Chapter Text
Music pulsed in the bar as the lights flashed in time. You sat at the bar holding a drink in one hand as your other rested on the bar behind you. Watching people lose their minds on the dance floor was always fun to you. Seeing people's reaction to you in the club was even better. While sober it would have pissed you off but you were three drinks in and graciously buzzed. People did have a reason to stare though. Your growth stunted as you were growing up and while you were 26 years old you were still only 4’3 and had a soft childlike face.
Growing up you had been bullied and teased on no end throughout middle and high school. College was out of the question as you wanted nothing to do with it anymore. While you were in high school you had taken up exercises and finding a way to fight back. Your father had told you that your brash mouth was going to get you in trouble so you should at least know how to defend yourself. Because of this you were stronger than you looked and even though your small frame looked to have no muscles you could throw a man four times your size over your shoulder and knock him out.
Finishing your drink you set the glass back on the bar. “Thank Phil! See you next time ok?” You call to the bartender. It had taken you days to convince him that you were an adult and the stamp on your hand really had come from the bouncer. The bar was backwards in that they allowed underage people to come in but only the people over 21 got a stamp to show they could drink.
You pushed yourself off the stool and grunted a bit when you fell to your feet. It was always embarrassing to sit in a chair when your feet couldn’t touch the ground. Walking out of the bar you started down the street scratching your head through your long wavy brown hair. You had work in the morning and were hoping to any god out there you wouldn’t have much to do. Your thought process was stopped as you ran into someone’s chest.
Pulling back you looked up to see three men who had to be around 5’5. “Sorry, wasn’t watching where I was going.” You say and start to move around them.
The one you ran into grabs your wrist and holds it up in the air, “What the hell is a kid doing out this late? Hey kid where are your parents?” He asks sounding more than amused and drunk. Great.
“I’m not a child. I’m 26 years old.” You growl back and try to pull your wrist away from him.
Their eyes light up, “Your what?” “Did you hear that?” “26? Really?” The second one grins, “Hey Tony, how about we have some fun. Seeing as this isn’t a kid.”
Your blood runs cold realizing what they are talking about quickly. Not wanting to give anything to chance you pull your free arm back and punch the first man in the crotch. He roars in pain and releases your arm to hold himself. You don’t hesitate as you run in the opposite direction as them searching for someone to help you. You can handle one guy but not three drunks.
Turning a corner you see a kid that looks to be about 15 and a large skeleton monster. By large you mean he has to be over 6 feet and your arms would barely fit around his chest in a hug. You run straight towards them and grab onto the kid panting, “Please pretend like you know me.” You say quickly as the three men come around the corner as well.
“There’s the bitch!” The first one screams pointing at you.
“Who the fuck are these guys?”
“Is that a skeleton? What the fuck? Does she know them?”
Holding onto the kid's arm you poke your head out from behind him, “Yes! They are my friends and they won’t like you raping an innocent girl!” You yell back at them. You have pride but you aren’t stupid to not hide yourself from these men and accept help.
The three men are about to say something when the skeleton speaks up. His voice is deep and his smile turns down, “you three disgusting freaks were going to rape a kid? fucking sick. get out of here before I call the cops.” He says his mouth not opening at all but he speaks clearly.
The men look like they are going to refuse but the skeleton’s right eye flares up with blue magic and the men yelp and run off. You snicker at how pathetic they are and the kid you were holding onto turns you to them and hugs you before pulling back. They hold up their hands and you realize it's sign language.
“Are you hurt? Where is your family? Do you want us to walk you home?” the kid signs. Good thing you got bored in school and studied so many languages.
“Oh uh. No that's ok. I’m not hurt. I just needed some help getting them off my ass.” You say giving a smile.
The skeleton looks down at you, “kids like you shouldn’t be out by themselves this late at night.”
You glare, “Good thing I’m not a kid then.” You say before reaching your hand up to pat the kids head, “Thanks for scaring off those guys. See you!” You leave the both of them confused and watching you leave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Going into work in the morning is nothing exciting. You wear comfortable jeans and a baggy shirt with your sneakers. All of your clothes are picked for work in a way that if any of them get messy you don’t worry about having to throw them out. Pulling your hair up into a ponytail you fix your badge on your shirt and walk into the building next to the police station. You wave to the security guard and he nods you through. It had taken weeks for him to think you weren’t there as a joke.
