Hey, y'all! Just a quick note that this story is more or less complete already. I'll be editing each chapter as I post it. This means that updates will be pretty frequent. Huzzah! But I also want to get a feel for what people want so parts may be subject to change.

Why Children Climb Mountains

(who are you running from?)

Frisk took a long, belly-warming sip of hot chocolate as their eyes scanned the front page of that morning's newspaper. Being the ambassador for monsterkind, Frisk was religious in keeping up with the news. It had been just shy of a year since the barrier had been broken and monsters had nervously but excitedly left the underground to live under the sun once more after a millennium of captivity and the merger with humankind was still very much a work in progress.

In the beginning, there had been many incidents as humans learned to live side by side with entities that had before only existed in bedtime stories. Of course, humankind was entirely unprepared for a sudden population boom due to a few thousand monsters flooding down from the summit of Mt. Ebott and many met their excited charge with fear and hostility. It had been a stroke of surprising forethought from Asgore that kept the situation from escalating into a full on crisis. The large king had predicted encountering conflict and already had prepared a plan for how to reintroduce monsterkind to the aboveground, starting with reining in his overeager subjects and camping out on top of the mountain until negotiations could commence. From there, it was just a matter of politics, Toriel taking over and smoothly directing discussions until a decision that benefitted all parties was reached. Frisk did everything they could to paint an unthreatening picture of the underground for the local authorities and indeed their word went a long way in expediting the process.

Now, eleven months later, monsters had mostly finished integrating with humans and the issue of the moment was peacekeeping and making sure monsters weren't being exploited in the workplace. Every few days some kerfuffle popped up in the news that Frisk or a boss monster had to go and handle. It was slow progress but everyone was optimistic. Barring a few bigger disputes, most of the issues were minor and resolved fairly quickly and Frisk was certain that any remaining hostilities would settle down with time.

Until then, Frisk was content in their work as an ambassador. Their monster friends were very protective of them and someone would always find an excuse to tag along on their peacekeeping missions; Undyne, when the perceived level of danger was on the higher end, Papyrus for minor conflicts, usually involving misunderstandings, and Toriel when meeting with authority figures—politicians, governors, ambassadors, and the like. Sans would come along too upon occasion, though there was no real rhyme or reason to when he would decide to accompany them. Often, Frisk would be expecting someone else and that's when Sans would appear instead, offering a shrug and a vague excuse and then carrying on as if he'd been the one meant to go from the start.

Chaperoning from Sans was rare, though, and that's why when Frisk had finished their hot chocolate and pancakes and stepped outside to begin their routine trek to school, they were surprised to find Sans waiting for them just outside the front door. They looked up at him questioningly. Somehow, despite having grown some in the past eleven months, Sans remained just slightly taller than Frisk. Perhaps they hadn't grown as much as they thought they had, the now thirteen-year-old human thought dimly.

"hey, kid," the short skeleton greeted, relaxed as usual with his hands in his pockets and winter jacket for once zipped up to his neck. It had been a particularly chilly December. Did skeletons feel cold? Frisk didn't know.

Frisk continued to squint up at him expectantly, waiting for him to tell them what the occasion was. There hadn't been anything in the paper that morning and Toriel hadn't mentioned anything to them during breakfast. Sans chuckled at their apparent confusion. "no occasion," he said, seemingly reading their mind. "is it so strange for a guy to want to spend time with his small human pal?"

Frisk gave the skeleton a skeptical look. They both knew that Sans wasn't a morning person and wouldn't venture out of his and Papyrus' house at such an early hour for no good reason.

Sans chuckled again and closed one eye socket. And was it just Frisk, or did his perpetual skeleton grin seem just slightly more sinister than normal? "you got me. there's been an incident, kiddo. i'm here to make sure you don't encounter any problems on your way to school."

Frisk worried their brow and followed him as he began to walk, crunching through the fresh layer of snow. It occurred to them that he had changed out his usual slippers for snow boots.

"happened last night," Sans continued, slowing down enough for Frisk to catch up and walk beside him. "you know balting, that small town at the base of the mountain that raised a huge stink about monsters being allowed to leave the underground. the one famous for buttercups…"

Frisk nodded. How could they forget? It was the town that had stoned Asriel to death. The town they had come from. Balting had made no secret of the fact that they distrusted monsterkind and still believed Asriel responsible for…their death. The citizens of Balting had been very adamant in their opposition of the merger, calling the monsters dirty child killers and warning other towns and cities that their children would be gobbled up by the horrid beasts of the mountain. Since then, they had done everything in their power to prove that monsters were dangerous and foul and should be locked back up where they couldn't hurt anyone. They were the biggest opposition to peace and a general nuisance to everyone who was fighting for change.

"well, apparently one supposedly murdered child wasn't grounds enough to win people over to their stance, so they did a little digging. figuratively, of course. they weren't ballsy enough to venture into the underground as things stood up until last night, though now it could very well come to that. you see, they were snooping around in police records and stumbled upon the files for several missing children. missing children who were previously not missing until they decided to take a hike up mt. ebott."

