Chapter Summary: Ever since you.
Special chapter.
Stretch could easily tell you how much today bothered him. Trying to fix that damn machine took all the motivation from him, a stupid 'break through' he thought was going to happen, only to be a useless light shining through the dim basement.
All the decoding, translations and complicated computer mass were shattered when Red confirmed that it was only the light that worked. He was just a computer guy with some knowledge of quantum physics. Enough knowledge that didn't render him 'useless'.
His phalanges stopped typing through the codes. Endless green computer codes moved up, stopping when he stopped. A low frustrated growl came from him as he turned the chair to face Red and Sans. They all wore protective goggles and a white lab coat, the works.
Red scratched his skull, little bits of dust falling off the rubbing bone as he snarled at the machine in the far corner. A single light within mocking them of their weeks on end work. Congratulations! They managed to turn on a fucking light bulb.
"Same thin' happen back in my universe. Thought I was a step closer on tryin' ta figure out the junk." Red said. Running his palm over his face as he groaned in frustration.
"A week's worth of work, thrown out the window." Stretch huffed. Exiting the program he was using and shut off his computer. Whatever he connected had switched the lights to go off, which meant the route he was using was another dead end.
"I dunno 'bout you, but I need a break." He shoved his hands into his hoody pockets, walking towards the two inch thick door. It was like a vault, to keep the other versions of themselves of trying to enter and exploit the plans and useless process. Four years, four years and they barely made any break through with this.
Stretch knew how frustrated they must've been, to feel like they weren't getting anywhere but chasing their nonexistent tails, going around in circles on a endless time loop.
He chuckled. At least the fucking resets stopped. His somber grin turned into a frown, the kid was unnerving. Frisk was their name. They reminded him of Chara—whenever Blue would mention chara, Red and Sans would leave the room, dragging their brothers with them.
It didn't take a genius to know what was up, after all, he did it, too. Whenever Frisk would visit Stretch would leave the house and take his brother with him. He would tense and be on high alert whenever they would drop by unannounced.
It became so bad that they had accepted that the two of them wouldn't be friends, and chose to ignore the two of them for the sake of modesty.
He didn't need to think about the kid at a time like this. It was the worst time, really. He slipped off his white coat, hung it on the hook and unstuck the tape from his sides. With a two-finger salute, he was out of the basement and back into his room.
He fell onto his bed with the springs crying out from his weight. Not taking it to any thoughts, he reached over to the nightstand and grabbed a bear shaped honey bottle. Popping the cap off, he brought it to his mouth and sipped.
The soft buzz that quickly followed made him sigh. Finally, something better than that bitter stuff Sans drowned in.
No condiments in the basement, no complains.
Which meant the three of them had purely ran on coffee, sometimes coming up to the kitchen to eat whatever their bro's has decided to make that day.
Terrible cooking aside, they often ate out. Grillby's or Muffet's depending on their moods. If they felt like they got through something, Grillby's. If they needed a drink, Muffet's.
Like right now, Stretch needed a drink on the asap. The induced alcohol honey wasn't enough, the sweetness over powering the bitter burn. He craved.
When the door to his room slammed open, he barely reacted as he rolled his skull to look up at his brother. A disinterested glint in his eyelights as Blue stormed in.
"YOU CAN'T SPEND ALL YOUR TIME IN YOUR ROOM!" Why couldn't he? It'll be better, anyways. He felt too out of place here.
Like a stupid copy of the original.
"Hehe," he laughed airily. "I can." He paused, watching his brother's face twist. "But I won't, I guess." Stretch quickly added, pocketing the honey in his pockets and pushed himself off his bed. Everything screamed at him to lay back down and continue to wallow in pity.
Blue's feature didn't change, worrying Stretch as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Are We Ever Going Home?" Blue whispered, his blue starry eyes returning to its natural white glow.
Stretch cringed at his brother's question. No.
