Daemons
Chapter 16

“Blue, I’m not so sure that this is a good idea,” Dust said with obvious nervousness in his tone, looking to the smaller blue skeleton standing next to him as they stood in front of the door to Blue’s house.

The smaller huffed, grabbing his companion’s hand and dragging him up the porch steps. “Come on, it’s going to be fine! My brother’s going to love you!”

“B-But how can you know for sure? Maybe I’ll drive him crazy and he’ll hate me, I drive my own brothers nuts to the point that I’ve been kicked out multiple times.”

“I’m sure because I know my brother, and he’s a really chill guy! Some say he’s too chill, but I think it’ll work in our favor.” He turned back to see that Dust still was extremely hesitant about this, causing him to sigh and hold both of the taller skeleton’s hands in his own. “It’ll be fine, like I’ve told you many times. Just trust me, please?”

The blue-clad skeleton knew that it was fairly easy to get what he wanted out of Dust if he really asked for it, looking up to the taller with big eyes and a pleading gaze that he knew couldn’t be refused. It was the kind of look he gave when he wanted a bite of Dust’s ice cream, or a sip of his lemonade, or... honestly any time he wanted something of Dust’s that was sweet.

A sigh escaped his companion as he looked away slightly, purple faintly tinging his cheeks as he predictably gave in. “Alright fine, you win. I mean how could I not trust my baby Blue?”

The nickname sent a pleasant warmth through the smaller skeleton’s soul, his face lighting up with a smile at his agreement. Unfortunately for Dust, the other person that heard the nickname wasn’t nearly as fond of it. “What did you call my brother?” In the short time that Blue had his back turned and Dust had looked away in a slightly flustered state, the door to the house had opened revealing a much taller skeleton in an orange hoodie and an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

One skeleton was happy to see the tall skeleton, the other left petrified by his comment. “Stretch!” Blue blurted out happily, tackling him with a hug and feeling his brother hug him back. “Hey, you don’t even smell that much like an ash tray,” he commented with a giggle, hearing his brother chuckle at the comment as well.

“Yeah, well you told me you were bringing a friend over after you got done with classes, so I figured that I’d be nice and hold off for a bit. You were taking forever though so I came out to have a smoke, figuring that something had come up.”

“Nope! Just couldn’t convince the scaredy cat to come up the stairs,” Blue teased, shooting a look back at Dust that quickly seemed to snap him out of his earlier state of terror.

“Hey, I am not scared! A bit nervous maybe, but definitely not scared!”

“Says the guy that’s been shaking in his boots ever since I stepped outside,” Stretch commented dryly, smirking as his words caused Dust to flinch. He promptly ignored the hooded skeleton’s attempts to salvage things and seem brave, turning to his brother. “I take it this is the friend that you wanted to bring over?”

“Yep!” With all the enthusiasm of a child showing off their favorite toy, Blue hopped over to where Dust was still trying to find his courage, grabbing hold of his arm, and hugging it tightly. “I’d like you to meet Dust, my boyfriend!”

“Boyfriend?!” Both Stretch and Dust blurted out at once, eyes wide in a similar state of shock at the title. The taller of the two took his unlit smoke out of his mouth, a noticeable dent in one end from his teeth while his tightening grip seemed to be content on making another dent in the once pristine cigarette.

While he wasn’t blind to the palpable tension between his brother and his newly declared boyfriend, Blue was content to feign ignorance for the time being and turned his attention to Dust who still seemed to be reeling from his sudden declaration. “What’s wrong Dusty? We are boyfriends, right?”

The other’s tongue flapped about uselessly for a minute, several uneasy glances being shot at Stretch as he tried to find his words. “Uh... I mean, yeah... um I think... I... um...”

“Do... you not want to be boyfriends?” The smaller hesitantly asked, sadness tinting his tone that he knew was setting off Stretch’s ‘brother mode’ behind him.

“No! I mean... that’s not... Yes I want to be your boyfriend!” He suddenly blurted out without taking a breath, looking somewhat terrified of upsetting the smaller further with his fumbled answer.

The sadness vanished nearly instantly as the small skeleton’s usual grin returned, once again grabbing hold of Dust’s hand and pulling him towards the now open door that his brother was standing in. “Great! Then it’s settled, we’re dating now! Isn’t that great Stretch? I’m in a relationship before you!”

