Chapter Text
*Stupid alarm tune that’s supposed to be soothing but eventually turns into a triggering melody*
That damn alarm. Why does your bed insist on feeling like a prison cot at night, but a luxurious bed of satin in the morning.
Still half asleep, you roll over to your phone that’s still singing that stupid tune you’ve grown to despise and angrily press the snooze. Flopping back onto your pillow and rubbing the tiredness out of your eyes, you try and shake the drowse away from your head by debating whether or not work is really worth it today.
”[NAME]! ARE YOU UP YET? BREAKFAST IS PREPARED!”
Alright, [Name], time to move those damn legs.
With a dramatic groan, you hoist yourself out your bed and head over to your closet, browsing the various clothes until the familiar and freshly washed uniform meets your eyes.
“Papyrus, the skeleton you are…”
A quick check in the mirror and some painful fiddling with your hair, you leave your room and head towards the kitchen, hearing the familiar humming of one of your roomies and the smell of spaghetti. Hoo boy.
“AH! GOOD MORNING [NAME]! IM GLAD YOU MANAGED TO GET YOURSELF UP FAIRLY QUICKLY THIS MORNING! Unlike Some People…”
The tall skeleton is standing over the stove, dressed in slim jeans and a burnt red sweater along with his iconic red scarf draped around his neck. You smile softly as you notice the apron you bought him tied around his slim waist, the words “Sauce Boss” stitched on the front in bold, loopy writing. He’s tending to pan of simmering spaghetti, tossed in the tomato sauce he bought in bulk during a sale last week.
Although, by peeking around his shoulder, you could definitely tell he added… something else.
“Papyrus, do you know where I put that box of oatmeal? I remember us buying some last weekend for breakfast”
He sits up a little straighter, his eyes turning into googly ones as he looks away.
“E-ERM, I HAVEN’T THE FAINTEST IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN, HOWEVER I DID MAKE YOU SOME LOVELY BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI!”
“Papyruuuus…?”
You raise an eyebrow and cross your arms. This skeleton and his oatmeal.
“Paps, c’mon, I know it’s your favorite but it’s also a good food I can make quickly for work”
Papyrus stutters for a moment before you giggle and pat his shoulder.
“It’s alright dude, I’m just messing with you, I know how much you like your oatmeal”
You walk over to the fruit corner of the kitchen and peel yourself a banana as Papyrus smiles, a light tangerine blush dusting his cheekbones as he puffs out his chest.
“O-OF COURSE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, KNEW THAT! NOW, HAVE A LITTLE OF THIS SPAGGETI”
He plops a ladle full onto a plate and sets it on the counter, along with a fork. You eye it thoughtfully as you swallow the last of your fruit, finally coming to the conclusion that you’re too hungry to care about what you eat at this point.
You grab the fork and twirl some of the noodles onto it, praying that Papyrus has picked up some of your advice on the recipe as your mouth closes.
“Oh damn! This is actually pretty good!”
You give another thoughtful chew.
“Is that breakfast sausage you used instead of ground beef?”
“INDEED! I USED THAT SOY-BASED ALTERNATIVE SAUSAGE WE BOUGHT!”
You hummed thoughtfully as he explained, snorting as he mentioned the dash of maple syrup he mixed into the sauce along with the oregano.
“Ah, so that explains the sweetness, it weirdly pairs real well with the sausage”
Papyrus turns to the pot, making a satisfied “humf” as he stirs the noodles before sighing almost dramatically.
“IT SEEMS I SIMPLY MADE TO MUCH JUST FOR YOU, ALMOST AS IF SOMEONE ELSE SHOULD BE HERE!”
He raises his voice higher near the end, craning his neck towards the hallway. After no response, he grumbles and stirs grouchily.
“[NAME], COULD YOU GET MY DEAR BROTHER FOR ME? THIS IS THE LAST TIME HES SKIPPING BREAKFAST THIS WEEK”
“Sure thing! I’ll be a minute”
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HE SKIPS THIS MANY TIMES AND JUST SURVIVES ON HOTDOGS AND ATROCIOUS AMOUNTS KETCHUP”
“Yeah, he really should eat a little more…”
After swallowing the last mouthful and setting your dishes in the sink, you turn back down the hallway, smiling lightly as you gaze at the photos on the wall and make your way down to the door opposite of Papyrus’ and knock twice.
“whose there?”
You sigh.
“Will”
“will who?”
“Will you let me in? Your brother sent me”
You hear a snort through the door.
“yup”
Opening the door, you’re met with the familiar trash-nado and the assortment of socks scattered on the carpet. And still lying in that disaster of a bed, your second roommate.
