Fic: Scars
For@stuffedart
Prompt #41 from this list - “You’re so embarrassing...ugh.”
In which Grillby isn’t as comfortable with the aftermath of his brush with death as he projects...
“You’re so embarrassing, UGH!”
Sans, used to hearing a statement of this nature or a variant of it directed at him, looked up instinctively.
He was met with Toriel’s confused stare, gazing down at him over the cover of a book. The duo were the only two on the tour bus at the time, Toriel quietly reading a book and Sans taking advantage of her fluffy lap.
Papyrus had finished practicing and had taken off immediately afterwards to sneak in a quick matinee, accompanied by Undyne and much to their dismay, Jerry. Muffett wouldn't be here until tomorrow...and he was sure that Grillby was...
...not at home. Yes that was definitely his car outside. No one else drove a red car that was that painfully uncool.
Sans glanced up at Toriel who was wearing a distinctly worried look on her face and privately he very much agreed with it. All things considered, Grillby had taken the accident well. It seemed to be nothing more than a prank that had got out of hand; kids who had not acted out of malice and seemed to have learned their lesson about copying shit they saw on the internet.
Sans of course had been livid, but going to put the fear of god in a few kids was...well, hardly worth the effort if Grillby himself didn't want to press charges or do much more than put the incident to bed...but yet Everyone - EVERYONE seemed to be taking this better than he was.
They praised the stupid human doctor who was barely qualified, some CHILD playing because none of the proper human doctors wanted to risk their reputations. They let the kids who came within a hairs breath of dusting his best...his PARTNER get away with a slap on the wrist. It was DISGUSTING. No one cared about a monster, even one who was as hard working and deserving as Grillby. Fucking humans.
But right now, he glanced at Toriel with concern again, letting her up and jerking a thumb towards the source of the sound with something of a hint of 'I told you so' mixed in with the worry.
Sans of course could be stealthy when he needed to be and years of practice not waking children meant Toriel crept along easily. As luck would have it, the door to Grillby's small compartment of the bus sat ajar; but even closed the thin fibers would have had trouble masking the muttering coming from within.
The fire monster was hunched over the small chest of drawers, peering into the sad excuse for a mirror, fingertips prodding gently at the deep fissures like cooled lava that the ice and water had left in his fiery magic.
Without a wall of living flames obscuring his facial expression, it was quite a bit easier to read his facial tics and body language, and the expression he was sporting now was simply SOUL-rending.
"Disgusting." the monster muttered, voice dripping with a venom that both had heard only once before, directed at a gobsmacked MTT as he was forced to answer for the damages done to Undyne’s arm.
It was true, Grillby took pride in his appearance, not the sort of vain over-the-top fashionista nonsense that the robot's A-list mentality implied, but more of a...hell, he didn't know, maybe there was some weird manager store where band managers bought boring understated suits they needed to wear everywhere.
A soft intake of breath behind him reminded him of Torel’s presence. Evidently this bout of self-loathing from the fire monster was as painful for her as it was for him.
The other sixty miles was that Grillby had realized he was not alone.
He wheeled around from the mirror, shock and something of a 'caught' nervousness on his face. He had probably thought he was alone, or had specifically come here to lay into himself in a bout of self-loathing.
Thank god for Toriel. Sans had never been very good at this sort of thing.
The former Queen strode forward, wrapping the tall monster into a hug and lifting him easily - (despite the gravity of the situation, Sans couldn't help but suppress a chuckle; the sight of the Queen forcing Grillby’s lanky limbs to accept being snuggled and carried never totally stopped being somewhat amusing) and draped her shawl over the dingy little mirror to block his view of himself..
"I do not, believe for a moment that you have become suddenly undesirable...or...disgusting, to use your own word." she was leaned back with him, while he sat up right, allowing her to stroke his back.
In response, the fire monster put his fingers back up to his scars, only for Toriel to prise them down again.
"No one is going to take me seriously like this. I look like some sort of a THUG."
Sans snorted. This was what he was worried about?
"No, no one is going to take you seriously if you keep letting Papyrus buy you jumpers with the lolcats or whatever nonsense he gets up to on the internet." He teleported himself to Grillby's opposite side, an idea flashing in his head.
Toriel could say soothing things all day long, but what Grillby REALLY needed was to stop thinking so hard for once. He had divined something he figured might be worth the old college try.
Before the fire monster could react, Sans reached up and scraped his phalanges down the most prominent of the 'scars'.
The experiment yielded almost immediate results. Grillby went slightly rigid before he he felt him lean into it.
"Heh, see? Not all bad."
Sans could nearly hear the audible click of Grillby's brain signing off.
He continued his ministrations, the press into his side getting heavier as Sans' fingers worked magic.
"Goodness." he heard Toriel mutter from Grillby's right and he wanted to laugh but settled for exchanging a very amused smirk over the fire monster’s drooping head.
Yes, the crackling sounded very very much like purring. Heh, maybe Papyrus was onto something with all the cat jumpers.
"Yeah, like that, don't you Grillbz."
There was no response; he was definitely asleep.
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth Sans shrugged and showed off his talent for dropping off to sleep as swiftly as flicking a switch, head nuzzled into Grillby’s warm shoulder..
Toriel automatically grabbed for her phone but put it away. Adorable photo though it may have been, the thing that had started this mess? It probably meant he wouldn't exactly be appreciating any unauthorized photos.
She wasn’t tired, but under the circumstances, this all looked very comfortable so she leaned up against Grillby as well and dozed off herself.