Multiversal Star - Masculine Reader

Criss-Cross-Applesause

Chapter Nine

Oddly enough, it wasn’t awkward when M/n and Cross had been left alone. A short moment of silence drifted into the room, and the two of them simply stared at each other. During the moment of silence, M/n decided that this was a staring contest of sorts. It was short-lived, however, because Cross ‘cleared his throat’ and looked away for a moment. M/n smiled slightly, happy that he had ‘won the contest.’

“So..” the skeleton murmured, “..where exactly did you come from? And, who are you?”

M/n sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat. “Well, my name is M/n—but you know that already, I think—but I fell through a portal, like I said earlier, and now I’m here. I think where I came from is called Undertale, since King Goopy Stalker(trademark) said that earlier—umm..”

Cross sat there and listened to the human’s short ramble, and M/n noticed from his peripheral that when he said “King Goopy Stalker,” the corners of his lips(s) turned upside down, and he covered his mouth with one of his hands.

“What’s so funny?” He asked.

“The way you called Nightmare ‘King Goopy Stalker’” he snickered, though it was muffled because of his hand.

M/n grinned over at him, chuckling slightly himself. Something about making Cross laugh, even just a little, made him feel happy. Shortly after, Cross removed his bony hand from his mouth and smiled, giving M/n a short nod as if to tell him to continue with his explanation.

“Right,” he started again, still grinning at Cross, “I’m M/n, I’m from Undertale, and uh.. oh! I have a younger sibling named Frisk. I adopted them when I was old enough to, and we were reading an old book about Mount Ebbot to the kids at the orphanage. They challenged us and said we couldn’t fall into the mountain and return, so that’s why we had fallen down—then we met a creepy flower and a nice woman named Toriel. Fast forward a bit, we reached a place called Snowdin, and these cool skeleton brothers named Sans and Papyrus. Sans and I were in a restaurant, I think, called Grillby’s, and then I went outside for some air, the portal opened, and now I’m here!”

Cross blinked. He didn’t say anything about M/n’s whole spiel for a few seconds, probably because he didn’t understand how or why he explained that entire thing with one breath. Then, he nodded.

“Okay.. I think I understand that.” He mumbled, giving the h/c haired boy an awkward smile.

“It's a lot to handle, I know.” M/n laughed, relaxing slightly.

“No, that's not what I meant-“ He said, shaking his head. “It’s not a lot to handle to me. I mean, I mean—I’ve been through stuff like that, but… worse?”

M/n gave him a puzzled look.

“No- I didn’t mean to make it sound like you haven’t gone through something bad!” Cross put his hands up in self-defense, his previously confused expression melting into an anxious one.

M/n scooted a bit closer to the anxious skeleton, calmly and gently placing his hands onto his, a reassuring look in his eyes. “I know what you mean, Criss-Cross-Applesauce.”

And the silence was back. Cross stared at M/n blankly, blinking owlishly. M/n winced and recoiled his hands, shaking his head to himself.

“Yeesh. That was really dumb, I’m sorry for calling you that—“ he grumbled an apology, sucking air in through his teeth.

Cross’ lips(??) curled up into a slight grin. For a second, M/n noticed his skill had turned some kind of purple color, but it disappeared as soon as he had noticed it since Cross started laughing.

“Pfft!” He snickered, throwing his head back. “That’s so stupid, but you said it in such a cute way—“

M/n laughed as well, looking down. He hadn’t brushed past the fact Cross described the way he said it ‘in such a cute way,’ but he didn’t mention it—he was too busy trying to hide the slight blush that had creeped up onto his s/c face. Despite usually having a compliment or one-liner at the ready in situations like this, Cross, for some reason, had caught him so off guard that he genuinely had no idea what to do or say.

Meanwhile, back in Undertale…

It had been hours since M/n had gone outside for some “fresh air,” and Sans had only now started to realize that he still hadn’t returned. Sure, usually he didn’t really care when the human left him at Grillby’s—but usually, the human was Frisk, and he knew Frisk wasn’t necessarily ‘happy’ with him for a NUMBER of reasons, but he couldn’t shake the off-feeling of worry that started bubbling up in his non-existent gut. Sans let out a low sigh and stretched, his bones popping a bit, making him grimace. He looked at Grillby and gave him a slight wave before getting up and walking out.

“See ya, Grillbz.”

Grillby said nothing and continued cleaning the glasses. Sans stepped back out into the snow and looked around. Nothing new. Just snow and the other monsters going about their daily businesses. Sans sighed again and began walking back to his and Papyrus’ house. Maybe M/n was there. He closed his eye sockets for a second, thinking. Why now, of all times, would Frisk have done something different before falling down? What did they do differently to get to know Frisk, and why did they do it? Why now, when they’ve gone through so many resets with nothing changing, just the same thing, over and over and over and over again? Did they have a change of heart?

“Nah,” Sans said sarcastically to himself, opening his sockets again. “They couldn’t have - oh. Heya, kiddo.”

Sans stopped in his tracks, looking down at Frisk, who was now standing in front of him. Their arms were crossed, and despite their eyes not being open, Sans knew they were giving him a glare of some kind. They were clearly annoyed.

‘Where’s my brother?’ They signed, their lips pressed into a firm line, occasionally twitching in annoyance.

“About that, kid,” Sans mumbled, “I was jus’ going to look for him. He was with me earlier at Grillby’s, but then he stepped out for some ‘fresh air’ and he never came back. I thought you’d snatched him and dragged him off to ‘finish your adventure.’”

Sans used air quotes when he said “finish your adventure.” He wasn’t trying to be mean to Frisk. He still had a soft spot for them, even if it was extremely small. Frisk took a moment to reply, and when they did, Sans noticed that their up-kept irritated demeanor had softened greatly, and he was 90% sure that it was replaced with genuine worry.

‘I haven’t seen him since this morning,’ they said, their hands moving almost too quickly for the skeleton to understand. ‘And since he was with you for the majority of the day, he didn’t meet Undyne, so there isn’t really anything that I can think of…’

“And it’s not like he just left,” Sans mumbled.

Frisk quickly held up one of their hands in a D-shape, their index finger pointed forward to the left, their palm facing down. They shoved their hand down and right. Sans held back a snicker at how they signed the word “damn.” They did it so aggressively.

“Calm down there, kiddo.” He chuckled, shaking his skull at them.

Frisk always got mean when they were worried or anxious. As soon as Sans told them to calm down, they stuck their middle finger up at him and then pointed it toward him, then signed the letter A and tapped their hand against their head twice.

“Woah there, bucko.” Sans squinted at them, holding his hands up in defense. “You talk to Toriel like that with those hands, and you’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

‘Shut up.’ Frisk signed, huffing quietly.

Sans simply stared at them, watching as their anger faded away, and they signed an apology.

“It’s okay. I get it.” Sans shrugged it off. “I’d be upset too if my brother went missing.”

‘Upset is an understatement.’ Frisk signed with a wince.

Sans just laughed at them. “Yeah. Understatement. You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”