No, they couldn't. Not without that machine. And it's been collecting dust ever since they started working on it four years ago.
"Yeah." Stretch replied, nodding his head. His hands balling up the fabric. His jaw tight. "Yep. We just need a little more time."
"You Keep Saying That." Blue snapped, a soft glare in his eyes. All playfulness no longer viewed within those odd white eyes.
Something stirred in his 'stomach'. Dread weighing on his shoulders at the defeated look Blue had. He lifted his hand and brought it down on his skull, softly rubbing the smooth, buzzing surface.
"Don't worry, bro." He couldn't say anything else. Stretch couldn't give his brother anymore false hope, that'll be too cruel of him to do so.
"I Miss...Alphys, Undyne And Chara." He muttered, not raising his head to meet his eyes. He begin to fiddle with his phalanges, twisting the hems of his white shirt, the familiar blue fabric wrapped around his neck, softly displaying itself underneath his shirt.
"I do too." Stretch said softly, as if he talked louder than he did, he's break his brother.
"BUT THEY WOULDN'T WANT US TO LOSE HOPE!" Blue sprung, balling his fists and looking up at his brother with those familiar blue stars, determination oozing out from his bones and intoxicating the room.
Surprised expression morphed into pure admiration as Stretch popped a lollipop in his mouth, shifting his weight with a curt nod. "Heh, you're so cool, bro."
"MWEH HEH HEH HEH!"
_______________________________________
The last few days were completely tiring as the first. They had stopped working on the machine to unwind themselves and relax around the house, much to their equally energetic brothers dismay.
Stretch had been absent most of the time, spending the rare breaks outside of the house and away from other skeletal-monsters. Venturing further into the city with a lazy step in his walk. He'd manuver himself out of the way of other bystanders, greeting those who he, somewhat, knew.
He turned into an alley before reappearing in the dark corners of Muffet's, his hoody up on his skull and his back pressed against the booth's board. His attention went to the protest happening outside, a low growl rumbled from his soul at the temperamental humans. Holding racial slurs on their crafted signs, chanting words he had heard ever since he's been dragged here—along with a few unfortunate monsters from his alternate. His Muffet's was one of them. The motherly spider had questioned him shortly coming too. After all, he used to be the royal scientist.
Well, one of the firsts, anyways.
He took the bear-shaped bottle from a group of spiders, he lifted the bottle in thanks before opening the cap and drowning it down. His eyes wandered beyond the protests—
A girl kept looking at the shop, or perhaps she was looking at the protests happening? He didn't know, but kept his attention on this peculiar human.
Humans had a tendency to avoid this side of the city, especially this street since it was filled with monster shops with very little human-run shops. The nearest grocery store aimed for humans was a fifteen minute walk from here.
She turned her head to the sign above then towards the entrance. He watched her take a hesitating step, looking back at the protestors and turned away, walking further down the road.
Stretch leaned closer to the window, watching her fade into the distance and past many other individuals. Once she out of view, he leaned back.
He felt... disappointed? Something about that girl was drawing him in. Like he wanted to help her overcome that hesitation and enter the shop of liquor and sweets.
It was an odd combination, yes. But it fit Muffet and what she stood for.
Bringing the bottle to his mouth, he sucked the thick honey from the condiment bottle and dropped his head onto the broad. A small 'thud' coming from the sound as he froze.
The first month in this Alternate was rough. So many strings were pulled, the royal family was wrapped into the mess to cover up the sudden increases of skeletal monsters since they had all died during the war.
The odd part of it was that, he and his brother along with the Fell brothers, had different back stories.
They weren't like the classic brothers, personally wise being forgotten in this equation.
He sighed loudly, rubbing his face and soft dust slowly falling on the polished wood. He's not going to think about this, not while the piles of problems were currently piling up on his shoulders.
Sans, his brother, barely acknowledged the problems and tried to make best of the surface—but that soon left after the first year had passed, and the next, and the next.