The orange skeleton’s anger dropped immediately once he became the subject of his brother’s focus, a relaxed chuckle coming from him as he calmly stepped back inside while allowing enough room for the pair to come inside. “What can I say bro? You are pretty amazing after all. Not surprised that you beat me to it.”

“I am pretty great, aren’t I?” Blue laughed, allowing his brother to inflate his ego as he dragged Dust inside behind him. “Welcome to my home Dusty! Make yourself comfortable and let me know if you want anything. I can give you the grand tour if you want.”

“Um...” The taller of the two trailed off as he caught a glare thrown at him by Stretch as they passed by him, hearing the door close with a bit more force than necessary before turning his focus back to Blue. “Sure, a tour sounds nice.”

“Great! It’ll be just the two of us!” The blue skeleton clapped his hands together, shooting his hostile brother a look to get him to back off a bit. All the other skeleton did was scoff as he wandered off, likely to find something that he could vent his frustration on.

“He... doesn’t seem to really like me,” Dust pointed out, still quite nervous around the orange-clad skeleton, which made sense considering the open disapproval that was being shown.

Blue’s typical smile fell, a sigh escaping him as he watched his brother disappear downstairs. “He’s just...a bit overprotective of me sometimes. He’s afraid of losing me too, and I know that, so I really can’t hold it against him.”

“Losing you too? What do you mean by that?”

Instead of answering right away, Blue led him over to a shelf that was just out of reach given his short height, pointing to a photo in between two urns. The photo showed four skeletons, one obviously Blue given the kid’s blue star-shaped eyes and huge smile. Another was standing right next to him, one that the small skeleton could easily recognize as his brother given that same relaxed smile that he’d had ever since they were kids. Two other skeletons stood behind the brothers, hands on their shoulders and big smiles on their faces. He could still remember how his dad had promptly stuck his tongue out for the next photo, the cameraman capturing the look of disappointment on his mother’s face before the next photo captured the moment right before his dad had gotten punched in the face for his shenanigans.

“Our parents died when we were pretty young, killed by a bunch of humans simply because they were monsters. Dad was a jokester but had a huge heart, taking care of the two of us and the house while Mom worked hard to make ends meet and give the two of us a happy life. They never hurt anyone in their lives, never even knew how to use magic, and yet humans still saw fit to take them from us because they looked different,” he explained bitterly, obvious anger tinting his words. He’d never forgiven humanity for taking them away, nor had his brother. Even after all these years, that hatred towards humans was still strong in both of them.

“Stretch and I have been on our own ever since then, relying only on each other to survive in a world that would’ve rather seen us dead. And because we worked together, we managed to beat the odds and survive. We’ve stayed close ever since, but sometimes Stretch gets a little too protective of me. Like I said, I can’t fault him, I don’t know how either of us would survive if one of us lost the other, but occasionally I do need to get him to back off. It’s nothing personal against you, he just gets like this sometimes, especially when I bring someone new into our little world. You should’ve seen how he first reacted to my friends when I brought them over, it was pretty much the same situation. Honestly I think he sometimes forgets that he’s the younger one.”

“Wait, you’re the older brother?” Dust blurted out, looking completely shocked by that little tidbit.

Blue merely turned to him with a very unimpressed look on his face. “Really? After everything I said, that’s what you choose to comment on?”

“Well... I mean the rest is... um... just the height difference and...”

“Yes. I’m short. I thought that point was already established.”

“But... he’s like way taller than you, like...” The hooded skeleton started moving his hands around to try and gauge the approximate height difference between the two.

“He’s exactly a foot and a half taller than me, but last I checked you don’t always have to be younger to be shorter.”

Dust looked about ready to comment on the matter again until he looked down and caught his boyfriend’s expression, closing his mouth again as a sign of dropping it before turning to the picture and the two urns, one bearing ‘Mom’ and the other inscribed with ‘Dad’. “Did... did those humans get what they deserved?”

Blue was silent for a moment as he recalled that night all those years ago, the blood and dust littering the floor at his feet. “Yeah, they did.” The somber mood hung in the air for a bit longer before the normally cheerful skeleton pushed the depressing memories out his head, smiling as he turned to the taller. “Well then, did you still want me to give you a tour of the place?”

