#(i wanted to know if my pocket watch not keeping time anymore was fixable or if i was just underwinding it or something) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thdorkmagnet · 3 years

Text

Trust, Promises, and Resets

Welcome all to my first Undertale fanfic! This one took a bit to finish but I’m really, really happy it’s done and ready to be shared with the world! Just a short and sweet one-shot about Frisk and Sans dealing with resets and all the baggage that comes with them. Wanted to put my own personal spin on a very classic concept for the Undertale fanbase. This was also some much needed practice at writing these characters, hopefully I nailed them.

Anyways enjoy!

Disclaimer: Undertale and all its characters belong to Toby Fox. All Rights go to him.

The glow from the screen was starting to hurt Frisk’s eyes, the neon pop of orange color starting to burn into their retina, still they refused to turn on any lights, forcing themselves to remain sitting in the dark. They couldn't let anyone see them while they did this, not mom, not dad, not Undyne, not Alphys, not Papyrus, and not Sans. Definitely not Sans. Frisk had worked so hard to gain his trust, they would hate to ruin all the progress they had made with the skeleton.

Frisk let out a long sigh, staring at the word and trying not to lose their cool. 'Reset'. The word taunted them, a constant nagging at the back of Frisk’s mind, the power and hurt contained in such a simple word. Five letters that could make or break the world, that had the power to uproot so many lives. And Frisk alone held this power.

They let out a slow, shaky breath, trying to keep their calm. It's okay, it'll all be over soon and this temptation won’t haunt me any longer. They thought, though the reassurance felt hollow.

Slowly they raised up trembling fingers, reaching out towards the button. Time seemed to slow, a steady ringing in Frisk's ear, the room around them shuddering as if the fabric of the world was unraveling. The button seemed to be gleaming back at them, the cursed words beckoning them to press it and redo it all over again. To finally satiate the curiosity they were plagued by. Just let this be over, Frisk thought, the words desperate in their head. Just let it finally end!

Knock, knock.

The steady rapping of the wood outside Frisk’s door startled them, causing them to jump in place, looking towards the closed door in panic. They racked their brain, trying to match a friend to the sound, each Monster having their own unique knocking style. Toriel’s was steady and calm, more like a melody than a knock really. Asgore was strong and powerful, often making the walls around it shake with every rap of his knuckles; it definitely didn’t fit the goofy but lovable Monster Frisk had grown to know and love. Alphys was always so gentle Frisk could barely hear it and most times wouldn’t even hear the even quieter call after from the shy scientist. Undyne forgoed knocking altogether, prefering to kick the door open with no warning (Frisk still remembered the incident where poor Blooky had been on the other side). Papyrus often did the same but when he did knock it was rapid and enthusiastic, like he was just beyond excited and couldn’t wait to enter. None of those matched up with this particular knock so that just left…

"heh, you're supposed to say 'who's there', kiddo."

Frisk choked on a gasp. No! Not Sans! Anyone but him!

Frisk moved to press the 'continue' button, hoping to hide the evidence before it was too late but to their surprise the door swung open way too quickly and they wanted to slap themselves for forgetting the improvements the lazy skeleton had made on himself. At first, old habits had persisted, his movements slow and tired as if he hadn’t slept in years rather than constantly. But as he and Frisk grew closer, slowly and surely they had watched the life return to the small skeleton. Not to say he didn’t have his moments of laziness. He was still the same Sans he always was, able to nap at any time or place (usually on the job), preferring to be carried around by Papyrus rather than walk, and cracking puns whenever the opportunity presented itself. But he was more energetic, Frisk might even go as far as to say happy. The smile permanently plastered on his face didn't seem forced anymore. It felt natural and real.

In fact, just the other day Papyrus had been praising Sans on his much needed enthusiasm and Frisk had been right there with him, proud to see their friend truly happy and at peace.

But in this moment, so close to getting caught, Frisk selfishly wished for the old Sans back, if only to prevent the catastrophe that was coming as Sans stepped into the dark room.

"heya, kiddo. what'cha doin' sitting in the dark? don't tell me we’re both going knock-turnal, heh." Sans froze as he finally took in the scene, his eye sockets widening in what Frisk could only assume was fear. They knew how it must look, sitting in the dark in front of the screen that could undo years of Sans’ life. It was an incriminating scene to walk in on and Frisk cursed themselves for not locking the door, barricading it with anything and everything they had on hand to avoid this outcome. They had been careless. They had thought the house was empty while Toriel went out for groceries but clearly they were wrong. And now Sans would pay the price.

Sans’ eye sockets, which had only a second ago shined with life and the promise of hope, dimmed till they were void, empty spaces, no light able to seep through the blackness. Frisk had seen that look enough times to know exactly what it meant. It meant they messed up. And the consequences were that vacant expression. How many times had Frisk seen it before? They had lost count. And all the hope and trust they had built up in Sans shattered and died in an instant. Just like that. “oh,” was the only word that escaped Sans’ mouth and it sounded forced and choked at that, as empty and hollow as the black voids his eyes had become. What had Frisk done?

“Sans, it’s not what it looks like.” Frisk hoped that Sans would listen to them, let them explain and maybe make things right again. But they knew that wasn’t the case, Sans’ broken mind had already jumped to the worst possible conclusion, just like it always did. Frisk wasn’t entirely sure this was fixable but they had to at least try. “I wasn’t going to-”

“heh, it’s okay, kiddo. i get it. knew it was a matter of time, guess i just wasn’t prepared for it to be today.” There was nothing in the skeleton’s voice. No laughter, no emotion. It was just hollow. How long had it been since Frisk had seen Sans this bad. This empty. It was as if the skeleton wasn’t even there at all, just a shell made of bones pretending to be him. He looked so fragile and tired, a gust of wind could probably blow him away.

His bony fingers rubbed at his eyes for a few seconds and… oh gosh, were those tears? Frisk had really screwed up this time. Sans’s hands were back in his pockets and he tried to look casual, normal, and if not for the emptiness in his sockets Frisk might have believed it. And there was that smile, that dead smile that Frisk had worked so hard to wipe away. It was instinct for Sans, a defense mechanism against the emptiness in his soul. Just smile and joke it off as if nothing was wrong. Oh man, what was Papyrus gonna say when he saw that look was back? He had confided in Frisk once about how much it hurt him to see Sans that way. Miserable but closed off. It must have been torture watching from a distance as his brother slowly tore himself apart.

“just, uh… do me a favor, okay kiddo?” Sans continued. “as your pal, just let me have one last trip to grillby’s before you… y’know. let me ketchup one last time before it all goes back.” The pun was painful for Frisk to hear. Normally they would laugh at how bad it was and then would follow up with something like, “Well I know those guys relish your company,” and then Sans would chuckle and say something equally as terrible and on and on it would go. But Frisk didn’t even smile at the joke, they just watched the skeleton sadly, feeling their soul shudder in pain, their sins crawling on their back.

Before Frisk could give their answer, Sans had turned and left the room, the skeleton surprising Frisk again with his speed. Frisk was in the hallway a second later, chasing after their friend, desperate to make things right. "Sans, please wait!"

A formation of bones appeared between the two and Frisk jumped, for a moment terror flooded through their soul. In a flash they were back in that dreaded room of yellow, the empty echoing halls torn and destroyed as thousands of bones jutted out of every crevice, breaking the once fancy hall apart. They could smell the blood in the air, could feel the bone lodged deep in their chest. The pain was unbearable as their soul was ripped apart and scattered to the wind and the last thing they saw before it all went to black was the glowing angry blue in their opponent's eyes, the words, 'dirty brother killer' echoing in their head.

Frisk shuddered as they forced the memory back, burying it deep inside themselves. This wasn't the time for relieving the past, Sans needed them in the present. The bones protruding through the middle of the hallway and separating Frisk from Sans were a light blue, passing through them wasn't an option. That just left reasoning then. Darn, Sans was impossible to reason with in this state. But what choice did Frisk have?

"Sans, please just let me explain." They had to make him see. Show him they weren't doing what he thought.

"seeya 'round, kiddo," Sans said, looking back over his shoulder, giving his typical teasing wink, only now it wasn't playful. It was wrong. This was all so wrong.

Frisk blinked and suddenly Sans was no longer in the hallway. They had been expecting him to use a shortcut but it still shook them to be alone. To suddenly be standing in the middle of their house, wracked with guilt and with no one to help provide any sort of comfort. Not that they deserved it.

Why? Why hadn't they taken more precautions? Why hadn't they made sure there was no chance of someone coming in on them? Looking back on it, Frisk felt stupid. Of course they would get caught! They had practically been begging for it. They hadn't even bothered to lock their door. Clearly Frisk had wanted this to happen!

For a few moments Frisk just stood alone in the hallway, clenching and unclenching their fists, trying to think of a way to make things up to Sans while simultaneously cursing themselves for creating this mess in the first place. Just when Frisk was ready to slam their head into the nearest wall to try and release the image of Sans’ empty expression that circled their head, a loud voice rang throughout the quiet household. “HUMAN! SANS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE RETURNED!"

Papyrus walked in through the front door (thankfully not breaking it down in his excitement) a proud, friendly smile permanently plastered on his face. Normally Frisk would be overjoyed to see him but right now, his undaunted kindness only made them feel worse and even more scummy. They didn't deserve a cool friend like Papyrus after what they had done to his brother.

The skeleton froze when he spotted the state of the hallway and the dozen or so bones jutting out of the floor. "WHAT HAPPENED HERE? DON'T TELL ME YOU ASKED MY LAZYBONES BROTHER TO SPAR WITH YOU?! BECAUSE WHILE I APPRECIATE YOU TRYING TO HELP HIM GET IN SOME MUCH NEEDED EXERCISE, I'M NOT SURE TORIEL WOULD APPRECIATE YOU DOING IT IN HER HOUSE!" Papyrus paused, a frown briefly flashing across his face as he added, "TRUST ME, I WOULD KNOW."

Frisk said nothing, keeping their head lowered in shame. They didn't want to admit what they had done, not to Papyrus. They had already promised Sans not to breathe a word about 'resets' to his brother, the least Frisk could do was not betray Sans' trust anymore than they already had.

Papyrus took notice of his friend's sad demeanor and immediately took it upon himself to cheer them up. The skeleton swept his scarf behind himself dramatically before loudly declaring, "BUT NOT TO WORRY TINY HUMAN, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL HELP YOU CLEAN UP BEFORE THE LADY TORIEL RETURNS FROM THEIR SHOPPING QUEST!!"

Frisk gave them the bare minimum of a smile, more of a grimace than a full on grin. "Thanks, Paps," was all they could think to say and they nearly flinched at their own sorrowful tone. Geez, since when had they gotten so bad at lying? Back in the Underground they had had the ultimate poker face, only Sans couldn't see through their blank expression. Now they'd be lucky to fool a blind bat with how obvious they were being. Then again, Frisk would hardly consider themselves to be emotional at all back then, feelings besides determination had been hard to come by. Frisk wondered if maybe the Monsters had been helping them this whole time and they hadn't even noticed.

Papyrus, seeing how distressed their dear friend still was, took a better look at the situation, hoping to piece together what exactly had happened to trouble Frisk so greatly. A quick glance around and Papyrus noticed something off. "WHERE IS SANS?"

Frisk bit their lip but hesitantly explained, "He went to Grillby's."

Papyrus let out a long sigh, shaking his skull despite the situation. "THAT LAZYBONES. HOW TYPICAL OF HIM TO MAKE A MESS AND LEAVE ME TO PICK IT UP. HE'S LUCKY HE'S GOT SUCH A COOL YOUNGER BROTHER LOOKING OUT FOR HIM," the skelebro added boastfully.

Frisk shook their head, trying desperately to find some way out of this conversation without admitting to Papyrus what they had done. But no matter what scenario they thought up, they just couldn't come up with anything but the truth. So finally, the young human admitted reluctantly, "Actually me and Sans… had a fight."

"oh," Papyrus replied, for just a moment losing his loud, boisterous attitude. But then, in the blink of an eye, it was back as the skeleton was able to leap high into the air, doing a ridiculous spin as he went, which would normally get a chuckle out of Frisk. He was somehow able to completely clear the railing for the second floor, landing perfectly on his feet in front of his human friend. "NYEH HEH HEH, DO NOT FRET, HUMAN, FOR YOUR GREAT AND COOL FRIEND KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT TO DO TO FIX THIS PROBLEM!"

"You do?" Frisk asked.

"BUT OF COURSE," Papyrus continued, taking on a heroic pose. "IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL ROYAL GUARDS TO HELP OUT OTHERS IN NEED! ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE SUCH DEAR AND IMPORTANT FRIENDS SUCH AS YOU!"

"Papyrus I don't-" Frisk started to interrupt but their skeletal friend was already lost deep in his rant. They were past the point of no return, Frisk often wondered at times like this if even a reset had the power to stop Papyrus.

"I CAN DIVIDE UP OUR PLAN INTO THREE EASY STEPS: STEP 1. LOCATE SANS, STEP 2. PERSUADE HIM TO TALK USING MY WORLD FAMOUS APOLOGY SPAGHETTI (WHICH I WILL GRACIOUSLY LOAN TO YOU), AND FINALLY, STEP 3. AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE, YOU BOTH APOLOGIZE AND AGREE TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN."

Frisk shook their head, feeling annoyance bubbling up in their chest, but not at Papyrus. Never at him. "That's not gonna work, Paps! Sans is really upset at me and I deserve that! I really messed up! I wouldn't blame him if he never spoke to me again." The young human hung their head, letting the shame of their actions wash over them.

But Papyrus being Papyrus didn't let this stand, aggressively putting a comforting hand on their shoulder and declaring, "I WILL NOT ALLOW SUCH TALK, FRISK! AS YOUR COOL BEST FRIEND AND SANS' BROTHER I ASSURE YOU WHATEVER YOU DID IS NOT ENOUGH TO RUIN YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH HIM."

"But how do you-"

"HOW DO I KNOW? WELL IT'S VERY SIMPLE HUMAN, BECAUSE YOU TWO CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER!! I KNOW YOU TWO LIKE I KNOW MY VERY OWN COOL MIND, NYEH, AND I CAN SEE HOW HAPPY YOU TWO ARE TOGETHER!" Papyrus knelt down so he was level with Frisk, giving them a reassuring grin, his eyelights dancing. "YOU'RE OUR VERY DEAR HUMAN, AFTER ALL, AND I KNOW THAT'S HOW SANS FEELS TOO! SO YOU SEE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR!"

Frisk took a moment to let that sink in, their guilt ridden mind tossing around this idea with skepticism, while their heavy soul flooded with hopeful optimism. They were torn between both and their body couldn't seem to decide which one to listen to more. "You really think he'll listen to me?"

Papyrus nodded energetically. "OF COURSE!! I'D BET IT ON MY GREAT AND POWERFUL NAME, NYEH HEH HEH!"

Frisk couldn't help but smile, a common side effect from being around the enthusiastic skeleton for too long. It was just what Frisk needed, to smile despite the uncertainty and anxiousness of the situation. It made them feel stronger. It made them feel determined.

