Chapter Text
Shopping's one of those chores that's sometimes fun for the first… half hour. You get caught up in the crowd, you can't find the perfect item. Well, you're almost done.
A light tremor. Huh.
A crescendo of tremors. Everything's shaking. Shit?
Panic. Jolting. The crowd is running. The ceiling's crumbling. You're a short dash from the food court. You bolt and slide under a table for cover as do many people. You're huddling with two strangers when a light fixture loosens.
"Look out!"
You and the other occupants of your table dash out when it clatters next to you, spraying glass and slicing your skin.
You look over to the source of the voice. A tiny figure in a blue bandana is huddled under a bench. You shout a thank you as you try to dash under another table since yours is now full again but the mall's too crowded. There's no room.
The tempered glass skylights shatter into a million pieces, raining down on everything. The magnitude of the quake is huge. You're being lurched back and forth. Another light fixture is about to drop on the bench.
"Run!"
The kid under the bench isn't moving. He's huddling and covering his head. Is he crying?
"Run!!"
Is he stupid? Well, maybe you are. You must be. You're not thinking. You just dash.
You slide under the bench and grab the crying kid before you keep running.
He's so light? Oh, he's a skeleton.
You both watch as a light fixture falls, crushing the bench as you duck under a table.
"Hey, are you okay?"
He's still crying and clutching you for dear life. You sit there for another couple of minutes until the tremors stop.
It all happened so fast.
"Hey, are you okay?"
He whimpers. He hasn't let go of you.
"Hey, come on, let's go." You evacuate with the skeleton in an arm and about half your purchases in the other. Where did you even lose the rest? Who cares? You're glad to be unharmed minus a few cuts.
He's… asleep? He fell asleep? He must have cried himself into exhaustion. You sit on a patch of grass in the park across from the mall and lay him down. His phone's buzzing. You should probably answer it.
"Hello--?"
"Blue?! Can I speak to Blue?! Is he with you? Is he okay? Who is this?"
"Whoa whoa, don't worry, I think he's okay, he fell asleep--"
"Where are you?!"
"Division and Park?"
"Stay there."
*(Click)
You're exhausted too. You wait for a large aftershock to subside as you lie in the park grass wondering what the hell just happened and eventually drift off with the sound of sirens in the air. The small skeleton is huddled against you.
--
A tall skeleton in an orange hoodie and green khaki cargo shorts wakes you up as he practically tackles the littler one.
"Blue?! Are you okay?" He's frantic.
"Wha--? Oh yeah. I'm fine now." He sounds dehydrated and his face is tear-stained. He looks at you and stars fill his eyes. "You! You saved me!"
"N-not really?"
"Yes really! Thank you!"
"You saved him?" The taller skeleton looks at you skeptically.
"I, uh--"
"She grabbed me from under a bench before it got crushed!!" This kid's really excitable.
"Why would you save a monster?"
"Why wouldn't I prevent someone from getting hurt if I could? Besides, he's just a kid."
"What? I'm not a kid! I'm an adult! My name's Blueberry." He's standing quite proudly and holding out a hand. He could have fooled you with his teeshirt, shorts and adorably large neckerchief ensemble.
"Wha?" You shake his hand and introduce yourself. This not-kid barely reaches your armpits in height.
"Monster kids wear stripes to identify them. No stripes means not a child. Oh yeah, I'm Honey by the way." He doesn't shake your hand but casually waves as he lights a cigarette. "Want a dog treat?"
"Excuse me?"
"You uh, smoke 'em. They're good for stress. It not like that crap humans smoke. Dunno if you'd be into it though."
Oh, is that what he's smoking? It sure doesn't smell like tobacco.
"Uh, well that was a stressful situation."
He hands you one. It's comedically shaped like a bone. Guess that's where they get the name. He lights it for you and you inhale. It burns going down and you cough a bit but then feel a rather pleasant sense of relaxation ease into your body as you smoke it. What are troubles? What is pain? This is nice. These guys are nice. You love monsters. Yeaaaah, skeletons are great.
"She seems to like it, Honey." Blue's almost giggling.
"You're making such a dumb- snk- face." Honey can't contain his laughter.
"Wha?" You peer at them through your half-lidded eyes. Oh yeah, you just almost died. That was ages ago, no? You're barely paying any mind to the much smaller aftershock you're currently feeling despite the two in front of you bracing themselves as it passes.
Honey extends an arm when it's over. "Let's drive you home, kid."
"Uhuh." You grab your bags.
--
Well, you might have emerged almost completely unscathed but your apartment sure didn't.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" It's liveable but goodness. You hear a notable click of Blueberry's tongue at your choice of language. (Do they have tongues?!)
"Wowie…" Blueberry's helping you bring your bags in. "It looks like a war zone in here." Honey is waiting for him in the car.
Yup, your cabinets are all open, your stuff's broken all over the floor.
"Eh, I'll just clean it up." It could be worse, honestly.
You move to the living room. Catastrophe. The bed has debris all over it when you look into the bedroom. Oh gosh why? The toilet's backed up in the bathroom. Okay this sucks.
"Do you… want us to help clean up?"
"I, uh, guess that would suck a lot less, huh." Even though you just met these monsters? Can you even trust them? "Will Honey be okay with this?"
He snaps a photo or three of your apartment to send to Honey, winks at you, adjusts his bandana, and enthusiastically rifles through your closets seeking the cleaning supplies. Once you've started, he runs down to see what's taking Honey so long. They come back upstairs after a while.
"See? Looks like we have quite a job on our hands!" Blueberry's tugging at Honey's sleeve.
You whisper at Honey when Blue runs into the bathroom to get a head start. He's still wearing his bandana but he's added pauldrons, large gloves, and boots to match over his clothes. Does he just keep that stuff in the car?
"What's with the getup?"
"That's his battle body. He wears it when he's intent on doing something."
"Here you go!" Blueberry comes back and hands Honey a broom. Subtle.
You hear Honey whimper a barely audible, "nooo," as he's sent into your bedroom. Blue delegates you to kitchen duty.
You spend the entire day cleaning, only breaking to eat.
Blueberry gets very excited when you serve spaghetti and starts going on and on about how you must have been fated to become friends. (He's a huge fan of pasta.) He then extends an invitation for you to go to their place and have them cook for you. You courteously agree. These guys are pretty cool and you don't know that many monsters. You've spoken to some here and there and don't quite understand why so many people hate them when they're always so pleasant and polite. You do find it a little weird that he's insisted on it being an all-weekend slumber party. Is that a monster thing or a Blueberry thing? Are these guys secretly creeps? You've literally just met.
Well, you'll find out next week. They're just skeletons, right?