Apparently, his smile was enough to get Dust to rebound to his usual energy too, the hooded skeleton lighting up and nodding his head at the suggestion. So Blue happily started leading him around the house, explaining anything and everything that caught either of their attentions. To him it seemed like his boyfriend was getting distracted by the weirdest things, but that weirdness was part of what he loved about him. Dust was never afraid to be himself it seemed, always so confident in whatever path he set himself on. From the stories he’d heard, his sometimes single-minded nature had gotten him into trouble, especially with his family when they thought his chosen course of action was foolish or downright stupid, but Blue admired how devoted he could be to whatever he set his soul to.

He started them off in the kitchen, explaining where various things were before lamenting how his brother hid any sort of sugary items onto the top shelves where he couldn’t reach even with a chair. “You have no idea how many times I’ve tried too,” he grumbled, expecting to see disappointment on his boyfriend’s face but instead seeing mischief dance in his mismatched eyes. “Dusty, what are you planning?”

The taller skeleton’s eyes suddenly darted around the kitchen as if he was trying to see everything at once before a devilish grin appeared on his face, Dust rubbing his hands together as his apparent plan seemed to work. “Oh, I’m getting you those sugary goodies, no way am I giving up until we both get something sweet!”

“Wow, you’re already a lot more helpful than my friends,” he laughed, recalling how all of them had it out for him and his hyperactive love of sweets. “Half of them are easily tall enough to reach even Stretch’s best hiding spots if they use a chair, but none of them want to deal with me after I’ve had sugar, so they always refuse! I’ve tried everything I can think of to convince them and it never works.”

The hooded skeleton merely brushed that off with a scoff, already pulling a chair over but not near the cabinets that held their prize. “How could I not get sweets for my sweet baby Blue? I mean what kind of new boyfriend would I be if I didn’t spoil you?”

“Aww, Dusty you don’t have to do that-”

“Maybe not, but I want to,” the taller said as he cut off Blue’s attempts to assure him that this wasn’t necessary. The hooded skeleton immediately started messing with some of the lower shelves. When asked what he was doing he simply said, “Testing how strong these are, need to know if I can hang from them or stand on them.”

“Hang or stand on the shelves?” Blue echoed as Dust used the chair to get onto the counter with relative ease, instead heading for a metal rod above the stove where several utensils were hung. He quickly stripped the rod of the items, setting them on the counter before testing that as well. With a look of satisfaction, Blue watched with growing worry for the kitchen as Dust proceeded to pull himself up enough to get his feet onto the metal bar, leaving him crouched onto the small space as he analyzed his next place. “Um Dusty, what are you doing?” he asked again, this time with a far more nervous tone. Stretch would kill them if something broke because they were trying to get to the sweets.

“Relax, I do stuff like this all the time,” the taller threw out in a very relaxed manner, clearly not nearly as worried as the blue-clad skeleton was. Before the smaller could comment on his action again or how his reassurance wasn’t reassuring at all, Dust easily opened a nearby cabinet and grabbed hold of one of the shelves inside for balance, moving to stand on the bar before moving one of his feet to stand on a shelf just a bit below his handhold. “It’s a really good thing that skeletons don’t really weigh much, otherwise I’d be a lot more worried about breaking stuff. Now comes the fun part!”

Dust proceeded to scale around the kitchen to where the best goodies were held, carefully opening and closing doors as he went and making places for his hands and feet while not doing any kind of damage. And as Blue watched his careful movements that brought him closer and closer to their prize, he found his own nervousness giving way to excitement. “Oh, oh! Grab the chocolate caramel cookies! They’re the best!” He blurted out as soon as dust opened the corner cabinet and started rifling around.

As he pulled out the requested cookie box, the taller skeleton tossed them to his boyfriend who easily managed to catch them. Just as he was about to rip into the box and shove one of the delectable goodies in his mouth though, he heard further rustling before another box of cookies was thrown his way. The look of confusion on his face must’ve been obvious, as Dust merely smirked as he dove right back in. “Who said we need to stop at one? I say we grab as many as we can, and you can be the one to hide them this time!”

