'Til When Will We Part? (Reaper!Sans X Geno!Sans)

TW3P Part 10

Reaper strolled on the surface in a place where mortals rarely visited. He came upon a shrine, deep in the mountains, that was clearly emanating divine energy.

"Yo Grillby, you here?" he called, grinning as a somewhat irritated looking fire god flared to life on top of the shrine. The god had no mouth to speak, but it crackled in a way that clearly communicated some kind of displeasure.

"What? Are you still mad about that? It's been a hundred years since then, Grillbz, give me some slack."

The fire god rolled his shoulders in a dramatic shrug and his flames settled down a bit, crackling a question.

"Right. I came to ask a favor. S'not a big one, so don't worry." The god of the hearth tilted his head and Reaper rubbed the back of his hood. "I was wondering if you could come to the underworld for a bit and help me build a house."

Grillby leaned forward, curiosity showing despite himself. Reaper chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I know. You're right. The thing is, Papyrus and I have a new... roommate. He's a little tired of just sleeping on the ground."

Grillby rolled his neck (since he had no visible eyes to roll) and hit the creature of darkness with a look.

"It's not that simple," Reaper laughed. "He has to sleep. He's a mortal."

At that, the god of the hearth completely froze. For a moment, his flames even stopped flickering. After an increasingly awkward stretch of silence, Grillby stood up, took a few long steps to approach the god of death, and put his fiery hands firmly on his shoulders, making Reaper's eyes widen. That should sting, even for a strong god like Grillby, but the god of the hearth didn't flinch or move back.

It was awkward, but Reaper forced himself to look into his flames and interpret what he was saying. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll give you the short version, okay? It's not important how, but I briefly ended up in another world that was being destroyed. There, I found a mortal who couldn't die. Rather than leave him to oblivion, I invited him to come back with me. Figured Papyrus and I could use the company. His name's Geno."

Many things seemed to flicker past Grillby's flames, but they finally settled on understanding, and he released the death god's shoulders. He thumbed his palms to ease the tingling sensation and bring their flames back, and at the same time he weighed his options in his mind. Finally, he nodded, and Reaper beamed.

"Great! I'll give you a ride." Reaper slipped a black clove onto his left hand and held it out to the flaming god, grin stretched across his skull. Grillby took the hand (it didn't hurt as much as the last touch, but still tingled some) and instantly found them both in the underworld. The quiet and peaceful air gently hit him, and his flames responded by swaying more calmly.

The god of the hearth turned his head to look around at the vast, dark, and flat expanse and tilted his head slightly at Reaper.

"Yeah, anywhere around here should be good. I'll go get Geno so you two can meet each other. 'Sides, I think he wanted to help out."

The older death walked off deeper into the underworld. Grillby occupied himself by examining the area for a good place to start building and thinking up some preliminary designs. It didn't take Reaper long to come back, this time with a... friend.

Grillby's flames flickered with several layers of shock. Not only did this mortal look infinitely more like a god than a human, but he was sporting some horrendous injuries. The bleeding gash on his chest was bad enough, but Grillby practically gagged when he peeked past the glitches over his right eye and saw his melted face.

Reaper's smile turned dangerous and he gave his friend a look of warning. "Hey, watch it, Grillby." He turned a sheepish smile to the mortal skeleton, "Can, uh, can you understand him, Geno?" There was a chance his world had fire beings similar to Grillby, in which case he might be able to understand him.

Reaper's metaphorical heart fell when he looked over and saw Geno shyly hiding his right eye with one hand. His face had flushed red and a magical teardrop was forming in his good eye. "I... I didn't know you could see it," he murmured, already tucking his face into his scarf.

Reaper's eyes widened and he shot a glare at the fire god, who started flickering out apologies.

"It's fine," Geno forced a smile. "I know how it looks. I can't blame you for being surprised. It's awful, right?"

Reaper surprised him by holding his wrist and pulling his hand away from his face. "Don't hide," he ordered. "S'nothin' to hide, anyway. You're a dead ringer, Geno."

He looked over in confusion. "A dead ringer for who?"

"For me, duh. And people would die to see my beautiful face."

"Pfft!" Geno laughed despite himself and delivered a weak punch to Reaper's shoulder. "Seriously, Reaper?"

"No."

Geno stopped laughing and looked up in surprise. "Wait... no?"

"Nah. You're a dead ringer because I hear pretty bells every time I see your face."

The candidness made Geno suddenly blush and hide behind his scarf. Grillby flickered curiously and Reaper grinned.

"N-no, we're not," the mortal started hesitantly.

"Sure are," Reaper interrupted, making him hide in his scarf again.

The fire god just shrugged and gestured to where he thought the house should go. He didn't have all day to sit around with these skeletal love birds.