The door to opened quietly lost among the chattering patrons. Ignored by most, a tall, lanky figure- clad in all black- walked with long strides to the bar counter, almost silent- the only sound the figure made was the dull hits of his cane hitting the wood floor. Setting the cane against the edge of the counter, he sat down- still unnoticed by the others. Next to him, a stout skeleton was talking to the flaming bartender while drinking from a Ketchup bottle.

Slowly, he released the hold on his near unnoticeable presence, if he kept his hold only the primordials (such as God or Darkness, if those two were even still living, he decided it wasn't his problem) would be able to sense him. His expression stayed neutral and unreadable as the bar silenced- the skeleton next to him and the bartender jolted, one of the skeleton's pupils flickered blue for a second.

He suppressed a chuckle (He was tall, dark, and menacing, sure, but he could find amusement), after all, it wasn't every day that a full-grown human would suddenly appear next to a monster in the underground. The bartender relaxed slightly, flames swirling a bit lower than the jolt had made them spike.

"I assume you are the owner of this place," he drawled, his dark eyes moving to look over at the flame elemental, "It's nice. I'll take both; burger and fries," he added, setting the correct number of gold pieces (plus some) on the counter. The elemental- Grillby- took the payment before vanishing into the back. The silence was deafening as he sat there. The skeleton was watching him through narrowed eyes- as if trying to figure out who and what he was.

"Who are you?" Ah, and he speaks. Tersely, but he speaks.

"Not a hostile, though I do wonder, what do you see? You're looking at my STATS, thinking, 'How can this human have STATS that are off the radar and still able to hide his murderous intent' right?" He didn't look over to know that what he said hit the mark, but he sensed the skeleton stiffen, he must have gotten it right.

He swiped his hand in a dismissive gesture, "At least your self-importance is less prominent than human kind's own, what a relief."

"You talk like you're not one of them," the skeleton said sharply. The dark-clad man grunted before he sighed,

"Because I am not, there are far more dangerous beings than you and humans out there on the surface." he glanced up as Grillby shuffled back over and set his food down. He made a satisfied hum, "Thank you, Grillby." The fire elemental nodded before pulling out a bottle, offering him a drink silently. He shook his head, "No, unless you have coffee, liquor is not on my palette tonight." Grillby seemed a bit crestfallen before nodding and setting the bottle aside, padding back to the back room to prepare the coffee. At the familiarity between the two, the other patrons went back to their normal activity.

Except for the skeleton.

"Your LV is above 20, your EXP and DF are maxed out, and AT and HP off the charts, who the hell are you, bud? Not hostile my ass, you're far more dangerous, now you tell me who you are, or you're gonna have a bad time, friend." the skeleton was still pressing on that? Well then.

The dark-eyed man was silent, enjoying his food for a moment before swallowing, "Old. I am old, Sans," he ignored the startled look from the skeleton at the use of his name- even though he had not told him it, "Older than you can imagine, as old as I am, you start getting blood on your hands." Grillby came back as he finished his fries with a mug of coffee. He nodded thanks before starting again,

"The term monster has changed, If I were you, I'd stay down here. You won't be hunted and slaughtered if you do," he took a sip from his coffee, "Humans have changed, this is the safest place for you to be, believe it or not." Sans growled, muttering something on timelines and resets. He ignored him in favor of his coffee, "If you knew the changes," he sighed half-heartedly, "It is a... slap to the face, so to speak, if you've been under a rock for your whole life. The sun might be nice, I personally find it irritating, and the sky might be bright and clear, but there are humans… humans who hunt monsters for a living. They are called "hunters" and they don't care what your intentions are, they will kill you. They've killed innocent supernatural beings for far less, I remember one fool killed a kitsune mother for simply existing. Her son ran off, of course, but the mother had done nothing wrong." he set his coffee mug down.

"The hell you saying?" Sans asked, growling, "that we should give up?"

"I'm saying that you have two choices, to do what is safer, or to do what you think is right." he finished off his burger before picking his cane up and standing, "Your king and I… we will also be talking… I hope that someone who has traversed the lines understands. Grillby," he nodded to the elemental before he turned. Sans blinked and then the man was gone.

"Grillbz, who the hell was that?"

Grillby sighed before he set the glass he was leaning down and cleared the man's space, "An old friend. He appeared during the war, apparently, I was the only one who wasn't already dead who could see him," he pushed his glasses up before sighing again, "He- he is Death. And He is the reason why more of us aren't dead. I don't know why, but," he looked at the door, "He... chose our side over the Humans' side. He walked among us with no fear, he could have easily decided to keep death at bay from the humans, but he didn't." A pause, "He told us that he was the balance, and while he had walked along side of humans longer, said that he felt their… egos were becoming far too inflated… something about protozoan? Either way," the fireman looked at his skeleton friend, "I'm considering his words. You should too. And I think the king should as well."

"Now," Grillby stood back up straight again, "About your tab?"

"Aww, I'll pay ya back, bud, just not now!"

A/N: I had this idea while listening to O' Death on the way home from where I was vacationing in North Carolina. I remembered that Pap didn't like the grease from Grillby's, and you know who likes unhealthy food? Death. I know that in the SPN Canon, Death was sealed away after Noah's Ark and Flood, but it was never really explained why- only that he was brought back up when the Heavenly Hoast and God had something big planned. Since this is a Fanfic and in a way an AU, let's just say that the big guy upstairs let him out during the Human-Monster war and he just stayed out. As to the familiarity between Death and Grillby, my own (and several others') headcanon for Grillby is that our favorite bartender had been part of the war and in this one-shot, Death decided that instead of sitting back and watching like he normally would (it's not like he needed to know why the Monsters were fighting, Death canonically has Nigh-Omnipotence) he decided (for some reason) to go and hang out with the monsters...

Yeah, I didn't really think this through, but I really just wanted this down on print, so who knows! I might come back and re-write it!

Also, yeah, abrupt ending, but I wanted a bit of humor