By now, that flicker of hope was like an amber, slowly dying out.
The sound of the small bell chimed, signalling the patrons that another had entered. He pushed himself off the table and sat up, drinking the last sips of honey before making it disappear in a crackle of magic.
His attention shifted from his internal dialogue to the person in front. Sucking in a breath(even though he didn't have lungs) he watched the girl from earlier lean onto the doors as the protesters moved from their original spot to in front of Muffet's shop.
He felt his soul growling, buzzing threatening as the monsters around him had moved their seatings, going far away from the soul that was practically begging to force someone into an encounter.
When he noticed this, Stretched forced himself to calm down. Pulling at the strings of his hoody and sunk into the booth, a scowl on his mouth as he tapped the table. Silently watching the girl interact with Muffet.
Of course, Muffet must've felt the warning buzz of his soul as she'd look at his direction discreetly with worry, then return to the human girl.
He felt nothing to her. Just another face in the crowd but he couldn't help but feel rather proud of her upon entering this shop, despite the protestors in front.
It was then and there that he noticed the tips of her ears growing in colour. The flush red of determination souls.
Chara had the soul of Kindness. She was patient and made friend with the underground, but there were a few runs where red had engulfed her green soul. And all he could do was watch as she—no, Frisk murder his friends and brother.
There was a run where he died and left Sans as the role of a judge.
Thankfully, he didn't remember that after the reset happened.
It was just a split second, his life had been engulfed within the void and then... he was on the couch, waking up to his brother's usual scold.
He never held Sans as tight as he did then.
Shaking out of his thoughts, his mouth twisted into a smirk as he took out his phone. Watching her draw the cup to her mouth and—*Click!*
A snicker came from him as he reloaded the picture. What kind of expression had she made when taking a drink of the infamous Spider Cider?
When it fully loaded, his eyebrow ridges shot upwards. Instead of the expected spit and curse, her eyes sparkled with a look of pure surprise.
He frowned slightly and looked up from his table, watching her drown the drink in minutes before leaving it on the custard.
Tightening the strings, he sighed and leaned over the table once more as he tried to strain his hearing to hear the conversation the human girl and Muffet was having. When he couldn't, he frowned more and sat up. You were hunched over the counter with a pen in your hand, writing on a application form with your tongue slightly stuck out.
He shook his head at his observatory skills, undid the strings and straightened out his hood. In a split second, he was gone and reappeared next to you.
He draped himself over the counter, fighting off the snickers at your startled jump next to him but didn't make any comment on his sudden appearance.
"Thank you for waiting." Muffet's voice made him tense, the familiar soft rolling of her blade coming closer and stopped in front of him.
A small spider handed him a spider donut, while he nodded slightly in thanks and carved his name within the icing, forcing the snickers down once more.
And with a small voice, you said: "Monster candy...please."
The sound of the cash register followed by money dropping, he felt a small item hit his skull, lifting his hands—much like how he did with the spiders, he popped off the cap and brought it to his mouth.
He stopped when he felt your eyes on him, trying to fight off the smirk that threatened to appear.
"I know I'm bit of an eye candy and I'm flattered you think i'm sweet to stare at, but let me slide you my name."
He softly pushed the donut towards you, leaning back with his foot underneath the bar to hold himself up as he took another long sip of the honey, relishing your stunned silence.
Feeling the small glares of the spiders, he snickered softly and continued to wait for your response.
"That last one was a bit of a Stretch." You muttered under your breath. If he didn't have 20/20 hearing, he was sure he wouldn't have picked that up, but he did. And he laughed.
But instantly paused when you took his donut, ripped it in half and shoved one half into your mouth and dropped the other in his palm, which you had opened.
He laughed once more at your stuffed cheeks, that was a strange turn of events! Not that he was complaining. After a loong week of disappointment, he was grateful for the moments distraction.
"Papyrus, deary~" Muffet hummed, returning from the back. "You aren't harassing Miss Y/n with your dreadful puns, are you?"
