Chapter Text
"So, before our next meeting I would like you to make a new friend and try to meet with them at least once.” you groan and scowl, you hated this assignment. ”This time I will require this off you, no coming up with silly excuses. It will be good for you to expand your social circle, Miss Moore." said Dr.Turner as he finishes writing in his papers. You really hated this man, you knew he would do something to make your life even harder if you didn’t follow through this time. “Okay.” you say quietly. Ever since your accident, you have hated to be touched by other humans. Just being close to someone out in public that you didn’t know could be enough to trigger a full-blown panic attack. Didn’t help much that your stupid therapist required you to take the bus to these appointments.
Got to make new friend, go out with new friend, you repeated a few times in your head. You had a bit of an issue with remembering things after the accident, especially smaller things or things you didn’t want to do. Like some of the stupid assignments the doctor gave you. He knew that was no longer the case since your memory had improved a lot the last year. So, no more faking it, you sighed to yourself. You really hated this, he was always so pushy and didn’t seem to understand how hard some of these things where to do.
“Now what was it that I asked you to do this time Miss Moore?” you looked up at him annoyed, you hated when he did that. He always had such a smug expression on his face like he knew what this did to you and found some pleasure in your annoyance.
“To make a new friend and go out somewhere with them” you said has you rolled your eyes and huffed. You started to get up as you knew your appointment was done. As always, he would thank you for a great appointment and telling you to get a new appointment set up in a months' time. He would reach out his hand to shake yours but as always you would just ignore it and walk away. Sometimes he would make you shake his hands but luckily, he let it go this time.
You sighed for the hundredth time the last hour, these appointments really drained you. Therapy in its self wasn’t bad, you just really hated the arrogant, know it all attitude Dr. Turner has. He just really rubbed you the wrong way, but he was the only therapist that woman would accept you to have. Part of the deal.
You noticed the tense and awkward air as you entered the reception/waiting area. Some people were looking away but as you followed a few eyes you saw that they were all looking at a monster. A skeleton monster to be precise, the first thing you noticed was how big he was. Then you noticed how he didn’t look like a human skeleton, the bones that you could see was thicker than a human. He was wearing a blue hoodie that looked so soft, over cream coloured turtleneck, some black basket shorts and..... is that fluffy pink house slippers? You wish you had the means to wear that outside, but you knew your therapist would throw a fit if you did. You realized then why everyone was staring at him, you guessed it was a him, A giant hole on the left side of his skull, you didn’t notice it at first as he was looking to the side. He had noticed your staring and was looking back, you saw that only the left socket had a tiny red pinprick, which you guessed was his eye. He looked away, and all you could think about was how he looked like a scared cat. He was fidgeting with his fingers, or whatever those finger bones are called.
You reached up your hand to your head and felt the scar you had at your scalp, following it, feeling the metal plate you had in your head. He was like you, missing a part of the scalp, only he couldn’t hide his scars like you could. You know what it’s like to be started at because of your scars. It took a long time for your hair to grow back. Feeling sorry for the poor guy you looked around and noticed that close by you sat Timothy. He was a bit of a nut job, but you knew exactly how to rile him up and figured he would be a good distraction. Giving everyone something else to focus on.
So you shuffled closer to him and under your breath you whispered, “we are watching you Timmy boy.” You quickly shuffled away and watched as he stood up. He took off his sandal and started yelling for whoever is watching him to come forth. The workers here know of Timothys episodes very well and they all started to focus on him to get him to calm down. Something you knew would take a while. So now everyone's attention was on him.
You smiled to yourself and went over to the receptionist to get a new appointment sorted. They looked a bit annoyed with you, probably noticed what you did. Not the first time this has happened. Once that was sorted out you looked at the clock and knew there was no way you would be able to reach the next bus home, sighing to yourself you looked around the waiting area trying to decide where to sit.
