Author's Note: Before you start reading, I just want to point out I haven't written anything since "Angel of Darkness" so please forgive the poor writing. This is the first story I've been proud of in years, so I'd really appreciate being able to hold onto that joy for at least a little while. OH! And don't forget, this fic did come with a warning that there is talk of abuse! Anyways, hope you enjoy reading. Thanks For your time!
Everything hurts. Every part of you aches as you stumble into the frigged cold, away from the ruins behind you. A quiet sigh escapes your lips as you look back at the large purple and black door one last time. You didn't want to leave her, she was the nicest person you had met in a painfully long time, yet something told you that you had to move on. One day you'd come back for your mom, grinning from ear to ear with proof that you hadn't disappointed her, that you hadn't killed anyone...That your hands weren't covered in this thing called "Dust."
You finally turn away and begin your trek to wherever the path would take you, pulling your arms into your sweater in a meek attempt to keep warm. You trip over a large branch, silently cursing your luck as you force yourself up without removing your arms from your swear. You were going to be freezing now with a soaked sweater, you weren't going to speed up the process by getting your hands colder than they already were. Guess it's a good thing you were so used to falling when your arms weren't any help...
You find yourself looking back when a bridge is almost in sight. You're just starting to truly shiver from the cold when you hear something in the distance behind you. Honestly, you're hoping it went in any direction other than towards you, your body aching more at the thought of another unwanted fight. It was nice when they gave you a little bit of money in apology for attacking you, but it still didn't help the injuries that food and band-aids didn't heal. Save points didn't do any more than restore your health and mend your wounds just enough that the bleeding stops. Toriel had healed you earlier, but you didn't have the heart to tell her that it had done no more than a save and a bite of food. She had been trying to help you, and you had already made her feel bad when you told her whatever she was doing was making you dizzy. There was no reason to make her feel worse...Now you were just praying the sweater Toriel had given you as a farewell present didn't get destroyed.
It was funny...How she was so easy to trust...Maybe it's because she was so fluffy.
Once you finally come to the bridge, you had to wonder who thought a gate that didn't cover any part of the bridge was supposed to work...It couldn't even keep a bear out. "Human," a voice begins, your arms shooting back into your sleeves as a chill runs down your spine. Oh please no...Not another fight...You already ached so much, "Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" You slowly turn away before this new monster can continue, your eyes widening slightly at the sight of a skeleton standing before you. He's about four and a half foot tall, while you're stuck at four foot even, wearing a black basketball shorts and a blue hoodie with a white shirt under it...Wait a second...Was he seriously wearing slippers or was exhaustion finally catching up to you and you were hallucinating again? "You shake his hand," the skeleton finally continues with a grin, seeming as if he was caught in a stupor of his own for a moment.
You eye him warily for a mount, taking his hand and shaking it...Only to become completely confused in the next instant. Did...Did he just...Fart?
"Heheh," he laughs, "The old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It's always funny!" His grin was kind of like Toriel's...It was a bit contagious. You smile slightly as you wait for him to calm down, still not letting your guard down. Your soul hadn't yet appeared before you, but that didn't always mean you weren't heading into a battle soon.
Your...fight with Toriel...had taught you that much.
"I'm Sans, Sans the Skeleton," he continues on, pausing for a moment as he waits for your reply. You press your lips into a tight line as you debate whether or not to tell him. It hadn't happened with Toriel, but...People usually hated you once they learned who you were.
"Demon child."
You wince minutely at the memory before Sans continues on, seemingly under the impression you were shy. "Aw, no need to be shy kid," he grins again, "Hey, what does a skeleton use to listen to music?"
"...What?" You ask warily, watching Sans' grin widen at finally getting you to speak.
"A pair of earBONES," he replies, grin widening ever so slightly as you choke back a snort of amusement. That pun was just...horrible...but you still found yourself trying hard not to snicker at it. "Anyways, I'm supposed to be on watch for humans right now," he continues, pausing as you feel yourself paling, "But I've never really cared about that. My brother on the other hand, he's a human hunting FANATIC."
You can feel the color draining from your face, though you try to hide it by pulling your sweater up until only your eyes were peeking out. Sans however...took it a way you hadn't been expecting.
"Don't worry though," he states, reaching out for you until you reflexively flinch away, "Papyrus couldn't hurt a fly even if he tried. Here I'll show you." He makes a motion for you to go on ahead, seemingly aware that you didn't want him to touch you, and you comply...Keeping your head slightly turned so you can hear any movement he makes. "Hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp," he instructs, looking like he's trying not to laugh at some inside joke of his. Why did you have a feeling he was the reason there was a human shaped lamp in the middle of no where?
You hide behind the lamp just in time to see a second skeleton come marching into view. This one looked about six foot even with a white top, orange scarf, and orange gloves and boots...Part of you really wishing you had his gloves and boots. They'd be way too big but they looked warm...
"Sup, Bro?" Sans grins at the taller skeleton. Oh, so that's Papyrus then?...This was a trap wasn't it?
"YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP,' BROTHER!" Papyrus yelled, your head throbbing at the volume that you somehow knew was normal for him, "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!" Oh how you wanted to walk out and slam your hand over his mouth, your head was killing you and his voice was making it worse.
Why was your head hurting anyways? Maybe you hit it when you tripped...
"Staring at this lamp. It's really cool, wanna look?" he hear Sans speak up, your eyes widening as you realize you had missed part of the conversation. Was this a trick? Was he going to hand you over to his brother now?
"NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!" Papyrus snapped, stomping his foot childishly, "WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!? I WANT TO BE READY!" What would happen if you just walked out from behind this lamp right now? "THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE!"
Whoops...You really need to stop getting lost in your thoughts.
"RESPECT...RECOGNITION...I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, FRIEND? I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING," Papyrus continued. Your heart clenched.
"Hmm...Maybe this lamp will help you," Sans replied, and even though you couldn't see him you knew he was grinning.
Although...You seriously were tempted to turn yourself in now, but you had a promise to keep. You'd have to come back to help Papyrus later. From the way it sounds...He was just lonely...A lot like you. He had a strange "get friends quick" plan, but you had come up with some odd ideas here and there too. Only...Papyrus was actually trying to follow through on his plan while you had always talked yourself out it. You're brought back out of your thoughts as you hear Papyrus laughing and walking away. You did it again, didn't you? You really had to stop doing that...That was how that flower nearly killed you, because you got distracted with your thoughts.
"Hey kid, you okay?" Sans asks, and you find yourself falling back into the snow again in fright. When had he gotten in front of you? You give him a fake smile as you pick yourself up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," you tell him quietly, being a little taken aback by the expression he now wears. He's not buying for a second that you're fine...Did he and Toriel have some weird ability to know what people were actually thinking? Though, if he did...You had learned pretty quick that enough insisting and Toriel would leave it be. Sans would probably do the same.
"You need tibia going," Sans finally says, his grin back on his face, "Unless you want to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." You nod slightly, starting to walk past him until a tug on the edge of your sleeve stops you. Your blood runs cold as you instinctively look down at your chest...Okay, good...Your soul hadn't reacted. This wasn't an attack...
It was kind of nice to have a warning to when the attacks were going to happen now.
"Can you do me a favor?" Sans begins, taking his hand back once you were looking at him, "My brother's been kind of down lately...He's never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day." There went all your color again...Now he wanted you to turn yourself in?! "Don't worry, he's not dangerous," Sans continues quickly, and you barely catch the odd look that flashes on his face, "Even if he tries to be." You nod slowly, immediately trying to think of how to both let the taller skeleton find you...and how to get away. You didn't exactly know where all the escape routes were in this place. "Thanks a million, I'll be up ahead," he grins, walking off...towards the bridge? Maybe it was better for what was left of your sanity if you didn't question Sans' actions. He was even more confusing than Toriel...
It took you about a half hour to reach the next big clearing after Doggo had caught you off guard...Even with him freaking out you hadn't wanted to move.
You sighed as another shiver wracked your body, holding in a scream as you slipped on a patch of ice..and continued to slide until you landed in the snowdrift on the other side. You were getting so tired of snow. With this newest face-plant in the cold, you were barely able to contain the practically bone rattling shivers, but you had to keep going. Somewhere there had to be a place to at least hide from the wind, right? You couldn't go back and hide with Doggo. Even if he couldn't see you if you stood still, he was still freaking out because something that wasn't moving pet him.
You had just started to wonder if someone had ever tried giving the poor guy glasses when you finally came across the first puzzle, Sans and Papyrus just on the other side.
Sans was casting you a strange look whenever Papyrus wasn't looking, looking towards the path you were trying to reach whenever Papyrus would pause to look at him. He was planning something...Though you weren't sure what.
"I think the human has to be holding the orb," Sans finally spoke up, snickering slightly after his brother had electrocuted himself.
You had to discretely dig your elbow into a gash in your side to keep from laughing as Papyrus left a trail of footprints through the maze...He could have gone around it, this puzzle didn't take up the entire divide between the three of you. Papyrus sat the orb on your head, returning to the other side next to his brother. You walked across it easily, handing the orb back to Papyrus with a tilt of your head as he began saying how good you were at solving the puzzle.
This guy was making it damn near impossible for you to take him seriously...
Sans and Papyrus quickly go on ahead of you, though Sans pauses a moment to look back at you before he leaves. Just what is he planning exactly? You can only sigh as you continue on your way, wanting to scream when your soul appears before you and you're faced with a Snowdrake and an Icecap. You avoid most of their attacks, faking laughs for the Snowdrake and ignoring the Icecap's hat until they were both bored of fighting. By now, you want to fall to your knees and curl in on yourself from both the cold and the pain. You pull a band-aid out out of your bag, putting it on the cut about your right eye to stop it from bleeding. Not to mention...Until the cold fully sank in...It was one less wound that was screaming bloody murder that it was cold. Another two or three hours out in this and you knew you weren't going to make it...You already had the beginnings of a fever...You needed to find shelter.
You could have face-palmed when you found Sans and Papyrus again, a piece of paper lying between the three of you. Was he pulling your leg or something? Really? This was all the effort he was willing to put into helping his brother capture you? You glanced over the page for a minute, suddenly feeling like you were being handled with kid gloves as you continued over to them. Sans looked like he was ready to burst out laughing, though you could still see that strange look he had been giving you every time you met hidden beneath it.
"...Both?" you replied quietly as Papyrus dragged you into their conversation on whether junior scramble or word search was harder. You hadn't even told Toriel you could barely read, there was no way you were telling these two. Once again Papyrus goes on ahead, Sans instead staying and walking with you when you move past him.
You still don't trust him, but he won't move without you in front of him so it was keep going towards a possibility for warmth, or stand there having a stare off with a skeleton.
"Why are you following me?" You finally snap, reaching out for the glistening orb as you created another save.
"Keeping an eye socket out for you," he replies calmly, obviously not about to give you anymore explanation than that. He runs ahead of you a few minutes later, a click sounding in the distance before he returns to your side. You had seen the spikes go down and were already there when he caught up to you.
