Underfell AU. WARNING: angst ahead!
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The knife stuck a steady beat as Tabatha viciously swung it at the thick tree trunk in the forest, her breath escaping in small puffs of white. She didn't acknowledge the cold, too full of hot anger to care.
Stupid Papyrus. What did he know?! Just because she'd gone somewhere without telling him didn't mean he had to tear the whole freaking town apart looking for her, much less scream at her the second she walked back through the door!
The brunette wasn't sure how or when, but the thing had quickly devolved into a shouting match, with each screaming at the other and scaring Sans awake in the living room. The shorter skeleton had promptly disappeared once he realized what was happening, getting out of the potential battlefield before he could get caught in the crossfire. But it had been when the tall skeleton had grabbed her by the face, forcing her to look at him and seeming unaware of how his sharp fingertips were cutting into her jaw that she had just snapped. Knowing one of his shoulders was weaker than the other, she had body-slammed her boyfriend into the wall and wrenched the arm almost clean free of its socket into painful dislocation and stalked off into the slow, leaving her jacket behind.
She had fled to the forest, knowing the way to a hidden cove where she could be alone. It was here that she'd drawn her weapon and began her assault on the tree, each stroke stripping away bark and spreading sap across the wounds.
After a harsh downwards strike, the blade lodged in deep and refused to budge. Tabatha took the moment to lean against the trunk, breathing deeply. After determining she would not be getting her knife back any time soon, she turned around and flopped to the snowy earth, staring up at the cavern ceiling.
Now that her energy was spent and her anger had mostly been taken out on the poor nature, she turned her thoughts back to the argument, going over what had happened. Her first instinct was to get made at Papyrus again, to blame him for starting it, for overreacting. But the more she thought about it, the more the guilt began to weigh heavily on her Soul. He may have overreacted...but so had she. She had almost pulled his arm off.
It wasn't the first time the two had fought, nor was it the first time it had come to blows, but this was the first time where neither had stopped when they reached that line where it became physical. But Tabatha was beginning to realize that she had shattered that boundary, effectively breaking the trust between them. That fragile, tender trust that she had worked so hard to gain.
The tears came, thick and heavy, hot as her rage had been, but swiftly becoming frigid in the frost air.
"We clawed, we chained, our hearts in vain
We jumped, never asking why"
The words came unbidden, uninhibited by the tears...for now.
"We kissed, I fell under your spell
A love no one could deny"
When was the last time she had done thing? Sung the pain out until she was left completely worn out? If she ever needed it, it was now.
"Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you
I came in like a wrecking ball!
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me!
Yeah, you wreck me…"
There was the faint crunching of snow, but Tabatha knew that no one would be able to find her this far from the path. At most, her voice would sound like a faint whisper from a ghost, even if they had excellent hearing. There were few monsters who would dare come into the woods this far anyway for fear of what could be lurking there. Papyrus was one of those few, but the footsteps were too soft to be the guardsman's harsh marching.
"I put you high up in the sky
And now, you're not coming down
It slowly turned, you let me burn
And now, we're ashes on the ground
Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you"
Materializing behind one of the trees in the clearing, Sans cautiously peered around the trunk to see his brother's girlfriend lying flat in the snow in nothing but a tank top and jeans, singing to the ceiling. The stocky skeleton wasn't sure what to make of it until he heard her burst into the harsh chorus.
"I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me
I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crouching in a blaze and fall
All you ever did was break me…"
Her voice then became heartbroken and soft, startling her sole listener at the complete one-eighty.
"Yeah, you wreck me…"
Tabatha sat up, curling in on herself, the sobs held back in her chest beginning to interfere with the music.
"I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
And instead of using force
I guess I should've let you in…"
The sobs began to get stronger, more pronounced as her voice began to die.
"I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
I guess I should've let you in…"
There were several seconds where the only sound was of the young woman's breathing. Then the song returned, the words flat and hollow.
"Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you"
And the passion was back. That terribly painful passion.
"I came in like a wrecking ball!
I never hit so hard in love!
All I wanted was to break your walls!
All you ever did was wreck me!
I came in like a wrecking ball!
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung!
Left me crouching in a blaze and fall!
All you ever did was wreck me!
Yeah, you, you wreck me!"
Sans had heard enough: he was gonna go find his little brother and he was going to get this fixed. He was gone as Tabatha's eyes closed, her exhaustion hitting her very suddenly as the cold began to seep into her core. The last words were barely a whisper.
"Yeah, you, you wreck me…"
Papyrus was becoming increasingly concerned the longer he combed through the woods, looking for his beloved. The second she had attacked him, he knew that they both had gone too far, but he had let her go nevertheless, hoping that her rage would cool and she would return home without any further incident. His worry had begun when he noticed that she had forgotten her coat, meaning she would get cold very quickly and had only escalated when she hadn't come back after the first half hour. It was then that Sans had arrived, telling his brother all that he had seen out in the forest and where she'd gone. The tall skeleton had risked another ten minutes of waiting before he began his search in earnest, now genuinely fearing for her safety.
Why did his human have to be so good at hiding?! It was doing nothing to soothe his nerves, even if it did mean that a monster attack would be nearly impossible. But she had now been out in the cold for more than an hour and the magic that they'd agreed to infuse in her system for emergency survival would be nearly depleted. Her body would be on its own against the elements if it wasn't already and she could very easily freeze to death.
The fear had almost reached heights of distress when he caught the scent of tree sap. Though it was frozen now, it hadn't been there for long. Encouraged, the guardsman raced towards the smell and then...there she was. Spread eagle in the snow, covered in a fine powder, Tabatha breathed deeply, clearly unconscious. Papyrus ran his hands over her body and was alarmed to find that her body head seemed less than usual. Sitting her up, he unwrapped his scarf with shaking fingers and coiled it loosely on her shockingly pale torso before he pulled her into his arms and began to race back home, determined to get there before any more harm could befall his beloved human.
Not every day in Underfell is gonna be a good one and when Fell!Tabatha and Fell!Paps fight, it's not pretty. They're both naturally rough people and could tear Snowdin apart if they fought outside their home.
Also, why are these one-shots pretty much all songfics? I have three more chapters already written out and they're all centered around songs.