Sans was not looking forward to school today. He'd only managed two or three hours of sleep last night and was still feeling phantom tingles. Papyrus seemed content enough, happily unaware of what his father and brother had done. Frisk and Mike had been waiting on the sidewalk when Sans dropped his sibling off, and the three immediately took off toward the playground. Much less enthusiastically, Sans took off toward the high school.
Mechanically walking in through the front doors, the short teenager pulled two Advils from his pocket, brushed away some lint, and swallowed them dry. His head was pounding; there was a bump that must have blossomed when he'd smacked his head against the chair yesterday. Sans shuddered. The chair. He had been electrocuted. Sans's eyes started to prickle with tears, but he forced them back. Crying would only make things worse.
"Hey, Sans!" An arm grabbed his shoulder. Sans shrieked, spinning around. Matteo giggled. "Sorry, darling. Didn't mean to scare you. Hey, we're all going to Applebee's for lunch since we get out early today. Do you want to come?" Sans blinked, then blinked again. Today was a half day? Someone wanted to hang out with him?
"Um," came the eloquent response. "Uh, sure? I guess? I mean, uh, thanks, you know-" Sans sputtered. Matteo smiled understandingly.
"We're all excited for you to come, sweetie. See you in a few hours!" with that, Matteo removed their arm and strutted down the hallway, long black skirt sweeping around their ankles. Sans blinked once more before trudging after the confident teen.
In biology, they spent the shortened period counting duckweed. It was definitely a waste of time, but Sans was grateful they weren't doing anything that actually involved attention or thinking. Alice poured half of the cup into another container and handed it and a pair of tweezers to Sans.
"Would you m-mind counting these?"
Sans nodded, absentmindedly poking the little plants.
"I h-heard you were joining us f-for lunch today," said Alice. Despite his sour mood, Sans felt warm inside.
"Yeah, Matteo invited me this morning. You don't mind if I tag along, do you?" Alice smiled at him.
"N-no, not at all! We would l-love to have you come along!"
Something occurred to Sans. "Oh, would you guys be alright if Papyrus joined us? I could always drop him off at home, but…" Pap hated being home by himself.
"Oh, o-of course! Udaya's g-going to be thrilled!" At the mention of her girlfriend, Alice's lips curled into a soft smile. Sans couldn't help but grin in response.
"Cool beans." This day was looking up.
"No."
"Come on, Paps, we don't have anything good to eat at home anyway."
"We always go home after school on Wednesdays."
Sans sighed. "Don't you want to meet my friends? I've told them all how cool you are, and they're super excited to meet you!"
Papyrus frowned, staring hard at the glove compartment. "I don't want them to be sad I didn't come…"
Sans pulled out his trump card. "Plus, Udaya's gonna be there!" A gasp was Sans's only warning before his little brother started bouncing in his seat, flapping his arms with enthusiasm.
"Sans, I want to go! I want to see Udaya and ask her to teach me her supremely awesome volleyball moves and tell her that I like her red hair because I forgot to tell her when she came to my school!" Sans chuckled.
"Supremely awesome, huh?"
"Yeah, Udaya told me she had 'supremely awesome' volleyball moves!"
"Sounds incredi-ball."
Papyrus paused, brow furrowing. Three, two, one…
"SANS!"
The lunch crowd was small, something for which Sans was extremely grateful. Papyrus could be a bit unpredictable when it came to crowds, and he didn't want his little brother to spend his free afternoon anxious.
"Hey punks, over here!" Udaya waved from a table in the corner. She and Matteo were currently arm wrestling, with Alice cheered them both on and Grillby studied the menu.
"UDAYA!" Sans winced at the loud yell and let Papyrus drag him over to his friends.
"What's up, squirt?" Udaya unceremoniously smashed Matteo's hand against the table before jumping up to meet Papyrus, either ignorant or uncaring of her opponent's yelp and subsequent glaring. An evil smile crossed Pap's face as he looked at his sibling.
"Well, Sans is definitely not up."
Sans raised his eyebrow. "Was that a short joke? Man, making fun of my height is in-tall-erable." The mirth on Grillby's face was completely worth the frustrated growl from his brother.
After Papyrus and Udaya finished an obnoxiously complex handshake - seriously, how had they already come up with that? - they all sat down, Sans discretely massaging his temple.
"Paps, these are my friends. You already know Udaya, then there's Alice, Matteo, and Sean." Each of them waved at Papyrus, who smiled in return.
"Hey, where's Nico at?"
Matteo sighed. "He's at home, probably playing the piano. Nico doesn't like going out much."
"I understand. Sometimes you just need to relax and go solo." Wait for it...
"Ugh, Sans! You are going to lose all of your cool friends if you keep making those awful puns!" Sans chuckled as the waiter arrived and took their orders. He still wasn't feeling great, but a salad didn't sound too nauseating and fit in with his meal plan.
"So, cuties, what brought your family to Snowdin?"
Papyrus beamed at the nickname. "Dad is a scientist and the other scientists in this town wanted to help him with his project, which was really nice of them!"
"Wait, d-does your dad do r-research at the biochem lab downtown? T-that's so cool! Have you b-been there? W-what's it like?" Alice's eyes were alight with wonder.
"We go there on Tuesdays," informed Papyrus, "and Sans gets to help Dad with some of his experiments, but I'm still too little to help." He pouted at that.
