"Just Business, Sweetheart~" — Chapter 2 Part 1

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hello uta~!

today I bring you chapter two of a mafiafell story. If you haven't guessed, this is very "Sooner or Later" inspired based on my part, so lets make that known! This was also very inspired by a roleplay between me and Phantom, so go give them some love!~ Next chapter will be posted by them since we worked on this together, and I hope you enjoy~!

ps. If you like the story, maybe consider Suggesting it? Also, all coins given will be split between me and phantom~! All is greatly appreciated; and most will be spent on commissions for people to draw Sans and Ari for us for future chapter cover images!

pss. Haven't read chapter one yet?

Read the first part here!

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Table of contents

Story: "Just Business, Sweetheart~"

Credits

Story information and proof

Hashtags

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The Great Papyrus

"SANS!

YOU'RE LATE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" the voice shouted through the phone, it almost being a sort of high pitch yet oddly husky.

"Ack- calm down, Paps!" Sans said, trying to reassure the other over the line. "Ya know WingDings has been sendin' me out to do errands fer him. And.. sides, I got caught up in somethin', but I'll make up the lost time. J'st give me a few, and I'll be home- alright?"

"YOU BETTER-! DINNER HAS BEEN READY FOR THE LAST THIRTY MINUTES, AND BIG BROTHER IS SICK OF WAITING. YOU KNOW HOW HE GETS WHEN YOU ARE LATE, SO HURRY UP BEFORE WE BOTH PAY FOR IT."

"Yeah, yeah. I get ya- j'st ten minutes and I'll be home. And if I'm not, ya can tear me a new one free of charge." Sans couldn't help but give a light snicker at that.

"JUST GET HOME, SANS. I'M TIRED OF THIS WAITING."

And with that, there was a small 'beep' to signify that the other had hung up.

Giving a 'tisk', Sans set the phone back down onto its rack. Ten minutes. He had to get the old hag and her husband to buckle in ten minutes. How hard could that be? Turning around, Sans laid his gaze on the old librarian lady that sat over the counter, with a short old man at her side. A wolfish grin sliding across his face, and with quite the happy tone, chipped out "So, 30k enough to satisfy?"

***

It was noon, the day after Sans had met his little lady face to face for the first time; and yet he still felt like as if it was only a moment ago. Something so beautiful and elegant, the thought of her made his soul flutter. Despite not being able to stop thinking about his little tomatá, the skeleton had too much on his plate to pay her a visit; but that didn't stop him about thinking about what could happen during their next encounter.

"-and so the buildin' has been in rough shape for quite a while. Been wantin' to fix it up but just don't got no money for it. The good people that live there have enough to deal with, and seein as were such a small town.."

That's right, the deal. Sans waved off his small fantasy as of the moment, but he'd have all the time in the world later to think about his little Ari. "Ya don't have to convince me. Ya see.. me and my bros have had our eye sockets set out on this place for a while." He reassured, the now ex-landlord of the complex giving a slight confused look; that made Sans chuckle. "The place has gone ta shit, but we're here ta give a helpin' hand." Course, that wasn't the only reason. That place had his little lady in it, and by damn did he do a lot of persuasion to get Wings to approve to change plans and take that place instead of the one on the opposite side of the small town. "No need to worry bout' the place anymore, old man. Just gather up the people so they can see who they'll be payin' instead for now on, and you'll get what ya bargained fer."

Giving a slow, understanding nod; the man gave a farewell in preparation of the paperwork. "Tomorrow, 10am- right?"

"Yeah," Sans smirked, gesturing for the little old man to hurry up. "-and make sure that they're all there. My bro is plannin' on giving a "speech" bout' their new rent and what we're gonna be doin' around the place. We have a lot we plan on doin', so we need the people on board."

***

She awoke early the next morning, just in time to catch Daniel before he left for work. “Hey, Danny!” She greeted him cheerfully, a rare genuine smile curling up on her delicate lips. Clothing and papers littered the floor of the living room, and Daniel, who knelt in front of the mess, whipped around to face Aria. Disheveled and flustered, he made an attempt to stand, only to trip and fall back into a suitcase. His long brown hair veiled his face from Aria, but make no mistake; she could easily see his flushed cheeks.

