Us Papyrus and Uf Papyrus with a male S/O because most the time even if the S/O isn't gendered do they almost always have a fem body in most imagines that I have seen let's give the guys some love? Have no idea for anything specific except that I would love some fluff, maybe cuddles, anything will do :D though I got a sort of idea while writing this, the skellies realising they are falling for their male friend who they are not sure swing that way? I don't know anymore, you decide~
(alright, i apologize for taking a bit to finish up this prompt! you’re absolutely right, there’s nowhere near enough plainly-stated male s/o content for those sweet skeleton feelings around… i’m happy to give this a shot- so let’s see what may be brewing for Stretch and in Edge’s mind on that front, shall we~? <3)
US Pap:
“Okay, seriously, how do you get a huge mixed flavor box of popsicles and only have blue ones?”
You shot an exasperated look over your shoulder at Stretch, who was watching you with his usual tired grin while he took a drag at his cigarette. He shrugged amicably, his gaze turning briefly towards his brother’s room - it was unoccupied at the moment, as Blue had decided to go out training with Alphys.
“would you believe me if i said that Blue buys six boxes at once, then sorts them into single flavor boxes and delivers the other flavors to friends with the matching taste?”
“… Holy… okay, damn. Yes. Yes I would. That ridiculously kind-hearted son of a…”
You shot one last lingering look to the box of popsicles, but grimaced and shuddered briefly and opted to grab yourself a soda instead. You shut the freezer with a bump of your elbow and moved to flop back down on the couch next to your best friend.
“not a fan of that flavor, then?”
You tilted your head back with a groan before meeting his genuinely curious look. “Blue raspberry? Hell no. I mean, it’s cool, Blue can like what he wants, but…” you shuddered again before taking a swig of your soda, as if to wash the ghost of a remembered taste from your mouth. “Just… no way. I mean, first off - it’s only blue because there were too many ‘red’ flavors, so they chose to make cherry flavors darker, watermelons lighter, that sort of thing, and just decided raspberry could screw off to an antifreeze blue color, as if that was a reasonable choice - and second, the raspberry flavor. It’s actually mostly freaking pineapple and banana mixed flavoring you’re tasting, did you know that? I just… nope. Not gonna do it. I may eat junk, but I’ve got junk standards, dammit.”
(continued under the cut … //mobile link)
… You realized that you had definitely veered into outright ranting about artificial flavoring. You colored slightly, biting back the urge to curse at having just essentially insulted Stretch’s beloved brother’s favorite flavor. Oh hell, maybe it was his too-? You knew Stretch had a thing for honey, that was more than obvious even without how much you two had been hanging out, but…
You decided to take your odds and looked back at him with a bit of a sheepish grin. Much to your relief, he was grinning too, and - wait. Was that…
“Uh. What’s up, Stretch?” You asked, your face heating just a bit further despite yourself. You forced your eyes away from his orange-tinted cheekbones and tried to recover further. “Er, I mean - sorry, didn’t mean to rant.”
He chuckled then, one of his hands lifting to rub at the vertebrae of his neck as his gaze shifted from you. “nah, don’t worry about it. it was just - er, nevermind,” he said, trailing off to a low laugh.
Your hand tightened around your soda just a fraction - the sound of his laugh always did funny things to your gut. You knew exactly why, but you weren’t going to go out on that limb when you didn’t know where Stretch stood - and even as you though that, your chest tightened a little.
Stretch’s gaze turned to your chest for just a flicker of a moment before meeting your gaze as you spoke again. “No, I mean - now I really wanna know,” you said with a laugh of your own, pushing aside your feelings with a practiced mental effort. You nudged his closer arm with your elbow, leaning just a bit further towards him to do so. “What, do I have a weird look on my face or something?”
You pulled a face as you spoke, putting special focus on talking just as casually as before even as you made the silliest, weirdest face you could manage. Stretch snorted so hard he nearly dropped his cigarette, the sound turning into a laugh as he smacked a hand to his face.
