The later classes were beginning to bore you. The monotone voice carried heavily around the silenced room filled with college students, a man in his mid-40's held a ruler, pointing at a diagram projected from the projector somewhere in the back, his arm loosely behind him as he switched the slides, showing a much more complex diagram from the previous one. Mindlessly writing down the notes, you leaned on the desk, keeping your eyes on the pencil as it traced words and numbers on a lined paper sprawled in front of you.
The fact that you were behind didn't sway you one bit, keeping up with the lecture wouldn't be too hard if you continued to study on your free time. Although, amidst your jumbled up words, the end of a pencil tapped your paper, causing you to stop writing and look up with a furrow between your brows. Who..?
"You missed a spot." Came a voice of a man, teasing and smug. The male was sun-kissed tan. Bright emerald green clashing with your (colour) ones. His hair was brown with highlights of blond, messy and slightly curled. A smile pulled at his thin, yet plushy, lips.
"I know." Came yours, returning to the lecture at hand. You couldn't let your mind wander from the lecture you had missed a few days ago. It was a miracle that the strict professor had granted you a second chance to rekindle what was lost. Nonetheless, you were very thankful.
As the professor switched off the projector and went to take a seat at his desk, the male sitting besides you poked you with his pencil. Squirming, you shot him a glare with no heat.
"I haven't seen you for a few days," he said, packing up his papers and books, shoving it into his bag carelessly. "Where were you?"
You raised your eyebrow, wondered why he was so quick to leave as there was still half an hour left of this class, the time for students to write up and explain in their own words of each question on the papers they received at the beginning of class.
But, you needed to write everything down before you forgot, continuing to ignore him in favour of your own work.
"C'mon, talk to me." The male joked, bumping shoulders with you, making your pencil drag along the paper, marking the clean sheet.
You sighed loudly, turning your pencil around and began to erase the error while giving him a sideways glare, refusing to acknowledge him.
"I don't have time to talk," You said, swiping away the leftover eraser particles. "Please, just let me work."
"My name's Antonio Carriedo, by the way."
You sighed once more and began to pack your things. If he wasn't going to leave you be then you were going to leave, you doubt that you'll be able to finish this assignment today. Great, another unfinished work you had to complete. Yaaay...
"I didn't ask, now will you excuse me." You smiled, although it didn't reach your eyes as you stood up, walking down the small stairs and out the door, following many others who's leaving early.
Adjusting the straps of your bag, you pushed open the doors, looking around the campus for a second before making your way towards the parking lot.
"Wait!" The damn voice of Antonio shouted behind you, stopping your tracks, you lowered your head and sighed once more.
"What?" You hissed when he came to stand by your side.
"Haha..A friend of mine asked if he could have your number?" He laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. The annoyed look in your eyes melted away as he continued."He isn't.. confident when it comes to talking to girls."
Your eyes widened slightly, a small blush over your cheeks as you hastily lowered your head. "Uh, no thanks...Ask someone else, yes?" You offered a quick smile and scurried away, towards the parking lot and this time making sure to ignore the calling voice of Antonio.
Your grip on the backpack straps tightened, running down the small flight of stairs and quickly made a beeline to your car, avoiding the looks you were given as you unlocked the doors and slipped in.
Taking out your phone, you frowned at the text messages from Josh. It was mostly about his day and what he did during work, disheartened that Joseph decided to stick to night duty to avoid him—he got an apartment for himself, too.
Congratulating your brother, you plugged in your phone via Bluetooth and played a random playlist on Spotify.
"I'm hungry..." You whispered, pulling out the parking lot. "Wendy's, McDonald's or Burger King?"
Tapping the wheel to the beat of the music, you didn't notice the black Lamborghini pulling up besides you. Looking up at the red light, you puffed your cheeks, counting down and recounting the times you thought it would turn green.
The notification bell startled you from your counting, grabbing your phone, you furrowed your eyebrows at Red's text.
