Chapter Text
The idea had been that you would live with them for a year until you could get back on your feet. That had been three years ago.
You just needed a place to get away from your family, to recover and make enough money to move across the country. You thought it was a miracle when a girl you knew in elementary school, Victoria, offered to let you stay with her and her boyfriends.
It was a nightmare.
You escaped the abuse of your parents only to have these skeletons abuse you for being a “criminal” and a “monster hater”. You weren’t. The only thing you cared about right now was trying to get away from this place, away from the terrible memories and transphobia that ran rampant in this part of the country.
There were ten of them and almost all of them were enamored with Victoria, and that was the issue. When she told them that you were an awful person who she was only friends with because she hoped to make you a better person. They believed her every time she lied and said you made fun of her or took credit for the chores you did.
The worst part? She constantly raised the rent so you couldn’t make enough money to leave, which didn’t make sense because the skeletons definitely had enough money to pay for all the facilities without a dent in their wealth, but you had no choice, out of fear of the skeletons, and the fear that you would be tossed out on the street you paid it as it got higher and higher.
The only thing keeping you sane were Mars and Janus, you didn’t meet them when you first moved in because they lived in a cabin in the backwoods. The monsters in the main house insisted they were dangerous and that you should never go back there. One day, however, when you were weeding the garden you were greeted by a tall, very very tall, skeleton. He loomed over you nearly scaring the pants off of you and making you accidentally smack yourself in the face with the trowel you were using.
“I’M SO SORRY HUMAN, I JUST WANTED TO SEE WHAT YOU WERE DOING, YOU DO IT EVERY WEEK AND IT MADE ME CURIOUS!” he crouched next to where you were sitting, holding your face and gently removed your hand so he could see the damage his presence had done. “ARE YOU ALRIGHT HUMAN?”
You finally looked at the skeleton that had spooked you so much.
… He was cute, his teeth were crooked, sure, but there was something… sweet about him. He was wearing one of those shirts that had the sides cut out to make it a tank top as well as a pair of ripped jeans, and his teeth were covered in braces with pink and green bands.
He was looking at your face where you felt a line of pain up the side of your face, you gently touched it with the hand he wasn’t holding and hissed in pain.
“COME WITH ME HUMAN!” he gently helped you stand and led you down a path you had never noticed before.
He helped you clean up your wound and mentioned that he thought it might scar. He was apparently taking courses online to be a healer, Sans, the skeleton who was “in charge” had told him and his brother-who he kept calling sans as well, strange- that they couldn’t leave their little cottage. But the skeleton had found a way around that, he was smart. The skeleton kept chattering as he cleaned and bandaged your face, only stopping when the front door slammed open.
“Paps, I brought food, where are you?” a voice, remarkably like Sans’, but deeper, more tired, called through the house.
You looked up at the skeleton who helped you as he called for the other skeleton. He walked in, and you were surprised. He didn’t look anything like Sans, sure he was shorter than his brother like Sans was, but he was still huge. He was built in a way that none of the other skeletons you had met were. Like a truck. He also had a gaping hole in his head that looked painful. He wore a black leather jacket and a pair of black worn jeans. The clothing looked well loved.
“Paps, you can’t bring humans here, you know it’s against the rules.” He smiled kindly at you despite his words and you smiled shyly back.
“She’s the human that Victoria brought in the house, she lives here, that’s not against the rules.”
“We still could-” You interrupted the pair, speaking for the first time since you had been brought here.
“Um, I actually prefer they and them, not she and her. And I prefer He to her as well. She her pronouns just give me dysphoria.” The pair blinked, or at least you assumed they did, their eye lights were something you weren’t quite used to yet.
“I APOLIGIZE HUMAN, VICTORIA NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE TRANSGENDER, SHE ALWAYS REFERRED TO YOU BY THE INCORRECT PRONOUNS” The taller skeleton explained.
“It’s ok, I told her but she keeps referring to me by the wrong pronouns, even though I’m almost always wearing a binder, and I don’t exactly look cis.” You motioned to your body and the shorter one, Sans apparently, chuckled.
“Um, if you don’t mind, what are your guys’ names and pronouns?” You twiddled your fingers as the two looked at each other and then you, “Cuz you guys called each other Sans and Papyrus, and I don’t mind calling you that, but if you prefer to be called something else…”
“THOSE ARE FAMILY NAMES, ALMOST EVERY SKELETON IN THAT HOUSE HAS THOSE NAMES, WE JUST GAVE EACH OTHER NICKNAMES, THOUGH OUR NICKNAMES SEEM A BIT CRUELER THAN THE OTHERS’.”
papyru
“Yea, they called us Axe, he/him” he motioned to himself, then his brother “and crooks.”
“I USE HE/THEY TOO!” The skeleton seemed eager to have something in common with you.
You smiled at the eager skeleton, then winced when remembering the awful nicknames “I could try to give you better nicknames if you’re okay with that?”
“You can probably do better than Victoria, she seemed to be cruel on purpose, Paps even got braces and everything.”