You noticed how wide a birth everyone gave the skeleton monster. He seemed to have calmed down a bit but still seemed stressed. You knew you didn’t want to sit close to any humans as you already could feel your skin prickling. Now you could sit somewhere in the middle, but the chance of a human sitting next to you there was big. So maybe, just maybe sitting next to the skeleton monster would be ok.
As you were considering your options someone walked by you and clipped your shoulder, making you bristle. It felt like something was crawling under your skin where they touched you. Jerk didn’t even apologize. You needed to get some distance between the other humans in the room. So you took a deep breath and walked over to the monster, you stopped next to him, it took a few seconds but then he looked up at you.
“M-may I sit next to you sir, I-if that’s okay with you that is?” You fidgeted with the sleeve of your sweater as you asked, keeping eye (eyelight?) contact with him. His one eye seemed to dilate and you got the distinct feeling that he was surprised, not that you really knew how to read a skeletons expressions. Stars he was tall, you were standing next to him and he was barley shorter than you.
“... sure...” he said with such a deep baritone voice it gave you goosebumps. Apparently, you had a voice kink, because holy cupcake was that a sexy voice. You found yourself blushing before you gave him a thanks as you sat down on his left side. You were surprised to find that you really didn’t care about being this close to the monster. You would always start to itch when you were forced to sit so close to humans. You found his presence oddly comforting. Out of the corner of your eye you could see his shoulders sinking slightly.
“thanks...” he said after a bit of silence startling you, looking up at him you noticed he was looking at you. “For w-what?” you asked all confused, what did you do again?
“for getting them... to look away... the distraction earlier...” His words came out slowly and deliberate, like he was struggling getting them out. You waited for him to finish what he was saying, knowing full well how it feels to have trouble saying what you’re thinking.
“O-oh that. Yeah, umm, not a p-problem. I know how hard it is to have p-people staring at you because of y-your scars. Besides Tomothy had it coming.” You brough your legs up on the chair seat and hugged your knees as you looked at the door the assistants had dragged him through. “L-last month he deliberately t-trig...trigrd.” you sighed, took a deep breath, of all the word for your brain to lock up on.” he t-trigged a panic a-attack. T-the worst one I've had in a few months. Set me b-back quite a bit too. Pain in the ass that manic asshole.“ the last part you mumbled quietly to yourself.
A quiet chuckle came from next to you and you looked up at him, head still resting on your knees. You noticed the corners of his mouth seemed to be turned up just a tad bit. You smiled as well.
“why did he... react like that from your... comment?”
“He b-believes a secret organization is after him because he a-apparently knows a big world changing secret so they need to s-silence him. Thinks he is actually someone important. Normally he wears a tin foil hat so they can’t listen to his thoughts or track him from a satellite or something stupid like that.” you giggled and were pretty proud of yourself for being able to say all that without much of a stutter. You’re feeling rather comfortable in this giant's presence, you haven’t felt this calm in someone presence in a long, long time.
A small chuckle again, you noticed he looked you over, it didn’t feel prying like it does when humans does it. It felt curious, he furrowed his brow bone(?) slightly, how does that eve work?
“i don’t see... any visible scars on you....” he seemed to realize he was staring and looked away mumbling a quiet sorry. You looked at him as he seemed to want to disappear into his hood.
You couldn’t help but think how cute this big guy was. Smiling softly you looked at him, “It’s not very visible because my hair grew out. See here,” you brought your hand up and lifted the hair on the right side of your head up and parted it slightly, showing a scar going from your ear up to your hairline, where it splits, going past your ear one way and along your hairline up to the middle of your forehead. His eye dilated as he looked at your scar, once seen you could see how jagged it looked. Not a fresh scar, but also not a very old one.
He lifted his hand, which was probably bigger then your face, and he lightly traced the scar. Tensing you expected to react how you usually react when someone touches you, but nothing happened. You almost couldn’t believe how gentle this giant was. He probably could easily crush your skull with just one hand.
