Chapter Text
Grillby frowned when his alarm goes off, waking him from his sleep. He reached over quickly, killed the alarm and looked at the time. The little clock shined 6 AM sharp. With a sigh, Grillby left his bed and let his flames stretch a bit, abandoning his humanoid form momentarily before returning into their proper place.
He didn't need to turn on the lights; the orange-red glow from his body was light-source enough. Besides, he wouldn't want to risk waking the other people in his home whom were more-than-likely still sleeping.
He put on his glasses and fresh clothing before leaving his room being as quiet as possible and made his way into the kitchen. He had a lot to do before the children woke.
The soft sounds of bickering coming from the living room indicated that Fellby and Swabby were at least partially awake. Well, that was good. Now he wouldn’t have to waste any time trying to wake the two fire elementals. He paid the two no mind; after all, it was usually better to leave them to do their thing… It worked out great most of the time, even if he ended up having to replace some furniture sometimes.
With a small smile on his face, Grillby got to work preparing coffee, pancakes and hot coco. He worked silently and methodically, knowing the preferences of all of his children by heart by now:
Suny liked everything that was sweet whereas Pyru liked honey on everything.
Sans would eat just about anything you set before him, but loved ketchup for some strange reason.
Papyrus had a liking for fresh fruits like sliced apples, oranges and kiwis in the mornings.
Saz would deny that he liked sweets but Grillby knew better. The boy enjoyed mini marshmallows floating in his hot coco way to much, especially so when Grillby dyed them red and yellow with cherry and orange juice.
Parz on the other hand was a bit of a conundrum… he wasn’t really fond of sweets yet he liked dry pancakes. With salt. As well as some of the fruits Grillby had the boys all try. With salt. Yes, Parz was quite the conundrum…
Normally, it was a bit too much for him to handle considering everybody's favourite foods each and every day. Most of the times, however, the kids were okay with pretty much anything they could eat. However, today was a special day.
Whatever Fellby and Swabby were bickering about seemed to come to an end or at the very least a standstill as he could hear them moving closer, coming for the kitchen and soon enough a soft yellow intermixed with harsh blue light were flickering into the room.
“Coffee!” exclaimed Swabby happily, taking a cup of it all the while grinning like a fool. “Ooooh, that is good. Perfect!” he sighed out, taking a huge swig from it. “I so needed that.”
“Why? You are usually so damn energetic that nothing can shut you up,” grumbles Fellby while taking a mug of coffee for himself.
“I've been awake since 2 AM!” Swabby argues back, his voice serious. “Not by choice, mind you. Pyru had a bad dream... We talked about some things and by the time he went to bed it was far too late to sleep.”
“That explains why everything was set up when I awoke,” Fellby grumbles back, stifling a yawn. “Shit I didn’t know where I was there for a moment…”
“Not everybody is a lazy-flame.”
Fellby sputters the coffee and glares at Swabby. “What did you just call me?”
“Would you please keep it down?” intervened Grillby pleadingly. “You’re going to waking the children.”
“Fuck you,” curses Fellby, crossing his arms and glaring at Swabby who just grins in return before turning his attention to the stack of pancakes piling up beside the stove.
“That sure are a lot of pancakes.”
“We have a lot of children.”
“Awww,” Swabby coos, giggling excitedly. “They will be so happy! I can't wait for the photos!”
“You mean blackmail,” Fellby adds, grumbling.
Swabby waves the fire elemental off. “Shush you!”
“How the hell do you do that?” questions Fellby, lighting a cigarette. “Taking pictures of… everything without anyone noticing?”
Swabby laughs and grins at him slyly. “That,” he whispers, “is a secret.”
Fellby lets out a frustrated growl. One day, he swore to himself, he would find Swabby’s stash and burn it all! Taking a deep swig from his coffee cup, he turns his attention to Grillby. “You better be making some of those for us too, Grills.”
“I will,” Grillby answers while feeding magic fire to the pan once more. Sometimes it really was handy being made of fire. “You said you have everything ready in the living room?”
“Yeah,” Swabby replies, his flames shining brighter at the thought of the joy it will bring to the children. “I just can't wait! Oh, can't we just wake them now? Please, Grillby?”
