After that, the glances were longer, the touches more obvious. Grillby was an affectionate man. You held hands on your walks home, and he kissed your hand when he said goodbye. It was a nice change, a positive to your life.
Sans though, he kept staring at your boot. The boot where your knife was holstered. He's been at it for days.
"It ain't gunna bite you," you finally said. "It's only for self defense."
"it wasn't yourself you were defending last time," he snarked. You had no idea where his attitude was coming from.
"It was a good thing I had it though. I can't take on more than two guys at a time without getting hurt, and I didn't know if they had anything on them," you reason. "The only way to win a knife fight is to run."
"hmm," Sans says thoughtfully. "humans love their knives." The way Sans said this makes you pause. He sounds like someone who had a personal grudge against violence of this kind. You thought about what to say to reassure him.
"Ultimately, I'm just here to fight the other guys. I'm here to use my shit against theirs, to do your dirty work so you don't have to. I'm your knife, and your safety is paramount to me. I don't know if you know much about human armies but our whole deal is to protect the citizens of this country. You guys need a lot of protection," you shrug.
"we can take care of ourselves," Sans bites defensively. You gave him a purse of your lips and nodded.
"I don't doubt that. But right now, if you do, you're gunna have a really bad time," you said, and Sans flinched. You frowned, maybe you shouldn't have said that. "Look, I don't mean to be a Debby Downer but you guys need some humans on the front lines to take the heat off you," you shrug. "Just until you can stand up on your own."
Sans huffed and took a swig of ketchup. You held back a grimace, you fucking hated ketchup.
"you got a point kid, but i don't like it."
"You're allowed," you shrugged again. Neither of you knew what to say after that, and soon Sans made an excuse to leave. You hoped this didn't make it weird between you two.
The walk that night with Grillby was peaceful. The snow was falling and it left the eerie hush you loved in the evenings. The streetlights turned everything orange except for Grillby's flicker. You wonder how he doesn't glow through his clothes. His soft white light illuminated your face and you snuggled into his arm.
His door came too quickly as it always does. He leaned down to kiss your hand again, but you ran your hand up his chin. He looked you in the eye, surprised, as you leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss on the approximate area of his lips. You drew back and looked at his reaction. He was blushing, and he nodded at you before retreating inside. You were satisfied with this and turned to walk home.
It was a quiet walk, as it usually was. The traffic was calm and you were able to think about Grillby and the kiss you just shared. You hoped you weren't too forward, it seemed like Grillby wanted to take it slow. But maybe he was waiting for you to escalate the relationship? A quandary.
Then. The jeep. That fucking Jeep rolled up and you got a feeling of dread. You broke into a run. The jeep kept up with you and cut you off, so you ran back the other direction. Half the men had gotten out behind you and the others surrounded you on the other side, and this time each one had a knife.
"Fuck," you swore, and quickly armed yourself. There was absolutely no way you were getting out of this without getting stabbed, but you'd take out as many of these fuckers as you could.
"Come 'ere monster fucker, we'll make it easy on you if you come with us," one of the assholes tried to convince. "We'll fix ya," he said, and your stomach dropped. They weren't going to just kill you, they were going to rape you first.
"I'd rather die," you say seriously, and you lunge for the closest man. You manage to catch him by surprise. You're quicker than him and manage to stick him like a goldfish bag. He falls to the ground with a groan and the other men hesitate long enough for you to cut at the next man's hand, making him drop his knife. The other men seem to get their shit together because they come at you as a group.
You dodge everything but a large slash to your side, and you grit your teeth through the pain. You stuck two of the men in the gut before one does the same to you. Fuck, you think. You're really going to die here.
Another stab to your gut and you cough up blood, falling to the ground.
"Come on! Let's go!" The men say, grabbing their wounded friends and getting into their jeep.
There's so much blood, blood everywhere. Yours, theirs…too much. You're losing too much. You're going to black out. You need to get out your cell phone and call for help before you do.
With a shaking, bloody hand you reach into your pocket. You couldn't call the police, they don't come to this part of town. You press the first contact on your list, which happens to be Grillby. It rings, again, and again, before a raspy voice speaks:
"...Hello?" His voice soothes you, it was nice to hear even if you die.
