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Chapter Text

You grew up with Asriel and Kris, you're more like an older sibling for them. You're roughly 6-8 years older than Kris and Susie. And you're about 2 years older than Asriel but are still saving for college since your parents passed and few years ago and didn't have much in a will. So every now and then you and Kris hangout and eventually with Kris' new friend, Susie. 

You don't really like your current job; You're a customer service manager at the Light World equivalent of Target. People yelling, snapping, trying to get money out of you is quite draining. But it makes enough to be able to save for college and live semi comfortably. 

You were having dinner at the Dreemurrs home with Toriel and Kris. While you were helping Toriel clean up after eating she spoke. "You know, we are considering throwing away the TV." 

"Wait? Actually? That was our childhood." You object, looking over at the worn TV. It was in fact a good part of your childhood,you guys really did love TV, playing games on it, watching movies and your favorite cartoons with Kris and Asriel. Recently Kris would refer to it with a name, Tenna, which you thought was cute and fitting. Since you didn't really have a name for it growing up, it felt nice giving it a name since holds a spot in your heart.

"Yep, it's not really used and I have no use to keep it here." Toriel responds putting a few cups away.

"I- I could take the TV." You looked at the TV, already planning on how you can fix it up.

"That would be amazing, thank you." Toriel softly comments. "You should get Kris and Susie to help you carry it over to your house."

"Will do ma'am. Thank you for letting me have it." 

You run off to get Kris, who is talking with Susie out on the front lawn. "Hey guys! Can I get some help?" You kindly ask. "Uhh.. Sure what's up?" Susie turns to look at you. "Toriel said I could take care of Tenna at my house. So I need help getting it over. If you guys don't mind." Kris and Susie look at eachother and nod in agreement. "Sure" Kris replied. 

°~☆

After some difficult lifting, you three eventually set the TV in your bedroom. "Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I'm gonna try and fix it up." You sit on your bed taking a break. "Of course just be careful, he's a bit sensitive." Kris comments. 

"What do you mean by that?" You ask, curious as to what they could mean.

"We'll show ya later, we gotta go run some errands." Susie says, and everyone says their goodbyes and they leave your house.

Now it's just you. You immediately get to work, cleaning the screen of any dust or residue. You then fix up the crooked antennas which causes the TV to flicker pink so quickly you barely caught it. You thought it was a normal hardware reaction so you continued to the side panel of the CRT. You carefully opened the panel and adjusted wires to their needed spots. The TV flashing pink every now and then and going black afterwards. You close the panel and step back with your remote, you place it on your bed momentarily as you go to your closet to change into pajamas. You fit yourself into some shorts and an oversized band t-shirt. (Pierce the Veil or your favorite band) You find a vhs copy of 'The Princess Bride' a classic. You carefully insert the vhs into the slot below the screen and hit play. You sit back against the foot of you bed, watching the TV. Giggling at the jokes every now and then. You eventually fall asleep, just laying on the floor. Meanwhile the TV turns itself off after turning pink for a good 30 seconds.

°~☆

You woke up abruptly to knocking at your front door. You quickly get up, attempting to fix your hair as you walk to the door. Once there, you open the door to see Susie and Kris at your door. 

"Hey, can you come with us?" Susie asks.

"For what? I have to get ready." You comment, still combing your hair with your hands. 

"It's fine, if we want to get more time there we gotta go now, getting ready doesn't matter." Susie says as she grabs your wrist dragging you out of your house. After you slip on some shoes. Luckily you had the day off so you weren't really complaining. You follow them to the school. (Its always open) You three walk in and walk down the halls to a storage closet. 

"What are we doing here?" You ask, genuinely lost about what could possibly be important here.

"Just c'mon." Kris says as they open the door to the closet, it's pitch black in there. Kris walks in, Susie ushers you in as she follows behind you. It's pitch black and suddenly you all drop. You scream trying to grasp anything.

You land on some sort of tile with a purple hue, yet aren't injured. You look at Kris and Susie, who are in completely different outfits. "Woah, where the hell are we? And why did your clothes change?" You ask looking at yourself, equipped with a pretty cool outfit, some knee high converse, pants (or shorts and tights), and your band shirt. With a few accessories and a silver studded belt. "Woah." You mumbled to yourself. "Pretty neat huh?" Susie admires your outfit. "Welcome to the Dark World."

