Aeris, it transpired, didn't like having idle time. While Toriel expressed concern over her moving about the next day, Aeris brushed it off, insisting that she repay Toriel's hospitality in any way she could. It was Saturday, so Papyrus and Sans came over to watch Frisk's favorite morning cartoons together, and Toriel took advantage of the free babysitting, using her time to clean. Aeris, determined to help despite Toriel's assurances that it would only take a few minutes with magic, had grabbed a duster and started dusting in the living room while Toriel tackled the bathroom. Sans watched her from the corner of his eye sockets, noting every pause she had to take and every time she closed her eyes, looking like she was about to faint. She persevered, however, refusing to sit down until every surface within reach was dusted.

Papyrus watched her the whole time too, Sans noticed, though he tried to pretend like he wasn't. His eye sockets shifted from the T.V. to Aeris so much that Sans wondered how he didn't get dizzy. When Frisk noticed this inattentiveness and wanted to know what was wrong, Papyrus nervously brushed it off, blushing and saying an embarrassed "nyeh heh heh" to himself. He seemed to droop sadly when Aeris moved on to the kitchen, and proceeded to keep asking Frisk if they wanted a snack or a drink, anything at all from the kitchen. Sans grinned to himself. He was all behind his brother's new crush if it meant that Papyrus would finally forget about that insufferable robot.

When lunch time rolled around, the whole group decided to go out. Sans suggested Grillbz's new place, of course, and Papyrus wanted to go somewhere where they served spaghetti, but Toriel quelled the suggestions with a raised hand.

"Now now," she said after it got quiet, "we really should ask our guest where she would like to eat." She turned to Aeris, who looked surprised at having her opinion solicited. "Aeris? Where would you like to go?"

"Oh…I don't know," she admitted, a slight flush bringing color into her otherwise pale cheeks. "I'm fine with anywhere, really."

"Are you sure?" Toriel pressed, looking concerned. "There's no human restaurant you would want to—"

"No."

Toriel paused. Aeris blinked, as if just realizing that she had been rude.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking embarrassed. "I would…just rather stay around here. If you don't mind."

"Very well…" Toriel replied, though the concern did not leave her face as she turned to ask Frisk what they were in the mood for. Sans glanced over at Aeris, but her face was averted, staring at the ground. It was the corpse's mask again.

They ended up at Grillby's II, which was just fine with Sans. They took a booth, and Sans ordered everyone burgers and fries, asking Grillbz to put it on his never-ending tab. Since the area was mostly inhabited by monsters, everyone stared at Aeris when she walked in. This appeared to make her nervous at first, but as if they knew what she was thinking, Frisk reached up and took Aeris' hand, smiling in encouragement. The smile returned, Aeris began to relax a little.

Plenty of monsters stopped by their booth. Many of them chatted with Sans, but Sans could see that a lot of them were just using him as an excuse to get a closer look at the human. She was wedged in between Frisk and Papyrus, dead center in the booth, and avoided most everyone's gaze, fiddling with the ends of her hair. Frisk was using the opportunity to teach her some sign language, with Toriel's help. Papyrus was also assisting…in his own way. He kept shouting the answers when Frisk attempted to quiz Aeris on the sign language he'd just taught her, which caused Toriel to scold him for not allowing Aeris to learn on her own. But Aeris laughed and thanked Papyrus with a pat on the hand, which excited the skeleton.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?" He asked Sans in an unnecessarily loud voice, "THE HUMAN TOUCHED MY HAND! WOWIE! I'LL—I'LL NEVER WASH MY FINGERS AGAIN!"

Sans caught Aeris' eye and winked, and she grinned in an embarrassed sort of way.

After lunch, Papyrus ran off for an afternoon cooking lesson with Undyne, promising to see them all at Alphys' lab later that night for a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie marathon.

"Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?" Aeris questioned, watching Papyrus rattle away, still cradling the hand she touched as if it were a precious artifact. "That kid's show that's been rebooted?"

"Yes…Alphys and Undyne are quite…passionate…about that show," Toriel admitted, with a face that suggested that she didn't exactly understand it, either. "You do not have to go if you do not wish to, Aeris."

Aeris thought about it. "I'll go," she decided after a minute. "I haven't met Alphys yet…and who knows? Maybe I'll end up liking the show."

"I hope not, for your sake," Sans said with a grin, "if you get sucked into that show, Alphys and Undyne won't ever let you leave the lab."

"Yikes," Aeris said mildly. A melodic tune broke the camaraderie, and Toriel reached into one of her pockets to withdraw a cell phone. Her expression darkened for a moment.

"Well, I have papers to grade," she said, leaning over and patting Frisk on the head. "Be good, okay? He'll be coming to pick you up now."

"He?" Aeris asked, but Toriel was already walking off, and quite quickly. It seemed as if she was in a hurry to exit the area. Aeris turned to Sans. "Who's 'he'?"

Frisk answered. They tugged on Aeris' sleeve and handed her their cell phone, where a quick message was typed:

"He's Asgore. He's my dad."

"What, no monster pun this time?" Sans asked, reading the text at Aeris's elbow. "I'm disappointed in you, kid."

Frisk stuck their tongue out at Sans.

"Dad, huh?" Aeris said softly, returning Frisk's phone to them. "Why—"

Before she could finish the question, a large shadow fell over all three of them.

