Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you’re doing this, I can’t believe you’re making me do this!” You’re best friend Vanessa whined from the passages seat as you drove.

“You had plenty of time to back out of it V” You reminded her as you took a right and continued your drive around the large mountain. The few boxes and small suitcase in the backseat of your black impala would jump around as the old car tried and failed to stay steady through the dirt roads.

“There was no way I was letting you do this alone!” Vanessa yelled, sounded offended that you even thought she’d back out “First you hardly come out of the house and then all of a sudden you declare that you’re going to live with monsters. I mean how insane can you be. Not to mention Logan was worried sick. I mean I love the nerd but boy is he a worry wart” You took a glance at your friend as she admired the picture of a shield that adorned her shoulder. He soul mark, one left there by her soul mate Logan. She was so lucky to have met the nerdy boy in high school, although they are complete opposites, they really are the perfect couple. All soul mates are. As soon as your skin touches that of your soulmates a tattoo appears that show exactly what that person means to you. Logan was Vanessa’s shield, her knight in shining armour and she was his princess. You hadn’t met your soulmate yet, not that you were looking for them. You just figured you’d find them when the time was right or you just didn’t have one which wouldn’t be so bad.
“Won’t Logan miss you?” you asked trying to take your mind off of your own love life

“Well yeah I hope so. I promised to call every day though and it isn’t like he can’t come visit, we just didn’t want to send you alone” She told you nudging your shoulder

“You two worry to much” You told her smiling at the sweet gesture.

“Oh wow is that it?” You saw V sit up straight in the corner of your eye as you saw a military guard post come into view. You pulled up to the security window, showing the guard your passes. He told you to go forward to the town square than take a right, the addresses we were looking for where written on the passes. Seemed easy enough, you thanked him and he spoke into a walkie talkie located on his chest, telling some guard to open the big metal gates that were in front of you. You drove forward.

The M.A.G.E Project was not considered something you sign up for if everything in life is going great. M.A.G.E Project stood for the Monster Assimilation (and) Genetic Examination Project. The government were trying to integrate monsters, who had only emerged from Mt Ebott a few months ago, into human society but due to their apparently violent nature and their ability to use magic no one was sure if it was safe for them to be around humans. So a test was proposed. For a full year, willing human and monster participants would live in an enclosed society together to not only test if the two species could live together but to also see if magic had any lasting effects on the human participants.  The humans had to get permission but they could leave the premises at any time during the year and theoretically could bring monsters out for day trips if they wanted and were escorted by officials. Anyone could also back out of the project whenever they wished . The government was having a hard time finding humans to participate, even with the hefty pay they were willing to give out. You were just getting sick of waiting around in your room for something, anything to happen. So fuck it, living with monsters for a year might just be what you needed to get out of your own head. Vanessa was just along for the ride, making sure that you didn’t end up in trouble. You get the feeling that the idea of monsters scare her and Logan, but she refused to let you go alone so she just gritted her teeth and signed up with you.

You pulled up to the makeshift apartment complex. The whole town was a wreck, having fallen into disrepair a long time ago. It had been slightly repaired in order to house the year experiment and if anything became too dangerous than people would be sent in to fix it but other than that the town was pretty much on their own. The apartment complex in front of you would be Vanessa’s home for the year. She had opted for her own single apartment, not feeling the need nor the desire to have a roommate. You on the other hand said fuck it and signed up to be roommates with some monsters, getting nice and comfy up close and personal. You’d be living about ten minutes down the street in an old house with your roommates who you had yet to meet. All you knew were their names were Sans and Papyrus but that was literally it. You helped Vanessa unload her things from the car, it was most of what you had in the old thing, and helped carry them up three flights of stairs, because of course the elevator doesn’t work, to her new apartment. It was a small one bedroom place, and looked pretty well put together in your opinion. Vanessa screwed up her nose when you first entered the room so you figured she wasn't impressed with the place.

“You can back out any time~” you sung as you put down the box in your hands

“Not on your life short stack” she snapped walking back out of the apartment to grab the rest of her stuff

“You’re only taller because of the heels” You yell back following her out. When you got to the forya a dog looking monster walked past you and headed towards the stairs. You tried not to stare but you couldn’t help it as your eyes seemed to follow them, watching as a key fell from somewhere on their person and clattered to the ground. You reached forward and picked it up saying “Excuse me” as you went, but the monster didn’t seem to hear you. You started to follow and tried to get their attention “Excuse me!” you tried a bit louder but they still pushed forward. You reached for them manage to tap their shoulder as you said “excuse me” for a third time. Only to be greeted with the monster turning around rather quickly and snarling

“What!” in your face. The were so close that you could have probably counted each individual set of razor sharp teeth, if you weren’t scared half to death. You took a deep breath before holding up the key

“Y-you dropped this?” you didn’t mean for it to sound like a question. The monster eyed the key for a second before growling and ripping the key out of your hand and storming off. Ok first impression of monsters in the flesh? Kind of rude. You took an exaggerated breath out to try to calm yourself before turning around and walking back down the stairs. It didn’t help as you could feel your hands shaking. You didn’t get that far before-

“Hey! Hands off buddy!!” That was Vanessa, something had set her off, not like that was hard to do but you figured you should probably go to calm her down. Walking outside you saw her standing in front of your black impala glaring daggers at what looked like a literal skeleton? And a giant fish? This would be interesting. You stood back and watch clutching your chest as you could feel your heart rate rise.

“I WAS ONLY LOOKING HUMAN THERE’S NO NEED TO SHOUT” The skeleton huffed crossing his arms and looking away from V.

“What you see with your hands or something?!”

“You need to BACK OFF human!” the fish sneered taking a step forward and eyeing V up and down. You had to compliment V for her ability to not flinch away from the Fish monster, because you know for a fact you’re heart would have stopped and you probably would have fainted. She was very intimidating.  

“Uh, V-v?” you asked stuttering, walking closer to your friend. You didn’t like people yelling, and you were still shaken up from the monster upstairs. Your voice was quiet and when all three beings attention snapped to you, you could feel yourself jump back. “I-is s-s-something wrong?” you asked trying to keep your attention on your friend.

“Yeah! Skeletor here thought it would be real nice to run a clawed hand down the side of your car” She said stepping past the Fish to send a glare at the skeleton who only rolled his eye sockets
“YOU’RE FRIEND NEEDS THEIR EYES CHECKED” He grumbled

“Says the guy with no eyes” V retorted

“WHY YOU-” The skeleton monster took a step towards V but stopped after you cut him off.

“Seriously V was that it?” You let out a sigh, out of relief or annoyance you aren’t sure. Your heart rate began to slow again and the panic attack you felt building slowly began to fade.

“But it’s Adam’s-” V stated turning to you, her face turning pink

“It’s just a car V, you worry to much” You said shaking your head. She seemed to back down a bit at your indifference towards the situation. Honestly the monster could of smashed in the window and you would have still been fine with it. It was just a car.

“Sorry about that” You said finally making your way closer to the group “V here can be a bit-”

“Don’t you dare say bitchy!” V yelled cutting you off and making you wince and stop in your tracks.

“I was going to say passionate” you said offended she’d think otherwise

“Whatever” the fish grumbled before turning back to the skeleton “Come on Papyrus, you wanted to get back before that new roommate right?”

“Did you say Papyrus?” You said obviously perking up at the name “Like Sans and Papyrus?”

“ALTHOUGH I HATE BEING PUT LAST ON A LIST WHERE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE ARE ME AND MY PATHETIC BROTHER, YES I AM THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS OF WHICH YOU SPEAK. OBVIOUSLY THE TALES OF MY GREAT EVIL HAVE TRAVELLED FAR IN THESE FEW MONTHS NYHAHAHA” You weren’t entirely sure how someone could have tales of their “great evil” and the idea kind of made you uneasy but you decided to go with it for now.

“Uh cool, I’m uh, well I’m that new roommate that uh….” you trailed off as you got a closer look at the fish monster in front of you. She was tall with an eye patch covering her left eye, it wasn’t big enough to cover the entire scare below it as you could see it peeking out above and below it making you think that the eye patch wasn’t just a fashion choice. She had sharp pointed teeth and pale blue skin with vibrant red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a ripped crop top with tight jeans and thick gloves that made her look like she had talons. You had to lower your eyes from her, already feeling panic beginning to rise in your chest again.

“Captain Undyne” The fish monster said after a while, you couldn’t bring yourself to look up again but nodded showing you had heard her.

“WELL THEN, I WAS HOPING TO INTRODUCE MYSELF AT THE HOUSE BUT I SUPPOSE HERE WILL DO. HELLO HUMAN I AM YOUR NEW ROOMMATE, SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND HEAD OF THE SNOWDIN DIVISION, THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!”  

The loud voice followed by the sudden appearance of a sharp red gloved hand in your vision, presumably held out for you to shake, caused you to let out a squeak and jump back. Fear clawing at your stomach causing you to breath fast trying to greedily suck in more oxygen. V placed her arm in front of you stepping forward and creating a barrier between you and the monsters. You couldn’t even look at the monster, how were you supposed to live with two of them again? This was a stupid idea, what had you been thinking?! There was no way you could do this.

“If you even think about hurting her, I swear I will invert your rib ca-”  V’s voice snapped you out of your panic attack, she was standing up for you again just like she always did. Why did you always let them fight your battles. You could do this. You know you can do this.

“I’ll be fine!” You interjected lightly pushing V out of the way and glaring at her, she needed to let you talk to people by yourself or you’d never get better. “Seriously V you worry too much, I’m not a kid.” you told her smiling to reassure her that you were ok now. You looked back towards the monsters, getting a good look at the tall skeleton for the first time. He loomed over you, wearing what looked like an old suit of black armour, or at least the chest piece of one that stopped just at the bottom of his ribs. The shoulders came to a sharp point as did his red gloves that ended just above his elbows. He was wearing skinny jeans and high boots as well as a tattered red scarf that could probably count as a cape. His hip bone, some of his spin, and upper arms were all exposed for the world to see. He had a gnarly gash running down his left eye socket and pointed teeth that you were pretty sure could tear through your neck.

“Uh , it's nice to meet you Papyrus. I’m” you swallowed out of nervousness “I’m Y/n” you put out your hand slowly and watched as Papyrus slowly moved his hand towards yours, making sure you could see all his movements in case he startled you again, before gently shaking your hand and letting it go.  “I, uh, know it isn’t that far but do you two want a ride to the house” you asked gesturing down the street. Papyrus turned away from you and crossed his arms seemingly indifferent towards it.

“I SUPPOSE TAKING YOUR VEHICLE DOWN TO THE HOUSE IS NECESSARY SINCE IT HAS ALL YOUR BELONGINGS IN IT” He said simply

“Exactly, uh Vanessa will you be al-”

“I’m coming with you” She told you definitely

“Vanessa I’ll be fine, go unpack your boxes or something. Ring Logan, tell him we’re good” Vanessa just glared at you and after a moment of silence you relented “Fine get in the car” V took the passage seat and the two monsters climbed in the back seat. It was now empty since it was all V’s stuff. You hopped into the driver's seat and took a deep breath.

“If you’re going to have another panic attack I can drive” Vanessa said coldly as she glared out the window obviously annoyed. You didn’t take it personally assuming it was because of the two monsters in the back seat.

“I’m not going to have a panic attack!” you declared feeling the heat raise to your face, you quickly started the car to stop her from protesting it further. It was like a two minute drive and the monsters hadn’t attacked you yet so you figured you’d be fine! Probably. And you were, you did jump a bit when Undyne helpfully leaning forward to point out the small house that would act as your home for the next year, but Papyrus quickly pulled her back into her seat.

“Ah can I just pull up in the driveway?” you asked not entirely sure where to park

“Who else is going to use it?” Undyne asked giving you a look through the review mirror that told you she thought you were dumb. Of course monsters didn’t have cars, you were the only one in the household who could go outside the town with little to no effort.

“R-right!” you semi yelled, embarrassed about even asking about the driveway. You pulled in and cut the engine, allowing everyone to get out before following after.

“Arg this is worse than the apartments” Vanessa whined as she looked up towards the small house

“Luckily you don’t have to live in it then” you said walking towards the trunk of the car and opening it to retrieve your suitcase.

“Is that ALL you got?” Undyne asked from over your shoulder causing you to jump before turning to her.

“Uh yeah?” It wasn’t really a big suitcase, you could see why she was confused by it, but you really didn’t know what you should of brought so you only ended up with one suitcase.  

“You’re. . . Weird” Undyne told you losing interest and headed towards the front door of your new house.

“HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THIS CAR HUMAN?” Papyrus asked appearing next to you. Well he didn’t appear, you were just watching Undyne and didn’t see him walk over to you

“Oh uh” you paused not entirely sure how to respond

“It’s her brothers, Adam’s” Vanessa said leaning against the passenger door and glaring at Papyrus. She had obviously been against you rooming with any monsters and you had just ignored her. You needed to be with people, that was the whole point.

“HE’S JUST LETTING YOU USE IT?”

“Yeah. Well, something like that” You said lowering your suitcase to the ground and closing the boot of the car.

Papyrus didn’t even hesitate to basically throw open the front door with such force that you physically winced as it banged against the inside of the house.

“SANS, YOU WORTHLESS TRASH HEAP GET DOWN HERE AND MEET THE HUMAN” You weren’t even aware that Papyrus could get louder, yet here he was, causing a tight feeling to form in your chest as you tried to shrink back into your clothing.

“comin’ boss” that was better. A deep quiet voice. You watched as the owner of said voice came out of one of the rooms to the left. Sans was also a skeleton monster, not that that surprised you Papyrus did say something about being brothers? What took you by surprise was his completely different body shape. Where Papyrus was tall and gangly, Sans was short and stocky. You almost go as far as fat but you couldn’t understand how a skeleton could be fat. He was wearing a thick black jacket with fur lining that looked super warm, a red turtleneck that also seemed rather warm, a pair of shorts with mustard colour stripes running up the side of the legs and sneakers that were undone. He didn’t have any visible scars like his brother although he did have a gold tooth that glistened with an eerie smile that hadn’t disappeared from his skull yet as well as two red lights floating in his sockets, acting sort of like iris’ in a human eye. At least that’s what you assumed they were for since they darted around as if he was looking at something. Specifically at the moment you.

“heya doll. names sans, sans the skeleton” Sans pulled out one of his hands from the pockets of his jacket at held it out to you. You had to wonder  if he just got cold easily with so many warm layers on but decided you’d find that out later

“It’s nice to meet you I’m-” Vanessa pushed in front of you and grabbed the short skeletons wrist before you had a chance to shake his hand, she pulled something off one of his fingers and held it up to his face. It was a hand buzzer, the kind you find in joke stores

“Don’t ever, and I mean ever, do that shit to her ok? She will collapse in the floor in a panicked state and I highly doubt you are capable of dealing  with that chuckle fuck, so let’s make a deal, you lay a hand on her and I’ll break-”

“Vanessa!” You yelled. Sans was leaning away from the angry human in front of him obviously uncomfortable with the close proximity. Vanessa back off and Papyrus was shaking his head

“SERIOUSLY SANS!” He was scowling down at the short skeleton “I TOLD YOU WE HAD TO MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION”

“sorry boss. i didn’t mean to shock the kid” Sans said shrugging as he casually put his hand back in his jacket pocket

“MAKING BAD JOKES IS DOING THE OPPOSITE OF MAKING A GOOD IMPRESSION!” Papyrus screeched

“say watt boss?”

“I SWEAR I WILL SNAP ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR RIBS SANS”

“Maybe you should stay with me” Vanessa said eyeing the skeletons with great suspicion.

“No!” You declared a bit to loudly glaring at V. “I’m fine V” you continue to have a glaring competition with your friend for a second before sheepishly turning to Sans “But uh she’s right. If you give me too much of a shock” Papyrus didn’t seem to like your choice of words but you pushed on “Then I will become a complete emotional mess of a human so uh can we, try to avoid that” you asked rubbing your arm up and down and avoiding eye contact until you notice movement. Sans had removed his hands from his jacket and held them up in a surrender pose.

“i got it doll, hands off ” He said giving you a slow wink.

“SANS!”

Undyne had to leave to get her own house set up but Vanessa stayed with you as the brothers, mainly Papyrus showed you around the house. It was pretty small, one kitchen, lounge room, bathroom/laundry and super tiny dining room down stairs. Each room were filled with boxes of the skeletons belongings that Papyrus assured you would be gone by morning. There were a fair few boxes so you weren’t sure if that was really possible but decided not to argue with him.  Upstairs were the three bedrooms and another bathroom that’d you’d all have to share. Papyrus and Sans had already chosen their rooms which was fine with you. Making decisions made you feel sick. You ended up with the room next to Papyrus and opposite the bathroom. Papyrus apparently liked having the room closest to the stairs and Sans just seem to want the room opposite his brother. The room had an inbuilt wardrobe next to the door and a mattress on the floor for you to sleep on. They left you alone to settle in and after reassuring Vanessa a million times that you’re fine and you’ll text her if something happens she finally agreed to leave. Leaving you alone to lie down on the bare mattress alone with your thoughts.  You weren’t sure if you had done the right thing. Living with monsters? You could barely function around humans. Your life had just been so bad for so long. Everything just seemed to be going wrong no matter what you tried to do to put things back on the right path. So you figured doing something completely different for the year may not be such a bad thing to do, turn your life in another direction. As Adam would say “If you can’t go right, go left.” And boy did you just take a hard left turn.

Chapter Text

You woke up the next day not in your house. This wasn’t your room, these mattress on the floor wasn’t your bed, these faded and peeling walls didn’t belong to you! You felt your chest tighten and your breathing becomes heavy. Had you been kidnapped? Did you drink last night?? Where were you? Who cares you had to get out! With escape being the only thing on your mind you stumbled to your feet before sprinting out of the room, tumbling over someone standing outside your door and hitting the floor pretty hard.

“Ouch” you groaned as you rubbed your arm

“geez kid, watch where ya fuckin goin’,” A gruff voice angrily scolded, it didn’t help with the panic at all as he sounded seriously mad “did ya at least have a nice trip ?” You looked up into the eyelights of a skeleton and it suddenly all came rushing back to you. You were fine, that was your room and you had just embarrassed yourself in front of your new roommate. You shot to your feet as Sans continued to scowl at you. “what no postcard?” he asked not taking his eyelights off your face. It took you a moment to register what he was talking about

“I didn’t trip over! That was a random gravity check!” you heard your voice squeak as you yelled and could feel your face turning red. Sans rolled his eyes. He was just standing outside your door, his hands secure in his jacket pockets. Evidently you running into him didn’t seem to make him move at all.

“Sure, whatever ya say. boss is callin a house meetin so ya better hurry down stairs before he comes up ta get ya himself” He tells you nodding down to the lounge

“Right!” you quickly turning around and practically sprinted down the steps. You must've been really exhausted last night. You didn’t come back out of your room after you went in, accidentally falling asleep instead. It was such a big change you went through yesterday that it was probably a shock to your system and you just needed to sleep. You’d need to get use to your new room, waking up to a panic attack was not exactly a fun start to the morning. When you got to the bottom of the stairs you rubbed away the tears that had been building in your eyes, you hadn’t even noticed. Taking this moment to just breath you also take note that you were in the exact same clothes as yesterday, you hope your roommates don’t think your a slob but thinking about it Sans was also in the same outfit he wore yesterday. You made your way to the living room and took notice of a few things right away. All the boxes had been unpacked and disposed of, they were no longer littered throughout the house, instead the contents seemed to be decorating the interior walls. It was a pretty impressive feat considering the clock now hanging above the decrepit fireplace only read 9 o’clock and since there was light filtering in through the window you assumed that was am not pm. The second thing was that Papyrus was also dressed in the same armor he was wearing yesterday and was standing in front of a poster board with markers in hand, tapping his foot impatiently. The third was that Sans was on the couch and looked like he was falling asleep. You could of sworn, no you're absolutely certain he was still upstairs when you sprinted away. There was no way he made it down here before you, unless he walked past while you were taking that moment to yourself. Were you in such a panic that you didn’t notice him? It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened but you didn’t think the shock you go this morning was that bad was it?

“AH THERE YOU ARE HUMAN, I WAS AFRAID YOU’D FALLEN DOWN IN YOUR SLEEP OR SOMETHING” Papyrus’ loud voice snapped you out of your thoughts and you couldn’t help but think he wasn’t actually sincere in the comment he had just made as he waved his hand around dismissively.

“S-sorry” you heard yourself whisper as you looked to the floor.

“IT DOESN’T MATTER, TAKE A SEAT SO WE CAN CONTINUE WITH THE MEETING” you nodded and slowly made your way to the lumpy green couch taking a seat next to the dozing Sans who had prompt his skull up with hand “AND SANS I SWEAR TO ASGORE IF YOU FALL ASLEEP I WILL POUR BOILING WATER INTO YOUR SOCKET!”

“nappin’ ta worry about here boss”

“ENOUGH WITH THE PUNS!” Papyrus screeched, using his heights over the two of you to loom over his brother before standing up straight. “NOW, LET ME COMMENCE THE FIRST HOUSEHOLD MEETING OF THE YEAR. ON TODAYS AGENDA WE WILL DISCUSS, HOUSEHOLD RULES, ORGANIZE A CHORES LIST AND ASSIGNMENTS, ARRANGING A SET TIME FOR EACH FUTURE MEETING AND DISCUSSING WHAT TO DO IN THE CASE OF EMERGENCIES.” Papyrus said pacing back and forth as he spoke “ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS!?” He asked the two of you directly. He was met with silence that he took as a no before continuing. In reality you don’t think Sans was listening and you were finding this whole thing just a bit overwhelming to say anything.

“ALRIGHT, THEN THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS. HOUSEHOLD MEETINGS WILL BE HELD AT EXACTLY 9 O’CLOCK EVERY MORNING ON THE DOT! BEING LATE WILL RESULT IN A PUNISHMENT FOR THE OFFENDING PARTY ARE WE ALL IN AGREEMENT?”

“You want to hold a household meeting every single morning?” you asked taken aback

“IS THAT A PROBLEM?” Papyrus asked turning to you with a raised brow bone.

“Uh” you swallowed to try and quench your throat that had suddenly become very dry as the rooms attention was suddenly drawn to you. It didn’t help.  “It’s just that uh, w-well, if we have a m-meeting every single morning there isn’t going to be much to talk about” You pulled your legs onto the couch and wrapped your arms around them as your voice slowly got quieter “if we have one once a week that would work better, then if an emergency comes up we can just hold an impromptu meeting to deal with that?” you didn’t mean for it to come out as a question but that’s what it ended up sounding like. You felt yourself shrink under Papyrus sockets as he didn’t take them off of you.