Once that feeling took hold, drowning out all the negative fears and worries, Frisk knew what they had to do. It wouldn't be an easy option, in fact, it would most likely be terrible but they were determined to make it up to Sans. To regain one of the most important friendships they had. Papyrus was right, they needed Sans just as much as he needed them.

So, after taking in a long breath for courage, Frisk looked up to their skeletal friend and simply asked, "Can you give me a ride?"

…

Grillby couldn't think of the last time he had seen Sans so miserable. The bartender had seen every single side of his friend over the years, both good and bad, even the parts he was quick to hide from everyone else. But even someone as mysterious and secretive as Sans had to break sometimes and, well, it was always in Grillby's company. The flame Monster had debated with himself many times why that was, maybe because Papyrus never came into his bar so Sans didn't feel the need to keep up the act, maybe it was the copious (and to be honest disgusting) amounts of ketchup Sans consumed that helped loosen his metaphorical lips, or maybe the skelebro just found Grillby's presence comforting. Whatever the reason, Grillby was always happy to be there for Sans, for both the good and bad days.

And today was one of his worst. If memory served, the last time Sans had been this depressed was when they were still living underground. To everyone else he probably seemed like his normal, comedic self, greeting the regular patrons both monster and human with his typical lazy wave hello. But Grillby had seen something off immediately in his old friend. He could tell something was eating the skeleton alive and whatever it was was leaving a heavy toll on poor Sans.

The skeletons' eye sockets were shrunken with whatever terrible emotion was plaguing him, his cheekbones stained with dried tears he had hastily tried to rub away. His smiling mouth was twitching which Grillby knew from past experiences was Sans desperately wanting to frown but his unique body structure making it impossible to do so.

Sans looked small, even more than usual, slumping forward as if it was everything he could do to stay upright. To see his dear friend in such a pitiful state made Grillby's soul feel like it was splitting in half.

Of course, asking Sans what was wrong did nothing, the skeleton was a natural born liar. He had quickly shrugged the series of questions off, his smile so believable that anyone who didn't know Sans as well as Grillby did would have believed it. "you know me, i'm always bone-tired, heh."

The other monsters and humans accepted this answer immediately, some even laughing at the poor excuse for a joke, but Grillby wasn't so easy to convince. But he hadn't bothered to push the subject, since it was clear Sans was not in a sharing mood. Instead he just patiently took his order (ketchup as usual) making a mental note to keep an eye on his friend. Today was a busier day at the bar though, so Grillby was sadly not able to watch over Sans as closely as he wanted. Still, at the very least, Sans didn't seem to be getting any worse. But he also didn't seem to be getting any better, either.

Grillby had just made up his mind to try and talk to Sans after closing time, when the pleasant sound of ringing filled his ears thanks to the bell that hung above the door, alerting him a new customer had entered. Grillby glanced over at them quickly, trying not to take too much attention off of the customer who was ordering, but he couldn't help but take note who had entered his humble bar.

The human called Frisk had stepped into Grillby's establishment, looking unsure and nervous, a rarity for the determined young child. He could tell Fisk didn't want to be in there and Grillby could only assume it had less to do with his bar and more of Sans himself. After all, Frisk always seemed right at home there, Sans would often bring them along during his regular visits and Frisk would have a smile on their face from the moment they walked in, until they left with Sans.

Now things were starting to come together. The reason for Sans' terrible mood had to be related to Frisk. The skeleton always seemed happier when the kid was with him, so the fact they had both come in separately… it was clear to Grillby the two had to be fighting, although over what was anyone's guess. Sans and Frisk always seemed to get along swimmingly, Grillby hadn't even seen the two raise their voices at each other. Sometimes Grillby could swear Sans saw himself as Frisk's dad the way he would indiscreetly fuss over them. It was hard to imagine the two weren't on speaking terms.

Frisk glanced around at the crowded bar clutching a large plate wrapped with tin foil against their chest, clearly searching for someone when their eyes met Grillby's. The human gave him a questioning look, which the fire monster returned with a pointed finger towards the front, where Sans sat, still looking small and miserable.

Frisk gave them a halfhearted nod of thanks before slowly pushing their way towards the skeleton. Grillby watched them until an impatient customer grabbed his attention and he was forced to resume focus on his job, though he still cast an occasional glance towards the pair to see how things developed.

When Frisk reached Sans, they hesitated, taking in the sorry sight of their skeleton friend. Sans was slumped onto the bar, his face resting in his boney arms, which meant Frisk's presence had gone unnoticed so far. Normally, anyone would assume the skelebro was asleep, drinking himself to exhaustion but Frisk saw through that. For one thing, he wasn't snoring, which was a telltale sign of Sans lost in dreamland. And Frisk could also see his body shaking, ever so slightly, almost invisible to the naked eye. Sans wasn't sleeping, he was crying, and making it look like his typical lazy demeanor.

Frisk spotted the bottle of ketchup beside him and nearly gasped as they saw it was unopened. Not a drop was missing from Sans' favorite drink and that was a very bad sign. This situation was more serious than Frisk had initially thought. Normally the skeleton would get drunk to hide the terrible feelings welling up inside him, but if he was ignoring the monster-equivalent of alcohol then he must be in a really, really bad place and Frisk wasn't completely sure they could pull him out of it.

Well that thought faded as quickly as it came, replaced with 'determination' and Frisk thought of Papyrus who was waiting outside. He believed Frisk could make this right and so they wanted to believe it too. And if they couldn't… well, Papyrus had mentioned as Frisk hopped out of his car that if they took longer than thirty minutes, he would come in after them.

Having the enthusiastic skeleton for backup allowed Frisk to finally take action, they set the plate of apology spaghetti down on the bar before climbing up onto the stool next to Sans. The skeleton didn't acknowledge them at first, still pretending to sleep. "Sans," Frisk whispered, causing their friend to flinch. Frisk wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't been expecting someone to call his name or because it came from Frisk themself but it hurt either way.

The skeleton slowly raised his head as if it drained him to do so. "oh heya, kiddo, heh, wasn't expecting to see you here." He tried to sound natural but it was clear by the grating edge to his tone, Frisk had been right, Sans had been crying. "guess you were really fired up for some of grillbz cooking, huh? or maybe something was burger-ing you?'' Sans let out a few halfhearted chuckles, his eye sockets glued to the countertop.

"Sans," Frisk began, keeping their voice steady. "I came cause I needed to tell you something about earlier."

"oh, heh, you're ready to reset already. Guess that's fair, i couldn't bring myself to get that last final drink but… seems like I'm just delaying the inevitable. thanks for waiting on me, kid. i'm… ready when you are."

"Sans, no! That's not what I mean!" Frisk exclaimed, growing frustrated, but not at Sans, at themselves for causing this whole stupid mess. "You're not listening to me! I'm not resetting!" They hadn't meant to raise their voice, they really hadn't but it seemed to be the only way to get through Sans' thick skull.

Sans stared at them long and hard, his piercing black sockets trying to read Frisk like a book and the human did their best to portray trustworthiness in their body language, making a point to keep their eyes locked with Sans' sockets. After a few endless minutes of judgement, Sans finally asked, "and your really bein' honest with me? because you can tell me if not, i promise i can take it."

Frisk shook their head, their small hands clenched into fists on their lap, wrinkling the pant leg in their strong grip. "I'm telling the truth. I don't want to go back, I don't ever want to go back! I couldn't ask for a better ending. Everyone's happy and finally getting to live life thanks to me. Papyrus gets to drive his car every day, even though he's really slow and keeps getting tickets." Frisk smiled warmly as they thought of the hyperactive skeleton, tears beginning to form at the corners of their eyes as they thought of what all would be lost if they ever gave in. "Undyne finally has the freedom to do more than fight all the time and can watch as many stupid awesome animes they want. And Alphys is so confident she doesn't stutter or talk bad about herself anymore. Mettaton's more famous then he ever was Underground and it's even better because now he gets to share that popularity with Blooky and Shyren. And every day, mom and dad look so happy just getting to garden or teach instead of trying to carry everyone's burdens on their shoulders. And Papyrus and I can both see how much better you are since coming to the surface and I would never want to take that away from you or anyone."

Frisk sniffed, wiping their eyes on the back of their sleeve, trying to recover enough to continue. Sans just watched them with growing concern, petrified by their tears since the skeleton had never once seen them cry in the entire time he knew them, which was probably more than anyone else, human or monster. So the fact he was seeing this now left him completely off-guard and clueless as to how to react. He made several moves to comfort them but talked himself out of it at the last second, not wanting to make things worse.

Still the fact he noticeably cared was enough to provide a small sense of comfort to Frisk and they were grateful for it. "But it's not just the monsters," Frisk continued as soon as they got their voice back. "This is the happiest I've ever been in my life! I have a real family and friends that love me and take care of me and I don't ever want any of that to go away!"

Frisk continued to sniffle, trying to keep the sobs buried at the back of their throat, the sadness returning faster than they could stop it, this time stronger than before. Tears ran down their cheeks and they hiccuped out the rest of what they had to say. "B-But no matter what I do or how much I say I won't, you always think I'm gonna reset everything. I can't convince you! Am I really that bad a person that you can't ever trust me?!" With that, the floodgates burst open and Frisk began to sob uncontrollably, doubling over in their seat and weeping pitifully into their hands.

The moment their sobs began, Sans knew he could no longer just sit and watch, now was the time to act. Without a word the skelebro reached over and swooped Frisk into his arms, holding them in a tight but loving hug against his chest. He cooed soothing words into their ear while rocking them back and forth in his seat. He had an arm protectively around their frame, while the other he ran through their short, brown hair. Sans didn't even care that his favorite jacket was now soaked in the kid's tears, all that mattered was comforting his kiddo.

It randomly occured to Sans that this had to be quite the sight for the other patrons of the bar, a small human child sobbing into a forever-grinning skeleton monster. Not that he particularly cared what anyone thought of his and Frisk’s friendship. Still he did take a quick glance around the bar to see if anyone had noticed the situation. Sure enough, the outburst had attracted the attention of every monster and human inside, a few of them seemed putoff by the sight like Sans expected but most just looked concerned, especially the regulars. The dogs had all started whining in concern, Lesser Dog's neck stretching out towards Frisk. Even Grillby had stopped what he was doing to watch the scene play out, Sans reading the worry from his flaming face.

The skeleton quickly returned his attention back to Frisk as they began to shake and hiccup, their sobs slowly dying down in strength. Sans listened to their choked breaths before he decided to try and risk a joke, hoping it would lighten the mood and lift the kid’s spirits a little. “well, call me a half-eaten plate of cookies because now I feel pretty crumby.” Between their sobs, Frisk let out a little laugh, small and halfhearted but it was music to Sans’ ears. He would take any form of joy over listening to them cry a moment longer. Heck, he would prefer a reset over the soul-breaking sobs bursting from his poor kid, especially since he was part of the cause of their tears.

He waited until they had recovered enough to listen, saying in a soft, gentle tone, “listen frisk, i’m so sorry i made you feel that way… that i didn’t trust you. I know you may not believe it but i probably trust you more than myself, heh.” Sans gave Frisk a little squeeze for reassurance. “so please don’t blame yourself for this dumb comedian’s mistake, babybones.”

“You aren’t dumb,” Frisk spoke up, their voice muffled by Sans’ jacket.

“and you aren’t a bad person,” the skeleton monster countered.

Frisk finally pulled their face out of Sans’ jacket, staring up at him with tear-stained vision. “So… you aren’t mad at me?”

Sans almost laughed out loud at the question, the ridiculousness of it all astounding to him. Here he was trying to comfort Frisk after causing them to cry, all because he couldn’t accept that his time in the underground was finally over, that Frisk really wouldn’t reset and trap them all down there again. If anything they should be mad at him, not the other way around.

“of course i’m not mad, kiddo,” Sans finally replied, rubbing a hand up and down Frisk's back in a soothing motion. “ i just got a little too sans-itive back there.” The two both chuckled at the joke, a real, genuine smile returning to Frisk’s face. That’s better, Sans thought with relief. He did a quick scan around the rest of the bar and saw that everyone else had visibly relaxed too, now that Frisk had finally stopped crying.

Since he got the kid calm he figured now was as good a time as any to get some answers so he set them back in their own seat while asking, “so, uh, if you don’t mind me askin’ what were you doing before, if you weren’t trying to reset?"

Frisk tensed, biting their lip and looking down at their lap but thankfully there were no more tears like Sans worried there might be. The human child took a long moment, building up the courage to say, shifting uncomfortably in their seat and not meeting Sans’ eye. Clearly it was something they didn’t want to discuss. Sans was about to change the subject and be done with it but Frisk spoke up just in time. “I was… trying to find a way to destroy the ‘reset’ button,” they admitted sadly.

Sans blinked, the only shock and surprise he let show on his face. He wasn’t expecting that. “uhhh, okay seems a bit weird since you yourself said you never wanted to reset again,” the skeleton responded finally.

“Yeah, but…” Frisk paused, their eyes flooding with fear while their small fingers fiddled with the front of Sans’ jacket, clenching and unclenching the fabric in their grip. All at once they seemed so very far away, lost in their own world and Sans feared he wouldn’t be able to reach them from where he was, he feared it was a path Frisk was trying to walk alone.

“kid?” Sans whispered worriedly, cupping their cheek in his skeletal palm. Frisk’s eyes refocused, snapping them out of whatever horrible vision they had just been shown and they hesitantly met Sans’ gaze. “c’mon, tell me what’s wrong.”

Frisk took in a deep breath, in and out, before admitting, “I-I’m afraid of m-myself.”

Again this was not what Sans was expecting but he made sure not to let his surprise show on his face, knowing Frisk needed unflinching support at this time. “what, a nice kid like you? What could you possibly have to fear about yourself?”

“T-That I’ll reset anyways. That I’m not determined enough to keep this happy ending. That’ll I’ll… ruin everything,” Frisk said, their eyes filling with shame.

Sans gave them a small pat on the head. “but i thought you were determined not to reset? that you’re happy the way things are.”

“But what if it doesn’t last?” Frisk asked, clutching Sans’ jacket so tightly their knuckles turned white, their eyes pleading and desperate as they looked to their skeletal friend for answers. “What if something goes wrong a-and I stop being happy? And then the temptation comes back and I can’t stop myself from-from going back there.” Frisk was starting to hyperventilate and Sans started rubbing circles on their back again, trying to keep them breathing regularly. At this rate he wouldn’t be surprised if the kid passed out on him. “I don’t want this to end Sans, I don’t want to disappoint you or break our promise but the fact that I don’t know for sure terrifies me!”

Sans took a minute to respond to that, keeping a blank expression while inwardly battling with the turmoil that was threatening to crush him. On one hand, he was afraid of the exact same thing, too. Afraid of waking up back underground, powerless to stop it, completely at the whim of an unpredictable human. And yet, Sans could tell Frisk needed comfort, reassurance, and he was the only one who could provide it, the only one who understood what they were going though. It had never once occurred to Sans that Frisk might be going through the same fears he was and he wanted to slap himself for being so self-centered he hadn’t even noticed the struggles his dear friend was going through on their own.

