Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You looked out of the window as the trees passed by. The sprawling mountains stood high in the sky, the afternoon’s golden light catching the distant mountain faces in a glowing hue. Despite the sun shining that way, the car you were in was driving up a winding mountain road through the forest and through the rain.

The driver of the car was the closest person you had to a friend nowadays. A tall human woman with long black hair and pretty green eyes. The starting of crows feet wrinkled just by the corner of her eyes and her face held a kind complexion. Your eyes met and she smiled, before turning her gaze back to the road, avoiding a small divot for a smoother ride for you.

Noting your leg and all.

But this seemed like a lot of work.

Effort.

All this effort just to get to your new home.

A new home that would be full of new people and experiences that you had been stripped of as a child when you had turned into what you were now.

You remembered it like it was yesterday. Though realistically it had been over a decade ago. Tiny you had gone to bed a human and woke up as a skeleton monster. A little seven year old at the time. Now you were twenty-three.

So much had happened since then.

Since your mother had left you at the inverto facility and never visited. Never contacted you. Your other family members were very much the same. Not a peep.

Not to mention learning how to use basic magic and tai chi to help with your magic flow and bouts of anxiety you still had. The anxiety had gotten better as a child.

But then *that* incident happened. The fire alarm lights flashed in your mind for the brief moment you looked down that dark hallway, silhouette of a man standing at the end of the hall, only seeing his features in the quick flashing of the lights.

The dust and blood on his hands…

You blinked out of the memory as you felt the twinge of pain in your knee from knocking into the door as the car took a sharp turn into a huge driveway.

The woman winced as she took in breath.

”Sorry, hun!” She slowed the car down some.

”These roads are a bit winding, and I almost didn’t see the driveway.”

”It’s okay Marie. I’m not hurting today, thankfully.” You hummed softly, rubbing your leg. Cool metal instead of smooth bone met your finger tips, the rubber sealer sat in place, unbothered. The metal made up your lower right leg. But being an amputee came with its own issues.

You couldn’t wear cute sandals or anything with a high heel. And the pain in your leg when bad weather occurred was terrible. But the looks of pity you got were nearly the most exhausting. So you preferred to keep it- your leg- hidden. It… was rather humiliating and you’d rather not recall that day if you didn’t have to.

You had to look at it enough as it was. Though the oddity of having a fake human-looking foot on a skeletal body really messed with you some times. So you wore your favorite pair of socks like a religion.

A pair of black socks on both feet with anatomically correct skeletal feet on them. They brought you a good amount of comfort and joy.

Your eyes snapped up to the window as you felt the car slow to a stop, stopping in front of a huge gate with iron bars and an even bigger house complete with an estate further up the hill.

Your jaw dropped.

”What the hell?” The question was quiet, but from the years of pretty much being raised by Marie, you could tell you both were thinking the same thing.

You did recall from your education whilst in the facilities, that the monsters used G or Gold as their currency, and the exchange rate was absolutely insane. So a majority of the monsters made out like bandits.

And these ones were no exception judging by the huge ass house and surrounding property the manor sat on.

You couldn’t help sink lower in the seat as Marie rolled her window down to ring the intercom.

You sank even lower as she began to speak up slightly.

”Yes, I’m Marie Henderson and I’m here with your Inverto.”

Her voice trailed off as you began to feel a weight settle on your chest. Your throat closed and your leg began to throb as you felt the car lunge forward.

God. This was really happening.

You were leaving everything again, permanently.

What if these people didn’t like you? What if they mistreated you? What if that man came back and hurt people again?

What if you couldn’t do anything this time?

You were brought out of your mind by feeling Marie’s hands grabbing your own.

“I can’t do it Marie!” You gasped out a sob, continuing to pant.

She held your hands.

”In and out slowly, hun.”

You followed her instructions.

”Good job! You’re doing well.”

Her voice was soft as your body shook and trembled.

“Are you okay honey?” Her smooth voice cut through the tears and you shook your head ‘no’.

”N-need a minute.” You caught your breath. “Please.”

She nodded.

”Okay. Stay put and calm down a bit while I go through all the formalities with your foster family. I’m sure they won’t mind.”

You nodded as you shivered again. “O-okay.”

She gave a nod and you watched as she grabbed her brief case full of documents and paperwork and strode up to the house, knocking and disappearing inside with the shake of a skeletal hand.

You waited for a moment, then another. The only sound was the small pats of raindrops hitting the leaves of the trees. You slowly stood out of the car and looked around.

Woods surrounded you on all sides but the drive way, the tall peak of the mountains burned in the sunset distance. The sky above you was a startling candy blue.

The sky always seemed bluer and cleaner after rain. Taking a breath, the scent of freshly watered earth and clean air filled your nose. The anxiety seemed to melt away.

You began to stretch and finished up by bending to your front, your spine popping as you let gravity do its thing.

”Mrooow”

Your eyes snapped up to a large, white cat with golden eyes and long fur. You kneeled down and began to offer your hand for it to sniff.

The white feline smelled your hand and it’s ears twitched. It slowly hanged its head down to sniff your hand before butting its head straight into it. The creatures rumbling purr on full display. She stretched her head up and you slipped your fingers under her chin and continued to scratch the cat there. You noticed a black spiky collar around her neck with a golden tag.

Taking the small metal plate in your grasp you read out loud- “Doomfanger, the fearsome and terrible!” You lightly snorted and laughed at the name.

”Cute.” You went back to gently caressing the cats head until she buried her nose into your palm, and began using her paws to grab and poke at the spot, making little merping noises as she did so.

“I don’t have anything for you baby, I’m sorry!” You hummed as you opened your hands to show her they were empty.

You had heard that there were three things that were very fast, they were the following.

Baby hands, Insects, and cat paws.

Doomfanger was no exception. She poked your hands with speed until a small amount of your dark colored magic came up and disappeared into the air turning gold as it evaporated. The smell of freshly fallen rain and mint filling the area.

Despite you hearing that cats usually didn’t like mint, Doomfanger didn’t shy away. Instead she began to chitter and paw faster, looking into your hand for the dark colored vapor.

You hummed in confusion before holding out your hand.

“Is…is this what you wanted?”

You gently wave your hand through the air as you close your eyes, imagining two beautiful koi fish swimming in a pond. The air that touched your palm began to feel like a viscous liquid. Still malleable and moveable but holding its mass together. Then you siphoned it out as you had done so many times before.

Opening your eyes, Doomfanger happily swatted at the fish made of golden light, their swim trails leaving bright flecks of magic in their wake as they swam around and over the cat. One swam a bit too fast over Doomfanger when she was up on her haunches, causing her to fall backwards. She didn’t seem to mind though as she rolled in the wet grass, still entranced by your show.

You finally made them dive into the ground and dissipated your magic. The last remaining bits of magic flowed near the ground lazily, almost akin to summertime lightning bugs.

You had rested your eyes as the cool breeze flowed past your cheeks and the last rays of the sun began to sink on the horizon.

This was wonderful.

So peaceful.

You opened your eyes as you felt a tug on your sleeve. Doomfanger was tugging your cuff, trying to drag you.

’Well. Who am I to deny this kitty?’

Getting up, you brushed your facility mandated sweats off, before following the insistent critter. Her merps got louder as she led you around the back of the house tugging you by the sleeve of your ratty sweater.

And for a small creature, she was strong.

”Kitty! Slow down!” You laughed as she only ‘merred‘ in response. Her speed didn’t slow as she led you into a large backyard and up to a deck.

“Honey pie, I don’t have permission to be back here!” You cooed, lightly petting her as she had let you go. Her tail was sticking straight up and the tip vibrated. She knocked into your legs and began to herd you up the stairs.

You sighed as you relented, following the hollering creature. Doomfanger’s high pitched meow greeted your nonexistent ears as she latched to your arm again and dragged you to the pet door installed into the white wooden door leading into the home.

She then- tried to drag you into the cat door.

And you froze and pulled yourself back, only for the pleased trilling from the cat to turn into nearly feral growls.

”Sweet little baby bumpkin- I can’t fit in there! I-I’m a bit too big!” You laughed as she slapped your hands and continued to grab at you.

“Stop.” You laughed as you scooped the cat up, it’s frantic meowing stopping as you produced small translucent bubbles that shown in stone hues before turning gold and popping.

You sat with her in your lap, watching as she continued to swat at the bubbles.

This continued for a few moments until the back door swung open, a frantic seeming skeleton monster nearly running over you in his haste, calling out.

“DOOMFANGER! WHERE ARE YOU? COME HERE!” His worried face looked down to you and the cat in your lap. You couldn’t help the black blush that crept up your neck.

”Uh-uhm.” Your voice was quiet as you looked away from the handsome skeleton.

He was tall and had cheekbones so sharp you were certain they could cut diamonds. He wore a soft grey button up shirt with the sleeves buttoned to his elbows and sharp looking black dress pants. His shoes were black polished leather loafers. But the most captivating thing about him was the twin scars trailing down his left socket and the flaming red lights in his eyes that seemed to smolder.

”WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU ON MY PROPERTY?”

He crossed his arms over his chest as he tilted his head down to look at you.

“Uhm.” Your voice was so small and quiet. God you probably sound so dumb right now! ‘Come on, say something intelligent, please!’

”Ah.”

’Damnit.’

”The cat brought me here. She wanted to pull me through the doggy door.”

“LIKELY STORY. NOR DOES THAT TELL ME WHO YOU ARE.”

You stuttered out your name. “It’s true! I told her I wouldn’t fit through the door though, so we stayed outside and played with bubbles.” You hummed as your gaze rested back on Doomfanger.

Her golden eyes shown up at the large man.

” WHAT BUBBLES?”

“If you tell me your name I’ll show you.” He scoffed.

”AND WHY, PRAY-TELL, DO YOU FEEL THE NEED TO KNOW MY NAME.”

” Because I don’t show strangers my neat tricks.”

You lightly grabbed Doomfanger’s paw and gave her foot a squeeze. Her paw closed around your finger as you let her go.

He scooped up the white feline as she trilled up at him, pushing her soft, pink nose to his jaw. You watched as his face changed and softened for a moment before his red eyes flicked back to you.

"FINE. AS NO HARM CAME TO MY CAT, I SUPPOSE I CAN TELL YOU MY NAME HUMAN." He took a breath, missing the look of distaste that passed over your face.

"I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE EDGE. REMEMBER IT, HUMAN." He shifted Doomfanger in his arms. "NOW, SHOW ME YOUR SO CALLED 'NEAT TRICKS' AS YOU PROMISED."

You plainly waved a finger and conjured the bubbles, causing Doomfanger to lean out of Edge's arms in attempt to catch them again.

Doomfanger caught a bubble, popping it into its golden light and causing a mini koi fish to swim out. It swirled around both Edge and Doomy, before disappearing into a gentle golden poof.

"That is..." Edge's face melted into something short of awe. "Thats.."

You stared up at him with an owlish expression. "Its what?"

His red orbs snapped back to you. "NOTHING. COME INSIDE. WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU, HUMAN."

He opened the door to the house, walking in ahead of you. You swallowed down your nerves as you walked into the house.

Chapter Text

He opened the door to the house, it led into the kitchen area with the dining area next to it. Slowly trailing in after him, he led you through the dining area and through an archway that led to a cozy living room with plenty of sitting space.

There were still some empty spots among all of the people- well- monsters and your case worker.

There were quite a few people sitting in the living room. Tall ones, medium sized ones and shorter ones, though all still taller than you.

A medium sized one who wore a black turtleneck, a grey jacket and matching grey pants greeted you with a kindly smile. His eyes were white, though he had two cracks in his skull. One led up from the left side of his face, causing that eye to not open all the way and the other went from the bottom of the other socket, seemingly not effecting his eye on that side. (Or so you hoped.)

His eyes wrinkled at the corners as he beckoned you closer.

You stared around the room, taking everyone in. “Uh- uhm. Hello..” You couldn’t help but look anywhere other than them.

‘It’s been a long time since I was around so many people. Stars above, their eyes feel so scathing.’

You introduced yourself with your name. “I’m your new inverto. I hope we can grow to be good friends.” To emphasize your point, you lightly opened your hand and made some small flower crowns appear on top of each of their heads, though settled on necklaces for some of the taller ones and the big men with the holes in their craniums. The flowers were mostly yellow roses. If you remembered right, yellow roses are a sign of friendship.

You felt your face tingle as everyone stared at you. ‘This is so embarrassing why did I do that?!’ You couldn’t help the slight panic as one of the skeletons took off his flower crown and put it on a nearby table top. He stood a head and a half taller than you. He was dressed in a nice button up shirt and a blazer with fancy dress shoes and black dress pants. Over all he looked like he was ready to take on the world. He looked at you with one intense eye with a pupil in the shape of a star.

“Thank you for the lovely gift, my dear, however I’m afraid it would be damaged, so I will put it away somewhere safe. My name is Wine.” He gave you a sharp smile that sent a warm rush up your spine.

“Uhm- it’s nice to meet you, Wine.” You cooed. “I hope we get along.” He nodded and gestured to the skeleton next to him. The skeleton in question was dressed in a light brown hoodie with ‘lame guy’ written across the front in yellow letters. His teeth had large golden braces on either side of his mouth, keeping his large fangs in place.

”And this is my younger brother Coffee.”

Coffee gave a tired wave. He held up his hands and began signing to you.

*It’s nice to meet you. The flowers are nice. Thank you.*

You were taken aback before giving a small smile and signing back. *Im happy you like them! Yellow roses are a sign of friendship. So hopefully I’m doing a good job in that department so far.*

Coffee smiled and a light laugh came from him. He honestly hadn’t expected you to know what he was saying or to use sign language. It was refreshing to not have to use his journal at home to speak with others. After his injury from his time underground, Coffee found it hard to speak, instead opting for sign language as most monsters could use it and all monsters knew it. He thought it surprising how a majority of humans didn’t know the language, but yet a sizable portion of the human population needed to use it. He felt that speaking was one of the things that should be inclusive. But alas, here they were.

On the bright side though, at least their new house mate knew sign and seemed happy to use it. For the first time in the mundane life Coffee led on the surface, it felt like this change was absolutely for the better.

Coffee was brought out of his thoughts by Blue’s loud voice.

”OH HUMAN! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE FLOWERS! THEY ARE VERY CUTE!” Blue bounded up to you and grabbed your hands in his much larger ones. “I AM THE MAGNIFICENT AND BODACIOUS BLUE!” He posed with his hands on his hips and opened an eye slightly to gage your reaction.

You couldn’t help the smile that wrinkled your eyes and the shaking laugh of your shoulders. But you swallowed down any laughter and hummed. “It’s wonderful to meet you. I’m honored to be in your presence.”

And honestly that wasn’t far from the truth. It felt like it had been forever since you had someone around you could relate to, whether it be because you faced the same challenges or perhaps you were similar in physical appearance and attributes.

You had two really good friends that you had sadly lost touch with after they were taken in by their adopted families. Journei was a cat monster that resembled a Scottish fold, but with blue fur and blazing orange eyes. Though she stood at a whopping seven feet tall and could still move like a house cat jazzed on catnip. You loved her and the inherent chaos the twenty-one-year-old brought with her wherever she went.

Then the one who finished your little trio of Facility 7 was Arbor. A tree monster with glowing pale-yellow eyes that took up his whole sclera and pupil. He had a pair of antlers atop his head that had a large crown of a tree on top of the both of them. You loved to hang little battery powered lanterns from the branches in his wild hair while he caught a rare nap.

You remembered making a joke that you and he were insomnia buddies, as neither of you could get good sleep. Arbor didn’t sleep well due to his new form being so tall, and you didn’t sleep well because of your horrific nightmares. It had been seven years since that day, and you still saw that day as clear as fresh spring water in your mind.

You snapped back into reality as Blue was yanked away from you by a tall skeleton clad in a soft orange hoodie. Even with his slouch, he was still taller than you. You gazed up at him, and you could have sworn he was glaring down at you. It must have been a trick of the light, as his expression was one of aloofness.

“Yo. Name’s Stretch. Sorry 'bout my bro, he can be a bit too touchy feely for his own good.” Stretch rested his hand on Blue's shoulder. "BROTHER! WE TALKED ABOUT THIS." Blue scowled up at Stretch, a frown very clear on his face. Blue turned to you with a small smile. "I AM SORRY HUMAN. PLEASE GIVE US A MOMENT." You bit back a frown of your own at the ‘human’. “That’s alright. Take all the time you need.” You hummed as you waved them away, the duo walking up the stairs next to the kitchen that led up and into a second floor that remained unseen.

Turning back to the group, the tall man from earlier stood to introduce himself.

”Greetings. I am W.D. Gaster. I am the head of the household. Not everyone is here at the moment, but those who are, are incredibly happy to meet you, myself included.” He took your hand in his much larger one, a perfectly circular hole was in his palm. You couldn’t help but look at it.

The hole was all the way through his hand and the sides of the bone seemed overly smooth, like it had been filled with something to keep infection or further injury at bay.

‘I hope he isn’t in any pain. I know what that’s like. It sucks.’ A tiny spark of golden light emanated from your own hand and surrounded Gaster’s in a thin film before fading away with a green hue.

“Ah! Sorry- sometimes my magic flares up. Though it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be.” You quickly pulled your hand away from the handshake and wiped it onto your pants. Something about the illusion of cleaning your hands off made it feel like you wouldn’t have those little accidents.

Gaster’s gentle laugh filled the room, accompanied by Wine and three large, rather spooky looking skeletons.

Though the laughter wasn’t of mockery or bullying. Just light hearted comfort.

“It’s quite alright, my dear. You just have quite the strong healing magic. Your intent was pure and to the point. Empathy and compassion are incredibly powerful feelings.”

Gaster leaned down closer to your face, peering at you closer. “Plus black magic like you have for a magic color is incredibly rare.” He seemed to stop and contemplate for a moment as one of the spooky skeletons wondered over. He had a large hole in his face where his eyes would be, the space taken up by one big, toxic green eyelight. The hole in the center of his face had cracks that splintered in all directions and his ribs seemed to be on the outside of his shirt. Overall he seemed worse for wear. His gait was slow as he seemed to glide silently over the floor toward the two of you, his eye wondering your frame. He towered above Gaster, his green light locked onto you.

“Tell me, dear. What was your soul trait as a human?” His voice was deep and echoey, as if a voice was coming out of an abandoned cathedral. A voice that held so much might, but had been subdued with age and time.

You couldn’t help but to straighten up slightly, placing your hands together and looking away to Marie, who was quietly chatting with Wine.

“I’m sorry sir- I’m not entirely sure what my soul trait was. I don’t know if my paperwork would say.”

The newcomer hummed a low tune and turned to Marie. “Marie, was it? Do you know what soul trait our little one was?”

Marie perked up, her mouth forming an ‘oh’. “Yes sir, her file says she had a kindness soul. It was green for a few days before it turned black like it is now.”

Your face flushed black in embarrassment as the monsters eyes all landed on you, curiosity burning in their features.

Gaster straightened up.

“A black soul? That is quite concerning. We may have to get Green to look at her when he comes home later and has time to do so.”

The taller man nodded in agreement. He glanced at you. “I had a feeling you were a kindness soul. My name is Shepherd. It’s a pleasure to meet you, youngling.”

Shepherds emotionless face turned into one of a slight smile and he dipped his head in a nod.

”No sir. I believe the pleasure is mine.” You cooed back.

He took your hand and led you over to the couch to sit down when loud shouting came from outside.

”WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU MEAN WERE TAKING IN A STRAY HUMAN! NO! GET THAT FILTH OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

At the loud noise, you shrunk in on yourself. This person sounded like they were going to be a pill.

Chapter Text

You sat quietly on the couch as the door slammed open and three more skeletons walked in. One wore a black hoodie with a burnt orange sweater underneath. He had two golden fangs and dark orange bags under his eyes. He was walking closely after a shorter man, this one with red eye lights. One could say he looked like edge, but shorter and fancier dressed. Though this one seemed to be doing the shouting.

The last skeleton was rubbing his skull, trying to ebb away a headache. He was taller than you by a good foot and a half, and plenty thick too. He looked like he would be very huggable. But due to his overall currently grumpy demeanor, you weren’t about to ask that of this man. He wore a navy-blue button up shirt with a black long sleeve shirt underneath. Above his name tag was ‘EBBOT UNIVERSITY’ and his name tag spelled ‘Professor Red’. He was covered in various oils and grimes.

“I CANNOT BELIEVE WE HAVE STOOPED SO LOW AS TO TAKE IN SUCH A HEATHEN! A MILLION TIMES, NO!”

Red, as you knew by his name tag, drug his hand down his face with a groan. “Fuckin’ can it drama queen. We talked about da kid for weeks. If yer just now worried about it then I don’t think yer as smart as ya claim to be.” He grouched.

"I AM NOT WORRIED! I JUST BELIEVE WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN A STRANGER INTO OUR HOME!"

The cherry red skeleton took off his nicer leather coat and hung it on a coat rack inside the closet door near the entrance of the home and turned to go to the kitchen, only to pause when his eyes fell upon Marie.

His voice was level and cold. "WHAT IS THAT *THING* DOING IN OUR HOME?" To Marie's credit, she kept her composure and didn't appear shaken, though throughout your years of knowing her you knew by the shape of her eyes she was on high alert. She had dealt with her fair share of off the wall invertos or invertos having melt downs. You recalled a time when a husky-like inverto had a break down and Marie had to subdue them and hold them down. If you recalled, it was because that person found out one of their family members on the outside had passed.

It had been a quick ordeal, and afterwords you had heard through the grapevine his assigned group took care of him with a cuddle pile and movies. He hadn't been harmed and plainly needed some love and care.

And judging by the look of some of these guys here, that would also be the case. The 'drama queen' puffed up and his palm crackled with cherry colored magic.

"Razz. That is enough. If you harm our guest, there will be severe consequences." Gaster sat in a plush recliner, a leg placed overtop the other and his eyes narrowed in a silent challenge. He stared down his nose at Razz, who just growled and looked away.

His red eyes finally connected with your own.

Shepherd let out a dark growl and the two mystery men next to you also began to growl.

‘What the fuck is happening right now?’

You cleared your throat and introduced yourself. “I’ll be on my best behavior. You won’t even know I’m here.” You had tried to soothe the situation so no one snapped.

He continued to look at you before his lips curled into a devious smile. “Rus, Retrieve.” And the tall one that had lingered in the doorway moved.

He disappeared in a flash of sunset rust, and appeared behind you and reached out to grab you. You quickly leapt forward out of his grasp and off the couch backing up to stand in front of Marie.

”WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! RUS, RETRIEVE!”

The one now dubbed as Rus shifted from foot to foot. “She is pretty fast, M’lord.” A deep raspy voice spoke up.

Razz stomped his foot on the ground. “WE DID NOT TRAIN ALL OUR LIVES ONLY TO BE OUT-SPED BY SOME SLOPPY PUP! GET THEM, GO FASTER!”

Rus was about to shift again, only for Gaster and Shepherd to both start snarling, stopping him in his tracks.

”Knock it off, both of you! Your father will be notified, and your permissions to leave the house for frivolous and recreational purposes are to be revoked effective immediately!” Yellow magic snapped through the air accompanied by little pops and zaps. “Shame on the both of you. You know we do not man handle anyone, especially if they are not okay with it.”

You kept your body low and in a braced position incase these two decided to make another grab at you. You had no idea what their intentions were, not to mention you didn't know them well- if at all.

Marie placed her hand on your shoulder. "It's okay sweetie. Some tension is to be expected when introducing someone to a new family."

Razz snorted in anger. "FAT CHANCE I ALLOW THAT- THAT RUNT- INTO OUR FAMILY!" He stomped his foot like a petulant child.

Gaster let out a deep growl. "That is not something you get to decide, Razz. I am still patriarch of this home and family, and unless you have a good reason to not allow her in, my word is final."

Razz's face began to turn bright red, and a cloud of magic popped up as he stomped his foot and let out a growl before pointing at you. "MARK MY WORDS YOU FIENDISH FOE! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL YOU ARE SUBMISSIVE OR GONE!" His voice lowered into a growl as he held his arm out to Rus who grabbed onto his forearm. "Whichever comes fir-" and he disappeared in a vwoop of magic vapor before he could finish his sentence, Rus rolling his eyes and sending you a wolfish grin with a wink.

"Yes, yes, posture and prattle all you like." Gaster muttered and rolled his eyes, waving his hand to clear out the stench of the blood orange vapor.

The tension in the room seemed to melt away as Red let out a whistle. "What a lil' shit."

Shepherd gave a sigh and a nod as Gaster rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I concur."

You bit your lip and looked down at your feet, shame filled you like a heavy wave. You genuinely didn't know what you did wrong for someone to dislike you already. Had you accidentally challenged someone without realizing? Surely not. You were sure you had been nothing but polite and courteous to your new caretakers. The only aggressive actions you had taken was to put yourself between them and Marie for fear of them hurting her. And truly as it is, you have no reason to trust them or be loyal to them at this very moment or choose them over Marie.