“Mornin’ Sans, breakfast is ready and I would seriously recommend coming out this time or your brother might blow a fuse”
He opens an eye socket, one fuzzy white pinprick of magic looking back at you as he lets out a yawn, stretching his bony arms and legs out before resting back on his pillow, obviously not having any intention of moving any more than an inch.
“sorry kid, i’m just too comfy here, don’t think I’ll be able to move my legs…”
His grin widens, shimmying his legs and already showing signs of dozing off again.
“guess i’d better take the express…”
You sigh, trying to stifle a smile as you step over the various pieces of garbage, socks, styrofoam food boxes, and those blueprints… to him, sticking your arms under his shoulders and hoisting the smaller skeleton up onto your back, his arms locking around the front of your neck.
“Dammit Sans, your lucky your light as hell”
“aw, cmon, your still on track right?”
You snorted at his half-assed pun as you return to the kitchen, Papyrus’s eyes narrowing as he shakes his head, already having a plate of spaghetti set for his brother on the counter.
“OH MY GOD SANS, FIRST YOU MISS BREAKFAST, AND NOW YOU’RE PARADING AROUND ON OUR DEAR ROOMMATE! HOW LAZY CAN YOU BE?!”
You set the shorter brother down on a chair as he steadies himself with the counter.
“c’mon bro, you should really piggy back on my ideas”
“SANS! IT IS TO EARLY FOR THIS NONSENSE!”
You let out another chuckle of laughter as the two continue to bicker, watching as Papyrus flails an arm around as Sans just keeps a dopey grin plastered on his face.
*Ding*
A vibration on your wrist snaps you back to the task at hand as you check your watch for the time. Shit, you need to get going…
“Oop, sorry guys, I gotta head out!”
“AH, YES! SEE YOU TONIGHT [NAME]!”
You walk over to give Papyrus a quick side hug which he returns before he begins to pack the leftovers from breakfast. Then, you walk over to Sans, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, walking behind him. With a low voice you whisper in the area of where his ear would be.
“We need to talk. Tonight.”
A few blue beads of sweat accumulate on his skull as you give his tensed shoulder a squeeze before leaving, grabbing your coat and shutting the front door. Letting out a puff of hot breath, you quickly walk to your car, and with a quick putter, it roars to life as you pull out of your house and begin the same monotonous drive to work you’ve done for years.
As you head down the road, gazing at the small houses similar to your own, your gaze drifts over to the small blue house a few blocks down.
The “For Sale” sign that plagued the lawn no longer standing. It seems the family of bunny monsters have moved in well. There was a colorful welcome mat and a few flower pots with mums in them for the cooling weather resting on the porch. You’ll have to crack open your recipe box again to prepare a nice, warm welcome gift for the family. It was reassuring to see more and more monsters moving into the neighborhoods around here after the initial introduction, it seems only yesterday that the first groups of monsters moved to your town and transformed this place for the better.
Huh, you really forgot how long it’s been since the monsters came down from the mountain.
You remembered, it was during late March. Your day off if you could believe it, when your morning nature documentary was rudely interrupted by your local news channel, showing overhead pictures of a large group of… somethings coming down Ebott Mountain. You nearly choked on your cereal as lines of colorful beings trekked to the bottom of the mountain, seemingly looking for no trouble as they all gazed around at the surface with wonder in their eyes. Of course, the government was notified and many officials were sent to communicate with their supposed king, a hulking goat monster that had horns the size of your arms. Despite the monsters obviously advocating their peace and pacifist nature, the government placed them in camps around the mountain to begin the process of integrating them into society.
Obviously, many people across the country were horrified at the thought of a whole new race joining “their world” especially when the concept of magic that was seemingly impossible was brought into the picture. Despite the fact that various people from your town, a few miles off of Ebott City, were spewing claims that they were devil spawn sent from hell to bring the end times and your own mind planting your own fears and skepticism that made your gut churn, you pushed all of it away. After the first few months, it was clear that the monsters have lived under the mountain for hundreds of years and they deserved the right to live here just as much as every other living being on earth.
A week later while picking up your prescription, you saw the headline. The first few monster groups were finally able to move out of the camps and into the populated areas around Ebott.
Which included your town.
Of course, after the obvious hysteria brought on by the news, the community was given an overview on the basic function of the movement. A group of volunteer monsters would move into any available houses under the protection of the state government and if they are able to acclimate, more and more monsters can be integrated over time.
Despite the warning announcement, the first month and a half were rough.
