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saurexhas · 2 years

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Feast of 1000 Beasts (Not Literally)

Butcher’s birthday was back in January, but this was still so much fun to write up. I don’t think I’m catching up any time soon though XD

Once again, this is set in the @nightmare-castle universe, with a guest appearance from Utotale! Hope you all enjoy!

“Excuse me! May I have everyone’s attention?” Pyre looked upon his brother’s teammates… coworkers? Associates? Whatever… Cross, Killer, and Dust were all in the lounge, playing cards. Well, Dust and Killer were playing, and Cross was about three seconds away from turning the table into a lawn dart. Why the ex-soldier continued to play cards against these two never ceased to surprise him, considering that it almost always ended up with Cross being broke and angry at the world.

At the very least, it seemed that his announcement would save him from having to replace another table. All three of them looked up as he spoke out in his usual loud voice, with various amounts of actual interest in whatever he had to say. Still, he had their attention, which is exactly what he asked for, so no time to complain about all the little details!

“As I’m sure you’re all aware, today is my brother’s birthday!”

“Oh… was that today?” Cross chimed in with uncertainty.

“Butch has a birthday?” Killer added.

“Don’t care,” was all Dust mumbled, placing down a card from his hand. “Ono.”

“Dammit! How the hell do you always win?!”

“Cross, if you don’t break the table, I shall forgive you all for forgetting my brother’s birthday,” Pyre sighed, looking to the three in exasperation. “Never fear! The great Pyre always has a backup plan to account for things such as others forgetting birthdays! I’ve already planned a great feast as my brother’s present, with our king’s permission of course! And you three are going to help me!”

Killer’s skull moved as if he was rolling his nonexistent eye lights. “And why would we do that? What do we get outta helping ya?”

With the most serious look he could muster, Pyre calmly stated, “Only those that assist will be allowed to enjoy the feast.”

“Wait, so if we don’t help you out, we go hungry?” Cross seemed to be the most upset… er, well he seemed to be the only one that was upset about that possibility. That meant that he’d have to plan around Killer and Dust’s obvious reluctance.

The taller skeleton’s usual grin was back on his face as he waved off the soldier’s worries. “Oh, not to worry! Your task is relatively easy Cross! All you need to do is keep my brother occupied whilst I shop for and prepare the feast! As for you two…” His gaze turned to the others, ignoring how the monochrome skeleton clearly didn’t think that entertaining Butcher would be easy. “You two will be coming with me to the Uto market! I’ll be in need of help carrying the groceries and picking out the best selections!”

“Why don’t ya just take Butcher hunting?” Killer piped up, leaning back in his chair as he casually threw down a skip that left Cross fuming. “Don’t you Horrortale variants love fresh meat? Just throw him in some safari or nature preserve and call it good!”

“Oh, now that is just verse-ist and you know it.” He waggled his finger disapprovingly in the emotionless skeleton’s direction, even if his scolding would have little to no effect. “If you wish though, think of the trip to the market as a civilized hunting trip! And we shall be doing the hunting so that my brother can enjoy his birthday without having to worry about food!” Even if his brother might truly revel in the thrill of the hunt, he wanted to pamper him and allow Butcher to enjoy a meal with no work or strings attached for once.

“I’m in,” Dust shrugged his shoulders, turning his focus back to the single card in his hand as he threw it down. “And I win again.”

“Wait, you’re actually gonna go along with this?” Killer seemed surprised that the normally reclusive skeleton was up for it, everyone ignoring how Cross was tugging on his uniform’s straps and trying desperately not to scream in rage as Dust scooped up all of his G on the table.

The hooded skeleton was focused more on counting his winnings, only glancing up slightly between Pyre and Killer. “It’s a day off, right? The king gave permission, and we all know better than to argue with Pyre.”

“Huh, good point… okay, I’m in!” Killer hopped to his feet, with his quiet teammate legging behind as he scooped up his winnings. “So, we heading out right now?”

The tallest skeleton of the bunch was thrilled that the two were willing to assist on the promise of a day off, clapping his hands a bit and nodding. “We can if the both of you are ready!”

“Wait, how the hell am I supposed to distract Butcher?!” Cross cried out, looking at the group as they started heading out.

Killer was the one to respond, turning around and sneering, “Maybe play cards against him! It’s always fun watching you lose over and over again!” Dust snickered quietly at the remark, with Pyre sighing once again as he ignored all of the curses slipping from the soldier’s mouth.

