#so he moves out to snowdin to be a sentry and take care of his brother

[absent-enigma]

Some FS Arburn Arduum Info/ HC’s

-Elder brother; 5 years older than Lygari

-As of surfacing from the Underground, Arduum is the monster equivalent of 55 in human years. He is tired and aches but he refuses to retire. Not even when given the opportunity years later as Surface life becomes more peaceful. He can’t stand the idea of inactivity or doing anything other than what he’s dedicated himself to for over half his life, even as the Royal Guard becomes more symbol than needed.

-Arduum is stubborn; he doesn’t know how to relax, and it stems all the way back to his childhood. From the moment he could remember being able to move under his own power, Arduum explored everything he could, despite his father’s concerns over his health. This moving constantly (and accompanying his father on the boat as he brought Monsters to and from destinations in the Underground) is how Arduum learned of the Royal Guard’s existence. At 10, Arduum and his 5 year old brother are saved by the Royal Guard from being dusted by an out of control high LV monster. Arduum decided then and there that he wanted to be in the guard and gave a purpose outside of being kept home with his little brother out of safety concerns (valid) or in the small ‘school’ held in Snowdin at the library (Arduum does not notice the misspellings for years and years-he is more focused on training and knowledge for the Royal Guard he dedicates time to learning as well as being a kid in general until Arduum decides enough is enough and he needs proper training.

-Started as Senty at 20 years old after badgering Alphys consistently since he was 15 to even be considered a candidate for *just* a senty. Arduum isn’t even able to be considered for a low-ranking cadet in the Royal Guard, due to his dismally low HP and general health. But he persists by constantly pestering; camping outside Alphys’ home in Hotland for weeks at a time, showing up at her house other times with perfect punctuality (with his father’s help as the ferryman on the river), sending info to her somehow (Lygari hacked her phone-he was considering tech and science despite his young age). Eventually Alphys allowed Arduum as sentry, unaware of 15 year old Lygari shadowing his older brother to watch out for him (and help him eventually achieve his goal of entering the Royal Guard’s ranks) when he wasn’t in classes at Hotland for tech and CORE scientific workings.

-Arduum has to be doing something or he feels that he is not being useful enough. He always feels that he could be doing more and done more efficiently enjoys coming up with these ideas but ultimately it’s the Queen’s decision whether the plans are implemented. Paperwork is a necessary evil but he’s thrives when able to directly order the guards under his command hy order of the Queen and on her orders Arduum carries them out with assistance by each faction of the Royal Guard’s lieutenants. Training is rigorous and more so once he becomes second in command to Alphys as Weapons-master.

-The constant need to occupy his body with motion and his mind with strategy and efficiency, Arduum is almost always on the move throughout the Undergrounde waiting things are running as smoothly as possible, and that the flower pin meanings are not being abused to trick or harm others intentionally. The only time Arduum is not on the move or training is when he is stuck with paperwork (aka when he’s run himself into the ground doing 110% with each of his tasks, given or chosen). This is usually the time his is health drastically affected; his worst mood is when he ends up bedridden from working himself until he takes ill. He tended to hide this Undergroubd with a bristling, fury-filled demeanor, snappish and more full of ego than usual. On the surface, it’s a bit like pulling teeth to get him to leave his work, but it’s infinitely easier (mist if the time) for his father and Lygari to get Arduum off his feet once he’s home. Man’s horrible at self-care and napping/going to sleep is the absolute worst thing ever to him.

[hyliantimelordin221b]

do you have any favorite theories about gaster, his role in undertale/deltarune, his personality, etc?

MY FRIEND, I AM SO GLAD THAT YOU ASKED

(jk i won’t make this too long i promise)

((edit: warning: this did get long and i am so sorry))

but honestly, i don’t get into detailed theories too much!! i’m open to a lot of different interpretations of him.  i know i have ones that i like a lot, but i don’t necessarily think they are definitely true or anything.  theyre just all fun to consider!!

i’m not sure what i think gaster’s role in undertale and deltarune are right now, since deltarune isn’t even a complete game yet. I prefer to embrace a lot of different theories rather than sticking to any specific one so that I don’t find myself disappointed in what ends up being revealed in canon.

honestly one theory i have is that gaster is just a normal guy in deltarune, since it’s an alternate timeline there’s nothing special about him since he never fell into the CORE (which doesn’t even exist in deltarune as far as we know), but i’m not super attached to it.  i would love to see this be a reality though, considering all the hype around the mystery surrounding gaster just because i think it would be sorta funny (but then of course that could be rly anti-climatic so who knows)

but the main theory/headcanon that i often go back to is that he was once relatively normal before he falls into the CORE.  i like to think he was actually a good person overall, and was caring to his co-workers/assistants etc. (especially to sans because i’m always gonna throw some sanster in here) !!

sometimes i also like to think that he, alphys, and sans were a good group of friends that hung out and made dumb science jokes and probably watched anime together a lot (where the poorly-drawn picture of three smiling people from the skelebros’ house comes into play) though i don’t have too many specific headcanons about that.  i do have a h/c fic about alphys and sans recovering after gaster falls into the core but who knows if it will ever see the light of day considering my penchant for leaving things unfinished and unpublished for indefinite periods of time lkasdflsdl 

anyways i think he always had good intentions, but i think his intelligence and thirst for knowledge sometimes got away from him which would lead to him putting himself in sorta dangerous situations.  this would probably worry sans/alphys/his other assistants/co-workers, but no one really knew how to handle it.  he’d be very adamant about never endangering others with his shenanigans, though, or at least he’d try to be.

it’s a slow decline, but i think events reach a sort of peak when he’s driven (by what exactly, i’m not sure) to decide to use himself as a test subject for an experiment with determination/something involving the void or the anomaly. 

from there, the people he works with notice him beginning to act a lot differently; he’s quicker to insult and ridicule those he works with, and he’s more driven than ever to find whatever answers he’s looking for, and stops at nothing to get what he wants.  he’s also more willing to use others for “help” with his experiments as well, which was a big thing he avoided before (sans has probably been manipulated into being used for an experiment at least once since gaster knows how much sans Cares abt him even if he no longer returns the feeling hhhhh).  eventually he’s completely changed; where an accepting, well-meaning person once was, an emotionless, cruel person now stands.  i think it takes a while for those who are close to him (sans especially) to accept that he’s Not Really Himself anymore, too.

obviously eventually this somehow leads to him falling into the CORE.  there are a few ways i figure this could happen:

sans/alphys/gaster’s other “followers” knew how dangerous he was becoming and one of them pushed him

some part of his old self was still conscious within him and he knew how dangerous he had become to the people he cared about and chose to jump in a moment of clear-mindedness (or maybe he’s completely insane and jumped because he thought it would make him all-powerful or somethin idk)

actual freak accident, maybe because of the increasing insanity of his experiments the CORE destabilizes or something and in that whole mess he ends up falling in (would explain why his “followers” are forgotten as well, i.e. multiple people wiped out in an accident)

but yeah!! while he’s technically erased from existence, i hc that sans and maybe also alphys remember him at least a little bit, and the “don’t forget” picture was drawn by one of them (probably sans) soon after the accident in a desperate attempt not to forget him completely.

anyways, those are my thoughts on gaster!  i lied i made this kinda very long cause i got carried away (sry aaaa), but thnx for the ask!!! i’ve been wanting to talk about my gaster theories/headcanons for a while now, haha ^^

[mortimer-writes-sometimes]

A Warm Feeling, Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Worry and Normalcy

Chapter One | Chapter Four | Chapter Six

Word count: 3586

Warnings for this chapter: Nightmares, Frisk is a jerk

Read this on Archive of Our Own and Wattpad!

Grillby didn’t ask what triggered Sans’s panic attack, and the skeleton was grateful. How was he supposed to explain that he was afraid of a human child with the ability to manipulate time itself? The bartender would think he was crazy.

Sans settled further into Grillby’s arms, sighing. The bag of food Grillby had brought was discarded next to them, long-emptied by the two of them as they ate and talked together. At some point, they’d lapsed into a comfortable silence. It had been some time, but Grillby didn’t show any indication of moving, and Sans wasn’t about to make him. The panic attack had been draining, and he was worried that his anxiety would come for him with a vengeance the moment he was alone again.

Grillby was leaning back against the sentry station, head resting on the wood and eyes closed. He looked moments from falling asleep, and Sans was tempted to let him. Sure, Grillby had been steadily recovering, but the walk to Sans’s post was a lot even for a healthy monster. The bartender had probably overdone it a little bit. Being made of fire, he didn’t get cold, but even so, Grillby’s back would probably hurt if he fell asleep sitting on the ground. Sans tapped his arm gently, mumbling, “Hey Grillbz, you still with me?”

“Hm? Yes, I’m awake. I’m alright.” Grillby opened his eyes, looking down at Sans and giving him a tired smile. Yep, definitely overdid it.

Sans smiled back a bit. “We should get you home,” he said fondly. “You look like you could use some rest. Come on, let’s take a shortcut.”

The two stood up, Sans holding Grillby’s hand as they started walking. One moment, they were in Snowdin forest. The next, they were-

The world stuttered.

Grillby was leaning back against the sentry station, head resting on the wood and eyes closed. Sans jerked in his arms, inhaling sharply as his pupils vanished. Frisk just loaded a save file. That usually meant they died in a fight. What happened? Were they fighting Toriel? Something else? Did this mean they were close to leaving the Ruins? No, no, he couldn’t let himself get worked up. He started shaking even as he tried to calm himself back down, burying his face in Grillby’s chest and curling up a bit more.

Grillby felt the motion and opened his eyes, looking down at Sans with a tired, concerned expression. “Sans? Breathe, I’ve got you.” He rubbed the skeleton’s back gently, mumbling soft reassurances until Sans stopped shaking. “Talk to me,” he mumbled. “What’s wrong? Have you been having trouble sleeping again? Maybe you should come home with me.”

Sans took deep breaths, wiping at his eye sockets to keep any tears from falling. “No, no, I want to stay out here. I’ll take you home. You’re exhausted.”

"You could stay home, too," Grillby said softly. "Please, for me? I'm worried about you. Your anxiety has been severe lately, and I'm scared you'll…" He trailed off, looking away for a moment. When he looked back, he took Sans's hand and intertwined their fingers. "Let me take care of you, Sans. For my sake."

Sans looked up at him, then sighed and squeezed Grillby's hand gently, giving in. "Alright, just this once. For the record, the only reason you can drag me away is because you're still kinda sick and you aren't going to rest if I don't."

Grillby chuckled. "Aww, you care about me."

You have no idea. Sans rolled his eyes and untangled himself from Grillby, standing and offering the bartender his hand. "Come on, you dork. Let's get home and take a nap."

Grillby took Sans’s hand, bracing himself for the brief feeling of weightlessness that came with Sans’s shortcuts. A flash of blue light filled his vision as the ground vanished beneath his feet… and didn’t come back.

As his vision cleared, Grillby found himself suspended in a dark void, still gripping Sans’s hand tightly. For some reason, the void itself didn’t bother him. It felt peaceful. That didn’t make him any less confused. He gripped Sans’s hand a little tighter, looking to the skeleton. “Sans? Where are we?” he asked softly. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like if he spoke too loud, the peace would break and he would fall.

Sans didn’t look concerned at all, one hand holding Grillby’s and the other in his pocket. “Don’t you recognize it?”

“Recognize it?” Grillby shook his head. Surely he would remember a place like this.

“C’mon, you see it all the time!” Sans closed his eyes, chuckling. When he opened them again, his pupils had faded out, his eyes filling with the same, empty darkness that surrounded them. “Or maybe,” the skeleton said, his tone even and calm, “You just never bothered to notice.”

Something tightened around Grillby’s soul. He suddenly became aware of an overwhelming terror that Sans was going to leave him alone. The darkness seemed to constrict as he did, making it hard to breathe. “Sans,” he managed between gasps, “I don’t… I don’t understand…”

The skeleton sighed, seemingly unaffected by the strange place around him. “You don’t understand,” he mumbled. “No one understands. No one can understand.” His grip on Grillby’s hand loosened and he closed his eyes. “It’s fine. I can handle it alone.”

Grillby felt his grip weakening and frantically held on tighter. “No, Sans, don’t say that. You aren’t alone, I’m here!”

“Where is here?” Sans asked him. “What’s happening to me? Can anyone tell me?” He shook his head, then let go. As he did, some unseen force seemed to start pulling him away, the bony fingers threatening to slip from Grillby’s grasp.

The bartender held on as tightly as he could, briefly worried he was going to break Sans’s hand before pushing those thoughts away. He would rather Sans be injured than gone completely. “Don’t leave me,” he begged, “Please. Talk to me, I can help!”

Sans ignored him, looking up at something behind Grillby. He smirked, then looked back down at the fire monster. “Sorry, Grillbz. It’s dark…” He closed his eyes again. “Getting darker… yet d a r k e r…”

Grillby felt a presence behind him. Before he could react, a hand reached over his shoulder and grabbed his wrist. It looked like the hand of a skeleton, but there was a wide, gaping hole in the middle. It made Grillby’s head hurt. Whatever force threatened to pull Sans away from him suddenly pulled harder, the hand around his wrist pulling back at the same time.

The quiet was peaceful. The quiet was fragile. One loud sound could break it, but when Grillby felt Sans’s hand leave his? He screamed.

The sound of rushing wind filled Grillby’s mind as he plummeted, reaching up towards the fading figure of his best friend. The darkness consumed him, threatening to tear him apart as it wrapped around his body, his mind, his soul. He felt dizzy, closing his eyes as for the first time in his life, he truly felt cold.

🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎🕯︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎📬︎📬︎📬︎✍︎

✌︎☟︎📬︎ ✋︎ 💧︎☜︎☜︎📬︎

✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 💣︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ 👌︎☜︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ⚐︎☠︎☜︎ 💣︎✡︎ 💧︎⚐︎☠︎ ✋︎💧︎ ✌︎☹︎🕈︎✌︎✡︎💧︎ 💧︎🏱︎☜︎✌︎😐︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ⚐︎☞︎📬︎

👌︎☜︎ 😐︎✋︎☠︎👎︎ ❄︎⚐︎ ☟︎✋︎💣︎📪︎ 🕈︎⚐︎☠︎🕯︎❄︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎✍︎

✋︎❄︎🕯︎💧︎ ❄︎✋︎💣︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎ 🕈︎✌︎😐︎☜︎ 🕆︎🏱︎📬︎

Grillby gasped and sat upright. He was shaking and his vision was blurry and clouded by steam as tears evaporated from his eyes.

“Whoa-!” Sans held up his hands and leaned back where he was kneeling on the floor, eye sockets wide. “Hey, t-take it easy. It’s just me. It’s just me, you’re safe.”

Sans hadn’t been able to sleep after settling down in his room, resigned to just laying down and scrolling on his phone. He’d gotten through several pages of a recent article on paperclip bias when he heard a loud thud. He ran to the living room and found Grillby on the floor, trembling and muttering in his sleep. It didn’t take a genius to tell that he was having a nightmare and had fallen off the couch. The skeleton tried to wake Grillby up, but when he’d touched Grillby’s arm, the monster had screamed and fought against him. The only option left was to wait and try to talk to him. Sans made a mental note to thank whatever higher power was out there that the bartender had woken up on his own. “Deep breaths, Grillbz, come on,” he muttered gently, risking touching him again as he set a hand on the fire monster’s back. “It was just a nightmare. Just a dream, can’t hurt you.”

Grillby slowly oriented himself, taking deep breaths as he was instructed. In, and out. In, and out. The adrenaline drained from his body and he curled in on himself. He couldn’t stop shaking. “I’m… I’m sorry…”

“Sorry? The hell are you apologizing for?” Sans reached out and took Grillby’s hands. “You had a nightmare. It looked really bad, too. There’s no way you can help that.”

Grillby jerked his hands away. “That’s not what I’m talking about!” he shouted, biting back another sob. Sans was stunned into silence, pulling his hands away and dropping them into his lap. The two of them sat there for a moment, Grillby’s sobbing the only sound in the otherwise quiet house. The bartender took deep breaths, taking his time to collect his thoughts, and Sans let him. Whatever was going on in Grillby’s head, it was something he needed to address at his own pace. When he did finally speak, his voice wavered, full of fear and regret. “I shouldn’t have raised my voice, and I’m sorry. I’m just- I’m scared, Sans. Something is eating you and I don’t know how to help. I know you don’t like to be vulnerable and I want to let you come to me in your own time, if you even ever want to tell me, but I can’t do anything for you if I don’t know what’s going on!”

Sans sighed. “Grillby-”

“No, I’m not done,” Grillby interrupted. “Whatever triggered this relapse has been hard on you. You’ve been struggling to sleep, having panic attacks, and don’t think I haven’t noticed how nervous you get the moment Papyrus leaves your sight. You’ve mentioned before that you get separation anxiety when you’re apart for long periods of time but this is different. You’re always tired, you never eat if you aren’t told to, and half the time you can’t even will yourself out of bed unless your brother physically drags you out of your room! This is serious and I won’t- I can’t- I…” He looked away again, burying his face in his hands as he trailed off.

Sans didn’t know how to respond for a moment. He knew that Grillby worried about him sometimes, but he didn’t realize just how much he noticed. He moved closer and put a hand on Grillby’s knee. “You can’t what, Grillbz?” he asked softly.

Grillby lowered his hands, sniffling as he stared down at his lap. “I can’t… I can’t lose you, Sans. You matter to me more than you realize. I don’t know what I would do if… i-if you… if something happened to you. I can’t lose you, I-i can’t!”

The skeleton immediately wrapped Grillby in his arms, rubbing his back to calm him before the fire monster could get himself worked up again. “You’re not gonna lose me,” Sans mumbled, “It’s okay. I’m sorry I scared you. I promise I’m gonna be okay. You already do so much just by being my friend, Grillbz, you don’t need to do anything else.”

“Please, Sans, just… you have to talk to someone. If you can’t talk to me, that’s fine, but you have to talk to someone,” Grillby insisted. “You have people that love you, and we worry about y-”

The world stuttered.

Grillby gasped and sat upright. He was shaking and his vision was blurry and clouded by steam as tears evaporated from his eyes.

“Whoa-!” Sans held up his hands and leaned back where he was kneeling on the floor, eye sockets wide. “Hey, t-take it easy. It’s just me. It’s just me, you’re safe.” Wait a second. They’d just been through this. Sans closed his eyes, damning Frisk for undoing all the progress they’d just made before forcing those feelings down, focusing on the distressed monster in front of him. “Deep breaths, Grillbz, come on,” he muttered gently, risking touching him again as he set a hand on the fire monster’s back. “It was just a nightmare. Just a dream, can’t hurt you.”

Grillby slowly oriented himself, taking deep breaths as he was instructed. In, and out. In, and out. The adrenaline drained from his body and he curled in on himself. He couldn’t stop shaking. “I’m… I’m s-”

The world stuttered.

Grillby gasped and sat upright. He was shaking and his vision was blurry and clouded by steam as tears evaporated from his eyes.

“Whoa-!” Sans held up his hands and leaned back where he was kneeling on the floor, eye sockets wide. “Whoa, hey, brea-”

The world stuttered.

Grillby gasped and sat upright.

The world stuttered.

Grillby gasped and sat upright.

The world stuttered.

Grillby choked as he jerked awake.

The world stuttered.

Grillby woke up screaming.

“GRILLBY!” Sans threw his arms around the bartender, shaken as he held the trembling monster. What the hell was that? Frisk had loaded six times in a row. What the hell could kill them that fast? Or were they just messing with something? Sans could worry about that later. For now, he needed to help a friend that he’d unintentionally terrified.

The conversation went about the same as it did the first time, and thankfully, they managed to get through it without any more resets. They ended up back on the couch, Sans laying up against the armrest with Grillby’s head on his chest, their legs tangled together as they spread out on the cushions. He played with the flames that formed Grillby’s hair, sighing. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk to you about it yet, but… you’re right. I’m gonna start looking at therapists, okay? I’m sorry I scared you.”

Grillby nodded tiredly, relieved. He wasn’t sure if Sans was going to get defensive or listen, so he was very glad it was the latter. “It’s alright,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I wasn’t sure if it was my place to say anything.”

“You can always talk to me,” Sans was quick to affirm. “You can tell me anything, and I’ll listen. You’re my best friend. If there’s anybody I trust enough to be vulnerable with, it’s you. I mean, other than Papyrus,” he amended with a small shrug.

