Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Your small street in the area of downtown Salem hadn’t seen a new place open up in ages. You missed when all the coffee shops were new, god the workers there had seen you grow up since the age of like 5. And now you're 22,you’ve basically spent your entire life here in Salem besides road trips out of state. You never had much of a reason to leave, even if you had the money you didn’t want to leave what you had known your whole life behind.

Your playlist blasting in your headphones, you hadn’t been paying much attention to what was playing until ‘sarah’ came on. Despite the graphic nature of the song, you enjoyed it. Though you could never truly understand, considering you would rather die than be in love with anyone, let alone that horribly. It was still a good song.

The colorful leaves fall off the autumn trees, getting crushed under your feet. It was around the time for the salam witch festival to start. Prime time for new businesses to open. Maybe you would start one in that empty plot down the road, it hadn’t been used in forever it might as well always be open- or maybe not.

The sounds of your footsteps halt, and you turn down your music. ‘Snow’din nice cream’? What in the world?

It looks popular, for being very new. There was a crowd of people inside already, including about 10 staff, that all looked like they could be twins, some more than others. Fuck it, why not go in? You had money, almost too much of it. Better to use it on something cool.

As you walk inside the parlor, you notice the almost calming vibe. The fall decorations up, with some snow globes up at the front. It was a nice change from the abandoned building it was before. God had you missed hanging out in this building as a teenager. You used to talk about your dreams, what business you would open if you could, you had always wanted to be a detective, or maybe a forensic scientist. But instead you were an art teacher, the kids were on halloween break as of now so you didn't feel much need to do anything. . . you get almost too deep into thought before a voice snaps you out of your thoughts.

“HUMAN! WELCOME! PLEASE FEEL WELCOME TO SIT ANYWHERE AND ONE OF OUR WAITERS WILL BE OVER SOON AS THEY CAN!”

You turn around and read his nametag, ‘blue’, huh, an odd name but you can’t judge.

“Yes, er- thank you.”

You awkwardly shuffle over to a seat and await someone to come to you. You notice the strong smell of the ice cream, but it wasn’t anything horrible. You could clearly smell vanilla, maybe some strawberry, but the most prominent was chocolate. They obviously had other flavors but you could tell the basics were popular, you might order the other flavors, just for fun. Too see if this place was worth it or not. maybe it was, and if so you would have to tell your friends about it. they would praise it online and get it a perfect amount of attention! You loved being friends with popular food critics.

you stare at the menus for a bit, wondering what to get. maybe the strawberry mango acai flavor? or possibly the minty trot tracks? hm, that was an odd name for a flavor. but you decide to go with it anyway, it couldn't be that bad.

while waiting, you find yourself amused by the different personalities of the severs. some more friendly, and some.. more self absorbed. it looks family run, but having that much family? where does the family tree start and end? this bloodline looked more confusing than calculus. . . if that was even possible.

you find yourself waiting for what seems like forever, you find the same skeleton from before walking over to you, blue.

“MWEH! HUMAN, IT LOOKS LIKE I'VE GOTTEN THE CHANCE TO SERVE YOU! HAVE YOU DECIDED ON WHAT TO GET?”

His smile looks wide and tired, yet genuine. like how you feel after dealing with middle schoolers all day, so you could understand.

“Yeah, I did! the. . . minty trot tracks?”

you smile at him, attempting to let him know you weren't any kind of monster racist or something. a lot of them went into monster run businesses only to leave bad reviews. it was hell for them, but you had always tried to stay nice. And you always were nice, unless someone gave you a reason to be mean.

“OH HUMAN AN AMAZING FLAVOR TO ORDER FOR YOUR FIRST VISIT! WOULD YOU LIKE A CONE OR A CUP? IF A CUP WHICH SIZE AND IF CONE HOW MANY SCOOPS??”

His enthusiasm over the flavor you order makes you feel good, he's obviously excited to get to serve another flavor besides vanilla. It was funny, actually, how happy he seemed.

“I'll take a small cup, thank you.”

you nod your head at him, still smiling as he nods back and tells you it'll be right out. Now you have to wait, the music in the parlor clashing with the one in your headphones, so you turn your music up. quietly singing along to the song.

