Chapter Text
“My child, be good while I am away, alright?”
Toriel seemed as worried as always, but Frisk reassured her with a vigorous nod of approval. She smiled and tenderly stroke their head – then she stopped looking at her child for a second and opened the closet to retrieve her long wool coat. Frisk’s gaze followed her movements with attention as well as a bit of puzzlement.
Had they been less quiet and not the ever so placid child they’d always been, they probably would have jumped when Sans put his hand on their shoulder without a warning. They didn’t, however, and the skeleton couldn’t hold back a soft sigh of disappointment; but he knew the kid would react that way, anyway, so he was quick to shrug and laugh it off.
“Don’t worry, Tori,” he said, grinning as he casually slipped his free hand inside the pocket of his shorts. “I’ll take good care of your kid, so go and have fun.”
Much to Sans’s amusement, Toriel blushed slightly at hearing Frisk being called her child, but she quickly hid her embarrassment behind a grateful smile.
“Thank you, Sans. I know I can trust you to keep your promise.”
He scratched the back of his skull almost nervously – that was his turn to blush now. So that was her opinion of him; although he’d never actually kept, nor even made any promise to begin with... Well, aside from that one he’d made through the door so long ago, before even meeting the kid, of course. He sighed, and the lady to whom he had never been able to say no leant down to place one last loving kiss on Frisk’s forehead. She really was a good mom, Sans thought absentmindedly.
“I will be back before noon, hopefully.”
“Got it.”
Frisk approved too, nodding, and gently waved their hand at Toriel who waved back. She then went to the door, opened it, and yet another smile later she had left. Sans waited for the door to close behind Toriel, before letting go of the kid’s shoulder and gently patting them on their upper back.
“Well, kiddo... Would you like to watch TV or something?”
Babysitting wasn’t really his thing, to be honest, as it usually required a lot of concentration and he was way too lazy for that; but Frisk was no longer a baby, were they? Besides, he wouldn’t be alone with the child for too long, since Toriel had sworn she would be back in a few hours...
Thinking of Tori, Sans kind of wondered what she was up to, by the way. She had told the human and him that she had to run some errands, but she had kept her intentions very unclear – the skeleton only knew for sure (from the text she had sent him two days before) that she planned to get something for Frisk. A gift, probably; now that he thought about it, the surface was starting to look more and more like Snowdin these days, and he remembered Papyrus mentioning some kind of human celebration that was supposed to happen around this time of year... What was the name his bro had told him, already? Crust mash, he’d said, or crisis match – Papyrus hadn’t seemed to remember it very well and Sans wasn’t sure at all he could trust any of those names to be the actual one, to be honest. Well, anyway, that probably was some kind of annual tradition without a real meaning, and being the ever-so doting mom she was, Tori had decided to use it as an opportunity to try and make her human child happy. Heh, she was totally spoiling them, like always.
He was drawn away from his thoughts by the sudden feeling of the kid pulling on the sleeve of his jacket. He lowered his gaze to look at them and, when he understood they wanted him to follow them, he let them drag him to the living room, where they both took a seat on the couch – so the kid was okay with watching TV, apparently. That was good news, because that basically meant a lot less work for him; not that he didn’t want to play with Frisk or anything, but... watching TV with them was a lot easier, and just as entertaining, you see? And he wasn’t that great at playing with kids, anyway. Sure, he’d spent a bunch of time testing out Papyrus’s puzzles in the Underground, and pretending to be a sentry just to please him, but Frisk... They were different. They didn’t talk much, at least not when they could be understood without saying anything, so it was rather difficult to know what would make them happy.
Well, they were a kid, so Sans assumed an interesting kids’ show would keep them occupied at least for a moment. As for himself, he’d try not to let Tori’s comfortable couch convince him to take a quick nap, like he usually did whenever he sat there in silence for too long; he couldn’t promise anything, though. But even if he did fall asleep, it wasn’t like the kid wouldn’t be able to take care of themself for one hour or two – they had done just that in the Underground, after all, and for an even longer time.
He switched channels once and felt the child’s tiny hand on his bony wrist.
“Want the remote? Here.”
Frisk smiled, took it, and changed the channel on their own until they found a cartoon they deemed interesting. Sans didn’t bother listening to whatever the plot of this episode was. As long as he kept a distant eye on the kid, he was fine. Just as he had predicted, it wasn’t long before his eye sockets started closing of their own accord, but... It couldn’t be helped, and he was quite sure the child wouldn’t even move from the couch, anyway.
When he woke up a while later, however, the switched-off TV and the empty seat next to him proved him wrong.