“No, let them sleep,” answers Grillby. “You said yourself that Pyru didn't sleep well last night.”
“Yeah... you're right...” mumbles Swabby, sighing deeply. He took another swig from his coffee. “I sometimes wish they would tell us more what happened to them,” he says after a few moments. “I want to understand better and help them. Though… on the other hand, the little snippets I'm getting? They are horrifying... Yet they let those slip like its nothing!”
“So… what have they told you?” asked Fellby, grinning a bit smugly. “You are so squeamish I bet one of them could have told you that they stubbed their toe and you would find it horrifying.”
“Pyru said… that they made him watch recordings of what they did to Saz and Parz,” Swabby answers, his voice a lot colder than usual and a dark look in his eyes.
There was a beat of silence, both Grillby and Fellby staring at Swabby.
“Those bastards,” Fellby curses, cracks forming in the coffee mug within his hand. “I’ll kill them!”
“He didn't tell me WHAT he saw, but I'm assuming it was bad considering YOUR reaction,” frowns Swabby.
“The brats don't tell me shit,” hissed Fellby. “But I'm not an idiot! I can read between the lines. I saw what they looked like the first few days… even I can piece two and two together.”
“They are both pretty prideful,” Grillby states, looking towards Fellby with an oddly soft expression. “Like somebody else I know. But,” he adds, clearing his throat, “I'm sure some day… they will entrust us with more information.”
“The dogs told me last week they had a new lead to where whoever did this could have put his logs and recordings, maybe even the location of... wherever they came from,” chipped Swabby, “maybe we'll get some information pretty soon.”
“Yeah... maybe,” mumbled Fellby, now staring into his coffee.
A loud yell ended their discussion.
Followed by a yelp, a crash and something that sounded like crackling magic.
“I think the children are awake,” states Swabby grinning.
“Very well,” said Grillby, putting the pan down. “Let's get them.”
Upstairs was a large room that once was a guest room but was recently upgraded and renamed as the official “Room of Bones”. It was named such because Sans had the strongest magic amongst the children and was fast enough to paint the name in blue lettering on the door before any of his siblings could protest.
There were still some yellow, red, orange and other shades of blue stains on the door and on the wall surrounding it… Some of them were hidden behind signs and posters; most of them with inspiring sentences such as “No girls allowed” or “No boys allowed” as well as “Flames are cool”, “Bones for real” and least not forget “Papyrus, Suny, Sans, Pyru, Saz and Parz allowed” below which a smaller sign read “Grillby, Fellby and Swabby are allowed, too.”
The room behind the door showed signs that there had been need for some reparations in the past; part of a wall that looked a bit newer and was half-hidden behind a big poster about space; an actual hole in the wallpaper that was hidden behind a pirate flag found in the garbage dump. The floor was made out of a soft tapestry; one that was at one time a mint green but now looked faded and like it had to be cleaned in various places multiple times… There was still this one patch that looked like something burned there, covered slightly now by a bookshelf.
They did not have multiple beds, just one large mattress big enough to fit all six little skeleton children plus a ton of soft blankets, pillows and an assortment of stuffed animals. A door led to a big walk-in closet which sometimes doubled as a hiding space after a very bad dream or a prank they all knew they would get in trouble for.
A big shelf housed all kind of books and games for them. Little tables and shelves were placed around the room, not for storage space, but for creating little hiding places for all of them with the help of old bed sheets and a handful of safety pins, each of which were filled with soft blankets and whatever they liked. Grillby knew there was also a stash of food hidden around somewhere... He made it a rule that they could only keep non-spoilable and pre-packet foods in their room and as far as he knew they were keeping their promise so he let them keep their little safety net.
There were still several
toys and some books lying around the whole room despite Grillby's (as well as Papyrus' and Suny's) best efforts to keep them picked up. Sans and Pyru were both pretty messy yet somehow always knew where they put their plaything.
Saz was pretty passive in making messes though the boy could be a bit clumsy in his other form resulting in a few mishaps added to his tendency to fall asleep at all times in the most peculiar of places… He seemed to prefer to watch the others do their thing, sometimes randomly be drug into whatever Suny and Papyrus were playing.
