When Sans woke up, the initial emotion he registered was, surprisingly, surprise. Sans shouldn't have been surprised. He could feel it; that weird sensation that came along with a RESET. They'd RESET, whoever they were. They always did.

Sans shouldn't have been surprised.

But he was.

He was surprised.

But not... betrayed.

That was good. That was always good. And he wasn't particularly angry either, so there was that. Hm. Surprised though. Almost as if the RESET was unexpected. Did they do it mid-timeline? No... That didn't feel right. Somehow. But still, he was surprised. A weird sort of surprised. As if... he had never expected it to happen again. But what did that mean? Surprised by a RESET but not feeling betrayed by it? That didn't make sense.

It never did though. At least he thought. He didn't really remember, just the feelings of time going back and forth over the last few months, before moving along, the anomaly apparently bored with the current options. Whoever they were.

This was just... weird though. It felt weird. Different. Sans wasn't sure. He wished he could actually remember.

There was nothing to be done though but go about his day...

A day passed with nothing spectacular to say about it, but then the next...

He saw them.

He saw them and he instantly knew. They were the time anomaly. A little human kid inching out of the Ruins.

It had to be a human kid of course. Of course fate would do this to him. He was always the butt of the joke in the end. Not that he would have been able to actually do anything to them in the long run. But it would have been nice to have the option, just in case. But nope. He'd had to go and promise. Good going, Sans.

He watched the kid walk along, eyeing the trees, and he hesitated. They seemed jittery. Nerves?

When he slipped in behind them and began to talk, they turned around before he told them too. Not fearfully, but knowingly. They'd definitely seen this before. But Sans was so caught off guard. Because with the way they had been walking, the way he had spoken menacingly, their smile... he was not expecting. And not just a smile, oh boy, oh glory were they beaming as they reached for his offered hand. And how bright the light danced as they laughed at the whoopie cushion going off. And how bewildered was Sans as their eyes closed and their smile widened and he felt something funny in his ribcage...

Once Sans had regained himself, they were listening intently, their eyes still bright as he talked- And when he mentioned Papyrus... Sans hadn't thought their smile could have gotten wider, but it did.

Heh... They were rubbing him the wrong way but sending all the right signals.

And once they walked over the bridge and they saw the lamp in the snow, Sans knew that, yeah, they'd seen this all before, but he also knew why he had been surprised.

It'd been awhile since the last RESET. Months at least. Probably. And that was... curious. It'd been awhile but he hadn't felt betrayed. But also hadn't expected it. He couldn't figure it out. The puzzle pieces weren't working together.

They were the time anomaly, which up to that point he knew in his nonexistent stomach that he hated that thing, but here the kid was... and he didn't distrust them. He didn't... He didn't think this was the same anomaly that had been terrorizing him over the course of the last few "months".

He didn't know how that worked.

But the kid seemed nice enough. Seemed excited at the prospect of meeting his brother again, and to be honest, that was almost a gold star in Sans' book.

Almost.

They still had time between their tiny fingers. Were still a scarily powerful enigma.

And Sans wasn't quick to trust. He wasn't his brother.

But here Papyrus came now.

"Why dontcha hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp over there?" He offered. They glance his way, and he knew what the jitters from earlier had been, not nerves persay, but excitement.

"Brilliant." They say, exaggerating the word a bit as they slid to their destination. Sans tilted his head as he watched them. Their first words to him this timeline and was that... a pun? He let out a small huff of laughter before turning to greet his brother.

The kid couldn't keep themselves together.

Sans could hear them laughing as he went along, as Papyrus talked boisterously, he caught a glimpse of moving snow behind the lamp as they seemed to have to crouch down and cover their mouth. Sans knew he was funny but this was sort of ridiculous.

But once Papyrus was gone and the kid came back out from behind the lamp, Sans could see it in their face, their half smile and the tears from laughing so hard fading away. The kid had missed this.

Missed what? The timeline jumping? The adventure? Or... No. Their face as they stood across from Sans.

She'd missed them.

Sans let himself see the kid as a person for a moment and not just a frightening figure to be appeased.

The little human girl had missed him. Had missed him and, more importantly, Papyrus. Though Sans didn't let himself get too torn up about it he could say he understood that.

But that meant that wherever they had been before the RESET, the Skelebros hadn't been there with them. Her. Her...

So Sans was at a loss again. He didn't distrust her and he didn't feel betrayed but everything else was a complete and utter mystery.

She was beaming from ear to ear as she stepped away and Sans knew before opening his mouth that she would agree wholeheartedly to play along for Papyrus. And she did. She nodded enthusiastically, her smile unwavering as she stepped to the side.

She does hesitate though. She paused by the road and glanced nervously back at him. He raised an eye ridge curiously. She turned her side to him again as she reached upwards, her fingers seemingly coiling around thin air and dragging slowly downward. Huh. Wonder what that was abo- She'd died.

Sans was suddenly tense, frozen in place at the feeling hitting him, of time snapping back into place, hitching for a moment. It was just so immediate and a shock.

Because she had just been beaming, and happy, and confident, and now she was rigid, her fingers still pinched together as her shoulders hiked up to her neck and she stared ahead in terror. Her face was growing pale, not seeming to be breathing.

She'd died.

Sans stood there, tense, and starting to sweat. This wasn't the first time she'd experienced this, he noted as he observed her. But it was the first time in a long time.

She breathed out, but it was shaky. She didn't look so good.

She let out a small, tense laugh.

"Identify your smelf." She breathed, seeming to remember something. Her hands were rising to her face, but then one coiled around the back of her neck. She was still having difficulty breathing as her fingers pressed tightly against her skin. Her eyes closed and she breathed in deeply for several seconds. It's practiced. Sans watched as she continued to ward off what could have been a panic attack.

"you okay there, kid?" Silly question, but he asked it anyways. Her eyes opened and she glanced at him.

"Y-yeah. I just..." There was a small twitch at the side of her lips. "Lost my head there for a second." She was grabbing at her neck again with her fingers, shaking. Sans was grimacing. That sounded... pretty bad. Her eyes were closed again and she was breathing once more. After another moment she opened her eyes, her hands falling and she stared ahead. Determined as much as she could be. Her fingers raised again and she clutched thin air. What was that? Was that how they did the- She'd died again.

It's immediate and horrifying to watch as one second she's fierce and determined and the next she's jolting, hand recoiling, shaking as she took a step back, her right hand pressed to her chest. She froze firmly and her eyes closed as she breathed in quickly, and then more slowly. She slid down into the snow and continued to breathe.

Sans had to admit that it's really off putting. It's... too practiced. Too even. She isn't as frantic as he would think a child should be at dying. Crap he was letting a child get killed. But what could he really do about? There wasn't a point to him getting involved. Not a point to any of this.

The kid was breathing out again loudly.

"Okay." She told herself. She stood up and her eyes opened, sharp and fierce again, and determined. Her hand reached out and Sans had to wonder... Why does she keep doing that? At the same spot? What did it mattered if she used another SAVE when she hadn't moved?

Her fingers mimiced pulling something down gently and then she turned to Sans. Her eyes... not just determined, but seemingly...

There was a falling sensation where Sans' stomach would be.

Those eyes...

Sans wasn't sure how he knew, wasn't sure what he saw in those eyes that made it suddenly obvious to him.

But...

It hadn't been months since the last RESET.

It'd been years.

...

..

Author's Notes:

This will at the very least have another scene to it, but other than that, no. I refuse to get carried away! I have so much else to write! Gaaah.

I think this is my first published gendered Frisk... Hm.