wringing his hands together nervously.

Your corpse.

Papyrus crouched down in front of it, “HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN HERE? IT LOOKS OLD…”

Well, what was left of it at least. 

As Papyrus reached out to poke your skeleton, you bristled and swatted his hand away, “Don’t touch that!” Your hand phased right through his, but you knew through trial and error that trying to touch him would feel like his hand had suddenly been plunged in ice water, so you weren’t surprised when he snatched it away to his chest. You were extremely protective of your skeleton. It was the only lasting thing that tied you to your home, at least that’s how it worked in movies. You didn’t like looking at it because of how morbid it was, but you defended it like your life…death? Depended on it.

“well I ain’t gonna just leave it up here. we got enough skeletons in this house. we don’t need a dead one, too,” Stretch commented as Papyrus re-joined the group standing a few feet away from your skeleton.

“What Are We Supposed To Do With It Then? How Does A Proper Human Burial Work?” Blue questioned, taking a tentative step closer to your skeleton. You still stood between them and it defensively, even though you couldn’t do much more than make them cold. But you trusted Blue, he and Papyrus were the kindest people you had ever known and you knew he had nothing but good intentions. You hesitantly stepped back from your skeleton so he wouldn’t get that cold sensation as he inspected it.

“proper burial? ya kiddin’? jus’ blast it an’ be done,” Red mumbled out, his voice coarse, probably from sleep. He looked like he got dragged out of bed just to come up here and see your skeleton. 

You glared at Red for suggesting such a thing while Blue and Papyrus gasped, turning to him in shock, “YOU CAN’T JUST DESTROY IT! HUMANS HAVE PROPER BURIAL PRACTICES FOR A REASON!”

“who gives a damn? ‘s old. no poin’ in a ‘proper burial’ if ‘s so far gone,” Red bit back and stared down at your skeleton, eyelights trailing over your skull specifically. Your skeleton and theirs looked similar, but their bones were thicker and they had no sutures on their skulls, just smooth bone all around. Their teeth weren't shaped or organized the same either. Overall, they looked a bit more…cartoony than a human skeleton.

“Human’s Respect Our Culture! We Should Respect Theirs, Too!” Blue, ever the angel, defended your body. You appreciated his insistence to give you a proper burial, but you didn’t want one. This was your house, your resting place, your everything . You wanted to remain here until the day it collapsed. 

“blue, red has a point,” Stretch pulled Blue away from your skeleton and began pulling a hand out of his hoodie pocket, “we can’t just leave it here while we dig a grave or somethin’. we gotta get rid of it.”

“But-!” Blue tried to defend, but Stretch ignored him, taking a step forward.

“it’ll be fine, bro. they’re dead, not like they’re gonna know if their bones are destroyed,” Stretch reasoned, raising his hand up. A large animal-like skull was summoned in the air beside him, aimed at your skeleton.

No. No, no, nonononono NO! You had seen those before. Edge used them all time when training and Papyrus lost his shit on him once after he destroyed the lawn using them. The skele-bros called them Gaster Blasters, and they were weapons of absolute destruction. And Stretch was currently about to fire one at your most prized possession. 

You panicked and jumped in the path of the blaster as it charged up. You were a ghost so it couldn’t hurt you, right? You spread your arms out and screamed ‘NO!’ just as the blast was released. The last thing you saw before screwing your eyes shut in preparation for the magic to pass through you, were the shocked and horrified faces of the skeletons before you.

When you finally recovered from what was essentially a flash-bang, the first thing you were met with was screaming. Lots of loud, panicked screaming. Your eyes snapped open and your head practically turned on a swivel as you searched for the reason behind the screaming skeletons. Was there a bat in the attic that they disturbed? They usually only hid here during the winter but sometimes one or two stuck around. Did Stretch blast a hole in the floor? The ceiling?

Your confusion grew when you noticed that absolutely nothing had changed. Well, the blaster had been dismissed, but everything else was the same. What were they panicking about? You looked back at them and only got a glimpse of Stretch frozen in horror among the other panicking skeletons before a black jacket was thrown at you. You didn’t move, you had stuff unintentionally thrown at you all the time and knew it would phase right through you.

But it didn’t. Your vision remained covered by the black jacket as you sat there. That was odd. Usually they phased right through you, but maybe you accidentally made a phantom version? The whole phantom item thing had been really odd today anyway, that had to be the reason. You reached up to remove the jacket and hummed to yourself at the soft texture.

Wait.

Soft.

The jacket felt soft.

The jacket felt soft…

You could feel the texture of the jacket.

You were a ghost. Ghost’s can’t feel the texture of things, even if they’re a phantom replica…

You ripped the jacket from over your head to your lap and gazed at your hands. Your skeleton hands. Why did you have skeleton hands? What happened to your ghost body? Did the magic blast change it or something? Where did your skeleton go? Did the blast destroy that, too!? 

Then it hit you light a freight train. The skeletons before you weren’t screaming because of a bat or a destroyed floor or ceiling. They were screaming because in the span of a half-second the very clearly dead human skeleton they discovered in the attic of their home was now a living skeleton. You were a skeleton, just like the others. …You were a naked skeleton.

Suddenly, being alive again was the least of your worries and you scrambled to get the jacket on. Oh. Oh god, this was horrible. You had been used to being a ghost for so long that trying to just put on a jacket proved to be a feat for a greek god. You tried to guide your arms in only to have them not listen to your brain(?) at all. Papyrus, who had been pointedly looking away with a bright flush, glanced over his shoulder at your frustrated noises. When he saw your obvious struggle, he didn’t question it and walked up to you, just wanting to get you covered as soon as possible. 

“HERE, LET ME HELP,” he crouched in front of you, eyelights focused entirely on the jacket to get your arms through and absolutely nothing else. He was always a massive gentleman. Blue was the same way, but he was currently trying to stop Red from attacking while he hurled insults at you. As Papyrus carefully adjusted the jacket to ensure you were covered, you took in the state of the other two. The screaming was gone, it seemed to only be Papyrus, Blue, and Red who had screamed, but Stretch was still frozen in place. His sockets were devoid of any eyelights and his jaw hung open slightly. Mutt, on the other hand, was devoid of his jacket , which you realized was the one thrown at you, and had taken a sudden liking to a cobweb in the corner.

Papyrus tapped your shoulder to bring your attention back to him, his face filled with concern over his slowly-fading blush, “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

“Um…” oh dear lord, was it weird to not hear your voice echo for once, “I-I think so?”

Papyrus’ browbones knit together in more concern, “CAN YOU STAND?”

“Uhhh,” you made an attempt to push yourself up but somehow, even though you were sitting on the floor, you managed to fall back.

Papyrus’ shot his arms out to catch you and you briefly thought about how weird it was to feel someone again before he gently began guiding you to stand. Red’s screaming insults had died down as attention turned back to you. Your legs were shaky and weak and you had to lean almost all of your weight onto Papyrus to remain remotely up-right. 

Red scoffed and shoved his hands into his pockets as he watched you struggle to try and stand on your own. You slowly leaned away from Papyrus, but he kept his arms near you in case you fell. Good thing he did, too, because the moment all of your weight was off of him, your knees buckled and if it weren’t for him catching you, you would’ve crashed to the floor. That’s when Red decided to provide one of his ever-famous asshole comments, “how're ya such a klutz? Don' ya know how ta walk?"

You gave him the best glare you could and, already frustrated with barely being able to move without help, snapped back, "Shut it, Red! I was a ghost thirty seconds ago, cut me some slack!"

It was silent for a second before Red and Blue spoke at the same time:

“how do ya know ma’ name?”

“You’re A Ghost!?”

Red sounded defensive and maybe a little scared, while Blue was very clearly fascinated and intrigued at the fact that you’re a ghost. You stiffened again, bringing your attention back to your physical body, “Uh, w-was a ghost. I uh…,” you held a hand up to your face, gripping onto Papyrus’ shirt with the other one, “don’t think I am anymore…”

Chapter Text

“alright,” Sans sighed and pinched his nose bridge in slight annoyance, “let’s go over this one more time so i know i’m not missing anything,” he looked up at you from his spot across you in the living room, “you used to own this house.”

You shrugged and shifted a bit on the couch, “technically still do, yeah.”

Sans looked like he wanted to snap at your little comment, but steeled his nerves, “you died here and turned into a ghost after.”

You nodded, “Yes.”

After you had briefly explained to the first set of skeletons why you were haunting ‘their’ manor, Blue lent you some clothes while Papyrus called his brother to come home early and figure out what to do. All the skeletons were significantly bigger than you, so even in Blue’s casual t-shirt and grey sweatpants you looked like you were drowning in fabric. Sans didn’t care though, he just wanted to make sure he heard your story right, “and all those weird things that happened to Pap’s an’ I after we moved in, like the drawings on the mirror after a shower or our stuff being moved randomly, those were all you trying to communicate with us?”

You nodded bashfully and rubbed the back of your neck, “Uh, yeah. I was trying not to scare you guys at all, but I had been alone for so long! I just wanted someone to talk to…”

Seeing your clear apologeticness and nervous demeanor, Sans lightened up a bit, “that’s…that’s fine. ‘s in the past now. anyway, you’ve just been living among us, and your body has been in the attic this whole time, but you were only able to return to it when stretch tried to destroy it with a gaster blaster… right?”

You nodded, “Yup. That’s uh, pretty much everything!”

Sans stared at you for a moment before sighing heavily, “stay here for a moment. i need to go yell at stretch for using a blaster in the house and then i’ll get back to you.”

Sans didn’t give you a chance to respond, porting away before you could even think of one. You sat patiently on the couch, grinning a bit when you could hear Stretch arguing back moments later. You couldn't make out words, but you were sure you'd hear someone complaining about it later. Sans had chased everyone off to their rooms when he got home so he could talk to you alone in the living room. You tried to be as vague as possible, knowing full well he was adamant on keeping the multiverse thing a secret from humans so you didn't want him to know you knew quite yet. 

You waited for a while, examining the living room like you hadn't seen it a million times before. Then the front door opened and giggling followed by loud playful shushing could be heard. The sun was setting by now so it couldn't be Red, he usually came home long after the sun fully set, and you were pretty sure he was still in his room. When you turned to see the two figures stumbling through the door you recognized them as Cash and his girlfriend, Cassandra. Everyone called her Cass for short.

She was giggling and her face was flushed as she stumbled through the door with Cash, she was at least tipsy, if not drunk. Cash was trying to get her to stay quiet, but he seemed to have a few too many drinks to know what ‘shhh’ meant, himself. When his loud, half-laughed shushing requests went unheard by Cass, he took a different approach and kissed her. It worked. Maybe too well, you quickly realized as the innocent little kiss escalated. They were making out in seconds and were entirely lost in one another, you almost thought you were a ghost again. 

Then Cash opened his sockets, and since he was facing you while Cass’ back was to you, promptly pulled away from the make-out session. His sockets were wide and a little panicked and you almost wanted to laugh at his feeble attempts to wipe away the sparkly strawberry lip gloss from his teeth, “Who the fuck are you!?”

Cass spun on her heel to face you, probably thinking you were an intruder until she saw just another skeleton. She relaxed a bit, this manor was filled with skeletons after all, but Cash remained stiff, almost like he was prepared to attack. It made sense, from the context you picked up on over two years, the brothers were the last skeletons from their respective universes, so a lone skeleton Cash hadn’t been warned about would surely be a scare. 

You opened your mouth to respond, still trying not to laugh at the pink tint on Cash’s teeth, only to be beat to it by Sans, who was now standing at the bottom of the stairs, “cash!” said skeleton turned to Sans, who continued, “didn’t think you’d be back so soon. uh, can i talk to ya for a minute? Privately.”

Cash looked between you and Sans for a moment before nodding and teleporting away with Sans, who was probably going to explain your whole situation to him. That left you and Cass alone in the living room. She and Cash had been dating for three-ish months by now, and you felt neutral about her. She was pretty with olive skin, long brunette curls, and the face of a roman war goddess. She was nice, too. She and Stretch’s girlfriend, Bella, had become good friends and were incredibly friendly with most of the skeletons. They both got into arguments with their respective boyfriends from time to time, but nothing you had seen warranted worry.

Cass pouted a bit after Cash left, but after a moment she turned her gaze to you and crossed her arms, “So,” you turned your head from where Sans had been to her, “who are you?”

You tentatively gave her your name, still trying to get used to the heaviness of your jaw. She hummed and repeated your name back in a snarky sort of tone, “What are your intentions?”

“My…intentions?” you questioned, not entirely understanding what she was saying.

“You know,” she pressed on, flipping her hair over her shoulder, “With the others.”

Well, you originally intended to remain a ghost and live silently among them until they all either moved out, went back to their universes, or died. But of course, you couldn’t tell her that, “Uhh…nothing?”

Her eyes narrowed at you suspiciously, “I call BS.”

Your browbones knit together in confusion, her sudden rudeness compared to all the kindness you had seen as a ghost was like a slap to the face, “What?” 

She scoffed and rolled her eyes before adjusting her posture to stand straighter, “You’re a skeleton. A girl skeleton. All the skeletons here are boys, so clearly you wanna get with one of them.”

You gaped at her, sockets widening in a ‘the audacity of this bitch’ way. You always strived to be as nice as you could possibly be, but sometimes being rude was a requirement from you, and you weren’t one to hesitate when it came to putting people in their place, “That is not at all-”

“But I’m gonna be nice,” she says as she deliberately cuts you off, “and I’ll warn you now. Cash is mine . If you so much as think of stealing him from me, I’ll ruin your entire fucking life.”

Before you had a chance to respond, Cash and Sans teleported back into the living room. Cass immediately smiled and hugged Cash, who hummed and hugged back in response. He seemed a little dazed. Instead of responding to Cass, you turned to Cash and said in a flat tone, “Your girlfriend is a prick.”

Cass let go of Cash so fast you would think he was hot as a steaming frying pan. She turned to you, clearly offended at your accusation, “Excuse me!?”

You narrowed your sockets at her and snapped back, “You immediately accused me of trying to 'steal your man'. Bitch, I just got here! I haven't even spoken to him yet!"

She gasped dramatically and turned to Cash expectantly, who was simply staring at you, probably still trying to process your whole ‘ghost who has been watching all of the skeletons since the originals moved in is now alive again’ story. After a moment of him not moving, Cass snapped her fingers at him, “Cash, babe, hello? She called me a bitch, aren’t you gonna do something?”

Cash blinked and looked down at her for a few seconds before his jaw finally caught up to his metaphorical brain, “I think you should head home for the night, Cass.”

Her jaw slowly dropped in shock and she started to accuse him, “You’re joking. This random skeleton girl shows up and all of a sudden I’m not good enough for you?”

Cash bristled for a moment, realizing how his words must have sounded without context, “No! That’s not what I meant-”

Cass scoffed again, “Bullshit!” she must really like that word, "Now that you finally found someone just like you I'm not worthy of your presence. That's it, isn't it?"

"Cass, that isn't-" Cash reached out to her but she slapped his hand away. He continued to desperately try and explain that wasn't what he meant, but she kept cutting him off as she snatched up her purse and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her. 

You stared at the door in slight shock, never having seen her that angry before, while Cash groaned and ran his hands over his skull. He sighed and moved to chase after Cass, but Sans grabbed his wrist before he could get far, "nope, you need to stay here."

"But-" Cash tried defending himself but Sans wasn't gonna hear it. 

"you can sort out your relationship problems later. right now you and her," he pointed to you, "are gonna wait in the dining room while I get the others. wine, edge, black, and razz should be home soon. i'm sure everyone has questions and it'll be easier if we can knock them all out at once."

He looked over at you to make sure you were okay with his plan. You shrugged, "Sounds good to me. I'd rather answer them all at once than be caught off-guard."

Sans nodded and released Cash’s wrist, “good. i’ll be back soon.”

Sans short cutted away before you or Cash could respond. Cash turned to you as you stood, “Uh, do you need me to show you-”

You shook your head and chuckled, “I already know the layout of the house, Cash,” you walked past him towards the dining room, “I was living here before I died after all.”

Cash followed after you, taking a seat across from you, “You lived here before Sans and Papyrus did?”

You nodded and folded your arms on the table, resting your head in them, “Yup. Designed the house myself, actually. Paid a construction crew to build it and I’ve lived here since. Well, technically I’ve lived here since. Died here, too.”

Cash hummed in acknowledgement, looking a little uncomfortable with your ‘technically’ statement, “So, have you just been…watching us?”

You shrugged and sat up, looking into the kitchen as you heard footsteps descending the stairs behind you, “Pretty much, yeah. I tried communicating with you guys, but I think all I did was scare or unnerve you, so I stopped and just watched you guys.”

“That’s, uh…not concerning at all,” Cash looked you up and down with weary eyelights as Coffee tentatively took a seat beside him, watching you carefully. 

Coffee was always quiet. You had heard him speak maybe twice in the six months he and Wine had been here, and those times were only when he and Wine were alone. You didn’t know as much about Coffee and Wine as you did the others because they were the newest additions, but you did know that Coffee was autistic, loved to draw, and rarely spoke. Wine, on the other hand, was strict and mildly rude to anyone that wasn’t his brother. You didn’t think he had any hobbies aside from work and psychoanalyzing people for his own benefit. He wasn’t trusting by any means, either. He was vague in pretty much any response he gave and the only thing he openly admitted about his universe was that there was an ongoing civil war. 

You shrugged at Cash’s words, “It’s not like I was invoking on anyone's privacy. I joined in for meals or movie nights or get-togethers, like the pool party Blueberry had last summer.”

“why would ya join us fer meals when ya can’t eat?” Stretch appeared at Cash’s other side and took his seat, "or can ya eat?"

“I could eat. I just had to make a phantom version of whatever food was made,” you explained, only to be met with confused looks.

“phantom version?” Stretch inquired, lighting a cigarette and offering it to Cash.

“Yeah, as a ghost I could make phantom versions of items, at least that’s what I called them,” Cash accepted the cigarette and Mutt appeared, taking a seat beside Coffee as you continued to explain, “Remember that one movie you guys watched a few months ago? The one with the little boy and all the orange flowers and skeletons and the boy’s grandma hated music?”

“Coco?” Cash offered, taking a drawl from the cig. The smoke billowed out from between his teeth and nasal cavity.

You nodded and perked up a bit, “Yeah! And all the skeleton-ghost people were taking the food but it was like a see-through version of the food.”

Stretch nodded, now understanding what you meant, pulling out another cigarette, “ah. an’ you could do that with anythin’?”

You nodded again, “Yup, pretty much everything. Well, except for living things. Only objects or food.”

Just as Stretch lit his cancer stick, Papyrus scolded him and Cash from behind you, “NO SMOKING IN THE HOUSE, YOU TWO! WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THIS!”

Stretched rolled his eyelights in annoyance as Papyrus took the seat to your right, but put out the cigarette anyway. Cash did the same as someone else took the seat to your left. You looked over to see Blueberry smiling happily at you, “Hello, Maiden! Are You Feeling Alright?”

You chuckled at his little nickname for you and nodded, “As alright as I can be. The physical body is still super weird,” you looked down at your hands and opened and closed them experimentally before looking back at Blue, “but I can walk without falling!”

Blue perked up, smiling wide at the good news, “Good! I Was Worried You’d Hurt Yourself Falling Too Much.”

You chuckled and went to respond, only for a voice behind you to ask, “Who Is This?”

You turned around to find Sugar looking at you with curiosity, Bear was beside him looking at you with a critical eyelight. He was extremely protective of his brother, so you didn’t blame him for the near-scowl he directed at you. Before you had a chance to respond, Blue happily began explaining, ushering the two over to sit down with everyone else. Red showed up some time later and Stretch reluctantly told him about the whole phantom item thing when it popped up again in the conversation. 

It wasn’t much longer after that when the door opened and the last four skeletons entered, Edge and Black complaining about having to take work off early. You ignored them for the most part, continuing your conversation with Blue and Papyrus, not even noticing when the complaining suddenly cut off. Then a hand was suddenly on the back of your neck and pulling you out of your seat. 

You hit the floor with a hard thud and could hear Blue and Papyrus yelling at someone. You cracked your eye sockets open to see a blurry version of Edge towering over you. Bright red magic crackled in his hand and began stretching out into the form of a sharp bone. You didn’t get to see it fully form because another form blocked his suddenly. You vaguely recognized Sans’ shorts and hoodie, but his voice rang in your non-existent ears. How hard had you hit your head?

You were suddenly pulled up from the floor and Blue’s worried expression filled your vision. He was saying something but you couldn’t make out the words clearly through all the yelling. You brought your hands up to the side of your head where your ears should be in an attempt to block out the noise. It didn’t work very well, but Blue seemed to understand what was wrong. He placed one of his hands over one of yours, blocking only some of the noise, and waved someone over. 

He said a few words to someone beside you who you couldn’t see, and a pair of arms wrapped around your middle. Blue let go of you and suddenly everything was dead silent, but you were also falling. Your metaphorical stomach did flips, like you were on a rollercoaster, before the floor returned beneath your feet, yelling muffled significantly. Your eye sockets snapped shut as your knees buckled and your arms shot out to hold onto whoever had you.

Chapter Text

It took a good 30 seconds, but eventually the hazy voice you heard cleared and you were able to identify Stretch as the one holding you up, “s’ alright. I gotcha.”

You nodded and held onto him until all your senses came back to you. It took a minute, but eventually you slowly pulled away, making sure you wouldn’t fall again before looking around you. He had shortcutted you both to one of the few spare bedrooms left. It was one of the smaller ones with a full-sized bed, a vanity against the opposite wall, a tiny closet, and a small bathroom. 

Stretch cleared his non-existent throat behind you and you turned to face him. He stared, uncomfortable, for a moment before saying anything, “uh, i’m gonna go see if anyone has any clothes that’ll fit ya better. you uh…go ahead an’ clean up. don’t worry about edge. sans ‘ll take care of him.”

You shrugged and looked around the room again, “I’m not too worried about him. He’s protective, like most of you guys,” you looked back at Stretch, “he’s just bad at holding his temper.”

Stretch looked at you quizzically before realization washed over him, then concern, “how much do you know about us exactly?”

You drew in a breath and contemplated your next words. After a moment, you exhaled and turned to the bathroom, “More than any of you want me to know.”

You slipped into the bathroom before Stretch could say anything else, but you could hear a stressed sigh leave him through the door before a crackle of magic indicated his exit. You sighed and turned to the mirror, faltering a moment at your reflection. Right, skeleton. You were a skeleton now. 

Pushing away the unnerving feeling the thought and reality gave you, you inspected your new body. It was definitely your skeleton, you recognized your chipped tooth and the bumpy line of healed bone over one of your sockets from when you almost cracked your skull open as a kid. However, you didn’t look exactly like a real skeleton. You looked a lot like the others, cartoony almost. Your bones were thicker and you didn’t have the distinct lines on your skull where it fused together as you grew up. Your canines were also more pronounced, a little bigger and more obvious than normal. It was almost like you had fangs, and it made you smirk.

There was a flash of pink in the mirror and you brought your gaze to it to see your eyelights, which were peach pink stars. You gasped and leaned forward, inspecting them closer. Blue’s eyelights were constant light blue stars and sometimes Wine’s empty socket would flash a hollow red star when he got excited or was shocked, but other than that none of the others had star eyelights. Both of your eyelights were stars and they were hollow like Wine’s, but the lines of your stars were thicker than his.

You eventually managed to rip your gaze away from them and address the rest of your body, grimacing as you realized just how dusty and dirty it was. You really needed a shower. Thankfully, Papyrus insisted on keeping basic things like body wash and spare toothbrushes and toothpaste in the guest rooms just in case they had someone stay over. He probably meant if someone invited a friend over, but nonetheless, you stripped off your borrowed clothes and turned the shower on. 

You jumped in surprise at the feel of water on your bones. As a ghost, everything felt different, hazy and almost distant, like you were feeling it through someone else's hands and not your own. You took a few minutes to slowly get into the shower, getting used to the feel of the water on your hands, then arms, feet, legs, and eventually your torso and head. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but eventually became soothing. You tilted your head down and tentatively opened your eye sockets so you wouldn’t get water in them, only to scrunch your face up in disgust at the near-black water that ran down the drain. 

Without wasting another moment, you snatched up the new loofa and the bottle of coconut scented body wash and poured way more than enough on the loofa before rubbing it in. You scrubbed down your bones thoroughly, switching to a rag to get in between all your knuckles and joints, which was an extremely odd sensation, but you wanted to be as clean as physically possible after seeing that water. By the time you stepped out of the shower, your once grey and old bones were nearly pearly white with a faint natural grey tint to them. You remembered Bear and Sugar's bones looking like that when they first arrived, maybe you could ask Sugar why yours were that way, too. Bear didn’t seem to like you yet. 

There weren't any towels in the bathroom, so you let your bones drip-dry for a bit while you cleaned your face and brushed your teeth, which was surprisingly messy with no lips, but you somehow managed to keep the mess contained to the sink. You also noticed a myriad of scrapes and bite marks from various small animals trying to feed on your bones over the years. 

Once you were satisfied with your cleanliness, you cracked open the bathroom door to see an empty bedroom and a new stack of neatly folded clothes on the bed. A smile spread over your face as you approached the bed. There was a short note resting on top of the pile that read;

Dear, Impromptu Housemate

I would like to apologize for Edge’s behavior. It was highly unacceptable and I assure you he will be providing an apology as well.

The clothes provided are from when Sans was still in stripes, so I was told. They are clean and should fit you. If not, please come find me and I will alter them for you until you are able to get proper clothing.

-Wine

You raised a browbone questioningly, Wine wasn’t usually the type to do favors unless he was getting something in return, and you had nothing to give. You set the note aside and turned back to the clothes. Just at a glance they looked too big, but they would fit better than the one’s Blue let you borrow. The shirt had a few small holes and what looked like a small burn, but they wouldn't be noticeable at a distance. It was a dark blue that looked almost black against the two thick baby blue stripes that stretched across the front. The shorts had similar wear on them, but looked exactly like the black and white ones Sans wore now, just smaller. There weren’t any underwear, but you weren’t sure you needed it being a skeleton and all.

The shorts fell to your knees and you tied the drawstrings as tight as they would go, but the shorts were still just a bit too loose. You wouldn’t have to hold them up constantly, but you would have to keep a close eye on them to make sure you wouldn’t flash the whole house. Well, the rest of the house. Papyrus, Blue, Stretch, Mutt, and Red already saw you in all your glory, but you’d prefer to keep the others from seeing it as well.

After you slipped the shirt on, you realized that flashing anyone likely wouldn’t be a problem. It was practically a dress on you, falling just past your knees and covering the shorts entirely. Not even the collar would stay completely on, immediately slipping off one of your shoulders any time you tried to adjust it. This definitely wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing, and Wine did say he could alter the clothes for you. 

Just as you were wondering what to do next, there was a knock at your door followed by Blue’s comforting voice, “Are You Decent, Maiden?”

You turned to the door and responded, “As decent as I can be. You can come in.”

The door creaked open as Blue entered, his tentative smile dropping when he saw the oversized clothes on you, “I Told Wine They’d Be Too Big, But Of Course The Seamstress Apparently Knows Someone's Size At First Glance.”

You chuckled at his comment, “Wine’s a seamstress?”

Blue looked a little surprised at your question, “You Didn’t Know That?”

You shrugged and looked around the room, “Well, I don’t know everything about you guys. I know Edge is a royal guard and Wine leaves with him to go to work every morning, so I just assumed he was a guard, too.”

Blue stared at you for a moment before breaking into a fit of laughter, “Oh Stars, Stretch Made It Seem Like You Knew Everything About Our Lives!” you turned back to him and tilted your head in silent question, “He Told Us What You Said When He Asked How Much You Know About Us. Edge Isn’t A Royal Guard, Not Anymore At Least. He’s A Head Chef At A Fancy Restaurant! He’s Been Saving Up To Open His Own Restaurant, Though!”

“Oh,” you stood dumbfounded for a second. The skele-bros didn’t talk about their lives outside of the house often, so you’re not exactly surprised you didn’t know, but Edge’s myriad of piggy banks in his room make a lot more sense now, “Well, I don’t really know everything. A lot of the basic stuff like your likes and dislikes. I thought I knew your jobs, but I’m not so sure anymore…”

Blue chuckled and placed a hand on your bare shoulder, gently guiding you to the door, “Well, How About When You Answer Our Questions, We’ll Answer Yours, Too! Then Everyone Is All Caught Up!”

You chuckled and let him lead you out the door, “That sounds good. The original plan was for me to answer all your guys’ questions, but it looks like Edge had other plans.”

Blue grimaced at the mention of what Edge did, his grip a bit firmer on you as you descended the stairs, “I Am Truly Sorry About Him, Maiden. He’s…”

“Protective?” you offered, making Blue chuckle nervously, “Yeah, I know. I saw the fight between him and Bear after he and Sugar showed up.”

Blue paused at the bottom of the steps, “Just How Long Have You Been A Ghost?”

You shrugged and kept walking to the living room, where nearly everyone was staring at you, “I don’t know exactly, but definitely a while before Sans and Papyrus moved in.”

Blue looked at you sadly, but a small smile from you made his smile return and he settled onto the couch next to his brother. Sans, who was sitting on the other end of the couch, encouraged you to sit. There was only one seat left, a big fluffy bean bag in front of the coffee table. You sat down, but jolted a bit at the new sensation, slowly running your hands through the soft faux fur of the blue bean bag, “This is so weird.”

“‘s a bean bag,” you looked up to see Red looking at you like you were the dumbest person he’d ever met.

You rolled your eyelights and settled into the bean bag, “I know what a bean bag is, Red. I just mean it feels weird. Things don’t feel the same as a ghost. Hell, the shower scared the shit outta be at first. Haven’t felt water in years…”

“I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU COULD MAKE, EHM, PHANTOM ITEMS? WOULDN’T THAT WORK WITH WATER, TOO?” Papyrus questioned.

You shrugged and made a so-so motion with your hand, “Uh, kinda? It depends. If it’s in a container, like a milk jug, then I could have a phantom version of it. But say I were to try and pick up a liquid with my hands, it wouldn’t work. My hands would just phase right through it. Even then, phantom versions of items don’t have the same sensations as the real object.”

You received a wide array of confused looks, but Wine was the one to ask, “Can you clarify for us what exactly you mean?”

“Uh, yeah, totally,” you straightened a bit before explaining, “It’s a little hard to explain without actually experiencing it, but it's like if you were trying to feel something but ninety percent of what your feeling is how radio static would feel if it weren’t a, um..a sound…”

You trailed off as the looks grew in confusion. You grit your teeth together and tried to think of a better way to explain it, “It’s…distant, but also fuzzy? Like, uh…like you’re feeling it through someone else's hands,” the looks only lightened slightly, “Do you guys know the game Telephone?”

“Is That The One Where You Have To Whisper A Sentence To Someone Else But By The Time The Last Person Gets It, It Is Completely Different From The Original Sentence?” Sugar asked, probably looking the most confused out of everyone.

You smiled and nodded, “Yeah! It’s kinda like that. Like the original feeling of the item gets mostly lost when it becomes a phantom version. Like a, funnily enough, ghost version of the actual item.”

The confused looks lessened, but didn’t disappear entirely. After a moment, Mutt, who was sitting on the floor in front of his brother who was in a loveseat, whispered something to him. Razz nodded and straightened, calling your name with a commanding voice, demanding your attention. You turned to him and raised a browbone, “How Much Do You Know About Us?”

“Ah, well, I know a lot of the basic things. Like,” you began ticking off the list on your fingers, “your names, personality, likes, dislikes. I thought I knew your jobs, but then Blue told me Wine was a seamstress. I thought he was a guard like Edge, but then Blue told me Edge isn’t a guard anymore and he’s a chef instead, so I guess I don’t really know as much as I thought I did…”

Edge bristled and glared at Blue, “YOU TOLD THE RODENT I’M A CHEF!?”

“You Are A Chef! And Don’t Call Them A Rodent!” Blue tried to defend you.

“I WILL CALL IT WHATEVER I PLEASE! THAT THING HAS NO PLACE HERE!” Edge shot back. Beside him, Wine sighed and pinched his nose bridge, mumbling something you couldn’t hear. Edge snapped his head over to face Wine, “WHAT WAS THAT?”

Wine sighed and faced Edge with a glare, “I said you are acting like a fucking child. You were supposed to apologize. Not insult them.”

“I DO NOT NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR PROTECTING BY BROTHER!”

“You Didn’t Need To Protect Him, Edge! Maiden Wasn’t Even Talking To Red!”

“THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH-”

“shut up!” all eyelights landed on Sans, who was rubbing his skull with a painful expression, “i think that’s enough for tonight. kid, is there anything ya wanna ask us before we call it a night?”

You gave Sans a pitiful look, wishing you could help him with the obvious migraine he was dealing with right now. He had those a lot. You thought for a moment about what question you wanted to ask before finally settling on one. The one that has been eating away at you since the skele-bros first arrived, “What year is it?”

Sans looked a little shocked and confused at your question, but answered anyway, “Uh, 20XX. Why?”

It was your turn to be shocked, “Oh shit…” you looked down at your hands, “It hasn’t felt like it’s been that long…”

“tha’ long since wha’?” Red questioned when no one else did.”

“Since I died,” you mumbled, the air suddenly a bit too tense.

It was quiet for a while before Stretch tentatively asked, “How long has it been?”

You drew in a slow breath before quietly saying, “Twenty-two years…”

Chapter Text

You awoke far earlier than you intended, courtesy of Blueberry. You were at least glad he woke you up by softly shaking your shoulder instead of ripping your blanket off like he did for his brother, “Ah, Good Morning, Maiden! Papyrus And I Were Wondering If You Wanted To Help Us Make Breakfast!”

You blinked up at Blue quizzically for a moment, wondering how he could see and talk to you before remembering the events of the previous day. You nodded and sat up, groaning at the unfamiliar stiffness in your body, “Uh, yeah, sure. Do you have any clothes I can borrow for the day?”

Blue glanced down at your outfit from yesterday and knit his browbones together, “Hmm, Coffee Might Have Something!” he deflated a bit, “But Wine May Get Mad If he Sees You In Coffee’s Clothes. He’s Really Protective…”

You hummed and glanced at the folded note sitting on the bedside table, “Well, he did leave me a note telling me to go to him if we couldn’t find any clothes that fit,” you grabbed the note and handed it to Blue, who looked it over, “He said he’d alter them but maybe he has something I can wear?”

Blue’s expression grew more confused as he read the note twice, then again before he shook his head and set it aside, “Wine Already Left For Work… Maybe Razz Or Black Have Something For You!”

You were a bit hesitant at that, Razz was a brat in general but if anyone tried touching something of his he was ten times worse, and Black was extremely strict with who he let use his things, even Cash was rarely permitted to use anything of Black’s. Regardless, you trusted Blue, so you let him pull you out of bed and practically drag you down the hall to Razz’s room. Unfortunately, Blue barely got to ask his question before the door was slammed in his face, apparently Razz’s schedule was packed today and he wasn’t about to be ‘Bothered With Unimportant Tasks’. 

You had far more luck with Black, even if he did look very clearly annoyed. He pulled you into his room, insisting that you would meet Blue in the kitchen when he tried to enter the room, too. You assured him you’d be fine and he begrudgingly left. You didn’t necessarily trust Black, but you knew he wasn’t an unreasonable person. He knew you weren’t a threat and therefore he had no reason to attack you or harm you in any way. 

As he riffled through his closet, you glanced around his room. You had seen it before as a ghost, but he seemed to have updated it since then. The bed had several more pillows and the black cotton sheets had been replaced with silk sheets colored a dark plum. His old desk had been replaced with a far sturdier dark oak one with far more storage space than the old one. You smiled softly at the two new figurines sitting among the other ones on the desk. He had a new, fluffy black rug, too.  

A clearing of the throat brought your attention up from the faux fur tickling your feet, to Black who now had a stack of clothes in his arms, “These Should Fit You Well Enough. If Not Then I Can Look For Something Else. You Can Change In The Closet.”

You nodded and quietly thanked him as you stepped into his walk-in closet. He didn’t respond, keeping his back turned even as you closed the door. You stifled a chuckle at his color-coded wardrobe, fading perfectly from light purple to black, and turned your gaze to the neatly-folded clothes in your arms. You set them on top of his dresser and picked up the first item, a little surprised to see that it was a dress. The bodice was form-fitting and the skirt flared out at the waist while the straps were thick. It was a pretty plum color with black roses printed all over it. The back laced up similar to a corset, so it ended up fitting better than you thought it would. It fell to your mid-shin, though you were sure it would've been about knee-length on Black. 

The next item in the stack was a pair of frilly, lilac-colored ankle socks. You were again surprised by it, Black really didn’t seem like the kind of person to wear something like this, but you slipped them on anyway. They were a little loose around your ankles, but that wasn’t a problem for you. The final item was a pair of plain black mary jane shoes. You knew for a fact these couldn’t be Black’s because they were far too small, but you couldn’t fathom why he would have them either. You pushed away the thought for the time being and slipped them on, shocked that they fit almost perfectly. 

