Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“PET!!!!” Black’s voice thundered through the house.
Red groaned into his pillow as the shouts of his alternate self wake him from his nap. Did the human try to escape again? He rolled onto his back and flopped the pillow over his skull, trying to block out the noise. This human of Black’s had caused him nothing but trouble this past week.
That first night she had done everything in her power to get out of Mutt’s vice-like grip, shouting curses in English as well as French, a language none of the skeletons really understood. Black and Mutt had found it cute at first, but after an hour she showed no signs of quieting down. Most of the skeletons had retreated to their rooms by the time she lost her voice. The quiet didn’t last long. The sky clouded over, too quickly to be natural, and it started to rain and thunder. Black’s human had calmed with the storm.
As the next week went by, the storm remained constant, and the human alternated between escape attempts, swearing at her captors, and threats of a "sister that would find her and make them suffer".
Red had risen a browbone at that.
“PET! WHERE ARE YOU?!”
With a huff of annoyance, Red rolled out of bed. If he couldn’t sleep, he was heading over to Grillby’s.

Claire had hidden herself in the closet of one of the older skeletons. Gavin? Garfield? She didn’t try to remember their names. She was surrounded by lab coats, leather jackets, and elegant turtleneck sweaters; Claire knew they wouldn’t find her here. Well, she hoped. The one called Mutt had an unnerving knack for tracking her down.
“PET!” Black’s voice was getting progressively angrier every minute. Claire grinned with satisfaction. She found his annoyance tres drôle.
Black had kidnapped Claire while she was on her way to a friend’s house. One of her few human ones. He had shouted something about pets and had his faithful mutt of a brother (haha pun) fetch her. As far as Claire was concerned, Black already had one ‘pet’ too many. He didn’t need another.

It took Mutt an hour to find her. He didn’t say anything as he dragged her down to the basement. Claire had never been down there before. It wasn’t allowed.
The basement was large. There were several desks and work benches for the more scientific minded skeletons spread-out around the room. There was a door leading to another room, possibly for more dangerous experiments as the door was heavily reinforced with metal and locked with a keypad.
Mutt pulled Claire across the room towards Black and another skeleton, Wing Dings. Black was scowling at Claire with his arms crossed.
“It’s About Time.” He stomped over to Mutt and Claire. She flinched as one gloved hand reached for her neck. Black quickly removed the collar he’d forced on her the week before. Then, he nudged Claire towards Wing Dings.
Wing Dings lifted her chin, exposing her throat and Claire felt the cool metal of a new collar around her neck. After Wing Dings secured it, he turned towards the brothers.
“The collar should help keep her from running away,” Wing Dings explained. “It’s tuned to your magic, so you’ll be able to track her, and,” he smiled sadistically, “punish her should there be a need.” The Fell skeleton turned to his desk, a clear dismissal to the swapped versions of his brothers.
Once the skeletons and Claire were back upstairs, the human gripped her new collar, trying to pull it off. She screamed; her knees buckled as the collar sent a wave of pain through her.
As quickly as it had started, the pain stopped. Claire slumped to the floor, whimpering. The entirety of her 4’10 frame shook. Mutt crouched down and softly stroked her red hair. He didn’t say anything, he never did. Black huffed at the scene. With arms crossed, he stomped off. Leaving his lanky brother with the woman.