“Very well, let us get going then! The sooner we get there, the sooner we can procure everything we need!” Leading the way, Pyre turned back once to wish Cross good luck in his quest, missing the look of desperation directed at his back as the three skeletons teleported to Utotale.

Cross knew that he was screwed. Why did he get this assignment?! Didn’t Pyre like him? He was way more responsible than the other two, so why was he the one left on babysitting duty while they got to go to Uto? Groaning to himself, the ex-soldier looked down to where Butcher was sitting in the garden, sharpening his axe and humming some tune to himself. Maybe he could just leave the big guy alone? Surely Butcher would be able to entertain himself for a while… though he’d get suspicious the second he went to the kitchen and found his brother missing. Stars, he really was about to do this, wasn’t he?

Descending the steps, he noticed the subtle movements of his teammate’s skull, indicating that Butcher now knew he was here. “Whatcha doin’ here, marshmallow? Come ta smell the roses?” The larger skeleton clearly thought that he was funny, whereas the marshmallow nickname just left Cross once again considering to bail on this plan and fend for himself for dinner.

“I told you not to call me that,” he growled back in response, shooting the other a glare as their gazes finally met. Taking a breath to calm his temper, he tried to seem as casual as possible. “I was just… curious about what you were working on, that’s all.”

That one red eye narrowed suspiciously at his words, Butcher putting his whetstone in his pocket as he stood up. “Yer a horrible liar, little Oreo. Mind tellin’ me why yer really here?”

He didn’t know which nickname was worse, but at least Oreo didn’t imply that he was soft and squishy like marshmallow did. Steeling his nerves, he stood as tall as he could… even if it did nothing to minimise the height difference between them. Well… Killer had said that they love seeing him lose… “Fine, you caught me. Had a bit of a challenge for ya. I need to practice dealing with more aggressive monsters, so… how about a hunt?” Oh stars, this was a horrible idea! “I run off into the garden, and you hunt me down. I get my practice, and you get… whatever you get out of hunting other monsters down.”

It seemed to take the scarred skeleton a moment to process his request, though his eye was quick to dilate as if trying to take all of him in at once. “Y’sure ya wanna do that, Oreo? Can’t say I’ll hold back if ya really get me going.” Swallowing down his fear, Cross nodded, the action causing Butcher to let out a raspy chuckle. “Alright tidbit, I’ll give ya a head start. Better hope ya can run fast, or this won’t be any fun~”

Blinking a couple times, the monochrome skeleton quickly processed the predatory look he was being given, and bolted. “I’m such a fucking idiot, I should’ve gone with cards!” He hissed at himself, hoping to put as much distance between himself and his hunter as possible before his head start was up. He could only hope that things were going smoothly on Pyre’s end of things.

“Here we are, the Utotale market!” Pyre announced with glee, gesturing to the many stalls and shops filled with monsters bustling about. This utopic world welcomed anyone so long as they didn’t cause trouble, including those among Nightmare’s ranks. As such, nobody spared them more than a glance before continuing on their way. It was nice to not be scorned for their political associations for once, the tall skeleton enjoying the peaceful view for a moment before getting on with the day’s mission.

Fishing out a pen and notebook, he turned to the two skeletons he’d recruited with his usual enthusiasm. “Alright! I want my brother’s feast to be memorable, and as such I want to collect ingredients from several AUs! The main focus shall be meat, as it’s my brother’s favourite, but we’ll need all sorts of supplies. Killer, can you please start looking around for more rare and exotic meats? I want the main dishes to be special and memorable! And Dust, can you look for unique produce? There should be plenty of options here. I shall be acquiring a few of the items I already know that I need, but do not hesitate to get my attention if you find something!”

Feeling confident in his instructions, he waved as the pair wandered off to explore, watching them mutter to themselves before snickering. Part of him was worried that the two were planning to cause trouble, but he figured that neither of them would be foolish enough to provoke a fight in this world. Just because it was a utopia, didn’t mean that the world was void of talented fighters. It was practically a requirement, given how often multiversal travellers and outcodes stopped here.

As the papyrus went about his shopping trip, he wasn’t too surprised when Killer flagged him over quickly. When he went to see what he’d found though, Pyre was left unimpressed as the emotionless skeleton pointed to a piece of gum on the sidewalk. “Hey look, I found something! Think this’ll work for your feast thing?”

“Killer… that’s a piece of gum.”

“Yeah? Just because I don’t have eye lights doesn’t mean I’m blind. Besides, you said for us to call you over if we found anything, and I found something. It’s even edible, so bonus!”

