This story contains spoilers for the souless pacifist run of Undertale. If you've enjoyed reading this, then please feel free to leave either a fav or a comment :)
The sound of children's laughter as they play in the leaves. The crunch of red leaves his sneakers create as he walks toward the school. The warm glow that seems to radiate from Toriel as she smiles at him.
It is Fall.
Frisk runs up to him, leaves in their hair, signing a 'Hello' and 'How was work today?' with their hands.
Toriel follows closely behind. "Excited to see sans, my child?"
sans grins. "The kid can't seem to leaf me alone, Tori."
Laughter emits from both Toriel and Frisk.
The trio waits patiently until all of the children are picked up by their parents, and then they walk toward Toriel's home.
Toriel asks him about his day, and he replies with another pun. A skele-ton of work.
There is a sadness to his smile. Work is always more than a skele-ton. Discrimination against monsters ensures that "regular" monsters had to have more than one job in the human world in order to even remotely survive.
He works 2 jobs to support himself and his brother Papyrus. But 2 jobs isn't too bad. It's nothing compared to what Papyrus does, afterall. Papyrus is a monster-human mascot and delegate 24/7. And he knows that his brother deserves to live happily in this timeline. At least for however long this timeline lasts.
The sun starts to set as they reach Toriel's home. Toriel invites him for dinner, and he allows this small luxury for himself.
The butterscotch-cinnamon pie filling is delicious and warm, and the pie crust is crunchy. It reminds him of the leaves.
It is Fall, and he could enjoy pie while watching the sunset with Toriel by the kitchen window forever.
The walk to his night shift is illuminated by street lights. The rain has made the former crunchy leaves soggy and shiny. It reminds him of the damp and dark waterfall and, in general, the underground.
It reminds him of the fallen child, or the fallen children from other timelines.
One of the children from some of the other timelines was called Chara. They showed no mercy and went out of their way to eliminate every monster in the underground. He still has nightmares about them sometimes. Other times, he is sure that he is hallucinating. And because of those hallucinations of seeing Chara whenever he encounters Frisk, he never stays at Toriel's place for very long.
Toriel is the best best audience he's ever had, and her laughter brightens up his day. It gives him something to look forward to, and gives him hope and grounds him. It makes him fall away from lingering thoughts and visions of the other timelines.
He wishes he could spend more time with Toriel, and he knows that Toriel feels the same way. However, they are both busy with work in the human world. But walking her and Frisk home is more for which he could hope. It is enough.
It is more than he could hope for compared to the past timelines.
The fallen child had a great power. The fallen child has a great power.
When he arrives to his shift, he shakes his head in attempt to banish those dark thoughts. Frisk is a fallen child, however not the same one from the other timelines.
It is a human holiday known as "Thanksgiving." There is no work today, and his brother informs him that it is a day to give thanks to those you love and cherish.
He attempts to make a spinach egg pie. It tastes too sweet no matter what he does. He abandons the effort and buys a gift basket full of red and orange and yellow fruits instead. Toriel loves it just as much as he loves her butterscotch-cinnamon pies.
When his brother visits Toriel's place to play some games with Frisk, he and Toriel are left alone. They share terrible puns and Toriel offers him lessons on making the perfect spinach egg pie after hearing about his failed attempt.
As they conversed with each other while waiting for the pie to bake, the pitter-patter of small feet is heard running toward the kitchen. In another room, they could her Papyrus shout dramatically, "I, the Great Papyrus, have been bested! When I find you, I shall take my revenge!"
Frisk bursts into the kitchen.
They are holding a knife in their hands as they shook with silent laughter. They quickly gesture for him and Toriel to be quiet.
The knife is dripping with red.
The ground beneath him falls away.
When he wakes up, he is confused about what happened earlier. The last thing he saw was Chara - no - Frisk with a knife in their hands.
He looks at his surroundings. Artwork drawn by crayons are put up on the walls. Beside the night table is a faded photo of Toriel, Frisk, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Papyrus, and himself.
They seem happy.
There is a quiet knock at the door before Toriel comes inside the room. She tells him that she has put Frisk to bed, and tells him that in his surprise, he slipped and fell on the ketchup that was on Frisk's toy knife.
She tells him that Frisk feels really bad about rattling his bones. He laughs and tells Toriel that she is humerus.
"Wake Frisk up tomorrow, will you not?" Toriel's gentle voice asks of him. "I'm sure it would make them feel better, sans."
He makes the promise. Someone who sincerely likes bad jokes has an integrity to which he can't say no.
When he enters Frisk's room in the morning, he gently shakes them in attempt to wake them up.
A few seconds later, Frisk's eyes snap open.
He is met with terrible, terrible laughter after a terrible, terrible grin.
The sound of children's laughter as they play in the leaves. The crunch of red leaves his sneakers create as he walks toward the school. The warm glow that seems to radiate from Toriel as she smiles at him.
It is Fall.
The child runs up to him, leaves in their hair, signing a 'Hello' and 'How was work today?' with their hands.
Toriel follows closely behind. "Excited to see sans, my child?"
sans forces himself to grin. "The kid can't seem to leaf me alone, Tori."
Laughter emits from both Toriel and Chara.