And despite his fears, what he said to them before rang true. He believed in Frisk. Sure they had messed up before (heck wasn’t like he was exactly Mr. Perfect either) but they had worked so hard to make up for past mistakes and then some. Without them, Sans wouldn’t be free, his family and friends would still be trapped underground, slowly losing their hope of ever seeing freedom for themselves. Sans had judged Frisk more times then he could count, but that last time, before they broke the barrier and declared they would never reset again, he could see they were determined to do right. There had been resolve in their eyes that day at the Judgement Hall, filled with the strength to do good. They held themselves taller than they ever had before and the way the light reflected off their skin and clothes, they looked like a real hero, like… an angel. That was the moment Sans knew things would be different this time, the first time in a long line of resets he allowed himself to hope. Small and fragile, yes, but it was what started him down the right path to fixing himself and he had needed that more than he even knew at the time.

So if he wasn’t willing to return the favor, then he’d be a real, bone-ified jerk. Heh. Not to mention a massive hypocrite. Besides he was positive if Frisk started crying again then he would start weeping some very unmanly tears, too, and he did not want to explain to the other patrons of the bar what caused his own water works, especially Grillby. He was already pushing it by coming there in such a depressed state, if the bar owner caught sight of him crying… well, he might just have to find a new place to drink his favorite brand of ketchup just to get him off his back.

Sans wasn’t exactly the most experienced when it came to cheering people up, despite his jokes and pour sense of humor he was too much of a cynic to do much of that, but he had a pretty good idea what to say to the kid to ease their mind a little. So, one deep breath later, he gave their hair a good, long ruffle, not enough to hurt them but still strong enough that they were tipped slightly forward by the action.

When he was finished, Frisk seemed taken aback by his response, their hair standing up at odd angles and their eyes wide with confusion but Sans’ plan had worked, he had successfully drawn their attention away from their own troubling thoughts and that was a win in his mind. “c'mon, kiddo,” Sans began, giving them a fake scolding look (which wasn’t easy to do when you are always smiling). “what kinda talk is that? thought you were supposed to be the ‘most determined’ or whatever. you seriously trying to tell me you're afraid of some button after literally coming back from death itself dozens of times?”

Frisk didn’t respond, just staring at the skeleton blankly, so he decided to continue on with his speech, making sure the message sunk in deep. nah, sorry not buyin’ it.” He shook his head before putting on a warm smile, one he knew Frisk would recognize. “the frisk i know is way too stubborn for that. so stop tellin’ yourself otherwise.”

“But Sans, what if something happens? What if things go wrong and ‘resetting’ might be easier?” Frisk asked, fear flooding their vision for a moment as they gripped his jacket fearfully.

But Sans just shrugged it off, reassuring his kid, “then we’ll deal with it. i’m sure between the two us, we numbskulls can come up with some kind of solution that doesn’t involve resetting.”

Frisk smiled a little at the pun but they were too focused on the rest of that sentence to comment on it. “‘We’?” they repeated in a small voice as if uncertain they had heard Sans' right.

The skeleton just nodded his head, winking down at his human friend. “that’s right, kiddo. no matter what happens or if things go terribly right or terribly wrong, i'll be right there by your side, so that we can face it together.”

“You mean it?” Frisk asked hopefully. They wanted to believe that. They wanted so badly to believe they weren’t be alone in dealing with this anymore. But after everything they had done to Sans, even if he didn’t blame them, Frisk just couldn’t accept that as the truth.

“of course i meant it. What kind of dunkle would i be if i wasn’t there to help my kid through a crisis?” he winked playfully at his kiddo but it still didn't quite get through Frisk's barrier.

They at least gave a small halfhearted smile at the nickname they had made up for Sans but they just weren't convinced. After all, Sans had proven he was a pretty good liar. How could they know for sure he was telling the truth? That he wasn't just saying what they wanted to hear like adults tended to do.

The skelebro could see the doubt on their face and so swept them up into another tight hug before saying, "i'll be here for you, kiddo. no matter what. i promise."

Frisk’s mouth dropped open at the word ‘promise’. Sans hated making promises. He avoided committing himself to pretty much anything just to avoid the responsibility and consequences promises brought with them. Despite that, it was obvious promises were something Sans regarded highly, because when he did make them, he did not take them lightly. They were the only reason he hadn’t just disposed of Frisk the first time they met. In all the resets and all the different outcomes Sans had never once spoken those words to them and Frisk had honestly believed he never would. So for him to say those words without force or question or any kind of convincing blew Frisk's mind!

Frisk pulled out of the hug, so they could show Sans their disbelief, giving him a look resembling a gapping fish. The skeleton couldn't help but chuckle at the odd expression (not that he blamed them) before giving their hair another good ruffle. "yeah, yeah, i know. 'i hate makin' promises','' he shrugged as he repeated his old words back to himself. "But if it helps ease your mind and keeps this from happening again…" Sans gestured around the bar, stopping at the unopened bottle of ketchup. "...then i guess it's worth it."

Frisk let out a long puff of air, their face relaxing for the first time in an hour. "So I guess you really condi-meant it," they replied and the two burst into laughter. Sans' laugh roared around the fairly-sized bar, drawing many questioning eyes onto the pair but neither noticed nor cared. All the stress and tension that had built up within them was finally able to be let out, a normal, pleasant calm falling over the pair.

From where he stood cleaning out empty shot glasses, Grillby smiled to himself, happy to hear Sans' laughter in his bar again. The place always felt empty without it, even if the skeleton was a bit of a handful.

"you have no idea how much I pro-missed hearing that laugh of yours, buddy, heh," Sans admitted jokingly, winking down at the giggling Frisk. This only made them laugh harder until there were tears in their eyes.

Seeing that now was the right moment for it, Sans offered the kid his hand to shake. "so how's about it, frisk, partners against time?"

Frisk smiled and nodded vigorously, taking the skeleton's outstretched hand. A loud fart noise echoed through the bar, any newcomers there stopping what they were doing with a look of disgust. Grillby's happy smile turned to an annoyed frown, facepalming in utter frustration and disappointment. He made a mental note to talk to Sans on a day he was doing better because at this rate he was gonna scare away all of his business.

Frisk and Sans, on the other hand, both snorted, trying to hold in their laughter. But when Sans flipped over his hand revealing the whoopie cushion taped onto his palm the two lost it, laughing uncontrollably at the prank, Frisk holding their stomach from lack of oxygen.

Finally, their roars of laughter died down to a low rumble, then a scattering of chortles. Once Frisk and Sans had worn themselves out, they both just took a moment to catch their breath, panting heavily and grinning ear to ear (or non-ears in Sans' case). Once the skeleton could speak again, he lazily stated, "welp, better get back home before pap freaks out and goes lookin' for us." Sans quickly swiped up the ketchup bottle off the counter, popping the lid off and finally taking a massive gulp from the bottle before sliding it away into his jacket for later. No use letting it go to waste, after all.

“Ummmm,” Frisk mumbled, looking over at the clock on the wall, quickly reading the time. It was only a few seconds till 7:30, right when Paps had said he would come in. “About that-”

Just as the clock switched over from 7:29 to 7:30, the door to the bar busted open, the loud noise startling human and monster alike, a silence falling over the place as all turned to see who had so hastily entered their place of relaxation. Papyrus stood proudly in the doorway his scarf waving in the wind somehow, despite there not being any wind to speak of. The door itself was now nothing but splintered wood from where Papyrus had kicked it open and Grillby hung his head in defeat, already dreading another phone call to the very frustrated door repair man. The skelebro ignored all the confused and judging stares from around the bar, his focus on his brother and friends spotting them near the back. “SANS! HUMAN! DO NOT FEAR FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM HERE TO HELP YOU SOLVE YOUR DIFFERENCES AND BECOME BEST FRIENDS AGAIN!” the skeleton declared loudly.

“bro?” Sans asked in confusion, an eyebrow slowly raising. He glanced over at Frisk, who offered a sheepish expression as the only means of explanation. “so, you got my bro in on this too, huh?” Sans commented before passing it off with a shrug. “heh, guess i can’t blame you, he is too cool to go without.”

“OF COURSE I AM!” Papyrus agreed, putting a hand to his chest. He quickly snapped out of his self-congratulatory praise though and returned focus to things almost as important as he was. “BUT DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" he scolded, moving his gloved hands to his protruding hips. "SANS, I DON’T KNOW ENTIRELY WHAT THE TINY HUMAN DID TO UPSET YOU BUT I’M SURE WHATEVER IT WAS IS NOT ENOUGH TO STOP BEING THEIR FRIEND. IF YOU DID STOP BEING THEIR FRIEND YOU WOULD FEEL BAD AND WHEN I WAS OUT HANGING OUT WITH FRISK YOU WOULD PROBABLY LAZE AROUND AT HOME AND I DON’T NEED ANY MORE EXCUSES FOR YOU TO BE LAZY.”

bro, it’s fine,” Sans spoke up, trying to sound as reassuring as he could. “frisk and i already worked things out.”

“OH.” Papyrus paused for a second or two, letting that process, before he stuck a dramatic pose and proudly declared, “WOWIE! I’M EVEN BETTER AT THIS THEN I THOUGHT! NYEH HEH HEH!”

“you sure are, bro,” Sans agreed, pulling the bottle of ketchup out and taking a small sip.

“You’re the greatest, Papyrus!” Frisk added, smiling up at the tall skeleton.

“WELL YES I AM, THANK YOU FOR NOTICING, TINY HUMAN FRISK!” Papyrus picked Frisk and Sans up and pulled them into a loving hug. “AND YOU AND MY BROTHER, even though he is very lazy, ARE VERY GREAT AS WELL, NYEH HEH HEH!”

Frisk hugged the skelebro back while Sans just hung loosely from his arm, already fighting sleep, but still smiled nonetheless. “we’re only cool cause we hang out with you, bro,” Sans said, his words already starting to slur.

“SANS ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO SLEEP RIGHT NOW? YOU JUST MADE UP WITH FRISK! WE MUST CELEBRATE ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

“you know me, bro. I’m… the best at being la….zzzzy,” Sans began to snore loudly and Papyrus let out an over dramatic sigh. Frisk covered their mouth to keep their giggles from escaping, finding the two skeletons immensely funny and entertaining. There was never a dull moment with them around.

Papyrus put a gloved hand to his forehead, before commenting bitterly, “I CAN’T TELL IF THAT WAS MEANT TO BE A PUN OR YOU ARE JUST REALLY THAT LAZY.”

“bit of both,” Sans muttered in his sleep.

“OKAY, YOU LAZY BONES, IT’S TIME TO GO HOME AND PUT YOU IN YOUR PROPER BED, SINCE MY ARM DOES NOT COUNT AS ONE,” Papyrus declared, already stomping towards the door.

“Wait, Papyrus, can’t we at least get something to eat first?” Frisk asked, sheepishly, rubbing their stomach. “I’m really hungry.”

“NOT TO WORRY, HUMAN. FOR TGE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS PLANS AHEAD, NYEH HEH HEH! YOU CAN EAT MY APOLOGY SPAGHETTI ON THE WAY HOME."

Frisk made a face, trying their hardest not to let their disgust show. Although Paps’ cooking had gotten better since getting to the surface, it was still mostly inedible. And the smell of burgers and fries had already filled their nostrils, making their stomach growl in want.

Luckily, Sans already had a solution to this dilemma, his right eye lighting up blue, unseen by Papyrus, thanks to how he was draped over his bro's arm. The plate of unopened spaghetti then also turned the pale color to match the skeleton's eye, before it suddenly scooted itself across the bar and onto the floor below. There was a shattering sound heard from Grillby's side of the table, said monster watching the plate fall before whipping his head in the direction of Sans, fuming with anger.

Sans shrugged to the fire monster, hoping he would take that as an apology, while telling Papyrus, "sorry, bro. already are it all. you know apology spaghetti is my favorite spaghetti. you can taste the remorse in every bite."

Papyrus gasped, setting the human down so he could hold Sans at arms length (startling the older brother) his eyelights somehow sparkling with joy to convey just how happy he was to his brother. "OH SANS, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT, NYEH HEH HEH! I ALMOST FORGOT HOW MUCH YOU ENJOYED MY COOKING! YOU ARE THE BEST BROTHER I EVER HAD!"

"heh, pretty sure i'm your only brother, too," Sans mentioned.

Papyrus began spinning them in a circle, which Sans' body instantly disliked, the place where his stomach would be groaning in protest. "OH BUT IT'S TRUE! I'M CONFIDENT EVEN IF YOU WEREN'T MY ONLY BROTHER YOU WOULD STILL BE THE GREATEST BECAUSE ONLY THE BEST BROTHER WOULD LOVE MY SPAGHETTI SO MUCH!"

Sans put a hand over his smiling mouth, trying to keep his dinner down. "paps, ya think you could stop with all the spinning before this spaghetti turns into seafood?" The skelebro asked miserably.

Papyrus did stop, looking at his brother in confusion. "WAIT, HOW WOULD IT DO THAT?"

Sans shrugged nonchalantly, despite his pale complexion, his face beading with sweat, and his groaning insides. "because, uh, y'know cause i was gonna throw it up."

Papyrus frowned at his brother muttering, "FIRST OF ALL, SANS, THAT IS DISGUSTING. SECONDLY, WE ARE SKELETON MONSTERS, FOOD JUST TURNS INTO MAGIC. WE PHYSICALLY CANNOT THROW UP."

"i hear ya, bro, but the rest of me just can't stomach it," Sans replied simply.

Papyrus stared at him blankly before shouting, "OH MY GOSH, SANS! THAT ONE WASN'T EVEN CLEVER!"

"hey, you can't blame me for the bad puns, bro," Sans pleaded, although there was not a hint of remorse or regret on his face. "i'm just too excited to get to spin more time with the great papyrus."

Papyrus smiled, saying brightly, "WHY THANK YOU SANS, I KNOW I'M VERY GREAT-" However, he froze upon realizing the pun his older brother had just made. "SANS! WHY MUST YOU RUIN OUR MOMENTS WITH YOUR INFERNAL PUNS!" Papyrus stomped his foot once in anger, while Sans just rolled with laughter. He was soon having to clutch his front, his rib bones aching from the uncontrollable laughing fit.

Papyrus just rolled his eyes, knowing there was not much more he could do about his brother's obsession with terrible puns. In all honesty though, Papyrus would happily endure as many terrible jokes as it took if it meant getting to see his brother this happy. Not that he would ever, ever admit it to him.

Papyrus felt a small tug on his scarf and looked down to see Frisk staring up at him with a hopeful expression. “Soooo, does that mean I can have something to eat here?” They put their hands together in a pleading motion, begging with their eyes to try and break through the skeleton’s barriers. Papyrus avoided their eye for a moment, seeming to think it over.