“ALRIGHT, HOUSE MEETINGS WILL BE HELD ONCE A WEEK, EVERY MONDAY MORNING AT 9 O’CLOCK WITH THE ACCEPTION OF EMERGENCY MEETINGS THAT CAN BE CALLED INTO ACTION AT ANY POINT IN TIME THERE IS DEEMED A HOUSEHOLD EMERGENCY. WILL THIS BE SUFFICIENT?”

“sounds good boss” Sans answered through a yawn and you nodded as that was the only thing you could bring yourself to do.

“EXCELLENT, MOVING ON TO THE SECOND THING ON THE AGENDER”

The rest of the meeting continued with Papyrus doing most of the talking as he went through everything on his agenda in probably more detail than was necessary. You were assigned to help Papyrus with groceries and clean the floors every week as well as keeping your own room tidy and belongings out of the way in the chores assignments. There was a long lecture about what to do in different types of emergencies, that your pretty sure Sans napped through and a curfew set for 11 o’clock each night. You didn’t really get why you needed a curfew but you weren’t expecting to be outside that late anyway so it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Lastly a set of initial house rules were set up all pretty standard stuff for a total of ten rules.

1. No entering others rooms without permission
2. Weekly chores were to be carried out to a high standard
3. No loud noises (music, yelling, ect) after 9pm or before 7am
4. Everyone must be home before curfew
5. All household members must keep up their personal hygiene
6. All planned visits from others must be communicated to your roommates
7. You must tell someone where you are going each time you leave the house
8. Do not leave your belongings lying around
9. All house repairs and improvements must be approved by housemates
10. Stay within your own personal space unless other parties state you can encroach on theirs

Any rules that were broken as deemed by the other two roommates would result in an agreed upon punishment by the affected party. So if you broke a rule and both Sans and Papyrus agreed that you did in fact break the rule, they would choose out a suitable punishment. Same went for if either of them broke a rule. Some of the rules just made Papyrus seem a bit like a worry wart to you, like telling others where you’re going and the curfew but you suppose they all sounded ok with you. Monsters old lives were difficult, all humans knew this even if you didn’t know the specifics, so you really couldn’t blame them for being cautious and in fact some of the rules made your own anxiety lessen. Each rule had been written clearly on the poster board as Papyrus basically dictated them to you. The weekly chores and who was assigned to them had been written on a different board earlier in the meeting.

“WITH ALL MATTERS ADDRESSED THIS CONCLUDES THE FIRST HOUSEHOLD MEETING” Papyrus declared, closing off the meeting, close to three hours after it started. “HUMAN WE CAN NOW BE GOING” Papyrus said addressing you as he straightened up the tattered scarf around his neck

“What?” you asked confused. You don’t remember Papyrus saying anything about the two of you going anywhere although there had been a lot of information being thrown at you so perhaps you just missed it? Judging by how Papyrus sighed and began tapping his foot impatiently you assumed you were right in that assumption.

“REALLY HUMAN? IF YOU EXPECT TO EAT TODAY THEN WE MUST GO AND ACQUIRE FOOD, ONE OF YOUR WEEKLY CHORES” The way he said this made it seem like he thought you were an idiot.

“Right! Groceries. Uh, I’ll grab my keys” you said beginning to head to the door. You were not mentally prepared to go out today. You had to hold your own hand in an attempt to get them to stop shaking. You knew you’d have to go out eventually, you didn’t exactly agree to do the groceries when Papyrus brought it up but you also didn’t argue out of fear of being yelled at. You absolutely didn’t expect to have to go out today!

“WHY WOULD YOU NEED YOUR KEYS” Papyrus’ irritated voice made you halt at the door and turn back to the two skeletons.

“To…. to drive?” you said not entirely sure of yourself

“IT ISN’T THAT FAR HUMAN WE CAN WALK!” Papyrus yelled making you feel like an idiot, you jumped back and clutched your arms close to yourself and you tried desperately to get your heart back to a normal beat. Yelling always got you, coupled with you having to go out in public you were just filled with dread. An eternity seemed to pass before Papyrus spoke again, this time speaking slower and softer.

“WOULD YOU RATHER SANS ACCOMPANY YOU?” The almost kind nature of which he spoke make you snap your attention up. You weren’t even aware you had been staring at the floor.

“What? W-why?” Did Papyrus just not want to be around you? Had you made such a bad first impression that after one day he wanted nothing to do with you? Did he really think you were that pathetic? Of course he thought you were pathetic! Look at you cowering in the doorway, he probably wanted nothing to do with you! You couldn’t blame him, you wouldn’t want to be around you either.

“cause ya look like ya about to cry kid” Sans filled in. the tight knot that had been building your chest slowly loosened as Sans words slowly registered in your brain. Crying? You reached up and felt a tear streak down your cheek. Damn it. You quickly dry your eyes off as the knot in your stomach disappeared with them.

“Sorry I, that was, sorry. Papyrus I’d be happy if you accompanied me grocery shopping” you said mustering up a small smile as you clutch your arm into yourself.

“ARE YOU SURE?” He spoke slowly making sure to keep eye contact with you.

“Yeah, let me just, i’m just going to grab a jacket. I can, i’ll meet you outside.” Papyrus nodded and you turned on your heels and headed up to your room. Grabbing a jacket and chucking it over your clothes you went to go outside only to meet Sans at the bottom of the stairs. You gave him a polite nod before continuing towards the front door.

“maybe ya should quit kid” You felt your heart sink as Sans spoke. The sentence made you stop in your tracks and turn back slowly to face the skeleton. He was casually leaning against the wall. A grin still plastered onto his skull but his eyes seemed almost tired, judging you.
“What?” your voice was quiet and you could hear the pleading in it yourself. You were silently praying that maybe you misheard.

“the experiment, ya should quit. ya obviously terrified and m’ not one ta babysit, ya should quit” Sans spoke slow and deliberately making sure you could hear every word.

“I don’t-”

“come on ya can’t be that fuckin’ stupid even for a human. ya already cried twice today. ya ain’t cut out for this. ya should quit” He said it so calmly, like it was the obvious thing you should be doing.  Quit? Just like that? After just one day? No, no way. You weren’t going to give up that easily, you needed this. How were you supposed to get any better if you didn’t push yourself. You wanted to go back to how it use to be, your going to go back and this fat ass skeleton is not going to convince you otherwise. There’s no way you're quitting after one day! You’re going to see this through to the end! You had to for yourself. You felt yourself clench your hands into tight fists and let out a short joyless laugh.

“Heh, you’re right Sans, I’m fucking terrified. Living here with strangers, having to force myself out of my comfort zone almost every second, being around littereal monsters. Anyone would be scared but I’m not quitting, there’s nothing you can say or do that’s going to make me want to quit. I’m going to do this even if I cry every day, even if it ultimately doesn’t help with my anxiety, I need to do this. I might not get better, hell for all I know I could get worse, I know I'm going to be scared and have just a metric ton of panic attacks and bad days but I am not leaving. You’re stuck with me. And besides anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death. I don’t think this is going to be any different”

Chapter Text

Your walk into town with Papyrus was pretty quiet. You didn’t know whether or not to be thankful for this though as it did give you some time to sike yourself up to be around people but perhaps a conversation would of made the perfect distraction from the swarm of butterflies in your stomach.  Eventually you decided it was a lose lose as you doubted you would feel ready for this. You usually had your groceries delivered to you to avoid going out like this but the whole point of why you signed up was to step outside your comfort zone so maybe this would be a good thing? Either way you tried to push those pesky bugs down as the two of you made it to the main shopping part of town. Just like the rest of the experimental town this shopping district was old and decrepit with fallen debris off of buildings littering the street and vines climbing up the shop walls.  Half of the stores weren’t open and most that were, had set up booths lining the street instead of being inside, probably for safety reasons. There were a few human stalls set up but from first glance it appeared like most of them were monster owned and run. The few that were Human all appeared to be food stalls of one type or another. Half way down the street Papyrus stopped in his tracks causing you to run into his back.

“HUMAN WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!” He yelled crossing his arms and glaring down at you. The yelling was not helping you right now. You took a deep breath in before looking up into the empty sockets of the tall skeleton.

“S-sorry Papyrus. Uh, why…. Why’d we stop?” 

“I THINK IT WOULD BE MOST EFFICIENT IF WE SPLIT OFF FROM HERE. I WILL ACQUIRE FOOD FOR MY BROTHER AND MYSELF AND YOU CAN GO GET YOUR OWN FOOD FOR THE WEEK”

“Can’t we just get the same food?” 

“I SUPPOSE WE COULD. HUMANS ARE SAFE TO CONSUME MAGIC, I JUST ASSUMED YOU WOULD BE MORE COMFORTABLE EATING NON-MAGICAL INFUSED FOOD”

“Wait, your food is magic infused?”

“OF COURSE IT IS” Papyrus snapped, his tone told you that he thought the question was stupid. “MONSTERS CAN’T SURVIVE ON YOUR MEALS, WE DIGEST THE MAGIC WITHIN FOOD ITEMS TO KEEP US ALIVE. OF COURSE WE CAN EAT YOUR FOOD BUT IT DOES NOTHING BUT FILL OUR STOMACHS, WE CAN’T GET NUTRITION OUT OF IT.”

“Uh r-right! Um and magic is, safe for humans?” you were thinking it was probably best if you went and got normal food but the idea of having to go off alone sent your breathing into a spiral of panic. 

“IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT THE SIDE AFFECTS DON’T BE. THERE SHOULDN’T BE ANY PERMANENT ONES” Papyrus told you crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from you seemingly annoyed at your constant state of panic, not that you could really blame him for this but he’s wording really wasn’t helping.

“Permanent effects? So they’re will be effects?!” you squeaked

“ONLY IF THE MAGIC INTENDS IT, SUCH AS HEALING OR ONE OF THOSE STUPID DRINKS FROM GRILLBY’S. IF IT BOTHERS YOU THAT MUCH ASK SANS ABOUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT. HE KNOWS IT ALL” Papyrus said waving you off as he glanced in the direction of a monster food stall, no doubt going through a list of what he’ll need. You thought for a  moment trying to decide what to do but both options seemed bad. On the one hand, you'd have to go off alone and talk to strangers as they judged you based on what food you wanted for the week. On the other hand you’d have to eat magical food all week with possible effects that could be harmful. Both seemed not great. As you stood there frozen trying to make a choice quickly and failing you felt someones hand on your shoulder causing you to let out an embarrassingly large yelp and jump away only to see V smiling at you.

“Woah chief! Calm down it’s just me” Vanessa glanced at Papyrus who you now noticed was impatiently tapping his boot against the ground. “Do you need a hand?” She asked turning back to you.

“Uh. yes, Yes! Ok uh, Papyrus you go and do your thing and V can help me out. Is that ok?” 

“IT’S ACCEPTABLE” He sneered, striding away from you without hesitation. 

“What’s wrong with him?” V asked crossing her arms and glared at the monsters retreating form

“I think it’s me” 

“Why? Did you steal his funny bone or something?” 

“No, but he’s seen me have like three panic attacks today.” You told V defeated as the two of you began to head towards the more human populated area

“Only three?! That has got to be like a new record!” 

“Hey I’m not that bad!”

“Yeah you are. I have no idea why your even out today. I assumed you’d be sleeping” you stopped walking and watched as V turned back to you a confused look crossing her face

“What?” your voice was quite

“Oh come on, you know your panic attacks can be a lot for anyone to handle. I was just saying that after the big day yesterday, I assumed that you’d be taking a break for a while is all” V stated rolling her eyes. 

“Oh my god. You think I should quit too don’t you!” You yelled accusingly and mad, V was supposed to be your best friend, why wouldn’t she just believe in you this one time. It wasn’t that big of a stretch for you to be out today

“What? No! You said you wanted to do this and I tried to stop you a million times before it started, there is no way I'm letting you quit now!” 

“Huh?”

“If you quit now I will never forgive you. We’re in this together. Until the end, whether you like it or not. Seriously you put up such a fight about this whole thing and I don’t know. Maybe you’re right, maybe it could be good for you.” She told you annoyed. “Maybe” 

“Right. Well good because I’m not quitting”

“Good”

“Good”

“Great”

“Fantastic” there was a pause of silence before Vanessa spoke up again

“Who told you to quit?” she asked, her voice softer than it was moments before.

“Sans.” you told her sighing “I can’t exactly blame him though, he made some good points. But you know me, never been one for doing stuff others told me to” you said smiling widely 

“Stubborn till the bitter end.” V agreed with you as she threw one of her arms around your shoulder. “Let’s do some shopping!” 

The two of you spent the next hour picking up food and other essentials that you thought you’d need for a week. After you were done you met up again with Papyrus and Vanessa went on her own way, saying she had something she needed to do. You assumed that Papyrus and yourself would just head straight home but Papyrus had different plans. 

“IF YOU’LL EXCUSE ME I NEED TO SPEAK TO SOME OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GUARD” He told you gesturing in the direction of some dog looking monsters

“Right, I’ll uh wait here?” 

“IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO GO HOME THAN AT LEAST MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL. GO OVER TO THAT STALL AND ASK FOR THE SKELETON BROTHERS USUAL” Papyrus told you, pointing over to a bunny monster with a large scar running over their mouth, as if someone tried to rip off their jaw but didn’t quite manage it.

“What? I can’t-” You tried to protest but Papyrus ignored you as he walked away. You turned back to the bunny. It’d be ok, all you had to do was go talk to the monster. No big deal. You took a step and froze. You couldn’t do this, you felt dizzy, your eyes became blurry and you could feel your breathing becomes rapid. Everything seemed to get unbearably loud and quite all at once. You felt your heart pounding in your chest. This was stupid, it was a simple request. You were stupid, how could you let this phase you, you couldn’t even make it three steps closer to the monster! How pathetic are you. You so worthless. Someone was trying to talk to you but you couldn’t hear them. An overwhelming feeling of nausea washed over you and you grabbed your  stomach. It wasn’t until someone gently began talking to you that you slowly began to calm down.

“It’s ok, you’re safe. There’s nothing to worry about. You’re doing great” they repeated this over and over. The gentle sound of their voice helped. Your breathing returned to normal, your vision returned and you could hear again. You became aware of a hand gently placed on your shoulder and soon realised who the voice belonged to.

“Undyne?” you asked looking up into the golden eyes of the fish monster you met yesterday. She gave you a toothy grin nodding

“Hey human, you feeling better?” you thought about it for a moment before nodding slowly. Undyne removed her hand from your shoulder. “PHEW, you gave Papyrus here a right scare human!” her voice had returned to the loud boom that it was yesterday as she hit the skeleton on the back with an echoing clang. Papyrus looked annoyed. His arms were crossed over his chest plate and he was sending you a death glare that made you take a step back.

“Ignore him.” Undyne said, throwing an arm around your shoulder to prevent any further attempt at escape before leaning down and talking quieter “He’s just upset cause he couldn’t snap you out of that little episode.” She stood up straight and made a show of flourishing her free hand as she said “Luckily I have some experience when it comes to stopping panic attacks” 

“I’m sorry about that?” you said, not really sure how else to reply

“Pft! DON’T be!” Undyne told you pushing you slighting. The force made you stumble a bit but you did manage to stay on your feet. “My soulmate has bad anxiety! Wouldn’t even leave her lab underground” A soft smile fell over the fish monster expression

“You’ve met your soulmate?” you asked, always curious about soulmates.
“Yeah. CHECK IT” Undyne held out her wrist for you to see. On either one was a different looking symbol, yellow hexagons with some lines coming off of them. “They’re the symbols for Serotonin and Dopamine. Alphys, that’s her name, she says that their the chemicals that make you happy! She’s SUPER SMART” 

“Wow. That’s really cute”  Undyne smiled holding her hands in front of her as she smiles at the symbols

“Yeah she is” Letting her hands fall to the side she continues “Alphys has a hard time interacting with people so she doesn’t come out much but maybe it’ll be good for the two of you to meet. I’m sure she has like A HUNDRED questions on humans and she’d be more than happy to answer any you have on monsters” 

“She’d. You think, well, would she want to talk to me?” You asked nervous about the idea of trying to talk to another monster

“She’d come round to it and I can be there two if you want. HELL WE CAN EVEN DRAG PAPYRUS WITH US!”

“NOT INTERESTED” 

“You don’t have a choice! How about I bring her around later this week?”

“Uh Well. . . “ you looked to Papyrus, not really sure if you were silently asking for help out of this situation or permission to invite them over. To bad that Undyne piped up before he had a chance

“It’s decided! We’ll be over later in the week!” Papyrus let out a sigh of what you could only assume was defeat as he didn’t try to argue with Undyne. It seemed odd to you just how nice this scary looking fish monster was treating you but as the three of you walked back to the house you narrowed down the reasons why she could of been. One she felt sorry for you, two you reminded her of her soulmate and she generally wanted to help, three it was a trick to get something she wanted for you, or four she helped you so then you’d owe her in the future. You wanted to believe it was option two but something in your gut told you that that wasn’t the case. 

Earlier that day at the house

Vanessa Lewis had always been very protective of her friends. People saw her as a bitch because of it, she would get mad easily and throw tantrums if she didn’t get her way making most people avoid her, unless they were after her father's money. Because of this she didn’t have many people she could call real friends but you were her best friend since high school. She saw you go through so much turning you into the anxious ball of fear you were now and she refused to let anyone bully you no matter what. You didn’t deserve it after everything you’d been through. Which is why, when she heard what that short, fat, ugly ass skeleton had said to you that morning she had stormed over to the house and slammed the door open to give him a piece of her mind. It didn’t take long for her to find him, napping away on the couch without a care in the world. She picked up one of the throw pillows that had been closest to her and threw it directly at his skull yelling as she did. 

“Where the hell do you get off tell Y/n to quit after one day!!” the impact of the pillow hitting his skull and the sudden yelling caused Sans to groggily glare at his attacker as she stood with a scowl on her face and her hands on her hips. 

“what the fuck lady?!” he yelled back annoyed that his nap had been cut short

“Why did you tell Y/n to quit the project!!” Vanessa yelled again, getting more annoyed as time went on. She had been silently stewing since you mentioned it earlier that day and now she had someone to direct the anger at. 

“the kid?” Sans asked, more to gain time for himself as he tried to figure out what the fuck this crazy human was yelling about. It didn’t take too long to click.

 “they’re obviously terrified. if they stay now and choose ta quit halfway through it could be worse for us monsters. it’s better if they leave now”

“No it wouldn’t!” Vanessa argued “If she quits the project now, after it’s officially begun, the rest of society is going to think that monsters aren't safe around people with anxiety or mental illness. You won't be allowed in human hospitals or other public places that cater to the disabled then. that would be a serious blow to monsters this early on!” Sans was taken aback with how this human seemed so willing to argue with him on this. They had obviously been thinking about it for a while too with what they had to say but Sans didn’t think they were right at all in this case. 

“alright so she stays for what? a month, maybe two then ‘er panic attacks get so bad she has trouble breathing, spirals inta a depression, can’t leave ‘er room and has to be forcibly removed from the project. that’s gonna look so much better on us right? not only can we not live with people like ‘er but we make it worse. plus ya got it wrong. no one is gonna put it against us if someone with mental illness decides to drop out in the first week cause it was just a bit too much for them ta handle. the longer they stay the more like it was us who made em that way because afta a few weeks they shoulda known what it was like here so the excuse that it became to much won’t sit with people at all.” Sans sneered. He knew this project wasn’t going to be easy for a healthy person, he didn’t even think someone like you would try and sign up, but he knew it was going to be hell for you. Monsters were mean and rude and there was no way you’d last here without getting worse and in the end that would be on them. He didn’t want to keep being trapped because some humans thought that their one chance of freedom was a fun game to see how much fear they could handle. Vanessa racked her own brain for an argument but knew ultimately this monster was right. If you dropped out now no one would really bat an eye, but the longer the experiment went on the worse you dropping out could be for these monsters. Vanessa let out a sigh, she knew this argument didn’t actually matter in the end. You were way too stubborn to drop out no matter how bad you got.  

“It doesn’t matter anyway. Honestly you don’t have anything to worry about. She isn’t going to leave”

“that ain’t necessarily a good thing” 

“Yeah I know but I think this is going to be good for her. A way to step out of that prison she's created for herself. Maybe even go back to how she was. Just don’t tell her to leave again ok? The more you pressure her into that the worse she’ll be, just let it go. She isn’t going anywhere” Sans took a moment to eye the human standing in the living room arch way. She looked sad talking about her friend but it was obvious she cared and was trying to help her.

“yeah whatever. i won’t bring it up” he told her dismissively waving her off, really just wanting to get back to his nap. 

“Right, I’ll go. You should really lock your door though, honestly I just walked right in here no problem” Sans seemed to laugh at this a bit, a laugh that really didn’t have any humor behind it.

“why bother locking ya door when the scariest thing is already inside” the smile that he sent Vanessa was twisted, he’s eye lights had disappeared, he looked broken and not for the first time since they had rocked up Vanessa felt as if the two of you had made a horrible mistake. 

Chapter Text

It was later on in the week from your little shopping trip with Papyrus. Honestly you had been pretty drained from that whole experience and stayed cooped up in your room most of the time. It wasn’t as if you didn’t try to go out, it’s just that every time you did make a plan you remember how much of a fool you had made of yourself and decided to stay in bed binging TV for the entire day instead. V, would come visit every now and again just to check on you, in accordance with the house rules you would of course warn the two roommates of her visits when they were home. She mainly just came over to complain about her day, or her living arrangements or missing Logan. You did notice that she hadn’t said a single bad thing about monsters even if she did seem to hate her current situation. You had to admire her for not blaming them for anything that goes wrong in her day.You had no doubt that a lot of humans would. You had minimal interactions with your two roommates during this time too. You all just seemed to miss each other in your day to day lives. When you finally emerged from your room, Papyrus was heading out somewhere. You decided to make food, Sans was turning in for the night. Just a quick hello here and there but nothing more. 

Today however was different. You were being forced to socialise. Of course you had talked about it briefly and Papyrus had given you plenty of time to sike yourself up for today’s visitors and yet you still couldn’t help but feel uneasy. This uneasy feeling just made you angry, which in turn made you tired. You were just sick of feeling anxious all the time, even if you couldn’t really help it. Trying to ignore the butterflies turning your stomach you went over what Papyrus had told you once again in your head. 

Both Undyne and her soulmate, Alphys, would be visiting today. You’d all hang out for a while in the living room, Undyne and Papyrus wouldn’t leave unless both you and Alphys were comfortable. Apparently the monster also suffered from extreme anxiety and panic attacks but was super interested in humans and their culture. You guessed the hope was the two of you could talk and you could answer their questions on humans and they could answer any you had on monsters although you weren’t entirely sure how well that would work out. You also had no idea whether Sans would be in the house or not, he always just seemed to appear whenever you thought he was out. 