But that still begged the question: what had you done? The self-doubt crept in and settled like a heavy snow. Cold and bitter. This wasn't exactly going well. You were pulled out of your thoughts by a tall shadow engulfing you. Looking up, Red stood over you, looking down at you. "Heya kid. Ya got some spice to ya. Not a lotta people would stand up ta mister hissy fit and his dog of a bro." He stuck out his hand for you to shake. "It was pretty nice of ya ta protect yer human like dat. Name's Red."

You couldn't help the small smile and took Red's hand and shook it. His half lidded coy expression lifted into one of surprise and his red eyes shot over to the two mystery men and then over to Gaster and Shepherd, then fell back to you.

You introduced yourself to him. "It was the right thing to do. Marie works really hard and cares for everyone at the facility. She took care of me for years and even through more..." Your eyes darted away as you thought of what to say. You didn't want to trauma dump on these people on your first day. (Or really ever.)

"Turbulent times. I hope we can get along. I'm excited to be outside again." Red's expression seemed to soften. "'M sure we'll get along just fine." Red turned to look at the two men you had been sitting with on the couch. "Sparrow, who's cookin' t'night?"

A tall skeleton with braces on his teeth and a gentle pastel orange sweater with tan pants spoke up. "It Should Be Wine And Edge Tonight With Tide Supervising." Red gave a nod. "D' ya two wanna show the small fry to their room? M' sure Gaster and Shepherd have all the paperwork covered, yeah?"

Sparrow seemed to give a bright smile and looked down to you. "You Would Not Mind, Would You Little Human? We Can Even Give You A Tour On The Way!" You had to keep from frowning at the nickname he had unwittingly gave you. You choked back any of the bitterness of 'human' and swallowed your feelings down and smiled instead. "It would be greatly appreciated, Sparrow. Thank you." The large skeleton smiled down at you from behind his thick rimmed glasses. "Nyeh- You Are Most Certainly Welcome!" He turned back to look at the other man. He was rather large and rotund. He dawned a dark blue sweater with black sweatpants, and red house slippers that seemed to match his eye. But what caught your attention the most was the large hole in his skull. You tried not to stare. That could have been you all that time ago. But it wasn't and all was fine. 'Ah, Geez, you're still staring.' You didn't get out unscathed.

You smiled up at the larger man, offering your hand and name. "It's nice to meet you, sir. I hope we can be friends."  His single eye light shrank slightly as it landed on you then went fuzzy at the edges. His sharp neutral smile became bigger and more genuine as his eyes softened. "We... already are." He didn't let go of your hand as he led you away to some stairs next to the kitchen entrance that led up to the second level.

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Gaster watched as Sparrow and Bear led the new pup (in his eyes) up the stairs to show them the room they would be staying in and the rest of the house. Sparrow happily talking and saying how they'd "have such a wonderful time living together!" Which Gaster agreed with. Hopefully having a softer person in the home would make everyone relax more. Especially since the inverto seeped out dormant healing magic in alarming amounts. Hence why Edge, Red, and the famine district skeletons had taken to her so fast. Just being around them soothed the chronic pain he had in his own skull. Gaster couldn't recall seeing Sparrow move so fast after his surgeries and without his cane. He turned his attention to the human in front of him.

"Marie, was it? I apologize you had to see such a display. I fear he is one of our more vocal household members. He merely has a distaste for change." The human softened.

"I understand. Change is difficult for anyone, especially more vulnerable invertos like our lil' munchkin." She nodded her head to the stairs you had disappeared up moments ago.

Gaster looked to the stairwell and back to Marie. "Vulnerable how? If I may ask?" He took the clip board of paper work as she sighed. "Those who are injured and have chronic health issues, be it physical or mental."

Gaster nodded, a knowing hum from his chest. "And what category does she fall under?"

Marie hesitated, before closing her eyes and giving a sigh. "It's not my story to tell. But she most certainly falls under both categories."

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

You huffed slightly as you got to the top of the stairs. Your leg hurt and your nub was aching. Recalling the wide hospital hallways that were flat and had the option of elevators, you have come to realize quite quickly that you were in fact, very spoiled.

Bear's one eye looked down at you as you rubbed your leg. Bear had seen his brother rub his aches the same way. He would file that away for later. "So Human!" You disguised your sigh as a puff of exhausted air. "This Is The West Wing Of The Manor! Our Family Is Quite Large And As Is Monster Custom, We All Live Together As To Ward Away Danger. We Also Have What You Humans Would Consider Pack Dynamics, Though Really It Is To Keep From Fighting And To Stay Organized."

You nodded lightly, scraping at your fingers.

"Right. I remember my time from the facility that there were mandated groups among the same types of invertos. It was thought and later proven to help mental health. I kinda had my own little group. But we didn't use the word 'pack' because we didn't want to feel like there had to be a pecking order and that could or, would have, led to violence."

Sparrow nodded happily. "Thats Wonderful! I'm Happy You Had Someone On The Inside." Bear let out a snort. "Come on bro. Yer.... saying that like they were.... in prison." Sparrow let out a hum. "But Were You Not? I Had Heard Those Places Crawled With Criminals."

You frowned. This was a common thing to hear and why many racist nay-sayers shouted from the streets to keep invertos in the walls that entombed them and their unbusy lives.

The door to your right slammed open. "HONESTLY! HOW DO WE NOT KNOW YOU ARE NOT SOME SORT OF KEPTOMANIAC OR- OR-!" The red short skeleton from earlier burst out of the room to the left. He stared down at your hands and your dust covered fingertips. "OR MAYBE A DRUG ADDICT. ONLY THEY SCRATCH LIKE THAT."

"It's a nervous habit. I do it when im stressed, and you aren't helping." You huffed softly and turned to Sparrow. "It's been lovely talking to you, but do you think you could show me to my room please?"

The pleasant face and smile were completely gone as a look of silent rage was directed to Razz. A flat monotone answered you. "Yes. It Is The Last Door On The Right." His eyes never left Razz and his voice dropped to a loud whisper. The silence was somehow loud and the air crackled with tension. "I Trust You Can Find It On Your Lonesome?"

You could barely breathe. You felt like shit was going to go down, and you wanted to leave as fast as possible. Giving a choked nod, "Yes. I can make it from here. Thank you."

You turned on your hill, the air's tension only growing thicker as you walked to the described door and flung it open and snapping it closed, the last noise from the hallway being a growl you thought only a cryptid could make.

You slumped to your knees. What was that dudes damage? You opened and studied your hands, the chips and clumps of dust fell onto the creme carpet.

And when you looked up, it was everything you could have hoped for. Open, a balcony, and a cozy little book nook. The afternoon light filtered in and bathed the room in a golden glow.

And you couldn't help but feel a small spark of determination. You wouldn't let that jerkwad Razz get you down. There would always be a tomorrow, especially now that you were here.

You took a breath and felt ready to put forward some effort. If today sucked, there was tomorrow. And maybe tomorrow wouldn't suck as much.

Chapter Text

You were brought out of your unpacking by three steady knocks on the door. The sun had finally sunk low in the sky and set the clouds aglow in hot pinks and shades of purple and orange. Yet, when you had entered your room no one had come by until now.

You folded up the soft pink and green striped sweater. The ends of the sleeves were tattered and the end of the sweater wasn’t in much better condition.

”Come in!” You hummed as you placed the sweater on your bed and moved onto a nice soft pair of pajama pants.

The door swung open to reveal Wine, Coffee, and five new skeletons.

‘Man, that’s a lot of people that live here.’ Wine’s voice cut through your thoughts. “Greetings, dear. I do hope you are well this evening. I was coming to notify you that dinner is ready and your human Marie will be staying for dinner but leaving after.”

You sat up straighter. “O-oh. Thank you for letting me know.” Wine’s single red star shaped light landed on the sweater on your bed and your rather barren closet before narrowing back onto you.

“We will have to prioritize getting you a proper wardrobe. There’s no need to keep you in such rags.” Wine’s red magic surrounded your sweater and you watched in abject terror as he shot it into the nearby garbage can.

”NO!” You quickly shot your hand out and your voice had shot up an octave.

You dove for the trash can and ignored the ‘pop’ your leg gave off and the dull ache that turned into a searing burning sensation, in favor of getting your sweater out of the small garbage can.

Wine raised a bone brow. “Dear- it is only a sweater.” He couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose at the thing once it was further unfolded. A large area where the fabric were darker shades ran across the front and on the sleeves, and there was a shoddy stitch job with what appeared to be large yarn threads that held a hole in the thinning fabric closed. Other places on the sweater were thinning out so badly it could nearly be mistaken for mesh.

”A rather ghastly sweater- if you can actually even call it that. You needn’t worry. We’ll get you a new one.”

Wine again made the pink abomination glow and tried to tug it out of the inverto’s hands.

You couldn’t find your feet, as you were pretty sure your leg popped out of the prosthetic. But you clung to the sweater as if it were the most precious thing on earth.

Because to you, it was.

“N-no! Please!” You couldn’t help the fat black tears that streamed down your face. You didn’t even feel them rise to your eyes before they started pouring. “I g-gotta k-k-keep my-y promise!” Your eyes stung with fresh tears as the invisible grip on the sweater faded away. The small choked whimpers and sniffles and hiccups were a sign of how upset you had gotten so quickly.

You held the sweater to your chest, pressing it over your soul. “P-please- you can have an-anything you w-want! Just don’t take her!” Your breaths were short and stunted as you continued to choke slightly, alternating between chokes and hiccups.

A gentle hand fell onto your shoulder. Through wet sockets, two taller skeletons looked down at you, both kneeled by your side. One wore a small, patient smile and had one blue eye and one orange eye. His skill had a crack in them, one leading up from his right socket and down from his left. He wore a bright orange blazer with a bright blue undershirt and brown pants and loafers.

The other looked down at you through a pair of half speticles. This one also had a crack in his face, but strangely it was in the shape of an upside down star covering his forehead and in between his eyes.

He wore a white turtleneck with a red blazer with golden trim, white slacks and white loafers. You also thought you saw red socks peaking out from his ankles.

That one spoke first.

”I am terribly sorry, little pup. My son did not mean to upset you so greatly. You see, my son and myself share a taste for the finer things in life, and I fear he did not consider the sentimental value that this…” he paused as he looked over the ragged sweater. “Rather well-used sweater had to you. I apologize on his behalf.”

You blinked away your tears, heat rising to your cheeks. You prided yourself on being calm and collected, and yet, someone’s misguided kindness was enough to make you lose your shit. You honestly felt like a petulant child throwing a tantrum when they got something taken away.

You glanced up at the fancy-pants skeleton. ‘Please do something… anything..?’ You urged yourself to move. Nod your head, even make a verbal acknowledgement. But nothing. You only squeezed the fabric tighter.

Her pink fur was getting thinner and slipping through your finger tips. She needed you right now. You needed to make sure she could breathe.

If you didn’t help her and hang on, she’d be gone.

“Sweetie?”

Help wasn’t that far away- right? Surely they heard all of the noise and the screams.

”Honey pie?”

You stared at the cream carpet. The dust…

The dust wasn’t there.

“Darling?”

No one else had been there. You moved your fingers across the worn fabric. That’s not right. She was much softer. Feeling a hand on your arm, your eyes landed on it.

’Who..? Where..?’

Mismatched eyes glanced down at you. A white and blueish purple triforce respectively. He wore a purple tuxedo and a lavender tie. He was kneeled in front of you, his eyes focused on your own, and the sound of a gentle snow storm filled your ears.

“It is okay. There is no need to be afraid of the others. My name is Violet. Vi for the ease of speech. What is your name?”

You searched his face, and after a few moments, your name quietly slipped out.

He gave a kind smile. “That’s such a lovely name. May I sit with you?”

You looked around the room, the others were still there, and shadows lingered in the hall.

’Is he here?’

”Will you help me keep a look out for him?” You pulled your legs up to your chest and kept the sweater close, breathing in its stale scent.

Violet sat next to you.

“Keep a lookout for who? Surely not Wine. He didn’t know it would upset you so much.”

You shook your head, eyes scanning the hall. If you were silent, he wouldn’t find you.

The shadows grew in number and in size. They seemed to stretch and make up an inky darkness that melded together and yet still swirled.

———

The inverto’s eyes snapped to the doorway. A ferocious growl echoing from their chest. Vi couldn’t help but question what the hell they were looking at. A crowd of concerned skeletons had stopped at the doorway and were looking in, watching the situation unfold. Quietly surveying the small new skeleton. But the inverto seemed trained on one person in particular. Vi’s brother, Cash.

Cash had grapefruit colored magic, dripping down his skull in small beads. “Hey now- we don’t want any trouble.”

He held up his hands as he slowly stepped closer, only for the semi-feral skeleton to drop to her ands and knees and stood in-front of Vi, blocking him from view. Their jaws snapped and terrifying snarls ripped from their teeth, their eyes long ago distinguishing in a wisp of smoke.

They lunged at Cash, snapping their jaws at the bottom of his coat.

Fortunately, Cash was fast. He quickly dodged and stepped a good three feet away as the inverto backed up onto VI’s lap, still safeguarding him.

The taller orange and blue skeleton from earlier quietly moved into her field of view.

”Hey, Sweetie… It’s okay.” He held his hands up as he kneeled next to her. Her head slightly tilted to him while their gaze was still pinned on Cash.

“My name is Tide. That young man you are looking at is called, ‘Cash’. He is really nice once you get to know him.”

Their voice was barely above a whisper. “Cash.”

Tide brightened. “Yes! Very good! Cash.”

Their mean look seemed to falter for a moment. “That’s not right…”

Cash shot a desperate look to his brother, who gave him a familiar hand signal from their time in the purple district.

’Stand down.’ Vi’s hands had slowly made their way around the inverto’s waist, keeping them from lunging out at Cash, (or really anyone else that dared come near while they were clearly having some kind of episode.)

Vi looked up as the crowd by the door stirred. Emerging from the stairwell was Gaster and Shepherd, followed by the human case worker who he hadn’t yet learned the name of even though Vi had been the one with the most contact with the facility regarding custody of their newfound family member.

Her blue-green eyes cast over the scene and her gaze rested on Cash as she began to instruct him. “She picked you out because of how large the fur on your hood is. She can’t distinguish fact from fiction right now.” She walked over to him and helped him remove the large purple leather jacket with white fur trim on the hood and inner lining.

”It’s not your fault at all hon. But if she’s been stressed out a lot in a short period of time, it will be easy for an episode to happen.”

Marie softly said your name as she locked her gaze onto you. “Sweetie, where are you right now?”

—————————

‘Where am I?’ Your eyes flickered around the room. It was long and dark, and somehow, the man had disappeared.

”Hall.”

”No honey. That’s not right. Name me five things you can see.”

You had to squint. God, that light was so bright you swore you were going blind. But… it didn’t seem that bright?

“I see…”

You looked around. This place was unfamiliar, but it somehow didn’t feel bad.

You kneaded your fingers into the plush carpet beneath your feet.

”A soft crème colored carpet.”

”Yes.” Marie hummed. “Gimme another.”

Your eyes flicked over to the wooden nightstand you had stuffed your sweater into.

“A dark colored, sturdy bedside table.”

You looked into the still cracked open drawer. “A cute, well-worn sweater.”

Marie silently nodded.

You looked to the other side of the room.

”A big window that touches the ground. The panes are a nice cottage white.”

”What else do you notice about the window?”

”Is… is it a door?”

”Yes.” Marie hummed. “What do you think it’s a door to?”

Your mind felt clearer than it had been a moment ago.

”A door to a balcony.”

“I need one more thing you can see.”

Glancing back to the side, the dark bed frame that matched the bedside table stuck out. “The bed and its frame that match the table. The sheets smell clean.”

It was like something clicked. You couldn’t possibly be in the hall, because there had only been a single window at the end of the hallway. The floor of the hall also lacked carpeting and most certainly didn’t have a bed nor did it smell clean.

You couldn’t help but feel your face heat up in humiliation. You, in your own eyes, felt like you had resorted to throwing a tantrum like a child because someone had dared to take your bum ass sweater. The embarrassment was heavy and you hid your face in your palms.

“I-I apologize. I’m at the…” You hesitated to call this place your new home. Especially after you had just shown how unstable you could be. They may not want you here anymore and may opt to send you back. So you didn’t call it anything close to ‘your new home’.

”…housing appointment. I’m not at the facility or in the hall. I was putting my stuff away and someone offered me new clothes. It was nice of them, but they threw my sweater out. It…” your voice broke and you felt the tears come back.

’Don’t cry! No crying! Especially about something so dumb! You’ve troubled everyone enough as it is!’ You took in even breaths to steady your emotions as you pressed your palms to your sockets. “I’m sorry. You had no way of knowing I would have reacted so poorly. Please understand, my sweater is really important to me. I…”

You hugged yourself as the image of her candy sky blue eyes flashed into your mind, followed by her little Buck teeth and the blue cotton candy like hair that cascaded down her head and torso.

She gave you a happy smile. One filled with adoration, love, and contentment.

The very same feelings that sat in the thinning threads of the ragged sweater. The one thing of hers that you were far too selfish to ever give up to her family or her boyfriend's mother. It was yours, and you'd be damned if you'd part with it.

”I don’t want to go into details, but the person I… got it… from- I love them very much. They never got to leave the facility, so they asked me to take it with me in my travels. So… please. Let me keep it a while longer. I feel like if i take it with me, somehow I know... she'll get to experience the world outside of the walls."

You felt the arms around your waist tighten into a hug. "I think that is a beautiful thing to do for a friend. I think we can respect your wishes and not mess with your stuff." You looked behind you and into the face of the handsome skeleton, face darkening as you began to sputter.

"O-Oh my s-stars! I'm sorry! I didn't realize-" You gently moved to slide out of his lap, skull aglow in a florescent black color. His soft chuckle wasn't the only one in the room as multiple rumbles of laughter built up. "It's quite alright, my dear. It was no trouble to have such a cute human in my lap."

You couldn't help the sigh as the blush spread to your neck and further up your face. "Please don't refer to me as a human. I'm not a human, I haven't been one for ages. If anything, just call me by my name. A nickname is fine too. But please don't use 'human'." Vi plainly nodded. "My apologies. Is 'darling' and 'dear' okay?" You gave a nod and a small smile. "That... that would be really appreciated. Please and thank you..." You hesitated on his name. "Vi, right?"

"That's right, dear. I will be your lawyer and help you to make decisions in more official settings instead of Marie, now that you will be living with us."

You ducked your head slightly. "You're not..." You looked around for a moment, now realizing just how much of a crowd had gathered. There were about seventeen skeletons and Marie in your room or lurking in the hall. Lots of them looked in, some with unreadable expressions.

You bit your lip, gaze casting back down to the ground, unable to take the weight of everyone staring. Speaking up, your voice was small. "You're not going to make me go back? I... I'm more than willing, I didn't mean to cause trouble, I swear..."

Vi scoffed. "My Dear, don't be so foolish. If we sent those who had panic attacks out of the home over half the population of the house and then some would not be here." He placed his hand on your shoulder. "Plus, all of the paperwork is completed and honestly-" He pulled you into a side hug. "We have all been excited to have you here, even if some have been less than welcoming. Give them some time and I'm sure all will be well in due time."

Gaster nodded as he walked into the room, Shepherd trailing behind. "Vi is absolutely correct. We have heard plenty about you and we are happy to have you stay with us, Pup." Shepherd walked up to you, his one large green eye looking down into your own.

"You are always welcome here, little one." A deep rumble came from his chest as he bent down and rubbed his jaw across the top of your head. The motion was one of friendliness and contentment.

You shot Vi a look, only to earn a smile from him. "Its a way monsters translate affection to each other. Like how some families hug and kiss their children 'goodnight'." He folded his hands behind his back as he made his way to Cash, and a newcomer. Another tall man with more cracks in his skull. There were four that trailed up from his jaw and to the bottom of both of his eyes. However, neither of them seemed to close or droop.  His eyes were a sharp electric purple, almost like lightening. He wore a long eggplant overcoat with white fur on the neck and cuffs. His pants and loafers were both black. Vi wondered over to the both of them, and to demonstrate, they both rubbed their jaws on top of Vi's head.

Vi rubbed his head under their jaws in response, suddenly reaching up and grabbing Cash by the neck of his jacket and yanking him down to rub his own jaw on top of Cash's head, the taller skeleton giving a small smile and joining it.

"Ugh! Cut it out! You two know I don't like nuzzles!" Vi laughed as he kept Cash under his chin. "You do not hate nuzzles you liar. You just don't like it in front of other people."

Cash sputtered as his skull turned into the red grape of his magic. "Bro!" He whined. You couldn't help but smile at their antics.

Suddenly you were turned by Bear's large hand. "It is... time for dinner. Tide, Wine, and Edge... all worked hard... on it. Made it and were hopin'... you'd like it."

Sparrow wondered over clutching his cane in his hand, and as he drew nearer, his grip loosened, and he seemed to move slightly easier. "My brother is right!" He smiled down at you. "We all eat together as a family every night. And as you are family now, you shall eat with us!"

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

Sparrow watched as the inverto's eyes dilated and grew brighter. Her magic was naturally darker and almost seemed like it held no distinct color. A sign of infection in the soul and soul sickness. And with panic attacks that rivaled his brother in intensity, he worried about his new house companion.

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

Sparrow guided the new skeleton out of their room by a hand on her back, cane clicking against the floor as they went along to the dining room. As the room emptied out, the drawer containing the ratty sweater sat slightly ajar. Empty.

Chapter Text

Dinner was… something else. It hadn’t been bad, per se. Maybe tiring was a better word, especially after you got to meet the rest of the household.

There were a few noticeable things about each of these new skeletons.

You had taken a seat at the table, Bear on your right side where his one good eye could look at you, and Marie on your left and on her left, sat Gaster with two empty seats next to himself. Including those two empty chairs, there were six in total. One next to Edge and Red, one next to Razz and Rus, and two empty ones at the corner of the table at the other end.

You sat in the chair and swung your legs under the table as an idle motion, mind wondering as the quiet chatter went around the table. The lulling of conversations and chatter, paired with your panic attack earlier was really making you sleepy.

Your eyes closed and you finally stilled, only to have a feeling of someone watching you. You tried to ignore it in favor of resting your sockets, but it just became more difficult. Opening your eyes, you came face to face with another tall skeleton who had taken the chair next to Red and Edge, the latter of which was still in the kitchen finishing up dinner with Wine and Tide.

He leaned over the table, his elbows sat firmly on the surface of said table as his head sat on his hands. Two red eye lights looked you up and down, with his right eyelight being slightly scrambled and not whole. He wore a deep maroon turtleneck sweater and a red scarf over it, despite it not being scarf weather quite yet.

“Ya tired, kiddo?” Came his voice, slightly rough but with an air of amusement.

Your face lit up again. What was with these new skeletons and them making you blush constantly today? Granted, none of it was due to flattery- only your own embarrassment due to your own actions and self awareness.

“U-uhm, yeah. You could say that.” You gave a nervous laugh. “I didn’t mean to be rude, so forgive me if you’ve been trying to speak with me for a bit.”

He waved you off. “Nah. Think nothing of it. It was about three seconds of me staring at you until you became uncomfortable and showed that fact. Not to mention I was looking at your scars. It’s funny, really.”

He leaned in more. “How did a little thing like you end up with scars as bad as those?”

Your face contorted into one of confusion. You didn’t have any visible scars- well- not anymore and not outside any place your clothes didn’t cover you.

”What scars? I don’t think I have anything on me?”

Well- not that they could see anyway.

He pointed to the top of his own head.

“Yer skull is bumpy and chipped. Looks like you got smashed on the head with something.”

You kept your face clear of emotion. “Oh. It was a long time ago. Barely remember it.”

The tablecloth suddenly became very interesting.

“Looks like it was a blunt object like a bat…” he trailed off. “Or a bottle.” You felt your body brace at the memory of the sensation, and the sound of glass breaking against your skull was something you couldn’t quite forget either.

You jumped as a blue sleeved arm sat a white porcelain plate in front of you.

”Come on, Sarge. I know you like your new job as a forensic scientist, but leave the pup alone. They’ve had a long day and you needn’t make it longer.”

Tide placed his hand on your head and pet your skull, looking at where your scar was.

He paused, feeling it it a bit more. “It is rough though, and sort of deep, but it’s not bad at all.” He kneeled down to your level to look you in the face with a teasing smile. “Don’t listen to him, pup. He’s just a stinky old curmudgeon that likes to meddle.”