A light blush spread over Grillby’s cheeks and he chuckled. “You’re my best friend, too. You can always come to me for help.” He sighed and wrapped his arms around Sans’s waist, settling down a bit more and looking up at him. “For now, though, you’re trapped here. We’re both exhausted and I don’t feel inclined to move just yet.”

“Really? I can’t be a great pillow. I’m too boney,” Sans said, amused. “I’m not complaining though. You’re nice and warm.”

“Then shush and let me stay like this.” Grillby closed his eyes and put his head back on Sans’s chest. Just stay with me a little longer.

Papyrus would come home from his patrol to find the two of them tangled on the couch like that, fast asleep.

(He totally took pictures.)

Grillby was cleared to go back to work at the end of the week. It felt weird, to be getting back to normal life, but he wasn’t about to complain. He was passionate about his work, and while he knew the skeleton brothers meant well, if he had to spend one more day stuck in their living room while they fretted over him he was going to lose his mind.

The first day back was very busy, many of his regulars coming earlier than usual to check in with him and ask how he was doing. It was nice. Grillby forgot, sometimes, that people considered his restaurant a big part of Snowdin’s community. There were a few people that he was surprised to see visiting him, but nothing surprised him more than when he looked up and saw a vaguely familiar lizard monster in a white lab coat. He walked over and took his notepad from his vest pocket. “Dr. Alphys,” he greeted politely, “It’s good to see you. Can I get you a drink to start?”

Alphys almost asked for water, remembered that it was dangerous for the fire monster to touch, fumbled over her words, then just gave up. “N-no thanks, I’ll just, uh, get some fries if that’s okay.”

Grillby gave her a kind smile. “One order of fries, coming right up.”

As the bartender disappeared into the kitchen, Alphys took a moment to look around herself. She’d never really seen the appeal of going out to a bar before, but Grillby’s wasn’t at all what she expected. There was no stereotypical smell of booze that she’d come to associate with the few bars she’d heard about in New Home, and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. Sentries from the Royal Guard sat at a table playing cards and customers at the bar chatted and joked amongst themselves. She wondered to herself if it was appropriate to call this place a bar. Grillby’s seemed to better fit her idea of a restaurant.

Grillby came back out with a basket of fries, drawing Alphys’s attention back to him as he set them on the bar in front of her. “Can I get anything else for you?” he asked.

“No, this- this is fine. Thank you.” Alphys gave him an awkward smile, picking at her fries while she tried to figure out what to say.

The bartender chuckled. “I should be the one thanking you. If it weren’t for your advice, I wouldn’t have been able to recover from last week’s… incident as quickly as I did.”

“O-Oh, that was no- no problem!” Alphys quickly dismissed, unable to take a compliment. “I d-d-didn’t mind at all! B-besides, any friend of Sans is- is a friend of mine, heheh…”

“Still, I appreciate it.” Grillby picked up a glass to clean out, heating a fire-resistant cloth with his magic to sterilize it. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Snowdin is a long way to come for a basket of fries.”

Alphys dropped the fry she was holding with a squeak. Good gosh, was she that obvious? She pulled herself together with a small, awkward laugh. “W-well,” she stammered, “There is a-another reason… um…” Oh, this felt so weird! Was it even her place to talk about this? Oh, she was just going to come out and say it! “I w-w-wanted to talk to you, um, about your sch-schedule? I had a-a-a few, um, suggestions?”

“Oh? By all means, go ahead,” Grillby said with a slight nod to her.

Oh, thank goodness. Alphys took a deep breath, proceeding with a bit more confidence now that she was sure Grillby wasn’t going to react badly. Well, mostly sure. Sure enough to continue, at least. “The bar is g-getting pretty, um, popular lately,” she pointed out. “I know you p-pretty much run the place by- by yourself, so, um, I was just w-worried if things stay how they are, you might, uh, g-get overwhelmed again? But I th-thought of a solution f-for that!

Grillby set the glass down and gave Alphys his full attention. “You have a point there. Well, I’m open to suggestions.”

“I-i was thinking,” she continued, “Every business has hours wh-where they’re, um, th-things are a bit slow. Right? Maybe y-you could change your hours of operation s-so you, um, don’t have the bar open those hours? And you c-can take a break?”

The bartender thought about that for a moment, adjusting his glasses. “I understand what you’re saying, and you are correct. Tuesday and Thursday evenings can be very slow, and I rarely get a customer until noon on a Sunday. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to close early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then open late on Sundays. It would give me some time to rest on busy weeks.” He smiled a bit, nodding to himself. “Thank you, Dr. Alphys. I think it’s a great idea.”

Alphys flustered, still unable to take a compliment well. “S-s-sure thing! Glad I could- could help!”

The bell over the front door jingled, diverting Grillby’s attention. “Ah, I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting my other customers. It was good to see you, Dr. Alphys. Let me know if I can get you anything else.” With that, he left the bar to take the new customer’s order, getting back to business as usual.

Alphys smiled to herself a bit. She’d been worried that the whole conversation was going to be an awkward mess, but thankfully, the bartender had been receptive and easy to talk to. She was starting to get an idea why people liked Grillby’s bar so much. How could you dislike a place with such good service and such a kind bartender?

Well, it was also possible that the amazing fries had something to do with it. With the attention off of her, Alphys found herself eagerly digging into her food, putting just a bit of ketchup on the side. Man, that fire monster could cook.

If you liked this, consider reblogging and/or telling me what your favorite part was! If you want to be added to the tag list for this fic, as well, let me know! As always, thank you for reading!

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Snowdrifts ch.5 (spicyhoney)

Summary:  Sorry so quiet, it's been a rough week. Not as rough as Edge's first day into parenthood, he's ready for some time off...isn't he?

Tags: Spicyhoney, Violence, Rescued Child, Medical Experimentation, Babybones, First Time Parenthood, Idiots to Lovers

Read it on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

For a first day, all Edge had to say about it was that it could have gone worse.

He’d spent most of his day with Snow bound to him like squirmy little wormy, but there was no arguing that it worked. With a bit of experimenting, he found that he could have her facing outward while still being tied securely against him. She’d like that quite a bit and the only downside was having her tiny hands trying to assist in any of his tasks at hand. He could only hope Blue didn’t notice that the towels in the bathroom cupboard were folded somewhat…uniquely.

Not that there was any time for that when Blue came home from sentry duty. He’d barely taken off his boots and jacket before swarming over to steal Snow away. Edge wasn’t even entirely sure how Blue slipped her so neatly out of her sling, unless Stretch wasn’t the only family member who could bends the laws of physics.

“Aww, there’s a little wishbone!” Blue cooed. He swung her around as if he were about to make that nickname a truth. Edge only bit his tongue and said nothing. Snow was by no means hurt and Blue was already settling her on his hip as he bounced her gently.

Snow was somewhat doubtful over her new mode of conveyance. She looked at Edge, who tried to smile encouragingly. He was afraid that it was not one of his best efforts, but then, she was a baby, perhaps she didn’t yet know the difference between a smile and a grimace.

“I bet you’ve been cooped up all day, Edge,” Blue said happily, “Why don’t you go out and get some fresh air and I’ll look after our little Snow Monster?”

A little fresh air did sound nice. He was more accustomed to spending most his day outdoors, walking his traplines, not trapped behind four walls.

Still, Edge hesitated. “Well. I suppose I could go out for an hour.”

“That’s the spirit!” Blue said. He plopped down on the sofa, Snow in his lap. “Go out, meet some people! I, Master Babysitter Sans, will watch Snow for you!”

Well, meeting people was out of the question, Edge wasn’t about to enroll in a popularity contest on his first day, but there was at least one thing he wanted to do. “There are some bottles pre-made in the refrigerator. She likes it if you hold her outward so she can see. If she—"

“Edge,” Blue interrupted with gentle patience. “I’ve got this.”

“All right,” Edge still didn’t move. It was only when Snow began to tentatively explore Blue’s face with her little hands that he retrieved his boots. By the time he had them buckled, Snow was trying with some enthusiasm to poke her little fists into Blue’s wide eye sockets, something he was laughingly avoiding. It was ridiculous to linger any longer and Edge only took a last chance to say before he went out the front door, “I’ll be back soon.”

The moment the door closed behind him, he could hear a muffled wail coming right through it. He hunched down and struggled against the urge to go right back inside.

Stretch and his brother were right, he shouldn’t be the only one to care for her. Blue would simply have to learn the same way he was, the hard way. He wouldn’t be gone long, and she was perfectly safe, warm and dry, well-fed and well-cuddled.

So, despite his soul threatening to crack right in half listening to those bereft wails, Edge forced himself to turn away, boots crunching in the snow as he walked out of earshot.

It took him a moment to orient himself to the backwards layout of Underswap, but once he did, Edge headed off in the direction of the librarby. Despite his brother’s scoffing, a book on childrearing would surely turn out to be useful. Red certainly hadn’t been bitching about the worthlessness of booklearning when Edge found one full of recipes back in Underfell and began using it instead of relying on Undyne’s vigorous but dubious technique.

Once he was there, though, he stood in wonderment, briefly forgetting what brought him here in the first place. In Underfell, there was a librarby, well, a lib-arby, one of the ‘r’ had been stolen years ago, and why couldn’t those fools have taken the extra ‘b’ instead?. What few books were in it tended to have pages torn loose and trying to glean any information from them was something like scooping up water with a sieve. Most of the books Edge had—

(had, books he’d had, those treasured few books lost to him and never mind that he could recite them all by heart, they were forever gone, probably destroyed)

--were scavenged from the dump, days spent carefully drying them out. Perhaps if Red saw this librarby he’d be less doubtful of its usefulness because its shelves were burgeoning with volumes, every shelf filled and more stacked on the tables and front desk, so many books, and he itched to get his claws on every one of them, some underused literacy fragment of his soul woke and cried out for something to read.

Edge quashed it ruthlessly. He was here for books on childcare, not any of the ridiculous (wonderful) science fiction stories he’d sometimes found.

There were other Monsters sitting in twos and threes around the room, but aside from a curious glance or two, none seemed concerned about his presence. Edge lifted his chin and walked to the shelves as if he belonged here and began to peruse the selection. A little searching found him not one, but two books, one for new parents and another for the toddler years. He took them both, better to be prepared, and as he turned from the shelf, another book caught his eye.

A slender book titled ‘Pattycake with Pokey Puppy’. Obviously a child’s book and looking at the brightly painted cover suffused him with a sudden wave of nostalgia, a memory of curling up with his brother beneath a threadbare blanket in one of the back-alleys in New Home. The aching cold and constant gnawing hunger faded as he listened to Red softly read to him about Fluffy Bunny from a tattered old book, the front cover torn and filthy but so much like the one on the shelf.

Snow was entirely too young to appreciate being read a story. He already had two books, an entire townful of people needed to use this librarby, and it was a town he didn’t even truly belong in. He shouldn’t be greedy, he shouldn’t, and guilt was tight in his throat as he snatched that book up and added it to the other two, carrying all of them up to the front desk.

If the Bird working at the counter was appalled at his selfishness, they gave no sign of it. By all rights, they should have been looking at him in fear and given him the books in the hopes he would leave quickly. Edge knew very well the reactions that his appearance could cause, cultivated it in Underfell, and never let the way other Monsters cringed away bother him. If they were afraid of him, they would obey him, and their lives were more important than any petty wish to be admired.

Dressed as he was in one of Stretch’s rumpled sweatshirts, complete with formula stains and crushed up bits of cereal ground into the front, it seemed his threat level had decreased all the way down to acceptable Underswap levels. The Bird only smiled and stamped his books before handing them back over. He supposed the books themselves were also partly to blame for her lack of concern over having him in their quiet little librarby. Anyone checking out ‘Toddler Years: Surviving with your Sanity’ and ‘The Big Book About Little Monsters’ probably wasn’t going to go into a dust-crazed frenzy.

Books in hand, Edge started back to the Swap brothers’ house and he only took two steps in the wrong direction before he sighed and turned around. He’d get the hang of this Snowdin soon enough, at least no one was around to see him stop in his tracks and head back the other way—

“Sir!”

Edge paused warily, turning in the direction of that voice even as he struggled not to ready an attack, just in case. It was easier to dismiss the urge when he saw a young Bun dressed in bright purple stripes running towards him, carrying a large paper sack.

“Sir!” she panted as she skidded to a stop, kicking up slush and snow. “You’re Papyrus’s friend, aren’t you?”

It took him a moment to realize she was speaking of Stretch. “Yes?” he agreed cautiously. If this were about some sort of debt or prank—

The child only beamed happily and thrust the bag towards him. “My mama found some more baby stuff for you! Said for you to take whatever you need and give back anything you don’t!”

“I…” Edge reached out automatically before he caught himself, hesitating. “I’m afraid I don’t have any G.”

His confusion transferred to the child, “G? Oh, no, mama doesn’t want G! Our baby is walking and talking now, he don’t need it anymore!”

She thrust the bag into his arms and Edge took it, briefly too overwhelmed to speak. The people of this Snowdin had already been so generous, for them to offer even more was bewildering him past the point of gratitude. It reminded him of Blue who’d so often pressed them to take leftovers after dinner, bullying and cajoling until Edge found himself in his own universe with a bag in hand, so similar to the bag he held now. He didn’t understand it then and didn’t now, didn’t even know how to explain to them that it wasn’t supposed to be this way, not in his experience, not in his world.

But this wasn’t his world, was it.

The child was still standing in front of him, her hands clasped behind her back as she bounced on her toes. “Can I come see the baby sometime?” she asked hopefully. “Papyrus said she’s really cute!”

“She is.” Edge managed, trying to recover enough from his confusion to at least keep from acting like an ungrateful fool. He pulled out his phone and held it out for the child to see the background picture of Snow and her attempts to eat noodles. Even with the cracked screen, she was obviously as adorable as advertised and from the way the child cooed happily, she very much agreed.

“Aww, she’s so cute! I can’t wait to meet her!” A faint voice cut through the stillness, a name being called from one of the nearby homes, and the child looked in that direction briefly before turning back to Edge. “You should ask Papyrus to fix your phone, he’s real good at that stuff. I gotta go. Bye!”

He kept a close watch on the child to make sure she made it back to her home all right before turning back to his own path, bag in one hand and books in the other. Their house was soon in sight and Edge was half-afraid he’d still hear wails coming through the door.

But there was only the silently twinkling Gyftmas lights and Edge stifled his near-disappointment and headed inside.

Blue and Snow were on the sofa where she was currently squealing happily as she bounced on Blue’s knee and truly, Edge should be above his brief surge of triumph when he noted that Blue seemed more than a trifle weary. There was an empty bowl and a mostly empty bottle on the side table, proof that Snow’s appetite hadn’t diminished in the slightest. Blue’s scarf had a damp spot on it as if an infant chose to use it as their next gnawing target, and there was a smeary handprint right on his cheekbone that looked suspiciously like smashed peas, the green trail of it leading downward and freckled across the front of his shirt.

The baby looked over as he walked inside, and the moment she caught sight of Edge, her chortling glee faded. In an instant, her sparkling eye lights switched to a waterfall of tears and she began to squall, holding out both little arms to him.

Edge hastily deposited the bag and books on the coffee table and took her, cuddling her close until those tears faded again into happy giggles.

Blue only sagged back on the sofa, slinging an arm over his eye sockets as he groaned out, “How can someone so small be so tiring? You were only gone an hour and I’ve gone from magnificent to mediocre!”

“I’ve been wondering that myself,” Edge admitted. He snagged his scarf with his free hand, readying Snow to return to her beloved binding. He noted Blue watching intently with approval. Not that he ever thought Blue wouldn’t take his duties seriously, but it was good to have it confirmed.

“Well! I need to get off to Alphys’s,” Blues struggled to his feet, chuckling as he shook his head. “I never expected to see the day I’d consider training to be the less exhausting option. Papy should be home soon.”

“I have her, go,” Edge said, “but…you may want to wash your face first.”

One gloved hand flew up to Blue’s cheekbone. Pity it was the wrong one, “What? Why?”

“Better that you just go wash.”

Blue dashed for the stairs and Edge sat down in his place on the sofa, adjusting the sling so that Snow was comfortable against him. He reached for the first book, hesitating over the one on caring for an infant. His hand detoured instead to ‘Pattycake with Pokey Puppy’, flipping to the first page as Snow, already sucking on her fingers, looked up at him with large eye lights.

“I’m going to read you a story, little one,” Edge told her, “I think you’ll like it. I hope you will.” He began to read, “One little puppy, sitting by a fence—”

He was quite sure Snow couldn’t really understand him, but she still seemed to listen contentedly as he read. She snuggled deeper into his scarf and his arms, and didn’t react at all when Blue’s voice carried downstairs in a wail, “How did she even get it all the way in there…?”

Edge didn’t ask. He only kept reading to Snow about the adventures in patty cake for a poky puppy and his friends. He hoped she didn’t fall asleep too quickly. He wanted to see how it ended.

tbc

[thelibrarbian]

Rating: T

Chapter word count: 3249

Read on Ao3

or below the cut:

Papyrus was well aware that his lessons with Captain Undyne did not include every aspect of the training a future Royal Guardsman should receive. There was, as far as Papyrus was aware, usually more emphasis on fighting humans and less on cooking pasta, for instance. But the chapter on first aid was a section that she had taken him through in detail, and he was very grateful for that right now.

To be quite honest, he was somewhat surprised by his own knowledge of skeletal anatomy and medicine; he was reasonably sure that not all of it came from Undyne's lessons, but he couldn't remember where else he had learned it. He didn't dwell on it, though - he had probably just read a book at some point and then forgotten about it, or it was simply instinct from being a skeleton monster himself - it only meant that he was even better equipped to take care of the unconscious monster on his living room floor, even if he hadn't realized the extent of his own greatness before.

He couldn't say he felt particularly Great, though.

Fell might have been no longer in danger of dusting, but actually healing his wounds proved much more difficult than it should have been. Not only did attacks deal more damage the more harming intent went into them, it also made them harder to heal - and what Papyrus could feel lingering where Fell had been hit was outright murderous. Healing it wasn't impossible, most certainly not impossible for the Great Papyrus, but if he had hoped to fully mend any of the broken bones right there and then, that was very clearly not happening. The most he could do was to ease some of the pain and encourage Fell's natural healing to do its job perhaps a little faster.

Well! That was a minor setback, but no matter! They could still patch Fell up the regular way, and everything would be fine. And while Sans couldn't assist with healing magic, Papyrus was very glad for the extra hands.

It took longer than he would have liked to admit, but eventually they had cleaned all the wounds, set and splinted the breaks, and wrapped what felt like the majority of Fell's body in bandages. Fell never stirred throughout it all, and Papyrus decided to be glad that he was sleeping through what could not be a pleasant experience from his end if he was conscious. The alternative train of thought that his unresponsiveness prompted was not one that Papyrus wanted to follow.

If Papyrus was perfectly honest, it surprised him a little just how eager his brother was to help. Not that he thought Sans would refuse to assist a monster in need, of course not, but... For reasons that Papyrus didn't entirely understand, Sans and Fell… did not usually get along particularly well, to put it lightly. Yet now it was only on Papyrus' insistence that yes, he really was able to handle everything else on his own that Sans eventually left the injured monster's side, taking Red upstairs with him to let him sleep on a proper (albeit ketchup-stained) mattress.

Papyrus would have preferred to move Fell to a bed as well so he could rest better, but the thought of carrying him up the stairs in this state seemed daunting. Of course, it wasn't that he didn't trust his ability to maneuver a badly injured skeleton through the house, who was probably going to dust if Papyrus accidentally dropped him, or knocked his head against a doorframe, or jostled him just a little bit too much… But there was also now an unoccupied, reasonably comfortable couch only two steps away, and lifting Fell onto that did not come with nearly the same potential for highly unlikely fatal accidents.

He was exceedingly careful as he looped his arms under Fell's shoulders and legs and lifted him up, using a bit of blue magic to make the move go more smoothly for his alternate and avoid aggravating his injuries. Once he had double checked and triple checked and quadruple checked that Fell's HP really was stable now and would remain that way even if Papyrus left his side for a moment, he darted around the house, picked up any additional pillows from the other rooms (excluding Sans' room because he was not going to subject Fell to the ketchup stains he would inevitably find on his brother's pillows - and besides, Red was probably using those), and rushed back to the couch. He carefully arranged Fell a little more comfortably, supporting his upper body with pillows, making sure there was no pressure on his injured ribs, and draping a blanket over him. And then another, because Fell's state called for more than one blanket.

