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Sans carried Chara on his back as they walked through the anti-void together. It had been a year after Sans had found them and they hadn’t left each other’s sides since. Every time Sans would go out looking for an exit out of the anti-void Chara would come with him and tell him jokes. It reminded Sans of Papyrus and left him with a bitter-sweet feeling in his chest.
“Knock knock.” Chara said.
“Who’s there?” Sans asked looking up at them.
“Dishes.” Chara replied smiling down at him.
“Dishes who?” Sans asked smiling back at them.
“I don’t know who dish is. I just came to deliver a package!” Chara finishes enthusiastically.
Sans laughed small tears coming to his eyes. “Wow! Good one, Human!” He said in between chuckles happily clutching the child’s legs. “Where’d you get it?”
Chara pointed at themself proudly, “Me!” They cheered happily.
“You came up with that on your own?” He asked them astonished. They nodded their head fervently. “You’re getting pretty good at this. Papyrus would be proud.” He replied with a tinge of grief lined in his voice.
Chara hummed to themself and wrapped their arms tighter around his neck. They buried their head into his shoulder and said, “You’ve been thinking about him a lot lately, huh?”
Sans looked up at them and said, “Of course I have…I haven’t stopped thinking about him since Error brought me here.”
“Yeah…” Chara said burying their head deeper into his neck. “ I can’t stop thinking about the others either. But I’m glad I still got you…”
Sans stopped and looked up at them, “Human…” Sans started to say but stopped himself. “Ch-cH-a-A-a-R-R-r-A…I-I-I-I…” He started to glitch. Vibrating violently and unable to control what he was saying. He lost his grip on Chara and they tumbled to the ground.
Chara picked themselves of the ground. They were too worried about him to feel the pain of the fall. They ran up to him screaming his name in alarm. “Sans? Sans! Are you okay?!? Oh my God!” They reached out and grabbed his arm. “What do I do? What do I do?” They started to cry, frightened.
“ErRor-eRrOR-ERrOr-DoN’t wOrrY…” He said clutching their hand trying to calm them down. “I-I-I’m OkAy…” He pulled them closer and stroked his hands through their hair trying to calm her sobbing.
He was okay.
His human was okay.
They were both okay and everything would be alright.
Eventually the glitching stopped and Sans sat on the ground breathing heavily. Chara sat next to him with tears pouring down their face. They kept asking him if he was alright.
“Don’t worry.” He gave them a small, anxious smile and wiped the tears off their face. “I’m okay. See? I’m alright...It was just a little glitch.”
They wrapped their arms around him and cried again.
He lightly returned the hug his arms barely touching their back. “It was just a little...glitch.” He said again a wave of fear overtaking him. What if it wasn’t “just a little glitch”? What if it happened again? What if next time he becomes violent and hurts Chara?
He can’t let that happen.
He won’t let that happen.