Burn Baby Burn
Breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Your heart races wildly in your chest.
Breathe.
You wipe at your forehead, sweat pouring down in streams. Almost over. It's almost over.
"Yes!" You gasp loudly as you approach the end of the sidewalk. A full circle complete! You come to a stop, leaning over slightly. Blood pounds in your ears. C'mon, stay strong! Pain is just weakness leaving the body! Ha! Whoever came up with that deserves to be punched in the face. Huffing, you check your watch. Hey, you managed to shave off a whole six seconds! You allow yourself a little victory air pump.
You never could have imagined the you from last year, the lazy couch potato, willingly running and exercising. Yet here you are, in an unfamiliar neighborhood, jogging in the brisk autumn air. You grab the water bottle hanging from your hip and finish off what's left. You head back towards your new apartment, walking briskly to keep your blood pumping. You look around as you walk, taking in the sights of your new home. You'd been extremely lucky in finding a place like this. It's a fairly new complex, each building arranged in a squashed kind of circle. The inner most ring of buildings hold apartments on the top three levels while the bottom is filled with various shops and diners. A small park sits smack dab in the middle of the complex. You can hear the shrieking laughter of children as you pass by. The park is mostly filled with monsters of various sizes, with a few humans sprinkled here and there.
That's right, the management lady had mentioned that this was a monster heavy neighborhood, which probably explained the reasonable apartment rates. It had been about six months since the barrer at Mt. Ebbot had fallen and monsters swarmed out to join the human race. Of course at the time, you had been hundreds of miles away so the news, while startling, was a little detached and seemed more like a fairy tale. Monsters, real monsters had suddenly joined your world? It seemed like a wonderful, yet impossible fantasy.
But now you're right in the middle of it. It's only your second day in the city but so far all of the monsters you had come across had been open and friendly, if not a little strange. You're a little ashamed to admit you had stared upon first seeing them. Manners, as they were in most small towns, had been drilled into your head since you were little. But...monsters! Real monsters live in the city! How can you not stare?
You swerve past a group of strange jelly looking creatures on your way up the stairs, taking care not to step on any of them. You can already tell that this is going to take some getting used to. You haul your burning legs up to the second level. Your apartment just so happened to be in one of the few buildings in the inner circle where the shop below is empty, which makes being on the second level worth it. You don't want to deal with the noises that will undoubtedly come from a bar or other such thing. You reach your door and fumble with your keys.
Your head suddenly jerks up as you notice a strong burning smell drifting from the apartment on the other end of the hall. Right on cue, a shrill beeping roars to life. Your heart starts to pound again, for an entirely different reason.
"BROTHER HELP ME THE DEVICE IS SCREAMING AT ME!"
The voice is loud enough to carry through the walls, though you have a feeling that's not entirely the voice's fault. You quickly move to the door the shrill noise is coming from and knock as loud as you can. A moment later, the door opens and your jaw drops in surprise.
It's a skeleton. He's close to your size and wearing a blue jacket dusted with what looks like flour. Small pinpricks of white stare at you from deep black eye sockets. He blinks at you for a second and tilts his head.
"heya-"
“BROTHER! THE STOVE IS ON FIRE!”
You look past the first skeleton to see a second one, much larger than the first waving his gloved hands at a small grease fire, clearly panicking. Okay...not a kid. Or maybe he is? Is he wearing...armor and shorts? Despite the odd scene in front of you, your eyes are immediately drawn to the flames on the stove. Your breath catches and...oh no, this was a mistake, you shouldn't be here, not so close to the fire-
The skeleton reaches for a cup of water and true fear shoots through you. No time to be scared! "Don't!" You push past the shorter skeleton, running to knock the cup away. "Do you have baking soda?"
When you're met with a shocked "NYEH?" you instead look around and grab a large pot full of noodles on the sink and dump its contents. You only hesitate for a moment before slamming it over the fire. It only takes a moment for the flames to die out. You let out a deep sigh of relief. That was close. Your hands are shaking slightly. You hope they don't notice. Oh. Wait. You jerk back from the stove, realizing that you had just burst into a complete stranger's home and dumped spaghetti noodles all over their floor.
The two skeletons are staring at you.
"Oh! Sorry, I um...."
The one in the blue jacket suddenly smiles widely. "heh. looks like things got rather heated there, huh?"
"BROTHER!" The taller skeleton's shriek nearly matches the still beeping alarm.
Caught off guard, you can't help but snicker at the pun. You point up at the alarm, which is our of your reach. "Hold that button down and it'll stop."
The taller skeleton reaches up and easily pushes the button. The harsh noise dies away and your shoulders relax slightly.
"THANK YOU HUMAN!" Before you can blink, you're wrapped up in a bony hug, your feet leaving the ground.
"Um, you're welcome," you choke out, patting the skeleton's arm. "I'm super sweaty...."
He puts you down and you take a moment to catch your breath. You gesture to the ruined pasta spread across the ground. "I'm really sorry about that. Water makes grease fires worse and I just grabbed what I could without thinking."
"don't worry about it." The short skeleton winks at you. "i don't wanna think about what pasta-bly could'a happened if you didn't."
You hold back a chuckle. "Well, water neighbors for?"
"OH MY GOD." The big guy groans loudly and slaps a gloved hand across his face as his brother lets out a loud cackle. "NOT ANOTHER ONE."
Fighting back your giggles, you stick your hand out, giving the two of them your name. "Now that I've completely ruined your dinner; hi! I'm your neighbor. I live down the hall."
The short one takes your hand. Startlingly white bones grasp your palm and you can't help but stare for a moment. It feels odd, almost like smooth stone. You bring your gaze back to his face. The seemingly permanent grin on his face grows slightly.
"sans the skeleton," he says.
Your other hand is suddenly gripped by much larger, gloved ones. He shakes your entire arm enthusiastically. "I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS," the taller brother crows victoriously. "THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR SAVING OUR HOME FROM ANOTHER FIRE."
"It's no problem-another fire?" you question, but Sans waves your concern away.
"happened a long time ago. no biggie."
"Um okay then." You shift a little guiltily. "I'm seriously sorry about the mess, can I help clean it up? Order you a pizza?"
"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE MESS HUMAN. I AM WELL TALENTED IN THE AREA OF CLEANING. MY BOTHER ON THE OTHER HAND...." He glares at Sans who just shrugs.
"seriously, don't worry about it," Sans says to you. "we've got leftovers."
You still feel bad despite their assurances. "Are you sure? I was gonna order a pizza anyway. All my cooking stuff is still in boxes."
"OH SO YOU ARE NEW TO THIS APARTMENT COMPLEX?" For some reason Papyrus looks pleased at this news. "I SHALL MAKE YOU MY WONDERFUL SPAGHETTI AS A WELCOMING PRESENT. THAT IS A HUMAN CUSTOM YES?"
"Oh you don't have to!" Your protest is cut off as Papyrus guides you to the door, talking over you.
"DO NOT FRET HUMAN IT IS NO TROUBLE. NOW GO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR DINNER! I SHALL WHIP UP A NEW DISH IN NO TIME!"
You send a glance to Sans, who once again just shrugs before the door closes behind you. Well, it certainly isn't how you were expecting the evening to go, but it looks like you've just made dinner plans with two skeletons living down the hall.
Man, city life is crazy.