Chapter Text
It's barely been a month since you relocated, and you've already seen major success in your business. Surprisingly, you mostly work with couples who want a cute portrait.
You're not going to complain, though! You've met lovely couples, both monsters and humans.
However… there seems to be a small trend of skeletons visiting you.
You recalled yourself spinning your paintbrush around your fingers, rocking your foot as you watched the people walk by you—humans of different ages and Monsters of different kinds. Now that you think of it, it was mainly Monsters who supported your business.
“EXCUSE ME! I'D LIKE YOU TO PAINT ME!” Your spinning of the paintbrush stopped. That voice sounded awfully familiar. You looked up to see Sans(?). Instead of the Lifeguard outfit you saw him in, he wore long sleeves with a graphic tee over them.
“Sans?” Your spinning of the paintbrush stopped as you raised your brows in amusement. The skeleton straightened his back when he heard the name.
“I'M NOT SANS, THAT'S MY… UH COUSIN OF MY GRANDFATHER'S SECOND COUSIN'S…UH.. SON'S OLDEST SON!” He stuck up his index finger at your face, holding a very, very serious expression. “I'M… BLUE…TACK! –BLUE FOR SHORT!”
“Right, you're Sans’ relative...” You snort, not sounding convinced at all. Bluetack? That's rather… unique for a name, but hey, you shouldn't judge. “So Blue, what can I do for you today?” You played along, curious to see how this would go.
“CAPTURE MY MAGNIFI– MY RADIANT SELF WITH YOUR BRUSH!” Blue posed with his arms raised, showing off his pearly bones. You huffed, smiled, and got to work.
Bluetack had been posing for a while now without a sign of being tired. Might be a perk from being Sans’... relative. You pushed yourself to finish the piece faster despite his lack of tiredness.
His smile widened when you presented him with the portrait. This time, you weren't as apprehensive as before. You rested your chin on your palm, watching his eye lights form into stars. Just like it did before.
“THIS IS A WORK OF ART, THANK YOU, FRIEND!” Warmth crept on your cheeks as you waved him off sheepishly. Blue dug into his jacket pocket, fishing out a brown pouch, and handed it to you. It weighed almost the same as the EMERGENCY FUNDS Sans gave you.
He hoisted the portrait of himself under his arm, grinning as he waved you goodbye.
You swore you could hear his ‘MWEHEHEHE’ while he was walking off, but that might be your figment of imagination.
And after that, you began to see more skeletons that looked oddly familiar to Sans each day without fail. Each time, it was a different relative or a cousin with a job drastically different from others.
There was Ribecca, a fashion designer for a famous star, Napstaton, was it? Then there was Maxilla, a biomedical researcher. You liked how their names were related to bones. It has a nice charm to it.
But inevitably, your favourite was definitely Bluetack, he was your first and possibly the one who visited you the most.
Moving on from your highlight of the week, you've seen Sans patrolling around the mall near you in the corner of your eye several times now… but that could be another distant relative of his. That was what you thought before he came during his break and invited you to eat with him.
So now you're here at a restaurant, face to face with Sans, knees occasionally brushing against each other. It was rather awkward. It's been quite some time since you last talked to Sans himself, and not his relatives.
“So… What happened to lifeguarding?” You crossed your fingers, breaking the silence between the two of you. Sans’ focus returned to you from the menu in his hands.
God, you could never get enough of his eyes.
“HM? OH! I WAS LAID OFF AFTER A COMPLAINT FROM A MOTHER.” Sans adjusted his tie as if it was choking him. His smile tightened as he looked at the shrivelled plant in the corner. “IT WAS A SHAME. I REALLY LIKED THE OCEAN.” His smile lightened up when his eye lights returned to you. “BUT FATE BROUGHT US BACK TOGETHER, SO I'M NOT TOO SOAKED ABOUT IT!!”
Does he not know how his last words made you feel? If he weren't looking, you'd probably be smiling your ass off and kicking your legs in joy. It was a shame indeed that he lost his job to a mother who was probably a racist. Sans was fit to be a lifeguard! You felt angry on his behalf.
“That's rough to hear… I hope you're acclimating well in your new job.”
“OH, I AM! THOUGH IT'S NOT AS FUN AS THE PREVIOUS ONE, BUT I'D JUST GO WITH THE FLOW!” He grinned, resting his chin on the backs of his palms. “HOW'S YOUR BUSINESS DOING?”
“Oh, it's going swell. Way better than before.” Did your tongue slip? Doesn't matter, Sans’ lighthearted chuckle eased your heart. You smiled, suddenly remembering something. “Right! I've been seeing your family members quite frequently now. They've been really supportive.”
“MWEHEHE, GLAD THEY'RE TREATING YOU WELL!”
The waiter came in with appetisers. You muttered a thanks, a contrast to Sans’ cheerful one, as the plate clinked on the table– And the two of you continued chatting away like old friends, with you occasionally munching on the breadstick while Sans gushed about how cool his brother is.
It honestly felt like twelve minutes with him. Before you know it, you're out strolling in a park with him, squinting your eyeballs out to watch the stars.
And this became a thing between the two of you.
Every so often, you two would go to the same restaurant, same time, same meal, same park.
