Had this idea floating around for a while, but was in an internal battle on who should be the unsuspecting victim of it (there’s so many handsome skeletons), and because I’m constantly waking up in the middle of the night and I’m loyal to my house: @moonphuzz’s (Doe’s) Brute in a BrutexReader fanfiction for y’all. Thank you @ilsole (Sunny) for reviewing it for me! 🫶
A sigh of relief leaves you as you slump forward on the toilet seat. It was on rare occasions that you’d cut it close, rushing to the restroom before you retired for the night. But ever since you moved in with your bedside companion, it was always such a chore leaving his embrace.
A loud flush whooshes through the spacious community bathroom that you and the other residents shared. A domain you never again took for granted after being abandoned one too many times in places that were unforgiving in offering a place to relieve and freshen yourself up. A bitterness settles in your chest and heat rises to your face as you turn on the facet. A couple of too harsh pumps of the soap dispenser does little to distract from your thoughts as you wash your hands harder than necessary.
You don’t regret leaving them, or the ‘home’ that they once said that you could always come back to. Correction, you don’t regret seeking shelter elsewhere after they had left you. Before, whenever the rag tag team of Ink and Dream forgot about your existence and left you behind in different alternate universes throughout the multiverse, they would eventually come back, apologizing profusely for their insolence and you’d all be on your merry way back to the home they provided after your own universe was destroyed. Over time, the wait for their return would take longer and longer, until finally they never came back at all.
Your hand, squeaky clean from the furious cleaning you’ve subjected them to, turns the facet off with a heavy tug as you lift your gaze to the large mirror that expands across the large counter top. The thought of your former team of guardians of the AUs has soured your mood, as it always does when you think of them. It hasn’t been long since you were found and brought here, their memory and the cut of their betrayal still raw and open, but you cannot end the night this way. It would be unfair to the man waiting for you in both yours and his bed. You instead shift your mind to the castle that you now lived in, provided of course by the God of Negativity, your formal rival of the Stars: Nightmare.
He had found you, had promised his assistance and care for your rescue, if and only when, you entered into a contract with him that promised revenge against the Stars. Agreeing was incredibly easy after what you were forced to endure, a sentiment that was of course shared throughout all the inhabitants of the castle. You were all grateful. You, being especially grateful to a certain skeleton in particular that was in charge of feeding the lot of you, and had to be by now wondering where you had run off to.
Rushing back to your room and seeing the light in the ajar door had you skipping through the evening light as you pushed the door open. Your eyes immediately sought and landed on the pile of bones that was illuminated by one of the bedside lamps that you turned on in your hasty retreat. You couldn’t help the smile that broke across your face when instead of finding your gentle giant lightly dozing in his usual spot with his head at the head of the bed, he now laid at the foot uncovered and only his boxers. On his back he turned his bulky form slightly and titled his head back to look at you with his single salmon colored eye light.
”…where’d you go?…” Brute mumbled.
Drowsiness fuzzed the dark pupil of his eyelight and seeped into the deepest depths of his voice. You catch yourself on the frame of the door as your legs nearly buckle all over again, not unlike the first time you heard it. Even having heard it over and over again, still your face still flushes as it reaches the tips of your ears and spreads through the base of your neck. How a skeleton was capable of such a baritone with no vocal chords was beyond you, but you didn’t care. As long as you were on the receiving end of that Irishy goodness you could care less.
The giddiness to not keep your sweetheart alone any longer drew you forward to sit in the nook of his body and draped yourself over the curve of his hip. His deep rumble of satisfaction flowed from his chest at your added weight, pleased to have you tucked into him where you belonged as he laid on his side.
”Just the bathroom. Didn’t mean to wake you. You didn’t have to wait for me.” you said as you laid your arm across his massive frame, your fingers just barely tracing his second row of ribs.
”…didn’t wanna sleep without cha…” he protested softly as he engulfed your hand with the one he wasn’t resting himself on to gaze at you.
Yeah, your heart was too full to wind back down now. Your flustered frazzled feelings had you nuzzling the side of his hip as you giggled like a child at his words. The power that this man held over you was concerning. He reduced you to putty in seconds, and he knew it too if it wasn’t for the deep chuckling he emitted at your bashfulness that gave him away. ”You meanie.” You mumbled playfully.