“And we're moving in place again..”

your voice trails off, the sweet mix of music in your ears almost making you sleepy. you really had loved music, always, but you listened to so much it was hard to come up with an answer to your favorite genre.

“HUMAN! HERE! YOUR ICE CREAM!”

his body language is proud as he brings you over the rather large small sized cup of ice cream. wow, thats.. alot of ice cream.

“how much is it?”

you ask, he stares at you for a minute before speaking again. why did he look confused? was this not a parlor you could pay and go with your food from?

“OH YES! THAT'LL BE $4.50!”

only $4.50? this place could be making so much more with its large portions. you take way more then you need out of your pocket, handing him the money.

“i have $4.50 in there, the rest is the tip.”

you take your ice cream, smiling, and happily walk out. you take a bite, making a pleased face. damn, this ice cream is fucking delicious. you'd have to send your friends to give it some good reveiws, it was worth coming back too aswell. as you exit the door you hear yelling from behind you as you giggle to yourself.

. . .

“A $100 DOLLAR TIP??”

Chapter Text

You stare up at the iridescent stars printed on your umbrella, the clear film allowing you to see the rain. It had been a pretty shitty day so far, weather wise at least. you had left your window open overnight and let the rain blow into your room and leak onto your floors. It made you late, later than you wanted to be to see your boys.

Wait- your boys? No, that couldn’t be right. You barely knew them. You were simply a customer, nothing that would make them “yours”.

When did that even happen in your brain? Not that it mattered now, it was probably nothing more than a slip up after all. The sound of your footsteps fill your surroundings as your mind goes blank and sends those thoughts away, your eyes staring blankly at the sidewalk, the rain hurling itself onto the sidewalk and road. Leaves fell all around you and the air got colder. Dead, that's what you looked like, a walking corpse, dead.

Dead.

Nothing more than dead.

Before you knew it, you had gotten to the ice cream shop. How long have you been here already? You don’t know, but as you turn you spot blue staring at you along with a few others. They just stared, no emotion on their skulls. Now you did seriously wonder if you'd just been standing outside like a creep. Well, really no reason to question that now! You open the door to the shop with a sudden smile. Happy to see your boys. Blue looked so happy today! It made you smile. You greeted him, giddy as ever. “Hello blue! I couldn’t help coming back today!”

He was silent, almost shocked into it. Staring into your eyes in a way that made you question if he was in a trance or not.

“AH!! HELLO SIR!!!” his smile seems to grow, larger than before, if that was even possible. “WOULD YOU LIKE TO SIT AT A TABLE OR THE BAR TODAY?”

You take a minute to decide, humming as you think. “I’ll take the bar today.”

He beams up at you, staring you in the eyes once more. His sockets are big, big and round, alluring to you for some strange reason. His eye lights seem to shiver slightly as your hands twitch. You wanted to learn about how these skeletons worked, you wanted to reach up forward and trace around it, quiz him on how he worked. But you forced your wide eyes away as another skeleton approached, coming up to blue and whispering something you couldn’t hear.

“AH YES! ahem, I AM QUITE BUSY, SO MY COUSIN HERE WILL HAVE TO SERVE YOU! I HOPE YOU DON’T MIND!”

“No, no it's fine! I don’t mind!”
You turn your attention to the taller skeleton who looked a tad bit different from blue, but you wouldn’t mind as long as you were served by one of them.

“HELLO HUMAN! YOU CAUSED A BIG COMMOTION YESTERDAY, WITH YOUR TIP!”

Your tip? Oh! Right, the tip you left. Not that you would remember it, it barely marked your bank account.

“Oh my! I’m sorry..” you pause, glancing at his name tag. “Papyrus, I'm very sorry!” you grin up at him. He seems to smile back, though you can't really tell due to him always looking happy with those teeth. they almost looked fake. but you supposed seeing a living skeleton wasn't the most realistic non-sci fi novel thing ever so you could deal.

“PERFECT! COME WITH ME!”

You follow him to a seat at the bar of the place, then get the same order as yesterday. There are now other customers in the shop, a few more than there were yesterday, you can spot laughing and blabbering away to each other, you even spot a few dates out at the tables. you can't help but wonder if this was your doing or not, considering the few connections you had texted and called all day. It's crazy what a few good reviews and some sprinkled in praise can do.

the ice cream you had asked for comes to you very quickly, that most definitely makes you smile. “Thank you so much!” the words flow out of your mouth with a nod as the chaser, you watch as papyrus beams down at you due to this.

