A Friend (Stanford Pines x Reader)

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Stanford's POV

Ford walked with his shoulders hunched, eyes trained on the ground. For a moment, his memory was whisked back to his days in school, where he walked in this fashion down the crowded halls. Both times, he had been doing it to evade attention -- avoiding attention from Crampelter in school, avoiding attention from different creatures with malicious intentions now. Just as quickly as it came, the memory left, leaving Ford in the unfamiliar terrain, all alone once again. Humans were a minority in the multiverse, and already, Ford had his fair share of enemies. Not that they would ever see it that way, but Ford was justified in stealing some foreign currency and any scraps of what resembled edible food he could find. He had to survive somehow.

Thanks to a group of stranded miners in the Nightmare Realm, Ford was at least equipped with a dimensional translator.  If he was going to be stranded in the multiverse, he at least wanted to understand the languages around him. Already, his intelligent mind was beginning to memorize certain sounds and basic words. 

Ford sighed and tucked his hands into the pockets of his trench coat, trying to ignore the hunger brewing in his empty stomach. How long had it been since he had last eaten? In the chaos of out-running different creatures and trying to tear down accumulating wanted posters for his capture, Ford had lost track. He wouldn't be surprised if he was the first human to have ever traversed the multiverse. Sure, Fiddleford caught a glimpse of it, but only for a moment. No one here would judge him for his extra digits, but old habits die hard.

As soon as Ford entered the other side of the portal, the feeling of weightlessness took over him. As he drifted into the Nightmare Realm, he thought he was as good as dead, with his brother's desperate, terrified face the last thing he'd ever see. But he didn't die. Instead, he found himself here after a short altercation with the infamous Bill Cipher, the demon disguised as a muse. He ran his finger along the photograph of he and Stanley instinctively, trying to gain comfort from it. He frowned, then looked up from the ground to survey his surroundings. 

Finding himself on a desolate sidewalk, Ford stared at the different, strange buildings. Some were small, others were large, their structure defying all natural laws of physics in his home dimension, though he was less fazed about it now. One building had a dim light illuminating from the windows. From a quick look inside, it looked to be a store of some sort. Stealing had gotten easier the more he did it -- quick pick-pocketing, the flick of his wrist in grabbing the first food item he saw off of a counter, petty theft, but he still wanted to avoid it as much as possible. Ford's brown eyes scanned the walls of the room from the outside. No posters. With a shrug of his shoulders, he opened the door and stepped inside.

Immediately, his nose detected a new scent as he entered. It would have been something akin to the aroma of a candle back in his home dimension, but the scent was new to him, disorienting his brain. 

The creature at the counter looked like an unidentifiable creature from one of his childhood science fiction books. He was lanky, with bright orange flesh and three eyes, the third placed directly in the center of his forehead. He smiled, revealing several rows of jagged teeth, then began to speak. 

For a moment, Ford stood there, stunned. Shaking his head to break the confusion, he reached for the translator and activated it. "How may I help you?" the creature had asked. 

"Just browsing," Ford said shakily in the same language. The creature nodded and turned his head down again, blinking each of his eyes one at a time. Ford approached the counter tentatively. There was nothing remarkable in stock: a few bottles of various colored liquids, a few pocket knives, and other small items. His eyes landed on a pile of small bars wrapped in something that resembled paper. "Is... is this food?" he asked, gesturing to it. The creature looked, then nodded, a small smile on his face. "You're not from here, are you?"