Chapter Text
It has been 6 years since the monsters have surfaced, reactions from the public initially were mixed. Many wanted ‘the freaks’ gone and few greeted the very large but peaceful monsters with open arms, needless to say the world was chaos for the first couple of years. Things only started to change after countless of monster deaths, riots and strikes were held, eventually resulting in a slightly accepting society that both humans and monsters could co-exist in. Not everything was perfect but it was a huge step up from where it first started and you couldn’t help but be glad about that, being one of the few who were more than accepting of the integration of monsters from the beginning. However, this got you to be shunned by your family and what little number of friends you had, suddenly leaving you alone. At first it was something you could just ignore, the solemn tugging at your heart when you woke up in the morning was weak and nothing of a major bother. But as time went on, you grew more and more desperate for the interaction from friends and affection from family, you felt like you were truly alone in the world. You stopped going out, ate poorly and engaged in self destructive behaviors that eventually affected your work life too.
It all spiraled when you lost your job.
No longer having any form of social presence from your job coupled with not being able to pay rent left you at your lowest. You had no one to stay with until you got back on your feet, council housing was the only option you had left to turn to in order to keep off the streets. Thankfully luck was on your side as you were quickly able to find a place to live, though it was in the more monster-oriented side of town. While you didn’t dislike monsters, they typically disliked you. No matter how friendly and kind you have been to them, you always felt like you were treated as a threat. You don’t blame them, you couldn’t. This left you in a tough spot, having to living in the monster community with an already bad reputation just because you’re human, you have to suck it up. Living uncomfortably was much better than living without a roof over your head.
Today was moving day, your dingy little car was packed to the brim with what little you could bring over to the building complex and whatever you couldn’t take with had to be tossed. Your body slumps forward in the driver’s seat in the carpark, head resting on the steering wheel as a large sigh slips through your lips. You haven't even gotten to unloading yet and you’re already imagining how painful it was going to be to haul all your junk up to the 3rd floor and into the cramped room you now call home. Not wanting to procrastinate any longer, you sluggishly slink out of the car and grab what you could manage to carry and make your way inside.
Your hopes of not running into anyone on your way up was quickly dashed as a tall and lanky skeleton in orange hoodie and a shorter, rounder skeleton with a vibrant cyan neckerchief blocked the way upstairs. The two were bickering amongst each other over something but quickly stopped when your presence was noticed. You peaked over the boxes in your hold, looking up at the two with a nervous and unsure expression, accidently letting your apprehension show. The taller of the two slightly glared at you but ultimately said nothing. However, his actions spoke for him as a thin bony hand grabbed onto the other’s arm. The tall one clearly didn’t trust you. Much to your surprise though, the one with the neckerchief gave you a warm smile and a wave as he was tugged out of your way. You could see behind those bright baby blue eye lights of his that there was some caution that couldn’t be masked by a friendly demeanor. You opened your mouth to say something but before you could speak, the short skeleton spoke surprisingly loudly, making you jolt on the spot.
“HELLO HUMAN! Welcome to our complex! I’m the magnificent Blue and this is my younger brother, Stretch!” Blue gestures excitedly with a gloved hand up to his brother who is still holding onto his arm tightly, Stretch’s gaze is piercing so you quickly look back to Blue’s face. “We were told there was going to be a human moving in, didn’t know it’d be so soon!”
“Hi, I’m ____.. As you can see, I’m pretty new and still need to unpack.” Your grip on the semi-heavy boxes shifts as you give the two a small smile, swallowing the anxious lump in your throat. “I would love to stick around to get to know you both but I think I’ll drop this if I do.” You trail off with a small laugh, inwardly cringing at your awkwardness. You’ve never been a social butterfly but this is still much more awkward than you’re used to, you think because it’s clear you’re not wanted.
“No problem human- we were just about to leave anyway! I hope unpacking goes well for you!” Blue’s smile lowers a little as Stretch quickly tugs him out of there, the two skeleton brothers making a hasty exit from the building. You could hear them whispering to each other but couldn’t make out what was said, it probably for the best not knowing.
Now with no more obstacles or monsters in your way, you make quick but painful work of unloading all your garbage into your appointed apartment. You haven’t seen anyone else in the building besides those two earlier but you sure could hear the shouts and loud talking from the other inhabitants, thankfully it wasn’t about you... yet. It was an hour and a half into unpacking your belongings when you heard the shouting of many people that there was a human living in the same building as them. Your stomach dropped near immediately at the negative words being slung around about your kind, you knew this would be hard but it’s even more difficult than you could have ever imagined. You knew some humans were terrible and have done horrible things to the monster kind but you yourself haven’t. With your already low self-worth and crumbling mental state, you feel the hostility is justified and start to sink lower into that pit you’ve been trying to crawl out from. You’re sat on your knees in front of a freshly opened box, staring down at a thinly bubbled wrapped knickknack in your hands, fighting back the tears that threaten to spill over. Just as the water starts to slip from your eyes, a heavy knock on the door startles you out of your head and back into reality.
