It had been around thirty minutes since the blushing Sans had run away and you and Maia had ended up just chatting with everyone who was attending. Dinner was in about fifteen minutes and you were excited for what Toriel had said was for dinner. She had made vegetable soup and home cooked cheese biscuits to go with it.
Even from the living room you could smell the delicious food being kept at a simmer. And well, after a while, the wonderful smell made your stomach growl and Maia chuckled. "Hungry?" She asked you you giggled. "Apparently so."
You two were going to converse some more before you turned your head to see Papyrus walking up to you. You smiled and waved and he returned the smile, waving as well.
As soon as the tall-statured skeleton finished his stride over to you and Maia, he shoved his hands into his pockets. "heya, (y/n) this your friend that's stayin' with ya?" He asked and you nodded. "Yeah! This is Maia, she's actually the one who discovered your wallet in the couch." You replied as you reached into your pocket, pulling out his wallet and holding it out for him.
Papyrus gratefully took his wallet back and slipped it into his back pocket. "oh yeah? well, thanks to the both of ya. it's also nice to meet ya, kiddo." Papyrus spoke as he grinned a bit. "It's no problem! And, it's nice to finally meet you in person! Asgore and I became good buddies over the past year and he's told me a lot about you." Maia replied.
"oh, yeah. i think he may have mentioned ya in a few phone calls of ours. you're an animator, yeah?' Papyrus asked for clarification and Maia nodded with a smile. "You betcha!" She replied enthusiastically. "ey, that's cool! and that confirms it, he did mention ya in a lot of phonecalls." Papyrus replied with a chuckle and Maia smiled brightly.
"That's cool! (Y\N) mentioned you in her phone calls too, I'm glad she met someone after what happened with her ex friends." Maia remarked and Papyrus nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. "well, i can assure ya that i have benefited from our friendship just as much as she has. she helped me get through a lot of shit by just bein' there." Papyrus admitted and you lifted an eyebrow. He hadn't mentioned anything like this before.
"Well, that's good to know. It seems like you two fit together perfectly, then." Maia remarked and you and him smiled. "of course." Papyrus replied as he took his hand from his pocket, giving you a gentle fist bump. "it's like we stick together like honey." Papyrus remarked and you face-palmed. "Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that was a pun?" Maia asked and you sighed, still covering your face. "Because it is." You replied, your voice was a bit muffled due to your hand covering your mouth.
"Oh!" Maia spoke as she began to chuckle. "heh, why thank ya! but it seems we got a tough crowd over here, ey?" Papyrus remarked as he gestured to you and you slowly removed your hand from your face, slowly holding up a thumbs up. "Hmm, seems so, but every comedian has to have a critic." You replied with a grin, leaning on one hip and crossing your arms.
"hm, i suppose so... but why don't you criticize my pun then, ey?" Papyrus replied, grinning as well. "Hmm, well... I didn't find it that humerus considering you didn't even have honey on you at the time. So, that makes the pun less sweet and more of an inside joke since Maia doesn't know about your honey obsession, honey." You replied and Papyrus shrugged his shoulders, still smiling happily.
"maybe not, but that still makes it funny to me, sweetheart~" Papyrus was practically purring and Maia's eyes widened. You blushed, averting your gaze and Maia's mouth was now partially hanging open.
Well, that pun war definitely went somewhere you weren't really expecting it to go to.
You looked up and saw Papyrus was blushing as well, he even seemed to be sweating a bit nervously. "eh, sorry. i kinda went too far." He quickly apologized and you looked up at him, locking your gaze with his. "Don't apologize... There's no reason to." You responded and Maia seemed to be internally screaming.
"well, uhh... kay, then." Papyrus paused, his gaze darting around the room. "so, have you two gals had fun?" Papyrus asked, obviously trying to turn the conversation around. But, what surprised you was that he didn't leave. He instead opted to stay and continue talking with you and Maia. That really made you happy. And well, you were slowly convincing yourself that perhaps, Papyrus shared the same feelings as you do. Or maybe he just really likes you as a friend... Either way, you really wanted to deny any possibility of him liking you after you lied to him about Austin. But, you tried to wipe those negative thoughts from your head, after all, anything's possible.
