Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Papyrus ran as fast as his legs could take him. The stone was strangely warm under his bare feet, but he couldn't stop to investigate. He needed to put as much distance between himself and the scientist as he could. The big problem was all the monsters he kept having to avoid. He'd seen almost ten monsters since... no, he had to stay focused on getting away.

He heard footsteps from up ahead, and dove behind a metal box with a clear bottle of water on top of it. He stayed still and waited as the sound of metal clanging on rock came near. The bone dog held his breath and grabbed his tail, trying to be silent. Luckily for him, the two monsters were deep in a conversation about the benefits of ‘squats’, whatever those were. He took a peek as they walked away and saw they were both covered in metal, other than their long ears. Papyrus breathed again, laying his head on the ground. He started to realize how much the entire right side was blaring with pain. He could see the exposed bones on his hand were blackened by the burns, and he didn’t even want to think about the rest of him. His whole body felt heavy, and it couldn’t hurt to lie down- No! He needed to put more distance between himself and the scientist. Once he was sure they were gone, he continued over the bridge, heading into the strange wet caves.

***

Papyrus whined at the sound of more footsteps echoing on the rocky ground. Why did there have to be monsters everywhere? He looked around and spotted a small cave to his right. He dashed in and hid behind some large wooden boxes. Once the monster had passed, Papyrus took a quick look around the room. There was a fairly clean countertop near the entrance, other than a few seemingly random items strewn across it. The walls and ceilings were covered with shining crystals which provided a gentle illumination to the room. What attracted his attention the most though, was the smell coming from the crates.

The crates were taller than he was, so he couldn’t see inside. Papyrus paused and listened for a second, and satisfied he was alone, he started changing. Bones popped, shortened and elongated as his form changed from a quadrupedal dog-like skeleton. His skull always felt the strangest as his bottom jaw merged into one piece. As he began to stand upright, his fingers rounded off, losing their sharp claw-like tips.

When all was said and done, Papyrus now looked like a small skeleton child. He looked into the box on his tiptoes and could barely see a bunch of oddly-shaped red things within the crate. Reaching in, he grabbed and pulled out one of them, before giving it a sniff. It was definitely what gave off the sweet smell.

“Here goes nothing” he said as took a bite. It tasted as sweet as it smelled, so he started to devour the whole thing. Once he realized he wasn’t going to be able to eat the center, he grabbed another and started eating. When he was done, he had gone through five of them, and grabbed one more for later. As another wave of exhaustion hit, he laid down on the floor, intending to rest for a few minutes. “Where are you Sans?”

***

Sans paced back and forth in their room. “I don’t like this.”

“Why? He hasn't taken you in a while.” Papyrus replied, laying down in the corner.

“Exactly, he’s working on something big. And that’s going to be bad for us.”

“Maybe- Maybe, he just decided not to hurt us anymore.” Papyrus said hopefully.

Sans looked at Papyrus with one of his fake smiles. “Maybe Paps…”

Papyrus sighed, hoping for the best, and wishing his brother could believe it too.

***

“HEADS UP!”

Gerson barely ducked in time to dodge a bright cyan spear that had come flying from a nearby yard. “Watch it runt!”

“Sorry Gerson!” called a blue scale teenager.

“You know, I’ve heard the guard doesn’t exactly appreciate monsters who attack citizens.” Gerson

“Won’t be a problem, in a couple of years I’ll be known as Undyne, captain of the royal guard” she said, puffing out her chest.

“Wah ha ha. You do that runt.” Gerson said as he walked off. He found himself thinking about the fish girl as he walked into his shop. Undyne was a good kid, and he was sure she’d make it into the guard when she was old enough. While she had definitely learned restraint since the days she’d attack any ‘evildoer’ who came near, she still had a ways to go to become captain.

Gerson’s train of thought was interrupted by a faint sound coming from the back of his shop. The old turtle was shocked to find a small skeleton child wearing a shredded orange and blue striped shirt and blue shorts, asleep at the back of his shop, between some crates of crabapples and the wall. Finding a random kid was strange enough, but the only skeletons he knew of lived in New Home, about as far as possible from his shop in the underground. As he approached, he noticed something far worse. The child had burn marks along the right side of their skull, as well as their right leg and arm. Judging by the condition of their garments, the burns probably covered the whole right side of their body.

Gerson scowled at the kid’s condition. Who had let a kid wander away hurt like this. Noticing the way they were curled in on themselves, he went to see if he could grab something warm. Rummaging through the one of his piles of junk, he came across a red scarf that looked large enough to cover the kid. He placed the scarf over the child, who seemed to relax a little at the added warmth.

The old monster then went looking for some burn cream, something he always kept a supply of handy given how close he was to Hotland. Just last month he’d helped a young bunny who had jumped onto a rock that was far too hot for their bare feet. “I know I put it back here somewhere,” he mumbled to himself. As he spotted the salve, he heard a familiar set of squishy ‘footsteps’ entering the shop. He grabbed it as he walked up to talk to one of his regular customers.

“Hey Gerson.” said the teenager, tossing 25 gold down on the counter and winking.

Gerson sighed, realizing he should have put up his closed sign the moment he saw the kid. He’ll just have to deal with this as quickly as possible.

***

Papyrus awoke to the sound of monsters talking. He immediately froze up, bony fingers digging into his shoulder joints. He’d screwed up. They were going to find him and bring him back to to the scientist and the scientist would be angry after what they did and go back to how he was before and- Papyrus closed his eye sockets and paused himself, focusing on his breathing. Sans always told him to just focus on something else when he got worked up like this.

Once he settled down a little, he started listening to the monsters. After a few seconds, he realized they weren’t discussing him, or anything interesting, and moved on. Instead he started looking for a way out without being seen. One of the monsters was right in front of the entrance he came in, and the other was right across from him. The rest of the cave didn’t have any exits as far as he could see. Papyrus felt his chest tighten, and focused large number of shining gems embedded in the wall instead. He decided to look closer at the gems, running his hands over the smooth glowing rocks.

The sound of footsteps jolted him out of his thoughts. Papyrus turned to see the short green monster slowly walking over to him. He scrambled to their feet, standing rigid with his back pressed against the wall. The monster stopped moving forwards at the sight, frowning. Then, for some reason, the monster sat down a few feet away from him.

“Hello there, the name’s Gerson, what’s yours?”

Papyrus immediately launched into an internal debate on how to answer. Should he answer with his designation? He didn’t really like it anymore though. The new names the scientist had given him and his brother were much better, but he still wasn’t sure if that was what the stranger wanted. He realized that the monster, ‘Gerson’,  was still staring at him, and meekly answered “Papyrus.” before he could change his mind again.

“Hey Papyrus, I have a cream here that should help with those burns.” The monster held up a small clear jar with something green in it. “May I put this on you?” The boy really didn’t want him to, but he didn’t want to anger the monster while if they were being nice right now. So, he forced himself to give a slight smile and nodded.

Papyrus tried to relax as much as he could at the monster’s touch. Unfortunately, he found himself freaking out about what the monster, (Gerson he reminded himself), could do to him. He started counting the stones he could see on the far wall. He had gotten up to 268 when he realized that Gerson had stopped and backed away.

“Does that feel better?

Papyrus nodded. It was the truth, he did feel a little better, but it still hurt a lot.

“Let me go grab my phone, I just have to make a quick call. Be right back.” The old green monster walked back behind the counter. The kid took this as his chance to get moving again and shot like a rocket out of the cave. As soon as he was sure that he had lost the monster, he transformed back into his dog form and set off again.

***

“Hey Dogma.” Having lost the trail of the kid, Gerson returned to his shop, and now spoke into his phone to the captain of the Royal Guard.

“Gerson, it’s been a while. What’s up old man?” Gerson smiled as he heard the booming reply.

“I had a small visitor this morning.”

“You need me to send someone over?” Apparently, she had already picked up on the distress in his voice.

“Wa ha ha, nothing like that.” Gerson paused and continued more seriously. “Dogma I need a favor. The info I’m about to give you needs to stay within the guard for now.” Gerson settled down for the incoming lecture on breaking regulations.

“Okay. What’s going on?” That was odd. Dogma wasn’t even putting up a fight about breaking regulations. Something else was definitely going on.

“Well, when I got into the shop this morning, I found a sleeping skeleton kid. They were badly burnt all along their right side, and more than a little freaked out. I was able to apply some healing salve to the exposed burns but I didn’t want to mess with where his clothes were stuck to the bone. Then I went over to grab my phone and call you and they ran off. I lost them almost immediately, but they were headed out towards Snowdin.”

“Huh,” was the only response from the other side.

“You think this has something to do with whatever you’re all hush-hush about don’t you.”

“Sorry Gerson, but you’re a civilian now.” she responded stiffly.

“I’m just a civilian as much as Fluffybuns is just a gardner”

“Gerson!”

“It’s true! Anyways, if it’s related to this I need to know; you know I can keep my mouth shut.

“Since when?” Dogma barked, laughing. “Sorry, but I’ve got to stay silent on this one. King’s orders.”

“Dogma-”

“As for the kid, I’ll get the guards to keep a lookout. The dogs are all free right now, so I’ll have them all on the lookout. We’ll find the kid.” Slightly quieter, she continued, “However, if you do run into them again, you might want to ask if they are related to the royal scientist.”

“Gaster?” Gerson responded, a little surprised. The Royal Scientist was well known to be a recluse who rarely left his lab,but Gaster was well known enough that it seemed unlikely he had kids. He was the only skeleton Gerson knew of outside of New Home though. “I suppose I can see if I could ask him.”

“Don't bother, he's not available right now,” Dogma responded calmly. Well that confirmed, Gaster was involved in whatever ruckus was going on now. That was clearly all he was going to get on the matter, so it was time to move on.

“Alright, thanks for everything Dogma, good luck with whatever mess you’re in now.”

“Take care of yourself you old geezer.”

After Gaster hung up his cell, he started dialing another number immediately. After all, there was one person in Snowdin who would probably hear about the kid even before the guards.

“Hello Grillby.”

Chapter Text

White

Empty

Lost

Alone

White 

***

Sans awoke to darkness. Other than the faint lighting from his eye glow, there was no light at all in the room. Sans moved to stand up but found his right leg didn’t really want to support him, so he tried to place his right arm against the wall. That proved to be a mistake when his arm lit up with pain. Jarred out of his half-awake state, he tried to figure out where he was. 

Was he back in their old room? Sans eyes darkened as he chuckled a little under his breath. He’d known it was only a matter of time before- wait, where was Papyrus.

“Papyrus?” Sans called out, but he heard nothing but a soft echo.

Sans couldn’t feel either of them. Papyrus was gone. Sans started breathing heavier. What if he never saw Papyrus again. Sans started rushing forward only to hit his head on the desk in front of him, sending him crashing backwards and attempting to catch himself with his injured arm.

The sudden pain made him realize he was panicking again. Sans started repeating the words that Papyrus always used to calm him down. “Okay… Calm down Sans. You need to calm down.” After focusing on his breathing for a bit, he started trying to put the pieces together. “I’m not in that room. There’s furniture here, so I’m not in that room. I need to… find a light. Right, there should be a switch in here.”

