Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sans didn't really think about it when Frisk first came home with a slightly confused expression on their face. His kid is amazing, but sometimes school tends to confuse people. Papyrus sometimes got this expression over complex puzzles or the horoscope.

But he felt Toriels look on his back and just knew that her “Mom sense”, as he dubbed it, told her that there was more to it and his “Toriel sense”, as she dubbed it, told HIM that he should talk to their kid.

He gave Frisk a few moments until he teleported into their room and flopped down beside them on their desk.

“Hey kiddo. What's up?”

Frisk pointed up to the celling and Sans chuckled. His kid was amazing.

“Yeah, besides that. Any problems with the school?” He glanced down. Frisk was in the process of doing their homework. “Any problems with maths? Does something just not add up?”

Frisk just shook their head, giving him a small smile and signed “ Don't worry”.

“Anything else?”, he asked looking right into their eyes. And Frisk looked away and Sans felt something inside him melt. He just loved this kid to bits and the thought that something was not 100% absolutely right in their life just... didn't sit well with him.
He scooted a bit nearer, forcing his voice to be a bit softer.

“Frisk... you can tell me anything, okay?”, he said. “You don't have to, but if there is anything I can do, just say so, okay? Or... just tell me what's troubling you. I promise I won't tell anybody if you don't want me to.”

Frisk seemed to ponder a bit and finally sighed, raising their hands again.

“It is stupid.” They signed. “ Just... some confusing stuff. With Billy.”

“Billy?”, asked Sans, raising an non-existent eyebrow. The little shit-spawn of fucking Linda. Urgh. Normally Sans wouldn't hate anybody. He was a monster, monster were hard-pressed to HATE, they were practically made out of love and compassion and Sans himself was lazy as they come and hate would mean a LOT of effort on his side, so normally, he wouldn't border with anything worse that slight irritation at the antics of humans who didn't understand the new world or anything.

But something about Linda just pushed all his buttons. He was beyond annoyed with her, beyond irritated and beyond “a little bit angry”. After one hour hearing her talk about... well... everything, she managed to make a check on every item of Sans “Oh Heck No” list. Talk shit about monster, his brother, Toriel, Frisk, everything that is not “normal and proper”, talk shit about Undyne and Alphys, talk shit about science, being ignorant and hurtful to other peoples concerns, the list goes on.

Nope, this burning cold feeling he got when he even images her voice was deep, deep aversion and dislike. Or in other words, he hated her fucking guts.

Her kid wasn't much better. He was willing to gave the boy a bit leeway, seeing he was just a child and didn't know better, how could he, when he was raised by the single most ignorant person he ever met. That being said, it didn't mean he had to LIKE the kid and if he had hurt Frisk, there was hell to pay. He would find a way.

“ Yeah, Billy.”

Sans almost missed Frisk signing, being to deep into his own little world of “fuck you Linda”.

“What did he do, kid?”, he asked, allowing his magic to flicker a bit. “Is he in need for a bad time?”

Frisk actually giggled a bit and that alone was enough to banish the magic, take the wind out of his sails and calm him down completely. Damn, he loved this kid. Seriously, somebody just declare Frisk the best of the best, because they are. (No, he was not gushing over his own kid. Okay, he was, but just in his own head, nobody has to know. Okay, well, everybody knows how much he adored his kid, but that was besides the point.)

“Noooooo.” They signed. “ Billy didn't do BAD stuff, just... confusing stuff. He follows me when he thinks I'm not noticing and doesn't look me in the eyes anymore and whenever I want to talk to him, he just... stammers or screams random stuff. And he goes back and fort between saying something nice and trying to fight me or something.”

Sans blinked. That... sounded really confusing.

“Did he hurt you?”, he asked.

Frisk shook their head.

“No, I'm good at dodging.” They signed and grinned and Sans felt so damn proud again.

“Well, you are.”, he said, grinning himself. “You are, after all, the master-dodger. The dodge-master. It's you.”

They both snickered.

“And it's not really fighting what he does.” Frisk continued. “ Just... trying to pull my hair or something?”

Sans got the feeling that he was equally confused as Frisk was.

“Okay, that sounds really confusing, kiddo.”, he mumbled. “But if you think you can handle it, I won't meddle. But... tell me if it becomes a problem?”

“ Actually, I think I know what he is trying to do, I just don't know WHY.”

Sans looked at Frisk, shocked.

“What?”

“ I think Billy is trying to flirt with me. Badly.”

“Oh.”

Oh.

OH HELL NO!

“ Yeah, but he does it really, really bad.”

OH HELL NO HE WONT LET THIS LITTLE SHIT-STAIN TOUCH HIS CHILD wait, does Linda know? Oh fuck all of the universe, Lindas fucking child has a crush on his kid he didn't know if he should cry or laugh or make something explode.

“Sans?”, asked Frisks little, quiet voice and it shocked Sans right out of his thoughts.

“Frisk?”

“ Please don't freak out, okay? I just...”

“I think I know WHY, kid.”, he said, sighing. “You know that I know his mother...?”

“ Dad, people still talking about the incident during the bake-off as the “Slam down of the year”. I think everybody knows about you “knowing” each other. “

Well, Sans had the decency to blush a little bit blue. He let himself go that day. It was no excuse. But it felt so good to lay into Linda. It was a big victory and the youtube-videos that appeared preserved his little rant for the world to enjoy.

“So, yeah. And you know how Linda... is. So, I think her child would have no clue how to flirt or be nice to someone you have a crush on and uses bullshit tactics people think should work for a boy but, you know, it's bullshit so you are stuck with a boy who doesn't have a clue what he is doing.”

Frisk looked even more confused now.

“ But... flirting is easy. I did it when I was nine in the Undergound...”

“Yeah, you are an amazing child and the best there is, kiddo.”, Sans said and Frisk giggled again. Score again for him.

“ I mean, it's simple. Just say nice things maybe wriggle a bit or give a little kiss to the cheek? It's not rocket science.”

Sans laughed. He had to. His child was just to perfect for the world. Fuck Linda and everybody who disagreed with him on this point.

“Yeah, you have it all figured out, kiddo.”, he said, ruffling through Frisks hair. “Shame for them if they can't get this right, huh?”

“ Do you think I should tell him? I mean, how to flirt right? It's kinda pathetic.”

“Eh...”, the thought of Frisk flirting BACK at Billy didn't sit well on him. “I don't think that's a good idea, I mean, do you have a crush on him?

Frisk shrugged.

“ Not really. He has a nice nose, but he's not really my type and I think it would freak him out.”

It would freak out Linda and Sans almost told Frisk to go for it. But well, he wasn't going to pressure Frisk into doing something they didn't want just to freak out Linda. He wouldn't sink that low. Exploiting the situation and making snide remarks at Linda during the next PTA meeting? Heck, yeah!

“So don't kiddo. Just tell him to stop, he will lay off if he notice that he's doing it wrong. And if he doesn't stop, tell me and I'll figure something out, okay?”

“ No bad time for Billy, dad! He's just a kid.”

Sans chuckled.

“Okay, okay. I even promise, I wont let him have a bad time over this, okay?”

Making promises was never an easy feat for him, but it came to him more easily these days. Frisk seemed satisfying with that. They took his hand and squeezed it a bit, smiling at him.

“ Thanks, dad.”

“No problem, kid. They? Knock, knock.”

Frisk giggled but played along.

“ Who is there?”

“Olive.”

“ Olive who? ”, t hey said, with their small voice, just so the joke would work, and Sans just loved this child.

“Love you too.”

The next PTA meeting was only a week later and was going as well as Sans expected. Well, it was a bit better than the beginning, there were even two other monster-parents there, even if they didn't say much and Pia and Steven both stood up to Helen about some shit she said about that one gay couple with two kids in the school who wanted to get into the PTA meeting next time. That didn't change the fact that Linda just made one stupid remark after the next.

“Okay, I gonna stop this now because I can feel my bones kinda shuttering now and I think Halloween is a bit to far away now for the skeleton-dance.”, Sans said and looked straight at Linda, knowing that she was unnerved by his eyes. “You really think this Valentine-idea is a good one? Give girls one heart that they could give a boy and rewarding girls who didn't and boys who got the most? Do you really NOT see how this is messed up? First and foremost: what if a girl has a crush on a girl or a boy one on a boy or one person has a crush on more than one person? Or what about children who a non-binary?”

“Just because YOUR dau... so... CHILD wants to be a special snowflake doesn't mean that the other children have a problem with that.”, snarled Linda. “And I should have known that you want to use the holiday to spread your... agenda all over the poor children!”

Sans stared at her. He could have sworn that Steven just got a bag of popcorn from his backpack and held it to Pia. A part of him appreciated that. All other parts of him were just baffled and standing confused in front of a wall of stupid aka Linda.

“Really?”, he just asked, really, really baffled. “Agenda? What pray-tell is my “agenda”? I don't have an agenda, I'm lazybones, just ask my brother, ask EVERYBODY, I literally am the polar opposite of an agenda.”, he laughed a bit because it really was that absurd. “That is rich...”

Well, that was a lie, he wasn't JUST lazy. He did things. Important things. Many things. But fucking Linda didn't have to know.

“You know what? I won't even say anything about that anymore, because I'm tired and have work in two hours, so I make it quick. Your idea? It's stupid on so many levels. It's hurtful to boys AND girls, has nothing to do with anything related to love or friendship or romantic or anything this “holiday” is supposed to stand for. You know what? No wonder your son has no idea how to flirt, if THAT is your idea for something “cute and romantic for the kids”.”

All eyes were on him. Then on Linda who looked like she just swallowed fish in whole. Sans was always fascinated how many colours a human face could show.

“You... YOU... wait, WHAT did you say about my son?”

“His flirting sucks.”, Sans said shrugging. “I mean, really sucks. Pulling hair and being a stalker? Seriously, I was baffled. My kid was seriously confused by all this. Maybe THAT would be an idea for the holiday? Telling kids how to flirt nicely?”

“MY SON DID WHAT?”

“Has a biiiiiiig crush on my kid.”, said Sans, slowly and yes, this was the best. He really wished he had popcorn like Steve and Pia himself. Linda was a show today. She seemed to angry to even talk anymore.

“WHAT DID YOUR FREAK OF A CHILD DO TO MY SON?”

And just like that the light-hearted humour he felt just a second ago was gone, replaced with something colder and heavier like steel.

Oh she did not just say that.

He glared at her, eyesockets gone dark and even if humans couldn't sense magic very good, Linda had to notice how the air suddenly became much more... dense.

“I think you should reconsider your wording.” he said,

“Your child infected my precious little boy with... with... the queer!”

Well, at least she didn't say “the gay”, Sans thought.

“Linda, how many times do we have to get over this, “queerness” is NOT something that “infects” people. It's just there and it's fine.”, he said, glaring. “My kid is fine the way it is and yours has a crush on them and is shit at flirting. Facts, Linda. I know you have trouble with them. You did in every other discussion we had.”

“You... YOU!”

Oh she really looked like she wanted to hit him. Heh, she could try. He promised Frisk no bad time for Bill, nobody ever said anything about Linda.

“Yep. Still me.”, he said. “The Skeleton who wants to school you on some things but I see, my words are going right through you, just as you look right through me.”, he grinned. “So just let it go, we still have a skele-ton things to do and if you are nice I even let you have a place in the flirt-seminar, so you can learn how to play nice with people along with your son.”

Half of the people in the room groaned while Linda looked like she would scream any moment and Sans just smiled, secure in the knowledge that he had the support of the group behind him. (and next time he really wanted in on that popcorn, dammit!)

Get dunked on, fucking Linda.

Chapter Text

It was a surprise for everybody, Sans included, but he found that he really, really enjoyed the PTA meetings. Well, he didn't enjoy dealing with Linda, but he liked getting things DONE. Knowing that he could prevent people from making things worse for the children and helping making things better? It was filling him with... something.

Huh, maybe even determination. Who would have known?

Anyway, he liked the meetings. He was even on friendly terms with some of the parents and Steven and Pia even cheered for him when Linda and him butted heads at some topics.

Okay, they were butting head at ALL topics.

It was sometimes hard to believe that his sweet Frisk and this... woman... belonged to the same species.

Like in this moment, where Linda was smiling her little “You are going down, Monster” smile at him and he tried really hard to keep his lazy smile and winked at her.

“Anything to add to the discussion, Linda?”, he asked, letting his voice drawl a bit. He knew she hated that.

“Actually, yes.”, she said, still smiling her not-smile. “I couldn't NOT notice that all your suggestions for the new menu options for desserts are pretty standard. What about gluten-free products?”, she asked.

Sans stared at her. THE “allergies are fake” Linda actually WANTS gluten-free products? Well, that was new. He looked at her and at her smile and how she looked at him and her eyes were travelling lower and back to his face.

And it CLICKED.

She... she was thinking that he would argue against that? Because she thought he wouldn't like that stuff? Oh, that was rich. Sans let his face lit up and his smile become wider. He was positively glowing now. And not even with his magic!

There was a beat of silence. Anybody was looking at him.

“You know what, Linda? You are right.”, he declared.

“Yeah, well... WHAT?”, asked Linda, clearly thrown off.

“You are right.”, Sans repeated. “I can't believe it myself, but have a point here. We considered nut-free stuff and lactose-free stuff, because we all know some children with allergies and intolerance but we totally overlooked the gluten. Well, we should definitely have some gluten-free cookies and muffins. I know somebody who can make them really tasty. And the kids will love it, we can even throw in some posters about different allergies and intolerances and all that good stuff. It could even be an event. Like “get schooled on stuff and this free muffin is yours”. It's a great idea!”, he said, still grinning and even making the effort to sound excited.

After an other beat of silence the other parents seemed to catch on to the idea, some of them agreeing with him, others discussing how to manage the event-idea. Linda looked like somebody just told her she had to eat her way out of the room through a ton of cheese. Sans liked that mental image. Maybe he could make a good prank out of that? Just seal her in a room with a giant block of cheese blocking the door? (heh, blocking.)
He knew she thought that being lactose-intolerant was just “faking”, so she wouldn't have a problem with that, right?

He could even work in some cheese-related puns. Oh yes, that was good.

Toriel would kill him if he pulled that off. Well, there was no place like his fantasy...

“So, we are doing the gluten-free stuff?”, asked Pia and Sans let himself concentrate again on the discussion. “As well as the nut-free, lactose-free and vegan options?”

“Sounds like it.”, Sans said, still grinning. “And it will really help kids with special diet plans eat better at the school. So I think we are all in favour? Unless somebody has something against this?” He looked at Linda, still grinning. “Surely not you, Linda, after all, it was YOUR idea!”

Linda couldn't do anything else but glare at him. Sans winked. Linda looked like she was about to scream.

“So, who is this person who can do the gluten-free stuff for us?”, asked Steven.

“Oh, a monster I know from before the barrier went down, she had this whole amazing bakery in the underground.”, he explained, still grinning. “You know, most monster-food is gluten-free so she knows what she is doing. She has a new shop now in the town so it's no problem for me to talk to her.”

“A monster?”, asked Linda, her voice unnaturally high pitched.

Sans looked at her and god, he had so much fun right now, why didn't anybody record this?

“Yep. I must say, Linda, I would have never thought that you would bring up the issue of healthy gluten-free food that's better for the monster kids at the school, but you know, you learn something new every day.”

He winked again.

“And this could be such an good businesses-opportunity for her. So you are really helping out some pretty great monsters here with that idea. I think I should let her know so she could send you a thank-you basket.”

He grinned at her.

Linda screamed.

The day was fucking perfect.


Well, the new desserts menu was a huge success. Especially the monster children loved the gluten free baked goods and Sans himself was involved in the making of the informational posters that explained child friendly the differences between allergies, intolerances and why it was important to stick with the special diet.

He thought it was the best combo that could exist: Good food and easy-to-understand-science. Frisk told him that the kids in her class were much more understanding and nicer to little Tim, who had some pretty serve allergies.

So, the kids loved it, most of the parents loved it and the best was, Linda couldn't say anything against it, because Sans made sure EVERBODY knew that the gluten free stuff was HER idea.

Toriel even said that she was proud of Sans for not starting another incident this time. Life was great.

So, a tiny part of him just wanted to rub it in. He casually walked to Linda as they were both waiting for their kids to come out of school.

“So, Linda. Still having this illusion that you can dunk me?”, he asked, grinning and speaking low enough that nobody else could hear them. “Or have you learned your lesson in the nice-flirt-seminar and actually play nice now?”

Linda glared at him.

“You will eat your words one day, monster.”, she hissed.

“No, I will eat dinner today.”, he said, grinning. “Words aren't in my diet. But you know what is? Gluten-free muffins. They are great. You should try them one time. Spider Bakery has the best.”

There was no time for anything more to say, because Frisk came out of the school in this moment and gave Sans a hug.
He smiled at them.

“Hey, kiddo. Had a nice day?”

Frisk nodded.

“Home?”, they signed.

“Home.”, Sans said, grinning before scooping Frisk up and walking away. As much fun as it was to slam down Linda, spending time with his kid and going home where his family was, was much, much better.

Chapter Text

As soon as Sans arrived home, he knew he was in trouble. It wasn't that Toriel SAID anything or even did anything special, but she looked at him, only for a moment, and he knew.

The thing is, Toriel is nice. Seriously, Sans was still baffled how she put up with him, but she did and she LOVED him and he loved her, very much, back. He knew that Frisk was her number one priority (because, well, they were his too, together with Papyrus), so she wouldn't say anything as long was he clenched Frisk to himself as he did at the moment. Don't dusk the skele-dad, little Frisk would be upset and all that.

So she just looked at him and his “Toriel sense” (Toriel Sans? Nooo, that pun would just fell flat) told him that she would remember that.

Welp, what could he do?

He looked at Frisk who seemed pretty happy in his arms, still munching on a cookie. They seemed to know that Toriel was looking at them and shifted a bit, prompting Sans to let them down to their feet.

“Hey mum”, they signed.

“Hello, my child.”, Toriel said, smiling again, completely in Mum-Mode again. “Did you have a nice day?”

Frisk nodded.

“It was great!”, they signed.

“You can tell me all about it. Come, my child, dinner is almost ready.”

Sans could feel his sins crawling on his back. No pun directed at him. Toriel was angry. She knew.

Well, he couldn't say he regretted anything today.

Dinner was delicious as always and normally Sans would lean back and let all conversations of his family wash over him, making the occasional pun or joke and simply enjoying the sight of his family being all there.

He just loved hearing Papyrus telling animated from his day, how much he enjoyed his cooking classes and his part-time job as an assistant for Undynes soccer training and self-defence courses she gave downtown.

He loved riling him up with some well-placed puns, loved how Toriel and Frisk would giggle at them and how Papyrus would groan in frustration but smile nevertheless and tell his own pun or joke later.

He loved hearing some random snail facts from Toriel or how Frisk would tell him how science class in school wasn't nearly as fun as their “science time” together.

He loved how Frisk would blow Papyrus mind each time they told him about some new sort of noodle and pasta.

He loved listening to Toriel and Papyrus trading experience in the field of teaching.

He even loved the instances he was dragged into the conversations, about space (“Sans, just how far away ARE those stars? Can we get to one one day?”) about school (“You got an A at that test? Awesome, kiddo. See, it was good we studied together for that, wasn't it?”) even about the PTA (“Miss Balington said to me today that she really appreciated that you helped her in the last meeting.” “Awww, Pia did? She is a good mum, I barely did something. But... uh... thanks.”).

But today was different. Oh, Papyrus and Frisk were still talking like always and Toriel joined them from time to time, but aside from that, she was silent and gave him a LOOK.

“AND DID YOU SELL MANY DELICIOUS PIECES OF FINE BAKERY TODAY, HUMAN?”, asked Papyrus, still deep into their conversation.

Frisk nodded.

“So many. It was fun.”

“HOW DID THEY LIKE MY SPAGHETTI-COOKIES?”

Oh shit, Sans could FEEL how Toriel was glaring at him. She knew. She knew and this was bad. He felt himself sweating. Oh fuck oh fuck, please kid, don't tell them about the incident.

“There wasn't anything left at the end.”, Frisk signed and grinned. “One of the judged said they were very original and many people wanted to try them.”

Sans felt himself relaxing slightly. Good, this was good. The Spaghetti-cookies were original, the judges liked a lot of things from their stand and the sell they had after the judging went pretty well all things considered. If Frisk would just focus on that and maybe how they totally were better than Linda and then everything would be alright.

“Well, Mrs. Linda didn't like them.”

Or not. Fuck. Toriel was giving him a look. Not good. Very not good.

“and said some mean things, but dad...”

“Aaaaaand that was a really boring part of the day and I'm sure...”, begun Sans to talk, intending to distract Toriel and Papyrus from what he had done but the thing with sign language was that you can't just simply talk over it.

“...went to her and said that she wasn't really nice saying such things about the cookies his brother made and that she was just jealous because she didn't win and we made third place and then she said something about gross monster food some other words I didn't understand and I think dad became really mad and he started to...”

“Frisk, please, uh...”

Frisk looked at him, hands still for a moment. He hoped he looked pleading enough. They smiled at him.

“Well, dad said some things too, but everything was alright at the end and some other people even clapped and I got a cookie and we went home. ”

Sans exhaled. While this was more than he wanted to be said about the incident, it didn't sound to bad. Maybe Toriel only knew that there was an incident and no details and who Frisk worded it, it wasn't to bad and maybe everything would be okay.

“WELL, MY BROTHER ALWAYS KNEW HOW TO SAY THINGS.”, Papyrus said, before winking himself. “EXCEPT WHEN HE TALKS TO TORIEL.”

“Papyrus!”

Sans could feel his magic making him blush. Even when he could see through the attempt to change the topic, did it have to be THIS?

“NYE HEH HEH HEH!”

“Really?”, signed Frisk. Sans didn't know if out of real curiosity or if they were just playing along.

“YES, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIM, PRACTICING KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES ON OUR OWN DOOR... OH DID I TELL YOU THE STORY ABOUT HOW IN PIECES HE WAS BEFORE HE PROPOSED TO HER?”

“Nooooo?”, signed Frisk, a grin travelling over her whole face. “Tell me! Tell me!”

“Nooooo, this is not a story for today.”, intercepted Sans, still glowing bright blue. “Papyrus, stop that!”

“BUT IT'S A GOOD STORY. YOU COULD EVEN SAY IT'S HUMERUS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!”

“Papyrus!”

Papyrus and Frisk laughed and even Toriel giggled a bit. Sans sighed. Well, at least Toriel didn't seem to be angry anymore. Or at least less angry. The well known feeling of overwhelming fondness rushed trough Sans. His brother was the coolest and Frisk was the best.

“Well, I sure would like to hear this story one day.”, said Toriel, a warm smile on her face and Sans felt himself melt in every possible way. Damn.

“Uh...”, was all he could say to that matter.

“But I think it's almost story-time for Frisk. As in a bedtime story.”, she said.

There was a blur of “nooooo”s, of laugher and a well known story told and tugging in Frisk and saying good night to Papyrus and then Sans was sitting on the bed he shared with Toriel, who was already in bed, her reading glasses on her nose (she looked so cute with them, Sans loved it) and still tipping something on her laptop. She had a pair of head-phones in her ears, as she sometimes did while working. Sans knew she had developed a fondness for peppy j-pop music and, for some reasons, death metal. Karaoke night with her was the best.

But now she wasn't looking at him, still fixated on the screen and that clued Sans in that she hadn't forgotten whatever she knew about the incident. Normally she would have made some bed-related puns by now.

“Hey, Toriel? Uh... still a lot of work to do?”, he asked, climbing under the sheets himself.

“Oh, I have still work, a real piece of work.”, she said, giving him a side-way glance. She took of her glasses and put them down to her night stand.

Sans stared at her. That didn't sound good. Toriel just gave him an other look and turned her laptop so that he could look at the screen and he could feel his magic run cold inside his bones.

The browser was open and playing a youtube video. The camera was a bit shaky and it seemed whoever was filming was also straining not to laugh but the picture was clear and the sound he could hear after Toriel deactivated the headphones and switched to speakers, was pretty good.

Sans could see himself, in all his glory, ranting away at a pretty livid looking Linda. Blue magic was crackling around him. He could see some other people, some just staring, some laughing, some looking terrified and some of them with their phone out. He could see the bake-stands behind him, where Frisk stood, half laughing, half still a bit teary-eyed. There was still the ribbon with a big “3^rd” pinned on their table, even if there was nothing left of the butterscotch-cinnamon pie that earned them this price.

The video must be near its end, he recognised that part of the speech he gave Linda.

“... and I hope you'll think about that the next time you open your big mouth. There are CHILDREN here, you know? We are supposed to PROTECT them. And by the way...”

Blue magic moved a tray of yellow square slices from a bake stand off screen above her and turning, letting the yellow blocks fall onto her head and down onto her feet.

“Your lemon cake sucks!”

A hand wave from him and the tray clattered to the ground between them in an bake-themed parody of a mice drop while his hand returned to his pocket and the magic in the air disappeared. The crowd cheered, Linda opened her mouth to say something and the video went black.

The video was named EPIC BAKE SALE SLAM DOWN. It was a good name, even if there wasn't any pun. It was okay, what Sans could remember he didn't use that many puns during his rage-induced speech. He couldn't remember most of his rage-induced speech.

“So. Care to tell me why you are staring in the newest viral video on the internet?”, asked Toriel, looking at him with a look that spelled “not amused”. It was the worst look on her. Even if Sans couldn't bring himself to feel guilty for what he did, he should have known better and handled it different. More calm.

“Well...”, he begun. “Uh... see, Toriel... I just...” He looked at her. She looked at him. Okay, no bullshit. He sighed and seemed to sink into himself. “I was just angry.”, he mumbled.

“And why?”

“Because she just... Okay, Linda just rubbed me the wrong way from day one. I think she just hates monster and anything that is outside of her narrow little opinion of how the world should work.

But, well, I tried to stay civil. And today, she just... crossed some lines. First she insulted Papyrus cookies, went on to call monster food poison, called Papyrus...”, he had to stop and take a deep breath. He could feel himself getting angry again and he wouldn't let himself go like that again. Toriel made a “go on” gesture, so he took another deep breath before talking again.

“Well, she said he was “retarded” and “dangerous” and should not work with children.”, he continued, his voice flat and as emotionless he could manage. Control, Sans, you could do that.

“She then tore into Frisk and told all sorts of crazy things, like the fact that they are not a boy or a girl is “stupid” and just “there to gain attention” and that they had a voice and shouldn't use their hands and... Tori, please don't make me tell you the other things she said.”, he pleaded.

There were a few seconds of silence, during which Sans wrestled with his self-control and a warm, fuzzy arm wrapped itself around him, holding him steady. Everything is alright, Sans, just concentrate, everything is alright.

“I... I think I get the idea.”, Toriel answered finally as she broke the embrace. She looked a bit ill and her eyes had this... tension. Sans only ever saw this look directed to Asgore when she stopped him from fighting Frisk, but never this strong. “She really did say those things?”

“Some of them were implied but yeah.”, answered Sans, sighing. “And... I just lost it, okay? I just wanted to shut her up, make a few puns but I couldn't even remember how to make them. Tori, I was to angry for PUNS. And. Yeah...”

“I saw what happened.”, said Toriel, looking a bit more mellow than before. “Your speech was impressive. I really liked how you swapped swearwords with food-related alternatives. The “bread dough” one was my favourite.”

It was impossible to say if Toriel was serious or not.

“So what happened after that?”

“Uh... after I... vented... Linda stormed off screaming something about calling the police. We cleaned up a bit, people around us bought all of our last stuff, some nice lady gave Frisk a cookie and somebody was shouting that Linda came back so I just got them and got us out of there.”, he said, head down and looking at his own hands.

It was Steven, a relatively new member of the PTA, who had warned him. Sans liked him, even if he was pretty shy and silent at the meetings. Linda often made snide remarks against him for being a single-dad and that was just another check on his “Heck no list”. Steven was a good dad, his daughter adored him and Frisk went to her on a few play-dates. He really, really didn't deserved what he got from Linda.

He may or may not got him some monster candy after a rough day and filled Lindas car with candy wrappers and silly strings. Linda glared at Sans for days (Nobody could ever prove that it was him) and Steven seemed to worship Sans after that as some kind of hero. It was kind of endearing.

The whole bake-off-with-selling-stuff-afterwards was actually his idea and it went pretty good up until Linda decided to trash-talk the Spaghetti-cookies. At least they raised some good money before everything went to hell.

“Sans, I understand that you were angry. And I must say... that was a pretty epic slam down.”

Sans head whipped up fast enough that he could hear something crack and stared at Toriel.

“What?”

“It was pretty good.”, said Toriel. A grin was beginning to spread over her face. “I know Linda as much as you do, I dealt with her before. You can't imagine how much I wanted to say something like that to her, but I couldn't. I am the headmaster of the school. She has a terrible attitude but she is still a parent and her child is a student in my school.”, she winked. “But really, she deserved that. And I had her Lemon cake once. It really does suck.”

She kissed him on his head, closed the laptop and put it down on her night stand. Sans was well aware that he was still starring at her, glowing bright blue and even sweating a bit. Toriel giggled a bit at the sight.

“The video went viral and most people really really like you. The police already spoke with me about the incident, the case is dropped and Linda should be glad if there wont be any more consequences. You could have handled things better, but all things considered...”, she grinned a bit more. “You really dunked her. And it was great.”

Sans just continued to stare up to her. He blinked.

“I love you so much, Tori.”

Toriel laughed.

“I love you too.”, she said, kissing him again. She put one of her furry arms around him again and Sans leaned into her. He loved her really so much. She was great. She was the best.

“But if you do something like that again you will have a bad time.”, she said, glaring at him.

Sans couldn't do anything else but nod.

Chapter Text

Sans liked Mettaton. Really. Yeah, at first they were a bit at odds, but who wouldn't be a bit careful around the guy your brother had a crush on? And it didn't help that Mettaton was pretty flashy and loud and started actually flirting with Papyrus after they reached the surface together. As laid back and trusting in his brother Sans was, Papyrus would always be his baby brother and a part of him would always look out for him, even if he promised himself not to meddle in Papyrus' private affairs.

But after they talked about some things and Sans got to know Mettaton a bit better outside his show persona, they became fast friends.

Every person who thought that his brother was great was a good person in Sans' book. Mettaton and Papyrus grew close pretty fast, both of them prone to be excited about things they enjoy and full of love, for themselves and for others.

And whatever they had going on between them, it seemed to work for the both of them, so Sans was okay with that. Papyrus was happy and that was all that counted for him. So, he liked Mettaton.

It came a bit surprising that Mettaton ADORED Frisk almost as much as he seemed to adore Papyrus.

So it wasn't the strangest thing that Mettaton would pick up Frisk after school to spend some “Cool Uncle Mettaton” time with them.

“Darling! Darling over here!”, Mettatons electronic voice carried pretty good across the parking loot and Sans could see how Frisks face lit up as soon as they saw him and Mettaton standing besides Mettatons bright pink car.

They ran up to them, hugging Mettaton tightly.

“Hey, Darling, missed me?”, he asked, honest joy in his voice. He picked Frisk up as they begun to nod in agreement and spun them around. Frisk laughed, their voice strangely loud and a bit raspy but it always was the best sound to be heard, in Sans' opinion.

Finally, Mettaton put them down. Frisk giggled a bit before turning around and waving at Sans.

“I see how it is, kid.”, Sans said, in a mock-hurt tone, placing his right hand over his chest where his soul was resting. “Mettaton gets hugs and I just get a wave. Or are you waving me away, kid? Am I replaced?”

Frisk giggled, running over to Sans.

“Nooo, I love you.”

“Awww, you're just saying that. You want Mettaton as a dad.”

“But then I would have Papyrus as a dad too and he is my uncle!”

“Should have thought of that before you trade dads, kid. You get one of us as a dad or an uncle, not both.”

“Can't I have all of you as dunkels?”

And at this point it was impossible to keep a straight face. Sans laughed and scooped Frisk up in a hug while they were laughing too.

“You are going to be the death of me, kid.”, he mumbled.

“No. Still have Save.”, they whispered and Sans hugged them a bit tighter to him. Even with the knowledge that Frisk couldn't reset anymore and their Save-and-Load-ability was pretty limited now, the mention of Saves and Resets still unsettled him.

“I know, kiddo. Just... be careful with that, got it?”

Frisk nodded and smiled at him, finally giving him a kiss to the cheek before getting out of the hug and turning themselves over to Mettaton again.

He looked really touched. Sans sometimes was a bit jealous of Mettatons advanced ability to have facial expressions. It was handy being a skeleton and he liked being a skeleton but sometimes he wished he could emote a bit more like humans or monster with skin could.

“You. Two Darlings. Are. So. Cute!”, Mettaton declared while striking a pose dramatically. “Seriously, if I had a show about the most cutest things ever, half of the show would just be pictures of you two!”

Sans felt himself blush again and he hated it. Why did anybody say that he was cute? He wasn't cute, he was a skeleton.

Huh, maybe that was how Papyrus felt about the puns?

“Mettaton, cut it out.”, he mumbled, but Mettaton and Frisk both just laughed.

And because the universe hated him or thought that the lack of resets and drama in his life should be balanced out SOMEHOW, their good time was interrupted. Rather rudely.

“Why is there a pink robot standing in the parking space?”, a voice asked and Sans felt how everything, from his magic to the limited extend of his ability to emote, shifted to “AW HELL NO”.

It was Linda. It just HAD to be Linda. Urgh. Well, he supposed she was still pissed because of the last meeting they had. But she should have known better than say those things about how it was just good parenting and precaution to separate “normal children” from “the other ones” to Pia, who really did her best with little Danny. Not on his watch, fucking Linda!

So, Sans had cut in into her speech, twisting and turning things around, asking seemingly basic questions. In the end it all came down to an never ending assault with the “But why?” question to everything Linda said.

It got a bit out of hand at one point or another until Linda was screaming at him that he should shut up because he sounded like a stupid child.

Long story short, he got an “are you kidding me” pun placed and delivered, together with the suggestion to listen to what children say, most of the times it was rather intelligent. You know, like his own kid. Who was an ambassador at the age of nine. She hadn't had an answer to that and he hadn't expected one. It was glorious.

So, she was pissed at him. Nothing new.

“What?”, asked Mettaton finally, looking at Linda curiously.

“Is that your robot?”, asked Linda furiously, pointing with a finger at Sans. He looked down at it, a bit baffled and a bit offended while Frisk stared at Linda with a similar mix of emotions. “It's against school code! I'm sure it is full of dangerous stuff!”

“Well, some people consider me dangerous.”, said Mettaton, winking. “Dangerously handsome.”

Linda shrieked. She honest to god shrieked. Sans noticed that Frisk was suddenly behind him, using him as a shield between them and Linda. Mettaton looked confused.

“TELL YOUR ROBOT TO STOP!”, Linda shouted.

Sans blinked. Frisk ducked a bit more behind him. And Mettaton cleared his voice. He didn't need to, but he liked to do it.

“Miss, I find your words pretty offensive. I'm nobodys robot. Well, I'd say I belong to my fans with my heart, soul and nice body, but you know the deal.”, he stated, voice still soft and charming but Sans noticed how it sounded a bit forced. But still, he didn't sound to upset. The showbiz sure helped building acting skills, huh?

Well, that at least got Lindas attention. She turned around, still looking pretty much furious.

“Who asked you? You are just a machine! You are not even real!” She turned back to Sans. “And YOU! I will so get you for this! I'm calling the police and you will get in so much trouble for bringing this... THING to a school!”

“EXCUSE me?”, Mettaton intercepted again, slowly really looked ticked off. “I'm NOT a thing and I am not JUST a machine! This perfect body is the vessel of my soul that I have chosen.”, he declared and, because he was Mettaton, spun around one time, showing off his legs.

“What?”, said Linda, blinking. Sans snickered. Mettatons legs had this effect on people. Nice to know that it even worked on Linda.

“You don't watch MTT much, huh?”, Sans asked, feeling his grin return full-force.

Linda huffed and crossed her arms.

“I don't watch this... program.”, she hissed.

“Well, your loss.”, said Sans, still grinning. “Because if you had, you would know that Mettaton here is quite the celebrity. He is super popular amongst monsters and the rating indicates that many humans enjoy his shows too.”, his grin got a bit wider. “I'm sure the police and the press would find it very interesting why you insulted a beloved TV-star.”

Linda stared at him. Looked at Mettaton. Looked back to Sans. Sans grinned. Oh this was so good. He just loved how Linda always managed to dig her own grave with this. It was fucking hilarious. He could hear Frisk snicker behind him. Jep, this was perfect.

Mettaton seemed to have finished his posing and looked again to Linda.

“Look, Darling, I'll say it in words you can understand.”, he said. “I am a star. I have tons of money, I have tons of wonderful, loyal fans and Sans and Frisk here are my very much beloved family.” He made a gesture with his hands, waving at Sans and Frisk and smiling just a bit brighter before leaning in closer.

“Insult them or insult me, and things will go bad for you, honey.”, he said, his voice as sweet as sugar but his eyes hart as the steel that was used to create his body. “You will go down. I will show you up like last winters reruns of “Cooking with Sizzle” and expose you as just as cold as the bad stew that was served that time. It will be like an eternity of bad hair days. There will be no more good hair days for you if you try to cut me, understood?”

Linda stared at him. Mettaton stared back. Then he straightened himself up, winking and started smiling warmly again.

“And if you would excuse us now, I have some spoiling to do. Come on, Frisk, Sans, we are going to town! I saw a few cute things I would LOVE to show you.”

Frisk giggled and ran to the car, climbing in and strapping themself in. Sans could see them still looking at the scene, but much more relaxed than before. He then looked back at Linda to admire the flexibility of a human face. Seriously, humans are strange. It was a bit funny to observe all the expressions a face with muscles and skin could have.

Linda looked at him. Sans waved.

“He is not bluffing.”, he said, grinning. “Just look up Mettaton on the Internet, you'll see.”

With these words he turned around and climbed into the car himself. He looked at Frisk and let a hand run through their hair, prompting them to giggle.

“Mettaton got her dunked.” they signed.

Sans grinned.

“That he did, kiddo. That he did.”

(What they both didn't notice: while Sans made his way into the car, Mettaton leaned in towards Linda once again and whispered in her ear.

“You know, I could also do something very different. This body WAS a battle machine against humans once. It's my dark secret. So maybe you shouldn't press to many of my buttons, or else we both may discover some buried functions of this body.”

Linda just froze and stared at him while Mettaton just walked of to the car, laughing loudly and was still laughing as they were driving off.)

Chapter Text

Undyne did a lot of things just because she could. Suplex a rock in the middle of a fight? Sure. Throwing a sofa instead of pillows at her best friend? No problem. Lifting all of her friends up and over her head? Been there, done that. Dating the Ex-Royal Scientist and being in the sweetest domestic relationship just like in those fanfictions, that nearly puts the old king and queen to shame? Got it covered and loving every moment of it.

So when the Monsters came to the surface, there were even more things she could do. She really got into all sorts of sports and after a while even became a soccer coach, because Frisk told her that it was like super hard to be a good coach and treat the kids right.

So she became one, to prove that she could, and she intended to be the best. Sans was a bit sceptic at first when Toriel told him about Undyne's plans, a bit worried about how much (or little) control she had. Little humans and monsters were fragile after all.

But it turned out quite well, really. She was amazing with the kids, just the right mix between motivational, completive, caring and careful. The kids loved her. One moment she could scream and was lifting the bench with the whole team still sitting on it over her head. In the next she was handling out tissues and offer a shoulder to cry on.

Besides that, she had Papyrus at her side. Happy, patient, ever-loving, ever-in-control, actually-knowing-how-much-a-human-can-and-can't-take Papyrus. Seriously, he was great. The best bro ever.

So Sans had no objections when Frisk asked one day to attend to one of her training sessions. And because Toriel had work and Papyrus went to his assistant duties straight after school and wouldn't have time to pick up Frisk, Sans was promoted to drive them to their soccer training.

“I could just use one of the shortcuts, Tori...”, he said, looking at the car keys in his boney hands with a vague sense of dread. “You know I'm not the best driver...”

“I know, Sans.”, said Toriel, sighing. “But Frisk called and said that Monster kid's parents couldn't come today so he and Danny would be stuck without somebody to drive them.”

“Danny? He is Pia's kid, isn't he?”, asked Sans.

“Yes. You know her?”

“She is pretty new, but I know her from PTA.”, Sans explained. “She is a good mum. And Danny is a good kid as far as I know.”

“Yes, he is. So it would be really sweet if you could pick the three of them up and drive them over to the soccer training.”

Sans sighed. There was no way he could get out of this, huh?

“Okay, I'll do it, Tori.”, he mumbled.

Toriel smiled before giving him a kiss on his head, making him blush blue.

“Thank you, Sans.”, she said. “I'll see you at dinner.”

“Bye, Tori.”, he said, before he looked at the car keys again. Sighing he accepted his fate.

Driving a car was strange. Papyrus loved it but Sans really felt a bit out-of-control every time he had to use the car.

Oh, it was a nice car, a van that was high enough for Toriel to sit in, but that didn't change the fact that Sans didn't like driving. It was just... a box of metal on wheels. And he had to trust the technology inside it to do what he told it to do. Urgh, he really, really preferred his shortcuts.

But he could only ever take one person at a time through them and besides that, it was something he would like to keep hush-hush for as many people as possible. Especially humans shouldn't know about how he could be theoretically anywhere he wanted to be as long as he had some vague knowledge of the place. There was enough distrust because of monster magic out there already.

There was no point complaining about it, he had to do it and after a short while he pulled over to the parking lot of the school.

He didn't have to wait long until he saw Frisk coming out together with little Danny and Monster Kid, all three of them deep in a conversation with Monster Kid translating for Frisk while they signed.

Monster kid was wearing a striped shirt like always, in tune with the monster-tradition that children wore this kind of clothing. Sans thought it was a bit strange that humans didn't have this tradition (Papyrus was adorable as a child in his red-grey-striped shirt he adored at that age, Sans really wished he still had photos from that time).

Danny was wearing a plain green shirt. The sleeves were sewn shut, because he, like Monster Kid, was born without arms. Both of them got to know each other because of that in the first place. It was always nice to have somebody who just understands, Sans supposed.

Monster Kid was about to fall over and Frisk intercepted, holding their friend steady and even Danny helped his friend regaining his balance. As soon as Monster Kid was standing upright again, the three of them smiled at each other. It was darn cute. Sans felt something inside him melt.

He got out of the car and leaned against it, waiting for them to spot him. When they did he had only seconds to brace himself before he was tackled by an overjoyed Frisk. (He could have dodged, but why the hell should he WANT to? Hugs from his kid were great, only Papyrus gave better hugs.)

He embraced them before setting them down again.

“Uff, kiddo, you got me good.”, he said, grinning, leaning heavenly against the car.