You straightened out the dress a bit before opening the closet door and stepping out, “How do I look?”

You spun around and gave a nervous chuckle as Black’s narrowed sockets inspected your outfit. He said nothing, brushing past you and digging through a drawer in his dresser. After a moment he came back to you with a purple square of fabric in his hand, “I’m Glad To See Everything Fits,” he began as he tied the fabric around your neck, “The Socks And Shoes Are From One Of Cash’s Ex’s. I Was Planning On Donating Them, But If You Would Like To Keep Them, You May.”

That made a lot of sense. You quirked a browbone up at him as he adjusted the bandana around your neck, “And the dress?”

He scoffed, attention focused on folding the fabric to make sure it looked nice, “I Bought It In Preparation For A Bet. Luckily, I Won So I Did Not Have To Wear It.”

Your browbones knit together for a moment before you asked, “Is that why Sans, Blue, Razz, and Red had to wear dresses all month last October?”

Black paused for a moment, sockets narrowing at you in suspicion. It took a moment, but he eventually relaxed and mumbled a ‘yes’ as he brushed some invisible dirt off the bandana before stepping back. He gave a sigh and a curt not, “Much Better. Now, You Run Along Back To Blue And Let Him Know I Will Be Downstairs Soon For Our Morning Run.”

You didn’t have a chance to respond as he turned and waved you off insistently. By the time you made it downstairs, Papyrus was already cooking up some pancakes while Blue was slicing fruit to go with them. When he heard your approach, he looked up to greet you, but his words cut off mid-way when he saw your outfit. Instead, a light blue blush dusted his cheekbones and he shyly went back to cutting fruit, mumbling a small, “Good Morning, Maiden.”

You giggled at his reaction to your outfit while Papyrus greeted you with his usual, “GOOD WONDERFUL MORNING!” that he greeted everyone with.

You smiled at him and gave your own greeting to the both of them, “Morning you two. Need my help with anything?”

“AH, YES, ACTUALLY!” Papyrus was quick to put you to work, “CAN YOU CHOP FRUIT SO BLUE CAN COOK UP THE SAUSAGES?”

You gave a curt nod as Blue passed you the knife, “Yes, Chef.”

Papyrus sputtered a bit at you calling him chef, you knew he found pride in being called a chef even though he technically wasn’t one. Blue joined him at the stove, pulling out a pan and turning on the flame to begin cooking, chatting idly with Papyrus as you turned your attention to the strawberries in front of you. The knife was just a small paring knife, but it felt oddly heavy in your hand. Or maybe paring knives were just that heavy and you hadn’t picked up a real knife since your death. You were hesitant at first, keeping your hand as far from the knife as you could while cutting. However, the more strawberries you cut, the more comfortable you got.

Once you were done with the strawberries, Papyrus had you cut some apples, just a few because Bear and Sugar didn’t like strawberries. Unfortunately, you underestimated how much stronger apples were than strawberries. You were too confident with your first cut and the knife slipped, slicing your palm. You yelped in pain and dropped the knife, freezing in place. So long had passed since you died that any and all first-aid information had slipped your memory and you didn’t know what to do.

Luckily, Blue and Papyrus both turned at your yelp and the clatter of the knife. Seconds later, Blue was in front of you, grabbing your wrist and pressing a clean washcloth to your wound to stop the peach-colored marrow leaking from the cut, “Stars! Are You Okay? What Happened?”

He guided you to the laundry room as you tried to explain, “I-the knife slipped-I wasn’t used to how heavy it is-things weighed different as a ghost I guess-I-I-I’m sorry-”

You squeaked as Blue lifted you by your hips and sat you on the dryer, pulling the first-aid kit from the shelf above you and setting it next to you, “You Don’t Need To Apologize, Maiden,” he removed the cloth from your hand and began cleaning the wound with a cotton pad soaked in antiseptic, pressing his other hand to the underside of yours to keep it still, “I Guess It Wasn't Such A Good Idea To Have You Use Something So Sharp When You Haven’t In…”

Blue’s hand slowly stopped moving and you looked up from your hand to him. He was staring at you with an oddly sad look, like he was mourning something that wasn’t his to mourn. Your browbones knit together in concern, “Blue? Is everything okay?”

Your words seemed to snap him out of his apparent internal battle. He shook his head and turned his attention back to your hand, somehow even more gentle than before, “No-Wait-I Mean Yes, Everything Is Fine, It’s Just…”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, his hand slowly stopping again. You leaned forward a bit, mumbling his name with concern. He took a breath and looked back up at you, “You Were Alone For So Long…”

You relaxed at his words, realizing that nothing really was wrong. You chuckled and shook your head, “I wasn’t alone, silly.”

Blue’s look grew confused, “I Thought Sans And Papyrus Only Moved In Two Years Ago?”

You nodded, “Yeah, they did.”

“So You’ve Been Alone For Twenty Years,” he stated. 

You shrugged, “Not entirely. I had the animals to talk to.”

Blue shook his head, “The Animals Don’t Count. People Can’t Talk To Animals. They Can’t Have Conversations With Them Or Play Board Games Or Cook Or-” the poor guy looked like he was about to cry just imagining what it would be like, let alone actually experiencing it. 

“I couldn't do any of those things with you guys either.”

Blue froze, looking you in the eye, trying to find a response but coming up short. You smiled softly at him and placed your uninjured hand on his shoulder, “I’m fine, Blue. I may not have been able to talk to anyone or play games or cook, but I can do all those things now!” you paused and looked down at your hand still in his, “Well, maybe not all -” Blue chuckled and you smiled, “but I can definitely do most. And you,” you took your hand off his shoulder and poked him in the chest with it, “can keep me company through it all. How’s that sound?”

Blue straightened and smiled down at you, “That Sounds Wonderful, Maiden.”

“Good. Because I don’t remember half the shit I should at my age,” the two of you laughed and Blue finally went back to cleaning your hand. 

When he reached for a roll of bandages to wrap your hand, he curiously asked, “How Old Were You When You Died?”

It took you a minute to respond. It had been so long that you couldn’t remember the exact age you died, “I can’t remember exactly, but I do believe I was in my early forties. Like, forty-two or forty-three.”

“Oh! So You’d Be…In Your Sixties Now…Or Does That Make You Sixty Now?” Blue Inquired as he began packing up the first-aid kit and disposing of the soiled cotton pads. 

You paused at his question, thinking hard about it for a few moments before saying, “I, uh…I actually don’t know the answer to that. My body feels the same as when I died, except for, y’know, the lack of skin, and muscle…and organs.”

Blue chuckled and you joined him quickly. After he calmed down, he spoke, “Well, I Don’t Think You Should Cook With Papyrus And I Until You’ve Re-Learned Some Vital Kitchen Rules! But You Can Still Watch Us If You Want!”

“Sure! I don’t mind as long as I get to spend time with you two,” you giggled at the soft blush that settled on Blue’s cheekbones. The second he realized why you were giggling, he turned away, his blush only heightening, “We Should Get Back To The Kitchen Before Papyrus Gets More Worried…”

You silently agreed, pushing yourself off the dryer and following Blue back to the kitchen. Black was sitting at the dining table, sipping idly from a mug of coffee while Razz tapped his foot impatiently. When he saw Blue, he threw his hands into the air, “Finally! What Took You So Long!? We’re Supposed To Go On Our Run In Five Minutes . I Already Told You I Have A Busy Day! I Will Not Have You Disrespecting Me So Easi-”

“What Happened To Your Hand?” Razz was cut off by Black, who was now walking towards you 

He grabbed your injured hand, inspecting the bandages as you spoke, “I, um, was cutting fruit and accidentally cut myself. Blue bandaged it for me.”

Black hummed and released our hand, returning to his seat, “At Least He Did A Decent Job.”

Blue smiled wide and puffed out his chest as he swelled with pride. You didn’t blame him, that was the closest thing to a compliment you had ever heard Black give someone. Razz, unfortunately, ruined the moment, “What Do You Mean ‘A Decent Job’? He Let The Pet Get Injured On His Watch! That Is A Horrible Job If I Say So Myself!”

You liked to think you had a low temper. It took a lot to get you mad, but being called a pet , like you weren’t an actual fucking person to Razz, it make you narrow your eyes in a second, “I am not a pet , Razz. I am a person. And Blue wasn’t required to be watching me. I offered to help and he and Papyrus were busy at the stove so they couldn’t keep an eye on me.”

Razz scoffed, clearly offended that someone was speaking to him the way you were, “Are You Talking Back To Me?”

“Yes, that is how a conversation works,” you responded snarkily. Blue looked between you two, ready to jump in the way if Razz decided he really didn’t like the way you were talking to him. Black didn’t pay you guys any mind, sipping from his coffee idly. 

Razz’s glare hardened, “Do I Need To Teach You A Lesson?”

“Do I need to get Sans?” You really hoped you didn’t have to. Sans was put through enough shit with the Fell-verse guys already, maybe you could try and cut him a break and help out with controlling their tempers. 

Razz froze up, he knew that Sans was the head of the house and was stronger than any of the others, their magic had been dulled slightly when they were transported here, and also knew that Sans could really put him in his place if he felt the need to. You stared Razz right in the eyelights, doing your best to look stern even though he was at least a head taller than you. Eventually, he huffed and stormed out of the house. Black sighed and threw back the rest of his coffee before standing and muttering, “Early Run It Is.”

Blue turned to you with an apologetic look as Black left the house, “I’m Sorry, Maiden, But It Seems I Won’t Be Able To Stick Around For Breakfast This Morning. No Need To Worry, Though! I Will Be Back Later This Afternoon Once I Am Done With Work!”

You chuckled and smiled up at him, your smile widening when his blush returned for the third time that hour, “Don’t worry about it, Blue. I’m sure I can keep myself entertained until you get back home.”

Blue smiled wide and gave you a wave before running out of the house to catch up with the others. 

Now you just had to figure out what to do for the next eight hours. 

Chapter Text

Your first thought was to do some pottery. It had been so long since you had done real pottery. The sensation of actual, real, physical clay had been one of the few sensations you remembered clearly, and it was the one you missed the most. Unfortunately, when you arrived at your studio in the attic, reality slapped you in the face in the form of bone-dry blocks of clay, containers of separated glaze, and a broken down pottery wheel.

After you found out how to make stable phantom versions of items, you made a phantom version of everything in your studio, plus your kiln. You assumed now, that because the phantom versions were used on a daily basis over the years, they didn’t dry out or break down like the real versions did. You were filled with disappointment as you searched for anything salvageable. The clay could be rehydrated, but there was so much that it would take weeks of non-stop work to reclaim it all. The jars of glaze had settled out so much that when you tried to use a tool to mix them back up, the sediment at the bottom barely moved at all, or they were completely dried out. That alone made you want to cry, you had a little over a hundred or so glazes and they would not be cheap to replace at all. Your pottery wheel didn’t look too bad, it would definitely need a new motor and maybe a new shelf to hold your tools, but the spinning metal disk had minimal damage aside from a bit of rust on the edges. 

You were truly devastated, but tried to look on the brighter side of things. It would take a long time to reclaim all the clay, but you could still use it and wouldn’t have to buy more. The glaze was probably a lost cause, but you could worry about that after you fixed the clay problem. You didn’t remember much about repairing pottery wheels, but you did know that Red was a master at fixing damn near anything. When the fridge broke he found the problem and fixed it in just two hours. The same thing happened with the main TV, hot tub, and the wiring for the lights in several of the bedrooms. You had even seen him working on a new motorcycle of his for the past couple of months, taking it from a beat-up excuse of a motorcycle to a beautifully modded beast. 

The only problem was actually asking him to help you. Similar to many of the other fell-verse guys, Red did not like doing favors for people. Well, you also had to figure out how to get the wheel to the garage, unless Red would come up to the attic to help. In the end, you decided to ask Red first, leaving the pottery wheel in the attic for now. You still decided to take a bag of clay with you, which was surprisingly heavy for being so dried out. There were some empty plastic tubs in the shed in the backyard and you were sure you could use one to rehydrate your clay. 

Lugging the lumpy bag of dried clay down the attic steps was awkward, but you somehow managed without help, and it wasn’t like anyone needed to know about you face-planting on the floor when you missed the last step. You didn’t run into anyone on your way to the garage through the laundry room, but you were happy to see Red in the garage working on his motorcycle. He glanced over to you before turning back to his bike, and then doing a double-take. 

He stared at you for a moment, looking you up and down before looking at the bag in your arms, clearly confused and a little annoyed, “the fuck ‘re ya doin’?”

You set the bag on the floor and looked over at Red, “I was a potter before I died. All my clay is dried out so I’m gonna rehydrate it so I don’t have to buy a bunch of new clay.”

Red inspected you for a moment longer before shaking his head and turning back to his motorcycle, “whateva. jus’ don’t get the dust all ova mah stuff.”

You nodded and straightened up a bit, “Yeah, for sure, but I actually had a question for you-” 

“ask ‘nilla. ‘m busy,” Red replied plainly. 

You took a step forward, reminding yourself to be patient with him, “Actually, I don’t think Sans can help me with this. You see, my-”

“how’d ya know i w’s talkin’ ‘bout ‘im?” Red cut you off, his undivided attention suddenly on you. 

You smiled nervously, making a mental note to be careful with what you say around him given his trust issues and guarded nature, “I was a ghost, remember? I already know your nicknames for the others. You call Sans ‘Vanilla’, Papyrus ‘Creampuff’, Edge ‘Boss’, Blueberry ‘Pipsqueak’-”

“aight! aight! i get it. ya know wha’ i call ‘em. the hell ya want?” Red snapped, turning back to his bike, clearly annoyed. 

You knew asking him for things when he was annoyed was more likely to get you a ‘fuck no’, but saying ‘nevermind’ at this point would just piss him off more, “My pottery wheel is broken and I don’t remember how to fix it since it’s been so long-”

“no,” he stated plainly, then added after a moment, “i don’ know ya’ an’ i assume ya got nothin’ ta give me in return. so, no. i ain’t fixin’ ya stupid wheel.”

You really should have expected that, but didn’t give up just yet, taking another step closer to him, “Then don’t fix it,” he paused and looked at you with a quizzical look, wondering where the hell you were going with this, “Teach me how to fix it and then I’ll do it myself.”

He stared at you silently for a moment before barking out laughter and turning back to his bike, “not a chance, doll. teachin’ ya would be more work than ta fix the damn thin’ mahself. yer on ya own.”

“I’ll buy you a chocolate lava cake from Widow.” 

That made Red freeze in his spot. Widow was the Muffet from his universe, and he adored her chocolate lava cake. He never admitted it to anyone, but you distinctly remember one night this past winter when he came home late, alone, with a black box tied shut with a red velvet ribbon. He was practically giggling as he tip-toed to the kitchen. You, being the curious ghost you were, followed him through the dark house and watched him sit at the dining table and dig into his treat. The first bite he took, he practically moaned and melted into his chair before devouring the entire cake, savoring every bite. 

You smirked, looking down at his crouched form, confident he would agree to help you. Then you were suddenly slammed into his workbench, his hand around your throat. His grip was firm, his claws digging into the side of your vertebrae and you could hear the bandana tearing. He was baring his teeth in a fierce snarl, eyelights practically pinpricks as he caged you underneath him, “how the fuck do you know about that?”

He was using full words. You were so fucked. Your hands shot up to the one around your throat, trying to dig your fingers underneath his hand to remove it, but he only tightened his grip. You flinched, terrified, and stuttered out a frantic explanation, “I-I saw you e-eating one wh-wh…when you got h-home late one night in w-w-w-winter.”

His grip loosened slightly and you took the opportunity to shove your fingers under his hand as much as you could, which wasn’t much. His eyelights scrutinized you for a long while before he spoke again, his voice a bit calmer, “did ya tell anyone?”

Good, he was shortening his words again, he wasn’t as mad now. You tried to shake your head but his hand restricted your movement too much to do so, “N-no! No, I haven’t.”

It wasn’t like you had much chance to bring it up to anyone anyway, you had no reason to do so and you hadn’t even been alive for a full twenty-four hours. Red didn’t say anything for a while, probably trying to detect any form of a lie from you. Eventually, he let you go, shoving you further into the workbench before taking his hand off your throat. He didn’t say a word, just returned to his bike, but the vibe he gave off was very clearly ‘fuck off’ so you did. You retrieved your bag of clay and left through the open garage doors.

Instead of dwelling on the failed interaction between you and Red, you turned your attention to the weather as you walked your way to the shed. It was a nice day out, maybe a bit chilly for your outfit, but a nice day nonetheless. Once you made it to the shed, you set the bag of clay next to the door and entered the shed. Papyrus had fixed it up when he and Sans first moved in and he kept it clean of cobwebs and dust. You had been so scared when he was fixing it up that he’d throw out your kiln, but thankfully he didn’t.

Before you searched for the plastic tubs you came here for, you navigated the maze of tools and bags of soil or mulch to make it to the back right corner of the shed. Your kiln was in a similar state as your pottery wheel, just worse. It wouldn’t turn on, which was expected, and when you looked inside it became clear that the heating elements would need to be replaced as well as a few of the shelves and electrical wiring. You groaned in annoyance and deflated in disappointment. This wasn’t a small kiln and buying it in the first place cost you a good couple thousand dollars, fixing it would probably cost way more than it was worth now. 

Your first thought was to ask Red for advice on how to fix it, if it could even be fixed, but the stinging on your neck reminded you that that probably wasn’t a good idea right now. You reached up to your neck, thinking about what to do, when you felt the holes Red’s claws left in Black’s bandana. You frowned and re-adjusted the bandana to hide the holes. You didn’t want to worry Blue with an injury again. 

You decided to do your own research on how to fix your pottery wheel and kiln later. Finding the plastic bins was easy, you already knew where they were after all, and you dragged two of them outside. Once outside, you closed the shed and moved the block of clay into one of the bins so you could drag it over to the hose connected to the house. Sugar was using the hose to water the flowers he had planted a few days ago and Bear was sitting in the grass nearby. When you got closer, Bear turned to you. 

His eyelight never left you as you approached Sugar, but he never moved to get up either. Once Sugar finally heard you over the noise of the hose, he turned to you and smiled wide. You smiled back and your soul swelled with how cute he looked in his grass-and-dirt-stained overalls. His round glasses were a little crooked on his face and you noticed that the rubber bands on his braces were dark green instead of purple now. He must’ve had an appointment recently. He also had on a blue bucket hat with sunflowers printed all over it to keep the sun off his face.

“Good Morning, Dear!” he greeted you, then tilted his head at the bin you were dragging behind you, “What Are You Doing?”

You stopped and huffed, a little out of breath from your walk, “I used to be a potter before I died and all my clay is dried out. Can I borrow the hose quick so I can rehydrate it?”

“Oh!” Sugar straightened up a bit and happily handed the hose over, “Of Course! What Kind Of Things Did You Make?”

You took the hose from him and began filling the tub, still feeling Bear’s eyelight on you, “All sorts of things. I mainly made dinnerware like plates and bowls and mugs, but I did make shot glasses a few times.”

“Oooo! Do You Think You Could Show Me How To Make A Vase? I’d Love To Have One To Display Flowers On The Dining Table!” Sugar patted the soil around said flowers as he spoke. 

You chuckled nervously as you responded, “I’d love to, Sugar, but unfortunately, most of my equipment is unusable at the moment. The motor in my pottery wheel is dead, most of my glazes look like they’re unsalvageable, and my kiln won’t even turn on. I might be able to fix the pottery wheel on my own, but glaze is expensive and my only two options for my kiln are to replace all the broken parts or buy a brand new one, both of which will cost a couple thousand dollars.”

Sugar frowned at the news, but perked back up after a moment, “Maybe You Could Ask Red To Help You Fix Your Wheel And Kiln! I Know He’s Good With Stuff Like That.”

You grimaced a bit and looked down at the slowly-filling bin, “I already tried to ask him for help with my pottery wheel. It, uh…didn’t go very well.”

“Did He Yell At You?” Sugar’s tone made it seem more like a statement than a question. Red had growled at you more than yelled, but you nodded anyway, opting to not say anything about him trying to strangle you. Sugar sighed as you turned off the hose, “He Needs To Learn To Be Nicer. Yelling At People Isn’t Going To Always Get Him What He Wants.”

You shrugged and passed the hose back to him, “I’m not surprised that he thinks that way. It’s just a natural response for him given the environment he grew up in.”

Sugar tilted his head to the side in question, “How Do You Know About The Place He Came From?”

You shrugged, “He’s a chatty drunk. Only when he’s alone, though. Also, Edge talks about how ‘kill or be killed’ was a legitimate rule where they’re from. I never intentionally listened in, but it wasn’t really hard to put the pieces together after overhearing them so many times.”

Bear’s gaze felt even more intense on your back the more you spoke, but Sugar only nodded and quietly asked, “So, You Only Know Things About Us That We’ve Spoken Out Loud?”

“Not necessarily,” You mumbled out, “I never tried to listen to your conversations. If the topic drifted into something that seemed really personal then I would leave the room entirely or go somewhere I couldn’t hear it, but if it was spoken about casually then I likely know about it.”

Sugar visibly relaxed, you hadn’t even noticed he was tense, and the piercing gaze on your back lessened significantly. After a few moments of awkward silence, you bid farewell to the two in favor of dragging the much heavier bin back to the shed to keep it safe from the elements. 

You neglected to tell the two that you did, in fact, know what their universe was like. 

Chapter Text

You were largely lost on what to do for the rest of the day, at least until Blue got home. Your interactions with anyone but him seemed awkward or dangerous and you were still trying to figure out how everyone was taking the news of you being a ghost that could potentially know their deepest secrets. Red clearly wasn’t taking it well, Blue seemed to be held up on the actual ‘dead’ part of it all, Edge and Razz didn’t seem to see you as an actual person, and Papyrus was at least doing his best to be casual about it. Everyone else you hadn’t gotten a good read on yet. 

You wandered the house for a bit, feeling the walls and wood and other different surfaces, reminding yourself of what they felt like. The next thing you thought to do was play your guitar, but you had a feeling it would be in a similar state to your pottery wheel and kiln, and you didn’t want to deal with the extra disappointment right now. You thought of maybe asking Coffee if you could play some video games with him, but he was always so anxious around new people anyway, so it would probably be better to let him approach you. You went down the list of skeletons that might be in the house, and eventually decided that finding Stretch and seeing what he was up to would be a good use of your time. Maybe you two could theorize how his destructive magic brought you back to life. 

You started at his room, knocking on the door and receiving no answer. You checked the living room but it was empty. However, you could hear some faint chatting just down the hall in the den/bar room Papyrus and Edge renovated into a relaxing gaming and hang-out area last year. You were a bit hesitant to check there for Stretch given how your interactions with others were and you didn’t know who exactly was in the den, but you walked down the hall anyway. 

Peaking through the sliding doorway, you saw all the Swap-verse Papyri in the room, as well as Cash and Stretch’s girlfriends. Everyone was sitting in the beanbags in front of the main TV, all their backs to you. Mutt and Coffee were sitting next to each other playing Mario Kart while Cash and Stretch sat behind them on either side. Stretch had his girlfriend, Bella, in his lap sitting sideways, and Cass was sitting next to Cash in his beanbag. 

You hesitated entering, not really wanting to bother with any of the Fell-verse guys after your interaction with Red, but before you could turn away you heard a honey-sweet voice say, “Oh my gosh! Your outfit is so cute!”

It was Bella, she must have seen you out of the corner of her eye. All eyes were suddenly on you. Well, aside from Mutt and Coffee, who were currently battling it out for first place. Your face flushed a bright peach color at getting caught, but you smiled nervously and took a step forward anyway, “Uh, thank you! I like your outfit, too.”

Bella was, in your opinion, far more attractive than Cass. They were both very attractive! Just Bella was moreso, in your opinion. She had dark skin that resembled a rich dark oak tree. Her eyes were even darker, almost black. Her hair and outfits, on the other hand, were bursting with color. Her hair was nearly jet black at the root and styled in dreads, but she switched hair dye nearly every two weeks. Right now it was a mix of neon green and neon blue. Her current outfit matched it perfectly, a green and blue tye-dye silk scarf was wrapped around her head like a headband and her crop-top matched. Her jeans were dark blue and ripped in many places, splattered with spray paint and customized with fun patches she made herself. 

She thanked you and flashed you a bright smile, showing off her color-coordinated braces. Stretch waved you over, “get over ‘ere, no need ta be a stranger. cash, get ‘er a beanbag.”

Cash scoffed and turned his head from you to Stretch, “Why do I gotta do it?”

“cuz i gotta keep my girl company,” Stretch responded plainly.

Cash put an arm around Cass, who you just noticed was subtly glaring at you, “I gotta keep my girl company, too!” he gestured to Mutt and Coffee, “Get one o’ them to do it!”

“they can’t,” Stretch explained, “they’re still playin’ their game.”

“Well tell them to pause it,” Cash insisted.

“it’s an online game, dumbass. you can’t pause an online game.”

Before the argument could go any further, Bella patted Stretch’s chest, “It’s alright, babe. I’ll get it for her.”

Stretch didn’t protest as Bella got out of his lap and dragged another bean bag over to the others. She placed it between Cash and Stretch’s beanbags, leaving you to sit right in the middle of everyone. Once you sat down, she resumed her place on Stretch’s lap. You felt incredibly awkward despite knowing who everyone was. All you could think about was messing something up.

Bella and Cass weren’t supposed to know about you being a ghost so you couldn’t talk to Stretch like you originally planned. You knew everyone but it felt like too much of a risk to bring up something about them because of what happened with Red. It would be too awkward to leave now after you just sat down, and Stars would Cass stop glaring at you for two seconds!?

“ey, ghostie,” you jumped a bit at the sudden voice and looked in front of you to see Mutt looking at you, “‘at black’s bandana?”

You hummed and looked down at the bandana before looking back at Mutt, suddenly feeling everyone’s eyes on you again, “Oh, uh, y-yeah. He let me use it…for now.”

“Tha’s weird,” you looked over to Cash, who looked quite confused while looking at the bandana, “He never lets anyone touch his things…” 

You shrugged and looked down at your lap, one hand fiddling with the bandana, “Well, he kinda just put it on me and then waved me off. I didn’t really ask if I could wear it or anything…”

You fiddled with the bandana in awkward silence for a bit longer until Cash spoke up again, “Wait a sec, are those holes-”

Panic shot through you at the prospect of someone finding out that Red had injured you, not wanting him to get more angry at you when he was inevitably lectured about it. You stood up and cut Cash off mid-sentence, “Y’know what? I’m actually pretty thirsty. I'm gonna go get a drink. I’ll talk to you all later, yeah?”

You ignored Stretch’s comment about there being cans of soda right in front of the TV, practically running out of the room. You had listened to all the fights and arguments among the skele-bros for well over a year now, and you didn’t feel like being the cause of one in less than 24 hours by telling everyone Red had attacked you. You had learned you lesson and knew that you just had to be a bit more careful with what you said around him, no need to alarm the others. 

You closed your eyes and took deep breaths to calm yourself, fumbling with the bandana to cover the holes as you walked down the corridor. Unfortunately, because you weren’t looking where you were going, you ran right into a wall. A wall with arms and a smooth voice that sent shivers down your spine when it said, “I would advise you to look where you are going when walking. There won’t always be someone to catch you.”

You opened your eyes and took a step back as the arms released you. You looked up to see Wine standing before you, a sly smirk on his face, “W-Wine! What are you doing home? I thought you worked today.”

“I usually do, yes. However, my Queen came into my boutique today and, through some small talk,” he brought one of his arms to your back and began guiding you to the kitchen, “I told her about you. She insisted I return home to ensure you are settling in well,” he removed his arm once you made it to the doorway of the kitchen, “My employees can call me at any time if a problem arises, so I saw no reason to decline,” he filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove before turning to you, “Would you like some tea?”

You didn’t respond at first, a bit dumbfounded at Wine’s words. His universe’s Toriel, Scotch, was known for being a merciless queen. And while it was true that any of the monsters from other universes were placed in special therapy programs to help aid in their transition from their world to this one, you doubted six months could make much of a difference from a lifetime of murder and brutality. Not to mention the fact that Wine was being so kind, from the note about altering your clothes to coming home to make sure you’re alright to offering to make you tea, it all just didn’t add up. A gentle clearing of the throat brought your attention back to Wine, who was looking at you with a patient expresion, “Oh, uh, tea, right. Yes please.”

Wine gave a small chuckle and pulled two mugs down from a cabinet. Something was definitely off, you had never heard Wine chuckle, not even around Coffee. He’d smile and come close to laughing, but he’d never actually do it. You stared at him in pure confusion as he made tea for the both of you. You didn’t even know what kind it was, too busy trying to figure out why he was acting this way towards you. It wasn’t unwelcome by any means, just odd.

Eventually, while mixing in honey and sugar to the mugs, he spoke again, “So, how have you been settling in? I know it has not even been a day, but I hope all has gone well for you so far?”

“U-um,” you hesitated to respond, an image of Red’s barred teeth flashing in your mind, but you remembered Blue, Papyrus, and Sugar’s welcoming nature and nodded, “It’s been…good, I’d say. It hasn’t been long, like you said, but it’s been…fine.”

Wine hummed quietly in acknowledgement as he brought the mugs over and gestured for you to sit at the table. You did and he set your mug in front of you, “Have you gotten acquainted with everyone?”

You took a sip of your mug jolting a bit at the strong peach flavor. Wine’s main eyelight disappeared, the star one in his other socket appearing, locked right onto your face. You cleared your non-existent throat and set your mug down, “I, uh, nothing had flavor when I was a ghost. So that’s-oh my-that’s either really strong or I’m just really not used to things with flavor.”

Realizing there was nothing actually wrong, Wine relaxed, giving you an amusing smirk, “You do not have to drink it if it is too much for you. I will not take offense.”

You smiled at him nervously and pushed the mug away, “Um, thank you. As for your question, uh, I haven’t exactly met everyone yet. Just you, Blue, Black, Sans, Papyrus, Sugar, and uh Red…”

Wine hummed again and took a sip from his mug, his eyelight inspecting you closely. His demeanor had gone from welcoming to scrutinizing in seconds, and it made you shift uncomfortably in your seat. After a moment, he spoke, “I don’t recall any of Black’s bandana’s having holes in them.”

You stiffened, did he think you had done that on purpose? 

“He takes quite good care of what’s his. It would be a shame if he heard that,” Wine leaned in close to the side of your head, his hand resting on the back of your neck, “ someone damaged something of his. Wouldn’t it?”

Chapter Text

“Red did it,” the words fell from your mouth before you barely had a chance to think about them. 

Wine froze for a moment before leaning away from you, his hand only hovering over the back of your neck instead of resting on it, “Pardon?”

You stuttered for a moment before the words finally formed, “Um, I thought that you thought that I had made the holes on purpose…”

Wine’s sockets narrowed at you in what appeared to be mostly suspicion and some concern, “Yes. That is what I had thought. What do you mean ‘Red did it’?”

“U-um-I-” you wracked your brain for an answer. You knew that if you told Wine the truth then he would surely confront Red, but if you lied Wine wouldn’t leave you alone until you told the truth anyway. You were cornered, but your mouth would not cooperate with your metaphorical brain.

“Darling. What do you mean by ‘Red did it’.” Wine’s voice was slightly more stern this time, and it sounded more like a command than a question. 

“U-um…” you really had no choice but to tell the truth, but for some reason, the words just wouldn’t leave your mouth. 

Then, without warning, Wine’s deft hand undid the knot of the bandana at the back of your neck and he snatched the fabric away. Your hands shot up to cover your neck, but his other hand was quick to grab your wrists. Your SOUL beat like a war drum in your ribcage and you wouldn’t be surprised if Wine could feel it with how close he was inspecting your neck. 

“He strangled you.” Stars, hearing it come out of someones mouth made you realize just how fucked up the situation was. 

Wine’s sockets went entirely empty for entirely too long. It was only after you tentatively mumbled his name that his eyelight returned. He pulled in a breath before smiling at you. You assumed it was meant to be comforting, but it looked almost sadistic, “I am alright, Darling,” he abruptly stood, releasing your hands and pocketing the bandana before you could take it back, “I will see you at dinner.”

You turned to the oven to check the time, realizing quickly that you had missed lunch, and by the time you looked back at Wine, he was gone. You groaned and let your head fall onto the table. So much for not starting any fights. As you thought about the inevitable disaster that was going to be dinner, your hand wandered up to your neck and you hissed in pain at the claw marks. You sat up and looked at your hand, grimacing at the thick, peach-colored magic on your fingertips. 

You stood and made your way to the laundry room to find the first aid kit and bandage your wounds, something you should have done much sooner. You did have to climb on top of the dreyer to reach the shelf the first aid kit was on, curse these tall skeletons, but you managed to get it down without further injury. You thought back to when Blue bandaged your hand and used that to try and bandage your neck. 

You think this is the right bottle, or was it this one? They both look so similar…

“MaidenAreYouOkay!?” You screamed and threw both bottles in the air as the door was slammed open by Blue, you had completely forgotten he’d be home by now. 

For the second time in ten minutes, your SOUL began to thrum rapidly, this time from panic. Blue squeaked and quickly began apologizing for scaring you, trying to explain that he had seen Wine in the hallway and asked where you were and Wine just said you might need medical attention so he panicked and started searching the house and when he saw you in the laundry room he just wanted to make sure you were alright and-oh no. You were having a panic attack now. 

The moment he realized that the shock from him scaring you had turned into pure panic, he immediately stopped trying to explain himself and instead tried to comfort you, kneeling in front of you and speaking softly. 

 After you had started to panic, you had dropped to the floor and curled into a ball and began sobbing. You didn’t know why, you were perfectly fine thirty seconds ago. Maybe it was just because you hadn’t been alive in so long that everything was so overwhelming. That thought started a horrible chain reaction of noticing every tiny little sensory around you. You could feel every thread of the dress, the sting of your wounds, the grinding of your bones, the cold tile underneath you. You could hear the AC running, the water flowing through the pipes, the sloshing in the bottles you threw. You could taste the overpowering flavor of the peach tea Wine made you, even the sugar and honey that he had stirred in. You screwed your eye sockets shut so you didn’t have to see anything but that only seemed to make everything else worse. You heaved for breath through your hot tears even though you knew, logically, that you didn’t need to breathe as a skeleton. You tried to focus on something, anything else, but everything was too much or too little. Your face was too hot but your legs were too cold. Something slammed in the distance and you curled into yourself further. What was wrong with you? You never had a panic attack before, why now? What were those thumping sounds? And why are there so many of them? You need to stop acting like this, this is childish, Blue didn’t mean to scare you, you’re just overreacting. Wait, where was Blue? Did he leave? Why did he leave? Why is the thumping getting closer? What the fuck is going on!?

Suddenly, there was a light pressure over either side of your head and the excess noise was gone. That helped, a lot more than you thought it would, actually. You could still taste the peach and the tiles were still too cold, but you didn’t have to hear all the annoying background noise. It gave you just enough reprieve to try and calm your breathing. You felt a pressure on your shoulder, but it wasn’t soft and plush like the ones on your head and you flinched away from it. The pressure immediately left and you relaxed just a bit more. 

Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then something was slowly being placed over your back. It was big and soft and heavy and surprisingly calming. It immediately started to warm you up and you finally moved, reaching out a shaky hand to grasp the edge of it and pull it in closer. You focused on the feeling of it, trying to distinguish what it was without opening your eyes. The inside was really soft and a little fuzzy, like a throw blanket, and the outside was smooth like cotton. Long wisps of it tickled your face and you wracked your brain for an answer as to what it was. Then it clicked, it was a jacket. Someone had given you their jacket because you were cold. 

You snuggled further into the fur hood of the jacket and did your best to slow your breathing. You didn’t need to breathe, but it helped to have something simple to focus on to help yourself calm down. It was quiet for a while again until something was gently tapped against your teeth. Without thinking, you opened your mouth and a liquid was poured in. Water. Someone was giving you water. It was cold, but a different kind of cold from the tiles. This cold cooled down your face and helped you relax more. 

After you took a few sips, the glass was taken away and you sighed into the jacket, finally calm enough to wonder whose it was. Everyone was probably home by now, but only half of everyone always wore a jacket. Coffee, Stretch, and Cash’s jackets didn’t have fur, and you doubted Red would be so nice as to let you use his, so that left Sans, Bear, and Mutt. 

You didn't have much more time to think about it because there was a gentle pressure on your shoulder again. You didn’t try to move away this time, recognizing the pressure as a hand over the jacket. Then something was pressed into your hand in your lap. You felt it for a moment before recognizing it as a bottle. Why would they give you a bottle? Then it was taken away and replaced with a cotton pad. That’s when you realized that whoever was helping you was trying to tell you that they were going to clean and bandage the wounds on your neck. 

