Sans swears alot when he's drunk. Also, a great song to accompany this chapter would be:
www youtube com / watch?v=cQKGUgOfD8U
or just:【VOCALOID Original】ECHO【Gumi English 】since FF doesn't seem to like URLS
Also I write Mettaton as a guy. So sue me.
Sans made a show of returning Frisk to Papyrus and Toriel as they met up at the entrance to the darkest caverns of Waterfall, the ones lit only by mushrooms and lanterns. This time, however, the whole area was bright as day, giving the impression of the inside of a watery disco ball. Sans really shouldn't have been surprised.
"see ya' around, kiddo." Sans mustered up his best grin and even pat Frisk once on the head to assure the others that everything had been fine. He even took the time to apologize to Papyrus about how he'd acted before. Told him that all he wanted was for him to be happy. The lie felt dirty on his teeth.
Frisk stared at him with what seemed to be a mixture of longing and residual fear.
"I'M GLAD YOU'VE COME AROUND. TO MY NEW GIRLFRIEND!" Papyrus chattered happily and Sans tried to be happy for him. His brother really was too pure for this world. "IF ONLY YOU HAD TAKEN A MOMENT EARLIER... TO GET TO KNOW HER. YOU ARE VERY FUNNY, SANS."
"i'll take that as a... condiment?" Sans winked, feeling his mask clicking back into place and drawing comfort from it.
"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Papyrus shouted, shaking a few stalagtites from the roof through sheer sonic force.
Frisk giggled a little, watching Toriel's fur stand on edge at the noise.
Turning his back on the trio as they gawked at the spectacular light show in the next room, Sans felt his shoulders droop and his stomach growl. He felt absolutely exhausted.
.
After quickly detouring into his lab to update his notes in detail, Sans found himself sitting at his regular stool in Grillby's, ketchup bottle in hand.
There was simply too much to process, between the rapidly emerging memories from his past selves and the danger Papyrus was in every moment that Frisk drew breath.
And, how could he forget, the fucking stupid deal that human idiot had made to re-write time with an omnipresent, nearly omniscient extradimensional entity with the power to influence the threads of space-time like he was knitting a scarf. And what had she given him? Oh. Only six fucking human souls.
fuck.
He had to do something. Had to think his way out of it. He took a long swig of condiment and felt everything become comfortably numb. Sans distantly realized that doing this would in no way help his mental processes, but he couldn't bring himself to face what was happening in the glaring light of sobriety.
...
Ring...
Ring...
Sans jolted awake at the sound of his cell, immediately regretting it as his skull ached with such ferocity he thought his cranial sutures were coming undone.
"agh... hello?" Sans asked into the reciever, feeling disoriented. For a moment he feared that the human might have RESET again, but then he took a look at his surroundings and calmed down. Not timesickness. Just a hangover. He was currently wedged onto the bench of one of the tables in Grillby's. It was dark and empty in the bar and someone had given him a blanket. Huh.
"HELLO BROTHER! THIS IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Sans' winced sharply as needles of pain lanced him. He quickly thumbed down the cell's volume.
"uh, hey paps. what's up?" He asked, still holding the phone at arm's length.
"HAVE YOU. SEEN UNDYNE LATELY?" Papyrus blared through the earpiece. Now that Sans was more conscious, however, he was able to detect a tone of worry in his brother's voice.
Now that he thought about it, it was strange that they hadn't encountered the leader of the royal guard yet. She should have been tracking them ever since Papyrus failed to capture the human (one way or another).
"no. sorry. anything i can do to help?" Asked Sans.
There was a long, ominous pause on the line.
"WOULD YOU MIND. COMING OVER TO UNDYNE'S HOUSE? QUICKLY?" Yep. Papyrus was definitely on edge about something.
"sure thing paps. hold tight, okay?" Sans had already squeezed out from between the booth and the table as he heard Papyrus' brave "OKAY." followed by the call going dead. He did his best to fold up the blanket neatly but it just turned into more of a snarled mess. He'd apologize to Grillbz later.
Steeling himself, Sans walked through the shortcut beside the jukebox...