Sarge, as you now knew- face began to gain a red tint to his cheeks. “Says you!” He barked. Red had been looking over his phone the whole time, assumingly grading papers. “He’s got ya there, Pa. Yer pretty cranky wit’out yer coffee in the evenin’.”

Sarge looked at Red with a snort. “I ain’t cranky!”

Edge and Wine then appeared from the kitchen, carrying various pots and pans filled with food to the table.

Edge let out a hum as he sat a rather large coffee mug next to his dad. “No. I Believe The Correct Term As The Youth Say, Is: ‘Hangry.’”

Sarge was about to object, only for a wisp of his red magic to seek out the nearest piece of monster food and snatch it off the plate and into… who knows where.

Both Red and Edge started laughing and Sarge let out a sigh of defeat. “Fine. I suppose I like Hangry more so than curmudgeon.”

Cash spoke up from his spot at the other end of the table. “Yeah. Uncle Sarge is hangry at night and a curmudgeon in the mornings.”  There was more laughing as Sarge groaned, and proceeded to eat a piece of blue celery dipped in ranch.

‘Blue celery? Did they dye it for flavor? But… that’s super blue. There isn’t a hint of green anywhere.’

Sarge’s red eyes meet yours. “What.” He asked. “Never seen monster food before?” And honestly? No, you hadn’t. You did hear through the grape vine that it did exist, but it was a pain to even distribute among the free population. So no chance would the non contributing population of the invertos see any sort of monster products.

“Uhm. No. Can’t say I have. Though if I remember right, monster food gives you more magic and replaces what you used and can also give you physical boosts depending on what it is. I think the only monster food I’ve seen are monster candies.”

You motioned to his hand. “That looks like very blue celery to me.”

He raised a bone brow and looked at the blue veggie stick.

”It kinda does, yeah.” He shook his head. “This is echo flower stem. They’re high in magic and super crunchy, but it’s easy to overload your magic with em. So I’d say 3 is the maximum you should ever eat in a setting.” He passed you the bowl containing the peeled (now that you got a closer look at it-) stems. There was little to no variation in color, and they sat in a few inches of water on the bottom of the bowl. You took one stem and sat it on your plate, bypassing the lasagna and declining a glass of red wine.

You opted for the salad that had been brought out along with the bread sticks, tossing out any little tomatoes you had found.

You drizzled the dressing in the salad and happily munched away.

Bear stared down at you with his large red eye. Shepherd and Sparrow doing the same.

”There ain’t much… on yer plate.., treat.” You looked up at the lumbering giant, unaware that your doe-eyed stare had made the man’s cuteness aggression trigger.

He scooped you up onto his lap, scooping some lasagna onto your plate and held some up to your mouth on a fork.

You gave a gasp and a squeak as you turned your head to avoid the death filled fork, planting your face in his bicep. “Ah! S-stop! I’m allergic!”

Bear frowned. “So ya can’t… eat…” His grip tightened on your waist as he flipped you into more of a bridal style hold, then placing you on his lap while he got up and tried to meander back into the kitchen with you.

Shepherd stood up. “Son. It is alright. We can find other stuff for them to eat. Set them down and we can go from there."

Bear paused, staring over his shoulder at his dad, his normally round eye turned into a vertical slit as he stared at the older skeleton.

“Treat’ll starve…” He held you closer to his chest and a high-pitched whine emitted from him. “No more…”

You watched as he plunged two of his fingers into his dark eye socket and used the pointy tips to scrape at the inside of his skull and the bone around his eye. Flakes of dust fell onto your face as you stared up at the giant’s clearly haunted face.

Giant was a good term to use for him. Being held to his chest and cradled as you were, you still didn’t reach both of his shoulders at the same time. Looking down, the floor was five feet beneath you. Nearly your height, give or take a few inches.

His fingers made a grinding noise against the weathered bone of his socket, his teeth clenched as hot air escaped him in pants.

You felt your own features soften as you reached up and gently touched his hand, taking his one large hand in your two smaller ones.

"Hey. None of that. It's okay. I can eat the bread sticks and salad just fine.  Besides, when I get to a new place, I sometimes have trouble eating and sleeping. It's best I don't eat heavily tonight."

His features set into more of a frown. "Yer still... gonna be hungry..." You shook your head. "I'm already full. Besides, it's not the last time i'll eat."

His mouth pinched into a frown. "How will I know... you ate?" His hold tightened, but not to a point of pain.

"Well..." You looked away from his gaze, cheeks darkening. You had no idea why this made you bashful. Asking to cook with someone should be low on the list of 'social interactions that make me feel embarrassed' but yet, here you were. You had been stripped of all your dignities in front of strangers multiple times, and yet, asking someone for something so small was torture.

But you knew about torture, and from his expression, he did too. And you wanted to relieve it.

"How about, if it's okay with everyone,-" you gazed around at a flash, just barely seeing very few seats empty and multiple skeletons sweating. "We cook breakfast together tomorrow? I can make a mean pancake." You rubbed the back of his chipped, boney hand.

"And you'll... eat?"

You nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Of course. It's a good experience to cook with someone else." You looked down at your hands. "I believe it lets you into their mind, in a way. No matter how cranky they appear, you can find out a lot about their woes and fears, and through food, can hopefully find out how to bring them comfort. I love making pond cake, personally."

Bear finally sat down with you on his lap. "Don'tcha mean... pound cake?"

You shook your head. "No. Its pond cake. I used to make it with my sister. Its a jell-o cake with cute designs inside, and typically we always picked pretty fish. We would put that on top of a pie crust type base with whipped cream on the bottom. It was our rainy-day activity we liked to do."

You couldn't help the cheeky smile as you remembered making the cakes. "We would add secret decorations to the cake, and more often than not it was little ducklings, frogs, and lily pads." You sighed, looking back up at Bear, the smile not leaving your face. "If you want, I can teach you sometime."

Bear's anxiety ridden look seemed to calm. "I'd like that a lot, treat." He leaned over the table with one arm and grabbed your place, salad gone and a bread stick remaining. "Finish up, treat."

And with little resistance, you did.

-----------

Dinner was a success after that. The tension seemed to melt away and everyone seemed happier.

Food was eaten, and conversations were had. But alas, you were no match for the sandman. You jolted awake as Marie tapped you on the shoulder.

"Okay sweetie. I'm going to head out so I can get back to the facility, okay?" You felt your soul skip a beat as you rose from your chair. 'Wait! I'm- i'm not ready!' Panic began to fill your chest.

"Let me walk you out." You quickly followed her, watching as she grabbed the brief case with the signed paperwork signifying your adoption, followed by her jacket and car keys.

Marie turned to Gaster. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. I'm sure that our darling little one will love it here. Plus, this is a huge success for the facility. We love them, but we're happy to see her get a home." She turned to you and pat your head. "I am, especially happy, to see it happen." Her eyes softened as she looked at you.

Gaster smiled as he opened the door, stepping into the darkness of night along with Marie, followed by yourself.

"We will do our best to ensure her safety and happiness. We already love them. They'll fit right in with our pack."

Marie tossed a smile over her shoulder. "I'd appreciate it. I've been her case worker since she was sixteen. I've watched her become an adult and I feel happy I got a hand in shaping her into the person she is."

You felt your eyes begin to sting. You were honestly surprised she felt that way about you, especially knowing how much of a bitch you had been at sixteen. Then again, being in constant pain will do that to you.

You plainly opened your arms and scooped Marie into a hug, causing her to laugh. You buried your face into her shoulder to keep the tears at bay. Gosh. You had been doing a lot of crying today. What a weenie.

You laughed to yourself, sniffling as you did. Your voice came out watery. "S-sorry Marie. I- I'm just-" You sniffled. You never thought this day would come. And honestly, after you left Facility Eight, you didn't care if it did. Life hadn't been worth living after... after you lost everything for the second time.

"I'm really gonna miss you." Then the dam broke. You couldn't help the ugly sobs as your tears stained your cheeks. You heard Marie huff out a laugh. "It's okay honey. Here." She handed you a tissue and you wiped your eyes. "You gotta stop crying or you'll make me cry too." She laughed in her own watery voice and began to fan herself. "Besides, I have something for you."

You raised an eyebrow as she dipped into the car and came back up with two envelopes.

"This one, " She held up a white envelope with a green '7' on it with a little green plus sign underneath the seven surrounded by a white border and green circle. "Is from all of us at Facility Seven."

She held up the other envelope, this one looked yellowed from age and the purple sticker with a white '8' with a tiny tree on it was the symbol for Facility Eight. "Is from everyone at Facility Eight." You couldn't help your jaw drop.

Your eyes flicked back up to Marie in shock. "Wha- how?! I- I thought all of that stuff was gone-." Her smile seemed sad.

The clean-up crew took stuff from the building that didn't have dust on or in it, and some of those things were important documents like birth certificates and identity cards. Other papers included these."

She tapped the edge of the envelopes. "Hope letters. Well wishes from those who you've lost touch with."

Marie looked at you in the eyes. "Remember, sweet pea. Everyone is so happy that you're here now. You absolutely deserve your freedom, especially after all that bullshit you went through. The abandonment and heartache." She took you by your shoulders.

"If anything, they would absolutely want you to live your life and be happy." She pulled you into a hug. "I want you to be happy too." The hug lasted for a few moments before she pulled away, taking one final thing out of her coat pocket.

"Sera wanted you to be happy too." She dropped a small blue box into your hand. "She wanted you to have that. We know because we read it in a journal that was given to Bolt's family, and they agreed to give you that."

The tissue from earlier was all ruined. Tears silently poured from your eyes.

"Thank you, Marie. For everything."

She smiled and pulled you into a hug. "It was such a pleasure to be with you, but for both of our sakes, I hope we don't have to see each other like this again. We can plan for coffee next time I come this way, if you'd like."

You pulled away, wiping your face clean on your sleeve.

"Id like that a lot. And I don't wanna live with you again either. You're too much of a morning person." You griped, sticking your tongue out at her. You both laughed as she got in her car.

Her blue eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight as they found Gaster. "Take care of them. They have a lot of people who care about 'em." Her blue eyes landed on you.

"I love you, hon. I'll see you later."

You couldn't bring yourself to say anything as you watched her door close and the car start. The engine rumbled to life and the gravel crunched as she drove around the small circle in the driveway to turn around. You gave her a wave and the car horn beeped as she drove away.

You stood there till you could no longer see her taillights or hear the car engine.

And just like that, your life had majorly changed again for the final time. The blue velvet box in your hand felt heavy. 

Chapter Text

You awoke the next morning with a jolt as your bed sank low. The weight of a new body on your bed was not something you had planned for. Looking up, the large red eyelight of Bear’s was staring down at you, turning fuzzy around the edges.

“Good mornin’, treat. It’s… breakfast time.”

You couldn’t help the soft groan as you looked at the clock on your bedside table and your face conformed into one of discomfort. Coupled with your tear stained face and your stiff leg, and the fact it was three AM- you still felt tired.

“Bear, sweetie- it’s three in the morning.”

His red eye flicked over your form and back to your face. “Ya… didn’t eat much… last night. Plus th’ family is… pretty big. Got a lot… to do.”

You glanced at the clock, then back to Bear, whose expression was one of…- wait a minute.

Was he..?

Begging?

His eye was more solid in color but seemed to be wide in the pupil and wobbly around the edges. It somehow seemed to glisten with unshed tears.

You just sighed.

”Okay. Then let me get dressed and I’ll meet you in the hall."

Bear nodded and rose from his spot on the edge of your bed. "I'll... wait for you, treat."

He left your room with a soft 'click' of the door.

You sighed and threw the blanket off of you, your exposed knee getting slightly achy due to the cold air hitting it all of a sudden.

You groaned as you sat up, last nights memories slowly coming back.

After you watched Marie leave, Gaster had brought you back inside to make sure you were okay and brought you up to your room where you subsequently fell asleep at about eight at night. Somewhat early, but still reasonable especially with your overwhelming day.

And now you were being woken up at three in the morning to help Bear make food.

‘Eh. It’s not that bad. Still a solid seven hours.’ You hopped over to the closet and retrieved your little suction sock and fake leg, popping the prosthetic on top of the sock and securing it in place, while finding a long pair of pants to cover up.

Finally you slipped on a new long shirt and thick black socks with grip on the bottom, and now you were ready for the day.

You hobbled to the door, making sure to be somewhat silent as you went out to the hallway where Bear waited for you. His hands were in his pockets as he rocked on the heels of his feet, his eye staring down the hall to the stairs.

You yawned. “Okay big guy, I’m ready when you are.” Bear nodded and led you down the stairs and back into the living room, turning left and headed through to the dining room and kitchen combo. The sky outside was still dark and dotted with thousands of stars, and the trees were blackened silhouettes against the star blotted sky.

No one was awake at this early hour aside from you and Bear.

”Do you still want pancakes?” You asked, trying to keep your voice low.

Bear gave a slow nod.

”Should we make eggs and sausage? Wait- do monsters even eat meat or animal products?”

Bear chuckled and pat your head. “You… worry too much, treat. And yes,..monsters eat meat. My brother and myself just don’t eat… red meat.” His eye shrank slightly. He got a yellow box out of the freezer that had a photo of a sausage link on it with big, bold, red letters on the front that said ‘IMPOSSIBLE SAUSAGE’. And in tinier print underneath it said; “Meat made of plants!”

”We usually have meat substitutes… in the house since it… doesn’t bother anyone. Plus… there weren’t a lot of… food or meat options… in the underground. A lot of… that sort of food… was reserved for the rich and… elite.” His expression melted into a bit of a stormy one and his brows furrowed. He seemed sad.

You gently took his hand. “I’m sorry to hear that, Bear. But I hope things are better here on the surface now a days.”

He gently squeezed your hand. “Heh. Thanks… treat.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s three thirty. We… better get started.”

You nodded as you put on the apron Bear handed you over the top of your clothes. It was white with frills on the end of the front with a pink and blue plaid design on the pocket. A very simple, but pretty apron. You tied it with ease and washed your hands, reaching for the egg carton, measuring cup, large bowl, and whisk.

“Okay. Before we start, are there any food allergies that I should know about? I’m allergic to tomatoes and cinnamon.” He gave a slow blink. “No allergies… in the house…. that I’m aware of.” His gaze zeroed in on you. “How do you… know you’re allergic… to tomatoes and cinnamon?” You hummed as you continued to prep the food. “Well, coughing up coagulated magic and dust may have been the biggest hint.” You got the butter out of the fridge.

He railed an eyebrow, a look of concern covered his face. He motioned for you to elaborate.

You hummed.

“I was about eight when the first incident occurred. We were having a birthday party for another little kid, and we were having pizza. I remember I took a bite and swallowed it down. It made my magic feel stiff and my jaw hurt.”

You winced at the memory. “I ended up puking the pizza up and barfing dust and my black magic all over the floor. I for sure ruined that kids party and had to spend three days in the infirmary. They flushed me out with water and gave me some monster candy and I was good as new after I slept.”

You turned to mix some water into the eggs and a tiny bit of almond milk.

Bear’s voice cut in. “That…musta been horrible. Sorry… you had to deal… with that dusty… situation.”

You paused your stir at the pun, then laughed.

”That was terrible.”

Bear gave a chuckle. “My bro… thinks so… too.”

You shook your head. “As he should.” Though that didn’t stop a laugh from leaving you.

Bear hummed. “So how’d you find out about the cinnamon?”

The look on your face was one of trepidation. “Honestly? It was a bit of a surprise to me. But I can cross the item off my bucket list of ‘ruining a holiday.’”

Bear hummed in interest at you as he brought a pan out and began to prep the oven to bake the sausage.

”Invertos still celebrate christmas, as well as adopting the monster holiday of gyftmas. I got a mug of hot cocoa after playing outside all day. It had snowed and we hadn’t ever seen so much of it.”

——————

Her eyes softened as she spoke of the memory.

”It was my first Christmas in the facility after being removed from my family. And the thing about facility eight was that a lot of people that lived there were abandoned by their families on the outside. Though a small few were there that were just local to the town the facility was in.”

Bear watched her with a careful look.

“I took my separation from my family rather hard. But over the first few months, I started to meet people and look on the brighter side of things. All in all, that first Christmas isn’t something I can forget.”

Bear had taken a seat as you began to pour the pancake mix into the pans that awaited you on the stove top. He leaned on the countertop, quiet.

”The weathermen had called for it to be a light snow for Christmas. But the next morning when all of us kids woke up and looked outside, there was snow as far as the eye could see and up to nine foot drifts in some spots.”

You laughed and your nose wrinkled a bit as your eyes began to glow a touch brighter.

”The nursery maids that helped take care of us kids had to practically bar the door and threaten to hang us by our toes if we dared step foot outside without any shoes or proper clothes. We really gave Mrs. Paatrica a run for her money. Her name was really Patrica, but we called her Paa-trica because she was a beautiful McCaw parrot looking monster. We had her ripping feathers out sometimes with our antics. But with the snow that day, I’d say she got a break from us and our usual terrorisms.”

Bear couldn’t help his growing curiosity. You talked fondly of the facility. It didn’t seem like you hated the place or it was bad to you. But the things he had heard about some of the places… That didn’t inspire confidence.

Your hips swayed to an invisible song as you flipped several finished pancakes onto an awaiting plate, and poured more onto the pan.

”That first Christmas started with all of us kids sitting down and having pancakes with berries on top and powdered sugar along with some syrup. Then we all got dressed in warm clothes. All of our colorful hats and scarves that the older invertos made for us were so pretty and extra warm.”

The griddle sizzled as you flipped the pancakes.

”Mrs. Paatrica said it was because the hats, gloves and scarves were made for all of us with love.” Her eyes softened and gentle smile came across her features.

”She told us even if we didn’t feel loved by our families on the outside, that there would always be love for us from our found families on the inside of the walls instead.”

“And that day I felt it. We played, we sang, we ate and opened gifts and played some more. Then we all sat down for a movie. I had the most delicious looking cup of hot cocoa. It had chocolate on the ring of the mug with a caramel on the inside. Then it had mini marshmallows and whipped cream, along with a sprinkle of cinnamon to finish it off. I remember it being so good that I downed the entire thing in a short amount of time. Maybe like, three minutes, I think?”

You put a new batch of pancakes on.

”I remember feeling the worst pain I ever felt in my spine. It started under my ribs and ended under my stomach area. I stood up off the couch and-“ you paused, holding up an index finger in a ‘wait a moment’ look. “I’ve only heard other stories of the event from here on out. But the story goes that I got up off the couch and just painted the carpet black. I then fell in my vomit and had to go get medical attention and a bath. Then that time it was a five day nap.”

You shook your head. “Overall an unpleasant experience. Ten out of ten, wouldn’t recommend.”

A new voice cut in.

”How fascinating. Allergies and allergic reactions haven’t been commonly observed in monsters. However there’s been an uptick in allergens in invertos including the severity of the reaction.”

The new skeleton sat at the kitchen island next to Bear. A pair of rectangular glasses sat on his nose and seemed to be held to his face via simple scotch tape. He wore a green sweater with a brown and grey argyle vest on top and a pair of grey slacks.

He sat with a small notebook in his hand, seemingly writing notes about your stories of your allergies in them, flicking it shut with a snap.

You shied away slightly. “I’m sorry. Uhm. I know this is probably your house and you live here, but who are you? I don’t think we’ve met?” You introduced yourself before placing some pancakes for the man, along with the freshly scrambled eggs and some impossi-sausage onto a plate.

“Ah. My apologies. My name is Green. I’m the healer for the house and doctor for the monsters in the town up the mountain.” He took your small hand in his and kissed the back of it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Your face flushed black.

“Ah-“ before you could get your sentence out, Green brought his face closer to yours, lifting your chin with a knuckle.

”How fascinating. Gaster did say he wanted me to give you a checkup regarding your soul and magic.” He lightly guided you to a stool as you quickly handed the spatula to Bear as he moved to go man the stove.

”Hmm. Black magic is incredibly rare.”

He tilted your face to and fro, before his notebook reappeared and he began to scribe into it once again with the help of a disembodied pair of hands. His fingers squished your cheeks as he looked over you, making you feel rather naked. Suddenly a bright light shined in your face.

The brightness of the exam room light was brutal on your sore eyes that had fought on the way to the hospital to stay open. It burned. The smell of antiseptic and harsh cleaning chemicals filled your nose, along with the smell of your own blood. The dust beneath your fingers and in your joints a were a grim reminder of the hell you had just gone through. You weren’t really sure if the dust and grime embedded in your hands belonged to you.

A voice cut through the memory. “Do you have problems seeing?”

You flinched and smacked his hand away from your face.

”Wha- no! Why- agh-!” You couldn’t help the growl that ripped from your chest. “What the hell is wrong with you? I didn’t give permission for you to do that! Who just walks up to someone and shines a light in their face in the middle of the kitchen when they’re trying to cook? That’s a bit incompetent if you ask me!"

Your teeth bared. “Plus if you’re a doctor, you should know about HIPPA and making appointments and stuff!”

You crossed your arms with a scowl. "Personally I'd like to not air all my dirty laundry to people ive just met and dont really know!" You cast a side look to Bear.

"No offense."

He gave a small wave. "None...taken." He flipped another pancake onto the awaiting plate with the stack of pancakes actually getting somewhat comically high.

Your attention turned back on Green. "But honestly! Whats wrong with you?!" You waved your arms in indignation. "Just ask and clarify when you want stuff. Walking up on me and surprising me isn't going to go well!” You huffed as you scooted his plate to him.

“So sit and eat or be out of the kitchen!”

The man sat with a generally unreadable expression he seemed to maintain for professionalism, and Bear seemed to snort a laugh.

”Think ya… broke him…treat.”

You sighed. You felt kinda bad, but you weren’t about to be poked and prodded when you didn’t want to be poked and prodded.

Bear continued. “Also… what’s with the… tail?”

Your once pristine pearl colored face completely turned a fluorescent black and you quietly turned to the cabinet and got plates down, and headed to the dining room and began to sit the table. You were far too embarrassed to speak.

Bear’s gentle laugh echoed behind you as you left the rather impressive kitchen. Your mind wondered to your tail. It was long and thin, and made of pure bone. You loved to play with your tail, performing tricks and balancing acts when you were younger, but now… now it was something you found shame and embarrassment in.

Current day it typically stayed wrapped around the thigh of your bad leg. No one needed to see it. (In your professional opinion.)

It must have slipped your waist belt when you had been chastising Green. Your tail floated behind you as you set the plates on the table in front of each chair as earlier instructed by Bear. You hummed softly as you set out two things of seasoning and multiple flavors of syrup and (strangely enough) other condiments.

You were still bent over the last plate when you yelped. Someone had grabbed your tail and startled you. In a quick turn, you flicked your tail to the side of the stranger and made contact with a leather jacket, a loud *thwack!* filling the room.

A taller skeleton stood before you, though still shorter than Green. He wore a cropped leather jacket with a gray turtleneck underneath and black pants with a leather belt and boots to finish it off.

”Wow. We’re jumpy, aren’t we?” His eyes were narrowed in a slightly smug tone.

You plainly glared. “I wouldn’t have to be jumpy and smack at people if said people would just stop touching me when I didn’t want to be touched.” Your tail flicked angrily.

“And if you are not going to help set the table, then you may be dismissed.”

The room was silent for a moment, before the man began to laugh.

“Ya know, you got a lot of balls to come into this house and be a bossy little thing.” He used a finger and lifted your skull just as his brother had done, and you could see his yellow eyes looking down at you, a toothpick hung between his teeth.

“Besides. You hurt my bro’s feelings.” His smile seemed to feel a lot more intimidating. “He just wanted to help you and that’s how you repay him?” He let your chin drop as you also smacked his hand away.

”If he wanted to help, he should have asked if I wanted his help, not just impose himself on me. It’s not my job to manage his emotions when he's the one in the wrong.”

You turned away and started setting out silverware as the man began to follow you around the table.

”No, you are correct there, but you could have been nicer about it.”

You hummed. “Yeah. Maybe I could have.” You were silent for another moment as you kept setting the table. “Honestly, I’m not a fan of doctors. I’d rather eat a shoe than go to a doctor.” You shrugged. “Or the old saying ‘shit into my hands and clap’ applies here too.”

The man coughed a laugh as he hadn’t expected such a disgusting euphemism to be said. “Wow- I’ll need to add that one to my dictionary.”

”You most certainly will not!” Green came into the room with his hands on his hips and one disembodied hand pointing at his brother. “That is disgusting! Honestly brother!”

He tsked. “Come on bro, it makes light of a lot of-“

“No. Do not.” Green whispered, his face blank of emotions.

”Shitty situations.”

Green groaned and shook his head to and fro. “That is it G, I am disowning you.”

Unable to help the soft laugh that escaped at the two’s antics, Green turned to you, a light green dusting his face as he looked away.

“I apologize, dear. I did not mean to upset you with how overzealous I was. You are correct in saying I should not have approached you in such a forward way and in public, no less.”