You nodded and slowly uncurled from your fetal position, just enough for the Mystery Skeleton to easily reach your neck and clean your wounds. You flinched in pain a few times and the panic kept trying to sneak its way back into your mind, but you focused on the feeling of the jacket and that helped to keep you grounded. Once the bandages were on, the Mystery Skeleton wrapped their arms around you and lifted you just a bit. 

Realizing they were probably gonna take you somewhere more private or at least a better place to regain your lost energy, you wrapped your arms around their neck. They supported your back with one arm and wiggled the other one under your rear so they could easily lift you. You tensed at first, not used to being carried in any capacity, but relaxed once you realized that there was no way whoever was holding you was going to let you fall. Their grip was strong but not painful by any means.

You felt secure and comfy in their hold, letting your head rest against their sternum. They walked you through the house and you quickly realized just how much energy that panic attack had taken out of you. Your limbs felt heavy and you kept dozing off, but whoever was carrying you wouldn’t let you fall asleep completely, jostling you gently every time they noticed you doze off. You kept your eye sockets securely shut, too worried that if you opened them you might go into another panic.

Eventually, you were slowly lowered onto a bed and the Mystery Skeleton began letting you go. You whined softly and grabbed onto their arm. They paused for a moment and patted the top of your head, trying to reassure you. Hesitantly, you let go of them. They didn’t return for a good couple of minutes, and you started to worry they had left until you felt them tugging on the strap of your dress. 

You tilted your head in confusion and they tugged on the strap again. You brought a hand up to the strap, thinking something was wrong with it, only to not find anything wrong. You frowned, not understanding, and the Mystery Skeleton grabbed your hand, guiding it to the front of your dress, around your waist. You felt the fabric and immediately grimaced at the cold, thick liquid coating the front of your dress. They guided your hand up to your face and you sniffed, shoving your face into the jacket when the strong scent of detergent invaded your nasal cavity. You must’ve knocked over a jug of detergent during your panic attack.

Finally realizing the Mystery Skeleton had been tugging on your dress to get you to take it off because you can’t sleep in a detergent-soaked dress, you tentatively slid off the jacket and began untying the back of the dress. You were so low on energy that the implications of undressing in front of one of the skeletons didn’t even cross your mind. Luckily, the moment the dress was off, the Mystery Skeleton was already trying to get you into a different article of clothing. 

Once it was on, you noticed it as one of the guy’s turtlenecks. It was pretty much another dress on you, the sleeves were too long and the Mystery skeleton was currently folding them up so they wouldn't cover your hands, and the neck part felt a bit more like a scarf looped around your neck. The only skeletons you knew wore turtlenecks on a regular basis were Edge, Red, Coffee, Mutt, and Bear. 

You didn’t bother trying to figure out whose it was like you had with the jacket, far too tired to do so by now. Instead, you let the Mystery Skeleton help you get settled into bed, making the borrowed jacket more like a blanket than a jacket. When they started to back away, you panicked just a bit and reached out for their hand. They paused for a moment before patting the top of your head again. 

You slowly let go and after a few minutes, they returned to your side, getting into the bed with you and pulling you to their chest. You snuggled right up to them and relaxed, letting them wrap their arms around you. Feeling safe and comfy, you finally drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

You don’t think you’ll ever get used to waking up. 

It was an uncomfortable experience before you died, one you didn’t experience while a ghost, and still uncomfortable after being brought back from the dead. Your joints protested your movements, but the drool between your chin and the pillow was less than appreciated, so you sat up anyway. There was a soft thud and the sound of video game music met your would-be ears. You grumbled and rubbed your eye sockets before finally cracking them open to see what had fallen onto the bed.

It was a pair of over-the-ear headphones. A few of the skeletons had a pair, but the Terraria and other 8-bit video game icon stickers told you that they were Coffee’s. You stared at them perplexed for a moment before you remembered your panic attack and the sudden absence of noise during it. You owe Coffee the biggest thank you when you see him again, you knew he hated parting with his noise-canceling headphones for even an hour, let alone an entire night.

Wiping the drool from your chin, you turned to the source of the music to see a TV on top of a dresser against the wall parallel to the bed. You weren’t super familiar with video games, but Mutt played this one religiously. Skyrim, you think it’s called? There were various socks and boxers sticking out from the drawers, organization seemed to be a foreign concept to the dresser. A few shirts and an empty wine cooler or two were scattered across the floor and there was a trash-nado in the corner, but the room wasn’t too messy.

Something brushed the back of your sweater and you yelped, turning quickly to see Mutt holding up the hand he had touched you with, his eyes were barely open, “e’sy, e’sy. jus’ m’, Ghos’ie.”

Once you saw it was just Mutt, you relaxed, but you could barely understand him with how much he was slurring his speech, “Uh…what?”

Mutt’s tired expression broke into a lazy smile. He didn’t respond, only waved at you to come closer. You usually never layed back down after waking up, knowing full well that you probably wouldn’t get up for several more hours, but after the train wreck that was yesterday, you felt like a long day in bed was exactly what you needed. So, you indulged both Mutt and yourself and laid back down. You tried to lay back down in the same spot you previously had been in, but Mutt had other plans. Before you could lay down, he wrapped his arms around you and practically pulled you on top of him. The only part of you not on him was your legs, leaving you chest-to-chest with him. 

That’s when you noticed that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. You had only seen a few of the guys shirtless, those being Blue, Papyrus, Edge, and Razz. That was only because of the pool parties they had during the summer. The others either wouldn’t join or would wear swim shirts instead of just shorts. Seeing them shirtless never really made you flush or anything, if anything you had just found it a bit odd considering you had never seen a shirtless sentient skeleton. However, being this close to one of them, and actually being able to touch them, it made you curious.

You just looked at first, your eyelights trailing over the curve of Mutt’s ribs, eventually drawn to the chips and gouges left behind from stars-knows-what. Some of the scars looked years old, other’s looked only a few months old, concerning considering next month marks one year since Mutt and Razz arrived in this universe. At some point, your hand began to wander. It traced Mutt’s lowest rib, following it up to his sternum, then down the next rib, and back up the next one. 

You didn’t notice how Mutt’s hands on your back had tightened their grip until your fingertips dipped into a deeper scar. Mutt hissed and one of his hands shot up to grab your wrist. You stiffened in turn and pulled your fingers away, suddenly hyper-aware of Mutt’s very focused deep breaths, “h’w ‘bou ya sti'k ta jus’ seein’, ya?”

You nodded and he let your wrist go. You slowly lowered your hand to rest on his ribs while his returned to your back. Your initial thought was that you had hurt him, but the longer you thought about it, the more you connected the dots. He got tense when you first started rubbing his ribs and his breaths were deep but he was refraining from moving his chest much, probably so he wouldn’t disturb you. Then you really thought about it and the realization hit you hard .

You weren’t just admiring his ribs.

You were feeling him up.

At that horrific realization, you shot up into a sitting position and immediately began apologizing profusely. Mutt had a half-amused smirk on his face and half-lidded sockets. However, those were both beautifully highlighted and greatly overshadowed by the literal glowing blush over his cheekbones and nasal aperture. The burnt orange flush casted a beautiful glow over his face, reflecting off his two golden teeth to dance over the walls of his dimly-lit room. You probably would have appreciated it more if you weren’t panicking about violating his boundaries. 

When Mutt’s words fell on deaf ears, he brought a hand up to your jaw and clicked it shut to get you to stop talking. It worked, but now you were staring at him like a deer in headlights. His flustered smile grew a bit before he finally spoke, “’s alri’. don’ gotta ‘pologize, Ghos’ie.”

You stared at him for a moment longer before nodding in understanding and he let your jaw go, his hand settling on your hip through the turtleneck. Slowly, you laid back down on him, extra careful of his ribs. You had just started thinking about the fact that Mutt decided to call you Ghostie of all things, when suddenly his door was slammed open, “MUTT! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU LAZY IMBECILE THAT BREAKFAST IS AT-”

Razz’s words cut off abruptly as you and Mutt shot up to see who the intruder was. Well, more like Mutt had shot up and brought you up with him, his arms around you holding you tight until he saw that it was just his brother, “ah, hey bro. i w’s g’nna c’m d’n in a min’.”

Razz didn’t respond at first, his eyelights scraping over your forms slowly before looking back at Mutt and saying his name slowly, a low growl showing itself in the back of his throat at the end. Mutt stiffened and looked around a bit, trying to piece together what he had done to piss off his brother this time. When he didn’t find anything wrong in the rest of his room, he turned to you and himself on his bed. He looked between you two for a moment before his face fell in realization and his head shot up to his brother, “nah! wait! ‘s not wha’ it looks li-ah!”

Razz, however, was not hearing it. He stomped right over to the bed and grabbed Mutt by his collar and practically dragged him out of the bed. You were frantically trying to piece together what had made Razz so mad. You were just sitting in Mutt’s bed and talking with him, what’s there to be mad about? You tried reaching out to Razz to stop him and try and explain, but the sleeve of Mutt’s sweater got caught under your knee and made you face-plant into the bed. 

You started rolling up the sleeves to free your hands, and then it hit you. You were in bed with Mutt. You were wearing the turtleneck he had on yesterday. He was in nothing but a pair of boxers and his collar. 

Razz thought Mutt had sex with you right after you had a panic attack.

You scrambled to the end of the bed to call out Mutt’s door that it was a misunderstanding, but the slam of Razz’s door across the landing indicated that it was too late. You groaned and flopped down face-first onto the mattress. Maybe you could just lay here all day and avoid the world until Mutt came back to cuddle. 

Unfortunately, a soft knocking at the door had other plans, “Are You Alright?”

Begrudgingly, you peeled your face off of the mattress to look at Black, who was standing in the doorway with an uncharacteristically concerned look, “Yeah, I’m fine. And before you ask or speculate, no. Mutt and I did not have sex. I got detergent all over your dress during my panic attack and he helped me change, but nothing happened.”

Black visibly relaxed and walked toward you, “I Take It That Is Why Razz Is Throwing Another Tantrum?”

You snorted a laugh, about to respond when Black ran his hand down your spine. Immediately, your entire body relaxed, you hadn’t even realized you were tense, and you hummed in contentment. Black continued to rub up and down your spine for a bit before tapping the side of your jaw to make sure you were still awake. You groaned in slight annoyance, you were actually about to fall back asleep, and Black smirked ever so slightly, “The Others Are Waiting Downstairs. Blue Has Been Worried Sick Since Last Night.”

Of course he would be, the poor guy probably thought the entire thing was all his fault. With a disappointed sigh, you relented and stood, “I uh, don’t know what Mutt did with your dress…”

“Don’t Worry About It, Dear,” he pressed his hand lightly against your back to guide you downstairs, “I Bought That Dress For The Bet And Have Not Touched It Since. You May Have It If You Like It.”

“Really?” you questioned with a hopeful look, and Black nodded back, “Oh, thank you! That’s the only thing in this house that fits me…I should probably get some of my own clothes soo-”

“Maiden!” You looked up, a little startled, to see Blue nearly running toward you. The moment he saw your startled expression, he came to a halt and looked scared for a moment before he timidly said, “Are You Alright?”

You smiled sadly at him, he looked like a kicked puppy, and pulled him into a hug, “It wasn’t your fault, Blue. You just scared me and then I started overthinking and panicked.”

You could feel the tense breath of air Blue let out against your neck before his arms wrapped around you, squeezing you firmly. Blue held you for a movement before finally pulling away and taking a deep breath, “How Do You Feel?”

For the first time since you woke up, you thought about how you felt. You knew how you felt emotionally, but physically you felt…empty? That didn’t make much sense to you, so you just said, “Emotionally? I think my brai-...mind is still catching up to waking up, let alone evaluating how I feel after last night.”

You and Blue shared a short laugh before he nervously asked, “And, Physically?”

You thought for a moment about the question again. Your hand and neck still hurt, but that was a given considering the wounds on them were only a day old, but other than that all you could think was ‘empty’, “I’ll uh…get back to you on that one, yeah?”

Blue nodded, “Of Course! Take All The Time You Need,” he held his hand out to you, “Some Of Us Are Watching A Baking Competition Show In The Living Room Before Breakfast. Wanna Join Us?”

Right, it was the weekend and most of the skele-bros had the mornings off so they’d have breakfast together. You smiled and gladly took his hand. You didn’t have the chance to respond before he was practically dragging you into the living room with his signature smile on his face. Sans was sitting in the middle of the couch and greeted you with a lazy wave and a ‘hey’. Bear was sitting to his right and simply stared at you while Blue plopped down onto a bean bag and pulled you into his lap. One of the other beanbags was taken up by Sugar, who had a little notebook and pencil and was jotting down a few of the desserts and ingredients the contestants in the show were making and using.

Sans asked how you were feeling after your panic attack and you filled him in with the same answers you had given Blue. He looked a little worried about what you said regarding how you felt physically, but said nothing about it.

You didn’t pay much attention to the show playing at the moment, more focused on trying to identify the ‘empty’ feeling. It felt somewhat familiar, but you don’t remember ever feeling it as a ghost, so it had to be from when you were alive. You thought long and hard about what it could be, but 22 years was a long time and every physical feeling you thought of didn’t fit. Then the smell of the cinnamon rolls whoever was making in the kitchen made you realize what it was.

"...Hungry! That's what I am! I'm hungry!" you felt Blue jump a bit at your sudden exclamation, but he quickly relaxed when he registered what you said.

Behind you, you heard Sans ask you, "how did ya not realize ya were hungry?"

Papyrus called from the kitchen that breakfast was ready and everyone began to stand. You rubbed the back of your neck, a little embarrassed you couldn’t recognise a basic human feeling, "I never had to eat as a ghost. I haven't felt hunger since I died, kinda forgot what it felt like."

You were sure you weren’t meant to hear it, but as you passed by Bear, he mumbled out a quiet, “...lucky..”

You froze for just a moment, immediately feeling terrible for what you had said. You didn’t know a whole lot about Bear and Sugar’s universe, but you had heard them talking about a horrible famine in the past, and it was easily reflected in their eating habits. You hadn’t meant to say something that could be taken as rude by them. You never had to be conscious of what you said around the skele-bros when you were a ghost, but it seems that every interaction you have with them reminds you that they can, in fact, hear what you’re saying now. 

Blue insisted you sit beside him at the table and Black sat at your other side. Papyrus happily passed the plates out and you were looking forward to your cinnamon roll until you remembered what had happened with the peach tea. You quickly became nervous, cinnamon rolls would surely have a much stronger taste than tea. Then a plate of plain pancakes was placed in front of you. Confused, you looked around to see if anyone else got pancakes, no one did, and made eye-contact with Wine, who gave you a sly smirk. Papyrus sat across from you with a similar, knowing look on his face, and you smiled fondly in turn. Wine had told Papyrus about your little tea incident so Papyrus could make something you could hopefully eat without issue. 

Nervously, you cut off a piece with your fork and tried it. They were plain buttermilk pancakes, but they were perfect for you. Since there was barely any bit of flavor, it wasn’t too overwhelming for you. Your smile grew and you gave Papyrus a thumbs up and he swelled with pride. 

You ate quietly for a few more minutes, the table oddly quiet aside from some chatter between two brothers here or there, and you noticed Edge, Red, Mutt, and Razz weren’t there. Your mind was quickly drawn away from it when Papyrus asked you, “FRIEND, IF IT IS ALRIGHT WITH YOU, MAY I ASK WHAT CAUSED YOUR PANIC ATTACK LAST NIGHT? IF IT IS ANYTHING THAT CAN BE PREVENTED I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW SO I CAN DO MY BEST TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN!”

You smiled at how caring he was and shrugged, “You don’t need to worry about that Papyrus. It was a couple things that happened through the day and Blue scared me without meaning to and it must’ve been the last straw for my mind or something. I’m just not used to so much stimuli and color and noise and whatnot. I’ll have to get used to it eventually. I don’t really have a choice not to get used to it since, y’know, I’m alive.”

Suddenly, any other outside force was shoved away from your attention. Your hand froze from cutting the slice from your pancake stack, your eyes wide in realization. You had been so focused on the actual death part of this whole thing that hearing the words ‘I’m alive’ seemed to flip a switch in your brain. 

You’re alive.

You died. 

You were dead for twenty-two years. 

You were brought back to life.

You’re alive. 

Your thoughts began to race like wildfire as you began to notice everything you missed while a ghost. Sounds were clearer, not like you were hearing them over an echoing ravine. Items felt solid, not like a distant memory. Colors were more vibrant, there wasn’t a grey hue over everything. That made you wonder; what does it look like outside? Was the grass still as green as you remember? What about the sky? Would you actually be able to see the stars and moon at night instead of just hazy blobs of light? 

Those questions only led into more about the world around you. Was that little bookshop you loved to go to still open? What about that drive-up diner? The roller rink? Was Mrs.Matty still the town crazy cat lady? How was her daughter doing? Did they still live in the trailer park with Mr. Jenkins? Was he still chasing the teen kids off his lawn with a broom? Would you be able to visit any of those places? What new places had opened? Which ones had closed? Which ones had you missed entirely? The questions ran on and on with seemingly no end and it all seemed so overwhelming, but at the same time you were so excited. You clung to that excitement to push away the fear of the unknown that you felt.

After all, how much could your little town change in just twenty-two years?

Chapter Text

The soft call of your name brought you back to reality and you looked beside you to see Blue’s concerned face. You don’t know if he asked a question, all you could respond with was, “I’m alive.”

Blue looked shocked for a moment, not expecting your answer, but then a small smile grew on his face, “Yeah. Yeah, You Are.”

You looked back down at your plate, still in a bit of disbelief, “Yeah, but, like…I’m alive .”

“Uh, what’s going on with them? They alright?” Cash glanced around the table for an answer.

Wine was happy to provide one with a sly smirk, “I believe the reality of our Darling’s situation has finally hit them.”

As your brain slowly processed your new reality, you looked around and began to notice all the things you hadn’t yesterday. Colors were brighter, more saturated, you had been so used to the greyed-out hues that you had almost entirely forgotten what the real colors looked like. You  also noticed all the subtle scratches and claw marks in the walls from the countless physical fights the skele-bros had gotten into, you must've never noticed them because of the odd white haze that covered everything when you were a ghost. Eventually your gaze trailed back around the room to Blue, who was smiling brightly, clearly excited for you and doing a poor job of hiding it. 

Once again, you said to him, just above a whisper, “I’m alive.”

His smile, somehow, grew even more and he nodded softly, “Yes. You’re Alive.”

You don’t know why, but the only thing you could think to respond with was, “I need clothes.” 

Blue chuckled and, once your words caught up to you, you nervously chuckled as well, “Don’t Worry, Maiden! We Can Go Into The City After Breakfast And Go On A Shopping Spree Together!”

A smile began to grow on your face, “Really? Wait, but I don’t have any money.”

“No Need To Worry About That, Maiden!” Blue puffed out his chest and smiled down at you, “I Can Cover Everything For You!”

Your sockets went wide in surprise and you sat straighter, “Wha-Blue, no! I can’t let you do that.”

“THEN BLUE AND I CAN SPLIT THE PRICE! I CAN EVEN GO WITH TO MAKE SURE THE OUTFITS YOU PICK OUT ARE PERFECT FOR ALL THE FRIENDSHIP OUTINGS WE GO ON!” Papyrus beamed at you from across the table.

“Papyrus, I can’t let you do that either-”

“I Wouldn’t Recommend Arguing With Them. You Will Only Waste Your Time,” Black set his empty glass down and stood, “I Will Join You Three As Well. I’m Sure You Are Curious About How Much The World Has Changed And I Want To Make Sure You Have Clothes Suitable For Your…’Adventures’.”

“OH! WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA, BLACK!” Papyrus shot up out of his chair, “I SHALL GO GET READY!”

“And I’ll Find You A New Outfit!” Blue looked down at your half-eaten stack of pancakes before adding on, “After You Finish Eating.”

You smiled at him in thanks and dove back into your pancakes, a bit slower this time as you continued to process your new life. Papyrus bounded off up the stairs, Black following behind him at a much slower pace. You finished your food fairly quickly and Wine immediately offered to lend you an outfit, positive he had something that would fit you perfectly. You  happily agreed and the outfit ended up being another dress. 

This one was a pastel blue color with a halter top that crossed over your collarbone. The skirt fell to your knees and had a slit on the right that ended around the middle of your femur. It was flowy and felt perfect to spin around in. There were beaded koi fish designs along the bottom of the dress and when you spun it looked like they were swimming in waves. Finally, there was a dark blue belt around your waist that tied everything together. You wore the same mary jane shoes and white socks Black had let you have.

Once you were dressed, Blue practically dragged you downstairs in his excitement. Black was already waiting by the door and when you and Blue stopped in front of him, he simply looked Blue up and down and gave him a look that said ‘Are You Really Wearing That?’ You and Blue looked at his outfit and you had to hold back a laugh while his face flushed blue in embarrassment. 

He was still in his Napstaton pajamas.

He quickly declared that he will be right back before bolting it up the stairs and to his room. It was quiet for a moment while you watched him leave before Black brought your attention to him, “You Look Wonderful, Dear.”

You turned to face him and smiled, “Oh, thank you! Wine’s letting me wear it for the day.”

Black hummed quietly before his eyelights darted to your neck, “How Is Your Neck?”

“O-oh, um…” Wine Must have told him about what happened. You brought a hand up to your neck to idly feel the scratches through the bandage, “It’s alright…doesn’t really hurt unless I touch it,” it was quiet for a few beats, “I’m sorry about your bandana.”

Black scoffed, “Do Not Worry About That Old Thing. I Am Far More Concerned Regarding Your Injury. The Holes Are Red’s Fault. Not Yours.”

You Knit your browbones together in confusion, “Um, why are you being so nice to me? I-I mean, it’s not unwelcome or anything! It’s very much welcome, but it’s just… You and Wine have been really nice to me this whole time but when I was a ghost you both seemed so…”

“Mean?” Black offered. You nodded, you hadn’t wanted to say for worry of coming off as rude. Black sighed, “I Cannot Speak For Wine, But I Will Admit That The Main Reason I Am Civil With You Is Because Of Your Reaction To My Brother’s Girlfriend.”

At your confused and curious look, Black continued, “Cass Is Not As Kind As She Appears, And You Noticed That Right Away. Cash Told Me About The Interaction Between You And Cass, Particularly What You Said About Cass. And I Have To Agree That She Is, In Fact, A Prick. You Are the First In This House To Notice That And Say Something Aside From Me. Naturally, I Respect You For That.”

You blinked at him in surprise for a moment, “Oh. Well, the only reason I didn’t like her at first is because she immediately accused me of trying to ‘steal her man’ or whatever. Even when I was a ghost she always seemed so nice so when she was suddenly so rude, I guess it just caught me off guard.”

Black hummed quietly, “Well, Regardless, I Am Glad There Is Someone Else In This House Who Is Aware Of Her True Nature. At Least Part Of It.”

You gave him a slightly confused look, “What do you mean by ‘part of it’?”

Black opened his mouth to respond before glancing behind you and leaning in to whisper, “I Will Explain Later,” he stood straight once more and directed his attention behind you.

When you turned around, you saw Papyrus walking towards you with his signature bright smile on his face. He was wearing his black bodysuit that he wore under pretty much everything, a MTT branded crop top, and a pair of light blue jean shorts that were frayed at the hem. You had seen him wear this outfit before, it was by far one of his favorites. 

“HELLO, FRIEND! THAT DRESS LOOKS WONDERFUL ON YOU!” he greeted you with all the enthusiasm she would greet anyone with. 

You smiled and did a little spin to show off the beaded koi fish, “Thank you! Wine is letting me use it for the day.”

“OH! REALLY? THAT IS VERY…KIND OF HIM,” his statement sounded a bit like a question, and it only solidified your confusion around Wine being so kind to you.

You didn’t have long to dwell on it though because just seconds later, Blue came racing down the stairs to join you three at the door. He stopped beside Black and smiled at you, and you had to hold back a chuckle at how similar their outfits looked. You knew they were essentially two versions of the same person, but you thought it was cute how, despite the differences in their universes, they seemed almost like the same person when it came to what they liked and how they dressed.

They both had on a muscle tank top, Blue’s was NTT branded while Black’s was simply a dark purple color, and slightly baggy pants with black combat boots, though Black’s boots looked a bit more expensive. They both also had on their signature bandanas, and Black had studded leather cuffs around his wrists while Blue had a myriad of friendship bracelets you were sure he would teach you how to make at some point. 

“So, Maiden,” Blue began as Black opened the door for you, “What Are You Most Excited To See?”

You hummed in thought for a moment, squinting a bit in the bright daylight, “Um…Oh! Probably how much my old town has changed! I’m Pretty sure we’ll have to drive past it on the way to the city. At least, I noticed the way you guys always leave is the same direction my town is in.”

Blue knit his browbones together in confusion as you four approached Papyrus’ car, “I Don’t Remember Ever Passing A Town On The Way To Ebbot City…”

“That’s odd. I know it’s a small town but it’s not exactly easy to miss. The main road you guys always take to get to the city runs right through it,” you explained as you all got into the car, Papyrus in the driver's seat, you in shotgun, Blue behind you, and Black behind Papyrus. 

“What Is The Town Called?” Black asked as everyone began buckling up. 

“Willow Wood,” you didn’t notice Papyrus freeze beside you or the confused looks from Blue and Black, “It’s an adorable little town about an hour from here. I was born and raised there, so were all my siblings. There’s a lake on the very edge of town that we’d go swimming in every summer. There was this lady, Mrs.Matty, her daughter owned the only pet store in a forty-mile radius and she’d always let us hold the exotic animals she got in on occasion. Like snakes or lizards. I can’t remember her name for some reason though…”

When there was no answer, you turned to Papyrus, whose hand was frozen on the key in the ignition while he gave you a look of…pity? You smiled awkwardly, “Uh, Papyrus? Everything alright?”

“I…” he took a deep breath before responding, “DEAR FRIEND, I AM SORRY, BUT…WILLOW WOOD WAS ABANDONED WHEN MONSTERS CAME TO THE SURFACE. BECAUSE IT WAS SO CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAIN AND VACANT…IT WAS GIFTED TO MONSTERS FOR THEM TO BUILD THEIR OWN SETTLEMENT.”

You completely deflated. All excitement of passing through your old town and getting new clothes left you in one fell swoop, “So, what you’re saying is…” you weren’t sure you could say it yourself.

So Papyrus said it for you, “WILLOW WOOD IS NOW…EBBOT CITY.” You looked down at your lap, grief filling you, “I AM SO SORRY FRIEND.”

When you didn’t respond, Blue leaned around your seat to try and heighten your spirits, “Don’t Worry, Maiden! We Can Still Make The Best Of Today! Right?”

It didn’t work.

You shrugged and mumbled out, “Yeah…maybe.”

A minute later, the engine roared to life and you were on your way to the city. The entire way you had to hold back tears and the tightening feeling in your SOUL. The whole time you were dead, you constantly wondered how much your little town had changed. Had it grown? Shrunk? Were the potholes fixed? Did the art festival still happen every year? Was the tradition of electing a dog or cat as mayor still going? 

And yet all your wondering never mattered because your quaint little town was no more, and hadn’t been for years. Your tears nearly fell when you began to pass by houses and apartments and eventually you reached the downtown shops. You tried to put on a smile for Blue and Papyrus’ sake, but the more skyscrapers and shops and roads you saw, the more you thought about how Willow Wood was comprised of small one-or-two-story homes and shops, how it was surrounded by farmland and how walking could get you pretty much anywhere. You saw crowds upon crowds of people and thought about how everyone in Willow Wood knew everyone else. There was no familial feeling in the city. It all almost felt…chemical. 

No matter how many shops the skeletons brought you to to try on clothes, no matter how many outfits or shoes or jewelry you liked and got, not even the ice cream or pastries they got you, which both tasted bland despite being seemingly packed with flavor, could bring a smile to your face for more than a few seconds. 

At some point in the chaos, you got separated from the skele-bros and panicked a bit. You didn’t have a phone or coins to use a payphone and you were far too anxious to ask someone to use theirs. You couldn’t remember how to get back to the car and it nearly sent you into another panic attack, but then you felt an odd tugging feeling in your chest, like it was SOUL trying to tell you where to go. Without giving it much thought, you followed it through the winding maze of streets and sidewalks, assuming it would lead you back to Papyrus’ car or one of the other skele-bros. 

Instead, it led you to a park. It was a large park with a massive playground filled with children, human and monster alike. There was plenty of open field where other children played various games or people playing fetch with their dogs. Your SOUL didn’t lead you to any of those areas, though. It led you to a secluded little pond bordered by a walking path and and a few benches at the base of a small hill. There were lily pads floating on the surface and ducks swam about, ducking their heads under the water every once in a while. The tugging stopped and was replaced with a sense of familiarity that you couldn’t find the source of.

Then something across the lake caught your eye. 

It was a downed tree, halfway in the water with the roots standing tall above the ground. The dirt beneath it was covered in grass, indicating it had been there for years. The closer you got to it, the more familiar it seemed. Once you stopped right in front of it, it finally clicked for you. You’d hide behind this log and pop out to scare your siblings when you were kids. How it remained right where it was this whole time, you had no clue. 

Upon finally seeing something so unchanged from your life before, you broke, but not in some large burst of tears. You lowered yourself to sit under a thick branch that reached up to the sky at an angle, just like you did as a kid. You pulled your knees up to your face and wrapped your arms around yourself before burying your face in them and letting the tears fall.

Chapter Text

Drip…drop…drip…dro-pink!

You weren’t sure if your eyes were open or not. You could hear what you thought were drops of water falling, but everything was black. The ground felt wet beneath your feet-wait. Where did your shores go? You could feel your head looking from side to side, but everywhere you looked it was pure black. You had no depth perception, no light to see where you were, but you could still hear the water drops. 

Tentatively, with seemingly no other choice, you took a step toward where you thought the noise was coming from. The closer you got, the more noise you began to hear. Running water, light rain, and an ever so faint chiming sound. Like a music box. At some point, you spotted a faint rectangle of dim light in the distance. Your pace quickened until you were standing before it.

A wall of vines with little, blue, glowing flowers. 

Well, you probably wouldn’t consider it a wall, more like a doorway. You could walk around it, the vines seemingly hovering in mid-air, but when you put your hand through, it didn’t come out the other side. So it wasn’t just a doorway. It was a door. 

With a deep breath, you spit the vines down the middle with your hands and stepped through. It was still relatively dark, but this time there was a faint blue glow over everything. There was grass beneath your feet now, pale blue and black grass. The blue glowed the same color as the many huge flowers around you, they came up to your waist at least, and some looked taller than a sunflower. Rivers of glowing blue water cut through the grassy land and there was a beautiful waterfall to your right that seemed to be the main source of light for the area. 

Then there was the house. 

It was two stories tall, but nowhere near as big as your house. You could faintly hear a myriad of voices coming from it and yellow light poured from the windows on the bottom floor through the flowers growing at the base of the house and the vines hanging down from the roof. You hadn’t even realized you were walking towards the house until you were at the window, your view almost entirely blocked by the flowers and vines. 

A new noise sounded faintly from behind you, but you ignored it. 

You reached one arm out to the flowers and pushed them aside. 

The noise sounded again, a bit louder this time. 

You reached your other hand out to move the vines aside. 

There was the noise again, louder.

You slipped your hand between the vines.

There it was once more. 

You began to push the vines to the side.

The ground fell out from beneath you.

You awoke with a jolt, breathing fast and SOUL thrumming loud in your ribcage. You looked around frantically to find that you were still underneath the tree, the grass was green, sky was blue, everything was normal. Realizing that you just had a weird ass dream that felt a bit too real for your liking, you relaxed and leaned back against the tree. You closed your eyes and let the sounds around you calm you down. The chirping of birds, wind rushing over the grass, rustling of bunnies running through bushes, the heavy breathing down the back of your neck.

Wait. 

Your eyes snapped open and you practically launched yourself away from the tree, skidding across the grass and probably staining Wine’s dress. When you looked up to see who was just breathing down the back of your neck, you breathed a sigh of relief, “By the stars, Bear. You scared the shit out of me.”

Bear only hummed quietly in response. You closed your eyes and pressed your hands to your sternum to steady your racing SOUL. It was in vain, as a  moment later Bear was picking you up without warning. You tried explaining that you could stand just fine on your own, but he wasn’t listening, holding you closer when you tried to get out of his hold. Eventually, you accepted your fate and let him carry you across the park. It hadn’t even occurred to you to question why he was at the park all of sudden until you saw his brother talking to another monster in the park with a worried look on his face. Then when you looked around you began to notice the three other skeletons you had previously come here with also talking to people. Papyrus and Blue looked a little frantic and worried, while Black was calm yet equally worried. 

Suddenly, you began feeling incredibly guilty for causing them so much distress. They probably called Sugar and Bear to help look for you. Once Sugar spotted you in Bear’s arms, he visibly relaxed and thanked the monster for their time before meeting you halfway, “Oh, Thank Goodness Bear Found You! How Are You Feeling? Are You Alright? What Happened?”

You didn’t get a chance to answer because Papyrus suddenly spotted you and ran over, calling Blue and Black over at the same time. Sugar wasn’t having it though. He stepped between you and the others, holding his arms out so they couldn't get to you. Bear even took a step back and held you closer for good measure. 

The others were very clearly confused and Black looked like he was about to argue, but Sugar wasn’t going to give him the chance, “What Were You Three Thinking!? Taking Them To A Massive, Busy City Only Two Days After They Spent Twenty-Two Years In An Empty Manor With No Outside Contact? Papyrus, I Know You Know Better! I Know You All Know Better! They’re Barely Used To Being Around Us, What On Earth Made You Think They’d Be Comfortable In A Massive Crowd Of People?”

No one said anything for a minute, then Blue finally responded, “You’re Right, Sugar. We Should Have Waited For Them To Be Used To Us Before Taking Them Out. I’m Sorry.”

A moment later, Papyrus began his apology, “I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE AS WELL. IT WAS VERY IRRESPONSIBLE OF ME TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THEM HOME ONCE I NOTICED THEY WERE GETTING OVERWHELMED.”

Sugar looked to Black for his apology, but he was stubborn as always, “I Believe I Owe An Apology To Them. Not You.”

Sugar sighed and shook his head, “I Suppose That Is The Best I Will Get Out Of You Right Now. I Think It Is Time We All Head Home.”

“GOOD IDEA!” Papyrus turned on his heel to leave, “TO THE CAR, FRIEND!”

“Absolutely Not!” Papyrus stopped and turned back around to face Sugar,” They Have Already Had An Incredibly Overwhelming Day And Between A Sports Car WIth No Roof And A Truck With A Roof, I’m Sure You Can Tell Which Would Be Far Less Sensory-Inducing. I Will Take Them Home And You Can Meet Us There.”

“I Thought You Said You Were Going To Soriel’s House,” Black inquired.

“Yes, I Am. But It Is Just To Drop Off Some Sweets I Made For Her. It Will Be Quick,” Sugar explained, “Now, I Will Be Leaving, And I Will See You All At Home.”

You didn’t say anything while Bear carried you to Sugar’s truck, who mumbled about how irresponsible the others were. Bear sat in the back, still refusing to let go of you, and Sugar settled into the driver's seat, “Are You Alright, Sweetheart?

“U-um…yeah. I think so. Just a bit, um, frazzled.” You could see Sugar frown through the rearview mirror, but he didn’t say anything. 

Most of the drive was fairly quiet, but about a third of the way through, the truck stopped at a quaint little one-story house in a suburban neighborhood. Sugar grabbed a glass dish from the passenger seat and got out, walking up to the front door of the house. He knocked and an old-looking goat monster answered before inviting him inside with a smile and a wave of her hand. He entered and the door shut behind him. 

It felt a bit awkward after that. You were still in Bear’s arms, and for some reason you couldn’t stop thinking about what happened just before breakfast. With the way Bear was holding you, you couldn’t move much, so you didn’t know if he was awake, but you tried talking to him anyway, “Hey, Bear?”

You received an affirmative grunt in response. Taking that as a sign that he was listening, you continued, “Um, about this morning…I’m sorry for saying what I did. I don’t know a lot about you and Sugar but I know you both went through a famine and I wasn’t thinking about that this morning when Sans asked me how I was feeling and I-”

“it’s…okay.”

You were a bit shocked at that. Bear didn’t speak much and his whole demeanor always gave off a ‘touch me and I bite you’ vibe, so hearing him say that he essentially doesn’t care about what you said, it felt like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders. 

You didn’t know how to respond, until he added a moment later, “i’ll…help you remember….to eat, i mean.” 

You smiled and responded, “I’ll help you remember to…um…well, I don’t really know. You don’t really forget to eat and Sugar is pretty good with reminding you to do everything else, but I’m sure we’ll find something I can help you with.”

You could feel Bear nod, and a moment later you could hear him purring. You didn’t know skeletons could do that. It was oddly comforting, like a huge cat. The thought made you smile and curl closer into his jacket. In return, his arms tightened around you just enough for you to notice. 

— — — 

The next time you woke up, you were in your bed and someone was knocking at your door. You groggily sat up and called out, “Come in!”

