Rarepair New Year 2024 ch15: Money/Grape, College AU
SFW
Wordcount: 1468
Grape doesn't realize he's mumbling to himself a mix of what's he's currently studying and the music blasting in his headphones. He's thankfully not loud enough to be a bother to the people around him. For one, because he's really only whispering the melody, with mathematical formulas as altered lyrics. And for two, because there's no one in the university library at this hour of the day anyway. Everyone else is busy being outside where the sun shines and the football team is training. Okay, sure, they're nice to look at, but Grape prefers to spend his afternoon here in the library, studying by himself.
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Grape doesn't realize he's mumbling to himself a mix of what's he's currently studying and the music blasting in his headphones. He's thankfully not loud enough to be a bother to the people around him. For one, because he's really only whispering the melody, with mathematical formulas as altered lyrics. And for two, because there's no one in the university library at this hour of the day anyway. Everyone else is busy being outside where the sun shines and the football team is training. Okay, sure, they're nice to look at, but Grape prefers to spend his afternoon here in the library, studying by himself.
He's in fact so focused on his work that he doesn't notice the tall skeleton standing behind him and looking over his shoulder. It takes Money a little poke at Grape's shoulders to get the small skeleton's attention. Grape startles as he fumbles to remove his headphones.
"Money! I didn't notice you, when did you get here?"
"just now, don't worry your little pretty face," Money grins nonchalantly as he takes a seat next to Grape. He links their arms together. "so, whachu doing here all by yourself, my baby? i've been texting you all afternoon, i want to go on a date."
Grape can't help the embarrassed blush creeping up his cheeks. He's not sure he's comfortable with the use of pet names between them, it really hasn't been that long since they've been together. If they're legit together at all.
It's not that Grape doesn't like Money, no. The tall skeleton has surprisingly proven to be quite nice to hang out with actually, and has made sure to act like the perfect boyfriend to Grape for the last three weeks. But Grape can't shake off the thought that maybe this is all fake after all, and the moment he'll reciprocate Money's attention or initiate anything romantic between them, someone is going to pop out of behind a wall with a camera and a stupid, mean grin that'll say, 'hey, this is all fake, you've been pranked, no way a popular skeleton like Money would want to go out with you, you dumbass!' and then millions of pictures will be hung up all around the university where people will get to see how Grape embarrassed himself by thinking this was true.
Maybe Grape is overthinking things a little.
Still, the fact remains that people like Money don't usually ask people like Grape out. The handsome, popular jock doesn't pick the little nerd when he's surrounded by cheerleaders, that only happens in bad rom-coms. Honestly, the only reason Grape accepted at all was because he truly thought that Money was messing with him at that party, and Grape wanted to play him at his own game. So when Money came up to him with a drink in his hand and straight up asked Grape to be his boyfriend, the small skeleton simply replied, 'sure', and then walked away like he didn't care.
What he didn't expect was to see Money come up to him the next day and sit next to him in class. In fact, Grape was so taken aback by the turn of events that he didn't flinch when Money asked his number and just gave it to him. In hindsight, he should've been more careful with his number because it would've been so easy for Money to spread that info around or post it on unsavory sites. But the only messages Grape started to receive after that were indeed from Money, who would text him good morning and good night, or about movies and games, or even to talk about what they learned during class.
They've been texting each other quite a lot for the past three weeks, so Grape is tempted to think that maybe Money did ask him out for real.
He's not sure about his own feelings for the tall skeleton though. Sure, Money is proving to be a nice skeleton to hang out with, but Grape is relatively sure that he isn't in love with Money. He doesn't know if the other loves him, and quite honestly he'd rather Money didn't. Regardless of whether Money was honest with his confession, three weeks is way too soon for the L-word.
That being said, things are nice so far and Grape hasn't felt the need yet to bail and ask Money to keep away from him. He's taking the new relationship, if he can call it that, one day at a time and it seems to be working for both of them. Money is just a little too demanding in his opinion, but he can tell that it's in good fun most of the time, like when he calls Grape 'baby' or asks for a kiss that Grape isn't ready to give anyway. Money doesn't seem to mind being told 'no', he even gets excited when Grape says 'not yet' instead. As a sort of reward for respecting Grape's pace, the small skeleton has taken to find roundabout ways to answer Money's demands, like blowing him a kiss when Money asks for one, or making dumb, baby blabbering sounds when Money uses such a nickname. It makes Money laugh.
