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“Over here,” you pointed to a tiny hill. Finally, an area not crowded with people already. Running over ahead of Sans, you spread out the blanket and set down your bag as to claim the spot.
Sans watched you sit down with a skeptical expression, hesitantly lowering himself next to you. He looked up at the darkening sky.
“so.” He said after a few moments of silence. “how do you know when they start?”
You smiled eagerly. “You’ll hear it.” Bouncing up and down in excitement, you looked over at him. “I still can't believe you haven't seen fireworks before.”
“well, it's a patriotic thing, ain't it?” He leaned back, supporting himself on both hands. “wouldn't exactly consider myself much of an american.”
You raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? You live here, don't you?”
He shrugged. “not that anyone really wants us to.” By ‘us’ you assumed he meant monsters.
“Well, screw them,” you said, averting your attention to the sky. “They can shove their monster hate up their asses. You live here, work, and therefore are a goddamn American.”
“what about illegal immigrants?” He smirked.
You stopped, thinking. “That's not the same.”
He smiled victoriously, following your gaze up to the sky. After a few seconds of more silence, he piped up again. “ameri-can you immi-grant me a wish and explain how, exactly, this display fire-works? I independence on you for an answer.”
You looked over at him, hiding that you were almost impressed. “Wow, that was a mouth full. Think of that just now?” You tried your best to keep a straight face, but couldn't help but crack a small smile.
“yup,” he straightened his back proudly. “thought up on the spot, baby.”
Thump.
Although said as a joke, you could feel your heart skip at the pet name. You chuckled nervously.
“Did, uh… did you really want an explanation?” You continued, hoping to slow the violent heartbeat rising to your throat. “You're into science, right?”
He nodded, his face flattening a tiny bit. “yeah. remotely.”
“Well, I… don't actually know much about it.” You mumbled. “I just know it has to do with fire. And… they use electrical charges to launch them? It think?”
“wowie, i feel so informed,” he smirked up at you sarcastically, his voice harmonized with a small chuckle.
His eye lights glowed in the darkness, looking much more soft and relaxed than they usually did.
Thump thump thump.
You rolled your eyes, looking away.
No.
You weren't about to ruin another outing with him by trying to romance up the place. You were friends and you were going to keep it that way. What you had now was good.
“Oh!” Your current thoughts were masked by you remembering what you brought in your bag. That might take your mind off of things.
“I brought some glow sticks!” You reached inside the bag and pulled out a few different containers.
“ah,” Sans breathed, watching you fiddle with one of the packages. “i think i’ve seen those before. never really used one.”
“Well, Buster,” you grunted, ripping open the cardboard box and letting it rain glow sticks onto your lap. You sighed, grabbing one and holding it out to him. “Today's your lucky day.”
He took it, looking at it skeptically. “uh, doesn't look very… glowy.”
“Well, you have to crack it first.”
“what?”
“Just… try to break it in half. Bend it.”
His face twisted, but he complied, snapping the thick plastic with a little difficulty. Maybe you should have given him a smaller, thinner one first.
Crack.
You watched his eyes widen as a bright blue glow emitted from the stick. He looked caught off guard.
“Cool, right?” It was always fun seeing people's first reactions to things you love. It just so happened there were lots of things you love he hadn't seen yet.
You were expecting him to exclaim in surprise or say how cool it looked, but he instead looked very uncomfortable.
“u-uh,” he seemed to just hear what you asked him. “yeah, cool.” It was hard to tell under the blue glow, but it seemed he was blushing.
Were you missing something…?
“Uhm, yeah!” You grabbed it from his hand. “If you shake it around, it spreads the juices and makes it glow brighter--look.”
You held it tightly and started to violently jerk it up and down. You could hear the liquid slosh around inside and it started to light up even more.
You looked up to see Sans wearing a strained look, his face glowing a deep blue and his eyes, which were now just pin pricks, locked onto your hand motion. He chuckled awkwardly, quickly pushing down on your hand and setting the stick on the floor.
“so, when those fireworks gonna start up, huh?” He asked frantically.
You were taken aback by his response, but went along with it as you scooped the rest of the sticks off of your lap and put them next to you on the blanket.
“Just when it gets dark, I guess.” You opened another box and grabbed a thinner glow stick, cracking it.
This one was red.
“it’s pretty dark already.” He didn't seem as bothered by this glow stick, so you continued wrapping it around your wrist and securing it in place.
“Well, they should probably be up soon then.” You gave him a side glance and noticed he was still nervously eyeing you. “Uhm, you want one?” You crack another stick, handing it to him.
“nah, i’m cool,” he mumbled.
You both sat in silence while you adjusted the sticks, grabbing and cracking a few more. You put them around your neck, wrist, ankles, and even one on top of your head.
You held up a yellow one like it was a halo, looking over at Sans with an innocent look.
“heh,” he chuckled, seeming calmed down. “you’re anything but.”
“How rude,” you joked, setting it down on your head and crossing your arms.
BOOM.
The whole park became silent.