He drew the honey bottle to his mouth, choosing to ignore the malice in her tone to take a long sip. His hood falling off his skull when he craned his neck, and for a moment, his soul stopped buzzing.
He choked on his honey, coughing up the rest before going into fits of laughter again. Your expression was so odd he couldn't help but laugh.
Wiping a orange tear, he chuckled as he quickly composed himself under the multiple eyes of Muffet. She frowned before turning to Y/n.
God, that name.
Y/n.
Y/n.
Y/n.
It had a nice ring to it.
"If Papyrus ever bothers you, you can come to me. This isn't the first time he's done this." Muffet shook her head, shooting a look at him. "I swear that boy." She huffed in defeat.
Stretch covered his mouth with the back of his hand, his bones rattling as he slowly failed to contain his laughter. Even if she took him and Sans in, she was still witty.
"Thank you..." You spoke, turning away from him—he noticed. "This is my the first time?" You asked.
The question wasn't directed to him, but he still answered as if it was. "Nope."
He looked at the half eaten donut. Deciding against all odds and threw the other half into his mouth. He rose an eyebrow ridge at your staring but didn't comment on it.
"None had ever replied the way you did, though." He chuckled, swallowing the rest of the donut matter. "Using my name like that." He shook his head, the rattling cane back and he stopped himself, unable to keep the grin from his mouth.
"But..." she pointed at Muffet. "She said your name is...Papyrus."
He flinched at this, looking at Muffet for a second before she giggled nervously, patting your head and skating away—Traitor.
"Yep." Was all he could say. He couldn't tell you things that might make you question life itself. That'll be too confusing, and frankly, you were interesting. He took another sip of his honey, deciding to keep his eyes on the menu up ahead.
"Ookay..." You drawn, awkwardly turning away.
You were very odd. He concluded as he kept an eye on you. No doubt lost in your own little world with little care on what's going on around you. He rose an eyebrow ridge, bringing the bottle to his mouth and took another drink.
You were interesting. The moment he saw you across the street, he knew. But...what was so interesting? You were average and... well, human.
Your species were the reason his blood line of skeletons were wiped out, why monsters were trapped underground.
He looked down at your chest—the colour of your soul making him sigh and turned to continue to look up at the menu.
Fighting off a grin at your confused state, he looked at you from the corner of his eye socket and rose yet another eye ridge.
"Thank you, Muffet. I look forward to your call." You spoke, getting up and leaving the establishment. He watched you go, finishing the rest of his drink and bidding a goodbye to Muffet before he appeared in a middle of a narrow alley.
"Don't mean to slap a reaction from you, but you owe me for half of that donut."
He doesn't even pay his ever growing tab. Why did he want you to pay for something that ended up in that growing list?
A small shriek came from you as you tumbled over your own two feet on onto the wet ground. A startled look in your eyes before a glaring annoyance appeared. He chuckled.
"Sorry, kid. Didn't mean to scary your outta your skin." He forced himself to calm down. Stretch didn't want you to hate him. The opposite, really. He wanted to be your friend.
If you were going to shine a little bit of light into his life, then why not make the most of it and try to befriend you? He popped a lollipop in his mouth.
"Cursing someone for that, isn't very sweet of you." He chuckled, as you said your thoughts outloud once more.
"Yep." Relishing in your embarrassment as you rejected his hand to help you up.
"Can you go one conversation without making a pun?" You grumbled, dusting off your bottom, a scowl appearing on your lips at the damp fabric.
"Yep." He spoke, shoving his hands into his pockets. Compelling on his next choice of words. "buttwhere's the fun in that?"
"I'll admit, I have my fair share of puns." The blush on your cheeks and nose softly fades as you handed him a 5$ dollar bill.
Asking for your money, however, was supposed to be a joke.
"The donut was 3.25$, right?"
"With tax." He added playfully.
Apparently, you didn't notice his playful tone as you dropped the money in his hands.
