Chapter Text
Ten years, three hundred sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-five seconds.
Five, four, three, two, one...
Eleven years.
Eleven years in an empty world of dust and loneliness that hadn’t yet been reset.
One year to the day since Stretch had attempted to use the machine in his basement to turn back time himself. It hadn’t worked in the way Stretch had expected, as it only brought the population of the underground to a grand total of two monsters. And the other monster wasn’t from Stretch’s universe, but from an alternate one in a very different timeline.
That had been an interesting yet very stressful meeting.
Edge, as Stretch almost immediately dubbed the other skeleton monster, had not been pleased to find himself back underground. A lucky timeline, Edge’s, to survive in what sounded like a very a hostile environment long enough to see the surface world.
Speaking of said monster...
Stretch listlessly stared up at his bedroom ceiling, before turning his skull to the side to glance at his closed bedroom door.
Edge hadn’t woken him up.
The scarred skeleton hadn't barged into Stretch’s room like he had every day these past four months like clockwork. For whatever reason, Edge had decided in that skull of his to include Stretch into his daily routine, which involved ah early wake-up call. Edge was ridiculously strict with his schedule, so for him to miss waking Stretch up...
It was different.
Stretch slowly sat up.
Had there...had there finally been a reset?
After all this time?
Not daring to get his hopes up yet, Stretch slid off his mattress with a weary sigh and shuffled over to his closet. Pulling on a rumpled orange hoodie and khakis, Stretch slid his socked feet into some atrociously bright orange crocs. He knew that Edge absolutely loathed the footwear and often attempted to dispose of the more offensive articles of clothing. If there hadn’t been a reset, Stretch wanted to tease his counterpart, and with his ‘lazy’ and ‘messy’ clothes...well, they were a go-to for such things.
Edge particularly disliked the hoodie Stretch currently wore.
It proudly proclaimed ‘my honey-bae’ with an arrow pointing to one side beneath the letters.
It was perfect, and was sure to get a good laugh out of Stretch the moment Edge caught sight of it, his fangs sure to twitch into a grimace. Stretch could use a good laugh, considering how silent the house was as he walked down the stairs. The quiet put Stretch into a sombre mood with every step he took.
There hadn’t been a reset.
Stretch knew in his soul that his brother would have already made an appearance by now if that was the case. That, and as soon as Stretch peeked out a window, he spotted Edge. With a quick shortcut outside, Stretch kept a careful distance away as he quietly observed the other skeleton monster.
Edge was still dressed in his sharp, pointy uniform, as he ordinarily was since he’d been forcibly dragged through time and space to this underground. Edge hardly ever changed out of it except on rare occasions, such as spending downtime in the house or when he presumably slept.
The scarred, blind left socket was half-turned toward Stretch, but he knew that if he kept still and quiet, Edge wouldn’t notice him straight away. It was dangerous, however, if Stretch happened to startle him. But Stretch took the chance to get his fill of the very handsome, if prickly, skeleton monster before him.
It was such a shame that Edge had a stick firmly up his coccyx. He wouldn’t know what romance or having some fun was if it danced a number naked in front of him.
Stretch was certain something would happen if he walked without clothes in front of Edge, but Stretch wasn’t about to test the theory. He liked his ‘messy’ clothes, thank you very much. They didn’t need holes in them like what happened with one of his other favorite hoodies when he’d last tried to get Edge to ‘loosen’ up.
Thinking back, a whoopee cushion really hadn’t been the brightest idea to subject someone to, especially someone as high strung as Edge was.
It hadn’t been a pretty sight.
Or the long lecture of how Edge could have dusted Stretch if he hadn’t seen him come into the living room after the loud noise had set Edge on, well, edge.
Lesson learned.
No more loud, unexpected noises in the house without at least a little warning.
Stretch’s eye lights continued to rove over Edge lazily, drinking in the other from skull to those ridiculously red high heeled boots. It was late afternoon, by Stretch’s reckoning, and by now, Edge ought to have been going through a set of his royal guard training exercises before having lunch and going back on a fruitless patrol. Instead, Edge was leaning against the wall of the house, a scowl planted firmly on his face. There was a good chance that Edge’s one good eye light was burning a hole into whatever his sight was set on.