“Kiddo?” he called, still a little drowsy from his nap.
He raised a hand to scratch the back of his skull and realized a thin blanket was loosely covering him. This... He lazily pushed it aside and couldn’t suppress a yawn, which quickly turned into a big grin. This kid was definitely too nice for their own good.
Now fully awake, Sans got on his feet and left the living room to look for Frisk. After a short while, he found them in the kitchen. They were sitting cross-legged on the counter, their eyes apparently staring through the window as they munched on a slice of one of the, like, three hundred pies that Tori baked everyday. Sans didn’t have time to say anything, though; as soon as they saw him, the kid got off the counter (without letting go of their pie) and ran to him. Once again, they grabbed his sleeve, and pointed to the kitchen window with their free hand.
“What is it? You gotta tell me, kid, ‘cause you’re not my bro, I can’t see right through you.”
He smiled, and Frisk put their crooked fingers in front of their mouth as they let out a soft chuckle. They didn’t speak, but Sans wasn’t surprised; once again, it wasn’t unusual for them to keep silent whenever possible, and only open their mouth when words were absolutely necessary. In this case, they weren’t – evidence being that a quick glance through the window sufficed to make the skeleton understand precisely what the child wanted to show him.
Outside the house, everything – every building, every tree, every square inch of ground – was covered in thick snow. Sans felt his usual grin grow even wider as his heart melted from suddenly remembering fond memories; it all just looked like the view he had from his and Papyrus’s living room in Snowdin... It all just looked like home. Except this wasn’t the Underground, and their home was no longer trapped behind the barrier.
When he finally turned his head to look at Frisk again, he found them staring at him with a pleading look on their face (how they managed to do so with their eyes closed remained a mystery).
Sans let out a half-amused half-tired sigh. Having grown up with Papyrus, he knew the meaning of that expression way too well.
“Let me guess... You want to go outside, am I right?”
The child instantly nodded energetically, beaming, and the skeleton understood he wouldn’t have a choice. Well... He gave the kid a warm smile as they started toying with his bony fingers, as if nervously waiting for his answer, and he shrugged. Papyrus had asked him the same question more than once when they’d first arrived in Snowdin, and he had never been able to turn him down – so it was only fair he agreed to go and play with Frisk as well.
“It can’t be helped, then,” he said, before winking at the human. “Besides, I don’t have the heart to say no.”
Despite still not really opening neither their eyes nor their mouth, Frisk seemed happy, and Sans secretly hoped it was at least partly due to his hilarious joke.
A few minutes later, the both of them were standing in the entryway when Sans suddenly remembered they couldn’t quite leave just like this. They were at Tori’s house, after all; and although she had given him her spare set of keys when he had agreed to watch over the kid today, the lady would totally worry herself to death if she came home to find them gone. He didn’t blame her, though, this was just how she was – if anything, it made him smile, actually.
He took his phone out of the pocket of his shorts, planning to send her a quick text, just to keep her informed of their whereabouts, and could only notice that she’d beaten him to it.
Dear Sans,
I hope you and Frisk are having fun and that they are being a good child, although I trust them not to cause you any trouble. I also would like to inform you that I will probably be a bit late, as I ran into your brother a little earlier. He was searching for you, but kin
Sans blinked, until he realized she had actually sent him two messages. Exceeding the characters limit, huh – a typical beginner’s mistake, as expected from Tori.
Dear Sans,
I am sorry about my previous text. I meant to say: “kindly offered to help me with my current task.” Thank you again for agreeing to watch over Frisk while I am away. ]: )
Sincerely, Toriel
He quickly typed his answer: ok.
In retrospect, he could have written a bit more; but since she was with Papyrus, now, there was no way Tori would come back before noon, and it was barely half past ten – the kid would have plenty of time to play in the snow, and they’d still be able to get back home before their mom. Thus, he opened the door without a second thought and got out of the house.
He tried to, at least, until Frisk stopped him again by grabbing his sleeve. Again. He turned around to give them a confused look, but was met with colorful wool and suddenly remembered. The kid. They were a human, not a monster; Tori always made them wear a bunch of stuff whenever they had to go out. They couldn’t leave the house in shorts and slippers with just a t-shirt and a jacket on. They had to actually put on boots and a scarf and... similar things.
“Sorry, I’d forgotten ‘bout that.”
Sans closed the door to keep the cold from entering the house and took the scarf that Frisk was silently asking him to hold. He then lowered his gaze to look at them. They had let go of his sleeve the moment he had stepped back inside, and soon sat on the floor, struggling to put on black shearling boots. Once they were done, they grabbed their coat, all the while leaving on the floor half of the stuff they had apparently taken out of the closet, and Sans decided he might as well help.