Sans stood up shakily, leaning against the wall. He slowly traced the wall around the room until he found the switch. Once his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, he saw that he was in the same room he had been knocked out in.  There was a discolored spot on the floor where his thing had been. The rest of the room was more or less the same, although Sans didn’t really dwell on it. The lights proved that the Papyrus wasn’t in the room. He wasn’t either.

Maybe Papyrus was in their new room. Sans hobbled into the hallway, and down to their door, but it was closed. The door was never closed. Sans tried the magic scanner to open it, but there was  no response. He tried again but there was it still wouldn’t open. Frustrated he banged on the door.

“Papyrus are you in there?”

***

“Sans, I’m bored” Papyrus sat on the bed opposite him, throwing a ball in the air.

Sans didn’t even look up from his book. “How about a puzzle?”

“I don’t want to.” Papyrus whined, jumping up to stand  in front of Sans’ face.

“What about catch?” Seeing where this was going, Sans put down the book to look at his brother.

“No,” Papyrus said with a pout on his face.

Sans sighed. “I’m not going outside.”

Papyrus wasn’t having it though. “But-”

“It’s dangerous outside.” Sans cut in coldly.

Hearing the pop of bones, Sans looked over to see Papyrus had transformed and was staring at him with puppy dog eyes.

He hugged his arms to his chest. “As long as he keeps being nice, it’s safer here and I’m not leaving.”

Sans plopped face down on the bed, pillow over his head to block out any more talk of the outside.

***

When there was no response, he hobbled down to the next door. The scanners still weren’t working, and Papyrus wasn’t answering. None of the doors gave him any luck. The only option Sans had left was the elevator, but as he stumbled over to it he hesitated. Sans put his hand on the inside of a the door and felt his ribs tighten.

“I can’t.”

What if the he could never find Papyrus?

“I can’t”

What if he got caught leaving the lab?

“I can’t”

What if he ran into danger out there?

“I can’t”

What if this was all his fault?

Sans slid to the floor outside the elevator, back to the wall and face in his good hand.

“I can’t” he cried out, tears rolling down his skull.

***

Too much.

There was just too much.

Sans was running as fast as his legs could carry him,

But everything was too loud. The scents were too strong. It wasn’t like the labs where everything was white and smelled clean and familiar.

Instead everything was filled with reds and browns, and the air was filled with a rotten stench.

He didn’t know how he got here and his mind felt so wrong and hazy..

Suddenly he felt a pair of hands wrap around him.

He turned and jerked as much as he could, but the grip didn’t loosen.

They were saying something, but he couldn’t tell what.

A single word made it through the haze. “Back.”

No! He didn’t want to go back! He wasn’t going back!

He heard a sick crunch as he bit into a furry shoulder, followed by a scream.

***

It was nearly fifteen minutes before he was ready.

”I can do this.” Sans slowly inched his way along the floor into the elevator. “All I have to do is hit a button. Heh, I’m talking to myself almost as much as he does.”

Sans stared at the buttons on the wall. “Maybe a quick break first. It might just lift my spirits.”

By the time the elevator started to rise, he was long asleep. He didn’t budge at all as a pair of blue scaly hands picked him up and carried him away.

Chapter Text

Papyrus opened his eyes, gazing at the glowing river ahead of him. Suddenly, he scrambled to his paws looking around him. He’d only meant to sit down for a minute or two, but he'd fallen asleep again. He’d searched for Sans through all sorts of tunnels and caves avoiding any monsters he saw. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to them, he’d spent years wanting to meet new people, but that he couldn’t risk being trapped before he found his brother or seen in this form. Besides, he couldn’t speak like this anyways and he didn’t want to waste the energy to change back unless he had to.

***

Doggo sat at his station tapping his paw against the back of his station. Waterfall was a terrible station. There were way too many people passing by, even this early in the morning, for him to relax, and there was no way he could smoke a dog treat without someone noticing. He couldn’t even really relax today since there was supposedly a kid wandering around lost and half the guard was in Hotland doing who knows what.

A small movement caught his eye leading him to jump to his feet and yell “Stop! Who goes there!”

“Easy there keener, it’s just me. Passing through on patrol” The voice definitely belonged to Dogaressa, another member of the royal guard. She was just a year older than him, but always seemed to rub it in when she could. “No sign of that kid though.” she added, answering his unasked question.

Doggo rubbed his eyes as he replied, “Ugh, I’m gonna be dead on my feet by the time we find them. Why’s this kid so important anyways?”

“Officially, no clue.”

“And unofficially?”

Dogaressa gave a quick look around, before responding quietly. “Something happened in Hotland, all the guards out there were called out to handle something big. Who knows what that is though.” Her voice back to normal she continued, “Anyways, Doggerel should be around to replace you soon.”

“Great, I can’t put up with much more of this.”

***

Doggo was just starting to relax again when he saw a small movement. “Stop! Who goes there!” he yelled. This time there was no reply, and no movement. Had he been mistaken? He’d been at this for almost thirteen hours now. Six in the morning was not a time he’d like to be up, never mind without sleep. He kept staring for a bit before sitting back down. “Ugh, maybe it was nothing.” As soon as he did, a white almost doglike blur started booking it towards the entrance to Snowdin.

“Get back here!” Doggo yelled as the blur ran off. He leaped up after the not-dog sending the stool he was sitting on to the ground with a loud clang. The not-dog was off running faster than Doggo until it hit the snow. The not-dog started skidding and struggling to stay upright, so Doggo was easily able to get catch up and grab them. They kicked and struggled, but Doggo had a tight grip on them.

“Hey, calm down pup, it’s all right. I’m not gonna hurt ya.” he crooned. That didn’t seem to slow it down at all, but the monster’s struggling let him see that it really did look sort of like a skeletal pup. He tried repeating his earlier platitudes in the dog language of Pekingese but it only seemed to make the kid struggle more. Doggo could feel it’s chest getting uncomfortably warm, but he was completely surprised when it opened it’s mouth and a blinding laser came out passing right next to his head, accompanied by the sound of wood splintering.

Doggo dropped the not-dog in surprise, covering his eyes and taking a step back. Before he could recover, he felt a pain on the back of his head as everything turned to black..

***

As soon as the dog monster dropped him, Papyrus took off running again. Even when he heard a loud crash behind him he didn’t look back. Only when the snowstorm died down did he dare look back for his pursuer. While he didn’t see anyone, it was probably best that he kept moving until he
found his brother.

In the distance Papyrus could see several lights. As he ran towards the source of the light he realized there were monsters, a lot of monsters. He stopped short, bare paws finally registering how cold they were. He backed away slowly, breathing heavier. There were way too many people for him to go into the town, but he had to check for Sans. He nervously pawed the snow for a few seconds before heading into the trees to take a look at the town. If he didn’t see any sign of Sans he’d move on.

***

Grillby smiled took his gloves off, having completed the worst part of his morning routine: washing down all the tables. His restaurant was still empty other than a bird sitting at the bar. ‘You’re here early today’ he crackled.

Red, as everyone called her, quickly responded. “I have a deadline coming up, I need to get an early start on finishing this draft.”

‘What are you writing now?’

“The editors want to have the article done a day early to test out their new printer.”

Grillby sighed, grabbing a glass to clean while Red’s fries cooked. While Red always claimed didn’t speak a word of Pyran, she seemed to have picked up enough from hanging around the bar to usually be close enough. Even when their conversations turned into non-sequiturs like this, it was a whole lot easier than trying to speak the common tongue.

“So I tried to tell them they can’t push up due dates on me with so little warning,” Red kept saying, blissfully unaware of the gaps in the conversation. “But they were like-”

A muffled yell came from the kitchen. ‘Hold that thought.’ As Grillby stepped into the kitchen, he was treated to an unexpected sight.

Despite not being able to get them himself, Grillby had far more experience than he would have liked with burns. It came with the territory of both running a restaurant and being a fire elemental. Which is why when he saw a small skeleton child standing in front of the deep fryer and clutching his left arm, he quickly grabbed the kid by the shoulder and brought them outside ignoring whatever Red was saying. They struggled back, but he quickly got their arm in the snow. ‘Sorry kid, but this needs to be cooled off immediately unless you want a bad burn.’

He let go and the boy stared at him, saying nothing.

‘I don't suppose you understand me?’ The blank look on the kid’s face told Grillby that had probably been too much to hope for.

<You sign?>

<Yes,> the little skeleton responded with his free hand.

<Why did you do that?>

<I’m hungry.>

<I’ll get you some food as soon as your arm cools down.> The child gave him a half-smile at that, but still looked quite nervous. <Can you speak?>

<Yes,> they responded quickly.

<Will you say something?>

<No.>

The look on their face suggested he wasn’t getting a better answer anytime soon. <Sorry. Your arm should be good now, you want to come in and I’ll get you some food?>

The kid hesitated for a bit before signing <Yes.> with their good hand.

Grillby closed and discretely locked the door behind him. He didn’t want the kid taking off again like he did with Gerson. He threw three burgers on the grill, Red’s order and two for the kid. If they’d been stealing crabapples from Gerson, they were probably pretty hungry. Grillby thought to himself as he cooked the burger, keeping one eye on the kid. They seemed to be taking being burnt more in stride then he’d have expected, although it definitely wasn’t as bad as whatever had caused the burns that were over half their body. It was honestly more than a little disturbing the way they acted like they had completely forgotten the injury as so quickly.

While Grillby was cooking, Papyrus spent his time exploring every inch of the back room. He started out padding around the room, before checking out under the table. After looking at that he padded over to the pile of empty boxes from this week’s deliveries in the corner. When he started poking them, Grillby quickly came over. <Watch out or those boxes might fall on you.> The boy just looked at him for a few seconds before plodding off to investigate Grillby’s storm bag. The storm bag was a bag full of emergency supplies that Grillby kept in case of a sudden storm. It always paid to be prepared as a fire elemental living in Snowdin. Assured Papyrus was fine, he plodded back over to the stove, assembled the burger and heading back to the back room.

By now, Papyrus, was digging through storm, took the plate and quietly sat down on the couch to eat. Grillby stared at his injuries, wondering why the child hadn’t complained about them. he took the time to quickly dash out when the bell attached to the door rang out front. Coming through the door were two of the Royal Guard; An older brown and white dog in armor with floppy ears supporting a young recruit in a pink tanktop and spotted pants.

‘Doggerel. What are you-’

The guardsman wasted no time with explanations. “Grillby get some healing food for Doggo. The skeleton’s in back right?”

No point trying to talk to someone who didn’t speak Pyran. Grillby settled for nodding and holding up his hand.

“Don’t try to stop me Grillby, we have three open investigations involving that thing.” the dog snarled.

‘Three investigations?’ What did this kid get involved in? Grillby had a hard time believing that the quiet kid had managed to get on the guard’s bad side three times on his own.

Doggerel started moving towards the back, causing Grillby to back into the kitchen. He looked over into the back room and spotted a stricken look on the skeleton’s face before he dived behind the couch. He grabbed Doggerel’s shoulder and pulled him back in an attempt to stop him. ‘You can’t go after a kid like this!’