Frisk stumbled as Sans' news caused them to forget where they were walking and stub the toe of their boot on the curb of a sidewalk buried in snow. They thought they would fall into a clumsy pile of Frisk like usual, but Sans surprised them for the second time that morning by throwing out an arm to steady them. Frisk noted distractedly how thick and cushy Sans' jacket was—they could hardly tell that the appendage that lay within was merely bones.

"it hasn't hit the news yet," Sans continued as though Frisk hadn't just nearly face-planted, "but that doesn't mean word hasn't gotten out already. if the humans find out what happened to those children…well, it won't look good for us, will it?"

Frisk shook their head in agreement. Truly, this was bad. Very bad. All of their hard work these past months could be for nothing if the humans discovered that monsters were responsible for the deaths of seven human children. Frisk quietly fretted as they tried to figure out how to go about handling the situation should it come to worst.

Sans saw them working themselves into a panic and put a gloved hand on their head in reassurance. "hey, buddy, don't worry too much. let us do the worrying this time. we have to pay for our crimes just the same as anybody else. it's more important to us that you don't suffer any of the fallout from this, whatever comes of it."

Frisk shook their head and tugged on Sans' sleeve to get him to look at them. He met Frisk's eyes with his lightly glowing white pupils and Frisk cracked their own eyes open just slightly to gaze up into them determinedly. "Not alone, Sans," they said softly, as they said all things when they chose to use their voice.

Sans' expression softened in that subtle way that somehow never interrupted his perpetual skeleton grin and he ruffled Frisk's hair fondly. "heh. 'course, kid."

They walked in silence after that and despite Sans' reassurance, Frisk couldn't keep from stewing over the impending disaster that would come of the humans discovering of the fates of the children who fell into the underground. Humans in groups were not prone to forgiveness and they were immensely hypocritical to boot. They would learn that half a dozen human children had met their ends at the hands of monsters and they would retaliate twenty-fold. That's just how they were. It didn't matter that more monsters than that had already been dusted for various reasons at the hands of humans since their arrival on the surface.

Frisk wished they could go to Balting and scream at the people who had made it their life goal to ruin any chance of harmony between humans and monsters; scream long and hard at the injustice, the selfishness, the horribleness of it all. It wasn't fair. Monsters had every right to live under the sun that humans did. They were no more or less violent a species. On the contrary, they were filled with so much love, so much overflowing compassion; they didn't deserve to be treated like dangerous beasts. No, in the privacy of their own mind, Frisk believed the real beasts were the surface dwellers. The hideous, terrible, people who hurt and scorned and hated; the ones who drove Frisk to climb Mt. Ebott that day just shy of a year prior.

Frisk's classmates hardly spared them a glance as they arrived at the local junior high school and Frisk ascertained from that that it was likely nobody knew yet about the newest brand of anti-monster hell Balting was raising. Sans left them at the entrance with a farewell head pat and an invitation to join him and Papyrus for dinner that evening. Apparently Papyrus was wanting to try out a new recipe on them.

"rest assured, it's still spaghetti," he said as he turned to go. "be good today, squirt. or, y'know, don't." He shrugged with a grin and then he was gone.

Frisk had an enormously average day that day. They bumbled passably through science and math, did excellently as usual in history and writing, and then failed spectacularly at public speaking—just like every week—before finishing out the day nice and smooth with art. Frisk had always been a fairly good student. They'd never been very social, but that suited them just fine. They were quiet and other students left them alone. In the past, before Frisk had fallen into the underground, school had been a reprieve. A safe place. They used to wish they could stay at school forever and never go home. It had been something of a calming fantasy back then, back before it had all become too much. Before Mt. Ebott.

Now, Frisk had a warm, loving home and friends to return to. They no longer longed for a never ending school day. They hoped they could stay as they were now forever.

As promised, Frisk visited the skeleton brothers for dinner that night. It soon became apparent that Undyne would be joining them as well, as it was the tall fish woman who threw open the door to Sans and Papyrus' house with a huge grin and exclaimed, "Hey, buddy! Glad you could make it!"

Before Frisk could say anything, Undyne had grabbed them by the head and hauled them inside. She proceeded to dump them on the couch in front of a toasty hearth where the TV used to be—Frisk didn't question the change—before bounding off to the kitchen where Frisk could see the tail of a red scarf bustling about. Papyrus was busy with his pasta, no doubt. The thirteen-year-old wondered if it would be edible. Papyrus' cooking had improved somewhat, but Frisk still made a habit of carrying some snacks in their bag just in case.

As it turned out, dinner was not entirely unpalatable. If you didn't mind crunchy pasta, that was. The sauce was a bit crunchy too, actually, but Frisk smiled and thanked Papyrus for the meal and the tall skeleton beamed and looked proud enough to cook spaghetti for every meal for the next four months. Frisk shot Sans a look of sympathy—he would be the one most afflicted by his brother's probable four-month-long spaghetti bender, after all—and he caught their eye and shrugged.