That idea sparked a half hour of scaling cupboards and raiding Stretch’s sugar stashes, Blue avoiding the huge temptation to eat anything so that he could focus on catching whatever Dust was throwing him. By the time they were done the stashes were empty, boxes of cookies and candy all over the place as Dust made sure that there was no evidence of his little excursion, even taking care to return the utensils he’d pulled down from the rod in the same order that he’d taken them down in. “Wow, you really have done this before,” the blue-clad skeleton commented with a chuckle, looking to their prizes as his boyfriend nimbly jumped down and put the chair back.

“Told ya! So, where’s the best place to hide these that your brother won’t find them?”

“Well... he had several shelves full of stuff, so I don’t know if I could stash these all in one place... How about this? We find places to hide them all over the house while I’m giving you the rest of the tour!” When he got nothing but agreement for his idea, the smaller went to work digging a hole into the back of one of the shelves at the bottom, one that Stretch rarely used given how hard it was for him to get there without practically laying on the floor. Just as he was about to store the first items in there, he grinned as he quickly fished out two pieces of each candy before shoving it in its new home. He shoved half of them in his pocket, Dust quickly getting the hint and grabbing his half to shove into his pocket for later enjoyment.

Next stop was the living room. The pair purposefully avoided the shelf that held the remains of Blue’s parents in favor of exploring the many other items present. And of course, the two spent a decent amount of time trying to find a place that stretch wouldn’t go looking into. “Thankfully my brother’s a slob, I have to specifically tell him to clean up certain things or it never gets done. And he always makes a point of leaving at least one sock randomly in here just because he knows that it annoys me. I only clean it up if it starts to smell too bad, and next time I come in there’s always a new one in its place!”

“Wow, that’s... kind of gross, but good news for your stash! Does he ever clean under the couch?” Dust suggested, making a point of avoiding the sock laying on the floor in favor of finding hiding spots.

The smaller merely chuckled as he started pulling candy out of bags and carefully shoving only items with sealable packaging under the couch. “Nope, he definitely does not. Good idea, if I start rifling under here, he’ll just think that I’m cleaning or looking to see if something ended up here, so there’s no way he’d get suspicious!”

With the living room stash now full he led the way to the bathroom. It wasn’t that special, nothing really of interest save for maybe a rubber duck at the edge of the bathtub, but there was one cabinet there that held strictly cleaning supplies. Blue carefully pushed all the cleaning supplies to one side before pulling out a plastic tote with a lid and dumping goodies in, not wanting any of them to possibly come into contact with chemicals. Still, Stretch never opened this cabinet unless he absolutely had to, so Blue would just ‘give up’ asking him to use the cleaners since he always put up such a fight.

The three major main floor rooms were now taken care of, leaving upstairs and the basement. Since Stretch was still pouting downstairs they couldn’t head down there, but there were still places upstairs that they could hide things as well as areas to show his boyfriend, so that’s where they went.

“Okay, so my room is at the far end of the hall, we can hide some stuff there, but I know that’s going to be where Stretch first looks so we’ve got to get creative. Speaking of, the room at the other end of the hall is Stretch’s, so whatever you do don’t go in there,” he explained, pointing out the two rooms in question. “The one in the middle was our parents’ room, so don’t go in there either.” Dust nodded to that, clearly not wanting to disturb a space that the brothers could barely bring themselves to enter. “Other than that, there’s a guest room that could be a decent hiding place and a smaller upstairs bathroom, so there’s plenty of areas that we can shove the rest of the candy.”

First was the bathroom, the space far smaller and lacking the designated cleaning cupboard, but with both Stretch and Blue having designated spaces for their stuff the blue-clad skeleton took some of his space for candy while the other items were used to help hide it, including him snagging a spare towel and covering the goodies. Then they went to the guest bedroom, choosing to shove half of the remaining goodies underneath the dresser where it was a similar situation to the couch; too low for Stretch to easily access with no possibility of him trying to clean underneath it, so it proved to be a perfect hiding place.

That left Blue’s bedroom as the last stop on the tour and the last hiding place, though something caught Dust’s attention and made him stop on the way. “Hey Blue, what’s this flag about and why does it look so familiar?” He asked, staring at the piece of fabric that the brothers had hung up on their wall. It was just out of sight from the main floor, and for good reason.

