Chapter Text
Garrett thought he was doing a pretty good job of keeping his cool. He was calm, collected, and not outwardly losing his mind from being cooped up in a tiny house with nothing to do.
Keyword outwardly.
He didn't have it as bad as Clover, but god was it starting to wear on him. He'd tried to keep himself busy with whatever housework there was to do but he ran out of meaningful tasks weeks ago. A house can only be so clean! At this rate he was gonna have to pick up whittling or something just to pass the time. Martlet had the tools for it at least. Probably. He didn't actually know what tools he'd need for that.
As it was he and Clover spent most the day just… waiting for Martlet to come back. Looking out windows, cleaning things, looking out windows, sitting together in horrible awkward silence until one of them left, and flipping through channels on the TV. (Good god were the pickings were slim. Most channels only showed movies where every role was acted by one robot. Other than those there was a weather channel in a cave with almost no weather, a news channel that couldn't even pretend there was anything news worthy happening, and a 'news' channel that could and did pretend things were happening by making 'reports' about things they made up but 'would be really cool if they were real'. Honestly why even have a TV at that point?)
Oh, and really taking the time to savor everything the windows had to offer. You really couldn't appreciate the practice of looking forlornly out a window until your entire day revolved around waiting for someone to come home.
Her home. It was still her place, he and Clover were just staying there.
Boredom aside, it wasn't too bad. A little cramped but he and Clover were used to running lean. They were sheltered and warm and all things considered pretty damn comfy, the furniture was better than what they had in their old apartment even. They even had a wide variety of food types to cook with! (It was actually so fucking cool that monster food just can't go bad! God that made the grocery math easy! It was taking every ounce of self control he had to not just start cooking for fun, but they were still on a budget so he couldn't go crazy yet. Yet…)
He could genuinely see himself being content with living here, if not for one tiny- well, two- three tiny little problems.
One. He couldn't go outside cause the Royal Guard would kill him. And Clover.
Two. Even without the guard, monsters still needed human souls so he probably wasn't getting a job any time soon.
And those two created the third problem. Martlet was the only one who could do anything. He and Clover were literally helpless to do anything for themselves.
Having to rely on someone else was bad enough, but that they'd made Martlet Responsible for keeping them safe and fed fell on her made it so much worse. He and Clover had almost literally fallen out of the sky and made themselves her problem to deal with. It wasn't fair to her at all.
It was just… a shitty thing to do to someone. He would know.
She deserved better than this shit.
He really could not understate just how much she was doing for them. Hiding them, giving her home to them, sharing her food them, god they'd be completely screwed without her. Really, cooking and cleaning was the bare minimum he could do to make it up to her.
Not like there was much else he could do.
It was getting dark out now. It took a few days for it to really strike him how odd that was, given they were underground. He'd asked Martlet about it and she'd explained that all the ice and snow made it so any light source would reflect around and light up the whole area, so the 'daylight' was actually a culmination of all the lights in Snowdin (though most of it came from Snowdin Town. They really liked their christmas lights apparently). When people started turning in for the night and switching off their lights, all of Snowdin got darker. This also meant it was considered rude to leave exposed lights on at night.
…
What was he thinking about? Right, it was getting dark and Martlet wasn't back yet. He wasn't worried, this had happened too many times to still be anxious about what might be holding her up, he just-
Oh hey there she was. Way off in the distance he could see a little blue speck flying closer.
Finally, he could start dinner.
"And you could barely even tell the boards had been swapped out!" Martlet said excitedly as she finished regaling the tale of how she replaced some lightly burned wood plank in a burger joint.
They did this pretty much every evening. Martlet told him and Clover about her day while he served up whatever he made for dinner, she and Clover chat in that weird way they did (sometimes it felt like she knew them better than he did) until he sent them to bed, then he and her would their own chat until their own bed times. It was easier let them have her attention first instead of fighting for it.
It was nice to hear her be so proud of her work, her confidence in her carpentry had a lot of ups and downs lately. Mostly downs, especially since she quit being a Royal Guard. It especially sucked cause he didn't know shit about woodworking so he couldn't do much to reassure her. (Though if he's being very, very honest he could never really tell if she was actually any good at it. He'd seen the puzzles she'd made in Snowdin and they were, rough looking to say the least. And being able to tell which parts of the house were done by her instead of her mentor wasn't encouraging.)
After dinner she turned in early, saying that she was tired from 'all that hammering'. It wasn't strange on it's own but the way she said it was… incredibly suspicious?
Whatever. If she wanted to lie about being tired to go to bed early, that's her business. He wasn't gonna let her weirdness ruin his night
Nothing else to do he finished his night by gently reminding Clover to brush before bed ("If I go into the bathroom right now and check your toothbrush, is it gonna be wet?" … "Yeah, that's what I thought."), he settled into the couch for the night.
Until Martlet came back downstairs with a blanket and pillow.
He could barely maker her out through the dark, "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Well, since you seem to enjoy sleeping down here so much I thought I could join you. Like a sleepover." She said cheerfully.
…
She's up to something…
Well, it's her house… "Sure, if you want." He shrugged.
"Great!" She smiled and plopped herself in the armchair.