“Coming! Gimme a sec!” You yell out to whoever is behind your door, quickly wiping your eyes with your sleeve as you weave your way around unopened boxes and to the door. With your heart beating wildly in your chest, you pull the door open to see... Stretch and Blue? No... Couldn't be? Standing tall in front of you are two very similar looking skeletons to the ones you previously met. Except the shorter one seemed to be tired in comparison to Blue’s excited persona and the taller one looked to be genuinely friendly in quite contrast to Stretch’s abrasive aura.
“NYEH! HELLO HUMAN! OUR.. COUSINS STRETCH AND BLUE TOLD US YOU HAVE ARRIVED! I’M THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND THIS IS MY LAZY BROTHER, SANS!” You blinked rapidly as your hand was grasped by Papyrus’s much larger one and shook quite enthusiastically, making you worried if your arm would pop out of the socket or not. Cousins? They look far too alike to be cousins but you weren’t really that well versed with monsters to be able to say anything about it, not to mention it would be rude beyond belief.
“A-ah, hey I’m ____!” You tried your best not to wince when your hand was finally let go, Papyrus put his hands on his hips and beamed down at you. From his stature and height, you couldn’t help but feel very intimidated despite his seemingly nice nature.
“I met them earlier when I was bringing my stuff up, it’s nice to meet more of my neighbors.” You tried your best to smile happily up at Papyrus and Sans, though faltering a little when you saw Sans’ own lazy smile tighten a little.
This is the second time this happened, there’s probably something wrong with you and you can’t see it.
“We don’t have much humans hanging around us you know; my cousins can get kinda rowdy so I hope that ain’t a problem, kiddo.” Sans’ eyes bore into you as he spoke, his body relaxed as he casually stuffs his hands into his blue hoodie’s pockets. Papyrus nodded with a ‘nyeh’ before straightening himself up.
“IF THEY’RE ANY TROUBLE JUST LET US KNOW! SOME DON’T LIKE HUMANS... BUT I’M SURE YOU’RE A NICE ONE SO THERE WON’T BE ANY PROBLEMS!” Papyrus clapped his hands together and continued to look down at you hopefully, your blood ran ice cold and your stomach flipped. You couldn’t help but feel like you may already be set up to disappoint the poor kind-hearted skeleton, especially when it seemed like Sans already found you to be a threat, he started tugging on Papyrus’s orange sweater.
“C’mon Paps, we should let the human get settled in and make dinner-” Sans was already backing up to walk off when Papyrus stopped him in his tracks, holding onto San’s shoulder gently.
“OH MY GOSH, YOU’RE RIGHT SANS! WE SHOULD INVITE THE HUMAN TO DINNER, THEY CAN MEET THE REST OF US!” The tall skeleton looked down at you with the most excitement you’ve ever seen on anyone’s face, you looked absolutely shocked and glanced to Sans to try help get you out of this mess.
Sans flicked a look to you then back up to his brother, slightly desperate. “Wait that’s not what I sai-”
“HUMAN YOU ARE INVITED TO OUR FAMILY DINNER, I’LL BE SERVING FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI AND YOU CAN MEET THE REST OF OUR COUSINS!” Oh no, there it is. You fate has been sealed within a matter of hours of arriving at the complex. You can either befriend the nice happy skeleton and make every other family member of his loathe you for the rest of eternity or you can make the only friendly one dislike you and have the rest of them potentially hate you less.
“I- yeah, uhm.. S-sure?”
Fuck. You’ve never been good at turning people down, you take a look at Sans and he seems to be surprised that you said yes as well. Your eyes quickly move to look at his brother, you didn’t think he could get any happier but here he is, over the moon that you accepted the invitation.
“WONDERFUL! I AM SO EXCITED TO HAVE YOU JOIN US! DINNER SHOULD BE READY IN AN HOUR; WE LIVE ON THE 2ND FLOOR AT UNIT 6!” Papyrus starts to drag away Sans who stumbles behind him a little before forcing himself to relax and follow along.
The tall skeleton turns to wave you goodbye. “SEE YOU SOON HUMAN!”
All you could do is just stare at the last place you saw those two, you must have been spaced out for a good couple of minutes before you regained control of your body. Panic and anxiety started to hit you in one big wave as you closed the door and pressed your back up against it, sliding down slowly.