Chapter Text
You were sitting in your bed and looking out of the window. Like most days there wasn’t anything interesting going on outside. There were many different kinds of birds passing by but that was it. The dark clouds in the sky told you it was sure to rain soon. There wasn’t much to do at this care center but you couldn’t leave without anyone willing to ‘care’ for you.
You weren’t always sick but when you turned 500 you came down with something. At first it was just some small thing and you thought it would pass pretty quickly but it just got worse and worse. When your brother Neon saw the first flower he immediately brought you to a healer. Healers were basically doctors but they worked with Monsters. The diagnosis wasn’t what either of you were hoping for.
You had Blooms disease. An illness that only affected Monsters and caused flowers to bloom in random parts of the body due to any strong emotions. If anyone affected by this disease felt too happy, mad, sad, or anything like that, flowers would painfully bloom from somewhere on their body. Luckily the flowers disappear after the person calms down but there are small scars left behind and phantom pains. Since you’re a skeleton the flowers sometimes left behind cracks that wouldn’t go away. There was no cure but no one had ever died from the disease and there were medicines to help ease the symptoms. Unfortunately for some including you the usual medicines tended to do the opposite of help. Because of this those unlucky enough to have more severe symptoms had to be given stronger medication.
The stronger medicines were helpful but the side effects were terrible. It lowered HP, ATK, and DEF so it left Monsters susceptible to being killed by anyone even if the intent was there. Hell, if you even so much as fell the wrong way you might die. And you had to take these medicines weekly so you pretty much had the stats of a child.
Normally just having severe Blooms disease didn’t warrant a need to stay in a care center but you’re a special case. You have a huge part of your skull missing from the top of your left eye socket and to the top of your skull. You don’t remember how you got the injury but you don’t think it’s that important to know. Because of your head injury, you had a lot of problems. You have a terrible memory, trouble speaking, and you’re completely blind in your left eye socket. At times you have really bad headaches and nausea but the nurses always helped on those days. The pain or discomfort doesn’t go away but their company always makes you feel better.
You wanted to be able to take care of yourself but you couldn’t, not even Neon could take care of you because of his addictions. Your brother was your only family so when he put you here you were hurt. At first you ignored him for a while but it didn’t take long before you talked to him again. It was lonely here back then since you didn’t have friends but now you do. And you can understand that he didn't have the ability to care for you right now. You want him to get better so you'll wait until he's ready to care for you.
With all of the help and care you get you can’t say you absolutely hate being here. It’s a place specifically for Monsters but there are still some human nurses, though you don’t mind that. You’ve met so many other Monsters and they were all nice for the most part. Some others you couldn’t stand but they aren’t even worth mentioning. You have a room to yourself but there isn’t much decoration so it’s just a plain room. The food was actually pretty good too. The only thing you didn’t like about this place were the magic blockers. Even though this place was made for Monsters it was made by humans. Said humans were scared of Monster magic so they set up magic blockers everywhere.
No one knew about the magic blockers before being put here but most probably had no other options but to stay. Even though the founders of this place didn’t think Monsters needed magic here that was completely untrue. We couldn’t use magic to defend ourselves so if a bad nurse decided to hurt one of us it’s likely we’ll be killed. And we can’t naturally heal ourselves either so small injuries take longer to heal.
Despite that one problem, staying here is your best option. Even if you couldn’t use your magic, you're doing fine here. You’re well fed, you have friends, and you’re being taken care of.
A knock on the door snaps you out of your thoughts and you turn to the door.
“.....Come in.” The door opened and your favorite nurse came in. Her name was Alphys and she was a short yellow reptile. She wore her pink nurses outfit with a sticker of a character on it. She was holding a clipboard and reading over it carefully. When she finally looked up from it she smiled at you and walked closer.
Alphys wasn’t here often since she’s just a volunteer so when she is here you make sure to make the most of your time with her. She’s nice and patient with you. She even bought you a sketch book so you can make your own characters and write all about them. Writing and drawing are two of your favorite things.
“Hello Arya, h-how are you today?” Well you’re bored and stuck in your bed because you have nothing better to do.
“.....I…feel like…death.”
“Oh, I-Is your head hurting? D-Did the f-flowers come back? A-Are you nauseous?” You slowly shook your head a little and chuckled.
“....Just…jokes.” Alphys breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the chair that was next to your bed. She asked you about your day and how you felt while she gave you your medications. When she finished with everything she started talking to you about her favorite animes and even though you won’t remember it you happily listen. She talked quickly and without stuttering so she was super passionate about this. Some information stuck with you but even that was fuzzy. You always wonder if what Alphys tells you is something she’s told you before. It’s just a question you like to ask yourself and sometimes you try and think about it to see if you’ll remember anything. You never do but it’s a way to pass the time when you’re alone.
