Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ ✋︎💧︎ ⚐︎☠︎☹︎✡︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 👌︎☜︎☝︎✋︎☠︎☠︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ⚐︎☞︎ 💧︎☜︎✞︎☜︎☼︎✌︎☹︎ ☜︎☠︎👎︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ . "

W.D. Gaster's breath was heavy, pain thumping against his skull. His boney fingers ghosted the new wound on his face, bone marrow and magic lifeblood flowing down in rivers. The purple-red swirled liquid stained the glossy tiled floor of his lab in Hotland.

Although his eyesight had been drastically reduced and his vision clouded from his own blood, he stared at the enemy before him, a male human. He held a scalpel in hand, one that the doctor had just been using, but not on him.

His now sunken left eye glowed a dangerous purple, his right even brighter. How had this happened? How did a human get inside of his lab? Even with all the lasers and traps he'd set up? There was dust on the man's clothes. Had this human killed his assistants and colleagues? And now wished to end him as well?

There were soft hiccups and loud whining from under the counter he'd just been working at, not even two minutes ago. His sons. His functioning right eye drifted to them for a fraction of a second, but he knew what he had to do. His hands glowed a bright purple to match his eye lights.

"Honestly, today was simply beautiful." He said, in warbled tones, his accent falling through just slightly. "The birds were singing, flowers were blooming..."

Two skeletal dragon heads were summoned, one on each side. "But on days like these, humans like you..." The large creatures' mouths opened wide. "Should be burning in hell." Large blasts of light were shot towards the human, and the battle continued between the two men. Bones lined with purple magic flew across the lab and jutted out from the floor. Slices of the scalpel, a mysterious red glow following after filled the room.

But neither of them had the time to turn their attention to the child and infant under the lab table.

A skeleton child, wrapped in a blue sweater, his eye lights flashing a terrified blue and yellow as tears streamed endlessly down his face. He could hardly breathe. His father was critically injured and fighting for their lives right in front of him. Yet the boy couldn't move from his huddled position. There was a bundle of orange and red in his grasp. He cradled his baby brother in his arms, holding the infant tighter than necessary and causing him to cry.

If they survived this, then he knew what he had to do.

Sans knew he couldn't let a single human like this enter the underground ever again.

Chapter Text

" ✌︎❄︎ ☹︎✌︎💧︎❄︎ ✋︎❄︎ ✋︎💧︎ ❄︎✋︎💣︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ 👌︎☜︎☝︎✋︎☠︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ☺︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎☠︎☜︎✡︎. "

You were aching. Your head pounding to an unknown beat against your skull. What happened? Why were you in so much pain? Your eyes finally cracked open, blinking away the moonlight that shone down on you. Why was it so dark?

Your vision finally cleared enough to look up and see that you'd plummeted from the hole in the ceiling above you. You could see the moon directly above, and if you squinted you'd almost be able to see the glow of the stars so far above.

Pulling your arm from out under your body, you propped yourself up on your scraped elbows. Your entire body was sore, but you needed to find out what happened and how you got here. You could see bruises littering your arms, and you guessed that you were probably bruised everywhere else too. Although you hadn't known how you survived such a long fall until you heard the crinkling of dried leaves under you. The sound was deafening against the silence that the cave provided.

That was until you listened a little closer. If you remained still and alert to your surroundings, you could make out a soft harmonic melody that seemed to flow through the entire place. You couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it made the darkness surrounding you a little less fearful.

You finally gained the energy to stand on your own, wincing when you placed too much pressure on your right leg. It seemed as though your forearms and right leg took quite a bit of damage, despite that the pile of leaves broke your fall. You needed to find a way out and back up to the surface.

Although, for a moment you weren't sure as to why. Why did you have such a deep calling back to the surface? Why'd you even fall down here in the first place again? You knitted your eyebrows together in confusion.

That was strange. You should at least remember that much. You'd deal with that later though, for now you were beginning to feel a chill run up your spine. Someone was watching you, and being injured and watched made you feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. You leaned against the cave walls, realizing that they were a lot smoother than you thought they would be, and hobbling away to what you thought looked like an exit. Hopefully it wouldn't get much darker.

You walked through the dimly lit hall and came across a purple gateway. It was strange, and most definitely not made naturally. You walked through it despite the possible dangers. You were alone right? You didn't know what was more terrifying. The fact that you were alone without help, or the feeling of being watched clawing at your nerves.

You reached a room that was no longer dark, but lit just enough to see that the floors and walls were all purple. Other than the white marble stairs that lined the first room, it seemed empty. Still, who had placed these stairs here? It looked like ones from leading up to the library back home.

Home? That's right! Your home was on the surface. You remembered that much, good! You finally got used to the pain in your leg and guessed it was simply twisted, although you didn't have the heart to take a look at it and see if it was swollen or not. You didn't want to stop yourself short and give up just yet.

With the newfound information of your home, you continued on, limping, but no longer leaning against the wall for support. There were more rooms like this one. Long corridors and rooms that seemed to have no end, only the purple walls and floors and the occasional white pillars. Some had been littered with red fallen leaves like the ones you'd landed on.

It was becoming lonely, and for a child who had no idea where they were going, it was also becoming terrifying. What if you'd be lost in these catacombs forever? You had no way home. You had no chance-

"Ribbit, ribbit."

You turned around, the sudden sound breaking the soft melody that floated along the path, and looked around desperately trying to pin the source of the noise down.

"Ribbit."

You looked down, your eyes falling on a small... frog? Was that a frog? It looked so strange. Perhaps a type of frog you'd never heard about before? Was it poisonous?

"Ribbit."

You stared at it, unsure of what to do, but you'd heard a phrase about these types of situations before. "If you leave it alone, then it'll leave you alone." Before you could remember who told you such a thing, the strangely patterned frog spat something out of it's mouth. Weirdly enough, it was actually a fly. Two flies... Three? And they were all heading for you. You cringed in disgust and tried swatting it away, only to hit it with the back of your hand and feel a stinging sensation.

You looked down at the scratch on your knuckles and back to the frog as the other two flies made contact with your body. Each one left a scratch on you. Alright, this was not ok. This frog - this thing was dangerous, and you needed to leave, now.

It stared at you while you turned and made a run for it. Sure you were a lot bigger than it, but what if it was poisonous? You weren't a coward, sure, but you also weren't an absolute idiot. Just occasionally reckless. This was not one of the times to be reckless. Besides, what were you supposed to do? Fight it? Fight a frog? Seriously? You'd probably have more luck roasting it's legs and eating it for dinner.

You'd made it pretty far, coming to a crossroads before your leg finally gave out and you tripped on your own foot. Cringing as you tumbled, you felt your elbows sting again, and your ankle throb. How did it come to this? You crawled to the closest wall, sitting against it as you felt tears sting your eyes.

You were lost underground, injured with no way out of this dark place. You could feel your lips tremble as you pulled your legs into your chest, lifting the hem of your pants slightly to see your scratched up and red ankle. It wasn't swelling much, thankfully, but it didn't help to make you feel any better about your situation.

Just as you felt your sobs catch in your throat, you heard a slight thump gradually making it's way towards you. You'd almost mistake it for footsteps if it wasn't so awkwardly timed.

You stopped your train of thought to turn your attention to the opening down the hall. You were alert and in a desperate attempt to feel less helpless, you grabbed anything nearby that you could use as a weapon. Your hands fell on a sturdy stick, a few feet away from you. Sure it was probably not very useful as a weapon, but it grounded you, and made you feel as if you could defend yourself to some extent.

Being able to do nothing but wait for the creature to approach, you backed yourself up against the wall some more, hoping you could just sink into it and forget about this bad dream. You watched as something - not even three feet tall, walked (?) into the room. Finally seeing it in the light, you felt your chest drop into your stomach. Whatever it was, was not something you knew about, and definitely did not seem harmless.

The creature honestly looked like some sort of horrifying carrot. The top green, and it's 'body' orange. It's face looked like something you'd carve onto a jack-o-lantern, but it wasn't Halloween. You felt chills rush down your spine as it hopped closer. You tried to scramble and stand up, but simply ended up hurting yourself more, tripping and landing roughly on the floor.

It stood right in front of you, your eyes wide as you stared at each other, but it's creepy grin stayed.

"Eat your vegetables." It spoke in a wavering tone.

It almost sounded like those words would be the death of you. You covered your head with your scratched up hands and gritted your teeth together, waiting for it to attack you. It summoned little vegetables and they landed directly in front of you. Now, you weren't the biggest fan of greens, but with the expectant look on its face, it repeated its phrase.

"Eat your vegetables." It nudged the greens closer and you hesitantly rose from your crouched position to take one of the carrots in front of you. Was this... Was this alright? You would be eating a vegetable in front of (what looked to be) another living vegetable. It was like eating chicken nuggets in front of another chicken.

Still you placed it in your mouth and crunched it with an awkward expression on your face, but it only grinned wider. This was... weird.  It stared at you intensely, so you continued to chew until you finished eating the little vegetable. Honestly it was just barely bigger than a baby carrot, but you felt something soothing from eating it.

The little vegetable grinned and hopped around in place as it looked back down to your ankle. "Better?" It asked, glancing between your face and your leg.

You glanced back down at your ankle, lifting up your pants again to see the swelling completely gone. Although there was still pain, it was more bearable than before. Your eyes widened as you stared at the carrot-o-lantern and then back to the vegetable in your hand. You finished eating a second one and the pain was nearly gone in your leg, along with the open red marks on your hands from the frog creature.

You stared back at the little creature again, a still unsure expression on your face. "Umm, yeah. It's better." You said nodding. "Uh... Thanks?"

It grinned wider, and yes it was creepier the more it smiled. It looked like it understood you, and you couldn't tell what was stranger. The fact that it understood you, or that it was dancing around in a little circle.

You figured that these little healing carrots would come in handy and after brushing off the dirt from the other two on the floor, you shoved one into your sweater pocket and the other into your mouth. Maybe if you ate another it would fix the scratches on your elbows.

"Come! Come! Vegetoid help." It hopped along, gesturing for you to follow with the little green leaves on its head.

"Wait what?" Was the only thing you could mutter out before you scrambled to your feet, running after the strangely fast... Vegetoid?

You continued to shove the rest of the carrot into your mouth, and finally caught up with it by the time you finished. Just like you predicted, the scratches on your elbow disappeared, some of the pain from your leg along with it.

It led you towards a tree, filled with the same red leaves that you'd seen all along the path you'd been traveling.

"Welcome to Ruins." Vegetoid spoke in it's wavering broken English.

You stared at it. It seemed fairly excited that you were here. "Umm... Thanks?" You said unsure again. "So this place is called Ruins?"

It nodded, hopping forward at an awkward pace past the tree. Just as you were about to walk past it as well, you saw something shimmering at the base of the tree's trunk. Hovering just over the floor, surrounded by the ruby red leaves, was a glowing... Actually, you didn't know what it was. It didn't look alive. It actually looked like some sort of star. Fading in and out of it's glow.

Curiosity took away the best of your rationality, and you reached your hand out to brush your finger against it. There was a warm wave of calm rushing over you as you saw something pop up right above it.

" Seeing a living tree underground with no sunlight around fills you with DETERMINATION - and HOPE... Save? "

You were extremely confused, and looked over your shoulder to see if the little Vegetoid knew what was going on, but it only kept it's back turned to you. Not moving in the slightest. It almost looked like it wasn't breathing - like time was standing still.

You were confused, but you gently tapped the 'save' option, simply driven by the need to see what would happen.

Another text popped up. " The Ruins - File saved. "

And everything returned to normal. The Vegetoid continued to hop along, calling out to you. "Come, human! Come!" The music from before flowed gently through your ears, and for a moment you saw how dangerous an action you'd just performed. You'd just stopped time for a solid second, and you were the only one aware of it.

That was terrifying.

"Human?"

You looked up, your eyes connecting with the Vegetoid's hollow ones. "Human, ok?" You only nodded in return and it continued down the long hallway until it reached the back of the purple cave wall. Would you even still consider it a cave? This place was the Ruins.

You stared down at Vegetoid, unsure of why it simply stood there, a few feet away from the wall. "Vegetoid?" You asked, raising an eyebrow. "You - uh... You ok?"

He began brushing away the ruby leaves on the floor, and as more of the leaves were removed, you noticed there was something there. You helped him move them until a brown wooden entrance on the floor was visible. You pulled at the two rusted door holes and it opened with a gradual creek. Finally, you lugged it up, throwing one side open and letting out a cough at how musky it smelt down there.

"Go down." Vegetoid said. "Keep going and human can go home." He almost sounded sad.

You knitted your eyebrows as you looked at the descending stairwell. It looked pitch black down there, and honestly you weren't a fan of not being able to see.

"Human careful, ok?" He continued. "Not all monsters nice."

You glanced back at him, a crooked, still kind of conflicted smile on your face. "So that's what you are, huh?" You asked. "A monster?" He nodded. "I guess there's gonna be a lot of monsters from here on out, right?" He nodded again. You took the first step into the dark descending stairs.

Before you could get farther than a few steps down, you looked back at Vegetoid, that sad expression still on it's face. "I'll be alright." You reassured him. "And thanks, Vegetoid."

"Welcome, Human." He replied.

"It's (Y/N)." You said giving him a hesitant pat on the head. "My name is (Y/N)."

He smiled one more time for you. "Goodbye, (Y/N)."

And with that, you left your temporary friend and continued down the staircase, never hearing the door shut behind you until you reached the bottom, where a solid floor awaited you.

You were on your own now, and it was terrifying, but Vegetoid's voice filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ ☞︎✋︎☠︎👎︎ ☞︎☼︎✋︎☜︎☠︎👎︎💧︎ ✋︎☠︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 💧︎❄︎☼︎✌︎☠︎☝︎☜︎💧︎❄︎ ⚐︎☞︎ 🕈︎✌︎✡︎💧︎. "

Your foot made contact with the solid floor, the unexpected surface caused you to stagger before you jumped down and stood on the even ground. There weren't anymore stairs, at least, not as far as you could see. The long hallway you'd landed yourself in was barely lit, only a single lantern every few meters or so. The flickering fires in each one seemed alive in their own way. They were too animated to feel as if they were simply gas or oil lamps, despite that there was no one there to tend to them.

You walked down the purple halls, the color was becoming increasingly familiar but plain. There seemed to be no end in sight, just a continuous line of flames hung on the wall, one after another. For a moment you began to doubt Vegetoid. Maybe... Maybe you were an idiot to believe that a random creature would try to help you.

You shook your head. "Kindness like cruelty, requires nothing more than opportunity." Yeah, alright, but who told you that? That didn't seem like a phrase you could come up with. You were only 12, and sure you weren't an idiot, but you weren't some sort of prodigy either. Those words were far too wise.

An adult perhaps? Yeah, that's it! You remembered now! She was 18 and had short brown hair. She was your... camp counselor? Wait, camp? Right! You attended a summer camp, but when? Was that recent? Perhaps not? More questions you couldn't remember the answer to kept popping up.

Your train of thought was broken when a breeze of wind flew past you, causing your skin to grow goosebumps and you to shiver. You were wearing a short sleeve shirt, a light (f/c) jacket, and some long pants that scrunched up at the bottom because they were a little long. Despite wearing a jacket, it didn't do you much good, as there were tears all along the sleeves and back. Most likely due to your fall.

The breeze was becoming stronger the longer you walked, and for a moment you could think about nothing but the immense cold you were feeling. How could the normal temperatures from the Ruins turn into something so cold in such a short amount of time? Maybe you should grab one of the lanterns on the wall to keep yourself warm. You glanced up at the lanterns, realizing that they were too high up on the wall for you to reach anyways.

You continued forward, only stopping to shiver for a moment until finally you'd seen light at the end of the tunnel. There was an opening at the end, the same purple gateway you'd seen from before framing the path, but something was wrong - or perhaps just strange.

Snow fell and swept into the last hall out of the Ruins. It fell and melted, but some were just cold enough to have piled on the edges of the doorframe and stay there, as if someone had tracked snow into a house. But snow underground? That was impossible. There was no water cycle underground without the sun and atmosphere... Right?

You felt a harsh winter breeze sweep past you, causing you to stumble back and clench your teeth. You were regretting not finding something warmer to wear, but then again, who would wear a large coat in the middle of summer?

Wait, summer? Was it summer? You didn't get to finish that thought before something glittered in the corner of your eyes. Another golden star, to the side of the doors. It hovered just over a bush to the left, just outside the gate. You felt the need to reach for it again, hoping that the same calm warmth would fend off the cold winter atmosphere, but it required you to step out into the snow and you weren't exactly wearing snow boots.

Still, you trudged forward, your teeth immediately chattering as the temperature dropped drastically. Your hand reached out for the glowing star and as soon as you made contact with it, you felt it's warmth and reassurance rush over you. Thank god...

Time froze again, even the snow fall stopping in its tracks to allow you to read the pop up text.

" The sudden change in temperatures is mystifying, and fills you with DETERMINATION - and HOPE... Save? "

For some reason you hesitated again. The cold had been held back by the halt in time, and you weren't exactly looking forward for it to bite at your skin again, but you had to continue on. Not only that, but you felt as if there was something wrong. Something was amiss - almost as if you weren't alone, even though the concept of time freezing around you made you feel alone. Pun not intended...

" Snowdin Forest - File saved. "

You saved regardless, and resumed your journey, keeping to the path in front of you. Vegetoid told you to keep going, but he never told you which direction to continue. So you hoped that traveling in a straight line would get you somewhere.

Although the name of the place you were in, Snowdin Forest... It seemed fitting, but the thick line of trees you saw as you continued walking on terrified you. The evergreens seemed packed together so tightly that you couldn't even see through them. There was only darkness peering through as their thick branches blocked out any light from the canopy.

Speaking of which, how was it possible to have light like this underground? You didn't see any sort of permanent light source - actually, you didn't see any light source at all. It was simply... bright enough to see. Also - you'd nearly forgotten about the stick in your possession. You'd kept gripping onto it so tightly during your current events that it made a dent in your hands, leaving shadows and little lines of the wooden fibers. You pried it out of your own hands, surprised that there weren't any splinters.

Actually... Now that you thought about it, ever since you saved at the large red tree in the Ruins, all of your wounds had closed up. There was nothing more than the ghosting of your old bruises. They were no longer aching, but you remembered where they were.

"SANS!"

The sudden shout caused you to jump out of your skin, your eyes wide and darting around for the source of the scream. It sounded like someone was calling for help. Your feet began to move on their own; from trudging through the newly fallen snow to running as fast as you could towards the calls for help.

It sounded like another kid – several actually. As you got closer, your grip on the stick tightened, your panicked breaths filling the air with steam, until you heard their voices. The voices of other children, all shouting.

"HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE!"

You didn't waste anymore time, you strayed from the path and burst through the tree line, despite your earlier fears of becoming lost in the forest and ran towards a tiny clearing. You saw a group of monster children, one on the floor, doubled over and another sitting beside them. Four more figures surrounded the other two.

For a second you thought they were crowding around, trying to find out what happened, until you saw one summon their magic, and surround the two on the floor with razor sharp snowflakes.

A terrified yelp came from the smaller one, who was clinging to the one on the floor. It looked like a skeleton; they had an orange turtleneck on, and a bright red scarf wrapped around their neck. Laughter erupted from the four children circling around the two on the floor. He began to cry, and as you saw the transparent orange tinted tears roll off his face, you felt something well up inside you.

Your soul pounded against your ribcage. You were angry. You were furious, and this pure rage could come out as nothing more than unchecked aggression.

You rushed at the group of monster children, not even bothering to take in their appearances, as they were nothing more than clutters of hostile feathers and fur now. You shoved one away to make room for yourself, and you stood defensively in front of the other two, a fire burning in your soul. The four children who were surrounding the other two stared at you in shock. Firstly, they didn't expect for anyone else to be out this far into the forest, and so close to the Ruins. Everyone knew that the Ruins were dangerous. Secondly, they'd never seen anyone like you. You - you weren't a species they'd seen before... Well, except for one.

"A human!" He growled, pointing at you accusingly. "It's a human!" He said again, finally snapping his companions out of their shock. "Get them!" He looked like a dog, grey fur and a black snout with floppy ears, and eyes that looked offended. He was also the leader apparently, as he was the first to bark orders.

The others became scared, all of them staring at you with fear beginning to cloud their eyes. Everyone remembered the stories they were told as children and that they learned in school. Humans were the reason they lived underground and they were dangerous.

"B-but w-we're not guards!" The first one to stutter out a reply was the bird looking monster, a white snowflake pattern on his face, against his dark blue feathers. He was the one who you saw attack the two smaller ones behind you.

"Does it matter?!" Their leader snapped. "If there's a human in the underground, then you kill it. That's what my dad always says. Besides, they don't have magic. They're weak compared to us monsters."

Your eye twitched, a frown continuing to grow on your face. One more wrong thing out of this mutt's mouth and you'd show him just how 'weak' you were.

"They're just as weak as the two idiots behind them."

You snapped. Letting out a battle cry, you lifted the stick in your hands above your head and it collided with the chest of the dog in front of you. He staggered backwards, gripping at where you'd hit him, pain and shock written across his face.

You'd liked that expression. You didn't like being underestimated, even if you were a kid, but you loved that look on his face. You loved proving people like these wrong. You were strong, and you were going to show him just how strong you were.

You couldn't help but be blinded by your sudden fury, the voices of the other children fading into nothing more than background noise, as you fought anything that moved. You turned in several directions, trying to fend off their attacks, and returning them to drive them away, but you always caught that flash of red from the corners of your eyes. Along with the lump of blue and slight flickering of yellow beside it.

You received several blows from the four children, scratches turned into gashes, and shocks of mild pain turned into thumping purple bruises. Soon enough, you'd hit one - a bunny girl - hard enough on her back that she collided with the snow and didn't get back up.

You panted, your ragged breaths turning into vapor in the air, but even though you were ready for another attack, nothing came. You were tired, and the adrenaline in your veins was beginning to subside when you realized that the reason why, was because they all stared at you, terrified. You didn't notice, not even now, because it was pulled out from behind you and held in place by the blue lump you were protecting, about a minute ago. Your soul was in full view, and it glowed a vibrant red, only to be masked with a film of blue magic. It contrasted majorly with the blood that flowed from your arm when you were cut by one of the sharp snowflakes.

They weren't staring at your soul though - they were staring at the unconscious body you were hovering over, and the almost deranged, angry look in your eyes.

"WHAT!?" You snapped at them, every single monster flinching at your loud voice. "Are you done yet!?" You yelled. "Are you done fighting?! Are you done picking on people weaker than you!?" You could see that they were all backing away, scared of what you'd been capable of. You lowered your voice, realizing that violence was no longer needed. "Because if you are, then you can leave."

You didn't need to say anything else, two of them took off, and the last one, a bear looking monster girl dragged her friend away as soon as you took a few steps away from her body. You let out a shaky breath, feeling the last of your anger and adrenaline fizzle out and evaporate. The problem was that the hormones that kept you fighting, were also the ones that kept the pain at bay.

You hissed in pain, soft whimpers falling from your mouth as you collapsed to your knees. You could really feel your injuries now, and the streaks of dried blood, with a few drops to follow down slowly, left you scared. The pain was one thing, but the fear of death was another.

You heard the soft crunching of snow against the floor behind you, and your breath caught in your throat. For a moment, you thought that one of those bullies had come back to finish you off. You turned around and were met with a terrifying blue and yellow glowing eye of the other skeleton who wore a blue sweater. You could feel tears well up as you curled into yourself, convinced that despite saving him, you were still human; and that meant you were to be killed. The realization filling you with hopelessness and fear.

Chapter Text

" ✡︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎🕆︎︎︎ 👌︎︎︎☼︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎🕆︎︎︎☝︎︎︎☟︎︎︎❄︎︎︎ ❄︎︎︎☟︎︎︎☜︎︎︎💣︎︎︎ ☟︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎💣︎︎︎☜︎︎︎ 💧︎︎︎✌︎︎︎☞︎︎︎☜︎︎︎☹︎︎︎✡︎︎︎ ✌︎︎︎☠︎︎︎👎︎︎︎ ☞︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎☼︎︎︎ ❄︎︎︎☟︎︎︎✌︎︎︎❄︎︎︎ ✡︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎🕆︎︎︎ 🕈︎︎︎✋︎︎︎☹︎︎︎☹︎︎︎ 👌︎︎︎☜︎︎︎ 😐︎︎︎☜︎︎︎🏱︎︎︎❄︎︎︎ 💧︎︎︎✌︎︎︎☞︎︎︎☜︎︎︎ ❄︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎⚐︎︎︎. "

His hand was wrapped in his blue magical aura, and it was directed to your soul. He held it in place with his magic, pinning you to the floor, although it wasn't as if you were going to be getting up anytime soon anyways. His left eye was ablaze with blue-yellow smoke billowing out in strong wisps. He was breathing shallow, but quick; as if he was panicking, and his beige turtleneck under the blue sweater was moving in time with his breaths. Had you not been in such a pitiful state on the floor, you might have been curious as to how he did so.

"SANS NO!"

The smaller skeleton pulled on his sleeve, tugging the sleeve of the arm that held your soul. "NO! NO! THEY SAVED US! STOP IT!" He shouted again, little orange tears beginning to form around his eyes again.

Sans was shaking, and his little brother tugging at his sleeve caused him to panic more. He had to protect him. He had to protect his family, but when he saw the little tears at the edges of his eyes, Sans listened to what his brother said.

You saved them? Nonsense - you... He took another glance at you on the floor, your arm was no longer bleeding, but it looked almost frozen, and you were in pain. Scratched up, bruised, and almost broken on the floor as you curled into yourself.

"Pap, stand back, you don't understand what's going on." Sans's voice cracked as he tried to gently push his brother behind him. If he wanted to protect him - if he wanted to protect anyone, this human had to go. They - they had to die.

"NO!" Papyrus screamed again, pushing himself between you and Sans. "NO! I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM!" He was crying and Sans could feel himself falter. "YOU DIDN'T SEE IT BECAUSE I WAS STILL TRYING TO HEAL YOU, BUT THEY SAVED US!"

"They beat up four kids!" Sans shouted back. He watched as Papyrus burst out into sobs, flopping onto the floor helplessly beside you. He took a step forward, worried that Papyrus was too close to you, but his little brother only scooted closer to you the closer he tried to get. "Pap, I - I'm sorry, but you need to get away from them..." He tried, earning another loud sob.

"SANS!?"

The older skeleton's eyes shot up when he heard his name being called from a different direction.

"PAPYRUS!"

Papyrus swapped out his sobbing for hiccups as he scrambled onto his feet and ran towards the familiar voice.

"DADDY!" Papyrus cried, rushing towards his father as the tall skeleton came running through the thick snow, only stopping to kneel down and pick Papyrus up.

"Papyrus? Sans!? What are you two doing out this far-" The scientist stopped in his tracks, his bones freezing in place as he held Papyrus closer to his body, seeing you bleeding on the floor. "Sans. Step away, now." His voice was quiet, and caused Sans to feel a shiver down his spine, but the child obeyed. His glowing blue-yellow eye dispersed to reveal his white pinpricks, and he rushed to his father's hold.

"Explain." Gaster wore a white lab coat, glasses still on his face and the fog in them was beginning to disappear as they cooled and got used to the colder temperature. "You - you didn't kill them did you?" He whispered, his gaze finally tearing from your beaten body on the floor to look at his oldest son's. Sans shook his head profusely, but didn't speak.

You were freezing on the floor, and about 5 minutes ago, you'd passed out from your injuries and the cold. You were lying there in the snow, still as though you really had been dead, and no doubt that if you stayed in these temperatures with those injuries, you really would be in about 15 more minutes.

"Then what happened?" He asked, glancing between his two sons and your body on the floor.

Before Sans could say anything, his younger brother beat him to it. "THEY SAVED US!" He argued, tugging at his father's lab coat. "PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM, DADDY! THEY SAVED US FROM THOSE MEAN KIDS!"

"Saved?" His uneven eyes drifted back to your body, surveying your injuries from a few feet away. "Mean kids? What?"

Sans gripped his own sweater and sunk into it. "... some bullies from school chased us here and -..." He let out a shaky breath, realizing what Papyrus said was right. "they saved us." He muttered, feeling his eyes burn with confused tears. "Dad, I - I don't get it." He whispered weakly before feeling his father's head nudge his own. He buried his head into the man's shoulder and held himself tighter.

He was confused, and his father understood, because if you'd really saved his children, then it would only make sense. After the traumatizing event that had happened in his own lab, Sans was always extremely weary of humans, even if none had fallen until now.

He couldn't waste any more time. He hoisted his two children up as he stood, and with purple magic coming from his eyes, he levitated your body towards them. Both of them gripped their father's lab coat tighter as he brought you close. If you'd really saved them, then the least he could do was to make sure you weren't to die just yet.

Too many questions would be asked if he carried your limp body through Snowdin, so he opted to teleport, making sure you were close enough for his range of magic before there was a sudden 'ping' and the four of you were inside of his home.

Gaster placed his two sons on the floor, despite that they still clung to his lab coat, they let go when they realized he was going to observe you. He placed you on the couch with his magic, before turning to his two sons again. They seemed spooked, and they had every right to be.

"Papyrus, could you get a bowl of warm water and a towel? Sans, get the medical kit from the lab." He hoped his requests could keep them busy enough to shove their fears aside.

He turned his attention back to you and took in your ragged appearance. Your hair was disheveled and matted down with dirt and snow. Your face was scratched up and bruised. Your clothes were thin, bloodstained, dirty, and tattered. You really couldn't look much worse. It must have been hell for you if you'd already looked like that despite only reaching Snowdin Forest.

He looked a little more closely at the gash in your arm. It wasn't too deep, but it had bled, and caused you to look more beaten than if it hadn't. It must've been painful. He sighed. Did you receive all of these injuries protecting his children? What was he supposed to do? Sans was deeply traumatized by humans. He was intelligent, yes; but trauma didn't care for intelligence. It would still be hard for him to accept that, like monsters, humans also could be good or bad, and you were only a child.

But even a child could be evil.

He frowned at his own thoughts, glaring down at your unconscious body. It was a pessimistic and almost harmful thought, but it was true. Even children could be evil.

"I GOT IT DADDY!"

He snapped out of his unhealthy thoughts and looked behind him to see Papyrus waddling his way into the living room with a basin of water and a rag to clean your wounds with. Sans had already placed the medical kit on the coffee table in the middle of the living room and was staring at your body with his eye lights flashing between white and blue. He was still conflicted, much alike Gaster himself.

"Thank you." He spoke before leaning down and helping Papyrus place the bin on the coffee table. "Sans, please take Papyrus to your room and play there for a while. I will take care of the human."

When hearing that his father would help the human that saved them, Papyrus was ecstatic, and eagerly pulled at his older brother's hand. He wanted to hurry up and play, then hurry up and go back down to see the human awake. He had so many questions for them, and so much to say.

But Sans didn't budge. He had a shocked, but terrified expression on his face, only barely diluted because he didn't wish to scare his little brother, but it didn't change that his father was going to try and heal you. He was so confused, and his eyes kept flashing between you and his father's face.

"dad..." His voice was quiet and wavered, unsure if what his father was doing was alright, but Gaster only gave his son a gentle smile.

"Do not worry, Sans." He said nodding. "I know, and it will be alright."

Sans finally allowed his bones to quit their tense clattering, and he was now pulled along by Papyrus upstairs, but his eyes never left Gaster's gaze until the two boys were inside the room and the door closed behind them.

Gaster gave a deep sigh, massaging the area between his eye sockets. He looked down at you, your eyebrows were knitted together in pain, and a scared expression was on your face, despite that you were unconscious. He glanced back at his son's room again, and wondered what he was going to do with all of you.

He summoned his extra hands and wasted no time cleaning, closing, and wrapping your injuries. He didn't bother to use healing magic - it was far too draining for him - but there was something else that was bothering him. He'd have to tell the king and queen of your presence. Honestly, he didn't know what to expect from them.

It wasn't as if they were unpredictable, it was simply that Asgore and Toriel were still so fragile after what happened to their own children. They were still in a state of grieving and he knew that his latest findings (which he already presented to them) would be a big factor of how they would handle your presence in the underground.

"Child, you really do have the worst timing." He muttered with a sigh. He began talking to himself, as he waited to see if you'd have a response. He didn't want to leave you alone. He didn't trust you yet. He didn't know your full story after all, but he did know that you'd done a number on those bullies.