“That creature needs to be caught.”

‘Creature? They’re a child!’ Grillby said, enraged, his flames turning red.

“Look, I don’t know what your issue is but that thing is dangerous! The Royal Scientist is in the hospital because of them, and they’ve attacked Doggaressa and Doggo.”

By this point, Grillby was yelling over the guardsman. ‘Back off, the kid’s clearly scared of you.’

The argument was quickly abandoned when a bright light shone from behind the couch before quickly fading. Grillby dashed over and looked behind the couch, but Papyrus was gone.

Chapter Text

Sans woke up in a bed. He laid there for a bit, enjoying the soft material beneath him. Slowly, he realized something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what. What had happened? He had warned Papyrus… and then there was an explosion? He vaguely remembered waking for a bit after that, but after that… Why was his head such a mess?

Sans slowly looked around the room. There was a window to his left, looking out onto a street. To his right, there was an open door, and an IV stand. Sans traced the tubes from the stand down to his own right arm, which was in a cast and sling. He was not going through this again. He immediately pulled the tubes from his arm. As soon as he did, an alarm rang out, causing him to try to jump out of the bed.

It ended up being more of a fall, and he had to grab the bed frame with his good hand to avoid hitting the floor. He stumbled over to the window and saw that there was about a 25 foot drop to the empty street below.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway, as grabbed at the window to open it. It refused to budge. The door handle rattled. He needed to get out of there immediately. He heard a voice but

Everything went silent. No more footsteps, no more voice. Even little sounds he hadn’t even noticed. The world seemed to darken around him, pinning him in. It felt familiar, but wrong and he couldn’t remember why. He needed out; he needed to be down on the ground out there. Ahead of him, he could see outside, as if he could walk there. He hesitantly took a couple steps.

Sans was out on the street. It was quiet out, but there were definitely noises again. He quickly made his way into a nearby alley, panting. He rushed down several more roads and alleys, avoiding sight of any monsters.

Was someone behind him? He thought heard something following him, so he tried to pick up speed. Sans’ vision blurred as he ran. His head buzzed as he stumbled and knocked over a nearby trash can.

Three monsters stood down the alleyway and approached him.

“Stay back!” Sans sent out a wave of bones, but they came out malformed and twisted. He heard several impact against flesh.

He closed his eyes and tried to braced himself for the impact of what was to come as everything faded to black.

***

Chef looked at his friends in shock. It may have been a stupid idea to follow the strange noise they’d heard, but definitely he hadn’t been expecting to be attacked by some spooked skeleton kid in a cast and a hospital gown. “Way to go guys. You scared the kid half to death.”

One of his friends, a light blue furred rabbit, responded “Us? I’m sure he just saw your face.”

Chef puffed out his chest. “My face is a work of art.”

His other friend, a shorter yellow fire elemental quietly tried to interrupt. “Guys.”

“What is that even supposed to mean? It should be hung on a wall?”

“What no, I-”

The elemental tried again, louder. “Guys!”.

“WHAT!” the both of them called out.

“He was running from something, right? Maybe we shouldn’t stick around to find out what.”

“What about him?” The bunny said, pointing at the kid.

The elemental shifted uncomfortably. “We probably shouldn’t get involved.”

The rabbit looked “Yeah, well I’m not leaving him here can’t leave him here.” In one swift motion the orange cat slung the tiny skeleton over shoulder “I’m bringing him back to the base.”

Despite some token resistance at the idea, they were soon the block and a half away at their base. The ‘base’ could be more accurately described as an old shut down restaurant. The walls were covered with fake wood paneling. The booths were covered with red vinyl, with small tears and rips in the fabric. Chef laid the kid out of one of the booths before turning to his friends.

“So now what?”

The rabbit stared at him. “This was your dumb idea, you figure it out.”

“Well we couldn’t just leave him there! What if something happened to him?

The elemental placed a piece of paper on the table. “I left him a note, let’s go before we’re late for school.”

“But-”

“We’ll figure this out during lunch. Let’s go!”

***

He couldn’t move. He felt the pressure of a familiar mind against his, taking control. A monotone voice spoke out.

“Commencing testing on Blaster S. S remains one of two failures to be restored. Today’s testing will attempt to increase the strength of my link to this piece, in the hopes of allowing full restoration.” Gaster looked up from the notebook he was scribbling in and looked across the range.

Sans felt his pull and aimed his mouth towards the first target on the other wall. Energy swelled up from his chest erupting into a blast that eradicated the target. As soon as the light faded, he felt his attention being pulled again, to the next target. A pace was soon established, and Sans quickly just retreated into himself, letting his body be used as a puppet.

“Test was a failure, as usual.” The test was over; He’d be back to see P soon.

“Further combat testing is required.” Wait, what? He was already drained from all the attacks. He looked downrange, and where the targets had been stood P. This wasn’t right! S tried to bolt towards him, but his body refused to move. He could only watch in horror as his face moved to aim, and fire.

***

Sans awoke in a panic, head pounding. He sat up, looking around at the unfamiliar environment. Did he fall asleep here? He vaguely remembered running from something… He should probably get going again. He started to push trying himself up with his good arm, and felt it slide. There was a piece of paper on the table.

     If you want food, stick around for a few hours.

     -Blaze, Chef, and Nice

Sans looked at the note confused. Who in the world were they and why were they bringing him food? Stumbling to his feet, he went and checked the door and found it wasn’t locked. Gingerly, He opened up the door and peered out at the street. Monsters of all sorts were walking by, dozens of them. He’d never seen anywhere near this many people before. He stared at them as they walked past. A red monster with one eye and tentacles passed by carrying several bags. A white scaly monster with blue eyes was talking on the phone, as a smaller yellow monster walked alongside them. Sans stood there for a few minutes, just watching. When he spotted a large scaly monster walking by in armor he quickly shut the door and went back to a booth. Maybe he could wait, he was awfully hungry after all.

Chapter Text

Papyrus relaxed as looked around him. He had found himself in the white place for the second time in as many days. His burns and bruises were gone, and his clothes were mended. He looked back at the small blob behind him. It showed an image of where the room he’d just been in, but as if he was looking from the ceiling. It was exactly was the same as the first time he’d ended up here.

***

Papyrus awoke in a daze. Around him was a white expanse, whiter than his brother’s bones. It left him feeling strangely relaxed compared to his earlier panic. He could see little dots scattered all over. Cautiously, he approached the one closest to him. It showed a room with purple stone and piles of orange things. He walked over to the next, which showed a lot of white stuff (ice cream?) and things he recognized as trees from the pictures he’d seen.

None of this made sense. Where was he? Is this what it was like outside the lab? He glanced around until he saw a blob that felt incredibly familiar. Heading towards it, he saw that it showed the lab, with all its drab greys and dingy blues. Unlike the others, this one occasionally distorted, things appearing the wrong color or like the tv in the lab when there was no tape in it. There were large black gaps where he, his brother and the machine had been. However, Gaster was still there, lying on the floor unconscious. Papyrus hesitantly reached out and touched the image of the lab. Words appeared on the screen.

FILE CORRUPTED

ATTEMPT REPAIR?

YES     NO

Papyrus read the words twice. What was that supposed to mean? He thought for a second, before deciding that he knew corrupted was a bad thing, so he should try to repair it. Even though he really wasn’t sure at all what any of that meant. He reached out and pressed yes.

The image briefly flashed to something red before he found himself standing in a really hot place, surrounded by lava. He was suddenly in pain, looking down In front of him was an elevator with letters above it, that Papyrus thought said ‘LI’. He took a tattered, hand-drawn map out of his pocket and found the same thing on the map. If he was going to get there, he’d be better off on four legs. He started to transform, bracing himself for the pain. As his bones elongated, and his skull became pointed, the pain actually numbed. Feeling better, he set off for his destination.

***

Papyrus watched on the blob as Grillby ran in looking beyond the couch where he had been moments ago. The angry dog monster was right behind him, lifting the couch, then barking something at Grillby before running out, leaving the door ajar. The fire elemental quickly left the room as well, headed back through the door the two of them came through.

With nothing left to watch, Papyrus slowly reached out and touched the blob. He instantly found himself back where he was before, crouched behind the couch. He could hear the hisses and cracks that the elemental had been making earlier from another room. As quietly as he could, Papyrus transformed back into his dog-like form, and slipped out the door before the dog could come back.

***

Grillby hung up the phone, having left a voicemail with the Royal Guard. Hopefully whoever got it understood Pyran. For now, he headed back out front to check on Doggo, grabbing one of the other burgers and refrigerating the last. Unfortunately, Doggo had already fallen back to sleep, but Red had returned. He threw the burger in front of her, ignoring her questions. It may have been a little rude, but this mess was most likely her fault anyways given what Doggerel said.

Grillby gave the burger in front of the sentry in case he woke up, before heading back into the kitchen to make another call.

“Wasn’t expecting to hear back from you so soon. You got news on the kid?” came the good natured voice of Gerson over the phone.

The elemental sighed, ‘Well, they were here.’

“They run off again?”

‘Not exactly.’

Grillby kept pacing as he quickly gave Gerson’s a brief summary of the past half hour.

“So he just vanished?”

Grillby's flame quivered as a cool breeze blew in. ‘I suppose so.’

“Monsters don't just disappear.”

Grillby stopped as he was going to close the back door. ‘You may be right.’ There in the snow was a second set of small footprints leaving that certainly hadn't been there before. ‘They leave tracks.’

“Eh?”

‘There are tiny footprints outside, probably his.’

“Makes sense."

‘Someone could track him. Probably one of the Royal Guard should handle this.’

“Of course.”

Grillby peeked back out at the front at the guardsman. ‘Except I can’t reach any of them right now. Well, except for Doggo, who’s out like a light, and Doggerel who’s on a warpath for some reason.’

“I see.”

‘I mean, conditions out aren’t that bad right now. But that kid might not make it through the night with untreated injuries and no protection from the cold. Especially if there really is a storm out tonight.‘

“Mhm.”

‘And I can’t really ask someone else to chase down a random kid.’

Grillby stopped as realization hit him like a hammer to his head. ‘Fuck, I'm going to be running through the snow aren't I.’

“Wah ha ha. Sounds like it.  And people say I’m long-winded”

‘I’m not that bad.’

Grillby stared out the back door as a few flakes of snow fell.

‘Can you translate for me?’

A few minutes later the bar was closed, Red was watching Doggo, and Grillby was bundled up in his jacket, scarf, boots and hat. He grabbed his storm bag and headed out the back.

***

It seemed like there was no end to the snow. Papyrus had passed a number of strange rock formations, cliffs, and strange wooden boxes, and he still hadn’t seen sight of his final destination. It felt like forever since he had left the small town, and every gust of cold air sent a shudder through his body.

He was starting to think that Sans may not have thought this plan through that well. It really hadn't looked like that long of a trip when his brother had shown him the map in that book.

The portion of his map where he was had been burned off, but Papyrus remembered it well enough to be certain he was almost at his destination.