“THANK YOU KIND HUMAN! I ASSUME THIS FLAVOR IS YOUR FAVORITE SO FAR?” His enthusiasm makes you chuckle, you shake your head at his silly antics. “no! Oh dear! I have barely tried any, I can't have a favorite if I haven't tried anything else now can i?”

This makes him pause, but he quickly jumps back into character. “..oh well i guess that's.. NO MATTER! YOU SHOULD TRY THE REST OF OUR FLAVORS SOMEDAY! YOU MAY LIKE THEM!”

you take a spoonful of ice cream into your mouth, nodding. “I will! Now don't you have a job to do? get back to work sir!”

he quickly nods and gets back to work, mumbling about how he has been distracted yet again! whatever that may mean. you're left alone to eat your ice cream, observing those around you on dates or out with friends, those who live at least semi normal lives. and then there was you, the stupid rich guy who seriously might hate being rich. Sometimes you wonder why you hate it but that shouldn't matter now, you have some ice cream and you hopefully won't be focusing on your personal life while eating it.

After finishing, you wait for the papyrus to come back over so you can order a cone to take home. Who could blame you? this was your cheat day! which also happens to be every single day of the week so far. So who really cares!

“A CONE? FOR TAKEOUT I ASSUME?" Did you seriously absentmindedly do something again? holy shit you really should pay more attention. “yes! yes for takeout.” you almost mumble as you attempt to snap yourself back out of your thoughts.

as soon as you get your cone, you realize, you barely even thought about what you ordered for the ice cream part of the cone. with a little snooping, it turns out you had gotten a snow berry! which is especially vanilla blueberry. licking it, it turns out minty trot tracks may just have some competition! damn these people- or more monsters, really know their flavor combinations.

you barely notice the stares on you as you pay, and then leave after slapping a measly $50 down as a tip. it excites papyrus all the same though, the slight orange hue on his cheekbones emphasizing that. you push open the door with a smile and head out once more, and with better feelings than before.

you seriously need to stop looking at the news too much, it's making you think everything in the world is bad! well maybe most things are, but not this shop! Definitely not this shop.

letting your umbrella expand again, you walk back home.

you also need to figure out better things to do on break. you should really make a bucket list.

Chapter Text

The morning sun glowed through the window as you sat up on your bed. Today was going to be a shitty morning, you could already tell. Your eyes itched as you lifted your fists to rub away the crusts from your eyes. Yikes. You look around your room with a long sigh, your bed has shifted about 10 degrees in your sleep, letting the smaller items that used to be piled up around your bed fall underneath. Oh well, it's not like you had anyone coming over anyway. Though the scent of ketchup and honey lingered in your room. As odd as a mix of smells that was, you didn’t dislike it per say, you more just did not care due to the number of odd smells you’ve smelled in your home before. You were the neatest kind of uncleanly and you’re half sure if your mother was still alive, she would have beat you to death because of it.

Slowly climbing out of bed, you stretch your legs and stop as you feel your throat have a specific kind of soreness that usually only comes with a cold. Your break from work is over by tomorrow, so getting sick now? Seriously? Your immune system decided to not do its job at the worst times.

Your toes touch the cold wooden floor making you shiver, but you continue to get off your ass and walk anyway. The cold of the morning floor makes you consider wearing socks, but you’re far too lazy to do that right now anyway. You really need some kind of caffeine right now, your eyes still feel heavy, yet you feel weightless. Caffeine is the only thing that grounds you this early in the morning.

As you make your way into the kitchen the smell of ketchup and honey lingers in your home. It's almost as if someone sprayed Febreze all over your house, which would be difficult considering you lived in a four-story house. The oddest part was that everything was where it was last, nothing had been touched or moved, and hell even your circle rug looked untouched though the damn thing shifted 30 degrees every time someone stepped on it. So, nobody really could have broken in, at least in your mind.

