Believe in Me

Mending Fences

Blue stood nervously on the doorstep, stepping from one foot to the other and steeling his nerves. Finally, he knocked.

"Just a minute!" called a familiar voice, and Blue had to stop himself from running away. There was a crash that made Blue wince, wondering what had been broken and hoping it was nothing important. Then the door was flung open, accompanied by a fair amount of cursing, and Stretch was standing in front of him.

The moment he saw who had knocked, he fell completely silent, just staring down at his brother emotionlessly. He had dark circles under his eyes and he was only wearing his shorts and a tank top. His sweatshirt was probably in the wash, which seemed strange. Blue didn't know Stretch even knew how to do laundry.

"Hi Papy." Blue said, wringing his hands. He half-expected Stretch to just slam the door in his face and walk away, but instead, he stepped off to one side, wordlessly telling Blue to come in. Blue did so, wiping his shoes off on the mat and walking into his old house. He looked around for a few seconds, noticing some minor changes here and there. The pet rock didn't have any sprinkles on it, and there was a new couch. He supposed the old one must have finally given up the ghost and he had been forced to replace it. He found himself hoping it was still comfortable enough for his brother to sleep on when he got too drunk to make it upstairs.

"What are you doing here?" Stretch's voice seemed raspier somehow, as if he'd been smoking more since Blue left.

Blue turned to look at him, taking in the relaxed posture of his brother. Anyone who didn't know him well would think he didn't care what was going on, but Blue could see the nervousness in the way he kept sliding his hands along where his stomach would be, as though he was trying to stuff his hands into his pockets.

"It's been almost a year." Blue murmured cautiously. He wanted this to go well. He wanted to mend ties, he wanted his brother back more than anything.

"Yeah. What about it?" Stretch asked, eyelights flicking down to the ring on Blue's finger before coming back up to not quite meet his eyes. "So you're married, then, huh?"

Blue nodded, trying not to cry at the intense awkwardness between them. "Yeah. Wish you'd been able to come."

"Sorry, I had a thing."

There was a long silence, punctuated only by the ticking of the clock in the kitchen.

"What have you been up to?" Blue asked, desperate to break some of the tension.

"Working a lot. Not much else to do."

There was another long silence.

"The house looks nice."

"Yeah."

"Oh, for goodness sakes, Papyrus!" Blue said, tears finally coming into his eyes. "I don't want it to be like this!"

Stretch scoffed slightly, walking to the couch and sitting heavily, refusing to look at Blue. "Then I guess you shouldn't have left, huh?" he said bitterly.

Blue huffed, stepping a bit closer. "You did kick me out." he said cautiously.

Stretch's head snapped up, and he glared at his little brother, who couldn't help taking a step back. "I didn't kick you out," he snarled. "You chose to leave, with him . I'll bet he's here, isn't he? Waiting down in the basement for you to come back to him? To leave me again?"

"No!" Blue protested, holding his hands out in a calming gesture. "They don't even know that I came. I...I didn't want to jinx it."

Stretch looked at him curiously. "You want to mend ties?"