You nearly jumped out of your skin when he suddenly yanked you back. Before you could even react something was pulled down and over your head, your vision turning blue for a moment before bony fingers lifted your 'blindfold.' You were met with Sans' goofy grin as you finally looked down, realizing in surprise that he had put his hoodie on you. When had he even taken it off?...Maybe you had less time than you thought...If you weren't even noticing the sound of a zipper. He disappears again as you cross a small bridge, moving towards the next area when your soul appears before you again. Not another fight...
It baffles you when your soul retreats back into your chest though...The two dogs before you repeatedly calling you Sans as they spoke.
"You know...you could pet each other. Just because you're both dogs doesn't mean you can't give each other the same affection you get from others," you mumble as you go past them, forcing your numb legs to walk faster before the dog duo realize you're not Sans...They really needed to get their hoods shortened so they could see.
The next puzzle is simply you and Papyrus, the more noticeable fever making it easier for you to not laugh at his shock that you managed to turn two X's into O's. This time, Papyrus is the one to walk with you to the next puzzle. You don't entirely mind though...At least if you die next to him he can still capture and turn in your soul and get his wish. You grin a tiny bit when he explains that he got bored and made a puzzle in the shape of his face, obviously trying not to say he didn't know how to solve it and he got stuck. At least the spikes were blocking the entire path this time and not just a little bit of it.
You manage to turn all of the X's into O's again, stepping on the switch just before you fall over again. This time though...You don't land in the snow. Instead Papyrus is now holding onto your arm, keeping you from falling down.
"Human, are you all right?" he asks you quietly, causing you to blink in confusion for a few moments. Papyrus, this goofy...loud...orange...skeleton...had a quiet mode? Where the hell was that switch? You simply nod as you pull your arm away, continuing on and trying to ignore the look on Papyrus's face as you pulled your arm away. Great...He was starting to give you that same weird look Sans kept giving you.
It wasn't the look of a mother worried for her child like Toriel gave you, so what was it?
You actually felt relieved when Papyrus didn't even bother with the next puzzle. You were painfully close to passing out...You doubted you'd even make it to the next puzzle, but...you had to...Papyrus was having fun having someone go through his puzzles. You couldn't let him down...
Ugh...Why did you even care?
"Because he's lonely," you mutter to yourself as you continue on, pulling Sans' hoodie tighter around yourself. At least the hoodie was somehow stopping the attacks...and taking some of the chill off. Come to think of it, both Sans and Papyrus had finally walked on ahead of you. No wonder you didn't feel like your had eyes borrowing into the back of your head anymore.
You merely blinked as you looked at the green circles covering the puzzle before you. Had someone else been here already? Maybe Sans and Papyrus had...? No, you shake your head almost laughing at yourself, they wouldn't possibly do that...Right? Oh well, you'll find out later. Right now, your fever is in full swing and you still have puzzles to get through. You could last a little longer...You've done it before. Just finish the puzzles, and trudge to the spot least likely to have you found and battered by the cold. Sans could have his hoodie back when you woke up...But man was it hard to keep moving.
You have no idea how long you have walked by the time you feel the ground shift beneath your feet, a weak scream tearing past your lips as a gust of wind stings your battered form and you fall to your knees. You cling with what strength you have left to the rope you fell against, barely realizing that you're on a rope bridge. Your vision is finally starting to tinge black as you see the two skeletons on the other side of the bridge. When had they gotten there?...They're not even trying to hide that strange look anymore.
"K...Kid, stay awake," Sans stutters, slowly moving towards you across the bridge. You actually wanted to laugh right then, your vision slowly tinging darker and darker. Stay awake? You didn't really have a choice...You almost never slept...You were always happy when the darkness dragged you into its depths.
"STAY AWAKE!" he yells now, commanding as you feel a chill run down your back. Instantly, flashbacks of the last time...the reason you had fallen down here...play through your mind and fear takes control. You force yourself to move back, a red blur slowly entering your nearly gone vision. A fight? Now?! No no no no no! "Kid! Calm down! It's okay! Stop-" a voice calls, but it's distorted as your senses leave you. You try to force yourself back more, only able to see a blue blur moving towards you.
Then the ground leaves you...and with a final, blood curdling scream, darkness finally takes its hold on you.
When your senses finally start to return, the first thing you notice is that you feel as if you've been dropped into a volcano. You try to move as you slowly get your barrings, a feeling of something laid across your chest shooting you into reality. Your eyes shoot open as you force yourself to move, panic sending you into overdrive. You barely register yourself falling before you're stopped dead, your eyes moving to your soul as it's glowing a bright blue. You can't move anything other than your eyes now.
WHAT IS GOING ON?!
You look over as you notice another blue glow, seeing a hand outstretched as if it was grabbing something and just above it...A flaming blue eye.
"Kid, don't scare me like that," Sans sighs, slowly raising his glowing hand as you're pulled up by your soul with the motion.
"So this is what you wanted?" you grind out, every part of you screaming that you were in danger, "To weaken me until I was easy to capture?" "I told you kid, I don't have any interest in that," Sans continues, curling his index finger as you float back towards him. "We're not going to hurt you," he says gently, but with your soul not inside your chest, you don't feel very inclined to believe him...Even if you can't see the fight HUD.