Sans jumped up at the noise, his eye seeming to flash blue for a moment.
“Hey, it's fine!” You called up to him, making him look at you. “It's just the fireworks.”
He glanced around and sighed before sitting back down next to you. “jeez, are fireworks just big cannons or something?”
“Look,” you pointed up at some trees.
“what--?”
BOOM.
Another one went off; it was big and golden, showering down the sky before sizzling out of existence.
You could feel Sans flinch next to you, his arm brushing up against yours. “jesus…”
“You’ll get used to it,” you chuckled. It was… kind of cute how scared he got.
Thump thump.
No.
You shook your head.
You weren't going to do this to yourself.
Another one went off and you distracted yourself by watching it closely. This one was silver, speckled with red and blue dots.
Sans was now paying close attention to them, his eyes widening. “wow…”
“Yeah. Wow.”
You leaned back on your hands, propping yourself up. Despite a bit of lingering anxiety, this was nice. You always loved seeing fireworks.
Sans flinched at the louder ones, but seemed to be nearly jaded to the noise by now. After a minute, he propped himself back down next to you.
Trying your best to ignore him, you stared ahead.
You loved fireworks.
That's all that mattered now.
But after a moment, you could start to feel something warm creep onto the back of your hand. You didn't look at it, first trying to decipher what exactly it was, but once another firework went off and the thing flinched, you put two and two together.
Sans gently slid his hand underneath yours, squeezing it tightly.
You kept your eyes forward, unmoving.
Why was he--
What were you--
Holy shit, what were you supposed to do?
He made it fairly clear before that he wasn't into you. Maybe you were taking this the wrong way. Was this a friendly hand holding kind of situation?
Yeah, yeah, that was it. He was just being friendly.
…
Cause that makes sense…
His hand was oddly soft, warm. You could feel every time he flinched, even if just slightly. Your heartbeat was so loud and powerful, you sometimes couldn't tell whether it was your heart beating or a firework going off that was rattling your insides.
You didn't dare look over. If you did, he would apologize and you would say something awkward and he would leave early and you’d be embarrassed…
But if you didn't look over, maybe you could drag it out. He would hold your hand longer, he would lean into, even if just for a few more minutes.
You tried so hard to focus on the fireworks, but you just couldn't avert your attention away from Sans. Every thought you had just led back to your hands touching. Your mind was racing, running wild.
Finally, you said something.
“T-They’re pretty cool, huh?” You stammered.
Instead of a response, you felt him readjust himself and lean closer to you, placing a hand on your cheek. Gently pushing on it, he guided your face so you were looking at him.
Thump thump thump thump thump thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.
“yeah…” he said softly, your faces practically touching.
Totally platonic. Nothing weird about this.
He leaned forward until his face collided with yours. Your mouths settled against each other's and your body was instantly warmed down to your core.
This wasn't like those other times you kissed him. It was like kissing a human and even more. He pulled back all too quickly, taking in a breath.
You looked at him.
He looked at you.
On a whim, you leaned back in and to your surprise he started to kiss you back.
You could hear the crackles and pops of the finale in the background, but it all seemed distant. It was just you Sans now. There might as well have been no one else on the face of the Earth.
You could hear the hum of his magic resonate in your skull, like his magic was flowing through you, as he pulled you in closer.
He tasted sweet.
…
……….
…………….
Okay, maybe this wasn't all that platonic.
He gently pulled away as the fireworks ceased and people started to clap. You stared at each other for more than a few moments before he finally said something.
“welp, we better get going.”
He stood up, stretching, leaving you empty-handed and confused.
“What…?”
“paps is prolly home by now. don't wanna worry him. plus, think i left my phone on the couch.” He looked over at your bag. “you mind gettin’ everything?”
You scrabbled onto your feet, looking at him like he was crazy. “Are-are we not gonna talk about what the fuck just happened? I mean, if anything did happen. Did what I think happen just happen? Cause I mean, maybe I just misinterpreted that entire exchange!” You were rambling now, in a panic. “Because I’m pretty sure we just made out like not even a little bit but for a long time and I’m pretty sure I even felt some tongue in there however the hell that shit works but look the point is that I’m severely confused and please tell me I wrong and that that wasn't just a platonic make out session???”
He raised an eyebrow like you were the crazy on here.
“yea, you’re wrong. that was completely romantic and yes i did use some tongue.” He said it way to nonchalant for the situation, but you could see blue tinting his cheeks. “can we talk about this in the car?” He looked away, the nervousness starting to show on his face.
“Uhm… s-sure??” You bent down, rolling up the blanket and shoving it into the bag, not bothering to pick up the glow sticks. It was shitty and littering, but you had other things on your mind at the moment. “I guess… let's go?”
“‘kay,” he pivoted on his heel, turning around. “i call shotgun,” he shouted over his shoulder jokingly, followed by a chuckle.
You nervously laughed, partially at his joke and partially out of pure insanity.
What the hell just happened?
Guess you would find out when you talked about it… later.