A few minutes later he was proven right as he came upon a large purple stone door. Papyrus immediately shifted back to two feet, to open the door before stopping. It looked a bit like a large version of one of the doors in the lab, but he didn't see a magic scanner anywhere. He searched the nearby bush but didn't find anything. Papyrus ended up pressing his hand against a variety of surfaces, with no response.

“Sans, are you there?” He called out as he tried knocking on the door. After about 15 seconds of waiting he got impatient and started shoving it. “Sans! Are you there!”

Well that was no surprise, Sans was late again. Papyrus settled himself down in front of the door to wait for his brother.

For the first time in what felt like days, Papyrus stopped. At first, he just sat watching for his brother to arrive, jumping up every time he saw movement. It was inevitably just snow falling from a tree or some small critter dashing through. Papyrus finally decided to just settle down and wait.

At first, sitting there just left Papyrus thinking about his burns. It was the first time since the explosion that he didn’t have something to distract himself with. He was left with a dull ache on the left side of his body, that sharpened every time a gust of cold wind hit him. Sans had to get here soon right. He thought back to the black spot he had seen where Sans should have been. What if Sans-

Papyrus stood up. He should really do something about the cold. He set off to collect whatever he could find and brought everything over to the small wooden structure that he had passed a short ways back. It was the perfect place to set up a fort while he waited for his brother.

Chapter Text

S followed behind Gaster, as always. He paid little attention to the scientist’s ramblings. He realized that Gaster had stopped discussing his issues with the king when he heard a word that cut right to his core.

“...malfunctioning again. A full fragment exploration as well as a magic donation will be required as usual. The blaster’s stability is still in question but…”

Sans knew where they were headed now. Why was he going back on the table? He wasn’t feeling that bad. He didn’t need to be- to be opened up again. He couldn’t go back there. Sans struggled to stop, but he couldn’t overcome the force controlling his body. He needed to stop. He had to get away. He wasn’t even aware of the energy gathering beneath his ribs until it released as a solid beam of light.

“What the-! What’s with you! Ugh I’m talking to it again.”

Sans felt the force in his mind telling him to stay still, but he couldn’t stop, even if he wanted to. He was running as fast as he could. The energy kept gathering in his chest as he fired beams wildly.  

At the end of the hallway he saw a figure. It was Gaster, no it was too short, it was P(apyrus). Sans felt another beam erupt from his chest as he ran toward his brother.

***

Sans was awoken by the sound of a door opening. He heard three sets of footsteps that were quickly covered up by the sound of arguing. He peered around the edge of the booth to see three monsters coming inside.

An orange cat in a red t-shirt was first through the door. “Aw shit, he’s not here. I told you he’d run off.”

Sans jerked back into the booth as a monster, made out of yellow flames and wearing a red collared shirt, pointed at him. “He’s just in a different booth.”

A third voice, probably belonging to the blue rabbit, spoke. “You should probably try looking next time.”

“Lay off guys” the cat said walking up to his booth. “you woke him up with all your noise.”

Sans soul was pounding as he found himself pressed as far back on the bench as possible. Honestly, it probably wasn't possible for anyone to sleep through that much noise. He was more than a little scared to talk to these strangers, but he had a perfect pun opportunity here. “Nah, I was just taking a quick cat nap.”

A look of distaste on the cat’s face relaxed Sans a little.

“I didn't cat -ch your names.”

The cat monster looked furious at that. “Did you just-”

He was quickly shoved aside by the elemental. “You can call me Blaze, the rabbit’s Nice-”

“Don’t call me that.”

The cat tried to cut in again.  “But was-”

Blaze just spoke over him. “And the loudmouth over there is Chef.”

“Was that a cat pun?” Chef said, finally finishing his question.

“Paw-sibly.”

A large groan came from the cat, along with a smaller one from Nice.

“You guys gonna let me-out of here?” Sans said staring at the three in turn.

A chorus of affirmative answers rang out as the three rushed to get out of the way.

“Uh… Thanks.” Sans said as he stood up, backing up to get some distance between himself and them and get closer to the door. He honestly hadn’t expected them to back off when he asked. He could run, but he wasn’t sure how far he’d make it as his head was still fuzzy. His best bet was to find out what this was about now. “What do you want from me?” he asked as intimidatingly as he could.

The orange tabby just looked at him confused. “We don’t want anything, right guys? Although, knowing what happened would be nice.”

“Well, I’d like to know who he is.” The blue rabbit responded.

Blaze cut in quickly “I think it’s more important to ask who he’s running from.”

The three of them turned towards Sans as though they expected a reply.

“Uh…” Sans blinked at the onslaught of questions. Which of those was he even supposed to answer? Not that he wanted to answer any of them.

Seeming to pick up on his confusion, the fire elemental spoke again. “Guys, let me handle this.” He turned to Sans and crouched down. “Are you running from someone?”

Sans nodded.

“Who?”

Sans just stared at him defiantly.

“Whoever it is, we could bring you to the royal guard.”

Sans couldn’t help but flinch at that. “No.”

Blaze stared at him perplexed. “They’re the good guys. They’ll help you.”

“ N o. ”

The teen looked at his friends before continuing. “Alright, we won’t go to the guards. What exactly are you planning to do though?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Sans instinctively reached for his pocket, but only grabbed the paper gown. His eyelights grew as he realized that the map he’d been carrying wasn’t there anymore. It had disappeared along with whatever happened to his old clothes.

“Hey, you okay little buddy?” called Chef.

“My map! It’s gone.” Sans rushed back to the booth to check if it was there. He.had already lost the key to finding his brother. He legs felt unsteady beneath him, and sat on the bench, skull in his hands.

It was Nice who spoke first. “Hey, we can get just about anywhere in the underground. Where was your map of?”

It really didn’t matter if he told them now. He wasn’t “It was… of the underground… I need to get… to the ruins.” he said between deep breaths barely paying attention to the mixed responses.

“Why would you go there.”

“Nobody ever goes to the ruins.

“Yeah, the ruins are-”

“We can take you to the ruins.” With that Blaze got his attention.

“We can?” Nice was giving his friend a strange look.

“Yes. We can.” Blaze said slowly. “We’ll just take the ferry.”

“Anyways,” Chef said, staring at Blaze, “why don’t we eat now?”

The cat monster opened up his bag and pulled out a bag of food. He put everything on a nearby standalone table. Sans watched as the others walked over followed suit, unpacking sandwiches, fruits, and other snacks. The three of them turned to face him.

“You coming?”

“I- I shouldn’t.” He really was hungry, starving even, but he just couldn’t bring himself to trust them. It was too strange, the way they had taken him in. They had to have some ulterior motive. How could he trust them when they wouldn’t tell him what they wanted.

The cat spoke first. “You’ve gotta eat.” Why did they keep staring at him like that?

“When was the last time you ate anyways?”

“Dunno.” It had been about an hour before the explosion, but who knows how long ago that was now.

“Here you can have half of my sandwich.”

“I’m not gonna eat this apple.”

“I don’t even like these chips, take ‘em

Sans stared at all the food being offered.  He slipped out of the booth and cautiously plodded over to the table. He could always get out here fast if he really needed to, right? Once Sans started eating the three of them started as well. They quickly fell into an argument over some movie but Sans just listened intently to them while he ate.

Sans finished up first, having devoured his food. He sat there quietly as the others finished eating.

Blaze looked at his phone. “We need to get going, lunch is almost over.”

“You know, I could stay here if you want,” Nice offered.

“Yeah he’s so nice. It has nothing to do with the history test this afternoon-”

“Shut it.”

“I'll be fine.” Some time alone would let him plan his next move at least.

***

The three teens were halfway down the street when Chef called out, “I forgot my bag!” before quickly dashing back into the restaurant.

Nice took advantage of his absence to ask Blaze the question he’d been burning to ask. “So why did you promise we could get him to the ruins? You know they’ve been sealed off for ages.”

“We’ll be able to get him to the edge of the ruins. Besides, I don’t want him to run off before dig up some information about him.”

“Why me?”

“You’re the one with a cousin in the Royal Guard. Just see if you can find anything out about why he’s so scared of them.”

“Alright.”

Chapter Text

‘I can’t believe I’m out here! I should be back at the bar, grilling burgers and making mixed drinks for monsters who have no place getting drunk this early in the day, not trudging miles through the snow chasing after some crazy kid.’

Grillby’s patience was wearing thinner the more snow came down. He hadn't seen anyone but a lone Ice Cap in over an hour. The weather wasn't helping either. What had once been a few scattered flakes had gradually become a light snowfall, and it was probably going to get worse the more time he spent out there. Which was terrible, even ignoring the fact that flakes were now hitting his face where it wasn’t covered by his scarf. His trail was slowly getting erased, making it harder to find the kid, and more of a pain to find his way back.

The good news was, there couldn't be that much more distance to travel before he hit the cave wall that blocked off Snowdin from the ruins of the old capital. There was only one tunnel that came from there, and rumor had it that it had been sealed off some years ago. Of course, no one had any cause to go there, so it had been left alone.

By the time the footsteps back had been completely erased, he could see the cave wall on the horizon. It wasn’t much longer until he approaches a large stone door, but there was no sign of the skeleton child.

‘Shit.' They had clearly been making a beeline for this door, did they actually have a way to open it? Grillby gave it his best shot, but he couldn’t even budge the heavy slabs. If the kid made it in, this was all a giant waste of his time. Frustrated, he started retracing his steps to see if he could find any trace of them when he spotted something odd. The sentry station had a bunch of sticks haphazardly placed around the back of it, stuck into the ground at odd angles. In between there were a random stones, needles and other junk stuffed in. The whole thing looked like it would fall apart with a particularly stiff breeze.

‘Well this looks promising I suppose.’ Apparently the kid had been there for a while if they had constructed whatever that mess was.

Grillby sat on the station, which was thankfully snow-free due to the awning. Sure enough, in a few minutes, Papyrus came back with an armful of materials. He immediately set to work on putting them into the makeshift fort.

‘Uh… Kid?’ Grillby called, not expecting to be ignored.

The kid jumped at the sound, knocking over some of the sticks he’d set up. They looked up at him clearly surprised to see him out there, opening their mouth as if to say something before closing it again.

<Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.> Grillby signed apologetically.

<It’s okay,> they signed back, before turning away to start fixing the knocked over branches.

Grillby walked around to catch their eyes again.<You took off in quite a rush earlier. Did the dog monster scare you?> They just stayed focused on the branches not even looking up at him. <So, what are you doing out here?>

<I'm building a fort,> he responded, not even bothering to look up.

Somehow, the elemental doubted that they ran two miles just to build a fort. <Why are you building a fort?>

<Because it’s cold.> Papyrus signed, giving him a look like he had just asked the most obvious thing in the world, before turning away again.

Once more, Grillby walked around until he was back in the kid’s line of sight. <If you wanted to be warm, you could have stayed at the restaurant.> When he didn’t get a response from them he continued. <What are you doing out here?>

<I already told you.> the kid responded, yet again turning from the fire elemental.

Grillby hissed, his flames jumping up. He was getting stonewalled by a kid. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. It was time to try a different tack. He walked back around and leaned on the front of the station.

