Work Text:
We'd Miss the Snow Poffs, Anyway (Sans/Monster Reader)
KNOCK. KNOCK. You gently pound your closed paw on Sans and Papyrus’ house a couple times. Sans should be there soon; you’d given him a heads up you’d be on your way. Normally, you’d expect a bit of a wait, but these haven’t been normal times.
“Sans? It’s me, is it still a good-”
The door opens, with Sans on the other side. His smile’s there, since you’re pretty sure it’s built into his face, but it doesn’t have all the same brightness as usual.
“hey.”
“Hey.”
“glad you’re back. town feels weird this quiet.”
“Of course, got back as soon as I was done with the family. Brought you something.”
Reaching a paw into a pocket, you pull out a little bag of your mom’s honey almonds you’d grown up with. She made sure you’d have some to bring to the boyfriend.
“hell yeah. never a bad time for those bad boys.”
You’re just as glad to hear Sans’ voice as he is to hear yours. It’s not that town’s deserted; there’s some kids throwing snowballs at each other, and Ice Wolf is so determined to keep throwing his blocks of ice on the town’s conveyor belt that you’re not sure if he knows anything’s changed. A lot of the folks who’re usually out and about are still inside, though, probably processing things like you’d been.
“c’mon inside. rocko’s getting cold.”
“Oh, no, I’m taking my fur for granite.”
“heheh, nah, you just need to put pebble to the metal.”
Giggling and giving Sans a nudge on the shoulder, you come inside, remembering this time to duck your head a little. Papyrus is out with Undyne for the time being, leaving the house to just the two of you; well, three, can’t leave the pet rock out of the picture.
“Can I say hi to the man of the hour?”
“even better. you can feed him.”
“Oh, goodie!” You hurry over to the table that Rocko lives on, grabbing his sprinkles jar and gently pouring some on top of him. Sans swears the sprinkles disappear on their own over time.
“oop, too many.”
“Eight’s too many?”
“yup. and six is too little. gotta be seven.” He picks one up and tosses it in your mouth before you realize what he’s doing.
“you just ate my pet’s food, you monster.”
“We’re both monsters.”
“exactly.” He takes a sprinkle out of the jar, eating it himself.
“Heheheh, missed this.”
“me too. things go well with your folks?”
“Yeah, was important I got back to see them. We all needed it.”
It’s been a week now since the human that’d fallen into the Underground defeated Asgore and passed through the Barrier. No one was there to see it, of course, so how exactly this happened will probably always have some mystery around it, but Asgore’s dusty remains were found, along with no trace of the human. They hadn’t used violence on any other monsters on their encounter, and everyone who’d faced them wound up thinking rather fondly of them, but you’ve all figured they did what they felt they had to do to escape.
“The family’ll be fine, I think they just needed some time with everyone together to be sure of that. They wanted to know how you’re doing, too, of course.”
“appreciate that. I know we texted a bit already, but it’s been a mixed bag.”
“How mixed?”
“not as mixed as a bag of trail mix. more like that mettaton-branded candy store we went to.”
“The one that claimed each bag could have six flavors, but there we only ever got three at at a time?”
“bingo.”
Soon after the news gotten around, you’d traveled to New Home to visit your family, who all still lives there. Despite all being bears, it was where they felt happiest. Your inclination growing up had always been to move to the briskness of Snowdin, which is why you’ve got your own little cottage overlooking the cliff by the bridge. It’s also why after running into Sans soon after him and his brother moved in, punning with each other whenever you were in the same place, and later having some hangouts, you eventually shared your feelings with each other. You didn’t think you’d be romantically inclined towards a skeleton when you were growing up, his bare bones being as different from your heft and fur as possible, but that’s life!
“I take it you heard the decrees from the Queen? Watched them on TV with the family, then we played silly card games for a couple days.”
“yeah, papyrus ‘n i heard it all. was kinda weird. swear the queen’s voice sounded familiar… eh, maybe it’ll make sense some day.”
Sans turns away from Rocko to go flop on the couch, and you do the same, sitting down with a thump and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. You tap at his collarbone with your claws, enjoying as always the rattling noise it makes.
“Wish I could’ve visited both of you at the same time. How’s, uh… life feeling for you and him lately?”
“simpler for me. doubt much of what I do’s gonna change. my joke material at the clubs is gonna have more barriers, now that the barrier goin’ away is off the table.”
“Pfff, darn, I’ll miss those.”
“me too, but i can make more room for talkin’ about pinecones. you’d be surprised how much material they’ve got. anyhoo, everything else ‘bout me should stay the same. woulda been nice getting’ to see what’s up there, but i’ll have my hot dog biz, and echo flowers to corrupt, and… well, I think I can bear being with ya.”
