Burn Baby Burn
It's not until you duck back into your apartment and lean heavily against the door that you fully realize what had just happened. You've moved in next to two living (?!) breathing (?) skeletons! Not only that, you somehow managed to ruin their dinner and get yourself invited over in the same night. You press a hand against your face. It's still slick with sweat from your run. Oh you must look like an utter dream. Soaking wet and screaming about baking soda. Fantastic start to making a good impression.
No, stop that. Thoughts like that only lead to bad places. You can do this! You had promised yourself that things would be different here. Worrying about stuff like first impressions isn't going to help. Thus motivated, you quickly hop into the shower. Papyrus hadn't specified when the food would be ready, but if he's making more spaghetti, you figure you've got at least thirty minutes.
Exactly twenty-one minutes later the doorbell rings.
Geez that was fast!
"Just a second!" you call around your toothbrush. You finish with your teeth, fluff your still damp hair and grabbed the bag of sugar cookies you had tossed on the counter earlier that morning. You had been planning on saving those for unpacking time but you can't go over with nothing when they're offering you dinner. You reached the door and have a sudden thought. Were they bringing dinner over here? You glance at the table. It's barely visible under the mound of boxes on and around it. Too late to worry about that now.
It was still a bit of a shock to open the door to a grinning skeleton. It's the short one. He's alone, which put your worry about where dinner is happening at ease.
"heya," he says in way of greeting.
"Hi," you say a little breathlessly, shutting the door behind you. "Man your brother wasn't kidding when he said he could whip something up in no time."
"it's mostly leftovers," Sans admits with a small shrug. He eyes the bag in your hand and you hold it up.
"I'm not exactly prepared but I hope you guys like cookies." Do skeletons even eat cookies? For that matter, how do skeletons even eat spaghetti? The absurdity of the situation is enough to make you smile as you follow Sans back to his apartment. You have to assume there aren't like human skeletons. Following that train of thought, you really have to try not to make assumptions about anything else.
"HELLO AGAIN HUMAN!" Papyrus pokes his head out of the kitchen as the two of you entered the apartment.
"Hey Papyrus," you say with a grin. Despite his booming voice and overall size, you find yourself oddly at ease with the cheery skeleton. "That didn't take long at all."
"OF COURSE!" He shouts proudly. "A ROYAL GUARD MUST BE PREPARED TO LEAP INTO ACTION AT ANY MOMENT."
"wow paps. sounds like you were really on guard."
Your laugh comes out louder than you meant it to and you slap a hand over your mouth. Sans looks utterly smug with himself. Papyrus threatens to throw the bowl of spaghetti at Sans and you quickly take it from him. "Should I put this on the table?"
"YES! THANK YOU HUMAN!"
You head over to their table, which you notice has a few of those small ketchup packets you can get from any fast food place. You pick them up and set them on the counter. A moment later, Sans strides by and sweeps all of them into his coat pocket. You give him a questioning look and he just shrugs before joining you at the table.
The rest of the night quickly leads even more bad puns and cheerful talking while you eat as much of the spaghetti as you can stomach. You try not to think about how mushy it is and insist you're just a light eater when Papyrus offers you more. You talk mostly about the neighborhood, which places to visit for the best grub and what parts of the city to avoid. It seems, sadly but not surprisingly, that certain areas were less monster accepting than others. After dinner the conversation moves to the faded couch in the living room. You and Sans both take a side while Papyrus seems content to sit on the ground in front of you.
"WHAT BRINGS YOU TO THE CITY?" Papyrus asks while munching on a cookie.
It's fascinating to watch the food simply vanish in his mouth. Don't stare! You shake your head and think about what to say. You had already mentioned that you were from out of town but as to the WHY....well, you can't exactly tell your traumatizing story to a pair of monsters you've just met.
"You know," you say slowly, playing with a loose thread on the arm of the couch. "Just needed a change of pace. New scenery. I have a friend of a friend who said they could get me a job at a local radio station but it would mean moving here. So here I am."
"you work at the radio station?" Sans asks curiously. "which station?"
"99.5 EBBT. Technically I start tomorrow," you say with a light laugh. "Feel free to listen, you might eventually hear me."
"WOWIE!" Papyrus' eyes are shimmering. "DOES THAT MAKE YOU A STAR LIKE METTATON?"