You rubbed the back of your neck. “I’m sorry, too.” You mumbled. “I could have been a lot nicer with how I went about it. I just have a long history with health issues and a lot of my hospital stays were generally terrible. So, it wasn’t you, per-say, but you didn’t help the situation.”

Green tilted his head. "What made them so terrible?"

You laid the napkins out on the table and began to sit the glasses in their proper places.

"Honestly? It was the fact they didn't treat me like a person and more like a subject to be studied instead. Sometimes it felt like they did the bare minimum. I was always different, but after I sustained my injuries, they had to make sure I wouldn't fall down or lose more of my leg or become paralyzed or something." You yawned as the early morning caught up with you, a quick glance at the grandfather clock in the room revealed that it was near five in the morning.

G did a double-take. "I'm sorry- what? What do you mean become paralyzed?"

"The T.L.D.R is that I took a dive out of a window and had something about three times my weight fall on top of me and injure my back. Thankfully the doctors did manage to heal me to where I didn't receive more damage than what I did. Current day the only aftermath is some aches if it gets too cold."

You sat the last glass down and finally wiped your palms on your pants.

Green frowned. "Is after breakfast okay for a routine checkup?"

"As long as you agree to nothing that will poke, stick, or stab me, sure." You hummed, tail swaying in the air.

Green nodded. "Absolutely. Nothing too invasive at all."

You hummed back. "That sounds good." Giving Green a gentle smile, you sighed. "Thank you, and again, I'm sorry Green."

He lightly waved you away. "No offense taken, dear. All is forgiven."

You nodded. "Okay. I'm finished setting the table. So now I'm going to go fix my outfit." You began to walk to the hallway before pausing, slight embarrassment filling your chest. You turned back to the brothers who sat at their spots at the table, notably two of the empty seats from last night's dinner.

"Uhm. Which way is the bathroom? So, I can wash my hands and make myself presentable?"

G's yellow eyes looked up to meet yours. "Down the hall first door on the right, Doll."

You called out a quiet "thanks" as you slid out of the dining room and down the hall. The windows in the living room were beginning to gain the first lights of the day, glowing a gentle blue as the sun began to rise above the horizon. Your footsteps were muffled by the plush carpet beneath your sock clad feet.

You made your way down the hall, the darkness once again encompassing you as you stepped onto the hardwood floor and made your way to the bathroom. Opening the door, the gentle light flooded in through the skylight that sat atop the roof. The bathtub was at the far back of the room and seemed deep and long enough to lay in comfortably. The toilet and sink sat on the right wall, both pristine in condition and clean.

The water filled the silence as you turned the faucet on. Bending down, the cold water felt nice as you splashed it on your face.

It dripped from your sockets and chin, little drops plopped into the water that slowly drained from the basin. They sounded excruciatingly loud in the quiet of the bathroom. The other noises that you could hear were the tall pines that rose high above the house, their millions upon billions of nettles rattling in the cool morning breeze.

Raising your head to grab the nearby towel, you caught your reflection in the mirror. The bags under your eyes were darker than they had been yesterday. Your shirt was wrinkled and your pajamas hung off of you as if your body was a mannequin and the only clothes the store had to place on it were too small.

You dried your face and folded the hand towel, placing it neatly back onto the rail over the sink where it sat for the convenience of being used, only to accidentally drop it in shock as a pair of bright blue eyes stared at you from the darkness.

It had been quick, with a flash of soft pink and a deep red stain that somehow stuck to her face. You blinked, and she was gone.

“It should be you standing here…” You whispered into the bathroom mirror, searching behind you for the electric blue eyes that seemed to be stuck open in that untested shocked expression.

“I’m sorry, Sera.” You rested your weight onto the sink and hung your head, tail slowly swishing against the wall behind you. And honestly, you were. She had been so full of life and wisdom that you had needed to hear as a child.

When you were bitter and angry, she had stepped in and played the role of a big sister in your life. Someone who loved and cared for you and helped you out of the grief of losing your family who never came to visit after your mother dropped you off.

You jumped at the sound of a knock on the door as it pulled you out of your thoughts.

“Are you alright in there, lamb?” Shepherd’s odd multi voice called from outside the door.

”We have knocked twice now and have not received an answer. If we do not receive an answer a third time, we shall come in by force.”

You jumped and quickly stuffed your tail into the waistband of your sweats and wrapped it around your thigh, squeezing it in embarrassment.

”S-sorry! I’m okay!” You tied the cords of the waistband of your sweatpants tighter to hopefully keep your tail under wraps this time around and not out yourself as having one to anyone and everyone.

(Really, you weren’t sure if you could handle that interaction at the moment.)

You quickly opened the door as Shepherd glanced down at you, his one large green eye casting an eerie glow across the hallway as a disembodied hand griped a tiny silver key.

You smiled nervously at him. “Sorry about that! I didn’t hear you knock. I was thinking too hard.”

His eye didn’t blink and for a moment, he said nothing. The silence stretched on for a good moment before he lowered his head to your height and gently nuzzled your skull.

“I do not sense any illness, and I trust you to be honest with me.” He gently pat the top of your head. “As long as you are alright, little pup.”

You quickly nodded. There was no way in hell you were gonna tell anyone you thought you were seeing your adopted dead sister in the corner of your eye. They would send you back and Marie would be disappointed in you.

Absolutely not.

”I’m okay, Shepherd. Sorry I took so long.”

“It is fine. However, Bear said you were gone for about an hour. Breakfast is ready and I have also been informed you have a doctors appointment right after breakfast. Then Wine has informed me he, Coffee, and Pop wishes to take you shopping.”

You nodded as you began to follow Shepherd to the kitchen.

“It seemed you have quite the day ahead of you. It would be best to eat beforehand, yes?”

You nodded and hummed.

You would have quite the busy day, and it sounded like it would be a late day as well. So hopefully breakfast goes well.

As you walked into the dining room, a bone flew past your face, the electric energy of the attack just grazing your face as it exploded into smoke as it impacted the wall behind you.

A skeleton in a blue jacket and black track shorts and pink slippers had Razz down on the table by his throat.

Well. So much for your first breakfast in the house going according to plan. It was about 6 in the morning, and you already wanted to go back to your room and get a nap.

Chapter Text

You paused to look at the scene before you.

Razz’s face was pushed into the table while he snapped his teeth and snarled, and the skeleton above him smiled down at him with blank sockets.

”What part of ‘stay out of her room’ did you not understand?” He seethed.

Razz growled back. “You saw how she acted! She had a meltdown over a rag! It was only fair we threw it out! She’s a threat!”

The mystery skeleton pressed on him harder, causing a strained wheeze to come from Razz’s throat.

”She needed it to recover and heal! Taking someone’s things without asking isn’t okay! It’s house rule four, Razz!”

Razz bucked his shoulders up, trying to toss the other skeleton off of him. “I wasn’t even the one who stole it! It was Stretch! Come on, Sans! You know just as well as I that she is a threat to all of us!”

Sans snarled. "For the last time! We took her in and that's final! You even voted for her to stay! And the second she shows up you turn tail and try to boot her?!"

Tide sat nervously in the entry way to the kitchen, trying to quell the situation. “N-now boys-“.

Sans ripped Razz to the ground from his spot at the table and flung up a hand. Stretch, who had been sitting in the background, flung forward onto his hands and knees.

“And you!” Sans addressed Stretch. “I get wanting to protect your bro, but Blue is an adult and can hang out with whoever he wants to hang out with. For you to agree to help Razz steal the girl’s sweater is absolutely unacceptable.”

Stretch snarled back. "I didn't steal it because of Blue! You can sense it too-I know you can! She reeks of LV!"

Tide flinched back a bit and frowned. His mismatched eyes met his sons as he disappeared into the kitchen, silent.

The confusion on your face melted into an expression of shock. Then into something unreadable.

Rage boiled in your bones. Rage and sadness.

After you had expressed how important Sera’s sweater had been to you, Razz and Stretch took it and destroyed it. Or at least that had been what you had been led to believe.

Razz had been openly hostile to you since you got here. So that behavior wasn’t unexpected. Stretch though? Sure, he had seemed a bit off yesterday, but you thought maybe he needed time to adjust to you being here. You hadn’t thought that he hated you outright.

A dark pulse of magic pinged off of you in a ring. The black magic ran over surfaces and up walls, picking up small and light nicknacks, causing them to float. The room became charged in your magic, your scent overwhelming everyone in the vicinity. They either sat up or some slumped lower to cower away from the pungent emotions that came from you. A pleasant smile sat on your face, though your eyes screamed something of malice.

You gave a small, pleasant laugh. “Pardon the interruption, but I would hope to think I misheard you.”

You lightly walked over and stood above Razz, the footfalls of your feet going unheard on the tile floor. The somewhat dull grey of your eyes changed to flaring a bright, cold green.

“I’m sorry- it sounded like you said you and Tweedledumb over there stole my sweater from me." You gave a nonchalant laugh. “You know! The one that I said was really important to me because it was one of the last things I had that connected me to my dead sister.”

The pleasant smile never left your face as you grabbed a full, brand new plastic water bottle from the counter.

The water inside of it sloshed around in a small circle as you moved it down to Razz’s eye level.

And you let the bottle go.

Instead of falling, it floated in place and began to pop and crackle, swelling in size.

Razz’s eyes widened. “Y-you didn’t mention it was from your sister…” he whispered.

You sneered down at him, your facade breaking. “I shouldn’t have had to tell you, you little boundary stomper!” You caught sight of Stretches unreadable face from his kneeled position. “The both of you! Neither of you had any right to go into my room and touch my stuff and take my things!”

”Its been less than twenty four hours since I’ve been here, and within those let’s see-“ you looked at the clock. It was 6:30 in the morning. “Fifteen and a half hours- fifteen hours I’ve been here I’ve been grabbed, had a light shined in my eyes, had my stuff taken and destroyed and my personal decisions questioned at every turn!

You bent down to look Razz in the eyes. “I’m usually willing to overlook a lot of shit. But this is something I can’t overlook. Please retrieve my sweater, even if it’s just the shreds.”

Razz glared at you from his spot under the weight of Sans’ magic. “No. Why should I?”

The water bottle gave a violent snap as your magic shifted. The water poured out and into the air, gathering into a puddle and circulating you in a wreath of water. The label on the outside, was now on the inside of the bottle. The outside now having little droplets of water being sucked out into the air.

“If you don’t return the remains of my sweater, I’ll turn you inside out dust molecule by dust molecule. And I’ll leave you that way.”

To emphasize your point, every little nicknack you had picked up exploded in a ball of light and fell to the ground, also turned inside out. None of it looked correct, and honestly, you were sure if they had voices, they’d be screaming in agony.

”We- we can’t get it back, we threw it in the outside dumpster.” You listened as the sound of a large garbage truck pulled up and dumped the bin, watching as it put the plastic bin down and began to roll away.

You narrowed your eyes. “Then you’d better hurry. Yeah?” To drive home your point, you flicked some of the water onto his face.

Razz seemed to freeze for a few moments eyes wide and pupils dilated, the rhythmic beeping of the garbage truck causing him to break out of his stupor. Razz screamed in terror as he sprang up from the floor and ran out of the door after the truck.

Slowly, you turned to Stretch, flicking a single bead of water at him, watching as he flinched back because the droplet landed in his socket. His eyes widened in terror as he also got up and ran after Razz, his nasty attitude nowhere to be found and replaced by fear. The front door flew open and slowly slid shut, only to bounce back open after hitting the frame slightly.

You could hear a faint “Waiiiit!” As Razz and Stretch began to pursue the garbage truck to beg the garbage men to let them retrieve something they had tossed by ‘accident’.

The door clicked shut with a finite click of the hinges and knob.

“Holy cow, kid.” The skeleton in the blue jacket stood with his hands in his pocket. "Those two usually take a lot of convincing to do stuff for others, not to mention swallow their pride."

Your eyes cooled from the green color as you snapped your fingers, returning everything to their natural states from being inside out. The little odds and ends floated back to their resting places and the water that flowed around you in tiny streams and orbs returned to the bottle.

You shrugged. "What can I say. People learn to get along with me pretty fast."

Sans smiled. "Name's Sans. Sans the Skeleton. Its nice to meet ya." He stuck out his hand for you to shake. You shook his hand.

The loud sound of a fart reverberated through the dining room. You couldn't help the laugh that came from you.

"Well. Thats one way to air out the tension." Sans gave a light laugh.

Tide's voice cut in from the kitchen. "No flatulence jokes or puns in the dining room!" Edge's voice followed; "Preferably no puns or crass jokes at all!"

Multiple voices of agreement flooded the air along with some chuckles.

You cast a sideways glance to Sans. "Man. Tough crowd." Sans nodded. "Just wait til we get a few more people in on it. It gets to be a bit of a bone-anza." More groans and a distinct ‘Sans!’ came from upstairs. You smiled at him. "I can't wait to see it!"

Bear wondered up to you and stared down at you, his large eye round In trepidation. He took your hand, leading you over to the table and sitting you at the table, pulling your plate of food closer to you. It was stacked with plain pancakes that had been buttered, a scoop of eggs and two sausages.

You looked at Bear. “Thank you.” You patted the chair next to you. “Wanna sit and eat with me? I wouldn’t mind the company.”

Bear lightly nodded as he made his own plate. “I’d be… happy to… join ya, treat.” His chair groaned under his weight as he sat down, yet the structure didn’t falter. His plate consisted of six pancakes drizzled with Carmel sauce and honey, with some fruit on top, a good helping of eggs and 6 sausage.

Bear took a bottle of syrup and sat it next to you. “Dig… in, treat. You… worked hard… after all.”

Beaming a smile, you laughed softly. “So did you! It went a lot faster with your help!”

He looked down at you, unblinking. You squeaked as he lifted you up into a hug, sat you back down and reproduced your plate to you. “Eat.” He crooned.

You happily grabbed some syrup and drizzled it on top of your pancakes, the amber liquid dripping down the sides of the golden cakes in slow globs.

”So.” The seat in front of you scraped against the floor as Sarge sat down. “You seem to be taking losing that sweater pretty well.” He began to cut into his own pancakes.

You shrugged. “I tend to mask pretty well.” You hummed as you ate a bit of pancake.

He leaned in and looked at you closer, his eyes narrowed somewhat as he studied you. “I’d have to agree. But your turning stuff inside out trick was some pretty advanced shit.” His tone seemed to grow a bit cold and calculated. “How’d ya do it, pup?”

You shrugged again. “I have a good amount of control over my magic, so I kinda chalk it up to that.” Sarge sat back quietly rubbing his chin, lost in thought.

You ate the last of your food. “Okay. Not that it’s not nice talking with you, but now I need to go with Green to get a checkup.

Getting up from the table, you collected your plate. “Excuse me.”

You wondered into the kitchen, not waiting for Sarge to dismiss you. What a pushy guy. One would think that repeatedly asking you stuff that made you uncomfortable would be common sense to not do. But not with that man or this house, it seems.

You walked into the kitchen to see Tide and Edge standing at the sink cleaning up everyone’s breakfast plates. You had washed the skillets used to prep the food, already.

Edge caught you standing there from the corner of his eye. “Well? Go ahead and put your plate on the counter, we will get it.”

You worried your lip. “Are you sure? I can wash it really quick.” Edge waved you away. “Nonsense. Those who cook do not do dishes.” He looked you up and down. “Aside from that you’d be in the way. You have an appointment to get to, yes?”

You quickly nodded. “Yes, I do!” You quietly placed your plate down on the counter next to Tide. He gave you a sheepish smile. “Uhm… little one, before you go-“

Tide bit his lip a bit, considering what to say. “I am terribly sorry about what my son, Stretch, did.”

The smile you had been wearing since enter the kitchen, vanished. You looked up as his mismatched eyes and Tide looked desperate.

You shook your head. “Thanks, Tide. But that’s not something you need to issue an apology for. That just lets him get away with bad behavior and continue to think it’s okay because nothing happens to him.” You turned to walk out of the room and called over your shoulder. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I won’t accept an apology from you on his behalf. Sorry, Tide. I need to go, I’m late.”

Your feet hit the wood floors as you re entered the dining room. Your pace was brisk as you made your way back over to Green who was chatting with Gaster and Shepherd.

Gaster’s eyes fell onto your small form. “Ah. Pup. It seems your morning has been quite eventful, as I have heard.”

He seemed to sit a bit taller as his hands came into a rest behind his back. “Got into a fight, did we?” His expression was a bit unreadable, but you could detect a hint of smugness.

You looked away with a huff, unbeknownst to you, pouting slightly. “Is it much of a fight if no one was hit?”

You couldn’t help but avoid his gaze as you looked at the ground. You felt like a kid being scolded for doing something naughty. (I’m all fairness though, giving someone your own traumatic flashbacks is pretty naughty.)

Gaster began to laugh. “It is alright pup. I understand. It is not easy to get along with those two when they act like asses so often.” He shook his head. “Besides, one can only be tried for so long before they retaliate.”

You nodded.

”But let’s try to keep the magic to a minimum, especially in the house. Violet and his father, Pac, may have meltdowns if things are out of place. Pop and Wine as well.”

You nodded faster and more vigorously. “Yes. I will keep from using magic like that in the house again. Sorry, Mister Gaster.” You rubbed the back of your head as you tried to will away the embarrassment.

“Good.” Gaster hummed as he looked to Green. “Well friend, are we ready for the check up?"

Green nodded. "Yes. I assume Wine will be in soon from his morning training and Coffee and Pops will be ready to go after were done."

He turned to you. "Are you ready, dear?" You plainly nodded. "Yeah. I'm good to go. I'll follow you."

Green nodded and spun on his heel, leading you and Gaster away with a wave of his hand. The three of you traveled down the hallway next to the stairs and to the end of the hall where a tall oak door stood with the word 'Infirmary' on it. Green opened it and revealed a small waiting area with a cushion and a bookshelf stocked with various kinds of reading materials. The room had several paintings of cities being overtaken by nature, and a floor lamp that shown a warm and gentle glow on the bean bag that lay beneath it. Green walked in and opened the next door with a gentle push.

On the other side, was a much larger room with three empty hospital beds divided by blue privacy curtains. The floor was made of oak wood, and the walls were light blue. The window was open at the far end of the room, letting the early morning light and air in. The curtains swayed softly in the breeze.

Green led you to the last bed by the window and began to draw the privacy curtains. "Alright, Dear. Put this on please and undress. It will make the process easier. I am going to step out. Plainly put your clothes on the table and you can get them back on when we're finished." He handed you a green hospital gown and walked out of the curtained area. "Please call for us when you're ready to begin!"

Staying silent as the curtain closed, you sighed. The sound of Green walking away filled the silence, followed by him getting a bunch of stuff ready for your examination.

It really had been a long time since you had to sit in one of these cubicles. Though, it wasn't long enough in your opinion. You slipped off your sweater. It was the same one from yesterday. It was dark green with a white circle and a '7' in the middle. Very reminiscent of 'Thing One and Thing Two' from Dr. Suess. Not really flattering, but not the worst thing ever. Maybe on your trip out today you could get some fabric paint and make a slight alteration to your sweater to make it say, 'Thing 7'. Then they would have to wonder where the first 6 were.

You snorted a laugh as you placed the sweater to the side. You didn't feel the need to wear anything under your sweater, as you were just bone. Granted, you could form a body with humps and curves, but you haven't had enough or stable magic in a really long time. Plus, you were sure the last time you used a bra was when you still lived at Facility 8.

You unclipped your prosthetic leg and sat it up against the bed just beneath you. Your eyes softened as you looked at the carbon, metal, and plastic. A long silver pole made up the shin and it ended in a human foot. (Though you supposed it may be a bit tough to make a foot in the shape of a skeletal foot for the end of a prosthetic.) Life sure had a funny way of making you stick it out, even if it made you the most exhausted person alive sometimes. The morning sunrays bounced off the floor and stretched long across the floor.

It reminded you of the days when you and Sera would find a quiet hallway to lay at the end of on a sunny morning and watch the clouds roll by and change shape. The two of you would play games and tell the other what shapes were up there and what they were.

"No way! A cotton candy cone is so un-creative!" Huffed the little rabbit monster. She blew her blue hair out of her face as she turned to pout at you. A wry smile passed over your face. "Then how about a cotton ball?" She let out a groan. "That's even worse! Come on sis, you're not even trying!" Her voice squeaked at the end, causing you to laugh. "Okay, okay! Then..." You stuck your tongue out as you squinted at the cloud, studying the thing. "Hmmm." Casting a glance sideways, Sera's eyes narrowed at you and her cheeks puffed out. Maybe you should actually play the game correctly. The top of the cloud looked bigger on one side with the end of it going into several long points.

"I think I see a bunny rabbit." You hummed, this time with a genuine answer. She huffed again with a grumble. "I don't see it, but I guess that's better than a cotton ball and a cotton candy cone." Her blue eyes looked into your own white ones. The sunlight hit her and seemed to light her fur up in a sort of flame, the soft pinks seemed to be electrified, and her blue hair flowed around her head as if it were a halo. Her eyes were cast up at the clouds, seemingly in thought.

You leaned in and raised your much tinier hand and began to point it out. "Look! Theres its lil tail and then if you look that way-" you pointed to the other end of the cloud. "It looks like it has lil ears and a nose!" Sera's own nose twitched in response. Her long ears laid spread around her arms, laying flat and soaking up the sun. "Do... do you think we'll ever see a bunny like that?" You looked at her as she played with the end of her ear that laid across her stomach. Raising a brow, you hummed. "We see them in the yard by the gate to the woods all the time." You looked at her, her face somber as she studied her ear. "Why?" She looked away. "I'm not talking about a wild hare. I mean- one of the cute white ones you can pet or keep as a pet." Your cheeks puffed up slightly. "Uh. I don't think Ms. Paatrica would allow a pet? She says we're pets enough."

The sour look on Sera's face melted into an exasperated smile, before turning somber again a moment later. "Yeah... You're probably right." She hummed, laying back into the sunlight to look out the window. More clouds were building up and getting much higher and more globular. Gentle blues on one side and bright whites on the other as the clouds seemed to slowly bubble and boil. Still a beautiful sight. You couldn't help your own frown as Sera kept looking out at the sky, the gentle frown still on her face.

Then it clicked. Did.. did she think you two would never leave the facility? "You know, I think I also wanna see a really cute bunny too." You hummed, looking at her, before smiling a bit. "Actually, come to think of it, I see one everyday." She looked over at you with a confused frown. "What do you mean?"

For the first time in a long while, the skeleton pup's eyes glowed brighter as their eyes locked. A sincere smile spread over her face. "I wanna grow up with you and live with you and have a life together. I wanna see you every day when I wake up and every night before I sleep and every time in between! I have full faith we will get out of here and we can travel the world together. It may not be today, or tomorrow, but I know one day-" You gently took her hands in your own, her upper body turning slightly. You touched her forehead with your own. "We'll make it out." You hugged her the best you could. "Try not to lose hope. You helped me when I lost mine, and I'll always be here to help you." You pulled away, looking into her watery blue eyes and the tears that poured down her cheeks, staining her fur a slightly darker color. She gave a gentle laugh. " 'Kay?" You chirped, your high cadence making her give a laugh. She seemed to smile brighter as the sunrays melted away due to the growing thunderstorms. She pulled you back in for a hug. "Okay."

"I'll be here for you. Always." You hummed softly as you tightened the hug. "Always." Came her response.

You blinked the memory away. Those days were so far behind you. You had been about nine, then. If you remembered right.

"Pup? Are you ready in there? It's been fifteen minutes." Green's voice was barely muffled by the curtain. You jumped slightly. "Uhm. Yeah. I'm good. Come in." You must have put your gown on during an autopilot moment. Where you just did tasks while not being quite... there.

You unwrapped your tail from your leg and let it drape off of the exam table and left your prosthetic off. A few moments later, the curtain rattled open, both Gaster and Green coming into the small are and pausing at the sight of your detached leg. Their pupils seemed to shrink in shock, before Green cleared his throat and blinked the shock away. "My apologies. But I don't believe we were informed of your condition." He waved the clipboard at your nub. You shrugged. "I asked Marie to not mention it if it didn't need mentioning. I don't like talking about it if I don't need to."

Green's eyes flicked across your face as he began to scribble stuff down on the papers. "Are you willing to answer some basic questions for now just so we know how to best take care of you?" You lightly nodded, the tip of your tail wagging lightly. "Yeah. I'll do my best to answer what I can." Green nodded as Gaster sat in one of the plastic chairs off to the side with your old files from the facility, both 7 and 8. A separate clipboard sat in a pair of floating hands.

Gaster spoke up. "We are the only ones who are in here and permitted to be in here at this time. Your medical history will be protected, as well as whatever you say in here. HIPPA guidelines still apply to you even if you are not quite a legal person in the eyes of the government. Violet will be taking care of any and all legal work for you from here on out, including medical and financial decisions. Is this clear to you?" His white eyes met yours as he paused his charting.