The last thing you were expecting when the door opened, was to see Wine dragging Red in by his collar, and Red subsequently yelling profanities at Wine like he was a toddler with a jar full of sprinkles and a tray of freshly-iced cupcakes. Wine practically threw him to the floor in front of you and after a bit more colorful choice of words from Red, he grumbled something you couldn’t hear before turning to you.

That’s when you noticed the gnarly bruises peeking out from under his collar and one particularly bad one over his jaw, you were sure you could see a faint crack in that one, too. Once he straightened himself as much as he was willing to, he grumbled out, “rotten grape juice ‘ere says i gotta ‘pologize fer…” a light kick to his ankle from Wine made Red snap another swear at him before continuing, “fer stranglin’ ya. so…”he hunched his shoulders and did all he could to hide his face in the fur of his jacket, “i guess ‘m sorry.”

“Red. That is not a proper apolo-”

“It’s fine, Wine,” you stopped him before another fight could start, “I’m sure that’s the best he’s gonna give, anyway.”

Red teleported away before you even had a chance to finish your sentence, but you halfway expected it so it didn’t exactly surprise you. Wine, however, was clearly in annoyance at Red’s rude attitude and ‘sorry excuse of an apology’ as he put it. After his short rant about Red’s behavior, he sighed once more and brought his attention to you, “I sincerely apologize for him. It seems he is far too stubborn to ever provide a proper apology.”

You nodded in understanding, “Yeah, I know.”

Wine gave you a bit of an odd look before shaking his head, “Right, of course you would know that. I’m afraid we are all struggling with accepting the fact that you used to be a ghost. Particularly the part where you know things about us that not even our own brothers are aware of…”

“Well, I don’t know that much about all of you. Just the ones that have been here the longest. Like, you and Coffee have been here only six months so I don’t know a lot about you guys. Sugar and Bear have been here almost eight months I think, so I don’t know much about them, either. I do know a lot about Sans, Papyrus, Red, and Blue though.”

“What about Edge and Stretch? Wine inquired.

“Well, Stretch is quiet and pretty reserved, and while he talks with Mutt, Coffee, Cash, and Bella a lot, he doesn’t really talk much about himself. Edge, on the other hand, talks about himself all the time, but it’s all the same stuff that pretty much anyone who knows him would know. How ‘GREAT AND TERRIBLE’ he is and how much he likes designing and making ‘death traps’, I didn’t even know he liked to cook until Blue told me he was a chef!”

Wine hummed in thought for a moment before shaking his head and turning back to you, “I should be going now. Coffee lost his headphones and I promised I would help him look for them after I dealt with Red. Blueberry will be up in a bit to change your bandages and bring you down for lunch.”

Just as Wine was about to leave, you stopped him, “Wine! Uh, Coffee’s headphones are in Mutt’s room. Coffee gave them to me during my panic attack and I forgot to give them back, my bad.”

Wine smiled ever so slightly, “You do not need to apologize, Darling. Thank you for letting me know where they are.”

“Yeah, yeah. Um, can you tell Coffee I said thank you for letting me borrow them?”

“Of course, Darling. Now get some rest. You need it.”

Chapter Text

Pale blue and black grass. The blue glowed the same color as the many huge flowers around you, they came up to your waist at least, and some looked taller than a sunflower. Rivers of glowing blue water cut through the grassy land and there was a beautiful waterfall to your right that seemed to be the main source of light for the area. Then there was the-

“kid,” Sans said with just a bit of annoyance.

You shook your head and looked up at him from across the table, “Uh, yeah?”

Sans gave you a bit of an odd look before setting down his pen and asking, “you doin’ okay?”

You sighed and stared down at the papers in front of him. After Blue re-bandaged your neck and hand and took you downstairs for lunch, Sans asked you to stay at the table. After everyone else left, he explained that Wine and Black told him what happened between you and Red, as much as they knew at least. Because Red physically injured you, you had to fill out an incident report that will be sent to his king, human authorities, and his therapist. Since you had never filled one out before, Sans was filling it out while you told him exactly what happened.

Well, you were supposed to be telling him what happened. Unfortunately, you can’t seem to stop zoning out, your odd dream constantly coming back to you. You pulled in a breath and looked back at Sans, “I’m fine. Just had a really weird dream while I was asleep in the park.”

“hm, wanna talk about it?” Sans raised a browbone in question. You, Blue, Black, and Papyrus explained to the others why Papyrus called Sugar and Bear in a panic about losing you. Those who cared about the whole thing, which excluded Edge, Red, Razz, and surprisingly Stretch, agreed that it would be best if you avoided going into the city again any time soon. You agreed wholeheartedly. 

You debated for a moment telling Sans about your dream, but you were still a bit tired from your eventful day and all the boring paperwork you had to have Sans read to you wasn’t helping, “Nah, not right now. I’d rather get this incident report all filled out and get back to bed.”

Sans nodded and turned back to the papers, picking his pen back up, “alright, jus makin’ sure you’re alright.”

“Thanks,” you mumbled, “I appreciate it.”

Sans either didn’t hear you, or chose to ignore you, beginning to read off another section of the incident report. A while later, you were finally putting down your signature to finish off the report, which took much longer than intended since you barely remembered how to hold a pencil. Sans had to pretty much coach you through it and you felt like crying several times, but soon enough, you were done.

Before you stood up fully, Sans spoke again, “before you go, there’s one more thing i wanna talk about.”

You settled back into your chair and nodded at him, “Alright. What is it?”

“you’re considered dead by the government, right?” 

You blinked at him for a moment, never having even thought of that, “Uh, shit, yeah, I guess I am.”

Sans nodded and continued, “we’re gonna have ta get you new papers and documents at some point then.”

“How’s that gonna work? I mean, there’s never really been a situation where someone dies and is then resurrected twenty-two years later,” you questioned.

“i’m not sure yet. as far as i know about the human government, we’re probably gonna have’ta go to court to prove you’re alive,” he explained. You nodded and slumped in your chair, dreading more paperwork, “but we can worry about that later. you go get some more rest if you need it. i’m sure bear will get you for dinner.”

You smiled and thanked Sans, standing to leave the kitchen before he could change his mind. You didn’t even make it halfway out before Edge was suddenly blocking your way. He was in his battle body, something you hadn’t seen him in since about six months after he arrived. Startled, you took a step back while he glared down at you. 

After several moments of tense silence, Edge finally spoke, “PEST.”

“I’m not a-”

“WINE INFORMED ME OF THE INCIDENT BETWEEN YOU AND MY BROTHER. CONSIDERING INCIDENT REPORTS ONLY NEED TO BE FILLED OUT IF PHYSICAL HARM IS DONE, I HAVE DECIDED TO TAKE IT UPON MYSELF TO TRAIN YOU SO THAT IF YOU DECIDE TO PROVOKE MY BROTHER AGAIN-”

“Wasn’t trying to provoke him the first time.”

“-THE CHANCE OF YOU RETAINING ANY INJURIES IS SIGNIFICANTLY LESS.”

You were left fairly confused about his proposition that was sounding more like a demand the more you thought about it, “How is me knowing how to fight going to change anything?”

“THE MORE INCIDENT REPORTS FILED BECAUSE OF MY IDIOT OF A BROTHER, THE LONGER HE IS REQUIRED TO BE IN THAT STUPID REHABILITATION PROGRAM-”

“Aren’t you in that, too-”

“STOP INTERRUPTING ME!” After you didn’t respond for a moment, he continued, “THE SOONER HE CAN GET OUT OF THAT STUPID PROGRAM, THE BETTER FOR THE BOTH OF US. THEN WE CAN FINALLY MOVE OUT OF THIS HELLSCAPE OF A HOUSE AND INTO OUR OWN PLACE.”

“I didn’t think you were required to live he-”

“I WILL BE IN THE BACKYARD. I EXPECT YOU OUT THERE AND READY TO TRAIN IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES.”

Before you had a chance to respond, Edge marched off and out the back door. You turned around to see Sans looking at you with a slightly concerned look, “i’m surprised he didn’t try ta attack you with how much you interrupted him.”

You chuckled nervously and nodded in agreement, “Yeah…um, are they actually required to be living in the house until they finish the program?”

“ah, yeah. it’s kinda like a halfway house, but for monsters from the other univ-” Sans cut himself off abruptly with a panicked look before quickly gathering the report papers and instead saying, “you should probably go, edge doesn’t like waiting. we’ll talk later,” before teleporting away. 

You were confused by his actions for a moment before remembering that he didn’t know you knew about the alternate universes and who all the others really were. You sighed, deciding to deal with that later knowing that what Sans said about Edge and waiting was true. You looked down at your dress and shook your head. Wine already gave you a mini-lecture at lunch about getting grass stains on it, you weren’t about to fight Edge with it on. 

You ran up to your room and smiled fondly when you opened your closet. It was clear that Black had organized all your new clothes. Everything was grouped together in their own sections; t-shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, etc. Each section was also organized by color. Luckily, that made it easy to find a suitable pair of shorts and a graphic t-shirt you wouldn’t mind getting dirty. You didn’t know what ‘Rick and Morty’ was exactly, but Papyrus said it was a cartoon Mutt and Coffee like watching together.

By the time you made it outside, Edge was standing about 15 feet away from the back porch of the house, stretching. As you approached him, you noticed Papyrus and Blue working on something near the greenhouse. You could see Sugar and Bear inside the greenhouse, tending to the plants. 

Once you made it to Edge, he looked you up and down in silence before guiding, more like demanding, you to copy his stretches, chiding you for not being as flexible as him no matter how many times you reminded him you had been dead for over two decades. After a surprisingly long period of stretching, Edge finally decided to begin the actual training, “SUMMON YOUR FIRST ATTACK.”

“Alright,” you nodded and straightened your back, “How do I do that?”

Edge scowled at you, “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO SUMMON AN ATTACK?”

“I barely know how to function, let alone use magic,” you responded with a bit more sass than was probably necessary.

Edge’s scowl strengthened, “IF YOU CANNOT SUMMON A SIMPLE ATTACK, THEN SUMMON SOMETHING ELSE.”

You deadpanned for a moment before responding, “Edge, I just told you I don’t know how to use magic.”

 Edge’s purposeful scowl finally fell away to his resting scowl, “FINE THEN. I SUPPOSE I WILL TEACH YOU THE NATURAL WAY.”

You gave him a confused look, not understanding what he meant by ‘the natural way’. Then he shot his hand into the air and you barely had enough time to jump out of the way of the bone spikes shooting up out of the ground. Unfortunately, because your balance was still all out-of-whack, you fell right on your back. You sat up quickly to shout at him, “What the fuck was that fo-!”

Another set of spikes cut your complaint short and you scrambled out of the way. You knew Red and Edge’s universe was violent, but was this really the most productive way to teach someone how to use magic? Or was this just how the guard trained Edge to fight? Either one was equally possible, but you didn’t have the chance to really think about it with how many attacks Edge was throwing your way. You only managed to dodge a few more before a set of four pinned you to the ground. None of them even scraped your bones, holding you down purely through your brand-new clothes. The fell brothers really had a knack for putting holes in new clothes, huh?

A moment later, the bone spikes were dismissed and Edge demanded you get up and start again. You only listened because you were sure that if you didn’t he would pick you up himself and make you do it again. The second time you failed to dodge his attacks, he told (demanded) you to summon magic, anything, to deflect his attacks, not just doge. So on your third go around, you tried summoning something to block or deflect his attacks, but with how many he was using you had barely any time to try and summon anything. On your fourth try he lessened the frequency of his attacks, but you still struggled. Through your fifth and sixth attempts he grew frustrated with you. After your seventh attempt you were pretty pissed yourself with how little he was actually teaching you. You were sure you were gonna be covered in bruises and small scrapes from how many times he had pinned you to the grass. 

Finally, after your eighth attempt, he stopped…to yell at you, “THIS IS A SIMPLE TASK! HOW ARE MESSING IT UP THIS BADLY?!”

After being yelled at over and over again for the better half of two hours, you snapped right back at him without thinking, “Easy for you, Edge! I was human before I died, I never had magic like you guys!"

Luckily, Papyrus suddenly stepped in before Edge could yell at you again, “EDGE, I THINK IT IS ABOUT TIME YOU LET OUR DEAR FRIEND HAVE A BREAK, YES?”

Edge paused for a second before scoffing, rolling his eyes. He knew that arguing with Papyrus was pointless since he was Sans’ brother. One wrong move and his therapist would know and, in his mind, the less he had to talk to her, the better. As he walked past Papyrus, he purposely shoulder-checked him. Papyrus, used to Edge’s bad attitude after almost two years of dealing with him, simply sighed before turning his attention to you.

You were still sitting on the ground, trying to catch your breath. Papyrus held a hand out to you, “PLEASE TELL ME YOU AGREED TO ALL THAT.”

You sighed and took his hand, letting him help you up, “I agreed to training, not whatever the hell all that was. But it’s fine. He didn’t hurt me directly or anything. I’ll just have bruises from getting slammed in the ground…or falling on the ground.”

Papyrus grumbled disapprovingly and insistently gave you a quick once-over just to make sure nothing was sprained or too badly damaged. Once he was satisfied, he let you go, “KNOWING EDGE, HE WON’T STOP THESE ‘TRAINING SESSIONS’ UNTIL HE IS SATISFIED.”

“But he isn’t even teaching me anything,” you groaned.

“I KNOW. BUT UNLIKE HIM, I ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO TEACH SOMEONE TO USE MAGIC.” Papyrus stood proud at his words.

“Really?” You didn’t remember ever hearing him say anything about teaching someone else how to use magic.

“YES! I USED TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP THE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS TEACH MONSTER CHILDREN HOW TO USE THEIR MAGICAL ABILITIES. I HAD TO STOP WHEN I JOINED THE ROYAL GUARD BECAUSE IT TOOK TOO MUCH OF MY TIME, BUT I AM GETTING BACK INTO IT AFTER THE SUMMER BREAK IS OVER THIS YEAR!”

“Aww, that’s awesome! So, you’re saying you're gonna teach me how to use magic?” your SOUL hummed in your ribcage from excitement. You had seen the skele-bros use magic many times before and you were amazed more often than not. Being able to use it yourself would be like a dream come true. 

“ABSOLUTELY! JUST…” his voice lowered a bit, “DON’T TELL EDGE. IF HE FINDS OUT I AM TRAINING YOU BECAUSE HE CANNOT, HE MAY GET MAD AND I DO NOT WANT HIM LASHING OUT ON YOU.”

You smiled up at Papyrus and nodded, “You got it, Teach!”

A faint orange glow settled over his cheekbones and he smiled back a bit shyly, “YOU SHOULD GO REST BEFORE DINNER.”

You nodded and turned to leave before stopping and turning back to Papyrus, “What about Edge? He thinks we’re just taking a break.”

Papyrus smiled back at you and waved off your question, “I WILL HANDLE EDGE. YOU GO REST. YOU DESERVE IT.”

Knowing Edge wasn’t going to come drag you out of bed the moment you lay down, you smiled at Papyrus and turned to head inside.

Chapter Text

When you flopped face-first onto your bed to take your second nap of the day, you never expected to have a rerun of your earlier dream. Except this time, instead of the faint noises in the background growing louder, the ground was shaking beneath you, gradually getting rougher until the ground beneath your feet cracked in two and you fell. 

You shot up from the bed, barely making it halfway into a seated position before your forehead collided with someone’s jaw. You let out a yelp of surprise and rubbed your forehead, sitting up fully before cracking your eye sockets open to see who woke you. Standing beside your bed, Bear just behind him with a concerned look, was Sugar. Immediately, you dove into a frantic apology, most of your words too fumbled from how flustered you were.

It ended up taking Sugar putting his hand over your mouth to get you to shut up, “There Is No Need To Apologize, Sweetheart. I Am Quite Alright. Are You? You Were Mumbling In Your Sleep And Looked Quite…Disturbed.”

You gently pushed Sugar’s hand away from your mouth and sighed, “Yeah, I’m alright. Was just having a weird dream where the ground was shaking and fell out from under me just before I woke up. Just scared me is all.”

Sugar visibly relaxed at your explanation, “Oh, I’m Glad You’re Alright. You Had Bear And I Quite Scared For A Moment There.”

You immediately felt guilty for worrying them and launched into another apology, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

But Sugar wasn’t having that again, “Ah Ah Ah, No Need To Apologize. Now, I Assume You Are Hungry After Your ‘Training’ With Edge Earlier, Yes?” you simply smiled and nodded, and in turn Sugar’s smile grew, “Wonderful. Dinner is all set downstairs. Would you like me to walk you down?”

“Um, if you don’t mind?” Sugar smiled and held his hand out to you. You gladly took it and let him lead you downstairs, Bear just behind you two. 

The table was already nearly full, the only people missing were you, Bear, Sugar, and Red. Papyrus was passing out plates piled with spaghetti. Sugar led you to a chair between him and Bear. A moment later, a plate of plain buttered pasta was set in front of you. Papyrus made a comment about how he was worried you weren’t yet prepared for his ‘GREAT AND PUZZLINGLY FLAVORFUL SPAGHETTI SAUCE!’ and opted to leave it out of your dish. 

Dinner felt…odd. After years of hearing argument after argument, it felt weird to eat in almost full silence. The only thing that seemed semi-normal was Razz glaring daggers at someone. Usually that was at Mutt for being high at the table again, but this time it was aimed at you. He never said anything, but it unsettled you just enough to not want to finish your food. You ate most of it and had to promise Sugar and Bear at least three times that you did, in fact, have enough to eat. 

You dismissed yourself and retreated to your room, nearly bursting into laughter when you heard about 3 arguments start the second your door closed. It warmed your SOUL a bit though, the fact that they were keeping their arguments at bay when you were around. You assumed they still hadn’t fully grasped the concept that you heard them and saw them as a ghost long before they knew you even existed. 

You weren’t quite tired enough to sleep yet, so you opted to take a shower and change into some more comfy clothes. You got a little scared by the water again, but got used to it quickly. Finding the right temperature took a little trial and error, but you managed to get it right eventualy. It still felt weird cleaning between your bones and whatnot, so much more surface area and foreign feelings, but you were squeaky clean soon enough. 

Just as you were changing, there was a knock on your bedroom door. You quickly pulled on the baggy shorts and t-shirt you had pulled from your closet and practically ran to the door, the skeleton on the other side still knocking.

“I’m coming! I’m coming, geez,” when you opened the door, you were a bit surprised to see Mutt. He was leaning against the wall and, despite your door now being open and him looking right at you, he continued to knock lazily. You looked between him and his hand a few times before he paused for a moment. You rose a browbone and asked, “You done?”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then he quickly knocked three times and pushed himself off the wall, “yah,” you both chuckled before be continued, “w’nna join us ‘n th’ g‘rage fer band pra’tice?”

“Oh, uh, you sure you want me to join?” you knew they often argued over lyrics and instrumentals. 

“Coffee’s th’ one who as’ed,” Mutt replied plainly.

You blinked at him for a minute, processing his words a good few times to make sure you heard him fright, “Wait, Coffee wants me to join you guys? Why?” Mutt only shrugged, feeding your confusion, “But I thought Coffee wasn’t comfortable around new people? You guys have only known me for, what, two days?”

Mutt shrugged again, “i don’ know. i thought i’ w’s odd, too.”

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to join you guys for a bit. As long as you don’t mind me being in my pajamas,” you chuckled nervously.

Mutt smirked down at you and slung his arm over your shoulders, “‘course not.”

Mutt led you down the stairs and out to the garage where the others were waiting. Stretch was tuning his guitar, Coffee was changing the settings on his keyboard, and Cash was being annoying with his drums by lightly tapping the symbols over and over, not bothering to stop no matter how much Cass or Stretch complained. You hadn’t expected Cass and Bella to be there, but it wasn’t a bad surprise. Once Bella saw you she quickly pulled over one of the rolling stools the skele-bros kept in the garage, urging you to sit while Mutt started tuning his bass guitar, completely ignoring Cash saying his name over and over.

You took the seat Bella offered you, doing your best to ignore Cass’s glare, and turned back to the band. When you eventually looked over to Coffee, he glanced over to you for a split second before quickly looking away, but a small smile graced his face.

A few minutes later, they finally started practicing. You had heard most of their songs already, but they were so much clearer now. They weren’t as muffled and, while the first few were wonderful, the longer they played the more you hated the noise. You just weren’t used to it and after so long you were starting to get a headache. Mutt seemed to notice how your smiles and excitement wore down into winces and frowns. He called for a break and argued with Stretch for a moment who thought it was too early for a break. Mutt won though, and offered to get drinks for everyone. Stretch looked a little skeptical, which made sense since usually Bella or Cash got the drinks, but everyone told him what they wanted and he promptly dragged you along with him to the kitchen.

When you questioned him he simply responded with, “ya good?”

“Huh?” it was then you noticed he looked concerned.

“ya were lookin’ happy n’ now ya look li’e ya in pain,” Mutt’s worry was clear in his voice.

You sighed and rubbed your temple, a useless attempt at relieving your headache, “I’m fine. It’s just your music is loud and I’m not used to that much noise for that long.”

Mutt relaxed, but for a moment he looked almost guilty, “‘f ya don’ wanna stay ya don’ gotta. ya cn’ go back ta bed ‘f ya wan’.”

You shook your head, “I’m not tired enough yet to go back to sleep. But, I don’t think I wanna stick around and listen to more music and potentially make my headache worse. I’m probably gonna go see if anyone else is free to hang out.”

Mutt smiled down at you, but you could tell he was a little disappointed you weren’t going to stay for the rest of practice, “tha’s cool. ya go chill out. Blue migh’ be able ta help wi’ ya headache.”

You smiled and nodded, “Good to know. Thanks, Mutt.”

“no prob. n’w go. take care’a yerself or whateva’,” he playfully shooed you out of the kitchen while you giggled. 

You wandered the halls of your home for a bit, looking for Blue to see if he could help you get rid of your dull headache, but you ended up getting distracted by a faint, soft noise. You followed it through the many halls, wondering to yourself why you decided to design your home to be so big back when you had it built. Eventually, you stopped at the door to a room near the back of the house. By now you had identified the noise as a violin, which was odd because, as far as you knew, none of the skele-bros played violin. Mutt, Cash, Stretch, and Coffee were the only skeletons you were aware played an instrument. Sans had his trombone, but he only ever played the same three notes to mess with Papyrus after playing a prank on him, you didn’t know if he actually knew how to play it, though. 

You slowly, as quietly as you could, cracked the door open and peaked inside. You were surprised to see, of all people, Wine. Standing in the middle of the room, eye sockets closed, playing the violin like a master. It was far quieter and slower than the music the swap-verse Papyri were playing. Before you knew it, you had unconsciously walked in , standing just a few feet from the door to listen and watch. Wine looked so peaceful as he played, face relaxed with the faintest upturn of a content smile. Slowly, the song came to an end. It was silent for a few seconds while you waited for him to play the next song. 

“I don’t normally play for free, Darling.”

You jumped a bit and squeaked in surprise when he spoke and turned to you. You thought you had been quiet enough to not be heard, but apparently Wine had the senses of a deity or something, “I-I’m sorry. I was trying to find Blue to see if he could help me with my headache but I heard you playing and I followed the noise and it was just really pretty so I wanted to listen. I’m sorry if I disturbed you, I can leave-”

“Don’t.”

You froze mid-step towards the door and turned back to Wine. He smiled faintly and waved you toward him. You hesitated for a moment, but listened. Once you were in front of him, he held the violin and bow toward you, “Would you like to try playing?”

“O-oh, um, well I don’t know how to play so I don’t really think I should-”

“Nonsense, darling. I’ll show you.” And show you he did. Wine instructed you on how to hold the violin and how to brace it against your shoulder with your chin. He manually placed your fingers on the strings and around the bow to make sure you had the correct grip. Once he was done, he told you to draw the bow across the strings, so you did.

And you both promptly winced at the absolutely atrocious sound the violin produced. 

“Ah, shit. I knew I shouldn’t have tried. Here-” you began to hold the violin out to Wine but he pushed it back to you.

“You will not give up after just one try. You simply need a bit more guidance.” Wine walked around you a few times, inspecting your posture and grip on the violin before stopping at your back. You weren’t sure what you expected, but him running one of his knuckles up the length of your spine was not it. You squeaked and tensed up, the beginnings of a raging blush blooming on your cheekbones. Wine’s knuckle stopped between your shoulder blades and he leaned in until his face was right next to the left side of your head.

“Straighten your back, Darling,” he whispered to you. In your flustered state, it took you a few seconds to register what he said, but once you did you quickly straightened your posture. Then a moment later you nearly lost your perfect posture as Wine pressed his body to your back. You could feel your face tingle with the amount of magic flushing your cheekbones and nasal ridge. Wine’s arms came up to support yours, his fingers guiding yours to adjust your grip. Faintly, you heard him saying something, but you were far too focused on keeping your back straight to register any of it. Then he moved your hand with the bow across the strings of the violin, and the right note came out this time. 

He continued to say something about how much pressure to use when playing as he guided your hands through the rest of the song. You could see the peach-colored glow of your blush illuminating your hands and the violin. When the song finally finished you expected him to let you go, but he didn’t. He took the violin and the bow into his hands and held them in front of you.

He didn’t say anything, so you opted to break the silence with a question that had been nipping at your SOUL for days, “Hey Wine?”

“Yes, Darling?”

“Why are you so nice to me?”

When you received no response for several seconds, you panicked a bit, “I mean, it’s not unwanted or anything, it’s just when I was a ghost… You and Black always seemed so rude but you’ve both been so kind to be and Black told me why he’s being nice but no one seems to know why you’re being nice and I can’t think of why you would possibly be so nice to m-”

Wine brought one of his hands up under your jaw to close it, “I thought you already knew. In retrospect, I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t. You have been through a lot the past few days, it would be absurd to think you would already know the reason. My apologies.”

Wine lowered his hand and let you go. You turned around and faced him, “It’s alright, but what is the reason?”

Wine was quiet for a moment, looking at you with an odd fondness you had only ever seen him look at Coffee with, “Coffee…he has night terrors nearly every night. They got especially bad after we… moved here,” you nodded, remembering the first few nights after they arrived where you’d hear Coffee having a panic attack in the middle of the night. Wine slept with him for the first two weeks after they arrived so he could help Coffee immediately. Once Wine moved back to his room, he barely slept so that if Coffee woke up with a panic attack, Wine could get to him quickly. 

Wine’s smile grew ever so slightly, “I would help calm him down from them. After a few months, though, he didn’t need me near as much as he used to. So I asked him about it, and he told me that someone else was helping him. A spirit that would sing him back to sleep.”

You blinked at Wine in shock. You had done that. You noticed how tired Wine always was from staying up to make sure Coffee would be alright, so you tried helping by singing Coffee back to sleep. You never expected it to work, but for some reason, it did. You had a closer tie to the living world during the late night and early morning hours, Coffee’s nightmares always came around three a.m.. The witching hour.

“Yeah, I…I did do that,” you confirmed Wine’s implied suspicions. 

“My brother and I assumed that was the case once he had a nightmare the night you were brought back to life and there was no spirit to sing him back to sleep. He said your voice was similar as well.” a pang of guilt struck you at that, but Wine continued, “You had no obligation to help my brother. You got nothing from it, not one thing, but you did it anyway out of the goodness of your SOUL. What you did benefited Coffee and myself, and I feel the need to thank you for that. We both like you quite a bit, you know.”

You smiled up at him, “I like you both, too. You’ve been super nice to me since I got here and I don’t know Coffee that well yet, but I’m sure we’ll be good friends-”

A soft chuckle from Wine made you stop your rambling short, “Oh, my Darling. That is not the kind of ‘like’ I am referring to.”

You tilted your head in confusion and Wine simply chuckled fondly. Then he pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead. You were so caught off-guard that you could only stand there in shock as Wine walked away, taking the violin with him.

Chapter Text

After you snapped out of your shock at Wine’s confession, you ran out of the room to find him. Unfortunately, he seemed to have vanished out of thin air, which was especially odd because you knew he couldn’t teleport. You scoured the entire house and knocked on his door for a while before eventually giving up and going to bed. 

The next morning, shockingly enough, no one woke you up. You took the opportunity to lounge around in bed for a while and think about everything that’s happened to you in the past few days. You never thought you’d get to experience life again, but here you were, a living and breathing being. You almost wanted to laugh at the irony of how it started, too. Your physical body was going to be destroyed but instead you jumped in the way and got shot back into it.

…would you have died again if you didn’t jump in the way?

The question bounced around in your head for a while and you thought long and hard about it, but it only sprung on more unanswerable questions. Was your skeleton the only thing holding you to this earth? What would’ve happened to you if you didn’t jump in the way? Was there an afterlife past being a ghost? What if the blast didn’t shoot you back into your body? What if it killed you instead?

Then a new thought sprouted.

…Stretch was going to kill you.

He had been so dead set on getting rid of your skeleton. He knew there were other options, Blue and Papyrus made that very clear to him, but Stretch refused to listen. You didn’t blame his laziness because you were sure that if he didn’t destroy your skeleton then Blue and Papyrus would’ve given you a proper burial themselves. Why did Stretch insist on destroying your body when he knew there were other options? Why was he acting so chill about this whole thing? Why were you only thinking about this right now?!

A soft knock at your door broke you out of your thoughts and you sat up, “Who is it?”

The moment you heard the low chuckle on the other side of the door, you knew you had fallen for the trap and sighed as Bear called back through the door, “chickens.”

You raised a browbone and called back, “Chickens who?”

The door cracked open just enough for you to see Bear’s face and the huge smile on it, “no, that’s wrong. chickens…cluck, owls who.”

Your laugh started small, but very quickly you were in a fit of giggles as Bear tried to make a noise he thought a chicken-owl hybrid would make. By the time you stopped giggling, he had made his way into your room and stood by your bed. You looked up at him, a smile still on your face, “That was a good one. Been a while since I’ve been on the receiving end of a knock knock joke.”

“plenty time to make up…for that. breakfast’s ready,” he held out one of his hands to help you out of bed and you gladly took it. He patiently waited for you while you changed in your bathroom and then escorted you downstairs with a smile and a myriad of egg puns. He stopped talking once you were both within earshot of the dining room. You noticed that Wine and Coffee were gone, much to your disappointment. 

He led you to a chair between him and his brother, who immediately made conversation with you, “Good Morning, Sweetheart! I Was Wondering If You Would Like To Help Me And My Brother In The Garden After Breakfast?”

You perked up a bit being able to spend more time with Sugar and Bear, “Of course! I’m sure it would do me some good to get outside.”

You and Sugar spoke for a bit about what he needed help with. After a few minutes, you noticed Stretch finally come downstairs for breakfast. Your thoughts and questions from earlier came flooding back to you as he sat across from you and you god quiet. Sugar asked if you were alright, and you assured him you were, using the excuse of still trying to wake up. You went back to eating, but you couldn’t stop glancing up at Stretch, wanting answers to all your questions but not wanting to cause a scene during breakfast. 

Stretch did not seem to share the same sentiment. 

“ya need somethin’?” he asked after the fourth or fifth time you glanced at him.

You weren’t planning on saying anything at first, but Stretch would probably stay locked in his room all day or go to Bella’s house and then you wouldn’t have a chance to ask him at all. So you looked him right in his eyelights and calmly asked, “Why were you going to kill me?”

An almost comical clatter sounded out around the table as all attention was turned to you two. Stretch just stared at you in surprise for a moment before responding with a shrug, “well i didn’ know ya were a ghost so-”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” you pressed, “Both Blue and Papyrus gave you a second option,” he opened his mouth but you added on before he could say anything, “And you can’t blame your laziness because you know damn well they would’ve given me a proper burial themselves and it would’ve taken less of your energy to just go back down to your room instead of summoning a powerful attack. So, why did you do it?”

Stretch subtly glanced around the table to see everyone staring at him, waiting for an answer. Eventually, he sighed and looked at you, “look, i don’t know where this came from, but-” 

He reached a hand out to rest on yours but you snatched your hand away and glared at him, “Don’t fucking touch me.”

There were a few quiet shocked gasps across the table and Stretch looked clearly annoyed with you now. He sighed and sat back in his chair, “i don’t see how this is such a big problem.”

“It’s a problem because I could’ve fucking died. For a second time!” you snapped at him.

Stretch shrugged and tried going back to eating, “but you didn’t, so there’s nothing to bitch about.”

His words and attitude only angered you more, “But I could’ve. Just answer the question. Why were you going to do it?”

Stretch sighed in annoyance at your persistence, “does it really matter that much?”

“Yes!” you snapped louder, startling many of the others, including Stretch, “It matters to me because there was no guarantee I would’ve survived, as a ghost or alive. I just want you to take some responsibility and tell me why you insisted on destroying my body when you knew there were other options!”

Stretch scoffed at you and his glare returned, “why do i have to be the one who takes responsibility?”

“You’re the one that brought me back to life!” you snapped

“and!?” Stretch snapped back.

“And? Honey, God wanted me dead. Now you get to find out why.” 

Silence spread over the table like a thick paste, fast but oh so heavy. When Stretch didn’t respond, you leaned in and asked quietly, “Why did you do it?”

A moment later, Stretch vanished from his seat in a small crackle of orange magic.

You grit your teeth and stood up with such force that your chair clattered to the floor. You ignored the frantic calls of your name as you practically ran out the front door. The sun was warm on your bones and you could hear the chirping of birds and a croak from a frog or two. You stomped down the steps and fell onto the grass grabbing fistfulls of it in your hands and desperately trying to control your breathing. Before you knew it, fat tears tinted with peach pink magic were falling from your sockets and onto the grass beneath you. 

You tried holding in your tears, but the moment a comforting hand was placed on your back and the skeleton quietly said your name, you broke and let the tears flow. You were almost immediately pulled to the skeleton’s chest, his arms wrapping around you. From the size and worn feeling of the skeleton’s jacket, you identified him as Bear. He held you close, gentle yet firm. A few seconds later, another hand rested on your shoulder and gently turned you away from Bear, but didn’t pull you away.

You tried to blink away your tears, but all you could make out was a lanky skeleton in a blue blotch and you assumed it was Sugar because his overalls were the same blue color. He pulled a square of fabric out of his pocket and began tenderly wiping your tears away. By the time you were able to clearly see him again, your anger had started to seep back in. 

“Are You Alright, Sweetheart?” Sugar asked softly. 

You sniffled a bit and sighed, “Not really? Still mad. Why wouldn’t he jus answer the damn question?”

Sugar wiped away another stray tear and you leaned into his hand. He let you, cupping your face, “I Am So Sorry, Sweetheart. …Would Chopping Some Wood Make You Feel Better? I Know It’s Not What We Had In Mind, But I Feel It Would Help You Get Some Of Your Anger Out.”

There was a quiet snickering from Bear and you wondered why he was laughing until Sugar groaned and you realized the unintentional wood puns. You chuckled a bit before nodding at Sugar, “That actually sounds amazing. I think it wood do me some good.”

“Not You, Too!” you and Bear chuckled before getting up. 

Sugar playfully lectured you both on the use of puns in the garden as he led you to the old tree stump about 20 or so feet from the greenhouse. Bear usually chopped the wood, if he was too tired to do it then Edge or Papyrus would do it, so he showed you how to do it and even used his magic to summon a smaller axe for you since the only one the skele-bros had was too big for you. 

Once he was confident you wouldn’t hurt yourself the moment he walked away, he walked to the garden with Sugar, sitting nearby so he could keep an eye on both you and Sugar. The first few pieces of wood you split you had some struggle with, but after you let your anger fuel your swings, it got much easier. You chopped wood for the next hour or so and several times you saw Bear and Sugar glance over with concerned looks at how aggressive you were being, but they didn’t say anything. 

By the time you decided to call it quits, you were exhausted and layed down in the grass. It was still cool and coated in morning dew. You let out a hefty sigh and let the cold water cool your hot bones. A few seconds later, the sunlight was blocked from your body and you opened your eyes to see Bear crouched beside you, “you…alright?”

“Yeah,” you replied, closing your eyes and turning your head back to the sky, “just sunbathing. Like a lizard.”

Bear chuckled and you could almost feel the vibrations from it, “can i…join ya? be a lizard…,too?”

You simply replied with a lazy hum and patted the ground beside you. Bear laid down beside you and you let the birds and frogs fill the silence for you.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe I yelled at him. I’m a grown ass adult, I should be able to control my temper!”

“Maiden…”

“Like, yeah, I’m angry that he won’t tell me why he was gonna destroy my body, but I could’ve handled that so much better!”

“Maiden.”

“I get that your brother is reserved but don’t I deserve to know why he would think destroying my body was a good idea?”

Your name falling from Blue’s teeth brought you out of your rant and back into the current moment. You once again found yourself in the laundry room sitting on top of the dreyer while Blue checked the wounds on your neck and hand, “I Can’t Check Your Neck Properly If You Keep Moving So Much.”

“Oh, uh,” you let out an awkward chuckle and stillied tilted your chin up for Blue to have better access to your neck, “Sorry.”