<P-A-P-Y-R-U-S,> he signed, clearly forming each letter of the kid’s name.

Their eyelights brightened with surprise. <How do you know my name?>

<Gerson told me. He was worried after you ran off.>

<Sorry.>

<You seem to be really determined to get to the ruins. I’m sure you had more of a reason than just making a fort.>

The young skeleton took a few moments before they responded. <I promised not to talk about it.>

<How about I just guess what’s happening, you don’t have to say anything, okay?>

Papyrus thought for a second before nodding carefully.

<You are out here because...> Why would a kid run off to the middle of nowhere? <You’re running from the dogs?>

That had been obvious, but it didn’t answer the actual question. He was clearly waiting for something that wasn’t there yet. Either he was waiting for the door to be opened, or for someone else to arrive.

<And, you are waiting for someone?>

Papyrus whipped his head up startled. He stared at Grillby with a look that the elemental didn’t quite recognize. He decided it was time to go out on a limb, as there weren’t many people a kid would travel so far for.

<Your family.>

“Stop!” cried out a loud voice.

Grillby jolted, banging his head against the top of the sentry station. Kid had a set of lungs when he actually decided to speak. Apparently he had hit the nail on the head with that guess. <Okay, okay, it doesn’t matter who you’re waiting for. You’re supposed to meet them in the ruins, right? And you couldn’t get through the door.> That much had been obvious. They had clearly been making a beeline for the ruins since the moment they left his restaurant.

Papyrus just nodded slowly to that.

<And now you are planning to…> Grillby honestly had no clue where to go from there. <Do what exactly?>

<Wait.>

He hadn’t been expecting an answer. <For how long?>

<He’ll be here soon.>

Grillby climbed over the station and crouched down to look Papyrus in the eyes. <What are you going to do for necessities?>

<Like what?>

<What about food?>

<I’ll find some.>

<What about the storm?>

<The storm?>

The kid didn’t know what a storm was? A little strange but then again, most of the underground didn’t have weather. <A storm is when the wind gets much stronger, and the snow falls a lot harder than it is right now.>

Papyrus had his head down, Grillby wasn’t even sure if they were still watching his signs. <There is supposed to be a storm coming in tonight actually. You’ll need somewhere safe to stay while it’s
happening.>

<I have my fort. I’ll be fine.>

<That won’t last an hour in a storm. And what about your injuries? They need to be treated.>

<They don’t hurt.>

Somehow he doubted that. <Really?>

<No,> Papyrus responded before adding <Not that much.>

Grillby was getting incredibly frustrated. What was it going to take to get through to this kid? Grillby was about to start signing again when a small sound came from the small skeleton. Grillby ducked down to see tears rolling down their skull.

‘Oh shit. Kid…’ He may have pushed the kid a little hard. He had just wanted to get them to come back to Snowdin, so he could get them to someone who could help. Before he could think of what to say, a distinctive voice spoke up.

“I-I don’t have anywhere to go though and the scary dogs won’t stop chasing me. And now there’s a storm coming and I’m gonna starve and die out here.”

He had definitely screwed up, scaring the kid half to death. There had to be a way to calm him down. He took his backpack off and opened it, fishing and pulling out a hat and scarf. <Look, don’t worry, why don’t you just come back with me, I’ll get you some food and drinks and you can stay with me for a while. At least until we can find you a better place to stay.>

Grillby nearly fell backwards as a tiny skeleton latched onto him. ‘I’ll take that as a yes then.’

After a few moments later, they let go and signed <I’ll be right back.> They ran over to a tree near the door and summoned a small magic bone. He quickly grabbed it and carved four symbols into the tree. A teardrop, a peace sign, a skull and crossbones and another teardrop.

It had been awhile since Grillby had last seen symbols like those. That said, while he knew exactly what they said, he hadn’t the slightest clue why Papyrus had carved the word ‘Sans’ into the tree.

Chapter Text

2:21 PM

Blaze: So? What did you find.

Nice: Not much ill send it to u

Nice: FWD:

                    12:45 pm

                    Nice: They were a skeleton kid with a cast in a hospital gown

                    RG: I haven’t heard anything. Give me a minute, I’ll make a call.

                    1:33 pm

                    RG: Apparently they ran away from the hospital, but they aren’t giving me any other information. I’ll have to bring it to the Captain, but we’ve got bigger issues at the moment.

                    Nice: Its not like I know where they are anyways

                    RG: Don’t worry about them. We’ll find them as soon as we can.

Blaze: Not much is right.

Nice: So whats the plan?

Blaze: We’ll bring him to the ruins I guess.

Nice: How? Theyre sealed

Blaze: Exactly.

Blaze: We’ll just take a quick trip out there.

Blaze: When he finds out he can’t get into the ruins, he’ll tell us where he’s actually from.

Nice: Clearly thats exactly what’s going to happen

Blaze: If it doesn’t we’re no worse off then we are now.

Nice: Until he finds out we lied to him.

Blaze: You have a better plan?

Nice: Fine

***

Sans ran down the grey hallway of the lab. He shouldn’t be alone, where was everyone? As he turned he ran into Papyrus. Sans gasped as he grabbed Papyrus, sobbing into his shoulder. It took a few moments before he heard what his brother was saying.

“Sans! Stop! You’re hurting me!”

Sans pulled away to see his hands had turned into claws, covered with dust. He was horrified to see Papyrus turn to dust in front of him before he could say a word.

***

Sans woke up with a groan. He was getting sick of these nightmares. He brought his hands to his face before yelping at the unexpected pain. He felt the panic inside him start to well up again as he looked and saw his fingers had become sharp claws. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he focused on how he should look, how he had to look. When he opened them again his fingers were back to normal. He needed to stay focused on making a plan; he hadn’t meant to fall asleep again.

Of course making a plan was easier said than done. He’d left behind all his stuff when he freaked out at the hospital. Actually, he couldn’t remember if he’d even had his bag back when he left the lab. He quickly scoured the room, finding a few pieces of gold but nothing else of value. These could be used to get stuff somehow right? He went to pocket them, but his hands fell against the paper gown he was wearing instead. Sans scowled, having momentarily forgotten he was wearing the ridiculous thing. Wherever his clothes were taken, he wanted them back. He felt cold and naked with his arms and legs exposed.

A quick peek out the front door confirmed that there were still plenty of monsters outside. Maybe this had been a mistake. There was still time to go back to Gaster. Paps might have been right about him overreacting. He could find Papyrus the same way he’d found Sans a couple years ago. Except, if he was right, then Papyrus would be in danger again, and it would be his fault. Sticking around seemed to be his only option. He hated not having a choice but to involve them, but if he was going to, he needed to figure out what they were really after.

With nothing left to do in the room he’d been in, he peeked his head through the metal doors. It was dark on the other side, so Sans quickly found a light switch. The room was filled with metal objects. He recognized what looked like a sink, but he had no idea what the box with four metal coils on top was for. A quick search of the room revealed little of use, as most of the cabinets were filled with pots and pans for some reason. Who in the world would need this many pots and pans? Inside the drawers, there were a ton of metal tools he didn’t recognize, but looked frighteningly familiar. He had to get out of here now!

***

“Don’t move. I’m leaving.”

The room fell silent except for the low hum of the magic bones protruding from the ground behind the skeleton kid. Chef stood there, eyeing them as he processed the threat they had just made.

“Yeah I don’t get paid enough for this.” The cat monster deadpanned before sitting down at one of the tables.

“Paid for what?” Sans quickly eyed the door he’d been heading for when the teen walked in. Could he make it out before Chef did something?

The orange cat leaned back in his seat digging through his bag for a box of cigarettes and a lighter.. “Exactly.”

Sans stared at him, confused. Finally he asked. “You’re not going to stop me?”

“Nah little buddy. I mean I could try to but then I’d just get a faceful of bones, and who wants that? Who am I to stop you anyways?” He lit his cigarette, taking a deep puff before continuing.  “I mean this is just like the time I was in Waterfall. I was trying to get a look at the plate, but the entire class was there. So naturally, I climbed up on the nearby rock to get a better view and… long story short I ended up with like 20 moldsmals attacking me.

“What.” Why did nothing he say make any sense?

“Anyways, I guess the point is that you don’t really scare me.”

“You’re weird.” Sans kept staring at him, flabbergasted. This was not the way he thought things were going to go. Slowly, he edged towards leaving.

Without even looking at the skeleton, Chef asked, “Why are you leaving now anyways?”

“Huh?”

“You could have left anytime.”

“I saw what’s in there.” Sans said, pointing at the double metal doors.

The cat raised his eyebrows at that. “The kitchen? There’s nothing in there but cooking supplies. I mean, I guess it’s kind of scary when you’ve got B in there, given that he almost burnt the place down once, but otherwise, it’s just a kitchen.”

“Why in the world would you need that many cooking supplies.”

“I mean this is a restaurant.”

“Wait, really?” He’d read about restaurants before, but he hadn’t even considered that was what this place might be.That couldn’t be right, could it? It explained why there were so many tables but… “If this is a restaurant, where is everyone then?”

“It’s closed. Blaze’s uncle opened a new location, and he’s keeping this place clean for him.”

“If you’re done now, we could start getting ready for food.”

Sans looked stunned  “But I didn’t answer your questions though.” Realizing the strangeness of the statement, he added, “And I’m threatening you!”

“Meh, you dissipated that attack a while ago.”

Sans glanced behind him. When had that happened? “Still, what do you want for the food?”

The cat monster just stared at him. Sans fidgeted in his seat again. Why did he keep looking at him like that? Frustrated, Sans asked him again, “Why are you doing this?”

Before anything more could be said, Blaze and Nice walked in the front door, arguing over food. Blaze broke it off as soon as he saw the smoke.

“Don’t smoke in here!”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I told you before, you can’t be getting smoke all over this place. My uncle wants me to keep it clean.”

“Yeesh, give me a break, I forgot.”

“Answer me already!” Sans screamed, for the first time raising his voice. Everyone turned and tried to respond.

“You’re doing the funky thing with your eye again.”

“Answer what?

“Oh, well, I mean…”

Sans was furious. How could these people treat everything like such a joke? Once again he asked his question “Why.are you doing this?”

“To be nice?” the yellow fire monster offered.

“You needed help.” Nice said.

“If you ever don’t like where this is going you can always leave. We’re not keeping you here.” Chef added.

He was wrong. Sans couldn’t leave. As long as there were so many people outside, he couldn’t leave. He was stuck here and didn’t have any choice in the matter. He could feel them all looking at him and felt his cheeks flush as he realized how much he was screwing this up. This was even worse than the lab. At least there Papyrus and Gaster already knew what a mess he was. Now he was already screwing things up in front of the only other people he’d ever spoken to. They had been nothing but nice to him, and here he was yelling at them. He was just terrible.

Sans was knocked out of his thoughts by the rabbit grabbing his shoulder.

“Hey kid, you alright?”

“I’m sorry.” he whispered.

“Nothing to be sorry about.” Chef said from his seat.

“Don’t say that! I threatened you!”

Nice cut in trying to sound comforting. “Yeah but you were totally out of it when you attacked us this morning.”

“I attacked you this morning?”