Chapter Text

'The Dark World' You think to yourself. What could this place possibly be? A theme park? An actual dimension? You'll figure it out eventually. You look around and see a purple landscape and a kingdom in the distance. "Ralsei would love to meet you! Let's go!" Susie exclaims as they take you towards the kingdom in the distance.

°~☆

Upon entering the kingdom, you see shops, homes, and a bakery with a shorter child with a spade on his face standing outside. You walk down the street with Susie's hand on your shoulder and are met face to face with a goat monster. You weren't aware that goat monsters were a thing in the Dark World but here we are. 

"Oh wow! Is this another friend!" The little goat monster adjusting his glasses as he observes your face. "Straight from the Light World." Susie says patting your shoulder. "Amazing! I'm Ralsei the Prince of this kingdo; What's yours new friend?" Ralsei says gleefully clasping his paws together with an absolutely adorable smile. "Oh, I'm _____, nice to meet you Ralsei" You respond shaking hands with Ralsei, his little paw very soft to the touch.

"Since you're here, would you like to go watch a live showing of TV Time with the three of us?" Ralsei retreats his hand and politely asks looking up at you. Having no clue what TV Time is you ask, "Uhm.. What exactly is TV Time?" "Oh it's a really fun game show here in the Dark World where contestants do trivia, compete in mini games, etc. It's hilarious. The three of us were on it at one point, the host is really nice." Susie explains, it seems she really enjoys the show.

"Why not, it would be fun to explore for a bit." You respond eager to see this show. "You'll love it" Kris grins, as if anticipating something.

°~☆ 

You finally make it to the outside of a studio with flashing neon lights reading 'TV TIME!!' in red letters. You all make your way inside and find seats in the second to front row. 

The lights are a blue hue and dimly light the red curtains under them. After chatting with Ralsei to your left you hear the intro to the show.

"It's now time for our feature presentation."

"Coming straight from YOUR house!"

"He's the one"

"The king of only"

"He's GROOVY and never GLOOBY"

"You can't get this from an egg"

"The sensation from your SCREEN" 

"The show that makes you SCREAM" 

"Say it with him folks.."

"Mr. (Ant) Tenna's... T....V...TIIIMMEEE"

The audience erupts into applause, you look around to see some darkners wearing TV TIME memorabilia and holding signs. "Jeez these guys are crazy." You think to yourself. You turn back to see the velvety curtains pull back to reveal the stage with a surprisingly tall man standing in the middle. He has a fairly built frame, with a nice red blazer fitting his form perfectly. On it a gold plate on the side saying 'TV', and a yellow tie. He wears nice yellow dress shoes and black slacks, paired with a belt buckle shaped like a TV. You look up as he's explaining the new game and see he has a CRT for a head, it looks fairly similar to the one you have but don't think anything of it. His smile radiant with a small glimpse of a fang. (That's hot) His head is an almost grayish lavender color.  You admit to yourself that he is kinda cute, and charming in his own way. 

The show continues on and you look over at your friends absolutely enjoying themselves and of course you do too. But for some reason the host feels oddly familiar, maybe its the way the show is flowing or his energy. You can't quite pin it down.

°~☆

The show concludes, curtains drop and lights dim. You stand up but Susie quickly sits you down. 

"Wait a sec we have a surprise for you." Kris softly comments, getting you to sit down. Once everyone in the audience leaves a tiny man comes out from behind the curtain. He has a suit and a name plate reading 'Mike'. He speaks to you four, "Alright guys cmon backstage." 

You look over at your friends and they nod at you before getting up and leading you behind the curtain. You all follow 'Mike' to a door with a sign above it reading 'Green Room'. You all walk in, and you notice a bar, and a lounge area with a couple on a couch conversing with one another and a few employees scattered around. "Wait here, the boss will meet with you guys shortly, if you need anything I'm Mike, I've met these guys before. But you can also grab drinks at the bar from Ramb if you would like." Mike says to you as he walks out of the room.