He kneeled down to pick up the child’s winter hat, which – just like the scarf – looked an awful lot like it had been lovingly knitted by Tori herself.
“Hey, kiddo, come here.”
Frisk stopped fighting with their coat to obey. While they calmly stood in front of him, Sans helped them put on their hat, and wrapped their long scarf around their neck. Only then could he make sure the kid was correctly wearing their coat.
“Here you go,” he said, zipping it up for them.
Frisk thanked him with a soft smile. Heh, he didn’t really get why humans were supposed to wear all this stuff before going out, but at least he’d remembered to do as Tori would have and the kid seemed happy; honestly, this was all that mattered. He couldn’t care less about the rest.
He opened the door and, this time, the both of them left the house.
It took Sans and Frisk a bit more than five minutes to walk to Toriel’s school, that its owner had decided to close all week because of the over-abundant snow.
They could have stayed closer to the kid’s and their mom’s home and just played in the garden, but the school had a far bigger playground with swings and other installations that the child could use if they wanted to try another game. Besides, there were also benches on which Sans could take a seat while watching them play around in the snow – no other place in the town King Asgore had founded here on the surface met these standards.
“Have fun, kiddo,” said Sans, softly patting Frisk on their back. “If you need me, I’ll be sitting on this conveniently-placed bench over there.”
The human didn’t answer, as usual, so he just left and took a seat on the bench. He had a good view of the entire playground from here; he could see the kid by only turning his head a little. They were now sitting on their knees in the thick white snow. It wasn’t like they could hurt themself here, but Sans still appreciated being able to watch over them without having to move – Tori would kill him if anything happened to Frisk and he wasn’t there to help, after all.
Somehow, watching the child move around in the snow, their feet leaving small imprints on the white canvas that seemed to cover the entire world, their hands picking up some of it to make small snowballs... It reminded him of the days he had spent monitoring the Underground from his sentry station or his hot-dog stands. Of all those times when the kid had come by, passed him by, or waved their hand at him and he’d waved back; of the times when they had stopped to buy one hot-dog or two, or a hot-cat, and he’d ended up piling up head-dogs on their little human head. Twenty-nine was the limit.
He smiled to himself at the memory, only to be a little startled when he noticed Frisk had approached him to tug at his sleeve again.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Want to show me something?”
The kid nodded and Sans got up, agreeing to follow them. Not too far from them stood two snowballs, the first one almost as big as the kid themself, and the second one a bit smaller.
“It’s a snowman,” Frisk explained before Sans could ask them another question.
Their voice sounded soft, as usual, and the skeleton thought it was a shame they didn’t use it more often.
“Not yet,” he answered. “Wait a second.”
He gently patted the child’s head, before picking up the smallest snowball and carefully putting it onto the other one, thus completing the snowman... or not, actually. As he took a step back to have a better look at it, Sans could only realize the snowman didn’t have a face yet. Thankfully, he had an idea to fix this.
He left the kid with their new friend for a second, and came back with a dozen small stones he’d found somewhere else in the playground. Then, he pressed two of those into the head of the snowman, so that it would at least have eyes.
“There,” he said, admiring his own work with a big grin. “Now your snowman totally rocks, doesn’t it?”
Hearing Frisk chuckle only made him even prouder. The child silently asked him for the stones he hadn’t used, and picked a few ones to give the snowman a big smile. Then, they grabbed their phone inside the pocket of their coat and quickly took a picture of their finished creation. Their smile suited them so well that Sans felt like making them laugh again.
“Hey, kid,” he started, slipping both of his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “You do know how to greet a snowman, don’t ya?”
Frisk turned their head to shoot him a questioning glance, and his usual grin grew wider.
“You say, ice to meet you.”
The child instantly put their hands in front of their mouth to hide the fact they were chuckling again – just as Sans had hoped. He asked them to send him the picture they’d taken of their snowman, just in case he felt like remembering this moment sometime in the future; they agreed and he took his phone out of his pocket, only to realize it was already half past eleven when he looked at the screen.
“Wow, it’s getting late,” he commented. “How ‘bout we take our leave and go grab something to eat, kiddo?”
It wasn’t like Tori would be home soon, anyway, since she hadn’t sent a single text since her last one, and simply being with Papyrus usually required a lot of time; besides, Sans was starting to get hungry, too. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had a meal in, like... at least two hours, which was a very long time, given that he usually made sure to eat breakfast at least twice every morning.