“Uh… no?” he quickly responded, gripping his arm uncomfortably.

“I…” He’d been outside for less than a day and he’d already screwed up again. Sans backed up until he felt the metal doors to the kitchen, quickly dashing through them and sitting against the doors on the other side.

He heard the elemental speak to him from the other side of the door.

“You okay?”

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

“You’re a kid, you couldn’t really hurt us even if you wanted to. And you really don’t seem to want to.”

Sans let out a choked laugh.“You’re wrong.”

“You want to hurt us?”

“I’m dangerous.” They had no idea how dangerous a weapon like him could be.

After a few moments of silence the elemental continued. “Even if you are, the offer’s still on the table. We’ll get you some food and take you to the ruins”

“I can’t.”

“You can just eat at least.”

Sans could feel his magic levels dropping. He definitely needed to eat soon. “Not until I know what I need to do for it.” He couldn’t summon the same conviction that he had earlier, but he wasn’t letting this go.

“You don’t-”

“Let me handle this.” Nice interrupted.  “You can have the food if you answer me these questions three.”

“Why are you quoting that stupid human movie again.” Sans heard called out from across the room.

Nice pointedly ignored his friend. “Now then, What is your name?”

“Huh?” That wasn’t the question he’d been expecting.

“Well we need something to call you.”

“It’s…” He didn’t really want to lie, but the guard knew his name. “Comic.”

Nice continued in “What is your quest?”

“To get to the ruins.” He’d already told them that. Why were they asking again?

“One last question.” ? stared at him deeply, causing Sans to press his spine to the back of the chair. “What is your favorite color?”

Sans stared at him. Why in the world would he care about something like that? “Blue I guess?”

“Good, then let’s eat.”

“But-”

“No buts, you answered the questions, now we eat. Well, cook first but you know what I mean.”

Sans still didn’t get it, but he felt calm enough to play along for now. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and opened the doors.

Chapter Text

When Papyrus came back, the first thing Grillby did was take some supplies out of his bag. He gave the kid an oversized red coat that was down to his ankles and an orange scarf that trailed behind him. The trip back to the restaurant was fairly quiet. At first, Papyrus had struggled to keep up. Grillby had slowed down the pace, but he was left wondering how the kid had gotten to the door before him. After all, he couldn’t have set out that much after when Papyrus had left. Grillby was still forced to follow Papyrus’ directions, as he had no clue which way to go. An hour’s walking later and the two of them stopped for a short break.

<Hey, you know you can speak to me, you don’t have to sign everything.>

The kid thought it over for a second before responding, <Can’t speak to you.>

<Why?>

<―― said no.>

While Grillby had never seen the sign the kid made, holding a finger below his left eye and one above his right eye, there was only one person he could think of. The one monster who had been on his mind ever since he saw those symbols. The one whose recklessness left him with cracks in his skull in those exact positions. <G-A-S-T-E-R?>

The child nodded. ‘That fucking idiot!’ Grillby muttered. How in the world did Dings let a kid run halfway across the underground burnt, injured and barefoot. The fire on top of Grillby’s head briefly burnt a bright red before he calmed himself again. Hadn’t Doggerel said something about him? Grillby hadn’t really been listening to the guardsman at that point, but now he was wishing he had been paying more attention.

He should probably focus on getting back, until he could contact Gaster and find out exactly what was going on. Then again, should he let Gaster know? Something was off with this kid, but he was having trouble believing Gaster had done anything too bad. It may have been what, ten years, since they had spoken, but he wasn’t the type to hurt people. Or have kids for that matter. But still, after what happened to his soul, well, did he really know Gaster anymore?

Grillby looked over at the kid to see they were fidgeting. <What’s wrong?>

They jumped up and smiled, signing <Nothing,> before starting to walk again.

***

Dogma was exhausted. The last couple days had more things go wrong then some years. Things were just starting to calm down when the Royal Scientist’s cell phone rang for the third time this hour.

Frustrated, she picked it up and growled, “This phone is currently under possession of the Royal Guard. Please desist with your calls.”.

A familiar set of hisses and cracks came from the speaker. ‘Dogma. What mess did he get himself into this time?’

“That’s classified Grillby.”

‘You know what, that’s not important, I need to talk to him.’

“You can’t. Try again in a few days.”

‘I don’t care what your problem with him is, and I’m sorry if this is against protocol, but get him on the line. I need to talk to him immediately.’

“I told you. You can’t talk to-.”

The voice on the other side interrupted her. ‘Dogma, I’ve got an injured kid here! I’ve got-’

“Listen then!” Grillby nearly dropped the phone at the barked order. “You can’t talk to him because he’s not awake.”

‘Well wake him up then.’

“If it were that simple, I would. He hasn’t awoken since he arrived at the hospital. He may be fallen.”

‘What the fuck happened?’

“It’s classified.” she said with a tone of finality. “You said something about an injured kid?” she inquired, quickly changing the subject.

‘Yes, there’s a skeleton with burns all over the left side of his body sleeping on my couch.’

“A kid?

‘Didn’t Gerson speak to you about this.’

“Oh, right..”

‘How could you forget that?’

“Let’s see, The CORE is out of whack for the second time this week, which wouldn’t be our problem if it wasn’t for the fact that the Royal Scientist is comatose. We’ve got an uncontrolled fire going in Hotland of all places, there have been sightings of that creature from last year, and an injured kid running around. Meanwhile, we’re understaffed as it is, and I haven’t slept in two days. So I have been just a little busy.”

The line was silent.

Dogma’s spoke again, sounding haggard. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offload all that on you. That’s not your problem.” Dogma paused for a second before continuing. “I’m taking the boat over tomorrow at noon, we’ll discuss this further then. I’ll call Doggerel to pick up the kid for the night.”

“Uh about that…”

Great, now he was going to be walking on glass with her. “Out with it Grillby.”

‘That’s probably a really bad idea.’

“I know he’s a bit of a wildcard, but he’s actually pretty good with kids.”

‘It’s not that. He... accidently scared the kid so much they ran off earlier, thinking they were some creature. I ended up following them all the way to the ruins before I could convince them to come back.’ Dogma pinched the bridge of her muzzle at that. Based off the guardsman’s brief report earlier, Grillby was probably right.

“I’ll speak to him about that. Is Doggo up?”

‘No, he’s still passed out up front.’

“Well then, sounds like you’re the best monster for the job.”

‘Me?’

“I don’t exactly have a lot of options here, and it sounds like the kid trusts you. If you could watch him at least until Doggo is up and about, it would be a great help to me.”

‘I have no idea how to handle a kid.’

“Grillby, you'll be fine. It’ll only be a few hours. You managed to connect with them enough to come back with you.”

‘Less connect and more scare them out of their wits.”

Dogma let the line stay silent for a few moments.

Eventually, she heard a resigned voice. ‘Alright, I’ll watch them.’

“Thanks.” Dogma said, quickly hanging up. She still had plenty of other problems to take care of.

***

...and she said she’d be over tomorrow. I called Hazel over, she came by and healed him and left me some medicine for him.

Grillby finished writing out the events of the past few hours for Red. She quickly read it before adding her two cents.

“Do you have something for him to wear?”

She didn’t give Grillby a moment to respond before she continued. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle that, be right back.”

Grillby smiled a little before shaking his head. Nothing was going to stop Red when she was on a mission. He made his way back to the backroom to see Papyrus up and staring through the window with a blanket wrapped around him. He was a little surprised, as the kid had passed out as soon as they hit the couch, only about two hours ago. He’d hadn’t really expected them to be up so soon. As much as they stared outside, the weather had already started to pick up, and snow was starting to obstruct visibility, so they couldn’t possibly see much.

Grillby sat down in the chair across the room. How had he handled ? Grillby waited for a few moments before speaking.

‘Papyrus.’

Grillby waited a few seconds until the kid turned and looked over at him before he continued.

<How are you feeling?>

<I’m fine.>

<You want something to eat?>

<Not hungry.>

<Are you sure?>

Papyrus nodded, not making eye contact. Grillby frowned at that. They’d devoured the burger he’d given them, but that was almost six hours ago now.

<You need anything, just let me know.>

Grillby leaned back in the chair. It was clear by now that he wasn’t gonna get the kid to open up that easily. He definitely had to tell them the news about Gaster though, especially if Gaster had been the one taking care of them. He looked at the child staring out the window. At the least, he might be able to distract them for a bit. If the kid was raised by that man, he knew just what might help. Grillby stood up, looking through the cupboards until he found an old wooden box covered in dust. Grillby shuddered a little at the sight. He really shouldn’t have let this get so morbid looking, but he hadn’t had a reason to dig it out in years. He made sure to clean it off fully before heading back to the back room.

Grillby walked over and tapped Papyrus’ shoulder to get his attention again. <You want to play a game?> When he didn’t get a response immediately he added, <It’ll help pass the time. No one’s going to come by while the storm is raging anyways.>

<I guess.> Papyrus signed limply, before slowly getting off the couch.

Well at least he agreed to come down from the window. Grillby sat down on the floor and set up the board. Papyrus sat down across from him, but didn’t seem to really be paying attention.

<Do you know how to play?>

<Yes.>

<Alright then, let me grab something and we’ll start.>

***

Papyrus stared out the window, wishing for Sans to walk by. Sure his brother was slow, but he should have made it here by now. Papyrus buried his face in the scarf. It was extremely soft, and the feeling helped him calm down a bit.

Grillby soon came back carrying a bowl of grapes. He placed them down next to the board. “You can have some if you like. Papyrus just shook his head. He still didn’t feel like eating.

Grillby started out the game asking him questions between moves, but Papyrus had avoided them for the most part, answering simple ones like how old he was (ten) or where he went to school (he didn’t). Once Papyrus had started to get the advantage though, the elemental’s questioning slowed down as he started trying to focus on staying in the game He watched as his opponent slowly became more agitated. Sans and Gaster always kept their composure when he beat them, although that might be because they were just letting him win.

<Check,> Papyrus signed as he swiftly moved his queen in range of Grillby’s king.

<Again?> Grillby signed as he stared at the board. <I think that might be mate actually.>

<You’re really good at this, did Gaster teach you?>

Papyrus nodded his head starting to feel more nervous now that the game was over.

<About Gaster->

Before Grillby signed anything else, he heard a high pitched voice calling for Grillby from the big room with all the tables.

<I’ll be right back.> the elemental said as he got up and went through the door, leaving Papyrus alone.

***

Papyrus hated being alone. It was too much like how it was before. For the most part, it wasn’t a problem in the labs anymore, as Sans was always there, and Gaster rarely left these days except for food. So with both of them gone, he found himself at a loss. He couldn't leave, he'd made a promise, just like Gaster had promised to bring back Sans. What was he supposed to do with no one else here?

A quick trip around the lab had made it clear that there was one thing he could do: clean. The lab was a mess. There were piles of stuff all over the place. Gaster left a mess wherever he went, and his brother was no better. He started off grabbing the scattered papers in his jaws and placing them all in a neat stack. Next, he started returning tools to their proper spots, leaping up on the stools to get up to the tables.

