Yup. I, SquareRootOf-1 (see what I did there? Heh... heh? Never mind), have decided to attempt a 30-day OTP challenge!

Amalgam kinda died. I guess part of the reason why I'm doing this is to make up for it. Also because I wanted to try something new.

Warning: I suck at writing romance, so a lot of these one-shots will probably be pure cringe, but I decided that this would be the best way for me to improve my romance-writing skills. Will it work? We shall see.

You've probably guessed by now that the Royal Scientist trio are pretty much my most favorite Undertale characters ever, and a few days ago I realized that Sans and Alphys actually wouldn't be a bad ship. I don't really have any other ones that I really ship right now, so Sans x Alphys is currently, because there are no other options, my Undertale OTP. (Edit: if you've read the note at the end of Day 3, you'll know that I now have a true OTP that I'm not revealing yet.)

Disclaimer: this OTP challenge does not take place in the same timeline or even universe as Shattered (my main fanfic). Any similar non-canon events happening are due to either coincidence or habit. Just to clear that up, in case any of you have read or are still continuing to read Shattered and are confused about what's going on in these one-shots compared to what is currently unfolding there.

Disclaimer number 2: as I mentioned before, I am aware that this fluffy stuff may not be my best work, and it might not be the most well-written. It definitely doesn't compare to my main story, but I'm trying. Thanks for being patient with me and my awkward romance-writing skills. Lol.

Anyway...

Uh...

Enjoy?

Sans would never forget the day he first met Alphys.

He had been so young then, only seven monster years old. Even down in the Underground, it was a cold and windy day, relentless gusts buffeting anything that wasn't tied down and sending all manner of objects, ranging from trash cans to blueprints, tumbling off into the unknown. To make matters worse, the narrow corridors of Waterfall channelled the gales like wind tunnels, blowing wind in Sans's face. He and his father Dr. Gaster braced against the wind and clutched sheafs of paper to their chests.

I can't lose these. They're too important.

Just as Sans was thinking that, an especially strong gust of wind caught the corner of one of the papers he'd been holding and tore it out of his hands.

"Dad! I'll get it!" Sans yelled, sprinting after the rogue document while tightening his grip on those that remained. To his horror, it blew down the hall of Echo Flowers more rapidly than he could run, even though he was straining himself to the edge of his ability.

He ran faster.

"No, no, no!" Sans cried, watching the document turn the corner to the Garbage Dump. It'd be soaked by the sewage water instantly. Chasing a fading hope, he went the way it had gone. Miraculously, it'd landed on the top of an old cooler, and Sans grabbed it, muttering gratefully. He took a moment to catch his breath. As he did, he detected another faint sound coming from farther in the Garbage Dump over the constant wail of the wind: crying.

"Who's there?" Sans called out cautiously, wading into the water.

Only sniffles returned.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"H-h-hello?" A quivering voice stammered back. It clearly belonged to a female monster around Sans's age. She sniffed a few times before adding, "over here. B-behind this mound of trash."

Sans moved towards the sound, looked behind the massive pile of trash bags and saw her.

She seemed to be an orange reptilian monster. She was curled in on herself, tail wrapped around her whole body and obscuring her face, and seemed to be clutching a DVD box as if it were her lifeline. She looked so small, so helpless. She didn't even look up when Sans entered her hiding place and continued to sob, tears winding their way down her scales and dripping soundlessly into the sluggish water.

A few sloshing footsteps alerted Sans to his father's arrival. He looked at the lizard, startled, and gently asked, "what's wrong?"

"I-I was thrown out of my home," the monster sniffled. "M-my parents f-f-finally got fed up with m-me and l-left me out here to d-d-d-d-die…"

She was stuttering so much from her tears and her grief after telling her story that she fell silent.

Sans was seven years old, innocent, and not truly understanding of the lizard monster's pain. How could he, when a life of prestige as the son of the Royal Scientist was all he had ever known? Wanting to comfort her, he simply said, "I'm so sorry. That's really mean."

Fury blazed in Dr. Gaster's eyes. "How dare they," he growled under his breath. Changing his tone to one Sans knew he reserved for small animals and crying children, he asked, "what's your name?"

"A-Alphys."

Feeling a pang in his soul, Sans reached out his hand to Alphys. "Come on," he said quietly. Alphys peered up from her hiding place, tail still resting on her snout, and shrank away a little in reluctance before taking hold of Sans's hand. She allowed Sans to pull her up and stood in front of the two skeletons with unsteady legs.

"Th-thank you," she whimpered, still clutching her DVD–Sans saw, now, that it was an anime, rescued from the depths of the Garbage Dump–in her claws.

"Alphys," Sans's father said quietly, "do you want to come with us?"