You turn on the coffee maker and scurry to the fridge, soon after realizing you had no creamer and barely any food. You throw your head into your hands and let out a loud groan, realizing this meant you had to face your worst fear, shopping. Not because you don’t have the money, stars no you were loaded, but because any social interaction is worse than death on a Sunday.

Your coffee had finished brewing by the time you were also done brewing in your own dread, but you couldn’t drink black coffee. While yes it would still wake you up, you would rather die than have to drink something so bitter. So, you leave it there, slowly make your way upstairs to throw on some shoes and grab your keys. You were going shopping!

You checked the clock as soon as you got to the local stop and shop, alright, 12:30. If you could get out of here by one, you’d be the luckiest man in the world. The store was a little crowded, but you’d make it work. Considering you had plans you had to be ready for by four, that would give you three whole hours to prepare. You’re still deep in thought as you walk in the store, grabbing a cart you hear talking behind you, but not just anyone talking. You slowly turn your head with a mortified expression, it was two of the guys you had seen at the ice cream parlor and papyrus walking in right behind you. You locked eyes for a second and imminently tried to hide yourself. Holy shit talk about bad timing.

“OH! HELLO HUMAN! DIDN’T EXPECT TO SEE YOU THERE!” papyrus’s loud voice boomed behind you, stars now you wanted to run. You turn back around. You were in the worst fit, checkered pj pants, a shitty ICP shirt, and hello kitty themed crocs. Your hair was a mess, and you had huge eyebags. You silently prayed to yourself that none of them would care and responded.

“Oh, uh, hey papyrus. Didn’t... Expect to see you here?”

You observe how the other two look and act, tall and lanky like papyrus but in hoodies. One had on an orange hoodie, brown shorts, and orange converse. The other one had on a black hoodie that said “lame guy” on it with his hood up, the inside a yellow color, yellow pants with a black stripe down the side, and black shoes with red laces, as well as braces on his canines. You hadn’t seen either of these guys before but god if they weren’t attractive as hell. The brace face looked really nervous, and the orange one just looked really nonchalant.

“OH YES! WE WERE JUST LOOKING TO GET SOME SHOPPING DONE! THE REST OF MY FAMILY NEEDED SOME... THINGS! LIKE FOOD! AND OTHER THINGS!”

You and the other two skeletons look at him like he’s an oddball, trying to play something cool yet you have no idea what. The other two just glare, sneaking glances at each other awkwardly.

“Nice, nice, uh... Sorry I have to kinda, go get my stuff, uh, see you around...”

You quickly peel off with your shopping cart, not hearing the footsteps following you around the store. Your first stop is the bread aisle, you stall for a minute with the feeling of eyes on your back and look over your shoulder, seeing the skeletons still there, following. Not that you minded, of course, the thought of them following you around made your skin crawl in the best way possible, you just couldn’t help but wonder why. You barely catch them staring at you as you grab your bread and leave the aisle.

By the time you had finished shopping and checked out, you had noticed the way immediately after you had checked out the group had checked out and followed you out of the store, to your car, and had stalled before coming over to you.

“Hey, do you need a little help there buddy?”

You quickly turn around, the orange hoodie wearing skeleton had one of your grocery bags in hand putting it in your trunk with an almost sly grin.

“The names honeysuckle.”

You stall for a moment before averting your gaze off of him, your eyes looking at the bag he had placed in your trunk.

“...Y/N. my name, its Y/N.”

He nods, continuing to help you put the bags in your trunk. When you two finished, he just walked off, shoving his hands in his pockets. Oddly, the scent of honey follows him. The same one that you had smelled in your house that morning.

You quickly throw yourself in the driver's seat of your car and squeal. Holy shit, was he stalking you or something? Was everyone from the parlor stalking you? How cute would that be if they were! You kick your feet like a schoolgirl and let out a muffled laugh, hands covering your face. You smile with sick glee while also trying to calm yourself down. Everything about what had just happened made you giddy. You loved the smell of him, and of course, everyone else that had been there. You could smell them, the faint smell of something sweet lingering around papyrus and the smell of cream around the one with braces. They were all so cute! You had to admit, you may have been obsessed with them, and maybe you didn't know why exactly you wanted the whole family, but you did! They were all adorable. No matter how much you had run from loving people before, maybe you hadn’t found the right ones? Maybe you were fated to only love skeletons. Maybe that was it. But it didn’t matter!