"Oh.. Well I'm gonna grab a drink I guess" You say as you walk over to Ramb. "Hello there, what can I get ya new Lightner?" Ramb kindly asks preparing a glass. "I'll have a peach and lime daiquiri, please." You ask as Ramb prepares it for you. (P!ATD REFERENCE?!) After a short while you get your drink and thank Ramb then walk back tot he group who are now lounging on a couch. You sit next to Susie and sip your drink while taling part in the conversation as they help you understand the Dark World. "Wait so you guys have a bunch of people moving into your kingdom Ralsei?" You ask curiously. "Well, yes. The newest member happens to be the show host Mr. Tenna, he moved in about a month ago and is really nice with others in the neighborhood. He's wonderful to have there." Ralsei responds fiddling with his scarf lightly.  "Oh that's neat!" You take a sip of your drink, loosing your nerves. Thinking about the fact that your TV is also called Tenna but really only by Susie and Kris.

Suddenly the doors to the room bang open and a booming voice can be heard. Everyone silences. "I heard my FAVORITE Lightners were here!" You whip your head around to look at the noise and see Mr. Tenna walking towards the group arms wide as he scoops up Kris into a huge hug before letting them go. "Jeez I missed you guys where have you been?" He exclaims. "Just got done watching the show it was really good Mr. Tenna." Kris smiles almost like they are a kid again. "We also brought a friend; ____!" Susie says nudging your arm with her elbow. 

You blush a little looking up at Mr. Tenna even without eyes he's one hundred percent making eye contact with you as his screen momentarily flashes pink. "Nice to meet you Mr. Tenna" You stand to give him a hand shake. "You aswell. I must say your outfit is rather TASTEFUL."   Tenna almost reluctantly shakes your hand but gives a firm but very gentle grip as he slightly bends down. Still remaining (eye?) contact. You turn a slightly deeper red but try to hide it and fail miserably. The alcohol definitely isn't helping. 

"T-thank you Mr. Tenna.." You adjust your hair out of your eyes. "Tenna is PERFECTLY fine." He responds his voice booming but not in a scary way, more confidently. "Tenna.." You softly say as he grows a smile.

"Why don't we ask our new contestant some questions?" He holds an invisible microphone to his face and points it towards you to speak into. Going along with it you respond "Uh.. Sure" 

"WONDERFUL! How should we start.." He thinks to himself for a moment. "How did you end up here in the DARK WORLD? You sure aren't from here." He holds the 'microphone' in front of you. "Susie and Kris took me here and we ended up coming to the studio at Ralsei's invitation." You speak into the made up microphone seeing this little game entertaining. "How EXHILARATING! It must be quite an adventure. Now, what do you think about our show host?" He passes the 'microphone' back to you. " I think he's quite entertaining, confident, and he makes me laugh. Oh! And quite the charmer." He stops for a moment, screen turning pink for about 5 seconds before returning. "W-well there you have it folks. Straight from the contestant. Does the contestant have any questions for the dear host?" He stumbles on his words a bit but tried to keep himself together. 

"Let's see.. Is the CRT a helmet or your head?" You ask still remaining (eye?) contact. "Why it's my own head. Say, you seem like a handy person. How would you like to work backstage in my COSTUMING department? You seem to know your way around cosmetics and fashion." You take a moment to process the sudden offer. You think about it, you did enjoy theatre in school and have experience with it. Would it be so bad working in a professional setting? "Sure! Why not, I have some experience up my sleeve." 

"ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! How would you feel starting tomorrow and we can get your paperwork filled out together." His screen brightens and a huge smile is plastered on it with his fangs peeking in pure joy. Quite a cute sight to see. "Sure that works." You shrug trying to keep your cool but are still fairly red. 

"Alright I must make my exit, I hope to see you all soon especially you for your first day." He shakes your hand once again, this time clasping yours in both his hands. "Goodnight everyone!" He says as he leaves the Green Room, behind him you notice he has a cable tail swinging side to side almost like a dog wagging in excitement. 

"Nice dude, you get to work in theatre again." Susie smirks at you, not with malice but with respect. 

°~☆ 

After a long day in the Dark World, Kris and Susie take you home in the Light World, you're in the outfit you were, messy hair and pajamas. 

You get into your house and flop onto your bed, the TV dimly lit. You eventually start speaking to the TV for no appearant reason, sometimes you speak to inanimate objects out of habit but this felt different, especially because of how special it is. 

