#gonna hold off on the released chapters of wind and truth cause i wanna be able to read it all at once/continuously

[thelopen]

wind and truth is gonna be a wild ride

[bravadoseries]

tell us about your braudrey wasteland baby analysis

this ended up being long and angsty i am sorry . if u want i can analyze songs from his other album in a happier way to even it out lol

“nfwmb”: 

“when i first saw you / the end was soon” - audrey and bruce met on the helicarrier and i think when they fought in new york they both knew they might not come out of it.  audrey was inexperienced and way out of her depth, bruce was really against turning back into the hulk again.  

“Give your heart and soul to charity / ‘Cause the rest of you, the best of you / Honey, belongs to me” - they both give parts of themselves away for the greater good and feel most human with each other

“Nothing fucks with my baby / Nothing can get a look in on my baby / Nothing fucks with my baby / Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing” - when hozier wrote this song everyone thought it was about how nothing fucks with his baby because he protects her but he said actually nobody fucks with her because she’s extraordinarily powerful and scary.  i think both of these apply to braudrey—nobody fucks with bruce because audrey protects him, and nobody fucks with the hulk because he’s giant and terrifying 

“moment’s silence (common tongue)” 

“When stunted hand earns place with man by mere monstrosity / Alarms are struck and shore is shook by sheer atrocity / A cure I know that soothes the soul, does so impossibly” - this is related to an upcoming ~chapter~ lol but basically audrey and bruce go on a retreat upstate that’s supposed to give him the opportunity to hulk out and like scare some squirrels in the woods but while they’re there, audrey and the hulk become good friends ? and so that’s why she’s able to reason with bruce when he turns

“almost (sweet music)” 

i would place this one as post aou when audrey thinks bruce is dead.  

“i’m almost me again, she’s almost you” - after a bit, she starts dating again but she’s still very much grieving and hung up on him 

“i wouldn’t know where to start / sweet music playin’ in the dark / be still my foolish heart / don’t ruin this on me” - audrey becomes good friends with wanda and pietro after age of ultron and they haven’t been around long but they ask her to talk about it because she sits in her room playing the same song every day and crying and they’re like … ?

“I got some colour back, she thinks so, too / I laugh like me again, she laughs like you” - i think this is just audrey letting herself be close to people again. it’s not the same but it’s not so lonely

“movement”

“I still watch you when you're groovin’” so this song i think is about like someone dancing and being really seductive and sexy but this reminds me of bruce watching audrey dancing really terribly w tony at every avengers function.  audrey literally cannot dance for shit and it’s endearing to bruce 

“When you move / I can recall somethin' that's gone from me / When you move / Honey, I'm put in awe of somethin' so flawed and free” - i think bruce gets kind of fixated on watching audrey spar and fight; like partially because it’s hot but also because he sees her as very powerful and finds it magnetizing 

“no plan” 

i’m gonna go ahead and place this as ragnarok/infinity war 

“for starts / what a waste to say the heart could feel apart / or feel complete, baby” - audrey and bruce reunite on sakaar and it’s a very emotional scene; it’s a waste to say the heart could feel apart because she knows she’s not less without him but there’s this understanding, this thing that’s been off that’s finally righted when they’re back together

“My heart is thrilled by the still of your hand / That's how I know now that you understand” - this applies to a very specific moment in ragnarok before they go to fight hela where audrey puts her hand over bruce’s and he looks at her and she’s unable to tell him that if they die right now she loves him but he knows anyway

“There's no plan / There's no race to be run / The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun / There's no plan / There's no kingdom to come / I’ll be your man if you got love to get done / Sit in and watch the sunlight fade / Honey, enjoy, it's gettin' late / There's no plan / There's no hand on the rein / As Mack explained, there will be darkness again” - so this is all very apocalyptic and not to flex but i was at a concert and hozier talked about this line and how the whole song was written about the doomsday clock and a time when it was closer to zero than ever; it’s a song about throwing caution into the wind at the end of the world and i think that’s fitting.  there’s a period where audrey realizes that they’re not gonna beat thanos, and that the snap is gonna happen, and she takes a breath and notices everything around her and just thinks about how she’s lucky to have had it at all.  

“nobody”

“You know when it's twelve o'clock in Soho, baby / It's gin o'clock where I'll wake up, I don't know / And I think about you though everywhere I go / And I've done everything and I've been everywhere, you know” - this just reminds me of when audrey is away on missions and bruce is still at the base; she’s been everywhere in the world because she’s been alive for so long and she’s been around for a lot; the one thing she’s most grateful for her lifetime to have coincided with though is bruce 

 “i’ve had no love like your love / from nobody” - this is just them lol they understand each other on another level

“I'd be appalled if I saw you ever try to be a saint / I wouldn't fall for someone I thought couldn't misbehave” - this is audrey 2 bruce … she would be appalled if he ever tried to get rid of the hulk for good; i think that it’s such a significant part of how they see and understand each other 

“If I had the choice between hearing either noise: The excitement of a thousand or the soothing of your voice / At first chance, I'd take the bed warmed by the body” - they just choose each other.  they choose to be with each other.  this reminds me of the “give your heart and soul to charity” line in nfwmb because it’s like if they had to be heroes without each other they wouldn’t be happy 

“as it was” 

there’s a conversation bruce and audrey have at the safehouse in age of ultron where bruce is saying he doesn’t feel the same since wanda fucked with his head bc of the vision he had, and he’s worried abt whether or not audrey can continue to care for him when the chaos the hulk created wasn’t for any good or if she’s changed her mind and she has to assure him that she hasn’t; there are a lot of lines from this song that remind me of that

-“whatever’s here that’s left of me / is yours just as it was”

-“Just as it was, baby / Before the otherness came / And I knew its name / The drug, the dark, / The light, the flame” 