You didn’t flinch or move away, your skin didn’t feel like something was crawling under it. You felt calm, no panic, no need to ger away, just calm. His finger traced down your hair line and slightly moved past the scar and onto your scalp. He paused, moved his finger back and then forward again. You could see his brows furrow in confusion. Then you realized he was feeling the slight bump between your skull and the sheet of metal keeping your brain in place. You giggled slightly noticing you were blushing slightly.
At your giggle he seemed to realize what he was doing, he quickly moved his hand away and you watched in amusement as a blue tinge slightly coloured his cheeks as he looked away. Was that a blush? Skeletons can blush? You giggled again, stars, how was this man so cute?
“W-what you felt there was the transition between my own skull and a thin metal sheet.”
“what?” He looked at you shocked, like he couldn’t quite believe what you just said. You couldn’t help but giggle a bit more.
“Car a-accident, got a big portion of my skull crushed. It was pretty bad, they couldn’t save the fragments, so in order to protect my brain they added a sheet of medical metal of some sort to act as my skull. Never managed to r-remember the actual name of it.”
He looked at your head, you couldn’t quite read his expression, his eye light expanding and contracting as he seemed to think over what you said. You know from personal experience how hard it could be to process new information so you just quietly observed him as you patently waited for his reaction.
“heh, that’s... that’s quite something.... so you have metal... in your head?”
“Yup, a bit of a metal head here.” you softly knocked your knuckles against the metal, giggled and felt your heart soar when he chuckled along with you. Then like a bolt of lightning you remembered you had yet to introduce yourself.
“Oh shit! I totally forgot, how rude of me.“ he jumped a bit at your sudden outburst, with your feet back on the floor, you turned to face him more. “I’m so sorry sir, I f-forgot to introduce myself. My name is (y/n).” You reached your hand out for a handshake, something you have never willingly done before, let alone be the first one to ask.
He looked at you face and then at your hand, you were starting to feel like you did something weird, didn’t monsters great people like this? Oh stars is this a weird thing, you felt your anxiety start to spike.
Oh starts, oh shit I made this weird now didn’t I. Oh starts women take your hand down, you were internally screaming at this point. Just as you were about to take you hand away you felt one of his huge ones grab your hand, totally engulfing your hand. Stars, it looked tiny in his.
“heh, name is Sans... Sans the skeleton.” His hand was so warm, you looked down on your conjoined hands and it didn’t feel weird or off like it normally did when you shook hands with humans. You noticed his hands were covered in tiny scars and nicks. You looked up at him and saw that he also was looking at your hands.
Sans, Sans the Skeleton, Sans, you looked at his face as you repeated his name a few times in toy head. You didn’t want to forget him, like you often do with new humans that you meet. There was something about his name that stuck a cord with you. What was it again. Then his name clicked in your brain and you giggled again.
“If you are sans the skeleton, what are you then?” you looked up at him with a smirk, he looked at you for a few seconds before he started to chuckle louder than he had done before, his shoulders shaking. You smiled bigger than you had done in ages. Stars was he cute.
“heh, good one.” you were both smiling at each other. You were so happy you could make him laugh. You caught yourself thinking you would love to hear it more. For once your brain seemed to work with you and you remembered some puns you’d found funny. You gave him a big smile.
“Tibia honest, I found it quite humerus myself. Thought it might tickle your funny bone as well.” you gave him a wink to further seal the deal. It took him a few seconds to decipher what you just said, but you gave him the time he needed.
He was about to reply when his phone started to ring. He gave you an apologetic smile and answered his phone. You gave him a smile back and looked away. At this moment you seemed to realise where you were. Still at the waiting room, you noticed some people was looking at you, normally this would cause your skin to crawl. While you had been conversing with Sans you had completely forgotten where you were and didn’t even notice people's eyes were on you. Now that you had realized you could feel you skin starting to crawl and you sunk into yourself a bit. With your focus shifted you jumped slightly when Sans called your name. You looked up at him and gave him a noise of affirmation.
“my bro is here... to pick me up... are you waiting for... someone?” you looked at him as you brain caught up to what he was saying, taking a bit longer then normal because you were distracted by your discovery.