"Alright, I gotta get a shower since I got a new job working with Mr. Tenna. Isn't it funny that Kris named you after him, I find it cute and it makes sense I think his head is the same CRT model. Anyways, I'll be back." 

You grab a pair of pajama pants and a comfortable sports bra from your drawer, one that definitely doesn't suffocate you and is fairly comfortable to sleep in. You walk into your bathroom and turn on the shower, stepping in and washing your hair and body in hot water to relax yourself. The steam engulfing the bathroom. Once you finish you grab a towel from the wall and step out of the bath, drying yourself and hair, putting on your clothes. 

You then walk out of the bathroom with your dirty clothes and walk into your closet, placing them in the hamper. You go downstairs and quickly make yourself a simple meal of Mac and Cheese with hot sauce and ground beef. (Or broccoli) And a slice of butterscotch pie made by Toriel last night after dinner. You walk up to your room and sit on the floor at the foot of your bed with your food in front of you. You decide to play a copy of Scream you had on your shelf of VHS tapes, some you taped yourself so you can watch newer movies like this. You start watching and finish eating. You couldn't find the remote and you wanted to turn up the volume so you felt around the TV in the Dark attempting to find the volume dial, once you do and turn it up the antennas twitch and glitch out the movie. You sigh and reach over to fix it, say in front of the TV adjusting the antennas in front of you, the screen flashes pink until you fix the antennas and sit back.

You eventually finish the movie and clean up. your dishes. You place the TV on a shelf in front of your bed that can luckily act as a TV stand. You take out the VHS and place it in the case and put it back in the shelf under the TV along with many other VHS movies. You crawl into bed and get comfortable under the blanket and eventually drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

You wake up fairly early, giving you about 2 hours to get ready. You slip out of bed and walk over to your closet. You grab another band t-shirt and a flannel. You also grab some comfortable jeans and a silver studded belt. You step out of the closet and change in your room, side eyeing the TV. It quickly flashes pink as you turn around and slip your flannel over your shirt leaving it unbuttoned. Other than that you get some makeup on and do your hair. Adding a few accessories. 

You look over at your TV, "Jeez, I'm scared for today." You turn back to your mirror, struggling to put on your earrings. "He's handsome and all but I feel like I might mess this up. I don't even know why. I guess it could be fun working with him. We'll have to see." 

You finally get your earrings together. "Alright, I gotta go, see ya later." You then grab your purse and walk out your front door, locking it behind you. You walk over to the school, thinking you could just grab a coffee at a shop in Ralsei's kingdom.

°~☆

You finally get to the school and wander the halls, making your way to the abandoned storage closet. You open the door and walk into the abyss, eventually falling into the Dark World.

You land once again onto the purple tile, making your way through the streets of Ralsei's kingdom. You walk into a coffee shop, quickly grabbing a drink and walking to the TV TIME studio. You eventually make it, and open the door to the backstage. You find your way to the Green Room and walk in. 

"Hey there ____! How are ya this morning." Ramb kindly greets you. "Oh I'm great, do you happen to know where I should meet the boss for my first day?" You ask, holding onto your purse beside you. "Yeah, his office is just down the halls from this door to the right, you'll know it when you see it." Ramb replies.

"Thanks, have a good day" You walk out the door and take a turn to the right, looking at all the doors, you see a larger door with a huge gold plate labeled 'Mr. (Ant) Tenna's Office'. Found it. You knock on the door and the door cracks open. You look up and see Tenna peeking from behind the door. "OH! Come on in! Tenna opens the door greeting you into his office. 

The office has dark red walls decorated with plaques of his show, posters and other memorabilia. His custom built desk to fit him sits across the room with one chair on either side. To the right is a counter with drinks for cocktails and to the left is a dark blue sofa. He sits behind his desk and gestures to the chair across from him. 

You sit yourself down, placing your purse in your lap, legs crossed. "Good morning ____! How are you this morning?" Tenna calmly asks giving a fairly warm smile. "I'm alright Mr. Tenna how about you?" You politely respond, awaiting the interview. "I'm just fine, how about we jump into the interview?" He grabs a stack of papers from a drawer and neatly places them in front of him. "Before we start could you fill this out for me?" 

He passes you a piece of paper, which you grab the other end from him and read it over. It's simple, just fill out the information it asks like address, e-mail, etc. Easy. He passes you a fairly fancy pen and you get to work. Once you finished about 2 minutes later he takes the paper and puts in under the rest of the stack. 