Suny and Papyrus loved to re-enact their favourite scenes from Grillby’s and Swabby’s bedtime stories. (Fellby had been forbidden from giving bedtime stories since he could not seem to keep them appropriate for small children.)
Parz loved to rough play and would initiate a playful fight whenever he was in a mood. He often was cast as the villain in Suny's and Papyrus' plays and this was the only instance in witch he would lose to anybody willingly and with a shard of dignity.
Sans loved reading. If he wasn't keeping an eye on his siblings or playing with Papyrus and Suny, he could be found sitting in one of the many hiding places with a book. It had been the cutest thing ever when Sans announced that HE would read the bedtime story for his brothers once night randomly. It was a bit slow and some sentences were clearly made up, but he went through all of “Fluffy Bunny’s Adventures” on his own without help of Grillby or Swabby.
Pyru had more similarities to a cat than a dog. He would laze around, let his brothers use him as a playground and preferred warm places to lie down and sleep. The only two things that seemed to get him excited were music and crayons. He could spend hours just drawing or colouring something; Pyru created over half of the pictures on the fridge. He held a great passion for music, often listening to the same song on repeat for what seemed like hours on end; much to the annoyance of Fellby and Parz.
Overall , the room looked well lived in.
Five minutes earlier, they were still asleep, all of them curled up together in their bed. It was usual that they would place Saz and Parz in the middle reflecting back upon their time on the run when the both of them were seriously injured and dangerously close to falling so the others would keep them in their middle to protect them from outside forces that would try to take them from them. Suny and Papyrus were still very small compared to their siblings so they would sleep either on top of or between the others whereas Sans and Pyru would usually lie on either end of the pile being physically the oldest and largest of the six.
This day Pyru was sleeping at outermost end of the skeleton-pile, very close to the edge of the bed, his nightly trip to Swabby having cost him his previous spot.
A ray of light shining through the big window fell onto Suny ’s face. The light awoke him and he lifted his head, yawning. The blue light in his eyes had shown a bit brighter as soon as he was awake enough to register that he was in fact awake. “Guys!” he exclaims excitedly, shaking Papyrus who just happened to be the closest to him. “Wake up! Wake up! It's morning! It's morning!”
His excited ‘waking up’ of Papyrus had consequences. Papyrus yelped, startled by being awoken in such a manner and jumped back. This action shoved Saz into Parz who turned around pretty roughly which then tipped Sans, who was lying on Parz’ side. Sans' legs collided with Pyru's hips and ended up shoving Pyru out of the bed.
Pyru yelped loudly as he fell onto the ground, his bones rattling.
There was a beat of silence until Suny and Papyrus tried to climb over their sibling, wanting to see Pyru.
“Pyru! Pyru, are you okay?” asks Suny, leaning over the edge and looking down at his brother.
“Pyru?” questions Papyrus, looking over Suny’s shoulder.
Pyru was sitting on the ground, looking a bit disgruntled up to his brothers. “Yeah...” he said while rubbing his skull. “I … think so…”
Sans grabbed Suny by his shirt, preventing him from toppling over too and looked over to Pyru, grinning a bit. “Hey, Pyru. What are you doing down there?”
“Trying to not stay up,” mumbles Pyru as he lets out a large yawn.
“But brother!” protested Suny. “It's morning! We should play! You said we could play when it's morning!”
“Yeah... I did say that, huh?” said Pyru and yawned again.
“Hey, you really okay?” asked Sans. “You should maybe come back here... hey, let me...” He held out his hands towards Pyru and concentrated, furrowing his eye sockets. His left eye became bright blue and Pyru was surrounded by a blue aura before slowly being lifted in the air while Papyrus and Suny stared on with pure fascination as Pyru was placed back in the bed.
Sans grins. “Pretty cool, huh?” he questions. Then he promptly flops over.
Papyrus was at his side in a flash. “Sans?”
“I'm okay, bro… Magic is hard.” Sans chuckles and pets Papyrus’ skull.
“Okay, can you shut up?” growls Parz while trying to hide his head underneath a pillow. “You are so annoying!”
“But its morning!” chirped Suny. “We should be up!”