Already regretting his earlier wording, Pyre’s attempt to chastise Killer for being a smartass was interrupted by Dust flagging him down. “Hopefully it’s something good…” Turning back to Killer, he glared as he clarified, “Alright, how about I reword things? Call me over if you find a meat product that I can use in the feast.”

Ignoring the snickering coming from behind him as he turned away, Pyre rushed over to where Dust was, only to sigh as he saw the same shit-eating grin on his face. “Found a good napping spot. This bench is pretty comfy.”

“Nyeh! You’re supposed to tell me if you found any decent produce!” Grumbling to himself, it became clear quite quickly that the pair had planned this. “Only call me over if you find good produce, understand? I have a lot of shopping to get done and I cannot spend all of my time chasing after you two!” Huffing, he quickly walked off back to where he’d been shopping originally. He really hoped that Cross was having better luck on his end of things.

“Ready or not, here I come, marshmallow!” It took every bit of training Cross had to not snap back at Butcher for the comment, knowing that doing so would give away his current location. Lucky for him, the garden was vast and had plenty of ground for him to hide in. Still, he knew better than to stay still; keeping moving would be best considering who was chasing him. If he just hid in a bush, then Butcher would sniff him out in no time.

At the very least, his plan was working to keep the big guy occupied and distracted from his brother’s shopping trip, though he was still questioning his sanity given the plan he’d ended up going with. There wasn’t any way to change it now though, so all he could do was keep going, running deeper and deeper into the gardens in the hopes of buying himself more time before Butcher actually made contact.

Every twist and turn through the maze-like garden left the ex-soldier more and more disoriented, the thought that he’d gotten turned around and was actually heading towards his hunter having come up more than once. Sighing, all Cross could do was keep going and hope for the best at this point… best being that he didn’t get an axe embedded in his ribcage.

After however long he’d been going, Cross figured that if he hadn’t already been caught by now, he’d put enough distance between them for a break. Despite his training, he knew that he couldn’t go on forever at the same pace. It would be better for the monochrome skeleton to take a break now while he could, ensuring that he’d have enough energy to run when the time came.

Yet just as he sat down and leaned up against a tree, his instincts started screaming at him to move. Cross was quite thankful that he listened when he did, rolling out of the way just as a familiar axe went flying through the air and embedded itself in the tree he’d just been against.

“Oh bollocks, looks like I missed,” Butcher purred, slow steps taking him directly towards his axe and his quarry. Taking the hint, Cross scrambled to his feet and took off once again, all thoughts of taking a break now completely gone from his mind as he realised that his teammate would pounce on him the second he stopped. No, he had to keep going, and just pray that he wasn’t making some horrible mistake.

Pyre was finally starting to make some headway, having purchased a few essential ingredients, when he noticed that Killer was trying to get his attention. Seeing that the shorter skeleton was actually standing near a shop this time, he felt that this trip would turn out to be more promising than the last one.

He was so wrong. While Killer had indeed found a meat product as instructed, he was proudly gesturing to a regular old butcher shop with the more common meats found across the multiverse for sale. Beef, chicken, pork, and various fish all filled the counter, and Killer was acting like he’d found a cornucopia of goodies.

“Killer… we have all of this meat available to us at home,” he pointed out, frowning at the chuckle his words received.

“Not my fault someone wasn’t specific with their instructions, you just told me to find meat.”

“I told you at the beginning of our trip to find rare and exotic meats! Not- ugh, I don’t know why I’m wasting my energy arguing with you when you’re doing this on purpose.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure why you are either,” Killer shrugged, waltzing out of the butcher shop and leaving behind an annoyed Pyre and one very confused butcher. Apologizing to the people present for the disturbance, he quickly fled the shop and tried to get back to his shopping, ignoring the laughter echoing from the emotionless skeleton nearby. For someone with muted emotions, he sure did get an annoying amount of joy out of making others miserable.

He was half-expecting Dust to pipe up with some annoying misinterpretation of his instructions as well, only to see no sign of him. The taller skeleton cautiously went about his shopping, though he was distracted as he kept expecting his sullen friend to pop up with another joke to tell. But… nothing. There was no sign of him anywhere, and Killer even commented on his absence.

Growing worried, Pyre wondered if Dust had simply taken a nap on the bench he’d found earlier. But instead of finding the familiar sight of a sleeping skeleton, all there was at the bench was a hastily scrawled note. Got bored. Too many people. See you later. - D

“Oh no! Dust has wandered off somewhere! Oh, what if he gets lost? Or hurt? Or lost and hurt?! Oh nyoh-hoh-hoh, why did he go off on his own?!”