Finally, he brought a chair from the kitchen and sat down next to the couch, reaching over to lightly rest his hand on Fell's broken leg and continue to channel a slow, but steady stream of healing magic into him. It may not have been helping much, but Papyrus had enough magic at his disposal to keep this up for the rest of the night. And probably the next morning as well.

It was more disturbing than he wanted to admit, seeing his alternate so still in the pile of pillows and blankets. A few months had passed since their universes had crossed paths for the first time, but they had remained in somewhat regular contact since then - mostly due to Papyrus' own insistence to invite their rougher counterparts to a biweekly cross-universal skeleton game and movie night. And as much as Fell kept grumbling about those meetings and adamantly refused to host one in his own world, neither he nor Red had missed a single one so far.

Still, as much as Papyrus would like to, he didn't think he was allowed to call his alternate a friend yet. Red and Sans got along well, exchanging puns and knock-knock jokes and generally bonding over their terrible sense of humor, much to Papyrus' chagrin.

Fell was a different matter.

His grumbling may have noticeably decreased since their first meeting, but Papyrus suspected that he thought of the get-togethers more as strategic missions for potential cross-universal allyships rather than socializing. While Red, just like Sans, easily kept up a friendly (and pun-filled) conversation without sharing anything consequential, Fell made no pretense of always keeping the two of them at a metaphorical arm's length, always politely, but firmly turning down any of Papyrus’ suggestions to stay for longer than initially agreed. (Which, in turn, had led Sans to certain comments about sticks and pelvic cavities.) The few times Papyrus had seen his counterpart soften, for lack of a better word, was when the topic of conversation turned to either cooking or his cat, and those moments never lasted long before his carefully kept mask slid back into place.

Papyrus didn't take it personally, of course! Their rougher counterparts just weren't the kind of monsters to make friends easily, and with what Papyrus knew about the 'kill or be killed' universe they came from, he couldn’t expect them to be. It was simply going to be a challenge to earn their trust and friendship, and the Great Papyrus wasn’t one to back down from a challenge.

The Great Papyrus also wasn’t one to doubt his chances of success with that particular challenge. He wasn’t one to linger on how long his friend quantity had remained stagnant despite his best efforts, or on the fact that, while he himself had just barely obtained a semi-official job as a sentry, Fell had climbed up through the ranks of his own Royal Guard in record time…

Fell, who was now not only a full member of the Royal Guard, but the second-in-command, outranked only by Captain Undyne and the King himself. Who, if Red was to be believed, was single-handedly responsible for turning the previously lawless town of Snowdin into one of the safest places in his version of the Underground. Whose name was feared and respected from Snowdin all the way to the capital.

Fell… was not supposed to look this small.

He had still shown no sign of movement other than his shallow breathing. His face, the only part of him not covered in blankets, was pale, even for a skull, devoid of the faint glow of magic that was usually the sign of a healthy skeleton monster.

Papyrus swallowed dryly and increased the flow of his healing magic.

He very decisively did not think about what could have happened if Red had been held up, or if Fell had taken any more hits, or if Papyrus' magic hadn't been strong enough to stop the bleeding in time. Worrying too much wasn't helping anything right now. Besides, Red was going to do enough worrying for all of them combined once he woke up, whether he would show it or not, and apparently, there was a good chance that Sans would be joining him. So all the worrying in this house was already more than taken care of, and Papyrus didn't also need to think about things that hadn't happened, or question whether Fell remaining unconscious was to be expected with the severity of his injuries or whether it was a sign that he was- Yes, no, that was exactly what Papyrus was not thinking about.

In the same line of not-thinking, he really hoped that Red was alright.

With a sigh, Papyrus let his healing magic fade out. He needed to refocus. He sat up straight, stretching his arms and back until his spine popped; bending over his alternate like this wasn't the most comfortable position to keep for long periods of time, he realized. Not that it mattered - he would gladly take some minor discomfort if it helped Fell recover.

As quietly as possible, he scooted the chair over so he could better reach his alternate’s ribcage. But before he could even touch him, a faint noise, softer than what he would have expected, came from the end of the couch, and Papyrus' gaze darted over immediately.

Fell's head was turned towards him, his eye sockets were open, and he was staring at Papyrus with an unreadable expression.

Papyrus' shoulders sagged with relief. "Oh, thank the stars you're awake! You had me worried there for a moment - not that I thought that someone as Great and Terrible as yourself could be kept down by anything at all, of course, what a ridiculous idea!" He gave a small and very much not nervous laugh. "But, I am rambling when I should instead be asking: How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Are you comfortable, or should I get more pillows?"

Fell gave no response, which, Papyrus could somewhat understand. That had probably been at least two questions too many for someone who didn't look like he was entirely awake yet.

"How are you feeling?" he repeated, fidgeting slightly with his hands and successfully stopping himself from continuing to ramble this time.

Fell still gave no response, although he stopped staring at Papyrus, his eye lights dim and unfocused as they scanned the room. Then, with a grunt of effort, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, looking as if he was fully intending to get up.

Papyrus gave a noise of alarm and quickly reached out to stop him. "Oh, no, I believe that is not a good idea at this moment! You might hurt yourself - I mean, worse than you already - well…"

Fell let himself be guided back into the cushions without any resistance, and that was somehow more alarming than his attempt to get up in the first place. Papyrus was certain that, in any other instance, his alternate would have snapped at him for the mere suggestion that he should lie back down, and if Papyrus hadn't been concerned before, he certainly was now.

Trying his best not to let his worry show, he lightly patted Fell's shoulder and carefully tugged the blankets back up. "There you go, that's better! You just try to rest, and let us take care of everything else! I can even read you a book to help you relax, that usually works for me - although I do not know if you would enjoy Fluffy Bunny. Maybe 'A History of Puzzles'? Or maybe not, if it's too interesting to fall asleep to, that won't do, either!"

He paused his chatter to give his counterpart a closer look. Despite leaning back into the pillows again, Fell still looked tense, dim eye lights darting back and forth as if looking for something. Or searching the room for possible threats. Or both.

"Sans?" His voice was rougher and quieter than Papyrus remembered, closer to a whisper than anything else, but he supposed that was to be expected given the circumstances. Right now, Papyrus was glad to hear him speak at all.

"Your brother? He's upstairs, sleeping. He was exhausted when he came here, but Sa- Comic said he would be fine, he just needed some rest." Papyrus gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "He brought you here, to mine and Comic's house, in case you were wondering how you got here. Or, er, where you were." He probably should have mentioned that right away, but, well, it couldn't be changed now.

Fell stared at him intensely, and Papyrus couldn't tell whether he was trying to judge the truthfulness of those statements, or if he just needed a while to process the words. Then he blinked a few times, looked over the room again, and something seemed to click in his mind. Some of the tension left his face as he exhaled, sinking back into the pillows.

For a moment, Papyrus considered asking what had happened to leave him in such a state, and he had already opened his mouth to do so when he paused. Fell didn't exactly seem like he was up for any sort of extended conversation at this point, and Papyrus decided to let him rest a bit more before he started needling him with more questions.

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Papyrus cleared his non-existent throat. "Well! I was just going to heal you a bit more before you woke up, so if that's alright with you, I'll just get back to that?" When there were no objections, Papyrus brought his hand over his alternate's blanket-covered ribcage, fingers starting to glow green.

Faster than Papyrus thought his alternate could move, Fell's hand closed around his wrist before he made contact.

Papyrus stopped moving immediately. He wasn't afraid of his alternate, although he knew better than to underestimate him even in this state, if Papyrus' approach had somehow registered as a threat to him. Still, he really didn't want to startle him.

But Fell only stared at Papyrus' hand with a somewhat puzzled expression, slightly tilting his head. "Whadda ya..." He paused, frowning at his own slurred speech. When he continued after a moment, it sounded like it was taking him quite a bit of concentration to enunciate the words clearly. "What. Are you… doing?"

Oh. Right. Healing magic was… not much of a thing in Fell's universe. Not that Fell or Red had ever explicitly spoken about the topic - they very rarely spoke about anything regarding their universe, Red's occasional gushing about his brother's accomplishments notwithstanding - but Papyrus had come to his own conclusions. (Although he had wondered, with him and Fell being essentially the same monster… but that was neither here nor there.)

Papyrus straightened up slightly, as much as he could with his wrist still in Fell's grip. "Like I said, healing you! If you will allow me, that is. Which I very much hope you will, because despite my best efforts I'm afraid that you're still… not quite back to full health yet." And if that wasn't one of the biggest understatements to ever come out of his mouth, Papyrus didn't know what was.

Fell still looked confused, but he slowly released him.

"Thank you!" Papyrus gave a bright smile, which came a bit more easily than before. "Now, I'm just going to reach over there and place my hand on the blanket, alright? It shouldn't hurt, but please do let me know if it becomes uncomfortable at any-"

Another noise interrupted him, but he couldn't make out what Fell was trying to say this time.

"Pardon?"

Fell blinked furiously as if he was fighting hard to stay awake. Papyrus knew better than to tell him to go back to sleep; instead, he waited patiently for him to sort his words. "Why're ya… you… on th' chair?"

Papyrus blinked back. "Because I am planning to stay here for a while longer, and while I could stand the entire time, there wasn't really any need to, so I brought a chair from the kitchen?"

Fell huffed softly, his eye sockets starting to close before he forced them back open. "Not… what I mean… why'ren't ya on th' couch?"

"Because. You are on the couch??"

Fell stared at him - he had been doing a lot of that since he woke up -, then slowly raised his arm and patted the space behind his head. Which was mostly occupied by pillows at the moment.

"You… want me to sit on the couch with you?" Papyrus had to confirm. While they had, of course, shared the couch on movie nights before, Fell wasn't lying down on those occasions… and he didn't exactly strike Papyrus as the cuddly type.

Fell scoffed. "Obv'sly. If you're gonna keep… doin' this…" He vaguely gestured towards Papyrus, the chair he was sitting on, and the hand that Papyrus was still holding awkwardly over his ribs without touching him. "Don' need ta… need ta..." Then he let out a tired huff, clearly frustrated with his apparent struggle to finish the sentence. "Couch. Sit," he commanded, closing his eyes without waiting for a response.

Well. Alright. That was unexpected, but if Fell was this adamant about it, Papyrus couldn't really object, could he? It took a bit of shuffling, but in the end, he managed to arrange himself on the end of the couch next to Fell's head, with his legs under the pillows, and Fell seemed to have no objections to essentially lying in Papyrus' lap - or rather, lying in the pile of pillows that Papyrus had on his lap. In any case, the lack of protest was probably more of a testament to Fell's not-fully-conscious state than anything else, but it was certainly a more comfortable position for Papyrus than sitting on the chair and leaning over his alternate.

"Can I continue healing you now?" Papyrus asked again after a few moments.

He received a vague hum that sounded half like confirmation and half like Fell was falling asleep.

Papyrus took it as a 'yes'. He positioned his hand over the blankets around Fell's ribs, careful not to press on the injury, and focused on keeping his intent warm and soothing, pushing his worries to the back of his mind. Now, with one arm over his alternate, the position felt almost like a hug - another thing that Fell certainly would not have tolerated if he was fully conscious. As things were, though, there was another, even fainter hum as Fell shifted minutely in the pillows, and Papyrus got the strange impression that he was trying to curl closer.

[jamestrmtx]

Fairytale Complex - [Undertale | Sans x Reader]

[Gender Neutral, Frisk's Parent Reader | Slow Burn]

Chapter Eight | Dating Start! (Part 1 of 3)

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

It's only when you're halfway into touring through Toriel's old home that you start to question how safe your decisions are.

Even if Frisk returned home safe and sound, that still doesn't brush off your concerns over them covering stuff up for the monsters' sake, and that still doesn't negate the bizarre factor that you're completely alone with someone capable of magic -- teleportation and telekinesis, more specifically -- adding to all that the poor state of your health and how it's still far from achieving its full recovery.

"And this's where they stayed before they left the Ruins," Sans says, opening a door leading into a children's bedroom, most of the space occupied by a bed, a wardrobe, and boxes of all sorts. Evidence of there being no one to habit or look after the room for what has to be a whole month now since the Barrier broke shows through thin layers of dust and dirt on most surfaces as well as cobwebs already strewn about the corners of the room. "You, uh, should probably wear this." He offers you a piece of cloth -- a bandana, to be more precise. You eye him over as you wonder where he could've possibly gotten it from and obtain an answer when he takes out another from his jacket’s front pockets. "It's for the dust," the monster explains, chuckling. "Even if it ain't that bad, I don't want you gettin' sick again so soon." When you give in with a smile, he adds, "...Thought I was tryna drug you or somethin'?"

You nod. "Yeah."

"Well, at least you're honest 'bout it." 

You bite your smile back when he winks and look away after, still against befriending him too much with your current, limited knowledge of him. Then, you wear the bandana over your nose and mouth, though only after checking it hasn't been tampered with; finally, you tie a firm knot and approach his side, kneeling down next to a large, wooden chest when he does the same. He wipes some dust off the surface, opens it, and reveals a set of Frisk's clothes along with a few other stray belongings of theirs. Most of these are mundane and overall replaceable items, although invaluable in terms of fond memories -- these you'd taken notice of their absence in your household whenever you cleaned Frisk's bedroom during the time they were gone. There's plenty of stuff inside, from an old and worn, plush keychain once carrying their own set of house keys to the comb they used for their hair whenever they wanted to leave it below their neck. These are enough for you to start thinking about the past again and its unavoidable whirlwind of 'what-ifs', delaying whatever progress you were thinking of making in relation to moving on. "Tori stored everythin' they left behind when they went off to Snowdin, so if you wanna take any of that stuff with you, it's-"

You figure your eyes reveal you're about to give into crying when he stops talking, so you sniffle and look away again, failing to stop yourself from tearing up more when he asks, "You doing okay?"

His leveled tone and the silence that follows after his question reveal his sincerity, though you don't dare to look at him now that you're near crying up a storm. Thinking about how different life would've been had Frisk chosen to stay here at the Underground with only Toriel by their side far from alleviates the situation and -- rather -- summons a tidal wave right into your tear ducts, finally evoking the waterways you'd long since been holding back. "I- I'm okay." Your stuffy nose and stuttered reply demonstrate the complete opposite, something he appears to catch onto as well, judging by how he tries to get another look at you, only for you to shield yourself from his gaze again. "I just need a minute... But thank you, really."

When you've managed to wipe your face clean from tears, you catch a glimpse of him as you look back to see what he's doing. There's a noticeable trace of remorse present in his irises, an expression he gives background to when he turns to you and says, "Sorry about that -- It was tactless of me to show you somethin' like this so soon. And what I said didn't really top it off well, huh?"

His words are enough of a reason for you to face him with watery eyes once more. "N- No," you say, words murmured as you manage a small smile. "You don't have to apologize. That wasn't rude or anything. This is your job -- This is what you're meant to show me, and I was the one who... who started imagining things in the first place." Images of Frisk's life had they chosen to stay with Toriel continue to flash into your mind, but you manage to push most of them aside to focus on what's more important now. "It's just, I… I can't help thinking about how it would've been had… Frisk stayed here with you all." With that being let out of your chest, you take a deep breath and stand up, dusting off your clothes when you're done. "But now's not the time for me to bringing all this stuff up." You smile at him and add, "We have an agreement and a deadline. It wouldn't be fair for me to hold you back like this." You take a step back when he stands up, closes the chest, and turns to your side, somewhat wary of proximity now. "And you already did more than enough for me back at the hospital."

Leaving the room is your top priority now that you feel yourself growing too wary of everything, from the tiniest noise the empty house makes to the smallest change you can catch in the monster's face. Your walking pace is quick though restrained for the sake of politeness and discretion as you make way to the door; nonetheless, you have all your plans switched and delayed the second he places his hand over yours when you attempt to turn the handle around. Flinching is the first reaction he gets out of you, along with an instinct to push him away as far as you possibly can; still, you get a hold of yourself and only swat his hand away, a blatant signal for him to back away. Being aware of how helpful he's been the past month delivers guilt into your mind almost immediately, though you can't help feeling cornered by his presence the more you think and overthink about the situation, had he chosen to do his job as a sentry the proper way -- had he chosen to show no lenience or remorse. Whether had most monsters shown Frisk mercy for the sole sake of them being a child or for Frisk offering that mercy back to the monsters in the first place leaves you questioning over what would've happened had a more grown and morally grey person fallen here instead.

Toriel would've most likely not seen you as someone to care after.

And, based on what little you knew about the monster before you and how his magic worked, he wouldn't be so kind, either.

"What… What if I'd fallen, instead?"

You face him in the irises when you say that, and though every fiber of your being wants to apologize for nearly shoving him off of you, there's that one persistent part in your brain insisting you do things this way. 

"I'm an adult, aren't I? Did you all just show compassion because Frisk's a child?"

"Some of the souls Asgore took were still children, so it's not because of that."

Your body turns cold and your eyes stay fixed on his face. How he dared to be so bold and maintain a sober expression throughout leaves you more and more worried over who you're taking a tour with.

"Why would you say it like that?"

"'Cause I won't get anywhere sugarcoatin' the truth. Frisk made us see things differently, and that helped create a change in how we did things around here. So if you'd done the same thing, it wouldn't have mattered whether you were a kid or not."

"...And how can I believe you?"

"'Fraid only time will tell, pal."

Well-aware you're not ready to continue with the tour yet, you press your back against the door, brace yourself with a hitched breath, and take a good look at every possible change you can catch in the monster's irises. Though you weren't that good at reading facial expressions and lying was even harder to figure out the less you knew the person, his gaze doesn't falter from yours and his choice of words along with his neutral tone are good enough to make you believe him for now -- at least, sufficient for you to keep the tour going and not doubt over the reason why he'd helped you get to a hospital, doing almost everything himself for reasons unknown beyond a paper keeping you bound to being protected by him. "I'm sorry for pushing you like that," you say, gaze faltering. "I didn't mean to act that way, and I'm... I'm sorry if I hurt you." You look back to him and see he's returned to his normal self; his serious expression's no longer present, but rather, his worryingly casual self makes its comeback -- the one you saw most often on him regardless of how tense or dire a situation became.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" you ask, taking a step closer, fueled by worry and a lingering, parental instinct.

"Only my feelings -- But just a lil' bit, though." he replies, grinning. "And here I was, thinkin' we made it past acquaintances to friends."

"Listen, I-"

"Don't sweat it, pal. I'm only jokin' with you."

"Still, I owe you a lot. And it's awful of me to be treating you like this. Are you… Are you okay with continuing with the tour today? I understand if you don't want to anymore."

"We can keep going." He winks. "You said it was my job, wasn't it? I won't back away now, unless you needa rest or somethin'."

With no further words exchanged between you, he helps settle Frisk's belongings into your backpack and you both leave the room after you're done.

The walk on the way to your next destination's quiet, up until he's about to push open the door leading to what you assume's none other than Snowdin.

"That being said…" He looks at you then. "Do ya wanna rest and eat somethin' now? It's been a few hours since we met at the bus stop. And I'm pretty sure there's a shopkeeper lady still sellin' stuff around here."

"Really? Even though everyone's left?" you ask, following him along when he opens the door. It gives in with an abrupt, ear-piercing creak, and a frigid gust of wind quickly makes its way into the home; the harshness of the cold can be felt even through the jacket you're wearing, though you don't want to show further weakness. Keeping the bandana on seems useful for more reasons now, though you take it off your face and wrap it around your neck for more warmth.

"Believe it or not, the whole law 'bout this place bein' dangerous gets bent easily whenever people wanna act as tourists on an island. The shopkeeper had no luck finding a job up there, so she saw that chance down 'ere and took it. It's a bit of a sacrifice for her to keep living down 'ere while her family just keeps moving on, but she says it's one worth taking." He stops to look at you, as if having an epiphany. "But that's just life in a nutshell, ain't it? You're pretty much doing somethin' similar by getting to know us 'stead of just hating us right from the start, aren’t ya? Almost everythin' worth doing ain't easy, so we gotta give each other credit where it's due."

• • •

His POV

The human returns from the shop fifteen minutes later with a tray of cinnamon bunnies and two hot chocolates, both they seem to have trouble carrying when their glasses fog up with the steam rising from both desserts. Sans snickers at the sight, though he still approaches them and helps them carry the two cups back to his spot at the front doorway of Grillby's old place, still warm with the owner's leftover flame magic. Then, he sits back down with them there and observes as they take a pastry with a napkin and offer it out to him.

"Go ahead," he says. "I've had 'em before, so I'd like to know what you think of 'em first."