“It’s Alright, Maiden,” Blue assured you with a small smile while dabbing away at the small wounds on your neck with a cotton ball soaked in saline wash, “I Understand Why You’re Frustrated, Though.”

You sighed and let your half-decent posture fall into a slouch, “I just can’t think of a real reason as to why he would do that. I mean, I probably wouldn’t want a dead body in my attic either, but you and Papyrus offered to bury it instead, so I don’t see why he felt like he had to destroy it… Do you know why he might’ve?”

Blue frowned and shook his head as he took your wounded hand in his to clean the wound, “I Wish I Did, Maiden. I Tried Asking Him That Night While Sans Was Talking To You, But He Just…Didn’t Say Anything.”

You deflated a bit, watching as Blue cleaned your hand with a fresh cotton ball. You had hoped someone would know why Stretch tried to destroy your body, but no one did. Now you could only hope that Stretch would tell you eventually, but that didn’t seem like a likely outcome any time soon. Blue didn’t take too much longer on re-dressing your wounds, and once he was done you decided to finally address the damage on your guitar. 

You brought it down from the attic and into your room. All but one of the strings was broken and it looked like a family of mice had eaten a hole in the back and used it as a home for a few years. The many stickers on it were faded and a few were peeling. Overall, it didn’t look as bad as you thought it would. You started by peeling off as many of the stickers as you could to see if there was any damage to the wood or sealant. 

The stickers came off fairly easily due to how old they were. You tried to save the sentimental ones, but that wasn’t many. You used a washcloth and a bit of warm water to get any sticky residue and dry clay splotches off. Once the guitar was as clean as it was gonna get, you inspected it again. A frown etched its way onto your face at the thin crack running along the entire front of the guitar. You hoped it could be fixed, but you didn’t remember enough about guitars to know for sure. 

A knock at your door provided a good enough distraction for you to abandon the guitar temporarily. Part of you hoped it was Wine so you could clarify what he meant last night, but you weren't disappointed to find Mutt on the other side of the door. He chuckled at your surprised look, “heh, didn’ expect me?”

You chucked and shook your head, “Not exactly. What did you need?”

Mutt sighed and his already horrible posture somehow worsened, “jus’ got outta ‘nother lecture from m’ bro. w’s wonderin’ ‘f ya wan’ed ta hang fer a bit.”

You grimaced at the mention of one of Razz’s lectures. He had a tendency to think he was the head of the house every couple weeks until Sans reminded who really was in charge. However, regardless of Sans’ reminders, Razz consistently lectured Mutt no matter what the others said. You had heard a fair share of them and they mainly consisted of Mutt standing silently while Razz berated him for being lazy or high or hooking up with a random girl every few months, really whatever he could think of to lecture Mutt about. Knowing how annoying it could be to have to sit through all that, you gladly invited Mutt into your room to relax.

“It’s not as decked out as your guys’ are,” You explained as you sat down in front of your guitar again, “But in my defense, I haven’t had much time to get decorations, let alone decorate.”

Mut shrugged and sat across from you, your guitar separating you two, “i coul’ help ya get some stuff ‘f ya wan’. take ya ta th’ city ‘n shop.”

“After what happened yesterday?” you sarcastically asked as you began removing the broken strings from your guitar.

Mutt huffed a laugh and shook his head, “not th’ cen’er ‘f th’ city. one o’ th’ districts.”

You tilted your head at that, “Districts? I thought it was just Ebbot City.”

Mutt nodded and picked up one of the ruined stickers on your floor to fiddle with, “ya, it is. th’ cen’er ‘s th’ only place ya been. th’ rest ‘s split up inta districts fer the differen’ monsters. monster’s got their own names fer ‘em; Swap, Fell, Classic, etc. but humans us’lly call ‘em other things like punk instead ‘o Fell or ‘cottagecore’, whatevea that means, fer Swap.”

You hummed and nodded in understanding. You hadn’t heard anyone talking about districts while you were a ghost, so it was an interesting concept to you, “That’s actually…pretty cool. Like everyone can have a taste of home even on the surface.”

Mutt shrugged once again and dropped the scraps of sticker, “kinda,” he nodded to your guitar, “whatcha got ‘ere?”

“Oh, uh, my guitar. I thought I’d try and fix it up but I don’t know if it’s fixable,” you explained.”

“ya know ‘ow ta play?” Mutt questioned with what sounded like excitement. 

You made a so-so motion with your hand, “Maybe? I mean, I played a little as a ghost, but my main focus was always my ceramics.”

Mutt nodded, watched you remove the strings for a moment, then grew a confused look on his face, “wai’. were ya th’ reason we foun’ lil charms all th’ time?”

You grinned and shrugged, “What can I say? You guys grew on me after a while.”

Mutt’s expression remained confused, but he had a faint smile and bold intrigue glimmered in his eyelights, “how though? like, ya were a ghost. ‘ow did ya get physical thin’s fer us?”

Your hands stilled and your own confusion showed on your face, “I…don’t really know, actually. In theory, anything I made with the phantom versions of my pottery tools should have remained as phantom versions. However, every once-in-a-while, for reasons I’ll probably never understand…small charms I’d make would go from phantom versions to physical ones after being fired. It honestly scared me the first time it happened. I had made a charm for Sans and Papyrus, something I thought they’d like so I could have something to remember them by if they moved out. For a moment, I had thought I was alive again and panicked. I wasn’t, obviously, but after that I started making charms with the intent to actually gift them. It was hit-or-miss on if they’d become physical items or not, but I was always excited when they were.”

“so…th’ blunt charms me ‘n Cash found?” Mutt asked curiously.

You nodded, “Yup, all me. So were the video game controllers for you and Coffee. And the star ones for Sans, Spaghetti for Papyrus, plants for Sugar and animals for Bear, a honey bottle for Stretch and a blueberry for Blueberry, and sooooo many more. I can’t wait to make more.”

Mutt looked at you with a little shock, “Ya..wanna make more?”

“Well, yeah. Of course I do. At first I made them as keepsakes for myself, but after a while I found that I was more excited to gift them than just have them sitting on one of my pottery shelves collecting dust.”

“Even fer th’ ones actin’ like dicks?” You and Mutt chuckled at his half-joke.

You shrugged and went back to removing the last of the strings from your guitar, “Red, Edge, and Razz may have to earn theirs.”

You wanted to say Stretch too, but you were still feeling some residual guilt for snapping at him. Mutt didn’t say anything for a minute, then two minutes, three…when you looked up you were extremely disappointed to see he was gone. Did you say something wrong? You didn’t dwell on it, shaking away the disappointment and turning your attention back to your guitar. 

Finally, you removed the last string and gathered all the other ones to stand up and throw them in the trash. Unfortunately, Mutt decided that was the perfect time to teleport back into your room. He was leaning down, presumably to sit down, and whacked his jaw on the top of your head. 

The collision pushed you off-balance, but Mutt was quick to notice. He dropped whatever was in his hands and caught you before you could fall to the floor. Unfortunately, the two items he just-so-happened to be holding were a pack of brand-new guitar strings, and a full container of wood filler. The guitar strings fell on the neck of your guitar and slid off onto the floor. The wood filler, however, landed solidly on the hairline crack in the wood, which ended up being just enough force to turn the hairline crack into a full-on crack.

You let out a devastated noise and fell to your knees, thinking that maybe it could still be fixed. Then you moved the container away from where it landed to see a large dent right in the middle of your guitar. There was no fixing that. Mutt let out a short string of swears behind you before falling to his knees beside you, apologizing profusely. 

“Mutt, it’s fine-”

“like hell it is! i coulda’ least warned ya i w’s commin’ back. Then maybe this wouldn’ o’ happened,” Mutt flicked himself between the eyes, scolding himself and calling himself stupid over and over. 

Your disappointment at your broken guitar turned to light anger and you snatched Mutt’s wrists in your hands, “Don’t do that to yourself! It was an accident, you don’t need to scold yourself!”

“but i boke yer-”

“You didn’t do it on purpose, so there’s no reason to be scolding yourself like that! It’s fine, Mutt. I can get another one some other time,” you tried your best to assure him.

“but-” 

“Nope!” you refused to let him defend self-deprecating behavior, “It’s not your fault. It wasn’t intentional, so you have no reason to worry about it. None at all. Understood?”

At your firm words, Mutt’s demeanor changed. It was slight, but it was there. He nodded slowly and his eyelights seemed to grow a bit and the edges were ever-so-slightly fuzzy, “yes…”

Satisfied with his answer, you have a curt nod and let his wrists go, “Good. And I don’t wanna see or hear you do that again. Alright?”

Mutt nodded, his usual demeanor gradually returning, “ya, ya i won’ do it again.”

You felt like that wasn’t entirely true, but you nodded and accepted it. Going back to your initial task, you collected the guitar strings and tried to hide your true disappointment about your guitar so Mutt wouldn’t feel bad. You tossed the strings into the little trash can in your bathroom before returning to your room. You planned on sitting back on the floor to talk with Mutt for a while longer, but he had other plans. 

The moment you were within his reach, he pulled you into his lap and, in typical swap-verse papyri fashion, teleported you onto your bed instead of getting up and walking the whopping three feet to get there. He trapped you in his arms and nuzzled his face into your neck.

You chuckled and tapped his shoulder, “There a reason for this, big guy?”

He grumbled something into your neck. When you didn’t respond, he spoke up a bit so you could actually hear him this time, “makin’ up fer los’ time.”

You thought about what the hell he was referring to before chuckling again, “You mean when Razz burst into your room the other morning?”

An affirmative grunt was the only response you received and you rolled your eyelights before wrapping your arms around Mutt, opting to let him cuddle you until it was time for dinner. 

Unfortunately, the cuddling only lasted a total of about fifteen minutes before a loud series of crashes sounded from downstairs. That wasn’t much cause for alarm at first, you figured it was probably a fight and those tended to be loud, but then you could hear Razz let out a clear shout of pain. On instinct, Mutt teleported downstairs, accidentally dragging you along with him.

Chapter Text

Luckily, you landed standing up.

Unluckily, Bear appeared to be having a mental crisis in the living room. 

The sudden teleportation kept you a bit dizzy for a moment, but from what you could hear he was fumbling around the living room and mumbling something under his breath over and over. There was plenty more yelling from a handful of other skeletons as well. Once you recovered from your daze, you opened your eyes and saw three things. 

1. Mutt was kneeling next to Razz, who was on the floor covering one of his eye sockets that leaked bright red magic.

2. Sugar was trying to simultaneously calm his brother from a distance and get Edge to stop yelling about how ‘THIS IS BECOMING A SERIOUS PROBLEM!’

3. Bear was in the middle of the living room, wiping off his clothes with such force and panic that his claws were beginning to rip holes in his shirt.

Very quickly, you realized what was actually happening. Bear wasn’t having a mental crisis, he was having a hallucination. Sugar had explained to everyone just days after he and Bear arrived that Bear often got hallucinations, a result of his head wound. Most of the time he could decipher the hallucinations from reality, but when he was particularly stressed or anxious it became increasingly difficult. Your first thought was that he was stressed and anxious due to the whole situation involving you, but he had seemed to be taking it so well that it had never crossed your mind till now.

You didn’t dwell on it long, you didn’t really have time to, and ran in front of Edge to ask Sugar, “What kind of hallucination is it?”

Sugar didn’t seem to question your sudden appearance or apparent immediate understanding of the situation, “A Bad One. A Very Bad One. He Said There’s Spiders Crawling All Over Him.”

You glanced at Bear, who looked absolutely terrified, and back at Sugar, “I thought Bear liked spiders?”

“He Likes Surface Spiders,” Sugar looked at his brother with growing concern while Razz joined Edge in the yelling behind you two, “It’s Underground Spiders He Hates. They’re Different From Surface Ones.”

Now knowing what kind of hallucination Bear was having, you immediately set on helping him. You scanned the living room for a blanket big enough to cover him. There wasn’t a singular one that would work, but two or three would be fine. A few were laid over the back of the main couch. Cash and Blueberry were standing behind the couch, stances ready to either run or attack depending on how the next few moments went. 

You told them to throw you the blankets and they listened without hesitation. You dropped one to the floor and quickly unfolded the other before walking into Bear’s field of view. Sugar tried to convince you not to get closer, but didn’t physically try to stop you. You kept your movements slow and didn’t speak until Bear had seen you.

Once he did, you spoke softly, but loud enough for him to hear you over Edge and Razz’s incessant yelling, “It’s alright, Bear. Just me,” You held up the blanket so he could clearly see it, “I’m gonna wipe the spiders off your back and cover you with this blanket so they can’t touch you, alright?”

It took him a moment to register your words, but once he did he nodded quickly. With his permission, you walked around to his back and pretended to wipe off spiders. You made sure you were through before tossing the blanket over his back. It didn’t cover everything, so you retrieved the second one and repeated the process again.

By the time his back was covered, Bear was much calmer, but was still pawing at his shirt worriedly. You held your hand out to him and he tentatively put one of his hands in yours, you once again pretended to wipe off the spiders before pulling his jacket sleeve fully over his hand.

“Put your hand in your pocket. The spiders shouldn’t be able to get into your pocket,” you assured him.

Bear listened and eagerly held out his other hand before you had the chance to offer yours again. You did the same thing and then pretended to wipe the rest of the spiders off his front, using a third blanket draped over his shoulders to keep the imaginary spiders off of him. He was significantly calmer now, but still twitched and looked around anxiously, so you spoke to him softly once again, “Do you wanna go up to your room? The spiders shouldn’t be able to get you in there,” he seemed a bit hesitant, so you added, “I’ll let you know when dinner is ready. I can even bring it to your room if you’re worried about the spiders coming back.”

That seemed to be more than enough assurance as he immediately nodded and followed behind you closely as you led him up to his room. It took a little more coaxing to reassure him that there were only Surface spiders in his room and that none of the Underground ones could reach him before he let you make him change. His shirt was pretty much scraps from how his claws had torn through it, so you set it aside for Sugar to make something out of it, he and Bear hated wasting anything.

You picked out a new shirt for him since he still seemed pretty anxious and fluffed his pillows while he changed. You urged him to nap until it was dinnertime, promising to bring him a plate once it was time. You stayed by him until he fell asleep, which didn’t take long, and tip-toed out of his room so you wouldn’t wake him. 

Your first course of action was to check on dinner, but once you reached the kitchen, you were met with a myriad of voices, all of which spouting off some variation of the question ‘How did you get Bear to calm down so quickly?’

You raised your hands in surrender, “Not everyone at once! Chill out! Geez,” you let out an awkward chuckle before answering, “I had a lot of siblings growing up. One of them had schizophrenia and she struggled a lot with visual hallucinations. Through a lot of trial and error, we found out that the best way to deal with them was to use logic. How do you get bugs off you? You wipe them off and cover yourself so they don’t get back on.”

Looks and sounds of realization washed over the room. Then Stretch asked, “why not just tell them it’s not real? that’s what they do in your human movies, right?”

“That’s not how that works,” you tried to explain as Stretch picked up an apple while ignoring Blue’s comment about not eating right before dinner. 

Stretch shrugged, “why wouldn’t it work? it works in the movies.”

“Because those are movies, Stretch,” you explained, “It’s like that for dramatic effect.”

“but it works,” he argued.

You went back and forth for a few minutes on why the movie solution wouldn’t likely work in this situation, but Stretch was practically refusing to listen. 

So you took a different approach.

Mid-way through another sentence, he vaguely gestured around the room with the apple in his hand. You followed his hand with your eyelights and pretended to be confused while looking at it, “Why is your hand like that?”

Caught off-guard by the question, Stretch took a second to respond, “what are you talking about?”

“Your hand,” you said and pointed at it, “it looks like you're holding something but you’re not.”

Stretch blinked at you for a moment before narrowing his sockets and saying, “because i am holding something?”

You shook your head, “No you’re not.”

Stretch looked at you like you were insane and held up the apple, “yes. i am. do you not see the apple in my hand?”

You pretended to look concerned and glanced between his hand and his face, “Stretch, you’re not holding an apple.”

“wh-yes!” he exclaimed, growing annoyed with you, “yes, i am!

You doubled-down as well, “Stretch, no you’re not. There’s nothing in your hand!”

You could see frustration seep into his eyelights, “there is something in my hand and that something is an apple!”

“No, there isn’t!” you insisted, “There’s nothing there!”

“yes, there is! it’s right-” he cut himself off mid-sentence to take a bite of the apple and show it to you, “see!?”

You finally let your facade fall and smirked at him, “See how frustrating that is?”

Suddenly, what you had been doing clicked together in Stretch’s brain and he looked down at the apple in his hand as if it held all the answers to the universe, but only spoke like a drunken greek philosopher. 

After a moment of silence, you continued, “To have someone insist that there is nothing there when you can see with your own two eyes that there is something there? Because you don’t know it’s not actually there, your mind is telling you it is, so you believe it is. Getting rid of it requires logic, not brute force. That only works in the movies because it’s staged. Reality isn’t staged.”

Stretch was silent for a while before teleporting out of the kitchen to who-knows-where. You sighed, already tired of him doing that. A gentle hand on your shoulder brought your attention to Sugar and you smiled up at him. He smiled back before asking, “I, Um, I Hope You Don’t Mind Me Asking This, But… Would You Mind Teaching Me A Few More Of Your Tricks Regarding The Hallucinations? Bear And I Have Tried To Find Solutions For Years But We Never Thought To Just…Use Logic. Anything You Know Of That May Be Able To Help Him, I Want To Know It. I Can Repay You To-”

“No need,” you cut him off with a soft smile, “You and Bear have been incredibly kind to me since I came back to life. I think it’s only right to return the favor.”

“Are You Sure?” Sugar asked with a nervous, yet hopeful smile.

You nodded back happily, “Extremely sure.”

Chapter Text

After a quick check on dinner you headed over to the laundry room to check on Razz. When you walked in, you nearly laughed as Mutt was desperately trying to get his brother to stop spitting obscenities so he could clean the wound on his face. 

Unfortunately, Razz saw your pitiful attempts to stop your laughter and snapped at you as well, “What Do You Think You Are Laughing At, Pet !?”

You settled your laughter and took a few steps closer, “Still not a pet, and I just find it hilarious that your little brother has to be the one to talk you down from a temper tantrum.”

“Temper Tantrum!?” Razz practically screeched, “I Am A Grown Adult! I Do Not Have ‘Temper Tantrums’!”

You simply nodded in mock agreement, “Uh-huh. Well, I just wanted to make sure you were alright after your scuffle with Bear.”

Razz blinked at you, “...What?”

Mutt spoke before you had a chance to respond, “e’s fine. jus’ won’ let me clean th’ woun’.”

“I Don’t Need You To Do It! I Am Fully Capable Of Doing It On My Own!” Razz insisted as he glared at his brother.

“Uh-huh, sure,” Mutt turned back to the first-aid kit and began digging through it, “that don’t explain th’ infection ya got las’ time ya did it on ya own.”

“That Wasn’t My Fault!” Razz defended as he dodged the cotton ball Mutt was bringing up to his face. 

The two continued to bicker as you slipped out of the room. Razz appeared to be just fine aside from the shallow scratch over his eye, so you had no reason to worry. By the time you made it back to the kitchen, only Papyrus and Blue were working on cooking up dinner. You offered to help, and Blue happily set you on a task far away from any knives. 

You continued to help the two until dinner was ready to be served. You piled a plate high with food and carefully carried it upstairs for Bear. You knocked on his door before opening it. A heartwarming smile spread across your face as you saw him slowly sit up and rub away the sleep from his eyes. A soft smile broke onto his face as he saw the large plate of food, quickly patting the bed next to him to invite you on. 

You happily crawled onto the bed, careful not to spill any food, and handed the plate to him. He was just about to dig in when his eyelight landed on you and he froze for a moment before asking, “where’s…your plate?”

You blinked and looked down at your lap, quickly realizing you had completely forgotten to get a plate of your own, “Right. Eating is a requirement now.”

You looked back up at Bear, embarrassed, and began to slip off the bed, “I’ll be riiiiight back, heh.”

Bear chuckled as you practically ran out of his room and back downstairs. Your embarrassment grew as you saw Sugar waiting at the bottom of the stairs, tapping his foot with a plate of plain food in his hand. You smiled sheepishly and thanked him for the food before taking the plate and walking back upstairs, smiling more at his soft chuckle. 

When you returned with a full plate, Bear’s smile grew and he patted his bed again. You quickly sat down and you both dug into your meals. Bear finished his first and insisted on feeding you the rest of yours. It wasn’t much so you agreed, but you don’t think you’ve ever blushed so much in your entire life. Once the plates were empty, you stacked them up and went to take them downstairs, but a deep red magic surrounded them and moved them to the bedside table. 

“Sugar’ll…get them.” 

Before you could protest, Bear's thick arms wrapped around your middle and pulled you down onto the bed. Bear and Sugar were the biggest of all the skeletons, so he was able to essentially act as a blanket for you. After two failed attempts at cuddling with Mutt, there was no way you were going to try and stop Bear from cuddling you, too. He seemed to have a better cuddling streak than Mutt since no one interrupted, not even a knock on the door. 

It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep to Bear’s soft purring.

— — — 

You both woke up the next morning to Sugar gently shaking you awake. While Bear insisted on staying in bed until breakfast, you snuck away to your room for a shower and a fresh set of clothes. You almost tried washing your hair before remembering you don’t have any. The outfit you ended up choosing was a plain pair of shorts and a simple tank top. You were hoping to get some training done with Papyrus today since Edge would be at work and Papyrus had classes tomorrow. 

By the time you made it downstairs, Sugar had managed to drag Bear out of bed and into the dining room to wait for breakfast, which would be done soon since there weren’t as many people to feed. Wine and Edge were probably already at work, Stretch and Red were nowhere to be found, and the rest of the swap-verse Sanses were on their morning run. That left you, Sugar, Bear, Mutt, Cash, Coffee, Papyrus, and Sans. 

The moment Mutt saw you, he waved you over and patted the empty seat between him and Coffee. As you walked around the table to sit between them, you noticed Coffee had a soft orange blush over his cheekbones. Even though he was trying to hide behind his sketchbook, you noticed his shy smile and it made a smile of your own spread over your face. 

The second you sat down, Mutt threw an arm around your shoulders and planted his face in the crook of your neck and closed his eyes, “‘f anyone interrupts us b’fore breakfast ‘s served they get punched.”

A few chuckles sounded out around the table from Mutt’s empty threat. You brought a hand up to idly scratch the top of his head while you glanced at Coffee. You hadn’t had much time to contemplate the real meaning of what Wine had told you. You knew you liked both of them, but you didn’t know if you like liked them. You knew who they were, sure, but they barely knew you. What if their feelings change? What if yours change? What then? 

Well, you’ll never know if you don’t try and get to know them better, “Whatcha drawing?”

Coffee jumped a bit, clearly caught off guard by your question, and hugged his sketchbook to his chest defensively. A smirk bloomed on your face when you noticed his blush grow, “You don’t have to show me if you don’t want to. It’s just…Wine told me. About how you two feel about me. Figured I should get to know you a little better if that’s the case.”

Coffee’s eyelights went wide for a moment before he quickly looked away to hide his raging blush. He tapped the back of his notebook a bit, contemplating something before he held it out to you, still looking insistently in the opposite direction. You smiled fondly at his shyness and took the sketchbook to look at the drawing he had been working on.

You were surprised to see it was a drawing of you and Wine. 

It was a drawing of you and Wine…right before he told you about he and Coffee’s feelings toward you. 

It was the moment where Wine was essentially hugging you from behind and holding the violin against your lower torso. It was drawn as a side profile, almost as if it was someone looking into the room from the door…

You blinked at the paper in shock as you realized why you couldn’t find Wine after he confessed. Coffee was watching from the doorway and must’ve teleported him and Wine away while you were frozen still. 

Once you recovered from the realization, you chuckled and handed the sketchbook back to Coffee, “Sly fox.”

Coffee simply smirked back at you and took his sketchbook from you.

Breakfast was served just a moment later and you happily dug in. Between bites of food, you asked Papyrus if he could work on training you a bit today. His eyes lit up and he immediately dove into a long speech about how he’ll teach you. He had a bunch of different methods to try and trigger your magic to form, all of which sounded a lot less ‘ow’ than Edge’s method. Papyrus also insisted on Sans joining you both so he could help.

So once breakfast was over, the three of you made your way to the backyard and Papyrus guided you through some stretches before beginning on his list of, honestly ridiculous, methods of getting your magic to come forth. They ranged from tickling you until you could barely breathe, to running laps around the house until you nearly passed out. 

Much to your dismay, absolutely nothing worked. No matter what you tried, your magic refused to show itself, and you began to think you just didn’t have any magic to conjure. Papyrus, however, refused to give up.

“We’ve gone through your entire list. What else could possibly trigger it?” you asked before beginning to chug water from a glass Sans brought you.

Papyrus wrung his hands together nervously before speaking, “WELL, THERE IS ONE MORE THING WE COULD TRY…”

He turned to Sans who simply shrugged and said, “up to you if ya wanna try it, bro.”

You glanced between them for a moment before Papyrus shook off his nerves and put on his signature confident smile, “LET’S DO IT! IF THIS DOESN’T WORK…THEN NOTHING PROBABLY WILL.”

You looked at Papyrus, then Sans, confused about what they were referring to. Sans patted your shoulder and gave you a surprisingly comforting smile, “just use what ya got, kid.”

You deadpanned at him calling you a kid again, but brought your attention back to Papyrus as he stepped in front of you. He pulled in a deep breath and let it go before cupping his hands in front of him. He looked very focused for a moment and your confusion grew until you saw a little, white, floating ball forming above his hands. It glowed and wisps of magic flew off of it like mini solar flares. 

Once it grew to about the size of a softball, Papyrus explained, “THIS IS PURE MAGIC. ONLY BOSS MONSTERS CAN SUMMON IT. IT HAS NO DISTINCT FORM OR INTENT BEHIND IT. I AM GOING TO HAND IT TO YOU, AND YOU WILL HAVE TO FEED YOUR INTENT INTO IT. TRY TO TURN IT INTO SOMETHING. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT AS LONG AS IT BECOMES SOMETHING.”

Papyrus passed the orb into one of his hands and used his free one to mirror his previously cupped ones. He held his free hand underneath yours while he placed the magic orb into your hands. The magic felt like static coming off of an old TV. The feeling spread from your hands up your arms, over your shoulders, down your back and legs, all the way to your toes. Your body shook a bit before the static feeling settled and you stilled.

“IT ISN’T OFTEN MONSTERS DO THIS,” Papyrus explained, “ONLY WHEN A CHILD IS REALLY STRUGGLING TO CONJURE THEIR MAGIC. IT’S LIKE, UM…JUMPSTARTING A CAR! JUST A LITTLE BIT OF MAGIC FROM ANOTHER MONSTER AND THEY’LL BE SET TO GO!”

You nodded gently and took a deep breath, focusing your intent into the magic. You intended to make an inanimate object, something simple that wouldn’t hurt. Something useful that could be found in any home. 

Nothing happened.

You tried again, focusing as hard as you could.

Still, nothing happened.

You closed your eyes and tried again, trying to think of what you could possibly be doing wrong. You thought back on everything you had done since coming out here. You thought about everything Papyrus said. Everything Sans said.

“just use what ya got, kid.”

That was the problem though. You didn’t have much. You had your house, but didn’t Sans own that now? You couldn't remember basic first aid or how to correctly use a knife. You didn’t have any of your old clothes, your body was completely different from how you remember it. You doubted you could play the guitar as well as you used to, baking was out the window as long as you couldn’t be trusted alone in the kitchen. The only thing you really still have after all these years is your ability to make pottery…

That was it. 

You shifted your feet a bit and focused your intent on the magic in your hand and what you wanted to turn it into. You may not be able to use your pottery wheel, but maybe you could make do with some magic?

Then, as if a switch was flipped within your SOUL, the static feeling returned all over and reversed its path back to your hands.

You heard a faint gasp and a cut-off happy squeal from Papyrus before something slightly heavy fell into your hands. You opened your eyes to see a pristine plate that shined peach pink in the sunlight. 

“YOU DID IT!” Papyrus cheered before pulling you into a bone-crushing hug, “I’M SO PROUD OF YOU! THIS CALLS FOR CELEBRATORY SPAGHETTI!”

Papyrus dropped you back onto your feet before bounding inside to make his Celebratory Spaghetti. Sans joined you at your side and raised a brow at the item in your hands, “a plate, huh?”

You shrugged, “It was the first thing I had ever made on a pottery wheel. Of course, that one looked a lot worse than this one…”

Sans shrugged and patted your shoulder again, “regardless, congrats, kid. i’mma go make sure my bro doesn’t burn the water…again.”

You turned to thank Sans for congratulating you, but he was already gone. You turned back to the plate in your hands and gave it a closer look as you inwardly cheered at your success. As you inspected it, you noticed a series of tiny little hairline fractures along the entire face of the plate. 

Oh well, not everything will be perfect the first time.

Chapter Text

Papyrus’ Celebratory Spaghetti was just plain spaghetti noodles topped with candy and sugary sauces, essentially Buddy’s spaghetti from the movie Elf. Since you still couldn’t handle too much flavor, he altered the recipe a bit to be just spaghetti noodles in a sweet milk sauce topped with sliced strawberries. It ended up being surprisingly good and you asked him to teach you how to make it. He agreed as long as you promised to be careful around the stove while it was hot. 

You tried to offer your help to clean the dishes after you ate, but he shooed you off to do your own thing, insisting he could handle washing some dishes. So off you went to entertain yourself. It was then that you had remembered the clay you had soaking out in the shed and you mentally slapped yourself for forgetting about it. If it was moldy then you’d have to discard the bad parts and you really didn’t want to do that. 

You left through the door leading to the garage and paused for a moment when you saw Red working on his motorcycle. A pang of fear ran through you for a moment, but he didn’t move to look at you, it didn’t even seem like he noticed you enter, so you quickly walked past him and out the open garage door. 

“ey!”

You froze at his call, but turned around anyway. He had apologized, even if Wine had forced him to so you couldn’t just avoid him completely. After you turned around, he sat up and faced you, fiddling with a tool you recognized but couldn’t remember the name of, “th’ rotten grape said my ‘pology wasn’ good enough. i don’t like apologizin’ so i’mma make a deal with ya. i’ll take ya out ta get a drink or somthin’ an’ you tell ‘im i ‘pologized properly. deal?”

You thought about it for a moment, caught a bit off guard by his words. You didn’t exactly want to lie to Wine if he asked if Red had apologized properly, but… Some people apologize in ways other than using words, right? Red was bad at verbal apologies, maybe he was better at apologizing through acts of kindness? You hadn’t had a drink in a long time, alcohol had no taste or affect on you while you were a ghost. Maybe it would be nice to get a drink or two with him and consider that his apology.

“Um, sure,” you nodded tentatively, “I wouldn’t mind.”

“good,” he turned back to his motorcycle, “be ready by five.”

You didn’t mention the fact that five pm seemed a bit early to go out for drinks for fear of annoying him and making him cancel. Instead, you simply turned on your heel and made your way to the shed. Luckily, the only mold in the bin was just a thin rim floating on top of the excess water and stuck to the sides of the bin. It was able to be easily scraped off and discarded in the grass. You rummaged through the shed until you found a plastic sandcastle bucket and used it to remove most of the extra water. 

The clay was way too soft to make anything without it turning into an unidentifiable glob so you mixed it together with your hands, breaking up any small chunks so it was a fairly smooth mixture. You put the lid back on but didn’t seal it so that the clay could dry out some without bugs getting into it. You repeated the entire process with the other bin and hosed down your arms to clean off the extra clay stuck to them before going back inside. 

It was around lunch time now and the moment Bear noticed you walk inside, he practically dragged you over to the table to sit down and eat. It made you chuckle at how eager he was. Lunch went by without a hitch and you snuck away back to your room to start getting ready for your night out with Red. It may be a while until you have to leave, but you’d rather be ready early over late. 

It was a good thing you had gotten ready early anyway since Red came knocking at your door at around four. He took one look at your outfit, a plain t-shirt and jeans, and said, “like hell yer wearin’ that.”

He spent a solid hour piecing together a more suitable outfit for you while explaining why you couldn't wear your current one. He was planning on taking you to the bar he frequents in the Fell part of Ebott City. That section of town was tougher and meaner than some of the others and he ‘don’t need ya gettin punched because ya look weak’. 

The outfit you ended up with consisted of a pair of black ripped jeans, a dark red t-shirt, black boots, Red’s old leather jacket he didn’t wear anymore, and a myriad of chains, spikes, and leather bracelets to give you an extra edgy look. You wanted to wear the bandana Black had given you, but Red said you’d probably just be made fun of for it. Instead, he dug through his old collars and found one small enough to fit you. You put it on yourself and while it was a tad too big at its smallest size, it would make do for a couple hours. 

Red shortcutted you straight from your room to the bar. Once you recovered from the dizzy feeling you glanced around the bar. It was…pretty much what you expected. It appeared to be a popular spot, already quite busy despite how early it was. Several monsters immediately greeted Red and he waved back lazily. Then they noticed you and began bombarding him with questions, many of which involved teasing him about having a date. 

He snapped at them that you weren’t his date and pulled you over to the bar. The bartender was a tall, purple, fire monster that Red called Inferno. He eyed you for a moment while Red ordered drinks for you two. Once you had your drinks Red asked Inferno to keep an eye on you and then…left. 

Not yet used to being out in public, you took a seat at the bar and stayed there. One sip from your drink instantly told you there was way too much alcohol for you to handle. Your face scrunched up and you pushed the glass an inch or two away. Hopeful Red won’t be mad you couldn’t drink it. 

You didn’t have to worry about it too long because a moment later, the glass was pulled away and replaced with another one, “Take it ya usually get virgin drinks?”

You glanced up to see Inferno taking the old glass away while he spoke to you. You shrugged and grabbed the new glass, “I just haven’t had alcohol in a while.”

You took a sip from the new drink and hummed happily at its mildly sweet taste. Inferno nodded at your response and leaned against his side of the bar, “Can’t imagine it would be easy to go out ta get a drink when yer a ghost.”

You promptly choked on your drink. 

Inferno burst into laughter while you struggled to regain your breath. Once you did, you looked up at him with a bit of panic in your eye, “How do you know about that?”

He scoffed and leaned against the bar counter, “Cash never shuts the hell up. Word spreads quick among the rougher monsters. Better to be informed and prepared than dumb and dead.”

“That sounds a bit, uh, harsh, yeah?” you asked, taking a mental note to scold Cash about telling everyone about you later.

Inferno shrugged, “I’d say it’s pretty accurate for us.”

He didn’t elaborate since someone came up and ordered another round of drinks for their table. This went on for a while, you and inferno would idly talk until someone came to order more drinks and return to you when he was done. He actually made you laugh a lot. Even though he’d act annoyed at Red’s drunken jokes and puns, he cracked many of his own that left you giggling to the point you couldn’t breathe. 

It was a couple hours later when he asked you a question that you really didn’t have an answer for, “So, you used ta be human and yer alive again because of magic, right?”

You nodded and lifted your glass up to your mouth, “I think it was the magic that brought me back to life, but I’m not entirely sure yet.”

Inferno nodded a bit, “Right. So, are ya a human or monster?”

Your hand stopped and you set your glass back down, “Huh?”

“I mean,” Inferno picked up a glass and began to idly polish it with a rag, “you used to be human, you’ve got a human skeleton, but you’re alive because of magic. So which one are you? Human or monster?”

You had nothing to say to that. It was a good question, an important one, too. One you needed to know for filling out paperwork with Sans. You thought about it for a moment, trying to think of an answer for him, but you couldn’t. Who could you even ask about this? Sans? He was from the original universe, right? He would know the answer, right? 

You quickly excused yourself and thanked Inferno for his company before turning to the rest of the bar to find Red. It took quite a bit of asking various monsters, most of which snapped at you to leave then the fuck alone, but a bunny monster eventually told you they had seen Red near the back playing poker with the guard dogs. You thanked her profusely and weaved your way through the crowd to get to him.

Once you finally found him making a ruckus with a bunch of dog monsters who had some very soft-looking black fur, you rushed up to him. The woman hanging off his arm glared at you but you paid her no mind, “Red, you need to take me home.”

“now?” he growled in annoyance.

“Yes, now. I need to talk to Sans,” you snapped back at him.

“can’t ya wait? ‘m kinda busy,” he nodded his head toward the woman next to him.

You rolled your eyes, “I can see that, but it’s kind of an emergency. You can come back right after.”

“i ain’t portin’ ya home jus’ ta come back.”

“Okay, then don’t come back.”

Red growled a bit at your persistence, “what’s so important anyway that ya gotta ruin my night fer it?”

“Am I a monster or a human?”

Red opened his mouth to respond, paused for a moment with a look of confusion on his face, then his annoyed expression returned stronger than before, “ugh, fuckin’ fine.”

He let go of the girl and ignored her complaints about him going home with someone else. He grabbed your arm and shortcutted home. You didn’t even wait for the dizziness to subside before you began looking for Sans, calling his name while desperately trying not to run into any walls. You did not succeed in not running into walls, but you did manage to find him in his room. 