After dinner, Papyrus busted out a board game and the four of them sat on the floor in front of the hearth and enjoyed the cozy heat from the flames as they played. Frisk was snuggled up tightly in a large blanket so that only their head peeked out, courtesy of Undyne, so Sans helped them out by moving their piece and drawing cards for them. It was a warm, relaxing evening among friends and Frisk basked in it. Who could have predicted that their life would change so much in just a few short months? Who would have known that living could be so wonderful?

"you look like you've got something on your mind, kid," Sans said softly as Undyne took her turn. It was getting late and Frisk was having trouble focusing on the game. The fire was toasty and their eyelids were drooping.

Frisk shook their head and shuffled to the side to bump shoulders with the behoodied skeleton. Sans patted their head and looked down at them with his usual laid back grin. "not gonna spill, huh?"

Frisk yawned and dully noted that Sans was still wearing his gloves. Come to think of it, they could only think of a few times they'd seen Sans without them. They wondered if his hands were cool and smooth like Papyrus'. Or maybe they were rough and chipped and that's why he kept them hidden. Perhaps one day they would ask. But not today. Frisk was too warm and sleepy to pay much mind to Sans and his hands right now.

They must've drifted off, because the next thing they knew, they were cozily tucked in on the couch and the room was dark and quiet.

Frisk sat up and blearily rubbed their eyes, wondering what time it was. There was no clock downstairs, so they slipped off the couch and silently padded up the stairs to Papyrus' room. The tall skeleton was soundly snoozing, still as death, in his racecar bed. His eye sockets were closed, but his grin was as large and cheerful as ever. Frisk thought he was probably having a very nice dream. The teenager quietly laid a fond hand on the skeleton's cranium and smiled down at him, wishing him nothing but sweet dreams for all of his days.

The alarm clock by Papyrus' bed read 2:07 am. That meant Frisk still had nearly five hours before they would have to get up for school. They didn't have an alarm clock of their own downstairs, but Papyrus was an early riser and would take care to wake them up on time as he always did whenever they stayed over.

Frisk stepped back out into the hall, closing Papyrus' door softly behind them. Now that their mission was accomplished, the logical thing would be to go back downstairs and go back to sleep, but curiosity had them padding further down the hall to Sans' room instead. They wondered if the shorter skeleton had locked his door, and if so, if the key he'd given Frisk back in the underground still worked in this aboveground version of their house.

They tried the knob and to their surprise it turned and the door opened without any resistance. Curiosity mounting, Frisk popped their head into the room. They'd never visited Sans' room in the aboveground before. From what they could see in the dark, it appeared about the same as his old room.

Quiet as a mouse, Frisk stepped inside and walked over to the far corner where Sans' bed was situated against the wall. They half expected to be pranked on the way, but the room remained still and silent. On the bed, Sans lay on his side facing the wall. His covers and sheets were for once in their proper places and not wadded up in a wrinkly ball. Frisk could hear him breathing softly and make out his chest rising and falling gently beneath the covers.

Just as they had with Papyrus, Frisk reached down and laid their hand on Sans' shoulder. As expected, it was boney—he was a skeleton, after all—but Frisk could feel heat radiating from beneath the thick cloth of his nightshirt. He bleeds, the small voice that occasionally spoke inside of Frisk's head reminded them. You like his blood. It makes you happy. Frisk stiffened and shook their head to dispel the voice. The owner of that voice wasn't really there anymore, after all. Just remnants. Bits and pieces that hadn't quite faded yet.

*You feel your sins crawling on your back.

Suddenly, the darkness in the room was thicker and felt more ominous. Frisk shuddered and tried to look around the bedroom but they could no longer see anything. It felt like the walls were closing in; like they would be swallowed up. Their heartrate increased and they began to breathe faster. They couldn't feel Sans' shoulder under their hand anymore.

Frisk was on the edge of a panic attack when they heard the sound of a switch being flipped and all at once the room was flooded with light.

Sans was no longer in his bed. Instead, he was standing by the door, his hand on the light switch. He looked at them curiously.

"if your goal was to scare me out of my skin, it's only fair I remind you that skeletons don't generally have any," he remarked. His head was cocked to the side and though his grin was the same as ever, there was something different in his tone. Something Frisk couldn't identify. He too seemed to be breathing more heavily, though the thirteen-year-old couldn't think of any reason why he would be when he was the one that scared them.

Sans chuckled at their lack of reaction and turned to the door. "c'mon, kiddo, let's get you back to bed."

Frisk nodded and followed the skeleton out of the room and back down the stairs. While they made themself comfortable on the couch, Sans grabbed them a glass of water from the kitchen.

"no more late night wanderings, kiddo," he said as he handed over the glass. "you need your rest."

Frisk took the water and squinted up at the skeleton meaningfully.

Sans ruffled their hair, as he often did. "yeah, me too. i'll see you in the morning, buddy. tell you what, i'll even walk you to school again. sound good?"

Frisk smiled and nodded. When Sans left, they rolled onto their side and fell asleep in no time at all.