Sans sighs as he takes hold of you, the blue glow fading as your soul disappears back into your chest once more. You try to struggle of out Sans' hold, but he holds you just tight enough that you can't do more than squirm, yet for some reason he doesn't do it tight enough to hurt you. He takes a deep breath when you finally stop squirming, your fever too bad for you to do anymore without risking losing whatever was in your stomach. He lays you back down on the bed, apparently having been lying next to you with his arm over your chest. He reaches over, a click letting light flood a small section of the room from the lamp you had been unable to see before.
Where were you?
"You gave us a pretty bad scare back there, kid," Sans began, reaching onto the table and wringing a rag out, "Thought Papyrus was never going to stop crying, thinking he had killed you."
Okay...Ouch...Right in the heart.
You didn't want to make anyone cry...you hated when people were upset over you. Being upset meant they cared...caring meant...well...Let's just say you were happy Toriel was the strongest thing in the Ruins. You gasped when you felt a cold cloth gently dab across your face before it was laid on your forehead.
"Just what happened to you?" Sans muttered, though you had a feeling he was talking to himself, "To not tell anyone about...all this." Ugh, you didn't have the energy to figure out a living puzzle.
Why the hell did Sans care?
You panic again when Sans grabs you under your arms, his hold quickly retreating as whatever ability he used before returns its grasp on your soul and you can no longer move.
"C...Calm down, kid," he stresses, "I just finished patching you up. You're going to open your wounds again. I was just trying to sit you up." You look over at him, still no where near completely trusting him...Let alone anything he was trying to get you to eat. He sets you up with his magic this time, reaching over to his nightstand as you see the bottle in his hand. "Flu," is all it reads, but it looks nothing like the flu medicine you had seen in stores before.
Sans glanced at you with another strange expression, different from the one that he had been using earlier as he poured some of 'medicine' into the bottle cap. For a moment, you think he'll just use his magic to force it down your throat, until he swallows the medicine himself. He pours another bottle cap full of the medicine, this time holding it out to you...Why was he doing this? If he wanted to he could force feed you whatever he chose to, you were too weak right now to fight it. Yet...
He was giving you the choice.
You sighed as you took the bottle cap from him, shakily tilting the bottle cap so the foul tasting liquid fell into your mouth. It was some effort, but you managed to choke it down. Ugh, it tasted worse than the last time you remembered being force to take medicine on the surface. Yet, this time when you looked at Sans you could actually recognize the look on his face. You had seen it on the faces of adults as their child did something to make them...proud. Sans was...proud of you...for taking the medicine? "You're weird," you mutter as you feel your eyes slowly starting to close.
"Yeah, well, I'm not the only one," Sans chuckles tiredly, leaning over you and pulling a blanket back over you. You could see him hesitating to actually reach for you again, and you could only sigh as you lifted your arms. Just this once...Only because you didn't want to sleep sitting up...Just this once you'd let him. He smiled again as he reached over, gripping you under your arms and tucking the blanket under your legs as he lifted you off the bed, gently laying you back down on the bed. He readjusted the blanket again once your eyes were almost completely shut, laying down next to you as he turns off the lamp. He doesn't put his arm around you this time, but somehow you had a feeling you'd wake up with him holding you again anyways.
"Sans?" Papyrus whispered, slowly opening his brother's door as the light from under the door crack vanished.
"Kid's asleep," Sans replies quietly, looking over at his brother with a single glowing blue eye, "Their fever's gone down a bit...Wouldn't take the medicine until I took it first though."
"What...Are we going to do, brother?" Papyrus wondered, his own eyes glowing orange in the dark. It was a power of his that he preferred not to use, but for conversations in the dark with his brother...It was a convenient way to see each other.
"I think..," Sans sighs as he tries to find the words, "It should be just me while the kid's awake. You could feel the fear radiating off of them from outside, right?"
Papyrus nodded, rubbing his neck as he looked past his brother to the human, just barely illuminated by the blue glow of Sans' eye. "Then I will keep watch and make sure Undyne does not find them," Papyrus said resolutely. He couldn't help the gentle smile as he looked at his older brother, "But do inform The Great Papyrus as soon as the human is well enough to continue our battle!"
It was a joke, both brothers knew, but it still had it's desired effect.
"Bonehead," Sans chuckled, turning away from his brother and slowly falling asleep next to the human. Papyrus merely grinned as he laid a cast away blanket, apparently abandoned when the human had awoke, over his brother and the human. He only looked back once before he left the room again, re-locking his brother's door with the key he had been given.
This human...Just what had happened to them...That a single touch was terrifying to them?
"Die! Just die!"
You jolt awake, grasping your chest and your head as you gasp for air. Again. Another nightmare. They were never going to stop, were they? You take a deep breath, tensing when you feel a hand come to gently rest on your back.
"It's just me, kid," Sans says quickly, apparently seeing you getting ready to whirl around and hit him. Honestly, you were tempted to, but you had promised your mother that you wouldn't hurt anyone. You keep your grip on your head as you watch Sans out the corner of your eye, waiting for the dizziness to pass.
You know...thinking about it...why didn't you feel like you were slowly being murdered by heat anymore? Your fevers never broke this fast, like, ever.
"You still have a fever," Sans speaks up, "But it's gone down significantly."
Whoa, okay, hold up. What the hell did significantly mean?
"A lot," Sans chuckles, "It means 'a lot.' A big change." Oh great, your confusion had shown on your face again, hadn't it? You gave an inaudible sigh as you watched Sans look through his closet, silently waiting for the mocking to start.