He'd teleported home from work because he'd forgotten important notes in his personal lab. He'd gone upstairs to see if Sans and Papyrus were home from school yet, as they should have been, but it was silent. He'd begun to worry, and silently hoped that the two of them had gone to spend time in the small restaurant his friends owned and their son. But just as he was about to teleport back to his lab in Hotland, he heard shouts and cries from outside, and panicked.

He burst outside and found a few pairs of parents surrounding four children. When he spotted them, he saw that they were all beaten, and one was completely unconscious. The dog monster child in the middle of it all said something about two skeletons in Snowdin Forest, and he felt his soul drop into his nonexistent stomach.

He teleported there as quickly as he could and ran around, trying to find his sons, only to hear Papyrus's loud cries. He'd never been so panicked in his life, and that was when he saw his sons and your unconscious body on the floor.

Even now as you were patched up, you were still freezing, and Gaster placed a blanket over you. He would turn on the heater later. You were dangerous. If you'd decided to join the opposite side, and instead fight against his sons - Asgore praise that you didn't - then he would've been greeted with nothing more than two piles of dust, a scarf, and sweater.

The thought alone caused the scientist to clench his hands together as his bones shook. You were dangerous, yet he'd brought you into his home. He needed the full story - he needed to know what happened, what your thoughts were, and why you'd decided to be so violent in defending his sons. He was just glad that no one was dusted, and perhaps Asgore was right.

After creating Sans and Papyrus, he was becoming soft, but the idea of watching them have the happy life they deserved filled him with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ☜︎✞︎☜︎☠︎ 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎☼︎☜︎☠︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ 👌︎☜︎ ☜︎✞︎✋︎☹︎📬︎ ☜︎✞︎☜︎☠︎ 💣︎⚐︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ 😐︎✋︎☠︎👎︎📪︎ 👌︎🕆︎❄︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ 💧︎✋︎💣︎🏱︎☹︎✡︎ ✌︎☠︎☝︎☼︎✡︎. "

"ARE THEY AWAKE YET?"

"No, Papyrus. Not yet."

"HOW MUCH LONGER?"

"I'm... Not sure. Perhaps a few hours?"

"HOURS!?"

"Hahah... No need to pout."

"i think it's better if they stay asleep."

"... Sans."

"SANS DON'T YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH THEM? WHAT IF THEY'RE NICE?"

"nice? Nice?! They beat up four kids yesterday!"

"Sans! There's no need to raise your voice."

"sorry, dad..."

"LOOK! THEY'RE WAKING UP!"

You cringed at the noise that was made all around you. You knew your cabin mates were loud in the mornings, but you didn't think they'd be loud enough to make your head pound like this.

"Guys, please - I don't think it's even 7 yet, shut it." You mumbled. You tried to lift your hand to rub your eyes awake, but winced when you tried to move your arms. Oh - oh god, the pain came crashing down on you like a wave and you suddenly felt just how sore and tired you really were. You groaned, knitting your eyebrows together in pain before you finally managed to open your eyes.

You were met face to face with the excitable skeleton child's grinning face, and you couldn't help but yelp and flinch as he was too close for comfort. "HELLO HUMAN!" He shouted with a bright smile. "THERE IS NO NEED TO SCREAM! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT HURT YOU!"

You stared at the kid, realizing the red scarf around his neck was familiar, and also how childish he was. Despite his loud demeanor, you weren't worried about him. You were a little busy staring at the other two skeletons standing behind him. The tall one in the white lab coat tried to seem less threatening and gave you your space, but you could tell he was tense. Then there was the one who stared at you with a blank expression and empty eye sockets. He was wearing a blue sweater, one you remembered. These two were the kids you saved, you remembered that much, and you guessed the large one was their father from the dialogue you'd woken up to.

You tried to sit up on your own, but in the end you were helped up by the father. Even though he'd come to your side to help you up, you only stared at him for as long as he was approaching you. You turned your gaze back to the one who glared at you from across the coffee table. He made you feel uncomfortable, like one wrong move and the two of you could be at each others throats.

Gaster noticed the stare down between the two of you, and gave Sans a glance, trying to deter him from making any rash decisions. He caught his father's gaze, the white eye lights returning, before he turned around to enter the kitchen by himself. He stuffed his trembling hands in his pockets and hesitated before he finally entered the kitchen. A part of him didn't want to leave you alone with his father and brother.

"HUMAN!" Both you and Gaster's gaze was snapped away from the kitchen doorway and turned to Papyrus. "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" He asked with sparkling eyes. "I WISH TO KNOW WHO SAVED ME!" He was grinning wider than ever, and you felt like you were talking to another kid. It felt reassuring despite everything.

You chuckled when he said you saved him. "(Y/N)." You said. "My name is (Y/N)." You glanced at the floor, wondering why your name was the only solid information you had about yourself without thinking too hard.

"I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" He said enthusiastically. You could almost see his scarf float behind him. "AND THAT IS MY DAD." He pointed to the skeleton with cracks in his face beside you. "AND MY BROTHER SANS IN THE KITCHEN!"

"Papyrus, (Y/N) still seems to be in a bit of pain, do you think you could help Sans prepare breakfast while I check on their injuries?"

Gaster's request caused Papyrus's eyes to light up, and he bounded away into the kitchen with a, "WHY OF COURSE! I HOPE YOU ENJOY PASTA AND PANCAKES, HUMAN!"

You watched as Papyrus exited, and you suddenly felt very unsafe. You turned your body, despite the aches, to stare at Gaster who stood at the other end of the couch. He looked like he wanted to speak with you alone, and you were dreading what he might say, especially when you remembered what that dog monster said yesterday.

"(Y/N), I have painkillers here that will help with your injuries, and I'd also like to inform you, if you didn't already know, that monster food heals the body." He explained. "So you should eat breakfast with us-"

"Why?" You spoke suddenly, causing him to stare at your interrogating expression. "I thought -... I thought monsters were supposed to kill humans, why are you just... asking me to have breakfast with you?"

He stared at you for a moment, realizing that alike Sans, you were smarter than the other children your age. The both of you always knew just what questions to ask to make things difficult. "Did you hear those myths on the surface? Not all myths are true, you know?"

"I heard it from a dog monster I fought yesterday." You explained, narrowing your eyes slightly, your gaze shifting down. You were terrified. What if this was like one of those scary movies where if you knew too much at the beginning then they'd skip right to cutting you up into tiny pieces.

That made things more complicated, because Gaster knew that was the mentality of the Royal Guard, and he knew just who that dog monster you'd fought yesterday was. He knew the parents of all the children you'd fought, after all they lived in Snowdin, and it was a fairly small town.

"Then tell me this." He said taking a seat beside you on the couch, causing you to shift all the way to the other end. "Why did you attack those children yesterday?" His tone turned deathly serious and subtly accusing. You looked up at Gaster from your crunched position on the couch, your guard up again.

Your expression was twisted into one of bubbling anger and slight betrayal, as you began to scowl at him. "Because they were beating your kids up." You said with a considerable amount of sass. "It doesn't matter what you are, bullies are meant to get a taste of their own medicine." You spat bitterly.

Gaster's expression softened. He sighed, realizing now that his threatening words were no longer in the right place. You really did just defend his children out of justice for the weak. Great, now he felt like an asshole.

Still, you were a little more untamed and volatile than he'd like. Sometimes he wished a nice, intelligent, calm human would fall down and maybe help them learn how to get out of this hell they were trapped in. Instead, he had to deal with you. A reckless, cunning, and unpredictable child.

"Alright." Gaster finally said. "Thank you for protecting them." He turned his body to show his attentiveness. "And my offer to join us for breakfast is still there. You need to eat to heal."

"I know." You muttered, shuffling around with light winces of pain. You reached into your pocket and pulled out the carrot that Vegetoid gave you, glad it didn't rot, and you took a bite out of it with a crunch. Gaster felt a shock run through his spine. Like you were trying to show that your teeth could apply quite a bit of pressure in defense if necessary. "It was really weird to figure that out." You spoke with your mouth partially full and tried to seem nonchalant, but Gaster could see that you were still in pain, and your eyes were still calculating as ever for a child.

"How old are you?" He never got an answer, as Papyrus yelled from the kitchen.

"DADDY BREAKFAST IS READY!" The two of you looked towards the kitchen, and you could see some smoke coming from the doorway. You laughed to yourself as you heard the smoke detector go off. Papyrus was cute but chaotic in his own way. He reminded you of your friend's younger brother that you had gotten along with after meeting him during camp.

Your... friend? You made a friend during summer camp. Ok, that was new information, but you also realized that there was a lot of recent memory fragments about that summer camp. What was it called? When did you attend it? Why did it matter?

You didn't have time to answer these questions before Gaster began to help you off the couch without your consent. He hoisted you up by your armpits and placed you on the ground, being careful not to touch any bad injuries before making his way to the kitchen. You could walk - or rather limp - now that you'd eaten that last carrot from Vegetoid. You were pretty sure that if you hadn't you might not have even been able to get off the couch. Still, Gaster didn't need to lift you off of it like some sort of toddler.

You grumbled silently to yourself before you limped your way into the kitchen. You only just barely peered over the edge of the doorway, but you were already coughing from the smoke. You could see Gaster with a shocked expression as he desperately tried to put out the fire in the pan that Papyrus was using. Sans stood to the side with a lazy grin on his face, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants as he watched the other two handle the situation.

Without meaning to, you chuckled at the sight. It was like something out of a cartoon, but that humor was quickly halted when you'd realized that you had laughed in sync with Sans. The moment he realized you were watching from the entrance, his eye sockets narrowed down, suspicion and distrust forever present in his eyes, while his smile vanished. He really didn't like you. You knew that, but you were offended anyways. You'd saved him and his brother just the other day, taken a beating for them, and he looked at you as if you'd been the one to hurt them.

"That's enough glaring, you two." Gaster spoke up, wiping the ashes of the pancake from his hands. "Why don't you both help each other set the table while we finish the cooking without setting the kitchen on fire?"

The two of you gave each other a glance, Sans only glared harder at you, and you could do nothing but return with a frown. You didn't like his sour attitude, but you moved closer to the table, your injuries still visible. Honestly you still looked like a mess. Gaster hadn't replaced your clothes out of respect, and worked around them, although he had to cross a line when he realized that there was terrible bruising on your stomach and a cut on your thigh. There were bandages wrapped over your clothes too, but they were all disinfected, and you could still smell traces of rubbing alcohol.

Sans only continued to stare at you with that floppy frown of his, opening cabinets to reveal dishes and spoons and forks. You helped him set the table, the two of you completely silent, especially compared to the two laughing figures of Papyrus and Gaster at the stove. The tension between the two of you was thick as ever, both of you almost always ready for a fight at a moment's notice.

It was strange to Sans how, even still being injured, you glared back at him and acted like you weren't in pain. The fire burning in your soul remained and continued to burn brightly despite being hurt. You didn't let any weakness show, especially not when he didn't either.

Eventually your glaring contest was put to an end when Papyrus ran between the two of you and placed a plate of reheated spaghetti on the table. Gaster followed behind him, placing a tall stack of pancakes, and another plate of eggs beside the leftovers.

"... Spaghetti?" You rose an eyebrow at the dish, watching as Papyrus's eyes lit up.

"YES! SPAGHETTI IS MY FAVORITE DISH!"

"And you'd eat it even for breakfast?" You asked.

"OF COURSE!"

You couldn't help but chuckle at him, his innocence and enthusiasm was contagious, and you loved it. He pulled your hand along pulling out one of the chairs and helping you sit in it. You muttered a quick thank you, and he beamed before rushing to his own seat across from you. It was a table big enough for maybe 6 people, but because there were only four of you, well you were sandwiched between Sans and Gaster. You didn't mind, but... Being too close to Sans made you uncomfortable. He was always so tense and on edge. You couldn't relax for a single second when he was in the room. Although, it wasn't as if you'd relaxed at all since falling.

"Alright you two, I mean it." Gaster spoke up, causing the three of you to look at him with confusion. "Stop glaring."

Oh... You hadn't noticed that you and Sans had been locked in another intense staring competition again.

"Sorry." You muttered, fiddling with your own bandages as you shifted your gaze to the table. "It's rude to stare." You'd heard that a lot, from a lot of people.

"LET'S EAT!" Papyrus suddenly called, already shoving spaghetti onto his plate on top of the single pancake. You did a double take as he piled it onto the pancake and stared at his strange choice of mixing the two foods but said nothing about it. "It's rude to stare." ... "It's rude to stare." You chanted in your head as you placed food on your own plate.

Even though you and Sans weren't getting along, sitting with the other three skeletons around a table like this, eating breakfast and talking casually, almost like a ʎlıɯɐɟ ... it filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎☼︎☜︎☠︎ 👎︎☜︎💧︎☜︎☼︎✞︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ 🏱︎☹︎✌︎✡︎ ☺︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ ✌︎💧︎ 💣︎🕆︎👍︎☟︎ ✌︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎✡︎ 👎︎☜︎💧︎☜︎☼︎✞︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ☹︎☜︎✌︎☼︎☠︎. "

Gaster sighed as he waited for someone to pick up on the other side of the line. Even with the ringing of the phone beside his head, he could still hear you and Sans bickering silently in the kitchen. You were helping Papyrus clear the table while Sans was washing the dishes, and Gaster was making a phone call to a friend. Despite that you two were trying not to make too much noise, as not to attract any attention and be scolded, you were still butting heads.

"Hello?" The other person's voice held a sort of warmth and fondness.

"Hello! Yes, I'm so glad I finally got ahold of you - sorry, this is Gaster-"

"Calm down, friend." The other person gave a lighthearted chuckle. "I can tell you seem a little scatter-brained this morning. Is something wrong?"

Gaster gave a deep sigh. "I... Well, I found a human yesterday evening." He muttered, knowing full well that his friend on the other line was waiting for him to explain. "They... defended Papyrus and Sans, and were injured in the process - I couldn't just let them die in the cold - they're only a child."

"And it's a school day, so I'm guessing you'd like me to watch them while you're away at work..?" 

"Yes. I'm going to have to inform the King and Queen about the situation as well."

"You seem to be dreading it..."

Gaster didn't reply, and his friend understood.

"Alright, I'll watch them, but I'll have you know that I wouldn't suggest them lingering around the restaurant. Several Royal Guards hang around here in the afternoons, and we both know that not all of them are exactly human friendly - with what happened a few years ago especially..."

"I know, thank you." Gaster gave a relieved sigh. "I'm guessing you'll have them in the kitchen while you two are working, right?"

"I'm afraid so, yes. There's really no other place to leave them."

"That's alright. Their injuries are mostly healed after eating breakfast with us, although their left leg and arm seem to still be in pain."

"Oh dear, I almost forgot you aren't very skilled with healing magic."

"Could you by chance see if you could heal them further? Having an injured human child around... is dangerous."

His friend agreed, but Gaster highly doubted that they understood what he meant when he spoke his last sentence. He knew from experience that an injured, vulnerable human could be much more dangerous and feral than expected, even if they were a child. No matter what or who they were, when someone's cornered with no way out, the will to live can be the most powerful tool. Sometimes even more powerful than magic.

"CRASH!"

Gaster had just hung up, and the loud noise from the kitchen made him assume the worst. He rushed to the doorway, his eyes glowing a fearful purple, his magic already surrounding his hollowed hands.

You were on the floor, a broken dish scattered all around you as Sans and Papyrus stared in horror. You clutched your left thigh where the still healing wound was reopened, blood slowly dripping down your pants. The shattered pieces of the plate were surrounding you, and didn't help when you found that there were some pieces that had cut your palms when collapsing on the floor.

The sight shocked Gaster, but it was a lot easier to handle than if you had tried to attack his sons. "What happened?" He asked, using his magic to lift and throw away the broken clay. He tried to get you to sit up, but you were curled over your injury.

You hesitated to answer. "I... I bumped into the side of the table and it jabbed my leg." You were lying through your teeth, but were in too much pain to care about your terrible lie. You watched as the blood flowed out, and you were terrified.

Everyone in the room knew you were lying, but said nothing. Gaster picked you up with his magic and hovered you into the living room again, giving his two sons a passing glance while he went to attend your reopened wound.

"Sans." He spoke, his stern tone showing. "I expect you to apologize later."

Sans could do nothing but nod, his eye lights nothing but shrunken dots as he stared at your retreating figure.

"S-SANS?" Papyrus called his older brother's attention. "W-WHY DID THEY... LIE?"

He looked down at Papyrus, the strained grin still on his face that he'd been wearing all day, and did nothing but shrug before turning back to his chore at the sink.

There were no more words exchanged as Sans replayed the last two minutes in his head.

+

The moment Gaster exited the kitchen, saying he had to make a phone call, you immediately called Sans out.

"What's your problem?" You snapped at him when he gave you another glare as you placed a plate in the sink beside him.

He said nothing in return at first, only gritting his teeth as he tried to keep from doing anything reckless. "Humans shouldn't be here." Was the only thing that he muttered.

"Why?" You were becoming annoyed. He kept repeating that phrase all this morning, and it was making you mad. Why shouldn't you be here? Why were they trying to kill you? You didn't understand!

"Because you should mind your own business."

"This is my business! I wanna know why everyone wants me dead!"

"Maybe because every dang human that comes down here causes problems, like you!"

"I saved you! You-" You struggled for some sort of intelligent insult, but decided to throw that courtesy out the window. "You asshole!"

Before you knew it, you were dragged forward by your soul, Sans's blue magic surrounding the little heart that popped out of your chest. Honestly you were too busy gawking at it to notice that his eye was pouring out blue smoke even more than when he first met you.

" n e v e r  curse when Paps is around." He hissed, deathly quieter than normal before tossing you backwards. You stumbled back, your leg hitting the edge of the table and a dish clattering to the floor, breaking.

Papyrus watched the whole thing with a horrified look in his eyes. Why wouldn't the two of you just get along?

+

You could have easily said that he used his magic on you. You could have easily shifted the blame on him without a second though. You could have easily killed him yesterday. So why didn't you?

"SANS?" Papyrus's voice snapped him out of his trance. "YOU'VE BEEN STANDING THERE WITH THE WATER RUNNING FOR FIVE MINUTES. AREN'T YOU DONE WITH THE DISHES?"

He looked down at his hands. Paps was right. He'd been spacing out so much that he didn't even realize that he was already done. He closed the tap and stepped off the stool.

"i'm gonna go get my books." He muttered to his brother before teleporting to his room.

He stayed there. He would stay here until it was time to go, because he still couldn't figure you out. He didn't know why, but you were threatening. Something about the way you walked - the way you talked and presented yourself was dangerous. You were dangerous.

Gaster knew you were too. He sighed once he finished re-wrapping your injuries. Hopefully they would do until you could get some actual healing magic applied. You sat on the couch, retreating into yourself again. You were closing yourself up after the incident in the kitchen. After his talk with you, and Papyrus forcing you out of your shell, he noticed you weren't as weary, but now you were back to wanting minimal contact. The scientist glanced behind him. Papyrus was waiting by the entrance to the kitchen, eagerly awaiting a sign for him to come bounding in.

He noticed it was almost time for the children to head to school, and it was long past when he should have been at work. It was alright though. He was the head scientist. It wasn't as if he was going to be scolded for being late.

Before Gaster signaled for Papyrus to enter the living room, he turned to you. "(Y/N)." He began. "Papyrus and Sans are going to be heading to school, meanwhile I've made arrangements for you to stay with a friend while I'm at work. They're quite skilled in healing magic and should be able to help your injuries. After school, I'll have Sans and Papyrus come by and pick you up."

You stared at him with a suspicious scowl. "Why are you treating me like I'm your kid? Shouldn't you just send me on my way the moment I get healed?"

By Asgore- did you always have to ask the difficult questions?

"Because you're only a child."

"Then why'd you ask me to explain myself earlier?"

He had no response for it other than a sigh.

You bit at your own lip, realizing what maybe... "Sans was right, huh?" This caused Gaster to look up from the medical equipment he was putting away. "The humans that fall... They're all just trouble, right? That's why you can't let me go." It was a statement.

How was he supposed to refute this? He saw the confused, saddened, and angry expression making its way onto your face. You were only a child, yet here you were, facing racism on full blast because unlike on the surface, you were the only human down here right now. So all their prejudice fell on you and you alone.

"DADDY!" Papyrus could wait no longer, and Gaster was honestly glad that he interrupted your conversation. "WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!"

Oh shit. Gaster glanced up at the clock, his eye sockets widening and a comical floundered expression on his face. He teleported the medical kit back into the lab with a single tap on the item as he scrambled about.

"SANS!" His father called. "We're going to be late! Let's go!" He grabbed Papyrus by the back of his scarf and you by your uninjured arm. "Sans!"

"right here, dad." He spoke in lazy tones and looked a lot calmer than he did about 10 minutes ago.

You weren't expecting Gaster to teleport you all at once. You suddenly saw the world around you spin in several different directions, then landed in the snow face first because of the dizzying experience. You groaned, feeling your head ache at the sudden change of scenery, and then you shivered when you realized that you weren't exactly dressed the most appropriate. You were still in your torn, ragged clothes.

Gaster kissed his son's skulls goodbye and then flashed in the blink of an eye, not even waiting for you to adjust before the two of you appeared in a cozy family restaurant. You doubled over, covering your mouth and tried not to throw up. You would piece it together later that it was teleportation, but for now, your head spun and was able to barely register where you were.

"Gaster?"

"I'm so sorry to leave in a hurry like this, Flamia, but I can't even begin to tell you how late I am. Tell your husband I said hello! Have a good day, goodbye!" He was gone just as quickly as he appeared, and you were left alone in a foreign place.

You only just finally regained your composure, swallowing whatever bile that was threatening to come out of your mouth. Only then did you look up to see a pink flame monster before you. You definitely were not expecting that and you took a cautious step back, your eyes wide.

"Oh dear..." She muttered with a slight frown. "I don't remember Gaster saying that you were this jumpy-" She stopped mid-sentence. She narrowed her 'eyes' at you. It was weird, but you could see her large round glasses squint with her.

She surveyed you, her motherly instincts kicking in. Messy hair. Scratches, cuts, and bruises that looked new and barely patched up. Bandages wrapped outside of your bloodstained and ripped clothing. Snow all over your shoes - not to mention that the clothes you wore weren't meant for such weather in the first place. Gaster was just lucky that he told her that he'd fed you this morning, otherwise she would have chopped him up and served him as a special dish herself.

She frowned. He would be receiving a long scolding from her later about this. "Come, dear. I won't hurt you." She placed her hands behind her back and turned around, heading for the kitchen area to the far left of the cozy restaurant.

She stood and waited by the door for you to follow when you were comfortable, so after a minute of staring at her just standing there, you limped your way over to her. She knitted her eyebrows in worry when she saw you limping. You were hurt a lot worse than she thought you'd be. Had Gaster wasted any magic trying to heal you at all?

You walked slowly, taking in your surroundings before you walked into the backroom kitchen. The place had a wooden floor, booths and tables, decorated with low burning lamps, as Flamia herself was actually one of the sources of light - you didn't hear a heater either, but it was warm here nonetheless.

You walked beside her as she opened the door to the kitchen and led you inside. "Let's get you healed and cleaned up." She spoke.

As you looked back at her, you could see the ghost of a smile forming behind the flames that made up her body, and her warm motherly aura filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ❄︎✌︎😐︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ 👍︎✌︎☼︎☜︎ ⚐︎☞︎ 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎☼︎☜︎👎︎ 🕈︎✌︎💧︎ 👎︎✋︎☞︎☞︎✋︎👍︎🕆︎☹︎❄︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ 💧︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎⚐︎☠︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎⚐︎ ☟︎✌︎☼︎👎︎☹︎✡︎ ☼︎☜︎💣︎☜︎💣︎👌︎☜︎☼︎💧︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ❄︎✌︎😐︎☜︎ 👍︎✌︎☼︎☜︎ ⚐︎☞︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎💣︎💧︎☜︎☹︎✞︎☜︎💧︎. "

Flamia had been extremely kind to you in the 5 minutes that you'd known her so far. She sat you down and took the time to heal your wounds flawlessly. Gaster really was right, she was talented when it came to healing magic. Afterwards, she rushed you to the locker room in the back, and handed you a fresh pair of clothes, although they were apparently borrowed from her own son. 

The folded clothing she'd given you were a freshly ironed white collared dress-shirt and a pair of black slacks to match. Honestly it was a little too formal for you right now, but you appreciated the gesture regardless, and it was nice to wear some decent clothes. 

"Does it fit?" She asked when you came out, glad to see you looked a little more presentable. You'd combed your hair and the tangles out from them as well. 

"Yeah." You nodded before folding the sleeves and pant legs at the bottom. "It's a little long, but it fits enough. Thank you." 

She smiled when you thanked her. "It's no problem, dear." Now that you were truly paying attention to her, she was quite soft spoken and gentle. Even though she was a fire monster, her warmth was never overwhelming, only calming. "Now, I'd like to ask you a few quest-"

She never got to finish her sentence before another monster came bursting into the kitchen from the backdoor. It hit the wall behind it with a loud smack, and caused you to nearly jump out of your own skin. Shuffling backwards at the new person, you expected them to be angry.

"HONEY, YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE THIS!" It was a loud male voice, who sounded far too excited for your still jumpy state. 

You found yourself backing up against the wall, as the kitchen's front doors only opened one way, and you didn't feel safe walking inches closer to the man in order to open it. He was another fire monster, but colored yellow, with the tips of his flames a lime green. They were lively and flickering about, and you could see the wide grin on his face. 

"Someone finally beat up that kid who kept coming in here and stealing all the napkins and sugar packets!" He seemed overjoyed and continued to ramble, but Flamia frowned. "I was thinkin' it might be Sans, since I've seen them picking on him, but then I realized that he couldn't hurt a fly so-"

"Blaze!" Flamia's sudden shout was even more terrifying to you than the over enthusiastic monster who just burst in. She finally caught his attention, and as he shut up, she gestured to your terrified form in the corner, eyes wide and staring at him. 

"Oh..." Blaze finally said, calming down. "Oh, gosh. You look terrified, kid." He muttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously, realizing that the glares his wife sent him were because he'd spooked you. "S-sorry..?" He suggested with a sheepish grin. 

Flamia sighed and turned back around to look at you, her hand extended to you. "He won't harm you either. He might be loud, but I'm sure you've met Papyrus. My husband's just as much of a goofball as he is." She had a fond and loving smile on her face, and you couldn't help but be coaxed out of your defensive position. 

You didn't take her hand, but you did ease up and pry yourself away from the door. You stood behind Flamia as she spoke to her husband. 

"Blaze, please be more quiet, my love. When Gaster arrived with them, they were badly injured, and it took quite a lot of magic on my part to heal them to this point." She sighed, "And they're very correctly nervous." 

The yellow-green fire monster looked past his wife towards you as you stood behind her. He nodded to her and held out his hand for you to shake, leaning down to match your height.

"It's nice to meet you." He said with a blinding grin. "My name is Blaze, a friend of Gaster's. You've already met my wife, Flamia, but I suppose I should apologize for my sudden appearance as well. I guess I just didn't expect for you to be so jumpy." He scratched the side of his face with a sheepish chuckle. "And what might your name be?" 

You stared at his hand, and didn't know if you should shake it, as he was made of fire. "(Y/N)." You said shifting back and forth on your feet. 

Blaze's smile lessened when he realized that you were nervous enough to turn down his handshake, but it returned when you'd told him your name. "(Y/N), huh? You look about my son's age. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

Flamia had figured the two of you would be alright with him for now and smiled gently before she left the kitchen. The restaurant still needed to be ran after all.

"Twelve." You muttered, watching Flamia exit the kitchen. Sure you figured that Flamia was right about her husband being a harmless goofball, but that didn't mean you weren't any less skeptical enough to feel just as comfortable without her around. You didn't know why, but her calm and warm demeanor caused your guard to melt in no time. 

Blaze seemed kind as well though. "Hah!" He laughed aloud. "I was right! You're the same age as my son and his friend! Why, you'd probably be in school right now if it wasn't for you being in danger!" 

You stared at him, your expression turning to complete confusion. "Oh yeah, that's right, I almost forgot." He continued. "You kind of have to stay here in the back for the whole day, otherwise you'd probably get skewered by some Royal Guards outside. We do run a restaurant after all, and we're fairly popular! I hope you don't mind."

He was weird. He was so, so weird. First he acts like a good friend of yours despite that you just met him, then informs you that you're in danger, and proceeds to tell you that you'd have to stay in one confined space if you wanted to survive. It wouldn't be so weird if he didn't say everything in that overly cheery tone of his. 

He could tell you looked a little uncomfortable and he took a step back, realizing you needed a little space. He tapped his chin before he got an idea, the tips of his green flames flaring up in excitement before he left the kitchen to go into a back storage room. 

"Here!" He said pulling out a worn shoe box. "My son used to play with these all the time when he'd stick around during break. He didn't have many friends before, so he'd usually just stay with us after school. He's a pretty, bright boy." He snickered at his own joke. "But ever since he's made a few new friends, he's been hanging out with them instead of us." He almost sounded sad. "You can entertain yourself with these if you'd like." 

He placed the box on one of the empty break tables and opened the cover. Inside there was an array of things. A yo-yo, a few old action figures from cartoons you felt like you'd seen on the surface, a notebook, pens, crayons, and a leather-bound journal. You stared at the contents, realizing that yes, you'd have more than enough to keep yourself busy for the next few hours. What you didn't expect though, was when you looked back up at Blaze, his lime-green eyes stared down at the box with hints of sadness. 

"Is something wrong?" You asked. 

You really did always ask the questions no one wanted to answer. 

"No." Blaze said without missing a beat. A gentle smile graced his face and he moved to pat your head, but stopped when you tensed. Right, you were still jumpy. "Anyway, if you need anything, then just shout. Open the kitchen door just enough to catch our attention, though. If someone that's not supposed to see you does, then you might get into trouble." You watched him leave with his hands adjusting his tie and wrapping an apron around his waist. 

You were by yourself now, and a series of actions you could take ran through your head. You could run now and take your chances of making it through to the end of this underground civilization. You could make some noise and get yourself killed right now. Or you could sit here and wait to see how things played out. 

So you took a seat at the break table in the back, simulating what could happen next. Well, for one thing, Gaster could kill you himself; you knew he didn't trust you. Maybe he'd tell their 'Royal Guards' and they'd take you away, then kill you. Or perhaps, they'd do the opposite. If by some insane luck struck you, then maybe they'd help you find a way out. Maybe they'd warm up to you the same way Flamia and you did, and maybe they'd find it in themselves to get you out of here. 

Because despite that you'd hated those words, Sans was right. You didn't belong here. You didn't know or remember exactly where you belonged, but you knew it was somewhere on the surface. Otherwise, why would you be getting all this danger thrown your way? Why would you be so desperate to reach the surface again? 

You glanced at the box on the table again, rummaging through it for what had caught your attention the first time. You pulled out the notebook and leather bound journal. Maybe you could keep a journal or record of some sort about your stay here in the underground. Who knows what you might gain from this. 

You flipped through the spiral notebook and found that it was mostly childish drawings. They were all kind of cute, and some even had pictures of cartoonish looking characters. You couldn't take this one. It was important. You could tell, just by remembering the look in Blaze's eyes. The leather journal though, was blank from what you could tell. Besides a single scribbled line in one of the pages, there was nothing in it. You could use this, and you would be asking Blaze later on if you could have it. It'd be useful. Probably... Maybe you were overthinking things. 

Nonetheless, you supposed you'd doodle or even mess with the action figures or yo-yo inside the box to waste time. You'd probably be here for at least another six hours. 

For once, you kind of wished you were at school like Sans and Papyrus. It would beat sitting here being brain dead for six hours straight. 

And yes, it was a long six and a half hours, but it was alright because eventually you'd taken a short nap sitting up against the break table. You didn't notice until you woke up and rubbed your eyes, noticing that Flamia had just placed a blanket around your shoulders, a plate of fries on the table, and left back to work. You glanced up at the clock. It was twelve in the afternoon, so you'd been here for four hours, but you guessed that the school children would be having lunch soon, if not already. 

"Mom, Dad? They just let us go for lunch, do you have anything to-" 

Your head snapped up from your plate of fries, a few already in your mouth and sticking out comically as you stared at the new monster before you. He was a fire monster just like his parents, although his flames were a calming but bright two-toned orange. A pair of square glasses laid on his face, and his yellow eyes were just as wide as yours as you stared at each other. His lava-like mouth was slightly agape, and just as he was about to take a step away and run out of the back door he'd just entered through, someone else stepped in. 

