Work Text:
Sans lay down in the middle of Snowdin, letting the snow fall onto his face. Passerbys were questioning whether they had to bring him to the asylum or not, but he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was lie down there forever, letting the blankets of snow bury him until he just disappeared.
Yeah, disappeared. He thought. How blissful would it be for him to vanish from the underground like a speck of dust? Tears fell down his face, but he didn’t care, the falling snow covered his tears. Only he knew that there was water sliding down his face.
His bones were beginning to get colder. Sighing blissfully, he closed his eyes, prepared to let the snow cover him.
But then, a warmth spread over his body. Had he died and went to hell? He opened his eyes, only to see a familiar pair of glasses staring back at him.
“...grillby?”
“...what the hell are you doing, Sans?” Grillby stood above him. His stoic face betrayed no sign of emotion, but Sans could sense his worry.
“...heh!” Sans forced out a laugh from the unfathomably deep depths of his hollow soul, “i’m chillin. get it?”
Grillby sighed. “What’s wrong?”
“wrong?” Sans said, pretending to shrug it off, “nothing’s wrong.” Internally, he was crying, “Save me, Grillby! Help me!” But he couldn’t say that out loud. There seemed to be a barrier around his soul which forbade him from expressing his deepest, darkest well of emotions.
Grillby was silent for a moment, then shook his head. For a moment, Sans saw a trace of sadness beneath those glasses. “No, Sans. From the troubled look in your sable eyes… yes… I can see… you are deeply troubled.”
His words shook Sans as if there was an earthquake beneath him. Like his whole world was crumbling down. Or like the time Undyne shook Papyrus because he told her he had a picture of Alphys wearing a dress and nearly killed him.
Grillby’s words were like a light in a dark, dark pit that was Sans’ life. Finally, there was someone who saw… him. The skeleton underneath the smiling, joking mask.
Grillby picked him up with ease.
“Now then, let’s go inside, shall we?”
“...yes, senpai.” Sans couldn’t help but whisper.
The 2 of them head inside the warmth of the bar, but nothing was warmer than Grillby’s kindness.