“Oh that? That’s the emblem of Ebott’s Angels,” he calmly explained, seeing the white emblem of the angel that came straight from monsterkind’s time in the Underground. The navy-blue background almost looked black in the shadows, adding a far more ominous note to the symbol.

“Wait, Ebott’s Angels? Where have I... I got it! That’s the pro-monster rights gang that operates in this city!” He blurted out before seeming to realize that his boyfriend had a gang flag hanging up outside of his bedroom door. “So... why do you guys have this?”

“Isn’t that a little obvious? We support them. The angels fight for monsters everywhere, against the humans that would rather see us imprisoned back underground even after us living among them for generations. Humans won’t protect us; they favor their own and condemn us for the crimes of our birth. The law won’t protect us, hell it’s built to work against us! So if the angels have to be labelled as criminals to accomplish anything, then I’m all for it. If that makes us criminals for supporting them, then so be it. I don’t care, so long as those disgusting humans burn in hell for all they’ve done to us!” He hadn’t realized how much bitterness and hatred had slipped into his tone by the end of his rant, a little surprised that he hadn’t been able to hold back as he looked to see Dust was in just as much shock as he was. “Dusty, I...” he trailed off, not knowing how to explain his little outburst. Everyone always saw him as so happy and cheerful, but humans always brought out a completely different side of him, one that was the complete opposite of his typical personality. He couldn’t deny his hatred, nor would he try to, but normally he could keep a better lid on these things. Even when his friends had seen the flag and asked about it, he’d managed to calmly and happily discuss how he was supportive of monsters that wanted to fight for the betterment of all monsterkind, even if he didn’t agree with the violence that they sometimes used. But this was about as far away from that explanation as possible... even if it was way closer to the truth.

What would his boyfriend think of him? Would he hate him for not being perfect and happy all the time? Would he- His spiraling thoughts were cut off as he was pulled into a hug, looking to the taller is surprise and fear. “Baby Blue, what’s that look for? What, you scared I’m gonna leave you because of that little outburst?” When he offered a nod yes as an answer, the joking tone immediately died in Dust’s voice, being replaced with a gentle yet serious one. “Blue, I’m not going to leave you, not now and not ever, especially not over you getting mad about a bunch of humans. Honestly I agree, humans are trash and the bulk of them could go jump off a cliff for all I care... Honestly I was a bit worried that you wouldn’t approve of my own strong opinions on humans, you always seem so...”

“Nice?” The smaller supplied when his boyfriend seemed to struggle to come up with the word he wanted. “Innocent?”

“Yeah, that one! You... you honestly don’t seem like the kind of person capable of hating others, but I guess everyone has their likes and dislikes. I’m just glad that we can agree that most humans are awful, and if these guys are fighting against awful humans then they got my support too,” the hooded skeleton confidently declared as he jutted a finger at the flag on the wall. “Hey, do you happen to know where I can get myself one of these flags? They’re pretty cool, think I might hang one up in my room back home.”

The blue-clad skeleton let out a giggle at Dust’s eagerness to suddenly have a flag of his own, giving it some thought before pulling him towards his room. “You know, I think I might have a spare that I can give you if you want, I think my friends would get worried that I was actually in the gang or something if I hung it up in my room. That, and my friend Ink would probably get mad if I took up wall space with something that wasn’t some of his art.”

Dust let out a chuckle at his words, probably about to make some smartass comment about his little baby Blue being in some tough and dangerous gang before his words caught in his throat at the sight of Blue’s bedroom. To say the walls were covered in Ink’s art was honestly a bit of an understatement, and the worst part was that the smaller knew that this was only a fraction of what he actually had. The artist shared an apartment with Dream, and any sort of wall space was a premium. Only the best pieces were allowed in common areas and they needed to be framed and neatly arranged. But both roommates’ bedrooms were plastered in doodles that put professionals to shame as well as some nicer pieces that just weren’t nice enough to make it into the main collection. Ink’s room always looked like an art bomb went off that threw paper and supplies everywhere, and their friend always saw fit to bring the extras over with him whenever he came into their rooms, proceeding to tack the extras that didn’t fit into his chaos over some of his older work. So yeah, he really didn’t have room for the spare flag in his closet.