"Keep the change." You said, your voice indifferent to one of annoyance.
He opened his mouth to correct you, to tell you that he was just joking about the donut but the look you were giving him shut him up.
"Right... I gotta go... shopping and uh, get my car."
Stretch watched you point down the road, awkwardly stuffling away from him the longer your held that awkward boxy smile.
You fistbumped his shoulder, he stared at his shoulder for a moment before looking at you. How... peculiar. What a strange way to say goodbye.
"N-nice to meet you, Stretch. I-I..I really need to go, thanksbye!" Your voice was wavering! If-If he didn't hurry then—just as he pulled out his phone, you were already sprinting down the road.
He shook his head, shoving his phone back into his pockets as he watched the wet-print if you ass disappear down the road, a low chuckle coming from him as he thought about the picture he took.
That was creepy of him, he'd admit, but it was also a indication that he'd meet you again.
Hopefully soon rather than later.
For the next few days. He, Sans and Red were dragged back into the dreaded basement to try and crack the codings for the stupid machine. As he sat on his chair, he huffed and leaned back.
This was beginning to be annoying and frankly, a waste of fucking time.
Axe had said it himself. The machine is a lost cause and that they would drive themselves mad if they tried to start it up.
Sans ignored him and continued to work on it. So his Red and so did he. Just because Axe had given up, doesn't mean that they had.
But at this point, they were close to giving up.
His tensed when he felt the air in the basement drop. The growl of Red's soul becoming unbearable as he tinkered with the engine of the machine. Low, frustrated growls coming from his snarled mouth. Curses coming out as growls as he rolled himself from the bottom and kicked the metal, barely putting a dent on its surface as his Soul's hum increased.
"Wow, slow down there." Sans cut, blocking Red's view from the machine's opened hatch.
Ever since they returned from that apartment, Red has been snappy. Snappier than usual. Stretch wondered what had happened that caused himself to be... worsened.
"Move it, Classic." Red hissed, his eye blazing in red—along side with Sans' but blue.
"No. You can't take your frustrations to the machine. It's a valuable asset to getting you home."
"Who givsa shit?! We've been workin' on this piece o'shit for six fucking years!" He roared, forcing Sans into a encounter—Stretch stood up so fast that his chair fell on the group, chattering weakly as he attempted to force himself into the encounter to end it.
"Human's 'ere are too.. too fucking nice." Red hissed, not taking into notion that he had forced Sans into a FIGHT.
"Calm down." Sans' voice was low. Calculating his and Red's movements.
However, both of their souls were jerked back into their chests in a light orange hue, making the two stumble back in shock—successfully snapping them back into reality.
Stretch couldn't help but wonder how much pain the two were, suddenly having their souls forced back into their chests—it must've hurt. He lowered his hand and the orange blaze slowly dying out in his eye.
"Ah—fuck!" Red shouted, his phalanges scrunching the fabric above his soul. His grin falling as he fell to his knees, his whole body shaking.
Sans was in no better position, too. He staggered back much further than red and crashed into his desk, sending files of papers all over the floor, his hands gripping the area around his chest.
"What the fuck, Stretch!?" Red growled, slowly yet surely recovering from the sudden painful jerk.
"Snap out of it." Stretch hissed, matching the malice in his growl. "Let's go upstairs and take a break. I don't think I can stay in here with this suffocating magic level."
And with a blink of an eye, he was gone.
Every day at a certain time would Stretch appear in Muffet's in hopes of catching you. Four or five days had already passed and there was literally no signs of you and your awkwardness.
"Papyrus, Deary. You can't keep coming here." Muffet frowned, rolling to his booth in the far back. Setting a tray on the table with two honey bottles. One infused with alcohol and a bit of spider dust, the other with more alcohol and less sugary sweetness.
Stretch didn't say anything. What could he say? That he felt like you could lift up his spirits and see the best outcome from any situation? No. He couldn't. Not when you're going to worked, or so he hoped, under Muffet.