“HUMAN, OUR GUEST OUR HERE! COME DOWN AND SAY HELLO!”  You heard Papyrus yell from downstairs. You took one more look in the mirror that was part of your closet door, having spent way too long deciding on what to wear. You ended up with something comfortable and baggy that made you look like a teenager trying on adult size clothes. Larger clothing items just made you feel more comfortable nowadays. You were still nervous about this new monster judging you for your appearance but apparently you had no more time to think about this. Turning on your heels you headed down stairs to meet a new monster and hopefully not make a complete idiot of yourself.

Making it downstairs you in fact didn’t see any new monster. You saw Papyrus and Undyne standing just inside the door but no one else.

“Uh, h-hey Undyne” you said, waving awkwardly from where you stood at the foot of the stairs. Undyne was nice enough but she still made you a bit nervous. 

“HUMAN! What’s up?!” the fish monster asked grinning at you with her sharp canines. Papyrus also turned around to look at you, his arms crossed over his chest. 

“Not much. Um not to be rude or anything, but isn’t there supposed to be another monster here?” you asked curios. Although you wouldn’t blame Alphys for backing out of meeting you if her anxiety was as bad as Undyne had said.  Undyne let out a loud laugh before slightly turning and seemingly addressing someone behind her

“See Alph, I told you the human was excited to meet you. How could she NOT be!” You leaned to the side, trying to see who exactly the fish was talking to only to see a smaller, yellow dinosaur hiding behind the buff monster. She had perfectly hidden herself behind the taller monster that you hadn’t seen her at all. It probably didn’t help that, besides her sunshine yellow scales, Alphys also wore the same red and black colour scheme that seemed to be very popular with most monsters. A baggy striped red and black turtleneck, swirly glasses and a floor length pencil skirt were the main things in her ensemble, but she also wore a rather tattered lab coat. You waved slightly at her but she seemed to just want to go back to hiding behind Undyne before something you wore seemed to catch her attention and she was in front of you in seconds. 

“Is that a Monokuma pin?!?” She asked excitedly

“Uh?” you had to look down at where her clawed hand was pointing. For some reason your own brain was drawing a blank until you saw the black and white bear pin that you had attached to your jacket. It was just something you had thrown onto try to make yourself feel better about the whole meeting a new person thing. “Oh yeah!” She let out an excited squeal at this information before pulling her lab coat over her shoulder slightly to show off some of her own pins that adorn there. There was a few from different anime but the obvious one in the centre was a black and white bear, the main antagonist in a game series. 

“No one underground has ever played them, i tried to get Undyne into it but she got bored in the prologue”

“That’s a shame, the executions are the best part” you said not really thinking to much on it

“I know right! Of course my favourite is the first game! The second one has some good mysteries in it and I just got my claws on the third, it was hard to find a copy underground. The spins off are ok, but I found the clunky gameplay taking me out of it to much to actually enjoy it and, uh, i-i really like the-the games….” Alphys’ face had slowly begun to glow a light red as she seemed to catch herself ranting about Danganronpa. It was probably the confusion on your face that had tipped her off, she just wasn’t what you were expecting.

“Yeah, it’s a good series. I think you’ll like the third one” you told her smiling. Hopefully showing her that it was ok to fangirl around you. You really didn’t mind. Undyne had made her way over to the two of you, still standing in front of the stairs.  

“See Al, I told you you’d like the human!” she said, giving Alphys a rather strong looking hit on the back. The small lizard stumbled forward a step before righting herself and fixing her glasses. 

“SHALL WE MOVE TO THE LIVING ROOM?” Papyrus asked from behind your small group

“Sure!” Undyne said cheerfully

“Y-yes!” Alphys squeaked. Before they both headed towards the living room. You followed after them. Alphys and Undyne took the couch and you opted to sit on the arm chair. Apparently Papyrus thought that the best course of action was to stand menacingly in the corner. 

You sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes trying to think of anything to say. Although no matter how bad you felt about your current situation Alphys looked ten times worse. The small yellow dinosaur was avoiding eye contact and sweating badly. She was clutching onto Undyne's arm like she wanted to be literally anywhere else as her soulmate whispered something to her you assumed to try and calm her down. You took a deep breath before deciding to just speak up. If this little meetup didn’t work you could just avoid the dinosaur for the rest of the experiment, with how nervous they seemed it didn’t seem like it would be too hard. 

“Uh, so, Alphys, I heard you might have some questions about humans?” Alphys attention seemed to snap to you at the question but she still didn’t want to speak up “well not to brag or anything but I’m a bit of an expert on the subject” you said awkwardly laughing at yourself when no one in the room made an effort to say anything. Undyne decided to try to ease the awkward tension in the room by asking the first question.

“Is it true that your grim reapers have notebooks that they write human names in and then those human DIE?” she asked leaning forward on her seat with the excitement of a child getting an early Christmas present. 

“You mean like in death note?” you asked pretty sure that's what she was referring to.

“You know abo-about d-d-d-death note?” Alphys asked also getting pretty excited

“Well yeah. It’s a pretty popular anime. I never finished it though, I tend to hold grudges when shows kill off my favourite character” you said sighing

“You m-mean L?” Alphys asked

“THAT WAS THE STRANGE HUMAN THAT DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE FUNCTION OF FURNITURE CORRECT?”

“I mean that’s a pretty good description actually. Yeah” 

“Why HIM, the Reapers were so much COOLER!” Undyne said basically cheering. You shrunk back a bit at her increased volume before proceeding to shrug

“I like smart characters”  you told them honestly. Undyne nudge the monster next to her at this

“See you two will get along great!” she told Alphys, smiling widely. Which caused Alphys to turn a scarlet shade of red. 

“RIGHT, WELL WOULD ANYONE LIKE A BEVERAGE?” 

“I’ll take a tea, Alph you want a coffee?” the Small monster nodded in agreement as Undyne stood up

“DO YOU WANT SOMETHING HUMAN?” Papyrus asked heading towards the arch door but still looking back at you

“What?” you asked not really following

“A DRINK. DO YOU WANT A DRINK?”
“Do we have tea?” you asked not really sure if you did, you didn’t think you picked any up and you know Undyne asked for some without any argument from Papyrus but you hadn’t seen it. 

“You better” Undyne said, sounding more offended than anything as she looked to Papyrus

“OF COURSE WE DO. WHAT KIND OF HOST WOULD I BE IF I DIDN’T STOCK YOUR FAVOURITE BEVERAGES” He said almost prideful as he waltzed out of the living room. 

“Do you need me to help?” you called after him beginning to stand up before Undyne walked past

“I’ll give him a hand. You two get to know each other” She told you also heading to the kitchen. This is not how you would have wanted this to go in all honesty. You’d just met the monster and didn’t really feel comfortable being alone with them mainly because you weren’t entirely sure what it was you were meant to say to each other. Before you had the chance to try and find a conversation Alphys spoke up.

“If it’s o-ok with y-y-you, can you tell me your tr-tri-triggers?” Alphys asked, eyeing you carefully as if she was afraid of crossing a line. 

“Ah yeah. Sorry I’m new to the whole anxiety thing.” you told her scratching your arm “uh well, I can’t talk to new people, or apparently monsters, without being introduced first and even then I have a hard time with conversations. I think i’m just scared of making a bad impression or something. When plans change suddenly or if I have to leave home without psyching myself up first. Um new places sometimes set me off, I was a mess the first day I woke up here. Oh and, well” you took a glance towards the kitchen where you could hear Undyne laughing loudly and Papyrus seemingly scolding her for something “I’m not really good with” you gulped your throat suddenly very dry “with loud voices” you managed to get out. Alphys nodded at your explanation
“I’m g-guessing you h-haven’t told P-papyrus yet” she said smiling crookedly at you

“No” you said almost ashamed “He speaks pretty loudly normally and i’m no sure if he even has an ‘indoor voice’” you said sighing

“Oh he definitely d-doesn’t have an in-in-inside v-voice” Alphyse told you matter of factly pushing up her glasses. This new information caused you to deflate a bit.

“Yeah I figured”

“Y-you get u-used to it though!” she said jumping forward a bit, as if she was trying to assure you that everything would be ok. It made you laugh a bit

“Yeah, it’s already getting better. As long as no one legit gets mad at me I should be ok” 

“Y-you’ll be fine” Alphys said, waving her hand around like you were overreacting although her stutter made it seem like she was just trying to reassure you. There was another short pause but you had thought about what you wanted to ask so it didn’t last long
“So you and Undyne are soulmates right?”

“Ah y-y-yeah!” Alphys squeaked turning a deeper shade of red

“You have gotta tell me everything! How did you two find out?” you asked, deciding to move closer to the small dinosaur on the couch. 

“W-well it was sort of an a-a-accident. I-i-i had a me-meeting with the king and s-she just happened to be th-there and i m-might of already h-had a h-huge crush on h-her and got nervous and t-tripped over. It was t-totally embarrassing!” Alphys told you screaming into her hands as she recalled her embarrassment. “B-but Undyne s-so cool and s-strong and her reflexes are am-amazing. She r-rushed in to catch me like it was n-nothing! B-b-before i knew it s-she was holding me b-bridal s-style and a-asking if I was ok. I could only nod. When she put me down the k-king pointed out the n-new s-soulmark and I may have f-fainted” Alphys said turning away from you as her all of her yellow scales became a vibrant red

“Arg that’s so cute!” you said clapping your hands together and squealing

“S-shes amazing” Alphys said quietly placing her hand over her chest, you could only assume that’s where her soulmark was as you couldn’t see it. 

“Not as amazing as you” You glanced over the door to see Undyne and Papyrus standing there holding cups of steaming beverages. Undyne was smiling so softly at her soulmate that you couldn’t help but smile widely yourself at how cute the two were.

“Nooooooooo” Alphys whined, grabbing one of the couch cushions to hide behind.

“Oh my god, it’s official. You two are my new OTP” you said standing up to give Undyne her seat back “you’re adorable together” you added as Papyrus handed you a cup of tea. 

“I HAVE TO WARN YOU” He said in a serious tone as he gave you the cup “IT IS MAGIC INFUSED” You could feel yourself tense up at this. You still hadn’t tried any monster food yet. You turned to Alphys

“You know about this stuff. Will there be any side effects if I drink this?” you asked, gesturing down at your cup. 

Alphys shook her head“Yellow flower tea doesn’t have any effects on humans.”  her colour was finally returning to normal

“If y-you are interested in monster food and side effects, get S-sans to take you to Grillby’s. He’ll be a-able to tell you what’s s-safe” 

“I don’t think i’m interested” you said almost immediately. 

“I think that other human friend of yours would LOVE it” Undyne said as you took a drink of the tea. It was sweet and floral and very light, not like any tea you were used to but it was nice. 

“You’re right V probably would like that” you said as you tried to decide on what exactly made the tea so nice. 

“YOU SHOULD GET SANS TO TAKE THE BOTH OF YOU”

“What?” you asked not entirely sure why Papyrus would be vouching for this idea. 

“IT WOULD ALLOW YOU TIME TO HANG OUT WITH YOUR HUMAN FRIEND AND EXPERIENCE SOME MONSTER CULTURE AND ALTHOUGH I DO NOT APPROVE OF MY BROTHER GOING TO THAT DUMP YOU DO NEED A GUIDE” He said matter of factly. 

“Aw I think Papyrus here has a weak spot for you human” Undyne said teasingly

“I SIMPLY WANT THEM TO FEEL COMFORTABLE IN THE PLACE THEY HAVE TO CALL HOME FOR THE NEXT YEAR. WE CAN’T HAVE THEM BREAKING DOWN EVERY SINGLE DAY” He said

“Yeah that’s fair” you added. “I’ll ask V if she’d want to go”

“I-i t-think you’ll have fun” Alphys said smiling warmly at you. The rest of the visit went on pretty well. You ended up talking about anime a lot of the time, you don’t mean to Alphys and Undyne just seem to link to it alot and you actually know most of the shows they’re talking about. By the time they left they had insisted that the three of you had to have an anime night at their house one day and exchanged numbers with the both of them and you were excited to have made some new friends. You’re actually glad that they introduced you to Alphys and you could see the both of you getting along really well. 

Chapter Text

Alphys and Undyne had barely been gone a few hours when there was another knock at the door. You hadn’t really left the lounge room, grabbing one of the few books you had brought along with you and had been reading for the last hour. Papyrus was cooking dinner and Sans was opposite you snoozing away on an armchair. Papyrus was the one who answered the door after yelling at Sans that he could have done it only to be pushed aside by something. You watch as a small human child sprinted up to Sans and trapped him in a big hug. He jolted awake 

“damn it kid, a little warning next time” The kid just smiled and began to move their hands around rapidly.

“no” Sans replied, smirking, widely picking up the kid and placing them on the ground next to his arm chair. The child pouted and began to move their hands more frantically. You had no idea what was happening. You assumed the kid was talking in sign language but you couldn’t understand it at all. After they had finished the bigger skeleton seemed to take a moment to think about something before slowly turning his attention back to the child and repeating

“no” before beginning to laugh loudly as the kid stood next to the chair and stomped their foot impatiently glaring and the now cackling skeleton. 

“HUMAN” Papyrus’ loud voice came from the archway to the living room and drew your attention over there. He wasn’t alone. Two human guards in military uniforms, much like the one you saw when you pulled up to the town, were standing next to him. You could feel your heart rate rise a little but took some slow breaths to slow it down. 

“IT SEEMS YOU HAVE SOME VISITORS” He said gesturing to the two humans. 

“Hello ma’am” one said just a bit too loudly. Almost like being next to Papyrus had skewed his perception of what an appropriate volume would have been. You didn’t say anything, frozen in place like a deer in headlights as you tried to prevent your heart rate from rising rapidly. “We’re here to escort you to the main conference hall in the center of town,” the soldier continued. A million thoughts ran through your head of why these two soldiers would have been sent here. Did you do something wrong? Are they here to kick you out? Did you already fuck this up somehow? 

“Am I in trouble?” you practically whispered

“What?” the guard seemed taken aback “No, no no! The ambassador here has a proposition for you” they told you gesturing to the human child who waved at you smiling happily. You blinked a few times

“You’re ten” you said matter of factly. You didn’t even really mean to say it, the words just seemed to slip out as you tried to process the information that was just given to you. The kid continues to smile as they wave their hands around slightly. You just watched in confusion. 

“they say their nine actually but it’s nice to meet you. names frisk” Sans said rather broadly. You gave Frisk your name

“YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE A BIT MORE RESPECTFUL HERE HUMAN. THE SMALL HUMAN DID SAVE ALL OF THE UNDERGROUND” Papyrus told you

“Really?” you asked. None of this was really making sense, but as Frisk nodded enthusiastically you figured there had to be some truth behind what was being said. Not much was known about how the monsters were released from the underground so it’s not like you could argue this new information but a child saving all monsters, by themselves just made you feel like there had to be more to the story somewhere. 

“Shall we get going?” the other soldier asked at a more reasonable volume. 

“uh ok” you said standing up slowly and heading to the door. Frisk walked in front of you and led the soldiers out the door towards a jeep parked at the end of your driveway. You stopped in the doorway and took a deep breath, still not entirely convinced you weren’t in trouble here and not entirely sure why you agreed easily. You think it was that you just didn’t want to cause a scene. You jumped slightly as a hand was lightly placed on your shoulder. Looking up into Papyrus’ face who looked back with what you’d almost call concern. 

“DID YOU WANT ME TO ACCOMPANY YOU?” he asked. You could feel his gloved hand brush lightly against the side of your neck. 

“No it’s ok” you told him, smiling up at him. 

“WOULD YOU LIKE SANS TO ACCOMPANY YOU?” he asked and you shook your head

“I’ll be fine. Thank you for worrying about me though” you told him, stepping away and watching as his hand loosely fell to his side. His sockets scanned over you for a moment before his shoulders seemed to relax.

“ALIGHT. DON’T FORGET THE HOUSE RULES. BE BACK BY 11” he said. Before you could reply he slammed the door in your face. You were positive he didn’t mean to slam the door in your face, he just seemed to have a habit of slamming doors. You went to the jeep and hoped in the back with Frisk who wiggled their eyebrows in a weird way when you looked at them. You weren’t entirely sure what they were trying to communicate so you just smiled before looking out the window in silence for the trip to the conference center. Sitting in silence probably wasn’t the best of ideas on your part. It’s not like you could talk to Frisk, due to the language barrier, but you could have tried to talk with the two guards. Sitting in silence just let your thoughts run wild and your anxiety grow. You had only been here for a few days and you were already getting escorted to a meeting that you had no idea what would entail but your thoughts kept telling you that you were being kicked out and everyone was just trying not to raise a fuss over it. Before you realized it you had made it to the center of town. Well just off the center of town. This building seemed to be a lot newer than it’s decrypted surroundings. A sign hung on it with the words “Town hall” displayed above the glass doors. You stared up at it, still thinking over all the possibilities of why you had been called here, when your hand was gently grabbed by someone much smaller than yourself. Looking down into Frisk’s smiling face you couldn’t explain it but you instantly felt calmer. Frisk led you to the building the two guards following behind, gently guiding you through the glass sliding doors and past the bright, white reception area, up some stairs and down a hallway until you got to a room that looked like a conference room. A large table sat in the middle of the room, 20-30 seats surrounding it and a potted yellow flower sitting near the center. Two monsters, A giant goat looking monster with sharp horns and piercing eyes, and what you could only call a robot with four arms sat at this table along with another female human in a suit who smiled upon seeing you.  Being in the building you could definitely tell that it was newly built. It just had that clean feel about it. Frisk let go off your hand when you entered the room, running up the large, intimidating goat monster and trapping him in a big bear hug. The goat chuckled in a low voice that almost seemed unnatural, showing off a row of razor sharp teeth as he did so, not helping with your anxiety and being reminded of the dog monster who growled at you your first day here. 

“Miss L/n, it’s good to see you” the human woman stood up and made her way towards you extending a hand which you took automatically. “My name is Stacy Clark and I’m in charge of public imaging here. Please join us.” She said gesturing to the table. You hesitated for a moment before making your way to the table and taking a seat opposite the Robot and Goat. Frisk had left the goat monster and was now pulling the potted plant off of the table and taking a seat near the four of you. 

”Miss L/n, I’d like to introduce you to Mettaton, an influencer for monster kind” Stacy said gesturing to the robot monster who smiled politely at you “and The king of monsters Asgore.” who held out a hand for you. Again you took it without really thinking, your whole hand engulfed in his surprisingly soft paw. 

“Please just call me Asgore” the large goat said. His voice was much, much deeper than any you had heard. It was very unsettling but you simply nodded in response. 

“Of course you’ve met the monster ambassador Frisk and this is Flowey” You turned to see Frisk wave and finally noticed the shy looking expressing that the flowers face had. You would have been surprised by the fact that a flower had a face but you were already feeling like you were in some sort of horror movie and this was just another layer. You turned to Stacy, being the only other human in the room, you didn’t know where the two guards went. You were stuck with the ever constant question of did you do the right thing? Not having Papyrus or Sans here, even if you didn’t know them that well might have calmed your nerves a bit but you didn’t want them here if you were truly in trouble. Having them sit there why you get yelled at or worse would just make you feel sick. 

“Am I in trouble?” you asked the room quietly still not know what your here for

“Of course not, actually we need your help. Why would you think you're in trouble?” Stacy asked kindly. You started to fidget in your seat.

“Well no one really told me why I was needed. A child, who's apparently the ambassadors for all of monster kind and two guards just sort of showed up at my door, then we were taken to the only new building in miles like some dystopian fiction novel, then I was introduced to the king and apparently the only influencer in the underground and a flower with a face, and no one has really told me anything yet so I’m sort of freaking out!” you said rather quickly. Stacy looked surprised while Asgore and Frisks' expressions remained neutral. Flowey actually looked a bit concerned but Mettaton began laughing.

“If it makes you feel better, they haven’t told me anything either darling” Mettaton said when he’s laughter died down. 

“Really?” you asked, honestly surprised. The Robot nodded

“I thought I was the only one who was nervous about a surprise meeting” He informed you. 

“I suppose it was rather sudden. My apologies for scaring you both” Asgore said

“My bad, this was mostly mine and Frisks idea” Flowey said looking a bit dejected. 

“Uh no problem. But would you mind explaining why we were called here?” You ask

“Well, we would like you and Mettaton to help promote monsters to the outside world. We believe that but having new information presented to them, humans will be more likely to accept monsters when they are allowed to be integrated into society.” Stacy explained. 

“You both have talents that would be perfect for this project. Mettaton, we would like to set you up with an online profile and youtube account to allow you to post videos. This will allow humans to see a monster and give them the chance to connect to them even outside the base” 

“A show starring me? How could I refuse” Mettaton said dramatically posing. 

“We have a small team willing to show you the ropes but then it’s up to you to produce and post content” Stacy said. Frisk signed something that made Mettaton's face like up

“Are you sure they will like watching a monster” He asked turning his attention back to Stacy

“There will definitely be some people who don’t approve but we are hoping you gain sympathy from a majority of people and they will eventually be drowned out” she told him truthfully. 

“I’d like to give it a shot. I miss producing my own work, it’ll be good to start up again” He said happily

“Keep in mind that the content you produce here can’t be as” Asgore paused trying to think of the right word “extreme as your stuff from underground” He finished

“I will keep it as tame as I can” Mettaton said, placing his hand where a heart would be in an ‘i swear’ motion. 

“Miss L/n, we want you to use your expertise to start more of a blog to explain what it’s like as a human living with monsters” Stacy explained

“Ok but uh, why me?” you asked not entirely sure why they had picked you out of the many humans on the reserve. 

“Well, it was the ambassadors idea. Apparently they used to read your books and loved them so they thought you would be perfect for this job” Stacy said nodding towards Frisk who was smiling and nodding enthusiastically. You got it now. They were talking about your job. Well your old job. You were a writer, not an extremely popular one or anything but you were known.you hadn’t written anything in over a year though and what they were asking you to do wasn’t exactly in your expertise.  

“I’m flattered but If you read my books you know I wrote Fiction. This sounds like you need someone who isn’t a writer to just share their experiences.” You told them honestly

“Although your reasoning makes sense, we’re hoping that by attaching your name to this project we will attract more attention. Plus you being a writer will help keep the blog entertaining to new viewers. More coherent then if someone with no experience was to write it” Stacy informed 

“So you just want me to write about my experiences?” You clarified

“That’s right” Stacy said 

“It would be more beneficial if you were as truthful as possible with this as well” Asgore told you

“What if I have a bad experience?”