"Question time." He takes the pen from you, clicks it and writes something before continuing. "What experience do you have in theatre?" 

"I worked with my old school when I was attending and I help out every now and then. Typically doing makeup, hair, or costumes. And sometimes I had roles." 

"That's a lot, but very good, we need more experienced people." He writes on the paper and flips it over to a new page. 

°~☆

He asks a few more general questions, mostly about the shows you worked on. "What did you like about your role i-in t-the..." His screen flashes and his antennas twitch rapidly, he seems to be malfunctioning.

You stand from your chair, placing your purse on it behind you. "Are you okay Mr. Tenna?" You ask leaning closer to try and observe what's wrong. 

"H-h-help. M-my audio a-nd v-video cords have been d-detached." He keeps twitching, its painful to just watch and you can imagine how much worse it is for him. You quickly rush over to his side and try to set him on the ground so he doesn't fall out of his seat. You successfully set him against the wall behind his desk as you sit with your legs tucked under you. You can hear his internal fans whirring, trying to cool him with all the twitching. 

"Do you need help?" You ask, freaking the fuck out as you move your hair out of your face to get a better view. He moves his shaky hand and points towards his chest. He then unbuttoned his shirt just enough to reveal a metal panel. He pressed down on the panel with a shaky hand and it popped up to take off. You help take it off and place it to the side of you. You look back over and see an array of wires, dials, boards, and ventilation. 

You tried to keep yourself professional and focus on the task at hand but you couldn't help but have at least a few raunchy thoughts. "T-the red a-and green w-wire." He mutters out, his voice altered. You look down and see a thick green wire and an empty socket to plug it into. You reach in to grab the wire and Mr. Tenna twitches reflexively grabbing your wrist. You look up at his face fearing you might have hurt him. "Did I hurt you?" He shakes his head. 

You continue, you get a grip on the loose green wire and plug it in, his voice becoming fairly clear. "We got my voice, now my video." He says trying to keep cool as he's still shaking and his fans whir. You go to reach for the red wire and accidentally knock your hand on a dial, turning it slightly. Mr. Tenna groans, it seems to be out of pain given the context but his screen has a faint pink glow to it as it glitches. "Oh my, I'm so sorry Mr. Tenna, here let me fix that." 

You turn the dial back to it's original setting and he involuntarily launches himself at you, grabbing at your back as he leans his face on your shoulder, his face now glitching between pink and black while huffing. His claws slightly digging into your flannel but not too much. You flinch your hands away, and arch your back as bit from the pain. You reach under his arms to his back as you set him back against the wall. "A-are you alright? I didn't mean to hurt you." Your voice a little shaky, genuinely worried you might have fucked up, really bad. "I'm fine, it doesn't necessarily hurt I just get a bit jumpy." He assures you. 

You grab the remaining red wire and plug it in. His screen no longer glitching and now a familiar vivid pink. You hover your hands over him, making (eye?) contact with him. You also turn visibility red. Unsure with what to do with yourself you kind of just freeze. It remains for a solid minute before his antenna twitches and you snap out of it. You grab the metal panel from behind you and gently click it into place. Tenna hasn't quite snapped out of it, in fact his screen has displayed a BRIGHT pink, and a crooked, awkward smile as he holds the side of his head. 

You give him a tap on the side of his head to get his attention. He finally snaps out of it and you can't help but smile. Eventually you laugh just from the ridiculousness of everything. He lightly giggles, unsure of what to do, he loosens his tie to give him some room to breathe. He just leaves his shirt the way it is, not bothering to button it at the moment. 

You continue laughing to yourself as if to cover yourself crying. "Oh, I really fucked up this time. I REALLY fucked up." You mumbled to yourself, folded over with your head to your knees and hair covering your face from any angle. "Hey it's alright, I'm fine. You did a good job. Fixed me back to normal." He sits up and lays his hand on your shoulder. You stop. You shot back up and look at him, eyes and cheeks red from emberassment and a tear shedding down your chin.

"I really need this job I hate my current one and I don't want to be stuck there, I just can't." Tenna's hand falls from your shoulder and rests on your knee. You look down and then back up.