“hey kid, what’re ya yelling for?” he seemed somewhat relaxed right now and it made you feel kind of bad that you were about to possibly stress him out.

But you had to ask him, “Am I a human or monster?”

“a human, obviously,” Sans said without giving it a second thought.

“My skeleton is human, yeah, but I'm alive because of magic, like a monster. I’m a human skeleton imbued with monster magic, so which am I?”

Sans, quite similar to Red, opened his mouth to respond but didn’t. He thought for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh, “shit, i don’t know, kid. i uh…i’ll talk to asgore. he might… ugh, dad would know…”

You rose a browbone in confusion, “I never heard you or Papyrus mention your father? Does he know a lot about this kinda-”

The door closed before you could finish your sentence. 

Chapter Text

Your hands wrung together as you impatiently awaited your last-minute guest. When Sans had said he’d talk to Asgore, the king of the Classic monsters, about your whole ‘am I human or monster’ situation, you never expected to be meeting him the next day . Papyrus assured you Asgore was kind and gentle, Wine made you some tea to help calm your nerves, and Blue gave you some monster candy because ‘Everything Is Better When It’s Sweeter!’. Despite all this, you were still anxious, incessantly checking the clock on the stove every fifteen seconds. 

“Five minutes…” you mumbled anxiously. 

Sans looked up from the papers he had been shuffling through, something about an old Royal Scientist that might have an answer, and gave you a pitiful look, “hey, kid, it’s gonna be alright. there’s nothin’ to worry about. monsters call him ‘fluffybuns’ for a reason.”

You cringed at him calling you a kid…again, and sighed, “That doesn’t change the fact that he is literal royalty . I know you guys haven’t been on the surface for that long, but meeting royalty isn’t exactly something humans take lightly.”

Sans gave you a very confused look, “what are ya talking about?”

You repeated his look, “Uh, is royalty not a big deal for you guys?”

Sans shook his head, completely disregarding the papers now, “nah, nah, not that. the thing about monsters.”

That only left you more confused, “Uh, yeah. You guys have only been on the surface for like, two years, right? Almost three now.”

“wh-um…no?” Sans said with a confused tone, an almost amused smirk on his face. 

You blinked, “What?”

“yeah. monsters have been on the surface for about ten years now,” Sans explained. 

“SANS! THE KING IS HERE!” Papyrus appeared at the entrance to the dining room with Asgore beside him. Sans immediately got up and walked around the table to greet him. 

You, on the other hand, were frozen in place, all anxiety about meeting Asgore suddenly shoved out of your system and replaced with utter shock. Ten years? Ten years! How was that even possible? Wait, did that mean Willow Wood had been abandoned long before Sans and Papyrus moved in? Is that why the therapy programs and city and whatnot were already so well-established? But that didn’t explain why the other versions started appearing here only two years ago. Was Sans just messing with you? No, if he was joking he would’ve said so by now. He was telling the truth. 

You were suddenly pulled out of your shock by a hand on your shoulder. You jumped and turned to see the concerned face of King Asgore. Papyrus had tried to help you prepare by showing you pictures of Asgore that morning. They were from when the monsters first surfaced where he was in full metal armor with a billowing purple cape and a massive red trident in his grip. 

That is what you expected.

What you got was a large, chubby, goat monster covered in white fur wearing…a hawaiian shirt, khakis, and sandals. You blinked for a moment at seeing a literal king in such…civilian clothes. It was only when he spoke again that you had realized he asked you something in the first place, “Are you alright, my child?”

What was it with the Classic monsters and calling you a kid!? Pushing away your annoyance, you nodded, “Um, uh, y-yeah. Just, um, nervous, heh.”

Wow, what a wonderful introduction. 

Asgore didn’t look convinced, but smiled anyway and followed Sans around to the other side of the table before taking a seat. You introduced yourself and he did the same. Then came the main topic of conversation, “I am aware Sans called me here to help solve your ‘Human or Monster’ problem, but I would like to hear the story from your perspective first, just in case anything has been missed.”

You nodded and realized only then that no one had really asked about your perspective of things. Stretch knew his magic brought you back to life, but he didn’t know that you had tried to stop him. Wine knew Red had attacked you, but he didn’t know that you had accidentally provoked Red. Blue, Papyrus, and Black knew you got lost in the city, but they didn’t know you had never been in a city in the first place. Bear knew you fell asleep under that fallen tree at the park, but he didn’t know the significance of it. No one knew anything about you other than the fact that you were a ghost brought back to life. 

So you told Sans and Asgore everything. 

You ranted for well over two hours, explaining how you had tried to protect your corpse from Stretch’s blast despite knowing it should’ve just phased through you. You told them about your entire encounter with Red and how you had unintentionally provoked him. You explained the whole city incident including how you felt like something was pulling you to the park. All the way up to last night at the bar with Red and Inferno, you told them your perspective of everything you thought was significant enough to tell. By the end, it felt like a chunk of a much larger weight had been lifted from your shoulders. 

Asgore looked like he had a few choice words for Sans about neglecting you and never hearing out your side of things, but he held his tongue and gave you a comforting look, “It sounds like you have been through quite a bit.”

You shrugged, “Not as bad as the stuff I went through while I was alive…for the first time, I mean.”

Asgore gave you a quizzical look, but didn’t push the subject further, “Well, Sans didn’t have that much information to provide when he called me, but I cannot think of anything that would lead us to an answer regarding your species.”

“So, what am I supposed to do then?” you felt a slight bit of panic creeping up on you, “I mean, I need that information for things like getting new papers to prove I’m alive, getting a job, a house-everything!”

Asgore looked contemplative for a moment before offering, “There is one thing I can do to confirm whether you are a Human or a Monster.”

You sat up straight and nodded at him to go on, “Yeah?”

“I can summon your SOUL. Human SOUL’s and Monster SOUL’s are quite similar, but vastly different in a very clear way. If you would let me check your SOUL, we can know for sure,” Asgore explained lightly.

Despite his comforting tone, you were still anxious. You had heard the others talk about souls and how vulnerable a person was when their soul was exposed. You didn’t necessarily have a distrust in Asgore, but it was more like you didn’t feel comfortable exposing the entire driving force of your new life in the middle of the dining room. 

Asgore seemed to pick up on this and offered, “If you would like to do it in a more private or comfortable place, that would be perfect alright with me.”

Your first thought was the basement, no one ever went down there, but the machine was down there and Sans still didn’t know you knew about the Au’s. Right now seemed like a bad time to derail the conversation, so you told them your room would probably be the best. It wasn’t perfect, the walls weren't the thickest and you were surrounded by all the other bedrooms, but it was the best you would get for now. 

Walking up the stairs was a bit awkward, but once you reached your room it only grew more so as Asgore looked around at the small space before turning to you and asking, “I thought you owned this house? You said so yourself in your story. Why do you have the smallest room?” Asgore asked.

“ Technically , I still do. But someone ,” you shot a soft glare towards Sans, “keeps claiming it’s his now.”

“hey, i bought it fair and square,” Sans defended himself. 

“And I know the original deed to the house is still somewhere here. I just can’t remember where,” you shot back.

“uh-huh, sure. Be sure to tell me if you find it,” he commented, clearly not believing you.

Asgore butt in before you two could argue more, “We can settle that later. As for now,” he turned back to you, “would you please take a seat?”

You nodded and sat down on your bed, making yourself as comfortable as you could in such an awkward situation. Sans stood a few steps back while Asgore kneeled in front of you. He asked once more for your permission to summon your soul, and you agreed. He pressed his massive paw to your chest for a moment before pulling it back. 

With it, came your SOUL.

It glowed a faint red for the most part, aside from an upside-down white heart in the middle and a river of ever-shifting orange running along the edge of the white. You had never seen a soul, picture or otherwise, and you found it a bit comical that it was the shape of a cartoon heart. You felt an odd sense of pride and joy when you stared at it. You looked up to Asgore to ask what it meant, but he was frozen with an utterly shocked look on his face. You looked to Sans for guidance, but he looked just as shocked. 

“Um…what’s going on? Is something wrong?” your anxiety began to rise and your soul shook a bit from it.

Asgore snapped out of his stupor and began to explain with an oddly careful voice, “You…the red heart is a Human SOUL with the SOUL trait ‘DETERMINATION’. The white is…a Monster SOUL.”

You looked between him and your soul several times before hesitantly beginning to ask, “So, what you’re saying is…I’m…I’m a human and a monster?”

Asgore nodded, watching you carefully as you processed the information. You took your soul from his paw into your hands, staring at it as you began to ramble off questions, “But…then what am I supposed to do? I can’t actually be both! I mean, humans and monsters are ruled under different laws. If I’m both then what laws do I follow? I can’t put both on legal papers! What am I supposed to do?”

Asgore rested one of his paws on your shoulder to help ease your panic, “In my experience dealing with Humans, I can only assume we will have to go to court to decide which species you will represent as and be ruled under.”

“Why would we have to go to court? Why can’t I just choose one and file that way?” you questioned. 

Asgore sighed and shook his head, “I’m afraid it would not be that simple. Due to your previously Human status, if you chose to identify as a monster then you would have to likely transfer any old legal documents to show your new identity and Human governments would find out what has happened to you. If you choose to remain a Human, you will need to change old documents to prove you are alive again and Human governments would, again, find out what has happened to you.” 

“Why would human governments matter so much?” 

Asfore wring his hands together, “I am not entirely familiar with humans, but I would not be surprised that if a story of a long-dead human suddenly being resurrected as a monster would go over too smoothly with Human governments. The Monster-Human war began due to the Humans’ fear of Monsters’ magic. I do not think another war would start, but I fear you would be endlessly harassed to do scientific tests to try and replicate your situation. Due to… past circumstances , there are laws for monsters put in place to prevent such a thing.”

You sighed and shook your head. Asgore had a point, if there was even a slimmer of a chance that some massive scientific discovery could be made, you’d be receiving calls and emails from every scientist or doctor known to man. There wouldn’t really be any benefit for monsters if you decided to identify as one, but the moment human governments got wind of your story, they'd probably try to argue that since you were originally a human you should remain one. You didn’t really feel like being harassed or poked and prodded at the rest of your life, so you agreed that court would likely be the best option, though you made it clear that you’d rather identify as a monster. Asgore saw nothing wrong with that and assured you that he would help you fight to officially be seen as a monster. 

He and Sans spoke for a minute about sorting out financial things regarding what would likely be a massive court case. Meanwhile, you inspected your soul once more. You wanted to hug it, hold it near and dear to you and never let it go. You traced a finger over the shifting orange line and shivered. 

You stared at and traced it for a few moments until you realized that Asgore hadn’t explained it, “Hey, uh, do either of you know what the orange line in my soul is? Asgore never explained it, so…”

Sans sighed and slouched a bit more, “was kinda hopin’ ya wouldn’t ask that, kid.”

Disregarding him calling you a kid again, you raised a brow, “Why not? Is it bad?”

Sans thought hard about his next words before asking, “are you familiar with soul bonds?”

You were a bit shocked to hear Sans ask that of all things. Soul bonds were a powerful and extremely intimate way of connecting with another person. They were like ten levels up from marriage. A soul bond would infuse the magic of one soul into another and vice versa. They were only breakable if a boss monster not involved in the bond used their magic to return the magic to its original owner, and only if all parties involved in the bond were okay with it.

You nodded, “Uh, yeah. I heard Stretch and Bella talking about them a lot the few months before I was brought back. Why?”

Sans tensed, but continued, “that…is a soul bond.”

You sat up stock straight in shock and a bit of panic, “What? How? I’ve only been alive, what? A week? I’ve left the manor grounds once and I didn’t interact with anyone outside of Black, Blue, Papyrus, Sugar, and Bear! Who could I possibly be bonded with?”

Sans drew in a tense breath and slowly said, “there’s only one monster i know that’s got that color magic…”

“Who?” you eagerly asked.

“...stretch.”

Chapter Text

“AHHHHH!”

The wood gave way easily under the pressure of the axe, both halves falling to the side of the stump as you yanked the axe out of the wood. You picked up one of the halves and placed it back on the stump, “Why, of all of you, did it have to be him !” 

The axe came down on the wood once more, splitting it a second time, “It could have been anyone!” 

You picked up the other half, “Why not Wine or Coffee? They at least actually like me!” 

You placed it on the stump, “Hell, even Blue, Black, or Papyrus would work just fine because at least they treat me well!” 

You readied the axe in your hand, raising it above your head as you spoke, “But nooooo ! It just had to be stupid fucking Stretch! ”

The axe came down on the wood, splitting it in two. You turned to Blue with a partially apologetic look, “No offense.”

Blue held up his hands in a surrender gesture and shook his head, “None Taken!” he folded his arms, “I Don’t Exactly Approve Of How He’s Been Treating You Anyway…”

“You’re not the only one,” you gestured to the others around you, “Clearly.”

After you found out that you had a soul bond with Stretch, you immediately excused yourself and went outside to try and distract yourself from the anger you felt at the situation. Pacing and trying to relax under the willow tree were both futile, so you opted to release the anger by chopping wood. Bear and Sugar noticed you and came over to ask what was wrong. You intended to give them the short explanation, but once you started talking you couldn’t stop. Your ‘short explanation’ quickly turned into a very long rant about Stretch and how much of an ass he had been so far. 

Blue and Papyrus had come out at some point to work on something, but were immediately distracted by your angered shouts. At one point, Blue had gone inside to get you some water and ran into Black. He had asked what the yelling was and after Blue explained, he insisted on coming outside to make sure you were alright. So now you had five skeletons around you watching you chop wood and rant angrily about one of their housemates. 

Blue had asked if you wanted him to talk to Stretch for you, but you told him that wasn’t necessary. Asgore had followed you outside earlier while you were pacing and offered to have him and Sans explain the situation to Stretch since you seemed so stressed about it. You jumped to say yes and thank him. He assured you it was the least he could do and there was no reason to thank him, but you insisted. You honestly felt kind of bad for leaving him and Sans to break the news, though. Not only because this was your problem, but also because Bella was over as well. 

Inevitably, Stretch would be pissed as all hell because how the hell is he supposed to explain to his girlfriend that he soul bonded to someone else while they were in a relationship ? You wouldn’t be surprised if he was throwing a pure temper tantrum right now. 

Not exactly like you were keeping calm about this either. 

Just as you brought the axe down on a fresh log, a crackle of magic brushed your side. You barely had time to react before Stretch was grabbing you by the collar of your shirt and slamming you into the ground hard . Your head bounced off the ground at least twice. 

There was shouting, so much shouting, and when you opened your eyes you could see Stretch snarling at you, “what the fuck did you do!?”

You glared back at him as fiercely as you could manage, “I didn’t do shit!”

Stretch yanked you up by your shirt collar and prepared to slam you back into the ground when he was suddenly pulled off you by Blue, who desperately tried to get him to calm down as Papyrus rushed to your side. He helped you sit up and checked the back of your head and shoulders for any wounds. There didn’t appear to be any, but your head definitely hurt. 

Stretch was now yelling at his brother about how he could possibly be on your side, even though Blue was trying to calmly explain that he hadn’t taken anyone’s side. When Stretch noticed you were sitting up, he immediately redirected his yelling back to you, only taking one step in your direction when a booming voice made him stop in his tracks. 

“That is enough!”

Asgore came marching over to the group, looking surprisingly intimidating despite his hawaiian shirt and sandals. Sans appeared next to Stretch and immediately turned his soul blue. Stretch opened his mouth to complain, but a single glare from Sans kept him quiet. 

Asgore walked past everyone and right up to you. His angry expression turned soft and concerned as he kneeled in front of you, “Are you alright, my child?”

You were so frazzled from the situation that you didn’t even have the energy to be annoyed at him calling you a child. You rubbed the back of your head, “Um, kinda? I hit my head pretty hard, but Papyrus said there’ll probably just be a bruise.”

Asgore didn’t look pleased at your answer, but didn’t press the topic further. He helped you up off the ground and turned to Stretch, growling out, “ You .”

Stretch flinched, but didn’t say anything so Asgore continued, “You are a full grown monster who knows better than this. I would expect this kind of behavior from Edge or Red, but you?”

“well ya can’t just expect me to be okay with this!” Stretch snapped back, receiving another glare from Asgore. 

“I do not expect that from you. However, had you listened to Sans and I before stomping out of the house like a child , you would have heard us say that I can break the bond right now, should that be something you both want,” Asgore scolded him.

“Please do!”

“yes!”

You both shouted at the same time, startling everyone else. Stretch looked relieved and gave you a thankful  grin before looking absolutely distraught that he had just smiled at, essentially, his not-so-mortal enemy. 

Asgore nodded at you both and narrowed his eyes at Stretch, “You will behave.”

Stretch merely nodded and Sans finally released his soul. Asgore led Sans, Stretch, and you inside while the others remained in the backyard or returned to their previous tasks. Asgore asked you and Stretch where you wanted to break the bond. Stretch didn’t care as long as it got broken, so you chose your room, thinking it would be the most comfortable place for you. 

Asgore had you and Stretch sit on your bed facing one another before he summoned your souls. Stretch’s eyelights dilated the slightest bit at the sight of your soul, but otherwise he didn’t react. You dared a glance at his soul and found it oddly…pretty. It almost made you cringe, it was the entire essence of his being, of the person you currently hate the most, and you thought it was pretty ?

…it really was though. It was more simple than your soul, just a plain upside-down white heart with a faint orange glow surrounding it that matched the river in your soul. The longer you looked, you noticed parts of the glow shifting into a peach pink color before going back to orange, almost like aurora borealis. 

It was your magic. 

When you were finally able to wrench your eyelights away from it, you looked up at Stretch to see him staring back at you. His posture screamed boredom, legs crossed with his elbow resting on his knee and his head resting in his hand, but his gaze was intense . Not necessarily a bad intense, just…intense. 

You pulled your eyelights away from him and to Asgore, who began to explain how this was going to work. Stretch did the same a second later. 

Asgore’s hands hovered underneath yours and Stretch’s souls, “I will temporarily fuse my magic into your SOULs and link it to the magic in the bonds. Once it is linked, I will pull my magic out of your SOULs, taking the bond magic with it, and return the magic to your respective SOULs before unfusing my magic. It will likely be uncomfortable, but it will not hurt.”

You nodded and followed his gaze back down to his hands. He took in a deep breath and as he let it out wisps of royal purple magic slowly extended from his palms, reaching up to your souls. His magic only caressed your souls at first, feeling over the surface to find the main point of the bonds. You shivered slightly at the feeling. His magic was strong, built up and mastered after millennia of training it. It commanded attention, but it was not cruel. Despite the strength it had, waves of care and compassion wafted off of it, creating a cloud of calm around your souls. 

As it began to enter your soul, you let out a stronger shiver. All the previous feelings were there, but now there was more. Guilt, grief, regret. Emotions hidden away, emotions he had been desperate to forget, but always there. You didn’t know the story behind these emotions. You weren’t sure you wanted to. 

Once his magic found the soul bond, it gently wrapped around it, running along its length but not stopping its flow. Once his magic completely wrapped around it, he began to pull. You jolted a bit at the initial uncomfortable feeling. It kind of felt like a weighted blanket wrapped around all your bones, but it was filled with tacks instead of plastic pellets. You glanced up at Stretch to see if he might be feeling the same way. 

His face looked only slightly uncomfortable, his posture the same, but his eyelights were locked on your soul. Something shone within them, something…concerned? Why the hell would he be concerned right now? As you looked down at your soul, you figured out why.

Fractures. 

As Asgore’s magic pulled Stretch’s magic to the edge of your soul, hairline fractures began to branch out from where the magic pressed against the inside of your soul, trying to break through the surface. As it pushed against the walls of your soul, you felt as though something was beginning to block your throat. You shifted uncomfortably and tried to take deep breaths, but the first deep inhale sent a light sharp pain through your ribcage and down to your spine to where your stomach would be. You flinched but brushed it off. You’re fine. Everything is gonna be fine. 

Your soul began to bend against the pressing magic, as if it was desperately trying to keep it in. The more it bent, the harder it was to breathe, like your non-existent lungs were being filled with liquid. It felt almost familiar and you tried to distract yourself from the feeling by thinking of what it reminded you of. Smoke? No, this was smoother than smoke. Water? No, water didn’t taste…metallic?

Just as the taste hit you, the magic broke out of your soul and you were overwhelmed with excruciating pain as your soul shattered. 

— — — 

You gasped for breath, choking desperately for air, clawing at the slash across your throat, a feeble attempt to survive. You knew you wouldn’t whether you succeeded or not. The bullet hole in your stomach and the knife through your heart was proof of that. You weren’t even sure how you were still alive at his point. 

That woman. That sorry, sorry excuse of a human being. She did this to you. You could hear the clicking of her heels as she walked across the hardwood floor of your attic. Your vision was blurred from tears and reddened by your very own blood, but you could still see her silhouette highlighted by the bright sunlight feeding into the attic through the open window. 

She kneeled by your side, not caring that her pristine white dress was colored red from the growing pool under you. Her face came into view and that sickeningly sweet smile remained. 

How you wished you could cut it right off her sour face. 

She brought a hand to your bruised cheek and caressed it with a falsely loving embrace. You wanted to move away, to spit in her face or throw her out the window, but you couldn’t. You lost too much blood already. Even your hands stopped their desperate clawing at your throat. 

“You understand why I’m doing this, right?” she said, voice sickeningly sweet. 

You couldn’t respond.

She chuckled, “Of course you do. You expected this, didn’t you? I told you what would happen if you ran. All of this is your fault. You know it is. You knew the punishment, and yet you still disobeyed. How does that feel? To disobey your sweet, loving-”

You coughed up blood. It spilled out of your mouth and over her perfectly manicured hand. Her fake smile turned disgusted and angered in an instant. She stood and the next thing you felt was the sharp toe tip of her heel being rammed into your cheek. The custom metal tip easily pierced through your flesh and into the side of your swollen tongue. 

The pain felt minuscule compared to the many other wounds you adorned. 

The heel was yanked out of your cheek a moment later, a scoff following it, “To think I was going to let him pass the business to you. What a fool I am.”

You gurgled on the blood in your throat as it flowed into your mouth. Her smile slowly returned as she stooped back down to your face, “I really should have expected this from you. 

She wrapped her hand around the knife in your heart, driving it in another inch. Your pupils shrunk down to pinholes as your body convulsed in pain once again.

“You were always the most defiant of your siblings. I would ask you to say goodnight to your dear mother, but it seems you have finally learned how to remain silent.”

The knife was twisted 90 degrees and wrenched from your body. The clicking of her heels slowly faded away into silence. 

You hate her.

You hate her for beating you. For starving you. For torturing you. 

You hate her for teaching you how to remain DETERMINED even when you are on the brink of death. 

You didn’t take your last breath until three days later. 

— — — 

Air rushed into your mouth as your eyes snapped open. You sputtered and choked on the air, desperately trying to pull in as much air as you could only to make your coughing fit worse. You could hear two people arguing in the background, muffled by the haze of green magic surrounding you. Large, fluffy hands pulled you tightly against a chubby body. 

A faint, deep, rumbling voice, spoke oh so softly, “Relax, my child. Do not move, that will only make it hurt worse.”

Slowly, through the guidance of the voice, you began to calm, not completely, but enough. Your breathing was still stuttered, but you were no longer panicking and trying to pull in air faster than you could breathe it out. Once you made it to a point where you could actually register your surroundings, you first noticed that Asgore was holding you tight to his abdomen to keep you from moving and hurting yourself more. 

The second thing you noticed was the dark green haze surrounding you. Healing magic. It was often only used on moderate or severe injuries when a first aid kit is not available. The darker the shade of green, the more intense the magic and often, the worse the injury. You were completely engulfed by a dark, forest green shade. You turned your eyes down to a faint glow in Asgore’s hand. 

It was your soul.

Deep cracks ran all the way through it, almost all of them filled with near-black healing magic. Right, your soul shattered when Stretch’s magic began to exit it. His magic was still there. The bond wasn’t broken.

The third thing you noticed was that Sans and Stretch were the ones arguing. The noise of their voices struggled to break through the thick haze of magic around you, but they looked like they were borderline screaming at one another. Asgore looked on in concern as you strained to listen to the faint whispers that came through the magic. 

“we can’t do that, stretch!”

“well I can’t stay bonded to them! i’ve got a fucking girlfriend!”

“and they have a fucking life to live! breaking the bond will kill them, you saw-”

“i know i saw! i don’t give a shit!”

…You had almost forgotten. 

Forgotten how you died. You were so close to never having to think about the excruciating pain you felt for three days in a row. Three days unable to move. Three days struggling to breathe. Three days unable to sleep. Three days of begging any god willing to listen to end your suffering. Three days of begging your soul to let go. 

You had to do it yourself in the end. 

You had to force your soul out of your body. You had to stare at the cracks and will them to grow. You had to writhe in indescribable pain. You had to commit your own murder. 

Horror filled you to the brim, the screaming fading into nothingness. Not again. You couldn’t do it again. Never ever ever Ever EVER AGAIN!

…tears welled in your eyes and you let them fall. Let them dig painful rivers into your cheekbones, carve lines into your jaw and seep in between the vertebrae of your spine. Sobs wracked your body. 

You began to beg.

It was quiet at first, unnoticed by anyone. Then they slowly grew to just above a whisper. 

“I don’t wanna die…not again…please…”

It was quiet. Oh so sickeningly quiet. 

You forced your head to turn, to look at Stretch through your blurred vision. 

He looked back at you, a combination of complex emotions on his face. You screwed your eyes shut to get rid of the tears. To see him clearer.

He was gone when you opened your eyes.

You cried twice as hard and Asgore held you tight, encouraging you to cry, to sob into his shoulder with everything you had left. You listened and sobbed into his shirt. It was ugly and messy and you screamed in grief a few times, but Asgore’s hold never lifted or even loosened. 

Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever. Once you finally tired yourself out, too fatigued to produce even another tear, Asgore gently pressed your soul back into your body. He wrapped you in a fluffy blanket and gently laid you in your bed, tucking you in and singing a short lullaby to you before pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead and leaving. Your door quietly clicked shut behind him, leaving you in bitter silence. 

You hated it. 

You were alone in utter silence. Just like those three days. 

You tried to stick it out, to stay in bed and rest like Asgore told you to, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to sleep. Every time your eyes began to drift closed, her sickening smile flashed in your memory. After an entire hour of some fucked-up game of chase with sleep, you relented. You forced your very sore body to get up off your bed, dragging your blanket with you. Standing was difficult and walking was even harder. Your knees shook from pain and you kept collapsing against your bed frame or the walls as you stumbled down the hall. 

You needed comfort, and you knew for a fact who would provide it. Mutt sounded annoyed when you knocked on his door, but the moment he opened it his annoyance turned to concern, “Ghostie! th’ hell ‘re ya doin’? san’ said ya gotta rest.”

“Cou…Couldn’...” you couldn’t even get out a single word before your tired legs buckled beneath you. 

Mutt caught you before you could hit the floor, not even bothering to ask another question as he picked you up bridal style. He kicked his door shut and walked you to his bed. There was a faint grey haze over his room and it smelled strongly of weed. He gently laid you down before going back to the door, turning off the light and locking the door before returning to your side. He laid beside you, carefully pulling you into his comforting arms. The first few times you nearly fell asleep, you saw her smile and jolted in panic. He shushed you and whispered promises of protection to you, assured you that you were safe with him, that he refused to let whatever was haunting you get to you again.

Slowly, the weed smoke in the air calmed your mind and numbed your sore bones. You were finally able to relax and fall asleep, secure in Mutt’s arms.

Chapter Text

You didn’t get much sleep. Most of your night with Mutt was spent with you having brief moments of sleep, about 10-20 minutes, before a horrid memory would wake you. You often awoke crying or panicking. Mutt, ever the patient and comforting skeleton, would ease you down from the nightmares, rubbing his hand up and down your back and whispering comforting words to you. He even kissed your forehead a few times in hopes to help you. It would only work until the next nightmare.

 By morning you had gotten barely any sleep and had cried so much that you barely had the energy to walk down to the dining room for breakfast. Mutt, not wanting you to hurt yourself further, carried you down. He had his hands under your coccyx with your legs wrapped around his hips and your arms around his neck. There were a lot of rushed, worried shouts when you entered the dining room, but they quieted quickly when you flinched. 

 Mutt carefully set you down in a chair and ordered Black to move so he could sit next to you. Surprisingly, Black listened and moved without even a single back-handed complaint. Papyrus set a plate of three plain waffles and two sausage links in front of you. You looked around the table to see that everyone else's plates were filled with waffles, sausage links, bacon, and eggs. Stretch was nowhere to be found. 

 You couldn’t bring yourself to eat, not even a sip of water that your dehydrated self desperately needed. You didn’t even have the will to pretend like you were gonna eat by shoving around the food on your plate with a fork. It didn’t go unnoticed. By the fifth ‘are you sure you’re alright?’ you were sick of it. You managed to find the energy to push your chair away from the table and bolt away to the stairs, ignoring the worried calls behind you. Your bones burned with sore pain, and you’re not sure how you managed to make it up the stairs without falling at least once, but you eventually made it to your room. You practically threw yourself onto the bed, immediately regretting it from the pain that spread through you. You sighed, too dehydrated to cry, and sat against your headboard, hugging your knees to your chest. 

 You were staring off into space for a few minutes when your door opened. You didn’t bother to look up and see who it was, but you were somewhat relieved to see Bear sit down in front of you. He had your plate in his hand. It was quiet for a moment until he spoke, “will you…eat?”

 You squeezed your legs closer to your chest, but didn’t say anything. You couldn’t bring yourself to tell him you didn’t think you could eat. 

 He seemed to realize that, though. His face fell slightly into a sad look and he spoke again after a moment, “please? …you…you promised.”

 You finally found the courage to look away from the food and up to his eyelight. He looked so sad, yet so hopeful. You had promised him that you’d let him remind you to eat. Granted, you didn’t need to be reminded this time, but you still needed to eat. You tentatively nodded, watching silently as a small smile broke out on his face. He used the fork to cut off a small piece of the fluffy, plain, waffle before feeding it to you. 

 You really didn’t want to eat, it made your throat feel like it was closing in on itself again, but you did it for Bear. After about three bites, he noticed how much you were struggling and tried to fix it by sitting behind you. He pulled your back close to his chest and rested his head on top of yours, essentially becoming a heated weighted blanket for you. He set the plate in your lap and fed you that way. You didn’t feel like talking, so you’d tap the back of his hand three times when you were ready for another bite. He didn’t try to get you to eat more when you couldn’t bring yourself to anymore. He was just happy you ate something, even if it was only a quarter of a waffle and a sausage link. 

 He urged you to sleep and when you told him you couldn’t due to your nightmares, he encouraged you to at least rest and not get up unless you absolutely needed to. You obeyed for all of fifteen minutes before the crushing silence became too much for you to handle. You somehow managed to drag yourself out of your bed, taking your blanket with you, and stumbling to your door. You leaned against it for a moment, thinking of who you were even gonna go to. Mutt mentioned earlier in the week during lunch that he had plans today, Coffee probably left with Wine again, Blue and Papyrus had mentioned a big project they were working on today, and everyone else you didn’t trust enough to be around while you were in such a fragile state. 

 Well, almost everyone. 

 Cash was a decent option. He hadn’t been rude, just distant. You wouldn’t be surprised if it was because Cass had complained about you to him. You were sure you heard him go into his room while Bear was feeding you, so that’s where you went. He was confused at first, asking why you were up so soon. 

 You tried to respond, but couldn’t exactly think of the right words, “I can’t be alone right now. Feels…”

 Cash, thankfully, didn’t press for a full explanation. He just gave you a sympathetic look and waved you into his room. His room looked a lot like Mutt’s, but instead of a variety of empty soda cans or beer bottles on the floor, it was crumpled sheets of paper filled with mathematical equations you couldn’t understand for the life of you. There was a bong or two about, but they weren’t in use. 

 Cash’s bed wasn’t made, but you didn’t care as you crawled onto it and made grabby hands for him. He chuckled and closed his door before walking over to you. He sat against his headboard and pulled you into his lap, holding you sideways against his chest. You sat in silence for a bit while he idly rubbed his thumb over your cheekbone. It felt oddly…intimate. Not in an uncomfortable way, but definitely not something you’d think he would do considering how little you both know about each other. You didn’t mind though, you needed the comfort right now, so you let him do it. 

 You were extremely fatigued, but your memories still plagued you every time you closed your eyes. Each time they would slip closed, you’d see that sharp metal tip flying towards your face, or her horrid smile, even the growing cracks in your soul. Every time it happened, you’d jolt slightly and have to take a few deep breaths to calm yourself. Every jolt would send bolts of pain through your body, making you flinch once more and sometimes hiss in pain. It got to a point where you were scared to just blink.

 Eventually, Cash asked, “You alright? Ya keep jumping like you’re scared of somethin’.”

 You sighed, on the verge of crying from frustration, “‘s just a nightmare I keep having. Keep getting reminded of it when I close my eyes…also my entire body hurts.”

 Cash hummed in acknowledgement and thought for a moment, “Anything I can do to help?”

 You were about to say no, but then you remembered last night when the weed smoke in Mutt’s room helped ease the pain and nightmares enough for you to sleep at least a little bit. You had never done drugs when you were alive and swore you never would, but in a situation like this…

 “I spent last night in Mutt’s room and the weed smoke helped a lot…You willing to share any?” you tentatively asked.

 Cash huffed a laugh and reached over to his bedside table, “Didn’t take you as one to smoke.”

 “I don’t usually, but considering my current situation…” you trailed off and he hummed in understanding.

 He pulled an altoid container and a lighter out of the drawer before closing it. He set the lighter in your lap and fumbled with the altoid container to open it with one hand while his other stayed wrapped around your hips. Once he opened the little metal container, you saw it was filled with pre-rolled joints. He pulled one out and held it between his teeth while he closed the container. 

 He picked up the lighter and spoke around the joint, “You want the first hit?”

 It was then you realized that you had made a slight mistake. You had seen in some of the movies that the skele-bros watched that the people smoking for the first time would cough a lot. You were not in the mood to deal with a coughing fit, “Uh, I’ve never smoked before so I’m not exactly used to it…”

 Cash nodded before offering, “You could shotgun it.”

 You looked up at him with a confused look, “How the hell do you shotgun a blunt?”

 He chuckled, noticing where your confusion was coming from, “It’s not like shotgunning a beer. I’ll take a hit, but instead of completely inhaling the smoke I’ll blow it into your mouth. It’s kinda like adding a mixer to liquor to make it easier to drink. You’ll still get the same effect, but it’ll be easier to handle.”

 You nodded in understanding, “That makes a lot more sense.”

 Cash chuckled again and lit the blunt. He turned to you and brought his hand around your waist up to your face, turning it to look at him more directly. The action made a bit of magic rush to your cheekbones, but not enough to be noticeable. Cash’s eyelight locked with yours and he asked, “Ya ready?”

 You could only nod in response, not trusting your voice at the moment. Cash nodded back in response and pulled in a breath, letting most of the smoke coalesce in his mouth. Once there was a decent amount, he used his free hand to remove the blunt from between his teeth. Then he began to lean toward you, tilting his head like he was going in for a kiss. He stopped short and blew the smoke out barely an inch from your mouth. 

 You did your best to focus on breathing in the smoke, but the action was just so…intimate. Even when you coughed and sputtered on the smoke, even when Cash chuckled and rubbed your back while you recovered, you couldn’t help but think about the brief moment while he leaned toward you. It felt like something romantic partners would do, and you felt a bit guilty for liking it. Cash already had a romantic partner, Cass. He seemed more than happy with her. He was only doing this to help you, and that’s where you had to leave it, no matter how much of an ass his girlfriend was to you. 

 He repeated the action several times and each time he did, your flush reduced until you had fully relaxed. You sat in comforting silence with him for a good two hours, a smile slowly stretching over your face as the pain in your bones ebbed away with each puff of smoke he breathed into your mouth. However, her stupid fucking smile still remained. It didn’t appear every time your eyes closed, but it was definitely enough to stop you from staying relaxed. 

 Cash noticed it after a while, “If you don’t know about anything else that can help…ya wanna talk about it?”

 You thought for a moment. Did you want to talk about it? Not really. Should you? Probably. Inevitably, Sans was probably gonna try to force the story out of you and you’d rather have your first experience talking about it not be forced. So, you told Cash about your night-...memory. You told him every gorey detail, from how you nearly forgot it to how you had to shatter your very own soul. 

 He was crying for you by the end of it. 

 He didn’t shed many tears, but they were definitely still there. Eventually, you started crying, too. You didn’t cry for long, too tired to do so. Luckily, talking about the memory somehow made it easier to sleep. Once you both finished crying, Cash layed down with you laying on top of him. He pulled a weighted blanket over the two of you, you remember him saying once while you were a ghost that he kept it in his room for Coffee if they decided to spend all night gaming in his room. Cash kept his arms wrapped around you, running his hand up and down your spine in a calming manner. 