From behind the three, Grillby crossed his arms, staring at Papyrus long and hard as he waited for the skeleton’s answer, the flames around his head burning a little stronger than normal. The least Papyrus could do after breaking his door (again) was buy something so that Grillby could afford to replace it. Still he didn’t voice this out loud because Papyrus was Papyrus and he really couldn’t stay mad at him for long. He was as charming and naive as he was destructive. With a combo like that, Grillby figured he would be paying for a lot of repairs if it meant having the skelebros around.

Sans, however, would be getting a firm lecture from him once they were alone because his bar was not a trash can, nor should it be treated that way. Although even Sans was difficult to punish, if Grillby had a right mind he would have banned them both ages ago, but he had a soft spot for the skeletons so he tolerated all their strange antics and pranks even if he probably shouldn’t.

Finally, Papyrus seemed to reach a decision as he said in a halfhearted tone, “VERY WELL, SINCE I KNOW YOU TWO LOVE THIS PLACE, for reasons i don’t quite understand, WE MAY EAT SOMETHING HERE BEFORE GOING HOME TO MY SPAGHETTI.”

Frisk hugged Papyrus’ leg, saying excitedly, “Thanks, Papy! You're the best!”

“I KNOW, NYEH HEH HEH,” Papyrus replied warmly, giving them a loving pat on the head before sending them off to order.

Sans finally stopped laughing long enough to call over to the kid, “hey, frisk, buy me a burger would ya?”

“I THOUGHT YOU ALREADY ATE MY SPAGHETTI?” Papyrus questioned his brother in confusion.

A few drops of sweat ran down his skull as Sans tried to think up a response to that, finally settling on, “i got a ton of room left, bro.”

“SANNSSSS….” Papyrus growled in a warning tone.

But this didn’t stop Sans at all as he finished his joke with his signature wink, “a skele-ton.”

“UGH, WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER?!” Papyrus shouted out of annoyance for his lazy brother.

“c’mon you can’t stay mad at me, bro. we both know you love my puns,” Sans said, giving his brother a little pat on the shoulder.

Papyrus sighed dramatically. “I SWEAR SANS I WILL DROP YOU AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO WALK YOURSELF HOME,” the skeleton threatened, though they both knew it was just a bluff. Papyrus would never drop his one HP brother for any reason, especially over a couple of bad puns. And even if he did, Sans had his shortcuts. But the older skeleton bro knew the real reason such a threat would never come to pass.

“no, you won’t. you love carrying me around,” Sans pointed out in a nearly teasing tone.

“I ADMIT NO SUCH THING,” the tall skeleton stubbornly responded, even though they both knew the truth.

“thanks for being there for me and the kid, bro,” Sans suddenly said, his tone switching from joking to serious in an instant. “it really means a lot to me.”

“YOU ARE WELCOME, BROTHER,” Papyrus replied sweetly. But his jovial tone turned bittersweet as he added a bit sadly, “I’M JUST GLAD YOU AND THE HUMAN AREN’T FIGHTING ANYMORE. I KNOW YOU TWO ARE VERY CLOSE SO SEEING YOU UPSET AT ONE ANOTHER IS VERY DIFFICULT TO WATCH.”

Sans didn’t respond to that, just watching as Frisk cheerfully spoke to Grillby, who was busy preparing the food, their light smile and happy laugh making Sans feel hopeful again. It was strange, all the years of darkness and despair, of endless resets and depression and death, they felt so far away when Frisk smiled. It made him want to smile too and keep smiling forever. There was still a lot to do to put himself back together but it no longer felt impossible. And it was all thanks to his kid, Frisk.

“UM, I KNOW YOU DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED,” Papyrus reluctantly spoke up, cutting through Sans’ thoughts. “BUT DO YOU THINK YOU TWO WILL FIGHT OVER WHATEVER IT WAS AGAIN? BECAUSE IF SO THEN I SHOULD KEEP SOME APOLOGY SPAGHETTI READY FOR IF OR WHEN THAT HAPPENS.”

Sans thought that over for a moment, looking up at Frisk again. Grillby had just finished with their order consisting of two burgers, some fries, and a vanilla milkshake for Papyrus. The human child must have felt their eye sockets on them because Frisk turned and waved over to the pair, smiling truly and genuinely at their very dear friends. And that look was all it took to give Sans his answer. “nah, bro. i think me and frisk are done doing the same thing over and over again. it’s time to start doing somethin’ new. and i for one am really set to start livin, heh.”

A/N: Yes the last line was sorta a pun. More of an inside joke though XD

#Undertale #My writing #Sans #Frisk #Papyrus #Dunkle Sans

16 notes · View notes

caroline18mars · 5 years

Text

A Man On Fire - Chapter 51

“Stop” she returned to her senses and abruptly disconnected her mouth from his, “babe, come on, nothing happened between her and me, I swear” he refused to let go of her, holding her arms, and that's when the inevitable happened. “Well, well, well, now that's a lie, Jared dearest, and we both know it” Val strolled inside like she owned the place “why don't you tell her what really happened, or should I do the honours?”. A black veil of anger fell over his eyes and if Shannon hadn't come in and pulled him back, he would have scratched her eyes out “what the fuck is your problem? You just waltz in here with all your lies, you even steal a key to my room just to be with me?! Fuck that Val, I told you over and over again that I love Harper”. Harper felt the blood drain from her face, what the hell was she doing here, she didn't have the energy to fight, at least not over a man “why don't I leave the two of you so you can battle this out together...I'm done, I really am” she just couldn't take it anymore, all of a sudden she felt so stupid standing here watching two people that had a common past, fight, who was lying? Who told the truth? Did it really matter? It was just one thing after the other with this man, maybe this was the universe reminding her of the stupid mistake she made falling in love with guys like this..or maybe she was just jetlagged out of her brain, whatever, she was outta here. Shannon gestured at his brother that he would take care of it and followed her out of the room “Harper? Wait, just wait” stopping her midway to the exit, “no Shannon, I think this was a mistake, I just want to get back to the airport” she gently pushed his hand away. “Nonono, I understand that this is hard for you right now but don't go, I'm begging you, I'll get you settled in a room at the hotel, you can rest, catch your breath..just don't leave” that sad look in his eyes was just..unbearable and she felt herself give in with a shrug followed by a nod. “Alright..I'll go with you, come on” his hand that lightly rested on her back felt nice, never in a million years woul she have guessed that the one person she felt she could trust right now would be Shannon.

”I wouldn't if I were you” after reassuring Harper, Shannon met his brother who came storming out of the elevator, “where is she? Stevie told me you put her up here, you don't want me knocking on every door, do you?” Jared walked around him in search of the right room. “Jay stop, she's sleeping, so why don't you come with me and leave her be for a while, you can talk later when she's calmed down” Shannon tried to steer him away from her room, hoping she was resting or being carried away by a dream that would hopefully soften her thoughts on this whole ordeal, because if they still were the same as when he had left her room and Jared would storm in there right now, then all hell would break loose. “Where is she?” Jared ignored every single word and pushed him aside, frantically trying to figure out which of the doors would be the right one “which one is it?” he breathed dangerously all of a sudden, he had enough of this nonsense, he needed to be with her right now. “Ok, you really need to chill the fuck out, leave her be and be fucking grateful she's still here, alright? Because she could have just walked the fuck out of here and you never would've seen her again, but she didn't, that's gotta mean something” Shannon angrily grabbed his arm and pulled him further down the corridor. Ok so he might have lost this battle but not the entire war, oh no, no way in hell was this over! Further down the hall Harper sat on the kingsize bed, looking out of the window and out over the Roman skyline when her phone bleeped the arrival of an e-mail, she didn't even look at it, she just pulled it out of her pocket, threw it over her shoulder before her hands returned to the same position. A tear rolling down her cheek glistened in a ray of evening sun that lit up her face with that typical melancholical glow, what a mistake, what an absolute fucking waste of time and effort.

There was a knock on the door, go away, just leave, I'm not interested in anything you might have to say, “Coco? Hey? You in there? It's Sean”. She closed her eyes and shook her head, him? Really? “Just go, Sean, I just want to be alone right now” she yelled back, what was he here for anyway? Drive the knife in just that little bit deeper?! He could fuck right off!. “Harper, come on, I just want to talk to you” he didn't even hear the dry click, he was too busy checking out some chick that walked by, long legs, cute bubblebutt, what room did she come out of? 'Ding' when the elevator swallowed her, he turned his attention back to the closed door. “Coco, just open the door” he wriggled the doorknob and to his surprise it gave way and he almost fell inside her room, had it been open all along? Didn't matter, there she was, sitting on the bed in a halo of evening sun, her back turned to him. “Hey..” he slowly walked over to the bed, “hey..” she answered, keep it short Sean, I'm not in the mood for more drama, “Shannon told me you had arrived..” oh my her face looked almost..angelic in this light, like a crying Madonna sculpted by Michelangelo..”so you met Jared huh?..Jared and his Russian queen, ok well queen is the wrong word, his Russian devil..”. Just hearing her mentioned made a shot of bile shoot up the back of her throat and she shrugged “where does she even come from? And why now? Has she been here all along? Tell me the truth, Sean..” she swallowed and shivered at the same time, like she was bracing for the inevitable blow.

”Uhm” he bit his lip and sat down next to her on the bed “she has..I'm sorry, babe..” he put his hand on her back to soften the blow but she didn't move at all “we all went clubbing..she's been all over him ever since..”. Harper hung her head and closed her eyes, this was unbearable “ok stop, I really don't need all the details” she lifted her hands in defeat, “ok ok, I didn't mean to..” he started. “I need to get out of here, it's like I can't breathe..will you take me to the airport? I just can't do this on my own right now” she stammered, “no, I won't take you to the airport but I'll take you out of here to get something to eat”. Anywhere sounded good as long as it wasn't here, she got up as on automatic pilot, grabbed her bag and let Sean guide her out of the room but abruptely stopped when the door fell shut behind her, Sean picked up on her discomfort. “They've got a show, don't worry..” his hand landed on the small of her back and slowly pushed her forward, it was like her feet didn't want to carry her, why was this hurting so much? She was stronger than this, she was gonna have something to eat, stop crying and walk out of here with her head held high. “No answer?” Shannon eyed his brother who was pacing up and down the dressing room, his fist squeezing the phone in it “no! I don't know what I'm doing here..I don't want to do this show, I just want to go see her, talk to her..” on impulse he headed for the door where he was stopped by Shannon. “You're gonna do this show, she's probably sleeping, jetlag's a bitch, besides she promised me she'd stay..at least for tonight..just let tempers cool..” he put his hand on his brother's chest. This show was gonna be crap, he just felt it and it was hell when Jared wasn't focused, he would mess up setlists and when he did his usual stupid stuff like throwing himself to the lions that were their audience but unfocused, you could bet your ass that things would end up in disaster. Let tempers cool? There was nothing to cool, he hadn't slept with Val and that was final, all he wanted then and now was Harper.

Show, wave, scream, make 'em sing, wave again, get them on stage, make 'em jump, automatic pilot it always worked, what time is it? What song next? This is the finale, oh great, I hope that car is waiting. His eyes kept scanning the crowd against all odds, was it that stupid to think that maybe she would've changed her mind and come see him? Yeah it was, what would you do if you were in her shoes, Leto? Huh? Yep, you'd do exactly the same or worse, deceipt always brought out the worst in any person, was this fixable? Were they over before they had well and truly started?. For the first in a very long time she was actually glad to be in Sean's company, he did all the talking during dinner so she could forget her misery for an hour or two, but walking back to the hotel had her stomach in knots again, where was he? Was he back from his show? Was she there with him in his room?. “Wanna go for a nightcap? There's probably some great bars around here” he stopped at the entrance of the hotel, “it's late and I'm tired..if it were summer I would have said yes, sit outside with a drink..it's lovely, but right now..rain check?” she pulled up her shoulders and dug her hands deep into the pockets of her trousers “you know, I've missed this country..more than I cared to admit, it's where I was born, maybe I should just come back, after all this is the country where the 'renaissance' was born, so moving back here can be a 'renaissance' for me as well”. His heart sank, what? If she moved back here, then he would never see her again “I guess” was all he was able to say, don't go now, please don't! He got so lost in her and being here, walking around with her that he didn't hear the cars pull up behind them.

Shannon grabbed his arm “Take it easy, Jay, don't scare her off again..” but there was just no stopping him, “Harper!” he jumped out and ran up to them standing there talking on the pavement. His hand folded around her upper arm, yanking it in all his desperate excitement which had her almost losing her balance “Che due palle?! Ma che fai?!” she growled as their eyes met. “You're coming with me” he sternly said as he started dragging her with him inside the lobby of the hotel, “the fuck you're doing? Can't you see you're scaring her?” Sean rushed after them. He stopped in his tracks and hissed “stop meddling, Sean” but before he could turn around again Harper yanked her arm free and straightened her jacket “alright alright, I'll come with you but you've got to stop pushing me around”. She refused to make a scene for the first batches of fans that were starting to hover around the entrance of the hotel so she quickly hopped on up the stairs “well? Are you coming or are you just gonna stand there gawking?”. He nervously looked at Shannon who gave him a firm nod as if to say that he would take care of the fans with Stevie and then walked after her, she didn't wait for him, she just kept a firm pace towards the elevator without looking at him or even giving him the light of day. “Coco..I'm..” he whispered as they shot up to the 7th floor, “save it, Jared, just save it” she hissed back at him as she kept her eye on the LED-panel while the floors whizzed by. Finally the doors opened and to his surprise she just followed him to his room, there was a bounce to his step, having her this close, ready and willing to talk this through..it was more than he could have hoped for. He opened the door and let her go in first, god she smelled divine, “right, I'm here now so start explaining!” she took a deep breath and dug her hands in the pockets of her trousers into balled fists.

#jared leto #jared leto fan fic #jared leto fanfic #jared leto fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #fic #30 Seconds To Mars #30stm fanfiction #30 seconds to mars fanfic #a man on fire #chapter 51 #Harper Coco #Harper and Jared #caroline18mars

25 notes · View notes

if-you-built-yourself-a-myth · 5 years

Text

Yellow Curtains - Chapter One

Lucas Lallemant happens upon several people online who appear to be living lives quite similar to his own-- maybe even the same. (Or, all the alternate Isaks find each other online when Even becomes famous)

Lucas first saw the picture on his Instagram explore page, at three in the morning when Eliott was with his parents. He should have been sleeping, he supposed, but over the previous week they’d spent together his body learned to gel with Eliott’s at night. He could only sleep with his arm draped over Eliott’s midsection. This problem should have been fixable; he tried to wrap his arm around a pillow, or a bundle of comforter, but the fabric didn’t feel as warm and didn’t have a chest that rose and fell with each rhythmic breath. It wasn’t the same.

Hence, a late-night/early-morning browsing session.

He followed a lot of actors, meaning his explore page feed usually filled with photos from upcoming movies and low-budget indie films from all over the world. Eliott loved that kind of thing. He could sit and watch foreign language dramas, unsubtitled, for hours and hours commenting on the use of color in each scene and the smoothness with which each actor spoke. Lucas had never been one for cinema he couldn’t understand. He appreciated the concepts, and English wasn’t so bad to hear, but it wasn’t his niche.