-“its holds had the fight of my baby / and the lights were s bright as my baby / but your love was unmoved”

-“the sights were as stark as my baby / and the cold cut as sharp as my baby / and the nights were as dark as my baby / half as beautiful, too” (unrelated sidenote but this line gives me chills always)

then the second verse of this reminds me of audrey and bruce in ragnarok: 

“Tell me if somehow Some of it remains How long you would wait for me How long I've been away The shape that I'm in now Your shape in the doorway Make your good love known to me Or just tell me about your day”

“shrike” 

so audrey has a really really hard time saying i love you after bruce leaves at the end of aou, to anyone—she says it to steve maybe once, but she can’t say it besides that one time, and it’s part of why she’s so torn up about peggy dying because she didn’t tell her she loved her enough in the months leading up to her death.  

but also, when bruce comes back, audrey still can’t muster up the ability to say them out loud, and so at the end of infinity war, she’s left without telling any of the people she loves that she loves them.  when she comes back in endgame, she’s able to overcome that to tell them.  this song reminds me of that 

“I couldn't utter my love when it counted / Ah, but I'm singing like a bird 'bout it now” - this is when she comes back

“The words hung above / But never would form / Like a cry at the final breath that is drawn / Remember me love when I'm reborn / As the shrike to your sharp / And glorious thorn” - this is both; she couldn’t say it, but she’s “reborn” during endgame and she realizes that the worst has already happened countless times; there’s nothing else to be afraid of that she hasn’t survived

“Then when I met you, my virtues uncounted / All of my goodness is going with you now” - this is just audrey when bruce leaves

“talk” 

ok this entire song is just both audrey and bruce when they like each other but don’t wanna say anything about it.  

I'd be the voice that urged Orpheus When her body was found Hey yeah I'd be the choiceless hope in grief That drove him underground Hey yeah I'd be the dreadful need in the devotee That made him turn around Hey yeah And I'd be the immediate forgiveness In Eurydice Imagine being loved by me

I won't deny I've got in my mind now (Hey, yeah) All the things I would do So I try to talk refined For fear that you find out (Hey, yeah) How I'm imagining you

I'd be the last shred of truth In the lost myth of true love Hey yeah I'd be the sweet feeling of release Mankind now dreams of Hey yeah That's found in the last witness before the wave hits Marvelling at God Hey yeah Before he feels alone one final time And marries the sea Imagine being loved by me

“dinner & diatribes” 

i think…..this doesn’t match up exactly but the new year’s eve chapter…..Yeah

“Let there be damage ensued and tabloid news / And that kind of love / That's the kinda love / I’ve been dreaming of”

“would that i” 

okay buckle up this one is a lot

“True that love in withdrawal was the weeping of me / That the sound of the saw must be known by the tree / Must be felled for to fight the cold / I fretted fire but that was long ago” ok this i think is bruce’s perspective; love in withdrawal was the weeping of me = the isolation he put himself in following becoming the hulk was a very bad spot for him even though it was safest.  the sound of the saw must be known by the tree = gotta risk it for the biscuit! must be felled for to fight the cold / i fretted fire but that was long ago = i used to be afraid but now i’m not; it’s worth the risk 

“Oh, but you're good to me / Oh, you're good to me / Oh, but you're good to me, baby” bruce is just continually confused and surprised by the fact that audrey isn’t scared of him 

“With each love I cut loose I was never the same / Watching still living roots be consumed by the flame / I was fixed on your hand of gold / Laying waste to my loving long ago” 

-with each love i cut loose i was never the same = bruce has cut off everyone he’s been close to since the hulk happened and he’s not the same when he’s alone; he thinks he can make it by himself and he probably can but he doesn’t have to

-i was fixed on your hand of gold / laying waste to my loving long ago = this is actually nice bc the gold imagery specifically matches up with what audrey’s powers are, and so there’s that connection to be made 

“And it's not tonight / Where I'm set alight / And I blink in sight / Your blinding light” this also just matches up really nicely w audrey’s powers lol

“sunlight” 

“I had been lost to you, sunlight / And flew like a moth to you, sunlight / Oh your love is sunlight” i think this would be bruce after age of ultron ? he’s been lost to audrey, but when he sees her he gravitates back toward her immediately; he sees her love as sunlight

“the tale is the same / told before and told again /  soul that's born in cold and rain / knows sunlight, sunlight, sunlight” - bruce is the soul that’s born in cold and rain and audrey is sunlight

“Each day you rise with me / Know that I would gladly be / The Icarus to your certainty” - i think he’s just devoted to her 

“wasteland, baby” 

okay going line by line for this one lol buckle up!

“All the fear and fire of the end of the world / Happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl” - when they’re fighting thanos audrey is actually reminded of bruce; how losing him felt like the world ending, now it’s for real

“Happens great, happens sweet / Happily, I'm unfazed here, too” - when audrey goes at the end of infinity war, she goes smiling 

“Wasteland, baby / I’m in love, I'm in love with you” - they just love each other

“All the things yet to come are the things that have passed / Like the holding of hands, like the breaking of glass / Like the bonfire that burns / That all words in the fight fell to” - everything that has happened has led them to this moment; loki, ultron, hydra, etc. without that they wouldn’t have each other, but they also probably wouldn’t be dealing with this mess.  it’s not good or bad, it’s just the way things went.  