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation and, despite all the time they were here, Pyru shoves Suny behind him as he and Sans shifts to stand between their siblings and the line of sight from the door. The door opened and Grillby came into the room causing Sans and Pyru to instantly relax, their shoulders dropping with soft sighs.
“Good Morning, Children,” greets Grillby, smiling. “Did you sleep well?”
“Pyru fell out of the bed!” shouts Papyrus.
“I'm okay,” mumbles Pyru but Grillby was already at his side, looking him over.
“Does something hurt?”
“No...” Pyru says and tensing a bit. He really liked Grillby, but he still hated it when somebody came to close without him initializing the action.
Grillby, noticing his discomfort, backed up. “Okay. As soon as you hurt somewhere or feel bad, you tell me, okay?”
“Okay,” mumbles Pyru again.
“Good...” Grillby replies, smiling and looking over all of the children. “How about you get clothed and come down stairs for breakfast? I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” asks Suny with huge eyes, his magic activating to form little stars in his pupils. “What is it?”
“It won't be a surprise if I tell you, would it?” replies Grillby chuckling. “You'll find out soon enough.”
“Ohhh! Brothers, fast! I wanna know!” exclaims Papyrus. Together with Suny he was out of the bed and off to the closet.
“Only one skeleton in the closet at a time!” Grillby reminded them.
Giggling was the only response he received.
Sans and Pyru were climbing out of the bed too and even Parz and Saz were looking curiously towards Grillby.
Grillby was smiling at them. He just loved their antics and quirks. He loved these CHILDREN so much.
After a few minutes of general confusion over which clothing belong to whom (with the children all roughly being the same height and age and have a lot of blue/red/orange clothes that get mixed up easily) everybody was ready to face the day. Even Parz and Saz looked a bit more awake, Saz even smiling a bit.
Grillby smiled as he watched both of them walking easily behind the others. Both of them were hurt the most and their recovery was a long and difficult one. Seeing them free of their pain and lively like their brothers was just wonderful, even if Saz kept his strange habit to fall asleep frequently at random times and places. Grillby pouts at the thought. He would have to look into that at some point…
He herded the children downstairs and into the living room, barely able to contain his grin.
“SURPRISE!” shouts Swabby as soon as all of the children were gathered into the room, his body burning a bright yellow and illuminating the banner that read “Happy 1st Year with Flames” and the impressive birthday cake on the table.
Fellby was standing by his side, not nearly as excited, but burning with a friendly blue and giving a somewhat nervous smile.
All six children stopped dead in their tracks and took it all in, obviously surprised.
“Happy Birthday,” said Grillby, moving in front of them too.
“We didn't know your actual birthdays,” explains Swabby while he was coming over, a set of party hats in hand. “So we thought we’d just celebrate the day you came here. This year sure went by fast, huh?” he questions as he places the party hats on their heads.
“Yeah... Congratulations, squirts,” said Fellby, coming over too. He pauses when he notices that the little skeletons have not moved or said a word. “Hey, what's up with you?”
“Uh... Grillby?” began Suny, looking at him with big eyes. “What is a birthday?”
Three flame elementals were staring at six skeleton children, blank looks upon their faces. Each of them felt their heart breaking.
“Well... it's a celebration,” began Swabby, kneeling down so he was closer to Suny's height. “We celebrate once a year, on the same day that the person who the celebration is for, is alive and there.”
“There is a celebration for that?” asked Parz sceptically. “Really?”
“Yeah,” replies Fellby, nodding. He pets
the skulls of Parz and Saz while grinning. “It's the only time where bright frosting isn’t so bad.”
“And what does one do on a birthday?” asked Sans.
“Well, we eat cake together, have a lot of fun and you get presents,” explains Grillby while moving down to Sans' height too. “As Swabby said, we don't have the real date of when you came into this world, but you came into mine exactly one year ago and that is all the reason for a celebration that I need.”
Sans was tearing up at that and Grillby soon had two Skeletons hugging him. Swabby and Fellby were the same as far as he could tell from their or rather Fellby’s startled yelp. Grillby himself hugged Sans and Papyrus tightly. They were HIS children. He would always protect them.