Really, the only reason he followed so many actors in the first place was to keep up with Eliott’s obsessive interest in obscure titles with equally obscure directors and plot lines. He didn’t know half of the people whose pictures he liked.

Well, he knew a few. Xavier Dolan posted a new photo. Lucas liked it without much thought. He would always appreciate the man who inspired his and Eliott’s art of a reunion, even if he’d never stayed awake through the entirety of one of his movies.

“It’s in French!” Eliott had yelled at him. “No subtitles! It’s in French!”

“Not my thing,” he’d replied.

“Dubstep wasn’t your thing either, and look at you now.”

“I don’t actually like dubstep, I just love you.”

Xavier Dolan earned his like for the sake of that conversation alone. Lucas treasured when he had the opportunity to tell Eliott how much he loved him in some sappy way. He scrolled down past Xavier Dolan’s post and into a section of related ones, probably all from similar directors.

In the midst of his browsing, he found his attention drawn to a photo of two blond boys, standing together in a location tagged as Oslo, Norway. Call it fate, call it intuition, but he knew for sure something was different about these two people.

He tapped the photo so it took up most of the screen. One of the boys wore a gray sweatshirt similar to the one Lucas himself had in his closet. The other sported a jean jacket with a small pansexual flag pin on the pocket. The latter boy’s posture reminded Lucas of someone, although he wasn’t quite sure just who. He oozed confidence. If you looked at his face though, he seemed quite shy and timid. Lucas scrolled downward to read the caption.

isakyaki Congratulations to my wonderful boyfriend, Even Bech Næshiem, on directing his first full-length movie. I love you and cannot wait to see everything else you have to offer.

Even. The name stirred something in Lucas. He looked at the picture again. Which of the two was Even? Was it the taller boy with the jean jacket or the smaller one in the sweatshirt? He felt like he’d seen them both before, if only in passing, and surprised himself by feeling a tinge of resentment towards the shorter. Maybe they fought sometime? There was that whole mess with Alex, Charles, and those boys a while ago. He clicked into his Instagram messages and shot one to Eliott.

lucallemant: Do we know Even Bech Næshiem?

Eliott took a millisecond to reply.

srodulv: he’s a director

lucallemant: yeah, but do we know him

srodulv: no???

Huh. Go figure. Lucas turned his focus away from the photo. He accessed his home feed.

Emma and Alex were together tonight (or rather, last night) judging by Emma’s Instagram story. From what he heard from the girls on Sunday, they decided to be a legitimate couple instead of just a wild fling. He wondered what Yann thought about this development. The guilt was definitely still there, from when he made deliberate plans to break Yann and Emma up, because if he hadn’t said anything to Camille about the kiss then they would still be together. He was friends with Alex, sure, but the guy cheated. He’d done it once, and he would again. Lucas didn’t want Emma getting herself hurt anymore.

Chloe posted something yesterday afternoon, too. She must have gone out with Yann to some coffee shop within walking distance. Another thing to feel guilty about. Even though he didn’t totally forgive Chloe for telling everyone she could about him and Eliott, he knew he’d really screwed her over by pretending to be in love with her for so long. Regret-central on Instagram tonight.

He couldn’t force himself to move through everyone else’s posts. He’d probably seen the rest, and if he hadn’t then he obviously didn’t care very much about the people involved.

Instead, he looked back at the picture of Even from earlier.

Logically, he knew he couldn’t know either boy. They both lived in Norway, and one was supposedly somewhat famous, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen them both before somewhere—and not just in a foreign language movie.

lucallemant: did we know him at one point?

srodulv: no

lucallemant: are you sure?

srodulv: pretty sure. why?

lucallemant: he looks familiar

srodulv: there are a lot of people on earth

srodulv: maybe you’re confusing him for somebody else

lucallemant: who would I be confusing him for?

srodulv: I don’t know

Lucas looked into the poster’s profile. Okay, so the shorter boy in the photo was Isak. Even was the taller, then, the one with the crazy hair and the sweet smile. The familiar one. He scrolled through Isak’s photos of the two of them together, noting at one point a girl who looked a lot like Emma. Something fishy was happening here. He’d never seen these people before, and yet it was as if he had seen them every day for his entire life.

srodulv: Could be the dynamic

lucallemant: what do you mean?

srodulv: they have our dynamic lol

srodulv: the artist and the grumpy one

srodulv: ❤️ ❤️

lucallemant: haha

Lucas turned off his phone and sat back against his headboard. Eliott had a point. He could recognize Even because he seemed similar to Eliott in interest and posture-- that’s what it was. His phone buzzed.

srodulv: here, you can really see it here

Eliott attached a YouTube link for something. An interview.

Lucas tapped to pull up the interview on YouTube and clicked on the subtitles. If he was to put them in French, they would be auto-generated. Auto-generated subtitles were never trustworthy, so he’d just have to watch the interview with English ones and fumble through the gist of what each person said.

“Where did the two of you meet?” asked the interviewer.

Isak laughed and turned to Even. “Do you want to tell him?”

“Kosegruppa,” said Even. “Thank you, Vilde.”

“And how did you get the chance to talk with him?”

Again, both Even and Isak shared a glance and a giggle.

“He took all the paper towels,” said Isak. “All of them. Then he asked if I needed one, handed me one from the trash, and invited me outside to smoke a joint with him.”

Lucas paused the video. He met Eliott at a group meeting, didn’t he? He first saw Eliott sitting in the back and they made eye contact for a beautiful moment. Afterward, when they met at the bus stop, Eliott took all the candy bars and offered to smoke a joint with him. That was… similar, to say the least. He made a mental note to Google kosegruppa later. He pressed play.

“And you found that charming?” the interviewer prodded.

Isak threw an arm over Even’s shoulders and stood on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his forehead. “Of course I did. I was in love with him from the moment we locked eyes. I would have kissed him right there if it wasn’t for Emma.”

The interviewer leaned inward, closer to the two boys. “Who is Emma?”

“Emma is my ex-girlfriend.” When the interviewer looked concerned, he clarified, “It’s okay, we’re on good terms now. Everything’s smoothed over. She sat down right next to us and started—”

“—sharing the joint!” Even finished. “It was so awkward! I couldn’t make her leave. But I guess things worked out in the end so… sorry, Emma!”

Again, Lucas paused the video. When he and Eliott were at the bus stop, the exact same thing happened with Chloe. The exact same thing. When he looked at Even’s easygoing expression again, he realized he’d seen the same one on his own boyfriend’s face dozens of times. This was starting to get a little creepy.

He closed the app before he could watch the rest, and sent another message.

lucallemant: did you watch that interview?

srodulv: yeah

lucallemant: with subtitles?

srodulv: they didn’t have French

lucallemant: watch it

srodulv: it’s three

lucallemant: you’re not sleeping

srodulv: how do you know

lucallemant: you’re answering me

srodulv: maybe I am answering you in my sleep

lucallemant: they met the same as us. Watch the interview, please

srodulv: I can’t, I’m asleep

If Lucas didn’t love Eliott so much, he could have strangled him.

He reopened the Instagram app to explore Isak’s profile once more. He could distinguish the main characters in Isak’s life from the posts: Even, three other boys, and the girl who reminded him of Emma. Maybe she was Emma, the Emma Isak referred to in the video interview. This was all too bizarre. He also was a part of a four-friend crew, had a tag-along in Chloe for a while, and had a first-and-only kind of boyfriend. Lives don’t get much more similar than that.

He figured he might as well send a message, ask about it. Isak probably wouldn’t even see it in his inbox, since he dated a film director and their relationship seemed to be quite popular. He would not even notice the new message on top of all the others.

Lucas typed the words into the box and hit send before he could convince himself to do otherwise.

lucallemant: Hello, I saw your interview and it was kind of crazy. You met Even the same way I met my boyfriend, complete with an annoying intervention. If I may ask, did you ditch a double date to have your first kiss?

#skam france #skam #elu #evak #skam france fanfiction #skam fanfiction #lucas lallemant #isak valtersen #eliott demaury #even bech næsheim #i hope this doesn't suck too much #and i didn't miss too many typos #i probs need more editing but yolo we'll see how this does

79 notes · View notes

elmentrysworld · 5 years

Text

In Sickness and in Health, ‘Till Death Do Us Part: Shouto Todoroki x Fem! Reader

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Oh good lord, I am SO sorry for the late request! D: University bit me hard in the ass this semester, but I finally got around to finishing this request. I sincerely hope you and everyone else enjoys this! Also if anyone wants to request anything, my rules and fandoms are in this post you can click on, or you can search the tag “rules” on mobile! Love you guys :’)

Type: One-Shot

Pairing: Todoroki x Fem! Reader

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia

Warning: Angsty angst is angsty angst (like, illness and all that comes with it). Real world AU with no quirks. Also, due to length (literally this passes 3000+ words), this post will have a “keep reading” line!

The hospital bed feels stiff and rigid under you as you lay down with your eyes staring up at the ceiling. You have started to lose count of how many days you’ve been in this hospital room. How long have you been this sick for?

Oh yeah, a little over 2 years.

Although your mind can’t keep track if it’s exactly 2 years or a few days past, you know that your mind is nearing the brink of insanity from numbness. In between the treatments of chemotherapy and people coming to see you with doe eyes laced with tears as they would claim that “things will get better” because you’re a fighter, you begin to call bullshit. If that was all so true, why did you make so little progress healing after your diagnosis? Then again, you remember that the day you got your diagnosis, the prognosis in itself was borderline hopeless to begin with.

“I’m sorry miss,” the doctor said with a grim expression, looking up at you from the papers with your examination results. The minute he gave you the results concluding that you did have the dreaded illness was the minute you felt your heart drop to the pits of your stomach, like you have just been transported to Hell and were being thrust into an icy pathway to misery.

The illness was hereditary – your mother died from it when you only in elementary school and your maternal relatives didn’t live much longer than she did, having had the same illness. How did you not come to expect it? Perhaps it was wishful thinking, that you would be one of the lucky ones like in those happy stories. However, the reasonable part of you knew you could no longer ignore the constant nosebleeds, coughing up blood and struggles with your breathing after a case of the common cold lasting longer than the normal 3-4 days. You knew it was a bad sign, but your optimistic side tried outweighing your reality with hopeful, fictional outcomes that it was all something fixable.

It was not fixable.

As you walked out of that doctor’s office and out into the April showers, your mind trying to process the little time you were going to have left, you struggled to find any sort of feeling inside of you as you went through your coat pockets and began dialling his number.

You knew he wasn’t going to have a great reaction.

“Hey, Shouto?” you said once your boyfriend picked up the phone, trying to keep a neutral tone of voice. “Can you meet me at my place tonight? I... I have something important to tell you.”

***

Shouto came over relatively quick, having been right at your door by the time you showed up waiting for you. When you needed – or simply wanted – to see him, he always made sure to either come early or at the very least arrive on the nose. When you would tease him about it, he would say something among the lines of “I want to make the most out of every minute I spend with you” or “I just couldn’t bare waiting to see you”. He was a cheesy, caring person at the core, but only you had access to that side of him.

As you got closer to the door leading into your apartment building, the hoodie of your sweater failing to keep you dry from the rain, you waved at the umbrella-holding man and gave him the best smile you could offer, receiving one from him in return and you took out your keys from your purse.

“How come you don’t have an umbrella?” he asked you off the bat as you shuffled between your selection of keys, finding the right one and unlocking the building door.

“I didn’t think it would rain this hard!” you laughed lightly, leading him inside towards your apartment and talking as you then opened your apartment door. “Plus I ended up taking the bus so it wasn’t as bad.”

“Yes, but what if you catch another cold?” he said in return and stepped inside with you, taking off his coat and hanging it in the front closet with your own. “You know how you get when you get sick.”

As he headed towards your petite but cozy living room, you froze and couldn’t help but simply stand there, wide-eyed in the pastel blue-walled room.

Sick. You couldn’t get anymore sick than you already are, can you? That’s what you wanted to scream out at him, but you couldn’t. The words were lodged; they didn’t want to come out.

The white and red-haired Todoroki paused, sensing you not following him over to the beige couch and turned to face you, only to rush over to you when he saw you fall down to your knees with your hands to mouth and tears beginning to fall down the corner of your eyes. As you could only hiccup and choke back on sobs you didn’t want to let out, he held you out in front of him in sheer concern, uncertainly clouding those grey and blue eyes of his. He called your name one, two, three times trying to get you to focus on him, but it took another two times for you to finally look directly into his eyes.

“What happened?” he asked you, trying to not show the overwhelming feeling of concern in his shaken tone of voice. “Was it your appointment today? If it’s another prescription you have to get it’s – ”

“I’m dying, Shouto!” you cried out into the nape of his neck, holding him close as you could no longer look into his eyes. “They – the doctors... they found the same illness my mom had. They said there was nothing they could do, Shouto! I’m going to die!”

His muscles felt tense under your touch, but in your sobbing and unstoppable tears falling down your cheeks you couldn’t care. You couldn’t hold back your own emotions anymore today. It felt never-ending.

All he could do was hold you and when your sobs faded into little hiccups, hold your chip up for you to look at him and promise you:

“I’m never leaving your side.” he said firmly, not showing his true thoughts. “Not today, not tomorrow. I am always here for you.”

Shouto Todoroki peeks into your room like he has done ever since your first day of hospitalization, lightly knocking on your door. He calls your name, drawing your attention and you offer him a tired smile. Even after being with him for nearly five years, you still get the warm feeling inside whenever he’s around; and you have been cherishing that feeling more and more these days.

“May I come in?” he asks.

“Do you really need to ask, love?” you chuckle, lifting your hand up and lightly gesturing for him to come in – even with the shooting pain in your arm that you try to ignore. He steps in and walks over to the chair next to your bed, sitting next to you and taking your hand into his own. His hands are warm to the touch, and you briefly close your eyes with a small smile on your eyes as he runs his thumb over the back of your hand, his eyes on your skin – which is growing paler and paler – and proceeds to form soothing circles on your skin.

“How have you been feeling?” he asks, looking back up at you.

“I’ve been worse.” you say. It isn’t exactly a lie: there have been days where you felt so bad that numbness and emptiness seemed like a form of relief in comparison. However, you keep your current numbness to yourself; Shouto already has enough going on in his home as it is and you don’t want to add onto his pile, considering your feeling that your condition already is becoming a chore.

You know he loves you. In fact, he has made it incredibly clear in your relationship that he loves you to death.

But you also know that Enji Todoroki doesn’t want his successor falling for an inferior, sickly girl. Even before your hospitalization, he never approved.

“This is who you want to carry on the Todoroki legacy by marriage?” The red-haired man said, incredulousness overly clear in his voice as he looked at you up and down. He looked back at his son, who only held onto your hand tighter and narrowed his eyes at his father, as though to tell him to watch his next choice of words.

“And what of it?” Shouto responded, eyebrow raised, testing the man in front of him.

“Shouto, you know how important carrying on the Todoroki name is.” Enji stated, firm and tense with his own narrowed pair of eyes giving you the occasional glare. “I expected you as future head to make... better choices.”