“Wasteland, baby / I’m in love, I'm in love with you”

“And I love too, that love soon might end / Be known in its aching / Shown in the shaking / Lately of my wasteland, baby” - they know it’s over before it’s over; they can tell what’s going to happen before it happens, and they’re just paralyzed in that moment 

“Be still, my indelible friend, you are unbreaking / Though quaking, though crazy / That's just wasteland, baby” - when audrey goes bruce pleads with her to stay

“And that day that we'll watch the death of the sun / To the cloud and the cold and those jeans you have on / And you'll gaze unafraid as they sob from the city roofs” - in the years after the snap, bruce has the most vivid dream almost every night where audrey’s . like . ghost comes to him and takes him to the top of a hill and they watch the world end around them.  it’s terrible and every time he wakes up he misses it.  

“When the stench of the sea and the absence of green” - ok lol this just reminds me of how the hulk wouldn’t come fight at the end of infinity war 

“Are the death of all things that are seen and unseen / Are an end but the start of all things that are left to do” - the world ends; half of everything is dead; but they’re still left.  bruce and steve and everyone have to go on living still.  

“Wasteland, baby / I'm in love, I'm in love with you / (That's it)” - this abruptness just reminds me a lot of the snap; that’s it.  there’s no going back.  

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

The Heaven We Didn’t Choose, Chapter 18: In Which Sans Has a Heart

...But only a figurative one.  And he's still an asshole.

First: Chapter 1: In Which a Child Makes a Friend

Previous: Chapter 17: In Which Alphys is Terrible

Next: Chapter 19: In Which Piracy is Encouraged

Click here for the story overview.

“Sans!  Get her!” a voice crackled in Elemental.

Sans was already hot on Pele’s heels.  Literally.  Even if he didn’t have a trail of light and warmth to follow in the dark alleyway, she was disoriented and confused in a strange new place.  He couldn’t let her disappear into the night with no way to find shelter, regardless of what was going on with Grillby.

It was easy enough to catch the sleeve of her sweater in his phalanges just as she reached the main street.  She stiffened, just like she had when he’d held her hand to teleport, but didn’t lash out.  A glance over his shoulder showed that Grillby was still a safe distance away, hands raised and flames carefully controlled.

“Hey, kid.  Why don’t ya tell me what’s eatin’ you, huh?”

The fire girl just shuddered and curled in on herself while trying to put as much distance between herself and her captured arm as possible.

“Ooookay, wanna tell me why Grillbz knew your name, and why you don’t want anything to do with him?  ‘Cause I thought I was real clever, y’know, findin’ you a place to stay, but we can try someone else if you’d rather.”

“...Who…?”

That was a good question, actually.  “I...uh...I know the Captain of the Royal Guard.  She’s pretty, uh, intense, but she could probably find you a warm bed.  I’m gonna hafta tell her about you anyways, so she can get started on your papers and whatnot.  Or the queen-”

“...That’s...alright…”

“I understand Elemental if it’s easier for you to speak.”

She started struggling.  That didn’t seem to be the right thing to say at all.

Movement in the corner of Sans’s eye socket made him turn to see Grillby slowly walking up, carefully avoiding piles of snow that had blown in.  A few intermittent snowflakes evaporated in the agitated flames of his exposed head, almost painfully bright against the night sky.

“Pele,” the bartender said in flickering Elemental, both hands raised.  “Why are you here?”

She remained silent, but stopped trying to escape.  Her flames gave resigned little flickers.

“I, uh, brought her here,” Sans said when it became apparent that she wasn’t going to respond.  “She said she didn’t have anywhere else to go.  Found her in Alphys’s lab.”

“What?”

“Yeah.  Uh.  Alphys said she was an orphan.”

Grillby stopped, his flames still wavering.  He looked...devastated.  Sans had never seen the grouchy bartender look anything but angry or frustrated.  Not even when he left his old joint in the Underground, the one he’d built up for decades.

After a moment, the older elemental collected himself and gave a little sigh-like noise.  He smoothed out a little, more like a candle flame than a wind-whipped bonfire.  “Why don’t we go inside and talk.  I need to tend to the bar and I am sure it would be more comfortable for both of you.”

The obvious joke was on the tip of Sans’s proverbial tongue, but he didn’t want to set Grillbz off.  The guy’s temper was on a hair trigger at the best of times, after all.  Instead, he carefully released Pele and followed her inside, ready to catch her if she decided to bolt again.

She didn’t.  She did maintain a careful distance from both adults, but she stepped through the doorway without too much fuss.

Her flames flickered in obvious surprise when she got a good look at the interior of the bar.  What could be seen from the back hallway - the doorways to the kitchen and one of the private rooms, and the stairs to the upper level - wasn’t fancy, but it was a definite step up from the old Grillby’s in Snowdin.  Had she expected some seedy dive?

Grillby led them to the private room and left, citing bartending duties, but he looked a little shaky.

Pele still wasn’t talking.

And Sans really didn’t know what to do.  He texted Lesser Dog to ask him to keep an extra eye out and got an enthusiastic response, but that didn’t answer any of the real questions of the evening.  Sans had saved the kid on a whim, really.  If she’d been older, if he hadn’t found that little striped sweater in the lab hallway, he probably would have ducked his head and continued on his way.  That’s what was expected of monsters.  But…

“...Sorry…”  Pele was curling in on herself, her flames flickering lowly like the dying embers of a campfire.

“‘Ts fine, kid.  Were you, uh, down in the lab long?”

“...I...don’t know…?”

He hummed.  She couldn't have been down there more than a few days, not with the way Alphys was acting.  Still...an awkward silence fell.  What was there to say to a kid he’d pulled, pretty much at random, out of a situation where she’d been guaranteed a long and painful death at the hands of a mad scientist?

“So.  You.  Uh, you know Grillby?”

“...No…”

That didn’t sound like a lie, but it didn’t sound like the whole truth either.  He wanted to scream.  Trying to get answers out of elementals was, in his experience, an exercise in futility.  Getting answers out of an elemental who wouldn’t speak was on a whole ‘nother level.