“Then write about it! We need monsters to seem more human, nothing can be good all the time but our hope is your good experiences out way the bad and you show that humans can live peacefully with monsters” Stacy explained. Everyone seemed to be looking at you in anticipation for your answer. 

“I guess I could give it a shot” you told them, still a bit hesitant but you guessed that this would at least give you something to go. After you agreed it was a whirlwind, Stacy explained some more things but it all just seemed to be repeating the things she already said. Mettaton and Asgore were led out of the room by some other people to be taught how to use the camera and laptop to make and upload videos why Stacy, Flowey, Frisk and yourself were brought another laptop to create the blog. You learnt that Flowey was a kid and the two children seemed to have a lot of fun inputting ideas for the blog layout and colour scheme. You and Stacy, mainly Stacy, had to kindly shut down some of their ideas but after a few hours the blog looked pretty good. It was a super simple interface so you were fairly confident that you could figure it out, Stacy went over it quickly with you anyway. You also got to create a password and username so you would be the only one to have access to the blog. You were allowed to take the computer with you for writing and when everything was sorted you simply went home. The two uniformed soldiers that brought you here also took you home. It was pretty late so you quietly tried to sneak into the house in case your two roommates were sleeping. Neither of them were

“HUMAN YOUR BACK” Papyrus greeted as you closed the door. Both of the skeletons were sitting in the lounge room. 

“Yeah” was all you could think to reply with 

“so you get kicked out?” Sans said smirking, Papyrus elbowed him in the rib before proceeding to glare at him. 

“Actually, I sort of, got a job? I guess” you said not entirely sure what you should call it. 

“DOING WHAT?” Papyrus said, sounding like he couldn’t believe that you would of been given a job

“Writing a blog. I have to write about my experiences inside the reserve and post them for people outside the experiment to read about” you explained

“congrats” Sans said 

“Thanks, I’m going to head to bed. Night” you said 

“night” 

“GOODNIGHT HUMAN” you made a quick stop at the kitchen to grab something for dinner before heading up to your room. You contemplated writing your first post but figured it could wait until morning. You were mentally exhausted from the day and just ready to go to sleep.  

Chapter Text

You groaned as you laid face down on your mattress. The laptop you had received yesterday lay open next to you, the empty post mocking you. You had tried, multiple times that morning to try and write your first post for the new blog, but every time you tried you got self conscious and thought that it sounded really dumb. You had tried to start it at least 10 times already and everytime had deleted the whole thing to start over. You had basically given up an hour ago when you trudged downstairs to grab breakfast only to return and draw a complete blank on what to write. 

“Alright dumbass what’s the problem” Vanessa said unimpressed as she stood in your doorway. You hadn’t seen the skeletons down stairs so you assumed she had let herself in. You had messaged her a while ago telling her about your new job and that you were really struggling with what to write. You just groaned and buried your head further into the pillow. Vanessa walked over and picked up the laptop from the floor, glancing at the blank page before taking a look around the dark and gloomy room.

“No wonder you haven’t been able to write anything, the atmosphere in here is so depressing” she said matter of factly. “Come on get up!” She yelled, grabbing one of your arms and yanking you up. 

“Where are we going?” you whined

“Downstairs” She said, dragging you along with one hand and carrying the laptop with the other. “A change of scenery is just what you need. Plus it’s light and clean down there, perfect for productivity” She told you, leading you to the small circular dining room table. Sitting you down she placed the laptop in front of you before taking the seat opposite. “So what’s the problem”

“I don’t know what to write” you told her, bury your head in your hands and letting out an irritated scream as you thought back to your many failed attempts from that morning. 

“Aren’t you just supposed to write about your experience with monsters? Start with your first day and write down what happened. I am struggling to see what the big deal is”  V told you

"I can just write about my first day" you said defensively

"Why not? that is literally your job" V told you. You just glared at her and the two of you sat in silence for a while before V eventually rolled her eyes. "Just think of it like a diary. Write down your experiences and feelings, post it then never look at it again. Writing is your whole jam, this should be easy" 

“I haven’t written anything in over a year V. Besides I’ve never kept a diary before and now my first one is going to be public!” you said bury your head in your hands and let out another irritated scream. 

“what the fuck is your problem?” Sans asked as he walked past the two of you to the fridge. 

"I can't write," you said, leaving your head on the table.

"Little miss perfectionist here is having a hard time figuring out how to start her blog" V filled in

"just write about ya first few days 'ere. ain't a big deal doll" Sans stated as he removed a bottle of mustard from the fridge and closed the door. 

"Why does everyone keep telling me that?" you asked annoyed.

"Because that is literally all you have to do" V said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  

"It's not that easy! There's no hook, nothing exciting happened. I arrived, had a few panic attacks and then barricaded myself in my room." you over simplified 

"You are living with monsters. That's the hook! What could be more entertaining?" V told you raising her voice slightly

"No, we need something more exciting. An outing or experience of monster culture"  you said, racking your brain for what you could use.

"No idea where this 'we' business came into it. Did you just drink that?" V said, sounding disgusted. You turned to watch Sans wiping off his teeth with the back of his sleeve. He was smirking as he held out the bottle of mustard towards V

"want some?" He asked. V scrunched up her nose and looked like she was about to puke

"Absolutely not. How can you drink a condiment?" She asked

"mustard explain myself? why not just ketchup and try some?"

"No" V deadpanned which caused Sans to laugh loudly before taking another swig from the bottle "I prefer my drinks as liquids and not things to be placed on food" 

"That's it!" you said shooting to your feet excitedly. "Sans, can you take me and V to Grillby's?" you asked, remembering the conversation you had with Alphys and Undying only yesterday. 

"why?" Sans asked, sounding suspicious. The grin he had worn only moments before had almost completely vanished. 

"Who?" V asked

"I met some new monsters yesterday and we got into a conversation about monster food. Apparently some of their magic infused staff can have an effect on humans and they suggested getting Sans to take me and you to Grillby's. I don't really know anything else about the place other than we can try some of this monster food out and they said Sans could explain it to us" you said suddenly excited about the idea. 

"oh did they?" Sans said, sounding annoyed more than posing it as an actual question. 

"Yeah it'd be perfect. We can experience monster culture and I'll have something to write my first post about" You said happily

"What type of food do they have there?" V asked Sans who eyed her for a moment before sighing slightly and looking up at the ceiling

"they mainly do dinar food but if ya want magic the drinks would be best. they 'ave a few that'll affect ya'' Sans said 

"Would these drinks be alcoholic in nature?" V asked a smile already forming on her lips

"no duh" Sans replied 

"Then count me in!" V cheered "Sounds like a blast" 

"I know, it's perfect right. So you'll take us Sans" you asked, turning to the skeleton with pleading eyes. He seemed to eye you for a moment thinking of how to respond and you briefly worried that he would turn you down. He eventually took a few steps towards you, placing the bottle of mustard down on the table.

“sure kid, i’ll take ya to grillby’s” Sans told you before leaning down, placing both hands beside you on the chair and smirking as the action forced you to sit back down. He had effectively trapped you in place and you suddenly became acutely aware of how close he was. You felt your heart rate rise and quickly became very nervous as you eyed his pointed teeth. Your mind went blank as you began to panic at the proximity of you and this monster.  “after ya post your first blog” he told you

“What!” you yelled as he pulled back shrugging. 

“ya heard me doll. i’ll take ya ta grillby’s as soon as you finish your first blog post.” He said, picking the bottle back up and heading towards the doorway.

"Oooo well played" V said as he walked past her

“But what am I supposed to write for my first post?! The whole point of you taking us was so I’d have something to write about” 

"you'll figure something out, cause if ya don't no grillby's, which i imagine will make ya life that much more stressful" Sans said as he left. you heard him going up the stairs and groaned before turning back to the blank screen. 

"So you ready to start writing?" V asked smirking at you "Because personally I am very excited about this Grillby's and you can't let me, your absolute best friend, down" 

"You're a bitch" you replied

"And you're a good writer. Just trust yourself sweetie. I'll be right here and I can even check it before you post. Just do a first pass. Write and keep writing, then we can check it together and rework. ok?" V said smiling softly at you 

"Ok" you replied after a while grabbing the laptop and pulling it close. You took a deep breath and began to write.

You and V spent a while working on your first blog post. You were very nitpicky about it and nothing ever sounded any good. Eventually V just posted it for you after the two of you had worked and reworked it about 17 times. To be fair it was way more patience than you had ever expected from Vanessa and although you thought it was far from perfect you guess you had to live with it now. 

Sans POV

it had been a few hours since i left the two humans in the kitchen to work on their blog. i had been a bit taken aback when the human had suddenly stated that i could take them to grillby’s but like i was going to miss this perfect opportunity. if i was showing the human ‘monster culture’ then there was no better place and it was the perfect excuse to go without having the boss get mad at me. still the blog seemed important, the human seemed nice enough and if people outside the experiment could see we could live in tandem it would make transitioning into society a lot easier. making them write a first post about the first meeting was important even if they couldn’t see that right now. 

i had emptied the bottle of mustard, which was now lying on my bedroom floor and had a craving for another. i did had to go to some dumb royal guard meeting tonight, even if i was just a sentry the boss would get mad if i didn’t show up. i headed downstairs to try to find another bottle before heading out only to see the two humans still sitting at the table, both looking at the screen. 

“still tryna figure out what to write?” I asked and the two turned to me

“Nah we got it. Actually you should read it” the humans friend, Jessica or something, said quickly typing before swinging the screen around for me to read. 

“It’s not perfect” the human added quickly as i started to read

First Impressions

(All names have been changed for privacy reasons)

I’m sure some of you don’t know me, in fact I know a lot of you won’t but for those who do you probably also know that I haven’t been very active recently. I used to write romance novels, stories of true love and unlikely soulmates but then my life went terribly wrong. There was a tragic accident (which I know a lot of you will immediately look up as soon as you can) and suddenly my life was empty. I developed severe anxiety and depression and couldn’t even leave my house let alone work up the courage or inspiration to write. I was stuck like that for so long. In an endless pit of despair that only seemed to be growing. My friends stayed by me and helped where they could, to which I will always be grateful for, but it always seemed like nothing would ever help. Then monsters emerged from underground and magic was pushed beyond just soulmates. When the M.A.G.E project came about I jumped at the chance. I figured that this was the perfect opportunity to get me out of my comfort zone, to push me past my tragedy and hopefully help me feel like my old self again. My friend, Sarah, was worried sick at the thought of me going alone so she tagged along for the journey and will definitely be my rock in this year of madness. 

When the project started I opted to room with monsters, diving head first into the deep end. I didn’t make the best first impression.  My roommates, Edge and Red, are nicer than I first thought. Monsters are intimidating up close. They have sharp teeth, are large, almost seem to exclusively wear red and black and honestly look like something out of a nightmare. The first monster I talked to snarled at me and ripped the keys I had been trying to return to them out of my hands. 

My first impression of my roommates is that Edge could easily kill me without a second thought. His cold glare and sharp features mixed with his impeccable straight posture make him look like a cold hearted CEO who would cut ties with anyone who isn’t beneficial to keep around. 

Red seemed to be a bit more light-hearted, immediately opening with a pun and always seems to have a permanent grin on his face. This does nothing to counteract the terrifying feeling when first laying eyes on him, like something out of a living nightmare.

So far I have had an anxiety attack almost everyday. I get nervous around monsters and I start to panic at every little inconvenience. My roommates could see me struggling and introduced me to Beaker. They are the only monster I wasn’t scared of when I first saw them, mainly because they seemed terrified of me instead. Meeting a monster with the same level of anxiety as me made me rethink all of my first impressions of all the other monsters I had met. 

Anyone can tell that this isn’t the best place for someone in my situation but I know that there are more to these monsters than their first impressions and I want to stick around long enough to see that. 

from the way it was written it was clear that the human wanted to pack in a lot of information but was still struggling with wording. she didn’t say anything really negative about monsters though, anyone who looked at us would be terrified and she left it open for further entries. it was a good first post

“it’s good” i said honestly  "alright guess i gotta take ya to grillby’s now.” the human’s face lit up ever so slightly which for some reason made me smirk “i'm busy today but why don't we go out tomorrow?"  i added before thinking to much about it

“Heck yeah!” the friend cheered “Oh my god, this is going to be sick. Come on let's go pick out outfits!” she grabbed the human and dragged her upstairs talking loudly and happily about outfit choices. 

i felt myself smiling at the image of the human’s happy face. i guess she was quite cute when she smiled, at least for a human.

Chapter Text

You were really excited, maybe not as excited as V, in fact your own excitement might just be your friends' excitement rubbing off on you but nevertheless you were excited. Experiencing a monster establishment first hand would not only make a great post for your blog but also allow you to step out of your comfort zone. You know the whole reason you came to the project in the first place. When Papyrus found out your plans for the evening he had quickly tried to hide his displeasure but you were fairly sure it was because he didn’t like the food of the place. He also declined coming rather fast but didn’t say much or give you any reason why.

V had come over to your house just after lunch and had insisted on getting ready with you which was sort of overwhelming. Since Sans mentioned there would be drinks V was treating this like a night on the clubs so she was going the whole nine yards. You just let her go although you requested that you wanted to go more casual when she tried to put glitter on your face. She still insisted that you wear some makeup and you relented allowing her to do something simple. Your outfit was also nowhere near as flashy as V’s in her skin tight, little black dress that proudly displayed a good amount of her skin, including her soulmate tattoo. You felt way more comfortable in your jeans and shirt but also threw on a hoodie, much to V’s displeasure, just for an extra padding of security. You felt a bit embarrassed knowing that a few years ago you would have been more than happy and comfortable wearing a similar outfit to your friend only now to hide. You wished you had your old confidence back but one thing at a time.

“Ok, we’re ready” you announced as you went down the stairs, quickly ducking past Sans who was holding open the front door for you. “Thankfully” you muttered when you were pretty sure you were out of earshot. 

“ya know this ain’t a club right?” Sans asked as as V proudly walked past. Sans closed the door 

“So?” V snapped “I don’t need an excuse, or your approval, to dress up” She said turning back to the monster and crossing her arms over her chest. It was obvious to you that she did not like Sans although you weren’t entirely sure that she liked any of the monsters she had run into. 

“no shit, but if ya get hit on by some monster don’t say i didn’t warn ya” He told V, shrugging before beginning to walk down the path through the front yard. You had already talked about walking to the bar, not knowing the effects that monster magic would have on you both it was the safest option. 

“You can clearly see my soulmate mark” V said exasperatedly. Sans laughed loudly 

“yeah, that ain’t gonna stop em kid” He said. V looked at the monster with horror 

“What the fuck is wrong with monsters?” She asked. Sans shrugged 

“Do soulmates cheat a lot?” You asked, sort of sad at the thought of Undyne cheating on Alphys, or vice versa 

“no more than humans” He said after a while. He hadn’t looked at either you nor V as the three of you continued to head to the main street

“Gross” V muttered 

“Do you have a soulmate?” you asked Sans, who once more laughed. You didn’t think it was funny but apparently the monster thought it was hilarious 

“i’m sure if someone was unlucky enough to have me as their soulmate they would turn tail and run” he said. His tone of voice indicated that he was a hundred percent serious and it made you sort of sad to hear him talk like that 

“I know I would” V muttered, you gave her a sharp elbow to the stomach and glared at her. Even if she didn’t like the skeleton it was a rude thing to say

“You shouldn’t say stuff like that” you said 

“why?” Sans asked

“Well one, that’s not how soulmates work, they are your perfect match. Whoever your soulmate is would be so excited to be your partner and could you imagine what the mark would look like? Soulmates get along great, I’m sure your perfect partner is out there!” you said confidently

“Y/n is an avid believer in soulmates” V said almost with a sigh

“yeah i got that” Sans muttered before adding “you seriously tryna tell me that if someone was unlucky enough to get a soulmark from me they would be happy about it?” Sans asked incredulously, 

“I would be” you said honestly. Sans stopped walking and looked over at you with a mix of anger and dumbfoundedness. You avoided eye contact and continued to walk forward, not really wanting to explain yourself, when you felt a firm grip around your arm as Sans pulled you back from the curve. A car rushed past making you flinch as you realized you were just about to be hit by the speeding car. You felt your heart rate rise but it immediately settled back down as you felt Sans squeeze your arm slightly, glancing down to see his bones wrapped securely around your sleeve before looking up into his skull when you heard him speak

“walkin’s gonna take forever” Sans practically growled, seemingly already annoyed at having to babysit two humans “come on, we’re going this way. i know a shortcut” Sans told you, winking as he yanked your arm rather roughly before leading you down an ally between two residential houses

“Hey wait!” V yelled, practically jogging to catch up, you watched as a sinister smirk graced Sans skull. You didn’t have much time to process it though as he stuck out his leg and tripped V. She managed to catch herself before hitting the ground but she was pissed. Sans looking like he was about to laugh did not help in the slightest 

“What the fuck was that!” She yelled turning to face Sans, who released your arm and held up in own hands in a surrender. 

“i didn’t do anything, maybe you just need to learn how to walk” Sans said, although with a clear large grin plastered on his skull it was clear he tripped her on purpose. 

“You fucking tripped me!” V yelled taking a step closer to the monster 

“huh? nah, you’re fucking delusional” Sans retorted, still smiling and giving himself away

“Don’t play dumb asshole, I will shove my heel so far up your pelvis-” 

“Woah!” You yelled a bit too loud, cutting of V who ground her teeth together as she glared at the skeleton “How did we end up at the main street?” you asked. Logistically it didn’t make sense. The main street was at least a fifteen minute walk away from the house and the shortcut Sans took you down didn’t make any sense. 

“Let’s just go, I need a drink” V said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. You felt as if this outing was only going to make her hate the skeleton more. 

“works for me” Sans said, leading the way down the street a few buildings to one of the more put together places. The windows were boarded shut and a cardboard sign was stuck to the door “Grillby’s” written upon it in a fancy cursive. 

Sans pushed open the door and walked in without even waiting for the two of you. V reached the door first and held open the door for you. You walked past with a thanks before getting a good look at the inside of the bar.

The interior of the building did not match the shabby outside at all. Whoever was in charge of this place had obviously put in a lot of effort to make it feel like an uptown speakeasy bar and did a pretty damn good job at it. The windows, which were boarded up from the outside, had thick purple drapes covering them up but the interior was by no means dark. Antique looking wall sconces and gold hanging lights illuminating the room with ease, showing off the black leather booths, circular wooden tables with gold trims and deep purple walls with intricate gold designs. The star of the room was the large bar, standing opposite the door, with a few bar stools to sit up close and personal with the fire elemental bar keep and large glass shelving filled with different bottles of swirling liquid. Besides the bartender they were only two other monsters in the room, both of whom looked like large dogs. They were sitting at one of the tables seeming to be engulfed in a rather intense game of cards. 

As you stood still for a second, trying to take in the rather mature aura of the bar Sans did not hesitate to begin making his way across the room, V following closely behind. You had to jog a bit to catch up to the two but when you did you could feel your heart rate rise as you released where exactly Sans was heading. He was going to sit at the bar, in the open. Since it was quiet you probably wouldn’t of minded but with V’s loud personality and the possibility of more monster coming in at any second, sitting front and center made you extremely uncomfortable

“Can we sit in a booth?” You managed to ask, your voice an octave higher than normal. Sans glanced over his shoulder at you before visible rolling his eyesight’s 

“sure kid, whatever” he grumbled turning on his heels and marching to one of the booths away from the bar. V grabbed your arm and smiled encouragingly at you as the both of you followed the monster sliding into the booth on the opposite side to Sans. The monster didn’t look too comfortable in the booth, as it looked to be a bit of a tight fit for his larger size. He didn’t say anything aloud but was clearly grumbling under his breath as he leant forward on his arm to give his stomach some leverage away from the hard edge of the table. Or at least that’s what he appeared to be doing to you.

“alright what do ya wanna start with?” He asked in an annoyed tone. 

“What?” You asked 

“You’re supposed to be our guide, remember?” V said with a roll of her eyes. 

“yeah but did ya just want drinks? do ya want food? how plastered did ya want to be? will ya die if you drink dairy?” Sans asked exasperated at how unprepared you and V seemed to be. You felt sort of bad, since you did kind of make him take the two of you out to try some magic infused items. 

“I want to get drunk, we will both take some food, and neither of us are lactose and tolerant” Vanessa told Sans in a mock polite voice

“what food ya want?” He asked 

“What do you normally have?” you asked, the monster eyed you for a moment, almost as if he was deciding to tell you before he eventually answered 

“i get a burger and fries” 

“That sounds great!” you said, genuinely excited. You hadn’t had anything that resembled take out in a long time so the idea of a burger and fries actually sounded amazing to you

“Can I get mine with a salad instead?” V asked 

“you really want me” Sans asked gesturing at himself “to order you a burger with a salad?”

“Yeah” V agreed. The two started each other down before Sans let out an angry sigh and pushed himself out of the booth, mumbling something about a stupid broad

“He’s so fucking rude” V said glaring at the monster as he shuffled up to the bar 

“You could try being nicer” you said, tracing a circle on the table 

“Excuse me? He’s the one being rude!” V told you

“He didn’t have to bring us out today Vanessa. He’s getting us food and monster drinks and he’s going to tell us about them. He really didn’t have to do any of that” You told her matter of factly, leaning on the table and watching as Sans stood at the bar laughing at something he just said whilst the fire element stood completely still. 

“I am convinced he only brought us because his brother forced him to” She replied with a huff

“Maybe, but it’s still nice of him” 

“Ok fine” V said after a while with a roll of her eyes “But I will only be as nice as he is” She told you definitely.

“Yeah that seems fair” you replied leaning back as Sans returned to the table with a tray of glasses. He had a total of 13 different glasses with him and you were honestly impressed that the bartender was able to make them all fairly quickly. Sans first placed the most normal looking one in front of him, a scotch glass that looked like it had, well scotch before placing several of the drinks in front of you and an identical set in front of V. He had also returned with a bottle of mustard which he promptly poured an ungodly amount of into his drink, mixing the thick mixture with his finger.

“What, you’re not going to drink these with us?” V asked 

“na not my taste. you’ll like em, probably, each have a different effect. start from this end and make your way down” Sans said gesturing and splashing some mustard drink mixer onto the table

“Gross” V said  under her breath visible scrunching up her nose and trying to push herself as far away from the skeleton as she could get. You simply grabbed a napkin and cleaned the mess, getting distracted as you saw Sans open his mouth, a red glow emanating from his teeth as you watched a rather long, almost tentacle-like tongue wrap around his fingers and clean the mustard concoction off.

“So what are you drinking?” V asked, you quickly looked back down to the table to finish cleaning trying to ignore your heart pounding in your chest. 