Things went a lot more smoothly from there.
With Fellby's and Swabby's help, all children were fed their pancakes and seated at the large table with the cake placed before them. They had put six candles on the cake due to the lack of knowledge of their real ages. Grillby guessed that they all raged from 6 to 9 years, but none of the children could give him an actual age since they never had seen outside of the lab before breaking out…
“What do we do with the candles?” asks Papyrus, looking at them curiously.
“They look a bit like you,” giggled Suny, watching the flames on the candles flicker.
“Yeah... only two of you though,” comments Saz. He still had a light lisp after he lost a tooth and had it replaced with golden tooth moulded to resemble his other teeth.
For some reason, both Parz and Saz had sharper, more fanglike teeth compared with the other children. During the tooth incident, Fellby looked at the broken tooth and noticed that they had been manually sharpened at some point. The boys never talked about what had happened or how Saz suddenly had a golden tooth, but Grillby found a spot behind his house where all snow had been melted away and the ground underneath scorched.
“Where are the blue flames?” Saz continues, glancing up to Fellby.
“Ugh” Fellby chokes and quickly looks away, his face becoming a soft purple.
Grillby chuckles, one of his hands covering his mouth when he receives a glare from his cousin. “Normal flames aren’t blue,” he explains softly. “Fellby burns hotter than myself and Swabby. If we were to put that on the cake,” at this Grillby motions to the cake sitting on the table before them, “then the candles and icing would melt and it would become uneatable.”
Saz nods lightly. “Oh.”
“Well,” Swabby cuts in, returning to Papyrus’ earlier question, “the tradition is to blow out the candles, all at the same time, and make a wish. And it's said that this wish will come true one day.”
“Does the angel grant the wishes?” asks Papyrus, looking up at Swabby. “There IS fire. And the angel is asso... asososo...uh...” he struggled with the word.
“Associated,” whispers Sans.
“Yeah, that!” Papyrus nodded and continues, “with fire, aren't they?”
Grillby exchanged a look with Fellby and Swabby. This was not the first time the children started to talk about the “angel”, more than likely meaning the one from the delta rune story. That they would be drawn to a story about a benevolent being that freed monsters was not surprising, but isolated as they were in the lab and most likely terrified on the run after, Grillby asked himself where they would have came across the story of the delta rune angel.
Well, at least they never heard the... darker interpretation of the legend. Let them have their hopeful story.
“Uh... sure,” answers Swabby after a drawn out pause. “Nobody really knows who grants the wishes, but I suppose that it could be the angel.”
“So we have to blow out the candles and get a free wish?” asked Parz, grinning. “Sweet!”
“You bet, badbones,” answers Fellby grinning. “So think hard, a birthday wish is something special.”
There was some excited giggling from the children as they thought about the wishes they could get.
Getting them all around the cake was a bit challenging, but doable. Grillby was left holding up Papyrus whereas Swabby held onto Suny so that they two boys were at even heights with their siblings.
“Okay, on the count of three,” Swabby begins, a large grin on his face. “One... two... THREE!”
All six of the children blew with all their might. All six candles went out in a puff of white smoke, earning the children a cheer from the three flame monsters.
“And now the best part,” exclaims Swabby happily, moving to cut a slice of cake for each of the boys but is interrupted before the knife can even touch the icing-
Fellby steps up to the table, between Saz and Parz chairs. “Yep for once Swabby’s right,” he adds, giving the children a wink over the edges of his sunglasses before reaching out and swiping his finger across the side of the cake, coating it in icing.
“Hey!” Swabby yelps as Fellby licks the icing off.
Grillby lets out a long sigh as all six children follow suit and swipe their fingers through the icing. “Quit corrupting the children.”
The rest of the day went along happily as well.
They took the kids out into the forest and let them have a snowball fight; participating only with the protection of special suits which had cost a good amount of gold but the magic infused into them kept them safe from water burns for up to four hours. The fight shifted from bipedal snowball fight to playful wrestling in their dog form more than once.
Saz and Parz successfully tackled Fellby earning them one of his rare, honest laughs. While Grillby and Swabby held themselves against the force of nature that was Suny and Papyrus, Sans and Pyru occasionally helping the younger boys out, but finally surrendered as they too were tackled to the ground.