“Hi Dad.”, they signed as soon as their hands were free, still grinning. “Do you take us to the training?”

“You bet.”, Sans answered. He looked to Danny and Monster Kind and winked. “Hey, MK, Danny. Get in, we better get going.”

“Thank you for driving us, Mister Sans.”, said Danny while Frisk helped him into the car and Sans made a sound he rather not repeat. Did this little child really just called him “Mister Sans”? That was adorable and a bit unsettling at the same time.

“Uh... No problem.”, he said, while looking at him and Monster kid. “Do you need something back there? Help or something?”

He really hadn't though about the little handicap Monster kid and Danny had. Were the seatbelts the car had even save for them?

“Noooo, were are good here.”, said Monster kid while he was strapped in by Frisk. “We are a bit hands-off but it's alright, Sir.”

Sans snorted. Sir? Really? And... wait.

“Wait.”, Sans said an stared at him. “Did you just make an armless-joke?”

“We would high-five now, but we are just not armed for that.”, said Monster Kid.

“If we were, we would be pretty armful.”, continued Danny.

Frisk giggled while they were strapping themself in between them. Sans just laughed and focused VERY hard on not squeeing because that would be awful for his reputation. But damn, this was cute, this was perfect! Two mini-punnys!

“Woooh, kids, you are great!”, he said after a while, still giggling a bit. “Really humerus. It takes a lot tibia such a punny person.” He winked. There was giggling all around him. Perfect. Unfortunately, they couldn't just spend the time sitting around and making bad jokes.

“Okay, okay, kids. We should get going or we'll be late.”

He sat down in the drivers seat, checked if everything was in order and begun driving.

“Where did these puns come from?”, he asked after a while.

“We were practising.”, said Monster Kid. “Papyrus said that sometimes it helps making fun about something that makes you sad so you can laugh about it and it wont be as bad anymore. And Papyrus is the coolest ever and he is always right!”

Awwww, shit, why do these kids always say such perfect things? But that sounded like Papyrus, the big softy. His brother knew quite a bit about that stuff, psychology, even if he probably didn't know the word for that. Hell, maybe he even did. Papyrus was a lot more perceptive and intelligent than people gave him credit for. Just because he chose to stay optimistic and excited about the world didn't mean he didn't know about the ugly stuff.

Sans felt a bit guilty considering that a lot of this knowledge most likely came from dealing with him. Damn you Seligman and Maier! Well, fuck them, he got better, he lived in the here and now and there were three great kids in the back of this car, an awesome brother with his best friend waiting for them at the soccer field and the most amazing woman back at home when they'll get back.

“Yeah, my brother sure is right with that.”, said Sans after a few seconds of silence, smiling. “Just stick with him and everything will be alright.”

Monster Kid nodded, grinning widely.

“See?”, he said to Danny. “Everybody agrees that Papyrus is the greatest.”

Frisk giggled.

“Yeah, he is great.”, said Danny. “But Undyne... she is awesome too! Even more so. She is the coolest person alive!”

“Man, I was once there where you are now.”, said Monster Kid in a strange, wise sounding voice. “One day you will see the light, too.”

“Dude!”, exclaimed Danny. “I'm like... one month younger than you! Don't go all wise sage on me!”

“But I'm wise! I was likewise and now I'm otherwise!”

Sans had to use every last bit of self-control to not bust into laughter and crash them all. God, this was hilarious! These kids were fantastic, he could understand now why Toriel liked them so much. Frisk was still the best and the most awesome kid around, hands down, but this was great, too!

Fortunately he could already see the soccer field and pulled over, driving on the parking lot next to it.

“Okay, kids, we are here!”, he declared before unbuckling Danny while Frisk helped Monster Kid.

The children were running to the locker rooms shortly later and Sans had time to wander slowly to the field and look around.

It was very... green around here. The field itself was gigantic. And it was GREEN. Even after three years living on the surface, he couldn't process this much grass. Plants like that were rare in the Underground.

He recognised the white lines and the goals from TV, even if the equipment here looked a bit more used and older, but still good to use.

It was quite a beautiful day, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, the sun was shining and the few trees at the sidelines of the playground threw some nice shadow. Sans could really get to like the idea of just sitting down underneath one of the trees and taking a nice nap.

That idea went straight out of the non existent window when Sans spotted his brother, donning his black-white-striped Uniform (Gosh darn he still looked cute in stripes, Sans had to finally get a better camera, this moment should be preserved!) was running onto the field, holding a basket full of balls. Undyne came right after him, clothed in similar fashion.

Okay, Sans would so get a camera, Alphys would love this. (That or he would beg Alphys to make him a smartphone he could use. Modern technology sadly didn't work well with his bones-for-fingers.)

He sat down in the shadow of one of the trees, but just to observe. Undyne was shouting something and Papyrus was running around, placing balls in a line in front of one goal and getting some kind of sticks that he put upright into the ground. It looked a bit like they were creating an obstacle course.

Some kids came out of the changing room, dressed in shorts and shirts. Papyrus greeted each of them by their name and seemed genuinely happy to see each and every one of them. It was sweet.

More kids came. Frisk, Danny and Monster Kid were also out, together with two girls. One of them was Stevens daughter, but for the love of anything, Sans couldn't remember her name. Was it Elli? He couldn't say for sure. He felt a bit bad now.

The five of them seemed to have a good time, chatting and laughing. Papyrus waved at them, calling out their names too and all of them went to sit on a long bench on the side of the field. (Her name WAS Elli. Bless Papyrus and his loud voice.)

Undyne was standing in front of them, walking up and down their line a bit like a drill seargeant. A drill seargeant with Papyrus as an assistant, who would smile and wave at anybody.

“Okay, kids, you know the drill. The last game was really good, but we still need a lot of work if we want to be the best team!”, she said, looking at each kid she passed while still walking up and down the line of children. “We have to show the other teams our passion for this sport! We have to show them how the fire of soccer burns in every one of us! He have to show them all we are made out of the strongest stuff there is! We have to show them with each step we take, with each contact between you and the ball, that we have this fire, this passion, this determination! Are you with me?”

There was loud cheering from the children (and Papyrus) at the end. The kids jumped up and

down, full of excitement and Undyne grinned.

“Good!”, she said. “Then let's get started!”

There was more cheering and then the kids swarmed Undyne, pleading for something. Sans couldn't quite understand what was said, but he could see Undyne grinning and nodding. Papyrus looked a bit uneasy with the decision.

“REALLY?”, he asked. “I DON'T KNOW IF THAT IS SAVE, UNDYNE...”

“Aw, come on! That's why you are here. You are my Assistant for Safety!”

“BUT UNDYNE...”

The kids now swarmed Papyrus, looking at him with their big eyes. Even Frisk signed “Please” while looking at him with an pleading expression. Papyrus crumbled.

“OH ALL RIGHT. BUT ONLY ONE TURN EACH, THIS IS HARDLY AN APPROPRIATE ACTIVITY FOR TINY HUMANS.”

The kids cheered louder. Frisk, Elli and some other children hugged Papyrus, before forming a line in front of Undyne. She grinned a bit more. Papyrus just sighed (but Sans could see how much he enjoyed the attention provided by the kids) and begun walking towards the other end of the field.

“Ready, Papyrus?”, Undyne shouted and Sans saw his brother now standing a short distance away, giving Undyne a thumbs up.

Undyne then took the first child (a little girl Sans didn't recognise) and threw them as high as she could. Sans was a bit shocked and ready to step in, ready to turn their soul blue and catch them. He felt his magic sparkling, but then he saw something moving from the corner of his eye. Papyrus was still standing right there with his eyes fixed on the flying child, but his arm has moved. There was a flash of blue and the girl was hovering in the air, laughing while Papyrus had a firm grip on her soul and body, moving them down gently and steadily.

Sans didn't understand, but whatever this was, the kids seemed to love it and it warmed his soul to see Papyrus having this much control over his magic and handling the kids. He was very, very proud of him.

Sans looked on. Kid for kid was flying through the air, some laughing, some screaming out of joy. And each and every one of them was brought back safely to the ground by the gentle magic of Papyrus.

After everybody had his turn, Undyne shouted for them to come back at her, saying that now the real training would begin. Papyrus jogged back to them too, looking a bit exhausted (Sans could feel him there, this kind of magic was hard work). Undyne looked over everybody, finding each child happy and ready to begin and announced that NOW training would start.

It was really cute seeing how Papyrus and Undyne organized the kids, got them to do different stuff. Sans didn't know anything about soccer besides “the ball should go into the goal” so he really didn't have a clue of what was going on, but it was adorable. Frisk was pretty good at keeping the ball near their feet when they ran with it, while Monster Kind was pretty impressive strength-wise. Danny was balancing a ball on his head, running around happily with it.

Jup, definitely some A plus cute stuff here.

All of that went on for maybe an hour. Undyne screamed something and everybody stopped, looking at her. She said something and Papyrus began to put away the sticks and most of the balls, bringing everything back to a little shack at the side of the field. He came back with some bright yellow clothing, most likely shirts.

The shirts were a little to big on... every one. Undyne handled one out to half of the children while Papyrus got one ball. Sans grinned, finally understanding what was happening: They would play a game!

Frisk was one of the children who got a shirt. They looked at the field with a glimmer of determination in their eyes. Undyne went to stand on the sidelines while Papyrus remained in the middle between the two teams. Sans concluded that he would play the referee. He shifted a bit, trying to get into a more comfortable position while still being able to see everything going on on the field.

A sharp whistle sound could be heard and the game was on, a cloud of kids running around with one ball and a gentle Papyrus in the middle, while Undyne paced the sidelines and yelled something about passion, fire and determination. It was glorious. And cute.

He could sit here and watch all day.

It was so peaceful, so nice. So naturally something had to happened.

That something would be the sound of a car pulling up at the parking lot, the slam of a car door and the sound of somebody walking angrily over to the field. Sans turned his head, thinking that maybe somebody was late or early to pick up their kid, but instead he saw someone he hadn't expected.

Linda. Fucking Linda. A pissed of Linda. Why the hell was she here?

She hadn't noticed him yet, eyes focused on something on the field. Before Sans could do anything she started screaming.

“BILLY! YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE! GET HERE THIS INSTANT!”

Urgh, she had a voice. He had no ears but this voice rang through his skull. Fuck you Linda, that was such a nice day up until now!

The kids had heard her too. The game came to an halt, everybody was staring up to Linda who came nearer and nearer. Undyne came running to the field, looking angry. Sans could see one kid ducking behind Undyne. Ahh, right. That was Billy.

Huh, he hadn't known that Billy was here. He hadn't even recognised the kid first. He had last seen him in February during Frisks “How to flirt nicely” Seminar. It was a gosh darn cute affair. And Billy seemed a lot friendlier and nicer in the seminar, awkwardly telling a dummy it had a nice necklaces. Sans hadn't heard of any bad behaviour from him since then and it was actually pretty awesome. Now he looked nothing like the snot-nosed rude bully who told Frisk on their first day that they were stupid because they talked with their hands.

Linda had finally reached the play field, still pretty much pissed of, head red with anger. Sans stood, walking slowly to them, not wanting to let things escalate. Frisk noticed him and signed quickly that he should help.

Undyne was still standing proudly between Billy and Linda while Papyrus slowly rounded up the other kids and got them a bit away, sensing that things could go ugly really fast. Sans smiled a bit. Good old Papyrus, knowing exactly what to do.

Well, it was really good, because Linda began screaming again.

“GET AWAY FROM MY CHILD!”, she shrieked in Undynes face.

“No.”, said Undyne, glaring herself.

“No? NO? You are telling ME, his MOTHER, NO?”, hissed Linda. She looked at Billy, who seemed to shrink with each passing second. “Billy was SUPPOSED to go to his football training and I wanted to pick him up today, and you can't imagine the shock I had when Mister Tallington told me that my son wasn't there! And THEN he told me that my son might be here! So hand him over now!”

“But mum...”, mumbled Billy. “I... I wanna...”

“Hey, so, you didn't know he was here?”, asked Undyne, frowning.

“No!”, hissed Linda. “I don't know what you have done, but...”

“Mum! Miss Undyne didn't do anything!”, said Billy, looking pleading between his mother and Undyne. “I just wanted to play soccer...”

“No, I won't allow it!”, hissed Linda. “It's dangerous!”

“Hey, it's not dangerous, it's soccer.”, said Undyne, still glaring. “We don't even use spears or something like that! Just soft balls and nobody gets hurt on my or Papyrus' watch! I would say soccer here is way more save than football.”

“Oh no, you can't lie to me!”, hissed Linda and even nearly poked Undyne in the chest. “I have SEEN what you monsters can do! I know you can do all sorts of... of magic! And who knows what you are doing with this magic here, anything can happen and these children could be hurt! You won't fool me into believing that you are harmless! And I won't let you take away my son!”

Sans had to admit, Linda had guts to say that to Undyne's face. Undyne's face which now sported a pretty angry expression. Sans could see her magic vibrating but not forming something yet. Papyrus was looking over to them with an worried expression. He probably could see the magic too.

“Lady I don't know what your problem is.”, said Undyne, her right hand in a fist. “Sure, we are not harmless. I'm not harmless. I have a lot of harm that I could deal. But I won't. Why should I?”, she said, voice steady and like steel, and for the first time, Sans could see her being the captain of the royal guard. She held herself high, refusing to back down even a millimetre as long as there was someone she had to protect. And at the moment, it seems like Billy needed this protection. “I am their coach and I do that for a year now and none of those pipesacks came to harm at any point!”

“Do you even know what you are doing?”, hissed Linda. “You aren't a teacher! Nobody is here to make sure nothing happens!”

“Are you implying I'm HURTING them?”, asked Undyne, clearly getting more and more angry. “Are you saying I'm a bad coach?”

“Well, you...”, started Linda, but she was interrupted.

“Mum, please stop.”, mumbled Billy. “I wanted to play soccer and all the other kids from my class are here and Undyne and Papyrus are really nice to us and it's a lot of fun.”

“Billy, no!”, hissed Linda again. “I refuse to let you mingle with... with...”

“Mum!”, Billy cried. “Please! They are nice! They... they aren't like they say they are in the books and TV! And Frisk said...”

“Frisk? FRISK SAID? What did that little...”

Okay, no, Sans knew that Undyne could handle everything thrown at her and Papyrus was there to make sure anybody else could handle what Undyne could throw at THEM, but now they dragged Frisk into it. He walked behind Linda, grinning brightly.

“Hello Linda.”, he said, startling her. “What did you want to say about my child?”

Linda turned around, glaring at Sans.

“You.”, she hissed.

“Me?”, he asked, still grinning. “I am not my child. Sorry. I know it can be hard telling us apart. The trick is, I am a skeleton, Frisk is not.” He winked. “You know, it's really not nice to interrupt a nice game of soccer. The kids were having fun.”

“I'm just concerned about my child being at a place I didn't know about and doing something potentially dangerous without proper supervision.”, she hissed. “It was all your idea, wasn't it?”

Sans laughed.

“No, no, Linda. Believe it or not, but you are not the central-piece of my world. I'm just a nice parent here, bringing my kid to training. So. How about you just sit down there on the bench, wait until the kids have finished their game and then we all drive back home like the mature adult people we are?”

“Mum, please!”, said Billy again. “Please! I promise I come right after that, but please stop.”

Linda looked at Billys pleading face and to the surprise of nearly anybody, she looked unsure. After a few tense seconds she sighed.

“Okay.”, she said, voice hard. “But I'll sit right here and keep an eye on EVERYTHING. And we'll go as soon as the game ends.”

“THANK YOU!”, screamed Billy, running to Linda and hugging her, before running back to the other children, clearly happy.

Sans blinked. Huh. He hadn't expected that. Who would have known, Linda had a heart. Or some basic decency.

“Don't think you have won.”, hissed Linda as she noticed him staring at her. He chuckled and winked.

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

Undyne still looked a bit angry but was professional enough to not start anything again. Sans was glad. He really didn't want to have to explain Toriel why he had to break up a spear fight between the soccer coach and a PTA member. She took a few deep breaths and called Papyrus and the kids over again, explaining how they would finish their game.

Sans and Linda went to the bench at the sideline of the field, sitting down. The children were back on the field, back on their positions, there was the sound of a whistle again and the game continued. Linda was glaring at the field, eyes on her son.

Billy seemed to have the time of his life, running and laughing with human and monster kids alike. Undyne shouted some encouragement.

“You know, Linda... I think I have misjudged your kid.”, said Sans after a while. “He seems alright if he is willing to give monsters a chance.” He glanced sideways to Linda.

She was still glaring, arms crossed and sitting straight up, ready to leap up at the smallest notice.

“He doesn't know it better. One day you will slip up and everybody will see how you really are.”, she hissed.

“Oh, I think everybody already sees how I am on the inside.”, Sans said, winking. “Being a skeleton and all.”

Linda glared. Sans laughed. There was a loud cheering when some kid had managed to score a goal. Undyne gartered the whole team up and lifted them over her head, much to the amusement of the children.

She even remembered how to put them down again.

“But Linda, just a word of advice: You should really, really start to think about how you act around people, humans and monster alike. The world is changing, no matter if you like it or not. We monster are here to stay. Many humans are different from what you consider “normal”. You can accept that or you can trying to fight it. But if you fight, you will probably have a b a d t i m e.”

Linda stared at him, Sans winked again. The game ended, the children cheered, Papyrus laughed as they lifted him up (being only bones and magic helped apparently) and Undyne lifting all of THEM up together.

It was still darn cute. The whole thing collapsed after a few seconds in a heap of limbs and giggles. Papyrus was the first to stand, helping Undyne and some kids stand up again. Undyne sent them all to the changing rooms and Papyrus put away the ball and the discarded yellow shirts.

Billy went with his mother, waving at Frisk and their friends before disappearing in Lindas car. Frisk, Monster Kid and Danny came with Sans, their discussion about the game providing some background noise for his thoughts.

It was still a beautiful day. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming.

The sun was still shining as Sans parked the car after dropping up Danny and Monster Kid at their respective homes. He turned off the engine and saw Toriel standing in the front yard. He smiled, giving her a hug as soon as he was out of the car. Toriel laughed, asking him what was the matter.

He didn't say anything, just kept on holding on to her.

The next PTA meeting was a few days later. Pia came over to Sans as soon as she saw him, thanking him for driving Danny to the training and getting him back home.

“It was no problem, Pia.”, Sans said. “It was pretty nice watching the kids playing soccer.”

“Yeah, Undyne is such a good coach.”, said Pia, smiling. “She is amazing and the only person I can trust to take good care of my son during the training...”

Sans grinned a bit as he saw a tell-tale blush forming on Pias cheeks. Awwww, did she have a crush? That was almost as adorable as her son making puns. He winked.

“You know that she is happily married, right?”, he said, a bit teasing and Pia stared a him, blush deepening.

“Uh... y...yeah, uh... I didn't mean...”

Sans laughed.

“No worries, your secret is safe with me.”, he said, winking. “I'm sure she would have been flattered, but you really aren't quite her type.”

“Uh...”

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted their conversation and Sans turned around. Toriel was standing in the door, looking all professional and business-like.

“Good afternoon.”, she said, smiling. “I think we should start?”

There was some shuffling as they all sat down and Sans glanced at her. Toriel held herself high and proud and it was easy to see that once she was the queen of all monsters. She had something regal about her.

The other members of the PTA were looking at her too. Linda seemed to be a bit annoyed, but that was pretty much how she always looked like as far as Sans knew. Pia and Steve were sitting in the back together, some other parents, Sans thought their names were Diana, Rosi, Wanda and John, were looking interested at Toriel. Sadly only one of the two other monster parents were here and Lofot was holding themselves pretty down and out of the spotlight.

“I thank you for coming today.”, started Toriel. “I am here as the headmaster of the school, because I have an announcement to make. Starting today we have a new gym teacher at our school and I thought I should introduce her: Undyne.”

Oh. OH, Toriel hadn't told him that! Sans was shocked but grinned and had to look over to Linda. She looked like somebody had just told her that apples could explode into confetti at any time.

“HE-YAH!”

In a truly Undyne fashion she made a grand entrance. Well, she used the door, so it wasn't exactly an original Undyne entrance, but it was still impressive. She ran up to Toriel, striking a pose in front of all of them, before smiling at them.

“I'm Undyne, the new gym teacher. Don't worry, I'll get your kids in shape!”

Linda kept staring at her. Toriel cleared her throat and everybody looked at her again.

“As I said, Undyne will be our new gym teacher. She will also be in charge of some sport projects we were planing for the next year.”

“Uh... excuse me?”, asked Linda and Sans looked at her, distrust on his mind. “But does Miss... Undyne... even have the qualification to be a teacher?”

Undyne looked at her and Sans could see that she recognised Linda. A frown appeared on her face.

“Uh, yeah?”, she said. “You could just asked me, you know? I'm right here. But yeah, I'm a teacher, even got a sheet of paper saying so.” She looked eyes with Linda before starting to grin, showing off all of her many sharp teeth. “Why are you asking? Do you think I would be a teacher when I'm not qualified as one? Do you think the headmaster is stupid and just hires people without checking?”

“I'm just a concerned parent.”, said Linda stiffly.

“Well, I'm not concerned.”, said Sans, winking. “I think the kids will have a ball with the new gym teacher.”

“And hey? Lady?”, Undyne said, still looking at Linda. “Billy is a pretty good player in the middle field and defence. He should continue come to the soccer training.”. She grinned a bit more. “Now that I am a teacher and qualified, there shouldn't be any problem. Or is there?”

Linda looked at her. Looked at Sans. Looked at Toriel. Looked at everybody else in the room.

“I will think about it.”, she finally said.

Sans gave Undyne a thumbs up. Undyne kept on grinning.

“Good.”, she said. “Because it would be a shame if he would quit soccer, he is rather good at it and enjoys it very much. Oh, and I heard about some.. concern about there not being somebody around who would make sure that nothings happens? Well, firstly, I can assure you that my assistant Papyrus had volunteered to help during class whenever he can. And whenever he doesn't have time, how about you coming over and having an “eye on things”?” Undyne grinned impossible wide. “After all, that would be the only way you could make SURE nothing happens, huh? Are you up for the challenge?”

Everyone was staring at them. Even Sans was staring at them. He really had expected Undyne challenging Linda to some sort of duel, not that. It sounded a bit to collected for Undyne. No, it sounded more like... Sans shortly made eye-contact with Toriel. She gave him a small grin. He felt a grin stretching across his features too. Oh, this was so good. He looked back at Linda who seemed to struggle with herself.

Heh, good luck at getting out of this one, Linda.

Chapter Text

Some PTA meetings were pretty fun. Really, Sans could enjoy himself a lot at some of those. He actually liked hanging out with some of the parents like Pia and Steven. Almost everybody brought some snacks or baked goods for everybody at some point (most of them were pretty tasty) and even his verbal fights with Linda were almost therapeutic sometimes. So yeah, most meetings were really fun.

This one was not.

“So, I think it's high-time we make the vaccinations optional for this school.”, Linda closed her little speech, looking serious. “There are more than one study to prove that there are side effects to the vaccination and as long as that isn't cleared up, we shouldn't force parents to put their kids at risk.”

Oh man. Sans put his head in his hands. Sometimes it was amusing fighting with Linda over stupid shit. But THIS? Where should he even begin? Where should he end? He was tired already.

“Yes, Mister Skeleton?”, asked Linda with a sneer. “Do you want to add something?”

Sans looked up and glared at her.

“I want to, but it wouldn't be so much as “add something into” but more like “Let me explain to you why your idea is stupid.” And THAT takes a lot of time and energy. Oh, and it's Dreemurr actually. You know, I married my wife quite a while ago.”

He wriggled his left hand, showing up a nice golden wedding band. Exchanging rings wasn't a monster tradition (many monsters didn't have hands fit for rings), but Sans liked the feeling of the cold metal on his bones. That and the face of the goldsmith when he saw Toriel's hands was fantastic.

“What do you mean?”, asked Linda.

“My marriage? Or the vaccination stuff?”, asked Sans and winked.

“The vaccinations! Are you in favour to continue this useless proceeder?”, huffed Linda, still glaring and getting angry and frustrated pretty quick.

Oh Stars, he didn't even know where to begin!

“You think that vaccinations are “useless”? You think you know more about that stuff than the people who work in the medical field and aren't frauds?”, he asked, glaring at Linda. “Tell me how much you know about Tetanus.”

The confusion on Linda's face told him all he had to know. Sans sighed and took a deep breath. Just do the rant, get some facts into them and maybe it will stick. He forced himself to smile.

“You see Linda, I'm a skeleton. I'm literally just bare bones. So I'm kinda fascinated by folks with all that other stuff. Like muscles. It's meat that lets you move around, it's fantastic. Like magic, but without the magic. And that stuff is STRONG. Did you know that your muscles are even stronger than your own bones? If your muscles in your back would contract with full power, you would break your own spine, turn your own bones into a broken jigsaw puzzle. And the amazing thing is, that you are able to control this power. So you don't, you know, break yourself.

But did you know that there are diseases that can take away that control? That make you convulse and let your muscles contract all at once at full power, that break your bones, turn your face into a parody of a laughter and then take away your breath until you are dead?

It's pretty horrible, huh? Tetanus is a nasty little thing and you can get it from literally everywhere. One little cut while working in the garden? And you have it. There is no cure, there is little to no hope.

But you know what the other amazing thing is? You humans have found a way to PREVENT this. And do you know what it is? Vaccination.

And the greatest thing is, you humans just decided one day “Screw this, we gonna get rid of some horrible diseases” and started some pretty neat programs. If there were enough people vaccinated, some diseased would simply die out and you humans even got to the point were some of them are pretty rare. Oh, Tetanus isn't a disease that can be eradicated like that, but you get my point. With vaccination you can hold this stuff at bay and prevent people from dying a pretty nasty death.
And THEN there are people like you, who can't understand basic biology and statistics and think there is some kind of witchcraft in the shots and try to tell people that something that helped humanity to survive and live a life without some of the nastiest diseases, that you shouldn't do this pretty good thing.

And you know, that's stupid. So you should stop trying to stop people from doing this neat thing other people worked so hard for so people like you survive childhood and a few scratches.”

Linda looked at him. Everybody else was looking at him. Okay, well, maybe he had overdone it. Urgh, Sans could feel an headache coming and it was coming in fast.

“But what about the studies?”, Linda said, still not willing to give up. “There are studies that said...”

“Linda, to say it blunt, the “studies” you are referring to? They are shit.”, Sans stated. “And if you had bothered to look this up you would know that the first study to correlate the measles vaccine with ADHS was made-up and faulty. The man responsible even faced court for that. His data was totally irrelevant. And every other study which did the same? Nope, either they didn't find anything like that or they were as faulty as the first. It's just bad science and nobody likes that.”

“Even so, you CAN'T tell me there aren't any side-effects!”

Sans sighed. Oh somebody have mercy with him and spare him this bullcrap.

“Well, yeah. Everything has side-effects, I won't say otherwise. BUT: aside from your arm being a bit heavy for a few days, side-effects are really rare. So get maybe one in a few million people who have a serious reaction to the vaccine, often allergy-related. But even so, let's say one hundred people in one million have some kind of side-effect. The real disease is much, much worse and will affect much more people. Even if the rate for serious side-effects is only one to three percent, you'll get thousands of people who are dead or have long-term complications and many more who are “just” sick for a few days. So I think we can live with the vaccine.”

“But does anybody HAVE to get the shot? I mean, what about herd immunity?”, pressed Linda.

“It only works if enough people are vaccinated and it doesn't work for EVERY infection. Only for diseases that are transmitted from human to human or is exclusive to humans. Like I said Tetanus? It doesn't travel from human to human. You get it from little wounds and the bacteria lives in the ground and survives pretty long outside the human body. It doesn't matter if everybody around you is vaccinated, if you are not, you will have the risk of getting it. So herd immunity is totally useless there. And even for the other diseases like the measles, there are people who can't get a shot, people with a weak immune system, with serve allergies to compounds of the vaccine or people with other diseases that makes that impossible and so on. Herd immunity is supposed to protect THEM. It's not for people like you to say “Oh, anybody else should do it so I don't have to.”. I just doesn't work like that!”

“But...”

“NO, Linda.”, interrupted Sans, getting really frustrated. His headache intensifying and he felt his magic crackling. “No. Just... just no. Your whole argument is based on bad science, some badly researched facts and a good dose of fear of things you don't understand because apparently it's so difficult to use wikipedia. So no, just no, we are keeping the shots mandatory!”

“But it's not fair! We should have a choice! You just dictate us what to do and I don't want that! We are a free country and have a right to decide if we do this or not. So don't take away that right and give us a choice to say no!”

Sans flinched before he went completely rigid, eyes wide. No. No, he didn't, he wasn't... He felt his hands starting to shake.

No. No, I don't want to...
You have to.
Just give me a choice!
You don't get one.
It doesn't matter, it won't matter, it never did matter.
We don't have a c h o i c e.

He blinked, eye sockets turning from blue to dark to normal again. Linda was staring at him. Everybody was staring at him. Shit.

Sans took a deep breath. He felt sweaty and shaky and on the verge of breaking down. Shit, that hadn't happened since... urgh, he really thought he was OVER that stuff. His spine itched and there was a ghost of a pain on the back of his skull, on his sternum, on his hands... It's alright, take deep breaths, it's okay. You can do this.

Your name is Sans, you are at a PTA meeting, you are married to Toriel, Frisk is your adopted child, Papyrus is okay and most likely at home, everything is alright, just tell Linda why she is wrong and go home.

“You know, it's kinda rich coming from you, the argument concerning choices.”, he said, still trying and struggling to get his voice back under control. “But you know what? I don't take away a choice. You still have one. You can always leave, go to an other school. But aside from that? No. This isn't about choice or no choice for you, this is about what YOU think is the right decision. I mean, it's nice that you clearly care about your child, but you are working with faulty data here. Vaccination doesn't cause autism or anything like that. Only vaccination protects your child form some really serious diseases and only vaccination as many people as possible can protect people who CAN'T get the shot. So no, we don't make that optional, we don't include contra-vaccination-stuff in our health-classes and I WONT let you make this out like you are oppressed here, because you are not. Excuse me, but I have to go!”

And with that he ran out of the room, teleported straight to his home. Nobody was there.

He didn't know that Pia would pick up where he had left, while Steve glared down Linda. He didn't know that Pia would convince the rest of the PTA members to keep the vaccinations mandatory. He didn't know that Linda looked a bit disturbed by Sans' departure and didn't even put up much of a fight after he left. He didn't know that Steven and Pia both would worry about him. He didn't know that Pia would give Papyrus a call.

He just knew that this meeting was indeed no fun meeting at all.

When Papyrus came home only minutes later, he found the house dark and silent. Frisk was still over at Monster Kids and Toriel was at work. The rather frantic call he got from Pia left him in worry about his brother. It's been a while since he had an episode.

He went up the stairs where the Master bedroom, Frisks room, his own bedroom and Sans' former bedroom now turned office was located. He could see blue light coming from the door to the later room.

He knocked at the door. Nothing. Not even a “Who's there”. This was bad, Sans loved knock-knock jokes and wouldn't wast an opportunity like this.

“SANS?”, Papyrus asked. “BROTHER, CAN I COME IN?”

Silence. This was bad. Papyrus carefully put his skull against the door. There was a sound of ragged breathing and some mumbling. He felt his soul trembling a bit. This wasn't good at all.

“I'M COMING IN, OKAY?”

No answer. At this point he didn't even expected one. He carefully opened the door and the sight nearly broke his soul.

The room itself was unharmed. Just a few cupboards full of books, a desk with a computer and lots of paper, some of them covered in symbols Papyrus couldn't recognise and some science-related stuff. He had half-expected some things to be crushed but nothing seemed out of place.

Sans was a different story. He was sitting under his desk, curled up around himself, both hands gripping his skull. His left eye was ablaze with cyan magic and the light created some interesting shadows over his body and face. His right eye was dark, without any light. But Papyrus could see the tears. He was shaking and the mumbling hadn't stopped.

Oh dear, this was so bad.

He was over by his brother in no time, falling to his knees in front of him. Sans was still trembling and Papyrus was sure that he didn't really saw him. He whispered something Papyrus couldn't make out.

“SANS... SANS, Shhh... CALM DOWN...”, he tried to reach him, tried to make his voice as soothing as possible. He reached out awkwardly, not quite fitting under the desk beside him, putting one hand carefully on Sans' shoulder. “Shhh...”

Sans whimpered. One of his hands, his left, gripped his skull even harder.

“No... no, don't...”, he whispered. “Don't... please... please don't make me... please don't make me... Not again, not again... I don't want to do this again...”

Papyrus could feel himself tearing up too. He could guess what was going on in the head of his brother. This was really bad. Carefully he took Sans' left hand in his own, slowly bringing it away from Sans so he couldn't hurt himself.

He slowly begun to pet his hand.

“Shhhh...”, he said. “IT'S OKAY, SANS. YOU ARE HOME. EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT. WHATEVER YOU ARE SEEING, I WONT LET IT HURT YOU.”

Sans was trembling but he blinked. There were fresh tears.

“P...pap?”, he asked, his voice so small and it broke something deep inside Papyrus.

“HEY SANS.”, he said, smiling a bit. “ITS GOOD TO SEE YOU ARE BACK.”

“Uh...”

Sans looked uncomfortable and didn't look him in the eyes. Papyrus just kept on smiling.

“YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED, SANS. IT'S ALRIGHT. BUT... I THINK YOU SHOULD COME OUT FROM UNDER THE TABLE.”

Sans blinked again. It seemed like he just realized where he was. He smiled a bit sheepish.

“Uh... yeah, I guess you are right, bro...”

Papyrus backed off a bit so Sans could crawl out from under the desk. He looked up to him. Papyrus looked back, then to the old futon that was still standing in Sans' room. He sometimes took power-naps on it when he was working on something and didn't want to wake Toriel by coming to their bed late.

They both settled on it. Sans looked down at his feet. And Papyrus waited patiently.

“It... it was really stupid.”, he mumbled finally. “I don't even know why it set me up.”

“WHAT WAS IS, BROTHER?”, asked Papyrus.

“Just some... stupid stuff at the PTA. Linda is an Anti-Vaccination-Type and all her arguments were crap and normally I can handle her, but she... she said I should give them the choice because if the shots were mandatory, we would take that freedom of choice away.”

Papyrus winced. He could understand that that would hit a nerve in Sans. Slowly, so that he wouldn't startle his brother, he put his arms around him, pulling him in a hug. Sans went rigged in his arms for a moment before relaxing again. Papyrus could feel a pair of short arms coming up around him.

“DON'T WORRY, SANS.”, he said, still trying to make his voice as soft as possible. “I KNOW YOU'RE NOT LIKE THAT. IT WAS HURTFUL OF HER TO SAY WHAT SHE DID. BUT SHE ALSO DIDN'T KNOW SO SHE DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT. ”

“... it's pretty stupid of me, huh?”, said Sans quietly. “Freaking out like that just because of an dumb argument...”

“NO, IT'S NOT DUMB.”, said Papyrus seriously. “IT HAD UPSET YOU, SO IT'S NOT DUMB. HER ARGUMENT IS A TRICKY ONE. FREEDOM OF CHOICE ALWAYS IS A BIT DIFFICULT AS SOON AS MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO LIVE TOGETHER. BUT CHOICES HAVE TO BE MADE BASED ON DATA AND SHE MOST LIKELY ONLY LOOKED AT BAD DATA WITHOUT CONSIDERING OTHER SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE. SO SHE HAS NO REAL BASE FOR A CHOICE TO BE MADE. AND BESIDES THAT, SHE NEVER HAD NO CHOICE. SHE ALWAYS CAN SAY NO TO VACCINATION FOR HERSELF AND SHE WILL NOT FACE ANY OPRESSION OR DISADVANTAGE. AS FOR HER SON, SHE COULD JUST CHANGE SCHOOL OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, BUT OTHERWISE THERE WILL BE NO NEGATIVE CONCEQUENCES, BESIDES THE POSSIBILLITY OF GETTING VERY VERY SICK ONE DAY.

IT IS A BIT IRONIC THAT SHE TALKED ABOUT THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE WHEN SHE WANTS TO MAKE THAT CHOICE NOT FOR HERSELF BUT FOR HER SON. BUT I STAND BY MY POINT THAT HER ARGUMENT WAS PROBLEMATIC AND ILL THOUGHT OUT AT BEST. I CAN ONLY CONCLUDE THAT SHE DIDN'T REALLY WANTS A CHOICE. SHE JUST WANTED PEOPLE TO DO WHAT SHE WANTS.”

Sans made a little sniffling sound. There were no tears anymore and Papyrus counted that as a victory. He squeezed Papyrus a bit and maybe there was even a little laugh. When Sans looked up he had this look he sometimes gets in his eyes. Happy and proud but a bit bittersweet. Papyrus didn't quite understand why he looked like this but he knew it was a good thing and it was way better than before.

“Thanks pap... you... you always know what to say.”

“OF COURSE! AFTER ALL I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

Sans laughed a bit.

“Yeah, you are... you are the best, Pap.”

Toriel said nothing when both of them were missing dinner.

Linda didn't say anything when they saw each other the next day when he picked up Frisk from school. He was glad, he really didn't want to deal with her now. He smiled for his child, picked them up and hugged them. Frisk asked him about his day, no doubt knowing that something was up. They kept looking at him with this expression since yesterday.

“Don't worry about me, kiddo.”, he said, smiling. “I'm alright. You know how... sometimes things are not quite right.”

Frisk nodded. Of course they understood. Sans didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. He just hugged them again.

He put them down when he heard his phone beeping. (he still had this ancient old thing, even if Alphys had upgraded it, he really wanted a more modern one soon) Frisk looked curious over his shoulder as he read the text Alphys had sent him.

Alphys: I think it's ready. :D We can get this started soon ;) =^.^=

Well... that were unexpected news. Frisk tapped on his shoulder, gaining his attention before they signed.

“Dad? What does that mean?”

“Oh, nothing kiddo...”, Sans said before putting his phone away. He winked. “Just a little project between the two nerds of us.”

Frisk just giggled and they went home. And if Sans was a bit in thought for the rest of the day, well, nobody hat to know why exactly.

Chapter Text

Christmas was a pretty neat holiday in Sans' humble opinion. It was pretty similar to the Put-presents-under-a-tree-day monster celebrated and humans seemed to really like that holiday too. There was some kind of religion tied to it, but Sans didn't quite understood any of it. (Something about the birth of some man or something about a celebration of the sun? And somehow there was an old man tied into that who could maybe-sorta teleport via sleight? Humans were weird.) Later he found out that not ALL humans celebrated Christmas and even if they did, they had tons of ways to celebrate it. The explanations sounded pretty complicated (and involved EVEN MORE religions) and at some point he just gave up on trying to understand all of it and decided to just roll with whatever sounded fun.

So he didn't really feel bad for celebrating the holiday by combining some human concepts with monster traditions. Frisk was a well of informations, clearly excited for this event every year. Sans wasn't sure if everything they told him was REALLY a human tradition. Some things sounded really silly, but he supposed, as long as everybody had fun, it didn't really matter.

Toriel got them a big tree at the beginning of December. It was huge, green and smelled nice, of wood and forest and rain and something Sans couldn't place but would forever associate with this kind of tree. They setted it up together in the living room. Toriel got tree sap on her pawns and it took ages to get THAT out. Sans made some jokes about them sticking together and being sappy when she forgot and petted his head before washing up. Papyrus announced that they deserved each other and all the sap of the world. Sans sniggered and declared the whole thing “worth it” even if he found some of Toriel's hair stuck on his skull for days.

Frisk and Papyrus decorated the tree rather enthusiastic together. Papyrus even levitated Frisk up so they could put a golden star on the top of the tree. It was a bit difficult but they managed it pretty well at the end.

Papyrus also turned out to be a big fan of tinsel and the tree ended up simply COVERED in the stuff. It was way to much but Sans just couldn't deny his brother anything when he was this excited about something. (“BROTHER! THIS IS AMAZING, IT LOOKS LIKE SPAGHETTI! SPAGHETTI, SANS! FOR TREES!”) Frisk seemed to like it too and Toriel simply didn't mind, so who was he to tell people how they should do stuff? The tree stayed covered in golden and silver tinsel. It looked a bit ridiculous but he wouldn't have it any other way.

They decorated the rest of the house with colourful lights and ribbons. It looked cheerful and bright and reminded Sans a bit of their old home in Snowdin. Maybe Papyrus had the same though, because he kept on hugging him at random times, just scooping him up in his arms and holding him for a few moments, before putting him back down on the ground, grinning awkwardly and walking away. Sans didn't mind one bit. He was even glad for it, having a reminder that Papyrus was here, that they were on the surface, that everything was alright. He had the suspicion that Papyrus knew exactly what he was thinking. He was the best. Sans loved him very much.

After Frisk explained some other human traditions to them, they even got some mistletoe. Apparently, if two people were standing under some together, they had to to kiss. Sans thought it was a bit strange that a tiny plant prompted humans to kiss, but he couldn't deny that it was quite cute. (and when he used his shortcuts a few times to snatch a few kisses from Toriel, well, who was there to judge him?)

On the second weekend in December, Toriel, Frisk and Papyrus had produced a ton of cookies in seemingly endless variations. They would eat them together almost every day, sitting together in the living room, watching movies about this wonderful holiday while wearing really cheesy Christmas-themed sweaters.

Toriel knitted Sans one that read “Merry Sans-mess”. It was mostly white, blue and red and Sans loved it to bits, especially when Papyrus looked at him not knowing if he should scream or not. Frisk got a “Meet me under the Frisk-eltoe” sweater in blue, red and violet (their eyes filled with determination when they first saw it), while Papyrus was gifted a “Bone Noel” Sweater in bright red, orange and yellow. He told Sans he hated it but he wore it as much as he could and kept hugging himself whenever he thought nobody noticed it. Toriel made herself a yellow-and-blue “Goat your Christmas” Sweater. It should be impossible to look as good as Toriel did in Sans' opinion. (Papyrus would say that Sans was in love and so not fit to pass judgement on anything fashion-related.)

On the 24^th, they invited Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton and Asgore over for a Christmas party. Papyrus had spent the better part of the week cleaning the whole house. Sans didn't know how but even he was roped into cleaning-duty.

“SANS, PLEASE CLEAN UP THE PET ROCK. THE POOR THING REALLY NEEDS A GOOD RUB-DOWN. AND THEN PLEASE REMOVE THE SOCK FROM THE LIVING ROOM!”

“But the sticky-notes really tie the room together. I'm sure everybody will notice when they wouldn't be here.”

“SANS!”

Well, they did it, the house was sparkling. Even Frisk commented on the determination Papyrus had to have to clean up everything. Apparently the though of a Christmas in this wonderful house filled them with determination on their own.

Sans had to admit that the house did look pretty when cleaned up like that.