When it never comes, you're even more confused. Even Flowey had made fun of you for not knowing what "culmination" meant. Once again you sigh as Sans keeps digging through it closet. Man, Papyrus wasn't kidding about Sans having a sock collection. There was a virtual mountain of socks building up in the middle of the room, which by the time Sans DID stop his search, it basically was. Your lip twitched slightly when Sans finally emerged from the closet with a black hoodie that looked too small for him. Sock Mountain was about twice as tall as he was.
"Can you put this on?" Sans wonders, handing you the hoodie, "Your arms got the worst of it."
For what felt like the hundredth time that morning, you sighed, taking the hoodie and pulling it on. You hadn't even realized before now that the only thing covering your upper half was bandages. Then again, it had been dark, and Sans had been in your personal space. Speaking of which..."Aren't you going to shove more of that horrible stuff down my throat?"
"It's once a day," he replies, looking at his door as if he's debating something, "You don't need it again until later tonight...Might have to wake you up for it."
"Fine," you sigh, turning to stare at the wall now, "Just...Be prepared to get hit in the process." It was only fair to warn him...You lashed out at everyone that had ever tried to wake you up. It was a habit ingrained into who were by now.
You're jarred out of your thoughts as a jolt of pain shoots through your left leg, your startled cry gaining Sans' attention quickly. You don't even have time to protest as he invades your personal space yet again, pulling the blanket back and laying you flat as quickly and gently as he can. The pain's already passed, but he's looking over every bandage on you attentively, sighing and backing out of your space when he doesn't find anything. Damn...You hadn't even noticed your pants had been torn into short shorts. Then again, you hadn't been completely out from under the blanket once since you had woken up.
"What are you even looking for?" you wonder, finally bored of trying to find something to watch on the wall. Sans had returned to the closet the instant he knew you were okay. Wasn't your fault sitting in certain positions too long hurt your legs in more ways than one. You're answered with something black hitting you in your face, pulling it away as you realize it's a pair of sweat pants.
"Skeleton going in closet," Sans grins, climbing into his closet and closing the door.
You snort as you look at the pants, aware he wants you to try to change into them, but you don't even trust yourself to stand. You sigh as you work yourself out of the short shorts, only now becoming aware of exactly how much like a mummy you appeared. Every inch of you is covered in bandages...How many of these were old, scarring wounds still not completely healed?
Eh...It doesn't matter does it? You slide the pants all the way onto your legs before lifting yourself onto your knees and pulling them the rest of the way up. Wait...Why isn't this hurting anymore? Your knees always hurt when you put weight on them...
"Skeleton can come out of the closet now," you sigh, rolling your eyes as he comes out with a laugh.
If you survived long enough to keep your promise, you had to introduce Toriel to Sans. They both seemed to love the same stupid puns...only...Sans seemed to be able to see through when you were merely faking your laughs.
…
Okay, that's it...These bandages had to go. You had never liked the feel of them. You so rarely had them to use on your wounds they were just irritatingly constricting. You just...had to get Sans distracted long enough to get them all off. Thankfully...for once your body actually comes up with a helpful solution, your stomach growling loudly. You look over, seeing Sans' shoulders sag defeatedly.
"Your telebone is on the nightstand. Call if you need anything, I already programmed my number into it," Sans sighs, smiling at his own pun, "I'm just going to get us food."
You nod, waving him off and trying to ignore the hurt look you saw flash across his face as he leaves the room. You roll your eyes as you hear a click, knowing you were just locked in the room. Honestly, you might be stubborn, but you were well aware you were in no condition to walk. You wait until his footsteps fade from your hearing to start undoing your bandages, starting with your legs.
Wh...What? The angry scars that covered your legs...They were all faded...No longer with the phantom aches that always accompanied touching them. Even the ones on your knees...One of your worst and most painful scars...There was no more pain. What...What did Sans do to you? H...How had he done this? Could...Could he have done this to all of your scars?
By the time Sans returns, you've unraveled all of your bandages, looking more like a mummy than you had before. He's alarmed by your appearance, barely keeping hold of the tray he had brought up, but...even through your bangs, you can tell he's checking to see if any of your fresher wounds were opened or if you had received a new wound.
"K...Kid?" he stutters, his eye flashing to life as he abandons the tray in the air when your body starts to shake, "Kid...Wh...What's wrong?"
"Why?" you croak out, tilting your head and looking up at him through the split in your bangs. You can't help it...You're crying tears of pure frustration, unable to understand why someone would help you so much...When you had done nothing for them.
For a moment, you think you're going to have to force yourself to explain further, even though your voice is failing you now. You can't stop crying...
"Because I could," Sans sighs, abandoning the earlier boundaries and climbing onto the bed, pulling you onto his lap and holding you close, "I don't know what happened before you came through that door, Kid, but no one deserves that. No one should be covered in as many scars as you, especially not a kid like you...I don't even want to imagine the scars that I can't see."
And just like that...
Your resolve shattered...
You wrapped your arms around Sans, bawling into his hoodie as he simply rubs soothing circles on your back, careful of the wounds he knows are there. Never...Not once in your life...Had anyone ever told you that you didn't deserve your scars, your wounds, everything that had happened to you. Now that someone had? You were bawling like the eleven year old you were into their chest, and they were letting you...without a single judging word.
Eventually you exhausted yourself, barely managing to keep enough energy to eat the food Sans had brought. He patiently explained how he had helped your older wounds as you ate, not even making fun of you when you had to ask what a word meant. Hey...You just bawled and drowned the guy's apparently ONLY hoodie in tears and snot, he deserved at least a little bit of information for it. He'd even said he'd get some books from the library to help you learn to read better.
But...back to the point...