“O-oh, no. I’m taking the b-bus. Still g-got to wait a bit u-until the next one.” Great you stutter was back in full force. If he noticed the shift in your speech and person, he didn’t comment on it. He seemed to think a bit as he looked to his phone, and then back to you again as he seemed to think about something.
“... if you’d like... you could ride with us? me and my bro...”
“O-oh, nonono, I couldn’t I-inconvenience your b-brother like t-that.” You shook your head, even though you would prefer to say yes to his oh so tempting offer. You really disliked taking the bus, but her and your idiot therapist was requiring you to take the bus. To get used to being in public and around people.
“it’s no skin off my bones...my bro loves to drive... would be happy to make... a new friend. besides, you helped me.. earlier." His eyelight was watching you as you thought it through.
Perhaps he will be okay with me taking this opportunity, making new friends and all that. You thought to yourself. Even if you don’t like taking rides from basically a stranger, you felt oddly okay with going with Sans. Just something about him made you relax, feel safe.
“O-okay. Y-yeah, I’d like that a l-lot, actually. I-if that’s okay with your b-brother, that is.” You fidgeted with the sleeve of your sweater. You really wanted to leave this place already.
He nodded and then stood up. Following him you noticed how tall he really was. About a head and a half taller, maybe two. You were not exactly short yourself, but stars did you feel tiny next to him. Blushing you looked away from him, damn this skeleton is just getting more and more attractive, get a grip girl.
As you were starting to walk away Timothy came rushing into the room and locked eyes with you.
“YOU! You’re with THEM aren’t you? That’s why you hate being touched! Because then you won't reveal your true self!” he started quickly walking towards you, arm stretched out to grab you as he yelled. Shit shit shit shit shit, you took a step back trying to get some distance but you knew you had no were to run. He was going to grab you and there was nothing you could do. You were going to have a panic attack again. You really didn’t want Sans to see that, no one ever wanted to be your friend after witnessing one of your episodes. Raising your arms as you closed your eyes and braced for impact.
First thing you noticed was how quiet it got. A low growl like grumble made you open your eyes. Sans was now standing in front of you, holding Timothys arm up and away from you.
“Let go of me freak, I have business with (y/n). This is none of your concern, monster.” The venom in Timothys voice as he spoke was surprising. You know the guy to be crazy, but not outright a racist.
“seems to me... she doesn’t want you close. So how about... you drop it, pal!” Sans all but growled at Timothy.
You could vaguely hear Timothy yelling at Sans and the caretakers trying to calm him down. Being almost touched had your anxiety pipe up. Without realizing you had Grabbed onto Sans’s hoodie and stepped further behind him. Hiding from all the eyes that was on you. Looking down at your feet you made yourself as small as you could make yourself. Wishing the floor would just open up and swallow you whole. You were brought out of your mini panic attack by someone calling your name. It sounded so far away. A warm hand grabbed yours and like a spell being broken, you were brought back into the present.
“(y/n)?” You looked up and realized he must have asked you something, tilting you head to the side in question, you panicked brain not being able to use words.
“...you okay?” You looked up at him, noticing he looked worried. Worried for you. Someone actually worrying about how you were feeling. You quickly gave him a shaky smile, a thumbs up with the hand he wasn’t still holding and nodded. He furrowed his brows, like how seriously did that work, unconvinced. You looked down at your feet and slightly shook your head. You were most definitely not fine and you needed to leave like 5 minutes ago.
You felt him give your hand a small squeeze and started to slowly pull you towards the elevator. His hand was warm and it helped to ground yourself. Slightly pressing up against his hand you grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie with your other hand.
You can’t remember ever feeling this comfortable around a person, let alone someone you had just meet. There was just something about Sans that made you relax, perhaps because he seems to have some struggles with his speech, just like you, perhaps memory issues as well. You both were missing a part of your skull, his on the left and yours on the right. Together you would make a whole skull. You giggled slightly, heh, we are almost like mirrored twins.
