Chapter Text
Stretch never thought he'd ever get used to Red barging into the house, carrying his beaten and bloodied brother as he barked out commands to save Edge’s life once again. Sure, they were no longer in Swaptale, but in above ground Undertale verse where he and his brother shared a house together with one of the brothers over on a near constant occurrence. And also not that a demand was needed, as both Swap brothers would do anything to keep either Fell monsters from dusting on their living room carpet. Stretch was on his feet faster than a shortcut, rushing to help the stoutier skeleton get his brother onto the couch as Red yelled for Blue.
Of the skeletons that they knew, Blue was the best and strongest healer of their ragtag group, not that Stretch was biased. No, it would be the multiple experiences that had been brought to their doorstep, time and time again, as the Fell brothers often turned to them when healing was needed, especially in a hurry. Sure, Comic and Rus could do the same, take them in a instant and provide much needed healing but often times the Fell brothers needed the skill only Blue seemed to possess, and judging from the haphazard bandages covering Edge’s skull, marrow beginning to seep through the gauze, they were going to need Blue’s skill, and call upon Comic and Rus for back up.
As Stretch settled Edge onto the couch, he couldn’t help but to recount the numerous times the monster had bled on their couch, a blessing that they were able to receive the Fell brother’s methods of removing marrow stains from their beloved cushions. The couch always made a temporary pit-stop of an injured skeleton to take care of any immediate injuries before they were transported up to the guest room between Blue’s and his bedrooms.
Thinking about his brother, the pitter patter of feet running down the stairs drew Stretch out of his thoughts, pulling his attention as his younger brother came rushing to the couch with his first aid bag in hand. Blue pushed past Stretch, placing the bag on the floor as he began assessing the situation. “Red, Please Tell Me What Happened So I Can Better Care For Your Brother.”
Red stepped back, making room for Blue. It was the first time that Stretch had noticed Red visibly shaking, hands clenched tightly into fists at his side, either from adrenaline, fury or any assortment of emotions or mix thereof, Stretch would never know. “he’s... he’s gettin’ worse, Asgore that is… we were in a meetin’, everythin’ t’was nothin’ but typical. none of us sensed the intent until his struck Boss, set ‘im flyin’ cross the room.”
Red cleared his throat, an uneasy look crossed his features. “he, um, hit a pillar, knocked ‘im out cold before he fell face first onto a table.” Red shuddered at the memory, and Stretch couldn’t help but imagine the sound of bone hitting stone, much to his displeasure, his soul clenching tight at the thought. It wasn’t even a fight, an ambush or a rescue. Just a bully of a tyrannical king unfairly, unjustly, flexing his power and taking it out on his subjects around him. Stretch could almost feel the judge’s magic within him begin to boil. The Fell universe’s Assgore was going madder and madder with power and LV lust, spiraling out of control from the stories they managed to milk out of either Fell brother.
“didn’t stay long,” Red’s voice snapped Stretch out his thoughts, “dyne’s dealin’ wit him. just got ta Edge and got him out. bandaged ta worst of it before bringin’ him here. it’s... it’s pretty bad, he’s still losin HP...” Red cleared his throat as his words began to choke off, “i... i need ta get Comic and Rus. we’re in fer a long night.” and with that Red was gone, leaving both Stretch and Blue to begin to deal with the damage.
Both Swap brothers looked at each other, neither of them remember seeing the elder fell brother look so shaken before. But they both knew Red needed to do what he needed to do to recollect himself in order to help his brother.
A quick check and..
Papyrus, Lv 16, 105/1002 Hp
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Papyrus, Lv 16, 87/1002 Hp
...
Stretch didn’t like that there was no flavor text. There was always a flavor text.
Papyrus, Lv 16, 82/1002 Hp
…
And his Hp was dropping to much for his liking.
Blue gave a decisive nod. “Alright, We Need To Work On Stopping This Bleeding And Stabilizing His HP, Stretch, Can You Get Some Towels And A Bucket Of Warm Water Please.” Stretch nodded and took a shortcut straight to the linen closet, gathering what he dubbed to be the first aid towels. He then took another cut down to the kitchen to begin preparing the required water bowl.
His soul was aching to see Edge, his boyfriend, his love, his fut...well, anyways… he never liked seeing Edge injured like this. Almost always edging (heh) the fine line of death, his line of work always hazardous, though Edge usually came out on top. But there were times like this, that Stretch was reminded how easily his love could return with something that could not be healed, or how quickly he could lose Edge.
Letting out a shaky sigh, Stretch forced himself to push those thoughts to the side for now. Edge needed him to stay collected and not have a breakdown. Turning off the faucet, Stretch began to lift the bowl out of the sink. Fuck, just last week, Stretch couldn’t have been happier. The special dinner date Edge made for him, wine and candlelight. Edge was surely in his element, that romantic sap. He could still feel the excited pounding of his soul in his chest as Edge…
“STRETCH!”
Stretch nearly dropped the bowl on the ground as his brother yelled, his soul nearly leaping out of his chest. In a flash Stretch was in the living room, supplies in his arms.
