From my list of tickle prompts on my Deviantart page. Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. I own nothing.

Prompt 7: There Is Love In Punishment
(Sans and Frisk; platonic pairing)

Sans looked at Frisk, who was standing in front of him, looking very contrite. "Frisk, I told you to stay at the school until I came to get you, did I not?" The joke-loving skeleton asked her, his tone serious.

"Yes, Dunkle Sans," she answered softly.

"Where did you go instead?"

"To the game arcade," Frisk answered, hanging her head.

Sans nodded. "You disobeyed me," he said, his tone becoming more serious, something that made the young girl's shoulders droop more. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

The ten-year-old lifted her head. "Nothing, except that I should have listened to you," she said.

"Yes, you should have," the skeleton said sternly. He watched her hang her head in shame again. "Frisk, go to your room. You are not to come out until I say you can. Understood?"

"Yes, Dunkle Sans," she said, tears forming in her eyes as he pointed upstairs and she headed for her room, closing the door and going over to sit on her bed, sighing softly as she felt the weight of her punishment.

"I should have stayed where he told me to stay," she said to herself as she felt her tears start to fall down her face as she lay down, sniffling as her tears hit the pillow.

Sans, in the meantime, was sitting on the couch and he let out a sigh, his bones feeling a lot heavier when he heard Frisk faintly crying. He had been upset with her that she had not been at the school like he had told her to stay and when he found her in the game arcade, he had come up behind her and when she felt someone watching her, she had turned and been surprised to see him, but then looked guilty as she realized he had caught her. Without making a scene, he lifted up her backpack and indicated with his head for them to leave. Frisk had instantly obeyed, but knew it wouldn't get her out of a talking to when they got home. Sans hadn't said anything to her until they teleported home. Now, he felt upset that Frisk was upset, but he told himself she had to learn that what she had done wasn't okay.

But guilt filled him that he hadn't comforted her after giving her a lecture, but he also knew that comforting her at the time would have sent a wrong message. Sighing, he pulled out his phone, calling up Grillby's number. The fire monster picked up after the third ring. "Hello, Sans," he said. "I was just thinking about you and Frisk. Are you almost to the restaurant?"

"No, Grillbz. Frisk and I are home," Sans said. "I…I had to send her to her room."

Grillby sensed something wasn't right. "What happened?" He asked.

Sans sighed. "I had told Frisk to stay at the school until I came to get her," he explained. "Well, she wasn't there. She had gone to the game arcade to play some games. I found her there and we came straight home."

The fire monster sensed there was something else. "Did she understand that what she had done was wrong?" He asked gently.

"It looks like she did," the skeleton said. "She was really sad and ashamed of herself and I sent her to her room in punishment."

He sighed. "I can hear her crying a little and…I really feel upset that she's crying and I want to comfort her, but…,"

"She needs to serve her punishment first," Grillby supplied gently.

"Yeah," Sans said. "But why do I feel awful about it? I'm trying to show her that disobeying me has consequences, but…it hurts that I had to punish her."

The bartender understood and remembered something he had been told a long time ago. "The reason it hurts is because parents want their children to be happy and they don't like seeing those children sad," he said, his tone gentle, something that Sans grabbed onto as it was helping him too.

"Did I do the right thing, Grillbz?" He asked.

"Yes, Sans, you did," Grillby said. "Frisk will learn from this that what she did was wrong. She's a good kid."

The skeleton nodded. "Yeah, she is," he said.

"You said you wanted to comfort her, right?"

"Yeah."

He heard a smile in his friend's voice. "Let her serve her punishment and then, once her timeout is over, she's going to need reassurance that you still love her and that you forgive her. That will no doubt be the comfort she'll be seeking," he said.

"And the comfort that I want to give her," Sans said, smiling at that, feeling better now. "Thanks, Grillbz. And thanks for listening. Frisk and I will be there later."

"You're welcome, Sans. The usual?"

"You bet and a big milkshake for Frisk too, please."

"Alright."

