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Edge’s earliest memory is of holding his brother’s hand as their father walked away from them, leaving Edge to be Red’s problem. He remembers looking at his brother, asking him “WHERE IS DADDY GOING?” and Red mumbling something about it just being the two of them now.
They were fairly new to the surface, and after their father’s departure they were left struggling to find their way. The lived in a small house with a lot of other monsters, but much to Edge’s dismay none of them were kids, so he spent most of his time building puzzles and traps that would often get him yelled at by the house’s other residents.
He shared a bed with his brother in that house. It was a narrow mattress that sat on the floor, and in order for the two of them to fit Edge had to curl up on it sideways by Red’s head. They didn’t even have a pillow on that bed - just a single thin blanket that Red would wrap Edge up in every night while Red was left shivering in the cold.
Edge was too little for school back then, so he went everywhere with his brother as if he were Red’s shadow. He often accompanied him while Red searched for work, but no one seemed interested in hiring his brother when he was being followed around by a little hassle. That went on for a good while, until it got to be too much for Red and he gave up trying. In those days it wasn’t uncommon for Edge to sneak out of bed at night to peek out at his brother on the back steps, often finding him smoking a cigarette and crying.
Edge didn’t like seeing his brother upset, so he always tried to be on his best behavior for him, but some days that was asking a lot. Like one time he didn’t want to eat canned soup for the fifth day straight and when Red tried to make him he put up a fuss and wound up spilling the piping hot broth all over his brother’s shirt. When that happened Red said a lot of words Edge had never heard before, like “cuntpuddle!” and “cockwomple!”
It was when they got kicked out of that house that things got really bad. They ended up staying with a big, scary human man who used to take Red into his room with him and lock the door. They would be in there for a while and they would make a lot of noise, and when Red came out he always walked funny and was a little banged up. Edge would sit next to his brother on the couch as Red stared absentmindedly down at the ground, wishing he knew how to use healing magic so he could make Red’s bruises go away.
The man wasn’t very nice to Edge. He referred to him as “my whore’s little anklebiter”. Edge didn’t know what that meant, but he didn’t like the way the man looked at him when he said it.
If Edge was watching a show on the couch in the living room the man would come in and change the channel to scary shows that gave Edge nightmares, and would force Edge to sit on the floor. One time when Red had gone on an errand for the man and Edge was alone with him, he accidentally spilled some juice on the floor. The man yanked Edge off his chair and shoved his face in the spill, and told Edge to lick up the mess. Edge didn’t tell Red what happened, because he was worried if he did the man would kick them out and they would have nowhere to go again.
But that day came, anyway, when Red had gone out to run another errand, promising his brother he would be back when Edge got upset, saying “i’ll always come back for you.” He would be gone for just a few hours, he said, and he told Edge to stay quiet and out of the way. Edge listened, sitting off to the side in the living room doing a jigsaw puzzle on the floor that he had already finished half a dozen times. The man sat on the couch drinking what Red called “beer” that made his body go floppy and his speech all garbled.
“C’mere, ya little fucker,” the man had said to Edge. Edge quietly rose to his feet and walked over to the couch where the man grabbed him by the wrist and twisted it sharply. “You’re lucky your brother is a good lay or else I would have turned you into dust a long time ago.”
“PLEASE LET GO,” Edge had begged, pulling at the man’s hand with his free phalanges. The man’s grip only tightened. After a bit of a struggle Edge managed to pull his wrist free, only for the man to shift to a firm grip on his forearm.
“Stop squirming, shitstain!” the man growled. “I just wanna look at ya and see if you’d be any good to me once I get tired of fucking your brother.”
“THAT REALLY HURTS!” Edge protested, using every bit of strength he had to escape from the man’s grip. Finally, after fighting hard enough Edge managed to pull himself away from him, only to be met with a searing pain once he was safely across the room. He looked down to see his ulna in two pieces, a jagged break down the middle.
Edge grabbed onto his arm with his good hand and ran to the bathroom, tears streaming down his face. The man had tried to chase after him but Edge was quick, and managed to close the door and lock it, leaving the man outside banging on the thin wood and screaming all sorts of colorful words at him.
Edge didn’t know how long he sat in there huddled up between the toilet and the wall, marrow dripping down his arm, crying and wishing his brother was with him. He got through the pain by thinking about how Red always promised him that someday they would live in a big house and he would have his own room and all the toys and puzzles he wanted. Red always assured him he needed just a little more time to figure things out but once he did everything would be so much better.
Edge was still in the bathroom when Red got back. He could hear his brother calling for him but he was too hoarse from crying to call back.