(Y/N) nods and brings the pastry to their mouth, taking almost half of it away in one bite. Sans tries not to stare for too long, though he finds that a challenge when their face lights up and their stance straightens, both of these already revealing what they think about the cinnamon bunny. "It tastes great," they say, taking a break from eating to look at the three other pastries still left out on the tray. "And they're cute-looking, too. No wonder this place is so popular!" They finish their first pastry and, with a new napkin, offer one out to him. "Now you have some," they add, smiling at him. "Working on an empty stomach isn't good for you."

"A dead man talkin' about a hanged one, huh?" he taunts, grinning at them. "When's the last time you sat down to eat like this -- without any rush?"

They roll their eyes, albeit playfully. "...When I had lunch with Papyrus a few weeks ago? And, uh... When Toriel and Brenda brought me food at the hospital, maybe?"

"See what I mean?"

"Oh, shut up." They let out a laugh. The cinnamon bunny in their hand almost falls as a result of their outburst, but they manage to save it in a way that lands back on the tray, though still squishing up the shape of what once used to be a round bunny. "Look what you made me do!"

He looks down at the tray to see the situation's even more catastrophic than simply the pastry getting squished up by the fall. One of the bunny ears isn't there anymore and instead remains equally squished by the napkin they've yet to let go of. "It's not that bad," he says, snickering. "Missing ear aside, it's well... still recognizable."

Seeing an opportunity for him to try something, the skeleton moves a bit closer to their side, leans into the napkin in their hold, and bites on the missing ear, backing away after he has a secure hold of it. As expected -- and in sharp comparison to the incident at Toriel's old home -- they aren't on-edge presently and don't flinch away when being in closer contact with him.

He gulps the bit of pastry down and spares a quick look at their face when he's done, only to see them frozen in the very same spot they were left in before. "Uh... You okay?"

"Did you really just try that with me?" they question back, facing him with wide eyes.

Their previous stillness makes more sense now, yet right as he's about to apologize and believe that he's screwed up twice in one day, the human bursts out a laugh, sets the napkin down, and smacks his back, a playful act despite how hard they do it. "Nice one." They chuckle. "Really wouldn't have expected something so bold from you, but anyway..." They look at him with calm eyes -- as if he hadn't just crossed that many boundaries with them with one simple, yet highly invasive action. "That reminds me... How's that self-discovery stuff going for you? Have you... opened up to your brother about this yet?"

He's grateful they wait until a few passerby walk away before they ask that question, so he answers quickly with, "I'm still workin' on it, but I do feel more comfortable now."

They smile and all the (assumedly) fake shock from before fades when they say, "That's great!" Just as he thinks things can't get more flustering today, the human takes a new napkin and uses it to wipe something off his cheekbone. "You had some cinnamon on your face, by the way."

"Thanks," he says, facing away and taking in a sharp breath.

Hundreds upon thousands of questions begin surfacing into his mind, from something as simple as "What am I feeling right now?" and "Why do I even feel this way to begin with?" to "How did (Y/N) not freak the hell out when having me take such a risky move with that cinnamon bunny?"

Based on how they reacted when being put on the spot back at Toriel's old home, they clearly weren't ready for him to reveal whatever forlorn emotions he was beginning to feel recently.

And based on his own actions in response to those feelings, he clearly wasn't, either.

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

• • •

This was meant to be this Monday's update, but I've been having some health-related issues the past week, and I'm still currently under recovery (which is... honestly nothing new for the readers of the old version of this fanfic -- I’m slowly getting used to my crappy immune system, lol).

In short, expect an update on the usual Saturday schedule, and another extra update on Sunday to make up for both Monday and Wednesday's missed updates (it's midnight on a Thursday right now, so I, uh... still ended up missing Wednesday's one -- oof).

With that being said, take care, and stay safe out there, everyone!

• • •

Tag List (Comment or message me if you want to be added to [or removed from] it!)

@the-simp-express

@nektotersh

@disastrous-l0vebug

@therealchickenjoe

@mintyflakes025

@pandaquick

[1-800-hellraiser]

Underfell!Sans x Female!Reader

Hello! I'm back with an Underfell Sans oneshot! I'm an absolute S I M P for this man. Anyways, PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER BEFORE THE ONESHOT!!! Underfell is NOT my Au, it belongs to @VictheUnderfella. Undertale is made by Toby Fox, Sans and Underfell!Sans aren't my characters! The reader will use She/Her pronouns (sorry dudes and nb pals). Have fun reading :)

❗DISCLAIMER❗

This oneshot contains mentions of verbal and physical abuse, mentions of the aftermath of abuse, smoking, and swearing! If you are triggered by/ uncomfortable with reading about these topics, I suggest you don't read this oneshot. If you're not triggered by/ uncomfortable with reading about these topics, you can proceed forwards. 

     I also made a reader insert, your character is not a human. The character can be found here. I will write this in a way where it includes everyone, I just made the ref sheet so I can at least have something to go off of in terms of outfit/makeup/species of monster.

I Wanna Be Yours

Word count: 3,936

Song: I Wanna Be Yours - Arctic Monkeys

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"Secrets I have held in my heart are harder to hide than I thought. Maybe I just wanna be yours. I wanna be yours."

      Flick. Your lighter lights with a simple motion of your thumb. You hold the lit cigarette to your dark colored lips and take a puff. You developed the nasty habit of smoking when you first became a part of the Royal Guard. Being a Guardswomen is tough, considering you actually had a kid fall down into the underground a day ago. You never thought it would happen to be honest, maybe you can finally get out of this hell hole and away from the insufferable assholes that inhabit it. Except for Sans. Sans has been your only escape, your safe haven. You met him through his brother, Papyrus. When you first became a Royal Guardswomen, you met Papyrus and Sans. After having a somewhat awkward conversation with the smaller skeleton, you both hit it off instantly. You two actually share a sentry station near the Ruins.

      Both of you share puns and stories with one another. Stories about the good, the bad, and sometimes, the ugly. Sans isn't the most trusting person. It took you a while for him to open up to you about his past. About a year and a half to be exact. Once he told you a bit about his past, you felt so bad for him. Even though he doesn't want pity, you can't help but feel bad. His brother is a very verbally and physically abusive person, especially when things don't go his way. Papyrus usually takes his anger out on someone, and that someone is usually Sans. You want to take him away from this situation. You want him to live an abuse-free life. You want him to be happy. As soon as you leave the underground, you want to take him away with you, if he lets you, of course. But for now, you just have to be there for him when he needs you to be. 

      "Ay Y/n, you okay?" Sans says, waving his skeletal hand in front of your face. "Uh, yeah, I'm good, I just kinda zoned out." You mumble, taking another drag of your cigarette. Sans looks at you skeptically before returning back to what he was doing. Suddenly Sans turns to you "Ya wanna go to Grillby's?" He asks. "Yeah, I got nothin' else to do." You respond. He takes your hand and teleports into the small diner. You two take a seat at your usual spot at the bar. "I'll take my usual," Sans says to Grillby, you order your f/f. You and Sans just chill and talk while enjoying your meals. After cackling at Sans' story of Papyrus somehow getting his head stuck in a bucket, he goes quiet. You ask him what's wrong. "Can I ask you somethin' Bud?" He asks. "Shoot at me." You reply. "What would you do if you lost the person you love most?" He questions, you're a bit stunned at the serious question. 

     "I think I'd go crazy. I don't think I could live without the person I love most. Why do you ask?" You question the edgy-looking skeleton. "No reason, I'm just curious 's all." He says, shrugging. You nodd skeptically, you knew he was going to say something else, but then decided against it.  After your meal, you realize it's actually pretty late. About six pm, to be exact, both of your sentry shifts ended two hours ago. "Shit! I gotta go, Papyrus is going to crucify me if I'm not back by six. Same time tomorrow, Dollface?" You chuckle, "Same time everyday, Sans," You retort. "I wish he meant to call me Dollface." Wow, that thought came out of nowhere. A blush spreads across your p/f/c (pastel favorite color) cheeks. You and Sans always call each other pet names, platonically, of course. Sighing, you begin walking to your apartment. There was a small apartment complex behind Grillby's that you live in. You used to live in Waterfall, but moved to Snowdin once you got paired with Sans to your sentry station. Even though sentry can change in an instant, you and Sans mostly stay in Snowdin. 

       Arriving at your apartment, you fish your keys out of your pants pocket. You open the door and sigh a sigh of content. After chucking off your boots near the door, you trudge to your bedroom and change into a pair of black sweatpants and a baggy blue shirt that says "Big Dick Is Back In Town" on it in Times New Roman font. You turn out the lights and collapse on your bed. Within seconds, you're fast asleep. At seven thirty am your alarm rings in your ear. You proceed with your morning routine, you shower, do your hair, put on some makeup, and get dressed. When you go to get dressed, you realise something. "Fuck I forgot to wash my work clothes yesterday!" You groan. You literally have four of the same pairs of pants and shirts you wear for work. You sigh exasperatedly, you have to wear the same ones you did yesterday again. Grabbing your phone, you set a reminder to wash your work clothes tonight at six thirty.

      After that, you put on your boots and leave your apartment. Taking a few shortcuts, you arrive at your shared sentry station, cigarette in between your clawed fingers. You sigh, Sans isn't even at the station yet. Anxiously, you wait at the station. About ten minutes later, Sans finally appears at the station, panting and shaking. "Are you okay?" You ask, concerned. "Does it look like I'm fuckin' okay to ya'?" He snaps back. Shocked, you stay silent. You know he doesn't mean to snap at you when he's mad, it's best to give him some space for a bit. You excuse yourself from the station, saying you forgot your phone at your apartment. "Make it quick, I don't want Papyrus to catch you." He says, your breath hitches. Oh, so that's what happened this morning. "I'll be careful, I promise." You reassure, taking a shortcut through the woods to Grillby's. You go in, and order Sans' usual and your f/f to go. As soon as you get the food you leave for the station again. You pop out the same way you entered, right behind the station.

     "I'm back." You announce, setting the plastic bag containing food in the front of the sentry station. "Where'd that come from?!" "Uh...Grillby's?" You say, "No-I mean-" sans sighs "I thought you had to go grab your phone from your apartment." He says, you chuckle. "Yeah, I lied. I thought you needed a little pick-me-up, considering the way you came to the station this morning." You explain, tail swishing a bit behind you at the uncomfortable subject. "Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate it, Doll." He says in a sincere manner. You love when he's soft with you when no one is around. In the Underground, it's considered "weak" to show genuine emotion outside of your home. You wish it wasn't like that, but sadly, this is the reality you have to live in for now. For now, you can only be there for Sans when he needs to show his emotions. He can't even show emotions in his own home, Papyrus will be a dick and judge him for it. It's not fair at all. 

       "Ya alright, Y/n?" Sans asks, pulling out of your thoughts. "Hm? Oh yeah." You respond, now realising how angry you must look. "Yeah, you looked pissed. Is somethin' up?" He asks, you sigh. You knew you'd have to bring this up eventually. "I'm just, so angry at your brother." "Why?" You look down at Sans. "Sans, he treats you like utter garbage! Why do you keep going back to him?" You sigh out exasperatedly. "Because I care about him, even if he doesn't care about me." He says sadly. Your e/c eyes widen. You get it now. He's the only one he has left that's his family. "Sans, I'm sorry. I know Papyrus is your brother, I'm just worried. All the scars he leaves you with. What if he damages you permanently?" You explain, biting on your black claw. Another habit you obtained from joining the Royal Guard. You look at Sans for an answer, you see a gentle red blush spread across his face. "I appreciate you caring Bud, I really do. But I can handle it myself." He says, looking you in the eyes. His red pinpricks aligning with your e/c irises. You sigh and avert your gaze down.

     "Okay, if you say so. But if anything ever happens, call me, I'll let you stay with me, okay?" You say, giving Sans your number, witten down on a tiny slip of paper. He says he will. The rest of the day goes off without a hitch. You and Sans finish your shift (on time this time) and part ways until tomorrow. You almost kick your boots off at the door before your phone starts going off. You quickly pull it out of your pants pocket, you sigh in relief. It's just the alarm you set for your laundry. You take your bin full of laundry to the basement of the complex and throw your clothes in one of the cleaner looking machines. As you put your laundry bin down next to the washer, your phone starts to go off. You check and Sans is trying to call you. You immediately answer the call. "Hey dude, what's up?" You say into the speaker. "Y-y/n, could I come over?" You hear his raspy, pained voice through the receiver.

      "Yes, of course! Do you need any help? You sound hurt?" You say panicked. "No Dollface, I got it." He says, you do not accept that. "Too bad. I'm coming over anyway." Before he could protest, you hang up the phone and speed out of your apartment complex. Thankfully, Sans' house isn't that far. After a short, speedwalk, you're staring down his front door. You rasp on the wooden door, waiting for a response. You were going to knock again, Sans opens the door, you let out a small gasp. Sans looks terrible, he was covered in his own blood. "Come on, you're staying with me tonight," you say, taking his boney hand. As soon as you start walking, you notice he also has a limp. If Papyrus were some random ass monster and not Sans' brother, you'd be covered in dust by now. You have a very motherly instinct, but only for Sans. You've never felt this way about somebody else before, you have no idea why either. 

       Once you and Sans reach your apartment, you bring him to your bathroom and seat him on the toilet (lid closed, of course). Grabbing your medical kit and some alcohol, you return to the bathroom and sit on the edge of your tub. "Could you take your sweater off? It'll be easier to clean your wounds." You ask, Sans slowly takes off his crimson red sweater. Suddenly, your bathroom gets really warm. You gasp at Sans' three cracked ribs, a bunch of cuts all over the others. You look up at him with concern written across your p/f/c face. "I don't want to talk about it right now." Sans mumbles, looking down. You take Sans' cheek bones in your hands, you tilt his head up to look at you. "That's okay, I'm just worried about you. You really don't deserve this Sans." You say, pulling your hands away from his face. You pour some alcohol on the washcloth and press it to one of the cuts on his ribs. He curses under his breath as you continue to clean him up. You'll have to call Alphys later about Sans' ribs, see what she can do about them. 

      "Alright Sans, just chill on my couch for right now. Uh, I gotta go real quick, I'll be right back," you say awkwardly, he gives you a thumbs up. Unlocking your door, you head down to switch your laundry. Once you come back up, you notice Sans wasn't sitting on the couch anymore. You panic and begin looking around your apartment, you stop in the entrance of your tiny kitchen, Sans was making something. "Sans, what are you doing?" You ask, he jumps a bit, then winces. "I'm making us dinner?" Sans says, the room starts to get warm again. "Sans, you don't have to do that. You should sit down and relax." You encourage, he shakes his head at your proposition. "Nah Dollface, this is the least I can do for you." He says, continuing to cook a mysterious food. You come up behind Sans, "Sans please, I appreciate the gesture, but you have three broken ribs, you need to sit down and chill out." Sans sighs "Fineeeeeee." He whines, you chuckle at him. "What were you gonna make anyway?" "Nothin much, just some Spaghetti and meatballs." "Okay, gotcha." You say, taking over the kitchen to make dinner. 

      Wiping your forehead of sweat, you finished cooking dinner. You walk into the living room, and set his and your plate on the coffee table in front of the couch. You sit next to him and start eating. "Holy fuck Doll, this shit's amazing!" Sans exclaims, shoving more pasta into his mouth. You chuckle and thank him, as you keep eating. After you both are finished eating you run down to the basement one more time to grab your laundry and return to your apartment. On your way. Back to tour apartment however, you notice that Sans has been calling you 'Doll' and 'Dollface' a lot more than he used to. You shrug it off as him being thankful for your hospitality. You return to your apartment for the last time with your laundry basket in your hands. "I'll be right back, I just gotta put away my laundry." You say, Sans looks over the back of the couch at you and gives you a nod of understanding. You quickly fold your clothes so Sans doesn't have to wait awkwardly on your couch. As soon as you're done, you put the basket in your closet and leave. When you return to your living room, you discover Sans asleep on the couch.

      A small smile forms on your face as you go get him a blanket. After that, you change into a red tye-dye pair of sweatpants and a tank top. Soon after you lay down, you drift into a deep slumber. A few hours later, you are ripped from your sleep by a scream. You pull off your blanket and run to the living room. "Sans?!" You say worriedly and panicked. You see him tossing and turning on the couch, he's having a nightmare. Sans has told you about these haunting nightmares before, it usually happens after a bad day with Papyrus. Not really knowing how to deal with this situation, you sit on the edge of the couch and try to reach for him. As soon as your hand makes contact with his shoulder, he pulls away and curls up into a tiny ball. "Sans, it's just me." You say gently, scooting a bit closer to his trembling and sobbing form. You try to comfort him again, and he doesn't pull away this time. You pull him a bit closer to you. He rests his head on your chest and clenches his arms around you. You massage his skull with your fingertips and whisper sweet nothings to him. 

       After a while of comforting him, he falls asleep again. So you lay on the couch, Sans' head resting on top of you, blanket draped over your two sleeping bodies. After a few minutes, you fall back to sleep. You awake to one of Mettaton's shows. You were never interested in the performer robot that much, but this episode was a (what looks to be) a well made CGI human defusing a bunch of bombs. After a while, you forget about Sans laying on your chest, until he wakes up and jumps off of you like a startled cat. "Jesus! Just scare the shit outta me why don't ya?" You say, sarcasm lacing your tone. "Ah, sorry 'bout that Doll." "You're fine Sans." You chuckle. Looking up at Sans, you notice a light red blush across his cheekbones. Your heart skips a beat as you look at him, then you get up not wanting to make this any more awkward than it already is. Opening the fridge, you look for something to eat. You have eggs, bacon, and pancake mix in one of your cupboards, you take out all the ingredients you need for breakfast and start cooking. Sans insists on helping, but you tell him he needs to to relax because of his broken ribs.

      After a half hour, breakfast is completely done. You fix you and Sans a plate and bring it to the couch. Sans looks very fixated on Mettaton's show. This was a rerun of a previous show. You set the breakfast down in front him, he immediately begins choking down food. "Holy shit Sans! Slow down your going to choke." You scold. "But we're gonna be late to work if we don't." He explains, scarfing down his meal. You give him a confused look. "Work? We're not going to work today, we have to call Alphys over to see what she can do about your ribs." You say, you can feel Sans look at you like you had just told him you had a death wish. "I can't, Papyrus would freak out-" "Papyrus can suck my dick!" You cut him off out of anger. "Your health is WAY more important to me than what Papyrus might do." You snap, Sans sits in shock. You've never snapped at him like that before. Looking at his face, you realise what you just did. "Sans I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that, I just got to frustrated." You explain, Sans' face softens at your words. "Nah it's okay, I completely understand where you're coming from." Sans sighs, and rubs the back of his neck anxiously.

      To defuse the thick tension, you tell Sans you have to call Alphys and you'll be back shortly. You shuffle awkwardly to your room to make the call. Pressing the contact "Weeb Lord'' with a picture you took off of Alphys' social media (it's a picture of a trash can with several red sparkly filters over it) and press the call button. "Yo Alphys" "What is it Y/n?" She says annoyedly. "So, I need you to come over to look at Sans' ribs." You say, "What? Why?" "Papyrus and him got into it yesterday and he's staying with me for a while." You explain, Alphys makes a noise of understanding from the receiver. "Alright, I'll be over in 10." She says, you can hear her shuffling around. "'Ight see you when you get here." You end, hanging up the phone, not really wanting to go back out and just awkwardly sit with Sans, you decide to have a smoke. Grabbing you cigarettes and lighter, you begin to head out of your apartment. "Where are ya going?" Sans asks, still staring at the T.v. "I'm just going to have a smoke, I'll be back soon." You reassure yourself as you leave the apartment. Maybe taking a smoke wasn't such a good idea. It's cold as balls outside, you shiver as you take drags of your cigarette. 

     After you're done, you are about to go inside, but a certain nerdy lizard shows up. She follows you up to your apartment and in through the front door. "Ay look what the cat dragged in." Sans teases, Alphys glares at him. "Nah I'm just joking with ya, how've you been?" "Okay, yourself?" She asks back, Sans shrugs. "Eh, could be better." "Yeah, I heard. Would you mind taking your sweater off for me?" She asks, he reluctantly takes off his sweater again. Alphys studies the three cracked ribs for a second. "Hmmm. I think the best I can do for you is to wrap you up. Other than that, there's nothing I can do." She explains, beginning to wrap Sans' ribs. "You'll have to not go to work for a few days, take it easy. No lifting, no fast movements, nothing." She drones on. "Your best option is to stay with Y/n for now so they can help you heal properly." She states, finishing up wrapping Sans' ribs.