“You... weren’t kidding,” was all Dust managed to mumble as he was pulled in, examining the various pieces that he could see as Blue went searching. “Holy crap your friend is amazing! Did he really do all of these?”

“Yep! This isn’t even his whole collection; he just brings over whatever doesn’t fit in his and Dream’s apartment and just sticks it anywhere he sees even the smallest speck of wallpaper. Nowadays I think he’s just trying to cover up his old drawings that don’t look as good to him anymore, even if they’re all still amazing.” A moment more of rustling in the closet passed before he found the piece of fabric that he was looking for, brushing it off before carefully pulling out the folded square so that it didn’t fall open. “There! Found you, you little devil! I knew I had a spare!” He promptly held it out for Dust to take, the taller hesitating for a moment before accepting the gift.

“Gee, Blue I really don’t know what to say, now I wish I had a gift for you. Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it, you helped me get all the sweets down, didn’t you? The least I can do is give you the flag since I’m not using it.”

“Yeah, but you’re also sharing some of the sweets with me-”

“Because you’re an awesome boyfriend and totally deserve it!” he blurted out, deciding to simply shove the remaining goodies into his closet where the flag had been after pulling out the last of their treats, hopping over to his bed where he spread everything out to decide what he was trying first. “Come on Dusty, it’s snack time!”

Laughing at the smaller skeleton’s childish antics, Dust joined him and pulled out everything from his pockets, getting just as silly as the two of them pigged out on their collections and told a bunch of dumb jokes. With Stretch still avoiding the two and giving them their space, they were free to enjoy their now semi-official date, telling stories and eventually heading back downstairs where they debated watching a movie or playing video games for an hour until Dust got a text that interrupted their plans before they could decide on anything. The sugar probably wasn’t helping their indecisiveness, or how frustrated the smaller was getting at not being the center of attention now.

Blue watched as his boyfriend’s expression quickly grew annoyed, leading to him frantically typing on his phone while the smaller had to resist the urge to peek over his shoulder. “Crap, I gotta go,” the hooded skeleton eventually muttered with a sigh, clearly not wanting to leave just yet. “For some reason the guys all decided to nominate me to get all their crap despite me saying that I’m busy. Seriously, why me? Why not Mr. Depresso who can’t even pull his sorry ass off the couch right now? He’s definitely not doing anything but moping!”

“Aw, that sucks,” Blue agreed, unable to keep from pouting as their fun together was suddenly cut short. “Well, do you have to run errands tomorrow? If not, you could come back over, and we can spend the night deciding what we want to do! Who knows, maybe Stretch will even be sociable enough to make a guest appearance and not try to scare you half to death!”

“Yeah, that sounds great! Everything except the part about me having to interact with your brother!” Dust declared, already cheering up even if the mention of Blue’s younger brother still seemed to make him nervous. “Alright, it’s a date! Now I can tell everyone to fuc... dge off!”

“Dust, you don’t need to do that. I’m not so sensitive that you have to hold back from saying curses just because I try to avoid using them,” he pointed out, laughing at the splash of color suddenly on the hooded skeleton’s cheeks. After getting a muffled ‘okay’ from him, Blue led his boyfriend to the door, still somewhat disappointed that their fun was being cut short but understanding that he needed to go and take care of those errands so that they could spend tomorrow together without issue. “Whatever happens, make sure your brothers know that you’re mine tomorrow, got it?”

“Man, assertive looks good on you,” the taller commented with a chuckle, agreeing to his words as both of them were left blushing from the quick exchange. “Bye baby Blue,” Dust said as he bent down, placing a kiss on his cheek that the smaller quickly returned before he could pull away. Even if they were just on the cheek, they still filled him with happiness as he waved goodbye to his boyfriend.

“Bye Dusty!” He called, about to head back inside and tell his brother that it was safe to come out when a disgusted scoff caught his attention. When he turned back around, he could see a woman across the street, a boy that looked to be her child sitting in the wheelchair that she was pushing... wait, that chair...

“Honestly, what is this world coming to?” The blonde’s snarky remark brought his attention back to her, though he could already feel anger vibrating through his bones as he descended the porch. “Monsters living in this neighborhood? Thank goodness we only have friends here, though I think I’m going to have to tell them to move. Can’t believe they didn’t do proper research, and after them telling me all this time that this was such a nice place to live,” she scoffed once again, brushing her asymmetrical bangs to the side. “Monsters like you are honestly what’s wrong with this world.”