You had plans for tonight, big ones. You had found out where the family lived, and you needed to act fast. So tonight? You were going to stakeout outside their home, watch them have dinner, and see what they were like. You loved them and you couldn’t hide it anymore.

A little later that night, about half an hour before four o’clock, you make your way out of your house and to the skeleton's house. You knew they lived nearby; they would need a mansion to fit all of them. Of course, you had to figure out if they all had other jobs then the family run business to figure out what side of town they’d be on, but that wasn’t hard! Just a quick search for any of their odd names and you’d find out where papyrus’s older brother, sans, also worked. Turns out he worked at NASA. a big job for a little guy like him. Papyrus worked at a nearby gym some days, and the parlor others. After you’d gotten home, you attempted to look up what else honeysuckle did but couldn’t find anything, same with blue. So, you’d settle for getting to know once you knew them better.

As you neared their house, about a five-minute walk, you spot a sharp, spikey looking skeleton with tight leather looking pants standing out front. You giggle in your head; you want to ask him about his ‘girl pants’ but you decide not to. You wouldn’t want to ruin your chances with this one, considering you may have been after the entire family. Listen, you may not know them all or know how many there are, but you love them all anyway. You’re half sure this is your life's work. Only half because you’ve barely managed to scrape information about them after two weeks. If you were classified as a stalker, you’d be a pathetic one. You manage to slip past the tall, dark, and honestly sexy looking skeleton and into the backyard. Now the fun begins.

You look through every window carefully, making sure you know who was in every room.

Papyrus and blue were in the kitchen, honeysuckle, that skeleton with the braces on his canines, and a new skeleton with braces and glasses dressed in what you could describe as the pinnacle of fashion (a button up, a sweater vest, and baggy jeans), all on the couch together playing what looked like Stardew valley. In the dining room, you saw a big skeleton with a hole in his head eating something, you couldn’t tell what, but it was cute anyway. You weren’t scared of him, surprisingly, you found him kinda cute. But that was it for the skeletons on the ground floor.

You quickly climb into one of the trees outback, making a lot of noise, but successfully getting up, nonetheless.
You peer into the second-floor windows, smiling as you spot more skeletons in their rooms. There was an emo looking one fiddling with a car battery and a red, sharp looking tiny-er skeleton with a bandana. He sort of looked like blue and that tall dark one you saw out front if they had gotten mixed together and brutally abused as a child. You would never tell that to the guy, though, you loved him even if you didn’t know him that well. But all of the sudden, you hear noise from below you. You panic and stay completely still for a moment.

“BLADE! ARE YOU SURE YOU HEARD SOMETHING OUT HERE?”

“Yea… i wouldn’ lie to ya… i heard somethin’ from this tree…”

Your thoughts run wild. What if they found you? What if they hated you? What if they banned you from the parlor? What if they thought you were a creep?

Your thoughts race as you try to find a way to get out of this, only to hear more noise from below.

“WELL, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! DO NOT HEAR ANYTHING AT ALL! WHILE I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SOOTHE YOUR TROUBLED THOUGHTS, I CAN TELL YOU TO TALK TO GRAVES AND TRY TO CALM DOWN! THERE IS NO ONE OUTSIDE!”

Thank god papyrus is such a saint.

“Yea… yea… fine, I’ll go talk to my brother or whatever…”

The two walk back inside and you finally let out a breath you had been holding in for a hot minute. You wait a few minutes before climbing back down and making your way back home. You needed to think about everything that had happened today. Like the smell of honey and ketchup that had lingered around your house this morning, and the way the group at the store had followed you around, and maybe the way honeysuckle had helped you put bags in your car having never talked to you before. It was odd, to say the least. Not that you minded, of course. But someone who likes watching people can put the pieces together when they’re also being watched. You’d have to be far more careful in the future to avoid them finding out, and you hoped to god that they would all love you the same way you liked them.

After getting home, you walk right up to your room and search under your bed, eventually finding what you need, your polaroid camera. You had some things you needed to do, and stars above if you weren’t ready to do them.
These skeletons would be yours; you knew it with every fiber of your soul. They would be yours eventually.

And god, you were excited for that.