Their guest came after dinner, with Undyne and Alphys being the first. Undyne only wore a thin Shirt with some film quote on it. Something about a Shark Tornado. Sans wouldn't admit that he didn't get it. Alphys on the other hand was barely visible under the amount of clothing she wore.

“H...Hi.”, she shuddered. “Sorry... but I don't... do well with coldness.”

“Don't worry about it, Alphys.”, Toriel said while hugging her briefly. “We have a warm living room.” She looked at Undyne who seemed pretty comfortable in the cold. “And we have lots of water for you.”

Undyne smiled a bit bashful.

“Thank you, Toriel.”, she said. “It's always a bit difficult for us with extreme weather. I'm good with cold, Alphys is good with hot.”

“Do you mean being hot?”, asked Sans, grinning and if he could he would have wriggled his eyebrows. Damn, he was still a bit jealous of Mettaton because of that.

Undyne grinned. Or showed her teeth. It was hard to tell sometimes.

“You got it right, Bones.”, she said. “She is the hottest thing in my life.”

Alphys blushed in a bright yellow, but didn't seem to upset.

“Undyne!”, she shuttered. Undyne laughed, hugged her and went with her to the living room, where Frisk tackled them both with hugs of their own.

Undyne tackled Papyrus too as soon as she saw him.

“PLEASE STOP TACKELING THE SKELETON!”

She would try to wrestle with Papyrus a bit. He was a good sport about it...

“PLEASE UNDYNE! STOP!”

And the whole thing may or may not ended in a tickle fight, but it was pretty much fun for everybody involved. Sans sighed while watching them. Papyrus may be the only person besides Undyne who could handle her strength while horsing around.

After they recovered Undyne announced that Frisk and her were in need for some “Bestie time”. They disappeared together in Frisks room. Sans entertained the though of following them (no, not spying, who is spying, not him!) when he heard the doorbell again.

Papyrus opened the door this time and was rewarded with a high pitched “Darling!” and more than an arm full of excited robot.

“METTATON!”, he shouted and Sans could see his darling brother flushing brightly orange while trying to maintain balance. He thought it was quite fair considering that Papyrus had no problem to tease him from time to time over his blushing-tendency around Toriel.

“Oh Darling, thank you for inviting me.”, Mettaton cooed, finally releasing Papyrus, looking around. “Your house looks simply marvellous.”

“THANK YOU, METTATON. YOU HAVE TO SEE THE TREE, IT'S VERY PRETTY THIS YEAR.”

Mettaton let himself led to the living room, nodding at Sans in passing. Sans smiled and nodded back. He could hear Alphys high-pitched squee a few moments later. Surely Mettaton had greeted her too with an excited hug.

“It feels a bit like having a house full of children.”, commented Toriel, stepping besides Sans and laying her pawns on his shoulders. Sans made a sound of agreement while leaning back, enjoying the warmth. Toriel was always warm and soft, like a big fluffy walking pillow.

“Somebody's still missing.”, he mumbled. “Are you really okay with him coming?”

“Sans, I may never forget what he had done, but I am an adult who can stay civil around people. I hadn't had a problem with him coming last year, I don't have one now.”, answered Toriel. Sans could feel the vibration of her body when she spoke through their bodies. It felt nice.

“Okay, just checking.”, Sans mumbled, yawning.

The doorbell rang again. Toriel released Sans and opened the door. Asgore was standing there and Sans really didn't know whether he should find the sight funny or sad. Asgore was standing rather slouched over, making himself smaller but it didn't really matter, he was still a massive monster. He wore a fuzzy sweater, red and green and golden with a cheesy “Merry Christmas” message stitched onto the front. A little human-sized Christmas cap was sitting on his head. And he smiled this dorky smile and urgh.

Sans liked the guy. It was hard not to. Heck, Asgore was a bit like the grandpa of the family. But there were so many issues still standing between the three of them. Most issues Sans had with Asgore were long-forgiven but they didn't just disappear. It wasn't fair, for anybody. And Sans felt bad for feeling this way, seeing that Toriel had even more personal reasons of having issues. And Sans HATED having issues with Asgore, because it was impossible to have some and not to feel bad about it and... Argh. Just argh.

“Merry Celebrations.”, Asgore said, still smiling this little smile. He was holding a present in his hands. Toriel sighed deeply. Sans silently agreed with her. He was sometimes hard to deal with. He was just so NICE.

“Nice that you could make it.”, said Toriel, took the present and smiled a bit forced. “Come in, the others are already in the living room.”

“Thank you.”, Asgore said, coming in a little bit awkward. Sans could now see that Asgore somehow had tied a few ribbons on his horns. Oh god, somebody just... deal with that. Asgore looked like a strange mix between dorky, adorable and pathetic. How could this guy be REAL? “You have decorated this house rather nicely.”, he commended.

“Thank you.”, Toriel said and it sounded almost not like a sigh. Asgore smiled and wandered to the living room, leaving Sans and Toriel alone again.

Sans looked at Toriel. Toriel looked back at him. Both of them sighed.

“I love that guy.”, mumbled Sans. “But... Tori? Is... is he real?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”,said Toriel. “He is the realest guy I have ever met.”

The sound of greetings could be heard.

“Welp, time to face the music, huh?”, said Sans, holding out his hand for Toriel to take. “Can't get them getting bonely, huh?” She giggled, accepted his hand and together they walked into their living room.

Things went pretty good after that. Papyrus somehow got himself detached from Mettaton and made a surprising good hot chocolate for them all. He was handling out the first mugs when Undyne and Frisk re-emerged with pretty braided hair. Undyne greeted Asgore warmly (first a hug, then a attempt of a choke-hold which felled flat because of Asgore's size. The failed choke-hold turned into a hug again.) and Sans wondered how much she knew about what had happened in to Underground. Frisk hugged Asgore and Mettaton respectively. Asgore hugged them carefully, smiling sincerely. Mettaton spun them around again, prompting them to laugh. Undyne soon begun to cheer them on, daring Mettaton to spin faster. Frisk didn't seem to mind.

Toriel went to bring some more cookies when Alphys sat down beside him, smiling nervously at him.

“Uh... It's really nice of you to invite all of us.”, she mumbled.

“Well, we had all of you over the last two years, so...”, Sans said, still grinning. “It sure lightens up the house.”

“I hope not literally.”, Alphys mumbled. Sans laughed.

“As long as Undyne and Papyrus don't want to cook together, it won't set the house ablaze. They are both so bright, they sure know how to make a little spark last long...”

“Sans, stop already!”, Alphys nearly screamed, but smiling brightly. Both of them chuckled, observing the antics of the others for a while.

“Uh... I also wanted to know... are you okay?”, asked Alphys, looking down again. “I mean... about the... project?”

“We both know it's important.”, Sans said, still smiling. “Me getting a bit out of my comfort zone? It's a small price, won't you think?”

“Still... uh... are you sure you don't want to tell them...?”

“No.”, said Sans, eyes going dark for a moment. “Not until we are sure. I don't want to get anybody's hope up until we are sure it will work.”

“Just... just saying that sometimes telling the truth can really help.”, mumbled Alphys. “I... I have experience with that. You know, Papyrus really helped me back then...”

“Alphys...”, sighed Sans, feeling tired. “I know, but my situation is a tiny bit different. I'll tell them what they need to know when we are ready, okay?”

“Are you sure?”, she asked, looking at him sceptically and Sans asked himself not for the first time how much she really knew. He never told her more than the basics of what she needed to know, but she had seen the blueprints, she had used some of his old theories and she was pretty intelligent. She could have figured some things out by herself.

“It was a long time ago and I'm over that stuff.”, he explained, sighing. “It took time and a lot of other stuff, but...”, Sans looked up, smiling again. “I'm happy and I really don't want this old stuff messing that up again.”, he said slowly and well, it was the truth. He really was happy. His last episode was pretty annoying because of that. He really thought he had left all of that stuff behind. Apparently, there is not much “leave things behind” when he kept dragging stuff up with the project. Oh well, it won't be for long if everything works out.

Alphys sighed, but seemed to accept his answer.

“Okay. But, uh... should you change your mind... I... you can always send me a message, okay?”

Sans smiled.

“Okay, science-sis.”

Mettaton finally stopped spinning Frisk and came over, starting a conversation with Alphys. Undyne was pretty engrossed by Asgore and Toriel was back, fresh cookies and some more Tea and hot chocolate for everyone. Frisk was leaning heavily against Papyrus, who glared a bit at Mettaton and Undyne.

Toriel sat down on Sans other side and for a while the two of them just observed the room. Papyrus admired Frisks newly-braided hair, not without a tiny bit of jealousy. As cool as it was, being a skeleton came with a price... no hair was one of it.

But all in all... this was nice. Sans felt warm and save and simply content at this moment. He leaned a bit more on Toriel. It was nice.

The rest of the evening was spent in a similar fashion.

Alphys talked with Sans about complex physics and the stars, sharing a dream of reaching them one day.

Mettaton at one point snuggled up to Papyrus again, who was telling everybody who was willing to listen some Christmas stories he learned from the children and adults he worked with every day. (Some of them were really heart-warming, some other Sans did already know and some sounded heavily edited by Papyrus. Sans was SURE that the tale about this girl selling matches didn't had a happy ending where the girl was found by a bunch of strangers and adopted on the spot.)

Undyne would snuggle up to Alphys in a similar fashion, leaving Alphys to blush. She would in turn take Undynes webbed hand, holding on to her for the rest of the evening.

Asgore would tell them old tales from the time before the barrier, of times where humans and monster lived together and celebrated together. Different things, different traditions, different reasons, but a celebration not matter what. He had a great narrator voice and a tiny spark of his magic let his stories nearly come to life. Toriel was a bit stiffly around him for the whole evening, but she stayed civil, like promised, not forgetting his actions, but not hating him anymore.

They got blankets for all of them later, letting the lights dim. The house really looked beautiful like that and Sans could see the lights from the tree and the decoration reflecting in the eyes of his friends and family.

They would fall asleep in the living room together, each of them feeling the warmness and the simple happiness of knowing that they have this family, this wonderful thing together and nothing could take that away from them anymore.

When Sans woke up, he had the feeling like somebody stepped on his spine, but it was worth it.

They would exchange presents together in the morning. Alphys finally made Sans' wish come true and found a solution for his smartphone problem. He spent the next hours making photos of all of his friends and family and trying his best to hide how excited he was about this gift (nobody was fooled).

He took a photo of Frisk wearing one brand-new hand-made sweater with a little red heart on the front, holding up their first own knitting needles with a look of determination. He took a photo of Undyne helping Alphys with a new necklace she got her. Alphys was blushing deeply but looked so happy, both of their wedding bands visible in the shot. He took a photo of Toriel, laughing at a snow-related pun. Somebody had tied little red ribbons to her horns, she looked adorable. He took a photo of Papyrus in the kitchen, wearing a “Cool Chef, Hot Kitchen” apron while making breakfast. He took an other one of Papyrus while he was wearing a striped Christmas-Sweater, leaning against Mettaton and listening to the music that came from the radio while smiling with a soft expression on his face. He took a picture of Asgore giving Frisk a hug and another later when Frisk sat on Asgore's shoulders, wearing his Christmas hat. He took a picture of his own foot by accident and another one of his hand on purpose (Magic DID show up on the photos! Nice). He took one of the snowball fight that started later, with Undyne, Papyrus and Asgore on one team and Frisk, Toriel and Mettaton on the other. Him and Alphys were in tears of laughter soon afterwards.

He took maybe a hundred pictures more. These were memories he never wanted to lose.

Frisk got him a self-drawn picture of their family. It was pretty good, actually. Really good. It showed all of them, Sans, Papyrus, Toriel and Frisk in the foreground with Undyne, Alphys, Asgore and Mettaton in the background. He really, really loved it. He may or may not even teared up a bit. Just a bit.

God, he just fucking loved his family so much.

Their guest took their leave around dinner time, so it was just the four of them again. Asgore said no to worry about him and gave Sans a look when he said that he will always listening if someone wants to talk about something. Sans just nodded.

Mettaton hugged Papyrus a last time before his departure, promising him to stay in touch while he was spending some time with his cousin.

Alphys and Undyne hugged all of them, both promising to call. Sans was glad that Alphys didn't bring up the project again.

They would spend the rest of the day in the living room together, watching movies again or, in Sans' case, sleeping. Everything was nice.

And on December the 26^th, Sans would pick up a little present he got some days earlier and make his way to a house not to far away from their own and knock on a bristle white door.

It was Linda who opened the door, looking at him with wide eyes.

“What are you doing here?”, she asked, frowning.

Sans just smiled.

“Happy Holiday. Or Merry Christmas, seeing that you are celebrating Christmas? I just wanted to give you something.”, he handled Linda the present. She took it but looked at it as if it might explode every second. “Don't worry, it's just a little harmless something. I don't expect anything in return.”

“... thank you?”, said Linda, still looking at him with a heavy dose of suspicion.

“Well, this wasn't the only reason, why I am here.”, said Sans, still smiling. “You see, I'm here because of a little monster-tradition we had in the underground. Christmas is pretty similar to what we had but this part is something only we monster did and I really liked it. So I gave you a present like humans do and I will do the thing we monster do at this day.”

Linda just stared at him, clearly not knowing what to say or what to expect out of him. Sans grinned and took a deep breath. Okay, show time is over, time for getting serious here.

“You know Linda, I have to thank you. You see, my life was pretty shitty for a long time before the barrier broke. I lost a few people who were pretty important to me and I was caught up in some stuff that really messed me up. You wouldn't believe some of the things I had to deal with. Lets just say that I had a lot of time feeling pretty much useless and helpless at my hands.

To say I was at the end of my line by the time Frisk came along and freed us, is not quite right. I had lost my line a long time ago at that point.

But pretty good stuff happened too. Coming to the surface, seeing the stars, gaining a family, it all meant and means the world to me, but I lacked something: Purpose. Because, really, what could I do? I was just as useless as I was before.

But then, one day, my wife sent me to the PTA meeting for our child and I heard you talking and at this moment, I just knew: That was my new purpose: protecting this amazing new world and this amazing children from the bullshit people like you throw around. And it is FUN. It brings me JOY. It fills me with determination every day.

So, thank you, Linda. For giving me this purpose, for giving me a reason to care and fight. Thank you for opening my eyes that I still am important to my family, that I still have things to do and that I really can do those things. Thank you for showing me that I am needed here, that I can make a difference and even that there is this hope my brother talks about all the time and believes in so much. The hope that we can make the world better. Because I am doing it. Every time you say something hurtful or awful or want to do something stupid, I'll shot you down, I'll show you all why this is stupid and I'll STOP this stupid thing from happening. I'm doing it. Because I can, because I am NOT useless and not helpless. I can and so I will and I won't stop.

So, Linda, I really really don't like you. I don't think I ever will, even if my brother still thinks that you can be friends with anybody, if you just try it. But I'm not my brother and I think we'll never get along. But if it's any consultation, I don't hate you. You are just a tiny little human who is afraid and doesn't know shit about things and tries to force the world to be like they want it to be so they can feel save again, but that is not how it works and it's a bit pitiful.

That being said, don't think I'll ever go easy on you. Fuck you Linda, but also thank you.”, he ended, still grinning and winked.

“And have a nice day.”

And he turned around and disappeared through one of his shortcuts, leaving a bewildered Linda behind.

She blinked, still a bit stunned by this speech, not knowing if she should be offended or touched. She looked at the present in her hands. She opened it.

Inside was a nice mug, with something printed on it.

“World's most dunked on Person” The words were blue and the font was Comic Sans. Of course.

Linda sighed. She hated this skeleton so much. (But the mug was nice, she would keep it just to spite him.)

Toriel looked up from her newspaper when Sans reappeared in the living room, grinning brightly. He walked to the coach and flopped down on it beside her. He lifted one of her arms up so he could snuggle up at her side, bringing the arm down again to hold him against her.

She looked at him. He seemed to be pretty much content and happy. She liked it.

“Where were you?”, she asked, voice soft and warm. She put the newspaper away, putting her now free hand on his head, petting him softly.

“Did the Thank-you-tradition.”, he answered, yawning and looking up to Toriel with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Went to Linda's for that.”

“Ah.”, said Toriel, understanding. She smiled at him and pressed her lips briefly against his head. “Did you explain the whole thing to her?”

“Nope. Said that there was a tradition and just... did it. Told her why I had reasons to appreciate her in my life despite our differences and all that. I think she's mostly confused right now, but really, I don't care.”

Toriel chuckled. “I know you do. You didn't had to do that.”

“But it's tradition and... I like the tradition.”, said Sans, eyes shifting to something left of Toriel's head and far, far away.
“Saying nice things to people you normally don't like? Finding reasons why you can find something good even in a person you are at odds with? It's... important, Tori.” His eyes shifted back to her.
“And yeah, maybe I have a bit hope that she... just thinks about it. I can preach and explain to her all my life that we monsters aren't as bad as she thinks we are, she'll never just believe my words. So I have to show her. Give her an example. Actions before words and all that.”, Sans mumbled, while snuggling a bit more up to Toriel.

Toriel still smiled. She held him close to her, feeling his soul, his magic humming beside her own. It was still warm and nice.

“That is really thoughtful of you.”, she said.

“Our kid is the ambassador. I have to show some tact and goodwill at least at some point, don't you think?”

Toriel laughed. Sans looked at her and laughed too, wrapping his arms around her. They kept hugging each other, laughing and giggling and just being... happy.

Toriel felt Sans burring his face in her side, body still shaking with laughter. She petted his head once again and he looked up to her, an expression of pure joy, fondness and happiness on his face.

It was the best present she could ever wish for.

Chapter Text

Sans, for all his strength and intelligence, had some well-known weaknesses. Not all of them were useful for whoever wanted him to do something he didn't want to do. Good luck at getting to that one spot on his left scapula that will reduce him into a laughing mess of a skeleton when he didn't want you to. But knowing Sans for so long, living with him for three years and sharing a bed with him for two, taught Toriel some tricks in dealing with the stubborn skeleton.

“Sans?”, she whispered, one of her pawns on his shoulder while he was still curled up next to her, snuggled into her fur.

He seemed pretty happy like that and reluctant to wake up. Toriel felt a bit bad for waking him, seeing that he did had trouble sleeping the last weeks. On the other hand, it was for a greater good! One of her fingers travelled over his cheekbone.

“Hmmm...”

“Sans?”

“Hmm...?”

“Are you awake?”

“Hm.”

It was clear he wasn't quite awake, but just as much as he was going to be at this hour. Toriel giggled quietly. She continued to cares his skull gently.

“Can I ask you for a favour?”

“Hm... anything... Tori...”, he mumbled without opening his eyes.

“Can you maybe teach a class tomorrow as a substitute? Our science teacher is sick, I can't find a replacement and I need somebody to do it...”

“Hmm... sure. Promise...”

“Oh, thank you. I love you.”, she said, still slightly giggling and kissed him on his head, before pulling the blanket around them tightly, hugging Sans to her a bit more. He was so little in her arms but she loved it.

Sans also snuggled a bit closer, taking a deep breath, before almost instantly falling back to sleep.

“Love... you too, Tori...”

Sans really should learn not to make promises while he was asleep.

“But Tori...”

“No, Sans, you promised!”

Toriel didn't even look at him, instead she hurried around the living room, searching for some paperwork and her glasses. Her stuff really tended to migrate all over the house every day. Sans knew that he was whining but...

“I was asleep! You can't make me promise stuff while I'm asleep, that is against the rules.”

“Well, I'm the queen, so I made those rules, so it's fine. Besides, you said you were awake when I asked you.”

“I agree to pretty much anything you say while I'm sleeping and you know that!”, protested Sans, still determinated to get out of this one.

“Maybe, but that doesn't matter, Sans. They need a science teacher and you are the only scientist I know who could do the job.”

“I'm a researcher in the field of quantum physics, not a middle school teacher! Tori, I have no clue how to be a teacher! Is that even possible that I'm a substitute? And besides that, what about Alphys?”

Toriel gave him a LOOK.

“Alphys is not well with crowds, you know that, Sans. Besides that, she said the other day she is pretty much tied up in an very important project.”

Sans sighed. He knew about the project (and it was pretty important, being THE project), he knew why she couldn't do the job, but that didn't make the whole situation any better. He felt himself running out of arguments.

“Right, but...”

“And yes, I did look into it, it is possible that you can be a substitute for today. You have a PhD, haven't you?”

“Yeah, but...”

“See? It's possible.”

“But what about...”

“You'll do fine.”, interrupted Toriel. “Just amuse them for a while and maybe try to cover the topics written in the book if you want, okay?”, she said, smiling kindly at him. Sans hat the feeling that he was losing ground here.

“But... What if I mess up?”, he asked, slumping into himself. “I don't know how to.. to do stuff with children. Papyrus does that. Not me.”, Sans explained and it was the truth. Papyrus was the one who was good with children, he was not. Hell, he was pretty sure he had traumatised Frisk one way or another in the Underground.

“Papyrus does have school today so he can't do the job and besides that, you are great with kids.”, said Toriel, voice soft and encouraging. She came nearer to him, putting her pawns on his shoulders, prompting him to look at her. “Sans, Frisk loves you, you are an amazing dad and you managed the kids before soccer training quite well the last few times. You LIKE taking care of those kids. You said so yourself!”

Fuck, why did he told her that one? Oh right, he was happy that day and wanted to share that happiness with somebody. Well, it wasn't a lie, he really did enjoy himself driving the kids over and taking care of them for a few minutes. It became kinda a thing that he would share the duty of driving the kids over to soccer training, with Pia and Monster Kid's parents.

“Yeah, but... that was different, that is FRISK and their friends. They are three children I know pretty well.”, he said. Toriel just sighed and resumed her search for the missing items. Sans didn't let that stop him arguing his case.

“Toriel,I have literally no clue about those other kids! And there are much, much more of them!”, he said, but he saw that Toriel had located all of her belongings, looking at him with a “that's cute honey but now do what I said” kinda look.

“Sans, I have faith in you. You can do that.”

“But...”

“I'm sorry, but I have to go.”, said Toriel, kissing him briefly on his head. “Don't worry, you'll figure something out. Love you.”

“Tori, wait! …”

But it was to late, she was already out of the door.

Well, fuck.

And that was how Sans found himself in front of twenty-one children, wearing one of his lab coats, and sweating nervously. Okay, okay, he could do that. He knew his science, those kids were just kids and he just had to amuse them for maybe an hour. He could do this.

He really wished he wasn't this tired already.

“So... hi there, kids.”, he greeted them, trying to at least sound relaxed.

“Hello, Mister Dreemurr.”, the children answered and Sans felt something inside him shatter, because fuck, nobody EVER called him Mister Dreemurr. Not really. Asgore was Mister Dreemurr, not him. Even if he happily took Toriels surname after their marriage, it still felt weird. Hell, it felt weird having a surname at all.

It still felt weird having the freedom to choose, sometimes.

“Uh... yeah. Just... everybody of you call me Sans, okay?”, he said awkwardly. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Get back into your game, Sans! “I may be a skeleton, but this name seems a bit thick on me.” Yeah, make some puns, gain some calmness back.

A few of them giggled. Whew. Introductions complete, now to survive the rest. Sans shoved his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and looked around the room. The children here were a bit older than Frisk, but not by much. There were no monsters in the room, everybody was a human. Well, at least maybe he himself was interesting enough for them?

“So, you no doubt already guessed that I'm your substitute for today.”, he begun while walking over to the teachers desk. “So, we gonna do some science.” He looked down on his desk where a small notebook laid open. A few topics were marked for him, but nothing really spoke to him. For starters there was no topic about quantum physics t. On the other hand, that might be a bit advanced for children.

Urgh, what should he do? Why did he have to deal with this? In how much trouble would he be if he just declared this period a free period? Probably a lot. Urgh.

“Sooo... what were you supposed to do today?”, he asked, still unsure how to begin this whole teaching thing. “Or do you have something you always wanted to know?” Yeah, let the kids decide, if it all goes to hell he could still claim that the kids made him do it. It won't help much, but maybe a little.

“Mister Sans?”, asked a little girl in the third row. “Can we learn something about monster?”

Sans blinked.

“You wanna know about monster?”

Most of the class nodded. Huh, that was... interesting? “Monster” wasn't a topic in his notebook, but hey, maybe this wasn't a bad idea. Humans should know about monster, shouldn't they?

“Sure.”, he said, closing the notebook and sitting down in the chair next to the teachers-desk. Wow, this thing was... not comfortable at all. “What do you want to know about monsters?”

“Why do you look like a skeleton and Headmaster Dreemurr like a goat?”, asked a boy.

“Well...”, began Sans, thinking about it. That was actually a good question, he supposed. “There are many kinds of monsters, kinda like there are many kinds of humans. You come in all kinds of colours and shapes and stuff, don't you?”

Some children nodded, some looked thoughtful.

“We monsters come in many different shapes too, but are still monsters.”, he explained further. “We have a bit more variation in our shapes because our bodies aren't like human ones, you know? Our bodies are just dust and magic that is shaped according to our souls. That's why humans are so much stronger then we are. We aren't this... solid. And our soul is right here.”, he gesticulated to his own bones.

“Soooo... if you and Headmaster Dreemurr would have a child, would they look like a skeleton? A goat? Or a goat-skeleton?”, asked a girl in the second row and Sans nearly felt out of the chair. Damn, what the hell?

“Are you okay?”, she asked concerned.

“Yeah, just... surprised.”, he mumbled. He regained his balance. Children... No, he really didn't want to think about that possibility. He wasn't even sure how... Nope. Just No.

He looked back at the children. Still had to answer this question, huh? He sighed silently before clearing his (non existing) throat.

“And the answer is... not necessarily. As I said, we don't have this... biology thing going on like humans.” He gesticulated vague to his own body. A few children sniggered, obviously already knowing what he was referring to. Okay, awkward. Don't think about it, just roll with it. “A child would most likely share some semblance to their parents, even more so if the souls of both parents were pretty similar, but they could also look completely different.”

“How do monsters get children, then?”, asked a boy, curiosity on his face. A few other children giggled. Sans sighed.

“Not like you imagine, I would think.”, he said, winking. A few more giggled. “Like I said, we monsters don't do this whole biological thing. We are essential souls. So in order to have a child, two or more monsters have to... really want it? Our souls are made out of magic, compassion and love. If the love of two monsters is strong enough, a new soul could be born. The parents will feed it magic and their love until the soul is strong enough to have a body.”, he explained.

“Two or more monsters?”, asked a girl, clearly confused. “No matter what kind of monster?”

“Uh, yeah?”, agreed Sans. “Like I said, don't think about monsters like humans or animals, we literally don't have a biology like you do.”

Some of the kids were whispering excitedly with each other, some other giggled. Some were looking at him as if he just seriously blew their mind.

“But are you gonna have a child?”, asked an other girl. “I mean you and Headmaster Toriel?” And damn, Sans could feel himself blushing again, prompting ooohs and aaaahs from the kids.

“Uh... we already have Frisk, you know?”, he said. “And... no. Probably not.” He wasn't even sure if they could if they wanted. “But come on, you want to know stuff about monsters, not personal stuff about the headmaster, do you?”

A few children giggled and Sans sighed deeply.

A small boy raised his hand, looking very deeply in thought.

“Uh... Mister Sans? Did you really come from under a mountain?”

“Yeah.”, said Sans. “We called it the Underground. Or... New Home. Our King was a good guy but very... not good with names, you know?”

“Do you have a king now?”

“No, we don't have a monarchy anymore.”, Sans answered. “We are just citizen in this land like the humans.” Even if there were enough people who were not happy about that, Frisk had insisted and somehow, the humans had agreed. “It's still a bit strange for anybody, but it's alright, huh? Asgore is just a guy now. He is a great listener.”, he said, winking. “And he have Frisk as our ambassador, so we all have a lot of hope.” There was a fair amound of pride in his voice.

“Asgore?”, asked an other girl. “The fuzzy guy who works in the garden was the king?”

“King of all Monsters, His majesty Asgore Dreemurr.”, Sans said in a mock-serious tone. He kept grinning and the children sniggered. “Yeah, he was. Like I said, he is a good guy. A big old softy too.”

Well, except the whole “killing children” part. Better not tell them that. Besides that, he had been looking for other options. Unfortunately these other options turned out not to be really good at the end too, huh?

“Can all monsters do magic?”, asked an other girl.

“Yes.”, answered Sans, smiling and a bit glad that they moved on to an other topic. “All monster can use magic. Well, not all monsters use the same magic. Common traits are fire-magic, healing magic and shield magic. Most of our magic is passive and tied to our emotions. We still have to learn to control it, but once we do? It's nice. Our magic is a form of expression of our soul. Don't be afraid of it if you see it. If a monsters used their magic on you, just tell them to stop if you don't want them to.”

Again a few children nodded. Sans allowed himself to relax a bit more. Things were going kinda good, weren't they?

“Uh... I have a question.”, said a boy sitting in the front line. “My dad said something about... Monster having HP and AKT and DEF? What is that?”

Welp, there goes “things are going good”. Sans sighed. The heavy stuff, huh?

“It's... a bit complicated.”, he begun, really unsure how to explain these kids that stuff. “We call them Stats, it is the status of our Soul. AKT is the strength of out soul. It is directly tied to the will of the monster to do something, to make something happened, the will to fight. It isn't necessary the will to hurt other people... it can hurt other souls if they're out in the open, but most of the time the AKT is used to make out magic solid so it can interact with the physical world. The higher the AKT the higher the effect of our magic.”, Sans explained. The kids were silent, everybody listening to every word he said. Huh, he could get used to this.

“The DEF is the ability to protect our soul and is tied to the will of the monster to endure and to live. The higher the DEF the more damage a body can take until it really damaged the soul. I'm talking of physical and emotional damage here. Our bodies are our souls, remember?” A few of them nodded.

“HP is even more complicated. Many people say it's Hit Points, the amount of damage higher than the DEF a soul can take until it breaks. But it also means... Hope. The more hope a monster has the more it can take, the greater is their will to live and their hope for a future. Hope is what keeps us going, what holds our soul together. We monsters are made out of love, compassion and magic. But without hope... The more damage a soul takes, the more Hope will be lost. It can be regained, but some things will leave permanent damage. If a monster loses all hope, their HP will get lower and lower until the monster falls down.”

It was death quiet in the room and Sans only know noticed how the atmosphere went to doom and gloom. He felt strangely... stuffed. Not empty but full with something that prevented him to feel any of the things he should feel.

“What happens if the HP runs out?”, one girl asked. The other children seemed to hold their breath. Everybody was looking at Sans.

“... we'll die.”, whispers Sans, eyes turning dark. “Our Soul breaks and our bodies turn to dust. Because that is all we are. Dust, Hope and Magic.”

The silence that followed was eerie. Nobody said anything. Sans looked down, taking deep breaths. Then he begun to laugh. First only some bitter chuckles which worked themselves up to a full out laughter.

“But kids, don't take that to serious.”, he said, winking and still chuckling. “There are some things you shouldn't think about to seriously. Besides, there is plenty for us now to get hope from. Getting out of the Underground has rescued us all in more than one way. We are okay now. Plenty of hope to go around. So let's talk about something different, okay?”

Oh God, Sans, stop traumatising kids with the stupid shit that is the drama of your life. Toriel will be furious. Remember the “You would be dead where you stand” thing? It was bad, remember? Urgh, Seriously, telling the kids about how monsters die? Really? And did he really just LAUGH about it? Oh god, what was he doing? Maybe Alphys was right and the project really started to wear on his mind. Well, it doesn't matter, they were well along, soon they were finished with it.

Fortunately nobody was crying and the kids seemed to take his bitter bullshit rather well. A few of them seemed to think really hard about it. Sans thanked his lucky star that there were no children from the PTA parents here. Linda was still behaving strangely, even if things went better since Christmas.

“What was it like, living in the underground?” asked one brave little boy after a while, pulling Sans out of his half-panic musings. Sans sighed, because, yeah, he could do that. Just focus on the good, leave out the traumatic and the drama.

“Mostly dark.”, Sans explained. “Some monsters can do fire magic and we had crystals to lighten us the way. Later, much later, we build the Core, which gave us electricity so we could have light and all that stuff. It was... okay. We were trapped but we made do. And we had hope. As long as we had that, we wouldn't fall down.”

Yeah, the hope that Asgore would kill seven Humans and all that. Urgh. didn't he just agreed with himself to leave OUT the drama? Good thing that some things just went over the children's heads.

“Monster Kid told me once about a place called Snowdin? And Undyne kept talking about Waterfalls and a Hot Land?” asked a girl and Sans recognised her from Soccer training. (Urgh, please don't tell your parents about the dark stuff I'm telling because I have no filter sometimes.)

Sans smiled, relieved that the questions finally went to a place he could talk about without this dreadful cold feeling in his soul.

“Ah, yeah, that were some of the main areas in the Underground. I lived in Snowdin for a while. It was a cold place, snow everywhere. It was pretty neat and perfect for me and my brother. We are both skeletons, so we didn't feel the cold. It gets right through us.”

A few children laughed, a few groaned and Sans was grinning full force again.

“It was quite beautiful and most of the folks there had fur and were really fluffy.”, he told them and felt himself smile a bit at the memories. “Waterfalls was a more dark-ish area with, well, many waterfalls. Undyne lived there, she liked the water.” A few children giggled and Sans let is slide. “We had this one cave with glowing crystals everywhere. It looked a bit like a night sky full of stars. We knew it wasn't the real thing, but we made wishes like humans wished on shooting stars. There were these flowers that repeated what they heard so this cave was filled with the wishes of the monsters who came there. It was really pretty.”

The children looked at him again with this look as if he was just telling the most amazing story of wonders. Kinda like Papyrus and his bedtime stories. And well, he was surprised how nice it felt, talking about the Underground. He would have thought that he would resent that place forever. But he didn't. He didn't want to go back there, ever, but he didn't hate that place. There were happy memories tied to it besides the bad.

“And Hotland?”, asked somebody.

“Well, Hotland was... hot. Mount Ebott has a magma chamber beneath it. The Vulcan is not active, but it was enough to give us a lot of heat. The Core is located there because it used the heat to create electricity and the more technology advanced stuff was build there because of the Core.”

Sans stopped. Huh, if you leave out the drama and traumatic stuff, Hotland was pretty boring.

“You had technology down there?”, asked somebody. “I mean real technology? Computer and stuff?”

“Yeah.”, confirmed Sans, grinning. “Mostly stuff we build from the trash that was washed into the mountain. Some things we could do ourselves. We had crystals and some metals down there. A lot of gold too. You know Alphys?”

“The pretty lizard that Undyne kisses sometimes?”, asked a girl and blushed and even Sans had to giggle a little bit at that.

“Jup, her. She was our Royal Scientist. She build and designed a lot of our more advanced stuff. I think some things were even better than the stuff humans had. She is now a researcher again, works in a really cool laboratory. She is a genius, you know?”, he told them, winking. And yeah, Alphys was a genius, she made it happened that he could use a smartphone!

“And you, Mister Sans?”, asked a boy. “Are you a scientist too?”

“Uh...”, Sans hesitated, caught off-guard by the question. “Uh, yeah, I am. Uh, my field is pretty complicated, but I'm a scientist.”

“That's so cool.”, decided one girl, smiling and... was she blushing? Oh no, please don't, kid, seriously.

“Can we see you doing magic?”, asked somebody else.

Sans considered that for a moment.

“Okay. Pay attention, okay?”, he said, grinning. One of his hands left the pocket of his lab coat and begun to glow in a soft blue. Some books and little stuff across the room begun to glow in the same light before they were elevated. Some kinds made “oooh” and “ahhh” sounds while Sans let the items fly through the air. “It's a neat trick, huh?”, he said, grinning. “I used to have a self sustaining tornado in my room when I was younger.”

A few of them giggled some more. Sans let the items drop where he had taken then, putting his hand back inside his pockets. He looked at the clock. Still half an hour to kill. Urgh. The kids seemed a bit disappointed that his magic show was over but Sans really didn't want to drag that on. Every form of magic drained him. Missing sleep doesn't help with the matter.

“Okay, kids... uh... you liked the tornado?” An idea was forming in his head. “Okay, what about... I show you how an actual tornado works?”

The kids cheered and Sans picked up some chalk. Better get to work with that.

“Okay, firstly, does anybody here know what a tornado actually is...?”

When Toriel came over half an hour later, she couldn't help but giggle a bit to herself. But seeing Sans surrounded by children, explaining away how a trash tornado worked, was strangely precious.

“I... didn't know you have monster teacher here.”, said the woman besides her, looking a bit disturbed. Toriel just smiled.

“Oh, he is a substitute for today, but don't worry, he is the best. Has a PhD and all.”, she boasted.

“Monster have PhDs?”

“We may lived under a rock, but only literally.”, commended Toriel dryly. “So, I think we shouldn't interrupt them. What do you think about our school?”

They slowly walked back towards Toriels office. The heels of the woman beside her clicked on the floor and and the scribble-sound of her pencil on her notebook sounded unnaturally loud.

“Well, everything seems to be in order.”, mumbled the woman. “I will talk to some of the parents, students and teachers in the next weeks. When I'm finished, you will get the results of the inspection.”

“I can't wait.”, said Toriel, still smiling but not missing the look the woman gave her. “If you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me.”

“I will.”

Alphys: You were right, there's still that problem in the stabilisation process.

Sans: But the rest works?

Alphys: I think so? The numbers seem right. I think it's a chemical problem... like something missing in the reaction-process.

Sans: I may have an idea how to solve the problem, but I have to look something up for that.

Alphys: You're really serious with that thing. o.o

Sans: I made a promise, I TRY not to break this. I have broken enough.

Alphys: Melodramatic much? -.ô

Sans: You are one to talk.

Alphys: I think nothing tops your “Help me, with this we can correct mistakes be BOTH made” speech.

Sans: It was a good speech and you know it. We are almost there.

Alphys: I can't believe I'm saying this, but go home, go to sleep, you need it. >.<

Sans: K, Worry-Lizard. You should too.

Alphys sighed and put her phone down. She looked over her workplace. Her computer showed her pages of pages of code, her desk was covered in papers, blueprints and personal notes. In front of her was a little metal case full of paper, old and slightly yellowed. She felt a bit guilty of taking it, but well, she didn't know what it was when she took it, she really thought it belonged to the things she was allowed to take. She looked at the hand-written notes and felt her soul constricting uncomfortably.

Log Entry 11/30/1XXX

The machine is ready. No more setbacks, I will finally get it right. I will make it right. I will correct this.

Log Entry 12/02/1XXX

I was wrong and I was right. It will work. But it's not a colour. It's just dark. I think that's the answer. I just have to test it. Now it's time.

- Log Entry 12/05/1XXX

I wish I could forget. But I can't. Damn him and his damn machine!

-Log Entry 01/25/1XXX

I went back today, took all blueprints I could find and the machine. Nobody will ever use this stuff again. It's to dangerous.

-Log Entry 02/04/1XXX

Asgore knew about the project. And he knew about me. I don't know what to think about it.

- Log Entry 05/11/1XXX

The anomaly is back. I have dreams and memories of things that didn't happened. A fifth human has fallen. I don't know what their colour is. I hate this. I hate this all so much.

Please let it stop.

She knew both handwritings. One of them made her very, very uncomfortable. She looked to her left, where a big machine stood, nearly completely assembled and repaired, and now covered with some old bedsheets. Alphys looked at the notes again.

“I really hope you know what you are doing, Sans.”, she mumbled.

Chapter Text

Sans was tired. For somebody who didn't know him very well, this wouldn't seem out of the norm. Sans liked to sleep and would literally fall asleep everywhere (especially whenever he was picked up and carried by either Papyrus or Toriel, because his brother was awesome and Toriel was like the fluffiest walking pillow ever. Both of them were cool enough to let him more often than not). Usually, he really just liked to take it easy and relax, but now he felt really, really bone-crushing exhausted. Ergo sleeping because he was really damn exhausted, not because he liked it.

Sans really, really didn't like this, but couldn't do anything against it.

Papyrus was the first to see the symptoms one morning, when Sans came into the kitchen looking like... well, like he was still in the Underground. Sans' skull wasn't the best medium to show subtle emotions, but Papyrus always had a way to read his brother. He placed a mug of coffee in front of Sans, looking concerned. Sans blinked and took the mug, surprised, but smiling slightly.

“Thank you, bro.”, he mumbled while the caffeine did its magic. “Hmm... this is just what I needed.”

“YOU NEED NOT TO THANK ME, BROTHER.”, Papyrus said slowly, still observing him. “YOU SEEM TO BE MORE TIRED THAN USUAL. DID YOU NOT SLEEP WELL?”

Sans stilled and looked in his mug, conflicted. On one hand he really didn't want to worry Papyrus, on the other hand he knew that Papyrus wasn't an idiot and he didn't deserve to be lied to.

“Yeah... just... some dreams again, bro.”, he mumbled, hoping the vague truth would satisfy Papyrus.

“IT GOT WORSE SINCE YOU LAST INCIDENT.”, stated Papyrus.

“Yeah... I guess it's still... a bit with me.”, Sans mumbled. “It's a bit annoying. I went so long without nightmares.”

“DO YOU WISH TO TALK ABOUT IT?”

Papyrus looked at him and Sans wanted to shrink into the coach and disappear a bit. This was the same look he had when he asked Sans about his Night terrors for the first time. A strange mix of worry, fear, fondness and hope. As much as Sans loved his brother, sometimes it was hard to deal with him. It was hard to look at him when he looked like that.

“Nah. I'm alright, I can handle the dreams.”, said Sans slowly. “They are not so bad anymore.” Well, that was true. He didn't have the serve night terrors anymore. These horrible dreams that left him screaming and crying and lashing out at something that wasn't there. The nightmares now were not fun and prevented that he slept more than two hours at a time, but they weren't nearly as horrible as the ones he had dealt with around the time the barrier broke. “I think I can handle them.”, Sans said as confident as he could.

“IF YOU ARE SURE?”, asked Papyrus, still concerned about him. He sat down beside him, looking directly in his eyes. “THE LAST TIME YOU HAD THESE DREAMS, IT WAS QUITE SERVE AND TALKING ABOUT THE TIMELINES HAD HELPED, HADN'T IT?”

Sans sighed and let himself lean a bit against his brother, resting his head against Papyrus' right arm. His brother was the best, really. Sans didn't regret telling him about the timelines, the nightmares, what had happened to him during these loops... it had helped him. It was difficult to accept that he needed help (and deserved help and that help would actually help and... a lot more stuff) but once he did, he didn't regret it for even one second.

“It's alright, Papyrus. I... know that there won't be any more resets or something like that.”, Sans mumbled. “I don't know why I'm so... hung up about that stuff at the moment.”

“MAYBE WHAT LINDA SAID AFFECTED YOU MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT?”, mused Papyrus, while putting an arm around Sans, pulling him into some kind of half-hug.