“Pyre, relax!” Killer commented, appearing beside him and clapping a hand against his back. “This is Dust we’re talkin’ about! Dude’s a one-man army, so if he gets in trouble, he won’t be the one hurt.”

“ … That’s somehow even worse! Oh, what if he hurts someone? We’ll be banned from ever shopping here again! And the king will be so mad! Oh, Killer! We have to find him before everything goes wrong!”

The smaller skeleton shot him a wry smile, looking at him as if he’d grown a second skull. “What part about relax did you not get? Ya gotta stop looking at all the things that can go wrong… and instead look at that sick-ass pachinko parlour! I bet I can double my G in there!” And off Killer went, waving for the other to follow him before he disappeared inside.

Sighing, Pyre went to check if he had enough to pay for the inevitable gambling debt that would come, only to frown as he patted his pocket. It. Was. Empty. “Killer, you scoundrel! How dare you pickpocket the great Pyre?!” Maybe Killer was right and Dust could take care of himself for a while. Even if the hooded skeleton was moody and prone to outbursts, he knew well enough to not cause a disturbance in a place like this. With that justification, Pyre found himself chasing after Killer in the hopes of getting some of his G back before the idiot spent it all. He just had to pray that he wasn’t making some horrible mistake.

“Ohshitohshitohshitohshit! Fucking shit!” Cross was left cursing up a storm as he dodged swing after swing of Butcher’s blade, the larger skeleton cackling behind him as he swung his weapon haphazardly. Each strike came perilously close to hitting him, leaving him struggling to dodge and weave around as he struggled to see both where he was going and where his attacker was aiming.

In one of his moments of looking behind himself, the monochrome skeleton failed to see the one tree that he was coming towards. As a result, he crashed straight into it, the air fleeing his chest and leaving him winded as he collapsed back into the dirt.

He half expected to open his eyes to find a blade buried in his chest, only to find himself alone once he looked around. Sitting up, Cross looked to the surrounding foliage in disbelief. There was no way that Butcher had given up hunting him… no, this had to be a trap, or… or something.

His teammate’s cackling laughter seemed to echo from all around him, causing his head to whip every which way until he was certain that he’d give himself whiplash. “Why don’t we… change things up a bit, marshmallow? Chasin’ ya’s no fun if ya can’t see a fuckin’ tree in the way. So instead of gettin ya glasses, we’re gonna see how well ya can find where I’m coming from.”

“Oh, fuck…” Cross groaned, pulling himself to his feet and surveying his surroundings. In the time that he’d been winded on the ground, the other skeleton had hidden somewhere within the gardens, waiting to ambush him. This was most definitely not what he’d expected when he’d come up with this idea, his hate for such a stupid plan only growing. But there was nothing that he could do now except live with the consequences of his actions… even if that meant having Butcher stalk him like a piece of meat.

As the monochrome skeleton tried to get his bearings, faint rustling could be heard behind him. Whipping around, he saw a bush rustling nearby only for it to go still shortly after, no indication that the larger skeleton was in there. Another rustle behind him led to the same result, and once again he was left spinning in circles, with a raspy cackle echoing through the air as if to taunt him.

Well… at least someone was having fun, and more importantly was staying distracted to buy Pyre all the time he needed. Gritting his teeth, Cross decided to be proactive for once and summon one of his swords, knowing that he’d most likely be needing it to better fend off attacks. “Ooh, look who’s gettin serious?” Butcher’s voice was crystal clear, coming from right behind him. Whipping around with his sword ready, the shorter skeleton intercepted the incoming attack, their weapons clashing against each other with both skeletons in each other’s faces. “The marshmallow’s finally fighting back~ I love it when my prey struggles.” A tongue snaked out from between Butcher’s parted teeth, licking along his mouth as he looked at him with hungry eyes.

Even as part of Cross grew worried at the predatory gaze locked on him, his temper flared at the demeaning nickname directed at him. Pushing the scarred skeleton off of him, he jumped back before lunging at the other with a snarl. “I told you don’t call me that!”

Snickering, Butcher fell back behind the shadow of a nearby tree. By the time Cross rounded the corner, his opponent was already gone, disappearing into the nearby dark foliage. “This is what I get for trying to hide from a Horror variant,” he grumbled, fully expecting the rest of their night to be full of jump scares and the two of them clashing. If he got out of this without a few wounds, he’d honestly be surprised. About all he could do now was make the best of a bad situation and hope things turned out like he’d planned.