“bourbon” He replied “are you gonna drink or?” he said sounding annoyed 

“Yep!” you declared quickly grabbing the first glass. It was tall with a blue liquid filling it up and had what looked like floating clouds inside. Brining it up to your mouth you could smell what you could only describe as a warm summer's day. You glanced over to see V also holding the glass up giving it a skeptical look

“What is it?” she asked, Sans rolled his eyelights

“just try it” He said 

“Fine” V replied through strained teeth. The both of you gave each other a nod before drinking some of the liquid. It had a refreshing and light taste, like watermelon but you don’t think that was quite right. What was more interesting to you was the floating sensation it made you feel. Looking up at V you had to cover your mouth to stop from laughing. Strands of her hair were floating as if she was touching one of those electric ball things. 

“Oh my GOD! My hair better not be floating!” V yelled as she looked in you and the laughter died in your throat as you shrunk slightly. V winced 

“Sorry sweetie” she said lightly touching your arm “But seriously Sans!” she glared at the skeleton who was smiling proudly 

“it’s called air head and it-” 

“Ruins my hair, I got it” V said, annoyed. “If any of these other drinks ruin my hair, your dead skeleton” She said, picking up the next glass. You followed her lead. It was a shorter scotch glass, with a black liquid that seemed to have shimmer with a rainbow color when shaken around that made it look really pretty. It didn’t really have a scent to it but it did have a slightly sweet taste to it. 

“Woah, pretty” you mumbled as you watched V’s eyes start to glow a pastel rainbow. The glow seemed to slowly get brighter and you noticed the shield adorning her shoulder also began to illuminate

“Ok, this one I like” V declared

 “that was illuminate, you can get specific colours but i assumed ya would want a mix” Sans filled in as V pulled out her phone and took a few selfies of herself before dragging you into an awkward pose beside her. You assumed she would be sending them to Logan as she happily began typing something out on her phone. You grabbed the next glass. A margarita glass with blue liquid and silver swirls throughout it. You smelt the liquorice before the flavor hit your tongue 

“Don’t we look cute!” V cheered showing you her phone, you reached out to angle the screen more towards you only to have your hand complete phase through the phone. You let out a yelp of surprise and pulled back. Tentatively putting your hand back on the table, which it sat on fine, as Sans laughed at your reaction.

“What the fuck was that?” V asked, sounding more confused then anything else. 

“a ghost margarita, humans turn incorporeal for a few second after drinking it” Sans managed to say after pulling himself together 

“What if she went through my hand?” V asked horrified, but Sans quickly shook his head

“only works on inanimate objects, so can’t go through monsters or humans” Sans filled in 

“Ew” V said, moving the ghost margarita away from herself.

“Guess where moving on to the shots?” you said eyeing the remaining three glasses. All of which were in shot glasses. The first one and next in line to drink, was a green liquid. Picking up the glass the green goo inside was a lot thicker then you had first thought and had a very unappetizing color to it. V downed it first as you were still contemplating whether it was safe or not but seeing as she was fine you followed her lead. 

“Damn, girl you look hot!” she said as you down the drink. 

“Sorry?” you asked putting the glass down and looking over at V. She looked different. Not a whole lot different but her eyes were slightly bigger and she looked thinner, or was her chest bigger? “Oh” was all you could think to say

“that’s a glamor shot. it shifts the appearances of those around you to make them look more attractive to you” Sans explained. Looking over at him though it didn’t look like it affected your perceptions of monsters as Sans looked exactly the same. Or at least you thought it didn’t until V spoke

“Wow, even you look good like this” V said eyeing the skeleton up and down with approval “Don’t you agree?” she asked you 

“Uh, yeah” you said not entirely sure how to tell her that he hadn’t changed at all to you. Taking a quick glance around the bar you could in fact see that the rest of the monsters around had changed appearance. 

“I wonder what Logan would look like with this shot” V pondered 

“Probably just like him with some tattoos” you muttered watching curiously as the monster's appearances morphed back to normal. Glancing back at Sans before back down to the shots in front of you. He still hadn’t changed. You decided not to read into it and reached for the bubblegum pink shot downing it before V even had a chance to pick hers up. You instantly felt lighter, the room spinning slightly and you heard yourself giggling. You knew this feeling. You were drunk. Instantly after drinking the shot 

“you chewed gum before?” Sans asked as V quickly downed her own shot

“Yeah! I love gum!” you said giggling

“I could totally have some gum” V said excitedly as she also became giggly 

“try blowing a really big bubble, like you have some in your mouth,” Sans said. What a funny idea, but it sounded fun, so you tried and you could see it. A huge pink bubble! You wanted to make it as large as possible before it went pop. As soon as it did you felt sober again 

“What?” you said confused. There was no evidence that you had felt drunk moments before and next to you you could see V’s own pink bubble as she blew. She let out a squeal of excitement though and it popped when it wasn’t that big at all causing her to giggle

“that’s bubble o bill. it gets humans instantly drunk and they can blow bubbles to sober up. the bigger the bubble the more sober you get” 

“So she's still very drunk then” you said pointing at V who latched onto your arm

“You’re soooo pretty! I don’t tell you that enough” she said 

“yep” Sans said. You looked down at the row of drinks you had tested and the last one. A pretty pink shot with heart bubbles in it. 

“It’s so pretty” you said grabbing both shots “Want to blow a bigger bubble so we can try?” you asked V who shook her head like a stubborn child

“No way! I wanna stay like this longer” V pouted, crossing her arms and looking away from you. 

“I don’t think she’s gonna want to try this one” you said watching V giggle to herself as she suddenly found her hands very amusing. “How about you take it with me?” you asked, pushing the pink shot glass over towards the skeletons. He eyed it for a second before shrugging.

“sure kid, but it won’t affect me the same way it does you” he said picking it up 

“That’s ok, cheers” you said holding out the glass for Sans to chink. He looked at it confused 

“what?” he asked after a while

“C-cheers?” you said again less confidently “do monsters not do cheers?” you asked

“no?” Sans said still looking at you with bewilderment “what the fuck is a cheers?” 

“It’s where you like knock your glasses together in celebration or comradery” you answered 

“why?” Sans asked sounding more annoyed than anything else 

“I, um, don’t know” you trailed off “never mind, let’s just drink” you said really wanting to forget the whole exchange. Before Sans had a chance to say anything you downed the shot. Immediately your body was filled with an overwhelming pleasant sensation, you felt warm and before you knew what was happening a loud moan escaped your lips.

You quickly slapped a hand over your mouth, feeling your face heat up. You just moaned in public. Fuck.  Your eyes quickly darted around the room, noticing more monsters then when you had first arrived. When did they get here?  Your breathing became ragged as your heart rate rose. It was quickly becoming unbearably hot and your vision was getting blurry. You unconsciously pulled your sleeves down over your hands, feeling your face getting redder as your eyes continued to dart around the room in a panic. Everything was way too loud. You wanted to run, or hide, you wanted to be anywhere but here right now. 

Something grabbed your hands through your sleeves pulling them to the table and causing you to jump. You looked over with wide eyes to see Sans holding your hands, a serious expression on his face. 

“it’s alright sweetheart, you’re safe” Sans deep voice cut through the impossible loud bar and to your surprise it seemed to calm you down almost instantly. You felt yourself staring at the large skeleton monster as your heart rate and breathing returned to normal. He didn’t move, didn’t try to pull away, he just remained calm as you came down from your panic attack. When you were back to normal you realized that he was tracing small circles on the back of your hand, glancing down you saw him gently holding your hands still, your hoodie sleeves covering your skin from his thick finger bones. He slowly let go of your hands and placed them back on his side of the table. 

“never given a girl that reaction from a screaming orgasm before” he said with a wink. You felt your face heat up again but it wasn’t due to another anxiety attack. 

“What?” you said, ever so smartly

“it’s the name of the shot” Sans said pointing to the glass “a screaming orgasm” He said

“Bout time she had one” V said, throwing her arm over your shoulder and giggling like a mad school girl. 

“V!” you said embarrassed 

“Oh come on! I’m convinced your still a virgin!” she said loudly

“Shut up!” you told her trying and failing to push her away from you

“Hey just cause I don’t like the bone boy doesn’t mean YOU can’t have some fun with him!” she said laughing. 

“Stop! And sober up already! I think I see our food!” You told her with another push.

Sans POV

i couldn’t believe that a dumb prank would make the human freak out like that. she was not going to last in this project at all at this rate. only reason i helped her was because it would be a fucking mess if she left. had nothing to do with that sick feeling i felt when her eyes started darting around. she was overreacting anyway. she was sorta cute, in a gross way, when she turned red but she was a fucking human. no way i was going out of my way to help her out unless it also benefited me. 

grillby soon brought over our food. three burgers with a serving of fries and one with a salad. that human, jessica? was gonna pay for that one and i knew just what to do when she asked to have some of my mustard, after she sobered up from the bubble o bill shot. 

“you sure sweet cheeks? it can be a lot” i said smirking as i held up the bottle and shook it from side to side slightly to distract from the fact that i was loosening the cap. i had already put a decent on my own meal so i it was worth using the rest for this.

“Give it over already!” she said, leaning over the table and snatching it from my hands. i picked up some of my fries to begin eating as i watched with anticipation. jessica slowly pulled off the cap of her burger and turned the mustard bottle over, only to have the cap completely come off as she squeezed it, drenching the burger in the condiment. my human roommate quickly turned away to hide her laughter as Jessica looked up at me with her caked on makeup wearing an expression that was not as intimidating as she thought. 

“You are dead bone boy!” she said leaning over the table in an attempt to grab me

“Don’t, V it’s fine” the human said pulling her back with a smile “We can just swap, you know I practically drown my burgers in the stuff anyway” The human said, already switching the plates 

“Not the point! He so did that to mess with me” Jessica said glaring

“You kinda deserved it” My roommate muttered 

“What!” Jessica said turning her rage to her human friend. their interactions were entertaining at least. the rest of the night went by without a hitch and pretty quickly. to my surprise the human did in fact eat the burger drenched in mustard without so much as a complaint, for some reason it made me forget my annoyance of this whole ordeal. we continued to drink, but the two humans got way more sloshed than i did. it was easy enough to shortcut us all home though. i could of left them but i didn’t feel like pissing off the boss when he asked about it tomorrow. i’d already get enough shit from the regulars at the bar next time i went in without him also breathing down my neck. 

Chapter Text

You woke up the next day with a splitting headache and Vanessa lying on your stomach as your alarm blared from your phone. You had no memory of getting home but you did remember having a good night out. You also remembered it was Monday, which meant that you had a house meeting in about ten minutes. You gently pushed V off of you, she groaned as you stood up throwing the blanket over her. She would probably be asleep for the next few hours or so. You quickly got dressed into some comfy clothes and pulled out some aspirin from your bag to help with the headache. Leaving your water bottle and some of the pain killers for your friend before heading down stairs to grab some more water for yourself. Papyrus and Sans were both already in the living room when you entered. Sans was once again sitting on the couch yawning and Papyrus was standing up prepared to run the meeting, much like the first morning in the house. 

“Hey Sans, thanks for last night, we had a good time” You told the skeleton taking a seat next to him

“don't mention it” he waved you off 

“THE HOUSE MEETING SHALL COMMENCE IN THREE MINUTES, PLEASE ENSURE YOU ARE READY” Papyrus said matter of factly 

“Why not just start now?” You asked, after all you were all here but apparently Papyrus found your question to be rather stupid as he scoffed at you

“THE AGREED MEETING TIME WAS 9PM, WHICH IS IN THREE MINUTES” He told you matter of factly. You instantly felt as if you had done something wrong and pulled your knees up to your chest muttering an apology. You missed the look between the skeletons before Sans leaned in to whisper to you as Papyrus turned around to shuffle through some notes

“don’t take it personally kid, the boss is just a stickler for schedules” Sans told you. It actually made you feel better knowing that the taller skeleton would have reacted that way if anyone had asked the question. The house meeting started promptly at 9am and concluded half an hour later. It really didn’t need to be that long as neither you nor Sans really had anything to contribute but Papyrus managed to stretch it out to what he deemed to be an appropriate amount of time, although nothing was really said rather then a breakdown of your new job and the trip to Grillby’s. 

“AND THAT CONCLUDES OUR MEETING. HUMAN ARE YOU PREPARED TO GO RETRIEVE FOOD FOR THE WEEK OR DO YOU NEED SOME TIME?” Papyrus asked turning to you. Your headache had subsided during the meeting and you had ate some fruit as Papyrus talked so you weren’t hungry.

“We can leave now. Oh, V is still upstairs though, let me just leave her a note incase she gets up before we come back” you said standing up

 “I’ll be right back” you were already rushing up the stairs as Papyrus called after you

“ALRIGHT BUT HURRY IT UP HUMAN I DO NOT HAVE ALL DAY” you quickly scrawled a note to V and headed back down stairs where Papyrus was waiting by the front door tapping his foot rather impatiently. 

“Bye Sans” you yelled out as you passed the tall skeleton, you did not get a response.

“YOU SEEM LESS NERVOUS TODAY” Papyrus pointed out after a few minutes. You thought about this for a moment and released that your disposition probably felt like a 180 to how you were the first time the two of you went to the market together. 

“Yeah, I am” you said before deciding the skeleton probably deserved more explanation “Last week everything just happened very fast. I didn’t really get a chance to prepare myself for going out in public let alone to a new place surrounded by strangers. Don’t get me wrong I’m still nervous but now I know where I am going and what to expect and I knew it was going to happen so I’m more prepared” you said, Papyrus nodded along to what you were saying 

“WILL YOU BE HAVING ANOTHER BREAKDOWN LIKE LAST TIME?” He asked and you faltered 

“That’s, that’s not really something I can predict” you told him awkwardly rubbing your arm to try and comfort yourself. Him asking the question made you feel like you were a burden to the monster and you knew in a way that you were. 

“VERY WELL” Papyrus said after a moment of eyeing you cautiously. You walked the rest of the way in silence. You had no idea what to say and Papyrus didn’t seem that keen on a conversation anyway so you spent the time trying to convince yourself you weren’t a burden even though you felt like one. 

“IT WOULD BE MORE EFFICIENT TO SPLIT UP AND MEET BACK HERE” Papyrus said coming to a halt as the two of you entered the main street 

“Right” you said not really listening to what he was saying. You assumed you would go your own ways when you got to the street, that’s what happened last time. 

“LET’S GO TOGETHER TODAY” He said 

“Pardon?” You asked confused, after all he literally just said it would be better to split up 

“WE WILL GO TOGETHER TODAY.” He said more defiantly 

“IS THAT A PROBLEM?” He asked crossing his arms and glaring down at you from his tall stature

“Nope, not at all” you said quickly, putting your hands up in a surrender. 

“GOOD. THIS WAY” Papyrus said turning on his heels and leading the way down the main street and the two of you started your shopping together. You got a few odd glares and snarls from monsters which made you nervous but tried to push that aside so you could focus on the task at hand so that you weren’t a burden to the skeleton. 

“ARE YOU READY TO MOVE ON?” Papyrus asked as you stared down at one of the stalls trying to figure out exactly what to grab. You didn’t want to waste any of the food you took so you were trying to stick to your list but you did have a tendency to get a bit distracted 

“Yeah, I’m done” you said smiling up at the monster. He gave you a nod and the two of you moved to the next stall. 

“Sorry if I take a while. This is just so different than what I’m used to” you told your companion as you glanced at some of the monster infused food laid out before you.

“IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFERENT OUTSIDE THE WALL?” Papyrus asked although he wasn’t looking at you

“Oh yeah” you said “Getting food in here is more like a market place. It has good ingredients but it’s pretty limited in what is actually being supplied. Most people go to grocery stores outside the wall for their food” you rambled 

“WHAT IS A GROCERY STORE?” The skeleton asked turning his head slightly to look at you

“It’s a store with a bunch of food” You said before you figured the monster probably could have figured out that much on his own “It looks like a giant warehouse” you started trying to get more detailed “there are isle that sort different food products and fresh produce. You can get a lot from them” you said shrugging 

“INTERESTING” Papyrus said turning back to the booth in front of him “I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING IT WHEN I GET THE CHANCE” 

“We could probably get permission and go to one” you said without thinking. The skeleton seemed to think over your words, before eyeing you cautiously 

“MAYBE LATER IN THE YEAR” He said. Perhaps he didn’t want to be seen with you outside of the wall. You tried to push that thought aside as you continued to collect your food for the week. Around 30 minutes later and you were done and had everything you would need for the week. Papyrus seemed to be done with his shopping too, although you didn’t know if shopping was the right word. It felt more like collecting than actual shopping. As you headed back up the street Papyrus stopped in front of you causing you to halt in your tracks.

“HUMAN, I HAVE TO DISCUSS SOME BUSINESS WITH THE ROYAL GUARD” Papyrus told you nodding towards the same dog like monsters he had spoken to last week when you were here

“Oh, sure” you said nodding in agreement even if you didn’t really have a choice. Papyrus briefly looked over your shoulder for a second too long causing you to glance back and see the same rabbit monster vendor he had asked you to collect something from last week. You swallowed hard at the thought of him asking you to do that again as he went to talk to the dog monsters but he didn’t. 

“WAIT HERE” He practically ordered instead taking you by surprise but you were thankful. Papyrus went and talked to dog monsters and you waited in the spot he had asked you to. Pulling out your phone  to pass the time. 

You had got a message from V telling you that she was heading back to her apartment and thanking you for the aspirin. You sent a quick reply before taking the time to check your blog.

The reviews from your first post were pretty neutral and not much interaction was being made. You hadn’t written up your experience with Grillby yet but you figured that would probably get more traction due to the interest in magic and their effects on humans. 

“OK HUMAN, LET US RETURN HOME” The loud voice made you jump and you almost dropped your phone but managed to catch it. 

“R-right!” You said looking up to see Papyrus glaring down at you. You immediately averted your eyes from the intimating skeleton as your heart rate increased. There was a solid minute before Papyrus started moving, heading back to the house, but he didn’t say anything. You didn’t either, too busy silently cursing yourself out for being so jumpy. 

You made it home without saying a single word to each other and you practically sprinted to the kitchen to try and put all your things away. You decided you had made enough of a fool of yourself for one day with your dumb questions, rambling and jumpy nature, and was quite ready to disappear into your bedroom for the remainder of the day. Papyrus clearing his throat drew your attention to him.

He had just placed the bags he had been holding and he was looking at the floor. He seemed troubled, or angry as his expression was screwed as he tried to figure out the right words. He eventually looked at you, making you jump back slightly. The way he had been angrily glaring at the floor made you nervous. You immediately assumed you had done something wrong

“I BELIEVE I HAVE MADE A TERRIBLE FIRST IMPRESSION” Papyrus told you through gritted teeth. He wasn’t looking directly at you and as your eyes darted around his form they landed on his gloved hands, balled up into tight fist by his sides 

“I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF WE COULD START AGAIN” He managed, before waiting patiently for you to respond

“I don’t want to start again” you said in a quite voice. You didn’t think too much about the statement, too busy trying to calm your pounding heart. You really just said you’re honest thoughts. Papyrus looked up at you, a flash of sadness crossing his skull before it returned to a neutral expression.

“I UNDERSTAND HUMAN, I WILL ATTEMPT TO STAY OUT OF YOUR WAY DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE PROJECT” Papyrus said turning around and fully intending to walk away from you. 

“Wait!” You yelled, completely taken aback by his reaction. You grabbed his forearm to stop him from leaving, the bone covered by his long red gloves. It felt like leather. The skeleton stop and turned to you but still didn’t look pleased “That’s not what I meant at all” you said, Papyrus gave you a confused look 

“I’M AFRAID I DO NOT UNDERSTAND” He said 

“Well, I mean” you started, letting go of the skeletons arms and letting your own fall to your side “Maybe we didn’t have the best start but that wasn’t because of you. If anything it was my fault because of the, well, you know…. Anxiety. Anyway I don’t want to start again, we’re already friends and I like how we are-” your rambling was cut off

“YOU THINK WE ARE FRIENDS?” The skeleton asked his voice raising ever so slightly making you wince. Did you overstep a boundary? You knew that you hadn’t know the skeletons that long, I mean a week was nothing in the grand scheme of things but you felt like you could call each other friends. It was very early though and you could understand how that might have made the monster uncomfortable 

“I, yeah?” You said not so sure of yourself. Maybe you should take it back? After all Papyrus looked pretty angry that you had chosen to call him a friend. You didn’t get a chance tho as Papyrus cleared his throat 

“ALRIGHT HUMAN, I GUESS WE CAN LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE.” He said before his eyes darted to the old clock hanging on the wall before returning to you “IT IS ALMOST LUNCH TIME, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO COOK SOMETHING FOR US?” He asked not taking his eyes off of you. Papyrus hadn’t made you food once during the previous week. He made Sans and himself every single meal but he had never offered to make you food and you didn’t want to ask our of fear.

“Uh, sure!” You said a bit too loudly. You really didn’t know how to react and agreed out of shock more than anything else, although there may have been a slight feeling of fear there as well. 

Papyrus nodded in acknowledgment before walking past you into the kitchen. You stood for a moment, not sure if you should stay or get out of the monsters way but Papyrus answered that for you a moment later 

“TAKE A SEAT HUMAN, THIS WILL NOT TAKE LONG” He told you matter of factly. You nodded and took a seat at the counter. You watched as the skeleton began to prepare you lunch before you began to feel very awkward over the fact that you were just sitting here. 

“Do you like cooking?” You asked trying to fill the silence and stop your nerves from taking over 

“YES, I FIND IT RATHER ENJOYABLE. I UNFORTUNATELY DID NOT GET MUCH TIME TO PERFECT THE ART UNDERGROUND BUT HAVE FOUND MYSELF WITH A LOT OF FREE TIME SINCE WE WERE FREED” Papyrus told you. It looked like he was making a simple pasta dish. His movements were fluent and confident making you feel like he had plenty more experience cooking then you had. 

“That’s great” you said, you weren’t really good with conversation

“WHAT DO YOU LIKE DOING HUMAN?” Papyrus asked, taking you by surprise before you realized he was probably asking to be polite rather than having any real interest in you and your hobbies. 

“I like to write?” you said it was really the only thing you could think of “Or at least I used to, I don’t do it much anymore” you told him truthfully

“WHY NOT?” 

“I just stopped enjoying it” you said, a flash of your brothers smiling face making its way into your mind. You quickly tried to change subject 

“How’s work?” It was really the only question you could think of besides the weather. Papyrus didn’t seem to mind too much though as he gave you a polite answer before the two of you continued to discuss nothing in particular. The conversation was dominated with small talk more than anything else but it made you feel oddly relaxed. Eventually Papyrus placed a bowl of simple looking spaghetti in front of you. You gave him a quick thanks before trying a bite. 