“Heh, I’d hope you aren’t gonna get coccyx-ck of me.”
“heheheh, naaah. bein’ honest how I feel about you’s the best thing I coulda done.”
He’s due for a surprise cuddle. Wrapping around Sans, you nuzzle your snout along his cheek, and he doesn’t resist, letting himself get sans-wiched between the couch and your sweater.
“See? We’ve got this to keep doing. If anything, not having to face the humans means this can’t get messed with.”
“good point. guess it puts closure on the whole war with humanity thing. the answer for how to prep for that is, uh, you don’t.”
You’d keep hugging Sans like this, but there’s other ways you can hug him later that won’t possibly suffocate him, so you roll back to where you were before, arm around his shoulder.
“And how’s Papyrus? Enjoying his Royal Guard status?”
“I think so. he got the title after all those years of wanting it. so far, it’s still just been takin’ care of those gardens, but it’s still another kind of closure for him, i think.”
“And he’s still doing sparring practice with Undyne?”
“yup. says he’s gotta be ready for if needs to ‘box the weeds’. hope he gets to someday.”
“Pfff, if anyone could get rid of weeds with boxing, it’s him.”
“I think he’s missing something, though. chased the royal guard all that time, and he doesn’t get to do any real guarding. still gives the gardening his all, but I know he’d really rather be doin’ what he trained for.”
“Ah… yeah, that bites. He loved sharing all the things he’d do someday.”
“yeah. i wanna help him with that, but i dunno what i can do.”
“Hmmmmm…”
You stare up at the ceiling, thinking about it. What could Sans do to help his brother feel better about lacking the things he worked towards? Surely there’s gotta be…
“...I got it!”
“hmm? ya got the deed to our house? didn’t mean to give it away.”
“Pfff, no, you goose, I thought of something to help Papyrus.”
You cup your mitts around the side of Sans’ skull and whisper your idea, on the off chance the younger brother’s about to come in.
“...no wonder your head’s so big. it’s gotta fit so much brain. you’re brilliant.”
“Awww, every now and then, it thinks up something good.”
“let’s get to work, then. the shed should have what we need.”
You follow Sans outside and into the shed, being careful to not step on the things Papyrus had set up inside to give a human stimulation if they were to be captured and put there.
“yup, looks like we got everything we need in here. go time.”
“...Okay, think it’s ready!”
“yup. let’s get it inside. if he shows up on the way, we, uh…”
“Panic?”
“yeah. panic and run.”
“Got it.”
Since Papyrus was appointed to the Royal Guard, shouldn’t he have the right garb for it, gardening or not? With Sans giving directions on what’s Papyrus-shaped and what isn’t, you built a gleaming “silver” battle body for him out of here and theres from the shed. It took a lot of muscle, sweat, and a bit of magic you don’t have much practice with, but you managed to make it look just like the shape of the costume Papyrus has donned for weeks. You haven’t seen him wear anything else since he first tried it on, making this a bit risky.
“Hopefully he’ll want it. Don’t want to force a change of style on him, but it should feel just like his old one. How hasn’t he ever gotten it dirty?”
“beats me. guess he was always part of the royal guard. royal at guarding himself from stains.”
“Yes, that’s totally what it means.” You grab the pieces and carry them out of the shed back into the house, making shifty eyes the whole way in case you spot Papyrus and have to jump into your panic and run plan.
“alrighty, locking the door.” Sans locks the front door once you’re both inside; if there wasn’t a Jerry-shaped problem in town, he wouldn’t need to, but neither you or him would put it past Jerry to wander inside and steal Rocko’s sprinkles.
“Guess we just wait now…”
“do you have a waiting license?”
“...What?”
“a waiting license. a license to practice waiting.”
“...No?”
“then you’re outta luck. no waiting for you…”
“Darn.”
“...unless you’re within 20 feet of someone with a waiting license.”
Sans pulls a piece of toilet paper out of his pocket that has ‘Waiting License’ scribbled onto it.
“How long have you been keeping that there?”
“six days. was waitin’ for you to come by so I could use it. good thing i had a waiting license to wait with.”
The next half hour goes on with things around the same caliber. Sans talks about how proud he was of his waiting card and that he illegally waited in line without one to get it, he shares more about what he discussed with Papyrus on a post-Asgore Underground, and you open up more on how your family’s doing, until there’s a knock at the door.
“SANS? WHY IS THE DOOR LOCKED? YOU DIDN’T PULL THE HOODIE OUT OF THE COUCH AND UNLEASH THE TORNADO AGAIN, DID YOU?”