“You spent HOW MUCH MONEY?!” Pyre blurted out, about ready to wring Killer’s nonexistent neck. “We needed that money to buy the ingredients! Why would you spend all of our money?!”

“Technically I spent all of your money,” Killer snickered, looking pretty pleased with himself as he was forcibly dragged out of the third place he’d bolted into. Contrary to his claims, the emotionless skeleton had not doubled his money in the pachinko parlour. In fact, he’d hadn’t even broken even, resulting in Pyre grumbling as he dragged the other from his seat. Insisting that he could make back the losses, Killer had then darted into a shop to find some rare, one-of-a-kind item that he could sell for a ton of cash… only for them to come out of there with more junk to carry around and a replica of some rare, one-of-a-kind item that was utterly worthless.

Now Pyre’s companion was apparently in the mood for snacks and junk food, disappearing into a convenience store where he spent an ungodly amount of money on scratch tickets, cigarettes, and some local drugs that were legal. The skeleton had been just grabbing his snacks for another round of purchases by the time Pyre got his hands on him.

“This is just great,” the Papyrus variant muttered, slumping down to look at what his money had been spent on. “I’m broke, have none of the supplies I needed, and Dust is still missing! Can this day get any worse?!”

As if the universe saw fit to punish him for testing fate, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the first few drops of rain started to fall. “You had to say it,” Killer sneered, looking to the sky. “Though I gotta admit, I’m surprised that the rain didn’t start until you opened your big mouth. Woulda thought stuff like that only happened in the movies.”

“You are not helping my mood whatsoever, you good-for-nothing pickpocket!” Grumbling to himself, the tall skeleton knew better than to stay out if it was truly going to rain. “Come on, let’s find a place to shelter and wait out the storm. I refuse to add being soaked to my list of reasons for being miserable.”

The two dragged Killer’s purchases along as they hunted for an overhang to hide under, hoping that the storm would blow past and they could continue on with their shopping. Judging by how the local monsters were closing up shop and seeking cover though, Pyre didn’t have a ton of hope. “Oh, I do hope that Dust will be alright!”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Came a familiar voice right beside Pyre, the suddenness of said voice causing a screech that may have cracked some nearby glass. Dust didn’t look impressed as the Papyrus turned to greet him, a bored look plastered on his face as he tugged his hood down a bit to keep out the growing wind. “I told ya I’d come back, right? Besides, why would you worry about me? I can take care of myself.”

“I told ya so!” Killer chimed in with glee, waving to his companion. “Heya Dusty! Where ya been?”

The other Sans variant just shrugged his shoulders. “Had a nap until someone woke me up. Then got bored again and went and played cards.”

“Please tell me you aren’t broke like Killer is,” Pyre groaned, wondering why all of his brother’s teammates seemed to have gambling problems.

“For the record, you’re the broke one Pyre. I’ve still got all of my G!”

Ignoring Killer’s comment, Dust just smirked and pulled out a large bag. The contents clinked against each other as he shook it, hinting that the whole thing was full of his winnings. “I don’t lose at cards.”

Before Killer could drool all over the bag, it disappeared back into Dust’s inventory. A book was then pulled out in its place, the hooded skeleton quickly tossing it to Pyre who fumbled and barely managed to catch it. “Found you a fancy cookbook. Thought you might like it. Picked up a few of the things the book said ya needed a bunch of too.”

When shown some of the ingredients that had been procured for him, Pyre felt ready to cry out of pure joy. “Oh Dust! You’ve saved the day, my mood, and my brother’s birthday feast!” Unable to hold back, he launched his arms around the shorter skeleton and hugged him close, missing the look of confusion, pain, and discomfort on the other’s face. By the time they pulled away, there was no sign of his expression having been anything but the neutral boredom from before.

“Right! With all of this and what we have at home, I should be able to pull the feast off! This book should help me turn even the most bland and basic ingredients into a dish for the ages, nyeh-heh-heh! Come now, let’s go home before the rain really gets going!” He didn’t have nearly the supplies that he’d hoped for, but the rain was shutting down the market so there’d be limited options for him to get more ingredients. That, and he had no money to get anything else thanks to Killer’s antics. Between what he managed to get earlier though and what Dust had got him, he’d hopefully have enough. About all he could do now was make the best of a bad situation and hope things turned out like he’d planned.