"Yes. It is." You answered with a hum.

"Okay." Gaster clicked his pen. "Then let's start with your leg. When did that happen and what happened?" Gaster hummed as he flipped through your records, his brow beginning to furrow. "...I can't seem to find it in your charts." You huffed a bit when Green moved your leg and began to examine it, before rubbing a powder on you that showed deep scaring across your bones. The scars traveled up your knee and thigh, to up your back and to the base of your tail, revealing spiderwebbing scars all over your body.

"Asking the hard hitters out the gate, aren't you?" You mumbled with an embarrassed grumble. Green spoke up. "It looks like at one point your back was broken?" His worried forest eyes looked up at you from his spot, checking over your face. A frown set upon his own lips.

"How did you sustain such severe injuries while at the facilities? I am aware that Facility 8 closed its doors due to poor funding, but I had no idea it was so bad that they had to neglect their residents." You couldn't help but bristle at that. "What? Facility 8 didn't close because we didn't have money. We had our own economy and jobs. It closed because about eighty people were murdered and another 30 were wounded because some religious nut broke in and decided invertos needed to 'be sent back to hell.'" Your long tail flicked angrily.

"I broke my back and lost my leg because I took a dive from a window and took the dude with me." You held your hands on your lap. "He didn't like that very much and shot me point blank. He missed, and my leg dusted and couldn't be saved. The authorities took care of the gunman, and I was airlifted to Facility 7." You frowned and looked away, the silhouette of the man standing above you flashed in your mind for a moment before you blinked it away.

Your voice was quiet. "I was only sixteen."

The silence was unbearable as Green and Gaster took in this information. Their expressions ones of disbelief and sadness.

You broke the silence with a request.

"I hate talking about this... so please. Don't tell the others. I'd like to see a therapist though if that's okay."

You held your arms as the duo stared at each other, before Green grabbed a wipe and began to clean the powder off of you.

"We won't tell anyone. Not a soul. And I will see to it posthaste that you get into a wonderful therapist. He's a wonderful gentlemen. I think you'd like Dr. Baggs." Green stated softly as he gently worked the dye off of your leg. You gave a tired smile at Green. Gaster nodded in agreement. "You have our word." Gaster looked down at his phone. "I need to step away and make a phone call. I trust you have things handled here, Green?"

Green wordlessly nodded as he wiped at a particularly stubborn spot.

-----

Gaster walked to the office in the back of the exam room and shut the door. It didn't make sense. If what the pup was saying was true and judging by the injuries and scars on her body, they were. How the fuck did a shooting like that get covered up? Especially if it was a toll that high?!

Gaster liked to believe that he was rather disciplined in the use and control of his magic. But every so often, once in a blue moon, he would have a bit of a tantrum. He hadn't been known as a calm nor kind individual underground, unless it came to his family. His younger brother, Tide, knew just truly how volatile Gaster used to be.

Exploding at the drop of a hat was not a good look back then and it definitely wasn't now. But the black globs of magic bubbled up off the hem of his lab coat as he held his phone in his hand, scrolling through the contacts before holding it up to his ear and listening to it ring.

After the fourth ring, the person on the other side picked up. "It took you long enough." Gaster scoffed as he picked his claws. "Look. I am in no mood to chat. My new pup has some rather serious injuries, and I need you to look into the reason behind Facility 8's closure. The two things are related, according to my cub."

Gaster's eyes flared brighter as black spheres danced in the air like globs of lava from a lava lamp."

The room remained silent as Gaster fished out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. He took one out and placed it in his teeth, lighting one up.  "Yes. I understand you'll be home later, but I will make it worth your while."

Gaster held up his pointer finger to the end of the cigarette and a tiny bolt of electricity shot out, catching the paper on fire, effectively lighting the tobacco stick. The grey smoke lofted into the air.

"Alright. Then get back to me as soon as you know something. Thank you."

Gaster hanged up the phone, watching the background of his phone turn dark.

Just what on earth happened to this poor pup? Why was he lied to about her history? And how on Asgore's green earth did they manage to hide this from everyone?

Chapter Text

         You sighed as you slipped your shoe on your foot. The doctor appointment hadn’t really gone much further. Green had wanted to wait and schedule a proper soul appointment with Alphys. Whoever that was. When you left the room, he had been on the phone talking to the therapist and setting up an appointment for you and had sent you on your way a while ago.

About twenty minutes ago, you think? Eh. It didn’t matter. you finished putting your shoes on and made sure your sweat pants were secured around your hips and that your tail didn’t poke out or wasn’t too obvious.

Humming a soft tune, you stood up and grabbed the same baggy sweater from yesterday. Right now, you just couldn’t stand stuff touching your bones. Somehow your scars felt deeper and much hollower, and you just felt tired. You got up and stretched and turned to leave when a little blue box on your nightstand caught your attention.

Peering at it, you recognized it as the box that Sera had left you. It sat neatly atop the two engorged envelopes, just waiting to be opened. You picked up the little box and envelopes and sat down on the bed for a moment, turning the box over. It said ‘Seraphina’ in a beautiful silver cursive. You pinched the top of the box lightly as you moved to open it.

“Pup! Are you ready to go? We’re walking out now!” Pops called up from the living room.

You jumped, the box and envelopes falling off your lap and to the floor. “Shit.” You muttered, then called back, “Yeah! I’m coming! Be there in a moment!” You quickly dove for the envelopes and the box, placing them all haphazardly in the drawer before slamming it shut.

You quickly hobbled to your feet and made sure your leg was tightened before leaving out to the hallway and slightly hopping down the stairs, lifting your prosthetic, as you felt you weren’t quite fast enough to get downstairs in a timely fashion.

Pop looked down at you, his white eyelights fixing onto your form. His gaze looked uninterested and cold. “There you are. Come along, puppy. We are wasting daylight.”

”Sorry! Time got away from me. My bad.” You sheepishly rubbed the back of your neck as you walked with Pop out to a large, maroon van. Coffee, Wine, Tide, Blue, and a taller skeleton you haven’t met before stood there, the latter skeleton talking rather excitedly. “Honestly! It’s been a bit since we’ve all gotten a chance to get out together! It is a shame that Sans and Stretch couldn’t make it, but I’m happy to be out of the house for something other than work!”

Blue’s bright smile somehow got bigger. “You said it, Papyrus! I know you’re busy a lot, so I’m happy that you’re coming with!”

Papyrus put his hands on his hips. A bright red scarf sat around his neck and fluttered in the wind that was no more than a gentle breeze. “Nyeh! Blue, I the Great Papyrus! (And your best friend-) would NEVER miss a chance to hang out with you and my awesome (but less awesome than us) family!”

Blue mimicked his pose. His blue bandana flapping wildly behind him. “Neither would I!” He gave almost a smug closed eyed smile as he postured, causing Coffee to chuckle behind his notebook and Wine to snort a laugh at the younger skeletons antics.

Tide smiled as he climbed into the drivers seat and started the car. “Come on boys, get in so we can go when the pup gets here.” The engine purred to life As Blue opened his eyes. His bandana stopped flapping as he spotted Pop, and subsequently, you. “Oh! Uncle SodaPop! Maiden! You made it!”

Pop chuckled. “Someone was a bit preoccupied. But we are here now and you gentlemen know how I love a good shopping trip.”

Pop gently places a hand on your shoulder and ushered you to the back of the van. The door was opened and Coffee climbed in and sat next to Wine, laying his head on top of his shorter, older brother’s head. Wine didn’t bat an eye as he browsed on his phone, only patting Coffee’s hand. Peering inside, instead of rows of seats it was a ring, with each wall having a booth of seats in the back with seatbelts attached.

Papyrus and Coffee sat in seats and seemed completely comfortable, despite the duo being taller than said van outside. Blue excitedly pat the empty spot between himself and Papyrus. “Ooh! Ooh! Maiden! Come sit with us! We can play a game on the way to the mall to get to know each other!”

You uncertainly looked at Blue. “Uhm, sure. Just let me get in first.” You placed your hands on either side of the door frame and tried to lift yourself into the back of the van. Gosh. Your leg felt heavier, and the two-foot gap didn’t seem like much to anyone, but for you it was a struggle to get into. Your hands slipped and you fell on your chest, grunting as the van shook from the impact.

“Maiden! Are you okay?!” Blue gasped and got up from his seat, kneeling down in front of you.

“Yes. Sorry Blue. I’m not used to getting into such tall places.”

You did a push-up and used your good leg to lift yourself the rest of the way, the opposite leg unbending. Letting out a breath you hadn’t realized you had been keeping, you sighed. “Whew. Okay. Sorry about that. A game sounds good, Blue.” You got back to your feet and sat down next to the duo. The van door slid closed, and Pops walked to the front passenger seat.

Pops hummed. Normally someone wouldn’t have that much trouble getting into or out of places. He had caught Wine's eye and they both had shared a knowing look. Knowing his son, he would get to the bottom of it by the end of the day. He was concise, clever, cunning. And then there was his baby, Coffee. Well- not so much of a baby now, he supposed. Wine had been well established and a lieutenant in the Royal Guard when Coffee had been born. And it surprised Pops that they were as close as they were due to the gap in age. Though it only made sense as Wine stepped up for Coffee when Pops himself, could not. It took Pops brother, Code, to beat the stuffing out of him and make him pull his head out of his ass. Honestly, he had deserved to have that much happen and then some, and he knew Coffee had deserved better.

Pops pulled open the passenger door and got in- much easier than the pup had moments ago. The odd little thing. She was nice enough, though he didn't know much about her. But one thing was for certain. He was all too eager to see how all of this would progress.

Tide cast Pop a look. “Is she okay?” Pop nodded cooly. “Yes, just some trouble getting in the van. It was too high for her and instead of asking for help, she bellyflopped onto the floor and shimmied up.” Tide couldn’t hide his snort.

”What a goofy little pup.” His small smile faded into a bit of a forlorn look. “We will have to make sure she knows she can come to us for anything she needs. Heck! Anything she wants! I may not be as wealthy as some others, but I have plenty saved up from my time as a boater!”

He hummed and smiled. “Surely then we can all get along!” Pop just sighed and gave a small, but rare, smile.

”I think we will. Now let’s go before Wine comes up and inserts himself into the conversation.” Pop raised up his phone with a text on it.

‘What is the hold up now? Is someone else joining? Tell them to piss off. We were leaving ten minutes ago! Need I drive us instead?’

They both gave dry chuckles. “You’re right. Let’s get going.”

Tide smiled as he started the van, the engine purring to life. (No doubt thanks to Red’s handy work.) Monsters hadn’t been allowed to make large purchases when they first breached the surface. But that didn’t stop most people who wanted their high value gold. If Pop remembered right, they had purchased the van for fifty G. (A bit of a scam after the gold was converted, as the van at the time of purchase most certainly wasn’t worth fifty thousand dollars.)

Pop’s dark red eyes cast a glance out of the window, the trees slowly creeping by as the car descended the mountain and made its way into the town below. ‘What a day this will turn out to be.’

——————

You steadied yourself as you bent to buckle into your seat.

Wine spoke up. “Well. That was a way to enter a vehicle.”

You shrugged. “It may not have been graceful in the least, but it worked. By bottom is in the seat and-“ you grumbled as you continued to fidget with the belt, the vinyl strand finally clicking into place after you tugged a bit more. “I am buckled in.” You gave a self assured huff. “I’m positive that meeting those criteria means I am in the car and ready to go.” You didn’t notice your pant leg wildly flicking back and forth as your tail betrayed you.

The car lunged forward, humming to life.

Wine looked at your pant leg before lifting a long can to his teeth and taking a sip. “Uh huh.” He lowered the can, and the label read: ‘Ebbot Sweet Tea’. Wine’s one good eyelight flicked over to Coffee’s word pad as he showed it to Wine.

Wine hummed. “Coffee wants to know what your favorite animal is.” You straightened up a bit. “Oh. Uhm. I guess I don’t have a favorite? But If I had to pick, my top two are Manatees and English Lop Rabbits.” Coffee’s face brightened considerably. ‘Those are really cute picks! Manatees don’t get enough love!’

You nodded in agreement before speaking and signing at the same time. “I love manatees because they are completely harmless and so carefree. I too would like to float in warm water and eat grass. The cows of the sea.”

You wiggled your fingers a bit. “Ebbot; Become Manatee.”

Coffee laughed at your wordplay and Wine shook his head with a soft smile. “Silly Pup.”

Blue jumped in his seat and raised his hand. “Ooo! Ooo! My turn!” You nodded his way. “If you could go to school, what would you study?!” You tilted your head in thought, being plunged back to the time after you had lost your leg. With nothing to do, you had poured yourself into studying. You would never go to your homecomings, you could no longer compete in the magic battles and spars because your body had been so against your own existence. All your friends had left and you would never see prom or any of the plays you practiced so hard for to come to light.

You blinked and paused for a moment. “Well. I was really sick for a while, and I finished up my high schooling and crammed a lot of college courses up until last year. I’m in my final semester of my PHD for atmospheric science.”

Blue’s eyes seemed to widen in surprise. “Though I also double majored when I first started and also have a bachelors in art and animation.” You shrugged. “It’s not that impressive, but it was fun. I had a web comic I was doing for a while before I ‘lost’-“ you put the word lost in air quotations with your fingers. “-my tablet. I left the readers on a cliff hanger too.” You sheepishly rubbed the back of your neck. “As they say; Oh well.”

Coffee was hurriedly writing in his notepad, his tongue sticking to the side and his eyes seemingly sparkling.

Papyrus leaned in. “So you like to draw? And how did you get interested in your… atmospheric science..?” He hesitated, checking to see if what he said was right. You nodded. “Yeah! I love to draw and make stuff. Now I have a fancy piece of paper that says I can get a job making art.” You smiled up at the gentle giant. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met!” You introduced yourself and shook Papyrus’ hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He perked up. “Likewise!” His face fell for a moment. “You did not say why you wished to peruse your other degree.” Papyrus pointed out. “Ah.” You had hoped he would forget that he had asked. “My sister and I would sit and watch the sky for hours. We’d come up with stories and talk the days away when we had nothing to do.” You couldn’t hide the wistful look that settled over your skull. “I guess, after I couldn’t see her anymore, I wanted an excuse to still watch the sky.” You gave a huff of amusement. “Now I can watch the sky and help people when I do. The weather can get pretty wild.”

Wine hummed. “So then, what happened to your sister?” He lifted the can back to his teeth, taking another sip.

Ah. There it was. One of the questions you hated being asked. You didn’t want to acknowledge the facts. If you didn’t… maybe she’d come back. She had to. You had said you would be there for each other. Always. The two of you had never exchanged ‘I love you’s. ‘ You both had heard it one too many times before being betrayed by those who told you they loved you. Only for them to turn and hurt you again and again. All the missed milestones- the graduations the birthdays… Why go through the effort to make us feel lesser? To hurt us over and over again. No. The word ‘Always’ was your and your sister’s ‘I love you.’ Because the two of you would ‘always’ be there for the other.

To be fair, you had been there for her in her final moments. You had run until your soul ached and skull rang from the loud alarms over head. Running into the strobing red hallways only to watch her turn to dust as you rounded the corner. Her blue eyes locked onto your smaller, ragged form. You had been there, but far too late. You hated the fact she still found the strength to give you one of her room brightening smiles as she whispered your shared word to you. “Always.”

Then, she left.

“Human?” Papyrus called softly, snapping you out of your trance. “You’re crying.” You blinked a few times, before reaching up and dragging a hand across your eyes. “Hah. Sorry. I suppose I don’t like that question. It’s a hard one to answer.” You continuously wiped your face, the stubborn tears refusing to stop.

Wine frowned. “I’m sorry, my dear. I did not mean to upset you. You waved him off.

“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it. I just really miss her, that’s all.” The car’s habitants were quiet for a moment before you spoke up. “But to answer your question she passed away. It was sudden and unexpected.” You didn’t want to elaborate any further, but her hole-filled sweater should be enough evidence as to what happened. She (and now you) took really good care of your clothing. You only had so many pieces. One outfit for each day of the week with ten pairs of socks and underwear.

One has not lived until they participate in a black market for socks. (You remembered fighting a kid and blowing them backwards into a pool for your current skeleton socks.) Ah. Good times.

Blue clasped his hand over his mouth, a look of woe crossing his features. “Oh…I’m so sorry to hear that.” Blue lightly pulled you into a hug and Papyrus joined on the other side.

”I do not know what The Great Papyrus would do if I lost Sans.” His voice went quiet. “That makes me terribly sad.”

You smiled lightly and gave Papyrus a gentle pat on his hands while addressing the room. “It’s okay. Promise.”

Wine gave a gentle and somber smile and a quick nod. “I will take your word for it.”

You nodded and looked at Coffee’s hands as he signed again. ‘Would you happen to want another drawing tablet? I think I’m familiar with your work. You made the comic ‘100 Years Above the Earth.’ Right?’ You quickly adverted your eyes.

“Oh! Uhm, yeah. How’d you know?” The genuine surprise must have been a dead giveaway. “I made that when I was a kid. Current day I’d probably do a reboot of it and continue the story. Not that it was bad but it’s been a few years.”

Wine sipped his can. “You did not say if you wanted the tablet, dear.”

You looked to the side, blushing slightly. “Uhm. Not that I don’t-“. Wine hummed. Then it is settled. He swished around his mostly empty tea can before finishing it off. “We will add a drawing tablet to the list.”

Quickly waving your arms, you shook your head. “No way! I can’t let you guys spend that much on me! That’s too expensive, especially for something so frivolous!”

Papyrus tsk’d. “Nonsense! The upkeep of a skill is absolutely worth the investment!” Blue nodded along eagerly. “Absolutely! Plus, I was quite the fan of your comic! We all were! So the news of a reboot of our favorite comic with the aide of a tablet is absolutely exciting!” Blue’s eyes turned to stars as he leaned forward rather fast. “We’d love to help you!”

You felt your eyes begin to sting as you looked away. It had been a long time since anyone made to feel so welcome. “I couldn’t possibly accept such a thing.” Besides, what if it got taken away or you were forced to move again without any belongings?

“I managed to save about eighty dollars. I’m sure I can manage a clothes quota with that and a thrift store.”

Wine stared at you in abject disgust and horror. “I… do not think you should use your eighty dollars in a thrifting store.” You perked up. “Why not? Oh! I guess I should get some laundry detergent, so maybe I can skip out on a few pairs of pants.” You began to mumble to yourself. “I suppose I can get some non perishables to last a while too. Half a packet of instant noodles dry wouldn’t be that bad.”

Papyrus spoke up in a dry tone. “You boil the noodles, yes?” You looked at him then pointedly, away. “You. Cook. The. Noodles. Yes?” You answered back in a small voice. “I like crunchy stuff.”

Papyrus put his hands together in prayer. “She is not allowed near the kitchen, end of.”

After watching their faces fall into something akin to despair and disgust, you couldn’t help the ringing laugh you let out. “I’m kidding!” You laughed, waving them off. “While I do like crunchy things, raw instant noodles are not one of them.”

Papyrus let out a breath of air. “Oh thank goodness! I thought Edge would have to whip you into shape as he did Blue and I!” Blue nodded in agreement. “Yes Maiden! You had us frightened for a moment!” You shook your head as your giggles died down. “I’m not too terrible in the kitchen. Maybe not five star chef worthy, but I absolutely can take care of myself and make a good meal.”

Wine’s shoulders seemed to slump in relief. “Thank the stars. I feared you were going to burn the kitchen down with a singular touch of the stove.”

You shook your head. “Nah. I’m not that bad. Sometimes I may need to be taught how to use something, but aside from that it’s pretty smooth sailing, provided the person teaching me has patience.”

Wine nodded. “Ah, yes. Coffee is very much the same way. Teach him to do something once and he is off like a rocket.” Coffee turned a bright gold as his hands came up to sign and push his brother away. ‘Brother! Do not embarrass me!’ Coffee pulled his hood down over his face and pulled the strings to tighten his hood over his eyes. His hid die was black with golden sleeves and gold lettering across the front that spelled out “Lame Guy” in large letters.

You smiled lightly. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. There’s some things I didn’t take to immediately, so the fact you pick things up fast is pretty neat! If I operated on your level, I’d be a lot more efficient when I did my work.”

Coffee peeked at you from under his hood, still glowing. “R-really?” You blanked as he spoke to you, before quickly recovering. “Of course! You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to read CAPE and energy maps.”

You missed the look of shock from the three other skeletons in the back of the van as Coffee spoke up again. “CAPE and energy maps? Why w-would you n-need to read t-those?” You couldn’t help the velocity of which your tail began to wag. Oh. You were about to nerd out- hard.

”CAPE is the amount of energy and instability in the atmosphere. It’s used to see how likely a violent storm is to occur. Cape is usually measured in ‘Jules’. Anything over four thousand is extremely high potential for violent thunderstorms and tornadoes.”

Coffee seemed to be interested. “H-how would you check t-those maps?” You hummed. “You can check it on your phone on a government website. The National Weather Service typically post their predictions for the day and week. They also observe other weather events like earthquakes, blizzards, or fires.”

“Wowzers! I don’t think I realized how much stuff there is to watch for! Is there other stuff?” Blue asked, his eyes turning into stars.

Your tail beat faster against the seat, Wine, Papyrus, and Coffee all seeing the unmistakable bone peeking out from the bottom of your pant leg.

“Well.” You started. “Off the top of my head, there’s hurricanes, haboobs- which are sand storms- derecho’s, wind hazards, temperature hazards- ooh! And tsunamis because of earthquakes or haboobs because of how and where the wind is going.” You had started to count stuff on your fingers.

“I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, but those are the ones I can recall at the-“ you glanced up to all of them staring down at you. “Moment…” trailing off, you began to fidget. “Sorry. I got carried away.” You mumbled, rubbing your neck.

“No, dear. It is quite alright. But we were wondering as to why you have a tail..?”

You felt your head and neck begin to tingle as magic flooded your face.

“Uhm. I- I don’t know? I guess that’s like asking a human why they have hair or asking a skeleton why their bones are white?” You puffed out your cheeks. “Or you can have the secondary answer that it’s because I stole it from the skeleton of a dog.” The group laughed and chuckled. “That’s fair enough.”

Coffee spoke up. “Well. I think your tail is cute. I-I’m honestly j-jealous I don’t h-have one.” Your face flushed even darker. “Well, don’t be. There’s no reason to be jealous. Honestly I’ve never had any clothes tailored for my tail. It’s disappointing, really. Any clothes that do have arrangements for tails are often for bigger creatures or don’t fit my own style.

Wine nodded, a serious expression over his face. “Then I will see to it that you have clothing that is tailored for your tail.”

Your face flushed as you looked away. Why were they so nice? You absolutely didn’t deserve their kindness.

The van hit a large bump, causing you and the boys to fly up and slam back down onto the seats with a whack!

Before you could stop it, a yelp of pain escaped your mouth. The prosthetic had loosened and re-tightened, pinching your leg. Your hands raced to your thigh and tightened around the area to ebb the pain away. Fortunately, you didn’t feel any wetness, just a sting. You sighed. That would leave a bruise, you were sure of it.

You hissed a breath. For just a pinch that hurt like a bitch. “Sorry children! Is everyone alright back there? A pothole snuck up on us!” It was Tide. You grumbled to yourself through grit teeth before calling out. “I think we’re okay. Just caught an unexpected flight.” You heard a soft chuckle come from Pops through the wall divider.

”Then what was that noise?” Tide’s muffled voice inquired. “Just surprised me. I’m good!” There was a moment of silence as Tide seemed to think for a moment. “Okay! Well, we are almost there! Less than five minutes!”

”Okay!” “Alright!” “Thank you!” “Ok!” All of you chided. You let out a breath. The pain still hadn’t gone down. Gently rubbing on the spot didn’t yield any different results either.

”Human?” You jumped a bit as Papyrus placed his large hand over the one on your thigh. His fingers tracing the bone under your pant leg. You watched as his brows furrowed as he felt the end the of your suction cup. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, only to study your face for a few moments.

You silently begged him to not say anything to the others. You hadn’t wanted anyone to find out and so far that was going smoother than sandpaper. It was a bit too much. When you lost your leg, it felt like people treated you like you were broken. Granted, yes. You were. But not at the loss of your leg. Losing your friends and family again and again was what had broken you.

You could (and did) bounce back from losing your leg, but you would lose your leg one thousand times over if it brought even one person back. And you’d do it for each one of them.

But right now you didn’t think you could deal with the pity stares and babying. Your greyish eyes looked into papyrus’s sockets. His face scrunched in concern. He began to speak. “Here, sometimes I obtain bruises during the day from knocking into low door frames.” His face brightened. “Please, allow me to help!” Your eyes were widened in shock as Papyrus lowered his hand onto your leg and it began to glow a gentle salmon color. The unmistakable scent of oranges and pleasant spice filled your nose.

