"Oh look. It's the monster slut." You were used to their comments, but a small part of you still recoiled from their hate.
When you broke the barrier, everything seemed to be perfect. The monsters were free, and the two cultures could finally mix. You went back to public school, now with the monster children added to the classes, even though there weren't many of them. Unfortunately, the kids your age weren't the most accepting of the monsters, probably because their parents were prejudice against your friends and family.
There was one group that was particularly harsh. There were four of them, three boys and one of their girlfriends, but she tended to stay out of it. It started with petty name calling, but escalated to pushing in the hallways and threatening notes in your backpack when you weren't looking.
Today was no different. Jeremy, the ring leader of the little clan, was in a bad mood without a doubt. You ignored his usual comments, the insults no longer creative. His mood seemed to worsen when he realized he wasn't getting to you.
"Don't ignore me you furry fucker." He thought he was oh so clever didn't he?
"Leave me alone Jeremy. I'm not in the mood." He roughly grabbed your arm and slammed you against the lockers.
"Sorry, I don't speak freak." You deadpan, refusing to give him the satisfaction.
"How creative Jeremey." His grip tightened and you tried not to flinch.
"Sorry, what was that? For a second I thought you, a dirty monster fucker, was talking back to me." You resist the urge to spit in his face.
"Leave. Me. Alone." The hand that wasn't gripping your arm swung around and clipped your jaw, causing your vision to double for a second. Your resolve broke and you spit directly into his eye. You had a split second of satisfaction before he hit you again.
You fell to the ground and he kicked you once for good measure before storming away, muttering under his breath darkly. You breathed deeply before standing, biting back a yelp. Thankfully you could drive, so you could take your sweet old time getting home.
You were living with Toriel in a little cottage-like house on the outskirts of the city, maybe a ten minute drive from the school. Most of the monsters either stayed in the Underground and came out when they chose, or settled down within sight of the mountain. Maybe two or three actually went off somewhere else.
Sans and Papyrus decided to move into the house a street down, so they were within walking distance. Either they were over your place or you were over theirs, so it really didn't matter than the four of you lived in separate houses. Once, you joked about buying a huge house and having everyone move into it, but had to shoot down your own idea when they started looking up mansions for sale in the area.
You struggle to your car, dreading what was going to happen when you made it home. The bruising on your ribs would be easy enough to hide, but you could already feel your bottom lip swelling. Toriel would pitch a fit. You pulled your hoodie on and flipped up the hood, hiding your chin – and therefore your swollen lip – within the fabric.
The walk to the front door was agonizing. You just wanted some Advil and a hot bath and a nap. The second Toriel heard the door open, she was at the end of the hall, waiting for you, and by the furrow in her brow, it wasn't good.
"I received a call from your teacher again. You failed your last test. Again. I understand math isn't your best subject, but you promised you would try harder this time. I'm very disappointed in you." You wanted to scream at her, because you did study. You did try harder, but you just weren't any good at math. You wanted to make some sarcastic comment, or just ignore her, but you knew her too well. There was no way you could do that.
"I'm sorry mom. I did try though…" She pursed her lips and crossed her arms.
"Not hard enough apparently." You clenched your fists and felt your lower lip throb under the fabric of your hoodie.
"I'll try harder next time." What else could you do to satisfy her?
"You most certainly will, because you're grounded until you get a good test grade." She seemed hesitant to punish you, but you saw red. Taking a deep breath before you do something you regret, you manage to lessen your rage.
"Yes mom." She seemed taken aback by your obedience, but was pleased she didn't have to pull the bad cop act into this. You went to your room, letting a little of your anger out by slamming the door slightly behind you.
You threw your backpack into the floor and laid face down on your bed. Taking a deep breath, you screamed into your pillow for as long and as loud as you could. When the scream faded, you were a little lightheaded, but it was okay.
You were okay.
"Come one. It's not that hard!" Undyne was helping you get into shape for summer, but it really wasn't going well at all. Her idea of an "easy" work out made you want to throw up after ten minutes. After running a mile in under five minutes, you actually did throw up.
The only reason you made it in under five minutes is because Undyne literally chased after you with her spears. She actually nicked your leg when you were going too slowly for her taste. You could feel the blood dripping lazily down your leg and the sweat dripping down every inch of your body.
"Undyne I'm dying."
"Stop being dramatic! If you want to get into shape you need to actually do something every now and again." She wasn't intentionally being rude, but her comments speared you more than her actual spear.
