Chapter Text
You double checked your phone, going through your text messages to see if your new friend was on his way.
(xxx): Hey! You’re still coming today right?
BlueBerry: YOU BETCHA! BE THERE IN A SEC! MEET YOU BY THE TREDMILLS!
(xxx): Race you there!
You finished pulling your hair up in a messy bun, tightened your shoe laces and quickly made your way out into the gym, walking quickly into the main part. There were monsters and humans alike, one in particular was currently trying to get anyone and everyone to look at his muscles, one of the bulkier humans entering into a muscle contest with the monster. You had always sort of enjoyed going to the gym, after the stresses of the day it was good to just burn off all of that energy and just forget about things for a little bit.
A quick flash of blue and white rushed past you to claim a treadmill with a triumphant grin on his cheerful face. “I WIN AGAIN Y/N! BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME!” You laughed and hopped up onto the treadmill next to him, setting your water bottle in the cup holder and putting in the settings. “I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to beat you Blue. You’re just too fast. Must be because you’re so much closer to the ground than I am.” You grinned teasingly at the shorter skeleton who scoffed but put his matching water bottle in the cup holder.
“MEWHEHE! PERHAPS THAT’S TRUE! THE MAGNIFICENT BLUE IS QUITE FAST BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU HUMAN! ONE DAY YOU MIGHT BE AS FAST AS I AM SO LONG AS WE KEEP TRAINING!” You smiled and laughed, he was always so chipper. It brightened your days most of the time and he really was pretty encouraging which really made you feel like you could accomplish anything. “So where are your cousins? They’re not joining us today?” You asked as you started off with a light jog, Blue setting a faster pace next to you.
“EDGE AND PAPYRUS WILL BE HERE A LITTLE BIT LATER! THEY HAD TO FINISH GROCERY SHOPPING. ARE YOU GETTING EXCITED FOR THE MARATHON?” Blue asked, not even looking over at you as you picked up the pace. You shrugged, a little jealous of the skeleton not seeming to be out of breath as he turned up his pace several notches ahead of yours.
“I mean we’ve been training for it for the last few months. It’d be nice to get it over with so I can relax with the training for a little bit. But it’s for a good cause so I’m hoping everything goes smoothly.” You were starting to pant a little as you worked up a sweat. The marathon was a charity event for monsters, raising awareness against the persecution and prejudice that still was around despite monsters coming to the surface nearly five years ago now.
You remembered when you first heard about the human breaking the barrier, bringing with them the whole of the monsters that had been trapped underground all these years. You were in your first year of college and trying to struggle through your math homework, looking to the news as any sort of distraction.
You also remember the way your parents had called you, warning you to stay away from any and all monsters because they didn’t want you to get eaten by one. But you’d never found them all that scary. The one’s you’d met through the years were always pretty polite. Certainly they were strange looking but that didn’t mean they were evil or the monsters of your nightmares. So, when there was an opportunity to do something about helping them you signed up. And that’s where you met Blue and a couple of his loud cousins.
Blue had offered immediately to help you train and the two of you had become fast friends. He was easy to talk to, funny and incredibly encouraging which kept you going when you really wanted to quit. “I BELIEVE THAT IT WILL GO GREAT! SO WE SHOULD BOTH JUST DO OUR BEST! EVEN IF WE DON’T WIN!” You smiled, unable to respond as you focused on your footing, careful not to strain yourself. After a while you waved to the other pair of skeletons that had come, one, Papyrus who was just as sweet as Blue was took up the treadmill beside you, immediately moving into a long easy stride.
He was tall, not as tall as his edgier cousin, Edge who was currently laying waste to a punching bag. But it wasn’t like you were all that tall either, even Blue was only just barely shorter than you, the top of his skull coming to just under your chin.
Blue and Papyrus were chatting easily, not seeming to be nearly as winded as you were even though they were running basically at full speed on either side of you. They were talking about the tacos and spaghetti, which one was technically better. You’d heard it many times before over the last few months, you could almost quote the entire argument in your sleep probably. You pushed yourself as much as you could without hurting yourself before taking a break, starting your cool down.
“HUMAN! DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR EASTER THIS YEAR WITH YOUR FAMILY?” Papyrus asked, snapping you out of your thoughts as you took a drink of water, slowing down to a nice walk. “No, not this year. My parents are going on vacation this year to celebrate their anniversary. So, it’ll just be me, myself and I.” You smiled as you adjusted your messy bun, feeling it slipping out of place. In fact you hadn’t spoken to your parents in a long time.
About a year now. They didn’t like the fact that you were monster friendly, they hated monsters with a passion. They’d even made donations to anti monster foundations. So you’d cut ties with them. You didn’t need all of that hatred and negativity in your life and they didn’t seem to care all that much anyways when you had stopped responding to all of their messages.