Even though some people, including you, were welcoming of the new arrivals and seemed pleased that some of the empty houses would finally have lights on again, a majority of the public was pensive, stubborn, or downright hostile to any sort of monster that showed its face or lack thereof. Even when a flame monster managed to open a new bar and grill in one of the empty storefronts that certainly became a hotspot for many and brought plenty of welcomed business. Hell, you even thought about snatching up a job there, you could always use the extra cash for your fixer upper of a house and your depressing state of income. Eventually, all the houses were bought up and many still needed a place to be housed.
That’s when it hit you, you where a lonely nobody with to much yet too little to do, why not invite some monster roommates! You needed some help with money, and lots of monsters needed housing, win-win.
You scrambled onto your laptop and opened a blank document and began typing.
————
-ROOMMATES WANTED-
* Three bedroom, two bathroom house with almost-finished basement and third bathroom.
* Wooded area in the back with fire pit.
* Decent kitchen and living room and a one-car garage.
* Cable TV?
Available for at most two roommates. Rent can be discussed in person or over phone.
Call: XXX-XXXX-XXX
————
Not bad for under 10 minutes if you do say so yourself! You quickly give it a light orange background to catch someone’s eyes on a community board or lamppost, and with a couple of paper jams from your crusty ass printer, you had a good amount of fliers to begin advertising. After slipping on a jacket, some boots, and shoving your stapler in your pocket, you began the trek to the heart of the town, flyers in hand. The main goal was to start at the community bulletin boards and go on from there and hope for the best.
The slightly frost bitten sidewalks crackled lightly with each of your determined steps as you passed by the various small shops decorating your town, giving any monster you saw a small smile. Finally, you made it to one of the bulletin boards, easily identifiable by the various posters and advertisements. As you hold one of your flyers up to staple it amongst the others advertising auto repairs, tennis lessons, a random seminar about Egyptian literature, oh, and a advertisement for that new place called “Grillby’s”. Now where did you put that stapler….
“GREETINGS HUMAN!”
“HOLY SHI-!”
You nearly jumped out of your skin as a loud, chipper voice suddenly announced itself directly behind you.
“OH- my stars!”
You whip a round and were met with a tall, lanky, skeleton monster? He had to be, his features were lankier and vastly different from any human replica you’ve ever saw. On top of it, he had a seemingly impossible but absolutely adorable orange flush tinting his cheekbones. He was wearing a pair of jeans with a blue long sleeved shirt that had a picture of a little white dog on it, covered by a grey zip-up jacket, and a blue knit hat on his skull. But what really caught your eye was the seemingly random tattered red scarf wrapped around his neck.
“Sorry about that, you just caught me by surprise!”
As you scratch the back of your head nervously, he strikes a pose and a very convenient gust of wind makes his scarf billow behind him.
“MY APOLOGIES HUMAN, I AM NATURALLY GIFTED WITH INCREDIBLE STEALTH AFTER YEARS OF TRAINING TO BE IN THE ROYAL GUARD! Although I suppose it doesn’t exist anymore…”
Dang this guys voice was loud!
“AH, I AM GETTING OFF THE MAIN TASK!”
He waves a gloved hand in the air as if he’s physically swatting away other thoughts before extending it to you.
“I AM KNOWN AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AND WHAT MIGHT YOUR NAME BE?”
“Uh, it’s [NAME], [NAME] [LAST NAME]”
You take his hand, feeling it’s thin bony structure underneath his red woolen gloves as he shakes it with enthusiasm.
“WHAT A LOVELY NAME!”
He gives your hand one last firm shake before turning to your flyer. Stooping down as he places a hand on his chin and raises an eyebrow cartoonishly.
“YOU SEE, I WAS ON MY MORNING COMMUTE TO MY EMPLOYMENT AT THE GROCERY STORE WHEN I HAPPENED TO HAVE MY EYES CAUGHT BY THIS PRETTY ORANGE FLYER!”
After jumping around the bulletin board his eyes, or you suppose his orange magic eye lights in his sockets, land on yours.
“HMM, [NAME]? IS THIS YOUR FLYER?”
“Uh, yeah..?”
He studies it for a second more, humming numerous times as he reads your roughly written words with a seemingly critical eye.
“WOWIE! THIS IS AN EXCELLENT COINCIDENCE!”
He straitened out again, clapping his hands together cheerfully.
“It is?”
“INDEED! IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT ME AND MY BROTHER ARE LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY!”
“R-really? That is a coincidence!”
You quickly swapped numbers before heading your separate ways. The skeleton bolting to the grocery store, and you sprinting back to your house as quickly as you can without slipping and falling on your ass. You didn’t expect that to happen this fast, you needed to clean your damn house!