Red had probably picked one of the worst places to hide, considering how exhausted and sleepy he was.
As the others had run off eagerly in what he hoped was thanks to scoping perfect hiding places, he figured he had done all he could. So he looked right, looked left, blinked at the room he was in with too many places and no time to risk checking any of it out, and hopped into one of a pair of boots right beside the door. Doorstop Asgore's face vanished from view as the walls of the wobbling boot rose, with Red squeezed in coccyx first and arms up, thanks to his jacket padding around the limited space and rising around his head.
The boots had soft, fluffy lining as it turned out, which was a smart addition as part of an old ladies winter wardrobe. He was experiencing firsthand how comfortable they were. The absurd prospect of falling asleep right as the two potentially dangerous giant humans now loomed nearby felt like a truly cruel test of his fortitude, swaddled in the most comfortable frikkin' footwear in the world. At this point, the stress of events was a downright gift, being the only thing now keeping him awake and alert.
"Is there anyone else in your house Mabel? Do you want me to che-"
YOU'VE GOTTA TO BE KIDDIN ME!
The old man's head had started to swivel in the direction of the room Red was just inside, only interrupted by the saving grace of a surprisingly urgent response from the old lady. If Charlie hadn't been so worried about his garden view, just the briefest look to the right of where he stood at the window, followed by a glance down, would have gifted him the sight of dumb fear on a sharp toothed skull perfectly framed in a fluffy halo. A little red-eyed monster facing up out of Mabel's boot, bony hands up either side like it was surrendering. And may as well have been if found like this.
Fell, concealed in the center of the decorative plant on the console base nearby, looked down at his brother in his unimpressive predicament, and looked up the pant leg of the human gardener who was now stood pretty much in his own face to lean over the small table for the window view, feet directly in front of what had shamefully revealed itself to be a synthetic fern that Fell had opted to crouch in. The sense of 'monster in the wild, poised to strike', that framed his choice of hiding place only worked in the wilds of Ikea. At least a gardening human shouldn't be too interested in a polyester plant to give it any attention. And yet, as the discovery of his elder brother began to transpire…
Clawed phalanges reached out unnoticed, a breath away from the thin pant leg in front of them, then retracted silently in time with the diverted attention of the human, as the leg swung back in a step out of reach as he to walk away.
Crouching further back down in behind the foliage, Fell surveyed the continuing conversation with the two, hmm, distracted looking humans, weren't they? His vantage point to view the entire hallway as well as the two nearest rooms either side did at least make this a good spot. He could just about keep an eye-socket on the alcove where Papyrus had gone, and where Blue had picked in the opposite one. And at least no filthy soil on his red boots and smartly fitted work suit was a bonus really in this fake plant.
Boring work suit.
Eh? No he loved wearing his smart black shirt and jacket. He had discovered he pulled off such a tailored outfit to the envy of many a male human. When he had learned of the blushing effect simply rolling up his shirt sleeves had on their new female house guest, he refused to let anyone else help her with the dish-washing for a week, insisting on showing her how to do it 'properly'.
But right now he kinda missed his guard armor. His life underground may have been dangerous, but it felt good when he donned his armor…
Papyrus shook his head with a skeletal smile from where he stood on the bookcase. Every smile on him was skeletal, but there was a difference between a grin or a grimace on a monster skeleton's features that a human skull could never match.
While he felt Blue had certainly been charitable to Red's apparent stress levels by agreeing they could all hide, they had to all get moving to cut short Red looking like he had taken the joke about disguises seriously and had been about to try to desperately argue against said disguises.
There is absolutely no problem with a tactic of stealth, Papyrus thought...
He watched the human male get close to discovering the brothers who had stayed near the far room, having himself opted to hide in plain sight, where no-one would look. This was inside a nice vase of colorful fake flowers on top of the low bookshelf, his skull perfectly framed by a pink daisy centered behind him as flowery camouflage, with leaves crowded in front and red mittened hands gripping the edge of the container hidden underneath a leaf each side.
This had several benefits; it was a vibrant backdrop suitable to his greatness (if a bit quaint), and humans tempted to do a double-take on seeing something monstrous lurking in the shadows had an amusing tendency to doubt their own eyes and decide not to look again. -No that couldn't have been a monstrous skull watching me from that flower. Perhaps a self-preservation instinct of refusing to believe something is real in hope that will make it true.