It was a surprise, then, when she continued in broken Elemental.

“Grill-by was...father’s brother.  What call?”

“Uncle is the word we use, kid.  Can’t pronounce Elemental properly with this jaw,” he tapped the aforementioned body part, “so I’m not sure how you’d say it, but...yeah.  Grillby’s your uncle, huh.”

“...Uncle…” Pele crackled in English before switching back.  “There was...big fight.  No talking for much time.  Mother and father not want to go...up?  Go out?  Too much ties.  Connection?  But...hmm.  Thought Grill-by...would be angry.”

“So Grillbz and your parents fought, and you lost contact.  Then your parents didn’t want to go to the surface?”

The girl nodded.

“You said they had ties - some kind of connection - to the Underground.  Were they part of a gang?”

“Sparks,” the girl said, holding her left wrist loosely in her right hand and looking away.

That made sense.  The Sparks were a gang of mostly fire-type monsters based in Hotland; grabbing the left wrist (or comparable appendage) was one way they identified themselves to fellow gang members.  Sans had heard rumors of some fire and rock elementals among them but he hadn’t exactly kept up with the latest news over the past few years.  Still, it made sense that a group like that would choose to stay in their claimed territory instead of braving the rain and snow of the Surface.

“Pele, were your parents dusted?”

She tucked into herself further, which was confirmation enough in itself.  Sans sighed.  It was an old, familiar story: a kid orphaned by gang violence or infighting, then raised by remaining gang members.  Her parents had probably died years back, if her choppy Elemental was anything to go by; it was a difficult language for most monsters to pronounce.  Maybe she’d even been punished for speaking it, judging by her reactions.

The fact that she’d wound up in Alphys’s lab meant that the girl had either run away from the gang and into one of Alphys’s traps, or - and the thought was horrifying, even to a hardened guy like Sans - been traded off during one of her searches for test subjects.  Neither said particularly good things about the state of the Underground.  He knew things were getting worse since the Royal Guard was focused on the surface, but still.

Her reaction to Grillby explained why she hadn't gone looking for him, either.  She'd said she thought he would be angry with her.  She probably had her reasons, but...Grillbz was actually not bad, when nothing had set him off.  Many of the kids from Snowdin had earned a spare meal or two washing dishes in the bar, which worked out well for both parties.  It was why Sans hadn't thought much of bringing him a strange kid; that, and Pele looked like she could use a good meal or two.

Grillbz himself opened the door to the private room and entered carrying two trays.  The one he slid to Sans held a burger, fries, and unopened bottles of ketchup and mustard; the other held a stone bowl filled with what looked like glowing coals.

“Eat,” the elemental crackled to them both in his native tongue.  “I have an employee coming in about half an hour, if the lazy ass shows up.  We can talk then.”  He walked back out, not once glancing towards the girl.

Pele looked over at Sans, confusion radiating off her.  “...What…?”

He repeated what Grillby had said, paraphrasing a little.  “So, you really don’t know much Elemental, huh.”

“It has been...long time since speak.  Not...allowed?  Care-takers...did not understand.  Wanted...English.  But...hard to speak…hmm.”

“Gotcha.  Well, I understand it, and most of the folks ‘round here do.  Hell, even most of the humans who are regulars at the bar have picked up the basics.  At the very least they understand when Grillbz wants his money or is clearing out the bar.”  He grabbed a fry, dunked it in a puddle of mustard, then gestured at her bowl.

She giggled and slowly - very slowly, as if she suspected a trap - brought one of the coals to her mouth.  She didn’t make any kind of a chewing motion, but the glow of her flames brightened considerably over the next few seconds before dying back down.

The rest of the coals disappeared quickly after that.

Sans, on the other hand, savored his burg.  It had been months since he’d had the spare time and cash to have more than a quick beer at the bar to eavesdrop for information.  In fact - he checked his inventory - he probably had just enough left over from bus fare to pay for his meal.  It was annoying that most of his earnings went to Boss or apartment bills; maybe he could spend some extra time at the hotdog stand to compensate?

He had just finished licking the extra ketchup off his fingers (not willing to let anything go to waste) when Grillby walked back in.  The bartender was looking a lot more composed than he had earlier, his flames smooth and calm.  Sans was probably one of the few who could sense the lingering agitation in the other monster, and that was after long years of association and tenuous alliance.

Grillbz settled himself into the third chair at their table.  “So.  Pele, you are...a long way from home.”

The girl nodded after a moment.  The way she flinched whenever Elemental was spoken was hard to miss.

“Do you not speak?”

The way her flames curled screamed embarrassment.  “...Hard…”

“I see.  Well, let’s see how quickly you pick it back up, then.  How did you get into the Royal Scientist’s lab of all places?”

The ensuing conversation was painful to listen to - a combination of hesitant English and broken Elemental - but by the end of it Pele was picking up more and more of what Grillby was saying.  As it turned out, Sans was correct: the girl had been ‘traded’ to Alphys about a week prior for a favor.  What favor the Sparks wanted from (or owed to) Alphys was anyone’s guess; Pele hadn’t exactly been invited to those conversations.  She had tried to run away when she found out but had only succeeded in injuring herself.  The gang had been very unhappy about having to heal her before handing her over to the Royal Scientist, and she was still low on magic.  She’d been locked away in one of the cages in the back of the Lab ever since.

Throughout this explanation, Grillby grew more and more tense.  The flames that normally flickered up above his head to simulate some kind of crazy hairdo were so shallow that he looked practically bald.

Sans elected not to point this out; he didn't want to invoke the old elemental's fiery temper, after all.

After a moment’s consideration, the bartender stood and beckoned to the girl.  “...Come.”

“...Where…?”