“Okay, well you could be Mars, Sans, I don’t know if you ever read Percy Jackson but in it Ares was like a biker dude, but you’re a bit different, so Roman god, Mars.” You then looked at Papyrus and thought a bit. “You could be Janus, it’s a bit different, but your vibes feel very Janusy, if that makes sense.” You chuckle. “He’s the god of doorways and transitions, and stuff like the comparison between life and death, which fits cuz you’re a healer.”
“Oh, I like this kid.” You beamed and winced when it made your scab stretch.
You stayed with the brothers for a long time, chatting and feeling welcomed for the first time in a while, but that was all ruined when suddenly the door was busted off of its hinges and Sans walked in with Edge, another Papyrus-type skeleton, and Blackberry, another Sans-like skeleton. These three were the ones who enforced all the rules so that made sense.
You were sitting at the kitchen table eating some fettuccine alfredo, vegetarian because the brothers had bad experiences with meat, they had explained how in the underground they had been closed off from the other monster and the world had become “eat or be eaten” due to the lack of food in their part of the underground. The food was amazing and you were having fun just chatting with them and getting to know them when you, yet again, nearly pissed yourself in fear because of these skeletons.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing with her- are you- are you eating?!” Sans spoke as soon as he entered the kitchen and smacked the fork out of your hand. “Why the fuck would you eat something here!”
You were confused and rubbed your hand where he hit you “Because I’m hungry and its dinner time? Jesus, Sans you didn’t have to hit me so fuckin hard.” You picked up your fork from where it landed on the floor and sighed as you tossed it in the sink from where you were sitting.
“They’re cannibals (Y/N).” Edge snarled at you and you looked up at him and gave him an unamused look.
“It’s fettuccine.” You deadpanned. “There’s not even chicken in it.”
Edge scoffed and looked away. Typical.
“YOU STUPID HUMAN, THEY ATE PEOPLE WHEN THEY WERE UNDERGROUND.” You raised your eyebrows, and looked at Mars and Janus then back at Blackberry.
“Are they doing it now?”
“NO, BUT-”
“Have you ever heard of the Donner Party?” Sans’ eye lights disappeared, someone obviously had. “Look it up then come back to me with an actual argument for why I shouldn’t hang out with Mars and Janus, especially considering that they’ve been nicer to me than anyone else here.”
They had soon left, and you stayed.
You stayed a lot. Mars and Janus didn’t understand you until you explained that Humans did what they had to sometimes too. You didn’t judge them for their past actions and still thought they were cool. You all had a good cry after that.
That was nearly three years ago. You were struggling most days, and visited them when you could, but you were working three jobs, technically four, just to make rent. You had miniscule savings and were trying to save up enough to get a car as you still had plans to move across the country, and they probably wouldn’t change any time soon, not with how the others treated you. You couldn’t even pay for top surgery, despite calculating that you should have been able to by now.
Janus was out of braces now though, his teeth looking good, and Mars had gone to a healer and gotten his head checked out too, he was patched up, he no longer had a huge hole in his skull but he was still missing what he called his “Judgement Eye”. He wore an eyepatch on bad days.
You were currently working in your online job, writing trivia questions for some company who hosted game nights at their bar. You had just gotten off work at McDonald’s and were exhausted but you knew you had to get these questions done to earn any cash this week.
As you finished your work and went downstairs just to eat something before bed, as you had only eaten snacks today, you bumped into Red, he was one of the smaller skeletons and one of the meanest.
“Move, slut.” He pushed you out of his way and you smacked into a wall. You glared at him as he walked past and you rubbed your shoulder where it hit the wall. You sighed and rolled your eyes. You walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, opening one of the snack sized hummus jars that you had made for yourself as well as carrots.
You sat at the island and ate tiredly, staring at the wall until a sound caught your attention. You looked to your left and saw Mutt enter the kitchen, he ignored you as usual. Mutt had never made fun of you like Blackberry, his brother, had or pushed you like Red had. But he also never stood up for you.
He grabbed one of your hummus’ out of the fridge and cucumbers to eat it with. You rolled your eyes and continued eating your food.
“Why’re you rolling your eyes?” He muttered tiredly.
“You’re eating my food again.” He looks down at the hummus in his hand.
“Vicky made this though.”
“Did she tell you that? Cuz she didn’t, I did.” You finished eating your snack and grabbed one of your drinks from the fridge and popped the lid open. “Whelp, I’m going to bed, I have to work in the morning.” You sipped your drink and wandered up the stairs, bumping into yet another skeleton as you wandered to your room. Blue. He bumped into you, holding a laundry basket filled with blue and orange clothing. It spilled your drink down your front.
“SORRY, HUMAN!” As usual he was brief and polite and didn’t stay long. You huffed as you pulled off your soda-stained shirt before it got onto your binder and moved to go up the stairs into your attic bedroom. It was cramped and filled with your meagre belongings; your shitty old laptop sat on a desk you found at a goodwill with one of the most rickety, well-loved looking desk chairs that you have ever seen. Close enough to touch the back of the chair any time you sat in it was your bed. You had gotten it for Christmas when you still lived with your parents and had taken it with you when you left. It was probably the nicest thing you owned, but it was very old. You wandered past your dresser, also found at Goodwill, and flopped into your bed. You sighed quietly and snuggled into your sheets; you were still wearing your binder, but it didn’t matter because you were out like a light.