The orange vapor turned slowly into green at the edges and swirled around your leg and the stinging pain melted away to nothing. “T-thank you. That feels good.”

——————

Papyrus felt his soul squeeze at the sight of the human- turned-monster above him. She smiled down at him and her eyes seemed brighter. An expression between awe and appreciation stuck on her face. The deep concern he felt when he had felt her leg still stuck around. Papyrus knew the feeling of bone and knew that what he felt on her leg was, in fact, not bone.

Papyrus just smiled at the girl. “It is no trouble, Human! If you are ever in need of any sort of healing, Green, me, or even Blue can help!” He watched as her nose wrinkled a bit but seemed to bite back whatever it was she was going to say. The wrinkle of distaste melted away and she gave a nod, patting his hand. He felt his soul speed up as a ray of light caught her in its warm embrace as the van turned into the parking lot of the mall. The soft black dusting across her face caught in the light and seemed to change for a moment.

“Thank you! I’ll keep that in mind.” She cooed.

Papyrus caught Wine out of the corner of his eye. He sat up looking a bit smug as he began to sip on a new can of tea. Papyrus snorted softly at him and turned his attention to this new family member as he removed his hand. “See to it that you do!”

——————

The van slid to a stop as it parked outside of the bustling mall. The morning sun was already hotter than usual. Giant puffy clouds rolled and boiled in the distance and a light breeze crossed over the parking lot, carrying even more heat to and fro. Blue grabbed the van door and slid it open, connecting the door to the frame with a click. Blue hopped down and stepped aside for Papyrus to step out himself. Papyrus turned to you and offered you a hand to step out, but the drop was still too big. Coffee was right behind you and Wine behind him, Tide and Pops had gotten out a while ago and waited for you to get out of the van.

Papyrus offered you his hand. "I can help you out if you would like!" You meekly nodded. "Y-yeah. Give me a moment. I don't think I can make the step down." You lightly began to lower yourself to the floor of the van only to feel Coffee bump into you as he yelped a cry.

You felt the wind pass your face as you fell out of the van, missing Papyrus's hand on the way down.

Chapter Text

You felt yourself stop suddenly as a gentle humming surrounded you. It was toneless, but plainly the humming of energy. Your face floated a few inches from the ground and your sleeves touched, but you had been spared the harsh impact. "Goodness! That was entirely too close, wasn't it, pup!" Tide stood to the side of the van, his hand stretched out, a helix of blue and orange flowed from the hole in the center of his hand and wrapped around you, casting you in an ever-fading cycle of blue and orange and back again.

Your body was tense as you locked your shoulders, the pavement was only a few inches below your face. You quickly shot your arms out and caught yourself as Tide gently lowered you to the ground. "Y-yeah! It was." You quickly got up and brushed yourself off, your face turning dark. "I'm sorry! The van is a bit of a challenge for me to get in and out of. I can't quite move right." Pops frowned as he made his way over, putting a finger under your chin and tilting your head up to face him. His eyes squinted as he looked you up and down. "Are you alright? Your movements are unsteady."

You waved him off. "Its okay. I just have poor balance." He hummed in agreement. "That much is clear. Even when on stable ground you can hardly keep yourself upright." His eyes narrowed down at your leg. "Almost like you are overcompensating for something." Your mouth went into a straight line and you looked past his face, opting to not make eye contact. "I have no idea what you are talking about." You placed your hands on your hips and walked away. "Okay. Let's get stuff and go home. It's gonna rain and, judging by how tall the clouds are getting, probably hail." You sharply turned and began walking to the entrance of the mall, only to trip as the toe of one of your crocs stubbed the ground causing you to lunge forward. "Shit." You grumbled as you quickly steadied yourself. You didn't bother to look back at the group of men behind you.

-------

Pops shook his head lightly as he glanced at Wine. "Anything of note?" Wine took another sip of his can of tea. "She seems to have a tail that she wraps around her lower right leg. When she speaks of something that makes her excited or happy, it wags. It seems it is involuntary.” Pops nodded and Blue gasped. “I didn’t notice her tail! How did you see it? Aw!” He kicked the ground in a slight pout. “I wanna see it and I bet it’s really cute!” He puffed his cheeks out slightly, before his face brightened again. “I know! We can pick stuff out for her. It would be gifts from us to her to welcome her into our family!” Papyrus’s eyes sparkled, little stars floating around his head in gentle orange nebulas. “That is a wonderful idea, friend! Perhaps she may feel more open to us if we befriend her. Maybe we can even do a sleepover!”

Blue gasped up at Papyrus and Papyrus clenched his fists in excitement. Blue cheered. “Great idea! We’re the best! So smart!” Blue crossed his arms and gave a self assured grin. Papyrus followed suit. “Nyeh! Deviously smart!”

“Mweh heh heh!”

”Nyeh heh heh!”

They both laughed at their ingenious plan. “To the boutiques, posthaste!” Papyrus lifted Blue under his arm as if he were a football, much like he would do to Sans when said monster spent too much time at Grillby’s.

Blue cried out. “Waaait! I can walk!” He kicked his feet under Papyrus’s arms, grunting as he struggled to loosen himself from Papyrus’s grasp. Papyrus stopped. “Oh! I’m sorry, friend! I forgot! It’s habit from hauling Sans out of Grillby’s.” Papyrus gently put Blue on the ground and the shorter skeleton brushed himself off.

Blue huffed a laugh. “It’s okay friend! I had to drag my brother home from the parlor all the time as a kid! So, I get it.”

There was a beat of silence as Blue stared up at Papyrus.

Papyrus stared down at Blue.

Blue quickly squatted down and bounced back up, turning on his heel and rushing the opposite way towards the mall entrance, where the faint silhouette of their new housemate stood, waiting for them.

“Race ya! Last one to the door has to prank Edge!” Blue shot off like a rocket as Papyrus balked. “Oh! You are so on! You dastardly fiend!”

The remaining skeletons watched the duo race away, leaving some dust and leaves to kick up as they crossed the parking lot at breakneck speeds.

Tide addressed the rest. “So. What do all of you think so far?” Pops raised an eyebrow. “Of?”

”The girl.”

“Ah.”

The group was silent for a moment, before Coffee spoke up in a quiet voice. “I-I’d like to b-be her f-friend.”

Pops' eyebrows rose in surprise. "Truly? I thought it would take you a while to warm up to a new person, let alone a stranger."

Coffee shrugged. "I f-feel like we g-get along w-well. S-she's n-nice." Wine sipped his tea can. "She did seem that way, but she somehow scared Razz and Stretch out of the house and sent them screaming like pups to do what she asked of them." Coffee huffed. "T-they s-started it. They took her t-things a-and m-made her s-s-sad."

Wine sighed. "You are correct. You know I just worry about you, especially after what happened with Shkrillah." A brief light flickered in Coffee's eyes as he rubbed at his throat, a thin line of amber magic lining the scar. "I-it was o-o-one t-time." Wine stopped dead. "One time was all it would have taken, and had I been even a second later…"

Coffee looked down, tears welling in his sockets. He clenched his fist as his eyes flicked to life. "S-s-s-sh-e i-i-isn't l-l-l-ike th-a-a-t!" Wine whipped around. "You do not know that!" Coffee threw his hands up into the air as he began to sign, his voice lost as tears poured from his eyes. *Then why allow me around her?! Why not keep me away from her like you do everything else!*

"Son." Pops let out a stern growl.

Wine froze, the tea can clattering to the ground. "B-brother.." Wine gently reached out his hand to Coffee.

A loud smack sounded through the air as Coffee smacked Wine's hand away. *I'm not a baby.* Coffee glared down at Wine, the younger brother's throat seemed to burn from the long-taxing magic that seemed to seep into the very atoms that made his soul. He had delt with the condition for years. What was a few more in the grand scheme of things?

"Coffee! Knock it off!" Pop's scolding fell onto deaf ears as Coffee stared at Wine.

That mistake... That was Coffee's sin alone to bear. Not Pop's, nor Wine's. He had been young and trusted someone who he shouldn't have.

His mistake. He rubbed his neck.

Wine seethed. "I gave up so much for you." He growled. "And this is how you treat me?"

Coffee pushed past Wine and made his way into the mall, Wine's voice calling for him to come back drowning under the violent wind that had seemed to whip up as his long legs passed briskly through the parking lot. His wide gait leaving no room for his brother to keep up unless he jogged. Coffee sighed as he wiped his eyes. 'So much for not being a child.' Coffee looked up as he walked into the mall.

People, humans, and monsters walked to and from shops and food stands. He looked around and saw Blue and Papyrus standing with the human. 'No, Inverto. They said they didn't like human.' The inverto had her eyes closed and seemed to be doing breathing exercises, with Blue holding her hands and Papyrus guiding her through the exercises. He wondered over. *Everything okay? What's wrong?*

-----------

God damnit. You truly didn't think this through. Well- to be fair, you didn't think stepping a foot into a mall would send you into a panic attack. But you supposed stepping into a place that heavily resembled somewhere you had the most traumatizing thing in your life happen, would do that to you.

Blue appeared in front of you. “What’s wrong maiden? Are you okay?” You waved Blue off. “Y-yeah. I’m great.” You gave him a shaky thumbs up.

”You…” Papyrus began, then trailed off. “Do not look okay.”

You waved again. “N-no. It’s-“ You cut yourself off as you rested your hands on your knees and drew a breath.

”It’ll pass. Just gimme a moment.” You bent over and stayed with your hands on your knees, quietly trying to control your breathing.

A few moments passed, but your breaths remained labored. For a creature that didn’t need to breathe, you were having a hell of a time trying to catch any sort of decent air.

Papyrus gently kneeled down in front of you and grabbed your hands in his. “It is okay, human. I, the great Papyrus, can see that something is troubling you! So I shall walk you through a breathing exercise that I myself do when I feel stressed out!”

You stayed silent, your panic attack rendering you unable to speak further.

Blue’s face fell. “Papyrus, I think she needs more than just our help. Blue gently grabbed your hands and gave a gentle squeeze, the warm buzz of his magic grabbing your focus.

Blue gently started to trace circles in your palms and lifted you upright, pressing his body against you in case you fell over.

”It is alright human.” Papyrus spoke in a gentle, low voice. “Breath in for a count of four, hold for another four, and then breathe out to the count of four.”

He dipped his head lower to look you in the face. Your eyes were squeezed shut and you tightly clung to Blue’s hands, though made sure not to hurt him.

You quietly followed instructions, getting to the third or so repeat of the exercise before hearing new footsteps walk up.

You cracked an eye open and saw Coffee. His eyes had his burned gold magic underneath his sockets and his cheek and nose bridge were tinged slightly the same color. He looked like he’d been crying.

You gently pulled in another breath as you signed to him. Blue whined softly as you stood up taller and seemed to get your bearings back, and Papyrus’s hands lingered a little too long, but not enough for it to be too noticeable.

*Whats wrong? You okay hun?* You exhaled through your nose as you had been doing for a minute.

Coffee gave you a pointed look. *I can ask you the same thing.*

You shrugged and nodded. *Touché. Panic attack. Didn’t realize how overwhelming this place would be.*

His face fell into one of sympathy. *I get it. Busy places wig me out too.*

You nodded. *Something like that.* Finally being able to rise up to a standing position, you looked around. The mall was well lit with towering skylights. Individual stores had their own lights to set the tone for their own shopping experiences. The door was to your back and the three of you had made it to a little furniture outcrop to wait for the others as you had your small meltdown.

Your eyes bounced around from person to person as they passed by. So many humans and monsters, all differently sized and shaped. You wondered if there was anyone you knew here. If there was anyone else from 8 or 7. Invertos were present here too. A surprising trait for freed and adopted invertos was the collars they wore around their necks. However, it didn’t seem all of them wore collars, the collars were more prevalent in those adopted by rougher and tougher looking monsters.

Standing taller, you kept looking through the crowd. Granted you were a thousand miles away from 8, and five hundred miles from 7. But surely there were others from there, right? You couldn’t be the only one.

But alas, your quick scan revealed no one you knew. Your shoulders slumped as you sighed. Well. Surely there will be more chances to run into someone later down the line.

You finally breathed out a sigh, the air returning to your lungs at an acceptable pace. “I’m okay now, I think. Sorry guys.”

Blue pulled you into a hug. “It is not an issue! We’re always happy to help out!” Papyrus gave you a hug, pulling Coffee in as well. “Absolutely! We are more than pleased to help you through your trying times!” Coffee nodded along, his own long arms wrapping around you and giving a gentle squeeze.

Something flickered in you. A gentle breezy glow settled upon your little group. Like sitting in the warm sun after getting stuck in a rather chilly rain-shower. Pleasant. Finally, after a few moments, you all pulled away.

You couldn’t help your smile as you stared up at Blue and Papyrus. The duo's eyes seemed to sparkle in amazement.

"Wowzers, Maiden!" Blue pumped his fists as he moved forward, taking your own hands in his. "That was wonderful!" You raised a brow in confusion. "..What was?" You took your hands from Blue and rubbed the back of your neck. "Sorry, I don't think I'm familiar with what you're talking about."

Papyrus's eyes also seemed to glow. "Well, human! It is a soul Aura! More specifically, yours. All monsters have one, as now do invertos such as yourself!" Blue bounced on his heels.

You furrowed your brows. "What's a soul aura- like, what's it for? I don't think I've ever heard of it."

Coffee, Papyrus, and Blue all stopped in their tracks, eye lights gone and shock written on their faces. "M-maiden, its one of the first things pups are taught..?" You shook your head. "I've never heard of an aura. I know the basics though that monsters are made of love and hope and I also know about the specific soul traits humans can have. But beyond that nothing else."

Coffee signed. *Well, we may have to teach you more later on, but an aura is how monsters can judge you without an encounter. It lets us know your basic personality and temperament, and how you are feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally. You are sort of an exception though, as that was the first time any of us have ever felt your aura.*

Your face heated up. "Then.. I hope I passed the vibe check." Blue smiled brightly (though you felt that it wasn't difficult for this monster to do) as he puffed up his chest. "With flying colors, Maiden!"

Coffee and Papyrus eagerly nodded along. "Yes human! You have a beautiful aura!" Papyrus puffed out his chest as a small "Nyeh!" punctuated his sentence. The trio went quiet for a moment, their faces turning orange, gold, and cyan, respectively. Blue gave Papyrus a hard side eye. His face down to his neck thick with his blush. "Dude."

Papyrus didn't move, tiny beads of sweat gathered on his skull while Coffee hid his face in his shirt, giving off a small groan. Papyrus kept his hands on his hips, and his valiant posture. "I panicked. But I also do mean what I said. I will not take it back."

You stared at the three men, their soft squabbling not drawing much attention from the mall goers. Hesitating for a moment eyeing Papyrus, you spoke up. "W-well. Thank you, Papyrus. I don't think i'm able to feel your guy's auras, but i'm sure yours is beautiful too." The blushes that had seemed to be quelled came back tenfold.

You couldn't help the light laugh you gave. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, but I'm guessing I said something you typically don't say to someone else?"

Papyrus couldn't seem to form words. Only sputtering as he squeezed the end of his scarf. Blue hid his face in his hands, laughing. Coffee just shook his head. *Careful when talking about souls. Its pretty much the equivalent of talking about a person as a whole. The soul is the culmination of ones entire being, after all. So telling someone their soul and or their aura is beautiful can be taken as a flirt, but telling someone they smell good is like...*

His hands paused for a moment as he watched Blue grab his knees and continue laughing as Papyrus glared down at him. Coffee seemed to think before his hands moved again. *I will say this as delicately as possible. Telling a monster they smell good is like telling them you want to...* His face lit up in his pretty sunset gold as he glanced down at you before pointedly looking away, his hands moving. *Its pretty much an admission to wanting to mate with them.*

Your own face darkened in a blush. "Oh. I will keep that in mind." The two of you looked at Blue and Papyrus, the duo squabbling as Papyrus's citrus magic still painted his face.

You leaned over to Coffee. "So.. you want to get outta here? I don't know about you, but I'd like to get home before the rain starts." Coffee stared down at you, his eyes wrinkling slightly at the corners. *Yeah. We can look around for a bit. The others will catch up, plus no one will have a problem so long as you're with someone. And I-* he gestured to himself with his thumb as he spun on his heel, waving for you to follow. *Am someone. * He seemed proud of himself as you fell into step beside him.

"You sure it's fine if we abscond to the ether for a bit?" His shoulders bounced as he gave a silent laugh. *Yeah. They can smell us and sense us by our souls. They'll catch up.* The two of you walked into a nearby comic book store that had giant anime cut outs in the glass windows, along with several advertisement posters for new animes that were coming out and ones already in progress. The door gave a soft ding-dong as the two of you entered, the cashier on duty calling out a greeting before going back to reading an issue of 'Man Bat Boatbacon Asylum'.

You quietly trailed behind Coffee. "So I'm guessing hide and seek as a monster isn't a fun game to play?"

Coffee picked up a box with a magical girl model in it, before placing it down and scanning the art books. *Hide and Seek is actually really fun. Its one of those games that tests your magic skills and your ability to control your passive magic output. Some of us had to learn that sort of stuff in the parts of the underground that we came from.* He trailed off as he examined a book, put it back and picked up another.

*Not all places were good places, and those that were not good places were often kill or be killed. The higher up to the cavern's ceiling you were, the better off you were. I came from just above the abyss. Though Uncle Shepherd, Bear, and Sparrow came from the Abyss itself.* A frown sat on Coffee's face. *We don't talk a lot about the underground.*

You frowned and gently pat Coffee's arm. "Well. Im happy that you're here now. And if you ever want to talk about it or vent, I'm here. I know we havent known each other for a long time, but it feels easy to talk to you." You quietly smiled at him, your own attention falling onto some empty sketch pads and drawing supplies. Coffee gently bumped your arm, causing you to look up at him.

*Thank you, Sugar.* He smiled down at you, his face turned into an expression of gratitude. You lightly bumped him back. "Any time, Coffee."

The two of you browsed in a peaceful silence, mostly letting Coffee pick out some sketch books. Your eyes scanned the shelves, passing over a few books with rather cute covers. 'Those are way too expensive, especially for subpar works.' You stared at the price tags, the books were 20 dollars a book, or 4GP if you carried that currency. 'Jeez. No wonder I got a lot of spiral notebooks for my drawing stuff. 20 bucks is steep as hell.'

You continued to scan the sketch books, until you paused as you saw a beautiful, light brown book with a green vine going up the spine and across the cover, speckled with little pink flowers. It was simple, yet elegant. You froze as you picked it up. The pages were a heavy weight and the book itself had 200 pages in it. The pages were a slight off white, and all around, wonderful quality. You glanced at the price. 30 Dollars or 6GP.

'I don't have enough money on me... I probably should go with something cheaper anyway. Especially with people having a record with taking my stuff.' You bent lower and began to pull a few cheap books off the shelf. Two five-dollar books and a set of cheap mechanical pencils. All around a stuff that wasn't too terrible of quality, but wouldn't be too hard to replace if it came to it.

*Find something?* Coffee signed to you, peering at your books. You nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to check out. How about you?" Coffee held up his own books and markers. *I'm almost done.* He nodded to the hallway where Papyrus and Blue were talking with Wine, Tide, and Pops, who had just come in from the outside. *I'll catch up. Go ahead and check out. I'm sure the others will want to get started on clothes shopping for you and get some lunch.*

You quickly nodded. "Okay. We'll catch up, I'm sure." Coffee nodded and gently pat your head. *Go with them. I won't be far behind.*

You carried your items with you as you waved to Coffee, leaving him to continue to browse the isles. Approaching the cashier, you placed your little items on the counter, something rather cute caught your eye. It was a tiny, fuzzy lil puppy on a keychain. It was light brown with darker brown accents, and to top it off, it had a lil gold jacket on. You lightly took the tiny puppy keychain off of the rack, and added it to your goods.

"Is that all, honey?" The cashier was an older woman with blonde hair in a lower bun. "Thats a cute keychain." You nodded. "Yeah. It just kinda spoke to me. I really like it." You smiled as you handed her the crumpled up 20 dollar bill, getting three back. 'It kinda reminds me of someone.' Your eyes cast over to Coffee who was still looking through the goods on the shelf. You smiled and waved to the cashier and exited the store, the bell chiming on your way out.

Pop's deep red eyes stared at your short form as you walked to the awaiting group. "Well little one? What did you find?" Pop raised an eyebrow at you, his eyes cast down to your bag. Your tail began to wag as you showed your books and pencils. "I got some art stuff. It's been a while since I've had a good sketch book."

Pops looked pointedly down at your pantleg as you looked at your books. Tide followed Pop's gaze and his eyes turned to stars. Your head snapped up and you looked at Tide as he let out a squeal. "Oh my stars! Do you have a tail?" The smile fell from your face instantly, your face turning black with embarrassment.

"Uuh." Blue gasped, along with Papyrus. "Wowzers!" Blue knelt down and grabbed your pantleg, only for you to charge your magic.

"Ah! No. Stop!" You quickly swung your leg back and a small spark of magic lit, and you flickered on your spot before re-appearing by the door to the comic book shop.

You sighed, the blush not dying down. "It's true. I do have a tail, but like I told Green. I don't like to have it out because I can't find clothing that fits to accommodate it, not to mention my tail can get in the way. So please, don't grab at me. It stresses me out and I don't like it."

The stars never left Blue's eyes and Papyrus seemed even more excited. "Wowie! You can short cut!"

You just blinked. 'I feel like these guys did not hear a word I just said.'

"Maiden! That's amazing!" Blue began to make his way to you, only for you to snort slightly and stomp. "Boundaries, Blue." You crossed your arms. He stopped, his face falling a bit. "R-right! I'm sorry maiden! I just get so excited sometimes that I forget that some people don't like how over excited I can be... I didn't mean to upset you."

You just sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose, trying to will away the headache you felt coming on, coupled with the phantom pain that was beginning to develop in your leg. "I get it. But please, I need my space and to not have people move to me so fast. That's scary to me and I don't like it."

"I want to be your friend, but I also need you to understand that I have some struggles and need my boundaries to be respected, please." Blue straightened up. "O-of course maiden. I'm sorry." You sighed, but smiled. "It's okay." You gently bumped his arm. How about you guys show me where I can get a new hoodie? I would like a few different hoodies and sweaters. I love cozy stuff, if you guys wouldn't mind."

Blue brightened back up and took your hand, leading you and the group to a few nearby clothing stores.

-------

The day went by without much incident. Your little group went throughout the mall, to clothes stores and little in and out type places. You also found out about Wine and Pop's major shopping addiction, coupled with Pop, Tide, and Wine's tendency to want to see you in multiple things.

You plopped down in your seat at the lunch table in the cafeteria, exhausted. You were surrounded by bags at your feet and fully felt the headache brought on by the earlier use of your magic, not to mention the building air pressure that lingered in the atmosphere due to the bubbling storms. Your nub hurt like a bitch now, too.

"Maiden? Are you alright?" Blue lingered over you, sitting down his tray of tacos. You rested your head on the table. "I don't feel well Blue. I think I need to go home."

His face scrunched up. "Whats wrong?" He gently ran his hand over the top of your head.

"I don't feel well at all. I'm tired." Your head seemed to pound, and you planted your face into your arms to block out the light from the florescent bulbs that seemed to buzz like swarms of wasps overhead.

The noise finally faded away along with your consciousness.

You welcomed sleep.

----

The leaves rustled overhead as the scent of earth and iron filled your nose. The red hot pain still sat atop your head as the scornful grey eyes stared down at you. The feeling of something wet and sticky flowed from the top of your head and down your neck and onto the dirt beneath you.

Your mother looked down at you. A snarl on her face.

"I didn't give birth to a skeleton, you disgusting creature. You were a mistake."

She sneered.

"From this day on, you are dead to this family, and dead to me."

-----

You snapped awake to the feeling of someone petting your skull. It was Tide. A small frown sat on his lips as he gently pet your head. "Are you alright love?"

Your head and leg still hurt, and the shock of seeing your mother after so long didn't help.

"I'm just tired. I think all of this shopping wore me out. I think I'd like to go home now, Tide."

Tide nodded and gently bent down and gave you a nuzzle. "Of course, sweet pea. I'll help you get your things. Pop said it may start raining soon, and wants to get everyone home before the rain comes."

You nodded, stretching. "Sounds like a good plan. The rain could easily turn into something more than just rain. This is the kinda day you put your car in the garage if you value the vehicle."

Tide nodded. "It sure seems that way. The clouds look pretty dark." Tide stood and tossed out his food wrappers and stretched, picking up your bags. "You ready to go sweetie?"