“The little fucker locked himself in the bathroom,” Edge heard the man say. “I had to piss in the alley.”
A moment later there was a gentle knock on the door, followed by his brother’s voice saying “edgy? can ya open up, bud?” Edge crawled from his spot by the toilet and nervously turned the lock, peeking open the door just enough to meet his brother’s eyelights. “i got ya a burger fer dinner,” Red said with a smile. “why don’tcha come on out ‘n we can eat together.”
Apprehensively, Edge pulled open the door with his foot, his free hand still desperately clinging onto his damaged ulna. Red smiled at him until his eyes travelled down to his brother’s arm which was caked over with dried marrow.
“OW!” Edge cried as Red grabbed his broken arm to inspect it.
“what the fuck happened to him?” Red bellowed at the man.
“I don’t know. Dumb fuck was probably fooling around with something he wasn’t supposed to and snapped it,” the man responded.
“he’s a fucking child. yer supposed ta watch him,” Red said.
“Just because he’s your problem don’t mean he’s mine,” the man shrugged. “It ain’t my fault your kid’s an idiot.” Red turned his attention back to Edge, examining the crack and grabbing a wash cloth off the bathroom sink to clean up the marrow.
“i need you to tell me exactly what happened,” Red said to his brother, looking him directly in the eyelights.
“I… UM…”
“tell me the truth, boss,” Red urged. Edge knew what the truth would mean, it would mean they would have nowhere to go again but it would also mean getting away from the man which at this point was all Edge wanted.
“HE DID IT,” Edge admitted, pointing to the man with tears in his eyes. Red didn’t ask him another question, instead turning around and starting towards the man.
“that fuckin true?!” Red asked him.
“I didn’t do shit.”
“what happened, edge?” Red pressed.
“HE WAS HOLDING ON TO ME REALLY HARD AND WHEN I GOT AWAY IT GOT BROKEN.”
“why were you touching him?” Red asked the man.
“I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. You’re really going to believe that lying little asshole?”
“yes, i am. boss don’t lie.” Red took another few steps towards him. “so ya wanna tell me why ya had yer hands on him?” The man took another sip of his beer and laughed.
“I was just trying to get a look at him to see if he’d make as good a slut as his big brother since I’m starting to get sick of you. It ain’t my fault he wouldn’t stay still.”
“the fuck did you just say?” Red howled.
“I said you’re a slut, and if he’s going to grow up to be just as pathetic as you, you might as well start him early.”
Red didn’t need to hear any more. He charged at the man, grabbing his soul and turning it blue, and sending him careening into a wall with as much strength as he could muster. Edge watched as Red pinned the man there, his phalanges closing down on the man’s neck as the man’s face started to go all pink.
“ya vile, worthless piece ‘a shit,” Red growled. “i told ya from the start if ya put yer hands on him i’d fuckin kill ya, so i guess today’s the day ya decided ya wanted ta die.” The man tried to choke out a few words, but Red’s grip only tightened. Edge watched as his brother summoned a sharp-tipped bone. “close yer eyes, edge,” Red ordered him. Edge did as he was told, snapping his sockets shut and scrunching his face together as the man let out a blood-curdling scream, then everything went quiet. “keep ‘em shut, buddy,” his brother said.
Edge heard Red’s footsteps coming towards him, then a minute later his brother lifted him off his feet. Edge let his brother carry him from the room, but his curiosity got the better of him and he peeked open a socket as they walked past the wall where Red had pinned the man. The wall was covered in a crimson liquid the color of his brother’s eyelights and the man was sitting slouched on the ground with a bone sticking out of his chest.
Without a word Red carried him through a shortcut to the house of an old bunny monster. He held Edge’s hand as the woman poured green magic into his snapped ulna, fusing the bone back together as best she could then wrapping it in some gauze and tape and setting it in a makeshift sling. There were flecks of that crimson liquid dried on his brother’s clothes and face, but the old bunny didn’t ask him about it. She simply volunteered to keep an eye on Edge so Red could shower.
They stayed with the bun for a while. Red would leave for a few hours every day, but Edge didn’t mind being left alone with her. She was very nice, and would let him help her with the crossword puzzles in the newspaper and always had fruit snacks for him to eat. He thought maybe they had finally found somewhere nice to live, but it turned out it was only temporary. After a few short weeks Red told Edge to bid her goodbye, and took him by the hand and brought him to a tall stone building with lots of windows. Inside was a small, one room apartment which Red explained was their house and no one else’s.
“i got a job now, bud,” Red told him. “so we don’t gotta share our house with no one anymore.”