"I do things! I'm just not some kind of freaky fast monster." You didn't mean to be rude, but your side was still cramping so badly you were curled into a ball on the ground.
"If that's the way you feel, maybe you should do it all on your own!" Now you did it. You went and upset Undyne. You heard her stomp away, but your lungs were still so sore and your eyes were a little blurry from exertion.
You wanted to call after her, apologize and beg for forgiveness, but all you could do way lie there and cry. It took five more minutes until your breathing was level enough to get up. You wiped your eyes and set your stony expression back in place.
Over the past year or so, you've gotten better as seeming disinterested and uncaring about everything, and this was no different.
After your grounding, it only took four days until you were ready for your math retake. It was four days of nonstop practicing, but it was worth it to see the joy in Toriel's face. Your lip didn't stay swollen so that was no problem. She pulled you into a hug, but your face was as deadpanned as when you were having the shit beat out of you.
You sat at your desk, staring at the pile of books in front of you. Your teachers decided to pack on the work before break, so you were swamped. Two essays, a play to read and analyze, math problems, book work and definitions to write.
To top it all off, Toriel was going away for the weekend for a teacher's convention, leaving you with a list of chores to finish. The amount of stress was seriously starting to get to you, so you slipped on your shoes and dialed your favorite monster's number.
"Hey there Kiddo, what's the dealio?" You rolled your eyes at him and started walking.
"I have too much work to do, so I'm ditching my responsibilities and am about three minutes from your house."
"Again?" You could hear the disappointment in his voice, but you couldn't care less. This was probably the fourth time you've done this. You made it to his house and knocked on the door. He opened it before the second knock with a slight frown.
"Hey there Sans."
"Seriously kid. You can't keep ditching your responsibilities like this." You scowl at him.
"You're one to talk."
"I know my place in this world. You're place is way above me, but if you keep slacking off you'll never get there."
"You know, I didn't come here for a lecture." Sans shrugged, not looking sorry.
"Well maybe you need one." You felt your anger bubble up, but you shoved it back down. You put on your neutral face and turned around.
"Whatever. I should have known this was a bad idea. You're just like everyone else Sans." You heard him huff but didn't turn around.
"I'm very disappointed in you. This was your last chance to pass my class but you blew it off again." Your teacher had pulled you aside after class. He had given you a project to do in order to bring your grade up, but the thought of doing it made you beyond anxious, and you just didn't do it. Now it was too late to pass.
"I'm really sorry sir."
"Obviously not sorry enough. I'm going to have to call home to your mother and explain to her why you're going to have to retake my class again next year."
You felt your stomach drop, but there was nothing you could do. You brought this upon yourself…
You left the classroom in tears. You had enough, but life decided you could take a little more before you broke for real. Just as you were about to reach your car, a hand grabbed your shoulder. They spun you around and you realized it was that asshole Jeremy.
"What do you want?" Your voice broke, and his eyes widened.
"Wait are you crying?" You hastily wiped your face but it was too late.
"No. Leave me alone." He furrowed his eyebrows. Was he actually… concerned?"
"Are you going to like… off yourself or something?" Your chest dropped painfully and you wanted to cry more.
"T-that's a sick joke, even for you." He took a step back and held his hands up.
"I don't mean to be rude." You raise one eyebrow and he notices. "Oh whatever. I was just going to hassle you for your notes, but it seems like you're failing too."
"I'm leaving." He didn't try to stop you, but you felt as though he had something else to say. You slammed the car door as you got in and peeled away, not caring if you leave skid marks on the pavement. You didn't go home. You couldn't face Toriel.
You drove to your favorite beach, one hidden behind a row of trees. A few fishermen knew of it, but they kept to themselves most of the time. You took your jacket off and placed it on the sand, watching the sun reflect off the water. You finally let yourself cry, after everything that's happened in the past few weeks, you finally let yourself cry.
It started off slow, a few tears trailing down your face. Thankfully the beach was empty today, because you would have been very embarrassed if anyone saw you. You began to sob, the heaviness in your chest growing.
You're sobs turned into strangles screams as you tore at your hair. You had never cried this hard before, but it felt good. Your chest was hurting from your hyperventilating and your head hurt from all the crying.
Eventually you were all cried out. It must have been at least an hour later, and you were completely drained. You sat and watched the water some more, your eyes following the fish as they breached the water. Your mind began drifting to what a mess you left back home.
