The next day, Blue woke up, his head aching. After all, not much sleep had been had the night before. He'd simply sat in bed, eyes closed, unable to shut off his mind. At about two in the morning, he'd given up on sleeping and, instead, proceeded to unblock Dust on everything he could remember which, admittedly, took quite a long time. Dust had known about every account on every website, and he had tried to contact him through all of them more than once before Stretch finally made Blue block him.
Shaking his head slightly, Blue shoved the covers off of himself and slung his legs out of bed. He quickly grabbed the blue gloves from the bedside table, slipping them on. He then changed from his pajamas into his usual clothes, moving to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He splashed water on his face, being careful to avoid looking in the mirror. He could already tell, today was not a good mental health day.
Blue sighed and made his way to the kitchen, where his brother greeted him.
"Heya, Blue!" he said from the couch. "You're going to work today, I assume?"
Blue hesitated before responding. "I guess so."
"Are you feeling better than last night?"
"...mostly."
Blue pulled at his gloves and passed in front of the television. He pulled out a box of sugary cereal and a bowl, pouring the unhealthy mix and not bothering with milk or a spoon. Sighing, he sat down on the couch next to his brother, watching as Stretch flipped through channels, never settling on one for more than thirty seconds. He dug his hands into the bowl of cereal in front of him and shoveled it in his mouth.
"Ew." Stretch grimaced. "You aren't going to use... ya know... a spoon?"
"Nope," Blue mumbled through bites. "You aren't going to... ya know... choose a channel?"
Stretch laughed. "Not until you use a spoon."
"I guess we're watching every channel this morning, then," Blue said with a smirk.
He continued to shovel the cereal into his mouth, hoping that his gloves were cleaner than he thought they were. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd washed them, and he'd worn them every day for years now. Maybe it was time for a wash before he condemned himself to wearing them forever- No, not forever. He wasn't going to do it again, so this was only temporary. They could still use a clean anyways, he figured, but the idea of exerting the energy necessary to do that drained him enough. Maybe another day.
Blue noticed his brother nervously glancing over towards him. It was fair, he supposed. Stretch hadn't seen him eat so... carelessly since... He was fine, though. He was just tired and didn't feel like cooking. Was that a crime? Still, with not a word said, Stretch remained concerned.
"So..." Stretch drawled. "How has work been?"
Blue could tell that he was trying to start a conversation and hesitantly obliged. "It's been alright, I suppose."
"What do you do as an apprentice cook?" he said with a dramatic flourish of his hands.
The other chuckled. "Not cook, that's for sure," he spat angrily. "All I do is sit and watch other people cook."
Some people might assume that that's melodrama, but, in this case, it's actually true. Blue had not once touched a cooking utensil in the entirety of the four months that he had been working there. From the time that he had applied and been to the interview, Blue could tell that it wasn't going to be the most... informative experience. The second he had walked into the building for his interview, he could see the way that the humans flinched at the appearance of a monster. Despite what many wanted to think, coming to the surface hadn't been all sunshine and rainbows. There was still a hefty amount of discrimination within some communities, and it would seem that one of those happened to be the culinary community. Lucky him. Due to discrimination laws or whatever sort of rewards they would get for hiring a monster, he was accepted into the position of "apprentice cook" aka "you're a cook on paper but don't actually get near any food". Hooray. Such fun.
Breaking him out of his bitter spiral, his brother spoke."Well, isn't that a part of the learning process?"
"Maybe," Blue admitted, "but how the hell am I supposed to learn if I don't practice what I see?"
"I guess you're right..." Stretch hesitated. "Are there any other monsters there?"
"Yeah, one other." Blue frowned as he thought of the other skeleton monster. "He doesn't seem to like me, though."
"Oh, yeah? What gives you that idea?"
This draws a scoff out of the other. "I've been working with him for three months now, and I still don't know his name."
"Oh." Stretch snickered slightly. "That bad, huh?"
Blue sinks deeper into his seat with a sigh. "You have no idea."
The monster was another version of himself, shockingly enough. They looked alike, more alike than any other version of himself that Blue had met. They had similar dress sense from what he could tell before they both had to change into their uniforms. Their eyelights were slightly different colors, though, and the other seemed to be more... pouty. The most obvious difference between them, however, was a shocking scar on the other's face. Blue couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten it. As fascinating as all of that was to Blue, however, his doppleganger didn't seem to want to have anything to do with it. He hadn't spoken to him at all since they'd first met except for when absolutely necessary.
After a quick glance at the clock, Blue realized that it was time to go and begrudgingly got up from the couch.
"Time to go already?" his brother asked.
"Yep," Blue mumbled.