It took him several hours to finish the lab, but there was no sign of Gaster and Sans. He moved on to the testing room, the bathroom, the TV room. Gaster’s personal lab and his room were off limits, so he headed back to his and Sans’ room. He was about halfway through it when he heard footsteps in the lab. He dashed out of his room to see Gaster walking into the lab, alone.

***

When Grillby came back in the room, he was carrying a set of clothes. He set them down on the couch before sitting down across from Papyrus. <I need to tell you something about Gaster.>

Papyrus looked over, but didn’t respond.

<He was hurt. He’s currently in the hospital. He’s unconscious and they don’t know if he will wake up.>

Chapter Text

The kitchen was quickly filled with the smell of food as the teens started cooking. Sans watched closely as they chopped, cut and prepped various things he could only assume were food.

Why did he still feel so exhausted? He’d alway been good at taking a nap whenever the mood hit him, but since the explosion, he hadn’t felt rested at all. It was probably due to the nightmares starting up again. Sans started nervously fiddling with his gown. He tried to tell himself that as soon as he found Papyrus, they’d go away again, but it didn’t fill him with confidence.

Sans looked up to see Blaze staring at him. He turned away, feeling self-conscious about the garment. He didn’t even look when he heard Blaze say, “That reminds me,” and opened up a bag.

The next thing Sans knew, he couldn’t see anything as he felt a soft heavy thing land on him. He started to panic as he tore it off him. He calmed down when he realized what it was, a big blue hoodie.

“You like blue right?”

“I just said that, how’d you already get this?”

“I grabbed some clothes when I stopped by my house,” he pointed to his light blue polo shirt and shrugged, adding, “And a lot of my stuff is blue anyways, so you didn’t have much choice.”

“Thanks.” Sans replied quietly. He still wasn’t entirely sure about them, but they really did seem to be nice.

“Catch,” said the elemental, throwing over a pair of black and white shorts. “You can change out front.” Glancing at the cast on Sans’ right arm, he asked “You need help?”

“I’m fine.” Sans replied before quickly ducking out of the room.

Sans felt a jolt at the sound of the metal door clanking shut. No one knows what he is he thought, calming himself. He made his way over to the corner of the room before changing as rapidly as possible with only one arm. It took him a few tries to get the shirt over his head. It was huge on him, hanging down below his knees. Luckily that meant there was plenty of room for his broken arm to stay by his chest. He rolled up the cuff of his left sleeve so that it just hung over his hand, before pulling on the shorts. He tightened the drawstring enough that they would stay on, having quite a bit of trouble getting the knot tied with just one hand. On him, they were long enough to cover his whole legs, although they were a little awkward to move in. The hood flopped down over his face, blocking his sight a little, but he kept it on anyways.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to go back in there right away. Even if they possibly, just might actually be as nice as they acted. It couldn’t hurt to take a break and maybe prep some puns before he went back in. After a bit, he started hearing raised voices coming from the other room. As much as he would like to just avoid them as long as he could, he needed their help to get to the ruins.

Once Sans finally got himself together and walked into the kitchen the room instantly fell silent. Blaze and Chef were both staring at Nice, who turned away and walked over to the far counter.

Sans walked over to the counter where Chef and Blaze were standing awkwardly. When it became clear no one was going to explain what happened Sans quipped, “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?”

“Stop with the puns already.” What happened in here? There definitely didn’t seem to be the same force behind the cat’s words as earlier.

“Fine, I don’t want to burn through them all too quickly anyways.” He responded, mocking disdain. His felt his ribs tighten as he continued, “What’s up with Bugs over there.”

“It’s nothing.”


“He doesn’t want to help me.” It was kind of insulting they thought he didn’t know.

Blaze finally spoke up. “No. He… Well...”

“Makes him the only smart one here.”

“Look Comic, that’s not what-”

Sans ignored the elemental and continued. “Look, just tell me how to get there and I’ll go by myself.”

Chef chimed in, “He thinks we should turn you over to the royal guard.”

Blaze turned to him, incredulous. “Do you even think before you speak?”

“What? Might as well be candid with him.”

“Candid?” Sans asked. Why in the world was that the first question out of his mouth? It was so irrelevant, but somehow that part was what his mind had hooked on.

“It means direct and honest.” Blaze answered as an aside before continuing. “Why would you bring that up? He’s clearly scared of them.”

“Look there is no reason to be afraid of the guard, they exist to help monsters.”

“That’s the problem.” Sans muttered under his breath.

“Forcing him to go to the guard won’t help.”

“They’ll figure out what’s-”

“They want me dead.” Sans said, voice completely level.

Blaze stared at him in disbelief. “They wouldn’t-”

Sans just continued talking over him. Once he’d started speaking about the incident he just kept going. “I heard her give the order. They know how dangerous I am. After all who could blame them, I was the one who...” He caught himself, before he told them something he’d regret. “So just tell me how to get to the ruins and I’ll be be gone forever.”

The cat turned to his friend. “We’ll still bring you there. Right B?”

“Yeah.”

Sans couldn’t hide a look of surprise on his face at that.

“What?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to be so um…”

“Flexible?” Blaze offered.

“Sure, that.” It wasn’t at all what he was going for, but he was eager to move on.

Chef appeared to be too, as he quickly changed the subject. “Anyways, we’re making baked ziti. Probably should have asked before, but you like that right?”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s pasta with hamburger, sauce, and sour cream.

“That sounds disgusting.”

“It’s pretty good actually, you should give it a try.”

“Fine.”

“Well, what kind of food do you normally eat?”

“We had a lot of instant food. Instant oatmeal, instant noodles. I always thought they were misnamed, but I guess it's a lot faster than this food.”

“That’s terrible.”

Sans shrugged. “We got food from outside a lot too. There were these really good greasy cheeseburgers he’d bring home occasionally. Don’t know where he got them from though.”

“You’ve never been to any restaurants though?”

“Why is that such a big deal?”

“It’s uh... fine.” Chef mumbled awkwardly “So… Uh… You know what, screw this, I’m asking now. Where are-.

Before he could ask the question, the alarm on the oven went off.

“I think the pasta’s done.” Blaze announced, pulling at his friend.

“But-”

“After,” Blaze said, not allowing him to finish. “Why don’t you head out and grab a table?”

Sans nodded his head. “Yeah sure.”

Dinner was oddly quiet compared to the banter that had been going on at lunch. What was left of the good mood from when him and Chef had been talking seemed to have vanished again. The good news was he finally had a read on two of them. Nice was stabbing into his food angrily was like when Gaster tried to pretend he wasn’t upset about something. Chef’s fidgeting and anxious looks were too similar to his brother when he was trying to hold something back. He still had no clue what Blaze was thinking though; he seemed as quiet and composed as ever.

Sans pushed his food around a bit, but eventually enough was enough. “Well?”

“Well what?” Nice replied slowly.

“What do you want now.” Sans said, putting down his utensils and crossing his arms. “And don’t say nothing.”

“Just a few more questions, you don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to.”

Sans nodded. It wasn’t like he really had any choice in the matter. Staying at the restaurant was rapidly becoming more trouble than it was worth.

“Where are your parents?”

“Don’t have any.”

“But you said… Well someone’s got to be looking for you.”

“Hopefully not.”

Blaze stepped into the conversation with a question of his own. “Why are you headed to the ruins?”

“This topic is ruining my appetite.”

“You do know they’re sealed off though?”

Sans eye lights brightened as his grin slipped slightly.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“Doesn’t matter, I still need to go there. I’ll find a way in.”

“Why?”

“I guess I just want to ruin any plans of finding me.” he joked.

Chef suddenly cut into the conversation. “Why didn’t you leave earlier?

“Huh?”

“When I showed up you tried to leave. If you wanted to leave, why not while no one was here?”

“I…” Sans couldn’t think of anything but the truth. “There’s too many people out there.”

“You know we’re going to have to go outside to get to the ruins.”

“I know that,” Sans snapped. “I- I’ll figure it out. Somehow.”

The rest of the meal was spent in silence.

Chapter Text

Gaster was falling? Papyrus still hadn’t accepted it. He found himself feeling empty more than anything. And if Gaster was in such bad condition then what about Sans.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Soon enough Grillby had brought Papyrus back to his home for the night. Soon he had bathed and changed, partially eaten a pasta dinner, and was lying on his bed trying to go to sleep.

Papyrus laid face down, listening to the sound of the wind howling outside. Even through several walls, the storm was still quite intense. How was he supposed to sleep now? Sans was still out there, alone. He hadn’t been able to find his brother after all his searching, what if he- No, Papyrus decided, he wasn’t going to think like that. He’d find Sans tomorrow.

He flipped over, but he still couldn’t see anything. Papyrus slowly started banging his skull against the wall. The rhythmic feeling helped him feel calmer. He hated how dark the room was and that the door was closed. It reminded him of the days of being alone in the dark for days on end, waiting for Sans. He just wanted to go somewhere brighter.

***

As soon as the pressure against his soul had diminished enough, Papyrus leapt over to his brother. He nuzzled against his brother, who laid still on the floor on his side, legs stretched out in front of him.

“Hey bro.” his brother’s voice growled out, low and coarse.

“You’re finally back!” P was bouncing up and down with excitement. His brother had been gone far longer than he ever had been before, to the point where he had been afraid S wasn’t coming back. He had been incredibly bored, and even been sleeping a lot more than he usually did. But none of that mattered now that S was here! Even if it was still too dark to see him. “Come on let’s play!”

“Really tired right now bro. Mind if I take a quick nap?”

“Ugh, fine you lazybones.” P started pacing back and forth again. “Where were you anyways?”

“He said there was something wrong with my fragment, and after he kept me for ‘Observation’”

“After what.” P asked, but there was no response. “Brother!” he cried out, but S continued to feign sleep.

***

Grillby awoke at just before nine in the morning as usual. He flicked off his alarm before it could go off, and quickly got ready. He was just putting his glasses on and walking out the door when he stopped to pause at an unusual sight. In the hallway, light shone down on the small sleeping skeleton right outside his door. As soon as the morning haze had cleared enough, he remembered the events of yesterday. He went to scoop the kid up before remembering the way the kid had avoided contact yesterday. After a moment’s consideration he stepped over the kid and walked to the kitchen to start making breakfast. Papyrus could probably use all the sleep he could get, even if it was on the floor.

Before Grillby had even picked out what to cook he heard a knocking at the door. He opened it up to reveal a rather haggard looking Royal Guardswoman.

‘Dogma? You’re early.’

“Sorry Grillbs. I was hoping to get this all wrapped up a little earlier than I said.”

Grillby put a finger to his lips. ‘You should have gotten some sleep. He’s not even up yet.’ He walked back, motioning for her to come in. ‘I was going to tell him about you this morning, so he’s not expecting you.’

“I’ll sleep when everyone’s taken care of.”

‘You have to look after yourself sometimes.”

“I’ll be fine. Where’s the kid?”

‘He’s asleep in the hallway.’ Grillby said sheepishly. ‘I have no clue why since he had a bed, but I’d rather not wake him.’

“Tea?’ He asked, opening up the cupboard above the sink.