“...Upstairs.”  Grillby’s English was always a little slow, but he was clearly trying to make it easier for Pele to understand.  “I...have rooms.  You will...be staying...with me.”

“...Really…?”

Instead of responding, he gestured the girl out the door a little more forcefully than such generosity required.  She complied without questioning further, Sans tagging along behind out of curiosity and a lingering sense of responsibility.

The second level of Grillby’s bar held rooms that he rented out to drunk idiots, less-than-legal deal brokers, and the odd human who wanted to engage in...personal activities while intoxicated.  Grillbz also had an apartment at the far end of the hall, but Sans had never been inside.

The group stopped at a door near Grillby’s private rooms, which he opened with a key strung on a loop of chain.  He handed the key over to Pele.  “Don’t...lose this.  Get some sleep.  You...start work...in the morning.”

The girl nodded, still looking a little lost.  She stared at Sans for a moment before closing the door wordlessly.

“Welp,” Sans said, stretching a little, “It’s been great.  I’ll be off-”

“Wait.”  The switch into smooth Elemental was a relief to both of them.

“Ooooh yeah!  Your money.  Well.  Here…”

“No.  Not that.  Come.”

Sans was stunned.  Had...had Grillby, once the most notorious miser in Snowdin, actually turned down money?  Or...did he want something more for dropping a kid on him without warning?  The skeleton fought down his trepidation and followed Grillbz down the stairs and back into the private room.

“What do you want?”

Sans started at the unexpected question.  “Uh…?”

“You want something.  That is the only reason you could have brought Pele to me.  How did you know we were family?”

Memories of a young human woman sitting at his dining room table flashed behind his eye sockets.   How ‘bout that deja vu.  “I didn’t.  Stars, man, I was just hoping you had a spare room or somethin’ that could get ‘er magic levels back up.  I didn’t know what Alph was doin’ to that kid but ‘er magic was pretty low.  I’m hardly an expert in elementals; most of the ones I knew back Underground either hate my guts or are part of the gang that sold her off.”

“How did you find her?”

It was a fair question; the Lab was hardly open to the public.  Or rather, it was, but getting back out wasn't guaranteed.  “Alph had something I needed, and I had a permit from the King to go and get it.  She must’ve forgotten I was in there.  I was on my way out, found a striped shirt in the hallway and went to investigate.  The rest...well.”

“Is the Royal Scientist going to come after her?”

“Uh, don’t think so?  She’s more likely to come after me, really.  I was plannin’ to get Undyne involved tomorrow morning; if nothing else, that’ll sidetrack Alph long enough to grab the kid and hide ‘er somewhere.”

For a monster whose concept of ‘eyes’ was a little vague, Grillby was a master at making someone squirm with a glare.  Sans managed to keep from fidgeting only because of his long exposure to Boss’s intimidation tactics.  “You really don’t want anything.  You had a plan.  What were you going to do after reporting her to Undyne?  Have her arrested for gang affiliation?”

“No?  I mean, has Undyne ever arrested a kid in stripes?  Nah, I was gonna ask around, see if she really was an orphan.  Thought she could get into a school or find some work or somethin’ to pay her way.  Something better than whatever goes on Underground these days.  Kid needs a family that’ll teach her surface manners and some way to earn money that won’t bring gangs - the Underground kind or Undyne’s happy little group - after her.”

There was another pause, then Grillby gave a strange, crackling laugh.  “You really have...changed.  I heard you were going soft, but this is the first I’ve seen of it.”

“Uh, r-really?  I mean, haha, you don’t actually think-”

“The child changed you.  Not Pele,” he said, amusement curling the ragged opening on his face that passed for a mouth, “The other one.  The ambassador’s child.”

“You...you know about Attie?”

“There are no secrets in a bar.  I am well-paid for my...discretion.  But you?  You aren’t the type to value money so highly, nor does your brother have nearly as good a hold on you as he thinks; his willingness to pay me for information about you says as much.  You must be doing this for...personal reasons.  Am I wrong?”

He wasn’t, but Sans didn’t really want to say so.

“It was certainly an unexpected development.  You were one of the monsters I least expected to have a soft spot for children.  Then again, you never did dust children, did you?”

“No.  But that doesn’t mean nothin’.”

“I know several annoying teenagers who would disagree.”

“Hmph.”

Grillby did his funny laugh again.  “Don’t worry; I haven’t distributed that information, and after what you’ve done for my family...I don’t intend to.  It isn’t even worth much at the moment.  It is strange, though, isn’t it?  Not too long ago, this would have been an incredible weakness for you.  And yet…”

“...Here, it isn’t.  Heck, most humans would see it as a good thing, bein’ too nice to kids.”

“Indeed.”

The warmth Sans felt wasn’t just because he was standing next to a man made of fire.  There was a strange camaraderie, an understanding of shared hardships and shared joys, that passed between the two in that moment.  For once, it wasn’t awkward to meet Grillby’s eyes, or whatever passed for them.

“I was emancipated by my brother shortly after Pele was born,” the elemental said, breaking the silence.  “I haven’t heard from him, his wife, or his children in years.  I thought they were all dead.  I thought I didn’t care if they were.”

That he’d thought incorrectly went unsaid.

A crash and the sound of tinkling glass broke the moment, and both looked away.  “Well,” Sans said, “I’d, uh, better get to my station.  LD can’t cover for me forever.  Uh.  How much do I owe you for…?”

“Nothing; it’s on the house.  Consider it thanks.  And do let me know if you find anything more about the situation.”

“Sure will.”

Grillby left the room first, headed towards the bar.  Sans went the other way, out the back door and into the alleyway.  He paused before teleporting back up the mountain.

It felt good, having an ally.  He seemed to be picking them up at a rapid rate lately: Attie, Frisk, Undyne, and now Grillby and Pele.  He practically had friends.  It was weird to think about, after living most of his life being the town asshole.

