A/N

Technically this is a crossover, but saying there's only one element from the second story (Jude Mathis from Tales of XIllia) I decided to keep it under strictly Undertale.

Enjoy!

Sans stood ankle-deep in the snow, hands buried deep in his pockets with his spine pressed to the trunk of a tree. Chest rising and falling, he enjoyed the crisp air that blew threw his ribs. The snow fell from an unknown source, peppering his face with its cold.

When he heard the sound of the door opening, he sighed, watching a puff of smoke float up from his teeth. Time for work.

He peered around the tree trunk, taking in a quick study of the child. He tilted his skull a bit.

It was a different kid than usual. Black hair instead of brown, a blue-and-red striped sweater instead of aqua-and-pink and sweatpants instead of shorts. The child was wiping at his eyes, breathing in slowly through his mouth. His hair was ruffled, sticking up at the ends and a bruise graced his cheek, as well as under his eye.

Sans shrugged.

Sometimes the kid was different, it didn't matter. He cleared his non-existent throat and shifted his feet, preparing for his rehearsed entrance. The child reach Papyrus's 'gate', and Sans clenched a fist, trapping the boy there with blue magic. He tugged at his legs a few times, staring down at his feet with a baffled expression. As he struggled, Sans trotted up behind him.

"Human…." He started the usual shtick "Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand."

He offered his hand, watching with an amused grin as the boy shakily took the hand offered to him. The whoopee cushion did its job, letting out a pleasant and comical puff of air. Sans chuckled.

"The ol' whoopee-cushion-in-the-hand trick" He grinned down at the boy. The child covered his mouth with one hand, giggling into his cupped fingers. Sans grinned wider "Gets 'em every time. Heya, kid. I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. So-"

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Sans." The boy said softly, smiling and unaware he cut the skeleton off. "I'm Jude. Jude Mathis."

Sans blinked "Er….Heya. So, Jude, you're a human, right?"

"That's right." Jude nodded. His smile dropped to a frown as he took a cautious step back "…Why?"

"Well…" Sans shrugged "I just think it's hilarious and all. Say, thing is, I'm supposed to be on the hunt for humans now- Easy there, kid" He muttered, grabbing the boy by the collar of his sweater "I ain't gonna hurt ya, okay? I don't care too much for catching humans."

"Oh." Jude blushed. He smiled "Sorry."

Sans laughed "Er….Right."

And after that, Jude strayed further and further from the norm. While the boy wasn't quite talkative, he did speak more than the usual child. And not only that, he was much too…. Well…

"Er-Excuse me, Mr. Papyrus!" The boy stammered, cradling the orb in his arms "Your footprints kind of left a path in the snow, so I know where to go…."

"OH. …SIMPLY IGNORE THAT THEN."

…

Honest.

Sans sighed, scratching the side of his skull as Jude walked by. The boy seemed to spot him, waving ever so timidly in his direction. Sans shrugged and waved back.

Eventually, him and Papyrus waited for the human child at the bridge. They waited an waited and waited, until eventually Sans found himself being shaken awake by his brother.

"SANS!" Papyrus frowned "D-DO YOU THINK THE HUMAN'S OKAY?"

" 'm sure he's fine, bro." Sans shrugged "He's probably petting the dogs or something." It wasn't uncommon that a kid would spend hours on end petting Lesser Dog.

"HM…. I'M GOING TO GO LOOK FOR HIM." Papyrus decided, walking off as he finished his sentence. Sans shrugged and followed him, hands buried deep in his pockets as his eyelids fluttered shut once again. He was rudely awaken, however, by running into Papyrus's back as he abruptly halted. "OH MY GOD! JUDE!"

The taller skeleton sprinted off, kicking up the snow that pelted Sans in the face. With an annoyed grunt, he wiped the pesky white stuff off his face. He rolled his eyes, listening to Papyrus's rambling form.

He probably scraped his knees or something. Sans thought cynically.

"SANS!" Papyrus hollered. Sans trotted up, peering around his brother to look at the human-

"HOLY SHIT-"

"SANS WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry! Crud, kid-!" He stared, rushing over to the child's side. Jude turned away shyly, blushing lightly. Whether it was from the cold or embarrassment was unclear.

"It's nothing, I'm okay-"

"YOU OBVIOUSLY ARE NOT!" Papyrus screeched "SANS, ISN'T THE RED STUFF SUPPOSED TO STAY INISDE THE HUMANS!?"

"Yep!" Sans choked.

The boy's left side was slick and warm with blood, and he clutched tightly to his left arm as if to tourniquet it with his own grip. He took a step away from the skeletons.

"I'm fine, really…."

"Er- Kid-" Sans sighed, turning to Papyrus "Bro, go get some bandages and antiseptic, alright?"

"ER…" Papyrus nodded after a moment, turning on heel and bolting off. Sans sighed, taking a moment to teleport away and to come back with the supplies needed to treat the boy. Jude's eyes widened a bit at his return, but he didn't do much more than that.

Sans pulled the boy up onto his lap and set himself to dressing the wound. Jude tensed up at the touch.

"Er…you okay, kid?" Sans asked, unraveling the bandages.

The kid was trembling, or maybe the skeleton was imagining it, but he slowly nodded. "Y-yeah. Sorry."

"Don't apologize." Sans muttered "Y'didn't do anything wrong."

"Sorry."

Sans sighed. "Right. Stay still."

"Okay." Jude said, looking away. Sans felt his bones rattle a bit, unsettled by the child's demeanor. The man shook his head and focused on the task at hand. He rolled up Jude's red-dyed sleeve, muttering an apology as the child hissed out in pain, and revealed the deep gash that carved into the child's arm.

"Yeesh." Sans grimaced, dabbing at the cut with a damp rag "How did this happen?"

"It was an accident." Jude explained quickly.

"An accident?" Sans quoted, eyeing the wound. It was always puffy and agitated, skin reddened from cold and exposure. But it was far too clean a cut. Practically a vertical bloody line from his shoulder to his wrist. The edges of the wound was already beginning to scab over. "Kid, I don't think-"

"Jude!" Someone called. Sans and Jude looked up to watch a monster with trees for antlers sprint over, bandages wadded up in its lopsided mouth. Gyftrott. It skidded to a halt in front of the duo. "Oh wow, Sans! Thank goodness. You can help him, right-"

Sans held up a hand to silence the monster, then flicked his wrist to motion to the boy's wound "How'd this happen?"

"E-er…" Gyftrott swallowed, shuffling its feet "E…I….I attacked him-"

"It was an accident." Jude insisted.

"Okay, okay." Sans muttered, waving down both members of his company down "Both of you need to calm down. One at a time. Jude, what's yer story?"

"Like I said" Jude frowned "It was an accident. They didn't mean to hurt me, they just slipped."

"Okay. Gyftrott?"

The deer shuffled its hooves again, looking down to the snowy ground "I…Well, he's a human, y'know? So I figured I oughtta….then…. I, well….."

"You gouged out a good chunk of his arm." Sans finished the sentence as the monster flinched.

"Yeah."

Jude frowned, reaching out with his good arm to pat the creature on his head "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm fine." He smiled "See?"

Sans felt his figurative heart sink as the boy reassured the monster.

There was no way this kid was gonna make it out of the mountain alive.