Sans apparently practiced all three magics, but he was most effective in healing as he had gotten a lot of practice with Papyrus. A monster's ability to heal was also something that, in most cases, was hidden from others and the combat HUD because it made them targets. Targets to be taken to the capital to heal the monsters there, leaving no one that could heal the monsters outside of the capital. Sans had chuckled and reassured you that he wouldn't be going anywhere after you had clung to his arm upon hearing that. He had no plans on WORKING any time soon.
As bones were harder to heal than the "squishy" parts of the body, apart from the major organs, and early on his brother didn't tell him when he came home from training injured, Sans had gotten pretty good at mending old wounds. He couldn't make scars disappear completely, not without A LOT of healing sessions, but he could mend what made them still ache. Apparently in the case of your knees, the scars had been hiding bruises that never healed because of damage that had already been done and you constantly being on them at one point or another.
Once you had finished your food, and taken that horrible medicine again, Sans helped you lay down and covered you up again. You were asleep before he left to take the tray downstairs, but you woke up just long enough to see it was him when you felt the bed dip a short time later. He turned the lamp out just like last time, but this time he climbed under the blanket with you and pulled you to his chest.
So...This was what it was like to have someone care?
It felt...
Nice.
Sans' eyes shot open as he heard a quiet whimper, looking down at the child held protectively against his chest as his eye started to glow. A nightmare?
"No...please...I didn't," the child whimpers, Sans slowly sitting up and pulling the child onto his lap.
"Shhh, baby bones, I'm right here," he coos softly, petting their head as he tries to calm them without waking them.
"I'm not a demon child! I'm not! I'm not! I'm...," they trail off, struggling in Sans' grasp. He can't leave them like this...
He sighs as he uses his magic to gently grasp the kid's soul, just enough to restrain their movements, not to hurt them. "Kid!" he calls, shaking the child gently, "Kid, wake up!" They jolt awake, looking around frantically, and panicking when they see their soul 'under attack.' "Kid, it's okay. It's me, Sans," he soothes, releasing his hold on the kid as they seem to calm. He holds them close to his body, gently rocking them as they go back to sleep. "You're not alone," Sans whispers before the human is lost to the realm of sleep, silently praying the few words are enough to help them.
"Sans?" Papyrus called gently, opening the door to his brother's room slowly. He knew better than to rush into his brother's room when his magic was washing under the door in waves of anger.
"Pap," Sans growled quietly, turning to his brother as his eye burned brighter than usual, "When I find out who made this kid this way...Heads are gonna roll." Sans could tell from the way his brother's eyes darkened that, even if he didn't understand the situation, he agreed with him. There was one thing Papyrus knew without a shadow of a doubt, if his brother was pissed about it, there was damn good reason for it. "Go back to bed, Pap," Sans finally sighed as his eye returned to normal.
"Good night, Sans. Good night, human," Papyrus smiled, waving as he left his brother to go back to sleep, not locking the door this time. He would go in and sleep with the pair if he had to to keep the human from having nightmares.
The next morning, you're laying snug against Sans' chest completely confused. Normally, mornings started with trying to come down from the mini-heart attack your nightmares always give you. Today? You opened your eyes on your own time, looking up to see Sans' proudly grinning face. You faintly remember being woken up by him in the middle of night, but that was the only time. Did...Did you really sleep peacefully after that? It was too good to believe, and yet...not at the same time. You cling to him when he starts to sit up, pulling you up with him, both of you yawning as you try to rub the sleepers from your eyes.
"Wanna try walking?" he asks quietly, getting up from the bed and holding his hand out to you.
You stare at the appendage for a moment before you nod, taking his hand and sliding your legs over the edge of the bed. Trying to stand doesn't go as well as you had hoped, Sans catching and holding you up as your legs had instantly given out from under you. "Take your time," he hums, grinning a bit as he helps you steady yourself on your wobbly legs, "Even skeletons rattle their bones before they can walk." You snort slightly, shaking your head at Sans with a grin as you finally try to take the first for steps...You get about four before your legs give again. Sans tells you that's good enough for now, but you simply shake your head and continue forcing your legs to carry you.
You know how to do this, you've done it so many times before, you just have to keep pushing until your legs finally start to work like they're supposed to. You almost make it to the door before Sans seems to have enough and hoists you into the air, adjusting so he can hold you easily. "I could have-!" you start, not bothering to struggle in his hold this time.
"We're on the second floor," he explains patiently, "I'll find you a crutch when we get downstairs and you can trying walking again a little later...You don't have to push yourself anymore."
There's that look again...
"I give up," you groan as Sans carries you onto the landing, quickly starting his way downstairs, "What is with that face you keep making?"
"What face?" Sans wonders, pausing on the stairs, making that face again when you fake a pained wince.
"THAT face!" you yell, pointing at him as you continue, "That weird face you make whenever I get hurt or something! That face you've been making since we met! Even Papyrus was making that face after awhile!" Almost instantly, you regret asking, when you see the darkening expression on Sans' face...That kind of face almost always came before an attack.
"You...You don't know what someone worrying about you looks like?"
"Why would...anyone...be worried about me?" You barely get the sentence out before a series of crashes sounds from the kitchen.
Sans barely manages to keep his grip on you as you instantly start thrashing, no longer wanting to go downstairs. Crashing meant breaking, breaking meant fighting, fighting meant you were going to get hurt again. "K...Kid! Calm down!" Sans shouts in shock, holding you as still as he can, realization crossing his face for a moment, "Papyrus, get out here!"
Almost instantly, you still as you feel a foreign pair of arms wrap around you. "Human! Human it is alright!" Papyrus calls, his voice quiet but still louder than Sans, "The Great Papyrus merely dropped his pasta!"