“Maybe?”, answered Sans. “I mean, I was pretty tired that day... and what she said was... mostly stupid stuff, but... yeah...”, he trailed off, looking at something far, far away. Papyrus waited patiently for Sans to continue.

“I just... don't like to be reminded of situations without choices, you know?”, Sans said after a while.

“IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE.”, said Papyrus, pondering. “FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL IS QUITE A COMMON THING AND IT WOULD MADE SENSE FOR YOU, CONSIDERING WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED WITH THE TIMELOOPS?”

“Yeah... that could be it.”, said Sans, sighing. “I just hate the thought of loosing control. Over myself or... situations.”

That was the truth. Sans really, really hated feeling helpless and out-of-control. He had really, really hated the timeloops that trapped him for a good portion of his life. He still hated them.

“WELL, FEAR NOT, FOR IF YOU ARE FEELING LIKE LOOSING CONTROL, YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL ME AND I WILL FIND A WAY TO HELP YOU.”, said Papyrus earnestly. “YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, BROTHER.”

“I know. Thank you, bro.”, mumbled Sans, smiling a bit. “You're the pro when it comes to control, huh?”

“WELL, IT'S A GIFT. NYEH HEH HEH.”, laughed Papyrus, prompting Sans to chuckle a bit with him. “BROTHER, KNOW THAT WHENEVER YOU NEED ASSISTANCE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU.”

“I known, bro. I know.”, Sans said softly. Papyrus gave him a short, real hug, before heading out, off to his classes. Sans looked after him, feeling much lighter now. It was impossible to stay in a bad mood with Papyrus around.

Sans regarded the now empty coffee mug again. Remembering that today would be a PTA meeting, he sighed and refilled his mug. He would need every drop coffee he could get today.

The meeting was in full swing when he got there, maybe five minutes to late. Even with shortcuts, it took him some minutes to get from work to the school and with how tired he was today, it took him longer using his shortcuts than usual.

He let himself fall into a chair as soon as he arrived. Nobody was phased by his lateness. It was pretty normal for him to come in a bit later. Sans was just a little bit annoyed at the fact that this time, it wasn't intentional.

“Hey, good that you are here.”, said Steven as soon as Sans settled down, looking up from some sort of clipboard. “We just talked about this inspection that is going on.”

“Inspection?”, asked Sans. Toriel had told him something about that, but he hadn't known that it was already in process.

“Yes. Seeing that this school is a... pilot project in human-monster-cooperation, many people are very interested in the quality of the education here.”, said Linda stiffly. “Especially considering that the headmaster of this school IS a monster.”

“Uh... nice?”, offered Sans, still not quite sure where this was going (and to be honest, still very, very tired.)

“Yes, nice.”, said Linda slowly, still looking at Sans. “I had a chance to talk to the woman in question already. She wants to get the full picture off the school.”

“You talked to her already?”, asked Pia, sounding a bit worried. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her the school is fine.”, huffed Linda, arms crossed.

Sans looked at her and noticed that he wasn't the only one.

“Really?”, asked Steven. “You are usually the first one to point out the “flaws”. Like our mandatory vaccination rule or some of the teachers...”

“Well, there is always room for improvement, and my issues with certain persons aren't issues with the school.”, mumbled Linda. “This IS still OUR school and we a presenting our work here. Why should I tell somebody that the product of our work is bad?”, she asked. “My son is here, I wouldn't settle with a bad school for him.”, Linda stated, looking at all of them, daring them to say anything against her statement.

“Well, that's the nicest thing I ever heard you saying.”, mumbled Sans, but smiling a bit. Maybe Papyrus was right and there was hope for people like Linda. (Still, he won't ever go easy on her. Maybe she wasn't a horrible person but she still had horrible opinions.)

“The inspector-lady was in the cafeteria first.”, whispered one of the Monster parents, a bunny-like monster Sans vaguely remembered from Snowdin, to him. “She was impressed by our allergen-free program and was told that Linda was responsible for the idea. Linda couldn't really say that it wasn't true, huh?”

Sans giggled a bit at that. Linda glared at him.

“ANYWAY.”, Linda said a bit louder than necessary. “I DID hear something unusual.”, she looked at Sans, frowning. “I didn't know you had a permission to teach.”

“Oh, do you mean that one day where I was a substitute teacher for science class?”, Sans asked, a bit surprised that word got out about that. “Well, I was told that I could be a substitute for a short time? I had my PhDs recognized some time ago, I needed them for my job, so....”

“You have a PhD?”

“PhDs, plural. I had eight in the Underground, five of them are now recognized.”, Sans answered. The other three were in pretty monster-specific fields and Sans really wasn't comfortable in sharing his research about determination and time-anomalies. It would just lead to questions he couldn't and wouldn't answer.

It was suddenly strangely silent. Everybody was looking at him. He blinked.

“What?”

“You have several PhDs?”

“You have a JOB?”, asked Linda, clearly surprised.

“I TOLD you that I have a job? You know, when I say “I'm tired and have work in two hours”, I don't mean a free time work out or something like that.”, stated Sans a bit defensive.

“I thought you just said that so we'll end the meeting earlier!”

“Really?”

“Anyway, you needed your... what IS your job?”, asked Linda.

“I don't know why you want to know, but I'm a researcher?”, said Sans, still a bit confused (but also a bit amused) by the reactions of the humans. “Quantum Physics is my jam, well actually my ketchup, I don't really like jam that much.” He grinned a bit. Linda was starring at him and somehow it felt like this is how it should be.

There was even more silence and Sans felt more than tired again. Maybe he could get away with a bit shut-eye? No, he didn't want to miss anything in case of that he had to prevent something stupid from happening. Again.

“Well, that's... quite the coincidence.”, said Steven, a slightly stained smile on his lips. “We have talked about an upcoming field trip. You know, your Frisk is in the class which will go to the Ebott West laboratory and we still need some parents to act as supervision... so... if you have knowledge...?”

And just like that all thoughts of sleep went right out of the window. Sans mind was racing. Ebott West? That... that was actually perfect! Maybe the universe finally stopped hating him.

He smiled.

“Sure, I'll do it.”

“I will come, too.”, stated Linda, crossing her arms again, mumbling something about not letting Sans alone with the children. He ignored her.

“Uh, okay...”, said Steven, writing them both down.

“Actually, I will bring a friend of mine, too.”, said Sans, grinning a bit. “Her name is Alphys, she was the Royal Scientist down in the Underground, so she knows a lot more about that stuff than me. I'm sure she will be delighted to help out a bit.”

“That sounds nice.”, said Steven, writing her name down down too. “Seems like this will be a very informative field trip.”

Sans grinned at Linda, who seemed to try to figure out what he was planning.

“You could say that.” He winked. Linda's left eye twitched.

“I bet you twenty dollar that she will scream at him in the first half an hour of the trip.”, whispered Pia ins Steven's ear.

“Deal.”, he whispered back, grinning widely.

Sans' grin just got a bit wider.

Sans' relationship with Alphys was... complicated. They both knew that the other knows more than they let on, even back in the Underground. For Sans it was even more complicated because Alphys actually used some of the research and theories he was involved in. It was always a bit jarring to know that something he once wrote was used for something like the Determination-Experiments.

That didn't mean that he didn't like her or respected her. He did and he regarded Alphys as a dear friend. Besides, Alphys was the only one who could keep up with him when he talked science. As much as Sans loved Toriel, Papyrus and Frisk, it was nice to know that there was a person who could get behind some neat mathematics.

On top of that, Alphys was the only person Sans trusted with their little project. And Alphys was sure that Sans was the only one who really understood her issues with the failed determination-experiments.

It was this complicated relationship that allowed him certain actions others couldn't possible pull off with her.

“We are going on a field trip!”, Sans announced, marching into the lab they both worked in, grinning widely at her.

Alphys was surprised, nearly falling out of her chair. She turned around quickly, staring at him.

“What? Field trip?”, she asked, blinking. It wasn't unusual that Sans stormed into her lab proclaiming strange things. But this was new. “What... what do you mean?”

“I mean field trip. Well, more like scouting for stuff. I think I found something that will solve our little destabilization-problem and will fix a few parts we couldn't fix before. We need some spare parts anyway, soooo...”, explained Sans, still grinning, and made a wide gesture with his arms, almost as if he was trying to hug the air in front of him.

Alphys regarded him with caution. Something was up.

“Sans... what? No, wait... I mean, where? And why do you need me coming?”

“Well, turns out we need a few chemicals we can't easily obtain legally. BUT Frisks class will have a field trip to the very same laboratory we need to get in next week. Ebott West laboratory! I sighed us up as supervision. So you and me are going on a field trip.”

“SANS!”, shrieked Alphys, alarmed. “You want us to STEAL that stuff? Do you know in how much trouble we could get because of that?”

“Come on, we don't have to steal anything.”, said Sans, holding his hands open in front of him, looking a bit like he was trying to pacify her. “I just have to get into to room where the stuff is. I won't take anything, promise! I just have to see the room once and then I can come back for it later. They wont even notice that something went missing. I just need somebody who can make a nice diversion, so I can have a look-around.”

“Sans, that doesn't make it better.”, mumbled Alphys. “And! And... I'm terrible with crowds!”, she protested. “I can't to that!”

“You'll be fine.”, said Sans, waving her concerns away. “Frisk is there and with them twenty-something children, maybe even less if we split them up in groups. Just tell them something about science, maybe electronics or robotics, something interesting, just for a few minutes while I slip away, okay?”, said Sans, still grinning, an almost manic glimmer in his eyes. Alphys shuddered.

“Sans, what the hell is wrong with you? You are not acting normal!”, she cried out.

“Oh, I JUST found a way for this WHOLE thing to FINALLY get started, I don't know!”, said Sans sarcastically, clearly annoyed. It didn't really help to reassure Alphys that nothing was wrong with him.

“Sans? Have you slept at ALL the last days?”, she asked.

Sans winced, because... no, he hadn't, not really. He had taken a few naps, but sleep didn't came easily these last days, especially with the nightmares. It took all he had to hide it from Toriel. He couldn't really hide it from Papyrus, but his bro was cool enough to not tell on him (he hoped).

“That doesn't matter, we will finally be able do fix that thing and get on with it!”, he tried to gloss over everything.

“Sans...”

“I'm okay, okay? I can handle it. I have handled it in the past, I will handle it again.”, said Sans, looking directly in Alphys eyes and she could swear she saw a glimmer of blue in his left eye.

Alphys sighed. It was no use, wasn't it? It was always impossible to get Sans to do or to not do what you wanted. If he was forbidden something he would just smile and find a way to do it anyway.

“Okay.”, Alphys mumbled. “Okay, I'll do it. But... but don't tell me how you want to do that. I'll just come along and... and be there to supervise the kids, okay?”

Sans grinned.

“Thank you, I knew you would help!”, he said, still grinning. After a second his grin faltered a bit and he started to look a bit more sober. “I mean it, Alphys, this is important and this will help us. Don't worry, I won't let you down. If... If things get to much, just let me know, okay?”

Alphys sighed, but nodded. She refrained from telling Sans he reminded her of somebody half-forgotten whenever he was in one of his more manic moods. He wouldn't appreciate it. But hey, positive thinking! She would spent a day with Frisk! She loved that tiny human! It wasn't all bad. She could tell herself that. Besides that, Sans always came out of his moods, sooner or later.

“Just... just get me out of there when... when things get to much?”, asked Alphys.

“Yeah... let's.. just do the password thing, okay? You'll say “Knock knock” and I'll get you out, no questions asked?”, offered Sans and Alphys sighed, because, yes, that sounded alright, she could do this. (The password thing was actually a very good idea. Papyrus had told her once about it during on of their “positively trainings”. Alphys wondered where Sans got the idea from. Maybe Papyrus had told him of it?)

“Okay.”, Alphys said, smiling a bit. Sans smiled back, earnest this time.

Their relationship was complicated, but Sans was still a good friend.

Frisk was happy. There was nothing more they could say to describe themselves at the moment. They were happy. They had a family, they had great friends, they were an ambassador for monster kind, which was surprisingly fun to be, and everything just seemed to be going their way.

They were especially happy when their teacher announced that they would go to a field trip next day and that Sans and Alphys would be coming with them! Frisk was excited beyond believe! They were still nearly vibrating when they exited the classroom, heading out of the school, Monster Kid beside them.

“It's so awesome that your dad is coming with us.”, said Monster Kid, grinning widely and looking nearly as excited as Frisk themself. “Do you think Papyrus could come too?”

Frisk shook their head, frowning a bit.

“No, he has classes, remember?”, they signed. “Alphys will be coming with us.”

“Awww, Papyrus does a lot of things... He sure is dedicated to his education, huh?”, mumbled Monster Kid, a bit disappointed, before looking up. “Wait, Alphys? Really?”, he asked. “She is married to Undyne, isn't she?”

“Yes. They are very cute together.”

“Uh, if you say so?”, said Monster Kid, not really convinced.

“I got them together, you know?”, signed Frisk, grinning.

“Urgh, I know, I know, you told me like a hundred times!”, said MK, not really interested in romantic stuff and with rolling eyes. “But why is Alphys coming with us?”

“I don't know. Dad said they talked it through in the last PTA meeting.”, signed Frisk, deep in thought. It was really unusual that Alphys would do something like volunteering to come to a field trip. They knew she hated crowds. But it couldn't be a prank by Sans. Frisk knew he COULD be a trickster, but doing something like this? No, he wouldn't make anybody seriously uncomfortable just to get a few laughs. They were friends, he wouldn't do that to Alphys. So, either he had a really good reason to sign her up without her knowing, or he really talked it through with her and she agreed to come.

“Well, I still think it will be awesome!”, interrupted Monster Kid their thoughts. “I mean, we are going to a REAL laboratory! I bet Alphys can tell us a lot of stuff about science!”

Frisk nodded. Alphys had been the royal scientist after all, she loved science. Maybe that was the reason she wanted to come? To see the special lab? It was possible.

“I can't wait for tomorrow.”

“Me neither, Frisk.”

This day Frisk wasn't picked up by Sans like usual but by Papyrus. Frisk loved Papyrus and hugged him as soon as they saw him, but they were also worried. Normally Sans wouldn't miss picking them up for anything. Something was up.

“HEY TINY HUMAN. DID YOU HAVE A NICE DAY OF LEARNING?”, asked Papyrus after he sat Frisk down again.

They smiled and nodded, looking at Papyrus and studying him. He appeared to be okay, but something was off. His smile seemed a bit to forced and he kept looking down to his hands and down to the pocket were Frisk knew his phone was located. He had gotten a similar smartphone like Sans from Alphys for Christmas and had taken to carrying it around in a small pocket that could be attached to his pants. Normally, he would have it out by now and showing them pictures of the day or of whatever he had cooked earlier in his classes. But he didn't. Something was really off.

“TINY HUMAN?”

“Papyrus? What is going on? Where is dad?”

Papyrus hesitated. He tried to hide his worry, but Frisk starred at him with Determination in their eyes. Finally he sighed, guiding Frisk to his car while he begun to speak.

“I'M AFRAID MY BROTHER IS IN ONE OF HIS MOODS AGAIN. I BELIEVE HE DIDN'T SLEEP FOR A FEW DAYS AND HE CRASHED A FEW HOURS AGO.”, Papyrus explained, sounding miserable. “I HATE IT WHEN HE LETS THINGS GET SO BAD... I WISH HE WOULD TELL US EARLYER WHEN HE ISN'T FEELING WELL. WE TALKED ABOUT HIS DREAMS JUST YESTERDAY, BUT I FEAR IT WASN'T ENOUGH.”

Frisk patted Papyrus, looking at him.

“You know how he is, he doesn't want anybody to worry...”

“I'M HIS BROTHER, IT'S MY JOB TO WORRY.”, said Papyrus, before smiling again. “BUT COME ON, I THINK SEEING YOU AND MAYBE SOME GOOD SPAGHETTI WILL LIFT HIS SPIRITS.” He opened the door to his car so Frisk could climb into it. They strapped themselves in and waited for Papyrus to start driving them home.

Driving with Papyrus was nice. He was a very good driver, seemed always in control and Frisk couldn't help but to feel save around him. Well, Papyrus was an awesome uncle, so it was given that they felt save. He was the first real friend they made in the Underground (not counting Toriel, but she was Mum, so they didn't count) and the only one who never killed them ever, in any timeline.

Frisk seldom thought about the timelines anymore. But sometimes, they dreamed of them. They wondered if Sans dreamed of them too. They were pretty sure he still did, maybe he even had the bad dreams together with his “moods” as they put it.

Sans wasn't napping on the sofa like usual when they came home. He wasn't in the kitchen either.

“I THINK HE IS IN HIS OFFICE.”, said Papyrus and sighed. “TELL YOU WHAT, FRISK: I WILL MAKE US SOME DELICIOUS TEA AND YOU SEE IF YOU CAN GET HIM DOWN?”

Frisk nodded, smiling. Papyrus had studied hard for a year under Asgors supervision to make some really nice tea. Not as good as the ex-king himself, but good enough.

“Do mine with honey.”

“I WILL BEE SURE TO ADD SOME FOR YOU.”, Papyrus said, grinning. “NYEH HEH HEH!”

Frisk giggled at his joke but made their way up to Sans' office rather quickly. Papyrus made puns only when he was upset or VERY happy and Frisk didn't think that he was particular happy at the moment.

The door to Sans' office was closed. Frisk opened it and slowly went into the room. The office looked exactly like always, maybe a few more papers with strange symbols were laying on the desk. Sans was lying on the futon, a laptop open in front of him, and seemingly asleep. Crashed, indeed.

Frisk slowly went to him and put the laptop on the desk. They looked at it for a moment. The browser was open and showed the homepage of the Ebott West laboratory. Well, it made sense, surely Sans had tried to inform himself about the laboratory before they went there the next day. Frisk smiled. Sans really was a good dad.

They went back to him, sitting beside him. Yeah, they were pretty happy with their family. Never gained any LOVE but gained so much love. Sans' words in the judgment hall were still with them. Frisk knew that he hadn't always said these words. They knew that... they had done bad things in other timelines. That Chara had done bad things, too. But Sans was always there. No matter how bad it went, Sans was there.

He was the only one who hadn't fought them in any of the timelines, as long as Frisk had left some hope. And he was there to stop them when leaving the Underground would mean... something really bad. (Frisk couldn't remember much of THESE timelines, but they knew that something really, really, really bad would have happened if Sans hadn't been there.)

He was always a friend. Even with the knowledge that Sans was more than he seemed, even with the knowledge of the broken machine and the strange lab he had and that he had many, many more secrets, secrets he maybe would never tell them... Frisk trusted him.

Frisk tried to forget the other timelines. This one was what mattered. No more resets.

Knowing that they always would have the love and support of their family, that they would never reset and that Sans would always be their dad, it filled Frisk with Determination.

They put a hand on Sans' head, leaning forward to whisper to him.

“Sans?”

Sans blinked, his eyes unfocused and a little blue, before shifting to his usual white pinpricks. He recognized them and smiled.

“Hey, kiddo.”, he said. “Back already?”

Frisk nodded.

“Papyrus picked me up. He's making tea.”

“Ah...”, said Sans, still smiling lazily. “Is he? That's nice.”

“Are you okay?”, asked Frisk, concerned. “You seem tired.”

“I'm okay, kiddo.”, said Sans. “I have a bit... trouble sleeping.”, he confessed after Frisk looked at him with a bit more determination in their eyes. “But it's alright. Papyrus worries to much.”

“Papyrus always worries.”

“Yeah, you are right.”, said Sans, slightly chuckling. “He is a worry-bones.”

They giggled both a bit about that, but Frisk could see a plot to distract them when they saw one. They raised their hands again, waiting until Sans looked at them again.

“Are you still in a mood?”

Frisk could see that Sans was wincing, looking away.

“I think I'm a bit better now...”, he said, but clearly not... okay. Frisk knew, and could they understand. They leaned over to Sans and hugged him.

“Hey... hey, kiddo...”, mumbled Sans, but he returned the hug. “It's alright. I'm fine.”

“Love you, dad.”, mumbled Frisk in his ears. “Come down? Please?”

Sans hugged them even harder. Frisk smiled a bit and held on just as hard themself. Sans didn't have a heartbeat, but they could feel Sans' magic humming through his bones, warm and comforting. They had discovered some times ago that monster magic was influenced by their emotions. Sans felt... not quite happy now, but this warmness was often associated with affection. Sans liked getting hugs, apparently. Well, Frisk was all to happy to give Sans all the hugs he needed.

The hug now seemed to help (sometimes, they don't. But Frisk would always try anyway.)

As long as they could feel this, this warmth and affection in Sans' magic, indication that yes, he was alive and still there and hadn't given up, they knew everything would be alright.

“I'll come down, Frisk...”, said Sans after a while. “I slept a bit before you came. And I'll be okay by tomorrow. We are going to the laboratory together with Alphys. Can't miss that one just because of a little mood, huh? The lab will be great.”

Frisk giggled but didn't say more. Sans was still hugging them and they were content enough to just stay where they were. Despite what Sans said sometimes, Sans-hugs were just as awesome as Papyrus-hugs. (They were dad-hugs! Skele-dad-hugs!) They sat together for a few moments more like that, before Sans grinned and stood up, Frisk still in his arms.

“Then let's go down!”, he declared loudly and begun walking, Frisk still in his arms and pressed against him, tickling them with every shift and movement with his bony rips.

Frisk laughed shrill and loud and squirmed in his grip, while Sans carried them out of the office, down to the waiting Papyrus. There was more laughter as soon as Papyrus caught wind of the beginning tickle war, which ended with all of them in a heap on the floor, still a bit giggling.

The laptop on the desk, up in Sans' office, slowly entered standby mode.

“Did you ever asked yourself why human souls take on colours, while monster souls stay white? It's quite interesting. We always assumed that the colours, the traits, would add up to white, like the light-spectrum. Patience, Bravery, Integrity, Perseverance, Kindness, Justice and, of course, Determination. Human souls seem to be coloured with their defining trait.

But what about our souls? Our white monster souls? We don't have Determination, but surely all of the other traits. Some of our distinctive magic is even coloured in the shade of them.

A human soul should, all things considered, be white or red. But they aren't.

You know, I think I have the answer now. Yesterday was enlightening, if you'll allow me my pun. If you'll infuse a soul with all soul-traits, including determination, it won't turn white. It won't turn red. It will turn dark.”

It's cold, it's so cold and to bright and to dark at the same time. The figure in front of him seemed to swallow all light, seemed to be like a void for everything around him. The voice sounded a bit distorted, a bit not quite here.

The figure wasn't quite here for a long time, he knew. And he was afraid.

“Please... please don't. Please don't do that. Please stop!”

He only pleaded for something twice in his life. The first time he got an already-broken promise. This was the second time and he didn't have much hope for even that. But what could he do, besides pleading? What did he have left at this point?

“I'm afraid you don't have a choice on that matter...”

The void stated to grow and then went away, leaving only cold, harsh white. It was a different void, but just as much frightening, because it meant something bad was about the happen, it meant he had failed.

The experiment would have been started and there was nothing he could do.

“NO!”

Sans woke up and only years of hiding his nightmares from Papyrus kept him from shouting out loud. All of his bones were tense and he needed a few minutes to orientate himself. It was dark and warm and something was lying beside him. Magic warmed his bones, gentle, kind, flickering magic, like a flame. Toriel.

Sans took some deep breaths, willing the dream away from him. He was home. Everybody he knew and cared for was save. He was save. Everything was okay. The peaceful humming and flickering of Toriels magic calmed him down, grounded him. If Toriel was there, there was no way that somebody he cared about had come to harm. Not on her watch. Deep breaths. Everything was alright.

He stayed like that for a few minutes, just breathing and letting Toriels magic wash over him and listening for something, anything wrong in the house. There was nothing. Everything was okay. After a while he thought himself calmed down, but restless, to awake to go back to sleep.

As careful as he could he made it out of the bed, somehow not waking Toriel, and opened the door. It was dark and silent in the house. Good.

His eye and skull itched and his sternum felt strange. Sans made his way into the kitchen as quiet as possible. A little part of him wanted Papyrus here. An other part of him was glad that he was not. Sans opened the fridge and took some sea tea out of hit, sipping on the sweet liquid as he sat down on the sofa in the living room. He sighed deeply.

Twelfth night in a row now, the dreams were getting worse. He rubbed the back of his skull, thinking about his situation. He wasn't a fool, he knew that this wasn't just bad luck or coincidence. He had a pretty good guess of what exactly was to blame for his hard time sleeping.

But they were only a few steps away from finishing it. The machine was finally repaired. Sans would know the location of the last chemicals they needed by (Sans looked at the clock, it mocked him with its arms pointed at 2:19 am) the end of the day. That meant he could make the trip to get everything, including the chemicals, tomorrow. In a week from now, everything could be finished. And with the end of the project, his nightmares would surely fade away, too.

Only one more week until he could put all of this away. Until he could finally sleep again.

Alphys' words at the Christmas party came back to him. She was right, he should tell his family and friends about that stuff. At least Papyrus had the right to know about this. Hell, he told Papyrus nearly everything about the timelines and he had taken it pretty good. He could probably handle everything else just as well.

That didn't mean it would be easy. Things like this could get pretty ugly. Maybe not with Papyrus, because he is the best bro ever and the sweetest guy alive, but the others? Sans didn't know. He didn't think they would react badly towards him, but to other people. Well, he still had time to figure things out, hadn't he?

Sans had the strange wish to talk to Asgore about that. The king HAD once known about the project. Sans wondered if he had known everything about it and if he still remembered. Taking out his phone was almost automatic. His fingers hovered for a moment over Asgore's name before choosing somebody else.

Sans heard two rings until somebody picked up, a familiar crackling sound in the background.

“Sans?”, asked a familiar voice, quiet and flickering. Sans felt himself relaxing a bit.

“Hey... uh...”, he begun, but didn't say anything else, not quite sure how. Hm, he really hadn't though that trough, huh?

“A bad night?”, asked the voice, concern thick and heavy over warmness and a bit tiredness.

“Yeah. And before you ask, no, I haven't woken the others up, I don't want to.”, mumbled Sans, turning around to lay more comfortable on the sofa. The empty sea tea carton was placed on the table via magic.

“I will not tell you how to live your life, but you should consider telling them if you have a bad night.”

“I'm telling you.”, said Sans.

“You're calling me. You never tell me anything.”, pointed out the voice.

“Heh, can't hide anything from you, huh?”

“You hide enough. So?”

“I'm about to do something either really good or really stupid.”, confessed Sans, sighing deeply.

“Knowing you it will be a mix out of the two.”

“Oh shut it. Just... what do you think... if you have the chance to do something special, something nobody else could... would you do it? Is there even a choice?”, asked Sans, while staring at the ceiling. It was white, nothing like a sky full of stars, at all.

“There is always a choice.”

“Heh, you always say that.”

“You're always asking the same questions.”

“I do, do I?”, said Sans, smiling a bit.

“What is that really about?”

“Like I said, I'm about to do something really stupid for a good cause.”

“You said that last to me the night before proposing to Toriel.”

Sans felt himself blushing, blue tinting his cheekbones. Yeah, that. That wasn't the proudest moment of his life.

“That... okay, you got me, but this is... potentially more dangerous and more foolish.”

Try like “the most stupid thing every monster has ever done combined, multiplied by ten”. And he got Alphys to follow his stupid scheme!

“Sans, you are not thinking straight. Go to sleep.”

“I'm... a bit afraid.”, confessed Sans quietly.

“Afraid of what?”

“... that I'll fail. That I'll let people down. Or drag them back into something we were already finished with.”

“Sans, I can't see into the future. But I know that if you say you have a good reason, then it's a good reason to take some risks.”

“Heh...”

“Do you need any help?”

“No, no it's alright... sorry that I called you.”

“I was not sleeping, just looking up the bar.”

“Heh. Good.”

“Sans, I'm serious, rest. I think you will be able to make more rational decisions in the morning.”

“Heh... I think you're right. … thank you, Grillby.”

“Have a good night.”, said Grillby and Sans could hear his flames crackling, a sure sight that he was smiling. It made him smile too. It was good to know that he had a good friend out there (who wasn't angry at him for calling him in the death of the night).

Papyrus found Sans later in the morning, not quite-sleeping but not-quite awake on the sofa. He brought him a fresh mug of coffee and sat by him, a hand on his skull until the rest of the house awoke.

Undyne loved the surface and loved her life. It was just awesome, even with the whole “you can't just suplex everything around here, even if you could” thing that was going on (humans were a bit weird about stuff). The best thing on the surface however, is something that isn't from the surface at all: Alphys.

Undyne loved her little lizard-wife (Wife! Not girlfriend, WIFE! Sometimes, when she was sure nobody was watching her, she would stare at her wedding ring and be amazed about the fact that there was one, because, really, how cool was that? How awesome was that? How wonderful, beautiful, amazing was the fact that she got to marry Alphys?)

Alphys was just funny, cute and a great girl all around, always there for her and so damn intelligent, it was amazing. She was strong, too, maybe not in the way Undyne was, but in her own way and Undyne admired her for that. Alphys was just everything Undyne ever wanted. AND she was the best cuddle-buddy ever!

The only thing not perfect at the moment was that she wasn't with Undyne in their shared bed when Undyne awoke. It wasn't a new thing, sometimes Alphys would work well into the night and simply forget that there was the option of a bed.

It did surprised Undyne a bit when she found Alphys hutched over at her desk, a stack of paper in her hand. Usually, when Alphys didn't made it into their bed, she could be found passed out on any horizontal surface in the house. (Sometimes Undyne wondered if this was a scientist-thing. Papyrus told her often enough that Sans could be found sleeping in the strangest places too.)

“Alphys?”, Undyne said, trying to gain the attention of her wife.

“AHHHH!”, Alphys shrieked, surprised, and nearly dropped all of the papers. “U...Undyne?”

“Morning, Alphys.”, Undyne said, grinning, but her fins dropped in worry as soon as she saw the tired expression on Alphys' face. “Have you slept at all? What had you in it's grips so badly, huh?”

She came nearer, hugging Alphys from behind and looking at the papers. The handwriting looked terrible, she couldn't made out any sensible words, but it seemed to be some kind of logs?

“Just... reading up on something.”, mumbled Alphys before chuckling nervously. The humming of her magic crackled, like always, but seemed a bit sluggish. Tired. Undyne frowned at Alphys, who seemed more and more bashful. “Ehehe... I think I lost... track of time over these...” She looked over the papers.

“Uh... seems like it.”, mumbled Undyne. “But, you know... Don't you have a field trip today?”

“OH MY GOD!”, shrieked Alphys, springing up from her chair and out of Undynes embrace. She ran to her closed, opening it and started searching. “What TIME is it?”

“Relax, Alphys, you have like two hours until you have to go.”, explained Undyne. “Just... take a shower, change you cloths and I'll make you some coffee.”

Alphys stopped her panic-y search through her closed and looked at Undyne, a small smile on her lips.

“Really? That... that would be nice. Uh... thank you.”

“No problem, my cute Lizard.”, giggled Undyne, kissing her on the cheek (prompting Alphys to blush yellow again), before walking to the kitchen.

Alphys was left alone standing in her office, an faded out anime-themed shirt still in her hand. She looked over to the desk, the content of the logs still on her mind. Forcing herself to look away, she headed for the shower. It didn't change anything but explained some things, she supposed. But a talk with Sans would be in order, hopefully as soon as possible.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I gained permission from Asgore today. He was very impressed by my theories. If this works, we will be out of here in no time. It would also mean we wouldn't need to kill any human. Despite what Asgore told our people, he really doesn't want to kill anybody. He really is a soft guy.

It's a shame he had to be our king in this dark times.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

The Queen didn't like the idea. She took the body of the dead child and ran. I don't know where she is. Asgore takes it hard. He said he doesn't begrudge her, but I'm worried. Surely, she acted emotional, but couldn't she see that we both only had the best for the monster kind in our minds? Couldn't she see that with a small sacrifice, we could free us all and prevent the loss of even more life? Now she is gone.

Was all of my work for naught?

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I'm sure I could get it right, but I'm lacking the resources. I tried the experiment without the base, but it didn't work, how could it? I'm fooling myself, it wont work like that. I'm just doing it because I don't want to feel useless.

I'm frustrated. I'm almost hoping for a human to fall down, but at the same time wouldn't want to damn anybody to commit an act of murder, even if it's for the sake of monster kind.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

A human fell today. A little thing with wide eyes. Asgore looked so sad after he killed them. It was almost as if I could feel his pain as my own. I hope he ever has to kill ever again.

The soul is coloured yellow. It's beautiful. I feel regret that this had to be done.

Asgore gave me the body. Maybe we can prevent another tragedy like this.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

Human souls are fascinating. Their Determination seems to be the source of their strength. I'm still a bit puzzled by the colours, by their shape. Monster souls and human souls look so alike on the first glance, and yet, we are so different.

Sans felt a bit like his sins were crawling on his back when he took a shortcut to the bus stop. He still felt a bit tired but the few hours sleep he got had done wonders on his magic and he was glad that he was well enough to take Frisk with him trough his shortcuts. It didn't quite cancel out the guilt he felt over yesterday.

Frisk seemed happy enough, greeting their friends and smiling like always. They were a great kid like that. (Sans still felt the ghost of the hugs Frisk gave him yesterday. His kid was amazing. He best ever.)

That didn't change how he acted yesterday, mood or not mood.

The guilt intensified when he saw Alphys. She looked quite uncomfortable and as tired as he was himself. He knew it was unfair to just robe her into this whole thing. But he really didn't have any other option. Or at least he couldn't think of one.

“Hey, Alphys. You okay?”, he asked.

“Huh? Uh, yeah. Everything is.. okay.”, said Alphys, smiling nervously. “Uh... just a bit... excited?”

It was a bit heartbreaking to see her try to hard. He really had to make it up to her. Somehow.

“Uh... okay.”, mumbled Sans, sighing. “Just... say a word when it's to much, okay?” He hesitated before continuing. “Listen, Alphys, I'm really sorry about... dragging you into this... but...”

“I know.”, mumbled Alphys, sighing deeply. “But I'm willing to go... along with it. Okay? No need to be sorry. We just... do our thing, finish... finish this one thing and everything will be alright... yes?”

“Yeah.”, agreed Sans, smiling a bit. “Okay, that'll work.” He grinned a bit at her, mischief returning to his eyes. “Okay, Alphys. Let's do the field trip thing!”

The bus ride itself was not very interesting. Linda had been curiously silent the whole time, only frowning when her son had sat down just behind Frisk and Elli, talking to both of them. Sans had eyed her the whole time, but she did nothing against it.

When they waited at the entrance of the Lab, she took a clipboard out of her bag, checking if everybody was accounted for and looked at Sans, Alphys, Pia and Steven.

“Our tour will begin in ten minutes.”, explained Linda. “I have already spoken to the one responsible for us here. He said the tour has six stations, each of them is suited for five to fifteen children. Seeing that we have thirty-four children, I think we should split up in two groups.”

“Welp, me and Alphys here can take one group and you the other?”, asked Sans, grinning.

“Hah, No.”, said Linda, glaring at him. “I'll come with you and...”, she looked at Alphys, obviously already forgotten her name. “You two.”, she finished lamely.

Alphys looked a bit put off, Sans glared at Linda and Steven looked like he barely prevented himself from giggling.

“Uh... so me and Steven take the other group?”, asked Pia, trying to defuse the tense atmosphere.

“You sure you want to go with us?”, asked Sans Linda, frowning.

“I'm sure.”, said Linda, still a bit glaring. “I won't let you do something weird with the children.”

“Like what?”, asked Sans, grinning again. “Are you afraid I let them have to much fun?”

“Just... stay silent.”, growled Linda. “I won't let you ruin the inspection with some dangerous and stupid stunt.”

Sans looked a bit surprised at her. Of all things, he hadn't expected Linda to actually care about the inspection.

“Welp, I can give you my word that I won't pull something dangerous for the children.”, he said, as seriously as he could. Linda looked into his eyes for a few moments and nodded.

“Good. Do that.”

And with these words she turned around and begun to separate the children. Alphys looked to Sans, Sans shrugged and looked at Pia and Steven, who just shrugged themselves. Seems like nobody really understood what was going on.

As long as he could step out of Linda's line of sight at one point or an other, everything would be alright. After all, he always was the best at disappearing.

Alphys was nervous. Again. The children were alright, she guessed. Some of them were actually pretty great. She already got to know Monster Kid and his best friend Danny from Undynes soccer trainings (and Sans was right, Undyne looked great in her coach uniform. Better yet in her gym teacher uniform.) and Frisk had told her plenty about Elli, who was this tiny little girl that barely reached Frisk's shoulders. Apparently, Elli was a big fan of Mettaton and wanted to be a blacksmith one day. And well, they all seemed alright in real life. Frisk introduced their friends to Alphys and smiled and Alphys couldn't help but smile in return. (She could understand Sans gushing about them quite well. Frisk was a great kid.)

The other children, mostly humans, were strangers to her, but all in all friendly, not rude or fuzzy at all. The scientist who was leading their little tour seemed to enjoy himself, walking in front of her and explaining something about the history of the laboratory. All in all, it was pretty nice. Nothing to be nervous about, really.

But she still was. A little bit. Maybe it was because of Sans and Linda, who were walking at the rear of the group. Both of them glared at each other from time to time and sometimes Alphys could hear some words hissed in one direction or the other.

It was pretty childish, come to think about it. Undyne had told Alphys a lot about Linda, about the scene she made during one training session. Alphys got the impression that Linda was a very misguided person, but not the “devil in flesh” like Undyne tended to make her out to be. If there was one person to understand how the best intentions could bear the most horrible results, it was her.

Maybe that was why Sans butted heads with her as much as he did. Alphys was sure, he understood too.

“And this is our department for electronic research.”, said the scientist. “At the moment, we have a few projects involving robotic elements here.”

“Mister? What are those for?”, asked Danny. (Linda looked a bit annoyed and opened her mouth, but didn't say anything after she noticed Sans' glare intensifying.)

The scientist smiled at him, maybe even expecting the question. Alphys could recognize this look of “ask me about my babies, so I can explain all their beautiful features to you”.

“Well, we are hoping that one day, we can make some really good robotic limbs, for people who need them.”

“So, like, you could get me real working arms?”, asked Danny, excited. “That would be so cool!”

“Uh, yeah, that's the plan.”, said the Scientist, a bit taken about by Dannys casual referring to his condition. “But it's a slow process. Not only has the robotic limb to be small and light enough for you to not be crushed by it, it has to be able to sense what you want it to do and do it with just enough force behind it. Not less, not more than you'll intent for it to do. And that's pretty difficult, you know?”

“Awww...”, mumbled Danny, looking a bit down.

“But don't worry, little guy. We are getting there.”, said the Scientist, smiling encouragingly.

“Can't you ask Mettaton?”, asked Elli, looking up to the scientist with her big eyes. “I mean, he's a robot, isn't he? He would know about all that, wouldn't he?”

“Well, we would be honored.”, laughed the Scientist and winked. “He is the finest piece of tech I ever saw.”

“Yeah, he's amazing!”, shouted Elli, eyes sparkling at the prospect of having found someone who apparently loved this robot just as much as she did.

“Freaky, dangerous rust-bucket.”, mumbled Linda, not loud enough for anybody but Alphys and maybe Sans to hear.

Alphys was a timid person, but she did have a few buttons you shouldn't push. Her tech was one of those.

“Hey!”, she shouted at Linda. “He is NOT a “rust-bucket”, there isn't a piece on him that even CAN rust!”

And now everybody was looking at her. Uh, that was not the plan.

“What?”, asked Linda her, glaring.

“Welp, maybe you shouldn't badmouthing Mettaton around her.”, said Sans, grinning widely. “She build his body, know know?”

“WHAT?”, shrieked Linda.

“WHAT?”, shouted the Scientist, starring at Alphys for the first time and with a look as if his personal messiahs was standing in front of him. “You... you build him?”

“Uh... yes?”

“YOU have made this... perfect robot body? Which can shape-shift?”

“Uh... yeah, I did...”

“And you created the... the legs?”, he asked, his voice now filled with something Alphys could only describe as pure awe. Also, human eyes shouldn't be this big.

“Yeah. The legs.”, she confirmed, still not sure where this was going. (Why does everybody mention the legs? What was the thing about those legs? Alphys would never understand.)

The scientist came nearer and nearer to her, before actually falling on his knees in front of her.

“Can you teach me how?”, he asked, his voice barely a whisper and if Alphys wasn't so nervous, she would have laughed, because this was so surreal.

Linda was still gaping at her, the children were starring or cheering. Frisk was confirming (through Monster Kid, who was translating for them) to everybody that yes, Alphys DID build Mettatons body and it really was as awesome as it seems. And a few other scientists, who were working up until now, were now coming over to them, a look like some long-lost hero just came home to their village on their faces.

And just like that there were a whole bunch of people around her, looking at her and Alphys was feeling very, very nervous. Well, it wasn't quite distress, just... weird. At least she didn't had the impulse to hide inside a trashcan anymore... Huh, maybe Papyrus' training really DID work? It was all very, very confusing.

Looking at the human scientist, Alphys noticed that she hadn't answered his question. He nodded, very, very slowly and then the room went WILD with cheering.

Despite all of that, she did noticed that Sans wasn't there anymore.

All laboratories were basically the same. It was a fact that was with Sans as long as he could remember. Maybe it was because scientists were a logical bunch of persons who wanted everything as efficient as possible. And there were only so many ways to archive that with limited elements for a lab. Maybe it was just coincidence.

Well, whatever it was, it made things a whole lot less difficult for him.

He had taken the chance when he saw it, slipping away from the group when everybody was focused on Alphys. He was now walking down the hallways that weren't as brightly lit like the once he came from. He was searching for closed doors, for unmarked hallways, for things you had to know about to find them.

He was searching for the rooms where the stuff was kept that wasn't for the eye of the public, not even for the eyes of most of the staff. He was searching for the good stuff.

And he found a room. It looked just like any other lab room to him. One desk was cluttered with papers and pens, with three cups of coffee (all of them nearly empty and cold) and some electronic detritus. Candy wrappers and empty pizza cartons were in the little bin and a cheerful poster with the words “Keep calm and GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” was put on one of the walls, beside some pretty big posters about what looked like some published research by this laboratory.

But in the middle of it all, Sans saw the really interesting part of this whole thing: A small flask holding some sort of metallic looking fluid. A look on the inscription told him what he needed to know. This was the stuff he was here for. Score.

A part of him wanted to take it right here and now, but he refrained. He had promised Alphys to not steal anything during the trip and it would seem a bit suspicious when something like a new metallic fluid went missing during a visit by the local human-monster-school (and with them two known monster-scientists that were working for a different lab!). These guys here were scientists! They weren't idiots.