Speaking of which, he clearly wasn’t the only one who’d changed.  Who would’ve thought that Grillby cared about family?  Especially after he’d been emancipated?  This was the guy who was more than willing to roast some bones if, say, a skeleton eating at his bar came up a few gold short in change.  Not that Sans had ever been in that position, of course.  His hands curled reflexively; dish duty at a bar was one of the worst jobs ever, in his opinion.

With a sigh, he teleported up towards his station.

It felt like only minutes later that he was walking back down the mountain, leaving a twitchy Doggo in his place.  He’d been too preoccupied with going over his notes and wondering about Pele and Grillby, and time seemed to have jumped.  It began snowing in earnest halfway home; the comfort of his apartment was welcoming to his cold bones.  Boss was gone - as was the Takersfaire booth - so Sans had no interference getting to his room.  He immediately flopped over on his mattress.

As he passed out, he realized that he’d really only gotten three hours of sleep the night before.  Undyne was going to yell at him again if he stretched himself…

“SANS!  WAKE UP!”

Sans rolled out of the way on instinct as a bone attack struck the pillow where his head had been moments before.  “B-Boss?  Wha…?”

“I’VE BEEN TRYING TO WAKE YOU UP FOR TEN MINUTES!  GET OUT OF BED NOW, YOU LAZY SACK OF SHIT!”

He managed to climb to his feet despite the exhaustion dragging at his bones.  He glanced at the clock.  It was just past 7 in the morning, which was...not as early as it felt.  He must’ve used more magic than he thought, to still be so tired after what was - for him - an early night.

Oh, shit.  He’d forgotten to call Undyne, hadn’t he.

“GET TO YOUR HOT DOG STAND IMMEDIATELY!”  Boss growled.  “I WILL NOT STAND FOR ANY MORE LAZINESS IN THIS HOUSE!”

“It’s not a house, Boss, it’s-”

Thud.

The impact of bone on bone took away all the bonus HP Sans had gotten from sleep, and a few extra points besides.

“IMMEDIATELY, SANS!”

“I’m goin’, I’m goin’...”

He practically ran to his hot dog stand, not willing to give Boss any more reasons to punish him.  Once there, he pulled his phone out.

Undyne picked up on the first ring.  “WHAT??” she screeched.

“Wow.  What a nice way to greet a pal.”

“Oh.  Sans.  What the hell.  Is up with you.  You were.   So late.  Last night.”

“Uh…”

“Don’t.  You dare.  Pun at me.  I am not.  In the mood.”

“No coffee yet?”

The growl was confirmation enough.

“Riiight.  Uh, I’ll make this quick.  Soooo...stopped by the lab yesterday to look at...stuff.  Got what I needed, but picked up a...straggler along the way.”

“I swear to the stars, Sans, if you are calling me because you got involved in another shady gang deal trying to get drugs for a prank, I will rip off your skull and shove it straight up your-”

“I didn’t!  I didn’t!  Also: rude!”

“Don’t you talk to me about rude you little...no, y’know what?  No.  It’s too early for this crap.”

“Wait!”  He could feel her trying to hang up on him.  “I...it’s important.  I swear.”

“You have five seconds of my time, asshole.”

“It was a kid.  Alph had a kid down in her lab.”

There was a pause.  For a moment, Sans thought she really had hung up.  Then-

“WHAT???”

“Holy shit, that’s really not necessary!”

“YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT THE ROYAL SCIENTIST IS EXPERIMENTING ON CHILDREN?  AGAIN??  WHERE?  WHO?  HOW MANY??”

“I-”

“TELL ME RIGHT NOW YOU ASSHOLE!!!  NGYAAAAAAAAAH!”

There was a loud crash in the background.  It turned out to be the first of several.

Sans waited for the noise to die down a little.  “Uh...you done?”

The only response was heavy breathing.

“Ooooookay.  So.  I only found the one kid.  Fire elemental girl, claims she’s an orphan.  The Sparks sold ‘er off a few days ago, we think.”

“We?”  Undyne growled.

“Uh...I took her to Grillby’s.”

“You took a child.  To a seedy bar.”

“Nnnnoooo?  I took a fire elemental child to the only other fire elemental I know who isn’t involved in some hella crazy shit.”

“That’s...debatable.”

“Alright, what fire elemental do you know who would’ve been a better option?  Yeah, thought not.  And as it turns out, they’re family.”

“What the hell?  Grillby has kids?”

“Nope.  Niece, apparently.”

“You showed up with his niece, and he didn’t immediately toss you out on your face?”

“Nope.  Weird, right?”

“You do know he was emancipated years ago, right?  It was a huge fight, apparently.  They still tell legends about it in the Guard.”

“He...may have mentioned something about that?”

“...It’s too early in the morning for this crap.”

“Whelp.  I’ll, uh, leave you to it.  Just wanted to give ya a heads-up so you’d know that there’s a new kid in town who’s gonna need paperwork.”

There was another muffled crunch in the background.  “Sans.  I hate you.”

“Uh…”

“Not only do you call me at SEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING, ON MY DAY OFF, but you DUMP A CRAPTON OF PAPERWORK ON MY ASS???”

“Well-”

“DON’T ANSWER THAT!!!”

“Y’okay.”

“AND DON’T YOU DARE BE LATE TO YOUR SHIFT THIS AFTERNOON!!”

There was a low scream as the call was terminated.  Forcefully.

Well.  That went better than he expected.  And better yet, it was out of his sweaty little hands.  It was a good day.

Or...so he thought.