And it made him feel pretty. Anyway this was only a temporary position. He simply didn't want to be left out of the fun of finding a good spot. Papyrus's ultimate train of thought on what a good stealth tactic was, was as follows: I am, naturally, a stealth expert. As such I will of course use my grand entrance to draw attention away from my stealthy comrades. He had only to wait for the right moment…
Although… there was a small conundrum to overcome. Papyrus's focus shifted from the comings and goings of the humans in the hallway, to Blue's hiding place where he had climbed up from one of the low chairs in the reading nook, and after dismissing hiding behind the cushions, had managed to plant himself inside the shade of the lamp on the small end-table next to them. It had barely stopped wobbling as the slow walking elders had made it upstairs, with Blue hanging on in a jumping-jack pose. Papyrus had thought to himself this seemed like a terrible choice of hiding place with the shadow of a small figure showing through if anyone looked that way, but at the same time knew the lampshade was the perfect hiding place and no-one would notice.
No, his problem, he considered as he looked back away to glower down from the vase, was the slight niggle that human elderly had a worrying tendency to fall down at shocks. He was stressed this fact astoundingly often in his dealing with humans. Sometimes they would voice that fact without any prompting. Even random strangers stopping him to advise this in the street. How helpful of them! He thought fondly at the latest one.
A man had pointed at him in the street by way of greeting one day and shouted; "Oh my GOD! Are you an actual freakin' skeleton?! You'll give someone a heart attack!"
Papyrus had proudly responded, "WHY, YES! THANK YOU KIND HUMAN!" Since it was considerate advice. He had given a friendly wave as he carried on his way, and the human turned to also walk away but a little too fast and expressed surprise at meeting a nearby lamppost. The gentleman had been clearly wowed by meeting a skeleton monster.
He came to a decision. He was still, even in miniature, The Great Papyrus. And as ever, no human would fall down with his inspiring presence.
Comings and goings. Hm, wait, comings and goings. Oh. The humans had gone. The fake flowers wilted a little.
"phhaaa!" came the noise from the boot with comically blindly waving little hands as Mabel and Charlie could be heard exiting the house, "gi'me out!"
Fell was already stood looking down his nasal ridge at the item, before reaching in to drag his brother out to dangle by the hood. At coming face to face with that glare, the demands morphed into silence and the looks of a guilty puppy. As Blue and Papyrus made their way back over, Fell put his foot down, that is in a stomp.
He crossed him arms, "THIS IS GETTING ABSURD, WE HAVE ALL MET BOTH OF THOSE HUMAN NEIGHBORS AND THEY ARE QUITE HARMLESS. I DEMAND WE CONFRONT THAT MABEL WOMAN AND FIND OUT IF SHE KNOWS HOW WE ALL GOT HERE."
Sansy downstairs paused with one pants leg on in the kitchen and tipped his skull on one side before putting the other leg through. He grabbed his t-shirt and hoody, stepped into his slippers and finished dressing as he went, mixing up a stroll with a few shortcuts spaced in to get to the hallway stairs past the plaster debris.
The others all hesitated. Truth be told, they were all a little invested in succeeding at their plan by this point, and at least making an entrance in a way that was more satisfying than just wandering up to Mabel to say "Oh hi! We don't know how we got in here haha. Or why we're titchy. Ha… please don't squish us." Even Fell was nervous about the idea but he certainly was not going to show it.
Red grit his teeth and dropped his head to pinch his nasal ridge for a moment to think, "ugh, okay. wardrobe." he indicated at the fallen beast.
Blue positively pouted, crossing his arms and sticking his chin up and to the side, "I AM NOT HIDING IN THE WARDROBE, GRUMPY VERSION OF ME. I AGREE WITH FELL, IT'S TIME WE FACE THIS CHALLENGE OF GREETING OUR NEIGHBOR." He added more quietly; " AND ALSO GO HOME IF WE CAN, I AM VERY HUNGRY AND WOULD LIKE LUNCH, AND I NEED TO FIND MY BROTHER AND HOPE HE DOESN'T FREAK OUT THAT I'M NOW EIGHT INCHES TALL, OR WORSE, NOT LET ME LIVE IT DOWN."
"six-" Red cut in, "i mean… i got enough juice left i think i can get us to that stair window. just need the platform to see past the banisters for it." His arms fell to his sides as he looked across at the window. "it's near enough the top of the stairs so figure we can all fit behind the curtains each side and wait till the ol' lady passes, then give 'er a big scare, uh, friendly greeting, from a safe point an' we can jump down and get down the stairs too if we need. we aint that fast but neither's her old ass"
Other than chiding him for language, no-one had any better ideas, so as the front door clicked shut already as Mabel had of course returned mercilessly fast, they gathered together after helping Red up.
Fell was quiet, with how worried he was getting at this point at his brother's evident magic strain. If he hadn't been so practiced at hiding it over the years, he would have been more obviously fretting. Red had a moment of near panic as he found that he still couldn't quite see the surface of the window sill, before realizing he could act based on the reflection of it in the window itself, and bunched together, the four of them were shortcut to the window. They split two each side behind the ballooning curtain waves, in time to hear a muted conversation as Mabel approached once more.
Silent confusion bloomed in unison in the monsters behind the curtains. -'Sansy"?