Like who? Oh that robot that could change his body from a square thing with wheels to a silver skinned 'hunk'. Or so the media called him. You've seen him on t.v before but he had never really held your interest. "No not like that," you say quickly, shaking your head. "I'm not going on the air any time soon anyway."
"then what do you do?" Sans stretches out his legs while talking. The edge of his pink slippers brush against your leg.
You give him a bit of a bemused look before answering. "Whatever they want me to do for now. Pinch voice over work if I'm lucky. Printing out reports and fetching donuts and coffee I would imagine. Basically I'm a glorified intern. I'd like to be on the show itself," you admit. "But I don't have much experience."
At that Papyrus stands up suddenly, striking a pose. "DO NOT FRET HUMAN! YOU SHALL BE THE BEST INTERN THEY HAVE EVER SEEN! THEN THEY WILL HAVE TO GIVE YOU A PLACE ON THE SHOW!"
His enthusiasm throws you a little and you give him a shaky smile. "I really hope so Papyrus." You glance over at Sans. If he noticed your odd reaction, he doesn't show it. You take the following silence as your cue and pull yourself up with a groan. "Speaking of the station, I'd better turn in. I start nice and early as it is and I'm pretty tired after my run."
"run?" You had no idea how he does it, but Sans moves his grinning expression into a grimace while continuing to maintain a pained smile. He's made of bone right? Bone shouldn't be able to change and shift like that. Papyrus on the other hand looks like he's going to cry.
"HUMAN Y-YOU LIKE EXERCISE?"
"Um, call it a recent interest," you say, patting his arm a little cautiously. Are skeletons against exercise? They don't have an visible muscles, so you can't imagine it's something that they would do. "That's why I looked so sweaty and awful earlier."
"i was a little too busy paying attention to the fire on the stove to notice that," Sans says dryly, snuggling deeper into the sofa.
Papyrus grabbed your hands tightly. "MAY I JOIN YOU IN YOUR RUNS PLEASE?"
That surprises you. You gape at his hopeful expression for a second. He's all puppy eyes and sweetness. How can you say no to that face? "Sure you can. Though," you glance at his absurdly long legs, "you may have to slow down for me. I'm not very fast."
"THAT IS NOT A PROBLEM." He wrapped you in another (ha!) bone crushing hug. "I AM SO HAPPY! I CANNOT GET THAT LAZY BONES TO DO ANY SORT OF EXERCISE."
Said lazy bones waves tiredly at you, eye sockets half closed. You purse your lips. "You know," you whisper in a conspiring voice as you leaned forward, "I too used to be...a lazybones!"
Papyrus gasps like you had just admitted to a dark secret. You swallow your laugh, glancing at Sans. He's shaking slightly, bony hand pressed over his teeth to hide his widening smirk.
"I converted. Maybe we can change his mind together!"
Sans' loud laughter at that follows you all the way out of the door. After exchanging numbers and agreeing on a time to run the next evening, you head back to your apartment. Sudden exhaustion washes over you. You put on your loosest pair of p.j's and fall on top your your air mattress. It really needs to be blown up some more but honestly all you want to do now was sleep. You're about to close your eyes when your phone beeps at you. Groaning, you grabbed it to see a text from an unknown number. Papyrus already?
?: knock knock
Definitely not Papyrus. You smirk and decide to play along.
y: who's there?
s: water
y: water who?
s: water you doing after work?
y: unpacking I guess. Why?
s: i know paps isn't the best at cooking. i wanna say thanks for saving the kitchen. do you like burgers?
You feel your heart speed up slightly. OKAY slow down there pal.
y: yeah I like burgers :) I'm done at 4.
s: cool
You put the phone down after double checking your alarm. An odd feeling lingers in your chest. It takes you a moment to place it. Excitement. Pure, happy excitement. Man, you haven't felt like this in a long time. That dark corner of your mind, the part the overwhelming fogginess came from, rears it's ugly head and whispers that you can't, you shouldn't feel such happiness. You roll over and tried to push that thought down. You let your fingers run over the faint scars on your arm.
"I'm allowed to be happy," you whisper. It's just a phrase that some doctor had told you to say in moments like this. It doesn't always help, but the habit of saying it was born a long time ago. So now you say it every night because maybe if you say it enough times, you'll start to believe it.