Sans shuffled home later that night a tired, worn skeleton trying not to jostle a bad arm.  Work at the hot dog stand had been uneventful, but his double sentry shift had been absolutely hellish.  A group of teenagers, drunk or high out of their dead little minds, had decided to storm the mountain.  Literally ‘storm;’ it had been alternating between snow and rain for most of the afternoon and into the evening before settling into a cold drizzle.  Fortunately, their path had taken them within roughly two feet of one of the sentry posts so they didn’t just disappear onto the mountain.

Un fortunately, that post was the one Sans was stationed at.

The fight had been difficult.  His blue magic only affected one human at a time, and the kids had been too impaired to really care about what was happening to one of their own.  They also had a hard time registering pain; the weak bones he threw at them took tiny slivers out of their HP, but didn’t do much to slow them down.  He was authorized to use magic - Mount Ebott was monster territory - but he didn’t want to risk killing them and starting a real incident.

At least they recognized him as a threat.  The focus of the group went from getting up the mountain to beating up the monster who was single-handedly kicking their asses.  Luckily for him, whatever they’d pumped into their systems made them both reckless and bad at aiming.

Even a complete idiot gets lucky sometimes, though.

It had taken twenty minutes for the other sentries to start trickling in, and by then the damage had mostly been done.  Most of the kids, exhausted and finally feeling their injuries, had collapsed in various undignified piles across the clearing by Sans’s post.  A few got away but...eh, that wasn’t his problem.

One of the dogs had called Undyne, who had called the police (after chewing out all the sentries collectively and individually for waking her up, again, on her day off).  Sans had, naturally, been left to deal with the ensuing chaos of mediating between an angry, sleep-deprived Undyne and the extremely wary human police.

No one else had been hurt - thank the stars for small miracles - but it was still a literal and figurative mess.  Mud was one thing, but trespassing onto monster property was a pretty big deal for humans, especially since monsters on their mountain had the legal right to defend themselves in whatever way they saw fit once provoked.  He didn’t envy the cops or the kids; neither would have a good night’s sleep for at least a week once Tori got ahold of them.

Regardless, all of that led to Sans wandering home in the freezing rain at an unholy hour of the morning, stiff and sore and trying not to jostle an arm that wasn’t quite broken.  He really, really just wished that he could just take a shortcut home, but he couldn’t summon the energy.  He needed to start working out again...it had fallen by the wayside over the past week or two.

He paused.  That sounded like...a cry?  He hesitated, remembering what happened the last time he’d responded to a crying child, but hearing it a second time broke his resolve.  He’d just rescued a kid; couldn’t a guy get a break??

Responsibility really was going to be the death of him.

The sound was coming from a nearby alleyway, which wasn’t ominous at all.  He summoned a bone, keeping his wits about him, and angled himself so his bad arm was protected by a wall.  His magic gathered instinctively, ready to protect him despite how drained he’d been by the earlier fight.

The pavement of the alley was slick from the recent freezing rain and there were deep puddles where it had sunken.  Sans avoided those.  The noise seemed to be coming from a pile of garbage stacked around a dumpster further back, but he could see no movement.

He stalked closer.  It sounded like the noise was getting quieter; he couldn’t tell if the kid was weakening or moving farther away.  He paused and strained to listen over the patter of rain on pavement and trash.  Weakening, definitely, but it was sounding less like a child.  There were no words, for one, and no matter how close he got he couldn’t sense a human soul or any type of magic.

Movement from one of the boxes made him tense, bone at the ready.  He felt silly; it was a small creature, not nearly big enough to be a threat…

...but it was the source of the noise, he realized as he watched it squirm.  He dismissed the bone.  He’d wasted enough time and energy chasing after...actually, what was that thing?

Curiosity got the better of him and he stepped closer.  The box was soaked through and half-submerged in a puddle that was half frozen over.  There was something hand-written on the box, but it was smeared by rain and he couldn’t make it out in the dark of the alley.  The crying thing - whatever it was - clung to one side, trying to keep from sliding into the water.

It wasn’t until he stood right next to the box and looked in that he saw the other dark shapes in the water, sunken and unmoving.  He thought of the Dogi’s litter of pups and shuddered.

Trying not to overthink what he was doing, he grabbed the little critter by the scruff of its neck.  “Please don’t be a rat,” he muttered to it.  He had too many awful memories of the little scavengers from his childhood on the streets of the Underground.  “I will literally throw you right back in there with your friends if you’re a rat.”

He picked his way back out of the alley, gritting his teeth against the cries.  Once back in relative light and safety, he held it up.

It wasn’t a rat.

He examined the thing carefully.  It was furry, he could tell, even though the rain had matted its fur down to almost nothing.  The fur was too dark to pick out colors, but it seemed to be covered in stripes of brown or grey.  From what he could see it had big pointy ears, a wimpy little furry tail that was curled up between its legs, and a huge green eye with a little slit.

Cat.

Well then.  He’d always wanted a pet.  But seriously, what was it with him and picking up strays lately??

Sans carefully brought his bad hand up under the cat’s butt, then released his hold on the scruff of its neck.  Even the slight weight caused his arm to ache, but he held it steady.  The cat shivered; humans and other creatures with fleshy bits shivered when cold, he remembered.  (He deliberately did not think about Frisk shivering under her comforter, hours from death when her daughter dragged his sorry ass in to help.)

It seemed to be calming down, though.  He knew from conversations with Att...with humans that they perceived the magic radiating off his bones as warmth.  He was soaked through, but held the little thing close to his chest anyways.  It wasn’t like a little extra water was going to hurt it at that point.

He walked home quickly, no longer caring about his injuries.

When he arrived at the apartment complex he carefully pressed his bad arm against his side.  The little cat fit perfectly inside his jacket in the pouch formed by the crook of his elbow.  It didn’t seem to like him zipping the jacket up, but Sans knew that Boss finding it would be a death sentence: for it, definitely, and possibly for Sans as well with how cranky Boss had been.

