Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was torture.

You had barely managed to avoid Axe all week. You’d been avoiding everyone, really. But while you could tolerate being in the same room as some, you had gone as far as memorizing Axe’s patterns of movement to avoid contact with the monster. Axe was different. 

It didn't help you that he seemed on the more sporadic side, leaving for hours at a time and appearing back home without warning. The twigs and leaves that would decorate his clothes were the only clues hinting at his whereabouts, making your life rather difficult. 

When he wasn't outside, he would be following his brother or wandering around the house. Mostly following his brother. You couldn't blame him, you supposed. You did the same with yours, and you’d already had enough hypocrisy in your life.

Of course, your luck could only last for so long. And one day, it had finally run out for you.

The hulking mass of bones in front of you, the end of the hallway behind you. His bright red eye was carefully dissecting you from the inside out, pressing you further up against the wall with its intensity.

You swallowed. His maw opened.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Ah, geez, starting off blunt, are we?

“Would you like the synopsis, or the 60-page essay?” You blurted, shoulders tense as you pressed your spine firmer against the wall. Well. Shit. 

You could beat him. Easily. You hadn't wanted to start a fight, but you were sure as fuck not losing in one. It would just be highly inconvenient if you did that. You suppose you’ll be getting kicked from the house sooner than you had expected, but it wouldn’t have been completely your fault for once.

“Are you… sick?”

In the head? Maybe. You kept the additional snark to yourself. Axe reached a giant hand out towards your wrist, and you were no longer stationary. You caught it tightly with your good arm, narrowing your gaze up at him.

“Stop insulting me and get to the point,” you hissed, tightening your grip slightly.

To his credit, and your misfortune, he didn’t react much to the growing vice on his arm. He only blinked, slowly. Finally, he opened his mouth again.

“Too… skinny.”

…what?

“Hate to break it to you, bud, but war isn’t exactly friendly to most,” you said, clenching your teeth together. Keep it together, Clover. Don’t dust someone now. Not before a fight breaks out. That would be stupid. You could control yourself. Don’t instigate it.

You’re not just a mindless weapon. You’re not a tool. His training won’t have that much influence over you, not if you could help it.

Stars, you really hoped you didn’t ruin this. And Papyrus had looked so happy in his new home, too.

“We have… food. You… don’t… eat,” He said, slowly, piecing together his words thoughtfully as if they ran away from him.

“…Sorry?” You apologized. Every molecule of your being was waiting for him to just get it over with and fight. What did he want? Why couldn’t anyone in this stupid household get to the point?

He was silent again, staring through you for an uncomfortable amount of time. Then he chuffed, like a bear, and turned. His hand gripped your wrist back as he dragged you along with him.

“H-Hey!” You snapped, less than enthused to be dragged along like a dog on a leash. He entered the kitchen, opening the fridge and slamming it shut, doing something as he held you before dragging you back into the dining room. You scrambled out of his grip when he forced you into a chair, straightening up. Axe was now sitting across from you, and… there was a plate in front of you.

“…what’s this?”

“Food.”

Yeah, dummy, that’s not what you were asking. Why?

With great strength, (and experience,) you kept your sarcasm to yourself.

“…if you want me out of here you can just say so. You don't gotta poison me for it,” You offered, ignoring the fresh steak and potatoes in question.

His eye dilated and contracted at that, for some reason.

“Not… wasting… food,” he growled out, still staring, though much stiffer now.

Okay, sore spot. Weird. He softened, clearly. Conscious. Slow. Like it took a lot of thought to do it. You’d almost say he looked offended if he didn’t sound like a feral animal. He eventually spoke up again, a tad softer.

“…Not getting rid of you.”

And then he went quiet again.

This was getting to be plain comical at this point.

“…you aren’t going to let me go until I eat, are you?”

He remained silent. 

You sighed again.

Slowly, carefully, you picked up the steak. He didn’t even give you any silverware. You took a tiny bite out of it anyway, just to appease him.

“There. Happy?” You asked, tossing the meat back onto the table.

“…”

“…”

“…not… enough. You need to eat more.”

“Seriously!?” You snapped.

“Too… small…”

“I am literally a skeleton!” You said, exasperated.

He looked you up and down, silently examining you. Clearly, by his expression, he wasn’t satisfied. Wow. Rude.

After a few more seconds of silence, he spoke up again.

“…need to eat more,” he repeated, seemingly losing his train of thought. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

You got the idea when he examined you that whatever he said was likely something to do with your size. Okay, maybe ’being a skeleton’ was a bad excuse on your part. Sue you, normally there aren’t many other skeletons to compare yourself to. Let alone such big ones. It was unfair.

What kind of freak phychological torture practice was this? Why couldn't anyone just fight and get it over with here!?

Groaning, you dramatically shoveled more of the food into your face. Surely your tolerance would warn you before it was too late.

You ate the whole plate, glaring directly at him. Out of spite, you were being as petty and impolite as possible.

He didn’t seem to mind any mess you made. That ticked you off even more.

Leaning back, you dramatically gestured to the empty plate. Poison or not, you would find out eventually.

“There. Happy?”

Unmoving, he looked down to the plate, empty and clean save for the remains on your hands being the only evidence left of your meal. Silently, he stood up, leaving.

….

…ooo…Kay? That was that, you guess?

Fuck, you hated this. You could still feel the remnants of when his gaze bore down on you.

You shivered.

At least he left.

___________(*>*)_________

TW: VOMITING, SKIP TO NEXT CHAPTER WHERE I SUMMARIZE IT IN THE NOTES IF YOU’RE UNCOMFORTABLE

Being a skeleton did not fix the consequences of vomiting. It somehow felt worse.

You clutched your chest, bent over the garbage bin. You were blearily gripping it’s rim, hoping it was over.

Unfortunately, as if hearing your thoughts, your body decided it wasn’t finished. You abruptly heaved again.

Fuck.

You’d say Axe poisoned you if it weren’t for the fact you were still clearly alive. That, and the knowledge given from your previous universe. You knew poisons unnervingly well. There were reasons you didn’t eat too much food at a time, back then. Not that you had recalled said reasons anymore, considering it was so long ago since this last happened. You sure you had more reasons to avoid food. The shortages, maybe. But you were primarily focused on the consequences now.

In this world, you were so focused on not eating that you forgot why that instinct had been formed in the first place. It was a habit. You weren’t used to breaking it.

And here you demolished that structure with a full meal, one that only royalty could have dreamed of receiving back in your universe. If royals were even still a thing, really.

There were bits of black dripping into the bin from your bad eye, leaking out amongst the tears. You don't cry. Not emotionally, at least. But the burning of your nonexistent throat kind of forced your senses to turn on you. You heaved again, shuddering violently as your bones rattled quietly.

You were getting even less sleep tonight than usual, it seemed.

_________

Axe was in the living room again. You weren’t prepared for that. 

He wasn’t following his brother outside, which is what you’d expected when you awoke, and now you were in an odd predicament. You froze like a deer in headlights, feeling the chills crawl up your spine from his blank stare.

…You hoped this wasn’t going to become a running theme with him.

….

He only made you eat toast for breakfast that morning.

…huh.

—————————————————

Aaaanyways, on a completely inappropriate and emotionally unrelated note…

Does anyone have a DS friend code they wanna give me??? ‘cuz I never had street pass when it was possible and now I’m lonely XD

(My very sad friend’s list is depicted above.) XD