Chapter Text
The hall was a chaos of noise around you. People screamed cheers, boos, bets and just random things to their friends. It was hard to focus on just one voice so you didn’t try. Instead you sat on the floor of the matt waiting for your opponent. You were a cage fighter and a damn good one at that. In your time you had only lost one fight and that was because you didn’t show up to the damn match.
You kept your eyes closed and your arms crossed as you waited. Sometimes it took what felt like forever for someone to come up and fight you. Finally you hear the microphone make a screech and people start to lower their voices. It’s still chaos but it’s lowered enough that you can hear the announcer now.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Please place your last bets because we are going to start in just a few moments!” The man, Cory, says holding onto the microphone. He is standing in the middle of the ring when you open your eyes. You can also see your opponent at the other side of the ring glaring at you.
“In this corner we have our challenger! Eagle Wings!” Cory announces and ‘Eagle Wings’ starts to throw his fists in the air earning cheers. He’s a strong man, six pack and muscular arms and legs. The man’s brown hair is buzzed down to his head and his brown eyes keep glaring at you. “In the other corner we have our champion! The Bone Doctor!”
You take this moment to stand up and chuckle. Cory gave you the name after your first match where you broke the guy’s jaw and his arm in one fight. Crossing your arm in front of your chest you use your other arm to pull it to stretch the muscles, while at the same time you crack your neck from side to side. You are a tall man, around 5’9, and you have your own six pack. Your arms and legs are about an average build of muscles. While you are strong you can pass as a plain guy with the right clothes on the street. Your (color) hair is cut in an organized mess on your head, the curls never going past your ears. Your (color) eyes don’t even look at the man but on Cory. Both you and your opponent are wearing skin tight shorts and bandages wrapping your hands and feet to prevent anything from breaking easy.
Cory looks between the two of you and smirks, “This will be their first match! Eagle Wings brings in a 11:8 win to lose ratio! The Bone Doctor brings in a 13:1 win to lose ratio! If you bet against this man you have already lost your money!”
You chuckle at Cory’s banter but Eagle gets angry. He roars through his mouth guard and smacks his hands against his chest in a boast that he’s not going to lose. You roll your eyes and put a hand to your hip waiting for the cage to lower.
“Woah there Eagle Wings! I’m only talking numbers! Things could happen! You could bring down our champion tonight!” Cory yells then looks around, “Are you ready for a good time!!!??”
With the roars from the crowd Cory goes between the ropes to get out of the stage. He stands on his own stage that is a bit lower than the matt and a machine starts to whirl in the building, “Then lets! Lower! That! CAGE!” Cory screams with people joining in.
As the cage starts to lower Eagle starts to walk towards you. You take a few steps to stand in the middle of the ring and then wait. Eagle circles you like an actual bird as the cage snaps into place around the ring. The two of you are now closed inside with no way out. The only way out is for one of you to be unconscious. And you know it’s not gonna be you.
When the bell rings for the start of the fight Eagle moves around you still waiting for you to make a move. But you don’t move an inch, the only thing moving is your eyes as you watch the man going around you. You had a rule about fighting, don’t do shit unless someone hits you first. Things can always be solved without fighting but if someone lands a hit on you, you fight back. In these cage matches you always let them get in one punch...to be fair.
Eagle seems to remember that about your fights as he comes in for a punch. His fist lands solidly on your cheek and you start to fall over from the force. You go down to your hands and feet skidding across the ground to stop yourself from falling over on your ass. Once you stop moving you swallow the bit of blood and saliva as you can’t spit it out and stand up to grin at Eagle.
Eagle had the sense to know that he was fucked as you stood tall in the ring and started walking towards him with your hands at your side. You weren’t even worried about blocking from this man. You had felt his punch and it was weak to you. Halfway to Eagle you lowered your body and ran for him.
Grabbing his face with your hand you pushed him back and slammed the back of his head into the cage behind him. The roar from the crowd urged you to bring your other arm up to punch Eagle in the gut. When you feel him going down you release his face and move back to the center of the ring and cross your arms. This kid was a joke. Everyone could see it now.