A new muted voice that sounded suspiciously familiar replied to the name.
Unseen by those listening in, the monster on Mabel's shoulder turned its fixed grin directly at the curtains as it passed by. Knowing mischief flashed in its eye-lights. As she turned past the top banisters he tapped her on the shoulder and held a digit to his teeth in a 'shush' motion as she inclined her face to him and cocked an eyebrow. He pointed sideways on towards the window and winked, so Mabel turned her feet as if to continue away, but paused.
"human…"
The effect might have been scarier at night instead of in the pleasant sunshine, without forewarning, and if the attempt at villainous "Nyeheha"s and "Mwehehe!"s didn't come across quite so cute that it gave the effect of the curtains giggling. Mabel still turned back stoically anyway to meet this.
Red didn't care any more. He stood grinning darkly and nonchalantly in the dead center of the sill's edge as the others stepped in from each side. It was an open challenge. They'd see how scared or hostile this human was...
Mabel desperately wanted to smile. There were more of them, and they were all posing! They seemed to be trying to both intimidate and impress her. Her hands fluttered to the sides of her face as she felt her resolve slipping, her thoughts a mantra of "Don't call them adorable don't call them adorable!"
Sansy appeared directly behind Red with empty black eye-sockets, "...dont you know how to greet a new pal?" he spoke in unison with Red.
Red recoiled in alarm and fell off the edge.
Fell already had hold of Red's jacket when he fell, having kept in reach watchfully, as Papyrus, Blue, and Sansy all reached to grab a hold too. They would have pulled him back up, except they all only had hold of the coat and not his arms, so he fell out of the jacket as it swept his arms above his head.
It had given Mabel time to dive forward though, and the stunned little skeleton found himself cupped in the soft old hands of their bent over, worried looking adversary.
"Well, hello to you too!" she said.
Up above, Sansy had spotted his brother, even more his own than the big version three houses away. He couldn't help himself,-"papy!" he cried, and dived to hug Papyrus with his face mushed into his chest. Blue meanwhile looked slightly smug at the moniker Sans used when his walls were down in this moment. Confirmation of a term of endearment Sans had previously refused to admit he would also use for his Papyrus, like Blue did.
The smug look melted into a smile, before dropping in thought. 'Where are you Papy?... '
Papyrus wasn't nearly so emotional at the reunion, not having had time to spend agonizing over 'if's and 'where's, but happily hugged Sansy back none the less, and patted him softly on the skull with a gloved hand. He looked round to see Fell impatiently jump down, right onto Mabel's arm. One hand hanging on to her thick wooly sleeve, he looked at her cautiously before crouching down to check his sibling where he lay on his back, blinking up from Mabel to him.
He considered making the small jump to the floor, decided against it while he was in the same place as his brother if he needed help, looked to Sansy happily letting his guard down around Mabel, and finally face to face with the old lady herself.
"HMMPH!" He scowled away with a blush of red on his cheekbones at the friendly bright eyed smile disarming his defenses. He wanted to fold his arms but was having to hang on to her sleeve for balance. But he was a match for such a powerful opponent! He made himself glare back again and pointed harshly at the ground with his free arm; "UNHAND MY BROTHER THIS INSTANT HUMAN! IF YOU ACT WITH ILL INTENT YOU WILL KNOW THE FACE OF DARK JUSTICE AND RUE YOUR CHOICE."
The human blinked down at the bitty skeleton cradled in her hands, "Ah, um, would you like to go down, dear?" She crouched down a little so he could hop off her hands.
Red daren't admit to his brother he was actually pretty comfy and wouldn't have minded staying put, seeing as how Mabel hadn't decided to kill him. He grunted, and pushed himself to sit up with a small groan, before climbing off Mabel's hands as she lowered them right to the floor for him, joined by his brother hopping down. She took the opportunity to grab the banister to help herself back to stand from the crouch that had grown uncomfortable anyway. She was back to towering over them, but it wasn't so scary anymore.
In the kitchen of the neighboring monster's house, the group including Red, Orange and Blue were in the middle of a boisterous conversation around lunch. Sans had been midway in reaching to grab a tomato for himself before it got pulverized, but stopped and dropped his arm. Orange watched his expression change from content and happy in the middle of the banter, to looking like he was about to cry.
They then all had the rare experience of witnessing Papyrus, who had his back turned to Sans at this point of the conversation and wasn't even aware of his brothers mood change, actually abandon what he was saying to let the words peter out. The room went quiet, and Papyrus turned slowly to his brother as the latter did the same. Seemingly unprompted they fell into a hug.
"love you bro"
"I LOVE YOU TOO BROTHER."
End Note:
-Red grabbing his instant noodles and escaping as Orange and Blue delight in hounding him out of the kitchen trying to group hug him-
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