When the group returned home, Butcher was thankfully nowhere in sight. It seemed that Cross was still managing to keep his attention, giving Pyre all the time he needed to prepare the feast. Killer was almost immediately relieved of duty, the taller skeleton not wanting him to ruin anything else with his juvenile behaviour. The emotionless skeleton had just snickered and walked off, as if he’d accomplished his goal.

Dust wasn’t much help either, but he at least stayed around to sort and prep ingredients upon Pyre begging him to do so. There was simply too much work to get done in time for dinner. Had someone not used all of the tall skeleton’s savings to gamble and buy useless junk, perhaps he’d have more time like he’d planned for. But as it stood, he figured that Cross could inevitably only hold his brother’s attention for so long before the smell of food would steal Butcher away.

Thankfully, the castle had a wonderful kitchen that allowed him to cook many of the dishes at once, speeding up the process as Pyre used his boundless energy to run this way and that. It was the fastest he’d ever prepared a meal before, especially when factoring in the fact that many of the dishes and ingredients were foreign to him. Thanks to the cookbook Dust got him though, several mouth watering delicacies were prepared and set on the table by the time Butcher made an appearance.

The scarred skeleton came in with Cross slung over his shoulder, the ex-soldier wheezing and covered in dirt and bleeding cuts. Plopping the short skeleton in one of the dining chairs, Butcher stuck his head around the corner to find his brother coming through with another armload of dishes.

“Oh, Brother! Welcome back! And Happy Birthday! I do hope you enjoy the present we prepared for you!” As he went to set the dishes on the table among the other ones, Pyre finally caught sight of a barely conscious Cross slumped over in his seat. “Oh goodness, what on earth happened to him?”

“Lil marshmallow bit off a bit more ‘an he could chew, is all,” Butcher chuckled, fingers reflexively hooking onto his dead socket before Pyre made a point of swatting at him for the bad habit. “So what’s all this then? Ya said somethin’ bout a birthday present?”

The younger of the two brothers just grinned and gestured at the table, his smile only growing when he saw recognition and understanding fill his brother’s gaze, followed shortly after by awe and hunger. “Stars know I understand how much food means to you, so I figured what better present than a feast! Everything at the table is yours to taste and devour as you see fit, brother! Most of these dishes or the ingredients used are from foreign universes too, to make the present more exciting! Do you like it?” He was practically bouncing in place as he waited for feedback, paying no mind to Dust bringing the last few dishes in to fill in the few empty spots on the long banquet table.

Butcher remained silent for a while, looking over the various dishes while visibly drooling. He seemed to be struggling to take in such abundance, which made perfect sense to the taller skeleton, given that they’d gone without for so long. “Heh,” his brother finally spoke up, turning to his brother with a wide grin. “Best present I eva got, thanks bro. I’ll be sure ta enjoy it.” With that, his brother took Nightmare’s usual seat at the head of the table. Given that their king had no interest in participating or assisting with the events, there was no harm in the action. In fact, it was almost like it was the king’s gift to Butcher, giving him an evening where he was the most important and the center of attention.

Instead of taking a seat himself, Pyre remained standing to help keep his brother’s plate full. He brought the older skeleton various dishes from all over the table, allowing him to taste a bit of everything that was prepared. At Butcher’s insistence, he helped himself to a few servings as well, not wanting to upset the scarred skeleton on his special day.

Dust remained quiet as he ate, taking a modest helping from a few of the nearest dishes. When some of them weren’t to his liking, a bit of blue magic served to bring other options to him, allowing him to remain seated at the other end of the table and away from the chaos.

Killer must’ve heard the ruckus in the dining hall, because it wasn’t too long before he appeared and started stuffing his face. While Pyre would’ve scolded him for his lack of manners, he quickly thought better of it as the end result would likely only be a headache with no change in behaviour.

And poor Cross just sat there, groaning something about pain and hunting and stupid. Whatever he’d been up to as a means of distracting Pyre’s brother, it might’ve been a bit too effective from the looks of things. Ever appreciative of his efforts, the tall skeleton made sure to save him a plate to thank him for his hard work. Hopefully the intent poured into all his meals would help soothe whatever pain he currently found himself in.

While his plans hadn’t gone as expected, Pyre found himself thrilled with the result. His brother was full and happy, and Pyre himself even had a new cookbook and several new recipes to add to his repertoire! All in all, things turned out better than he’d hoped. Now… all that was left to do was dump dishwashing duty on Killer as payback for the stolen G.

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