Not only did you disappoint Toriel by failing your class, you never came home. She's probably worried sick about you, and that just made your chest hurt even more. You couldn't face her after everything you did, and every second you waste on the beach made the whole situation a thousand times worse. A stick cracked behind you but you didn't move.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Maybe twenty minutes." At least Sans was being partially honest with how long he had been watching you.
"Why?"
"Tori's freaking out cuz you never came home. She figured you'd avoid her after the phone call she got, but after an hour she got really worried. Now why would you go and do something like that to her? All she ever did was care about you."
That was the last straw. Despite being drained from crying, you still managed to throw yourself at him, your fist swinging around to clock his jaw. At the last second he teleported an inch to the left. You screamed in frustration and swung again, just for him to dodge again.
"Go." Swing. "Away." Swing. "Sans." Swing. He caught your wrist and you flinched violently. He was startled by your reaction and pulled your sleeve up to show the healing lines on your arm. You rip your wrist from his grasp, not caring if it reopened some of the cuts.
"I never asked you to come and find me! I never asked for you to act like some kind of dad! You were supposed to be there for me and be my friend but instead you chose Toriel's side! I needed you Sans, but you didn't care about that! You just cared about how Mom saw you!"
"Kid that's not true!"
"Like hell it's not true! I couldn't trust you with anything because I knew you'd go right to Toriel and tattle on me! I can't tell you anything!"
` "Did something happen?"
"EVERYTHING HAPPENED! I've been bullied for months, but did you notice? NO!" You charged at him, wanting to land at least one hit. "I've been failing my classes because the work makes me so anxious I actually throw up just thinking about it!"
"Why didn't you-"
"Why didn't I come to you? Because YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ME! YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT TORIEL! YOU DECIDED ALL OF A SUDDEN TO BE AN ADULT AND STOPPED CARING ABOUT ME!" How were you crying again? You were supposed to all cried out.
You swung t him again, your fist flying haphazardly. He caught your arm again and pulled you into his chest. You frantically tried to escape, wriggling and punching and biting. Anything to get away. His arms tightened around you and you fell limp. You let him hold you as you cried into his jacket, soaking the fabric.
"Kid… I never stopped caring about you. The reason I became an adult is because I cared about you. I had to make sure you were going to grow up alright. I didn't want you to become a failure like me. You have so much potential…" You froze in his arms. "If you had told me you were being bullied…"
He pulled you out from his chest enough to see his face. His eye was glowing bright blue and he had a feral smile across his face.
"If you had told me I would have ripped that sick son of a bitch to pieces." The light faded from his eye and he looked sad again. "Why did you run away?"
"I didn't want to disappoint Toriel anymore."
"Disappoint her anymore?" You clenched your eyes tight.
"That's all I've done. Disappoint her." He nuzzled your hair and mumbled into your head.
"No… no, no, no. She's not disappointed in you. She wants you to be the best you can be. She loved you kid. Just like I do. Just like we all do."
"Sans…"
"Sure we seem tough sometimes, but that's because we care about you and we know you're going to do great things. We have complete confidence in you, but you can't be failing class or running away. We do love you. We love you and that's why we push you…"
"She's going to hate me for running away and lying." You sobbed again, the thought of Toriel hating you stabbing you right in the heart.
"She could never, ever hate you. Now…" His eye glowed blue again. "Tell me about this fucker that was bullying my kid."
This chapter had almost three pages deleted because I just... didn't like the way the plot was going. It started out that Flowey would take over the other monsters to be mean and hateful towards you to make you feel like crap, but the writing was crap so I ditched that.
I've gotten over half a dozen requests for a verbal abuse chapter, and I've tried three different chapters, including this one. Obviously this turned out different from verbal abuse, but the other ones just didn't come together right. If anyone has any ideas for specific plots I could use, please tell me because I really want to write it, but I want to make sure I write it right.
Also! I'm writing another Undertale story! It's an Underfell AU and I really, really like how smooth it's coming out. Everything is fitting together so nicely! Everyone who reviews on this story always leaves me suggestions on how to improve and what they liked best, but most of the reviews I've gotten were just "Good chapter." Or "Nice job." I don't want to sound inconsiderate, but I want to improve as much as possible, and I don't know how to improve without your reviews. SO if anyone would like to read it, it's called Purify the Timelines.
Until next time!
~Starlight