He slipped the door open quietly, listening for anyone else in the apartment.  The only sound was the rain beating against the kitchen window.  He started for the hallway-

“THERE YOU ARE!”

“Shit, Boss!”  He shifted his arm, silently begging the cat to stay quiet.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HOME AN HOUR AGO!”

“I-I got a little banged up in a fight.  I, uh, take it you heard from Undyne what happened?”

“CAPTAIN UNDYNE APPRISED ME OF THE SITUATION, YES.”

There was a shuffle somewhere over Boss’s head as the residents of the apartment above theirs came to terms with loud noises at unfortunate hours of the morning.

“Then, uh, I’ll just…”

“STOP RIGHT THERE!”

Sans paused.

“Remove your clothing.  I must examine you for injuries.”

“Wha... hell no, Boss!  What even??”

“YOUR GRAMMAR GETS WORSE EVERY DAY!”

“Why do you need to ‘examine’ me?”

Boss sighed, rubbing one knuckle along the smooth stretch of bone between his eye sockets.  “Because you were so careless as to worry the ambassador a few months ago, she is now under the impression that you are suffering from…‘abuse.’”  He said the word like it meant a tendency towards screaming esoteric love poetry in public.  “Absurd, I know.  However, Undyne still demanded that I ensure you remain in good health to appease her highness.  I MUST, THEREFORE, ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE SUFFERED NO LASTING DAMAGE AFTER THIS SCUFFLE OF YOURS!”

Sans shoved the flare of anger to the side, where he could deal with it later.  “I’m pretty sure that was just when I was babysitting.  I’m not babysitting anymore.”

“ENOUGH, SANS!”

Boss shot an arm out and made a grab for Sans, snarling when his prey dodged backwards into the hallway and made a desperate break for his room.  Boss wouldn’t knock down the door and risk the wrath of the landlord, and thus, the queen.

...Probably.

He locked the door mere moments before Boss slammed into it fists-first.  “SANS!  OPEN THE DOOR!”

Sans tucked himself into the corner behind the door hinge.  Boss was bad at picking locks, but even worse at noticing fine detail when he was all worked up.  It was that or the closet, and he’d started checking the closet.

Thankfully, he seemed content with just yelling and banging on the door.  He settled down pretty well after about half an hour and stalked back off towards his own room, muttering threats the entire way.  Sans made a mental note to stay away from his brother for the next few days to avoid punishments.

No need to get the big guy into hot water with Undyne if she’d started poking her nose in their business again.  It wasn’t a big deal; he could handle it, and there was no need to get Frisk involved.

He chuckled in relief, feeling his jacket.  It was still soaked through pretty badly.  The cat, however, had curled up between his arm and ribcage and was making a noise like a small motor.

That must be the ‘purring’ thing he’d heard about.  It was incredibly soothing, actually.

Gently, he set the cat on his mattress and changed into dry clothes.  After a long moment of consideration, the threw his jacket over the back of his desk chair to dry out.  The rest of his clothes were kicked into the heap of laundry in the corner, but he wanted to wear his jacket sometime soon.

He flopped over on the bed to examine the creature he’d brought home.  It was looking better, actually.  It had pushed itself up onto four tiny paws and was wobbling around the bed; whether the wobble was due to weakness, injury, or the softness of his mattress he couldn’t tell.  The long cuddle under his jacket had done it some good, at least.  It was looking puffy and mostly dry across its back and the shivering had stopped.

Upon further inspection, it only seemed to have one functioning eye.  Both its eyes were open, but one of them was milky and pale in a way that reminded him of Undyne and the other monsters he knew whose eyes had been damaged.  For all that, it seemed to be getting around okay.

“Yer not sleepin’ with me,” he said as it crashed nose-first into his leg and flopped over.  Little black paw pads waved wildly in the air.  “I know your type.  You make all kinds of wet, goopy messes that I hafta clean up, and I’m not in the mood tonight.”

It started purring again, curled into a tight ball against his leg.

“Fine.  Lemme see…”  He scooped the thing up and looked around.  A space heater he’d been meaning to fix up was still in the closet, buried under spare mechanical parts.  It rattled when he turned it up, but that wasn’t the end of the world.  He didn’t notice too much of a difference in temperature, but he wasn’t especially sensitive to temperature differences to begin with.  Hopefully it helped.

He found a large cardboard box from...well, he didn’t really remember and it wasn’t marked, so it could’ve been from anything, really.  Into the box went a pile of dirty shirts; if they were already dirty, the gooey mess the cat was going to make wouldn’t do much damage.

The cat protested Sans’s attempts to put it down, curling itself around his phalanges and struggling to find something to grip with its claws, but he was able to wrangle it into the box.  For the amount of struggle it put up, it didn’t seem too upset once he got it settled; it curled right back up and started purring again.

He ran his phalanges over the cat’s head and ears, concentrating on the texture of the fur.  It was a strange feeling.  It was soft, but not like cloth; almost feather-like, really.  It didn’t feel much like dog fur, though he hadn’t had many opportunities to study that in detail.  Dog fur was...he didn’t know how to describe it.  Thicker?  He had given scratches to Greater Dog during his last shift at the hot dog stand (that guy was a real softy at heart, a secret Sans would take to his grave) and he’d been able to feel the individual strands of fur.  The cat’s fur was so fine that it seemed almost like one solid thing until his phalanges passed through it.

The purring stopped abruptly and Sans paused, worried he’d upset the cat somehow.  It didn’t react at all.  Its eyes were closed and its head had drooped down to rest on the sleeve of one of his sweatshirts.

Asleep, then.  He grinned.

Might as well join it.