“stars, no - though that’s a good look on you,” he shot back with a waggle of his brow bones, and you shot him finger guns and a wink in return, which caused him to grin a little wider. “no, i just - uh, just was thinking about how… cute you are when you get into something you’re talking about like that.”
Your eyes flew wide open. You were stock still now, and you felt the rush of heat and blood take over your face.
Stretch now seemed to be finding a bit of paint on the opposite wall absolutely fascinating.
“I don’t - I - uh. You. You.. think I’m cute.” You couldn’t even quite phrase it as a question, your voice had gone dry and far too soft. Shit.
Stretch didn’t look back towards you, but you could see the orange glow becoming more intense against the line of his bones. “i mean - uh. sorry. sorry? i forgot - human guys don’t like to be called cute, right-”
His voice died as his head whipped back towards you - you, now sitting next to him, your arm now resting against his.
“No, I… thanks, Stretch,” you said, your voice still a little quieter than you wanted. It was your turn to look forward - wow, that really was a great spot of paint.
You could nearly feel the weight of his shocked gaze on you.
Then he lifted his hand to his mouth, tucking the cigarette between his teeth and putting his arm back down… around your shoulders.
“… anytime,” he said, his own voice just a hair quieter too. When you chanced another glance at him, you saw that he was looking back at you, a softer grin on his blushing face.
UF Pap:
“IF YOU DON’T CHOOSE TO SKIN THAT INSOLENT FOOL ALIVE WITH YOUR WORDS, I WILL.”
“Edge, c’mon, he just spilled some coffee on me.”
“AND THEN PROCEEDED TO BLAME YOU FOR IT-!”
“The city’s full of rude assholes, Edge, trust me - we’ll never get to the park in time if we stop to pick a fight with every one of them.”
Edge paused in his stride again, ready to argue further, but you shook your head and grinned in good humor as you rolled up the sleeve with the new stain.
“Besides - it’s pretty hard to stay angry when I get to see you having my back so strongly.”
You turned forward again as you finished matching your other sleeve and started walking, a bump of your arm against Edge’s signalling your desire for him to keep up.
He stared after you for a moment, horrified as his magic rushed unbidden to his cheekbones.
… But stars damn him back to the Underground if he was going to give you a reason to turn around and catch the absurd magic displaying itself traitorously on his cheekbones. So he picked up his stride until he was a step in front of you, leading the way, his height thankfully giving him added cover.
This was absurd.
It had been, for too long now - not you, not anymore at least, but his own soul, reacting so strongly to your presence, to the easy spread of your grin, to the sharp glint to your eye when you were about to reply with that damnably attractive sharp wit of yours, to your steady hand under a number of kinds of pressure-
“Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Edge’s gaze shot down to you. You were looking back up at him, a knowing tilt to your brow even as the smallest crease of a frown pulled at your lips. Edge’s own brow furrowed in response as his unintentional scowl turned down a little further. You huffed a breath through your nose and gave him that particular look you were so inclined to when you had caught on to something.
“I’m fine with standing up for myself - when it matters. That time wasn’t anything - hell, if you want to look at it another way, someone like that just isn’t worth the time you’d waste on him, right?”
For once, you had only just slightly missed your mark - but, well, only slightly. That particular rude human was still on his mind, just… not the forefront. Edge’s blush had faded, to his relief - which seemed to help account for your guess.
Edge sighed, a sharp and short puff of unnecessary air. “I AM NOT FOND OF THE ATTITUDE OF DISRESPECT SO MANY HUMANS HAVE,” he replied dryly, his gaze turning forward again.
You laughed, a low sound that made Edge’s soul stutter in his chest. Your arm bumped against his as you matched his stride - and he yours, admittedly. “Can’t say that you’re alone in that, Edge. But hey, we’re a couple of pretty good-looking guys who more or less know what they’re about - we’re bound to run into some trouble,” you said with a grin. “Well, I mean, you’re - uh, you’re downright hot, and definitely know what you’re about, so you’ve got that all handled more than I do,” you added, your face turning away from him as you chuckled again - the sound a hair… embarrassed?