Well, not complete idiots. They weren't the brightest bulbs around if they kept something like that out in the open like this. Seems like the humans hadn't discover some of the more interesting qualities of this quirky little fluid. But then again, how could they? Humans have no magic and no interest in studying the qualities of souls.

That wouldn't change the fact that they would notice if the flask went missing.

So Sans just concentrated on getting a feel for the room, feeling it's position, feeling how he had to craft his shortcuts to get back here later. (In his mind, rooms and spaces were always numbers. In the underground all rooms and sections had a neat little number. Now, on the surface, there were so many rooms, so many places where he could be, he had started using letters and other symbols. He decided that this room would be L10x9. It would do.)

It only took him a few seconds. After that, he decided to make his way back. Surely, Alphys would appreciate if he would redirect some of the attention away from her... (He hoped she wasn't to upset with him. She still hadn't called for him, he would know, but still...)

He choose not to teleport back to the group. It would really suck if somebody saw him appearing out of thin air, so he made his way back by foot. It was still quiet in the lab. Well, it wasn't unusual, as far as Sans could remember, labs were always quiet outside of the workrooms. In a way, it was a bit comforting, but at the same time, it brought back some half-forgotten memories.

More printed out research-papers were hanging on the walls, showing off the success of this location, of their research groups. It was kinda nice. Sans wished he had more time to study some of them. A lot of the stuff here looked really interesting and...

There was one paper about... something. Sans didn't even read the caption, he just stared at one of the pictures. It was a spectrogram, colourful lines on black ground. He had seen thousands of those in his life, but something about this one...

“This is Royal Scientist W.D.Gaster, recording my findings about E-1. The experiment is going well, the distinct heart-shape has formed right on schedule. But, curiously, it refuses to take on any colour. It is just white. Just... just like a monster soul... Oh.. oh my, it opened his eyes. Uh... it looks at me and... this... this was not planed. Oh dear, I think it's alive? Uh... hi? Can.. can you speak? Hello, little one?”

“H...hi...?”

“Oh my... I... I think I have to inform Asgore. This was not planned, not planned at all, I should find out what went wrong and... what am I thinking? Log out!”

Click.

“Hey, uh... don't... don't be afraid, little guy, yeah? I'm Gaster. Come on, I get you out of there and then... uh... we'll figure some things out.”

“And this will be your very own workplace!”

“Wow... really?”

“Sure. Hey, you have earned this, Sans. Let me just give you your badge... here you go. So, come on, I'll introduce you to your new teammates, okay?”

“Awww, is this little Sans? You were just a little baby bones when I last saw you!”

“uh...”

“Oh my stars, is that Sans? Hey!”

“Sans? Oh my, do you work here?”

“Awww, you look so precious in your labcoat.”

“Hey!”

“Hey, hey, guys, play nice with him, okay?”

“Aww, we were only teasing him a bit. I think he will fit right in.”

“You think?”

“Yeah! Of course! You're a scientist, just like us!”

“T...thank you!”

“The colours sure are pretty, huh? That are human souls for you. They are so full of that stuff, their souls will colour themselves.”

“You know, I always thought that timelines should be... red.”

“Why?”

“I don't know. It takes a lot of determination to be time?”

“More like to be on time.”

“Was that a joke?”

“Maybe?”

“I can't believe you!”

“You know, I think you're onto something here, Sans. The timelines... the anomalies... it would make sense if there was determination involved. That would explain some of the readings we have.”

“But there is no... prove for my theories! We have to find a way to... record these.”

"Do you think there is a way to do that?”

“Well... maybe... I think I have an idea...”

“Sans? Why are you bringing Papyrus with you?”

"A human fell down, haven't you heard? I don't want to leave him home alone... just in case.”

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

W... what?

BZZZ

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

What was happening?

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

No... no, stop.

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

Why... does it keep repeating? What is happening?

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

What is that?

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

It starts to hurt, it starts to hurt, somebody make it stop!

“Well, may you worry a bit to much.”

BZZZ

“Well, maybe you worry a bit to much.”

Oh God, please stop, please stop!

“Sans?”

Please stop.

“Hey, are you okay? Sans? Hey, you are shaking!”

“W...what... what was that?”

“What was what?”

“t...time... oh god, check the monitors! I think there was a anomaly just now!”

“You were right, Sans. There was the anomaly. Time just... jumped around! That... I have never seen anything like that!”

“Record anything you see! I think... I think this is... this is something big!”

“It's a shame that you don't want to understand. We just have to correct the colours, moving along the spectrum...”

“You don't make any sense! Correcting the colours? Do you even listen to yourself? Please, this isn't like you! This... this isn't right!”

“Such a shame...”

“Wait! Wait, Please!”

“I have waited long enough. I should have done that a long time ago...”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? NO! STOP THIS! STOP THIS!”

“I think you have no choice about that matter, Sans...”

“THE HELL I HAVE A CHOICE!”, shouted Sans, before he noticed that he was talking to empty air. He was sitting on the ground in an empty hallway of a lab on the surface. Oh yeah, right. Sans slowly stood up, sighing deeply and covering his now aching left eye.

It's been a while since he had a flashback this serve. Stars, he hated it. How long was he out? Shit, he shouldn't waist time like this, not here, not now. He had to go back! He had a JOB to do!”

He actually ran across the hallway, hoping that his absence wasn't noticed. When he finally reached the room the others were in, he was treated to a very... strange sight.

Alphys was standing in the middle of the room and somebody had given her a sharpie and a white board. She was talking about something electronic-sounding (Sans could only guess) and was drawing something that looked like some pretty complicated circuitry on the white board. She looked quite... happy like this? Sans never saw her this relaxed around people before. Maybe because she was talking about stuff she loved?

There were a bunch of scientist sitting around her, grown man and woman, but totally wrapped up in whatever Alphys was talking about. They looked like children hearing some exciting bedtime story. It was kinda cute.

The actually children were sitting between them, some of them trying to listen but most of them either asleep (there was a pretty cute sleep-pile with Monster Kid, Danny and two other monster children not far from Sans) or talking quietly to themselves (Frisk, Billy and Elli were sitting together and seemed to play some kind of card game.)

Linda was standing in the middle of it all, looking a bit shell shocked. Sans walked over to her. No sense in pretending he was here the whole time.

“Sorry, lost my way for a bit here.”, he said, while looking around. “What exactly happened here?”

Linda didn't quite awnser him, just stared at him for a while. Sans would never admit it, but she stated to creep him out.

“Why?”, she begun.

“Why what?”

“Why does every flipping monster around here has to be some kind of celebrity?”

“Well...”, said Sans, grinning a bit more. “We lived under a rock for a very long time. It kinda makes us all rock-stars, huh?”, he giggled a bit. “Or maybe SOME humans should try to come out from under THEIR rocks.”

He winked. Linda finally screamed.

Somewhere, a few rooms away, Pia and Steven were looking at each other.

“Pay up!”

Chapter Text

All in all, the field trip was a huge success. Not only did Sans manage to locate the last thing he would need for his and Alphys' little project, but nobody had noticed him doing so. The humans seemed to really like Alphys, and she really liked talking to the humans about... uh... Mettaton's legs? That last part was a bit strange. But yeah, success all around. Things were awesome.

After Linda had interrupted the little robotic-lesson Alphys had been giving the others, things went pretty much back to normal. After the scientists had apologized for ganging up on Alphys and roping her into teaching them stuff, the children were gathered and the tour was resumed. Linda was still seething for several reasons: nobody seemed to care what Sans did and didn't do, and the fact that there was nothing she could say against Alphys or Mettaton.

As it turns out, scientists really loved this robot. Or at least, his limbs. Who would have known? (Sans would so tell Mettaton and tease him a bit about it later on.)

They left the laboratory two hours later, driving back with a bus full of tired, happy children, including Pia and Steven, who were giggling every time Linda opened her mouth, Alphys, who still had the sharpie and didn't seem to want to let it go, a slightly (read: very) irritated Linda, and Sans, who just wanted to sleep.

As soon as they got back to the school, Sans pretty much just waved goodbye to everybody, grabbed Frisk, and took a shortcut with them back to their home. Sans only took time to make sure they were safe and sound in the living room, before he just flopped over and was asleep before he even hit the sofa. The universe granted him one small mercy and his sleep was mostly dreamless.

When he awoke he noticed two things: It was dark outside, and somebody had put a blanket on top of him. It was fuzzy, and warm, and absolutely perfect. He really, really didn't want to leave, but one look at the clock told him that he really should.

Secret sneaky stuff had to be done in the night, after all.

The rest was pretty easy actually. Take shortcut into the laboratory, take some of the metallic fluid and get away. Easy.

Maybe humans were right to fear them, even if only a little bit, Sans thought as he stared at the flask in his hand. Magic was powerful and somebody with more ambition and a will to do no good could seriously mess things up. Asriel could have done that... (Sans hoped that the dreams he had about THIS were purely a product of his imagination.) Well, anyway, it was a good thing monsters are made out of love and compassion. Sans readied himself to teleport to Alphys laboratory. There were things to do and no time like the present, after all.

Alphys was still awake when he appeared in her laboratory, sitting in her chair and drinking something that looked like tea in a “Hello Kitty” mug. She smiled at him tiredly, not at all surprised by his entrance.

“Uh... I kinda knew you would come around this night.” she announced. She looked at the flask in Sans' hands. “...aaaaaand I think I shouldn't ask where you got that.”

“Better not.” Sans replied, slowly walking towards her. “But the point is, we have it.”

“What IS it?” asked Alphys curiously. “It looks a bit like mercury? But you can get that legally. You wouldn't have to go through all this trouble with the laboratory...”

“Well, it's not mercury. It's Mythril.” answered Sans, looking at her seriously.

“Mythril?” shrieked Alphys, surprised. She looked at Sans as if he told her it's the core of a dead star. “What the... how did HUMANS get their hands on Mythril? No, forget that, why did YOU even touch this stuff? This is dangerous!”

“It's the only thing with both magic-affinity and soul-affinity.” said Sans, shrugging.

“Sans, that's the stuff monster weapons were once forged of!” cried Alphys, arms spread out wide. “That... that stuff can seriously harm a soul just by touching it! It's the stuff that can harm a HUMAN SOUL. Why the heck do you want to use that stuff? HOW can that stuff solve our destabilization-problem?!”

“See, that's the point.” Sans defended, feeling both annoyed and, as much as he didn't want to, gleeful. “It can be dangerous, I won't deny that, but... it can help. It binds magic and clings to a soul. It acts like a glue. If we add just a tiny bit of it to the process near the end...” Sans begun to explain.

“You... want to use it as a glue?” asked Alphys.

“Well, that was the problem, wasn't it? Stuff didn't stick, now it will.” he explained, shrugging. Well, it was more complicated than THAT, but it was a good metaphor for their problem.

Alphys looked again at the tiny flask and sighed.

“Okay... if you're sure.” Alphys conceded, nervous and with a bit of hesitation. She looked up from the flask and into Sans eyes. Sans could see worry and resolution, but no fear. He smiled a bit at her. They had come this far, they would go these last few steps, too.

“I'm sure. Thanks, Alphys.” he said, before laughing. “Come on, we have to modify the machine!”

Sans felt his grin beginning to strain his bones a bit. His magic frizzled a bit, but it wasn't too bad. He could do this. He would crash in the morning, surely. They just had to make this work now. Just recalibration, nothing more. Then they could finally start and bring this whole thing to an end. Only this one thing and he could finally close this whole chapter of his life.

Alphys took away the bed sheets that had covered the machine and both of them stared at it for a moment. It looked a bit like a big glass tube with a lot of electronics attached to it. A basic design, nothing beautiful, but functional. In all honesty, it was a plain ugly thing. Sans didn't know if he should hate it, or love it.

All that damn machine did was take things away. It was high time someone did something useful with it.

“Oh wow,” Sans thought. He was really slipping into one of his strange moods if he was thinking about the karmic status of a machine. It was high time to get some work done. Later, he would be sure to get a few Z's in, for sanity's sake.

Sans grabbed their tools and they went to work. He could almost feel the determination circulating, nearly burning, through his bones.

When Toriel awoke, she was alone. This, however, wasn't a new thing. Sans had confessed shortly after they had left the Underground that he suffered from nightmares and night terrors, which made his sleeping schedule a mess. Sometimes he would wake Toriel, needing her assurance that everything was alright. More often than not, though, he preferred to not wake anybody and deal with his problems on his own. It had gotten better over the years, but now it seemed that his old sleeping problems have risen again.

Toriel sighed deeply, wishing that there was a way- any way,- to help her beloved friend and husband. But nothing she did seemed to help. Sans would sometimes look at her with this expression that never failed to break her heart. This little smile he would do sometimes, as if he couldn't believe he was lucky enough to have... anything nice in his life. At the same time, he also knew that it could be taken away at any moment. He would circle in this depressive cycle until he couldn't take it anymore, and then he would tell her that he could deal with this and would just disappear for a few hours.

He had told her about the timelines. She was sure he didn't tell her everything, but it was enough for her to understand. He told her about how he experienced Loads and Resets, an ability humans with great determination could posses. He told her that his memories of the timelines were pretty vague most of the times, but his dreams tend to show him the worst possible outcomes in vivid details. He also told her that he was trapped in the loops- not just those caused by Frisk, but by at least three other humans- unable to do anything to change the coarse of events. Even if he had tried, nothing would have mattered.

He had allowed her to Check his soul, something he ever only had allowed Papyrus to do.

Sans

1 AKT.

2 DEF.

3/3 HP.

The punny skeleton with a love for quantum physics and (bad) jokes. You love him very much.

His stats were the lowest Toriel had ever seen and he had LAUGHED and said that they used to be WORSE.

“Each of them were at one.” he told her with tears pooling in his eyes. She saw the tears, she saw them and didn't understand why he tried to hold them back in the first place. “One of each, Tori. I had only 1 AKT, 1 DEF and... and only 1 HP for the longest time. There were days where I wasn't sure if it was even that much.”

She was never so afraid for him. So afraid of losing him, even if the danger was long gone with the worst in the past. Sans always seemed strong, never so fragile like his stats revealed. To be honest, she didn't know what she should or could do for him. Papyrus was a godsend, knowing almost exactly how to cheer Sans up and reminding him again and again that he had a family that could be there for him. The therapy he underwent helped too.

His stats didn't change much. Toriel tended not to Check his soul without his consent, so she didn't know exactly, but she doubted that he had more than 5 HP at any given time. His AKT would probably never be more than 1 and his DEF... she hoped it went up a bit.

He was doing so well. He went almost half a year without any nightmares, but now they seemed to have started all over again. It was just so frustrating to know that there was a problem and she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't help the one person that made her smile every day.

Following an instinct, she made her way down to the living room. She found Sans on the couch, passed out. There was no blanket on top of him, so she was the first to find him. She laid a pawn on his his skull, feeling his magic humm sluggishly. There was fatigue, stress and bone-deep (heh, bone,) exhaustion practically oozing from him. She didn't even need to touch him, she could feel it just standing beside him.

There was no way he could work today, or go to the post-field-trip-PTA-meeting. No, he obviously needed a day off. Feeling resolution in her soul, Toriel covered Sans with a fluffy blanket and tucked him in. Papyrus would surely agree with her. Let the little skeleton have the little sleep he got these days.

Toriel made her way quietly into the kitchen to make breakfast, planing on telling Papyrus and Frisk not to wake their sleeping family member.

Papyrus was the next to come into the kitchen. He was walking slowly on the heels of his feet, so his toes wouldn't click on the tiles. He didn't had to do it, as Sans wouldn't wake from something small like that, but he did it anyway. Toriel found it a bit endearing and it told her that Papyrus had noticed his brother sleeping in the living room. (But it did kind of make her wonder why and how he gained this habit.)

“Do you know when he came back?” Toriel asked.

Papyrus shook his head.

“I'M AFRAID I CAN'T SAY WHEN, I JUST KNOW HE WASN'T THERE WHEN I WENT TO GET A GLASS OF WATER AROUND 3 AM.”

Toriel sighed.

“I sometimes wonder where he disappears to when he does that.” she mumbled while setting out plates on the little kitchen table. “I am very concerned for him... I have the feeling he is going.. backwards. All the progress is just going away.”

“I AM SURE IT WILL PASS.” Papyrus exclaimed, smiling encouraging. “HE HAD BAD DAYS AND WEEKS IN THE PAST. BESIDES THAT, BUMBS IN THE ROAD ARE TO BE EXPERCTED. HE WILL PULL THROUGH, I KNOW IT. AND HE HAS US TO TAKE CARE OF HIM UNTIL HE GETS THERE.”

Toriel smiled and nodded. Papyrus was right, they would pull through. It was hard to not to believe in his near endless optimism. As different as the brothers were, both of them could make people smile.

She went back to making breakfast while Papyrus was making some coffee and tea. They worked in silence for a while until Toriel spoke up again.

“I think it's best if we let Sans sleep in today. There is no way he would be up to work or anything else, so I will call the lab and tell them he's sick today.”

Papyrus nodded.

“THAT IS A GOOD IDEA. HE CAN BE LAZY BUT I THINK A BREAK IS IN ORDER FOR NOW.”

“Also, I wanted to ask you for a favor. There is a PTA meeting today, concerning the field trip yesterday. Normally I wouldn't ask you to go for Sans, but I have heard that Mrs. Smith will be there and I think it's important that there is somebody there who knows how to handle... situations.”

“DON'T WORRY, TORIEL. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL HANDLE THIS MEETING.”

“Oh, thank you.” Toriel replied, smiling at Papyrus. She was really glad that she could count on him. He seemed a bit in thought, starring at the now boiling water.

“I JUST HAVE A QUESTION, TORIEL.” he said after a while. “CAN I BRING SOMEBODY WITH ME? I HAD PROMISED METTATON TO SPEND SOME TIME WITH HIM TODAY...”

“I don't think that there would be a problem.” said Toriel. “Maybe it's even a great idea? Mettaton said something about wanting to get to know Frisk's school a bit better?”

“YES, HE SAID SOMETHING LIKE THAT...” Papyrus responded slowly, making his equivalent of a frown. “WELL, HE WILL BE HAPPY TO HEAR THAT HE WILL GET THE CHANCE.”

“Good.” Toriel smiled. “If things get out of hand, just give me a call.”

“I WILL, TORIEL. I WILL.”

Mettaton was leading a pretty strange life. Don't get him wrong, it was still good, just strange. He really liked being a robot with a monster soul, along with his unique abilities granted by this fact. He also liked his career and being able to be just himself. He wouldn't trade anything for anything in it, not even the parts that aren't perfect.

One thing that IS perfect in his life is his relationship with Papyrus. It wasn't a very... traditional one, but none of them were very traditional in every sense of the world. However it worked, they were happy because of it.

Mettaton was especially happy that Papyrus' family seemed to like him too. Toriel wasn't a big problem. The former queen of the monsters was friendly to everyone and had no reason to hold any form of grudge against anybody. (Well, Mettaton was glad that nobody told her about the little... game he played with Frisk in the underground.) Frisk themselves were a little ball of sunshine and friendship and it seemed impossible for them to not like anybody. (Anybody who is a monster. There were a few humans that Frisk didn't consider a friend.)

He did worry a bit about Sans. Not only was Sans the most important person in Papyrus' life, he had the most influence over him as well. He was glad to find that they could connect on many topics, becoming fast friends. They both, after all, agreed that Papyrus was an exorbitant person. (And BOY would it be annoying having Sans as an enemy. Good thing they were friends.)

So, they all became pretty important for Mettaton on many levels. That was why, when Papyrus asked him to accompany him to a PTA meeting, he said yes in an instant.

Well, that and the fact that was really, really wanted to see if his gentle warning at Linda had any impact at all.

“THANK YOU FOR COMING WITH ME TODAY.” said Papyrus besides him, smiling his wonderful, bright smile. “I KNOW IT WAS REALLY SHORT NOTICE, BUT IT IS SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT.”

“Darling, I understand.” Mettaton purred, making a happy beep sound. “And it's really no problem.”

“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO GO IN THIS FORM?” asked Papyrus.

Mettaton looked at himself in one of the windows they were passing walking up to the school, seeing a big, thin skeleton in a bright orange jacket, red scarf and blue jeans (he looked so adorable!) and a rectangle looking robot on one wheel wearing a violet scarf. (He didn't feel the cold, it was only there because a) it was a present from Papyrus and b) he liked making a fashion statement).

“Yes? Why? Is something wrong with the mode of my body?”

“NO, NOTHING IS WRONG. I'M JUST A BIT WORRIED THE HUMANS WOULD BE CONFUSED BY THIS FORM.” Papyrus explained, taking one of Mettaton's hands and holding it in his own.

“Oh, I'm not worried. Even if they are, an explanation wouldn't take to much time.” Mettaton replied smoothly while squeezing Papyrus' hand a bit. There was still a bit of worry on Papyrus' face, but he seemed to consider his answer and nodded.

“OH, OKAY. I'M SURE YOU ARE RIGHT.” And there was this bright smile again. Wonderful.

“I'm always right, darling.”

They entered the school. In this form, Papyrus couldn't see his grin. Or anybody else for that matter. Excellent. They wouldn't know what hit them.

Finding the meeting room was pretty easily. Papyrus was working part-time as an assistant for Undyne here after all, and he seemed to know his way around pretty well. After a few minutes they were standing in front of a friendly looking wooden door with a sheet of paper attached to it. Frisk's class name, as well as the information that this was indeed the room in which the PTA meeting was housed in, was written on it.

“AH, HERE IT IS.” Papyrus chirped excitedly. He opened the door and walked in, Mettaton following him.

“GREETINGS, HUMANS. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND THE WONDERFUL METTATON HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR PTA MEETING!” he stated and dang, this always melted something in Mettaton's soul, hearing Papyrus cheerful and boasting.

The reactions of the people in the room were... various. There was a bunny-looking monster, no doubt from Snowdin, who smiled at Papyrus. Two humans, a man holding a clipboard and a woman sitting beside him, blinked and looked both amused and worried. Two other monsters Mettaton didn't know looked interested. A hand full human parents looked put-off, a few more a bit afraid (how? How could anybody be afraid of Papyrus?) and few more looked with a look of disdain at both of them.

And then there was Linda. Oh yeah, Mettaton hadn't forgotten about HER. He felt great joy upon seeing Linda just plain freaking out and trying to contain herself. It was funny, her right eye kept twitching.

“What the... why are YOU here?” asked Linda, eyes narrowing on both of them. Her arms were crossed in front of her and she obviously not amused about anything.

“OH, MY BROTHER WAS NOT FEELING WELL, SO WE ARE HIS STAND-IN.” answered Papyrus, voice sweet with sincerity. Mettaton beeped in confirmation.

“Don't mind us, dear, just carry on with your meeting.” Mettaton cooed and waved a bit. Linda seemed to be confused upon seeing his alternative form, but not as much as he thought she did. Maybe she took Sans' advice and started watching some MTTV?

“Is Sans okay?” asked the male human (later to be revealed to be named Steven), worry on his face while nervously wrung his hands.

“DON'T WORRY, HUMANS. MY BROTHER WILL BE BACK TO HIS USUAL SELF IN NO TIME.” explained Papyrus.

“Well, thank god for small mercies.” mumbled Linda, arms still crossed. Steven and the woman beside him (Pia, as Papyrus provided as soon as he saw that Mettaton seemed to wonder who these people were) seemed reassured by these words.

“I think she's worried.” whispered Pia to Steven, who just shrugged. Mettaton decided that he liked these two humans.

Papyrus navigated them to two free seats, sitting down while Mettaton himself remained standing. The bunny monster from Snowdin smiled at them both again and waved at Papyrus, who returned the gesture happily.

Steven cleared his throat, prompting everybody to look at him again.

“So...” he begun, looking a bit nervous. “I think we're all here now? Or are we missing somebody?”

“WHERE IS HELEN?” asked Papyrus, concerned. (Mettaton would have frowned if that would have been possible in this form. He remembered Helen from a few of Sans' stories. He wasn't a fan of her at all.)

“She left the school a few months ago. I think it's for the best, frankly said, she was really, really rude to most of the monsters here.” answered Pia while shrugging.

“Not only to monsters.” Steven mumbled under his breath.

Linda frowned, but didn't say anything. Mettaton was a bit surprised by that, seeing that Helen was a friend of Linda (as far as he could tell from the stuff Sans told him) and they both shared their view of monsters. He knew that Linda kind of changed a bit over time, but he hadn't expected her to stay silent in a situation like this.

“OH... THAT IS TOO BAD.” Papyrus said, earnestly sounding sorry. “BUT I AM GLAD IF SHE IS HAPPY AT ANOTHER SCHOOL.”

“I sure as hell am happy with her at an other school.” mumbled Pia.

“Anyway...” continued Steven. “We are here to talk about the trip yesterday, and also because Mrs. Smith will be present during the meeting to gain some understanding how a typical PTA meeting is held around here.”

“Well, it's not very typical anymore with those two here.” Linda sneered quietly, still giving Mettaton and Papyrus skeptical looks.

“Darling, do you prefer to get dunked on by a not present party, instead of having a good time with me and Papyrus here?” Mettaton asked as sweetly as possible.

Pia and Steven giggled a bit at that while Linda glared at him.

“UH, STEVEN? WHERE IS MISSES SMITH?” asked Papyrus, looking around.

“She will be here any minute now.” said Steven, frowning. “Or, she should be.”

At this moment, Mettaton could hear a knock. The door opened and a middle aged woman with graying hair stood in it. Blue eyes were looking critically at everything in the room and even Mettaton himself felt like... he was scanned. Or Checked. It was a pretty unpleasant feeling and he didn't like how even Papyrus seemed to have stifled. The atmosphere had changed.

And in a moment of realization, he knew. He just knew. They were afraid. Each and every one of them in this room, himself included, was afraid of this woman. And he had no idea why.

Mrs. Smith cleared her throat.

“I presume I am at the right place? The PTA meeting?” she asked, looking around the room for a second time. Her eyes lingered on the monsters especially. She looked at Papyrus for a few seconds and even at Mettaton. He couldn't blink and didn't know if his lack of traditional eyes was a good or a bad thing at this instance.

“Eh... yeah! Yes, you are!” Steven replied, looking more nervous than ever. “The PTA meeting. Here with us.”

Mrs. Smith nodded and gave him her hand, shaking it briefly.

“My name is Dalia Smith. I was tasked with the investigation of this project of a school. I presume you were informed of my arrival?”

“Uh... yes, we were.” Steven agreed, still looking as if he really, really wanted to be anywhere else besides here. “And... uh... I am Steven Winter. I... uh... kinda am... uh...” he shuddered uncomfortably, before waving lamely with his clipboard. “I kinda have the clipboard here. You... know? Like... a bit... uh...” he stopped talking while Mrs Smith just continued staring at him.

“That is nice.” she acknowledged after a few moments. “So... do your... thing, as they say. Just pretend I am not here.” With these words she picked a seat at the end of the room, sat down and seemed to go into some kind of “observation mode”. Mettaton idly thought that she would make a wonderful movie villain.

“WELL.” said Papyrus, breaking the awkward silence that had spread between the rest of them. “WHAT IS THERE TO DISCUSS TODAY?”

“Uh...” Steven muttered, looking at his clipboard as if it held all his answers. “The field trip yesterday! Yeah, we wanted to talk about that today.” He looked at Mettaton. “It's actually lucky that you are here, Mister Mettaton...”

“Oh, just call me Mettaton.” Mettaton clarified. “I don't feel nearly old enough to be called 'Mister,' Darling.”

“Uh... okay, Mettaton.” Steven stuttered, clearly a bit overwhelmed. “... I'm so gonna need your autograph for my daughter...”

“I do anything for my fans, darling.” Mettaton chuckled while waving. Winking was sadly something this body couldn't do.

“Really? Oh thank you!” Steven seemed to blush slightly while he gave Mettaton a pen and paper.

Linda cleared her throat.

“Can we go back to the point of this meeting? This is NOT the time for... celebrity worship.”

Steven blushed harder, but put the autograph away. Mettaton turned over to Linda and waved at her.

“Fans are like cake, there's always time for them, darling.” he cooed, and darn, he really should have switched forms. This would have been better in his Ex form, where he could flutter his eyelashes.

“So...” Steven said awkwardly. “As I said, it's good that you're here. The laboratory staff has taken a... shine to Alphys and requested to give you this.” He took a pretty big looking packet from under the desk he was standing in front of and gave it Mettaton.

Curious, he opened it instantly. It was full of letters.

“They gave the robot a packet of fanpost?” asked Linda.

“Awwww, I simply adore all of my fans.” Mettaton sighed. “I would be a really bad star to not love them.”

“WOWIE, THEY SURE SEND A LOT OF LETTERS.” Papyrus commented. “SOME OF THEM EVEN HAVE LITTLE HEARTS ON THEM. AND ARE RED. HUMANS SURE LOVE THEIR DETERMINATION, HUH?”

“Is there anything else?” asked Linda, voice sounding like she pressed the words through her teeth.

“Oh yes!” Steven exclaimed, now a bit surer of himself. “So... everything went pretty well, no one was missing and the staff complimented how well behaved the children were, so we most likely will get some more tours in the future for up-coming classes. I just wanted to ask you how you saw the trip and if you would say we should repeat the whole thing.”

“WELL, SANS SAID HE HAD FUN.” Papyrus noted, shrugging (it always looked impressive when a skeleton did that.) “FRISK TOO. THEY TALKED A LOT ABOUT THE TRIP AT HOME.”

“Yeah, Danny was especially overjoyed about the robotic limbs.” Pia said, smiling. “He was really excited.”

“I thought it was a bit... dangerous that they let the children get so close to harmful electronics.” Linda added, frowning. Mettaton didn't miss how she was looking at him for a moment.

“Well, as much as I heard, there were enough people there to keep an eye on things.” Mettaton huffed.

“SOMEBODY disappeared at a period of time.” came a remark from Linda, concealed by an unconvincing cough.

Papyrus frowned and Mettaton was a bit surprised by that. Papyrus was very easy-going, no matter what was thrown at him. To show irritation, real irritation, not the kind of mock-irritation at Sans' puns, would mean something was seriously not right.

Papyrus turned his head to Linda, looking at her before he begun speaking, each of his words sounding like carefully chosen.

“I THINK YOU MEAN MY BROTHER? HE NEVER TRULY DISAPPEARES. HE IS STILL THERE EVEN IF YOU DON'T SEE HIM.” Papyrus stated darkly. Everybody was now starring at him. Mettaton hadn't heard Papyrus ever talking like that. Sure, he could be serious and even angry, but he never heard him talking so... cold.

Linda just frowned more.

“Well, that is nice, I guess.” she mumbled. Papyrus seemed to be satisfied with this. He begun smiling earnestly again and the meeting continued pretty normally. They began talking about what the children said about the trip, and what to learn from that for the next one.

Linda was strangely... passive the whole time. After their first encounter a few months back, Mettaton had expected her to antagonize him and Papyrus a lot more. But strangely, besides sending them cold looks and glares, she didn't do much against them.

Steven remained pretty nervous during the meeting, sending looks to Mrs Smith from time to time. Some of the other parents asked questions, like about their own kids, and was the bus okay, or if anything happened, stuff that wasn't really interesting for Mettaton. Papyrus kept on smiling, making some remarks about kids he personally knew or things Sans had talked about. He remained friendly, even if some of the comments from some human parents were clearly borderline rude.

The meeting concluded pretty fast after that. Some of the parents were already standing up to leave, when the sound of somebody clearing their throat cut through the air. Mrs Smith was standing, her blue eyes on each and everyone of them.

“If I may say a few words?” she demanded. It probably was supposed to be a question, but it sounded more like a statement. “I want to thank you all for giving me an insight into the process of an PTA meeting. I want to talk to some of you individually now, so please have a little bit patience.” Her eyes fell onto Papyrus and Mettaton. “If it is all the same with you, I want to start with you two now, seeing as that you are normally not regular PTA members?”

“WOWIE, YOU WANT TO TALK TO US? WELL, THE GREAT PAPYRUS NEVER TURNS DOWN A FRIENDLY CHAT.” Papyrus piped, smiling and Mettaton just nodded.

“Well, excellent.” commented Smith. “To the rest of you, I will contact you all over the course of the week. Just leave some sort of contact data on the sheet of paper at the exit. Thank you.”

Linda looked like she wanted to say something, but she just walked past them and left the room. Papyrus just came over to Mrs Smith, happily sitting down in a chair across from her. Mettaton was a bit more skeptic.

“Before we begin, can I ask what your names are?” Mrs Smith questioned, her blue eyes fixed on both of them.

“WELL, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AT YOUR SERVICE.” answered Papyrus, grinning widely and making a pose like he wanted to salute Smith.

“My name is Mettaton, darling. I think you have heard of me.” Mettaton boasted, leaning a bit closer.

“Well, I think I've heard of your name, but I hadn't expect you to look like... this.” Smith commented, her eyes traveling down Mettatons rectangular body.

“OH YOU MEAN HIS BODY? HE CAN CHANGE, YOU KNOW?” Papyrus explained, helpful as ever.

“Would you prefer to talk to my other form?” Mettaton offered .

“It would make things a bit easier, if it is all the same to you?” Smith nodded, her eyes still on him.

“Well, Papyrus, dear, would you help me change in something more... appropriate real quick?”

“HUH? OH! OF CORSE, METTATON!”

Mettaton turned himself around and felt Papyrus' bones on his backside after a few seconds. He could feel a shimmer of nervous magic, the strange orange-green-blue-mix that he always associated with Papyrus. He felt him flipping his switch carefully and for a few moments, nothing happened.

Switching between his bodies was strange. Really, really strange. He felt nothing, had no input from the outside for this few moments when his metal and magic rearranged itself. Nothing but him and his thoughts for a few moments and then he suddenly had eyes, and his body and magic was connected again. Oh... yes, that felt great.

He opened his eyes and smiled, draping himself a bit over his seat and fluttered his lashes at Smith.

“What do you say, am I looking alright now?” he asked, a grin forming on his metallic lips, feeling better already. Smith raised her left eyebrow.

“I dare say, you look more conventional like that.” she commented dryly. “I presume you can change at will?”

“Oh, something like that.” he answered, making a waving gesture. “Let's say, my body is made out of electronics and magic, a few things should stay a mystery, after all, what is a monster without some little secrets?” he tutted, waving his outstretched index-finger from side to side.

“A VERY HONEST MONSTER.” Papyrus commented, which gave Mettaton a little pause.

“Well, yeah. That.” he agreed, slightly awkward.

“Nice.” Smith said dryly.

“SO, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?” Papyrus asked, eager to start (and Mettaton hoped he was as eager to finish this like he himself was).

“Well, firstly, I wanted to know your reasoning for enlisting your... child at this school.”

Mettaton blinked, surprised. This question was something he couldn't answer, seeing that HE didn't enlist Frisk at the school. It was kind of obvious to everybody with the ability to google, wasn't it?

“WELL, FRISK WAS ADOPTED BY TORIEL AND SHE AND MY BROTHER HAVE MARRIED SO THEY ARE HIS KID TOO AND TORIEL WORKS HERE. IT WAS KINDA OBVIOUS.”

“I see. What kind of monster is Frisk? I understand that Toriel is the headmaster and your brother is a skeleton like you?” asked Smith and Mettaton stared at her really surprised now. Did she really not know about Frisk? It was common knowledge just who Toriel had adopted. Was she so unprepared or did she think she can fool them into thinking she doesn't know?

What game does this human play? Mettaton blinked, forcing his face into a kind smile. The show must go on and if this human wants to play, fine, he was made for this song and dance.

“Oh, darling, you are making a false assumption here. Frisk isn't a monster, they are a human.” he said, still smiling kindly. “It is common knowledge, but maybe it's best if not everybody knows everything, huh?”

“THEY ARE A TINY HUMAN.”, agreed Papyrus. “BUT WELL, THEY GROW FAST AT THE MOMENT, MAYBE THEY WILL BE A BIG HUMAN IN SOME TIME. NYEH HEH HEH, THEY WILL BE TALLER THAN SANS IN EVERY CASE.”

That gave Smith a pause. She looked at her notes, obviously scanning for some information. Mettaton observed her closely, considering her stranger and stranger with each passing moment.

“Ah... the child that is your ambassador?” she finally said. Seriously, who was she trying to fool? Or did she really not know?

“YES. FRISK IS VERY GOOD AT THEIR JOB. WELL, WE LET ASGORE HANDLE MOST OF IT, BECAUSE TORIEL DIDN'T WANT FRISK TO MISS TO MUCH SCHOOL. BUT THEY DID CONVINCE THE HUMANS THAT WE SHOULD BE NORMAL CITIZENS IN THIS LAND DURING THEIR FIRST WEEK.” Papyrus boasted and Mettaton had to agree with him. Frisk was an extraordinary human. It was a small miracle that humans have accepted the monsters at all, but they had even managed to convince the human politicians that monster should be treated as friends and partners.

“As soon as they are out of school, they are going to be a star!” Mettaton concluded, smiling.

“... That is nice. Well, how would you describe the atmosphere at this school?” Smith hummed, seemingly not at all impressed by all that. This human was starting to tick Mettaton off. How dare she simply brush all that away?

“IT'S NICE?” answered Papyrus, thoughtful. “I WORK HERE SOMETIMES, TOO. I GUESS I KNOW MY WAY AROUND PRETTY WELL. THE CHILDREN ARE NICE. SOME PARENTS ARE A BIT STRANGE AROUND MONSTERS, BUT EVERYBODY HAS A BAD DAY SOMETIMES. SOONER OR LATER, THEY WILL ALL BE FRIENDS WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH HEH HEH!” he laughed and it took seriously everything from Mettaton to not swoon right there.

“I see.” Smith said slowly, writing something down again.

“I'm not around very often, I have a show after all, but every time I see Frisk, they seem to really like the school.” Mettaton added, mostly to fill on the silence.

Smith nodded, before stopping to write. She put her pen down, looked up and in Papyrus' eyes.

“You mentioned that you are working here, Mister... Dreemurr?” she asked and Mettaton cringed because no, nobody was Mister Dreemurr besides Asgore. Papyrus had a strained expression on his face too.

“YES, I AM WORKING HERE. BUT MY NAME ISN'T DREEMURR.” Papyrus clarified. His voice was calm and friendly, but Mettaton could hear a little edge in it. “MY BROTHER TOOK THE NAME WHEN HE MARRIED TORIEL BUT WE BOTH PREFERE TO NOT BE REFERRED TO WITH ANY SURNAME. PLEASE CALL ME PAPYRUS, AS IN THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

There was a beat of silence. Mettaton looked between Papyrus and Smith and back, thinking about something, anything to say.

“... okay. Papyrus?” Smith finally said and it sounded a bit like a sigh, like a battle lost in favor for having a better chance at the war. “What is your application here?”

Papyrus face lit up instantly.

“I AM AN ASSISTANT FOR UNDYNE. IT'S JUST A PART-TIME JOB, I HAVE MANY COURSES AT THE LOCAL COLLEGE, SO I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME. BUT WHEN I AM HERE, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE CHILDREN.” he gushed, excitement on his features.

“You are responsible for the safety if the children?” Smith exclaimed incredulously.

“YES. MY BLUE MAGIC HELPS A LOT WITH THAT. UNDYNE CAN ONLY DO GREEN MAGIC AND THAT WOULDN'T HELP MUCH.” Papyrus explained happily. His eyes started to glow in a gentle orange, not much, just so that Mettaton (and surely Smith too) could see the faint glow in his eye sockets. “I CAN EVEN SHOW YOU IF YOU WANT?”, he offered, still smiling happily and open.

“Well... that is... certainly nice.” Smith noted. “But that won't be necessary.”

“OH.” made Papyrus, clearly disappointed. “OKAY. BUT TELL ME IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE.”

Smith regarded him with a taxing glance, before looking down at her clipboard again. She wrote something new down. This time she didn't look at them when she spoke. “What can you tell me about the headmaster, Toriel Dreemurr?”

This was sounding more and more like some cheesy MTTV crime show, thought Mettaton. Was this an interview or an interrogation? Why did she want to know this stuff?

“UH, SHE WAS THE QUEEN OF ALL MONSTERS, BUT SHE HAD STEPPED DOWN A LONG LONG TIME AGO.” Papyrus explained. “I WASN'T EVEN A BABYBONES WHEN THAT HAPPENED. SHE IS VERY KIND AND BAKES THE BEST PIE AND LOVES TEACHING. UNFORTUNATELY, SHE ALSO LOVES BAD PUNS LIKE MY BROTHER, SO BOTH OF THEM REALLY DESERVE EACH OTHER. ON THE OTHER HAND, THEY MAKE EACH OTHER LAUGHT AND HAPPY, SO IT'S NOT TO BAD.”

“Many monsters still look up to Toriel.” Mettaton added, looking at Smith directly. He hoped she would back down a bit. “She was a very beloved queen. She is still very fair, but as far as I know, she prefers to be a simple teacher.”

If she was looking for dirt, she won't find any. Take that.

“I see.” said Smith again. “Well, I think I have everything I needed. I still want to talk to your brother, M... I mean, Papyrus. He seems to be a... very interesting person.”

It sounded like she wanted so say something else. Mettaton was liking this less and less.

“MY BROTHER IS PRETTY COOL.” Papyrus agreed, smiling. “I WILL TELL HIM THAT YOU WANT TO SPEAK WITH HIM. IT MAY BE A FEW DAY, THOUGH.”

“Oh? Can I ask why? He wasn't here today, too.” Smith observed and her concern wasn't even CONVINCING! Argh, Mettaton could cry of frustration. In one moment the acting skills of this woman were superb, on the next, she didn't even try. Was she MOCKING them?

“Monsters aren't free from sickness and feeling under the weather.” Mettaton defended, before Papyrus could open his mouth. It was no lie, monster really could get sick, he just never said that Sans was sick at the moment. “But we will give him your get well wishes. I'm sure he will be happy to talk to you as soon as he feels better.”

“Interesting.” Smith muttered, and something in her eyes told Mettaton that she didn't believe him. And then she begun to smile, a thin, barely-there smile that just seemed... fake. “I better remember this.”

Stars, this human. Mettaton felt seriously unsettled now. The faster they got away from her the better. This human had bad news written all over her. Something about her just felt... cold.

“DO YOU STILL NEED US HERE? I ALWAYS LIKE MAKING NEW FRIENDS, BUT I THINK WE REALLY SHOULD GO BACK TO MY BROTHER.” Papyrus announced, surely picking up the cold atmosphere.

“Oh, of course.” Smith agreed, smile all but gone, looking every part neutrality and professionalism again. “Thank you for answering my questions.”

And with these words, she stood up and left the room. Mettaton looked over to Papyrus, who seemed... frozen. Slowly, very slowly, his smile dropped.

“METTATON?” he asked.

“Yes, Papyrus?”

“THIS HUMAN... I... I REALLY DON'T FEEL GOOD TALKING TO HER.”

“... me too, Papyrus. Me too...”