[Reddybear sent an image.]
Looking up at the traffic lights, you used the thumbprint to open your phone and pulled up the picture.
Despite it being low quality, it was a photo of you. Cheeks puffed, fingers mid-tap on the wheel and your looking up at the traffic lights while lost in thought.
The colour red bloomed on your face as you turned to your right, mouth opening and closing idiotically at Red.
"Hiya, sweetcheeks." He chuckled, leaning out of the black Lamborghini window. "Ya come 'ere often?" He snickered, basking in your startled look.
However, your eyes wasn't on him. Rather, they were on the scowling skeleton besides him. Giving you a heated glare.
"SA-RED, I TOLD YOU TO STOP TALKING TO IT." He shouted, grabbing the back of Red's hoodie and roughly yanking him back. A choking noise came from the smaller skeleton as he was roughly yanked. A low growl coming from him as he turned to his brother.
"And I told ya I ain't gonna do shit!"
Your eyes went to the traffic lights, apologizing for cursing at it earlier and begging it to hurry up and change colours already. It was like the universe <em>wanted</em> you to be miserable.
"And she has a name, it's Y/n. Y-n. C'mon boss, say it with me."
"DON'T MOCK ME." Edge hissed, looking over Red's shoulder—but the moment the lights changed to green, you sped off.
Hearting beating in your chest as you passed by Wendy's and towards the road that leads to your apartment complex, however, the familiar road to Muffet's caught your eye.
Pursuing your lips, you parked your car, paid the parking space and quickly walked down the road until you spotted that familiar purple shop. Pushing the doors open, you shoved your hands into your pockets. Smiling softly at the employee.
"Welcome to Muffet's. Y/n, it isn't your shift." The bunny shook her head at you, a paw hovering over the cash register.
You shrugged your shoulders, sitting on the bar stool. "I know, felt like having a spider cider."
She punched in the price and began to make it for you.
"Hey, uh, did a skeleton come by yet?" You asked, placing your hands on the counter, fiddling with the cuffs of your sweater.
"Stretch? Yeah. He asked for you and I told him you only worked Mondays to Wednesdays." With her back turned to you, she continued to prep the drink, adding a little bit of alcohol and whipped cream. Her tail flicking softly as she hummed.
"Did you make him pay for his honey?" You asked once she turned around and gave you the glass cup. Taking out your wallet, you gave her the amount needed and picked at the straw.
"No? He told me to put it in his tab." She rose an eyebrow at you. "Am I supposed to make him pay for it?"
"Yeah..." you sighed, thinking of making Stretch pay for it or at least a few sums of his tab. "I'm going to bite that skeleton." You muttered under your breath, taking the words to heart—which was supposed to be threatening because, well, he was literal bones.
The soft laughter snapped you out of your thoughts as you looked up, eyes wide with an embarrassed blush blooming over your cheeks.
"Wha—no! Not like that!" You quickly protested, trying to protect your shattering dignity. The bunny, Amir, shook her head, covering her mouth.
"I didn't say anything," She teased, taking you empty cup and storing it away to clean later.
Standing from the stool, you playfully narrowed your eyes at her and turned around. "I have things to do today, see you later, Amir." You waved, a boxy smile appearing on your lips as you pushed the door open—it didn't open. Furrowing your eyebrows, you pushed the handle and tried again.
"It's pull," a voice popped from besides you, a bone hand slowly pulling the door open. "Ta-daa~"
You blushed profusely, lowering your head from Stretch's amused grin. Pulling the door open, you hastily left the shop, well aware of the extra footsteps following closely behind you.
"Bite me, huh?" He mused, popping a lollipop in between his amused grin. "I'm not sure if that was an invitation or a threat," he said, taking a large step in front of you, making your run into his chest with a small 'oof' coming from your lips.
You quickly backed away from him, covering your reddened cheeks.