      You let out a relieved breath you didn't even know you were holding. You had hoped that Alphys would tell him to stay with you, Papyrus would probably just hurt him more in all honesty. "I'm going to give you some morphine to help ease the pain a bit." She says, handing Sans an orange pill bottle. "Take two when you wake up, and when you go to bed, if you notice the pain going away, then only take one per day." She explains. You and Sans both nod. "Thank you, Dr. Alphys." you say, Alphys nods. She takes her tote bag full of medical equipment, bids you and Sans goodbye, then leaves. You sigh, and sit next to Sans on the couch. You begin to think, why do you feel so nervous around him all of a sudden. Your heart skips a beat whenever he calls you "Doll" or "Dollface", his laugh gives you butterflies, you want him to talk to you forever, just listening to his New York accent makes you want to kiss him. You can't take hiding your feelings from him anymore, you have an undying love for Sans. 

       "S-sans, I gotta tell you something." You stutter out, Sans turns to you. "Yeah, what is it Dollface?" He asks, your heart beats faster and faster every passing second. "I think I wanna be yours, Sans." You manage to get out. As soon as those words leave your mouth, you regret everything. "Y/n, I...I think I wanna be yours too." Sans mumbles, scooching a bit closer to you. You move closer and closer to each other until your thighs are squished together. Sans cups your cheek with his hand, you place one hand on his shoulder and the other behind him. Sans sets his other hand on your thigh, you lean in and give him a smooch on his sharp teeth. You pull away before Sans' hand moves from your cheek to the back of your neck, pulling you into a more passionate kiss. The passionate kiss turns into a makeout session. Both of your mouths moving in sync, tongues sliding over each other, soft moans come from both of your mouths.

       After a minute of missing, you two pull away, a string of clear and translucent red saliva connecting to your mouths. "Oh my god....that was amazing." You pant, leaning back into the couch. Sans nods his head in agreement. "I'm so glad you confessed to me, Sweetheart. I've had feelings for you since we were stationed at our sentry station together." Sans explains, your heart skips a beat at your new nickname. You blush. "I'm so glad I met you." You say, leaning your head on his shoulder. "Same here Doll." Sans responds, leaning his skull on your head. You're both finally safe and happy.

[secret-time-is-here]

An Error's Journey

Chapter 12

Previous - First - Next

Another human walked out into Snowdin just weeks after he got his new job as a sentry. He was careful to tail from afar. Hiding behind trees, houses, and in plain sight at the different sentry stations when other sentrys weren’t there.

This human he was able to see alive, for once. From their battles, he saw that their soul was a deep blue, integrity. Unlike the previous two humans, they seemed to have specific items that helped them in battle, an old tutu and their ballet shoes.

It was difficult following through all of Snowdin, even more so when he needed to take a break from walking so much. The third human eventually settled down in a hotel for the night, and he headed back home.

He greeted Papyrus as he walked in, and found Lust waiting for him in his room.

“Heya, hun. Tired?” He could only nod, “I can teach you something to help with that.”

“Enlighten me.” he huffed, sitting down on his bed, a mere mattress on the ground once again.

“I’m going to teach you how to teleport.” Sans let out a real laugh at that, something he hadn’t done in a while, “Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. Most AUs the Gaster of the world would have taught Sans how to before he disappeared, but due to my meddling, that wasn’t able to happen. So instead I get the honor.”

“Honor?”

“Yeah, there’s not a lot about the skeleton race, but from what I know, teleporting or shortcutting as some call it is an ancient magic.” Lust explained, standing up.

Lust then turned around and held a hand out to him, and with a sigh, he got back up on shaky legs.

Suddenly he felt like he was squashed and then stretched again like taffy, and he opened his eyes to the scene of the tall grass fields of Waterfall, Lust admiring the sight as well.

“Sorry should’ve warned you, shortcutting can be difficult-” Lust smiled and then turned to Sans, and his eyes widened “-the... first time... around.”

“Something wrong?”

“No, it’s just… your eye lights were stars for a moment there.” Pure love shown through Lust’s expression, “Caught me off guard, didn’t know you could get any cuter.”

Sans simply laughed. “Come on, I’ll walk you through the steps.”

It was another hour or so before they headed home, and soon enough Sans was falling asleep in the comforting embrace of his lover’s arms.

The next day was far less of a struggle, teleporting to far better hiding places that he wouldn’t normally be able to get to. A few he could even watch the human from for a while, as they moved around Snowdin for a little bit longer.

Thankfully Undyne was distracting Papyrus for a few days, something about a movie series that Alphys had found in the dump and introduced Undyne to. Apparently, at some point, the two had met, likely at the dump. He couldn’t remember the name of the movie series, something long and confusing, but he does remember Alphys saying it was from a genre called “Anime”

At last, the human reached Waterfall, but Sans quickly lost sight of them, the next he knew the human was running out from behind the waterfall and a sentry was chasing them down. Their tutu was gone, likely lost in their escape.

Sans had to stand by and watch as the sentry chased the human deeper into Waterfall, and after a wrong turn, into a dead end.

The human attempted to hide in the tall grass, it would’ve likely worked if the grass wasn’t a small patch in the middle of the room. The Sentry attacked and the human lost. Their ballet shoes tangled with the grass and were left behind as the Sentry carried the body away.

Papyrus was upset to miss the human but didn’t complain much more than that.

The next few weeks crawled by painfully.

At night, he was plagued with vivid dreams of Integrity, as he began to refer to them. Their scared face played on repeat in a sick one ticket showing made by his mind. The playback of Integrity's death taunting him.

Not all humans are bad, if they were given a chance, Integrity could’ve lived happily as Chara had. Stars, they didn’t even learn the kid’s name.

By day, he dreaded a new human coming part-time, and full time followed the “Script” of his timeline.

Just as Lust predicted, soon the prank happened, he found an odd liking for ketchup and became a regular at Grillby’s. He grew to be punnier and relaxed a lot, not so uptight like he was when he was the Royal Scientist.

He often caught Lust staring at him with a sad smile.

It was a month after Integrity died that another human walked out of the ruins. Sans took the liberty of personally escorting them through to Asgore.

This human, despite being a child, was highly intelligent, nearly reaching Sans’ caliber. Their eyes were hidden behind a pair of foggy glasses, and the rest of their face often stuck in their torn notebook. Their soul trait was Perseverance. The human enjoyed the nickname and didn’t enlighten Sans with their real name.

Snowdin proved easy, shortcutting them past Papyrus’ sentry station and explaining things to the other Sentrys, who he’d grown closer to as they were also regulars at Grillbys. They thankfully listened, and let him pass through. He escorted them to the Inn for the night and asked them to wait for him the next morning.

They didn’t wait.

Sans frantically teleported about Snowdin and Waterfall searching for them, and with unfortunate timing, watched Gerson strike them down with a final blow.

Gerson pocketed the glasses and notebook and then hurled Perserverence off to the Lab.

That night felt like one of the hardest in his life, and so did the nights following. Restless, he began taking naps during the day, no matter how much Papyrus insisted he was being lazy.

-

All characters belong to their respected creators

[lynn-does-stuff]

More than Friends

A Kustard Oneshot

—————

“You suck at this game.”

“Shut up! It’s only because my hands are tired!”

“Tell that to your ever growing list of losses.”

“Shut up!”

Fell began laughing at his best friend’s pout. This only caused Classic to huff and turn away and pout even more. Which also caused Fell to laugh even harder. Which ended up in a chain reaction of Classic growing more and more upset before he did the only thing appropriate for the situation. As Fell was laughing so hard that tears were starting to form, Classic reached behind them and grabbed one of the pillows from his bed. He then proceeded to smack him with the puffy object.

That shut him up.

“Oh it’s on.” Fell said in a low voice. He quickly stood up on the bed and dropped the game controller on the floor, grabbing the other pillow. They ended up participating in a full on pillow war, each of them being smacked and then immediately hitting the other. They were jumping on the bed as they tried to dodge the other’s attacks, which caused them both to be uneasy with their footing and and stumble a few times, which caused even more laughs between the two of them. All the while the sounds of large guffaws and a forgotten video game theme filled the room.

Eventually, the two of them crashed to the bed, still a mess of laughter. They could barely breathe, for they had worked up quite the sweat, something they found they had been doing more often due to their strong friendship.

The two lay there for a bit, trying to catch their breath and staring at the ceiling. It was almost peaceful, just two best friends hanging out and having a good time.

Suddenly, the tranquility of it all was interrupted as Fell’s phone dinged, signifying a text message. Groaning, he sat up and looked at his phone, then groaned some more and flopped back down on the bed.

Classic sat up and smirked at his companion’s behavior. “Oh? What’s gotten the grumpy cat upset now?”

Fell just groaned again. “Boss texted me. Wanted me to come home. Here for too long I guess.”

“Aww, well I guess you should get going then.” Classic sighed, only now starting to calm down from their earlier squabble.

“Yeah, guess so.” Fell stood up and started to grab his things. He walked over to Classic’s nightstand and grabbed his red turtleneck, slipping it over his dark gray tee shirt. He then grabbed his jacket and slipped that on as well before heading to the door. Classic got up and stretched before following him out of his bedroom.

When they reached the front door, Classic stood in the doorway, waving Fell off. They called out their farewells to each other before Classic almost closed the door. However, before he could, Fell called back again.

“Oh yeah! And next time, I want an opponent!”

“Hey!”

Fell started laughing again as he continued to walk home. Classic shut the door then shivered, for he was still wearing just a light gray tee shirt after all. He had taken off his jacket when they were playing games in his room earlier because it was so hot in there.

Hot... Fell was hot..

Classic kind of wished it was so hot in his room that Fell would have been forced to take off his tee shirt as well, revealing his rib cage to Classic’s eyes.

Classic’s eyes went wide as he realized what he was thinking, a light blue blush dusted across his face. He bit his lower lip as he tried to shake the thought from his mind. The worst thing is that these thoughts have occurred many times before.

Classic and Fell were best friends. When the Multiverse event happened and all of the incode characters were able to become outcodes, they immediately hit it off. Classic had been a little surprised at the appearance of his edgy self, but he was a carefree monster, so he didn't shove him away like Fell thought he would. Ever since, the two have been nearly inseparable. They did almost everything together, like talking about their timelines, playing video games, and even sharing all of their deepest secrets.

Classic smiled at that. Almost all of them. There was no way Fell would be allowed to know his secret. No way in hell would he reveal his true feelings for his best friend. He didn't want to ruin their friendship, Classic wasn't sure what he would do if Fell left him. They relied on each other, and they needed each other.

So, he shoved the dream deep down into the abyss of his soul before collecting himself. They had left their earlier game running after all. Classic smiled to himself.

If he could beat his feelings, he could beat Fell at that stupid game.

***

A few days had passed and Fell still hadn't asked to come over again. They still texted every night to check in with each other and chat, but apparently Fell's brother was working him to death and couldn't get away. So, Classic spent those days lying in his room, avoiding all work possible. He was starting to get a little bored though. All he had been doing was texting Fell and playing that game. He was over it, the bosses were easy to beat, he'd almost mastered the characters, and that theme song was stuck in his head and now it was just annoying.

Classic sighed. He didn't want to do anything, but at the same time he was done with the nothing. So, he sat up and got on his phone and started texting Fell again.

Classic smiled to himself and stood up off the bed. He slipped on his jacket over his gray tee shirt and left his room. He slowly trudged down the stairs, hands in pockets, when a loud voice filled the room.

"SANS! THERE YOU ARE! YOU FINALLY LEFT YOUR ROOM! ARE YOU FINALLY GOING TO YOUR SENTRY STATION?"

Classic looked up to see his brother in the kitchen. He bit his lower lip as he thought of an excuse. However, he was known to come up with ways out of sticky situations like these.

"Nah, I'm too lazy. Plus, I'd just sleep all day. Don't wanna steal the credit from your work and all."

Papyrus seemed a little struck back at that before grinning. "OF COURSE! I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO DOES ANY WORK AT ALL, SO I SHOULD GET THE CREDIT! MAYBE THEN I'LL BE IN THE ROYAL GUARD!"

Classic laughed as he strolled on into the kitchen. He walked over to the fridge and took a bottle of ketchup out of it, taking a nice, long drink of the tangy substance. He loved that taste, the tangy goodness as it slid down your throat was amazing, and it went with just about everything. And while it was good with other things, it was amazing just on its own. Nothing else to hide some of it's flavor away.

Papyrus just sighed at his brother's shenanigans. He truly didn't understand his obsession over it. He honestly hated the condiment himself. It was too tangy for his liking, nothing like the spaghetti sauce he used. But wait.. wasn't that made from tomatoes? And isn't ketchup as well? Then why don't they taste the same? Also, if you can put tomatoes in the form of ketchup on a hotdog, can you put tomatoes but in the form of sauce on it? And what about spaghetti? Was that why people made a face when they ate it? Was it because he was supposed to put ketchup on it?

Papyrus sat there, pondering to himself as Classic finished his bottle of ketchup. As he went to throw the bottle away, he saw his brother standing still for once, dead set on whatever it was that was going on in his mind. He chuckled a bit before leaving the puzzled Papyrus behind.

Classic closed the door behind him and breathed in the cold Snowdin air. He shivered slightly as he began walking. How much he wished he had Fell right next to him, holding his hand to warm him up, or maybe even wrapping an arm around his shoulder as they walked.

Classic's eyes widened as he realized what his thoughts had drifted to, blushing furiously. He stopped dead in his tracks at the thought and tried to shake it from his mind. Suddenly he realized he needed to teleport to the surface to go to the movies, silently cursing himself for not realizing it sooner and sparing him from these thoughts.

He brought up his hand and snapped, a sudden tingling feeling erupting all over his body. He felt light, yet heavy at the same time as a faint blue swirl of magic encircled him before he vanished. When he appeared again he felt the tingling feeling disappear as he stumbled slightly, slowly recovering from such a long distance travel. He looked up, suddenly realizing where he was as his eyes widened.

No matter how many times he sees it, the surface will always marvel him. The vibrant colors painted the sky, something that was impossible to witness while they were still underground. There was an infinite amount of space and plenty of room for all of the monsters and humans to live together peacefully.

In his daze Classic failed to hear the oncoming footsteps behind him. Suddenly a hand fell onto his shoulder making him tense up and his eye flare dimly.

“Hey.”

Classic relaxed and let his eye flare go out. Fell had just arrived and stared at the sun with him, hand still on shoulder. Classic relaxed even more at the realization that this is exactly what couples would do. Go out, watch the sun, see a movie, hang at the house, just like couples would do on a date. Wait, was this a date? No, it was merely a hang out, just two friends going to see a movie and play video games, that's all it was and would ever be.

Classic sighed unhappily and leaned his head to the side. He closed his eyes, not truly caring what hard surface his head was on.

"Uh, Classic? You gonna stop falling asleep with your head against mine so we can go see the movie?"

Classic's eyes shot open and he moved away from Fell faster than he's ever moved before, even when he was fighting the human. Because of this, Fell stumbled forward a bit before catching himself and looking to the side.

"Well, uh, let's go see the movie then." Fell turned away and started to walk into the building. Classic recomposed himself and followed close behind, but a question kept boggling his mind.

Was that the tiniest hint of blush on his face?

***

Classic and Fell walked out of the movie theatre, a bit dazed. When they went to buy their tickets, the cashier told them there was only one movie that wasn't sold out for their showtime, so they had decided to take it anyway, not caring what it was. Unfortunately, not only was it a horror movie, but it was also a romance movie. He never got scared during the scary parts, in fact, he and Fell both were laughing at a few of the events in the movie. However, anytime anything romantic happened, Classic's face became a dark blue as he imagined himself and Fell in place of the characters. He had glanced over at Fell and quickly jerked his head in the other direction when they had made eye contact. And all he while Classic couldn't get the fact that Fell was blushing just as bad as him out of his mind.

"It's just because of the movie," he had thought. "He just can't take the romance parts, that's all."

But when they stepped outside, their shoulders bumped, causing Classic to stumble forward a bit before losing his footing. His eyes went wide as he realized his skull could get cracked by the sudden impact of the cement sidewalk and immediately shut them tight, preparing for the impact, when two arms suddenly wrapped around his waist, hoisting him up and setting him back on his feet. Sweating, Classic glances back at the wide eyed Fell whom was still holding onto him. He felt a light, jittery feeling in him, almost as if there were butterflies not just flying around in his nonexistent stomach, but also slamming against his rib cage and his soul even, begging him to make a move.

He stared longingly into his eyes, now realizing how close their faces were. He could feel the other's hot breath as he took in all the features about Fell. His sharp, protective eyes, his loving smile, the crack on the top of his skull that made him look even stronger, it was too much for Classic to handle. He didn't hesitate to close the gap between them, kissing him passionately. Fell's eyes widened in surprise before closing and practically melting into the kiss. He pulled Classic into a better position and tightened his grip around his waist as Classic brought his arms up around the other's neck. When they finally broke away, the two stared lovingly into each other's eyes, blush still very much present. Suddenly Fell turned away.

"I had no idea you liked me like that.." he said, a bit of guilt in his voice. "If I knew, I would've shared my feelings such a long time ago."

Classic was ecstatic. Here he was, his wish finally coming true. He was with the love of his life, hearing that he likes him back and has for a long time. He was practically bouncing up and down because of his joy, rivaling that of Swap!Sans, also known as Blue. He breathed in, happiness still gleaming in his eye lights.

“I guess you could say we’re more than just friends.”

—————

Hhhhhhhh sorry about the weird spacing, I swear my phone is on crack right now-

[tally-kiza]

Underswap Headcanons

So, I tried to detail my version of Underswap that still kept all the major events and characters’ personalities,,, and uh, this happened. 

- Pap meets the human, Chara, outside the door, he does the handshake introduction, Blue finds them, ya know the usual stuff. But instead of Pap being the one to follow the human around and make jokes like UT Sans normally does, Blue does all that instead in addition to showing them his puzzles. During the introduction phase, Papyrus is mostly found next to the puzzles until he mentions going to Muffets’, where he stays until Blue’s fight at the end of Snowdin.

- During Blue’s fight, Papyrus always intervenes in some way. 

If it’s genocide or if Chara just tries to kill Blue, Papyrus enters the fight, takes the hit and dies. Blue is visibly horrified, the fight ends, and Blue disappears until he fights the human in the judgement hall.

If it’s pacifist (or only a few monsters have died), Papyrus will interject in Blue’s fight with puns and they have a pun-off in between turns. At this point, Chara has to option to interact with him, specifically the option to flirt. If/When they do, Blue attempts to matchmake and set up a ‘date’ between them and Paps, to his brothers chagrin. The fight ends with Blue pacified, and Papyrus says he’ll wait outside the house until Chara comes to initiate the ‘date’ (then he does the air-stair-walk thing UT Paps does). Blue then moves on to his sentry station in waterfall where UT Sans usually is.

- The date with Pap with pretty similarly to canon Undertale. He uses the dating manual “that his brother totally gave him and he definitely didn’t get on his own nope no sir”. And he says most of the lines UT Pap says (just lazily and flustered cuz he’s ver unused to dating) until he ultimately rejects the human. (BTW, his dating outfit is just booty shorts and a tank-top under his sweater that says “nap king”.)

- At Blue’s waterfall sentry, he offers Chara to hang out at Grillby’s (which they don’t officially get to again until Hotland). He’ll talk about his brother first off and waxes poetic on how cool he is. Then Blue’ll ask about Temmie and if Chara’s seen any “unusual talking animal plushies...” Shortly after, he’ll brush it off, pretend like it’s nothing, and send the kid off on their merry way again.

- Later in waterfall, Chara will encounter Flowey Village. If you call Papyrus in this room, he’ll talk about how much he likes how complimentary and nice the Floweys are to him. Pap is pretty much the only person who likes the Floweys. The Floweys will all talk like UT Temmies and act like all nice and :P UT Flowey was when you first met him. Except for Bob. Bob is mean and has Flowey’s Creepy Face (tm).

- Chara arrives at where UT Undyne’s house would be, but it’s blocked off somehow and they can’t see what’s beyond the blockade. From there, they can have the ‘date’ with Hapstablook next door, and continue on. 