It would be nice to see a new face in a familiar setting, after all.
"She's interesting." Stretch muttered, popping open the cap and sucking the thick liquid.
Muffet sighed. "Papyrus, She will be working as my employee. Please do refrain yourself, I don't wish for her to quit on your behalf."
"Don't worry Muffet. My intentions are pure. I-Sans wants to be her friend, too." He covered up, feeling rather dirty about lying to the woman that basically raised him.
Muffet looked at the cash register then back at Stretch. With a huff, she softly caressed his skull before rolling away. Leaving him in his lonesome corner.
He would sit in the booth in the far corner, drinking a honey bottle for an hour, order another one for the road and leave. Only to reappear at the same time on the next day.
Muffet tried to convince him for forget about you, that you're just going to be working here for three days a week—since you needed more time for your other job and school work. She wanted to give you enough range but not too much. Just enough so you could have enough sleep for the next day.
It has been a week and two days since he last seen you, and he's beginning to lose hope that he'll ever see you again.
You were an interesting individual. Despite the awkwardness, he found himself drawn to you.. he may have already thought that but it was true!
He didn't see any monster racialist in you, that was rare coming from a human of your age. Most of humanity thought they were soul-sucking demons from another realm.
The very next day, Stretch didn't brother using his usual shortcuts and instead used the door like every other patron in this establishment.
Some monsters come here on the regular, either for the booze or the sweets. He had a hunch that it was because the other two shops was either way too threatening or way too expensive. He shoved his hand into his pockets, pushing the door open with his arm. A long sigh came from him—although, he stopped when he heard Muffet's giggling.
Today was a new day, a new week. Happily, dreadful Monday. He woke up late—really late on his chair in the basement, had fallen asleep at his computer desk. It happens every once in a while when he overworks himself. With the amount of shortcuts he's been using, it was no surprising that he had fallen asleep the second he felt the need to sleep.
"M-Muffet I can't—!" A familiar voice squealed, desperately holding onto the door to the back as the Spider monster giggled near the cash register.
"Oh, deary. It isn't that hard. Straighten your back and lightly kick." Muffet instructed, showing her words with her person and kicked off the counter, strolling past her with a small giggle.
"Easy for you to say," You pouted, slowly straightening yourself out. Only to awkwardly stand there. "I'm doing it!" Despite that, you seemed pretty content with your small (ever so slightly small) success.
Ahuhuhu~ Muffet giggled, wrapping her arm around yours and pulling you from the spot.
Stretch watched as you squealed and cling onto her for near life, begging her to not let you go as she turned around swiftly, skating backwards as she pulled you up and down the room.
The two of you hadn't noticed Stretch entering, despite the bell, but the other patrons had raised their glasses at him before watching the show that was; You trying to skate rollerblades.
Some monsters chuckled, easing their glasses at you when you squealed and cried, holding onto any objects that was near, anything large enough to hold a person of your size.
Muffet managed to unsnake her arms from yours—only to have you panic tenfold, reaching your around out as you tried to balance at an awkward angle.
Your knees were tightly together, slightly bend with your feet apart, resulting you ass sticking out awkwardly and your arms were outstretched to your side for balance.
Stretch covered his mouth as you ran straight into the window next to him. Soft rattles of his bones as he desperately tried to stop himself from bursting into fires of laughter.
Crouching down to your level, he fought back the grin as you groaned in pain.
"Oh dear... perhaps we should keep you on shoes." Muffet said, rolling towards you and Stretch. She eyed him carefully before helping you up. "At least until you get used to it, of course~"
With the help of Stretch, she rolled you to a bar stool near the window. Her spiders moved the curtains, letting in the light in a dim purple colour.
"That's twice," Stretch started and you rose your head to glare at him. "that you've fallen for me."
Chapter end note: Stretch is in too deep, and he doesn't even know yet.