"I….STILL BELIEVE IN YOU!" Papyrus said before he died.

RESET.

You mutter to yourself as you begin the game for the fiftieth time. Flowey gave you another criticizing lecture, berating you for giving up again. Then he left. Again. Toriel walked up and introduced herself. Again.

You play a few days and get the True Ending.

Again.

You feel a lump in your throat as Flowey pops up and begs you not to RESET again.

But you do.

You monster.

You RESET and start over again, filled with DETERMINATION that is destined to fail. You killed a few froggits. Easy. You killed a few moldsmals. Easy.

A single whimsun approaches you. You feel a pressure in your chest that you instantly recognize as guilt. This little guy probably saw you killing everyone else. It could probably see all the dust on your character. But the timid thing still approached you. The little guy had the courage to try and stop you and you kill it.

The soundtrack changed. Again. It became slower, eerier.

But Nobody Came.

You're already used to that message but not the feeling that goes with it. Silently, you berate yourself. Why are you so attached to fictional characters? Why did you read so deep into their motives? That Whimsun doesn't exist! It doesn't even think!

You get to Toriel and kill her.

Again.

Flowey praises you.

Again.

You enter the Snowdin woods.

Again.

As you walk, you catch all the signs of Sans approaching you. The strange noises, the footsteps. The breaking of a branch. The flicker of his silhouette across the screen. You set your mouth into a frown and are filled with DETERMINATION.

HE'S the reason you're genociding. You don't need to play through this route, you already know the story. You've seen the walkthroughs online. The reason, the ONLY reason you were playing this route was because you wanted to fight him.

Not because of any malicious intents, it just looked like a fun challenge.

"it'd be great if you kept pretending to be one." Sans said, looking smugly to the side. You frowned. Did Sans hear you kill Toriel? The door was right there and he seems to go there a lot-

You shake your head.

HE'S NOT REAL. You tell yourself as you go through the Snowdin Woods. Ice Cap? Dead. Snowdrake? Dead. Jerry-

Ah crap it's Jerry.

It takes you a long, LONG time, but eventually, to everyone's happiness, you kill Jerry.

You walk through all the puzzles. Grinding your teeth, you kill all the dogs. Dogs are cute and you love them. You do NOT love killing them.

…So perhaps you LOVE killing them?

….That was horrible. You're horrible.

You get to Papyrus again. You steel your emotions.

"BUT I BELIEVE YOU CAN CHANGE!" Papyrus said. You narrow your eyes "I SEE YOU'RE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE?"

You enter the battle.

You click the FIGHT button.

"WELL…THIS IS UNEXPECTED." Papyrus said as his body turned to dust. You grinded your teeth and took a deep breathe. He doesn't exist.

HE DOESN'T EXIST.

…

RESET.

You groan as the opening sequence begins to play, massaging your temples with the tips of your fingers. Curse your inability to detach yourself from emotional situations. It was just a game.

"I JUST WANT TO FIGHT SANS. SOOOOOO BADDDLLLYYYY!" you moan, face-planting onto your keyboard. No need to worry about anyone hearing you and thinking you're crazy: you're home alone right now! Your incredibly generic, easily-relatable brother and/or sister are both hanging out with friends and your guardian(s)/parent(s) are at work.

YOU skipped school/work to play Undertale.

Well, more accurately, to play the genocide route alone so no one asked you why you were crying for no particular reasoning again.

You muttered some swear words into your keyboard.

But then… you heard a peculiar…. Gurgling noise….? Well, that's how you'd describe it to someone who didn't know it. YOU knew it however. You knew it far too well. It was the noise that played when Sans spoke.

Confused, you lift your head. You just RESET. Even if the game had started without you knowing, there's no way Sans would already be there.

You eyes widen when you see the screen was completely black.

Except a little text box.

"you just wanted to fight me?"

You didn't know how to respond. The text changed.

"heya kiddo, close your mouth before you swallow a fly."

You didn't know your mouth was open. But it was and you closed it, swallowing nervously.

"so…you wanted to fight me?"

You nod, mute and unsure as to how to respond.

"geesh kid, if that's all it was you could've just asked."

The screen flashed as your little red heart appeared. Under it, your stats and fight options. Sans's sprite appeared above the bullet board, shrugging with a wink.

"well let's get started."

The box widened as the battle initiated. A single, tiny bone scrolled slowly across the screen. You stuck out the bottom of your lip into a pout. Even your hallucinations were sarcastic. Sans winked.

"oh come on, kiddo. don't gimme that look." He shrugged "just catching your attention is all. come on, your turn."

You decided to question your sanity later. Maybe you were dreaming? Wouldn't be the first time you fell asleep at the computer anyway. You shrugged and took to your keyboard. The heart hovered in the FIGHT box and you felt a familiar lump in your throat. The Sans sprite bobbed back and forth, waiting for you to move.

He waited for about ten minutes.

Then he winked "oh, i gotcha'." He took what looked like a pixelized pen out of his pocket and stomped his foot. Your options fell out of the screen but reappeared near the top, above Sans. He reached up and scribbled out the word 'FIGHT', replacing it with 'SPAR'. He then pushed the boxes back up for them to reappear at the bottom of the screen.

You chewed you lip, shrugged, and clicked Z. The little fighting window appeared and you tapped Z again when the bar was in the center. Sans sprite moved to the side and the word 'MISS' appeared above him.

Then…. It….fell down.

"ow." Sans muttered as the word 'MISS' hit him. He winked "how ironic is that?" The short skeleton gave another shrug "sorry kiddo, not used to manipulating YOUR reality yet. there's probably going to be some bugs."

You tilted your head in confusion. Sans shrugged "welp."his eye sockets went black "Let's get right to the point."

You instantly felt bad because that's what he said when you killed everyone. The edges of your vision went blurry with tears and you hurried to wipe them away. Sans's eyes returned to normal, his expression turning into his nervous grin with the sweat on his forehead.

"geesh kid. calm down." He said. "i was just jokin' with ya."

You still felt bad. But you wiped away your tears and tapped on the SPAR button.

You can see a psychiatrist later. Right now there was videogames to play.

A/N

Oh wow this is…something. It's certainly something. I'm probably not going to continue this. I just had an idea for a reader insert and went with it. It seemed better in my head.

Welp, drop a review if you'd like.