- Alphys the Fearless (or Almighty or Alpha, I see a lot of versions of her name, but personally I like Fearless) occasionally encounters Chara same as canon. She escorts US Asriel back to his parents after Chara saves him. The battle starts on the same ledge as canon, when Chara makes it to Hotland--where Pap is napping in Sans’s sentry station--Alphys trips and falls, Chara helps her up, and afterwards Alphys stalks away back to Undyne’s house Waterfall.

- A few seconds after Alphys exits, a rumbling sound is heard, signifying Alph removing the blockage. If Chara goes back to the blockage site, theyll find Undynes House but they won’t meet her and can’t get into her house. They do however find a shortcut right next to the house from there to the lab in Hotland. In the lab, the human finally meets Undyne who does pretty much all the same things that UT Alphys does, just with that typical Undyne bravado. There is an upstairs to the lab but it’s mostly bookshelves and anime sword displays. Undyne already has a house and doesn’t need to live in the lab.

- Eventually, after moving on and navigating the Hotland puzzles, Chara finds Alphys’s house (which Blue is standing in front of) and intiates the date (where Alph discusses why Blue isn’t in the guard). Most of her house is covered in axes and anime memorabilia. If you examine the latter, she’ll launch into an examination of the anime before cutting off and telling you not to snoop in people’s things!!  After the date, she hangs out in Snowdin with Sans and Papyrus.

- When Chara gets to NTT Resort, they can find Bratty and Catty’s counterparts behind the resort: 01 and 02-- the UT Hotland Royal guards. The human has the option to solve the dispute between them and NiceCreamPants inside the resort.

- Then the human meets Papyrus outside the resort, who takes them inside on the date. He tells them about talking to Asgore behind the door, how he promised to watch over them, that they could just stay underground. After all, they’ve got good food, good laughs, good friends... He doesn’t threaten them about being dead where they stand-- in true Papyrus fashion, he trusts Chara enough to not be dangerous--  so he just talks to them, tells them he believes in them, and then the date is over and air-stair-walks away again...

- After this you cannot call Papyrus (as you have had the option to since after his date), Sans will answer your call instead and say that his bro is off boondoggling somewhere. You can now converse with Sans in any room of the game. Papyrus will probably not be seen again until the Judgement Hall...

- Chara fights DJ Napstaton. The human can buy the key to their house from 01 and 02 behind NTT Resort. The inside of their home is just as empty and vaguely abandoned as classic Napstablook’s.

- The castle’s throne room is filled with dead flowers that the queen didn’t know how to care for. When the Toriel fights the human, she justifies it saying it’s for the good of her kingdom, though it’s clear she doesn’t want to fight. When Toriel spares them, calling Chara ‘my child’, Temmie kills her. 

- The Omega Temmie fight happens, and the rest proceeds the same as Undertale just with the swapped characters. Then Chara fights Monster Kid Dreemurr, God of Hyperdeath (who I named Torigor--a fusion of Toriel/Asgore like Asriel’s name--because they need an actual name).

- Exposition time! 

Toriel and Asgore adopted baby MK (and named them Torigor) shortly before having Asriel. Six or so years later, the goat parents adopted the fallen human Frisk. Frisk later convinced MK to absorb their soul (Asriel really didn’t want this to happen but kept the secret anyway). 

After MK came back from the surface with Frisk’s body and died, Asriel was so grieved and horrified that he ran away. Consequentially, Toriel and Asgore thought Azzy died as well. Toriel was furious at the humans, declared war, when Asgore suggested otherwise, she kicked him out.

Asgore wandered to the ruins while Asriel had settled down in Snowdin, taking the pseudonym ‘Monster Kid’. (Neither of them realized they passed by each other in Snowdin on Asgore’s trek though.)

- 100 years later, Chara fell. If they chose genocide or neutral, everyone’s sad and dead. If they chose pacifist, they’ll later live with Asriel and goat dad and everyone will be happy.

[ihaveanimagine]

For the ask thing: [4. UF/Pap] [17. SW/Sans] [20. UF/Sans] (if thats your limit you dont have to do the rest ♥, or choose wichever you want to do!). [42. LOKI] [45. UT/ Sans]

(I’M SO SORRY IT’S TAKEN ME FOREVER TO FINISH THIS! THESE WERE VERY FUN PROMPTS TO DO AND I GOT REALLY EXCITED FOR MY FIRST LOKI ASK :D)

4- “Watch your step.”

17-  “This movie is really scary but you’re into it so I’m trying not to to cover my face the whole time but — WHAT IS THAT?”

20-  “Wait, don’t pull away. Not yet.”

42- “No, like … it’s just, I can’t believe you’re actually wearing my clothes.”

45- “You’re a big piece of inspiration for this.”

Underfell Papyrus (Edge)

(Thank you to @lmao-idk-but-aight for the idea!)

“Is that what you think of me? Helpless!?” You cried, curling your hands into fists, shaking with rage. “Quite frankly, YES!!” Edge towered over you, physically blocking you from the doorway out of the house. “You’re small, weak, fleshy, and you practically have a walking sign on the back of your head, begging monsters to dust you and take your soul!!”

You glared and stepped right up to the taller skeleton monster. “I can take care of myself! I took care of myself well enough until you took me in!” Edge huffed and bent down to your level, almost taunting you with his height advantage. “Don’t make me laugh, human! The only reason you survived until I took you in was because of my superior hunting skills!!”

“You only caught me because-”

“Because you’re weak and can’t protect yourself!”

You growled louder and felt tears sting your eyes. “Well if you think I’m so weak, why don’t you just kick me out!” Edge narrowed his eyes and glared down at you “Do you think I’m stupid? That I’d just kick you out for no reason!?” You hated how fast the tears slid down your face as you shouted “Well clearly you think it’s too hard to keep watch over me so you might as well!!”

Edge growled loudly and leaned down to your height and pushed you back inside with a firm grip on your shoulder. “I’ll do nothing of the sort!! Now STAY HERE!!” He shoved you onto the couch and stomped out the door, slamming it behind him. 

Hot tears spilled down your face as you sunk slowly into the couch cushions. You hid your face in your hands and felt despair wash over you. Edge and his brother have been working very hard to keep you safe. They escorted you every time you left the house, Edge would often strut next to you, glaring or growling at every monster who came too close to you.

His brother often teleported you out of sticky situations and kept you busy with bad puns and jokes, but Edge was the one who took the brunt of the work. He always said that since you were the only person to pass his incredibly dangerous traps that you deserved the finest treatment he could offer you.

Which, over the course of the time you’ve spent there, included personally cooked meals (mostly lasagna and pasta dishes), late night discussions about the best way to protect each other, and the occasional shopping spree out in the Snowdin shopping area. 

The first time Edge took you out shopping you were a bit…surprised. You didn’t exactly expect him to be interested in fashion due to the world he lived in, but Edge turned out to be really good in picking out outfits that both looked amazing on you and kept you warm and safe. 

Since then, you’ve made little…dates(?) where the two of you went out for the night in town and did a few activities before hiding in his house again. You’ve seen so many different sides of Edge that he has trouble showing even his brother sometimes.

You’ve seen him laugh hard enough until he snorts, weep at a Mettaton Tragedy Special, and completely lose his skeletal mind when you tell him stories about your life on the surface. But the moments that were the most special to you, were the nights neither of you couldn’t sleep and converged to the couch in the living room to just…talk.

You’ve shared hopes and dreams, fears, childhood stories, and even wishes for the future.

But…that all seemed to have been for nothing…Any emotions you had been gathering for the tall, imposing skeleton man felt as if they had been cast aside when Edge practically screamed at you for being helpless…

The tears had stopped a while ago and you were left clutching an old, worn pillow while staring blankly ahead. You took a shaky breath and wiped your face with your hand, clearing the dried tears from your cheeks. You let yourself calm down after your cry and you found yourself grabbing one of your warmer jackets as you headed out of the home. 

You didn’t know what you were doing but…you knew you had to find Edge.

Your body was on autopilot as you traipsed through Snowdin town towards Edge’s old sentry station in the outskirts. You saw him before he noticed you (which was a first). You managed to get within arm reach of him before he noticed you. 

When he did see you were standing there with him his eyes widened in shock before narrowing. “Wha- what are you doing here?!” He hissed, turning his head away from you to scratch at something on his face with the back of his hands before turning back to you.

“I…came here to look for you.” You mumbled, doubt creeping into your bones. “Well, you shouldn’t have! The Great and Terrible Papyrus can take care of himself!!” Edge crossed his arms and puffed his chest out to prove his point.

“…But thank you…” Edge practically whispered and for a second you weren’t sure if you heard him. You gave him a half-hearted shrug before silence enveloped the both of you.

You both said nothing for a while, just stared at the thick forest of trees that created a border around Snowdin. The silence wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable but you knew there was something you both wanted to say.

“I’m sorry.” Both of you looked at each other blankly before laughing softly. Turns out both of you worked up the guts to apologize at the same time. “I shouldn’t have insulted you like that.” Edge said, giving the back of his neck a shy rub. “Me too.” You said, shuffling closer to Edge “You’re just protecting me, I shouldn’t have yelled at you for that.”

“We cool?” You asked, looking up at him, a smile breaking out when Edge nodded. After another moment of silence, Edge turned around and motioned you to follow him. “We should head home.” 

You nodded and moved to follow him before Edge halted you with an outstretched arm. “Watch your step.” He pointed to a patch of ice you were about to step on and gave a loud sigh.

Before you could say anything, he swept you up in his arms and carried you bridal style before trudging on. “Honestly if it weren’t for me, you’d have stepped on every piece of ice in Snowdin!”

You giggled and laid your head on his chest with a smile and thanked him for looking out for you. Edge let out a small huff but pulled you closer as he continued on his way home.

Underswap Sans (Blueberry)

Tonight was a night to binge All the Spooky Media!

A nice rainstorm was thundering outside the comforts of your home and you and your wonderful boyfriend Blue decided to have a date night.

At-home dates were usually spent bingeing movies or tv shows while snacking on everything (“everything” ranging from gourmet meals to a gas station donut). This particular night it was your turn to pick a movie genre to binge and you had chosen Thrillers and Horrors!

Part of it was mostly just to formally introduce Blueberry to the world of Zombie Fiction to see his reaction, the other half was to see if this guy was afraid of anything. You already knew he really didn’t fear any animal or insect on Earth but now it was just a competition to see what scared him. 

About two movies in, Blue didn’t seem affected by much of the zombie stuff so you switched to a classic thriller that always gave you chills. 

But while you were enamored by the movie, you failed to notice Blue creeping ever so much closer to you until he was practically burying his face in your arm. It wasn’t until there was a jump scare that made the both of you jump did you realize where he was. You both screamed at the appropriate time and Blue launched his body at you, curling over you protectively as if he was defending you from a real attacker. 

Unfortunately, any sweetness you might have found from his reaction dissipated as gravity took over and sent the both of you sprawling to the floor.

“Blue!” You shouted, trying to wiggle out from the spot on the floor where he had you pinned “Let go! I’m being squished!” Blue’s head popped up and he suddenly let go of you, backing up completely off your body before helping you up. “S-sorry! I uh, just heard you scream and uh,” He coughed nervously into his fist “Reflexes happened?”

You accepted his hand to help you up but you gave him a suspicious look “Reflexes, huh?” You questioned flatly.” Blue shyly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck “Don’t worry! I promise it won’t happen again!” He quickly sat back down on the sofa and glued his eye sockets to the TV.

You gave him a suspicious squint and saw your normally upbeat and cheerful boyfriend flinch when the Thriller’s soundtrack hit a high note at the same time a horrified scream ripped out of the protagonist’s throat.

“Blue, sweetheart…are you scared?”

“W-what, who? Me? Scared psssshhh, no-!”

Blue’s face darkened as he avoided looking at the TV. “I-I’m not scared! Are you? I mean-”

Another scream came from the television and Blue’s entire body jumped and he hid his face behind a pillow. “Okay, yes! This movie is really scary but you’re into it so I’m trying not to to cover my face the whole time but — WHAT IS THAT?!?!!!” He ditched the pillow and wrapped his arms around your waist before burying his face in your stomach right as the main villain made a dramatic, horrifying jump-scare reveal.

Sensing this had gone on long enough, you maneuvered over to the remote and paused the movie before gently running your hands up and down your boyfriend’s skull. “Easy, sweetheart” You cooed, keeping one arm firmly wrapped around his shoulders while you petted his skull. “You’re alright I promise.”

After a moment of silence you added “I’m sorry I didn’t check in with you sooner to make sure you were okay with the movie.” Blue shook his head and nuzzled your stomach before peeking up at you “N-no, it’s alright…I should’ve spoken up sooner…”

You gently brushed your thumb on his cheekbone and pulled him up for a quick smooch on his forehead. “How about we forget the thrillers and binge childhood movies, hmm?”

“Heh, I like the sound of that. Thank you.”s

Underfell Sans (Red)

You woke up slowly, trying to avoid the inevitable by snuggling into the body radiating warmth next to you. You felt a low rumble beneath your cheek as something reached around behind you to draw you closer to the warmth. 

“Heh, mornin’ Dollface.” The gravelly baritone of Red’s morning voice was barely above a whisper as he nuzzled into your hairline. Too tired to verbally respond, you simply nuzzles back and curled your entire body to press against his. You felt Red chuckle again before his hand started lazily playing with your hair.

“Yer adorable, ya know that?” He mumbled softly, wrapping his legs around yours while resting his chin on your head. You hummed in response and softly kissed his clavicle. 

The two of you drifted in and out of sleep for a little while longer before your body decided to wake up even though your comfort level was sky high. You whined as you pried your eyes open to meet the afternoon sunlight drifting in through the window. 

“Afternoon already?” You asked sleepily, still not fully awake. Red smiled and gently brushed his finger on your cheek before kissing your forehead. “Mhmm. Ya looked too cute to disturb so I’ve been here with ya since ya woke up earlier.”

You hummed and reached up to kiss him softly before plopping your head back on the pillow. “Have you eaten yet? We should probably get up to eat.” You stretched out slowly to wake up the rest of your body to prepare for the difficult task of leaving your comfy bed.

Red’s hand suddenly darted out and caught your waist before pulling you back in. “Wait, don’t pull away.” He buried his face in your neck and curled around your form “Not yet.”

You smiled softly at your big, totally threatening mate and gently scratched his skull. “Alrighty, few more minutes then.” 

Loki

Adjusting to life on earth was no easy task for your boyfriend Loki, Son of Odin, King of Jotunheim, God of Mischief. But with your healthy balance of patience and loving teasing, he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

He went from cursing at earth’s primitive technology to only swearing at it when it refused to work at him. He no longer used his title and Asgardian power as intimidation tactics, and he even came up to speed with pop culture references!

(Did this mean you accidentally unleashed the event where Loki would shout “yeet” as he threw his knives? Yes, yes it did. And you were so proud of him.)

Another point to be proud of him was Loki made some friends! All on his own! And at the Avenger’s Tower no less!

You weren’t too sure on the details but from what you understood, Peter Parker, Tony Stark’s unofficially adopted son, had straight up asked Loki if he tried to conquer New York and responded with “Cool, cool. But have you tried a street vendor hot dog yet?” Then went out on a quick run to buy himself and Loki some hot dogs when Loki admitted he hadn’t. 

Now the only major thing left was to get your man to wear something other than a fancy suit!

Not that you didn’t enjoy the view when he did wear a nice tux, a dress shirt, or a fancy trench coat, but you wanted your boyfriend to enjoy the comforts of earthling life and that mean oversized sweaters and sweatpants!!

You already had several pairs of those yourself and you kept trying to convince Mr. Tall Dark and Sassy to wear them with no luck. 

“It’s not like I can’t wear anything else.” He told you once “But suits feel more…my style. It’s not as if I can prance around in Asgardian clothes, right?”

You had to shrug and concede but internally promised yourself that you would see your normally put together boyfriend relax in Comfort Clothes one way or another. 

Several weeks passed by and you had practically forgotten about that promise until you came home from work one day to find Loki, Peter, and Ned showing Loki the Star Wars movies. You brushed past the three of them with a quick hello and flew to your room to remove the icky feeling of work clothes in favor of your favorite sweats and jacket.

But as you searched in your closet for your favorite jacket, you found that you couldn’t find it. You frantically raced around the room pulling out drawers and searching through the hamper and tossed clothing on the floor. When you finally admitted defeat, you huffed, grabbed a comfortable tank top and headed out the door to join Loki and the two boys for the movie binge watching. 

“Welcome back, Darling.” Loki said warmly without looking behind him. He lifted his arms for you to sink into as you launched over the sofa’s backrest onto the cushions before snuggling to his chest. “How was work?” He asked before pressing a soft kiss to your temple.

You moaned and hid your face in his arm. “No.” You said flatly, “No?” Loki repeated with a small chuckle “Work is banned from conversations for the next century.” You snuggled into him and sighed “I just wanna curl up with you and my comfy clothes and hibernate.”

Loki chuckled and nuzzled you.

“Speaking of which, have you seen my sweater? I couldn’t find it when I got home today, do you know where it is? Is it in the wash?” You asked, twisting around to look up at him. Loki’s face flushed and he chuckled nervously, his eyes darted down to his sleeves and your exhausted brain slowly began to recognize the fabric hanging off of him.

You suddenly lurched forward and turned toward Loki before eagerly cupping his cheeks. “You’re wearing my clothes!!” You cheered, excitement bubbling inside you “Y-yes, I am” Loki’s cheeks flushed with color “Is something wrong with that?”

“No, like … it’s just, I can’t believe you’re actually wearing my clothes.”

You felt a squeal catch in your throat as you suddenly pulled him forward for a chaste kiss. “I’m! So! Proud of youuuu!!!” You giggled before curling up on his chest, moving his arms to curl around you. “You’re relaxing! In comfy clothes!”

Loki’s blush deepened and he hid his face in your hair to save some of his dignity. “Yes, well…Peter and his friend insisted that binge watching movies should only be done in the highest of comforts so I uh, borrowed from your wardrobe.” You felt an “aww” escape your lips as you smiled up at him.

“Awww, you guys are so cute!”

“Ned!!”

Yours and Loki’s heads snapped up to see Peter trying to gently smother Ned with a pillow before lifting a hand up in innocence. “I’m sorry!” He squeaked “It’s just that you two were being cute and we weren’t sure if you wanted privacy so we tried paying attention to the movie but then-”

Ned pushed the pillow away and gently placed his hand over Peter’s face “But then you guys started cuddling and being all cute and blushy and it was adorable and I couldn’t help but say so!!”

You and Loki shared a laugh before shaking your heads at the two teens. “It’s alright, you two. Loki knows he’s adorable-”

“Not quite as adorable as you, love.”

“Shush. Loki knows he’s adorable and we both accept your compliment.” 

Loki simply rolled his eyes amicably at you before smiling and nuzzling you again. 

Undertale Sans

Being a full-time, interactive artist was not always easy.

Sometimes you had days where you had idea upon idea upon idea for your next gallery or show but sometimes your well of inspiration was so dry, the Valley of Death got thirsty. 

Lucky for you, Sans, your muse, aka your husband, aka your hus-bone had given you all the help you needed to meet your deadline.

For this specific gallery you had worked with a private therapy office who took cases ranging from student apathy, to heavy depression, to addict recovery. You always liked promoting a good cause while you shared your art and had found the perfect way to do both.

The gallery was to be shown at a small warehouse near a popular coffee shop and you intended to take full advantage of the location.

Since Sans played a big role in creating this specific gallery for you, you invited him to come see it. Naturally he said yes and on opening day, you gave him a quick tour before anyone came in.

The warehouse was covered in pillows of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The biggest pillow Sans has ever seen was propped up on the left side of the entrance and the pillows that lined the wall gradually shrunk to the tiniest pillow he had ever seen to the right of the entrance. 

Sections were split by large sheets suspended by rope and blankets were piled on top of pillows to create “couches” and pillars. In one section, there was a black box labeled “Dark Thoughts” with a plaque that read: “We’ve all been someplace dark in our lives. Some of us are still experiencing it. But healing takes time and it can start with letting go of something that makes you low. Take the time to write something you need to let go of and put it in the box. This box is directly emptied into a shredder. No one will see it.” 

The next section had several bins filled with weighted blankets and a plaque that asked everyone to take one and give the blanket to someone who needs it. The section after had a therapist from the office sitting on a mountain of pillows with a big smile. She shook Sans’ hand and told him she was part of the exhibit to encourage people to find outside help and to give therapy a chance. The section after her had stuffed animals with different labels on them like “Love”, “Hope”, “Motivation”, “Peace”, “Security”, etc. A sign stood next to the stuffed animals that said “Sometimes we all need an extra friend to keep us going. Take a stuffed animal with you to keep you going or to spread the love to someone else who needs it!”