Stretch felt it dangerous that he had, in these past few months since Edge had started being less hostile, indulged in some fantasies of being the recipient of those glares. Preferably near a couch or a bed. Stretch wasn’t sure why his feelings toward the other skeleton had shifted over time. But it did seem to coincide with when Edge decided to include Stretch in his rigid daily routine, instead of leaving Stretch to wallow in his general day to day misery. It was exhausting some days, what with how early Edge woke Stretch up...but there had been some small instances that gave Stretch insight into the other monster’s mind.
It was...both consistent and inconsistent, depending on the day.
Stretch knew that he wasn’t the only one affected by the emptiness of this underground.
Edge seemed to find a way to distract himself from this by having some control over what was done any given day. Edge liked every meal to be eaten at the same time each day. The daily ‘patrols’ Edge went on were done at exactly the same time between meals. Stretch and Edge spent a set amount of time together each day in the living room reading or watching movies that were found in the dump. Stretch even realized, after a few weeks into this new schedule, that he was never woken up in a violent way.
Edge would always loudly announce his presence before he kicked or slammed the door open and demanded that Stretch get his lazy coccyx up at once. And if Stretch ignored Edge and tried to go back to sleep, the scarred skeleton merely stomped over to the mattress, picked Stretch up, and brought him to the kitchen.
Other times, the schedule was disrupted by Edge letting his anger get the better of him.
At times, Stretch would see Edge storm off out of the house, after some verbal sparring or a flippant remark, and this occasionally resulted in Edge staying away for days. Edge presumably stewed in some form of self-hatred, because when he returned to the house, Edge made it a point to avoid Stretch. But even if Stretch never saw Edge during these times, other than hearing doors open and close, Stretch found apologies and concern for his wellbeing in different forms. Meals that had been cooked, a house that had been cleaned, laundry done, and other little things that Stretch didn’t have to worry about if his mood went south and he locked himself in his room. There were even notes strewn about for Stretch to find on days that Edge kept out of sight, that contained jokes or riddles that kept him busy and entertained.
It was a confusing, topsy-turvy cocktail of conflicting emotions and intentions that he and Edge were bringing into the house this past year.
But the schedule Edge strictly kept to didn’t explain his nighttime wandering.
Being something of an insomniac, Stretch could have sworn in those rare instances of actual slumber that Edge watched him sleep, which was rather creepy, all things considered. But whenever Stretch woke up, no one was there in the room with him. All Stretch could sense in those waking moments was a hint of magic not his own that could have merely lingered from when Edge woke him in the mornings.
But this past week?
Something had subtlety changed.
Edge had begun to stare at Stretch in a calculating way.
Now, Stretch didn’t want to think that Edge was back to considering him as easy EXP, which was how Edge had viewed him when Edge had first arrived in this universe. Even if that no longer appeared to be a concern, that didn’t mean that it didn’t linger in the back of Stretch’s mind.
A light breeze blew some snowflakes into his sockets, causing Stretch to blink his sockets and shake his skull, bringing himself back to the present. This motion subsequently made Stretch take the tiniest step back, which in turn alerted the other monster to his presence.
“I KNOW YOU ARE THERE.” Edge said without preamble. “IT IS AMAZING THAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY CONSCIOUS WITHOUT A WAKEUP CALL, ASHTRAY.” Edge turned so that his single red eye light could sweep over Stretch. “WHY HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE FOR SO LONG WITHOUT A WORD? I DIDN’T BELIEVE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO BE SO QUIET, APART FROM WHEN YOU SLEEP MOST OF THE DAY AWAY.”
Stretch needed to do something, anything, before he went crazy. It was so frustrating that he had an interest in this pompous asshole. Stretch needed to find a way to get Edge himself to end Stretch’s bottled up feelings before they went out of control.
”OF COURSE YOU HAVEN’T FULLY WOKEN YET. NO WONDER THERE HAS BEEN NO WITTY REMARK FROM YOU AS OF YET.” Edge growled, impatiently pushing away from the wall as he prowled toward Stretch. “COME. WE WILL HAVE LUNCH BEFORE I GO ON MY AFTERNOON PATROL. STARS KNOW WHY I EVEN BOTHER...”