Oh absolutely not. "That can't be comfortable. Here, you can take the couch, I'll-"
"You don't need to do that. I'm good here." She chirped.
"No seriously, sleeping on that thing is gonna fuck up you're back. Come on, just-"
"Nope!" She said, popping the P, "I'm staying right here!"
…
Okay, fine. The hard way it was then.
He knocked his pillow off the cough, grabbed his blanket and laid down on the floor.
"W- What are you doing?!"
"Look, the couch is free! There is absolutely no reason not to use it now."
A few moments passed in silence. He couldn't quite make out her expression in the dark but he could tell she was thinking.
Then she threw her bedding on the floor and laid down next to him.
"What the hell-"
"Well since laying on the floor is good enough for you I figured I'd join you!"
"Martlet that's- There's no reason to do this!"
Being this close to her meant he could see her scrunched up scowl very clearly, "Oh really?! You're saying there's no reason to do this? That making myself uncomfortable doesn't help anyone?!"
… Oh goddammit. "Is that what this is about?! The bed thing?
"YES!"
*click*
The lights flicked on and they both covered their eyes.
Once their eyes adjusted they turned to the stairs, where Clover was standing next to the switch.
They stared at the two, laying on the floor. Where they'd been shouting at each other a moment ago. In the middle of the night.
…
"You're both stupid."
With that they flicked the light switch back off and went back upstairs.
…
…
Okay… Fair.
Fuck.
They both laid there for a while, staring at the ceiling not saying anything. It was even darker than before now that their eyes unadjusted.
Martlet broke the silence, "Why are you so against having a real bed?"
… He sighed, "Cause you're already doing so much for us, and it wouldn't feel right to take even more from you."
…
"You're not taking anything from me."
"We're taking up space in your home. We're eating your food and taking you're time… You quit your job because of us. We already owe you our lives, taking anything more is just selfish."
…
"Garrett, you don't owe me anything."
"We-"
"No, you don't. I don't want you to owe me. You're my friends, I want you to be happy and… when you doing things that make you miserable to avoid 'taking' something from me, it makes me feel like garbage."
Oh… "I didn't, think of it like that. I- I thought… Sometimes I feel like, we're taking advantage of you. We didn't really give you a choice, it was either take us in leave us to fend for ourselves."
"It was my idea."
"You were never going to let us die. Too damn nice for that."
…
"So, what? I'm too nice for my opinion to matter?
"N-no." But he was thinking something similar, wasn't he? "Just, it's not fair to make you choose in the first place."
…
"What if I want you here?"
He looked away from the ceiling to face her. She did the same.
"Even if we're a burden?"
"You're not a burden, neither of you." He could only see glints of light reflecting off her eyes, "Maybe some things are more difficult, I'm still getting used to living with others but, it's worth it. I love coming home to you two."
… He never thought he'd enjoy living with someone else.
She squinted in the dark. "Is that why you won't let me make breakfast? So you won't be a burden?"
…
"Kinda. I just, want to do something for you. I ran out of stuff to clean so, it's kinda all I can do."
"You don't have to do anything for me."
…
"What if I want to?"
They fell back into silence. He could almost see her in the dark again.
He looked back at the ceiling. "Does the bed thing really mean that much to you?"
"Yes, it does."
…
He sighed, "We still need a place to put it. The bed, I mean. I… don't feel comfortable taking over your workshop. I know you said I don't owe you but that's… that's too much."
"Okay. We'll find somewhere else to put it."
"Where though? The only other rooms are the living room, kitchen, bathroom and Clover's room, and I'm really not keen of bunking with them."
…
"We could put it in my room."
"I- Is that- You you really-"
"Garrett, I don't care. Seriously, I do not care. It's more important to me that my friend has a real place to sleep than having a room to myself."
…
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay. We'll put it in your room. But only if you get a bed for yourself too. No more sleeping in a hammock."
…
"Okay."
"Good."
…
"I want you to talk to Clover. Really talk to them, so maybe you won't be so weird around each other anymore."
…
"Okay. I'll talk to them."
She sighed in relief. "Thank you."
One month later
He woke up early, internal alarm clock as frustratingly on point as ever.
Seeing no point in wasting time in bed he carefully got up from-
"Mmph…" Something pulled him back.
He sighed, "Martlet, come on."
The wing around his abdomen tugged again. "Nhg… Five more minutes…"
He could never tell if she was actually conscious when she did this…
…
Oh… fine. "Okay, five minutes. But that's all." Shouldn't matter if he started his day now or a few minutes from now.
He laid back down and she wrapped her wings around him, securing him in place and dozing off again.
Five minutes…
Opening her eyes, she could immediately tell that she'd slept in again.
She tried to sit up, but couldn't.
Garrett had both arms around her and his face buried in her neck fluff, pinning her in place.
She tried to pry him off but…
"… 's your day off…" He mumbled into her fluff.
… It was, wasn't it?
It didn't seem like he was going to let go anytime soon and he needed the rest soo…
A few more minutes couldn't hurt.
You looked at Martlet and your brother cuddling in bed, still asleep.
It was almost 4pm.
You were starting to feel like getting them together was a mistake.