So, for all the skellies: S/O disappeared one day and the police eventually had to give up on the search. A year later though, one night, someone knocks on the door. S/O is standing there, covered in old and fresh wounds, crying but still wearing the same beautiful smile the monster always loved so much. They simply say "Heya love... I missed you so much". (Does any of this make sense? I'm still really tired, sorry. :'D)
– One thing you have to know is that Plum was the one who probably called off the search. After months and months, investigation upon investigation, nothing. He tirelessly worked with the police and Alphys and anyone else he could get to pull together and find you. Eventually, Alphys and Cherry confronted him about you, convincing him to drop it, that if you were still out there, you’d be... He was so heart broken that he struggled to find peace in his routine now that you weren’t there.
– It’s the middle of the night when you knock. He’s still wide awake and studying some astronomy book, unable to sleep very well since you left. He opens the door and thinks its a dream. He reaches out to your face and, in the most Plum fashion, starts rambling. “Oh i must be dreaming, when did i fall asleep? Oh look at you, exactly how i remember.. but i wonder why my dream decided to have you hurt?”
– He only breaks out of then when you speak, and then his sockets widen and he realizes you’re real. You’re real, and you’re here, and he’s touching you oh my god -
– Plum’s sockets well up with tears and he pulls you inside, shuts the door and then hugs you so tight. Cherry comes downstairs to find him still holding you, crying. He has so many questions but oh, he’s just so happy you’re alive right now. They can wait.
– Cherry’s anxiety spiked up like mad when you disappeared. He looked everywhere, letting search teams do their thing but mostly trying to find you himself. After a couple of months of dead ends and false leads, he got discouraged. Sans tried to keep him hopeful but when even he stopped doing that and started to look sad for his brother, Papyrus lost all [HOPE] of finding you and fell into something of a depression.
– He’s just on the couch when you knock. He hasn’t left the space except when Sans makes him go change and freshen up. Whatever is on tv isn’t something he’s paying attention to. He’s zoned out with lollipop wrappers all over the living room. It almost doesn’t register when you knock.
– When he answers the door, the sucker falls out of his mouth. There’s an immediate ‘what the fuck’ and he closes the door again, thinking he’s started to hallucinate now. He tries to go back to the couch - but that’s when you knock again.
-- Now he questions himself. He opens it, slowly; and when you speak - you speak with your voice he thought he might never hear again - he doesnt let you finish. Cherry just sort of falls forward into you and wraps you in his arms. You sink to the ground at the doorway, a tangle of limbs and whispers. There are so many questions, and he asks each of them slowly while his head is in the crook of your neck. With each word you say, tension melts away from his bones and he thinks things might be okay.
– As with Plum, Hunter was a part of all the groups that were leading searches. The main difference is that he attempted to lead all of them, which was not contested because he gave no other choice, anyway. Many of his acquaintances allowed it, attributing it to grief. Unlike Plum, Hunter continues this way for about a month and then suddenly just stops. Calls off the search teams, demands for posters to be taken down. His [HOPE] is lost - and it isn’t that he doesn’t care anymore. It’s just that he was already so used to quick deaths and disappearances (whether it was from his own recruits and teams or just the environment of the Underground anyway) that if you hadn’t been found after a month, then you couldn’t be anything other than dead. He channeled his sadness into his work, burying himself in it as he tried to move on.
– When you show up on his doorstep it’s when he’s got all the traps deactivated for a routine check. He comes to the doorway, prepared to reprimand Hound for coming in during the check up - but then is faced with a bruised you. He only trips over his words for a moment before his face contorts into something angry and betrayed.
– He yells at you, yells as he walks out of the house and makes you back away on to the side walk. He screams about your irresponsibility and carelessness. Why didn’t you call him? Did someone take you? Are you hurt? Who did this, are they dead?
– The shrieking comes to a stop when he finally takes a moment to really look at you. You’re here, even though he thought you dead so long ago. He’d accepted it, and now… He grabs you and roughly brings you into the house. It’s only when he sits you down on the couch that he roughly pulls you into an awkward embrace and tells you to never leave again.
– Out of all the boys, this one might have held out the longest. Unlike his brother, he’s done his best to put the constant string of death as a thing of the past. The Surface is supposed to be better, and he’s experienced that it is by now, so he has more [HOPE] for your return. He joins the search parties and does his best to help with what information he has. He has to be convinced by his brother to finally stop, though - and it’s around the 7 month mark. Hunter has to point out that no new evidence has turned up, the searches have been called off, and that he should start to learn how to live with the idea of you never returning. He manages to get Hound to stop, reluctant though he may be. He returns to his day jobs, devastated but deep down still hopeful for you to turn up one day.
– When you knock it’s another day, he thinks it’s the neighbour coming to complain about his brother’s noise in the garage again, so he ignores it and keeps reading his book. But when the knocking is persistent and decidedly calmer than what he normally has to deal with, he gets up to answer.
– There aren’t even any words for the expression he makes. He flashes through many at once - shock, confusion, happiness. The emoting is all you can get out of him for a long while, and when you speak he scoops you up and gives you the most careful hug - as though you might disappear again. You feel tears soak your clothes and he stands there and holds you for an indefinite amount of time. You’re home, he knew it. He knew you were alive. He’s so happy his soul feels like it’s going to tear right through him and light up the room. He’s never letting you go.