Hanging up the phone, Sans checked the time and found Frisk had been in her room for about fifteen minutes. Deciding to wait another fifteen minutes before going up to her room, he sat on the couch, answering a text from Undyne about where Papyrus might be as he was a little late, but the tall skeleton arrived not long after she had sent the text as he had been being chased by Annoying Dog, who had no doubt wanted to play. The joke-loving skeleton chuckled in amusement and shook his head. Ever since Frisk had freed them, Annoying Dog had been more than happy to roam around free, but he loved chasing Papyrus in hopes that he'd play with him, but the tall skeleton was still unsure about it.

Checking the time on his phone again, Sans saw that thirty minutes were up and he headed upstairs, opening Frisk's door to find her on her bed with her eyes closed, her pillow wet from her tears. Going up to her, he gently rubbed her back with one hand, making her open her eyes and rub at them as she sat up before she looked up to see him standing over her. Frisk hung her head, her shoulders drooping again. Sans lifted her up into his arms and hugged her. She paused a moment before clinging to him. "Dunkle Sans, I'm sorry. I knew better than to go to the arcade. I should have obeyed you," she said softly.

"Yes, you should have," he said softly. "Are you going to do so from now on?"

"Yes, Dunkle."

Seeing she was still feeling ashamed from the way her head hung, Sans gently tilted her chin up with one hand, sitting down on the bed. "I forgive you, baby bones," he said with a genuine smile. "And I'm glad you understand that what you did was wrong."

She looked up at him in surprise. "You forgive me?" She asked.

"Yes, I do," the joke-loving skeleton said. "Because I love you, baby bones, and I can see that you've learned your lesson."

The young girl sniffled at little, not completely cheered up, but he could see she was beginning to feel better. "But there's another lesson I want you to remember," he said.

"What's that, Dunkle Sans?" Frisk asked, looking up at him.

"There is love in punishment," he said. "I punished you because I love you and want you to realize that you made a mistake. Do you understand?"

She nodded. "I understand," she said.

"Good," Sans said and then grinned. "And I'm going to make sure that lesson sticks with you. Do you know how?"

The ten-year-old shook her head. "How?" She asked.

He grinned wider. "By sticking it right here," he said, reaching his hands forward and his fingers began tickling her ribs, making her squeak and giggle. "And here," he said, tickling her sides. "And right in the middle of your little tummy."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Frisk laughed as her dunkle tickled her, his fingers wiggling over all of her ribs and she squirmed, rolling over to escape, but when she rolled onto her back again, Sans grabbed her ankles and his wiggling fingers went to work on her feet, making her laugh harder.

"Well, well. Look at these cute little feet and these ticklish toes," the joke-loving skeleton said teasingly. "And they're all mine."

Frisk let out another peal of laughter as the bony fingers tickled her feet mercilessly and then squealed with laughter when Sans went for her most ticklish spot, which was her stomach. "Now, it's time to eat my most favorite meal: ticklish tummies," he said.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The young girl squealed when the skeleton started blowing raspberries into her stomach, her laughter making him laugh too.

"What a ticklish tummy! And it's all mine! Cootchie, cootchie, coo! I'm going to eat up that little ticklish tummy of yours!" Sans said teasingly as he blew a big raspberry right over Frisk's belly button and continued blowing big raspberries into her stomach while his fingers tickled her underarms, to which Frisk clamped her arms down tight, making it easy for her dunkle to continued tickling her underarms while giving her more giant raspberries onto her stomach.

Squealing again, Frisk tried to talk, but laughter took over before it went silent. Hearing this, Sans lay back on the bed and lifted the tired child up above him. "Aww, did your little tummy get tickled?" He asked teasingly.

She giggled. "Dunkle," she said, but with a huge smile on her face as he sat up and held her in a warm hug.

"Come on," he said. "Let's give this day a better ending. Grillby's waiting for us."

Frisk perked up at that, hugging Sans again. "I'm still really sorry, Dunkle Sans," she said softly.

"Hey, it's alright," he said. "I forgave you. You learned your lesson. As you humans say, let's leave it behind us. Agreed?"

She nodded. "Agreed," she said and hugged him. "I love you, Dunkle Sans."

"I love you too, baby bones, no matter what," Sans said reassuringly as the two of them headed out for their friend's restaurant, both feeling much better now.

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GoldGuardian2418