"So far, yes! Oh! You and Sans should come over in a couple days, we're gonna invite a girl from (Y\N)'s apartment complex and we can all eat pizza and watch a movie or something!" Maia exclaimed and Papyrus hummed in thought. "oh cheese, that's awfully nice of ya to invite us. olive pizza a lot, and sans and i will definitely want to come." He replied and Maia smiled. "This'll be so fun! When are two free?" Maia asked and Papyrus tapped a phalanx on his chin. "tibia honest, i am free pretty much all week past five, and sans should be mostly free, except i think he is goin' to watch anime with undyne 'n' alphys on tuesday night." Papyrus replied, gently reaching into his pocket and pulling out a toothpick before gently sticking it into his mouth.
"Alright, well... How about Wednesday night then?" Maia suggested and Papyrus nodded. "sure, as long as the other gal is free then as well." Papyrus replied and you nodded. "I'll call her up and ask later, but she says that she works at home and barely goes out, so I'm sure it's good." You replied and placed your hands behind your back, rocking on your heels a bit.
"she sounds pretty nifty." Papyrus replied and you nodded. "She's pretty cool! Well, I've barely talked to her, but I'm planning to change that!" You spoke enthusiastically with a wide grin. "ey, that's good! it's always good ta meet new people." Papyrus responded and you nodded. "I agree full-heartedly!" You replied cheerily.
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You and Maia smiled and waved goodbye to the Dreemurr's and to the skeleton brothers as well before you climbed into Maia's rental car. The night had ended up being exhausting and you both were just planning on going straight to sleep once you got back to your apartment.
Maia was going to visit some other friends tomorrow and you had decided to work a half day at Muffet's. In fact, maybe in the rest of that half day you could go talk with Mr. Smith about what had all happened.
After all, Austin is still at large and he could try this on any other girl out there. That thought made you uncomfortable, so just like Papyrus had suggested, you were going to meet with him soon. Maybe with the newfound information, the police could take him in and imprison him.
But, you also felt nervous and didn't really want to meet with Mr. Smith. Sure, he's the detective that'd listen to you the most, but what if during the entire meeting he just insists on flirting? Surely the man knows his boundaries and wouldn't flirt at such a bad opportunity, right?
Perhaps you're not giving the man much credit. You don't even know him that much after all. And well, he did save you and was planning on helping you get Austin caught, so he must not be completely bad.
And it's honestly quite odd to think that he had been shot by some guy at a bar. You wondered what had happened to cause the fight that ended up getting Mr. Smith shot in the chest. Was it over a grudge? Perhaps over a woman? That'd be silly though, surely Mr. Smith wouldn't fight a man over a girl. Maybe he was protecting a lady from someone though.
"What are you thinking about now?" Maia asked which tore you from your thoughts. "Mr. Smith surprisingly enough, I have to meet with him soon and talk about Austin." You explained with a sigh and she nodded. "Go ahead and text him, hopefully you can catch him tomorrow. The longer you don't report this, the longer that creep is out there." Maia remarked and you nodded. "Oh, and if that weirdo tries to make any advances, leave immediately." Maia added.
"I will, but all he's ever done is flirt and kiss my hand. Everything else is pretty normal." You commented and she shrugged. "Those are still signs that he's interested. Just stay safe and keep me on speed dial. If he does do anything, I swear I'll kick his ass!" Maia exclaimed and you chuckled, nodding. "I can actually see that... But you don't want to get charged with assaulting an officer either." You replied. "Honestly, if it were to punish him over trying to make inappropriate advances, then I'd just be happy that you were safe." Maia responded.
"Fair point, but I think he understands that I don't like him now." You replied and pulled your phone from your pocket, going to your contacts and clicking over to your texts to send him a new message. "Well, at least you got 'no' embedded in that tiger's head. He just won't stop." Maia mumbled.
You clicked on the text bar and began to type Mr. Smith a message. You carefully thought over every word as you typed them in and proofread along the way. You wanted your message to seem more serious so he wouldn't be as keen to take it in a less important way. And after a few minutes of crafting the perfect message, you sent this strand of text.