You couldn’t hold back your heart from sinking down to the pits of your stomach. You knew the man to be harsh, but to be dismissed as a bad option was not exactly what you had in mind.

“Father, she is not just a choice!” Shouto hissed back, wrapping a protective arm around your shoulder. “She is who I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love her more than words can describe and she loves me like no one has. She respects me as a person, as a human. I will not spend the rest of my life with anyone else!”

Enji simply held a pause, as though spending a silent moment condemning the pair of you before responding:

“How romantic.” he spat out. “Too bad it serves no practicality to your life. You’ll love her for maybe a few more moments, maybe a couple more years and then lose her one way or another anyway. Look at her, Shouto: you even said so yourself she often gets sick, and she looks sickly and weak. Is that really someone we need to carry on our bloodline? And that is if she even can carry children to begin with, in her physical state. Face it, Shouto. If you really want to become head of my company, it’s either you choose this company or her.”

It only takes Shouto a moment as he takes a look at you, taking in your beauty and wiping a stray tear away from your eye before he looks back at his father with a glare of his own.

“I choose my future wife.”

“My father made arrangements for me without my consent.” Shouto lets out to you. You raise an eyebrow, curiousity building up.

“What arrangements?” you asked.

“He... he wants me to marry the head’s daughter.”

Your eyes instinctively widen from the news. Ever since Shouto said he would choose you over becoming head of the Todoroki Company, Enji has become relentless on making his son change his mind and still dragging him into business meetings, even after 2 years of the same exact response of his son not wanting to take part. It shouldn’t be surprising that he would pull this kind of stunt and yet... a huge part of you just doesn’t know how to respond to a news like this.

“Oh?” you let out meekly, looking down at your hands, not sure what else to say.

“Earlier today, he called me into a meeting.” Shouto begins explaining. “I thought it was some sort of business deal to be made with another company, so I went in and it was just my father, another man and a woman around my age... my father set me up with her and said that if I am to become head, I will marry the girl and secure company relations.”

There is an awkward pause as you take all this in. Normally, you would have flipped out over this type of news, try to find a solution to this problem. Normally, you would have probably gone to Enji to tell him to suck it, that you and Shouto are happy and if his son chose to be happy over becoming head of the family business, he better respect that decision. Normally, you would have fought for your right to be happy with your fiancé.

So why is your stubbornness and strong will not there when you need it? Where is your passion?

Before you can stop yourself, you slowly look up at your love, your mind blank as you speak:

“Maybe marrying the girl is the best thing to do.”

Shouto looks at you, eyes wide with shock before they switch to having a look of horror, like you just suggested for him to massacre a town.

“What?” he says in a sort of gasp. “How can you even think to suggest that?!”

“Shouto – ”

“You know I will never marry a woman I don’t love. You know how much I love you; I will never leave your side! No company can get between us, you know that – ”

“Shouto, please!” you blurt out full blast as you lose your self control, letting the tears run down your face. It puts his outburst at a halt, allowing you to continue after a moment’s pause:

“I don’t have much time left.” you admit, looking away from him and out the window that brings in ironic rays of sun into the room. “The doctors said the treatment could only do so much... my illness has spread further into my body and now, everything just hurts. They estimate that I only have a week or so left.”

You look back at him, the tiniest smile you could muster being on your face as you try not to continue crying.

“I didn’t know how to tell you without hurting you. You don’t deserve to live alone, Shouto. Maybe you’ll end up falling in love with this girl, have healthy children and carry on your family legacy like your father wants. You never know, Shouto, it may be for the best – ”

“No.”

“Shouto – ”

“No. I refuse to give up on us so easily.”

You look back down at your hands. Up until now, you never really noticed how skeletal and pale your hands have become. How much weight have you lost? You aren’t sure. In fact, you aren’t sure of anything anymore; at this point you can’t focus or think so easily.

You look back up when you hear your name being said, the look in Shouto’s eyes filled with a determination you never thought you would see in your lifetime.

“Let’s get married.” he says, gently taking your hands in his. For the first time in a while, you feel genuine shock over this proclamation.

“S-Shouto?” you whisper. “Are you serious? Ever after what I just said – ”

“Exactly. If you have such a small amount of time, we can’t waste time. This is our chance to be happy together, to make the most of it. To hell with my father and the company, working for him will never make me happy. Hell, you make me happier than I have ever been, even now! I said I would never leave your side. I intend on keeping that promise.”

You decide to go along with not thinking it through. It’s like he said: there’s not much time left, and you deserve to be happy even for a little while, right?

“Ok.” you said, a wider smile than before plastered on your face. “Let’s do it.”

***

It is as beautiful of a wedding as it can be, especially in a white-walled hospital room that you’ve been confined to. You manage to find a simple but comfortable white dress for the occasion, one that is easy to get out of so you could switch back into your scrubs afterwards, and Shouto decides to match the theme of simplicity, opting for a white button up and black pants and shoes. He looks as dashing as the first day you met him, and he makes sure to let you know that you look as beautiful as a goddess. Even though you are too weak to do a “walk down the aisle”, your father – who got ordained for this day – makes sure to reassure you that you look radiant and smiles as he gives his blessing to your union, proceeding to marry you two.

Your vows to each other are sweet and make you feel fuzzy and warm inside. You make sure to avoid the whole “in sickness and in health” and “’till death do us part”: you don’t need to rub it in. Instead, you focus on the good you cherish, and the bad you managed to push through to be the couple that you are in the present. You gush over your rings – simple, glistening silver bands that fit snug on his and your ring finger – and as your put the rings on each other’s fingers, you feel a certain sense of comfort that you hadn’t felt for a little while.

You’re finally pronounced husband and wife and it feels like your kiss solidifies this new union.

You don’t need a fancy reception – you don’t necessarily have the energy for that either. Instead, you opt for some stargazing together in the hospital garden. You can’t help the goofy smile on your face when you notice the rose petals leading to the bench. It takes a little while for you to walk over to the bench, with your weakened legs, but with your now husband holding your hand and guiding you, you manage to make it and sit down next to him.

You’ve stargazed with him in the past, but you never really noticed until now just how much he glows under the starlight.

“The night really is beautiful.” you sigh contently, your hand intertwined with his.

“It really is.” he says with a smile of his own. “It’s definitely fitting for a day like this.”

You don’t need a word exchange. You’re both perfectly happy enjoying each other’s company during a peaceful evening, looking up at all the constellations formed in the night sky in comfortable silence. Who knew that the stars in the sky can form such fascinating and interesting shapes? In any case, the cool air feels nice, not chilling you to the bone.

“Shouto?”

“Yes?”

“I wish this moment could last forever...” you say, closing your eyes as you lean on his shoulder with his hand linked to yours. “If only this could never end.”

He looks at you, his gaze soft and his smile small and with a hint of sadness to it and he gently squeezes your hand.

“Let’s focus on the present.” he says after a moment of silence. “Tonight is about us and our happiness.”

“Yeah.” you say contently and entertain yourself with looking at his fingers, playing with them and looking at his ring finger.

Later that night, when he brings you back to your room to be cared for by the nurses, you call out his name before he can exit and he turns to face you with a raised eyebrow.

“Smile for me.” you say with a big, sheepish smile of your own. Though initially stunned, he gives you a matching smile and you can’t help but giggle in return.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, my love.” he says, waving lightly and he leaves.

The minute he leaves, it is as though your body gives up the last bit of strength it could muster and you fall over on the bed, everything inside of you tightening. You can’t tell if it’s because you’ve been hiding your struggle to stay strong all day, the ticking time bomb inside of you or because of the actual shutting down of your body taking place, but it hurts.

All you know is that it won’t hurt for long. And what you know is that you are thankful to have seen your husband, your lover smile for one last time.

You don’t pay mind to the nurses and doctors rushing to your side, trying to keep you conscious through any ways necessary – well, you can’t even if you tried.

All you can focus on is the fading image of Shouto Todoroki smiling for you, all as you yourself fade away into nothingness.

***

A week later after finding out you were placed on life support, your husband still remains by your side, his own eyes dried up and red, swollen from having let himself cry at your bedside for days. His father tries to convince him to leave the room, even for a bit of fresh air, but the older man only gets shut down with venom laced in his son’s voice.

A week later, Shouto has had to make a decision: try to hold onto non-existing hope and keep listening to the faint heart line, or finally to let you go.

As the nurse and doctor come up to him with a look of sympathy in their eyes, the nurse leans over to him, knowing Shouto’s final decision.

“Mr. Todoroki, are you ready?” she asks – not out of curiosity, but out of obligation. He looks up at her, your cold hand in his hands, and his eyes betray the calm demeanour he was so used to presenting.

“No.” he says bluntly. “But when will I ever be? You can go ahead.”

He can’t look at you when the life support is finally disconnecting, especially as he feels you fade away for good. All he knows is that the night you were married was truly the night you two bid your farewells.

The library was busy on the day you two first met. Finals were taking place and you had been in the same economics class. However, you only got to speak to him for the first time when you noticed him sitting alone, studying at a table surrounded only by books filled with numbers and statistics. You didn’t know why, but you didn’t want him to be alone. You had a feeling there was a lot to uncover with this attractive boy and you were going to make a friend out of him.

You decided to go up to him and nudged him, catching him by surprise.

“Hey, Shouto Todoroki, right?” you whispered to him with your best smile. He looked up at you in shock but quietly nodded in response. You held your own books in one arm and held out your other hand for a handshake, giving your name in introduction.

“It’s nice to finally speak to you.” you said in a quiet chuckle as you shook hands.

“Pleasure is mine.” he said in response, tone low. When you nudged to the chair across him and gave a look, he nodded and you sat down, placing your books down. Your smile stayed on your face, radiant as ever, and you leaned on your arms, which rested on the table.

“So tell me, Shouto, do you believe in love at first sight?”

“E-excuse me?” he said with wide eyes, to which you quietly giggled in response.

“I’m messing with you,” you replied in amusement. “But I will say this: I would love to get to know you.”

Without giving him much time to reply, you take a piece of paper and write your cell number on it, passing it over to him and getting up with your books.

“Feel free to text me whenever!” you said and walked out the library, not being able to shake off the smile on your face and not truly caring if you possibly made a fool of yourself.

After all, you only live once right?

Within 5 minutes you got a text from an unknown number, making you blush and let out a light laugh:

So, what if I told you I do believe in love at first sight? – Shouto Todoroki

#my fanfiction #writing #writing requests #boku no hero academia #bnha #my hero academia #mha #reader #reader insert #fem! reader #one-shot #angst #bnha angst #todoroki #todoroki shouto #shouto todoroki #todoroki x reader #shouto

63 notes · View notes

soldierallen · 6 years

Text

Married 8.

Warnings: domestic henry, a kiss, mention of the word whore, probably a curse word or two

Featuring: Henry Cavill, Sebastian Stan, Robbie Amell.

Part 7:

It was already dark by this point

she would always sing in the car to new music that only she listened to everyone hated that she liked every single new song on the radio however they adored their best friend so it didn't bother them that she would sing loudly on road trips, it wasn't new to them it was traditional except for tonight, she sang nothing and looked out the window Henry tried to get her talking every once and awhile but it didn't work.

"Wait in the car for me, I'll be back" he said, he walked up to his front door unlocking it and slipping in quickly

Henry's such a good man, I wish I could have someone like him you know someone who takes care of me like he does, thinks about me..when nobody else does she sat there thinking of all the things that could've happened tonight- not one thing she wanted happened, he didn't stop the wedding she didn't stop the wedding he said he loves her but never continued to say anything else

Only 20 minutes later he had walked out in different clothes "oh comfy" she smiled sadly at his warm comfy clothes "its not like you don't own most of my clothes at your place" he said getting into the car she smiled devilishly "you know I can always buy you your own, oh and also I'm missing a certain sweater and if I find it in your closet I'm taking it back"

"Rude" she said rolling her eyes "it's not rude it's my sweater" he rolled his eyes putting the keys into the ignition the seatbelt noise and lights turning on

"Is it the white one with the buttons" she admitted he started the car with a laugh "yeah" he looked at her "oh you can have that back I don't even wear it" " I'm taking back the clothes I like" "you're not" "I am" he backed out of his driveway and drove off onto the road to her house

"Okay fine but there is two pieces you absolutely cannot have"

"Which are?" He said looking at from the corner of his eye "the navy blue sweater with the white letters of the sleeves, that's the sweater you put me in when I stayed at your house... that one night" she trailed off he knew and put his hand on her hand for reassurance "and that grey t shirt it's so comfy and big smells like you" none of the words on the clothing would come into her mind "you took that out of my drawer you thief!" he said "it's no big deal I'll buy you a new one!" She explained she loved arguing with Henry like this, it was just a lot of teasing it never went further than teasing ever.

"I'll be looking forward to it" he laughed and so did he adored their playful arguments about literally nothing it felt so pure to him knowing that he still had that friend, that one friend who you could talk about anything with smile with laugh with, she has always taken my side and I've taken hers.

Sebastian was worrying as soon as he walked into that front door, everything came crumbling down.

"Mom" sebastian yelled his mother coming down the stairs quickly hearing her son's voice "baby" she put her hands on his face "I messed up I really messed up ma and I don't know how to fix it" he paced she hugged her boy he hugged her back "I'm gonna lose y/n I'm gonna lose her cause I made too many mistakes that aren't fixable" he was so worn out at this by time he wanted nothing more than to just perish, nothing felt real.

"sit down, you can always fix things between you and y/n just tell her everything the truth the real truth." she sympathizes with him he sat down on her and his "father's" couch "where's tripp" he was so done with this day he rubbed his forehead cold metal on his skin he looked up the wedding ban still on his finger he pulled it off and threw it across the room it hitting the wall falling behind the TV.

"He's asleep he was so angry at her he couldn't contain it, cheating on you like that? He's is very protective over his kids seeing her hurt you like that drove him crazy"

"Tripp doesn't care you're just saying that to make me feel better" sebastian folded his arms over chest looking at the TV screen which played some kind of cooking show it was quiet "your father loves you sebastian, can you just not be a jerk for 10 seconds and maybe you will realize that all the people in your life love you and care about you." His mother was right and he knew she was right it was just his anger and his frustration would always come out at the wrong times.

"Is rose okay?" His mother nodded "she had a talk with faith and she reassured her that you were okay" he laughed.. the sound draining quickly

"Do you remember what grandpa said before he passed" she laid her head on her sons shoulder he gave her a questioning look "Something Broken Can Always Be Fixed" she looked at a frame picture of her father and sebastian on the wall a few months before he got sick, sebastian opened his jacket pocket feeling the silver ring she gave him he pulled it out looking at it twirling it in his finger "she gave this to me a few days before the wedding, she said she needed to give me it now because the wedding was going to be too hectic to actually see my reaction" he swallowed thinking about a more simpler time, and then he remembered the argument in his driveway and that... that was the worst day for him.