It was OK. It was groundbreaking good or anything, in fact the pasta seemed to be a bit under cooked, the homemade tomato sauces were just a bit too chunky and there was little to no spices you could taste. It wasn’t bad by any means. You could definitely finish the entire bowl, in fact you had basically eaten half of it already before you noticed Papyrus impatiently tapping his gloved fingers on the bench. You slowly looked up to meet his gaze

“WELL?” Papyrus asked 

“Well?” You repeated with the fork halfway to your mouth. You didn’t know what the skeleton wanted. He rolled his eyes at you before giving you more information

“HOW IS IT? IMMACULATE AS ALWAYS I PRESUME” He said, puffing out his chest proudly.

“It’s a bit bland” you said without thinking, taking another mouthful. You weren’t even fully aware of what you had just said, Papyrus presence had just made you so relaxed for some reason that you fell back into what you would have said in the past. Before you were riddled with crippling anxiety and panic attacks. 

“EXCUSE ME?!” Papyrus asked, his voice suddenly much louder than his normal volume. It gave you a bit go a scare causing you to jump and drop your fork which clattered to the ground 

“S-sorry” you immediately apologized dropping to the floor to retrieve the utensil when you stood back up you froze. Panic instantly freezing you in place from the cold glare that Papyrus was giving you 

“DID YOU REALLY JUST CALL MY COOKING BLAND?!” He asked, his voice still raised. You swallowed hard your throat suddenly very dry as you tried to get yourself to explain your thought process

“I just, that was, I didn’t mean” you tried but couldn’t piece together a single thought. Your throat feels as if it was closing over from fear. 

“ANSWER ME HUMAN!” Papyrus said, slamming his hands down hard on the counter top. You let out an involuntary yelp and closed your eyes tight, waiting for the hard contact of a hand against your cheek but it never came. You could hear yourself breathing heavily and managed to open your eyes trying desperately to avoid looking at the skeleton

“I’m sorry” you cried, pushing away from the table and rushing upstairs as quickly as possible. You didn’t want to be in the same room as the monster anymore, you couldn’t be. Your heart was beating hard in your chest and your eyes were blurry with tears. You had no idea that Papyrus would be that upset over your comment, you didn’t even mean to make that comment, you just felt so relaxed that it came out without you even thinking about it. You needed to separate yourself from the skeleton to give yourself a chance to calm down. 

Papyrus POV

I HAD NOT MEANT TO SCARE THE HUMAN, LET ALONE HAVE THEM RUN AWAY CRYING. I WAS JUST FLOORED BY THEIR REACTION. I WASN’T FOOLISH ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE MY COOKING WAS THE BEST OUT THERE BUT NO ONE HAD EVER TOLD ME DIFFERENTLY OUT OF FEAR OF EITHER MYSELF OR MY BROTHER OR BECAUSE THEY GENUINELY DID NOT CARE FOR MY INTERESTS. I WAS JUST TAKEN ABACK WAS ALL.

THE HUMAN HAD ALSO CALLED ME A FRIEND, I AM SURE THAT THEY ARE NOT AWARE OF THE WEIGHTING THAT CAN HOLD ON A MONSTER. WE DIDN’T HAVE ‘FRIENDS’ THERE WAS FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES BUT FRIENDS WAS TOO FAMILIAR. HELD TO MUCH WEIGHT UNDERGROUND. I WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN CALLED UNDYNE A FRIEND. 

THE FOOD WAS MEANT AS AN OFFERING AS SORT AS I COULDN’T REALLY SAY IT BACK. INSTEAD I SCARED THE HUMAN AWAY. THIS PROJECT WAS GOING TO BE CHALLENGING BUT IT WAS FOR THE GOOD OF ALL MONSTER KIND SO I WAS GOING TO TRY MY BEST. 

I PICKED UP THE HUMANS FORK THAT THEY HAD ABANDONED AND TRIED A BITE OF THE DISH I HAD GIVEN THEM. I GUESS I COULD SEE WHAT THEY WERE SAYING IT WAS BLAND. I REFUSED TO LET THAT BE THE LAST OF MY COOKING THEY ATE. I WAS GOING TO IMPROVE AND SHOW THEM JUST HOW GOOD MY COOKING COULD BE. 

Chapter Text

It was just over a month into the M.A.G.E project. The time had gone almost unbearably slowly, you almost felt as if you’d been here for two years. This was due to your own negligence however, ever since you had accidentally insulted Papyrus cooking you’d been avoiding both skeletons. 

Sans didn’t seem to care all too much about this, he never even tried to talk to you and you think Papyrus caught on pretty quickly that you were uncomfortable as everytime he addressed you you would jump, rather violently, and make a quick escape back to your room. 

You spent most of the time in your room. Hitting the market once a week after your roommate meeting was really the only time you left the house and the only time you were in the same room as the skeletons for a prolonged period of time. 

The skeletons were. . . Odd. 

The more you sulked around the house the more you heard glimpses of the skeletons and you weren’t entirely sure what to think of their relationship. You would have assumed Sans was scared of his brother, the way he sweated and agreed with whatever nonsense Papyrus seemed to threaten but then there were times Sans was teasing his brother and laughing at his misfortune as if he thought Papyrus couldn’t touch him at all. 

There always seemed to be laughing or screaming throughout the house, neither of which you were a part of. You would sometimes lament about how this experiment could have been before your heart decided it wanted to get itself out of your chest. 

You think it would be fun. You would have definitely got into some fights with your roommates but at least you could have spoken up for yourself instead of rotting in your room. Staying in your room did allow you time to work on the blog. 

Ever since posting about the magical drinks it had exploded with popularity. Millions of people were asking you question and even your subsequent post, that were mainly about the structure of the project, exploded. 

You weren’t sure if this was a good thing or not but knew eventually you’d have to ask a monster to help answer some of the questions that kept coming up. You wanted to avoid that for as long as possible though so in the meantime you were just answering the questions you felt confident in answering. 

It was around ten in the morning, you had eaten breakfast hours ago, as you laid in bed, mindlessly scrolling your phone. The loud, and rather sudden, bang on your door made you drop your phone with a squeak. 

It smashed into your nose and you let out a groan as you sat up, your phone clattering to the ground. Tears stinging your eyes as you rubbed the spot. It really stung. 

“HUMAN, YOU HAVE SOME GUESTS WAITING FOR YOU IN THE LIVING ROOM” Papyrus voice still came through loudly, even if it was muffled from the closed door. 

You groaned again as you pulled yourself off your mattress. Grabbing your phone and trying not to cry. Clutching your nose you slowly opened the door. 

“Guests?” You questioned with a sniffle. Lowering your hand as you did. Your nose still smarted but you figured it would for a while. 

“YE-” Papyrus cut himself off, looking you over before frowning “YES” he said slowly, through gritted teeth. 

It sent a cold shiver up your spine as your heart caught in your throat. You immediately felt like you had done something wrong. 

“I, uh” you quickly racked your brain for what it would be “I didn't know anyone was coming over” you practically whispered as you assumed Papyrus was upset you may have broken one of the housemate rules. 

“I DID. HURRY UP, THEY CANNOT WAIT FOREVER” Papyrus demanded, already heading down the stairs as he did.

You glanced down at your clothes. Tracksuits and a baggy T-shirt. You could change and risk upsetting Papyrus but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it and quickly followed after the tall monster. Gently rubbing your nose as you go. 

Making it to the bottom of the stairs you weren't sure who you were expecting to see. A part of you assumed that since Papyrus had called these guests over it would be Undyne. Vanessa and Alphys were definitely an odd couple to see instead. 

V was tapping her foot impatiently and the poor lizard monster was shaking in her seat. Probably intimidated by the rather annoyed looking human sharing the space with her. 

“Uh?” you greeted the room rather dumbly. V turned to you, her face lighting up 

“Hey sook, we’ve apparently come to rescue you” V told you 

“You saw me two days ago” you muttered as V pulled you into a tight hug “I’m fine” you whined 

“Hi Alphys” you waved awkwardly to the monster as Vanessa continued to hug you. The lizard monster waved back shakily but didn’t say anything. 

“Spike over here” V started as she pulled back “Said you’ve been holed up in your room for a month” 

“You saw me at the market two days ago” you stated again  

“AND I AM PAPYRUS, CAPTAIN OF-” V cut him off

“I told you before we came here if you were having an episode to call” V punched your arm 

“Ow!” you rubbed the spot she had hit looking annoyed at her

“Why didn’t you call?” she demanded 

“Cause apparently he did” you gestured to Papyrus 

“Call? Bitch he showed up at my house screaming to come fix you” V said exasperatedly 

“He-” you paused processing what V had just said to you “He did that? You went and yelled at her apartment complex to come fix me?” you asked Papyrus. He cough, turning his skull away 

“IT WOULD DO NO GOOD IF YOU WENT AND DIED UNDER MY ROOF LOCKED UP IN YOUR ROOM” He said, almost sounding annoyed 

“Right. Uh so what’s the plan?” you asked turning back to your guests

“I don’t fucking know” Van said not so helpfully. You glanced at Alphys. The poor lizard monster looked absolutely terrified. 

“You were saying you got your TV hooked up right?” you asked. The skeletons didn’t have one yet. In fact the old house you were currently residing in had very little energy at all. Until the grid was fixed you weren’t sure if you were going to get one either. 

“Sure is. Logan even got my streaming services all hooked up. He’s so considerate” 

“Then let’s go to yours and have a watch party” 

“Ooo love that. I already have popcorn” 

“That ok with you Alphys?” you asked the lizard monster. She jumped at being addressed. Eyeing Papyrus quickly before nodding. 

“Sweet, let me just grab a jacket” you said heading up the stairs as Vanessa followed after you. 

“What’s with the Lizard?” she asked when you made it upstairs 

“That’s Alphys. I’ll introduce you properly when we head off. She’s sweet, likes anime but has bad social anxiety. They thought us getting to know each other could help us both out” you explained as you opened your bedroom door. 

“They who- What the fuck is this?!” V cut herself off as she saw the state of your room. You didn’t think it was that bad. There was a pile of laundry on the floor but really that was it

“What?” you asked, heading to the broken dresser and pulling out a hoodie, throwing it on immediately. 

“No wonder your depressed, your sleeping on the fucking floor. Get a bedframe” Vanessa said with a roll of her eyes. 

“I don’t need a bed frame, the mattress is fine” you said walking past her to the stairs, just as Sans’ door opened. The large skeleton had his hand under his loose shirt, looking like he was scratching his ribs as he yawned. You barely glanced at him as you made your way to the stairs. The small glimpse you did spare had your cheeks heating up. Probably because he was lifting his shirt slightly revealing more bone than usual. 

“Morning Sans” you called out. He only grunted in response. 

“Girl you cannot just sleep on a mattress for the whole year. Your back is going to be a fucking wreck” 

“About time something blew out my back” you muttered, reaching the bottom of the stairs

“Oh my god! Y/n! Where have you been!” Vanessa joked as she jumped on your back in a hug

“Ah!” you wailed. “Get off!” you managed through laughter. 

When Vanessa finally got off you she made her way to the front door without another word. You turned back to the living room where the two monsters were watching your display. Papyrus with what appeared to be annoyance and Alphys with a strange vapid interest. 

“Come on Alphys, we can go watch some new anime on Vanessa’s TV” you said. Alphys face lit up at this and she was by your side in a moment. 

“We’ll be at Vanessa’s” you said to Papyrus 

“JUST BE BACK BY CURFEW” 

“Yep” you said heading to the door only to stop when you heard Papyrus call out again

“AND DON’T TALK TO ANYONE YOU DON’T KNOW” 

“Ok?” 

“AND DON’T-” 

“Ah Papyrus?” you cut him off, you watch the skeleton physically close his jaw. “Did you want to come with?” you asked. Not sure why else he would be acting like a worried parent. 

“ABSOLUTELY NOT. WHAT A RIDICULOUS IDEA!” Papyrus shouted. You felt your heart rate rise and took a step to the door, pushing Alphys back gently, with your arm, as you did. You really didn’t want to have a panic attack 

“Alright. Be home before curfew, don’t talk to strangers and go straight there and back, got it, see you soon” you said rushing Alphys out the door and only letting out a deep breath when the door closed behind you. 

“Y-you h-haven’t t-told him y-yet” She said as she pushed up her glasses 

“Oh fuck no. let’s go” you declared heading towards your car. Vanessa was already sitting in the vehicle. Handing you the keys she apparently had swiped when she left. You buckled up and watched as Alphys awkwardly contorted her large form into the back seat, twirling her thick tail around so it rested on her lap. 

“Sorry Aphys, V lives really close” you said, pulling out of the driveway. Vanessa turned around in her seat and introduced herself to Alphys. Alphys didn’t say anything but did start to nod and shake her head to give answers. Vanessa wasn’t perturbed and continued to ramble as her extroverted self. 

She always had a soft spot for shyer people, probably because Logan used to be a bit of a mess. 

Alphys seemed to recognise V’s apartment building but still didn’t say anything and she began to fidget with her clawed hands as the three of you made your way up the oddly damp stairwell. 

“So how did you two meet again?” 

“Alphy’s soulmate calmed me down from a panic attack at the market and thought we should meet” you said, smiling at Alphys as the three of you reached V’s apartment

“Ah! You’re soulmate? You’ve met them?” Vanessa asked with excitement. Alphys nodded and continued fiddling with her hands. Her eyes darted around nervously. 

“You remember Undyne?” you filled in

“The big scary fish monster?” V said, sounding appalled. You roughly nudged her arm 

“Yes. Alphys is her soulmate” you told your friend. Vanessa glanced over her shoulder, eyeing the lizard.

“Huh” was all she said before finally unlocking the door and the three of you headed inside. You went to make some popcorn and V handed Alphys the remote before offering her the chance to put on some anime. Well that opened Alphys up right away and you could hear the two talking as you made snacks. 

You heard the conversation shift from anime to soulmates as both the women gushed about their respective partners. 

As you joined them and an anime was put on you found your mind wondering about your own soulmate. You knew you had one, you had just never met them before but you loved hearing tales of soulmates, it’s why you used to write romances. 

Soulmates had been around for centuries, some mysterious magic that had been around long before that and the only proof that magic in the world existed until monsters emerged. 

Thinking about it, the magic that showed you who your soulmate was was probably residual magic left over from when monsters and humans lived side by side. 

It was magic activated by contact. When two souls were perfect for eachother, when they resonated and called for one another and you made skin to skin contact your soul mark would form somewhere on your body showing what you will or what you already represent to your soulmate. 

Apparently it tingled, there was a warmth and the spot your soulmark appeared itched. V said it was amazing, Logan said he thought he was having an allergic reaction and your brother always said it was like nothing he ever experienced. Pure magic that he had found the one. 

You fully believed your soulmate was out there. It was one of the reasons you were so set on stepping out of your shell. On working on yourself and your anxiety so you could get out of the house again and meet your soulmate. A part of you still didn’t think you deserved a soulmate but you weren’t going to give up. 

You, Alphys and V were up to about episode 5 of the anime they had chosen when V had decided it was dull enough in the story that she could strike a conversation about your recent bedroom lockdown. 

“Any reason you haven’t been out of your room in weeks?” she prodded 

“Eh, I sorta, Papyrus yelled at me?” 

“That bitch” V responded immediately 

“I did sort of insult him” you said sheepishly and earning a snort of laughter from Alphys

“T-that will d-do it” She said, pushing up her glasses. 

“Maybe we should get you out of the house again” V suggested watching as you scrunched up your face at the idea. 

“We could visit Grillby’s again, try more magic cocktails” V sang in what she clearly thought was an appealing tone. 

“Oh y-yeah. I r-read your p-post about G-grillby’s” Alphys said absently as she chewed on another piece of popcorn. 

“You read my post?” you asked surprised. The lizard monster nodded. 

“D-did you l-like it?” She asked but for some reason you didn’t think it was because she was being polite. 

“It was fun. Could have done with a better guide though” Vanessa said bitterly 

“Stop. Sans was great” you said slightly annoyed 

“S-sans took y-you?” Alphys asked, sounding genuinely shocked 

“Yeah?” 

“I think his brother forced him to” Vanessa said absently 

“Hmm, i-interesting” Alphys said slowly turning back to the screen 

“What? What’s interesting?” you prodded 

“W-well, i m-mean, you’ve p-probably figured o-out that m-monsters d-don’t really do a-anything for f-free. F-for Sans t-to be so a-accommodating as t-to take you to h-his favorite d-dive must mean he g-got s-something o-out of it” Alphys said absently. 

“He got to be annoying” V said, irritated. You were thinking more deeply about it. It never appeared to you that Sans was trying to get something out of you. 

“How would you describe Sans?” you asked Alphys after a while. The monster didn’t even hesitate 

“He’s c-cruel, lazy and s-sadistic. Unfortunately h-he’s also s-smart and a m-m-major p-p-pervert. There is no o-one crueler in the u-underground than the s-skeleton brothers.” She said it so easily, so natural, you don’t think she was lying but that also wasn’t your experience with the brothers. 

They could be a lot but neither of them had been outright cruel to you. Sans had helped you through your panic attack at the bar and Papyrus had cooked for you and even got your friends to come help drag you out of your room. The only descriptor you really agreed with was that Sans could be seen as lazy. He didn’t tend to do a whole lot around the house but sleep or eat or just hang out with his brother. 

In saying that he had nothing really to gain from being as nice as he had to a total wreck like you. Papyrus didn’t have anything to gain either. It wasn’t like you had anything to offer them. 

Unless you include their complete and utter freedom and assimilation into the world beyond the project. 

. . .

That was it. They were purposely being nice, treading carefully, calling friends out to come get you, not bothering you when you were locked in your room, so that you wouldn’t speak out against monsters. So you would go and sing their praises so that they wouldn’t have to stay here for eternity. 

It was sort of sad and scary to think the monster's fates were in your hands like that. Of course it wasn’t just your hands, it was all of the humans in the project. 

You hated the idea of the brothers not being themselves around you so decided you were going to try to get three things out of this project. 1) come out of your comfort zone and address your anxiety until you resemble a small portion of the person you used to be. 2) Get Papyrus and Sans comfortable enough to be themselves around you  without the fear of you destroying all of the monster's hopes and dreams. 3) Get the project to be as successful as you can so that monsters can be free. 

You weren’t sure how you could achieve any of this but you were determined and like hell not knowing what you were doing was going to stop you. It had never done so before it wouldn’t now. 

“If monsters only do things if they get something out of it, why did you agree to come get me out of my room today?” you asked Alphys. Surely if what she was saying was true she hadn’t done it just out of the kindness of her heart. Thinking back even the first time you met she came to get information out of you about humans. 

“I-i owed P-papyrus a f-favor” Alphys said so casually it was obvious these types of things happened often. 

“Charming” Vanessa said, completely and utterly not charmed by this at all. You on the other hand thought this was easier. Knowing monsters always wanted something from you meant you doubted you could disappoint them. 

Not like humans who were complicated, backstabbing messes of a species. Knowing this now though you were also probably going to be a lot more conscious of how monsters were reacting to you but that didn’t seem like too big of a problem to you. 

At least you knew how to get Alphys to hang out with you. Promising her new animes, merch or games would probably convince her to come chill with you. Which was all you really wanted from her too. A friend. It might sound sad but this was fine by you. 

Papyrus calling in a favor for you made you feel queasy though, especially since it appeared this meant something bigger to monsters. He must have actually been concerned that you were staying in your room and avoiding him. You knew that you’d have to talk to him, at least to thank him for today but that also felt like something you may need to build yourself up to. 

Plus it felt like a later problem. You were going to just sit back and enjoy the day with your friends. 

And it was enjoyable, far more than being stuck in your room again. You really needed to work on getting out there more. After all that’s why you joined the M.A.G.E Project… wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

It was the day after your anime day with the girls. You got home before curfew (just) Undyne was here to pick up her soulmate and you were surprised to see both Papyrus and Sans had appeared to have waited up for you. 

You wanted to thank both of them then and there for everything they had done for you in the project up until this point. What happened instead was that your palms got unbearably sweaty, your vision started to blur and you squeaked out a goodnight before rushing upstairs and screaming into your pillow. 

It was now just past midday the next day. You hadn’t left your room yet, you were too busy trying to psych yourself up to thank the skeletons without panicking. It had been hours and you thought you were finally ready.

Taking one last deep breath to steel your nerves. You adjusted your hoodie and left your cave of the room. Telling your pounding heart to shut up as you went down the stairs and feeling yourself shake as you rounded the corner to the kitchen to see Papyrus cooking once more. 

You took a deep breath. You could do this. He was just a literal skeleton. You already knew what he wanted from you. You thanking him was just a formality to make yourself feel better. It was no big deal. 

Or at least that’s what you kept telling yourself. 

“Uh Pa-” you squeaked in surprise as the skeleton whirled around to face you. Some of the food he had been stirring sprayed off the wooden spoon he was holding and clung to the wall

“HUMAN? WHAT IS IT?” He asked, staring at you. 

“I, um” shit. Maybe you couldn’t do this. You felt yourself take a step back. Your heart was pounding as your eyes darted to Papyrus pointed teeth. The red staining his apron. His eyes narrowing at you. Another step back. 

“N-nothing” you squeaked, closing your eyes. There was silence. You could feel the tears in your eyes as you tried to get your heart to calm the fuck down. 

“ALIGHT” you heard after a while before there was clattering in the kitchen again. You slowly opened your eyes. Papyrus had gone back to cooking. Your hands were balled by your side. You quickly dry your eyes on your jacket sleeve feeling defeated before deciding you really didn’t like that feeling. 

In fact you were sick of it. 

You were sick of being scared. Sick of hiding in your room. Sick of being you. You wanted to be the old you. You were going to be the old you. 

Taking a step forward you yelled at the skeleton monster. 

“I just wanted to say thank you for everything! You and Sans have been really nice and considerate towards me and I really appreciate it! If there’s anything I can do for you please let me know!” you rushed to say it all, you were yelling, your tone sounded angry but you had done it. 

A proud feeling washed over you before stuttering as you noticed Papyrus was staring at you once more. 

“Uh, yeah. That was it” you said awkwardly 

“COME AND TRY THIS” Papyrus demanded 

“Sorry?” you asked 

“YOU SAID YOU’D DO SOMETHING FOR ME FOR BEING ‘NICE’, COME TRY THIS NOW” He demanded 

“Ok” you agreed, going over to the kitchen counter and quickly taking a seat on the creaky barstool. 

“Why’d you put nice is quotations?” You asked after an awkward moment of silence. 