”hey, edgelord.” Stretch drawled, as he stood to one side to allow Edge’s hand to fall on the door handle.
“HE SPEAKS.” There was sarcastic lilt to Edge’s voice. “ARE YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING THAT YOU BELIEVE IS PARTICULARLY WITTY TO GO ALONG WITH THAT TERRIBLE HOODIE YOU’VE DECIDED TO OFFEND MY EYE LIGHT WITH?”
”nah, i’ll pass. s’somethin’ else.” When Stretch saw those sockets narrow at him, he grinned lazily in return. “if you’re not busy later, wanna go on a date?”
Edge could have done a number of things.
Yell.
Stamp his foot and let out some disgusted noise.
Shot back with an insult to thoroughly turn Stretch down.
Edge could have done literally anything but what he actually did, which was to quietly stare at Stretch with great intensity.
“WE WILL GO THIS EVENING.” Edge informed Stretch haughtily after a long moment of silence. The scarred skeleton straightened himself up to his full height before he disappeared into the house, red scarf trailing after him in the breeze.
Stretch stood there with his teeth parted in a taken aback, ‘holy shit what just happened’, kind of way.
That.
That was unexpected.
Had that really just happened?
Stretch stared at the open front door, seeing it for what it was. An invitation for him to go back into the house as well. But Stretch remained rooted to the spot because his mind was still reeling from this unexpected response.
Edge willingly agreeing to go on a date?
With Stretch?
It was such a bizarre concept when one considered that they’d been at each other’s theoretical throats for nearly a whole entire year.
Stretch‘s teeth were still parted. He had only suggested such a thing to get a rise out of the other monster. He hadn’t anticipated for Edge to so easily...
Oh stars.
What had he done?
Stretch remained on the porch for a very long time, until Edge came back outside with a frown across his sharp features.
“ARE YOU COMING IN OR NOT?”
Stretch’s eye lights flickered in his sockets.
Was he in shock?
Probably.
A twitch tugged at Edge’s sharp teeth to bring it up into something of a smug smile.
“I KNOW THAT I AM A FIGURE TO BE ADMIRED FOR MY GREATNESS...” Edge stepped closer, reaching out to gently press the underside of Stretch’s jaw up to make his teeth click back together. Edge let his gloved fingers trace the bone lightly before he dropped his hand away and stepped back. “BUT IF YOU INSIST ON REMAINING OUTSIDE, SUDDENLY OVERWHELMED BY MY PRESENCE, AT LEAST WEAR SOMETHING WARMER.” Edge crosses his arms and huffed out an aggravated grumble. “I DO NOT CARE TO EXPERIENCE CARRYING YOUR BODY INDOORS AGAIN IF YOU ALLOW YOUR JOINTS TO FREEZE AGAIN WHILST VISITING THE...GRAVES.”
Stretch felt his skull warm with magic as his mind caught up and informed him that Edge had just willingly touched him.
Being lifted out of bed didn’t count.
This had been a completely different touch, that light tap to the underside of his jawbone.
Stretch slunk past Edge and his still-smug expression to go back into the house, the taller swap monster’s phalanges reaching up to trace where the gloved fingers had brushed against his jawbone. The sensation of being watched lingered with Stretch throughout lunch, until Edge stomped out of the house to do his daily ‘patrol,’ despite there being no other monsters left in the underground but the two of them.
Once he was alone, Stretch went to go lay inert on the couch in the living room, staring up at the ceiling.
After all the jabs, teasing, dismissive remarks, insults and verbal sparring...
Edge had agreed to a date.
No questions asked.
Didn't even bat a socket that it was Stretch who asked him.
Edge had simply thought about what had been asked of him, and then promptly set a time for it.
Stretch rolled over and pressed his face into a pillow, sockets closed as he let out a groan. Maybe he would take a quick nap, and the world would make sense when Stretch woke back up. There was no way Edge would ever be interested in someone like him.
How wrong Stretch was.
Some hours passed before the front door opened and closed.
Stretch didn’t wake when a blanket was draped over his slumbering form. Stretch didn’t even stir when a few gloved phalange carefully brushed across the top of his skull, lingering for a moment before retreating.