"Grandpa gave it to her to give to me when I needed it the "most".. now I know why she gave it to me so early" he looked at the engraved writing inside of the ring, "how did he know to give it to her?" His mother asked "She's been in my life forever he knew she was someone to keep forever"

Henry put down his bag on her bedroom floor "what if I just call him to see if hes okay?" She was still thinking about it, I mean he did confess his love for her.. she should talk to him at least for a minute right?

" but after everything he's done you still want to check on him?" she stared at him "what if he needs me" "you both will live with it, you both need a breather from each other I promise it's for the better" he looked for her remote throwing it at her she turned on the TV, the news was on it was 11pm on a Sunday, the streets were somewhat quiet..

He sat next to her on her bed she laughed at him whilst he stared at her studying her facial features, he always admired her.

she pulls the hair tie out of her hair fixing it on her wrist, looking at him from the corner of her eye "what?" She finally broke the silence

"You know, I always thought you were gorgeous" she smiled "oh come on" she put her hand on his shoulder

"When we were nineteen I considered asking you out and I chickened out!" He said both of them laid on the pillows watching some show

"Nineteen year old me was a hoe" she said with a laugh "nineteen year old you was hot" he half smiled she pushed his arm lightly

"nineteen year old me would've so fucked nineteen year old Henry, we were very fuckable than" she smirked "yeah twenty five year old y/n and Henry are very fuckable dont underestimate us" he filrted, he got up looking in her closet she blushed lightly

"After all these years you still make me blush" she threw a pillow at his backside which he caught and threw it back at her "I'm very charming what could I say" he laughed but it was muffled her clothing in the closet making it seem quieter.

"Where the hell is my white sweater?" he said inside of the closet looking "the last article on the right side should be it" she focused on his back and butt "I am not a sexual object you can objectify" he looked over his shoulder at her with a fake frown she laughed very loudly covering her face in embarrassment he turned to her "I'm kidding" he pulled the sweater out onto her bed "I thought this was nicer? How long have you had it"

"A few months I thought it was comfy but it was just itchy" she laughed

"We should eat?" He suggested

A phone call ruined the mood definitely. It was Henry's and it was Sebastian

"Hello" he answered the phone putting it on speaker.

"Are you with her?" Seb asked he looked up at her for an answer she quickly nodded no

"No I'm alone what's up" He acted like he was concerned when in reality he wasn't.

"I think I need to see her just explain everything really get to the bottom of it?" He sat next to her she looked at Henry, Henry looked at her gave no real answer

"I think you should do whatever you feel is right" Henry said, he wanted them to mend their relationship but he knew sebastian wasn't going to do that properly.

"Is it too soon?" He was curious

"No do it because you want to not because you have to" Henry wanted to get mad and just scream and tell him to wrap it up were adults!

" if I just give it time??"

"How long is she suppose to wait for you?"

Sebastian had no answer on the other side

"Don't call her than it's that simple" he looked at y/n for reassurance she had no reaction

"Henry, I didn't know how I felt about her until the night of the argument it really got my gears turning that I was making a mistake I didn't feel like myself"

"Seb you haven't been yourself since Alex walked into the party on the roof, it's a completely different person you have turned into, you know that y/n told you" he looked at y/n and she mouthed "he knows he just wants to hear you say it" she said to Henry In a small whisper

"I know I just wanted to hear you say it" Henry gave her these eyes like how did you know "I know him" she mouthed no words coming out of her mouth

"Henry I didn't call for you to be angry"

"She said it, I absolutely couldn't care less if you get together or not"

"She doesn't want to talk to me.." he was bummed, and tired I think sebastian needed to sleep for the next week and think about what he did "she wants to talk to you beileve me just not tonight call her tomorrow and work it out alright" Henry said

they hung up and Henry gave her a weird look

"why did you want me to do that?"

"I don't want to suffer anymore if he wants me if can call me I can't do it.." she said he turned to face her getting closer to her "you're a good women, my best friend you deserve someone who will take care of you" she pulled him towards her face her kissing him he kissed back lightly a small smile creeped onto his face "what was that" he asked "I wanted to see what it would be like, was you okay with it" she was a little afraid thinking she overstepped

"I liked it" he tried to contain his self from giggling it was just funny to him, that they kissed and it didn't certainly mean much to the both of them... or so they thought. she got up grabbed her phone off the living room coffee table

"Okay I'm not watching a chick flick" he insisted coming behind her resting his chin on the nuk of her shoulder

"You love my chick flicks cavill, romance is the key" she looked to the side of her to see his face

"Fine I choose the food" he grabbed the phone out of her hand "hey" she got offended "I don't want Chinese or thai food" "you're making me sad"

"You get a chick flick, I get those tacos from down the street"

"You always complain their bad?" She looked for her jacket

"Yeah? Your point is?" He said she laughed shaking her head, never mind she thought.

"Or I get a chick flick and we go get both" she dangled her keys in his face he grabbed them "okay"

"Why" she whined

"Because you're a horrible driver"

"You just keep offending me?"

"I guess it's in my nature" he laughed kissing her cheek she was fluttered by butterflies in her stomach, she liked the way Henry made her feel.

"Should I change my shorts it's cold" she said

"Change I'll wait for you"

"Thanks" she went back into her room to change her shorts when all of sudden she realized.... I kissed Henry?

He watched her walk back into her room his brain exploded with questions... I kissed y/n?

He bit his lip knowing that she wanted that she wanted him, it was crazy for him to ever think she wanted him in that kinda way, he didn't just like the kiss he loved it.

When they got into the car it was quiet but a comfortable quiet a very bearable nice quiet being in the company of someone you would do anything for was a good feeling.

"Are we just not gonna talk about you kissing me earlier" he tried to keep a straight face wanting to smirk so badly

"I just wanted to see what it was like that's all" it was kind of a lie, she wanted to feel something anything and she got it she felt butterflies

"Oh okay" he nodded at her, a red light appearing in front of them he looked to his right at her she looked at him "can you stop staring at me" she let out a small laugh "you're beautiful I can't help it" he looked back at the road

They got to the thai place ordering, they waited when a familiar face they had just seen a few hours ago appear, Robbie.

"Robbie??" Henry called out to the man sitting by himself, he held y/n's hand his protective side coming out strongly

"Henry y/n" robbie said he was still in his suit no tie on his dress shirt unbuttoned hair was tousled he looked like a wreck

"Hows it going y/n after everything?" Robbie knew feelings for sebastian

"Okay I guess, what happened?" She asked, Henry felt sympathy for the guy all he wanted was the girl he loved and got put into a lot of other shit. And so did she "Well after you all left, sebastian's father yelled at me for ruining his son's "marriage" and taking away the one good thing sebastian had in his life" robbie air quotes marriage because it wasn't a real marriage and they both knew it "and then Alex came and told me to eat shit and screamed at me for the first time in 4 years that was fun, and now am here eating thai food alone at almost 1am" he was so frustrated

"hey go get the food" Henry whispered to y/n and that's what she did

"Listen robbie what you did today was a bold and brave move, you had more guts than any one of us since the past 5 months I know things are probably really shit right now but I promise everything will fall into place" he put his hand on his shoulder a comforting hand robbie gave a comforting smile "I did this all for her, and i get nothing out of it" he said the women with his order ready to hand it to him, "I know everything's gonna be alright" he patted his shoulder once again and regrouped with y/n "thanks for the talk Henry you're not so bad" robbie tried to joke around Henry laughed "yeah people tell me that" he held y/n's hand out the door

"What you did was really nice of you"

"What?"

"I heard you"

"Yeah I just felt bad for the guy"

"Me to, but I guess me and robbie are going through it together huh?" Henry smiled sadly and hung his arm around her "we're gonna get through it okay?" She nodded they got into the car and drove to their next destination, remotely "bad" tacos as Henry says.

Tagged @hiddlestonstansworld @lovely-geek @imcalledflorence @misz-adrii @escapistdreamer-wishfulthinker @someplxce @cuddlesforlashton @coffeebooksandfandomsohmy @weasley16 @ilovethewayyourheartbeats @vogueworthy-barnes @xeniarocks @thisismysecrethappyplace @racheo91 @gravedollie666 // if anyone wants to be untagged or tagged please leave a message ty♡ also I do not own any gifs or images of any kind.

#sebastian stan #imagine #bucky barnes fic #sebastian #sebastian stan x reader #henry cavill x reader #sebastian stan fic #sebastian stan imagine #stan #alexandra daddario #henry cavill #chris evans #anthony mackie

96 notes · View notes

britishchick09 · 5 years

Text

The Pillow Problem: A Wadlow Sibling Fan-Fic (part 1/2)

a new senpai fic has arrived! this one took a little over a week to write (march 26th to april 3rd) and it’s a sweetie-pie ;) enjoy!

senpai’s siblings have a pillow fight, which leads to a problem... will senpai and the sibs be able to fix it?

Betty Wadlow smiled as she bounced a little on Robert’s big bed. “I’m glad Mom and Dad are gone. We get to have a sleepover!”

“Where did they go?” Harold Jr. asked somewhat worriedly.

“They’re just on a dinner date.” Helen explained.

“And we’re all on our own.” Eugene added with a sly smile.

“Not completely,” Robert ducked into the room. “I’m here.”

“You’re part of the ‘all’ in ‘all of us’, you know.”

Robert gently closed the door and got into bed. “I know, but I’m watching over you all tonight. I’m taking care of you.”

“It’s still a sleepover,” Betty said. “You can have fun and take care of us at the same time!”

“I’m not that good at multitasking.”

“It doesn’t take much to do both at the same time. You’re still watching us while we have fun.”

“What should we do first?” Helen asked.

“Snacks!” Harold Jr. grinned.

“We did that a couple minutes ago.”

“Then more snacks!”

“We could sneak around the house.” Eugene suggested.

Helen crossed her arms as she looked at her younger brother. “Why would we do that?”

“Because no one’s home!”

“Robert’s home.”

“So?”

“He might not like it.”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, especially since he’s snuck around a few times,” Eugene turned to Robert. “Right?”

Robert blushed for a moment or two. “I know you’re thinking of the hallway in high school.”

“I’m always thinking of the hallway incident. It was hilarious! Why did you think that you, of all people, would be able to sneak around in a-”

“I don’t want you sneaking around the house. ...Or talking about the hallway thing. Until Mother and Dad come home, this is my house and my rules. And one of those rules is ‘no sneaking’. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

Helen grinned. “See? I was right.”

“Oh, you were right, alright.” Eugene scowled as he hit Helen in the back of the head with a nearby pillow.

“Hey!” Helen snatched the pillow and hit Eugene in the same way. “That’s what you get for wanting to break the rules.”

Eugene took the pillow. “And this is what you get for being fussy.” He hit her in the face.

“And this is what you get for hitting me with that-”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Robert raised his voice slightly before stating calmly, “No hitting each other with that pillow.”

Eugene frowned and ran out of the room (almost bumping into the closed door). He returned with another pillow and threw it at Helen. Robert gave him a glare.

“You didn’t say any other pillow!” Eugene pointed out. “Seriously, lighten up a little. We’re just trying to have some fun.”

“It looks like you’re enacting soft violence.”

“It is rather fun...” Helen admitted before throwing Robert’s pillow at Eugene.

Eugene caught it and went over to Helen, who stood up and grabbed the pillow he had dropped. They began pillow fighting, chuckling as they did.

“I wanna join in!” Betty jumped up and ran into her and Helen’s room, returning with two pillows.

Harold Jr. clapped his hands in excitement while Robert frowned at the scene.

“Come on, it’s fun!” Eugene said. “And it’s good exercise. You need that, don’t you?”

“Just in my legs,” Robert frowned even more. “And this isn’t leg exercise.”

“It can be...” Eugene gave a sly smile.

A moment later, he hit Helen with the pillow he was holding and she grabbed it, chasing him out of the room.

“That looks like good leg exercise to me,” Betty commented before asking Robert, “Are you going to join in now?”

“Of course not. It’s breaking the-”

“Because I will!”

Robert frowned as Betty ran out of the room. He was about to go after her when Harold Jr. toddled by.

“Wait for me!” he exclaimed, holding one of the pillows Betty had brought.

“Oh no, not you too.” Robert muttered as his baby brother left the room.

He buried his face in his hands and groaned a little, picturing all the trouble they could cause. He suddenly realized that he had to stop it (rather than stand there and think about it) and ducked out of the room in a hurry.

In the living room, the siblings were- as Robert put it- ‘enacting soft violence’. They hit each other with the fluffy pillows, laughing as they did. Harold Jr. wasn’t hit with any pillows and instead tossed them back and forth like a game of ball. Eugene and Helen were focused on each other while Betty played with whoever she liked.

“Catch!” Helen exclaimed as she threw the pillow a foot away from Eugene.

He grabbed it and smiled. “That wasn’t that bad. But how about this?”

The pillow was thrown two feet past Helen, who threw it half a foot farther.

“I got one!” Betty grinned as she threw her pillow up in the air and tossed it like a volleyball.

Helen caught it and tossed it to Eugene, who grabbed Harold Jr’s pillow.

“This one will take the cake!” he exclaimed before throwing the two pillows farther than Helen and Betty combined.

The pillows landed four feet away with a small ‘crash’. The siblings grew silent.

“You guys need to cut it-” Robert stopped with a slight gasp.

A vase was on the floor. A broken vase.

“...Uh oh.” Harold Jr. commented quietly.

Robert went over to the vase and crouched down to get a closer look at it. The siblings crowded around him, wanting to see the damage as well.

Robert gave Eugene an angry glare. “I told you not to have that pillow fight. And look at what you did.”

Eugene peered at the vase. “I broke a vase?”

“Not just any vase. Mother’s vase.”

“...Oh.”

“The one she got for her and Dad’s first anniversary.”

“...You mean-”

“The one she never wants us to touch. Ever.”

Helen and Betty looked at Eugene, who frowned as he suddenly realized what he had done.

“Well, you know what Mom always says: ‘Don’t pillow fight in the house’,” Eugene chuckled nervously. “...Right?”

Robert slowly stood up (with a little difficulty), keeping his eye on Eugene. “Eugene Harold Wadlow-”

“I’m sorry!” Eugene winced. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I- Why would I do something like that?”

“Because you look like you’re about to.”

Robert took a deep breath and ran a hand through his blonde hair, trying to calm himself down. “You need to fix this before-”

The siblings froze at the sound of a car parking in the driveway.

“Mom and Dad!” Helen and Betty exclaimed.

“Hurry, grab the vase and take it to my room!” Robert ordered the siblings. “I’ll distract them.”

The siblings were in a mad rush to grab the pieces, which they quickly took to Robert’s room. They closed the door just as the front one opened.

“Hello!” Robert greeted his parents with a (somewhat forced) smile. “How was the date?”

Harold took his jacket off as he said, “It was pretty nice. When we received our drinks, the waiter-”

“Would you like some coffee? I’m sure you need some to relax.”

“But we just had dinner.”

“You still need to relax, don’t you?”

Harold and Addie looked at each other and nodded as Robert went to the kitchen to brew some coffee.

“How did it go with the others?” Addie inquired. “Hopefully it wasn’t too difficult-”

“No, it was fine. Everything went well.”