“BECAUSE MONSTER DON’T DO ‘NICE’ I HAVE SIMPLY BEEN BEING CIVIL” He said 

“What would you be like if you weren’t being civil?” you asked, feeling the corners of your mouth tug up as if it wanted to smile. 

“DOWNRIGHT DREADFUL! YOU WOULD HAVE FEARED ME AS MUCH AS THE NEXT MONSTER AND I WOULD REVILE IN IT. IT’S A SHAME YOU HAVE SUCH A WEAK CONSTITUTION” He said with a sigh. He genuinely sounded sad at that fact. 

“Are you saying if I wasn’t an anxious mess you would have been mean to me?” you asked 

“I WOULD HAVE SIMPLY BEEN MYSELF. IF YOU THINK OF THAT AS MEAN THAT IS YOUR OWN SHORTCOMINGS NOT MINE” The skeleton said matter of factly. You had to try not to laugh, you got the feeling he wouldn’t be too keen on it if you did. 

“I’d be ok with you being yourself” you said after a while 

“YOU WOULDN'T SURVIVE HERE IF I WAS” Papyrus said, not bothering to turn to you. that hurt your feelings a bit but you understood why he would say that. You haven’t exactly presented the strongest front since you got here.  

“Try me” you said, Papyrus paused and turned to you, eyeing you up. 

“YOU CRY WHEN YOU SEE ME AND RUN AWAY AT THE SOUND OF MY VOICE” He pointed out, as if giving you reasons why this was a bad idea. 

“I don’t, when did I cry after seeing you?” you asked, not sure when he was talking about. As far as you were aware that had never happened. 

“YESTERDAY” Papyrus said 

“What? No I didn’t” you argued back 

“YES YOU DID, YOU OPENED YOUR BEDROOM DOOR AND THERE YOU WERE CRYING” He said, gesturing as he did. He was a very animated talker. 

“I dropped my phone on my face” you defended sounding more annoyed than you were

“WHAT?” Papyrus sounded equally annoyed 

“When you knocked on my door I dropped my phone on my nose and it hurt like a bitch. I wouldn’t cry cause of you. You ain’t that ugly” your mouth was moving faster than your brain could catch up but it felt good. It felt like you. Maybe Papyrus just made you more relaxed than you thought he did. 

“EXCUSE ME? I AM VERY ATTRACTIVE AND SORT AFTER UNLIKE YOU WRETCH” Papyrus retorted, finally dishing up whatever it was he had been making while simultaneously getting more on the cupboard walls. 

“Is that why your single?” 

“WHO SAYS I’M SINGLE?!” you both stared at each other. Papyrus leaning down on the counter to do so.

“Are you?” you asked after a while, genuinely curious. The monster scoffed as he stood up straight. 

“AS IF ANYONE WOULD MEET MY STANDARDS. BESIDES I’M PAST THE POINT OF DATING. I WOULD MUCH RATHER JUST WAIT FOR MY SOULMATE TO MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE”

“So you’ve dated before?” you were just being nosy 

“WHO HASN’T?” He said before stopping in his movements “YOU STILL WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT IF I WAS MYSELF” He said as if he had just remembered what you had been talking about. 

“You called me Wretch two seconds ago and I didn’t even bat an eyelid” you pointed out 

“AND WHAT ABOUT YOU FLINCHING AT MY VOICE?” Papyrus huffed. 

“That’s just cause you’re loud. I, it’s taken me a while to get used to it, is all. I mean if I start having a panic attack you could try whispering but your voice is fine. You’re fine” you gestured widely at the skeleton. 

“WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT TO YOU?” Papyrus asked suspiciously 

“I don’t know. Because we’re friends?” you tried. This reasoning seemed to work for the skeleton though as after a moment to think it over he seemed to nod. 

“FINE HUMAN, I WILL CEASE TREATING YOU LIKE THE FRAGILE BEING YOU ARE UNLESS YOU ARE IN A STATE OF HYSTERICS” 

“Can we not call it hysterics?” Papyrus ignored you. You got the feeling now that he wasn’t being civil that would probably happen a lot. 

“IF YOU AGREE TO HELP ME IMPROVE MY COOKING” You opened your mouth to argue, closed it, processed what Papyrus had said, shook your head and opened your mouth to speak once more. 

“Why?” 

“YOU ARE THE SECOND PERSON TO EVER BE TRUTHFUL ABOUT MY COOKING” 

“That it was bland?” you teased, apparently that flew over Papyrus’ head though. 

“PREPARE TO EAT THOSE WORDS!” He declared placing a dish in front of you. It looked like some sort of gray porridge. 

“What is this?” 

“BLUEBERRY, STRAWBERRY AND CINNAMON OATMEAL” He told you proudly. You stared at it before shrugging. You’d come this far. 

“Sure I’ll keep trying your food” you said 

“YOU’LL HAVE TO TRY SOME EACH DAY” 

“What?” you asked 

“I WILL COOK FOR ALL THREE OF US. ME, YOU AND MY PATHETIC BROTHER AND YOU WILL CRITIQUE EACH DISH AFTERWORDS, WITH YOUR REAL FEELINGS” 

“And you will stop being ‘civil’ around me?” 

“UNLESS YOU ARE IN HYSTERICS” Papyrus nodded 

“Sure. sounds good to me” you got to avoid cooking each day and it sort of felt like Papyrus and you had gotten closer. You didn’t want to say no and ruin that. You remembered Papyrus saying he wanted to ‘perfect the art of cooking’ last time you asked about his hobby and hey, if eating food and telling him what you thought could help him, you were down. Really it sounded like a win win. 

Tentatively picking up the spoon, the consistency of the dish didn’t seem so bad, maybe a tad clunky but not completely off putting. The taste wasn’t bland at least, so you suppose Papyrus was right. You would have to eat those words, but it wasn’t good either. 

Really it tasted like blueberry glue. You could only barely taste the cinnamon and if Papyrus hadn't told you it was there you probably wouldn’t have spotted it, and the strawberries were nowhere in taste. 

Really you were amazed that the monster had managed to get the ingredient with probably the least amount of flavor to be the most prominent. He must have used a shit ton of the small fruit. 

“Well it’s not bland” you said, swallowing your first bite. You didn’t know if you wanted more necessarily but it was already here so you said fuck it and went for another bite. Watching Papyrus puff out his chest slightly as you did. 

“Do you follow any recipes when you cook?” you asked 

“WHY WOULD I DO THAT WHEN I HAVE SUCH AMAZING RAW TALENT” 

“Because this is not great” you said 

“EXCUSE ME?!” You winced at the loud voice and Papyrus recalculated “I MEAN, WHATEVER COULD YOU MEAN?” He asked through gritted teeth and you snorted out a laugh. Honestly it wasn’t much better but it was funny to see him trying. 

“This has the same texture as home made glue and tastes like straight up blueberries that have been left out in the sun” you said, turning your spoon upside down and watching the concoction ooze slowly off of it. 

“I think you should start following a recipe” you added 

“WHY? SO THEY CAN TELL ME THEIR BETTER THAN ME?” Papyrus huffed 

“Do you think that’s what recipes are for?” you asked, trying not to laugh. Papyrus didn’t answer but from his body language you could tell that’s exactly what he thought about recipes. 

“Recipes are just the foundation. If you learn some good ones you’ll also learn the basics, then you can switch bits and pieces around until it’s not even the original recipe anymore but better. It’s just a stepping stone” you exclaimed. Learning some basics from some already tried and tested recipes could help Papyrus out a lot . 

“OH LIKE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MAGIC” Papyrus connected

“Sure” you agreed. You didn’t know anything about magic so you weren’t sure how accurate that comparison was but if it worked for the monster you weren’t going to argue with it. 

“We could follow a recipe together if you want” you suggested, pulling out your phone to find one the two of you could follow along with. 

“Could be a fun bonding moment” you muttered as you scrolled 

“I DO NOT WISH TO BOND WITH YOU” Papyrus sounded disgusted so you had to glance up only to see the skeleton’s expression matched his tone. 

“I’m going to guess bond means something different for monsters. I just meant it could be a good chance to get to know each other and become closer as friends” you exclaimed. 

“I DO NOT NEED FRIENDS EITHER” Papyrus huffed 

“Well that’s too damn bad. We are friends and are going to cook together. We are making Pasta!” you declared 

“I DON’T LIKE PASTA!” You knew that was a lie. 

“Bullshit! I’m already making a list. We are going to the market to get the ingredients then we are having a fun and wholesome bonding time while cooking” 

“DO NOT CALL IT BONDING TIME!” Papyrus shrieked, instead of flinching away though you found yourself trying not to laugh 

“We are bonding!” you said with determination. Papyrus let out a silent screech, the sound of which causes you to sputter out a laugh. 

You think you annoyed the poor monster but when you both calmed down enough to actually talk about it you found that both of you were pretty excited about cooking together. Even if you were communicating through slight jabs and raised voices. It was the most you, you had felt in almost two years. 

You even finished the barely passable porridge and Papyrus had begun to clean the kitchen. The plan was the two of you would head to the market, in the middle of the week, to specifically get what you need for this dish. You would work together to cook it and then that would be the baseline of your ratings. 

You were just double checking the list you made while Papyrus finished up the kitchen when the front door slammed shut causing you to jump slightly in your chair. You turned around just in time to see Sans' large form try to make a retreat upstairs only to be stopped when his brother called out. 

“SANS, HOW WAS WORK?” Papyrus asked, still wandering around the kitchen.

“it’s fine boss” Sans said in a short response. There was something about his tone that was off to you. It didn’t have the normal jovial undertones it tended to have. You also realized you had no real idea what either of the skeletons did for work. 

“THE HUMAN AND I WERE PLANNING ON HEADING TO THE MARKET TO GET SOME INGREDIENTS FOR A SPECIAL DINNER YOU SHALL ACCOMPANY US” Papyrus said.

You watched Sans sigh and mutter something under his breath. He was still facing the stairs as if he wanted nothing more than to be in his room. Papyrus stopped cleaning and you felt the energy shift as the tall skeleton crossed his arms and tapped his foot at his brother. 

“I DID NOT HEAR THAT, SPEAK UP” He demanded. Sans took a deep breath and turned to face the kitchen. 

“not really up for an excursion boss” he said through gritted teeth 

“IT WAS NOT A SUGGESTED” Papyrus retorted with a glare, at this point you think you’d rather it be a suggestion as you felt yourself shrinking in on yourself 

“boss i don’t want to-” 

“ONE” Papyrus cut his brother off 

“not killing myself” Sans retorted instantly and your stomach sank. You had no idea what was happening but the energy was not enjoyable. 

“YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT ALLOWED. YOU ARE COMING WITH US” Papyrus said heading to the door. You guess that means it was time to go and got up to follow. 

Papyrus stopped in the doorway. Eying his brother up and down. 

“GO CHANGE YOUR SHIRT. THAT HAS STAINS ON IT AND I REFUSE TO BE SEEN WITH YOU LOOKING MORE LIKE A SLOB THEN YOU ALREADY ARE” Sans balled his fist, he was literally shaking and looked as if he was about to yell back at his brother when he saw you glancing around Papyrus back to watch. 

You saw Sans’ nasal cavity scrunch up in anger before he took a deep breath in. 

“fine” he said through gritted teeth. Although you appreciated Sans de escalating the situation for you it was sort of disheartening to watch him tread on eggshells around you. Obviously he had been doing this the entire time he knew you but this was the first time you really took notice of it. 

Sans headed up the stairs and when he was at the top Papyrus whirled around to face you. 

“MY BROTHER IS IN A FOUL MOOD” he told you 

“How can you tell?” you joked back

“HE DOES NOT SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY UNLESS HE IS. WE NEED TO CHEER HIM UP AND YOU ARE GOING TO HELP BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS” 

“Sure. What can I do?” you agreed 

“HE NEEDS TO NAME ONE GOOD THING THAT HAPPENED TO HIM TODAY BEFORE WE RETIRE FOR THE EVENING. I THINK EATING WILL HELP BUT WE SHOULD GET HIM SOME MUSTARD FROM GRILLBY’S AS WELL” 

“I could slip away while we’re at the market and get some?” you suggested. Papyrus eye’d you

“WILL YOU BE OK WITH THAT? OTHERWISE YOU COULD DISTRACT SANS-”

“Nah it’s fine. I’ve been to Grillby’s before so it shouldn’t be a problem” 

“GOOD. I WILL TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED AT WORK TO PUT HIM IN SUCH A MOOD WHILE YOUR GONE. WE CAN DISCUSS A BATTLE STRATEGY WHY WE COOK” you nodded along as Papyrus explained all this. It sounded good to you. 

“What does Sans do for work?” you asked 

“HE MAINLY WORKS AS A SENTRY FOR THE ROYAL GUARD, OCCASIONALLY HE DOES ODD JOBS HERE AND THERE OR FOR ALPHYS AS HER ROLE AS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST AND ON RARE OCCASIONS HE’S BEEN CALLED IN BY THE KING TO ACT AS A JUDGE” 

“Woah, that’s uh, a lot” you settled on “what does he do for Alphys?” you asked 

“I DON’T KNOW, SOME SCIENCE THINGS, FIXING MACHINES MAINLY” Papyrus dismissed, you on the other hand were impressed and was wondering if that meant Sans was a whole lot smarter than he seemed. 

Sans came back down the stairs a few moments later grumbling under his breath. He had changed his jumper to a clean looking one but his hands were stuffed into his jacket pocket and he was grumbling under his breath. 

“Did we want to drive?” you asked the two skeletons.

“IT IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, WE CAN WALK” Papyrus declared. It was a few blocks away but Papyrus was already heading out the door and you couldn’t see how arguing with him would help. 

You groaned before following after him, Sans trudging behind the two of you in what seemed like absolute misery. 

The ingredient shopping was nothing special although you did get into an argument with Papyrus when he already wanted to substitute one of the written ingredients for something he thought was more superior. 

When you had almost everything you ducked off to Grillby’s to grab the surprise mustard for Sans, claiming you needed to go fetch some human supplies and asking Sans to make sure Papyrus stuck to the list. 

You felt so confident that when you reached the door to Grillby’s  you had almost felt like your old self. . . And the anxiety began to swirl in your stomach and your hands began to shake and sweat. 

You had to take a deep breath before slowly opening the door and heading inside. It did nothing to calm your nerves or the feeling that you needed to throw up. 

There weren’t many monsters inside. A bunny was knocked out alone in a booth, some sharp teeth like plant monsters in the booth were nursing a drink, and about 4 dog monsters were loudly playing poker at the table in the middle of the room.

You tried not to look at any of the monsters as you quickly scurried up to the bar where the purple fire elemental was cleaning a class.  

You had rehearsed what you were going to say over and over in your mind as you had made your way through the market but now that you actually had to say it you still didn’t feel prepared. Like at all. You were also acutely aware that the bar had become significantly quieter. 

“Hi, sorry, I uh, need a bottle of Mustard?” you muttered sounding total unsure “for S-sans. Papyrus said you could make one to go?” you weren’t sure what the skeleton meant when he said that but it felt like you needed to repeat it. 

Grillby stared down at you, cocking his head to the side as he did. The monster was sort of unnerving. You could feel the literal heat emanating off of him. His eyes were pure white so you weren’t sure where he was looking and he had such a neutral expression it felt impossible to know what he was thinking either. 

Grillby didn’t move for a moment and you felt like he wasn’t going to either but then he spoke, telling you the price, his voice cracking like a fireplace with every word and you relaxed and nodded with a smile. 

Your smile quickly vanished however and you suddenly became aware the dog monsters who had been playing poker were now all talking about you. 

“Oooo the skeletons got a new pet!” the smallest of the dogs laughed, their voice annoyingly high pitched. 

“Isn’t that the broad the fat ass brought in here?” another not so subtly whispered 

“And she’s all alone, suppose we should introduce ourselves” another said and you noticed the snickering. Grillby had handed you the bottle by now and you paid. You could have sworn you saw him smile but not knowing how the monster worked you couldn’t really be certain. 

Turning around you were going to quickly walk past the monsters, trying to ignore their calls, which worked until one stepped in front of you blocking the way. 

“Oi! Bitch we are trying ta talk to you” He snarled making you jump back 

“S-sorry but my f-friends are w-waiting” you managed to get out, your eyes darting around everywhere except for at the monster 

“Then they can wait longer,” He said threateningly. He was bearing his teeth at you like an aggressive dog would, as if you were the one threatening him and he was trying to stand his ground. In reality you were trying to sink in on yourself and make yourself as small as possible. 

“Alright, enough” the fourth dog, the one who hadn’t spoken yet, called out. You heard the scraping of a chair against the hardwood floor. But you were still trying to back away from the imposing looking monster in front of you. 

“What? But we haven’t even started yet” the high pitch one moaned with annoyance 

“Yeah, we still wanted to play for a bit” the female sounding one pouted as the one in front of you was still growling

“Leave it!” the fourth dog barked at the other monster before grabbing your wrist and dragging you from the bar and away from the other monsters “let’s go” he snapped. You let out a yell of surprise, you were shaking as this monster led you back onto the streets. His grip was so tight you don’t think you could have broken away from it even if you tried but of course you also didn’t try. You didn’t even think so. 

You were shaking and hyperventilating as your mind ran wild with where this monster could be taking you and repeating what just happened again and again in your mind. You were such an idiot, a failure, this was all you’d amount to. A hiccuping sobbing mess. 

The dog monster threw you forward and you stumbled into a large back only the be shoved away when said owner of the back whirled around. You slipped and fell backwards, hitting the ground with a large thump as the noise of the world slowly returned 

“fuck! watch were ya- shit, doll, what the fuck are you doing?” you sniffed glancing up to see you had been thrown at Sans who was now looking down at you with disgust

“Keep a tighter leash on your whore” The dog monster spat from behind you as he pulled out a dog treat from his pocket and literally lit it on fire. 

“HUMAN WHAT DID YOU DO?” Papyrus asked as you scrambled to your feet. 

“I went to Grillby’s, walked up to the bar, got the mustard then tried to leave when three other dog monsters stopped me to yell at me!” you rushed to say before releasing the mustard in question was still in your hand. Well at least you didn’t let it go. 

“Oh, here, for dinner, we thought it might help” you muttered, handing it to Sans, who eyed it before slowly taking it. As soon as the bottle was out of your hands you were rubbing your arm awkwardly. 

“THREE OTHERS? DOGGO?” Papyrus questioned glaring down at the dog monster who jumped slightly. 

“Not me! I pulled her out before they did anything, honest captain” Doggo rushed to say 

“He did” you agreed

“WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO MESS WITH THE HUMAN?” Papyrus questioned 

“Ah, Lesser Dog saw ya brother out with her at Grillby’s. They were just curious is all” 

“what?” Sans growled 

“WELL IT SEEMS SOME MORE TRAINING ABOUT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR IS REQUIRED. WHEN YOU GO BACK COULD YOU TELL THE GUARDS TO BE AT TRAINING PROMPTLY AT 6 OTHERWISE THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES” Papyrus said and you felt yourself shiver. That threat did not sound good to you and apparently both Sans and Doggo agreed as the dog monster quickly nodded in agreement and Sans eyelights disappeared. 

“LEAVE” Papyrus said after a while and Doggo jumped. 

“Yes captain!” he said before turning to you  “And any debt is done so don’t come asking for my help again when you're in trouble!” Doggo yelled in annoyance as he ran off

“Debt?” you asked still completely confused by what the fuck was happening. 

“did ya do something for doggo at some point?” Sans asked 

“PROBABLY SOME STUPID HUMAN THING THAT SHE DIDN’T THINK TO MUCH OF” Papyrus said waving it off “WE’RE DONE SO WE MAY RETURN HOME TO COOK” Papyrus almost sounded excited 

“Sure” you mumbled, still trying to think why Doggo thought he owed you. You were trying to think over the last month but the only other time you had a close call with a dog monster was when you got her. 

Oh shit, you returned Doggo his keys when he dropped them! Well fuck. He practically saved your life for returning his property. That suddenly made you wonder if monsters understood equal exchange. Either way you weren’t complaining. If he hadn't been there and didn’t think he owed you, you might have had a full on mental breakdown. 

The three of you headed back towards the house. Sans walked next to you as Papyrus took the lead. 

You groaned having to walk back but thankful no one had handed you anybags left. You made it about half way, thinking about the steps of the recipe and what you needed to do, before Sans spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence you didn’t realize you had all been sitting in. 

“ya really went by yourself to grillby’s just to get me a drink?” Sans asked 

“Well yeah, Paps thought it'd make you feel better,” you said, the nickname just slipping and you missed how it made Papyrus stumble in his stride in front of you but no one mentioned it.  

Sans stared down at his feet for a while and you assumed that was the end of it until he muttered out a low ‘thanks’ that was barely audible. 

“Don’t mention it” you waved off before pausing “Seriously, don’t I don’t want to think about it again” you said with an exaggerated shiver and earning a low chuckle from Sans for your efforts. 

The rest of the walk home was done in silence. When you got to the door Papyrus immediately started to give orders. You were a tad surprised when Sans followed the two of you into the kitchen to take a seat at the table. 

“Awe Sans! You’re joining our bonding sess?” 

“STOP CALLING IT BONDING!” Papyrus screeched as he slammed a pot down on the counter . 

“Bonding time!” you declared 

“i’d love to watch you two bond” Sans said as he leaned down, a teasing smirk crossing his features 

“FUCK OFF SANS!” Papyrus yelled

“what? come on boss! ya know i like to watch” Sans chuckled as Papyrus’ hands shot to where his ears would be on his skull and screeched.

“STOP YOU REVOLTING PERVERT!” 

“Oh it’s a sex thing!” you declared with realization. Sans started laughing hysterically, almost to the point where he fell off the stool and Papyrus whirled around on you looking like he was restraining himself from screaming. 

The whole cooking session went pretty much the same way with Sans intentionally trying to get a rise out of his brother and your oblivious commentary assisting although accidentally. Of course with Sans there you and Papyrus also couldn’t talk about what to do next to cheer him up but Sans seemed to be in an infinitely better mood then when he first came home so you didn’t think it would be an issue. 

The cooking itself led to some more arguments as you had to insist on following the recipe which was pissing Papyrus off as he claimed he could do better without. He almost burnt the pasta several times, grabbed the wrong seasoning and almost added the skins of the tomatoes to the sauce instead of removing them. 

None of these would have made the dish inedible but it definitely wouldn’t taste as good. It took two hours, way longer than it feasibly should have, to finish making the meal. It didn’t help that the kitchen was very small and the two of you kept knocking into each other. At least by the time it was ready it was an appropriate time to have dinner but you were starting to feel exhausted in a way you hadn’t in ages. It was good. You were enjoying yourself. 