"Don't worry about that, you'll still get this job okay?" He softly says as his loud confident voice dissolved entirely. "Okay.." You giggle a bit just out of habit to comfort. "Are you okay at least?" You ask. "Yeah, I'm fine now with your help." He responds.

You stand up,wiping away any remaining tears and fix your hair. Getting yourself together. "I uhm.. better go home.." You softly say looking down at his state, your eyes subconsciously looming down towards his chest. He quickly gets up from the floor and now is looking down at you with his hands on his hips. "I'll see you tomorrow alright?" He says as you grab your purse from your chair. You turn back to look at him before walking out the door. An employee passes you in the hall and you nod.

The employee checks on Mr. Tenna, cracking the door open. "Hey was the interview alright?" They look up at Mr. Tenna and give a weird look. Tenna was confused until he realized his shirt was still unbuttoned. The employee just shuts the door and runs down  the hall trying to get as far away as possible.

°~☆

You finally make it back to the fountain and step through. Ending up back in the halls of the school in the Light World. You walk back home with the sun now starting to set. You set your things down and shuffle to your room. You start taking off your accessories and setting them on your desk. You then go to your dresser and grab some pajamas. You stand next to your bed in view of the TV and change out for your outfit into the pajamas. The TV is very dimly lit, barely noticeable and pink. As you put on your top, the antenna twitches but you don't notice. 

You get yourself leftovers and sit at the foot of your bed once again. You don't notice the TV is on, you assume it's off with how dim it is. You then begin to rant about your day to get things off your chest. 

"Today was pretty.. odd.. to say the least." (ANOTHER P!ATD REFERENCE) You speak inbetween bites of your food. "The interview was going great and then Mr. Tenna started glitching out. So I helped him fix it and I accidentally bumped a dial and he hugged me like really hard. I think it hurt for him but he said it didn't." You think for a moment. "Maybe it felt..good? Anyways I get done and we make eye contact for a while I was trying so hard to keep it professional." You sit back and sigh.

"Then I was laughing for some reason and started crying. It was pretty emberassing. And he was kind of comforting me, it did work though. But I couldn't help looking at his chest I mean he is objectively good looking but damn seeing him like that... That was a whole different thing." You stop for a moment to eat a few bites. "I really shouldn't be thinking this especially if I'm going to be working at the studio but I can't help it. I'm not really sure what to do. I might have scared him off today."

You finish your food and put the dishes away in the sink since you don't really want to do dishes right now. You get back to your room, "I better get some rest for tomorrow." You get comfortable in bed and dozed off. Hoping for the best tomorrow.

Chapter Text

You wake up suddenly to the sound of your phone ringing. It's 2am. You sit up and see it's your current boyfriend, Derek. 

He's a cat monster, and a huge asshole. He's really controlling and toxic so you've been avoiding him for the past four days hoping he'll take the hint. But knowing him, he won't. So, you pick up the phone and answer.

Immediately he's screaming at the phone " Where the fuck have you been? Are you fucking other guys or something? God, you are such a slut. You're only with me because you know I fuck good." You let him ramble on and on for a good five minutes. Of course you haven't done anything, other than the past two days but that's really nothing.

You were always loyal to Derek, even if he would call you such horrible names and accuse you of anything out of his ass. You stayed for the brief but bittersweet moments with him that you loved so much.

But once Kris and Susie took you to the Dark World, you found an escape. From life, work and him. Eventually you get fed up and speak up, rubbing your eyes, slouched over with the phone to your ear. "Derek, I'm breaking up with you..."

He pauses.

"No you're not I'm coming over right now. I don't know what the fuck is up with you so now I gotta waste my time knocking the nonsense out of you." You hang up. Fuck. If he comes over he'll beat your ass, last time you almost died. You can't have that again, trying to convince others it's fine, all for nothing. You can't keep the cycle.

You can't help but cry, you have nowhere to run to, you just have to calm him down somehow. You wait on your bed after calming youself down, planning to make this situation less shitty. 

°~☆ 

You hear a knock at your door, you don't get up, then banging. You open the door and see Derek. You open the door, fearing for you life, it's like stepping on a landmine in your throat. He storms in, clearly mad, and rants unintelligible words.You start crying trying to calm him down, as he's calling you horrendous names. But he's relentless. You follow him to your room as he starts throwing things. He's grabbing at your hair, throwing you around to the point your brain fogs through tthe rest of the argument.