... and emerged a little ways outside Undyne's house. Red and orange light danced across the cavern's vaulted ceiling and Sans could smell smoke. Unsurprised and unsettled, he rounded a corner to find Undyne's house already on fire. Which was odd considering Papyrus had said that they hadn't even encountered her yet. It least this would offer a distraction from his hangover.
If the fire hadn't been caused by cooking antics, then what?
Sans sauntered up to the group of figures who were standing in front of the blazing house. He noted that in addition to Frisk, Papyrus and Toriel, Napstablook, Alphys and Mettaton (already in his EX form) were in evidence.
As usual, Frisk was the first to notice his approach and Sans was careful to keep his face perfectly neutral in response to her nervous smile. Did she really think there could ever be anything between them? That there ever could have been?
Maybe once he'd felt compassion towards her, but she'd been a child then. She also hadn't been a genocidal maniac.
She seemed to sense his thoughts and her eyes dropped to the floor.
Why did he feel a pang of guilt?
"Papyrus, Darling, I'm afraid that's just not how fire is supposed to work." Mettaton had just finished saying in his sensual, robotic voice, one leg poised high above his head and his left hand making a peace-sign seemingly of its own accord.
Papyrus was staring at the burning house indignantly but then noticed Frisk's distraction and turned to see Sans approaching.
"YOU GOT HERE. FAST?" Papyrus closed the distance in one leap and pulled Sans to his chest in a bear hug. Sans was glad to see he'd gotten over their earlier fight so easily. Then again, this was Papyrus after all.
"you're the best, bro." Sans dodged Papyrus' implied question and returned the hug. Papyrus had certainly gotten much stronger with Undyne's training to be able to lift him so easily off the ground. "how can i help?"
"Well- uh... the house is... as you can- uh, see, on fire." Alphys slouched up to the brothers, looking up at them uncertainly. Sans briefly wondered if all monsters seemed so short from Papyrus' perspective. "But it's also- um. Not... on fire?" Alphys muttered, grabbing her tail between her claws. She seemed distressed. Well, more than usual, that is.
Sans gave his brother a loving tap to let him down before continuing the conversation. He didn't like talking down to monsters. "whada'ya mean?" He asked.
Actually, taking a closer look at it, Alphys was right. Only half the house was actually burning. There were patches where no mater how ferocious the inferno, the flames would not go. It was making Sans feel distressed as well.
"WE THOUGHT THAT. SINCE YOU AND DR. ALPHYS ARE GOOD WITH SCIENCY THINGS. THAT YOU COULD HELP." Papyrus had his puzzle-solving expression on. Which meant he'd just drawn stern eyebrows on his forehead with a Sharpie marker.
Just one enigma piled on top of all the rest. Sure. It wasn't like he was already drowning in quantum-mechanical shit already.
"has anyone tried to. i dunno, knock?" Sans asked, grinning. He was met by three stares of disbelief, one tearful one, one dramatic one and one determined one.
"nooooooooooo..." Napstablook called quietly as Sans smirked and started to walk up to the house's flaming front door.
Sans could feel the heat of the flames licking at him with an almost physical strength as he approached, even if he couldn't actually sense their warmth. It made his bones creak.
"knock knock." He said, rapping on the door and feeling his knuckles crisp a little.
He was met by a roaring silence that implied that only fire lived here now, and yet it didn't at the same time. Had he ever mentioned how much he hated quantum mechanical shit?
...
Sans was half way to knocking again when he got his reply
.{W-H-O-'-S- -T-H-E-R-E-?}.
With a snap like long fingers breaking the flames froze in place. Startled, Sans tried to phase away from the house with magic but found that he suddenly couldn't. He fell on his ass instead and scrambled backwards without even a thought for dignity.
He looked up at the other monsters, ready to feel embarrassed but found that they'd frozen in place as well. Only Frisk blinked, concerned.
This time Sans did accept Frisk's offer to help him stand, and he shakily brushed the dirt off the back of his hoodie and pants.
"What happened?" Frisk asked, waving her hand in front of Mettaton's face which was comically frozen half-way between sticking his tongue out and winking.