You opened the door to your office area and took a deep breath. You didn’t have any new cases so there wasn’t anyone on your table. You decided to clean some of the office and wonder what you would do tonight to sate your boredom. You picked up the case file from last week and reviewed it to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
You worked as a coroner for the police department. It was a strange sight indeed but no one could say you didn’t do your job well. You could notice small changes in the body and little indents from weapons. It was a bit of a passion for you. When you had grown up small you started to research why you wouldn’t grow and you ended up learning so much more than your own growth disease.
Your mother thought it was a waste of time for you to take apart dead bodies for the police. But you always argued that your work helped the police catch killers all the more faster. This case however was getting to you. It was starting to become a serial killer case. Three bodies had been found all killed the same way. All females, all over the age of 25 and all blonde. They had their throats slashed but not before the killer engraved some sort of symbol into their arms and legs and chest. It was all done before the girls were killed and you had put in your report that the victims had been awake during as some of the symbols were shaky due to either jerks from the women or a reluctant killer.
Sighing you put the file back down on the table and continue on with your work. The city you lived in was fairly large but that didn’t mean there was a death everyday. This was one of the days there weren’t any deaths. Your dark humor came out and you went to the whiteboard at the end of the day and wiped off the number 0 and put down 1. It was to track how many days went without a body coming in. Shaking your head at yourself you left your office and went home to change into some workout clothes.
You had too much energy and needed to workout. Getting to the gym you started to warm up while watching the people in the gym. The owners had opened it up to monsters recently so there were more people there than normal. You blinked when you saw a fish woman with fire red hair walked into the gym and looked around. When her eye locked on you she walked over to you which surprised you.
“Hey kid. Where are your parents. This is a dangerous place for kids.” The fish monster said. You noticed her eyepatch and you looked at her one good eye and rolled your own eyes at her. She seemed to glare a bit more.
“I’m not a child.” you say simply and continue your warm up.
She seems to balk at your statement and blinked a bit, “Seriously? That's insane. You're shorter than my girlfriend but I guess it's not impossible.” She says and you look up at her again at how easily she accepts you are an adult. That was the quickest for you and it shocked you.
“You know any good trainers here? I need a good workout.” She says again and flexes her muscles at you.
“The front desk can help you with trainers but I can tell you right now they won’t be able to help you.” You say standing up. You scowl that you only come to her chest but that's about normal for you. The only one taller you had ever seen was that skeleton last night. You had only reached his stomach. “You look like you train as hard as I do. Trust me when I say these trainers won’t be able to keep up with you.”
The monster laughs and puts her bag down near yours and starts to warm up, “Sounds like a challenge to me. Mind if I join your workout?”
“Only if you spar with me after. Everyone here won't do it cuz I’m ‘so short’.” you say putting your hands on your hips.
She stands up and grins showing off her sharp teeth, “Deal. I’m Undyne.” She says holding out a hand.
You take it and smile yourself. “I’m ___. Try to keep up.” You say and then get back on the ground to do push ups.
After an hour and a half of workouts Undyne looks over at you panting. “Dude, how old are you?! That was insane! I haven’t met a human would could keep up or even pass me and you did it like nothing!”
Grinning you knew you might have found a good workout buddy or even possibly a friend. “Pin me to the mat and I’ll tell you my age.” You say standing there with your arms crossed.
Undyne grins at the challenge and rushes you expecting it to be easy. You duck under her legs and stand up behind her grinning wider than her. This causes her to turn and growl. You can feel a crackle in the air and you hold up a hand, “No magic.” You say causing her to pause and then nod.
Rushed again you stay still to see what she will do. When the punches come for you, you are shocked but not slow. You dodge them easily turning your body around her punches like it's some sort of dance. The punches get faster and faster and you poise your legs and jump up into the air, use your foot to step on her hand to boost yourself higher and flip over her body. You stay with your back to her knowing what is going to come.
Like clockwork you feel the woman come up behind you and when you feel her hand on your shoulder, you grab it and with all your strength, toss her over your shoulder and onto the mat. You sit on top of her chest and cross your legs giving a bored expression. “I win.”
She stares up at you with wonder and amazement and also a bit of rage. You can see in her eyes that you have her respect. You won’t mind working with her, she was fun and actually treats you like an adult. Standing up you hold out your hand and are surprised when she takes it. It's a bit funny to see you try to help her up but you both manage. When she’s up you smile up at her, “I’m 26 by the way. Maybe i’ll see you around here again.”
She punches her own hand, “Hell yeah you will! None of my friends are gonna believe how awesome you are!”