He put his dish into the sink in the kitchen, resolving to deal with it later, grabbed a set of keys and walked towards the door, shouting a quick goodbye to his brother.
Once outside, Blue psyched himself up to walk the mile's distance between their house and his work. They only had one car, and, despite his brother's ability to shortcut, Blue had never used it, insisting that walking was "good for him" and that he was "happy to do it" so that his brother could use the car. Truthfully, he never liked when his brother shortcutted as it was never a sure fire method of travel. Sometimes, his brother wouldn't have enough magic to shortcut, or, sometimes, he didn't end up where he was supposed to. Blue would just rather be safe than sorry, he supposed.
He steeled himself with a smile, and began to walk.
At least it's a nice day, he thought.
It was a fairly uneventful walk, and there were hardly any people out. This is normal, of course, when you're walking to work at 8:30 in the morning. Being fairly fit, it took him about 15 minutes to get to his destination. The building was fairly nice, complete with a large sign out front to indicate the restaurant's name and an over-the-top red carpet leading inside. The shrubs outside of the windows were well groomed, and the glass doors were always clean. The kitchen wasn't nearly as nice.
Walking around to the side of the building, Blue slid his work ID card in the reader beside the door which unlocked it and allowed him inside the building. He was the first to arrive today, so, after setting down his things on a nearby table, he turned on the lights and deactivated the alarm system. Then, he went into the back room and placed his things into his designated locker after removing the apron and hat that was already inside. Why he had to wear a hat when he didn't even have hair he didn't know, but he didn't feel like losing his job, so he wore it anyways.
Blue removed his gloves and placed them to the side, not thinking about the marred bone that rested beneath them and flinching once he'd realized what he'd done. He silently thanked whatever gods he could think of that no one had seen, and quickly slipped his gloves back on. It's not like he was going to be cooking anyways.
"Morning," a voice called from the doorway, and, when Blue turned, he was greeted with the sour face of his other self walking into the room.
His heart jumped to his chest as he wondered how long his coworker had been in the building and whether or not he had seen Blue's slip. His mind was put to rest, however, when the other simply walked past him and deposited his things into his own locker. Blue began to walk out of the room, simply to get away from the other who didn't like him but was stopped when said monster spoke to him.
"Do you think they'll actually let us cook today?" he asked with a snort.
It took Blue a moment to respond as he tried to process that his oh-so-silent and moody coworker was starting conversation with him. "Uh... probably not," he managed.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," the other mumbled, fiddling with his own apron and cap. "As far as they're concerned, we're just here to make them look good."
Blue laughed a bit and nodded. "Right? We're basically just part of the decorum."
The skeleton snickered slightly and held out his hand. "You're another Sans, right?"
Shocked, Blue hesitantly shook his hand and smiled. "Uh, yeah! I am! People call me Blue, though."
"I see," the other put his hand to his face in thought. "I guess most monsters I've met have called me Razz, so you can do that, too."
Blue had to desperately try to hold a laugh back. "'Razz'?" he giggled. "Like, short for 'Raspberry'?"
Razz cocked his head to the side for a moment, a confused look on his face before his eyes widened and a bright blue blush spread onto his face. "If you ever call me that, then I will kill you."
Laughing, Blue held up his hands in surrender. "No, no! Don't be embarrassed! 'Blue' is short for 'Blueberry', if it makes you feel any better. But, uh, don't call me that, please."
"I'm definitely calling you that," Razz said with a laugh.
"Hey!" Blue fumed. "Then I'll call you 'Raspberry'!"
"Oh, no you won't!" Razz managed between laughs. "You're too nice! I've seen the way you let our human coworkers walk all over you!"
Crossing his arms, Blue stuck his tongue out at the other and frowned. "Oh, yeah? You don't really know me, Raspberry. I do whatever I want."
Razz leaned onto the nearby table, wheezing. "Sure you do, Blueberry. Sure you do. I'll bet you wouldn't stand up for yourself even if it would save your life."
With a frown, Blue realized that Razz was kind of... right. He let people do whatever they wanted without putting a word in edgewise. It was really something that he needed to work on. Not that he was going to tell Razz that, though. "If you think that, then you clearly don't know me," he snarled.
Taking a few deep breaths, Razz collected himself and gave a hum while he thought. "You're right," he admitted. "I don't really know you. I think I'd like to, though." He grabbed a rogue sheet of paper and tore off a corner, scribbling something down and handing it to Blue.
"Is that...?" Blue squinted at the numbers scrawled onto the paper.
"It's my number, dipshit. We're friends now."
Blue was confused for a moment before he broke into a smile, clutching the paper close.
"Oh. Okay."