"...Hey Grillby?..." you grind out, "...You got any….butterscotch pie?" You wheeze, and cough again. You hear a dial tone and struggle to flip your phone closed, you are going into shock.
Your eyes were closed but you were conscious for now despite your heavy injuries. You had a wish to see Grillby in case you died. You knew these kind of gut wounds could heal if you stopped the bleeding in time…
When you thought the dark would finally claim you, you felt a pair of warm arms scoop you up from the snow. You had no energy to even hiss at the pain. He's here. It's okay. You let yourself slip into sleep, now that you were truly safe.
When you woke, you felt better than ever. You felt like you could run a million laps and do a thousand pullups. The taste of brandy on your tongue was pleasantly warm. You wrench your sleep crusted eyes open to find Grillby by your side. You're in his bed. He does not look like he got a wink of sleep.
"Hey," you say softly. He looks up at you and his dim flame burns brighter. He puts his hand on your head and strokes your cheek.
"...Rest…" He says, and you laugh.
"I just woke up," you grin at him. You grab him by the collar and tip him into the bed next to you. "I'll only sleep if you do," you snuggle into his side. You can feel him chuckling, but he does as he's told and cuddles you close. You hold each other for a long while, just breathing in each other's continued existence. It was nice to have each other. You could talk about everything later.
You trace your fingers across his stomach and he grabs your hand, holding it gently.
"...You didn't stay safe…" Grillby says, after a long stretch of time passed.
"Next time I'll carry my gun," you assure. "I got four out of six of them," you say proudly. Grillby stares down at your stomach and you realize you're still in your dirty clothes, both of you are covered in your blood. The holes where the stab wounds used to be tinged the darkest. You grimace, pinching the clothes. "You got a shirt I could borrow?"
"...You could have died…" he says quietly. You don't know what to say to that, because it's true. You almost did die. You sigh.
"I can't say being offed by bigots is the best way to go, but I would have been happy with the time I spent with you."
"...hmm…" he hums noncommittally. His fingers trace the places your wounds were and it makes you shiver. You bite your lip.
"I promise to be more careful," you snuggle into his chest and give it a kiss. This earns you a steady blue blush, your favorite color.
A knock at the door interrupts your thoughts. Grillby jumps up faster than you could blink and is gone down the hall. He opens the door to be greeted with the dog squad.
"We smelt the smells! Is she smalright?" Dogamy asked. Grillby nods, but the dogs spot the blood on him. They start barking. You decide to help Grillby out, you get up and come to the door.
"I'm ok," you say to them, but your clothes just make them bark harder.
"You almost got dusted!" Dogamy cries. They all throw their arms around you and whine. You didn't realize they cared this much about you.
"What happened?" Dogaressa asked, and so you launched into the full story. You noticed Grillby sat by listening intently.
"...All in all, it was over pretty fast. I called Grillby for help and he swooped in like a knight in shining armor," you brag on Grillby. Grillby shakes his head negatively. He seemed…angry. "But after this I think it would be smart if monsters started traveling in groups," you said authoritatively. The dog squad nodded in agreement.
"We'll tell everyone!" Doggo said seriously, and the dog pack dispersed in pairs in all directions. Grillby closes the door and turns to you.
"Well I see how rumors spread in the underground," you chuckle, and Grillby hugs you close.
You're at Grillby's bar in his shirt. He didn't want you to go home alone, so after a shower you came with him to the bar as a compromise. Everyone had heard about what happened and came to ensure that you were alright, with how squishy humans tended to be. They were all thankful to hear that healing magic worked on humans.
Sans was there. He came to sit beside you.
"hey."
"Hey," you said back.
"i heard about what happened. i feel bad about giving you shit about your knife," he mutters. You shrug, you've had worse said to you.
"It's all good, I get it," you say calmly, "Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire though. I gotta say, with healing magic on my side I feel a lot more confident," you grinned.
"buddy you almost died," he said somberly. You roll your eyes.
"If I took every time I almost died to heart I'd be a mess. Sometimes you just gotta keep on trucking and be happy with what you got while you got it." With that, Sans looked thoughtful again.
"you know, for a nerd you say some pretty good stuff," he said, nudging you with an elbow.