He chuckled. Rolling the sweet candy from one side to the other. "Gnawing on the thought, I think you'll bite off a little more than you can chew, honey."
The embarrassed blush still on your face, you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms. "Oh, wow. You must be proud of yourself."
Stretch chuckled, shoving his hands into his hoody pockets and shrugged. "What can I say? It's in my bones." He snickered.
Blush slowly fading, you huffed playfully and stepped to the side—he followed. Furrowing your eyebrows, you tried again but on the other side. Again, he blocked you while looking nonchalantly.
"Since you're not busy, why not come and meet my bro?" He spoke after your third attempt of trying to leave. Pulling out a flip phone from his pockets, he dialed a number while blocking you from leaving.
"I am busy today, Papyrus." You frowned, sidestepping him and ducked underneath his arm and scurried down the walkway. Your heart pounding in your chest the further you got.
You couldn't handle meeting another monster, not after Edge. Stretch's footsteps quickly followed you making your eyes sting with small tears, quickly blinking them away, you sighed and stopped, looking over your shoulder.
"Your brother sounds nice..." you trailed, finding the correct term for your discomfort. "But I need some distance after the last few weeks I had."
Stretch furrowed his brow bones softly. "It's that roommate of yours, isn't it?"
You froze. Furrowing your eyebrows, you shook your head. "What?"
He shoved his phone back into his pockets, lifting his hand and tapped his nose bone. "Your scent is all over the apartment, it didn't take long to figure it out." lowering his hand from his face, he shrugged and leaned back. Taking a step back from him, you frowned softly, crossing your arms over your chest, protecting yourself from him as he watched you silently.
"You..You can smell me?" the question left your lips, more to yourself rather than Stretch.
"Melted caramel and baked cocoa powder isn't hard to miss." he spoke, still silently watching you. Taking another step back, your instincts heightened as they screamed 'run'. Clenching your jaw, you eyed him carefully. The nonchalant gaze he gave you was heavy-- like he was judging you for his own safety.
You tensed when he took a step forward, making you take another step back. "D-don't come any closer." Cursing under your breath for the stutter, you pursed your lips while keeping your eyes on him. Somehow, you felt if you shut your eyes, he'll be much closer than before.
"Caramel and baked cocoa powder..." You breathed, trying to calm your racing heart. "Do all monsters smell that when I'm near?"
"Nah, you could smell like firewood or the fresh earthy smell after a rainstorm." he spat out the stick, putting a cigarette in between his teeth and lit it with a match. "It's different to each monster. You're the first that doesn't smell like a bombard of flowers or..." he scratched his skull with a humourless chuckle. "Or something really shitty like dog shit."
That didn't help you one bit. What does your scent of smell mean to monsters? Were you desirable because of your scent? Would other monsters try to kidnap you? Pursing your lips at the thought, you looked up at Stretch-- a sharp gasp came from you as you quickly took a few steps back. He was no longer near the lampost but a foot in front of you. You could feel the hum of his magic seeping out from underneath his clothes, the soft buzz in your head was intoxicating and... you craved more of it.
"I-I said don't come closer!" You whispered, being mindful about the passing individuals. Your heart thumping loudly in your ears. "What..what are you playing at?" you hissed, narrowing your eyes at him. He must've had a motive to keep that from you--to stalk you in your own apartment.
He recoiled slightly, a hurtful expression flashing in his eyelights before he shrugged his shoulders yet again, throwing his thoughts under the bus. Stretch's silence was suffocating, no doubt thinking about his words or how to get you to leave your safety walls and kidnap you.
"Were.." You swallowed the painful lump. "Were you playing me?"
His left brow bone rose up and he looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it as he looked away with a small frown on his teeth.
"You were, weren't you?" you laughed, holding no joy in the current situation. "I should've know... W-who would.." cutting yourself off and taking your phone from your pockets and sent a quick 'i need help' to Red. you weren't going to shovel this under the house. Your feelings are valid and you needed a ranting buddy, Even if Edge had forbidden Red from seeing you ever again, that didn't stop the small skeleton from seeing you in secret. or so you hoped.