Why was he packing? Oh no- not this again... “Are.. are you going somewhere?” Nervously, she bent down next to him, randomly grabbing a few articles of clothing on the floor and stuffing them into the suitcase.

He freed a heavy sigh from his lungs and removed himself from the suitcase, aiding her in shoving more items into his bag. “I am afraid that I am, Ari.”

She knew that tender, soft tone anywhere. He wouldn’t be coming back for a while. Trips like these, where her sweet, overly adventurous companion ventured off into the city never seemed to end well. He always returned with deep wounds that eventually turned into jagged scars. She wondered how he got so many injuries. For all the stories he’d told, he hardly ever told a story about his job. He kept that part of his life quiet, and while Aria respected that, it didn’t mean she enjoyed it. Her smile turned weak and frazzled; yet, she stood up and forced out a laugh. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be back soon. Bring me something from the city?” She began to dig into her pocket for some cash, but Daniel reached out to catch her hand.

Daniel cleared his throat. “You, um, don’t need to pay me. I wanted to bring you something back, anyway.”

She looked down at him with a soft gaze. “You always do.”

Silence for a few moments, then Daniel awkwardly coughed and rose to his feet. He zipped his baggage up, slung it over his shoulder, and gestured to the front door. “Walk me out?” His tone almost seemed wistful. Aria had already snatched her coat from the couch and put it on, at which Daniel smiled. He raised a brow while grinning mischievously, his arm extended for her to take. Now, only a weak smile rested on her lips while they walked together to the edge of town, where the rest of the officers stood in waiting with a car.

“There’s something I.. I need to say, Ari, and-” hesitating, Daniel then speedily killed the sentence with a wave of his hand. “No, perhaps it can wait until I ret- WHOA!”

Aria threw herself into Daniel’s arms, cutting off Daniel’s sentence and nearly sending them both to the ground. She buried her face into his chest, eyes shut tight, breathing intense and rapid.

Daniel felt his gut wrap around itself. “I...Ari, don’t cry…”

She looked up, her burnt, teary eyes locked on his. “Tell me now.”

“...I can’t.”

“Promise me you’ll come home safe?”

Utter silence. She bit her lower lip and moved out of his grasp, to which he reached out for her; but, she stepped back. “Goodbye, Daniel.”

He took a step forth, and this time Aria allowed it. Closing the space between them, Daniel pressed a warm whisper of a kiss on her forehead. “Goodbye, starshine.”

While he walked over to the car to leave, the other officers hooted and hollered at the top of their lungs. “Lover boy! Lover boy!” They chanted. With her cheeks red and her limbs left feeling stiff, Aria began to waddle off home. She ed the library on the way there, and stopped by the window, the corners of her lips curling up into a cute little smile. Perhaps she would take a trip there later on in the week, since Daniel wouldn’t be home to spend time with her.

***

At work, she was surprised by Marcus’s cheerful old face and his outstretched arms, presenting her with a gift. She- too, had brought a gift: half the money she kept from Sans. The poor old man nearly broke down crying at the sight, and signed to her in rapid succession, because unfortunately- the old man had gone deaf over the years. “Open your gift, open your gift, please!” he signed, a wide cheery smile on his face.

A silver, circular locket laid inside the neatly wrapped package. The locket held a picture of Aria, Marcus, and his wife, Janice, in a photo they had taken together two months ago just before Janice had fallen ill. It also had her, Marcus’, and Janice’s initials engraved on the back of it, colored with red lettering.

The locket looked costly, and she couldn’t imagine why Marcus and Janice would’ve ever bought her such a gift; nonetheless, she accepted it graciously, which caused the old man to break out into a smile.

They worked late that night, the restaurant raking in quite a few customers, far more than they normally had. After making a decent amount of money, Aria went home satisfied with herself, her new locket bouncing on her neck.

The next morning, Aria went off to buy some groceries, but a crowd caught her eye in front of her apartment building.

Who else could it be other than that that damned skeleton?

That had been the second time she had seen him...he’d said that she’d be seeing him again soon. What in God’s name could be the reason?

Time to find out.

Aria gently slid herself into the crowd, just barely tall enough to see...him. Sans, that’s what his name was, but instead; stood another extremely tall skeleton. She narrowed her eyes, listening intently to hear whatever the stranger had to say.