All three of you sat down at the small round dining table, just to the side of the kitchen’s island bench,  to eat. Papyrus grumbling that the Pasta was acceptable but he still could have done better as you reminded him this was just a baseline. 

Sans sung his praise for the meal and you got the feeling he did that for any dish his brother made. You suggested small changes to the recipe for next time that you thought might help improve it slightly. Overall the dish was fine. 

Near the end of the meal Papyrus asked a question that changed the jovial mood instantaneously. 

“WHAT HAPPENED AT WORK?” Sans winced at his brothers words and his smile dropped almost instantly 

“nothin’” he grumbled, shifting in his seat uncomfortably. 

“SANS” Papyrus said in a threatening tone 

“nothin’ boss. recruits were just being a pain, and the human guards were pushing their luck” Red snapped back. Papyrus stared at him for a moment 

“DID YOU GET INTO ANOTHER FIGHT?” He asked already sounding angry 

“fuck, no, i ain’t a moron” Sans defended 

“THEN WHY WAS BON AT THE INFIRMARY TENT?” 

“cause he’s an idiot” This fight seemed to be going in circles to you. Sans didn’t want to give up any information and Papyrus didn’t want to drop the. The two monsters were glaring at each other and you were certain voices were going to start being raised any moment. 

“SANS” 

“i didn’t do it! why do ya always think it’s me?!” 

“CAUSE YOUR A FUCK UP AND YOU AREN’T TELLING ME ANYTHING” there it was. You sunk in your chair wondering if you should just leave and if that would even help your pounding heart. Probably not, and you also didn’t want to draw attention to yourself. 

“there’s nothing ta tell!” 

“I SWEAR SANS IF I GET A REPORT TOMORROW THAT YOU DID SOMETHING-” 

“what? you’ll kick me off guard duty? what a fucking pity” Sans spat. The two continued to glare at each other for several moments as the tension rose. You let out a cough to get the attention on you but couldn’t actually say anything when both monsters turned to face you. After a moment they seemed to get the hint that you were uncomfortable. 

With a sigh of someone resigned to not getting any answers Papyrus stood up and cleared the table. You watched him for a moment before glancing back at Sans who was absently spinning the base of the mustard bottle on the table with a scowl. 

“Did you want to talk about it?” you asked with what you hoped was a reassuring smile. Sans snorted as he rolled his eyelights. 

“no offense doll, but we don’t really talk about shit like ‘feelings’ here” he said 

“Right, of course, ew gross feelings” you exaggerated.

“But I am a human and we sometimes talk about feelings so like, could you name the feeling at least?” you tried. You didn’t want to push it too hard. Sans thought about it for a while. You were almost sure he wasn’t going to tell you but he surprised you when he spoke next. 

“angry” he said with a bitterness that chilled you for a brief moment. 

“Angry? Angry’s easy! I can help with angry” you said excitedly springing up from your chair.

“Give me 10 minutes” you said, already heading to the kitchen to collect the supplies you needed. 

After you gathered your little horde from the trash, earning several grossed out glances from Papyrus you headed to the backyard. 

The backyard of the house was in just as worse shape as the rest of the place. Overgrown lawn and weeds everywhere. You were sure there used to be a patio out here that had since been taken over by weeds. A  half wall of brick still stood in the middle of the yard. It was crumbling but the top was straight enough that you could place the cans and bottles and other bits and bobs on top. 

Standing back to admire your work before jogging back inside to the kitchen door. 

“Alright, it’s ready!” you declared 

“what’s ready?” Sans asked. You didn’t answer grabbing his arm and dragging him to his feet before outside. Surprisingly he just followed along without a fuss. 

“Ta-Da!” you declared, gesturing proudly to the wall. 

“awe you decorated with trash” Sans joked 

“SEEMS THE TWO OF YOU HAVE THE SAME STYLE” Papyrus chimed in from behind you as he crossed his arms. Seemed he followed you out. 

“It’s for smashing, glass bottles are pretty fun to shatter and the cans can be dented again and again” you said, picking up a stone and throwing it as hard as you could at one of the glass bottles. It bounced off the top with a click, the bottle swaying before resting back on its spot. 

Despite not knocking it over you let out a whooping cheer, as loud as you could, in celebration. 

“See, it's fun. Ok you’re go” You said handing the skeleton a small rock

“HOW IS THIS MEANT TO HELP?” 

“I don’t know but it does. It’s something me and my brother did when we were mad or had a bad day. It’s like constructive destruction. You can let all your anger out without actually aiming it at anyone” you tried to exclaim 

“how does ya brother feel about ya living with monsters?” Sans asked suddenly and your heart dropped. You didn’t want to talk about Adam, you didn’t want to think about him. Even two years later it still hurts after everything that happened. 

“I don’t know” you quickly said before putting on a brave face

“Come on Grumpy, hit one!” you tried goading. 

“grumpy? stars, kid is that an insult?” Sans asked with what you were pretty sure was mild amusement 

“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, just hit the cans” you pouted as Sans laughed at the thought of you being able to hurt his feelings. 

“HE’S PROBABLY SCARED HE’LL MISS” Papyrus goaded 

“please, this is kids play” Sans said with a roll of his eyelights.  You suddenly felt static in the air. It was heavy, potent. It took you all of three seconds to realize it was magic, Sans’ magic. It was covering the small stone you had handed him, covering it a red glow that pulsated and moved as if it was alive. 

You were memorized as you watched the stone begin to float, just above the skeleton’s gloved palm. It spun there for a second or two before flying towards the array of trash with enough force you could hear it whistle. It smashed through the middle of one of the glass bottles with a crack. The bottle shattered on impact as if it had been hit with a bullet or something. 

You stood looking at the last glass pieces falling and shattering to the ground. Sans looked proud of himself. 

Like hell you were going to stop after just one shot, plus now you wanted to see more magic. 

“Boo! Is that all you got no skin” you jeered 

“no skin? i’m bald too. is that going to come up next?” Sans asked, you could tell he was amused by your attempts if nothing else. 

“Only if your aim keeps being shit!” you practically yelled 

“SHE’S RIGHT. WHAT ARE YOU? A TRAINEE?” Papyrus asked, stepping forward. The static filled the air once more but it was also different. You couldn’t pinpoint why or how but Papyrus’ magic felt different to his brothers. 

You watched amazed as 5 bones seemed to materialize in thin air, the ends looking like ball joints before tapering down to sharp points. They were about the size of a ruler and looked dangerous as they hovered, glowing red . 

They stayed there for a few seconds, bobbing gently before Papyrus extended his hand forward with his palm out and they shot forward with unimaginable speed. Each one hit a separate target, two shattering some more bottles and the others embedding themselves into various cans with a sickening crunching sound. 

You cheered and clapped your hands. Papyrus sticking out his chest with pride. 

“See that’s how you do it, uh” 

“DUMBASS” Papyrus filled in with a smirk 

“Sure” you agreed “The fantastic and terrible Papyrus has knocked down his enemies in one foul swoop. All remaining warriors of the can kingdom shall tremble in fear!” you announced 

“BOW DOWN AND SURRENDER CANS! OR YOU SHALL FACE MY WRATH!” Papyrus immediately joined in as you tried not laugh 

“oooo you're in trouble now can kingdom” Sans jeered, his teeth tugging up in a smile. 

“NYEH HEHEHE” Papyrus laughed and you broke at the sound. You actually thought the sound was cute but hearing for the first time in this setting caught you off guard. 

The three of you continued your ruthless attack against the can kingdom, taking no prisoners and not ceasing fire until the enemy had no more soldiers remaining. There was a lot of yelling, whooping and glass breaking. You were memorized every time you got to watch one of the skeleton brothers use their magic, the static feeling becoming exciting every time it was sparked. 

Smashing up rubbish was always something you and your older brother Adam would do. It wasn’t something that happened often and you found that breaking things and screaming could be just as therapeutic as the joking around that followed. It didn’t solve the problem that originally made you angry but it helped to calm you down enough to think more logically about it. 

By the time every last scrap of rubbish had been obliterated it was getting late and you were exhausted. You have accomplished a lot today. The most you had since you started the project and it made you feel like this could work. Like you could be yourself again after this year if everything kept going this well. 

Sans was just teasing his brother again, something about being the new tyrant of trash mountain to which Papyrus was insisting Sans already owned the title, when you gently placed your hand on Sans back to get his attention.

He stiffened at the touch and slowly turned to look at you as you smiled. 

“Glad to have you back Sansy” you said before yawning “Imma head in, been a big day” 

“SEE YOU TOMORROW HUMAN” Papyrus acknowledged 

“yeah” was all Sans said as you lowered your hand from his back. It was odd. It wasn’t like your hand was resting on just his spine when you did that, it was resting on a broad back making you wonder if he had something under his shirt. You knew he didn't, you saw a glimpse of it yesterday so just chalked it up to magic for now. 

You wished the two a goodnight before heading into bed. Papyrus turned on his brother when the door to the house closed. 

“ONE THING” He demanded in a soft tone that was only reserved for when the two of them were truly alone. A brotherly kindness and worry that would have gotten them both dusted mere months ago. 

Sans thought about it for a moment but everything he found enjoyable about the day all seemed to revolve around one person. 

“the human?” he said, more surprised that he couldn’t think of anything else.

It was such a shame he was sure he didn’t have a soulmate. You wouldn’t have been such a bad one to have. After all you’ve been here over a month, surely if you were one of the skeleton's soulmates a mark would have appeared by now. 

Regardless, both skeletons found themselves wanting to at least try and be friends with you, or at least more than them walking eggshells around you as they had been up until this point.

Chapter Text

One of the oddest experience’s you had since starting the M.A.G.E project was having the human child, ambassador of Monster, Frisk show up at your door with a tupperware dish of butterscotch pie and Flowey the talking flower monster. 

“Papyrus!” you yelled into the house as soon as you saw the two. Frisk smiling warmly up at you. 

“WHAT?!” Papyrus yelled back from somewhere in the house. 

“I think you have guests?” you replied, still not taking your eyes off the two in front of you. You never knew how to act in front of kids and this kid was a big deal making it ten times worse in your head. 

You were also assuming that Frisk and Flowey were here to see Papyrus. You couldn’t think of a reason they’d want to check up on you. Your blog was going well and they had said you had complete freedom of it so unless they were going back on that now you figured they were here for Paps. 

You guessed they could have been here for Sans too but the larger skeleton wasn’t in at the moment. He had work as far as you knew, so Papyrus was the go to. 

“NO!” Papyrus responded, that got you to turn around 

“What do you mean no?!” you shouted into the house “I am literally looking at them!” 

“I AM BUSY!” Came the response

“Too bad! You come tell them that!” you yelled back. Eversince Papyrus said he would start acting more like himself he seemed to become a petulant child. 

“NO!” Papyrus yelled back 

“Oh my god, come on in” you said to the child and monster. 

“He can turn you down to your faces” you muttered as you led the way. 

You didn't actually have to venture too far into the house to find your roommate. Papyrus was in the living room, which you found surprising as the skeletons monster hardly hung out here. 

He was fiddling with the new TV. Sans brought it home a few days ago along with a janky VHS player and hooked it up. 

The tv itself was an older model and the picture was grainy. It got a total of 3 channels by itself but someone Sans had hooked it up to the internet so it could stream. You had no idea how he didn't, by your knowledge the old TV shouldn't have even come with the components to be able to connect to the wifi. You weren’t complaining though. It beats watching things on your phone or laptop. 

This was the first time you had seen Papyrus use the TV since it came home. Sans would fall asleep in front of it and you had watched a few shows but Papyrus seemed to almost avoid it. 

“Do you know how to use that?” You asked leaning against the door frame 

“I AM NOT A BABY BONES AND PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF USING A TELEVISION” you could feel rather than see Papyrus roll his eyes. 

“You have guests” you repeated your sentiment 

“I TOLD YOU I AM BUSY- AMBASSADOR!” Papyrus had cut himself off as he whirled around 

“AND THAT ANNOYING LITTLE FLOWER OF YOURS” He added seeing Flowey. Frisk placed the tupperware container down on the side table before waving at Papyrus. 

“I AM BUSY TODAY, YOU TWO MAY LEAVE” Papyrus said turning his attention back to the TV. Frisk went and sat on the couch. 

You had to admire their courage although you suppose without it they wouldn’t have lasted too long in the underground . 

Papyrus glanced over his shoulder and the two now sitting on the couch and huffed before spinning fully on his heels to face them. 

“I TOLD YOU I AM BUSY” He repeated, his voice laced with annoyance. You didn’t really want to keep standing here in case the skeleton blew a fuse but you were also insanely interested in where this argument was going and what Papyrus considered so important that he was blowing off the ambassadors of monsters. 

Even if Frisk was a child that seemed like too much disrespect to you. 

Frisk started to move their hands around as they signed. 

“I DO NOT RECALL INVITING EITHER OF YOU. ESPECIALLY NOT THAT PESKY FLOWER” Papyrus huffed. You watch as Flowey withered, clearly upset but Papyrus didn’t seem to take any notice at all. 

“NO YOU CANNOT JUST STAY!” Papyrus yelled, stamping his foot on the ground 

“I DO NOT CARE IF WE ARE FRIENDS YOU WEREN’T INVITED-” You cut Papyrus off as you feared if you didn’t he would continue to argue with a literal child and you sort of wanted to know what was happening. 

“Sorry, these two weren’t invited to what exactly?” you asked. Papyrus looked like he could have screamed in annoyance. As he tried to compose himself Flowey answered for you

“Mettaton’s having his first live streaming event” the flower spoke softly and didn’t make eye contact. If the room had been any louder you wouldn’t have heard him from where you were standing. 

“Mettatons going live?” You asked, standing up straight and suddenly interested in what was happening. You knew Mettaton had been posting videos since he got set up with an account but you hadn’t actually sat down to watch any. 

A few people on your blog would comment about his channel here and there and if someone asked you a question about monsters you couldn’t answer you would redirect them to his channel. You just hadn’t watched any of his stuff yourself yet but you were kind of interested. 

“IT IS WHY I ASKED MY USELESS BROTHER TO BRING THE TELEVISION OUT OF STORAGE” Papyrus said proudly. 

“Ah so that’s why Sans brought it home” you mused “Mind if I watch with you all?” You asked, already taking a seat on one of the arm chairs as Frisk nodded enthusiastically. 

“NO, I WAS MEANT TO WATCH IT!” Papyrus grumbled 

“And now we can watch it together with your friends. How lucky the great and terrible Papyrus is to be loved and feared by so many!” you exclaimed in a monotone. Apparently your lack of emphasis didn’t do anything to deter Papyrus away from the words you were saying. 

“WELL OF COURSE” He said, puffing out his chest. Frisk signed something else and from the way Papyrus stood taller you assumed it was also something to boost his ego. 

“I SUPPOSE I CAN GRANT YOU ALL THE HONOR OF MY COMPANY WHILE WE WATCH METTATON” He declared ever so gracefully

“BUT IF ANY OF YOU TALK I WILL CUT OUT YOUR TONGUES” He snarled pointing at you all with his gloved hand. 

Frisk gave a thumbs up and Flowey nodded vigorously, although you weren’t sure he even had a tongue. You followed Frisk’s lead and also presented a thumbs up. With one more pointed glare Papyrus slowly turned back to the TV to finish setting it up. 

The TV flashed to a loading screen that read ‘Stream starting soon’ A box shaped robot was swaying back and forth in the bottom corner. 

Papyrus looked so giddy as he took the seat next to Frisk, his eyelights already glued to the television even though it hadn’t started yet. 

True to your word, you, Frisk and Flowey didn’t say a single word even after the program started. Playing a rather morbid sounding intro before zooming in on the humanoid monster standing behind a kitchen counter. 

It was hard to notice when you had met the robot in person, probably because you were panicking, but he spoke in a very dry tone. It was almost like he was in a constant state of depression.

His robotic features hardly moved, and his voice never wavered more than a few levels. It was flat. He was flat. It was hard to see why he had been the star of the underground from this one livestream, and you briefly wondered what all the comments were saying about him. 

The TV wouldn’t support the video with the chat window open, it was too small and you wouldn’t be able to read any of the comments. 

As the ‘show’ progressed you weren’t entirely sure what the premise was. Mettaton seemed to be torturing inanimate objects in between cooking literal poison and answering comments. It looked as if he was engaged with the chat at least but you found the whole delivery and content very morose. 

Past you would have loved it you think. She would have found it very funny in a messed up way and probably would have been laughing. You had lost your appetite for horror and gore a while ago now though and watching Mettaton was just kind of, eh.  

Papyrus though appeared to love the show and the Robot. In fact he was the one to break the no talking rule multiple times. 

At first it was just to explain when Mettaton was making a reference to one of his past works, just small interjections about it, but after a while they turned into full rambles on the monster. It was like Papyrus had memorized the IMDB page of the robot although you doubted he actually had one. 

“HIS COOKING SHOW WAS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST! IT IS NO WONDER HE HAS ADAPTED IT TO FIT THE HUMANS DELICATE DISPOSITIONS” you winced at the idea that the live stream currently playing was a toned down version of what he used to do underground.

Frisk signed something and Flowey shuddered. 

“I agree. Anything is better then death run” he muttered, the no talking rule long gone it seemed. 

“Death run?” you asked. Frisk face lit up as the flower shuddered once more. Frisk began signing quickly and you glanced around for help. Papyrus filled in. 

“THE AMBASSADOR TOOK PART IN A LOT OF METTATON'S SHOW UNDERGROUND. DEATH RUN, COOKING CHAOS, BOMB. IT WAS DELIGHTFUL TO WATCH AND THE FIRST TIME I WAS ROOTING FOR THE CONTEST” Papyrus mused 

“Bomb? Just Bomb?” you asked 

“YES! A VERY SHORT SHOW BUT EXPLOSIVE” Papyrus said excitedly. 

“It was just a bomb” Flowey said. You failed to see how that could be entertaining. 

“DEATH RUN HAS DEFINITELY BEEN THE MOST DRASTIC CHANGE” Papyrus sighed “IT’S SUCH A SHAME HUMANS ARE SO TIMID TO RUN THE COURSE. A LITTLE DEATH NEVER HURT ANYONE” You were fairly certain that a little death in fact did hurt a lot of anyones. 

Wait. They said that the kid had been on that show. You turned to stare at them. Frisk just smiled as they signed. 

“NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE THEN” Papyrus sighed before turning to you “WHICH OF METTATON'S SHOWS DO YOU LIKE MOST HUMAN?” He asked, making you jump. 

“Oh, uh, this is actually the first time I’ve watched him” you admitted, sheepishly. 

“WHAT!” Papyrus yelled, making you sink in on yourself. 

“Yeah” you squeaked out. 

“THAT IS IT AFTER THIS LIVE STREAM HAS ENDED WE ARE WATCHING ALL OF HIS SHOWS. YOU CANNOT GO ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT SEEING THEM HE IS FANTASTIC” You had never seen Papyrus so excited nor as openly complementary towards someone that wasn’t himself. It was cute. He was in full on fanboy mode. 

“YOU GOT TO MEET THEM IN PERSON ALREADY SO NO DOUBT YOU UNDERSTAND THEIR BRILLIANCE AND I HAVE NO DOUBTED THAT AFTER WE’VE STUDIED ALL THE MATERIAL YOU WILL AGREE COOKING CHAOS IS THE BEST PRODUCTION HE’S CREATED. YOU WON’T GET AN ANXIETY ATTACK OVER A LITTLE BLOOD AND GORE WILL YOU?” Papyrus suddenly asked you. 

“I don’t think so?” you question. It hadn’t really come up over the last few years. 

“PERFECT! I WILL WARN YOU IF ANYTHING TO DRASTIC IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN AS I HAVE MEMORIZED THE TAPINGS ANYWAY. WE CAN’T HAVE YOU IN HYSTERICS WHILE WATCHING A MASTERPIECE” 

“I wouldn’t go into hysterics” you tried to defend but Papyrus was not listening at all as he continued to rave about Mettaton’s various different works. 

“Oh, he’s talking about your blog,” Flowly said softly. It was enough though to draw all of your attention back to the live stream . 

“-I think it’s great to have a human perspective on the experiment” Mettaton’s flat voice drawled. He didn’t actually sound like he cared too much about your writing at all. 

“The author has been posting a lot more recently. I’ve enjoyed watching her expand her connection with her two monster roommates. It’s also appreciated how honest she is. Sharing her anxieties must be difficult” A amused smile crossing his features and making you scowl. It made you feel like he was enjoying your struggles. 

There was a pause before Mettaton made a humming sound. 

“A collaboration? It’s not a bad idea viewers, I suppose we could have the author on our show for an interview. Get into the real nitty gritty of what this human really thinks of monsters. Plus i can thank them for sending all this wonderful viewers my way” He mused before turning to look directly into the camera

“What do you say dear author? If you're watching, let's set up an interview. I’ll get my people to contact yours so have some time to think about it” Mettaton said with a slow wink. You already knew you wanted to say no to appearing on any kind of show and you were almost positive your facial expression was advertising that particular feeling.

Papyrus, you were learning, sometimes had a hard time reading human facial expressions, this was one of those times. As soon as Mettaton had made his offer the skeleton whipped around to face you. 

“HUMAN IF YOU DO NOT GO ON METTATON’S SHOW I WILL PERSONALLY INSURE YOUR NEXT FEW MEALS ARE POISONED” Papyrus said with a tone that assured you he was 100% serious. 

“But, I, no” you said, not sure if ‘my anxiety’ would be a good enough excuse to fly with the monster. 

Frisk started signing and thankfully Flowey began to translate for you. 

“Frisk says they can come with you too. Mettaton is actually not as bad as his persona and they’d probably do a recorded interview for their channel to help curve your anxiety. It would be a big help to monsters and humans” 

It was sweet that Frisk said they’d come with you but the idea of having a literal child next to you for emotional support made you feel worse. A child shouldn’t have to help you navigate your emotions. If anything you’d want Sans or Papyrus there to make you feel better.

. . .

Wait. 

You meant Vanessa

. . . 

Of course you meant Vanessa. Even if the skeleton had been doing a great job at keeping you calm and curving your anxiety you wouldn’t think of them as your go to’s. . . do you? 

“That would be cool” you ended up saying to Frisk. Apparently agreeing to let the kid help was better than admitting your roommates might be becoming some of your best friends after just over a month of knowing each other. 

Papyrus seemed rather enthusiastic that you seemed to agree to go on his hero’s show. As soon as the livestream ended he put on the old reruns of the robots shows from the underground. 

Most of them were like B rated horror shows but you had to admit they were entertaining. They would cut away from any real violence and the dry performance from the robot seemed to enhance the ridiculousness of all the situations. 

A few hours in and you were hooked, cheering with Papyrus, laughing at the dry jokes and practically chanting for the next episode.