Stretch hadn't said anything, keeping his attention on anything but you. Clenching your jaw, you turned away and began walking towards your car.
But, a hand grabbed your arm, twirling you around and into the arms of the skeleton monster. Gasping, you pushed him off of you as the feeling of nausea passed, tripping over something, you fell on a soft surface. The lingering smell of cherry smoke filled your lungs with a small hint of sweetened honey.
"Don't run away before I explain myself, Y/n." Stretch spoke, not moving after you had shoved him off of you. Heart now racing a mile, you quickly backed away until your back hit the wall--falling in between the bed and wall, you yelped loudly and quickly got up, throwing a unfluffed pillow at Stretch.
"Did you just kidnap me?!" you shouted as he dodged the flying pillow, a displeased frown on his usual amused mouth. "That's illegal and i could charge you for that! Take me back!" you shouted, grabbing the thing closest to you from under the bed--You paused and looked at the empty bear bottle, you face blank as you processed what you were holding. Shaking out of your thoughts, you threw it at him. The door behind him opened, a familiar voice you never wanted to hear again shouted:
"WHAT IS THIS INSOLENT SHOUTIN--"
The bottle you had thrown went over Stretch and lodged into Edge's right eye socket, Shocking the three of you in silence as the moment processed. Firstly, Stretch began laughing and you began to tear up under the glare Edge was throwing at you. Your heartbeat stopped as he yanked the bottle from his eye socket and threw it on the floor, his magic blazing in his sockets.
"YOU." he growled.
"Ookay, that's enough excitement." Stretch spoke, pushing Edge out the door and slammed the door in his face, stray snickers coming from him as Edge's yelling and profanities could be heard from the other side of the wooden door. Switching the lock, your heart dived to your stomach as he slowly turned around, fighting off the grin from his teeth as he walked around the bed and sat on the edge.
Your back pressed onto the wall and slowly took out your phone, lowering the brightness and opened Red's spam texts while keeping an eye on Stretch as he tried to calm himself down. Your attention went to the shaking door, Edge trying to get his way into the messy room-- no doubt to get to you.
Swallowing was unpleasant as your mouth was dried, the scratchy feeling in your throat was not welcomed as you scooted away from Stretch's hand. He lowered his hand and-- another emotion flashed in his eyelights. Like the first one, it went as quickly as it came.
[XXX]
Broher, huny n smk e
After sending that text, you shoved your phone back into your pocket. Returning your attention to Stretch as he pushed himself off his bed and paced around the room, muttering under his breath. Your careful eyes followed him, silently hoping that Red would come get you--You're not sure how but he was a goodie in your book. So maybe that meant he'll come get you soon?
The crackle of magic waved in the air and in front of your very eyes, the colour red branched out from the middle of the room until Red popped up, you hands frantically in front of him as he stumbled into the floor, his eye socket burning red that stretched out of his skull, filling the crack running up his skull with red magic. His eyelights frantically examined the room until he stopped at your figure in between the wall and bed, tears in your eyes and a panicked look deep within those glassy (colour).
"What 'he hell d i d y a d o ?</b>" He growled, and you couldn't be any happier to see that scowling skeleton. Although he was being quite scary, it wasn't aimed at you but you stilll couldn't help but grow tense.
"It's not what it looks like, short-stack." Stretch huffed, taking a long drag from his lit cigarette. "I just need her to listen--why are you here?" He briefly looked at you before turning back to Red.
"Doesn't matter." He growled as soft red magic slowly engulfed you. It wasn't like the Crimson unpleasantness, it was a comforting red. Like a warm blanket freshly out of the dryer lied on your shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Y/n" Stretch whispered as orange magic easily overpowered red and crimson magic. you yelped as Stretch had his arms around you for the second time and in the split second of Red's warning and Edge's shouting--you were somewhere else.