"not sure." Sans answered honestly for once. He tried to keep his hand from rattling as he wiped off his sweating skull. Internally, he tried to reach for his magic again and again and failed each time.
Nothing. If the human figured out he was defenseless, he was as good as dust.
He forced his cheekbones back into a semi-cheerful arrangement and gave a dry chuckle.
"maybe they were scared... stiff?"
Amusement danced in Frisk's eyes at the terrible pun, but her concern for her friends stopped her from laughing.
"what. not funny? maybe this one'll draw you in?" Sans let his mask of humor conceal his inner terror as he tugged the Sharpie out of Papyrus' glove and set to work on drawing funny things on everyone's faces. He could see that Frisk was now struggling to contain her amusement.
Good. If she was laughing, she wouldn't be murdering.
A rogue memory flitted through Sans' mind of a little girl with a red ribbon in her hair and a toy knife. She'd been laughing hysterically as a vegetoid cut her down.
Distracted, San's arm clenched and a kawaii eyelash he'd been drawing on Alphys' turned into a long streak up her crest.
"eheh." Sans coughed, hoping Frisk wouldn't read too much into that.
"Sans. Don't worry about me. You don't have to be brave for my benefit."
Sans turned around slowly to meet Frisk's level gaze. She seemed genuinely concerned. Her dark, soulful eyes really were beautiful in that moment, and the way her hands clutched uncertainly at the hems of her sleeves was tying him in knots.
are these more memories? He asked himself, wondering why he couldn't keep himself together in front of one human child. Of course, she wasn't a child any longer. And she was Frisk.
Frisk, who drew Sans into a hug out of nowhere, pulling him in tightly and pressing herself into his soft tum. He froze in fear and... something more?
Frisk, who then with a mischievous sparkle in her eye took the marker from him and drew a curly, dastardly mustache on his maxilla. "So no one will suspect you." She laughed, winking.
Frisk, who took his hand determinedly in hers and guided them both to the now-yawning-open front door of Undyne's half-burnt and blackened house.
Sans was filled with trepidation. But he walked forwards anyways.
.
.
The interior of the house was... Sans struggled to find a word to describe it. The angles felt off slightly, like a long tunnel that veers slightly in one direction but you can't see the end yet. Like catching your reflection as you stand between two mirrors and thinking that one of those infinite 'yous' had just winked.
Frisk's grip tightened on his hand. At least he wasn't the only one feeling it.
Parts of the interior were pristine while other parts were melted and black. It hurt to look too closely, but Sans made himself. An energy spear flickered in an out of existence, wedged in a table that was and was not cracked in half. The porcelain sink had exploded from the heat of the blaze and some of the shards had landed in the unburnt areas. Those seemed to be shivering.
Sans watched in fascination at the moustache Frisk had just drawn on him peeled off and floated away.
Frisk, brave soul that she was, approached the piano and tried to play the tune from the Waterfall Statue's music box. The notes fell flat in the dead air.
Sans had just been about to propose leaving when the front door slammed shut, startling them so badly Frisk nearly jumped out of her skin. Sans just jumped.
They shared a brief, terrified glance and then rushed to the window Papyrus had always leapt through. It was hard as granite. Now, either Papyrus was really downplaying his strength, or something didn't want them to leave.
Sans stopped pulling at the lintel when Frisk put her hand on his, shaking her head. Her long-ish hair swayed in defeat. She walked to the center of the room with her shoulders back and her head high, though her knees looked wobbly.
"G-gaster?" She asked the hostile air. It was utterly silent but for her breathing.
There was a long moment in which nothing happened. Frisk looked at him nervously and then jolted again when something caught her eye.
The door leading to Undyne's bedroom was open. As if it always had been that way and they just hadn't noticed before.
"we're gonna have such a bad-" Sans began but Frisk put a finger to his teeth, a warning look in her eyes that read 'you'd better not say what I think you're about to say'. If Sans had had access to his powers he might have fought her on it, but as he tried for the hundredth time to reach them there was still nothing. He shrugged as if conceding a point and then walked after her into the darkness beyond the doorway.
.
Then next chapter will be coming out tomorrow morning. Trust me. It's a doozy. O_O