"S-Sans, you get to w-work with him? I'm s-so jealous! What k-kind of experiments d-do you do?" As Alice looked at him excitedly, Sans couldn't stop the slight shiver that ran through his body at the thought of yesterday's test.
"Um, well, I mostly work on the menial tasks, like, y'know… cleaning out test tubes and whatnot. Boring stuff." The throbbing in his head was becoming more pronounced. Alice was absolutely beaming and looked ready to ask something else when their waiter conveniently returned at that moment with a basket of breadsticks. The conversation turned to a safer territory, and Sans had relaxed again by the time they received their meals.
Everyone but the Roman brothers dug in to their food. Papyrus took time to smooth out the napkin on his lap and organize his food so that the apple slices weren't touching his chicken fingers, and Sans stared down at his salad, willing his stomach to settle. He normally went for the greasiest thing on the menu, but there was no way he'd be able to choke down a burger with how he was feeling. Luckily, Papyrus was too distracted by Udaya to comment on his brother's sudden change to a healthier diet.
"Not hungry?"
Sans started at the soft voice. Grillby was watching him contemplatively from across the table.
"Oh, heh, not really…" he trailed off, for once at a loss for words. Grillby just smiled at him gently.
"How're you liking Snowdin so far?"
Sans breathed a sigh of relief, glad Grillby wasn't going to press him.
"It's smaller than I'm used to, but it's cute. Paps definitely loves it. He wasn't a fan of how crowded Denver could get."
Grillby seemed to ponder this, ruminating as he chewed his food.
"You guys are close, aren't you?"
Sans smiled and looked fondly at his brother, who had abandoned his food in favor of practicing the right form for a volleyball spike with Udaya while Alice giggled and Matteo snapped pictures on their bedazzled phone.
"Yeah, we are. What about you? Do you have any siblings?"
"I've got a baby sister, Fiona. She's the cutest thing, but I swear to god she knows more than she lets on."
That got Sans's attention. He turned back to Grillby and raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll show you." Grillby pulled his phone out and tapped it a few times before sliding it over to Sans. On the screen was a photo of a baby in a bright green onesie with hair as orange as her brothers. She was smiling sweetly up at the camera. Sans studied the picture for a few moments before looking up at his friend.
"Uh, she's super cute, Grillbz, but I don't really know what you're trying to show me."
"Look at her eyes!"
Sans zoomed in on Fiona's face and squinted.
"You see?" asked Grillby. "Those are eyes that have seen some shit. Every now and then I catch her looking at me like she knows my deepest secrets. Sometimes I wonder if my parents are using her to spy on me."
Sans burst out laughing. Grillby managed to stay in character for all of two seconds before he broke and cracked up.
"Oh my god, what the fuck? Where did that even come from?" Sans shook his head in amusement.
"Hey! Sans! You said the F word - that's two quarters in the swear jar!" Apparently Papyrus hadn't been completely caught up in screwing around with Udaya.
"Whoops, sorry Paps, I swear I won't do it again."
Papyrus, Udaya, and Matteo groaned in unison.
"Ugh, Papyrus, do you have to deal with this all the time?" The youngest of the group nodded sagely at Udaya.
"Forget the swear jar, darling, you need to get your brother a pun jar."
Papyrus giggled at Matteo's comment. "That's a good idea. Sans would go broke!"
They ended up staying at Applebee's for a good portion of the afternoon, ordering breadsticks whenever the waitstaff started to seem antsy for them to leave. At one point Udaya snuck a kiss to Alice, causing the latter's face to go bright red and Papyrus to squeal in delight.
"They're really cute together," Sans said softly to Grillby. "How long have they been dating?"
Grillby looked fondly at the two of them. "It's been a few months since Udaya asked Alice out, but they've liked each other for a long time. To be honest, I don't know if they ever would've gotten together if it weren't for Matteo playing matchmaker."
"Really? Why not?"
"Fear, I guess. Everyone could tell that they had fallen for each other, but Alice thought Udaya was out of her league, and for all her bravado, Udaya was terrified of being rejected."
Sans mulled this over for a moment. "They really didn't notice that their feelings were mutual? Funny how blind you can become to your own situation."
With a keen eye, Grillby scrutinized his new friend, taking in the slouch of his shoulders and the exhaustion adorning his face. "I guess sometimes you need somebody on the outside to see for you."
"...yeah, I guess so." The two were quiet for a few minutes. Sans tried to figure out if it was uncomfortable or not. Luckily, he didn't have to think about it for too long; Papyrus had come to stand right next to his brother without Sans noticing and proceeded to poke his arm to get his attention.
"What's up, bud?"
Papyrus sighed and pressed his face into Sans's coat, drawing a chuckle out of him.
"Ah. Time to go?"
Papyrus nodded.
"Alright, why don't you go say goodbye to Udaya and we can leave." Sans gathered their things as Papyrus gave everyone a hug. After bidding his friends goodbye, Sans followed his brother out to the car. Grillby watched them go, his eyes only leaving the pair when he heard Matteo snort.
"What?"
Udaya, Alice, and Matteo shared a knowing look. Grillby's eyebrows creased.
"What?" he repeated.
Matteo raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, G?"
"I'm lost. Did I miss something?" Grillby stared at his friends, utterly confused.
Alice chuckled and Udaya rolled her eyes. Matteo's eyebrow somehow crept higher up their face.
"Why am I even surprised?" They sighed again, this one even more dramatic than the last. "Here we go again."
Grillby just shook his head, giving up.