They sat in silence for a few moments. Mettaton just kinda looped an arm around Papyrus, who didn't react at all. It was strange, all of this was so strange.

“Papyrus? Is something wrong?”

“I DON'T KNOW... I MUST CONFESS, I DON'T FEEL QUITE LIKE MYSELF TODAY. SOMETHING STRANGE IS GOING ON.”

“Something strange, huh?” Mettaton repeated, thinking. “I'm sure it's nothing the Great Papyrus and myself can't handle.”

Papyrus finally, finally laughed.

“NYEH HEH HEH. I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT, METTATON. THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN'T OVERCOME! JUST YOU WAIT, I WILL MAKE THIS HUMAN MY FRIEND!”

Well, that is Papyrus and his endless optimism for you. There were many reasons why Mettaton adored him so much. This was one of them.

Sans awoke when his phone made a beeping sound, indicating that he just got a new message. His head felt like somebody took a sledgehammer to it, but there wasn't much he could do for it. He picked up his phone and asked himself for a moment why he was in the living room and not in his room, and why nobody had woken him up. Judging by the light and shadows in the room, it had to be late afternoon. There was a pang of guilt again when he thought about Toriel or Papyrus finding him in the morning and deciding to let him rest. Now one of them or both knew something was up.

He had to tell them really soon. He didn't want to, but he had to.

Alphys: Everything looks great. I think we are ready. Should I tell Asgore?

Sans: No. I will tell him myself. It's kinda personal.

Alphys: Okay. Uh... I just wanted to tell you... can we talk? About... all that? I think there is some stuff you really, really should talk about with somebody?

Sans: You've read the logs, didn't you?

Alphys: !!!! I'm so sorry, they were just... THERE and I first thought they were just technical logs but...

Sans: Hey, I'm not angry. Some of that stuff had to get out some day, I'm surprised nobody figured it out earlier.

Alphys: Do you want to talk about it?

Sans: No. I know I should and someday, I will, but now? No.

Alphys: … okay. But... I just wanted you to know... I... I really didn't know. And I am so sorry and...

Sans: Not of that was your fault, science-sis. You are in this for your own reasons. Just... don't tell anybody yet, it's not fair if they don't hear it from me.

Alphys: I am not sorry as a scientist, I am sorry as your friend.

Sans: You weren't my friend back then. We barely knew each other.

Alphys: I should have done something.

Sans: Seriously, stop with that self-blaming crap. I don't blame you. It was a big accident. A stupid, horrible accident that screwed a lot of us up beyond belief, but an accident. And now, we are gaining something out of the trash that was left behind.

Alphys: Okay. Just... if you ever need somebody, I am here. And... and everybody else, too.

Sans: I know.

Sans: … Thank you.

Alphys didn't write anything after that. Sans sighed deeply and rubbed his left eye socket. She had read the logs. Of course, he has forgotten that they were still there. Wonderful. Yeah, he would have to tell all of his friends eventually, but knowing that it should happen is nothing compared to knowing that it was happening right now.

A look at the clock told him that Toriel would be back in one hour, Papyrus would be back... sooner, most likely. Or later, depends on his plans with Mettaton. He would have to talk to Asgore in the evening.

Sans really, really wished his head would stop trying to kill him. It was unfair, he didn't even have a brain, he shouldn't be in pain!

The door opened and Sans could hear heavy steps coming his way. A big shadow fell over him and he smiled, despite his head still trying its hardest to kill him.

“Hey, Tori.” he greeted, blinking and looking up at his wife (his wife! He will never get used to that.)

“Oh, how long have you been awake?” Toriel asked, sitting down beside him. She looked at him for a moment, before picking him up and placing him in her lap. He allowed it and snuggled even closer to her. Warm magic surrounded him, encompassing him. Even his headache became weaker.

“Hmmm... maybe a few minutes?” he said. “Did you let me sleep in?”

“Yes. You looked so exhausted in the morning...” Warm, fuzzy pawns went around him, pulling him deeper into the hug and it was so warm and smelled a bit like vanilla and cinnamon and clean, warm magic. “Papyrus and I thought you needed the break. I called your workplace and Papyrus went to the PTA meeting today.”

Sans blinked. Huh, seems like Toriel had everything under control.

“I love you.” he mumbled. Wow, he really was a bit gone, huh?

“I love you too, Sans.” whispered Toriel. One of her pawns was on his head now, petting him softly. Maybe there was a hint of healing magic in there too. It felt really, really nice. Sans was tempted to close his eyes again and lose himself in this feeling, the warmness and the knowledge that he was, well, loved.

“I am worried about you.”

“Huh? Why, Tori?” Sans asked, looking up to her.

“Your nightmares are back, you don't come to bed anymore at night and... you look so exhausted. You... don't have to answer me, but... how is your soul?”

Sans blinked.

“My soul? My soul is...” A little bit strained, a little bit darker then white, a little bit not healthy, but overall okay. Isn't it? “I...”

“Sans... can I... Check your soul?”

“Huh?” Sans looked at her, surprised. “You... wanna check my stats?”

“Yes. Your magic feels... distressed. I fear for your health.”

“Awww, Tori... I'm going tibia okay, I promise.”

A giggle. Success.

“You didn't answer my question, Sans.”

“... okay. Just... just go ahead.”

“You trust me?”

“I trust you, Tori. I love you.” he replied, quietly. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Pawns fell on his skull and magic suddenly surrounded him.

Sans.

AKT 1

DEF 3

HP 4/4

Your little punny husband. He looks very tired.

“Sans...” Toriel sighed and she sounded... relieved?

“What is it Tori?”

“It's... better. Better than I thought.” She hugged him again, enveloping him with so much warmness and it felt so... so good. “Oh thank the stars.”

Sans felt himself smile too and snuggled closer to Toriel, just enjoying this. For a moment, he really could forget about the project, Alphys and Asgore.

“I told you, Tori, its gonna be okay.” he mumbled. “It's just a little bump in the road. I was told it could happen.”

“I know. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...”

“No, Tori. I... kinda needed that.” Sans said, sighing. “It sucks at the moment and I'm sorry you have the deal with my bullshit, but I promise, it will get better again. I have given up on giving up.”

That made Toriel chuckle a bit and that made it all worth for Sans.

They had dinner together that night. Papyrus told everybody what had happened at the meeting. Frisk told them that Smith was interviewing teachers, parents and students the whole day and Sans got the feeling that there was something else going on.

Well, he should hurry up with his shit before other shit hit the fan.

After dinner he told the others that he had to step outside for a bit and promised he would be back for the night. (Seeing that Alphys didn't need him today, it wasn't even a lie.) He only took the time to go into his office, getting a few of his notes that he would need for this talk. As he was taking them, he saw some familiar sheets of paper. The copies of the logs. He had made them a long time ago and had almost forgotten that the originals were still around.

He picked them up, looking them over. They weren't a happy read, but his story wasn't a very happy one.

-Log Entry 05/21/1XXX

He told me I can call him father today. I'm really happy about that. I don't quite understand what “adoption” is, but apparently it means I get to live with him and he calls me son.

He promised he would get me ice cream. I finally get to see something different around here!

Onmake: Turns out the ice cream is called NICECREAM. It's genius, because it's ice cream and has nice things written on the wrapper!

-Log Entry 05/27/1XXX

Dad showed me some books today, about what he does. I think I like the Astronomy most. That and Timestuff. I like timestuff.

-Log Entry 07/10/1XXX

I wanna be a scientist, like dad.

-Log Entry 01/01/1XXX

A human has fallen. The second soul. Dad didn't say anything but I know it's orange. We talked about it, a very long time. He promised me that he wouldn't do THAT anymore. I am happy he made this promise.

Speaking of promises, I will hold mine! I gonna be the best scientist ever! Dad said I am really, really good, so maybe I am allowed to learn in the lab soon!

-Log Entry 03/12/1XXX

I met the team today! Some of them knew me from when I was little. But they are all very nice. Dad introduced me to all of them. I can't believe I will finally work with all of them! I'm so excited!

God, he sounded so happy in these ones. Sans left this page at home. Even if his talk with Asgore would go to this topic, he doubted Asgore would like to know about this stuff. He sighed deeply, before he left his office and left the house.

He teleported to Asgore's place, a beautiful little house with a big garden that had all kinds of plant life in it. It was still late winter, so there wasn't much going on in terms of flowers, but a few brave green sprouts could be seen.

Sans walked up towards the door, steeling himself for this conversation. He rang the bell. The door opened and Asgore, the ex-king of all monsters, was wearing a apron and holding a tiny gardening-tool (Sans had no idea what it was, it looked like a flat hock) in his massive pawns.

“Oh, Sans. It's nice to see you.” Asgore greeted, smiling. “Please come in. Do you want a cup of tea?”

“I wouldn't say no.” Sans agreed, before looking Asgore in the eyes. “But I'm not here for the tea. Asgore? We need to talk.”

“Talk?” Asgore repeated, still slightly smiling. “Talk about what, Sans?”

“We need to talk about W.D. Gaster, the former Royal Scientist and what he left behind.”

Chapter Text

"Fuck you, Linda.", said Sans when they stood together in front of the school, waiting for their children. There were "WE WON" and "MAKE OUR COUNTRY GREAT AGAIN!" and "BUILD A WALL AROUND MOUNT EBOTT" signs everywhere. Only half of the monster population of the school even came today. Frisk was sad. Toriel was devastated.

"Hey, I didn't vote him!", protested Linda. "I voted third party!"

"You KNEW third party wouldn't have a chance."

Linda huffed.

"I just didn't want to choose the lesser evil."

Sans sighed deeply. This whole situation was wearing him down.

"Instead you let the racist, species-ist, misogynist, bigoted jerk win?"

"... but I voted third party...", mumbled Linda again.

Sans wanted to say more but Frisk was coming from the school. Their face was set in determination. Oh stars, please don't let them have found out how to reset or load to like to like two years before.

"Just fuck you Linda.", mumbled Sans quickly before Frisk could hear him.

He hugged them when they were near enough. They told him MK said today they were afraid. They told him that some teacher spoke to them today. They told them that many monster are very afraid and a lot of humans too. Sans just could hold them closer.

And they got home to Toriel and she and Papyrus were standing around a big pile of letters in the kitchen.

Sans blinked at that.

"What is this all  about?", he asked.

"THEY ARE LETTERS, BROTHER!", said Papyrus, giggling with joy. "FROM MONSTER AND HUMANS! SOME EXPRESS THEIR REGRET OF THE RESULT OF THE ELECTION BUT MANY OTHERS ARE FILLED WITH WORDS OF KINDNESS AND SUPPORT AND JOY!"

"Really?"

"Yes, dear.", said Toriel, showing Sans some of the letters. Sans could see tears in her eyes but she was still smiling. "It's easy to forget that there are so many kind and nice people out there..."

"THERE ARE SO MANY HUMANS WHO TELL US TO STAY DETERMINATE.", chuckled Papyrus. 

"Huh... look at that.", said Sans when he read the letter, words of encouragement, to not lose hope, to go on and make the best out of the situation. There also was an other letter in the pile, catching his eye. He knew the handwriting, he saw it so many times on PTA notebooks and handouts and...

He took the letter and red it.

"I am sorry.", it red. There was no signature but it wasn't needed. On the back stood. "I probably deserved the dunking."

Sans chucked and pocketed the letter. He glanced to Frisk. "Hey, kiddo... you ready for being determined and see this through?"

Frisk, who was reading over an other letter themself, looked up to Sans, smiled and nodded.

After all, they had saved the monster once from the Underground all alone. Now, with so many people backing them up, facing down a bully of an leader of an nation didn't sound as scary.

Knowing that their family and friends and so many others out there still believed in love and unity instead of hate and fear... it filled them with DETERMINATION.

Chapter Text

Sans liked Asgore. It was really, really hard not to. He told himself that from time to time, just to be sure. He was the fluffiest Fluffybuns, all white soft furr and soft, big, brown goat eyes and even softer voice. All in all, Asgore was a good guy and a great friend.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the best king in the past.

“What... what do you mean by that?”, asked Asgore, unsure. “About needing to talk?”

“I mean what I mean.” Sans sighed. “Just... make us some tea, this will take some time. You can tell me if you remember Gaster. The last Royal Scientist. Or anything about the Soul project.”

The way Asgore stifled and the expression he made, a mix between shock and guilt, said everything he needed to know. After a few seconds he slumped into himself, soul crushing guilt on his face.

“I hoped all of this had faded into the nothingness.”, he mumbled.

“Buddy, there isn't a day where I hadn't wished that too.”, said Sans, before sighing and sitting down beside Asgore. “Look, I am not here to make you feel bad about that stuff, I made my peace with that a long time ago, but I need your help with something important and so I have to know what you remember.”

Asgore looked down and remained like this for a while, until he spoke, head still turned down.

“I remember Wingding Gaster. Not much, I am afraid, but... I remember him being my Scientist, and my friend. I remember him building the Core. I remember him... disappearing one day” only now he turned he head to Sans, looking at him. “And I remember him having... two sons.”

Sans said nothing, just looked at him. In all honesty, he hadn't expected Asgore to remember even that much. It hurt a bit knowing how much he had known even now and never saying anything.

“I remember... a few things about project Soul.”, said Asgore slowly. “He came to me with the idea shortly after... after my son died.”

“Seven souls were needed.”, said Sans quietly.

“And he said he had a way so we wouldn't have to kill humans.”, said Asgore just as quietly, before frowning. “Something must have gone wrong.”

“Yeah... it went wrong.”, said Sans, his eyes turning dark without his control. Asgore looked at him with an expression of pure sadness.

“Sans, my dear friend...”

“No, Asgore. This whole thing... it's important.”, he interrupted him. Asgore blinked at him at that surprised, no doubt startled by his interruption.

“Why do you want to remember this sad part of our history? I… I think there are things that are best left forgotten.”, whispered Asgore with a pained expression. Sans shook his head and kept his eyes on him.

“No. Not this. I need your help with something and for that I need you to understand a few things. So you remember what the project was like?”, he pressed. Asgore looked like he wanted to protest, to deny ever knowing anything about the project, but paused, before beginning to speak.

“Not... not much I am afraid. … let's talk a bit about Gaster. I remember things about him, but not much. But I think he was a friend.”

“I think you two were friends, too. He sometimes talked about you.”

“Dad, who is this?”

“On that picture? It's King Asgore. He is the king of all monster.”

“He looks nice. And fuzzy. Why does he put a big hat on your skull there?”

“Why can you remember? Is it because of the timelines...?”, asked Asgore and Sans let out a litte sigh of gratitude. It's always a good sign when there was no out-right denial about Asgore knowing Gaster and knowing that Sans knew.

“I think so.”, said Sans. “Gaster... fell into his own creation. He was fractured and spread over the timelines. I... I was... present.”, well, that was one way to describe it. “The same thing that let me remember all the timelines, let me remember him.”

“... what had happened?”, asked Asgore and Sans hesitated answering.

“It's... complicated.”, he said slowly. “But that is... really not important. What's important is what he did. Or what he left behind.”

“You... are talking about the project?”

“Yes.”, said Sans.

There was silent for a moment between them, where Asgore looked really uncomfortable and Sans feeling really uncomfortable. There was not pretty way to this or around this.

“... Sans, my friend. You seem really troubled. Why don't we continue this later?”, asked Asgore, voice a bit to chipper and gentle and all to eager to end the conversation and forget about it.

There was a big part of Sans that wanted that too.

“Asgore... no.”, Sans sighed. “No, we should do this. No more running away. I gave up on giving up, you should, too.”

“... But... this is... very painful. It hurts you... and...”

“Asgore, I rebuild his machine.”, stated Sans.

Asgore looked at him shocked.

“His... machine?”, he whispered.

“I had it the whole time. I stole it after he disappeared.”

His words were a bit stiff, a bit cold, but there was no easy way to bring them out.

“Sans...”, begun Asgore, looking more miserable than before.

“Asgore, I know you know about this. Should I tell you what I know? Or do you want to read it?”

It broke Sans' heart to see the Ex-King like this, but still, there was no way he could back out now.

“R...read...?”

“I have the logs. Alphys red them too.”

“T...The logs?`”

“Should I really tell you?”

“Sans... please, don't...”, asked Asgore, his voice all but a whisper.

“No, Asgore. No more hiding.”, stated Sans, taking a deep breath. No more running away, for both of them. “Gaster was your Royal Scientist. After Chara died, he came to you with a idea. He had this theory about souls and their container, how the colors of human souls and the different types of magic are linked. He wanted to create an artificial human soul, so we didn't had to wait for humans to come down here and die. So you wouldn't need to kill them.”

Asgore made a choking sound and Sans felt bad, especially bringing up Chara, for a lot of reasons. But he didn't stop. It was all part of the story, after all.

“He needed the body of Chara, though. Toriel overheard your plan and took the body and ran into the ruins and buried Chara's body there. For a while, it seemed as if that was the end for that plan, but then, a human fell.”

Oh, yeah. Sans really felt like a jerk now, seeing Asgore's face fall even more at the mention of Toriel. He still loved her. He had never stopped loving her. (But Sans was a bit to selfish and loved Toriel a bit to much to step down and leave her, just to spare him. Asgore wouldn't want that, not really, and it would only make things worse.)

“A little human, with a cowboy hat and an empty pistol. They just wanted to get home, they surely had somebody waiting for them. You killed them, and you had your first soul, the yellow one.

Gaster requested to use the body and you granted him his wish. He stripped the body of his flesh...”

“Sans... p..please...”, whimmed Asgore, but Sans ignored him.

“And he infused the bones with magic, with all traits of monster magic, and with something unique of human souls he had extracted from the soul using his machine… Determination. It should have made a yellow soul, shouldn't it? After all, all the parts were there. But the experiment failed. He produced not a human soul, but a monster one. The Bones became alive and felt things. He should have scrapped it, because, hell, a monster wouldn't do. A monster soul would be useless. But he didn't. He took pity in his creation, named the new monster his son and took him home.”

“Sans...”, begun Asgore, but again, Sans ignored him and continued telling his strange story.

“He raised the child like his own, loved them and showed them all the wonders of science. The child begun to love science just like their father. They even got trained to become a scientist when their father heard from their desire to follow in his footsteps.

And then the second human fell. A small child, just like the first, but burning with a strong will, brave and kind and searching for a place where they could belong to. They were killed and their soul harvest. And it was green.”

Sans needed a little break, to catch his breath while Asgore still stared at him, looking miserable and one step away from covering his ears to not hear anything anymore. But Sans continued.

“The monster child knew Gaster would request for the body and begged him not to. They begged him not to do an experiment like him, reminded him how cruel it would be to create life just to sacrifice it. Reminded him that they weren't meant to be alive, but were, that they didn't want for anybody to feel like just a sacrifice. Gaster made the promise.”

“Please don't do this. Please promise me you wouldn't turn on the machine on them!”

“Sans... why don't you want me to do it? I'm sure it will work, I'm sure I can...”

“Because... they would be like me! You would create somebody... make somebody just to kill them.”

“I didn't...”

“You would kill them! Like you could kill me...”

“NO! I... I could never kill you, Sans! You are my... my son. I love you...”

“Just because I'm a monster! Just because... I have the right or wrong kind of soul. Please, dad. PLEASE. Don't do that. It's not fair. For none of them.”

“... alright. I won't do it.”

“Promise me!”

“I promise you, Sans. I won't turn the machine on any more human remains...”

“But he had already broken this promise before it was even made. A second soul was created. But it failed again and was hidden away in the lab. A monster, created just like the first.

The child found out. They were furious, took the new child, declared them their brother, and refused to talk to Gaster for... a long time.”

“Sans... these children... they...” Asgore tried to interrupt him, the hurt in his voice almost palatable, but Sans continued without mercy.

“Things got figured out. Gaster, his son and the second child reconciled after a while, apologies were made and things were back to happy again. The son and their brother became pretty close.”

“Sans... please...”, pleaded Asgore but Sans couldn't stop. This part of the story was painful, but he couldn't stop. He had to tell it, he had to make Asgore understand. His hands were shaking so he put them into the pockets of his hoodie.

“What they didn't know, Gaster became desperate. He used some of the determination of the souls on himself, thinking it would make him stronger, that he could finally figure out how human souls work if he exposes himself to the thing unique to them. He slowly was losing himself in his task. A third human fell, again, just a child, with a blue soul. You killed them again and Gaster was hurt by how hurt you were. He really didn't wanted to kill the humans. So he tried and find his fault, to find why two times monster souls had formed instead of a human one. But Determination is dangerous. He begun to slip, begun to become consumed by the Determination itself.

“E-1, get me the test tube...”

“D...dad? I...”

“... Sans? What did I say?”

“N...nothing, dad...”

“Oh... Sans...”

“It's alright dad... you just... zoomed out.”

“I'm so sorry, my son, I promise, it wouldn't happen again!”

“He started to have bad days, manic episodes, where he became scary, would call the children he loved “Experiments” instead of their names. He made plans. He modified the machine.”

“Sans... I...”

“An other human fell, their soul was orange. This time, Gaster came to the king who was crying, who never wanted to kill anybody, and asked for permission to continue his project.”

“Sans...”

“And he became really bad. He tricked his children, trapped them in the laboratory, and hurt them. Really bad. He said he finally knew what went wrong. He would take them to his machine and made them new, make them a human soul so they finally could be of use like they were intended.”

“I... Please stop.”

“He took the younger one, something about his soul being better, more stable. Maybe there even was some of the love he had for the child left he once felt that caused him to take the younger one first... maybe not. He just took the younger one and left his first son alone in the dark, screaming and raging and crying and feeling utterly hopeless.

But he broke out, ran to the machine. There... there was an explosion. Gaster fell into his own machine, the younger brother was badly hurt and the older one just took him and run, came back and stole everything, the machine, the blueprints, everything.”

Sans stopped, his mind racing and his breath ragged, almost panting, as if he just ran a marathon. His left eye prickled and hurt. For a while there was nothing but silence between him and the former king.

“... Sans... I... I don't know what to say...”, whispered Asgore finally, but Sans shook his head.

“.. you don't have to. I'm sorry, I got a bit carried away...”, he mumbled, taking some deep breaths, trying to calm down a bit. “I... I'm sorry.”

Stars, this stuff was so long ago... he really overdid it a bit. Way to go, Sans. You wanted to make a point, not pour your soul out to this poor guy.

There was silence again, for several minutes. Both Sans and Asgore deep in though, Sans's breathing only slowly evening out.

“But... what should I do now...?”, asked Asgore after a while and yeah, there WAS a point to all this, wasn't it?

“I rebuild the machine.”, said Sans, looking Asgore in the eyes. “I want to use it one last time.”

“What?”

“I want to use it. I made modifications.”, Sans explained. “First... When I started I thought I could bring Gaster back. I was desperate to bring back my father... who was most likely long death before disappearing in the machine. But I think I know a way to help besides that.”

“Sans, no!”, shouted Asgore, raising his voice for the first time since Sans got here, eyes wide and full of something like hurt and fear. “No, this... this is horrible, I don't think this is a good idea. Some things are best left alone. Whatever Gaster was doing with that machine, I lost a good friend to it and I don't want to lose anybody else to it! You... you can't imagine how... no, I won't help you with that.”

“Seriously? After everything that happened, you want to turn your back to this?” asked Sans, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I... I wouldn't know what to do, whatever you want to do! I had no hand in this, I can't...”

“Bullshit.”, interrupted Sans him. Rage puled through his soul. Was he really serious? After all that... he was still saying something like that?

“What?”

“BULLSHIT!”, shouted Sans louder. “You are just as responsible as I am and as Gaster was! You could have stopped all this way before it was happening but you didn't do anything. Now there is a chance to set things right.”

“I didn't know anything about... I couldn't have helped.”, said Asgore desperately and something in Sans just snapped. How DARED he? He could understand the running from the problem, heck, he himself did for years. But to deny the responsibility? He wouldn't let Asgore do that.

“BULLSHIT! You knew, Asgore!”, he countered Asgore's statement. “You KNEW about me, about the project! I know because I red his logs. Do you want to hear them? Do you remember them?”

Asgore starred at him with horror as Sans pulled out the old logs. It was a bit difficult to see through tears, but Sans knew the words by heart. He searched for the right place and begun to read, his voice rough and scratchy.

“Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

The experiment seems to be a failure. The created soul has determination, but far less than a human should have. And it's white. Have I created a monster soul?

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

E-1 is still asleep and I was able to get the first readings of the soul today. It seems to be sentient? I am confused. It's not a human soul, we can't harvest it. E-1 has readings like... a monster child would have. I think it even has readings of magic. But how?

What should I do?”

“Sans! Please stop... please,...”

But Sans continued.

“Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I should terminate the Experiment. E-1 is a monster soul, useless for our case. I should kill it and try again. But... I am conflicted. It's still a living being. Does it have emotion? Have I created a life?

Can I really kill E-1 just to gain another try?”

“P...Please...” Asgores voice sounded so small and afraid but Sans didn't had it in him to spare him now.

“Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

Asgore gave me his approval to proceed how I would seem fit. He practically gave me the allowance to kill E-1.

I don't know if I could do it.”

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I... E-1 awoke today. He is sentient. He has emotions. He is fully alive. This was not planned. This was not supposed to happen. I have no idea how and why, but... this is a child.

What should I do?”

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I can't kill him. It would be the logical thing to do, I know. Who knows when the next human will fall? But... I can't kill him. I can't kill a child, I can't do it! May I be judged for this, I can't kill this child. I brought it into this world, and I will care for it.

Asgore was openly sobbing now and Sans was shaking with anger and sadness and a whole lot emotions he thought he had dealt with. He skipped a few entries, mostly the happy times and then the slow descent into madness.

“I don't want to hear it anymore!”

“Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I have secured E-1 and E-2 in the lab. I will find out what went wrong. I think I can fix it. Make the souls human, so we can extract them. Asgore said he wants to stop killing humans, so this is the only way. I still remember how I couldn't terminate one failed experiment. Asgore had to kill so much more. I can't let my king down with my selfishness. I will make things right. I think the bodies could surely be used more than one times. We will have more than enough souls, so we all will be strong enough to face the humans, to endure them this time!

“Sans... please, you don't have to... I... I never wanted...”

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

E-1 looks at me every time I have to make a few tests. I find it unsettling. But my resolve stands. I won't fail again.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I need to finally do it. I should take E-1... no. No, E-1...E-2 may be the better candidate for the first test. He seems younger and more flexible in his soul. I think the results will be better with him.

Log Entry XX/XX/XXXX

I talked to Asgore today. He seemed not very interested in my research but that will change as soon as I have the results. I asked him about his approval he gave me a long time ago. He confirmed, that his approval, to do anything as I seem fit with my experiments, still stands.

I have the kings approval to carry on. I will carry on.”

Sans stopped his reading at this point. Asgore was still quietly sobbing.

“Please... I... I didn't know.”, said Asgore. “I... I didn't think...”

“Yeah... you didn't think.”, whispered Sans. There was no malice in his voice, because really, he didn't felt hate for the king. He was trusting, he was nice. It was a mistake that was easily made. He couldn't have known that Gaster was doing something horrible to him and Papyrus. But it was a mistake that had cost him a lot, there was no denying that. “You didn't think at all.”

“I had no idea! I... I never wanted for something like this to happen.”, whispered Asgore. Something about how he said it made anger flare up in Sans's soul again.

“You still gave him approval!”, shouted Sans furiously. Okay, maybe he really wasn't quite over this stuff as much as he thought he was. The hurt was still there and the anger about Asgore for being ignorant and denying everything about it. “You allowed him to... to do whatever to me!” There were tears everywhere and he had to look absolutely pathetic, but he didn't care. “And later to Papyrus! The first time, you knew I was alive! You knew I was a monster and alive and you gave him the permission to KILL me! And the second time, you didn't even ASK what he meant by that! You knew about us, you knew about... about everything, you must have known that he wasn't his old self, and you... you practically sentenced us to death! I know and I remember! He didn't... do it the first time, he couldn't and he was so TORN because he wanted to help YOU but he couldn't take our lives. Later, when things went bad, what did you do? Nothing. You did nothing, Asgore. You, again, allowed him to do whatever to us. You allowed him to trap us, to hurt us, to kill us. And when he did the first two things, nobody came for us!”

There was again silence for a moment between them, Sans breathing hard and struggling to regain his composure but he was still so ANGRY. Because Asgore should have known. He should have at least checked in on them. Should have at least ASKED what Gaster was doing. Somebody HAD to notice that him and Papyrus were gone, somebody just HAD to at least mentioned to him that Sans and Papyrus weren't seen for days, he could just have asked or came looking for them. But he didn't, he didn't wanted to, wanted to live in ignorance rather than with the knowledge and responsibility.

And... hell, Sans could understand! It was hilarious and terrible but he could understand this guy.

“I have forgiven you a long time ago. I understand, I don't hold a grudge. Hell, I even really like you. But I can't forget, Asgore. Not that. You let him do that, so I won't allow you to give responsibility up this time. I won't allow you to turn your back at your failures. You face them now, just like I face mine. There is someone out there, who needs you and your love. So, please, do the right thing now.”

“You... you can't make me responsible for... for what Gaster did! I... I didn't...”, stuttered Asgore, but Sans just looked at him with tired eyes and he fell silent.

“Asgore, you just... gave us over.”, Sans said, his voice now barely a whisper. “You... I need you to understand that. Things went bad and you didn't do anything.” His voice trembled a bit. “I couldn't do anything! You could have helped us, but you didn't. You gave him permission to do anything and he took us. I... I never felt so helpless.”

There were a few seconds of silence, while Sans tried to compose himself. When he spoke again, his voice had a little more volume to it. “Do you know how that feels? Knowing you can't do anything, that the man who once was your father now wants to kill you and your brother? Do you know how it feels when your brother is taken away from you and you know he will kill him and you can't do a thing? And the worst part is, there is someone out there knowing this. There was somebody knowing that you were there and your brother was there and this man will kill you both. But. Nobody. Will. Come. For you!”

There was a beat of silence between them, Asgore was looking at Sans with an expression of pure anguish while Sans' eyes were wide and wild and his left eye aflame with blue and yellow magic. Bright blue tears were still streaming down his cheekbones. The little skeleton was shaking on his whole body, but kept glaring at the former king of the monsters.

“I can tell you. Not good. Really, really not good.”, he finally whispered. He rubbed roughly at his face, trying to get most of his tears out of the way. Resolve settled on his expression

“But... but you got a chance now. No, we both get a chance. You get a chance to do one good thing with this... messed up stuff. And I'll get the satisfaction, that all that suffering and all that bad stuff is worth something. That this machine and Gaster and everything he did to me and Papyrus will make SOMETHING right.”

“Sans... what are you planing?”, whispered Asgore after a moment of silence. Sans took some deep breaths. He could do this.... He could. It was all a mess and didn't went as planed but he still could do this. He could tell Asgore.

“We are making this right. Alphys helped me repair and fine-tune the machine. You'll help with providing the love. And I... I'll provide you with everything else. In this damned machine are my tears, my feelings, my magic and everything I had to endure.”, said Sans, looking straight up to Asgore.

“P...providing the love?”, stuttered Asgore.

“Asgore... we are making one last soul. Not a human soul, a monster soul. Compassion and Magic and love. That is what souls are made of, aren't they? So we need you and I need you to remember as much as you can about... everything. We can do this, Asgore. And we save your son with it. For the first time in a millennium, help me SAVE somebody!”

Asgore stared at him, eyes wide. Sans became aware that he was breathing heavily, as if he just ran a mile. Damn, this wasn't planned, he really hadn't planned to get this emotional. He really hadn't planned to lay into Asgore this harsh.

“My... son?”, asked Asgore finally. “Asriel?”

Sans nodded, taking deep breaths to calm himself down again a bit.

“But how? He... he is dead.”, whispered Asgore. “Since a very long time...”

“The damn machine wasn't the only thing Gaster left behind.”, said Sans finally. “The DT-project. Alphys used some of his plans and theories.” And some of his own, but nobody knew that.

“The... Determination Experiments?”

“Yes. She tried to infuse something with Determination in the hope it could pass the barrier if it wasn't human OR monster. She used a flower from the royal garden.”, explained Sans. “One of the very flowers the dust of your son was spread.”

“You want to tell me...”, whispered Asgore. “That my son was alive? All this time?”

“No.”

Asgore looked at him surprised and Sans sighed deeply, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his jacket.

“He wasn't alive. Not as Asriel. The flower that came to live had his memories... but not his soul. He had Determination, but no compassion, no way of feeling love or anything. He wasn't a monster anymore, but his own new person. He called himself Flowey. He wasn't Asriel in the slightest.”

Flowey's resets and loads were still very hazy, many of them corrupted in his mind. But he knew enough. He remembered enough and his past-selfs had written enough in his notes to let him puzzle together most of it. The good times, the perfect times, the times when things went okay and the times things went so very wrong.

He still didn't know what Flowey had done to his brother that one of the Sans's in the past made a note to kill Flowey on sight. He didn't do it, of course, but still, it made him wonder.

“But... this “Flowey”... he still has the memories of my son?”, asked Asgore.

“Yes.”

“... where is he now?”, asked Asgore.

“Well... he wanted to stay Underground. Frisk really wanted to get him to come up too, but he refused. But now and at this moment? He's with a... good friend of mine.”, said Sans. And stars, it was a task to get Flowey from the Underground up and into his temporary home. “We'll get him as soon as everything is ready. So. Are you... on board with this?”

Asgore looked down and it was silent for a very long moment. Finally he nodded and looked Sans in the eyes.

“I trust you, my friend.”, he said finally, with a faint smile. “Tell me what to do...”

------

Alphys looked at the machine with a great sense of respect. It gleamed in the light of the lights in her laboratory. It was truly finished and ready. They only needed Asgore here now and... well...

“Alphys? Alphys, are you still there?”, called a voice from upstairs and a few seconds later Undyne came into the lab, looking a bit annoyed. “Alphys, come on, it's way past bedtime and I won't let you pull all-nighters anymore!”

“Uhh... Undyne?”, asked Alphys, nervous. “Don't worry, I'm finished, I just...”

She got some sheets to cover up the machine but Undyne was already there beside her, looking at the machine.

“Huh? Alphys, what's that?”

“Uh... just a project...”, said Alphys nervously.

Undyne blinked. “So... this is the nerd project you and Sans are cooking up.”

“Uh... yeah.”

“And it's this... machine.”

“Yeah?”

“... What does it do?”

Alphys glubbed heavily.

“Well you see... it's... complicated... and... well...”, she shuttered. Her phone beeped before she got anything else out. It was a text from Sans.

Sans: I talked to Asgore. We'll get Flowey tomorrow. Come to the school when Frisk gets out of there, I'll bring Asgore.

“Alphys?”, asked Undyne.

“Undyne... I...”, mumbled Alphys. “I... can I explain tomorrow?”

Undyne looked at her for a moment, before relaxing and sighing. “Alright... but come to bed now, alright? No more nerd-stuff for today.”

Alphys smiled a bit and nodded, allowing Undyne to drag her to bed. She was lucky that Undyne was so understanding with... well.. everything. So she got stripped out of her lab coat and put on a oversized shirt with a pretty human anime girl on it (Undyne said she looked greater than any of them which never failed to make Alphys blush.) and before she know it, she was lying in bed with Undyne curled around her. She barely managed to send a reply to Sans.

Alphys: I'll be there.

Sans had thought long about telling Frisk and how to do so. But he supposed, really, he had to. First and foremost, he did made a promise to them and he was planning keeping it. So, they had a right to be there. Second, it was maybe a good idea to have Frisk nearby. They knew Asriel both as flower and as the little goat-child he was supposed to be should anything go wrong, they could load and tell him what went wrong. And they were the being with the most Determination around, so nobody else could steal the control over the timelines.

Well, and besides that? He supposed Flowey would be a bit more easier to handle with Frisk around. Sometimes Sans wondered how they do it, befriending almost everybody around them.

Eh, must just be Frisk being Frisk and therefore the best kid ever. Kinda like Papyrus is the coolest by default. Even soulless flowers must know that apparently.

He debated telling Toriel. It's not that he didn't trust her or thought that she couldn't handle it... but...

Flowey was once her child. To see him like this, soulless and knowing from Frisk that she had to save them from him in the Underground... well, he really only wanted to open THAT can of worms when they had everything else figured out.

It was selfish and maybe not the best thing to do, but really, he had just not the energy for this now. He would make it up to her somehow.

So, he got Asgore and got with him to Frisks school, waiting like always for them.

They came out right on cue, smile turning into a beam when they saw Asgore. They broke out into a sprint, nearly tackling the former king with an very enthusiastic hug. Asgore caught them, laughing his deep belly-laugh as he spun them once around.

“Greetings, Frisk.”, he said while Frisk was still giggling, hugging him around his neck and nuzzling into his fluffy beard. He chuckled deeply and held on to them for a second, getting a strange sad look on his face.

Sans couldn't fault him for it, all things considered.

“Did you had a good day?”, Asgore asked while setting Frisk down, patting them on the head with his massive pawns.

Frisk nodded and begun signing enthusiastically. “Yes! It was great today. Undyne showed us how to suplex a whole bench. It was impressive.”

Asgore chuckled, amused, and begun telling Frisk the story about how Undyne had tried to suplex him when she was only 12 years old. Sans didn't really listening, knowing the story already, and looked around. It didn't take long for him to spot Alphys. Even if she tried to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible, she was still a yellow lizard monster. In a lab coat. Seriously.

He waved at her when she came nearer.

“Look, Frisk. Aunty Alphys is here now too.”

Frisks head whipped around and they BEAMED at Alphys and a second later Alphys had both arms full of human child. Frisk hugged her tightly and giggled, before letting go and beginning to sign almost to fast to be made out.

Sans got the gist of it, however. Something about a planed anime club at school and how much their classmates loved Alphys and liked her lessons on robotics. Alphys was blushing bright with her magic already and Sans had to chuckle a tiny bit.

“Frisk, Frisk, let her take a breather.”, he chuckled.

“Why are Uncle Asgore and Aunty Alphys here anyway?”, asked Frisk. “Is today a special day?”

“You.. could say that.”, said Sans softly. “Today is a very special day, kiddo.” He winked. “Come on, we're going to Grillby's.

Grillby's new restaurant slash bar was, well... pretty similar to his old one. It was a nice little place downtown, an old building between a barber shop and a book shop, with the interior heavily wood-themed. Grillby's was still cozy and inviting thou, only a bit bigger now and with a working jukebox. It was a nice place for monster to come in and even humans enjoyed the place. Apparently, humans also liked the taste of his food, be it with magic or without.

Sans loved the new place just like the old one, even if he couldn't come here often. Grillby was an understanding and patient soul, bless his flames. He was always a good friend for Sans, proven to be a good listener and let him keep a tap (one that he payed back as soon as he could, thank you very much!). His advises were usually pretty helpful (his observation that the sentry stands looked like hotdog stands was perfect), he laughed about his jokes, mostly, and he didn't mind being called in the middle of the night and rambled to.

He also did Sans the favor of looking after something rather.. delicate.

So, when Sans led them into Grillby's, his flame friend knew already why he was here, nodded at him and disappeared through a door next to the kitchen.

There weren't that many other people here at this time, just a pair of bunnies at then entrance, a lone human sitting in a corner, and a blue flame in a leather jacket sitting a the bar, half leaning over it to talk to a yellow flame who was hired by Grillby as a helper when the new place opened.

“Welp, looks like Grillby gets our stuff. Just sit down for a moment, this will be quick.”, Sans said, opting for the others to sit down while he took the place closest to the blue flame.

Asgore looked at Alphys, who shrugged her shoulders. Frisk only gave them a look of Determination and sat down by Sans, before being followed by Asgore and Alphys. The yellow flame spotted them and came over, winking at them.

“Hey there. Finally here huh? Want anything while Grills is getting your little package?”, he asked friendly, grinning a bit, his yellow flames crackling with barely contained amusement.

“Eh, I'm just here for some Ketch-up.”, said Sans, ginning lazily, before turning around to the others. “You guys want anything? It's on me.”

“I'm... fine.”, mumbled Alphys and even Asgore declined politely.

“You got milk?”, asked Frisk, which was met with a nod and a bright smile by the flame, who hurried to get them some.

“Ya weren't here for a while.”, said the blue flame after a while, turning around and looked at them. It was impossible to say where he was looking exactly with his dark shades, though Sans could imagine he paused at the sight of King Asgore.

“Eh, you know, work.”, said Sans lightly, before grinning a bit. “And you still hang around here.”

“It's a good hang-out. And SOMEBODY has to make sure Grills takes breaks. He's working way to much.”, the blue flame grumbled, almost pouting at the statement.

“Oh hush, you just want attention and are pouting the whole day when you don't get it.”, came the voice from the yellow flame, who came back with a glass of milk for Frisk and a bottle of Ketchup for Sans. “If you had your way, Grillby's would be open for like an hour. The week.”

The blue flame didn't had any comeback for that, opting to just grumble something that went under in the crackling of his own flames. Sans laughed light-hearted, having heard the same discussion for a long time now.

“So, that's your kid you are always talking about?”, continued the yellow flame, leaning against the shelves behind him, bright eyes beaming, a small smile on his face and his look on Frisk. “It's nice to finally get to meet you.”

Frisk gave them a smile and a wake.

“It's nice to meet you too”., they signed. “We didn't meet in the Underground?”

“No, I guess not.”, chuckled the flame.

“Yeah, me and the Firefly here stayed where every flame with a lick of sense was staying: Hotland. It was such a hassle to come down for Grills to Snowdin sometimes.”, mumbled the blue. “Seriously, why did he have to live in this frigging cold place?”

“You know the reason, Sparky.”, chuckled the yellow flame.

“H...HOW DID YOU CALL ME?”, huffed 'Sparky', while “Firefly” just laughed. Their banter was interrupted however when Grillby came back, holding a little brown pot with a very disgruntled looking yellow Flower in it.

“OH, the trashbag is FINALLY coming to get me, huh? It's high time and...”, begun Flowey before he saw Asgore looking at him with wide eyes, Alphys with guilt and Frisk with a mix of sadness and joy.

“Thanks for looking after him.”, said Sans to Grillby, who put the pot down on the bar. “I know he must have driven you crazy the last weeks.”

“It was no problem.”, said Grillby softly, smiling gently.

“Say that for yourself.”, huffed “Sparky”. “Little hellspawn there drove ME half-nuts.” He glared at the plant. “We had a few near-accidents.”

“You two threw profanities at each other for two hours straight and you seemed to enjoy it.”

“Shut up, Firefly.”

Frisk giggled again before looking at Flowey, still smiling brightly.

“Hey Flowey!”

“Frisk...”, mumbled Flowey, clearly not knowing what to say. He looked over to Asgore and Alphys, even more at loss there.