“oh, sorry, bro. dunno why I did that. guess my conscience was outta lock.”
“LOCKED OUT OF MY HOUSE AND YOU’RE SUBJECTING ME TO THIS? THE HORROR!!”
“heh, don’t worry, I’m coming.” He turns to you first.
“alright, hide it behind your back ‘til I give the signal.”
“What’s the signal?”
“you’ll know.”
Sans goes to open the door before you can ask again, so you hold the outfit behind you, hoping you’ll understand what he means.
“GOOD EVENING, SANS. UNDYNE WORKED ME HARD TODAY! AND I DIDN’T TEAR A SINGLE MUSCLE!! SHE SAID THAT WAS IMPRESSIVE!”
“sure is. i dunno if i coulda done that.”
“OH! I SEE THE SPECIAL SOMEONE’S HERE, TOO! GOOD EVENING! I HOPE YOU HAVEN’T TORN A MUSCLE TODAY.”
“Hi, Papyrus! No, don’t think I have.”
“WELL, IF THE TWO OF YOU ARE BOTH HERE, WHY NOT SOME DINNER TOGETHER! I’VE GOT A RECIPE IN MIND THAT WILL KNOCK YOUR SHOES, SOCKS, AND MAYBE EVEN YOUR TOES OFF! IT’S THAT DANGEROUSLY EXCITING!!”
Instead of using his words to respond, Sans uses his back, flopping onto the floor.
“B-BROTHER? ARE YOU OKAY? WAS THE IDEA THAT DANGEROUS??”
Sans looks back and gives you a little nod. That must’ve been the signal!
“He’ll be fine, Papyrus. But you’ll be even more fine…”
You step behind Sans, and once Papyrus’ attention’s turned to you, you hold the gear out for him.
“...when you’re wearing this! Congrats, Royal Guard appointee!”
Papyrus’ eye sockets turn into eyeballs in a flash; you’ll never understand how he does that when his energy spikes. He looks up and down at what’s essentially a flashier version of what he’s wearing right now, along with the seal of the royal throne on the chest.
“...YOU… IT… IT’S FOR ME???”
“’course it’s for you. you wanna see me try to fit in it?”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT!! AAAAAA OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS!! IT’S AMAZING! IT’S SPECTACULAR! IT’S…. I HAVE TO GO TRY IT ON!”
With a big grin, you hold it out for Papyrus, who scoops it up like a football and runs to his room in a flash to get changed. You reach a paw out to lift Sans up, and by the time he’s on his feet, Papyrus is already emerging from his room, adorned in his new clothes.
“THIS FEELS AMAZING! I REALLY DID IT! ONLY THE CREAM OF THE CROP GET TO WEAR SOMETHING THIS SPECIAL! I…”
He looks down at the two of you, then hurries down to wrap you both in a big hug.
“THANK YOU! THIS SILVER’S THE BEST SILVER LINING TO THE BARRIER NOT BREAKING I COULD EVER ASK FOR! WHAT A KIND SURPRISE!!”
“Awww, don’t sweat it, you’re the one who put the work in.”
“yup. go show the world how accomplished you are.”
“I WILL! TIME TO IGNORE UNDYNE ASKING ME TO NOT COME BY UNTIL I’VE RESTED UP, THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT! TALLY-HO!”
With that, Papyrus sprints out of the house, making his way to Undyne’s without haste.
“I think he liked it.”
“maybe a little.”
Sans reaches to shut the door, but before he can turn around after, you feel an urge to scoop him up into a tight hug.
“hey, what’s the big deal? couldn’t bear to wait?”
“Pfff, nope. Not when I get to see how much ya care about your bro.” You’d grabbed Sans hard enough to lift his feet off the ground.
“heh, he deserves every bit of it. works harder than I ever could.”
“Hey, don’t say that. You work really hard your own way. Lots of monsters out there are happier because of you.”
“ya think so?”
“I know so! Every crowd you entertain loves your work, you’re giving so many of them a better day. And I’m sure they all appreciate that now more than ever.”
A bit of color crops up on his cheeks.
“aw, geez…”
“Besides!” You carry him over to the couch, flopping down and letting him lay on top of your sweater.
“I can guarantee you’re making someone feel warm and happy right now.”
“rocko?”
“...Okay, two people, you dork.”
“heheh. sorry. guess i’m stoned.”
Sharing a laugh, you wrap your paws around his hoodie, gently feeling around his ribs and inviting his hands to play with the roll of skin under your neck. You’re not sure if you or Sans will see the Barrier break in your lives, but if it means you and him can grow closer, maybe that’s not the worst thing after all.