But you kept up with them online, you may not like them but they were still your parents. “YOU SHOULD COME SPEND IT WITH US! WE WILL HAVE PLENTY OF FOOD! AND I’M SURE THAT SANS CAN TELL THE EASTER BUNNY TO LEAVE YOU A BASKET AT OUR HOUSE SO THAT YOU WON’T BE LEFT OUT!” Papyrus grinned and you couldn’t help but smile back at him. You shook your head and took another drink as you shut off your machine, grabbing the cleaning supplies to wipe it down after use.
“Oh no it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your family. Thank you though. I appreciate the offer.” You watched as Blue and Papyrus stopped, looking at one another before nodding in unison. “WE WOULD REALLY LIKE IT IF YOU WOULD COME TO OUR HOUSE TO SHARE IN SOME FOOD AND AN EASTER EGG HUNT! WE KNOW THAT IT IS A HUMAN HOLIDAY AND SINCE YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE SPENDING IT WITH YOUR FAMILY WE WOULD BE HONORED TO HAVE YOU OVER. IT WOULD NOT BE ANY IMPOSITION AT ALL.” Papyrus and Blue turned to you, giving you the combined force of their signature puppy dog eyes. Oh no.
They were too good at that. You could feel your will power starting to wane as you tried to think of an excuse that would appease the two of them. “Alright. Alright you win. I would be happy to come to your house for Easter. Would you like me to bring anything over?” Easter was in two weeks. The marathon was next week so you wouldn’t have to worry about your diet and you could cut back on your training a bit. What better way to celebrate than with a few monsters? Besides, with both Papyrus and Blue looking at you like that it was impossible to say no to them. Blue picked you up, making you squeak in surprise as he spun you around easily despite his small size.
“THAT’S SO GREAT! YOU CAN HUNT EGGS WITH PAPY AND ME! NO ONE ELSE DOES ANYMORE BUT WE THINK IT’S FUN! DO YOU LIKE TO HUNT FOR EGGS TOO?” Blue asked practically vibrating with excitement and you couldn’t remember the last time you’d gone Easter egg hunting. Probably not since you were a kid but you had to admit it sounded like fun. “I’d love to hunt for eggs with you guys. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. Thank you for inviting me.” You were finally put down as Blue went to clean up his treadmill and you ran a hand over your hair which was coming loose again, catching sight of the time.
“I’ve got to get going to work so just send me the details and I’ll see you next week for the marathon?” You smiled and Blue gave you a quick hug, Papyrus doing the same, waving to you as you left. You grabbed your things from the locker room, hopped into your car and drove to your small apartment to shower and change.
You didn’t make a ton of money working at the restaurant but it paid the bills. Lately though they’d been giving you less hours than usual though so you had a bad feeling something was up. You hoped it was just because it was due to the new help they’d hired, a young woman who really didn’t have any sort of experience but she was pretty. You got changed into your work uniform and headed out, happy to see that it was busy tonight. Maybe you could get some decent tips for once.
“Oh! Hey Y/N. You’re over in section six tonight.” One of your team members greeted, giving you a sympathetic look as you groaned. “Are you kidding me? Six has like three tables and they’re all two tops! I’m not going to make a thing! Who’s got three tonight?” That was normally your section. Four booths and a couple of tables that were right by the kitchen and had the highest turnover rate.
You always made a decent amount of money on them no matter the night, plus you had your regulars that would come by and tip you better but lately you’d been stuck in the nosebleeds. “Uh…That’d be Vicky.” Vicky. That new pretty girl. Of course.
Vicky was pretty in the typical sense but she was absolutely horrible at her job. She was constantly messing up orders, letting them sit too long in the food window while she took selfies in the employee bathroom or texted her friends, and she didn’t seem to really care about doing a halfway decent job at all. “Sorry Y/N.” Your coworker gave your shoulder a pat as you clocked in, organizing your pens and your note pad.
“I heard through the grapevine that she’s sleeping with the manager and that’s why she’s getting all these hours. Did you know she got a pay raise too? Yeah, she’s making just as much as the cooks are now.” You rolled your eyes and sighed as your coworker put in an order into the system.
“Well that explains it. Just sucks. I could really use the extra money right about now. I’m getting late on my rent.” You furrowed your brow, taking a moment before collecting yourself to put on your best fake customer smile and going about trying to make the best of a crappy situation. And it was a crappy situation. There was a couple that was absolutely unhappy with every little thing that you did no matter what lengths you went to take care of them, even counting the number of ice cubes you’d put into their drinks because god forbid there be seven cubes as opposed to six.
They didn’t even tip. There was another guy who insisted on hitting on you repeatedly, even going so far as to grab your wrist when you tried to clear his plates. He let you go but it left you shaken a little bit as you went back to try and tell your boss what had happened. “Just ignore him. Not like he’s gonna do anything anyways. You complain so much about stupid shit.” Your manager didn’t even bother looking up from his phone and you huffed, going back out to deal with your customers, including the handsy jerk.
After a few minutes he was the only one left as your shift started to come to a close. “Hey. Hey baby why don’t you come on over and spend some time with me?” The guy was pretty drunk, his words slurring but you kept clearing the other tables, not looking up at him when you responded politely. “No thank you. I’ve got a lot of stuff to get done.”