He's yelling, screaming, throwing whatever is within reach at other objects. Then, he throws a plate at the TV screen... The screen cracks. You beg and plead for him to just let it go. You start yelling at him as well.

°~☆

After a bit more arguing he storms out, officially ending your relationship. Luckily. It's finally over. You lock your door and slouch to your room. You sit on your bed facing the now cracked TV. You just sob, taking hard quick breaths inbetween sobs, almost choking on air. Your face is red, your hair is a mess, your face looks a bit beat up with red marks on it from a slap. 

After a while of sobbing you remember you still have work later, so you get yourself together. For the most part.. Wiping your tears, fixing your hair, and changing into a fairly nice work outfit. You look in the mirror as you put your makeup on, attempting to hide any red marks or bruises. 

°~☆ 

You make your way through the school. Through Ralsei's kingdom. And Finally to the studio. You clutch your purse and open the doors. It's...quiet?? People are still around but it's eerily quiet. You walk over to the Green Room and see Ramb. "What's going on today?" You ask. "Oh.. Mr. Tenna had an issue with his screen so the show is off today. They're just playing reruns as of right now." He replies calmly, cleaning a glass. As if this is a fairly normal thing, but something feels off about it. "Oh shit.. is he alright?" You ask softly with concern. "I dunno, he's been in his office the whole time." He continues. "Probably, attempting to fix whatever already perfect." 

After that conversation you decide to see what's up with him. You walk out the door and walk to Mr. Tenna's office. You knock, gently but loud enough. 

"Come in.." 

You open the door wider to see Mr. Tenna on the couch, laying his head on the arm rest and curled towards the back of the couch so his face isn't visible. His jacket lays in the corner, like it was tossed there abruptly. The lights are dim and there's a faint glow from his screen. 

"Mr. Tenna..." You softly say, placing your purse beside his jacket.  His antennas twitch slightly, as he turns his head over to see you. His screen brightens a bit. "Is that you _____?" He grumbles. "Yes, Mr. Tenna, it's me." You walk even closer and are right next to the arm rest. "Are you okay?" You softly say, now crouched down near his head. 

He finally looks over, there's a huge crack across his screen. "Guess we've both had a rough day.." You say, sighing. He looks happy to see you, but worried at the same time. He reaches over at lightly grazes your chin, it stings from the bruising. You wince slightly, inhaling sharply. He now slides his hand to cup the side of your face. You don't move, you don't mind it personally, as long at it makes him feel better. "I'm glad you're okay.." He softly says, contrast to his normal tone. "I-I'm fine, really." You say, trying to keep the attention from you. "You don't look like it, you have bruises." He says, gently grazing a bruise on your cheek with his gloved thumb

You look up at his screen as a tear rolls down your cheek, you can't help it as much as you want to. He feels comforting, a familiar comfort, one you clinged to for so long. More tears start rolling, but you're fairly calm, just processing.  He slides off the couch and sits on his legs in front of you. He leans in and just simply hugs you. The warmth of his body consumes you. All you can hear is the faint hum of his fans whirring in his chest. You reach your arms up, around his shoulders hugging him as well. 

Tears waterfall down your face as you hide your face in his collarbone. Creating a dark spot on his white shirt with your tears. "I finally broke up with my boyfriend.." You say after calming down a bit in Tenna's arms. "But when I told him he came to my house and destroyed my shit.. even my irreplaceable TV.."  Tenna holds you tighter, "I'm okay.." He softly says..

°~☆

Why would he say that?  You look up at him a bit puzzled. You look closer at the cracks, now more visible from his bright screen. They're really similar to the ones on your screen. It starts clicking in your mind. He feels so familiar, and you're not crazy. You remember Ralsei telling you that darkners were objects in the Light World or something similar. But maybe Tenna has a stronger connection between  the two worlds. Holy shit. It all connects. 

The crack, the flusteredness, the familiarity. It all connects. You're unsure of what to do. You just enjoy the moment while plotting in the back of your mind. Maybe you can tease him that way. That's for future you to worry about. Right now he's being especially vulnerable. 