Eagle coughed behind his mouth guard and stood up holding his stomach. You could see that he was trying to growl at you but over the screams of the crowd you couldn’t hear it. He was like an angry kitten trying to flash it’s claws at him. It was adorable to him but to the crowd he looked like he was struggling with what to do.
You grinned as Eagle rushed you when they finally got their bearings. He threw punch after punch but you blocked each one with your forearms. With their last punch you threw their arms to the side and let your weight carry your foot up and kicked him square in the head. Eagle went down hard and you bounced on your pads waiting to see if he would get back up this time. When he stayed on the ground you stopped bouncing and crossed your arms.
“And that is the end to Eagle Wings!” Cory roared as the crowd erupted in cheers and boos. “Open the cage and let our champion out!”
The machines started to whirl again and the cage started lifting up. You looked over at Cory and could see the irritation in his eyes. You knew that you were going to get a talking to when you were back in the locker rooms. Sighing you held up your arms so people could cheer for your victory.
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“How many times do I have to repeat myself Bones?!”
“Maybe just a few more times...didn’t hear it over your screaming.” You grumble unwrapping your feet.
Cory turned and glared at you, “You wanna get the big fucking cash then you need to draw out the fights! You can’t just knock these kids out in one hit!”
You sigh and unwrap your hands as Cory continues to yell at you. You’ve heard it all before. You were too strong for these kids and you knocked them out too quickly. Ignoring the yelling that was going on next to you, you stood up and just pushed your shorts down. You reached over to your bag to grab your clothes.
“Are you listening to m-” Cory stopped as he looked back over at you and screamed, “Gah! Dude! What the hell?! You don’t just strip with another man in the room!”
You glanced back at him confused, “You just aren’t secure with yourself.” You joke as you grab your boxers and slip them on your body, “Plus, you’ve seen me naked before”
As your putting on your pants Cory groans and throws his hands up, “You were fucking a broad! I didn’t see your dick either! Ugh!” He threw a rolled up wad of cash on the ground, “I’ll contact you later about the next fight.”
With that Cory left the room and you were alone again. Rolling your eyes at his freakout you grabbed your shirt and pulled it over your head. The last thing you did was pull on your converse and pack your bag. Slinging it over your shoulder you pick up the cash off the ground and head out of the building.
The cold wind bites at your skin as you head out down the street but you don’t care. It’s a nice sting from hot the building had been. The bank wouldn’t open until tomorrow morning and you really needed a drink. Rubbing your hand on the forming bruise on your jaw you realized you also needed to get some monster candy, or just some monster food in general.
You started to pass by a new bar and you looked up at the sign. ‘Grillby’s’ was the name of the new bar. You had heard about it as it was one of the new monster buildings in town. Monsters were a thing now. After the barrier around Mt. Ebbot had fallen monsters had come above ground and shocked the world. They were held in quarantine for the first few months that they were here and after they had shown that they were not a threat to humanity they were given basic rights and from there it was like any other group of people joining a town.
The banks were happy because all the monsters had gold for currency and because of that most monsters had a shit ton of money now. They were able to build homes and shops with the money and you had heard the former Queen had even built a new school that taught monsters and humans. It was good because the monster ambassador was an adorable twelve year old child. Realizing you had just been standing near the bar you shrugged your shoulders and walked for the door. A monster bar is bound to have booze and monster food.
Opening the door you realized very quickly that there were only about three humans in the bar and they were there together. You didn’t have a problem with anyone, and that went along with monsters as well. To you they were just people trying to live their lives as well. You ignored the stares you were getting and walked right up to the bar and sat down on a stool.
When the bartender walked up you felt yourself chuckle, “Lookin’ pretty hot there.” You say looking at the fire monster behind the bar.
You can practically see the irritation on the monster’s face. He must hear that joke a lot. He holds out his hand and you assume it’s for your id. Shrugging you dig into your bag and pull it out and hand it to him. He looks it over then hands it back, “What can I get you?....” The monster asks and his voice is deep with a echo of a burning fire on wood. It’s a soothing sound and you can’t help but smile.