"Howdy!" A new voice said. Sans watched Aeris visibly pale as she looked up into the face of the large goat man. His size would've been alarming to lots of people…if it weren't for the Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts he wore, making him look inappropriately festive in the middle of winter. He even had the nerve to wear sandals, his furry toes brushing against the snow on the ground. Sans would've made a joke about that…if he himself weren't wearing house slippers.

"Howdy yourself, your Majesty," Sans greeted, grinning to himself when Aeris looked down at him in mild confusion, though he wasn't sure if it was because she wasn't sure whether he was addressing her or not.

Asgore's smile faltered slightly at the sight of the skeleton. "Sans," he greeted with a polite nod. Sans supposed he couldn't blame him—the ex-king had never quite gotten over how close Sans had gotten to his ex-wife. What did bother Sans, however, was the speculative look that entered Aeris' eyes as she watched the exchange. No need to give her any more ammo against him.

Frisk was a convenient distraction, throwing themself at Asgore's legs in a hug. Asgore chuckled and picked the child up, as if they weighed nothing more than a feather, giving them a proper hug.

"Hello to you too, Frisk. You get bigger and bigger every time I see you!"

Sans kind of doubted that—Asgore had just seen Frisk last week, and Sans was pretty sure the kid hadn't grown any bigger…but maybe that was because he saw Frisk every day, so little changes took longer to register. …Nah, Sans missed nothing. Asgore was just being a doting father.

"I made a new friend, Dad," Frisk signed to Asgore, pointing at Aeris.

"So I see!" Asgore set the child back down and straightened up, smiling down at Aeris. "Hello, young lady. May I know your name?"

"A-Aeris," Aeris mumbled, staring up at the ex-king with wide eyes.

Asgore's face became politely puzzled. "Heiress? Then are you royalty?"

Aeris sighed, frowning at Sans. He shrugged—wasn't his fault her name was so weird.

After explaining how to properly spell her name, Asgore nodded impressively. "I see! So your name is Aeris. That's a lovely name."

"Thank you, er, your Majesty," Aeris replied with an uncertain glance at Sans. Asgore chuckled.

"No need for that. I might have been king of the monsters at one point, but now, I am just Asgore."

Sans grinned to himself as Aeris' mouth fell open. "K-King of—?"

"Ancient history," Asgore replied genially, smiling brightly. "Well, it was very nice to meet you, Aeris. Frisk has promised to help me with my garden today, so we'll be going now…unless you'd like to come with us?"

Aeris blinked, obviously surprised by the invitation. For some reason, she glanced down at Sans, as if she expected his input. He shrugged again. She was free to do whatever she wanted, after all. It wasn't like he was her keeper…

"…Okay," she replied after a moment with an uncertain smile. Frisk looked delighted, however, and her smile grew more genuine. "As long as I don't have to do any heavy lifting or anything, I don't see why not."

"Ho ho ho. Don't worry, young lady," Asgore said, hoisting Frisk up onto one of his massive shoulders, "any heavy lifting that needs to be done will be my responsibility. You can help Frisk water the flowers."

Sans watched Aeris' face light up at the mention of flowers. "That sounds nice…but it's the middle of winter. Unless you have a greenhouse—"

"You'll see," Sans cut off her protest, walking past her with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. "Come on."

Asgore and Frisk regarded him with surprise. "You're coming, too?"

"Why not? Seems like a nice day for gardening," Sans replied easily. Asgore seemed to struggle with this answer.

"But…you've never—"

"You worry too much, your Majesty," Sans insisted, his grin widening. "Besides…I want to check on that 'old friend' of ours…"

Frisk frowned at this, but Asgore seemed to understand. He nodded.

"Very well. Er, follow me, then."

The large goat man in the summer wardrobe began to walk away, laughing as Frisk began signing jokes at him. Sans began to follow them, but paused when he noticed Aeris was still standing where she was. He turned around to find that she was staring at him, head tilted to the side, lips pursed, brow puckered. Trying to see through him again. Sans was beginning to hate that expression on her.

"After you, Princess" he insisted, waving one of his arms with a mock bow. Aeris made a face and marched past him, nose in the air. Sans grinned to himself and walked behind her, strolling at his own pace. Back here, no one was looking at him, and so he let his grin falter, his eye sockets on Aeris' back.

Asgore was right: Sans never visited his garden. It just wasn't necessary. He had used the 'old friend' that resided there as an excuse, knowing that Asgore wouldn't protest if that was Sans' reason. But it wasn't Sans' true reason.

Sans wanted to tag along because he wanted to watch Aeris. He would never admit this out loud—he hated having to admit it to himself—but it was gnawing at him that she seemed able to just take one look at him and discern his true nature. That wasn't fair. He hardly knew anything about her, but he was apparently just a piece of glass to her, with how transparent he seemed. It wasn't cool. Sans was the one who was used to seeing through people—that was his thing. Who did this human think she was, usurping him like that?

So Sans decided to watch her. All he truly knew about her was that she seemed to be either really sick or dying—probably both. That couldn't be it. There had to be more. If he watched her long enough, watched how she reacted to others, monitored her actions, then her true nature should be revealed. It was only a matter of time…and Sans could wait.

He didn't know about Aeris, but he had all the time in the world.