You feel someone pat your shoulder. “D-Did you hear me?”
“....Sorry….repeat?”
“I got you something so I was wondering if you’d like to come with me to get it.” She got you something?! That’s so sweet! There was a reason she was your favorite and the gifts were just a plus. Hopefully it was another manga. You think you read the other ones she gave you but you’re unsure. You can hear the excited buzz in your soul and you’re sure Alphys can too.
“A-Arya calm down, y-you might spark a r-reaction.” Right, you need to keep calm. You take a deep breath in and let out a long breath. Even though you don’t have lungs, breathing is something you do regularly. It’s an odd but nice feeling.
“...I’ll…come with.” You threw off your covers and slowly got out of bed. Alphys helped support you until you felt ready to move again. Once you gave her a thumbs up she held your hand and led you out to the front/waiting room.
Through the windows you could clearly see it was raining. Your conversation with Alphys must’ve gone on longer than you thought it did.
“S-Sorry Arya looks like you c-can’t come outside. Just w-wait in one of the chairs o-over there and I’ll be right b-back.” She let go of your hand and ran outside.
You scanned the waiting room for a good place to sit away from people but someone caught your eye. A skeleton was sitting in the corner and he looked nervous. He was fidgeting and constantly clenching his hands. You’ve never seen any skeletons other than your brother but you’ve heard of a pair of skeleton brothers Underground. The skeleton was sitting by himself so you just decided to sit next to him.
At first he didn’t notice you, too busy messing with his hands. While he was distracted you took a better look at him. His teeth were kind of sharp and his bones were a grayish color instead of a healthy snow white color. He was wearing a white turtleneck and a black hoodie with thick blue lines around the zipper and hood. He was wearing basketball shorts and…reindeer slippers? An odd fashion choice but all you had to wear were sweaters and sweatpants.
After a few minutes of observing him he finally seemed to notice you and he jumped back when he did. You could now fully see his face and he had a crack on his skull just like you. His big red eye light was staring right at you.
“...who are you?” His voice was very deep and honestly you liked it. He was kind of big boned and looked like he could win any fight he got into. …Why are you studying him like this? It’s weird and kind of embarrassing.
“...Arya…who….are you?” He sat there and stared at you for a few minutes before responding.
“...bear. ” Bear… bearbearbearbearbearbear- Bear. It was a nice name but not a usual one for a skeleton. Usually skeletons are named after their fonts but maybe this skeleton is a rare case.
“...Here…for?”
“my bro is visiting someone. i’m… waiting for him… to come back.” Why didn’t he go with his brother? Maybe he didn’t know this person or didn’t like them. If you knew who his brother was visiting then you could probably understand why he didn’t want to go.
“...You…didn’t…go?” He seemed to understand that you were asking why he didn't go.
“nah, wasn’t… interested.” You could understand that. Talking to others was tiring sometimes so you didn’t talk much when having conversations. This conversation is a special case since…Bear is a skeleton you’ve never met before.
Bear pointed to the side of your skull with the crack. “...how'd you get that?” Even though that was a personal question you didn’t mind answering since you yourself don’t have an answer.
“...Don’t know.” You both just kind of stared at each other after that. It wasn’t awkward for you and actually gave you time to just observe him more. The staring contest continued until Alphys came back into the building.
“S-Sorry I took so long. U-Undyne called and- oh! Bear, I didn't even know you were here.” Bear’s eye light moved from you to Alphys quickly and it shrunk.
“...hi.” He shifted away from you and looked tense. Did he not like Alphys? She was always nice to everyone as far as you knew. Maybe it was just a personal thing.
“I-Is Poplar visiting Missy again?” No wonder Bear didn’t want to go with…Poplar, Missy was a b****. She always commented on how your brother left you here and was so passive aggressive. She also gave backhanded compliments any chance she got. Missy made sure to make comments about your skull and memory issues any chance she got. She was constantly doing this so you had no choice but to remember her even though you wish you could forget.
“yeah…i didn’t feel like seeing her.”
“I understand. How a-are the others?”
“good.” An awkward silence fell over the two and Bear was just staring at her. It looked like this was going to go on forever but then someone came out from the doors leading to patient rooms. It was a tall skeleton who was wearing a brown vest over a tan sweater. He had glasses and braces which caught you by surprise. You never thought skeletons could wear braces so it was shocking to see this skeleton wearing them.