“... my son.”, whispered Asgore. He got up from his chair and walked over in front of the little plant, going on his knees to be on eye-line with him. There was a dense silence now in the bar, the three flames looking at each other uncomfortably and even Sans kinda wanted to just go away for a while.

“My son... Asriel...”, Asgore whispered again, tears in his eyes.

There was a tense silent between them, former king and former prince staring at each other.

“... I'm not him.”, stated Flowey finally, looking away. “I have his memories, but I have no soul, D... Asgore. I can't love, I can't feel love, I literally don't care. And I'm not Asriel.” , he said, sighing deeply before turning to Asgore again. “Asriel would have cared. I don't. I can't.”

“I'm so sorry.”, breathed Asgore, eyes still watery and full of pain and Sans had to look away, feeling even more ashamed about his outburst earlier. All of this wasn't about him after all, even if the things that happened to him played a role in all of this. This all started and ended with the tragedy of Asriel's death.

“It's not your fault.”, grumbled Flowey finally. “I didn't want to exist like this... or rather, Asriel didn't wanted to. But it's not your fault.”, he looked at Alphys. “Nope, the genius who brought you little old me was this brilliant Royal Scientist there.”, he sneered. “Who just got some plans from somebody else and just used them without knowing what she was doing!”

“That is enough, Flowey!”, stated Grillby, his flames flickering a bit brighter.

“Yeah, shut up, brat.”

“That's not very nice.”

Flowey looks irritated at the three flames. Alphys was still looking away, shaken. Frisk set their look on Flowey.

“It's not nice to say something like this, Flowey. Alphys only wanted to help and she couldn't have known what would happen.”

“Heh, talk about “not knowing what would happen” with King fluff-butt and boney-trashcan there.”, mumbled Flowey.

“It's not about them, and you know it, Flowey. I know you didn't want this. But you got it. And Sans even promised to help.”

“Heh, you finally told anybody?”, grumbled Flowey. “Finally grew a backbone?”

“Heh... good one.”

“Don't play me, trashcan.”

“Oh, I don't play, Flowey.”, Sans said, winking lazily at him. “I'm here because I'm giving this whole “keeping promises” thing a go. You know? Look after the kid, pick up my socks...”, his left eye flickered blue for a moment. “Getting the little flower a soul...”

Flowey was speechless for a moment, starring at him.

“Wait... you actually have a way?”, he asked.

“Yep. Took me only three years and a lot of not so fun stuff, but I have one now.”, he pointed at Alphys. “And you should really thank Alphys here. Because, you know, she helped a lot. In fact, without her, this wouldn't fly at all, it would have crashed and burned long time ago. Lucky you, she's this nice.”

“Sans...”, mumbled Alphys. “I... I haven't done that much...”

“Hush.”, said Sans. “And now we have everything together.”, he continued to explain as if Alphys hadn't said anything at all. “We only need you now and we can give this a try.”

“I... I really want... for this.. to work right...”, mumbled Alphys. “We... checked everything. It... should work.”

“Just one thing you need to now, Flowey.”, said Sans and gave Asgore a side-glance. “We are getting you a new soul. It's not necessary that you'll be Asriel after that. You could become something new.”

“But no matter what, we'll love you.”, signed Frisk, smiling at him. “And didn't you want a new soul?”

“... yes. … well, at least, it will be something new.”, mumbled Flowey before sighing. “Alright, we... we made a deal a long time ago, trashcan.”, he said to Sans. “Let's... give it a shot then.”

Frisk beamed at the flower. Sans sighed deeply for a moment.

Asgore looked as if he radiated hope.

He so hoped things wouldn't really crash and burn.

Chapter Text

Asgore had been king of the Monster for a long time, even before the war had started, and even before the war, there was conflict. Nothing was perfect after all and he as a king was supposed to find solutions for the problems of his people, big or small.

He was in a lot of situations which had overwhelmed him or that he didn't understand. There were times where there just was no time to comprehend everything. There were times when he just had to go with whatever flow there was, make decisions based on vague feelings instead of understanding.

He had never felt so at loss about everything thou like when he was standing in Alphy's basement, faced with a machine that looked like somebody had taken a giant skull and had shoved it into a telephone box and then set everything on fire.

Well, it didn't look like that at all to be honest. For once it wasn't on fire... but still. The skull part was there, there were machine bits and bits that looked strangely... melted and other bits that were glowing faintly.

On top of THAT Asgore had the feeling that thing was staring at him.

“Well... uh... Asgore... uhm... before we start. Is there anything... uhm... you don't understand about this?”, asked Alphys, clicking her finger-claws together nervously.

“There... is absolutely nothing I understand about this.” said Asgore and absolutely meant every word of that.

The walk from Grillby's to Alphy's place was a strange one, to many thoughts colliding in his mind. Sans remembering everything, their talk earlier, the memories of Gaster's fall and his own failures, seeing Grillby again after... how many years (seeing him SMILE and happy), seeing Alphys, seeing Frisk and...

Asriel. Flowey. His son. Or... the one that used to be his son.

His sweet little child who bleaked when startled and who loved to eat cinnamon pie and who would sit on his shoulder and sleep in his arms, whom he had told so many stories, whom he had hugged and kissed and told that he loved him.

Whose dust was spread in his garden, whom he failed and lost, together with his adopted child.

Who was now a flower without a soul and insisting the one he once was was long gone. It felt a bit like he regained his son and lost him in the same moment. It was the highest of joys and the deepest of despairs and the result of it was...

He was feeling dumb.

So much had changed. So much for all of them.

And now there was Sans again and the machine of Gaster, a friend he lost to the madness that was the wake of his own damned rage. He had wronged them both, Gaster for placing pressure on him and not realizing how much his foundation was crumbling, and Sans, for not taking action and being ignorant to the fallout of the breaking and falling scientist.

And now they were here and offering to bring back something he lost with the same ignorance and near-sightedness that had led to the mess there were in to begin with: a soul for his lost son.

Said lost son who was a flower and wasn't looking at him. His son who lived for years as a flower.

“Oh... do you... uh... want me to explain... it?”, asked Alphys.

Asgore shook his head. “I rather just know what I need to do.”

“Oh, that's quite simple.”, said Alphys, smiling a tiny bit. “You will... uhm... just have to provide your love to the new soul! It's... uh... just like... when a new soul grows naturally.”, she mumbled, blushing dark-yellow.

“Just like... but...” Asgore looked to the machine and back to Alphys, to Flowey and the back to Alphys.

“You... uh... will know what to do.”, she mumbled.

Asgore doubted that.

He hadn't known what to do in a very long time. He suddenly wished Toriel was here.

On the other hand... no. She was hurt enough by losing Chara and Asriel and all the other humans he...

Well... it was done and gone and past now. He was living in the present. There was Flowey. There was Alphys and Sans and Frisk. And the machine.

“Alphys is right.”, said Sans after a while, winking at him. “My... Gaster managed it without meaning to, you will do fine.” He looked at the machine. “This thing here will draw in magic, compassion and love and will press it together with... stuff. And create a new soup that will be put in Flowey. So, piece of flower-cake.”

“Urgh, be silent, trashbag.”, mumbled Flowey. Frisk hushed him and Asgore just tried to focus on Sans and Alphys for now.

Asgore nodded. There was nothing else he could do.

There still were some things that needed to be fixed, Sans and Alphys filled the machine with some strange liquids, silver and shiny and red and all sorts of other things. Flowey was placed on a small table in front of the machine, Frisk sat down on a chair and watched the process.

Asgore stood beside what used to be his son and felt more and more awkward.

“... you know, you don't have to get high hopes here.”, said Flowey after a while, rustling his leaves. “It's like I said. I have his memories and I am so TIRED of being in this stupid form... but I am NOT Asriel. Not really anymore. Asriel was a stupid crybaby that got killed because he was so damn naïve and weak.”

“Language, my child.”, Asgore finally said.

Flowey huffed at him, baring sharp teeth. “Didn't you listen to me? I am NOT Asriel!”

“No.”, said Asgore, sighing deeply. “I came to terms with that my son is dead. Still... as far as I understand this...” he made a gesture to the machine. “This will... give birth to a new soul. With my love for it. So in a way, you will become my child.”

“Hmpf.”, made Flowey. “Nobody knows if it will even work.”

“I have faith in Sans and Alphys.”

“The one who melted monster together instead of healing them and the other who shattered his father and was to lazy to do anything when the timelines started buckling.”, death-panned Flowey. “The queen of trash and the trashbag, what a trustworthy duo.”

“I don't appreciate you talking about them like that.”

“Urgh, don't give me that crap, I heard it enough from those stupid flames! “I don't appreciate you talking like that”, HAH! Don't do so then, I don't care.”, huffed Flowey. “... I CAN'T care.” he added after a few seconds.

Asgore felt the emptiness inside him pull at something in his stomach.

“Do you... really remember everything?”, asked Asgore after a while.

“Pretty much.”, mumbled Flowey. “And a lot more most of you idiots remember. Stuff that happened in other timelines. Mostly boring stuff. Or stuff just got boring after some time.”

Asgore just nodded again. There was nothing he could say. The implications were there. He looked to the machine. He looked to Sans and Alphys and Frisk. He looked back to the flower that once was and maybe will be again his child.

Maybe not the same... but still.

His soul was filled with... SOMETHING. It might be hope.

Sans in the meantime was filled with something else. To be specific, his skull was filled with his own internal screaming. He was freaking out in all directions to appear to be standing still.

This was such a bad idea, it was a bad idea all along, on every plane. How could this ever work? The stupid machine of his father that BROKE freaking YEARS ago, all the experimental stuff he had thrown at this thing, the Determination, the MYTHRIL (holy FUCK he had stolen a highly magical substance from a human lab ON FRISK'S FIELD TRIP holy fuck he was the WORST) and now ASGORE was here and Flowey and Frisk and why the fuck did he thought this was a good idea?

It wasn't, it just wasn't, it was the worst of all ideas.

But he did it anyway.

He took a look at the machine. His internal screaming intensified.

“Sans?”

A whisper pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked down at Frisk who looked at him with a mix of worry and curiosity.

“Uh... yes kiddo?”

Frisk raised their hands again, now that they had Sans's attention again.

“You were getting lost in your head again.”

“Heh... can't hide my numbskull from a sharp bone like you huh?”

Both of them chuckled a bit before Frisk continued signing again.

“You didn't told me Flowey was on the surface.”

Sans made a little face at that. He really hadn't meant to keep Frisk out of the loop. It was just... easier to not tell them about stuff before he was fully ready to deal with it. On top of that was Toriel and he honestly wasn't the slightest ready for THAT.

“I'm sorry kiddo... Had to make sure things are really working and... uh...”

“You didn't want to upset mom?”

“Yeah....” Since when could his kid see through him this well? Heh, see through. He was a skeleton. “But look, Grillby took great care of him, didn't he?”

“He did.” Frisk nodded.“But why did you gave him to Grillby?”

“Well, for one I can trust Grillbz, see?”, Sans winked. “He's a cool guy, despite being made of fire.”

Frisk giggled at that. Score.

“And, well, if things WOULD have gone sour, Grillby is the best flame to stop a naughty little flower getting dumb ideas.”, he added with a grin.

It wasn't a lie either. Grillby was one of the few surviving members of the royal army of the war and there was nobody in his right mind that would mess with him. Even in the worst resets of Flowey, Grillby was one of the few constants that would prevent the insane flower from just killing everything and everybody.

After a few very interesting resets he had started to avoid Snowdin and Grillby's especially. A reason more the bar in Snowdin felt like a second home quickly. Grillby could make you feel completely safe.

“Flowey wouldn't have done anything...”

Sans looked at Frisk, sighing a bit bit. There was a time when he would have believed that. When Flowey was his best friend, when he couldn't remember the resets clearly, before he found his own notes and the memories became clearer.

Memories of dust and scarves in the wind, of the screaming of his loved ones. Memories of the feeling of vines on his bones and laugher so close that it was coming from his own skull.

He knew it was just a kid without a soul and in a lot of pain. Still, it made it difficult to trust the flower. So, Grillby as the overseer of the little flower it was. At the moment it looked like it was the right choice.

“Kiddo...”, sighed Sans and patted Frisk finally again. “It's nice that you believe so much in him but this old bag of bones just wanted to... keep things a bit more safe.”

“... at least Flowey looks like he had fun with Grillby.”

Sans chuckled. “Like I said, he is a cool guy. Always keeps a cool head despite things heating up.”

Frisk giggled and Sans felt like he just saved the day or something. Nice. He should tell Grillby the next time he was over how puns about him saved Frisk's day. Maybe.

“Sans? Will everything be okay?”

Sans looked at Frisk.

“Kiddo, I promise.”, he said, smiling, and desperately trying to convince himself of his words as well as Frisk.

He looked back at the machine as Alphys filled in the last vial of the needed chemicals. The eyes of the skull-like main structure started glowing a bit more. Sans shuttered, remembering the last time this thing activated.

He had interfered in the last second then, causing everything to explode, for Gaster to fell into the thing, to be shattered and taken apart and for Papyrus to forget so many things. To be totally honest, he was afraid of this thing. But on the other hand, he HAD taken it apart and put it together again with the help of Alphys. He knew every part of this thing like his own bones.

This hunk of trash took his father (in one sense or an other), almost his brother, a good part of his life and maybe even more from him. It's high-time it gave at least SOMETHING back.

It was almost a bit to easy. Just sit Flowey with Asgore in front of the machine and press a button. Easy.

It still shook him to the bones when the machine came to life fully, opening it's mouth and...

and everything went dark.

Sans knew how the machine was supposed to work, this was normal. It still freaked him out a tiny bit to be honest. What was worse was that from now on he couldn't do anything more than to watch and hope for the best.

Asgore in the meantime held on to Flowey's pot, staring into the void that opened up in front of them. Flowey in his hands was shaking, his leaves and pedals trembling and making a small noice.

“P...Please don't kill me...”, he could hear and it just... broke his heart. His son or not his son... in this moment it was just a child, a terrified child. And he just...

He just...

It was getting darker and darker, there was a strange pulling sensation and Asgore felt himself pleading to the stars or whatever would listen to him.

Please let this work. Please give this child a soul. Please end this suffering. Please help.

Something darker than darkness seemed to drip out of the mouth of the machine while something bright seemed to form inside the left eye of it. Something seemed to vibrate in the room. There was still the pull but at the same time a push begun to built up. SOMETHING was happening and Asgore had no way in experiencing what exactly. Something happened and it was outside his comprehension.

Then everything went white (soul white) for a moment and then dark. For a moment he could have sworn to see Frisk's red soul in the corner of an eye, glowing red with Determination. He himself just held onto the pot with Flowey, with the child that no doubt was still terrified. A beloved child he just found and wanted to protect.

The darkness grew darker. For a moment Asgore could have sworn he saw Sans's blue eye glowing before it was swallowed by the darkness too.

And then there was a... voice.

It wasn't much of a voice just... garbled sounds that may or may not could be words. He couldn't understand but the voice said... SOMETHING. Maybe it was just the machine making strange noises.

The darkness slithered away. The room became brighter again, the machine visible with both eyes glowing intensely. There was a flash again, bright, way to bright...

And when Asgore opened his eyes, everything seemed to be... alright. There was no strange darker-than-darkness there anymore. He was sitting on the ground in front of a machine that looked strangely death now, on his left side Alphys, Sans and Frisk who stared at something in his general direction and when he looked he saw it, just in front of him.

Just in front of Flowey.

A tiny soul, the little up-side-down heart-shape of a monster soul with a slight red tint, was hovering just right there was in the process of moving closer to Flowey. Into Flowey. Asgore felt himself holding Flowey closer to himself. And maybe it was just his imagination but it was almost like the pot in his hands grew... warmer.

And then Flowey begun to glow.

“What the ever loving Fuuuaaaaah!”, Flowey cried out as there was a flash again. Asgore had to close his eyes. He felt a shift of the body in his arms and when he opened his eyes again there was...

There was...

There was definitely not Asriel, that was sure. But it wasn't quite Flowey anymore. In his hand now sat a monster of the plant kind, all green and yellow and white. Asriels's colours, Flowey's colours. But he wasn't a mere flower anymore. He had legs and arms and a face that was surrounded by yellow pedals, making him look a bit like a flowery version of a lion. His hands had fingers and his feet had toes but they looked green and like made out of plants. He looked just like the higher plant elementals that used to live before the war and humans killed them all. Beautiful monster shaped into vaguely humanoid forms out of trees and other plants with a strong affinity to healing magic and able to manipulate plant's growth around them... how curious. And wonderful.

He wasn't Asriel. But he was something new now. And he was alive!

And Asgore felt a rush of love and adoration going through him. His big arms enveloped the small form in his hands (he was still so small) and after a while he felt the little body move slightly.

“Uh... d...dad?”, the boy mumbled and what might have been a rush of love turned into a flood.

“Y...yes my child?”

“...you are squeezing me...”

“Oh... excuse me...” Asgore let got a bit, now looking in awe at the child in his arms.

“AZZY!”

For a moment everybody was confused who screamed this, given the voice sounded unusual and kinda airy but the source of it was revealed when Frisk's body slammed into Asgore's, hugging the child in his arms tightly. It seemed like this instance qualified as one as the few moments when Frisk got their voice to work.

“W..what? Frisk? Urgh!”, made the newly named Azzy (Asgore kinda liked the name, Asriel and Flowey made Azzy, didn't it?) as he was squeezed tightly. “Y...you got a strong grip.”

Frisk beamed at him, freeing their hands to sign finally at him.

“It worked! Wow, you look like a plant-lion now! But cool! I am so happy you are here!”

“Uh... I am happy to be here too.... and... what did you call me? Azzy?”

“Flowey and Asriel. Azzy. I took a page out of Grandpa Asgore's book.”

A groan answered them. “Frisk, dad SUCKS in naming things... but... uh... I kinda like Azzy. I don't really feel like... either Flowey or Asriel in the moment...”

“You like the name?”, asked Frisk, their eyes shining.

Azzy smiled a tiny bit at the honest excitement of Frisk. “Yeah... I do... thanks Frisk.” He turned then to Asgore himself, then over to Sans and Alphys. Asgore could see the emotions playing on his features.

“Uh... thanks... Smil... I mean... Sans and Alphys...”, Azzy mumbled. “And... I... I am really sorry...”

“Don't sweat it kiddo.”, answered Sans easily, his hands in his pockets, lazy grin on his face. “You were kinda soulless when things happened. Would be soulless of me to hold stuff against you huh?”

“S...still...”, mumbled Azzy.

“Kid, we talk later.”, decided Sans before looking at the machine, a visible shutter running through his bones. The machine now looked even more dead and empty than before. “You gotta figure out stuff for you now... and me and my science-sis here have to dismantle this hunk of junk.”

Asgore saw Azzy nod slightly at that, still in Frisks hug as he turned to him.

“Uh... dad... I think we... we have a lot to talk about now.”, he mumbled.

Asgore just nodded. Despite everything, despite all the hardships and all the complicated stuff no doubt lying in front of them... he felt the happiest since... a very very long time.

In the darkness that was the word between words, the void filled with nothing, something stirred when the machine was activated. Something was locked inside it so long ago and something had happened to it.

The machine was designed to isolate Human soul traits, Determination especially. It was designed to get something from a soul and press it together. The other features came later.

So many years ago, a full soul was thrown inside it, the Determination poisoning it ripped away but with it parts of the soul too and locked inside it. The left-overs were shattered across the space, flung away like parted by an explosion. It took time but most of the splinters were drawn into the void, unable to exist in the real world, outside of it.

It was most of a soul now, shattered and glitched. The concept of a soul, of a mind, a person. Base emotions like sadness and happiness and some complex ones like love and regret. It formed a barely aware mind, just enough to remember bits and pieces, to know it was suffering but not enough to know why and how to do anything about it.

But when the machine was activated, when the determination was released... it released something else too, the last splinters of something missing.

And in the darkness between worlds, in the void that held everything else together, a broken mind and soul begun the task of putting itself together again.

Chapter Text

Things after getting Azzy went... strange. Not bad, mind you but... strange.

The first thing Sans did when he got home was to fall down face-first and waking up much later in his and Toriel's bed. It was early morning when he woke and Toriel was laying with him in bed, her big fuzzy arms wrapped around his smaller form. Sans snuggled a bit more to her, chuckling only slightly when her fur got between his rips, and tried to form a mental check-list.

After the newly named Azzy had gotten used to having limbs again and worked through his minor identity crisis rather quickly they had decided that it would be best if he stayed at Asgore's for now. Sans was sure that Grillby would have volunteered to house the little monster again (bless the soul and core of this monster and Sans knew he and his two partners could never refuse small children) but on the other hand...

Yeah he still felt bad for ranting at Asgore and saying some stuff that was rather unfair to the king, even if he had made mistakes. It really hadn't been the time and place.
Besides, it would be good for Azzy to stay with Asgore and re-bound a bit with him. Things would be awkward first but even after all this time, Azzy was just a little kid and Asgore was his dad on more than one level. They could both work on their past and what had happened on their pace. It would probably do them a lot of good too, not just mental-wise. Boss-monster needed the nurture of their parent's love and even with Azzy being a brand-new soul (and probably a plant elemental now come to think about it) Sans really wants to play this safe.

The rest of them could deal with the rest of this mess.

They had talked about how and when to tell Toriel. They should after all. As soon as possible. Sans really didn't look forward to this but the longer they put it off, the more it would get messy and ugly. But they decided that they should do it together and maybe leave out some of the details Azzy did as Flowey... welp, now he had to find a way to explain to her that Asriel really was gone, that Azzy was like... what did the humans call it... reincarnation? Welp, no, that wasn't it either, it worked completely different... Humans believed that it was still the same soul.

Asriels soul had been green. Azzy's soul was purple.

Instead of losing all his memories with the same soul, Azzy was all of Asriels (and Flowey's) memories but with a new soul. A soul made of Asgore's love for his son, Frisk's compassion to safe him and magic of the machine, bound together by just a tiny drop of determination and a whole lot of other magical stuff Sans had to do to make the machine work again.

The same machine that gave birth to him and Papyrus and that made Gaster go... away. What killed their father thou was a whole different story... it seems that Determination was very very dangerous, even more so seeing how Alphy's experiments turned out.

Stars he should just stop thinking about that.

Point was, Azzy was his own monster, not Asriel, not Flowey but something new. And they had to tell Toriel.

This was going to be hard.

After... THAT was out of the way they had to think long-term. Where should Azzy stay for good, would they enroll him in school to or home teach him, what will become out of the little monster now... Frisk would want him joining school, they loved that little flower boy.

Sans kinda wanted to go back to sleep again. Maybe apologize to everybody involved a few times too.

He kinda missed the days where he just dunked Linda. Maybe he should do that again. She kinda got better these last week but still...

So mental checklist.

Tell Toriel, tell all the others, figure out if Azzy was fit for school... maybe get more sleep. Also he really should sit down with Azzy at one point too. He had talked with Flowey before their little deal was struck but Sans still had some things to hash out with him.

Also, something else had to be done was quick as possible: Destroy the machine. It did its part and Sans would rather not have the reminder of so much pain in the past standing around anywhere. Not to mention all the illegal crap he had to do to get some parts of it and how dangerous it could be if the wrong persons got it.

So... Tell Toriel, destroy the machine, everything else next. Sounds good.

Toriel let out a soft snore, nuzzling at the base of his skull and Sans felt himself flush with magic. Well... maybe he could rest just a little bit longer... Just a little bit.

Azzy in the meantime was... adjusting. It was strange feeling again, it was strange WALKING again. Well, walking in his own body, not one he stole. Yeah that... that was really bad what he did there... Wow he was a jerk. To a lot of people.

Especially Sans thou. Azzy could understand his reasoning at the time. Sans was the only one who remembered some of what was happening and was so interesting to watch react different every time. But wow he did screwed that poor guy up for no reason at all. Sans really wasn't a part of anything, only having a connection to the guy who worked out the foundation for what Alphys did to do the things that resulted in Flowey and yeah, there was no way to justify any of the stuff he did.

He... he really should apologize one day. Especially after he gave him a shot at, you know, caring again.

He wondered a bit why Sans did this for him. It could just be to make sure he wouldn't cause any trouble anymore or make Frisk happy... so they wouldn't reset anymore. But on the other hand, Sans had done stuff he didn't had to do get to this point. Like the time Azzy had spend with the flames was rather nice all things considered. The yellow one had even watered him and Azzy knew that flames usually stayed away from any kinds of water.

Maybe he should ask Asgore... dad... (uh, that was complicated still) to go with him to Grillby's at some point in the future. He really should thank them...

Anyway, Azzy was... kinda content now? He was laying in a bed Asgore made for him. It was really just a nest of blankets on the couch but Azzy was kinda small still, standing on his hind legs at maybe Frisk's height. He still kinda preferred walking on all four of his pawns but he should maybe practice walking on two legs these next days. He really wanted to have his arms free to do stuff with them. Would make some things a lot easier anyway.

Otherwise he was okay with himself. His body felt like a mix between his old one and the flower one but better. His magic shifted, his soul was different and he might have to relearn everything about magic he knew before but it was alright.

He was a bit upset that his ability to use healing magic was now gone for good.

All Boss monster could do a little bit healing magic and Asriel, with his green soul, had the potential to do greater healing magic. He never got very far in his studies of such of course but it was enough to save Chara that faithful day when they fell into the Underground.

Wherever they were now, Azzy really hoped they were alright. Looking back the plan really was terrible and Chara really wasn't the nicest person... but Chara also was just a child and hurting a lot and there was no doubt they had loved Asriel and all the monster.

But LOVE and hate were terrible things for a soul and Azzy knew first hand how it could corrupt you. Thanks to the new soul his LV was back to 1, a clean slate but he still remembered how it felt. He shuttered.

… maybe that was a reason more to talk to the flames... Grillby was a known war-veteran and Azzy had felt his LOVE while staying with him. He was rather baffled how he could even LIVE with all of that. Maybe there was some kind of secret as how it would not corrupt a monster?

“Azzy? Son, are you alright?”

Asgore's voice pulled Azzy out of his thoughts. He turned and saw the old king in a fluffy pajama and night cap with little ducks on it, a worried expression on his face.

“Yeah, uhm... dad.”, said Azzy. “Just... couldn't sleep.”

“Ah... I know just the thing for that... I'll make you some tea that will calm you right down...”

“No golden Flower tea please!”

Asgore halted at the request, a painful expression on his face and Azzy almost regretted his request. “It just... got a lot of bad memories.”, he mumbled.

“... would a peppermint tea with honey be good?”

“Yeah... yeah that would be alright.”, mumbled Azzy as his father walked away to make tea.

Yeah he hadn't missed THAT so much, feeling bad about stuff like this. But on the other hand he took it any day over not feeling at all. Still, it was strange and awkward and not at all like he remembered being Asriel. He was sure his father felt the same.

Asgore returned with two mugs full of fresh smelling tea later, adding a drop of honey into Azzy's cup just before giving it over to him.

Azzy took a sip and smiled slightly as he felt the tea warming up his body and soul.

“Thanks... dad.”, he mumbled. “... I can call you dad, right?”

“Of course, my...”, Asgore hesitated and Azzy waved with one hand.

“It's alright, you can call me son or... stuff like that. Just don't call me Asriel.”

“Alright, Son.”, Asgore answered with a nod but Azzy did saw the slight hurt in his eyes. “I am sorry, I am just... getting used to this.”

“Yeah I... I don't blame you.”, mumbled Azzy. “This... this is all new. I had months to prepare for it but honestly, I barely thought about it because I thought it was impossible.”

“Well... Sans had proven to manage impossible things quite well.”, said Asgore lightly. “But... I understand your hesitation.” He put his tea down, voice dropping his usual lightness. “I couldn't believe it quite for myself when he told me about... about what he had done.” He sighted deeply and for a moment Azzy thought that his father really did look as old as at least 1500 years.

“I made a lot of mistakes, my son.”, Asgore said softly. “I guess I didn't want to face a lot of them... So I choose to be a coward and look away but just because you don't look at it doesn't mean it's gone.”

“Uh... it's alright.”, mumbled Azzy. “You know, I did a lot of... really bad things to. I could say I only did it because I had no soul and couldn't care but... still...”

A big pawn stilled him and Azzy looked to Asgore who moved in for a gentle hug.

“Hush my son.”, he said softly. “I can't remember what you did and all is well now. I have nothing you need forgiveness for. There are people you have to make amends with but it is not me. And I am here for you. And I love you.”

Azzy sniffled softly at that, tears he hadn't shed for so long finally coming to his eyes. He hugged back his father and cried in his fur, feeling so much and loving and hating it but also somehow feeling it would be okay.

Well, looks like he was still a crybaby but all in all, it was what he was. Even so he thought that Chara would have let this one slide just this once.

Time kinda... ran away from that point. They sat together the next day, Toriel, Asgore, Sans and Papyrus, Frisk and Azzy together with Alphys and Undyne. Sans had kinda wanted Grillby to be there too but he had declined, saying softly that he understood that he wasn't really part of this but ready to offer any help should it be needed.

Sans was so glad to have a friend like this.

The explanation went on long and it hurt a LOT seeing Toriel looked betrayed and hurt and horrified and angry and sad. But they had to do this and in a way it felt freeing too to just talk. They explained as good as they could what happened. Asriel's and Chara's plan, what had happened that day when they died. Gaster's and Alphy's experiments and the creation of Flowey. They all knew already about the resets but Azzy filled in some thing he did while being Flowey, but he left out a lot of details. Sans was kinda thankful for that to be honest.

After that their talk turned to Frisk's determination and how they saved not only all the monster but for a brief moment Asriel too so he could finally let go. Sans took over and explained his fears and his plan to give Flowey a happy ending too. How he took him from the Underground, how Grillby took care of him and how he started working on the machine together with Alphys. He did left out how he stole many parts for it thou, no point in worrying anybody. (also it would be better if nobody knew anything in case somebody did came knocking at the doors.)

Alphys and Asgore explained how they made Flowey a new soul. And Azzy explained how he wasn't Asriel still, not really. That he was dead and gone but went without regrets and that he was ready to start a new life.

There were some tears and hugs and apologies but in the end it was... strangely okay.

Toriel did... better than expected, honestly. She requested some time alone and Sans gave it. The others bid their goodbye and even Papyrus announced that he would take Frisk to stay the night at Mettaton's. Sans nodded, told his brother no glitter after midnight and... well then they were alone.

Toriel in their bedroom and Sans in the living room. Time tickled slowly. He wanted to go to her and talk to her but he had no clue what to say.

Sorry I lied.
Sorry about your son.
Sorry we didn't told you.
Sorry I was so messed up these last days.
Sorry that I probably committed a lot of crimes and hopefully no human will ever link it to me.

Sorry I made you upset.

So he stayed in the living room, waiting for... something. He wasn't sure what.

Toriel did came down to him later, close to 11 pm. It had gotten dark outside a while ago already at that time. Sans hadn't bothered to turn on the lights... or move at all. He didn't even notice her until she stepped into his view, the moon shining on her soft fur, making her look a bit like a ghost. Sans risked a look at her face and for the first time since a really long time he couldn't say what she was thinking.

That was almost worse than anything he had imagined.

“I am very disappointed.”, she said after a stretch of silence.

“I know.”, said Sans quietly. “I... I am really sorry.”

“... did you had a reason for leaving me out of it?”

“... I... I thought so.”, said Sans. “... I didn't want to... get your hopes up. I didn't know it would even work... I just... couldn't put you through that.”

“I don't like somebody making decisions for me.”

“I know.”, said Sans, very very softly. “I know and I am sorry.”

“... would you do it again?”

Sans looked up at her and she looked down to him. He swallowed. “I... I don't know.”, he whispered. “I... I really don't.”

“Why not?”

There was absolutely no emotions in Toriel's voice or there was and Sans had no idea what to make out of it.

“I....”, he started but stopped. This was... hard. He just wanted to get away, teleport far far away but he couldn't. He wouldn't. How to explain something like that? How to explain he knew he was a hypocrite but still couldn't help acting like one?

“... I really only wanted to... to make you happy.”, mumbled Sans. “I just... I was the... the guy behind the door, remember? You told me everything, I knew how much this... all of this hurt you. Flowey even told me about the timelines he went to you and Asgore and told you two who he were. You suffered so much Toriel and... and it really isn't Asriel. I knew that from the start that he wouldn't be Asriel ever again, he would be somebody new... and I really just... just wanted to talk to you about it when I had all the facts.” He sighed. “I... it isn't all about you, I admit it. I was not ready myself. And it's messed up and stuff but... at least like this I... thought I had some sort of control over the situation? I just... I couldn't Toriel...”

He was looking away from her now, not having the strength to look at her. And Toriel herself stayed silent too.

They must have sat like this for a while before Toriel moved, fabric rustling as he leaned towards Sans and wrapped her arms around him. Sans was shaking, only now noticing just how worked up about this he was. His bones were rattling, now muffled by Toriel's fur.

He still held on to her like a lifeline.

“I am not happy.”, said Toriel after a while, still holding Sans. “But... I think I can forgive you.”

Sans thought for a moment he would pass out at these words. There were definitely tears now in his eyes. He buried his face into Toriels arm.

“I love you so much.”, he mumbled out, earning a humm from Toriel.

“I love you too.”, said said. “I... it will take some... adjustment. But I do think I... we all can come to terms with this.”

There might have been some more they talked but honestly, Sans couldn't remember. The rest of the night was a blurr but they spend it together.

The days after that were a blurr too. They had to register Azzy, make sure he was listed as Asgore's son and all the other things that required lots of paper work. There was debate about how old Azzy was now but they did decide on the age Asriel had died: Around twelve years old, the same age as Frisk was now.

They even made a room for Azzy in Asgore's little house, cleaning out one of the guest rooms and letting Azzy choose his furniture and decorations for himself. The room looked quite nice in the end, painted yellow and green, a deep blue carped on the ground. There was a soft bed, a desk, a chair a big closet with a mirror.

Azzy had chosen the mirror for himself and every morning he would look at himself in it just to prove that there was not a flower and not a goat looking at him but a plant elemental. Just Azzy.

They did talked to him too about school and, as Sans had expected, Azzy really wanted to go to school with Frisk. And because Asgore is still a big fuzzy pushover and Sans had no resistance against Frisk's puppy eyes, Azzy start going to Frisk's school soon after.

There would be time to prepare of course and Azzy was still getting the hang out of doing stuff with his little pawns but it would happen. That means that Azzy would join in a few weeks and THAT meant they would have to tell the school, the teachers and, of course, the parents of Frisk's class.

Sans was kinda looking forward and dreaded the next PTA at the same time.

And in the void, there was something now that wasn't there. A cluster of broken pieces that begun assembling itself like a puzzle. And as one bright white piece clicked together with another, there was suddenly something else.

The sound of a gentle beat of a soul and a spark of magic as a memory completed itself in it. The being felt a spark of joy or at least what could be considered as such at their current broken state. But there was some sort of awareness now, some sort of intent. The memory of a smiling face, some tiny hands and the warmth of love made the being hurry even more.

The void, for the first time, was not silent anymore and hope let the fragments of the broken soul shine brighter and brighter in the darkness.

Chapter Text

Quiet honestly, Azzy was still trying to figure himself out at this point. But one could argue that every kid is figuring themselves out growing up so going to school with Frisk and the other children would be good for him. After all, he still WAS just a child in a way... he was just a bit death and then soulless for a while.

…maybe he shouldn't ever say that one out loud.

Anyway, school it was for him and he couldn't be happier. Frisk had told him all kinds of fun things about school. Teachers and lessons and breaks and friends. They also had told him about Toriel who was a great teacher, about Undyne and her soccer practice, about Sans who would sometimes substitute for a science teacher and be super embarrassed about it.

They told him about sitting outside at good days and watching the rain on bad days. They told him about lunch period and about the cookies and muffins Muffet had delivered for lunch and how that one lady Sans was arguing with often would always look really funny when she looked at the fine baked goods.

They told him about their family too. About how Mettaton would sometimes pick them up. About how Papyrus would make them lunch sometimes. About how Toriel was their mom and Sans a strange mix between dad and uncle and therefore a dunkle. They told him about Sans taking them to soccer practices, about how happy Sans was looking now-a-days. They told him about Papyrus being really good with magic and in charge of safety when they were together with Undyne. They told him about Asgore too, how awkward it was sometimes between him and Sans and Toriel but also that they tried their best, that they were friends again.

Honestly, all of this made Azzy's head spin but in the best possible way.

A lot of that stuff was stuff he kinda knew as Flowey already or had been told by Toriel and Asgore. The first conversation between all three of them was... really strange to be honest. Strange and very uncomfortable.

Azzy still felt a strange mix of regret and happiness and sadness thinking of the conversation.

Seeing Toriel for the first time as Azzy was hard. He had all of Asriel's memories after all, remembering calling her mom and cuddling to her soft fur, eating her pie and helping getting snails from the garden.

He remembered loving her, feeling comfort just looking at her, feeling safe and cared for and warm.

The feeling was missing.

It was not “nothing”, like being Flowey but the total certainty of love and comfort was just missing. Oh, he still liked her, he still would trust her with his well-being, but she just... was not his mother. Not a part of his new soul.

That didn't mean it couldn't be anymore, of course. Azzy was sure that he could learn to love her like a mother again. It would take time and patience and would require making new memories for himself and to separate them from Asriels memories and feelings, but it could be done. Still, Azzy was more than a bit disturbed by his own feelings when first seeing her and the conversation after that was not helping that much.

Toriel hadn't cried. Her eyes got watery but she didn't cry. She did hug him tightly, even after Azzy gently told her that he wasn't her Asriel anymore, that Asriel had died a long time ago.

“I know.” she had said. “I know. A mother feels when her baby is gone. But let me pretend for a moment?”

And Azzy didn't had the heart to deny her that. He whispered to her that Asriel still loved her, that he had loved her all the time and that he had been sorry to worry her so much. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

She had held him a good while, while Asgore was silent during the whole thing. Azzy kinda was glad that they had sent Sans, Frisk, Papyrus and the others outside after the initial explanation was finished.

The hug ended finally and well, they all knew about the giant elephant in the room.

“So... you are not Asriel,” was the first Toriel said after she dried her eyes off a bit. “so who are you now?”

“I... honestly don't know yet.” Azzy said, looking at his leave-like pawns. “Frisk gave me the name Azzy. I am a new soul with Asriels and Floweys memories. Everything else... I gotta figure out now.”

“That is a really mature answer.” said Toriel and Azzy just could nod at that. “And I thank you for telling me.”

“... I am not your son anymore.” said Azzy quietly, better to do it now than later. “Asgore was involved into making this new soul for me but he isn't “dad” as I knew him as Asriel too. He is different and you are different and... and I am really different. You should know that.”

Toriel nodded. “What do you want to do now?” she asked. “We could still be your parents...”

“I... want to stay with Asgore for a while.” whispered Azzy. “At least for now.”

“Why?” asked Toriel, not able to keep the hurt completely out of her voice. Azzy didn't know if it hit him more to know that she was hurt or that she was unable to hide it.

“... it's nothing against you.” he tried to explain. “I still got all the memories of Asriel and he loved you and you were his mother and... and it just feels wrong in the moment.” He paused, struggling to put all of this into words. “The emotions just aren't the same now and it kinda feels like I am stealing you from this... memory of Asriel. With Asgore it would be easier in the beginning because I can feel his love that was part of creating this soul but... yeah. I need time for anything else.

Also... sorry but you live together with Sans. I... I got nothing against him now but... I did a lot of very bad things to him. And he to me to stop me. Uhm... don't hold that last part against him, I pushed and pushed at him until he snapped and at that time I really thought it didn't matter at all what I did but that is no excuse. He does remember a bit of the stuff and I nearly all of it and... it would be really bad if we would live under the same roof now.” he looked down, unable to look at Toriel. “I just... want to figure some things out for now. Live a life on my own. Be Azzy. Until I am good enough to... you know, apologize and make up for it. To you too.”

“... will you let me visit you?” asked Toriel softly.

“... of course.” said Azzy, smiling. “I am just not living here but... I want to get to know you again. All of you, it that is okay.”

“Well... then there is nothing more I can say on that matter.” said Toriel. “I am very proud of you... Azzy.” She looked up to Asgore, a lot of unspoken things still between them. “Tell me if you need anything.” she said to him, voice gentle and soft and for the first time since they sat down that day, Asgore smiled a bit. “I will. Thank you Toriel.”

“No, thank you Asgore.” she said. “Take good care of your son.”

Asgore and Toriel told him a lot of stuff too, but that was more serious. They told him about education, about human-monster interactions and how Frisk somehow managed to make the humans not fear the monster. They talked about how happy everybody was, how hopeful.

Toriel, with a wink, told him that more little monster souls were formed in the few years they were up here than in the last ten years down there. The new Hope the monster were feeling did all of them good.

The humans seem to be really interested in keeping things peaceful for the most part and Frisk kept working hard to keep up the good relationship between monster and humans.

It all sounded like a dream. Sure, Azzy, as Flowey, had had the chance to learn some stuff while he was with Grillby and the two other flame elementals and their happiness sure was obvious. But to think that it really was this good? It was so strange. Weird even. But also nice.

Still, he felt a kind of awe when he looked at the school where Frisk was dragging him too, their hand holding his little paw tightly.

One more bonus of walking on two legs, apparently: he was able to hold hands. That was nice. Really nice. Frisk turned to him, grinned as if they could read his mind, and winked.

“Gaaaaaah!” made Azzy (really smooth there, boy, he thought to himself just a moment later), blushing with a deep purple and Frisk laughed in their airy high-pitched giggle.

“Welp, looks like you kiddos have fun.” said Sans, waiting for them at the school. Azzy huffed a bit. It was so unfair that Sans could teleport. He was still behind them with Toriel when they started walking! And now he saw Azzy being all flustered. Unfair. All of it.

Sans laughed when he noticed Azzy's glare at him.

“Awwww come on, lil' lion.” he said, winking too. “You gotta work on your roar but it was a pretty nice effort already.”

Azzy huffed. Frisk laughed again and Toriel put her big paws on both of their shoulders.

“Alright, my children. Let's go inside.” she said smiling and Azzy was still kinda conflicted about being called “my child” by Toriel. But he still nodded and followed Frisk inside.

“... I now kinda wish my dad was here too.” Azzy mumbled to Frisk and Frisk finally let go of his hand to sign.

“He would have come but there was an emergency he had to attend, remember?”

“Yeah, I know.” mumbled Azzy.

“And you still got me and Sans and mom here... well... mom has to go to some stuff before but she'll be there after a bit too!”, Frisk signed out happily and almost too fast to follow for Azzy.

“Uh... okay?”

“Don't worry, Azzy. It's going to be alright.”

And Azzy... well... he believed them.

Sans sighed a bit when he dropped down on his seat, Frisk and Azzy beside him. PTA meeting. Again. To give a very very abridged and human-friendly explanation of Azzy and how he would join the school next week.

