Healing Scars [[Honey Mustard]]

Tortured Souls

The next day Red soon found himself walking in Hotlands. No matter how hot he ever felt in his jacket before in Snowdin, this was a blaze. Beads of sweat were running down his skull, his anxiety a reason for it too. He was nervous to meet Undyne again. 

The Undyne he knew was no healer or nice monster what so ever. Yet, the Undyne that these new skeletons had been talking of seemed more like Alphys, except she wasn't. . . well, this Undyne didn't sound like she was a mad scientist.

His nerves were eased a little more when he realized this though. Alphys had become one of his only real friends. She was a mad scientist, yes, but behind all that she was simply a geek who was following the way of the crowd to fit into the world.

"You doing okay there bud?" Stretch asked Red, noticing him beginning to stare into the distance, his expression had seemed nervous about meeting Undyne.

"Y-Yeah," Red responded, snapped from his thoughts.

The three skeletons had reached the large doors. Somehow, even the doors seem less intimidating, Red noted half amused.

The door slid open easily, and a gust of cool air blew onto Red. It had felt so nice he almost wanted to let the door close and have it open before him again.

Instead, he simply took a deep breath and followed the other two. 

He froze at the sight of Undyne, backing up a little. His brain had seen Undyne and automatically snapped into lockdown. Then his mind had done the usual scan over a monster that was usually a way for Red to know just how bad he might be beaten. 

This Undyne only had a few similarities to the one Red knew, and only just enough to frighten him. The monster he saw before him looked nervous as well. She didn't seem any more prepared to talk with Red as he had been to meet her, and her posture was bent over slightly, all these were signs of a monster who seemed a hard worker at a desk. 

'Or that of an anime binge watcher,' he thought, a smile wanting to show on his face. His mind had begun to revert to jokes again, his way of trying to ease his own worries.

"H-hello," The monster before them said, the familiar stutter in her words. "I-I only want to t-take a few tests on y-you, i-if you don't mind, of course,"

Red looked at her again, scanning her stance. He didn't like the sound of 'tests'. He remembered what Stretch and Blue had told him of her. They made her sound like a friendly doctor only here to do a check up.

"Okay," He simply said.

He followed the monster first to a scale, and obediently did whatever she had said to do. Each time she boggled at the results, much to the worry of Red.

Then they simply sat. She, at a computer, and Red on a chair near her. Red couldn't see what the monster before him was typing, he couldn't even tell which letters her claws pressed, they typed too fast.

"O-Okay," Undyne finally said, looking towards Red again, "C-can I ask you a few q-questions?"

Red simply nodded again, spying at her curious but cautiously.

"How o-often do you eat full m-meals?" Undyne began, hoping to start with an easy one.

"Never," Red responded evenly, the only food he ever ate at home was just enough to keep him living, but always feeling empty. And for a skeleton to say he felt empty, that's saying something right there.

Undyne steadily looked more worried after hearing each answer to her questions. This skeleton was supposed to have near the same stats and weight as Blue.

Red was dozens of pounds underweight. His stance and posture showed to Undyne that he never got a good sleep. The way Red looked around and at her. . .He almost seemed cautious, scared even. Yet, he would do anything she asked him to do with almost no hesitation, like she were sending him orders. He showed signs of self harm as well. 

In conclusion, this skeleton has had one hell of a shitehole for a life.

Then Red said something that made Undyne stagger in surprised and worry.

The reason for all of this, the wounds, starvation, dehydration, lack of sleep, even his obiedience, it was all because of his own brother. His own brother abused him in every way possible.

Gasps from the other two skele-bros were audible as she reported everything she had gathered on Red as he sat in another room.

"That's horrible!" Blue exclaimed. Both skeletons had been aware of his brother being mean, but they hadn't realized the full extent of it,

The taller skeleton was silent, his expression grim as it tried to hide behind a look of pure laziness again, he seemed to have lost in thought.

"I have covered and medicated any breaks and fractures you missed," Undyne added, "Now we all need to begin to help him fully as he recovers to a good health. I would like to see you once a week. I will try and come up with something to help him generate and heal faster,"

After a little bit longer of talking with the smart monster, the brothers decided it had been time to go.

Stretch walked into the room and saw Red sleeping peacefully. Stretch simply picked him up softly, and began to walk with Red in his arms. Stretch looked to the skeleton for a moment. He couldn't believe someone would want to hurt someone like this, much less Red's own brother. 

Stretch wanted to find this so called 'brother' and punch him in the face. 

In his mind, Stretch realized a new thing. He realized just how he had begun to like Red, and wanted to protect him with his life.

'No,' Stretch thought, shaking his head to rid it of the thought, 'He would never like me anyway. I probably even resemble his brother too close for comfort,"

The the realization hit him in that's why he had almost looked terrified to see Stretch at the first time.

Stretch looked to Red, who slept in comfort with the warmth of Stretch. 

Red accepted the moment of no nightmare with glee. He slept soundly in the arms of Stretch, while Stretch simply held a lazy smile on his face again.

Word Count: 1064