Overall , it was a great day.
The small beeping sound from the suits, a warning of the spell that kept them safe beginning to fade, finally ended the fun. After all, nobody wanted one of the flame elementals turning to dust during a harmless snowball fight.
Back at home, Grillby started some hot coco while Swabby and Fellby got the children out of their warm clothes. It did not seem as if the skeletons could actually feel the cold, but they didn't want to take a risk.
“What do we do now?” asked Saz while Fellby put him into a dark red and black stripped sweater, making sure that his teeth didn't catch in the fabric.
“Well, I think Grills had some stuff planed out,” Fellby answers thoughtfully. “But I'm telling ya, the best part on the program will be the presents.”
“We get presents?” asked Parz, trying hard (and failing) at holding his excitement back.
“Yep,” chirps Swabby while getting Suny into a blue and white stripped, long sleeved shirt. “But first: warm coco.”
It was a relief to know that these children did not have problems with monster chocolate similar to that of the other canine monsters. Their reaction to their first cup of coco was just too funny!
Finally, after all of them were changed into warm clothes and had a warm drink, they all went to sit in the living room, waiting for Grillby to come back with a basket full of colourful wrapped packets. One for each of them.
Sans got a new book, which a friend of Swabby found in the trash a few days ago. It was a colourful book full of pictures of space and the stars, looking almost like an atlas for the night sky.
Papyrus got a red scarf. A beautiful thing, made from the softest material, however it was about three times as long as he were big. He loved it the instant he saw it.
Suny was gifted with a stuffed bear that made a soft noise when hugged tightly. The soft noise could be heard constantly for days afterwards making it very easy to locate Suny whenever he seemed to have disappeared.
Pyru got an empty notebook and new set of colourful crayons. With an extra green, orange and blue crayon added in since he seemed to prefer using those colours.
Saz got a few comics (not manga Grillby had insisted) about superheroes. He seemed to like it after Parz commented that some of them looked cool.
Parz himself got an action figure which spoke random phrases at the press of a button. The voice coming from the toy had startled him at first but the fact that he carried the figure with him wherever he went for the following days showed how much he adored the toy.
The rest of the day was spent eating the remainder of the cake, playing with the gifts they received and being told some funny stories from Swabby while they sat around the fireplace.
It was during this “story time ” that Grillby noticed Fellby looked more and more restless; the blue fire elemental finally standing up and exiting the room trying not to draw the attention of the children.
And Failing.
“Huh? Where is Fellby going?” questioned Parz, looking after the fire monster.
Grillby stood a soft smile on his lips. “Just continue the story, alright?” he tells the gently. The sound of Swabby’s tale fades as he follows the blue shine of Fellby’s flame to the front door.
There he was, putting on his coat, mumbling quiet curses under his breath.
“Fellby,” calls
Grillby, worry in his voice as he watches him. “Are you leaving so soon?”
“Yeah,” replies Fellby, half-glaring in Grillby’s general direction. “I just need to get away from all this... lovely-dovey shit. Look, I kept my promise,” he states, pulling on his coat. “I played nice little house with you, the brats and the ninny, but I just can't take it anymore! I need to get away for a bit.”
“... It meant a lot to the children for you to be here,” Grillby states gently, trying not to add any more pressure. “I thank you for staying.”
“Well...” Fellby mumbles, clearly not knowing how to respond.
It was a reminder of the situation the night before. The children were already in bed when Grillby noticed some noise coming from the front door only to find Fellby trying to leave the house.
--
“What are you doing, Fellby?”
“Ditching this place. There is no way in I'll gonna stay here and play fucking party guest for your little circle of bullshit,” the flame monster growled out. “Fuck I'm not a family man; you got Swabby for that shit.”
“No,” Grillby commands, glaring at him. “Listen. T
his means the world to them. YOU mean the world to the kids. So you stop being a coward this instant and stay put. Face the birthday of these kids that idolize you like an adult that you claim to be!”
Fellby blinked at him in shock. The promptly looked down at his boots, muttering to himself, “I hate parties.”