"Hey Grillbz, you got a bottle a ketchup you could spare?" 

The chunky skeleton wore a lazy grin on his face, his hands shoved into his pockets with a friendliness you'd never seen from him before. His eye lights weren't retracted down to barely visible dots or empty sockets or that dangerous blue when he used his magic. His smile was genuine, and he seemed relaxed. Papyrus was right behind him, his red scarf trailing behind in the snowy wind. 

"What are you staring at, Gri-" Sans's eyes met with yours and all his friendly, relaxed demeanor fell away. His smile dropped and his eye sockets were empty as he stared at you. 

"Stop it." You hissed when he stared at you with his threatening gaze. "I haven't even done or said anything and you already look like you wanna kill me again. We already went through this, this morning." 

"(Y/N), HELLO! I DID NOT THINK YOU WOULD BE HERE FOR LUNCH TOO!" Papyrus said exclaimed excitedly, startling Grillby. 

"W-wait what?" He looked confusedly between you and Papyrus. "Paps, you - you know this human?" He took a nervous step back, to which Sans reacted with a step forward. 

"YES! THEY WERE THE ONE WHO SAVED US, YESTERDAY! ALTHOUGH, SANS HAS A TENDENCY TO BE RUDE TO THEM EVEN THOUGH THEY HELPED US." Papyrus pouted at his brother, his hands on his hips. 

"Saved?" 

That was none of the children's voices, but Grillby knew it well. 

"Dad!" The little orange flame monster ran toward his father, desperately clinging to his pant leg. 

"Grillby, calm down. There's nothing to be afraid of." Blaze said gently rubbing circles into his son's back. "This is (Y/N), they're staying with Sans's and their family for a little while before Gaster comes back with information of what to do." 

"It's staying?" Sans asked, his voice low and spitting poison as his hands clenched into fists. "My dad said that it's going to stay with us?" 

Blaze knew that tone of voice well. He'd heard Gaster use it during dire situations. "Sans, calm down." He said sternly. "There's no point in being angry and doing something reckless before you bring it up with your father." 

No, no of course not. 

Sans thought bitterly. There was never any point in doing anything hasty, now was there? Sans had to force himself to breathe in steady patterns when he realized Papyrus's gloved hand wrapped around his. 

"Cmon you three, I'll get you all some lunch in the front." Blaze said hurrying the other three children out of the kitchen. "I'm sure you're hungry after everything that's going on at school." 

You weren't entirely sure what Blaze meant by that last phrase, but a part of you had a feeling you'd know what he meant by the end of the day. Call it a hunch, but for some reason it filled you with intense determination and hope. 

Chapter Text

" 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ❄︎☼︎🕆︎☹︎✡︎ 👎︎⚐︎ ☟︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 🕈︎⚐︎☼︎💧︎❄︎ ❄︎✋︎💣︎✋︎☠︎☝︎. "

The soles of his shoes clicked across the golden corridor's floor, the echoes bounding off the walls. Gaster's hands clenched tightly together as he held them behind his back. He was already becoming increasingly nervous about breaking the news of your arrival to the King and Queen. 

A part of himself wondered why he was so hesitant to tell them, as it had been himself who presented his findings to them. He really hoped you didn't meet the requirements, otherwise nothing could help you. Perhaps he didn't wish for you to be killed because you reminded him so much of Sans, but not exactly in the best way. Granted he'd only known you for a few hours, but the way you presented yourself when threatened - he remembered seeing Sans that was for the first time, and he always remembered realizing just how strong Sans could be when he grew into an adult. 

You both had that look of desperation - no, determination - when you were cornered. He'd seen it on Sans's face when he passed the children who'd pick on him. He remembered when he'd come home one day and Sans's HP had been reduced to half, but he'd been in a better state than the children he'd fought against to protect his brother. Gaster spent many hours telling him to control himself better because he was so much stronger but more fragile than the other children his age. There was no use in doing something reckless and regretting it later. 

"Dr. Gaster, it's good to see you old friend. Is there something wrong? You don't usually ask for a meeting this quickly unless it's something important." Asgore sat in the middle of the throne room beside his wife, Toriel. The two of them were having tea and butterscotch-cinnamon pie like nothing was wrong. 

Before Gaster opened his mouth, he thought about his next words extremely carefully. In all honesty, if he wished to avoid disaster for a little longer, he could simply not tell them. He could delay the information until there was no other choice but to reveal your presence. After all, they'd know no better, but the scientist found it difficult to lie straight to the innocent man's face with his wife right there. Despite that Asgore wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, he was still a benevolent and respected king. Besides, it was fine. Toriel was usually the brains behind the two anyways. 

Asgore gestured to a cushioned seat in front of him, usually for guests. Gaster shifted for a moment, hesitating before he took a seat, Toriel standing from her own throne. "I'll go get an extra piece of pie and some tea." She said, exiting the room. 

"Gaster?" Asgore spoke up with worry in his voice. "Something is wrong, right? You wouldn't be so silent otherwise." 

Gaster sighed. "I'm afraid you are correct, although I'm not quite sure how you'll take this news." There was no use in hesitating now, as the King had caught on. "Another human has fallen down." 

His words caused Asgore to stiffen, the calm atmosphere turning tense. "Have they hurt anyone yet?" He asked, his eyebrows knitting together. 

Gaster began to sweat, despite that he was made of bones. Did he have to ask the question that was the most complicated? "Yes, but the human is a child." He said, catching the King's attention. "They've hurt a few other children in Snowdin forest while protecting my own sons, your majesty." 

Asgore's expression turned serious. "This is quite the predicament." He muttered. "If the child is dangerous then they have to be handled immediately, but the situation they presented themselves in..." He had trailed off before bringing up the dreaded topic that the Royal Scientist wished to avoid. "You'd told us last week that it might be possible to break the barrier with a certain type of human soul." Asgore said solemnly. 

Gaster's eyes widened. Oh no, this was the worst possible outcome happening right before his eyes. "Y-yes but your majesty... That was only a theory, and they're only a child." He said, glancing to the side with a conflicted expression. 

"Wingdings... I'm sure that much alike myself, you want nothing but the best for your children." Asgore gave a sigh and looked out the window of the throne room, the light pouring in with its golden rays. "My own children have left me behind, but I'd like for the next generation to be able to see the surface someday, my friend."

The scientist almost winced. Asgore simply had to hit all his sore spots, didn't he? Gaster knew how much his boys wanted to be on the surface as well. Sans was always mesmerized by the idea of stars, and he spent a lot of time in Waterfall when he realized that the ceiling crystals looked similar to them. Papyrus had loved the car magazines that dropped into the garbage dump and wished when he got older that he'd be able to drive one. So much so, that Gaster had Blaze help him construct a bedframe in the shape of one. 

"Asgore, the human must have a very specific type of soul in order to break the barrier alone." He tried to deter the goat monster in front of him. "Determination is not a trait that is common, even amongst humans. Let alone one that has that trait in such high amounts as to break the barrier by itself." 

"Then I'd like for you to do some tests to see if they'd be able to." He said, sitting up straighter. Asgore was sure of what he wanted, and Gaster could do nothing to convince him otherwise now. "Keep the child close and report back to me on their soul type and strength. And if this child continues to hurt anyone, then I will not hesitate to do justice for my people." He said with a frown. 

He stood up and turned around, his cloak fluttering behind him as he walked away. "You are dismissed." Gaster almost missed the look of pain on the king's face as he made his decision final. 

Asgore had always been a soft-hearted individual, but leaders always had to make the hard decisions for the sake of the people they led. 

+

+

+

"They should be here by now." Blaze muttered as he stared at the kitchen counter with a worried frown. "Maybe... No, no, I'd told him to avoid it." He kept muttering and pacing to himself, as you stood in front of him, holding the leather notebook and waiting for an opportunity to ask him if you could use it. 

"Mr. Blaze?" You asked aloud for the 4th time. "Mr. Blaze!" 

He finally snapped his head up, realizing he was ignoring you by accident. "Oh! Sorry, kiddo. Is there something you need?" 

"I noticed that this journal is completely blank. Could I take it as a diary or something?" You asked, showing the leather cover. 

Blaze's eyes widened. "Well, honestly I don't see why not." He said, shrugging. "Just make sure to take good care of it, alright?" He received a quick nod from you before you moved onto your next question. 

"You said that Sans, Grillby, and Papyrus should be here by now. Why aren't they?" 

Gosh, you really did ask all the difficult questions. A sweat like substance formed on his flames as he avoided your eye contact. "I dunno, maybe they went to play a little more before coming around. They do that sometimes." He chuckled nervously. 

You narrowed your eyes at him. "How long do they usually stay out?" You asked. 

"Umm... Sometimes half an hour. Sometimes longer."

"I do believe that's enough, love." Flamia said at last, peering in from the front door of the kitchen. "Here, switch with me would you? I have a few questions to ask (Y/N) before they go."

Blaze gladly took his wife's place at the front as to avoid your conversation. She took a seat at the break table and patiently waited for you to take a seat beside her. You sat across from her, and she immediately began your next conversation. 

"(Y/N), would you mind if I asked about how your journey in the Underground has been so far?" 

She wasted no time with her questions. You liked that. You didn't exactly take to when people avoided the topic, only for you to have to coax it out of them later. 

"I fell down in the Ruins." You began. "I... I think a little frog monster attacked me, and then I ran because I didn't know what it was at first. Then I met Vegetoid and he helped me exit the ruins." You were starting to realize just how short your journey really was so far. "I got to Snowdin Forest, and then I heard Papyrus calling for help, so I ran to go see what was wrong. It was my first time seeing so many monsters at once, but that didn't matter because I just saw a crowd of kids around Sans and Papyrus. At first I thought they were trying to see what was wrong too -... But then I saw them attacking Papyrus and Sans, and I moved before I could even think." Flamia stared at you with wide eyes. "I ended up fighting those kids, but they hurt me pretty bad. I don't remember much after that. Only that I woke up the next morning with... Gaster looking at me."

"You mean... You only just fell down here yesterday?" She seemed nearly breathless at this new information, and she actually caught herself stop breathing for a moment when you nodded. You'd been through so much in the last day and a half - it must have been traumatic. No wonder why you were so jumpy this morning. 

She tried to change the topic. "What about your life on the surface?" She asked. "How and... Why did you fall down?" 

You shook your head with a disappointed expression. "I don't really remember." 

"You don't remember anything? Anything at all?"

You gave a contempt stare at the table in front of you. "I remember some stuff. Really unimportant stuff, like how I went to summer camp. I remember making friends with someone and their brother. That I had a camp counselor, and that I lived on the surface, but nothing else." 

"Do you remember their names?" Her eyebrows were knitted together in worry. 

"Not really, no. Sometimes I think I might, and then it's just... Gone." You closed your eyes for a moment, trying to remember their faces, maybe their names, or voices, but came up with nothing but very vague silhouettes. 

Flamia realized that you were thinking, but after a few minutes of silence, continued with her questions. "What do you think of us monsters?"

You opened your eyes again, confused by her question. "What do you mean?"

She smiled, partly glad that you were innocent enough to not immediately understand her question. It showed that you weren't as cunning as you seemed to be when speaking with Blaze earlier. "Do you think we're nice? Perhaps mean or even dangerous?" 

You only shrugged in response. "I dunno." You muttered. "I haven't talked much to anyone else other than you and Gaster." Your neutral expression turned sour. "And Sans." 

She realized your distaste when speaking about Sans, and remembered the dispute that Blaze had described to her a little earlier. "Do you not like Sans?"

"No." You spat with an annoyed look on your face. "I don't know why, but he seems to hate me just because I'm human." You crossed your arms. "Which I don't get because I just saved him and Papyrus yesterday from being pummeled by some idiots in the forest." 

Oh, it seemed like everything was coming together now. Flamia frowned when she realized that the reason you two didn't get along was because of how weary Sans was of humans, and how your first encounter was quite violent. Perhaps if you'd met on better terms, then maybe you two would have been friends. 

"And what about Papyrus?" She asked, hoping to find out if the smaller skeleton's usual purity wasn't clouded by paranoia or fear. 

"He's funny." You said, beginning to loosen up again. "He reminds me of that friend's younger brother." You leaned against the table, your elbow propped up on the table, and your face leaning on your hand. "Now can I ask you a question, Mrs. Flamia?" 

She was surprised by the sudden change. She'd never seen you so relaxed before-

"Where are Sans, Papyrus, and Grillby?" You gave her a serious stare, one she didn't expect from someone who had been so afraid just this morning. "Mr. Blaze tried to avoid my question, but I know something's wrong. I wanna know what." You had that same look that Sans did after he saw Grillby's glasses were crushed by some bullies from school outside the restaurant. It was more diluted, and obviously not directed towards her, but the idea that a child such as yourself could hold such an intense emotion in your eyes spoke volumes. Gaster was right. You were dangerous. 

The look in your eyes was a mix of emotions and intentions you couldn't quite name, but you knew from the look on her face that your stare did it's intended job. It was supposed to be similar to the one that Gaster gave you this morning when asking about you beating the other kids up. You made sure it was less threatening, as you didn't want to scare her. You just wanted her to know that you were stronger than you looked because you were filled with determination and ANGER. 

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☼︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ ⚐︎☠︎☹︎✡︎ 👌︎☜︎ ☜︎✌︎☼︎☠︎☜︎👎︎ ☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎☠︎👎︎ ✋︎❄︎ ✋︎💧︎ ✌︎ ✞︎☜︎☼︎✡︎ ☞︎☼︎✌︎☝︎✋︎☹︎☜︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ☟︎⚐︎☹︎👎︎. "

You ran as quickly as you could through the cold snowy weather, your feet crunching the snow underneath. You had left your torn sweater with Blaze, as he promised to sew it up as best he could this morning, so you were wearing nothing but the long sleeved dress shirt and pants that Flamia had given to you. You were cold, but that was the last thing on your mind as your breath came out in large puffs of steam.

If you were honest, you didn't know the way to the school, but you guessed the location from where the children were leaving from, and from the glances you took while teleported there. You kept your head down to keep from attracting too much attention, but it was hard enough as it was when you were human.

When Flamia told you that it was likely they might have ran into trouble on their way home from school, you immediately bolted through the backdoor. By now, you didn't even know why you bothered. The cold temperatures were numbing you in both body and mind, but when you saw Grillby's distinct flames from behind a line of trees near the school building, you remembered.

It didn't matter where you were, the kids were always the same. There would always be someone who hated someone else, and took it out on them in the worst ways. There would always be someone who needed a taste of their own medicine to stop.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" You yelled as you ran to the line of trees where Grillby stood in front of Sans and Papyrus. "Get out of here right now, or I'll show you why humans are so dangerous."

Every monster present, with the exception of Papyrus, stiffened. You recognized the bear girl from yesterday, and she looked the most terrified, but it was Sans who looked the most aggressive. Grillby and the other two monsters were confused, but the difference was that Grillby knew you wouldn't hurt him - not after what his mother said about you. You were just scared - but right now, you couldn't be more terrifying.

You had a fire of anger in your eyes, and although you no longer had your stick, the bear girl didn't take any chances, she ran in a hurry from the group. In front of you were another floppy-eared, green monster, but he wasn't a bunny, you knew that much because of the blue rabbit companion beside him.

"Coward!" The bunny monster cried as the girl ran. "I heard about you yesterday." He said pointing a claw at you. "You knocked my sister out in the middle of Snowdin Forest, and Dogoro told everyone about you! Just wait, you won't last much longer human! If you hurt any more of us-"

You didn't let him finish his sentence before you tackled him to the floor. Pinning him down by pushing your forearm against his chest, you took him by his ears and said, "I don't care if I die today, tomorrow, or whenever. As long as I'm alive I won't let anyone bully someone weaker than them, ya' hear?" You let go of his ears, but kept him pinned down, even as the other bully tried to pull you off, you resisted. "I've had enough of people like you on the surface and here."

You let yourself be pulled away by the floppy-eared green monster and Grillby. The two bullies running off into the distance. You looked behind you again, to see a conflicted Grillby shrinking into himself, a mesmerized Papyrus, and Sans whose eye was a bright and flickering blue.

Papyrus ran up to you, despite his older brother's warnings and he took your hand in his. "YOU WERE SO COOL!" He shouted excitedly. "YOU STOPPED THE MEAN KIDS AGAIN TODAY! I BET YOU'RE STRONG ENOUGH TO BE A ROYAL GUARD SOMEDAY, (Y/N)!"

"they can't be a Royal Guard, Paps." Sans said, his eye sockets empty. "they're human."

Papyrus deflated. "OH... RIGHT." He muttered. "THAT'S OK! YOU'RE STILL SUPER COOL! BUT I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEANT BY 'BULLY' WHAT IS THAT?"

"It's someone else who makes others feel bad by making fun of them or beating them up, most of the time because it makes them feel better." You said with a slight frown.

"OH. THAT'S NOT NICE. THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE THAT WHO TRY TO HURT SANS."

"that's enough, Paps."

"NO SANS, IT'S NOT OK!" His brother said, still holding your hand as he turned to face him with the beginnings of tears in his eyes. "YOU ALWAYS GET HURT AND YOU ONLY HAVE ONE HP. WHAT HAPPENS IF - IF..."

"It's alright, Papyrus." Grillby spoke up this time, placing a hand on his shoulder, and glancing at you.

"Yeah... Bullies might be around forever, but you get stronger." You said patting the small skeleton's skull. "And I think you're brother's a lot stronger than he looks, too." Your last comment wasn't encouraging, but Papyrus wouldn't know that. You glared at Sans from where you stood a few feet away. You knew Sans was hiding something and you wanted him to know you did. You knew that he had to be strong. Someone who's eyes shone like that when they were threatened was bound to be strong when pushed far enough.

Grillby noticed it though, and he knew that you were right. There had been a time where Grillby had been the one hurt, and Sans could hold himself back no longer. That day, he'd nearly killed someone. The little fire monster shivered at the memory, but pushed it aside to listen to Papyrus's next comment.

"BUT WHAT IF HE'S NOT STRONG ENOUGH?"

"Pap, I'm right here, y'know." Sans deadpanned with an offended glance.

"WILL YOU PROTECT US, (Y/N)?"

Sans's eye lights returned only to stare shocked at his own little brother, Grillby's glasses widening comically to show his own emotion. You could only stare at him wide-eyed with your lips tightening into a thin line.

He stared at you with little orange tears near the corners of his eye sockets, and that innocent plea couldn't be denied. "Yeah." He lit up with the brightest smile you'd seen from him, the tears gone and replaced with hope. He dragged you forward, only to take his brother's hand in his other gloved one.

"YAY! THAT MEANS WE CAN GO HOME NOW WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT ANY MORE BULLIES!" He was testing out his new word for the mean children his brother often encountered.

Grillby followed behind quickly after the three of you. "W-wait, Papy, maybe we should stop by my parent's restaurant before you all head home. It looks like (Y/N) has a scratch on their arm and - wait, are those my clothes?"

"Oh sh-oooot?" You tried not to curse around Papyrus like Sans said this morning. "I forgot my journal at the restaurant too."

"OK, LET'S GO TO GRILLBY'S THEN!" Papyrus changed directions suddenly and caused you to crash into Sans as he jolted around, not letting go of either of your hands.

The two of you shot each other a glare, and continued to do so until the four of you reached the family restaurant. You all entered through the front door, lucky that there weren't many people there. Although, you began to realize again that you'd been walking freely around Snowdin without something to hide your identity. You guessed that if they really wanted you dead, someone would have said something by now.

"Papyrus, Sans, Grillby!" Blaze moved around the counter quickly when he saw the three of them. "You're alright! Nothing happened did it? You guys came late again, and rush-hour just finished. I'm sorry we couldn't go looking for you. I know how those kids-"

"It's fine." Sans said with his usual grin. You still weren't used to it. "Nothing happened. Just (Y/N) making a little bit of a commotion."

Blaze glanced in your direction. "Right, Flamia told me about how you left in a hurry." He surveyed you. "You were worried about them too, right?" You could feel your cheeks flush a slight pink as he called you out, but said nothing.

Papyrus smiled brightly when he learned that you were worried, but Sans's smile faltered. He was still confused about you, but his grin returned as soon as Blaze began to survey all of you for injuries. Other than the scratch on your arm, all of you were fine.

He gave a sigh and ushered the four of you into the kitchen. "Well if you four are hungry, then I can whip something up for you - oh, and there are band-aids in the storage room if you need them." You knew he was talking to you specifically, even if he didn't say it.

The four of you were left alone, and the silence was killing you. "Umm... I'll go get those band-aids." Grillby left.

"And I'll go help!" Papyrus left too.

Oh that was a bad decision.

It was just you and Sans, and the two of you stared at each other silently. There wasn't as much aggression as this morning's staring contest, but there were still a lot of negative feelings between the two of you. Although considering how the two of you weren't at each other's throats, this could be considered development, right?

You had a couple questions for Sans though. "What's HP?"

It was the most basic question, and even Sans couldn't ignore that you had no idea about simple stuff like this. "HoPe."

"Hope? Are you sure it's not Health Points? You know, like a video game?"

He paused, giving you a distasteful glare. "monsters are not a video game, so no. not like a video game."

"Then explain it to me." You remained neutral throughout all your questioning, and it was unnerving to Sans how someone else could hide their intentions as well as he often could.

"it affects the amount of damage you can take, and if your HP reaches zero, then you die."

"Why do you only have one HP?"

"none of your business."

"Fine, but if you only have one HP, then how bad of an injury would it take to make that go down to zero?"

His eye lit up a bright blue, and it bellowed smoke like a steam engine. "w h y  a r e  y o u  a s k i n g ?"

You realized that might have been a more threatening question than you thought. "Never mind." 

The conversation ended just as awkwardly as it began, and the two of you were left to face away from each other, hands stuffed into pockets. By the time Grillby and Papyrus got back, you figured they took so long on purpose. Maybe they had the idea that if the two of you spent a little time alone, you'd get along. They'd be disappointed to find that if left alone for too long, the two of you might just start fighting.

"WE'RE BACK!" Papyrus called with a little box of band-aids in his hands.

"If you sit down (Y/N), we can look at your scratch and-"

"It's fine Grillby." You said waving it off. "I don't think I need to sit down for you to put on a band-aid." Papyrus ran over and gently applied one to the scratch on your arm, and business was done. "See, everything's fine. It's just a scratch, after all." You made your way over to the break table again and picked up the leather journal and pen.

"ARE WE GONNA GO NOW?" Papyrus asked, his head tilting to the side.

"We probably should. I'm sure you guys have homework, or whatever." You said pulling your shirt sleeve down to cover the band-aid.

"Oh, you're leaving already?" Flamia stood behind the four of you, and you whipped your head around. You weren't exactly ok with people sneaking up behind you. "We haven't had the chance to fix your jacket yet."

"It's alright, Mrs. Flamia. You can fix it whenever you have time. I trust that you'll take care of it."

She was mildly shocked by the confident smile you wore, and the blatant show of trust you now had in them, but it caused her to smile warmly back at you. "Alright then, we'll have Grillby bring it to you when it's done. You three have a safe trip home, alright?"

"Alright, welp." Sans took Papyrus's red gloved hand and grabbed you by the back of your shirt collar. You shouted in protest as he balled your shirt into his boney hand. "I guess we'll see you later."

The three of you were teleported to the front of his house in the blink of an eye, and it still made you just as sick as it did this morning. You groaned as he let you go and you leaned onto the front porch, trying to stop your head from spinning.

Sans smirked when he saw you try and regain yourself from the teleportation. "heh, what? can't handle a little magic?" He asked. "or do you not have the backbone for it?"

You chuckled at his joke, but continued to glare at him. "Because I thought that was funny and Papyrus is right there, I won't flip you off." The motion sickness finally stopped and you quit leaning onto the porch's wooden pillar for support.

"SANS!" Papyrus whined. "THAT WAS A TERRIBLE JOKE!"

Sans grinned as Papyrus complained, taking out a key to unlock the door and shrugging. "c'mon Pap, I think that joke was pretty humerus." Papyrus let out another cry of frustration as he entered the home and marched up to the stairs.

"STOP IT SANS!"

You couldn't help but laugh as Papyrus stormed out, it reminded you a lot of your friend's little brother. Eventually you heard Sans chuckling to himself too, and then you realized that the two of you were left alone together again. Sobering up, you both stared at each other. It seemed like the joy from the laughs just now diluted the hostility between the two of you enough to cut the contest short.

"do what you want I guess... just don't leave the house or break something." Sans said waving you off and leaving you alone in the living room as he teleported to his room.

You were alone now, and you'd be spending your quiet time by writing inside your new journal. Running your fingers across the cover, you smiled. If you ever got out of here, you'd have records of your journey, and the idea of telling this story to your friends filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☟︎☜︎💧︎☜︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ 🕈︎⚐︎☼︎👎︎💧︎ 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎☼︎☜︎☠︎ 💧︎☟︎⚐︎🕆︎☹︎👎︎ ☠︎☜︎✞︎☜︎☼︎ ☟︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ☟︎☜︎✌︎☼︎📪︎ ✋︎💣︎ 💧︎⚐︎☼︎☼︎✡︎. "

Entry 1 

I would put the date, but I have no idea what day it is today. I don't know a lot actually. I know my name is (Y/N). I know I'm 12, but other than that, I have a hard time remembering stuff. A part of me thinks I might have hit my hard a little too hard on the fall here, but I'm not sure. 

It's my second day in the Underground, but I'm not sure how to explain it. There are monsters living down here, but they're a bit different from bedtime stories. They're not as scary, first of all. Most of them look like animals, but there are a few that aren't. It's really weird to explain, and I think I'll try to draw an example, but who knows if it'll turn out good. 

It's only been 2 days down here, but I've gotten hurt a lot so far. I think I sprained my ankle when I first dropped down here and into the Ruins. I got attacked by a frog monster with fly attacks. Then I got healed by carrot monster named Vegetoid. It's been a roller coaster ride trying to tell who is and isn't going to hurt me. After all, the frog looked harmless, and Vegetoid looked like a jack-o-lantern face on a carrot. 

Not to mention the weird yellow star by the exit of the ruins, too. It was next to a tree with red leaves, and it said something like "A living tree underground fills you with"... I honestly don't remember the rest very well. I do remember it asking if I wanted to "save" though. I did save, yes, but it was weird. That star healed all my old cuts and bruises and stopped time. I think. 

Anyways, Vegetoid helped me get out of the Ruins and told me to keep going until I got out, but honestly, I have no idea what to do now. I got out of the Ruins and got to Snowdin Forest, but didn't get very far. There was another "Save Star" outside the Ruins, but I heard someone screaming for help in the forest. It sounded like a kid, so I ran to help. 

I found Papyrus and Sans there. They were being bullied and beat up by four other kids, so I jumped in and protected them. I don't really know why I jumped in, but I think it has something to do with my anger issues. I think my camp counselor on the surface said something like that, at least. I really hate bullies, although I'm not sure why I hated them enough to fight them myself. I ended up having to fight four monsters with magic. I didn't stand a chance, really. 

I still think I won though. After all, I ended up knocking a bunny girl out and all of them ran away when I yelled at them. It was nice to see them get a taste of their own medicine, but I don't remember much else. I think I passed out. 

I woke up to see them again, along with their dad, Gaster. They're a family of skeleton looking monsters. Sans hates me, Papyrus is making friends with me, and Gaster... Well, I don't trust him. He tried to scare me this morning by asking me why I beat up those kids. I think he was trying to see if I'm some sort of sick fuck like those bullies, but I'm not. 

I ended up eating breakfast with them, and afterwards, Sans shoved me into the table when I asked why he hated me. I mean- cmon I saved him and Papyrus just yesterday! He didn't like that I kept bugging him (and that I cussed in front of Paps), so he ended up shoving me into a table. 

I started bleeding from my leg again, and tried to lie to make sure he didn't get in trouble and hate me more for tattling or something, but it didn't work. Gaster knew I was lying and Sans got in trouble anyways. Not my problem anymore. 

But let me tell you this. These guys can freaking TELEPORT. It's cool yeah, but it makes me wanna throw up. It's like your spinning in 6 different ways on a roller coaster ride, and I just - I think I'm getting sick just remembering it. 

Well whatever, the point is that Sans and Papyrus had to go to school, and I was stuck hanging around one of  Gaster's friends. At first I was really not expecting them to be fire monsters, so I was freaking scared. They're literally made of fire. After I got used to it, I think it's actually pretty cool. Blaze is a pretty noisy guy, but he kinda does remind me of Papyrus. He's really loud, but a dork. Mrs. Flamia is really nice as well. She healed me with her magic the moment she saw me and gave me new clothes from her son Grillby, who is also made of fire. She's also going to fix my jacket, because it's all torn up. 

But after Papyrus, Sans, and Grillby were done with school, I ended up hearing that sometimes they're late to come home. I'm not an idiot, I know what that means. It means those same bullies from before are gonna hold them up and beat them up again after school! It's happened on the surface, so of course it happens here! 

I saved them again, but this time I didn't really have to beat anyone up. I pinned this other bunny monster down to make sure they heard me yell at them, and I'm pretty sure they aren't going to bother Papyrus, Sans, or Grillby anymore. 

On that note, Papyrus let it slip that all these bullies are really here for Sans. That makes sense, the guy's been an ass to me. Papyrus is super nice, so I don't think anyone would bully him, and Grillby's quiet, so I don't think that he'd be getting much else but teasing. Sans on the other hand... Paps said that they try to beat him up, and apparently that's real bad because he only had "1 HP" whatever that means. I asked him to explain it to me, but if I can piece it together, then it's a little like a video game, even if Sans said it's not. Basically, if he gets hit by magic once, then he's good as dead. Which doesn't make sense, because he's always getting bullied, and just yesterday he looked beat up! How much damage does it take to fully get that 1 HP down? 

I asked him that by accident, and realized it sounded like I was planning to kill him. Which I'm not! I might be able to beat people up, but I wouldn't kill anyone. 

All I know, is that whenever he gets pissed, his eyes glow blue. I know that's part of his magic, because Gaster did the same thing, but I know he's not as weak as he looks. No one with glowing eyes is weak. I mean cmon, have you seen those main characters in anime? They always have glowing eyes whenever they fight, and they're always super strong in the end. My point is that Papyrus and Blaze and everyone else might think he's weak, but I think he might actually be really strong. I mean, that's what they always do in anime. 

Whatever. Look, I just wanna say that it's been a long two days for me. I just hope that it gets better from here and I get some of my memories back. Who knows, maybe if I have a terrible life on the surface, I'll just stay here and wait to die instead. All I know is that these weird words keep filling my head. Determination and Hope. I've never been one to hope too much, at least I don't think so. 

(Y/N) out. See you next time. 

+

+

+

It was pretty boring waiting for Sans and Papyrus to finish their homework and other studies and you were bored out of your mind. You couldn't just sit there on the couch for three hours, so you eyed every detail of their house. You rummaged through the cabinets and drawers, which was rude yes, but it was also for your own safety... Or at least you liked to think it was. 

What if something happened and you didn't know where emergency stuff was? Like how there was a fire extinguisher on the kitchen wall, in the cleaning closet, and under the sink. Not to mention the drawer next to the couch with a quantum physics book and a joke book. There was a first aid kit, another notebook filled with some science notes, and a packet of colored pens. Then there was the TV and the stand it was on. Inside the cabinets underneath were a bunch of DVDs and VHSs, but there was also this locked wooden box under there that looked secretive and important. 

If you had the audacity to go upstairs, which you didn't, then you might've found that Sans and Papyrus's rooms were beside one another, and Gaster's was across the hall. Although to be honest, there was another hanging question over your head. Where would you sleep tonight? You didn't mind crashing on the couch, but there was something about being left in the open that unnerved you. You didn't feel safe sleeping out in the open because you weren't exactly a light sleeper. 

You were still getting tired though. Maybe it was because you'd ran to help Papyrus, Sans, and Grillby in the snow without a coat on, or maybe it was a side effect of Mrs. Flamia's healing magic. Who knows, but you were getting tired. Your eyes began to droop as you sat on their comfortable green couch, wedged between the back cushion and the arm rest. Maybe a little shut eye wouldn't hurt. It was just a nap. It wasn't as if Sans would come down and strangle you in your sleep. 