“I’ll take a whiskey on the rocks and the best piece of food you make.”
“Our food is only monster food. We don’t have human food here.” He says and crosses his arms, “Will that be a problem?”
You arch your brow, “No, why would it be a problem?” You ask. When you get no response other than the glare you lay one of your arms on the bar to lean over, “Did I give off some sort of bad vibe or something?”
The monster seems a bit shocked by your question and watches you. You are about to ask if it would be better if you left when the fire monster raises his hand and taps his own cheek. Blinking a bit you raise your hand and feel the bruise on your face and sigh, “Ah, that. It’s nothing bad.” You say and lose the tension in your arms, “I’m a cage fighter and just got down with a fight.”
When nothing is said you close your eyes, “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I’ll just go and get out of your hair.”
As you start to stand up you feel a warm touch on your arm. You don’t flinch but you do look at the fire hand on your arm then up at the monster, “I should be the one to apologize. I’m very protective of my regulars and I judged you harshly. Our best item is our burgers. Is that alright?”
You smile brightly and nod, “Burgers sounds awesome. Thank you.” You say and then hold out your hand for a proper handshake. “The name is ___. I might become a regular depending on how good your ‘burg is.”
“I’m Grillby.” He says with a chuckle and takes your hand giving you a firm handshake.
When you release his hand he moves off to get your food and drink. You take the moment to look around the bar and spot a few interesting characters. There was a plant monster with a very large mouth. A drunk bunny girl with an equally drunk bird man at the other end of the bar. There was also a table with a five dog monsters that looked to be playing poker. That last one earned you a chuckle as you thought of that famous painting of dogs playing poker.
The last thing you noticed was a small stage with a microphone and a short skeleton monster adjusting the microphone to his height. This kept your interest as you looked him over. He wore a white shirt, a blue jacket with fur along the hood, black basketball shorts and pink house slippers. It was an amusing sight but what you found amazing was the fact that he was a fucking skeleton! His rounded face seemed to have a permanent smile on it as his eye sockets had small lights in them that you assume was his version of eyes. He also had a bit of a belly which confused the hell out of you because he was a skeleton, how did he have fat?
You were pulled from your thoughts as Grillby came back with your order and set it down in front of you. You looked up at him and nodded your head to the stage, “What’s short, cute and boney doin’ up there?” you asked the fire man.
Grillby gave a snicker at your description, “His name is Sans and he does a little comedy skit every few weeks, or when he feels up to it.” He says before walking over to the table with the humans at it.
You grin as you think of what the small skeleton would say in his ‘comedy skit’. Picking up the ‘burg you took a bite and almost moaned. It was the most amazing burger you had ever tasted. You took a few more bites and felt the magic inside swirl up your body to your cheek. You could faintly feel the bruise leaving. After that it was game over for the burger. You had scarfed that sucker down and you felt amazing.
Taking the glass and drinking some whiskey you hissed through your teeth at the sting and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Soon enough the mic turned on and you could hear a rich deep baritone of a voice come across the speakers.
“how’s everyone doin’ tonight?”
There were a few grumbles and Sans seemed to grin a bit, “well then it seems i got here in the mic of time.” He says waving the microphone a bit.
That earns a chuckle from you. Oh jeez, puns and bad jokes were a weakness for you. And the fact that it was coming from this cute skeleton was putting your brain on overtime. A few more puns were thrown around until his real bit began.
“my bro got mad at me the other day ‘cuz i was making so much noise. and i told him ‘bro, i gotta practice my instrument.’ and he asked me what i was playing and i said, ‘my favorite, the trom-bone.’ “ Sans says earning a few groans and laughs around the bar.
You almost did a spit take with your whiskey at the joke. Oh gods, he did skeleton puns too? You were going to have a hard time here. The small skeleton kept giving off pun after pun soon it was becoming really hard to hold in your laughter. Soon though he thanked the crowd and walked off the stage. Looking up at the time you realized how late it was and paid your tab and left the bar.
You would definitely be a regular at Grillby’s.