“Monsters like me?” Blue growled, his usual cheery disposition nowhere to be found as he stalked down the steps of his home towards the woman. “That’s rich coming from a thief like you!”

“Excuse me?!” She screeched, clearly insulted by the skeleton’s words. “How dare you accuse me of being a thief you little wretch! You don’t even have a shred of proof-”

“Let me stop you right there you bitch,” Blue hissed as he interrupted her, continuing before she could open her mouth to scream at him some more. “I know that chair your little hellspawn is in was stolen, because it belongs to one of my best friends!”

“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about, my boy needs this chair that we got from the hospital,” she tried to say, only for Blue to stop her once again.

“Bullshit and you know it! My friend purposefully decorated the chair with his favorite colors since it was his chair!” He gestured to the wheels with their red rims and white rubber, the handles and seats that were a bright cherry red, and how the metal had been painstakingly painted by hand to be pure white. “Another of my friends was the one who painted the fucking thing!” He could clearly recall how excited Ink had been to offer to paint the chair white for Geno, how emotional the frail skeleton had gotten when they’d all pooled resources together to hunt down the rest of the accessories for him to truly make it his chair.

While the blue-clad skeleton only grew more heated, the woman seemed to find her voice once again and begin shouting back. “Don’t you dare fucking curse in front of my child you disgusting monster!” Before he could snidely point out how she’d just done the same thing, the woman adopted a sneer as she crossed her arms and began radiating an aura of smugness. “Look, even if this chair belonged to your friend, what are you going to do about it? You’re just a weak monster, and you know as well as I do that if you attack me for the chair, you’ll be the one punished while I get away completely free. Face it, your choices are either back off and let me take my son for a walk or try to take the chair and end up in jail for theft.”

While he wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug look off her face, the bitch was right. If he tried to take the chair, then he’d automatically be assumed to be the one in the wrong even if he had years worth of photo evidence that proved that the chair belonged to Geno. And if it became a battle in the courts, odds were against him there too. There was no way he could win this, not here anyways, so he bit his tongue to keep from doing anything stupid and stalked off.

The woman’s victorious laughter was seriously pushing the boundaries of his self control though, her smug voice forcing him to stop right in front of the steps to his house. “Ha, you’re just as weak and spineless as that pathetic friend of yours! My husband told me all about how weak he was, how he practically broke like a twig when he was ripped out of his precious wheelchair. I know I heard the wail of sirens heading off in the direction of the hospital, I can only imagine how much pain he was in after what my husband told me. You monsters are all so spineless, just a bunch of cowards, and that’s why you’ll never be an equal to humanity!”

Geno was in the hospital? Blue didn’t know that; Cross hadn’t said anything over the group chats to confirm or deny the woman’s words. But one look over his shoulder said all he needed to hear. She was far too confident and smug to be making this up, hell she didn’t seem to even be smart enough to pull off a ruse like this well enough considering how she practically openly admitted to her husband being responsible for one of his closest friends being hospitalized with what sounded like extremely severe injuries.

The blue-clad skeleton slowly turned so that he could see her, visibly shaking in rage but not taking a step towards her. “I hope for your son’s sake that he’s not around when justice comes for you. The angels will judge your crimes and condemn you to hell, I’ll make sure of that.”

The mother seemed visibly disturbed by the twisted grin on Blue’s face, her child blubbering and asking if they could leave now because he didn’t like the ‘scary monster’. “You act like you have some connection to heaven,” she grumbled, her grip on the chair tightening to where Blue could see her knuckles going slightly white. “What are you, a priest? Didn’t even know your kind believed in God and angels.”

Laughter was what answered her words, a tinge of insanity clinging to the sound that reminded the skeleton about how Dust had acted when they first met. “Oh hell no, priests are supposed to pure bastions of goodness or some junk like that. No, I’d consider myself to be more of a demon than anything, one who happens to know quite a few angels who have fallen and are eager to judge the wicked such as you. So, sleep tight you bitch, if the angels of hell don’t come for you, then maybe the monster under your bed will get you first.” He didn’t give her a chance to respond, storming up the steps before slamming the door shut and heading straight for the basement.

