Sans' eyes drifted open again.
It was a common problem that he'd never gotten past quite yet. The late night awakenings, or perhaps early morning? Every time was a chance for everything to go back to the way it was, and he had to find the constants in his life to keep track. He gazed at the clock.
1:42 AM.
Already his mind was set at ease. This clock wasn't his, or at least, not the one he had in Snowdin. He was very particular about making absolutely sure that he didn't take anything with him, unlike his brother, Papyrus. With a few exceptions, he didn't really feel attached to his belongings. If anything they'd only serve to confuse him in these weary hours.
He knew already that he wasn't stuck, even the feel of his bedsheets told him that. A different fabric, heavier slightly, cleaner for sure. His room's layout, even in the darkness, had a welcomed unfamiliarity to it. He smiled a bit, thinking about just how much that would bother Papyrus. He knew his brother appreciated order and sameness in some ways, which is why Sans' room was as clean as it was. No more locking the door. No more keeping secrets.
And then, of course, there was the window.
In Snowdin, Sans appreciated having the window above his bed, and because the Underground was, well, underground, there wasn't anything that would really wake him up from the outside. Here, however, he'd already learned at just how well the sun would interrupt a sleep schedule. Right now, however, the window across the room had a faint light, probably from the streetlights across the way. It was just about the same amount of light he was used to, although the newly installed curtains kept a bit of it out.
It smelled like bones and twilight.
He sat up and stretched, his bones lightly rattling as he did so. He knew he wasn't about to go back to sleep, not right now, anyway. He was too distracted by the new stimuli. Looking at the window again, he nodded to himself and grabbed his pillow.
He got up and opened his window, staring out and listening to the crickets sing for a bit, before looking up at the spot on the roof that he could see. His mind began to calculate his current position and his goal, getting the coordinates just right before activating another "shortcut."
His feet were already prepared to land on an incline, although it made a bit more noise than he would have liked. Bending his knees to catch his balance, he managed to get himself to stand back up, looking out over the sea of trees and houses that made up his new home's landscape. The wind, albeit a bit cooler, felt more refreshing than the eddies of Waterfall.
Sans found just the right spot and tossed his pillow onto the roof, falling backwards onto it with a thud. He gave a heavy sigh of relief, and began to lose himself in his thoughts until, beneath him, a light flipped on and shone onto the backyard from the window.
"…SANS…?" Came Papyrus' voice.
"up here, bro."
With an impressive amount of grace, The Great Papyrus managed to climb up onto the roof with…relative ease, considering his starting position. And in pajamas no less.
"NOT SLEEPING AGAIN?"
"nah, sorry. guess some things don't get fixed right away."
"NOT TO WORRY, THIS TIME I CAME PREPARED!"
"…prepared?"
Next to Sans' head, another pillow fluffed down as Papyrus gave his trademark "NYEH-HEH-HEH!"
"oh. cool," Sans grinned.
The taller brother crawled over and laid down next to Sans, adjusting his nightcap to keep the ball on the end from protruding under the back of his skull. The two looked over at each other and smiled a bit, before Sans turned his gaze toward the sky.
"i still can't believe this. it's…beautiful."
"YEAH! IT'S A HUNDRED TIMES BETTER THAN THE WATERFALL STONES!"
"well, that's because those things up there? those lights? those aren't pretty gemstones. they're stars, like the sun."
"ALL OF THEM? THEY'RE ALL SUNS?"
"well, no, a couple of them are planets, like that one over there. that's jupiter, biggest planet in the solar system."
"WOWIE! EVEN BIGGER THAN EARTH?!"
"yep. jupiter can hold over 1,300 earths, actually. it's that big."
"THAT'S CRAZY!"
"right? it's crazy that everything out there is so…big, y'know? the sun is even bigger than that, it could hold about a thousand jupiters!"
Papyrus stopped talking, knowing what was coming next.
"and there's even bigger stars out there than the sun! It's actually kinda small compared to some of the stuff out there. those lights in the sky are billions of billions of billions of billions of miles away, and they're so bright that their light shines on us here, down on earth! could you imagine? there are stars out there that are bigger than our entire solar system, and some stars even bigger than that! it's really quite–"
A sudden stop.
"…you okay, pap?"
Sans turned his head to see Papyrus looking at him with his own set of stars in his eyes. His face was one of admiration and awe, the face that Sans knew meant that Papyrus was looking at something he thought was amazing.
"…what?"
"YOU'RE SO…EXCITED! I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU GET SO WORKED UP ABOUT SOMETHING BEFORE! IT'S SO COOL!"
"nah…what're you talkin' about. i just…"
"NO, NO! IT'S GREAT! YOU REALLY LIKE THIS STUFF, RIGHT? THINKING ABOUT STARS BLAZING AND GALAXIES AND SUNS AND PLANETS AND STUFF?"
"i…" he started to laugh, "…yeah, i guess i do."
Sans rolled back over and gestured to the biggest heavenly body they could see.
"see that? the moon? it's half-full because of where we are, so the sun's shining on the moon, but not on us necessarily."
"YEAH. SO WHEN IT'S FULL…"
"the moon, sun, and the earth are all perfectly lined up for us to see it. And when the moon's gone, that's because it's between us and the sun, so we see its 'shadow' instead."
"WHAT DO YOU THINK IT'S LIKE? UP THERE?"
"well, the humans managed to get up there, a few times, actually. the moon's actually really far away too, over two hundred thousand miles, so the trip was probably really hard. from what i've read, it's really quiet, there's no air, and it's really dusty and barren."
"THAT SOUNDS…NOT IDEAL."
"yeah…until you see this."
Sans focused a bit while holding his hand out. From beneath them, his cell phone traveled from his bedroom window and floated gently into his hand.
"YOU'RE GETTING BETTER AT THAT."
"well, i'm sleeping a little better nowadays."
He swiped the lock-screen away and began to flip through his pictures, swiping up and up past numerous images of stars, galaxies, nebulas, even the moon. Finally he settled on one, handing the phone to Papyrus. It showed a grey landscape, illuminated by a beautiful blue sphere in the sky.
"check it out. this is a picture that came from the moon."
"WOWIE! IS THAT…"
"that's the earth. that's us."
"US? WE'RE…ON THAT PRETTY STONE?"
"yeah. every single one of us. that image contains billions of humans, and a few thousand monsters. although…we were behind the barrier when that picture was taken. still, it's amazing, right?"
"IT'S INCREDIBLE!" Papyrus handed the phone back to Sans. "YOU…REALLY LIKE SPACE, HUH?"
Sans breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "yeah. i want to go there. someday. i want to experience it, just once. to feel a complete lack of gravity, to touch moon rocks, to…to look back on earth, with my own eye sockets."
"WELL…IF ANYBODY COULD DO IT, IT WOULD BE THE BROTHER OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS."
"heh, thanks bro."
The two fell back into silence. Scratch that, Sans was silent, but his brother was beginning to chortle. The snorting snickers began to build until a muffled guffaw before Sans decided to intervene.
"aw, c'mon, spit it out."
"HEH HEH…I GUESS YOU COULD SAY YOU'RE…'STARSTRUCK'! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!"
It must have been at least fifteen minutes before the two began to soften their laughter in an attempt to stay sane. Tears rolled down their faces, as Sans clutched at his sides to stem back the pain of uncontrollable urges. They both wiped their eyes, either with a sleeve or a collar, still struggling to breathe normally from their aural workout.
After it all settled, they both glanced back toward the skies, and for once, Sans' grin was infinitely wider than Papyrus'.
It smelled like smiles and stardust.