Ok, never mind. Your eyes shot open at that thought. You were definitely not taking a nap with him still in the house. Speaking of which, it was awfully quiet the whole time. Sure, Sans was pretty quiet, but Papyrus shouted literally all the time. 

Just as you were about to go and check on the smaller skeleton, there was a resounding 'ping' and Gaster appeared in the living room, carrying papers and a pair of glasses on his face. He didn't seem to notice you until after he placed the paper's down on the coffee table in front of you and took a seat beside you on the couch. 

His eyes just barely flickered to you for a moment, as if he barely noticed you out of the corner of his eyes. "O-oh! (Y/N), hello." It was almost like he forgot you were here, but unbeknownst to you, he was actually thinking about how to break the news to you all day. 

You stared at him with a cautious gaze for a minute before replying, "Hello, Gaster." 

The way you spoke was fairly formal and emotionless, and it gave the scientist a chill. Jesus Christ, what the fuck kind of child were you?? He didn't know that it was only him that you acted this way around because of how little trust you had in him after this morning. 

"I have some news for you." He said clearing his throat and trying to regain his composure from that unreadable expression on your face. "I'm afraid that I have to do some tests on your SOUL."

You finally gave him something to work with when you face shifted to confusion. "What do you mean? I thought you couldn't touch it? How can you do tests on it?" 

Gaster shook his head. "No, I mean your physical soul. Humans don't often learn about it, but by chance did it pop out when you were in battle with those monsters yesterday? It should look like a heart."

Your eyes widened when you realized what he was talking about. It was that thing that popped out of your chest this morning when Sans was throwing you around. That was your soul? "Why do you have to do tests on it?"

You didn't exactly answer his first question, but it was fine. "I need to determine the strength of it..." He trailed off. He didn't want to tell you about what would happen if you met the requirements. A part of him knew that you might, simply because of the way that you'd handled those children yesterday, but hoped that your soul might not be the vibrant color that they needed.

"Why?"

"Because it could determine whether or not you can or will be able to leave this place." 

His words caused you to pause, your eyebrows knitting together in worry and confliction as you stared at your feet. 

Gaster asked again. "May I run some tests on your soul?"

"Is it dangerous?" You asked, looking up to meet his dull eye sockets 

He had a very hard time lying to you with that look on your face. You were just a child after all, and children like you should never have to hear the terrifying truths that he knew. "No." 

It wasn't as if his expression or body language or tone of voice gave him away. You simply knew. You knew he was lying and it filled you with hopelessness and fear. 

Chapter Text

" ☟︎⚐︎🏱︎☜︎☞︎🕆︎☹︎☹︎✡︎ 💧︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎👎︎✌︎✡︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎🕯︎☹︎☹︎ 👌︎☜︎ ✌︎👌︎☹︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ 💧︎☹︎☜︎☜︎🏱︎ 💧︎⚐︎🕆︎☠︎👎︎☹︎✡︎ ✋︎☠︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ ☟︎⚐︎🕆︎💧︎☜︎📪︎ 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎. "

"what?"

"(Y/N) will be wearing your clothes until we have time to go shopping for them. I'm sorry Sans, but I'm afraid I don't have time to go until this weekend."

Sans's eyes trailed to your figure standing behind his father, but your stare was directed at the bottom of the wall. It seemed that you were also displeased by this sudden decision. Sans couldn't deny his father though. Gaster was right, you needed clothes, and you couldn't sleep in that suffocating dress shirt for the next four days. Sans may not like you, but he wasn't cruel or a brat.

"alright." He muttered, opening the door to his room fully to see the inside.

You didn't bother to step inside, but you glanced out of curiosity at what his room looked like. There was a book shelf lining the left wall, his bed on the right with a window above it. There was a desk and drawer on the far wall and a telescope in the corner. His homework was still laid out on the desk, along with his backpack and sweater.

This was probably the first time you'd seen the skeleton without his blue jacket. He was wearing a turtleneck T-shirt underneath, which you thought was a weird taste in fashion, but didn't say anything. His shoes were replaced with pink slippers and he was wearing basketball shorts instead of the actual pants he wore to school. Wow, talk about a big difference.

The two of you really only continued to stare at each other with this awkward distaste as Gaster shuffled through his son's closet for something you could wear.

"Thanks." You said suddenly, causing Sans's eye sockets to widen. "For letting me borrow you clothes."

He stayed silent for a moment, surveying you for any hidden sass or sarcasm, and when he couldn't detect any, he replied. "yeah, sure." He said with a bored look.

The two of you immediately shifted your glances elsewhere, and that was when you saw Papyrus's head poking out of his room with a wide grin. He must have thought that the two of you were finally beginning to get along just because anger wasn't lacing your voices. You and Sans felt that he was sorely mistaken.

"(Y/N)!" Papyrus suddenly called after you and Sans made eye contact with him. "COULD YOU HELP ME WITH MY HOMEWORK?"

Sans's eyes widened and you could see small hints of offense and utter surprise in his eyes.

"Um, sure Papyrus." Your tone was unsure, but as soon as you said yes, he tugged your hand forward and pulled you into his room.

"YAY! THANKS!" His room had a desk in the right corner of his room, with it blocking the window. He had a drawer and along the far wall, and to the left was his race car bed. Cute. "IT'S MATH, CAN YOU HELP?"

He took a seat at his desk and you could see Sans standing in the doorway with his eye lights still lit but small as ever. It was like he was subtly warning you that if you did anything wrong, he wouldn't hesitate to grab you by your soul and throw you out the window. You didn't care much because there was no way you'd hurt someone as innocent as Papyrus. He was basically a toddler in your eyes - despite that he was actually six.

"Sure, Papyrus." You said glancing down. It was simple addition and subtraction. Thank god. You'd feel like an idiot if you'd agreed and couldn't do it.

For the next fifteen minutes, you helped teach him how to add and subtract, usually with his fingers, and other simple methods. Gaster watched from the doorway as well and the scientist couldn't help but feel even more guilty than before. He really hoped you didn't meet those unspoken requirements. He didn't think he could find it in himself to let someone who reminded him of his own sons die.

When Papyrus finally finished his homework, he leaped off his chair and hugged your waist, as he was only as tall as it. "THANK YOU!" He cried with a bright grin. "NOW IT'S TIME TO MAKE DINNER!" He let go of you and bolted out of his room just as quickly, making his way down into the kitchen.

You left his room and thankfully took the new pair of clothes from Gaster. "Thanks, I'll change into them after dinner." You said.

There wasn't much left to say before Gaster nodded and left, leaving you and Sans again. Why did everyone keep doing that? Did they not realize how dangerous it was to leave the two of you alone? Remember what happened last time? Sans said nothing more to you and left as well, luckily avoiding a possible argument or something.

You sighed and made your way back downstairs, placing the pair of clothes on the couch to receive later. It was a loose white T-shirt with a pun on it and a pair of black sweatpants with a white stripe down the sides. It would at least be comfortable to sleep in. And yes, you'd be sleeping on the couch.

"(Y/N)!" Papyrus called excitedly from the kitchen. "COME HELP US MAKE DINNER!" You couldn't deny him. He was too sweet and kind for you to.

+

+

+

You couldn't sleep.

You were exhausted, yes, but something terrified you. It wasn't Gaster. It wasn't Sans. No, far from it. After dinner, you'd become a little more comfortable around them. You didn't trust them, no not quite, but you didn't think they'd go out of their way to murder you in your sleep. Especially not Gaster, but the look on his face that never seemed to go away worried you.

There was something about his guilty expression that caused you to stress. You pulled the blanket you had tighter around you, but no matter how tightly you tried to wrap yourself in order to feel secure, you couldn't force the feeling down. You were terrified, and the creeping helplessness caused your face to grow warm with future tears.

You shifted back and forth on the couch, forcing yourself to choke down your fear and negative emotions, until you couldn't stand it anymore. You hardly stopped yourself from crying about this sudden dread, and stood from your spot on the couch, throwing off the blankets. You were still wiping your eyes from the silent fearful tears as you quietly crept to the kitchen, trying to get something to drink to distract yourself.

Although as soon as you entered the kitchen, you saw a shadowy figure in the light of the fridge. At first you took a step back, holding your breath, and hoping they wouldn't hear you. Who in the hell had come in here without a sound when you'd been awake the whole time?

Just as you were about to begin your panicking, you heard soft hiccups coming from them. If you looked a little closer, you could see it was Sans wrapped up in a blanket and wearing his sweater. As he turned around, you could see in his hands was a cup of tea, and blue tears fell down his eye sockets.

The two of you stared wide eyed at each other, the obvious remnants of tears in both your eyes, but neither of you said anything. You both continued to stare at each other with a shocked, conflicted, and sad expression for a full three minutes before Sans moved. You stiffened as you watched him place the cup of tea down on the counter and then pour another one. He did so while wiping the side of his face from any left over tears, and he approached you.

Taking an unsure step back, you looked at him in shock as he held out the cup of tea to you. It took you a moment, but you hesitantly took the cup of tea from him and stared at the steaming liquid. It was still dark, so you couldn't see if he put poison in it or not, but the warmth was comforting in it's own way and caused you to throw away your stupid paranoia. You sniffled and drank soft sips from the cup, a tear falling every time your shaky lips made contact with the edge of the cup.

Sans stared at your pitiful state and saw himself. He'd just been like that literally five minutes ago. Steadying his breathing he teleported out of the kitchen, his cup still on the counter and the blanket that was around his shoulders was now on the floor. You stared at where he was standing before, confused as to why he'd just leave so quickly without even taking his blanket or mug. Maybe it was too awkward. Yeah, that was reasonable.

What you didn't expect was that he showed up a minute later with a soft ' ping ' as he teleported back. There was something fuzzy and floppy in his grip, but you couldn't really tell what it was because it was so dark. He held it out to you, and with another shaky hand, you steadied your breathing before you took it.

"i-it's a jacket." He said, the remains of a sad tone still in his voice. "it's red, but I'm not a fan of the color." He muttered. "you can have it." Picking the blanket on the floor back up, and the mug from the counter.

You glanced back and forth between Sans and the jacket he'd just handed to you. What the actual fuck? What was going on? Why was he suddenly being so sympathetic? He literally shoved you into the table this morning. You were so confused, but that was a really soft hoodie.

You placed your mug onto the table and slipped on the jacket. The hood was lined with fur and the soft, brushing hairs comforted you almost immediately. "T-thanks." You stuttered out, still trying to calm down from your earlier sobbing.

He said nothing more to you, only wrapping the blanket tighter around his shoulders before he walked past you to unlock and open the front door. He glanced at you from over his shoulder, and you guessed that was a cue to follow or something, but you wondered why he'd go out in such weather. It was so cold outside, and it was night time now. Wait, could skeletons even feel the cold?

You didn't know why you felt obligated to follow him. Carefully zipping up the jacket, you shuffled your shoes on, grabbed your tea, and followed him outside. He was just standing on the porch, and you had to close the door behind the two of you so the house didn't get cold. You silently questioned what he was doing, but he wasn't glaring at you - he wasn't looking at you with some sort of underlying hate. He was still staring at you though. Some feeling in his eyes laced with pity, his own numbness from before, and a sort of recognition.

Without warning, he placed a hand on your shoulder, the other one still holding the mug, just as you had one in your own hands. You had a feeling of what was going to happen next, and you covered your mouth to keep from throwing up. You kept your eyes wide open this time, wanting to know if there was something to see or just darkness, and you found yourself graced with flashing images of scenery. It was almost as if you'd simply been falling, and traveling through the Underground sideways.

You were both teleported, but this time it was marginally less nauseating. You were still dizzy, but you didn't feel so sick that you needed to puke. When you shook your head to clear it, you found yourself staring at the floor, a glowing blue flower at your feet and a river a small distance away.

"W-where are we?" You asked, your voice finally clearing from your earlier cries.

Sans didn't reply yet. He walked down a few paths and over planks that crossed streams. "Waterfall." He finally said, reaching a large patch of those glowing blue flowers and sitting in the middle of it.

Despite that it was considerably warmer than Snowdin, he still had a blanket wrapped around him. He didn't speak to you, but you took it upon yourself to sit two feet away from him. While you looked down into your mug, realizing it was no longer piping hot, you took a few gulps, surprised that it calmed you so easily.

You took another glance at the blue flowers surrounding you. You wondered how they grew down here and why they glowed, and some jokester in you came up with the response of ' magic ' as if it wasn't obvious already. You could almost hear soft hums in the distance, or perhaps right next to you, but simply very quiet. Their soft glows made you feel better, calmer. Your panic and fear subsided as if it never existed. Although, while your gaze was on the flowers on the ground, you glanced to Sans, whose eyes were glued to the ceiling. Why was he staring up?

You followed his gaze and found that above your heads, were the ceiling crystals which mimicked the stars from the surface. It was beautiful. You guessed that it was what Sans was here for. Perhaps he liked the crystals, but you knew that if he did, then he might've loved the stars on the surface even more.

You were staring at Sans now, watching as he kept his eyes up. Occasionally you'd look back at the glowing flowers or your tea cup, taking sips, but your vision always went back to him. This was probably the calmest you'd seen him. Perhaps if this continued, then maybe you'd be able to make friends with him. If you shoved aside that the two of you needed to see each other having a panic attack to reach this sort of tranquility and understanding.

It felt like another fifteen minutes before Sans finally finished his cup of tea (you'd finished yours ten minutes ago) and stopped staring at the cave ceiling. He stared at the bottom of his empty tea cup for a moment, and then shifted his gaze back to you. The two of you stared at each other again, all negativity gone and replaced with a subtle understanding and mild respect. You still didn't trust each other, but you could understand that not everything was as it seemed. You both had your own struggles to face.

He stood up from his spot on the floor of Waterfall, and you followed his action, dusting yourself off before he placed his hand on your shoulder again. You didn't need to hold your mouth shut this time. You didn't need to force yourself not to be dizzy. You simply closed your eyes and opened them to find that you were back in their house.

Sans left you there in the living room, walking up the stairs instead of teleporting to his room. He didn't spare you a glance, but for once you didn't mind. This new found understanding between the two of you filled you with determination and hope .

Chapter Text

" 💧︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎❄︎✋︎💣︎☜︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 💣︎⚐︎💧︎❄︎ 💣︎🕆︎☠︎👎︎✌︎☠︎☜︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ 🕈︎☜︎ ☼︎☜︎💣︎☜︎💣︎👌︎☜︎☼︎ 💣︎⚐︎💧︎❄︎ ☞︎⚐︎☠︎👎︎☹︎✡︎. "

That night, it wasn't just you who had fear creep up and pounce on them in the dead of night. Sans suffered from the same terrible nightmare he'd usually had, and decided to handle it the way he always did. Teleporting downstairs, making himself a cup of Golden Flower tea, and sobbing silently to himself in the dimly lit kitchen. Sometimes if it's worse than normal, then he'd make his way to the most lit patch of echo flowers in Waterfall and sit there amongst the cave crystals until he felt better. He'd only consult his father if the night terror was bad enough that he could hardly breathe. He knew how busy the Royal Scientist could be and how important it was for him to sleep. Despite that he was only a child, he was always overly observant and considerate to those he cared for.

He just didn't expect to see you there with the same terrified expression he'd see in the mirror on those horrifying nights. It caused his own panic to stop short. At first, he had the bubbling emotions of embarrassment and humiliation, but it didn't get to surface when he saw that you'd been going through the same thing.

So making a spur of a moment decision, he made you a cup of tea, and brought you to Waterfall. He couldn't comfort you. He didn't really know how, even if he felt obligated to, but he wasn't going to just let you suffer. Although he might not trust or like you, he wasn't cruel.

The both of you acted like nothing had happened after that night. Sure, there was a lot less hateful and hostile glares after, but neither of you went out of your way to make friends with each other either. Not to mention that you talked even less to each other. You completely avoided contact unless necessary, and Papyrus and Grillby really couldn't tell if things were worsening or improving.

Papyrus was continuously bugging you to play with him or help him with his homework for the rest of the week or asking questions as to why you didn't like Sans. You didn't mind really, except for the Sans part. You always went silent when he started talking about his brother, but his talks and puzzles gave you something to do instead of sit on the couch and be bored for hours on end as you waited for them to do their homework before doing something exciting or making dinner.

Grillby's company was a little more comforting. Maybe it was because like his mother, he was a very good listener, and always knew what questions to ask that were neither too invasive, nor boring. Your contact with him was a lot less than that of the other monsters you knew, and was only just barely larger than Gaster's, but you learned to like his company. Besides he always asked you and the other two skeleton brothers to try his newest attempts at making fries all the time. Very rarely did they taste bad.

Flamia noticed your change as well. When babysitting you for the rest of the week, she'd asked you if you could try and befriend Sans. Considering that you stayed silent instead of completely rejecting the idea, she knew something changed between the two of you. Not to mention that she knew the red jacket around your shoulders. Gaster had tried to pawn it off to Grillby last year, but her son politely declined. Sans never did like the color red very much, after all.

Blaze on the other hand spent the next two days telling you jokes and trying to get you out of your shell. It worked pretty well, but he was still pretty scared of that emotionless face you wore when you asked the questions he didn't want to answer. After a while he learned your favorite food of his, and made it for you whenever you liked. He was trustworthy enough to you, simply because he was a very bad liar.

Gaster was always busy. He had work in Hotlands from what you'd gathered from your talks with Flamia and Blaze. He worked as the Royal Scientist, and suddenly everything clicked into place in your head. He needed to test your soul for his work. You just didn't know if there was some sort of underlying intentions behind his tests. Nonetheless, tomorrow the four of you would go clothes shopping, and next Wednesday you were to go with Gaster to his lab to begin the tests.

You were dreading the weekdays, and could feel yourself falling into the same rhythms of fear, but you found that Golden Flower tea Sans had made that night in a top cupboard, and always brought a thermos of it everywhere you went just in case. It wasn't that you liked the tea, because honestly it wasn't the best you'd had, but it was a sort of anchor. It was a reminder of a calm moment you'd had Underground, and if you closed your eyes, you could almost see the steady and calm pulsing of those beautiful blue flowers from Waterfall.

You really needed a better way to deal with these panic attacks though. They were getting out of hand and you couldn't rely on this leaf-water and red jacket forever. You just didn't know where to start, and if it wasn't obvious enough already, you and Sans weren't exactly on speaking terms. Sadly, no one else knew about your anxieties, and no one knew how much they were growing either.

You would be alright in time.

You repeated that phrase in your mind often, and anytime you stopped believing it, well... You'd find Sans staring at you from across the room with that same look of quiet respect and understanding.

Yeah, you'd be alright.

+

+

+

The weekend came slow, and the series of events that followed were boring. You did learn something new though. Apparently the kids who often picked on Sans, Grillby, and Papyrus were a bit more weary. They had left them alone all week since your second appearance. Papyrus was always a good source of information. The talkative six-year-old never quite understood what was going on, but he noticed a lot.

You were glad they didn't have anyone picking on them this week, but you knew it wouldn't last forever. When their bullies realize that you couldn't be there to defend them all the time, then they'd no doubt go back to it. Some kids never learn.

For now though, you were busy with something else.

"Papyrus, please. You don't exactly need to go-"

"BUT I WANT TO!" Papyrus pleaded with a slight frown, giving his father 'puppy-dog eyes' in order to convince him to go shopping with the two of you.

Originally it would just be Gaster helping you pay for the clothes you liked, and Sans and Papyrus would stay home, but the smallest skeleton was extremely attached to you now. Anywhere you went, he went. So here you were, standing to the side with Sans as Papyrus coaxed his father into letting him go with you.

"Fine, fine." Gaster muttered, rubbing the space between his eye sockets. "But if you're going, Sans is coming as well."

At first Sans have a sigh, glad that he'd have a moment of silence to himself, but when he heard the second part to Gaster's reply, he stiffened and gave an irritated grumble. Papyrus cheered and hopped around for a while before he shuffled on his shoes quickly. Sans slipped on his own tennis-shoes and Gaster looked expectantly to you. That was your cue to get ready for your trip as well.

You slipped on your shoes, the same red jacket, and the small thermos of tea into your pocket. You weren't comfortable going anywhere without it, and everyone who knew you knew this. Gaster figured you had simply liked the tea to drink it wherever you went, but Sans knew better.

The four of you were quickly teleported to a different part of the Underground, one you were completely unfamiliar with. It didn't look like Waterfall or Snowdin, but it was majorly colored in white and gray. All the buildings seemed similar, and the crowds were larger than you'd ever seen before. It was like almost every other monster lived here. Actually, how many monsters were in the Underground at all?

"Welcome to the Capital, (Y/N)." Gaster said placing his hollowed hand on your shoulder. "Follow me, and keep your hood up. Although some monsters know you are here and by decree of the King, under my jurisdiction, your appearance here may cause a bit of a commotion."

You knew what that meant, or at least kind of. Even though the king knew you were here and let Gaster test on you, people still wouldn't like you because you were human. You pulled the red jacket's fur hood up and over your head. It covered just above your eyes, and you stuffed your hands into your pockets. It wasn't very cold, so the jacket was unzipped, but a part of you was saddened that you had to hide like this.

Your spiraling thoughts were put on hold when you finally reached another shop. The door was wooden, the building still white and grey like everything else, but when you stepped inside, there were several colors lining the walls. Clothes hung on racks all along the shop, and your eyes flickered left and right to something that you might like.

"Hello!" A cheery voice from behind the counter all the way in the back chimed through the store. "Welcome, if there's anything I can help you with, don't be afraid to ask." She was an orange cat with brown stripes, wearing a frilly pink and black dress with a white bandanna on her head.

Before Gaster could even encourage you to find something you liked, Papyrus took you by the hand and pulled you along. He immediately shuffled through the scarf section.

"IT'S COLD IN SNOWDIN, SO YOU SHOULD GET A SCARF LIKE ME!" He said proudly flipping his own red scarf. "YOU ALREADY HAVE A JACKET LIKE SANS, EVEN IF IT IS RED. SO MAYBE YOUR SCARF SHOULD BE BLUE INSTEAD!"

"nah, Pap." Sans suddenly spoke up from behind you. "the colors'll clash." He was joking with his brother, and you could see the steady teasing grin begin to grow.

"BUT THEN WHAT COLOR SCARF SHOULD (Y/N) GET?" Papyrus was staring hard at the array of scarves. "MAYBE THEY SHOULD JUST GET A NEW JACKET AND A SCARF!" He said with with new found excitement.

"Wait what?" You and Sans both said as Papyrus grabbed your hands and dragged you toward the next section. He was almost diving into the racks at this point and you couldn't help but laugh.

"Papyrus, I think I'm good on jackets for now." You said scratching the back of your neck. You didn't want to hurt his feelings. "This one I'm wearing is pretty warm, and Mrs. Flamia is fixing my old jacket back in Snowdin."

Papyrus popped his head out from the rack, a disappointed expression on his face. "SO YOU DON'T NEED A NEW JACKET..?" He asked. "YOU'RE GONNA WEAR THAT ONE ALL THE TIME LIKE SANS DOES?"

"Uhh... Yes?" You said unsure. That was a conflicting sentence, mainly because Papyrus always kept trying to relate you and Sans to one another. Actually, Blaze had made the same comment just the other day.

"OH." Papyrus seemed deflated for a moment before he brightened back up in no time. "I SEE YOU AND MY BROTHER ARE FINALLY GETTING ALONG THEN! YES, SANS IS THE BEST BROTHER EVER, SO OF COURSE YOU'D WANT TO COPY HIM!"

"Wait, what?" You said shocked.

"NYEH HEH HEH! WORRY NOT HUMAN! WE CAN GET YOU SIMILAR CLOTHES TO HIM TOO!" He immediately ran into a different direction, you and Sans following after him. "AREN'T YOU FLATTERED BROTHER? THEY WANT TO BE JUST LIKE YOU!"

You and Sans gave each other an unsure glance at first and just continued to stare. Until he finally gave a lazy shrug in response, the lazy permanent grin on his face widening into a genuine smile ever so slightly before he continued after Papyrus.

You stayed where you were for a moment, completely frozen in your tracks. After a week, Sans finally smiled at you for the first time since meeting him. For some reason, it caused a joyful spark to grow in your chest. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he seemed. Maybe the two of you just needed a better understanding of each other. And strangely enough, the single grin he gave filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ 💧︎☟︎⚐︎🕆︎☹︎👎︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎⚐︎☼︎☜︎❄︎✋︎👍︎✌︎☹︎☹︎✡︎ 👌︎☜︎ 🏱︎✌︎✋︎☠︎☹︎☜︎💧︎💧︎ ✌︎☠︎👎︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 🕈︎☜︎☹︎☹︎👌︎☜︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ⚐︎☞︎ 👌︎⚐︎❄︎☟︎ ⚐︎☞︎ 🕆︎💧︎📪︎ ✋︎ ☟︎⚐︎🏱︎☜︎ ✋︎❄︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ 👌︎☜︎. "

It was quite hard to be honest with yourself in this moment because you'd thought you felt some of the worst of the Underground already. Yet, you'd actually felt nothing. What you experienced before would be nothing compared to what you'd feel here. Or at least that's what you thought.

Panic continued to creep onto you as you gripped the sides of your red jacket. You pressed your head into the fur and kept your eyes down as Gaster walked in front of you. You were terrified by this place. The stares of the lab's employees looking at you as if you were a set of results or a specimen to be thoroughly studied. Despite that you wanted to believe you weren't, a part of you knew you were.

Hotland was just that; hot, but it didn't stop you from wearing the same red jacket you had on now. It was unzipped, but you shrunk into yourself so much that it didn't seem to matter as you covered the front of your body. When you reached the lab, it was air conditioned and larger than it seemed on the inside than what it portrayed outside. Still, Gaster had told you to stay close.

No one would hurt you, but hardly anyone would speak to you without needing to either. You were worse than a foreigner, you were almost a prisoner. A set of doors opened before you and Gaster, and the sliding motion cause you to look up from the floor.

You followed Gaster into the room; white walls, silver and white tiled floors, and metal tables and counters. "Come, (Y/N). Let's get you situated." He said before helping you to sit on top of an examination table in the middle of the room. There were sinks, posters and records of information, but Gaster moved to open drawers. He took out clipboards and papers that needed to be filled. He gathered a box of tools which only came in to your view once it was closed.

"Well first things first-" He muttered. "Do you know about SOUL traits?"

You looked at him strangely. "Umm... No? This is the first time I've heard that souls were something... real."

"Physical, I think you mean." He corrected. "Well, I suppose I should start from the top then... Souls are the culmination of a person's being. They show your true nature, sometimes even what you'd been through, and the size of it can vary; usually depending on the size of the person."

"Alright, but what's a soul trait?" You asked, referring to his earlier question.

"It determines a person's true nature, although monster's souls remain a grey tone, it usually refers to their ability to hold magic."

"So all monsters have grey souls?"

"Yes, although they're also upside down when compared to human souls." He said waving it off casually.

"Upside down..?" Gaster could hear the confusion in your voice, and sighed.

Out of his chest came a softly glowing grey soul, in the form of an upside down heart, just as he described earlier. "Monster souls tend to look the same, but human souls on the other hand can differ in color to each person." He explained. "It's what makes them so much stronger than monsters."

Your eyebrows knit together. "How are humans stronger than monsters? You can use magic." This may be the first time Gaster had seen you so invested or interested in anything for the time he'd known you.

"There are humans who can use magic you know. Mages were a normal occurrence on the surface once." He said matter-of-factly.

You frowned, your eyebrows knitting together. Well it seemed as though he might be telling the truth. If monsters were once nothing but fictional, and now before your very eyes they were here... Mages couldn't be too far off. "But they aren't seen on the surface anymore." You said. "There aren't any more."

"Perhaps." He began. "Or maybe they remain out of sight." Although Gaster did begin to question how you knew that much 'common knowledge' when you even had a hard time recalling your family or what you were doing before you fell. "Enough of that though. I believe it's time to know what your trait may be." But he already had a feeling of what it was. "Do you mind if I pull out your soul?"

Honestly you were hesitant. The only times your soul had been pulled out was when Sans ripped it out of your chest and flung you around or held you down. "Sure." It wasn't enough to stop you from being curious though.

You were expecting it to be blue, after all, that was the only color you'd seen it. Unbeknownst to you that it was because of Sans's magic and not your actual color.

"Red." Gaster spoke breathlessly, with a numbingly horrified look on his face.

You'd seen his fear and it spread to you. "What? What is it? Is something wrong?" You asked, your voice wavering with every word. You stared at the vibrant heart-shaped soul in front of you. It was almost pulsing in it's warm glow, and Gaster stared at it with immense sadness and guilt.

He shut his eye sockets tightly and almost looking in pain, but when he opened them again, he seemed to be void of all emotion. He completely dissociated himself to further his research, but it wasn't as if he hadn't done it before. He stood from his seat, leaving your soul in the open as he shuffled through one of the shelves lined with books. He picked out a single one, opened it to a page and turned, walking towards you with deafening footsteps.

"Your soul is red. Therefore, your soul trait is determination." He handed you the book, and you glanced at it's contents.

The pages weren't the bleached white that you were used to, and the script was almost cursive, like someone wrote them by hand.

"Red Souls - Determination:

Humans with this soul trait tend to be stubborn and fixed on certain goals. Although they can often be confused for those of a purple soul,  Perseverance , they are much more perfectionistic.

If they desire something to be done a certain way, they will do everything in their power to ensure it is done exactly that way. Their fixation sometimes lead to narrowmindedness, and if they go through enough trauma, their trait could be the driving force for more sinister things. Determination can be the spark needed to ignite something as powerful as  HATE .

Because of this, the souls with the determination trait often find themselves in leadership positions, and are rare, even amongst humans.

More often then not, they also make up the majority of the most powerful mages. The mage leading the making of the barrier, also possessed a soul of determination.

Souls with the trait of determination, are the strongest amongst all of the seven traits, and despite that perseverance is the second most powerful, it greatly exceeds the power given from a purple soul."

Was this why Gaster looked at you like that? Was it because you were dangerous? Just how powerful was a human soul compared to a monster's? Why did the book make it seem as if... as if you could weaponize a single personality trait? Was that possible?

More and more questions appeared, and Gaster could see the confusion on your face. Perhaps you didn't understand the book? Was it too high of a reading level for you? Maybe he shouldn't have overestimated you. You might have reminded him of Sans quite often, but he had no real idea of the specifics of your schooling. He could only make guesses of your general intelligence and potential.

"(Y/N), do you understand it?" He asked.

You finally teared your gaze from the book's pages to him. You'd flipped to another page to see what else there was to read about, but didn't get to finish reading it. "I think so." You mumbled. "I have a red soul, one of the strongest ones, but what does that have to do with anything?" You stared at him, confliction clouding your eyes. "Is that why you were so scared of me? But you didn't even know my soul trait before! And red souls are rare, so how would you have known?"

This could get ugly very quickly, and Gaster realized it. You were becoming frustrated and you still didn't know why everyone looked at you like some sort of rabid and wild animal. It was only natural that you didn't appreciate the stares. He took the book from your hands and flipped to another page, one closer to the beginning, before he handed it back to you. Before you began reading, he pointed to a single passage.

"Human Souls and Monster Souls:

A single humans soul is thousands of times stronger than that of a single monster's soul. All of the monsters currently in the underground would only equal to that of one average human's soul."

He closed the book and snatched it away from you hurriedly. "That is why we are weary of your kind, (Y/N)." He said with a bitter tone. "And it is also why so many monsters want you dead."

The news caused you to freeze, terror ripping through your body with tense tremors, but you didn't make a sound. You stayed seated, your hands gripping the hem of your jacket intensely as you stared at Gaster. It was hard to process all this, because despite everything, you knew that they were justified in being afraid of you. Even if you'd said you wouldn't hurt anyone - there was no guarantee. Especially since you'd already hurt a few people already.

It wasn't fair though. You didn't want any trouble. You didn't want this. Why was it too much to ask for a place to feel safe? You were only a child.

"I'm sorry." Gaster said suddenly, realizing that you'd been forced into a state of shock. He hoped his words would be enough to stabilize your emotional state, because there was no bridge he was willing to cross to help. He couldn't take the time to console you. It would tamper with his ability to let you die in the future...

He was truly a horrible person, wasn't he? "But we need to begin testing your soul."

You were stiff when he began, your soul was still in front of you this whole time. You had no idea that it was vulnerable outside your body, but it did feel strange to have it out for so long. He took a single metallic, and technology laced needle out of his toolbox, and the sight frightened you - he could tell.