Grillby is in front of you with a hot chocolate. He holds up two marshmallows and toasts them until they're golden brown in his palm. You smile, he knows you love that part the most. You look up at him adoringly:
"Thank you Grillby," you stroke his hand, and he runs his thumb over yours. Then he's called away. Sans gives you a look.
"so how serious are you guys now? you're in his shirt," Sans points out.
"I dunno, as serious as he wants to be. I think we're dating? He's being very chivalrous," you say. Sans snorts.
"chivalrous or slow?"
"I like it. I kissed him yesterday before I got stabbed," you give a wistful smile.
"that would be sweet without the stabbing part."
"Yeah I would have liked to avoid the stabbing part too," you laugh. You eat your toasted marshmallows, they were exactly how you liked them, golden brown and toasted to perfection. You go to lick your finger and catch Grillby observing you…so you lick your finger slowly, giving the tip extra attention. A blush runs across his face like a bushfire and you give him a proud smirk. You sip your hot chocolate to cool your smile.
"you know, I don't think it's gonna stay slow for long," Sans said, patting you on the back. You held back a grin. Grillby drove you wild on a bad day, but now that you almost died again it's like the floodgates were open. You were satisfied with small touches and chaste kisses, but you wanted more.
Keeping your hands to yourself while at the bar was a struggle but you had self discipline. You were able to let him work with only the heat of your gaze on him.
"Hello, are you the bouncer here?" A woman said, approaching you. She was another human, face fair with black hair and a full figure.
"Yep," you nod affirmatively. It may not be official but it was official enough.
"I'm Gloria," she held her hand out for a shake. "I heard you keep this bar free of the normal problems," you shook her head and took her hint. You nodded.
"I do my best."
"I also heard you're called Grillby's guard dog," she snickered. You frowned.
"I mean I think that may be offensive to my dog friends," you say defensively. The dogs must have been listening in, because Dogamy shouts:
"Honorary dog!" And the others echo the chant. You guess you were an honorary dog now. That makes you smile, but then your attention is drawn back to the human. It's interesting to you how you call them "humans" in your head now, instead of people.
"What's your point?" You ask the woman, becoming impatient.
"I just wanted to say you're probably going to see more humans in here," she warned. You grimaced, there goes the neighborhood.
"Thanks for the warning," you nod, and she goes on her way.
The rest of the evening was uneventful, and closing time came. Grillby walks you out the door. You slip your hand in his and give it a squeeze, his comfortable temperature seeping into your bones. You wondered if you were unpleasantly cold to him. He relaxed every muscle he touched, it was so nice. You wished you could do the same to him.
"Am I too cold to you?" You ask out of curiosity. He shakes his head negatively.
"...I like the cold…" he says simply.
"I like you," you say slyly. He brushes your shoulder with his. The short walk brought you to his door once again, and you prepared to go home when he pulled your hand toward his door.
"Stay," he says firmly. You smile at him.
"Only if I get a goodnight kiss," you bargain. He pauses for a moment before taking your other hand and pulling you inside his door.
When it was closed, he presses you up against the door with his arm on the side of your head. Butterflies shoot through your stomach as his breath mingles with yours. He presses his lips gently against you, and you sigh, closing your eyes. You melt into the warm, soothing kiss.
A hot wet tongue runs along the bottom of your lip and you gasp a moan, letting him slip further into your mouth. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him deeper. His kiss burnt in a good way, it made a heat rocket through you and pool above your stomach, it made your toes curl.
His kiss was a hurricane, it wrecked the home that was your soul. There was no way you could rebuild and live a life that was deprived of him. You were irreparably marked. His lips left your mouth and left a trail of kisses down to the crevice of your neck and you groaned in pleasure, tilting your head to the side. Grillby obeyed your silent request and sucked a deep, purple mark, lavishing it with his tongue when he was done. You would stay forever if it meant these kinds of goodnight kisses.
He pulled back, observing your panting mess of a self with a look of pride. He took you by the hand again and led you to his bedroom after you shed your outerwear.
Grillby flopped down onto the bed and pulled you down with him, into his arms. He brushed the hair out of your face and whispered into your ear:
"...Goodnight…" and the two of you fell asleep, wrapped up in each other.