From there, the exhibit focused on healing from whatever pain someone was in. There was a section on Laughter Makes a Good Medicine, Comfort Foods, and Hobby Making to provide outlets and ways to slowly push someone out of their comfort zone to open up. 

As you brought Sans along the exhibit he began to tear up a bit, remembering the different times of despair and hopelessness he’d experienced while Underground and on the Surface and how they have mostly been replaced by joy and contentment.

When you reached the end of your private tour, you took Sans’ hands in your own and smiled up at him. “So? What do you think?” You asked him. Sans grinned and gently brushed a loose strand of hair out of your face “I think this is amazing. This is a big topic to tackle but you did it pretty well, babe.” 

You smiled softly “That’s good to hear.” You cupped his face softly and continued, “You know, you’re a big piece of inspiration for this.”

Sans’ eyes widened and he looked both shocked and humbled “Me? How???” You giggled and shrugged “Well, I know you’ve had a few rough days while I was putting together this gallery so I knew I wanted to do something nice for you. But at the same time it felt like you had forgotten all the progress you’ve made with your issues and I wanted to remind you that big or small, any progress you’ve made is wonderful and I am so proud of you.”

Now Sans was really crying. Big fate tears rolled off his cheeks as he took the hand cupping his cheek and kissed the palm of it before drawing you in close. He rested his forehead on yours and took a shaky breath before speaking.

“If I could marry you again, I would. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

[starsgivemehp]

☯ + Judgement Hall

Canon Drabbles | accepting

(WELLLLL this isn’t a drabble. It’s very long. BUT it just so happens I’d written this long ago from Frisk’s point of view, from an earlier version of Red, so getting to rewrite it in his POV and with updated backstories was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So, here you are~!)

- - - - -

“stop right there, kid.”

Red watched the human child come to asurprised halt, clearly startled by his sudden appearance. They hadn’t spokensince Snowidn, but he’d been there, watching, from Syren’s little concert tothe vents of Hotland to the winding hallways of the core. He wasn’t impressed.He stood facing them, his hands in his pockets, gaze narrowed. They gave himthat innocent, confused look, the same look they gave Mettaton, and Undyne, andVex, and anyone else who fought them. Like they couldn’t believe it. He grit histeeth.

“don’t gimme that look… you and i both knowwhat’s gonna happen next.”

They tilted their head slightly. They wereeven shorter than him, a child, their body stocky and still growing. Theirhands moved precisely, quick and confident.

‘Why are you here, Red?’

“don’t ask stupid questions. you made it allthis way, you beat my boss, and the captain, even the human-killing robot. youshould’ve died ages ago. how did you survive?”

They didn’t answer, their hands hesitating,and he scoffed.

“yeah, i know how. by making friends with them. by being nice to them until they spared you outof pity, or to return the favor. well, lemme tell ya somethin’, kid. no onespares anyone down here. that’s just not how the underground works. for years,there’s been only one rule. kill, or bekilled.”

Frisk set their jaw, straightening up, andfinally found words.

‘But I did neither of those things.’

“that’s right. you didn’t kill, and you weren’tkilled. well. good for you, kid. but now what? you can’t pass the barrier onyour own no matter how much ‘determination’ you have. you need a monster souland a human soul. and not just any monster soul, either. a monster soul thatwill persist long enough after death for you to take it and absorb it. a bossmonster’s soul. and as of right now, there are only two boss monsters. one isthe king. and the other… well, who knows where the queen went?”

Frisk lifted their hands, but he bulldozed on,unwilling to let them dig in with their talk of mercy. Not for this.

“so, kid, we got a good ending and a bad ending.the bad ending is, you walk past me and fight and kill our king – and he’s areal jerk, don’t get me wrong, but he isking – you take his soul, you pass through the barrier leaving us behind in apower vacuum. we fall into despair; monsters everywhere start falling down anddying. we struggle to survive and hope against hope that another human fallssoon. or… the good ending. you die. you give us your soul, and we break free ofthis mountain.”

Of course, the King had plans of war, butthose could be dealt with after. vex and undyne weren’t training for nothing,or just to beat up vagabonds. This kid didn’t need to know these things.

He pulled his left hand out of his pocket, palm up, hispupils softening a little around the edges. He did his best to look genuine.

“you can guess which one we’d prefer. i’m askin’ ya nicely,kid. do everyone a favor, and give it up peacefully. if you do, i’ll make yourdeath quick and painless. i’m a nice guy sometimes, y’know, and i don’t like toput in a lot of effort. fighting is a hassle, don’t you agree? “

He waited like that patiently, with his arm stretched out,while Frisk stared at him in shock. He wasn’t surprised. His offer wasdownright generous, compared to the other fights they’d been through. There wasa chance, a small chance that theymight actually take his offer, and he wouldn’t have to make this a big mess.But, he could tell already they weren’t going to take his offer. Of course. Hewas resigning himself even before their jaw set.

‘I’m going to return to the surface, and I’m taking you allwith me.’

Red sighed, flipping his hand for the palm to face Frisk.

“well, i tried it the easy way. now you get the hard way.”

He turned their soul blue and threw them into the airviciously.

Things seemed to blur after that. He was sure he’d beatenthem, he was sure he could smell the sickening tang of human blood, making histhroat close up and his soul thud in revulsion. But no, here he was again, hishand out, ready to turn their soul blue. He paused for just a moment, watchingthem.

“that expression…”

He turned their soul blue and flung them. They survived hisattack, slamming the CHECK button. He tried not to shiver, and instead smirked,enjoying their shocked expression at his piss-poor stats.

“what? thought i was stronger? i toldja i didn’t likefighting. but hey, you should’ve attacked while you had the chance, buddy.”

He attacked viciously, trying to dredge up the faintest hintof KR to make it easier on himself. He couldn’t. He couldn’t muster therighteous fury needed to make his magic spark yellow, to make his attacks domore than one measly point at a time. But even without it, he had tricks andworkarounds that gave him a severe advantage.

Things started blurring a little more, but he was gettingused to it. He was experiencing the time LOADs he’d theorized they were usingto win. But he still wouldn’t let them win.

‘Hey, Red! What do you call a skeleton that stuck its head inthe freezer? A numbskull!’“hehehe, good one kid. i’ll use it myself when i get tothe surface.”-- - - - - - - - -‘Did you sit on a pile of sugar, Red? Because you have apretty sweet ass!’“hehe. clever, but i’m a skeleton. i don't have an ass.”- - - - - - - - - -'Red, please, stop! You’vekilled me four times now!’“i know how to count,thanks. i’m a physicist. a well-rounded five, maybe?”

 - - - - - - - - - -

“lemme tell you a story.”

Red wandered over to oneof the pillars in the golden hallway. The kid was clutching their bleeding arm.The smell of blood made him nauseated, but he shook it off. He watched themwith his good eye, the blind right one closed to give him a casual look.

“so i’m a sentry atsnowdin forest, right? out there, in the middle of nowhere, is a door. the doorto the ruins, i’m guessing. but it’s perfect for knock-knock jokes. one time, iwas sittin’ there, crankin’ 'em out as usual, when i heard a voice. a laugh.someone was on the other side, and they liked my stupid puns. it was a woman. idon’t know her name, i never asked. but she really freakin’ loves puns. then sheknocked herself and told one of her own. she was good. we startedgoin’ back and forth, almost every day. we’ve been doin’ it for years now. it’sgreat.”

He knew he had a stupid,fond look on his face as he told the story. Even though he’d never seen her face,he had a terrible fondness for her.

“one day… thelady wasn’t laughin’ much. somethin’ was wrong, i could tell. y'know, i’mpretty good at telling stuff like that. so i asked her what was up. she neverdid get around to tellin’ me what happened. but instead, she asked mesomethin’. she asked me, 'Red, how do you feel about promises?’ and so i toldher, 'look lady, i don’t make promises to people unless i trust 'em a lot…but you’re one of those people. tell me what you want and i’ll decide.’ so shetold me this: “If a human ever passes through this door… please kill them.’”

'Wait, what?’ Frisksigned incredulously.

“it’s the truth.she said to me, 'Please kill them quickly and painlessly. Do not let KingAsgore torture them. Give them the mercy of a painless death from someone witha good heart.’ and so i promised her that. and then, all these years later,here you are.”

'But… but…’

“look. i take mypromises seriously. i keep 'em even if they could kill me. so i intend to keepthis one too.”

He pushed off from the pillarand outstretched his good hand again, palm up.

“you’ll never get outwithout killing the king, kid. we’ll never get out without your soul. this isthe best outcome any of us can hope for. i’ll make sure it’s painless. just takemy offer.”

It was sparing, in itsown way. Yes, they would die, but he could make it be painless. Hell, if it madethem feel better, he’d give them a hug and a last wish or dying request. He’dmake their name be known and immortalized. But, of course, they refused. Theylooked like they were about to start crying, which made his soul clench.

Don’t you do that to me, kid. I HAVE to dothis.

‘Red… I can’t. I refuseto die. I refuse to give up.’

“but why?”he asked, frustrated. “giving up is so much easier. it takes so littleeffort. it hurts less. just… give up, kid.”

‘I won’t.’

Red sighed, slowlydropping his hand.

“y’see? this is why i hate making promises.”

He rolled his shouldersand jumped back into the fray.

- - - - - - - - - -

He gave that speechseveral more times. He always gave them a chance. He couldn’t stop himself. Itwas a part of the ‘script’ he supposed. But he always doubled down after that.They kept sparing, insisting, and multiple times, he knew he snarled that hehated them as he sent another attack their way. He lost count. It had to beover 30 times he killed them total. And he could feel that he was getting tired.Reaching his limits. They were getting better and better.

No wonder they even got past Undyne.

The worst part was theirwords.

“if you’re not gonnadie, you stupid kid, then just kill me and get it over with!” he snarled, andthey reeled like they’d been struck.

‘No!’

“why the fuck not?”

‘Because I care aboutyou, I can’t kill you!’

“wha…?” He paused in hisattack, staring at them with darkened sockets. “you… care about me…?”

‘I care about all ofyou! I care about your brother, and Undyne, and Alphys, and I definitely careabout you!’

And that ridiculouslittle kid actually made it seem… believable.He recalled Vex going red in the face during their ‘play date,’ watching Undynechasing them down only to have her stalk over tot their house and mumble somethingabout cooking with them, raiding Alphys’s lab only to see her dumping out herworse experiments herself. They had all changed… Was it really only becausethis kid showed they cared? Was that really it?

…No. It couldn’t be.There had to be other things at play. It was all some sick game. He grit histeeth, yanking them with blue magic again.

“you don’t. those arejust words. if you really cared about me, about any of us… you would just die already!”

He saw vividly tearingthrough their fragile flesh with a dozen bones, the blood spattering. His soulseized at the gore, and he felt vomit welling up before the world blurred.

- - - - - - - - - -

“…survive this, and i’ll show you my specialattack!”

He had said those wordseight times before. He was fighting a losing battle. What was the point? Hethrew everything at them. Everything he had, until he was gasping for breath, themagic in his good eye sputtering, exhaustion sweeping through him. He fell tohis knees, the assault ending, and they were still alive. Bleeding, but alive.The smell was horrible, but he was too tired to even be grossed out by thispoint.

“hhh… hhh…hhh… why won’t… you… just die…?” he panted,his eye sockets completely blank now. “why… hhh… why won’t you…just… give up…? hhh… please… hhh… please just… give up…”

He held onto his ‘turn’with the last ounces of will he had in him. Even so, they shuffled closer,kneeling in front of him. He braced for the end. But instead, he heard theirsoft, mostly unused voice.

“I can never give up,Red. I’ve got to get out.”

“hhh… k-kid… i don’t… idon’t have… some special attack… that’s all i got… hhh… you, you beat me… i can’tkill you, s-so… so please, just… kill me instead…”

“No! I refuse to killyou. I refuse to kill anyone.”

“please… please, kid, i’m beegin’ ya… after allof this… i can’t do it… i can’t watch you kill the king… take away our hope. ican’t watch boss feel betrayed… i just… i can’t, kid, i can’t do this anymore,i can’t…”

He broke off in a soband hated himself deeply for that weakness. Here he was, crumpled in front of achild, crying pathetically like he was still a little kid himself. If anyoneelse saw, he’d be dead. But all Frisk did was put their little hand on hisshoulder, and rub gently.

“I won’t. I care aboutyou, I’d never hurt you.”

He shook his head,sobbing quietly again. “if you cared about me, you’d do this for me… i’ve onlygot 1… i’m all out of HOPE. watchin’ you take away boss’s hope is gonna kill meanyway… this would be the less painful way to go, please…”

“I refuse.”

“why… not even for revenge?i killed you so many times i lost count.”

“Yes… But it doesn’tmatter. I know you’re a good person. You were fighting me to protect the peopleyou love.”

“that doesn’t excusemurder… and i ain’t the only one. so many have been cruel, anyone else wouldtake one look at us and just call us all bad people!”

“Well… I believe eventhe worst person can change. That everyone can be a good person, if they justtry. I’m going through life trying to be the best person I can be. Forgivingeveryone of their mistakes and bad choices, in the hopes they’ll try to becomebetter people too. It’s working so far… Hasn’t your brother changed? You sawhim after our date.”

Red wiped at his eyes,shifting to sit on his haunches slowly. “yeah, he… he looked happy… he hasn’tlooked so happy in a long time…” He looked up at them tiredly. “you… you changedhim, kid.”

“I’m glad! Because Icare about him a lot! And I’d never hurt him, especially not by killing you.You’re his precious brother. He loves you, you know. Even if he doesn’t say it.”

Red felt tears well up inhis sockets again. His soul throbbed. He knew, deep inside, it had just… beenso long since he’d acknowledged it. What with all of their fighting, theinsults, the punches, the disappointment and goading, the vicious cycle they’dbeen stuck in… Despite all of that…

“i… i know he does. ilove him too. that’s why i want him to get to the surface. i… want him to drivea cool car, and see the sun ride every morning…”

‘I want that too.’ Friskshifted back to signing now that he was watching them. ‘I’m gonna do it, Red. I’mgoing to set everyone free.’

“but how? we can’tharness the power of your soul without killing you, and we need it. besides,the king is…”

‘I’ll find a way. I alwaysfind a way.’

“heh…” He fell silent,looking down at his hand. He was exhausted, and emotionally wrung out, and…despite all of his conviction, there was something about Frisk. Something hecouldn’t help but trust. “somehow… i believe you, kid. i’m sorry foreverything.”

They smiled at him andoffered their hand. He took a deep breath, then took it to get to his feet.

The FIGHT ended.

[bonepranks-a]

. OUT           since i think most people’s headcanons involve gaster being the skelebros’ dad, i thought i’d ramble a little about my personal headcanon of him being their uncle!! (i’m realizing as i write this that the timeline in this world is really vague and it’s hard to say exactly how much time passes between events so obviously this is my own interpretation and may diverge from the little bit of info hinted at in canon.)

               okie so...

. BEFORE/DURING THE WAR                sans was pretty young, about 8 or so, and papyrus was just a lil baby. they didn’t know their uncle very well, they’d maybe met him once or twice, but their dad talked about him a lot. sans knew he was a scientist, which was exciting to the little skelebaby, and fueled his early interest in science himself. it was during the war that their parents died.

. AFTER THE WAR                with their parents dead, custody passed to gaster who was their closest living relative. however, in the chaos of the monsters being locked underground and the fear of needing to survive, he wasn’t able to be the best caretaker. still, he did his best, as his duty to his fallen brother. this resulted in sans being forced to grow up a lot faster than he wanted, just to take care of papyrus. things got even harder when asgore hired gaster as his royal scientist. 

. WORKING IN THE LAB                     as sans got older, gaster let him come to the lab with him, showing him his creations and teaching him about his work. it was there that he first began learning how to use the gaster blasters -- an invention of his uncle’s that was only a prototype at the time. the more sans learned, and the most time they spent together, the more he idolized gaster. he considered him more of a parental figure than he ever did his parents. papyrus never had the same opportunities sans did though, so they weren’t as close.

. ACCIDENT IN THE CORE                      gaster died working on the core. it absolutely wrecked sans, and so he took it upon himself to continue his work. he hoped that asgore would hire him as the new royal scientist, but the job went to alphys instead. in retaliation, sans took as much of gaster’s research as he could and left hotland for snowdin, along with papyrus. he continues his uncle’s work in his own workshop, focusing on perfecting the gaster blasters -- and continuing to research his uncle’s secret project (the timelines).

. FURTHER RESEARCH (MOVING TO THE PRESENT)                        it’s sometime shortly after that the six humans fall into the underground. sans meets toriel (though the door). papyrus becomes a trainee for the royal guard and sans takes up a sentry job along with various other ones to pay the bills. he has a hard time sustaining them both on his own. all the while, he continues his work, and eventually reaches out to alphys so they can collaborate on her DETERMINATION research. 

[caramelpears]

There’s magic sparking on the edges of his consciousness. His brother is out there, somewhere, using magic---he can feel it crackling in the air, hear the rumble of the cavern, the vibrations in the floor underneath his feet.

Pear was using his gaster blasters. 

Was he under attack?!

Durian doesn’t hesitate to dash out the front door, Megalovania blaring in the background as he headed out of snowdin, crossed the painted bridge, and skipped past his own traps using a bone attack as an elevator. Noise rumbles in the distance, and he turns off the beaten path, into the thick treeline. 

The sight that greets him is...unpleasant.

Pear is there---and his left eye rings with magic, a red cross bleeding from the socket as he stalks along the ground on all fours, blasters breaking down tree after tree. The snow has melted in places, frozen grass scorched black, while the earth turned to mud thanks to the water that had been created.

"𝐌𝐔𝐓𝐓 !"

His brother comes to a halt, Blasters floating in the air around him, sockets hollow while magic faded from broken, serrated jaws. The snow parts easily for him now, thinner than it had been on the walk through the forest thanks to the destruction the older skeleton had wrought on nature. Before long, Durian has reached Pear, who remains stone-stiff in his animal-like crouch.

Carefully, he performs a check.

Papyrus 'Pear' Gaster. HP: 1 |DEF: 40 |ATK: 1 |LV: 21 [*Self-Destructive.*]

It was as he expected. His brother was lost in the madness of his head, ruled by anger and bloodlust. But the fact that he was here, instead of down at one of Napstabots fighting pits said that he’d been sane enough to decide to vent it here, in the middle of nowhere. A decision Durian approved of.

Through it all, Pear remains crouched in half-melted snow, water pooling beneath him, while a growl emanates from his form. The sound only tapers off into silence once a hand grabs onto the top of his head, and Durian shoves him down into the snow, fingers curled slightly into his uninjured socket. The other hand yanks the hood, and finds a hold on the loop of the collar.

"𝐃𝐄-𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌."

The tone is commanding, leaving no room for argument as a harsh tug of the collar is given. A low whine leaves Pears mouth, and he tightens his hold on the others head, gloved claws scraping along the inside of the socket.

Slowly, the blasters begin to crumble, and the red cross in Pears damaged left socket fades away. Durian doesn’t let up the pressure on his brother until he begins to see a spark of gold in the right eye, scattered, but present. 

By this point, his brother has sagged heavily under him, bone-lids dropping so low, he might have thought the other skeleton had fallen asleep, if not for the way he released faint, choked noises. The grip on the collar loosens.

“T-Th...ank ye, C-”

"𝐒𝐇𝐔𝐓 𝐔𝐏."

Pear’s wince doesn’t go missed. Neither does the barely audible ‘Sorry Captain’, that dies on the air. Now, he performs a second check.

Papyrus 'Pear' Gaster. HP: 1 |DEF: 1 |ATK: 1 |LV: 21 [*One hit would be enough.*]

Shaking off a shudder, pushing down the dark thought that had sparked in his mind at seeing that dropped defense stat, Durian stands up, and drags Pear along behind him. Were he in possession of the skill that allowed his older sibling to cross great distances in the blink of an eye, he would have done so. Sadly, Durian hadn’t inherited any of their fathers special talents.

So by foot it would have to be. 

Durian didn’t enjoy dragging his brother along by the neck. But when the other skeleton foolishly expended magic, let that other state come into play, he would lose proper function of his limbs for a short period of time afterwards. Fortunately, any monsters that they passed on the way back to their shared home were quick to avert their eyes after a livid glare was fixed in their directions. And the lack of attacks told him no one else had checked his brother, a fact that he was thankful for.