"Please hold still." He said plainly. "I need a sample of your determination."

Wait, wait, wait. He was going to stick that thing into your soul? No way. "No, no, no." You muttered repeatedly, trying to back away.

Gaster could feel his boney hands shake, and he gripped the needle a little tighter. He needed to stay determined. He couldn't falter - not now. "This will hurt, but I will try my best to make this quick."

That didn't exactly help you feel better, but Gaster knew you would continue to thrash and resist unless he held you down. Why did you have to make everything harder for him? He kept trying to get you to hold still, but eventually you grabbed your soul, trying to shove it back into your own chest. Before you did however, Gaster caught it with his magic.

It was now outlined in a blue film, and you couldn't see the normal red that it usually was. You felt yourself fall backward onto the metal surface, gravity seemed to push itself down menacingly onto your body and you were pinned there. You tried to run, but you could barely even move your fingers. Panic swarmed you as he inched closer.

But there was nothing you could do.

You braced yourself, shutting your eyes tightly and a whimper escaping your lips, unsure of how much pain you should be expecting. Gaster quickly released his magic, as not to taint the sample of determination. He efficiently plunged the needle within your soul, and you could feel something ripple through your entire being. It was like you were struck with lightning in your right arm.

You couldn't help but let out a scream, clutching onto your arm and balling the cotton sweater in your hand. You barely heard Gaster's string of apologies, tears streaming down your face from the pain. Through the thin film of liquid around your eyes, you could see Gaster's own pained expression, even if it barely showed.

He sucked out parts of your determination, and you could see the gradual progression of your dimming soul color. The needle exited just as efficiently as it entered, and despite that Gaster was no longer holding you down with his magic; you were in too much pain to try and move or run.

You tried to probe your own arm, wondering why it felt like it was on fire, despite nothing being there. It wasn't a physical pain, and it seemed to drain the energy out of you. You could feel your eyes drooping.

"(Y/N)." Gaster began. You only shifted your dull eyes to him to show you were listening. "I'm sorry." He muttered. "But we have more things to do than just extracting determination... and I'm afraid this is only the first day of many that you will be here."

His words caused tears to leak and flow silently from your eyes. It wasn't because you were in pain or saddened, because you were feeling a constant numbness currently. You could only feel the creeping hopelessness and fear.

Chapter Text

" ✌︎☹︎❄︎☟︎⚐︎🕆︎☝︎☟︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎🕯︎💧︎ ☠︎⚐︎ ☹︎⚐︎☠︎☝︎☜︎☼︎ ✌︎☠︎✡︎ ☼︎⚐︎⚐︎💣︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ❄︎☼︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ 💣︎☜︎📪︎ ✋︎ ☟︎⚐︎🏱︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ ☹︎☜︎✌︎☼︎☠︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ❄︎☼︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎💣︎. "

You were lucky.

There was nothing else amongst the lists of tests needed to be run that came even close to painful compared to that initial strike to your soul. Although Gaster explained that it took a good chuck out of your HP. By the end of the day, you learned that your normal twenty was down to twelve.

After that first extraction, you were dreadfully lifeless for the rest of the day, nearly giving in to whatever may happen, despite that your soul screamed for you not to. Maybe it was because you knew he could just hold you down with his magic if you tried to run or resist. Or maybe it was because he took some of the determination straight from your soul.

The rest of the day had endurance tests, and Gaster could not muster enough carelessness and apathy to continue with anything else. So he teleported you both back to Snowdin after he was done inputting initial numbers. He saw how for the rest of the day you cradled your right arm close to you, and you didn't let him touch you at all.

He couldn't even get close enough to try and heal you - as measly of a job it would have been. So he gave you a sling for your arm and told you to fasten it to yourself, since you were adamant on him not getting any closer. You clipped it into place and gently laid your arm into it, grateful for the pressure on your shoulder relieved. It was still in pain, but better than when you were dragging it around earlier.

That didn't meant you trusted him. No, you trusted him even less than before because of this stunt. Not to mention the lingering comment he made that this would not be the first time he would need to do something like this. He swore he would try his best to avoid actions like those, but it didn't make you feel much better, because you knew that he wouldn't hesitate resorting to pulling out pieces of your soul if need be.

The thought scared you; because it was more than a thought now. It was a completely real possibility - a very likely possibility.

God, you really really needed a hug right now.

But you settled for wrapping your good arm around yourself and crinkling your red jacket closer to your body.

Gaster had teleported the two of you into the house, right in front of the door. You had your head dug into your jacket's hood and you were shrinking into yourself the longer Gaster stood beside you.

"DADDY!" Papyrus's loud voice didn't really startle you after the first couple of days, but after the traumatizing events of today, it scared you enough that you shuffled backwards. Your eyes still had that dull lifelessness to them, but you slowly backed yourself up against the door. A sharp glance from Gaster was the only thing stopping you from making a run for it.

"hey dad." Sans commented as he poked his head out of his room. "home already?"

"I'm just here to take Papyrus to the dentist." Gaster said with a tired tone that Sans recognized. It must have been a long day. Sans figured you'd given his father a hard time during the tests today and held some silent negativity about the idea.

"NOOO!" Papyrus cried, trying to run before Gaster snatched him up into his arms.

"Aha! No you don't." He chuckled with a tired grin. Sans could tell that something was still on his father's mind. "Come on Papyrus, I thought you said you were never afraid of anything."

"I-I'M NOT!" The little skeleton refuted. "B-BUT THAT THING SCARES ME!"

"what, the dentist chair?" Sans joked with a teasing grin as he leaned against the stair railing from the second floor.

"NO!" Papyrus fumed. "THE - THE DRILLS!"

"Do not worry, Papyrus. Everything will be fine." Gaster shifted Papyrus to hold more comfortably before the scientist turned his attention to his eldest son. "Sans... Could you please keep an eye on (Y/N)?"

Before Sans could answer, Gaster was gone, but not before giving you a single glance. It wasn't hostile, but it wasn't exactly friendly, or even pitiful either. It was blank, and it scared you.

When he finally blinked out of existence, you collapsed, sliding down against the front door with a slight thud and uneven breaths. You clutched the white t-shirt over your chest with your shaking left hand and Sans stared at you in shock from the top floor.

Without much warning, he moved away from the railing and appeared right in front of you. You reacted faster than he anticipated and shoved him back with a weak push. It was all that was needed for him to stumble back and land on his bottom though. He stared at you with wide eyes as you curled into yourself, wrapping your arm around the one in a sling and pulling  your knees closer to your chest.

Wait- why was your arm in a sling? You were fine this morning! What happened? Did you put up such a fight with his father that you hurt yourself? Because - because... Sans's mind stalled and he could feel his own panic attack threaten to begin when he thought about the idea that his father had hurt you. He almost wanted to puke at the idea of you having bled because of one of his father's attacks or something of the like.

NO!

Sans shook his skull. "No." He spoke this time to reassure himself. The scientist wouldn't hurt you unless provoked, so this was either an accident, or you did something that prompted his father to hurt you. That's right, his dad would never...

He shook his skull again, taking in your appearance. He couldn't let you have a panic attack the moment his father was gone. Gaster specifically told him to keep an eye on you, and if you passed out because you couldn't breathe - well... He wanted to avoid the consequences of letting that happen.

Your body was trembling, and he could actually hear faint whimpers from you. This was probably a worse attack than last week's. That was bad. "hey." Sans tried to get your attention. You wouldn't even raise your head to try and look at him, but he couldn't risk touching you. You might turn worse if he tried to touch you.

"hey!" He said a little louder. He could see you wrap yourself tighter. Any tighter and you would probably hurt your arm again. "look i need you to breathe. you gotta breathe slowly or you're gonna pass out."

He straightened himself, now sitting on his knees and inching closer. "you're having a panic attack, and it's worse than the one last time. you gotta breathe." His voice was getting lower and lower, but more gentle as he got closer to you.

"it's ok. everything's gonna be alright."

That was a mistake.

"LIAR!" You shouted back at him, louder than he'd ever heard you speak.

Sans was so shocked by your sudden outburst that his eye ignited into a bright blue, but it wasn't even a second later that it disappeared. Your breathing was becoming even more erratic and now you were nearly gasping for air, but you were finally look at him now. He could see anger and tears and betrayal flickering in and out of that dullness in your eyes and he felt something in himself being pulled in two different directions.

What happened?

If you could make out his expression from beyond the burning sting of your tears, you would see that he was at a loss. He didn't know what to do - he'd never known that a panic attack like this could be so close to a violent outburst too.

He disappeared in that same moment, but you didn't let yourself relax - more like you couldn't. Sans was right, if you continued the way you were right now, you'd pass out from a lack of oxygen very soon. Your head was swimming with emotions, and they all crashed into each other so frantically that you couldn't even form a full thought. Your shut your eyes tightly, hoping that the lack of stimulus would help you focus more.

It wasn't until something touched you that they snapped back open again. Sans was leaning over you for only a second, and that was all he needed to wrap his old blue blanket around you. He wrapped it so tight that you almost couldn't move, but in some strange way, it was comforting.

He took several steps back when he was done. Glancing at your figure he found that, despite still having a hard time breathing, you were no longer holding those embers of hate in your eyes. Good! That was good! At least he thought it was. He could at least have a peace of mind that you wouldn't suddenly lunge at and dust him in his own house.

"breathe, (Y/N)." He said gently, making the motions your lungs should have with his hands. Eventually you did, your gasps turning into dramatic hiccups instead.

Still, a funny question entered your mind. How would he know your lungs moved like that if he didn't have any? It was amusing enough of an idea that you felt your mind slow down. You were finally able to piece together rational thoughts - or at least some logical questions.

"i'm gonna make you a cup of tea, ok?" He said turning away when he realized that you were finally breathing again. You didn't give him an answer, but that was alright, because he was going to do it anyway. You stayed there, slumped against the door, wrapped up in his blanket while you watched him enter the kitchen. He boiled some water, shuffled through the cabinets, and made you tea.

It was weird how he was only kind to you when you'd have panic attacks. You'd probably do the same to him though. You finally steadied your hiccups to some mildly uneven breaths, and you could smell faint hints of sour ketchup on the blanket. Ok, that was disgusting. You took another glance at it, realizing there were a few stains on it, a noticeable tear in the fabric, and a few loose ends- OH MY GOD.

You snickered to yourself, staring at Sans with a teasing glance as he walked over to you with a cup of Golden Flower Tea.

"here." He placed it in front of you, and you took it into your hands, but not before you said something with interlaced giggles.

"Is this your blankie?" You couldn't help yourself.

Sans stiffened, his bones going rigid and his eye sockets wide, his white eye lights completely gone. You got your answer when a blue blush spread all across his face, his mouth agape enough for you to see that he had some fangs growing in. He was gonna stammer out a denial, but he couldn't even get his voice to work, so he just buried himself deeper into his sweater.

"Holy shit, it is!" You cried, completely taken by surprise. You would start laughing - actually it was completely reasonable for you to laugh - but he did just help you out of a panic attack, so you tried your best not to. Although, another thought began to settle in. "You'd give me your blankie, just to..." You trailed off, as a more pressing question surfaced. "Why?"

The blanket was old, obviously used often, and well loved, but not abused. So why would he give you it? He had to have seriously strong emotional attachment to it, as you remembered he had it wrapped around him during that night last week.

Sans hadn't said anything to you for a while. He wondered himself as to why he'd given that to you. He hadn't even thought about it - he just rushed to get it and comfort you with it.

"you looked like you needed it." His voice was just above a whisper.

You stared up at him, completely confused, but thankful all the same. You both held a foreign gentleness in your eyes even if neither of them made contact.

"Thanks." You said, coming out of your curled position.

"'s no problem." He muttered, turning away. He was still standing up, and just shuffled there awkwardly.

After taking a single sip of the tea, you shakily tried to stand on your own, but considering that both your hands weren't exactly able to prop you up, Sans had to help you stand. He supported your left elbow and despite your knees being a little shaky, you leaned and wrapped Sans in an awkward one armed hug. Your elbow bending around his neck as you kept your head down to lay on his opposite shoulder. You were about the same height.

"Thank you, Sans."

He stood there completely shocked, and a little stiff, but his bones weren't rattling, and you didn't feel or see the smoke pouring from his eye, so he wasn't hostile. You were still holding your cup of tea in your left hand, but he shifted to awkwardly hug you back as well. Maybe you could trust him. Maybe you should trust him. You had to trust someone after all.

"You're welcome, (Y/N)."

If Sans so fiercely protected Papyrus, perhaps if you got him to trust you, just as you planned to learn to trust him... Maybe he could protect you all the same. Despite everything - despite that you were hopeless and terrified, you felt Sans give you a surge of courage. The possibility filled you with determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ ✋︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 👌︎☜︎☝︎✋︎☠︎☠︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ⚐︎☞︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ❄︎☼︎✌︎☝︎☜︎👎︎✡︎📪︎ 👌︎🕆︎❄︎ ✋︎ ☟︎⚐︎🏱︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ 💧︎❄︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ ☹︎☜︎✌︎☼︎☠︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ☹︎⚐︎✞︎☜︎ ☜︎✞︎☜︎☠︎ ✌︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☜︎☠︎👎︎. "

It was completely awkward between the two of you after the initial problem was solved. It was just the two of you in the house now that Gaster and Papyrus were at the dentist and it was becoming confusing how you two should act around one another. Neither of you could just ignore it this time, because there was genuinely a change in your demeanors. Not to mention that you had a new resolve to get Sans to trust you.

Both of you were seated at the dinner table, a cup of tea still in your hands and half empty while Sans sat across from you with his own cup. Neither of you made eye contact, but you still had his blanket around your shoulders. He said you could keep it on for as long as you needed, and honestly it was pretty comfortable. A lot of the things he owned were pretty comfortable, actually. Now that you thought about it, you used a lot of his stuff.

"Sans?" You looked up from your reflection in the tea cup. "... Do you have any pain medicines?"

Sans looked up from his own tea cup, as he'd been drifting off in thought until you'd spoken up. "medicine? yeah we have some, but i don't know if they'd work on you."

"Oh."

The conversation died out pretty quickly as you subconsciously pressed your sore arm closer to your body. Sans noticed this and stood from his seat, his chair sliding against the tiled floor of the kitchen with a scaping noise. He walked over to you, approaching your right side where your arm was. Although your initial reaction was to scoot away, you forced yourself to sit still, nothing more than a wary look in your eyes as you waited for him to survey your injury.

"can i see it?"

You swallowed your nervousness and nodded, unclipping the sling from your shoulder and painfully, albeit slowly shrugging off your red jacket. Sans did nothing but wait patiently to the side, making sure you didn't hurt yourself, and not getting any closer or trying to touch you while you bared your injury.

There was no actual wound or any indication that you were hurt, which meant that you'd either hurt a muscle on the inside, or you were hurt from the soul and it was effecting your physical body. "how does it hurt? can you describe it?" He was trying to find out which one it was.

You hesitated, still a little unsure of how the feeling really was. "It was like I was struck by lightning, and then my arm was on fire."

"umm... lightning..?" Sans seemed uncomfortable, and his bone-brows knitted together. "what's lightning?"

He was confused - of course he was confused! They were underground! They'd never have a chance to experience lightning and thunder - despite having rain from Waterfall and snow in Snowdin. "Right." You muttered. "Um... It's electricity, but for the weather. So basically, it's like being shocked by a battery, but about a hundred times worse."

"oh." He replied with another uncomfortable glance. "uh... how'd you get hurt?" You went silent, clearly not wanting to talk about the details. "ok then... where'd you get hurt?"

"My soul."

That made things easier, but also more complex. If you'd taken injury to your soul, you could only be healed by magic. Whether that came directly from a monster or from monster food didn't matter, but if you continued to let the wound fester like this, your HP would drop even more. 

"we don't have medicine for that, but I can try to heal you." Sans suggested, shifting back and forth on his feet. Sadly for Sans, he was more like his father when it came to healing. Despite that healing became increasingly harder the higher your LV, Sans was already pretty bad at it to begin with. Papyrus was the only one in their family who was actually good at it, and there were some occasions where he'd visit Flamia for tips and tricks to improve his healing.

"You can heal?" Your eyes widened. 

"well, most monsters can." Sans said shrugging. "but uh... some of us aren't as good as others. i'm one of those." He admitted, muttering.

Maybe it would be easier than you thought to gain Sans's trust if he was willing to heal you. It had been what? A week an a half that he'd known you, and he went from wanting you to die on his couch to wanting to heal you himself. That was a lot of sudden change, granted it was quickly sped up due to traumatic experiences, but still.

"Yeah." You said finally, a thankful, crooked smile beginning to form on your lips. "That'd be a lot of help, thanks."

Sans's eye sockets widened a tad when you'd actually accepted his help. "heh." He have you a hesitant lopsided grin back. "no problem."

You held out your limp arm to him, but he shook his head. "uh..." There was blue beginning to dust his cheeks. "y-you um..." He was becoming increasingly embarrassed and continued to stutter over his words. "i-if your soul was the one that was hurt, then... i have to heal it from the source, otherwise it won't heal well. i'm not strong enough to heal it indirectly."

"Oh." You said plainly. "Ok."

That's it? That was it? You were going to let him see your soul so easily? And without any hesitation? Did you not understand the type of closeness two people needed if they wished to see each other's souls?

No. No you did not.

Sans hadn't known this, of course, and the blissful ignorance between the two of you, caused him to become more uncomfortable and embarrassed. Maybe - maybe he should just take you to Flamia and have her heal you indirectly. He'd have to take back his offer of healing you, but it would save him the awkwardness.

"Sans?" You asked, tilting your head, wondering why he was just standing there in front of you with sweat rolling off his skull and empty eye sockets. You never did like it when he had them empty. They intimidated you. "What is it?" Sure you'd said you were going to try and trust him more, but that look on his face wasn't one you were ever comfortable with.

Oh, but Sans couldn't just back out. He'd finally stopped acting like a nervous prick, and actually helped you again instead of avoiding you. He couldn't just turn around and say 'never mind'. Who knows how you might take it- wait why did he care? You were human! The species that endangered his. The species that locked them underground. The species that hurt his father.

"Are you ok?"

"We're going to Grillby's." Sans said, finally snapping out of his train of thought. He couldn't do it. He couldn't just - just heal you. Just because you've had a few panic attacks - just because you looked like he did when he had the same problem didn't mean that it was for the same reason. You weren't innocent, and that injury on you was more than enough proof, because Sans was so sure that Gaster would never lay a hand on you unless you tried to attack him first.

"Grillby's?" You asked, knitting your eyebrows together.

"his mom will heal you." He muttered with dull eye lights.

You paused, realizing that your earlier thought was now void. So much for progress. Sans went back to not trusting you - or rather not letting himself give you the benefit of the doubt. Still, why was he so scared? Why did he hate you so much? What had you ever done to him? The questions swam in your mind and caused your flickering hope to dip a little. Maybe having a friend down here was too much to ask.

"Ok." You whispered, your eyes drifting back to the floor.

Sans glanced back at you, seeing that disheartened expression on your face, and he realized that even if he was a paranoid idiot, the least he could do was show you more kindness than what little you'd received from him. Even if he couldn't muster the courage to heal you himself, he could at least try to be better.

"sorry, but i don't think i'm strong enough." It wasn't a lie; at least not exactly. He wasn't emotionally strong enough.

"It's ok." You said, giving him a shaking smile that hid your disappointment. "I don't mind."

Asgore, why did that look on your face have to be so heartbreaking?

You held your hand out to him. You had a feeling that there was something stopping him from trusting you. Something that wasn't in his control anymore. Maybe in the beginning he despised you of his own accord, but now you knew that there was something more to this story. You didn't mind it. It just meant that you would be the one who needed to take a leap of faith first, and despite that the thought of blindly jumping terrified you... You felt that Sans wouldn't let you fall by yourself. You just needed to hold your hand out to him first.

He was silently grateful for your implied forgiveness, but guilt caused him to hesitate making eye contact with you again. He slowly took your hand in his and in the blink of an eye, teleported the two of you to the homey restaurant. You stumbled upon landing, but maintained your footing eventually.

"Sans! (Y/N!)" Blaze's energetic voice came from behind the counter, a bright grin on his face. "You're here! Did Paps already head to his dentist appointment? Don't tell me you only came because you're bored? I know you've got a project due soon, Sans."

Sans wore his usual lopsided grin and shrugged. "don't worry, i've finished it already." He paused for a moment. "but (Y/N)'s hurt so-"

"Hurt?" Flamia emerged from the back kitchen right on time. "Oh dear, come into the back and I'll see what I can do about it." She said, already fretting. "I-I hope it's not bad."

When you got hurt, it was because you'd been fiercely defending the other children, so she had a tendency to panic when you needed healing. Neither of you replied, so her slight frown deepened, both you and Sans sharing a single guilty glance. She sat you down at the back table, Grillby sitting there as well, finishing what you assumed to be the project Blaze was talking about.

"May I see where you're hurt?" She asked, pulling off her apron.

You turned to Sans to explain your injury to her, as honestly you had almost no idea how a soul worked. "um, about that..." Sans trailed off. Flamia really didn't expect for him to speak up, and neither did Grillby, so they both turned their attention to him. "(Y/N) hurt... their soul." He muttered quietly.

"What!?" Her sudden loud voice startled all three of you, so she regained her composure. "H-how is it that you hurt your soul so easily? I know you got into fights with other children about bullying, but you've never pulled out your soul to fight before, right?" She was beginning to ramble as much as Blaze would, and Grillby stared in shock as his mother fretted. He'd hardly ever seen her this nervous and scattered, so it must have been serious.

"that's the thing." Sans spoke, stopping her rambling. "they weren't in a fight..."

Flamia had visible confusion on her face for a long while, until her expression was overtaken by sudden realization, and then shock, worry, fear, and guilt. "Oh." Was all she could muster up to reply. She would be speaking with Gaster later. "Never mind that, you have a physical pain, don't you? Can you tell me where?" She asked softly.

You simply held your arm out to her, and she wasted no time in healing you from there. It was silent the whole time, but you looked up to notice that Sans wasn't staring at you from afar like he usually would. He was turned around, staring at the floor with knitted bone-brows, like he couldn't shake a feeling, but couldn't name it either.

It wasn't long until she was finished, but before she could ask anymore questions, Sans grabbed your hand, muttered a quick 'thank you' and teleported the two of you back to his home. Strangely he didn't let go of your hand the moment the two of you touched down, so you tried to shake free of his grasp yourself. He still wouldn't let go.

"I'm sorry." He choked out. You could only see the side of his face, as he turned away from you. "I'm sorry." He kept repeating the phrase, his grip on your hand tightening as you saw him try to harshly wipe tears away from his face with his other hand.

"Stop!" You finally said. "It's... it's not your fault."

He turned to you again, the most confused, helpless expression you'd ever seen on his face, but you only smiled in return. A smile he wasn't sure why you wore. Why did you still smile at him after all he'd done? He treated you like some sort of hellbent criminal in the beginning, and then after being kind to you once, he distanced himself even more after your first panic attack. How could you ever say that he wasn't part of the reason to blame?

How could he ever make it up to you?

"You could stop avoiding me."

Oh, he'd said that out loud?

"You're not bad, Sans. I know that much now." You muttered, stuffing your hands inside the pockets of your pants, and looking around the room unsure of how else to react. "You're just super scared, all the time." You finally made eye contact with him again, a crooked half-smile on your face. "And that's alright."

He still didn't understand you. What was with this sudden change? How did things come to this? Why would you ever forgive him? There were so many questions running through his skull, but eventually, he couldn't help but laugh. He laughed and laughed and laughed, glowing blue tears falling from his eye sockets.

"I don't understand you at all." He spoke breathlessly.

You felt a little awkward when he cried, but gave a breathy chuckle. "Yeah, neither do I."

It comforted him just a little bit to know that you didn't know what you were doing either. You were just as confused and conflicted as he was, and that gave him a sense of security.

"How about this," You began. "take me back to Waterfall sometime and we'll be even, alright?"

His breaths were a little uneven, but he replied with, "Why do you like that place so much?"

"I could ask you the same thing." You said sassily. "But I guess, I just think it's... calming."

You weren't wrong. Sans thought that Waterfall was the calmest place in the entire Underground, and he loved it there just as much as he loved his home. "yeah, alright."

Your new request was the first move. The hand held out to him first. You wanted someone to trust down here, even if he didn't know that was why you were asking, it still filled both of you with sparks of determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ✋︎❄︎ ✋︎💧︎ ❄︎⚐︎⚐︎ ☹︎✌︎❄︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ❄︎🕆︎☼︎☠︎ 👌︎✌︎👍︎😐︎ ☠︎⚐︎🕈︎📪︎ 👌︎🕆︎❄︎ ✋︎ ✌︎👍︎👍︎☜︎🏱︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☺︎🕆︎👎︎☝︎☜︎💣︎☜︎☠︎❄︎ ✋︎ ✌︎💣︎ ☝︎✋︎✞︎☜︎☠︎. "

"What did you do to them?"

Gaster sat in front of his friends. The two had very different expressions. Flamia seemed furious; her glasses downturned to mimic bubbling anger, a slight frown could be seen behind her flames, and she held her folded hands tightly together. Blaze had a worried, unsure frown on his face as he refused to make eye contact with Gaster or his wife.

Blaze's usually bright yellow-green ombre of fire was muted down to a dull yellow as he watched the tension rise. Flamia was the opposite. Her usually curly, wistful fires were flaring in and out of calm and viscious; the tips were beginning to turn red.

The royal scientist had remained silent, unsure of how to reply, and to what extent of information she had known. So she repeated herself. "Wingdings Gaster." Her flames began to hiss and crackle as her anger grew. "What. Did. You. Do?"

There was no use in trying to prolong the inevitable. "Flamia, I'm sure you know my allegiance is to the king." He could only see her usually curling and soft flames continue to hike up. "I made a vow. I promised him I would do everything in my power to get us out of here."

"And that includes harming a child?" She hissed, causing both men to flinch.

"Flamia, please." Gaster's voice was considerably lowered. "You act as if I'd wanted to do so."

She could hear the strain in his voice, but it did little to quell her anger. "Then tell me what you did."

There was a long pause, the two in a stare off as Blaze sat awkwardly beside Flamia in silence. "I-took-parts-of-their-soul-trait-as-a-sample." He spoke quickly and breathlessly.

"Gaster!" Her face contorted into shock and then pain and disbelief. "How could you?!" Her voice continued to rise. "The pain (Y/N) must have endured - I find it a wonder that they came here at all! I find it insane how they could manage to trust any monsters at all after that!"

He stopped, his previous guilt-ridden expression halting into shock as he looked up at Flamia. "They came here?" He asked. "Just - just to tell you that I..." He trailed off, his hallowed hands trembling gradually worse.

"No." Flamia finally lowered her voice, defeat creeping in as Blaze took her hand in his, rubbing calming circles in them. "They came here for healing." She took a steady breath to try and calm down. "With Sans, of all people..."

"Sans!?" Gaster's head shot up from his slowly sinking form to look at Flamia and Blaze in shock. "They came with Sans? Are you serious?"

Blaze nodded. "Yeah, they showed up saying that (Y/N) was hurt." His wife finally began to calm down, the tips of her flames returning to their normal pink.

"(Y/N) hadn't said a word- Sans was the one who explained everything."

That meant Sans knew, right? Gaster slowly laid his head on the table they sat at, his shoulders shaking with terrible tremors. Oh god. Sans knew. No. No, no, no, no. "Please - anyone but him -please."

What would his son think? How would Sans look at him if he knew- no. He knew now - Gaster was so sure of it - but wait, there was no guarantee. If Sans did all the explaining and he hadn't told Flamia - but there wasn't any guarantee for that either.

His thoughts and mumbles came out fragmented and the scientist's friends who sat in front of him watched as began his downward spiral into a mental breakdown.

"Gaster!"

He was finally snapped out of it, purple tears beginning to line the bottom of his eye sockets as he looked up to his two friends. Even if they didn't approve of his actions, and were even disappointed by them, they couldn't just let him spiral out of control like that. They stood on either side of him, placing their warm, fire enveloped hands on his shoulder.

"It'll be alright." Flamia said in her normal soothing voice. Although disappointment lingered in her tone, Gaster knew she was simply trying to comfort him. Had he looked that pathetic? "Just... Please, let us help you - you don't need to do this to them - I'm sure there are other alternatives."

"And maybe an explanation of how taking pieces of their soul trait away helps Asgore would be great too." Blaze mentioned, sass slipping out unintentionally. This earned him a slight glare from his wife, to which he only shrugged.

"I..." Gaster trailed off. "I understand. Alright, I'll... I'll explain." He said, both of them finally moving away from him to sit back in their original seats. "Where do I even begin..?" He asked himself more than them.

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"I... I don't want to sleep on the couch anymore."

".. then where do you plan on sleeping?"

"Probably the living room corner... Or the corner of your room."

"M-My room!?"

"Sorry, sorry. I know it's a crazy suggestion but-..."

"i... no, i get it."

"Then... you don't mind?"

"i do, but you can't be having a panic attack every night from now on, can you?"

"Thank you."

"it's fine, but how are we gonna break the news to my dad?"

"... Should we even tell him? Does it matter?"

"yes, because what if he comes in to check and your all hunched up in the corner or asleep on the floor?"

"Ok, good point."

"well, any suggestions?"

"Umm... Not really."

"so i'm gonna have to wing it?"

"Pretty much."

"... the shit i do..."

"Did you just cuss?"

"... yeah?"

"Why?"

"why not?"

"You literally just yelled at me last week for-"

"that was because you did it in front of Paps, but he's not here right now."

"That's - that's bullshit!"

"oh, look at that. you started cussing again."

"God, you're so annoying right now."

"if i'm so annoying, why are you asking to stay in my room and not Paps'?"

"Because I-..."

"you, what?"

There was a long silence. The pause in your conversation nearly deafening as you debated whether or not to show your cards before they were to be played. What effect would they have? What would he think or do if you actually said:

"I feel safe around you."

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You wouldn't speak with Gaster, and Sans found it reasonable that you didn't want to. Even if he thought you had been the one who caused your injury, there was no doubt that what happened to you at the lab was traumatizing for you. You still hadn't spoken a word of the details after all.

When had he gotten so sympathetic? He supposed it didn't matter right now. He saw the way you sat in the corner of his room with one of his books open on your lap. You weren't even reading it; you were just staring at it blankly with those dull, spacey eyes of yours. It was unnerving, but he knew that he was the only one who could help you now.

It was strange to him how he strayed so far from his original thought process, but this may be for the best. You'd done nothing but protect them in your time here in the Underground. You protected the weakest, like you were some sort of hero in a book he'd yet to read. How had he reached this verdict though?

"I feel safe around you."

Had he been the absolute cynic he was two weeks ago, then he would have laughed; but after everything - after protecting them twice and having two panic attacks in the time he'd known you... Now he just felt pity, and worse; guilty. He knew that he'd been one of the few to raise your stress levels to the point of your emotions falling unstable.

Yet for some reason, he couldn't remember your face on that first day. He couldn't remember how you looked or what you said, only that you were a loud blur of violence; to which he reacted in the same way. In that same mind-numbing hostility, he pinned you down with his magic, and claimed he would have the soul to kill you.

He was wrong.

He was so wrong, but he was thankful. Had he actually killed you on that day, it might have saved his friends and family a lot of trouble, but it would have caused him to spiral, no doubt. Besides, it had been a full week that he'd been free of those blood filled nightmares about humans and those he cared about. After he'd seen you in the same fear filled state, he learned that he had nothing to fear. Although you were strong enough to beat up a couple of kids, you would never be strong enough to kill someone like his father.

Gaster was a boss monster, and Sans was sure that Grillby and his parents would do just fine. He'd seen how heated Blaze could get when he saw someone picking on his child, and it was obvious to him on the day you were teaching Papyrus, that you were quite fond of his little brother. For some odd reason.

Before Sans could dive deeper into his dissection of his own mind, he was snapped out of his thoughts and stood abruptly from the couch as the front door opened and closed.

"Sans." Gaster's voice was just above a whisper as he spotted his eldest son. The scientist had already dropped Papyrus off from his dentist appointment earlier, and went directly to Blaze and Flamia. They had called him, claiming that they needed to speak with him immediately.

Currently, Papyrus was in his room, finishing up any left over homework before he would decide whether or not to play outside or something carefree of the like. Sans on the other hand stood in front of the coffee table in the living room, standing still while he saw his father watch him. Gaster was surveying him for any hints of disgust, disappointment, or general negativity, but all he received was a nervous glance. He didn't know whether to be thankful or worried.