“You don't have to like it,” said Grillby, a bit softer. “Just be there. Just humour the kids a bit. Be civil for one day. If you want to leave after that, go ahead. But please don't ruin this for them. They’ve had enough bad things in their life without your bullshit.”
It took a long while until Fellby answered. “Fine,” he cursed and glared at Grillby. “But as soon as this shit is over I'm out of here.”
“Very well.”
---
“I... I have to thank you,” Grillby repeats, his eyes still on Fellby. “For being here today. It meant a lot for the children.”
“Well...” said Fellby, awkwardly. “I'm sure fucking glad that the show is over.”
“Will you come back?” asked Grillby, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.
His cousin had been the first to show up on his doorstep after he had found the children. Due the seriousness of their injuries at the time, Grillby had texted both Swabby and whom he had meant to be his older sister however due to an inadvertent misdialled he instead phoned Fellby for help. Yet, for reasons unknown to him even now, Fellby had shown up just hours later, in the dead of night no less, asking whose head he needed to beat in… though if it had not have been for the harsher flame, Grillby hates to admit it, but they could have very well lost two of the children within the days that had followed. Therefore, he decided back then that perhaps it was best to allow Fellby to stay despite his protests of disliking children and, as his cousin would say, “Lovey-dovey” things.
“Maybe,” he states seemingly in deep thought. “I... don't know.”
“I see,”
whispers Grillby before smiling softly. “You are always welcome here, you know?”
“Yeah, sure,” said Fellby without any elan, shrugging. “I'm out.” And with these words he opened the door and stepped outside, his blue flame fading slowly into the distance.
Grillby sighed and closed the door, returning to the living room. The story seemed to have been concluded and six pairs of eyes fell upon him, an unspoken question about Fellby within their depths.
Grillby felt himself smiling, speaking in a calming voice. “Fellby just needs a bit fresh air, children. He is very tired so we will not be seeing him again today.”
“Really?” questions Saz, disappointment clearly in his voice. “Aww...”
“Don't worry,” Swabby tells the small boy, petting over his skull, “he'll be back.” A small chuckle escapes him as he leans down and takes Saz into his arms. “He’s a big softy at heart after all. Come on, I'll tell you one last story before bed time, okay?”
Putting the children to bed was exceptionally easy this day. The day had been long and exciting, so much so that even Suny and Papyrus seemed all tuckered out.
“Grillby?” asked a very tired sounding Sans after a while. “Do... birthday wishes really come true?”
“Well... it is said so,” answered Grillby diplomatically, smiling softly while he tugged Sans in. “Why do you ask?”
“I really want for my wish to come true...”
“I wished for a fun day, I guess that came true,” comments Parz barely able to stifle the yawn. “It was the best.”
“Yeah,” agrees Saz, giggling. “It was fun playing with Fellby.”
“What did you wish?” asks Sans, looking over to his brother.
“I wished for Fellby to have fun with us,” Saz replies quickly, then blinks a few times as a large smiles spreads across his face. “Wow that came true, too!”
It became very hard for Grillby to not laugh at that statement.
“I wished for more birthdays! Like... everyday!” exclaimed Papyrus.
“Uh... pretty sure it doesn't work like that, bro...” Sans chuckles.
“Well, you don't know until you try!”
“ok...”
“I wished for... some peace and quiet,” yawns out Pyru, his eyes closing as he falls asleep.
“And I wished for Fellby and Swabby to get along better!” chipped in Suny, crossing his little arms. “They need to hug more. Grillby and Fellby too!”
“Yeah,” said Sans, smiling.
Grillby laughs and continues tucking the kids in.
Saz was already asleep as well, having nodded off somewhere during the conversation. Parz was following him soon after, being exhausted from the day of trying to coarse Fellby into playing in the snow with everyone. Suny and Papyrus settled down after a few gentle pets and kisses to their skulls. Only Sans was awake now, his eyes tired but he looked so very happy at the moment.
“What did you wish for?” asked Grillby, petting his skull softly as well, hoping to send him off to peaceful dreams.
“Hmm… that we could stay here... forever,” mumbled Sans in between drifting off.
Grillby wasn’t sure how long he sat there simply watching the children sleep, but he promised “Forever” soothingly.