The guy didn’t seem to take the hint as he downed the rest of his drink and got up. It was just you and the bartender on this side of the restaurant, a monster sitting at the bar nursing his own drink though you couldn’t tell what kind underneath the heavy black coat. “Come on baby girl. I got something for you to clean.” He stood at the only exit to the section and you could feel your heart racing as you started to panic.
You tried to get the attention of the bartender but she was too busy playing something on her phone to notice. “Sir, I think you’ve had enough to drink. So I’m going to have to ask you to pay your bill and leave. Or I’ll get my manager and he’ll call the police.” The guy grabbed your wrist and pulled you up against him, his breath stank of booze and his grip on your wrist was enough that you knew there was going to be a bruise. “Let me go!” You struggled against him, and in a second his grip on you was gone and there was a loud crash as he was slammed into the nearest table.
“What the fuck man?! Get off of me!” The guy glared, struggling against the black coat wearing stranger. Another skeleton with a gold tooth grinned up at you with red eye lights. “ya alright?” He asked, nodding towards your wrist as you rubbed it with your other hand.
“Uh. Yeah I think so.” You managed as the skeleton turned his attention back to the guy who was pinned against the table. “yer lucky ya didn’t hurt the lady. though I woulda liked to break yer wrist fer it. now, what yer gonna do is give the nice lady all yer money in yer wallet, apologize and get the fuck outta here. i don’t ever wanna see yer ugly mug round here again. ya hear me?”
The skeleton practically growled into the guy’s ear, sending a thrill up your spine. You had a feeling this monster was more than capable of snapping the guy in two without batting an eye but right now he was your savior. The guy realized the position he was in and tossed you all the cash he had on hand which would pay the bill and give you a nice little tip. “now say yer sorry.” The skeleton growled, making the guy flinch before he mumbled a half assed apology. “good job. now get the fuck outta here ya jackass…” The skeleton let him go, standing back and watching with a smirk as he put his hands in his coat pockets.
“Y/N! What the hell did you do?” Your manager yelled at you, making you jump and turn to face him still holding the money in your hand. “I told you the guy was harassing me! He grabbed me and thanks to this guy he didn’t do anything more than that. So, I didn’t do anything wrong. I was just doing my job.” You defended yourself but it looked like he wasn’t going to hear any of it.
“That’s it. I’m tired of your crap Y/N. You’re nothing but trouble so get the hell out. You’re fired!” Your jaw dropped. Fired?! He was firing you because the customer was in the wrong? You sputtered as you tried to find your voice when you noticed the skeleton monster who’d come to your rescue step up in your defense. “yer the one who should be fired pal! yer customer grabbed yer employee and harassed her and yer gonna fire her over it? yer a bigger bone head than i thought. she ain’t done nothin wrong.” He glared up at your manager who seemed to take a step back at the look he saw there.
Whoever this monster was, you owed him a drink for standing up for you like this. Your manager collected himself, getting angrier now that he was being challenged. “Both of you out! Get out of here now! I’ll mail your check to you!” The skeleton looked about ready to argue but you were done. It was inevitable. The signs were all there and he’d just been looking for an excuse to get rid of you.
“It’s a piece of shit place to work anyways. Hope your wife and kids don’t mind you’re screwing around with someone else half your age.” Vicky, who’d been hiding behind your manager made an indignant squeak as I grabbed the skeleton by the hand and led him outside, shaking at what just had happened. Once standing in the parking lot I took a deep breath and shoved the money into my apron pocket. “Thank you. I think I’m going to have to owe you a drink now.” The skeleton chuckled, a deep rolling sound and you realized you were still holding his hand in yours.
“nah. I’ll get ya a drink. not like ya can afford it now ya gotta look fer another job. ya really okay though?” He asked and you nodded, untangling your hand from his and running your hand through your hair, pulling out the ponytail as you went. Not like you needed to keep it up anyways.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. The manager is a douche anyways. Pretty sure he’d just been looking for an excuse to get rid of me as it was. But I should probably get home and start applying for new jobs. I’m Y/N by the way. I owe you one.” You smiled at him, seeing a faint glow rise to his cheek bones before he collected himself and tugged at the spiked collar around his neck.
“names red. give me yer phone real quick.” He reached out, holding his hand open for your phone. You hesitated for a moment before handing it over, watching him put something into your phone before handing it back. His phone number was put in next to his name. “ya let me know if ya wanna get that drink. night sweetheart.” He winked and then he was gone with a crackle of magic, making you step back in surprise before heading towards your car.
When you got home you got changed and sighed staring the past due rent notice that was sitting on your coffee table. How were you going to pay your rent now? With a groan you decided to let it wait until tomorrow as you curled up in your bed underneath the blanket, taking your phone and changing the name of the new skeleton to something more fitting. ‘MyHero’. You hesitated, not sure if he’d be up this late as you sent off a quick text.
(xxx): Hey its Y/N. Just wanted to say thanks again.
You waited a couple minutes before you heard a reply
(MyHero): anytime sweetheart don’t leave me waitin on that drink tho