I guess being flustered reduces you to using elementary words as well. He wasn’t on board with looking past it as much as you were.
”…meanie? what are ya?…two?…” he laughed. You giggled along with him despite your face deepening a shade.
”It’s unfair.” You whined, alluding to how smitten you were with him, but not knowing your internal debacle, he questioned your silly words. “…what is?…”
Do you tell him? Could you tell him? The way you hid your face in his hip told you otherwise, but you wanted him to know. For him to understand how much of a big deal he was to you. To take responsibility for it, cherish it as you do him and everything that he was and is. From the flaws he said about his face and his head wounds, to the lumbering frame of his body, to the depths of his soul. You wanted to protect it as much as he loved you going to him for safety. What was it?
Your heart. Or in this case your soul, as he didn’t have a heart himself, but you digress. You still wanted him. His everything.
Do you reveal your everything to him?
Of course not in a literal sense, but by telling him and becoming so vulnerable in front of him that you loved him. This man who intimidated the hell out of you, yet captured your affection something fierce. Do you take the leap?
…maybe just a small step for now.
“…yeah?…” he urged, looking all too pleased with himself, but also a careful and flattered curiosity that helped ease you to continue forwards despite the teasing lilt of his voice. You couldn’t look at him, so instead your hands traced what it still could touch on his body as you continued.
”Yeah. How caring and protective you are.” Your smile softened at the memory of all the times he was there for you. “How soft.” All those moments he courted you once your feelings for one another grew. “And how patient…” How long he waited for your answer when he suggested the next level in your relationship. “How understanding.” You finally looked at him when you were reminded of the conversation you two had on how scared you were to open up and trust someone. It had taken so much effort to even agree to be an item, but so very much worth it when you said yes.
It was worth it even now to get past your nerves just to see the light dusting of red along his zygomatic arches.
”It’s more than I even know what to do with.”
He’s silent as he watches you. So handsome and so lovely that it fries your nerves all over again as you switch out from the mushy topic instead of waiting for his response.
”I mean with all this lovin’ I have in front of me, you can’t blame me for gettin’ intimidated can you?” You sit up and wiggle your eyebrows as you lean closer to his face, hands smoothing themselves on every surface of his broad arms and shoulders as they can.
And of course you knew your not so subtle switch in tone and topic didn’t bypass him, but you let your hands roam enough to hopefully distract him a little. As wide as his smile could get, his eye light lidded as he held the side of your face, his hand engulfing the side of your head.
”…you’re just as wonderful...”
Of course he didn’t let what you said go unmentioned. You looked down demurely and you felt yourself goofily smile all over again. To distract yourself and to keep him from saying anything else, you run your hands along his vertebrae, going so far as to nearly go under his jaw.
”…m’serious lass...” He pressed with that voice again, except it pitched even lower this time.
He usually talked like that to get your attention, and it would always work as you always responded damn near like a trained dog whenever he used it. And using the pet name lass? Be still your heart. But this time you don’t think you could handle him singing his own praises on how much you meant to him or how much he loved you. So you press your hands a little rougher, kissing the bottom of his jaw and cheekbones the way you know he loves, careful of the giant holes in his face and head when you press him deeper into his stiff pillow.
Luckily your affections have gotten to him as he nearly giggles at you, strong enough to get you to stop, but not doing so as he basks in your affection. “…wait…’m tryna tell ya sum’n…haha!”
You’re on top of him as he’s laying down on his back, the arm he was laying on now resting on your waist as he holds you close. His other lightly holding your arm despite how strong you know he is. His left leg is bent up and you lay on the other, trapping it underneath you. Your hands are completely underneath his jaw now. They stroke and squeeze all those bones that are covered in your own body by muscles and ligaments as his head is tilted far back to rest on the right side of his head. His anatomy is very different from yours, even if insanely similar, but you try to find everything that you can remember learning about the skeletal system as you assault him with kisses and nips. Blood rushes to your entire face at your own boldness, but distracting him is worth it at the sound of his delighted chuckles.