You smile and nod to her, “I don’t get awesome a lot so thank you. I’ll see you later Undyne.” You say as you pick up your bag and head for the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks pass of the same routine. You would go to work and most days you would have a new body that you would have to perform autopsies on. It was sad to realize that these people would never see their families again but at least you would be able to provide them with closer. The serial killer hadn’t struck since the last body which was a bit scary but it didn’t stop you from living your life.
You went to the gym like normal and after the second time you saw and worked with Undyne you had gotten her number and the two of you set up times to actually work together. It was great having someone to work with and to be able to spar again was really helping your stress.
“Hey, it's Friday and me and my girlfriend are having friends over for anime night. You said before you like anime right? Do you want to come over? It’ll be really fun and we’ll have booze!” she says smirking at you.
Over the last few weeks the two of you had begun talking while you worked. It seemed to help her more and you didn’t mind it. Though you hadn’t told her what your job was yet. Thinking about it you shrugged, “Sure, I was planning to just go to a bar by myself tonight so, anime sounds a lot better.”
Undyne grinned and fist pumped the air, “Hell yeah! And my friends get to see how awesome you are too! They’ll love you!” she pulls out her phone from her bag, “I’ll text you the address of my place. Party starts at 7pm.” She says and waves goodbye to you leaving.
Shaking your head you look down at your phone realizing she has already text you the address. Looking it up you realize it's one of the new monster area’s that was built after the barrier broke. It was only 8 months since it broke but they had integrated well with the town. There were only a few cases of discrimination but the monsters seemed to brush it all aside.
Going back to your home you wonder what to do for an outfit. You were meeting new people but if Undyne talked about you then they should know you didn’t really dress up. Sighing you settle for a comfortable black shirt that said ‘Kawaii in the streets. Senpai in the sheets.’ It was one of your favorite shirts and you knew Undyne would get a kick out of it. Pulling on some faded blue jeans and your shoes you head out for the house.
The city was actually not that large and with the expansion the monsters made your apartment was closer than you realized. You got to Undyne’s house around 7:15 and knocked on the door. Undyne opened the door quickly, “Nerd! You made it! Oh my stars I love your shirt!” She yelled picking you up into a hug.
You squeaked but allowed her to do it. She was one of the few who didn’t get punched for picking you up. When she put you back down you smile, “I told you I would be here. I just had to walk is all. Sorry I’m late.”
“Ah it's fine. Come meet my girlfriend! And the brothers are already here too.” She said ushering you inside.
Walking into the living room you see a loveseat where a small, but obviously taller than you, yellow dinosaur monster. She is also wearing an anime shirt so you assume this is Undyne’s girlfriend. You look over at the couch and see two skeleton monsters. One is tall and skinny looking in a shirt that reads COOL DUDE and shorts showing off all his bones. The other is as tall as the other and large looking. When you spot the permanent grin on his face you stop in your tracks remembering him.
He obviously remembers you as well as he looks up at Undyne, “‘dyne, remember me telling you about that kid I saved from those drunks weeks back? that's the kid. why are you hanging with them?” He says arching a bone brow.
Growling your cross your arms but Undyne speaks first, “Dude, ___ is not a kid. She’s 26 and the workout buddy I’ve been telling you guys about.”
This causes him to stare at you with shock earning a grin from you. “Told you I wasn’t a kid. And I would appreciate you not calling me that from now on.” You say.
Gaining his confidence back he shrugs his shoulders and looks back at the tv, “whatever you say doll.”
You don’t know if that was supposed to be insultive or a flirt. Before you can ponder it more Undyne points around the room, “That cutie on the loveseat is Alphys, my girlfriend, no flirting with her. The cool skeleton over there is Papyrus, he trained under me in the underground and his lazy brother Sans you have already met I guess.” She says and goes over to sit next to her girlfriend.
This leaves you to sit in between the two large skeletons. The image is not lost on Sans as he starts to chuckle under his breath as you walk towards the couch. Sighing you find out the couch comes up to your waist, most likely because the skeleton brothers have such long legs and you have to lift yourself onto the couch with a bit of effort.
Sitting down nicely between them the skinnier skeleton leans over a bit looking down at you, “Hello Human! I, the Great Papyrus, are so happy to meet a new friend! Especially one who could take down my leader Undyne. Did you know she was captain of the Royal Guard in the underground?”
You look over at Undyne, “Must have been a shitty guard.” you tease with a grin.
She laughs and points at you, “Shut up ___. I’ll pin you one of these days!”
“Sure and I’ll grow as tall as these guys.” You say causing the whole room to laugh. You could joke about your height at times. And you knew these monsters would never use your height against you. Undyne waves her hand around and then picks up the remote and starts to play the anime in the tv. The room falls to a comfortable silence.