Whatever Red’s job was entailed him giving little packages to people who gave him money in return. Edge would often go with him on his deliveries but Red made it very clear that he was never to talk and to always avoid looking at the people they were meeting.
But whatever Red did, he was very good at it. They didn’t have to stay in that small apartment for long. Soon Red moved them into a much nicer building where Edge had his own room, and even his own TV. Edge started going to school after that where for the first time in his life he got to be around children his own age. He didn’t especially like it at first, regularly lamenting to his brother that no one wanted to be his friend. Everyone seemed scared of him, and the few children that weren’t would ruthlessly tease him about his weird clothes and his sharp teeth.
“ya don’t need ‘em, bro,” Red would always try to tell him when he would pick him up in the cool black and red sports car he had bought. “ya got me! i’ll always be yer friend.”
Halfway through the school year it didn’t matter anymore, because Red pulled him out of school one day and told him they were moving again. He drove them to a part of the city that was full of nice houses instead of tall buildings, stopping in front of a grey two level house with a black garage door.
“whatdya think?” Red asked him as they pulled into the driveway.
“THIS IS OUR HOUSE?” Edge asked incredulously. “THE WHOLE THING?”
“sure is, boss. why don’t we go inside ‘n you can pick out which room ya want,” Red said with a grin. Edge grinned back.
Red was still gone a lot after they moved into their new house, so Edge spent a lot of time with the babysitter Red had found for him. She was a purple cat monster, not quite as nice as the bun who had healed his arm but still nice enough. She took him to the park a lot, and made really good peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A lot of times she would stay until after bedtime, and sometimes she was still there when Edge woke up in the morning. Sometimes Edge wouldn’t see his brother for days at a time, and when he was gone like that he would really miss him. His babysitter was nice, but she wasn’t his brother.
When Sans and Papyrus came along he stopped seeing her so much, too, since Sans was always home. Edge really liked having Papyrus around, having someone who wasn’t scared of him and would do anything he told him to do, but Sans he wasn’t so sure about. Sans took even more of Red’s attention away from Edge, and he didn’t like having to share his brother with someone else. But he made Red really happy, and Sans was nice to him so eventually he decided he wasn’t so bad.
……………………
This isn’t the first time Red has left Edge alone with Sans for a few days, but it’s the first time since Ollie was born. Ever since their little brother came along, Red was always home to get Edge and Papyrus up in the morning, and was always back to have dinner with them. But Edge knows something is wrong this time, because Sans is being meaner than usual and just keeps saying “i don’t know” to every question Edge asks him about when his brother is coming home.
Edge doesn’t sleep well when Red is gone. Unless his brother is the one to tuck him in he tends to have nightmares, and tonight is no different. He tosses and turns as he dreams about the man who broke his arm when he was little, and about what Red did to him when he found out.
It’s dark in his room when he sits up in bed panting. He had told Sans he didn’t need a nightlight anymore but now he’s regretting that as he climbs out of bed and stumbles his way to the door. He follows the wall in the hallway until he comes to the door of Red and Sans’ room, which he carefully pushes open. He can tell his brother still isn’t there but he can see Sans asleep with just his skull poking out from the blankets. Edge climbs up on the big bed and crawls over to Sans, curling up by his head like he used to do to his brother when he was little. Sans doesn’t wake up but he still reaches out a hand which comes to rest on the side of Edge’s skull. Edge cuddles into it and closes his eyes.
It’s Papyrus who wakes him up in the morning by climbing onto the bed and jumping on it. Edge groans and tries to pull the blanket Sans must have put on him over his head, but Papyrus just rips it away.
“WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING HERE?” Papyrus asks.
“CAUSE I HAD A BAD DREAM,” Edge tells him, trying to tug the blanket back from Papyrus’ hand.
“WHAT WAS IT ABOUT?”
“BAD PEOPLE,” Edge says.
“OH. WELL SANS SAYS IT’S TIME FOR BREAKFAST. HE SAYS WE HAVE TO BE FAST TODAY,” Papyrus informs him. Edge groans again and reluctantly gets up.
“hi sleepyhead,” Sans says when Edge comes downstairs. He puts a plate of toast in front of him which Edge just picks at. “come on, edge. we don’t have time to play with our food today. we need to get to school early because ollie and i have somewhere we need to go.”
“WHERE?” Edge asks.
“we, uh, need to go visit someone,” Sans explains. Edge studies Sans for a moment, looking at the weary smile across his face, wanting to ask him a million more questions but deciding against it.