"Okay, who are you and what happened to Papyrus?" you gawk suddenly, looking up at Papyrus as you dangle in his hold like a limp noodle, "MERELY DROPPED HIS PASTA?! The Papyrus I know would be acting like it was the end of the world!" Well it was true...One of the times he had stopped you from tripping, a container of spaghetti fell out of his pocket and he had acted like the world was falling apart...It had all still been safely in the container...
Within seconds, Sans is laughing so hard he's holding onto your sides, and Papyrus is grinning down at you like an idiot.
"What?" you wonder, now thoroughly confused as Papyrus sets you down, holding you under your arms so you don't fall over.
"Y...You've got'im pegged, baby bones," Sans laughed, finishing his decent down the stairs and ruffling your hair.
"Baby bones?" You question, tilting your head when Sans blushes...You didn't even know skeletons could blush, and it was amusing that his blush was blue...It kind of made you wonder if Papyrus turned orange when he blushed.
"IT'S WHAT LITTLE SKELETONS ARE CALLED!" Papyrus grins, taking your hand and Sans takes your other...his hoodie now hiding his face. "We can be your crutches for now, just to the couch," Sans says, turning just enough you can see his smile.
Your steps are still shaky, but you manage to make it to the couch without tripping, mostly thanks to your "crutches" holding you steady whenever your legs would try to give out from under you. Papyrus disappears back into the kitchen as Sans sits down next to you.
"How," Sans starts, sighing as he seems to brace himself for whatever is about to happen, "How long does it usually take...for you to walk again after being that banged up?"
"Three days," you reply without so much as a flinch, "I'm usually unconscious the entire first day. The second is spent trying to stand, and the third is spent forcing my legs to move until they go numb and it's not a problem anymore."
"Kid," Sans begins, his expression darkening once more, "How old are you?"
"Eleven," you shrug, inching away as Sans' eye begins to burn. You don't get far before you're pulled back to Sans, instantly getting caught in a bone crushing hug.
"S...Sans," you choke, "A...Air...Human...Need...Air." You gasp for air as Sans lets you go, his eye returning to normal as he's instantly looking you over to see if he hurt you. "I'm fine. I'm fine," you stress, shrieking with laughter when Sans' fingers brush your sides. He pauses for a moment before you see a scheming grin split his skull, and you're left shrieking with laughter as Sans starts 'attacking' your sides.
"NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus laughs as we walks in on the two of you, Sans sitting up with a triumphant grin as he finally lets you catch you breath.
When had you even fallen over?
Papyrus grins as he hands you a bowl of soup once Sans helps you to sit up. You stare at it for a moment, mildly aware it's chicken noodle soup, but you can't help staring at it. "Still think we're trying to poison you, baby bones?" Sans sighs, causing your eyes to widen slightly.
"N..No!" you assure, shaking your head, "Just...Trying to figure out where the spaghetti obsessed orange skeleton I met is hiding...This impostor didn't shove him in a closet, right?" You had to grin as Papyrus began to ramble about how he was not, in fact, an impostor, and Sans was hugging his sides with laughter and he seemed to be the only one that the joke hadn't flown over their head. You quietly eat your soup as you watch Sans out the corner of you eye.
"Sans?" you wonder, watching him grab a set of keys off the table and head for the door.
"Oh...right," Sans mutters, his left eye becoming enveloped in blue fire again as you hear a door swing open. Seconds later, your cellphone lands next to you with a soft thump on the couch. "Just like last time, okay, baby bones?" he says calmly, though you know from his face he can see the fear you're trying not to let Papyrus see, "I got some things to do, but Papyrus will take care of you. Don't worry, he's too cool to let anything happen on his watch." You sigh as you nod, watching him leave and hearing the familiar click of the door's lock.
"Why's one door or the other always locked?" you mutter, feeling a little trapped every time it was.
"Do you not like it, human?" Papyrus wonders, using that calm, quiet voice that always makes you think he's possessed, "It is a habit he learned when I was too young to go out on my own. Since it was just us, he would lock the house whenever he had somewhere to go, and it is something I learned from him. His room is only kept locked because he likes the privacy."
"Oh...I guess he doesn't get that with me here," you murmur quietly, jumping slightly as Papyrus grips you by your chin and makes you look up at him.
"NOW SEE HERE, HUMAN! MY BROTHER IS VERY HAPPY HAVING YOU HERE! I HAVE NOT SEEN HIM PUT THIS MUCH EFFORT INTO SOMETHING SINCE I WAS A BABY BONES MYSELF. NOW, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL HAVE NO MORE TEARS, OR MUST I SUBJECT YOU TO THE TICKLE ATTACK ONCE MORE!?" he shouted, and you couldn't stop the goofy grin that made your face ache.
"There's Pap-pap," you grinned, frowning instantly when you noticed Papyrus starting to crying, "P...Papyrus?"
"HUMAN!"
You squealed as you were suddenly lifted from the couch and spun in a circle, Papyrus laughing without a care in world. He stopped slowly, holding you close to his chest and nuzzling your head happily. "CALL ME PAP-PAP ALL YOU WANT, TINY HUMAN!" he grinned.
"I'm not THAT small," you pouted, well aware that compared to Papyrus you were about the size of an ant.
"NYEH HEH HEH~! NYEH HEH HEH~!" You're not even sure how Papyrus kept a hold of you when you screamed and tried to get away from his pocket.