He froze, watching as Blue struggled to hold Edge’s skull together. There was a creak as a thin line was extending from a larger crack that curved parallel to the sagittal suture, and crossed over the coronal suture, which came to a point a few inches over his uninjured right socket. From that point there was a second, smaller, thinner crack that curved over the brow bone, down between his scarred left socket and nasal bone before coming to a stop right in the middle of his maxilla bone.
Talk about a splitting headache.
“Stretch, I Need You To Hold This Together So I Can Concentrate On Healing. I Need To Stop This Crack From Growing. ARE YOU WITH ME?” Blue yelled out.
Stretch blinked, nodding as he hurried to put the bowl and towels down before he returned to the back of the couch, replacing Blue’s hands with his own. Green magic glows from Blue’s marrow coated hands, healing the gaping wound and sealing up the newest addition to the crack. The crack shrunk from three fingers wide to almost one finger’s width, plus a little extra wiggle room. The sight made his soul twist and turn, but Stretch didn’t turn away as Blue did his work, doing what none of them could possibly do.
His little brother was just impossibly too cool.
Blue’s hands glowed brightly before fading down, legs folding under him as he leaned his head against the couch cushion, panting heavily as sweat ran down his brow, “Shit.” He whispered harshly as he reached behind himself to grab one of the towels and wiped off some of the marrow and magic from his hands. Shaking his head, Blue grabbed a second towel to dip into the bowl of lightly steaming water and began cleaning Edge’s skull.
“You Know, We’ve Seen Edge In Rough Shape Before, And Many Time I Wonder How He’s Survived. I Know He’s Strong, Highest HP I’ve Ever Seen In A Monster. I Just… I Don’t Know How He Survived This.” Blue carefully wiped along the crack’s edges.
“well, he’s lucky to have the best healer around as a best friend, and fastest short-cutter as a brother.” Stretch tried to reason, his voice wavering as he carefully moved his hands so Blue could clean the sides of Edge’s skull. He could still feel a bit of strain in the bone, as if the crack wanted to re-open, he wouldn’t dare to remove his hands from Edge’s skull just yet.
“No. I’m Not Talking About Now.” Blue sighed, grabbing a towel to dry off the bone. “I’m Not One Hundred Percent Sure. But I Believe… This Should Have Been Instant.” Blue cradled Edge’s cheekbone with his left hand, wiping off a smear of marrow from the bone as his eyes scanned the other’s scared face.
Stretch’s soul clenched, he could almost feel it breaking for his love, tears threatening to spill as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss on the back of Edge’s skull. It didn’t escape him how cold Edge’s bones felt against his touch, sending a shudder down his spine.
Blue pulled out a roll of bandages. “I Won’t Be Able To Finish That Crack Tonight, It’s Probably Going to Scar. I’ll Need Maybe One Or Two More Healing Sessions To Close It, But There Are Several Other Breaks That Now Need Our Attention. I’m Going To Wrap His Skull To Make Sure It Doesn’t Try To Re-Open.” Stretch nodded, knowing that Blue was working up a plan out loud to help Edge, He moved his hands when instructed to as Blue continued.
“I’m Going To Have You And Red Take Over Healing So I’ll Be Able To Donate Tonight. Comic Is The Best At Working The Apheresis Machine And I Still Have Some Of The Fell Undyne’s Samples To Be Able To Bring Up The LV Of The Donated Marrow and Magic. I’m Always Surprised How Long Her Samples Have Been Able To Last, Rather Than Bothering Her Every Time We Need Them. I’ll Have Rus Donate His Magic First So I Can Eat Something Before I Donate My Marrow.”
Stretch leaned back as his involvement with dressing Edge’s head wound became unnecessary. He watched his brother work, nodding along to his plan. “i just wish i could donate something. i got more than plenty of magic.”
Blue offered him a soft smile. “I Know Brother, But Unless Our Undyne Can Figure Out How To Deactivate The Judge’s Magic In Your Magic and Marrow, It’s Dangerous To Do So.” Blue finished off the bandage for Edge’s head, lifting his shirt to get a better look at the broken ribs on the right side of his body.
Stretch knew how true that was. He remembered that time Edge was gravely injured, it was… 100% his fault, running out into the snow like a dumb ass in the Fell universe after they had a fight, back before their relationship took flight. While Stretch was out like a light the others carefully took a few small samples of Edge’s marrow and magic to see how his high LV would react to their lower or no LV samples. It was Rus’s idea after all, somehow he knew they shouldn’t just give Edge marrow and magic all “WILLY-NILLY.” as he put it.
From what he was told, the results weren't all that pretty when Red’s and Comic’s magic or marrow barely even touched Edge’s samples, Stretch got to see the charred remains of those petri dishes. Blue’s and Rus’s samples were only slow to mix with Edge’s, Blue’s samples were almost rejected until they figured out the trick of adding a drop of Fell Undyne’s blood and magic in order to make their’s appear to have a similar LV as Edge’s.