“Really? Everyone was on their best behavior?”

Robert nodded. “Even Eugene was,” He turned around and muttered, “If he had just listened to me-” He brightened up as the coffee finished. “Coffee’s done!”

Harold and Addie sat down at the dining room table as Robert served them their coffee.

“Would you like some sugar with it? A dash of cream?” Robert didn’t let his parents answer and returned from the kitchen with a bag of sugar and the bottle of cream. “While you enjoy that, I’ll go and check on the others.”

“Thank you, sweetie.” Addie gave her son a smile.

“You’re welcome, Mother. ...And Dad, of course. I’ll be back soon.”

Robert went to his room and shut the door, turning around to see his siblings sitting on the floor. He sat down as quickly as he could as he asked, “Is it fixable?”

Helen examined two pieces of the vase. “Probably with some glue.”

“You got any?” Eugene asked.

“First of all, it’s ‘do you have any’, and secondly, no.”

Eugene sighed. “Then how are we going to fix this in time?”

“Glue!” Harold Jr. exclaimed.

“We know that, but from where?”

“Perhaps Dad has some,” Robert suggested with a smile before frowning. “...But we can’t ask him.”

“We can still look.”

“Oh, don’t you suggest sneaking again,” Helen glared at her slightly younger brother. “We’re still not doing that.”

“But it’s not Robert’s house anymore it’s-”

“Mother and Dad won’t approve,” Robert said. “And I still won't.”

Eugene sighed. “There goes our chances of fixing this.”

Betty smiled and put something on the floor. “And here they are again!”

Robert picked up the ‘something’. “Glue!” He looked at Betty. “How did you get this?”

“I had a spare in my pocket. You’d be surprised at what I can find in those things!”

“Let’s get to fixing this.” Helen said, putting the two pieces together.

“Puzzle!” Harold Jr. realized with a grin.

The siblings spent the next few minutes fixing the vase. Robert, Helen, Betty and Harold Jr. put the pieces together while Eugene had to glue them (as punishment for breaking the vase).

“There!” Eugene smiled. “The vase is fixed! ...And my hands are all sticky.”

Helen and Betty made a move to grab the vase, but Robert gave them a touch on the shoulder.

“Let me do it. This requires gentle handling.”

“I’m gentle!” Betty pointed out.

“Extra gentle.”

“...Oh. I don’t think I’m that gentle.”

Robert slowly took the vase, his fingers barely touching it. It suddenly shattered and fell onto the ground.

“...Wasn’t me.” was all Robert could say.

Helen glared at Eugene. “Eugene...”

“I didn’t do anything!” Eugene exclaimed. “I glued it perfectly.”

“There’s a little drip on one of the top pieces.” Betty pointed out.

“...Almost perfectly.”

Robert ran a hand through his blonde hair with a sigh. “How are we going to fix this? We can’t fix it with glue and I don’t know of any other options.”

“Buy one!” Harold Jr. piped up. “Go to the vase store!”

“There isn’t a vase store-” Helen was about to say.

“-But there is a ‘store’ store!” Betty grinned. “We can buy it from there!”

Robert went over to his dresser and grabbed a jar of money. He opened it as he sat back down, quietly counting the change he had. “Uh... I have... four dollars.”

“How much was the vase?” Helen inquired.

Robert shrugged. “I don’t know, but I hope this is enough.”

#robert wadlow #robert wadlow trash #fan fic #senpai fic

0 notes

3one3 · 7 years

Text

The Sequel - 807

A House Is Not A Home

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

Juan went home on Saturday night after the services so that he could still go to final training on Sunday, so Christina went home too- to Dortmund. André’s match was Sunday, so he was with the team. Espen and Lukas picked her up at the airport and brought her to the new house. Just like when she walked into the house in London for the first time when it had furniture and decorations, it was an overwhelming and slightly surreal experience to see all that had been done since she left. She and Zoe had discussed general plans for where to put things, but that isn’t the same as trying it out and seeing how it feels. Christina really disliked that her last three moves were into environments that she had no hand in setting up. It was like stepping into a place and thus a role that was provided for her instead of her being able to ascribe her own. Nearly everything significant in the house was something she picked out, so she knew she was exaggerating when she complained about that to herself, but still- it was a symptom of a larger problem that kept gathering evidence for itself and making itself clearer.

The living room, for example, was laid out “okay” but not ideally. The familiar C-shaped sofa was installed on a slight angle to the front wall of the house, which hosted the TV, so as to remain welcoming to those coming through the front door into the open foyer. Christina preferred the couch to be parallel to the TV, especially because the new arrangement meant the part of it she most frequently occupied was now further away from the screen and angled to the left of it. The medium-pile burgundy rug that used to live under the sectional was replaced with a luxurious and very high-pile deep blue-ish-gray one that would trap and collect food crumbs and small toys and was way too glamorous to be stain-proof or even stain-resistant. The tall, long, narrow decorative table that used to live behind the couch with some books, flowers, and coasters was under a mirror in the foyer, which meant the coffee table became the only place to put drinks for the people sitting in the living room. One couldn’t sit in André’s corner of the couch and reach a beverage on the coffee table, even if blessed with his wingspan. The long cabinet unit underneath and floating shelves around the TV had too much stuff on them- too many picture frames, candles, and pointless decorative objects. The rider didn’t like to have too many distracting things around the TV. The Lichtenstein print and faux Lichtenstein Wonder Woman print hung together on each side of the back corner of the room were wrong too. They belonged in the bedroom. And it was just weird for the living room to feel so small. The 10’ ceiling was a lot closer than the two-storey one in her London home, and that space was the full width of the house. Her new main hangout area was half the size.

Beside the unfortunate comparisons and fixable decorator errors, there was the inconvenience of arriving home after a long day and finding all of her personal belongings in a mountain range of boxes on and around the sofas in her bedroom, and the majority of the contents of her kitchen scattered on the counters and island. André put away his own things. Espen put away Lukas’ clothes, cuddly toys, and bedtime stories in his new room and found places for all of the rest of his stuff in the playroom. She also installed some necessary things in the kitchen, like the blender and toaster over, and unpacked some of the food items she needed to make the baby’s regular meals. The espresso machine was operational. There was milk, juice, soda, and some fresh foods in the refrigerator.

Christina did bedtime with Lukas in the new nursery, which looked a lot like the old one except the walls were just gray instead of white and gray striped, and there were two faux “windows” painted on the interior ones with safari scenes. Whenever the little boy’s crib was replaced with a toddler bed, he could look above his dresser and feel as if a family of elephants were having a drink from a stream right outside his room, or look next to his closet door and think a bunch of giraffes and zebras were feasting on tree leaves and tall grasses in there. That was a nice touch on Zoe’s part that her friend really appreciated. Rather than go try to make a dent in the unpacking process in her own closet, which she couldn’t even get excited about, the rider put on her coat and trekked over to the barn to see how the horses were getting on in their new digs.

Calvin, Nick, and Rio were in the three stalls next to Socks and Dirk. That block of 5 on the south side was an exact recreation of where they lived at home. The order was the same. Everyone had the same neighbors. They just didn’t have Christina and her office across the aisle anymore. They couldn’t see her sitting at her desk, and she wouldn’t be able to see them. The 5 warmbloods all seemed surprised to have a visitor at 9 at night, but not unwelcoming. Three of them nickered to their human partner, and all 5 leaned over their doors. So did Jules across the way, and Jelly Bean and Dezzy down the far end. Christina suspected they knew it couldn’t possibly be time for breakfast yet, but they were going to check anyway. Each horse got forehead rubs, neck pats, and nose kisses while she checked to make sure they all had hay, water, and manure in their stalls. Then she went in search of treats for everyone. Isandro kept boxes of sugar cubes in the brush boxes on the walls in his grooming stalls. Tom wanted small cabinets in his grooming area instead of the small boxes. Christina checked there first. They were full of his preferred grooming tools and supplies, but no treats. The tack room was locked, and so was her office. That was a surprise, and it annoyed her. Never mind the inconvenience of being locked out of her own stuff- there were drugs and medicines in one room or the other that could be important in an emergency situation.

She took her phone out to fire off an angry text to her stable manager and to Kyle too, since he came over from London that day, but stopped herself before she could take out her frustration at many things on people who were only responsible for a small part of it. It was logical to assume that the reason she didn’t have a key to those rooms was that she simply wasn’t there to get it. That wasn’t their fault, and as far as they knew she wasn’t supposed to be at the barn until Sunday morning. So the horses got no treats. Christina felt bad about visiting and not feeding them anything, and they had plenty of hay so she couldn’t even throw them each an extra flake in lieu of something sweet or crunchy. Also, she didn’t know where Tom was keeping the “handy hay”, or the bale or two on hand for feeding between regular mealtimes, like if a horse was brought in from his field because he had a farrier appointment and needed something to snack on while he waited for the guy to arrive. Dirk and Rio watched her intently as she wandered around, and the others mostly went back to their hay or their snoozing. Everyone was in their toasty black stable blankets, except for Dezzy and Jellybean who each had a turnout sheet on on top of an extra large wool cooler. Julian was in a navy medium-weight turnout that was older than him, borrowed from Christina’s stock of old stuff because Stefanie only had blankets for her two. Christina thought of gifting her a full set of sheets and blankets in the stable colors for Christmas, or just as reward for her extra help with exercising the horses and supporting Tom and/or Kyle at events, and the reason she didn’t kind of fit with what she decided to talk to Dirk about that night.

“I had to assure Stef on Tuesday night that we’re really doing this,” she told the nosy stallion. “She called me and said she saw a picture on my phone the other day where I was naked with Juan. I got out of the shower and dried off and everything and I was gonna go get dressed but I checked my phone first because I was mid-conversation with Espen when I got in the shower and it was about Lukas and it was important, and sure enough there were messages. So I’m standing there in the bathroom texting with her about food- I’m bad at multitasking- you know this,” the big star smiled at the animal she credited with her star status. “And Juanin comes in to pee. He stopped to hug me first though, and he kissed my shoulder and my neck, and I’m watching this in the mirror and it was really sweet. I’ve told you how Schü says it’s okay. We’ve talked about that, you and I. I had the phone in my hand and everything anyway so I took a picture in the mirror. I don’t even know why I kept it, ‘cause Schü would be upset if he saw it on my phone too. Anyway, she saw that, and she overheard me say some things that I didn’t think were a big deal to Juan when he came to Sweden, and I guess there was some other “evidence” she could have put together. She was like, “I don’t want to accuse you of cheating on André, but can you just tell me that I shouldn’t worry we’re all moving to Germany tomorrow and in a few weeks or a few months you two will split up and you and the horse aspects of your life will move back to the UK?” Now, obviously I told her she doesn’t have to worry. And I think I believed that when I said it. But now...I’m not so sure, man.”

When is he going to defy science and just fucking answer me, Christina sighed to herself while Dirk checked her coat pockets for the third time. He really couldn’t believe she came to see him without any treat offering. His counsel was not free. He expected payment. His mom expected help. She needed someone to tell her it was normal to think she made a huge mistake in moving her whole life to Germany while her heart was maybe trying to tell her it wanted to be with someone other than the guy who drew her there and that she needn’t concern herself with those feelings because they’d go away and didn’t mean anything, or to tell her to listen to that heart and get out of that relationship and move everything back to London because it was the best thing for her, or that those feelings were serious but dictated that she should talk to André about them and try to change things so that those feelings went away on their own, or any other useful or consoling advice.

Never in the long saga of the André-Christina-Juan love triangle did she feel more strongly about or more compelled to make a change. Even when she and her husband were separated and she wanted a divorce, it was more a necessity than an emotional compulsion. He wouldn’t speak to her and she needed to move on. It wasn’t because she desperately wanted a future with Juan. Even on all those other occasions when she was unsure about which footballer was the right one for her, it wasn’t the same. There was always something that happened, or some question asked of her that made her wonder and consider. In the present, it was no one thing. It was no handful of things. There was no manipulative Juan question that got her thinking from an angle that helped his agenda. There was only what the rider believed an organic feeling inside that she wanted to be with the Spaniard because of how much she enjoyed their time together and how fulfilling their relationship was. For once it wasn’t about leaving André. It wasn’t just trying to get away from his mistakes and less desirable qualities. It was wanting to be with Juan’s qualities. And Christina knew that was what Juan always wanted, and what he was waiting for. He said when they broke up that some day she would love his former teammate differently, and would want to be with him for him instead of with him as a person with whom to escape problems.

The main thing stopping her from already acting on that feeling, besides the logistical nightmare of undoing all the changes just made, and the very real impact a separation would have on her son, was the little voice in her head that kept reminding her of André’s belief that things would be fine when they were together. If he was right, then their disconnect was a consequence of too much time apart, and her old feelings for him would be restored soon through close exposure and routine, overpowering any feelings she had for her best friend. That voice kept telling her she had to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and the chance to prove that he was right. She couldn’t just say “I’m unhappy with you and I’m very happy with him so I’m leaving before giving this a chance.” It wasn’t fair, she still believed, to judge their relationship, and make decisions based on that judgement, during such a difficult period of change and when she and her partner were only able to see each other for maybe 6 weeks worth of days in 7 months.

It was warmer in the barn than she expected, and she put that down to its newness relative to her old carriage stable. Everything but the roof was stone colored brick- significantly better insulation than 100+ year-old wood. Stefanie’s trio of horses were really okay in their relatively light layers. They had heavy rugs for going outside. They didn’t need a new wardrobe to match their stablemates, because Stefanie wouldn’t be training with Christina forever. She’d been around and a while and would be round a while longer, but her presence wasn’t permanent, which is why Christina decided against the gift. There wasn’t much point in pretending Stefanie’s horses all needed to fit in. The pro-André factions in her coach’s head wanted Christina to act as if André would always be there, with her forever. They wanted her to assume it was true, and behave accordingly- do everything necessary to make it work.

“I gotta go talk to your Pops,” she sighed to Dirk. “He’s waiting for me to call. I have that ever-present “I wanna talk to him about real stuff but I know I shouldn’t because he’s playing tomorrow” thing. We’re constantly telling each other not to do that. I wouldn’t even know what to say about the real stuff though. Stop trying to eat my zipper pull, dude.” The horse found the therapy sessions boring. If she didn’t have any food and wasn’t going to be more aggressive about the scratches, he would have to entertain himself. That meant grabbing anything he could lift with his big rubbery lips. “Do you want to do something tomorrow or would you rather have the day off? How are the rings? Everybody has ridden here but me. I have to go to the game but I could ride in the morning. Should I ride, or should I play with Lukas?”

Her Holsteiner declined to respond, but Christina visited the shiny new whiteboard next to one of those brush cabinets and wrote a list of four horses at half-hour intervals beginning at 10:30 Sunday morning, leaving her enough time to “do the morning” with Lukas, work out, ride, shower and change, and get to Signal Iduna Park for kickoff. Calvin was the odd man out because he would definitely be terrified by everything about his new home and require more time to get acquainted with the surroundings. They all got a “goodnight” on her way out.

#football fanfiction

0 notes