"I'm glad you're alright." You reach up and hold the sides of his head, looking at him with a warm smile. He smiles back, not huge, not awkwardly, genuinely. You hug him one more time. Admiring the smell of faint cigarettes, and an elegant cologne as you rest on his shoulder. 

"I must go." He softly says, lifting you from his shoulder, and rests you on the ground. You sit there, a little bewildered as he puts on his jacket with faint pink hue on his screen. He opens the door, looks behind him, and walks out, shutting the door behind him. You collect your things and walk out of the studio to the fountain. 

°~☆ 

After making it home, you set your purse down, looking at the wreck you house was. You don't have motivation so you just slouch over to your room once again. You sit in front of the TV. "I'm so sorry Tenna. I shouldn't have let him come over." You look at the TV, grabbing the remote and turning it on. Leaving it on a blank white screen. You do downstairs and grab supplies to fix up the screen. 

°~☆ 

After a bit of tinkering the TV looks fairly good. It looks a bit patchy but not noticeable unless you look really hard. "Thanks for being there today." You hug the TV, it glows pink. You chuckle a bit, saying nothing. You change into simple pajamas and climb into bed, drifting into sleep.

Chapter Text

After about a year of working in the studio, things are normal. Tenna's his usual charismatic self. Making slight flirtatious jokes at you. Nothing really serious. Except when you try flirting back he falls into a nervous mess and typically walks away to calm himself down.

He's very patient with you, he's a little flinchy when you button his jacket. Other than that he's fairly calm when you help him get ready. After a whole of getting to know him you decide its time for some light teasing. Especially because you've been waiting to find a perfect time since you realized he can see through your TV.  

You were doing smaller things like changing into your room in view, or talking to the TV every know and then. But generally small talk. Nothing serious. Anyways, let's jump to the present.

°~☆

You thoroughly enjoy messing with Tenna sometimes. Playful banter. But recently he's been fighting back. Especially today.

You were getting his outfit together for tomorrow. The show had just ended for the day. Everyone's packing up and going home. Tenna walks into the costuming room, softly closing the door behind him. He says nothing. You know he's trying to scare you again. This time you're aware. He softly steps behind you as you continue, acting like you don't know he's there. Before he can grab your shoulders you turn around and grab at his tie, yanking it towards you. He wasn't expecting it so he falls onto you and you fall off your chair into the floor, landing on your back. It fucking hurt.

He catches himself with his hands on the floor next to both sides of yours. His legs at a 90° angle, one to the left of your left leg and the other landed on the floor between your legs. One of your hands is loosely holding onto his tie and the other is up by your head, trying to cushion yourself. His screen is a very deep pink color. "Why don'tcha take me to dinner first" He jokes. But it doesn't feel like his 'on air' persona. You giggle a bit, your cheeks red from emberassment. He also laughed, comfortably.

"I'll take that as a bet" You snicker, still holding onto his tie but now gripping it firmly and tugging it a bit, pulling him closer. You're hearts pounding in your head, but somehow this rush of confidence surfaced. You grimace with your top teeth showing confidently as you look up at him.A sudden bold move. He gives an awkward smile with sweat drops appearing on his screen, his claws start digging into the floor subconsciously. As if to hold himself back.

The tension grows thick, but not uncomfortable. Your free hand lands on the side of his boxy head. You get a sort of tingling static on your fingers. His antennae hang low, just above your head. His scent of cheap cologne is more prominent the longer you sit like this. Its sultry and fairly nicely paired wirh the faint smell if cigarettes. 

He quickly gets himself up at least onto his knees next to you. "How about tomorrow?" He says eagerly. "Oh uhm.. sure that sounds good." You weren't expecting him to be this serious about it. Everything has just been playful banter. Nothing really serious.. At least that's what you thought. Luckily it was also the one day of the week the show wasn't airing live, its set up that way so Tenna can catch a break from constantly performing. It helps prevent outbursts. 

Tenna reaches a hand out to you as he stands up, leaning down to a reachable height. You grasp his hand for leverage to stand. "I will see you tomorrow. How about 2pm, start a little early?" You ask, getting your stability, the dull pain in your back still lingering. "Why of COURSE. Sounds utterly amazing. Make sure to look your BEST." He says cheekily. The 'on-air' Tenna is back again. 

°~☆ 

You leave the studio and head to your apartment, planning on what you could wear tomorrow.