Rus’s came the closest to being able to donate with little to no alterations to his samples, possibly due to their similarities. He was told that a small amount of unaltered donated samples were given to help give Edge a boost to survive the night before they had the Fell-dyne solution. They even tried to see what would happen if they mixed Red and Comic’s samples with Fell-dyne’s samples, resulting in equally disastrous outcomes. They concluded that it was their shared judge abilities that cause the reaction.
Honestly, he had forgotten about it when they finally became intimate, mixing magics in one blissful and passionate night. He only remembered right as he was drifting off in Edge arms, surprised that Edge was unharmed by his spent magic. It was as much of a blessing as it was a mystery, of how the judge’s magic doesn’t come into play when their favorite bed time activities came around, regardless of who was on the receiving end.
Stretch blinked as he heard Blue ripping Edge’s shirt apart, finishing off what Red tore in order to get to the damaged bones. Glancing at the bowl of murky water, Stretch got up and retrieved the bowl.
“Don’t Waste All Of Your Energy On Shortcuts, You’re Going To Need It To Heal These.” Blue called after him as he began to unwrap the ribs Red had haphazardly wrapped up. Stretch nodded, carefully carrying the bowl to the kitchen to dump out the old water and began to refill it. Stretch definitely agreed with his brother, he was going to need as much energy as he could spare to repair the damage done to Edge’s body.
Finishing up in the kitchen, Stretch could hear the arrival of the others, Red’s deep voice over the noise of the others asking, concern heavy in his voice, “how is he?”
“He’s Not Out Of The Woods Yet, His Head Was The Worst Of The Injuries As You Should know. We Took Care Of As Much As We Could But It’ll Take A Few More Sessions Before It’s Closed Up.” Stretch walked back into the living room as Blue explained to the others what their roles would be. Comic and Rus accepted their parts and went back to the basement to get the Apheresis set up with Fell-dyne’s samples in hand. Red followed Blue every movement, listening in rapt attention as Blue continued to explain.
“Ok, Since You And My Brother Will Be Taking Over Healing I Need You To Know That The Bottom Two Ribs Are New Breaks But Should Be Easy To Get Back together. The Third Rib Is A Re-break Which I’d Focus On First Cause It’ll Be A Little Harder To Heal With The Previous Scaring. The Next Three are Hairlines And Could Be Dealt With Later. They Aren’t Bleeding But Should Be Cleaned And Wrapped Up.”
Blue took the Scissors from his medical bag and cut up the length of Edge’s right hand glove before peeling the garment off, revealing more marrow and magic. “There’s A Few Breaks In His Wrist, You’ll Have To Get These Stabilized And We’ll Cast It Till The Next Time We Can Work On Healing Them. That’s What I’ve Found So Far, Do You Know Of Any Other Injuries, Red?”
“yea,” Red huffed out, hands stuffed in his pockets as he glanced towards Edge’s feet. “prob’ly has a break or two in his right leg, didn’t feel right when i lifted him earlier. i hadn’t checked his spine yet, he hit the pillar hard… i wouldn’t be surprised if…”
Blue placed his hands on both of Red’s shoulders, turning him and forced the fell monster to look at him. “Red, He’s Going To Be Ok. We Can Check Those And Deal With What We Find. Your Brother Is Really Lucky.” Red huffed, looking away from Blue to glare at a spot at the ground. Blue gave him a soft smile, “Red, Would You Like A Hug?”
There was a moment of silence in the room before Red took a deep breath, nodding in response, refusing to look at Blue. Blue pulled him in anyways, bracing Red against his chest and burying his face in the fur that lined his hood. “fucking luckiest unlucky bastard.” One clawed hand slipped out of its pocket to grip at Blue’s sleeve tightly, sharp teeth clenched tightly as Red closed his sockets.
Stretch looked back at Edge when he saw a shudder shake Red’s shoulders, offering the two Sanses the semblance of a moment of privacy. He knelt by Edge’s head, his hand carefully placed on the bandages that cover the majority of his skull, carefully running his thumb over his forehead. The thin line of a crack still visible by his socket, Blue’s magic focused more on the more threatening and larger crack, leaving this blemish behind. Leaning forward, Stretch planted a small kiss on Edge’s pointed cheekbone before resting his forehead against his lover’s.
He felt a hand on his arm, glancing over at Blue’s face, that gentle smile still present. “You Two Should Get Back To Work. He’ll Make It Through This, Edge Is Nothing But A Survivor. He Always Says He’s Survived Worse, Right?” Blue gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “I Should Go See If Comic Is Ready For Me. The Sooner We Can Get Marrow and Magic Back Into His System The Better, He’s Lost A Lot Of Both. But He’ll Get Through This. I Believe He Will”
Stretch gave his brother half a smile in return, wrapping his arm around the younger skeleton to pull him into half a hug. “thanks bro, you’re a lifesaver.” Blue pushed himself out of the hug, shaking his head before heading down to the basement where Comic awaited. Stretch looked over at Red, who was already working on setting one of Edge’s ribs. Red glanced back at him and they both nodded towards each other, ready to get back to the task at hand.
Papyrus, Lv 16, 14/1002 Hp
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Papyr__, Lv 16, 14/1002 Hp
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