Honestly, you loved this. You finally have something to live for, something to continue your passion on.
Days flew by on the calendar like a blur, you painted for people in the morning, met Sans’ relative, went back to painting, and met up with Sans for dinner. Your mother's voice at the back of your head, filtered out by him.
You never missed how his eyes followed you, how he looked at you, how his eyelights sometimes turned into hearts when he thought you weren't looking.
But you didn't say anything. You were afraid. Afraid to lose what you have now.
“You're really bad at hiding things, sometimes you know that?” You jokingly jabbed his side with your arm as you two walked side by side. Sans giggled alongside you, swatting away your hand and jogging further away from you.
“PERHAPS I WASN'T HIDING AT ALL, AND YOU TOOK A LONG TIME TO FIGURE IT OUT!” He suddenly stopped, his back was still facing you. You too stopped around a few feet behind him.
It got real quiet without his infectious joy.
“I Hadn’t Been Too Honest With You...” He started, slowly turning to face you. His usual smile was replaced with a serious expression. “It's Been Weighing Me Down, And I Hate To Lie To You.”
Is this going to be a confession? If so, you have something to say too.
“I– Me too.”
The moon was at the perfect angle, almost 90 degrees above him. His shadow covered you whole, but you didn't care. You fell in love with his eyes.
“On The Count Of Three?” “Okay.”
“One”
“Two”
“THREE!”
“IWASPRETENDINGTOBEMYRELATI—” “I love you!”
You cut Sans off from his blurting, eyes wide when you realised you two said different things. Your hand shot up to your mouth as you gauged Sans for his reaction.
His eye socket was empty. Something you've never seen before. It was terrifying.
Did you come off too weirdly? Did he not share the same feelings? DID HE THINK OF YOU AS JUST A FRIEND?! Oh my gosh, you shouldn't have confessed!
Your breath hitched, you were unsure whether to stay, apologise, leave, or just explode on the spot. You were prepared to have zero contact with him from then on. (You weren't)
His eyes lit up like a flashlight flickering on. You watched silently as it expanded into big stars, as if he was told that NTT was on the TV. His signature blue began coating his cheekbone, luminating in the dark.
His squeals reached your ears first, you blinked and realised that your feet were off the ground and you were in his arms. Out of nowhere, he started sprinting. To where? You had no clue.
Your arms wrapped around his neck on instinct, feeling his scarf as you held on for your dear life with how fast he was going.
“MWEHEHEHE!!” There it was, his laughter somehow soothed your pounding heart. You faced the horizon, where Sans was running to, the wind flowing through your hair felt comforting… despite your circumstances.
“Where are we going?!”
“MWEHEHE! WHERE THE WINDS TAKE US~!!”
“The wind is blowing against us!!”
“THEN WE'LL BREEZE THROUGH IT!”
So apparently, Sans has no idea where you two were going… and he's the one carrying you. You're pretty sure he's not planning to stop anytime soon with that excess energy to spare. So you're going to have to follow the wind–follow against the wind.
“AS I WAS SAYING… I WAS PRETENDING TO BE MY RELATIVES TO VISIT YOU...” As he spoke, you could feel his chest rumbling against you. It took you everything not to snuggle closer to his chest to hear his heartbeat.
“I knew that since Bluetack came, you bonehead.” You huffed, flicking his head lightly with your fingers while your other hand stayed wrapped around his neck. “You're not really good at hiding things, y'know?”
“But at least your heart is in the right place.” Sans beamed all the way through your whole journey.
“so is this the human you've been yappin’ about?” A lanky skeleton greeted the two of you while scrolling through the television programmes. Must be Papyrus that Sans boasts about.
He wore an oversized orange hoodie with green cargo shorts. Seems comfy…
Sans gasped like he had offended the whole family tree. “PAPY!! YOU SHALL NOT REFER MY LOVER AS SUCH!” He settled you back down on your feet, supporting you like a knight as you regained your balance.
My lover… Your heart fluttered at his words.
“right, sorry ‘bout that, ‘Sans’ lover’.” He was gone from the comforts of the couch. You had a little scare when you turned to your left and saw him standing beside you. His hand extended towards you, offering a handshake. “nice to finally meet you, ‘Sans’ lover’.”
“Likewise, Papy.” You grinned, going in for the shake.
PFFFTTT!
You felt that vibration rumbling through your hand. “heh. the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick.” Your lips curved up as you snorted at the stupid trick.
“UGHH! I THOUGHT I THREW THOSE AWAY!!”
“you did. and I got it back.”
The two bickered back and forth, though it was mainly Sans… The house was lively, you wouldn't mind taking up Sans’ offer to stay the night. It's been a while since you last hung out with more than one person.
Sans noticed that you three were still standing outside and hurried you all into the home. “MWEHEHEHE!! I'M GOING TO MAKE TACOS TO CELEBRATE THIS OCCASION!”
“welp. while he's on that, why don't you take a seat with me?” Papyrus offered, now on the couch with his hand patting the seat near him. And you did.
PFFFTTTT!!
“wow, didn't think that you'd fall for it. twice.” You're not going to trust him after his whoopee cushions.