He made a questioning noise and as you walked out of the elevator you looked up at him with a slight smirk.
“W-we're like mirrored t-twins... T-together we make u-up one... w-whole skull.” You giggled again. It was such a silly little thought but it helped you further ground yourself and calm down. He chuckled, a light dusting of blue appeared in his cheeks.
“heh, look at that.... twins hehe... Indeed...” His chuckles and slight smile made your cheeks colour slightly pink. Who would have thought you would be attracted to skeleton monsters. Or well, this skeleton monster.
The second you excited the building you felt your shoulders fall, you took a deep breath while feeling the slight breeze in your hair. Feeling tons better now that you were out of that dreadful building. Sans turned to the right and pulled you with him.
A bit further down the street you noticed another skeleton standing by a mint green van, reminding you a little of those old 60’s hippie vans. From what you could see this skeleton was taller than Sans, like maybe a head or so taller, they looked more like you had taken a human skeleton and stretched it at both ends. You wanted to ask if this was his brother, but stopped yourself because it felt wrong to just assume they were brother just because they were both skeleton monsters.
They were wearing a white shirt under a beige sweater with a brown knit cardigan, some black jeans and some sneakers. Unlike Sans who was broad, this skeleton was slimmer and lankier. As you closed in you noticed he was wearing big red glasses and braces. Guess skeletons monsters also get teeth issues. The skeleton looked your way and immediately smiled.
“AH THERE YOU ARE SANS. I HOPE TODAY WENT WELL AND THAT YOU WERENT A TOTAL LAZYBONE.” This skeleton talked loudly, like you could feel the all caps. They had a slight lisp probably caused by the braces and you couldn’t help to think how this skeleton was also kind of cute. What was it with you thinking these skeletons were cute.
“..heh, hey bro...”
“OH! HELLO THERE SMALL HUMAN. ARE YOU A FRIEND OFF SANS?” You craned your neck to look at him, you didn’t know what to answer. Were you friends with Sans? You had just met the guy less then and hour ago. You didn’t want to jump to conclusions, that’s how you get hurt, but stars...You really wanted to be. Oh stars you have to give him an answer, you opened your mouth to try and say something but Sans beat you to it.
“heh, yeah... we are?” You looked at him as he looked at you, eyes beaming you smiled and nodded vigorously.
“Y-yeah.” you managed to stammer out. Felt like your heart was going to leap out of your chest. He wanted to be your friend. You watched as the tall skeleton cupped his face and seemed to beam down at you.
“WOWIE! SANS MADE A FRIEND? THAT LAZYBONES BROTHER OF MINE? WOWIE! YOU MUST BE VERY SPECIAL LITTLE HUMAN.”
“O-oh n-not at all, j-just a normal human m-missing part of her skull as well.” You giggled slightly awkward, the silence seemed to stretch up so you rushed out a quick bare bones(heh) explanation of what happened to you.
“THE WEIRD THINGS YOU HUMANS DO. HMMMM.... OH GOSH LITTLE HUMAN, HOW RUDE OF ME. I HAVENT EVEN INTRODUCED MYSELF YET. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NICE TO MEET YOU LITTLE HUMAN.”
He reached his hand towards you for a shake. You half expect your body to freeze up after the ordeal earlier but you feel nothing. It takes a few seconds on looking at his hand before you raise yours. Wondering if you will react to his touch or not. You are pleasantly surprised when you don’t have any issues with it. You beam up at him.
“I-I’m (y/n), It’s n-nice to m-meet you too Papyrus.”
“SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE LITTLE HUMAN.” you get a bit flustered from being asked so suddenly and your brain struggles to string together words. The exhaustion from today hitting hard.
“Ummmmm, T-that’s, Sans said, that I, you’d d-drive, but b-bus fine, I, s-sorry, fuck. B-brain dumb, give a s-second.” words were coming out as a mumble as your brain was spewing 100 words a second with your mouth unable to keep up. You could feel a headache coming on and groaned as you pressed the palm of your hand against your forehead. Forcing yourself to try and take some deep breath and sort out your thoughts.