You yawned, closing your eyes for a moment. "Yeah." You got up and swayed on your feet, using your arms to steady yourself. Tide quickly reached out and put his hands on either side of you. "Woah there, dear! Careful!"

You exhaled slightly. "Im okay. Just a little unsteady is all." Tide frowned at you.

"Perhaps it is best we get you home." He placed a hand at the small of your back with a light frown. "Come along little one. I think it's time for you to get a nap. We'll get a proper meal in you when we get home, okay?"

You blearily nodded, following Tide out to the van, the rest of your group dawdling at their own pace.

Chapter Text

Rain beat down as the car pulled into the garage. The smell of the rain was thick, but pleasant against the evaporating smell of the city as you left it behind. The only traces of it came from the mountain of clothes that sat in the back of the van and on the floor in their bags.

While you had taken a nap in the cafeteria, apparently Wine, Pops, and Tide all got a little heavy handed with picking you up some clothes. You were sure you hadn’t picked out so much stuff.

The rain came to a soft drone of white noise as the garage door slid closed and the car moved into the surprisingly deep room.

Holy shit.

Holy shit!

These guys had an underground drive in parking garage?! You supposed it made sense that they all had different vehicles for their jobs, but dang. This was something you hadn’t expected. The walls were lined with large limestone bricks and the ceiling gave way to a well lit natural cave roof with support beams going across, which had industrial lights strung across the beams. Small blue crystals were embedded in the walls.

You would have never known this was here on any normal day. The van finally came to a stop as Tide parked the van, humming a happy tune as he did so.

”Alright kids! Let’s get everyone out and the pup’s things to her room! Then afterwords we can all have a movie day with some snacks if you want.”

Blue, Papyrus, and Coffee all lit up. “Oh! A movie! Hmm- what should we pick?” Blue had began to think before undoing his belt and paying no mind as it flew behind himself and smacked into the wall of the van.

“Oh! How about the one about Jumping 21 Streets!” Papyrus suggested as he grabbed an armful of several bags. Blue shook his head. “Absolutely not! Everyone knows Die Hard is superior in every way!” Blue hopped out of the van, grabbing an armful of bags himself.

Coffee joined in. *Isnt that a gyftmas movie?*

Both Blue and Papyrus whipped around, faces holding looks of offense.

”Absolutely not!” “What?! No way!” Blue snorted and scoffed. “Who are you and what have you done with our baby cousin?”

It was Coffee’s turn to look offended. *It literally takes place on Gyftmas!*

Blue turned around and walked backwards towards a metal door that looked to be an elevator. “Just because it takes place on gyftmas does not mean it’s a gyftmas movie!”

Coffee snorted. *Die Hard is a better gyftmas movie than anything else by a long shot!*

Blue gasped. “Okay- what about ‘Nightmare before Christmas?’ Huh? That not gyftmassy enough for you?”

Coffee shook his head. *That’s clearly a Halloween movie, plus it’s a Christmas movie. Says it in the name.*

Blue looked like he was about to blow a vein. “Coffee. If you had an ass, it would be crusty. It would be crusty because that’s how your opinions on almost everything media related is.”

Blue narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward. “A puckered, wet, crusty, butthole inside an unwiped ass.”

Papyrus made a retching sound as you wrinkled your nose, still not fully awake to comprehend this entire conversation.

Pops shook his head as he shuddered in disgust and Tide groaned.

”Son, that is quite enough! Please refrain from euphemisms about wet and crusty and unwiped anything going forward.”

Papyrus gagged again as he slapped the open button on the elevator, looking desperately for the door to open. “Uncle! You do not help the situation! Silence your mouth!”

Coffee snapped his fingers twice. *Guess you could say this is a shitty situation.*

The room erupted in groans and exclamations of disgust.

The elevator door dinged open and papyrus practically sprinted into it, before spamming the ‘close’ option.

”This was a terrible time to be able to hand read! You nasty pun sayers can stay there and think of your actions and wait for the elevator again while the great Papyrus goes up!”

He snorted. “Think about what you three have done. For shame!”

Coffee gave a silent laugh while Blue and Tide wore expressions of shock. “What did I do?!” Tide whined.

”Wha-?! Nuh uh!” Blue sprinted to the elevator door as it began to slide closed. “If I had to see that you have to as well!” Blue let out a “Mweh!” As he stuck his hands in the door of the elevator, causing the safety features to function and slide the door open.

Papyrus cried out in despair. “NYO-HO-HO! I do not wish to be stuck with the Crustulator! Un-sully my presence with your crassness!”

Blue stuck his tongue out at Papyrus. “Make me!”

Papyrus stared at Blue, his dark sockets unblinking.

“Alright.”

You raised an eyebrow as the elevator door slid closed, Tide, Coffee, and Pops sliding into the elevator with their own bounty of bags and disappearing behind the steel metal doors.

You blinked and waited a moment before unbuckling your seatbelt.

“So.” Wines cool voice broke the silence.

“What do you think of Coffee?”

The seatbelt slid back and gently clicked as it hit the wall and you began to shimmy out of your seat, grabbing the last remaining bags and the bag of art supplies and the little doggy keychain.

”Coffee is fun and has been very nice to me. He’s comfortable to be around.” You hummed.

”So I hope Coffee and I can be friends.”

You turned around and slid down out of the car, your stomach facing the interior. Your feet hit the floor with a click. “I hope you and I can be friends eventually, too. It’s been a minute since I’ve had a lot of friends, and I’d be happy if you were one of them.”

You gave him a grateful smile. “It doesn’t need to be right now, but I like you just fine, too.”

Wine was taken aback. No one had really ever considered how he felt in some social interactions. Typically, he meshed with the crowd just fine. Exchange pleasantries and charm them and move on. He was used to working people to get what he needed or wanted.

But to have his feelings taken into consideration… he felt his face turn red.

”I may take you up on that offer, my dear. I am glad you enjoy Coffee’s presence. I too, would be glad to have a friend that is not a sibling or cousin.”

You heaved up the bags as Wine shut the door behind you. A loud crash of thunder exploded above the cavern garage, the sound rolling off of the walls.

You hummed. “Looks like we made it home right in time. I’d hate to be out in that.”

You sucked in a breath between your teeth. The ebbing pain in your leg had steadily increased throughout the day and you wanted nothing more than to get the stiff prosthetic off. "I did enjoy going to the mall, but I'm tired and want a nap." You blearily blinked away the sleep from your sockets.

“Plus a dining table at a mall isn’t a very comfy place to sleep.” You stretched as Wine began to lead you to the elevator. He chuckled. “You should see half of the places some of us can fall asleep. Sans in particular.” You raised an eyebrow in a silent question. “Like where?” Wine gave a chuckle.

“There has been more than one occasion that he has been found on top of Papyrus’s car out in the yard. Assuming he fell asleep star gazing. Not to mention the time he went missing for nearly a whole day. We later found him on the roof.” You couldn’t help the slight laugh you gave. “I can see where that would be scary in the moment.”

Wine nodded. “Sans isn’t the only offender, but is probably the most severe.” You nodded as you walked up beside Wine as he hit the button to summon the elevator.

There were a few moments of silence as the whirring of the motor for the elevator filled the space. It wasn’t obnoxious, just a quiet hum.

You finally piped up. “Thank you. For staying with me. I know me being here is a change for everyone, but if there’s something I can do to make it more comfortable for everyone involved, let me know.” You bashfully looked up at him, his red star shaped eye-light carefully looking down at you. “I didn’t come here to be trouble.”

Wine huffed and looked away for a moment. “You are no trouble, Pet. But please, do not hurt Coffee. He has been through enough as it is.”

You stared up at him, the quiet elevator droning filling the silence. “I’ll do my best, Wine.”

He closed his eyes in a satisfied smile. “That is all I can ask, dear.”

The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open to reveal the inside of a room that had masonry flooring with brick walls lined with shelves. The shelves seemed to be stocked with canned goods and dried goods, plus other things that had endless uses.

You couldn’t help your jaw dropping as you entered the room. Dang. These guy’s house just kept surprising you.

Wine trailed to the right, where two doors and a window sat, one door was a brownish red and the other a white door. The white one had a window in the top and showed the outside which was pouring down torrential rains from the sky. The window next to the red door showed much of the same, but seemed to look out over a tiny flower garden that seemed to be well kept, judging by the hail net above the fragile, fragrant flora.

Wine looked over his shoulder at you. “Are you coming, dear? I know the storage room is quite odd, but we can do a more thorough tour later.” He trailed off, his face twisting into one of confusion. “We will get back to that in a bit, Pet. One moment.”

Wine Opened the door that appeared to lead into the kitchen, where the noise of a high-pitched screaming Blue greeted your non-existent ears. His limbs flailing as Papyrus shoved the shorter skeleton into the high up cabinets above the sink.

”I told you if you did not cease your crassness that there would be consequences!” Blue's gloved hands grabbed at Papyrus’s face as Papyrus shoved Blue into the pantry by his torso.

”Noo!” Blue screeched. “I won’t go back to prison, you can’t make me!” Blue ‘mweh’d’ as he struggled against the giant’s strength, Papyrus grunting out a ‘Nyeh!’ As he pushed back against Blue’s struggling.

“Your criminal speak of disturbing bodily functions of a human are enough for a prison sentence!”

You couldn’t help but stare at the scene in front of you with blatant mysticism. The other skeletons just moved aside as if it was a normal occurrence, and judging by the way some of the shorter skeletons backed out of the room upon seeing Blue, you guessed this was a normal thing that happened. (Though you had a sneaking suspicion that Blue wasn't the only one subject to pantry prison.)

Wine took you by the hand and lead you away from the scene. “Come along, Pet. They will sort themselves out.” You followed Wine, turning back only to see Blue hiss and bat a gloved hand at Papyrus, then disappear into the depths of the kitchen cupboard with the cabinet slamming shut.

”Wha-“ You were cut off by Wine dragging you away. "Do not dwell on it, Pet. They do that every time they have a disagreement." You looked at Wine. "What in the hell type of punishment is that?"

Wine cast you a glance, a faint, red bead of sweat trailing down his brow. "It is the Papyrus punishment." He cast you a cautious side eye. “He is incredibly strong. So he can’t really hit us for fear of causing major damage at the minimum- plus that’s not in his personality to do anyway- but he is entirely petty enough to stick any one of his smaller counterparts into the cupboards should he feel slighted enough to do so.”

You wrinkled your nose slightly in confusion. “Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

Wine scoffed. “Hardly. There’s a small room back there with a bunch of snacks and whatnot. Quite the cozy spot, actually.”

You glanced at Wine. “How do you know that?”

Wine plainly stared forward, as if he didn’t hear you.

Oh. So he had been shoved into the pantry at one point by Papyrus too.

“I do not wish to speak of it.”

There was a beat of silence as the two of you left the main area of the house and arrived back to your room.

The door was open and the remaining people from your outing to the mall were happily putting your new clothes away.

Though there was an unexpected extra person in your room. It was Rus, Razz’s Brother. He was sitting on your bed, lazily chatting to Coffee as Coffee placed a large, thick sweater into your wardrobe.

You paused, unsure how to approach this entire situation. To be fair, you did freak out at Rus’s brother and traumatized him with one of your worst memories- so this probably wouldn’t go smoothly. You didn’t think he would be terribly happy with you in the least bit, nor willing to just ‘talk.’

Rus’s eyes landed on you. “Well. If it ain’t just the inverto I want to see. I got ya something.” Rus stood up and walked close to you, looming over you. His shadow completely blocking out any light behind him.

“‘S impressive, really. You got my brother to do what you wanted just by intimidating him with something as weak as illusion magic. Though flipping stuff inside out with a snap of your fingers is pretty impressive too.”

Rus began to shuffle his hand around into his hoodie pocket, before pulling out a familiar scrap of fabric in one piece.

Your sweater.

You felt the tears well up, the corners of your sockets stung slightly as you gently grabbed it from Rus, afraid it would fall apart at the seams if you so much as moved it wrong.

“Thank you…” You gently hugged it to your chest and sniffed the cloth. It didn’t smell of the dump or of garbage. Just new scents of Stretch, Razz, and now, Rus. And still faintly of your sister.

You raised your gaze carefully. “It never made it to the garbage. How did you get it?”

Rus wore a gentle smile. “I swiped it and switched it before they noticed they had scrapped the wrong cloth. For the both of em’ to do something so hateful, they sure didn’t pay attention to what it looked like. Pretty sure it was one of the kiddo’s old baby shirts that they couldn’t wear anyway.” Rus’s eyes flicked over your form. His face changed slightly to something more tired. Exhausted.

“Look. Please don’t hold this against my bro. He means well but can be a bit of a prick. It’d be real nice of you to forgive him.” He began to sweat under your exhausted glare. He hunched in on himself, burying his skull in the fluff of the hood that surrounded his shoulders.

His voice seemed smaller. “Just this once. Please.”

You just pinched the bridge of your nose, the headache that you had gained at the shopping trip growing tenfold.

You sighed as you began to massage your temple. “Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time today that I’ve been asked to accept an apology for someone. And I will tell you what I told the other person.”

You glowered up at Rus, eyes sparking slightly. “I will not accept an apology on behalf of the other person, as it just reinforces that the way they treat myself and others is okay.”

You shook your head in aggravation. “I’m not going to excuse terrible behavior like that. If I’m going to get an apology, it absolutely should come from the ones who did me wrong.” Your nose wrinkled as you rested your hands on your hips.

“If I hear a ‘sorry’, it should come directly from those two. I’m tired of having to forgive people for the sake of peace, without ever getting any kind of justice.”

Truly, that was something you had done too many times.

You felt your anger bubble over. Your temples heated up and your eyes flared. The old feeling of that scorching madness filled your bones, before you shut your eyes and willed it away with a deep breath.

“Look Rus. I think you’re an okay guy. You really did me a solid by getting my sweater back… so thank you.”

You hugged the shirt to yourself again and sighed. “But you don’t need to apologize for Razz. It’s not on you to do.”

Rus shook his head. “I know it’s not on me to do, but… I just don’t want you to hate him. He’s a good guy once you get to know him!”

Rus seemed to plead with you, his eyes growing larger and brighter, with a puppy look on his face.

You shook your head and rolled your eyes, a light huff leaving you in tandem. “I don’t necessarily hate him, but he and Stretch are not within my good graces. They need to prove that they can be trusted before I’d even consider being friends with either of them.”

Rus seemed to fall silent in contemplation, his teeth lightly clicking together. He closed his eyes, and sighed. “What do they need to do in order to make amends?”

You sighed for the umpteenth time. Really, you didn't know what could soften the blow from this. You shrugged. "A genuine 'sorry' would be a good start. Them taking responsibility for their actions would make me more likely to forgive them."

You turned to your closet and got out one of the ratty boxes you owned and opened it. Inside lay a few photos and odds and ends, though from your time at 7. A still image of you, Journei, and Arbor stared up at you, along with a stuffed blue cat plush and a Lego bonsai tree. You took those items out and replaced them with your sweater, before scooting the box back into its spot at the back of the shelf in the top of the closet.

Just for safe keeping.

You placed the plush and tree down on your dresser top before moving to help put the clothes away.

Rus slumped slightly in his spot on your bed as he continued to watch everyone putter about to and fro.

Pop sighed. “Rus, are you just going to watch or are you going to help?” Pop rested his hands on his hips and watched his nephew, tapping his foot slightly on the ground.

“I dunno what you’re talking about, Unc. I am helping.”

Pops scoffed. “How so?”

Rus opened an eye as he lay back onto your bed, giving you a coy smile. “I’m the mascot. You need me to cheer you all on.”

He half heartedly pumped his fist in the air while doing a lazy, rather deadpan cheer. “Yay. Woohoo- you got this.”

Then he flipped his hood over his eyes and laid back onto your bed with his arms behind his head.

Pops rolled his eyes. “How grateful we all must be for your lackluster efforts. Astounded, truly.” Pops continued to remove tags off of the clothes (annoyingly where you couldn’t see the price tags) and setting the items down to be put away by Wine and Tide.

Tide shook his head. “No amount of begging is going to get the pup to change her mind. Trust me, I’ve already tried apologizing for Stretch.”

Tide’s face fell slightly as he bit his lip. “Though I do fear she has a point. Apologizing for their behavior won’t reinforce to them that it’s bad behavior.”

He shook his head as he sighed. “I haven’t a clue where I went wrong with that boy.”

You had started to nod off slightly as the sound of the rain tapping the window had begun to lull you to sleep.

“I don’t think you went wrong anywhere, Tide. People make mistakes all the time.” You yawned. “I know I could have handled everything better. I shouldn’t have broken things and threw a tantrum. None of you seem to hold it against me. Granted, yes, I did repair the items I broke, but only after I made my point. It still wasn’t right of me to do that. So. I made a mistake same as Razz and Stretch.”

You rubbed your eyes as you got up, another yawn escaping your mouth. “Plus, I think we all just need space to decompress from each other. After we take our time, I’m sure we can talk stuff out. I’ll apologize, and if they also apologize, we can consider a path to being friends.”

You grumbled as you stood up. “But thank you all for your help with my clothes. I really appreciate it.”

—————————

Rus felt himself grow a little miffed as the Inverto gave a sweet smile to the others in the room. Her eyes were closing and her little fangs barely poked out of her mouth as she sleepily spoke to them.

“I’m really tired and want a nap. So if you don’t mind, I may come down for a movie a little later.”

Rus eyed her up and down, and really- he didn’t mind what he saw. She was easy on the eyes.

She turned to him, her eyes still kind, but clearly tired. "Not that I mind you hanging out, but would you mind giving me my bed? I'm-" She yawned, her voice going high pitched. "Sleepy."

The skeleton in front of him looked so small. The clothing she wore fit poorly on her frame, sagging and loose. The fabric seemed to drown her out. But damn if she didn't look comfy.

"Sure thing, Sugar." He winked, tossing his hand up in finger guns. "Just remember what I said about m' bro. He ain't all that bad. Just a lil' sour."

He watched her deflate a bit, though the tired smile didn't leave her face. "I'll think on it." She dipped her head as she waited for him to move.

Rus smiled. "That'd be great, Sugar. Thanks." He gave her a two-finger salute and felt the softness of her plush covers disappear from underneath him, only for his own quilted bed to cushion his landing.

Rus stared at the ceiling for a long while. His time on the serface hadn't been the smoothest. Having to go from the "bottom-feeder" mentality to a "everything-is-fine" mentality was honestly a little rough. As a child, he remembered having to make due with what little they had. With the things the upper shelves in the underground deemed as 'beneath themselves' or just straight trash.

He remembered going to school as a baby bones and looking up to see the bright castle that glowed atop the cavern that housed the most important of society. The King and Queen of monsters. Of course, each shelf had their own Dukes and Duchess's to answer to, that way the main King and Queen could focus on governing the more important issues like the blatant resource shortage. After all, their shelf was fifth in line after the Bright Shelf.

First there was the Lustrous Shelf, saved for the most important people. Uncle Gaster as well as Sans and Papyrus were from there. They served the royal family directly, if Rus remembered right.

Second there was the Glimmering Shelf. Uncle Tide, Stretch, and Blue lived there doing infrastructure work, with Stretch having a visa to freely travel between shelves and kingdoms. They didn't want for much, but if they did it absolutely wasn't for a long while.

The Shining shelf was third. Green and G were doctors there, claiming the higher up shelf helped whatever plants they grew, while the lower position made going to the lower shelves easier. Which he supposed was true.. But at nighttime when what little sunlight the underground did get went away, all of the creeps seemed to come out. At night Rus remembered seeing a bunch of Skeletons in fancy suits with fat cigars hanging from their pointed teeth. Smoke aflame in hue's of reds, purples, and blacks filling the already stale air of the shelf. Honestly, Rus was sure he saw G down there on more than one occasion talking up a hot storm with those gang bangers.

The Bright Shelf, despite it's name had to use giant mirrors in order to make the sunlight reach their little slice of the underground and its expansive chasm. Those damned mirrors.

Rus grinded his teeth.

Those big ass mirrors were the reason none of the other shelves received light. The large metal antennas and bars held up the ginormous glass pieces that towered nearly to the bottom of Glimmer. (The nickname for the Glimmering Shelf, as that's a mouthful every time you want to talk about the shopping district.)

Multiple attempts had always been made to cut it down or nock it over. So that's where Wine and Pops came in. They served the Golden Duke and Duchess as security and engineering. One to keep the mirrors from falling down and the other to keep it from becoming cut down. He heard rumors that monsters caught trying to do so were tossed over the cliffside and into the ...Abyss.

Rus shuddered at the name. One time was enough for him. It was enough for Mutt. And now he was Rus.

And Rus lived in the Dim Shelf with his brother Razz and Father, Code. As well as their uncles Sarge and Pac. (Along with their sons.) Neither of his immediate family members paid him much mind as a child. As an adult now, he understood. They were out working themselves down to the marrow to keep food on the table and give him the best life possible. Even if it came in the form of broken electronics that needed meticulous work to even get the screen to turn back on. Razz nearly killed himself each day, dealing with the triplet Duchess's of Madness, Grief, and Despair, respectively. His brother bended and bowed to their every whim.

'Do as they say or be killed.' Conform or conclude.

Rus drew his fingers across his scar and two golden fangs. 'Mutt's' two golden fangs.

Stars above he was glad he wasn't there anymore.

Whether he meant the Dim shelf or the Dark... he wasn't sure. The Dark shelf was made up of the population that was deemed useless to their society. They were lucky if they got crumbs of the crumbs of what everyone else got. The head queen had banished the death penalty after the mess with the fallen children. So instead came up with banishing the worst of the worst to the bottom shelf. She saw no reason to waste what precious material they had on making a prison, so off to the literal deep end they went. The ferry men wouldn't even lower their flying boats down there. Its where the murderers and exp hungry monsters went.

Then..

Then there was the abyss. A place where not even the most scumbag of XP ridden monster would dare set foot. Honestly, if his uncle Shepherd, and his cousins Bear and Sparrow were anything to go by, life down there must have been true hell.

Rus... Mutt. His jaw clenched. For legal reasons, Rus.

When he was younger, he has always wanted to get out of the Dim Shelf. To not breath in the stench of those just *born* higher than they had been. Families were separated by social status and skills. Honestly, had he chosen to 'apply himself' more and 'live up to his potential' perhaps he could have actually helped his family move up the shelves. But instead, he had found a camera. And to his absolute delight it still worked. The film was good and the only real damage to it was cosmetic.

Mutt had honestly been an artist in a place that didn't welcome them. Self-expression wasn't cared for, nor was any words against the crown. Not even the slightest criticism.

Stars... Why did he have to take that photo?

His jaw slightly ached as a rather loud boom of thunder sounded from outside, bringing him back from his memories.

Right. The inverto. His time on the surface.

He laid back again, listening to the rain thump against the window. The light reflected the most beautiful melting glass reflections around his room. The shades of white and blue slowly trailing down the walls as the raindrops ran down his windowsill.

Rus thought that their new housemate was lucky. To be born on the surface and to not have to worry. To have a family that loved you for you and you didn't have to worry about disappointing at every twist and turn.

But then, Rus met her. She would fit right in on the Dim shelf by appearance alone. Scarred up but still chased after by every male monster with a soul beat. She was pretty cute by general monster standards, but having a mate like that on a lower shelf? Instant move to Shimmer or even Glimmer. To Rus's knowledge, in this day and age, there were no female skeletons.

So, her being of mating age and of a rare species- she would have definitely caught the queen's attention. In what way though Rus wasn't sure.

Some of the crown would have seen her as something akin to a collectable. Others as a pawn for control. A prize to be promised and won. Maybe a select few for repopulation... not that there was room for that in the chasm.

Rus sighed as he closed his sockets. The dark colored image with a pale face staring back at the camera with something in it's mouth made his eyes snap open.

Rus groaned as he slowly sat up. Sleep didn't come to him as well as it did for some of his cousins. He looked up and glanced at his blank easel and grabbed the plastic cup full of brushes off of his nightstand. He wasnt in the mood to sleep right now, or really watch a movie either.

He squirted paints out onto his palette and began to mix and swath them onto the board. The world around him melted away, the only noise being the rain pelting the house. He felt his soul calm as his brush ran without much direction.

Time passed without too much notice until he heard a bunch of screaming from downstairs followed by the front door slamming shut and the house shaking.

And judging by the high-pitched yelling, it was Razz and Stretch having come back from the dump. They both reeked something fierce. He could smell them from the top of the stairs.

Razz was red in the face as he stood there, his hands balled into fists as he screamed at the inverto.

"YOU KNEW THAT YOUT SWEATER WOULD NOT BE FOUND AND SENT US OUT TO HUMILIATE US ON PURPOSE! HOW COULD YOU- YOU WRETCHED HUMAN! YOU HUMANS ARE ALL THE SAME! I SWEAR TO THE GOOD QUEEN TORIEL I WILL HAVE YOUR DUST IN A DOGGY BAG!"

