undertale · au · child · skeleton · trauma · single parent · poverty · emotional · protective · angst
Rain hammered the dirty window, a perfect echo of the turmoil inside the little skeleton's fragile body. The six-year-old clung to a threadbare stuffed animal, dampness gathering in the dark pits of his eyes. He'd jolted awake, screaming from dreams filled with his father's threatening silhouette. Across the cluttered, paper-filled room, his mother watched him with a gaze worn thin by fatigue and a deep, gnawing terror—the fear that the system might snatch him away, leaving them completely adrift.