Upon hearing his suggestion, Frisk nodded, and so the deal was made. The child put their phone back in their pocket and held out their hand, apparently wanting the skeleton to hold it-
It was bright red, though, and Sans was pretty sure human skin wasn’t supposed to be this color. His eye sockets widened, his grin getting slightly nervous.
“Huh, kid... Are human hands actually supposed to get this red?” he asked, trying his best not to sound as concerned as he was.
The truth was, he really didn’t want anything to happen to the monsters’ favorite human; and that wasn’t just because Tori would kill him if her precious child was hurt. Frisk didn’t seem to understand his question, however, and they kept giving their own hand a puzzled look as Sans took it in his bony fingers.
Being a skeleton, he’d never been bothered by things like temperatures, but he still could feel whether the things he touched were hot or cold or vaguely in between – and the kid’s hands were basically as cold as his and Papyrus’s own bones used to be when they lived in Snowdin. Which was... not the recommended temperature for a human body. Probably.
He held back a sigh, sincerely hoping that moving to a warmer place would solve the problem, and that Frisk wouldn’t remain hurt forever; it wasn’t the case, probably, since they seemed... Dammit. The opportunity was too good, he couldn’t help himself.
“I guess that snow problem,” he said, “since you look pretty chill about that, but we really should go someplace where we won’t get chilled to the bone.”
For a second, the human’s neutral expression seemed to both admire him for his ever-so lame puns and judge him hard for drastically changing the mood of their conversation in less than three seconds; then the child burst into laughter and Sans had no choice but to do the same.
“Really, though, kid,” the skeleton managed to say once they’d both more or less caught their breath. “Let’s go to Grillby’s, okay?”
Frisk nodded, a big smile still plastered on their face, and put both of their hands inside their pockets to keep them at least a bit warm. They left the playground, then, and headed to Grillby’s.
The new bar/restaurant that Grillby had opened here on the surface when they’d all left the Underground a few months ago was remarkably similar to the one he used to have in Snowdin.
Although he had made a few changes to the menu to accommodate the few humans that sometimes stumbled upon their town when lost or fulfilling their desire for adventure, Grillby still served the same monsters everyday, and Sans had remained a regular. The building itself was still as warm as ever, probably thanks to the fire of its owner, and everyone stopped their chatter for a second to greet Sans when he pushed the door open.
“Hey, everyone,” he greeted them back.
He held the door open long enough for Frisk to get inside, too, and the both of them took a seat at the bar. The kid shoot him a questioning glance upon realizing there was no whoopee cushion on their stool, this time, but he shrugged it off with a grin.
“So, what’re you having, kiddo?”
They kept silent for a second, thinking, before speaking in their soft voice that the skeleton almost didn’t hear in the midst of everyone’s babbling.
“Fries,” was all he could understand.
“Heh, good choice. Grillby, I’ll have fries too.”
As silent as ever, the bartender briefly nodded and left, only to reappear a short while later with their double order of fries. He left both plates on the bar before them and went back to drying plates and glasses. After Frisk refused to get any ketchup, Sans poured half the bottle on his own fries, and they both started eating in silence.
Frisk’s hands were still way too red for a human’s, and the skeleton was feeling concerned again. He’d thought the warmth in here would help them get back to normal, but... it wasn’t that simple, right? Humans really were weird. And complicated. Still, Frisk looked happy, slowly eating their fries while swinging their legs in between their stool and the bar.
“So... tastes good, huh?” he tried, in hopes to have at least a vague conversation with the child.
They only nodded, though; and a second later, they were slowly moving their stool to try and get closer to where Grillby was. Sans noticed it, of course, and spent a whole minute wondering what the hell had gotten to them until sudden realization dawned on him – oh. Of course.
They were still shivering a little. He let out a soft chuckle.
“Hey, Grillby, mind getting a little closer? The poor kid is freezing.”
The fire monster seemed a little surprised (well, as much as he could, given that he didn’t exactly have a face to show any expression at all), but complied anyway. When he realized the warmth emanating from his whole body was making Frisk smile wider and shiver a lot less, he was even nice enough to put away the glass he had been drying and place his hands over Frisk’s, still making sure he didn’t actually touch them. In a few minutes, their skin had come back to a much more human-like color, and they’d eaten half of their fries without their meal getting cold.
Sans gave them a wide grin and patted their head, just because he felt like it. Now that he was sure he hadn’t endangered the kid in any way, the only thing left to do was to text Tori to let her know Frisk had just had lunch, and once they would be done eating the both of them could go back home.