"dad?" Sans began in a tone softer than usual, and it scared the royal scientist.

Gaster thought he might have been ready for any consequences given to him, but the idea of his sons hating him caused fear to ride along his spine. "(Y/N)'s gonna be sleeping in my room for a while." Sans said nothing else, only stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants as he kept his gaze trained on the floor, small beads of sweat began to form on his skull.

His father's uneven eye lights were trained on Sans, shock rippling through the man's expression. "What?" He asked in a whisper.

"is that ok?" Sans wouldn't repeat himself. He knew his father heard him, otherwise he wouldn't be looking at him with such shock.

Gaster had to shake himself free of his spiraling thoughts. He was so unsure of everything now. How much did Sans know? Had you told him anything in the first place? Had he figured it out? And more importantly - what in the world was he thinking by letting you sleep in his room? Didn't he hate humans even more than Gaster couldn't trust them?

"Why?" He was so confused. "Why would they..?" Why would they want to? He almost asked, but he knew the answer to that already. So instead he asked, "Why would you let them?"

Sans shifted uncomfortably at the question. Despite that he trusted his father's judgement, he knew the man could be emotionally disconnected some days. Besides, Sans didn't think that telling the story of how he found you having that first panic attack was wise. He might question why Sans was downstairs in the middle of the night anyways, and his father was a bright man. Gaster could put two and two together to realize that Sans's nightmares were a lot worse and more frequent than he led them on to be.

"do you trust me, dad?"

Gaster stiffened at his question, seeing Sans's permanent smile shrink little by little. "Yes." Gaster spoke softly, guilt slipping into his tone.

"then they're gonna be sleeping in my room for a little while. just on the floor." 

Gaster hesitated, "Alright." His answer pained him. The man was too emotionally drained from today to say anything else - or rather to think up of a reason why you shouldn't be scared and holing up in his son's room.

Sans nodded and left, hurrying back upstairs with heavy steps. Gaster stayed where he was, watching as his son closed the door behind him quickly. His holed hands were shaking, but he couldn't give up now. He clenched his boney fingers into fists and tore his gaze from Sans's door. Flamia and Blaze said they would help him, but Gaster had already known that he was in this alone. Despite what he'd said to the two fire monsters, Gaster knew that a soul like yours could do the trick. By absorbing it, Asgore could at the very least cross the barrier, even if his theory on breaking it wouldn't hold up.

His friends had already been so disappointed in him already. How would they react if they knew he wasn't planning to stop? What would his sons think of him? Gaster would soon be filled with hopelessness and fear.

Chapter Text

" ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ 🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ☹︎✋︎❄︎❄︎☹︎☜︎ ❄︎✋︎💣︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ☟︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ ☹︎☜︎☞︎❄︎📪︎ 👌︎☜︎ ✌︎ 👍︎☟︎✋︎☹︎👎︎📬︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ ✋︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☹︎✌︎💧︎❄︎ ❄︎✋︎💣︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ 👌︎☜︎. "

Entry 2

It's been bad. It's been REALLY bad. It's been 10 days in the Underground and today was the worst of it. After my first 'panic attack', that's what Sans called it anyways, things were getting better. I thought Sans hated me less, and for a day or two, I thought we could be friends. Eventually.

I was wrong. I was so wrong.

Gaster asked if he could do some 'tests' on my soul - a REAL soul. It pops right of your chest and looks like a heart. I don't know what I was thinking when I said yes, but I regret it. But it's not like he would have let me say no in the first place. At least I don't think so. My soul is one of the only things that can get them out of the Underground. Why wouldn't they want it? Why would they risk letting me go scot free when they could be free if they just took it?

I don't think I'd been in so much pain in my entire life. I hated it. I hate him. Gaster. I knew I couldn't trust him. I knew he couldn't-

It doesn't matter. What's the use?

I thought he wasn't bad at first, you know? I thought if he was nice enough to buy me new clothes while I was down here, let me hang out with Papyrus, and hell even Sans, then he wasn't a bad person, he was just scared I would hurt them. I was wrong. He hurt me without needing to - at least I don't think he needed to.

I need to get out of this place. I have to stop sitting on my ass and doing nothing.

I'm finally getting Sans to trust me, and I've decided that even if it's gonna be hard, I'm gonna try and trust him too. I need someone I can trust down here, and yeah, Sans might have been the last person to pick, but after that night... well, it's weird but something about how he calmed me down from those panic attacks is nice.

Plus, he's strong. I think he is, at least. He wouldn't be able to throw me across the kitchen if he wasn't. It'd be good to have someone who everyone else trusts on my side, but I know he won't trust me until I trust him. So I guess I'm taking my first leap of faith. At least I think it's my first.

I don't know what else to say. I just want to go home. I just want to feel safe.

(Y/N).

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You looked up from your leather journal, holding it tightly in your hands, your nails digging into the spine of it in anticipation. "What did he say?" You asked.

Sans gave a sigh as he leaned against the door he had just closed behind him. "it'll be alright." He muttered. "i guess i should probably get you some extra pillows and blankets if you're gonna stay in here."

"Yeah." You replied dully. "Probably."

Sans walked over to his closet and pulled out a spare blanket, taking an extra pillow from his bed and tossing them to you. "Oh and don't try to kill me in my sleep." Sans stared at you with empty sockets, causing you to tense. "Or you'd be dead where you stand." His eye sockets returned to normal and he turned around, sitting back at his desk and pretending to busy himself with homework or something.

There goes the progress you thought you'd been making.

"sorry." Sans whispered from his desk. "force of habit." It was almost inaudible, but the room was so dead quiet that you'd heard his apology.

"It's fine." You replied just as quiet, folding the blanket and shoving it into the corner with the pillow Sans had given you. This was getting increasingly awkward.

You had realized when glancing at Sans's bookshelf, there had been several on astronomy, surface technology, biology, chemistry, and physics. Was he some sort of secret super nerd? Did he plan on following in his father's footsteps and become a scientist like him?

It kind of surprised you. He didn't seem like the type who was so interested in something as complex as science, but then again, he was intelligent. You knew that, simply because he always caught onto your clever or cunning comments without missing a beat. Although he'd never say anything about it, he'd always give you the same threatening glare. The one that dared you to continue if you wished for a death sentence.

Sans knew he was being an asshole about the whole thing the moment he took a seat at his desk. He forgot to keep reminding himself that he would try and... not scare you. He forgot to remind himself that he was going to try and stop being a paranoid idiot. You hadn't done anything to them.

Yet. A bitter voice in the back of his mind commented.

This was getting ridiculous. Sans shook that thought out of his head the best he could, the pencil in his hand beginning to creak from the pressure he was exerting onto it. He needed to control himself a little better.

He couldn't keep pretending like he was busy. He had done nothing but stare at his already finished homework for the last five minutes now. He realized that if he didn't hurry up and try a little harder to stop being so paranoid, he'd never get on with it.

"so." Sans began. "what's your story?" God, could he be any more awkward?

Answer: no.

"I don't remember." You said shrugging as you fumbled with the pages of the book you'd picked out from Sans's shelf. "And I also don't know what you mean by that."

"i meant why you fell down." He mumbled, turning from his desk to look in your direction out of the corner of his eye sockets. "but i guess it doesn't really matter cause you don't remember."

There was another long silence before you spoke up this time. It was clear Sans was trying to make a... 'friendly' conversation. At least you think so. "What about you? Is there a reason why you hate humans so much?" Ok maybe you shouldn't have started with that.

"Wow, this is a topic I'd rather not talk about." You could nearly hear Sans's teeth grit together as he looked away from you.

"Sorry." You both said simultaneously.

There was another long silence. You two really sucked at this whole 'getting to know someone better' thing.

"do you know why you don't remember?" Sans glanced your way again.

"Nope. My best guess is that I might have hit my head a little too hard on the way down." You mumbled, still turning the pages of the book in your hands, but not caring enough to actually read it.

Sans cleared his throat before he said, "so i guess you could say you're a little empty headed then?"

You turned to him, an offended look already blooming on your face before you saw him tap his skull with that permanent grin of his forming into a lopsided smirk. You weren't sure why he was smiling until you realized that he'd just made a pun, and you couldn't help but chuckle.

That single half-hearted laugh was more than enough of a green-light for him to start making more jokes. Maybe all wasn't lost! If he ever said anything he didn't mean to, like before, he could just deflect it with a joke! Yes! Thank the stars you had a sense of humor!

"heh, so you found that joke a bit humerus?" You could hear his grin widening as you stifled another chuckle.

"You already used that one with Papyrus." Still, you couldn't hold back the smile beginning to form on your face.

"then why are you smiling?"

You scoffed, trying to choke down another laugh. "Shut it." You failed, your smile widening, and Sans only got cheekier.

"aww what, did i not tickle your funny bone?"

You let a giggle escape this time. "No. You don't have the spine for it." You retorted.

It took a minute of Sans processing that you'd just made a pun in return, but as soon as he registered it, the brightest smile you'd ever seen from him blossomed on his boney face.

"oh my god." He whispered with sparkling eye lights. Just as he let out a wheeze and the two of you started laughing, there was a loud screech from the other side of the wall.

"SANS NO!!!" Papyrus screamed. "STOP POISONING (Y/N) WITH YOUR TERRIBLE JOKES!"

The two of you only laughed louder as you heard his voice through the walls. This was probably the most cheerful atmosphere the two of you'd ever had between each other and it was comforting. It was the first sign that the two of you could get along, and it was Sans's first step to accepting the hand you'd outreached to him.

Gaster could hear the three of you making a commotion from downstairs as he prepared dinner. Despite that his actions from today weighed heavily on his shoulders, he was glad that you'd still be willing to give his sons the time of day. He was glad you could learn to offer your hand to those that were innocent - to those who deserved a chance.

He smiled sadly to himself and wished you the best for your time in the Underground.

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You didn't feel comfortable going downstairs to have dinner with the skeletons after what happened this morning, and despite Papyrus's whines, you denied him too. You just couldn't muster up the courage to look Gaster in the eye sockets and pretend everything was alright. Sans understood this, and to the best of his ability, convinced his little brother to leave you alone.

You were thankful for the silence and alone time you had. It gave you a chance to breathe freely without someone watching your every move again. Looking back on your time in the Underground, there were very few moments you had to relax. The days when Flamia and Blaze were especially busy with their restaurant were probably the only ones where you weren't plagued with reminders that you needed to keep your guard up.

Your moment of empty headed silence was short, but it wasn't suddenly broken like it usually was. Sans had actually used the stairs when he came back up to his room, and he knocked on his own door before entering, like he was giving you the curtesy of letting you know beforehand. It was a strange way to show he cared about not startling you. Maybe you should do the same to him if the opportunity ever arose.

You were still trying to wrap your head around that thought again. Sans being overly observant was one thing, but Sans being overly courteous was another. You were uncomfortable that you were uncomfortable. I mean - shouldn't you be happy that the hate between you two had practically evaporated? Did that seem right? Not really. Things don't just disappear. But they do change.

"hey." Sans muttered as he opened the door to his room. The door was only half way open, and his left hand was held behind him. He had an awkward expression on his skeletal face; bone brows knitted together slightly, eyes averted, and his usual grin was strained and a little crooked. Not to mention he was sweating.

Could skeletons sweat?

"since you, uh, didn't come down for dinner, i brought you something." You were still getting used to his calmer voice. It was weird to hear him talk without that underlying hostile tone, but now that you actually heard him, it was even weirder how his voice was deep for someone your age. Just how deep would it be when all of you grew up?

If you made it to adulthood. You thought bitterly.

The reminder hit you hard, and caused you to shift uncomfortably beside the wall you were leaning against. You pulled your knees closer to your chest with a frown forming on your face. You hadn't noticed how Sans already entered the room and his awkward half-grin turned into a matching frown - well as much of a frown as it could.

"what? don't like spaghetti much?" He joked, unsure of how to diffuse the situation. He ground his teeth together in hopes that he could push down his own frustration. Why weren't you responding? Why were you reacting so coldly? What were you thinking?

He just couldn't figure it out.

You looked up finally, realizing that Sans was still trying to talk to you. Although you couldn't really shake the feeling off, you noticed how he was trying to hold back his distaste. You guessed that it was still hard for him to remember that the two of you were trying to be less hostile to each other.

"Sorry." You mumbled, still not having enough courage to pull yourself to your feet. "Just... leave it on your desk. I'll eat in a minute."

You watched him walk past you, and when you realized that he wasn't planning on saying anything else, you resumed your downward spiral thoughts. You probably wouldn't make it into adulthood if things kept going like they did. You'd probably die here and you wouldn't even know if you left anyone behind or if anyone cared because you couldn't remember.

"what's wrong?" Sans still had his back turned to you, and he stood in front of his desk, boney hands gripping the edge to retain some sort of emotional control over himself. He seemed to be staring intently at the plate of spaghetti, but you knew better. "Why are you being quiet?" You could almost hear his teeth grinding together.

"I'm going to die down here, aren't I?" There was no point dodging the question, so you answered with one yourself. You could do nothing but stare at the navy blue carpeting on the floor, eyes wide, only because if you blinked, the tears you'd been holding back would fall. Your voice didn't waver, but you were shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Sans stopped breathing (assuming magical skeletons could breathe), and his boney hands fell away from the desk. All of his tense frustration stopped, as if it hit a brick wall, and he felt the wind get knocked out of him. Then, when he tried to regain his breath, it was like he was choking on his own magic tongue.

Neither of you spoke, but you knew the answer, and it wasn't like Sans could deny it. Neither of you could. It was like you were on death row, but the adults surrounding the two of you were too coy to tell you the truth.

It was torture to be stuck at this age. Old enough to understand that things were bad, but too young to understand why these things were happening or how you could change it. They always stomped out the flickering youthful flames who thought they could change it.

"It's ok." You choked out, your legs uncurling from your chest to lay flat on the carpet. Your arms were limply at your sides. "I don't mind." You hadn't noticed the tears that rolled down your emotionless face, but Sans did. "You shouldn't either." You looked like some sort of broken doll - one with a voice box that seemed much more alive than the toy did.

Finally you tore yourself away from that toxic defense mechanism of emotionlessness for another one. You smiled, as sad as it seemed, and said, "After all, my soul might be able to free you all." You took in a shaky breath to try and keep yourself from crying. Holding up the book at your side with 'Astronomy' written on the cover. "You'd finally be able to see some real stars."

Now Sans was crying. He was silent; even more so than you were. As if he'd practiced, night after night, to be completely quiet while crying, but you could hear his soft hiccups. His eye sockets were closed and cerulean blue tears rolled down his chubby bone cheeks. He was trying to stop himself from crying, and was gripping his blue sweater hems so tightly, you thought they'd rip.

So you shakily stood from your spot on the floor and approached the skeleton, placing a hand on his skull and with shaking, strained lips, you smiled brighter. "Don't cry." You whispered; your own tears already flowing in rivers. "Don't cry." It was the softest tone he'd ever heard from anyone - even Flamia.

You and Sans were filled with hopelessness, and despite everything, a little bit of courage.

Chapter Text

" ✋︎ ☟︎⚐︎🏱︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎ 👍︎⚐︎☠︎☞︎✋︎👎︎☜︎ ✋︎☠︎ 💣︎✡︎ 💧︎⚐︎☠︎📬︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎🕯︎☹︎☹︎ ☞︎✋︎☠︎👎︎ ❄︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ☟︎☜︎ ✋︎💧︎ 💣︎🕆︎👍︎☟︎ ✌︎☹︎✋︎😐︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎💧︎☜︎☹︎☞︎. "

The snow crunching beneath your feet, the subtle shuffling of clothes against skin and bone, the voices of locals fading behind you. All of this could be heard because of how silent the two of you were being. Sans had finally decided he'd take you to Waterfall today, after much coaxing of Papyrus to stay in Snowdin while the two of you went alone.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" He cried. "(Y/N)'S MY FRIEND TOO!" But somehow, Sans managed to convince him, although you still weren't sure how, considering that his little brother could be very determined.

It was a Sunday morning, around 10 AM, after another awkward breakfast. You hadn't spoken to, looked at directly, or stayed near Gaster since Wednesday, and you could tell Sans was helping you with that. Even though he still thought his father was in the right, he couldn't stand seeing you tremble in your own seat at the dinner table. It triggered his own guilty conscious and panic, and made him uncomfortable.

You wouldn't call the silence between the two of you uncomfortable; it was more so of mind numbing, but you had other work to do. Sans had offered to teleport to the same spot, or perhaps even another, but you refused. You wanted to walk there. After all, you needed to know how to get out of the Underground sometime, and this was the perfect moment to get more information before making a mad dash for an exit.

The Barrier.

You'd only read about it in the book on souls once, when Gaster had handed it to you, but ever since then, you'd been letting the idea fester in your mind. You started asking Flamia and Blaze questions about it, and apparently the Barrier's been there for generations; unbroken and untouched. Not because they didn't want to escape - they did, trust me - but because they simply didn't have the power to.

Flamia had looked especially uncomfortable when you asked her about it. Blaze had answered in the way you thought he would; bold, but unsure. He knew the basics, but nothing else; which wasn't what you were looking for. Although, it made you question how much Flamia knew if she began getting uncomfortable.

While you were thinking, you kept your eyes on the floor, only looking up to see where you were going every now and then, until you glanced up to see the end of the snow and winter weather. It wasn't even a gradual end; it was abrupt and didn't make any sense. There was a simple cut off between the two areas, and you could see a stone floor that began where the snow ended.

Sans caught your surprised expression as you stared at the break between Snowdin and Waterfall. He smirked and let out a chuckle. "heh, the Underground's quite the snowflake, isn't it?"

You didn't even bother laughing at his joke, carefully stepping over the end of the snow and beginning of hard rock floor. "Yeah." You said knitting your eyebrows together. "Ok - how does this happen?" You finally asked. "Why is there even snow in the Underground anyway??"

"magic." He replied smugly.

"How many times is that gonna be the answer to my questions?"

"if you keep asking ones like those, then a skele-ton."

Laughter bubbled out of your mouth from that pun, as he hadn't overused it yet, and he enjoyed your reaction, his permanent lazy smile widening into a pleased grin.

The two of you walked through Waterfall, aimlessly continuing on as you followed Sans. "So I've got a question about those flowers." You began. "What are they? We don't usually have glowing flowers on the surface - at least I don't think so." 

"they're called echo flowers." Sans explained with a far-off look in his eye sockets. "they're native to Waterfall, and you can hardly find them anywhere else." His eye lights had blurred slightly. "they echo the words that are whispered to them, and... sometimes people make wishes to them." He said, his tone gradually lowering to a whisper. 

You could tell this was a sensitive topic, but your curiosity was brimming. How did they echo others' words? How did they glow? Probably magic, again. "What kind of wishes?" You finally asked. 

Sans stopped walking, standing directly in front of another corridor's entrance, his eye sockets empty and angled to the floor. Whoops, looks like that was the wrong thing to ask. Finally he let out a deep sigh, his eye lights returning with a sad glow, but this time when he looked at you again, a sad smile graced his teeth. 

"we all have the same wish - all of us monsters." He said, still standing in the same place. His gaze kept flickering from place to place, like he wasn't sure if he should be telling you. "to see the surface. to see the sun, and the moon, and the stars." You could see his expression slowly turning more and more emotional as he spoke. "to wake up to a sunrise. To fall asleep to a sunset-" His words were becoming garbled as he held back tears. 

He couldn't find it in himself to continue, as he held his skeletal hand over his eyes to keep himself from crying. Placing a hand on his shoulder; you tried to convey that you understood. Maybe you didn't understand everything, but you could at least understand how badly his people wished to see the surface for themselves. Most importantly, you understood that your soul was the key to the world they dreamed of. 

"Sans?" You spoke softly, urging him to continue walking forward and do something to distract him from his overwhelming emotions. "Can I wish for something too?"

He used his sweater sleeve to wipe away the tears that leaked from his eye sockets and nodded. "c'mon." He whispered, taking careful steps through the cave entrance. 

You half expected it to be pitch black and crowded, but to your surprise, the path opened up completely to reveal a single stone pathway that you were now standing on. The edges looked like an endless abyss, and there was a castle in the distance, but what amazed you the most, were the star-like crystals shining ever-brightly on the ceiling of the cave. 

Sans watched your completely star-struck expression, and for a moment, he was glad he'd taken you here. He was glad that he could show you the one place that all monsters held dearly in their souls. This place meant so much to him, and for some reason, it meant even more once he'd seen your reaction. Perhaps there was a chance at escaping from this hell hole. He wasn't sure why, but you'd returned something he'd lost long ago, just by being here, and proving him sorely wrong about your species. 

You gave him hope. 

. . .

After the initial shock wore off, the two of you took a seat on some flat rocks near that had made the entrance to the 'Star cave' as Sans called it. "you can make a wish to that echo flower." Sans instructed, gesturing to the lone echo flower that sat planted between two jagged rocks. 

"But what if it's already whispering someone else's wish?" You asked, watching the dim glow of the cerulean blue flower. 

Sans let out a half-hearted chuckle, that sorrowful look in his eye sockets flickering forward again. "heh, don't worry about it. you can just talk over it." He shrugged. "i'm sure only an idiot would make a wish to an echo flower stuck between some rocks instead of on the floor." 

You only rose an eyebrow at him before you leaned down to the echo flower, ready to make your wish when you'd heard someone's voice coming from it. 

"i wish i could leave this mountain and see real stars. the stars on the surface." 

You knew that voice well, and you hesitated before making your wish. Sans wished to see the stars on the surface, the same twinkling lights you knew you took for granted, despite only remembering them in fragments. Should you really speak over his wish? Override his strongest want in this world? 

Only if he'd listen to your wish too. 

So you leaned down to the glowing flower, and with a deep breath, you whispered: "I wish to return here one day, when the monsters are free, and be able to say that their wishes were granted." 

You turned around, looking away from the echo flower to the skeleton who sat a few feet away, staring intently at the crystals above. For the first time all day, that sad gleam in his eye lights finally disappeared, and was replaced with the wonder of a child his age. 

The way he stared at the cave's crystals reminded you of the same way he found comfort in them on that first night. It caused you to wonder how he might have reacted to the sight of the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars on the surface. Would he be moved to tears? Maybe satisfied enough to die happy from the sight alone? 

You wished silently to yourself to be able to see his reaction some day... even if it was impossible, it wouldn't stop you from dreaming. 

The two of you sat there on that rigid rock formation for what seemed like hours. Most of the time was spent in contemplative silence, and the rest were quick, mindless questions and answers. 

"How do they shine like that in the dark?" 

"probably magic." 

"Were they there when you got to the Underground?"

"yeah, i think so." 

"Do you come here often?"

"yes." 

It was nice to sit beside Sans and not think about impending doom, only the curiosity that the Underground sparked in your childish soul.

"Sans?" You began, causing him to hum as an answer. "Why does everyone think you're weak?" He stiffened at your question. "You're obviously not. You threw me across the kitchen on my first day at your house." 

He hesitated to answer, sweat looking like it was forming on his skull. "it's because of my stats." He muttered. "i have ones all across the board." 

"And that means you're weak?" 

You saw his whole body stop moving, as if he was thinking about your question. Just because he had one HP, defense, and attack... did that mean he was weak like everyone said? But the only reason why you thought he was strong was because you caught him at a bad time. You received the worst of his magic. Very few people knew about his magical talent. 

Besides Sans's own father, who had ran tests to see why his magical ability was so high, only Grillby had known that he'd had the power to back up his empty eye socketed threats. And then there was you. The only person who he'd used more than a little magic on. 

Papyrus and the others knew Sans could levitate things, but Gaster had always told him to be careful when using his magic, as the slightest slip up, could crush whatever he was holding. It was also the reason why his father was insistent on keeping his temper under control. 

"I don't think it does." You answered your own question when Sans hadn't. "I think you're strong. What I don't get, is that if you're strong, why do you let the other kids bully you and Papyrus?" 

When realizing Sans was still thinking, you kept silent and waited for his response, hoping you didn't have to hit any sore spots to get an answer. "i... i don't want to hurt them..?" It sounded more like a question than an answer when he spoke it aloud. 

"Why not? They don't seem to think twice when they hurt you." 

Sans was staring at the far off ground with empty eye sockets. "Because I just don't want to." He was becoming agitated. Despite that you wanted to press him further, and possibly get him to defend himself, that conflicted expression stopped you. He looked like he was bottling up his anger, his frustration, and helplessness. 

So you decided to say something else instead. "Well, if you don't want to, then I don't mind doing it." You leaned back against the rocks nonchalantly. "Just make sure your dad doesn't try and get me for beating some bullies up again." You turned your attention to the side to avoid embarrassment, but in doing so, you'd failed to see how Sans's eye sockets doubled in size and his bone brows shot up to the top of his skull. 

He'd heard you proclaim to Papyrus that you would protect them, but hearing it from you again, and directing it to him nonetheless; it meant something more. It sounded more truthful and less like you wished to avoid hurting his feelings, but most importantly, it sounded like a promise. 

And he planned to keep his side of that promise. 

He'd protect you as long as you protected them, and for once, he was grateful for your help. "alright." 

The unspoken deal the two of you made filled you both with determination and hope and courage. 

Chapter Text

" 🕈︎☜︎☜︎🏱︎ ☹︎✋︎❄︎❄︎☹︎☜︎ ☹︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎ 💣︎✌︎☠︎📪︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎🕯︎☼︎☜︎ ☠︎⚐︎❄︎ ✌︎💧︎ 👌︎☼︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ ✌︎💧︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 🕈︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 💧︎❄︎✌︎☼︎❄︎. "

It was about time that the two of you left Waterfall, but not before you were to found out which direction you needed to go in order to leave.

"We're going back already?" You asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sans stood there in front of the cave exit with an expression you couldn't place, completely silent for a good while before speaking up again. "... didn't you just want to see the echo flowers?"

"Well yeah, at first." You admitted. "But then you showed me the cave stars, and now I wanna see more. Isn't there anything else around here that's interesting?"

There was, but Sans was hesitant to take you anywhere else. What if you were caught? How would he explain to an adult that you were technically protected under law, and not to be killed on sight, unless certain circumstances were met? He supposed he could just teleport the two of you out of any sticky situations. He'd still be keeping his... ' side of the deal'.

"i guess there's one thing." Sans gestured for you to follow him, and the two of you trekked through a different part of Waterfall, the grass becoming luminescent, and the water beside you glowing brightly. How did it glow? Probably magic, again.

The two of you didn't walk too far. Eventually the two of you reached wooden platforms that seemed to be built over another abyss. There seemed to be countless edges that you could look over and see a void. But like the saying goes: "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

But... Who says that?

"you coming?" Sans snapped you out of your thoughts, finally tearing your attention away from the endless edge.

"Yeah." You muttered nervously, following Sans through the bridge like platforms. There seemed to be no end to them though. "Where are we even heading? I can't see anything other than this bridge."

Sans smirked as he finally reached the end of a shadowy platform. "Don't worry." He said, chuckling menacingly. "w e ' r e  h e r e ."

His tone of voice sent shivers up your spine, and caused your breath to catch in your throat. You turned around with a terrified expression on your face, but you couldn't even say his name before he pushed you off the edge and into the abyss bellow.

You snapped your eyes shut, feeling like you were screaming and falling forever, waiting for the inevitable rough impact of a hard cave floor, but nothing came. When you finally realized that you weren't falling to your death, you heard something that made you even more furious.

Sans's echoing laughter.

He had his left eye glowing blue and he was doubled over, holding his 'stomach' as he laughed and laughed and laughed at your scare. His magic turned your soul blue, and there was a fluctuating blue aura around your whole body, and his. He had actually let you fall a good distance before grabbing your soul and slowly levitating the both of you downward.

He was still laughing hysterically, and you were starting to loose your cool.

"What the fuck!?" You hissed, allowing another string of curses to flow from your mouth.

He finally stopped laughing as he lowered himself onto the floor, but kept you up in the air, watching as you struggled and flailed. He was sure you said somethings like "Oh when I get my hands on you-!" and the other curses that you spoke so readily. He found it amusing.

"aww c'mon, it was just a trust Waterfall." He snickered.

"Oh my God, the amount of bullshit that comes out of your mouth-" You never got to finish your sentence as he dropped you onto the same bed of grass he was standing on.

"tsk, tsk." He shook his boney finger in front of you with that ever growing grin. "such a potty mouth."

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. "As if you're one to talk. I've heard you cuss."

"but I have restraint."

The two of you continued to bicker back and forth for a while longer before Sans finally gestured for you to follow him once again. You were unsure because of what happened last time, but continued onwards. This area was covered in junk and garbage, and the rest was flowing heavily with water. You really didn't feel like getting your socks wet, so you jumped from garbage pile to garbage pile.

Sans had actually been walking through the water, and watched in surprise as you jumped from pile to pile, the garbage not falling or tumbling on whatever makeshift platform you were standing on. Huh. He should of thought of that, but the jumping around looked tiring.

"Why are you walking through the water?" You finally asked, standing atop of a medium sized pile of garbage and looking down at him. For a second there, Sans thought you looked like one of those heroes from a fantasy book he'd read. "Doesn't it get annoying when your shoes and socks get wet?"

Sans shook that thought out of his head quickly. "heh, well it's less annoying than having to jump from place to place just to shuffle through the garbage anyways."

You rose an eyebrow at him. "Can't believe that Papyrus was serious when he said that you were lazy." You said with a smirk. "But what do you mean 'shuffle through the garbage'? You can't be serious - right?"

Sans smirked in return - he was setting up for a joke, and you were getting to know that look well. "no, i'm not serious. i'm Sans."

The two of you chuckled at his bad dad joke. "That one was horrible." You kept smiling regardless, and he only shrugged in return.

"but yeah, there's some cool stuff here sometimes you know." He lifted objects with his magic and moved it aside until he reached something interesting. He picked it up and inspected it, before throwing it over his shoulder after deeming it unimportant or boring. This continued until he found something of interest and stuffed it into his jacket or under his arm.

He seemed pretty skilled at this kind of thing, as he managed to go through a single medium sized pile in a few minutes. You only continued to stare until he finally looked at you again, raising an expectant bone brow.

"well? what are you waiting for? help yourself." He said gesturing to the pile you were standing on. "who knows, maybe you'll find something useful."

You weren't sure what that tone in his voice was, but you could tell that he was suggesting something. Whether it was a warning, a threat, or a genuinely helpful comment - you couldn't tell, but you decided to get to work. You bent down and began shuffling through the garbage pile in a similar fashion to Sans, until you noticed something glittering under it all.

Digging your arm deep into the garbage pile, you caught it just with your fingertips and gave it a rough yank out of the clutter, surprising Sans with the noises of several other collapsing objects. He might have turned his attention to you after all that commotion, but you were preoccupied - your eyes fixated on the nearly crushed music box in your hands.

It was a rectangular shape and fit snuggly in your two hands. Some of the springs were sticking out, the winding function was a little twisted, and obviously lots of water damage, but what you were focused on, was the carving at the top.

There was a heart engraved on it, feathered wings carefully wrapping it in what looked to be a warm embrace.

It looked familiar, but not familiar as in 'I've seen this before'.

But in, "This is mine." You whispered. "This used to be mine." Your breath hitched.

There was a long silence as you stared at it. Sans hadn't said a word after you pulled it out, and after hearing you whisper those words, he saw your face twist up into a confused pain. As if you wanted to cry, but couldn't, and you weren't sure why.

He had ideas about what emotions could be tied to such an object that would have made you react like this, but for now, he would show a little kindness. "i can fix it for you." He offered.

Finally looking up from the music box, you found that you couldn't meet Sans's eye sockets. Not that you didn't want to, but that there was a slight blue dusting across his cheek bones, and his white pinpricks were averted. You weren't sure what urged you to agree, but you felt secure just by doing so.

"I'd like that." You said, your voice still a whisper, and flooding with the gentleness you'd been overcome with. It made Sans a little uncomfortable, only because he was sure he didn't have skin, but he felt the warmth in your voice crawl across his bones as if he did.

The two of you stood there in silence until Sans's awkwardness reached a point where he couldn't take it any more. He'd reached his hand out for you to give him the music box, but was surprised with you placing your hand in his and jumping down from the pile and into the water. It wasn't so bad.

"C'mon, let's go." You said calmly, urging him to lead the two of you forward.