Sans really wished that Toriel was here but she had a meeting with another class she had to attend to so there was nothing he could do.

Maybe he could stall a bit? There were other things on the agenda...

“Woah, Sans! Nice to meet you again!”

Sans looked up and smiled a bit when he saw Steven and Pia standing in front of them, both of them grinning brightly.

“Hey guys.” Sans greeted them. “How is it going?”

“Fine, fine... it was boring without you.” said Pia. “Like, really. Uhm... it's nice to see you back.”

“You brought your kids?”, asked Steven, looking to Frisk and Azzy. “Hi there.”

Frisk giggled and waved and Azzy frowned a bit.

“I am not his kid.”

“Ah.. sorry...?”, said Steven slowly.

“It's complicated.” said Sans slowly. “I uhm... will explain later. Azzy here is Asgore's kid.”

“Ah, well... uhm... welcome?” Steven really looked a bit uncomfortable now and Azzy waved a bit at him.

“It's alright.” he mumbled, shaking his head to shake his pedals out a bit.

“Well... okay.” mumbled Steven before turning to Sans. “So... anyway, it's really nice to have you back. Linda and the strange Mrs. Smith is driving everybody nuts.”

“Who is Mrs. Smith?”, asked Azzy.

“Somebody who is inspecting the school.” explained Sans. “I don't know her but Papyrus and Toriel told me about her.”

“Well, Mom's school is great so everything is fine, right?”, signed Frisk.

“Heh... of course, kiddo.” said Sans, petting over Frisk's head. “It's all right, you'll see.”

And things were pretty good at first. Linda was there, yeah, and she was her irritating self but it was more like comfort than grievance at this point. Like after facing his past, bringing back a dead monster prince and having several serious breakdowns in the last weeks... Linda was kinda that kind of problem Sans could smile at.

Nothing like some heavy breakdowns to shift the world perspective back to where it should be huh?

So Sans stepped into the heated discussion going on right now with a big smile on his face.

“Linda, there is something I don't understand...” he begun and Linda rolled her eyes at him.

“Oh look at this, the skeleton doesn't understand something.”

“Hey, despite having no brain, I got some PhDs.” chuckled Sans and knocked on his head. “This numskull here understands a lot more than SOME people with a brain.”

Linda was actually growling at him while Steven and Pia giggled softly. Sans could see Frisk leaning over to Asriel (no, Azzy, scolded Sans himself. He should respect that name-change!) out of the corner of his eyes, signing something a bit too quick for him to understand.

“What are you going on about then?”, huffed Linda.

“I don't understand what the issue with the biology lessons is now.”

“What is there not to understand?”, huffed Linda, crossing her arms. “Children shouldn't be subjected to... to you know, THIS kind of human biology.”

Sans blinked at Linda. Linda started back.

“Uh... I really don't understand.” he said slowly. “Are we talking about pooping or something? I mean I know humans don't like talking about it but come on, they gotta learn how food gets processed and it's kinda new stuff for monsters because we don't have that whole squishy stuff going on inside us.”

Pia was now openly giggling and even Frisk couldn't suppress a small laugh,

“It's the same about the toilet thing, honestly, I still don't get that either.” continued Sans, smirking a bit but still playing the fool. “I mean for something you don't like talking about you make an awful lot of noise about this...”

“THIS IS NOT ABOUT POOPING!”, screamed Linda finally, prompting everybody in the room to break down with laughter. “URGH, we can never discuss anything of importance here!”, continued Linda, raising her voice so she could still shout over the still-laughing crowd.

“Well, it was kinda important for monsters to know what the bathroom is for humans, you know.” said Sans, winking. “There would have been so many misunderstandings and hilarious incidents ...”

“WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?”

“Nah.” said Sans, winking. “I thought we were having a serious conversation here?”

“I WAS TALKING ABOUT THE SEX ED.”

Sans fake-gasped. “Linda! Not in front of the children! Think of the children!”

Linda made a strangled-sounding noise of pure rage and Sans saw several dollar bills change owners.

Yes, it was good to be back.

It took some time until everybody had calmed down so Sans could talk again.

“But seriously, what is the issue with that?”

“Well, it's unnecessary, especially for children so young. It will corrupt them!”

“Uhm... aren't you a parent?”, asked Sans, blinking.

“Yes?”, huffed Linda. “What does that have to do with...”

“Shouldn't you, like, talk to your kid from time to time about that stuff too?”

“What...?”

“I mean, do you want them to live in a bubble? You humans are obsessed with that kind of thing, or at least it seems to me like this.” said Sans with a shrug. “I mean they will learn about it someday, Why not get facts and stuff before they learn from anywhere else? I mean, I DID look through the Internet from time to time and as much as I don't have a clue about human biology, some of the stuff there doesn't seem to be even do-able...”

“W- would you shut up about his?”, hissed Linda, face still in a deep red shade. “They shouldn't be taught this is school yet! They are way too young!”, hissed Linda.

“Linda, we are talking basic sex ed in their sixth grade.” huffed Sans. “There are kids that go through this weird puberty thing you humans have at that time. They have to learn somehow, at some time in some way.”

“You want to teach them about sex!”

“...did you even READ the thing?”, asked Sans confused. “They are not getting taught about this sex thing, they are getting taught about your biology and sex kinda is a part of that.”

“It will encourage them to... to DO stuff!”

“We teach them about war in history and I don't see them fighting and about the moon landing and you don't see any of them building rockets.” huffed Sans. “They are kids, they still think of each other as icky.”

“So it's way to early.”

“What, about the messy stuff?”, asked Sans. “Yeah maybe, but we are not teaching that. We are teaching that humans are mammals and how they reproduce. Like, knowing what bit is called what, the use of it, some health stuff... and yeah, what this sex thing is and what it's good for. They need to know the basics so we can build up on that when they are a bit older. But they should at least understand where human babies come from.” He frowned a bit. “Honestly, what DO you do when one of your kids get a sibling?”

“It still should be in the hands of the parents.” huffed Linda.

“Yeah, so, when do you plan on telling and teaching that stuff to your son?"

“NOT NOW!”

“Thought so.” huffed Sans. “But look, this is not about... your strange hang-ups about this kind of thing. They need to know some basic things. And it's important for monsters too. We just... don't GET all of this but maybe this way we at least understand why you humans are all so weird about some stuff and not about other stuff. We teach magic and the science of souls after all too.”

“That... urgh...” huffed Linda.

“It really would clear up so many misunderstandings.”said Sans, winking. “I mean, just a few months before you all up in my face because of that one class I taught...”

“You were taking off your shirt in class!”

“Yeah, to show the kids how ribs are connected to the sternum...”

“That is super indecent.”

“... Linda, I repeat what I said the last time, I am all bones. There is literally nothing here. I am not just a human in a costume.”

“It is still indecent!”

“Well, and that is why we have to learn it, because none of us Monsters can understand stuff like that otherwise. And in an inclusive school like this, we gotta work together, right?”

“What are they talking about?”, whispered Azzy to Frisk who grinned and giggled at the dialog.

“Mom tricked Sans into being a substitute teacher. He did it a few times since then. Last time he was supposed to teach the bones of a human to the kids and used himself as a display. He always gets a weird look when he looks at the display skeleton that is meant for that stuff.” Frisk signed almost too fast for Azzy but he got the gist of it and giggled.

“And why is that human lady so against that?”

“Many humans insist very much on clothes. It's all still a work in progress. And Sans and Linda are always going against each other.” Frisk pointed at Steven and Pia. “Those two sometimes bring popcorn.”

“Nice.” chuckled Azzy.

“If you really are so against it, you can take it to the school committee I guess...” said Sans finally and shrugged, the topic getting obviously stale for him.

“I demand that we take a vote.” hissed Linda. “Everybody in favor to demand leaving the sex ed out of sixth class raise their hand.”

Some of the monster parents that didn't have hands looked at Linda a bit flatly but even the humans hesitated. There were a few raised hands but mostly the others seemed to be in favor of keeping the biology lessons as they are.

“Well I think that settles then.” chuckled Sans.

Frisk and Azzy also giggled softly at Lindas face who now looked like something nasty was passing through her stomach.

“And after all of THAT stuff... how about something better, huh?” chuckled Sans and pointed to Azzy. “Azzy here will be a new student in Frisk's class.”

“H...hey!” squealed Azzy, a bit overwhelmed when suddenly all eyes turned to him. “Uh... yeah, I'll start... school soon.”

“Hey there.” said Pia, waving while Steven smiled nicely at him. Linda looked like she wanted to say something but a look from Sans brought her back to silence. Finally she just huffed.

“If Mrs. Smith comes to grill your behind, fine.” she spat out. “I'll keeping it in the protocol that I protested.”

“Yeah. Sure.” said Sans, waving with his hand. “You do yours.”

The rest of the meeting was pretty mellow all things considered. Azzy was kinda bored but it WAS interesting to learn about stuff that went on in the school behind the scenes.

In the end, Toriel came to the meeting too, explaining some changes that will happen around the school. A new indoor swimming pool would be built soon so they could offer swimming lessons for humans and monsters alike. Undyne apparently was very happy about that. There were some minor things too like that the cafeteria menu will be mostly monster food now because it seemed like humans didn't get harmed by it and it didn't trigger any allergies in general. A few teachers would leave, new teachers and staff would come and Toriel also announced that Mrs. Smith would continue her inspection of the school for the next weeks still.

“Why does the inspection take so long?” mumbled Azzy.

“Mom said it's because we are the first monster-human-school... they want to be really sure everything is going well. But it is and will be and then there will be lots of schools like this.” signed Frisk with a nod and a spark of determination in their eyes. Azzy just smiled and shrugged.

Most likely, this won't concern him too much.

When the meeting was finally over, Toriel drove him home again. Azzy felt a bit awkward saying goodbye to Toriel but decided on a small hug and a “thank you” before running to Asgore.

“Hey, hey, son.”chuckled Asgore as he caught Azzy with his arms. “How was your day?”

“It... it was great.” said Azzy. “... dad.”

In the void there was life. A soul-beat and magic crackling around an almost finished soul, glowing brightly in the otherwise endless darkness. There were thoughts and emotions and abstract concepts.

Where am I?

Who am I?

Why am I alone?

My name is... my name is..

I want.

I need...

I want to go home...

Not yet, not yet.

They knew they were almost there. Just a little bit more. The memory of somebody needing them, somebody calling for them kept them going. Just a bit more, just a bit more.

Another piece clicked into place. Just a tiny bit longer.

Chapter Text

To be honest, Sans was a bit skeptic when things went unusually right and smooth. There were no strange after-effects from creating Azzy. Asgore and Toriel kinda coped with Azzy being around and being Azzy, Toriel kinda-sorta forgave him for lying to her, Frisk was overjoyed to have Azzy back and as something like a pseudo-sibling...

Hell, he even dunked Linda a few times again and it was GREAT. (Even with Linda being strangely more manageable these days. Guess she CAN learn after all. She still gave as good as always thou. )

Still, something inside him waited for the other shoe to drop. He waited for the humans to turn around and declare war on monster again seal them Underground. He waited for the officials to come down on Toriel's head and close her school. He waited for something to come and steal his stars or his life, for Toriel to realize that he was just a miserable bag of bones or for Papyrus to finally have enough or...

Or to wake up again in Snowdin.

He really really didn't like thinking like that. He KNEW it was a bad way of thinking, something he realized after months of therapy and something he had under control... most of the times.

It seems with everything that happened he was still a bit on the edge.

He felt it in his bones when he worked in his home office, when his fingers were a bit to tense to type quickly. He felt it when his magic seemed to ripple like waves when he wanted to do small delicate levitation work. He felt it when his magic took just a second to long to dissolve his food into magic at dinner, making him eat just a bit slower than usual.

Luckily, he was not the only one noticing these things.

So when he went to bed about three weeks after Azzy joined them for the PTA meeting, he was kinda surprised when Toriel pulled him into herself. Sans looked up and even in the dim light he saw her looking down at him with concern. It was hard to look at her expression like this.

“Uh...” Sans said, not knowing how to go from here.

“Knock knock.” said Toriel, making Sans blink more but answer just out of instinct.

“Who's there?”

“Water.”

“Water who?”

“Water you thinking in your skull, huh?”

Sans laughed a bit at that, Toriel joining in with her giggles.

“But seriously, Sans.” she said finally. “You seem a bit... distant.”

“I uh...”

“And tense.”

“What can I say, I am all bones, I am bound to be a bit... stiff.”

Toriel chuckled a bit and nuzzled him a bit. “I mean it Sans. Something is on your mind. … talk to me.”

And there they were, the three words that struck Sans more than anything. Not I love you not Let me help, no. Talk to me was the one that let his soul do a little jump. He didn't want to. Honestly.

He had to, had he?

“I... I really dunno, Tori.” Sans mumbled out, turning so he could bury his face into white soft fur. “I just... I feel...”

There was a soft paw on his head again, petting him and this shouldn't feel so nice and this shouldn't sooth him so much but it did. Toriel didn't even SAY anything but her touch and intent and the subtle touch of magic was enough.

She was worried and she wanted answers and Sans had no idea how to put it all into words.

“I just feel like... it's not over. Or it can't be over.” he mumbled. “I worked for years... and before that on something similar even longer and it never worked and now...”

“You waiting for it all to go wrong?” asked Toriel.

“Kinda? I mean... it was hard. So hard.” mumbled Sans. “And I know you and Asgore and Azzy... are still figuring stuff out. But all in all it's so... okay now?”

“Would you prefer if I was more angry?”

“No? I mean you got all right to be. With me, with Asgore, with nobody in particular...”

“Sans...” said Toriel, sighing deeply. “Listen to me?”

Sans sighed with relieve. Toriel talking meant he didn't had to talk now. He nodded and looked up into Toriel's eyes.

“I was angry.” Toriel said. “But I was angry for a very very long time. Angry and bitter. I was angry at Asgore, at the humans, at myself. I was angry even at the children that left me behind despite me warning them. I was angry at so many things, Sans. And I did things in anger I regret and ironically I judged Asgore for doing wrong things in his anger and grief too. And I was unable to let go of my grudge for a long, long time because sometimes it felt like it was the only thing that let me go on.”

Sans wanted to say something but Toriel just lifted a paw, showing him that she wasn't done.

“After the barrier fell... I was angry too. I was angry that Frisk saw Asgore as a father figure despite him trying to hurt them. I was angry that Asgore wasn't hurting MORE. I was angry that there were monster looking at Asgore with adoration, especially Undyne. I wanted to scream at all of them, wanted them to be angry and hate him just as much as I did in that moment. I wanted Frisk to not love him so much.”

Sans stared at Toriel. Sure, he had known she had a lot of issues with Asgore and that she could hold a grudge but he had never thought how deep this was going.

“But... in the end? I sat down with Asgore. We talked. A... a lot. And I came to realize that I misjudged him. That I did a lot of things wrong too and that Asgore was not the evil heartless creature I had pained in my mind. That he was suffering just like I did and just expressed it differently.” Toriel sighed. “We both got angry, we both grieved. He declared war on humanity to keep the Underground from losing hope. I took the body of our dead child and ran away and let my feelings fester. We both had to let go of this. It's not nice, it's not pretty and what happened was horrible... but we both had to accept that.”

“So... that was why you got along better suddenly?” asked Sans.

“I a way.” Toriel sighed. “It... took a lot. To let it go. But I learned a lot in that time. To not let my hurt and grief transform into the sort of dark anger like I had let myself do it before. So... when you told me about this.... about Flowey and As...Asriel... and how you had known my son was still out there, even if his soul was not there anymore... and how you told other people, Alphys and Asgore... I was hurt Sans. It hurt. Because I thought I was better now and that you would trust me with this.”

Sans looked away, soul vibrating with hurt. “I am sorry.”

“And I forgave you for that Sans.” said Toriel, gently holding his skull. “I was hurt but I forgave you because I can understand. And I honestly don't know what I would have done had you told me before. But what was done is done and we are dealing with it.” Toriel sighed softly. “Asgore and I will always have a very complicated relationship now. He hurt me and I hurt him and we forgave each other and are friends again but sometimes it still hurts. Sometimes I am jealous and sometimes I still feel that terrible dark bitterness but I know it's not fair.” She took a big breath. “It was reasonable of you to think I would not take this well. It still hurt but I didn't exactly put much confidence into you that I was able to handle it. And believe me, even now the whole thing is by far not as... okay now as you seem to think. But it is more okay than you seem to fear.”

Part of Sans was relieved. A big part of him even. As strange as it sounded, Sans was just happy that he wasn't the only one still mentally reeling from this.

“Are you still angry with me?” he asked.

“No.” Said Toriel. “I forgave you. I was angry, I worked through it. Things are... different now. With me and Asgore and Azzy and I still have to think about a lot of what happened in all these years since this horrible day. But I am not angry with you, Sans. We talked things out already and things will get only better from here.

Big fuzzy paws were now petting him more, cuddling him into Toriel's body and surrounding him with warmth. He felt himself relaxing more and more because darn this felt nice and he wanted to stay like this forever.

“So relax, my dear.” said Toriel. “Things won't just break apart.”

And in that moment, Sans believed her.

For some reason, Sans never really met with Mrs. Smith. He heard of her and saw her once or twice in the school but she never had talked to him.

From what Mettaton and Papyrus had told him, he kinda didn't want to anyway. It was still strange and Sans really didn't know if he should see it as a blessing or a curse.

Well if even Linda was freaked out, something had to be wrong about her... on the other hand, Linda gets freaked out at a ton of things that Sans considered as only shoulder-shrug-material. (Heh, get dunked on Linda!)

Anyway, he had heard of her, he had seen her once or twice walking through the school but he never actually talked to her. So he was kinda surprised when she suddenly walked up to him while he was waiting at Toriel's office, small brown lunch-bag in his hand. He had felt like grabbing some coffee and chat with Toriel if possible but when he heard the small cough behind him any thought of coffee and chatter went out of his head.

Something was wrong with Mrs. Smith and Sans had no clue what. She looked like a human, yeah. But... just... off.

The feeling was back. The feeling of wrongness was back in full force and it took almost everything in Sans to not let his bones rattle in absolute basic terror.

“Mister... Sans.” She said and Sans cringed again.

“Just Sans is alright.”

“It is nice to finally meet you. Until now you always seemed... indisposed.”

Sans made a face at that. Because... yeah... big can of worms. Very big can of worms.

“Uh... yeah.” said Sans, laughing uneasily as he tried to put his best unassuming smile on his face. Mrs. Smith didn't seem impressed. “So you wanna talk right here or....?”

“I think one of the unused classrooms will be appropriate.” she said smoothly and that was how Sans ended up in an empty classroom, sitting more or less uncomfortable on one of the chairs with Mrs. Smith right across him staring at him, clipboard and pen in hand.

“So. What do you wanna know?”

“First of all, I was told you are one of the guardians of the child called Frisk?”

“Uh... yeah, their mom and I are married.”

“And you are an active member of the Parent-Teacher-Association?”

Sans blinked at that. He never considered himself an active anything. Mrs. Smith was still staring at him and after a few seconds took to writing down something on her clipboard.

“I guess?” Sans said unsure, trying to sound casual.

“How would you describe your experiences at the school?” And that gaze was back on him. Sans tried to not look away.

“Well... it is different than my school back in the Underground.” said Sans easily.

It wasn't a lie. Nobody had to know that he never really visited a normal school. To be honest Sans was well past ready to lay his entire past to rest now. Nothing to see here, just a normal skeleton monster, totally boring, not-at-all interesting past, assume just the standard thing, okay? Okay.

“I see... in what sense?”

“Well... there are humans here? And... things are just different?”

Mrs. Smith wrote something down again and the looked at him again. Sans noticed that he hadn't seen her blink since they sat down. Humans usually did that right?

“You also filled in as a substitute teacher a few times?” She asked.

“Yeah, for science.”

It was super awkward but also kinda fun to mess around with the kids he had to admit but he gladly left the job to people who actually had the qualifications for that. Toriel only approached him as a last resort.

“What are your qualifications for that?”

“Uh... I have several doctorates and I worked with kids some times in the Underground.”

“What kind of work?”

“Babysitting.”

Again not a lie... he did babysitting, he kinda raised Papyrus and he did entertain and look after kids that came to Grillby's, simply because kids like his jokes.

Mrs. Smith was writing something again. Something about that made Sans more and more nervous.

Finally she looked at him again, eyes settling directly onto his.

“Would you say the school is a success?”

What kind of questions were these?

“I would say so.” Said Sans slowly. “I mean... we have monster and humans learning together and from each other. Understanding for each other and all that. Also Toriel does run the school very well, she is a great teacher and knows exactly what to do to make learning fun for the kids. Even the kids from parents that don't like monster seem to get along very well with the monster.”

Even Billy seemed to be... strangely okay. Frisk had turned him down politely when he finally managed to state his intentions to hold hands properly but they remained friends and Sans had seen him hanging out with Monster Kid more and more now.

“I mean... even I learn something new about humans and human culture every day.” added Sans softly, thinking of the last months. “And I kinda hope that the humans learn something about us too.”

Mrs. Smith nodded slowly and wrote something down again, this time more than before. Her pen moved for a whole minute before she looked up at Sans.

“And do you believe in this? Do you believe that humans and monster can change?” she finally asked, eyes boring into Sans as if she was trying to look at his soul. “Do you believe everybody can change?”

Something was wrong. Off. Something of that wording...

Was it just the lighting or... was there a glint in Mrs. Smith's eyes? And why did it feel like Sans's very soul was getting heavier? Why was he so afraid of this human? There was no reason to, she was just a normal human, she wasn't even aggressive towards him!

“I...”, started Sans, unsure what to say but willing himself to form words, any words. “I think so?”

Lots of people changed after all. Asgore and Toriel, Alphys, Undyne. Even Papyrus changed. Heck, he could argue that Linda changed. Frisk changed. He himself had changed. Heck, even Flowey... Asriel... Azzy was as changed as a monster ever could change with his new soul.

Sans had a long time to come with terms with that. Really. He had to come to terms with Flowey being the lost prince and with Flowey changing and wanting to be different and becoming Azzy...

It still didn't really delete what he had done, soulless or not. It still didn't change that Sans was hurt, so so hurt. It didn't change that his friends were hurt, over and over, that the Underground was the playground for a being too powerful for a single being and unable to feel any remorse or empathy towards it's playthings.

It didn't change that Azzy was Flowey and Flowey was Asriel but also that they were each a different being with different mistakes.

It didn't change that Sans still had to go through hell, through therapy and through nightmares and tears and panic attacks. It didn't change that he was broken by resets and loads and being helpless to change anything on his own. It didn't change that some scars probably will never really truly heal.

“You think so?” asked Mrs. Smith again.

Still, things had changed, right? Azzy was making an effort. So Sans could too.

“I mean... people do change.” said Sans slowly, trying to keep the unease out of his voice. “We learn new stuff about others and ourselves each day... and that can be used to chance. How we act, what we say and do around other people, our opinions on certain topics... it all can change over time.”

“So you say knowledge is the base of change?”

“... in a way? I guess?”

Was it knowledge? Did knowledge change Flowey to Azzy? Sans was not that sure about it... Flowey had told him that he did most of the things he did simply because he wanted to know what would happen.

He was bored and soulless and way way to powerful. What did made him change?

Frisk.

Kindness and mercy and a different view on things and an offer to help and a whole mountain of determination in a small human being that somehow had the power to make people listen to them, really really listen to them.

Sans fell in love with the human, loved them like his own child. Maybe it was a similar kind of love that made Flowey want to finally change.

Or maybe he really just... got the knowledge about how far gone he truly was and finally got the knowledge that instead of wallowing in it, he could indeed change.

That there was even the option of change.

“... interesting.” Said Mr. Smith before Sans could voice his thoughts and somehow, it seemed like it was supposed to be the final say in that matter.

There was a silence stretching between the two of them and Sans tried not to shiver. He didn't like the way she said this word. Luckily for him she seemed satisfied with him because she started to pack up her clipboard and pen and got her purse before standing up.

“I thank you for your time. This was a very... enlightening interview.” Mrs. Smith said and Sans blinked a bit at the sudden change of mood as she left the room.

“Uh... thanks... bye...?” he said weakly, long after she was gone.

What the heck just happened?

Sans was still a bit shaken when he came home. Toriel would pick up Frisk from soccer practice today and Papyrus was helping Undyne with the training still, so the house was silent when Sans let himself fall on the couch, face down into a pillow.

This was just all... weird. Especially his own reaction to Mrs. Smith.

It didn't made sense. Sans was sure he had never seen this human before. Why did he had such an reaction to them?

Why do they even seem so strange to him?

Questions he just couldn't answer. They seemed normal. The questions were a bit odd but nothing to bad.

The phone appeared almost on its own in his hand. A number was called quickly and only after the second ring did Sans really think about what to even say.

“... Sans...?”

“Hey Grills.”

“... are you alright?”

Classic Grillby, always right to the point. Sans took a deep breath.

“Yeah I am fine... just uh... wanted to talk.”

“You usually text, Sans.”

Damnit.

“Hehe... yeah...”

“So?”

“... do you think people can change?”

There was silence on the phone for a while, only the soft crackle of Grillby's flames could be heard.

“Philosophy?”

“Na, just... a conversation I had today.”

“... I see...” There was again a stretch of silence before Grillby spoke again. “I believe in change. Not completely however. I believe the very core of a person can't be changed.... but they can change their outlook, their believes, their approach to life and their behavior. I do believe a person that acted bad can do good and I believe a good person can change to somebody doing bad things. I believe every being has potential to be good or bad or anything in between and the potential to change... but also that not every person wants this change. And that some very fundamental things of ones being can't be changed, no matter what.”

“... that is a very... uh.. two sided theory, Grills.” Mumbled Sans. “But... what if there was something changed? Like... a soul?”

“... ah. You are thinking of Azzy and Flowey...”

“... and Asriel. I mean, I never knew him before Flowey. But... there are texts everywhere about him and Toriel sometimes talks about him and he sounds like the sweetest child... and then there is Flowey who was just... completely devoid of any morals. And now Azzy. It's just hard to wrap my heard around it. Has he really changed? Or was there always Flowey in Asriel and Azzy in Flowey?”

Grillby again was silent for a bit and Sans noticed that his breathing had speed up and willed himself to calmness.

“Asriel was a sweet soul.” Grillby said slowly. “Flowey had no soul. Asriel's soul shattered when he was wounded by humans and brought back his sibling to the Underground. And Azzy... Azzy is a new soul giving live by the King's love and magic. I don't think it's true change because it's not the person who changed but... a new person was created. First Asriel died and Flowey was born from his memories. And then Flowey gave up himself to give his memories to a newborn soul which became Azzy. I am not saying that they are completely separate people but... Asriel died and what was left became Flowey and Flowey gained a new soul which made him into something new again. Asriel and Flowey don't exist anymore.”

“... what about what Flowey did?” Asked Sans quietly. “Should I... get over myself? Should I just be okay with it? With him?”

“... no.” said Grillby. “... you were still hurt. And the one who did it was Flowey and Azzy has Floweys memories and all the concequences that come from that. He is not to be punished for his deeds but... you don't have to forgive and you don't have to forget, Sans. You were hurt, you are allowed to be upset.”

“I just feel bad no matter what.” mumbled Sans. “I mean... he is basically a child... He IS a child...”

“He still has memories reaching longer than your own, maybe longer than mine considering he lived through loop after loop after loop.” said Grillby. “But I agree, his mental age was stuck and stagnant in the stage of a child. And now he isn't anymore. He has to accept responsibility and consequences of action just like you and me. Including your unease around him.”

“... thanks Grillby.” said Sans quietly, not knowing what to say anymore.

“... Sans, do you want me to come over?”

“No... no, Tori and the kid will be home soon... but thanks.. I might uh... come over one of these days again.”

“Alright.” Grillby said gently. “Don't hesitate to call me any time again. There are many people that care about you. Myself included. And I am willing to help whenever you let me.”

“I know.”

“Have a nice evening, my friend...”

“You too... uh... and say hi to the others from me.”

“I will.” chuckled Grillby, some mumbling in the background indicating that he was no longer alone.

Sans was thinking about Grillby's words still when his family returned. He smiled and greeted them, ate dinner with them, helped Frisk with their homework, made puns and played around with Papyrus. And later, when it was just him and Toriel she took him in her arms and he cuddled into her soft fur and let himself relax.

There were still problems to be solved, things for him to understand. There was still the pressure of the knowledge that things are continuing.

Things keep changing. Some of them good, some of them bad.

But for the moment, Sans decided to care about all of that in the morning. There are people out there who care about him, his family and friends.

His soul was filled with love.

In the void there was something and the something became somebody.

I am.

I am.

I need to go home.

A lost soul was formed and wanted to be found. The void was not the void if there was something or somebody. So the void stopped being the void around the person.

And a person, a lost soul found, fell back into the world, back into existence and time and space. There was a gasp and a small groan and maybe a muffled curse as they fell face-first into mud.

The void was the void again, the lost soul back where it belonged.

Wingding Gaster sat up from where he landed and looked around, rubbing his skull, his soul pulsing with a steady hum of life.

Time to go home.

Chapter Text

Outside the void, it was... bright. Dark. Hot, cold, heavy, light, smooth and sharp and fast and slow and SO MANY THINGS AT ONCE.

Just laying on the ground had been a LOT and Gaster had a hard time dealing with it. He had a hard time dealing with the fact he COULD in fact deal or fail to deal or that he just could or couldn't anything.

Some things weren't quite right. Not yet. Memories were scattered all around. Time was still wonky. His soul just put itself together and parts of it had been stuck at really nasty places and times or just in the void which wasn't a place or time, but managed to be the worst of both.

It was all confusing and extra confusing that he could be confused.

Gaster was glad he didn't had to relearn to control a body. Apparently that knowledge came built-in, was integral enough in his soul to have carried over. It was still so overwhelming. Breathing was suddenly a very exciting task to do.

He looked at his hands again (his skeleton hands, he was a skeleton.. his arms and legs and body was all skeleton!) through the holes in his palms down to the ground under him. There was ground and air now, moisture in the air and wind and movement. There was LIFE.

He wanted to go home. That was the first, real thought he had. Go home.

Go home.

It wasn't that easy however. Looking around the field he was sitting in, soft grass and earth and puddles of mud which slowly dried up in the sun... he was not quite sure where home even was anymore. Or WHAT his home was at this point. This was not the Underground but the Surface.

He had some vague memories or more like... access to information.

He knew that he was a monster. He knew monster and humans once were at war, the humans won, the monster got sealed away. He knew he was the royal scientist, tasked with finding a way to free monsterkind. He knew he failed. He knew he broke at least three promises and he knew he fell into the void. He knew that at some point, the monster were freed.

He remembered a sad and broken king and the sharp pull of pity. He remembered failing to find freedom but creating life instead. He remembered doing it again. He remembered loving his creations and he remembered a red haze and coldness and his hands locking up his sons and his hands creating a machine that would kill them and all the justifications he had told himself to make it right in his head, even if it wasn't.

He remembered agony and tears and deep deep deep regret.

He remembered missing a piece of himself and he remembered not caring and grieving at the same time.

Gaster put a hand to his head again, groaning.

A small skeleton, a child. Big round eyes, the spark of life. A soul that didn't turn out human but monster. The same face, smiling with trust and love and then it flickered and the same face was in pain and angry and full of fear and hate.

An other small skeleton, that was to young to really understand what happened, that always trusted him even after a part of him was lost and another part taking over on the most horrible way possible.

He used to be a FATHER. He used to have SONS, a family, a LIFE.

Gaster shuttered as more and more memories slotted into place.

He had HURT them.

He had hurt them and they were hurt and it was all his fault. His lost his sons, his family, his home ad his life. The void had swallowed him and shattered him and now he had put himself together. But what now? He had hurt them, how could he ever...

There was a hand on his shoulder.

Gaster flinched heavily, spinning around to see who or what touched him and almost fell over backwards again.

It was a human. A human child. They smiled at him and signed with their hands. Talking in Hands. Like him.

Hello. Are you lost?

Gaster could just nod dumbly.

My name is Frisk. Do you want some help?

Sans was feeling... better. Not great yet but better by a lot. Just a bit... restless. Heh, wasn't that a joke? But it was true.

Without the big project of getting Flowey a new soul he was left with a surprisingly big amount of free time at his hands. And now that he didn't need that time to panic or wait for something horrible to happen, he found himself.. .well... restless. A strange sensation where the pull to DO something without any idea for WHAT to do.

Toriel was teaching. Frisk was out with their friends. Papyrus was helping Undyne with something... so he was all alone at home. He could do some work but numbers and formulas just didn't seem to grab his attention in the moment. Not even his trombone inspired him today.

So after several minutes debating with himself and feeling restless and unsatisfied even with that, he finally got up and grabbed his jacket.

It was getting colder again. Summer slowly made way for fall and even with the warm weather during the last few weeks there was no denying the fact. Time moved on.

Sans looked at the colorful leaves all around him. Some birds were flying by way, way above him. All in all it was a nice day outside, just a bit chilly.

His feet were taking him to Grillby's without his input. He honestly only noticed where he had gone when the warm air coming from the door hit him. He was thinking of leaving right away again but Grillby had already noticed him, his gaze on Sans and his flames flickering with the beginning of a worry. So Sans changed his mind again and let his feet carry him to the counter and towards the fire elemental looking at him.

“Hey, Grills.” he greeted his friend as Grillby nodded at him.

“Hello, my friend...” he answered, softly. “What brings you in today?”

“My feet.” said Sans, winking before sitting down.

“Funny.” commented Grillby flatly.

“Kinda not.”, Sans mumbled. “They did kinda carry me here on their own.”

Grillby chuckled softly, amusement clear visible before his flames started to flicker with worry again. “Does something weight on your mind?”

“Not really...?”, said Sans. It was not a lie, he really... wasn't quite sure himself.

“Ah... you resolved your... philosophical problem?”

Sans hesitated.

“Not... really? I mean... I am still kinda thinking about it...?”

“The question if a person can change their way no matter how far along they have wandered on their chosen path?”

“Kinda, yeah.”, said Sans, sighing and slumping in on himself a bit. It's just him and Grillby here and talking to him had kept him sane during the very much not happy times of resets and helplessness... so he at least tried to give his confusing thoughts and emotions words.

“I keep thinking about the past a lot.” he confessed. “What happened and why and I... I thought about my...” dad, father, creator... “Former guardian a lot now.”

Grillby nodded at him slowly. Sans hadn't told him EVERYTHING about Gaster. But he had told him enough when he was young and scared and was suddenly alone with Papyrus with their former life having spectacular exploded in Hotland.

Sure, there was a time where Sans had taken care of Papyrus alone before, but back then Gaster had still taken care of them from afar, had kept his distance but was close by. Gaster had been still his FATHER back then and Sans had still believed him to be good and kind. He had been angry and betrayed but he had still trusted Gaster and he had still forgiven him and a part of him was HAPPY to have a little brother.

It was different after the machine. Gaster had hurt him and had planned on killing Papyrus. Gaster had trapped them and made him feel so helpless and hopeless and had taken any kind of control from him.

And then, after the fight, after the machine, Gaster was gone and most people didn't even remember. A lot of them even lost memories of him and Papyrus. It was lucky that the house in Snowdin was listed under Sans's name and most of the Snowdin inhabitants remembered the skeletons being around, even if they didn't remember Gaster and their connection to the royal scientist.

Grillby had remembered, just not everything. He remembered babysitting Sans and later Sans and Papyrus, he remembered that SOMETHING had happened and him having been angry at somebody and Sans needing support. He had asked Sans about it. Multiple times because whenever Sans tried to tell him about Gaster, he would have trouble recalling the conversation.

So Sans started trying to be vague enough so the new knowledge won't be erased but specific enough so Grillby would understand.

His former guardian was what he had settled on. He had told Grillby about... somebody that used to care for him and Papyrus, that betrayed their trust and hurt them but was now gone. Grillby knew that it was complicated, that Sans once loved this person and got burned badly by it. He knew that something went horrible wrong.

So Grillby's flames twitched a bit when Sans confessed to thinking about his past again, about his former guardian.

“... because of Azzy?”

“Yeah.” admitted Sans. “I mean... I know that my... former Guardian... probably was not in his right mind the last few times I saw him. But does that really excuse his actions?”

“... you were hurt.” said Grillby. “You are upset. But you wonder if there is something absolving the one who hurt you of guilt or responsibility.”

Sans nodded.

“And you wonder if you are required to forgive under changed circumstances.”

Sans nodded again. “I tried to forget the whole thing mostly... Papyrus doesn't remember anything about it. I uh... I kinda ranted at Asgore about it and I think he remembers a bit of my former guardian. He is a boss monster after all. But uh... other than this... if there is no harm, there is no fool, and all that?”

Grillby was silent for a while, thinking.

“... but you were hurt.” he finally said.

“uh... yeah, but...”

“You were hurt.” said Grillby again. “Somebody did it. Even if that somebody wasn't in their right mind... it really is similar to the Flowey problem, right?” he mused. “Harm was done. It wasn't harm done out of malice or well... let's say harm done by somebody being a victim in a way too. But still, harm was done. And it's entirely in your right to be upset and wanting comfort and security in harm not being done to you again.”

“He is gone.” mumbled Sans. “Gone from this plane and gone from the memory of most people.”

“That doesn't really matter.” said Grillby. “We are not talking about a punishment. We are talking about you feeling upset.”

Sans looked at Grillby again and sighed.

“... Do you want somebody to be punished?”, asked Grillby.

“Not really. I mean... Flowey... Flowey is gone and had his fair share of bad things happening to him. And my... former guardian...” Sans trailed off, trying to make sense of this himself. “... he already got punishment in a way?”

Grillby just looked at him and Sans finally shrugged.

“I mean... its not as if it would matter anyway... he is gone. I am... I am pretty fine. So it's fine.”

“... still...” said Grillby. “... I think it's important to acknowledge that you got hurt. That harm was done to you.” He paused for a moment, flames flickering, indicating a smile. “A person might not change at their core but good and bad decisions can be made at any time. For every bad there could be a good. But if you feel like punishment was had and your hurt got recognized the way you are satisfied with... it might be a start for moving on.”

“Moving on...” repeated Sans as if those words were new to them.

They weren't of course. He did move on. Moved on from his past, moved on from the resets, from the Underground.

Maybe he could be able to move on from Flowey and Gaster too.

He had Frisk and Toriel and Papyrus and all his friends. He was hurt in the past and now... he was better.

Living on the surface, starting a new life, new friendships and love and each moment following the next. Freedom to choose whatever he wanted. Getting into the PTA and in a way, understanding humans more and more.

And he WANTED this. He wanted and loved this life so much. It didn't really matter what Flowey did, it didn't really matter what Gaster did. It hurt, he'll remember, his pain got acknowledged. He was free.

The smile came easy and without Sans actually making himself smile.

“You are right, like always, Grills.” he said softly.

Gaster had to admit, this was a nice house. It looked... home-y.

Frisk had led him into the house all happily, signing out explanations and plans for their parents to meet him, for dinner together and showing him more of the neighborhood and the town later, while they were helping him to sit down on the soft soft couch.

It was a well-loved couch, some spots looked a bit rough like there had been spilled drinks that were scrubbed out and there was a small black spot half hidden behind a pillow that looked like an accident with a permanent marker. The pillows were all different in size and shape and color but they still fit together well and the blanket Frisk gave Gaster just a moment later was nice and warm and fluffy and smelled like sweet tea.

The living room felt just as the couch: soft and warm and lived in and well loved. There was a fireplace not far from him, cold in the moment, but over it were lots of pictures of a happy family. There were hand-painted pictures of the walls too, probably made by a child. There were flowers on the small table in front of him, golden flowers blooming and shimmering in the sunlight coming from the window. The TV was dark and silent in front of him. The carpet under his feet was soft and clean and of a creme color. There were shelves of books and another shelf with lots of knick-knacks, vases and small artwork and postcards and other stuff.

He was sitting in the middle of some family's life, all the while a human child talked in hands to him.

How did you learn to talk in hands? Gaster finally asked, interrupting the human.

My voice doesn't always work, so they taught me so I could talk when I can't talk. The human (Frisk, they said their name was Frisk) answered. Mom taught me more when she adopted me. I am still learning but I am really good now, even dad says so!

Gaster blinked at that. He knew most monster could understand hands but humans? No human he heard of was talking in hands.

I didn't know humans knew hands.

It's called different here. Frisk answered. But there are lots of different hand languages. Most humans don't need it and don't learn it. But there are still many that do and can.

Gaster nodded at that slowly, eyes wandering again when he noticed one particular picture.

Most of the photos in the room were of a tall goat monster (Asgore? … no, it's a female one... is... is that the missing Queen of the monster? Toriel? Gaster couldn't remember if he ever met her, his memories were still all messed up) and Frisk, as well as a fish-monster, a lizzard monster and there were some of Asgore too (Gaster would recognize him everywhere) and a tall skeleton monster that looked kinda familiar... but one of the pictures showed a smaller skeleton, more stocky with a round skull and a wide smile and Gaster felt as if the void just opened up under him again.

That... that skeleton. That small skeleton. That was Sans.

It was Sans, the son he hurt, he hurt so so much and he was so sorry. So very very sorry. And there was a picture of his son on the wall and he looked so happy on it.

Frisk? Gaster asked. Frisk, this picture... this skeleton... how do you know him?

Huh? Oh, Sans? Said Frisk. Gaster nodded. He is my dad... well... dunkel of course!

Frisk was giggling but Gaster felt ice cold dread. Frisk was his son's child? Well they said they were adopted... oh dear.

Frisk? Where is your... father? Maybe I really shouldn't I be here. Maybe I should just go and...

And just in that moment the door opend and Sans, his son, was walking in.

He looked... he looked good. He was smiling, his stance was relaxed and what Gaster could feel of his magic from this far away, he was totally at ease. And then he saw him and he shifted, eye glowing bright blue as Frisk was yanked away from Gaster by a sheen of blue magic and behind the skeleton (he was protecting them, tried to protect his family, because Gaster had hurt him and his brother already so badly but still, it hurt!) and suddenly the room grew colder and darker, as if the sunlight and warmth just faded away.

And Sans was looking at him just as coldly, ready to fight and protect and determined to stand his ground, magic in the air all around him and Gaster felt like crying all over again.

“What. Are you. Doing here?”, asked Sans, voice cold and hollow and Gaster found himself unable to even lift his hands to answer because what COULD he even say?

“Dad...”

A tiny voice came from the human, small and raspy and suddenly the cold and the magic was gone because Sans had turned to the human. His blue eye was still on Gaster, a clear warning, but was still still giving the small human his full attention (his child, Frisk was his child!)

“He's Gaster.” said Frisk softly, their voice barely audible to Gaster. “He is lost and needs help. He is my new friend.”

The small look Sans was giving him could have frozen a small lake. Gaster felt himself sinking more into the couch.

This... this could have gone way better.