The crowd was large, just about everyone in the entire apartment complex was there. Young and old, parent their children, and everything else in between. And at the center was a tall monster, skeleton; to be exact. It wasn't the skeleton she had grown to fear after that that first encounter; but someone different. They were tall, much taller than Sans ever was. In fact, if he were to stand next to this new skeleton, she might even dare say that he looked short in comparison. They wore a brown detective coat that stretched down just ed their knees, and black, polished dress shoes; along side with expensive black dress pants with a freshly pressed red business shirt, and a black tie that just perfectly blended his wardrobe.

Yet that evil, smiling skeleton she had met from before was no where to be seen.

The one that stood in front of the small crowd had to be at least over 7 feet tall; and he looked to be extremely slender, unlike Sans' more built figure. Their face was a bit longer, and their pitch of voice was a higher tone and loud. And the scars on his face only made the tall skeleton look way more sinister, and the image of Sans crossed her mind once more. And even yet, they seemed to be giving some sort of speech to the group of folk that lived in the building they stood in front of.

"-AND IT WILL BE A PLEASURE FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO HELP CLEAN UP YOUR PITIFUL LIVING QUARTERS."

Most of the people looked terrified, some nodded in agreement to what the skeleton was saying, and some were too shocked at what and who they were looking at still.

Aria released a relieved sigh, pressing a hand to her forehead. The rather dapper skeleton she stared at wasn't Sans, but instead referred to himself as 'The Great Papyrus'. "Rather boastful," she murmured to herself.

He...he wanted to help them? After hearing those words, Aria already thought highly of him. She tilted her head, a teensy smile cracking on her face. His clothing, similar to what she had seen Sans wearing a few nights ago, appeared to be made of high-quality fabrics. Surely he must’ve had quite the sum of money, considering his attire and the fact that he would be cleaning up their living space.

The smile brightened up on her face as she noticed other people beginning to take on the idea. She hadn’t seen the community come together like this in ages, not since a gang called 'The Roosters' had ravaged the town and completely destroyed many buildings, along with a plethora of wildlife species, which particularly angered Aria.

She rested her chin on her fist, an idea crawling into her mindspace. “Maybe he’d like some help,” she muttered, then began to push her way to the front of the crowd. Aria hadn’t been involved in any community renovations and had nothing better to do with her time; besides that, this skeleton was paying for work to be done, and many people in the crowd were either disgusted or fearful. Many of the people in the crowd began to run off: they’d need someone they trust to help, and Aria hoped she was that someone.

“Excuse me, ‘scuse me, sorry ma’am, excuse me!”

Once she made her way to the front, she took a few breaths; getting through that crowd exhausted her, somehow, then whispered to Papyrus, “Psst!”, with a friendly little wave.

"-AND AS OF TODAY, OUT OF THE KINDNESS OF ME AND MY BROTHERS HEARTS, YOUR REN-" the skeleton was cut off, his attention caught by a particular human in the crowd, and he fell silent; rather confuse by what she was doing.

"Ehee, well, you seem to be losing some of the people, sir! My people- er...the people, around here don't often see monsters, so you are coming off as quite intimidating to some of them. People as meek as us aren't used to seeing people like you here, you understand, right?" She winked at him with her signature charming smile. "I especially appreciate you helping us out. You're doing great and have most of us on board."

The tall skeleton crossed their lengthy arms. It may not have seemed like it to the others, but he did try to quiet, and went back to what he was saying form before. "-AS I WAS SAYING, MY BROTHERS AND I ARE YOUR NEW LANDLORDS. WE'RE HERE TO FIX UP THIS DUMP OF AN APARTMENT COMPLEX. AND UNTIL IT IS, YOUR RENTS WILL BE HALVED BECAUSE OF THE POOR LIVING CONDITIONS. THAT IS ALL, TINY HUMANS. YOU MAY GO BACK TO DOING HUNAN THINGS."

She winced at his overbearing voice, but could tell he tried to make an effort to speak quiter, which rather pleased the young woman.

Him and his brothers? Fixing up the living space? Wonderful! Utterly elated, Aria's smile grew wider. She believe she quite liked this skeleton, despite his loud tendency. She grinned at him with another wink, giving him a thumbs up.

Just as pleased as Aria, the rest of the crowd that had stayed cheered quietly. She had some questions for the skeleton, the top ones being, why did he want to help...and did he happen to have a brother named Sans? Maybe there were a lot of skeletons in the community and they weren't related at all, but if they were...maybe Aria could use this to her advantage.