“BROTHER I HAVE RETURNED. I HOPE YOU DIDN’T MISS ME TOO MUCH.” The tall skeleton walked over to Bear and gave him a hug. Bear immediately returned the hug and looked more relaxed. They stayed like that for a moment until Bear pulled back.
“AND HELLO ALPHYS, IT’S NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN.”
“It’s n-nice seeing you t-too, Poplar.” Poplar then turned to you.
“ANOTHER SKELETON?” He took one step closer to you and bent down to your height.
“WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”
“Arya….nice to…meet…you.” He held out his hand and it took you a moment to understand that he wanted to shake your hand. Geez, how long has it been since you’ve met anyone new? You quickly grabbed his hand and shook it.
“IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU TOO! I WOULD STAY AND CHAT BUT I MUST GET HOME.” Aww, and just when you thought you’d have time to chat with him too. Well he can always visit if he really wants to talk to you.
…Wait, that’s a good idea.
“Come….visit…next…time?” You hope he does want to visit. You’ve been lonely lately, so much so that you considered calling your brother to come visit. It would be nice to talk with someone new. Even….Bear can come visit too. You’d be able to learn more about him and maybe even his injury. That last part will probably need to be put at the bottom of the list since you don’t want to pressure your new friend.
“YOU WANT US TO VISIT YOU? …I DON’T SEE WHY NOT, WE’LL COME BY NEXT WEEK ON TUESDAY HOW DOES THAT SOUND?”
“...Yes!” You were so happy right now you could probably dust! New friends and new faces! You haven’t had either of those in so long and it’s just so exciting.
You felt a small pain in the back of your leg. Crap, you’re blooming!
“...I…need to…go..” You left without waiting for a response from your new friends and Alphys. You were able to make it to your room before flowers bloomed from the back of your leg and now from both your arms. The pain was bearable thanks to the medication. You still took a seat on your bed and waited for the pain to fully go away. To keep your mind off of the pain you thought about the new skeletons.
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Poplar stood there and watched as Arya ran back through the double doors and disappeared. He wondered why she left so quickly.
"I-I should go c-check on her. It w-was nice seeing you t-two." Poplar and Bear waved as Alphys also walked through the double doors.
The two skeletons stood there in silence for a moment before walking back to the truck. As soon as Poplar sat down he felt Bear's hand on his arm.
"...she seems nice."
"YES SHE DOES." It looked like Bear wanted to say more but he just sat back and put on his seatbelt. Poplar started up the truck and waited for a moment before pulling out of the parking lot and began driving home. The car was silent as both skeletons were in deep thought.
There aren't supposed to be any other skeletons that weren't Sans or Papyrus, at least that's what they believed. Arya was obviously a separate case.
Poplar is surprised that he's never noticed the small skeleton at the care center before. He's been going there for over a year so you'd think he would've seen her at one point or another.
After some time on the road they'd finally made it back home. It was a large two story home with a basement. So far only the first floor was occupied with skeletons and the second floor was used for guests or storage. The garage off to the side was filled with many different cars. Two motorcycles, three trucks (including his own), an SUV, a van, a red sports car, and a black mustang. Not everyone in the house owned a car since it would be an unnecessary waste of space but most of us did. The lazier ones opted to have their younger or older brothers drive them around.
Poplar parked his truck carefully so as to not collide with any of the cars. He successfully parked his car and turned it off. He was about to get out but Bear grabbed his arm.
"...it might be...best not to mention…"
"ARYA."
"yeah, wouldn't want our cousins...bothering her…right now." Poplar understood what he meant. He loved his cousins but they could be a bit...much at times. The news of another skeleton would be shocking and some of them might poke their noses into her business.
"ALRIGHT BROTHER. I WON'T MENTION HER." He felt guilty for keeping something like this but it's not like they would know he's hiding something. None of the others would even think he's hiding the fact that another skeleton other than themselves exists.
Poplar got out of the car and Bear followed behind him. They walked into the house and everything was normal. Wine was talking to Noir on the couch, Captain and Roman were playing chess, Twist and Coffee were looking at something on the phone, Syrup and Honey were debating something, Rus was on his phone laying next to Noir, Pyro was in the kitchen making something, and everyone else was probably napping somewhere else.
There was a lot going on but that was normal around here. If all of the skeletons who had been pulled lived here he could imagine how crowded it would be and chaos would be inevitable. It was still inevitable now but it could be worse.
Even though it was a bit chaotic around here, Poplar wouldn't want it any other way.
"WE'RE HOME." Everyone who was here gave their own greeting to the two as they made their way to join in on whatever caught their interest.