 Finally, you were able to get more than 20 minutes of sleep. 

Chapter Text

Your nap lasted all of two hours. There was a quick knock at Cash’s door before it opened. You were too groggy to identify the person’s voice yet. Just as you were sitting up to see who it was, they stomped up to you, grabbed the back of your shirt through the weighted blanket, and threw you to the ground. 

You barely had time to roll over to see who it was before Cass was on top of you, claiming you were a homewrecker and trying to hit you. Thanks to Edge’s ‘training session’ earlier in the week, you were able to deflect most of her attempts. Unfortunately, you were still too weak to knock her off of you. 

Luckily, Cash had also been woken up by her and he was quickly able to pull her off of you. She immediately began berating him for cheating on her, even though he hadn’t. He tried to calm her down by assuring her he didn’t, but she didn’t seem to be open to hearing him out. Cass’s incessant yelling brought the attention of Black, Mutt, and Razz. Black immediately tried putting some distance between Cash and Cass so they could settle this civilly. Mutt ran right up to your side and scooped you up into his arms before teleporting away. 

You weren’t used to shortcuts so you were left curling into yourself and groaning from the nausea. He had only teleported you a few feet away to where Razz was in the doorway, but it was still a bit much for you. He held you close as he walked you downstairs, away from the yelling and into the dining room. He sat down with you in his lap while Razz set about making something in the kitchen. 

It was a bit odd to see Razz cooking alone. Every month or so he, Blue, Black, and sometimes Papyrus would gather in the kitchen and cook together. Black often made coffee every morning and a breakfast burrito for himself and Cash. Blue would make breakfast for himself and Razz before their morning run and he would often help Papyrus make lunch and dinner for the manor. Razz never seemed to cook by himself.

It quickly became painfully obvious why. 

He looked very lost in the kitchen. He seemed to know where the cups, plates, and silverware were, but absolutely nothing else. Pots and pans? Took him five minutes to find them. Cooking spoons and spatulas? He looked right past the holder on the counter at least five times when Mutt finally told him that they were right there. Measuring cups? Forget it, he’ll just eyeball the ingredients. It was almost comical to watch. It got to a point where Mutt had to get up and help his poor brother, who tried to insist that he didn’t need the help. He did. He very much did. 

You sat quietly and watched them playfully bicker about what ingredients should be used, all the way down to which pot they should cook the food in. Several times throughout the process, Razz would turn to you and demand ask you which to use. You weren’t much help considering you couldn’t even remember how to properly chop an onion, but you did your best to help them. 

It took them two hours to make you a single plate of scrambled eggs and two sausage links. You were a bit confused by the breakfast theme considering it was around dinner time, but when you asked the two about it, Razz gave you a confused look, “Dinner Was Over Seven Hours Ago. It Is Almost Two A.M.”

You blinked in surprise. You hadn’t slept that long. Did you really talk to Cash for so long that you missed lunch and dinner? It did make sense though, Cass usually came to the manor late at night and would spend the next day hanging out with Cash. She never warned him when she was coming over, so there was no way he could have known she would barge into his room and see you with him. 

Mutt nudged your arm, urging you to eat instead of just staring blankly at your plate in thought. You snapped out of your thoughts and began to eat. It was a bit difficult, but it got easier when Razz started insisting you needed to eat more so your magic reserves could build up again and you could heal faster. His sudden kind-ish nature was a bit odd to you, but the past two days have been pretty odd for you, so you decided to file the thought away and come back to it later. Maybe ask Mutt about it tomorrow…or later today considering it was nearly three a.m. by now. 

You were too restless to return to bed, and even if you were tired enough, you still didn’t want to be alone. Mutt offered to see if Coffee was up for a sleepover. Coffee had the biggest room in the manor and, thanks to his autism, it was filled with various soft stuffed animals and cozy bean bags. He even had a mini fridge with a plastic bin on top that he kept stocked with his favorite drinks and snacks. He was usually up pretty late playing video games most nights, so you weren’t worried about waking him up at all. Mutt insisted on carrying you upstairs and Razz insisted on sticking with you two, should a certain vengeful girlfriend barge in and try to attack you again. 

Coffee was happy to invite you and Mutt into his room. He was a bit hesitant with Razz, but after Mutt whispered something to him, he allowed Razz in. Mutt set you down on a beanbag on the ground before sitting in front of you, stretching out his long legs and leaning his torso back against your chest. Razz took a seat in Coffee’s gaming chair by his PC that Mutt used more than he did. Coffee himself sat in the beanbag next to yours, flashing you a bright smile as he picked up his gaming controller. 

The small TV in Coffee’s room was on and the pause menu for a game was on the screen. You apologized for interrupting his game but he waved off your concern, picking up his notebook and pencil to write down, ‘It’s okay! You look like you’ve been crying… Wanna play?’

There was a little arrow at the end of the note pointing toward the TV. You smiled nervously and played with the strings on Mutt’s jacket, “I, uh, I’ve never played a video game, actually. I’ve only seen you guys play before.”

Coffee scribbled something down on his notebook and showed it to you, ‘That’s okay, I can teach you! Or Mutt can!”

You couldn’t help the smile that forced its way onto your face, “I’d love that! That sound good to you, Mutt?”

You looked down at Mutt to see him just staring at you. Well, it was less staring and more…admiring? He made a confused noise and Coffee tapped his notebook. Mutt looked over and quickly read it before shrugging, “sure, why not? i c’n teach ya all m’ cheatin’ tricks.”

Coffee proceeded to whap Mutt over the head with his notebook before furiously writing, ‘One cheater is enough!’

“One cheater is never enough,” Mutt shot back playfully. 

Coffee rolled his eyelights and loaded up a multiplayer game to show you the ropes. You liked to think you were a quick learner with how fast you had picked up pottery skills, but it seems that you just have a natural talent for pottery. You couldn’t press the right buttons for the life of you. At one point, you were losing so badly that Mutt teleported behind you and put his hands over yours to physically show you how to play. He and Coffee never made fun of how hard you were failing, but they did crack a few jokes. At one point you even managed to convince Razz to play a round against you three (technically two since Mutt was still guiding your hands while you just sat there). 

What you did not expect was for Razz to absolutely decemate you guys. 

Mutt just stared at him, jaw dropped in shock, “‘ow the hell did ya do that!?”

Razz smirked and puffed out his chest in pride, “Back In The Underground Before Mutt Was Born, I Managed To Snatch A Human Gaming System From The Dump. It Barely Worked, But My…Friend Managed To Fix It Up For Me! I Was Able To Play It For Quite A Few Years Until Mutt Came Along.” 

Mutt looked surprised and confused at that. He looked over to his brother who gave him a blank stare, “You Spilled Juice All Over It And It Caused A Minor Electric Fire.”

Mutt burst into laughter while Razz continued to glare, “ya serious?”

“Yes! Our Bro-I Mean My Friend Refused To Fix It After That!” Razz did his best to hold a vicious glare, but Mutt’s laugh was contagious and you could see the slight tilt to the edge of Razz’s mouth. 

The time flew by fast and before you knew it, Razz was practically dragging you three downstairs for breakfast. The lighthearted vibe of the night was quickly washed away as you sat down and noticed Stretch at the far end of the table. He had his hood pulled up and was staring blankly down at his untouched plate of food. You did your best to ignore him turning to your plate of eggs, sausage, and toast. 

You tried to focus on the fact that Papyrus and Blue were always making sure your food wasn't too spiced or flavorful so you could eat comfortably. You also did your best to eat enough, kind of like a silent 'thank you' to Bear and Sugar for making sure you remember to eat. You tried your best to distract yourself from the fact that Stretch was just a few feet away from you, but it was clear no one could ignore it. Breakfast was incredibly tense and you could see everyone glancing over at him from the corner of your eye. 

He never said anything about it. 

You tried not to glance over, you didn't even want to, but something in you kept screaming at you to look, so you did. It was meant to be quick, just a little look and then you'd go back to eating. However, when you glanced up to see him, he was looking right back at you. You froze, not knowing what to do.

If looks could kill, you'd be dead again. His glare was sharp and fierce, filled with hate and loathing. Yet somehow, someway, your mind told you there was remorse in it. Your brow bones knit together in confusion. That didn't make sense at all. No person with an expression like that would be trying to convey remorse. You brushed it off as a lack of sleep and returned to your food, eating what you could. 

Mere seconds after you gave the rest of your food to Bear and Sugar, Edge stood up, turned to you, and demanded, "WE WILL TRAIN TODAY. DUE TO…RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, I FEEL IT IS NECESSARY TO TRAIN MORE OFTEN. I WILL MEET YOU OUTSIDE IN TEN MINUTES."

Papyrus tried to reason with Edge that you probably shouldn't train yet given your condition. Edge completely ignored him and you told Papyrus that it was fine. With the way Edge trained, it might even be beneficial for you. You had cried enough the past two days, getting anger out would be better. 

Chopping wood can only do so much, but training with Edge might be better. You wouldn't intentionally hurt him obviously, but you knew he was tough. He could take a hit, you saw it yourself on the rare occasions he would spar with Wine or Black. If you hit him a bit too hard, that would be fine. On top of that, running around trying to dodge his hits or trying to hit him would likely tire you out a lot so you could probably, finally, get a full-night's rest. 

Edge surprised you a bit this time by making a weapon for you instead of trying to force you to make one yourself. It was a simple red bone, small compared to the ones he usually summoned, but the perfect size for you. He assured you it shouldn't break, but if it did he would just summon a new one for you. 

He started off easy on you at first, but after you managed to land three hits on him, he started going harder and faster. Now you were trying to dodge more than hit, but it was still effective at releasing your anger. He didn't try to hit you directly, but when he did it was barely hard at all. It confused you a bit until it dawned on you that Sans probably told everyone to go easy on you because your soul had shattered. That would also explain why everyone was so eager to tell you to rest and recover. 

What they seem to forget is that this isn't the first time your soul has been shattered. 

You sparred with Edge for quite a while, dodging and trying to hit him as best you could. You ended up going all the way to lunch and took a long break for you to eat and catch your breath. Bear and Sugar seemed very pleased that you ate a lot more this time around. You planned to eat a lot more not only because of all the energy you expended, but because you didn't plan to stop sparring with Edge. When you asked him if you could keep training after lunch, he looked shocked before his expression turned pleased. He said something about how 'of course you'd want to keep training with someone as great as him' before agreeing to keep training with you. 

He started off easy again, but quickly upped the difficulty. He started throwing spiked bones into the mix, literally. They didn't look as sharp as his normal ones, but you weren't about to find out. You were feeling a lot better by now, but you were also feeling a lot more tired. Your foot placement was a bit questionable at times, but you persisted, sure of the fact that you'd be alright. One more round and you'll call it quits.

Just a moment after you had that thought, two things happened. First, you heard a 'shing' behind you indicating another magic attack. Second, a tree root seemed to suddenly appear under foot, causing you to trip backwards. 

You barely had time to turn your head and see the array of sharp bones behind you before you fell. 

Chapter Text

A groan slipped past your teeth as you began to sit up. Everything felt a bit…odd. Was this another dream? You opened your eyes to find that, yes, this is, in fact, another dream. You knew because last you remember, you did not live anywhere near a magma-covered land. 

The heat was surprisingly bearable, a bit hot of course, but bearable. You stood up from the metal platform you ‘woke up’ on. There was a vast array of walkways and paths to walk over the lake of ever-shifting magma. Massive stalactites loomed over you. Somehow, the fact that they were bone-dry made them even more intimidating than usual. 

You wandered for a while, waiting to actually wake up. You explored the pathways, admired the moving magma, and even got scared shitless by a vent in the ground that launched you over a five-foot gap over bubbling lava. Still, you didn’t wake up. It felt like you had been here hours, your other recent dreams were short, why was this one taking so long? At one point, you got a bit too distracted and tripped on the edge of the walkway. You prepared to plummet straight into the bubbling magma, but you didn’t.

Instead, you hit a hard…invisible walkway? The tiles of the walkway illuminated white at the edges when you touched them. Seeing nothing else to do here, you stood and followed the walkway to a…wall. You stopped a few feet from it, very confused. Why would there be a magical walkway leading to nothing? You looked behind you to see the always-visible path just as it was when you stepped off of it. Turning back around, you were still met with the wall. You thought for a while before an idea came to you. A magic pathway wouldn’t lead to nowhere, right? You raised your hand and pressed it against the wall directly in front of you, pleasantly surprised when your hand phased through the wall. With one more look back at the rest of the area you had explored, you stepped through the hidden doorway.

The other side was much darker and there was no pure magma. It looked like the floor was mainly cooled into smooth lava rock, causing a pleasant tapping sound when you walked across it. This room was slightly cooler than the rest of this place, but it was still warm. The main thing that caught your attention was the house at the far end of the room…the same house that was in your first dream. 

Curious, you stepped closer to it. The only thing that seemed to be different were the curtains pulled over the windows. You could see faded silhouettes of people through them. Many people, most of which had similar stature. As you got closer, you could hear them talking, not about anything specific, just chatting idly with one another. 

Curiosity drew you closer to the house and before you even had the chance to register what exactly you were doing, you knocked on the door. Immediately, the talking stopped. Silence hung tense in the air as you awaited something, anything. 

"Is that actually them?"

"Probably. Took em long enough."

"Don't be rude, Dagger! They can probably hear you."

"That is enough. I will get the door."

"Now? I'm not prepared!"

"It will be alright, Root. I'm sure they will be patient with you."

You tensed as footsteps approached the door. You took a step back, watching in anticipation as the deadbolt lock clicked open. The knob turned and you held your breath as the door began to open… 

You almost wanted to scream when you woke up and were met with your bedroom ceiling. How did you even get here? Last you remember you were sparring with Edge when you tripped…right into one of his attacks. You sighed and forced yourself to sit up. You didn't feel like you had been impaled, but you definitely had a headache. Edge probably dismissed his attack before you could hit it, but didn't have a chance to stop you from hitting the ground. 

You looked down to find yourself in an unfamiliar sweater. It was big on you, but not as big as Mutt's. It was also incredibly soft, softer than any other sweater you remember owning. It was a dirty yellow color with black and dark green speckles all over it. You grabbed the collar of the sweater and brought it up to your face, breathing in the comforting smell of…Coffee? You blinked at the spiced cider scent that met your senses. This must be Coffee's sweater, but he wasn't supposed to be home for a few more hours. 

You didn't have a clock anywhere in your room so you pulled yourself out of bed, flinching at your sore bones. Maybe you went a bit too far when training with Edge. You stretched a bit to try and lessen the soreness in your body before wandering downstairs. The manor was mostly empty from what you could see, but you could hear humming coming from the laundry room. You tip-toed over and peaked around the cracked door. Blue was inside folding his and Stretch's clothes. 

You smiled, relieved it was someone you got along with, and stepped inside. Blue did a double-take before pausing, looking you over carefully, "Evening, Maiden…How Do You Feel?"

You quirked a browbone at his lack of enthusiastic energy, "Um, fine. Sore from training so much with Edge, but fine…everything okay?"

Blue's sockets narrowed at you for a moment before he gathered up his folded clothes and put them in his laundry basket, "You Were Acting Really Weird Earlier. Are You Sure You Are Alright?"

He patted the top of the dryer, silently asking you to sit. You obeyed, a very confused look on your face, "What are you talking about? I don't think I was acting weird…"

Blue looked more concerned than suspicious now. He pulled down the first-aid kit and rolled up your sleeves to reveal a myriad of bruises from your earlier training, "Edge Said That While You Two Were Training, He Summoned A Square Of Bone Spikes For You To Dodge, But You Tripped. He Was Able To Dismiss The Attack Before You Hit It, But He Didn’t Have Time To Stop You From Hitting The Ground.”

You nodded as Blue opened up the first-aid kit and began applying a pale green paste to your bruises, “That’s what I had assumed, but I don’t see how that makes my actions weird.”

Blue shook his head, “That’s Not What Was Weird. After You Fell, Edge Said You Stood Up, Looked Around, And Then Just…Silently Walked Into The Woods. He Tried Calling For You But You Wouldn’t Respond. He Told Sans What Happened And Sans Said To Just Wait. We Tried To Wait, But…”

Blue’s hands began to shake slightly as he tended to your arms, but he took a breath and steeled his nerves to finish telling you what happened, “You Didn’t Come Back. By The Time Black, Wine, And Coffee Got Home They Insisted On Going Out To Look For You. Eventually Bear And Mutt Joined Us, But It Still Took A Few Hours To Find You.”

That was…definitely odd. As far as you knew, you had never done anything like that before. What was even more odd was the fact that that was exactly what you had done when you ‘woke up’ in your dream. Were you sleepwalking? Hallucinating? None of it really made sense, “How long was I out there? Who found me?”

Blue stiffened at your first question, only answering the second one, “Um, Mutt Found You. He Saw You Slip Off A Rock And Fall Into A Creek A Few Feet Below You. He Said He Grabbed You And Tried To Ask If You Were Okay, But You Wouldn’t Respond…Your Eyelights Were Completely Out, Too…”

As worrying as all of that was, you still wanted to know, “How long did it take for you guys to find me?”

Blue didn’t say anything, suddenly very invested in your bruises. You thought for a moment on if they were actually from training. You pushed the thought away and sternly spoke his same. Blue tensed before finally looking at you with a worried expression, “I Don’t Want To Worry You.”

“Blue, not telling me is going to worry me more,” you insisted.

Blue finally caved, nervously looking you in your eyelights and muttering out, “Twelve Hours…”

You stared at him in shock, not wanting to believe his words. You knew your ‘dream’ felt longer than the others, but not that long. You remained silent as Blue continued to patch the bruises and faint scrapes over your bones. He let you know that Coffee and Wine had changed you out of your hold clothes and into a fresh set before laying you down in your bed. You had only been in your room around ten minutes before you came downstairs, which is why Blue had acted so odd when he saw you. You didn’t respond, but did nod to show you had at least heard him. 

You felt like all your effort to stave away all these rough emotions was for nothing. How did you not even realize you had been wandering the forest around your home for so long? Why didn’t you feel as tired as you probably should after wandering around for twelve hours? Shouldn’t your feet and legs hurt? Hell, your bruises barely hurt…

Once Blue was done, he gave you a comforting hug, which really didn’t do much for you, and let you go on your way. You stalked your way back up to your room and buried yourself under the blankets, thinking about your ‘dreams’ and the soul bond and your newly-remembered memories. It all seemed so…absurd. Your whole situation was, really. You were supposed to be dead right now, yet here you were. A living, breathing being with thoughts and emotions who’s defied all laws of nature at this point, it seems. 

You…didn’t like it.

Even with all the skele-bros moving in, you had forgotten just how complicated life could be. You had barely been alive a week and you’d already found out that your cherished small town was turned into a massive supercity, several people you live with don’t like you, one monster you live with and one human you don’t live with both hate you, you’ve been attacked several times, had your soul shattered, remembered how you died, and now you have some weird sleepwalking thing to deal with as well. It was all so much, and yet, despite all that, your only question was…Why? Why did you have to be born into that family? Why did you have to become such a deviant? None of this would have happened had you just listened to your mother. Why did you think taking all your siblings and running for the hills was a good idea? Why were you so confident she wouldn’t find you? Why did you have to be brought back to life? Why did it seem like everyone around you hated you for one reason or another? Why was your face wet? Why was it so hard to breathe all of a sudden? Why was everything blurry? Why? Why!? WHY!?

The door to your room slammed open and you screamed, scrambling to the edge of your bed, falling to the floor before continuing to push yourself back into a corner. Slowly, a dark figure approached and kneeled before you. You couldn’t see them clearly from the tears blurring your vision, but it looked like one of the shorter skeletons. He turned to someone behind him and spoke to them before turning back to you. You could hear his voice, but it felt distant and muffled.

Something brushed against your hand and you pulled it back like you had just been seared by a hot skillet. Your eyelights darted down to where your hand had been to see a blurry skeletal hand. You still couldn’t clearly make out the voice, but it felt…comforting. Moreso than you were used to from most of the Sanses. Whoever it was still had their hand held out to you. Hesitantly, you rested your hand in his. His tone shifted from concern to something a bit lighter, almost relieved. 

He turned his head a moment later and another blurry figure loomed over his shoulder. They slowly approached you and took a fluffy grey blob in their arms and unfurled it into…a blanket? They rested it over your back and shoulders and the tension quickly melted away with the heavy weight of it. Your eye sockets fluttered shut while you focused on the finger rubbing over the bones on the back of your hand. It took a while, but eventually you felt calm enough to open your eyes and see who had helped you. 

To your surprise, and delight, it was Wine and Coffee. 

Relief washed over you. They were possibly the best two skeletons you could be around right now. With them you didn’t have to worry about overprotective brothers, jealous girlfriends, getting attacked, nothing. They liked you and they both knew the other liked you. You didn’t have to worry with them. You were safe with them. It made an ever-so-slight smile grace your face.

When Wine, who was holding your hand, noticed it, he reached his other hand out to caress your face, “There you are, my Darling.”

You pressed your face into his hand, breathing in the scent of fresh linens and fine-aged wine. He rubbed his thumb over your cheekbone for a few moments before quietly letting you know that he was going to move you to your bed. You nodded and he carefully picked you up bridal style. 

You didn’t want to speak at the moment, but out of fear of being left alone again, you did, “C-can you stay? Both o-of you? I…I-I don’t w-wanna be alo-alone.”

“Of course, my Darling,” Wine promised, “Your bed may be a bit small for all of us, but I’m sure we can make it work.”

Wine gently laid you down in the middle of your bed and went to turn the light off while Coffee crawled into the bed next to you. That’s when you noticed they were both in their pajamas. Wine’s were a high-end silk set with the main color being his own namesake while the hems were finished with thick black strips. He probably made them himself. Coffee’s pajamas were far less sophisticated. A worn pair of pajama pants with Rick & Morty all over them and a black shirt with a skeleton on the front. There was an arrow pointing to the elbow and a line of text at the end of the arrow that read ‘funny bone’ in the comic sans font. 

The joke on Coffee’s shirt and the stark contrast between the brothers’ pajamas made you chuckle lightly. Coffee beamed and began readjusting the weighted blanket over your shoulders so all three of you could share it, but you would have the most. Coffee gave Wine a thumbs up once you were ready and the light went out. Since Coffee was the tallest of you three, he was behind you with your back pressed to his chest while Wine’s chest was pressed against yours. Their hold on you was firm, but comfortable. It didn’t take long for you to drift off to sleep. 

When you began to stir from a nightmare, you could hear a faint, unfamiliar voice singing you back to sleep with a familiar lullaby.

Chapter Text

Sunlight shined directly into your face, nearly blinding you when your eye sockets cracked open. An annoyed groan left you as you flipped to your other side in the bed, intent on ignoring the daylight in favor of rotting in your bed. It had been three days since your sleepwalking incident and you barely left your room, mind too muddled with questions no one could answer. Bear and Sugar took turns bringing you food and Edge routinely came banging on your door, insisting on taking you outside to get some training in. It took Sans telling him to stop for him to leave you alone. Wine, Coffee, and Blue checked on you periodically to make sure you were doing alright. You weren’t really, and you could see it worried them, but it felt wrong to lie. 

You heard nothing from anyone else, and honestly you didn’t really mind. Sure, sitting in your own misery wasn’t ideal, but it was better than dealing with a pissy skeleton. Well, they weren’t all pissy, some were just too busy to come see you. Black was swamped with work, Papyrus was in a similar situation with his college classes, and the Swap-verse Papyri were almost entirely focused on practicing for the music festival they would be playing at in a few months. This left you alone for almost the entire three days you were hiding away in your room.

Until about thirty seconds ago when there was a knock on your door. 

You invited the person in without asking who it was, figuring it was just Bear or Sugar bringing you breakfast. Needless to say, you were shocked when you heard Papyrus’ voice say, “I THINK IT IS ABOUT TIME I HELP YOU GET OUT OF THIS ROOM.”

WIth more effort than it should have taken, you pushed yourself up into a sitting position and turned toward Papyrus. You didn’t say anything, just stared at him with a tired expression that begged him to let you sleep. However, this was Papyrus, he wasn’t going to let you give up that easily. 

He offered you a sympathetic look and came to sit at your side, placing a hand on your shoulder, “DON’T WORRY, I DON’T PLAN ON TAKING YOU TRAINING OR TO THE AQUARIUM LIKE EDGE OR BLUE WANTED TO DO.” Honestly, the aquarium didn’t sound too bad, “I JUST WANT TO BRING YOU WITH ME TO THE LIBRARY.”

You tilted your head at his proposition, “The library? Why?”

Papyrus perked up a bit at finally hearing you speak, “WELL, I HAVE TO GET SOME STUDYING DONE AND I FIGURED YOU COULD FIND SOMETHING TO READ IN THE MEANTIME. THE LIBRARY IS FAIRLY QUIET AND THE ONE I FREQUENT HAS A LOT OF BOOKS. IT IS ALSO CLOSER TO THE EDGE OF THE CITY SO YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING OVERWHELMED BY THAT AGAIN.”

You thought on his words for a moment. You didn’t really want to leave your room, but it had been three days by now. If you didn’t leave now, when would you? Bear and Sugar have been gently encouraging you to leave your room, but don’t try to force you, and Wine, Coffee, and Blue have only mentioned it once or twice when they come to check on you. They were clearly worried, as was Papyrus, and you were sure that went on to Black and maybe Mutt or Cash. You’d hate to worry them more, and finally getting out of the house is probably the best way to avoid that. The library seemed like a good place to start, too. You’re not sure what kind of books you’ll read, but you’ll cross that bridge when you get to it.

With a nod of agreement to Papyrus, he smiled brightly and left so you could shower and change into fresh clothes. You did just that, scrubbing down your bones slowly, just to stall the inevitable. Part of you did want to go out to assure the others you were alright, but a huge part of you also really really really didn’t want to. Your bed looked appetizing, the outside didn’t. Still, you dragged yourself to your closet and began picking out an outfit. It would probably be warm out, so a simple outfit like a pair of jeans and a t-shirt seemed good enough.

Your nerves spiked and you started wandering downstairs to the dining room for breakfast, but thankfully Papyrus had taken the breakfast sandwiches for you two and wrapped them up in parchment paper so you could eat them on the way to the library. You’re especially thankful for that since both Stretch and Cass were at the table. Cass must've spent the night last night. 

After Papyrus quickly explained to his brother where you both were off to, he led you out the door and handed you your breakfast. You gave him a small smile and a thank you before digging in as he led you to his car. You both took a minute to eat and chat a bit before leaving. Papyrus did most of the talking, telling you all about his classes and what he’d be studying for today. You didn’t understand most of it, but he didn’t seem to mind clarifying a few things for you. 

The ride to the library was fairly quiet aside from the wind whipping over your skull. It was warm out, the sun beating down on you keeping you from getting too cold. Most of the drive was spent watching vast empty fields or forest trees pass by. You had your manor built in the middle of nowhere mainly for the privacy it provided. You wouldn’t be surprised if that was the same reason Sans and Papyrus bought it. Gradually, houses began to pop up until you were driving through the suburbs. From that point, it wasn’t much longer until you pulled into the library parking lot. 

It wasn’t the biggest library, but they did have quite a large selection of books. Papyrus let you know what study room he would be in and to just come to him if you needed anything. After assuring him you would, you went your separate ways to pick out whatever books your hearts desired. You weren’t sure what you wanted to read. Maybe something summarizing any major historical events from the past twenty-two years? Or maybe technological advancements? Or you could brush up on some first-aid or basic life skills like cooking and cleaning. You used to cook and clean a lot, but it quickly became clear you no longer had those skills. 

You continued to silently contemplate what book you should read as you wandered the aisles. A few books caught your eye, but something in you kept telling you to keep looking, so you did. You just had the idea to find a book about ceramics to maybe find a way to fix your broken equipment when a different book caught your eye. There wasn’t anything special about it. It had a plain grey cover with white text surrounded by a circle of souls, different colored human souls with a monster soul separating each one. The lettering read ‘The Book Of SOULs’. At the bottom of the cover it read ‘by Jest Tarrington’. 

You didn’t feel like knowing about souls was very important right now, but you still caught yourself opening it up to the table of contents. You skimmed over it out of curiosity, but stopped at one specific chapter name.

‘Chapter 6: SOUL Bonds……………………………………pg.93’

Curiosity thoroughly spiked, all other thoughts of books you really should read were pushed away in favor of reading this one. You didn’t expect this to solve your problems with Stretch being an asshole over this whole soul bond thing, but maybe it could help you manage it better. Wandering a bit more around the library to find a comfy reading spot, you settled in and cracked open the book, flipping right to page 93. 

With a deep breath, you began reading. The beginning of the chapter basically introduced what soul bonds were and how they worked by binding two monsters’ magic to the other’s soul. However, there were a few paragraphs that really caught your attention, particularly the ones about different types of soul bonds, and the different ways a soul bond could happen. 

‘Contrary to popular belief, SOUL Bonds are not strictly for romantic partners. They can also be familial or platonic, though those types of SOUL Bonds are quite rare. Familial bonds are often made between a mother and a child, particularly if the child is born ill or premature. The bond will allow the stronger magic of the mother to feed into the child’s SOUL and strengthen their own SOUL. Platonic bonds, often between friends or siblings, typically happen during times of hardship like war or famine. It is often a way to have peace of mind for both monsters, knowing the other is alright despite the difficult times in their life.’

‘Due to the incredibly intimate nature of SOUL bonds, it is near impossible to accidentally create a bond.’

You huffed a bitter laugh at that last sentence. Near impossible your ass.

‘Romantic bonds are often formed during sex, though they do not have to be. When forming a bond of any kind, it is easiest to imagine a joyful moment both people experienced together. This creates a stronger bond that is harder to break.’

That almost made you laugh, too. The soul bond between you and Stretch formed in a moment of panic and fear for both of you, plus it was an accident. How unlucky could you have possibly been to have all these rare instances happen and still create a bond? Brushing that off for the time being, you continued to read through the chapter. A page or two later, you came across an interesting section that really grabbed your attention. 

‘SOUL Bonds, Part 2: Special Abilities’

‘Due to the fact that SOULs are the very accumulation of your being, there are many side effects, or Special Abilities, that come with a SOUL Bond. In the second half of this chapter, I will briefly explain the major abilities. If you wish to know all of them, please reference ‘SOUL Bonds 101 by Jest Tarrington’.’

‘One of the most notable side effects of a SOUL Bond is the ability to detect the strong emotions of whomever you share the bond with. It is often easier for a weaker SOUL to feel the strong emotions of a stronger SOUL. This is part of why SOUL Bonds are an extremely intimate act. If you are unable to detect the emotions of the person you share the bond with, you may mistake them as your own and feed more of the same emotion into them, increasing the intensity of said emotion.’

You blinked down at the paper in shock. Suddenly, your all-over-the-place emotions began to make more sense. Your anger randomly spiking when you confronted Stretch at dinner, how you randomly got annoyed or angry when Stretch was around, how he would only get angrier the angrier you were. You usually didn’t get angry like that, but if you were both just feeding your anger back into one another, that would easily explain your unstable emotions. You thought it had just been because you hadn’t interacted with anyone in so long, and you’re sure that’s still part of it, but this was definitely contributing to it. 

This could help you, though. Yeah, you were still super angry at Stretch, but maybe you could try to calm arguments between you two by refusing to feed into his anger. He likely had a stronger soul than you did, yours was out of commission for over two decades after all, but if you tried hard enough maybe you could get him to chill out a bit? You wanted to try and test it out, but that meant getting into another argument with him and you really didn’t feel like doing that any time soon. You could just wait until you got into another fight with him, but then you risked forgetting this new information. 

With a sigh, you filed away those thoughts for later in favor of continuing to read. Knowing the side effects of a soul bond would be vital for you, especially if Stretch kept acting the way he has been. The next few paragraphs weren’t really anything special, but the last one was intriguing. 

‘The final side effect I will talk about in this chapter is something I personally like to call ‘The Living Memory’. From an outside perspective, this side effect simply looks like a surprised jolt or sudden change in emotion. For the bonded, however, this is much more. This side effect allows a person that is part of the bond to pull another into a specific memory of theirs. They have to be touching the person they intend to share the memory with in order to pull them into it and out of it. Only the person that initiated the Living Memory may end it. This is one of the most intimate parts of a SOUL Bond aside from the bond itself, as you are essentially pulling another person into your very own mind to have them experience the very same thing you once experienced.’

Living Memory. That…could actually be really useful. You re-read the paragraph several times, determined to commit it to your memory, something within you screaming that you will need it in the future. 

You spent the next few hours running back and forth between your little reading area and the shelf filled with books about souls. Your main focus was anything dealing with soul bonds, but you did skim through a few chapters about souls in general. They were much more intimate and important to monsters than humans. To monsters, showing your soul to someone else was like saying you wanted to marry them, kind of like how a soul bond was a step up from marriage. 

Once you realize you only had about an hour left before leaving and you had four books you wanted to read, you finally sought out Papyrus to ask him about borrowing his library card to check out the books. He was happy to see you had found some books you liked, but his smile turned sympathetic when he noticed they were all about souls or soul bonds. He tentatively asked if it was because of you and Stretch. You admitted that he was right, but that you now had some information that could hopefully help you get used to the whole soul bond situation between him and you. 

Papyrus was particularly happy to hear that and handed over his library card so you could get the books checked out. You thanked him and went off to the front desk. The librarian, an older monster who looked like a lamb with a massive bun of curly fur situated on the back of her head, greeted you kindly and began scanning the books, “Curious about SOUL Bonds, are you?”

You chuckled awkwardly and shrugged, “Guess you could say that.”

She hummed and thought for a moment before kindly telling you to wait and that she would be right back. You, although confused, listened and waited patiently for her to return. When she did, she was holding what looked like a really old journal, covered in coffee stains and held together by masking tape and spite, “The last librarian got this book back underground before she retired. When I took over the library on the surface she said this book was about SOULs, but no one can read it. Apparently it was written in a lost language.”

You hummed and took the book as she held it out to you. The front simply read ‘Notes on SOULs’ and just underneath it looked like what would’ve been the name of the owner, but an old coffee stain smudged the ink and made it no longer legible. Before you could question why the librarian was showing you the book, she said, “You can have it if you want.”

You looked up at her, surprised, “Like, keep it? Why?”

She shrugged, starting to place your other books in a bag to make them easier to carry, “No one can read it so no one ever checks it out. I’ve got no use for it, and I got a feeling it was supposed to end up in your hands.”

Glancing back down at the journal, you thumbed the cover, feeling the subtle waved in the warped paper from old coffee stains, “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to take it if you could still use it.”

She waved off your worry and handed you the bag of books, “Don’t worry about it, hun. If no one has checked it out by now, I doubt anyone will. You take it home and see if you can decode it. I have a feeling you can.”

You gave her a doubtful smile and took the bag of books, thanking her for the journal. She returned your smile with a brighter one and wished you a wonderful day. As if on cue, Papyrus came around the corner to check out a few books so he could do some extra studying at home. While the librarian scanned his books, you let him know you’d be waiting in the car. 

The drive home felt long, almost like waiting for a doctor's appointment, but you couldn’t pinpoint why.

Chapter Text

You barely had the chance to find a place for the books in your room when there was a soft knock at your door. You called over your shoulder to allow the person in. You never heard the door open, so you were reasonably startled when Black asked right next to you, “Are You Busy?”

You jumped a bit and turned to see him quietly closing the door, as if it was something he had practiced many times before. After taking a breath to calm your nerves, you gave a slight shrug, “Not really, why?”

Black’s response was quick and gave no room for argument, “Because I Will Not Allow You To Rot In Your Room For Another Week.”

You gave a light scoff, “It wasn’t a week…”

Black persisted, “Regardless, I Cannot Just Let You Sit In A Heap Of Your Own Self-Pity For The Rest Of The Day.”

“I already went out with Papyrus today, though,” You held up one of the books you got as proof, “Do I really have to go out again?”

Black thought about it for a moment before crossing the room to stand in front of you, “I Suppose Not,” he plucked the book from your hand and set it down on the bedside table, “But That Does Not Mean I Will Let You Remain Cooped Up In This Dreary Room.”

You took a moment to look around your room, quickly realizing that you still hadn’t decorated any of it. Turning your attention back to Black, you asked, “Well then what do you want to do? I’d offer an idea but my plan was to, as you put it, ‘sit in a heap of my own self-pity’.”

Before Black had a chance to respond, a voice from your door cut in, “actually, i’m gonna have to borrow ya, kid.”

You swore you could nearly feel your eye socket twitch at Sans’ nickname for you. Begrudgingly, you turned to him, “Do I have to?”

The look on Sans face told you that he knew you would rather spend time with almost anyone but him, but he persisted, “yeah. i’ve been talkin’ with a friend for the past couple days about your SOUL. she thinks she knows what’s wrong with it but has to see you in person to be sure.”