Sans could hardly think, let alone respond verbally, so he just nodded, trying desperately not to be freaked out by your sudden change in demeanor - oh and the fact that you were still holding his hand. Holy crap, you were still holding his hand! Why were you still holding his hand?

He was the only one freaking out though. You were still in your serene state from finding the music box.

The two of you didn't walk far before you heard a sudden screech that broke the calm. "HUMAN!"

You both flinched, your hands letting go of each other to cover your ear. Both you and Sans were holding objects you'd found in the garbage dump. Who in the hell could even yell that loud besides Papyrus?

Both of you shook your heads clear to see someone standing at the exit of the dump. She had long red hair tied in a pony tail, her scales blue, and gauze covering her left eye. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" So much for not getting caught.

She held a wooden sword, and was actually a little shorter than the two of you. She looked a little younger than you and Sans, maybe by a few years. "You're not going anywhere!" She was almost as loud as Papyrus was when he was throwing a fit. "Fight me!"

This was sudden, but you exchanged a single glance with Sans, and there was an entire conversation.

I'm gonna do it.

don't you dare.

I'm gonna do it.

i swear to fuckin-

I'm doing it.

You smirked smugly and pushed the music box gently into his arms, rolling up your sweater sleeves with with a shit eating grin. You couldn't help but chuckle. This kid was smaller and younger than you. You should be fine, and if anything goes wrong, then Sans would just jump in to help you. Probably.

"Okay." You said calmly turning to the fish kid in front of you. "But shouldn't I learn your name before you beat me up?" You played along.

"I am UNDYNE the UNDYING!" She hollered.

Your eyes widened slightly. "Cool name. It rhymes. Did you come up with it?" Why were you so calm? She was going to fight you, and the last time you got in a fight, you were violent as hell. Now you were just standing here like the two of you were just going to have a calm conversation.

"what are you doing?" You heard Sans hiss from beside you.

"She's not trying to be mean, she just wants a fight. I can do this." You whispered back to him.

"Remember what happened last time?" He spat with a serious expression. He was threatening you this time. "Don't you dare."

You glared back at him, "I won't hurt her. She's not trying to bully anyone." You hissed back.

"Nope!" She replied, ignoring your whispered conversation with Sans. "The hero of the Underground, GERSON the HAMMER OF JUSTICE gave me it." She sounded proud and you couldn't help but smile. She kind of reminded you of Papyrus, but with a little more pent up violence.

"Cool, you should introduce us next time." This comment caused Sans to glare at you even harder, his white pinpricks disappearing from his eye sockets. Ok, note to self, do not ever meet with this Gerson character. If Sans was looking at you like that after such a comment, it probably meant that he was one of the many people who could and would kill you.

"Yeah don't worry!" She said with a smirk. "You'll get to meet him as soon as I capture you and take you to him!"

"Wait, what?" The two of you stopped bickering with each other to turn to her.

So if anything went wrong, she'd drag you down to Gerson herself?

"Please tell me he lives far from here." You whispered to Sans.

"um, no. he lives about a five minute walk away." He whispered back.

"Should I even try to fight her then? Let's just get out of here."

Sans couldn't agree more, but he couldn't act on your mutual agreement either.

"NGAHHHH!" Undyne came flying at you, leaping through the air to tackle you, only to launch and land on your back.

You stayed standing though. "What the f-!" You couldn't even finish your curse before she waved the wood weapon in her hand around with a roar and flailed on your back.

"HAHAH! I knew you would fall for my surprise attack! Now, it's time for a real fight!" She cried, letting go of you and tugging out your soul from your chest.

The world around you turned black and white in sudden flashes, and before you knew it, your soul hovered in front of you, surrounded by a white box. Undyne stood in front of you with a malicious grin, and as you tried to turn around to face Sans - you realized you couldn't see him.

His absence filled you with fear, but Undyne's battle cry forced you to have courage.

Chapter Text

" ✋︎💧︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ 💧︎⚐︎🕆︎☹︎ ☼︎☜︎✌︎👎︎✡︎✍︎ 🕈︎☜︎☹︎👍︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☞︎✋︎☼︎💧︎❄︎ ☞︎✋︎☝︎☟︎❄︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ☹︎✋︎☞︎☜︎. "

The world around you was black and white, and when you turned around to see that Sans was gone, you panicked. Your soul shuddered and twisted as you kept trying to turn around and look at him, but found no one there. Nothing but fizzling blotches of white and black static was behind you.

"HEY!" The fish girl cried from the other side of the box. "Are we gonna fight or what!? Do something already!" She held her wooden sword slack in her hands, her other on her hip as she tapped her foot impatiently.

"W-wait..." You shook your head, a nervous frown making it's way onto your face. "What's going on? Why can't I see?"

Undyne laughed her dramatic "FUHUHUH" and pointed her sword at you again. "That's because we're in a real battle!" She said with a wicked grin. Suddenly her assumingly empty challenge from before was becoming dangerous. "You won't be able to make any dirty moves like this, so we can have a fair fight!"

Fair fight?!

How was locking you into this black and white world a fair fight?!

"B-but how..?" Your voice was becoming quieter, and as you tried to look at your own body, you found that it looked almost transparent. You could practically see through yourself, but you weren't sure as to how your new state would affect you.

"Because I pulled your soul out." She explained, becoming more and more irritated. "How do you not know these things? Do they not teach you in school? Do you even go to school? You seem kinda dumb."

And that caused your sudden confusion to bristle into indignation. "I am not dumb!" You huffed. "You can't just expect me to know everything that monsters can do! I've only been here for like two weeks! They don't teach us this stuff on the surface! They don't even know about this kind of stuff on the surface!"

How did you know that?

"They don't?" She gave a contempt glance your way before shrugging. "Well whatever! You're taking too long!" She finally ran forward, stepping right up to the box restraining your movement in four directions: forward, backward, left, and right.

Lacing her magic against the wooden blade she held, it was covered in a cyan film that looked disturbingly familiar to Sans's. Without any further warnings, she swung it in a wide forward motion. You jumped back, bumping into the hard surface of the rim of the square. You doubted that it would let you go 'underneath' it, despite that it looked only like a ring you could easily hop out of.

Stupid monster magic...

She gave two more swings, one on the right, to which you jumped out of the way of, and the next from the left. What you hadn't expected though, was for the magic that laced her blade to be flung forward into a projectile attack that came flying your way. It collided with your left bicep, the magic fading once it made contact with the red sweater you were wearing.

Did I forget to mention that you never took it off anymore?

You were lucky that it took most of the hit, but not lucky enough that you made it out unscathed. Her magic passed right through your transparent body, but caught your soul. It made contact and you could feel the impact of her sharp magic against the very culmination of your being. Yet as you let out a hiss of pain, you hadn't expected the injury it made on your arm.

Part of you expected it to be a ghostly pain like when Gaster had hurt you, but when a red cut appeared on your skin under your jacket, your breath to hitched. The injury forming on your arm was a long and shallow scratch that wrapped around half your arm. It stung as if seawater had been simultaneously dumped onto the wound as soon as it was made.

What caught your eye though, was that in the void-like space outside the box, a yellow bar appeared behind you. You turned around, cradling your cut to examine the new feature, and realized that your soul had flashed bright and dim for a few moments before returning to normal. The bar of yellow had done the same, and the numbers beside it decreased to a fraction of 18/20.

You were beyond confused, and the number of questions running through your mind were tremendous, but it all came to a screeching halt when you saw two familiar letters on the left side of the bar. "HP" It read in little white letters.

The blood drained from your face when you realized what they entitled.

Oh. That's what Sans meant by HP. What he meant by "hope".

And you knew if it dropped to zero... you were dead. There would be no saving you. There would be no hope. How ironic.

"Well don't just stand there! Do something! Geez, I won't wait forever!" Undyne's voice snapped you out of your thoughts, causing you to whip around and see that she was still holding her magic laced sword.

You know you told Sans you wouldn't hurt her, for real... but you were seriously contemplating it right now. If your own life was on the line, and she was literally willing to drag you to someone to seal your doom if she didn't kill you herself, then yeah. You were seriously debating it.

But what was the difference between her and the other children who you had fought on your first day here? Why were their lives worth sparing and not hers? Well for starters, they didn't pull out your soul, but that was hardly much of a justification, was it?

"Fine." You hissed under your breath, wiping away the tears of pain that had begun to form. "Fine." You wouldn't hurt her...that much. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get-"

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

Just as you raised your fist to attack Undyne, Sans's voice rang out from behind you. It was the loudest you'd ever heard him, even if it was nothing in comparison to Papyrus or even Undyne. Just as you were about to whip your head around to look at him in hopes that he would actually be there, you felt your entire body drop to the floor.

Gravity weighed heavily on your shoulders and back, and before you knew it, you were on the floor, your face pressed harshly to the ground as you laid sprawled out. Much to your surprise it wasn't actually wet. Which was weird because if you remembered correctly, the three of you were standing in the Garbage Dump with water everywhere.

"don't you d a r e hurt her."

Your eyes flickered to where you heard Sans's voice from, and you could see his black and white figure approaching the box where you were stuck. His eye was a vicious yellow and blue, and sweat was beading down his skull as he held you down. His hold on you was even more imposing than Gaster's and it caused your breathing to stop.

You hated this. You hated this feeling. You glanced at your blue covered soul and came to the conclusion that you hated it this color. You hated their blue magic. You hated this helplessness.

"HP ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇⌧⌧⌧ 17/20"

Sans gasped, his eye sockets empty as he let go of your soul, taking quick steps away from you and staring at his own hand like he had been burned by his own actions.

As soon as he let go of you, you took a deep breath, coughing as if he had been suffocating you, and your soul was suddenly submerged back into your body. With a few blinks to clear your blurring eye sight, the world returned to color. The first thing you felt was the water that now soaked your clothes, but you wondered why it was so hard to breathe.

Was it because Sans had been holding you down with his magic badly enough to cause the air to leave your lungs? Perhaps that you actually had been laying in the water and were drowning? No... It was probably because you had been holding your own breath, hoping that he wouldn't hurt you the same way his father did when he last used that blue magic on you.

"Hey! We weren't done fighting!" Undyne cried indignantly when your soul was shoved back into your chest.

"yes, you are." Sans spoke shakily, his eye sockets were still empty.

Grabbing you by the arm, he forced you onto your feet and teleported the two of you out of Waterfall without warning. It wasn't as if you weren't getting used to the feeling of his teleportation, but it certainly didn't help that you were suffocating less than a minute ago. You ripped your arm out of his grip and turned around, collapsing to your knees again and dry heaving.

You were so dizzy. You felt sick to your stomach, and all parts of your body agreed that now would be a good time to pass out, but he wouldn't let you. From the looks of it, you were in Snowdin again, and behind his house for that matter. There was a mound of snow covering something - you knew there was something under there - but you didn't get much more than a glance at it.

As soon as you started to breathe normally again, he helped you onto your feet (a lot less roughly, thankfully) and the two of you headed inside. You really didn't want to be helped by him after what he did, but neither of you had a choice. Walking past Gaster who was on the couch, surrounded by papers, notebooks, and pens, along with Papyrus who had rushed from his room upstairs to greet the two of you - you and Sans immediately headed to his room.

The door closed behind you and he sat you down on his bed where you fumbled to sit up-right. He immediately began shuffling through his closet, pulling out a red and white first aid kit before he put it back, realizing how stupid he was. You couldn't heal a soul-deriving wound with band-aids and rubbing alcohol. His eye lights were fuzzy and unfocused; fading in and out of existence. Pacing around in his room, his boney hands clutching at his skull as he muttered to himself incoherently.

It was pitiful to watch. 

"i knew this was a bad idea."

"what was i thinking?"

"what were you thinking?"

"you said you wouldn't hurt her!"

"why did you choose to fight then?"

"why couldn't you have just - just-!"

He reduced himself to a crumpled pile on the floor, cradling himself and pulling up his hoodie to cover his skull as he wept.

"how could you?"

"how could i?"

"i-i'm so, so, sor-"

"Don't e v e r use that blue magic on me e v e r again." You hissed, stopping his apology in it's tracks.

There was a long silence between the two of you, both of your panicked breathing slowing down to manageable paces. Then Sans nodded, his head still hidden in his hoodie, his body still cradled into itself as he crouched on the floor, and that was the end of the conversation. You stood shakily from his bed and walked out of the room.

You walked past both the worried figure of Papyrus and the threatening Gaster and out the door of the house.

Both of them watched you leave, Papyrus nearly catching the hem of your sweater to pull you back inside the house until you stared at him with a heartbroken expression. He froze in place; the sight of tears building all along your eyes caused him to hesitate just long enough for you to close the door right in front of him.

No more.

You'd had enough.

You'd take your chances with the Royal Guard.

You'd much prefer the company of those who both in words and actions wanted to kill you, than the mixed signals that you received from the skeleton family.

But first, you needed your real sweater.

You were filled with determination and Sorrow. 

Chapter Text

" ☟︎☜︎ 🕈︎✌︎💧︎ ✋︎☠︎❄︎☜︎☹︎☹︎✋︎☝︎☜︎☠︎❄︎📪︎ ✡︎☜︎💧︎🖴︎ 👌︎🕆︎❄︎ ❄︎☼︎✌︎💣︎✌︎ 👎︎⚐︎☜︎💧︎☠︎🕯︎❄︎ 👍︎✌︎☼︎☜︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ✋︎☠︎❄︎☜︎☹︎☹︎✋︎☝︎☜︎☠︎👍︎☜︎. "

A snowstorm was approaching. 

It was strange to think that there would be snowstorms underground, but this was the Underground. Magic didn't care for your silly science or logic. 

So you had trudged into Grillby's through the front door, knowing that no one knew what a human actually looked like unless they were of a higher rank. Despite that you were bitter towards Sans at the moment, and everything associated with him, including the sweater you were wearing, you still hiked the furred hood of the red jacket higher onto your head. You threw the door open with freezing fingers and stumbled your way in. 

Blaze immediately looked up from his spot at the register to see your small snow covered body, his usual bright greeting falling short when saw how you were unaccompanied. Your arms wrapped tightly around your own body, he realized that something was wrong, and he walked around the front counter to usher you past the other customers. He was especially antsy when you passed a table of royal guards, and he only have them a half-hearted smile when they said hello to him. 

Entering the warm kitchen, you felt yourself thaw in both body and mind. The cold numbness you'd forced yourself into to cope with Sans's betrayal was coming undone with the warmth falling off of Blaze and Flamia. They had always been so comforting to you, but you weren't sure as to why. You heard their voices speaking to one another, but you were still barely coming out of your emotional hibernation, until you saw Grillby come into your line of sight from behind his mother. 

"(Y/N)? What happened? I thought you were going to Waterfall with Sans today?" Grillby said in his usual soft spoken, nearly shy voice. Only this time it was laced with concern, and you could see his glasses knit together to form a worried expression, despite barely able to actually see his eyes against his muted flames. 

Grillby stared at you for a long while, neither of you bothering to speak with his parents who were talking amongst themselves. Grillby knew there was something wrong, and he knew his parents wouldn't understand if he couldn't first. He was both your age and Sans's friend. If there was something wrong, he could figure it out, and he could find out why. 

The two of you stood there for a while, to the side of the adults, until you finally spoke up. "I'm leaving." Your voice was barely over a whisper, but it silenced everyone. There was nothing more than the voices outside of the kitchen that filled the tense silence, so you decided to get what you came here for. "I need my jacket." 

No one moved, so you did. 

Walking around all three of the fire elementals in slow, deliberate movements, you made your way to their supply closet. Your jacket had been long since repaired, but you weren't sure where Flamia had put it. She had said that she would send it over to you when she was done, but you insisted that she only tend to it on her free time, as you were sure you'd be spending quite some time in Snowdin. Besides, you had the red jacket you were currently wearing over your shoulders. You would be warm, with or without your old jacket. She could keep it with her until she was done, or until you needed it, should the red jacket be torn in a similar manner. 

You shrugged off the red jacket, the hood falling off your head as you put it down on the break table, your hands shaking. Was it strange that you found so much comfort in it? Was it strange that it pained you to leave it behind? Was it strange that you associated it with Sans so often? It was his first kind act towards you in all your time here in the Underground. 

Taking a deep breath, you shook those thoughts from your head and looked in the storage closet again, glancing over the items there, but not touching anything. 

"It's not in there, dear." Flamia spoke up from behind you. "It's in our house a few blocks away. I told you I'd been working on it." 

You turned around, that emotionless expression still on your face. "Can I have it back?"

Flamia drew a sharp breath and nodded. "You can, but I'd like to speak with you before you... go." She said in soft tones. She spoke as if she was letting a child go. You weren't her child though. 

"Okay." Taking a seat at the break table, you waited for her to take her own seat and begin talking. She didn't beat around the bush like everyone else. This would be quick. You hoped it would be quick. You didn't want to be here any longer than you had to be. 

Taking her seat beside you, not across from you like she usually did, she looked to her son. "Grillby, could you please go back home and get (Y/N)'s jacket for them?" 

You could see Grillby's expression twist up into pain and sorrow, and almost betrayal, before he nodded slowly and ran out the back door. You could see magma tears just barely pricking the sides of his eyes. He didn't want you to leave. Not yet.

"Could you tell me what happened?" Flamia began. 

A large part of you wished to lie. Lie about what happened; about how things went down. Maybe you would twist it up to victimize yourself. Maybe you would paint yourself in the light of a villain. Maybe you would spare her by completely denying her any truth. Or you could just say no. 

But you really didn't want to. "We went to Waterfall." You started. "And... there was someone there - a kid. She wanted to fight me, but not in the same way that every other kid does - they... I... ended up fighting her, but... Sans stopped me before I could hit her." Your hands began to tremble in your lap. "He used his blue magic on me." You hissed. 

There was a pause from Blaze as he stood at the other side of the kitchen, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his fiery eyebrows knitted together. Meanwhile Flamia sighed, watching your every move. "Has he used it on you before?"

"Yes."

"Then what makes this time hurt so bad?" She wasn't trying to be insensitive. She just knew that you and Sans had always been at each other's throats. She knew that he'd used his magic before, and she knew what his blue magic entitled. After all, she knew his father better than anyone, and knew just how well skeletons used their blue magic. 

Another silence. Your lips trembled as you could feel the same emotionless from before melt away with every question. "Because Gaster used it on me too."

Before you knew it, and before you could struggle out of her grip, Flamia enveloped you in a warm hug, pulling your head to her chest. "I'm so sorry." She whispered to you. 

You hadn't even realized that you were near crying until you felt your tears evaporate before they could fall. There were no more than three or four that resided in your eyes. 

Blaze watched from his spot at the wall. Even though you couldn't see the look on his face, as you were a little busy being comforted by his wife, if you did look up, you would see the most serious, dangerous expression he'd likely ever wore for several years. His implied hostility though, was most definitely not directed towards you. 

"Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" Flamia spoke softly, gently stroking your head.

Taking a shaky breath as you collected yourself, you said; "He... took down my HP by one." Your eyebrows knitted together. "But I... I... Did I overreact?" You were barely speaking audibly now. "But he told me that your HP was the thing keeping you alive!" Your eyebrows knitted together in anger. "He told me that if it dropped to zero, then I'd die... So why?" 

You pulled away from Flamia, but she didn't let you get too far. She was still holding your hands in hers, and she could clearly see the anger, frustration, and confusion flickering back and forth, fighting each other in your mind. "Tell me, do you think he'd hurt you like that unprompted?" She asked.

"Yes." You replied without a moment to spare. Then you stopped, pressed your lips into a thin line, and fixed your answer. "Maybe..?" Another pause and an awkward expression. "No?" 

Alright, Flamia realized you were much more confused than she thought you were. 

"Is there a reason why he hates me so much though?" You finally asked, your sad expression returning with a glance to the side. "He apparently hates me enough to attack me, but not his own bullies. I haven't laid a hand on him or Papyrus at all since arriving!" You snapped with a trembling frown. 

"Then would you like to know why he's so weary of humans?" 

"Yes!" You shouted immediately, taking your sweating hands away from Flamia at last to cross them over your chest. 

She didn't like that tone of yours, but understood that your emotions were likely to be a whirlwind in your mind. So, she stayed silent until your reigned in your frustration. Realizing she was waiting for you to calm down, you uncrossed your arms and felt yourself deflate a little. Guilt built in your chest and showed itself on your face. 

"Yeah... I'd like to know why he hates me so much." You whispered under your breath. 

Flamia sighed. "Well, first of all, Sans does not hate you." She explained. "He is simply very afraid of humans."

"I've noticed that." You whispered under your breath. 

"That's because of something that happened a few years ago." She paused, her glasses crunching together as if she was knitting her eyebrows. "A human, maybe a few years older than yourself, had fallen into the Underground.

"He was very violent. He hurt anyone he came across without ever hesitating. No one even got to ask why he'd done such a thing. It was quite tragic, and most of the Underground wishes to forget such a thing happening. The human managed to get past most of the Underground undetected, but the few who weren't so lucky as to avoid contact...

"It wasn't until he came across Hotland's lab that he was caught. Not very many monsters in the Underground knew how a human looked like, but when one of the guards from the lab saw him, they'd fought valiantly, but in the end, the guard died. The human rushed into the building, seeing as Hotland's lab takes quite a bit of space, and apparently humans cannot swim in magma. 

"There, he lashed out violently at anyone who came too close. Some battles resulting in monster dust coating his clothes. He hadn't known where he was going, and in the end, he had dove further into the lab, instead of getting out. 

"Near the bottom floors, Doctor Gaster... He encountered the human. Still reacting violently, he attacked Doctor, and their fight resulted in the scars that line Gaster's face today. But it was because Sans had been there during that final battle, with Papyrus who was only an infant at the time, that Sans is so afraid.

"I assure you, (Y/N)... He does not hate you."

When Flamia finished, she wore a sorrowful expression on her face, and somehow your hands had found themselves back in her warm palms. She watched your expression twist conflicted sadness. 

Your thoughts were running miles a minute. 

Yes, Sans was justified in being afraid of humans. Yes, he had every right to be afraid of you. Yes, he had every right to hate humans. But was Flamia right? Did he really not hate you? 

"He died." You finally realized. "And Gaster... Sans." 

Not only had Gaster been the one to end the teenage boy's life, but Sans had been right there throughout the entire battle, no doubt protecting Papyrus with his life. 

Flamia simply sat there watching as you processed everything. One by one, she could see the puzzle pieces click in your mind. You knew now, that Sans had not hated you without reason that first week. Although you had your suspicions that he simply was afraid, you never knew why. You never knew how deeply rooted that fear was. 

And now that you did, what were you going to do? 

"(Y/N)!" 

You snapped your hands out of Flamia's, pulling them close to your chest as you jumped out of your seat at the loud voice. The back door slammed open, snow sweeping into the warm kitchen and melting as soon as it got too close. The wind howled outside, but the pulsing blood in your ears were much louder as you stared at Sans's panting figure in the doorway. 

He still had streaks of blue tears down his white bone face, snow covering his clothes as Grillby's bright orange flames stood behind him, slowly melting it. Realizing as you continued to stare at each other with wide eyes, that he was not panting, but hiccupping, you could only watch as he took slow steps into the kitchen. As soon as he got three steps in though, you turned around and scrambled past Flamia, trying desperately to get away from him. 

It wasn't that you were afraid of him, or that you hated him, or that you didn't want to see him. It was just that you couldn't bare to scare him any more than you had already, simply by being here. The part of you that considered him a friend. 

Despite everything, his companionship filled you with determination and hope. 

Chapter Text

" ✌︎☹︎☹︎ 👌︎✌︎👎︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ ☜︎☠︎👎︎. "

"Wait!" He called out to you as your shoes scuffed against the wooden floors. "Wait! Don't - don't leave! please."

You were already making your way to the other kitchen door, your hand nearly on the door knob until you felt something crash against your back. Out of desperation, Sans had teleported across the room and landed right on top of you, wrapping his arms around your chest, trapping you and your arms against his ribcage. The two of you toppled over and onto the floor, where he held you down. He wasn't very physically strong, and he wasn't very heavy either, as he was only a skeleton, but he refused to use his blue magic on you to hold you down either.

He'd never use it on you again.

"Let go of me!" You cried, squirming in his grasp as you tried to wrench your hands free so you could shove him away.

"No!" He shouted back. "I'm sorry!" He said finally. "I'm sorry for using my magic on you. I'm sorry for hurting you back in Waterfall. I'm sorry for treating you like shit when you came here. I'm sorry for not being a good friend. I'm sorry for scaring you!"

"I'm not scared of you!" You protested, finally squeezing your right arm out of his hold. "I'm not scared of you! I'm not!"

You tried to pry him off of you again, pushing his skull away and wriggling in his grasp. "Then why are you running away!?" He asked, blue tears lining the bottoms of his closed eye sockets.

He refused to be deterred by your attempts at escape and only dug his skull deeper into your shoulder blade. "Why do you care!?"

"I don't know!" He cried back, still wrestling for you to stay still.

You stopped struggling, instead opting to glare at him with a frustrated and angry snarl from over your shoulder. "What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"I-I... i just don't know." He stared at you with his shaking eye lights, and a quivering frown, his voice low again. It seemed your shouting match finally stopped.

You watched as his eye lights finally met with yours before they darted away, almost looking ashamed. The two of you were still locked in an awkward position on the floor. His arms were still wrapped around your sides, your other hand still trapped. His grip on you still didn't let up, as if he was afraid you'd bolt the moment he let go. You were basically pinned down and he was on laying on top of you, but neither of you had the emotional capacity to even begin to feel embarrassed right now. There were a lot more important things to deal with than embarrassment.

"Get off of me, Sans." You said, resignedly. You weren't going to try and run anymore. Not when he was so desperately clinging to you like this.

He stiffened when you told him to get off, and there was a long silence before he finally began moving. You could hear the way his bones rattled as he slowly released you, pulling his arms away and sitting up on his kneecaps. Despite not having lungs, you could hear how his breath hitched before he held it in, like he was waiting for you to run until he couldn't catch up anymore.

You stood up slowly, brushing off the dirt on your pants before you held a hand out for him to take. Your eyes were clouded over with a sort of sadness that Sans had seen in the mirror before. You'd began giving up. You'd began loosing hope, because of him.

His bones had stopped rattling when he realized you weren't going to run, but when he realized that you'd given in to your fate, he couldn't help but feel selfish. He didn't want you to leave. He wanted you to stay and make him feel... feel safe.

He was pathetic. He was a hypocrite. He was... hopeless.

Hesitantly taking your hand, you pulled him to his feet. He was still shaky, but you walked past him and back to the break table, sitting on one of the seats.

"Flamia, Blaze, Grillby, could you leave for a minute?" You said, that dead look in your eyes never leaving.

The three fire monsters exchanged glances. They didn't really know how to react to that outburst you and Sans had, so they left the room with slow and quiet steps. Grillby moved away from the backdoor, and walked with his parents into the front of the restaurant. Giving the two of you one last concerned look, he left, walking past Sans and out the kitchen door.

"Get over here." Your voice was a whisper, and he could tell you were tired. Shoulders hunched together, and subtly shaking, you laid your elbows on the table.

Sans slowly made his way to the table, and as he was about to walk around you to take the seat across from you, your hand grabbed the sleeve of his sweater and pulled him down to sit beside you instead. He stared at you with wide eyes sockets, searching your expression for... well, for something, and he found that even with that tired sadness, there was a silent fondness.

For a long while, you and Sans sat at the table, saying absolutely nothing. He continued to fidget back and forth in his seat, not ever really holding your eye contact, if he ever met it, and you just continued to stare. You stared at him with that same expression. If you looked at him any longer like that, he'd probably find himself adopting it as well. (Which he would in the future.)

You were looking for something as you stared at Sans. You weren't quite sure what, but you knew that if you kept staring at him, searching him, then you would find what you were looking for, and maybe you'd stay. Maybe you'd stay in the Underground, just for him and Papyrus and Grillby. It was strange how just a few weeks ago, you'd only just met them, but here you were, debating whether or not to sacrifice... sacrifice what? What would you be giving up?

You didn't remember your time on the surface. You didn't know if it was inherently good or inherently bad. You didn't know if there was someone waiting for you or if there was a reason for returning to the surface. There was only this deep longing to return to the surface. So maybe if you had enough of a reason to, you could just shove that longing down. You could hold it in and stay here... if you had a reason to.

Maybe that's what you were searching for. A reason to stay. If that was the case, then why look for it in Sans? Why not Papyrus or Grillby? They'd been much kinder to you than Sans had been. So why him?

You watched and stared and looked, trying to make it past the barrier of his eye lights and maybe into his soul without actually seeing it. Maybe if you could just catch a glimpse of his real self - the one who joked and who loved his brother and his father and his best friend and who smiled genuinely - the child in him - the child he is... then you could find a reason to stay. Or rather, a way to cope, because you knew that there was very little chance of escaping the Underground, especially alone.

But you needed more from him.

You needed a reaction.

You needed emotion.

And so began the questioning.

"Sans how old are you?"

It was a weird way to start, but it was an easy question. It still puzzled him regardless.

"... twelve?"

"Is that an answer or a question?"

"twelve."

You just needed him to get comfortable talking to you again, even if the wounds from today were still bleeding.

"How much younger is Pap than you?"

"... six years younger."

He was still confused why you were asking these questions, mainly because he was convinced you were still hurting.

You were.

Then why did you wish to talk with him? Your tone didn't act like nothing had happened. He could still hear the tiredness and the pain, but...

"How long have you been friends with Grillby?"

"five years."

"Are you in sixth grade or seventh?"

"sixth."

"When's your birthday?"

"april first - why are you asking these questions?"

He'd finally asked his own question.

"Because you don't wanna talk about the elephant in the room."

"which is?"

"Why you even came running for me to come back at all... Why Grillby came to get you when he heard that I was leaving. Why you think I'd want to stay. Why you'd even care. Why would you even care!? You HATE me!"

You buried your face into your hands as you tried to get ahold of your emotions. Shit. This was the opposite of how you wanted this 'conversation' to go. Sans was the one who was supposed to be opening up emotionally, not you. Fuck.

Taking in the deepest breath you could muster, and exhaling loudly, you finally calmed your nerves again. Wiping away any oncoming tears, whether they were from confusion, frustration, sadness, or pain didn't matter. You looked Sans in the eye sockets, and held his gaze with determination flickering softly behind the glaze of sadness.

"Why do you hate me?" It came out as an unintentional whisper.

Sans's mind stalled for a solid thirty seconds. Hate you? Why would you think - no... No, you were right. You had every reason to believe he hated you. He thought that he hated you in the beginning too. So what changed? What happened? How had you reached this point?

And what could he say to tell you otherwise? He knew he didn't hate you now. He didn't think he ever truly hated you - did he? Sans didn't... He didn't really know. How was he supposed to explain that to you?

Well, he could start by telling you the truth.

"i never hated you."

His voice was barely a whisper.

"Then why'd you always push me away?"

Yours wasn't much louder.

"because i was afraid."

He'd always been dreadfully afraid.

"Afraid of what? Me?"

He had never been afraid of you, per say.

"afraid that you would be like everyone else."

But who was everyone else?

It didn't matter when you just weren't.

"i'm glad i was wrong though."

Neither of you knew what else to say. Everything that needed to be said had already been spoken. All that was left...

You stood from your seat, legs shaking. Sans hadn't moved a muscle, but it wasn't as if he'd had any, he only watched as you stared down at the table. You grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and hauled him onto his feet as well, wrapping him into a warm hug. You pressed your face into his shoulder and clung to him. He said nothing to you, only returning the hug in slow movements.

Nearly hearing the other's soul beat in their chest, you felt each other's determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☞︎✋︎☼︎💧︎❄︎ 💧︎❄︎☜︎🏱︎💧︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎☹︎🕈︎✌︎✡︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☟︎✌︎☼︎👎︎☜︎💧︎❄︎. "

The blizzard had calmed to a gentle snowfall. Although the Underground's caverns seemed a little darker, and night obviously cast over you, there was still a warm brightness in your eyes that contrasted against it. You and Sans had resulted to leaving Grillby's through the backdoor, regardless if there were any late-night patrons and not even bothering to notify the Flamesmen who were worrying over both of your emotional stability.

It would be alright, the two of you had calmed down, and settled on having a nice walk through town before having to head to Sans's home. After all, there were still more pressing questions you two needed to ask each other without the prying ears of those who understood the situation.