He doesn't dare make his best baby impression in the middle of the library however, and simply puts his headphones away before trying to get back to his homework. Money is allowed to keep him company when he's studying, but he knows not to bother him.
Money is the opposite of helpful right now though, what with the way he's snuggling Grape's arm like that, his pointy cheek pressed into Grape's shoulder. It makes writing in his textbooks impossible so Grape tries to shake his arm and push the other away a little.
"Money, don't hold onto my arm like that," he complains. "I can't write if I can't move my arm."
Money shrugs. "just use your other hand to write. you're ambidextrous."
"No, I'm not."
"says who?"
Grape snorts. Money has this way of saying the dumbest shit all the time. It's not even funny, but it makes him laugh regardless.
"Seriously though, the faster I get this homework done, the faster we can go on that date," he ends up saying, which feels like he just lost the negociations with the enemy. He doesn't mind.
Money suddenly looks up at Grape and flashes him a happy smile. He sits up before planting himself behind Grape and hooks his hands under Grape's armpits. The small skeleton doesn't have the time to wonder what the fuck he's doing, as Money lifts him up and places him back down on the chair that Money was sitting in just a moment before. Grape, puzzled, stares at his boyfriend, who sits back down, this time putting his skull down on the desk. He looks up at Grape and blinks a few times like a happy cat who's just done knocking all the houseplants from their shelves.
"Was this necessary?" Grape asks with an unamused look.
It's Money's turn to laugh.
"do you mind if i watch you study?" He asks and Grape feels the blush come back.
It's a little embarrassing to be honest, but he finds that he doesn't hate the soft look in Money's eyelights, so he shrugs as his answer.
He focuses back on his work for a while and soon Money shifts into a blurry purple spot in the background. When Grape finally reaches his study goal for today, he looks to the side and notices Money's eyesockets are shut. A quick glance to the time and he realizes they've been here for just a little under an hour. Grape is honestly impressed that Money just stayed there with his skull on the desk instead of leaving Grape here to go out and have fun with his other, more popular friends.
Is Grape crazy for being moved by this? It's not like Money did anything, really. He literally just fell asleep on the desk.
Grape doesn't know what he's thinking when he lifts his hand and lets his palm make contact with Money's cheek. Maybe the tall skeleton wasn't asleep after all, as his eyesockets shoot open, though he doesn't say nor do anything, and simply stares intensely at Grape while the smaller skeleton's fingers trace an idle pattern under Money's right eyesocket, the one that's half-dead.
Grape delicately rubs his thumb there twice before removing his hand. That's all for today.
He then quickly puts his notebooks and pencils in his bag before standing up, nodding for Money to follow him.
"Okay, I'm done. Let's go on that date now."
Money happily lets Grape lead him out of the library, and he doesn't tease his small boyfriend when Grape intertwines their fingers together like a real couple.
Have this 2 years old Mermay art that I only finished recently so that I can take on more prompts from this year’s list! I can’t find who asked Money with the prompt ‘treasure’ (I think it was a request on twitter) so I can’t tag anyone, sorry! I can’t even remember why I decided to make Money a lobster-skele, it’s been too long...
Because sometimes your boyfriend is gross and silly.
This is the last doodle I managed to draw this month. The heat for the past few days was horrible and I couldn’t muster any strength to draw (and my arms got stuck to the desk which made lines look shitty). Thank you so much for taking part and I hope people whose prompts weren’t used will forgive me. 24/30 prompts is quite a neat challenge and I had a lot of fun drawing every single one of them.
Thank you for taking part! I’m going to launch another fun challenge for August shortly!
❣️ [Rarepair Doodle July Rules] ❣️ [Prompts List] ❣️
The friendship between Sugar and Money was, to put it blunty, an unexpected and unlikely one.
Second chapter is lowkey inspired by a conversation I’m 99% sure I’ve had with @/redtomatofan but I can’t for the love of Sans find it in our chat and she doesn’t remember it so idek. Anyway, Sugar is good at dating but is a virgin, and Money has only had friends with benefits before, and somehow, they’re friends. That’s the plot.