She moved a little closer to the skeleton, waving at him again. "Hey, um...Great Papyrus? I'm extremely flattered that you're doing this for the community." An idea popped into her head. "Would you like to come over for lunch? I can give you some tips about the community and cook for you! I just have to pick up some groceries, first."

"GROCERY SHOPPING, YOU SAY ? WELL, I SUPPOSES I COULD HELP YOU, SMALL HUMAN LADY. FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM AMAZING COOK AND WILL GRATUITOUSLY HELP YOU." He said, grabbing Ari by the wrist and began to drag her off; but then stopped, looked down at the little woman and ask, "WHERE IS THE NEAREST SUPERMARKET AGAIN?"

Aria winced as Papyrus took her wrist and tripped over herself when he began to pull her along, but smiled nonetheless. He seemed rather sweet thus far, despite grabbing her and being incredibly loud.

She pointed with her free hand and gently tugged him along with her. "This way!" She led him past the rest of her shabby town and to the small market at the very edge of the village. "Here we are!"

Pitiful bruised fruit sat in crates outside the market, built with browning bricks and mossy wood. With almost no structural , the building sat tilted on its side, and looked as if it would fall over at any second.

It looked as if the tall skeleton was going to vomit. He was so repulsed at the pitiful display of foods, his disgust couldn't be made that any more clear; yet at the moment, he went with it.

Ari had grabbed a hand held grocery basket, and already began to look through the assortment of foods and produce, picking the "best" of the bunch and put it into her small basket. Things like bread that probably gone a bit stale, some fruits that looked too ripe and soft, and some canned goods that were a week or two over their expiration date. Everything here had been sitting here for so long, most had gone bad. And it looked as if they didn't restock as often as most other stores do, on top of everything else.

Though, Ari never saw it as being such a bad thing. Even if some of the fruit were a bit too soft, they were still edible. Sure, most of the bread at the store had gone stale, but it didn't mean that it'd taste all that different slathered in butter with a bit of jelly and toasted to a perfect crisp. Sure, some of the canned foods had gone over the expiration date by a few weeks, but at least it wasn't by a few months or even years.

But that's not how Papyrus saw it. The whole place made his bones crawl and, quite frankly, sick to his non-existent stomach.

Mindlessly, the skeleton picked up a can of green beans in a hand with a dark expression. There was a small layer of dust on the top, signifying that it had been sitting there for quite a while, and the ink on its container seemed a little fadded from what it should have been. It could be seen that his anger was rising, his grip with tightened around it as a pure rage washed over him; and then finally, a small 'crunch' sound rang out- and then a 'pop.' The skeleton had crushed the thing in his hand almost with ease without much thought to it.

what?

Why.. why was he so angry? She had never seen anything wrong with her little market. Sure, some of the food had gone bad, but that didn't mean she couldn't make it good.

Her jaw dropped at the sight of Papyrus crushing a can in his bare, skeletal hands. How did such frail and thin fingers slice through a metal can so easily?

Unable to understand his pure frustration at the lack of fresh foods at the local market, she opened her mouth to defend the place, but got cut off when Papyrus snatched her wrist again and yanked her from the supermarket. Despite being a little upset that he didn't like the place, she was pleased to notice him throw cash to the owner on their way out. She also made sure to throw the store owner an apologetic smile.

"Ouch! Hey, careful!" She complained to Papyrus. Where were they going?

"NO HUMAN UNDER ME IS GOING TO EAT FOOD FISHED OUT FROM A DUMPSTER, LITTLE HUMAN WOMAN! I WON'T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITH MYSELF IF I LET YOU COOK WITH GARBAGE SCRAPS. WE'RE GOING TO GO GET REAL HUMAN FOOD, AND IT WONT BE HALF ROTTEN!"

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Credits

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half credit goes to Phantom for literally writing half of this so far and Credit to StaringBack for making SoL in the first place and giving everyone an amazing story to read. I would link them and their story but I don't think amino would approve so look them up yourself if you're interested~!

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Story info

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Word count?

3,305

Character count?

17,772

Time?

took use about five days because school got in the way, sorry!

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hashtags

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#Monster

#collab?

#CuratorReview

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