So instead he says nothing. He sits quietly eating his toast as Papyrus babbles on and on about his art project, watching Sans as he holds his coffee in a shaky hand. Edge wonders what has Sans so rattled, though something tells him it has to do with why Red isn’t home.
He doesn’t talk on the way to school, either, thinking instead about how maybe this time Red wasn’t coming back. Maybe someone had done to Red what Red did to the man, and Sans was just too scared to tell him that this time his brother wasn’t coming home.
Sans hugs Papyrus goodbye then turns to Edge, pulling him into an embrace that’s just a little tighter than usual, which only raises his suspicions even more. Edge follows Papyrus into the building, turning back once to see Sans watching them go with what looks like tears in his sockets.
The school day starts off with Morning Circle where all the children greet each other and their teacher who reads a story to them. Today she chose a story about a boy and a tree that is always there for him, and Edge sits there listening, wondering what it’s like to have someone who is always there for you. If his brother was gone, would Sans keep taking care of him, or would he walk away like everyone else had?
Edge barely listens to his morning lessons, instead taking out his crayons and coloring a picture of what he imagines happened to his brother - someone hurting Red the way Red had hurt the man.
Sometimes when he’s upset his brother tells him he should talk about it instead of holding it all in. Red always said it makes you feel a lot better when you get out what’s bothering you, and Edge finds that his drawing has the same kind of power. Once he sees the image of his brother covered in marrow with x’s for eyes he realizes just how silly he’s being. No one could have hurt him. If Red was in trouble, Edge knows his brother has his bone attacks to keep him safe. Red is fine, and he’s going to come back just like he always does. And until that happens Sans is going to be there to take care of him.
Edge catches himself smiling as he puts his crayons away. Everything is going to be okay. He picks up his drawing to put it in his desk, only for it to be yanked out of his hand by his teacher as she walks past.
“Edge! This is extremely inappropriate!” she scolds. “Explain yourself!”
“IT’S JUST A PICTURE,” Edge tells her.
“These are not the type of pictures we draw in school,” she says, lifting Edge to his feet. She pulls him over to her desk where she picks up the phone and calls down to the office for the school’s counselor to come to the classroom.
Edge and his drawing are escorted out of the room, brought to the adjustment counselor’s office where he’s sat down in a chair across from her cluttered desk and for a while she just watches him. Edge shifts around uncomfortably in his seat, waiting for her to say something instead of just staring at him, but after several minutes of uncomfortable silence Edge finally speaks up.
“AM I IN TROUBLE?” Edge asks her.
“No one is upset with you, Edge. Your teacher and I are just worried,” she tells him. “Would you like to tell me about your drawing?”
“NO,” Edge says, but she doesn’t seem to like that answer.
“It looks like someone being hurt by someone else. Is that something you saw on TV?” she asks.
“NO.”
“Is someone trying to hurt you? At home maybe?”
“NO.”
“Is it something you want to do to someone else?”
“NO.”
“Well there must be some reason you drew this,” she insists.
“IT WAS JUST IN MY HEAD AND I WANTED TO DRAW IT,” Edge explains.
“But you have to know this is not something that is okay to draw in school. It could scare your classmates if they saw it,” she tells him. “What do you think Papyrus would say if you showed him?”
“HE WOULD THINK IT’S COOL,” Edge says.
“No, he wouldn’t,” she scowls. “He would be scared that you might want to hurt someone.”
“BUT I DON’T WANT TO HURT SOMEONE,” Edge informs her, letting out a frustrated sigh.
“I think maybe this is something we should talk about with your brother,” she says.
“RED IS BUSY,” Edge tries to tell her, but she picks up her phone to call him anyway, huffing when he doesn’t answer. “I TOLD YOU HE’S BUSY. CAN I GO BACK TO CLASS NOW?”
“No, you may not. Not until I know you understand that this is not acceptable for school!”
“FINE,” Edge groans, crossing his arms and sinking back into the chair.
The good thing about Sans is he doesn’t make Edge talk about things the way Red does, so when Edge said he didn’t want to talk about the drawing, Sans didn’t push the matter. But Papyrus was acting like it was Edge’s fault that he had to leave art class and kept saying mean things like “YOU’RE THE WORST FRIEND EVER!”
When they get back home Edge tells Papyrus to leave him alone and even asks Sans to tell Papyrus the same thing, but Sans is too busy dealing with a fussy Ollie to even hear him. So when Sans gets frustrated and yells at them both to go to their rooms, Edge is mad that if only Sans had listened to him in the first place he wouldn’t be getting punished.