From the corner of your eyes, you could spot the familiar shimmering of a pulsating yellow star. It stood in front of a little box between two shops, floating above the box with an alluring glow that you couldn't take your eyes off of. Sans had noticed you staring at the box, but knew that your line of sight was angled just a little higher. Was there something on the wall on the side of the building or something?

You were a little unlucky, considering Sans was walking by your side, but closer to the star than you were. You'd need to cross over his path if you wanted to touch it, but that would require explaining why, and you knew for a fact that Sans would see through any of your half-hearted lies. He was too good at telling when other people were lying when he wasn't busy being overrun with paranoia.

You tried slowing down your pace to pass from behind him, but he always kept in time with you, and eventually you were only a few feet away from it, so there as no point trying to be discreet about it. You stopped in your tracks in front of the box and turned to it, passing right by a confused Sans to reach out and touch the star as casually as you could. Maybe you could convince him that it was nothing, and you were just curious about the box.

The moment you made contact, warmth and relief flooded your senses, a sigh escaping your mouth. You looked fondly at the words displayed in front of you.

" The gentle snow fall of the quaint little town fills you with DETERMINATION - and HOPE... Save? "

Before you selected the 'save' option, you took another look around you, seeing that the snowfall stopped in it's tracks, along with the few monsters who were chatting across the streets, walking home. Your eyes drifted to Sans, seeing him look at you, frozen, with a slightly confused expression. It was strange though, his eye lights seemed so much more alive than those of the other monsters across the streets.

You shook that thought out of your head and selected the 'save' button. " Snowdin Town - File Saved. "

You kneeled down to glance at the box, acting as if you were going to inspect it in the first place, before glancing to Sans. "What's thi-" You didn't even get to finish your sentence before Sans stared at you with wide eye sockets, the confusion from before completely gone.

"did you feel that?" He couldn't help but whisper out. "that... i... i don't know what it was but... it felt... cold."

You knew exactly what he was talking about, and you stared at him with wide eyes of your own before quickly turning away to look pointedly at the box in front of you again. "I don't know what you're talking about." You spoke quickly. "It's Snowdin, it's always cold here." You tried to joke.

"no, it's a different type of cold. it's like..." He trailed off, his bone brows knitting together in a frustrated confusion. This wasn't the first time he'd felt this sudden flash of frozen, but he never knew how to put it into words, and every time he tried, no one understood what he was trying to say. He glanced to you again, his own eye lights shrinking when he realized how fidgety you were. "you know what i'm talking about, don't you?"

You stayed silent and crouching, beginning to open the box with shaking hands.

"you do." He said as he stared at your shaking hands. "you know what i'm talking about! the whole place freezes, and it's like - like something covered your eyes in a wet towel and then pulls it away before - before you can even notice! but you know what i'm talking about, i know you do."

This response was probably a bad idea, but your curiosity needed to be satiated. "How do you know?"

Sans stared at you, a conflicted, unsure look on his face. "i... don't really know, i just know you know because no one's ever reacted like you have before."

Well, you couldn't fault him on that, he was right. "Sans, have you ever seen a star- no, no, of course not. I mean, a diamond shaped... yellow glowy-thingy?" That was probably the strangest way you could have put it, but it wasn't as if you could come up with a better explanation.

He knitted his bone brows together, staring at you with a suspicious spark in his eye lights. "no. why?"

"It's nothing." You said opening the box the rest of the way and looking inside to find a pair of gloves inside. Without thinking, you took it out and slipped it onto your hands. They were leather and pink, but fit snuggly and kept the cold out.

"no, it's something." Sans stared you down. "if you mentioned it, then it's definitely something."

Standing up you thought to yourself, staring intently at the box's lid as you closed it. You tried your best to ignore the soft pulsing of the yellow star right above it and debated whether or not to tell Sans. What would happen if he knew the truth? What would he do? What would he say? As far as you knew, no one was supposed to know what happened when the world froze to let you 'save'.

"If I tell you, don't freak out, ok?" You spoke softly.

"depends on what the hell you're about to tell me."

"I'm serious, Sans. I don't want you to flip out."

"ok, ok, i... i won't flip out."

You two stared at each other for a long while, just to be sure that neither of you was about to back out from your agreement. Then you spoke, "I'm the one stopping time."

"What the f-"

"You said you wouldn't flip out!" You shoved your now gloved hand over his teeth to try and muffle his curse, an agitated expression on your face; eye brows knitted together, eyes downcast, and a quivering frown. "Look, whatever's happening, it's not like I know how it works, I only know that I think I'm the one causing it, ok?"

He looked almost seething, but also seemed more confused than angry. "how in the hell-?" He spoke against your gloved hands.

"Like I said, I have no idea, it just... happens." You muttered, removing your hands. "I mean, I know what to do to make it happen, though."

"how do you make something like that happen? can you use magic or something?"

"No, no, I don't have magic or anything, but there's these... star looking things. They're yellow and they glow and if I touch it then it freezes time."

"but it just froze now and there's no star."

"None that you could see. I can see it and it's right here." You said pointing to the shimmering save point.

He stared confusedly at where you pointed before he glanced at you like you were crazy.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm being serious, it's right here, but you just can't see it."

"are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

The two of you stared each other down until Sans finally gave in. "ok." He mumbled. You were absolutely sure that was the first time he'd ever given you the benefit of the doubt, and you couldn't help but feel your chest swell with a little bit of hope.

. . .

As always a silence preceded the important conversations before either of you could finally muster up the courage to speak to one another. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, so to speak, but one that fogged over your minds as you watched your breath crystalize and escape from your mouth to form a cloud. Somehow, Sans was doing the same thing, and you wondered how he could be breathing without lungs, but chalked it up to the strange workings of magic.

Sans surely wouldn't start the vital conversation, especially since you figured he didn't know you knew anything about it, so you did. "Flamia told me about what happened." You began, shoving your hands deeper into your red jacket's pockets, the furred hood pulled over your head as the two of you stood at the side of the main road of Snowdin. "About your dad and his... scars."

You glanced to the side, possibly waiting for Sans to say something, but you received no words. Still, you could see his bones stiffen, and it almost seemed painful for him to stand straight.

"About the last human who fell..." Your voice kept growing quieter as you kept speaking, realizing how much more his bones clacked together when he stiffened. "About you and Pap-"

He took a sharp inhale and stopped looking at you immediately, pulling his own hood over his head to try and hide his face. "i don't - ... want to talk about this."

"Sans I wouldn't-"

"I know you wouldn't but-"

"No! Look, it's not ok, but that's ok." You gently pulled the sleeve of his sweater to guide him behind the closed shops so no one would hear or see how personal your conversation would get. "Flamia told me about the other human, but... I just don't get why you didn't. Why didn't you tell me? If you had, then maybe... I don't know, maybe-"

Sans met your eyes, "then it would have been easier to understand why i didn't trust you, right?" He had this sad, almost dull look in his eye lights.

The words didn't need to be said, the silence had answered for you.

You decided to change the subject. "Is that why you were awake that night?" You asked in a low whisper.

He knew what you were talking about. "yeah. i had a nightmare."

"About what?" You couldn't help but ask.

"that... that i was back in that lab again. that pap and dad were... that you... look, it was just a nightmare, ok?" He was struggling and desperately pulling at his sweater sleeves so you left it alone.

"Ok... but you know, since I'm staying in your room now..." You trailed off, nervously rubbing the back of your neck. "You can always talk to me about it. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you can wake me up and tell me about it... If it makes you feel any better." Red lightly dusted your cheeks, but it wasn't as if Sans had any idea humans did that when they were embarrassed, so you were lucky.

He stared at you with wide eye sockets for a solid minute, which caused you to squirm, before his gaze softened and a grin slowly made it's way to his face. "thanks, (y/n)." He said with a gentleness that caused your chest to squeeze in on itself. "and uh... if you ever need a non-existent ear, then you can wake me up too."

The two of you smiled at each other, "Friends." You held your hand out for him to shake. "C'mon, let's make it official before we change our minds again." You joked.

He let out a breathy chuckle. "yeah, friends." He took your hand in his and you gave each other a reassuring squeeze.

Quite honestly, your hands remained where they were, gently holding each others for a bit longer than what was considered normal. The warmth that you both basked in had distracted you, and by the time you realized what you both were doing, you jolted your hand away and shoved it in your pocket with mild embarrassment. Sans had stuffed his boney hand back into his own pockets as well, a light blue dusting his cheeks, and an awkward cough.

"let's uh... go home." He muttered, slowly shuffling over the snow with crunching footsteps.

You watched as he walked past you, your hand coming out of your pocket again just so you could stare at it. For some reason the slowly fading warmth filled you with a little bit of determination and hope.

Chapter Text

" 🕈︎✋︎❄︎☟︎ ☞︎☼︎✋︎☜︎☠︎👎︎💧︎ ☹︎✋︎😐︎☜︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎💧︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎⚐︎ ☠︎☜︎☜︎👎︎💧︎ ☜︎☠︎☜︎💣︎✋︎☜︎💧︎? "

By the time the two of you got back to Sans's home, you were making light-hearted jokes and chatter, the tears from earlier forgotten. The scars created by your time here in the Underground were deep, but they would heal and fade with time, you just needed to let them.

The two of you walked in through the front door subconsciously, forgetting that Papyrus and Gaster would be there in the living room waiting for you both.

"Where have you two been?" Gaster stood in front of the doorway, startling you as Sans had just opened the door with his skeleton key. You immediately stood behind him in hopes that he might provide some sort of barrier between you and the angry parent.

You were almost trembling at the sudden appearance of the man, and Sans could feel his soul clench in sympathy as he realized you were hiding behind him. "sorry, dad." Sans began, standing a little straighter and covering you behind him more. "something came up and (y/n) wanted their old jacket... flamia was a little busy so she couldn't get it for them. then there was the snowstorm so grillbz came to get me so (y/n) wouldn't have to walk alone."

Now, it wasn't entirely a lie, but Gaster knew his son well. If Sans was going to leave things out of the truth, then it was because he knew that the other details would get him in trouble. What stopped the scientist from pressing on was how he subconsciously protected you from him. Sans's hands were out of his pockets, one scratching the back of his skull, and the other held out by his side stiffly, blocking what would have been the easiest pathway to you.

Gaster narrowed his eye sockets at the two of you when he realized what his son was doing. What really happened?

Gaster took a step to the side, allowing the two of you to pass. "Strike one, Sans." He spoke lowly, and although his words were foreboding, his expression was saddened, if not a little disappointed.

With the single warning, Sans took you by the hand and hurriedly rushed up the stairs with you in tow. The two of you would have rushed right into his room if it wasn't for the fact that Papyrus blocked the way with shining eyes that begged you to stay.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT, HUMAN?" Papyrus asked with a trembling frown.

Both you and Sans stopped in your tracks, sweat beginning to form on Sans's skull as the two of you glanced between Papyrus, who was at the top of the steps, and Gaster, who was still downstairs.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine Paps." You stuttered out.

"GREAT! THAT MEANS WE CAN DO THE PUZZLES IN MY ROOM RIGHT?" He immediately turned from worried to ecstatic, grabbing your other gloved hand.

Glancing towards the skeleton beside you, Sans gave you a subtle nod, and before you knew it, all three of you were in Papyrus's room. He was a little ball of energy bouncing around and bringing out his favorite puzzles, the bright grin seeming forever plastered on his face. Although you and Sans were both a little tense from their father's words, Papyrus always brightened your days. Even when Sans had been cruel, Papyrus always remained kind.

"What are we doing first?" You asked, welcoming the break that his company came with.

"JUNIOR JUMBLE!" He cried as he triumphantly held out pages he had just found. "I SAVED THEM FROM THIS WHOLE WEEK SO WE COULD DO THEM!" He beamed.

"Thanks, Papyrus." You said with a warm smile. "Now, let's get down to business and do these puzzles!" No matter what happened, Papyrus was always the one who welcomed you with open arms.

Sans was grateful for you cooperation, especially with how tired the two of you were after all those emotional exchanges. Still, you were willing to give more energy for his little brother's happiness. It warmed his soul in a strange way, but shook the thought away when Papyrus shoved a puzzle in his hands as well, a pen being slid his way.

Laying down on the floor, the three of you solved the blank puzzles. You and Sans breezed through yours quite quickly, considering that Sans was correct, they were for babybones, but Papyrus was just that in your eyes. He was still just a babybones, and both of you would be damned before letting him come to harm.

So the two of you bantered back and forth, throwing puns and jokes out into the open as Papyrus groaned and complained about your terrible jokes.

"What's a four letter word for frozen water?"

"snow."

"Thanks."

"snow problem."

A round of snickers came from the two of you and Papyrus resisted the urge to bang his skull against the floor.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO SIT HERE AND LISTEN TO YOUR BAD JOKES? I JUST WANTED TO DO PUZZLES!"

"Sorry, Papyrus." You noticed the grin that was unmistakably on his face and couldn't help but smirk yourself. "But you don't seem very upset about it."

"yeah pap, it looks like we really tickled your funny bone." Sans poked his little brother's spine to make him squirm at the ticklish sensation.

"You already used that one."

"YOU ALREADY USED THAT ONE!"

The two of you spoke together and Sans could only shrug. "tough crowd."

"Nah, just a bad comedian." You snickered before he gave you a little shove with his socked foot.

"oh yeah? well do you have any better jokes?" He challenged.

You sat up, a certain mischievous sparkle in your eyes as the flickered to Papyrus. "Oh yeah definitely."

"WAIT! NO! HOLD ON!" Papyrus knew where this was going, but it was too late to stop you now.

"C'mon Papyrus, there's no skin off my nose. Why the long skull? Am I rubbing your bones the wrong way?" You kicked your feet back and forth leisurely, knowing full well that you weren't making any sense.

You could hear Papyrus's teeth grit together. "THOSE WERE THE. WORST. JOKES. I'VE EVER. HEARD." He laid his face into the carpet, arms spread out before him. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?"

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see his teeth quirk up into a smile. You nor Sans could hold back the glee from his denial; the three of you laughed, Papyrus begrudgingly, but laughing nonetheless.

This was what it meant to be a child.

+

+

+

The three of you had played together for the rest of the day, which had amounted to about 4 straight hours in total, before dinner. It was the first time you'd gone downstairs to have dinner with them since Wednesday, but you felt a lot safer with Sans on your side, and Papyrus distracting you from facing his father. Gaster also spared you from an interaction with himself as some sort of silent mercy.

It went as smooth as it could have gone with trauma, to say the least, but now it was time to test the limits of something else.

"do you want to sleep up here?" Sans off-handedly gestured to his bed. "it's probably not... comfortable for you to sleep on the floor."

Had the two of you not had that heart to heart earlier this afternoon, you would have looked at him strangely. Instead, you stared at him with a cheeky smile.

Nudging him with your elbow, you said "Looks like you're finally warming up to me."

He rolled his eye lights and shoved you toward his bed and the two of you climbed on. You didn't even bother teasing him about the closeness. Sans's clothes and blanket weren't the only thing that was terribly comfortable. You sunk into his plush bed and hummed in content.

"I can't believe you've been hogging this to yourself for the whole time." Your voice was muffled through the bedsheets.

Sans flopped down beside you, shoving you slightly to make room for himself. Both of you were surprised at how familiar you two were becoming. Although, a few traumatic experiences did tend to speed up the process.

"well, you never asked." He teased with a tired smile. The two of you were exhausted from the day's turmoil. The events would be enough to wear down an adult, so of course the two of you needed a little peace.

"... Well, I guess I never thought you'd actually say yes." You kept your face huddled into the pillow, a little embarrassed by your own confession.

"it was a good thing i was the one to ask then, huh?"

The two of you chuckled, "Yeah, I guess so."

There was another silence between the two of you. Luckily it wasn't as awkward as it could have been, but even as you were slowly drifting to sleep, you couldn't help but realize that this may have been the first time you weren't afraid. You weren't scared to fall asleep. You had a friend to watch your back.

"did you mean it?" Sans spoke up suddenly, reminding you to pull your face out of the pillow before you suffocated. "when you said you would... protect me and papyrus?"

It was almost impossible to miss the blue magic dusting his cheekbones when they provided light in the dark room. "Yeah, I do." Shifting on the bed and curling beneath a different blanket than Sans, you turned to look at him, his white eye lights bright in the dead of night.

"then i mean what i said too." He took a shaky breath; you could hear it from where you laid. "i won't let anything happen to you." He had been taking short glances at you the entire time, but now the two of you stared at each other.

You couldn't help but feel touched, and a part of you knew that he did too. You had a mutual agreement - and it meant more now that you knew more about each other. Still, did he even know anything about you?

Did you know anything about you?

"... but i need to know what happened with you and my dad." He finally said. You could see the anxiety on his expression - his eye sockets were a far darker void than the room and it's crystal nightlight in the corner, his eye lights were fuzzy around the edges, but closer to tears than joy. "please - i just..." He was at a loss for words.

But you thought you knew what he meant. "You're scared, right?" You asked, already knowing the answer. "That... he's not as great as you think?" He didn't reply, but with a sigh, you finally caved.

It wasn't easy mustering up the courage - it had taken more than a few moments. Minutes passed by, and the only thing keeping you from thinking he was asleep was the way his eye lights would drift back to you patiently. Clutching the blankets, you spoke.

"He hurt me." You began. "It... was going fine... I think. At first, he pulled out a book and started explaining stuff to me. How you were all trapped here. How my soul could get you guys out... How mine was just stronger than normal ones because of the color. How a human soul was a thousand times stronger than a monster's... but I still don't understand." You huffed, glaring at the ceiling with knitted eyebrows and a frown that was more angry than anything else. 

"I still don't understand why he needed to take a... 'sample'. He stuck a damn needle into my soul, Sans." You finally turned to look at him again, little tears of frustration pricking the corners of your eyes. "And I still don't get why! Why couldn't he have done it in any other way? That's why I hate your dumb blue magic! I tried to run, but he used it on me before I could - I! - "

You shoved your hands into your face, a muffled scream coming out of your mouth as you tried to keep your emotion quieter, in fear of waking the others. Your breathing was ragged, tears freely rolling down your face now, despite how you tried to turn away... And he placed a hand on your shoulder, his bone brows knitting together as he stared at you with wavering eye lights. 

... you didn't need to handle this alone anymore. 

Turning to face him, you pulled the blanket over your head and he hugged you through it. You could sob and wail into the blanket as you wished. Both he and it would provide you with comfort in this momentary peace. 

Finally telling someone - telling Sans, filled you with determination and hope. 

Chapter Text

" ✌☠👎 ✌❄ ❄☟☜ ☜☠👎 ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆☼ ☹✋☞☜📪 🕈✋☹☹ ✡⚐🕆 💧❄✋☹☹ ☼☜💣☜💣👌☜☼ ❄☟☜ ✌👍❄💧 ⚐☞ 👍☼🕆☜☹❄✡ ✋ 👎✋👎 ? "

You woke up exhausted. 

Last night had definitely taken a toll on your mental state to say the least. It was like patching up any other wound, honestly. It stung as if you had finally brushed it off to clean it, but after wrapping it up, it could finally heal with time. At least you managed to sleep through the night without incident, despite Sans' loud snores. 

"quit hoggin' the blanket." Ah, it seems he was awake. 

You lifted your head off the plush of the pillow and stared at his smug grin with a deadpan expression. You didn't bother saying anything to refute his teasing, you just smirked as your yanked both blankets and cocooned yourself in them. 

"hey!" He finally sat up and tried to wrestle you for one of them, but you continued to wrap yourself tighter. By the time he had finally wrestled the edge of one of them from your grasp, he gave a quick tug, and before you knew it, you were sprawled on the floor, one leg on the edge of the bed, and the rest of your body on the floor. 

The second blanket had been yanked from your grasp and slowly slid down the edge of the bed and onto your face. As soon as you pulled it off, the two of you burst into fits of laughter. You might have woke up with a heavy heart, but your horseplay lifted your spirits in record time. 

Soon enough, the two of you scrambled to get ready for the day, Sans getting ready for school, and you suiting up to apologize to the fire elemental family for just up and leaving the other night. Hopefully you two didn't worry them after leaving the restaurant once you finished talking out some of your issues. Sans would stop by during lunch to apologize for himself as well...

Although, the two of you didn't exactly expect for your plans to be disrupted at breakfast once again. 

"both of us..?" Sans clutched the fork in his hand a little tighter, the piece of syrupy pancake flopping back down onto his plate as he sat beside you. "you want both of us to go with you to the lab today?" 

As subtly as you could, which honestly didn't do you much good anyways considering Gaster's eye lights trailed not far behind, you reached under the table to clutch the edge of Sans' sweater. Your grip was vice-like, and your knuckles began to turn white as your hands trembled. 

You didn't dare take another bite in fear that you may just upend the food you had already eaten. 

"Yes." Gaster replied. "I've already called the school telling them you'd be absent." He didn't like to force Sans into these things so soon, but it was unlikely you'd come back to the lab with him without a fight. Neither you nor Sans said anything in response, only sharing a worried glance before Gaster stood to clean up breakfast, leaving the two of you and Papyrus to drown in the heavy atmosphere. 

+

+

+

You stayed always within arm's reach of Sans - and at some point in your walk through the lab, Sans took your hand to hold. It was unexpected but comforting, considering the calculating stares the two of you got as you inched closer to him. By the time the three of you reached the wretched test room, you and Sans were shoulder to shoulder, and Gaster could see that separating you two would be ill-advised. Especially with the uncharacteristic protectiveness that his son had over you lately. 

Gaster gestured for the two of you to hop onto the same slab of metal you had been pinned to last time before turning to grab his scanners and other tools. As soon as he took his eye lights off of the two of you, Sans could see how you shook, tears rimming the bottoms of your eyes. Still, he pulled you up onto the flat surface, hoping that his tightening grip on your hand didn't convey his own nervousness. His father wouldn't hurt you if Sans was here with you... right? 

Thankfully he was correct. 

The rest of the tests you had done were for soul strength and stamina, and despite the discomfort that came from some tests, Gaster never laid a hand on you, especially not when he saw the way you clung to his son. Eventually though, he heard you and Sans whispering back and forth. 

"it's ok - i can ask for you." 

"I - are you sure? What if you get in trouble?" 

"don't worry, i've had talks about it with my dad before, everything will be fine." 

"What is it you two? Just spit it out," Gaster interrupted, dread and frustration settling in as Sans shifted to sit in front of you. 

"dad, how is their soul supposed to help break the barrier if we don't have enough to break the barrier..?" With that the two children knew, they needed seven souls... How could they make do with... one? 

For a moment, the scientist thought hard on how to answer their question. There were so many more questions to ask than there were answers to those questions. He himself asked that same one, but as much as he thought it to be difficult - if not impossible - he was nearly wracked with grief every time he thought of Asgore needing to kill seven humans instead. So they... would make the most of what was at their disposal. 

He pulled one of the rolling chairs forward, floating the same book that you had read before down from a shelf before opening it and flipping idly through some pages. "From what we know, humans have seven different traits at their core. I've briefly read - perhaps in one or two passages - that traits could meld with time. Someone's experiences - usually traumatic ones - will affect their core soul traits. Someone patient will turn restless and eager to enact their will because their sloth caused harm. Someone kind will turn vengeful because someone else crossed a line they shouldn't have..." 

Gaster had finally settled on a page to stare at. "Ironically, the changing of traits actually weakens their souls. It goes against what they were born with and because more often than not, was caused by trauma, causes cracks and scars on souls. Monsters aren't as resilient. We don't have that same determination, nor the traits to shift to as a defense mechanism. If we're hurt too badly by trauma, then we fall down and die." 

He pointed to you, eyelights cold and unwavering - a sight foreign to his son. "Not only do you have the strongest trait of the seven, but you are young and have not yet had your soul's defense mechanism shift your soul color. Meaning this is the strongest type of soul you're going to get... Aside from ones that are also completely flawless." He himself had caused a scar on your soul already after all. 

"But how does one soul amount to seven?" You suddenly spoke up, still gripping Sans' hand tightly. "How does mine even-" 

"It doesn't." Gaster interrupted you, an exasperated sigh falling from his mouth. He'd known it doesn't - and yet he kept grasping at straws, trying to force it to be... "It doesn't... But it might... Measure up to two." If he forced it to... 

Just... one less life to be taken.

Just as you opened your mouth to ask another question, he held up his hollow hand to stop you, waving it dismissively. "That's enough questions for now..." He sounded tired... exhausted by the weight he was carrying on his shoulders. "We'll continue the tests." 

You shifted your grip on Sans' hand again, turning to look at your friend with an expression that pained his soul. 

You'd already come to terms with your pre-determined fate...

+

+

+

Eagerly tipping the bowl of broccoli and cheddar soup up past his teeth and sipping the last of its contents, Papyrus grinned as he rushed the empty dish to the back of Grillby's, where he placed it in the sink. Although before he could run outside to play with Grillby, Blaze stopped him in his tracks with a laugh. 

"Whoa there, sparky!" He called Papyrus that often. "Here, let me just-" He took a towel off of one of his many apron pockets and used it to wipe the excess contents on Papyrus' face. "There you go, brand new." 

"THANK YOU MR. BLAZE!" 

"'Course, it's no problem. Hey! I got an idea!" He leaned down with a grin to the boy who beamed at him just as brightly. "Why don't you head up to Waterfall with me? I gotta go pick up a shipment of crab apples that Captain - er... Mr. Gerson has. What do you say?" 

Papyrus gasped, clasping his hands together as sparkles appeared in his eye sockets. "YES PLEASE!" Anything to explore a little more! Last time you and Sans had gone without him - so now he was going to go without you two! And with Mr. Blaze! "IS GRILLBY GOING TO COME?" 

"Ehh, afraid not. He's gotta help his mom with running this place while I head out." Blaze pulled the apron off from around his neck and untied the back, hanging it up. "Why don't you collect your stuff and meet me out front in a couple minutes and we can head out?" 

"YES, SIR!" Papyrus didn't waste any time, rushing to shove anything he'd pulled out of his backpack back inside and running out the door like a bone bullet of his own. Blaze wasn't too far behind, holding his hand out to Papyrus to hold as he walked the two of them to Waterfall. 

It was always fun for Papyrus to stay with Mr. Blaze. Whenever Sans and Grillby were too caught up in their own games, and if Papyrus didn't feel like playing them, he would run to the fire elemental's father. Something always felt comfortable about him - the two of them were so similar after all - always moving a mile a minute or talking excitedly about whatever put them into a tizzy in the first place. 

It didn't take them too long to get through most of waterfall - the Underground was never very big - but Papyrus didn't expect to see another kid, perhaps a few years older than him, beating a dummy with a stick and screaming random battle cries. Mr. Blaze didn't seem to bat an eye at it, even when Papyrus looked up to see what the adult thought of the feral child. Instead, the elemental waved hello. 

"Good afternoon, 'Dyne!" He greeted. "Is your grandpa in?" 

The blue fish monster stopped mid-swing of her weapon and lit up when she saw Blaze, waving a happy hello back and pointing inside the turtle shell shaped house behind her. "Yeah! He's in the back looking through some boxes!" 

"Sweet!" He looked down at the skeleton monster, watching as he stared at the beaten up dummy with wide eye sockets. "What do you say, Paps? You wanna play with Undyne for a little bit while I go talk to Mr. Gerson?" 

"YES!" He answered immediately, eagerly jumping on the tips of his toes and rushing forward to meet the red-haired girl. "IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU, I'M PAPYRUS!!" He shouted, even more excited than he usually was. 

She looked him up and down for a moment, staring at him with an intense gaze, but he didn't flinch, even when she began to circle him. "I'm Undyne!" She finally returned his loud volume back to him, crossing her arms and grinning wide. "You seem sturdy enough. How's about you come with me to hunt the human I saw a while ago?" 

"OH! A HUMAN? WERE THEY WEARING A RED JACKET? I KNOW THAT ONE! THEY'RE STAYING WITH ME!" He declared triumphantly. 

"What." The fish monster stared at him, deadpanning and a finger going into her ear to clean it out to make sure she wasn't hearing things. "What did you say?" 

"A HUMAN WITH A RED JACKET?" Papyrus tilted his skull to one side. "THAT'S THE ONLY HUMAN I'VE HEARD ABOUT. YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FIND THEM? AND I KNOW WHERE TO FIND THEM!" 

"Really?" She grinned, her teeth sharp and gleaming, especially at the ends as they twitched up. "That's perfect! Why don't you take me to them right now-" 

"I CAN'T. I HAVE TO STAY WITH BLAZE TODAY." He said matter-of-factly. "AND THEY'RE TOO BUSY TO PLAY TODAY. THEY'RE WITH MY DAD!" 

She groaned in frustration, running her hand down her face as she eyed Papyrus' oblivious expression. Just a permanent grin on his little skull. "Well, then when can I get to them?" Gerson wouldn't believe his eyes after she brings them back! Especially not after he finds out that someone was hiding them! 

"HMM... GASP!" Did he just say 'gasp'? "YOU COULD COME OVER FOR A PLAYDATE!" Papyrus clapped. "I HAVE DOZENS OF PUZZLES FOR US TO DO! WE COULD DO THEM TOGETHER!" 

"I don't really do puzzles..." She muttered. "There's no time for them in my sparring schedule." And there would be no time to do puzzles with him if she spent her time in an encounter with you. 

"THEN WE CAN SPAR!" 

"There's no way a little kid like you could keep up with me!" 

"YES I CAN! MY BROTHER SAYS MY BULLET PATTERNS ARE VERY COOL!" 

"Prove it then!" Well, at least she would be able to see just how sturdy this Papyrus kid was. 

Even in an encounter, Papyrus' bullet patterns were so predictable Undyne could deflect them all with her spear. And it wasn't even that Papyrus could dodge hers, but that he tanked most of them - all until the two off them were called out of the encounter. 

"Papyrus!" 

"Undyne!" 

The two of them quickly quit the encounter, looking to their guardians. 

"Papyrus, it's time to head out!" Blaze waved to the skeleton child with one hand still on the crates of crab apples that were stacked in his arms. "Did you two have fun sparring?" 

"I hope Undyne went easy on you, hahaha!" Gerson laughed. "I know she can be a little too eager to win sometimes." 

"YES, IT WAS VERY FUN!" Papyrus piped up. Despite that he was the one who was obviously losing, he didn't seem perturbed at all. In fact, he looked like he had barely taken any damage from her bullets at all! "SHE DEFLECTED ALL OF MY BULLETS, IT WAS SO COOL!" 

It was... cool?

Gerson gave another laugh, coming up to Papyrus to give his skull a playful pat. "I'm glad you two had fun!" 

"U-uh!" Undyne spoke up, seeing her chance. "Can we do it again later?" She spoke loudly, eyes wide, fishy scales sweating a bit. 

Gerson narrowed his eyes at her, knowing the smell of her nervousness anywhere. She was trying to pull something behind his back, and he wasn't too keen on finding out what trouble she was planning to get into. "Undyne-" 

"RIGHT! UNDYNE AND I WANTED TO DO A PLAY DATE SOON!" Papyrus rushed up to Gerson with shiny eye sockets and clasped hands. "CAN SHE PLEASE COME TO SNOWDIN SOMETIME TO SPAR WITH ME AND DO PUZZLES? MY BROTHER HAS A NEW FRIEND NOW AND WE HARDLY PLAY TOGETHER ANYMORE." He bat his eye sockets at Gerson. 

Wait... 

Gerson looked back and forth between Blaze and the small skeleton child, Blaze only shrugging and chuckling at Papyrus' eagerness. "Well... you'll have to ask your own dad first, but..." He looked to Blaze again, and since he gave no objection, Gerson sighed. "Fine, if Undyne's willin', then heh, why the hell not?" 

"YAYYY!" Papyrus jumped up and down, hurrying to Undyne's side before he gave her a little wink and a smug grin. "NOW YOU CAN COME AND VISIT SANS, HIS FRIEND, AND I! I KNOW WE'LL ALL GET ALONG WONDERFULLY. WON'T WE?" 

Wait, wait, wait - what was going on? What was this kid doing? He was planning something, and Undyne had no idea what... but, well... What was Papyrus supposed to do? He was predictable - even his bullet patterns were. There was no way he could have anything planned that she couldn't handle. 

She would find you, and she would capture you, and bring you back to Gerson to show that she was ready to be trained to be in the Royal Guard! She would help get all of the monsters out of the Underground. 

Papyrus' eager wave goodbye and the idea of catching you in Snowdin soon filled her with determination.