Razz stomped his feet. "YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF OUR CUSTOMS AND I WILL *NOT* BE DEGRADED IN SUCH A MANNER EVER AGAIN!"

The inverto went to speak, but Razz cut her off. "NO! I WON'T HEAR ANY OF IT! I AM TIRED OF EVERYONE DEFENDING YOU AND THAT STUPID COMFORT BLANKET! I DO NOT CARE IF SOMEONE DIED- GET RID OF IT!"

Rus watched as the mild tempered look on Sugar's face disappeared. Replaced with something far colder. Sugar leaned in, baring her fangs.

"Honestly? I've had enough of you being a little fuck. So- in your own words from early this morning."

She growled out and advanced forward.

"Make me."

Rus flinched as Razz moved rather fast.

He slapped the inverto's face, and the sound was loud enough to make the entire household go silent.

A blackening mark was beginning to form on her cheek, under her right eye.

The inverto laughed. "Okay. Just know you brought this on yourself."

Chapter Text

The inverto blinked awake to the sound of rain tapping against her windows. It hadn’t been very long, but thankfully that nap helped you feel pretty refreshed.

You gently stretched and sighed as the ache in your leg had practically disappeared, though a ghost of it still held traces if you moved or flexed in the wrong way.

The rain still fell in its rhythmic pattern, bringing a peaceful atmosphere to your still cozy room. Night had yet to descend on the quiet mountainside manor that over the last 48 hours or so, you had begun to call home. The cozy bed beneath you felt more plush than usual and the heavy quilt was heaven against your achy bones. But alas, you did say you would join the others after a nap.

You groaned softly as you heaved yourself upright and out of the bed, swinging both of your legs over the side and leaving them to dangle in the air. Gently, you slid your hand around your sock to make sure your leg wasn't out of place. You hadn't bothered to take it off before your nap. (Even though you really should have.) After you made sure you were stable, you got up and stretched, your back popping.

You looked around your room for a moment. It seemed fuller than it was before you laid down for your nap. A large beanbag chair was in the corner of your room along with a small bookshelf that had your newly purchased art supplies in it, along with a pristine white box on top. It had a photo of a drawing tablet on it with beautiful penmanship and a note written in fun, zany handwriting. It looked like a loopier rendition of comic sans.

'Hello new friend! If you are reading this, then I hope you had a wonderful nap! I, the magnificent Blue, and the most preposterous Papyrus- (and our other family members- namely Coffee-) Are incredibly happy to welcome you into our home! Please remember what we said about fostering talents such as yours. We look forward to the things you will make! Welcome home, your new best housemate. -Blue.'

You smiled as you lifted the taped note from the box and stuck it to the inside of the little square bookshelf, taping it to where you would be able to see it with the books standing up. The little doggy keychain sat atop the shelf; its tiny blonde eyebrows downturned in a look that was reminiscent of causing chaos. Its little pink tongue lolled out of its mouth, and it looked ready to take on the world.

You smiled as you used a single finger to pet the keychain atop its fuzzy little head.

Continuing to look around- the next thing was the obvious floor lamp that shined down on the bean bag, warming the area in gentle golden light. It made the whole area feel a lot more inviting. Really, the only thing the area was missing was a heavy blanket, pillows, and a cup of tea. Now that- that sounded like heaven. Your tail wagged in the confines of your pantleg, the to and fro motion making little tapping noises as your tail beat against the fabric.

It was official. You would have to do something nice for the entire household. It had been a really long time since you felt so much warmth and love and kindness from people, especially of this magnitude. You could make them breakfast. Nah. Thats not that special and you literally did that this morning. And your famous pond cake is out of the question, as you doubt, they have the ingredients you would need or want to use here.

No. It needed to be more personal. You scratched your chin. Hmm. What could you do? You didn't exactly know these guys too well. Honestly you may have to sit and wait for a while and keep watching the household and getting to know the guys.

You turned your attention back to your bed and began to remake it to where it would be usable in a few hours' time. After making sure your room was straightened up, you quietly made your way downstairs to the living room, closing your bedroom door behind you.

You walked down the stairs and into the living room, seeing Coffee, Wine, Blue, Papyrus, Bear, and Sparrow all sitting in the soft couches and chairs, some reading while most were watching 21 Jump Street.

You quietly rounded the couch and took a seat on the floor, joining the group.

Blue gave a happy gasp. "Maiden! It is wonderful to see you again! Was your nap good?"

You gave him a smile. "Yes, it was. I really needed it. I feel a lot better than I did earlier."

Bear looked at you from his spot across the adjacent couch. His taller, wider frame stretched across it. "Why didn't ya feel well, treat?" You lightly waved him off. "I got a headache due to the weather that was moving in. The rain and the thunderstorms that build tend to make me pretty achy. But human pain medication doesn't work to sooth any pain or combat it before it gets bad."

Bear shifted to sit up, his large frame causing the couch to groan. "Does food help?" You shook your head. "Not particularly. I don't think id be able to keep it down sometimes."

Bear looked at you, seeming to study you for a while. "When was the last time you ate?"

You suddenly found the carpet in front of you to be rather entertaining. "Uhhm. Today." Well. Thats not a lie. You just didnt eat at the mall.

Bear's one good eye narrowed at you. His smile seeming to pinch at the corners. "If breakfast today was the last time, its been too long."

You pointedly looked away from Bear, hoping he wouldn't notice the little glimmers of sweat that seemed to condensate on your forehead.

"Wha-?! Hey! Don't ignore me!"

You felt your face get hot as you covered your face, blocking your vision for a bit. Wine and Sparrow were both laughing as Bear crawled down off the couch and straight over to you.

"Treat."

"Yes Bear."

A sudden sniffing filled your ears as bear loomed over you, snorting and blowing hot air out of his nostrils. You recoiled. "What the heck?! Why are you sniffing me?! I can't smell good!"

"Checking you for food smells, and you don't smell like food." You eyed him, uncertain. "I mean... I don't see what the big deal is. I'm not hungry right now and I'm sure dinner is in a little while. Whoever the cook is won't be too pleased with me spoiling my appetite."

Bear sat, much like a large dog or frog would. His eye fixed on you. "Why didn't ya eat at the mall?"

You sighed. "I wasn't hungry, nor did I get hungry. I started getting a migraine halfway through and honestly cut our trip short, I'm sure."

You gave Bear a gentle smile and patted his hand. "I promise, I'm okay. Once it's dinner time, I'll let you make my plate if that will make you feel better. How does that sound?"

Bear seemed to think it over. "If you eat lunch with me every day too."

You nodded. "If im able, I will." Bear dipped his head in a nod. "Seems good ta me."

Bear yawned and slowly rose from his position on the floor, his back letting out deep, nearly guttural snaps. He stretched his body up, his hand clawing at air. Then as if he was a cryptid from a horror novel, he bent down and scooped you up, hugging you to his chest and plopped down on the couch, nearly sitting on top of Blue.
"Hey-! Watch it! I'm sitting right behind you!"

Bear plopped down, his massive weight sending Blue up and back down rather roughly, and lightly bounced Wine, who sat on the end of the couch, reading a newspaper, Coffee by his feet.

"What's wrong, big Blue? Too good for a cuddle pile with yer old cousin?"

Blue shimmied his way from underneath Bear. "What? No-. I just don't like to be squished by your big butt!"

Bear continued to lean over on top of Blue. "I ain't got a butt." Blue snarled and started to bat at Bear, his gloved hand making a satisfying snapping noise as he struck his boney arm. Bear lifted his arm, allowing Blue to pop up from underneath him, sputtering.

You rested in Bear's arms as the giant reclined, resting his large feet on the nearby ottoman. Blue begrudgingly resting at his side and pulling a blanket up over the three of you. You honestly had to admit that this was pretty nice. The rain hadn't let up and the movie played its fast-paced scenes. Gently laying your head on Bear's chest and having Blue nearby filled you with comfort and made your eyes feel heavy again.

You were brought out of your sleepy state by the sound of someone stomping up the porch and keys turning in the front door. The heavy oak slammed open as Razz stood in the entryway, soaking wet along with his clothes torn. A putrid smell permeated off of him as he staggered in, water pouring off of himself and collecting on to the floor.

He was silent, but the moment his eyes landed on you, the dam broke.

"You." He seethed. "You knew- didn't you."

You quirked an eyebrow. "Knew what, Razz?"

He whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at you. "YOU KNEW THAT RAG WASNT ACTUALLY THERE IN THE DUMP AND SENT US OUT SO WE WOULD BE HUMILIATED! ADMIT IT HUMAN!" He barred his fangs at you and advanced.

You got up off of Bear and the couch, standing up to defend yourself. Bear started to growl.

"I did not! I sent you to go get my sweater that you threw away! I'd expect nothing else from anyone else! It's not my fault you didn't check to see if you actually tossed *my* sweater! You shouldn't have acted like you were even going to throw away my things!"

Razz's face began to turn red and his eyes began to smolder.

"YOU KNEW THAT YOUR SWEATER WOULD NOT BE FOUND AND SENT US OUT TO HUMILIATE US ON PURPOSE! HOW COULD YOU- YOU WRETCHED HUMAN! YOU HUMANS ARE ALL THE SAME! I SWEAR TO THE GOOD QUEEN TORIEL I WILL HAVE YOUR DUST IN A DOGGY BAG!"

Razz stomped his feet. "YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF OUR CUSTOMS AND I WILL *NOT* BE DEGRADED IN SUCH A MANNER EVER AGAIN!"

You tried to jump in to speak, but Razz cut you off. "NO! I WON'T HEAR ANY OF IT! I AM TIRED OF EVERYONE DEFENDING YOU AND THAT STUPID COMFORT BLANKET! I DO NOT CARE IF SOMEONE DIED- GET RID OF IT!"

You felt your soul nearly come to a stop. Seraphina meant the world to you. She held you up when you couldn’t stand. She comforted you when you cried and she became the sister you never had. The family you never had.

It really felt like Razz was erasing her. You stepped towards Razz, baring your fangs. You wouldn’t stand for this.

You growled at him, words coming out in a hiss. "Honestly? I've had enough of you being a little fuck. So- in your own words from early this morning."

You growled and advanced forward.

"Make me."

Razz moved rather fast, his hand flattening into a slab.

With startling speed, he slapped you, the force making your cheek sting and your head spin. The sound was loud enough to make the entire household go silent.

Bear stared with his smile pulling taught, almost as if there there wasn’t enough room on his skull.

The sounds of the kitchen stopped and the movie had long ago been paused. The rain was deafening.

A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

You looked up to the ceiling, willing the sting out of your eye. This is what you get for trying to be nice. But again. He claimed and cried that you were nothing but a cruel human.

Flesh and blood did not make up your body. It hasn’t in years.

In fact, you have been a monster for a majority of your life at this point.

Why not make his words true? If he wanted a villain, you’d give him a villain.

You gave a cold, dry laugh. This is what you get for trying to be nice. You shrugged. "Okay. Just know you brought this on yourself."

You closed your eyes and imagined the back porch and deck, where you had played with the most adorable little cat.

You glared wildly as you reached out to Razz, grabbing him by his shoulder before the scenery around you bent and twisted. The cold rain pounding down on your head. You shoved him over the railing and down into the wet, spongy grass. The muddy water staining his already ruined shirt.

You jumped over the railing and onto the wet ground as the back door slammed open. A gaggle of assorted skeletons falling out onto the deck.

You couldn’t help but seethe. “I tried to be nice.”

”I really did. But sadly for you, I’m not a patient person.” You held out your palms and began to wave them through the air at your sides. The rain drops seemed to avoid your hands after a moment, then gather in globs around both of your wrists as you continued to speak.

“To my recollection, I never did anything to you.” Movement in the corner of your eye caught your attention. It was Stretch who had moved to stand in front of Blue.

Your eyes narrowed. “Either of you.”

The rain you were gathering started to swirl around your hands, then gather in small globs getting bigger and more plentiful as they orbited the proper cuffs of flowing water around your wrists.

“You said I’m no better than any other human and that I am just like them.”

You tilted your head as you looked across the yard at Razz. He stumbled to his feet and reached into the air in front of him. His hands began to glow a hot red before he sharply pulled his arms back near his body. A pair of red plasma daggers with bones for the handles formed in his grasp, along with a bright red chain in the shape of a spine connecting the daggers at the handles.

The spine-chain flowed in the air as if it were a liquid, never touching the ground. But you could feel the power in the fictional spine. It gave off its own pulse- nearly like it had a soul of its own. A barely audible rumble came from the weapon.

You had no doubt that if he got you with any part of his weapon, it would do massive damage.

You could maybe take one or two hits, but due to the semi-chronic pain you dealt with, it would absolutely put you in bed for a few days. You’d need to be careful.

Your body tensed as you began to draw energy from the surrounding area. Raindrops fell slower and eventually stilled in mid air, stopping right under your hands. The sound of the rain falling and all outside noise seemed to melt away.

You met Razz’s eyes.

”Then allow me to fight you with the same conviction as a human would.”

You crouched to lower your center of gravity, angling yourself to where you wouldn’t be so easy to push over.

Razz didn’t hesitate. He ran forward, a noise akin to an angry bull escaping his mouth as he charged you closing in at a fast pace before slashing at you with his chained daggers.

You quickly ducked and ran forward underneath the chain, ducking down and grabbing a handful of dirt.

Razz stopped and skidded to a halt as he realized he’d missed, twirling his body back and stabbing down with a dagger, trying to aim for your back.

Quickly dodging, you mixed the dirt with some of the water before flinging it into his face.

Razz let out a screech before shaking his head back and forth, trying to dislodge the filth that had invaded is eye and nasal cavities.

“QUIT WITH YOUR DIRTY TRICKS YOU VILE HUMAN!”

He lunged forward towards you, still slashing at the air in front of himself and subsequently you.

Thankfully, the dirt and grime seemed to slow him down enough for you to think of a plan.

Maybe you could wear him down without having to hit him- though the sting in your cheek was a stark reminder of how he didn’t see the need to be merciful to you or understand you in any capacity.

Hmm. Mayhaps not. Maybe you would have to use more force than you needed to use. But so had he.

Wow. You feel kinda petty.

No.

Screw that!

You absolutely were going to hold a grudge and wouldn’t let it go until he swallowed his pride and apologized. Honestly, you were sick of his shit. Were you perfect? No. Absolutely not. But if Sera had taught you anything, it was to stick up for yourself, no matter what.

You had come from nothing and had left the facility with nothing. But while you were there you had gained a sister. Sera.

And by Razz demanding you get rid of your sweater, it made you feel like he was erasing her. If that happened, you would truly have nothing else left.

You wouldn't allow that.

Never again. You would remember her in all the ways she deserved and more.

You balled your fist and let it fly as Razz jumped closer, slashing his daggers at you as he wrapped his chain around your right leg. He recoiled back as you struck him under his jaw with a satisfying crack. He quickly pulled on his daggers, dragging your leg from underneath you without much hesitation.

If you hit the ground, he would probably jump on top of you and maim you or worse. The fight would end there. But the other option was to let him take your leg and leave you to your own devices.

You seethed to yourself. 'This motherfucker.'

You growled as Razz pulled back on the chain, sending your prosthetic leg flying behind him, landing in the yard with a wet squelch and dull thump. Though his assault didn't stop as he lunged forward and stabbed at you, causing you to summersault backwards, his second dagger nicking the waistband of your sweatpants.

You managed to land on your one good leg as you skidded backwards, tilling up the wet earth beneath your feet. Your tail lashed to and fro as it came free from your pants. You growled, kneeling as you sucked in a breath.

Razz chuckled as he cleaned out his sockets. "That tactic may serve you in a little fight, but against me? Absolutely not! And it seems I was right to smell a rat! Look at you! Malformed! How unfortunate!”

Razz pointed at your tail and missing limb.

”No wonder you have to resort to such pathetic tactics. Disgusting.”

He whipped the chain, cracking it against the wet ground causing mud to fly up. A dangerous magic flickered through the air.

"It will be all the more pleasant for me to exterminate you, then.”

You plainly stayed silent.

Razz narrowed his eyes. “YOU SHOULD SPEAK WHEN SPOKEN TO, CUR!”

Razz rushed you.

His feet dug into the muck and he raised his dagger through the clear air as he gave a wicked smile.

”YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU MADE A MOCKERY OF ME!”

His voice seemed to amplify and shake the trees as his blades came down again- but somehow they seemed different this time. His red eyelights pulsed with rage as his daggers began to glow brighter. His feet hardly touched the ground as he dashed towards you, not taking note of his environment.

Thats it! His temper! If you can just keep him distracted a little while longer, you could make your move and possibly end this. You balled up your fist and drew energy from your soul and quickly pulled up.

This was gonna suck if this didn’t work. You never really got to practice your skills like this a whole lot, but this had always been your normal. The dirt beneath your feet and the water in your hands and the way you could bend plants to your will.

You think that’s what got you into trouble when your mother found you at such a young age. Something about a garden? You couldn’t remember nowadays.

But she wasn’t here now and hadn’t been around in such a long time.

So why let that stop you.

You quickly channeled your energy into the ground and brought your hands up in a fast motion.

The earth beneath your feet rumbled and shook as a huge column of sodden mud and clay shot up, slamming right into Razz’s gut.

He sputtered out a breath he’d been holding as you sent the wall of clay at him, only for Razz to roll out of the way.

Watching where he would land, you shot another clay pillar out of the ground and into his side, sending him flying towards the forest that lined the back yard. He hit the wet ground with a thud, lying in a mushy puddle before slowly working on getting himself up. He was shaking and wheezing a little bit, but mostly appeared distracted and full of rage.

You shook slightly from holding yourself up in a kneeled position, struggling to get back to your own feet.

Looking around, you saw your leg was too far away for you to get. It lay sadly in the muck, the metal rod that made your shin bent at odd angles. You frowned. You wouldn’t be able to use that ever again and it would take you a long time to get a new one that was still on the cheaper side.

You surveyed your surroundings. You still needed something to lean on or act as a spare leg.

Razz gave a snarl as he fell back to the ground holding his ribs. Only to look up, his eyes flared and a long red tongue licking his teeth. He honestly looked excited.

He got to his feet and began to slowly stumble across the yard towards you.

You quickly looked around. ‘Come on! Anything?!’ You couldn’t show Razz you were nervous but being a sitting duck with someone that seemed unstable as him would not bode well for you.

Then as if the universe heard your silent pleas, just off to the side where the trees started sat a large tree limb that had fallen down, no doubt as a result of the heavy rains that had been happening over the last few days. It wasn’t ideal or perfect, but you could work with it.

You summoned more energy from your soul and held up your hand, willing the branch to begin to sprout twigs and vines.

Razz drew closer, his own body shaking as he held onto his daggers, rolling them in his hands. The sound of his slow footfalls was nearly tormenting.

Tugging your hand towards your body willed the branch to come flying to you, a loud snap and a smaller, but thick branch flew into your hands right as Razz broke into a sprint.

"DIE!"

Red saliva splattered from Razz's jaw as he rushed you. His eyes were shrunken in delight as he threw one of his daggers and wrapping the chain around your only remaining leg and pulling.

You hit the ground with a thud and the mud underneath you moved at your will. You sent a geyser of mud up and into his face, causing his grip to loosen on the daggers. Seizing the opportunity, you used the stick to steady yourself and whip Razz with your rather boney tail. It made contact with a sharp snap, striking him across the face.

Razz snarled. "I AM SO SICK OF YOUR CHEAP TACTICS! ENOUGH OF THIS!" He snarled as he dismissed his daggers and launched a fist in your direction. Your jaw stung as you got flung back into the mud and lost your stick, watching as it disappeared under the thick slew of ground.

"EYES ON ME- MORSEL OF MONSTER."

Razz twirled in the air, his body glowing in a sort of gel. His foot connected to your ribs and you went airborn, flying across the back yard and into the woods. Branches cracked and broke as your body slammed through vines and the thick undergrowth.

The water around your wrists expanded for a moment, but you managed to maintain a majority of its mass. Not yet. You couldn't let it go.

Your body dropped to the forest floor in a heap. Your chest hurt, as did the stub of your leg. You winced as you looked at it, dust and thick, black blood dripped from your bone.

You sneered. If he wanted to play rough, you'd answer in kind.

You got down on all fours and began to crawl along the forest floor, the rain now beating down through the treetops and masking the noises you were making. You had practice crawling about, as some nights, that had been easier than learning how to use your prosthetic. You were actually quite fast.

"I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE, TRASH. COME OUT NOW AND PERHAPS I WILL LET YOU GROVEL AND LICK MY BOOTS."

Razz had his back to you, watching the other side of the woods where you had disappeared into. His palms were hot with his cherry red magic, and he was slowly scanning the tree line.

It was now or never.

You broke through the tree line, beginning to drop the giant pool of water you had been collecting. The sound was loud enough that it had masked your movement until the last moment.

You launched yourself at Razz, planting your one good leg into his pelvis and grabbing at him with your sharp claws. You quickly latched onto him and brought him down with you, snarling and scratching him.

"Now that I have your attention Razz, allow me to show you that humans are cruel."

Now.

You wrapped your arms around Razz tighter and let all of the water you had been collecting fall onto you and Razz in a single sphere. The water slammed into the ground, and you kicked him away at the same time the water hit, sending him to the opposite end of the yard coughing and spluttering. You weren't much better off, being pushed to the far side of the yard. The amount of strain that you had put yourself under to apply the focus needed to retain all that water had thrown you into a sort of shock. From doing your stutter stepping earlier in the day and now performing your nature-kinesis, you were feeling pretty spent. But you still had a point to prove.

You growled. Shifting your hands through the now flooded yard, your pants long ruined and leg still bleeding. You felt something against your hand.

The branch from earlier! You picked it up, the sturdy wood feeling good in your hands. You held it, looking at a tiny maple leaf that still clung to the side. The leaf was torn in spots and the branch itself had a rather ugly snap in the bottom where it had disconnected from the much larger limb. The bark was a lighter grey and had patches of white and brown.

It may be a broken branch, but it's not useless. It may have blemishes, but it's not ugly. You may have been thrown away... But you were not worthless.

The sound of splashing made you look up. Razz ran towards you at lightning speed, his own magic flying in sparks off of his feet. He jumped up and came down onto you with his magic aflame in his fist.

"DUST ALREADY!"

You didn't hear him get up!

You glared as you swung your stick, your own black magic racing along the branch and-

One of the worst pains in your life burned in your hip as the stick blasted Razz in the chest with a bold of lightening.

A bright red bone stuck out of the ground behind you, going through your pelvis and out of your front. Two more bones were to either side of you, humming in that same current of magic. Razz's eyes seemed to go completely black as his sockets dimmed. Any expression melted off his face as he fell forward in the water, Unconscious.

The bones pinning you in place flickered and evaporated, finally unpinning you.

You grunted as you moved to Razz's body and heaved a sigh as you flipped the surprisingly heavy skeleton over.

"You might be an asshole, but your brother isn't. I don't think he'd like it if you drowned."

You gasped and collapsed, as the pain caught up to you. You just sat, the rain steadily coming down on top of your head, chasing the pain away with the coldness. And along with the pain melting away, so did your consciousness.

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

The skeletons stood in shock. No one moved for a moment, until Bear seemed to collect himself and lumbered off of the back deck. His feet trudged through the shallow water and over to the inverto's unconscious form. He gently scooped her up and turned to Razz, grabbing him by his ankle and dragging him up to the deck, uncaring that his skull bounced off of every step on the way up.

Bear plainly dropped Razz's unconscious body in front of Rus, plainly keeping quiet as Blue and Sparrow opened the door for Bear. The quadruplets disappearing inside the house.

"What do we tell Gaster when he comes home?" It was Papyrus. He wringed his hands. A nervous habit he had never gotten rid of as a pup.

Wine blinked as he stared at the destroyed back yard. (Not that it looked great to begin with.) "Judging by the cameras, I would wager Uncle already knows." Wine nodded to the small surveillance device perched in a fake bird house.

"Do you think he'll tell the queen?" The question they all dreaded came up. Though they all had great reluctance to mention it.

"For her sake, I hope it does not come up. Life for her will change more than she would like for it to."

And that much, they had no doubt would be true. As far as the underground knew, skeletons had long ago lost their connection to nature. So, to see the inverto bend nature itself to her will...

She may be one of, if not the most powerful creature that had come into existence within the past few thousand years. With the right teaching and training, she could even one day far surpass Asgore.

A steely voice cut into their quiet thoughts.

"What in the silver stars happened here?!"

Gaster slammed the back door open, scanning the back yard. Shepherd, Sarge, Tide, and Pops following suit.

Gaster's eyes scanned the yard, then the group. He glared. "All of you have some major explaining to do."