You groaned and tilted your head back, thinking for a split second that Sans’ nickname for you was actually quite accurate, before looking back at him, “I literally just got back from the library with your brother. Can’t this wait til tomorrow? Or a time when I’m not in such a crappy mood?”

Granted, that crappy mood could possibly be from Stretch’s part of the soul bond and not actually your emotions. 

Sans shook his head, insistent, “nope. sorry, kid. alphys isn’t gonna be available for a week or so after today, and the sooner we figure this out, the better.”

“But-” a hand on your shoulder cuts you off as you look up to Black. 

“Go With Sans, Dear,” hearing Black’s pet name for you helps you relax, “Come Get Me After You Get Back And We Can Find Something To Do. I Will Be In My Room.”

Black’s assurance that you’ll still be able to hang out helps a bit, but part of you still dreads going with Sans. However, you knew that if you tried to avoid it then he would just push it more. It was better to go with him and get this over sooner rather than have him bombard you with reasons why you need to.

With a surrendering sigh, you turned back to Sans, “Where are we even going?”

“the above-ground Lab,” Sans quickly offered as Black quietly made his exit, “alphys is a doctor there and she’s pretty good with SOULs. i’m hoping she’ll know why trying to break the SOUL bond didn’t work.”

That actually made you a little excited. If you can figure out why it didn’t work, then you can find a way to fix it and not have to be bonded with Stretch anymore and everyone lives happily ever after! You let Sans know you’d meet him downstairs before going to change into something a bit more comforting. Going to the doctor tended to psych you out a lot, but clean and comfy clothes helped keep you a lot calmer. Freshly changed and feeling a tad bit better about having to go out again, you made your way downstairs to meet up with Sans. 

He planned on teleporting you both to the Lab, but you weren’t exactly in the mood to be near enough to him to touch so you went off to find someone who could drive you. Luckily, Papyrus heard you searching and offered to take you both. You apologized for having him leave the house again so soon, but he assured you he didn’t mind. You finding out what was wrong with your SOUL was far more important than his free time. You thought otherwise, but he insisted you shouldn’t worry.

The drive to the Lab was…tense, to say the least. Sans and Papyrus were in the front seat talking quietly while you stared blankly out the back window. Your thoughts throughout the drive ranged from hypotheses about your SOUL and the bond, to the journal, to what Black had planned for you when you got back. You wondered for a moment if your crappy mood had something to do with Stretch and the bond, but you still had no clue how to tell the difference between your own emotions and the ones he projected to you through the bond. 

You tried to focus on what Black might have in store for you, but no matter what, your thoughts came back around to Stretch. For a moment it felt like he was playing the role of a cat begging for attention from its owner, worming its way into their lap and staring them down as if to say ‘I’m more important than whatever you’re doing. Pay attention to me.’ The thought almost made you laugh, but the tension in the car quickly flooded back into you, pressing your laughter down to where it couldn’t be heard. Maybe another time. 

The Lab was massive, to say the least. Many floors tall and, according to Sans, several floors deep as well. Papyrus told Sans to call him when you were ready to be picked up and said he would cruise around town in the meantime, maybe get some food. You and Sans watched Papyrus' bright red convertible drive off into the distance for a moment before turning and entering the Lab. You were no stranger to hospitals or places of the sort, but that didn’t mean you were comfortable in them. 

The moment you stepped through the front doors, a zing of prickling magic ran down your spine, as if your very SOUL wanted to race right back out the doors and wait outside for Papyrus. The feeling was oddly familiar, you wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same feeling you experienced in medical establishments when you were alive. Despite the feeling of wanting to flee, you took a deep breath and followed Sans up to the front desk. The receptionist seemed to immediately recognise him, greeting him by name and making basic small talk until he asked if Doctor Alphys was busy. The receptionist gladly told him she wasn't and simply gave him a room number before you parted ways. 

From the way Sans led you through the Lab with no directions other than a room number, it was clear he was quite familiar with this place. Maybe he used to work here? Or maybe he currently does? Regardless, it didn’t matter much to you. You could ask him just to satiate your curiosity, but considering how cold he’s been with you recently, you weren't too keen on talking with him more than you had to. Luckily, you didn’t have too much longer. 

He stopped at a door and knocked a few times. A second later, a voice from the other side called out “C-come in!”

The tension in Sans’ bones nearly completely vanished when he opened the door and spotted the person on the other side. They both greeted each other enthusiastically and gladly talked while you stood awkwardly by the closed door. Eventually though, Sans seemed to remember you existed and introduced you to Alphys. She was short, just coming up to about your shoulders, and resembled a lizard. Her skin was a vibrant yellow-orange and her two front teeth peeked out under her top lip and it honestly made her look adorable. She was welcoming and, despite her nervous demeanor, instantly made you feel significantly more comfortable. 

Sans had already briefed her on the situation so she had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but she still wanted to get your version of things. You were a bit nervous to tell her your version of everything with Sans there, but you did. From feeling Stretch’s emotions to finding out about the bond to trying to break it. You even told her about the Soul Bond book you found at the library earlier in the day. She was very pleased that you had decided to do your own research, pressing you for it and going on a short tangent about how many people she comes across who never even bother doing their own research on their conditions. 

However, because your situation was so unique with you being part human, she wanted to run a few tests to see if she could find out what was wrong. She guided you to the other side of the room and had you sit down on an examination chair. She pulled a curtain around the chair to separate your half of the room from the half Sans was in. 

The first thing Alphys wanted to do was inspect your body. She wasn’t extremely familiar with human skeleton anatomy, but she had helped Sans and Papyrus many times when they were sick and knew nearly all the ins and outs of monster skeleton anatomy. Since a monster’s body was a reflection of their SOUL, but human bodies weren’t the same, she wanted to see if there were any inconsistencies in your skeletal structure compared to Sans and Papyrus. Afterwards she would examine your SOUL and see if any of the inconsistencies in your body were reflected in your SOUL. Finally, she’d use a machine to scan your SOUL and hopefully give some extra information on it that could help her find out why the bond couldn’t be broken. 

The initial examination of your body was…odd. You almost felt naked, but not quite. You were naked, but…it was just your skeleton. Part of you said you should feel embarrassed for being naked in front of someone you didn’t know, but on the other hand, it was just a skeleton. You didn’t have any genitals or anything to be embarrassed about, really. For a moment, you wondered how the hell the skeletons could have sex if they didn’t have genitals, but you pushed that thought away in favor of not trying to imagine your housemates having sex while you were standing naked in front of a stranger. 

Alphys didn’t find any significant inconsistencies in your skeletal structure. It seemed that the monster part of your SOUL had taken over your appearance, causing it to look almost exactly like a monster skeleton instead of a typical human one. Once she was done, she said you could get dressed again, but to leave your shirt off. When you asked why, she informed you that sometimes when a monster’s SOUL is pulled from their body, it reveals marks on the abdomen. They often come from traumatic events, but if you had any then it could greatly help her find out what’s wrong. 

After what had happened to your SOUL last time it was outside of your body, you were a bit nervous to let Alphys summon it, but knew it was for the better to let her do so. Your immediate reaction was to reach for it and pull it back into your chest and protect it, but other than a slight jolt, you refrained from doing so. Alphys spared you a sorry glance before turning you gaze down to your SOUL and sternum. She immediately tensed, causing you to worriedly look down at your torso to see what was wrong. 

Needless to say, she was right about marks appearing. Over your sternum and stretching out over your ribs were glowing marks that looked like cracks, but there weren’t any actual cracks on your bones, just the glowing ones. The previous times your SOUL had been drawn from your body, you were fully clothed so you had never noticed them, but according to Alphys’ reaction, they were quite significant. She inspected them closely for a moment, gaze intense. You stared down at them with her, wondering where they could have come from because you were sure you hadn’t injured your abdomen like that before, alive or not. 

Then you noticed something odd about the marks, the color wasn’t a pure white like you first thought. They had a slight tinge to them that seemed to gradually get stronger. After a few moments, your mind finally identified the color. Orange. Alphys seemed to notice the color at the same time you did as she let out a little gasp, “O-oh my st-stars…”

Her reaction wasn’t helping your anxiety at all, “What? What’s wrong?” 

She glanced between you, your SOUL, and your sternum for a moment before finally explaining, “th-the um, the cracks a-are…y-you said Stretch h-had, um, used a G-Gaster B-Blaster on you, r-right?”

You nodded, trying your best to stay calm, “Yeah. I jumped in the way and then I was back in my body after it fired.”

Alphys nodded, turning her attention back to your sternum, “These marks…” she took a moment to think about how to explain, “I-I, um…I believe they’re St-Stretch’s m-magic…Th-they, uhm…i-if it i-is his m-magic, then, i-it’s the only thing, um, keeping y-you alive.”

You nodded in understanding at her explanation, “Yeah, I kinda assumed that already after what happened with the SOUL bond, but how can we break the bond? Would bonding with someone else and then breaking the bond work?”

Alphys gave you a look of pity and shook her head, “Th-that’s not wh-what I mean. Stretch’s m-magic isn’t j-just bonded to your S-SOUL. It’s b-bonded to your b-body, t-too.”

The realization was gradually dawning on you, but part of you didn’t want to believe it unless it was explicitly said, “So, what you’re saying is…”

Alphys hesitated to say it for a moment, but seemed to know you needed her to, “E-even if you d-did bond with s-someone e-else, i-if you broke the b-bond with Stretch, y-you wouldn’t survive…”

The statement hit you like a fucking freight train. You had two options; be stuck with Stretch connected to you for the rest of your life, or experience death all over again. You had already experienced your SOUL shattering twice as well as over two decades of being a ghost. Did you really want to go back to a life of being unable to communicate with anyone, interact with anyone, unable to leave your house, experiencing the same monotonous routine every day? These past two weeks have felt like absolute hell, but finally being able to interact with living beings and being able to have an actual two-way conversation was…nice. Normal, almost, despite nothing about your situation being normal. You didn’t want to die again, but that meant…

You were stuck with Stretch for the rest of your lives.

Chapter Text

“Square Your Shoulders,” Black ordered…again.

You let out a frustrated sigh, lowering your arms so the bow and arrow rested in front of you, “I don't know what you mean by that, Black!”

You couldn't understand how Black had managed to be so patient with you, but bless him for it. He had tried to visually show you the proper stance to use many times now, but you just couldn't get it for the life of you. Now, he seems to be changing tactics. 

He took a few steps toward you to stand at your back, “Raise The Bow And Pull The Arrow Back.”

That, you could do. It was really the only thing you could do halfway decent so far. Once you did, Black pressed one of his hands against your shoulder blades to straighten your back while using the other to raise your arm holding the bow, “Hold That Position.”

While you did your best to not move your back or arms, Black used his feet to nudge your legs into the right position. He didn't have to do much correction there, thank goodness otherwise you may lose your balance and fall. You felt incredibly uncomfortable in this pose, there was no way Black actually stands like this when using a bow, “Is it supposed to be this uncomfortable?”

“Right Now? Yes. But That Is Simply Because I Am Not Done,” you swore you could hear slight amusement in his tone, but his hands on your hips quickly distracted you from that. 

You jolted a bit, but tried your best to stay still as he guided your hips to be more in line with your spine. That…actually felt a lot better now. You felt a lot more stable and less like you could topple over like a bowling pin at any second. Black still didn’t seem to be done, though. While he had been adjusting your posture, your grip on the bow had loosened a bit, causing it to not be in line like Black had instructed of you. Instead of verbally correcting you, he simply placed his hands over yours and guided them to the correct position. 

“Much Better,” there was a pleased lit to his voice.

His warm breath fanned over the back of your neck, sending a not-so-subtle shiver down your spine. You were suddenly very aware of how close he was to you. If he leaned just half an inch forward, he could kiss your neck. The thought of him doing so was…not entirely unwelcome. However, he brought you out to the woods to teach you how to shoot a bow, not kiss you. 

“Now…” he let go of your hands, “Release,” he whispered beside your head.

Almost instantly, you let go of the arrow. The string of the bow shot it forward, the feathers on the end tickling against your hand holding the bow as it spiraled past. You watched intently with bated breath as it flew forward toward the hay bale target and…landed right on the edge! 

An excited smile spread across your face as you took a step away from Black before turning to face him, “I did it! I hit the target!”

Black had a soft, proud smile on his own skull as he walked toward the target, “And It Only Took, What, Thirty Tries?”

A pale peach blush dusted over your cheekbones as Black bent down to start picking up the arrows from all your other attempts. Not wanting to leave him cleaning up all your mess, you quickly walked up and joined his side, setting the bow he conjured for you to the side so you could collect the arrows. Comfortable silence drifted between you both as you spent a few minutes picking up your failed attempts at hitting the target. 

Once the final arrows were gathered and returned to Black’s quiver, you turned to him, “I, uh, think I’ve had enough trying to successfully shoot an arrow. Do you mind if I just watch you practice for a while?”

Black hummed in thought for a moment, fiddling with the taught bow string across his chest, “I Suppose You Have Made Enough Progress To Warrant A Break,” the bow beside you vanished before it was re-conjured next to a downed tree log a few feet away, “Would You Like To Talk About Anything, Or Just Watch?”

Silence was pretty much the last thing you wanted right now. You’d get bored and then you’d start thinking and then you’d start thinking about how the appointment with Dr. Alphys went, and you really didn’t want to think about that right now. You spoke as you walked over to the tree log and sat down on it, “Um, I’d like to chat if you don’t mind. I don’t wanna distract you.”

“Simple Chatter Is Nowhere Near Enough To Distract Me,” he proved his statement easily as he loaded and released an arrow right into the middle of the makeshift target. 

His actions were precise and crisp, he must have trained for a long time, “How long have you been an archer?”

Black hummed quietly as he loaded and aimed another arrow, “I Started Training With The Royal Guard When I Was A Pre-Teen. I Received My First Bow Once I Reached Maturity. The Captain Trusted I Was Mature Enough Not To Use It Against Any Of My Fellow Soldiers.”

The way Black described it made it seem like he didn’t have a choice in what weapon he would wield, “Did you want to be an archer?”

Black took a bit more time to think about your question, firing off two more arrows before finally responding, “Not At First, No. I Was Far More Interested In Melee Weapons, But My Captain Refused To Allow Me To Engage In Such Close-Range Combat. She Claimed I Was Too…Erratic. Archery Would Force Me To Remain Calm And Calculated. I Despised It At First And Grew To Hate My Training. However, After A Few Decades…” he took a second of silence to aim and shoot another bullseye, “It Grew On Me.”

You watched him fire off a few more arrows before asking, “How often did you practice?”

“Every Day,” he replied plainly, “I Still Do.”

“You do?” you questioned. 

Black paused, easing the tension on his bow string as he turned to you “Yes, I Do. You Didn’t Know?”

You assumed he was referring to when you were a ghost and unintentionally spied on them all, “Well, I was pretty limited in where I could go. If you always practiced in the woods then I never saw.”

Black hummed in thought before turning back to his target and re-drawing his arrow, “What Were Your Limits? If You Do Not Mind Me Asking.”

“Not at all,” you tilted your head back, observing the bright sun rays spilling through the tree canopy, “It mainly depended on the weather. If it was clear and sunny out with not much wind, I could go as far as the willow tree, but no farther.”

“And If The Weather Was Harsher?” Black gently pushed for more information. His quiver was already starting to run low. 

“Well, if it was just light rain or snow then I could go to the edge of the pond. If there was a downpour or harsh wind I couldn’t go much farther than the shed. If it was storming or a blizzard then I couldn’t even leave the house. A few years back, before Sans and Papyrus moved in, it snowed so bad that I couldn’t see out the windows, it was just pure white. It lasted for three days and I couldn’t leave the attic until about a month or two later.” 

“That Sounds…Lonely,” Black concluded after a moment of thought. 

You nodded despite him facing away from you, “It was. Scary, too… Snow absorbs sound, you know. That’s why winter seems so quiet. During any other weather, I could hear the house creak and groan under the pressure of wind, or hear the rough slamming of fat droplets of rain against the roof, even the whistling of wind outside. But for those three days? I heard nothing. No creaks or slams or whistling, nothing. Snow is so light, quiet as it falls…I hadn’t even noticed when it began to snow. I begged for something, anything to make a sound during those three days. I tried making noise myself, but it just made me feel pathetic. Can you imagine it? A ghost so desperate for any kind of noise that she runs around her studio like a headless chicken, grabbing random pieces of her precious artwork to smash against the floor in hopes to hear something? Anything?”

You hadn’t realized you started crying until a violet square of cloth was pressed to your cheekbone. 

“I Can Imagine It,” Black’s voice was quiet, tender and filled with not only sympathy, but relation as well, “I…Spent A Long Time Feeling Like That Underground. Particularly With Cash. He…” a heavy sigh fell from Black’s teeth as his posture slumped down into a fatigued hunch, “He Was An Addict. I Cannot Count On Both Hands How Many Times He Had Nearly Died From An Overdose. Let Alone The Sheer Number Of Days I Spent Sitting By His Bedside, Begging Him To Make A Noise. Anything, Just To Let Me Know He Was Alright. I Would Grow Angry With Myself, Wondering Where I Had Gone Wrong In Raising Him For That To Be The Outcome. Watching With Bated Breath As Specks Of Dust Fell From His Bones, Drifting Down To Rest On His Bed Sheets Until I Could Clean Them. I Cannot Count The Amount Of Bows I Broke In My Frustration. Cash Is In Rehab Now, But…”

Black risked a glance up at you from his kneeling position on the forest floor. The look in his eyelights…it wasn’t one you ever thought you’d see in them. Fear. It wasn’t your typical adrenaline-fueled rush of fear. This was quiet, unsuspecting and yet a person would know deep within them that it could pounce at any moment. Like a cat watching a mouse. You know the cat can pounce at any time and catch the mouse, but you never know when it will strike, or if it will even bother. Cash was trying to quit, trying to escape the swift cat of relapse inch by slow inch, but that cat could pounce at any moment, grab him by the cervical vertebrae and refuse to let go until he stopped moving for the final time. 

That’s what Black was scared of. 

Understanding flashed in your eyelights and his own reflected it. As if a string had snapped between the two of you, mirrored tears filled both your sockets’. Black tried to restrain his tears longer than you bothered to restrain yours, but the moment your arms wrapped around his shoulders, he broke, letting out a shuddering sob and pulling you into him by your waist. His hands dug into the fabric of your graphic tee, his sharp claws tearing small holes in it, but you didn’t care. There was a story to go with those holes, an important story that only you two know. 

You weren’t sure how long you both sat there, finding comfort in one another's embrace, but it was long enough for the sun to begin setting over the horizon. Black noticed it first, pulling away from you slowly and using his bandana to once again wipe away your tears, “We Should Probably Head Back To The House Before Bear Or Sparrow Come Searching For You For Dinner.”

With a nod of agreement from you, Black helped you stand and dismissed the magic bow he had conjured for you to use. Most of the walk back to the house was…oddly calm. Part of you expected Black to be stand-offish and cold after showing you such raw emotion, but he wasn’t. The silence that stretched between the two of you was comfortable, calm…empathetic. 

Then Black suddenly stopped beside a creek, traces of tension lacing the air around him. You only took a few steps forward before halting and returning to his side, “Black? Everything alright?”

His expression was…conflicted. About what, you weren’t sure, but it took him a moment to speak, “This Is Where Mutt Found You.”

Mutt found you here? When? You looked in the direction Black was facing. Across from the two of you was a shallow, rocky creek with a cliff about fifteen feet high just above it. It took you a moment, but eventually Blue’s words from a few days ago rang through your memory.

“Um, Mutt Found You. He Saw You Slip Off A Rock And Fall Into A Creek A Few Feet Below You. He Said He Grabbed You And Tried To Ask If You Were Okay, But You Wouldn’t Respond…Your Eyelights Were Completely Out, Too…”

Your breath fell short of your mouth as you stared at the bumpy bed of stones beneath the clear running water. Your bruises and scrapes…Blue said you had only fallen a few feet, fifteen wasn’t a few. Had he told you that to keep you from worrying? Or was that what Mutt told him to keep him from worrying? Regardless, this was…unnerving. You had tried to forget about that whole ordeal, but Black didn’t seem to be too keen on letting it be forgotten. 

He turned to you, expression tense and a tad worried, “What Happened? What Were You Seeing That Led You Here?”

You…didn’t really know. The dream…’dream’ was still fairly fresh in your mind, but it was hard to put into words. Still, the look on Black’s face told you that you wouldn’t be leaving this forest until you at least tried to put it into words, so you did, “After tripping during my training with Edge, all I remember is waking up in a different place. A cave, I think. It was hot, really hot, but it didn’t really bother me. It kind of reminded me of what being a ghost was like. It was dry, too. There were stone and metal pathways everywhere and underneath them was magma, a lot of magma. I ended up finding a secret pathway that led through a secret door which opened up into a room. It was big with a floor of cooled magma and a house in the middle. I could hear voices coming from it. I don’t know why, but I started walking towards it. I hadn’t even realized I was walking towards it until I was knocking on the door…I woke up just before whoever was on the other side opened the door, though.”

Black’s gaze fell from you to the forest floor as he quietly contemplated, “Hotland?”

You recognized that word, “Isn’t that a place in the Underground?”

Black’s attention snapped back to you, “Yes. It Is Odd That You Were Able To Dream About It Considering You Have Never Been There… You Said You Tripped During The Fight With Edge?”

You nodded, “Yeah. I didn’t even know there was a spike attack behind me until after I tripped.”

“What Did You Trip On?” Black demanded more than asked.

“A tree root,” you stated as if it was obvious. 

By the returned look on Black’s face, it wasn’t so obvious, “Dear…You Two Were In The Middle Of The Lawn, Far From Any Trees. You Couldn’t Have Tripped On A Tree Root.”

Confusion started to wash over you as you focused your attention on remembering that moment just before you fell. You remember it clearly, more clearly than any other part of that fight. You felt the root hit the back of your heel through your shoe, you even saw a glimpse of it as you fell, “I swear it was there, Black. I–...”

You suddenly trailed off as a new piece of your memory clicked into place. Tree roots were brown, rough, and mostly dry. The thing you tripped over was black, smooth, and slimy. It was nothing like a tree root, but if it wasn’t a tree root, then what the hell was it?

Black’s hand on your shoulder snapped you from your thoughts temporarily, “I Suggest You Talk To Sans About This. He Has Experience…Dealing With Situations Similar To This.”

You groaned and let your gaze fall to the forest floor, “That is literally one of the last things I want to do right now.”

Black’s browbone creased slightly in concern, “Did The Visit Not Go Well?”

“No, err, yes-wait! I mean-ugh!” you took a breath and turned back to Black, “The visit didn’t go well, but that’s not why I don’t wanna talk to Sans.”

Black’s expression only grew more concerned, “What Happened During The Visit?”

You barely suppressed a flinch at his words. Talking about your newfound information was not something you currently wanted to talk about, but the only other topic available was…less than savory, “Long story short, my soul isn’t the only thing bonded to Stretch.”

Black’s confused expression pushed you to explain further, “When Alphys summoned my soul to examine it, these…glowing markings appeared on my sternum. They looked like cracks, but they were glowing orange. Alphys told me it was Stretch’s magic,” you could see the realization dawn on Black’s face, but you finished anyway, “He’s not just bonded to my soul, but my actual body as well.”

Black’s gaze drifted down to the side, “You Cannot Break The Bond Because The Bond Is Not What Is Keeping You Alive. It’s Stretch.”

You nodded, letting the bitter silence engulf you both uncomfortably. That was, until Black continued speaking, “I Suggest You Let Him Know As Soon As Possible.”

You groaned in annoyance and threw your head back, “Can you please stop suggesting I talk to people that don’t like me?”

Black chuckled softly at your mini outburst, bringing a hand up to rest on the small of your back, guiding you back into a walk towards the house, “You Will Need To Speak To Both Of Them Eventually.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’ve had enough emotions for the next two decades!” you lamented to the trees around you. 

“I Am Not Saying You Need To Talk To Them Tonight, Just Sooner Rather Than Later. If Stretch Finds Out About The Results Of That Visit From Anyone Else, He Will Be Far More Angry Than If You Were To Tell Him.”

That was true, you knew it was true because you had seen as a ghost just how angry Stretch would get when he found out vital information from the ‘wrong’ person. Like the time Blue cracked a rib and he found out from Sugar. Luckily, Black left the conversation at that, continuing to idly walk through the woods with you in now-comfortable silence. You felt a bit better after spilling your metaphorical guts to him, you were going to cherish that hug for the rest of your life, however long that ends up being after you talk to Stretch.

Since the conversation between you and Black had faded out, you spent your time walking admiring the nature that surrounded you both. Budding wildflowers and ferns were just beginning to pop up between the long blades of grass and clover. The towering trees had nearly entirely regained their fallen leaves, the bright shades of green swaying softly in the breeze and letting a calming rustling sound out all around you. Your eyelights landed on a particularly interesting tree. Its trunk was thick and sturdy, it had clearly been here for a very long time, but a lot of its branches were deformed and twisted unnaturally in all sorts of directions. They were bumpy unlike their more cylindrical counterparts on other trees, almost like it was covered in warts. 

The longer you stared the more…familiar it was.

“Dear, Are you alright?” 

You jumped slightly and turned to Black with a startled expression. It was then that you realized you had stopped walking. When had that happened? Your attention was brought back to Black when he spoke your name, “Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m alright, just tired. I’ll probably have dinner and then go to bed.”

Black still looked concerned, but didn’t try to protest as he began guiding you back to the house for the third time. 

You only spared the tree one last glance before following Black’s footsteps. 

Chapter Text

Faint whistles of wind blew in through the kitchen window, gently rustling the loose strands of hair that framed your face as you measured out a spoonful of formula and dumped it into a baby bottle. A pair of toddlers wielding popsicle stick airplane toys raced past you, their clumsy movements rustling your long skirt and apron while their giggling joined the whistle of the breeze. 

“Be careful running in the house, you two!”

The only response they bothered to give was louder giggling. You couldn’t help the fond smile that graced your lips as you screwed the lid onto the formula. A nervous call for your attention sounded from the dining room and you picked up the bottle, shaking it as you approached the three pre-teens at the table. They were surrounded by various bright colors of embroidery thread, beads, and buttons. 

“I keep forgetting how to do it!” the young girl by your hip cried.

“Relax, Bunny,” you assured her, “I’ll show you as many times as you need to remember. Make the thread into the shape of an ‘L’ over the other threads,” you watched as she did just as you said, “Now put your finger through the hole and pull the tail of the thread through it,” the tip of her tongue poked out from between her lips as she did her best to remember the steps, “Good. Now tighten the knot at the top of the bracelet.”

She did so exactly, her face breaking into a bright smile as she finished the task successfully. As if on cue, a high-pitched wail from the living room demanded your attention. You moved with swift steps to the pastel yellow crib in the living room, setting the bottle on the coffee table before reaching into the crib and gently lifting the crying babe into your arms. 

“Oh, Badger, sweetheart. It’s alright. I’ve got you, hun.”

Carefully balancing the fussy baby boy in one arm, you picked up the bottle and walked out to the front porch. A cool chill washed over you, quickly followed by the warming rays of the midday sun. Sitting on the front porch steps was a boy, just barely eighteen now, scribbling away in a sketchbook. Further out in the yard was a man, just about two years into his thirties, chopping wood for the coming winter. A content smile graced your face as you settled into one of the old wooden rocking chairs on the porch. The babe in your arms finally settled to silence as you began rocking and feeding him the still-warm formula. 

Moments came and went in comforting passing noise. The thunk of a sharpened axe making contact with a log. The scratching of pencils on paper. The squeak of the rocking chair against the wooden boards. The crunch of dry leaves as the man approached you. 

“Just ran outta wood and the stockpile ain’t even half full. Gonna go out an’ get some more.”

He sounded like Red.

“Alright. Are you taking Lyla with you?”

He scoffed, a playful smile gracing his cleft lip, “That really a question ya gotta ask?”

You both shared a laugh. His warm auburn eyes landed on the babe in your lap and his smile fell into neutrality, “How’s Baby Badger doin’?”

“Better,” you were happy to say, “His fever is finally going down.”

The man’s smile returned, “Good.”

Comfortable silence drifted through the air, broken only by the giggling of children inside and the sound of a pencil on paper. Your gaze fell down to the baby in your arms, his dark hair was thick and wild, loose and tight curls scattered all about with sprinkles of nearly pin-straight locks. The light green dinosaur onesie you dressed him in was stained with ketchup somehow, but thick enough to keep him warm and soft enough to keep him from fussing. 

“You’d be a good mother.”

Your eyes drew back up to the man before you, “Aren’t I already?”

He rolled his eyes, “Raisin’ your siblings don't count. That’s a job for parents. Not older sisters.”

The corners of your smile twitched downward bitterly, “It is when the parents are pieces of shit.”

“Not your fault they’re so shitty, though.”

A heavy sigh pulled the tension from your shoulders, “I know…I just wish-”

“Don’t.” he demanded, “Don’t finish that sentence.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” you defended. 

“You were gonna say ya wished ya coulda saved us sooner.”

Silence fell between you both in the form of his truth. 

His hand came up to your chin and forced you to look at him, “But that don’t mean ya failed us. You couldn’t get us out as soon as ya wanted,” he shrugged, “So what? Ya still got us out, an’ we can’t be happier. Us older ones can recover from all the shit they put us through. The youngins can grow up in a kinder place. An’ Badger here,” his gaze fell to the babe in your arms, his content smile turning into a loving one, “Baby Badger can have a normal life, unknowin’ of the pain we all went through. All thanks ta you . Ya saved us…Mama Bear.”

You groaned and rolled your eyes, “Ugh, you ruined it by calling me Mama Bear!”

His laugh was hardy and warm, like beef stew in the midst of winter, “If ya hate it so much then why ya smiling?”

“I don’t know!” you snapped, exasperated by his antics, “Are you going to get more wood or not?”

With a final chuckle, he relented and stepped away. With a sharp whistle, he called Lyla over. She was once a stray dog you had found while your manor was being built. She had been weak and malnourished. You brought her back to health and now she was strong and agile, never uttering so much as a huff of indifference. She was one of the main reasons you had the courage to save your siblings. If you could bring a feral animal back from the precipice of death, you could do the same for your siblings. 

You continued to bask in the warm rays of sun while he walked across the lawn, past the pond and willow tree, and into the dense woods. Moments passed and time seemed to still in this rare moment of peace for you. For once, the looming threat of disappointment wasn’t hovering over your shoulder. Hate was not rearing its ugly head in your direction. The darkness that often surrounded you had finally fallen into low tide, allowing you to truly breathe for the first time in months. 

Then Lyla came barking. 

Your heart jolted in your chest as panic swept through you like a tidal wave determined to run you into the sea floor. Lyla had never made a noise, but deep in your gut you knew that her frantic barking was not something to be pushed aside as a change of heart. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The door beside you burst open as you passed the babe in your arms to the young man on the steps. A second set of footsteps fell in line with yours as a woman ran beside you. Her backpack thumped against her back as the medical supplies within it tossed and turned just as your stomach did. 

Lyla guided you through the woods to an old, gnarly tree. It grew in odd ways, some kind of disease it had causing unnatural growths and branch patterns. One of its large branches had cracked off and fallen to the forest floor. You could not help the horrified scream that ripped its way through your throat as you recognized the body beneath it. 

“BEAVER!”

Ice flowed through your veins as you dropped to his side. Miniscule amounts of relief ran through you as his pained groans met your ears. He’s alive. Fear gripped your heart as you and the woman at your side hurried to lift the log. Cries of pain sounded out from the man beneath you, but you persisted. You were Determined to make sure he lived. Bile threatened to rise to your mouth once the log was no longer pinning him. 

Blood. 

So. Much. Blood. 

Tears flowed freely from your eyes as you dropped to your knees beside his head. With as gentle a caress as you could manage, you took his head in your hands and brought it to your lap, careless to the blood that began to soak your apron. 

“I-I’ve got you, Beaver. Snake is here, too. Sh-she’s gonna patch you r-right u-up.”

“H-...How b-bad is it?”

You didn’t want to look, but his pleading look forced you to do so. His legs were relatively undamaged, his upper torso would be badly bruised and he’d likely have a few broken bones. His arm, though…you don’t think it could even be considered an arm anymore. You didn’t have near the amount of knowledge the woman across from you did, but even you knew it couldn’t be saved. As the man in your lap began to turn his head to look, you rushed to press your hand to the side of his face, blocking his view of the injury and forcing him to look at you.

You didn’t know what to say.

“I-I’m not gonna b-be able t-....to chop w-wood anymore….am I-I?”

You couldn’t say anything as your tears fell onto his blood-streaked face. 

“W-winter is coming. W-We need wood. I can’t n-not ch-chop-”

“I’ll do it. I’ll chop wood every day for the entire winter if that’s what it takes.”

“Y-You don’t even k-know h-...how-”

“Teach me. I don’t care if you have to do it from a bed. Teach me. I’ll do it.”

He could only nod before a blood curdling scream ripped through his chest. 

A jolt shot through you as reality washed over your conscience. It took a moment for your mind to register what was happening, but when it did, the first thing you noticed was that you were in your room and the light was on. You don’t remember falling asleep with the light on. The next thing you noticed was that you were kneeling on the floor. You distinctly remember falling asleep in your bed. A soft noise to your left drew your gaze to Blue. He was standing a few feet away from you with Black and Papyrus standing at your door. 

It took you a moment to realize that small noise was Blue saying your name. He looked worried and was standing like he was ready to bolt at your slightest move. It took a second for you to find your voice, but you eventually did, “Blue? Pap…what are you guys doing in my room?”

At the sound of your voice, they all visibly relaxed but not all the tension left them. Blue took a tentative step forward and kneeled by your side, “You…I Think You Were Having A Nightmare. A Bad One. I Called Papyrus To Help But You Wouldn’t React To Anything He Was Saying. Black Heard And Came To Help.”

A pang of guilt rang through your chest as you quickly realized this was the umpteenth time they had helped you when you needed it. They always seemed to end up roped into your problems, “Oh. I-...I’m sorry, you guys shouldn’t have to keep helping me. I-”

“Don’t You Dare Continue That Sentence,” Black chastised, “We Came To Your Aid Because We Wanted To, Not Because We Felt We Had An Obligation To.”

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” Papyrus asked in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.”

You wrung your hands together as you found the words to articulate how you were feeling. The dream-well, memory, you supposed, had obviously rattled you. Looking at your bed across the room, it was obvious you had panicked in your sleep and had probably launched yourself off your bed in your haste to get to-

You suddenly screwed your eyes shut and did your best to push the memory to the back of your mind, trying not to think of the look on his face, the way his arm… You shook your head and focused on any physical feelings. Your side hurt, probably from falling off of your bed. It would likely bruise, but it wasn’t anything you couldn’t handle on your own. 

“I should be alright,” you turned to the three skeletons before you, “I’m just a bit rattled from the…dream? And, uh, I think my side is bruised, but I’ll be alright.”

They didn’t look entirely convinced, but Blue didn’t press the issue as he rested his hand on your shoulder, “Would You Mind If I Made You Some Tea?”

You offered him a bittersweet smile, knowing what he was doing. Stretch often suffered from horrible nightmares. While you didn’t know the content of the nightmares, you knew that Blue would always make him a cup of golden flower tea to assure himself his brother was alright, because if Stretch could drink or eat something, that meant his anxiety over the nightmare wasn’t horrible. You knew you’d be fine, aside from maybe another nightmare, but you agreed to let Blue make you a cup of tea anyway. Totally for his sake, and absolutely not because you were terrified of having another nightmare. 

It took some time, but you managed to convince Black and Papyrus to go back to bed and rest. Blue had to assure them he’d keep an eye on you, and you had to promise them you’d seek them out if you felt the need to, but they eventually relented and returned to their rooms while you and Blue made your way downstairs to the kitchen. 

It was quiet between you two for a while, the only background noise was the sounds of Blue preparing the tea, doing his best to be quiet while removing a pan from the cupboard and filling it with water. You watched his movements silently, eventually noticing that his hands were shaking slightly and his face was taught with concern, like he was deep in thought about something he’d rather not be thinking about. 

When he finally brought the tea over and placed the cups in front of you both, you tentatively reached your hand out to cover his and quietly asked, “You okay? You’re shaking…”

Blue froze, a shocked look taking over his features like he had almost forgotten you were there, “I, Uh,” he cleared his throat and sat down across from you, “I’m Okay. It’s Just…Your Nightmare Reminded Me A Lot Of The One’s P-...Stretch Had When He First Started Getting Them. It Seems To Have Rattled My Bones A Bit, Mweh Heh Heh.”

His laugh and bitter smile appeared to be forced, but you didn’t bring attention to it, turning your face down to your tea. It was then you remembered the peach tea Wine had made you and hesitated for a moment, worried you’d have a similar reaction to Blue’s tea. However, a quick glance up to see Blue’s tense, but hopeful look, encouraged you to take a sip. It was…pleasant. Light and warm, faintly sweet with a bold taste that you could only describe as ‘comforting’. 

You liked it.