"WORRY NOT TINY HUMAN! IT IT MERELY THE GREAT PAPYRUS'S ALARM SAYING IT IS TIME FOR HIS FAVORITE SHOW!" Papyrus grinned, sitting down on the couch with you on his lap as you suddenly realized your soup should have been all over the floor.
"How?" you wondered as Papyrus handed your soup back to you, grinning from ear hole to ear hole.
"EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS HIS SECRETS!" Papyrus grinned, one gloved finger pressed to the bone of his mouth as he sounded like a child trying and failing to keep a secret. You merely snickered as you both turned towards to TV, you weren't going to tell Papyrus, but it was the first time you had ever actually watched TV. Usually you just watched scenes loop across the screen in a store until they kicked you out.
[Five Hours Later...]
Sans sighed as he trudged inside the house, locking the door behind him and tossing the keys down next to his pet rock. Heh...He still had to introduce the kid to him. As he made his way to the couch, he smiled at the scene before him. Papyrus was still watching a new Mettaton episode, but the kid was cradled in his arms with a blanket wrapped around them.
"How long?" he asked quietly, sitting down next to Papyrus and brushing the hair out of the kid's eyes.
"They fell asleep two hours in," Papyrus grinned, briefly looking away from his favorite show to check on the human safely bundled up in his arms, "They did eat lunch."
"And not brunch or linner? Oh my heart," Sans joked, grasping his hoodie where his soul rested inside his chest as if in pain, chuckling at his brother's disapproving glare.
"I talked to Undyne," Sans sighed as the show finally reached a commercial break. THAT got Papyrus's full attention.
"How did it...go?" he wondered quietly, Sans not missing his little brother's hold tighten protectively around the human.
"She'll wait in waterfall for us to...introduce...the kid," Sans sighs, running his hand down his face slowly, "But she refuses to lay down her spear until she can judge them herself."
"Sans, if she,"Papyrus begins, nuzzling the human, unable to continue.
"Don't worry Pap," Sans grins menacingly as his left eye blazes to life with his magic once more, "Anyone who even tries to hurt the kid, is gonna have a bad time."
You whine quietly as you slowly start to wake up again, laughing to yourself as you realize you're now mushed between the two skeletons. As far as you could tell, they were both still sound asleep. Man...You loved it here...It was...It was almost like being back with Toriel.
Toriel...You heart clenched as you remembered why you had left the ruins in the first place. You've wasted so much time here, just waiting for your wounds to heal. You had to get moving again, somewhere to the east.
"Baby bones?" Sans wonders quietly, startling you slightly as you looked down at him. You hadn't meant to wake him up.
"You didn't wake me, kiddo," he chuckles, sitting up slowly so he didn't wake Papyrus, "What's up?"
"You...You told be before," you began, taking a deep breath as you tried to find the words, "The wounds like I have are easy to heal so...why did you only heal the old ones?"
"Can't say I wasn't expecting this," Sans sighs, rubbing his head as he seemed to be trying to find the simplest way to explain, "You know humans don't have magic, right? At least...Not anymore."
"Humans have determination," you told him, your brows furrowing as you tried to understand where he was going with this. Did humans used to actually know how to use magic before?
"Well, humans can hold a little bit of a monster's magic inside of them, because their soul reacts to our magic. That's why you've never see the battle HUD until now," he continues, "Monsters can use small bits of their magic to heal a human, but if they use too much on the human it can have the opposite effect. You were unconscious for a full week, baby bones. It took me three days to heal what I did, with the sessions no longer than five hours. The magic you absorbed from me took you an entire day to expel again. It would have taken less time if you had been exposed to magic all your life, but magic is more dangerous for a soul that's never been exposed to it before."
"Like a snake bite?" You wonder quietly, blushing a bit at the confused look Sans gives you, "O...On the surface...There p...people who have snake venom injected into them s...so that the next time they get b...bit it doesn't effect them as bad."
"Okay then, yeah, it's like a snake bite," Sans chuckles, ruffling your hair affectionately, "Your soul isn't used to magic so I had to watch how much I gave you., but if we worked on building your immunity to it, you could handle a lot of my magic with no problem."
"Just yours?" you wondered, tilting your head slightly.
"There are different types of snakes, right?" Sans smiled as you nodded, "Well, there are different types of magic too. Every monster has their own magic. Pap and I, though? Our magic is pretty similar, so if you got used to my magic, you'd be able to withstand a lot of his magic too. Not as much as mine, but close enough."
"Will you help me then?"
"Help you with what, baby bones?" he asks, and you can from his expression he's worried about where you're going with this.
"I made a promise to mom...to Toriel...The lady trapped inside the ruins, guarding the door I came through," you explain quietly, clenching the fabric over your heart as you spoke, "She doesn't know about it though, but...I have to get better. I have to keep moving towards the barrier...I promised I'd shatter it so she could leave the ruins, so she could be free from her loneliness. I HAVE to keep my promise."
"Alright, kiddo," Sans sighs, closing his eyes before opening one of them to look at you again, "On one condition."
"Wh...What?" you murmur, silently fearing he was about to crush your hopes.
"We go with you, Baby Bones. Me and Pap," he chuckles gently as your eyes widen, "What? You didn't think your mom was your only family, did you, Baby Bones?"
Was is possible for a human to short circuit?
"Kid? Kid?! Baby bones!" Sans yelled, waving his hands in front of your face frantically and waking Papyrus in the process as you simply stared dumbfoundedly at him. Then, another goofy, jaw aching grin split across your face as you cried, for the second time in your life, tears of joy.
"Frisk," you hiccuped between tears, "My name's Frisk."