Your thumbs eventually press against a bone you recognize, one you were fascinated to know that in the human body controls your speech, breathing, and vocal cords, yet it floats there in your throat. His own hyoid bone in contrast is actually connected to the second(?) of his vertebrae and much bigger than yours, but that is to be expected when he’s literally 6’9 and built like a brick house. You press against it with your fingers wrapped around his neck, thumbs touching, and you’re intrigued on how far you can move it, until you hear a pop and the bone completely disappears from your touch.
You feel Brute’s body turn just as rigid as your own underneath you as he cuts himself off, suspiciously at the exact moment his hyoid bone dipped to the ether. His hand shoots from your arm to hold his neck tightly as if he was stopping blood from a cut throat. You're baffled and perturbed even as the cold pit of despair drops down to your stomach, even though you still have no idea what the hell you just did.
Did you hurt him?! He’s grabbing his throat hella hard!! Was that the equivalent of slitting his throat?!! Breaking his neck?!?!!
You both move in unison as you scramble off of him to hover closely at his side, and he to sit up. With the initial shock gone but the dread settling in you, you finally find your voice.
”Are you okay?!?” you shout.
He doesn’t respond as the look of his eyelight is as small as a pinprick. His grin tight. His hand still holds his neck as if he’s trapping the warm air inside an invisible turtleneck. In a rare display of unsteady resolve he looks at you as a noise can be heard from inside the bottom of his jaw when he barely opens it to speak.
In the most highest pitched voice you have ever thought possible to come from the skeleton he asks you “…what did you do?…”
You gasp, as your hands fly to your mouth to only stop the laughter that bubbles from your mouth.
”…it’s not funny…” he says exasperated in the most accurate impression of Leo Sayer in his song You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.
You can’t help the burst of laughter from the hilarity of that thought and you see his face fall in shock at the audacity that you're openly laughing at him now, even if you can see him start to smile. Maybe because you’re not panicking anymore, he’s calming down too.
“…’m serious!…” he says again in a voice that sounds extremely feminine, squeakily laughing along with you.
”You- sound ridiculous! Hahahaha!” You barely manage to get out as you double over laughing even harder on the lower half of his body.
”…i know!…” he bemoans, making you throw yourself from his lap and across from him on the bed to laugh loudly. You watch as he finally lets go of his throat as he laughs and something clatters off of his ribs. Both you and him track the movement as it settles into his lap and you push yourself up to get a better look.
It must’ve detached and went inside his skull!
“That’s probably what’s making you sound like a chipette.” You laugh and shuffle closer to him.
His nerves are just as fried now as he laughs and picks up the piece between his massive thumb and index finger.
”…a what?…” he giggles with sweat sliding down his skull, worry etched into his bonebrows.
“Nothing. H-here, c’mon” you take the piece from him and straighten on your knees as you try to control your laughter.”I’ll p-put it back. It doesn’t hurt right?”
”…no, i‘just surprised me…” he tilts his head back so you can get close to where the bone was attached at, voice so sad and adorable that you can’t help but laugh again as you hold onto him. “…didn’t help that the sound was so loud…”
He sounds so dejected! “When it popped out?” You laugh hard again.
“Awww, my poor baby!” You giggle and pepper his jaw with kisses. “I’m sowey. Let me fix it for you.” With one last kiss you tilt his head up and out of the way and look for where you can place it in.
It’s a good thing to know that skeleton monsters' can still talk without their hyoid bone, and how it also hilariously controls how high and deep their voices are. Amazing how similar you both were in the structure of your anatomy, yet function so differently.
Finding the points where the bone would pop back into place like a kid’s toy, you force the piece back in with the same amount of pressure you used to pop it out. He lets out a deep breathy sigh when all is right again and you embrace him.
”I’m sorry baby. I didn’t know it was gonna do that.” You apologize as you attempt to soothe him with a wide smile.
“…not even sorry for laughin’…” he muttered, even though he embraces you back.
You laughed at his deep and wounded tone, hugging him tighter. “That too! Haha!”
He leans back on his elbow as you lay on him. You let him go to rest your hands on his collarbones, gaze soft but chest warm, relieved that nothing bad happened. “I’m just glad my big guy is okay.” You cooed. “Let me make it up to you babydoll.”