The distant chirping and wind brushing through leaves were the first thing you noticed before the forest smell. You turned your head to face Stretch, the same emotion flashing in his orange eye lights before disappearing.
"Stop that!" you shouted, bashing your fists into his chest. He grunted in pain but let you continue to hit him over and over again until you stopped with broken hiccups ripping through the calming atmosphere.
"Are you done?" he asked, gently taking your wrists and lowered them from his chest, you tried to pull back but with the iron grip he had, all you managed to do was pull him closer. Closing your eyes, you hiccuped as Stretch slowly wrapped you in his soft embrace.
"I'm sorry." He spoke, his palm behind your head with his fingers tangling in your hair. "Hear me out, alright? You can judge later." There was a joke in there that you didn't get. The heaviness in your chest was too much to bare, so you nodded reluctantly. His shoulders dropped, easing the tension that built up during the half hour.
"Alright..." he started, continuing to run his hands through your hair but paused when you tensed up underneath him. "I..stalked you for a bit. To see why you were acting so nice to monsters. You walked through a <em>protest</em> to get a job. I was interested, a sudden shift in the endless loop of familiarity was always welcomed. We went to the apartment, and your smell was lingering everywhere with the heavy smell of burning plastic." He slowly unhooked his arms around you, letting you sit on the forest floor.
"She said you hated monster that you despised our race and chose to avoid us at all cost, I grew wary so i decided to follow you and pop in during your shifts, too keep a close eye socket on ya in case you wanted to dust a monster--The longer you worked at Muffet's, the longer I got to know you, I realized that she was spreading lies. A soul of Greed." he chuckled humorlessly. "I should've suspected it at first. A Sincerity soul wanting to dust a monster? Unheard of."
He sat next to you, your tears dried as you stared at him. He shifted nervously and sighed. He said you were a sincerity? What did that mean? Souls? Muffet barely gave you anything to be familiar with.
"Heh, I didn't play you. I was cautious of what you could have done."
His jaw clicked shut. "And then came that incident at Muffet's." his words were heavy like he didn't want to recall the time. Like it was bitter coffee. You tensed. "Look," he sighed deeply. "I'm not going to make you relive that, all I'm trying to say is that i'm sorry and that I was.. Wrong to judge you under someone else's words." He turned his skull away, avoiding to look at you all together as he thought over his words.
"I'm being sincere about it." he chuckled, trying to shine a little light in the tense atmosphere the two of you had adapted. His chuckle shortly died with your silence response, he winced and rubbed his collarbone, showing you a pained smile before turning away once more.
Should you say something? What was there to say? 'Thank you for kidnapping me twice!' Pushing your lips into a thin line, you sighed softly, looking up from the tree line to the leaves above.
"Alright..." You muttered. Grabbing a fistful of dirt and threw it at his chest. "Don't kidnap me ever again." You hissed.
Stretch rubbed his skull, dusting off the soil from his orange hoodie and chuckled nervously. "It was the only way for you to talk to me, or to listen... I wasn't expecting you to call for ShortyMcEdgy..."
"Well, he kind of cornered me last night and spilled everything. So, I kind of trust him." You sheepishly rubbed your cheek, bringing your knees to your chest as you looked at the forest floor, your pointer finger softly craving the soil.
"...what didja talk about?" Stretched asked, leaning in to block your sight on the ground. A soft blush over your cheek as you turned away, muttering under your breath about personal space while he pulled back with an amused chuckle.
"...My life since moving here." You murmured, opening your palm and clenching them. "It's kind of...downhill."
"Oh. I hope I shine a little bit of lighting your life." He winked, his eye firing up orange magic that illuminated the darkest spots in the forest. Unable to keep the stupid grin from appearing, you shook your head and lied back.
"That was so bad!" You covered your eyes, laughing softly.
"Orange you glad it isn't black?"
"STOP!" You laughed.