“Yes please.” When he turned back around, Dogma was staring at him with a look of worry on her face. ”Grillby, are you okay?”

‘Yes,’ Grillby responded firmly.

“You’re sure?” the captain asked with just the slightest edge of disbelief in her voice.

Grillby took a breath before answering. ‘No… no I am not. I don’t know what to think honestly. It’s

just a gut feeling though, I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.’ He continued, far more calmly than before. ‘He knows Gaster.’ Grillby paused. ‘He was injured and who knows how. He disappeared in a burst of light after Doggerel and I got into an argument.’

“He disappeared in a burst of light.” she echoed flatly.

‘Yes. Didn’t Doggerel tell you?”’

“He mentioned it but what exactly does that mean?”

‘I have no idea. They just vanished. Doggerel immediately took off looking for them, but unless you spoke to him, he still thinks the kid is your “creature”. He didn’t have a trail to follow as it didn’t show up until later. I left Red at the restaurant taking care of Doggo who, from what I can gather, had a tree fall on him, while I went and found the kid.’

“That’s... Thank you for taking care of him yesterday.” Dogma stated formally.

‘Uh, no problem. I didn’t do much though, you should thank Red and Hazel.’

“I will.”

‘I assume Gaster’s condition hasn’t changed?’

“No. He’s still...”

Things fell silent after that. It appeared neither of them wanted to discuss the elephant in the room. Luckily for him, the kettle was soon boiling, allowing him to get up and pour tea for the two of them. Returning to the table, he set a cup down in front of Dogma before sitting.

Dogma took a sip of her tea before beginning. “So, on to the matter at hand.”

‘What happens to Papyrus. I don’t suppose you heard anything about him?’

“No, and given how few skeletons there are in the underground, we should have been able to track down his family.”

‘Unless of course he’s Gaster’s son.’

“It would appear so.” Dogma tapped the table nervously. “Which brings up the question of why the doctor was keeping his kid a secret.”

“I hate to have to ask but is there something you’re not telling me?”

Grillby felt his flames run cold at the accusation. ‘I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.’

“You were with him for how many years? I have to ask. If you’re his father then obviously you’d have the right to custody otherwise the Royal Guard will have to take him in until an official decision is made.”

Of course she was going to ask about that. It had been running through his head ever since he had found out about Dings. ‘There’s no way. I mean we didn’t end on bad terms. He would have told me!’

“Of course. Do you have any idea who it could have been though? From what I heard he’s barely left his lab in years.”

‘It wouldn’t make sense with anyone. Ten years ago his soul was in no condition to- shit.’ Grillby cursed as he started putting the pieces together. ‘Doggo said he’d seen one of the blasters just before the kid showed up to, and no one has seen it since.’

“Grillby what are you going on about.”

Grillby was saved again from having to answer by the sound of his back door closing. ‘Ah fuck, not again.’ He quickly got up and ran over to the hallway, but Papyrus was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Text

After dinner, the others quickly took off with the promise to be back in the morning. Sans laid down on the bench, trying to go to sleep. His foot tapped nervously against the edge of the bench as he tried to calm down. Any time he felt like sleep was finally near, the softest sound would awaken him. A quiet creaking in the walls, a voice from outside, the sound of water flowing, it seemed like everything was conspiring to keep him awake. Every time he heard something, he found himself investigating the source of the sound.

After maybe an hour of frustratingly failing to fall asleep, Sans got up and looked around. His frustration grew as he realized there was nothing for him to do here until morning. Papyrus would have already come up with something to keep them busy.

Sans paced around aimlessly for a while. After a bit he decided to risk going back in the kitchen. After a few minutes he wanted to leave, as the place still sort of gave him the creeps. The only place he hadn’t checked was the door Nice had gone through earlier. He peeked in, but he couldn’t see anything.

As Sans walked in he heard the floor squeak under him. Fumbling in the dark, he found the light switch, revealing an old desk with papers cluttering the top, as well as a chair. The rest of the room was bare, although there were marks on the wooden floorboards like there had once been far more in the room. Sans strolled around the desk before peeking in the drawers. There were plenty of supplies in the drawer he recognized from Gaster’s desk. This would keep him busy for a while.

***

“So, Nice told me the new plan you guys worked out last night.”

Chef took a puff of his cigarette as he stared at his friend, whose glow had dimmed at his statement. The two of them stood down the street from the restaurant, waiting for Nice before they went and got Sans.

“And?”

“It sucks.”

“It’ll be fine.” Blaze countered quickly. His confident statement was betrayed by his refusal to meet Chef’s eyes.

“You really think he’s going to suddenly tell us everything just because he can’t get in the ruins.”

“That’s why we have a plan B now.”

“We’ll get him to meet up with Nice’s cousin, who’s a Royal Guard.”

“We won’t tell him that.” Blaze put his hands in his pockets and started walking towards the restaurant.

things

“Oh I’m sure that will go over well.” Chef sighed. As much as this plan was a guaranteed disaster, he wasn’t about to start a fight over it. Whatever happened, he’d deal with it then.

***

Blaze fumbled with his keys to try and open the door. As soon as he got Nice back on board with the plan, Chef was questioning him. This whole thing was such a mess. He finally got the key in the door only to remember that he had left the place unlocked last night to try and keep Comic from freaking out.

Inside the lights were on, but he didn’t see the small skeleton. After quickly sweeping through the front, he stepped into the kitchen. As he walked through the metal doors, he heard scuffling coming from the back room. By the time he reached it however, the noise had stopped. Comic stood in the center of the room with his back turned to the door. Blaze spotted the kid quickly stuffing something in his sweatshirt pocket before turning around to face him.

“Hey.” Comic mumbled, lacking any energy whatsoever.

“Hey. You sleep well?”

“Yeah.” the skeleton said listlessly. He had the hood on his sweatshirt up and was seemed to be gazing at the floor.

“Want some breakfast? We’re still waiting on Nice to get here.”

“Sure.”

Blaze stepped out the door, but turned back when he didn’t hear the kid following him.

“You coming?”

“Oh. Right.” Comic sluggishly came out of the back room and headed out front without even waiting for him. Blaze followed him out to the dining area, where the kid sat down at one of the booths, holding his head about with his hands.

With Comic up on the booth, Blaze finally caught a clear look at his face. His sockets were barely staying open, as if he was still fighting off sleep. There were stains on his skull too; had he been crying?

“Are you okay?” he asked cautiously. The last thing thing he needed was for the kid to freak out again.

“‘M fine,” was the mumbled reply.

“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”

“K.”

Blaze stepped into the kitchen and quickly put a pair of bagels from his bag into the toaster. As soon as he heard Chef walk in the front door, he ducked in back to take a look at what Comic had  been doing. Something had just struck him as off at the way he’d found the kid this morning. He quickly checked the drawers, however, there didn’t seem to be anything out of place. Soon enough he heard the toaster pop. As he was walking out he spotted a crumpled piece of paper in the trash bin. He threw it in his pocket and went back to the kitchen.

After quickly bringing the others bagels and cream cheese and putting two more in the toaster, he uncrumpled the paper to take a look. It appeared to be a rough drawing of three skeletons. The shortest skeleton was probably Comic, although maybe the slightly taller one was. The tallest skeleton, probably an adult was only about halfway drawn, with most of his left half missing. Strangely, he had two cracks in his skull, which seemed vaguely familiar to Blaze. He didn’t dwell on it however, as the next two bagels were done.

He started eating one, and brought the other out just as Nice walked in.

Sans sat there staring at the door and fidgeting. Finishing up his bagel, Blaze asked the kid, “Are you going to be good to go once Nice eats?”

“I’ll be ready,” Comic uttered unconvincingly. His fingers clearly dug dug into his bones at his elbows as his gaze drifted to the door.

“I actually have a solution for that.” Nice said, holding up a black duffle bag. “You can just hide in this until we get out of New Home.”

“You’re gonna carry me?” Sans said, sounding skeptical of the idea.

“Well you’re a skeleton. You only weigh what, 20 pounds?”

“Fine.”

“You can walk if you want.”

“I said it’s fine.”

***

At first, Nice felt self-conscious as they walked past the other monsters on the way to the river. It felt like any second someone would ask why he was carrying around a monster kid in a bag. The good thing about doing this on a Saturday morning was that the crowds of monsters were much thinner than usual, with many monsters still asleep. The three of them fell into a friendly argument about the new tv channel that had just started up. Blaze felt it was way too cheesy, but the others apparently loved it.

Fairly soon after they left, Nice interrupted to say, “I think the kid’s asleep.”

“Good, he looked exhausted.” Blaze looked over at his friend and stared for a second. Nice could feel his ears down and fur bristling. “Hey, you okay?”

Nice clutched the bag a little harder, before hesitantly asking in a whisper, “Do you guys think the Royal Guard really wanted to kill him?”

“No way.” Chef declared confidently.

“Weren’t you the one who didn’t want to go the guard at all?” Blaze said, rolling his eyes at the quick turnabout.

“Yeah, because he doesn’t want to.” the cat monster retorted, pointing at the bag. “I don’t think for a second Nice’s cousin would actually kill a kid. I just think there’s got to be someone he isn’t scared of we can get help from.”

Nice still didn’t feel entirely convinced. “Yeah but, why would he lie about something like that.”

No one answered him as they continued on.

As they were finally approaching the river, he felt movement from the bag he was carrying.

“Hold on a second, I’ll get you out.” Nice said as he put down and unzipped the bag.

Sans stood up slowly, blinking and yawning. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep. Where are we?”

“We’re by the river, the river person will take us the rest of the way there.”

As the four of them made there way to the dock, a strange, slightly distorted voice caught their attention. “Tra la la. Care for a ride?”

Chef turned to the river person. “Four to the door to the ruins.”

They nodded, and when everyone was on board and had handed over their coins, swiftly started paddling down the river. “Tra la la. Sometimes you won’t find what you’ve lost until you stop looking. Tra la la.”

“Don’t suppose you’ll explain yourself for once.” Chef asked flippantly.

The continuing sound of the paddle running through the water was the only answer he received.

Nice looked over to see Blaze staring at the river person. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine, it’s just the water.” Blaze quickly responded.

That didn’t explain the staring at all, but he let it go at that. He looked over at Comic to see the kid intensely scanning the shore during the whole trip.

When they reached the Snowdin forest and deboarded, the river person took off again with a merry “Tra la la. Have a nice day. Tra la la.”

“That guy kind of freaks me out.” Chef said, staring at the boat as it left.

“You say that every time we take the ferry,” Nice chided, before adding, “Comic, we’re almost there, the door to the ruins should be up ahead and to the right.”

Sans shuffled back and forth on his feet. “Thank you,” he said nervously. With that, he took off, running towards the ruins.

It took the teens a second to realize what just happened. Blaze broke into a run after him first calling, “Wait up!” Nice and Chef were right behind them, but they lost Comic when he ducked into the woods.

“Let’s catch him at the door.” Blaze called back to them as he ran to the corner where the path continued up ahead.

As Blaze rounded the corner he suddenly stopped, causing Chef to run right into him. As they both fell over Nice heard a voice call out, “What are you doing here?”