He’s not in his room long, though, before Sans comes and knocks on his door with a crying Ollie in his arms, telling him they have to go outside. Edge starts to argue with him, but something about the tense look on Sans’ face tells him to just zip it and do as he’s told.
There are police cars parked in front of their house, and as Edge, Sans, Papyrus, and Ollie leave the house, a couple of police officers walk in. Sans hands Edge some sidewalk chalk but before he gets to drawing he watches the unfolding scene and quietly asks Sans “WHAT ARE THE POLICEMEN DOING?”
“they have to look in our house for some things,” Sans explains.
“LIKE WHAT?”
“to be honest i’m not sure, bud,” Sans says, bouncing Ollie in his arms to try to soothe him. Edge stops asking questions after that and instead turns his attention to drawing, making sure this time not to draw anything that would get him in trouble. He settles on drawing a plant-eating dinosaur.
When they go back in the house after the policemen leave, their stuff is everywhere it’s not supposed to be. It almost reminds Edge of the house he and Red lived in with all those other monsters where there was just always stuff everywhere. He likes things much better when they’re clean and organized, which is why he’s very happy when Sans gets to work putting everything back in its place.
Edge gets upset again, though, when he goes upstairs to find that all of his toys in his room are dumped all over the floor. Sans asks him and Papyrus to clean up their rooms and though Edge tries to protest, Sans still has that tired look on his face that Edge knows means he needs to be on his best behavior. He starts with his action figures, which he lines up on his bookshelf in order of height.
A few more days go by and Red still doesn’t come home. Every night he’s not there Edge climbs into bed with Sans after his nightmares wake him up, and Sans rubs his distals up and down Edge’s spine until Edge falls back asleep. Sans is always gone when he wakes up, usually somewhere in the house with Ollie, but Edge doesn’t mind. All that matters to him is that Sans is there at night when he needs him the most.
“SANS?” Edge pulls on his sleeve and says to him one day when Sans comes to pick up the boys from school. Ollie is asleep in his stroller, a pink pacifier in his mouth with his sockets shut softly and his little ribcage rising up and down. Papyrus is walking on the other side of the stroller, humming a happy song like nothing in the world was bothering him.
“what’s up, bud?” Sans responds.
“IS HE NOT COMING BACK THIS TIME?” Edge asks, his volume subdued. Sans stops the stroller and kneels down, taking each of Edge’s humeri in hand and looking him square in the eyelights.
“he’s coming back. i just don’t know if it’s going to be soon or a long time from now, but i promise you he’s coming back. he loves you, and he would never leave you for good,” Sans assures him, pulling Edge in for a hug. Edge buries his skull in Sans’ clavicle and tries to hide his sniffles, but judging by how Sans holds him even closer and for just a little bit longer than he usually would leads him to believe he doesn’t have Sans fooled.
“miss julie is going to pick you up from school today,” Sans tells him and Papyrus a few days later when he drops them off in the morning. “I have somewhere i need to go, but i’ll be home by dinnertime.”
“OKAY!” Papyrus says agreeably.
“DO YOU PROMISE?” Edge asks nervously. Sans smiles down at him and puts a hand on the top of Edge’s tiny skull.
“i promise,” Sans tells him. “maybe we can order a pizza tonight if you guys are good, okay?” Edge nods and gives Sans an eager hug goodbye before following Papyrus into the school.
As it gets closer to dinnertime that night and there’s still no sign of Sans, Edge starts to get nervous. What if Sans has to go away for a long time, too? What if him and Papyrus and Ollie are left with no one to take care of them and they have to go live with some strangers who won’t let them play with their toys in the bath or stay up late to watch one extra episode of their show or let Edge sleep with them when he has a bad dream?
Miss Julie and Papyrus and Ollie are playing in the living room, but Edge is sitting on the stairs by the front door waiting to hear the pop of a shortcut outside followed by Sans walking through the door. He waits for what feels like forever, and when he finally hears the sound he’s been waiting for he jumps to his feet, waiting for Sans to come inside so he could ambush him with a hug.
But it’s not Sans who walks through the door. Well, not just Sans. Red is with him, wearing a nice suit and a big grin, with one hand on the door handle and the other on Sans’ hip.
“RED!” Edge shrieks, bounding across the foyer and into his brother’s arms before Red had even taken more than a step inside. “I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!”
“i missed ya, too, boss,” Red tells him as he nuzzles against his little brother’s skull.
“I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T COMING HOME,” Edge laments, tears welling in his little sockets.
“hey,” Red starts, pressing his frontal bone to Edge’s, holding his brother’s head in his strong bony hands. “i told ya i’d always come back for ya, ‘n i meant that.”