"Hello, it's (Y\N). I hope you're doing well, Mr. Smith. anyway, I was wondering if I could come in tomorrow to talk to you about the guy who had been stalking me... Things escalated to where he ended up grabbing me and was trying to kidnap me. On top of that, he said he would kill me and he also said so many other terrible things. I was saved by Papyrus, the guy you called an overgrown carrot in Faerie Dane Fresh Market and I haven't seen Austin (the stalker) since. But I have a feeling that he's still out there when he shouldn't be. I don't want him hurting or doing this to any other women. So, I was hoping I could come in and talk to you about what happened so that maybe an investigation can be opened to catch the deviant. I should have contacted the authorities right away, but I was scared and overwhelmed. So, please get back to me. I was hoping we could do this around 3:00 PM tomorrow once I get off of work. But, it's really up to you, sir. Anyway, I suppose I'll hear from you soon. Thanks for taking the time to read my text."
You didn't expect him to write back right away, so you put your phone on your lap and looked up to watch the road. You were nearing the street to your apartment and that filled you with relief. You just wanted to get Maia situated with some sheets for the couch and then go to bed.
"So, what did you think of the boys?" You asked Maia suddenly after a long silence. "I am guessing you mean Sans and Papyrus, correct?" Maia asked for clarification. "You betcha, the bone bois." You remarked before pausing, "Actually, that sounds kinda weird. Ignore that I ever said that." You added quickly and Maia snorted, laughing.
"I think they're both really cool! Papyrus is funny and Sans is a cute little marshmallow!" Maia replied and you giggled. "He's so smol compared to Mr. Tol Carrot." You replied and Maia just burst out laughing. "Did you just call Papyrus 'Mr. Tol Carrot'?" She asked with humor in her green gaze. "Hell yeah I did, I mean, it's accurate!" You remarked and Maia just laughed harder and you soon joined her.
Once the laughing had died down, Maia turned down your street and soon parked on the side of the road. "You know, you and Papyrus are really close, huh?" She commented and your breaths hitched for a moment, she knows you like him, doesn't she? "Yeah, I'd say that we're really good friends." You replied, trying to throw her off. "Oh yeah? Good friends?" She replied and you nodded. "Precisely!"
You got out of the rental car, grabbing your things before beginning to walk to the door of your apartment building.
Oh geez, was your crush that obvious? You didn't want Maia to know about it. If she did, you were afraid she'd just tease you about your infatuation and you didn't want to be embarrassed over it. Sure, you liked a pun loving skeleton, and that may seem weird to most... But damn, he's pretty darn sexy! And honestly, it may seem weird to think of a skeleton as 'sexy' but he is!
Maia soon got out of the car and ran up to you just as you got the door unlocked. "I didn't upset you, did I?" She asked and you shook your head. "No, don't worry. I'm just really tired and need some sleep." You somewhat lied. It was more of a half-truth than a blatant lie.
"Alright, well... That's good." Maia responded and you both walked inside, up all the stairs until you got to your apartment. Then, you unlocked that door and headed straight to your room. You got onto your knees and pulled out a box of sheets from under your bed. You opened it and pulled out some (s\f\c) sheets and then walked to Maia, handing them to her. "Here you go, have some sheets. Now that'll be $100." You spoke with a serious expression on your face, but as soon as Maia laughed, your serious look completely shattered and you laughed too.
"Thank you, now goodnight, (Y\N)! I hope you sleep well!" Maia spoke and you gulped. "Yeah, me too. And this time I won't have a skeleton to cuddle if I have a nightmare." You remarked and then froze. "Wait, hold up... You cudd-" Maia began to speak and you turned a bright red before interrupting her. "It was accidental and in my sleep!" You exclaimed but soon covered your mouth. "You just made that worse." Maia spoke while suppressing a laugh. "Dammit, just... Goodnight Maia." You spoke as you quickly hugged her. After that, you ran to your room all flustered, shutting the door behind you.
Why does having crushes have to be so embarrassing? And why is it that the people closest to you are always able to pick up on them? It's just so awkward when they figure them out so easily. And you know Maia means no harm, but it's really messing with you regardless.
But, those thoughts of humiliation soon ebbed away after you had gotten ready for bed. They were replaced by happier thoughts of the flirt-ish pun battle you had ended up having with Papyrus earlier. But as soon as you began to drift to sleep, your thoughts shifted a bit and you couldn't help but think of Papyrus and being in his gentle embrace. And before you knew it, you fell into a deep and peaceful slumber.