“(y/n)... you okay?” you felt him squeeze your hand, reminding you that you two had been holding hands all this time. You flushed slightly and then tried to focus on how his hand felt, how warm and comforting it was. Focusing on something helped you get your brain back on track.
“Y-yeah. J-just been a l-long day. When t-tired. My brain... and mouth d-don’t coordinate w-well. S-sorry.” you apologized out of habit, people would often complain when you struggled to put words together.
“it’s okay (y/n)… paps, i told her you could... give her a lift home...”
“WELL, THAT CAN BE SORTED SINCE YOU ARE MY BROTHERS FRIEND. NO PROBLEM AT ALL.” you looked up at both of them and gave them a tired smile.
“T-thank you, both. I h-hate the bus. Y-you guys... literally m-my h-heroes today.”
“NYEH HEH HEH. IT’S NOT A PROBLEM FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS LITTLE HUMAN.”
Stars was his laugh cute. Sans pulled you over to the passenger seat and opened the door for you saying it would be easier for you to point out where you live. For the first time since you left the waiting room, he let go of you hand and you instantly missed the comforting warmth from him. You told Papyrus the address to your place and how best to get there.
The drive was comfortable with Papyrus taking care of most of the talking, he would ask you some questions but would always keep them to single word answers or were you could answer with just a few words. You appreciated that he didn’t push for long answers or asked too complicated questions. Sans told Papyrus what you did for him in the waiting room and how you sat with him and talked while they waited. Papyrus beamed at you making you blush, saying it was nothing really.
Once you got there you thanked Papyrus again for the ride and that you really appreciated it. Sans stepped out of the car with you and walked you do the door of the apartment complex you lived at.
“T-thanks for today, Sans, you m-made my day a l-lot b-better. T-truly, thanks.” You gave Sans a big smile, you have never come back from a therapist appointment with a smile on your face.
“...heh, yeah... you as well... (y/n)…" There was a long break as none of you seemed to want to leave. After a bit of time Sans puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out his phone and then holds it towards you.
“... could i have... your number?... would like to meet again... if you’d like...” You looked at his phone and then back up at him. You could see what looked like blue sweat drops on his head, was he sweating? Skeletons could do that? Oh you need to give him an answer.
“S-sure Sans, I would l-love to.” You hear a sigh of relief as you take hold of his phone and put in your number checking thrice that you wrote it correctly and then proceeded to send yourself a message so you would have his number too.
“T-there, I have your n-number too.. now." You beam up at him as you hand him back his phone. He smiles back at you.
“i’ll see you.. sometime later...” You nod up at him.
“Y-yeah, you will.”
With that you both part ways, you watch as he returns to the car and wave at them as they drive off. Tired as you were from today you had a small spring to your step as you went to your apartment. You can’t believe such a horrible day turned out so nice in the end. There was just something about Sans that made you relax even to the point of being okay with touch. Perhaps because he wasn’t fleshy like humans. There was just something about having your hand in his giant hand that just felt right, felt comforting.
You get back to your apartment and sit down on your couch, sinking into it with a big sigh. A slight headache thumping, but nothing compared to how it usually was. Looking at your left hand, you couldn't help but blush at the thought off how long you held his hand, how long he held yours. You wondered if maybe, just maybe he also enjoyed holding your hand.
“Look at you (y/n). You managed to make a friend today. A sweet and cute one at that.” You giggled to yourself. Today seemed sort of surrealistic, like it wasn’t quite real. Looking at your phone you could see the message you had sent yourself with his phone. Today really happened, you smiled to yourself as you lied down on the couch. A little nap is what you needed and you hoped you would be able to see Sans again soon, that he truly did want to be your friend. You couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow brings, new hope blossoms in your chest as you fall asleep thinking about a certain skeleton monster.