Unsurprisingly he found Stretch having a cigarette down there as it was the only place in the house that he could smoke indoors. “Oh, all done with your little date?” He asked the smaller without even looking, only to jump at the yell of pure frustration and the following thump as Blue slammed his fists repeatedly into the punching bag suspended by a chain from the ceiling.

“Stupid fucking bitch!” He yelled as he repeatedly hit the bag, putting everything he had, including the excess sugar energy, into his punches. “Stupid thieving whore! Stupid scared crotch goblin! Stupid fucking husband! Stupid Cross! Stupid-”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Stretch called as he grabbed the bag, effectively stealing his brother’s attention. “Blue, what’s gotten into you? It’s been a long time since I’ve heard you swear this much at home. Was it that stupid boyfriend of yours? Because if so, I can go-”

“It wasn’t him,” the older of the two sighed, his initial anger subsiding for the moment but not his desire for revenge. “No, just as he left, I notice some bitch on the other side of the street with her brat in Geno’s wheelchair! She practically admitted to taking it! And on top of it she tried taunting me by saying her fucking husband hospitalized Geno in order to get it! And the cherry on top is that I know she wasn’t lying, but stupid Cross never said a fucking thing! Like what the fuck?!”

Stretch’s eyes went wide as he took his cigarette out and fully processed why his brother was so mad. “Shit,” was all he said at first, sighing as he put his smoke out and tried to think of where to even begin. “And... what did you do? Please tell me you didn’t do anything stupid.”

“Trust me, it took every bit of my self-restraint to keep from smashing my fist through that smug grin of hers. In the end all I ended up doing was promising that the angels would be the ones to judge her actions.” He looked up to meet his brother’s gaze, knowing that the taller would get the true meaning behind those words while the woman would remain blind to them.

Stretch’s usually calm attitude vanished and took on a note of seriousness, nodding at the blue-clad skeleton’s words. “Do you happen to know who the angels should be visiting?”

“No, but if they’re stupid enough to keep walking around with Geno’s wheelchair then it won’t be hard to find them,” he commented, his brother making a comment that affirmed how unique the chair was. “Besides, Cross must know what the hell happened considering that Geno’s rarely out on his own. I gotta phone him anyways and ask why he never thought to tell any of us that Geno ended up in the hospital.” Even if the monochrome skeleton didn’t know about whatever led up to his brother being hospitalized, he was Geno’s emergency contact and so would definitely be made aware of his current health situation.

The orange-clad skeleton nodded, heading towards the staircase leading out of the basement. “Alright, well make your little phone call and I’ll go make some of my own and see what we can come up with. I’m sure that bitch will soon realize that she messed with the wrong skeleton.” Just as he placed a foot on the first step though, the younger brother halted and looked back to him. “By the way, how was your little date?”

The simple question reminded Blue of how much fun he’d been having with Dust before that woman ruined his amazing day, smiling at the fond memories of their first time together as official boyfriends. “It was really nice, and we had a lot of fun. Hopefully next time you’ll be willing to join us and properly meet him,” Blue admitted, really wanting his brother and boyfriend to be able to get along.

Stretch merely chuckled and shrugged at the far more positive response. “I’ll make no promises to liking the guy, but I guess I can give him a shot. If just thinking about him is enough to calm you down, then I can only imagine how happy he makes you.” With that the younger of the two headed upstairs, leaving Blue alone with his thoughts for a bit longer.

He didn’t want to call Cross right away, knowing that even with his earlier date filling his thoughts he’d still be too angry to properly make that phone call. All his friends practically thought that it was impossible for their normally peppy and cheery friend to ever get angry like this, in fact he could probably count the number of times he’d swore in front of them on one hand. Maybe he could have some of the sugary sweets he and Dust snagged to help calm his nerves? They would probably make him think of his boyfriend that was just as sweet too, and just like Stretch pointed out his boyfriend had quite the calming effect on his temper.

As if his thoughts about his brother and sugar could predict the future though, Blue jumped as the door to the basement was thrown open and a visibly annoyed Stretch stood at the top of the stairs. “Blue, where the hell did all of the sweets go?!”

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