Edge’s brow lifted as he looked back down at you, knowing the bright red was dusting his cheekbones again. If only his damn soul would calm down - “SURELY YOU’RE JOKING,” he replied, a rougher lilt to his voice despite his care.
You looked back up at him, and Edge saw now that your face was flushed - something that made him far more pleased than was probably good for him. Your own brow was lifted in mirror of Edge’s, a disbelieving grin on your face. “What, that you’re hot? I - I mean, not to be… weird - is that weird? No, I mean - well, it’s just fact,” you said, playing off some apparent nervous energy with a shrug.
Edge was feeling less and less angry at his intensifying blush - your words were proving to be quite the compensation for his ego and soul.
“NO, YOU - ABOUT YOU,” he managed to reply. He turned a corner, and you took an extra few quick steps to keep up.
“Oh- uh. Well… not really?” You replied. You shrugged, decidedly matter-of-fact on this topic. Edge frowned as you continued, “I mean, I’m alright, but in comparison to you-”
Edge stopped in his tracks, causing you to stop barely a step later. You turned half back towards him with clear confusion on your face.
“IN SPITE OF YOUR QUICK MIND, YOU’RE FACING A LOGICAL FALLACY,” Edge said. He captured your gaze, one hand on his hip as his gaze narrowed. “THERE IS NO COMPARISON TO ME-”
“Don’t I know it-”
“HUSH. I MEAN THAT IT IS A FALSE LINE OF LOGIC TO MEASURE YOUR OWN WORTH IN COMPARISON TO ANOTHER. YOU ARE A BRILLIANT MAN OF YOUR OWN RIGHT, WITH YOUR OWN IMPRESSIVELY OVERCOME PROBLEMS AND ONGOING STRUGGLES AND TALENTS AND GOOD LOOKS.”
Edge continued to hold your gaze as he took another step closer to you. He ignored the continuing bright red glow of magic on his face in favor of speaking further as you stood there, somewhat frozen in place.
“YOU SHOULD ONLY EVER MEASURE YOURSELF BY YOUR OWN GROWTH. AND PLATEAUING IS NATURAL TOO, SO THAT IS NEVER SOMETHING TO BE TOO UPSET ABOUT - SIMPLY A MATTER TO FIND MOTIVATION THROUGH. AND BESIDES… EVEN IF YOU WERE TO COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS…” Edge’s voice slowed slightly and he fought the urge to look away from you, despite the distracting thrill running through his soul right now. “… YOU WOULD STILL FAR OUTSHINE SO, SO MANY OTHERS.”
… Stars damn him. Was that too much? Well, no, he wouldn’t make such a mistake… but if he recalled correctly, human men were not always so receptive of words of praise from other men - isn’t that why he hadn’t yet measured whether it was worth broaching any such subject with you…? Oh, stones take him if he had gotten too caught in the moment with that horribly distracting thrum of his soul in your presence-
His eyes snapped back to you as your hand met his upper arm - he hadn’t even realize his gaze had turned from you. You were blushing hard, and were having trouble meeting his eye.
Still, you squeezed his arm, and gave him a look torn somewhere between intense embarrassment, abject relief, and something much, much warmer. “… Thank you, Edge,” you said, your voice a little rough. You seemed to be struggling to find other words.
… Oh stars, what you did to him.
“… I SPEAK ONLY THE TRUTH,” Edge commented, returning your intentions with a small nod. He fought the odd phantom urge to clear his throat. No, instead he took a sudden stride forward, his hand closer to you shifting without a look to catch your hand. He tugged gently without glancing back as he spoke again. “COME NOW, WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE, AND YOU DO SEEM TO HAVE THE GOOD SENSE TO WANT TO AVOID THAT.”
Edge strode onwards, unable to fight the slight smile pulling at his bones as you recovered and matched his stride once again, a grin spreading on your own face. Your fingers intertwined, neither of you shifting to let go of the other’s hand as you continued on your way.