He may be skilled with combat, but juggling his own magic, and dodging the magic of other monsters was a hard task without carrying dead weight.

Once home, the door is locked, and Pear is dropped on the floor. The older skeletons eyes are fully closed now, and magic is dribbling down his jaw, drool evidence of the fact that he’d either fallen asleep, or vomited at some point of the journey home. A short trip to the kitchen is made, and the other stirs to the feeling of a rag being roughly wiped across his face.

“C-”

“QUIET.”

His tone has lost its commanding quality, but he’s not ready to listen to the others apologies or excuses just yet. First, he has to take care of the wreck before him. Because it was his turn to look after the family now.

“YOU’RE A FOOL. 

WASTING YOUR MAGIC? VENTING IN THE FOREST WITHOUT INFORMING ME THAT YOU WERE IN THAT MENTAL STATE AGAIN? DID YOU EVEN TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE CONSEQUENCES OF DOING SUCH A THING? SUPPOSE ONE OF THE GUARD STUMBLED ACROSS YOU, AND YOU ATTACKED THEM? SUPPOSE THAT YOU EXHAUSTED YOURSELF, AND ANOTHER MONSTER FOUND YOU?

IN EITHER CASE, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN FUCKED. A TRAITOR TO THE GUARD IN ONE CASE, AND DUST IN THE OTHER.”

Pear’s eyelight has gone out once more. He’s trembling, and Durian halts his lecture, long enough to toss the rag aside, and grab hold of the collar, dragging his brother up into a sitting position, face-to-face with himself.

“YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PUT YOURSELF IN SUCH A POSITION. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? AS YOUR CAPTAIN, I FORBID IT. AS YOUR MASTER, I FORBID IT. AND AS YOUR YOUNGER BROTHER---”

A sharp inhale. 

“.....YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DUST. NOT ALLOWED TO FALL DOWN. NOD ONCE IF YOU UNDERSTAND ME, PAPYRUS.”

There’s a long moment, longer than he’d like, where the other doesn’t respond, save for a tremor that ran through his frame, a sickly-sounding rattle of brittle bones. But then, that gold light forms, looking calmer than he’s seen it in a long while. Durians is about to repeat himself, when he stops.

Pear has given one, short nod. But he also wears a tired smile. 

Idiot.

Durian scoffs. This idiot was going to get himself killed someday. But at least it didn’t seem like it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

“GET YOUR ASS ON THE COUCH. YOU’RE EXEMPT FROM SENTRY DUTY TOMORROW. AND YOU’RE CONFINED TO THE HOUSE UNTIL I DEEM YOU FIT TO GO OUTSIDE AGAIN.” Which wouldn’t be until the others defense came back up.  Checking now, it was still below ‘10′.

“Yes’sir.”

And Pear...doesn’t move. Of course he doesn’t. Durian rolls his eyelights, before hauling the bone-limp skeleton (ugh, he doesn’t need his brain supplying puns while his brother was too tired to do so), onto the couch, face-down. After kicking his legs up onto it as well, he leaves him there to rest.

[topazshadowwolf]

Soriel Week Day 3: Dreams

Okay, so you had a kinda healing thing, and then something cute, so now its time for a different emotion. This is inspired by a Soriel Week entry @bananaflavoredshroom did last year that I looooved. About time I wrote something for that drawing. I’ll link to it under the fic so you don’t get a spoiler.

The Haunting Silence

She could tell there was something about this human that was unkind, but the hope that they will learn from her and be better stayed. They could, she knew they could. They just had to believe in themselves and listen to her. She tried to keep them with her, to protect the small child from the outside world that would only foster this violent behavior. But, just like all the rest, they insisted they leave.

With the desire to protect the child, she fought with them. The only way she could let them leave is if they proved themself to her. And… they won. She surrendered to them. Tears in her eyes, the told them to be good. They will be fine, as they had spared her, they will show their mercy to others, she knew it.

…

A day past and she heard the child had made it out alive. He dear but foolish ex-husband had been killed in the process. This saddened her, but what else could one expect when you foster an atmosphere of death and hate? She knew her dear friend would come soon and hopefully tell her about how her child had done. So, she gathered her things to wait by the doors. A pillow to sit on, a blanket to stay warm from the cold air that slipped through, and a book to read until he arrived. Naturally, she tested to make sure he wasn’t there first. Knocking twice on the door and listening, she heard nothing in return. Sitting back, she waited for her friend to arrive.

But nobody came…

There must be so much going on with him at the moment, after all, Asgore had died. Perhaps, it would help if she were to be queen again. That would mean leaving the Ruins. But, from what rumors reached her ears, it sounded like the whole Underground was in a state of disarray. The next day, when her friend didn’t come, she gave in and left the Ruins. It was a long walk, but a walk she was willing to make. With hope, she will run into her pun-loving friend along the way. But what she found was an eerie silence.

A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she continued to walk along. Grillby’s, the restaurant her friend had told her about, was empty. The whole town was. Exploring the town, she did pause at two mailboxes. One was so full of mail it was overflowing, the other neat and clearly checked on. The well kept one had Papyrus written on the side. She knew that name, her friend said that was the name of his brother that he lived with. So then, the overstuffed mailbox must belong to her friend. “Sans” was the name written on the side, and she smiled, that did so seem like him.

She tried knocking on the door of the brother’s house, but there was no answer. Perhaps they were with the rest of the residents of Snowdin? If it was where his brother was, then he will surely be there. If there was one thing she knew for sure, her friend cared dearly for his brother.

Continuing on, she walked through Waterfall. She saw the sentry station her friend spoke of, and even the telescope he pranked those passing by with. Oh, he did love this telescope. It was good for more than pranks, and he once hoped to use it to see the real stars. That hope, he admitted faded, and that saddened her. She placed a paw on the telescope and sighed sadly. Her poor friend, she should reignite some hope for a future in him. He seemed so lost without it.

Moving on, she entered the sweltering heat of Hotlands, eventually coming across his friend’s sentry station/hotdog stand. He was so funny with how he talked about it. She scolded him for the illegal activity, but that didn’t keep her from laughing at his story of selling hotcats and headdogs to stir things up with customers. Oh, she sure did hope she would get to meet him soon.

Hurrying up, she eventually made it to the resort her friend told her about. It annoyed her as it was in the middle of an area she once enjoyed. There were some monsters here and there, now that she was close to the capital but not as many as she would hope. She was now feeling so much fear for her friend. Where was he? How was she going to find him at this rate?

She reached the capital city and walked to the castle. A small gathering of monsters followed along behind her. They were whispering, some knew who she was, the rest just knew she was a boss monster, all hoped that she would become the next ruler. It was what she left the Ruins for anyway, she will guide her people to a more peaceful time. And hopefully, find her friend and let him know how she felt… It felt important now to make sure he knew how much she cared about him. He had brought her such joy and laughs, she couldn’t imagine making it through her life without him now.

Walking through the last corridor she came to a spot that had a remnant of dust on the floor. “Is this where Asgore died?” She asked, turning back to the monsters following her.

“No, my Queen,” A monster replied.

“Do you know who died here?” She questioned, turning back to look at the faint trace of dust.

“A skeleton by the name of Sans,” The monster replied and her soul sank. A burn from tears filling her eyes brought her attention to the fact she had started to cry. Her friend… “He followed the human through the Underground, and after the human killed so many of us, he tried to stop them…”

“This is what happens when you try to make friends with humans!” Another monster yelled.

“He should have killed the human while they were weak!” “Why did he just watch? Even after they killed his brother?” “Death to humans!” “They only know how to kill” Bellowed the rest. Toriel just stood there, speechless, hearing the words said. Each was like a knife in her heart being slowly twisted with every word.

Without a word or thought, she turned and started to walk back. The monsters called after her, trying to call her back to them. They need a ruler, they wanted her as queen. But she was no queen. She failed her friend and made him take a promise that ultimately killed him in the end. How could she rule over them if she can’t keep one that matters so much to her alive? No, she should seal herself in the Ruins, where she was meant to be.

After as she closed the doors, locking them with her magic, she turned her back to the door, leaning against it. Tears again filled her eyes as she slowly slid down the door until she was sitting on the floor, paws over her mouth as ugly, pain-filled sobs emerged. Her friend… her dear friend. The one who made her laugh, who gave her reason to hope, killed by the human she dared to think of as her child. Moving her hands to her head, she bawled. Yet another she loved and cared so deeply about dead… because of her.

What joy could possibly be left in this world for a creature like her?

---

“And then I woke up,” The woman on the other side of the door said. He sat, ridged in the snow. That last timeline… he thought the human had killed everyone, but they had spared her. Knowing that eerie silence she experienced himself, his soul ache to comfort her.

“that, uh… sounds like a really bad nightmare…,” Sans said, his voice cracking as he was struggling not to cry as well. That empty feeling of the Underground that he has experienced more than once haunting him as she spoke and even now that her story was done.

There was a small pause and the door lady sighed, “It was, but, if anything… It has inspired me to do this.” There was the sound of her moving on the other side of the doors before she pushed them open. “My dear friend,” she croaked out as she, Toriel who once was the queen of the monsters, looked out at him. She wrapped her arms around him, tears rolling down her face. “Oh, my dear friend… you have no idea how important you are to me.”

Sans stood there, shocked, as tears started to roll from his sockets… Slowly, his arms moved around her in return and he leaned his skull against her shoulder. “same… same.”

... haaaaAAaaapPy SoriEl weEk... Why do I do this?! I should be writing happy times, right? RIGHT?! Anyway, here’s a link to that awesome art. If you haven’t already, give it some love! I know, Shroom, you didn’t seem fond of it... but the moment I saw it I’ve been wanting to write this and I hope, if you read this fic, that it helps you feel better about it. It really did bring a new idea to my mind and needed to be explored.

[that1nkyone]

Prize for exp0001 : “Real”

Heya! This is @exp0001-goopsart‘s runner-up prize for the Spectrum Fanart Contest! They requested a few different themes, but I decided to go for Angst involving Sans and Frisk. And, well, this happened.

This short wound up being... kind of sad/dark with a hopeful ending. I decided to try something new with the kind of friendship Sans and Frisk have. This setting involves constant resetting and a pretty apathetic Frisk. At least, at first.

I hope you like it, dude. If it’s not quite what you like, let me know and we can sort something out. : )

Thank you so much!

(Rated T - Features character death, fixed by resets and some dark humour courtesy of Sans.)

When you had your first journey through the Underground, you had done it wrong.

You’d defeated Toriel. But only because you thought there was no other way past her.

You’d killed any monster that had killed you, before. Because death was scary, and you didn’t want to have to go through it any more than you had to.

You never killed Papyrus. He never killed you, after all. You knew what to expect from him.

Asgore was the final mistake. Except - well, you weren’t the one who killed him. Someone else had done that, and you hadn’t been able to stop it.

But perhaps you were going about it all wrong.

When you spoke to Sans in the golden hall for the first time, you gained a new meaning behind your kills. And you thought it made sense.

But now, you’ve reached the end.

And the only way forward was out. Back to the surface, back up into the world you’d left.

You bite your lip.

And you start again.

You realize you don’t have to kill Toriel, this time. That wasn’t necessary.

Things are still very similar. And even though it’s your third time through the Underground, you learn a few new things. But you become more familiar with others.

Sans, for instance. You talk to him, more. You didn’t have to. In fact, the first time around, you pointedly ignored him the entire time. He creeped you out.

He even weirder up close. He seems to appear out of nowhere. And he also seems to know about Flowey. You don’t trust him all that much. And his jokes are awful.

When he treats you for dinner at the MTT Resort, you’re given more reason to avoid him. “Dead where you stand?” That wasn’t the tone of someone you could trust.

At the end of it all, you wind up at the exit to the Surface, once more.

You start again.

You try something new, this time.

There’s gotta be something new. Something you’ve missed. You get tired of having to die so easily, so you decide that you’ll be a bit stronger. More Execution Points means more LV. And more LV, as grim as it was, meant less dying on your part.

And that means you need to kill more monsters than necessary.

Sans is even creepier, this time. It bothers you in a way that’s more irritating than actually scary. He gives you another threat. That you’re going to have a ‘bad time,’ or whatever that means.

But you keep hearing a faint whisper at the back of your mind. You heard it in the Ruins, and you hear it now. When your body steps forward outside of your own volition, you freeze up.

You don’t kill Papyrus.

Sans thanks you for it. He’s back to his usual cheerful personality - or whatever the heck kind of personality he has.

You stop at Waterfall.

This isn’t what you want, you decide. You want more control than this.

You start again.

You order fries when you sit with Sans at Grillby’s, this time. You don’t really care about the ketchup that spills out - but you stop eating after five fries.

“a new record.” Sans says. “don’t think i’ve ever seen you eat that many.”

You feel a chill. When you turn to look at the skeleton, he’s facing away from you - watching Lesser Dog munch away at a small pile of bones.

Sans looks back at you, and you relax.

“… notice something new every time, huh?” He says.

You feel nauseated from the ketchup.

Sans doesn’t remember, you figure out. He knows. Oh, he definitely knows. But he doesn’t remember.

He’s the only one that knows, you think. But you eye Papyrus with some suspicion - sometimes he mentions deja vu.

You try not to kill many people this time. You want enough strength to keep you from dying, but not enough for that voice to come back.

You decide to take out the dog guard. You’ve always been afraid of dogs. They chased you a lot, when you were younger. And these ones have swords, and axes.

Sans stacks hot dogs on your head when you pass his sentry station in Hotland, this time around. You get thirty, stacked completely vertically and you’re not sure how he does it.

The moment you move, it all comes crashing down.

“perfectly good waste of ‘dog, if you ask me.” He says.

You start over.

You meet Sans again in the Judgement Hall. You’ve lost count how many times it’s been, but he’s always had something a little different to say.

You’re not sure what’s different this time. But after Sans finishes his spiel, like usual, you ask him to wait, before he can vanish.

You tell Sans that you don’t want to go back up to the Surface.

Sans’ smile doesn’t fade, and he doesn’t budge.

Then, he steps forward. He’s the one that approaches you, now.

“why not?” He asks.

You don’t tell him this time. You don’t tell him the next two times, either. But finally, you again tell Sans that you don’t want to go to the surface, and he approaches you again.

“… you gonna explain yourself?” He asks, this time.

You tell him that nobody needs you, up there.

Sans looks at you. He glances out the window.

“sounds messy.” He says, still grinning.

You feel a pang of frustration. That wasn’t the response you wanted.

You start again.

You try not to kill anyone, this time.

‘Try’ being the key word. A couple of times, the fear of dying outweighed your vow of pacifism. But you find a small comfort in the fact that they’d be back again, next time.

The Snowdin dogs are back. You’re not scared of them, anymore. But your stomach twists, when you meet up with them. You’re not sure why.

When you see Sans’ hot dog stand in Hotland, you march past him without speaking.You glance over your shoulder when you’re about to turn onto a new path - and he’s gone, again.

You look back at the new path. Then back at the stand.

Sans is sitting on the snowy roof of his sentry station, munching on a Hot Cat.

You look away. Then back.

He’s gone again.

You look away. Your face is stubbornly set into a frown.

Then, you look back.

He’s standing in front of the Sentry Station with a small, white dog sitting atop his head and panting happily.

“what’s up, dog?” He asks.

A laugh bursts from your clenched jaws.

He looks at you, and you decide that you’re still upset. You turn and walk away down the path at last.

You start again.

Nobody’s dead, this time. You’ve become too familiar with monsters and their problems to worry about it. The only white powder in Snowdin Woods is just snow.

You take your time. You hide behind the lamp, as usual. You hear Sans’ awful jokes for the umpteenth time.

But when Papyrus goes on his merry way, you stay behind.

You sit down on the path - only a thin layer of snow covering it. Sans glances over at you, blinking.

“no hurry to get goin’?” He looks away. “guess my brother’s gonna be disappointed.”

You tell him that Papyrus won’t have to wait too long.

Sans approaches. He doesn’t sit with you, but he stands at your side.

You tell him again that you don’t want to go to the surface, because nobody needs you there.

You tell him that you’ve never really felt at home. You tell him that at least around here, you knew what was going to happen.

Everything up there changes so fast. You either have a roof over your head, or you don’t. You have food, or you don’t. People are nice, or they aren’t.

Down here, you know what to expect from the same people.

Down here, you feel safer. You know what’s coming, and you’ve tried new things to spice it up a little - but you’ve found comfort here. You know everybody. You know what to do to make things pleasant enough here. You can control how bad it gets.

You don’t want to go to the surface, you tell Sans. You have no idea what’ll happen if you do.

Sans doesn’t say anything for a long time. But he sits down next to you.

“yeah.” He says. “i guess it’d be pretty freaky, not knowin’ what to expect.”

At first, you feel relieved that he gets it. And then, a pang starts to well up in your chest. And you start to feel ill.

You tell him that as long as things are like this, you’ll be fine.

“cool.” He says. “you ready to go? i’ll meet you up ahead, like usual.”

You don’t move.

You feel sick.

“… you hungry or something, kiddo?” The skeleton leans into your field of vision. “… nah, you must’ve eaten some greens back there, ‘cause your face sure looks it.”

You clench your jaw.

And then you’re sick.

You wake up on the couch in Sans and Papyrus’ house. The cushions are firm and littered with spare change. The kitchen is bustling with Papyrus’ efforts to cook up something for his new house guest.

Sans is sitting on the arm of the sofa, flicking endlessly through the four channels of the television.

“that’s a first.” He says, without looking back at you. “i think.”

You’re both quiet for a while, the only noise being the clattering of pots and pans and the buzzing of four different tones of static.

You tell Sans you’re a bad person.

The skeleton shrugs.

Things change a little, this time.

You call Undyne and Papyrus a lot. You try to listen to what they have to say. You try to really understand what kind of people they are.

You call Toriel, too. No responses, of course. But you wonder if she’s thinking of you. And you wonder if she’s baking anything.

You talk to Alphys, even knowing what’s coming. But you think you understand her a little better, now. Or you understand her more than you’d like.

You talk to Sans every time you see him. He doesn’t offer you food, this time. Just a bucket.

You kick it, giggling. Sans shrugs.

“Bit of gallows humour there, kiddo.” He says. He’s grinning, anyway.

It’s when Flowey has them all in his thorny vines that you realize that they’re real to you.

You’re not sure when they stopped. You’re not sure when they started being real, again, either. You just know that they haven’t been for a very long time. And that makes you sad.

“Don’t you get it? This is all just a GAME.”

And you feel ill. You look at Flowey, beaming at you with your friends in his grasp.

You look up at Sans.

His eye sockets are dark.

You wonder if this is new to him. That if over the many, many combined resets, courtesy of you and Flowey, he was ever held captive like this.

All of your friends, you realize, have long stopped being real to Flowey.

You realize that you want them to stay real to you.

You’re standing there at the top of Mt Ebott, next to Toriel. You’re both watching the sunset. You’re shaking a little. You don’t know if it’s because you’re tired or if you’re frightened, but you decide that you’re not feeling that scared.

You quietly tell Toriel that you have places to be. And the forgotten queen of the Underground gives you a smile of understanding (though perhaps you can see some flicker of disappointment).

She follows after the entourage that have hurried down the mountain. But you stand there a few moments longer.

Then, you look to your left.

Sans is standing there. You figured he’d be.

You try to read him a little. But you’ve never really managed to do that so well, in all the time you’ve known him.

But when you tell him that you’re not resetting this time, you can already tell he doesn’t believe you.

He watches the sunset anyway, looking a little more relaxed than usual. You wonder if he ever saw this in a past reset of Flowey’s. Probably not, you realize. Not enough SOULs.

“… she’s gorgeous, huh?” He says, gesturing to the sunset. “really lights up my life.”

You snort.

“hey, thanks for getting us this far.” He says. and he sounds like he means it. “could honestly get used to this.”

He starts walking down the mountain, too. You follow behind him, fiddling with your sweater as you look at the sun, again.

You know that it’s all unknown from here on out. Moreso now that you have a group of monsters to represent.

You’re scared. And you know that perhaps, in a way, you’ve ruined any chance of really being friends with Sans. But you decide that you don’t need to convince him of anything. You don’t have to tell him you’ve changed, so you can feel better.

You just have to try to do the right thing from here on out.

“hey, kid?”

You look down at Sans, who’s looking up at you. His hands are still in his pockets, but the stare he gives you isn’t accusatory.

“you comin’, or what?” He asks, gesturing with his shoulder.

You draw in a breath.

And you decide to keep going.